A surreal Norrath

So there I was, all excited about my new horse, the one that cost a ridiculous amount of plat, but has really cool clouds under it's feet. When Norrath went all surreal on me. Not the usual graphic card adjustment, but.. well see for yourself:)

First the horse. Pretty green, no?

Then Teren's Gasp. Bet you didn't know the pyrimids had tarot card wallpaper underneath all that stone.

And the revolving carpet was a nice touch too. Too bad the pic doesn't show the turning.

LM Day at Great America

For the third year in a row, Akshay and I spend the day at GA for the Lockheed family day. This time we were accompanied by family and unlike last years rain, we had a gorgeous day at the park. Not so much coaster riding as in the past (kids this time round) but a great day none the less.

Best of all, Ryan overcame a personal hurdle, and rode and even (mostly) enjoyed a roller coaster ride. And just in case, here's a picture with proof. He's there in the middle next to his Dad, and behind his Tante and sister. Woohoo and good going kiddo!

Had to throw in a pic of me with the kids. It was a typical example of our day, goofiness, one of us taking a picture, on a ride.

Last Time at Redwood City H4H?

This would be me, reliving a summer in my childhood. My Father, being the money-wise Dutch man that he was, didn't feel the need to rent a cement mixer when paving over part of the back yard. So he and I spent many days mixing with shovel and hose, and pouring and smoothing cement sections. It all felt very familiar though I've had 40 years to forget what hard dirty work it was.

It may be our last time at this build site as we once again grouped together to spend the day working outdoors instead of in front of a computer. We've been working on this site for a year now, and it's supposed to be completed in April. Hopefully we'll manage to attend the dedication ceremonies this year, but failing that, here's a salute to the volunteers, the corp members and the site, not to mention a gratz for the families that will be moving in. The blue hat is Robin one of the Americorp workers and the blue shirt is our 'leader' Jonothan.

The Halfling Seer

I was on my way to the Antonica docks to catch a bell to Thundering Steps when I came across a crowd gathered near the drawbridge. I moved my steed closer and caught a glimpse of a little halfling standing in the center. Lending a ear, I heard the halfling, Jeahara, say to a half elf, "Now ask me a question".

And everyone in the crowd did just that. "WoWill I find love", "Will I have a family", "Become a great hero", and much more in that same vein. Intrigued, I took a number a took my place in a not so orderly line.


Now I could also hear the fortunes being told, and well, they seems a bit preoccupied with gnolls, death, cookies. A half elf asked about a family in her future and was rewarded with te following fortune;


"Yes! You will Marry a Gnoll and have many Gnoll children!"

and was given a wooden puppy on which to practice her parenting skills. Another asked if he would be the best fighter and was told,

"You will fight the best...oh my! You will fight the best when your house is infested with cheese eating...err...GNOLLS".

When prompted, I shouted out that I was nnumber 4 and soon it was my turn to ask my question:

"I wish to know if I will have many a swashbuckling romanitc adventure" I asked.

Jeahara answered, "Yes, but you'll regret it."

I then said, "arent all fun things to be regretted later?"

Jeahara said, "You should become a night housewife...and bake me cookies!"

"I like cookies but my cousin is the baker in the clan" I replied.

Jeahara stated, "I see it in your future"

"Will the cookies keep the fleas away?" was my next question.

In response Jeahara then handed me a tortured halfling skeleton and said "This..however..he didnt follow my advise and he died!. Sad isn't it."

And I realized that she was indeed a true seer of the future and muttered,"oh dear, he tasted my cookies!".

Infinite Luck's Adventure Club Guild Hall

The Deverry clan was tasked with the decoration of the guilds new T1 hall in South Freeport. It took Danda a few months, but she finally got it done, mostly within the parameters given: No water falls, no "pretty or qeynosian" flower gardens, no pillows, don't use the entire item count. As you'll see, she managed to sneak in a few tasteful examples of each, but in the end delivered a unified, elegant, simple whole, suitable for the guilds meetings and entertainments, such as they are [not].

I threw out any idea of personal spaces and focused on public spaces. We wanted a tradeskill room and a library for sure, and a meeting room would be a nice touch, with a nod to medieval england. One large room put aside or converstation, reading, socializing, the other for food and drink. The entrance area would be dedicated to transportation, with our own druid ring in the center.

Using repeating design elements throughout (fireplaces, chandilers, rugs), and then duplicating chairs, tables, lamps within each space, it all came together. The story can be read in the Norrathian Homeshow (http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=442274) and all the pictures are on Photobucket (http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm18/mhuygen/EverquestII/Infinite%20Luck%20GuildHall/EQ2_000172.jpg) including a slideshow (http://s292.photobucket.com/albums/mm18/mhuygen/EverquestII/Infinite%20Luck%20GuildHall/?albumview=slideshow)

But here I thought I'd show something from each room, maybe why I did what, etc.

I'll start with the food and drink half of the hall. It was importatnt to me to have things match, both from a decorating perspective and to keep the lag down, since repeating elements need less rendering. I also wanted to make sure all the different races in the guild would fit. That meant tables and chairs in different scales, suitable for trolls and fae. One of my favorite elements was the sideboard I came up with to separate the formal dining room from the bar and snack area. It's just some ash bookcases with ornate shelves on top, wedged between two columns, but I really like how it came out. It took a bit of tweaking to make it so the bracers on the shelves didn't show, and I had to put some mirrors on the back to hide stuff as well. But it meant I didn't have to use place settings on the tables, what an item saver that is.

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Next is the bar "zone" which is actually the last thing I finished. I wanted the redwood furniture and I had to wait for Danda to skill up enough to make it. Lucky thing too since I really like how the redwood end tables looked used as tables. the green detail matches the chairs and bar perfectly. Again, everything is sized differently. The fireplace has some traditional devans and a bench in front of the fire and on the walls I have some stand up, high stool drinking bars.

The bar itself owes a lot to the one in Deliawyn's house. It's tucked in the corner, under the loft for the kitchen. Could never figure out what to do with the doorknocker but I like it in the middle of the mirror.

You can't really see them (they are hiding in the back of the bar picture) but a simple set of vale bench stairs goes up to the kitchen loft. Chests under rosewood tables make it look like drawers ( I think) and the freeport bedside tables make a great center island. I used the vampiric mirror and glacial bookcase to make an icebox, not an original idea but one worth appropriating.

The other large room is the living room. Back to back fireplaces are used to divide the space. On one side a cozy chat area with two chairs, bear skin rug and the fountain. On the other side an almost duplicate of that seating area but more formal. I struggled with how to scatter the chairs and table and I think I settled on something that works. A combination of intimate tables, formal seating by the fire, grouped conversation areas, all with different scaled chairs, and low tables to make display spots that can also provide some separation. Into the nook I put the requisite fish tank. It's just too much fun to make and where else can you put a swimming fish after all. Here I got help from Janecan, who had the faction to make the stone blocks and wispy bushes. There's no real floor, just a dragon nest and a straw floor mat floated off the floor so I could have things poke thru to get the affect I wanted. And to hide the snowbank used to looks like bubbles. Xepnar made me a streaming tapestry that I hung sideways in the back to look like shimmering water. Combined with the "glass" of the vampiric mirror, it looks like a real water filled space.

Above the tank is the muscians loft with a nice set of curving stairs leading up. But there isn't anything up there really, jsut some pillows for a romantic tryst or something.

Downstairs is where we put the business amenties; the mender, bank, and broker, and the tradeskill stations with writ giver and fuel merchant. Since everyone whould be coming down here often, I wanted to make sure everyone could run quickly up to the loft. So I used a ramp instead of stairs, and it works great. Now this took a lot of doing. Not the ramp itself so much. Just four ornate shelves, hung on bookcases to match in the middle. The work was getting the linen scenary paintings in place. Because of the ramp, the LOS had to be just so, and I couldn't both the top and bottom edge. They had to be slid into the small space between the bookcases they are hung on, and the ramp already in place. I gave up any idea of getting the paintings back to back. I could probably dismantle the whole thing, make the walls first and then place the shelves, but these particular paintings are solid so there's no gaurentee it would work. Besides, it looks good and most of visitors seem to be impressed by it, so why mess.

The other small room is the library and office. Again, a loft. Yep I like lofts. And although you can't see it, there's another ramp leading up to it. This one tucked behind the library shelves that look like they are at the end of the room. Maybe we'll get the shelves filled in eventually and curios placed in the niches. Again, the desks are all different sizes, and have scrolls, books, ink quills and reading lamps.

Up the ramp are the offices of the guild leaders. We had a trifecta and out GL is a gnome, hence the small size, and separation of the one desk.

But my favorite room has to be the meeting room. I used the upstairs room with the window and patterned the whole thing after a knights hall I saw in England. With no small tribute to the Knights of the Round Table. The glacial walls filled in the wall shelving nicely making a good space to hang whatever trophies we manage to acquire. In front of the window we have stadium seating made from sandlewood platforms, ,nimbus rugs and just a few single pillows. The main body of the guild sits there or on stone benches on the sides. All the members with the rank of Knight sit at the tables. And the leaders get the ice chairs on the platform on the other end. Everyone has a wine glass. But my favorite element are the banners. I wanted a way to make it look like every knight/clan/family and their own colors displayed, so each strut on the walls has a banner sticking out from it. Eventually I hope the game will have enough different ones so they aren't repeated. A bookcase, a shelf and a lot of mouse scrolling got them in place and I think the whole hall looks truely like a medieval mead hall, to steal from Beowulf.

Anyway, that's it. Fell free to stop by and visit on Antonia Bayle, in South Freeport, Infinite Luck.

Huntington Lake Camp R&R 2008

The 25th CampR&R took place this year at Huntington Lake off I168 east of Fresno. I'd never heard of the place (nor any of the string of lakes along this road) but apparently its a premier saililng location due to the consistent afternoon winds.

Those same winds, coupled with a 7K+ elevation, made it a bit chilly, especially after the sun went down. I fianlly got myself a tent I could actually stand in, but the best new addition to my camping gear turned out to be the rechargable camp blender. Yep, margharitas and other mixed drinks were served daily during the obligatory happy hour.

Along with the usual hiking, ice cream stops, mornings staring at the water, afternoons on the beach, we made one trip that turned out to be pretty memorable. Mono Hot Springs Resort was only 17 miles away, but it took nearly 1.5 hours to traverse the one lane, windy road. It was the kind of road that had no railing and where you had to honk when driving around a bend. The potholes and uneven pavement made it a bumpy ride as well.

The surprise wasn't the road, but the resort at the end of it. Complete with a spa and massages, a general store with fresh vegetables, and a resteraunt with great food, inlcuding a selection of buffalo meat sandwiches, all served up by Jerem, our very cute server :)

After the meal, we headed out to the hot springs, which were the whole point of this trip. After soaking for an hour or so we felt fortified enough to head back. After negotiating the right of way with a herd of cows, we ended our excursion.

Tasting Room and Wine Cellar

Sometimes the simplest thing turns out to be a favorite, when least expected. So it is with Deliawyn's little wine cellar/tasting room. When she decided to move her office to her kitchen so she could work on her recipes, the little stone alcove was left empty. Since the wine racks and beer kegs needed a place to go, Delia moved them here. A little tweaking, some new chairs, and a cute little tasting room was born.



Now after a delicious meal, Delia and her cousin Dribissa come a have a glass of port before sitting by the living room fire with a good book and a little music.