I’ve needed some new blue jeans for about a year now, but I just haven’t had the time to go shopping for them. Two of my four pairs of jeans have shrunk enough in the length to start to be embarrassingly short. So I took an hour to go try on some jeans.

I’ve worn Levi’s jeans all my life. I don’t think I have ever worn any other brand name jeans. I’m the kind of guy who sticks with what works; Levi’s have always held up well for me, and when I need a new pair, I can just get the same type and size as my old pairs.

My old pairs were size 34, but they were too short, and getting a little too small. I blame the smallness on shrinkage of the jeans, but Cowgrit suggests it might me enlargement of the wearer. I wore size 32 waist in high school, and I was skinny then. I like to think I’ve just “grown up” a little since. Two sizes bigger is not too bad for 20 years of aging.

So I went into a few stores to look for Levi’s jeans. At first, I stood staring at the shelves of jeans for several minutes, in shock at the 439 different styles. Come on! They’re blue jeans. How many different styles do people need? But, of course, out of all the choices, I couldn’t find the style that I’ve been wearing. I ended up having to try on six or eight pairs to find the new style and size that fit comfortably.

The size I need is 35. The 34s are just a little too tight for comfort, and the 36s are just a little too loose for comfort. But to add annoyance to confusion, it turns out there is no size 35 in Levi’s jeans. The sizes go: 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38. . . . Why do they start skipping after size 34? It’s like they said, “If you’re over 30 years old, you only grow in two inch spurts.”

So I had to settle for size 36 jeans, and just wear a belt. I’m conflicted now: if I work to loose an inch off my waist, the jeans will fit worse, but if I eat more and become a couch potato, I can “grow” into them. Hmm. One way requires attention and work, the other way is easier.

I looked around for more size 36 jeans in the style I liked. I like having several jeans of the same style and color. On a day I’m going to wear jeans, I want to be able to pull out the pants and pull out a shirt without having to think about whether they match or not. I don’t usually have black jeans, or white jeans, or anything other than basic blue jeans. Blue jeans go with anything. And I can usually tell the age of my jeans by noting how light the blue is: dark blue means new, light blue means old.

But, of course, blue jeans don’t just come in a standard blue. There’s dark blue, medium blue, light blue, dirty blue, and gray blue. And unfortunately, most of the size 36 jeans were sold out. I ended up with three different colors of the style. I got medium blue, light blue, and gray blue. The dirty blue just looked, well dirty. They looked like they should smell bad, so I avoided them.

Anyway, I have three more pairs of jeans, now. I’m going to throw out my too-small pairs, and I’ll try to get over my color matching phobia. Maybe these variations of blue will still work with most any shirts.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

We put up the Christmas tree and decorations. We gave up on live trees a couple years ago, so putting up the tree, now, means getting the big, heavy box out of the storage barn, lugging it into the house, taking the four unwieldy sections out of the box, assembling them, spreading out the limbs that were smushed together when packed into the box, and plugging everything in. It’s really only a little easier than setting up a real tree. With the lights already woven into the limbs of the fake tree, I don’t have to string the lights myself.

I then got the boxes and boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations down out of the attic. Each box is as wide as the attic doorway, and heavy, so negotiating them all down the ladder is about as easy as throwing a cinder block into the air and catching it. About as safe, too.

In case my feelings don’t come across well in this text, I’ll state directly: I just don’t much care for doing the decorations for Christmas. I like having the decorations out for the holiday (but just for the month of December), but I don’t like the activity of putting them up. I guess the reason is that I end up being the one who does all the more nerve-wracking stuff instead of the easy, simple placements. I put up the tree, string lights outside, etc. It’s like being the one who always has to wash dishes after a big family meal.

Cowgrit loves Christmas decorations, God bless her. If not for her, our house probably wouldn’t look any different in December than it does in July. And our house in December leaves no doubt as to what the holiday is. Anyway, we got the house all jollied up and yuletide fine. Our home is holiday pretty, despite my grumbling about the process.

Afterward, we did my favorite thing: dinner. We went to On the Border for some Tex-Mex food. Yeah, if anything can completely confuse the holiday feel, it’s me and my taste buds.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

What would you do if you went to a Web site to read an article or a blog, and found only a blank page? What is your first assumption? Do you think something is technically wrong? Do you suspect the site’s server? Do you suspect the Internet connection? Do you suspect your own Web browser failed? Do you suspect the blank page is intentional?

I can imagine what some will do when they don’t see any text in this post. Some will just shrug and go somewhere else for entertainment. Some will tilt their heads, squint their eyes, and click the mouse buttons. Maybe they’ll click the Reload or Refresh button, repeatedly. Some will scroll up and down the page thinking maybe the text will display if they shake the page up like an Etch A Sketch. If you’re reading this, you probably performed the simplest trick of just highlighting the area in this box. If you are the type to over think a problem, you may have tried viewing the post through the HTML code.

I’m just kind of screwing around with this post. I’ve got nothing interesting to talk about right now.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Classic D&D adventure module review

Dwellers of the Forbidden City, by David Cook – Advanced D&D, 1981

An adventure for character levels 4-7

28 pages plus the separate cover with a map of the Forbidden City on the inside faces. The adventure covers 13 areas of the city, each consisting of from one to a dozen encounter areas. There are seven maps from a quarter page size showing small locations to a full page showing small, but long locations. None of the maps are full dungeons, but are rather just lairs with several areas or long passages with several areas along. The main map, though, on the inside of the covers shows the whole of the city from a 45 degree height. They city is in a valley surrounded by very high cliffs, so it is essentially a self contained environment with many encounter zones (which are shown in the other maps).

At the back of the module are four pages of new monsters: the first D&D appearances of the aboleth, mongrelman, tasloi, and yuan ti; and reprints of two creatures from the AD&D1 Fiend Folio: the pan lung dragon and yellow musk creeper. The last page has 20 pre-generated characters.

Parts of this adventure were used in a major tournament, but this version has been expanded considerably for use in a general campaign. The tournament parts are the entrances to the city: underground passages through guards and monsters. But these entrances are not the only way for campaign PCs to get into the city, and the module explains the monsters and difficulties for going over and down the cliff faces.

The city is basically a monster-filled ruins, with no organization or single control. Different sections of the city are “owned” by different species and factions, but there is nothing like a city civilization. It’s all pure chaos, and walking the crumbled city streets is like walking down a dungeon corridor—wandering monsters will attack you (and each other).

Only 13 areas are detailed in any way, so most of the city is assumed to be empty buildings prowled by wandering monsters. With a creative DM, spending time fleshing out the rest of the city, this could be a campaign setting to occupy PCs for several levels. Without fleshing out the “empty” parts of the city, still, the PCs could spend a few weeks exploring, fighting, and dealing with the various creatures of the city (all of which are wicked and vicious). Near the end of the module is a two-page section on “The Forbidden City In Campaign Play.” This gives hooks and ideas for expanding the adventure. This module does not need the DM to expand on it, but the setting concept just begs for it.

The initial adventure hook to start the adventure is a basic “find the bandits and gain their treasure,” but in the chaos of the location, it would be easy for a party of PCs to forget that and end up expanding their mission to any number of objectives. I’m not sure if the official adventure hook can even really be solved in any certain way. Because the setting is so big, and everywhere so dangerous, and getting into and out of the city so difficult, it could just turn into a survival adventure where the PCs have to worry about food, water, and attrition of comrades.

This adventure is a big concept, and it gives enough content to satisfy, but it is also wide open for industrious DMs to expand upon.

Bullgrit