The Log

Diet Coke

2011-04-07T11:27:00.007-05:00

I wrote this a week ago and forgot to post it. Merry Saturday night!

Today, for lunch I'm having Diet Coke.
In the past when I've made this statement it might have been an issue of finances or transportation (lack thereof in both cases) that kept me from leaving the office to obtain something to eat. Not so today. Today I'm lazy. I'm not eating lunch because I can't be bothered to haul my ass out to the car and proceed to the nearest drive-thru which is less than a mile away. Instead, I'm having a glass (paper cup) of almost-but-not-quite flat Diet Coke found in the office fridge.

That should give you an idea of where I'm at today.

Normally I'd just sit here and waste my hour of freedom on hulu, but I'm all caught up on Community, 30 Rock, and Outsourced and not actively following any other current shows, so instead I thought I'd knock out a quick update for my all but forgotten blog.

Last month I went to PAX East in Boston. My main goal in attending was to see MC Frontalot, Paul and Storm, and Jonathon Coulton in concert, which I accomplished. I really enjoyed Frontalot's set which was probably the high point of the show for me.
Other Highlights:
Jane McGonigal's Keynote.
Paul and Storm's set.
Rockstar's LA Noire booth.
The Penny Arcade Make A Strip Panel.

I finished my play through (to 100% completion no less) of Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption (Xbox360) last month. It's quite possibly the best game I've ever played, easily the best of the last couple of years, at any rate. It's incredibly paced, thoroughly cinematic, and brilliantly written. It's an amazing story, backed by near flawless game-play.
I also played through the Undead Nightmare expansion, which was enjoyable, but not on the same level as RDR.

I dusted off my Gamecube and tried out a couple of well-respected titles I'd never gotten around to when the console was current.
Soul Calibur 2 appears to be *the* Gamecube fighting game. I picked up a copy for $8 at Gamestop and gave it a spin. It's pretty enjoyable and I get the feeling that, as with most fighting games, I'd get more enjoyment out of it if I'd learn some of the more complex moves and combos. Instead I almost always resort to frantically mashing buttons, which seems to work frighteningly well, at least against the lower AI levels. I'm certain a human opponent with any degree of competency would utterly destroy me.
I have memories of playing Mortal Kombat on the SNES with Matt Dodge back in high school, and I don't think I ever beat him once. Fighting games aren't my forte, but Soul Calibur 2 is fun, and I suppose ultimately that's the yardstick that games should be measured against.

Super Monkeyball 2 was also high on a lot of peoples lists. This one set me back a whole $4.
I appreciate the game's style, and presentation, but it's just not doing it for me. The problem is, I'm really bad at it. I zipped through World 1 and thought, "Is that all there is? What a silly game." Then I started World 2... Yikes. I don't know if I'll ever get to World 3, and to be honest, I'm not that interested in continuing to beat my head against that particular wall.

Bomberman Jetters cost me $3. To me, at that price, the game is worth it just to have the 4-player classic battle mode on my Gamecube, so anything remotely resembling entertainment form the main story-mode would be a bonus. After slogging through the first level, I think I'll just pretend the battle mode is the only mode. It looks pretty, but to say the game-play is anything other than clunky would be a terrible, terrible lie. It's bad. It's really bad.
But the battle mode is awesome. $3 well spent.

Claire!

2010-09-16T11:36:00.002-05:00

This is my daughter, Claire, who will gladly tell you that she is two years old.

5 Random Things that are awesome about my daughter:

1) She knows what a Xiphias is and will say, "That's a Xiphias," if we see one somewhere. (Ok, we've only seen one, at a restaurant, but it was hilarious.)

2) She will literally swing for an hour. When she wants to get down, it's only to switch swings.

3) She likes dice and was recently elated to get some of her own. She walked around with them for the rest of the day saying, "I have dice of my very own."

4) She loves Lego (well, Duplo, but still!) and will construct massive towers, calling them Cities.

5) She wants to play Daddy's games, desperately. We "play" Mastermind together. I hold the board and she puts the pegs in the holes. Then we take them out again. Lather, rinse, repeat. She's almost ready for Power Grid, I think.

Oh Hey... People Still Read This Thing?

2010-09-14T07:32:00.004-05:00

So it was pointed out to me that it's been a very long time since I posted anything over here.

Take this to heart - I will post something - perhaps even several somethings - of interest here in the next few days. I will catch you up, and fill you in.

Things I May or May Not be discussing in the next few days:
My Daughter.
My Dog.
My Wife.
My Job.
Android Apps.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
Puzzle Quest 2.
Forbidden Island.
Small World.
Your Mom.

So stand by, but please don't hold your breath - I need you to be conscious when I finally come through and post something worth reading.

An Update!

2009-07-31T12:14:00.008-05:00

Well, my CD Review project didn't go far, now did it? Oh well, you probably weren't really expecting me to actually follow through anyway, were you? You were? That kind of foolish optimism is what I like about you, Internet Friend.

Anyway, I haven't had much time to do anything terribly exciting, but enough time's gone by since my last real update, I thought I'd catch you all up on what's been going down.

Claire celebrated her first birthday, back in May. She's getting bigger every day, and she said her first recognizable sentence a few days ago! During her bath, the cat meowed from the other room. She said to Diane, “Mama, das teetee!” which translates to, “Mama, that was the kitty!” Sure, her articulation needs work, but that was recognizable sentence, by golly!

She will straight up hit you with a rock!

If you've spent any time with her at all, you know that's she's very curious about her world, often interjecting a forceful, “Dat?” and pointing at whatever random object has captured her attention. If you don't respond to her right away, she gets agitated, asking, “Dat, dat, dat, dat?” until you answer. I like to be very specific when I answer, when a simplified response would probably be easier. “Dat?” “That is Daddy's copy of 'The Dark Knight Returns' by Frank Miller,” as opposed to “A comic book,” or even just, “a book.” I think she appreciates the extra detail.

Her other favorite word is, “No.” She likes it so much she likes to put it together in a whole string: “No no no no no no no,” shaking her head the whole time. It's funny until you try to make her do something she doesn't want to do. She gets her stubbornness from Diane.

In other news, I just had a birthday, and though I'm as close to 30 as I can be with out actually being 30, I don't yet feel 'old.' In fact, I hardly feel like an adult - wife, child, mortgage, car payments, and full-time job, notwithstanding.
The concept of 'Birthday Money' is hard for me. Which isn't to say, that I don't enjoy getting the money, or picking out things that I actually want, it's just that whenever someone gives me anything, not just money, I feel guilty. I always feel as if I'm not worthy of the gift, or the attention. My wife assures me that people who love you enjoy giving you things that make you happy. I know this is true, but I can't help feeling like it's always too much.

Anyway, the aforementioned 'Birthday Money' when collected, and carefully allocated, allowed me to amass quite a collection of new stuff, mostly boardgames. A hardy, and heartfelt “Thank you!” to my benefactors. ;-)

Here's some of the stuff I picked up:
(The first seven are boardgames, and link to their pages on BoardGameGeek.com)

A “Fat Pack” of Magic: The Gathering, 2010 cards

All that and I got to go play some of those boardgames last weekend! I won't bore you with the gory details, but a handful of my friends and I played close to 12 hours of boardgames. It's been too long since we've last done anything like that.

Well, that's all I've got for now - Until next time!

CD Cleanup: Review #3

2009-05-12T11:28:00.002-05:00

Arsenals - Stomp (1995)

I made it through this disc about 3 times yesterday. That was enough.
Stomp was a completely average - below average, actually - 3rd wave Ska album, in a sea of better, and more polished Ska albums to come out in the mid to late '90s.

There are no great songs on the album. There's nothing on here that you'll find yourself humming in the shower. The two "just alright" songs on the disc, 'Beer,' and 'Hypocrite' barely register before you're assaulted by the absolute worst cover, ever, of Steve Miller's 'Joker.' It's bad. It's beyond bad. It's "take the CD out of the player and throw it away" bad. To make matters worse, there's a dub version of the song at the end of the CD, which is mercifully without lyrics, but still painful in its reminder of the abomination that occurred seven or eight tracks ago.

2/10

CD Cleanup: Review #2

2009-05-09T07:50:00.002-05:00

The Aquabats - vs. The Floating Eye of Death (1999)

When I first purchased this album ten years ago, I hated it. Well, maybe I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't like it. It was too much of a departure from their previous album, The Fury of the Aquabats, which I loved. While Fury was a more traditional 3rd-wave Ska album, Floating Eye was more of a synth-based Rock album. Apparently not my thing at the time.

But now, I love it.

On the appointed day I listened to the album three times from start to finish, and really enjoyed most of it. In fact, I liked it so much that instead of writing this, and moving on to the next CD, I listened to The Aquabats vs. The Floating Eye of Death for three more days. All said and done, I've gone all the way through it probably a dozen times, with specific songs getting skipped to, and repeated.

There is something to like about every song, especially on a first listen. Most of the songs are pretty catchy, and all of them have some creative, clever, and humorous lyrics. The shining star of the album for me is 'The Ballad of Mr. Bonkers' which is just a fantastic, fantastic song. Other good ones include, 'Giant Robot Bird-Head,' 'Anti-Matter,' & 'The Thing on the Bass Amp.'

I did find that after a couple of times through the CD that there were a handful of songs that I didn't enjoy as much, and I'd skip them to get to the good ones. The skippers: 'Sequence Erase' (which is unfortunate, as it's the first song on the album), 'Monsters Wedding' & the unintelligible 'The Man with Glooey Hands.'

All in all, it's a fantastic Rock album, even if it's not the Ska album I was looking for when I bought it.

8/10

CD Cleanup: Review #1

2009-05-05T20:36:00.003-05:00

I decided recently that I have too many CDs that I don't listen to, (who am I kidding? I don't listen to CDs anymore!) and I ought to get rid of some of them.

Rapidly on the heels of that thought came another: Set an arbitrary number of CDs to keep or get rid of, listen to every single CD all the way through, at least once, and then get rid of the ones that don't cut the mustard.

That said, the number I arrived at wasn't so much a number as much as however many I have to get rid of to get the remaining CDs to fit into my CD tower.

Now, I don't have a huge number of CDs - probably a miniscule collection compared to a lot of people - I know at least one friend who has a collection of over 5000 CDs. I'm in the sub 500 range - I'm not sure exactly how many I have.

So, armed with a plan, I'm going to be talking about some (most? all?) of the CDs as I listen to them, working my way through the collection.

First up:
Apollo Four Forty - Gettin' High on Your Own Supply (1999)

I listened to the album 2.75 times today - on my way to work, from work, and during my lunch.
I bought this while I was in my 'techno' phase, back in '99. The album is just alright, with a couple of noteworthy songs - Stop the Rock, Heart Go Boom, & Stadium Parking Lot - but on the whole it's pretty forgettable techno-pop-rock audio-mud. Lots of drum and bass with odd squeals and whistles. Honestly, I don't know why I liked techno so much in 1999.
I'm going to give this album a 5 out of a possible 10.
(That's a good place to start, I think - lots of room for better, and worse albums!)

Lara Croft: Through the Ages

2009-02-17T13:35:00.008-05:00

A recent discussion with friends about the various Tomb Raider games led me to contemplate how much Lara Croft has changed over the years.

Tomb Raider.

Tomb Raider 2.

Tomb Raider 3.

Tomb Raider: Revelations.

Tomb Raider: Chronicles

Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness

Tomb Raider: Legend

Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Tomb Raider: Underworld

I'm working my way through Underworld right now and I have to say that despite a few minor quibbles, I'm enjoying the game a great deal.

My Mother Experiments with Setting Her Gmail Status

2009-02-10T10:50:00.004-05:00

I signed into Gmail this morning and noticed that my mother was also signed in.
Then I also noticed that not only was she signed in, she had changed her status, something she's never done before. Then I noticed that not only had she changed her status, her status was a message directed at me, using an embarrassing childhood nickname, which I am about to courageously share with the intarwebnets.

Thanks, Mom. I love you too.

For the record, if you're not my mother, you are not allowed to call me 'Juicy.' 'Juice,' maybe, but never 'Juicy.'

'J-Train' is also acceptable.

My Favorite Use of the Word: Plethora

2009-01-19T19:04:00.000-05:00

Jefe: I have put many beautiful pinatas in the storeroom, each of them filled with little suprises.
El Guapo: Many pinatas?
Jefe: Oh yes, many!
El Guapo: Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?
Jefe: A what?
El Guapo: A *plethora*.
Jefe: Oh yes, you have a plethora.
El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora?
Jefe: Why, El Guapo?
El Guapo: Well, you told me I have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has *no idea* what it means to have a plethora.
Jefe: Forgive me, El Guapo. I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education. But could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?

Part 2?

2009-01-06T21:40:00.002-05:00

I woke up on the wrong side of the universe.

Have you ever spent the night somewhere, a friend's house, or hotel or something, and woken up in the middle of the night to that frantic, “Where-the-fuck-am-I?” panic attack? It's like that, only about a billion times worse. Somehow your body knows. It's weird, but somehow you just know that you're farther away from your birthplace than any person was ever meant to be. That's a tough pill to swallow at whatever passes for 4am around here.

Angry Smurf... Stephen, I reminded myself, did little to make the situation any better.

“Are you going to vomit, Human?” He snapped on a bright overhead light as I sat up.

“Am I? I don't feel si...”

I threw up all over floor.

While Stephen cursed in a language I didn't understand and waved his weapon about in my face, I slowly eased back down to a prone position, suddenly feeling very much like a prune remembering what life was like as a plum.

Stephen's partner, the Human-looking fellow whose name I didn't know, lumbered in.

“Give it a rest, eh Stephen? Can't you see the bloke's in pain?” he said in a passable cockney. He glanced at the mess on the floor. “Thank heavens for artificial gravity. That would have been quite a mess.”

“Are you British now?” I asked, still squeezing my eyes shut.

“Well, not really British, obviously. But I do like to practise every now and again.”

“It's very nice.” I opened my eyes. The light hurt, but the pain was seeping away.

“Thank you.” He beamed.

Stephen fiddled with a setting on his gun and seared away the mess I'd made on the floor. It left an unpleasant odor in the air, but the vomit was gone.

“Get up, Human. There is much to be done.”

I swung my feet down and sat up again.

“Are you guys going to tell me what this is all about?” I asked.

“No.” Stephen stuffed his laser-gun-thing into some sort of holster and left the room, clearly expecting me and the other alien to follow him.

“My name is Basil,” he said to me suddenly.

“Is it?”

“It is today, old chap. It is today.” He grinned and strode after Stephen.

“Lead the way, Basil,” I said.

Road Trip: Southwest USA

2008-09-12T12:56:00.003-05:00

Things you need to know:

1. What a Bootleg Demake is.

2. What Desert Bus is.

3. Where to Download the game Tim and I wrote.

It started out as a joke that quickly spiraled into... well, it's still a joke, but now it's a joke that you can play with.

Tim did 100% of the programming, some of the writing and a bunch of playtesting. I did the rest of the writing, and a ton of playtesting. It may not have been an exact 50/50 split of the workload, but I feel good about my involvement. I think the final product pays homage to the source material while actually being a playable, amusing (at first) game.

Windows and Linux versions available.

An Update of Sorts

2008-08-31T20:25:00.007-05:00

Tuesday Diane goes back to work.
Which means Claire is starting daycare.
Neither of us (Diane, or myself - I think Claire is largely indifferent) are very excited about the idea of Claire spending her days with someone other than one of us, but as we're not independently wealthy, we don't have a lot of choice.
Luckily Diane's mom is going to be able to take her on Tuesdays and Thursdays so Claire will only have to go to daycare three out of five days. Which is not only better for all of us emotionally, but better for us financially as well. Daycare is not cheap.

In other news, I've finally gotten around to seeing Wyatt Earp, and Tombstone.

Both are movies I'd intended to see when they came out on video - 15 YEARS AGO - but never got around to. (15 years. Wow)
They're both worth watching, but I think Val Kilmer, really takes the cake as Doc Holiday in Tombstone. As corny as it is, I think Tombstone is a pretty decent movie.
I think Wyatt Earp is a 'better' movie, but Tombstone is damned entertaining.

Diane's sister, Karen, was home this weekend. I really like my Sister-in-law. Not only is she a swell lady, but she likes to play games - and almost more importantly - she knows how to make Diane play games.

I love my wife, but she is the most stubborn person I've ever met. Ever. There are games she likes - I know this is true - but she will not play them unless she is forced to. I do not have this power of persuasion. Karen does.

So whenever Karen's home, the three of us usually spend an afternoon, or an evening, playing a game or two.

This time we played Cleopatra and the Society of Architects.

It was one of the games I got for my birthday in July, and hadn't had a chance to play yet. I liked it. There's not a ton of strategic depth in it, but I liked it. I'd say it's a step up in complexity from Ticket to Ride, but not a huge step. Diane and Karen seemed to like it. Diane didn't cry like she did when we played Marvel Heroes. (True story!) I'd like to play it a few more times before I pass judgment on it.

I've been listening to The Refreshments again.

It's funny - it's been ten years since I listened to that album last, and I still know all the words.

Oh, and Pete & Pete:

Still awesome.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

2008-08-31T20:20:00.003-05:00

“Well, whaddaya say, tough guy?” This was the little blue one again, the one that looked like a Smurf gone very wrong. I wondered if he knew what a Smurf was. Probably not. He poked me again with the barrel of his gun. Death Ray. Disruptor Beam. I didn't know what it was. He seemed to think it was worth waving around menacingly so I decided to play it safe and act suitably menaced.

I glanced at his companion, who appeared to be a human but probably wasn't. He smiled at me in an altogether unsettling manner.

“We won't be gone long,” he said. He glanced at his partner, and at the weapon that was trained on my midsection. “And it looks as if Stephen is going to insist.”

“His name is Stephen?”

“Well, it's close to Stephen.” He smiled again.

Stephen gestured with his ray gun. “Let's go, human.”

I sighed. My vacation was not starting out at all well.

A Late Night

2008-08-29T15:24:00.001-05:00

It was late when I got back to my office. The tumbler of bourbon was on my desk where I'd left it next to an almost empty bottle. The ice had melted, leaving warm, bourbon flavored water behind. I swallowed it down and sloshed two fingers more into the glass. I preferred it on the rocks, but neat would do just fine right now. Knocking it back, I made that face people make when drinking hard liquor, and slumped down into my chair. It creaked under my weight and I reminded myself to buy a new chair.

I poured the rest of the bottle into the glass and leaned back, rubbing my eyes. They felt gritty, full of sand. I looked at the clock. It was almost 4:00am. Another long night. Fruitless, you might say. Mindlessly, I composed a haiku:

another night lost
searching for what can't be found
rest is for the weak

And then, because that seemed a little bleak, and overly dramatic, this one:

too many late nights
make me a little crazy
could be the bourbon

That seemed more appropriate. I finished the drink, grimaced, and stood up. The warmth in my belly told me that the most recently dispatched glass had met up with the other two, and they were all getting along famously.

Time to go home and face the music.

Dinner

2008-08-09T21:44:00.005-05:00

“Got a dime, pal?”

I made a show of rooting around in my pockets. “No, I'm sorry, I don't.”

“A nickel?”

I stopped walking, and gave the man my full regard. He wasn't the bum I'd first taken him for. In fact, he was fairly well dressed, all things considered. His hat wasn't in the best of shape, but neither was my own. His topcoat appeared to be fairly well-kept and his shoes, though dusty, were far from falling apart.

“A nickel,” he pleaded. “Anything.”

He was in need of a shave, and his eyes had the look of a man who hadn't eaten in a day of two. Nothing sinister about him, just slightly wild in appearance. I took a step toward him.

“Listen, I haven't got any change. I haven't got any money at all,” I said apologetically.

His gaze dropped to the sidewalk between us.

“That's alright, pal. Thanks anyways.” He began to turn away.

“Just a second,” I said.

He turned back.

“Yeah?” He looked at me hopefully.

“I haven't got any money,” I repeated. “but if you're hungry, I can get you something to eat. Are you hungry?”

“Oh, pally, you have no idea. What I gotta do?”

“I'm sorry?”

“What do I gotta do to get some food?”

“All you have to do,” I said, “is tell me what you would like.”

His eyes narrowed. “You ain't got no money, buddy. How are you gonna get anything for either of us?”

I winked at him. I had to admit, I was enjoying this more than I should have been. “It doesn't matter, how. What would you like?”

“Anything?”

I nodded.

“Anything I want?” he asked, clearly incredulous.

“Anything you would like to eat, I will provide it to you, post-haste.”

He smiled. “Alright, buddy. I'll take a big steak, done medium, and with a big helping of mashed potatoes.”

“Very well,” I said, holding the plate out to him.

A look of confusion passed over his features. I felt bad for him then, but the feeling didn't last long. He peered at the plate, licking his lips. The background noise of the street began to fade away. The colors too, drained away until the two of us were alone on the street, the plate held between us.

“What is that?” he asked.

“Why, it's a big steak, done medium, and with a big helping of mashed potatoes.” I inhaled deeply. “And it smells wonderful.”

A droplet of sweat slid down the side of his face, and he licked his lips again.

“I know, I know, but where did it come from?”

“Does it matter?” I asked. “It's here. It's hot. It's exactly the way you imagined it. It tastes exactly the way you imagined it. It is likely the most tender and delectable cut of meat you have ever tasted.” I paused, letting my words work on him. “Eat, my friend. I see it has been some time since your last meal. Eat, and enjoy.”

Beads of sweat stood on his forehead. “I,” he began. “I, uh... I don't have anything to eat it with. No fork, or knife.” He laughed nervously.

“Why, it would seem you have a fork in your left hand.” I pointed. “And a knife in your right.”

He looked at his hands and found that they did indeed contain a fork, and a knife. He began to shake a bit then, and I'm not ashamed to say that I began to quiver with anticipation.

“Come. Eat. You don't want it to get cold do you? Think of how delicious this steak will taste. Think of how wonderful it will feel to have a full belly again.” I contracted his stomach then, enough to make him wince. It wasn't subtle but sometimes you have to force the issue.

He took a step closer. I could see the sweat beginning to soak through his coat at the underarms.

Taking another step, he let out a short cry.

“Come now,” I admonished. “There's really no need for histrionics.” I smiled.

Another step and he was directly in front of me, looking down at the steaming plate. His nostrils flared as he caught the scent wafting up from it.

“It smells good,” he said, and then laughed. It was a bit insane, that laugh. It was the kind of laugh that might have put another human on their guard. I joined in, laughing quite heartily.

“It does smell good,” I grinned. “Doesn't it?”

He nodded, still laughing, and began to cut into the steak.

I Had No Idea There Were So Many!

2008-08-04T21:04:00.002-05:00

1. The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo Entertainment System)
2. The Adventures of Link (Nintendo Entertainment System)
3. A Link to the Past (Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
4. Link's Awakening (Game Boy)
5. Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)
6. Majora's Mask (Nintendo 64)
7. Oracle of Ages (Game Boy Color)
8. Oracle of Seasons (Game Boy Color)
9. Link to the Past / Four Swords (Game Boy Advance)
10. The Wind Maker (GameCube)
11. Four Swords Adventures (GameCube)
12. The Minish Cap (Game Boy Advance)
13. The Twilight Princess (Wii, GameCube)
14. The Phantom Hourglass (DS)

I've only played 4 of those, and only 1 to completion - Link's Awakening, on the Game Boy. (Soon that will be 4:2 as I finish up The Phantom Hourglass. (Which is really good.))

An Open Letter to My Coffee Cup

2008-07-30T13:44:00.001-05:00

Good Morning. How are you today? Doing well? Good. I, also, am well.

Listen: I wanted to apologize to you. I left you, over the weekend, half-full of cold coffee, which has now become more a part of you than either of us had anticipated. I intend to give you a thorough scrubbing, and I want to warn you that it may get rough. I realize that you're getting the short end of things here, as it's my fault you're in the position that you're in. I glanced at you on my way out the office last Friday, and made the conscious decision not to wash you, or even empty you of the already ice-cold coffee that you contained. That was wrong of me. It was disrespectful, and not how I should treat a dear friend of mine. I hope that with time, and a fresh pot, you can forgive me.

P.S. That cheap styrofoam cup you saw me with this morning, means nothing to me. I was just holding it for a friend.

Good Luck in Kentucky

2008-07-29T21:28:00.008-05:00

This is my friend, Tim.

This is my friend, Tim, debating the rules.

This is my friend, Tim, rocking the cardigan.

This is my friend, Tim, enjoying a game.

This is my friend, Tim, and the rest of my groomsmen.

This is my friend, Tim, reading the heck out of the bible.

This is my friend, Tim. You want to mess with this?

This is my friend, Tim, being all theatrical.
(And sort of creepy.)

This is my friend, Tim, after the show.

This is my friend, Tim, singing for all he's worth.

This is my friend, Tim, getting things done.

I know Kentucky's not that far away, but things just won't be the same around these parts. I'll miss you, buddy.

Things not to do While Driving

2008-07-29T16:47:00.002-05:00

1: Pose for Pictures

In Other News...

2008-07-28T13:11:00.006-05:00

So after I posted about the game day, I realized it'd been some time since my last post!

Here's what I've been spending my time with:

Claire, at 2 days old.

Claire, around 2 months old.

The Epic Game Day

2008-07-28T13:00:00.005-05:00

Saturday, at 9:00am, six of us started what was to be the longest game day we'd ever experienced. Only 4 of us would finish, and only 3 games were played, but by the time we wrapped up and I went to sleep at 3:30am the next morning, I felt as if I'd accomplished something.

The first game we tackled was Railroad Tycoon. Players (in seat order) were John, Rachel, Dan, Josh, Tim, and myself. Only Tim and I had ever played before, and that had been an abbreviated two-player game almost two years ago – so rules explanation occurred first. There were several questions from various people, but I think we were underway by 9:45am. Tim jumped out to an early lead, snagging some quick points with Operations cards. It proved to be a valuable lead as the game wore on. The over sized board quickly filled with track, and brightly colored engines as players vied for the most productive routes. Unfortunately, only one person ever came close to overtaking Tim. Josh completed a string of actions that launched him ahead of the rest of the pack, and to just below Tim's position. At one point I think Josh was actually ahead for a turn, but Tim finished out the round back on top.

After the 18^th city was emptied, we finished the turn, and computed the bonuses and found the winner was indeed Tim. Final positions were:

1st: Tim
2nd: Josh
3rd: John
4th: Dan & Justin (Me)
6th: Rachel

Tim and Josh were not far from each other at all, but there was quite a gap between 2^nd and 3rd. The rest of us were all within a few points of each other.

Start time: 9:45am
End time: 1:15pm
Total play time: 3.5 hours

After a break for lunch, Rachel left so we pulled out the five-player big gun, Die Macher. None of us had ever played before, and only two of us were excited about playing a “five hour game about German politics,” but nevertheless we got it on the table.

We took a while getting through the rules, even though I'd read through them several times in preparation. We finally started playing in earnest around 4:00pm.

We had decided early on to play an abbreviated version of the game, aiming to complete just 4 elections instead of the standard 7. After the first state was completed, we all started to “get it” and things began to move a little faster. We really should have played a 5 state game, instead of 4, but it worked out fine as a learning game. Tim and I formed a coalition and handily took the first state. I thought my early lead in the standings would help propel me to the win, but it was not to be. The remainder of the elections did not go my way, and I was forced out of the lead. I did manage at least a few seats in every election, which is more than can be said for some of my opponents.

With crafty placement of issues on the National board, Tim was able to secure his second victory of the day.

Final standings:
1st: Tim
2^nd: Justin
3rd: Josh
4th: Dan
5th: John

Start time: 4:00pm
End time: 7:30pm
Total play time: 3.5 hours

After a dinner break, in which camp-fire cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, and s'mores were enjoyed (or at least eaten) by everyone, we sat down for our final game of the night, Descent: Journeys in the Dark.

As this was another first for us, and I was the only person familiar with the rules, I took on the role of Overlord against Tim, John, Dan, and Josh. I set up the 'Into the Dark' map and began explaining the rules. The heroes took their first steps into the dungeon around 9:30pm.

It was slow going, with many rules clarifications and verifications taking place between and during turns. At 1:00am John took off and the group collectively managed his character for the rest of the night. It ended as a victory for the heroes at around 2:30am.

I made at least one grievous mistake in the early stages of the game, handing out gold treasure when I should have handed out copper treasure. Some of the resulting items were ridiculously over powered and pretty much allowed the heroes to walk through the dungeon unscathed. I did manage one hero kill though, which I'm considering a moral victory.

Winners: Tim, Dan, Josh, and John
Loser: Me

Start time: 9:30pm
End time: 2:30am
Total play time: 5 hours (This seems ridiculous, but I think now that we sort of know what we're doing, we could play this again in a much smaller time frame.)

All said and done, 18.5 hours spent with friends. 12 solid hours of gaming. 3 New games. 1 memorable day, that will not soon be repeated.

Thanks to all for coming! Special thanks to Rachel for being perhaps the most patient person I've ever known. Extra special thanks to Diane for letting all this happen at our house. Extra, extra special thanks to Tim for letting his “Going Away” party be a Game Extravaganza. We'll miss you, buddy. (Seriously, is there an online version of Die Macher?)

It's (going to be) a Girl!

2008-01-02T09:27:00.000-05:00

We had our appointment Monday, and it looks like we'll be having a baby girl!
The woman performing the procedure said that she'd been making the boy/girl call for almost 20 years and to her knowledge has never been wrong.
So, I spent last night with the baby name book. We had a boy's name all picked out, but so far we're unable to agree on a girl's name. I made it through the first half of the alphabet, with 5 or 6 potentials - hopefully I'll be able to get through the second half before too long.

The next few days are going to be pretty crazy: we've got tonight and tomorrow night to finish packing up the apartment. We have the closing Friday morning at 9am, followed by the moving of as much non-furniture items as possible. Saturday, we'll have the moving truck for the furniture. Then the unpacking, and settling in.
We have until the 15th to get everything squared away at the apartment, but I'm pretty sure we can be out Saturday afternoon.

3 Random Things I've been Enjoying:
Fido:

Very funny. Worth watching, even if you're not a Zombie fan.

Brain Age 2:

Diane and I enjoyed the first Brain Age a great deal - This second iteration is providing even more competitive entertainment.

The Complete Monty Python Box Set:

I've been after this for, literally, years. Finally it is mine, and I've been soaking up the surreal goodness for the last few days.

No. 4

The Larch

2007 Wrap-Up

2007-12-26T13:02:00.000-05:00

Anybody still here?
Well, just in case, here's an update:
A lot has changed in the 9 months since my last post.
In August my brother was shipped over to Iraq.
In September Diane and I celebrated our one year anniversary.
In September I (finally) left the Credit Union and started work with a technology company in southern Maine.
Diane and I are expecting our first child in April or May, and we find out Monday whether it's going to be a boy or a girl!
The following Friday we close on the house that we're buying in Augusta.

By the end of May next year I'm going to be a Husband, a Father and a Homeowner. I might as well take up golf in earnest and join a country club.

I won't promise anything, but I fully intend to post in a bit more detail in a few days.

In the meantime, here are 3 things I've recently been enjoying!
The Orange Box

Or more importantly: Portal.
If I heard one more person say "The Cake is a Lie" without knowing what the hell they were talking about...
Anyway, Thanks Tim!

'Darth Vader's Tie Fighter Advanced' Lego Kit

Despite the fact that the kit was missing 30-40 pieces (which Lego is shipping to me) I spent the better part of a day putting this beast together. Can't wait for the rest of my pieces...
Thanks Mom & Jake!

The Marvel Heroes Strategy boardgame.

Maybe a little more complicated than it needs to be, but still fun!
Thanks Gary & Beth

The Last Twelve Months or So...

2007-03-04T21:39:00.000-05:00

Most of my last few posts have been what I'd call 'filler' with no real content. I haven't been particularly informative about what's been going on in my life.

Hopefully this will catch you up.

I don't know if I ever officially mentioned it – I may have, but I can't remember, and I'm typing this off-line so I can't really check – I got married last September. Yeah, I know it's March, but chances are, if you're reading this, you already knew.
So Diane and I got married, and we've got an apartment in Augusta. At this point we've more or less settled into a groove, and the day to day of our new life together is comfortable and we're both very happy.
So we've had our first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years as a married couple. We've had and recovered from our first fight. We've done a budget, and we're not constantly arguing about money. Things are going well. On the 16th of this month we'll have been married six months. That doesn't sound like a very long time, I guess.

I'm still with the credit union. It's been a busy year at work, to be sure. I spent a couple of months on loan to another credit union, which was very interesting. Since I've been back I've worked in two different branches, back and forth, doing loan work full time, which is a step up for me. We've changed our name and our charter and this week I've started working at a third branch, learning some things that will ultimately lead to another step up. I'm pretty happy with how things are going at work. The credit union has been good to me, and I don't expect things to change in that regard.

My brother recently enlisted in the US Army. He's down in Missouri, attending Basic training. As far as I know, he's doing well, I've talked to him once since he left, and I guess he calls Mom once a week. He seems to be alright, but I worry about him. He's never really been on his own before – I'm sure he's fine. Before he left, he used to come down every once in a while. More than once, I've started to ask Diane if I could invite him down for dinner before I realized that he wasn't exactly available. Hopefully his stint in the military will go by quickly.

I recently installed Ubuntu on my laptop. I'd decided that I wanted to run GNU/Linux full time on my laptop, and my friends Tim and John helped me to choose the Ubuntu distribution. Ubuntu's philosophy is that it 'should just work.' For the most part, that's the experience I've had. I had to jump through some hoops, and ultimately downgrade my BIOS to get it installed, and I still don't have functioning wireless, but aside from that...

I'm still working on my book. For those of you not aware, I wrote a book last November, as part of NaNoWriMo, and now I'm in the process of editing it. I'm going through it myself, and my friend Amy is making a pass through it as well. I had a really hard time letting someone else read it, mainly because it's a really rough draft. The only reason Amy has it, is because she also just finished a book, and we orchestrated a trade. She's had some kind words about my work, so I feel a little better about the situation. I just started reading her book, and I'm excited about getting through it so we can trade comments and edits. I'm only 20 or so pages into her book, but it seems pretty good so far.

I'm only working three days this coming week, and then I'm off for 11 Days. I'm really looking forward to the time off. I intend on screwing around as much as possible. I've got a season of Battlestar Galactica to get through, among other things.

After hearing about it for years, I finally got a chance to listen to 69 Love Songs, by The Magnetic Fields. It's worth tracking down, if you're even a little curious. It comes highly recommended.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I know I've said this over and over again the last few years, but maybe I'll post more often. Maybe I won't, but I'll be thinking about it.

None At All, In Fact.

2006-12-29T13:18:00.000-05:00

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Boston
The West
North Central
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Inland North
The South
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

The Aftermath

2006-12-01T17:38:00.000-05:00

Well, now that I'm on the other side of NaNoWriMo and I have something resembling a novel to show for it, I thought I might take a few moments to update my thoroughly neglected blog.
My book, if you want to call it that, isn't quite finished. That wasn't part of the deal, only that I reach 50,000 words in 30 days. I stopped writing at 50,004 and I really don't have much further to go, but once I reached the goal I needed to take a few days off.
It's a little less than 90 single spaced, 12pt, Times New Roman pages. I'm not sure what that works out to in a paperback format, but I'd assume it would be slightly more.
I plan to take an evening sometime next week, and finish up the story, and then begin another arduous task. Editing the thing.
That's going to be quite a process, I think. I plan to go back through every single page and edit for content, grammar, and punctuation. It'll probably take me longer to edit it than it did to write it. Once I've gone through it a couple of times, I'm going to trade with my friend, Tim, who also wrote a novel last month, and edit his, while he goes through mine one more time. Once all editing and rewriting is done, we plan to publish them together in one book, probably over at cafepress. I'll let you know if that ever actually happens.

In regard to the actual process of writing a novel in a month:
It was hard.
But not as hard as I'd thought. Once I decided that I needed to write every single day, no matter what else was going on, it was just a matter of continuing to have ideas. That's one thing that's never been a problem for me. There were definitely nights that I sat in front of the computer for two hours and only produced 300 words, but there were other nights, too. Nights that I was able to crank out almost 3500 words in just a few hours.
All in all, I'm glad it's over, but I look forward to doing it again next year.

And There Was Much Rejoicing!

2006-11-30T02:36:00.000-05:00

Why NaNoWriMo?

2006-11-14T21:48:00.000-05:00

Throughout the month of November, when it seems all of my time is dedicated to improving my word count, I get the same question, over and over from many different people: Why?

I found the 'official' answer on the NaNoWriMo FAQ:

Why are you doing this? What do you get out of it?
NaNoWriMo is all about the magical power of deadlines. Give someone a goal and a goal-minded community and miracles are bound to happen. Pies will be eaten at amazing rates. Alfalfa will be harvested like never before. And novels will be written in a month.

Part of the reason we organize NaNoWriMo is just to get a book written. We love the fringe benefits accrued to novelists. For one month out of the year, we can stew and storm, and make a huge mess of our apartments and drink lots of coffee at odd hours. And we can do all of these things loudly, in front of people. As satisfying as it is to reach deep within yourself and pull out an unexpectedly passable work of art, it is equally (if not more) satisfying to be able to dramatize the process at social gatherings.

But that artsy drama window is woefully short. The other reason we do NaNoWriMo is because the glow from making big, messy art, and watching others make big, messy art, lasts for a long, long time. The act of sustained creation does bizarre, wonderful things to you. It changes the way you read. And changes, a little bit, your sense of self. We like that.

Something like that.

I'm on track so far. I think I'm going to make it this year.
I'll post something more substantial after the 30th.

NaNoWriMo!

2006-11-02T21:26:00.000-05:00

I promise to write an update soon!

For now I'm busy. It is November after all!

Which 'Labyrinth' Character are you?

2006-09-12T16:53:00.000-05:00

Take this quiz!

My Almost Constant Fear

2006-08-07T21:32:00.000-05:00

On a recent trip to a local restaurant with Diane's family there took place a very brief discussion about the fear of dropping your car keys down a sewer drain. This isn't a fear I've ever actually acknowledged myself, but all of them seemed to agree that a certain amount of terror slips through their bones while crossing over sewer grates, keys in hand.

I attempted in vain to find a name for this particular phobia on the internet, and while there are several references to people having a generalized fear of sewer grates, (I think anyone who has seen 'It' could understand why) I couldn't find any specific references to the fear of losing your keys down a storm drain. Does this mean I get to name the phobia? That's a lot of pressure.

And this got me thinking. Are there other fears and/or concerns I myself experience that could be classified as phobias?

Personally, I have a fear of dropping things in the toilet. I have to practically empty my pockets on the edge of the sink before I can bring myself to lift the lid and unbuckle my pants. I'm especially aware of my checkbook, which I generally keep in my back pocket - I'm so certain that it's going to flip out and land right in the middle of the toilet. I've taken to removing my checkbook from my pocket as soon as I enter any bathroom. I'm sure this must make for an odd scene when I go into any public restroom.

"Did you see that guy just going in to the bathroom? He pulled his checkbook out."
"Huh. I wonder What that's about?"
"Maybe that's where he meets his bookie."

And while we're on the subject of toilets: First of all, I rarely use a public restroom for anything other than urination. I will hold it for hours before I will lower my rear onto a public toilet seat. Unfortunately, there have been times when circumstances would not allow me to return home to take care of business, and I'd have to make do. There's nothing more distressing than trying like heck to, how can I put this, shit gently, so as to avoid the resultant splash of foreign water all over your exposed bottom, and receiving it anyway. It's like the toilets in all mall bathrooms (and Best Buys) are specifically designed to maximize splash back potential. Highly distressing.

So anyway, that's three new phobias for the books:
The fear of losing your keys down a storm drain.
The fear of dropping important items in the toilet.
and The fear of toilet water splashing your rear end while defecating.

The Sun Sets in Waltham

2006-06-27T19:17:00.000-05:00

I stand in the window of my fourth floor hotel room and watch the sun slide from view behind the adjacent Marriott. The air-conditioner kicks on and the rush of cold sends a tickle down my spine. Stepping from the window, I pull the curtains shut and turn to survey my domain. It's a nice room - free WiFi, a fridge, king-size bed, coffee maker, and all the loneliness and boredom you can stomach. More actually.

I'm here for work, and while my days are pretty busy, my nights are quite the opposite. A week doesn't seem like a very long time, until you're sitting alone in your hotel room on a Tuesday night thinking about the rest of it.
I tried reading, but I'm just too antsy. I took a cab ride around town, but it just ended up costing me twenty bucks, and I just ended up back here again. I even tried exercising. I did some push-ups, and some sit-ups, and some laying-on-the-floor-panting.
I'm not tired but the only thing I can think to do is go to sleep.

On Respecting Your Elders...

2006-06-21T10:48:00.000-05:00

Respect is something you earn, not a door prize you receive for getting old.

Who Needs the Month of March?

2006-04-18T20:00:00.000-05:00

I don't.

So. Long time.
I'd love to say that I've been really busy, but I'm not sure that I have been.

No, 'Busy' is definitely not the word...

Distracted. That'll do.

Distracted by Tomb Raider: Legend. Distracted by The Movies. Distracted by Wolves of the Calla. Distracted by The X-Files. Distracted by Firefly. Distracted by Everybody Loves Raymond. Distracted by my guitar. Distracted by the Nerf Herder album I found in the used bin at Bull Moose music. Distracted by Diane.

Just generally distracted...
From what, I couldn't tell you...

A Weekend Left to My Own Devices...

2006-02-28T18:54:00.000-05:00

Yes. Those are Legos.
I think everybody will want one of my Custom Lego Lamps once they see how nice mine is...

Killer Bunnies!

2006-02-21T22:22:00.000-05:00

The reason for my continued absence...

In fact, I have no reason, not a good one anyway. I've just been... busy. I've been working out of town a lot, away from my PC, and it's hard to find time to blog. It's not high on my list of things to do. When I finally get a moment to myself, I'd rather read one of the four or five books in my 'to read' pile; or play my guitar; or watch an episode of the X-Files with Diane (we're almost done with season three); or watch an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with my brother (I've seen all seven seasons worth, but he's only midway through season one); or play any one of several board games I've acquired over the last year or so – Betrayal at House on the Hill, Pirate's Cove, The Big Idea, Citadels, Killer Bunnies, Zombies!!!, or even just a few hands of poker...

So given all of these other things to do, I just haven't had the urge to blog lately. What's different about today, you may ask? Maybe you didn't, you're unpredictable like that, but I'll tell you anyway. I have an hour lunch, and nowhere to be, and a new (to me) laptop. I've heard that there are wireless hotspots around Augusta, where you can go and soak up the internet for free, but I'm sitting in Quiznos, typing away to myself in the corner, with no internet. Perhaps tomorrow I'll go off in search of these mythical hotspots... Perhaps not, I'm unpredictable like that.

Since you asked, I'll tell you about Killer Bunnies. A few months ago, I posted some thoughts about Betrayal at House on the Hill, and I really intended to follow it up with semi-regular reviews of other games in my collection. That worked out well. Anyway, here's a rundown on Killer Bunnies and The Quest for the Magic Carrot.

Killer Bunnies is a non-collectible, expandable card Game for 2-8 people, aged 12 and up. The object of the game, as its full title implies, is to obtain the Magic Carrot. Unfortunately no one knows which carrot is the Magic Carrot until the end of the game, when there are no carrots left. So the strategy is to get as many carrots as you can in the hopes that one of them is the Magic one. You must have at least one Bunny alive at the end of the game to be eligible for victory. If all your bunnies are dead, then all your carrots go to the opponent with the most money.

I won't go through all the rules of the game as they are available on the Killer Bunnies website, but instead give you some of my impressions, having played it a few times.

The cards are fantastic. They seem to be pretty durable and I imagine they will last quite a long time. The artwork is terrific – from the Bunnies themselves, to the horrible ways in which they might be snuffed, and everything in between, the cards are extremely humorous, and a much appreciated aspect of the game.

The game play is fairly simple once you've played a turn or two. It utilizes an interesting card system which makes you obligate cards two turns in advance. It can really put you out of the game if you lose all your bunnies near the end. It takes two turns to get a bunny on the table and there's a pretty good chance that it won't stay alive very long.

At this point I've played one three-player game and two two-player games. I intend to introduce the game to a larger crowd tomorrow night, and I feel I'll have a better idea of the game at that point. So far it's been a very light, very fun game – great for the gamer and non-gamer alike.

A Quiz and More!

2006-01-05T19:56:00.000-05:00

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man		95%
Green Lantern		75%
Superman		70%
Iron Man		65%
Robin		62%
Catwoman		45%
The Flash		45%
Supergirl		42%
Batman		40%
Wonder Woman		37%
Hulk		35%

You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Well. I suppose it's time.
It's funny how information spreads. It's like a virus.
If you don't already know - it seems everybody already does, but I'm sure there are a few still in the dark - Diane and I are engaged.
The first weekend in December I asked her to marry me, and she said, "yes!"
We didn't tell too many people at first, because we wanted to tell everyone personally, not in a group setting. Well, at this point, there's no point in drawing it out any longer - everyone knows!

Just so we're clear: Diane and I are engaged to be married!

So, that's good news.
Here's some bad news: My mother's in the hospital again. She'd been in for about a week around Christmas. She was discharged, was home for about a week, and is back again. No one seems to know exactly what the problem is this time, but hopefully they'll get it sorted out soon. I don't mean to sound flippant, it's a pretty serious situation. It's hard when the doctors are as clueless as they seem to be in this situation.

So, that's bad.
Here's more good news: After almost 5 years with a 600 Mhz processor, I've finally upgraded. I received a 2.40 Ghz Celeron and a mainboard for Christmas from Josh. Foolishly, I thought that perhaps I could pull my existing mainboard and processor out of my case, install the new ones and be done with it. After realizing that my old sticks of PC133 RAM weren't going to fit in the new DDR slots, I made a trip to Staples and picked up a 512MB stick for more than it was worth. I rushed home, inserted the new RAM and realized with great frustration that my power supply lacked the necessary connectors to power the new board. So I made a trip into Belfast Computers and picked up a new Power Supply. After putting all the pieces together, taking them all apart, and putting the together again, followed by another installation of Windows XP, I have a functioning machine again! And it's 2.40 Ghz! Holy Cow! And it only cost me about 130 bucks!

So, that's good!

Narnia Rap

2006-01-04T22:21:00.000-05:00

Self Criticism

2005-12-13T18:59:00.000-05:00

I've just read and re-read my last post several times (six times, in fact) and I can't stand myself. I sound like a high-school freshman writing a book report. Do I always write like that?

All the Real Girls

2005-12-13T18:19:00.000-05:00

I'm not a movie reviewer, and I don't intend for this to be a review as such, but I've got a few things to say in regards to the movie. Diane and I watched it together last night and it had more of an impact on me, emotionally, than I had at first realized. It didn't make me cry, but it was a pretty close call. I felt very involved with the characters in this film. It was really hard to watch the second half of the movie, because in a very real way, it was all happening for me too.
The movie is very slowly paced, almost dreamlike in its execution. Some of the reviews I've read have cited poor, uneven acting, but I'm inclined to disagree. Paul Schneider, and Zooey Deschanel both turn in very compelling, character driven performances. Perhaps not a mainstream hit, but well worth a viewing.
I thought I had more to say, but it turns out I lack the words with which to explain myself effectively.

I keep thinking about the scene in the bowling alley, but I don't know what I want to say about it...

I'm not Dead Yet!

2005-12-13T11:11:00.000-05:00

In fact, I think I'll go for a walk.

Anyway, I obviously didn't hit 50,000 words by 30Nov2005 - Off the top of my head I think I ended somewhere around 22,000. At first glance that number seems miserably low, but I really only wrote on Monday's and Wednesday's in November so I did all that writing in about 10 days as opposed to 30... Which is all fine and good, except I'm just trying to make myself feel better about not hitting 50K.

I am going to keep working on my story, though at a less frantic pace. Someday I may feel comfortable calling it a novel, but right now, even at twenty thousand words, it's barely the shell of a novel.

Now that November is over and I've had a little break from the writing, you can probably expect more regular posting to take place here.

I do have some other news to share, but that can wait for another time, I suppose.

My New Pet

2005-11-26T08:10:00.000-05:00

11 Things to Do Other Than Work on Your Word Count Whose Deadline is Rapidly Approaching.

2005-11-23T22:10:00.000-05:00

You Are an Emo Rocker!

Expressive and deep, lyrics are really your thing.
That doesn't mean you don't rock out...
You just rock out with meaning.
For you, rock is more about connecting than grandstanding.

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

You Are Apple Pie

You're the perfect combo of comforting and traditional
Those who like you crave security

What Kind of Pie Are You?

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 7/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

You're an Passionate Kisser

For you, kissing is about all about following your urges
If someone's hot, you'll go in for the kiss - end of story
You can keep any relationship hot with your steamy kisses
A total spark plug - your kisses are bound to get you in trouble

What Kind of Kisser Are You?

You Are Not Scary

Everyone loves you. Isn't that sweet?

How Scary Are You?

What Your Underwear Says About You

When you're bad, you're very bad. And when you're good, you're still trouble!

You're the type of guy who lets his girlfriend pick out his underwear.

The Underwear Oracle

You Are The Stuffing

You're complicated and complex, yet all your pieces fit together.
People miss you if you're gone - but they're not sure why.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

On Average, You Would Sell Out For

$1,111,417

At What Price Would You Sell Out?

You Are 50% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird...
But too damn weird to do anything about it!

How Weird Are You?

Your Birthdate: July 10

Independent and dominant, you tend to be the alpha dog in most situations.
You're very confident, and hardly anything ever shakes you.
Mundane tasks tend to drain you - you prefer to be making great plans.
You are quite original. When people don't "get" you, it bothers you a lot.

Your strength: Your ability to gain respect

Your weakness: Caring too much what others think

Your power color: Orange-red

Your power symbol: Letter X

Your power month: October

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Behind on My Word Count

2005-11-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

I'm behind, but I've not given up yet.
Here's my 'author profile' with a sneak peak at my first couple of pages...
Please don't laugh - remember - NaNoWriMo is all about quantity, and not at all about quality.

Update: This Graph Auto updates as I do. Neat, huh?

Jack, Gordon, and Frances

2005-10-24T21:23:00.000-05:00

Diane, Jake and I carved our pumpkins last night.
Here are our final products, with brief commentary...

Here we see the 'Group' shot. Diane's pumpkin, (Jack) is on the left, followed by Jake's (Gordon) and Mine (Frances).

In this shot of Jack and Frances you can get a good look at some key features...

We awarded the following titles:
Jack - Happiest Pumpkin.
Gordon - Saddest Pumpkin.
Frances - Most Innovative Ear Design.

Jack is a Very Happy Boy!

Firefly Quiz!

2005-10-22T08:29:00.000-05:00

You are Wash. Not only are you a great pilot, you
are also the joker of the group. Your devotion
to your wife is admirable, though you sometimes
feel insecure. Thank god you shaved off your
moustache.

Which Firefly character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Incidentally another Firefly Quiz gave me a 70% Wash match-up... I guess that seals the deal...

Justin Needs...

2005-10-19T13:04:00.000-05:00

So I was compulsively hitting the 'next blog' button on the blogger toolbar when I came across an interesting idea. (The page responsible is lost to me, but it wasn't their idea either.)

The idea is to do a google search for your name followed by the word 'needs' all in double quotes. Here are the results: (just from the first page)

1. Justin needs to start playing smash bros again.

2. Justin needs parent(s) who will encourage emotional, social, and intellectual progress within a closed classroom setting.

3. Justin needs to find a way to make sales grow.

4. Sweet Caffeine: For all your Justin Needs

5. Justin Needs Help!

6. Justin needs to learn this isn't 500 bc and you can't bang every girl that makes your slinky go doing-doing!

7. Justin needs to work hardest on pushing the ball straight down the floor at break-neck speed, rather than weaving east and west.

There seem to be a lot of links to other peoples 'justin needs' searches, so I've tried to omit those...

Humorous...

Another Quiz

2005-10-19T11:50:00.000-05:00

You are Lawrence.

You're pretty laid back. Just a few beers, a few
buddies and the breast exams on channel 9 are
all you need to feel content.

Which Office Space Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

No Rock Operas Will be Written...

2005-10-18T11:55:00.000-05:00

I can assure you that I am not a Pinball Wizard. I'm not even a Pinball Wizard's Apprentice. My friend Tim, whose position on the Pinball hierarchy is significantly further along than my own, can personally attest to my track record in regard to the machines in question.

So imagine my surprise when a chance encounter with a Stargate Pinball machine, in the Unity House of Pizza turns into a magical experience. An experience where, for the first and only time in my life, I have to walk away from the machine because I've run out of time instead of quarters. After I heard the machine 'knock' a third time, signaling my third free game, I had to give up and get back to work.

I don't know if it was the machine, or if I'm having some sort of internal Pinball Revolution, or if I just sort of stored up all those years of miserable pinballmanship (suck on that one, spellchecker) and let it all out in one glorious moment or pure, orgasmic Pinball.

Whatever the reason, I'm not anticipating a repeat performance. I'm content to bask in the muted light of my fifteen minutes of Pinball Glory.

Betrayal at House on the Hill

2005-10-12T22:26:00.000-05:00

Tonight a small gang of would-be gamers met at Joe's place for a round of Betrayal at House on the Hill. I've had the game for a while now and if you're at all familiar with it, you know something of the complexity inside that glossy cardboard box. First of all there are something like 179 individual cardboard tokens, representing various creatures and objects, 3 decks of cards, a stack of room tiles, character boards and tokens, and a handful of dice.

Chaos in a box.

The great thing about the game is that there are 50 different scenarios and the house that you're in is never the same twice. Tonight there were six of us, including two that had never played. For the most part things went smoothly, only having to consult the rules, and errata once or twice.
When the game was first released there were a number or errors and omissions in the rules of the game, which have mostly been fixed in a file you can print out and stick in the box. I've found that having all that information at hand is a great help when problems come up.

The premise of the game is that you're all friends who, for whatever reason, all enter a rather large, haunted looking mansion.
The house happens to be on a hill, I guess.
It's probably raining too.
Anyway, you all start off on the same team, and players take turns exploring new rooms and dealing with whatever the house throws at them. At some point in the game an event will take place that will cause one player to turn against everyone else and you find out which of the 50 scenarios you're dealing with.

It's a complex game, but it's also a lot of fun and definitely a favorite in our group.
Tonight, I ended up being the Traitor. I won't bore you with the details but leave it at this: I lost the game by one dice roll. I needed four and rolled a three. The one remaining hero (I'd managed to kill the other four) claimed victory and sent my minions and me on our way.

Dhampir

2005-10-11T20:48:00.000-05:00

So I'm reading this book, Dhampir. It's mostly what I would consider Pulp-Fantasy. I'm not particularly a Fantasy reader - I like me some Sci-Fi - I never finished The Fellowship of the Ring, and I never attempted any of Tolkien's other works. I know I lose Nerd Points. So be it.
I picked this one up by mistake. It was mixed in with some cyber-punk kind of stuff on a table in Borders and, noticing the 'Buffy' reference I bought it.
Well... I'm about halfway through and all I can think about is when it's going to be over. It's not a bad book. I'm just not into it. I can appreciate all the vampire jive - that's why I picked it up - but it's just not my thing...

50,000 Words

2005-10-06T23:09:00.000-05:00

When I actually start writing I'm going to shoot for 1800 words a day. Hopefully if I can stick to that I'll hit the 50,000 mark early (not by much) and give myself a little cushion if I fall behind - which I'll try desperately not to do.

I'll also have to abandon my typical edit-as-I-write style and just let the words fall out. I can edit after I pass the 50,000 word mark. Which means my rough draft is going to be awful... But that's why we have second drafts. Besides, they're not looking for quality - just the 50,000 words. I would like to finish with something worth reading though.

What the hell am I going to write about? What could possibly sustain me for 50,000 words? I don't think any of my longer writing had yet exceeded the 10,000 word mark... And that's stuff that's been kicking around for a while.

Well, succeed or fail, I can say I tried...

NaNoWriMo

2005-10-06T12:06:00.000-05:00

50,000 Words in 30 Days.

I don't have a chance in hell, but I'm going to try....

Part 2

2005-10-06T09:34:00.000-05:00

Another gust ruffled his pant leg and he traced its source to a vent near the floor. Forgetting his sandwich he dropped to his knees, the open soda bottle rolling an oblong spiral of Pepsi around him. He mashed his ear to the grate, hands spread on the smooth concrete of the foundation wall.
He could hear them out there, but he guessed that the opening on the other end of the shaft was secure enough. No way to really know for sure, he thought. He looked down at the remains of the sandwich, now soaking in cola. With a grunt he pushed himself standing and took a good look around.
For a moment he was reminded of MacGyver, surveying the scene, searching for anything that might come in handy. I don't have a Swiss Army knife. I guess that means I'm fucked. I suppose I'm pretty well fucked anyway. The basement was mostly empty. Aren't basements supposed to be full of shit people don't have room for? He kicked the almost empty soda bottle across the room where it struck the wall and went spinning into a corner, rolling to a stop in front of an old roll-top desk.

Serenity

2005-10-06T08:38:00.000-05:00

So the whole gang met down in Augusta to catch the 7:20 showing of Serenity. Josh, Tim and I finished up the last couple episodes of Firefly a week or two ago so we were pretty excited to see the film. We also brought along a couple of Firefly/Serenity virgins - Diane among them - and I was very curious to hear their reactions to the movie.

Before the movie Diane had made a vaguely disparaging comment about the potential entertainment value of the movie, and I told her I'd pay her a dollar if she made it through the movie without laughing out loud at least once. I got to keep my dollar.

I liked it quite a lot. Diane said, (and I quote) "I'm glad you made me watch that. I liked it." Which means she liked it more than she was willing to admit. When I mentioned that the entire series was something like 14 episodes I got the impression that she wouldn't be totally opposed to the idea of watching it. Perhaps a little reluctant to undertake another series, (we're working through MacGyver and The X Files already) but not an outright refusal. That's something, I guess.

Five Minutes of Fiction

2005-10-05T10:59:00.000-05:00

For your reading pleasure I present you with five minutes of hastily prepared, completely improvised, and unedited fiction. Five minutes, because that's when my lunch ends...

He crammed a chunk of stale roast beef sandwich into his mouth, bits of shredded lettuce tumbling down his shirt front. The discarded sandwich wrapper lay at his feet. Pausing to chew and swallow, he raised a bottle of warm Pepsi to his lips. A lump of almost sour mayonnaise clung to the corner of his mouth.
He jumped as a small breeze sent the sandwich wrapper skittering across the concrete floor. Taking a step forward he put a foot down on the wrapper. He needed the quiet - needed to hear the silence.
How many? he wondered. How many were there? 30? Maybe 50? He shuddered. He could faintly hear them scratching on the outer walls upstairs.

Well, there're my five minutes... Just when I get rolling my time is up...

Random Link!

2005-10-05T10:08:00.000-05:00

My New Favorite Joke

2005-10-04T19:40:00.000-05:00

What do you get when you cross a insomniac with a dyslexic and an agnostic?

Someone who stays up all night wondering whether there is a dog.

Walken for President

2005-10-04T19:22:00.000-05:00

This was brought to my attention today. If only it were real. I'd vote for him in a second. Perhaps I'll write him in anyway.

This weekend Diane and I dug out our old school Gameboy units (No easy task - hers was in a box, in a crawlspace at her parent's house.) and played massive amounts of head-to-head Tetris. I have to say that initially I dominated but toward the end we were pretty evenly matched.
Sigh. Who would ever need more than 8 bits?

Beunos Dias!

2005-09-28T05:51:00.000-05:00

I'm taking an adult ed Intro to Spanish class with Helen from work. Last night was my first night, and I feel we covered a lot of ground. I can see how someone could easily fall behind if they weren't on their toes. Among other things, we played '¿Qué es esta?' in which our instructor pointed at various objects while we bellowed their names in Spanish.

Apparently he could hear the four years of French in my Spanish. He said we'd work on that.

Well, I'm off to be a semi-productive member of society.
Adiós, mis amigos.

For Those Who Don't Know When to Give Up...

2005-09-22T06:40:00.000-05:00

This may, in fact, be the longest stretch of downtime since The Log first appeared on the old interweb, way back in 2003. I just lost interest. I may start posting again, but we'll see how that works out.

I suppose I'd better catch you up on recent and not so recent events.
I've moved. Josh and I parted on friendly terms, and I transferred all of my possessions to my Grandparents basement. I've got lots of room and the rent is what you'd call managable. I even get the occasional free meal.
I'm currently in the process of catalouging and rearranging my library. It has become a bigger project than I initially thought. I've been using a program I found on the interweb, called elibpro, which queries Amazon for ISBNs and returns all kind of helpful info that's automatically stored in a local database. So I wrote a program that would allow me to scan EAN barcodes (using my trusty Cuecat barcode scanner) and convert them to ISBNs. Which is great until you run into the 50-75 books or so in my collection that are old enough to not have ISBNs. These will have to be manually entered at some point.
I've also been playing the Gamecube remake of the first Resident Evil game. I've never played a Resident Evil game before (excluding the first hour or so of Josh's Resident Evil 4) and I'm really into it. Actually I get too into it - I have to stop playing when it gets dark. I blame this house though. It's creepy.
Things continue to go well with Diane, though at this point I doubt you'll ever here otherwise. Neither of us is going anywhere.
Well, I've got to get to work - here's hoping that this isn't so riddled with spelling and gramatical errors to be incoherent.
-Justin

Things are Good.

2005-03-10T12:46:00.000-05:00

Hi there.
Long time.
Buy you a drink?

So this post is long overdue.
A lot has happened since last I wrote, but none of it seems worth mentioning at the moment.

There is nothing new in my life.
That's not a bad thing.

Things are great with Diane.
My car is saving me tons of gas money.
I'm paying all of my bills on time.
I have little to no money left over at the end of the week, but I'm not bouncing any checks.
So things are good.

In other news: undercooked Mac&Cheese is not the lunch I was looking for... Crunchy pasta is not soothing...

Test Results.

2005-01-21T18:08:00.000-05:00

Diane

2005-01-05T22:10:00.000-05:00

I just got a phone call from Diane.
“What are you doing?” she wanted to know.
“Just sitting here, thinking,” I said.
“Alone?” Her concern was apparent.
“Well, Josh and Tim are in the other room watching Alias.”
“So why are you sitting in your room, thinking?”
“Well, I was going to write something for The Log, but I can't think of anything to write about.”
“Write about me.”
There was a long pause as I considered possible replies.
“I'm just kidding,” she said.

I should point out that not only is Diane not an egomaniac, but rather modest in all respects. Her suggestion merely implies, in my mind, that she wants to know that I want the world to know that I love her – and I do. I should also point out, that it is very possible that I have misinterpreted things again, and that I'm the egomaniac. It's also possible that the truth lies somewhere in the gray area between these two extremes.

I do love her though, and I don't care who knows about it.

An Evening at Home

2004-12-30T17:40:00.000-05:00

I chase four Excedrin with two shots of bourbon.

“That ought to do it,” I mumble to myself.

I return the bottles to my 'medicine cabinet' and plop down on the couch, immediately regretting my decision to plop. My head pounds throbbing, screaming, waves of liquid pain, right behind my eyes, and follows a knotted rope down into my shoulders and back – I have a migraine.

I lay there for a moment, catatonic. The light filtering in from the late afternoon sun sears my retinas through my tightly squeezed eyelids, and I can feel the bourbon spreading warm through my belly like piss through a pair of jeans.

Moving seems unwise, and actively thinking about anything is out of the question, so I allow my mind to wander. It doesn't go far, apparently too wounded to undertake any major excursions. Mainly I think about how much my head hurts. This comes fairly easily and without much coaxing.

My eyes feel like grapes being methodically stomped to wine. My neck seems to have been reconstructed with bits of barbed wire and electric fence.

My stomach burns pleasantly.

2004-12-21T22:20:00.000-05:00

Josh LeMay, Matt Herring, and Justin Morse - Circa 1994

The Six Elves of Christmas

2004-12-19T19:42:00.000-05:00

Christmastime...
I can't think of another time of year that's more in need of the very spirit it claims to spread...
Goodwill towards men? Humbug, indeed. This time of year seems to bring out the worst in everybody. Everybody's stressed out about money, and gifts, and fruit cake, and where we're spending Christmas this year, and I thought we were at your parents last year, and your brother's going to do that thing again, with his nose, and my parents would like to see us too, and the cat just ate the mistletoe, I think he's dying, and would you please shut the fuck up with the Feliz Navidad, you're driving me batshit fucking crazy.
I know I'm not the first to point this out, but everyone needs to just step back, and take a look around. It's Christmas. All religious motivations aside, we're supposed to be Happy, Merry, and Jolly, not Angry, Pissy, and Grumpy.
That said, I'm going to do my part to spread 'The Christmas Cheer.' I certainly do my fair share of complaining – I'd drafted a whole post about this woman who's blaming St. Croix, and me personally, for repeatedly bouncing her checks. But I'm going to leave it alone. I'm going to wish her a silent, 'Happy Holidays!' and get on with my life.

I did have one remark though: In the lyrics of The Christmas Song, are the words, 'and so I'm offering this simple phrase, to kids from one to ninety-two...' What happens when you hit ninety-three? Nobody cares anymore? I don't know any ninety-three year olds, or I'd ask them how they feel about this...

Whatever you celebrate this time of year, I hope you're among people you love, having a good time. Merry Christmas!

2004-12-19T17:48:00.000-05:00

23Dec2004, 6:30pm.

I Can't Figure it Out...

2004-12-14T08:29:00.000-05:00

What is the biological purpose of crying? I know that in general the tear duct excretes enough fluid to keep your eyes from drying out, but why do we cry?

What is it about extreme emotion that makes our body think we need all that fluid pouring out of our eyes?

I mean I can understand saliva. It serves an important function – an important first step in the digestive process.

I can understand sweat - an important function in the battle to regulate internal temperature.

But what does crying do for us?

The solutions I'm able to turn up on the great InterWeb are nothing more than speculation. The most common theory seems to revolve around pain – the eye's natural reaction to pain is to tear – to keep dirt, and other foreign objects out of your eyes. Emotional pain, is apparently close enough to physical pain that our eyes water. So says the theory.

But what about people who cry when they're happy? Doesn't that kind of throw that line of reasoning out the window? Or are we not limited to pain, but to any extreme emotion? It still seems like quite a logic leap to me...

We learn to cry at a very early age – it's our primary means of defense. When we need anything, we cry. Food, drink, clean diapers, whatever, we cry. The noise makes sense – we need to get somebody's attention. Someone needs to help us, because we can't do it for ourselves. But the tears still have no place. I can almost understand the facial contortions involved in crying... A non-verbal, 'I've got problems' signal to anybody nearby.

I don't know. Apparently, nobody else does either...

I'm going to be late for work...

Things to Check Out

2004-12-09T08:15:00.000-05:00

Caoine.org - A Blog. She designed Penny Arcade's website.
Penny Arcade - Gaming related Web Comic.
Max Barry - A Blog. Barry is Author of Jennifer Government, among other things...
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Movie News
Something to Be Desired - Episodic Live Action Entertainment.
WIL WHEATON DOT NET -A Blog. Wil Wheaton, actor and author.
Diastolic - Diane's Blog
John Quincy Adams & Other Stuff - Nate's Blog
PLANET DANDY - Jim Dandy's Blog
The Jumble - Dude. The Jumble...

12 Months Later...

2004-12-02T08:08:00.000-05:00

Today is a special day! Diane and I have been together for one full year. 365 days ago, we went on our very first date. We had dinner at the Macaroni Grill, in Portland. Neither one of us ate much, and I drew a red pepper on our table. We talked all the way there, while we were there, and all the way back. We talked about grammar, maps, our jobs, and life in general.

Diane, this has been a great year. I love you!

I'm Sure this Means Something...

2004-11-28T10:49:00.000-05:00

Last night I had a dream that was a brilliant amalgamation of all the things I'd expect from a dream – bits and pieces of the previous day, and elements of everyday life, all blended seamlessly with the completely surreal.

I was working at the local Hannaford as a drive-up teller. I had a little teller station in the entry way and people would pull up to the outside window and I'd cash checks and make change, that type of thing.
At one point a man pulls up in a dune buggy and hands me a bent piece of paper. There's a check printed on it, but even in my dream, I'm analyzing all the things wrong with it - the routing number has too many digits, the account number is entirely missing, the check number is different in two places, and the ink is bleeding in the top right corner. So I take the check to find a manager.
I turn and enter the store, and even though in my dream I know all the managers are by the service desk, I make a right towards the bakery. Anyway I run into Ryan Cowan, Sarah Jenness, and Ashley Perry, three friends of mine from high school, all suddenly working at Hannaford. They're walking in the opposite direction so I turn and walk with them, back toward the service desk. They all work as regular cashiers and I feel as if they look down on me because I work out front.
When I finally find the manager she's in a back room which is apparently on a cruise ship because she's wearing a bathing suit and reading a novel, while lounging in a deck chair. I show the check to her and she tells me not to cash it under any circumstances, it's definitely bad.
So I trek back to my teller station and tell the guy that we called the issuing financial institution and we couldn't cash the check for him. He says, 'Well shit, I better tell my mother!' and pulls off in his dune buggy which has suddenly become one of those tiny cars the Shriners ride in the parades. I turn to one of my coworkers and say something like, 'That was the worst counterfeit check I've ever seen, that guy's fucking retarded.' Someone behind me, apparently a friend of BadCheckMan, starts screaming and yelling at me. When I turn around, he's swinging a heavy piece of metal at me. There ensues a pretty detailed fist fight, which eventually ends with me sitting astride the man and repeatedly slamming his head into the floor. I can really feel it happening, it's so intense.
At this point BadCheckMan returns with his mother. When he sees what I've done to his buddy he pulls out a little revolver. My first impulse is to try to get the gun away from him, but someone's suddenly in my face, telling me I can't treat customers this way. BadCheckMan points the gun at me but then sticks it in his mother's mouth, pulls a second gun from another pocket, and puts it in his own mouth. There's a moment when I can only see his eyes and hear him breathing around the barrel of the gun and then he pulls both triggers, hers slightly before his.
Then I'm running through the Hannaford, looking for a place to hide. I run into the back 'Employees Only' place and it's all under construction and every room is half done and I can't find a place to hide. I just keep going from room to room looking for a place to hide, but I can't find one. Eventually I come into a room with a really dark corner and as I crawl into it I realize that it's open to the outside and that it's very cold. I crawl in further, but find several very tiny wire cages full of very tiny moles, mice, and hedgehogs, all frozen to death. There are probably 35-40 tiny little rodents all frozen on top of each other. There is one little white mouse outside the cage, also frozen and dead, but somehow looking at me. An overwhelming surge of sadness sweeps over me and I wake up crying.

The Spirit of Christmas... One of them anyway...

2004-11-27T09:23:00.000-05:00

We opened Thursday night, Thanksgiving. I'm not sure I've mentioned that I'm involved in a local theater production of A Christmas Carol, but I am and we opened Thursday night.

I have two parts, neither of them particularly large, but both important to the story. Thomas Shelley is a street vendor too poor to pay his rent. Scrooge threatens to turn him out if he doesn't 'make good.'
The Ghost of Christmas Future, I'm sure needs no explanation. It's an interesting role to have, despite having no lines. I find it to be one of the most challenging roles I've played. This is primarily because I spend all of my stage time on drywall stilts, draped in 50-60 lbs of black cloak, sweating and trying not to fall over. Oh, and occasionally pointing at things, menacingly...

Thursday night was the preview night and last night was the Gala Opening. Diane and her sister, Karen, came to see it last night. It's a decent show, I think. The guy that plays Scrooge is wonderful.

So you should come see it. We're going three weekends – Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:00pm. Don't see it Saturday the Fourth, because I won't be there, someone else will be covering my parts, and if you're reading this, I trust you want to see me in action, not those other fools. The Belfast Maskers theater is located on Front street in Belfast, down by the waterfront.

Two Weeks Coming...

2004-11-17T08:18:00.000-05:00

When I sat down to type this, I thought, 'My Gosh, it's awfully quiet. Why don't I listen to some streaming radio?' This very quickly turned into a 30 minute search for the perfect 'post composing' music. I finally settled on a station playing nothing but early 90's – I Wanna Sex You Up. Sigh...

Let's pick up from the last post, almost two weeks ago...

Fast-Forward through most of the work week – it's pretty much the same thing every day... Except for Friday. Friday started out like the Hindenburg's maiden voyage.
I got up early to mend a pair of slacks so that I could wear them to work. To tell you the truth, I was pretty impressed with my sewing ability. It looked pretty good. In the process of of getting dressed, I managed to snap one of the shoelaces on a pair of dress shoes I had purchased just over a month ago. I frantically searched for a donor with compatible laces and found a match in my six year old pair of Docs. I performed the surgery as fast as I could, and though I was running late, I still thought I could make it to work on time.
After spending roughly ten minutes attempting to get the Cougar running and rolling, I was perhaps 20 feet out of my driveway when I got pulled over by one of Belfast's finest. I should mention that my inspection ran out in September. I have no reverse, one of the tires is in rough shape, and there's a hole in the exhaust. Fearing the worst, I was delighted to escape with a verbal warning to get the vehicle inspected within ten days.
When I finally got to work – late – I managed to rip the pants I'd just mended and by lunch time I had dropped an entire pizza, face down, on the floor. I ate most of it anyway.

After work Friday night Diane, Josh, and I went out for Thai and spent an otherwise peaceful night at home. We watched Donnie Darko because Diane hadn't seen it. I'm pretty sure she was asleep within the first 10 minutes, so Josh and I watched the rest by ourselves.
Saturday morning I had to work but after that Diane and I went out for lunch with Sarah and Jesse which eventually turned into an afternoon and evening of casual drinking. We had lunch at Ming Gardens, in Bucksport. If you live anywhere near Bucksport, ME, it's worth the trip over – the food is great, prices are reasonable, and the drinks pack a punch.

By the following Friday, fate had placed a new (used) car in my driveway. Diane found it on the internet, and over the course of several days of intense dickering and begging, it became mine. It's a 1993 Honda Accord. It's black, power everything, only 60,000 miles and it's mine. No more pushing the Cougar around! They actually took it as a trade in – I paid $500.00 for it a year and a half ago, and that's what I got for it in trade. This Accord is the nicest vehicle I've ever had the privilege to call my own. I'm very happy with it.

That night, Diane and I traveled up to Orono, to see a show with Isaac and Audrey. I was very glad to see Jose and meet his wife. It's been years since I've seen him and I've never met her. We had a pretty good time and, we didn't hit Belfast until almost 3am.

That should bring you up to date – I'll try not to let another two weeks go before the next one.

The Voice of Reason

2004-11-05T11:46:00.000-05:00

Back to the drawing board, as it were. I've decided (with appreciated help) to use the proffered loan only as a last resort. Being aggressively sodomized should always be a last resort - unless you're in to that sort of thing...

So this weekend I'll start hitting the 'Special Credit' lots with the hope that I'll find a suitable car, at a suitable price, and a suitable interest rate... Maybe I'll get to keep my eventual children after all.

Hooray for Excessive Provisions!

2004-11-04T17:08:00.000-05:00

After waiting most of the day, word finally filtered down from the loan deities that an arrangement might be reached. I just have to render up my first five children and any money I ever make, ever. Then they'll let me borrow the money... if I can get a co-signer.

Sigh.

If there are any college freshmen, or high school seniors reading this, please take my advice. When you get to school, you're going to be bombarded with advertisements for credit cards. Lots and lots of credit cards. You may hold out for a while. You may think you can get by without them. However, eventually you're going to falter and in that fateful moment they're going to pounce upon you like a ferocious Mountain Lion on a hapless hiker... You can play dead, but they're still going to eat you alive - there's nothing you can do about it.

So my advice to you is this: Don't go mountain climbing whilst wearing Lion Piss Cologne. It's bad news... And don't use credit cards either, because you'll no doubt screw your chances of getting a car loan later in life.

I'm going to go drown my sorrows in a whiskey sour.

Limbo

2004-11-04T16:36:00.000-05:00

I'm still waiting. There seems to be nothing else for me to do but wait... The Cougar is at this point so frustrating to drive that I avoid it as much as possible. I drove it to work this morning and borrowed a co-worker's car to come home for lunch.

I've got someone on my side, battling the forces of Evil for me, so all is not lost. Hopefully I'll get an answer soon. I just hope it's the answer I want.

Well, back to work...

The Election and Other Frustrations...

2004-11-03T20:05:00.000-05:00

Well. I suppose by now everybody's heard the news - we're in for another four years of President Bush. Well, given all the things he's done just this election year, I'm terrified to see what he does now that he has free reign to muck about with our freedoms for another four years when he's not concerned about getting elected again.

Sigh...

In other news, I applied for a car loan. The Cougar is reaching the end of its run. Reverse is sketchy, at best, and more often than not, I have to push it to get it rolling backwards. Forwards seems to work alright. Well, the amount of hassle I had to go through to even get anyone to look at my application is pretty disheartening, but now I'm just waiting... and waiting. I hope I have a definitive answer one way or another tomorrow. I've picked out a pretty nice car that seems like it's worth the money. We shall see, I suppose. I just wish I hadn't had to wait all day - I've been sick-to-my-stomach nervous all day long.

Blah.

2004-11-03T16:45:00.000-05:00

Diane and Me at a wedding this summer.

Out of the Ashes...

2004-10-20T20:53:00.000-05:00

Can it really have been so long? Have these last few months really come and gone? Where have I been? What's the meaning of this prolonged absence? Is The Log no more?

Well... Yes, yes,here, I'm not sure, and No.

Without looking, I've no idea when I last posted, or what it was I posted about. Frankly, it doesn't matter. This is a new beginning for The Log. A fresh start. A lot's changed and a lot's remained the same, but there is no reason to make half-hearted connections to random comments I made so many months ago.

A few of you die-hard readers will find this post before anyone else does. I dedicate this to you. Occasionally checking an otherwise dead link, hoping that The Log, like some long dormant volcano, will come out of dormancy and resume semi-regular eruptions, this is for you. Writing for it's own sake is fine, but if no one reads it, shares it with me, what good is it? Thanks for reading. Thanks for urging me to get back at it.

So, free time willing, you can expect a more permanent design, and a regular posting schedule in the very near future.