Vintage crochet patterns

I love vintage crochet. Some of the most beautiful things come from long ago. However, the way some of the patterns were written is....well...confusing to say the least.

Take this chair set. Note that the foundation chain instructions say to crochet a chain 22" long with 15 chs to one inch. Then it goes on to tell you that you need 29 shells on this starting ch and to cut the excess. That seems pretty wasteful to me. Why would I want to chain any more than I need to? What I did was to figure out how many chains I would  need to get 29 shells and chained that. It turned out to be 286. Not sure what the pattern multiplier is, but I couldn't see any reason to waste thread or yarn by chaining more than I needed.

Edit: After thinking about it, the multiplier is 10 + 6. You would count for 28 shells, then add six for the last one. IOW, count for one less than the total # of shells, then add six more chs.

By the way, I'm using WW yarn and a size H hook and am making the chair back as a wrap. I hope it turns out like I'm seeing it in my head. Perhaps it might turn into a cape with it's shape, we'll see.

More pics of the boys.

Here's Rolly and Bingo. Bingo has the yellow collar and Rolly has a red one.

Summer Event

Of course, there's more to the STO Summer Event than Flying High to get your ship. There are also games to earn favors, which is the Event currency to buy costumes, kit modules, floaters and powerboards.

What are powerboards? They're like surfboards with an engine. You use them to race around a river course, and when you reach the end, you grab a flag. There are four flags-First gives you 12 monkey tags and 75 favors, Second gives you 6 tags and 50 favors, Third gives you 3 tags and 25 favors. Finish gives you 2 tags and 15 favors. If you weren't able to grab any of the place flags, then you get the Finish. So, everyone is guaranteed at least 2 tags, which are used to raise baby feather monkeys. The monkeys can be kept as vanity pets, or traded in for marks for the various reputation systems in the game. There are three monkeys-blue, green and red. You need six tags to start a monkey project and the color you get is random. If the monkey crits during any phase of raising it, it will then acquire a tiki mask. These tiki-masked monkeys get you more marks with a trade-in.

There is also a game called the Horga'hn hunt. If you watched TNG, then you know these are fertility statues. Every hour, for fifteen minutes, you fly around on your floaters and find ten to turn in. There are any number of favors 'inside' the statues, ranging from 2-5. You may also find an 'abandoned' bird egg. You can take this egg and hatch it and get one of six types of tropical birds to raise, also to trade in for marks. If the bird crits during raising, it will gain long feather tufts and be worth more marks. If you keep any of the tufted birds, only raise them to adult, as they become even more brighter-colored, usually much different from their original colors.

Then there is the Dance Party. Every hour you spend about ten minutes doing dances that the dance instructor calls out (which are found by pinning your chat emote list and scrolling to the dances). Once you have completed 38 dances, you earn 100 favors.

Many players put stacks (999) of favors on the exchange, which is the ingame market, which gets them ingame currency (energy credits). I prefer to earn mine, since it's part of playing the event. I farm them during the hunt, and doing other activities. All the activities get you favors. Just some people don't want to spend the time farming them, they want their shinies *now*.

Anyway, speaking of the Summer Event, it's time to get out there.

Star Trek Online

I think I've posted about this game once, at least, like Oblivion or Skyrim. Unlike Oblivion or Skyrim, Star Trek Online is...Online, of course. It's a MMORPG, or massively multiplayer online role playing game.

You play the part of a captain of a starship set in the Star Trek universe. Once you get past the tutorial, you can play the game as you see fit, that's the role-playing part. It's free to play, but you will need money anyway, to get their best stuff. You can play the game on the free stuff and free ships that are given away during 'Events'. The Summer Event is going on right now and the giveaway ship is a Vorgon heavy escort. It's a funny-looking ship, but it seems to be fit for tactical captains. The good new is, since last year, only one captain in your lineup has to play to get the ship, which is then unlocked in the reclaim store for any others. So my other captains can claim one and fly it to get its trait unlocked to use on the ship they prefer to fly.

I've picked up a number of these ships, ranging from T5-U to T6. The T6 is the top-tier ships for end game content. Many players, especially those who can afford to pay the fee to access more stuff, ridicule the ships, but play to get them anyway, also for their traits. Of course, many FTPers (free to play) also ridicule them. I don't. The devs went to the trouble of designing them and then give them away, so I appreciate any and all of them. I always pick up any free ships they give away, whether it's during a promotion or an Event.

The Summer Event is fun, you strap on a floater (similar to a jet pack), and pick up the mission Flying High from the Event Coordinator on Risa. Then you fly through three of four courses set up around the island in a set amount of time, which is very generous and more than enough for even someone with a slow floater to get through. You then earn 40 ship vouchers, which you must return to the coordinator to get. Then you slot the ship project and add the vouchers. You do this 25 times, every 20 hours (or daily about the same time each day). At the end of the 25 days, you will have earned 1000 vouchers and the ship. The event runs for about 40 days, so there's plenty of wiggle room to miss a few days, which I've done on my captain. Her mission got pushed to night time because I forgot to turn it in one day until later at night. So I got agitated one evening and signed off before doing it. No problem, it just means I get my ship a day later than most.

I've also downloaded and installed several other games on the Arc client, The Arc client is like Steam, if you know what I mean. You can use it to download and install Perfect World Entertainment games, just like you use Steam to download their games. However, Arc now has what's called Arc Quests. It's basically 'sign into Arc on X number of days' to earn experience points. Earn enough points and you earn zen, which is their in game currency you have to buy with real money, or trade dilithium for (and the dilithium exchange rates have become outrageous at around 415dil/1zen or more.). For every 1000 experience points, you get 500 zen, which usually costs about $5 of real money. So yeah, I'm doing these quests. You get three different ones, of which you can delete one of them every day. So, if you get one that says 'play X game for Y number of days', and you don't have that game, or it will cost you money to install it, you can click it off and hope you get one that you can use. I've installed a number of PWI games over the last week, all of them are FTP, or free to play. Therefore, if I get a quest to play one of those games, I can simply load their launcher and get the credit. I know, that's not exactly in the spirit of the quests, but I intend to eventually at least try them out through their tutorial phase, but I'm trying to earn zen for STO. I have 500 points so far, and when I fill up this next bar, that will be another 600 experience, so I will have earned my first 500 zen, if I choose to redeem the points. However, I'm going to try to earn more points first. I have several captains who need extra banking and inventory space, so I want to earn enough for that, plus maybe a stack of keys for the many, many lockboxes I've accumulated.

The games I've installed all sound like they might be interesting or fun to play, but I doubt I can earn zen enough to support all of them. So right now all my zen earnings will go to my favorite one, which is Star Trek Online. The other games are simply a means to earn that zen faster. If I play them at all, it will not be with zen, unless I have a way to earn it ingame that doesn't involve the zen market, unless the zen market in those games, if they have one, is more reasonably priced. What's a more reasonable price? Someone on the STO forums suggested about 250/1, which I think is actually reasonable.

I know the people who trade their zen on the game markets pay for their zen with real money and want to get the best value for the trade, but hell, can't we get a good value as well? We spend time ingame, farming the currency needed to trade for their zen. That time is worth something, right? It's like a real-life gold miner spending time mining gold from wherever so they can sell it for money. With the prices that are being asked, buying a lifetime subscription to the game is looking more and more appealing. At least then I'd get a stipend of 500 zen per month, which I can save up, if I'm patient enough, until it builds up to where I can get some of the more expensive packages from the zen store. Personally, I think a lot of LTS players are using that stipend to buy dilithium, so therefore they're pretty much getting free dilithium

Tamriel

What/where is Tamriel? Tamriel is on a planet called Nirn. It is the world where The Elder Scrolls games take place. I've only played two of the five (six, counting the MMO) games. Oblivion and Skyrim.

In Oblivion, there's an unmarked campsite way, high up in the mountains called Dive Rock. It's one of the highest points you can get to in the game, and you get to fight a large, semi-invisible Frost Troll called the Uderfrykte Matron. I say it's a Frost Troll since you find her in the snow-covered mountains. But in Oblivion there are very few special trolls, they're all just called trolls.

Anyway, it's very hard to get to Dive Rock, and you find out about it from finding a dead person at the bottom of the mountain. The dead body is north of Aerin's Camp and Dive Rock is located northwest from the dead body. But it's very tricky to get to from there, even on a horse. But I found an easier way to find it.

If you have the Wizard's Tower plugin, then once you reach the wooden bridge leading you to the tower, just turn the other way and you can run along the mountaintops until you see the marker on your compass (it will be a landmark icon). Once you reach Dive Rock, you will find a tent, a fire and a sack with some stuff in it. You'll also find a diary telling you what the author was doing there. You can choose to go find the troll and kill it or just leave it. If you go kill it, you will find the Frostwyrm Bow inside it (along with Svejna). You'll also likely run across her dead husband in the same area, where you can loot him (except for the fur helmet on the ground)

Be aware though, this is a pretty tough troll at any level. Besides being semi-invisible and hard to see, she's also fast, though clumsy if she tries to run uphill. She's still weak to fire spells, and she can't climb very well, so your best bet is to use ranged fire magic on her from the side of the mountain. That should kill her before she can reach you. You can also peg her with fire arrows, if you have them, or a fire-enchanted bow if you have one. Just try not to let it get close, that's where it's dangerous, just like any other troll.

You can also walk towards the edge of the camp a certain way, until you get a message popped up on your screen. Then you'll have several new map markers of dungeons you can visit and loot. You can also fast travel to the camp after you find it and use it for yourself. You won't have to clear out any bandits here, none ever spawn there like at regular campsites.

Anyway, that was all I wanted to muse about. I was going to put this in my Wordpress Tamriel blog, but Wordpress is acting up and won't take me to the posting page.

Will-o-Wisp

So, what are they? In Oblivion, they're a floating ball of yellow glowy light. Kill them and they drop something called glow dust, which can be used in alchemy formulas. You also need glow dust during the main quest if you get your Daedric artifact from Azura. You have to approach her shrine either at six in the morning or six in the evening and offer her up some glow dust.

Wisps are classified as ethereal undead, so normal weapons won't even scratch them. Silver, Daedric or normal weapons with an enchantment will hurt them. Also the Ancient Akaviri katana or a permanent bound weapon will also hurt them. Normally, bound weapons are conjured with a spell and disappear after a fixed amount of time, but due to a game glitch, if you damage them, repair them and then drop them and wait for the timer to expire (or use a dispel spell), and you'll have a pretty powerful, weightless weapon. They look like Daedric weapons and are, in fact, slightly weaker versions of them, but they're still some of the strongest weapons in the game for low-level characters. And you can get one, along with a piece of bound armor, at one of three different rune stones. Now, whether you get a blade or a blunt weapon is totally up to whether you're more proficient in said blade or blunt skill and tie goes to the blunt.

Also, destruction spells such as fire, frost or lightning will hurt the wisps. I generally try to use touch spells, as I hit my target more often if they're in touch range. However, the wisp uses some pretty devastating touch spells of its own, which absorbs health from you and damages your intelligence and willpower.

So, some advice:

I play on a fairly low setting anyway. Why? Because I play a game for its story content, not to see how tough I can make it on myself. So, if you normally like to play on higher settings, try lowering it if the wisps are killing you. Then just crank it back up. I'd almost recommend the "Kill" command in the console if you play on a computer, but that's just not fair.

I generally like to play a sneak-thief type character who wears light armor. If you have a pair of light boots enchanted with water walking, use them to run out onto the water. Then you can see the ripples as the wisp chases you after it goes invisible. The Silt Runner's boots are good for this. They're a pair of Mithril boots enchanted with water walking. There's some heavy boots that do the same for heavy armor wearers, but I can't remember the name of them. Anyway, they're found in random loot or on bandit ringleaders. I got my latest pair from Kurdan gro Dragol, the usurer who tricks you into his 'hunting' game. You can also enchant your own if you have a water walking spell, a pair of boots and a filled soul gem. The size of the soul gem doesn't matter, as the enchantment is constant.

Next, obtain an enchanted sword of some kind. Something with fire, frost or lightning will work best. Or else use a mage staff. Or your own destruction magic. Or a combination of destruction magic/enchanted weapon. As with the boots, you can enchant your own weapon, to be sure you have the enchantment you want.

Now, as a sneak-type, when I reach lvl 10, when these nasties start showing up, I'll sneak through dungeons/caves/ruins where I'm sure I'll encounter them. I'll carry an enchanted (or bound) bow and enchanted arrows. If I can find an arrow with soul trap and some empty common soul gems, all the better. I can snipe-shoot them and use their souls to recharge the bow. Arrow of Voltage and Arrow of the Dynamo will both come with a five second soul trap on them IF you have Shivering Isles installed. Otherwise, if you want a weapon with soul trap and you haven't found one, then enchant it yourself. I'd recommend using a grand soul gem filled with a grand soul for enchanted weapons. Or else go on with the main quest and start closing Oblivion gates to get the sigil stones. If you're at level 17 or higher, you'll get the strongest enchantment from those.

The best way to get the enchantment you want is to save your game just before you grab it, and then check it when it's put in your inventory. If it's an enchantment you don't want, reload your save and try again. The stone is always random, so you might get a different one.

Or if you're on the computer, add in a mod that lets you choose which stone you want. It's called Sigil Stone Selector and it works on almost all of the gates, except the one at Kvatch, the one that you help Burd close at Bruma, the one you get at the Cheydinhal gate when you do The Wayward Knight and the Great Gate at Bruma. On all other gates, you can choose your sigil stone. It's made my game much easier, and if you want to call me a cheater, go ahead. It's much easier to choose my stone rather than to reload a save a dozen times before getting a stone I like. Personally, I like to enchant my weapons, armor, clothing and jewelry with sigil stones even though you only get one enchantment. It's still a very strong enchantment.

Okay, I got off the subject of the wisp, but that's okay. This strip is called Musings for a reason. I never just muse over one thing per post, I always muse over many things. The wisp is not invulnerable, but it is tough. Try using sneak-bow sniper attacks on it to get it in one shot. I've even done that out in the open world along the road, as long as you don't get too close (where it spots you) and you know your limits with the bow.

Yeah, I do play heavy armor-hitters and just carry some primrose leaves and alkanet flowers to munch once I'm done with the wisp. That will restore your willpower and intelligence each time. Still, backing away when you see it about to use its magic will help a lot (it changes color and you hear a gurgling sound when it's happening. Then rush in and whack away again before it can heal itself too much. Better yet, it'll chase you anyway, so just keep backing away and whack at it when it gets in range.

Personally, the unicorn in Harcane Grove is probably the toughest thing out there, if you decide to kill it for Hircine's quest. I personally like to catch it and ride it around sometimes. Anywho, I just felt like rambling about the wisps, cause I watched a video of one who was showing us how to kill them, and they were so dumb that they had no idea where the unmarked road was that would have led them straight to Azura's shrine. So they were trying to force Prior Maborel's paint horse to go up the side of the mountain when it clearly couldn't. Poor horse. Its owner was dead and its new owner was abusing it.

Random thoughts

We have them all the time. We'll just be sitting and doing our thing, which may be reading, blogging, surfing the inet, crafting, whatever. Then it hits you. Random thought which has nothing to do with what you're doing. I crochet all the time and think about things totally unrelated to crocheting. When is the husband going to get up? Is the cat hungry? Does the cat want out?

Of course, I also tend to think about the crochet at times too. "What else is this pattern good for? Can I make an afghan out of these squares? Can I make a potholder out of this stitch pattern? Of course then I have to try and see. I think I'm going to get a dish towel out of the double knit Hoover baby blanket. I cast on far fewer stitches than called for to practice the technique. It would make a good doll blanket as well, but I can use a dish towel/rag too. I'm also using acrylic, so it will do good for a scrubber.

While working on a diagonal potholder, the technique would also make a nice bag. Just put handles on it and make it taller. The squares I do would make good tote bags too, just sew them together and put in handles. Actually, the squares are small enough to make nearly anything out of. It's just sc around, make three in each corner, then cut and change color. Use two different colors. Kind of a sc Around the World. I think they're about four inches square, so pretty small. They may even make good slippers too. I'll have to make a dozen and put them together and see what they look like. It would be like the Granny Square Slippers that I've made plenty of. You just sew six squares together (or crochet them together). Put four together for the sole, one for the instep and one for the heel. Looks great and you can make them in any color combination. The problem with granny squares is the holes. So these sc squares might make an even more cozy slipper.

The thermal stitch would make a good thick sweater or wrap or even afghan. There's so much you can do with just one pattern that there is no way to make everything you think about. It's fun to think about it though. Of course, you would need much patience to make a thermal stitch blanket, unless you made it in squares. Row upon row, hundreds of thousands of nothing but sc. Hmmm, sounds like a chevron too.

Yummy and easy cookie dough

A very easy, plain cookie dough

2 sticks butter (and I mean butter, not margarine), softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2-3/4 cups self-rising flour
***************************

In a large bowl, cream together butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add flour in about three batches, combining well after each. This can be stored in the refrigerator in a covered container and baked as needed.

To bake: Roll out small balls of chilled dough and flatten slightly. Place about two inches apart on baking sheet and bake in preheated 350F oven for about seven minutes or until edges are slightly browned.

You can also add a large bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips for chocolate chip cookies. Add after flour has been added.

You can also sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of plain cookies for a cinnamon sugar cookie.

This is a plain cookie dough, use your imagination.

Not a good summer

So, it's Father's Day, and I go to town to look for some cat wormer. Sounds simple, right? Well, it is until I stumbled in a parking lot and went crashing down to the pavement.

My phone was dead, I was alone, people were in church and no one saw me fall. My left hand hit the ground. Hard. Then it went straight out in front of me as I fell, and my right knee hit the ground. Hard.

I heard something crack when I went down. I pulled myself up and had to support my left arm. It was broken, but not broken in two, I could tell that much. It was broken close to my shoulder. I finally pulled myself up and got in my Trailblazer and drove myself home. I'm in pain, but I've been in pain before.

I got home. Got myself out of the Trailblazer and into the house with the groceries I did get. Hollered for the husband since he was still asleep. Got the ice cream in the freezer with his help. Whimpered and told him I'd messed my arm up bad. I took an old scarf and made a makeshift sling. It helped. As long as I didn't move my arm, it didn't hurt

He took me to the After Hours clinic first. Should have just gone to the emergency room since that's where they sent us anyway after x-raying me. They did give me a proper sling at least, which helped.

Emergency room nurse was a sweetheart. She apologized when she had to scrub the palm of my left hand and my knee and the other assorted dings I got with povidine-iodine. I didn't feel it when she scrubbed my knee, but I sure did when she scrubbed my left palm. I think I tore the top layer of skin off of it. Had a huge strawberry on my right knee.

X-rays showed it was broken in a place where they couldn't put a cast. Near the ball in the big arm bone. So I was put in a shoulder immobilizer.

The sweet old nurse recommended sleeping in a recliner as she had experience from having shoulder surgery. I found out she was right. Couldn't lie in a bed in any position. Been sleeping in the recliner since. The husband, sweetheart that he is, has been sleeping on the sofa.

The arm is much better. I've switched back to the sling now, but I know it isn't healed yet. I can lift my arm more than I could right after it happened. I've been taking a bath about once a week to avoid stressing the injury. Husband had to help me a few times to put my shirt on. Forwent underclothes and wore elastic waist trousers, shorts or skirts. No bra.just a shirt and bottoms. Or a dress I could pull over my head.

I've been able to pull my own shirts on for the last couple of weeks, so that's a win. The arm aches a bit all day long and first thing on waking, but once I get sat up and moving around, that pain goes away. Only took the prescription pain pills at night since they made me sleepy (which helped me sleep at night). I take extra strength acetaminophen if the pain is too much.

I know the shoulder isn't the only thing messed up. My elbow hurts too, and my wrist. I know I messed them up too. Haven't been to the doctor since getting home from the emergency room. No insurance, very little money. But there's really nothing the doctor can do that hadn't already been done. He'd have prescribed PT, which I also can't afford. Will just have to live with any consequences. I've been really careful not to do anything to aggravate the injury. At least the bone has stopped shifting around. It did that for about three weeks while it healed up. Didn't hurt, just felt really funny.

Well, that's about it. Just whining in my own blog here, rather than whining for real about it. That won't make it heal any faster. I'll just keep muscle rub handy since that helps the soreness all up and down that arm. I think I messed my hand up too. My thumb and the outside of my hand under the pinky, most especially, are very sore and I had a black mark all up the outside of my thumb for awhile.

Ah well, maybe I'll whine some more later, I think I'm done for now.

Yum

I mentioned in my last post how the same thing can be good. Well it can also be boring. Take food. You eat the same things all the time and they become less appealing. They're not less good, just you become tired of them. Most of the time there isn't much choice if you're on a limited budget, like me. But sometimes you just want to fix something different.

Last night, I did. My son in law sent me a recipe for a healthy Mexican lasagna. Now, I had a lot of the stuff needed, but I couldn't go out and get ground turkey, canned green chilies, bell peppers and fat free refried beans. So I improvised.

I used lean ground beef for the turkey. The husband can't eat poultry of any kind anyway, so regardless, I would have to use ground beef. I didn't have any bell peppers, so I used a whole fresh jalapeno, which added a nice bit of spice. You can take out the seeds and membranes for less heat, I left them in because I only used one. I didn't have any Southwest Seasoning, so I looked it up and I had most of what was supposed to be in it, so I just sprinkled some of this n that in it.

I also fried the tortillas till they were almost crispy. I know from experience that using them out of the package will have them disintegrating into the sauce. Plus it added body to the finished dish

So, what did I substitute for the refried beans? Creamy New Orleans style red beans that I had in the cupboard. They were almost as thick and creamy as refried beans.

So while I didn't make it as healthy as it was supposed to be, it was absolutely delicious. Smear some of the beans on a tortilla and layer half the tortillas in the bottom of the dish, then top with half the meat mixture and half the cheese. Repeat layers, except for cheese, then bake until nice and bubbly. Add rest of cheese and bake a couple more minutes to melt it. Truthfully, the red beans didn't taste that different from refried beans. The casserole was absolutely delicious.

My husband made some salsa up the next day to have with the leftovers. Yummy!

I have no idea what the color codes were supposed to be, such as the two blue containers worth of shredded cheese. I assume that it was something to do with portion control in some diet plan, as it tells you how many red, yellow, blue, whatever that the dish was worth. You know, sort of like a points system. Whatever, I just enjoyed the concoction that I came up with and would make it again if I had the ingredients. Perhaps we can pick up an ingredient or two when we're shopping and I can make it again when I get all the stuff together. I think I prefer using the jalapeno over the sweet bell peppers. After all, most Mexican dishes do have some spice to them.

My husband said it reminded him of enchiladas.

Hello there

Haven't posted in this thing for a long time, so I thought I'd dust it off.

Not much has happened, you know how it goes. Years go by and it's the same old thing. Not that the same old thing is bad, on the contrary, it can be good.

I've been through several computers, and this latest one is great. It plays my games very well, though my vid card started giving me fits. A few weeks ago, when I would start playing Oblivion, the card would inexplicably fail just a few minutes into the game and I would have to hard-restart my computer. After that, it would play fine.

Then last week the card would fail every time I tried to play a graphic-intensive game like Oblivion or Star Trek Online. I allowed my son in law to access my computer from his computer (via LogMeIn), and he installed a program on it called Afterburner, which is a graphics card monitor and over/underclocking tool. It monitors the speed of the card, as well as the temperature. Using that tool, we narrowed the problem down to the card overheating and shutting down. We tried underclocking it and turning the fan speed up, but nothing we tried would work. Then my son came by after work and pulled the card and opened the fan. That was when the problem was found. The fan on my card had a broken blade.

Thankfully they were able to find another fan for it in Gregg's pile of computer parts, so I didn't have to replace the card, as it was practically brand new (it's just a few months old). Now it's working great again and I'm keeping Afterburner and I run it to keep a close check on the card while I'm playing games. I also underclocked it about 20%, which keeps the temp of the card within acceptable limits, even when I'm playing in the afternoon, since we haven't started running the A/C yet. Yeah, the temp was still in acceptable limits with the card not underclocked, but underclocking brought the temp down about nine or ten degrees and there is no loss of performance that I can tell when playing. My son moved the slider back up when he saw I'd underclocked it, but instead of fussing about it, I just waited till he left and put it back where I wanted it. Perhaps I'll return it to its normal setting when we start running the air, but I'm a bit jumpy about the card getting too hot again right now.

Speaking of which, I've gotten back into Dragon Age. Rozz, a casteless Dwarf file that was one I completed the game with, wanted me to redo his file. I'm not sure why, but I think it's because I messed up in the way I did the DLC. So, I'm running Rozz again. I believe he's already made some different dialogue choices so far. I've just gotten him out of Lothering and into camp for the first time. So, next time I play he'll have a lot of catching up to do with the companions he's acquired. I'm still not sure what he's going to do regarding Morrigan and her ritual, nor if he's going to romance Leliana this time around. Perhaps he wanted to romance Morrigan and I stubbornly wouldn't allow it. We'll have to see. He may decide to do Morrigan's ritual (whether he romances her or not) and execute Loghain this time around as well. Not sure whether he'll still get Alistair to marry Anora or put him on the throne by himself. We'll see. I don't want to overanalyze his motives for wanting a second run, I'll just try to listen to him whenever he has choices to make.

Also regarding Dragon Age, I want to do as my friend did a year or so ago and make a file of every possible Origin. Rozz is my Dwarf Commoner origin. I may be redoing Olivia as my Human Mage Origin or I may run her brother Taeon through instead. We'll see. I may do both for a male-female perspective. Hell, I may just do male-female on all of them. Yes, I know, that's a huge undertaking, but since this computer plays the game much better than any other computer I ever played it on, this goal is not so unreachable. The game plays as it should instead of everything going in slow motion. I mean it, it used to take me an hour or more to get through the Wilds and this time I was through in no time, and I did it as I always did it by doing every possible quest I could find, from the Chasind Trail to the last wishes of the dead priest. Yes, I never open the box, I take it to his widow in Redcliffe. Perhaps one of my other files will open the box and take what's inside, but I haven't done it yet in any file, completed or deleted. Perhaps it's time to explore different things since I'll be running so many files. It's just hard for me not to want to fulfill the last wish of a dead man, even though he was stupid to go into the Wilds alone. His son was even more stupid for following him. But I get a pretty decent sword out of it, and a nice assortment of other stuff from the Chasind Trail.

So I bet you're asking who Taeon is. He's Olivia's brother in the Amell Origin (after all, we learned in DAII that there were Amell children and not just one child [and they were all mage children and taken to the Circle], so we can make all the siblings we want). I actually made him up to use in a fanfic that I and that same friend started working on. I've never completed the game with him though and actually deleted him. But he's persistent and wants to be created. So does Peteir, a Dalish rogue I created as another character in the same story. This story incorporated both DAO and DAII, but now we're redoing it again to incorporate Inquisition. We started this last night and added in a new character. He's the twin brother of Daveth, who dies during the Joining. Since we really wished Daveth could have survived to become a Warden we decided to honor him by creating a twin brother for him, and so Damien was born. Well, we don't know much about Daveth, except that he used to live at the edge of the Wilds and had an abusive father he ran away from. Just because he doesn't tell you whether he has any other family doesn't mean he didn't have any, so we took creative license to bring Daveth back to life (sort of) in the form of Damien. I just hope I can do him justice. He may have been a thief and cutpurse, but he had a very sensible philosophy about the Joining when Jory was in a panic. This supposed 'knight' from Highever just about wet his armor anytime things got just a little bit dangerous. At first he about wet himself in joy at winning a tourney to become a Warden recruit, and then when he found out that wasn't the end of it, that there was the secret Joining next, he wasn't so eager. Then when they found a wounded soldier in the Wilds who said their scouting band was attacked, he wanted to turn back. At the Joining, when he found out the blood they collected was now part of a cocktail they had to drink, he wanted to back out, even though he was warned that he couldn't back out.

Daveth, on the other hand, was very sensible and courageous. While Jory was whining that he'd left his heavily-pregnant wife to do this (why did he leave his pregnant wife?), and moaned about the Wardens sacrificing them, Daveth stated "I'd sacrifice a lot more if it would end the Blight." and "Maybe you'll die. Maybe we'll all die. If no one stops the Darkspawn we'll die for sure."

Then Daveth willingly swallows the vile blood concoction and it kills him (that's why the Joining is secret and dangerous). Jory panics and draws his blade on Duncan when it's his turn. Now most of the time my Wardens don't care one way or another that Jory died at Duncan's hand when he could have easily just disarmed him and poured the stuff in his mouth. But then, would you want a Warden who whined every time he perceived danger? Yeah, Jory could have survived the blood. But then again, there were also other options. Such as pretending to make him a Warden and then giving him a menial job with them later (under guard of course to keep him from running off and exposing their secret). Others thought he shouldn't have been killed and still others thought he deserved it. It's up to your Warden how s/he felt about that.

So, now you know why we wanted to honor Daveth. Sure, we could have headcanoned that he survived and helped at the battle, but we figured this was better. And we're having fun with it. An untainted, exact copy of Daveth.

Kitties and knitting

Kitties take precedence over knitting and they'll tell you so.

I have a small cat named, appropriately enough, Little Bit (or Lil' Bit for short). Most of the time I just call her Itty-Bitty. She was the runt of the litter I got her from, and she's still a runt, about half the size of  other cats her age (she's about two or three, so full grown). She was born with a balancing problem, or it was acquired, I'm not sure, but she can't balance worth a flip. If she's up on a table and cleaning herself, she'll invariably tilt a little too far and fall off said table and hit the floor with a loud thump. No, she does not do the mid-air twist that other cats do when they fall so they land on their feet, so she lands on her side or back.

Notwithstanding, she's a very lovable cat. She loves to be cuddled and snuggled. If I'm knitting or typing and she wants a cuddle she'll simply walk from her perch on the table next to my computer table and get between me and my keyboard or knitting needles.

So, we all know what's more important around here. She tells me so every time she interrupts me. And I dutifully put down my knitting or push my keyboard back so I can give her the snuggle she's looking for.

Another tip for the planes of Oblivion

If you don't want to wear a chameleon suit into an Oblivion Plane, then one way to reduce the damage from the fire traps (you know, those towers that shoot fire at you and ignore fire protection) is to enchant pieces with spell absorb. I read that the fire traps are considered spells, so if you can get hold of three or four Transcendent sigil stones then you can enchant pieces of jewelry with spell absorb. Of course, you can find pieces in Oblivion that have spell absorb, so if you can find some of them, and then get the stone, then you can concoct 100% spell absorb. This will work for your character if you choose to be born under the Atronach too. This birthsign grants 150 to your magicka, but you cannot regenerate it. Therefore, you either need to visit wayshrines or Ayleid wells to restore your magicka. You will already have a 50% chance to absorb any spells cast at you, so adding a piece or two to boost this will certainly help. You can also carry a few welkynd stones (though they do weigh 1 each, so be careful how many you carry) as they restore all of your magicka, but then disappear when you use them. I'd use them if you're in a dungeon, are low on magicka and need it right then. The Lucky Old Lady statue in Bravil is also a good place to restore your magicka. Interact with the statue and you have a 50-50 chance to absorb the spell if you're not wearing any enchanted thing to boost those odds. And you can do this as many times as you like, which is better than using a well and then having to wait for it to recharge before you can use it again. And the only way you can reuse wayshrines is if you have the Knights of the Nine plugin installed.

Now, how can you get the sigil stone that you want? Make a custom save just before you snatch the stone (after you've killed all the monsters and are standing there ready to grab it is best). Name it Sigil so you know which one it is. Then save there just before you grab the stone. Pause the game when you get the stone, and then check to see what it is. If you don't want it, then reload that save and try again. The stone given is always random, so you can keep trying until you get something you can use. And you'd only need one of them, because you can then multiply them using the scroll trick.

What's the scroll trick? First you need at least two identical spell scrolls (doesn't matter what they're for, just as long as they're a spell scroll) and one of any other spell scroll. Then click on the two identical scrolls, immediately drop the one scroll and you'll have two scrolls on the ground. Pick up one of the dropped scrolls and repeat. I like to get about ten identical scrolls this way and then use that stack to multiply things.

Now things that won't multiply are damaged/repaired weapons and armor, nirnroot and some other things. But most undamaged weapons and armor, and most rings, clothing and alchemical ingredients/food will multiply. Oh, and those born under the Atronach can use this trick to multiply welkynd or varla stones (which recharge all of your enchanted weapons you have in your inventory)

Okay, why would you want to do this? Well, it's handy if you're low on arrows or you find a few enchanted ones in loot that you want to keep using. Just make some more. Need cash really fast? Enchant cheap clothes and then multiply them and sell them. Multiply any enchanted jewelry you have and sell the extras. Enchant plain jewelry, multiply it and sell it. Keep one of each in a special spot and repeat any time you need money.

The only way you can multiply the zero weight armor though is to use the (if you're on a pc) console to put each piece in your inventory, that way it's undamaged. Remember, you have to either damage/repair it to drop it, or cast/repair if your armorer skill is expert and lets you repair beyond 100%. Either way, you've repaired it, so you can't multiply it. I did this once, to get pieces to put different spells on for different occasions and still be able to carry it all. Cheating? Yes. Do I much care? No. It's my game, I'll play it how I like. I mostly play regular anyway, and just cheat when I need to carry a crapload of loot to the stores to sell, or when I'm carrying a crapload of daedric stuff out of Oblivion planes. Yes, I want all that daedric stuff, it goes for a ton of gold at the stores. I even go through the motions of getting the zero weight stuff by either using spells or the magical stones that give them when you activate them. It's just much easier to get your armorer up to 75 and repair rather than try to find something to damage it for you before you can repair it.

Dilithium Event

The Dilithium Event at STO is  in full swing now. You can go mining on Vlugta asteroid or your fleet mine and get double the dil.

This means if you have any mining claims for the Rich mining, use them now. I am.

As Seen on TV

Yes, we've all seen these things. They range from things to make hairdos easier to do, to things to spray in cracks to make things waterproof, to copper-infused joint wraps.

As far as I can tell, none of the "As seen on TV" stuff is any better than things you can already get in the store and not pay astronomical shipping prices . Copper on the outside of the body does nothing. You have to ingest it to get it's benefits.

And the knives, pots, pans, cooking utensils, juicers, etc...meh, it's all selective.

Bottom line? Stay away from 'as seen on tv' stuff unless you can find it in your local Wal-Mart. Then you can get it at a fraction of what they want in price+shipping charges.

As Seen on TV is nothing but a rip-off.

Supper!

Sir Loin of Beef!

Or as most people call them, boneless sirloin steak. Ricky went out to work on someone's car and came back with two he found in the store's discount pile, you know, the stuff they mark down to try to sell before its sell-by date. The person apparently gave him the wrong address and he can't get hold of them, so he's going o make steak instead. No complaints from me.

So, on to other topics. I've been putting up little hints about a few games I like. Lately I've been playing a lot of STO, and am just getting back into Oblivion as well. My friend wants me to play Fallout 3 as well, but I never could get into that one. I only got it because it was sold in a set with Oblivion. Well, everyone has their games that they like and maybe one day I'll give it another try.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is supposed to be coming out in a couple of months. I'll have to wait till the price comes down before I can even think about buying it. That's the way it is around here, I get the game long after everyone else has already played it. I don't mind, I'm not one who has to have a game the minute it comes out. I'll have fun with the other DA games I have. Plus Oblivion, plus STO.

I like Oblivion for one reason only. I don't *have* to go through the main story, and even when I do, I can still play after my character 'saves the day'. It's an entire virtual life that's much more adventurous than the ordinary one I have and I can even play totally different species, such as anthropomorphic lizards and lions. Honestly, I'm human every day of the week, so why not play a humanoid lizard or cat in a virtual world? Same with STO. I have a Klingon, a Caitian, a Ferasan, a Romulan, an alien. Of course I also have a token human character too. I'm also thinking of another alien, one that a friend and I made up in one of our fanfics we're always writing. It will take some fiddling with the character creation, but we can get decent-looking ones out of it since we've been practicing with making alien BOFFs. Green skin, humanoid-looking, pointed ears, blue stripes (though only on the face, haven't figured out if I can get body stripes yet.

Ayway, that one is a ways down the line.

Happy Days

My son in law finally got the time to build me a desktop computer that plays STO and my other games. He gave me a widescreen Dell monitor for it that is just fabulous! The thing is still worth $250 used, so it's quite good.

Being not new, it does have a few small issues, but overall, I'm satisfied with it. STO and all my other games look so much better now that it's like night and day. I'm so grateful to him to get me something like this.

Now, if someone could just loan me $199 for the STO lifer subscription while they're on sale, I'd appreciate that too. No takers? Ah well, I'll just keep saving a bit to my paypal till I get what I need and wait for the next time the price goes on sale this winter.

I'll never have the top gaming systems that serious gamers have, but this does what I want it to do, so I'm happy.

STO

So, what is STO? Star Trek Online. It's a fairly popular MMORPG, based on, you guessed it, Star Trek. It's quite fun. You take a Starfleet, Klingon or Romulan  character and you play them starting at graduation day at Starfleet academy, as a third officer of a Klingon ship or as a Romulan farmer. Through various instances you'll find yourself captain of a starship and you'll go out fighting the enemies of your faction.

Yeah, that's it in a nutshell, there's so much more that goes on as well. Special events in summer and winter are fun things to do in between fighting. There are PVP/PVE missions to run for Reputation or Fleet marks or you can do other reputation missions. This is all in addition to the storylines that you play. And the best part is that it's free to play. They do have a lifer subscription, but it isn't necessary, that only gets you lots of free stuff and perks to your account.

But I have to say that some players need lessons on proportions. During the Summer Event on Risa, I've seen so many male avatars with broad, bulky shoulders chests and arms and small hips and legs. They look like they're going to topple over any second now, they're so top-heavy. The big-busted females don't bother me that much, but having them stand around with their hips thrust out so far that it looks out of joint does. But if a player wants their female to look slutty and their males to look like upside-down pyramids, that's their choice. I prefer to proportion my avatars accordingly. And it's easy, just put the sliders mostly in the same spot and fine tune it. I have some beautiful females and handsome males doing that. And I choose a nice neutral stance for the females that makes them look feminine, but not slutty. After all, I don't want a female Kirk, or a male one, for that matter.

Woes and more woes

My laptop hard drive got inexplicably wiped, so my son installed W8.1. Being used to W7, there was a learning curve, but it wasn't too bad.

Then my hard drive inexplicably crashed again, so my son now put in a hard drive and reinstalled W8.1. However, he warned me that this drive isn't reliable.

Thankfully I'll be able to order one in a few days as soon as my Paypal transfer goes through. No, I'm not going to some computer store and paying an arm and a leg for something I can get online for a fraction of the price. Yes, it's new-other, which means a drive that was removed from a new, unused machine during an upgrade to a bigger drive. This one has a capacity of 320GB, plenty big enough for what I want it to do. The company is just selling it at a huge discount to get rid of it and make a little money. It will be shipped in an antistatic bag and bubble envelope. I discussed it with my son and he said as long as they deliver it like that it should be fine. So if the seller is still selling them in five days, I'm ordering. If not, I've transferred enough that I know I can get another one if it costs a bit more than the one I'm watching.

No, I'm not telling you which one I'm watching or where, you'll have to guess, can't make it easier for someone else to buy it out from under me.