Hungry Kitty again

Apparently, the video was pulled from Youtube.

But not to worry - somebody else posted it again. And it is still just as funny!

I *thought* I was nuts... or: Manifestations of Consumerism

The minis for our D&D game are one thing, but yesterday broke all records.

A bit of background: I have lived an extremely frugal lifestyle all my life. Force of habit, developed over many years of scarcity, and many more years with an overpowering sense of scarcity.

For a relevant example, consider this: I had never in my life purchased a new television. I have always taken hand-me-downs from folks who replaced theirs, or bought them very, very used. In fact, up until yesterday all TV's in our home were over 10 years old, except the main one, which was manufactured in 1999 and which I acquired for free in 2003, then had fixed for $150. At least one was over 20 years old (good quality, there).

But with all the recent success in the business and such, I have finally convinced myself that buying a new TV does not, in fact, constitute a complete and utter giving in to consumerism. What really convinced me, though, was that I had recently been shown an HDTV (which I never thought I cared about, since I don't watch TV) connected to a gizmo called an "upconverting DVD player". Oh boy. A plain ol' non-HD DVD suddenly looked pretty darn amazing. And we do have a collection of over 700 DVD's (99% of which acquired used, of course), our main entertainment expense.

So OK, I says to myself, I - we - can actually afford to upgrade. So I do research and yesterday we go out to buy wife her new dishwasher (different story, but stay with me). Ended up with an $1100 one (whee). Then on the way back she confirm the installation of our new water heater (died thursday) and two new toilets, another $2000+ expense. To be honest, between the efficiency rebates (from PG&E, EBMUD, and taxes), and the money from the home warranty, the real cost is WAY less, but it doesn't FEEL like less.

Being on a roll I guess, on the way back I say "why don't we check out a few stores for TV's?". She says sure, go for it, looking at me funny. I guess she knew what was coming.

So we went through Costco, and Fry's (excellent deal on a 55" Sony rear-projection, by the way, in case you're looking), and then into Circuit City.

I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say that Circuit City is a store where you CAN negotiate prices. Two and a half hours later we left with: a Panasonic 50" Plasma (TH50PX75U), and not one but two Vizio 32" LCDs (VX32L, one for the kids, one for our gaming station). Between those, the additional warranties, the Monster HDMI cables (expensive, those), a couple of other small items, and taxes, the bill was $3400. The upconverting DVD player (Oppo 970HD) got ordered on Amazon, for another $150.

Then I woke up this morning and realized that between all those, we spent or agreed to spend well over $6500 yesterday.

Yikes. Have I finally succumbed? am I now the dreaded "american consumer"? do I now, like my fellow 300 million residents of this country, carry the rest of world on my shoulders? or am I allowed to be considered reasonable if for the first time in my life I went and bought new TVs that I can afford? (and no, I'm not being tongue-in-cheek, I really do wonder)

That aside, I gotta say - that Panasonic is mind blowing. And the Vizio screens are pretty darn impressive in their own right, far better than any other TV I ever owned - and one of those is now sitting in the kids' room! dear god, they have no idea how good they have it.

The other big win for these screens is weight. Yes, I've known this for years, but it is different when you actually get to feel it. It's pretty darn amazing how a 50" plasma screen weighs, with its additional rather heavy pedestal which easily adds 50% to the total weight, less than the 32" CRT we replaced it with. Those 32" LCDs? I carried one upstairs myself practically hopping two stairs at a time. Wow.

Hungry kitty

OK, this is only going to appeal to cat people... but if you do love cats and have lived with kittens long enough, maybe you will find this as amusing as I do.

I'm nuts

So... in less than two weeks I get to reopen our D&D group - that stands for Dungeons & Dragons for the uninitiated - and I am very excited about that.

I decided to run a "campaign module", one of those monster books that take characters all the way from level 1 to level 20. The success of the last campaign, which used Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (RttToEE) as its cornerstone, convinced me of the fantastic value of a inherently consistent story - and that's when it was not even a full campaign, just a really large module.

So I scoured the various role playing review sites and internet forums, and came across Shackled City, published by Paizo. After reading more about it, I decided it would be the campaign, and ordered it. At over 400 pages, the book cost over $40, but it seemed like it would be well worth it.

I've had it for a few weeks now, and oh boy, is it ever. This... module... is the most amazing role playing adventure I have ever seen in print, bar none. Extremely effectively written, with tons of story elements, various events, and basically just a lot of stuff designed to make the game FLOW without requiring hundreds of hours on the DM's part to prepare (unlike RttToEE). Excellent work there. It really does succeed in its mission, as stated in the introduction, to provide a "huge adventure series that made the DM's life as easy as possible".

But why this post? and why the title?

Well... this book has impressed and excited me so much, that I decided to do it justice and get as many of the monster minis as I possible could. Now, for a 20-level adventure, that means a LOT of minis. Today I completed my eBay binge, tracked by an immense spreadsheet, matching minis to monsters as best as possible... while I had quite a few before, I now have have several hundred more making their way here from five different sources over the mail in the next two weeks. Oh yes, I will have something cool for pretty much every encounter.

So why am I nuts? because not only did I spend the rational, logical $45 or so on the module itself, I just spent another $300 or so on minis to run it. Oh my, how life has changed since college.

Before you choke, as I did when I totaled my expenditure, consider this: I will be running this monster once in my life (well, possibly again when the kids are old enough in about 8 years or so, if they are interested, but unlikely). In my estimate, it will take over 2 years to complete. I want it to be as much fun as I can possibly make it. And those D&D minis are simply awesome. They make battles come alive for us jaded old farts who have lost so much of our imagination over the years. Looking at it that way, the cost effectiveness is rather phenomenal.

But I still shudder at the thought of having done this. I do think, though, that there is a potential business idea here. Now that D&D has been around for 30 years, and some of us old farts have a lot more discretionary income, it might make sense to sell "adventure mini packs" - basically a series of those D&D minis that are fit to a published module. In the case of Shackled City, they could be sold in "chapters", based on the 12 chapters in the book, or as one monster collection. I know I would spend an extra $300 to buy them, since I just did. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Wizards of the Coast, what say you?

To Mona

On behalf of all of us...

I salute you.

Bottled Water

For years I have steadfastly refused to purchase and drink bottled water, regardless of all claims of health and taste, except in cases where it was convenient (after all, it is easier to carry a bottle than a tap). It never tasted any better than tap water anyway.

For years I have watched so many of my close friends, family and colleagues continue to buy these, looking at my like I was crazy when I simply took a sip from the tap in the kitchen.

Please watch this. If I save one soul, I will have saved the world.