Con-on-the-Cob and odds and ends

I will be definitely be at Con-on-the-Cob this week (at least some of the time). I will not be DM the 4e games I usually ran, as the 4e organizers jumped ship for pathfinder, and I could not get my you-know-what together to add events on my own. I am signed up for the Saturday afternoon 4core game, but when I last checked  was the only one signed up, so I'll have to play it by ear. I am on furlough from the federal government, so you'd think I'd get lots done. Unfortunately furlough (especially one this stupid) is not conducive to a creative mindset. I spent most of last week trying to get signed up for unemployment just in case our illustrious Congress reneges on the House proposal to pay us (She-who-must-be-obeyed thinks they make unemployment extra hard to keep the applicants down). Finished up my long postponed taxes (thanks to automatic extensions Oct 15th is the new April 15th). Filled the rest of the time with reading books, and watching way too many Yogcast videos (Wool Race is a four part 80 minute video of the crew getting killed because they are too lazy to build a path of torches from the spawn point to where they are digging for the wool. Moonquest sounded more promising, but after four half-hour videos they have succeeded in building a base underground with a door {added in episode 4}. Simon's team at least seems to run on the sensible strategy of when in doubt dig. Sips team wasted the first six minutes of their video talking about "twerking in microgravity". I didn't watch the three other videos available for Sips team). Books a bit more profitable, got through five last week. Finally finished "Toll the Hounds" which I bought for my nook last spring. Steve Erikson  "Toll the Hounds" is a bit of a slog, too much angst, not enough action. However, it is still filled with those wild flights of Fantasy I read Steve Erikson for. "Dust and Dreams" seems to be going a bit better. Also noteworthy was "The Amber Room" about the fate of the Catherine the Greats Czarist treasure a room paneled in amber, and what happened to in World War Two. The Room still remains on the missing list, but the authors attempts to review the iron curtain archives on it read like a spy novel. I definitely recommend the "The Amber Room". Hopefully I'll get going on my Dungeontangle geomorphs inspired by reading the "Zentangle Untangled" book (If your already a doodler like me, don't waste you're time with the book, Zentangle seems mostly a marketing ploy {although some of the patterns are pretty cool}, and more information is available on the web than in the book). Lets close with some Gypsy Punk!