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Sat 4/26/14 1:37pm # | tweet this

Let's Go Surfing






Plastic dice in bulk - Boing Boing
source:

Cee-lo – 2 or more players – 3 dice

Determine who is going to be playing and who is going to be the first player.

If betting, all players put in their bet.

The first player rolls all three dice until they get a recognized combination, or are otherwise disqualified

The combinations are, ranked from best to worst:

4-5-6

The highest possible roll. Instant win of the round for the player who rolled it. They take the entire pot, and the next round begins. This skips the turns of anyone who has not gone.

"Trips"

Rolling three of the same number is known as “trips”. Higher trips beat lower trips, so 4-4-4 is better than 3-3-3.

"Spare and a Pair"

Rolling a pair, and another number, establishes the singleton as a “point.” A higher point beats a lower point, so 1-1-3 is better than 6-6-2.

1-2-3

Automatic loss. Player forfeits turn, but the game continues.

Dice fall off the table

Automatic loss. Play forfeits turn, but the game continues.

Tie

Tied players roll again, best combo wins the round/pot.

Next round, the player to right goes first.
Update: 4/27:

Jenn and I played this but it's mostly a game of chance so we modified the betting rules to add more of a skill element.

Here's the betting mechanic we added:

Each person starts with 10 coins for each opponent they face. (ie in a 4 player game, there are 3 opponents, so each player starts with 30 coins.)

1st person rolling in the round, makes an initial bet, 1 to 3, all other players match the bet on that players square.

1st player rolls

2nd player (clockwise from the first) has the option of increasing the bet (or not increasing) by adding coins to their square, which all other players then have to match. After the bet is increased or not, 2nd player rolls. Repeat for remaining players.

The player that wins the round goes first for the next round.

If a player does not have the coins left to match the bet, they can still take their roll when their time comes, but if they lose the round with no coins left they will be out for the rest of the game.

Winner is the person with all the coins, or with the most coins at the end of the game.



Example:

In the above. Let's say that player one goes first.

Player one puts 1 to 3 max coins into his square. All other players have to match that bet by also adding the matching number of coins in player one's square. In the above example the initial bet is one coin, and the other four players have each put in one coin.

Player one rolls, and it's a low combination. It's now player 2's turn to roll. Player two thinks he has a good shot of beating player one's roll, so he ups the ante by two more coins. All three other players are now required to match player two's bet and add coins to his square. Player two then rolls, and gets a so so, roll.

Player three's turn, (we're still in the same round) Player three thinks that he has a good chance of still getting a better combo that p1 and p2, so he ups the ante one more coin, which the other three players have to meet. Player 3 rolls and doesn't beat player one or player two.

Now it's player 4's turn. Player four has some options now, he has seen the other 3 players rolls, and he also knows that right now, player one and player 3 are both going to lose to player two (who currently has the best combo.) Player 4 could up the ante, and thereby force the other players to match him. This would guarantee that player 1 and player 3 would take heavier losses, because those two are already behind. Player 4 looks at the bets and figures he's already deep enough in on this roll so he doesn't up the ante any further and just rolls.

The round is now complete, highest combo takes the whole pot. And the winning player now goes first for the next round.

I want to hear your



Tue 4/22/14 8:13pm # | tweet this

Game of Thrones

I've had John Snow, Tyrion, and Daenerys figures for awhile, but finally took a picture of them. I got Daenerys Targaryen before I knew that they were also making her in the blue dress which probably would have been a better costume choice for display. Of course this version comes with a dragon, so that's pretty cool.

All the figures have some challenges standing. Tyrion needed a little bit of putty under his boots to hold him in place for the shot.

Nice figures though, especially as an inaugural release for Funko in the 6" space. Funko is also supposed to release Rocketeer 6" figures too. After seeing the quality of these, I'm looking forward to those.

I think my Game of Thrones collection may just hold at these 3 figures for awhile. They also have Ned Stark, Robb Stark, Jaime, Arya, Brienne, Khal Drogo, the Hound, and a White Walker. I don't see a pressing need to collect any of those. I likely add a Joffery and Ghost and probably Samwell Tarly, because it'd be a fun figure (and maybe Hodor for the obscure factor) if they made them down the road.

I want to hear your



Sun 4/20/14 6:30pm # | tweet this

Washcloth Hook

Washcloth was always falling off the towel hook so I designed a simple washcloth hook and printed it on the 3D printer.

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Sun 4/20/14 12:25pm # | tweet this

Let's Go Surfing





Comic Book Coloring Part 1 of 3
source: Paolo Rivera


Google, not Facebook, buys drone company Titan Aerospace
source: The Verge

AI, Self-Driving Cars, Robots, and now Drones, they really are trying to build Skynet.

Yep, That's Rupert Murdoch Wearing an Oculus Rift
source:

Finally a way for Fox News to make it's imaginative reality a reality.

I want to hear your



Thu 4/17/14 10:19pm # | tweet this

A simple chair

Designed a simple chair for 6" action figures in Rhino 3D and printed it today.

Seemed like a simple enough tiny little project and it was.

Nothing fancy, and despite it's small base, it actually stands and supports the figure very well.

I want to hear your





Wed 4/16/14 8:00pm # | tweet this

3D printed Mandroid head

As mentioned a below, I had all but the head to complete a Mandroid build a figure.

I originally designed one in Tinkercad, but I decided to add a little breather-like tank to the front as well as change the eye a bit.

I ended up adding those two parts and altering the model slightly in Rhino 3D, which I've started playing around with.

For this print I went .1mm instead of .3mm for a smoother finish too.

Still not perfect. But it's better.

I want to hear your



Tue 4/15/14 12:16pm # | tweet this

Build-a-Figure

I ended up getting enough of the Captain America Winter Soldier figures that I almost completed the Mandroid Build-a-figure.

The only piece I was missing was the head. I don't really need the figure that comes with the head piece though, so I ended up designing my a head in Tinkercad and 3D printing it.

It came out ok. I'll probably take another stab at it in the future, I still need to find a really good 3D program that let's me work in 3D as smoothly as Illustrator lets me work in 2D.

I want to hear your



Mon 4/14/14 2:06pm # | tweet this

Action Figures

Picked up various action figures over the last couple weeks.

Black Widow and Winter Soldier showed up at Meijer where they are $5 cheaper than other retailers. Also decided to pick up a Modern SHIELD uniform Steve Rogers.

All three of the the Captain America Winter Soldier figures in front came with alternate heads. Black Widow comes with a alternate head with shorter curlier bob which is more like her Avenger appearance. Cap comes with a Masked head and Winter Soldier comes with an masked head as well.

Black Widow is a great likeness of Scarlet Johansen, and an all around nicely done figure. Her small heels make her a bit of a challenge to stand though. The Steve Rogers figure is really nice as well, although the head sculpt is a little less actor specific feeling. And despite coming with two alternate sets of hands, Rogers has a little trouble getting his hand into the second strap of his shield and it can be a bit of a challenge to keep it posed on his arm.

I've also recently picked up the Arkham Asylum Anarky, and Rambo via Amazon. The Anarky figure is a nice design. Probably better than either his comic or 3D Beware the Batman costumes. First time in 6"/7" scale for this character.

Rambo, well what can you say. He went on sale on Amazon so I picked him up. On the smaller side for a 7" figure, he works well with 6" scale for the most part. I have a Rocky figure boxed up as well, so I have at least two Stalone figures at this point.

While I already had the Marvel Legends Black Widow figure which is pretty comic acurate. The quality of the actress likeness and my fondness for movie SHIELD pretty much compelled me to pick up this figure just for this shot alone. (Of course, now that I'm in this deep, I'm also probably going to have to keep an eye out for a movie Hawkeye now, lol)

Trust Noone.

Spider-Girl (aka Arana). Here's a case where I've gotten a figure simply because it's a neat figure. I did pick up the first issue of this character back in the day when she went by Arana, but I've never actually read a story with her since she's been in this black costume.

I do like the Black Spider-man costume though. Thought it was a great design when it came out when I was a kid. At this point though, it's been so associated with the villain Venom, I'm not sure why heroic characters like Spider-Girl or the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman II (Archne) would wear it.

Also just for fun, here's a picture of the movie winter soldier next to the Image Comics character Darkness. Separated at birth? You decide.

I want to hear your



Sun 4/13/14 10:19am # | tweet this


photo by Chris Cofer on Flickr

Social Media

Is social media basically taking on the attributes of a crowded city street or crowded subway? Lots of people going to and fro, lots to watch, but is it becoming understood that you don't talk to anyone? Mind your own business, eyes front, listen to your music, don't interact with people you don't "really" know. Everyone is on display, but everyone adopts the courtesy of pretending they don't see anyone else. Privacy, where there is none.

I want to hear your





Sun 4/06/14 5:53pm # | tweet this

Spring May Be Here*

*at least for the next week.

We had a very nice Sunday full of sun and mid-fifty degree temperatures today.

There's still a little snow in the backyard in some very shady spots but the majority of the backyard and all of the front yard is snow-free!

I got outside and thatched a bit and did some general clean up. Even took a pass with the lawnmower to mulch up some straggler leaves and small sticks.

Looking at the upcoming forecast for the week of high temperatures in the mi-fifties to low sixties and lows for the most part above freezing I also gambled a bit an put down some grass seed. We'll see if that works out.

We have some day lilies that come up near the front of the house each year, and while today was really the first snow free day, there are already some shoots coming up. The lilies are getting ready for spring too.

I want to hear your



Sun 4/06/14 11:40am # | tweet this

Time

No matter what gets invented, 24 hours in a day, doesn't change.

So everything new that comes along, that requires attention, has to carve out at least a tiny sub-block of time.

Some save time. Some require time.

But all new things requiring attention will disrupt how that attention was divided previously.

Related: 2012 American Time Use Study

I want to hear your



Sun 4/06/14 10:43am # | tweet this

You've sold your soul. Dedicated all your time to the pursuit of career and money. You opress others to climb the corporate ladder. Everyone hates you because you're an asshole. Sure, you may be megalomaniacal villain, but really they're all just jealous of your hard work and superiority--
buy an expensive car.

Cadilac

Jaguar

Audi

I want to hear your



Sat 4/05/14 8:14pm # | tweet this

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Met up with friend Dan and saw the latest Marvel movie last night.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, was one of the best Marvel Cinematic Universe films yet. Great pacing and great character development for an action film. It was also nice to have a positive superhero on screen without a bunch of brooding angst for a change.

This one's definitely worth seeing in the theater.

There are also some great tie-in's to ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as plenty of tie-backs to the Avengers in this one too. And while you don't have to have seen the SHIELD show, if you have, you'll enjoy it even more. (You might even want to go back and rewatch SHIELD after, I know I'd like to.)

I'm really really looking forward to Tuesday's episode of Agent's of SHIELD as well as the the whole rest of the season. Since the show takes place in the world of the movies and since Captain America Winter Soldier just majorly shook up their status quo, it's certainly going to be a very different show going forward.

Go see the movie, and then catch-up on Agents of SHIELD too!

Captain America wasn't the only fun thing yesterday either. Jenn and I also finally got to meet Dan and Angel's little one Lorelei. She watched us intently, and was all smiles when not studying the light in my Google Glass.

I want to hear your



Sat 4/05/14 7:54pm # | tweet this

Cake

Whatever else you want to say about life, it's pretty cool to be able to just go buy a whole chocolate cake for $6.

I want to hear your



Sat 4/05/14 11:17am # | tweet this

UHF Japanese Sci-fi

Completely by chance I stumbled upon a Giant Robot, of Johnny Sokko and Flying Robot fame, vinyl figure on eBay. I picked up the Ultraman figure late last year.

Very cool figure.

I watched Ultraman as a kid, but Johnny Sokko's Flying Robot was by far my favorite of the two. Johnny controlled the giant robot by issuing commands into his watch. As a kid I spent many a recess running around doing the same into a cheap Timex watch mimicking the show.

Today I have a Galaxy Gear watch that I can talk into, but sadly, no giant flying robot on the other end -- yet.

Probably need an appropriate sized Godzilla to go with these two, to round out the display. Lucky me, there's a Godzilla movie coming out in a month, so it shouldn't be too hard to find one.

I want to hear your



Sat 4/05/14 9:56am # | tweet this

Snow

View outside the window this morning at about 9 AM. By 10 half of it already had melted in the front (but not the back)

Winter continues on.

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Wed 4/02/14 9:35pm # | tweet this

Still some snow

April 2nd, and there is still some snow outside. Only a small patch on my front yard, but across the street, the neighbors still has some snow fortresses.

I want to hear your


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