Unsanctioned Widgey - Shadows Over Camelot

10.26.2013

Last night I got together with the DealNews crew and played Shadows Over Camelot, which has currently been played on Wil Wheaton's Tabletop (it's fun to watch to get a feel of the game). In the game, everyone is working together to complete quests and win the game for all, except 1 person might secretly be a traitor and working for the forces of evil.

One of the fun parts of this game is everyone wondering/accusing the potential traitor, especially since there's a small chance the traitor won't be present in the game. I've generally shied away from this type of game, as I've never really grasped the concept of how you can by the bad guy but to cover it up you have to help the good guys - to me it would just seem so obvious that the traitor would be doing the minimum.

In Wil's game, the traitor was actually pretty helpful, at least in my eyes. When Wheaton's group was playing, he pointed out how when someone plays the first time they can get away with a lot more by "acting ignorant" of some of the rules if they are the traitor. I took advantage of that, as I WAS THE TRAITOR in the first game we played. It seems this game is so difficult for the good guys that revealing the traitor just send it over the top, so that was my strategy. Be helpful beyond the minimum until the opportunity for me to win shows itself.

I had a small advantage in keeping my secret since I don't work with these guys every day. I know them well enough to cut-up, joke, and accuse, but I was able to keep it all subtle enough to not raise too many suspicions. The hardest part was to not keep looking at the rules for what to do once the traitor is revealed. Play started, and taking a cue from the game I saw on YouTube I was focusing on planting siege engines around Camelot (need to place 12 for Camelot to fall and me to win the game). There were other ways for me to win, but this seemed the most straight forward.

As we were all learning the game (from Richard's rules speech), everyone fumbled around a little and did some things wrong, some things right. I teamed with Phil on a quest, but then he left me. Completing a quest is a point for the good guys, so I was secretly happy he left. Then Keith and Daniel came along to help me complete the quest. While completing the quest was bad for my overall goal (complete enough quests and the good guys win), this particular quest had the smallest reward. I also received a bonus for completing the quest, so the good guy face I had to show was happy. Meanwhile, larger quests were starting to fail.

The siege engines around Camelot were growing, to around 10 out of the 12 which would make Camelot fall. Everyone was rallying back to defend Camelot, but I managed to find a (valid) excuse to try and finish the quest I was on, which of course I had no intention of doing. Siege engines were destroyed, but drawn cards kept putting more back. After a couple of turns, we were back to 10 siege engines and thanks to a special knight power, we were hinted that some Very Bad Cards were set to be drawn. Amanda took her turn right before me and placed siege engine #11 on the board for her Bad Thing because she knew the Bad Card was very bad. Her good thing was not to battle the siege engine, so on my turn there were 11 of the 12 siege engines present to make Camelot fall.

I decided to have a little fun, if for no other reason than I like to mess with Joe and he falls for it most of the time.

Everyone looked to me as I started to reveal what I was going to do. "Ok, we know the black card is bad" I said. "But, I've got 5 Health so I can lose 1 health point as my bad thing." Everyone nodded as I fumbled with my health die, ready for me to sacrifice a life point. "Ok, so I place a siege engine." Nods went to confusion, and Daniel tried to stop me as he realized it would end the game. Joe looked at me with a "Wait, why would you do that? Hey, are you the.." as I turned over my card and revealed myself as the traitor.

It was AWESOME!

We played another game, and Keith won as the traitor but he had to work for it a little harder (he didn't cover up his traitorness as well as I did and was exposed!). Shadows Over Camelot isn't truly fun until you play as the traitor. Seeing how long you can get away with lurking in the shadows (over Camelot) is a lot more fun than I expected.

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Amazon Prime Movies

10.24.2013

Thanks to getting an Amazon Prime account years ago to take advantage of their 2-day free shipping (even though it costs $79/year), I've taken to watching some of the free streaming movies they offer with said account. Most of the movies they offer are movies I already have if they've been released in the past 5 years (at least the movies I would want to watch).

But, they have both some older movies and quirky movies that I either passed on buying, or just aren't worth buying. Last night, I enjoyed a handful of the latter by delving into late 70's/early 80's bad sci-fi. I don't think I watched more than a half-hour of any given movie.

First in my queue was Starflight One (1983) with Lee Majors and Hal Linden, with a plot about a hypersonic passenger jet that's supposed to be sub-orbital, but something goes wrong. After half an hour, the jet still hadn't taken off. With some fast forwarding, it seems there was a problem with an Autralia-launched rocket that caused problems Starflight One. Based on the angle Lee Majors was wearing his pilot's hat, I'm pretty sure he had the skill to safely land Starflight One at some point in the movie.

Next up was Starcrash (1978), which was not the movie I thought it was (my childhood memories of movie titles and scenes has gotten garbled). This one starred people nobody has ever heard of, along with David Hasselhoff. This is a Roger Corman movie, so it's appallingly low-budget bad. I only lasted 10 minutes into this one. The plot revolves around a space-woman-pilot-ne'er-do-well who wears less and less as the movie goes on. It's still rated PG, so she only gets down to her space-bikini and thigh high boots.

Lastly was Damnation Alley (1977) with George Peppard, Jan-Michael Vincent, and Paul Winfield. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie in 1977 at the theater, where I didn't think I was allowed to say "damnation". Of the 3 movies of the night, this one has aged the best as I found it almost watchable! I forgot the beginning of the movie, before the nuclear apocalypse hits. The worse part of the movie was Peppard's faux-Southern accent, at least I think it was supposed to be Southern. Bad special effects can be given a little leeway over time. Bad acting/accents... not so much.

I had hoped to watch Soylent Green. Amazon shows it as a Prime available movie, but when I went to watch it I got a message to "sign up now". I've never seen the movie, so I thought it was about time to give it a shot. I'll have to try again later.

It's going to be a little bit before I try again, though. There's only so much 70's acting and special effects a person can take at one time.

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Post Op Week 3

10.21.2013

This past week I managed to lose a little over 5 pounds. Not the awe-inspiring 10 pounds per week of the previous 3 weeks, but I knew that wasn't going to last. Part of it is my body (somehow) getting used to 700 calories/day, but this past week also introduced semi-solid food.

Tuna. The last time I tried tuna it was horrible. I've since learned that I'm snooty and just can't eat canned tuna. Give me tuna in a pouch and I'm happy.

Beans. I've been avoiding beans for years. A friend at work who went through a gastric bypass was telling me about eating refried beans from Taco Bell when she could have smooshed food. Thanks to Publix, I picked up some refried black beans. Add a splash of salsa, fat-free cheese & sour cream, and BAM instant Fiesta Mexicana. I have no idea what a Fiesta Mexicana really is, but here at Casa Boonies it's some beans with flavor. As a bonus, you want to avoid me for roughly 3 hours afterward. A shortened digestive tract can be pungent.

Banana. Thanks to Gina making sure I get my walks in, my legs hurt. My legs hurt because they're getting exercise and I can finally walk across a parking lot without huffing and puffing - I managed to walk 3 miles on the track yesterday and didn't pass out once! But, I can take no anti-pain medicine but liquid Tylenol, and it doesn't help a lot with leg pain. I used to pop a handful of Aleve every day for my muscle and joint pain, but it's aspirin based and not allowed any longer. On my post-op doctor visit, I was told I could have some fruit (after I eat all my protein) and cooked vegetables. The potassium in bananas goes straight to the thighs, so as of 10 minutes ago I'm eating bananas. Organic bananas, because (1) they're smaller, and I still eat small amounts and have no idea how to properly save half a banana, and (2) all Publix had tonight was 3 bunches of organic bananas. So far, no side effects from the banana or the sugar it contained. We'll see how that leg potassium does.

As a bonus, here's some of my frequently answered questions of late:
Q. Do you get hungry/full?
A. Not really. My stomach feels kind of empty (and then kind of full), but I don't get that feeling that says "I'm hungry, I should go eat everything."
Q. I feel bad for eating in front of you/I shouldn't eat this.
A. While not a question, people eating around me isn't mean. I don't want to grab whatever it is out of your hand and gobble it down. Oddly enough, I've been enjoying the smell of other people's food. Jerry's Subway sandwiches have nice smelling onions.
Q. How do you feel?
A. I feel better than I have in a long while (duh) but still run out of energy in the afternoon and want to take a nap. Some days I do nap, sometimes I just take it easy for an hour or two. When I start to feel tired, I have no qualms about letting people know that I'm fading out.

Now maybe I can find something interesting to babble on about during the course of the week besides my weight and what I'm eating.

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Another Scale Receipt

10.15.2013

Today was my post-op doctor visit, and I got the receipt from the scales one more time! To the left is the receipt from my last visit before surgery, and to the right is how everything turned out today, 3 weeks later.

The biggest change is the 30 pound drop. Along with that, there's a 3.5% fat decrease (whoo hooooooo). I gained a pound and a half of muscle/water (that's good) and lost 31.8 pounds of fat. Wow, that just sunk in to me. 30+ pounds of fat. Hell yeah!

The doctor visit went well - he's pleased with my progress and thinks I'll do fine going forward, I think mainly due to my attitude. One of the things he said that didn't sink in for a few minutes was that in a year I should reach my target weight of 180-200 lbs.

When did that become my target weight? He said 180. That starts with a one. I don't think my weight started with a one since I was in my teens, and that's marginally counting "thirteen".

Granted, according to the receipt my ideal weight would be in the 180-200 range: 162 lbs (FFM) + 20-45 lbs (Desirable Fat Mass). My brain has a hard time visualizing that. My brain can visualize 240 (my weight at high school graduation). With the average amount of weight loss with the gastric sleeve I was expecting my realistic target to be 270 (which I still think is high). This means my goal of 240 should actually be achievable in the next year.

This surgery just keeps getting better and better.

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Post Op Week 2

10.14.2013

Now 2 weeks after surgery (and it feels like longer) I'm down just over 21 pounds, with 7 of those lost in the past week. I've also noticed how important walking is, as on the days I go with Gina out to the school walking track I lose a little more than the days I decide to stay home and recoup.

After my steak/solid-food craving of last week, I'm now back to "normal". Today starts phase 2 of the post op diet, with adds "pureed" to the liquid diet. Fish I can eat without blending into a liquid, so I'll give that a try. Low fat cottage cheese is on the list too. I don't think I've ever had cottage cheese by itself, but I'm going to try it at least once in the next 2 weeks of phase 2. Unstrained egg drop soup is also on the list, and I enjoy egg drop soup!

Last night I had some chicken broth, but it tasted more like salty water to me (and this was low sodium chicken broth). This morning I swear I can still taste the salt. I've never been one to add salt, and salt can often overpower the taste of what I'm eating. Mentally, chicken broth is now off the menu.

Everything else is continuing as it has been, post-op wise. No nausea, no pain. I woke up at one point during the night and found I was laying on my stomach, so I guess that's safe now. The vitamin schedule is a little hard to maintain if I leave the house - I take vitamins with me, I just tend to forget to take them on time. Once I start delaying taking a vitamin by 30-60 minutes and shifting the schedule, I run out of day to take those things.

Today is my first day back to work. I'm just a little worried about my stamina, as I've been fading around 1:00 the past couple of days. Not fading enough for a nap, just enough to sit and watch some tv for an hour or so. We'll see how today works out.

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