New Fallout 3 Info

Here are some links to the latest info on the upcoming post-apocalyptic game Fallout 3:

• FALLOUT 3 FACTS THAT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!
• Fallout 3 First Looks
• Fallout 3: Developer Q & A with the Press (Part 1)
• Fallout 3: Developer Q & A with the Press (Part 2)

Dog-Sitting

Yesterday the basset hound I am dog-sitting for my brother and his wife spent most of the day closed off in the third bedroom and laundry room.  She chewed up one of the aglets on my new shoes.  Bad dog!

In retaliation, I went out and bought some rope today.  Guess who’s spending the afternoon outside?

By the way, I have a completely fenced in yard, but Scout, the dog, can (and did) crawl under a few sections of the fence, hence the reason for the rope.

Tribal Wars

I finally started playing this online game called Tribal Wars.  A bunch of my friends have been playing it, and it sounded interesting, but, for some reason, I kept forgetting to check it out.

The game is pretty simple to play.  You manage resources, build armies, fight wars, and engage in diplomacy.  It’s more of a numbers game and doesn’t really have much in the way of graphics, except for a graphical representation of your villages.  The game world is “always on”, but it takes a long time to get things going.

So far, I’m impressed with the game.  I’m still just playing around with a “trial village”, but once I find out where my friends are all stationed, I’m going to try and restart closer to them.  We’ll see how it goes.

Moderate Home Improvements

I spent the long weekend fixing some ductwork in my attic with a buddy of mine. We suspected that the uninsulated bathroom and rangehood exhaust ducts were the cause of some water leaks in my bathroom ceiling. It was hot, cramped, and uncomfortable, but we got ‘er done.

Coincidentally, as we had just finished laying the last bit of R12 and began shovelling the cellulose insulation over top, it started raining outside. Then it started raining inside. Yes, it looks like all the work we did was probably unnecessary since there appears to be some cracks in my roof. My house is about fifty years old, and the ceiling is made up of planks rather than sheets of oriented strand board, so it’s much easier for water to find ways in.

Anyway, it looks like I’ll have some tarring/reshingling to do in the near future. In the meantime, we just put down an extra layer of vapor barrier atop the insulation underneath the leak and put some excess fiberglass there to soak up the water. This should keep the real insulation from getting wet until I can get things properly fixed. We did spray some crap onto the ceiling where the leaks were coming from, but that is only a temporary solution.

Out of all this work, however, I did discover a new “favorite tape”: aluminum foil tape. Yes, aluminum foil tape now beats out duct tape as my favorite tape. Foil tape is the tape you’re really supposed to use for ducts (well, ducts that carry heated air, anyway). This stuff is awesome! After applying single layer of foil tape on two pieces of ducting it’s like they are welded together.

So, my favorite tapes list now looks like this:

1. aluminum foil tape
2. duct tape
3. electrical tape

My most hated tapes list, in case you are curious, looks like this:

1. vapor barrier tape
2. vapor barrier tape
3. vapor barrier tape

That stuff is nasty.