My venerable 16-year-old Mac-9 is back on the internet. Leanna tried everything to figure out why it wouldn't talk to the internet, intranet, or printernet, and finally just unplugged the network cable and plugged it back in. For no plausible reason, that worked.

So I spent the last three hours getting my email straightened out. I was using PC Outlook for a few days and that was a disaster. It only downloaded some of the mail, leaving 650 spams and 27 valid emails (including an emergency medical note from a family member and a lot of business emails that needed faster answers than they got) on the server. When I tried to download them to the Mac, it choked and crashed. So I had to go into the server on the PC and delete the problematic spam and then get the real email. The crash caused the Mac email program to un-delete 26,000 emails I had already deleted (including the two lost Starlist requests) and it took literally 35 minutes for the Mac to delete them again, after I spent 30 minutes finding the two starlists. Sigh. Then I had to get the FYEO and Dinosaur emails figured out, and answer a bunch of real and urgent business emails, some of which were the second and third time I was asked why I wasn't replying.

Anyway, back on the internet is good, and I can actually work on CL52 again. After I take a bunch of photos of new newly arrived freighters and do a chunk of the art for the Lyran book.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, April 07, 2017 - 03:19 pm: Edit

Today is the 40th anniversary of my first date with Leanna.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - 01:33 pm: Edit

Leanna and I have adopted a new son, Zephyr.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, May 18, 2017 - 04:33 am: Edit

He is 1/8 wild Felis bengalensis, just like Ramses, Isis, and Misca. And he has all of his claws.

After a month of every trick in the book we had to take Zephyr back where we got him. Misca would just not accept a new cat in the house.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, May 18, 2017 - 01:13 pm: Edit

Leanna and I consider de-clawing a cat to be a very bad thing.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, May 27, 2017 - 06:56 pm: Edit

Of course we will publish another ship module, and another, just not tomorrow. Remember that R13 and later books were (to my memory) never given a release date. Obviously, they were just the next number. I do remember publishing a list of humorous titles sometime like R16 The Sweet Ships and R17 The Barely Legal Ships. That said, has it really been that long since we did R12? Wow, how time flies.

Four years IS a long time, but during that time I broke my knee and spent six months in a wheel chair, then got cancer and spent a few months recovering from the removal of what I was assured were spare parts I didn't really need. Given that my brother and grandmother died of cancer I guess I'm lucky to be here.

Petrick does SFB and he has been responding to the public, which wants more MSSB books. (Can't say I have heard a lot of request for the next R-book compared to the requests for the rest of the MSSB books and some FC projects.) I'll mention to him that he needs to do R13 sometime (soon).

(I focus on F&E and FC, both of which have produced a steady series of new ships, some not in SFB. Maybe Petrick needs to round those up into an R-book?)

One issue with "ship books' is that counters are expensive to do and more and more players are saying they'd rather just use existing counters and save the $7 that they add to the retail price. How do you feel on that one, John? I really do what to know.

As for third party sites, obviously, those are third-party and I have no control over what they do or do not do. Since sales are steady I can only assume such sites found that published ships covered the ground enough. We never ask anyone to take down a site, but rarely someone doesn't include the required notations and we ask them to be fixed.

By John Pepper (Akula) on Saturday, May 27, 2017 - 10:28 pm: Edit

Sorry to hear about the health issues.

I think the MSSB books are a fantastic product and I applaud the effort to get those done at least up to the core 9 races, ISC, and Andros.

Personally I have never been a big counter person so I would definitely support eliminating counters from R modules. In general my preference would be for PDF based products over paper. I also think the alternative Andromeda timeline threat file project looks particularly interesting.

I also recognize that the room in the main timeframe is getting thinner so the time between R modules should increase. You have:

Typical Variants (Carrier, Scout, Escort, etc...) - There are a very few that haven't been published at this point. Those that remain are probably in a post R12 CL or F&E at this point

New combat classes - few and far between. Light Battleships and Super Heavy Cruisers seem like the ones that are consistently mentioned. The nice thing about the few that remain is that they should transition to minis and FC

Unique ships/Prototypes - Personally I like these the most. The Fed CS and DHD are my two favorite ships in the game. Unique combat ships like these also drive new minis and translate easily into FC

A handful of X1/Middle/Early Ships - Not a lot to be excited about here but maybe could be published in one "Eras of War" module?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, May 28, 2017 - 06:00 am: Edit

I thought we did the Andro Threat File?

We did 5635

By John Pepper (Akula) on Sunday, May 28, 2017 - 04:56 pm: Edit

Sorry for the confusion, I meant the Dark Futures product in the SFB -> New Products forum.

http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/messages/12031/35298.html?1454455409

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, May 28, 2017 - 08:11 pm: Edit

Ah, yes, that one would be swell!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 29, 2017 - 10:54 am: Edit

MEMORIAL DAY is officially the day to remember those military people who gave their lives for our nation. ADB has always honored those who served and does so today,

It is also a good time to remember those who touched our lives, individually and as the SFU community, before completing their journey.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, September 26, 2017 - 02:51 pm: Edit

Two of the new counters were used for new monsters.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, September 26, 2017 - 11:34 pm: Edit

SUN MONSTER: moves speed (6? 8?) toward planet. If it enters the planet's hex, the planet is destroyed. Sun monster cannot be damaged by weapons, only by a probe fired from six hexes or less. Sun monster creates a heat zone 12? hex radius. Sun monster can expel corona masses up to 50 total points treated as plasma torpedo oblivious to WW or EW. Solar radiation out to 12? Hexes causes one point of damage to facing shield arc of any unit in range every impulse at some point of the SOP.

By Mike Bennett (Mike) on Wednesday, September 27, 2017 - 02:10 pm: Edit

Questions about the Sun Monster:

1. Heat zone & solar radiation zone questions:

a) Is there a difference between the 12-hex range heat zone and the 12-hex range solar radiation zone?

b) If so, what is the damage or effect of the heat zone? [Note: the radiation zone was described as causing 1 point of damage on a ship's facing shield every impulse it is within the zone.]

3. Coronal mass questions:
a) Can it expel more than 1 coronal mass each turn?

b) If so, I assume there would be some amount of a random chance of this happening. Would the chance depend on the range of the target? [Note: the range limit could be anything on the map.]

c) Would the strength of the coronal mass also be determined by a random chance table?

4. Random questions:
a) There are rationales for many, if not all, the other monsters. Why does this one seek out a planet?

b) Where do sun monsters come from?

c) Why do they leave where they "live"?

d) How frequently do they appear?

e) What is it about a probe that is so deadly to them? Or, how are probes supposedly modified to make them deadly to sun monsters?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, October 17, 2017 - 04:52 pm: Edit

SPECIAL NOTE

My friends: Twenty-three months ago, I had my left kidney removed and I remain cancer-free. However, one side effect of the surgery was an increasingly painful cyst (basically a water balloon) in my groin (next to some things that don't want to be crowded) that has steadily grown (now 7 inches). This has made it increasingly difficult to walk, sit, drive, work, or sleep. The cyst cannot be drained; it would just fill up again. Doctors, concerned about risks, told me to just live with it, but when it reached the point I could only work two or three hours per day I sought and found a fearless surgeon who will remove the problem tomorrow morning. There is every reason to believe that by Christmas I will once again be walking a mile a day with my beloved Wolf and will enjoy better health, longer life, and a much more productive work day. ACTASF2, Captain's Log #53, and Federation Admiral will proceed at much higher speed following the success of the surgery.

The above means: I won't be in the office Wednesday. After that I cannot predict when I'll get back here. Maybe Thursday, maybe Monday. I can read the BBS but not work from home. Return to normalcy is expected to take two weeks but then it will take months to rebuild the stamina I lost from 15 months from enforced non-exercise. While there is no such thing as zero-risk surgery, this is as close to zero as it gets. Fear not.

The above also means: The reason not enough got done and a lot of things I normally would have done didn't get done was that my 10-hour work day in May 2016 has steadily shrunk to only two hours today (and that in 20-minute pieces). If this goes according to plan I should be back to an 8-hour day in a month and can do a lot more things. At least I should be able to get a good night's sleep for the first time since May 2016.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, October 18, 2017 - 04:13 pm: Edit

Still groggy, some surgical pain, blood draining from a tube, going to bathroom every 30 minutes to clear IV fluid, mouth is so dry it is hard to eat, but the huge cyst is gone and the constant "kick in the jewells" is over. I can walk normally for the first time in a year. Not really expecting to go to work tomorrow.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, November 09, 2017 - 05:25 pm: Edit

My medical situation is complicated but apparently going to get better. Right now it's worse than before the surgery, but I'm able to work one or two hours a day.

Got word today that my cousin, Joe Douglas Brewton, passed away a few days ago. We were born five months apart and inseparable buddies from age 5-18 (cowboys, then soldiers, then spies) but went to different colleges and pursued different interests. Since then, we probably exchanged only a few words every year or two despite living in the same town. These days, everyone is so busy it's easy to lose contact. Joe was a heck of a guy, playing in a Shrine band that raised money for kid's charities, and driving cancer patients to the hospital. While I didn't speak with him often, I will miss that he's not there to answer the phone any more.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - 03:53 am: Edit

MORE SURGERY: When I had surgery on 18 October it was expected that I would return to work at half speed on 1 November.

Instead, this took three weeks (including a week when the drain wasn't working, which seems to be the cause of all evil) and so last Tuesday I was happily at my desk. Two days later I was back at home, flat on my back, suffering more pain and swelling than ever before. I saw the Doctor on Monday after four more days doped up beyond a Bargantine Battle Stupor. The doctor said the reason for the gigantic painful swelling was a massive infected blood clot, bigger than a jumbo baked potato, which was inside my "mailbag" and crushing the normal residents thereof.

Wednesday I will basically have the original surgery over again, this time to remove the "catfish coagulated blood bait from hell" instead of the original cyst. Then in theory a week plus of drain and a week plus of being sore before I can start back four hours per day. This isn't over but there is a path.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - 06:46 pm: Edit

Wednesday PM
Had surgery this morning. Hope to go home tomorrow, but it might be Friday.
When I went to the hospital Tuesday they put me in the Emergency Room and said I was a mess due to the expanding clot which was poisoning my blood. Fought all night, had to insert a catheter so I could pee.
Surgery this morning looks completely successful but nobody knows for sure. Long chat with hospital chaplain avoided boredom. Petrick brought me a book to read. Leanna brought my iPad. Had a nap. Waiting on supper.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, November 16, 2017 - 07:15 am: Edit

Awake, feeling better, almost like I could get up and walk around but big signs ask me not to try without help. Going to need an extension cord for continuous ops.

The original cyst and the four week blood clot each tried in different way totally wreck my blood chemistry. The result is why I may not get out soon. Every few hours they hang another bag of missing minerals (potassium, magnesium, on a fairly big rack of IV stuff. At one point they had a stack of bags waiting to join the fun.

No idea what the plan will be, I bet the groin swelling has to go down to remove the catheter. I am resolved to spend two or three more days.

I remain in very good spirits. Leanna and Petrick bringing in bands of dove bars for me to give nurses. They all love me.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, November 17, 2017 - 08:19 pm: Edit

Friday night, getting better. My body had a massive load of bacteria but that is being steadily killed. Two of the three big tests are clear and the third is due tomorrow. It will either tell me to go home or will tell the doctors exactly what to do to finish this mess.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, November 18, 2017 - 08:03 am: Edit

Saturday, 7am, medically fine (no pain), physically miserable but emotionally fine. Tiny little things matter. Itchy, cannot go to the can without two nurses to handle all the tubes. I woke up and could not find my phone or nurse button meaning I was cut off from the world and unable to call for help. Then by feeling all around what I could reach I got the phone, so at least if I need a nurse I can get to the switchboard. Feels much better to at least have a way to get help if needed. Food is ordered from a tiny limited menu. No bacon or ham, only egg whites for breakfast.

I hate needles so of course I get six blood tests (4 for sugar, two full scale lab tests) and five shots (two blood thinner and three insulin) every day,

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, November 18, 2017 - 09:56 pm: Edit

Feeling steadily better. Current plan is for me to endure the full seven-day heavy anti-biotic artillery bombardment and go home on Tuesday. Fingers crossed.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, November 19, 2017 - 09:06 am: Edit

Sunday morning, steadily better despite being woken up for something every hour. Waiting for breakfast. BP is running high due to massive IV but they are backing that off.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, November 19, 2017 - 03:53 pm: Edit

Doctor says I go home Tuesday noon unless something new goes horribly wrong. I probably won't get to the office until the 27 th.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, November 19, 2017 - 10:42 pm: Edit

Minor issue. IV line failed, or so they found out when I complained that it was suddenly hurting a lot. So now I sit here like a condemned galley slave waiting for them to install a new one if they can find a vein.

I go home in 38 hours, more or less.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, November 20, 2017 - 06:35 am: Edit

Monday, 5am. Give the nurse enough chocolate and she will keep pesky lab, tech, vital sign, and IV people away for six hours of uninterrupted sleep. (Saturday night they gave me a sleeping pill at 11 then woke me up literally every hour on the hour for tests, shots, medicine, or something.

Release tomorrow has some variables in it, so I may walk free at 9am or 3pm or anything in between. I am using noon as a benchmark so right now I am 30.5 hours from freedom.

Back in 1949-51 my mother was a charge nurse (commander of a whole floor) at the VA. They paid nurses minimum wage and even the budget to feed the wounded soldiers was pathetic. (Example, there was only enough fruit juice for 1/3 of the men.) families of soldiers would visit and bring extra food for their soldier-relative. These visitors would always offer something to the underpaid nurses (a sandwich, a piece of pie, an apple). In honor of this kindness, anytime any of my relatives is in the hospital I show up with something for the nurses (e.g., a box of doughnuts). While in here I have had Leanna, Petrick, and Jean running relays of goodies. Every 12-hour shift gets something (a pound of Dove bars, a box of cookies). It pays off when I want a DDP or five uninterrupted hours of sleep. For the new IV line they actually had the very busy Charge Nurse stop by to personally install it.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, November 20, 2017 - 11:25 am: Edit

10:20, doctor stopped by and confirmed release tomorrow. Assuming he is here at the same time to remove the drain I should still make about noon release. I will go home not to the office.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, November 20, 2017 - 03:06 pm: Edit

2:00, seeing some signs and portents that release tomorrow will happen. The two uncontrollable variables are when the doctor signs the release (best guess 10-11am) and how busy is everyone in the paper chain from here to the door (1-3 hours) meaning 11am to 2pm. But we have all signed somebody out of a hospital and we all know the drill.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, November 21, 2017 - 12:07 pm: Edit

Doctor W came by, pulled the tubes, and ordered me released about ten.

The nurses disconnected the IV so I can move around.

I got myself dressed.

Next for me is to go put all my stuff in two sacks. Done.

When Doctor aD finishes his rounds and gets back to his office he will see Doctor W's release a start Final Jeopardy which will deposit me and my two sacks on the sidewalk, hopefully about the time Leanna pulls up.

Shutting down this station now to pack it up. Jean will post further updates.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, November 21, 2017 - 03:17 pm: Edit

Sitting comfortably for the first time in months.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 - 09:38 pm: Edit

I made it to town today, had lunch and spent four hours at my desk (half of that asleep). I despammed ten days of email, answered half of the Shapeways team emails, then read ten days of Dilbert and Get Fuzzy.

Special note for the great job Jean did leading Shapeways while I was down.

Staying home tomorrow but Jean is coming down to help Leanna cook for myself and SPP.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, November 25, 2017 - 02:44 pm: Edit

At my desk and actually making some progress for the last two hours. (Yesterday I spent 4 hours at my desk, 3 of them asleep.) I posted some ships and wrote some sales copy.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, January 20, 2018 - 02:18 pm: Edit

I had the flu, still getting over it. Went home a week ago Saturday too sick to work, missed Monday, worked Tuesday, down since then. At my desk but not much point in being here. I just missed Wolfie enough to stop by and catch up on the backlog of dog treats. Had to delay the OKC computer trip to next week.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, January 25, 2018 - 02:58 pm: Edit

I am almost over the flu (and I did get the shot, which didn't work), but still very weak and easily exhausted. Trip to OKC to get new Mac-4s is scheduled for next Tuesday with return on Thursday or maybe Friday. Today I walked Wolf to the corner and back (100 yards) for the first time since I got the flu. Leanna is also almost over the stuff, but had a major coughing/choking attack yesterday and again last night. That's usually the last stage for her. She says that this is the first time she's had the flu because it's the first time the shots didn't work.