May. 1st, 2011

shannon_a: (Default)
Went to Endgame today with the plans to board game. Unfortunately the auction last week had apparently already fulfilled everyone's going-to-Endgame quotient for the month, and so I was alone--even though in recent months the board gaming has apparently been quite well attended. A shame, as I only make it to about one board game Saturday a year, but ah well. Got to talk with Chris H. some and browsed a while to spend more auction credit.

I'd hoped to get some of the new HeroQuest supplements from Moon Design, but discovered that they're making it hard to buy their products again. They're back out of distribution and they set a $200 minimum or something on orders directs from retailers. I honestly don't know how Moon Design thinks they're going to stay in business. Companies that think they're going to survive on PDFs and direct sales are taking an incredibly short-sighted view that doesn't consider where their new customers are going to come from over the next ten years, but maybe that small horizon is enough for some. Still, when a big Glorantha fan like me isn't buying their products because I can't do so through my FLGS, there's a big problem. Honestly, the price points ($50-60) don't help either. (At least they're at RPGnow, which they were refusing to do a few years ago.)

So, instead I decided to give my money to people that actually want it. I picked up a few more things for Pathfinder, some battle maps, and a couple of indie games: Microscope and Diaspora. I'm reading Microscope right now and it looks like a really cool game, about basically detailing some historical era in some science-fiction, fantasy, or whatever world. Maybe I can get the Saturday crew to try a session some day.

Afterward I went out biking. I went down to Jack London Square, followed the shore line to the corner of Alameda, went out to Alameda briefly, then biked back to Lake Merritt through some so-so areas of Oakland. From there I came home via Grand to Piedmont, stopped briefly at Dr. Comics & Mr. Games, then managed to bike home with a short magazine box (for the office organization that's been ongoing for a month or two).

My copies of Galaxy Trucker, Vikings, and Macao got a very nice tour of the East Bay.

Unfortunately, I got a bit sunburned while out, mostly on my forearms. The neuropathic pain blocker I take makes me extra-sensitive to sun, and I'm usually religious about using sunscreen if I'm going to be out for more than an hour. Today, not so much due to the surprise nature of the trip. I was only out in the sun maybe two and a half hours total or something, but it was a really bright sunny day, and that was enough.

That's actually the first time I've gotten burned since I started taking these meds a few years ago, so I guess it just underlines that it really does make me sun sensitive.

Tomorrow: dogs and targets. Maybe.

New Tires

May. 1st, 2011 11:11 pm
shannon_a: (Default)
Got surprise new tires for my bike today. Coming up on North Berkeley BART, on our way to Target, I got my 5th or 7th flat on my back tire. My tires had almost 3000 miles on them, and the back tire had gotten increasingly filled with holes where you could see intertube through tire from various bits of glass, mostly picked up on Telegraph Avenue. The treads were worn pretty smooth too. So, I decided the time had come to replace it.

Kimberly and I walked back up toward downtown and tried to visit Missing Link, but they were closed for May Day. Not the first time we've been turned away from their doors at a surprising day or time. So we went to Mike's Bikes instead. Nice place. Lots of staff, very big, and not grossly more expensive as I'd guessed. I got new intertubes and new tires on both wheels, in the time it took Kimberly and me to eat lunch, and the total cost was just $77, including labor.

New tires don't ride quite as easily, but have a lot better pick-up from stop (very! noticeable, to the point that the power almost knocked me down when I was unprepared one of the times). Which is probably all about them being not-smooth. They're supposedly puncture resistant and water channeling. I hope not to see any flats again for a while, though the water-channeling capabilities probably won't come into play 'til winter. (Not that I like riding much in the rain ever, except maybe the late Spring rain we're getting now, which isn't too cold.)



In other news: can we have our civil liberties back now, oh fascists in Washington?? K. Thanks.

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