I resisted trying Nethack 5.0 for a while, but there is some good news:

"You finish eating the xorn corpse.  You feel less concerned about becoming petrified."

There's also a tutorial mode which should help anyone who wants to start playing Nethack after 40+ years of development.

When I was a kid, we lived in a neighbourhood where the closest grocery store was an A&P.

It had a feature no other grocery chains had at the time – in fact, one that was unusual here till decades later: a coffee grinder. It was up front by the doors, so you were greeted by a rich aroma of fresh-ground coffee and a slight drift of coffee grounds around it on the floor.

The coffee was sold, I've since discovered, in three levels of quality. The best stuff was packaged in a black tin with the name BOKAR in gold in a striking Art Deco typeface. I found this fascinating and mysterious – my parents never bought BOKAR, not having any method of brewing coffee besides instant, and instant coffee smells like a wet dog to me.

We left that area just after I turned 9, and never went to an A&P anywhere else, but I've since realized I was deeply imprinted by both the coffee and the lettering. I didn't start drinking coffee till my late teens when I discovered espresso with some of my more bohemian friends, around the same time I started work as a typesetter.

My life has been spelled out in decorative letters and coffee beans.

I live under a flight path. Installing Flightradar 24 has interested me in seeing which planes make the most outrageous noises overhead (Airbus 300s and Embraer e195s) but I also learned something else.

Flightradar 24 has shown me that, in general, most planes passing over before noon are landing, followed by a relative lull after noon, then mostly takeoffs in late afternoon and evening.

What always puzzled me before was that the overall sound always goes down the scale as a plane passes over. But now I know it’s irrelevant to whether the plane is going or coming. Going down the scale strongly suggests that the plane is landing, but no. It’s dopplering, coming or going.

I also need a word for the uncanny moment when a plane briefly casts you into shadow – it happens here quite often. Aeroclipse?

What vitamin group, which includes retinol, is important for healthy vision?

What Basque sport is similar to racquetball and squash?

Shopska salad is the national dish of what country?

What island nation was the setting for Dr. No?

What Dr. Quinn actress starred in Live and Let Die?  

What make of car replaces Bond's Aston Martin in Tomorrow Never Dies?

What is the logo of SPECTRE ("Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion")?

Who sang the first Bond film theme song to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song?

What 2011 Martin Scorcese film with a one-word title starred Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, and Sacha Baron Cohen?

The Battle of Tewkesbury was a decisive event in what conflict?

What influential video game trilogy by FromSoftware is noted for its extreme level of difficulty and a subgenre which it inspired?

The four major networks haven't been nominated for an Outstanding Drama Series Emmy since what CBS legal drama in 2011?

I haven't been to New York City for a long time, but last night I dreamed I was standing outside the fabled public library building, trying to figure out how to get from there to some other notable landmark.

My phone worked, but the responses were all deliberately obscure and jokey. I tried several times to work it out, but the answers became more and more enigmatic, after which the dream faded out. I wish I could remember what the other location was.

We were in third place before the final question, but won thanks to our team members with midwestern roots!

The official sports of Canada are ice hockey and what summer sport?

The oldest MLB rookie was what Negro Leagues star who signed with the Cleveland Indians on his 42nd birthday?

What U.S. president campaigned with the slogans "Vote Yourself a Farm" and "Don't Change Horses in Midstream"?

What mother of one of Henry VIII's wives was the first real woman to be depicted on a U.S. coin?

Lake St. Clair, with an average depth of 11 feet, connects which two Great Lakes?

My favorite local haunt. Good food, crazy cheap, and the staff all know me and treat me well. 

I also managed to do something out of the ordinary and exploritory today. A local museum ( The Sloan Museum and Longway Planetarium ) has an exhibit on dragons. I figured that it would be oriented towards kids, but thought "What the hell." I never go explore the regions I'm in these days. Not really. And I've been meaning to fix that. And I've been here so long (relatively speaking) that it seems criminal for the guy who owns dragonbones.net to NOT have gone to the exhibit on dragons.

I was right - it was really directed at kids. Still, something to do and certainly interesting.

Eagle eyed nerds might notice what I did - Todd Lockwood anatomy for the dragon! (Though, I have NO idea what's happening with that wing...)

I found myself paying more attention to how they set things up, what kind of displays / games / stations they had with the idea that I might use them to help LMT Historical Society in the future.

Photo of a 1910 Buick Bug - one of only two made for racing in 1910 and 1911. I really liked the... bug? design on the hood. I thought it was a devil.

Point is that there was some other interesting stuff to check out. Including information on the First People of the area (the Anishinabek) and all the troubles that Flint had with their water a few years back, and how the city went from a logging town to a carriage building industry to the automotive industry.

Yay for exploring - yay for using my brain meats!

Oh, and I did this guy, and I'm working on another to get caught up on my patreon (which is a MONTH behind!)

I posted last week about my longtime client losing his wife, and so he has. I will have to go to the funeral and now I have a new challenge, because I read her death notice and discovered they have a son called Gandalf.

They have two daughters with unremarkable names, nothing literary or fanciful... and they have a son called Gandalf. 

Nobody warned me about this – well, maybe nobody else knew either. I didn't know his wife's name till she died. I never met her.

In case I have to be introduced to Gandalf I suppose it's best I've been warned. My mother had a tendency to laugh inappropriately at funerals and I don't want to follow in her footsteps.

Samuel Macey alias Banstone was born in Fonthill Gifford, Wiltshire, in 1790 and married Charlotte Whitaker in 1809. His alias was not due to shady dealings, because his family had been using Banstone as an alternate name for generations.

Samuel was an agricultural worker. In 1830, he got caught up in the Swing Riots, which were an attempt to destroy new forms of agricultural machinery that were putting people out of work. He was convicted and sentenced to transportation, and arrived in Tasmania in May 1831, leaving behind Charlotte and their nine children.

Samuel received a pardon in 1836, but I find no documentary trail until the 1871 UK census, which shows him back in Fonthill Gifford, aged 82, living with his brother John, aged 78. Despite their age, they were both described as labourers.  Samuel's daughter Charlotte and his son Henry were still living in the village too, but his wife had died in 1851.

It was apparently unusual for transportees to go home, but Samuel managed it.

I feel there’s room for a graphic novel in here somewhere, but haven’t quite got it sussed out yet.

Samuel Macey was my great-great-grandfather’s brother. 

Next, Louisa Ryan, the first white woman in the Cariboo.