7. December 2008 by admin.

The last two PBN’s have been incredibly easy to do.  This happens when you aren’t afraid to cop out to an old joke for one & flat out use someone else’s image for the other (hey, I left the original credit on the picture, and it used for humorous purposes, so it’s legal.  I think).

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

1. December 2008 by admin.

The two most dreaded words for the aspiring author: writer’s block.

The two most dreaded words for the aspiring blogger: internet interdict.

Tackling the latter first: my job decided that since some people couldn’t get off Youtube and Myspace long enough to work, the entire company is banned from using the corporate network for personal internet browsing, even while off the clock.  This has (obviously) impeded my ability to post during my most (ahem) productive hours.  Not that it gives me a pass, I have internet at home, and I haven’t gotten my lazy duff into the chair to put a few words to electrons.

Which leads to the primary lede.  Total frakin’ lockdown.  Which is ridiculous, because I know how the story goes, I make sure I have the plotline in my head before I put fingers to keyboard, even if I don’t know the fine details or all the twists and turns.  Yes, I do kind of make this up as I go along.  I think thats more fun, and from the ever increasing hits on the stories, so, Gentle Readers, do you.

I have tried the traditional remedies: I’ve gone for a walk, worked on other projects, beat my head against the wall, etc.  Next step: alcohol.  I’ll get something written up, but I make no promises about it’s legibility or coherence.  It seemed to work for Hemingway though.

There will be the next segment up on Wednesday.  I’ll try to  get it uploaded before I go to work, or Tuesday night.  If I can’t, I’ll have it up Wednesday evening.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

17. November 2008 by admin.

Two words, Gentle Readers:  Jury Duty.

And not even the fun one where I got to decide someone’s fate.  Instead it was the ’sit in a room and wait for your number to be called’ type duty.  Not that the other is so much better, but at least you feel like you have a purpose.

I did get some decent writing done, mostly on the next story (more details later).  I’ve been late getting things posted because the jury duty, combined with the missus having a new night job means I had to adjust to a new schedule.  Things should go back on an even keel now (until the next crisis hits).

I actually didn’t mind doing jury duty.  Coming so soon after the election might have been part of it; the recent reminder of how lucky we are to live in America eased the inconvenience of the whole process.  Ask me after I’ve been called a second time.

I did get a PBN  out of it; that we choose people to judge others based on their ignorance  just seems absurd; that it apparently works so well is scary.  I know the idea of a paid juror position has been bandied around for years.  I wouldn’t want to trust my fate to someone compensated to be professionally uninformed.

I’m sure the Navy could have come up with a better plan than earmuffs.  It probably would have been funnier too.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

11. November 2008 by admin.

I’m not some high powered CEO, but I’ve done my time in retail hell at a managerial level and I know you don’t evicerate your sales staff by getting rid of your good  employees, so why didn’t the president of Circuit City?

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

5. November 2008 by admin.

Congratulations to President-elect Obama, blah blah blah.  I disagree that we all woke up to a new reality, but I agree it’s the end of an era.  My youngest daughter will never know a time when presidents were only older white men.  That does make me proud.

But even the historical significance of Obama’s win isn’t the real reason we should pat ourselves on the back this morning.  Yesterday we, the Joe the Plumbers and Sixpacks and old ladies wearing bathrobes and house shoes lined up in an orderly fashion, sometimes in lines stretching for hours, to quietly choose who we will fractiously follow for the next four years.  Without a fuss, fight, or mob action in the streets we handed off control of the most powerful military in the world.  By paper and electron we entrusted to a quasi-stranger our finances and our hopes for the future.

And then we went home.

We waited patiently for the polls to close and the results to be tallied.  We trusted it would be done honestly and accurately.  For the most part we conceded defeat with grace and mostly accepted victory with magnanimity.  We went to bed and woke up the next day and went to work or school or just on with our lives, having a vague satisfaction of a job well done but focused on the tasks and needs of the day ahead.  Another election had passed, and life went on.

The fact that we see this as normal is incredible.  The fact that we, the toiling masses, have the ability to infuse a person with the power that comes with the presidency is extraordinary.  The fact that we don’t see it that way is mind boggling.

Sometimes it comes across very clearly that we do live in the greatest nation on Earth.

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »

30. October 2008 by admin.

People have been telling me to go as the PBN for Halloween, and in the midst of explaining why I won’t it struck me that in real life the PBN & co. would run into situations like this a lot.  The old lady and her dog I just thought were funny.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

30. October 2008 by admin.

Domestic oil proponents like to talk about how we send $700,000,000,000 a year to countries that “don’t like us very much.”  And then we read in the news how Venezuela is funding the FARK, Iran is training and equipping “Liberation Armies” in the Middle East and Russia is rebuilding and modernizing its military.

And then how the price of oil tumbled.

Petrodollars fueld all these counties’ nefarious deeds.  Which is all well and good, and totally expected in a Realpolitic sort of way.  Those countries felt they had strategic imperatives that needed to be met, and flush with money made heavy investments and commitments to accomplish their goals.  The gloating about the ‘weakness’ of the United States and its dependence on oil imports I thought was silly.

And now the socialist utopias built on the capitalist gas consumption are reaping what they’ve sown.  As the price of crude plummets the ability of the petroregimes to fulfill their promises to their people and proxies  is pinched, resulting in unrest and alliteration.  It’s fun to watch.

Am I gloating?  Yes.  Is it silly?  You Betcha ;).  Payback’s a bitch.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

30. October 2008 by admin.

Always Time To Do It Over was short today.  I spent a chunk of my writing time finishing a Mad Scientist meerschaum hookah and making a corncob pipe.  I’ll get pictures up sometime after Halloween.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

27. October 2008 by admin.

I need a scanner.

Halloween would seem to be a great time to launch my Guys in Robes comic strip.  The quasi-pagan origins and popular mythology tying the holiday to Satanism would make it easy to compose the first few strips, and then the onslaught of of the mid-winter holidays would allow me to maintain momentum.  Alas, the economic downturn has affected even the web comic industry, forcing hard choices.  Given how much the kids squawk if they don’t get fed the scanner may have to wait for the after holiday discounts.

Maybe it’s the mists of memory, but Halloween seemed to be a bigger deal when I was a child, o lo those many decades ago.  I remember packs of becostumed munchkins roaming far and wide, filling pillowcases with tooth-rotting goodness and generally running wild.  Now we’re lucky to have a couple of dozen trick or treaters come to our suburban neighborhood.  With All Hallows on a Friday I’m hoping for a better turnout this year; it looks like the weather may cooperate.

The transformation of the Halloween party into a “Fall Party” or “Harvest Party” in schools is just amusing to me.  For 364 days a year the Conservative Christian movement howls about allowing religion to be taught in schools, and arguing that we should “teach the controversy” about creationism (intelligent design’s true face) vs. evolution. Yet when a school wants to permit a social activity only notionally connected to another belief system, suddenly ‘religion has no place in school’ and it is ‘harmful for the children.’  Remember this commotion in eight weeks when these same voices start complaining how Christmas break morphed into winter break.

Posted in Geek, Religion, Politics | No Comments »

24. October 2008 by admin.

Some people have disputed the veracity of Thursday’s PBN.  I originally got it off Yahoo! News, but they don’t keep their links active forever, so here is a link to the AP story through the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s website.

I admit I’m not big on MMOs.  I tried EverQuest many years ago but some PK would always geek me within 10 minutes.  Turn a corner and BAM! another me bites the dust.  If I come in 2nd in an even fight, then I’ll accept the loss and work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.  But it wasn’t worth $10/month to get the beatdown before I could make any headway.  And before someone points out the obvious: this was before non-PvP servers.

I’ve tried WoW a couple of times off friends’ accounts.  The graphics rendering was pretty good, and the players much more civilized.  The couple of times someone went PvP on me, we were both roughly the same level so it was a fair fight.  (I didn’t say I disliked PvP, I just think the players should keep it even so it stays fun.)  And there were some instances of spontaneous generosity: a high level rogue from Rico’s Roughnecks gave me some magical items because I’d read Starship Troopers and knew the lingo (Everybody Drops!  Everybody Fights!).  I also received several invitations to Guild so I wasn’t wandering the Big Bad World alone.   I could see why my friends built such a camraderie with their online associates and would drive hundreds of miles to guild gatherings to be together in the meat world and all game online.

My problem is I’m trapped by the programmers’ creativity and laziness.  If I can come up with clever tactic the designers didn’t think of, then I’m out of luck.  Trip lines hidden in high grass to disrupt the enemy’s infantry charge?  Sorry, out o’ luck boyo.  (If anyone out there LARPs, try this at your next battle.  Just be sure to have archers and wizards there to take advantage of the ensuing chaos.  And if at all possible, please please please video tape it and put it on YouTube!)

It’s these kind of artificial restrictions that keep me a tabletop gamer.  Freed from the straightjacket of corporate accessibility (”What do you mean I can’t keep the Cave of Wonders?  I killed the damn genie, let the next adventuring group try to take it from me!!”) I find gaming to be more challenging and vibrant.  Plus it’s fun to throw my players (I usually GM) for a loop and make them work for their victories.

Plus WoW makes gnomes look ridiculous.

Posted in Geek | No Comments »