Deviation

I'm plugging away at attempting finishing the decorating my walls. Here are some links to peruse and give me feedback. Be warned it's apparently a laaaaaaaarge list:
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Anyhow, no news on the reading front, still stuck in Second Foundation although also perusing WoD: Chicago.

Nerdom?

So is it bad that I am listening to the Robot Chicken Star Wars skit "Palpatine Phone Call" and I recognize the voice of Seth Macfarlane (for those of you drawing blank looks he's the creator and half the voices on "Family Guy") by one phrase he uses in the skit. He's the Emp btw. Truly I am a nerd. :D

Harry Potter Transforms?

Read HP7. Not too bad. Didn't quite beat the spread but I was betting on Voldemort too :D

If you haven't seen Transformers drop what yer doing and go see it. It's quality! Yea, isn't that deep wisdom? Maybe not.

Nothing else of real substance at the moment alas.

War and Politics II

Another fun one related to the war: when did the withdrawal become a "re-deployment"? I mean are we keeping them on active duty when they are returned to the United States? Are we beaten so badly that Congress thinks the Iraqis will be landing troops on the East Coast? Meh, the whole debate leaves a bitter taste in my mouth as its all about politics and the only people who matter are the polls.

That's all for now...

News?

Hmm, my blog feels like its slowly dying of neglect. Let's see what's new? Work is busy but generally straight forward so that's good. The house is pretty much set up, basically just some interior decorating is left but that's not on a set schedule. I still need to sort through that stack of papers but think that may get neglected a little longer. Not good I'll admit.

I'm finishing up Second Foundation. I should really tackle Velvet Elvis after this but I got Night Watch and am debating reading that. Floating around in RPG land I also have Oadenal's Codex for Exalted and Magic Item Compendium for D&D for new perusal.

To celebrate that I won't be paying dual rent next month I am going on a book buying spree I think. Probably pick up a bunch of RPGs. Have to see tho. Harry Potter 7 comes out next weekend but that will be a weekend blitz. Poof and done.

Sadly beyond that there isn't much news. More later?

War and Politics

It makes me very sad now that the only thing politicians talk about these days (especially nearly all of them running for office) is bringing the troops home. None of them talk about actually solving the problem. See they act like when all our soldiers are back in the United States the problem will be solved. And ironically from a pollsters perspective it will because the the 26.7 million Iraqis don't vote in US elections (and therefore aren't people, sorry folks unless you're an American politicians here don't consider your opinion worth much unless you are agreeing with what they are doing).

So what's this mean at as far as I see it? Well, eventually the Democrats will succeed in getting the troops home. It's inevitable since as I mentioned above pollsters rule Washington and the war is obviously unpopular. Have to blame Bush on that one, he certainly bungled the war effort going in. He probably should have emphasized the fact that we'd be in Iraq for decades. (Also it might have been nice if they had planned a little better for the postwar period.) We still have military forces in Germany 60+ years after that war ended. But Americans are lousy at history anyways aren't we? Iraq may of course actually pull things together without direct military support, to say it's impossible downplays the abilities of their people but I see it as unlikely. More likely is a brutal civil war and a country (or countries?) feeling betrayed by the Americans who came in kicked everything over and then left.

Politicians may see themselves elected to office on bringing the troops home but in 20 years politicians may be having to tell those troops to go back into Iraq to deal with a country (or countries) that hate America and are as active against us as Saddam or the Taleban ever was. Didn't this kind of short-sightedness lead to the problem in Afghanistan in the first place back in the 80s?

Maybe it's true that we just will never learn.

Guests

I love having people over. :D

Rut

I'm in a rut lately and I am unsure how to get myself out. Hmm...

Books

So plugging away at an accelerated rate at Foundation and Empire as my usual lunch cohort is on vacation this week. I've got a lot of reading waiting for me. It's all in one place due to the house (well actually I have a couple of Dad's books I want to read too but oh well). 24 books that are unopened sit on the shelf plus Velvet Elvis which is next up on my docket.

The house is mostly set up, you can take a look on Facebook if you like. At some point now I am going to probably throw a house warming party although that depends greatly on my motivation. I started the battle to retake my lawn this evening and I will be interested to see if the weed spray does anything or if I applied it to lightly. I also need to get around to washing the CRV sometime. And securing the ethernet cable in the basement and a million other miscelaneous projects.

Looks like I might be running a mortals nWoD game for Carl & friends. Should be interesting if it does run. Hope I can pull it off, that kind of story is all about the storytelling not so much the system! Anyhow I need to throw some laundry in here quick before I head out to the LTG.

It heats up

Well my house survived the day of super cells last week thankfully. In general things are coming along pretty well. What I really need to do is unpack the rest of my junk. After that I am essentially home free. I am pretty close as it is. Then I just have projects to do and those will be ongoing. Note: When you buy a house the list of things to do never goes away it just changes in size.

What's new? Well I ordered a print for the living room. Will have to find a frame whence it arrive. We'll see how it looks, maybe I'll get more but they're expensive too! Decorating is a lower priority, it will perhaps be higher in the fall/winter.

I've got the itch to buy RPGs again but I am holding off. A couple new Exalted books will come out over the summer and those I will get. Probably Scions: Demigod & God as well. Really digging some of the stuff with Gear Krieg as well. Ah, who knows. It's inevitable that once my apartment lease is done that my "luxury" items will be mostly RPG books. Then again I don't really want much else. Maybe a Gamecube game or two but those are cheap and prolly getting cheaper!

There is a part of me toying with wrapping up this blog. I'm not yet so don't worry if you are one of the few people who actually reads/checks this on a semi-regular basis. It's just that I think in a sense I may be running out of stuff to talk about. I don't talk about work on here and that's what I do 40 hours (sometimes more) a week. It cuts out a lot of the time I had to do random maybe interesting to the random reader stuff!

Cleaning Up and Out

Well everything but a wastebasket and some cleaning supplies is moved out of the old apartment. I even lugged up the hideous old lamp and stand that came with it and had been tucked away in storage for over a year. Tomorrow I'll go and clean the place, finish it off. Then I guess I'll have to hope someone takes it. Otherwise it'll collect dust. The place looks a little forlorn.

In the meantime my house feels quasi-filled with stuff that needs to be sorted and put away. I have a lot of junk, an amazing amount for a single bedroom apartment. (BTW the old apartment is so small I can plug in the vacuum in the hall and it can vacuum literall the entire place. Crazy stuff.

Well time to go read Legacy of Heorot and then crash.

Settling In

Well I am mostly moved in now. What remains is a lot of organizing of things. Major furniture arrives tomorrow, that will be pretty exciting, I'll finally have a real bed all of my own. Also a couch. w00t!

Granting the basement still needs the futon assembled, that tv set up, and even more stuff put away. I should also prolly get that ethernet cable that snakes from upstairs through downstairs out of the way. That'll be fun...

Anyhow, the real home is getting closer!

Home

I own it and am moving in. Guess I'm staying put for awhile. Well come and visit me :D

Starcraft 2, Shrek 3, and 4 Toast

Which one is not like the other eh?

So if you haven't heard Starcraft 2 has been officially announced. I'm pumped for it, first game in awhile that's got me excited. Not even sure the computers I have will run it but ah well.

Saw Shrek 3. It's not as good as previous two. Not bad mind you just didn't quite get me like the others. Think it was the lack of a good soundtrack that might have hurt it the most. Music matters.

Been busy reading, I should fill you in but time for bed now.

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"Your father fought. Honor him." -The Red Star

Summer slips in

So finals appears to be rolling by. It's a bit strange not caring much other then watching friends depart on the winds from Point. This year my summer vacation is a week long and I'll be moving into the house during that. I feel like I need a vacation and a week doesn't feel long enough. Ah well, that's work. Take things as best I can.

Not much new. Watching the temps vacillate is interesting. At least it's not like in winter where you get a ton of snow that turns to slush. Be funny if we got some snow tho, kinda sad too as everything is finally beautifully greeeen. That's all for now.

Old Times

So hanging out with Carl and Julie over at Carl's place and he had bought a bunch of old wooden trains. Man are those fun or what? We went and managed to build a functioning line with multiple loops and bridges and everything with it. It was awesome! Julie totally did not understand the guy need to build things there.

Yea, that's all I got. Go to bed now ;)

Analytics, Reading, and the Local Housing Market

Or How I Learned to Love My Job...

Which really doesn't have much to do with the above three. Google made a massive change to Analytics. I honestly don't like it. The displays seem much clunkier and provide information in a harder to quickly digest form. This might also be because I am vastly more familiar with the old system. Guess I have something to do.

Reading wise I plugged through Jerry Pournelle's Exiles to Glory and then thanks to Dani's boyfriend Sean who is going to Japan for at least a year I got several Frank Herbert books as well as Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy so I am digging into Foundation which I half read in 8th grade. At some point I'm going to get back to Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis I just need some less serious reads. I am seriously excited that soon I will have my entire library at my disposal. I was craving Louis MacMaster Bujold's A Civil Campaign earlier this week and alas it is far away. :(

In two weeks I'll be a homeowner! It's so close yet so far away. It's funny because I want to be in the place so bad but that'll be my home most likely for several years ranking it quickly as the second longest residence i've lived in.

Well that's all I've got. It's strange, May is almost halfway done. The weeks just roll by.

Work and Life Intersecting

So I am reading on the ol' Facebook blog about work they are doing relating to PHP open source. They have a link relating to a change they made and behold! they use CVS! I know CVS! Yea, anyhow, bedtime.

Ptolus 6

Possibly the last Ptolus report is in here.