The Crabcam

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A couple years ago, during our trip to Myrtle Beach, we adopted a collection of hermit crabs for the kids.  As these things happen, they became the pets of the wife instead, and over time, various things were added, including at one point a streaming webcam with the intent to record and review their nightly activities.  Unfortunately, this never really worked out – the software to stream and record wasn’t very stable, and the interest in watching hermit crabs faded.

The hermit crabs are still going strong, but I have re-tasked the camera for other efforts instead.  Right now, it is showing a live stream of my house exterior, specifically focused on the weather and one of our backyard trees.  Except for the window screen (which shows up remarkable well), the video is decent, if rather dull.

But, if anyone is interested in viewing the current weather, or watching a tree grow, here you go…

https://crabcam.click2stream.com/

If you have other suggestions on a use for the camera, post some feedback and let me know.

Travelling

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Travelling back and forth for work again, due to a problem with travel approvals internally in the company.  That prevents me from heading up earlier in the week, and going home later, and instead makes me need to travel up and back in the same day.  Basically, I can charge mileage without needing approval, but any hotel or food expenses must be approved no less than 14 days in advance.  And of course, with all the internal company changes, the approval chain keeps changing, making it nearly impossible to get that approval with the proper lead time.

Fortunately, next week I won’t need to travel at all again, due to some conflicts, and maybe I can get caught up on a few of the lingering projects I have waiting.

Zombicide: Black Plague

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On Sunday, as planned, we played a game of Zombicide: Black Plague, instead of our regular Pathfinder game (due to a lack of players).  Overall, it was a strong success, everyone seemed to have a great time.  We only ended up playing Quest 1 – Big Game Hunting, and after a lot of cooperation (and the loss of 2 characters), managed to pull out a victory.  For a group of new players, we were very happy with this result, despite the mission being listed as “easy”.  To my knowledge, we didn’t cheat on the rules at all either, though we may have missed one here and there.

I didn’t end up taking any pictures, but did record a video of the game.  Hopefully, time permitting, I can edit it down and post it to the YouTube channel.

All players ended saying they were eager for another round, to try other missions, which is always a successful session.

For our game, we used just the base box set:

Zombicide: Black Plague – http://amzn.to/2txWEXS

RuneWars Miniatures

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Got the opportunity to play some RuneWars Miniatures with my younger son over the weekend – a game he picked up a few weeks ago and had been eager to try.  Not sure if after playing he is fully sold on the game, though he is eager to buy more figures now, but I don’t know if he ended up truly understanding the game itself.  Being 9, he is more interested in just playing with the miniatures, rather than playing a rules-based game.  However, RuneWars is written simple enough that he can understand it, and grasp the mechanics, while still being complex enough to be challenging for adults and experienced players.  I suspect it will be another collection for he and I to start pulling together.

If you are interested in the game, we played using just the basic box set:

RuneWars Miniatures (Fantasy Flight Games): http://amzn.to/2uruthF

Active weekend

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Lots of plans for this weekend, for what was supposed to have been relatively quiet.  Fortunately, most are what I would consider fun activities, so not a big concern.  Tonight we head down to the summer camp to visit my son, who has been at camp all week.  Should be a good moral booster for him to see everyone.  Tomorrow, Ben and I are planning on finally playing Runewars (video possible) – I have read the rules and mechanics, and it should be a simple enough game to pick up.  And Sunday, although we postponed the next Pathfinder game, we are filling the time with a large game of Zombicide: Black Plague (video also possible).  Then of course it is back to work on Monday. 🙁