Jan. 24th, 2024

canyonwalker: Roll to hit! (d&d)
Sometimes in role-playing games like D&D funny moments arise when a newer player is surprised by one of the rules. Such a thing happened to some friends of mine years ago. I'll share the story as I've embellished it over the years.

"A gust of wind in the cave blows your torches out," the GM advised the players.

"It's okay," Phil said (I think his name was Phil), "I'll light two more."

Then another gust of wind blew out the torches. And again, Phil proffered two more.

Understand, BTW, that "A wind blows out your torches" is an old time-y trope in games like D&D. Back in the 1980s it was typical for adventures to be written specifically to foil players' preparations. The dungeon designer wanted the characters to have to face a challenge in the dark, generally because that was the one thing that made it hard, so they included something like a perpetual wind gust to exhaust the supply of torches the players equipped their characters with.

But Phil's supply was not exhausted. "I light two more torches," he said a third time.

The GM, suspicious, peered over the GM's screen. "Just how many torches do you have, Phil? Are these all written down on your character sheet?"

"Right here," Phil pointed to his equipment list. "When we were in town, I stocked up. The player's handbook says torches are 1/2 copper piece each, and I didn't want to make change for a gold, so I just bought 200."

"200 torches?!" the GM exclaimed. "They're, like, 18 inches long and weigh a pound each. You're like a walking wood pile shambling its way through the dungeon!"

canyonwalker: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Travel! (planes trains and automobiles)
I'm headed off to Austin for a few days on business. We're doing some technical training oriented around a new product the company launched a few months ago. It would have been nice to have this training a few months ago but the company's been trying to do everything on a very fast schedule. That's resulted in a "Still building the aircraft after it's already taken off" sort of situation.

Speaking of the aircraft already taking off, mine already has. We departed SJC about 30 minutes ago and are flying nonstop to AUS. I'll arrive in time for dinner with colleagues this evening, have a full day on Thursday then a half day on Friday before flying home, and should be home in time for dinner Friday. It'll be a busy couple of days!

canyonwalker: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Travel! (planes trains and automobiles)
"Oh, you get to travel for business," I hear a lot. "You're so lucky!"

The truth about business travel for most of us is it's not the swank life in the lap of luxury you see portrayed in movies. It's life in 3-star hotels in suburban office parks, dinners at dull restaurants, and too-long days that leave no time for clubbing or sightseeing.

Take my current trip as an example. I'm in Austin, Texas this evening through Friday afternoon. You might think of Austin as a fun place to go.... "Live Music Capital of the World", bars and clubs on 6th Street, great good swank hotels downtown, etc. All those things are true but this is a business trip. None of those things are in scope.

A dull hotel room in Austin, TX— typical of business travel (Jan 2024)

Instead of staying at a swank hotel downtown I'm in a... tired, anonymous hotel miles away. It's surrounded by office parks. I have elite status so they upgraded me to a corner room with a balcony. Here's the view from my balcony....

View from my Austin, TX hotel balcony... of a parking garage (Jan 2024)

Hey, look, a great view of a parking garage! And they have a light show. Yes, the colored lights on the garage cycle through a rainbow of shades. Why, I could sit here all evening watching the lights and be only... 99.8% bored. 🤣

All the great eats in Austin? We had a team dinner at a chain restaurant across the freeway. Our leaders think of themselves as so cosmopolitan and world wise, but they're from flyover country. Their idea of fine dining is going to an expensive chain restaurant.

And clubs and bars downtown? Sure, I could hop in a cab and go this evening. But this being a sales training summit, we've got a full day starting tomorrow before 8am. As I'm already facing a two hour timezone change (the 8am start will feel like 6am for me) I don't want to do anything tonight that would jeopardize my ability to lean in all day tomorrow. It'll be hard enough as it is getting up with my 6:30am alarm. It'll feel like 4:30am to me.

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canyonwalker

May 2025

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