Two extremely busy days

I missed yesterday’s post because I was so busy that I just didn’t have time for it. I had 4 ethics classes before lunch, then spent the afternoon sorting out Magic: the Gathering cards to try and get some more sold and shipped off. This time I went through all the cards from the Fallen Empires expansion released in 1994, and I found I had enough cards to assemble a few complete sets of all 187 cards in the set. These are not expensive cards, and each full set is only worth $130 or so. But selling them as sets means I get rid of a lot of common cards, of which I have numerous copies, and which would be difficult to sell in anything other than bulk lots.

I also had to quickly make an Irregular Webcomic! strip using photos previously shot, because I’d neglected to make new strips for this week on the weekend. And I did some work on new Darths & Droids strips too, to try not to fall behind on those as well. Then I had two more ethics classes lat in the evening to round out the day. And in between I walked Scully and made pizza for dinner.

Tuesday’s have been my day off ethics classes for a long time, and I use the time to write the upcoming week’s topic. But this week I begin teaching at the University of Technology, Sydney, again, in the image processing course that runs in second semester. And this year the class is scheduled for 2-5pm on Thursdays, and the travel time to get home clashes with one of my classes on Thursday evening. So I had to move that class to a new day, and Tuesday was the only sensible choice. So my deadline to get my class written was 5pm today, instead of 5pm Wednesday as it has been.

In addition, I posted those Fallen Empires sets for sale on a Magic Discord server, and got some buyers. So I had to go the post office twice – once to get packing boxes, and twice to mail them off after packing the cards carefully.

And the plumber came today to install a new kitchen sink mixer tap. Our old one had been falling apart, with the aerator coming out back in May so that the water splattered everywhere if turned on beyond a slow trickle, and recently it also began dripping. I’d bought a replacement tap a few weeks ago, and thought I’d give it a go of installing it myself, given my recent success replacing the toilet valve. But I prevaricated and kept putting it off, until finally the dripping got to me and last weekend I opened up the tap box and had a look at the installation instructions. I decided this was going to be significantly more complicated than the toilet valve, so I called a plumber.

So the plumber had to work on it for almost two hours, and he measured the water pressure in the pipes and found it to be fairly high at 900 kPa. He said that was great for nice shower pressure, but too much for a kitchen tap, and indeed the tap was only warranted for pressures up to 500 kPa. So he had to install pressure regulators on the hot and cold water pipes. And then install a bit of copper pipe so the flexible hoses of the new tap could reach. In other words, this was way beyond my means, and I thanked my lucky stars that I just called a plumber and didn’t try to do this job myself.

And then I had to make another new Irregular Webcomic! strip for tonight’s update. I really need to find some time to get ahead and buffer some strips in advance.

Oh, and I had the first ethics class on a Tuesday! Thankfully all of the students who were doing it on Thursday got my messages about the change of day and could make it, so I had three kids, talking about Shapeshifting. I think this is a good topic, because it was a fun and interesting discussion.

Oh, and in other good news, the local council here has sent us a development proposal for public comment. They are planning to build a raised speed bump pedestrian (zebra) crossing in front of my place, to replace a pedestrian safety island which has speed bumps before it on either side of the street. I think this is a fantastic proposal, because the current arrangement means that cars can AND DO swerve across the median line and onto the wrong side of the street, potentially into oncoming traffic, just to avoid the speed bumps. Because the current speed bumps aren’t aligned across the street, cars can do this chicane manoeuvre to avoid them, and the ones that do it are trying to avoid them because they’re travelling too fast. So it’s ridiculously dangerous. So I’ve submitted a public comment, saying words to this effect. Hopefully we’ll see that new crossing constructed in a few months.

New content yesterday:

New content today:

Running and writing

Mostly today I worked on Darths & Droids. The laser sword battle strips are always very time consuming because of the layout with the non-rectangular comic panels.

I went for a 5k run this morning. I did yesterday too, but didn’t mention it. Did reasonable times, including under 27 minutes yesterday, just over today.

Uh… I made a sourdough loaf. Went for a walk with my wife and Scully. Not much else to say, really. It was one of those days where I just didn’t do much else.

New content today:

Missed shopping, a day out, cold winter, and thouls

Yesterday was board games night online, so I didn’t write up my blog post. The day was pretty ordinary, starting with the usual morning pick-up of the groceries that I’d ordered online. I always grab fruit and vegetables manually before collecting the reminder of the pick-up order. My wife requested a loaf of bread to got into the freezer to replace our backup loaf that gets used when we run out of home made sourdough. I grabbed a loaf and took it to the checkout with the fruit and veg, but not wanting to squash it on the bottom of the shopping bag I set it aside and scanned all the fruit and veg first. And then forgot about the bread! I only realised today that the bread wasn’t here, and remembered that I must have left it at the self-serve checkout in the supermarket. Oh well.

We had an epic online board games night. Because the Olympic Games are currently on in Paris, we had a medal tally board, listing everyone who came first, second, or third in all of the games, and we played a series of short games to get in as many “events” as possible. We also each represented a country, chosen by rolling randomly on a table and following some amusing directions. For example, one of the table entries was “find the top-leftmost item in your fridge, and what country it is most associated with”. If I’d rolled this, the item was cheddar cheese, and my country would have been Great Britain. As it happened, I rolled “What Olympic sport have you played the most? What country has won the most medals in that sport?” it wasn’t entirely clear, but I chose tennis, and it turns out that Great Britain has won the most medals in that, so that was indeed my country for the night. Others got France, Costa Rica, Georgia, Sweden, and Australia. We played a total of eight different games, and won one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals, coming 4th in the tally out of 6 countries.

Today I found an article in the news that began:

The word on the street seems unanimous — it feels like one of the coldest winters in living memory.

It’s true… I’ve been commenting about how cold it’s been this winter, and everyone I know has been saying the same thing. We’re all freezing here in Sydney and saying how unusually cold it is.

Only this news article points out that Australia has experienced a June and July 0.7°C above the long-term average baseline. And Sydney in particular has recorded a June/July 0.9°C above average. However, this is the second coldest winter in the last ten years. The problem is the baseline has shifted and we’ve become used to warm winters. Last year, for example, we had a winter 1.7°C above average. Climate change, huh.

Today my wife and I went to her mother’s place to pick her up and take her to the nursing home where her mother (my wife’s grandmother) has moved into. She’s 101 years old and only moved out of her own home a couple of months ago, after having a fall. We didn’t visit since it required COVID tests and my mother-in-law only wanted to stay an hour or so. So in the meantime we drove a short distance to a new bakery we’d found, called Flour Shop, where we had some lunch. They had truly amazing sausage rolls, with pork, fennel, and apple. And we got a loaf of sourdough fruit loaf to bring home.

And tonight I learnt something fascinating about an old Dungeons & Dragons monster: the thoul. I knew that the thoul is a classic monster from the 1981 (Tom Moldvay) Basic Dungeons & Dragons rules, described as:

A thoul is a magical combination of a ghoul, a hobgoblin, and a troll. Except when very close, thouls look exactly like hobgoblins, and they are sometimes found as part of the bodyguard of a hobgoblin king. The touch of a thoul will paralyze (in the same way as that of a ghoul). If it is damaged, a thoul will regenerate 1 hit point per round as long as it is alive. [like a troll]

But today I learnt that the thoul began life as a typo in a table of monsters in the Original 1974 D&D rules. It was intended to be a Toad, as listed in the first printing, but was listed on the line before “Ghoul” and somehow in a later printing became “Thoul”. In subsequent printings the publishers at TSR decided, instead of correcting the typo, to double down on the typo and invent a creature to fit the name. This is documented on this blog. I always wondered about this wacky monster that made no sense!

New content yesterday:

New content today:

Sometimes one day just blends into the others

It was a bit like that today. I did online classes on Empires, I sorted some Magic cards, took Scully for a walk. I had the last falafels that I didn’t eat yesterday when I went out for lunch.

Honestly I’m struggling to think of anything different or unusual that’s worth writing about. Sometimes a day is just like that.

New content today:

Sampling the menu at Moon Phase

This morning I worked on a new Darths & Droids comic. I was over a week ahead recently, but have now let the buffer slip back to nothing, so I needed to get one made today.

I had to decide today whether to eat the last falafels in a wrap with tahini, cheese, tomato, lettuce—my usual home lunch—or leave it for tomorrow and go out to get lunch somewhere. I had one day’s lunch supply at home and two days to go until the next grocery shop on Friday morning. I decided to let the Fates decide and used a die rolling bot to choose randomly. It rolled odd, which I’d decided was eat out today. So I took Scully up to Moon Phase to try sampling some more of their menu. I’ve been there maybe 5 times now, and haven’t had the same item more than once. Today I decided to try the “hot dog” pastry—a frankfurt encased in flaky croissant-like pastry, with mustard and some other condiments—and a “kimcheese” pastry.

They warmed them up for me as I waited at one of the small tables outside with Scully. I would have preferred to be indoors because it was bitterly cold and very windy. Both of the pastries were okay. Enjoyable enough, but I think I prefer the other savouries that I’ve had on previous visits.

In the afternoon I sorted out some piles of Magic: the Gathering cards, to try to bring some order to mixtures of sorted and unsorted piles and half-deconstructed decks. I’m consolidating them all into sorted collections so I can see just how many of each card I have before I sell them off in a systematic way.

Tonight I had the first three classes on the new “Empires” topic, from 5-8pm. So I made a quiche for dinner before hand during the afternoon and had one slice before 5, and the second slice after 8. And my wife could eat whenever she was ready, though she chose to eat pretty early. I think this Empires topic is not bad. I was a bit worried about it, if I’d have enough material and if the questions would be ones the kids could relate to well enough or not. But having them pretend to be the Emperor of Rome and presenting them with some governance problems and asking how they’d respond seems to be a good tactic!

New content today:

Thinking about Empires

Today I worked on my lesson plan for the new week’s critical and ethical thinking topic, on “Empires”. I thought this would be a cool topic for a class, since we haven’t done any history related topics for a while, and I like them. But i realised it was a bit tricky to come up with enough relevant questions that are suitable for kids aged as young as 10 years old. I eventually got a plan that I’m happy with, but it took much of the day. Some questions:

  • In the ancient world, what would be the advantages of having a single person rule a land for life?
  • What would be the disadvantages?
  • How would these be different in the modern world?
  • If you were the emperor, what sort of things would you do to ensure peace within your empire?
  • If you became the emperor, would you consider giving territory back to the native people and reducing the size of your empire?
  • If your neighbouring lands were always at war with one another, would it be good to conquer them to reduce the fighting?

Well, this should be interesting!

It was very cold again today, and it threatened some light rain for much of the day, but we barely had a drop.

Last night I finished watching Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, which I watched for the first time just a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed Doctor Sleep, probably more than the first movie, to be honest. There’s just something about Jack Nicholson which annoys me in almost every role he plays, the main exception being The Joker in Batman.

New content today:

We have cookies!

In between the last classes of the Fishing topic today, i had to run up to the post office to get a packing box, and then pack the five Dungeons & Dragons adventure books that I eBayed on Saturday. Then it was back up to the post office to mail the package.

I also made a sourdough loaf. And pizza for dinner. And tonight I’ve just pulled a batch of choc-chip cookies out of the oven. The oven’s been going all evening! And I’ve used about a kilogram of flour just today!

Not much else to ay about today, except that it was again very cold and a bit windy, but not as bad as the weekend. Central New South Wales is expected to get record low temperatures overnight and tomorrow, down as low as -7°C in places! Thankfully that doesn’t extend to the coast. But this week looks like continuing the cold spell.

New content today:

Windy Sunday, prelude to August

Today was cold and very windy. The temperature reached only 14.7°C, and the “feels like” temperature was hovering around 1-2°C for much of the morning. I did brave it to go for a 5k run after lunch, when it had warmed up a little.

We went for a drive earlier, in the late morning, so my wife could have coffee with her family. They sat inside the nice warm cafe while I took Scully a bit further in the car to get pies at Collaroy. I took her to the park nearby to run around a bit while I ate, but it was really cold with the wind near the ocean, so we didn’t stay too long. I saw a greyhound running around, and did laps around the outside of the children’s playground, and it was going really insanely fast.

Back home I worked on some comics and tried to stay warm. I got a very cool message from a student in one of my ethics classes, who had done her first class with me earlier in the week. She’d written a three-page story based on the class and sent it to me! A story about two kids who go fishing for the first time with their grandfather, and wonder about various ethical questions, like what if their grandfather caught too many fish. And at one point one of the kids trips over a tangle of fishing line, and the grandfather complains about some fishers who leave their trash around. It’s a really cute story. And this kid sounds super excited for next week’s class. Which is a good feeling when you’re the teacher.

I’ve also been searching for restaurants in Tokyo, to plan out some of our trip in February. With my wife’s mother and sister coming with us, it will be a bit challenging finding places to eat that fit all the dietary requirements, so I’m starting my research well in advance.

New content today:

Games night Friday, rainy Saturday

Friday I had my usual ethics classes morning and afternoon. In between I took Scully for a walk at lunch time. I took her down to Bayview Park near the water and the ferry wharf. There were a couple of little pied cormorants drying their wings on an adjacent wharf, in the beautiful winter sunshine. It was really nice down there by the water. I tossed a tennis ball around for Scully to chase and retrieve. But at one point I dropped her container of treats on the grass, and they all spilt out. I picked up what I could, but she spent the next few minutes snuffling through the grass to find all the other dropped ones. And then after that she wasn’t interested in chasing the ball any more!

In the evening I went to a friend’s place for our fortnightly games night. Our host ordered pizza, and his kids were there to play games with us or do whatever as well. He asked them what pizzas they wanted, and one kid said, “Either vegetarian or meat lovers.” The father said to us, “Well, there you go, nothing in between.” We played a quick game of Jump Drive while waiting for pizza to arrive. I had a miserable game and barely reached around 25 points by the time someone had achieved the winning score of 50.

We got in another quick game of Fantasy Realms, a card game where you have to assemble a synergistic hand of cards that represent various people, items, or landmarks. Each card has rules on it for bonus or penalty points depending on other cards in your hand, and the interactions quickly get complex. I went for a Flood hand, with several Flood cards and one that gave me bonus points for every additional Flood. I ended up coming second with 182 points, behind the winner on 186.

After eating pizza, we turned to a big game. Four of us were keen to play Root, while the other guy played a different game with the kids. One guy hadn’t played Root before and wanted to learn. We gave him the Vagabond, as our host suggested it would be easier to concentrate on what he was doing without having to worry too much about the rest of us. I played the Eyrie, and was doing reasonably well behind the Vagabond, who raced to a lead by exploring and doing quests.

Here’s Scully watching us play. My birds are blue, the cats are orange, the Alliance are green, and the Vagabond is the lone light grey piece on the far left of the board.

Scully watching a game of Root

The Marquisate (cats) played a Dominance card as soon as he reached 10 points, going for victory by controlling three rabbit clearings, and then moving lots of cats into those clearings. He would win at the start of his next turn unless someone else stopped him! The Alliance player (our host) looked at me and said, “Well, I’m not going to be able to stop him. It’s up to you.” I think this was a fair point. I could stop the cats winning, but doing so would require me to stretch myself thin and partly throw away the comfortable second place I was currently in. I had to think about my options for a few minutes, but eventually came up with a plan, moving and attacking to wrest control of one rabbit clearing, without making myself too vulnerable. It was a really interesting dynamic – if I didn’t want to lose the game for sure and give myself at least some chance of winning, I had to overstretch myself. The whole game played out at a frantic pace, and there was drama almost every turn. I managed to get myself into a position where I could potentially win next turn by crafting a pile of coins for 3 points, then building my final roost and scoring 5 more points at the end of the turn to reach the victory goal of 30. But the Vagabond had a monster turn before me and scored enough to win! So a win for the first time player, who really enjoyed the game and was gushing afterwards about the complexity, the asymmetry, and the depth of the interactions. I think he’s hooked.

After this we switched to playing Junk Art, a fun dexterity game where you have to construct rickety piles of sculptural art using plastic pieces of various unfriendly shapes. There are multiple rounds, all with different rules and scoring. Here’s Scully watching us play this:

Scully watching us play Junk Art

And one of my constructions later in the game (with other players’ in the background):

Junk Art

I don’t even remember who won, but it was plenty of fun, especially late in the night.

This morning I slept in, partly because it was so dark outside and I thought it was still early until I looked at the clock and realised it was after 8am! It was raining, for the first time in over two weeks. And very cold. The temperature didn’t climb above 10°C until midday. But I went for a 5k run around then, and managed a good time, under 27 minutes.

Today I listed some Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition adventure books on eBay, hoping to get close to $200 in an auction. But five minutes after I’d completed the listing, I got a notification that someone had bought the books for my starting price of $10! I’d accidentally set it as a “buy it now” price, not an auction!! Someone saw it and realised it was the bargain of a lifetime and pounced on it. Stupid eBay, it makes the default listing a “buy it now” and not an auction, and you have to be aware to toggle a switch to make it an auction.

I contacted the buyer and explained the mistake, saying I would honour the sale, but hoping they’d be reasonable and let me cancel it. Turned out they were reasonable and said they still wanted the books, so how much would I be happy with selling them for. I decided to set a price of $80, and they accepted it and paid the extra. So I was happy to get that, and they were happy to get a decent bargain still. The good news is I will now be absolutely sure not to make this same mistake when listing Magic: the Gathering card lots worth $500 or more in the near future!

The rain cleared around lunch time and the clouds parted to a nice sunny afternoon. My wife and I took Scully on a walk over to Naremburn and the Flat Rock Cafe brew pub there. I tried an English style brown ale and we got a bowl of chips to eat as an afternoon snack. Turns out the serves of chips there are huge, and I was still pretty full by dinner time, so only had a small amount of the lentil dhal and rice that I cooked.

A pretty full two days!

New content yesterday:

New content today:

Ethics of fishing

Today was gloriously warm for a winter’s day, reaching 23°C. After two classes this morning I took Scully for a walk at lunchtime, the long one around Waverton and the harbour shore. It was beautiful being out in the warmth. But the forecast for the weekend is back to cold again, so winter hasn’t quite lost its grip yet.

I’ve been doing the Fishing topic in my ethics classes for two days now. There are some very interesting comments from some of the students about the topic. Most think the idea of going fishing is boring, spending hours doing nothing but waiting for a fish to bite. One kid said it could be fun because you could spend the whole time playing games on your phone!

Another kid in a class last night was a keen fisher, saying he often went on fishing trips and really enjoyed it. So he was super keen on the topic and gave some very interesting answers compared to some of the other kids with no experience.

One interesting question I ask is about subsistence fishing, the tradition in many cultures of people catching fish not for recreation, but as a primary food source. I ask them if this is a cultural tradition that has value and should be preserved, or if it’s okay that the practice might die out as people transition to developed societies with other food sources. The responses have been extremely varied, from kids saying any cultural tradition is important to preserve, while others say that if you’re having to fish to survive it must be a very impoverished lifestyle and should be changed.

I made a few more comics from the recent batch of Lego photos I took, enough to last this week out. I’ll get to completing the rest of the batch over the weekend, hopefully.

New content today: