The Eye of Sauron

Okay, maybe not. Still, one has to admit that a red sunrise is kinda creepy. I have it on fairly good authority that there's a couple of Nazgul hanging out in this area. I'm sure there's no other explanation for folks who rasp and wear all-concealing, shabby, black clothes.

Flix

So watching "Wanted" gave me exposure to a whole load of movies that will likely gain some of my hard-earned cash this year:

* "Wall-E" - I'm seeing this as soon as I find time that avoids the worst of crowds

* "The Dark Knight" - Oh yeah.

* "Hancock" - Yeah. I know. I'm still interested in seeing it.

* "Death Race" - I wasn't interested until I watched the trailer. Now? I'm so totally seeing this.

* "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" - Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh in addition to Brendan Frasier? Even if the acting sucks and the plot is total garbage, I'm there. Hell, I enjoyed "The Scorpion King" (although that had Kelly Hu in a bikini, but still...)

* "Get Smart" - I'll probably wait to see if this migrates to the local Speakeasy, but I'm enough of a fan of the old series to want to see how they handled this. My folks liked it.

* "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" - HELL yeah.

* "Babylon A.D." - Again... Michelle Yeoh and she's paired with Vin Diesel? Good times.

I guess I should save my money.

Another weekend over

All said, this was a pretty eventful weekend.

Friday night I met up with one of my friends for a "writing group" thingie that was quite productive. There was beer involved and we wound up at Thalassa for a pint.

I admit that it wasn't terribly productive to go to Thalassa, but the scenery was nice. Made me feel like a fossil, but at least I got to enjoy the sights.

*sigh*

Saturday... not so awesome. Initial plans fell through (big surprise) and I felt pretty sick for most of the day (thanks wood smoke!) so I wasn't exactly super-productive.

Then "The Girls Rebel Force of Competitive Swimmers" DVD arrived. Needless to say, this is pretty much trash. Mmm... trash. Perfect compliment to "Machine Girl".

Sunday, after family time, I met up with Steve and we hit a showing of Wanted.

This movie ROCKED!

It was sort of "Fight Club" meets "The Matrix". Oh, the plot was silly, but it didn't need to be serious. It was a fun flick and I have to say that I enjoyed every moment of it from start to finish.

And I honestly can't say that about many movies.

Thus far, "Iron Man" and "Wanted" have really, really pleased me. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" wasn't bad either.

I'm hoping to find time to hit "Wall-E" at some point over the upcoming three-day weekend, inbetween all the other madness.

Genius

Foamy the Squirrel is a source of great NSWF social commentary.

Misanthropic joy.

Quotes of the Day (or week)

Barak me Obamadeus

The Banana Viking is listening.

shameless plug

No smoking zone

Yep. Woodsmoke.

Still hanging in the air.

I can tell the crappy air quality is affecting me. I've been feeling sick all week long. My contacts have been bothering me and I've been more tired than usual.

It could be a coincidence. I could be sick or fighting something and it just happens that the air is crappy.

It's also possible that climate change isn't being influenced by human activity.

Unlikely, but possible.

I could win the Lottery too.

So my back twinge is fading. Yay. To any who have suggested chiropractors, you know my answer and even should Hell freeze over, it's still not likely.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

If the air doesn't feel too crappy this afternoon, I wanna try running to get some much-needed exercise.

First I have to get through the potential drama of the day. I came in to be greeted with an offline IM that read like a couple chapters of a novel.

A novel written in obscure code made up of individualized slang that appear to comprise the writer's personal language.

And after years of association, I still don't speak this or understand what the hell is going on.

Context is a lovely thing. For those who aren't in the habit of providing it, I strongly suggest considering including it in your communcations.

Works wonders.

Gonna be a long day.

Red Sunrise and Black Coffee

Walked to Peet's just now.

The sun was rising as a magnificent red ball hovering just over the hills. Looked like something out of "Lord of the Rings" for a moment, amidst the greyish haze that passes for air.

I took pictures, but my little pocket camera won't do the scene justice.

I'm not sure pictures can.

It was really beautiful and kind of ominous with the smell of woodsmoke in the air.

This was one of those moments where I'm really glad I'm a morning person. The streets and buildings are quiet. With that strange, reddish sunrise, it makes this place look eerie and otherworldly.

If I thought I was dreaming, my first sip of my small cup of Peet's snapped me out of that. I don't add cream or sugar. It's midnight-colored liquid darkness for this little addict.

And damn is it bitter.

Seems I'm feeling all poetical this here mornin'.

I must've bumped my head or something.

books

So I finished "Spirit Gate" by Kate Elliot. Finally.

It really slowed down about 2/3rds through and I found the ending unsatisfying.

I'm now reading William Gibson's "Spook Country". It appears to be set shortly after "Pattern Recognition" and guest stars at least two of the characters from "Pattern Recognition", in a really weird way.

So far it's interesting. I really enjoyed "Pattern Recognition", but I honestly couldn't say why. It's one of those stories that's really more about the journey than the destination. I'm not sure "Spook Country" is the same, but I'm willing to give it a try.

After that, "Winterbirth".

My dad loaned me "Creepers" by David Morrell. Normally, I'd be lukewarm on Morrell's stuff, but this one is about those "urban archeologist" folks who explore abandoned buildings.

I'm intrigued.

owie

Every now and again, life seems to pick a period of time... an hour, a day, a week, whatever... to just tap dance all over someone.

Yesterday felt like one of those days. Today's got potential as well.

All the smoke in the air from the recent wildfires made yesterday's bike ride loads of fun. I'm sure inhaling all that ambient ash was great for my health.

I also appear to have wrenched something in the middle of my back. Add to that all the various figurative fires that comprised my work day yesterday and Monday was in rare form.

Woke up this morning feeling kinda under-the-weather and my back still hurts. I can still smell smoke outside.

Having trouble waking up, too. I wonder if an extra cup of sweet, sweet coffee is called for?

Whine, whine, whine...

well... fuck.

George Carlin died.

That sucks.

Life lessons

It's been a hot weekend. It was hot yesterday and remained hot today.

Combine that with the mild hangover I experienced this morning, and I'm surprised I ever got moving out the door.

And yet, I did.

I've been promising myself for some time that I'd send a care package to my friend Megumi overseas to cheer her up. I've been waiting to hear from her if it's okay to mail to the address I have. I haven't heard, so I decided I'll put something together and mail it anyway.

So step one is chocolate covered orange peel candies that I know she likes. This necessitated a trip to the city to hit the one place I know that carries these.

I decided to combine other errands with this trek, so I hit Chinatown to pick up a few random small things and get a tapioca milk tea.

It was hot in the city. I was ready for that tea.

When I was a kid, waaaay back in kindergarten, one of my earliest memories is some other kid shoving me out of line for some wagon pulling thing in recess. I didn't confront the kid then. I was too shocked and afraid.

I think that established a bad pattern in my behavior in life.

So while waiting to order my milk tea, some older guy shoved his way in front of me and placed his order before I could decide if I wanted to:

a) Advise this dickhead that I was in line before him

b) Shove him out of line

c) Walk away

or

d) Just ignore it

Now, it was hot, as I said. I was pretty much past the hangover, but still a little tetchy. I kind of wanted a fight.

The cashier for the milk tea place took a look at the out-of-place white guy and signaled her apology as I was considering my options.

I decided to go with option d, get my damn tea, and leave.

I found myself walking behind the dickhead as I headed off to get the chocolates for the care package.

I seriously considered tripping this guy or body checking him into one of the parked cars. I was really giving this thought as to what kind of satisfaction I'd get from this when he abruptly jaywalked across the street.

And even now, late in the evening, I regret that I didn't just bark some snarky-ass comment to this dickhead.

It wouldn't have accomplished anything constructive. I know that. I probably would've regretted confronting him over something so trivial as cutting in line.

And yet, I can't quite let this go.

*sigh*

At least I managed to get the chocolates and they didn't melt on the train ride home. Now I have to figure out what else to include in the care package besides a card.

I'm really not very good at this.

and another Friday arrives

Finally!

It's hot as blazes as an end to the week. Went out last night to Korean with one of my friends for a late dinner and it was still hot then (and a mite humid).

There was a slight breeze, but nothing major. It was toasty this morning.

---

[irrelevant gaming nerd nonsense]
Woke this morning and my scheme for the email gaming session came together. After my requisite evil cackle (which, no doubt, annoyed my neighbors for a few blocks), I've updated my notes and was pleased to find replies from most everyone this morning to get things going.

If you're one of said gamers reading this, don't look here for insight. I'm just baiting you.

But you know that.
[end irrelevant gaming nerd nonsense]

---

Today is "Bring your Dog to Work Day" at my office.

This is going to be a surreal day. I guess this is the Dog Days of Summer?

Heh.

I crack me up.

Burning the Notice

"Burn Notice" finally came into the local store. Got me season one on DVD.

I love this show!

Loves it!

It's hard to go wrong with Bruce Campbell in any kind of supporting role. Really is.

Now I can get my folks hooked up properly... after I refresh myself on the Burn Notice Awesomeness of it all.

---

I've never claimed to be subtle.

People who know me freely note that I'm as subtle as a brick through a window. I can be tactful, but subtle? Nah. I've been described as someone who "wears his heart on his sleeve" (which, btw, stains something fierce), as crass (I disagree with that), as obnoxious (that, I agree with), as someone who "shows a great deal of tension", as someone who "emotes a lot", etc.

I don't deny it. I don't particularly enjoy playing mind-games or constructing elaborate fantasies to hide how I feel about something.

I can do the "games" thing. I'm a pretty good liar, but I don't particularly like to do it. I'm lazy and I don't enjoy the maintenance that a good lie requires. I can be tactful and diplomatic, and am when situations call for it. The fact that I haven't had someone throw a punch at me (outside of sparring) in a few decades is proof of that.

Besides, I get all my "fantasy" stuff taken care of by RPGs. Between that, books, movies, and TV, I have enough fantasy in my life.

So I find myself continually amused when someone points out to me that I'm very obvious, as though that's some kind of revelation.

I say Holmes. Good show.

Carry on. Pip-pip!

And... duh!

Time crawls by

Thursday took an awfully long time to get here.

Seriously. It feels like months ago that it was Monday and today is only Thursday?

Ye gods.

---

[Gaming rant - ignore if uninterested]
It's looking like I might just cut to the chase and end the email session early. The pacing between the two groups is too far off. One of the groups really only has one person participating and there's only so much I can do with the other group... they'll quickly get tired of "oh my goodness! Terrible, undefeatable monster! Run run run!"

Yawn.

I should've done the prep for this better. Oh well. Another life lesson.
[end gaming rant - I bet you're still uninterested]

---

Looking for Group is pre-selling Lil' Richard (Lil' Dick?) plushies!!!!!

For the uninitated, Looking for Group is the creation of mad genius by the brain trust that created the brilliant Looking for Group webcomic. The character of Richard, Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead, and Mayor of a little village up the coast (very scenic in springtime, you should visit sometime), aka "Dick", is a homicidal, undead warlock with a flair for mayhem and destruction.

My favorite character of that webcomic. And I love all the characters.

Ryan Sohmer, the creator of both Looking for Group and Least I Could Do is one of my current heroes. If I grow up, I want to be kind of like him (apparently I already have the hairstyle).

Of course, I've pre-ordered a plushie. Might wind up being a birthday present to myself, if all goes well.

---

On the topic of birthdays, I find myself rethinking the grand plan for my next annual thing. Initially, I considered renting a bar, inviting everyone I know, and having a pissup.

A grand idea, but there's a lot of logistics (mainly money... and we're in a recession).

Alternate options are just crashing a bar or two, having dinner at some place with lots of space (the City offers many options), or possibly a BBQ in some park somewhere.

The latter option intrigues me, 'cause then I won't alienate the large block of friends I have who don't drink.

So... I guess I still have stuff to think about. I should get on that soonish.

Nummy noodle goodness

Today's lunch brought to me by Zao's Noodle Bar.

Yum!

Expensive, but yum!

Warm out there today.

Firefox 3.0

So Firefox 3.0 came out today.

I rolled the dice and loaded it on my work PC.

It loads fast and looks nice. We'll see how good it is.

Was that a tumbleweed?

It's really vacation season, I guess.

My cube-neighbor Hebron is gone for the week. Both of the Angelas I know are skipping town (the recently-married one leaves today. The other leaves tomorrow, I believe). My manager is also out-of-town all week as is one of my fellow writers.

Most importantly, the unnamed skips town tomorrow.

*sigh*

Everything is so... quiet.

For all that, I appear to have a rather busy-ish week for me. I'm supposed to do dinner with a friend tomorrow. Friday is likely drinks with the guys (assuming Erik feels healthy).

Should be fun.

------

I'm still hacking my way through "Spirit Gate" by Kate Elliott. The story has slowed down a lot. It's still interesting, but I'm finding my actual interest to be flagging a fair amount.

Sad. This seemed to have a lot of potential.

Still, Elliott is a good lesson to me in how authors need to get to the damn point and stop belaboring stuff.

I got William Gibson's "Spook Country" and started thumbing through it. I really enjoyed "Pattern Recognition", though I dispute that it belongs in the sci-fi and fantasy section of any bookstore. It's really more contemporary fiction.

Just goes to prove that bookstores are run by idiots, I suppose.

---

So now my group's game has shifted into email mode. I'm running into the familiar problem of response time from guys. Some reply quickly. Others... not so much.

Thankfully the cards have fallen to where the two more responsive are together and actually doing stuff.

The other group is a bit mired. I'm not sure how to prod them (or if I should). One of 'em is very proactive and is trying stuff (bless his clever heart). One is notoriously lax in emailing (either due to his schedule or due to lack of interest... I'm never sure). The last is the one who I find the most vexing. A very "thinking outside of the box" kind of person who often thinks outside of the wrong box. But when he's on his game, he's solid. Eerily solid. Strangely prescient.

Needless to say his style does not go well with my OCD-anal-retentive nature. ;-)

*sigh*

Now I just have to figure out how to execute the concepts I have for the email session without making this too weird or unplayable.

Sounds weird, doesn't it?

Bad mix

Despite how awesome it might sound, sushi and a Thai iced tea aren't a great combo.

Oh, they both taste fine, but if you're lactose-intolerant, the Thai iced tea is really not a great idea on top of anything with a liberal amount of wasabi added.

Just sayin'.

A mix of tricks

I hit TJ's yesterday and, in addition to other junk, found some "sugar free chocolate chip cookies".

Damn but they're good.

I may need to buy a few more bags. Damnit.

===

I got my writing mojo back (such as I've ever had writing mojo). Started hammering away on my primary fantasy story. I may even get around to the secondary one at some point. I'm still trying to figure out how to handle the sci-fi story.

The problem isn't the overall ideas (well, not entirely). The problem is making characters who aren't "Mary Sue's". For those unfamiliar with the term, a "Mary Sue" is a sort of "super character" who can do everything well. Examples: Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, MacGyver, etc.

I think that's something I get from role-playing games. The temptation to create a "Mary Sue" is overwhelming at times.

Ah well. At least I'll have something for writing group if we meet this Friday.

===

So Tim advised me that his wife is safely back in the US with her mother and her niece, whom I affectionately call "Yuno-hime" (at least when talking to Tim about her).

It's kind of neat to see how excited my old buddy is over his visiting niece. Having met her (a few years back), I can understand. She's a darling kid.

Hopefully I'll be able to touch-base during their visit.

===

I'm determined to take advantage of the lull in my work schedule to clean up outstanding issues with my desk.

Wonder how far I'll get?

BSG

So last Friday had the final "Battlestar Galactica" for 2008. They're on mid-season hiatus until some unspecified date in 2009 when they're supposed to wrap the series.

And, per tradition, they did a cliffhanger.

And what a cliffhanger it was.

Sweet bejebus.

Without going into specifics, it was a very fast-paced episode. A little too fast-paced. They could've done some revelations earlier and spread out some of the reactions over a couple of eps, but what's done is done.

The plot took some turns that made me scratch my head. Initially, I've always thought that the human characters are just too stupid to survive. I still hold to that, but now I'm seeing that the Cylons are just as inconsistent and stupid.

There's a lot of dumb to go around, I guess.

The last five to ten minutes are awfully purdy. The final scene looked like a rock video and was pretty much what I was expecting, based on the circumstances.

Overall, I've been disappointed with season four of BSG, but I know I'll watch the balance of the season in 2009. It's like a train wreak. I can't turn away.

Media Stuff

So the unnamed gave me copies of "Flight of the Conchords" to watch.

They had me in ep 1 when they started singing.

They kept me in ep 2 when they did the mockery of one of those '80's bands.

Good lord.

My friend Scott loaned me "Oldboy", so I watched it last night.

Ye gods.

The funny thing is that the violence didn't bother me. The psychological torture was interesting. The twist wasn't much of a twist (saw that coming a mile away) but, that said, the twist really bothered me.

Some topics make me nauseous. The substance of the twist was among those topics. Yuck.

Otherwise an entertaining movie.

yawn

Mondays are not getting any easier. That's a damn fact.

So Friday night's splatter-fest was as awesome as predicted. An encore performance of "Machine Girl" on a ginormous TV just made the movie more awesome. The follow-up feature, "The Story of Ricky" was campy and gorey. Good times.

I got home after that and collapsed. Good lord I've been tired lately.

I've been so exhausted of late that I was a tad worried about Saturday, but everything went well.

Father's Day was family-time. Dad appeared to like his gifts.

This morning I opted to drive in so I could bring in the telescope walking stick for its return to Hammacher Schlemmer via the good folks at UPS.

*sigh*

And I'm still tired.

Friday at last!

Aside from the walking stick annoyance, I'm pretty damn happy:

* It's payday.

* I can sleep in tomorrow.

* It's Friday.

* It's payday.

* Splat fest at Marc's tonight (bloody movies! YAY!).

* It's payday.

Tomorrow I have the guys over for a game. I get to continue from the cliffhanger and pretty much jump right into loooooong battles (meaning they'll probably be really short battles). Should be interesting to see how this goes.

I'm insanely-tired. I suspect all the crap spewing up into the air is having an adverse reaction with my allergies. That or I'm coming down with something. I suspect the former as I don't really feel sick, per se. Just kind of... off. Easily exhausted. Stuff like that.

Nothing coffee can't cure.

Quality crap

So the telescope walking stick?

Piece of crap.

Yes, it broke already. One of the supports had a bad soldering job or something. Snapped like a dry twig.

That was disappointing.

Thankfully, Hammacher Schlemmer appears to have a very thorough returns policy and I was a good boy and kept the boxes and packing material.

I'm pretty disappointed, but it could be worse. That said, this is the second time I've had trouble with a transaction with Hammacher Schlemmer. I think that once I conclude this business, I'm going to be done with them.

Beer, Movie Goodness, and other stuff

So last night I caught an encore performance of "Iron Man" at the Cerrito Speakeasy. Beer + "Iron Man" = good times.

That is a great movie. With beer it's aces.

Alas, I misunderstood how many folks were coming so:

A) I didn't get enough seats together

B) I didn't even think to suggest buying tix for all of us in advance

As a result, we could've gotten better seats if I'd arrived earlier and the show sold out, meaning one of us missed out completely.

In retrospect, I probably should've swapped out my seat. I mean, I'd seen "Iron Man" already.

Ah well. Such are the things I think of after the superhero flick.

===

In unrelated, but amusing news, my telescope walking stick arrived. Getting it home on my bike was an interesting exercise in applied comedy.

I'm not a big "Steampunk" person, but doodads like this are pretty fun. Not terribly practical, but amusing.

I really shouldn't waste money on crap like this, but I'm a sucker for clever stuff.

===

One of my friends mailed me pics of family in Japan, including one of the kids who is going to stay with him and his wife for a month and some change.

They're adorable kids, I must say. Yasuyo and Shun, their parents, are very proud (and rightly-so). It's cute to see Tim and Kaori all glowing with pride over their niece and nephews.

strange concerns

So with my head all cut-up from Headblade mishaps, I find myself with a strange concern:

If I get a suntan or sunburn on my head today, will I have band-aid shaped pale skin marks to brand me forever?

I posed this question to one of my cube-neighbors.

Her response: I can wear makeup.

*sigh*

I get no respect.

wounds

So as part of my "keeping the head shaved" strategy that I've adopted for hairstyles, I got a Headblade razor.

The razor is pretty cool. It gives a smooth shave and all that. The blades are pretty damn sharp, though. A mishap creates some nasty gashes... like the ones I'm currently sporting...

Head wounds bleed an awful lot. A bandage helps, but when you pull the bandage off (for cleaning or whatever), you're bleeding again.

And head wounds bleed a lot.

This kind of sucks.

busybusybusy

So I'd sort of planned for this week to be low-key so I could get back to being a bum and shake this allergy-bug-whatever that's haunting me.

And somehow my schedule filled up through the weekend.

WTF?

So tonight I'm seeing "Iron Man" again at a theater that serves beer.

Mmm... beer.

Probably a bad idea if I'm feeling iffy, but life is short and "Iron Man" is good viewin'.

Thursday is chock full o' errand fun. Gah.

I have the opportunity to hit a bloody film festival at a buddy's house Friday night. A double feature of "Machine Girl" and "The Story of Ricky" (aka: "Ricki-Oh"). I've seen one but not the other. Might be a good prep for Saturday...

... which has me running a game. Probably an afternoon of tabletop battles and the like.

Funny how all that happens.

Cool

[Edit]

Crap. The image didn't load properly.

Oh well. Ignore this.

Quite a view

I just felt a need to put this up. A random pic from a bike ride home one day.

Machine Girl

I've gushed about "Machine Girl" already, but that's never shut me up before.

I loaned my copy to one of my co-workers last week. He returned it yesterday. We compared notes for about fifteen minutes or so.

I think some other people in the office are afraid of us now.

By happy coincidence, my friend Marc got his copy from Amazon yesterday and will probably watch it this week.

I know he'll love it as much as I have. By uttering that statement, I know I'll have company in Hell. Gah.

The movie is a festival of campy violence and bloodshed that boggles the mind. It troubles me a little bit that I was watching much of the movie and eating dinner at the same time. Didn't even make me pause between bites (save to laugh at the more outrageous scenes... again... I'm sick).

I didn't particularly like the scenes where the heroine herself was hurt (she gets cut up a fair amount) but she gives far better than she gets and the actress carries the scenes with a certain flair and aplomb that makes it all work.

It helps also that the FX are so campy that it's hard to take any of the movie seriously.

And they have "Evil Dead" tributes in it!

How can that be wrong?

Don't I sound like I'm trying to justify something to myself? Heh.

Bits and such

Gaming related funny:

Ctrl+Alt+Del
Dork Tower

==

Ninjas

===

I forgot my mp3 player this morning. That is not the best possible way to start a Tuesday morning. Add to that my getting emails first thing in the morning that aren't exactly the best of news and it's hard to maintain a good attitude.

Of course, that would require having a good attitude to begin with.

===

It's nice to have a week that gets back to the same, dull routine. I'm mixing it up a bit tomorrow by hitting an "Iron Man" showing at a theater that serves beer (mmm... beer...) but otherwise, I expect my week to be low-key.

Good, good.

And I get paid on Friday the 13th. Yay rent money!

Watashi wa nemui desu

I've mostly forgotten what little Japanese I studied during those couple of years I was shuttling betwixt here and Japan in my four all-too-brief moments.

That said, I think my tagline for today is "I'm tired."

It was a pretty full weekend. Friday night I hit the Albatross with some friends for a few pints (mmm... Death & Taxes...) a lot of popcorn, and some popcorn throwing.

It was good times. My only complaint is the scary circus pics up in the back room of the pub. *shudder*

Saturday was me getting up early (for a Saturday) throwing on my all-too-few nice duds and trucking out to friggin' Dublin for a friend's wedding. I'd agreed to help one of my friends do setup for the wedding and I completely forgot how long it takes to drive out there. I wasn't exactly running on-time, but traffic was cooperative and I'm fortunate that I know the area reasonably well.

As I commented earlier, the wedding was fun. The weather was rather warm.

Yesterday was family stuff. I picked up comics before then and got the latest of the "Buffy Season 8" issues. These have been an entertaining read. I love hitting the comic store I hit out in the boonies where the family lives. It's always good times and the staff are entertaining there. One of the guys working there was telling me about some woman who feels Joss Whedon is anything but a feminist.

I suppose that could be argued. I can't say I care but I found it an entertaining discussion.
---
I enjoyed Friday's "Dr. Who" ("The Doctor's Daughter") a fair amount, though the pacing of the story was too-rushed. It seemed to me they were setting up the gal who played the Doctor's Daughter as a returning (and possibly recurring) character in future seasons. Hope so. She was kind of cool.

I'm still digesting BSG. It was certainly a lot better than last week's episode but then it was more action-packed as well. I have the sad, grim feeling that the writers will kill off Helo before the end of the series. Helo and Athena-Sharon are two of my favorite characters, so I'm a bit saddened by that realization.

Oh well. If I'm lucky, they'll wipe out everyone in the last episode in a "Blake's Seven" kind of throw-down. That would be nice.

Wow. I just mixed sci-fi refs. Go me!
---
So apparently there's a new version of D&D out. While I count myself among the moderately hard-core of table-top RPG'ers, I don't really "get" D&D all that much. The setting is what it is, but the rules themselves seem remarkably arbitrary and random. According to fanboy-buzz, there's nerds who are all in a tizzy 'cause they relegated some non-human character classes to be monsters instead of character-types. Specifically, gnomes and half-Orcs.

So, for the uninitiated (I'm assuming you care if you're still reading), humans are all apparently descended from the same stock as Captain James T. Kirk and can pretty much have sexual intercourse with any vaguely humanoid being and produce offspring.

As a result, humans appear to get busy with all sorts of non-humans-who-otherwise-look-vaguely-human, such as Elves and Orcs. As a result, you get "half-Elves" and "half-Orcs". And gamers do love to play unique characters.

So I have to wonder why the current producers of D&D (Wizards of the Coast? I forget who owns the franchise now) decided to make that tweak. Just to piss off the nerds?

Do I care? Probably not.
---
And that leaves me with an early Monday morning. I'm having serious trouble keeping awake. I wonder if I'm coming down with something?

Ugh. I needs my coffee and my "coffee buddy" is going to be late this morning.

Damnit!

commentary on "musicians"

So one of my neighbors thinks he can play the electric guitar.

As a result, he strums away blastingly-loud in his apartment on some afternoons on the weekend.

Sadly, he plays the same riffs over-and-over-and-over...

I'm not a huge fan of amateur electric guitar, but badly-played electric guitar is just a crime. I mean, seriously. If you're going to play crappy guitar, get some headphones!

What a complete moron.

Now I'm undecided if I want to just wander over and explain that or call the landlord. *sigh*

Muy Caliente

I spent this afternoon inland at a friend's wedding.

It was a fun event and reminded me how blasted hot it gets over the hills. Yikes!

I don't miss that. I especially don't miss that when I'm all done up in a blazer and sporting a necktie. Dressy clothing and hot climates don't mix well with me.

Whine, whine, whine...

Still, I had a good time even though I was up before 9am in order to help with the setup (such as I was any help).

Oh well. I can sleep in tomorrow. Yay!

Author thoughts

While IMing with Erik, my list of favorite series authors started to jell.

My top three (in no particular order):

- Jim Butcher ("The Dresden Files" and "The Codex Alera")
- George R.R. Martin ("A Song of Ice and Fire")
- Patrick Rothfuss ("Kingslayer Chronicle")

Then:
- Steven Erikson ("The Malazan Book of the Fallen")
- Scott Lynch ("The Gentlemen Bastards")
- Joe Abercrombie ("The First Law")
- Patricia Briggs ("Mercedes Thompson")

I'm okay with Kim Harrison's "Rachel Morgan" series, but in comparison with the others, it's not really all that.

Compression of time and space

Is it just me or did Friday take an unusually long time to get here?

This week feels as though it was millennia longer than it really should have been.

Oh well. At least Friday has finally arrived. Not that this will be a particularly lazy weekend or anything. Should be fun, though.

Hmph

So Borders issued another nice 30% off coupon on top of my $5 of "Borders Bucks".

So I just had to spend it.

Frakkers.

I thought about getting "Shadow Gate", the sequel to "Spirit Gate", but it's in hardback and I hate lugging those things around. Charles the Book Pimp mentioned "Winterborn" by Brian Ruckley, so I grabbed that after reading the synopsis. Sounds promising.

And, just to make the coupon worthwhile, I picked up another "Dr. Who" DVD. I went old-school and got the Jon Pertwee era story "The Sea Devils". Classic Roger Delgado as the Master plus horrible 70's outfits and effects.

Wholesome cheese to offset the horrific, exploitative bloodfest that was "The Machine Girl".

And by that, I mean I really loved "The Machine Girl". It was so over-the-top gorey in its violence that I couldn't help but laugh.

Truthfully, it's quite a sick movie. Not for the faint of heart by any stretch of imagination. Thankfully I have a small cadre of freaks I work with who like these kinds of dystfunctional flicks. I've already loaned it out to one of 'em.

Ay carumba.

Spirit Gate

So far I'm enjoying the book. I'm about halfway through. It's good stuff.

Kate Elliot has created an interesting world and her narrative takes some refreshingly-different directions. I have no idea what the hell is going on in the story, but I'm enjoying the ride. At first I thought I knew who the protagonists were, but then she abruptly changed to this new set of characters whom I'm enjoying more.

I assume it will all tie together somehow.

More random bits

There are times in my life that remind me why I don't play sports.

Last night I went to watch my office softball team play their last(?) game of the season. I don't actually play with the team 'cause, to be honest, I really suck at softball.

Really, really suck.

I don't know if my co-workers actually believed that or just thought I was lazy.

I managed to convince them last night.

So after a foul ball, I ran to retrieve the errant game bit. The ref asked me to throw it over the 18 foot chain link fence.

Did I mention I suck at softball? Let me clarify: I can hit a ball pitched at me with moderate accuracy. I can't catch to save my life (unless using my face to intercept the ball counts). Mainly, I can't throw. Be it a football, a baseball, a softball, whatever. I can't throw for shit.

So in front of two softball teams I tried to throw the ball over the fence. It barely left my hand and rolled a few inches up to land on the roof of the dugout (about a foot away from me) and roll back to me.

Good times.

The ribbing I'll receive will likely be appropriately merciless.

Ah well. What goes around...

---

It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I like some pretty violent movies. I especially like some of the cinematic craftings from Japan and Hong Kong that cater to my need for a little martial arts action with my cartoonish violence.

I don't like "torture porn" (e.g., "Saw") or watching scenes in movies where women and children are hurt. I'm squeamish that way and I'm comfortable with that.

But I do like my cartoonish violence. Favorites include "Battle Royale" (a strange exception to the children rule where schoolkids massacre one another on an island for a crazy government), "Azumi" (90 pound assassin girl massacres an entire army single-handed... good times), "Sky High" (not the Disney superhero flick, I mean the Japanese movie based on some TV show), and so on.

Yesterday I managed to get my hands on a flick called "Machine Girl". Essentially, a schoolgirl gets her arm replaced with a machine gun and goes out to hunt down the Yakuza-ninja clan (yes... I mean Yakuza and ninja clan) that murdered her brother.

It's so cartoonishly gorey that I find myself laughing at it.

This, of course, means I'm terribly sick and I'm fine with that.

Aaah...

the magical power of laughter.

I was in kind of a foul mood this morning. Then my friend D sent me a video of that William Hung kid singing, which may have scarred me for life. Then a co-worker sent me the Potter Puppet Pals (with a song that blew the Hung travesty out of my brain).

And then various interactions with co-workers had me in near-hysterics of laughter (I won't waste time trying to re-tell the situations... I'm probably the only person who finds them funny).

Now I feel tons better. To top it off, I found groceries at the TJ's near the office that my local TJ's was out of.

I'm quite pleased.

Tuesday report

So "Spirit Gate" has a good start. Kate Elliot builds up an interesting world very quickly. I'm curious where this story is going.

---

The weather wonks predicted "gusty" weather today and tomorrow, so I opted to give the bike a rest. And, of course, it's perfectly calm this morning.

To be fair to the wonks, they emphasized this afternoon's wind as stronger.

---

[Gaming nerd related]
I finally broke my writer's block last night for my game session on the 14th. Yay! At least I have something to fill a whole session.

I'm going to let the ideas stew a bit and see if I need to make changes.
[/Gaming nerd related]

---

It's already looking like a full weekend. Got Friday evening plans for drinks, then a friend's wedding all Saturday, then family time on Sunday.

I'm wondering if I should take a day next week for some "me" time.

---

Feelin' a mite more tired than usual. I can't tell if it's normal Tuesday blahs or if I'm fighting something. Hopefully I'm not coming down with something.

Gettin' mah read on

So my friend Charles the Book Pimp said he was picking up "Spirit Gate" by Kate Elliot.

Intrigued and armed with a Borders coupon, I looked over the paperback at lunch then opted to pick up a copy.

I just started reading it at lunch this morning. I have to say it's got me interested enough that I wish I'd had more time at lunch to burn through it.

It's nice to have more reading material at hand.

---
In unrelated news, the wind is kicking up. I'm not enthusiastic about my bike ride home today.

Wah.

Goddamn wind

Saturday was chilly and foggy. Sunday was warmish and sunny.

This morning? Wind.

Why the hell do I always manage to hit wind when I ride my bike? And why does the wind change direction to make certain it's blowing against the way I'm going? What did I ever do to the wind?

Gah.

The weather wonks predict gusty wind tomorrow and Wednesday. Hmph. I was trying not to drive so much (gas is gettin' a mite expensive), but I may reconsider.

---

So "Lost" had its finale on Thursday. I'm re-watching the two hour program, mainly because so much happened in it. I quite enjoyed it. I hope the producers are lying when they claim the next couple of seasons will be slower-paced. This fast-paced season was pretty damn awesome.

---

BSG: So I've had the weekend to digest the Friday episode of Battlestar Galactica.

It wasn't as bad as I'd feared, but it wasn't really all that good. The main plot point around Adama Jr. was somewhat predictable but handled clumsily. The secondary plot point around Adama Sr. was less-predictable and even more clumsy.

I think overall I'm disappointed with it. Sad, really.

---

Okay, I got the geeky stuff out of the way. My cube-neighbor just scared the holy shit out of me by getting into the office a few minutes ago. Usually I'm the first (and only) person on my floor for a few hours.

I may not need a second cup of coffee. Then again, adrenaline-induced shock wears off quickly...