Lorax

This morning, I was awakened by someone pounding on our door. It was a tree service tending to the house next door, wanting me to move my car out from underneath the neighbor's oak tree to avoid risk there.

I asked the guy for an estimate on our own tree work: the tall sweet gum had to be removed, since its roots were damaging the garage and its leaves were damaging the roof; the arborvitae's roots were damaging the garage; one big limb of the crabapple was shedding leaves onto the roof; and the pear tree also needed to be trimmed back to not shed on the roof. He looked at the work we needed to do and said that since the neighbors had already paid the setup fee for the crane and other trucks to come out here, he could do the work today for $450. This is an extremely good price for this job--$1250 would not be an unreasonable price. So I said yes and wrote him a check.

Because I acted so swiftly, though, I didn't get a chance to give Lori any forewarning. So she came home and found two trees heavily cut back and two trees missing--and she's been shocked and sad about the loss. She's felt particularly sad about the sweet gum tree, which she really liked--and sadder because she didn't get a chance to say goodbye.

Explanatoids

On August 23, Paul and Mary invited us to share their discounted Kennywood tickets. We had a very pleasant day.

One thing I want to particularly comment on was the series of signs in the line for the Log Jammer. Check out the "Log Jammer" set of pictures at http://www.explanatoids.com/allexplanatoids.asp# .

I'm digressing for a moment, and I promise that it'll be relevant: my father (a professor of chemistry) rants from time to time about children's science museums. He says he's watched kids at those museums, and they don't learn much science from the interactive exhibits; they just race from one exhibit to the next looking for buttons to push. And these exhibits just demonstrate funky science facts; they don't educate kids in the scientific method.

This Explanatoids set of signs is a strong contrast to that, because it really does teach about the scientific method. It poses a question ("What affects how wet you get on the Log Jammer?"), proposes three hypotheses, and then designs, carries out, and reports an experiment to test those hypotheses. This set of signs really demonstrates the process of scientific discovery (and on an interesting question, too).

(As a side note, a project like this would be well within the capabilities of a junior-high student, and stand a great chance of winning a science fair contest.)

Unfortunately, it appears from the Explanatoids website that most of the sign sets are of the form "here's some science facts relevant to the situation" instead of "here's an experiment by which we investigated some relevant science." Still, I'll give them some points for inserting science-as-facts into playgrounds and ballparks. I wish them well with their mission.

Exalted

About a week ago, I finished reading the Exalted RPG. I have two simultaneous reactions:

- This is so cool! and
- How would I use this?

It's cool because it is an epic fantasy setting and ruleset that is really high-powered and makes sense. All the classic fantasy gaming tropes are present:
- exotic locations to explore
- potent artifacts to discover
- undead armies
- nasty Fair Folk encroaching at the borders of the world
- demons and elementals
- deities that might be responsive to priests
- giant monsters
- dragons
Not only are they all present, but they fit into a reasonably coherent whole. And it's all cool. Starting PCs are far far above normal people, and that's really evident, as opposed to some D&D settings where every guard is an 8th-level fighter or whatnot.

And the magical abilities seem a lot better integrated than D&D's. There are far fewer absolute effects than D&D has (no save-or-die petrification, for example). And spells like 'Death of Obsidian Butterflies' just ooze style.

Plus attention in the rules to seduction, intrigue, and manipulating bureaucracies!

This is so cool that I could imagine using Exalted for my next campaign--or at least, I could easily feel a temptation to do so.

But I'm also daunted. I'm not confident of my ability to design adventures for such high-powered PCs, and I have similar doubts about my ability to provide good tactical challenges, or the rich descriptions such RP would call for, or the complicated intrigues of the opposition...

But cor, it would be so easy to get the fever and go out and buy all the books in the line.

Laptop

I've been typing these entries while sitting in our big green chair, with the laptop on my lap.

Louie decided to hop up in my lap, curl up, and snuggle in. This complicated matters.

I've been typing this entry with the laptop on my knees, prevented from falling off only by the pressure of my hands outstretched as far as possible.