Author: alohawild

I finished Thursday in bed in my PJs with all my doors closed and locked. I checked, but I forgot to assemble the coffee for Friday morning. I was reading a SciFi book I picked up at the UFO Festival in Oregon in the summer, and it had languished in my pile of things yet to be read. I met the author, and the author (not wishing to assign a pronoun) signed it. It is a SciFi, LGBT, Fantasy, Romance blend, I was told. The writing uses unusual sentence structure and does not seem to be generated by an AI. A human wrote it. I have liked it, but I have just started it. It is a larger trade paperback with larger print, making it easier to read. After a few pages, I was nodding off. It was near midnight.

I worked on coding my AI contest solution on Kaggle’s website (kaggle.com) for about four hours. I managed to get three more successful submissions, which moved my score from 0.0 to 2.0, then to 6.7.  I started remembering how Pandas worked and that I needed to build a loop to process my data row by row, then apply my (quite weak) logic to every entry in the training data set. I was not following the usual approach of using the test set to train a model, test it, revise, and finally run a solution to discover my score (and any misses). Instead, I was trying to get the basic read the test data, supply some answer, and deliver the solution in the correct format.

My weak logic, you wonder, dear reader. Well, my 2.0 score was calculated by randomly picking one translation from the test data set, leaving it unchanged, and applying it to all answers. Totally useless, but better. My 6.7 was a variation. I applied a canned fuzzy logic via the Python library cutely named fuzzywuzzy

I see that some had managed my high score in one try, but most of those are copies of examples. The Kaggle website pays bragging rights and some cash for publishing your solution. Many people then copy these examples and try to improve them to better learn AI Python programming. I might borrow a snippet here and there, but I am looking to win and doing what everyone else is doing, and then trying to fix it does not sound like a winning plan.

I can see that an inference engine is being used with a processing control and CUDA (graphics processors now used in AI: NVIDIA GPUs). Nothing I have done before. I may follow-the-leader later, but at the moment, I am proud of my couple of hundred lines of simple code getting 6.7 and no engines.

It took me a while to work out my Python and Pandas code, which translates into me looking up Python code examples and then using them. I remember some, but not all the details. I spend hours on basics, but it has been years since I did one of these contests.

Before this, Corwin and I watched some Halo. He binge-watched the rest of Season 2 while we had Chinese-style leftovers, and I nodded off, then went to do some coding. We also popped in to Salt & Straw, where I had the vegan Banana Foster flavor with almost overwhelming banana and cinnamon. Much like the fiery dessert. I also got some baked products for Paris Baguette.

(yes, clear skies, a warm evening, and a bright thing in the sky; not our usual weather)

Jeff arrived around 9:30 and completed the work we planned for today mid-afternoon. I also had him replace some wall plugs that were showing their age. We talked about re-wiring the kitchen to be more to-code, but I passed as I would rather spend the money on travel and on Deborah.

Deborah had a snow day in Michigan, and we chatted here and there throughout the day while she caught up on work. Deborah will be here in Febuary and we are talking about what we will do when she is here.

I woke about 7, had coffee, and started writing the blog until midmorning. Showered, took meds, and all that. I then rushed off to have lunch with Scott at McMenamins Cedar Hills, our usual weekly meeting. We talked about travel and our investments. We avoided the chaos of politics in our discussions (though we are both ‘surprised’ liberal in outlook; i.e., we discovered our viewpoint mades us liberal when we are sure we never changed our moderate outlook). We both cannot believe the run-up in stocks after the war started. We are having some guilt over our great returns.

We enjoyed our chat, but we had things to do, me an SPRC meeting (for those who do not speak Methodist, the HR church committee). I drove home and had our 45 minute zoom meeting.

Corwin arrived while that was ongoing and Jeff finished his work and I wrote him a check for time and materials. And that takes me to a complete telling of Thursday, a bit jumbled but how I remembered it.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

 

I am beginning to feel like I have a job that pays poorly (nothing). I am busy getting things done, and then tired from the stress and all the things I have to do. But it was nice that Deborah and I ordered our flights to Salt Lake City for her first biz trip (I am the ‘+1’). Deborah is visiting Oregon in Febuary and we are meeting in SLC at the end of March. We are getting our trips organized.

I rose around 7 and found no coffee made, as the power blinked while Jeff was updating the dryer plug (more work than either of us expected, as it was all new wires and a new breaker in the box) had scrambled the coffee maker’s clock and settings. And until I put an Uninterruptible Power Supply UPS on the coffee maker (not happening), coffee in the morning will always be at risk. A risk I am willing to take. But my home internet and laptop are covered by about 120 minutes of UPS protection, and when Jeff needed to finish the electrical work, I just kept working. Only the light was out.

Aside: A generator powered by natural gas is tempting, as a mid-level earthquake here would likely leave us without power for an extended time. With Trump’s decision that Blue states cannot have emergency services (remember his attempt to stop aid to California for fires, and his having all but shut down Federal emergency services), our local officials have warned us to plan for being a week on your own. I will have to get back to that. I used to have emergency packs. I will have to get them again.

I finished the blog while Jeff, starting about 9:30, worked. We learned we could not run the dryer vent through the wall to the ceiling, so we just shortened and moved the existing one. Jeff had to climb under the house, and that was unpleasant. He reported that the crawl space liner has rotted away (1970s house) and should be replaced. Ugh! I asked him for an estimate for that. It would have to be fixed before I sold the house (not an immediate plan, but maintenance that needs to be done after fifty years). Ugh!

Jeff finished the walls with mud, will texture and paint them, and finish them on Thursday as if they were unchanged. The floor was partially cutaway; it is insanely strong with 3/4 ” plywood over rough tongue and groove 2×4 boards under that. Jeff will replace the plywood he pulled up to move the dryer vent, clean the vent out, and reset it.

I have joked that the house floor will likely survive ‘The Big One,’ but everything else will break.

With the blog done, I headed to First United Methodist Church in Beaverton. There, I met with Wendy, the church administrator, and we looked at the space and discussed getting the tables back. We turned on the new dishwasher. I then chatted with Pastor Ken for a while. We talked about books, history, and my AI work.

Lunch was at Lake Owego Grill, and there I talked to some Nike folks, some still working and others retired like me. It was great to get caught up, and I gave one of my cards, and others took photos of it. I am easily found.

I sat at the bar, and I recognized the bartender, and we updated each other. We had not seen each other for years. We talked about the passing of my wife and how to survive these kinds of events (cancer and a brain tumor for me). That Jesus never promised a life without suffering, but that He would stand with you. I did mention that I was getting too much standing time and would prefer fewer opportunities for Jesus to stand with me! That got a smile.

The sandwich was huge whole chicken breast with bacon and other items. Sort of a club sandwich that has gone over the top with chicken. I will not order it again. I like a real club with layers.

I returned home (and lost my hat behind the chair) and got updates from Jeff before he headed out. He left the garage door open (I did not check), and my neighbors emailed me a reminder to close it. Everyone is looking out now.

I drove back to the Lake Owego Grill to find my wayward hat (not knowing it was in the house), and the staff reminded me that I had tipped it to them and thus had it. I stopped by East Harbor Restaurant and got too much food. I found my hat in the house.

I was glad that ICE was not operating in Beaverton while I drove there (they had been there before), and I survived my short trip without being shot by ICE. They seem to be shooting people, and folks are dying in detention all the time. And then blame you for being killed by them. 1984-style wording took a few years to happen.

Not happy with adventureism in South America, President Chaos-Battleship is now eying a war with Iran. Let’s see if we can get through another week without another war. The US Senate did not pass a resolution invoking the war powers limits to end the war (though such action has never been tested in court and may not be in accordance with the US Constitution). The President can take that as approval (growl!), and I also read that the US House has a bill to approve the annexation of Greenland. Endless war/aggression is our new foreign policy, from what I read.

With some dinner, too much, and I watched the rest of Season 1 of The Agency (reviews said the second season is questionable, and I will stop there, I think). I liked it and thought it was a good ten-episode modern spy story. It centers on the main character’s lies to cover his love affair while in the field as a spy for the US, based in London. If you like spy stories and the messiness of modern spying, The Agency’s first season is recommended.

I moved to the office and wrote code until almost midnight. I was trying to add some matching algorithms to my solution for the Kaggle contest. I learned that comparing strings in Python has limited options for percentage matching. I also have not gotten my Pandas working in my head and am doing something wrong. Some not Pythonic code, as is said when I mixed up C with Python with Pandas.

I did learn that fuzzywuzzy was what I needed and available in the environment I use. Yes, Python and its libraries are playfully named (Python is named after Monty Python, not the snake). I managed to get that running, but my extraction logic from the dataframes in Pandas is not Pythonic. I am getting the whole dataframe, not the string I want, and this yields an interesting response when sending a dataframe to a string routine (splat!).

I will research more. It took me hours to realize I was not doing something right, and I made some basic typos. Python is interpurted and that can create long logs of failures for a simple mistake. I made less progress than I hoped.

Dizzy from my new meds and Pythonic issues, I read a few pages and then went to sleep after getting up, taking more meds, doing the dishes, resetting the coffee maker, and assembling coffee for 7:15 in the morning.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

 

 

Again, I watched the sunrise with a cup of coffee in my office (once, a bedroom), and while the world seems to be conspiring to make me sell this house, I do enjoy looking out the window while I type on my computer. I watch the squirrels take inventory of their savings, the hummingbirds hover, look for more delicious bugs (“take all you want,” I often think), and zoom away, the crows fly by (my car is in the garage to avoid their mess), and various other birds drop by to take a nip of the few apples still left on the old apple tree. I do want to come home to my house, but it makes less and less sense financially, given that I travel so much, and now that I have thieves, it is hard to leave it for weeks. Still, I wish to watch the sunrise as I write her in my office.

The coffee is made for me when I arrive in the kitchen, sometime after 7, but still dark. The fog is thick. Sunrise is more of a black-to-gray process than the climb of the sun. My window does not point east, and I know the sun rises behind Mount Hood, visible from TV Highway and other clear spots. Today, it would be a glow in the black-to-gray.

I rush, but I get my last banana and an English muffin with orange marmalade, my favorite, to go with the Sleepy Monk brand local coffee (thanks, AJ and Most Rev Steve). I write 3/4 of the blog before I must dress and head out. I have a 9:30 Portland board game with Richard and James: Tainted Grail. I perform all the necessary tasks, including my meds, but delaying one, new and only seven doses, which makes me dizzy and tired until later, Deborah’s suggestion. I board Air VW the Gray, fully charged, and head to Portland, fully aware that ICE is out there (Trump is in Detroit today still blaming Joe Biden for his problems and flipped off someone), and if they shoot me, I will be blamed for getting in the way of the bullets.

The trip to Portland is full of challenges. The fog does not help traffic move quickly, and I crawl through Beaverton, mostly waiting through red lights at every intersection, sometimes two. The number of cars is surprisingly less than in December, and people are driving better. I take 217, and it is moving until I see smoke as I merge onto Highway 26. A dump truck is having a Viking funeral on the side of the highway. The truck engine and cab are completely engulfed in flames that reach 20 feet into the air. I cut quickly into the left lane of 26, which, even with the addition of fire trucks and emergency personnel, is burning quite bright. The black-brown clouds of smoke turn to white as the extinguishing process is being applied. No place for me to be in an EV! The traffic moves, and soon I fly by and enjoy, for a few moments, not traffic until the curves start before the tunnel on 26 inbound to Portland. My travels were normal, with just some slowing, to Richard’s and arrived only a few minutes late. Richard was just finishing up the game setup; he unpacked the last play before we arrived, which allowed us to better invest our time together in playing (thanks, Richard).

James arrives a few minutes later. We focus on the game (I get a call from Pastor Ken as we start), and soon we’re back into the immersive role-playing, cooperative Arthurian/SciFi/Lovecraftian setting, and app-controlled game. We are stuck, and we are doing some research (not really cheating, as I am sure we are not supposed to stay in chapter 7 for months and months) and walking across the board, slowly, to find more information. We have upgraded our characters and fought our way back (our characters took a few beatings, but we recovered easily), learning more and discovering what we are missing. We managed to find one thing and started searching for more, and found more. Our research says that this chapter is called out as a grind on the Internet, and that makes us feel better. And while I am frustrated over the lack of progress, our characters are interesting, and the setting is immersive, like a Dungeons & Dragons game, with the app playing the role of DM. Still, we would like to finish this chapter. I suspect 8-9 pass by fast, as we see many references to later chapters as we explore.

We packed it in around 1:40 when our turn ended, as I have described before, Tainted Grail has a save process for the physical game, and I headed home in the EV. Jeff is already at the house working. He has learned that the Dryer plug needs an updated connection in the power box. He is a bit concerned that the house has only a 150-amp service, rather than the newer 200-amp standard rating for homes (it is an expensive upgrade and likely quite invasive). If I were to do something like that, I would also add a generator, as I have natural gas running to the house (used only for the furnace and water heater). But I am not doing a ten grand upgrade unless I start popping breakers.

Jeff replaces the power plug (which was undersized for the amps!) and discovers, by cutting into the wall (which I patched less than a year ago), that we have no option but the existing dryer vent. Ugh! Water and sewer lines for the washer run through the wall.

The new locks are in, and the wires run. Jeff is covered in dust and pink insulation, and leaves before the sun sets. I reheat the ribs from a few days ago from BJs Brewhouse and have them with some stuffing for lunch.

I received the mailer information from LG, stuck the cut model number and serial number stickers from The Machine (now disconnected and unplugged) on a plastic bag, and headed to FedEx. There was a helpful clerk who got my bag/stickers in a mailer, and the label folded and slid into the supplied mailer. Done! Recept taken and photo sent (on Wednesday) to LG. Forward movement; when they get those, I will get my refund for my purchase price of The Machine. Jeff will have the space ready for the new laundry by then.

Aside: I had resisted upgrading the space, and that was one of the reasons for The Machine. It required less power, venting, and space. I had not bet on it breaking every three months and pouring water all over the house. I suspect this is an older model (I know the repair guys were surprised by its internals when they went to fix it), and I suspect some of these combos are excellent (GE has a nice one that I spotted after I bought the LG one).

Trader Joe’s was right there next to the FedEx office, and I picked up some items, some extravagant, and others’ favorites (Corwin’s favorite can of smoked trout, and dolmades for Z). I enjoyed shopping and loaded three bags for $120 (or the cost of ribs for two). I got this home, put it away, and went back to my office. I read the news, watched various late-night comedians’ YouTube versions. I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. I was tapping and clapping to Jon Batiste’s “I NEED YOU” video, which I recommend to anyone; wonderful.

Time flows and runs like sand through your fingers. I take my meds and feel the tiredness coming on. I returned to Kaggle.com and returned to my coding. I am still having trouble remembering Python and Pandas (this contest seems to be able to be handled with a single memory structure, easily done with Pandas, rather than processing hundreds of large data files). I learned that there have been some updates to both (the recent versions are supplied by Kaggle.com’s environment) to make some obvious improvements, like easier ways to drop columns.

I contrived a stupid solution (just make all my solutions “Test”), delivered the file, and got graded (I got a 0.0, but I am proud to have delivered an answer). I also saw how others, who kindly supplied their code as examples—a tradition on Kaggle (bragging is good)—and used regular expressions (a Perl-like addition to Python, making Perl less used, even SAP’s ABAP has Perl-like code) to do some data cleanup. These cleanups are mentioned in the problem description. I will likely grab a code snippet for that later. Still, I managed to complete my contrived solution and tried to submit it. There were more discoveries (turning off Internet access to your notebook is required, for example), but by 10, I had a successful run! I may be in last place, 1100+, but I have placed!

The leaderboard is intimidating, as everyone is rated at the top (I am not rated as an expert), but the scored runs are below 40%, meaning there is no pre-cooked solution. I have a chance. Excellent!

I considered some very basic matching processes after reading various solutions using CUDA and torch, which were kindly presented as successful solutions (yes, Kaggle is a bit different than corporate secrets). Yikes! That is some hardcore stuff, but time has moved on since I was here, and technology has advanced at a pace that can be overwhelming. But for me, I am excited, there is new stuff, and it is hard to learn. Prefect! All of this is a public tool, too. Nothing hidden here. Just a damn-hard challenge using the best open software tools available.

I am also learning more about Akkadian scholarship, and reference material is provided (in files, with key structures linking them). Lovely!

With algorithms, Akkadian scribal rules, and Python running in my mind, it is after 11, I put on my PJs and do the dishes. I set up the coffee (not realizing that the power outage had removed my programming) and head to bed. I read for a while, but only a few pages. I slept with my mind tired but full of thoughts on coding.

Thanks for reading!

 

I rose early on Monday, but then stayed in bed until I saw the light of morning. It was after 7 when I found the kitchen (it had not moved or been stolen), and thus the programmed coffee machine, the coffee assembled the night before, was filled with hot coffee. More Sleep Monk brand coffee (thanks, AJ and Most Rev Steve) was in my cup while I wrote the blog and watched the sunrise on Monday.

I wrote the blog, but I also had a few items to get moving. The LG Company had promised to buy back The Machine, but I had not heard back from them. I called the CIC (I assume Customer Information Center, but I looked it up and found multiple definitions, and I liked Calculus of Inductive Constructions best), and they then escalated my call and sent me a formal callback form on my iPhone to fill out. I later received another link on my phone to follow. I peeled off the model and serial number sticker, cut it in half, photographed it, and sent the digital picture back to LG. Later, they told me to mail it to them by physical mail. I did not receive, despite their claims, an email with the mailing directions. Likely, CIC will get a call on Tuesday. But progress is good. Just one email to get to finish this.

Update: I got the FedEx mailer today as a PDF in a text and sent the stickers on their way.

I continued to write, but also called Nike and followed a most complex phone tree to reach a person. According to the Social Security Administration’s check sheet on its website, I needed the dates of employment for my last employer within the past 2 years. I reached a customer service representative, and she sent me an email with a link to download their report on my employment. I then downloaded the report and learned that despite my layoff on April 20th, my last day was officially June 28th. I thought it was that way, but it is good to have that information from Nike via something called Worknumbers.com.

I continued to write the blog while waiting for the phone tree or various hold music. I also called Allstate and found myself in a loop, unable to reach my agent’s office. I pay Allstate all that money to have a human agent who can answer my questions, but once I said ‘claim,’ there was no return to my agent. This is all automated, and the phone tree was clear. I really should use the app or website instead of bothering them with a call.

This is the second claim, all in the hundreds-of-dollars range, in 28 years on this house. I am frustrated but not surprised that Allstate is now like all the other Internet-based insurance companies. When I finally reached a customer service representative who could answer my questions, she thanked me for 37 years with Allstate. Well, at least they noticed.  It makes me rethink the need for extra coverage if the service is getting bad.

With the insurance being hard to use and the break-in, selling and moving to an apartment is starting to look like the right option for someone like me who travels. Hmmm.

I finished the blog and showered. While shaving, Jeff showed up. I, in a robe, reviewed the lock changes and updates for the new washers and dryers. We agreed that the old under-the-floor vent was not optimal. Jeff suggested one, like the HVAC folks built into his house, that goes through the roof. I liked that idea.

I also consulted Deborah, who has a thing for locks, and got new laundry and aligned my thinking to the lock she likes for the front door (Jeff uses the same for his house). We got regular locks for the garage doors. The keys will be different (friends on Facebook offered lots of good advice, including a locksmith), but I can live with that.

Jeff went off to acquire the items (I pay for materials and labor for his work). I finally got a text that my prescriptions from Saturday were ready at Walgreens on TV Highway, just a few minutes away by EV. I left the front door unlocked for Jeff (until we get the fancy lock with the push buttons). I was disappointed as they only had one item ready (!?), and the staff at Walgreens were unhappy too, as the weekend prescriptions were already done, except mine!

I stopped by Papa Murphy’s and got a large Chicago stuffed pizza and a salad. I took them home and got the pizza in the oven. Talked to Deborah and Jeff a few times to ensure alignment on locks; all was good.

With the pizza done, I headed out again. Walgreens had my stuff ready, and soon got the same powder I used before (?!) as I was expecting something else. I paid the low co-pay, less than $4, and headed back. Corwin called, surprised to find me missing and the front door unlocked. I told him to have a slice of pizza, and I would be back soon.

We returned to Halo’s second season, and Corwin explained the show’s misalignment with the video game. I enjoyed too many slices. It was soooooo goooood after so many f**ked up days. Jeff appeared and replaced the main door lock, and I learned how to program it. He found the other locks for the other doors to be faulty. He will return on Tuesday while I am out playing games.

Stuffed with pizza and salad, I don’t remember any dinner. The new drug made me dizzy and tired (and is labeled with a warning). I read, did the dishes, and chatted with Deborah here and there. I wished her good night as she went to bed.

I had a United Methodist meeting for the local church’s Lay Leaders. I connected to the meeting and was the only guy there, and I might still be younger than most. This was with DS Karen Hernandez and started with a devotional, followed by a biz meeting. This was more of a devotional meeting than biz and I am less comfortable with this kind of meeting, but I muddled through. This will now be the second Monday of the month. I will try to make some.

This took me into the evening, and I decided to try my hand at coding again. I found my way to the Kaggle.com website and started coding in a Jupyter notebook, a tool for running a mix of text and Python code. The challenge is to translate the Akkadian already transferred from the clay tablets into English. The means working through the idiosyncrasies of retrieving the text from the clay tablets, the Akkadian language, and the scribal shortcut. It is a short contest, and I am not sure I can get beyond a basic production.

I wrote code for an hour, starting with their example, then harvesting code I had written before, and reading some articles and grabbing a few snippets of code generously provided by others. My book can read the data. I will try to create a solution file over the next few days with random results; at least I can see the format working.

When I started to make mistakes, I stopped, put on my PJs, read, and went to sleep without fear. I forgot to lock the front door again, I discovered the next morning!

Thanks for reading!

 

 

I woke on Sunday without fear or scary dreams. I checked the house and found no new break-ins. The thieves have the printer and the UV hardener; they don’t need more things.

I managed to write the blog after getting some coffee. The coffee was assembled the night before and was just waiting for me. I sipped coffee while watching the sunrise and writing the blog. I was happy to get another sunrise with the home invasion and the political news. Apparently, if ICE were operating in Beaverton (and they do), they could just shoot me down, and Trump and the administration would say it was my fault. It is great to see another sunrise, coffee, and a blog.

I enjoy the morning, including an English muffin with orange marmalade (my favorite) and a banana, all purchased from the corner veggie market on 18th and TV Highway. I wrote and told yet another tragic story about thieves stealing from me, and completed the blog with plenty of time to spare.

I texted and talked to Deborah all day. We are both busy, but we still talked and texted. We miss each other, but the new world of iPhone makes it easier to be separated. Deborah found a fun trip in Utah that covers parks and sites in southern Utah. We might do that as an extension to her business trip at the end of March.

I lose focus, then shower and dress for church. Dondrea is giving the sermon, and I get there in Air VW the Gray wearing a puffin tie from Deborah as a memory of our visit to Iceland (and my discovery of cookbooks at the airport that had recipes for puffin, “Don’t eat the tie!”). I have my sweater vest, dress shirt, black shoes, and usher for Dondrea. There was an issue with a door being unlocked. Dondrea tested it, and I finally let her in — not hearing her calls to open the door (the wrong ear was pointed toward the door).  She smiles and says, “You have to let me in; I am preaching!”

Today’s sermon was about happiness and covered Ecclesiastes’ message that there is a time for everything, as well as some of Paul’s comments on bravely facing suffering. Dondrea’s focus was that when we try to define what makes us happy and pursue it, we are often disappointed. Dondrea points out that, for example, New Year’s resolutions seldom make us happy and are usually ignored. That, like Ecclesiastes and Paul’s message, we need to accept the happiness we can find, imperfect as it is, and that may free us. To expand on Dondrea’s words, our modern lifestyle, with social media, drives us to say things like ‘been there, done that’ rather than just enjoying the simpler pleasures.

Aside: I usually take a copy of the church bulletin with me after church to get the scripture right and other details, but I forgot this Sunday. I will have to muddle through.

The Refresh project is done. All the hot water and backsplash are done. We will move some of the old tables back soon. Wendy, the church admin, is now responsible for how spaces are used.

I headed home and reheated the chicken I made the previous night, along with some stuffing. I watched the last of Halo, not caring for the space zombie ending. There is a lot of support for a second season, but so far, it has not happened. I returned to painting my figure for the game that evening at M@’s house. We are playing the 2024 version of Dungeons & Dragons, which seems to be a more simplified version.

Corwin stopped by and grabbed some food (but left me the ribs). He was worried about the break-ins and will stop by more often. It was funny; he was locked out because the front and side doors were locked. He forgot there was a doorbell. I can hear the doorbell. I let him in, and he commented that that was the first time that had happened. I have not locked more doors until now.

We talked for a bit while I finished shading my figure. I use oil paints for that and had to wait for the oils to dry before I could put on the final dull coat (a very light coat, as it does what it says). My process is to, even with a 3D printed figure, to prime them with a spray, this time white, paint the acrylic colors in three main painting rounds, basic colors (including the speed paint), details added, and then fine details and corrections made. I then lock that in with a light gloss coat sprayed on. After that, I added oil paint, flat black mixed with a lot of thinner, to create the shading. Once that dries, I usually base it by adding some miniature gravel and plants (all very expensive), but today I did not have time for that. Lastly, I spray lightly with dull coat. I use the expensive Mr. Super Clear small cans. I use German Gray for black and shade it to black. On this scale, black makes things disappear. Others use dry brushing of grays for the same look, but I like this better.

Often, I find a mistake, a dot of a color, for example, in the wrong place, at the end, and I just paint over the dull coat and do not spray it again. If the metal is too dull, I dry-brush more metal color over the protective coating.

Corwin heads out, and I head to M@’s, but do have to return for my phone, and soon am at M@’s. We are playing a 2024 version of an old AD&D adventure, and it has some of the problems of those times. The ecology of the structure (caverns with tombs) is senseless, but still fun if you just let that go and accept the next thing without question. Scott, who seldom gets hit, was smashed up in a few encounters.

(My new figure is the blue one with the red feather in the hat. The figure is in the paper 2D boat.)

We are not interested in anything other than the goal and do minimal combat. We are not typical D&D ‘murder hobos.’ Mostly, we use role playing, trickery, and staying focused on the goal. We also look for the easiest way in and do more reconnaissance than most groups. M@ let us know that we had found the next level, that it was not prepared, and we then decided to explore more of the current level, but again, avoiding combat when we could.

It was a fun evening. I returned home, had a snack, and read. I did hear a noise outside that startled me. I am still reacting, but I checked everything and all was fine.

I slept without fear and soon began to dream. In my dream world, I was traveling again, with Deborah, and it seemed to be a good time in dream Portland and dream Michigan.

Thanks for reading!