xydexx's Xanga

Xydexx's GenCon Schedule

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:18:39 GMT

I'm all registered for GenCon. It'll be my first time going! Hray! Here's my schedule:

Thursday:
8:00pm Australian Rails

Friday:
8:00 am Eurorails
12:00 pm Small World
2:00 pm Union Pacific
4:00 pm British Rails
8:00pm Iron Dragon

Saturday:
11:00 am Santa Fe
2:00 pm Play and Understand Morton's List
4:00 pm Chicago Express
6:00 pm Oregon Trail
8:00 pm On The Underground

Yeah, I'm playing mostly train games. There were a lot of things I couldn't fit into my schedule. Sunday I have pretty much free to wander around as I please.

I don't know what Morton's List is exactly. It looked interesting, but all the descriptions about it were kinda vague¹. It has something to do with going on quests. I'm wondering what I've gotten myself into. Oh well. I'm sure it'll be interesting, in any event.

¹ Doing a little more research, the game was apparently invented by Jumpsteady of the Insane Clown Posse. (Eep!) So now I'm really wondering what I've gotten myself into. Okay, okay, no reason to panic. I mean, they can't be much weirder than me, right?²
² Apparently being outside my comfort zone is to be expected. It's all about embracing the new and unknown. Maybe. Either way, I'm cool with that. They sound like a friendly enough group of folks.

Xydexx's Wednesday Update

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:29:14 GMT

Yes, I've been deployed, but I still find time to do stuff when I'm not working for my corporate or Anthrocon masters. There are abandoned houses to explore and things to eat! Hray!

Rigel found a wonderful mashup by DJ Pantshead and the Evolution Control Committee called "Ritalin Ruckus"—lots of 80's songs mixed in with it. Everything you always wanted in a radio station. -=)

I'm on a glass jar/bottle collecting kick lately. I've been saving the more unusual ones I've gotten, and plan to make up fake labels and relabel them. They'll contain obscure things like "Tiny Pink Ferret Noses" and such.

Renfield and Cheryl were over this weekend, and Rigel fixed Cheryl's computer while Renfield and I played Burnout 3 on the PS2. Renfield liked it, unsurprisingly. Afterward, we headed out for dinner at La Chocita Grill. They have delicious rotisserie chicken.

I dropped my bike off at the shop for its annual tune-up. One the weather gets nice I'm going to try to check out a few abandoned buildings I recently discovered.

Unicorns Against Bush / Unicorns For Obama

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:05:56 GMT

Back in 2004, the unicorns were unhappy with then-President Bush. Once he was re-elected, things seemed all the more hopeless. But when Obama won in 2008, that made victory that much sweeter.

Months later, this still makes me smile. Yay for unicorns! They're the best!

Recipes That Time Forgot

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:42:30 GMT

I haven't had Swedish Butter Cookies in about 20 years, so I think I may make some soon.

Sometimes I try to determine dates of things by determining their relationship to other things or events. Having no written record of a lot of this, that's the best I can do. For example, I haven't had these cookies in about twenty years, because my grandparents on my Dad's side made them, and they died off the 1980s.

Man, I've been editing this entry like crazy in order to determine a timeline of events. Let's see if I can put this in some sort of order:

In 8th grade I went to H. C. Crittenden Middle School in Armonk, NY (1982 - 1983). I was definitely living in Hawthorne then, because I rode the bus with Mike B____. I had gotten a new ten-speed bike from the bike shop in Elmsford, and gone on a trip to Croton Reservoir with him since he lived on the border of Hawthorne and Thornwood. Grandfather on my father's side died in May 1983. He was living in Beacon, NY. (My grandparents were living on Central Avenue in Hartsdale when I was really little, and sold the house which got torn down and replaced with a Kentucky Fried Chicken.)

In 9th grade I was at Rye High School in Rye, NY (1983 - 1984). I met Bill E____ there, and we rode the bus together, which means we lived near each other (he lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, the next town over). Definitely had my ten-speed then, because I was riding it everywhere I went. 1984 was also the year Van Halen's album of the same title came out, so I'm thinking by 1984 I was definitely living in Dobbs Ferry (I moved back to Hawthorne sometime around 1990---there's probably more info about this in my paper journal).

Around 1985 I bought my C-64 computer from Crazy Eddie's in Hartsdale and started running a BBS on it. Bill E____ got me interested in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

I'm glad I'm documenting this somewhere, even if nobody else is interested in it.

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Pony Cookies!

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:03:34 GMT

I made another batch of NOMNOMNOMMY oatmeal-cinnamon-raisin cookies. Once again, modifying the recipe according to my pony whims. The first recipe is here. These came out good, but I wanted to try the second recipe as well. I added honey to them, because I'm weird like that. Now I have all these cookies to eat!

Xydexx's NOMNOMNOMMY Cookies

ingredients
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (to soften put in microwave on defrost for ~40 seconds)
2 tbsp. honey (I'm guessing... I just put some in at random.)
1 c. brown sugar, packed
1 c. granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla
3 c. oats (Quaker Quick or Old Fashioned)
1 1/2 c. raisins

directions
Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease two large cookie sheets. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy. Mix in honey (make two tablespoon indents in the mixed butter, fill them with honey, then mix). Add sugars, beat until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour dry ingredients into butter-sugar mixture and stir. Mix in raisins. Mix in oats. Spoon out dough by helping tablespoons with a wet spoon. Leave 2" between each cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet, then move to wire rack to finish cooling.

servings
Makes about 40 cookies.

Nobody Takes Xydexx More Seriously Than The Folks Who Say They Don't Take Him Seriously

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:09:00 GMT

So I was browsing around on the Internet Furry Proximity Locator the other day, checking to see if there were any furries near Leesburg. Out of curiosity, I checked my profile, because everyone knows how I don't have a sense of humor and take myself way too seriously.

This is what I have set as my profile picture:

No wonder nobody ever visits us anymore...

Xydexx: One Step Ahead Of You

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:45:41 GMT

Xydexx, everyone's favorite silly squeaky pony, continues to rocket ahead at a speed of warp zillion, in order to Pronk The Planet. Yay!

Too bad for the folks who are still stuck on Planet Misery. -=)

Xydexx: September Biking Summary

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 03:38:38 GMT

I've been working on completing my photographic treasure hunt over at Milepost 38. There are still many more places I need to go, mostly over in Maryland---Sugarloaf Mountain and Buckeystown, for example. Hopefully the weather holds out long enough for me to go riding out there... it's definitely getting cooler. Not much longer for shorts and t-shirt biking.

Idea: Create a random biking destination generator. Because it's always hard for me to decide where to go. Possibly set it up to create routes (ala Ticket To Ride)... i.e., "Ashburn to Hamilton" and so on.

Sillier Idea: Along those same lines, the MegaHAL bike blog. Basically all my bike blog entries combined into one neverending nonsensical adventure. It could happen. If I can come up with something as silly as PiaNoWriMo and the Super Bowl Of Eyeballs, there's no telling what else might happen.

Idle Hands!

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:03:41 GMT

I couldn't resist...

Eating babies is one way to fight heart disease!

Pleasantville's Lost Cave?

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:23:47 GMT

Last time I was up in New York one of Renfield's friends mentioned a cave up in Pleasantville near the Banks Cemetery. A little poking around on the internets revealed information on Pleasantville's "Lost Cave". I have a general idea of where it might be, and it's reportedly a huge cavern that nobody can find, even though the potential search area is pretty small.

The cave is (I'm assuming) located on east of the Banks Cemetery, next to a stream, and west of the Robbins Road residential area, based on information I've read. Renfield's friend claims he's been in it, so the entrance must have been found again.

More information on The Lost Cave:

So Called Old Poker Hole.

Probably very few living in this vicinity at the present time know of the existence of a cave within the corporate limits of Pleasantvillle. In a ravine on the west side of Mr. George Robbin's farm and a few rods southwest of Mr. Stephen R. Smith's residence is or was an entrance to a cave. About forty-eight years ago Mr. Charlton Millrose and others dug away the earth at the entrance so that a man could easily enter in an upright position. Abram See with another started with a lighted candle and followed the cave through what is now the Banks Cemetery 'till they reached a point under the roadway near the present horseshed. They said at the time they could hear a wagon passing overhead. They then retraced their steps, probably fearing to go further. About this time a young colt belonging to Mr. Benj. Hays wandered in there and never again appeared at the entrance. People for a long time after came miles to see the cave. As a small stream was running close by, the entrance soon began to fill up, and for many years it has been entirely hidden, but the writer and a few others can point out the exact spot. Mr. Elijah Montross remembers entering the opening for a short distance at that time. It would be of interest to the people of the community if the cave could be reopened.

Further information can probably be found at the Mount Pleasant Historical Society in Elmsford:
* DeVoe, Howard. 1957. Pleasantville's Lost Cavern: 1882-1957. The Westchester Historian, July, August, September, vol.33, no.3, pp72-74.
* DeVoe, Howard. Cave Notes, 1944-2004. Note: Research, correspondence, photographs, etc., of the author’s search for a lost cave in Pleasantville.

So I'm gonna go look for it next trip up to New York, which is potentially next weekend. There's also an old mill-type looking building along the power lines right-of-way west of Banks Cemetery which may be interesting to check out and get pictures of. (It's not abandoned, just old.)

In other news, here are some of my pictures from Anthrocon 2008.