~ponies are magic~

May I present My (not very) Little Pony?



I had tons of MLPs when I was a kid. I probably had more ponies than all my other toys put together. Now I am a grownup (and no, I haven't even watched the new cartoon yet) and I have lots of respect for all the real-life magic a real live horse possesses natively... but it's HALLOWEEN! I can let my inner 8 year old run wild.



Dixie was less thrilled about the whole event.



Livin' dangerously. You haven't seen a picture of me sans helmet in a long time.



I think the pro photographer got better pictures of us. My dress has a freakin' tutu with little fiber-optic blue twinkly lights, sadly completely invisible in the daylight. It's a Slutty Alice In Wonderland dress, so I went with playing cards on Dixie's butt.



After the pretty pics, I put my helmet on and sprinted through the 10 mile fun ride. I know I sound like a broken record, but Dixie was awesome. She stood quietly with me on her back for the ride meeting, then walked me around to talk to friends. When the trail opened her ears went up and she was all business. I doubt we trotted a mile - it was all fast flat walk and rack and pace. The photographers set back up at the lake, about 5 miles in, so I'm sure the action shots are horrible - as she sweated the makeup started running, and of course all the dirt came straight out of her coat. I didn't stay around til the pictures were printed; I'll order them later this week. I'll put up links to the photography site when I get them!

Here's another local blogger's post about Nevada Day. She lives in Carson City so she actually knows people down there. CC really reminds me of a small Southern town; super charming place. Apparently the parade went on for hours - we were entry #36 but there were over 200. S rode one of her Arabians in native dress in the 150s and she didn't even assemble til 11 and didn't start parading til after that!

Rock star parade horse

I rode Dixie in the Nevada Day parade in Carson City this morning. I hitched the trailer last night so I only had to get up at 5:30. It was 22 degrees and pitch dark and I really doubted my sanity. I had to wake my horse up to load her!

She was awesome. Totally amazing. We got to the parking area at the finish at 7:30 and I mounted up at 8. At 8:30 half of my group slowly made our way to the start line then chilled out til the 10 am start. It took about an hour before she decided to stand still and doze off, and she did skitter sideways once when a float shaped like a giant cannon went by us, but in general she was pretty chilled out about all the stuff we saw and heard today. There was a mass hot air balloon race/flight/ascension thing at about 8. Then two WWII jeeps got unloaded from a trailer, and one pull-started the other in the parking lot. The cannons went off at 10, and shortly after that the fighter jets did a flyby. We had to thread our way past a couple of marching bands to get to our starting spot. The Nevada Democrats had a crazy looking animatronic / inflatable donkey on their float, and Dixie gave it a long hard look. Two small kids, momentarily unattended, ran directly behind her throwing rocks at each other and she just swiveled an ear back to track them. Vendors pulling handcarts full of toys, spraying bubbles from bubble machines, were working their way against the direction of the parade, and she didn't even blink. One of the other horses in our group was having a Very Bad Day and kept backing into other horses, spinning and crashing into other horses, and generally being on the brink of a meltdown. Dixie just moved out of his way when I asked and didn't pick up any of his nervousness. I even let kids come pet her at the trailer after the ride. She was so calm about the whole adventure that she never even broke a sweat!

At first I didn't want to take pictures because I wanted both hands in case I needed to control her. Then when the parade started I was too busy waving at kids to bother with pics. I know, in internet terms that means today did not happen, but I was entirely too busy having fun!

I have no idea why Nevada makes such a big deal about the day they entered the US, when none of the other states I've lived in have even noted it. But I think it's incredibly endearing :) Everybody loves a parade and a day off work.

Defeating winter gloom, Phase 2

I got some Vitamin D, so Phase 1 is underway.

I decided Phase 2 is to exercise. So today built a homemade barbell which should allow me to do the two most important lifts - deadlifts and squats. If I build a bench, I can bench press with it too. The basic concept will work for auxiliary lifts too, if I decide to do any. I got my inspiration from browsing some forums yesterday, and PM'd the guy for details. Today I dropped $50 on supplies and assembled my ghetto weights.

Equipment:
Blue buckets, for experiments in concrete. Orange buckets, for sand. Two pieces of 2' chain (definitely overkill). Four 250 lb snap links. Two eyebolts and a new drill bit. Not shown: a 6' piece of 1" inside diameter steel pipe.



I clamped the pipe in my vise. (side note: the vise is the most awesome tool I never would've thought to buy. Everybody needs one!) The two yogurt containers held water to lubricate the bit. My poor little homeowner-grade cordless drill was, amazingly, up to the task of drilling 1/4" holes in that steel pipe. Once I got the first hole started, I really leaned on the drill and poured water from one container, over the pipe, into the second container. It took many many containers of water to drill each hole, and I swapped/recharged the battery after every hole.



After four holes, the water was pretty grody!


The holes were the only hard part. I bolted the eyebolts onto each end of the pipe, with some Loctite for good measure. A snap link connected each eyebolt to a piece of chain. Another snaplink hooked the chain onto the bucket handle. The buckets will hold close to 80 lbs of sand each, and the bar weighs 10 lbs.


Here's the clever part: the chains are adjustable. They're set so that when I'm squatted down completely, the buckets are resting on the ground. This means that if I try to lift something too heavy and fail, I won't be crushed by the weight. That's what the safety rails in a power cage are for.

I dragged the bathroom scale out and marked the buckets - about a quarter full of sand is 20 lbs.


But that's pretty clunky, really. You need a way to add weight incrementally - 50 lbs is a good warmup for squats but it's probably the most I can bench press. Shoveling sand in to add weight and dumping it back out to switch exercises is a no-go really. So I futzed around and made two concrete weights.

Remember those blue buckets? I lined them with some black plastic and mixed up some concrete. I added knotted rope loops in the concrete for handholds.


When they cure, I'll weigh them. Hopefully the plastic liner means they'll pop right out of the buckets, but if not, the buckets were pretty cheap. If I can get the concrete out, I'll make several more sets of concrete weights. They should stack inside the orange buckets.

The whole thing is far from perfect, but I'm not a competitive weightlifter so it's plenty good for me. The buckets wobble a lot on their chains, but I think that makes it better for my purposes - it'll really work my core stabilizers to pick up a wobbly load. If I really want to add more weight I can drill more holes in the pipe and hang another set of buckets (or find bigger buckets!)

Right now I'm using yard sand, but I'm thinking about setting up the Former Dr. Seuss Room as my weight room, and I will probably buy nice clean playground sand if I do that. What if there are bugs in my yard sand? Shudder.

If I buy a 2x12 and some bolts, I can whack together a bench pretty easily. I'll need to whack together a small platform to deadlift with this setup, but I have enough scraps in the barn to do that tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about this!

Boca, again

tl;dr: I went back today and explored the other branch of the road. It's just as rocky, with very few sections I'm comfortable trotting, so I probably won't regularly return.

I took some beauty shots of my girl. A head only a gaited fan could love:


This is better!


Got a picture of the sign I mentioned last post. Muscle cars not recommended!


Can't you just imagine a family in matching outfits pulled up at that sign, scratching their heads and checking the family atlas to find a new spot to drive to?

Here's the perfect example of why I get nervous riding toward unknown forest target shooters. The white/black thing is a target blowing in the wind; there were boxes of Blazer ammo all over the place. Be sure of your target and what is beyond it, yall. (To be clear: this is not the gun club area I was riding toward on Friday; this was a lone gunman on a different trail.)


About 500' up, looking down at Boca Reservoir and a prescribed burn.


Nice climbs, bad footing. This is why I won't regularly ride Boca - there's almost no trail that I feel comfortable asking my horse to trot regularly.


Hard work for a fat hairy mare :)


She looks so noble when she stares into the distance at imaginary predators.


It really is beautiful up there.


I'm glad I went. Dixie is such a pleasant creature now - easy (for me) to handle, loads good, hauls good, cooperative to ride. And I got a little sun - it was about 65 up there, but a cold wind came up in the last mile and I was glad of my new windbreaker.

I'm going to try supplementing Vitamin D and see if that helps keep my mood up this winter. It helps some people and others don't notice a difference. I'll let yall know in a couple of months.

A soap opera of murder

I've been sort of vaguely following this crazy Hells Angels thing for a month now and I thought I'd share it with yall. I don't think it's really hit the national news, so if you don't read West-coast newspapers you may not be aware of it.

Way back in September, we had the annual Street Vibrations motorcycle convention. I am sympathetic to motorcycles and I try to always give them a lot of room and watch out for them on the roads, but I don't really like SV - they act like assholes on the road when they all get together. Kind of like how individual endurance riders out training are always careful to be polite to other trail users, but there are always complaints following a ride about groups of e-riders running trail riders off the trail. It's just kind of human nature. So there's too many bikes on the road (and too many bad California riders - Nevada isn't a lanesplitting state and it freaks us out when they do it!)

This year Street Vibrations went terribly wrong when a fight turned into a shooting at the Nugget. The president of the Hells Angels was killed by some dude from the Vagos, who was promptly arrested. Tragic but not really blogworthy.

The RGJ moved on to other Reno news, and the story picked up in San Francisco. A bunch of Vagos members were arrested with rocket launchers and hundreds of pounds of cocaine and stuff. Still not weird enough for me to blog.

Then the Hells Angels had the funeral for their slain president, and another member was killed. By another Hells Angel! Intra-gang violence at a funeral, woah. The shooter immediately disappeared, and the cops dug up the president's grave looking for the shooter's body. But a week later, they decided he was still alive and at large.

Today brought the weirdest twist so far. A guy driving a paratransit van deliberately ran over a Hells Angel dude on the 580. What the hell is going on with the biker gangs?

I also think it's interesting that this is being reported with the gang names. I don't read the LA papers, so I don't know if they name the gangs down there, but the SFGate rarely names gangs. There's probably a murder a week in SF/Oakland that's termed "gang related" but they never say "X was believed to be a member of the Bloods" or whatever. Just "rival gang member." I can't decide if this is discrimination against bikers or privilege because the Hells Angels are white.

Better Boca pix

These pictures turned out great! Which really annoys me! It's a huge PITA to carry the big camera all by itself in a pommel bag, pull the lens cap, take pics, put it back in the bag, etc. Then I have to get the pictures off the camera and onto the computer. That was just an everyday occurrence with either the big camera or the iPhone - until the new iPhone OS update last week. Now my iPhone sends its pictures to my computer automatically and wirelessly. But it takes average photos at 5000' and utterly horrible ones at any higher elevation, so it's a real tradeoff between my laziness and my desire to show yall what it really looks like in the Sierras. Sigh.

Enjoy!

One of the worst stretches of trail, at the high meadow where we heard the target shooters. No, Dixie was not staring toward the shooters; she's not remotely gun-shy.


Steep and rocky...


With a nice view of Boca Hill to the SW.


The big meadow where the reservoir is located.


The reservoir.


A nice view from as high as we climbed. See why I call it a "road"?


I'm seriously thinking about going back on Monday - the weather is turning off colder on Tuesday. Not cold by any stretch of the imagination, but cold enough to make me not yearn to ride in the high country.

Clarke's Corollary

I don't think Clarke had any horses, but if he did he would surely have said:

Any sufficient quantity of dishwashing soap is indistinguishable from magic.

Today it got up around 75 and I scrubbed Dixie's mane and tail. FOUR full scrubbings with a vast amount of Dawn got all the brown gunk out of her mane. Two scrubbings got her tail cleaner, but I need to scrub it again. I'm not as concerned about her tail - I don't feel too guilty washing tails in cold weather.

Dixie's mane was as clean as it'll ever be, but it was still yellowy, so I blue'd it. I put a couple drops of bluing in a gallon of water and dumped it slowly up her neck. That helped, but not quite enough, so I added a good squirt to another gallon and did it again. That got me something like a slightly greenish wet mane, but it dried to a lovely white!

Before (testing spray-on hair color):


After:


I also used up the last of her Suave deep conditioner. Only the best household products for my girl. Gotta remember to pick up another bottle.

No full body shots because the rest of her is still utterly filthy - I'm not willing to drench her in cold water this late in the year. Can I actually brush all the dirt out of a thick winter coat, or should I take my life into my hands and try to vacuum her?

Also, yesterday I trained some of the longer bits of my rose bush into the fence. I had these fantasies of covering my chain link fence with a living wall of red roses. Today Dixie shattered those dreams by eating all the rose bits that were poking through the fence. Le sigh.

Rode that horse: Boca Reservoir

First, thank you to everybody who commented. It really did make me feel a lot better to know that I'm not the only one who gets besieged by the bad thoughts. Thank you. :)

I hauled Dixie up to Boca Reservoir today. I even took lots of pics! With the good camera! But I left it in the truck so you'll have to suffer with text because I'm too lazy to walk all the way to the garage. ;)

Boca is a good riding spot for me, I think. It's surprisingly unpopular - there were four camping rigs in the day area, and a couple more day-trippers on dirt bikes. It's west of the California ag inspection station - not that they have ever inspected me for anything, but I live in mild dread of the day they ask me for a health cert. Probably 30 miles from my house, so much closer than the actual Tahoe trails.

There are several campgrounds (some horse-friendly) at Boca and at the northern Stampede reservoir, but they close on Oct 1. The day use areas are fine: vault toilets, on the lake for horse water, decent gravel, no fees, and easy to pull thru if you don't like to back your rig. The lake is incredibly clear and even bluer than the picture on Wikipedia. Dixie thinks the dirt is tasty. She has a thing about eating small quantities of dirt from alpine lakes. It's some kind of trace mineral thing I guess.


View Larger Map

We parked at the day use lot at the northern end of the lake and took the gravel road east then south on "E Boca Springs Rd." Like all little grey roads on google maps of the Sierras, it's really an unnamed fire/logging "road" rather than something you'd drive a vehicle you cared about over. There's even a sign warning you not to take a car on it. I absolutely adore Forest Service signs, because they printed and stuck up one hundred years' worth of signs in the 1970s and they're not going to update them until we all have jetpacks or something. The warning sign for Boca Springs Road is Forest Service brown, with an outline drawing of a 70s station wagon and the "no" circle-slash through it. Directly behind the sign there's a creek washout that might high-point my four-wheel-drive truck, just in case you didn't believe the sign.

If you look at the google map, I could've taken Forest Road 72 north all the way up to Verdi Peak, or E Boca Springs south a couple of miles. I decided to take the shorter route today - I was not training or conditioning, just out having fun primarily. We made it about 2.5 miles up this gloriously beautiful trail. A nice 5 mile round trip.

Dixie was sure there were bears in the woods. Or perhaps wolves, she's not too clear about what the mortal danger is. There was a lot of stopping and staring on her part, and I just enjoyed the vistas. Didn't see anything bigger than a hawk. The "road" got narrower and narrower, and many stretches were nothing but fist-sized rock. I was worried about her front right boot but all four stayed on and kept her comfortable.

We climbed a lot through forest, then wound through a meadow, then went through another patch of forest and heard gunshots. I listened for a while and we walked into the next meadow, but I couldn't see the shooters and I just wasn't sure what direction they were firing. Most people who actually go target shooting in the wilderness are careful and responsible people who pick their backdrops wisely, and I was wearing my bright red B:tVS shirt, but I decided to turn around anyway. (Stuff like that is exactly why I don't like to train in brand new areas - since I'd told myself it was a pleasure ride, I wasn't upset that it was "too short" or anything.)

When we zipped back to the start, I noticed two guys pulling in to ride dirt bikes. I asked Dixie to keep trotting, but she wanted to veer over and investigate them, so I let her. The one guy was already suited up on his bike, and he killed the engine to talk to me and wait for his buddy to unload his bike from his truck. Dixie carefully inspected his bike and let him scratch her head! (Who is this horse? Where did she come from? Is she really mine?) They said there's actually an (unofficial?) gun club range back there and that's the shooting I heard, but agreed that riding in the mountains toward unknown gunfire is possibly not the safest of ideas. They confirmed that the other leg of the road, 72, is much longer, but I didn't even ask them about footing - our definitions of "good footing" are too different. The buddy got the bike unloaded so I bid them farewell.

We crossed the main road and headed back into the day use area and I saw a new RV. It was parked at the other end of the (very large) lot I'd parked in. A yellow lab in paroxysms of excitement came leaping toward us barking its head off. The human was right behind it, trying to get "Rose" to chillax a bit. She was having none of it. I rode my very calm horse very slowly toward them, talking to Rose and her owner, then hopped off and walked in when the human got a hand on Rose's collar. Rose had never seen a horse before and was clearly having the best day of her entire life. She wasn't aggressive, just unbelievably excited about the huge! white! monster! in her world. She was so cute, and I think both Dixie and I were good horse ambassadors. I know Dixie was - she was totally unfazed by Rose and just wanted to eat some weird scrubby plant growing in the parking lot.

After the humans had chatted for a while and Rose was dragged away, I rode Dixie down to the lake. She got all four feet wet, thought about drinking, and ate some half-dead aquatic plants. I thought about insisting that she wade further into the lake, but why? I'm sure I could've insisted and have her do it, but there was no real need.

We spent about 15 minutes hanging out at the trailer, but Dixie wasn't interested in eating any more mush so after I finished my snack we rolled out. Laura's last post on EI was about barefoot vs. shod, and I commented that I hardly talk about my boots because they are hardly blogworthy, but here goes: I put them on in about 1.5 minutes and they stayed on the whole ride. The "road" I took was NOT barefoot friendly. Boots or shoes+pads only. We walked/gaited/trotted only. I was worried about the right front, but even though it didn't fit right it didn't budge.

Dixie had lovely picture-perfect feet going into NASTR, but the idleness of late summer (and my own amateur trim jobs) let a lot of REALLY HARD false sole build up. I've been working diligently on them for a month now and last week the false sole finally started to shed on its own. A sharp hoof knife didn't budge it. New nippers didn't budge it. A sharp rasp glanced right off the stuff. A little rain finally broke it up / triggered Dixie's body to shed it - 1/8 to 1/4" chunks of sole have been coming out for a couple of weeks now. Three of her frogs shed off completely, and three feet flaked out all the dead sole and got trimmed. Not the RF! When we got back from the ride/lake, I pulled off most of the frog and flaked out a bit at the toe but there's still this huge wedge, especially in the medial heel. I think tomorrow I will aggressively mustang roll the medial wall so that the false sole is all that's weightbearing - I don't know what else to do. It's like iron.

I'm gonna have to turtle* this NEDA ride next weekend - Dixie is at about 75% yak status and she's not in tip-top shape. I'm thinking about going back to Boca on Monday and doing 10-15 miles on FS 72, just to get Dixie's cardio back in shape for next weekend, but that's all the prep I care to do. The NEDA ride is 20 flat sandy miles, and if it takes 5 hours, who cares? I could clip her neck, but I'm not planning much for the winter so I think I'll skip it.

*probably tie for turtle, if Susan M rides. She is firmly in the "getting one's money's worth per hour" camp and she always turtles rides she attends!

Next post: more pictures, fewer words.

October: when all the little demons come out to play

October is the horriblest month of the year for me. It always has been. It just sucks being in my head in October.

It's not some irrational dark sea of depression. It's not the Big Demons, the ones who ask what you've accomplished with your life and why are you such a lazy/evil/incompetent person. It's the Little Demons, the ones you can usually ignore - but they are relentless. It's like playing a nightmarish game of Whack-a-Mole with a neverending stream of minor-league bad thoughts.

Since the end of September, I've wanted to go ride in the Sierras. I have not yet. There was the Toe Thing, and G was home for a week (YAY!), and I twisted my ankle, but what about all the OTHER days? I'll think "tomorrow I will go ride!" then here's my thought process:

Where should I go?
I pick some place from the Tahoe Rim site.
Let's go to Spooner!
What if there are mountain bikers and we plunge off the side of a mountain to escape them?
Shut up. Don't borrow trouble. There are no-bike trails and the horse is 1000x better than she was three years ago, the last time you saw a bicycle.
What if the trailer leaps off the ball, breaks its chains, and plunges off the road?
Shut up. It's a brand new trailer.
Why do you want to go to Spooner, anyway? It's halfway down Tahoe. It's 60 freakin miles one way. You're gonna spend three times as long trailering as you will riding.
... Cause it's... pretty?
A lot of frantic searching reveals that everything else is either further away or kind of vague on directions.
What kind of idiot hauls alone, into the mountains, in October, to someplace she's never been? You're going to have a Donner Party.
Well... there's no snow now, that's why I want to go...
You are SO spoiled. There are starving children in Africa and starving protesters in New York and it's probably peak oil and you just want to zoom off and terrify your horse with bikes and probably re-pull her tendon and permanently lame her? What is WRONG with you?

At that point I give up and vacuum (futile: it just gets tracked in again, and the fruit of laziness: why didn't I do that yesterday) and sulk. At night, the little voice pops back up to say:
Why don't you ever ride your horse? Poor thing. Pining away. Deserves better than to stand in a sand lot for the rest of her life.

Repeat every other day for two weeks.

Similar internal dialogues follow for just about everything. Doing stuff with friends. Declining the chance to do stuff with friends. Agreeing to do stuff, then canceling. Emailing friends. Failing to reply to emails from friends. Having nothing to do on a particular day. Having too much to do.


But it's almost over! It's a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point, but I know things will be better in November. I actually have a kickass Halloween costume picked out for the NEDA ride next Saturday. Sneak preview:


This too shall pass. It'll all be ok again soon. :)

Top 100 SF books: addendum

In case the random mini-reviews in the comments did not help you decide which Top 100 SF book to tackle next, how about the world's biggest flowchart?

Click to embiggen.

Only extreme nerds need bother with this one

I beat Nethack, for the 5th time or so in something like seven years. I am just putting this up for posterity's sake.

http://alt.org/nethack/userdata/r/rednuf/dumplog/1316451429.nh343.txt

rednuf, chaotic female human Rogue



5 5 5
---------
|.......|
5|...@...| 4 -----
|...@a%.| |...
|.a.....| ---- --..---------
| |.D.*...| | -- --...|.......|
|.4----`---- .| % ---....|.......|
|......@%.....| `$` `*/`.`*-`.._...|
---....V....--- ` ---....|.......|
-----`----- - )`` -- --...|.......|
---|---- --..---------
54 -------_ | |...
| %` | -----
$ %$ --` %-------
`%%% --$ |
---+---- ---
` |
------------

Rednuf the Burglar St:25 Dx:18 Co:18 In:15 Wi:16 Ch:10 Chaotic S:1297530
Astral Plane $:0 HP:158(158) Pw:105(105) AC:-24 Xp:19/2621418 T:45124


Your inventory
Amulets
c - an uncursed amulet of ESP
Weapons
e - the blessed rustproof +3 Magicbane (alternate weapon; not wielded)
p - a blessed +4 silver saber
F - 14 blessed +4 daggers named +4 (in quiver)
Armor
A - an uncursed greased burnt +5 cloak of magic resistance (being worn)
D - a blessed fireproof +3 T-shirt (being worn)
L - an uncursed +0 pair of levitation boots (being worn)
P - a blessed rusty +5 pair of gauntlets of power (being worn)
R - an uncursed thoroughly burnt +0 pair of speed boots
U - a blessed greased +3 helmet (being worn)
W - a blessed +4 silver dragon scale mail (being worn)
Comestibles
v - an uncursed cockatrice corpse named SuckIt (weapon in hand)
Potions
E - a blessed potion of booze
Rings
H - an uncursed ring of regeneration
M - an uncursed ring of conflict (on left hand)
N - an uncursed ring of free action (on right hand)
Wands
d - a wand of digging (0:0)
l - a wand of teleportation (0:8)
x - a wand of death (0:2)
y - a wand of fire (0:0)
I - a wand of wishing (1:0)
V - a wand of cancellation (0:3)
Y - a wand of striking (0:1)
Z - a wand of teleportation (0:6)
Tools
a - a blessed +0 unicorn horn
b - a blessed greased bag of holding
g - a magic marker (1:19)
j - an uncursed sack named WANDS
k - the blessed Master Key of Thievery
n - the Bell of Opening (0:0)
s - an uncursed stethoscope
t - an uncursed towel
u - a magic marker (0:21)
w - an uncursed magic whistle
K - the uncursed Candelabrum of Invocation (7 candles attached)
O - an uncursed magic lamp (lit)
T - a blessed can of grease (0:19)
Gems
o - an uncursed luckstone named The Heart ofqAhriman

Contents of the bag of holding:
an uncursed -2 pair of water walking boots
an uncursed -1 helm of opposite alignment
an uncursed cockatrice egg named grenade
16 uncursed K-rations
6 uncursed lumps of royal jelly
2 uncursed lizard corpses
an uncursed scroll of create monster
an uncursed scroll of blank paper
a blessed scroll of magic mapping
an uncursed scroll of enchant weapon
a cursed scroll of blank paper
an uncursed scroll of identify
2 uncursed scrolls of fire
a blessed scroll of remove curse
4 uncursed scrolls of remove curse
8 potions of holy water
an uncursed potion of extra healing
an uncursed potion of polymorph
2 blessed potions of gain level
a cursed potion of full healing
an uncursed potion of healing
an uncursed potion of acid
8 uncursed diluted potions of full healing
a blessed potion of gain energy
2 blessed potions of extra healing
a wand of digging (0:5)
a cursed wand of digging (0:3)
a cursed wand of teleportation (0:4)
a wand of wishing (1:3)
a wand of digging (0:1)
a wand of digging (0:5)
a wand of digging (0:7)
a magic marker named 1 (1:14)
a +0 unicorn horn

Contents of the sack named WANDS:
2 potions of holy water
a wand of cancellation (0:6)
a wand of death (0:4)
a wand of lightning (0:3)
a wand of teleportation (0:5)
a wand of digging (0:3)
a wand of lightning (0:6)

Final attributes
You were piously aligned
Your alignment was 235
You were fire resistant
You were cold resistant
You were sleep resistant
You were shock resistant
You were poison resistant
You were magic-protected
You were telepathic
You were warned
You had automatic searching
You were stealthy
You caused conflict
You could teleport
You had teleport control
You were levitating
You were protected
You were fast
You had reflection
You had free action
You were extremely lucky (11)
You had extra luck
Bad luck did not time out for you
Good luck did not time out for you
You survived after being killed 4 times

Spells known in the end
Name Level Category Fail
a - knock 1* matter 100%
b - cure blindness 2* healing 100%
c - protection 1* clerical 100%
d - slow monster 2* enchantment 100%
e - detect unseen 3* divination 100%
f - light 1* divination 100%
g - create monster 2* clerical 100%
h - force bolt 1* attack 100%
i - charm monster 3* enchantment 100%

Vanquished creatures
Orcus
Juiblex
The Wizard of Yendor (thrice)
Death (twice)
Pestilence
4 arch-liches
a high priest
3 mastodons
Medusa
16 krakens
2 iron golems
6 master liches
a ki-rin
a storm giant
a balrog
4 purple worms
a gray dragon
2 silver dragons
3 white dragons
3 orange dragons
a black dragon
3 blue dragons
2 green dragons
2 yellow dragons
8 minotaurs
2 jabberwocks
The Master Assassin
6 baluchitheria
12 Angels
2 demiliches
Vlad the Impaler
3 stone golems
5 master mind flayers
6 Olog-hai
a Nazgul
4 pit fiends
a sandestin
5 hell hounds
3 titanotheres
4 trappers
29 guardian nagas
3 disenchanters
32 vampire lords
5 skeletons
4 shopkeepers
18 aligned priests
10 captains
6 shades
11 liches
a clay golem
3 nurses
9 ice devils
6 nalfeshnees
3 lurkers above
an Aleax
a frost giant
an ettin
3 black puddings
25 vampires
9 lieutenants
a watch captain
31 ghosts
a caveman
a healer
2 queen bees
2 winged gargoyles
a mind flayer
13 giant mimics
8 zruties
5 fire giants
2 ogre kings
an ice troll
3 rock trolls
8 umber hulks
3 flesh golems
5 Elvenkings
6 doppelgangers
6 bone devils
6 large mimics
3 wumpuses
2 fire vortices
5 long worms
a couatl
11 stalkers
11 air elementals
5 fire elementals
4 earth elementals
8 water elementals
5 hill giants
2 giant mummies
5 black nagas
8 xorns
14 giant zombies
5 elf-lords
22 sergeants
6 barbed devils
3 vrocks
2 salamanders
13 wargs
4 winter wolves
5 hell hound pups
19 small mimics
a glass piercer
2 warhorses
6 steam vortices
7 xans
an ettin mummy
7 quantum mechanics
6 trolls
a sasquatch
3 wood golems
3 erinyes
3 mariliths
2 djinn
7 sharks
8 electric eels
5 gelatinous cubes
4 pyrolisks
5 large dogs
2 flaming spheres
8 shocking spheres
3 large cats
8 tigers
3 gargoyles
a dwarf king
5 tengu
7 ochre jellies
8 leocrottas
12 energy vortices
2 mountain centaurs
3 stone giants
2 elf mummies
6 human mummies
7 red nagas
2 green slimes
10 pit vipers
4 pythons
3 cobras
50 wraiths
4 carnivorous apes
17 ettin zombies
4 leather golems
8 Grey-elves
113 soldiers
4 watchmen
5 horned devils
4 succubi
4 incubi
20 chameleons
a crocodile
19 giant beetles
4 quivering blobs
13 cockatrices
9 wolves
a lynx
5 panthers
2 gremlins
84 leprechauns
4 orc-captains
3 iron piercers
4 mumakil
9 giant spiders
2 scorpions
3 horses
an ice vortex
9 black lights
10 vampire bats
2 forest centaurs
6 gnome kings
an orc mummy
3 dwarf mummies
4 ogres
a brown pudding
3 rust monsters
8 owlbears
2 yetis
5 gold golems
2 werewolves
2 Green-elves
6 piranhas
18 giant eels
10 lizards
4 chickatrices
2 dogs
3 housecats
3 jaguars
5 dwarf lords
2 blue jellies
2 white unicorns
2 gray unicorns
8 dust vortices
5 ravens
3 plains centaurs
2 gnome mummies
4 snakes
3 water moccasins
2 apes
17 human zombies
3 rope golems
3 Woodland-elves
25 soldier ants
4 fire ants
28 bugbears
an imp
4 lemures
7 wood nymphs
17 water nymphs
5 mountain nymphs
24 Mordor orcs
20 Uruk-hai
6 orc shamans
4 rock piercers
5 rock moles
a pony
5 fog clouds
6 yellow lights
3 shriekers
7 violet fungi
23 gnome lords
7 gnomish wizards
6 kobold mummies
a red naga hatchling
a golden naga hatchling
2 gray oozes
7 barrow wights
14 elf zombies
13 ghouls
2 straw golems
3 paper golems
6 jellyfish
2 baby crocodiles
26 giant ants
4 little dogs
11 floating eyes
2 kittens
28 dwarves
3 homunculi
2 kobold lords
a kobold shaman
13 hill orcs
12 rothes
4 rabid rats
a centipede
6 giant bats
3 monkeys
14 orc zombies
13 dwarf zombies
a wererat
a werejackal
11 iguanas
36 killer bees
2 acid blobs
6 coyotes
4 gas spores
8 hobbits
3 large kobolds
24 hobgoblins
10 giant rats
3 cave spiders
a brown mold
a yellow mold
a green mold
a red mold
58 gnomes
11 garter snakes
18 gnome zombies
8 geckos
5 jackals
a fox
a kobold
9 goblins
5 sewer rats
11 grid bugs
7 lichens
12 kobold zombies
7 newts
1974 creatures vanquished.

Voluntary challenges
You genocided 6 types of monsters
You polymorphed 1 item
You never changed form
You used 9 wishes

Your skills at the end
Fighting Skills
two weapon combat [Expert]
Weapon Skills
dagger [Expert]
short sword [Basic]
saber [Skilled]
Spellcasting Skills
(none)

Latest messages
There is an altar to Kos (chaotic) here.
What do you want to zap? [dlxyIVYZ or ?*]
You may wish for an object.
For what do you wish?
E - a potion called c.invis/booze/fj.
You hear some noises in the distance.
The soldier ant misses the orange dragon.
The soldier ant misses the orange dragon.
The soldier ant turns to flee!
The orange dragon turns to flee!
The fire ant turns to flee!
The soldier ant misses the high priestess of Kos.
The soldier ant misses the high priestess of Kos.
#
What do you want to sacrifice? [vz or ?*]
You offer the Amulet of Yendor to Kos...
An invisible choir sings, and you are bathed in radiance...
The voice of Kos thunders: "Congratulations, mortal!"
"In return for thy service, I grant thee the gift of Immortality!"
You ascend to the status of Demigoddess...

Goodbye rednuf the Demigoddess...
You went to your reward with 2637710 points,
Magicbane (worth 3500 zorkmids and 8750 points)
The Master Key of Thievery (worth 3500 zorkmids and 8750 points)
The Bell of Opening (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
The Candelabrum of Invocation (worth 5000 zorkmids and 12500 points)
1 amulet of ESP (worth 150 zorkmids),
and 0 pieces of gold, after 45124 moves.
Killer: ascended
You were level 19 with a maximum of 158 hit points when you ascended.

No Points Name Hp [max]
1 2147483647 ctaboir-Wiz-Gno-Fem-Neu ascended to demigoddess-hood.
2 2147483647 Zadir-Pri-Hum-Fem-Neu died on the Astral Plane.
Killed by overexertion. 4140 [4140]
3 2147483647 Adeon-Wiz-Gno-Mal-Neu ascended to demigod-hood. 12320 [464076]

2000 4982259 OrangeXP-Val-Hum-Fem-Neu ascended to
demigoddess-hood. 538 [594]
2637710 rednuf-Rog-Hum-Fem-Cha ascended to demigoddess-hood. 158 [158]

RIP big left toenail

Family and co-toes mourn the loss of Big Left Toenail, known to friends as "Big Lefty Piggles." Piggles passed away on Friday, September 30, 2011, after a short period of hospice care following a tragic accident. He was surrounded by co-toes at the end.

On the morning of September 27, an out-of-control office chair slammed into the left foot. Piggles placed himself in the line of fire, leaping to the defense of his cousin the First Phalangeal Bone. The impact threw Piggles into the air, loosening his grip on his toe. Piggles was rushed to Concentra Urgent Care on California Street, San Francisco, California, USA. Doctors were guarded but hopeful, and he was reattached to his toe.

(GRUESOME TOE PICTURES! You have been warned. http://imgur.com/zdfXT.jpg http://imgur.com/WJLGN.jpg)

Piggles fought a short but valiant fight to live. His conditioned worsened, and he was pronounced dead at Renown Urgent Care North Hills in Reno Nevada the following Friday. His remains will be interred in a compost pile at a private residence in Reno. A wake is scheduled to be held at 7 pm on October 1, 2011.

http://imgur.com/hSpP5.jpg

A detailed accident investigation found no evidence of drugs or alcohol in the chair operator's system, and the collision was ruled an accident. No charges are expected to be filed.