Rutt

May 14th, 2011

I spent the past hour or so putting together screenshots of my new DnD character, Rutt. Where better, I figured, to show him off than here?

Rutt grew up with no last name. His mother - a prostitute from the slums outside the castle - died in childbirth and he did not know his father. He grew up in an orphanage and on the streets. What little he got from the orphanage he learned to supplement by nipping food, clothing, and any other items he could find from street merchants and passersby. He got caught by the guards often, but the Captain of the guards took a liking to Rutt and frequently - instead of throwing him in a cell for 24 hours - spent Rutt’s incarceration playing games, teaching Rutt to read and write, and - as Rutt got older - training him in the subtleties of combat.

Always naturally athletic, Rutt found this training easy. He also found himself respecting the Captain not just as a mentor but as a man. He began to learn aspects of chivalry - doing what is right when it’s right to do it. He never lost his love of snatching trinkets from vendors, but he found himself stealing from the wealthier merchants and leaving those in more dire straits alone.

He even began sticking up for those in need. In his later teens, he started targeting gangs of thugs and groups of vagabonds. Ever outnumbered by stronger foes, he used his dexterity to take them down from the side, from behind, or by using their own strengths against them. He built up his own gang, and met with some success. His mentor the Captain visibly shined with pride whenever Rutt told him of how he had saved a merchant form a shakedown or a lady from a mugging. The Captain had retired from service, but Rutt still never called him by any other name.

Then a new group of thugs - a small traveling band of disreputable vagabonds - arrived in town. The guards ignored them because they were smart enough to stay far from the castle. They hit small targets. Easy targets. The exact targets that Rutt had avoided when he had first started learning from the Captain. The targets that could least afford to be hit.

Rutt and his men - if you could call a gangly group of teenagers “men” - took the group on, hoping to scare them and drive them from the town. But the band was far stronger than their choice of victims had led Rutt to believe. Of his seven followers, 3 were murdered in the street. The other 4 ran. Rutt - who had never before seen someone die in battle - fled as well, terrified. The men pursued him to the Captain’s home, where they set fire to the hut, burning it to the ground with the Captain inside. Rutt again escaped with is life, but the Captain did not.

It was only then that the evildoers were run from the town by the guards, but it was too late. Rutt had lost his friends. He had lost his gang. He had lost the closest thing to a father he had ever known.

That night, he sifted through the ashes of the Captain’s house to find his weapons. along the way he came across a handful of gold and a lock-box that the Captain had always kept by his bed. The guards, who had been absent while the vagabonds had murdered the Captain, chased Rutt off before he could find the box’s key. He fled to the nearby woods and used a rock to shatter the box’s lock.

Within the box was a book, written in the Captain’s hand. It was his diary. Within the book, the Captain had detailed how he had discovered his son - the child of a whore - was an orphan living on the street, and how he could not reveal the fact lest he lose his job serving the king. Near the diary’s end, the Captain wrote of how he had finally saved enough gold to retire, and how he was going to reveal to Rutt on his 18th birthday the true reason why he’d been so kind.

As the sun was rising after the longest, most terrible night of his life, Rutt remembered.

Today was his 18th birthday.

Rutt swore to track down and kill the man who had murdered his father. He had no idea how. He had no idea where. Or when. But it would happen.

Wesley Stuff

Vacation Day 4: Lazy Day

March 10th, 2011

Wow, 2 whole non-lazy days. IN A ROW. I almost forgot I was taking a vacation there.

Today, we did precious little. We got up late, sat around (in a rain shower), sat around some more (after the rain shower), walked through a tourist trap mall, and then had some dinner.

It’s the dinner that I want to elaborate on, though. We went to Sweet Mama’s Island Cuisine in Naples, FL. The restaurant is nothing to look at from the outside (we actually drove past it because they barely have a sign) and nice but nothing special on the inside either. However, the 36 5-star reviews on Google were (all) right: The food was *FANTASTIC*.

Jenny had blackened chicken. Her mom had pirogies. I had Jambalaya. All 3 dishes were prepared by the same cook, and if you think that cook was “Sweet Mama” you’re correct. She even came out mid-meal to see how we were doing. If you’re curious, we were doing great.

If you are ever in or even near Naples, do yourself a favor and have dinner (Or lunch. Or breakfast) there. And get the ginger balsamic dressing on your salad.

No pictures today. I was too lazy.

Wesley Stuff

Vacation Day 3: Air Boats

March 9th, 2011

Today we went into the Everglades and paid a very nice man to drive us in, over, around, and through (sometimes all at once) the mangroves on a tour. The guide and pilot (driver?) was fun and knowledgeable, and if I had any short term memory ability at all I’d be able to recount multiple tidbits of information about the park.

No pictures of the boats themselves, as I was a bit afeared of bringing my cell out into the swamp, but we did come across several gators, both near and far from us. Here are two:


Wesley Stuff

Vacation Day 2: The Beach

March 9th, 2011

Today we went to the beach. I got too much sun, found too many seashells, and slept too little.

I took no pictures at the beach, mostly because I was afraid to bring my camera within 50 feet of seawater, so you’ll have to take my word that it was very fun and that my face looks as red as a lobster right now.

When we got back, though, we found a little lizard guy (An Anoli) that we named Antonio Anoli. Here he is.

Afterward, we went and played Bingo, which I won. I am crazy mad good at Bingo. I should write a book on strategy. “Wesley’s 1001 Bingo Openings” may be a good start.

Anyway, it’s late. I’m tired, Antonio is assuredly working on his mojo and I need sleep.

Wesley Stuff, Writing

Vacation Day 1: Lazy Day

March 8th, 2011

Today (March 7th) was the first of what I hope to be several lazy days. I don’t get nearly enough lazy days in my life (read: every single day of my life is not a lazy day) so I take as many as I can while on vacation.

First, I’d like to showcase two pictures that display the main difference between Ohio and Florida, at least in March:


I think you can guess which is which. Notice, in the 2nd one, that there’s a little pineapple growing in that plant in the foreground there.

Anyway, I woke up late (11am, maybe) and spent the morning (read: lunchtime) lazying around and enjoying the warmth, and then we went to the store for the official “buy stuff you forgot to bring” trip. Myself I got my traditional pair of sandals that I forgot to bring, but I also picked up some cigars and scotch to enjoy on the porch in the evenings.

Before the sun set, Jenny and I took a walk down to a nearby river, which apparently sometimes has manatees in it. No luck there, but the area was beautiful nonetheless.

For dinner I had about 7 squids’ worth of calamari in a garlic cream sauce over spaghetti, with enough left over for a lunch that I am very looking forward to. No picture of that, because I was too busy shoving it down my throat. Then it was home for some of the scotch - but no cigar - and a fairly early crash into bed.

All in all, a perfectly productive first day of vacation.

Wesley Stuff

Vacation Day 0: Travel Day

March 7th, 2011

Today (Well, Yesterday. Unless you’re not reading this today, in which case I should say it was the 6th) was a travel day.

And travel we did! After a (for once) restful pre-flight morning, Jenny and I left for the Cleveland airport with time to spare. Neither of us had to get naked pictures taken OR get our privates fondled by the TSA, though Jenny had to prove that she hadn’t recently handled explosives (lucky break there, she hadn’t).

In Baltimore (Hi Debbie!) we had lunch at some local restaurant. I had their beer, which was a passable but not noteworthy ale, and Jenny had a chicken wrap that wasn’t worth a 2nd bite, and some lemonade that I swear was Crystal Lite. My sandwich, a BLTS (Salmon!) was - essentially - awesome.

We both slept on the flight to Florida, which was nice. I don’t know how you daywalkers do it staying up from sunup to sundown and then some.

Upon arrival in Florida, one of the first things we saw was this sign. Becuase we’re childish, we found it funny.


Fgc me!? No FGC YOU!

Wesley Stuff

5 Years of Podcasting

January 6th, 2011

As of today (January 6th, 2011) I’ve been a podcaster for 5 years. It’s been a great ride, and I’m looking forward to the next 5 years of it, wherever they take me.

It all started back in 2006 with a little show named Planet Retcon Radio. It remains, to this day, my single favorite creative effort. It’s an amazing piece of performed fiction that I can point to and say, “I made that.” And I sometimes can’t believe it’s true.
In my second year of podcasting, Bob and I started Volcanicast which is the longest show I was ever a part of, and the longest set of uninterrupted episodes I’ve ever done. We ran for almost 3 *years* without one *single* missed week. Whew, I’m glad that’s over :)

Around that same time, I started a music show called, perhaps a bit egotistically, The Good Music Show where “Good” was defined as “I like it.” I was shocked at how hard it was to find music, learn about the bands, and post an episode a week. My hat is off to those of you who do, but for my part the show faded to death after a couple dozen episodes.

In 2009 I started a show with Jenny named Today In Geeky History. I am also proud of this show. I thought it turned out really well. However, much like The Good Music Show, it was *HARD* *TO* *DO*. Wow it took a lot of work. I miss the result, but I don’t miss the work.

And finally, just recently Bob and I started a new show named Pulp Audio Weekly, in which we sit for an hour or so and talk about things that happened to us, that we did, or that we saw in the news during the past week. Generally we talk about video games, tv shows, movies, and astronomical/tech/generally geeky news. It’s a pretty good time. You should check it out.

But it all started back 5 years ago with the first episode of The Stargate Cafe. Go ahead. Listen again. You know you want to.

Wesley Meta, Podcasting, Stuff

81 - Part 13 (GCMKHB) 3/1 Doughboy

December 25th, 2010
3 7 12            
4   5            
1 10 2 11          
        8        
13 9 6            
                 
                 
                 
                 

This is part 13 in an 81 part series entitled “81.” In this series, I am detailing my finds of 81 unique Terrain/Difficulty combinations of Geocaches. For a better explanation of exactly what I’m doing (Or to start the journey at the beginning) check out The first post in the series.

First off, I don’t know what happened to this series. I put it on hold in the spring because I was managing a Fantasy Baseball league, and needed some extra time. I fully intended on picking it back up after a month or so. But suddenly here it is 9 months later and I’ve not touched the series. Sorry, and let’s continue!

GCMKHB is a great little multicache in Stow, OH. I personally found it much more difficult than the listed difficulty of 3.

As with all multicaches, this one started at a set of coordinates that were not the cache. The coordinates were for the Doughboy statue in front of what was then the Stow city government building. The statue had a plaque, and the plaque had numbers. We did various simple mathematical operations and had a second set of coordinates.

Of course, true to form, I put the numbers into the coordinates all wrong. I somehow put the North coordinates in the West space, and the West coordinates in the North space.

After about 20 minutes of wondering exactly where in a parking lot (that was thankfully not too far away, making the trek annoying but not epic) the cache was, I double-checked the instructions, realized my mistake, and we trekked off to the nice little playground/park that we were sure contained the cache…

…only to have no idea where to find the box. We knew the size (micro) meant it could be anywhere, and so we looked anywhere. Then we looked everywhere. Then we double checked all the everywhere.

Then we triple checked.

I gave up. Luckily for me another in our party did not. He leaped over a large puddle that surrounded a table, laid down on the table on his stomach, and looked under it. For the 3rd time.

Suddenly, he reached down grabbed one of the wooden planks that appeared to support the table top, and pulled it out. It was not supporting the table top. It was not supporting any portion of the table. It was not, in fact, a part of the table at all.

But it did contain the cache. A hole bored in the wood held the micro.

When we return, we’ll visit a park I didn’t know existed, for a cache that turned out to be more fun than its name implied.

Wesley 81, Geocaching, Outdoors, Stuff

Snow Day… or maybe Week

December 13th, 2010
Brr!

I had to take some time off from work or I’d lose the vacation days, and also because I’m working Christmas (Don’t feel bad. I don’t mind) so I’m chilling out at home all week. And chilling may be the best word, given the sheer volume of snow that is falling now, and is supposed to fall over the next 3 days.

Here’s a little picture for all of you living in more southerly climes. Click for a more up-close, personal frozen feeling.

Wesley Stuff, Writing

Chapter 6!

October 11th, 2010

Chapter 6, the FINAL chapter of Too Good To Be True is UP! That’s it! The story’s COMPLETE!

Chapter 6 in your browser

(In case you missed them, here’s Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, and Chapter 5. Soon, I’ll have a PDF and an e-book up. I’m also going to be submitting the book to some ebook sites. It’ll also soon be for sale on Amazon. Yes, you can get it for free and I expect nothing more than you enjoy it. But I’m not going to turn down money if you want to give it to me :)

If you have any questions about anything in the story, it is possible that the answer is somewhere in the Crimson Lien Wiki which I put together for just that purpose.

Wesley Stuff, Writing