• Previously I posted that I was working on a template system for forests and trees, for use during our RPG sessions.  I spent some time, and created a full sheet template, and then printed a few copied out on transparencies.  My plan is to try them out during our Sunday regular game, and see how they work.  Technically, this game will be yesterday, since this is posted on Monday, but I am pre-writing this article.  Overall, I am quite happy with how they turned out, especially on the transparency.  Since the group is exploring in a forest region, it likely…

  • It ran until late last night, but I can say at this point that my recent FreeNAS rebuild/upgrade is almost entirely complete, and definitely running well at this point.  There was quite a bit to learn, what with the change from Jails to Containers, and all the new configuration items, which was not made any easier by the upgrade failure itself.  However, all my critical data appears to be intact, and the rest is hard at work rebuilding. In total, I have the following modules reloaded and configured properly: FreeNAS Corral (obviously, as the core OS) Plex, for TV and…

  • Over the weekend, I began to notice memory issues on my FreeNAS server which I use for many purposes, including hosting this site.  Initially, my thought was a hardware problem with the memory, but at this point, I am suspecting it was either a problem with the FreeNAS OS code, or potentially just a bug with my installation. However, before that conclusion, I also noticed that the latest version of FreeNAS, version 10, or what is being called FreeNAS Corral, had been released with a stable version.  I have been watching the development over the last many months, so was…

  • Its been a while, between house projects, travel, and other distractions, but I am going to try to get a game of Armada together with my son George on Friday.  If others from our gaming group are interested, perhaps turn it into a larger game.  But we haven’t had the time to play, though he has been asking repeatedly. For myself, I have a revised Rebel fleet, with some of my newer acquisitions.  No idea if it will be a solid plan or not, but the fleet is a bit light on the fighters, in order to strengthen the larger…

  • So, I had the intent during our recent project to film the entire effort, and then provide a time lapse video of the entire process.  The good news is that I collected a lot of footage, on the order of 100 GB of 720p video using my recently acquired camera.  The bad news is that the content is rather boring (even at high speed), and I did not take into account a number of basic issues.  Most notably is my clothing.  Although I can gloss over any self-confidence or body-image issues (I am not a model), I definitely need to…

  • Missed my post yesterday, because I very simply was too tired, sore, and distracted to do so.  This weekend was our long planned kitchen remodel, in which we planned to replace the rest of the cabinets, fix a number of electrical concerns, and repaint the kitchen.  The theory was a 2 day project, which I knew was very optimistic, but I as always underestimated the level of physical effort.  We are not quite done, still a number of cosmetic additions to finish, but overall the kitchen is looking much better.

  • No update this weekend for the Pathfinder game (we are about to start Chapter 3 of Rise of the Runelords), due to our efforts with the kitchen.  The next scheduled game is set for March 26 at 2 PM, where I hope to potentially be able to stream the session, but will definitely be able to capture a video of the game board and audio from the session. This coming weekend I have our alternative group, with our long-standing group, continuing the other Pathfinder campaign (WWII soldiers lost in time in a Pathfinder-setting). Sometime in between, I owe George a…

  • So I received the video camera I had ordered a few days ago – if you recall, this was a bargain basement option, to provide the basic ability to video gaming, crafting, and other activities.  As such, I ordered the cheapest camcorder I could locate on Amazon, while still hoping to meet the various needs, the Seree HDV-515.