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Games


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 

Tobit, from NewVenture Games. This is from Kakassia, in Russian central Asia. I never heard of Kakassia either. Credit to David McCord for noticing and putting out this game. It's not like he was sitting at the table listening to the rules in Kakassian or Russian.
 
 

wikipedia

At least for the picture above. How are tobits represented?
 

This dry video showing game play may be the best resource for rules.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thinking out loud. Escape The Room - Essen. Games, distractions, spending your money, food, navigation, the friction of crowds, nice games that can go out of stock if you're not quick, meeting people, bathrooms, spending more money, carrying stuff. Language barriers. For booth people and content creators, you have considerations like meetings, sales and supplies, people need to be in booths, sometimes money gets stolen.
 

Loot


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 

Ghosts Can't Draw. Can't draw well anyway.
 

I've been wondering what can be done with a Ouija board, at least the mechanism, using that planchette.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Language, Culture and Geography


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Travel filmmaker chooses Winnipeg - of all places - as home base after visiting 80 countries


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Totem pole that has stood near the Manitoba legislature for 53 years is removed

It doesn't seem too happy.
 
 

pictures

We care about the legislature one
 
 

This totem pole is short. If you cut it into four sections, you have some interesting game pieces.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

How is "meter" spelled?
 
 

Which is which, meter of metre?
 
 

Lovely Rita
 

Some Beatles history, if you are interested.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Music, Film, and Television


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

'Saturday Night' director Reitman says 'SNL' film is a love letter to 'outsiders' / trailer
 
 

Check out Rosie Shuster's very brief imdb bio.
 
 

The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour (1970-1971)
 

promo

9:30 in Newfoundland
 

If you want to go down a rabbit trail, there is an interesting interview with Hart Pomerantz simply called "Hart Pomerantz" at TVO Today.


 
 
 
 

Shooting 'My Old Ass' in Muskoka felt like summer camp, director and star say / trailer


 
 
 
 

The Hobby is a film about the board game scene, folks.
 

Geek Vibes Nation

POV Magazine

Texas Observer

Film Threat

Moveable Fest

Hollywood North Magazine


 
 
 
 

And then there's Rumours.
 

CTV / CBC


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Halloween


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

It's time for the annual failed attempt to make a Halloween prank/trap.


 
 

Some considerations:
 
Spiders are scary. Having bait in a spider egg sac - snap! - was considered as a possibility.
You want the spider to look, move, sound, and maybe even feel realistic. The sound of a servomotor tells people this is made in China, not a realish spider.
Invisible string is doable. You can get it from Michael's, or different strengths from the fishing store.
Twisted elastic bands, unlike bungee cords or normal elastics, have a steady pull from start to finish.
Consider lighting.
 
 
 
 

Big hairy spider. Three alternatives are being considered, all triggered by a kid grabbing a chocolate bar. No idea how to engineer the trigger, with a light move leading to powerful effects.
 

Spirit of Halloween.
 

1: Have the spider rush across the grass. Sound nice, but having the spider move straight rather than chaotically flopping involves some challenging engineering. Also it's difficult, at least for me, to attach string to the ends of the spider. This uses part of a coat hanger hammered in the ground, and a keychain ring for the string to slide through.

There might be a crazy solution to the straight issue. String attached to the front and the back of the spider, and the string is in a fairly tight loop across some grass.
 

2: Have the spider at the most two feet away from the trigger. The spider quickly but quietly moves forward and down (and maaybe goes back up some). Simpler engineering, we don't have the issue of the spider moving straight, tied in the middle of the spider. This is what a spider does, and the movement of the legs is more natural. Genuine and scary experience, in theory. But in practise? Working on this one. A bungee cord yanks back, with a (likely invisible) string that goes through a loop yanks forward and down.
 

3: Spider jumps from the garden to the bottom of the railing on the steps next to the front door.

Pro: This would make a great experience and a story to pass on. The spider looks both visible and creepy by the bush in the garden, staring up at an angle. The spider would pop up - think of the facehugger in the movies - and lands at the bottom of the railiing, staring up, not too far from the trigger. Because it's at the bottom of the rail, you would not see the more artificial bottom of the spider. The railing might make the trigger engineering easier.

Con: The power side of things would be a headache. Where exactly would it go? Things can go wrong when the spider goes to the bottom of the railing. For example, it could be flipped over.
 
 
 
 

Some lesssons recently learned: 1: Keep the attachment (between the string and the front of the spider) raised, not headed to the ground. 2: Keep the spider straight somehow.

Moving toward twisted elatistics rather than bungee cord. Mostly because of the nature of the movement, but there would also be less stress on the invisible string. But how would I attach a twisted elastic to a string?

Is there an alternative to the chocolate bar trigger, such as a tripwire?
 
 
 
 

Should we try the egg sac? Scary, but too many problems.

Having a carrot stuck in the ground as a trigger would be odd, but mechanically good. Do you want to feed the spider a carrot? By the way, that's another reason to use twisted elastics, less pressure on the trigger.

Pulling a raised spider from the front will make the spider flop around. Right? Testing shows that the straight problem has probably resolved itself.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

We went to a hospital. There was some discussion about Halloween decoration at a hospital.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Fiction


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

"That guy loves you."

"So do I. So that would be a ménage à .."
 

(likely platonic)


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Just occurred to me. Make of it what you will.
 

(The) invincible vs. (the) invisible.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Military


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

There is a whole bunch of pro-Ukrainian people who are upset that the Biden administration in the U.S.A. is not allowing long-distance missiles to be used on Russian territory, give or take. Meanwhile Russia gets to bombard Ukrainian cities from within its territory, hitting civilian targets and taking out most of their power, with winter coming. Also Russians get to hammer Ukrainian military postitions with powerful, unstoppable, guided FAB bombs, launched from aircraft.

So why is the Biden administration not allowing their missiles to be used in Russia?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Food and Drink


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 

Banana marshmallows. A guilty pleasure. Let them dry out a bit and you get an interesting texture.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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