This last week

Well here I am...

     So after doing my nebs for a month continuously and having been off/ on breathing treatments for the last six months I called up my doctors to tell em I couldn't remember when my next apt was.
And we discovered I hadn't been in for ten months! Had an apt made, went in; discovered that my lungs blew a 93% PFT / FEV without inhalers. And begrudgingly I accepted this means I need to work out more and that I need to keep pushing myself each day. 

      Also my curiosity about just how salty am I came up and discovered my best test was 164 ! How cool is that? I'm the saltiest kid I know, and no one on the group page had one higher, only a couple of people were within twenty points or so of mine. So for the next week I'm finishing out a routine of One and a half hours, twice a day. Also lame, my stamina hasn't been very good here recently and I have to force myself up and awake to get going. Fortunately I have a not insignificant supply of coffee on hand here and a pretty excellent selection of teas. The last couple weeks have been pretty much a mad house, had jobs lined up / they fall through so I find other stuff to do. Learning about the wood working with Dad to teach me. Hoping we'll have a business going soon with him showing me what to do. 

    Tonnes of plans, almost none of them worked out. Had a falling out or two, lost some friends because of political / religious views. "such is life". I have several projects I want to do but am waiting for funds so I can proceed with them and make my room more and more a home. I have a bed! I promised you photos, but that's delayed as right now I have it covered in books and things.

     My story project for this coming November is starting to really take shape, the damned thing is though that I was working on it and lost all my chapter notes / character sheets that I had been working on in the computer. (somehow), well no matter this is why I write on paper anyway you look at it I have time and plenty of memory to work it out. 

    They say suffering is good for the soul, there's been some of that too along with some flavors of physical discomforts we'll see how it all works out in the end. I've learned some very hard and valuable lessons about personal responsiblity vs/ wanting to do things / help others this month particularly and my "Placing in reserve" started about this week. So from here on out my ability to help other people is weighed against their history of doing for me /others first rather than simply on their actual need. This seems selfish but if you think about it, I feel it makes sense. Rather than simply helping people "Because I need your help" stop and ask "Why do you need My help?" and "How did this happen to You particularly? " Sometimes, people fall into the same old habits of needing a hand up/out every so often. God knows I"m not free from this sin at all, but hopefully I will have learned my lessons and will soon be digging myself out and free from all the entanglements.

      There are a lot of people, who time and time again have come to my aid. Rightly or wrongly and given me whatever I needed to keep me going or see me through, this month was no exception though the line up of friends and support was a little surprising. I have a lot of friend debts to repay and over time I will, with interest no doubt about it. I am living life on a different set of rules and timelines from most people; I never moved out and went to college. When I did go to college it was a fluke, almost a joke that got me in and then somewhat ironically a pretty girl who got me to actually go and get registered for real and then file for FASFA ( which is almost as easy and clear as the procedure for getting someone released from hell, purified and then elevated to heaven by the way ). I don't drive, but will probably learn to this fall, never worked the same place / job for more than six months continuously since most of my jobs were temp/seasonal. The first "real trip" I took, was when I was in my twenties with just one buddy on the train to Seattle and back for SteamCon 1.
That was the start of my knowing that my life would never be enough to see all the world I longed to see for sure. And the next time I took what most people consider "an actual trip" was to meet my girlfriend's family in San Fran' it was the only time I've flown anywhere also. If you can imagine that of the things I've never done; flying and driving are there on the list even into my late twenties.
      This week I am working on finding a regular job, keeping my side jobs to help cover bills until something solid comes through. Working on writing projects and some small physical projects for friends that I"d put off.

     World of Warships is amazing fun if you haven't tried it yet. I will likely be playing some tanks and planes again soon as I miss them both. I am relentlessly planning more games and other projects that will likely never get tested out for table top games. And sadly for the time being am selling all my 40k stuff to ensure no shortage of cash this week with the upheaval of several plans that simply didn't come together.

....

Anyhow that's a short summery of somethings which have happened or hope to have happen soon.

Steampunk Fun planned

So what do we have this week planned?

     Well I didn't go to tea this evening, more is the pity, and I skipped the bacon party too even greater a sin to commit. I stayed in and cleaned up my bathroom, tried to get laundry dry and thought about things I'd rather be doing.

     Now due to the lodge meeting the other day, I couldn't properly entertain Karen so we postponed the hangout to Thursday ( tomorrow evening ) for curry and other tasty things to be made with some stuff Dad brought over for me. We'll likely be watching some Bollywood again; awesome times in store.

Now for the parts that relate to Steampunk and me.

     I need to get back to working on my uniform, it's got a lot of stuff going into it and with and there are many things I could do to improve it all. Karen comes over and does her sewing while we watch the movie or whatever ends up happening, and I should be doing the same. So I have several objects I need to sew up. Belt pouches, a cover for my scabbard, new / replacement gaitors to replace the ones I sold Cam, an arm band that my rank and unit patch could go onto. I also have an amazing wood rod I am going to work carefully into a walking stick / multi-tool, I want to make a couple of canteens and a collapsible cook stove too. ( One like the "hobo stoves" we'd make as kids each summer ) then build a complete set of functional "steampunk feeling" camping supplies. I have a 6-12 man canvas cabin type tent, we have a pot bellied stove, I need to get a bunch of help / manila rope to make various things out of for the tent. I have a canvas / oak cot. And I'd like to get some small kerosene lanterns like the "Railroad / Hurricane" types to have on hand too. Eventually having a "SCA style" campsite but more WWI / WWII feeling. I'm going to build a sectional floor for my tent too with some pallet boards for the winter and spring camping.

     

     Now onto the other part of my Bedroom, the least interesting part in fact. The bed.

If you know me, you're aware of my feelings about beds, they are sort of like cars and Televisions. People (some) seem to be completely taken with the idea that you need to have one as large and gaudy as possible to impress people. This is a confusing and annoying thought since I don't entertain people in my bed, it's a place where I store myself when I'm not being used. And that, is the first part of my plans.  will post some photos later but the bed is 5' 10" long (inside) / 6ft long outside, it's just over 36" wide (inside ) and stands 36" high underneath. It's wonderful! and built from recycled / scavenged lumber and supplies. It's tall enough you can sit / sleep underneath of it. Right now it's deep storage for a great and wonderful steamer trunk I keep my uniform in. Later it will host my boxes for various camping supplies I hope.  So we have this bed, and being me I don't care for froofroo' so it's quite literally bare bones, I will later on be putting a top on it about 4ft over the top of my "head space", and making it so I can sit up in bed while I sleep. There will be a hard ceiling over top and that is going to wind up being storage also: after all why not? You're not using the space for anything else right? Not sure what's going to go up there yet but we'll figure it out later. Now just under the "ceiling" I want to hang a pole, and from there will be a set of cloth sheets I can use to make an A-frame over me while I sleep if I want. My bed being tucked away already and with the 

armoire being on the opposite side of my bed as the wall I'm nicely secluded from light already. Anyhow I figure the cloth is probably fairly dark and heavy to block out any light from electronic lights and noise. The overhead storage area is going to pretty serious too, I'm thinking 4"x4" vertical supports and probably 2"x6" horizontal supports. 

       Once all the support stuff is done I need to make it look enjoyable, useful and classy. So I am thinking about making a "Pass through" on the left side so I can read the room light; and have it large enough for me to get in and out if I wanted. I want to run molding all along the visible edges and possibly some copper water pipe on the inside edges of the ceiling to hide cables and such for power / light. I want recessed, low intensity LED lights too. I was thinking about trying to give it a feeling like a much grander version of the beds you'd have on a military / service ship from the gilded age.
There will also be a punched sheet brass cover for an air vent to push / pull air through. I don't undersand people who can sleep in a room with no air. It's like being in a morgue.

      My desk is okay but it too will get classed up as time works forward, including.... SHELVES!
Yup shelves, trimmed with molding and a cabinet looking section with the mini-fridge tucked inside.
there will also be several overhead shelf units over the desk 6' and 7' respectively I think ? And another carefully hidden air vent behind the desk top computer to suck the hot air away, and possibly a second discreet one to help pull cold air in too.

Did I mention my room is about TEN degrees warmer than the house, and Fifteen to twenty degrees warmer than outside? Yes I have a good PC, it's not "amazing" but it keeps the place cooking.

The PC was the part I had been really excited to tell you all about; but I suppose that's enough for now. Let us say I'm crafting a Finely crafted exotic hard wood computer case project for sometime next year and when I finish it; it should be magnificent to behold and extremely functional.

      

        So Steampunk Bedroom is a plan, it's a slow go but we'll get there, photos in a month or so *probably. And I'll let you know about the rest.

Weekend updates

Weekend Updates

So This weekend was pretty nuts,

Sick friends are worrying me and some are in pretty scary straits it seems like.

Been working on some writing projects, including a letter to my lovely cyster who has had terrible health issues that have us worried. I thought several pages of my scrawling handwriting might give her something to take her mind off of things. 

Writing didn't make a lot of progress this weekend, though I did develop some character backgrounds a bit more. We have made good progress I think and soon it will be time to start carving the blocks of my characters into something which better resembles real people, and places which a reader could readily follow.

This weekend we started a Pythian Sisters Temple and that was pretty cool.

Also I got to hear my brother's roaring and nearly unbelievable story of Burning man 2015, which took an hour and a half to simply tell the key sections of. It was a hell of a trip and lesser men would have died, and normal men simply turned back at several points. 

I also broke down and bought a couple more China Koi bowls so I have a sauce dish, a small sauce / soup bowl, a medium entree / rice dish an a large like soup / main course unit. I would like to get a couple plates at some point and a couple of the tea pots / 6 tea cups and saucers. 

Work happened, some money occurred and that was nice, Now it's time to go back and make more, the never ending cycle of makes money and pays bills.

Monday Nights is my Write in, hopefully it'll be well attended and we'll all get tonnes done.

CF life

CF life

So my CF has been pretty amusing lately.

Doctor's apt came and I look and sound pretty healthy, gained about eight pounds and my PFTs were 93%. If I started riding my bike again and doing cardio I have little doubt it would further improve and quite possibly get back to my peak. 

Of course the side effect of going up to see them is that the next day you always, always feel worse. My lungs have been really crappy this last week. Wet and wheezy but nothing worth calling up and complaining to the experts. Doing my treatments twice a day same as always.

I've been posting some food blogs on my youtube for kicks. I dunno if people watch them or not but the foods I have made are pretty awesome if you're looking for something new and tasty. 

Steampunk's Blog

 Steampunk this week

Well Sadly I will not be going to ComicCon this weekend, I simply cannot afford to go, So in between other commitments this weekend I will be doing some costume builds. I need to work on covering that cheap scabbard I made for my sword, I'd like some kind of garish colored fabric. An Imperial Chinese Red, heavy canvas or wool maybe?

I also want to take some of my spent pistol cartridges and make bangles, sometimes you'll see cossacks or other groups hang spent casings like bells running the length of a scabbard and it sounds pretty cool when you walk as well as some flash to your uniform.
I need to make replacement chevrons for my shoulder as the ones Emily bought me for SteamCon' got lost sometime between that event and everything after that.
I will probably hand make them to fit with the out outstanding patch Karen made me. 

I skipped this last Wednesday's meeting at Ford's. Wasn't up to it.

Health has been a little suck lately.

Helping a friend help her friend.

Take a moment if you will,

Hey all,
This is not writing related. But one of my Cystic Fibrosis friends is trying to raise a small bit of cash to help another CF'er ( who I understand it also aspires someday to get published for writing) they've started a fundraiser to help cover rent after a bout of illness kept them from working.
I'd like to drop the link to the gofunme they started here below.
As far as I know this still a thing which is acceptable in our beloved group,
If not I'll delete it and apologize for posting it.
Helping a friend help her friend ( who also has CF ) and could use a little kindness from the universe it seems.
Ours is a prideful people, we don't like to ask for help or seem weak.
But I've seen a fair few of these lately too, so there's hope for people to get the boost they needs.

http://www.gofundme.com/gxix04

CF Blog, slightly delayed.

Well Here I am. Doing treatments again.

My day began as this whole month should; waking up later than I'd like. Put the water on for a pot of tea and then set about the tedium of doing Pulmazyme / waiting / 7% hypertonic Saline / waiting and now at Noon-thirty doing my Tobi ( no waiting after that ).

I'm not a morning person.

The fact our house has an espresso machine is a great boon to my adventures. 

Soon I will have a 3Lt Water heater too, ( need to get a new pump for it ) and it's good to go.

I'm pretty much doomed to never wake up "in the morning" though I'm largely okay with this one.

My lungs are being a little suck, nothing worthy of extra medication but I need to get out more and do as much hard work as I can. Right now the slight reduction in lung capacity is slowing me a tad and pulling down on my ability work and make pay. 

I really enjoy using my vest machine while I do breathing treatments, also vesting while I either sing or play tanks / planes / ships. Or calling friends to chat while I'm vesting. 

In other news: I'm starting to take videos of my cooking adventures for people with a taste for new and experimental food stuffs.

I have somehow gone almost a year since my last clinic visit, which is weird since I usually go every three months like the most of us.

Three hours every day for a month I'm just sitting here watching Netflix, doing a little writing and playing some games. 

I need more work, and better health.

That's it from the CF post for now.

Hope you are all well too.

Hold that thought I'll be posting Monday instead.

Sorry if anyone is reading this and was excited.
But a variety of stuff came up today, mostly beyond my control and I did not sit down and do my writing.
Also in lame news; my breathing treatments are taking about 1.5hrs in the morning and about an hour at night so I have to stop showing upto my Monday night write-ins for the rest of the month because it takes me too long to get home by bus from our event. And unfortunately I'm the only person in our group who lives out here.
Le Sigh.
The CF stuff will feature strongly in tomorrow's make up post.
As will my youtube posts about food, and my Instragram which is largely pictures of nature and landscapes I shoot. Or occasionally awesome / weird / terrible things I happen across.
(Instagram PatrickLohKamp ) / Youtube: PatrickLohKamp

Writer's blog, supplemental.

The country of Trajikistan,
Or "Trajeekastan" / "Tragicastan"

A short story about a country you never heard of.
......
I dunno how many people are familiar with an obscure country nestled high up into mountain ranges most westerners regard as almost mythic and so seemingly devoid of "valuable resources" it was called the "Tibet of the Soviet Union".
I'm talking to you about a country some of us have been talking and researching lately. Trajeekastan.
You've never heard of it, I know. It doesn't even have a Wiki' I know.
But for our Monday night GG write in has been doing some research into little known once CIS countries and it's a subject that creeps into conversation too.
Did you know; Trajeekastan or Trajiikistan depending on who does the translation doesn't exist on any modern maps? In fact strictly speaking it hasn't existed since sometime after the end of The Great War, or WWII in the claims of it's former citizens.
It's mostly what you'd expect in the way of a once entirely ag-preindustrial nation living up inside of mountains high enough to kill most people, with two flavors of weather ( Hot and dry *humid near the water / insanely cold and dry winter ), mountain ridges rising like the serrations on a steak knife dividing steep gorges and valleys helping keep people insular and safe for most of history, A place which Alexander the Great and the Great Khan were basically to have said "No one who has anything lives up there" and simply marched on after planting a flag, a sign post and a note saying.
"We came, we saw nothing of merit and we claimed it as our own in abstentia" ( paraphrase and artistic license. ) Several million people living largely untouched by time, politics or the diseases which ravaged the lands far below them. It wasn't until the advent of aviation that real proof of the nation existed, it had been mapped ( badly ) by Russian explorers skirting it's lower edges or a hand full of times they traveled up "The main road".
As done by "The Russian Marco Pollo" did in the 1860s, stayed for two years before returning with rare presents of gem stones and art which were said to be for "The Great King of all the lands below the mountain"
*It was supposed this would have been the Khan's orders, and no one ever came to collect them until Russians with guns and "modern technology" arrived.
Anyhow from the 1860s until the Red Revolution of 1917-1921 it was just a spot on a map in some Russian Land Minister's office which wasn't worth the cost of investigating. The early Soviet governments sent several emissaries, small military detachments but given the lack of strategic or political importance it was never pursued seriously.
Sometimes it was joked to be a sort of "Russian Shangrula" where defectors and peasants fleeing the chaos would simply hike up to the mountains and join the peaceful villages. But if you've seen a map you realize this would usually mean thousands of miles through the country they were trying to escape.
Popular folk songs, and fairy tales are likely to blame for this being spread but it became a part of the cultural story and is still widely regarded as fact in school books and third party history texts in former Czar/ Soviet historians. Now sometime in the 50s or 60s the Soviet development planners realized they'd had a blank spot on the map. Fearing it would become a secret staging site for anti-communist government or revolutionaries they dispatched several Tupolev Bear aircraft equipped with photo recon pods to photograph the country in question. It is said that none of the photos survived because the warehouse where they were stored were among the many areas that simply self destructed after the collapse of the Soviet union it was abandoned and either electrical issues caused a fire or people sleeping in the buildings set fire to things, but I digress.
Anyway After they established there were no military targets of value, a hand full of stone and earthwork forts near the lower regions water / road access to the world below; the Soviets sent a battalion level of airborne assault experts who parachuting in before dawn and secured the country in mere hours. There was no real government for them to deal with, just a series of small farmer collectives and a complex web of family-tribal alliances which held everyone in a complex network of peace through family ties.
After the disbelief is handled, the Polit offices dispatched people to properly introduce these "poor, simple and backward people". After that the Russians did what Western nations have done to assure that there will not be a united people to move against them in the future. They drew borders right through farms, families and geographically homogeneous areas. Rewrote history to reflect their desires and attempted to obliterate the entire history, ethnic identity, and any other relics of what came before.
Which is probably why most of us have never heard of this poor little nation.
There are people who still live there, though many after six decades of "Modernization" have had their identifying features and traditions wiped out and watered down into the melting pot of the Russian-Soviet soup. There were always some who seemed to stay just ahead of the Soviets, Sheppards and semi-nomadic people living just above where Gaz jeeps could reach. They've started to come down from the hills after the Soviets imploded and in some cases resettled traditional lands, but after three generations have lived with different national borders there are very low odds they'll ever have a nation of their own again.
.
After hearing Joanne talk about "Tragicastan" I thought it bore investigation and a little more story telling. Fun story, due to someone carrying over the Myth of the Russian Octopus headed Water God they have a myth about a very contrarian Spirit / diety who is an arguing-complaining being that questions and denounces anyone who approaches the Lake(s?) at night or tries to cross deep water after day ends. His name translates to the "The boneless water spider (Octopus ? ) who does not believe you/ "Nopetupuss" .
*Fun facts.

(This was something I did while working on my CF breathing treatments, took about 30min )

NANO 2015 Progress Report:

Writer's Blog, supplemental.

     NANOWRIMO 2015 is coming friends,

 and we all know none of you are ready for it really. I am not and I spend about ten hours a week working on stuff for the story I haven't started actually writing yet.

     Now upcoming story project is right now titled "The State of Health",

and as some of you are aware it's a mystery-thriller ? ( I think that's the best explanation for now ) set in a fictional country where a lot of strange people are doing very strange things. Right now I have begun the process of giving characters character sheets and laying out some basics of the back story which the readers will need / want and notes which are important for me to keep in mind as I am writing it all out.

     I am using the YWriter5 program which is very helpful and frankly amazing that it was totally free to download. There are no adds or pop ups or begging you for your money later widgets and there is no timer or trial use. I will do a more complete post about it later. If you are new to NANO or old hat I recommend you get this and then take a story you've already started or partially finished and try running it through this program, chances are you'll find it's really good.

    Now if you've spent anytime in my proximity you know that I approach all stories with the mind of a Game Master. It's how I organize the story telling, the story world and the character's roles in all the many things which are going to take place. This is considered maddening to some, who take an entirely different and they would say "controlled" approach to their stories. But to me, the world and the history make the character's possible so the history and the story world happen before I ever give a character name or description.  This story world is largely speaking one you could find and fall into place with if you had a little lead time. There is no magic, no super tech-babble to make things happen and no divine interventions to speak of, it looks and acts and smells like our planet and most countries you are able to name. There is a government, ruled by two seemingly opposing view points where one is secular and cold hearted in the eyes of the other who are seen by their opposition as being hot blooded and short tempered with nothing but religion and outdated social and economic guides to keep them as a cohesive unit. Yet they rule by the will of the people, somehow and administer a seemingly fair and pretty open society that values it's people's health and happiness above industry, military or most other priorities. So what's the bad part?

       There is a side effect to their peace and harmony, since the days of reunification of once warring nation/city states following a great and terrible series of global wars and natural disasters the united body became very much a self contained empire. Electing to protect themselves from the horrors of barbarism and the ravages of disease and disaster by strictly limiting the populace ability to travel or get information about the outside. And for generations this and two other aspects of their society have kept the people mostly safe, mostly happy and mostly healthy.  In the days of fear and ignorance which fell after the implosion of their parent nation a century before now, it was custom to send sick people to resorts or vacations where they could be treated or cared for until better. Sometimes remaining there forever unable to return healthy to their homes. This has become one of the cornerstones of their society and government duty to all the citizens. Anyone with contagious, degenerative, or disability which requires lasting and specialized medical treatment is sent to one of these Camps, towns, villas or other "rest homes" where experts will treat and watch over a person until they are ready to return to their families again. It's not just diseases; disabilities, amputees and those with mental and " moral illness" are sometimes seen as a danger to the health, or a drain on their family's resources and sent away until they can be repatriated into society again.
      These places range in climate and size from small summer camps or lodges to whole cities where people are moved in for a period of readjustment before return to the lives they left behind. Not everyone makes it back home though, some are simply never able to adjust or continue to require treatments which are simply not available at home. It is also no accident that all of these locations are exceptionally far from your home and can only be reached by air, or ship *Sometimes the trans-national train. And none of them are actually listed on a public map. They do have phones, mail and all the other aspects of a city or town, but you are in effect a prisoner until you are set to be released.

     People here are carefully monitored at different times depending on the nature of their issues and the likelihood of an escape attempt or other dangerous activities. And for those who live there but are not prisoners it's just a life and a job they do, After all, not everyone in the city can be sick or nothing would get done.

     Most of these places are run with fair and decent oversight by government and health officials who want to see the best done for the people who are being kept. But not everyone is there for your good and wellness. Some sites have reputations, some administrators or public health / public safety officials carry with them a hanging sense of dread whenever sighted.  

     There are people who cannot get out, people who do not know why they are there and people who know why there are there and that it has nothing to do with the reasons on their charts. If you know the right people or have money you can usually arrange parcel deliveries to your friend or family matter which go through screens and if that person is on a good list, they can send stuff back.
     There are black and gray markets, where people can get things that aren't in the stores on shelves too. Sometimes a person needs to get out, or someone needs to get a person out and that's where part of our story will focus. You'll meet a young woman, who despite everything her family has done to keep her healthy and keep her health issues a secret is found out and deported. She begins to seek out any and all information about the place she is moved to. And her parents will likewise be trying to sort out how to get her out again. 

     We will also learn about some of the more sordid histories of their nation as told in poorly lit rooms of long abandoned houses around tallow candles by the grand children of the people who saw the great fall and the wars which followed.
      The reason everyone on a secondary highway stops for gas at a station where nothing seems to be cheap and who lives in the house high up on the hill.

      There is a young man who wants to be "The voice of the people" and lead the anarchists to rise up and throw down the shackles of the society which oppresses them.

       Far beyond the walls of the city and the carefully tended plots of farms lumber and lurch the wrecker-Treker fleets of "Scrapper" vehicles, a semi-nomadic tribal people self contained and considered half wild by the city folk. making their living off the land, by scavenging or creating things people will buy when they are near enough to a town or city to engage in trade, they are key to much of what happens beyond the walls and beneath the ground. 

   Who is "The Brotherhood" ? And what are their aims and plans in all of this? For a group who is rumored to have been at the heart of extortions, blackmailing, kidknapping and occasionally murder, not one member has ever been caught or named. There are no clues as to how many of them exist or what any of them do.

    Why are people leaving spoons tied to people's doors?

What is the Spoon Revolution really about?

So many questions are creeping into view, 

Steampunk's blog,

What about Steampunk this week?

Well I'm glad you asked reader !

      I skipped my weekly meeting at our beloved Ford building coffee shop off of SE Division and eleventh tonight because yard work made me unsuitable for friends. And after a shower I wast too tired to be getting back onto the bus that brought me home and slogging over. I was missed they said,
which is very kind to hear. But Sometimes you just need to be alone, with your ships and a friend on Skype while you blow up other people driving ships via the internet.

     Tangentially this is related to my topic of "Steampunk this week" because I want to talk to you about a great game we learned about at the second to last SteamCon we attended years back. It was called "Leviathans, Monsters in the Sky" and it was produced by Catalyst games if I recall

 ( http://monstersinthesky.com/ ). You were basically Pre-WWI Nation's ships, given the power of aviation through reverse magnetic forces. ( Yes. Now stop thinking about it and just enjoy the rest )

It was a Hex-map, turn based fleet combat / encounters game, The starter box was expensive at $100 but was large, full color and completely ready to play! You had a British starter fleet and a French Starter fleet. The British had longer range guns, heavier armor and much slower and less maneuver than the French counter parts. The French, light armor, slightly inferior range guns were off set by significantly faster ships, better turning and in many cases torpedoes. *Which anyone knows are death to whatever they can catch.

      This game was a fun, fairly quick to use and very imaginative way to have fun with naval battles and alternate history style science fiction settings. As I said; full color, fully assembled and ready to play. All the models were set into a pair of holders with water proof color ship cards that were dry erase compatible! Each ship had a battle card ( a reusable character sheet in effect ) and a note card which was lore based data and there was a back story / flavor text book to go along with it. There were two sets of rule books; the simple beginner's guide and the full rules with elevation, wind and clouds as well as different scenarios you could play too. It had double sided map boards so you could mix it up a bit. 

     Now, we bought this about three years ago? And it was after a bit of convincing on my part because the cost was Sunday morning "how much money do we have left?...Well this game we've been playing for hours and hours; it's on sale at that table you see.,"

     Long story short we got the money out and bought a starter set, and played it a lot. Sometimes every ship in both fleets had a single person driving it which was in may ways very life like. Someone on each team gave orders or Strong suggestions ( usually the battle ship drivers ) and everyone else tried to keep to the plan. After a while we had a second and then third fleet set and would launch into real fleet actions with twelve or more ships on each side into flotillas and squadrons. It was great fun, and a lot of hilarious panic stricken moments in game.

      At some point they released an extended set with a British and a French supplemental fleet boxes which contained another set of finely made ships ( one fleet or the other ) and another set of ship cards which represented "New additions to the fleet".
 There were some online representations for test ships of German and Italian fleets too, but for some reason were swallowed up and then lost despite public tests at conventions I heard about.

     The fleet expansions were about $35 to $50 depending on store / sale-holiday specials, and were regarded as being very much a desirable thing to have. The new ships were handy and offered some chance of catching your opponents off guard for a while, if you didn't have the cards out to show everyone ( until you started shooting *This was a house Rule we enacted to keep the feel and mystery of "random encounters" ).

      Further adding to the potential for this game: There were even more optional vehicles listed as "Light Cruisers" and "Armored Cruisers" which you could print the cards off and use existing models for! We used them several times and they did in fact add more layers and often hilarious surprises to the game play.

Now comes the sad part, You see despite all of the things they did right with this game it seems they were tragically doomed from the start. The story we heard was as follows.
 In order to make the game as high quality as they wanted, as cheap as they could to keep the price near reasonable and have it done quickly; the company had it all done in China. Great, lots of places do this. There were some problems early on with production quality and that got sorted out. Now at some point there was a problem with the factory and we heard it was that they were holding out for more money. I heard rumors but never got around to investigating that there was a KickStarter' campaign to help raise money for the second run of the game and financially it was a success which is why the development team moved forward with two new nations. 

  (     Keep in mind all of this is Con'talk and scuttlebutt ) 

I do not know what eventually killed this game but looking at their website; the link I provided above, there haven't been any new posts in just over a year.
None of my state's game stores when contacted had a copy of it, and it was about a year or year and ahalf ago when we bought the last two sets from a local store and one off of Amazon.

If you can find a copy ( or two, or three ) and the price is right. I strongly advise you to get this game it is quite a bit of fun and if you have some math heavy friends you can create new ship cards which are fair and balance out well enough. The story world was amusing, reasonably easy to follow since it had nothing to do with actual game play but reminded me of another Steam-Diesel punk game I loved about flying vessels and aerial battles.

      This game world had a lot of out of the table top / out of box potential for RPGs and online comic or short fiction stories to buy and collect. The ships were very much characters in the game with a rich and interesting history attached to each one so that it felt singular and special.

If you can find one, I hope you get it and play it and enjoy the heck out of it. Chances are we'll never see it again.

The story must go on !

And so we continue,

The planning stages and character development on my project are progressing nicely, we are learning a great deal at this point about most of the characters who are thus far named. Also interesting is the social stratification in their world and how information is managed and censored by the authorities.

     I need to work on names for everyone, but some of their working title names are kind of silly and amusing for now. The geography of their home city is starting to come together and it is quickly apparent to me that this city is MUCH older and more diverse in it's origins than we had previously believed it to be. The people who live beyond the walls of the city are also starting to form up more clear and well defined roles as well as characteristics that help make them key parts of the world and country where they live. Even though all involved would claim that "those beyond civilizing are not our own but simply what was cast off or cast out before the new society could close it's doors to unwanted".
    Another thing which is more and more interconnected is their national / regional politics and I am becoming really invested in how a society can run when half the people are secular and half are deeply steeped in their people's traditional religion. Some of the other factors which seem to push them a part are their views on personal vs. societal rights and responsibilities, international trade and political dealings. Expatriation seems to be something no one wants to talk about right now but it's clearly important to their national security and social welfare leaders ( for reasons I don't yet understand ). 

    The roles of the characters are starting to come more in line with some of their stated aims and beliefs which is handy since that's going to be a key part of the story. How they all fit together is a bit foggy to me in certain aspects but we have lots of space to work it all out and make everyone feel like they belong. 

    I am forming a mental map, but seeing as how maps are one of the really important things to the story and word of mouth seems to be very much a core of their social traditions I am withholding it for now from anyone's gaze. 

I am posting some photos and bits about my story process and project for the upcoming NANO 2015 season on the instagram: patricklohkamp which you can follow if you're so moved.

This week has been insane for so many reasons.

    Pipe sales have been really hit or miss with mostly missed connections due to people not being there when we drop in and wanted to show off the stuff we'd made but all of our reviews were amazingly and gratifyingly positive. Sometimes store employees would buy one just because they liked what they saw so much.

   I've had a lot of call backs, come in at the beginning of the month ( or next month ) too which for blind interviews isn't unexpected or bad. I have high hopes for the coming months to be really positive for us.

    I am almost setting into my new digs completely and normally now. I think that I and my two friends who I am renting from are finding the equilibrium of it all and will have a good run together as cohabitants.

I have designed my room, redesigned the space a couple of times. I have built a computer desk which is in my mind less than half way done but is pretty cool so far, soon to be even more awesome! I have some ideas about "free standing-interconnected wall shelves" which I will pursue in the coming week or so. And hopefully I'll get some job apps out and hear back from a few places soon.

 My steampunk is being offset by Karen's Regency costuming and that's all fine with me because I like to make cool stuff and she has a great eye for projects.

    I have some other projects for here around my place which will be a lot of fun and nearly entirely recycled goods to look forward to.

World of Warships is AMAZING.
I have a Cleveland class Cruiser which is almost finished with exp climb to the next ship, I have no interests in getting another just yet though.
I have the New York class Battle Ship, and several others for kicks.
Playing a lot with a couple of buddies in the evenings.

I am thinking about ways I can make my bed cooler, that's a long project though at this point.

Did I mention my bed is 3ft tall?
"Why?!" You ask...
Because:

One, I had failed to account for the height of some of my boards when I assembled it,

 Two because I wanted to be able to have my feet dangling from it when I sit up.

Three I want to put cargo under it ( most likely my huge tent will live down there ) and I also have that awesome foot locker which keeps my Steampunk costume supplies in down there and I wanted to be able to open the lid and get into stuff without hauling it all out into my rather limited bedroom anytime the mood took me to investigate stuff.
     And lastly "Because I can."

It's a bit silly to "hop up into bed" as a grownup but contrary to the opinions of several people, this bed is 3ft wide and 5' 10" long. So it was designed with a really personal set of specs; namely my own and since I've never had a companion to soak up a lot of space the idea of wasting room on something I didn't want initially has become something of an intense joke among my friends.
Thus, the bed is really more of a raised platform where I store myself for several hours a night and really exists to help me store stuff I have semi-regular use of but cannot realistically keep anywhere else. 

There will be photos of my genius at some point in the future I promise.
But for now it is bed time.

Work to do tomorrow and my friends are getting married finally!!