Wemic's Crying

Tonight turned out a little different then I thought. Here's a random play of events:
Got the complete lowdown of what we are doing for CIS480 this summer. Basically determining the needs of a foundation's database and then recommending an off the shelf database geared towards foundations.
Ordered yet more books from Noble Knight, this time a couple 1st Ed Blue Planet books and one Engel book. Now I should have the full runs of both: a grand total of 3 books each. Blue Planet managed to survive to a 2nd Ed but Engel never really got off the ground in the US. Sad, I like the setting. Not sure how much the BP books will ever be used, prolly only play 2nd Ed if I ever play BP at all but part of me is very completist. No more RPG books for awhile and yes I'm aware at the start of the year I said I wouldn't get any and since then I've prolly gotten nearly a dozen. Hypocrite I most certainly am at times :(
Went to BW3s in Wausau. This was primarily a get-out-of-point/plan-this-summer-trip event. Successfully got out of Point. Did plan out our route to and from. Not terribly thrilled about return route cause it involves camping and I'm not a huge fan but realized that it won't kill me and it'll prolly build character if not give some useful basic life skills (ie helping to put up a tent, getting eaten by coyotes while the rest of the group beats it back to the CRV). So it'll prolly turn out to be a good thing if by this time we aren't ready to kill each other from proximity. Gotta keep a good attitude! (Harking back to the Air Force personnel at Keflavik in Red Storm Rising :D )
Got back, watched CSI and bummed around. Decided to throw Serenity into the tablet in my room and generate another character for Dani's game. My initial character is all good to go: Druid5/Shifter8. Yea, non gamers try and figure that out could been: Drd5/Shf8 even more confusing, eh? So for the heck of it I decide to make a character based off of a creature. I ended up picking a Wemic because they seemed pretty pimped. Went about making a 13th level character and after getting mostly done realized I had misunderstood the oh-so-not-confusing-at-all-unless-you-are-not-rocket-scientist ECL rules and made an 18th level charcter Wemic Fighter10 instead of a 13th level character who'd be a mere Fighter5. Alas, but no real loss because not my intended character to play. Plus I got to see Serenity and that's always fun.
"Tell me again about the part where Jayne gets knocked out by a 90 pound girl because that's never getting old!"

So here I am writing a very long blog entry right before I go to bed. Still feel kind of wide awake but hopefully I can read a little more of 2 Peter and that'll help ease my mind out of overdrive. Enjoy, good night, etc, etc.

PS I noticed that Mal looks scarily like Sean sometimes, you know how wrong that is?

MS, RPGs, and Other things

Yesterday the little MS Update thingy tells me I've got an update to install. This is fine. I've told it to tell me when it gets them. What's not fine is what it wanted to install. Seems MS decided to send a little thingy to test if my OS was valid or not. Yea, joy, nice to show trust by putting spyware on my comp that can "help" me register for a legal version of XP. Nice to show trust to legit users. More to the point most people who pirate are going to be aware of it and not going to install it either (well the smart ones at least). I am more scared that if this thing screws up that it'll disable my comp and make me jump through hoops as a way to "persuade" me to register my copy of XP. And yes this is a legit copy that came with my tablet but I don't trust MS programming well enough to figure that out. I also don't trust them enough to take any risks if their program decides that this is not a legit copy of XP.

So my total RPG book count has now surged past 110. That's a lot of reading material. Actually one of my goals is to surpass my Dad's library of books (no RPGs but tons of sci-fi). Slowly working my way towards it although my normal book reading has been woefully slow. I've got a backlog over a dozen books long and several of them very long non-fiction books. I love reading, I def. don't do it enough. Mostly at night before bed. Sometimes if it's really good at other times but I think more and more I have become plugged into this digital medium which is both great and utterly dreadful at the same time. Ah, I could wax philosphical on the benefits and ills of the web but I won't bore you anymore.

Time to try to polish Carter up a little bit. It was funny in class, Lena and I were done and a couple of the guys haven't started nor have they taken any notes. It still took Lena and I a good prolly 10-15 hours (over several days) total to get everything up and running right for the most part. Gonna be a lot of extra stress on these guys to turn things out right.

332 mostly complete

So since I am actually sort of done with CIS332 (amazing when you sit down how sometimes stuff just flows to you) so Tyler suggested I blog or otherwise my -2.35 readers may abandon me altogether.

Took the CRV in Monday cause the spare was going flat. Having never used it this concerned Dad and I somewhat. Unfortunately the local Honda guys couldn't find anything beyond the air being low in the tire. Their best suggestion was that someone was letting the air out of my spare. That's rather a long shot considering of all the times on your standard CRV the spare is the hardest to access. Who knows, maybe it was just a cold weather thing and it'll be good all summer. Hopefully I will never have to use it. I was mostly concerned for going to Denver.

Not a whole lot going on at the moment. Really should try and tackle the webpage for Gribble's class but cannot for the life of me come up with a good working concept for the 5th page. It would have been nice if we could have picked our subject because I don't know how to tie much into a record setting canoe race for Rett Syndrome and Leukodystrophy. I'll make up something I suspect.

I got my big old package of RPG books Monday. Was really excited: 4 Rifts books, the Silhouette core rules (Jovian Chronicles uses that rules systems) and Core Command Armory (uses Silhouette rules and basically got it to see if it had decent ships). Sort of digging through the different books now finding the fun stuff. I think by far my favorite is Rifts Underseas mostly cause it has a giant submersible aircraft carrier! It just looks fun.

Classes are done in a week and a half. I can't believe it, time really flies. I'm gonna be older and within a semester of graduating in less then a month! Yay yay! Anyhow I need to get over to County Market to resupply on milk and other essentials (milk!) so time to wrap this up.

I have not died yet

And if you use Live Bookmarks come check the site once in awhile sometimes they die too. Ironically their replacements are deader!

That said, this past week was well so-so even though it really should have been pretty nice cause classes weren't tough and no real major homework was due!

This week however life kicks into overdrive, flips on the afterburners, and attempts to circumvent E=MC^2 by sheer will of business! The good news is: the books I ordered and the rest of X should both come this week plus Dani borrowed me the next 70 odd episodes of Naruto. Now X I can play through even if I doing stuff but Naruto I will have to hold off til finals week or post finals week cause it's all subtitled and half the fight between Naruto & Gaara I quasi-missed cause I listened. My Japanese is veeeeeery shabby (some like to say non-existent like my reader base) so didn't catch much. Not good to keep up on plot. Oh, Saturday we get to re-hash Mario Kart night. And Thursday hopefully BW3s!

Ok, so what's the bad stuff? Goulet, Goulet, Goulet, Carter, and Gribble. Or more simply put classes with lots of work to do and it's that time of year when it's tough work or lots of work or both. It'll be crazy early on but really there is lots to do and I need to focus. Lotsa stuff Wed/Thurs morning. Then a little breather but in the meantime I have a ton of 332 to sort out and a user manual that has my name on it. Whee. But enough yapping, I'd better get to it.

So I just noticed my good paragraph outlengths the bad, maybe things aren't as bad as they seem. Sometimes you just need to see it I guess!

Exalted Rnd. 11

"Is there a window there?"
... "There is now."

"Oh, I'm supposed to fall. Ahhhhh." -the ability to walk on air can be useful at times

"Don't mess with me kitty."

So, if there was ever a session I was really winging it on it was this one. The start however was a pickup from last time. We left off with the Zenith taking on hordes o' demons. He is more or less ok once he clears the sky of fliers but that doesn't solve the horde on the ground. Luckily the Dawn gets thrown by a Spirit charm across Creation from one battle with demons to another. He appears in the middle of the demons and proceeds to cut most of them down in an efficient fashion.

Post demon clean which happened much faster then I expected the Zenith and Dawn go and find the somewhat beat up Night and they proceed to find out what's behind the gaurded door. It's the 2nd Circle demon that attacked them early. The Dawn starts talking to the demon when the Zenith rushes in, on fire, and attacks him. Demon loses init and dies in two hits from the Dawn. Big boss bad guy is now dead, with no dialogue spoken so plot is somewhat stopped. The Zenith destroys a Broken Winged Crane (without knowing what it was) and then joins the Dawn and Night in exploring. The Night finds some stuff from the Circle's original (insane) Zenith and steals the obvious item that would identify her presence. She also finds a journal written in Old Realm, which she can't read, and gives that to the Zenith who torches it before she can even hand it to him. Now she's stealing the tarnished oricalchulm that identifies the old Zenith and the new Zenith torches the journal without even thinking (I really shoulda forced a temperance roll but the player is almost absolutely opposed to me make any such rolls to control his actions even though I honestly think noone spontaneously burns something, more on that later). Finally the Zenith notices the presence of the tarnished/tainted orichalcum on the Night and essentially attacks her and she somewhat fights back to make her hand it over. She does and the Dawn correctly identifies it as something the old Zenith had a long ways back (game time that was a decade ago!). The Zenith manages to figure out that this corrupted Zenith will probably show up in the city again so the Circle elects to wait.

After this our Zenith player had to leave so the Dawn and Night opted to wait it out in the city. I had a quasi-dream sequence where the Night got to attempt to take on a 2nd Circle demon but didn't do so well. Rather then have her die I sort of on the fly converted it to a dream sequence. I felt kinda bad about that, it was a cheap maneuver but at this point the plot wasn't really going to be advanced. Instead I played around and let the two players stunt and kill some demons and accidentally demolish the palace/castle at the center of town as a result.

The players proved to be really adept at killing things so I got caught rather flat-footed pretty quick in this scenario. I feel like I kinda let them down. I am also dissapointed because I've realized I run a lot of combat and less actual roleplaying then I had intended. On the flip side I've noticed that the players sometimes do some things that a very rash and usually actually make it harder for me to roleplay events. I've been tempted to force rolls of temperance and conviction and valor but I don't want to bring it to that. It's essentially rail-roading. I dunno. Anyhow, two weeks and we have the finale and I have a couple ideas. Plus some scheming :D

Blah, will I ever learn?

Also...I can kill you with my mind

Yea, Firefly has to be one of the most quotable shows ever.

Yup, that's it for today.

"You had the alliance on you, criminals and savages, half the people on the ship have been shot or wounded, including yourself, and you're harboring known fugitives."
"We're still flying."
"That's not much."
"That's enough."

I think this is kind of my outlook on Chi Alpha, we're kind of struggling right now for whatever reason but we're a community and we're still flying, we haven't given up and that's what matters when we crawl under the covers each night. No one ever said it'd be easy. (Another quote comes to mind: "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it." Sound clip.)

I should really get cracking on that homework now. On a random odd note I've been plugging away at the geography of Faerun in the Forgotten Realms corebook. I've always read it kind of piecemeal so a week or so back I decided to just start reading at the beginning of the section and keep going til I got through it all. A couple of days I actually looked to see how long the whole thing was and it's about 100 pages! That's a lot of places!

Off to write that Emergency Management Plan-In case of fire put it out, next crisis!

Interesting Times

Well helped out at the Pirate Murder Mystery Dinner last night and that was very interesting. Ended up doing a lot more work then I expected and I have a newfound respect for chef's or anyone who spends their days working in a kitchen! It was a lot of fun watching them play the whole thing out as well and I generally enjoyed myself. I was really bushed after that tho and was asleep by 11 last night (that's gotta be the earliest all year). Had some really strange dreams last night too. Think that's just cause I went to bed so early, I seem to remember my dreams when I go to bed at a time other then my regular sleep time.

Ran into an old acquaintance from high school today after finishing up work in the UC. It was rather strange, I haven't seen him prolly since the summer of freshman year. Couldn't even remember his name off the top of my head (rather embaressed about that) but still an interesting twist to the day. He was in town for the Mark Green for Gov campaign.

Well I need to get stuff cleaned up so my place is quasi-presentable for my parents tomorrow. Have a good weekend all.

Surfactant

Noun 1. surfactant - a substance capable of reducing the surface tension of a liquid in which it is dissolved (from Free Dictionary)

Surfactants are wetting agents that lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading, and lower the interfacial tension between two liquids. (from Wikipedia)

Hi Aprill :)

Yes, I'm strange, get over it and go read about surfactants. I just did a whole post on them so by golly you'd better get something out of this!

God's in His Heaven...All's Right with the World

So this week really looked like it would suck but someone things seemed to have sorted themselves out although I was pretty miserable Tuesday night. Kind of funny how God can prop you up when you're down. At this rate though I may actually make it but think I might dissapear Friday night for a bit just to recover. We'll see. Don't really feel like bowling tho.

Got a letter from an old friend asking if I'd help support her on a Campus Crusade Summer Mission. I'm kind of stuck whether I should support her or not. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I haven't chatted much with her recently or seen her in awhile. I'd like to know what God is doing in her life beyond just what a form letter says. If I am going support someone I want to take it fairly seriously!

Random useless news: Twism and I started a new franchise for Madden. The old one was still a good team, we made it to the super bowl again although got clobbered there do to a very ineffectual offense. The off season was gonna kill us due to that stupid salary cap. I rather hate that part of madden where you have to keep track of money, to me it distracts from putting together the ultimate super team even though it obviously adds realism. So we put together a new franchise and the offensive proceeded to throw 8 interception and have several fumbles. I am theoretically getting better, we hope.

I wish I had more useful content to put in but at the moment my mind is blank so that'll be all for now!

Today, Today

Today was pretty interesting. Managed to be productive and still have a fairly relaxing day. Got my WDMD done and got the stuff for Goulet done (for Tuesday at least). Will study for history test before bed tonight so just with that I feel pretty darn good! Got out for a walk today with Abby and that was lots of fun, it's been awhile since I've gotten out on a walk, and even longer since I've gotten out with anyone with me! We ate at Debot afterwards which was really interesting since I haven't been there since they changed the layout. It's very different looking but the food has stayed exactly the same. Oh yeah, I got to register today too. Yay.

I am really plugging away through Naruto at the moment, it got really interesting with the Sand & Sound villages surprise attacking the Hidden Leaf village. Also I realized a very nasty technique I might employ for use later with some RPG I am running, the whole idea of having the bad guy raise from the dead really good deceased heros to fight against the good guys is just twistedly evil. Sounds like something an Abyssal would do. Exalted folks didn't read that :D

Well that's all for now.

:D

It's been a pretty good day. Hope everyone had a good Easter and appreciates why the holiday is there.


Also hope everyone said "Happy Birthday" to my one and only roommate.

Now time for homework that I didn't do earlier this weekend :/

Exalted...just kidding

Yea, no Exalted last night. Instead Dani and Isaac came over, we hung out watched Naruto (like 15 episodes of it), made fun of Sandy, er Gaara (*feels impending thrown implents of Dani approaching and begs much forgiveness for much teasing from last night), and generally had a good time.

Today had to call security to open up the UC lab because noone decided to open the UC up until 11. At least one person came to work on time there today! Actually got some work done there. Proceeded to do laundry and dishes at home between helping to get the All-Madden Dolphins to the Superbowl although the Defense (yup, capital D) did a big job there, and am now kicking back and being lazy. Really should work on WDMD tho...

Anyhow, Happy Easter to all tomorrow!

The 0400 fire alarm.

So while it should not come as any surprise to anyone that fire alarms going off at 0400 absolutely disrupt sleep patterns it still means I'm extra tired this morning. I can't even go home and nap after Carter's class and that makes me sad. I am glad I decided to not stay out real late last night so I actually got to bed before 2. That woulda been even more painful.

Saw "My Neigbor Totoro" last night (before playing Beer Pong, yea it was a strange night). It's certainly a kid's movie but I still really enjoyed it. The soundtrack was very well done, the voice acting was superb, and the animation was pretty sharp. Plus I really liked the creatures: Totoro and kin and the cat bus. Rowr! :D

Seeing as I don't feel very productive now (no matter how much energy I had say 6 hours ago) I hope I can crack down and get work done this weekend. In the meantime everyone go congratulate Tyler on turning older on the 16th. Yea, it's a couple days away but lots of folk will be gone Sunday for Easter so figured I'd be pre-emptive!

Realization

Gosh, this summer could be really interesting. Things are a little more up in the air then last year since I won't be tied down to a specific job all summer. That's not to say I won't be busy. Hopefully CIS 480 will happen and I will have a very busy mid-June through mid-August. But I've also got two switch apartments and that could be on a very short time schedule creating all sorts of mayhem. Plus I'll have to go through setting up cable/internet. Probably not all that hard really but who knows.

It looks like I will be prolly be going with the girls to visit Lars towards the end of summer. It should be interesting if a long drive. I really want to do a long haul road trip though (I still harbor dreams of driving all of Hwy 14 someday) and this would really be my last chance.

I guess I am apprehensive about the future which is funny because I should really be apprehensive about the Carter assignment but I can't work on that in this lab. Ah well, maybe this weekend I can get some work done while everyone is home for Easter and feel a little better.

Well maybe I should update a bit

Or some such thing. Honestly I don't have much to say for once aside from my usual random opinion which are just that, opinions. I don't have much new to talk about. Got to see Katy this weekend, she's back in town for trivia/to visit home. That was fun, it's nice to chat in person even if I do tease her about politics alot. I really gotta work on not teasing people/ranting about stuff like that. It's not very nice.

Anyhow, like I said not much to talk about and don't feel very talkative. The latter may change, every day can be different so who knows. It's most likely the fact that I feel quasi swamped with homework even though it's about normal and mostly it's cause I didn't do any this weekend.

Well speaking of homework better get on that Goulet!

:/

Not sure I am gonna get a thing done this weekend. Oh dear.

Mini blitz

Ever had one of those moments where suddenly had a huge amount of stuff to do and very little time to do it (generally because of some short notice event)? Got slammed with one of those and just sort of slipped into overdrive. It's a rather strange feeling because when I get in it I'm aware of it but couldn't notch myself down for the world. Everything seems to be moving a mile a minute and I am mentally incrementing everything out. Invariably I get the stuff done sometimes way ahead of time (like today for instance) but right up til whatever I need to do is done I am running on a full head of steam at flank speed. Then again, it's been one of those days too. Crazy.

Exalted Rnd. 11

"Pssst, hey demon."

This was a shorter session as we were down 2 circle members (one is indeed out permanently so if anyone is interested in being the new Twilight caste let me know, we meet every other Friday evening at my place). Anyhow the Twilight proceeds to get himself locked in the bathroom for a very long time. Since sorcerers can sorcerously generate food he'll be fine for a long time. The Dawn is forced to lead the collected Solar army plus the Vermillion Legion West to meet the demon led forces of the Realm coming from the Blessed Isle. With them missing it leaves the Zenith, Night, and Eclipse castes to head south and investigate what's up in Chaya.

Luckily the Eclipse is an accomplished airship pilot so they get there in record time after evading a few demon wasp patrols. They approach the capitol one foot and catch it in mid-riot season. As a result sneaking in is relatively easy. They just join the rioting and work their way through town. Eventually they reach the center most area which is gaurded by demons. After the Zenith manages to kill the two demon gaurds (nearly getting himself massively ganked in the process) the Circle proceeds into a zone which the demons were gaurding and all the rioters avoid. Here, in the center of the city, they find the central palace swarming with demons.

At this point they opt to come up with a way for the Night caste to sneak in. So the Zenith and Eclipse split up. The Eclipse starts setting huge fires and draws off about 20 of the demons. The Zenith plays with the demons a bit. He has a hearthstone that he can talk through so he baited a demon over and killed him. None of the other demons noticed however. So he selected option number two. Shoot every demon he can see. Solars have some nasty nasty charms. Thirty shot demons later (three of which are very very dead) the rest of the crowd are drawn off.

The Night caste proceeds to enter through an upper window and takes down two demon apes in one on one combat. However she is hurting a lot. In the meantime the twenty going after the Eclipse caused her to retreat back to the crowd barely making it. Using the crowd as cover she loops around to attempt to get to the Zenith's position. A fair amount of the crowd gets beat up in this pursuit but the demons are thrown off be a well set slow burn fire. So now the Eclipse is converging on the Zenith and the Night is attempting to sort out what to do inside the palace.

Should be interesting next week although not quite sure how to get the Dawn down south.

Blink

Just realized I still haven't posted the old Exalted post. I'll do it tomorrow I swear. In between classes, that'll be a good way to kill 30 minutes. In the meantime I am pretty excited. I got my carrier all pimped out (read: I can't add anything more onto it) and it's finally kicking butt. Ion cannons btw, annihilate all! I picked up two and took down a couple big ships. I added 3 more and now I mow down just about everything. At this point I can't even really target small craft intentionally. One burst (turrets/guns are sadly fire-linked) and Vipers vaporize. Now granted my kill count has gone way up. It's rather fun. Just wish I could capture a few of those Pirate Carriers to sell for a little excess cash.

Ok, since none of you cared even slightly about that go read the post below. It's got stuff other then just EV: Nova I promise.

In Approx. 6.5 hours this will suck

So I can't sleep. And like the title says that will suck a whole. lot. more. around 0830. In the meantime I will attempt to burn some energy posting. I really, really, really, want to play EV: Nova but if I do that I will be up til 0500 and die sometime around 1800. Upgrading a carrier takes time and more then a few explosions (my poor, poor ship). Yes I'm posting in military time live with it!

So Jenny's in Maui now. How nice is that? Not sure I'd really want to work there, think it'd be too warm/humid for me but def. wish I could visit. Ah well.

So I just realized I started the previous two paragraphs with the word so. Now I could actually have started this one without it but thought it'd be amusing.

Right...down to business.

Ever searched for yourself on the Internet? I actually mostly mean Google searched but as it is any web search will do. Or even within the dread realms of myspace or facebook (er actually they do a pretty good job of keeping track of you for yourself I guess). Isn't it amazing what the web knows about you? It's sometimes easy to forget that any employer/recruiter/whatever can simply plug your name into a search engine and get a lot about you whether you want them too or not. I sometimes wonder if they can find me. I don't think so owing to another guy with my name's rather more tragic ending. However, I'll never knock a resourceful HR rep who might dig around and find this blog. I guess I'd be curious to see what someone would think of me who simply read my blog and had never met me in any other form. My guess would be they'd think I was A) Manic/depressive or just depressed B) Geek (computer, anime, & rpgs) C) Don't have a C, oops. The problem with this is that it only shoot a glimse of me (as do all forms of blogs). More like extra features or director's commentary on a DVD then the actual movie. It might give some insight but it's not worth nearly as much without having seen the movie. In the meantime have to be careful I guess and watch what I say that might hurt my career chances shrink.

That whole last is oddly paranoid but more then a few tech people have lost jobs or not gotten jobs due to blogs. Noone better go and quit blogging on me cause of this! :P

Well now hopefully I've wound down enough I can pass out. Lots of reading to do so far this week but I have a bad feeling more homework is coming later today...

OMG Ponies!!!!!!1!11111one11!

Well April Fool's came and passed. Some of the gags were pretty funny so that was amusing. I generally wish I could come up with good gags but I usually don't have that kind of imagination. I guess I will split my time between World of Starcraft and My Little Ponies RPG while waiting for Google Romance to hook me up with a compatible date :D


Got glasses this week. A bit strange. I won't use them much but they do actually make a difference. Guess I really am going blind.

Feel like I should write more but am not motivated. Will later in the week. That includes how Exalted went too.

People Around Me

So of late I know two acquaintances who are England. Two of my friends are currently in Germany. Another of my friends is about to move to Hawaii to start a new job. It's pretty amazing, folks are going everywhere! Kind of wish I could go somewhere but looks like the best chance I will have is sometime next year.

So today was kind of interesting as I went over to JadeCo to see if they had gotten in Exalted 2nd Ed. They hadn't but as I was perusing the dice (always need more d10s to torments the poor PCs on Fridays) Brady comes in. So we chat and he is looking at the new D&D Tome of Magic. Jim only has a damaged copy which he is willing to sell half off (making it a decent price for a D&D book) so I pick that up. Brady ends up spotting me $20 as the debit card reader is on the fritz. So now Brady, Jim, and I are chatting. Who walks through the door but Isaac. Starting to be a little Exalted reunion. We chat for a bit and then lo and behold who comes in but Alex. At this point we are suspecting that Dani and Skott will come wheeling in short thereafter. We had half the crew already! Was rather interesting and spent nearly an hour there. As for Tome of Magic, it's ok, I've read better but maybe some stuff to toss into a random D&D game in the future. At least it was half off and I did get some shiny d10s.

What else is new? Not much, cramming in the homework. Life is back on full. Which means I should go and reference that lovely research paper. My part is nearing the end. Yay for that. Once it's referenced I can leave it fully in the hands of Jeff.

Oh yea, I did tweak the links a bit. More on that next time. Fun stuff that.

School Starts Again

Well, really more like break is over. Although technically I don't have class til Tuesday morning. I have been working slowly on Goulet's research paper. Need to get that mostly ironed out tomorrow. Then have to work on some SQL and finish a web page. Should really read up on a little Flash because I believe we have a test on Wednesday. Presentation due on Thursday for Goulet along with aforementioned research paper. It'll be busy and I don't think it will slow down. That's how things work though. I am getting close to being finished. Of course then I have work and from watching Evie (and past expierence) I realize the graduation just leads to a different sort of busy. Think work would be more enjoyable in some ways though. Guess I will find out come January, well hope so anyhow.

Saw V for Vendetta tonight. Very interesting movie. Much more thoughtful then I had anticipated. It's all too easy for us to forget that way back in the late 1700s a certain group of British citizens were labeled as terrorists and traitors and now we look at them as patriots. Makes you wonder when the line is crossed for either side. I like a movie that makes me think a little bit (or a lot) but still entertains me. Plus great use of the 1812 overture. I shant say anything more in case people who are reading this want to see it!

Well going to try and get to bed early (ie 0100) so better wrap this up. Hope the return to classes isn't too bad for everyone.

Long Day

Wow, 4 more hours on the road but it was worth it. Spent the afternoon with grandma and had a generally good time. I feel bad for not visiting her more as it has to be kind of lonely there. I realize I'm lonely after a day but at least I know I can visit folks a lot but grandma doesn't have that many people left so she doesn't get many visitors. :/ Def. on my list of things to do this summer is spend more time with her.

Think I may take CIS 480 this summer since this internship thing doesn't seem to be panning out. Granted I'd still prefer an internship but so far while there are lots of jobs out there I haven't had any luck. Guess I will talk with Carter and see what he thinks.

Tomorrow's a work day. That'll be fun. Really...

I survived a freak blizzardish snow shower in March to come to Point and do homework?!?

Days Go By

I miss the XA girls. Things aren't the same without them. :/ Not much to say about break. Lots of stuff to do, break is kind of a misnomer ya know? I'm getting glasses now but only for essentially class (reading the board, etc) and that's about it. Not sure how much I will wear them. Funny that staring at a computer all day makes it harder for me to see far away. Anyhow time to go do some more laundry. Lots of random things to do!

Joga Bonito!

Positive Endings

Well this certainly was a pleasant surprise but I am slipping into spring break on a fairly positive note rather then the dreary downer it felt like it was going to be. Thanks Aprill and Kara for one the best nights all semester :) Oh and BW3s Parmesan Garlic

Anyhow now it's time to try and stay awake for one last shift here in the CPS. It's actually fairly busy in here. I guess there are a couple classes still running in the CPS today. Probably ones with presentations that requires actual attendence.

On a very short note. If you are participating in the NCAA Tournament Brackets through ESPN and want to compare vs my roommate and I join the group TJH (password: pw). Tyler and I have all our brackets in there. Once again my 16 seeds failed to pull off an amazing upset. There's always next year. Gotta get lucky sometime right?

That wasn't a short note at all. On an RPG note (just one paragraph so non-RPGers can skip down one) I have learned that this year Wizards of the Coast has declared the theme of the year of the Dragon. Now it's not the year of the dragon in China so it's a bit dissapointing they didn't correlate but there are def. a couple books I'm going to be sorely tempted to get because dragons are by far my favorite creatures out of D & D. Primarily they are creating a Faerun based Draconicum but they are releasing (another?!?) Monster Manual that indications seem to point towards adding yet more scaled, winged giants to the fray.

So closing deep thoughts for break. I don't really got any. Hope to recharge, be productive, pray to God Sentry calls me for an interview, catch up on my reading, and generally just enjoy 10 days of freedom. How sweet it sounds. After this shift I am also going over to St. Michaels to see if they really do have an internship opening for IT. Prof. Goulet said he thought they had mentioned it but I can't find any reference on their website.

Well, think I am gonna kick back and read. I should have brought Neuromancer but I opted for simpler reading this morning with Forgotten Realms core. I love history even if it's made up! Til later.

They Took the Mailbox?!?

Seriously, go look outside the UC for the blue US Mail bin. They took it. Noone seems to know where or why. Very odd. Kind of frustrating because that is where I mail my bills from. Guess I will have to locate another mail bin to send bills from.

So, I took my last test prior to spring break. It sucked but it's done so not going to worry about it. I'll dread Tuesday in a couple weeks. One more class and one work shift and I am home free. I have really no plans. In theory get some work done. Go home.

My roommate says we should buy electric cars. I think the battery life on them is akin to my old iPod. Not very good.

I'm less stressed at certain people this week but it'll still be good to get away from them. I'm gonna miss a lot of other people tho, even if it's just a week. I guess beggars can't be choosers though so I will deal. I kind of wonder if there is anything I can do to resolve the issue but I am not sure if it's just me. If it is just me I might be as much the problem as the other folk.

GITS:SAC 2nd Gig is now running Wednesday nights. I am excited, I can catch the episode I missed a couple weeks back. Of course it's once a week so it'll take me 5 weeks or so. Ah patience is a virtue.

Going to Barnes & Noble tonight. I am debating about getting a new Forgotten Realms book. I know I said I wouldn't buy any RPGs barring the new Exalted core (which comes out Monday incidentally) but the book seems pretty cool. It's a guide to playing higher level (epic?) characters in Faerun. I want to look at it before I buy it so Amazon is sort of less an option. I'll prolly buy it. I love buying books. I'm an addict, I'll admit it. B&N is bad for me. It's probably a good thing the nearest one is Wausau!

Ok, that's prolly enough rambling for now.

Bumbling

As of late I feel kind of like a bumbling oaf. So I just need to get through a couple more days without stepping on anyone's toes.

This week has def. the feel of one you just want to get through. All I can think about is Friday at 10 when I am done with work and can look forward to a week of absolute slacking and away from all this mess. The need to get away is rather strong this break. It's odd, I'm not usually this burned out this early.

Humor break.

Ok, I need to return to working. More content will ensue after Thursday I swear. Some of it might even be interesting.

(Ok who am I kidding is any of it really interesting?) :o

Half Somethin

So def. not gonna be as productive today as I hoped. That happens a lot on Sundays. It's also how Mon-Wed is insane. I'm not very bright as you prolly can conclude from how I let my weeks go. Mostly I shall blame Pirate Mike for letting me borrow Empire at War to see if my tablet can handle it. Arr!

Saw Kingdom of Heaven Friday night. It was really good. I had heard it wasn't all that good but I was not dissapointed. I'd highly recommend it, probably will actually purchase it at some point.

My roommate says this is all I need so I will post it to make him happy :o

Volleyball Redux

Strange day. Didn't expect it to be good (kinda the opposite to Wednesday) but turned out alright. Really beat my head on Flash. Drove me nuts. Still stuck but have other homework. And Star Wars: Empire at War. Obviously SW is better can be detrimental to the homework so have to crack down tomorrow.

Played sand volleyball tonight. Didn't realize that it would be sand volleyball at first so figured I'd be very sore. Still am somewhat sore already but not too bad. Was gonna write more but I am beat. Sorry. :/

Windows

So in lieu of the very warm temps of late the roommate and I opened up some windows. Man, it's nice to get some fresh air in this place.

Yea, that's all.

Life Catches Up

It's about that time of the semester where every class has homework, tests, and projects in full swing and no longer is there much break. It's hectic. Some folk are getting on my nerve as well adding to the stress.

Trying to figure out what to research relating to analytics. So much data but not a lot in the area I want. Blah. Sorry on the lack of big updates, go back and read the older ramblings? Back to work :/

Illegitimis nil carborundum

Seems like everyone's a little burnt out, frustrated, tired, sick, or some other not so good feeling. Don't let the bastards grind you down, whoever they may be.

Dum vita est spes es!

Some sort of intriquing title here

Lesse, despite some quirks this weekend was pretty good. A little strange but oh well. Was surprised by the snow but it was nice and pretty and I got to get out for a walk in it and that was a lot of fun. Realized I am really looking forward to moving into my new apartment although not quite sure why. I'm gonna miss my roommate quite a bit I think especially this summer when most everyone will be gone. Hopefully at least I'll be working but even that I have to wonder about. This week I really need to crack down and send out some applications to other places. Was really hoping I wouldn't need to but it's been 3 months and nothing so I'd better keep my options open or I won't be doing anything this summer. And that would be incredibly boring.

On a random short note: I've created the evil main villian for my Exalted series. She's pretty nasty but I am so dissapointed with the brawl tree. It's oh so gimpy. Gonna run with it anyways tho. I've got some sneaky tricks up my sleaves!

For anyone who enjoys Miyazaki's films, a couple are running on Cartoon Network later this month. Starting Sat. March 18th and every Saturday through April 1st at least. I missed the huge run of them on TCM in January, very sad about that so hopefully catch a few now.

This week it's supposed to hit mid-40s. Kind of a quick turn around from the snow but I guess spring in finally arriving. It's only been since January that we've seen 40s after all!

Well I should peruse a little history so I can say I did something useful while working.

Exalted Rnd. 10

"Meow, meow, meow, uh where's the girl?" -priest talking to cat
"We're gettin' us some famous people and feedin' 'em to demons." -priest on solution to the demon problem
"Holy crap where did those streamers come from." (Ninja streamers, the truth life of a party)
"Well lemme pack... (picks up bag)... ok."
"Hello, Bordello."

Well it's lasted into double digits. Wow. Well this session we got the Eclipse back but no Twilight. After the previous nights events the Twilight and the Eclipse return but the Twilight dissapears as soon as he arrives. Has to protect his library. The Eclipses opts to go shopping in disguise and buys everyone dress clothes on a whim. In the meantime the Zenith comes up with a plan after figuring out who the demons will target next. The Dawn and Night modify this plan some as they realize that while the demons are probably in general targetting the nobility, rich, and diplomats of the city that they seems to be making a move towards the central manse and the Sidereals in particular.

The plan is to get all the rich and famous (barring the Sidereals who wouldn't go anyways) to go to a religious festival that the Solars just cooked up. It's an all out festival that they spare no expense on and with the Eclipse's skills word gets out and all show up. The priest and the Eclipse lead things while the Dawn makes appearances. The Night caste keeps an eye on the Sidereals wing of the Manse.

About this time demons show up when it's just the Night and a few mortal gaurds. Mortals die. Night takes on the demons and gives about what she takes before the gaurds sound the alarm, die some more (oh you poor short lived mortals), and the Dawn leaps (the battle is on the second story of the manse across the square) to her rescue. Activate Dawn caste kills demons mode and all 2 of the remaining demons die or retreat. Demon guts everywhere. Night licks her wounds/sulks (one of the demons caused her to limit break which has her scorn people who indulge, ie everyone). The Sidereals who have been defending themselves against a much, much larger force make enough ruckuss, ie breaking walls down, that the Dawn charges in to find a bunch of demons taking them on. Dawn super demon killing combo of doom activated. Demons dying quick pointless deaths at hands of Dawn's daiklave o' doom activated.

The Eclipse now is rushing to join her two comrades when more demons portal into the square. Taking cover she engages the demons she sets one on fire. A couple of blood apes engage her and again both sides come out about the same. The rest of the demons led by one that is pretty obviously of the 2nd circle variety head towards the inn where the festival is happening. The Dawn leaps from the manse onto the statue the Eclipse is using for cover (nice cinematic btw) and skewers the surviving ape. He then challenges the 2nd Circle demon to a duel. The demon commands him to stand his ground and returns to his business. The Night finally joins in but the demon has uber-soak and barely notices the attack. She moves to close in on the demon.

Meanwhile the inn has suddenly burst into a riot.

The Dawn moves to take on the demon but he portals away with the few surviving 1st circles leaving several Solars in the midst of limit break, injury, and gore. The Dawn calms down the crowd and heads for bead. The Night dissapears and the Eclipse limit breaks. The Zenith in the meantime takes on a demon that specifically defiles holy objects, which Zeniths happen to count as. The demon nearly beats him but through some imagination he fakes his own death then using WP overcome his injuries (he was incapaticated) he surprise attacks the demon using almost all his peripheral essence on one solar spike at point blank range. Jade lion demon = vaporized.

The wrap up leaves the Solars preparing to go to Chaya where the demons went and recovering from the general mayhem of the night.

This was a long session: 8 hours, even with a couple breaks for food we really went for a long time. Part of this was combat because it's incredibly slow. Plus the combats were usually with one or two individuals at a time. I could never really get everyone together for it. This seemed to result in a lot of boredom among whoever was out of combat which I had trouble aliveating. That of course made things slower to because the borded players would get distracted and bringing them back up to date, etc took more time. This running games is tough stuff!

Structure

I've noticed my weeks act kind of the same way regardless of my schedule. Monday-Wednesday I want to dissapear from the face of the earth. Heck a couple of times I've pulled that stunt as of late. I'm not going to anymore, it's kinda selfish I'll admit. However usually by Wed evening sometime during history class things begin to ease down, the hard part of the week is done. Then Wed night, Thursday night, and Friday night I get absolutely nothing done unless it's absolutely pressing. It's a very strange routine and I'd certainly make my early part of the week easier if I spread out my work. However, I find it hard to motivate myself to do anything these nights. I'm very much the type of person who puts off homework until the last moment. I do better with work but that's cause usually the deadlines are set up a little different.

Do you ever go back through your music collection and play songs that you haven't played much at all hoping to find a few good gems? I've been doing that a lot recently. It's funny. I guess I've consumed so much music that much of it slips past on the first pass. Thankfully I can always come back for another sweep. Right now on the "re-found" list is: The Planets, Jupiter Bringer of Jollity (London Symphony Orchestra, although Holst is the composer), Wounded Feet (Telecast), and The Road to Exile (Afro Celt Sound System). It's pretty short so far but the night is young!

Tomorrow is the ol' Exalted game and I haven't prepped much. I guess I can always have the fallback of 26,217 demons swarming the 4 Solars. Isaac's character would probably even live. The rest might be a bit steamed at their very abrupt slaughter. Guess after this I will do a little more prep. I had actually intended to give some combat last time but just didn't play out right. Kind of funny how that works out but when you're telling a story sometimes you just know when things will fit.

Speaking of fitting things together just right. I'm a little stuck on my project. I know what I want to do but the execution of it is coming as a challenge. Most of it is slowly coming together. I add on bits and pieces as I go. I'm really excited. I feel like I am making a museum piece for people to poke around and explore. In reality it's probably not that fun but to me it is. My imagination is just plotting out new avenues to explore and add. We'll see I guess.

Ok, probably enough content for now. Odd question for those of you who'd actual care to comment. Do you prefer longish posts or short ones? Or something else? I sometimes wonder what the -2 readers actually think. To the person who came here because I use the term "Exalted" alot sorry that there's very little content here of use. Go to Wikipedia and search for Exalted, follow the links at the bottom of the page. Probably the best assortment of resources out there.

In brief

I'm up to something interesting. I hope people might find it entertaining. Can't say what or wear it is but you might be able to find it if you know where to look. Part of the reason I've been away lately. Enjoy the randomness below!

Random 2.0

Actually the number is quite a bit higher for random posts I am sure but ah well.

Things are busy. Not overwhelmingly busy but just busy enough that nothing really slows down for long. Always things to do. Plus waiting, I hate waiting even although I am sure it's good for me. It's sort of a thing where I teeter between burnout and full-burn. A precarious balance that I seem to usually live a lot of life on. Lots of people do.

Things randomly coming up: IV/XA dinner tomorrow, 5pm meet by the XA/IV office, lunch with Allison Friday (yay!), Exalted Friday evening (better get some planning done), history test in a week, and other assorted goodies, surprises, etc.

Continuing on the random pace: when I started watching X this weekend I thought about how I'd like it more if the good character became bad. This thought was brought on because the main character was acting all bad-ass even though it's inherently obvious he is destined to become the good guy. Well surprise! The "bad-ass" guy does become good but one of the guys who was attempting convince him to be good becomes evil the instant he chooses. And not the pussy kinda evil but the "I'll steal you're big shiny sword, kill my own sister and then nearly kill you in the space of about 3 seconds since I have become evil" evil. Downright freaky and a little depressing cause I liked him more then the main character and now he's the bad guy. Guess I should be careful what I wish for eh?

Ok, no more anime in this post I swear. And no RPGs. Honest.

I should really end this post now just for laughs.

If you're not a musician can you claim to better knowledge of music then someone who is? For that matter should anyone be actually claiming to know what's good music or not? I've heard a lot of people of late trumpeting about how everything but what they like is crap. Of course if they all intermixed the world would be absolutely silent. Think I'd just prefer everyone would talk about what they liked and not stomp on other people's choices. Having a preference does not imply some sort of lack of knowledge, it's a preference. Respect the difference.

That was a rant. Whee. There's a new Sam & Max game coming out. I'm gonna buy it. Even though it probably won't come out for another year or more. It's Sam & Max. They're hilarious. Who else has a version of Battleship called Car Bomb where you can blow up a hearse using a trampoline? Or have a small furry rabbit jump highway signs whilst driving 100+ mph? "Stop him Sam, he's gonna tell a story!"

Anyhow, time to hit the road or go to bed or something. Much to do again tomorrow. Coverage begins 0830 CST. Enjoy.

X, among other things

Home was...home. Good and bad. I think the weekend got off on a rather bad footing and that threw the mood. Had a great sleep the first night and miserable sleep the second and that threw me as well.

Picked up Neuromancer by William Gibson. It's considered to be the beginning of the Cyberpunk sub-genre. Also found and read Cyberpunk which it turns out is a short story that's available on the web. Both of these are old 80s classics and like the movies of the time feel a bit cheesy. Cyberpunk moreso then Neuromancer. Both attach a lot of significance to RAM and ROM in ways that makes no sense. It feels like they are throwing out big terms to make it feel more futuristic but since they used real terms their futuristic outlook gets burned 20 years down the road. Wonder if all science fiction is slotted for that. War of the Worlds certainly isn't very scary to our modern technology unless retold. Neuromancer also hurt itself a bit with a sex scene very early on that could of course develop into something else but felt idiotically gratuitous to the wrong kind of people. But it was written in the 80s so go figure. The plot itself has not developed very far so I am withholding judgement. I'll also grant that just because it set the foundation of the genre doesn't mean that it was the best story ever to come out from it.

Moving on, at home I also picked up half the anime "X" (quotes mine). Was kind of skeptical about it but I've been wanting to branch my interests out beyond what is on TV and I had read a little about it online. I've watched through all the episodes (before you all die of shock it's less the 6 hours of show and I had all Saturday/Sunday nights to watch). I was busy doing homework throughout though so I am going to re-watch more slowly to pay better attention. Thoughts just far: some Biblical imagery, I've read that it is a take on Revelations and the two characters could in theory be construed in a very odd way as Christ/Anti-Christ. This isn't a new thing in anime so it doesn't bother me a terrible lot. I haven't really read Revelations so it just seems like plot to me. The plot itself starts off kind of slowly and is very very confusing. There are almost too many main characters and halfway through the series I hardly know any of the characters by name. Some of them have already started dying so I won't get a chance to learn their names! (Part of the reason I am going to re-watch.) On the more positive side: the voice actors are made up of a bunch of folks I am familiar with so while I can't keep track of the character's names I can easily and readily identify them. The musical theme if rather repetitive is also very enjoyable so I look forward to the listening aspect of the show. The art is well done and realistic. This is a serious show so it never waxes into the silliness some other shows I've seen do.

Well, that's probably a long enough ramble for all of you especially since most people who read this probably care very little about science fiction (especially cyberpunk) or anime (especially any anime) I suppose this was a rather useless post. Sorry, better find yourself something good to be interested in like science fiction and/or anime :D

Last to bed, first to rise

But only on Fridays! And mostly cause I hung out at Al and Steph's til 2AM after babysitting. Thanks for staying asleep Alex!

This morning has been an interesting one. Got going a bit late on the account that I pushed my alarm back to the last possible moment I could set it and still have a quasi-reasonable chance of making it to work by 7:45. Now I wouldn't have made it at all except for the wonderful invention of U-Pass. Ironically I think Kleiner supported this back in the day when I was more indifferent although I did vote to continue it this week so rather karmic. So I managed to get to work at 7:46. This isn't technically late because the lab doesn't officially open til 8 but we are supposed to be there 15 minutes early to open the lab in case a professor needs to prep for class.

Get there and the door to the attached lab is wide open. The one with the "EMERGENCY DOOR DO NOT OPEN" in size 72 font that's bright red. Yup, one of the professors (who shall remain nameless although anyone who has worked a CPS shift prolly can guess) has gone and opened the door. Now thankfully he knows how to deactivate the alarm so security is not enroute getting ready to throttle the numbskull who ruined their coffee and donuts but still! DO NOT OPEN applies to everyone! Even the LAs aren't supposed to open that door. The only people who are supposed to go through are a) security b) people in a dire emergency. Everyone else is supposed to go through the main doors and the only ones who are allowed to open them are Lab staff and security. They don't even give maintenance keys to these rooms! (Kinda amazing how much power/authority they give the LAs but a lot of responsibility to be on time for opening shifts and to not abuse the power after a lab closes.) In the professor's defense he claimed to not know when I'd be coming so perhaps he honestly thought that I would arrive there at 7:59:59. I've been opening for 5 weeks tho and that latest I've come I think is -hang on I can check- 7:48.

Anyhow talked with him and stressed it's my butt on the line. This might not be true but they could argue cause I was late, by even a minute that he didn't know if I'd be much later then usual and he needed to prep for class. Kind of hoping this honest fear for my job and telling him that we're supposed to be here 15 minutes early for opening shifts will keep him from opening up from now on.

Alright, rant done. Surprised I could muster that much energy on 4 hours of sleep. I was in a really nice dream too when the alarm sounded :/

Updates, etc

Well sitting in the living room of Al and Steph's "monitoring" Alex who is soundly asleep as long as the stupid dog shuts up. So did a little updating of the blog lists on the side to hopefully better reflect whose is active and not. The quiet list is getting enormous. Yea, it's a boring technical update, more interesting content below!

Pause

I think in Hebrew pause is "selah" although that kind of pause is almost certainly a more reflective pause then this probably will be.

Things seem to be settling down at bit. I am finally getting into a routine I think even though it's actually week 5 now. I cannot believe that much time has passed by. We're almost 1/3rd a way through the semester. That means I'm almost a 1/6th ways through my last year at UWSP. I just have to hope now that while I am settling into a routine that it doesn't become a rut.

Al has me babysitting again tonight. Well technically more monitoring as Alex will hopefully be pretty much on her way to sleeping when I get there. Not completely thrilled to do it but if they think I will be alright then not much to worry about. Besides all the girl's are just a phone call away and I have multiple levels of expert advice. Here's praying that Alex is very tired and sleeps the whole night tho! Think I will take some GITS:SAC and watch that.

Speaking of GITS I looked it up on Wikipedia and unsurprisingly it was well covered. However I got to dig through some of the deeper meanings of the show and now I have a much better grasp of a Stand-Alone Complex. It's funny I didn't understand it before as they quote it almost directly from the show. The concept itself is pretty cool, I was trying to think of an actual real world example of it but so far haven't had much luck.

This weekend I will be going home. I haven't been home in a little over a month so it hasn't really been all that long. Part of me really wants to go to either Barnes and Noble or River City Hobbies and go buy some RPGs but I said I would hold off on that this year. It's good that I made the promise but darned if it isn't hard to keep! I love buying books especially RPGs! Granted there is lots I can read when I'm home. Dad has one of the finest science fiction collections I've ever stumbled upon, especially since our tastes are very similiar.

Well much as I'd like to keep rambling I should pack up for Goulet's class at 3. If you're reading this and haven't read the poem below you really should. It's quite good and frankly it very suddenly explained a number of things about Rememberance Day to me.

Understanding

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

-John McCrae, 1915

And now I know why the symbol for rememberance in the British Empire is a poppy...

Job Fairs Suck

It was pretty much a waste of my time and any "potential" employers I talked too. They seemed uninterested for the most part. Possibly the most interested was Liberty Insurance but they had no internships really open so kinda too little too late. I am afraid to ask Evie how bad of an impression I made.

It's nice to have warm weather again ya know? It's funny now that the weather really isn't any warmer them a week and a half ago but it feels warmer since we had that bitter bitter cold. Go figure. Not that I am complaining. If my body thinks it's warmer then it really is I'll take it.

I am enjoying the one side benefit of the jbo fair though: no Goulet and no work today. I would have worked but I would have been rather pressed at the fair. As it was I think we spent a good hour there possibly longer. Not sure how. So I can sort of relax although I still need to study for the map test tomorrow. Blah, so many random places in the Middle East. Not quite sure why I need to know all of them. I can hit major capitols and all the nations (except for maybe mixing up Oman and Yemen although it's really not that hard either).

Going home this weekend. Not sure if I really want to go home but I have an appointment monday morning so not much choice. That's all I got. Whee.

Exalted Rnd. 9

"Not on a shiny day with a million of my friends"
"The butterflies are dissapearing!"

Well second round of spring (er well it was spring last session now it got cold) Exalted was last night. Two of our players (the Twilight and the Eclipse) were unable to make it but luckily we got a new Zenith so there was still three people to go out and deal with events. Upon returning to the capitol the Vermillion legion is sent off to re-equip/recover. They have informed that House Mnemon has ascended to the Scarlet Throne on the backs of demons. As this happens the Twilight and Eclipse are summoned North to deal with a demon problem.

The rest of the Circle begins to attempt to deal with any new issues. There aren't any besides some extra demon occurences. So they go about their normal business until weird things begin happening. Eventually they find their way to the villa of one of their Dragon-Blooded students. The place is abandoned. Like noone has been there in a day and they just up and left. Finally the Zenith attempts to feel any strange presences, detects fading aura of demons and opts to spontaneously torch the place.

Post fire the Solars opt to increase security in the capitol. They also plan to forge south where problems are being reported in Chaya. Before they head south however demons are spotted in the capitol so they investigate more. This leads to a humorous moment when our stealthy Night caste manages to botch her roll and sets off the Twilight's paranoid security around his library. Shortly after getting out of that debacle the Night stumbles upon one of the minor nation's embassy unprotected. She goes and gets help and they arrive to find everyone missing but the Ambassador and his gaurds sealed/warded in the upstairs. The demons have fled.

Yipes!

Absolutely bitterly completely cold! The CRV barely started but it did manage to start. I'll post Exalted results sometime this weekend. Night!

Snow en masse

It's rather deep, soon to be blowing kind of cool :D

White

Wow, it is really, really, really snowing out there. I sure wish I could be curled up at home watching it snow rather then running around out in it. This morning I got lucky a classmate gave me a ride in. Totally did not expect it but it was much better then walking, he is truly a scholar and a gentleman.

After Goulet's boringness I have to go install Oracle 9i and some other software on a couple computer's for Client/Server. Should be straight forward I hope. After that I need to do another group project. Hopefully I will be able to get out by 7 but who knows.

The walk back should be interesting because I doubt anything has been really shoveled. Why can't we get days off of school?!?

Princess Mononoke. Interesting movie. Very nice animation. Then again Miyazaki's movies tend to be very well drawn. Anyhow time to sleep. 'Nother long day of class and projects. Whee.

Great so now I feel more single then I did before...

Elderly

Well after doin' t-bell, hardees, and grazies in that order plus not enough sleep and some stress tossed in my body reminds me that I'm not a freshman anymore. Blah! I feel old and kinda embarrassed.

Did you see the Grey's? They blew up Kyle Chandler! Cripes, whose gonna save Chicago now the little tabby cat? It's one of those things you could kinda predict as he walked out but still. I dunno, I've read about the nasty effects of gernades, etc being a student of military history but it's still scary to see it. Pink mist, ack. Can't believe they killed Hobson. But George rocked. George++

Other news. None in particular. Another busy week. It look like I've got approx. 12 to go and then summer and hopefully another internship at the Clinic. Life doesn't slow down from here it only gets more hectic. Just have to live with it.

Point Con Finale

Well today was annual budget. Gave Amanda the wrong room so it was just me facing the 13 less then cheerful looking budget folk. However I think I did alright. Talked with Melissa and she said they'd prolly axe some of the budget for Salt (so students would have to pay part but not all). So hopefully that's the worst that'll happen.

PointCon was this weekend. Almost didn't go. But decided to stop in and put a little money into the raffle (that White Wolf owes bigtime for getting me hooked to Exalted) and then talked Isaac into running a game of D20 Modern/Apocalypse. Was fun, lots of gunfire. Kinda wish we could have had more time to explore but the LARP called several people away. The raffle treated me well- $10 put in for 12 tickets of which 6 returned dividends so I now have a pound of dice and 5 new books including a Rifter!

Anyhow now I need to do some homework that I neglected to do this afternoon. Would love to hang with folks (especially cause I did so all afternoon) but Flash calls and then Goulet.

Yay for walks!

So the Olympics have started, how many people are going to try and watch? I think I may try and have it on as background noise but actual watching will be limited sadly. Too dang busy!

Highways

So randomly looking at US highways that have run by or run by my places of residence. US 14 runs literally from Chicago to Yellowstone and the irony is I have driven on the road I can look at from my bedroom Window nearly a 1000 miles from home! US 10 runs straight my place here to my sister's place (and yes doubters it does reach the Twin Cities it even goes to Fargo). Pretty cool. :D

Yea, I'm a nerd. And I love Wikipedia!

Oops

More fun from the brilliant minds who get angry over stuff from half a year ago (presumably in about a decade they're going to be reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally ticked about Iraq when they finally notice it's been invaded).

From the Beeb: "Long live Islam. Destroy Denmark. Destroy Israel. Destroy George Bush. Destroy America," protesters shouted as they marched to the Danish embassy in the rain from a nearby mosque.

Lesse, George Bush has 0 connection to this nor does America (well we finally printed some of the cartoon last week but who hasn't by now?) The Israelis aren't that suicidal, they know if they did something like this their neighbors would use it as a pretext to invade (and then promptly get destroyed again). Oops, guess somehow people got their stories mixed up! So I'd really love to see who's pulling the strings on the Islamic masses.

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -Robert Frost

I like it almost as much as my all-time favorite (if overused) quote: "Faith manages."

Off-kilter

That's been today's theme. Ever have one of those days where everything should be just fine but one little thing derails everything else? Yea. So it hasn't been a bad day, just not a good one...

Anyhow, hope you all had better ones then me!

Burning

So does a country count if it neglects to fail to protect embassies placed in good faith in their countries? Seriously, I'd cut my own ties with those countries. I don't think Syria, Lebanon, or Iran can survive as well without Denmark or Norway (or the EU) then the other way around.

More humorous is the fact that these "spontaneous" protests are not only protesting against Denmark but also very quickly the United States and Israel. Seriously, it's understandable that they have an issue with Denmark but as soon as you turn every complaint you have against the US and Israel the arguement becomes invalid. It just screams "someone behind the scenes is pushing an agenda" as well as happily using a bunch of faithful believers as pawns. It has ocurred to me that at some point in the future Islam will look back at this point in history and bemoan the corrupt and hateful leaders who pushed their own agendas onto their religion. History seems to be repeating itself.

Frankly while I understand the outrage I can't understand the violent response. For that matter I really don't understand why violence is always the response. I just want to ask them that if they are so right in their beliefs why do they kill everyone who challenges them? Shouldn't the faith be strong enough to withstand such menial assualts? Isn't the bully's response violence when he is too dumb or unsure of himself to be react any other way? Wouldn't testing the faith and having it withstand the onslaught without fighting back show more strength?

The depressing thing is I have no way to ask this of any leader over there. I'm not sure they'd even listen. At this point I guess they've got an awful lot of power, just judging from past events where even moderate governments are allowing these protests to take place, so I suppose it'd take actual divine intervention to get them to change their tune.

Well I should really go and work on Flash now...

Jack Johnson

So I bought one of the older Jack Johnson albums (On and On) today. Now I've been listening to it along with In Between Dreams and I've noticed that whenever I hear a song from In Between Dreams it feels odd. Not that the music is bad, it's quite good. I wouldn't have bought more Jack Johnson if I hadn't enjoyed the earlier stuff. Somehow it just evokes a strange mix of feelings. I'm not sure what. I listened to it mostly in the summer when I was working so I guess it's tied into something from this summer. At a loss what it is and if I can get it back or even if I want it back.

Oh yay

Someone remind me I'm dumb. Also, I hate Flash, just so everyone is aware of that!

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Well first off congrats to the Steelers for making history. Not that many folks here care. How'd I end up as the only die hard football fan?

Things feel like they are on edge. They will either slide back into the doldrums or lighten up. I dunno how things will fall but really hope for a better outcome. Anyhow here's hoping. At least accepting certain facts of reality again.

Anyhow. In other news I really don't want to do Flash. Seriously, I just hate doing homework for that class. I know I need to and that it'll actually be kinda cool to know more stuff but it seems like way too much work. However I said I'd do two weeks worth of reading in all my classes so I have to do it. Me and my darn promises eh?

Can't think of much else to babble about. Positive attitudes! :D

Exalted Rnd. 8

"Smile at them" -diplomacy at its best
"As much fun as it would be to flirt with you I think I'm just gonna roll." -um, one of those times the role v roll play problem is easily solved.
"Cause dragons are better then gods." -well sorta...

This was the welcome back to playing your ST hasn't done enough preparing so therefore there will be a minimum of rollplaying but did I mention you'll get 100 XP session. So yea, think it was a little slow but anyhow: teh recap 2.5! So the Realm had their civil war. Mnemon won. Yay an almost identical personality to the Empress. Wonder how she'll turn out as a replacement? Soooo that little fiasco gives our plucky Solars a decade to consume 1/3 of the Hundred Kingdoms completely and another 1/3rd really (really really) likes them. Mask of Winters loses a minor war which only helps to make the Threshold love the Solars even more. Way to go MoW, make your enemies stronger. Or is that what you want?!? The other major events during the downtime: Rathess joins up. Not many details but lots of Dragon King tech went out to the group. Plus several hearthstones. On the downside a fair amount of resources will get drained into Rathess to make it of any use. Finally the Guild got talked into selling 51% of itself to the Solars (well the Eclipse did smile...). However the Solars promptly outlaw slavery and the Guild revolts. Essentially everyone South of Nexus is pro-Solar and everyone North is pro-old school. More trouble except that the Solars now have a powerful supply train and are filthier rich.

So the actual plot: very short. In the aftermath of the Realm civil war the Vermillion legion flees in the general direction of Caelestis. Taking their new airship they flew out and meet the legion. Some negotiations ensue (more smiling yes) and the Vermillion legion joins ranks.

Monthly Funs

"They were playing Wagner, that's the most fun I've had in about 6 months." -Tyr

Now I remember why I bought 1st Season of Andromeda!

2 years

Somehow this schenanigan I call a blog has survived two years. Don't ask me how. Honestly I figured it'd have petered out by now. This last year has probably looked pretty negative if everything is weighed in. That's because when I'm down/lonely/generally in a pessmistic mood I seem to post more then when I'm happy. Sorry to the -2 readers out there. I'd promise this year would be better but not completely sure I could keep that promise.

Feeling a little in limbo at the moment. Not quite sure where things are going except that whatever I thought they'd do they probably won't. That's life. I've found I can't predict what life will be like from semester to semester. Odd to think things change that much or that fast. I wonder if they'll continue to change that much once I've graduated. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Signed for the new apartment, move in end of May if I'm lucky. Got to see Jenny yesterday! That was a happy surprise. Also might get to see her again Saturday. Kind of crazy since I haven't seen her since May of last year. That's part life too I guess having people dissapear and then show up suddenly only to have them leave again. (One strange concept about life, you can be so close to someone and then have circumstance split you forever. I think of two guys who rowed together for 17 hours at Dunkirk saving lives and then never saw each other again. Surely braving death together makes you brothers but then life takes you on your seperate course!)

I do feel kinda lonely right now. Think it's the fact I am so busy that I am just jumping from thing to thing and haven't established a pattern for the semester. I am very much a creature of patterns so I always feel off-balance (and am far more easily shaken) when I am in-between routines.

Well think I will dig into Rifts. Only 25+ books left. How much of a nerd am I that I am plugging away through an entire RPG series in a semester? Speaking of books though I finally got a fun assignment. I get to read two books on the modern Middle East and review them! I ordered a couple books off Amazon. One on the Yom Kippur War (seemed appropriate considering I read about 6 Days War last semester) and another more general book covering how the 3 different religions have dealt with Israel. Both look interesting and were decently rated. Plus they appeared to be relatively un-biased. I may be pro-Israeli for the most part but I realize there's another side to this war.

Anyhow, that's a long anniversay/birthday post. Time to relax and read.

Now for something less dark

I love Congress. These honest, forthright public servants, out fighting for truth and the American way. Their staffers hard at work making sure the truth is told and never, ever distorted for political gain. :D

Yes, I was talking about the fictional Congress in this new book I am reading, why do you ask? *chuckles to self thinking that was really humorous*

Seriously, what kind of people are we electing these days?!?

Push

How is it the second week of school and already I feel so over-whemlingly busy? Oy!

Faith manages

It's weekends like this where I come out feeling worse then I did going in where I have to remind myself that.

On a positive note: Grey's was quite good, my roommate is a superb cook, and I've realized that everything I know about rolling up electrical cords I've learned from Scott.

It just feels like this will be a very lonely semester all of a sudden. I'm feeling very pessimistic and I don't like it.


At least it's snowing.

Can't forget: faith manages

There is a time for everything,
a season for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to rebuild
A time to cry and a time to laugh
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to lose.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak up.
A time love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.

-Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

odd concept

Creating worlds, Theresa found, was addictive. At night, when she set her work aside and stumbled into bed, she would dream of it: new shapes of reality, new styles of existence, new ontological and theological substructures on which she could build a cosmos. If it were not her work, she knew, and free, she would spend everything she had, and more, so she could keep on creating; and that would not be so bad, or such a waste of a lifetime.
Naturally, they had not perfected the process. Even the management had the humility to understand that - they were mere humans, toying with divinity. Some aspects of the universes they built were primitive, unrefined, and incomplete. These technical flaws paled before the simple truth of their efforts: that each creation caught all the subtle flaws in their being and magnified them, that each weakness in Theresa's honor appeared a thousandfold in her work. That, in short, for all their beauty, the defining characteristics of Theresa's creations came not from her deliberate efforts but from the dark places in her heart.
All unaware of it, Theresa was building her own Hell.

-Prebyter Harah Jane, Fruit of a Poisoned Tree

Folks we could use some extra prayer for Chi Alpha these days...

On jargon

So random rant that doesn't have much thought behind it. Is jargon just an excuse to make people feel smarter then other people? I suppose that we create jargon so that people "in the know" know exactly what we are talking about quicker by having a simple term or phrase to describe something rather then describing it each time but I've been thinking of late that a lot of time that just perpetuates several problems. One it increases the need to train newcomers greatly by not only having to explain a process but then explain terms for that process. Then you have to make sure the newcomer correctly associates the right term with the right process. Furthermore whoever is teaching the terms (and presumably there will be many people over a vast distance) must have the same definition or otherwise the term begins to have different meanings causing problems with communications as people mistake common terms' meanings. Now this problem alone can be allievated by having some sort of universal agreement on the meaning of a term. Particularily in areas where the jargon is already set in stone and only rarely are new terms added. I'd hazard philosphy as an example although I am fairly sure new ideas/terms arise on a regular basis, perhaps the fact I cannot think of the example points to impossibility of this idea? Whether its feasible for less "dynamic" areas of life/study some things simply change too quickly to allow for set-in-stone definitions. Take the IT world for instance. Have someone define client/server. Have someone else. I'll bet you get several different definitions albeit they may be fairly similiar. Anything pop culture related would be similiar as jargon changes probably on an almost daily basis if you looked at things as a whole. So basically my point is here that terms are by no means universal and there is no way to keep it that way. Essentially jargon defeats common communication.

My second point in this gigantic run-on sentence filled ramble is that jargon also is a cop out in communicating between people who are in the know and not. If a layperson is discussing/debating an issue it is all too easy for anyone possessing jargon to use it to confuse the debate. In essence instead of tackling the problem they avoid it by forcing one side to concede they haven't a clue and then claim victory. Jargon makes discussion all big words and less common ground and understanding. Furthermore I'd say the onus lays on the person who possesses jargon to spell things out without using the jargon if they want it to be a valid arguement. If you want to prove that you are smarter then saying I know more in Area A then you does not prove anything. Explaining what you know in Area A so that someone else understands it as well as you and allowing them to challenge your ideas on equal footing (and in lay terms) shows not only great intellect and patience but enough confidence that your ideas can stand up on their own and not behind any shields.

Right, that was probably terribly redundant and otherwise non-sensical. Oh well :D

Day One of the Last Year

Well things went well today. Slept til noon. Got up, putzed around. Called the two places I am most interested in living in next year. Scheduled one appointment, left a message (not returned) for the other. No classes at all. Worked at 3-5 in CPS. Got a working CPS key prior to that. I am amazed that Diane and Jackie know which building the key is for by the 6 digit number on it. I shouldn't be but I am. The work shift was fairly dull, there is a prof who has two classes during my shift so helped him set up and that took a fair amount of time. Chatted with Kat and read a ton of Rifts in between. I really am happy I got a tablet. Now with pdfs I can read off a computer without having it bother me. I probably will read more of Rifts then I have of Exalted by the simple fact that I will have 10 hours a week to read for a little bit until homework bogs me down in February. Afterwards attempted to help get Kara connected to the internet. Didn't succeed, I blame resnet. Met Blaine and met her roommate who ironically I've met before. Waiting to see what her roommate says about a boy being in the room. Apparently Blaine doesn't count, but he is kinda a stiff :D Worked out and that was good, i've missed that for over a week so rather sore now.

Tomorrow I have real classes and an apartment to tour. Both of my CIS classes too :/

System Launch

Dear Buddha for Christmas I'd like a plastic rocket and a pony.

I think I'll watch that tonight. We had XA tonight and it was good. Spent quite a bit of time afterwards chatting with people. I'm not looking forward to classes at all this semester. I guess I really want to get working so I can enjoy having a real salary, etc. But I'll miss everyone if I am working. In fact I've been thinking a lot about when I finally move away. I don't really want to. It'll be a tough to make a bunch of new friends especially as close as what I've got now. Frankly I don't like the lonely feeling and even in Marshfield I'm just a little too far away from Point to visit very often or on short notice. Guess technology needs to update things just a bit more so I can travel between cities quick! Yea, not really an option. Not something I should worry about anyways, that's at least a year if not more away. Who knows, I might even end up working here in Point although I am really shooting for Marshfield.

I should probably worry about the here and now if I am gonna worry about anything at all.

Have a good first day all. For those of you already in things hope they are goin' well.

Stand By

Well somehow they switched the work meeting to Saturday so I got my schedule. It's not bad. Thankfully I only work at 3pm on Monday not anytime in the AM (something I feared greatly). I work almost exclusively in CPS although I got a UC shift saturday morning (at 10, blah). No North Quad which I was hoping cause I know folks there so it'd be nice cause I'd have an excuse to be up in that area. Ah well.

Here's to surviving another semester. Chi Alpha tonight. Werd :D

Post Finals

Post Finals, originally uploaded by mirv120.

My roommate wasn't the only one down and out post finals.

Busy Day

Wow, so much for a relaxing slow Friday prior to classes starting. Let's see, got up rather late for going to Marshfield cause I managed to mis-set my alarm. Managed to get there not too late and caught up with Andy and Kurt (now working full time). It was good times. I miss those guys and work. Then on the way out got a call from Al asking if I wanted to help out with some office work. Didn't really have anything pressing so went and did that. Not sure if I was a terrible help but hopefully did something useful. Anywho after that did go home and kill some time playing Mario Super Strikers with the roommate. Mario games can be very violent, completely rated E violent but still, slide tackling, blocks in the back, checking, it's all legal! Then got to hang out with Evie, Amber, and (Intern) Kim and watched RedEye. Decent movie.

So that's my day. Enjoy the pictures below, welcome back to school folks!

Casualties

Casualties, originally uploaded by mirv120.

Sometimes you just gotta nap

Page Updates

Updated active blogs and quiet blogs. Added a whole shtick of my space pages, those at least with somewhat active blogs. That is all.

Ironic

So how's this for irony? I try to tape something Saturday night. I ask Dad to tape it at home. Neither place got it right. *sigh* I must have been in a complete moment of stupidity last week.

Pause

Well back from SALT, can't really say much about my own expierences, it wasn't what I expected. Now that I am home trying to tie up any loose ends since I won't probably be home til spring break. Much to do when I get back and then classes start. This break I was worried about being bored but that certainly has not really happened. I've kept quite busy. I am sure that this semester will be insanely busy as well.

On impulse I picked up the first season of Andromeda. Kind of like EFC it was the only good season of the show. Very much an impulse buy. Prolly the last one for awhile unless EFC Season 1 ever gets out of DVD limbo. Yea, I'm a nerd, I buy seasons of sci-fi shows :o

Prolly not a new concept

But perhaps one of the reasons science cannot prove/dissprove the existence of God is very simple. Taken from a scientific standpoint wouldn't it be reasonable to assume if there's a God that He would not be capable of being measured/scaled/identified by a system He created? Essentially He'd be limiting Himself by fitting into a box meant for beings obviously of a much more limited scope.

Crunch

Well Madden today was so-so. Barely beat Lars and then got annihilated in the franchise 27-6 (had a 0.0 QB rating). Can't win them all I guess!

Had lunch with Lars today. Prolly be the last time for a long while since he goes out West next Monday. Strange to have him leaving. However people come and go so just have to hope our paths cross again somewhere down the way. He donated some dishes to me and now I have 16 matching coffee cups and 8 matching small bowls. Time for a tea party! Well I'll probably take some home for now, might be useful later in life. Lars and I also delivered garbage cans to Amber and Evie's place. Random factiod: the CRV can hold two full size plastic cans with room to spare!

Apartment search continues slowly. Lots of it comes down to how much I am willing to pay especially since I'm going to want cable internet/tv and that tacks 90 onto the price of anything. Stupid Charter and their monoply!

Random news: seems like Prince Caspian has gotten the go ahead to follow The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It looks like it'll be done like the HP movies though so if all 7 books make it I suspect it'll take a decade or more.

Blah, I'm gonna go lie down, stupid cold.

Happenings

Well got up for breakfast today even tho I was feeling the oncomings of a cold. Breakfast was good but have to admit curling up in bed afterwards was much better. Anyhow at least I am mostly past the point where I ache now and onto the nose running part. For the moment it hasn't been too bad so I am hoping with lots of rest and fluids I can keep this in check/eliminate altogether prior to Salt.

The blonde is visiting tomorrow and I am also meeting Lars for one last lunch. This break def. has a lot of changes going on.

Not a whole lot going on. It's odd I've been able to keep fairly busy over break but most of it is worth much discussion. Some random things that have happened in the past week are: baby-sitting, LANing, SW:CCG (lost twice), putting up signs for ECSP, worked on the Exalted campaign, slept, read, slept some more.

Still need to do some actual work towards searching for a new place for May. Whee.

Delta Reports

Well the LAN party out in Marshfield was interesting even if it did somewhat peter out faster then I thought. It wasn't that anybody had left it was just that by 4 it was only 3 of us awake and the likelihood of anyone being up before noon was nil and I was going to head out by noon so I opted to leave about 7 when Tim finally decided to call it a night and that left me and Chuck. So I went home, got to see the drive back from the opposite direction in the whee hours of the morning.

Gaming was fun, played Rise of Nations and Serious Sam primarily. I did alright. Serious Sam was actually probably the most fun. We played the last level of it as a giant co-op with inifinite lives so it was a huge insane no-holds barred shoot-out. The highlight was when Tim and I ended up being the tail end in the final portion and Tim got turned around and when I finally reached the end of the gauntlet and cheer cause I am a) at the door and b) everyone is there he realizes that he got turned around. The end result was: I had the least kills and Tim had the most deaths. Henceforth since we were last we became Delta Company and to make matter complete our squad leader (by the implication that he had reached the end first) was Pirate Mike. What a squad. Our motto was "Last One's Out" mostly cause we'd be late or lost all the time! Lotsa fun.

Also played Rise of Nations which is kind of a AoE clone I think. Pretty fun to play. I actually picked up on it fairly quick, by the second game I was actually useful!

Heard some interesting stories though and had a fair amount of fun so twas a good time. Went to take a nap today when I got home and ended up somehow sleeping through my alarm (or waking up turning it off and not even remembering it at all) so ended up having a 3 hour nap. Whenever I have weird sleeping patterns I have incredibly vivid dreams, wonder why.

That's all, betcha most people got to the 2nd paragraph and quit reading eh? :o

Yay, Done

Well today is pretty good. It finally started snowing so it doesn't look so blah outside. I'm done cleaning finally. I dunno if there is anything else I can do. Oh well, it looks nicer at least. Sorta smells better too but I think that might be cause I've used air fresheners somewhat more then before. *shrug*

In random news, in Fantasy Football I somehow took the championship. Mostly on Larry Johnson and Chris Chambers with some timely support from Rudi. I can of understand the concept a little better now so hopefully next season I will be able to put together a team that will do a little better then 7-6 in the regular season. Part of the reason I did so well was the fact that nearly all my opponents were completely apathetic. That helped a lot.

So now what's on tap? Need to rebuild the Star Wars decks so I can get my posterior kicked by Seth again. This weekend good ol' Pirate Mike is having a LAN party in Marshfield so I will probably partake in some of that goodness. Not a whole lot to do but sleep, read, game, and generally relax prior to SALT.

Clean Up Status

What is this day 2 of the clean-up? Anyhow, living room and bedroom are done. That leaves the kitchen and bathroom. Theoretically I will get them done tomorrow. My task list is somewhat shorter at least. I ran down almost all the errands I needed to do today. I vacuumed and I sorted. The living room looks pretty clean except for maybe the top of my desk and the mid-table (where Twism has a stack of papers). Otherwise thins are pretty clean. Somehow Twis keeps his desk fairly clean on top. Not sure how. I'm envious, mine gets cluttered really quick.

I'm really glad I got a convertible tablet PC. Last night I settled down to read a couple of RPG pdfs. It's nice to be able to read them like a book rather then the normal PC monitor sort of view. I may actually get some use out of them though without having to print stuff up.

I've finally re-attacked Greg Boyd's Letters From a Skeptic. I picked up a little prior to where I had left off. It's a good book. Actually tackles a number of questions I've had. Funny thing with being a believer is that you don't nessecarily know anymore then anyone else unless you actually do ask questions or investigate. I've still got a long way to go. This just scratches the surface. Well, noone ever said it's an easy path. Actually the line from a very old cartoon theme song comes to mind: "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it!"

So I've learned that a fair portion of people I know have myspace accounts. I'm not quite sure if I should dump them all onto here (although since I have Lena's on here I guess the precedent would be: yes). Not really planning to jump on the bandwagon though. I've got this monstrosity, facebook, theoretically a LiveJournal, several random forums I track, and so on and so forth. Can't remember another password or for that matter post in another place. Heck I have several blogs floating around (good luck finding all the others) that I neglect. I did realize a fascinating theory: the reason why I suck at school is because I have to remember 1,245,632,035.2 passwords. All my memory is spent on that and there is no room for school. Yes, that's my new excuse and I'll be sticking to it!

Alrighty, that's enough for now. G'night all.

Structure

Well, part one of the clean-up is in complete. Tomorrow I'll have to finish up in the living room and my bedroom. Then I can attempt to tackle the monster that is our kitchen. Oh joy.

I don't feel very creative as of late. It rather depresses me. This is my time to stretch my mind and do some writing, etc. It's just kinda blank. Blah. I am still unsure if I am going to run anything for PointCon. It would help if I knew my work schedule for spring. Among other things. Also trying to slowly read through Rifts. Talk about a meaty system. Sounds like lots of high-powered fun but seeing as I know noone else who plays/reads it I'd have to run it. Oy. Same thing for so many of the games I have. Suppose I will have to become a better gamer. Maybe wherever I end up working there will be gamers. Ok, time to read!

About Time for a New Year's Post Already

That's it.


Ok maybe not, instead I will randomly write stuff inbetween sorting out what papers to send to the great binder in the sky. Boy that's quite a mess. This will be quite an undertaking to clean things up. Oy, hard to motivate myself to do it too.

Ok, that's all for now. Yea, kind of a useless post, on the bright side it can only get better!