Author: David Schwarm

  • The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life by Rick Warren, Daniel G. Amen, Mark Hyman

    The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier LifeThe Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life by Rick Warren
    My rating: 3 of 5 stars

    a simple diet book. I like the community faith-based approach and the stories are nice, but overall in the end it just reads like another common sense diet book.

    View all my reviews
  •  Ill Will by Dan Chaon

    Ill WillIll Will by Dan Chaon
    My rating: 4 of 5 stars

    This book is surprisingly good. A simple murder story, but it has all these wonderful character reflections and useful observations on modern society. There is a good deal of post-modern experimental writing. Does not fall into the art book category, but has its moments and Chaon is someone to watch going forward.

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  • Frogs

    • 1920’s is that when you were teaching
    • Accepted & Did not show
    • Accountability
    • All bullshit
    • All women want is there opinion expressed in a masculine voice
    • Anything goes
    • Bad guys get it in the end
    • Bon Iver
    • Bring me a burrito
    • CAP & Gown
    • Cicadas
    • Clarification question
    • Commitment
    • Dave on crutches
    • Deduce
    • Did not
    • Disapproved literature meeting
    • Don’t hold your breath
    • Don’t tell God how big the storm is, tell the storm how big God is
    • Doublet
    • Duce
    • Famines do not happen in democracy
    • Faux Mockery
    • Follow the money
    • Freedom
    • Frida
    • Fuck off
    • Good burrito recommendation
    • Huey Lewis
    • Huey Newton
    • Impediment
    • Induce
    • Kevin accused
    • Kierkegaard
    • Marble mouth
    • May 2 graduation
    • Moffatt
    • Mountain bondage
    • Naturalist vs Nudist
    • Next Best Burrito
    • Nonstop texting
    • Patrol
    • Pheromone
    • Pig to play with
    • Pretend it is a city
    • Prior commitment to work
    • Produce
    • Reduce
    • Respect their wishes–the greatest gift
    • Retirement
    • Ronnie April 4th
    • Scottie–beam me up
    • Session
    • Show up
    • Something bite me bad
    • Stirrings
    • The Judge (Movie)
    • Two blooms this year
    • You are half way
    • You do it more often then you think
  • Star Wars Day 2024

    Star Wars Day 2024

    This is the thirteenth Star Wars day marathon. I have completed seven, and failed twice.

    Phantom Menace

    https://boxd.it/6paFG1

    Phantom Menace is Jacks first love.

    It is not my favorite. Gun-gin “jive” gets worse every year. The laser sword legacy theory stuck out a lot this time. I hate midi-chlorians

    Attack of the Clones

    https://boxd.it/27V2

    Anakin always has yellow ships. His wife has silver.

    Revenge of the Sith

    https://boxd.it/27US

    What, exactly, would “reverse stabilizers” do?

    New Hope

    https://boxd.it/72s

    It was one in a million.

    Empire Strikes Back

    https://boxd.it/27Vw

    Don’t tell me the odds

    The hyperdrive motivator has been damaged (red droid also has a motivator issue).

    They did not ask any questions—torture to trigger the force connection

    Return of the Jedi

    https://boxd.it/27Vm

    Jabba the hut dies. Yoda dies. Mythical creatures die.

    Force Awakens

    https://boxd.it/4vru

    Let’s go! Kid edition.

    Last Jedi

    https://boxd.it/5xme

    Three lessons.

    1. The Jedi Don’t Own The Light

    2. The Legacy of The Jedi is Failure

    (3.) A true Jedi Knight wouldn’t interfere in the “balance,” despite people getting hurt.

    (3a.) A person willing to save anyone at all costs

    Flight deck scenes.

    Rise of Skywalker

    https://boxd.it/5xlK

    Total cluster.

  • Hordes, Hoards, Herders, and Whores

    Recap

    This week at Alakazam Comics in Irvine, CA, the Game Show continues to battle down the hall to rescue kidnapped villagers. He encounters a behir that mostly wrecks the party (which had been split in half–we added a third table this week). Garner the Wheelchair-bound was paralyzed and killed, by some crazed psychic grell–horrible. We continued down the hall and encountered some gibbering mouthers and a flesh meld (who is killing my new character, Skip the Weak [Tiefling Samurai], losing two characters in one week is a new low even for me).

    We drank Camel Milk — there are shorts:

    we ate cookies

    Summary

    Blasted Intersection

    The stone in this area is badly scoured and scorched. The smell of ozone hangs in the air. A wide passage leads to the east.

    A wide passage leads southeast to area J6. Near the ceiling, a natural opening only a few feet in diameter leads northeast to area J7. The grells lairing in area J7 use this passage to come and go without disturbing the behir in area J6; the passage is too small for the behir to navigate.

    If the characters are particularly noisy, the behir slithers from area J6 to investigate.

    Behir Den

    An enormous nest of crushed rocks, reptile scales, and lightning-scoured bones occupies a depression in this cavern’s northwest wall. Resting in the nest is a massive, serpentine monster.

    A lazy behir rests in its nest, sometimes sleeping for weeks at a time. Affected by its long proximity to Illithinoch’s elder brain, the behir has vulnerability to psychic damage.

    The behir is hungry but cautious. If the characters don’t attack, the behir asks them in Draconic to drive the gricks out of the adjoining cave. If a fight breaks out, the behir tries to maneuver into a position to catch as many of the characters with its Lightning Breath as possible.

    If reduced to fewer than 50 hit points, the behir attempts to flee, abandoning the area for good.

    Treasure. 

    The behir’s nest includes seven gold feathers worth 100 gp each, 1,520 gp in scattered coins, and a jar containing 4 doses of Keoghtom’s ointment.

    Scavengers’ Nook

    This wide cave is barely five feet tall. Lurking here are three monsters that look like floating brains with beaks. Against the north wall lies a moldy backpack.

    Two grells lair here with their leader, a grell psychic named Vundru. Vundru used to lurk much closer to Illithinoch, where he became infused with minor psychic abilities. He has no knowledge of the Far Realm and no desire to learn more; he’s interested only in hunting safely.

    The grells respect their behir neighbor, which they refer to as a Great Eater. The grells don’t involve themselves in a fight between the characters and the behir. If the characters win, the grells confer among themselves for a few minutes, debating whether those who kill a Great Eater are themselves Great Eaters. Unless the characters interrupt this debate by entering this lair, Vundru decides after a few minutes that he can become a Great Eater by vanquishing the characters who bested the behir. The grells then float out to slay the characters.