Ditto to that...

Overheard by one of the (nighttime) radio DJs, said mildy in jest. "I'm like a gas station trash can, girls don't want be anywhere near me unless they absolutely have too. And then just for bare minimum of time." I know this feeling quite well sometimes.
Spent the night hanging out with John and Ben. Yes, the Madden computer is superior to most humans, just admit it. John gave me 50 episodes of Naruto and 10 of Bleach so lots of viewing to do. Can probably get some more Naruto so might have him burning a lot of CDs for me!
Got my hair shortened today. Back to the normal everyday (for what the past 15 years?) look. I don't think I change very much physically.
Well must get to work, need to sort out a CD for Jessie and one for John. Maybe find a snack. E-mail some folks. I work tomorrow night, blah!

Fin-ished

So the little saga of too easy Madden has wrapped. The Dolphins went undefeated for the season. After the romp in the AFC championships I kinda figured the Superbowl would be a little milder. Well 84-0 later I am not quite sure. I got a TD less but I shut out the opposing offense for the first time. Peyton Manning threw 6 Ints (his QB rating at the end was a whopping 11.2). More amazing considering I let the defense play itself just pick formations. Set a few Superbowl records. It doesn't really matter tho, we'll see if I can do any good at All-Pro. Since my complete dominance is unlikely (I imagine the opposing D will get better at making picks from my lousy passes) those of you who dislike Madden will be relieved of that annoyance from this blogsphere.

I reformatted the iPod in a last ditch attempt to fix its battery, short of sending it in. I'd rather not spend money on it. So far it looks like it's doin' a little better but I will have to see. I still think it's on it's last ropes but if I can make it survive a little longer will that's money not spent ya know?

Found out that River City Hobbies appears to be discotinuing most of its RPG book collection which it's only had a for a year or two as far as I know. Picked up the Blue Planet (v2) Player's Guide. I am pretty sure Uncle Hugo's has the Moderator's Guide so I could run the game now in theory. I had the v1 Core book but all the expansions are for v2 only and they are completely different! You are probably asking how I can spend money so freely on RPG books and I am not quite sure. I like reading and I like RPGs. If anything it's my guilty pleasure. I should be better once I go back to Point, reduced to just getting Exalted books. Thankfully none of those come out til mid-February or so. I am thinking I might try and run a Blue Planet if I can get some interest. More importantly I need to get the ball rolling on this theoretical Exalted game I am running in the spring. I have started writing up some stuff but I need to find out who's all playing. Incidentally if you are reading this and interested in being that game drop me an e-mail (prefferably at my Gmail addy, I keep forgetting to check my UWSP mail and it's caused problems of various minor sorts lately). I am not sure if it will run Wednesday nights (at GASP) or some other night. Kinda depends on schedules so let me know what your schedule is if/when you e-mail me.

So now I am poking thru the BioHazard Games homepage some since I had to find the link for Blue Planet. Seems like they might actually be recovering from the doldrums. Not sure if they will do ok. I have heard the RPGs have been hitting a slump lately. Granted it's more D20 system related. Probably as WotC tightens up their grip on the OGL stuff. Anyhow I generally have enjoyed the premise of the story (hence wanting to run a game) so I hope they continue to put out more material. Come on, who hasn't wanted to ever play a dolphin or an orca? I have since Startide Rising. Always a fun read. I really do enjoy reading RPG books. I probably should just sit down and re-read the stuff I've got but what fun is that?

So this whole having an apartment thing is fairly intensive when thinking about all the stuff you need to get, ie basic amentities. Chairs, tables, silverware, cookware, etc. At least I can get furniture from sister (who is getting a new house and wants decent stuff now, w00t! I get the rejects) and parents/grandparents. The other stuff well I got some for Christmas but the rest needs to be bought. A lot needs to be thought of first. I should really have a list cause I always think of it at some point when I can't write it down or do anything about it.

Right, another long entry. Whee, enjoy.

Old Friends

So one of my old friends from way back in elementary school stopped by this evening. Lately it seems like I've been hearing from people I haven't in awhile. I really like keeping in touch with people. Granted some I try harder with some more then others and lately it seems like I haven't been really succeeding. Somehow I lose touch or people drift away. This is probably a natural tendency in the world I guess. It frustrates me. Then again I suppose there are people I want to not keep in touch with so I should assume there are people who want to do the same with me. I wonder why sometimes although in a lot of cases I figure it's cause I creeped them out or something along those lines. Blah to my lack of social skills. But ok enough self pity! I am really happy that I got to see my friend and that a couple friends I haven't talked to in awhile I've gotten to talk to (some of them don't reply to e-mails so I wonder sometimes but even I am lousy with e-mails these days). Here's hoping I can keep in better touch with them. And also people from this fall. Here's hoping!

"Could it be you're what they call a hunter?"
"Probably."

I love this quote from Witch Hunter Robin. Just thought I'd use that to seperate thoughts. Anyhow...a word of note for Madden 2005 users. Difficulty setting of "Pro" is not very hard. I've plugged through a season in franchise with it and gone undefeated. All I have left is the Superbowl. Score of the AFC Championship game: 91-6. Yes that's right I set records (personal ones mind you, best game all season) for passing yards, offensive yards, total tds in a game, passing tds in a game. Think that is all of them. Rather shocked I did it then but well turns out the Raider backfield couldn't cover very well beyond 30 yards from scrimmage so I started burning them deep with Ward, my custom WR, Chambers, James, Kleinsasser, Gonzalez, and Shockey. Yea I got TDs will all of them plus Vick on the ground. After the Superbowl I'm gonna erase the franchise and start over on higher difficulty. I wish in madden I didn't need to deal with resigning players and salaries and all that crap. I just wanna create my team and play is that too much to ask? I was hoping I could turn everything off but that, no such luck!

Think I've got really bad breath. Maybe that explains my problems from the first paragraph, eh? Have to pick up some breath mints or something.

So let's see. What a strange entry thus far. Can I capitolize on it? I'll drift briefly to RPG books. I now own 72 of them from 10 seperate games (9 playable). Finished watching the Star Wars trilogy on DVD. They modified two thing: in Empire Strikes Back the Emperor hologram is more Emp. like and the Emp's dialogue is modified. This is ok, it feels weird tho because I am so familiar with the old dialogue. In Return of the Jedi the end has Naboo in the celebration scene (why?) and a younger Anakin who looks well evil and doesn't fit in. Keep the old Anakin! Wonder why George Lucas can't leave these alone. Guess those are the ones we'll all know. VCR's are dissapearing. Still worth the money and the documentary is good too (rather long tho).

So now this is a very long entry. I should stop because I've heard people hate long entries. And self-pity. I have flawlessly combined them so they should hate this entry! Perfection? :D

Tis the Season To Do Modifications

Hokay...
So we added some new blogs of people I know, etc. They are in the usual place. Moved a couple down to the "Quiet Blogs" section do to inactivity. Still easy to find. Yes if you are wondering some of the quiet blogs do update once in awhile. Laura's just did not long ago. Other notes: I finally switched the time back to the ol' Yankee standard CST. So now it makes sense when I am posting. Or does it? It's not like my schedule is normal anyhow. Theoretically later today or this week I will try and post some interesting read-I am feeling introspective this week so prolly along those lines- so check back if you need to fall asleep quickly or just want to say "duh! You didn't know that all along?" to me the next time we talk.

Merry Christmas

Yay it's a white one too! Wherever you be (and everyone of course is scattered everywhere) please have a safe and joyful one! Merry Christmas!

As Advertised

So gonna try for a more substantial entry for once. Probably the first since I got back. Or not. Who knows. Work has not been that bad somehow. Basically things haven't changed. This can be seen as a good and a bad thing. They haven't gotten worse but nothing has really improved. We do have a kick-ass overnight manager. He does work. Yea, that's a first. I guess the GO doesn't want the managers to do much work (another genius decision by them, let's pay 6-7 people to not work help out on the floor) but those who do are generally well liked, boosting morale and all that. Of course the GO is oblivious to such things. They would probably be unaware to the floor burning out from under them. Then again I think Shopko is losing a lot of ground lately (got nothing to prove that, should check FT.com or something or an equivalent and see what they say) against their competitors and the stuff they do just makes it worse. I wish that'd turn around, don't want the world run by Wal-Mart!
I haven't switched the time back yet. Sue me. Maybe after this. Too lazy to save this as a draft and do it. Perhaps afterwards. Random curiosity: why aren't my grades up yet? It's not like I can hurry them along but most of my classes have been done for over half a month! Guess IP doesn't submit them til late (and yes I am sure they route thru IP).
Ok. I am tired of trying to multi-task therefore I'm gonna stop trying to blog at the moment. Maybe I will get a better entry later. Or not.

Snow and Splitters

Yay. Time Splitter's 2 has arrived! And it snowed! :D What a blissful day. Ok so it's somewhat material but finally the house looks right with the snow and Christmas lights and all. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Gotta work now. I see that I still have this set to GMT so at somepoint I'll have to switch that back over. I'll add it to the really long list of stuff to do...

Splendiferousness

Well as of late I am greatly contributing to the economy. Using early Christmas money I have gotten a Gamecube with MarioKart (of course!) and Time Splitters 2 is on the way. Alas Eric is gone most of the week so I can't pass on the good news. The bigger news is however that I have purchased a new car. Much excitement here although my poor savings are gonna feel even more hollow and empty (include now that I need to cover insurance and tomorrow I am officially signing on an apartment too). Happily my car has a tape deck so I can use my iPod (via cassette adaptor) in it and it has a 115v plug so I can charge it as I go especially since the charge is down to an hour and it retains that for less then a day. Really need to send that it but it's another expense. Maybe I shoulda spent my Christmas money on that (alas too late to think of that now).
Work wasn't too bad Wed. morning. I work again tonight and tomorrow night. This'll mean a long day of which I will probably be sleeping alot whilst Dad drives me to Point and back. Alas no time to visit people I missed the previous trip last week. I still feel bad cause I showed up Allison for lunch last Friday. I hate it when people miss things and then I go and do it myself. Really feel like whacking myself with a pole-arm several times over. Blah. :(
I have just noticed this is still on Brit time +1 (daylight savings time threw that off). Should really change that. Don't need to be reminded that I am far away. I think most of the group is back now. I've seen a few online. Strange I won't see them for a bit. Depressing I won't see Tricia for, well, a long time most likely.
Anyhow, this spring I challenge a bunch of people to Mario Kart with two seperate Gamecubes! We should have room at the apartment to set up that and still have seating for 8 people. We can kick Steiner's ass for sure if there are 7 of us ruthlessly gunning for him! Plus Twism can kill those damn ducks (some people might actually know what I am talking about from freshman year) again.

Oops, almost forgot. Our family has the (strange, ridiculous, cool, fascinating?) habit of naming our vehicles. I need a good guy's name that starts with A. If anyone of the 1 readers care to partcipate.

Stream of Thoughtless

Let's see. Was really busy earlier so didn't get this off til now. What is busy you ask? Well talking to Leah, Ryan, and e-mailing Tricia. So talking to important people! Anyhow...
I am now attempting to re-adjust to routine here. I start overnights again (oh joy) Tuesday. In the meantime I have been relaxing. This involves reading a lot of RPG books, I have Aspect Book: Air, House of the Bull God, and Exalted: Fair Folk all to read. Incidentally I have a ton of non-fiction reading to do. I wondered why I thought battle of Moscow was a turning point in and I got home and sicking on my bookshelf is an unread book: The Battle of Moscow. Hmm. Anyhow I have a ton of books to read. I will be doing that til summer. Yipes.
Relating to anime: I have now missed Wolf's Rain and Gundam SEED since August. Plus Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Full Metal Alchemist. Now FMA I didn't care much about but having seen it, it's decent caliber if not a purchase later. However the other three are so I will have to wait til they are fully out on DVD so I can buy them as sets. At this rate story's will be confusing but I can figure out most of them I think. Fun stuff. Whilst I am doing that I have been playing Total Annihilation (spl?). So in a sense I am busy returning to a normal life.
Last notes: go buy Hero and watch it. Then watch Dodgeball. I have updated the links. Mainly I added Ryan's blog and Jen's journal. Enjoy. I am going back to decorating the basement. I love Christmas.

I need to write Abby and Kleiner. Oh boy. Soooo much to do. I am overwhelmed!

Live From Point

Well I'm back. It might be noticed the time is still Greenwich Mean, I will fix that later. Apartment shopping here goes slowly. Hopefully more luck tomorrow but who knows. This is coming live from the Lars residence. (He's not dead just busy and Jaybez hasn't mastered typing...yet.) Not much to report. Feeling a little out of place to some extent tho, I've found that people have changed. Maybe it's me but the way some people are now is just different then when I left them. It seems to me their values have shifted. I don't know. I guess I feel a little left out, which granting where I've been, I have. You can't expect to be a major part of people's lives and live 4000 miles away at the same time. It doesn't work. So I am dealing with that.
I could really use a good walk thru Regent's Park but that's not gonna happen anytime soon.

I also need a shave but my razor is back home. So I am gonna be very fuzzy when I get back Friday. Not like I need to worry about anyone kissing me. I think the one chance I had is now far away London and she won't be coming home to the US. :(

That's life. This was your first post-Europe entry. Enjoy.

Mind the Gap

Well folks, it's been fun. A few months ago I was sitting at home thinking what to write to say "good bye" to Wisconsin. Now I sit here thinking about what to say to London. I didn't get to do half what I wanted, there are so many famous places I didn't see or barely saw. On the whole tho, I have no regrets. I met some great people (who'll hopefully keep in touch). I got to see Belfast a city which I have fallen in love with I think and hope to get back to some day and pray that they may continue the path towards peace. I discovered having the RPG habit in London costs twice as much as in Wisconsin but they have bigger, better stores here so as with everything in life, it's a trade-off.
I will miss the friends I've made in the group. Some I might see regularily, others I may see never again. I miss the people back home and can't wait for Tuesday when I can see them all again! Not sure I miss work but it will be nice to get a paycheck again even if it's in piddly American dollars.
I have thought a lot about travelling and I think (although woe to anyone who leaks this to my parents) that before I graduate I will take advantage of these trips and sneak over here again. I'm thinking Ireland. For now though I am going to relax as all my homework is in and I have only token classes tomorrow. I even managed an A in the first of my WE classes. Fancy that.
In the meantime I am enjoying being able to laugh at the British humor of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, enjoying Regent's Park (and its subsidary Primrose Hill), and late night movie/Risk sessions.
The iPod did hold up for 3 months but barely so I guess my one worry has been answered.
After this entry, this will once again return to the frozen wastes of Wisconsin, hope you all enjoyed the pointless commentary. If not well Exalted: Fair Folk came out Monday so pick up a copy (and harass White Wolf to hurry up and send me mine) and read that instead. Until Wisconsin, cheers!

Most Memorable Turkey Day

So many firsts including: first Thanksgiving away from family, having classes on Thanksgiving, enjoying said classes, spending the entire afternoon traipsing on the London Underground, going to Camden for the first time (with two lovely ladies, whee :D ), and generally having a fantastic Thanksgiving Day. Hopefully it'll get better from here. Not quite sure what I've got on tap but go figure. Today is just kinda legendary to me already! Anyhow I said it already but Happy Thanksgiving to all, I will see you all sooner then you think (muwahaha!)

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends...

...is a fantastic show!

Almost Undisputed Trivia Champs

And we were the only international team too. The joint US-Canadian (UW Stevens Point and U of Quelph) effort brought a close second place! It would help if the guy doing the trivia knew his Star Wars quotes correctly. Which movie do you think "You're all clear kid, now let's blow this thing and go home" came from? Anyhow...
Almost done with the World War 2 paper rough draft. Then I've only got the 10-20 page Brit History paper on the IRA and the Shakespeare paper all 6 or so pages of crap I need to turn out for that lousy class. I don't like it much, can you tell?
Exalted: Fair Folk is almost out. The artists/authors have gotten their copies. Finally got to see some art and charm trees (technically art) and they look very cool. Fae (er Raksha is technically what we're supposed to call them now) nobles are incredibly bad-ass. They start out with 3 dots in all attributes and get a 10/7/4 breakdown (max of 7 starting in any attribute) so they can do a heck of a lot of damage from the get go although I suspect there are some serious drawbacks to keep them from maruading freely across Creation. Regardless running around with beginning characters who could easily have Str + Ath of 12 (that's strong enough to throw a Volkswagen around folks!) from the get-go should make a ST or two a bit nervous. At least I'll have another fun thing to toss into my game I am theoretically running this spring. Need to work out details whence I get back home to all my beloved books but if you are a Pointer and want in let me know! (Lars ya count even though you technically graduated several decades ago. ;) )
Not much else to talk about on the England front at the moment. The farthest I have gotten away from ISH or MTH is for walks with Trisha into Regents Park (which at max is a mile and probably not even that far away). I am happy cause I found someone to walk with! It has also managed to warm up appreciably here from last weekend which is nice. Jeff took some iniative, which itself is not unheard of, and figured out to turn our radiators on, although they aren't very warm they help. Plus Jeff didn't kill us all in turning the radiators on! Luckily his girlfriend sent him something to warm the place up but he can't open it up to see what it is til Dec. 1st (hehe I know what it is!).
I should return to my paper now. I am enjoying reading about the Russian front in World War II which I think is seriously under covered in American classes. The Russians could have beaten the Germans without us and what do most Americans think the major turning point of the war was? Normandy. Don't get me wrong that was quite important for post-war things but the Russians coulda rolled right to Normandy if need be. That woulda been one heck of a Soviet Union then!

Regged

Yay registration went off without a hitch for me for the spring! Sadly I have an 8am class 4 days a week which I had no choice on taking (only section of a required CIS course). However I have only one class on Fridays and it's done at noon so going home will be easily facilated if need be and otherwise I have long weekends. In general my schedule will be pretty busy during the week tho so all my fun will be moved to nights and weekends. Maybe I will get more homework done tho if I am stuck on campus and can't play around on the web as much. I can dream at least!
It's gotten chilly over here since it started raining on Thursday. It has to be close to freezing out there and it's that damp chill which cuts through just about everything. I am not real upset that it is raining today because I need to do homework (I am doing some at the moment) so this will keep me motivated to stay in and do it rather then going finding Trisha or someone else to go for a walk. I wasted a good hour and a half doing that yesterday but Trisha hadn't been to Primrose Hill so it was well worth it. Ironically we got there about sunset (which is 4pmish or earlier here) so the whole city looked pretty damned cool.
This whole week has been rather unproductive and we've been staying up til 3AM watching movies on Jon's laptop. The group varies somewhat but it's usually me, Jon, Jeff, Leah, and Trisha. Other people occasionally show up. Jeff and Jon (lightweights!) never make it through the second movie. It's good fun and we found a decent pizza place that delivers too. Gotten some quality Risk games in as well. It's funny how Filteau tries to make everyone think he is not out just for himself and that when he is feeling like he's in a bad position how he tries to diss other people so he looks better. Greatly amusing :D Jeff did well last night but Jon has managed to be in second place the last two games which is pretty good considering that he has hardly played. It looks like Risk and Axis & Allies will become a mainstay of our getting togethers back home. At least I found people who'll play those games it had been forever since I had played them previously!
Time to return to the homework. Going to try and complete the geography paper so I only have a Brit history, WW2 history, and Shakespeare paper left. The long ones which require actual quoting of sources and such. This week is gonna involve oh so much typing!

No Side

Well the election is over. Bush won. I actually spent quite awhile thinking and working on a response which now I don't think I am going to use despite working on it a fair amount. Thus this will be less eloquent then what I had written so sorry about that. Maybe if I am motivated I will put that up sometime later (it is ensconed in my actual journal somewhere).
Anywho...
Bush won. It's not the end of the world. 59 million Americans are not stupid, not bigoted, not whatever. They voted what's right, that's democracy. Be glad we don't have another 2000 fiasco! And the seperation of church and state means that the church does not directly rule (ala Church of England and/or the Catholic church), the fact people vote along the lines of their religious beliefs probably just indicates they actually believe in their said faith! Pretty sure ol' TJ (Thomas Jefferson) said something along those lines back in his day.
Right, so those are my short comments on the whole mess. Randon and scattered cause I am writing this late over a game of Risk (which Filteau is screwing up!) These last 2.5 weeks are heavy with homework. Very heavy. I have nearly 30 pages worth of stuff to write!
I've also been trying to get out and do stuff with people outside of our group (ala the people I game with who are fun but can tell some tales of NHS) and with other folks as well ( :D ).
Now if I can just figure out about a place to live back home and Salt then life will be good. Oh I'd like the Wales trip to run Sunday too.
Politics and my life, what a weird post.

No side.

Vote

So yea, go vote. Despite what the idiots may say it doesn't matter who you vote for so long as you vote. And if anyone tells you that you voted the "right" way smack them. Seriously that ticks me off. And also, every election is equally important. This one is no more so. But like I said what matters is that you vote.

I voted awhile ago, if you are wondering who then you need to reread this. What did I do on election day? I watched "The Girl Next Door" which I highly recommend. So after you vote go do that.

And those of you with a significant other, be happy. You're lucky.

Jolan Tru.

Life, News, and Swedish Monarchies

Sooooooooooo, I finished rough draft numero uno of my 8-10 page paper for World War Two in Europe so I am taking a break now for the night to give a long entry with lots of nicely planted links to various things you might want to check out.
First off, the lively, lovely, can we get it over with already(?!?) elections. I was pointed to a curious site called Slate where I found one of the coolest things. An election scorecard (please note the one linked to here is for the morning of October 29th, to find the latest one, go to the Slate frontpage, then Campaign 2004 and look for the newest scorecard in the list of articles given) is given for the nation. Now currently they have Kerry ahead for the first time since I started looking. This is amazingly part of Wisconsin. Never thought our paltry few electoral votes would count for much but apparently the cheese-heads may help decide the election! Scary thought there eh?
What actually makes me wonder more though is when you look at the map notice just how much of the country is red. Yup, you got it, well over half (about 30) states are solidly for Bush. This means if Kerry wins territorily he will have taken it with a small chunk of America. Let's face it, Bush controls the Midwest, the Great Plains and the South. All Kerry has is the East Coast and the West Coast. Does it feel like a gyp to those of us in the middle that he has much less territory that wants him? Granted the land doesn't vote but well if Wyoming, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas would have a few more kids we wouldn't see a Democrat in the White House for decades. Funny thing I noticed too was that Alaska is completely in for Bush. I guess the Alaskans don't mind his enviromental policy. Funny thing too since it's supposed to be really bad or something right? Then again maybe there is a secret Russo-Canuck Alliance who want to annex them and they would prefer a strong leader.
Who are did I vote for you may be asking? I think I said already so go look. Right now I would probably vote differently so I am hoping things work out well however they turn out. I really have no clue. Irony cannot be stated enough my first presidential election and I don't like either of the two canidates the two parties have provided. Where is John McCain? By the way, why do we only get two viable canidates and why is Ralph Nader so evil? All the pro-Kerry people actually bash his running simply because it hurts them. Apparently if you don't help the party (whichever of the two it may be) then you are anti-American, yadda, yadda, yadda.

POLITICAL CRAP DONE!
Well sorta, apparently Osama bin Laden is alive and well. I wish him the best and hope he can personally speak to some of our US soldiers during rifle practice on how they can help make America safer. The nice thing is he can help out and be a rifle target at the same time. Who says he doesn't care? He gets on tv and tells us that both canidates are dopes (which we already know but nice to see that even radical Muslim terrorists can see it) and that we need something better plus he helps our soldiers by giving a moving target to aim at. What a guy! And I love the turban too, very classy :D

Meanwhile if your head is in the ground you've probably missed the most important stories of the week!

Apple has announced new iPods this week! Specifically the iPod Photo! They have increased battery life (12 and 15 hours) and huge memories (40 and 60 GB) and massive price tags (600 and 700 dollars). Plus color screens, did I mention the color screens? If I didn't they have pretty color screens. Now my poor iPod has a battery life of about 3 hours left in it when fully charged. Yes that's down from the meager 4 it had when I got here. Canti's dying slowly but surely poor little guy. So I have been keeping an eye on the iPods. Whilst this is wonderful news it'd be more wonderful if it cost less so I didn't spend nearly half what I spent to purchase my iMac! Over half if you count the costs for my first iPod. There is also the U2 iPod which aside from the deal to get $50 off on the entire U2 collection (whose total price remains a mystery so as to whether this is a good deal or not is a mystery) does not offer much to buy it. It costs more as well so not real interesting. I await hope that the older original type iPods go down in price so I can get a 12 hour battery lifer for under $200. Doubt I will get that lucky but I can pray.

Star Wars fans please take note this paragraph is for you. If you wasted money on a Hyperspace subscription (not me!) then you will get to see the Episode 3 teaser trailer on November 4th. The rest of America and Canada: if you go see The Incredibles on November 5th you will see the teaser trailer there. People who are too cheap to pay just to see that first little trailer (me!) you can see it online at StarWars.com for free on November 8th. See the SciFiWire link or the teaser poster link here. It's still more then 6 months away but time is ticking down!

I finally used the Tube on Monday. Probably right after I posted the my last entry. I used the newer Jubilee line so they sadly didn't say "Mind the gap" because there was no gap. I was sad. I may have to go in search of that because it amuses me greatly.
Otherwise this week has been totally focused on attempting to do homework. This was greatly hindered when I churned out half the paper mentioned above and then found out that because Mertz doesn't actually help much even tho he assigns us outlines to do, etc that nearly everything I had could not be used and as a result had to start from scratch. Plus we only have one book as a source so I need to find some more sources (mostly non-internet because like many Profs he does not trust it) which is rather hard since in London every library but the smallest crappy ones require enough Letters of Recomendations from Important People (ie the Space Pope, God, members of the Swedish Royal Family, Reverend Coaches, and others whom are so important I am not allowed to even mention their names in this blog). As a result my research abilites are limited (I don't have my super library at home or the admittedly decent library at UWSP to use). Life is tough for researching over here and frankly this is the first time I have had to write many papers at all in college. One does not need to do much of that when you program computers! So I am going through an interesting time academically. Hopefully I can pull out a higher GPA then a B but I am worried at this rate.

Much excitement as White-Wolf will be releasing Exalted: The Fair Folk in just about a month. I really wish we could get Nephilpal to leak us some more juicy tidbits. He is after all writing both on the Fair Folk and Alchemicals (granting that there are NDA enforcing hamsters of death, with death-ray lasers attached to their little heads to keep him from spilling any Alchemical goodies, all he can do is mess with our heads).

Is there more I can write now? Prolly. However I should stop as this is incredibly longish already. I needed a good vent. Life is stressful here and I don't have anyone to walk with. Also in violating my original plan of not trying to find a girl here although the girl in question seems to be more then committed to me not failing (at least that is my pessimistic outlook, let's face it I haven't a clue at all what she thinks!) Paper writing sucks. The EU is a mess, there's a general election insanity which seems to grip all of Europe now as well, and we've discovered that Titan is one giant combustable Molotov cocktail. Which makes me wonder, if we drop Hyugens into it, will we cause the entire surface to ignite or is there no oxygen in any significant form to allow for that? It would really such if we whiped out this great scientific wonder (and great source for volatiles in the future, I've been reading Jovian Chronicles some more, I could go onto that too if I wanted) by the dropping of our first probe there? Tune in Christmas Eve for me on that!

Anyhow I miss Wisconsin, it feels very Octoberish here which makes me rather homesick. At least I have nice parks to walk in (I am in love with them if you haven't already noticed) if noone to walk with. I miss all you folks and Eric you better be ready for that first Tuesday night I am back because I am gonna school you all in Mario Kart.

That's all folks.

Really.

50 hours in Belfast

Spent the weekend in Belfast. Despite the general paranoia of people in this group it is an absolutely safe city. Lowest crime rate on the continent (wonder why eh?). The murals were beautiful and I got really lucky when I took a turn off Shankhill Rd and found some of the more famous murals. Sadly didn't make a lucky turn like that off Falls Rd. The Botanic Gardens were wonderful too although I in general love parks and finding another one was a good deal for me. The weather was fantastic, usually it rains alot there like everywhere else in the UK but Friday was cloudy and Saturday was sunny. Rather chilly but that just made it feel like home. Actually the entire city gave a feel of the midwest, maybe a little less well off but they are much more down to earth there then in London. I loved being able to walk down streets and know their history (troubled as it is). Anyhow if you go to Europe don't discount Belfast, Northern Ireland is a wonderful place.

Legality

While those of you who are pro-Kerry may wholly support any efforts to covert people to your cause this article in the Guardian rather frightens me. Now I am not quite sure how old this so maybe it already made major news in the US, maybe not, but anyhow. I'm just going to copy what I wrote to someone in hopes of clearing things up a bit.

This article
( http://guardian.assets.digivault.co.uk/clark_county/ ) is an effort by the newspaper to get its readership to persuade Americans in Clark County, Ohio to vote how the readers want. Each reader who signs up gets the e-mail of one registered voter of Clark County, Ohio who they can then e-mail. There are several links from that page also arguing why Europe (and the rest of the world) should get as much a say as the US.
Now I've got a couple questions here, some of them somewhat disturbing for me: First, why are the e-mail addresses for listed voters available to the entire world to access? (I will grant my knowledge on laws in this area in very limitied, but if the Guardian can get it, who else can?) Secondly, when did Europe start believing that they have as much say in US elections as the US? I have heard people over here actually say they wish they could vote for us to make sure we vote the right way. I personally believe if you voted, you've done the right thing you cannot vote right or wrong, your duty is simply to vote!

I probably shouldn't be writing this stuff at 2 AM but it bother Jeff too, so it ain't just me (maybe just us tho). For better feelings read the previous entry and for those of you who made comments I responded see that entry.

Gray and Green

Walked through St. James', Green, and Hyde Parks today. London has such wonderful green spaces, I will surely miss them for years to come. They make me rather nostalgic for when I was a little kid wondering around state parks in Wisconsin and Minnesota (especially one very misty, foggy, and cloudy morning). If you ever go to London you must take some time to check out the parks, they are fantastic. I guess I am just in one of those sombre happy moods I haven't been in for awhile. Everything just seemed to focus it today though, maybe the only thing which could have made it better was snow but that doesn't happen real often. Hope everyone managed to get as nice a day out of today as me, if not go out and walk in Schmeekle (or whatever greenery you local affords you) and enjoy some peace and quiet.

Measure for Measure

I voted today. Now most of you have to wait til November 2nd but you sure as heck better vote. If you miss because you are out playing cricket and watching (real) football and do not you should be ashamed and I hope the bowler sends a wicked googly your way! :P Anyhow exercise your constitutional rights before the Democratic and Republic parties take them away altogether.
It exists. Enough said. Next time sing the whole song.
A curiousity, have people been getting my Gmails? We have been having browser issues on this end, John's IE being so thoroughly ridden with spy,ad,and pornware that it is virtually unusable, we switched to Fire Fox which has had issues with UWSP e-mail, the tendency being to forward messages and deleting their replies. For instance I sent a survey to a couple people which I think UWSP mail replaced with the original. I am fairly positive I am not Allison I am not good looking enough and I'm the wrong sex if you got that one (and it was messed up as I suspect). I use Gmail pretty religiously now but I am not sure whether UWSP Spamblocker knows I am not a spammer. Right that was a preponderously long and confusing paragraph.
So any news over here? Well my family is visiting this week so I we had a mini-reunion over here. That is really about it. Just the regular old routine. Jeff is shaving using the broken bathroom mirror he "borrowed". It's cooler then ever temp. wise. I have been trying to get out and do stuff with people, mostly within our group cause I am still not really extroverted enough to get to know other people.
It looks like I might have an apartment whence I return to Point so hopefully Twism's finances will hold thru so all I have to do is come back and sign the papers and hand over some money from my already thinned bank accounts. Really hope that works.
Anyhow consider this a randomly pasted (which reminds me, I had a pasty Allison) together attempt to update the two people who occasionally read this blog. Adoring fans or lost websurfers you ask? I'll leave that for the philosphers to decide.
Try tiramisu chocolate truffles, your life will be better for it. Or read 1st Corinthians. Or both.

The Erupting Debate Which Killed Fae

So some randoms news for you all. First off, Mt. Saint Helens keys off on the debate later tonight by stirring up the west coast. I guess mother nature isn't satisfied with driving all Floridians out of Florida she seems to be trying to drive more Americans from their homes. Will it help make the elections saner? One can only pray. Maybe it can be debate hot seat on St. Helens :D
I watched Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 last night. Very good stuff, each movie had its strongpoints although I think overall I preffered 1. Some of the blood spraying could be scaled back and the whole hospital scene (you know which one) probably didn't need to be included. Anyhow glad I got a chance to watch them.
Finally, check out the Fae who are the latest Exalted hardcover. Def. the prettiest cover yet. I am excited although I'll prolly get it right after I get home. I'd give you a close up but the ISH cyber cafe computers are being crappy so maybe when I am back in our room. Anyhow, that is all. I wish I could see SNL's version of the debate!

Avoiding Karaoke

Yea, that's what I'm doing. Not really up for a re-hash of "I got you babe". I did my hard time already. Prolly will go, everyone else seems to be heading in that direction from our group, rather find the Canadian girls (cause they're cute and quiet!!) even tho I can't remember their names. Called Claudia Clare and they don't even have a Clare in their group, that had to go over well. Oy. Anywho, we seem to get louder and more insensitive to the people around us as we go. I was hoping as a group that this trip would be fairly strong proof that Americans usually aren't that loud, rude, arrogant, or whatever most of the time. We seem to be doing the opposite. Granting even I've said dumb things a couple times, there are days I seem incapable of saying smart things, alas now Europeans (and Canadians) have to put up with it. Poor them. At least I know why the continent hates us so much, we get real breakfasts not a single roll and some random spread. They could just ask and we'd airlife over a couple thousand Egg McMuffins a day. Or better yet their McDonalds on every other corner could make them for them!
Right. So a couple things to get noted, both AmbrosiaSW and White Wolf have gotten new webboards as of late. I haven't hit Ambrosia's in awhile due mainly to growing out of that type of group except at random bored moments (such as late) but their olds boards were always impressive and these new ones are quite good as well. WW has slowly been ironing the bugs out of their boards considering how major an upgrade they have made. I am happy with both although I don't have much to say or read on either these days.
Fair Folk will reportedly come out a whopping 328 pages in length second only to the core book for Exalted. No wonder ProductionBrian had all but dissapeared.
BTW I was going to try and upload some pictures to the blog which happily support such things these days but it requires a program to do that directly and I can't do that on John's comp. John has about half the group's pictures so he has a nice collection to work with posting wise. I may try and dump them onto my old geocities page and link from there. Kinda depends on how motivated I am.
I have picked up 4 or 5 books now for Jovian Chronicles so I have some side reading to do since I have pretty much finished all the books I brought barring the 9/11 Commission Report which I have gotten bogged down in just about halfway thru. JC is a pretty interesting concept but I am frustrated you need SilCore rulebook to know the system or use OGL D20 which is hardly supported outside of the core sourcebook. It also needs a decent spell check run and slightly better layout in regards to combat stats for ships and exos (ie mecha). It's impossible to figure out how many exos the ships carry! I guess I am rather spoiled by WW's fantastic editing and art departments although this is mainly ProductionBrian. However it's an interesting setting as I said and very cool mecha. Gundams in space which observe the laws of physics! Kinda annoying to have to explain it to each and every other person in our group when I am reading one of the books in class. It's so incredibly hard for people to grasp for whatever reason not using a computer or anything! But I did figure out why I enjoy RPGs so much even if I don't get to play them, it gives my, at times, over-active imagination a new world to play in so it's kinda like a new jungle gym for it to swing around on.
Speaking of gaming I did find a group that plays here, they actually meet literally right next to ISH at a pub called The Green Man. So I am in a d20 Modern game with a bunch of Brits. The GM, Rob, is hilarious. It'd take too long to explain but his accent really helps.
Is there anything else I can ramble about now I wonder? I think I am gonna go over to the ISH pub, where karaoke is at, around 10 and just slip quietly in for a bit. I should go see if Lindsay wants to go but she was complaining about a headache so I don't want to pester her. I am so indecisive when it comes to the opposite sex :/
I adjusted my post times to GMT-Greenwich time so I think it now now on London time but not quite postive, see when I went to post tonight it said I started at 8:05 PM which isn't exactly right, I was sprawled out on my bed, in the dark, listening to my iPod at the moment. Maybe some more fiddling will be involved.
Tommorow we go to the Globe theatre to see "Much Ado About Nothing". We're going as groundlings so it better not be raining or super chilly or I'm gonna be pretty darned unhappy. Standing for 2-3 hours in cold wet conditions are not on my top list of things to do in London. Boo! Plus it's a long walk back too. I should note I am holding off on using the Tube here as long as possible because it's far better exercise to walk places here and I'll always have enough time to get anywhere in Central London on foot so I can save money and be in better shape! However when we are told we have to be out at a tour at the Globe 3 1/2 hours prior to our performance it's rather annoying especially when we just found out we're standing! (Yea I am complaining for no reason at this point, if it was really bad I could take the Tube. I'll live, I am just venting a tiny bit.)
I have succeeded in beating Mindsweeper 3 times in my life now. The things you do when trying not to type papers. As for taking so long in my life to beat Mindsweeper I will remind you I prefer Macs and the school computers only have Hearts. So that is my excuse, got it? :P
I've learned the basic rules to cricket too. I can't bowl (pitch) because they do it crazy but I could do the rest. It's crazy to watch. I got to see an ametuer match at Lord's Cricket Statium and also got to see the home of the English cricket team who upset the Aussies (alas not there so no live game) whilst I was on the tour. Four fours and they were up 85-1 with only 14 overs! Anyhow you all must cheer for the English going into the world championship versus West Indies. Not sure who's favored but if the English do as well as they did Tuesday they've got it in the bag! BTW if you are wondering they won 262-4 (England) 258-9 (Australia). The number after the dash is a bad thing. I have still not found out if the term "wicked googly" relates at all to cricket.
Right, this must be incredibly long but I don't care much at the moment. I needed a good ramble here and I won't be getting out to Regent's Park anytime soon to write in my journal in the rain (because it always mists/drizzles when I go there to write but I have a good hiding place) so needed an outvent. Whee, rambling, it's not an art, it's a freaking professional sport!

Home

Yea, right now I'm a little homesick. It's tuesday night and no Chi Alpha and no mario kart. Frankly tho I miss everyone tho right now, somehow I just feel very alone in this city of 16 million in my group of 29. Kind of silly isn't it? Anyhow I am thinking of you folks back home and seriously wishing I could be there.


Wholly unrelated here but I need to link it for myself later. Not exactly pleasant either but worth a look. However this is not for the weak hearted.

Thames Festival

John got his laptop working in the room with internet so now heh I guess I can be on more which is prolly a bad thing. I don't intend to be on much tho but it is nice to be able to check things. NFL scores at my fingertips! w00t!
Anyhow instead of going to the sports bar to watch the Packers lose to the Bears (but how about them Lions, I guess whilst the Dolphins suck I can cheer for them) I went down to the Thames festival with John, Filteau, and Beth (who got to be doted on by 3 guys but hey she's got John so us others are redundant). It was great, we heard a little live reggae by the Top Cats, I think was what they were called, watched a huge parade where the different elements basically competed to be loudest, and then watched fireworks on the Thames river. Very cool. Ton of walking but I don't mind, I've decided to try and not use the Tube much this semester and instead walk it.
I have found a decent tasting alcohol called Strongbow. It's kind of a cider I guess so that is why I think I enjoy it, it doesn't taste like alcohol. Dun worry I am not becoming a drunk or anything.
BTW you all missed my single and hopefully only kareoke performance. Too bad (or good?) for you. I however was forced :P

Arrival

London. Finally.
Somehow by hook or by crook or by a fairly absurb amount of incredibly dumb luck I have made it here. Can't say a whole lot about the city itself yet, as I haven't really gotten a chance to explore alas. This due mainly to the fact we stumbled into London late last night due to two simaltaneous flats on our coach right off the Calais-Dover ferry. So while we did see it rain several times already within the 18 or so hours we've actually been here, noone as far as I know has actually gotten a chance to explore the city. I, myself, am hunting for a bookstore, a grocery/convience store, and a gaming place of some sort so that I can maybe get something in whilst away from GASP. I have got quite a bit of time tho so I am not massively rushed. The best thing I have to admit was to be able to unpack all the way and enjoy the view from our very spacious room, with balcony, into Regents Park. Never thought I'd get a room with a nice view of the greenery but can't complain I guess.
Classes have already started today and my first half of the week (Monday/Tuesday) are light but Wed/Thurs are packed for me. Lots of history though so I am hoping I will enjoy this semester. Speaking of history, Normandy was by far my favorite part of the trip. We stayed at a small village college Benerie s/mer (that's nowhere near correctly spelled) right on Juno beach. Literally it has the first house liberated by sea-born Canadian forces. In general I just enjoyed being in a small local place rather then the hustle and bustle of huge cities which was where we mostly were. Reality is that I think I am a small town person and the 12 million odds Frenchmen of Paris have the same big city attitudes of New Yorkers, etc to foreigners and strangers, ie they aren't usually that polite.
Visiting the sites in Normandy was very impressive. I have to say that going to the Omaha beach cemetary for Americans nearly broke me down. The little white crosses just go on and on and on. Most of those men buried there were my age or younger. A number of them had no identification, their crosses reading (this isn't an exact quote sorry) "This honored comrade's indentity rests only with God". A very sobering expierence.
I wished we could have spent more time there but alas only a day and a half on the coast. Never got to St. Lo or any of the places I would have wanted to putter about. I did get to see the Aure River which looks frustratingly hard to cross even though it appears to be 10% water 90% mud. The vertical drop is a problem tho.
So anyhow I am in London now, getting settled in and then I'll try and write a little more. Internet is fairly cheap here (£10 for 6 hours which is approx $20 US I'll admit but that is not bad for England believe it or not) so I may write with a decent regularity if time permits.

Paris...

Well I am currently hiding out at the FIAP (sp?) in Paris. I have managed to avoid any major diplomatic incidents so far. I visited Napoleon today and got to see the French musee d'le armee. Frankly I want to head to Normandy but most of the rest of the group is thrilled with this city. The metro is nice but people need to take baths cause apparently people stink massively here. This is blog is coming courtesy of Andy's laptop. So go check his site out or something. Also I have the LJ from Casey another member on this trip. So you can get another opinion of this jaunt. Going to keep this short cause I want to get some sleep before we head to Versaille, looks more and more like I will have fairly easy web access this trip just not sure about Gmail unless Andy gets internet with his laptop.

Lost I Was

Yea so yesterday I managed to get lost by myself in Venice. Italians need cities which have normal streets and no canals! Thankfully, by the grace of God, I managed to end up where I wanted to go. I say by the grace of God cause I sure didn't cause myself to get there. Anyhow I am not enjoying Italy as much as Austria or Germany, it's just not as well managed here in all respects and things are rather ragged not even around the edges but even in the center! So if planning to go to Europe stay in the nice cool north!
So Apple released iMac G5s those punks! I want one! And they did it in Paris a week too early! Boo! Another reason to hate the French (sorry Nathan). Two days and then Switzerland and someplace I'll rather enjoy. I have to admit tho I am excited for Normandy as well not so much Paris tho. Big cities are kinda meh at the moment (London will be different however).
Lesse anything else to talk about whilst I kill time waiting for the girls to get done (since this place denies both Gmail and UWSP mail, try turning ActiveX on when the controls are in Italian! Or switching Languages!). Hoping that I can get Gmail to work in London if not I may have to hold out hope that anyone who'd e-mail me with it checks the blog and uses my UWSP e-mail which has to work in London.
Good news for Teng, I am a lighter-weight then he is. It only took 3 glasses of wine to give me a buzz. Wasn't trying too or anything so it was a major surprise. I didn't like the feeling either so I am seriously surprised that people do this and worse to themselves. Dumb. I found a white wine which isn't completely disgusting so finally have something I can drink with other people and not hate it.
I am gonna head out now supper soon. See ya.

Greetings from Italia

Hi all, they have internet cafes in abundance here so I am actually writing sooner then I thought. Sadly this place keeps me from getting into Gmail or UWSP mail (if I messed around with it I prolly could get into UWSP but Gmail hates the browser). Also forgive the weird puncuation at times, the keyboards are designed for Italian and as such have many keys which I don't use and some special characters which for the life of me I cannot access and use. However this is better then the German keyboards!
Anyhow it's been a lot of fun over here thus far. A little crowded sleeping quarters, especially in Salzburg (wait til ya see the bunks) but here in Venice we got a 3 star hotel so it's wonderful. BTW we're 7 hours ahead so while this will show up at 5 pm Wisconsin time it's actually midnight here.
So let's see, what to mention. Well I've had a few drinks. In fact I can say I've drank at the premire biergarten in the world. Still don't like the taste of alcohol but I am getting used to it enough that I can eat a meal with it. No way are you gonna get me drunk tho. They do actually really good over here (ok quit saying duh :P)
I am not sure which place I like the most so far, Munich is practically perfection when you look at the people and the cars (we love Smart cars, they are great, incidently the farther south we go the worse conditions the cars get, they'll be camels eventually I guess). Venice here gets tops for housing but I haven't gotten to the main city yet we are in a ghetto suburb of Venice called Mastro(sp?). 5 of us went out and played Bingo tonight, it was a blast especially since we don't know a whit of Italian between the 5 of us so we got to learn Italian numbers as we played. Almost won twice too.
Got to be in the largest castle in the world, def. gonna use that for gaming expierence later so realistic role-playing to some extent from me :D The churches here are huge and mostly Catholic, in Salburg there are 46 churches and only one is not Catholic, the bells are incredibly loud on the hours, but I think all the people who had to build them woulda preferred that money was spent on them rather then on giant ornate churches capable of holding 10k plus people within them. In Munich I got a kick out of the fact that Rome sent the remains of a dead saint to one of the churches, hey I always wanted a dead body as a reward for being faithful! They are really pretty tho and it's awe inspiring to walk through them so I'll bow to the fact that making the common man feel small they do a great job at it.
I think that is all for now, there is so much more to tell but I am all hot and sweaty cause Italy is hot and humid (unlike say Munich which is cool already) so I'd like the opportunity to shower and Chris and I lucked out and got seperate beds cause Jeff wants to sleep on the roof so I am gonna absorb a few hours of sleep.
Oh yeah guys you want to go abroad via UWSP. There are just 8 men and 21 women so the odds are in our favor and some of them are really really (really!!) hot. Yea I went over for the scenery. BTW one is from UWEC so that makes two girls I know there who are pretty good looking!
Dang there was one last thing I was gonna say but I forgot now, I'll remember as soon as I get up to go pay. But Chris is here so I shouldn't make him wait either. Miss all of you, on one hand it feels like we've been here weeks already and on the other just a few days, very strange. Heh these are all gonna be like open letters sort of from now on, fun fun. Anyhow I am out!
From Venice, Italy.

Departure

Is 17 hours away. As promised once in London I'll try and update this semi-regularily so anyone who has any interest can keep track of me and hopefully organize a Marines backed rescue whence I get into trouble. :D
Thanks to Dani for some nice Naruto music to take me out on. Hopefully the iPod hold up for 3 more months. Anyhow I shall miss everyone and Point most especially but this is something I've wanted to do for awhile so here I go on the biggest journey of my life (at least I don't have to drive, the poor truck gets a break)!
That all said and done I must be going and sleeping now. See everyone in 3 months or so. I'd love an e-mail and have a snail mail addy if you really prefer that (have to request that tho :P ). Miss you all!

"May you go with the grace of God my friends!" -Wolfwood

(complimentary Trigun quote, my second favorite quote of all time :D)

This One's For Brent...

Also called the making Christianity seem like a "hokey religion" entry (I'm watching SW: A New Hope guess which part I just saw...).

Anyhow hokey part number one: I was down visiting Jessie in the Dells, I guess that'd be the Vegas of Wisconsin. Anyhow we're walking downtown, the sidewalks are just packed as usual. We're having a grand ol' time checking out shops and talking and basically being like everyone else. Then there's shouting from across the street, enough to get everyone's attention. It's all there, men with blank unfriendly expressions, the tacky sign, the starched shirts. Yup you guessed it, those annoying preacher type folks who have to go out and convert people by letting them know in the most vocal, annoying fashion that they are sinners and going to Hell. (On a side note, I am a sinner but I'm not going to Hell, it's personally a little insulting when they basically lop everyone together cause we are out enjoying time with friends, etc!) Now my point is, while the entire downtown was fairly packed with people somehow these four guys had managed to create a bubble 30+ feet wide on their side of the street nearly devoid of anyone. How many people do you think they converted that night? If you guessed 0 or less then you've prolly hit the nail square on the head. Yea anyhow I thought of Brent and Lars almost immediately when I saw that and how much they suggest that this doesn't usually work and that it rather backfires.

Number two hokiness thing: online ordination. While this can't be a new concept at all, I just heard about it tonight when I happened to turn on Channel 10 NBC local news. Ok, I can go to one of these sites and fill out some basic personal data and become the Reverend Beeks, Apostle Beeks, Bishop Beeks, and more! This just boggles the mind on how much this cheapens the whole idea of having an ordained church leader. Of course I shouldn't be surprised of course, in America we want to do everything easy, fast, and cheap. Plus being clergy has lots of side benefits and exploitation of such things is a very common thing. Alas it's frustrating people would do that to Christianity. Then again like I said, it's not new.

That's my rant for now. 2 days til I'm out of here!

Home Stretch

So we had frost tonight, so close to snow it's rather scary. I'll end up not noticing any change in temp when I go to Europe (where that seems to be roughly the average temperature, just 70/40 for temps).

Things are packed now for the most part. Everything seems to fit so yay for that and it doesn't weigh very much at all. Now I just need to sit around and be nervous, oh joy. Finished Eva's Death & Rebirth, talk about a clip movie. Love the classical music in the background tho.

Discovered that my iPod's total battery life is now down to roughly 4 hours which sucks, have to conserve it on the flight over to Germany. Blah. If I had confirmed this earlier I might have gotten a replacement iPod or replaced the battery. My question is why Apple didn't switch it when I sent it in when it was under warranty? Frustrates me some but I'll hope that I can keep 4 hours thru this fall and then think about options come this spring. Apple get better iPod batteries! (I am now part of that vocal mass.)

That's all for now.

End Run

So last overnight was today. It dragged, rather unintentionally, I tried to work hard but well I guess it's my end of the summer slide, besides John got lazy too (yes I am partially blaming him :D ) so when ya got someone to chat with you don't work as hard. But I am done til Decemember and then hopefully forever shortly after that. Who knows tho maybe the 'Ko will be better come then anyhow.

Maybe it's cause I have been up since 11:08 AM yesterday (the 18th I think that'd make it) but I feel really out of whack today. Granting I got nothing done at home minus a few errands I ran right after work. I didn't work on the paper I should work on or pack any. I finished Macross Plus went for a fantastic hour twenty minute walk down past Thompson's. It's funny how just a short walk can really take you to a place which seems to be a thousand miles from civilization. Some of the views remind me of when I was out west and wandering about the foothills/mountains of the great national parks.

I finally asked the cute girl at work if she wanted to do something, she said yes but I haven't been able to get in touch with her since. I figure she musta not wanted to say no around other people or was too nice to tell me to my face (or the much more likely thing, I screwed up somewhere in the calling part and she changed her mind, always count on me screwing up ya know) but well I guess I am happy I managed to actually ask her, not exactly something I commonly do as anyone who knows me knows. That sounds nice and redundant eh?

John borrowed me Neo Genesis Evangelion (whole series runs plus Eva's End and Death & Rebirth) and Macross Plus. I've now watched everything but most of Death & Rebirth. Eva is ok. I prefer more a straight up giant mechanical suit combat as evidenced by Gundam (ie MAHQ) and my recent interest in the Jovian Chronicles, etc. It is fairly good until the last two episodes and Eva's End. Then well they go do a David Brin and kinda of go all deep philosphical and shoot so far from what the rest of show was it's practically unrelated. I'm sorry, you don't watch the first 24 episodes to have two totally different format episodes wrap things up in a most confusing manner. It took me a good couple hours of random discussion to sort things out. Maybe Death & Rebirth will help too. Macross Plus was ok, rather short since it's just a 4 episode OVA, and it probably would have helped for me to see Macross (ie Robotech some of you might know it as) first. All in all not too bad but neither Eva nor Macross really were a big hit for me.

So let's see, I am doing a nice long entry here, what else to add, sleepiness makes me talk-er-typeative. Visiting Jessie tomorrow, yay! Think the hardest thing about this fall is no real major contact with my friends stateside, I doubt they will have much chance to write, everyone has crazy schedules as it is. Luckily it seems like our London group is doing pretty good communicating already so hopefully everyone'll get along real well, heh we'd better or it's gonne be a long 3 first weeks not to mention 3 additional months.

Right, well this helped wake me up some more which is a good thing, need to hold on until suppertime :D Hope it was an enjoyable if me-esque read.

Lost

Well since Blogger did some cosmetic upgrading so I did some too. Anyhow just shifted some blogs around which seem neglected by their authors. This time next week I will probably be over Iceland. It's hard to believe that I am getting so close to the departure. Still so much to do!

Winter in August

Well all the books I've ordered have finally arrived. The irony is I have to wait on reading them or risk not having anything to read this fall. I do get to peruse Monsters of Faerun and Savant and Sorcerer at least cause those sure aren't coming over! I also got to read John Keegan's The Iraq War a very British outlook on the war and an interesting take on the war by one of the most reknowned military historians out there. Also managed to get out to see the Village. It was good although I preffered Signs I think.

It's unbelievably cold outside lately. Today I left work in a 47 degree mist. Frankly my random predictions of snow may come true at this rate. Snow in August, who'd a thunk it? We really are a frozen wasteland. Speaking of which I'll be visiting said center of wasteland tomorrow, yay I get to eat Marvin's again aside from doing some checking up on my trip info (which the stupid IP people have been slow on sending) and applying for an absentee ballot.

Shopko work continues to suck, at least I get to work with good people which helps. They transferred in a new manager, a younger cute one. :D However that doesn't matter so much as if she actually does work. She seems new so should be interesting to see. Anyhow I've found a cute girl at the 'Ko already although not sure she likes me (and ha, that's all you get).

John finally got his Demon game off the ground last night. I rather enjoyed my character, first one I played fairly easily and true to what I intended. Irony being that it's for a Demon game although perhaps I am just learning to building a character. John is a good ST too. Anyhow this is inspiration to get my act together and run an Exalted game whence I return from Europe.

That's all for now.

Politics, Shopko, and Whatever Else

Yea, I haven't written in awhile. To the 0-1 readers who actually check this more then to just humor me, sorry! Work's been hell and I just finished night 5 of 5. They wanted me in tonight but then I'd be 7 in a row cause although I don't work tonight I do work Saturday and that'd be just a little too much, however I'll cover that later. Basic explanation from all of that was the when I was online I simply didn't feel like writing even if I had stuff to write about. :/

My first topic relates to the visit of Vice President Cheney to our locale yesterday. Frankly I could care less myself, it's a private rally, invite only and that's all and good for me, however apparently the Kerry campaign has decided to have protestors at every local rally (I'd imagine though that this is not a Wisconsin phenomena but a national one) for Bush Cheney. Because the two rallys we've had have been invite only none of them have been able to get in, police and Secret Service stop them, and suddenly they are claiming this is a violation of their right to free speech. As if whereever Bush and Cheney go they should be allowed to trail behind protesting. Now maybe I missed the point but if it's invite only and it's on private property (or if it's on public property and the local government has sanctioned it as a private event, ie when you have a fest you can keep people out who don't pay admission, etc) how the heck is it a violation of your First Ammendment rights? I mean if I have a private party at my place is there a violation of your free speech when I don't invite you? Especially if I know the only reason you want to come is to cause trouble and disrupt my fun? If you said yes, I'm coming over to your next party with the entire TKE frat boy club (drunk as usual). Frankly what disturbs me more is that the KerryEdwards campaign organizes this! It's petty, it's low, and it shows a total lack of respect to Americans because they are already attempting to exploit our most sacred laws for their own political gain!

Next hit, somewhat related. The Anybody But Bush crowd (hereafter referred to ABB(s) because I don't feel like typing that out. Ok, your motto has to be the stupidest thing on the planet. Are you saying if Osama Bin Laden somehow got in the election versus Bush you'd vote for him over Bush? How about Ioseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler? Or maybe my computer, my iPod, or the chair which I'm curled up in right now? Or a pet rock? I could go on, but suspect you get the point. It just seems to me that it's a very close minded outlook. Do I have a point here beyond that? Not really, except open your minds up a little. The two canidates messages are identical and although their methods may vary just enough so they can say "I'm different from him, my way is better!" it should be noted that both parties really don't get anything done and if you could convince Americans to mess with pollsters you could get them to say some very stupid things to "win" voters so they can get into office and pay back their corporate sponsors.

Yes, I'm ticked off at politicians and their parties who are effectively in complete control of the US government. That's right, the Republican and Democratic parties own and run the United States of America. They do not serve anyone other then themselves and their sponsors who have managed to evade every control on their dumping of cold hard cash in and call it "free speech" where money is speech and the free-est people are those who have the most money. So much for land of the equality, eh? Oh well, in America where the dollar is god it shouldn't surprise those of us who have less money that we are simply just the newest serfs.

Speaking of serfdom, Shopko certainly has made me feel like one. This has been the longest, crappiest week of work in my history at Shopko. I have worked something like 14 days straight and felt better then I do now. Frankly going in is something I dread and everyday I feel less and like a person or an employee and more and more like an expendable peon. I know work is not supposed to be super fun especially high school/college short term jobs but things have taken such a downturn this past week that I am wondering if they job I have been at wondering if I can last even those next two weeks. And that's with full knowledge that I have 3 days off for sure during that time. (I am still cursing they schedule right around my day off to visit Lars and Point tho, especially since they switched the schedule around so I will work Friday at midnight when I think it's obvious if you have been out of town the entire day you will not want to work at midnight when you get back, dangit! That will be a long day but I'm still heading your way Lars so tell Jaybez she's got another toy to play with for a few hours!) Frustratingly though even as our store makes changes that are supposed to help nothing really seems to change much and the problems that the overnight staff sees aren't fixed, worse we continue to be blamed for them even when we haven't done anything wrong! Yea, I am just a little stressed.

Final notes: Katy you must go to Marvin's prior to leaving Point. You prolly won't but let it be said "I told you so!". :D Ok so I love the place, sue me. Anyhow I am gonna go do some random stuff to keep me awake so tomorrow I get my check, cash it, and maybe visit a cute girl all in one trip and be awake enough to enjoy it. I should stop typing now before I say anything stupid from tiredness!

In Brief

First off, some Exalted news, the cover for the Houses of the Bull God (coming October) has been released. This covers Harborhead and the Cult of Ahlat (aka the Bull God). That's all, was gonna write something but don't feel like finishing it yet so maybe later (or more then likely not at all).

Tech Humor

What's scary is that this is true: Apple Product Cycle

Addendums and Such

Happy birthday to Ryan and my sister, 20 and 24 respectively!
I have this nagging feeling there was something I meant to mention when I blogged today but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. It shall nag me until I fall asleep and then it'd better go away doggone it!
I got some reading for my trip to Europe. Two books: the 9/11 commission report (unless it's utterly huge, that'd be rather ungloss, have to see how big/much it weighs when it arrives) and a book entitled "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda". Not exactly happy reading I'll admit but at the moment current events have rather garnered my attention and I have already read a fair amount on World War II so now I am trying to expand my knowledge base, granting I still have lots of reading to do for that war. I picked up a book on the Germans drive to Moscow and I never did finish even the Pacific half of the Samuel Elliot Morrison 15 volume Two Ocean War series. I also got a book on the 6 Days War between Israel and all her neighbors.
Do I really need to take this much reading along? I dunno, certainly 2-3 books is about what I read in the average semester, maybe a little on the low side but I figure there are times that I will certainly want to escape and read even if this isn't exactly escapism reading.
I got the iPod power adapter world travel plug kits and since they basically are just different pronged plugs for the power adapter Dad and I are trying to figure out if that little gizmo isn't actually smart enough to be convert power from different countries (ie, it figures out which plug is in there and then converts it to the correct type of juice for the iPod to keep it from frying like an egg on the sidewalk in August). Rest assured it's a mystery although I am gonna hit the Apple website and hope to turn something up there.
Well Starcraft is calling out to me, I managed to crush 7 opponents (who thankfully nuke each other as much as me, stupid nukes vaping all my carriers...grr) so I am feeling "lucky". One last night of work from 10-6:30 then starting the midnight to 8 run. I finally met Steve Friday morning because I was running late getting all the pulls done, stupid managers changing how the process is done without asking the people who actually know/do the work! Hopefully I didn't come across as too grouchy ignoring the fact I was (cause of the whole being 15 minutes late for a dumb reason) cause he is the new manager and he definitely is making major changes and the night crew I think is somehow on his bad side already and I'd feel bad if I added to it.
Starcraft...
summons...
now!!!
:D

Our Wonderful Little World

First off, a little show of how the UN inability to react to current crisis situations while millions suffer in Sudan. This is in fact not exactly a new problem just one that has heightened enough to reach the Western Media's ears for once. However it is rather evident to note that the UN has be unable to act at all and even its resolutions are weakened. Hopefully it won't be as bad as Rwanda (however granting the US also dropped the ball, although not nearly as much as it's not mandated by the US) but one never knows. At least Africa is attempting to get it's act together and do something.
Good news for Iraq in the fact that the Saudis appear to be willing organize an Islamic peacekeeping force to aid (and hopefully replace) the belaugered US forces there. Frankly I think getting US forces out will help to some extent to show we are not trying to stomp out Islam, just trying to establish democracy and freedom in the region, even if it means allowing others to do it.

Jovian Chronicles

Well in my random search of the web I've stumbled onto yet another game which looks very interesting. It's called Jovian Chronicles, from a company called Dream Pod 9. Incidentally I actually own a book of theirs, which I got for free sorting for Jason, that converts most of their mechs to d20 system. It looks pretty cool, basically a well integrated story which, as usual, is a big seller for me. Also pretty cool looking mecha which is fun to play with. I happen to run across it on DriveThruRPG when getting their weekly free download (the top levels of a super dungeon, interesting concept, especially for simpleton dungeon crawlers). However it's a well developed line so any purchasing will definitely wait til 2005, have to save up for London, granting I don't think I will spend a whole lot there but no way to read anything on my computer when I am overthere so either way best to wait. Besides patience is a virtue right? I should work on being more virtuous.
Finished Heaven's Reach, it's ending reminded me quite a bit to The Postman in the fact that things got kinda philosphical/metaphysical and in the ends things didn't wrap up as nicely as I'd like, I mean what happens post-Streaker arrival to Earth? Sheesh Earth was about to fall, and what about civilization on Jijo? I guess I'll just have to live with the lack of wrapping up. At least they got the Tytal to talk :D

Random fact: did you know that Detective Conan has 350+ episodes? Finally a long running new show! Speaking of that, I am gonn help out the lame adult swim promotion which is amusing regardless.
Speaking of sites, I was talking to Lars and he/we attempted to find a Chi Alpha group in London. So far we haven't had any luck but this appears to be their main page if you ever go to Europe and are looking for some Christian fellowship. I hope I can find a place, otherwise it could be a very lonely 3-4 months Christianwise.
Speaking of Europe I am not exactly sure which books I am taking with me yet. Bible is a default, but beyond that I am not sure. No RPG books, they are too bulky and too heavy (happy Lars?) and besides gettin' away from that for a little bit isn't nessecarily a bad thing, granting if I can find a game over there and have the time I'd be open to it. However I am trying to figure out which two paperbacks I am going to bring, and yes they are sci-fi (sorry Lars :D ). Right now I am leaning towards Startide Rising of which Brightness Reef/Infinity's Shore/Heaven's Reach are sequels too. Also thinking about A Civil Campaign by Lois MacMaster Bujold because it's frankly just hilarious (a 30 something hyper-active midget attempts to woo a woman admist his cousin the emperor's wedding). Really not sure tho cause I picked up most of the remaining Man-Kzin Wars novels when we were up in the Twin Cities from Uncle Hugo's and I should try and start reading them, ya know?
Anyhow this weekend I went down to visit Allison. It was a blast! Best weekend this summer by far. It was nice to be able to talk and hang out and basically just get out of town and spend time with my friend! Her family was really cool and thanks to them for housing me for a night! Madison was actually a lot nicer then I thought granting I hadn't been in very much of it til then. The only downside to the whole thing was now I realize how lonely it is here back at home. That is life though I guess, anyhow sleep time. My schedule is about to get a whole lot screwyier as we are going to start working midnight - 8am this Sunday. Dumb General Office people!

Star Wars and stuff

Yea I know, a lack of interesting updates, haven't felt the writing bug lately and have been kinda busy as of late (actually got out of here for once), sorry if you actually missed my ramblings.
Anywho, big news is: the final installment of Star Wars-Episode 3-now has a name: Revenge of the Sith. Pretty big news. Also covered are the release dates for the original trilogy DVDs (Sept 21st, old news tho) and release for the Clone Wars shorts, and the two animated series onto DVD. Of course the actual movie doesn't come out for nearly 10 months so still a long wait for anything really substantial.
I am about halfway through Heaven's Reach now, it's getting pretty good, a lot faster then the other books in the trilogy. This might be because it's shorter or just cause everything needs to be wrapped up now, I am not quite sure. I am enjoying it though and hope that the wayward Streaker is allowed to get home with most of her crew whose still alive. Frankly you can't kill off too many more before it's too unbelievable to think that she can function.
Well that is all for now, I might write some more later whilst I am watching Adult Swim and relaxing, but no promises. Work was tough last night especially when I could have stayed in Madison and hung out with Allison for another night (stupid work suddenly scheduling me on a day they hadn't in weeks!)
Oh and Ricky Williams has decided to retire from the Dolphins. Not sure what my favorite team will do now for offense but I hope they can turn this into something good. Just wish Ricky woulda shown a little better sense in his timing! (That's my last thought for now, honest!)

The Voting Take

Here's a good reason why our election stuff is crazy. At least we get a laugh even if it's at our country's expense!

More Crap

As if one fake wasn't enough now Sci-Fi channel has followed Michael Moore's footsteps in making a fake themselves. Granting they did a darn good job at it so who knows, maybe if I went to see Moore's I'd fall for that too (it's possible I am really a sucker for such types of films). Anyhow it just pisses me off that Hollywood has decided to trash something that is supposed to be non-fiction just for a quick buck. Not that I should be surprised, it is Hollywood.

Random Achievements for Me

Yay, I finally finished Proverbs, it only took me a couple months cause of my usual pathetic procrastination but yea finally getting focussed in and reading up again. Now under recommendation from Lars I am moving onto Timothy I (and probably Timothy II, since both are shorter).
In somewhat less phenomenal news I finally got a NWN character up to lvl 20. My wizard, after repeating the closing chapter like 5-6 times, so yea that took too dang long. I would have preferred that the story could let you get to 20 without having to repeat the scenario (I figure you could get to 20 by playing the scenario thru twice or doing the last part several times like I did). It's not as much fun but I wanted to see what making it to the top was like. On the nice side I have a bunch of powerful items so I am pretty well equipped!
Dun have anything else to mention, it's been kinda slow here, I am looking forward to next weekend getting down to Madison, hopefully will have some tales to tell after that or something.

My Bias

Yea, more grumping about Moore, but now it's international (although its coming from the the Washington Post). This caught me off gaurd, I figured most of the world would like Michael Moore since most of the world hates George W. Bush. Apparently we're arrogant even when we agree with people, something to keep in mind for me this fall. :/

Return to Blue Planet

So went up to Twin Cities yesterday, got a backpack from REI, gonna train up by dumping a sleeping bag and all my RPG books in it to sim weight of 3 months were of stuff needed to survive near a hostile country (France :D ). Also got to stop by a Borders bookstore, they are quite impressive, then again with our tiny B & N and Waldenbooks it's not hard to be bigger then them, granting this store dwarfed even the bigges B & N I've been too (think it's the one at the Apache(?) Mall in Rochestor). Also got to stop by Uncle Hugo's and found a number of the Man-Kzin Wars that I don't have yet, no elusive VIII which Dad's been hunting for awhile. I've done 1-3, 5 so I picked up 4, 6, and 7. Be awhile before I read them, prolly post-Europe, maybe I will take two of them along. Finished Brightness Reef and started onto Infinity's Shore. The first book really consisted of a whole lot of not much happening, kind of dissapointing. Right at the end though you could figure out a lot of stuff. Reading through the cast of characters for Infi's Shore I'm realizing a lot of my favorite character's from Startide Rising didn't make it. It's also been quite a bit since Startide Rising as far as I can tell, maybe as much as 5 years although not sure on that since the time measurements are really strange (duras, put a various pro-somethings on that words and you make bigger and smaller time segments).

My big sort of story tho is that at Uncle Hugo's I found the Blue Planet four pack. It's a nice deal and I had a couple Blue Planet books (the original out of date core book and a v2 expansion on uplifted Ceteceans) so I got it. It sort of expands the world but mostly just fleshes out the details. However I really do love the idea of a water planet. I think I really got tied into that with Startide Rising but there is more then one science fiction story/show which has had water planets and I usually loved them all. Something about deep oceans which hide so much just makes them really cool. Also I love sentinent dolphins and orcas. It's just really cool, I mean name another game where you can viably play a orca? The only catch right now is I don't have the v2 core books and the original one doesn't work at all with the expansions so eventually I will have to break down and get them (if I can find them which may take even longer since Amazon doesn't carry them and frankly I am not sure if Fantasy Flight Games is doing so well or if Biohazard Games even exists anymore). I highly doubt I'll ever get anyone to play it anyways, just another story which I've gotten engrossed in. Too bad I couldn't have found something cheap to get engrossed in, like watching clouds or something. Or working 40 hours weeks at Shopko (heh, if I could get scheduled that much). Oh well I suppose I could have worse things to waste my free time with. Jon, one of my co-workers, is going to attempt to run a game of Demon: The Fallen. I am onboard although I am not real big on the game, first it's Demon my least favorite part of world of darkness (for obvious reasons) and second it's world of darkness, not my kind of thing to have a game in a dark, paranoid and ultimately doomed world. Kind of strange game already, it's being run by a (fairly devout as far as I know) Catholic, with me as one of the major characters. Maybe Eric is a raging atheist to balance this out. I am going to take a shot at this tho, it probably won't go for more then a few sessions. I just hope I am not somehow betraying my faith and beliefs just to get a little roleplaying in, not a very good sign of belief. Anyhow...

Going down to visit Allison in a couple weeks. Pretty excited, aside from visiting Jessie I really haven't seen much of anyone so it'll be nice to get out and hang with another of my friends. I'd love to swing down after that to visit Jenny but I highly doubt I can pull that off cause I've only heard from her once this summer and I am wary about calling. Not sure if I should or not, I am horrible with calling people anyhow and don't want to intrude on her life. Yea, right, well, at least I get to hang out with Allison before I depart. I need to get in touch with Lars too and stop by Stevens Point, file for an absentee ballot, (and maybe even catch Katy if she is home for once :P ). So many things to do, so little time. Summer is a strange concept of boredom and lack of time. Then again school is like that too.

Ok, time to take a break and relax to some music and take a cat-nap so I can last the night at work. Switching the schedule around is crazy, at least I can use Signs to keep me up.

Destiny

Actually breaking news yesterday didn't see it til 5 minutes before I went to bed this morning, hence why doing this now.

Anywho, without further ado: Gundam SEED Destiny has been announced. Leaked due to the registering of their webpage-no the link I sent is not it- the rumors prove true. A new Gundam, pretty cool. Can't think of more thoughtful commentary. Catch ya later.

And it's Edwards!

Yup, John Kerry is announcing that his running mate and that person will be: John Edwards. CNN and Fox News should have ya covered if you want info. As some of you may know, I voted for Edwards in the primaries and have also stated that if Kerry picks Edwards I will support the ticket. As such barring any stupid unexpected events (Kerry dumps Edwards, Edwards quits, one of them takes such a radical turn that it scares China into occupying Paris, again) my vote is now set for Kerry. Good boy for picking a decent VP, now do us a favor and do what Bush did: let his VP run the show :D

Ok I am sleepy now, Holly have fun at your dance!

Reading...

I feel the need to pass on some great books I have read over the year's. Yea they are all pretty much science fiction, I take after Dad like that, besides our tastes are the same and I can pilfer from his huge collection of books. Surprise, I read other stuff, besides RPG books. :D

The Legacy of Heorot (Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle/Steven Barnes): The tale of the first human colony on Tau Ceti. Centers mainly on their efforts to survive especially when they encounter planet's most vicious predator, a grendel. I enjoyed it mostly because I really liked the characters especially the main character, been awhile now since I had read it and its sequel: Beowulf's Children. A third book set in the same universe called Destiney's Road dealing with humanity's next attempt at a colony I haven't read.

The Mote in God's Eye (Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle): The story of humanity's first contact with another race amidst the rebuilding of the Empire of Man. The aliens, called Moties, are very well done as are many of the primary characters. This one also spawned a sequel which was not as good but still a decent read called The Gripping Hand.

Startide Rising (David Brin): Follows the Earth vessel Streaker as it hides out on dying planet while her crew struggles to repair her and escape several large enemy fleets. A lot of the concepts introduced in this book I loved: uplifted Dolphins as crewmembers on a starship, probability weapons, and the general essence of being on the run throughout the story. It always bugged me though that we never find out more about why the Streaker is on the run, although I presume the last trilogy will answer that. A seperate tale called The Uplift War takes place in the same universe and is almost as good.

Footfall (Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle): An elephant like race attacks Earth to use as a new home. It's been a long time since I have read this so can't say a lot about this but the human starship propelled by h-bombs was pretty cool.

The Dig (Alan Dean Foster): Written more towards teenagers then adults this is the novelization of an older computer game where three humans accidentally get sent to a dead alien world after save Earth from an asteroid. I suppose for me this book is really good because it describe some things not covered by the game, it's still a short interesting read. I love the Portal at the end.

Antarctica (Kim Stanley Robinson): Set slightly in the future, this book covers the events of when the Antarctic treaty is not renewed. The continent itself really the star of the show. This got me to read the much longer (and slightly not as good) Red/Green/Blue/Rainbow Mars series.

Cetaganda/A Civil Campaign (Lois Macmaster Bujold): Two of the Miles Naismith Vorkosigan series, both of these novels are the most enjoyable of the series due toward their more humorous bent. Cetaganda follows Miles as he attempts unravel a crime on the homeworld of nation's primary enemy during a state funeral no less. A Civil Campaign deals with Miles and his attempts at courting as well as continuing to handle his new job as Imperial Auditor admist the Emperor's wedding. What can I say, when Bujold makes a funny Miles story they are hilarious. The rest of the series ain't half bad either I'll admit.

I'd give you a Robert Heinlein book but there are a ton to pick from. Some good ones: The Moon is A Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers, Starman Jones, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Star Beast. Look if it's Heinlein it's probably pretty good, especially a lot of the stuff he did from World War II to the 70s or so.

And last but not least: Major Ingredients (Eric Frank Russell): His collection of short stories that I am never gonna be able to finish (due to me always picking it up a week prior to leaving for school). However he has some very unique looks at science fiction and it's very refreshing.

Anyhow, there you go, some of my top picks. There are other series and books I've read but I guess these are some that eventually I will go back and read when/if I get the time.

Uplift

Well it's been awhile since I've read any of David Brin's Uplift series. I got through the first 3 books about the time the final trilogy tying up what happened primarily in Startide Rising although also in Uplift War. So I've finally cracked open Brightness Reef. 3 books in a month and a half shouldn't be too hard for me I hope. Anyhow I read Startide Rising in something like two days although admittedly that was my favorite book out of the series (something about dolphins being almost all of the main characters even on a starship alone kept me going). Also they used probability weapons. So cool :D This trilogy follows what happens to the Streaker as it continues its flight from nearly everyone else.

Allison, I hope you're doing alright. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Minor addendum: it seems that blogspot is having issues again if you don't add the www before the usual address. Maybe this is only for Safari but thought I might add that in, in case people are having troubles.