In Celebration of Gary's Birthday

Kelly Loucks took the Hardest Gary Gygax Quiz in the World and got 50%!



You are a Gary Gygax Swashbuckler. You are cunning in the ways of Gary Gygax. You've probably been to Gen Con once or twice, and if I searched your house, I bet I'd find a Gary Gygax autograph, a humorous D&D-related T-shirt, and/or a stack of Dragon magazines.

Paladin Code: You completed this quiz without using Google.

Here's where you take the quiz: http://blogofholding.com/?p=3082#quiztop

It's Been Too Long But I've Been Busy

Yeah, I know. Only 2 blog posts all of last year. But I've been really busy. We did a lot of travelling last year. Florida, Colorado, and a half dozen trips to Disneyland chewed up a lot of the free time we had and we still didn't travel as much as we would have liked to. Also, changed my exercise routine and started running in September of 2010 and started using the Fitness Center at work to do some weight training. I'm probably in the best physical fitness I've ever been in my life. I'm now running 4 miles at a pop in about 44 minutes, give or take. I don't know if I've become addicted to running but I have become addicted to timing my runs to see if I can do the next one a little quicker. Walking out the door to do it is the hardest part.

And gaming has been good and bad. My regular 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons game has been plugging away regularly with 1-2 games a month and has been a lot of fun. I would love to try running a 4th edition game but haven't found the right group yet. On the other hand, my 2nd edition Dungeons & Dragons game only managed 1 game all of last year. We did get together for a few hours in January already this year and we have a February game scheduled so this year already has more promise. I hope the momentum continues for this game. And I have to thank my wife for putting together a board game group with her friends from work. We started playing light board games once a month last Fall and it has really been a lot of fun. I have gotten some exposure to some new games and got to introduce some of my favorites to a new crowd. We haven't yet gotten into any of my deeper games, like Arkham Horror, but I'm hopeful we'll get to try some of them this year.

I went to my surgeons office on my 2 year anniversary of my weight loss surgery and I have officially lost 286 pounds. Was feeling a little bad that I hadn't lost more weight but my health is so good and my waist line is down to between 38-40. By contrast, I found a receipt in a book last night for some pants I ordered from Sears in 1991 that were size 48 so I'm 8-10" smaller than I was 20 years ago. Nothing to be disappointed in there. Just have to keep working at it.

And Elizabeth has started Kindergarten at Khalsa Montessori School. She seems to enjoy it most days though to is still more a social butterfly and a driven student. It takes a lot of effort to get her to concentrate on her works everyday. Amy pushes her to do 2 reading and 2 math works everyday before she does any arts or crafts. We're also working with her reading sight word books a home most nights. She's getting better and is on the cusp of starting to read on her own. Amy is anxious about her not reading yet but it will come. Again, we just have to keep plugging away at it until it finally clicks for her. She seems to enjoy math and everything else so no worries there.

Well, that's about it for now. It doesn't seem like much for being 9 months since my last post. I know I've missed stuff or could go into more details about our travelling or other stuff we did but it'll have to wait until next time.

Good Times & It Just Keeps Getting Better

The worlds must have had a magical aligning or something because all of the puzzle pieces I have been fretting about over the past few months seemed to have suddenly coalesced. We were able to get together for board games without Ron in late April and then we resurrected the D&D game with the whole crew and had a great session in May. My weight loss is chugging away and I've now lost 290 lbs in 15 months. The new goal for that is 300 lbs by the 18 month mark. And vacation for this summer is taking shape and looks to be fun time.

I was surprised with how everyone came together for the D&D game. A quick escape scenario was run that let characters come back from the dead in a moderately sensible manner and put a couple of quick encounters out to build their confidence back up. Then I ran a quickie adventure from an old Dungeon magazine because I realized the character group was not strong enough to complete their current adventure. Everyone seemed to have a good time and they are all looking forward to more. June will be busy with Amy traveling for work and going on vacation near the end of the month but here's to hoping we can find a weekend that works.

My weight loss slowed down a little in March and early April but has now settled into a pretty consistent 1-2 pounds a week. I try to only get on the scale once every 2 weeks so that I can notice the change. Less time than that and the weight loss is almost unnoticeable on the scale though I am having to buy smaller clothes again. I picked up a pair of size 38 shorts and a large shirt a week ago. It's the smallest size I've been since junior high school. I've also changed my exercise routine. Now I walk a solid 3 miles at lunch and then do 2 stories of stairs on the outside of one of our 3 story classroom buildings on campus. For the 1st 3 weeks I would do both flights of stairs up and down 5 times. It was surprising how quickly I went from barely being able to get up 5th set at the beginning to jogging up all 5 sets at the end of 3 weeks. Now I'm into my 2nd week of 8 sets up and down. I can feel the burn in my legs but I'm still able to jog up and down through 8 sets. After next week I'll probably try 10 sets. All of this will hopefully keep stimulating the weight loss and help get me ready to do the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim hike we want to do next May. I'm really looking forward to that trip.

We kicked off summer vacation last Friday with a concert. Amy and I went and saw Styx, Foreigner, and Kansas at the Dodge Theatre. First time I've ever been to that venue and it was huge. We went with Julie and Michelle and sat in the nose bleed seats but the shows were fantastic. I haven't seen Kansas or Styx in about 12-13 years and both groups were on top of their game. It was sad that Dennis DeYoung was not with Styx but they sounded great none the less. But the real star of the show was Foreigner. I've never seen them before but really thought their energy and crowd interaction was heads and shoulders above the other two bands. It was really their night even though they were the middle band on the bill. We're trying to get tickets to REO Speedwagon and Pat Benatar for July. That would catch me up on most of the bands I wanted to see live all those years ago.

And speaking of trips, we're going to spend 2 weeks on the east coast this summer. Amy has a conference in Washington, DC the last weekend of June and we're going as a family so I can finally see the nation's capital. I'll probably spend most of my time during the day at the Smithsonian and try to see the monuments and the Mall in the evening. For a guy with a BS in history, this trip is a long time coming. When Amy's conference is done we're heading to Florida. Her brother lives in Clermont, a little ways north of Orlando and Disney. It's been 17 years since the last time I was in Florida and I'm really looking forward to being in the land of my youth. I'm hoping to see some old friends and some old haunts. I want to show Amy and Elizabeth where I grew up and some of my favorite places, like Gatorland and St. Augustine. And we will spend an inordinate amount of time at Disney World I'm sure. I definitely want to show them some of the local flavor and destinations. Probably try to get out to Sledg's house in the swamp and take a canoe trip to see some gators in the wild. Elizabeth is so excited to see alligators, I just need to make sure she doesn't jump in with them and get eaten.

So things so far this year are looking up and seem like they're only going to get better. I'm looking forward to what the fall will bring but savoring every moment right now.

Too Long...

It's been too long since I last did this. A lot has happened, or at least it feels like a lot has happened. The one year anniversary of my weight loss surgery came and went and I realized I lost 257 lbs in one year, almost 50% of my total starting weight. We started a monthly routine over the last couple of months where Amy and I have gotten together with my friend Curt and his girlfriend, Jessica, for board and card games once a month. I hope to see that continue. But our monthly D&D game has not yet recovered from the total party kill in October.

That is the thorn I'm wrestling with at this point. I love playing D&D and I really enjoy the social aspect of the game; sitting around a table with friends, chatting about movies you've seen, books you've read, new things going on in your lives. The game is the excuse to get together, the framework or impetus for people to meet and share a like experience. Dungeons & Dragons has been the common denominator for me for almost 30 years.

In my teen years, it wasn't the only thing we did. Weekend nights were for watching movies you weren't supposed to see when you're 12 years old, either on the cable movie channels or VCRs. You'd also be really surprised how much walking around you do at 2am when you're 13 or 14 years old. Any excuse to stay out late and not go home. It wasn't because home was bad, just boring. We were just looking for a little adventure and we may have caused a little trouble looking for it but very little in the big scheme of things. Nothing more than you're typical teenagers I would guess.

And that brings me back to now and the demise of the D&D game. Despite being 40 years old, happily married with a beautiful, vibrant 5 year old daughter I still crave that sense of adventure, even if it is only in my imagination sitting at a dining room table once a month. My life is not really boring but it does sometimes fell routine. But more so than that, I have always been a social person and I am fearful of losing those connections with my friends. I'm afraid that without the common ground of D&D that there will be no reason to get together and spend time with each other, that we will drift apart and not see each other any more. And maybe I can't stop that no matter how hard I try; my desire to keep the game going to keep my friendships alive will not be enough.

But I have to try because I value those experiences too much. Here's hoping March will yield a new game.

Total Party Kill (TPK)

Yesterday, I had a unique thing happen. In 30 years of playing Dungeons & Dragons and 25 years of dungeon mastering I have experienced a total party kill a couple of times and my main character died so many times during my first 10 years of playing D&D that it became a joke. But never had I refereed a game that resulted in a total party kill and that is exactly what happened yesterday with the first encounter of the new adventure we started.

I new the encounter would be tough and I scaled back some of the criteria for monsters. I eliminated the surprise attack round, took away the +1 to hit for the hopping special attack, and always failed my initiative roll so that I attacked last each round. Once things started going badly, I reduced the amount of damage they did with each attack to try to prolong the combat and give the characters an opportunity even the numbers but it never happened. The players could not make enough hits and were plagued by bad dice rolling. I also underestimated the impact of the number of attacks that each individual opponent had and how the damage, no matter how trivial, really added up quick.

The players were demoralized and upset, justifiably. I tried to offer restarting the scenario and ignore the results of the first encounter but there was grumbling that it felt like cheating to ignore the character party being wiped out. Some new numbers were generated for new characters for possibly starting a new campaign but one of the players hasn't decided if he wants to play any more and another doesn't want to invest time in a character if he's just going to die again. The experience was demoralizing for everybody involved and really derailed our afternoon. We were finally able to pull it together enough to play some card games for a couple of hours and salvage some game time but I don't know what the future holds for our monthly game day yet.

Part of the problem is trying to scale the games. Most adventures are created for 4-5 characters and I'm refereeing for 3. I've tried to scale the encounter down, fudge hit rolls and damage rolls and not take advantage of special abilities but I need to figure out how to actually overhaul some of the encounters so they are more appropriately balanced. I haven't dmed in almost a decade which has contributed to some rustiness on my part. And I'm trying to play with 4th edition rules in one game but referee with 2nd edition rules in another game which has created some confusion as the 2 rules sets are drastically different. It would be great to convert the game to 4th edition and focus on just 1 rule set but I'm the only one among that group that has the newest rules and I don't think they are inclined to spend money on new rules, especially because we've only played about 9 times in the last year.

Maybe it's time to start playing board games again.

8 Month Check-up & Life In General

I spent the last 2 fridays meeting with the surgeon's assistant and my primary care physician regarding my gastric bypass surgery on January 29th. Everything seems to be great. I'm down 212 pounds to 309 and I'm no longer considered diabetic with a 3 month post-medication A1C score of 5.4. My total cholesterol is down to 154 and my LDL to HDL ratio is 4.6. Some of my nutrition levels are a little off but improving.

My fitness level is also improving. I typically walk 3 miles a day at least 5 days a week and feel much better physically. No joint pain or any real issues with mobility any more. Emotionally I still have moments where for no perceivable reason I get upset, angry, or depressed. Don't know what to do about those yet but I work through them and try to feel better. Those times are still the hardest part of the post-surgery experience.

Elizabeth started school the tuesday after Labor Day and is loving it. We should have started her in pre-school a year ago but we were worried about the change and we want her to be our "little" girl for as long as possible. She comes home with new information everyday and is starting to recognize letters, numbers, and some words already. I'm very excited for her future.

Amy is in her first semester as a department chair and the experience is not a very positive one for her. She has employees that don't cooperate with her or each other and don't do their jobs. It has been upsetting to realize how unprofessional some people can be. I really want her to find another job at another college. We'll have to wait and see.

My gaming life is not going as well as I would like it to but what's new there. I did run my 2nd edition Dungeons & Dragons game again for the first time since Spring in September and we finally finished the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh adventure. I've been reading the second installment, Danger at Dunwater, and should be ready to start it this Sunday when we meet again. The 4th edition game that was meeting at Joel's only managed to play 1 game before it fell apart. And the online 4th edition game Joel is running with Maptools and Ventrilo is a lot of fun but still not as much fun as a face-to-face game. I may find myself in a position where I have to get up to speed with the 4th edition rules and try to run my own game. I really like the rule set and have invested a fair amount of money in rule books for the current edition of D&D.

Probably the aspect of gaming I have been most succesful at is collecting and spending money. I now have 24 of the 42 little black books from the original Traveller science fiction role-playing game from the early 1980s. Traveller is a game I did not play very much but is a rule set I really loved and I occasionally check out ebay to see if I can pick up some books cheap. I was also able to pick up a starter set for the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons miniature game for $0.53 at Borders books with coupons and credits I had. I didn't own it 2 days before I bought my first expansion booster for the game. This collector bug could really kick into high gear if I'm not careful with this game. I need to find a source for some cheap single common minis and get a good collection of core models and try to avoid the new booster packs when I can. It is a game that could lead to some casual weekend gaming and some new contacts if I make the time. I could really use some new gaming contacts.

Well, that's about I think of to report on about what's going on lately. Life is good and things are going well. I could not ask for any more and I am greatful for everything in my life.

2 Month Check-Up

I had my 2 month check-up on April 3rd. My blood pressure was 111 over 75 and I had lost 90 lbs in 9 weeks. I feel great and I’m walking a lot, 3 miles everyday at lunch Monday through Friday. It is still hard to focus on some of my old, idle hobbies like painting wargaming miniatures. This is partly because I still have a nagging feeling that I should spend as much time active as I can squeeze into each day but also the demands of my daughter for attention and play time now that I am more active. Reading is something else that is hard to do, again because it requires me to be still. I need to try audio books when I go for my walks.

My wife, Amy, is where I was a month ago. She is having a love/hate relationship with her dietary changes but is starting to feel better about herself. Her energy hasn’t improved as much as mine at the same time but that is probably due more to stress from work. I hope that levels out for her soon. Amy does use the Wii Fit board for 30-45 minutes of step aerobics and yoga 4-5 times a week because it is not as easy for her to get out and walk at work. She hasn’t lost any significant weight in 2 weeks but she has lost a couple of sizes in clothing and can now wear some new clothes.

Summer should be both fun and challenging. The fun part should be going to see Amy’s family on the big island in Hawaii and meeting up with my mom on her vacation in the 4 corners region. I look forward to being in better shape and being able to move around and see more stuff this summer. The challenge will come from the Arizona heat and trying to stay active in general. Most of the regular exercise I get comes from walking around my college campus and it is already starting to get warm and we are nowhere near June. Heat may become my arch nemesis. I need to come up with alternative strategies for the 100+ degree months.

As a side note, we are playing Dungeons & Dragons again on April 19th. It has been 3 months since we played and the guys seem excited to start up again. I’m looking forward to playing and need to do a little prep work in the next 10 days. I’ve read the adventure 4 or 5 times and know how I’m going to setup the hook. The Sunday night game has been more fun since the surgery and the improved energy keeps me from dozing off during slow parts of the game. I hope the same energy carries over to running my own game and makes it better.

4 Weeks Out & I Feel Fine (mostly)

It has been almost a month since I had gastric bypass surgery and some things have gone well and some things are still a struggle. Last Saturday I weighed in and had lost 56 pounds from my starting total of 521 pounds. Now at 465 pounds, I move better, my feet and legs don’t hurt nearly as much, I feel generally happier most of the time. I also want to be moving more and one of the times I look forward to the most each day is my walk.

When I’m at work, I tend to go for a walk around the perimeter of the campus. I get to see the new construction that’s happening. Spring is well underway here despite it being February. The last couple of days have been in the 80s and trees are showing signs of life, at least the few who lost their leaves. I listen to an MP3 player loaded with some of my favorite songs and walk for a little over 30 minutes at lunch everyday. The perimeter of the campus is about 1.25-1.5 miles and it’s a nice walk.

On weekends I try to walk in my neighborhood. It’s not as easy to do because of the distractions of home life and the requirements on my time. Weekends are busy with running errands and lately Amy has been traveling a lot but that should change soon. We did get to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and that was a good walk. I should try to take Elizabeth more often because I think she really enjoys it too. My typical walk is about a 1.5 miles through our neighborhood. It’s less interesting than the walk at work mainly because about a third of the houses in our neighborhood are in foreclosure. Our neighborhood is not very lively right now.

The hard part right now is still food and surprisingly the hardest part is eating enough. I still do not have any appetite. The nutritionist says I should be consuming between 800-1100 calories a day and most days I’m lucky if I can consume 400. I measure my food into 2 ounce servings and eat 3 times a day most days. The protein shakes and other liquids are another challenge. The protein shakes taste fine when I mix them fresh and they are cold but they tend to upset my stomach. I have only been consuming about 8 ounces a day when I should be consuming about 24 ounces. That would add a couple hundred calories to my daily intake if I can get to that point. And other liquids are just hard to keep up with because of the quantity. My water and sugar-free drink intake should be between 64-96 ounces a day. That means I spend most of my day with a bottle in my mouth so that I can get the minimum amount of liquid each day. It also means I feel full all the time which makes me not want to eat. It’s a nasty cycle to get into.

Most of my mental energy outside of work is spent trying to wrap my head around all of these changes. It’s not always easy and I find myself getting angry once or twice a week. I know that is has everything to do with me and I try not to make anyone else suffer. Trying distractions like painting models and reading have not been working lately because I feel like I need to be more active. I definitely have a sense of restlessness. After Amy has her surgery and is feeling better we may have to spend more time being active. We probably should just for the operations to be successful but I also want to which I haven’t felt since my early 20s. I feel younger just for what weight I’ve lost already. I hope it continues.

It's Finally Done... & It Begins

On January 29th, 2009 I finally had my gastric bypass surgery. I was in a lot of pain that day and for a couple of days after but then things got better quick. 6 days after the surgery I was walking about 2 miles a day over 2-3 sessions throughout the day. A week after the surgery I walked 2 miles in one shot but that was too much and I got dehydrated and ended up in bed for the afternoon. I just can't drink enough water yet to offset that much sweating.

Which brings me to the 2nd part of the header. I knew the surgery was going to be a radical change for my diet and I read and studied everything I could get my hands on but it doesn't sink in until you are looking at a 2 oz serving. A 4 oz yogurt is breakfast for 2 days. I can't finish 1 large egg scrambled. I'm nowhere near consuming the 64-96 oz of water or 70 g of protein that are my daily goals. And I'm never hungry. I skip meals simply because the idea of eating the 2 oz makes me sick. This should get better over time but I'm afraid of slipping into malnutrition. I do take 4 chewable vitamins most days and probably get about 30-35 g of protein a day.

My doctor seems happy with everything. 12 days after my surgery I had lost 41 lbs and felt great. 3 weeks after my surgery I'm back at work and things are falling into a routine. I walk 1-1.5 miles at lunch around the campus. I need to punch more holes in my belt because I'm on the last hole. My wife wants to get new pants for me but I'm holding off until I make a significant change in the weight because I don't want to have to buy new pants every month.

I am excited to see what I will look like in 6 months and a year from now. I am also looking forward to being able to fit into theatre seats and in the rides at Disneyland. I hope to be able to keep up with my daughter and enjoy more time with her at the park and doing more physical things which she enjoys. She loves to run, jump, and play and that's been hard for me. It's been a hard change but it should get easier and it will definitely be worth it.

Saturday, It Begins...

In my last post I talked about running a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for the 1st time in over 10 years. My players are getting excited to start and I'm both excited and nervous. The players interact with the Dungeon Master (referee and creator for the game) to tell a story of sorts and each relies on the other to craft a fulfilling experience.

Almost 28 years have passed since I started playing this game. The game has gone full circle in a way going from a set of rules to use with miniature war games to a loose set of rules for role-playing games now to a hybrid of miniatures, role-playing, and structured character development like you find in most computer games. I've resisted each upgrade in the rules but in the end have changed over and enjoyed each new edition for what it is. Friends are really what make the game fun. A good bunch of players can make an afternoon or evening disappear in a moment and you wonder what has happened.

That's a little of where the nervous comes in. I've known all 3 of the players for 10+ years and I don't foresee any real problems with the game. But I've never been in a position of direction or leadership with these guys. One of the players likes to push the boundaries of the rules. Another of the players likes to have fun with his character at the expense of the other characters in play which can frustrate players. I hope I'm up to the task of maintaining order and keeping the players focused on what is important for the game to be successful.

Greyhawk is the original fantasy world created by Gary Gygax and The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh is set along the south coast of Keoland in this world. For a decade or more, Greyhawk was the only commercial campaign world and all of the modules that were created for D&D were set in this world. I have been nostalgic for these adventures lately. Maybe this is my version of a midlife crisis, missing something I loved dearly when I was young. Or maybe the newer products just aren't as good. Either way, I'm excited to be exploring the lands and their adventures again.

I'm combining products from 3 editions of the game into 1 complete product. The original adventures were written for 1st edition and the town of Saltmarsh was fully detailed in 3rd edition. Characters are being created using 2nd edition rules which are mostly compatible with 1st edition and the framework for the game will be a 1st/2nd combination. A mix of editions and rules should help to give the game a unique feel, one I hope everyone enjoys.

My reading choices of late should also help flavor the action. I have been spending a lot of time reading stories by H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard and should be able to use some influences from the Cthulhu mythos and the tales of Conan and Solomon Kane to create a tone for the game that is both mysterious but adventurous. These classic stories are not the high fantasy of Tolkien but grittier stories that deal more with simple survival and overcoming adversaries as well as exploring the unknown. All of these elements should make for some fun adventures.

Hopefully my learning and experiences from the past 10 years will be of benefit for administering the game. I'm not the same person I was then and I like to think I have a greater insight into the game and how the story-telling should work. The reactions of my players by Saturday evening should begin to tell me if I'm on the right track.