Frak, Frel and Other "F" Words

Is it wrong of me to derive an intense amount of satisfaction that the FBI has pulled an October surprise on Hillary? I'm less worried about Trump being POTUS than her - if he gets in, he's going to be facing resistance on all fronts (the Republicans, the Democrats, the media, etc.) but 2/3 of that will just roll over should the Queen of Corruption get the nod...

So very, very, very tired of this crap. Even more tired of listening to or reading ignorant people who definitely match the "low information voter" mindset. The fact that so many don't bother to understand why the email issue is a big problem ... just ... ugh. And the guy running with the R is nearly as bad. Frak this noise. I want "rocks fall. Everyone dies."

Been making some adjustments to the plot and "Sofia Dominguez" has become "Rivka Levy" ... I mean, Hollywood implies Latinas & Israelis are interchangeable, yeah? (See Cote de Pablo in NCIS and Alice Braga in Predators.)

Initial part of root canal is complete. Have to go back next Thursday for the temporary crown (presuming the medication application worked.) Confirmed also that my blood pressure is at least lower, but is still on the high side. Am guessing that I either am still acclimating to that medication or (more likely with my luck) it is not strong enough. They had to apply epinephrine as part of the initial numbing process and whoa, buddy. I did not like that at all. Nearly as bad as the hydrocodone I have as painkiller right now. Bright side: haven't eaten hardly anything today. This is also the dark side as well.

The office is fricking cold as hell today. Probably just me since the primary support guy is running around in shorts...

There are twenty planned chapters, five of which are going to be flashbacks. This is actually becoming my standard, I've noticed as "Fulcrum," "Vorticity" and "Aspects of Silver" all have that same technique baked into them. As outlines go, this probably one of my least figured out which honestly fills me with a great deal of trepidation about this.

So, NaNoWriMo is almost literally right around the corner and I've really been struggling what to do this year. Think I've finally settled on "Earthfall," which is intended to basically be a "Starship Troopers" type of story with super-heroes. Some additional (spoilerly) information behind the cut.

Root canal is scheduled for Thursday. So ... huzzah for that. I'm just so terribly eager... Did the gym thing on Sunday and actually lifted weights. As a result, my muscles have noted this change and strongly disapprove. Really need to go back today and do the lower body sequence so I can spread the pain around.

Doctor gave me a prescription and a follow-up in 3 weeks to see progress. I later checked in with the dentist and they want me to be on the BP medicine for at least a week before I come in for the root canal so ... ugh. Fortunately, the amoxicillin they put me on does seem to have caused the "discomfort" to ease slightly. The doctor also told me to hold off on the gym for a couple of days so I won't be able to go there until Saturday. Today was supposed to be a Gym Day, but alas. Good news in this pile of crap: had to weigh in at the doctor's office and it confirmed my weight lost of over forty pounds.

I hope I can get the high blood pressure thing sorted out tomorrow because if I have to multiple days with this level of tooth pain, I expect I'll go mad. Or seek our radical, ill-thought out remedies. Right now, I can barely chew  because of this! Imagine what eating is like (and if you imagined very unfilling pudding and yogurt, you get a No-Prize.)

Went to the dentist this a.m. to get a problem tooth resolved. It is going to be a root canal - $1600, fortunately paid in 3 installments, but still! Unfortunately, can't get anything done with it because my blood pressure is too high so I had to dig around & find a local doctor to check that. Appointment for 9 a.m. tomorrow to review ... and, knowing my damned luck, get put on high blood pressure medicine. And my fraked up tooth is still killing me. Ugh.

First visit this a.m. Girl at the desk was quite attractive - not gym rat fit or beautiful, but very pretty nonetheless - so that's definitely a plus. Only did about 40 minutes on the stationary bike today - going to try to go in tomorrow morning and get the trainer thing going on. Would be great to actually be in really good physical shape come GenCon next year.

Signed up for the gym membership today. Tomorrow, will make my first visit.

Finished my reread of "Fulcrum" and am now rereading what I've got written of "Vorticity." Am trying to get my Muse engaged so I can hopefully finish it next month, at which point I can plot out the unnamed part 3 and perhaps look to actually publishing "Fulcrum" somewhere. Would still like to go the traditional book route if possible but may have to self-publish which could be ... yeah.

So, October is almost halfway done and I still don't know what I want to work on for NaNoWriMo this year. I did manage a reread (and minor revision) of "Fulcrum" and am attempting to make myself reread what I've got done for "Vorticity" in the hopes that I can make myself finish that, but ... I'm just not feeling the urge or desire to really write, which sucks. I need to figure out what the heck my problem is in that regard and get it fixed.

Damn. Just ... damn!

Found this on the GURPS boards and rather like it: GURPS with Fate Aspects . That led me to actually reading the bit about "Destiny Points" in Monster Hunters, which turns out to pretty much be Impulse Buys (see Power-Ups book on IB.) So I might find a way to use this instead of existing activation rules. If nothing else, I might give this a test run when I run Red Sky next...

Something occurred to me yesterday while goofing off with ME3. I've been struggling with the timeline - specifically, when to set this theoretical game - and was fluctuating between " during ME1" and " prior to ME1" which ultimately limits the amount of time available since ME1 begins in 2183 and ME3 ends in 2186. While reviewing the official timeline, I realized that I missed a perfect time period: 2176 - 2178, 6 to 8 years earlier. Why? The Skyllian Blitz and the attack on Torfan. Specifically, in 2176, the "Skyllian Blitz" transpires. It is defined as "Batarian-funded pirates and criminals launch a surprise attack, later known as the Skyllian Blitz, on the human colony of Elysium. The assault is repulsed by the Alliance Navy and ground teams." This is where the "War Hero" background for Shepard occurs. This provides a golden opportunity as, logically, the PCs can be at Elysium in the opening chapters, then segue into hunting ...

Had a really bad weekend. Okay, a really bad Saturday, really. Basically sat around and played Mass Effect 2 on my PC and munched away on Slim Jims, Pringles (mmm ... cheddar cheese), then some caramel ice cream. On the bright side, I barely ate much on Sunday (even as I continued playing ME2 and finally finished it.) Was going to join the gym on Sunday, but then did maths and realized I need to hold off until payday this weekend. Then I can kick this puppy off again (he says hopefully.)

Into ME3 now, having completed the ME2 suicide mission with losing a single person. Haven't picked up the DLC for the ME3 yet, but that'll happen this weekend (probably). Had forgotten how much I like the general atmosphere at the beginning of the game - it's hit the "Hopeless" point, with the Reapers being impossible to defeat yet Space Jesus just keeps on fighting. Begs the question: how do you do that sort of thing in a face-to-face RPG? Granted, to this point, Shepard really hasn't failed in any of his missions - yeah, he lost Alenko at Virmire but that was still a successful op. But it is still a curious dilemma since ultimately, the war against the Reapers is doomed. Something to ponder, I suppose... Interesting to note that only 3 years have passed since ME1 (in-game) which isn't really a lot of time for various adventures to happen in a face-to-face game. I think if I was to run a ME game, I'd arbitrarily shift the time to 5 years later (incr...

Yeah.  He's a Gorram Liar .

Awesome-looking.

SWEET!!!!

Evidently, last night was the vice presidential debate and to be perfectly honest, I didn't bother at all. Instead, I finished ME1 with my Paragon Earthborn Sole Survivor Soldier and then moved on to ME2. As someone who was once very much a political junkie, I find it alternately fascinating and horribly depressing how utterly disinterested I am in this year's election. I utterly loath Trump - he strikes me as a dishonest grandstanding opportunist - and find Shillary to be 100x worse in every facet, which unfortunately means I really need to vote for Trump ... but I honestly don't know if I'll be able to make myself do so. But it isn't just the election that has turned me off of all things political. The current presidential administration's policies - the fact that he is hard left and doesn't try to hide it - is nearly as bad as the opposition party's abject refusal to fight . So, like so many of my fellow Americans, I've just unplugged from the p...

Found an awesome-looking homebrew set of rules for ME using the Fate system. Am really tempted to give that a try for the Saturday group just to get a feel for the rules...

Right. So getting ahead of myself with the space combat crap. I need to focus on the characters first. Once I figure them out, I can proceed forward. What I really need to do, though, is float this before the group as a "hey, I'm contemplating spinning up a Mass Effect game using GURPS but using the Action! rules; would you be interested in this?" because honestly, if more than half the group says "no", then what's the point (other than moving it to the Saturday game which is also feasible I suppose.) Presuming the Friday group, that means five players. With that in mind, I envision: Team Leader - (essentially a Shooter), the hardened veteran of Torfan, served under Shepard, probably a Lieutenant or Staff-Lieutenant (need to research this - think Torfan was 8 or 9 years earlier? That's a long time to just advance two or three grades... 'Driver' - the wheelman of the group, this character joined the Alliance intent on becoming a combat pil...

Moving on, I looked over the ME wiki with regards to space combat and found this: Ship mobility dominates space combat; the primary objective is to align the  mass accelerator along the bow with the opposing vessel's broadside. Battles typically play out as artillery duels fought at ranges measured in thousands of kilometers, though assault through defended mass relays  often occur at "knife fight" ranges as close as a few dozen kilometers. Most ship-to-ship engagements are skirmishes between patrol vessels of cruiser weight and below, with dreadnoughts and carriers only deployed in full-scale fleet actions. Battles in open space are short and often inconclusive, as the weaker opponent generally disengages. Once a ship enters FTL flight the combat is effectively over; there are no sensors capable of tracking them, or weapons capable of damaging them. The only way to guarantee an enemy will stand and fight is to attack a location they have a vested interest in, such as...

So, over on the Steve Jackson boards, I found this post that really works for me in terms of armor and weapons. I did a little bit of testing and, presuming my math is right, got the following results: Given: light padding undersuit (DR 10), light plating (+DR 10) with light (ablative, hardened 2) shields (DR 50) vs assault rifle (4d (3) pi ... although with the shields being hardened 2, the armor divisor is mostly irrelevant.) There is no shield penetration until the fifth round (presuming average damage of 12), at which point shields are depleted. This actually works with the mechanics in the game fairly well, with the option existing to increase the efficacy of the shields and the penetration capability of the rounds. Therefore, I think we have a winner. Will likely go with these mechanics and tweak them as any theoretical game progresses, which frees me up to think about other things. Hopefully.

So, further poking at the bear. Still concentrating on armor. My original thinking was "nanoweave armored vacc suit, but really, the N7 Armor that Space Jesus wears in ME2 and ME3 is really space armor ... so let's do some evil maths. Presuming TL10: Space armor has DR 75. Add ablative Shields of 30, this gives total DR of 105 Scenario 1: Hostile with gauss rifle - 6d+2(3) pi- Bullets do average of 20 points. BULLET 1: Even with armor divisor, this round will not penetrate the DR. Shields are reduced by 20, bringing total DR to 85. BULLET 2: DR 85/3 = 28 ... so again, unable to penetrate DR. Shields depleted as of this round. BULLET 3: DR 75/3 = 25. Average damage is not going to penetrate this DR at all. To get through, a shot is going to need to average 26 points on 6d+2 which isn't impossible (all 4s?) but is unlikely. Note: Gauss weapons can be boosted  which increases piercing damage by +1 per die at the cost of draining the propellant bottle. If that'...

According to My Fitness Pal with this afternoon's check-in, I've dropped 39 lbs in 118 days. Very not bad.

Man, today sucked. Not the weather - no, that was glorious. Absolutely perfect for biking. All things considered, I should have managed more than the 32 & a half miles I managed. In fact, when I started, I was seriously contemplating shooting for 50 ... But instead, I started sucking hardcore at the 14 or 15 mile point and never really recovered. Doesn't help that I took a slightly different route than before (and this particular route opens up some interesting possibilities that I shall have to explore online before I make the attempt) and there were some seriously steep inclines that were great going down but utterly blew when I had to go the other way. And, of course, it definitely doesn't help that the boss called me while I was on the way back for work-related crap that had to get done today (and did, it seems.)