The Expanding Circle

The blog roll grows. I've added links to the blogs of Amber #2 and J.D. Long. Good to see you commenting here, J.D. It's interesting how this medium can be used to connect with old friends. Of course, it probably helps curious old friends find me since this blog or my home page are the first to pop up with a Google search for "Tim Tjarks".

Not that I'm the only Tim Tjarks out there, but we're not exactly going to form anything like the Jim Smith Society.

But this is what I like about blogging. I'm notoriously bad about keeping in contact with old friends, but here I can tell a few things about myself, and those who are actually interested can listen. See, it's only narcissistic if I insist that people read, right? Yeah, that's the ticket.

(Answer: No, it's still narcissistic because I assume that people are reading.>

And, of course, vice versa. I check in on everybody's blog pretty frequently, because I do want to hear what everyone is up to.

I just don't want to make the effort to call them.

Wait, that still doesn't sound right.

Update Time - Car Story

OK, it's been a bit over a week since I last updated - though I can technically call it a week apart due to the dates on the post -- as long as I finish this within the half hour!

Car stuff and D&D stuff follow:

Starting with the car stuff - Thursday at lunchtime I went to the comic store then returned to work. No problems. When I left work again six hours later I tried to start my car and .... nothing. It didn't turn over at all. So, I hiked back to the main entrance (from the east parking garage), got the battery boost thingy from the guard at the main entrance desk, hiked back to the parking garage, and got my car started. So far, so good.

So, I figured I must have left something on, though I couldn't figure out what. I can remove the key from the ignition without turning it off, so maybe it was left slightly in the AUX position. I drove around for a half hour or so, out to Sugar Grove and back home, then left the car to deal with it in the morning.

Friday morning, I'd forgotten all about the car. I went to go to work and .... nothing again. Oh yeah, I forgot! Unfortunately, I'd put all our jumper cables into kid's cars, so I didn't have one in my car or Ellen's. I took the day off work and used Ellen's car to do some errands, including buying two sets of jumper cables. Jumped the car, drove around for a while, came inside to check on something, back to the car to check on it .... nothing.

As it turns out, when the kids came home last weekend they drove all three of their cars (for complex reasons). So, I talked Kathy into leaving her car at home for a week or so so I could use it while I got my car in to be checked.

I got the car into Saturn yesterday afternoon, and a few hours later they'd checked it and pronounced that it needed a new battery. That was the last thing I'd really suspected since it had been OK earlier on Thursday. I figured the alternator had gone, or that I had a short causing a rapid discharge. It turns out that the battery just wasn't causing the charging system to kick over to "charge" (?) due to low amperage (?). I'm not entirely sure how that works, but I suppose there's a relay in there somewhere that need to switch. Anyway, the new battery seems to have done the trick.

And Kathy gets a free oil change out of the deal, since I left her car at Saturn to have that done when I picked up my car again. Now Kathy's car is also back home, with fresh oil and a bit cleaned up.

OK, now D&D stuff, mainly just an enumeration of stuff going on. We're in a build-up toward Stuffed COWS, so there are a number of zeros going on, as well as just other stuff. Friday night Louis Swiger came out and ran a zero of "Return to the Undercity" for Matt, Kalen, Ryan, and I. A decent mod -- I need to try to find my old, old copy of "Slave Pits of the Undercity" as this mod is an update/sequel of that one, and the Slave Lords are starting to show up in other core modules as well.

Saturday I ran a game of "The Letter" for Kalen, Kathy, Matt, Ryan, Tony, and Mike Mistele. Not a good module, but the group seemed to have fun. The next one in that series, "The Price of Power", is being run at Stuffed COWS and Matt, in particular, wanted to be sure to play those modules in order.

Tomorrow night I'm running a zero table of "Gateway to Bright Sands" for a group in the city (at Rudy's). I thought that was a fun module when I played it a couple weeks ago, and now that I've read it I like it even more. This is going to be fun, and I'd be happy to get Brad to have me run it a couple times at the convention.

Thursday night I'm going into the city to Brad's house to play the aforementioned "The Price of Power". It should be a good group, with Dick Gilbert judging, even if the module might not be so good.

Finally, at least for the moment, I'll be running "Here There Be Dragons" on Saturday afternoon/evening here at home. I'd promised this to Louis in return for him running the game last Friday, so hopefully he'll be enough over his cold to be up to playing. The table will also include Kalen and Tony.

Today I got the shipment of D&D miniatures "Underdark" boosters that Matt, Ryan and I had ordered. In the 10 boosters that were my part of the shipment the figure were very evenly distributed. I got either 3 or 4 of every common figure, 1 or 2 of every uncommon except one (I'll need to trade for an Elf Stalker), and no duplicates of any of the rares (so I have 10 of the 24). I got a Deep Dragon, but not the Silver Dragon. I got the Drow mounted on the lizard. I got the Aspect of Kord (keeping my set of Aspects complete, I think), and the meanest looking guy, Balor. And several other cool rares. So, all told, I'm pretty pleased with what I drew from this set.

Milk Duds and Whoppers and Chews: Oh My!

Charleston Chews to be precise, but that didn't match the meter. Also Tootsie Rolls and Junior Mints, ditto.

We've got plenty of leftover comics, which is a good thing as I'll just tuck them away for next year. I'll replenish the box a bit during the year but we should be pretty good anyway.

We've got plenty of leftover candy, which is a bad/good thing. You know why. I just need to keep out of snacking on them too much. :-)

All told, probably in the neighborhood of 60 trick-or-treaters. More or less. The comics seemed to be a pretty solid hit again. I know one boy checked with his sister to see if she got a Batman comic, hoping to trade. They'd actually both gotten Superman, but I heard him an traded him a Batman from the box. If they came in super-hero costumes I mostly matched the comic with the costume, except for one Spider-man who I couldn't find a Spidey comic in the box that quick.

Another kid keeps track of his Halloween haul. He remembered that we didn't have the comics last year, but had in previous years (why do I know? he asked me about it).

Another group were all about 17 or 18 (give or take a year), all but the one toddler that one (her mom?) was pulling in a wagon. But they were all in costume and were at the door, so they all got candy and comics.

And, yes, I did have mostly age appropriate stuff, but I definitely round up in age-appropriate. They got Richie Rich (and his Star Comics clone: Royal Roy), or Disney comics if they were pre-readers, and got Superman, Spider-man, Legion, Icon, etc, if they looked to be in school.

I could have asked the one group is any of them were 18, then I could have given them the Sandman: Orpheus special that I had a few copies of. Carefully tucked in a different box so they didn't get handed to a pre-teen by mistake. I don't remember anything particularly offensive in it, but I certainly wasn't going to mess with the "Recommended for Mature Readers" marking.

So, if you want to Trick or Treat me for one of those, just ask. It's a cool comic. Ditto the comic adaptation of the "Little Shop of Horrors" movie. I've got several of those, too.