A rap song I actually like...

Warhamster

Had my first Warhammer battle in many years on Sunday, against my mate James: my Tomb Kings vs his Skaven (skeletons vs ratmen), 2200 points a side.

It was quite a slow game, with constant references to the rulebook to figure out how to do one thing or another, but in the end it was a minor victory to me (I won by 347 victory points -- if I had won by less than 300, it would have been a draw).

Much mirth and merriment had by me and James (and looks of bemusement from Juliette and James' partner Sarah), especially when:

• My piddly little unit of 10 skeleton archers wiped the floor with James' Rat Ogres, which he'd sent down my left flank in an attempt to chew through the archers and get behind my army. Admittedly, the archers had poisoned weapons....
• James forgot to ring his Screaming Bell in rounds 1 and 2.
• Ringing said Screaming Bell in round 5 lead to James losing his Grey Seer general, the Bell, and two clanrats for good measure.
• My Ushabti smashed through his slave unit, and overran into a clanrat unit.
• James' warp lightning cannon doing little more than painting green light on various units.
• Heavy cavalry skeletal steeds did more damage than their riders.
• Chariot-pulling skeletal steeds did more damage than the chariot crew.
• James forgot to deploy his plague censer bearers.
• My chariots got slaughtered by James' giant rats.
• Both my heavy cavalry and James' stormvermin got caught up in the terrain, and didn't contribute a lot to the battle.

Lots to think about for the next battle. My chariots have never been particularly effective, so I might replace them with a bone giant....

It's been how long?!

Just had a look at my profile on Battletracker: the last time I played Battlefield 2 was 17 May 2008.

Almost as bad for Battlefield 2142: last played on-line on 19 May 2008.

It was about that time that Juliette discovered Facebook. Since then, darn near every waking moment, Facebook's been hogging our bandwidth. Kind of hard to make a sniper shot when you're stuttering along at 2fps!

Happy New Year!

2009, eh? What can we expect?

• Hopefully, I'll finish my undergrad studies at VUW.
• Mafia II!
• Possibly start thinking about trying for kids...
• More D&D rulebooks...
• Idiot right-wing policies from the National-led government (you know, like fixing the economic crisis by giving more money to the twats that caused the problems in the first place).
• Mafia II!

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of now.

Edit: Add "many more games of Warhammer" to the list.

Not the way I like to start Boxing Day

So Christmas dinner was at my wife Juliette's parents' place. Just a small affair -- about 20 or so people, only a two-turkey dinner.

We finished eating dinner about 9:30 (my mother-in-law's pavlova is to die for), and by 10 my stomach was starting to hurt. No worries, I though, it's only indigestion. I figured I'd do what always works -- take some antacids, and lie down with a hot-water bottle. Couple of hours later, I'd be fine, yes?

No.

The antacids got thrown up. So did the painkillers. And the next lot of antacids. And the whole time, I was in agony.

By 4am, Juliette was sufficiently concerned that she managed to convince me to go to the hospital. The nearest one is Kenepuru, which had -- fortunately -- recently started running its 24-hour emergency service. The doctor told me that there was a couple of nasty stomach bugs doing the rounds that cause severe abdominal pain, so they tried what normally works.

No dice.

By now, they were worried that in might be gall stones, bladder stones, pancreatitis, or some combination of the three. The 24-hour clinic doesn't have access to x-ray or blood-test facilities at night, so I got a shot of pethidine (in the bum) and referred to Wellington Hospital. They offered to get an ambulance to take me, but warned that it could take up to half-an-hour to get one. By that time, we could have driven into Wellington, so Juliette drove me in. I remember getting on the motorway at Porirua. The next thing I remember is going around the Basin Reserve. I was extremely tired, but the pain had kept me awake. The pethidine had dulled the pain enough that I was able to doze off in the car.

We got to Wellington Hospital's A&E, and despite the signs warning of 30 minute waiting times, got seen within 5 minutes. I got poked and prodded, and IV line put into my elbow (after an abortive attempt to put one into the back of my hand -- ouch!). They drew some blood for tests, and sent me off for chest and stomach x-rays.

After I got back, the nurse told us that it would be another 90 minutes before the blood tests would be complete. Suited us, I think I went to sleep on the gurney before she'd even finished talking! Juliette had bunched up my jumper, and was using it as a pillow, sitting in a chair leaning against the wall. We got woken up a bit later, to be told there wasn't anything on the x-rays (so probably not gall or bladder stones). I was a bit uncomfortable -- the pethidine was wearing off -- so they gave me a shot of morphine. Back to sleep!

A while later, the nurse woke us again to say that nothing had shown up in the blood tests. Apparently, in 90% of patients presenting severe abdominal pains, they never know what was causing it -- just what wasn't causing the pain. A prescription for codeine, and we were on our way home. By now it was about 10am, so while Juliette drove, I was calling the rellies telling them I wasn't dying.

Haven't had any problems in the last 24 hours, so fingers crossed...