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In Mid-South Conference basketball Saturday afternoon at St. Catharine College, the visiting Rio Grande Bears earned a split of the two games.
Rio Grande topped the Patriot women in the first game 77-62, but the St. Catharine men won over the Rio Grande men 72-67.
In Mid-South Conference basketball action Thursday night at St. Catharine College, the Patriots were able to gain a split against the visiting West Virginia Tech Bears.
In the women's game, Lena Bramblett's team downed the Bears 74-64. In the men's contest, the Patriots of J.T. Burton fell 100-92 in overtime.
It took a 10-hour bus ride and an extra day added to the trip, but the St. Catharine College baseball team was able to get in all four games of the opening series of the season.
Luther Bramblett's Bat Pats traveled to Alabama to play the University of Mobile last weekend and returned with one win in the two doubleheaders. After getting rained out on Friday, St. Catharine dropped a twin bill, 4-2 and 7-1, on Saturday. On Sunday they won the opener 5-4 but lost the second game 5-3.
The age old axiom in baseball is that a team must be strong up the middle to be successful. For Luther Bramblett's St. Catharine College Patriots, that wisdom should translate into victories for the 2011 squad.
The Patriots, who began the season Friday in Alabama against the University of Mobile, will have three senior catchers, a senior shortstop and two junior transfers at second base and center field.
After battling through the toughest stretch of their season, the Commanderettes look to gain momentum heading into the postseason.
Washington County dropped three straight to Owensboro Catholic, Marion and Nelson last week, but hope to rebound this week.
The Commanderettes open with Nicholas County (4-11) on Friday.
They will travel to the new gym at Nicholas County High School for a 6 p.m. tipoff.
The Lady Jackets are led by Reesa Martin (13.8 points per game) and Megan Bretz (8.5 points per game).
Washington County vs. Nelson County
Score: 79-31 Nelson County
When: Sunday, Feb. 6
Where: Nelson County High School
Key players: WCHS - Kenya Turner, Jennifer Keene NCHS - Shelby Maupin, Caitlin Hagan, Cierra Drake
Game highlights: The Commanderettes wrapped up the toughest stretch of their season with a 48-point loss to district rival Nelson County.
Washington County vs. North Bullitt
Score: 56-40 North Bullitt
When: Saturday, Feb. 5
Where: Washington County High School
Key players: NBHS - Brandon Goeing WCHS - Will Purdom, Jared Kelty
Game highlights: The Commanders hung around for the first quarter but the hot-shooting Eagles pulled away before the half.
Washington County will finish up the regular season on Tuesday. District tournament play is set to begin during the week of Feb. 21.
The Commanders begin their final week on Friday against Nicholas County (1-15).
Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at Nicholas County.
Commanders head coach Russell Burkhead said Nicholas County is young and struggling.
"We are a young, inexperienced team with zero returning players from last year's squad," Nicholas County head coach Greg Fletcher said.
Washington County vs. Owensboro Catholic
Score: 71-52 Owensboro Catholic
When: Wednesday, Feb. 2
Where: McBrayer Arena
Key players: OCHS - Rebecca Greenwell, Mary Kate Clemens, Leah Greathouse WCHS - Kenya Turner, Shay Yocum
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it could land some drivers in trouble with police, and even facing citations.
Chad Filiatreau, transportation engineering supervisor with the Kentucky Department of Transportation, said driving on closed roads, such as the new Springfield Northwest Bypass, is dangerous, as well as illegal.
Copyright © 2018
The Springfield Sun is your source for local news, sports, events and information in Springfield, KY, and the surrounding area.


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First up for sale is a Tmaxx 3.3 that has never been used it has been a shelf queen that was going to be a basher but I never had time to break it in. It is fully ready to run.
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Let me know,

subset: commoncrawl


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[Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
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Topic: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate." (Read 6068 times)
Ron Edwards
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Posts: 17707
[Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
January 25, 2011, 10:03:56 AM »
Tim Koppang and I met for a night of beer and gaming. Cold Soldier was on the table. I had my slightly re-formatted Ronnies draft, the diagram I wrote to help me navigate the rules, and a printout of the discussion threads to date at that point. Tim hadn't read the game yet and rectified that in a couple of minutes. I was the GM and Tim was the soldier player.
Our setup, and who said so, included The Present (Tim), Mad Genius (me), Death by Injury, specifically car accident (Tim), Weapon = horrific decay-touch (Tim), Fights in a group (both of us). We talked a bit about location and context, arriving at northern Illinois, or as I gestured while sitting in my home just north of the Chicago border, "over there," pointing north and west in a wiggly way which indicated a certain distance from us.
My reading of the rules is that fantasy settings are not allowed. The past is our past, and the present is our present. If Bret changes this, then OK, but I like it exactly as it is.
We used the following playtesting mods: when the soldier used his weapon, the GM drew a card and banked it for the final poker hand; in order to resist an order, the card discarded by the soldier player must exceed the obstacle card. Everything else went by the Ronnies entry rules.
Our first episode
I'm using the term "episode" instead of "scene" for a unit of story centered on a dark master's command, because ours varied a lot in terms of how many locations and shifts in circumstances were involved.
1. We opened on the Illinois prairie at night, in deep winter, with a flatbed truck moving along I-90 in the wee hours, practically alone. It turned onto various roads until it was quite isolated, although the lights of one of those prefab communities could be seen some ways off. Then we moved in to a man getting out, taking the tarp off the back, and half-a-dozen people emerging from crates. His breath emerged in opaque white plumes; they exhibited no such effect. He ordered them to "bring her to me," and the episode moved through them walking across the snow, coming to the "town," skulking through the neighborhood to a specific house, with some creepy details about how sometimes they used the streets and sometimes not, and how an obviously drunk, slow-moving driver spun out his car after getting a glimpse of them. The events of actually carrying out the task included getting into the house, dealing with a man armed with a pretty big pistol, and cornering the woman. All this took about eight back-and-forth units of "Goes."
Tim identified a memory triggered by the weak streetlights when they came to the edge of the community: he (the living man), next to his car, fumbling in his pocket for his car key underneath such a lamp.
My obstacle was 8, and Tim drew an 8, then used a weapon redraw for a 9. He narrated the conclusion of the fight, which killed the man via the soldier's decay-touch, and the effective but also inhumane and impersonal manhandling the woman received as they brought her back over the snow to the dark master. We instantly stopped the episode when Tim stopped speaking.
GM process: prep before play begins
i) My technique was to go to town with my dark master - the best, most compelling, most personally enticing and squicking version of the rules-combo (Present, mad genius) I could muster. Looking back on it, I was strongly influenced by the book
Going Postal
by Mark Ames, and especially his
recent interview
concerning the Loughner-Giffords shooting. My dark master was a disgruntled corporate researcher, which means that even before he was disgruntled on the job, he was a disgruntled academic, probably as a graduate student. Trust me, these are the most horribly disgruntled people in the world. Give one a weapon and you have a massacre - hammers or guns, doesn't matter, and I'm not kidding, this is real-world action I'm talking about. (In the department where I earned my M.S. and Ph.D.,
Theodore Streleski
was occasionally mentioned during grad-faculty disputes, by the grads, and not in a nice way.) Folding that in with Ames' point that the Loughner shooting uniquely combined the "postal" rampage with the targeted political shooting, and thinking of how perfectly right it was that one could do this with a hunter-killer special ops squad of zombies, I was on my way.
ii) I explained absolutely none of the above. Then I got right to it - the moment that he decided to go for it. In my case, the idea as that he was just starting out with his first zombie op. That is probably a customizable variable, but it does seem useful to have one's dark master at the start of
kind of personal arc, whether he's used zombies before or not.
GM process and presentation (within a single scene)
iii) I started the first episode in pure cinema terms: circling around at very long-shot distance, then panning in. It gave Tim an exact notion of whatever the scene is, and/or a specifically evocative notion of a mysterious place. In later scenes I either did the same, or began in an enclosed space with a similar technique that emphasized the very little that could be perceived (by the audience, not the soldier, whose "perceptions" were not a major camera-point in our game.)
iv) An episode allowed for a little bit of opening GM input to let the dark master do a couple of things, just enough, with just enough dialogue if someone else is there, to get the idea that he himself is at a decision-point. Or having come through such a point, is at the moment of taking direct action because of it. I always ended this part with the command and turned it over to Tim.
v) We included no explanation or exposition, either prior to the events we opened upon, or any verbal reference to those events by characters. I put quite a bit of attention into this effect. I narrated people talking to each other like people really talk, without unaccountably explaining what they already both know.
vi) We relied heavily on forward-moving narration, "Goes" in the style of S/lay w/Me. I saw my GM role as taking whatever was done, cross-referencing it with the situation as a whole, and moving forward either to a location or opportunity of signficance in the dark master's order, or to an event which follows from the current situation. Maximum imagery + maximum momentum was my ideal. However, that's not the same as speed. Quite a bit of the narration was almost lazy in its pacing, focusing on atmospheric details - but it never stopped or failed to get somewhere.
vii) Since the resolution mechanic applies to a whole episode, we could relax a little about when I flipped up the obstacle card, and when Tim either chose to resist or to try to obey. Any amount of narration and effects seemed to be OK relative to when these happened. (Although see my question later in this post.)
viii) We didn't say a word more of content after the player's final narration. It simply ended the episode, and our screen went dark right then, every time.
Arriving at content techniques
We immediately found that each person's input did very well to tell the other player something they need to know. In the early stages of play, we benefited ourselves greatly by establishing how the zombies understand their orders and most significantly, what zombies are like and what they can do. The specific content for these things will obviously vary greatly not only across setting/dark-master combinations, but across actual people playing. It's totally necessary, though. Without this information, the rest of play will probably flounder.
However, we did not establish these things through tedious pre-play preparatory talk. We simply launched into play and provided such information via our descriptions, both of us. When we were pretty comfortable with how much we knew about it, then this content turned into new applications and outcomes in later play.
It so happened that our walking dead were definitely deliberate and steady in their movements, and quite fast when necessary, but never graceful or agile. However, they did not stumble or bump into things - it'd be like, if they encountered a barrier, they'd fan out around it or go over it in a literal, unimaginative, but effective way. They operated as a crack squad, working as a team without communicating, such that someone might be cornered by a couple of them, then turn and run through an apparent escape route, only to find another waiting for them.
We also established that the dark master didn't have to provide a long and bullet-pointed list of exactly what to do and how to do it. When he said, "Bring this woman to me," the squad knew where to find her and wouldn't bring some other woman who sort of looked like her, or anything like that. Whether this was established in some psychic way or through some mad-genius technique like electrodes to a computer, we figured that would be between-episode content and didn't worry about the details.
The 11-episode story
I could easily write a long description of how each of the following was conceived, set up, played, arrived at its moment of truth, and resolved. I don't have the time or energy to do it for all of them. So Bret, if you're interested, please pick
for me to dissect in full.
Also, in each case, I list the memory if Tim took that option, but I'm not specifying exactly when during the episode he did it. It was never at the end as might be mistakenly inferred from my listings.
2. Another flatbed mission in similar circumstances, in the late evening, at one of those monolithic, isolated corporate buildings scattered along the I-90 route in Illinois. The dark master talked his way past the security guard, who apparently sympathized with him regarding his recent dismissal, and then went into the building himself, telling the squad to wait briefly and then "silence all in my path."
Tim beat my 5 with a 10; there was no other card use nor any memory triggered. He narrated how they took down the guard (a very human-horror moment, as we'd come to know the guy a little), then went into a full assault on the building, leaving carnage in the wake of the master getting his personal stuff that had been confiscated when he was fired.
Interestingly, this is the only scene where someone spoke the dark master's name, Cary, which wasn't mentioned again throughout the story and was in fact the only name used in the story.
3. Still in deep winter, at a closed-up summer-house type cabin on a lake either just north or just south of the Wisconsin border. The master leads his soldiers inside, where the woman from the first episode watches over a bound and gagged man placed upon a tarp on the rumpus-room floor. The kidnappee is given the chance to speak (allowing me to show that soldiers have the manual dexterity to remove a duct-tape gag, although not gently); it is implied that he used to be in authority over the master in some way. The master savored the man's pleas, and then snarled, "Tear him apart."
I didn't record the card values this time, but it was just like the previous episode; Tim simply drew and beat the obstacle. He spared me nothing in his narration, specifically that the order was initially followed
Tim identified a memory triggered by the warmth and light inside the summer-house: coming into such an environment from the cold, to a woman asking him, "Late again?"
4. A block in a Wisconsin city is cleared by police, and they herd the people in one house into its back yard, then trash the house. The mainstream media takes the official police statement on the outskirts, while an intrepid indie reporter manages to get to the house but is promptly beaten and subdued by the officers there. (See
for my direct inspiration.) Then the cops suddenly withdraw, to the activists' confusion, as they do not know that the soldiers are emerging from the house's basement. The master had repeated to them the instructions he had received: "Touch them all, then leave."
Tim chose to resist, playing a 10 out of his hand to beat my 4.
Tim identified a memory triggered by the back yard: a similar back yard, a barbecue party, and his wife's kiss.
5. A man leaves Capitol Hill, clearly a man of importance there, and drives home to a Baltimore suburb, there to enjoy an evening at home alone. The soldiers are commanded by the dark master to terrorize him all night, but not to kill.
Tim flipped a 9 to beat my 7. He narrated a rather awful, multi-step sequence of how the squad absolutely broke the guy's mind, including a great bit where the police arrived in response to the guy's frantic phone call, finding nothing of course. Plus a creepy bit about how one of the other soldiers absent-mindedly (heh) kept a coaster from the house, to be seen later turning it over and over in his hands. I suggested the coaster was an election campaign promotion item, with the target guy's face on it.
Tim identified a memory triggered by the house: moving into a new house, and his wife saying, "It's so much farther away to drive."
6. An ecstatic election-night party at the master's fancy home, with the celebrators obviously having supported the winner(s). Many of the guys have a "best and brightest" Pentagon and State look to them, and after a while, the married couples go home, leaving only the most extreme partiers and their "dates." It becomes clear that the partiers are aware of the master's unusual assets and, amid chants of "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" want to see the soldiers party too. The master acceded to the urgings, called the soldiers into the room, and commanded them, "Dance!" Yes, with the expensive hookers.
Tim chose to resist and played a 4 out of his hand to beat my 2. He narrated that his soldier got out of control and freaked out the hookers and everyone else, generating some pandemonium.
7. The soldiers are brought out of crates in a strange low building in an unusual, hot, dry environment. A military officer instructs the master regarding their use in an operation, to go to a village, isolate three specific men, and kill them. The master repeats the instructions to the soldiers.
Tim flipped a Jack to beat my obstacle of 9, and narrated the rather business-like operation carried out in perfect undead-hyena-pack precision.
Tim identified a memory based on the air-conditioning at the start of the episode: a cold medical building, which turned out to be a fertility clinic, interacting with a nurse and paperwork, then providing a sperm sample and being reassured by his wife that, "It's probably me."
8. A very similar circumstance, with the implication that the soldiers have been doing these little ops for some time. The master looks pretty worn-out and unhappy. This time it involved a couple of Afghan warlord mob-types who are delivering a bit too little for their bribes. The military guy ordered, and the master dutifully echoed, "Kill these two men." The squad catches up with them at a rocky promontory overlooking the highway out of Kabul.
Tim chose to resist, playing a 6 from his hand to beat my obstacle of 4, and narrating that his soldier balked his role in the squad's tactics, resulting in the targeted guys ripping up at least one of the soldiers with AKs and escaping from the situation.
Tim identified a memory, triggered by a scream: his wife giving birth in the hospital.
9. The master stands over the commanding officer, held captive by the soldiers, telling him that he wants to get back to the States, with a clean record, never to be contacted again. The guy agreed quickly, but the master wanted to make his point stick, and commanded, "Eat off his left hand."
Tim drew a King, failing to beat my obstacle which was also a King; he used a weapon re-draw for a 10, thus failing in the task. He narrated that the soldiers got a little out of hand and ended up killing the guy.
Tim identified a memory, although I don't remember the trigger: At home, his son in his arms, enthusing to his wife over the outcome of the November election in 2000.
10. A suburban driveway in the States, at night. The master, with the woman beside him, is opening very well-sealed and deeply-hidden person-sized packages in the garage. The master commanded them to "destroy everything he has, do not kill, leave no trace," and I extended it a little by having the woman protest a little ("You promised we'd lie low for years!") and him responding, "Are you turning against me too?"
I drew the Joker and we set it aside. I re-drew for a 2 as the obstacle, and Tim flipped a Queen to beat it. He narrated the ant-like, scarily deliberate destruction of the house, with the strange detail of his soldier standing still for a long time, looking at the sleeping family.
Tim identified a memory triggered by the garage and car: on the phone to his wife, saying, "I'll be home, I'll drive safely."
11. (final) On an isolated road in that same suburb, the woman is pursued by the stalking squad. The order is to kill her. I included her dialogue, crying out to Tim's soldier for mercy, holding her pregnant belly, apologizing to him - and revealing (to the audience) that she is the wife from his memories.
We consulted our poker hands. My seven cards yielded total crap, its only asset a King high. Tim handily beat that with a full house. He narrated that the soldier turned on the other soldiers in the squad, destroying them all, and lay down in the street to die for real at last.
Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 17707
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #1 on:
January 25, 2011, 10:05:04 AM »
GM processes and presentations (transitive across episodes)
I did have a vision regarding the dark master's arc at the outset, but I was fortunate enough not to be wedded to it, because in this game, the outcome of a given episode demands
immediate address in a follow-up scene
a significant jump ahead past the just-played episode's consequences, to a wholly new circumstances. In our case, I found the latter to occur quite a bit. Therefore I internalized the point that new ideas are OK too, and stuff initially considered prep, more-or-less, can be discarded if you want.
For instance, in my thinking just before, during, and after the first episode, I was thinking in terms of staying quite local, broadening and developing what would amount to a kind of criminal soap opera centered on the mad genius, with lots of names and lots of people with differing agendas, probably with lots of secrecy, murder, and betrayal. This is clearly not what happened at all, as my mind instead made comparatively enormous leaps in time and space, passing over what were probably many important episodes and experiences for the dark master, but which happened not to include his zombies. I realized that fighting this was a bad idea, and decided to benefit from the initial grounding even as I went with my inspirations regarding each episode, as a wave-front.
So instead, we (mainly I) developed the saga of a man first acting upon a grudge and succeeding beyond his wildest dreams, then making himself useful to domestic authorities, which expands to becoming a paramilitary service, then getting pissed about being used all over again and getting himself out of that, but having become so broken and weird and paranoid that he begins turning upon anyone near to him. I could talk about the emergent arc for the soldier and his back-story too, but that was much more organic between Tim and me and harder to explain.
The core skill I drew upon was knowing what
to sweat about: the details and cause-and-effect, and risks and drama, that in any other story would demand some justification and illustration. Here, I could feel free to leap 'way ahead, because although this is the master's arc, we only need to see snapshots at zombie moments. And not explaining this was very cool and turned out to generate immense engagement in the story. We did not even employ table-talk to clarify what was happening; in the two instances where my dialogue even hinted at such an interaction, Tim shut it down instantly. This was camera-eye play.
I hope Tim can provide a similar summary of what through-episode story arc processes he went through. We can also talk about the issue of the woman's identity.
Rules comments and reflections
The primary tension of the game is built through getting cards through memories, in order to bank them for the final confrontation, and the fact that you must lose a card from that bank if you either try to obey and fail, or if you resist a command. This is flawless - a gorgeous, enjoyable process, if the GM plays that dark master as heinously and humanly as possible, and if the player plays the soldier exactly as described and follows through with effect-heavy narration. The emergent double arc of the master's success or failure or breakdown, to whatever extent, and of the soldier's cumulative memories and flickering broken-jigsaw of identity, is immensely rewarding. It is true dramatic horror. Regardless of the fact that Tim and I littered the table with emptied beer bottles as we played, this is not what people call a beer and pretzels game.
It is the Robocop RPG, referencing solely the first, original movie.
Looking back over our general numbers outcomes, it looks like we had 9 wins and 1 loss (!). But that's misleading. We have to ignore weapon redraws and also resistance (which is guaranteed successful if you hold a high card), and in that case, in seven scenes, the initial card flip was in Tim's favor five time and against him twice. Since the player has no choice over whether to flip, unless he decides the soldier will resist, card-counting can't really be a factor, right? So I guess any given instance of play offers a point on a full spectrum of very bad draws, even draws, and very good ones. So far, the playtesting has bounced us to the "lucky soldier" end, but I'm pretty sure it's just as likely to go the other way. Bret, is this your understanding too?
The soldier's muteness is a non-issue for us and I cannot imagine why and how it could be an issue. The player says what the soldier does, i.e., describes the actions. And after the final card resolution, the player gets full narration rights for the scene in all cases. Perhaps the roles of in-fiction dialogue vs. forward-moving event description need clarifying in text? Are people somehow thinking that their main job in playing this game is delivering inter-character dialogue?
The game may need a little bit more forward-burning through the deck. Our joker must have been close to the top of the approximately half-deck it was shuffled in, because it showed up as the 27th card out of 53 total. So let's say it had ended up nearer the bottom, that would have been as many as six more scenes to go! And I think even a couple more scenes would have been overkill, at that point. Even the GM weapon draws didn't help much, as Tim used the weapon only twice.
In the feedback thread, I suggested at least looking over Lowball Poker rules to see if they might be a bit more suitable for the final comparison. However, if that were the case, then the beat-the-obstacle requirement for resisting loses a lot of its teeth. Tim said that he really felt the conflict between resisting an order right now and diminishing his potential poker hand for later, and I think that's valuable feedback indicating this trade-off should be preserved. And going for a Lowball hand would make it a lot easier to discard high cards to resist. So, my thinking is to jettison that suggestion, despite my support for it (i) on thematic grounds and (ii) because it gives the GM a better chance for a winning hand at the end.
Little questions
None of the following are framed as questions, but given our readings and decisions, you can end each one with, "What's the official ruling?"
1. We encountered, or I created, some confusion about picking the endgame options. Given that the text is unfailingly addressed to the soldier player, it's likely that the player is supposed to choose and specify the cherished thing, the regretted act, or the wrong to be made right, in full, and then the GM runs with that to invent the dark master's command. Whereas we did it like this: Tim picked the option he wanted out of the three, and then I took that un-specified concept and created my own interpretation of it. I did it this way through sheer momentum, having become accustomed to 100% scene framing power through ten previous scenes.
2. The soldier gets one memory draw per unit command, right? Meaning, insofar as an obstacle card is on the table, or about to be, the soldier only gets one card via creating a memory, at nearly any point until the full resolution sequence and final narration is done.
3. Tim and I were uncertain about the timing of when the obstacle card is flipped up. Technically, it could be any time at all during the GM's narration of events. In our first turn, I was concerned with the cinematic setup and getting to the point of soldier's options, but it became obvious that it makes most sense to flip up the obstacle right at the moment of the dark master's command. Typically this means well after the narrated setup, and it also means the obstacle can just sit there for however long it takes for the player to hit the resist-or-not moment of the scene. At least, this is how we ended up being most comfortable with the timing.
4. For the final confrontation, the instructions to the soldier player "draw up to 5 cards" at the end. But that seems quite wrong, especially given the next sentence which clearly assumes that more than five will be held, and also because such a procedure would disadvantage the player rather than advantage him, for purposes of building a poker hand.
Big question
Finally, I have a big scary question - have I been fucking card play up from the start?
Here's how I understood it: that the obstacle card remains exactly where it is, once drawn, unchanged; that the player's card is replaced only when the weapon tactic is employed; and that the memory step is not formally integrated with any aspect of the resolution steps. That's why my diagram was set up the way it is, with the memory parts operating in non-touching parallel with the resolution flowchart.
But I failed to reckon with playing with an actual lawyer, and Tim squinted, then said, "Well, it
be read to mean that after the obstacle and the drawn card are lying there, then you can make the memory and
pick up
one of those two cards, putting it into your hand and forcing a re-flip to replace it." Which unfortunately does indeed work, text-wise. Which would mean that our entire game was played grossly wrong.
So, um, uh oh. Help?
Best, Ron
Tim C Koppang
Posts: 393
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #2 on:
January 27, 2011, 07:43:53 AM »
For me, Cold Soldier seemed most akin to S/lay w/Me and Seth Ben-Ezra's Showdown. The former because of the back and forth structure and forward moving "Goes" that Ron and I naturally fell into. The latter because of the heavy use of flashbacks to develop the soldier's former (perhaps still fleeting?) humanity. I want to talk about flashbacks here.
After character creation, I had very few details to work with. I knew that I was dead, that I died in a car accident, and that I had a creepy flesh-rotting touch. That's it. Not even a name. Everything else was either sketchily defined setting details or provided by Ron during scene-framing. Because of this lack of built-in situation, I naturally grabbed onto the one humanizing detail that I had to work with: my injury. From there, I started to think about what sort of person my zombie was before he died.
During the first scene, I decided that I liked the idea of developing my character's death story, and so I brainstormed a couple of vague flashback ideas. At first, I had no intention of linking all of my flashbacks to the character's death, but, as the game went on, I realized that I wanted an entire story arc to unfold. In fact, the more Ron pushed the dark master's story to a grander scale, the more I wanted to show my character's former life as small and everyday. In other words, I wanted contrast. If I do say so myself, I think Ron and I managed to create a story about, on the one hand, dark ambitions leading to a powerful yet paranoid life versus, on the other hand, a quaint life tainted by unwitting, even slavish, participation in larger political schemes.
Although neither Ron nor I directly addressed the issue of how my solider came to be under the dark master's control (nor should we have), there were enough hints (possible political or work relationships) provided by both of us throughout the game that the connection seemed plausible. This brings me to one of my two favorite things about Cold Soldier: the sense of lost time. As Ron described, we made no effort to define what happened in between zombie scenes. The solider would simply wake up in a different place, and, more importantly, in a different time. Had days, months, or years passed? No idea. The soldiers were obviously living in snapshots of existence. So while my flashbacks were snapshots that happened in the past, even the forward moving action in the game mirrored this disconnected feel. It provided a nice parity and added to the horror themes of the game. There's nothing scarier than not knowing where you are. Not knowing *when* you are is a good way to emphasize this feeling in roleplaying.
My second most favorite thing about the game is something I told Ron mid-way through the session: "This game makes me feel sorry for zombies!" That was a weird feeling. I'm not sure Ron agreed with me because he was on the other side of the zombie experience. But as I thought about who my zombie used to be, I suddenly started to think about who all the other zombies in all those zombie stories used to be, and that made me just a touch sad. It also prompted me to want to resist the master more -- so I'd say that was a successful design point, Bret.
All in all, the experience was more rewarding than I expected it to be after reading the brief yet focused rules. I thought it'd be a blander experience full of zombie cliches. Instead, the flashbacks, restrictions on communication, and helplessness (as emphasized by the scene-framing mechanics) all snuck up on me to provide a tight and affecting story.
As for questions, Ron has summed them up well. There are some ambiguities in the text that need to be cleared up. I'd like to see some additional card flipping to add interest and to speed up the game. I hope you can provide some clarifications, Bret, because I suspect I'll want to play this one again.
Tim C Koppang
TCK Roleplaying
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Bret Gillan
Posts: 425
That's Bret with one 't' damn it.
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #3 on:
February 01, 2011, 06:49:15 AM »
Hey guys. Thanks so much for playing. Your play experience with the game is very similar to mine which is reassuring. Even though my rules are pretty sparse the game still seems to drive towards the play I'm looking to get. Also Ron I think it's funny you say it's Robocop RPG. Only two nights after I wrote it I watched Robocop with my girlfriend, Carly, because she's never seen it, and exclaimed, "Holy shit! I wrote the Robocop RPG!"
I'm going to start with your big scary question. Yes, Tim's interpretation of the rules is correct. The Solder can pick up any card currently in play to take into his cache. may have given me a good solution to the rules problem I'm currently facing which is that the Soldier has too many options. I don't think this invalidates your play except that it may have resulted in the Soldier losing more than it does in the rules-as-written. Right now since I'm still trying to find that balance that's valuable data.
As for your little questions:
1. It was my intention for the player to make explicit what the cherished thing, the regretted act, or the wrong to be made right are. My thought was that if the GM did it, it might end up being something the player does not care about. Interestingly, both you and Rudy wrested that away as the GM which makes me wonder if that's a natural place for the narrative power to ping-pong over into the GM's hands. I doubt that my fears would realistically happen - the player is
right there
and can say "No, I don't like that," and I think this would result in both GM and player being invested in which way the cards fall.
2. The player only gets one memory card per task.
3. In my head the timing of the flip would be when the Solder faces their obstacle. Did you have any totally low flips at the command (a deuce or something) and feel as though the scene limped its way to the obstacle since Tim knew he could easily beat it?
4. You're right, that was just a mistake of my writing. It should read "The player should draw 5 cards."
And you guys are right, there does need to be more card-flipping, or the deck needs to be cut down to make sure the Joker comes up sooner.
Some notable things for me that I'm drawing from what you wrote:
- I also leave the Master a complete mystery after setting creation is done. It's not mutually discussed, I don't tell the player who he is or what his agenda is.
- S/lay w/Me is a definite influence on this design. I had thought that in play things could be a little more informal than using Goes but it does make play really have some momentum to it.
- I think yours and Tim's experiences structuring a narrative helped you immensely with creating a compelling narrative for the Dark Master and the Soldier. I'm a bit worried that it's too unstructured and would cause other players to flounder. Do you guys have thoughts on this?
Thanks again and if I missed anything you needed or wanted answered let me know. Also, I have an updated document for the game if you (or anyone else) would like it. I'm just not sure where to put it.
Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 17707
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #4 on:
February 01, 2011, 07:29:18 AM »
Hey Bret!
Boy, did I ever bork the rules. Time to draw a new diagram.
Some thoughts ...
Unfortunately, Tim
have an idea for the cherished/regretted/wrong content, and I pre-empted him with my GM steamrolling. I don't think it's "natural" so much as following upon the rhythms that were established earlier in play, in which each episode begins entirely GM-driven. An instruction to stop doing this, at this particular point of play ("unlike previous scenes ..."), would probably do the job.
We did have some low GM cards but as I see it, either low or high obstacle is a motor for doing something neat. That could be a feature of Tim's and my habits. As the mutual playtesters for Mars Colony and S/Lay w/Me in their crucial stages, he and I use any system feature as a creative jumping-off point, even when it's not mechanically mandated. We also treat personal advocacy for our characters and author/audience enjoyment of disasters as independent and desirable variables.
My thinking on the deck is that
may be the best solution. I.e., not more flipping for content in resolution or hand-building, nor cutting down the starting deck, but signals during play at which, say, some number of cards is simply pulled off the top and discarded. I'm not sure why I like this idea; perhaps it suits the feel of driving headlong through powerful events that I enjoyed during play.
Finally, you wrote,
I think yours and Tim's experiences structuring a narrative helped you immensely with creating a compelling narrative for the Dark Master and the Soldier. I'm a bit worried that it's too unstructured and would cause other players to flounder. Do you guys have thoughts on this?
I think this is a key question for you in terms of
, but not really
. One thing I found with both Spione and S/Lay w/Me is that getting good at play, and especially at teaching it, is a prerequisite for deciding how to explain it in text form. I think that step is perhaps too invisible in the culture of design these days. So my thought is that you should play a lot, with a lot of people, and aim very high in terms of looking to enjoy yourselves. Then, sooner or later, summarize whatever it is you're telling people that you've discovered reliably helps them get it. Most of the instructions in both of the games I mentioned are merely the things I found I
to say in order for play to function.
Best, Ron
Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 17707
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #5 on:
February 01, 2011, 07:33:04 AM »
Oh yeah. You can always use one of those free sites like Mediafire or whatever, or Google docs, that kind of thing. Even a free blog, posting the game as a series of entries. I suggest looking through this forum to see what other people are using.
It is not entirely impossible for me to upload it onto the server I use for Adept Press, and give you the link. But that option opens icy chutes of scariness in my mind and I might have to reserve it strictly for Ronnies winners.
Best, Ron
Tim C Koppang
Posts: 393
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #6 on:
February 01, 2011, 08:00:10 AM »
Well I'm glad to hear we played correctly -- for the most part anyway. As for our "big mistake," I can say it did accomplish at least two things. First, it increased the amount of cards we flipped, and therefore sped up the game. I consider the extra card-flipping to be a good thing. Second, it gave me less control over the cards in my hand while at the same time keeping my hand completely hidden from Ron. Thematically, I like the idea of pulling random cards as it adds to the helpless feeling of playing a zombie. But it also provided an incentive to take more memories. Because I couldn't control what cards I had in my hand, I couldn't build the perfect poker hand. Instead, I had to pull as many cards as possible in the hopes that the odds would work out in my favor. I haven't played the rule as written, so I have nothing to compare my experience to, but I'd say it was positive.
Using the "Go" structure from S/lay w/Me helped shape our experience. At first, I wasn't sure when or how much to narrate. I was confused and thought there was going to be a bunch of little obstacles for each command. However, once it was established that there was only one card pull per task, and that my power to advance the story was quite broad, everything fell into place naturally. Even if you don't use the same structure as S/lay w/Me, I think a sentence or two explaining the scope of each scene/episode would be helpful. (Or maybe that's already in there and I just read too quickly. I'll have to double-check.)
We almost always flipped the dark master's card right at the beginning of each scene -- usually at my insistence. The reason I insisted was that it informed my decision as to how I would play the game. I wanted to know whether I would plan to resist, use one of my hand cards, and/or narrate more towards a likely failure or success. Letting the dark master's card just sit out there while the scene unfolded was sort of ominous and helped me to figure out where I wanted to direct my zombie's action.
The only downside, and the reason I brought up the "big mistake" rule confusion with Ron is that I knew, right away after the dark master's card was flipped, whether or not resistance was going to be an option. If the dark master's card was high, I knew that I couldn't resist unless I happened to either already have a high card or pulled a lucky card as a memory. This limited my play options. At times I didn't mind. At other times I felt as though it took some of the power out of the resistance mechanic because it wasn't so much a choice as a foregone conclusion � especially at the beginning of the game when I didn't have many cards at all. (On the other hand, now that I put that into writing, I think it makes sense. It
be harder, even impossible, to resist the master when the game starts. Please excuse my waffling.)
It's interesting that if we played the rules as you intended, Bret, that resistance would become easier. If I could take the dark master's card into my hand, then I could take away his high card and increase my chances of resisting. Similarly, if we waited to pull the dark master's card until directly facing the obstacle, then I wouldn't know ahead of time if resistance was possible, and, therefore, I might narrate more openly. I can't decide if that would be "better," but it's interesting to think about the different possibilities.
Question: If you wait to pull the dark master's card, does that mean that you can't take a memory under your original rules until facing the obstacle? Put another way, if there are no cards on the table early in the scene, where is your memory card supposed to come from?
Tim C Koppang
TCK Roleplaying
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Mars Colony
Tim C Koppang
Posts: 393
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #7 on:
February 01, 2011, 08:12:37 AM »
Quote from: Ron Edwards on February 01, 2011, 07:29:18 AM
he and I use any system feature as a creative jumping-off point, even when it's not mechanically mandated. We also treat personal advocacy for our characters and author/audience enjoyment of disasters as independent and desirable variables.
Ron has a lot of good things to say, but I really can't emphasize his statement above enough. Regardless of whether the dark master's card was high or low, I was going to, on the one hand, advocate for my character, and, on the other hand, play towards an enjoyable resolution based on all the information available to me. Knowing ahead of time whether my character was likely to fail or succeed may change the way I play, but it's not going to necessarily diminish my enjoyment of that play. Besides, I always had the option of resisting.
Tim C Koppang
TCK Roleplaying
Hero's Banner
Mars Colony
Bret Gillan
Posts: 425
That's Bret with one 't' damn it.
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #8 on:
February 03, 2011, 05:32:47 PM »
Playing the game the way its written should produce the exact same amount of card-flipping, unless your deviation from the rules-as-written goes beyond what I thought. You pick a card up off the table and then flip a card from the top of the deck to replace it. This should result in you going through the deck at the same speed as picking one up off the top of the deck.
To answer your question, the way I've been playing it, flashbacks occur during the resolution of the task. At that point the scene is set so there is information for the player to draw on, and things are at a dramatic point, and then we do the flashback. I really want to try it with cards drawn at the beginning of the scene, though. I think the flashbacks could use a little more room to breathe.
Tim C Koppang
Posts: 393
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #9 on:
February 04, 2011, 01:55:28 PM »
I don't know what I was thinking about the card-flipping. You're obviously right. I must have forgotten that the card would be replaced.
As for timing the flashbacks, I think you should definitely try flipping the master's card earlier. Flipping the cards so close to the conflict seems like it would create big wad of action at the conflict point without much around it. But the nature of flashbacks seem much broader. In play, I enjoyed having the entire scene to riff off of details to use as my flashback trigger instead of (I imagine) having to scramble for something meaningful right before a conflict. I think it's at least worth a play-test comparison for you.
Tim C Koppang
TCK Roleplaying
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Ron Edwards
Global Moderator
Posts: 17707
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #10 on:
February 04, 2011, 02:09:39 PM »
I should clarify that we didn't flip the obstacle card immediately, but well after I'd set the scene and there was a little bit of back-and-forth. But still, at least once we found our preferred rhythm after two or three episodes, the obstacle card tended to hang out all by itself for a while, usually at least a few Goes.
Hey, last night I had an idea. A terrible, possibly wonderful idea.
What if the GM turned up
cards for the obstacle? To beat it, the player's card must be higher than both. And everything else stays the same. When and if the player introduces a memory, he can only replace one of the cards.
1. The deck burns through faster so you don't need any additional fancy buggery about setting up the deck.
2. The player's somewhat extreme card advantage in the current design is blunted, and makes building a good poker hand a wee bit harder without being impossible.
You know, I think that would work!
Best, Ron
Bret Gillan
Posts: 425
That's Bret with one 't' damn it.
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #11 on:
February 10, 2011, 11:23:07 AM »
I think that is a perfect idea. I'll incorporate it into the next playtest.
I thought of one more question: do you think this game has legs as a multi-session game? Or do you think it's complete as a one-shot game?
Tim C Koppang
Posts: 393
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #12 on:
February 10, 2011, 12:15:20 PM »
Quote from: Bret Gillan on February 10, 2011, 11:23:07 AM
I thought of one more question: do you think this game has legs as a multi-session game? Or do you think it's complete as a one-shot game?
It's clearly designed as a single-session game as is, and I see no reason to extend it. We played through a very nice, and complete, story arc. Moreover, there'd be some physical limitations with the deck of cards. Keeping track of the hand cards and status of the deck would be a pain if you couldn't wrap things up in one evening.
If you wanted to design some multi-session rules, you'd have to address the limitations of the deck, and probably go with a more episodic approach.
Tim C Koppang
TCK Roleplaying
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Bret Gillan
Posts: 425
That's Bret with one 't' damn it.
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #13 on:
February 11, 2011, 02:38:25 PM »
Well, the game as written does have multi-session rules. You do discard your hand, the deck is reshuffled. There's no reason or need to carry cards from one game to the next. What you keep is your memories, and the rules are modified slightly so that when you pick up a black card to put in your hand you must expand upon or contradict an existing memory of the soldier's. Otherwise memory rules stay the same.
However, I think you answered my question plenty as it is.
Tim C Koppang
Posts: 393
Re: [Cold Soldier] "Upon horror's head, horrors accumulate."
Reply #14 on:
February 11, 2011, 02:47:12 PM »
Interesting. I just re-read the rules about continuing play. One thing I noticed is that you recommend continuing until the solider is destroyed. The rules say that your soldier is destroyed if you have no hand cards when the joker turns up. I was wondering if that's ever happened in a game you've played. It seems unlikely given how easy and desirable memories are to obtain.
Tim C Koppang
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GREEN BAY—In terms of pedigree and 2012 participation, there may not be a starker contrast in Saturday night's NFC playoff game than the two offensive lines.
San Francisco's starting five includes three first-round draft picks in left tackle Joe Staley, left guard Mike Iupati and right tackle Anthony Davis, plus a veteran with more than a decade of experience playing for his third team in center Jonathan Goodwin. Staley, Iupati and Goodwin have all been elected to Pro Bowls.
Green Bay's starting five includes two fourth-round draft picks in guards Josh Sitton and T.J. Lang, a fifth-round pick in left tackle Marshall Newhouse, and two undrafted free agents in center Evan Dietrich-Smith and right tackle Don Barclay. The Pro Bowl nods are nil.
San Francisco's group has started every single game in 2012 at their assigned positions. Green Bay's current group will be playing just its fourth game together in this alignment, as two players (Lang and Dietrich-Smith) have started at multiple spots this season.
If the Packers' offensive linemen have even made the comparison, they aren't letting on. There's no reason for them to care. The 49ers' offensive linemen aren't the players they'll have to block.
The Packers aren't concerned about how their own group was constructed – though it's worth noting as far as the investments made that a pair of Green Bay first-round draft picks in Bryan Bulaga and Derek Sherrod are on injured reserve. They also aren't dwelling on the adversity they've faced this season.
If anything, they feel it has toughened them up for the challenge that awaits in the 49ers defense on Saturday night.
"We feel confident and we've earned that confidence," Lang said. "We like the way we're playing. We feel good about the guys that have stepped up. That's a tribute to all these guys, the way they prepare. When your number gets called, you have to step up and play, and that's what we've had."
The consensus amongst the players and coaches is that Barclay has steadily improved since making his first start at right tackle in Week 14, and the transition to Dietrich-Smith at center less than a month ago was seamless.
McCarthy said that last week Barclay played his best game thus far, and Dietrich-Smith felt the Week 17 road game at the Metrodome was a major step for the group as a whole. His fellow linemen adjusted to his silent count, which he said is different from Jeff Saturday's, and the communication smoothed out as the offense put up 24 points in the second half.
"That was the biggest one, and we've been building momentum through that," Dietrich-Smith said.
That momentum now meets the 49ers defense, which is characterized as one of the most "physical" units in the league. The Packers have heard that description ad nauseum this week, but Lang said they have to be careful not to let a response to that become the focus ahead of assignments and execution.
"There are times when if you try to jump off the ball and smash a guy, you'll put yourself in a position to maybe whiff on a block," Lang said. "Being an offensive lineman, you have to rely a lot more on your technique and fundamentals, and when those are working for you, then you can start really using the physical aspects of it.
"We're kind of sick of hearing about people calling us soft, saying we're not physical, but we have to make sure that's not getting us out of the way we play. We have to play the way we play, and when the time is appropriate, make sure we're punching back and not letting them tee off on us."
Protecting Aaron Rodgers likely holds the key to the Packers' fortunes on Saturday night. That's been said all week, too.
The comparisons and descriptions are done now. All that's left is to actually play.
"I think football starts up front," McCarthy said. "I think the line of scrimmage is going to dictate a lot of what goes on Saturday night."


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A 1,015 sq.-ft. garage exhibit will feature select Mopar parts and accessories for the all-new 2013 SRT Viper and Dodge Dart. In the Fiat display, a glass wall of Mopar parts and accessories for the Fiat 500 will also be on display. In total, more than 300 Mopar performance parts and accessories will be shown.
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text:
In hindsight, life-changing twists of fate are rarely as obvious as the one Kirk Zack had on his birthday in November of 1995. Playing a celebratory round of golf at the Indian Creek Golf Course, Zack teed-up on the 10th hole, took a swing and sunk the shot most golfers go their entire lives without sinking. At the time a hole-in-one had a $1,000 payout.
Today Zack and his son, Colson, are in Aspen, Colo. for the largest extreme sports festival in the world– the X Games – where HMK, the snowmobiling company Zack founded in 1999, is on the world stage.
"Life is pretty funny sometimes; how it throws things like that at you," Zack said last week from his uptown Hood River office nicknamed the Garage Mahal. Stacked with enough sporting goods to make any fun-loving adult feel like a kid in a candy store, the oversized garage is home and world headquarters to HMK; an abbreivation for the snomobiling term "highmark."
"I had a friend who wanted to get sleds together, but I didn't have the money to buy one," Zack said. "I used the money from that hole-in-one to buy my first sled since leaving Wisconsin five years prior. We rode all over on those things exploring the area and using them for backcountry snowboarding. It's like they say, sleds are the poor man's helicopter."
At about the same time, Zack was working for Heelside, a former Hood River company that specialized in snowboarding boots and boards. With gear technologies improving by leaps and bounds, Zack saw advances being made in the snowboard industry that were needed in snowmobiling gear as well.
"It all started with a prototype boot I made based on new snowboarding boot technology but designed specifically for snowmobiling," Zack said. In another life-changing twist of fate, Polaris, the company he pitched the design to, told him the design would never work. "Looking back, that's the best thing that could have happened to me. If they had said yes, the brand would be theirs and HMK wouldn't exist."
HMK's boot line exploded in popularity and was fueled by the paralleling evolution that snowmobiling was undergoing. The image and function of the brand expanded quickly, and before long the letters HMK could be seen on jackets, pants, gloves, helmets, packs and an array of other soft goods.
"Who would have thought that things would lead to this," Zack said, flipping through HMK's latest product catalog. "We have our own complete line; we have five full-time employees and work with more than 20 factories. It's hard to believe it all when I think about it. I had an old "Surf the Gorge" poster in college and I always said I was going to live there someday. But I never would have believed that something like this would happen to me here. It's humbling to think about."
Along with being one of the busiest months of the year, January is also the most exciting for Zack and HMK. Since snocross racing was introduced to the X-Games in 1998, snowmobiling has grown into a fan favorite of the annual extreme sports festival, and Zack has had a front-row seat to the action for several years.
"I was a judge for a while, but my role this year will be more of support," he said last week, while getting his decked-out HMK truck and trailer ready for a 27-hour drive to Aspen. "I'll help organize the judges and keep the flow running smoothly and will have our trailer on hand as a support for athletes and course workers."
In the last few years of Winter X, course racing has taken a back seat to the edge-of-your-seat freestyle and best trick contests, which feature athletes flying and flipping through the air in ludicrous fashion on high performance sleds.
Contests run Jan. 24-27 in Aspen and are televised around the world. If you look close enough you're likely to see the HMK brand all over the snowmobiling events, and if you look even closer, you might even see Zack on the sidelines of the course, proudly representing Hood River at one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.
"The X-Games are a ton of fun," he said. "I've traveled all over the world and have been to all kinds of events over the years, so it's like a family reunion when you get there and see everyone. The friends you make and people you meet along the way are what it's all about."
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At this point, it's best not to have regrets.
(The whole show is here.)
AND: Andrew Sullivan says:
Hitch is dying as he lives, with integrity and passion. And since we all die in the end, alone, it is an impertinence even to enter this zone of another's last things. But for me, the human being, for good and ill, is more than reason. Reason must govern us, but it cannot explain us.
We live alone in a universe so vaster than we are and with an expiration date that defies our own attempts to understand it. We are wired to fear death and suffering, and in the spiritual transcendence of death and suffering we exercise our greatest humanity. The moments I have felt closest to God have been when I have been stripped of every security, the moments when I have felt no human love, known no safe home, witnessed unspeakable cruelty - and was rescued by nothing but His ineffable, boundless and yet intimate caritas.
This is not an argument, I know. It can easily be dismissed as wish fulfilment. All I can say is: this is not how I experienced these moments. They were real. In suffering I have felt and known God reach into my life and grab me by the scruff of my neck and shake me with the brusque affection of a father's compassion.
I know Christopher feels none of this, has never felt any of this, which puzzles but does not vex me. Friendship, in the end, is about the lack of any desire to change another person.
It is about loving him as he is. And in that love there is the only human redemption and, in my view, the true intimation of the divine.


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Hot and bubbly baked pasta shells and cauliflower florets smothered in a rich, creamy three cheese sauce of white cheddar, Swiss and parmesan.
Have you seen those special, vibrant orange heads of cauliflower beaming like sun rays in the market? Their unavoidable. I'm drawn to them like a magnet. The sunshine colored florets cry out for me to tuck them into my cart and give them a home. So I do what any
sucker dedicated food blogger would do and let them have their way.
By doing this I have to entice my family into helping me eat all the cauliflower that somehow winds up in my cart being they don't have the same deep, abiding love for vegetables that I do.
One of the best ways to pawn some of the vegetables off is by hiding it in something I know they can't resist. Mixed with pasta and smothered in a three cheese sauce?
Totally works.
Even though they know my tricks by now. I'm notorious for hiding veggies in decadent dishes like this to help balance things out.
The thing is they expect it now and even funnier is they don't seem to mind.
I can take the most despised vegetable and make it taste so good you won't even remember why you hated it in the first place.
One of my many hidden talents.
Pasta shells and cauliflower florets are smothered in a rich, creamy three cheese sauce of white cheddar, Swiss and parmesan.
- Cook the pasta to al dente in plenty of salted water according to package directions. Steam the cauliflower just until tender.
- Meanwhile butter a 9 x 13 casserole pan. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan. Saute garlic until fragrant. Whisk in flour and cook 3-4 minutes, stirring often.
- Slowly whisk in milk, heavy cream, mustard, paprika and thyme. Bring to a simmer and cook 5 minutes. Turn heat down to low, add the 3 cheeses and stir until smooth and melted. Remove from heat. Stir in parsley.
- Mix the drained pasta and cauliflower together; spread evenly out in prepared pan. Pour the cheese sauce evenly over top. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.
- Bake about 30-35 minutes until bubbly all over and golden on top. Allow to set 5-10 minutes before serving.


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Eight to be Honored at Founders' Day Service
Eight to be Honored at Founders' Day Service
Buena Vista University will hold its 36th annual Founders' Day memorial service on Saturday, Sept. 14 to honor eight deceased individuals who have served the institution as faculty, staff, trustees, alumni, friends, and benefactors.
"Over the course of Buena Vista University's 122-year history, the quality of the educational experience for our students has been made possible because of the contributions of a great many individuals who believed in the future of this institution," says BVU President Fred Moore. "Those we honor at Founders' Day this year have been an important part of that legacy."
Inaugurated in September 1978, Founders' Day has become an annual memorial service that has honored approximately 194 individuals through 2012. The service, led by Rev. Ken Meissner, University Chaplain, begins at 11 a.m. at Schaller Memorial Chapel.
Those being recognized this year are:
Dr. Robert "Bob" Borgman, Storm Lake, was a professor of botany at Buena Vista University from 1969 to 1994 and was honored with emeritus status upon his retirement. In 1948, Robert enlisted in the United States Air National Guard where he served his country in the Korean Conflict until he was honorably discharged. After returning, he earned his bachelor's degree from Central College, and then went on to earn his master's degree from Kansas State University as well as his PhD from Iowa State University. Bob began teaching at Buena Vista University in 1969, where he started the interim travel program, served as assistant to the president, and participated in the teacher exchange program where he taught one semester in Kyoto, Japan. He was a long-time member of the Lakeside Presbyterian Church in Storm Lake. He and his wife, Nancy, were joined in marriage in 1957. Bob passed away on October 20, 2012.
Dr. Art Camburn, Red Wing, Minn., was a professor of management at Buena Vista University from 1991-2010 and was honored with emeritus status upon his retirement. Art enjoyed a 15 year career at Howmet Corporation in Whitehall, MI where he especially enjoyed his time working in their Tech Center in Plant Engineering. He later received his bachelor's degree in psychology from Grand Valley State University, his master's degree from Western Michigan University, and his PhD from the University of Florida. Art's passion was to teach, which led him to a long career of teaching at University of Florida, University of Wisconsin, and Buena Vista University. After retirement, he and his wife moved to Red Wing, MN to enjoy the beauty of the area, and his lifelong interest in river and rail transportation. Art joined his wife, Sharon, in marriage in 1979. Art passed away on March 17, 2013.
Dr. E. Wayne Cooley, Clive, was a member of the Buena Vista University Board of Trustees (1993-2010) and was later honored as a Sir John Templeton Life Trustee. He holds an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Buena Vista University as well as Morningside College. In 1954, Wayne served as Executive Secretary of the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. He also served as the Executive Vice President of the Iowa High School Speech Association until his retirement in 2002. He was active in many other endeavors with the U.S. Track and Field Federation, Drake Relays Executive Committee, Women's College Basketball Association Hall of Fame, Iowa Heart Association, Iowa Games, and the United States Olympic Committee. He has been honored with induction into the U.S. Track and Field Federation Hall of Fame, the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame, and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Wayne received two awards from the BVU— the John Fisher Alumni Award in 1979 and the Henry Olson Alumni Award in 1993. After his wife Gerry's death in 1982, Wayne married Wendy in 1987. Wayne passed away on May 11, 2013.
Margaret Cravens, Spirit Lake, was a Buena Vista University benefactor. She was raised and educated in Des Moines, graduating from Roosevelt High School in 1939. Margaret then attended Francis Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Illinois, and then Drake University in Des Moines. After working for a short time, Margaret was a stay-at-home mother while their children were growing up. Her and her husband Jim made their home in Des Moines, Iowa, Los Angeles, California, and Sanborn, Iowa before moving to Spirit Lake. Jim and Margaret established the John Haywood Cravens Foundation, a philanthropic organization named in memory of their late son. Jim and Margaret Cravens received the Wendell Halverson Outstanding Friend Award from Buena Vista University in 2012. Margaret joined her husband, Jim, in marriage on May 24, 1940. Margaret passed away on March 15, 2013.
Burdette "Burt" Heikens, Carefree, Ariz., was a Buena Vista University benefactor. He graduated from BVU in 1958, where he majored in business. Prior to that, Burt served as a Personnel Specialist in the United States Army from 1953-1955. After graduation, he married his wife Phyllis and began his career with American Republic Insurance Company where he served as Executive Vice President and COO. Burt retired in 1992, but continued to serve on the Board of Directors until 2008 and was an active member of Desert Hills Presbyterian Church. Burt received the John Fisher Alumni Award in 1970, and he and his wife received the Henry Olson Alumni Award in 1999 from Buena Vista University. They have supported the BVU Entrepreneurial Leadership Fund, 1992 Senior Class Endowed Scholarship Challenge, and several projects in Ballou Library. He is survived by his wife, Phyllis. Burt passed away on August 22, 2012.
Tim Pierce, Storm Lake, served on the Board of Trustees (2010 -2013) and was a Buena Vista University benefactor.  He attended Storm Lake High School and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa. He started his career in the insurance business in 1971 and later co-founded Insurance Associates of Spencer in 1984. Tim was very active in community organizations, including service as president and member of the board of directors of the Storm Lake Area Development Corporation and chief fundraiser for the corporation's special business recruitment projects in the 1980s. He was co-chair of the Buena Vista University Community Campaign, and a charter member and president of Lake Creek Country Club. Tim also served as a board member of the University of Iowa National I-Club. He is survived by his wife, Laura. Tim passed away on March 22, 2013.
D. Jean Schaffer, Naples, Fla., was the wife of the late Buena Vista University Trustee, V.G. "Bob" Schaffer and was a BVU benefactor. Jean graduated from Balaton High School in 1938 and attended one year of college at University of Minnesota. After three years away from Minnesota while Bob served in the Navy during World War II, they returned to Balaton, where Bob worked in the bank. Jean was very involved in politics and in the Presbyterian Church. For many years she served as the Lyon County chairwoman of the Republican Party and was involved in the First Presbyterian Church in Balaton, Christ United Presbyterian Church in Marshall, and served as an advocate for fairness and concern for others. A joy in her life was being a member of the Patrick Henry Descendants' Branch of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation, being a fourth great granddaughter of the American patriot. Jean and her late husband, Bob, were joined in marriage in 1940. Jean passed away on October 5, 2012.
Mary Siefer, Storm Lake, was a Buena Vista University benefactor and wife of long-time employee, Robert "Bob" Siefer. Mary was born in Wyoming and later moved to Nebraska with her family. In 1960, Mary and her family moved to Hastings, where Bob took a job at Hastings College. In 1966, she and her family moved to Storm Lake where Bob began a long career at Buena Vista University. Mary worked tirelessly as a volunteer in the church and community. She served as President of PEO, President of Presbyterian Women, an elder of Lakeside Presbyterian Church, and a long-time church choir member. She initiated and led the 4-H club, The Storm Lake Senioritas, and served many years as a Big Sister. She also worked as a volunteer greeter with Bob for special guests and trustees of both Hastings College and Buena Vista College. Mary joined her husband, Bob, in marriage in 1947. Mary passed away on June 16, 2013.


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HC Emergency Management Agency has new director
Monday, April 29, 2013 8:03 AM
After almost a year without a director, the Huntington County Emergency Management Agency now has a new chief.
Lindsie Goss, who most recently served as an emergency preparedness intern with Parkview Health, in Fort Wayne, was selected from 14 applicants to fill the vacancy, says Leon Hurlburt, president of the EMA advisory council.
Goss's first day as EMA director is today, April 29.
Hurlburt says a full-time administrative assistant will also be hired to work with Goss in the EMA office.
"She's very passionate about what she's going to do," Hurlburt says. "She's very professional."
Brian Topp served as interim director of the EMA until resigning to take another job in July of 2012. He had previously served as deputy director of the agency and was named interim director after the Huntington County Commissioners declined to renew the contract of former EMA Director Brandon Taylor at the end of 2011.
Goss is working toward a master's degree in disaster medicine and management from Philadelphia University in Philadelphia, PA, and expects to graduate in August. She earned a bachelor's degree in general studies, with a minor in psychology, from Indiana University, Fort Wayne, in 2008.
"She's got a bunch of FEMA credentials," Hurlburt notes. "She's had a lot of training in disaster and emergency response."
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) representatives were in Huntington last Wednesday to document damage from the previous weekend's floods, and Goss came to Huntington to work with the team.
"She went along with them so she could see how this all works," Hurlburt says.
Goss has worked as an emergency preparedness intern at Parkview Health since October 2012 and has served as an emergency room technician at Parkview Health since 2006.
She worked as an emergency room technician at Indiana University Health-Ball Memorial Hospital, Muncie, from 2005 to 2007 and as a basic emergency medical technician in Eaton from 2003 to 2005.


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Liberals self-righteously wrap themselves in the mantle of public spirit. They ardently promote policies promising to deliver the poor and oppressed from their latest misery policies which can only find solution in the halls of government. But no matter what issue one examines, over the last fifty plus years, the liberal prescription has almost always been a failure.
Why is this so? Why does virtually every liberal scheme result in ever-increasing public spending while conditions seem to get continually worse? There are a number of reasons:
The programs usually create adverse incentives. This is especially true in so-called anti-poverty programs. The beneficiaries find government subsidies a replacement for, rather than a supplement to, gainful employment and eventually become incapable of supporting themselves. This in turn creates a dependent culture with its attendant toxic behaviors which demand still more government remedies.
The programs create their own industry, complete with scads of think tanks and experts who survive on government research grants. These are the aptly named Beltway Bandits.
They create their own bureaucracies, whose managers conspire with interested members of Congress to continually increase program funding, regardless of merit.[B][B][B][B]
Members of Congress secure votes and campaign donations by extorting them from beneficiaries of such programs, either through veiled threats vote for me or those mean Republicans will wipe out your benefits or promises of still more bennies.
In short, all develop a vested interest in the programs survival. But if the result is always more and more government, of government, by government, and for government, with no solution in sight, then why do liberals always see government as the solution rather than the problem?
When things go bad all the time, despite the best efforts of all involved, I suggest to you something else is at work something deeper, more malevolent......I submit to you that it is not a mistake, the failure is deliberate!
There is a method to the madness, and the method even has a name: the Cloward-Piven Strategy. It was first elucidated in the 1960s by a pair of radical leftist Columbia University professors, Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven:
The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis . the Cloward-Piven Strategy seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.


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Ubisoft's Babel Rising is the next-generation version of the popular iPhone game of the same name.
Mando Production has breathed new life into the game with 3D graphics and competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. Babel Rising also features motion control via Kinect and PlayStation Move, allowing players to control the elements with intuitive gestures and putting truly God-like powers in their hands.
Key Features
- Prevent the Rise of Babylon: Prevent humans from building 3 different towers of Babel throughout different historic eras in 15 single player missions across 4 game modes.
- Babylon Will Parish: Thwart a wide variety of Babylonians united in their desire to build the tower, always looking for the quickest path to the top. Workers carry stones , priests protect workers from spells, and siege towers help them access upper levels faster.
- You are in Control of the Elements: Unleash devastating elemental attacks based on fire, water, earth and air, each with a unique effect depending on the target. Throw fireballs, release tornadoes, rain meteors, and much more. As you progress your powers become deadlier and more powerful than ever.
- Compatible with PS Move/Kinect: Command the elements and punish arrogant Babylonians with your own unique movements via PS Move or Kinect for Xbox 360.
- Battle with or Against Friends: Enjoy competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes.
More articles about Babel Rising


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The lights are on
That is pretty epic.
Kill'em with kindness, it's a slow painful death.
Usage guidelines, Newcomer Cheat Sheet, Site Feedback.
My girlfriend and I and some friends went hiking a couple weeks ago. Here are some pics from the trip:
Twitter / Newcomer Cheat Sheet / Usage Guidelines
I want those lizards!!!
I know this isn't the place for it and I can't find the answer anywhere. Just recently I have started to come back to the forums. the site doesn't look like it has changed. The problem is I can't find the link/button to create a thread. Anyone able to help?
If you go to the forums there should be a black box on the side that has the option for starting a new thread. :)
That one lizard pic did for me
I'm a Legendary GI member.
Went on a road trip and climbed a small mountain.
Fun times. I went to climb a small mountain once...ended up walking the entire range. Gotta love camping. :)
The lion baby is so cute!
I once hiked 50 miles through the mountains over the course of five days. Everything I needed was stashed in a hiking backpack.
PSN ID: UserMaatRe666
I once walked through a entire walmart! It was intense.
Super whip trick thirty lashes for the double posts i wasn't here for!!
My daughter and I enjoying a day together, she is my life<3
My daughter enjoying her new toy I bought her =]
My daughter and I on her first new years =]
Enjoying another hobby of my'n Hiking! =]
@Meta-I walk walmart multiple times every **** day...it is more intense every time. :)
@Crypt-I once ate a jolly rancher...never again!
@Jack Walker-She's a cutie! Reminds me of my neicy. And hiking FTW!
ICP? Lol!


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Did you read today's front page stories & breaking news?
From the Wires
Toshiba to Launch MicroSDHC Memory Card for HD Content Viewing
By: Business Wire
Feb. 25, 2013 11:23 PM
Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced the launch of new microSDHC Memory Cards based on SeeQVaultTM technology that will provide a flexible platform for storing and distributing high definition content.
SeeQVault is a leading-edge content protection technology developed by Toshiba Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Sony Corporation, that is licensed through NSM Initiatives LLC (NSM is an abbreviation of Next Generation Secure Memory Initiative). The technology applies bidirectional authentication with a unique identifier and public key infrastructure to assure consumers can enjoy a high level secure environment for storing and distributing of High Definition (HD) content. The technology can be integrated into flash memory cards and the devices that run them, and NSM Initiatives LLC started to license it to device manufacturers and content service providers on February 25.
SeeQVault provides people access to the latest digital content and to be free to enjoy it across platforms. The SeeQVault card can be used for playback of content in a smart phone, a tablet or a TV, while assuring a high level secure environment.
The initial product line-up will cover 16GB and 32GB capacities compatible with the Ultra High Speed Bus I and the UHS Speed Class 1. Toshiba will start delivery of sample products in March and will move to commercialization by the end of 2013.
Key Features
1. A maximum write speed 20MB/sec and read speed 40MB/sec.
SeeQVault is a trademark of NSM Initiatives LLC.
Customer Inquiries
About Toshiba
Toshiba is a world-leading diversified manufacturer, solutions provider and marketer of advanced electronic and electrical products and systems. Toshiba Group brings innovation and imagination to a wide range of businesses: digital products, including LCD TVs, notebook PCs, retail solutions and MFPs; electronic devices, including semiconductors, storage products and materials; industrial and social infrastructure systems, including power generation systems, smart community solutions, medical systems and escalators & elevators; and home appliances.
Toshiba was founded in 1875, and today operates a global network of more
than 550 consolidated companies, with 202,000 employees worldwide and
annual sales surpassing 6.1 trillion yen (US$74 billion).
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Release Notes: Kwatee now uses an H2 embedded database by default. A new command line deployer enables deployment to multiple servers within a datacenter in command line mode. There were also user interface improvements and many other enhancements.
Release Notes: Fixes the following bugs: Windows offline installer deployment actions are now executed; removal of a legacy limitation on deployable number of servers per release; empty directories in archives are now supported.
Release Notes: This release fixes the "missing agent" issue with deployments on Solaris SPARC.
Release Notes: This release fixed a problem where a newly created Amazon EC2 pool generated a 500 error. An issue with zip files containing a single entry showing up as empty was fixed. A problem with system variable override not working properly in frozen deployments was fixed.
Release Notes: This release fixes a bug in upgrading MySQL schema (apologies to MySQL users).
Release Notes: Increased variable name size. Dots accepted in variable names. Bugfixes (offline deployment actions not executed; could not upload an overlay at the root level of a package; pre-setup script not executed unless a post-setup script was defined; and some kwatee variables had incorrect values after a deployment freeze.)
Release Notes: This release no longer performs automatic integrity checks before stopping operation. It fixes "environment variable server/package qualifiers lost in import" and "environment bundle import fails in 'upload' mode"
Release Notes: A major issue with zip archives which could not be uploaded is resolved. A cosmetic issue with overlays showing at the root of archives is resolved. kwateelib (and therefore update.py) can now update archives even when kwatee is not running on localhost. Be sure to use the latest kwateelib task in your deployment automation.
Release Notes: This release fixes an archive update failure via ant/maven when the kwatee URL was not on localhost.
Release Notes: This release adds support for regions in EC2 server pools. It fixes an occasional maven task "bad parameter" error and a serious bug that caused all logins to fail after an attempt with an unknown user was made.


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The Potomac Valley Nature Photographers (PVNP) will host Jim Clark for an evening presentation on Friday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown.
Clark will present a brand new talk entitled, "Life through the Lens: Notes from the Field; Lessons from the Heart, "a perspective of a mountain boy, naturalist, photographer and father." Clark is past president of the North American Nature Photographer Association, author of several books celebrating natural wonders and is an exemplary workshop leader who teaches nature photography around the country. This event is free and open to the public. Additional information regarding the PVNP and its current and future events can be viewed at potomacaudubon.org/pv_natphoto.


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The sale is dated 7 March 1854.
It was for 160 acres in Mahaska County, Iowa.
The land was sold for $300.
Samuel Ballinger was the witness.
In my post Collateral Lines Anyone? I noted that Jeremiah and Samuel were young men and had been listed in various Iowa state censuses from the 1850s sometimes in the same house with an older John F. Ballinger. I will definitely be taking a closer look at those 3 men.
From this document, I can plot where William's land was located and begin to fill in the other neighbor's from property maps and other land transactions.
This deed has left me with lots of questions (remember I am looking for relatives of William):
- Who are Jeremiah and Samuel and why are they transacting business with William?
- Why did William sell 160 acres?
- When did he buy this property?
[left hand margin is written "34-76-15"]
Wm H Ballenger etux
To Deed
JJ Ballinger
Filed for Record April 20th 1854 at 1
O'Clock PM & Recorded April 22nd 1854
For the consideration Three hundred dollars we hereby convey
unto Jeremiah J Ballinger the following tract of land Situated
in the County of Mahaska in the State of Iowa. Viz: the South
East Quarter of section Thirty four in Township Seventy six No
[page] 557
of Range fifteen West containing one hundred and Sixty acres
And we warrant the title to the same to the said Jeremiah J Ballinger
against all Persons whomsoever. Executed this Seventh day of March
AD 1854 in presence of
Samuel Ballinger
W H. Ballinger
Lucinda Ballinger
State of Iowa, Mahaska County ss
Before me Samuel Kirby a Justice of the Peace in and
for said County personally appeared the above named William H.
Ballinger and Lucinda Ballinger personally known to me to be the
identical persons whose names appeared in the foregoing Deed as grantors
and acknowledged the above instrument to be their voluntary act
and deed for the purposes there in expressed. Given under my
hand this 1 day of April AD 1854
Samuel Kirby
Justice of the Peace
Henry Blackburn recorder Mahaska County Iowa.
Mahaska County, Iowa, Land Deeds, 1853-54, Volume E, 20 April 1854; Family History Library microfilm 972968.]
© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum


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Alan Cumming is bringing his one-man interpretation of William Shakespeare's tragic play, "Macbeth," to Broadway this spring, producers said Friday.
The actor was the Tony- and Olivier Award winning star of the Broadway musical "Cabaret." He also is a cast member of TV's "The Good Wife."
Produced by Ken Davenport, the National Theatre of Scotland's "Macbeth" will play a strictly limited 73-performance engagement at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
Preview performances are to begin April 7, with an official opening night set for April 21. The Broadway engagement will conclude June 30.
Directed by Tony Award winner John Tiffany and Andrew Goldberg, the production is set in a clinical room within a dark psychiatric unit. Cumming plays the lone patient, who relives the infamous story of "Macbeth" and inhabits each role himself.
"Performing 'Macbeth' last year was the most challenging and fulfilling experience of my career by far, and so I am both honored and daunted to do it again in my adopted hometown of New York City," Cumming said in a statement.
"I'm also proud of the fact that the National Theatre of Scotland is directly funded by the Scottish government and I cannot think of a better way to trumpet Scotland and its commitment to the arts than being a Scotsman doing his National Theatre's production of the Scottish play on the Great White Way."


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There's nothing better than a slice of banana bread for breakfast or dessert. I always find, though, that everyone likes their banana bread with different ingredients. Some are grossly offended by putting nuts in their recipes, while others think chocolate has no place in a banana bread either. If one thing is sure, it's that most people like their bread to be perfectly moist.
I've gone through quite a lot of banana bread variations, and this one turned out to be extra moist, just the way I like it. I like mine with a hint of coconut and semi-sweet chocolate that melts in perfectly (the center of this bread is a chocolatey, molten heaven). Feel free to withhold these "superfluous" ingredients if they don't match your own tastes. I've found other modifications to classic banana bread recipes that not only make this bread healthier, but taste better too! I use whole wheat flour instead of white, stevia and splenda instead of regular sugar, and applesauce instead of butter, which really adds to that much-craved moisture.
Perfectly Moist Banana Bread
Ingredients: 3 ripe bananas 2 cups whole wheat flour (substitute for almond flour for gluten-free) 1/2 cup stevia 1/2 cup splenda 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 cup apple sauce 1 tbsp vanilla 2 eggs (beaten) 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 1/4 cup bakers shredded coconut
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Using a potato masher, mash bananas and set aside.
- Mix whole wheat flour, baking soda, stevia, and splenda in a medium bowl.
- Add bananas and all other ingredients to bowl. Mix until becomes a batter, but don't overmix (chunkiness is good for texture of bread).
- Grease loaf pan and pour batter into pan. Bake for 50-60 mins (depending on moisture level desired).
- Let cool, and then remove from pan to be served.
This is indeed a good recipe and perfect for kids' breakfast. kid activities in Seattle - Good Recipe