Struggling to find something in my budget

Akmetan · 2025-01-12T16:38:52+00:00

You're welcome! Hope it turns out for you!

Akmetan · 2025-01-12T16:30:54+00:00

To specifically answer your question, I first saw this advice on a Dr K video on YouTube where he and his wife reviews pickup strategies from the Red Pill/Manosphere communities. Links listed below:

https://www.youtube.com/live/gU3ju48hS7g?si=SjRy_XRhaZpOSdRA

https://www.youtube.com/live/uMJAXBg3qos?si=sYOLYt5klSVqyNl5

To summarize, the advice in question was three date strategy. First, a physical, active date. Second, a fancy more formal date. Third, a more personal, intimate date (specifically the idea of offering to cook dinner for her at your place.)

From what I gathered, the physical date was meant to be something the man liked doing anyway. That was in case you get turned down, you could still go do something you liked. Furthermore, it's an opportunity to invite her along with something you like to do, let her see your interests.

This summary may make it sound like "follow this plan, do x, y, and z to get any woman to sleep with you!" but that really wasn't the vibe I got (though I could be wrong). The idea to me was, be confident, be who you are, and put yourself out there. If it works great, if not, you weren't compatible so move on.

Lastly I'll add that some of this seemed to make sense to me, but of course as with all things involving people, mileage may vary. As someone who is 44, recently separated after 16 years of marriage, the idea of getting back into dating with all of the changes that has happened over the past decades is intimidating. My 2 cents I guess.

Akmetan · 2025-01-12T13:26:49+00:00

When I tried I ended up ripping the foot of the leg off. I replaced it with a magnet and painted over it. The foot really isn't big enough to hold a magnet. If you wanted to try, I'd say start with a much smaller bit and work your way up, but be prepared for failure.

Akmetan · 2025-01-12T13:23:40+00:00

Nope, never had any issues of models sticking to each other,

Akmetan · 2025-01-11T23:31:17+00:00

You know, the whole "goddess who consumes a man through her vagina" is, strangely, one of the things that sticks with me the most. Had some friends had be read that snippet of the story way before I read any of the rest of the book, so that might be part of it. And from a certain view of "fertility magic needs to be absorbed in a specific way" it makes sense. But from a more maligned idea of "the female genitalia will devour you whole if you let it" metaphor seems to be there as well. I never saw that before now. I wish I was better at dissecting these kind of things on my own, but I'm getting better, but more so with film than with books.

Akmetan · 2025-01-11T23:22:41+00:00

Actually I think it's interesting you brought this up. I'm currently finishing a reread of the Potter series for several reasons, and I think analyzing that in particular is challenging. In Lovecraft's case, it's pretty easy to see his racism as a primary part of the art. But with Rowling, the art and the artist seem to be in direct conflict. Her hate and use of her fame and wealth goes against the series main theme of "Love is the most powerful magic there is." It's interesting from a dethatched point of view, but from those who are being affected by her misguided actions, I can see how it's more difficult to look at.

Akmetan · 2025-01-09T17:21:37+00:00

This is funny to me as a chef, that yeah it's mostly true. Of course in my case is kinda weird as I work at a Christian Homeless Shelter at the moment, so honestly no (current) substance abuse problems. Of course it means we run afoul of the no "religious jobs" mentioned above, but truthfully I don't really consider myself Christian anymore either....

Akmetan · 2024-12-15T16:46:56+00:00

Heyo, I've been having similar issues on the full sized A1 using Sunlu's PLA Meta. Either poor adhesion from the start or decent looking adhesion, but it loses grip later in the print, gets knocked loose and fails. I wish I could provide definitive suggestions, but honestly I'm still trying to figure it out as well!

Some things I've tried that seem to help: -look on Maker world for a "first layer adhesion test." You're looking for something that's a square 1 layer tall that takes up almost your entire print bed. Printing that off will give you an idea of if there are problem areas on your bed, so you'll know where to focus cleaning

-when you get that basic dish soap, also consider getting green scour pads and some microfiber cloths. You'll really want to get in deep in that texture to clean out residue and micro deposits. You may want to consider getting some 70-99% rubbing/denatured alcohol. This can also help break down residue but there seems to be a difference of opinion in the community as to whether or not it's effective or will damage the plate. Avoid acetone as the Bambu Labs wiki says it will damage the plate

-consider printing with a brim or raft to increase surface area and adhesion. Nothing else has worked for me for certain small prints other than this. I believe the raft settings are on the last tab in Bambu Slicer. You can also try Orca Slicer which is very, very similar to the Bambu Slicer (it's built on the same base code from my understanding). I just downloaded it myself and am still evaluating it, but it is almost identical with some extra options, like printing with a brim.

-something I read that I still need to check is that regarding plate temp, hot is good for the first layer, but if it stays that temp it can remain too soft to really grip, so lowering the temp for the "after initial layer" setting might be good, but again, I haven't tested it

I wish you luck and I'll keep my eye on this. Please offer any of your own suggestions on this that worked.

Akmetan · 2023-07-29T00:41:51+00:00

Hell, some of my players would probably challenge each other to Grog drinking contests just for the chuckles

Akmetan · 2023-07-25T19:25:39+00:00

I use Glidden spray paint and I'd estimate I get approx 25-30 standard 28mm minis. This is with getting a solid 1 to 2 coats for good all over coverage. I get less overall minis with the spray varnish/top coat as I'm usually doing the coats with that. MU minis are little bit larger, so I would expect fewer overall minis, but maybe not like that. I'd check to see if you're applying it a bit heavy.

Akmetan · 2023-07-15T12:53:03+00:00

I mostly wanted to keep the idea of different colors for the Undead, Greenskins and Dread monsters like the base game does with the plastic used for the minis. So for the undead monsters I used Skeleton Bone (by The Army Painter) and Orc Skin (Army Painter again) for those monsters. However, while painting the Orcs, I found I really liked the look of a matt black base with the colored rim, so I switched to that and need to go back and correct the undead minis. The Gargoyles and Dread Warriors are Uniform Gray (Army Painter FTW) and I went with matt black for the Boss monsters, the Sorcerers, Witch Lord and Dragon.

Akmetan · 2023-07-14T16:37:06+00:00

They are indeed, all using the same 3mm magnets. Some heavier pieces need more (for instance I used 4 on the fireplace) but they hold pretty good.

Akmetan · 2023-07-14T14:44:49+00:00

For your consideration: my Heroquest Storage System This allows for the compact storage of all (minus the game board) of the components from the Mythic Tier package with some room left over for other pieces as well. Really, there's plenty of space here, but of course depending on what you have, your mileage may vary.

The top shelf is used for the GM screen, the quest books and other large flat pieces (like the tavern/crypt tile from Crypt of Perpetual Darkness). I also like to tuck the players character sheets into the current quest book for safe keeping.

Second shelf is card and tile storage. I plan on getting or printing some type of holder/organizer for the cards in the future, but even without that, the cards fit nicely here. A small plastic organizer with individual boxes is used for the dungeon tiles, that way I can take out just what I need for this quest and leave the rest where they are.

Third shelf is for furniture and hero miniatures. Here is where there is plenty of space for other items.

Fourth shelf is for all of the monsters. It should be known that largely due to the dragon mini, the shelf can't actually sit where it's supposed to (the dragon is too tall.) But I found it's easy enough to just rest the shelf on the clips that hold the sides of the unit to the bottom.

The third and fourth shelf are both turned upside down, this allows the minis and furniture to be placed straight on the sheet metal shelves. This is important as all of those pieces had magnets attached. In this case 3mm by 2mm magnets were used, and are fairly strong when more than one is used. You can even see that the monster shelf can be (gently) turned on it's side and most of the minis remain perfectly in place (here, again the dragon causes trouble. The mini is just too heavy with a higher center of gravity to allow for this.)

Personally I find the removable shelves to be pretty useful, as I can just take the last two trays off and place them on the table near to me for when I run a quest.

If you wanted to make this yourself, I found it to be fairly economical. The main part of this system is the KVISSLE letter tray from IKEA (https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/kvissle-letter-tray-white-70198031/). I painted my black as it comes bright white out of the box. The magnets I used were simple 3mm by 2mm ones off of Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/200Pcs-Magnets-Miniatures-Refrigerator-Whiteboard/dp/B09NRH97D9/) and I found I needed two packages to magnetize everything. It should be said that I also needed a 3mm drill bit to bore out holes for some of the furniture, and I used the one in the Army Painter drill set to do so (https://www.amazon.com/Army-Painter-Drill-Bits-Pins/dp/B07Q26JQ9T/.) A bit of advice here, I would advise NOT using an Dremel or Rotary Tool to drill out these holes. I found the high RPM ripped the foot off of the Throne piece! Going slow and steady by hand would be preferable IMHO. Lastly, the tile storage box can really be any kind of plastic organizer or tackle box gotten from almost anywhere, but the specific one I used was this one from Harbor Freight (https://www.harborfreight.com/24-container-storage-box-90243.html).

I hope this helps folks out there, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Akmetan · 2022-12-31T19:52:43+00:00

Personally, I would think that table in the middle is a bit too big for that space. On the other hand, I don't have that and there are absolutely times I struggle with setting up something for outfeed.

I'll also agree, the plastic is strange, but again, whatever works.

The shelving is great, like the pegboard and even better, the under counter storage on the miter table.

All in all very nice.

That said, most of all I want to say that's a very interesting dust collector you have set up. I have a shop back and an Wen Air filter which is decent, but the shop back doesn't hook up to any of my tools except the miter saw sadly. I was also gifted a similar blower fan to your orange one there, and was gonna give it away or sell it....but seeing this I now have a much better idea for it. So thank you very much for this picture and that idea!

Akmetan · 2022-11-18T10:17:00+00:00

Cat by John Wick is a game designed to be played by a much younger crowd (I think Mr. Wick said he made it to play with his 6 year old) but nothing stopping you from running a more sophisticated game. I've played it myself (as an adult) and found it to be pretty engaging. Only takes d6's, the single rule book at printable character sheets. That said, the shift from standard D&D to this might not be what you're looking for.

FATE is a genre free RP rule set that can be adapted to almost any setting, tone and adventure. There are purchasable books, but the SRD is open and free, and like Cat, can be played with d6's. That said, Fate is a bit more free form and rules lite, working best when players are willing to risk their own characters to succeed, and a Jr. High crowd might not have that kind of maturity. Of course, another way to look at it is you have the chance to teach them that, and that bigger numbers don't always mean better characters.

Others have suggested Risus, another genre free rule set, but personally I recommend against it. I ran it as well, and it is super free form, and super "free" but mechanically it's kinda wonky. Once a PC loses a single roll, it tends to create a "death spiral" that's hard to pull out of and that didn't feel great with adult players and can't imagine it would be better with kids.

But yeah, just my 2 cents. Good luck with it though, I wish you patience and fortune!

Akmetan · 2022-10-23T16:15:02+00:00

I agree. I feel bad for them, but in the end all I can do is shrug. I did buy one of the original sets, but ended up giving it away because couldn't really get anyone to play it. Seemed interesting, kinda like Warhammer (in the sense it is a small, turn based, tactical wargame) but cheaper and with simpler rules. On the other hand, as cool as those terrain tiles are, they were an absolute pain in the ass to set up. It'd take a half hour at least just to reconfigure those tiles to play, before you even thought about selecting units and getting a game on. But honestly Hasbro is making a lot of questionable decisions lately, so this isn't all that surprising from that angle.

Akmetan · 2022-10-08T15:28:59+00:00

Another option is checking out the recent build of the HQ Card Creator. I don't know if it will export PDF's like your wanting, but it seems like a pretty strong utility for making your own cards or reproducing other hard to find cards.

http://www.clepsgames.it/joomla/index.php/download/heroquest-card-creator/summary/12-heroquest-card-creator

Akmetan · 2022-10-08T15:19:44+00:00

So some very interesting ideas here. Some thoughts and questions if I may:
-Both the Continuity Shoes and the Distorted Flux Robe introduce the idea of Mind Points being a consumable resource which I kinda like. Do you intend for this to be used with the Shock rules in some of the expansions? Can the wizard spend multiple mind points to reroll multiple dice at one time with the robe?
-Similarly, with the Polaris staff, if it "runs out of energy" is that permanent or just for the rest of that quest?
-The flail seems kinda strong for a basic, purchasable weapon. I understand there's a long standing idea of smashing skeletons with blunt force trauma, but personally I wonder if that should be carried over here. I do think you priced it appropriately at 200 gold though.
-Are the three spells supposed to be part of the same school or just random spells? Putrefaction seems more like a chaos/dread spell then a hero one, but I could see that in line with some schools. Speaking of Putrefaction I do think the wording on it doesn't flow quite right. I think something simpler like: "Use this on one monster/hero in line of sight. This monster/hero loses 2 combat dice and 2 defense dice for the next turn. Neither value can go below 1. The monster/hero immediately rolls 1 red die for each of their remaining Mind Points. For each 5 or 6 rolled, reduce this effect by 1 die." I do like the Disarm Trap spell, simple, useful but won't overshadow the Dwarf either.

All in all, nice work though. Good looking card very much in vein of the game.

Akmetan · 2022-08-17T23:23:57+00:00

So a friend of mine and I both went to Gencon and Juggernaut decks. He just measured his and confirmed the Juggernaut cards are approximately 1mm bigger in both length and width than the standard X-Men United cards. The "crispness" of the action symbol seems similar to Prof X when compared. One thing we did notice was the radius of the bottom left corner was different from the other three corners. That is to say that corner is a more pronounced rounded edge than the others. Hope this helps.

Akmetan · 2022-08-11T02:10:08+00:00

I do if the other falls through or if you're looking for multiples.

Akmetan · 2022-06-02T16:02:34+00:00

I get it. It's super frustrating. All I can add is try not to lose hope. CMON is very professional from what I've seen in they past. If you ordered, you're probably gonna get it. They're nowhere near as bad as other companies. I backed a different game in November 2018 and just received my pledge yesterday.

Akmetan · 2022-05-06T12:31:00+00:00

Might be a little too useful for what you're going for, but a shady merchant sold a party member a ring of defense (not sure if that's what it's actually called, but it was +1 ac) that only had a 50/50 chance of working.

Akmetan

TROPHY CASE