Weather

Well in the sheer irony of a very white December we've lost almost all our snow and it's been drizzling or misting so we will enter January with bare ground. Blah.

Not much to talk about. Went to the Cities yesterday, good we did cause today it got hammered. Stopped by Uncle Hugo's. It's an interesting little place stuck in some of the less privileged parts of Minneapolis. It's got a great collection of books especially, cause I am interested in them, old RPG books. Plus some new ones too. It's kinda sad that it's one of the best FLGS (that's Friendly Local Gaming Stores) I've seen in the US and I can only get there about once a year.

Continue to plug away a Civ4. It's rather addicting but taking a break now to delve into Rifts and finish up Walter Lord's Dunkirk book.

Also plugged through all 10 Band of Brothers episodes. That's a depressing series. Then again war is depressing. It's very well done though so I'd recommend if you could stomach some blood then you should watch it.

Anyhow, time to finish up Dunkirk, get some sleep so I don't kill myself driving home!

Civilization

Well after some initial difficulties Civ4 is up and running. Pretty fun game. Very similiar in a lot of ways to Alpha Centauri although with some improvements and some stuff I wish they had kept/ported over. Addictive as expected. Just wish combat made a little more sense (I've expierenced some oddities) and cultural conversion would be faster.

If anyone cares I'll be in Point end of the week for New Year's etc.

Dec 25th

Merry Christmas all!

Statistically Speaking

Finals are over. Yay.

Movies listened/watched: LotR extended edition (all 3): twice. Star Wars (all 6): once. Indiana Jones (1st movie only). Total time spent doing homework as judged by movies that played in background: 40 hours.

GPA trend with finals: down (hopefully just slightly)

What I learned in December: Nothing

Where I'll be living June 1st: No idea.

What I'll be doing the next 3 weeks: absolutely nothing.

Wheeeeeeee

Salute the Grads

That'd be Brent, Evie, and Maggie. Yay for them :)

Exalted Rnd. 7

"It is a dead language." -on Old Realm being the equivalent of Latin

"A warstrider with roller-skates." -ever wonder what a truck would be in Creation?


The wrap up session. Quotes will be added later (and this sentence will be redundant). Not much action, a lot of our Eclipse demonstrating her (his?) dicepool. Basically through diplomacy France, Lubo, and Straytos all join the newly liberated Wabash. The Twilight annhilates both shadowlands with one spell. Scarily efficient that Solar Circle sorcery. Lookshy has a treaty with Wabash. Guild actually gets out negoiated. Place is scouted for geomantic information. Manse and 3 demenses found. Also picked up: copy of Broken-Winged Crane. Yes, our Twilight has lots of bad materials. Renamed Sterling to Aurium (Sterling being the capitol of Wabash) and later the combined nations to Caelestis. Now the PCs want to have somewhere up to 20 years of downtime. Right up til the time the Realm essentially gets involved. Lot of work involved there. Well time for bed, I can't believe I lasted a semester!

Social Commentary

An interesting column on how people spend their time and how to possibly better spend it.

Nap

Nap, originally uploaded by mirv120.

The first of many casualties...

Crisis Management

Crisis Management, originally uploaded by mirv120.

In truth Java brings out the best in programmers. Well not as well as VB but close... (ok, points for what's the real story behind this picture, Tyler you don't count).

Thinking

Thinking, originally uploaded by mirv120.

Ever wonder how brilliant coders sort their thoughts?

Beginning

Beginning, originally uploaded by mirv120.

A little photo-type saga of our Java final. Beginning, middle, and end.

Insert a Lamer Title Here

For some reason I feel I should toss something up here even though I don't have much to say. A couple of things theoretically in the works, they may fall through. I'm in a good mood and I ironically post quite a bit less then when I am unhappy. Guess I want to share the misery or some such sinister thing. As a result it's been commented that this blog ain't much of a fun read. Luckily I have links to 32 thousand million billion other people's blogs and journals who aren't so grumpy. Everyone can read them instead :D

However I am in a good mood as it is. Random attribution to this is almost certainly the Miami Dolphins who've won 3 straight and finally emptied that 6 pack I bought prior to week 1. Yea, only took them 14 weeks but they finally got six wins :) Speaking of winning, somehow I made it into the playoffs in fantasy football and I may even make it to the championship. This is has been a ride heavily based on the efforts of Rudi and Larry Johnson and one Chris Chambers of the aforementioned Dolphins.

I have to salute Tyler as he has to put up with me on a Java project. He is definitely doing a lot here, hope I can catch up so he can relax a bit. At least I got the interface done now just have to integrate. We're pretty close, he really pounded a lot out this weekend.

Got the Firefly soundtrack today. Have to admit it was a bit dissapointing but haven't heard it all yet. Truthfully though the soundtrack for the show is not nearly as powerful as some other shows I watch. It has very select powerful moments so it comes down to if my tastes and whoever is selecting what goes on the CD are one and the same. It doesn't sound like a science fiction soundtrack at all and that fits perfectly with a show that isn't really a science fiction show when it comes down to it.

Ok, enough rambling, back to work.

Music

So when i'm doing homework I randomly listen to iTunes...

1896 songs

Sort by title:
First: (Ghost) Riders in the Sky - Johnny Cash
Last: something in Japanese - GITS: SAC 2nd OST

Longest Song (ignoring a few non-songs prior): A New Hope and End Credits - John Williams
Shortest Song: Ironside - Quincy Jones

By Album:
First: Open Your Heart - Yuki Kajiura (.hack//Sign soundtrack)
Last: That was a crazy game of poker - OAR

Top Five:
Wind (short) - Akeboshi, Invoke4 - Gundam SEED, Anna ni Isshodattanoni - Gundam SEED, Evangelion Opening Theme - Neo Genesis Evangelion, Dijurido - Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop)

Yea, lots of anime soundtracks floating around there. Better get cracking on java.

Happy

Do I really need to say more then that?

Drifts

What an odd night. Kind of a long day. Now I can't sleep. Isn't that sad. Going to be tired tomorrow. And somehow in the end I am now a treasurer, and I'm ok with that. What a strange walk this life has been. I do miss the peace of London. More then even I want dissapear into Regents and hide out.

At least I know what a Tengu is. Although I think for my purposes perhaps this definition is more appropriate. And while I was looking up that I also looked up this. This one actually makes some sense to me, as does this one. That's all I've got for now. Points if you can figure out the common ground I am using. Wikipedia is fun.

Why can't I sleep? So odd. I'm tired.

Drifting a little further, the Ghost in the Shell tonight was interesting. It subletly advanced the plot and I think I've got the two episode types down: dividual and dual.

According to dictionary.com dividual means: Divided, shared, or participated in, in common with others.
Dual means: (1) Composed of two usually like or complementary parts; double: dual controls for pilot and copilot; a car with dual exhaust pipes.
(2) Having a double character or purpose: a belief in the dual nature of reality.

I couldn't determine which of the 2 meanings fit better for dual for the purposes of the episode or the show. Time will tell, we're only three episodes in. Oddly enough the two words have similiar meanings. Perhaps there are more types this time. Last season there were simply stand-alone and complex (a quiet explanation of the name Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex in a way) so I am judging off that assumption.

Well time to see if I can sleep, while the post probably won't reflect it, the time actually is 0230 not 0203.

Cool Down

So a little less frustrated then I was last night. Still think I am just going to take next semester to focus on classes, work, and friends. Stay involved but do less. From what I'm told CIS 358 is 99.9% busywork (and several acres of pristine rainforest converted into paper per student) so a good deal. Well except for the trees, poor trees.

Anyhow, I like those rice/noodle packets where in 10 minutes you've got a meal. Mmmm :) Course I really need more then one pot that I can cook them in, otherwise have to do dishes really often. Guess that might not be a such a bad thing either though.

This analytics stuff is amazing the amount of data tracked. Rather scary too. I knew of course you could track location from Ambrosia but with a little basic knowledge it's scary. It's easy to forget sometimes that to be annonymous on the web involves an insane of amount of skills. Otherwise you're about as annonymous as Brett Favre at a Packer's Press Conference. I do love statistics though. Sometimes I wonder if I should have gone into a field that would do that.

Guess I should do some laundry now. Whee. Clean clothes.

So I am feeling the urge to rescind myself from anything beyond school and work next semester. Prolly keep Exalted cause I greatly enjoy running that (benefits outweigh the costs, yay for a large playing field allowing ad-lib). I've just noticed that a lot of my external stress has come from things that I don't need dragging me down. So I'm toying with the idea of relieving some stress (hope for some opening and closing shifts in CPS and North Quad, those are much fun). Not a done deal yet, should sleep on it but I think I want to be an observer again. Means I'll have to keep my trap shut at times but that's something I see as a positive too. I can't take randomly getting fried, it'll kill me before any true employment can.

Selah

It's that weird moment where you've discovered half the stuff you thought was due next week isn't due for two and suddenly half the pressure (ya know that overwhelming urge for your head to explode from stress and overwork) seems to have dissapeared. I'm not worried tho, procrastination will make it return. Looks like everyone else seems to be surviving as well so good deal. I'm writing a couple longer posts that may or may not get posted so forgive if things are quiet. Don't have much to say temporalily.

1 Year Ago Today

A year is a long time. This time last year I was snug in bed at home. For the first time in almost 4 months. Europe a not so distant memory. I miss MTH and York Terrace East and most of all Regent's and Hyde Parks. I miss it all. But you can't go back. This fall wasn't nearly as much fun. Next fall will be worse. Be really fun to run away back there but I know it won't work out. That's life though isn't it?

On a very random (if disturbing) side note: nuclear catastrophes make me giddy. Yea, it kinda worries me too.

On a slightly lesser note, I finally created an LJ user account. It's mirv120 I like unique names. Hence why I only have used mirv120 several billion different places.

Exalted Fans

Take a look.

Side note. Picked up a new RPG totally on impulse at Games People Play called "Roma Imperious". Looks very interesting.

The Next Big Gaming Thing

That's right. First a trailer. Don't worry it'll load quick :D Then the actual future of RPGs.


D02. :D

Procrastination...

This Java test boggles my mind cause I am not even sure what exactly to study. Could be a ugly thing tomorrow morning. At least ASP is completed. Currently I really feel the urge to write. I want to write back Tricia, write a long post relating to religion and RPGs, and I want to get my new blog off and running (more to come when it gets off and running if that actually happens). Of course I don't have time for any of this. In theory every waking second I should be doing homework. Yet as usual I find myself wholly incapable of just that. Half of my stress relating to homework is self generated. Crack down early and this would be a moderately tough time. Instead I'll be spending many late nights. Go figure. I'm dumb. Then again it's rather a common thing with people isn't it?

Life plods on. I don't feel as lousy as I did at the start of the week but I wonder if it's not just the general insanity blocking out the bottoming out I was feeling. It sounds depressing and it kind of is. Guess I am the type of person who actually thrives in an odd way under a deadline. When under pressure to some extent I can block out external stimuli to get the most demanding problem out of the way. When I get it done I even get a kind of exuberance, one less thing to worry about. Crazy way to go about life and probably why my blood pressure tends to range on the high side.

Oddly enough things are very uncertain right now. I have no idea what will happen next year. Chi Alpha is getting some major shake ups that will essentially change everything, but if all goes well (which I have to believe it will, faith manages and all that) it will essentially stay the same. I picked up being an LA again so my schedule so carefully constructed with get 10 or so hours of time added to it that are out of my ability to manage. I applied at the Clinic again. Should be essentially a cake-walk to get back in as long as I am professional about it but as usual I am worried. The future holds what the future holds though so just have to sit back and see.

And keep in mind you don't need to be Exalted to shake the very foundations of the world :)

Updates Updates Updates

Shuffled some blogs down to the Quiet area. Added several new blogs. Enjoy, peruse, etc.

Time Sense

I was thinking today about time sense in RPG games. Specifically my Exalted campaign. In two weeks it will technically wrap up (I say technically because it may very well live on in the spring). It started in mid-September and will run through mid-December. In game time I was surprised when I crunched the numbers in my head a fairly similiar amount of time has passed. I'd give date comparisons but I can't keep my Ascending Waters and Descending Fires in order and those wouldn't mean much to you since there are more "months" in a year and less days in a "month". Regardless it was a surprise because there was very little built in downtime between sessions. In fact there was essentially non although a couple sessions started with downtime. The events of the first session took a day. The next session was a month of travel time followed by a half day at an encampment followed by another week or two of travel. The next session involed combat and a couple days travel. After that maybe a week and a half in Paris. Then an entire session that covered less then a day in game time (behold flying wheel-less wagons, the new airliner!). This current session took only a couple days and that was all travel, the revolution taking maybe an hour max. Next session will involve 3 weeks of downtime and since it's generally wrap-up will probably cover a fair amount of time (up to a month). Total time about 4 months. Did not expect it to synch up at all.

Now I'll bet that was all rather random and confusing to most of you, but that's ok. :D

Exalted Rnd. 6

So been a couple weeks since we played. Left off with our Circle boldly planning a strike to seize the local shadowland's warstrider. This involved getting into a citadel at the heart of said shadowland. I actually expected them to make a much grander entrance but instead them snuck up onto the outskirts of the town. Here they rallied the mortals in the shantytown to rise up and due to the Eclipse's phenomal skills even got some of the ghosts in the area to revolt. Meanwhile as the pandemonium of a peasant revolt drew away the gaurds allowing the Night and Dawn casts to slip in. This had the highlight humor of the much smaller Night pulling the Dawn over. Upon entering they attacked the 4 guards. Immediately one goes to sound the alarm. The two stronger ghosts attempt to snag the attackers and then go in for the kill. They actually succeed in doing some damage before the very powerful Dawn kills them in one round. On the far side of the city the Eclipse, Twilight, and Heroic Mortal (whose player was AWOL, a miscommunication on our part) advance with the revolt getting to the citadel gates. Eclipse anima flares and pushes the mortals forwards. The gaurds attempt to close the gates. The Twilight quickly forces the gates open ala magma krackens killing most of the gaurds and scattering the rest. At this point the Dawn attempts to attune to the warstrider as there is a lull.

Now the Abyssal and some hastily gathered troops arrive. The troops are sent to deal with the forces coming in through the front door while the Abyssal goes to deal with the Night gaurding the warstrider that needs to be attuned. The Night does get the advantage on init but lacks much damage giving capability. Abyssal combos and cuts her down in one turn. Leaving her to die he then proceeds to get jumped by the Dawn who hastily exits the warstrider and gets the drop on him. What happened to the Night now happens to him but somewhat worse and the battle is essentially one. In the process he is discovered to have a sorcery-disrupting ring which the Twilight takes. This ring is henceforth described as the Plot Device™.

Victorious the Circle leads the peasants back to their capital of Wabash and is greeted by an initially wary but then very happy defense force.

Next session: aftermath.

Off the feeds

Introverts have more brain activity apparently. Nice to know I've got something going for me. Also the Chi Alpha webpage actually got a facelift. Wow, I'm shocked too even though I'm the one who put it up (but not the actual creator).

This has been quite a day for weather, fog, mist, sunshine, rain, temps nice enough to be ok without a jacket, downpours. All it needs is snow and ice tonight (blah as ice would be) and we'll have hit just about everything. I need to work on ASP but I'm so tired...

Edward Estlin Cummings once said "The most wasted days is one without laughter" so why am I wasting so many days lately?

I'm not too sure that I can go much father
I'm really not sure things are even getting better
I'm so tired of the me that has to disagree
And so tired of the me that's in control

I woke up to see the sun shining all around
How could it shine down on me?
You'd think that it would notice
I can't take anymore
I had to ask myself
"What's it really for?"

Everything I tried to do, it didn't matter
and now I might be better off just rollling over
'cause you know I tried to hard but couldn't change a thing
And it hurts so much I might as well let go

I can't really take the sun shining all around me
Why would it shine down on me?
You'd think that it would notice
I no longer believe
Can't help telling myself
"It don't mean a thing"

I woke up to see the sun shining all around me
How could it shine down on me?
Sun shining all its beauty
Why would it shine down on me
You'd think that it would notice
I can't take anymore
Just had to ask myself
"What's it really for?"

The New Gig is Somethin' Else

Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex (ie GITS SAC or just GITS) 2nd Gig premired tonight on Adult Swim. It's very good. I was curious if they could top the first season but if the first episode is any indication then they probably will. Fun stuff :)

Yea, that's all. :D

Are ideas free?

Picked off Slashdot...

Unproductive Or Some Such Thing

Well I have led the Byzantine Empire to control of all of Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor (including the Middle East). Took awhile (basically marathon played today and yesterday afternoon) but I managed to actually make a complete win In Total War. Wasn't sure I would because I didn't figure out naval stuff until finally today. The lack of help files or a manual can really be a challenge. However I did manage to pull it off wiping the Brits off of Ireland. Probably the hardest thing was the game's propensity to allow massive rebellions of defeated factions across Western Europe. I can understand basic rebellion but it gets very annoying when the enemy can develop troops and equipment, from occupied lands, that those lands can't make and all in one turn. Also that you couldn't predict the rebellions and attempt to placate the civilians very easily. One turn they'd be happy then spontaneous revolution that produces fully armored knights and siege equipment. Slowed the pace down for same end result. That's my major complaint. I won though so I guess I should sit tight.

White Wolf finally announced something on their writing contest that my roommate has entered. Kinda dissapointing. Then again WW hasn't shown much management skill in running this contest.

Google Analytics seems to be getting up to speed now. Only took about a week. Think they really got caught off gaurd by how many people want to see how many people go to their blog/website/livejournal/etc and get stats on it. It's rather fun though at times. Especially the map that shows where in the world people are coming from! Also I am easily amused especially with statistics.

I am also enjoying the Google personalized home page and the fact that I can see Slashdot RSSed and Slashdot is such a brilliant news site. It's relevant stuff and the editors make smart commentary on the news they post. Worth your time to check out especially if technology issues matter to you. And if you were wondering how popular this site is, sites that get Slashdotted generally crash from the surge of traffic!

Well today is going to go down and as unproductive school wise but oh well. Catch ya later folks.

News from the Underground

Saw Harry Potter last night. Twas good. Not fantastic but HP fans will enjoy it. It felt rather rushed though. That's the problem with taking a long book and making it into a movie. Lots of stuff gets left out. I'll stick to the books but an interesting expierence to go to a midnight opening. Was really sleepy this morning.

The Google Analytics stuff is pretty cool but rather fluky at the moment. Guess Google underestimated the fact that everyone and their 20,000 closest friends might want to track their traffic. Figure it'll sort itself out. In the meantime Twism will refresh on my blog 62,343 times and my hits counts will surge up tremendously accordingly while he tries to fool the analysis software.

Looks like I will get to go home earlier then expected next week so pretty excited about that. Yay for home and not having to cook or clean or any of the menial type chores!

Yay

It's still white out there although also probably rather much colder then yesterday. There are even a couple icicles hanging outside our window. Happy, happy.

First Snow

First Snow, originally uploaded by mirv120.

If you look back on May 2nd you will see the last time it snowed in Stevens Point. I like snow.

International Programs

Seems in the cheerful flurry of budget cuts and proposed budget cuts UWSP might be chopping their International Programs Director to save some quick cash. Basically the end result would be more cost for the students going on the trips and probably much less organization in general of those trips. Our Budget Director and SGA Veep are organizing an effort to get student testimonials in an effort to keep the IP Director, leave a comment if you want to help out and give one (or I suppose if you want more info in general). I will forward what was sent to me on to you.

On a side note, Google has offered yet another new service for the general public. I am going to toy around with this one and see what it does. Might not need that clunky old counter after this!

That's frelling great.

For the record...

as of December 4th, 2004 AD/GCE I have sworn an oath not to sing karaoke within the confine of the United States of America or its satellites.

Thank you and good night.

Exalted Rnd. 5

Why are we getting the box?
I'm not entirely sure.

When you start with the stupid crazy plan you continue!

They have a will to live, code red! -ghosts on mortals living the shadowlands

This session starts out with some down time. Our Eclipse and Dawn come out of their limit breaks (both which they act out well and kept track of on their own!). The basic end decision for the Circle is that they must go south to Wabash and the shadowlands. They know that their is a warstrider there of the soulsteel variety. So the Circle heads south. The eventual conclusion is that the fastest way south is to use sorcery to fly in. In the efforts to acquire an object (in this case a wall) the party discovers a mortal slave on the run from his owners. After some persuasion they convince the slave to go south with them as it will be "safer" (honestly it probably would be).

The Circle heads south and discovers that the older shadowland is pretty empty so they move down to the larger shadowland. The Night caste sneaks in posing as a shadowland mortal and manages to scout out the location of the warstrider in a city and citadel of an Abyssal. Returning with this info we're now set for a big showdown in a couple weeks.

Weird

So life has been rather strange as of late and I must admit I am confused about a lot of things. That's not really news though is it?

Generally I am bemused when problems beset the French but watching the news has made me nervous none-the-less. Have to admit I figured this would blow over. It just seems to be getting worse. Are we on the way to seeing the 5th Republic born through another bought of anarchy? Is this a problem that is bound to occur in other European countries? If it stayed in Paris it probably wouldn't bother me so much but in a matter of days the entire country seems to be rioting. I have to admit I am surprised they haven't deployed troops (ok, not making a surrender joke right after that is really hard) because I am fairly certain in the US the National Gaurd would be meeting rioters. Just have to watch and see.

Totally random question: would anyone want a gmail invite? I have a billion and never use them. I suppose most people don't really care but thought I would offer. Just leave a comment, with an e-mail address if you don't think I have yours (need it to send the invite).

The Fighting 401

Or something like that. Today was rather unproductive. I barely got anywhere in Flash, didn't touch Java. Did clean the bathroom so guess that counts for something right? Bummed around a lot. Really have nothing new to talk about either...

Wasn't that a useful post?

Er...

Nabbed from Brent's blog.

oo-rah

Hostile This!

I like books. They are possibly one of my favorite things. I probably got this from Dad (not that Mom is a non-reader she just checks book out rather then purchasing them) although I've rather tread my own path to an extent since high school. Originally I pretty much did straight up science fiction but of course now I get a lot of RPGs too.

Anyhow I love going home cause I can buy more books :D So I picked up Waterdeep: City of Splendours and Modern Military Ships at B & N. Waterdeep was a bit depressing, right next to it was Mage. Now Mage is twice Waterdeep's size, just as pretty, and barely $5 more. The catch being it's nWoD and I don't buy nWoD. Ah well. The Modern Military Ships was nice, oddly organized, but lots of up to date info so a fun read.

A River City Hobbies, La Crosse's FLGS, I found a new game called Fireborn which quite peaked my interest. Set in modern day London it deals with people who have dragon-blood or some such thing in them. I just like the modern concept I guess plus it's in a city I know!

Ok, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow, flash essay up the butt :/

Think my one chance is a flub, back to square one yet again ya know?

Exalted Rnd. 4

Well somehow got through another session of Exalted.

"So you go and pretend to be a thief." -Brady (talking about our thief)

"Kitten's alignment is chaotic fluffy."

Anyhow: Circle is still in Paris at the start of the session with some basic information that the situation is pretty crappy but not a lot of data on Wabash. Our diplomat goes out to try and remedy that by talking with the military leaders and then the city hall. Basically she blows the entire bueacratic set up away not once but twice and calls the Marshall of the French Army a "cheese eating surrender monkey" (admittedly I set that one up). She does get a fair amount of information about the current situation and returns to the inn to report. While she is out our ninja disguises herself and gets accepted by the local Thieves Guild as one of their old members (by sheer luck) called Yani. The rest of the Circle does some shopping.

With information in hand the ninja is sent to set up a meeting with the local rebels who seem to know more then anyone else in town. However because the Circle is unwilling to admit they are Solars (or some other sort of powerful beings) the rebels think they're more crazy then powerful and just give some limited advice. It was amusing to keep mentioning how they'd need a legion to clear the Shadowlands when the unkillable human shield is camped outside the door standing gaurd.

At this point our diplomat limit breaks and then shortly thereafter our meat shield also breaks. The diplomat goes on an overindulgence binge and cleans out Hello, Meat and eventually is boarded up there by the meat shield after he is unable to persuade her to leave. The rest of the party then proceeds to go and investigate the old Wabash occupation camp outside of town. This involves getting out of the city at night. The limit broke meat shield simply opens the main gate and walks out, in full orichalcum armor. The French military gaurds flee in terror or attempt to surrender. As soon as they are out and have shut the gate the Circle determines it might be better to go get the diplomat and turns around and walks straight in through the front gate. Noticeably the city watch has fled. The French Army in their defense lost most of their best troops in the war.

When the Circle finally does get to the camp they find it deserted and several dead bodies on pikes. They def. look like they were killed in a way to create hungry ghosts and keep the bodies usable for zombies. The ninja manages to find documentation pointing towards a failed coup and then finds a tiny shard of soulsteel.

The party is now returning to Paris to wait out the limits and also to get some downtime to train up new skills, Charms, etc.

Pause between moments

Well this week is rather busy. It doesn't help that I procrastinate a lot. Or that I stupidly caught a cold cause I didn't get much sleep last week. Get to go home this weekend tho so that will be nice even with have WDMD to do.

To kill time lately I've been sketching out another world although this time I've been using the convertible to organize it. MS OneNote is pretty nice for organizing all the contents together so I've enjoyed do it and I can access various things that I have organized away. This keeps my focus and makes it easier to put concurrent thoughts with their initial ideas. Will it ever come to anything? Doubtful. I have fun doing it though.

My biggest distractor is def. C & C Generals. Not a surprise really. I've also been paging through various Forgotten Realms books. FR probably is what got me to writing a new world. I always am trying to integrate fantasy and sci-fi and never get very far.

That's it for news. ASP test on Friday and Exalted on Wednesday. Still a busy week.

American Empire: Wal-mart

So we got onto the subject of Wal-mart today in History. This subject always amuses me. Wal-mart has to be one of the most hated corporations in the world (Microsoft being the other major competitor). Yet when I think about all these people ripping into it I fall back to what I always think of when the Wal-mart debate rages: they did what all Americans dream of. Think about it, capitalism basically is a pull yourself up into the realm of the wealthy and stay there (the whole the rich get richer and the poor get poorer thing). Wal-mart is all about that. Sure they trample on the little guys but that's how America's economy works.

Incidentally the probably more hilarious thing is while middle/upper class people tend to rail on how Wal-mart keeps the poor poor and exploits its workers and all that I've yet to actually see them motivate the lower classes. The arguement that you should pay more for your food works great if you actually can afford to not shop for the lowest price but I've yet to see an argument that deals with the fact that Wal-mart does well because it's so cheap. It's funny really that the only solution we have is to basically burden the lower classes with higher prices somewhere else to punish Wal-mart. Middle/upper classes won't suffer much (maybe some but it just might mean we buy a little less I doubt anyone will starve) while some lower class folks probably take full advantage of the prices that Wal-mart can force out of their vendors. Now is it a good thing what Sam Walton's Empire is doing? Can't really say that I think so but the company has put itself in a good place. They have enough power to influence government, they control a huge amount of the market, and they serve a niche which would find it probably harder to live without them. I'm not quite sure when they pulled this all off but let's face it, they make more money in a year then most national governments! Last numbers I saw put their GDP in the Top 20 of the world! Any changing or affecting them is going to have to be far more comprehensive then somewhat embittered liberal (or otherwise) idealism.

Blah

Well it definitely feels like the world wants to collapse today. Go figure.

Even more ramblings

Yes I am a busy poster this office hour.

Ok so if you missed it the Russians have a minor war going on in one of their cities right now. I can't really imagine how it'd be like to be in a city like that. Most of the cities I've been in are quite a bit smaller (say 1/6th or 1/8th the population) but still how disconcerting would it be to be at the airport and suddenly have a battle just break out there? Or driving by a police station? It's just very strange to me.

I'm done now cause I need to go research the IRA in the ol' library.

Deep Pondering

So I was just thinking from random spiels people have made in Environmental Politics that what if democracies that function and last can only come from strife and lots of mistakes and oppression? Arguably all the Western democracies certainly have very colored pasts. In fact I'm not sure there are any democracies that have a nice cheerful happy history. Perhaps we can only seriously pull up and give ourselves democracy with much pain, death, and many many mistakes?

I'm dead postive this is not new ground in people's debates on democracy but it was a new idea for me.

Random Thoughts

So if you put in the 6 digit zip code in the UK it takes you to a fairly close area to where you are (at least in London). I just find that pretty awesome that the zip alone can get you within a maybe 10 blocks of your address. No, I'm not missing London terribly, why do you ask?

Rolling to another tangent have you ever noticed that some people have names that are just more fun to say both first and last as if they were designed to be always said as a whole? This is almost certainly just a thing I do but it greatly amuses me.

Now finally some substantial stuff: Apple finally released a video iPod. While certainly inevitable I have to admit I am surprised it happened so soon. I really figured they'd hold off. I also must admit I am slightly grumpy as my 5 month old iPod is now hopelessly out of date. For the same price today I could now get a 30 GB, color screen, able to play video iPod. Grr. Of course that was nearly half a year ago so there wasn't any positive inkling that any kind of video iPod would come out at all. Heck the iPod Nano caught a lot of people off-gaurd and made iPod Minis artifacts and that sure was a surprise (my roommate got a Mini only a few weeks before the Nano arrived, there's a good time to be grumpy). Apple is certainly pushing the bounds though. Guess I am curious to see how video iPod does but the Nano is doing well and I thought it'd be much more of a niche (if the Mini was around possibly true).

That's all for now...I am gonna go back to looking at pictures of Hyperion (gosh it's creepy looking moon in that picture).

Exalted Rnd. 3

First some quotes:

"Do you want describe it as you vaporize him?"

"This is not the cat you're looking for."

"It's like binary!" (Dani on her init rolls: either a 1 or a 0)

This week was combat central. I wanted to try out some Exalted v. Exalted combat so I sent some of the Wyld Hunt in. Now they had all the reasons in the world to be investigating the area but my very cunning Solars nearly talked them out of it. I gotta admit Brady did an impressive job in talking his way out of things part of the reason why noone was attacked accept for Isaac. However I did want to have some Exalted combat partially so I would get the feel of things so I sort of forced the issue (I probably should have had them let them pass but on a ST's note they were very suspicious that they were there even if they didn't realize it). Combat was impressive if somewhat one sided. I nearly brought Isaac down first off due to some very well designed Dragon Blooded but just fell short so he axed DB #1. DB #2 managed to off Isaac and nearly half his own troops (I had not thought about using an area affect Charm when surrounded by allies, oops!). At this point I was unsure how things would go, the rest of the Circle was cowering or hiding so the Wyld Hunt didn't see them as a threat. Mostly they saw them as mortals duped or enthralled by a Solar. I wasn't quite sure how I'd do that but Isaac solved the problem by reviving and hammering DB #2 with his Grand Daiklave of Way Too Big Dice Pools. The remaining mortals proceeded to get ganked by most of the Circle. After removing the valuables of the Wyld Hunt the Circle proceeded to sneak across the very weakly gaurded border of France and then headed to Paris (yes the joke gets bigger and better or something like that). Here they began to peace together the situation along with some info looted off the dead DB's bodies. Next time looks like Brady's moment to shine, the combat is over for awhile. Of course that means I have to work out more story! That's all for now. Lots of stuff in the news I should talk about but not tonight.

Oy

Hmm, seems like I need to go through and move some blogs off the quiet list eventually. It's getting long, I have to admit I know longer check many (if any) very regularily unless I think someone might have posted. Another weekend project...

"I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end."
-Margaret Thatcher

Interesting quote, explains alot about the lady. Sometimes I think I am very much like that...

It's Fall

I love this season. Ok so maybe it feels a bit on the chilly side today with that wind but there's just that crisp, cool, fresh feeling that I can't really describe that hangs in the air. I can't soak up enough of it. Today is going to be one of those strange, weird days that's both fulfilling and also unfulfilling. Kind of the almost perfect day that could have one thing more and then my mind would be clear. Oh and if the Java test weren't tomorrow. Boo to that.

Met a couple of our SGA representatives today both very nice folks. Up to this point I just knew Crawford, Squirrel (aka Sara), and Ms. Amy Clark. Now after knowing Crawford one can only imagine what my state of mind towards SGA is. Primarily: how did anything get done? Ok, I'm kidding there he was a decent President I guess, didn't pay much attention to the state of things. Now I am also slightly off track (but that's not news with this blog). Anyhow just like to say they seem to be all honest decent folk so if you have a problem actually have issues go chat with them not that my word makes a huge bit of difference.

Anyhow Java calls and then I need to sneak over and seize Lena's three-hole punch. Whee.

Indecision

I'm in one of those moments again where I am stuck. Do I act or do I keep the status quo? Both have risks and thus far I have kept to the status quo (and it hasn't hurt anything). I dunno.

I would like the temp and humidity to drop soon though. This is misery and it's October! This feels like August! Blah.

The Last Battle

Well I finally finished the Chronicles of Narnia, only took me since the end of June to read all seven books. They're pretty good but really strike me much more as children's novels then anything else. It was a little hard at times for me to take them as seriously as I did Lord of the Rings or the last couple Harry Potters. Serious in this case of course being how believable in a sense the world seems to me, perhaps its an odd tendency but I enjoy books better if I can fully immerse myself into them, hence my fondness for RPGs. On a side note the movie: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe looks to be quite good and I will have to sally out to see that this December. Got to see the trailer on the big screen before Serenity and def. blew me away!

Well time to go work finish my stuff for Flash. Where's a comfy, comfy couch when I need one? (Hehe, hope Amanda doesn't think I'm too nuts for overusing that phrase today, not that I'm not probably slightly crazy but ya know.)

Anyhow, that's all for now.

Serenity

Well it wasn't the best movie I've seen but it was very, very well written. Ok first off, Reavers scare the crap out of me. They make the Borg look like friendly loving people. I have to say they are probably the best done villain group I have encountered in a sci-fi show. Creepy, creepy, creepy but still well done. Anyhow several major twists which threw and the plot didn't manage to keep me wondering til the end. This felt more like a thriller/suspense movie rather then sci-fi western. So now this review wasn't all that useful I'd imagine but that's ok. I can't say a lot without spoiling it but I think this is worth your $27.50 to go see (or in matinee $27.49).

Feeling verk weak minded these days. Think I really need to just take a weekend (mostly) to myself...

Exalted Rnd 2

Well round 1 doesn't get much mention cause it was basically set-up. Now we actually did some stuff. I have to admit my block was fairly non-action packed. I got the characters from Nexus to Nechara (down in the Hundred Kingdoms). In between I basically wanted them to plan out what they would do but turns out they are still somewhat disorganized and also I hadn't given them enough to work with the previous session. Enroute to actually give them some action I had one of the character's "catch" a river dragon whilst fishing. It of course pulled her in and we had a brief fight scene that ended with a wounded river dragon passing out on the bottom before being pummeled to death by a shadow. Arrive in the Redoubt (ie Nechara) and get the low-down on things. At this point things get more interesting for me: I had hoped to lead the Circle to Lubo but they opted to sneak into Lubo's occupied neighbor France (yes I intentionally am mocking the French they deserve to be mocked repeatedly). Initially there was discussion of just flying straight into Wabash, the intended final destination.

Pause for a break when hot tea was spilled one of the players and one of the core books. Thankfully not the Limited Edition core.

The party gets within a day's journy of the French border to discover everyone has departed. In fact they've been gone awhile. They didn't really flee in a mad rush, they just left. Party sets up camp in an abandoned house and two members decide to go make booze seeing as there's none left in the town. The two members (brilliantly) decide to go out into the dark to pick dandelions to make wine (in one night no less). Of course about this point the Local 401 Undead make an appearance only to get reamed by Isaac's very powerful, quasi-invincible grand daiklave wielding, and very shiny Dawn caste. Hungry ghosts and zombies begin to fall. With two zombies left Brady moves up to heal Isaac-who can heal 1L & 1B a turn already-and gets seriously womped by a zombie. We're talking 5 of 7 health levels gone. I probably should have commented on this before he did it, not that I woulda killed his character, but I neglected to do so. The two zombies of course die for even thinking of existing much less hurting someone other then Isaac.

An ok session I think. When I introduce real Exalts as opponents I should probably go over how quick folks can die and applying common sense. Combat ran pretty well, even flowed. Next time have to spread troops out more to go after everyone. Incidentally undead in future campaigns will become extras, this current batch were full stats because if they were extras Isaac woulda dropped them all in 2-3 turns.

That's all, I imagine most people don't care. G'night.

Protest Politics

Been awhile since I've commented on politics so here's my quasi-bi-annual foray into the realm...

One of my friends told me she had been involved in the protests that had happened this weekend in Washington. Now I told her that I thought the protest was stupid. Which got me to thinking, why do I think it's stupid. Is it just me disliking the endless anti-war, anti-Bush protests? Is it me hating protests in general or do I have a logical reason for saying this.

This is what I came up with.

Overall I think I dislike it because they blame Bush for everything. No matter what happens it's his fault and they tie the war into it irrationally. Take the current situation, the belief seems to be out there that if our troops weren't in Iraq that the situation in New Orleans would be a lot less (the whole "Make levees, not war"). Now this ignores the common fact that most of these troops never do any response to natural disasters when they're here. National Gaurd responds and they currently are responding to New Orleans. This anger may be rightly centered at President Bush, although in the past state governors have been saddled with handling natural disasters, for not preparing a national response but claiming that 100,000 troops would make the difference is ludicris. Even the military would have to withdraw in the wake of that storm and even they would have operating with a completely destroyed infratstructure.

Another related arguement is that money for the war has kept money getting to Katrina victims. Again, where do they figure? Congress acted immediately (in the Congressional sense of the word) to appropriate funds. Seperate areas of funding so the two don't relate.

Now what probably bothers me more. The arguement to pull out. This generally stems from the wish not to have anymore of our soldiers die. I think everyone can agree we don't want to see our friends and loved ones over there one second longer then they need to be. At the same time if we pull out to save several thousand of our troops lives when we started this mess and several million people are killed or injured because we bailed. Along with that well the entire Middle East would hate us some more, no gaurantee they will like us much if we stayed but at least we tried to fix our mess up, and most of the world would we think even lower of us. In the end I think it's a matter of honor as well. Do we stay even when it's tough, even when our leaders got us in the for the wrong reason, because we think it's right to help out and promote a better way of life? I guess people's opinions may differ but I know that it's not fair to sacrifice people I don't know just because I don't know them. That was done in Rwanda 50 years after we promised never to let it happen again.


Ok last thing: Bush lied to us. Can't say for sure he did but more then likely he did. So why not ask why that happened and find out how it happened? Obviously something disrupted our checks and balances and certainly we need those checks and balances. Instead of demanding an impossible change (pulling out) why not demand some explanations? This just seems like a better use of time. If all else come up with an exit strategy that allows us to get out soon. Right now we can't but I'd bet a large sum of money the the Bush White House wants out of Iraq right now more then anyone else.

Well that's it, this may be a bit disjointed but sort of lays out my thoughts (heh my thoughts might just be disjointed too).

Hehe

Best way to explain to layman why Marines are part of the Navy (read on RPG.net). MARINES = "My Ass Rides In Navy Equipment, Sir!" :D Funny. I should go to bed soon :o

Minor Updates (YAY)

You prolly won't even notice them. Abby's back though. Yayayayayayayayayay!


(PS YAY)

As promised

So I have more then 10 shows I like but these are the big ones.

1) Babylon 5
2) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
3) Stargate SG-1
4) Star Trek (Original)
5) Star Trek: The Next Generation
6) Earth: Final Conflict (1st season only)/ Andromeda (again 1st season only)
7) Battlestar Galactica (new version)
8) Invisible Man (newer Sci-Fi version)
9) Firefly
10) Farscape

Amusing picture pointed on on the Exalted LJ Community.

Sci-Fi ranks

So on Slashdot they had an article that pointed to a Boston Globe article that ranked the Top 50 sci-fi shows of all time.

Not sure I have 50 but wonder how many I've watched and how I'd rank them...

Turning Ups and Things

So interesting discovery today. The 11th book in the Wheel of Time series is set to come out. Last time I looked Robert Jordan was releasing a prequal and the end was nowhere in sight for the folks in the WoT universe. However the reviews note that book 11 is back to the original fast pace of the early books (say 1-5) and that it looks like the series may be imminently close to wrapping up (in X # of books where X is probably still a large number, alas). Two sad things, one, I've only finished book 1 and have no time to read books 2-10 much less #11, two, I am stuck with the crappy American artwork covers unless I decide to pay for British prices and ship overseas. Since I'm not going to get the books anytime soon I may hold off and hope that I am working back at the clinic fulltime and pony up for the decent covered books.
For comparison: Europe America.

Blah, we need better bookcovers here. Part of the reason I picked up book 1 in the Oxford St. Borders was that it looked cool.

A really odd thing when I was killing time in class today. Google has their new blog search mechanism up and I was doing one of the traditional time killers: searching my name. The single entry it turned up was none other then an old friend from high school. Small world. Anyhow, I need to manage links on here as it so after this post going to change that.

Mario Kart tonight. Eric and I are trying to re-organize the sessions of old despite it now involving 2 CAs (one a super senior), an ARC, and a senior. Scheduling's a bitch no two ways around it. I'm out.

Semper Fidelis

It was a battle we couldn't win and we didn't.
Life can be a frightening image for those who live in these times.
The shadow reaches far
And its depths are vast.
Its agents are everywhere and everyone.
But we're not alone.
We're still out there, fighting.
And we will win.

It's only a matter of time.

I'm alright

I can’t believe the news today
Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away

-U2, Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Yea. Not much new to talk about. Got GITS, enjoyed it. Nice diversion. Been busy enough to keep me from reading tho :/

Anyhow, XA Informational Meeting tomorrow night at 7:07 PM 073 Debot. Free pizza. So go for those of you who read this in the next 18 or so hours.

Just pray. Stop right now and pray.

This Amuses Me

Listen.

Technical Updates

Removed Rachel's blog since it no longer works. Moved Mary's blog up. Enjoy.

Other Content

Well I was going to work out today but I got massively soaked walking to my class today and by the time it was over was a shivering starving shell of a human being. That's life I guess.

Anyhow. I just got done ordering a ton of books off Amazon for classes. Now hang on, all you readers out there are saying, doesn't UWSP have a text rental policy? Why yes, they do. It's just that some professors opt to have no books for you to rent and 3 for you to purchase (and that's for environmental literacy no less). Even better they expect you to start reading from them ASAP so that way you will probably buy them from the bookstore full price. Isn't that cheerful? Now granted we still pay far less on textbooks then most schools since roughly half of them we rent but the simple fact is we're still buying half of them. Shouldn't it be a "half-rental" policy? And the book buy-back system is a joke (but any college student knows that whether they have a rental or purchase policy). Just a random complaint...

Happily I did discover on Amazon that GITS is finally out in box set so I ponied up for that.

I had another random rant that I intended to mention but it has already slipped my mind. Guess it will have to wait for another time.

I am going to be running an Exalted game this fall for GASP (really, I swear). I've got at least one taker thus far and hopefully I can wrangle in some more. Thinking it'll be something of a mercenary campaign initially but considering that I have all the Exalted books (barring the one that comes out end of October) it could go just about anywhere.

Some Content

Pinpricks of light for a moment add themselves to the stars. Below a maelstrom rages, a mad rage of color, emotion, death and life. Above slides slender narrowed hulls akin to warships of old cutting a clean path through the wisps of planet. Clean white chariots. Death flies among them, in them, with them. Its presence is not simply noticed by those below, it is felt. The silent harbringers advance with an almost casual purpose.

Inside total silence. Last checks of equipment and coordinates. Signals between vessels cooperating in their delivery of their Heinleinesque cargoes to their prospective clients. "Doomtroopers Unite" peals across the comms as the ship shudders a brief moment disgorging in perfect columns of people dirtwards. Joining the tone are other anthem to the lethal agents departing, "Deathlords Again", "The God of Death Returns" and the ubiquitous "Louie, Louie"

Passing stars, space, atmosphere, clouds, mountains, trees then hitting dirt. For a moment a strange peace. Just dust expanding outwards in covering the moment in silence. Like a winter's snow it quiets the chaos spreading a false sense of tranquility. Everyone outside pauses to watch, to listen, to wonder why their hearts tremble and their souls despair.

Inside business as usual. Young men and women looks out at their new surroundings. It's new but familiar. Same job, different place would cross their minds if they let themselves be distracted. They don't. On one hand they are people but as they plunge away from sky part of them peels off with it. When the strange peace comes it's a silence inside as an entirely different being takes over.

The cloud parts in tiny rays of light, betrayed by their dusty origins. In this moment the death is clean and precise. The next is puncuated by nothing so controlled as one world collapses under the force of another. Despair lasts only for a moment before a more permanent silent is instilled. Time passes very quickly or not at all before peace returns.

In the wreckage they await pick-up. In the wreckage they lie. Lost dreams and controlled nightmares...

End Penguin

Well tomorrow school starts. I looked today and realized I put almost 7400 miles on the CRV this summer commuting back and forth to Marshfield. That's a lot. Anyhow tomorrow classes start so now school is commencing. The campus is crowded, busy, noisy. Oy.

Endings

Well job is over. Summer is over. Wondering if this fall will better. I dunno...

Rollover

So it was commented on by one of my friends that Point is somewhat nicer in the summer when it's a much quieter little town and that it's sad that it's changing back to it's busier, noiser ways. It's been on my mind now for a couple days as well. Things are changing. August had a lot of changes and I realized that it's really just leading up to the massive schedule upheaval known as Fall Semester. I don't like change much. My life is running well if I am in a routine and can stay there. That will go away in a couple days though. Then I will spend a couple weeks resituating myself trying to balance everything and missing the long summer nights of hanging with people whose company I have greatly enjoyed. Now I know change in inevitable but that doesn't mean I can't have my simple dream.

In hindsight June 1 - August 31 hasn't been all that bad if I may predict two days into the future. I've made new friends and strengthened older friendships both very dear things to me. I'm still single and still wondering if I am reading signals correctly or not but if anything I'm in no rush as friendship stands above relationship for me (except in moments of weakness perhaps). I've learned more about programming in 3 months then in 3 years of college. Learned more about hospitals then in 20 years of life.

This is my moment of looking back as once again I step forward into another unknown. Seems to be the way the world works for me, 3 months at a time. Now to sleep and another commute.

Remember when?

So this time a year ago I was somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. How about that? Hard to believe it's been that long. I miss it. Well bedtime for me, try to get an actual decent night's sleep for the first time this week :o

Tomorrow, rumors of a pending SW:CCG rematch are whispered on the wind. Amazon shipments coming in the next week or two as well. Fun stuff for the start of the fall semester.

Congrats to two fellow interns (Andy and Evie) who both got kept on for the fall. I am sad I didn't get kept on. Lane said we don't have the budget but the worrying part of me wonders if I didn't cut the mustard and he/Bob are just too nice to say. Andy says I overworry (very true) but I still wonder. Anyhow, bedtime now.

London I miss ya!

Oddities

Funny thing about this week. A couple of the days have started out rather badly and ended up not being so bad at all. Today was one of those. Part of it is that if left be my mind can run rather amok and it had lots of solo time in the morning to do just that. But I had a good time visiting Jessie. I got rather sunburned (my knees, arms, and face are all very pink) but that's ok. I'm sure my body is thankful for that odd thing called "Vitamin-D". Home was nice. Ran some errands so now I have a messenger bag for the school year (my backpacks are both deterioating after several years of loyal service). Jon and Twism both use them and they kind of fit what I want and need right now. It'll hold the convertible rather well which is kind of the idea. Also got a wireless mouse-that works for both the mac and convertible-so I can have a real mouse for the convertible at home. Generally speaking won't need it in class but at home it'd be nice especially since I am not used to using the pen or the pad.

Tomorrow not sure if i've got much of anything planned. Not sure if much of anything will happen. Guess I don't mind. When I'm home don't really expect to hang out with anyone. There's noone left here ya know? It's strange for me when my friends in point go back to there friends at home. Everyone I know in Lax has drifted away for the most part. Think Jessie might be one of the few left and she doesn't even live there anymore. Part of me worries same will happen after I graduate from college. Odd thing to worry about right now eh? Guess I'm just crazy in that way.

Yea for a decent day though. Hope everyone has a good weekend or something like that. :D

Homeward Again

First post with the convertible. Pretty cool :D This week has been odd. Ups and downs. That's life though ain't it? Anyhow this weekend I'm heading home again. Hung around tonight to hang with people and ironically everyone else is gone. Bad planning on my part eh? Tomorrow I'll be in the Dells first to visit Jessie. Haven't seen her since I can't even remember when. December maybe? Anyhow nice to see her again before she dissapears off to whereever she goes. There's an off chance at home I might get to hang out with Traci who I haven't seen in a couple years. That'd be great. Keeping in touch with friends is something that's really important to me. This summer hasn't exactly been all that great for it.

Anyhow, time to sack out. You'd think I'd learn wouldn't ya? :/

Weddings and Convertibles

Well the wedding went well. Odd to think of my sister with a different last name. Odd to think of her husband as family. He's a nice guy though and his family's pretty cool. I ended up dancing a whole bunch more then I planned to. Well if you call what I do dancing. Trying to dance at least? Not sure if there are any pictures of that.

Ended up with a ton of chocolate and flowers in my possesion. My sister massively overbought these so my parents had me dispose of them. Luckily I know people who will never say no to chocolate or flowers and I get to allow the 6 in me to be absurdly nice to my friends for no logical reason (although they are probably wondering what's going on in my head, granted giving chocolate and flowers could be construed as the wrong signals but hopefully they aren't freaked or anything).

For gift from the party (is that the correct term?) I got a glass stein and a 6-pack of Woodchuck's. That'll go reaaaaaaally fast. Maybe not. My roommate had one. First time I've seen him drink. Certainly the non-drinkers of our complex.

My convertible came and it's all set up and running great. There are several wireless networks detectable from our living room and the strongest is totally unsecure so I helped myself even though we have our own internet. Ironically the wireless configures itself so it's easier to use at the moment. I like the convertible quite a bit although I still need to register things. Stupid MSFT anti-piracy paranoia.

Well that's all for now. Many thanks to one Mr. Andrew K fellow intern and Pointer who unknowingly helped drag me out of rather depressed mood. Thought today was gonna suck but turned out rather nice.

Life Rolls On

Well heading back home tomorrow for my sister's wedding. Probably means no updates this weekend. Not that I've been very active as it is on here but it's summer so I imagine less people take a look here anyways. This should be an interesting weekend though. Mostly think I already want to be back up here though with friends and such and my usual routine (which has become somewhat destroyed in August :/ ).

Life is rather quiet at work. At home well I'm not quite sure. I'm a little baffled on my situation with the opposite sex at the moment. Not sure really where I stand. Oy. Things will sort out I'm sure just hope I'm not confusing friendship for somethin' else and being my usual self am worried I'd ruin a friendship stumbling through this.

Aside: Terrell Owens needs to be taken down a notch. Actually a lot of notches. Seriously the man's full of himself! What is it these days with professional athletes and money these days? So many don't care about the game at all, they just play for money and want tons of it. Sheesh, they outshine the players who are good and love the game enough to not go for the huge money all the time.

Anyhow, time to pack and all that. Have a good weekend all.

After the storm two weeks ago...

You Can't Take the Sky From Me

As some of you may be aware Sid is being called up this week to go to Kuwait. His unit is based in Marshfield and they city is having a send-off to honor the unit before they are deployed. If you're in the area stop by and catch the parade. It's 1PM (ala 1300 for you 24 clock folks) running from the Marshfield Armory down Central Avenue to 5th Street then to Columbus High School. Stop by and show a little support for the troops, we owe them a lot.

Random life note: I live summer fruit: peaches, plums, apricots, mmmmmm :)

Some sort of something

Is that prettier?

Today's kind of clean-up and errands day. Washed the kitchen floor, did laundry, do dishes a little later (once the floor dries up), get groceries-no fruit for me to snack on, try and get a little work for Evergreen Church's page done, and that'll prolly get me to the evening fine. Def. relaxing with folks tonight if I can help it. It's not all bad here anyways, watching Firefly and Stargate taped from last night and enjoying random music from iTunes.

Bought an anime movie called Appleseed yesterday on a whim. Story was so-so, anime movies tend to always feel rushed to me. Guess when you watch shows you expect a little more development so sets a higher bar. Animation itself was interesting, most of it was CGI with just character close-ups being handdrawn (although at times they looked CGI too). Meshed pretty well but felt rather different then the standard anime. Up to now mostly just combat sequences have been CGI and they've been with large mecha so it looks ok. CGI machines look fairly natural for obvious reasons. Soundtrack was alright but not spectacular.

I've purchased a convertible. This type of convertible is not the vehicle type however. It's a tablet PC that has a keyboard. So it can convert from being a laptop to being a tablet. Very cool. I hadn't really intended to get one but the clinic uses them almost exclusively now (tablets being phased out) and a decently equipped one isn't all that much more expensive or less powerful then a laptop. Plus you can write on them, it's pretty cool. For testing on Friday I got to use Bob's tablet and it's rather fun to be able to write on your computer! So waiting rather excitedly for that.

Hope you all didn't miss it but Brent has been chronicaling his and Lars' adventures at the great, grand, quasi-annual, possibly symphonic General Council of the A/G. Enjoy or something...

So after working steadfastly at a Windows box all summer I've noticed when I come home, a)whenever I go away from my computer I feel the urge to lock it b) I try to control + something rather then cmd + something. I fear IT is slowly creeping into all facets of my computer life.

So there's a long ramble. Believe it or not it's actualy 1551 right now not 1241. This post took all afternoon.

Templates

To celebrate the fact that tomorrow I am going to have to mess with print templates until the last vestiges of my sanity dissapear I have gone through and re-tooled the site. The usual updating has been slipped in. Now I'd imagine the color-scheme really hasn't improved from the dreaded purple on yellow of UWSP but I hope it's not hard on the eyes to read. I might change the colors again. (Side note, Al commented in between helping me set up Dreamweaver so things have changed some more. For the better is debatable, hopefully more readable tho.)

Anyhow things ran out of time. Funny how that happens. Catch ya later.

End of Armed Struggle

Figure most of you aren't aware that the IRA has officially has finally taken the last step towards peace. It should be interesting to see what happens now. Makes me want to go back and finish Armed Struggle but my reading list is long and reading rate is slow (at this moment Dad is pressing me to get on Tin Can Destroyers so he can get it back). Something to think about. Hope this means final peace for Belfast.

Some good news for the UK at least. Anyhow bedtime...

Update

Sorry no updates in awhile. Been rather busy. Anyhow I am still alive and will try and update things over the weekend :D

So let's see, last weekend was quite fun. I watched Evie play volleyball in Wausau all weekend. Despite warnings it might be rather boring I enjoyed it greatly. I rather enjoy watching volleyball it turns out (hadn't watched much of it til this summer) so it was a good deal. Plus I got some vitamin D. Anyhow gonna go veg now, will try and write some more at some point. Asta.

Long Day

So today was 10 hours of work followed by 2 hours of mini-golf and a grand total of 14 hours away from home. I left at 0715 and got home at 2130. Andy and I got pushed out of last by a mere 10 points despite and noble attempt with 5 5 point holes (5 being the max score) our last round. Ah well, next month is real golf. :D

Sad news: James Doohan, also known as Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott has passed away. Scotty joins Bones boldy going on ahead.

Fun-eee

To those of you who I was with last night: remember how I said the forecast for next week had Sunday at 76? Well now it's at 95. Ain't that special?

News and Such

Well bought and read Harry Potter 6. Have to say that I don't think it was as good as HP5 but still quite good. Somehow my roommate managed to piece together from the web who died (and with decent support for his conclusion). Amazed he was right. At the same time the death made sense as incidentally who was the Half Blood Prince did. I've heard that HP6 reviewed as essentially setting up HP7. I do feel this. It wasn't as tense and doom-filled as HP5 rather is fealt kind of transitory. Still worth a read at some point. One thing though: why are the good-guys so freaking incompetent? Continously the school kids save the day and the adults can barely match their opponents! The gov't probably couldn't beat the school kids in a fair fight! Kinda lopsided there :/ Rowling has also increased her Brit slang I believe although i'd have to re-read the older books to confirm this. Mighta noticed more now that I've heard most of it used.

Watched Better Off Dead last night. Very strange movie. Somehow funny still. Actually hilarious at places. It's very1980s through and through. If you watch it, don't blame me if you come away disturbed!

Not much to talk about this week. Wednesday IS Cup Event #2 commences with mini-golf. Andy and I got shafted with very late tee-times (past 7) so at this rate I'll get home by maybe 9:30. Could be an incredibly long day. Debating coming in late and just working late that day. Otherwise seems like a usual week. That's ok though too. Maybe it'll cool down (yea right).

Other then that I guess things are quiet. Kinda why I haven't written much. Not much to say. Well gonna kick back and listen to Jack Johnson now. (Thanks Evie :D )

And so it begins...again

Oy.

Trivia: MS IE's default font like 99% of MS products is 12 pt. Times New Roman. Remember that, someday it will be in Trivial Pursuit if I have to hack their print computers and add it.

This week was rocky. Is ending on a down note.

Work progresses. This is short I know. Sorry. Been busy.

The Missing

The Missing, originally uploaded by Adam Tinworth.

Possibly one of the scariest things I've ever had to do. Looking to see if I recognize any of the faces...

London

Ok, by now you should hopefully have heard what's going on. If not, check the previous post, or go to the London Underground or Adam Tinworth's blogs.

I'm stunned. I don't think I ever made it down to Edgeware station (preferring Baker St. just up the block) but I've certainly been to King's Cross (where my adventure to Northern Ireland started) and I am positve we toured through Aldgate East on Thanksgiving so two of those attacks hit very close to home at very fond memories.

It's incomprehensible. I hope the people I met are doing alright. Take a moment and say a prayer for the city and those in it.

Lord

Read.

Things

Whoever wants to go with me to London in 2012 feel free. Think I'll catch a sporting event and reminisce!

Other news: my Exalted purches almost certainly end Feb 2006. Why? Well after swearing they would make the 2nd/Revised Edition backwards compatible for years and years they changed their minds. New DB and Lunar hardbacks are coming out afterwards. I'm not re-buying the entire line so I will buy up to the new Core and that's it. Cheaper for me anyhow although I am dissapointed in a sense. That's how businesses work though, try to get you to keep buying into the line.

Not much else to say. Gonna hit the sack early tonight. Try and write more later in the week.

Slow Days

Don't know why but this weekend is dragging and I'm not feeling real relaxed. Just kinda always tired. Maybe it's cause I'm pup-sitting and that is somehow stressing me out. Right now it feels like I've just pushed all the wrong buttons on my friends, weirding them out or making them unhappy. Kind of one of those "when it rains, it pours" feeling moments. Oy.

I've watched more random movies at Lars' this weekend then in awhile. He's got an interesting collection, quite varied. Course I spend a lot of it playing with the Golden Hurricane cause that's what I'm supposed to be doing (and I have to admit it, it's amusing to toss the ball and watch her chase it down). Still for whatever reason watching her tires me out even though it's wholly undemanding physically, even playing tug of war, but it does. Perhaps Lars can explain.

Got into Hordes of the Underdark some. That's much fun. Prolly try and play that more. Go for the level 40 character :D Not even sure what I'd be, except that my wizard's options are limited. They could have added in a more open prestige class or two. Something to do, not like I don't have productive stuff I could be doing.

Fixed the whole odd-spacing issue and updating quiet list btw. Have a safe and happy 4th and remember what it means. People are dying out there right now to let us have this long weekend.

Numbers

83 books (Exalted 33, Blue Planet 8, Jovian Chronicles 16, Midnight 3, Misc (various games) 10, 13 D & D (7 Forgotten Realms)), and 25 pdfs although some duplicate real books. I guess if you count all forms I have over 100 RPG books :D That's all.

...

Ah, nothing better when you're grumpy then to remember Stalin's immortal words...

Things

Driving is rather boring. I think on Friday I am going to explore alternate routes from Marshfield back to Point. At this rate I'll be done at 1 anyhow. Figured out it's shorter to probably cut along 2nd Avenue (think that's it) then take Maria to get home when I am in Point. Lars would probably laugh that it took me a month to figure that out. What I really need is a way around that stupid incredibly short left turn on green arrow only Central -> Hwy 13 in Marshfield. Going to see if I can find Hwy H in town (I know it passes 13 but that's after that bloody light).

2 hours later :D

Ok, back from Emy Js and enjoying the actually cool evening with Katy. Let's see, what else to talk about. Not much now, lost my train of thought. Blogger seems to be doing weird things to the latest entry. Can't explain it, hopefully they'll fix it.

I forgot to say this earlier I think but Happy B-day to Lars. It was only a few days back. :D

Curious

Didn't expect to hear this from such a paper. I agree totally tho.

Memories

Did your family ever have a game they always played? We have a couple here but I think the favorite is SolarQuest. It's basically monoply in space. Don't think it's been sold since the late 80s but oh well. Our family has so many inside jokes when we place this game it doesn't matter if I get crushed it's still hilarious. If I ever make a musical called "The Rock" you must go and see it!

Also nostalgic is E:FC. Yea I mentioned it last time but I really am missing it after watching that episode last night. Frustrates me that the 1st Season is stuck in limbo for DVD release so the only season that is good may never get out! It's depressing. Stupid CEOs somewhere doing what they do best. Still I realize whenever it gets out it'll be so hyped in my mind it won't be as good as I remembered. Isn't that how things usually end up?

Anywho, that's all for now.

Home...

I guess I haven't written much lately. Anyhow I am home so this will be a brief post. Life is alright. Rather quiet life really unless you want to hear about work. Don't feel like chatting much about that though. What to talk about then? Not quite sure. Watched Evie play volleyball on Thursday. That was fun (even with the 93 degree heat). It's been a long time since I've actually watched people play volleyball despite the large amount of my friends who play. The rules are different from high school so poor Amber had to correct me a bunch. Andy got a kick out of this at work when I told him. Can't say much about softball cause I think I brought them bad luck. Hopefully I won't do that to the volleyball teams either otherwise Evie will probably t-bone me on Division when I'm barely awake some weekday morning :/

So there's a ramble on volleyball.

There really isn't anything else. I'm home. It's nice. Shorter drive from Marshfield to here. Course that's cause I already commuted from Point. Get to go through Pittsville. Shouldn't that really be where Green Bay is? :D

I will try and write more often. Granted, not even sure if anyone reads this anymore. Although readership doesn't equate to my rambling at all.

I wish Earth Final Conflict would come out fully on DVD. The episode I am watching right now started it all for me. I caught it right at this point. Those were good times way back when.

Later!

31 Days Later

...and the total amount of alcohol I have consumed is one glass of scotch.

In more exciting news I actually got to do some programming today. Some easy stuff in the morning and somewhat harder stuff (with a deadline of either tonight or tomorrow early) in the afternoon. Darin and Bob helped me some on the afternoon stuff but I actually managed to get a fair amount on my own. Very happy about that. Not sure how much more programming I will have the next week or so as theoretically tomorrow we are supposed to release PROD. Future releases should start after PROD is out and acceptable.

Other news, well there isn't any... :D

Incidents

I love histories. Probably why I like RPG settings. They design elaborate histories that I can read and wonder about. Plus they generally leave the mind open in an exercise of future possibilities.

As that goes, I am re-reading Jovian Chronicles and all the history in between them. The curious thing about this world is originally Dream Pod 9 released it as an expansion to the Mekton system of TSR. The irony is that some of the original background is laid down in these two supplements that's referenced by the system DP9 later released themselves. So sometimes the reader is left with rather sketchy details to events in the past that shaped the future greatly. It's frustrating because the defining moment in the history of that world (ask the Martians, they got a real black line to designate their equator) is, as far as I can tell, detailed in that first release and only briefly outlined since then.

But it's getting late. Perhaps more later. Perhaps not.

Oy

This week I just feel rather off. Not quite sure why. A little ruder, less polished, unbalanced. :/ Sorry I've been rather quiet. Also not a whole lot to say...

Shaken Bases

So two big things in the news that relate to little ol' me: first Apple is switching over to Intell chips. It'll be a gradual change but it's been in the works since initial OSX as far as I can tell. Anyhow I am not quite sure what to say about this. I am curious to see what will happen but unsure of the outcome. Either Apple will crack into the larger market or the larger market will crush it is the way I see it. This is a make or break situation for them so the next several years will be interesting to watch.

Other change: White Wolf has announced Exalted: 2nd Edition in Feb. 2006. I guess they upheld their promise. It won't come out til 2006. Some worries: GCG is stepping down as dev. as of this book so the man who promised the Revised core wouldn't out-date the other hardcovers is no longer in charge. Mr. Chambers is an unknown quantity so what will happen now is a big unknown. Also the rest of the year's schedule is still up in the air. I think maybe GCG got tired of all the complaints (especially Lunars, talk about beating a dead horse) and finally let the ball pass. It's sad but changes happen. I await to see the compatibility. An interesting 8 months or so.

Final comments: this one is just amusing in a sad way. French President Jacques "I'm a worse human being then anti-Bush people say Bush is!" Chirac talked about the upcoming EU budget. The British apparently get a several billion dollar rebate in the budget. To lessen the EU budget crisis Mr. Chirac suggests that the British cancel this rebate for the good of the EU. While this budget issue appears to be relatively minor (especially in comparison to the all consuming CAP) in the same breath our fair and balanced French leader announced that there would be no debate or cutting back the French CAP subsidies of whom France is the largest benefieciary. Now the CAP makes up something like 2/3rds of EU budget so this reminds me of the Bible story of the slave debtor who owed a massive debt and had it canceled only to throw the minor debtor to him into jail. I love the French, I think the US got our arrogance from them (afterall we take a lot of European traits don't we). That just makes me cheerful how he demands things from other EU countries but in the same breath will make no concessions on anything for the French. It's France first, Europe second to them. No wonder the EU constitution failed...

Horizontal Rain, Tornado Sirens, and in the End Me == Wet

Wow, crazy weather here. At work say about 1:10 I am happily listening to BBC News internet radio in my cubicle. Kurt in the office over is doin' the same. As are the guys around us in the other cubicles. Over my fairly noisy British news commentary I hear a rumble. Now I am thinking someone moved something heavy, full garbage can, multi-function printer (alas noone other then my co-workers will get that) or something along those lines. However there was promptly another rumble so I stand up and peer down over the other cubicles to Jim's window. Very dark and gray. Shortly thereafter we get a couple rumbles so everyone looks up. Now it's starting to rain. Rather quickly the rain does that part in Forrest Gump where it goes sideways. The trees (the one we can barely see at least) do their best to mimic the trees. Every tornado siren in the city goes off. Being good office workers we ignore them and stare out the windows. This goes on for 5 minutes before the office PA announces Operation Black. Now everyone scrambles to find our little emergency booklets to figure out "what the hell is Operation Black?!?" Not surprisingly this turns out to be the tornado procedure. As a result most of us head to the nearest windows or continue what we're doing (ah smart office folk we are). This has something to do with the fact you can almost see clear sky on the horizon. The storm is practically over.

Anyhow I head home shortly after this. It rains hard a couple times but mostly clear skies behind and to the south. Somehow when I get to Shopko it's pouring tho. So I got drenched going in and 100% soaked running out. Oy. Crazy weather.

Busy

That kind of describes things. Actually I think that's just how my weeks will be. Busy week, dull weekend. I suppose that makes sense. I am hoping that the weekends aren't all dull. Have to see though. Not exactly much in the way of news here to report though. Lots of storms have rolled through, lots of rain and lightning. Thankfully no tornados, don't think this place would do well against them.

Anyhow, got my ID card today so I am officially a real person now as far as all the random security devices at work are concerned.

...the exblonde will possibly graduate the same time as me, how is that possible?!?

Alright, this was rather short and useless post, kinda got distracted. Like I said not much newsworthy lately.

Boom

Well Evie hope you appreciate all the thunderstorms. This place was rocking tonight. Tis beautiful in a scary, powerful sort of way. Guess these storms followed me home. Bedtime now, more sometime hopefully, been busy in a non-busy sort of way.

"You don't remember screaming in the plaza about the day of judgement coming?"
"No, did it?"
"Not as far as I know, but I may have missed a staff meeting."

I love B5. Night. If people are in Point this weekend let me know, would rather not be a bum all by myself :/

Lonely Saturdays

While I sort of knew it in an academic sense but boy it's dead here. Everyone seemed to drop off the face of the earth today and it was just lonely. Blah, was hoping on weekends to spend time with people not be even more isolated then in my cubicle at work! :/

Exalted Commentary

So returning from the the Lars/Brent ball game where they did much better then I expected (especially since when I arrived they were losing by several runs) and half-doing the giant stack of dishes (blah!) I'm going to tackle random Exalted news.

Now granted there hasn't been much news. There is a lot of talk about Bastions of the North, according to the White Wolf LJ it is going off to editing but we have no real idea what it's about (aside from the North), how long it is, etc. I will say that I doubt it's a hardcover mainly because hardcovers come out late in the year usually between late October and very early December. To be going to editing now would place this probably late August (after Aspect Book: Wood) to somewhere in September. It's likely the holdover book. Right now we've had 4 softcovers (ABs: Fire & Water, Bone & Ebony, Cult of the Illuminated) and 1 hardcover (Autocthonians). That means we should have 4 more softcovers (one of which is AB: Wood). Reportedly the Scarlet Manual of Proper Bearing is slated for this year (formerly last year) and I'd guess around Christmas barring that it got struck from the rosters. So 2 softcovers. So Bastions should most likely be a softcover leading up to the last hardcover of the year.

Guesses on the hardcover at the moment are: Exalted Revised or Storyteller's Handbook. Personally I am against E:Revised primarily because WW said last that this wasn't going to come out til 2006 at the earliest. Also I think a lot of fans would be unhappy because it might indicate that WW was going to go and re-do (even tho they said they wouldn't) all the core hardcovers again. This is the nasty 3.0->3.5 WotC D&D syndrome also a problem in the old WoD (and incidentally in the upgrade to nWoD as well). People generally don't like that kind of change. So really I think this is pushed more by whiny fans who think "so and so is broken" and whine about it incessantly. You can be assured if they revise Solars ever Lunar fan will expect they revise Lunars and scream murder if they don't. Heck the Lunar fans screamed murder when Cult of the Illuminated came out (a book on a Sidereal run cult worshipping/supporting Solars) and it focused on (surprise!) Sidereals and Solars. Right so my bet is on Storyteller's Handbook/Guide because as far as I know WW usually does on of these for each series and the Storyteller's Companion could use a meatier, thicker, newer replacement.

Now: WW has two secret projects going on for Exalted apparently. I don't believe the comic is one because we've seen stuff on it already on the White Wolf homepage and forums plus Zub has been talking about it a lot. See his LJ for a series of articles on the development of the Exalted comic in fact. I'm not even slightly interested in that. However, Zub works for UDON who happens to do a fair amount of the Exalted art, including the much delayed Exalted: CCG. Zub mentions this obliquely as of late so I think this is one of the secrets. Now that almost all of the nWoD core books are out (Mage comes out in August I think) I suspect they may actually go ahead and release this or re-announce it or something. So that's secret one. That leaves us with a fairly big secret too. What it is I am unsure. Hopefully pretty big. GCG has gotten a partner developer (John Chambers) so the workload may have increased although this might be related to the adding of a CCG and a comic. Anyhow figure all secrets will be out by the end of Con season, probably major announcements will be at either Origins or GenCon so just have to wait til then.

Ok, that was really long but I rather enjoyed typing it. If you want less geeky entries do read below this :D

This is BBC News Stevens Point

Since my iPod is still in need of a tune-up and my computer at work lacks a CD-ROM drive I am left listening to internet radio via Windows Media Player. I've latched onto BBC News as my primary station, only aborting when I need to study the Visual C++ book because I can't listen to people talk and read at the same time. For whatever reason unlike NPR the BBC people don't bore me to death when speaking, most likely related to their British accents. News junkie that I am, I greatly appreciate being plugged in all day long to world events.

Speaking of those events, if you were unaware the Dutch massively shot down the EU constitution Wed 63% (No) -37 (Yes) with a 67% voter turnout. While the Dutch govt handled the defeat better then the French just about everyone admits that solid of a defeat was shock. The general consensus is that the political elites within the various European governments have totally and completely ignored and lost touch with the general populace and now the populace is voicing their unhappiness over it. French President Jacques Chirac is at an all time low approval rating of 24%. That makes Bush's approval rating look heavenly and casts serious doubt on Chirac's tenure in office, although at least from what I understand his coalitation is holding and after he creation of a new Cabinet his position is safe. His chance of re-election are about the same as W's though. I guess he didn't realize that using anti-American stances would only keep his pull numbers up when nothing was going on at home. Perhaps the next person in will focus more on helping France then hating America.

The major curiosity for me is how the political elites are taking this. Rather then admitting defeat and going back to square one they seem to be pressing on. Funny how politicians work isn't it? They can't just say "we were wrong" even when everything says they were. In fact they seem to be attempting to press on even when it seems the people, who they theoretically serve, are giving an obvious, overt dissapproval for such actions.

The EU Constitution is essentally legally dead as all 25 countries need to ratify it. At the moment its record is 10-2 (Latvia's parliment having ratified it today). Britain is leaning more and more towards not voting at all. The Brits were originally expected to be the breakwater that stopped the constitution from making it through. Now, however with the issue in doubt so early there is likely to be very little support to even put the issue up for a referendum in the Euro-skeptic nation. Ironically many of the leaders who supported it are on the way out: Chirac and Gerhardt Schroeder (Germany) are both doing badly in polls and local level elections. Tony Blair says he will step down either at the end of this term or some point in it meaning 3 of the majors head of state who support the constitution will be gone.

Food for thought anyhow.

They raised tutition and cut our UW budget more in another moment of financial brightness by our state government. Seriously, could these Senators balance their own checkbooks? You don't make cuts on one end and charge people more for those reduced services at the same time (and how many years have they done this to us?) It seems more and more that the parties are so set on their own idealogies they aren't even aware of what's good for the people. They just blindly follow their beliefs and are dragging the helpless constituents with them. Next election we should all write in someone who isn't in a party and see how the parties take that!

Well I am off to go attempt to find and watch friends of mine go play base or soft ball (can't remember which). Wish me luck in not getting lost :D