To the Victorian Belongs the Spoils

 For some reason, a developed a taste for Victorian styles.  I'm not sure when it started.  I only know that it is the type of thing I like.  Part of it is due to my love of the mystical societies of the era.  My diving into such groups has allowed me to develop a taste for the accessories associated with the era.  I also like much of the literary output of those times.  Not all or it, but enough to really like that type of work.  This has branched into the so-called "steampunk" pastiche.  The combination of steam-driven technology combined with the rebellious fight against oppression just sings to me.  This also combines with the Modernist era that follows this one.  I can't help it, but some of that same rebellious feel just segues into this era.  As long as it is before 1925 or so, I am in for it.  What else can I call it?  This love has convinced me to fund another project, mostly because the work is set during this lovely ever-so-slightly Gothic building world.  I don't really have the money to do so, but I needed to get in at the start.  There should be an opportunity to provide more later, at the level I really want.  For previous projects, I waited a few days or so, just to be sure it would work out.  I missed out funding the last project, mostly to make sure I had the funds for one like this one.  I don't really hate missing out one that one, but I wasn't going to do the same for this one.  My biggest concern is that the project is going through with a different site, rather than the more familiar Kickstarter.  I have read about others views on it, but I like this project so much, that I had to join it, regardless of what I felt for it.  As I said, I didn't have the funds to enter at the level I would have liked, but I think I can upgrade later one, when the project is funded and winding down.  I have already seen the first preview, and I like what I have seen, mostly.  I already have ideas about what might need to be changed.  For this project, editing is being encouraged right from the start, instead of waiting until it closer to being finished.  I can't wait to see what others think about it later today.

The Forecast Is Cloudy. No, Snowy. Icy? Whatever

 As I type this, the last in a line of winter weather events is preparing to take hold on eastern Kentucky.  This will mark either the third or the fourth one in row, depending on how one classifies such things.  The first one was due to hit last Thursday.  It was initially forecast to be mainly freezing rain most of the day, with a brief changeover to rain, before turning back to freezing rain and then some snow, ending just after midnight.  I stayed home that day, mostly playing all of my online games with daily bonuses, just to make sure that my streaks wouldn't end.  I finished reading a book.  I also managed to get a notice on the death of Stuart Kaplan.  He was president of US Games, a playing card and divination card company.  Back in the late 1960s, he went to a German game fair and fell in love with tarot cards.  So much so, he bought to North American rights to the popular Rider-Waite deck.  He was also one of the people to spearhead to rebranding of the deck to Rider-Waite-Smith, in honor of the artist of the deck, Pamela "Pixie" Coleman-Smith.  He would even write a book about her.  (Her life is the topic of next week's post, by the way.) He also wrote other books about the tarot.  Some were even mentioned in the book I had been reading.  Anyway, the weather forecast didn't turn out as expected.  Most of the freezing rain didn't show up for most of the day.  It was almost all just rain.  In fact, the main precipitation was over with by sunset.  The freezing drizzle and mist continued for most of the night, barely turning to a sky of spitting flurries for most of the following morning and day.  My area ended up with just a little less of a coating of ice than forecast, just not at the time expected.  The second winter event mostly bypassed my area.  However, it kept the skies cloudy all day Saturday, and it may have caused a slight additional glazing of ice and snow in a few locales.  Still, it was nothing much to me, although the very end of the system may have caused a few problems just outside of my regular haunts.  The third storm turned out wrong as well.  The forecast was for it to start out as freezing rain, followed by a break in the late morning, before changing to all rain for the afternoon and evening.  It was then supposed to end abruptly as a brief period of freezing rain quickly turning over to snow before ending.  I stayed home, again.  I did pretty much the same that Monday as I did the previous time, except I didn't feel the urgent need to get anything done before a possible power outage.  The morning freezing rain barely showed up.  The afternoon precipitation was almost all rain, which continued into the late night before ending as a little snow.  While other places had gotten a fairly heavy layer of ice, my home stayed fine.  Unfortunately, the snow didn't end as it was supposed to.  It would flurry on and off all day, without any noticeable accumulation anywhere save the very tops of mountains.  Again, the forecast was wrong.  The current forecast for this last storm in the line is for a small accumulation of snow, before a transition to freezing rain then rain, followed by another snowfall with little accumulation.  The rain should melt the first round of snow and make the second round even less significant.  However, some models are showing a major event, some with little to no rain.  The consensus is more along my prediction mentioned above.  My gut says it will be another mostly non-event for me.  However, some of those forecasts just seem to want to taunt me with their predictions for heavy snow.  Winter events are known for being hard to model, especially along the borders of the system, which I seem to be on a lot lately.  However, with so many missteps lately, I trust my own expediences over theirs.

Fair Play and Playing Fare

 I solved the lates Games World of Puzzles contest yesterday.  In fact, I was able to guess the final answer before I actually finished solving it.  It was a type and theme that was just up my alley.  I was able to use a combination of internet searches and my own personal research materials, with a tiny bit of personal knowledge to finish it off.  I would mention what the puzzle was, but that wouldn't be fair.  I subscribe to the magazine, so I get issues up to three weeks before they appear on the newsstand.  Even then, I wouldn't give the answer out.  That's one of the reasons why I won't even send the contest entry in until the issue is out.  The winner will be drawn from all the correct entries before the deadline, which is late April, so I have time.  I did some of my offline research while waiting for my computer games to download.  For some reason, the wifi at work gas problems almost every afternoon around two.  Sometimes, it happens earlier.  Rarely, it starts even sooner.  Some sites have hardly any problems, but the games I play on Facebook almost always have problems during these times.  I have been known to wait over twenty minutes for a game to download.  I either try to move the computer to get a better signal or just give up.  I sometimes play a solitaire app I have to pass the time and to keep the screen active and not shut down.  Yesterday, I almost fell asleep while playing, just waiting until I could play the games I really wanted.  Never happened.  Just as well, because I have been having problems with what used to be a top favorite of mine, Golf Clash.  About four weeks ago, I moved up a level and started a great winning streak.  Since then, I have been demoted back and have barely won twenty-four games or so.  This losing streak is so disheartening that I only played it once yesterday, for a loss.  Admittedly, I was running late by that evening, and I had fewer opportunities to play.  Getting multiple bonuses in other games didn't help either.  I mean, I could have tried playing at least once, but I just decided not to.  I almost think the game gave me easy wins that first week to set me up to lose, and then force me to pay for in-game resources.  I would never spend money for such things.  I have used up much of my stores though, just to try and maintain my current level.  I am about two more losses away from having to start playing at a lower level again.  At which point, I will have to play against the more experienced players that I have been up against, just on slightly easier courses.  I will be screwed totally if this happens.  However, if I don't start winning again, I will continue to get demoted, making it almost impossible to catch up.  I might even be forced to stop playing for awhile until I can get my free resources built back up, even if it means I will get demoted again and have less access to these resources.  I am not sure where this will end up, but I am losing the sense of fun in this game.

Stop Poking Your Way around Here

I didn't go into work this past Monday.  The forecast was for snow, up to three inches for the day.  I waffled about going in until it was too late to reasonably go in.  As it turned out, there was barely an inch of snow for the day, and almost none of it laid on the road.  This meant the I would have been able to get to work, stay open for most of the day, and get home with little trouble.  By not going in, it also meant that I had to go to work on Tuesday no matter what.  It turned out that the three inches of snow meant for Monday fell overnight into Tuesday.  In fact, the snow wouldn't peter out until late morning/early afternoon on Tuesday.  While most of the roads were at least partially cleared, at least one bad stretch wasn't.  The plow for the road had broken down, leaving at least five miles of road ice- and snow-covered.  I wound up leaving late and taking an alternate route into work that was about a third of the way longer.   However, almost all of the way was clear with only an occasional icy patch to contend with.  One of the reasons I left late was that I wanted to clear as much ice and snow off my car.  I was able to even get the wipers ice-free before I left.  Even the parking lot in the center where my store is located was mostly cleared.  There was one problem.  The service always seems to scrape the snow into a pile right where I like to park my car.  The spot is right under a light fixture.  I guess that makes it an easy place to scrape to, as the plow can't get to close to them anyway.  Unfortunately, piling all the snow causes a problem.  If left on its own, a small accumulation of snow like this would melt in a few days of above freezing temperatures and indirect sunlight.  A large pile would take weeks to melt.  It generates a sort of "cold field" that makes it take longer to fully melt.  During really huge snowstorms, the resulting piles can get well over seven feet tall and over a dozen feet long.  The current pile is just barely taller than me, but I don't think of myself as tall.  The main pile is about six feet long, with another few feet of smaller piles trailing off of it.  It takes up at least seven parking spaces.  Meanwhile, almost all other spaces in the entire center are now clear, save for the pile near the lights.  Whenever a pile this large is formed, I try to help it along in melting by making it smaller.  One technique I use is a poking stick.  I take a long pole and make holes in the pile.  This allows light to enter deeper into the pile to help it melt.  It also allows water, from rain or more melting, to trickle down and help melt in even more.  I also use the stick to break up larger chunks into smaller ones that are easier to melt.  My current "stick" is the bottom of an old mop or cleaner, or something else, whose head broke off years ago.  It was once about four feet long, but it is currently about two feet long as further sections have broken off.  Based on the current forecasts, another cold spell is coming up, meaning little melting will take place, even in direct sunlight, which the pile isn't really in.  It will probably be weeks before I can park in my space again.  Sure, once a light broke off and landed on my windshield, damaging it, but it still is a great spot.  I can see it from the store, and it is close enough that I can't get too wet in bad weather, and really, was makes a spot better than that.