This was definitely my most random holiday experience.
Tuesday evening 9pm I was sitting at home minding my own business when my friend Joffre (the proprietor of Silver Chair Books in Greer) called me asking if I'd like to be interviewed for their arts & culture podcast on the topic of board gaming. I never say no to local geek promotion, so an hour later I was at the Silver Chair with coffee and pipe in hand and had a nice talk with Joffre and Andy about board games and gaming in general. I didn't give the best answer to every question, but I've never really been interviewed in-depth before, and I was a bit nervous.
Here is a link to the podcast.
There is a brief poem read before I am brought on (you can skip to 3:54 if you like) and I ramble a lot about various board games and give a few shout outs to Upstate Boardgamers and Upstate Geeks.
It was an interesting experience and a lesson to me that in meeting lots of interesting people sometimes roads cross in ways I would have never imagined. It was a lot of fun.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Books for December
I recently read the following two books:
The Sunrise Lands by S.M. Stirling - This is the second trilogy in Stirling's Emberverse, a fantastical version of our world where an event in 1998 fundamentally changed the laws of physics so that electronics or explosive chemical reactions no longer work. Cars are useless as are guns, and the survivors of the dark times are coalescing into various neo-feudal societies.
The first trilogy was about the struggles for survival in the Wilamette Valley in Oregon. That being settled for now, Stirling takes us ten years into the future and explores the children of the protagonists (and antagonists) as they head east to follow a mysterious message to seek out Nantucket, MA, supposedly the epicenter of the event.
As usual Stirling writes action well and does a good job of describing gritty heroes. I really liked one of the new characters introduced here (Fr. Ignatius) and the children of the first trilogy are starting to come into their own now. I'm looking forward to the next book of the series.
World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler - This novel takes place in the upstate NY town of Union Grove a decade or so after everything went downhill. It never lays specific blame on one element, but peak oil, a jihad in Jerusalem, race-riots, and economic depressions are all mentioned as elements of this framework of disaster. But, this book is centered on how the residents of this small town make a go of life and the challenges they face from without and within. Kunstler is author of several books talking about Peak Oil and the demise of our way of living so technically this book is a polemic, but it is not badly-written and isn't as in your face as you'd expect a polemic to be. It is a pleasant read that you might want to place on your list should you ever worry about shortages of oil, water, or civil government.
The Sunrise Lands by S.M. Stirling - This is the second trilogy in Stirling's Emberverse, a fantastical version of our world where an event in 1998 fundamentally changed the laws of physics so that electronics or explosive chemical reactions no longer work. Cars are useless as are guns, and the survivors of the dark times are coalescing into various neo-feudal societies.
The first trilogy was about the struggles for survival in the Wilamette Valley in Oregon. That being settled for now, Stirling takes us ten years into the future and explores the children of the protagonists (and antagonists) as they head east to follow a mysterious message to seek out Nantucket, MA, supposedly the epicenter of the event.
As usual Stirling writes action well and does a good job of describing gritty heroes. I really liked one of the new characters introduced here (Fr. Ignatius) and the children of the first trilogy are starting to come into their own now. I'm looking forward to the next book of the series.
World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler - This novel takes place in the upstate NY town of Union Grove a decade or so after everything went downhill. It never lays specific blame on one element, but peak oil, a jihad in Jerusalem, race-riots, and economic depressions are all mentioned as elements of this framework of disaster. But, this book is centered on how the residents of this small town make a go of life and the challenges they face from without and within. Kunstler is author of several books talking about Peak Oil and the demise of our way of living so technically this book is a polemic, but it is not badly-written and isn't as in your face as you'd expect a polemic to be. It is a pleasant read that you might want to place on your list should you ever worry about shortages of oil, water, or civil government.
Monday, December 15, 2008
December Part One
Maybe I should abandon the every day mini-update format. I'm getting pretty far behind. We'll continue for the moment, however, and just ignore the days I don't remember.
Tue Dec 2: Good Mandy sent me an email and asked if I wanted to meet her at the downtown Hyatt to meet with the people there to talk about hosting our big Firefly event there. The meeting went very well, and hopefully we'll be able to pull an event off at the Hyatt.
Later that evening, Andy and Scott came over and we played an impromptu game of D&D with Andy DMing. I played a Feypact Warlock and Scott played my brother a Rogue. It was a lot of fun.
Wed 12/3: I met Megan for lunch at her office. We had yummy PB&J's, pretzels, and a banana. I always love these frugal lunches where we can spend time together.
Sat 12/6: At noon I picked up Patrick at his apartment and we had lunch at India Palace. We then checked out an interesting used bookstore in Greer called The Silver Chair which specializes in theology and having a smoking room. I'll definitely be back. After that, we watched Serenity (his first time) and we went to Browncoat Karaoke. Karaoke was okay; We got there late and were seated next to an annoying young girl Tim brought along as a pseudodate. All the songs I sang I had never practiced, so they came out very mediocre. Oh well. We later had dessert at Stax's Omega and called it a night.
Mon 12/8: I drove with Good to Laura and Warren's house to meet with a small group of people and discuss the upcoming shindig. Long-story-short we decided to go for a one day event this year and plan for a three day event next year. Hopefully it will go well, it should be a lot of fun.
Thu 12/11: At Boardgame night Tom taught me to play Dominion and now I am utterly hooked. I played six games online last night, and I'm trying to budget a physical copy($45) into my next paycheck. Curse you Tom! ;)
Fri 12/12: After work, I picked up Patrick, we had a great dinner at the Pita House, then went to my place where we smoked pipes, watched The Boondock Saints (his first time), and practiced a bit of swordplay outside with two of his wasters. Lots of fun.
Sat 12/13: I arrived at The Command Post for UBG's monthly Game Day and ended up playing Race for the Galaxy twice, Dominion twice, and Yetisburg once. After that I met Megan and drove to Dozo's in Easley where had our Browncoat Holiday party. The food was great, but expensive, and the company was just as good. After dinner, Megan, Good, and I went to a different Patrick's house and played a 20 year old version of Trivial Pursuit and ate pecan cake while drinking eggnog. That was fun as well, but I ended up not getting home until nearly 2am.
Sun 12/14: I slept through church and Megan dropped by, woke me up, and we went out for lunch and to discuss upcoming plans. We then went window shopping in a couple of places and hung out for most of the day. After she left, I played xis games of Dominion online.
Well, that brings us up-to-date.
Tue Dec 2: Good Mandy sent me an email and asked if I wanted to meet her at the downtown Hyatt to meet with the people there to talk about hosting our big Firefly event there. The meeting went very well, and hopefully we'll be able to pull an event off at the Hyatt.
Later that evening, Andy and Scott came over and we played an impromptu game of D&D with Andy DMing. I played a Feypact Warlock and Scott played my brother a Rogue. It was a lot of fun.
Wed 12/3: I met Megan for lunch at her office. We had yummy PB&J's, pretzels, and a banana. I always love these frugal lunches where we can spend time together.
Sat 12/6: At noon I picked up Patrick at his apartment and we had lunch at India Palace. We then checked out an interesting used bookstore in Greer called The Silver Chair which specializes in theology and having a smoking room. I'll definitely be back. After that, we watched Serenity (his first time) and we went to Browncoat Karaoke. Karaoke was okay; We got there late and were seated next to an annoying young girl Tim brought along as a pseudodate. All the songs I sang I had never practiced, so they came out very mediocre. Oh well. We later had dessert at Stax's Omega and called it a night.
Mon 12/8: I drove with Good to Laura and Warren's house to meet with a small group of people and discuss the upcoming shindig. Long-story-short we decided to go for a one day event this year and plan for a three day event next year. Hopefully it will go well, it should be a lot of fun.
Thu 12/11: At Boardgame night Tom taught me to play Dominion and now I am utterly hooked. I played six games online last night, and I'm trying to budget a physical copy($45) into my next paycheck. Curse you Tom! ;)
Fri 12/12: After work, I picked up Patrick, we had a great dinner at the Pita House, then went to my place where we smoked pipes, watched The Boondock Saints (his first time), and practiced a bit of swordplay outside with two of his wasters. Lots of fun.
Sat 12/13: I arrived at The Command Post for UBG's monthly Game Day and ended up playing Race for the Galaxy twice, Dominion twice, and Yetisburg once. After that I met Megan and drove to Dozo's in Easley where had our Browncoat Holiday party. The food was great, but expensive, and the company was just as good. After dinner, Megan, Good, and I went to a different Patrick's house and played a 20 year old version of Trivial Pursuit and ate pecan cake while drinking eggnog. That was fun as well, but I ended up not getting home until nearly 2am.
Sun 12/14: I slept through church and Megan dropped by, woke me up, and we went out for lunch and to discuss upcoming plans. We then went window shopping in a couple of places and hung out for most of the day. After she left, I played xis games of Dominion online.
Well, that brings us up-to-date.
Monday, December 08, 2008
The rest of November
Okay...so, again, I'm not so great at Updating regularly. Here we go:
11/26: Day before Thanksgiving. I got out of work an hour early and then went to my friend Jeremy's house to play Rock Band with him and his brother who is visiting from Charleston. It's nice to play with two other expert-level players. It was a blast and we're hoping to do this again around New Year's.
11/27: Thanksgiving. Turkey-Day. Tryptophan bomb. I went to Megan's parents house at noon and we ate at 1pm. We had turkey, "diseased" stuffing(cooked inside the bird), green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and rolls. For dessert we had pumpkin pie and a wonderful pumpkin cake with a pecan crust. After that Megan and I fell asleep on the couch watching football and then played a game of Scrabble Junior with Josh. By that time it was 4pm, so I left to go visit my parents. I called Adam on the way and caught up with him on the hour drive and then at my parents I had the missing Thanksgiving element that I had craved; baked macaroni and cheese casserole. Yum! I guess from now on I will have make this my contribution to the Compton family thanksgiving table. After a couple of hours there I met Megan and Evil Mandy at Cherrydale and we saw Quantum of Solace and then went over to Good Mandy's house for conversation and pie. All in all, it was probably the best Thanksgiving I can remember because there was no family stress for me. Sure, I don't know Megan's parents well yet, but they were friendly, so that wasn't too big of a deal.
11/28: Black Friday. I went shopping on Black Friday, but not your normal electronics and clothing maelstrom of commerce; instead I drove down to a leather shop in Columbia and spent $200 bucks on $320 worth of tools, dyes, kits, and leather. I've long wanted a hobby where I create something and with my lack of workshop space decided that leatherwork was the way to go. So far I haven't had much time to work on it, but I have a coaster with a carved rose that I'm now working on tooling, and I hope to have a couple of gifts by Christmas time.
11/29: Megan and I went to see The Duncan Estate, one of the sites we're looking at for the wedding. It was very pretty and we both really liked it. My only gripe is that it's in Spartanburg, but that's not really that big of a deal. We then drove back to Greenville, had lunch at Stax's Omega, and went by the Rock Quarry Garden downtown, another popular wedding site. We then went to my place and watched a movie then our friend Good Mandy showed up and we discussed plans for the SouthEast Shindig, which I will reveal more when the time is right.
11/30: I went to Megan's megachurch for the first time. We parked, went inside and dropped Josh off at his classroom after checking him into the kid's area, and after a brief walk-around went inside and found a seat in the main auditorium. There were two large projection screens with video ads for upcoming programs, but before the service started these images were replaced with a video of a strange Japanese game show where the contestants had to apparently say the right answer or were hit in the crotch with a mallet. Someone had changed the subtitles into inside jokes for the church. After that, there was a live rock band on stage that played three songs and everyone sang along as the lyrics were projected on the screen. Then there was an okay sermon from a young pastor of another megachurch in Charlotte. He seemed to be a bit too concerned adding humor into a sermon, but otherwise it was not bad. Afterward were another three songs and then it was over.
I can't ever imagine myself going to this type of church of my own will, but I'm sure she probably will say the same thing about my church once she experiences a full service. To my mind, these megachurches with their bad rock music, watered-down messages, and do-anything-to-get-thousands-of-people-inside mentality is most of what is I consider to be wrong with modern Christianity.
That said, I will be happy to go once a month or so without complaint because I love Megan and I don't want to encourage her to leave her church any more than I'm sure she would not encourage me to leave mine. This issue does seem to be one of our only stumbling blocks, but I'm sure we'll get through it in time. Right now our plan is to go to her church once a month, my church once a month, and then go to our own churches for the other two weeks. We will need a better solution later, but this will work for the next few months while we plan the rest of our lives together.
11/26: Day before Thanksgiving. I got out of work an hour early and then went to my friend Jeremy's house to play Rock Band with him and his brother who is visiting from Charleston. It's nice to play with two other expert-level players. It was a blast and we're hoping to do this again around New Year's.
11/27: Thanksgiving. Turkey-Day. Tryptophan bomb. I went to Megan's parents house at noon and we ate at 1pm. We had turkey, "diseased" stuffing(cooked inside the bird), green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and rolls. For dessert we had pumpkin pie and a wonderful pumpkin cake with a pecan crust. After that Megan and I fell asleep on the couch watching football and then played a game of Scrabble Junior with Josh. By that time it was 4pm, so I left to go visit my parents. I called Adam on the way and caught up with him on the hour drive and then at my parents I had the missing Thanksgiving element that I had craved; baked macaroni and cheese casserole. Yum! I guess from now on I will have make this my contribution to the Compton family thanksgiving table. After a couple of hours there I met Megan and Evil Mandy at Cherrydale and we saw Quantum of Solace and then went over to Good Mandy's house for conversation and pie. All in all, it was probably the best Thanksgiving I can remember because there was no family stress for me. Sure, I don't know Megan's parents well yet, but they were friendly, so that wasn't too big of a deal.
11/28: Black Friday. I went shopping on Black Friday, but not your normal electronics and clothing maelstrom of commerce; instead I drove down to a leather shop in Columbia and spent $200 bucks on $320 worth of tools, dyes, kits, and leather. I've long wanted a hobby where I create something and with my lack of workshop space decided that leatherwork was the way to go. So far I haven't had much time to work on it, but I have a coaster with a carved rose that I'm now working on tooling, and I hope to have a couple of gifts by Christmas time.
11/29: Megan and I went to see The Duncan Estate, one of the sites we're looking at for the wedding. It was very pretty and we both really liked it. My only gripe is that it's in Spartanburg, but that's not really that big of a deal. We then drove back to Greenville, had lunch at Stax's Omega, and went by the Rock Quarry Garden downtown, another popular wedding site. We then went to my place and watched a movie then our friend Good Mandy showed up and we discussed plans for the SouthEast Shindig, which I will reveal more when the time is right.
11/30: I went to Megan's megachurch for the first time. We parked, went inside and dropped Josh off at his classroom after checking him into the kid's area, and after a brief walk-around went inside and found a seat in the main auditorium. There were two large projection screens with video ads for upcoming programs, but before the service started these images were replaced with a video of a strange Japanese game show where the contestants had to apparently say the right answer or were hit in the crotch with a mallet. Someone had changed the subtitles into inside jokes for the church. After that, there was a live rock band on stage that played three songs and everyone sang along as the lyrics were projected on the screen. Then there was an okay sermon from a young pastor of another megachurch in Charlotte. He seemed to be a bit too concerned adding humor into a sermon, but otherwise it was not bad. Afterward were another three songs and then it was over.
I can't ever imagine myself going to this type of church of my own will, but I'm sure she probably will say the same thing about my church once she experiences a full service. To my mind, these megachurches with their bad rock music, watered-down messages, and do-anything-to-get-thousands-of-people-inside mentality is most of what is I consider to be wrong with modern Christianity.
That said, I will be happy to go once a month or so without complaint because I love Megan and I don't want to encourage her to leave her church any more than I'm sure she would not encourage me to leave mine. This issue does seem to be one of our only stumbling blocks, but I'm sure we'll get through it in time. Right now our plan is to go to her church once a month, my church once a month, and then go to our own churches for the other two weeks. We will need a better solution later, but this will work for the next few months while we plan the rest of our lives together.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Weekly Update
Okay, so I haven't updated in a while. Here's what's happened since Friday:
11/21: My 30th birthday. After receiving tons of birthday greetings on Facebook, I went out with Megan to Fitzpatrick's, where a few of the fifteen or so friends I invited would probably show up. We didn't make reservations for a group as we only had two people RSVP that they were coming. At about 7pm we had 13 people total show up, and I had a grand time talking, playing the jester, and mucking about. Thankfully Pher had his camera there. I received a few thoughtful gifts (card games, a candle set) and some even more thoughtful cash, which will go in the leather fund. At 9:30 we left as Megan and the Mandys wanted to see Twilight and we had bought tickets earlier for the 10:00pm showing. The showing was sold out, so those of us without previously purchased tickets had to wait until the 10:30 showing. The movie was okay, better than I thought it would be. I'm not overly familiar with the source material, but you could tell it was carefully crafted.
11/22: Went to visit my parents. My mom made a nice chicken dinner and pineapple cake for my birthday and gave me a card with some cash. More for the leather fund! After that, I drove home. Megan and Josh arrived soon and I hopped in the car to go to Evil Mandy's to have dinner and play boardgames. We played a game of Chez Geek (one of my birthday games), ate Megan's baked spaghetti, and then played Settlers of Catan, and Lord of the Rings Movie Edition Trivial Pursuit. It was a good time other than Josh being pretty cranky that the games weren't for him to play.
11/23: I met up with Megan after church and we spent some time in the mall. I needed to replace the great shaving cream I was given from a mall store a year ago, but of course they didn't have it anymore. We had lunch at the Japanese Hibachi fast food place in the food court, and then we had several hours to kill before the Trans-Siberia Orchestra concert. We went window-shopping at Ashley Furniture, CostCo, and Jason's Oak Furniture. We killed the last half hour or so by driving through some of the really nice houses on McDaniel Avenue near downtown.
The concert itself was fun, but not as awe-inspiring as I was expecting. I didn't care much for the Christmas story narration, and for every song I really enjoyed there were two I found kind of mediocre. The second show after the Christmas narration was more to my taste, being more symphonic rock.
11/24: Went to help an old friend from church hook up his audio/video system after work. I was repaid for my efforts with a nice dinner at Saffron Indian restaurant. Win/Win.
11/25: After work I met Fr. Nikolay at Spill the Beans for conversation and coffee. We talked about my getting back into communion at the church and also about my relationship and various other things. This was the first time I'd ever had a chance to talk with him for more than a couple of minutes, and it was very nice. He is only a year or two older than I, but is turning into an excellent priest. I'm looking forward to another talk sometime in the coming weeks.
Well, that brings us up to date. Tonight after work I'm going to my friend Jeremy's house for some Rock Band and tomorrow will be Thanksgiving at Megan's family. Friday, I'm planning to drive down to Columbia to visit Tandy Leather Factory and get my initial investment of leatherworking tools and materials. Hopefully all will go well.
11/21: My 30th birthday. After receiving tons of birthday greetings on Facebook, I went out with Megan to Fitzpatrick's, where a few of the fifteen or so friends I invited would probably show up. We didn't make reservations for a group as we only had two people RSVP that they were coming. At about 7pm we had 13 people total show up, and I had a grand time talking, playing the jester, and mucking about. Thankfully Pher had his camera there. I received a few thoughtful gifts (card games, a candle set) and some even more thoughtful cash, which will go in the leather fund. At 9:30 we left as Megan and the Mandys wanted to see Twilight and we had bought tickets earlier for the 10:00pm showing. The showing was sold out, so those of us without previously purchased tickets had to wait until the 10:30 showing. The movie was okay, better than I thought it would be. I'm not overly familiar with the source material, but you could tell it was carefully crafted.
11/22: Went to visit my parents. My mom made a nice chicken dinner and pineapple cake for my birthday and gave me a card with some cash. More for the leather fund! After that, I drove home. Megan and Josh arrived soon and I hopped in the car to go to Evil Mandy's to have dinner and play boardgames. We played a game of Chez Geek (one of my birthday games), ate Megan's baked spaghetti, and then played Settlers of Catan, and Lord of the Rings Movie Edition Trivial Pursuit. It was a good time other than Josh being pretty cranky that the games weren't for him to play.
11/23: I met up with Megan after church and we spent some time in the mall. I needed to replace the great shaving cream I was given from a mall store a year ago, but of course they didn't have it anymore. We had lunch at the Japanese Hibachi fast food place in the food court, and then we had several hours to kill before the Trans-Siberia Orchestra concert. We went window-shopping at Ashley Furniture, CostCo, and Jason's Oak Furniture. We killed the last half hour or so by driving through some of the really nice houses on McDaniel Avenue near downtown.
The concert itself was fun, but not as awe-inspiring as I was expecting. I didn't care much for the Christmas story narration, and for every song I really enjoyed there were two I found kind of mediocre. The second show after the Christmas narration was more to my taste, being more symphonic rock.
11/24: Went to help an old friend from church hook up his audio/video system after work. I was repaid for my efforts with a nice dinner at Saffron Indian restaurant. Win/Win.
11/25: After work I met Fr. Nikolay at Spill the Beans for conversation and coffee. We talked about my getting back into communion at the church and also about my relationship and various other things. This was the first time I'd ever had a chance to talk with him for more than a couple of minutes, and it was very nice. He is only a year or two older than I, but is turning into an excellent priest. I'm looking forward to another talk sometime in the coming weeks.
Well, that brings us up to date. Tonight after work I'm going to my friend Jeremy's house for some Rock Band and tomorrow will be Thanksgiving at Megan's family. Friday, I'm planning to drive down to Columbia to visit Tandy Leather Factory and get my initial investment of leatherworking tools and materials. Hopefully all will go well.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Song List Meme
1. Put your iPod/iTunes on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. If a question doesn't apply, just do it anyway for amusement's sake.
IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Comfortable - John Mayer
WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
The Last Dragon Slayer - Dragonheart Soundtrack
WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
The Man in Me - Bob Dylan
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Fantastic Voyage - Coolio
WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Beautiful Day - U2
WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Dream Academy
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Love - The Smashing Pumpkins
WHAT IS 2+2?
Yourself for the Day - Gattaca Soundtrack
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Old Sod - Spirit of the West
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
We are Nowhere and it's Now - Bright Eyes
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY
Viva La Persistence - Kimya Dawson
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Wonderful - Everclear
WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
The Boss - James Brown
WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Pretty Angry - Blues Traveler
WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Imagine - John Lennon
WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
The Ring Goes South - The Fellowship of the Ring Soundtrack
WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Jakey's Gin - Great Big Sea
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
The Mob - Gladiator Soundtrack
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Cry Baby Cry - The Beatles
HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Narcolepsy - Third Eye Blind
WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Days Go By - Dirty Vegas
WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Venus in Furs - The Velvet Underground
WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly - Blues Traveler
WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Momentum - Vienna Teng
WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
The Slave Who Became a Gladiator - Gladiator Soundtrack
DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
The Last Day of Our Acquantence - Sinead O'Connor
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Good Life - Francis Dunnery
WHAT WILL YOU TITLE THIS?
The Last Word - Voltaire
WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Yarmouth Town - Great Big Sea
WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Empty Chairs at Empty Tables - Les Miserables Original Cast Recording
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. If a question doesn't apply, just do it anyway for amusement's sake.
IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Comfortable - John Mayer
WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
The Last Dragon Slayer - Dragonheart Soundtrack
WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
The Man in Me - Bob Dylan
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Fantastic Voyage - Coolio
WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Beautiful Day - U2
WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Dream Academy
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Love - The Smashing Pumpkins
WHAT IS 2+2?
Yourself for the Day - Gattaca Soundtrack
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Old Sod - Spirit of the West
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
We are Nowhere and it's Now - Bright Eyes
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY
Viva La Persistence - Kimya Dawson
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Wonderful - Everclear
WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
The Boss - James Brown
WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Pretty Angry - Blues Traveler
WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Imagine - John Lennon
WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
The Ring Goes South - The Fellowship of the Ring Soundtrack
WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Jakey's Gin - Great Big Sea
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
The Mob - Gladiator Soundtrack
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Cry Baby Cry - The Beatles
HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Narcolepsy - Third Eye Blind
WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Days Go By - Dirty Vegas
WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Venus in Furs - The Velvet Underground
WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly - Blues Traveler
WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Momentum - Vienna Teng
WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
The Slave Who Became a Gladiator - Gladiator Soundtrack
DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
The Last Day of Our Acquantence - Sinead O'Connor
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Good Life - Francis Dunnery
WHAT WILL YOU TITLE THIS?
The Last Word - Voltaire
WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Yarmouth Town - Great Big Sea
WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Empty Chairs at Empty Tables - Les Miserables Original Cast Recording
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Hit with a MACE!
I had a long post I had written about MACE last weekend, but somehow the interweb ate it, so I'll just sum up.
MACE stands for Mid-Atlantic Convention Expo, and is a fancy acronym for a gaming con. This was the 12th MACE, which seems to be held every year in High Point, NC which is just before Greensboro on I-85. Megan and I left my office at 5pm and due to a brief food stop and two wrong turns (one was my fault, the other was the directions we were using) we did not arrive until 9pm. At that point I was already an hour late for my first gaming session so I left Megan in our room to relax and I quickly went downstairs to see if I could lull anyone into three hours of open Eurogames.
Fate was with me, and I introduced a nice couple to Pandemic, along with a guy who just watched. We saved the world from the four diseases, so my count with the game is now 7 wins out 16 or so plays. (I went with the easy difficulty of only 4 epidemic cards) After that, I started a game of Agricola with a father and son as well a guy who had played the game before. To save time (Agricola is roughly one half hour per player) and to make it easier for the boy I chose to teach them the family version without occupation or minor improvement cards. Right after the first two turns there was a fire alarm at the hotel and we all had to evacuate for a half hour or so. I couldn't reach Megan on her cell phone, but found her outside after 10 minutes. Afterward we went back inside, she went back to bed, and I finished the game. I used a completely different strategy than my normal field/grain/bread strategy and I ended up in second place a few points behind the guy who had played before. Being that I was teaching the game, I intentionally went with a few suboptimal choices as I didn't want to be "that guy" who must win a game as they're teaching it.
The next morning I didn't have a game to run until 1:30pm so Megan and I slept in late and ordered breakfast from room service which was $33 for the two of us with tip! She had french toast, I had an omelet, and we both had OJ. Waaay overpriced, but it was nice to eat breakfast in the room in my pajamas. We then went downstairs, she got her badge, and we went to the very mediocre dealer room. After that I taught her to play Ticket to Ride, which she enjoyed, and we grabbed some food at the MACE cafe before I went off to run a D&D game.
At the table next to where I was running a D&D game was another lvl 1 game that was designed as an intro to 4th edition. We only had five players total show up for both games, so I decided to play in his game which was good as I've DMed 4th edition much more than I've had a chance to play. My (female!) Eladrin Wizard nearly killed the Warlord, but other than that her spells helped drop a lot of bad guys.
Following the D&D game was the annual MACE auction. All of the proceeds went to building a polar bear enclosure for a zoo in Charlotte. Megan won an auction for two hardcover books (Neil Stephenson's Anathema and some vampire chick-lit I can't remember) and I won an auction for miscellaneous 4th ed D&D supplements. We both did well as she won $45 worth of books for $25 and I won $75 worth of stuff for $20. I had planned on bidding on a limited edition of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries but they bundled that game with three others I had no interest in. I'll just have to make it a priority to get that game before all the copies on the internet dry up.
The auction ran late, and I discovered that I had a full table of 8 players for my Arkham Horror game, none of which had played the game before. I usually like to setup AH at least a half hour before people arrive as there is a lot to set up (especially with the expansion I was using), but in this case I had to try and explain the game while people were picking characters and make myself heard over the crowd, which was a bit frustrating. As such in the first hour we only went through two game rounds. Things sped up significantly after that, but we ran out of time and I had to cut to endgame: I woke up Cthulhu early and the players had to try to fend him off. Normally, this is almost impossible, and if I hadn't woken him up early I think he would have handily eaten the world, but since he was only a bit over half strength the players eventually whittled him down. All in all it was a gratifying but exhausting five hours after which I went to bed and collapsed.
The next morning we had nothing really to do so we went downstairs to eat breakfast in the hotel restaurant. ($22 for both of us for the buffet vs $33 for the same thing via roomservice) After that, we went back to the dealer room and Megan bought a cute claddagh pendant and we chatted up the interesting guy who owned the booth. I said goodbye to Jeff and Ron, the organizers, with the hope that we can get a mini-mace in Greenville sometime soon and we hit got on the road at noon.
The drive back was pleasant, with not much traffic and beautiful weather. We arrived in Greenville at 3pm or so and rode the trolley around, went to Mast General Store, and had pizza at Mellow Mushroom.
It was a great weekend and while I love Dragon*Con, small cons such as MACE are much more relaxing as a vacation destination. Cheaper too; The hotel was $150+taxes for two nights, my badge was free as I was a GM, hers was $25, food, and the tank of gas to get there were the only expenses. I'll definitely try to go next year if possible.
MACE stands for Mid-Atlantic Convention Expo, and is a fancy acronym for a gaming con. This was the 12th MACE, which seems to be held every year in High Point, NC which is just before Greensboro on I-85. Megan and I left my office at 5pm and due to a brief food stop and two wrong turns (one was my fault, the other was the directions we were using) we did not arrive until 9pm. At that point I was already an hour late for my first gaming session so I left Megan in our room to relax and I quickly went downstairs to see if I could lull anyone into three hours of open Eurogames.
Fate was with me, and I introduced a nice couple to Pandemic, along with a guy who just watched. We saved the world from the four diseases, so my count with the game is now 7 wins out 16 or so plays. (I went with the easy difficulty of only 4 epidemic cards) After that, I started a game of Agricola with a father and son as well a guy who had played the game before. To save time (Agricola is roughly one half hour per player) and to make it easier for the boy I chose to teach them the family version without occupation or minor improvement cards. Right after the first two turns there was a fire alarm at the hotel and we all had to evacuate for a half hour or so. I couldn't reach Megan on her cell phone, but found her outside after 10 minutes. Afterward we went back inside, she went back to bed, and I finished the game. I used a completely different strategy than my normal field/grain/bread strategy and I ended up in second place a few points behind the guy who had played before. Being that I was teaching the game, I intentionally went with a few suboptimal choices as I didn't want to be "that guy" who must win a game as they're teaching it.
The next morning I didn't have a game to run until 1:30pm so Megan and I slept in late and ordered breakfast from room service which was $33 for the two of us with tip! She had french toast, I had an omelet, and we both had OJ. Waaay overpriced, but it was nice to eat breakfast in the room in my pajamas. We then went downstairs, she got her badge, and we went to the very mediocre dealer room. After that I taught her to play Ticket to Ride, which she enjoyed, and we grabbed some food at the MACE cafe before I went off to run a D&D game.
At the table next to where I was running a D&D game was another lvl 1 game that was designed as an intro to 4th edition. We only had five players total show up for both games, so I decided to play in his game which was good as I've DMed 4th edition much more than I've had a chance to play. My (female!) Eladrin Wizard nearly killed the Warlord, but other than that her spells helped drop a lot of bad guys.
Following the D&D game was the annual MACE auction. All of the proceeds went to building a polar bear enclosure for a zoo in Charlotte. Megan won an auction for two hardcover books (Neil Stephenson's Anathema and some vampire chick-lit I can't remember) and I won an auction for miscellaneous 4th ed D&D supplements. We both did well as she won $45 worth of books for $25 and I won $75 worth of stuff for $20. I had planned on bidding on a limited edition of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries but they bundled that game with three others I had no interest in. I'll just have to make it a priority to get that game before all the copies on the internet dry up.
The auction ran late, and I discovered that I had a full table of 8 players for my Arkham Horror game, none of which had played the game before. I usually like to setup AH at least a half hour before people arrive as there is a lot to set up (especially with the expansion I was using), but in this case I had to try and explain the game while people were picking characters and make myself heard over the crowd, which was a bit frustrating. As such in the first hour we only went through two game rounds. Things sped up significantly after that, but we ran out of time and I had to cut to endgame: I woke up Cthulhu early and the players had to try to fend him off. Normally, this is almost impossible, and if I hadn't woken him up early I think he would have handily eaten the world, but since he was only a bit over half strength the players eventually whittled him down. All in all it was a gratifying but exhausting five hours after which I went to bed and collapsed.
The next morning we had nothing really to do so we went downstairs to eat breakfast in the hotel restaurant. ($22 for both of us for the buffet vs $33 for the same thing via roomservice) After that, we went back to the dealer room and Megan bought a cute claddagh pendant and we chatted up the interesting guy who owned the booth. I said goodbye to Jeff and Ron, the organizers, with the hope that we can get a mini-mace in Greenville sometime soon and we hit got on the road at noon.
The drive back was pleasant, with not much traffic and beautiful weather. We arrived in Greenville at 3pm or so and rode the trolley around, went to Mast General Store, and had pizza at Mellow Mushroom.
It was a great weekend and while I love Dragon*Con, small cons such as MACE are much more relaxing as a vacation destination. Cheaper too; The hotel was $150+taxes for two nights, my badge was free as I was a GM, hers was $25, food, and the tank of gas to get there were the only expenses. I'll definitely try to go next year if possible.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Family Night
This is a busy week, but I wanted to try and find a night to hang out with Megan. She does not have a babysitter available on Wednesday evenings, so we decided that I would come over to her house and hang out with her and Josh.
Her parents were leaving as I arrived, and both of them only had enough time to say hello. Then, Megan and I ate the Chinese food she picked up (Beef and Broccoli) while I "played" Battleship with Josh. He's not quite ready for the full game yet.
We then went into the living room and talked while he watched a few cartoons: Max and (Erma?), Spiderman, and something else. At various times, he came over and sat on the couch with Megan and I and often wanted to climb on my lap. Megan also showed me her scrapbook of her high school trip to France.
Josh is a really sweet kid and I had a wonderful quiet night. I look forward to many more in the future.
Her parents were leaving as I arrived, and both of them only had enough time to say hello. Then, Megan and I ate the Chinese food she picked up (Beef and Broccoli) while I "played" Battleship with Josh. He's not quite ready for the full game yet.
We then went into the living room and talked while he watched a few cartoons: Max and (Erma?), Spiderman, and something else. At various times, he came over and sat on the couch with Megan and I and often wanted to climb on my lap. Megan also showed me her scrapbook of her high school trip to France.
Josh is a really sweet kid and I had a wonderful quiet night. I look forward to many more in the future.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
(kinda) Happy Halloween
Well, Halloween was kind of uneventful this year. We (Greenville Browncoats/UG/etc) had a Halloween party the previous Saturday and on All Hallow's Eve Megan went out trick-or-treating with her son Josh. That meant I didn't have much to do until midnight where I would meet up with Megan, Good, Evil, etc. to go see The Rocky Horror Picture Show (RHPS) in it's last Easley showing/performance.
I would have liked to have gone trick-or-treating with Megan and Josh, but since our relationship is so new and Josh has only met me once, I didn't want to push into his world before he's ready to deal with me. It's okay though; there will be several more Halloweens to take him door-to-door for candy.
When I was at The Command Post the night before Halloween for Boardgaming, I asked Kevin (the owner) if he minded if I ran a game of Arkham Horror the next day. I like to ask and not assume he has room because Fridays are normally pretty busy there and AH takes up a *lot* of space. He was down with the idea, so I posted it on the usual boards and had a few people show interest. Since it was less than 24 hours before Halloween, most people had other plans. I ended up with Sandy, Tom, Chase, and Jon in addition to myself. I get along with all of them fine, but I find Chase and Jon to be pretty annoying. Fortunately, I have a high tolerance level for annoying people so it didn't get in the way of me enjoying the game. The game took roughly three hours, and it ended with Nyarlothotep rising from his slumber to eat the town of Arkham, but we were able to fight him off after a long battle. Here is my review of Arkham Horror in case you're not familiar with the game.
After that it was time to meet the ladies at the theater for RHPS. Jon and Sandy went along as well as they both live in Pickens county and it was on the way home. As expected, the crowd that showed up for RHPS was loud and costumed, almost like a small slice of a con.
For those of you not familiar, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is probably the biggest cult movie of all time. It has become popular to not only show the movie, but to have a group of people dress up as the principal cast and act out the scenes above. Also people memorize various lines to yell at the screen in response to lines or action onscreen. Kind of like MST3K if you replaced the witty banter of MST3K with middle-school level bathroom and sex jokes. There were a few clever canned responses, but most of them were pretty bad. Throughout various points in the movie, people throw rice, shoot water toward the ceiling to simulate rain, and throw toast(!) and toilet paper around the theater. Also, at the beginning before the show started there was a ceremony to induct all of the Rocky "virgins" into the family through public humiliation, followed by a costume contest for everyone there. Some of the costumes were pretty good, but being a Dragon*Con veteran I've seen thousands of great costumes.
I can see the merit of a bunch of repressed kids and former kids wanting to get together and revel in this harmlessly odd tale of being strange and having sexual tastes outside of the norm. There are a lot of kids who want to explore options outside of what their parents offer to them and most of those are repressed severely, so situations to gather with other people who can understand them, sing with them, and scream obscenities at the screen together is a very ritualistic way for them to express solidarity in their individuality. Kind of like a erotic goth church service, but not nearly as interesting as you would think that would be. The movie itself contains no nudity or curses that can't be shown on television, but the fact that half the cast(on screen and in person) are in their underwear through half the movie seemed to give the room a bit of energy as the scenes themselves often revolved around sexual tension.
All-in-all it's pretty harmless fun for the people involved, who walk out hyped up by the energy of the group dynamic. They've had their sacraments, and they're fulfilled until the next service, er showing. I get it, but I really didn't enjoy it. But the geeks and the outcasts are my people, so I felt it was important to experience one of the major geek events, which I've now checked off my bucket list.
I would have liked to have gone trick-or-treating with Megan and Josh, but since our relationship is so new and Josh has only met me once, I didn't want to push into his world before he's ready to deal with me. It's okay though; there will be several more Halloweens to take him door-to-door for candy.
When I was at The Command Post the night before Halloween for Boardgaming, I asked Kevin (the owner) if he minded if I ran a game of Arkham Horror the next day. I like to ask and not assume he has room because Fridays are normally pretty busy there and AH takes up a *lot* of space. He was down with the idea, so I posted it on the usual boards and had a few people show interest. Since it was less than 24 hours before Halloween, most people had other plans. I ended up with Sandy, Tom, Chase, and Jon in addition to myself. I get along with all of them fine, but I find Chase and Jon to be pretty annoying. Fortunately, I have a high tolerance level for annoying people so it didn't get in the way of me enjoying the game. The game took roughly three hours, and it ended with Nyarlothotep rising from his slumber to eat the town of Arkham, but we were able to fight him off after a long battle. Here is my review of Arkham Horror in case you're not familiar with the game.
After that it was time to meet the ladies at the theater for RHPS. Jon and Sandy went along as well as they both live in Pickens county and it was on the way home. As expected, the crowd that showed up for RHPS was loud and costumed, almost like a small slice of a con.
For those of you not familiar, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is probably the biggest cult movie of all time. It has become popular to not only show the movie, but to have a group of people dress up as the principal cast and act out the scenes above. Also people memorize various lines to yell at the screen in response to lines or action onscreen. Kind of like MST3K if you replaced the witty banter of MST3K with middle-school level bathroom and sex jokes. There were a few clever canned responses, but most of them were pretty bad. Throughout various points in the movie, people throw rice, shoot water toward the ceiling to simulate rain, and throw toast(!) and toilet paper around the theater. Also, at the beginning before the show started there was a ceremony to induct all of the Rocky "virgins" into the family through public humiliation, followed by a costume contest for everyone there. Some of the costumes were pretty good, but being a Dragon*Con veteran I've seen thousands of great costumes.
I can see the merit of a bunch of repressed kids and former kids wanting to get together and revel in this harmlessly odd tale of being strange and having sexual tastes outside of the norm. There are a lot of kids who want to explore options outside of what their parents offer to them and most of those are repressed severely, so situations to gather with other people who can understand them, sing with them, and scream obscenities at the screen together is a very ritualistic way for them to express solidarity in their individuality. Kind of like a erotic goth church service, but not nearly as interesting as you would think that would be. The movie itself contains no nudity or curses that can't be shown on television, but the fact that half the cast(on screen and in person) are in their underwear through half the movie seemed to give the room a bit of energy as the scenes themselves often revolved around sexual tension.
All-in-all it's pretty harmless fun for the people involved, who walk out hyped up by the energy of the group dynamic. They've had their sacraments, and they're fulfilled until the next service, er showing. I get it, but I really didn't enjoy it. But the geeks and the outcasts are my people, so I felt it was important to experience one of the major geek events, which I've now checked off my bucket list.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Great Big Sea concert in Atlanta.
Tuesday night was the GBS concert. Megan and I left work a little early, drove to her house, and left in my car from there to Atlanta.
We miraculously avoided a pretty bad highway accident that stopped everyone else, so for five minutes or so we were the only car on I-85 South between Toccoa and Atlanta. The rest of the drive was straightforward and we arrived a half hour before the show.
Megan had her Nikon 40D camera with her, but the security guard told her that we couldn't bring in "professional" cameras. So we went back, put the camera in the car and went inside where we met Jacob, Elias, and Jesse. Jesse was in the middle of his week long trip from his home in Milwaukee.
Needless to say, the concert was great. It was my fifth GBS concert and the guys had all seen GBS before, but this was Megan's first time. Later on she told me it was the best concert she had ever attended. The only bad part was that the venue was a former movie theater, so there were theater seats in the way when everyone wanted to dance around.
Afterward we walked around the neighborhood (Little Five Points) for a bit and ended up at The Vortex.
As you can see from the photo of the entrance, the Vortex is an interesting restaurant. I had the Steakhouse burger with a 1/2 lb medium rare ground sirloin burger, swiss cheese, onions, mushrooms, and steak sauce along with fries and a Nostradamus belgian ale. Well fed, it was now time to say goodbye to the Brothers Kulp and drive home.
I drove half of the way back while Megan slept, and then when I started to drift off she took over and drove us to her house, where I drove home afterward. I got in bed at 3:30am and had to get up at 7:00am for work the next morning.
Speaking of driving, we took my 2006 Scion xB, which was still as-of-yet unnamed. (a crime I know) Since he is black and stealthy I went with Eben, which is a small name for a small car. He seems to be happier now that he has a name to introduce himself to other cars with.
We miraculously avoided a pretty bad highway accident that stopped everyone else, so for five minutes or so we were the only car on I-85 South between Toccoa and Atlanta. The rest of the drive was straightforward and we arrived a half hour before the show.
Megan had her Nikon 40D camera with her, but the security guard told her that we couldn't bring in "professional" cameras. So we went back, put the camera in the car and went inside where we met Jacob, Elias, and Jesse. Jesse was in the middle of his week long trip from his home in Milwaukee.
Needless to say, the concert was great. It was my fifth GBS concert and the guys had all seen GBS before, but this was Megan's first time. Later on she told me it was the best concert she had ever attended. The only bad part was that the venue was a former movie theater, so there were theater seats in the way when everyone wanted to dance around.
Afterward we walked around the neighborhood (Little Five Points) for a bit and ended up at The Vortex.
As you can see from the photo of the entrance, the Vortex is an interesting restaurant. I had the Steakhouse burger with a 1/2 lb medium rare ground sirloin burger, swiss cheese, onions, mushrooms, and steak sauce along with fries and a Nostradamus belgian ale. Well fed, it was now time to say goodbye to the Brothers Kulp and drive home.
I drove half of the way back while Megan slept, and then when I started to drift off she took over and drove us to her house, where I drove home afterward. I got in bed at 3:30am and had to get up at 7:00am for work the next morning.
Speaking of driving, we took my 2006 Scion xB, which was still as-of-yet unnamed. (a crime I know) Since he is black and stealthy I went with Eben, which is a small name for a small car. He seems to be happier now that he has a name to introduce himself to other cars with.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Halloween Party
We had our annual Browncoat Halloween Party at Laura and Warren's house on Saturday. Megan and I showed up early and helped with some of the setup. I made a Halloween mix cd, she made a broccoli salad, and she also brought cups, napkins etc.
Highlights:
1. I won runner-up in the Male costume contest. I wore my Renaissance Faire Scot outfit with pre-tartan kilt, cutlery, and a leine for a shirt. Megan wore a very fetching tavern wench type costume with a fake bodice that was very attractive.
2. Warren's homemade Applejack - I'm not sure what the entirety of the mix consisted of, but I know there was a lot of Jack Daniels, Apple Cider, and Cinnamon. This was my main beverage of the evening, and it fit the fall theme perfectly. Since we were leaving shortly after midnight, I drank this freely from 6pm-10pm and switched over to diet soda. That seemed to be the sweet spot for drinking when I know I will have to drive eventually. I got a very light buzz for about an hour and it slowly faded. By the time we left I was fully awake from the caffeine and ready for the 45 minute drive home.
3. Spinach Artichoke dip. Yum! I mainly snacked on this and the brie all night.
4. Rock Band. The group playing overall was not very impressive, but I got a lot of oohs and ahhs when I joined in playing guitar on Expert. No one else was apparently able to play at a difficulty higher than Medium, which was kind of sad.
I always have a great time at any event at Laura and Warren's house.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Browncoat Delivery Service
One of the members of the Greenville Browncoats/UG gave birth to her first child this past Friday. Since neither her nor her husband's family could make it down for the birth, I got several local geeks to pull together and we got a lot of food together for them so that they don't have to cook with the first couple of weeks with the baby.
We had a slew of donations, including:
A 5lb rare prime rib
Homemade Jambalaya
2 Family-sized lasagnas
Cheese and Broccoli soup
Black Bean Enchilada Casserole
A huge pack of Chicken Pot Pies
Various Snacks
Homemade cookies
Breakfast Bread
Danishes
Frozen Veggies
Salad Mix
And even a Burt's Bees gift pack! Thank you so much to all the local geeks who gave generously of their time and money. Mandy was really appreciative, says that she will eat *everything*, and can't wait to see us at the Christmas party.
I snapped a couple of photos with my camera phone, but will have to wait until later tonight to upload them.
We had a slew of donations, including:
A 5lb rare prime rib
Homemade Jambalaya
2 Family-sized lasagnas
Cheese and Broccoli soup
Black Bean Enchilada Casserole
A huge pack of Chicken Pot Pies
Various Snacks
Homemade cookies
Breakfast Bread
Danishes
Frozen Veggies
Salad Mix
And even a Burt's Bees gift pack! Thank you so much to all the local geeks who gave generously of their time and money. Mandy was really appreciative, says that she will eat *everything*, and can't wait to see us at the Christmas party.
I snapped a couple of photos with my camera phone, but will have to wait until later tonight to upload them.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
A Nice Little Dinner Party
Megan and Jacob came over last night for dinner, and we all had a great time. It was nice to finally get my oldest friend and my girlfriend to meet each other and they both enjoyed each other's company.
Jacob brought a brie and some crackers and we munched on that while playing a game of The Settlers of Catan. Afterward, I made pasta and prepared the salad and garlic bread while Megan taught Jacob to play a vindictively fun racing card game called Mille Bornes. The sauce was made by Megan according to her great-grandmother's recipe, and was very tasty. She also brought a bottle of Greg Norman 2004 Pinot Noir and that was a very nice wine.
After we ate, we played two games of Mille Bornes together and chatted for an hour or so.
It was a great time, and I want to have another small dinner party like this again before the end of the year.
Jacob brought a brie and some crackers and we munched on that while playing a game of The Settlers of Catan. Afterward, I made pasta and prepared the salad and garlic bread while Megan taught Jacob to play a vindictively fun racing card game called Mille Bornes. The sauce was made by Megan according to her great-grandmother's recipe, and was very tasty. She also brought a bottle of Greg Norman 2004 Pinot Noir and that was a very nice wine.
After we ate, we played two games of Mille Bornes together and chatted for an hour or so.
It was a great time, and I want to have another small dinner party like this again before the end of the year.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Meet the Parents
Okay, I'm running a week or so behind in my blogging, but I guess it could be worse. Last Tuesday, I had dinner with Megan's family, meeting her parents and her son.
At first, her parents were pretty reserved, but her mom seemed to warm up to me after a few minutes whereas her father less so. As the evening progressed, we cleared away our dinner plates to converse on the screened-in porch. The conversation steered toward movies and sports, and he opened up to me a bit.
Megan's father you can tell is a very steadfast man, someone you respect almost immediately after meeting and wish to earn his respect in return. Her mom is a warm and open caregiver, and you can see most of Megan's best qualities in both of them. I met her sister again; we've briefly met at Dragon*Con and at a movie gathering, but I've never really talked with her. She's nice, but very quiet around me as I'm an unknown at this point. I think she'll open up more as she gets to know me.
I had briefly met Megan's 5-year-old son Josh before Megan and I started dating, but this was my first time meeting him as "Mommy's special friend". Megan and I decided that we would wait until we were sure we're going to work out before introducing me into his life, and now that we're starting to make long-term plans, I'm overjoyed at finally getting to spend some time with him.
He's a sweet kid, very loving, and he was enthralled with his new Iron Man costume. As I pulled my car into the driveway, he ran out, grabbed my hand, and led me into the house. Megan tells me he can be a holy terror at times, but what five-year-old isn't? I look forward to getting to know him over the coming months.
Oh, dinner was fabulous. Megan's sister Jessica made a roast beef that was perfect; a bit more than medium rare, but less than medium well. I prefer my steak to be more rare, but for the roast it worked out well. Accompanying the roast were mashed potatoes, green peas, and corn. After the meal, we sat out on the porch and talked as the sun went down.
I made a couple of wrong turns in the subdivision, so it took a bit longer to get home. When I arrived home, I called Megan to ask how it went. Her dad told her that I was extremely nice, and that he approved. They must have liked me at least a bit as I've been invited over for Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to it, and will be much less nervous than I was at this meal.
At first, her parents were pretty reserved, but her mom seemed to warm up to me after a few minutes whereas her father less so. As the evening progressed, we cleared away our dinner plates to converse on the screened-in porch. The conversation steered toward movies and sports, and he opened up to me a bit.
Megan's father you can tell is a very steadfast man, someone you respect almost immediately after meeting and wish to earn his respect in return. Her mom is a warm and open caregiver, and you can see most of Megan's best qualities in both of them. I met her sister again; we've briefly met at Dragon*Con and at a movie gathering, but I've never really talked with her. She's nice, but very quiet around me as I'm an unknown at this point. I think she'll open up more as she gets to know me.
I had briefly met Megan's 5-year-old son Josh before Megan and I started dating, but this was my first time meeting him as "Mommy's special friend". Megan and I decided that we would wait until we were sure we're going to work out before introducing me into his life, and now that we're starting to make long-term plans, I'm overjoyed at finally getting to spend some time with him.
He's a sweet kid, very loving, and he was enthralled with his new Iron Man costume. As I pulled my car into the driveway, he ran out, grabbed my hand, and led me into the house. Megan tells me he can be a holy terror at times, but what five-year-old isn't? I look forward to getting to know him over the coming months.
Oh, dinner was fabulous. Megan's sister Jessica made a roast beef that was perfect; a bit more than medium rare, but less than medium well. I prefer my steak to be more rare, but for the roast it worked out well. Accompanying the roast were mashed potatoes, green peas, and corn. After the meal, we sat out on the porch and talked as the sun went down.
I made a couple of wrong turns in the subdivision, so it took a bit longer to get home. When I arrived home, I called Megan to ask how it went. Her dad told her that I was extremely nice, and that he approved. They must have liked me at least a bit as I've been invited over for Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to it, and will be much less nervous than I was at this meal.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Camping!
Megan* and I went camping at Hot Springs, NC over the weekend. We left my house at 1:30pm on Friday and arrived at the campground two hours later after a pleasant drive through the mountains. Being that this trip was for simple relaxation and not for wilderness adventure, the first thing we did was setup camp and then take a nap.
Later in the evening we discovered that I left my stove behind, so instead of the paella that Megan thought we were making, we ended up having pizza from the camp store for dinner along with a few screwdrivers. I had a hard time getting the fire going that night as the wood was a bit wet and I didn't have enough pencil-sized kindling.
The next day we slept in and read for a few hours until Lauren, Megan's friend from work, and her fiance Corey arrived. I had technically met them before, but had no idea they were such fun people. We played a game of Settlers of Catan, Stitcheln, and then we had hot dogs & smores over the campfire. This fire caught with one match now that the wood was dry and that I took the time to make proper kindling. We were up for hours hanging around the fire with a few beers, telling stories.
On Sunday we again slept in and had a late breakfast with Lauren and Corey. We left the camp around 1:30pm and stopped at a Boston Market restaurant in Asheville on the way back.
All in all an incredibly relaxing trip. I've now been to Hot Springs 4 out of the past 5 Octobers and Megan has stated that she wants this to be a yearly trip.
*you may have seen me use both Megan and Karly as the name of my girlfriend. Her birth name is Megan, but when she started using internet forums she wanted something more anonymous so she started using Karly and now several people only know her as Karly. I prefer to use Megan, but I'll probably use both from time to time.
Later in the evening we discovered that I left my stove behind, so instead of the paella that Megan thought we were making, we ended up having pizza from the camp store for dinner along with a few screwdrivers. I had a hard time getting the fire going that night as the wood was a bit wet and I didn't have enough pencil-sized kindling.
The next day we slept in and read for a few hours until Lauren, Megan's friend from work, and her fiance Corey arrived. I had technically met them before, but had no idea they were such fun people. We played a game of Settlers of Catan, Stitcheln, and then we had hot dogs & smores over the campfire. This fire caught with one match now that the wood was dry and that I took the time to make proper kindling. We were up for hours hanging around the fire with a few beers, telling stories.
On Sunday we again slept in and had a late breakfast with Lauren and Corey. We left the camp around 1:30pm and stopped at a Boston Market restaurant in Asheville on the way back.
All in all an incredibly relaxing trip. I've now been to Hot Springs 4 out of the past 5 Octobers and Megan has stated that she wants this to be a yearly trip.
*you may have seen me use both Megan and Karly as the name of my girlfriend. Her birth name is Megan, but when she started using internet forums she wanted something more anonymous so she started using Karly and now several people only know her as Karly. I prefer to use Megan, but I'll probably use both from time to time.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Bailout: Just Do Nothing
This is a cop-out as it's just a repost, but it pretty much echoes my opinion:
From The LA Times:
"I am a huge proponent, at all times, of doing nothing. Remember when everyone was filling bunkers with millet because computers wouldn't be able to handle a year with three zeros in it? I stayed Calvin Coolidge cool. After America was attacked on 9/11, I suggested keeping our armies home. When John McCain responded to the economic crisis he'd have to deal with as president by suspending his campaign, I started to think that maybe he's my guy after all.
Even though I understand so little about economics that much of my long-term investments are tied up in Costco products, I feel pretty sure that letting Congress give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson $700 billion to buy super-crappy mortgages is not the right call.
Sure, like any American, when I see a photo on the Internet of an adorable little investment bank and find out it's at risk of being put to sleep, I want to throw in $2,000 to $3,000 of my own money to adopt it. But instead of jacking up inflation, letting the dollar sink further and paying higher taxes so we can keep up cheap borrowing -- which is what this plan amounts to -- I think we need to let those who made bad loans get burned. We need to accept that credit will dry up and that maybe -- for just a bit -- we'll have to stop buying more than we can afford."
Although had I been more financially mobile before 9/11 I probably would have had a bunker full of millet.
From The LA Times:
"I am a huge proponent, at all times, of doing nothing. Remember when everyone was filling bunkers with millet because computers wouldn't be able to handle a year with three zeros in it? I stayed Calvin Coolidge cool. After America was attacked on 9/11, I suggested keeping our armies home. When John McCain responded to the economic crisis he'd have to deal with as president by suspending his campaign, I started to think that maybe he's my guy after all.
Even though I understand so little about economics that much of my long-term investments are tied up in Costco products, I feel pretty sure that letting Congress give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson $700 billion to buy super-crappy mortgages is not the right call.
Sure, like any American, when I see a photo on the Internet of an adorable little investment bank and find out it's at risk of being put to sleep, I want to throw in $2,000 to $3,000 of my own money to adopt it. But instead of jacking up inflation, letting the dollar sink further and paying higher taxes so we can keep up cheap borrowing -- which is what this plan amounts to -- I think we need to let those who made bad loans get burned. We need to accept that credit will dry up and that maybe -- for just a bit -- we'll have to stop buying more than we can afford."
Although had I been more financially mobile before 9/11 I probably would have had a bunker full of millet.
Wonderful Evening
Last night was probably one of the best evenings I've ever experienced.
Karly and I have been officially dating for just over a month, and yesterday she me at my workplace at 5:45. Since I work in the heart of downtown Greenville, we walked down to Falls Park and spent a few hours in the park walking around, swinging, watching people accidentally throw a frisbee into the river twice, and singing songs from Les Miserables.
As night encroached we climbed out of the park. I say climbed, because the entrance to the park is at street level and several paths take you further into a small valley until you reach the river base which is probably 100-200 feet higher in elevation. I showed her other pretty sections of the town and we had a wonderful kiss at the top of a waterfall that made her feel like she was back in Paris. We eventually found ourselves at Blue Ridge Brewing Company for dinner where she ordered the fish and chips and I ordered the Hunter's Pie, which is a shepard's pie with buffalo, duck, and rabbitt in a bechamel sauce. It was tasty, and she very much enjoyed her two foot-long planks of fish after she liberally doused them with Malt Vinegar. I had a high gravity stout with the meal and she had a hard cider.
Afterward, we walked back to my workplace and sat on a bench outside talking for an hour. There was a bit of kissing, and then we each went our separate ways.
Nothing fancy, but a wonderful evening.
Karly and I have been officially dating for just over a month, and yesterday she me at my workplace at 5:45. Since I work in the heart of downtown Greenville, we walked down to Falls Park and spent a few hours in the park walking around, swinging, watching people accidentally throw a frisbee into the river twice, and singing songs from Les Miserables.
As night encroached we climbed out of the park. I say climbed, because the entrance to the park is at street level and several paths take you further into a small valley until you reach the river base which is probably 100-200 feet higher in elevation. I showed her other pretty sections of the town and we had a wonderful kiss at the top of a waterfall that made her feel like she was back in Paris. We eventually found ourselves at Blue Ridge Brewing Company for dinner where she ordered the fish and chips and I ordered the Hunter's Pie, which is a shepard's pie with buffalo, duck, and rabbitt in a bechamel sauce. It was tasty, and she very much enjoyed her two foot-long planks of fish after she liberally doused them with Malt Vinegar. I had a high gravity stout with the meal and she had a hard cider.
Afterward, we walked back to my workplace and sat on a bench outside talking for an hour. There was a bit of kissing, and then we each went our separate ways.
Nothing fancy, but a wonderful evening.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Well, that's done...
Just stepped down as an admin at UG. It was hard to do, but it needed to be done. Now life should be less stressful and I should have more time for other projects. I just hope the site continues to do well.
In happier news, Karly and I have been together a month now! It's kind of strange, as it feels like we've been together much longer, but Friday, September 29th was the first time we kissed, so I count that as the beginning. So far things are deliriously happy. Here's to the next month, and the next, and so on.
In happier news, Karly and I have been together a month now! It's kind of strange, as it feels like we've been together much longer, but Friday, September 29th was the first time we kissed, so I count that as the beginning. So far things are deliriously happy. Here's to the next month, and the next, and so on.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Man, I'm a lousy blogger...
Well, I have twenty minutes left in my lunch hour so I will force myself to update.
1. Dragon*Con - it was fun, but I think three years of the Con may be enough for me. Of course Karly and I became involved there, and it's a big deal to her, so I have no doubts I'll be there next year. I'd like to try GenCon sometime.
2. Karly - Since most of the three people who read this blog are also on UG and/or Facebook I feel like I've gone over all this already. I have a new girlfriend, We've been seeing each other since Friday, August 29th at Dragon*Con. So far everything is going wonderfully well. Karly turns 25 next month; she is an artist, lives in Anderson, and has a 5 year-old autistic child. While she is most certainly a geek, she's not a gamer(other than participating in the Serenity LARP), but she's open to trying out board games, so there's hope for that. So far we're a really good match and I look forward to seeing what the next few months bring.
3. October - is quickly approaching and may threaten to be my busiest month of 2008. We have plans for the Renaissance Faire, UG Campout in NC, Sushi Dinner, Halloween Party, and my company picnic in addition to all the normal weekday stuff like boardgame night, my D&D game, book club, church, etc. I am sad that I have so little time to read or pursue other interests, but I am doing a lot of fun things so I can't complain too much.
4. I'm becoming more worried about our national economy and I'm resolving to spend less and build up my savings again should I lose my job or other disasters strike.
5. After a couple of years of no contact with anyone, and old friend is responding to some of the comments I make on his blog. This is wonderful and I hope someday I can see him again. He has a very hard life right now, and I wish I could do more to help.
So, that's my 20 minute update. Back to work!
1. Dragon*Con - it was fun, but I think three years of the Con may be enough for me. Of course Karly and I became involved there, and it's a big deal to her, so I have no doubts I'll be there next year. I'd like to try GenCon sometime.
2. Karly - Since most of the three people who read this blog are also on UG and/or Facebook I feel like I've gone over all this already. I have a new girlfriend, We've been seeing each other since Friday, August 29th at Dragon*Con. So far everything is going wonderfully well. Karly turns 25 next month; she is an artist, lives in Anderson, and has a 5 year-old autistic child. While she is most certainly a geek, she's not a gamer(other than participating in the Serenity LARP), but she's open to trying out board games, so there's hope for that. So far we're a really good match and I look forward to seeing what the next few months bring.
3. October - is quickly approaching and may threaten to be my busiest month of 2008. We have plans for the Renaissance Faire, UG Campout in NC, Sushi Dinner, Halloween Party, and my company picnic in addition to all the normal weekday stuff like boardgame night, my D&D game, book club, church, etc. I am sad that I have so little time to read or pursue other interests, but I am doing a lot of fun things so I can't complain too much.
4. I'm becoming more worried about our national economy and I'm resolving to spend less and build up my savings again should I lose my job or other disasters strike.
5. After a couple of years of no contact with anyone, and old friend is responding to some of the comments I make on his blog. This is wonderful and I hope someday I can see him again. He has a very hard life right now, and I wish I could do more to help.
So, that's my 20 minute update. Back to work!
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Back in Town
Got back in town from Dragon*Con earlier today. Noticed that I only had one entry for August. That's pretty sad. I will post regarding D*C in the next day or two.
Here's a teaser: Love must have been in the air at D*C as in our room of 12 people, we had 4 people inside the room pair off into new couples, including me. Three others in the room also found romantic encounters elsewhere at the con.
Here's a teaser: Love must have been in the air at D*C as in our room of 12 people, we had 4 people inside the room pair off into new couples, including me. Three others in the room also found romantic encounters elsewhere at the con.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Happy Laborpendence Day!
What's that you say? You haven't heard of Laborpendence Day, that hallowed day of portmanteau bacchanalian revelry? Neither did I ere a month ago.
My good friend Becky was kind enough to throw a Laborpendence Day party Saturday evening and advised me to bring bottles of brewed and distilled goodies to share. Oh yeah, that's my kind of party. I bought a bottle of Agavero, a tequila liqueur and a bottle of my favorite beer, Gulden Draak, as well as a healthy slice of brie.
I had a great time with friends new and old. I was crowned King of Laborpendence Day. I imbibed a bit too much and ended up sleeping on Becky's couch. All-in-all a pretty good evening.
So, until next year, I leave you all with a drink in hand and a hearty cheer: "Happy Laborpendence Day!"
My good friend Becky was kind enough to throw a Laborpendence Day party Saturday evening and advised me to bring bottles of brewed and distilled goodies to share. Oh yeah, that's my kind of party. I bought a bottle of Agavero, a tequila liqueur and a bottle of my favorite beer, Gulden Draak, as well as a healthy slice of brie.
I had a great time with friends new and old. I was crowned King of Laborpendence Day. I imbibed a bit too much and ended up sleeping on Becky's couch. All-in-all a pretty good evening.
So, until next year, I leave you all with a drink in hand and a hearty cheer: "Happy Laborpendence Day!"
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Weekend Update...sort of.
The sort of coming from that this is really a Thursday-Monday update.
Thursday after work a group of us from UG went to see The Dark Knight at midnight. We actually had a tailgate party that started at 11:00pm out of the back of several of our vehicles. Hot Krispy Kreme donuts, coffee, sodas, chips, and cookies made up the snacking implements and I made sure to intake caffeine, nicotine(smoked a pipe), and a bit of sugar(had 1 donut before the movie) to help stay awake. I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I'd go into further detail, but since the media is going crazy about TDK at the moment, I'll refrain. Also, after the showing Evil Mandy and I were interviewed by our local Fox station for the 5am news. I didn't get a chance to see it, though. :(
I didn't get to bed until 4:30am Thursday night and had to get up at 7:00am the next morning, so as you can imagine it was a drowsy day fueled only by multiple energy drinks (5). After work, I met up with Evil Mandy, Leigh, Jo, Good Mandy, and John for bowling, which was a lot of fun. I was exactly in the middle of the score for both games. Afterward we ate at Denny's. I look forward to bowling again hopefully soon. I then passed out from lack of sleep around 10pm in my computer chair. At some point I moved to my bed and turned the light out.
Saturday I slept way later than I intended - from 10pm Friday until 2pm Saturday. So, I missed the Wings of War tournament I wanted to go to at The Command Post. Not a lot happened that day, other than going over to my parents for a few hours. At least I won't have to do that for a couple of months now.
Sunday was the Firefly Event over at Laura & Warrens, and I spend most of the morning preparing a Beef Korma. I also made a Moong Dal and Saffron Rice after I arrived. It turned out okay. Spent some time with a few good geeks and also two that seem to get on my nerves a lot lately. I think at least 75% of the reason for that is them, but it's probably also 25% me as well. I had a pretty good time and stayed too late.
On Monday I called in a personal day and spent the whole day moping around on the net. It was a waste of a day, but it feels like it might have recharged my batteries.
On to the rest of the week. I might get together with Linda on Thursday to see Hellboy II and Friday night is D&D with the guys.
Thursday after work a group of us from UG went to see The Dark Knight at midnight. We actually had a tailgate party that started at 11:00pm out of the back of several of our vehicles. Hot Krispy Kreme donuts, coffee, sodas, chips, and cookies made up the snacking implements and I made sure to intake caffeine, nicotine(smoked a pipe), and a bit of sugar(had 1 donut before the movie) to help stay awake. I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I'd go into further detail, but since the media is going crazy about TDK at the moment, I'll refrain. Also, after the showing Evil Mandy and I were interviewed by our local Fox station for the 5am news. I didn't get a chance to see it, though. :(
I didn't get to bed until 4:30am Thursday night and had to get up at 7:00am the next morning, so as you can imagine it was a drowsy day fueled only by multiple energy drinks (5). After work, I met up with Evil Mandy, Leigh, Jo, Good Mandy, and John for bowling, which was a lot of fun. I was exactly in the middle of the score for both games. Afterward we ate at Denny's. I look forward to bowling again hopefully soon. I then passed out from lack of sleep around 10pm in my computer chair. At some point I moved to my bed and turned the light out.
Saturday I slept way later than I intended - from 10pm Friday until 2pm Saturday. So, I missed the Wings of War tournament I wanted to go to at The Command Post. Not a lot happened that day, other than going over to my parents for a few hours. At least I won't have to do that for a couple of months now.
Sunday was the Firefly Event over at Laura & Warrens, and I spend most of the morning preparing a Beef Korma. I also made a Moong Dal and Saffron Rice after I arrived. It turned out okay. Spent some time with a few good geeks and also two that seem to get on my nerves a lot lately. I think at least 75% of the reason for that is them, but it's probably also 25% me as well. I had a pretty good time and stayed too late.
On Monday I called in a personal day and spent the whole day moping around on the net. It was a waste of a day, but it feels like it might have recharged my batteries.
On to the rest of the week. I might get together with Linda on Thursday to see Hellboy II and Friday night is D&D with the guys.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Ideas I Don't Have Time For Pt. 1
I continually have ideas for cool things to do that I don't have time to pursue. At least, *I* think they're cool. So, I thought I'd post a few recent ones here to see if anyone is interested.
1. International Cooking Group - This one isn't too complicated, just get a group of 4-6 people together who love to cook and who also love international foods of all types. Once a month, pick a country/region and have a dinner party with each person bringing a course/dish for the meal. I'd love to do something like this and go for belgian, romanian, egyptian, and other types of cuisine I haven't tried as much and are generally not represented in our local restaurants. I had this idea after looking at a post regarding Spaetzle makers at the Post Punk Kitchen Forums.
2. Budgeting/Money Planning Group - Even though I work in accounting, I have not had a good track record in managing my personal finances. This is something I want to work on, and even though I've read a few books on the subject and know about snowball debt reduction, envelope budgeting systems, etc., as Morpheus would say, "There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path." So again, a group of 4-6 people who are willing to open up their financial info and be accountable to each other for their bad spending habits, look for shared ways to eliminate unnecessary spending, build savings/investments, etc would be good. I prefer the systems outlined in Your Money or Your Life, but I'm willing to go along with the Dave Ramsey or Suze Orman stuff too.
3. Start a Food Not Bombs group in Greenville. Those of you who know me well know that I have a mix of conservative and liberal political leanings, and on those political radar quizzes I am all over the place depending on the weighted questions of the quiz in question. I've scored everywhere from Communist to Libertarian to Socialist to Populist, so I guess I just have too many divergent political ideals.
Anyway, I'm not a big fan of unnecessary war and I also care more about homeless issues than most charity events, so Food Not Bombs hits two ideals that are important to me. Basically the way the group operates is that they weekly pick up surplus food that would be discarded from grocers, restaurants, and other sources and make a communal vegetarian or vegan meal that is served for free to anyone who wants it.
The main ideas put forth politically by the collective is that is that myriad corporate and government priorities are skewed to allow hunger to persist in the midst of abundance. Here are the four First Principles:
1. If governments and corporations around the world spent as much time and energy on feeding people as they do on war, no one would go hungry.
2. There is enough food in the world to feed everyone, but so much of it goes to waste needlessly, as a direct result of capitalism and militarism.
3. Vegan food is both healthy and nonviolent.
4. Food Not Bombs works to call attention to poverty and homelessness in society by sharing food in public places and facilitating gatherings of poor and homeless people.
Anyone who wants to cook may cook, and anyone who wants to eat may eat. Food Not Bombs strives to include everyone.
1. International Cooking Group - This one isn't too complicated, just get a group of 4-6 people together who love to cook and who also love international foods of all types. Once a month, pick a country/region and have a dinner party with each person bringing a course/dish for the meal. I'd love to do something like this and go for belgian, romanian, egyptian, and other types of cuisine I haven't tried as much and are generally not represented in our local restaurants. I had this idea after looking at a post regarding Spaetzle makers at the Post Punk Kitchen Forums.
2. Budgeting/Money Planning Group - Even though I work in accounting, I have not had a good track record in managing my personal finances. This is something I want to work on, and even though I've read a few books on the subject and know about snowball debt reduction, envelope budgeting systems, etc., as Morpheus would say, "There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path." So again, a group of 4-6 people who are willing to open up their financial info and be accountable to each other for their bad spending habits, look for shared ways to eliminate unnecessary spending, build savings/investments, etc would be good. I prefer the systems outlined in Your Money or Your Life, but I'm willing to go along with the Dave Ramsey or Suze Orman stuff too.
3. Start a Food Not Bombs group in Greenville. Those of you who know me well know that I have a mix of conservative and liberal political leanings, and on those political radar quizzes I am all over the place depending on the weighted questions of the quiz in question. I've scored everywhere from Communist to Libertarian to Socialist to Populist, so I guess I just have too many divergent political ideals.
Anyway, I'm not a big fan of unnecessary war and I also care more about homeless issues than most charity events, so Food Not Bombs hits two ideals that are important to me. Basically the way the group operates is that they weekly pick up surplus food that would be discarded from grocers, restaurants, and other sources and make a communal vegetarian or vegan meal that is served for free to anyone who wants it.
The main ideas put forth politically by the collective is that is that myriad corporate and government priorities are skewed to allow hunger to persist in the midst of abundance. Here are the four First Principles:
1. If governments and corporations around the world spent as much time and energy on feeding people as they do on war, no one would go hungry.
2. There is enough food in the world to feed everyone, but so much of it goes to waste needlessly, as a direct result of capitalism and militarism.
3. Vegan food is both healthy and nonviolent.
4. Food Not Bombs works to call attention to poverty and homelessness in society by sharing food in public places and facilitating gatherings of poor and homeless people.
Anyone who wants to cook may cook, and anyone who wants to eat may eat. Food Not Bombs strives to include everyone.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Thanks, guys!
I've spent the past hour or so reading the blog of a friend on UG that I've recently caught up with after nearly ten years of falling off each other's radars. This has caused me to thinking about blogging in general and my little blog in particular.
I started this blog a few years ago (my second or third attempt at blogging) and like the story always goes, start posting regularly at first but then months go by with no updates. No one really read it, so I had very little motivation for blogging other than having a timestamp for my thoughts and experiences.
These days, I have a small handful of actual friends who read little ego-journal and I wanted to say thanks for reading and especially for commenting. It is very encouraging for me to know that someone I respect and/or care about has taken time out of their day to see what's going on in my mental magic-8-ball.
THANK YOU!
I started this blog a few years ago (my second or third attempt at blogging) and like the story always goes, start posting regularly at first but then months go by with no updates. No one really read it, so I had very little motivation for blogging other than having a timestamp for my thoughts and experiences.
These days, I have a small handful of actual friends who read little ego-journal and I wanted to say thanks for reading and especially for commenting. It is very encouraging for me to know that someone I respect and/or care about has taken time out of their day to see what's going on in my mental magic-8-ball.
THANK YOU!
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Three Day Weekend Pt 2
Friday - Went out to The Command Post to give Mike from the D&D Meetup a CD-ROM with some RPGA adventures for the game day he's organizing for July 13th. I really don't want to run this, but I have a hard time saying no when someone asks me to do something. After that I went to Cherrydale Cinemas and saw Wanted(good stuff), and then went to Hollywood Video and bought 4 dvds with their buy 2 get 2 free promotion (Once, Into the Wild, The Namesake, and Stardust if you were interested).
Saturday - Watched Stardust and hung around for home for a while. Went to Vespers for the first time in three years and enjoyed being there, but I hate everyone making a big deal about me being there. I just want to get past this interregnum and back into the normal SJOTL swing of things. Of course, it's weird to want to get back into church life when I am so hopeless and am practically agnostic these days, but for better or worse it's home for me. After that, I went to Browncoat Karaoke at Guadalajara. We had a smaller crowd than usual (only 10 or so as opposed to 25-30 last time), but had a decent time. I sang "Benny and the Jets" with Evil and Patrick(not my choice) and "Tupelo Honey" on my own. I had put in "Amish Paradise" but didn't have time for that. Afterward, I went with Evil, Karly, and Good to see Wanted at Hollywood 20(yes, for the second time in two days).
Sunday - Went to SJOTL, left out early, and stopped by my old place to check the mail. I received my paycheck for jury duty a few weeks ago; a whopping $66. Woo-frickin'-hoo. Since some of the mail was for Jacob and he had the day off from work I stopped by his apartment. I invited him and Elias over to my place to watch season 2 of Dexter and to make something interesting out of the leftover chicken breasts from the picnic that needed to be used up. We ended up making a mole sauce and serving the chicken with onions and peppers along with guacamole(that we made), rice(zataran's jambalaya mix), and steamed squash and zucchini. It was excellent, and a great way to end the weekend.
I'm still pretty depressed, but I'm opening myself to the possibility that I can be somewhat happy even if I do give up on achieving any of my dreams. Maybe the fact that I can't let them go is what is making me so miserable, and I should just accept the not terribly interesting lower-middle class person that I am.
Saturday - Watched Stardust and hung around for home for a while. Went to Vespers for the first time in three years and enjoyed being there, but I hate everyone making a big deal about me being there. I just want to get past this interregnum and back into the normal SJOTL swing of things. Of course, it's weird to want to get back into church life when I am so hopeless and am practically agnostic these days, but for better or worse it's home for me. After that, I went to Browncoat Karaoke at Guadalajara. We had a smaller crowd than usual (only 10 or so as opposed to 25-30 last time), but had a decent time. I sang "Benny and the Jets" with Evil and Patrick(not my choice) and "Tupelo Honey" on my own. I had put in "Amish Paradise" but didn't have time for that. Afterward, I went with Evil, Karly, and Good to see Wanted at Hollywood 20(yes, for the second time in two days).
Sunday - Went to SJOTL, left out early, and stopped by my old place to check the mail. I received my paycheck for jury duty a few weeks ago; a whopping $66. Woo-frickin'-hoo. Since some of the mail was for Jacob and he had the day off from work I stopped by his apartment. I invited him and Elias over to my place to watch season 2 of Dexter and to make something interesting out of the leftover chicken breasts from the picnic that needed to be used up. We ended up making a mole sauce and serving the chicken with onions and peppers along with guacamole(that we made), rice(zataran's jambalaya mix), and steamed squash and zucchini. It was excellent, and a great way to end the weekend.
I'm still pretty depressed, but I'm opening myself to the possibility that I can be somewhat happy even if I do give up on achieving any of my dreams. Maybe the fact that I can't let them go is what is making me so miserable, and I should just accept the not terribly interesting lower-middle class person that I am.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Three Day Weekend!
I'm looking forward to this break.
I decided to not make any plans and just relax around the house this weekend, which should be great. I haven't had a non-eventful weekend in months.
I need to do some straightening up around the house as well. So it should be a nice therapeutic introverted weekend. Yay!
I decided to not make any plans and just relax around the house this weekend, which should be great. I haven't had a non-eventful weekend in months.
I need to do some straightening up around the house as well. So it should be a nice therapeutic introverted weekend. Yay!
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Am I too nice?
Sometimes I think I am too nice for my own good. I don't want to be the bad guy, so I let people walk all over me, and then I get depressed over that. I think being worried that people are intimidated by my size has gimped my personality into being a teddy bear who is everyone's friend but doesn't stand up even when he thinks he should.
Of course, I'm probably just blowing off steam right now. Sorry for annoying both my readers.
Of course, I'm probably just blowing off steam right now. Sorry for annoying both my readers.
Depression...smash!
So some good things are happening...I love my car I've had for almost three weeks(of course I haven't sent in a payment yet), I had a big turnout for the UG picnic I organized this past Saturday at Table Rock.
Yet, even with all of this going on, I still find myself almost continually depressed. Feeling like every avenue of possibility has closed to me and I am almost powerless to make even small changes in my life. That I’ll die alone after a meaningless life. The usual I guess, which is why I won’t bore anyone (including myself) with further detail.
Maybe the time has come for me to put up or shut up and finally see a shrink. I’ve been avoiding it for a long time; horror stories of couch-jockeys who don’t listen and just hand out scripts make me nervous, but I don’t think that analysis itself is the key anymore. Maybe I do have some kind of chemical imbalance that keeps me from enjoying life no matter how hard I try to silence the demons within. Maybe there is a pill that can make me not wish I was dead sometimes and get up with excitement. I kind of doubt it, but I guess it is possible.
Yet, even with all of this going on, I still find myself almost continually depressed. Feeling like every avenue of possibility has closed to me and I am almost powerless to make even small changes in my life. That I’ll die alone after a meaningless life. The usual I guess, which is why I won’t bore anyone (including myself) with further detail.
Maybe the time has come for me to put up or shut up and finally see a shrink. I’ve been avoiding it for a long time; horror stories of couch-jockeys who don’t listen and just hand out scripts make me nervous, but I don’t think that analysis itself is the key anymore. Maybe I do have some kind of chemical imbalance that keeps me from enjoying life no matter how hard I try to silence the demons within. Maybe there is a pill that can make me not wish I was dead sometimes and get up with excitement. I kind of doubt it, but I guess it is possible.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
New (to me) Car!
After the second time of my Lumina being in the shop in as many weeks, I decided to stop delaying the inevitable and get a newer car. The Lumina is a 1999 model and has 150k miles, so I don't think there are too many miles left, and certainly not enjoyable miles at that. I'm giving it to my 17 year old brother as a first car.
Over the past two weeks, I've test driven many cars. Everything from a Volkswagen New Beetle to a Honda Pilot to an Audi A6. This was more to familiarize myself with the cars out there and decide what attributes are important. First of all is reliability. I'm tired of cheap american econo-sedans that all look the same and crap out after 100k miles. Second was fuel efficiency, of course. And the third was comfort. I am a big guy, and a Yaris would not be a good fit. These were my only major considerations, but I also wanted something that wasn't like every other Camry out there, and something I can be enthusiastic about instead of yet another ho-hum-mobile.
The first vehicle I seriously considered was a Honda Element. On paper it was a good match, and the look of the car didn't bother me. When I test drove one however, I was not impressed. The driver area was not terribly comfortable(the window controls jammed into my leg) and the car had very little acceleration.
I tried a Saturn Vue next. Another small SUV with not terrible gas mileage. There was nothing bad about this vehicle, but nothing leaped out as nice either, and since the ones I looked at were $15-17k I didn't want to spend that much on something I didn't really care for.
Enter the Scion xB. It also met all of my requirements on paper. I went to test drive a 2006 in Easley that I saw on Autotrader. When I arrived, the car listed as an automatic turned into a 5-speed. I haven't driven a 5-speed in 10 years, but it was easier than I remembered it being. I loved the car. loved. The salesmen were sharks, though, and I wanted to try an automatic, so I walked off the lot.
At that point I stated doing heavy research on the xB online and calling dealers all around SC, NC, and GA. The only xB in Greenville was a 2005 with 42k miles that the dealer wanted $17,995 for. I found my black box in Augusta, GA. A 2006 with only 18,039 miles with a sticker price of $15,000. I talked him down to $12,500 and agreed to buy on Thursday just after lunch.
I had already setup financiang, so I just had to take my blank check from Capital One with me, but the problem was finding a ride down to Augusta within the next hour. Since it was Thursday afternoon, I was betting that Elias might be over at Jacob's apartment and drove over there (he never has any minutes on his phone), but no luck. Just as I was pulling out of the apartment complex, Leigh called me. She said she was having a bad day and needed to hang, so I told her my predicament and she volunteered to drive me to Augusta if I'd pay for gas. An hour later(4pm) we were headed down the interstate to Augusta.
I bought the car at Augusta Dodge, and it was a very good experience. Since we had already negotiated price on the phone, there was no haggling involved. I showed up, test drove the vehicle, filled out the paperwork, and drove it home. They even filled the gas tank for me.
Since it was an econo-box with a 4 cylinder engine, I expected anemic highway performance, but was greatly surprised how easily it accelerated to 80 mph. It is boxy like an SUV, but it has the chassis and suspension of a car, so it handles well on the road. We had an uneventful drive back and I bought Leigh dinner at Stax's Omega as a thank you for schlepping me 200 miles and driving that back again.
All in all, I love my black box and will post some pics after I take them today.
Over the past two weeks, I've test driven many cars. Everything from a Volkswagen New Beetle to a Honda Pilot to an Audi A6. This was more to familiarize myself with the cars out there and decide what attributes are important. First of all is reliability. I'm tired of cheap american econo-sedans that all look the same and crap out after 100k miles. Second was fuel efficiency, of course. And the third was comfort. I am a big guy, and a Yaris would not be a good fit. These were my only major considerations, but I also wanted something that wasn't like every other Camry out there, and something I can be enthusiastic about instead of yet another ho-hum-mobile.
The first vehicle I seriously considered was a Honda Element. On paper it was a good match, and the look of the car didn't bother me. When I test drove one however, I was not impressed. The driver area was not terribly comfortable(the window controls jammed into my leg) and the car had very little acceleration.
I tried a Saturn Vue next. Another small SUV with not terrible gas mileage. There was nothing bad about this vehicle, but nothing leaped out as nice either, and since the ones I looked at were $15-17k I didn't want to spend that much on something I didn't really care for.
Enter the Scion xB. It also met all of my requirements on paper. I went to test drive a 2006 in Easley that I saw on Autotrader. When I arrived, the car listed as an automatic turned into a 5-speed. I haven't driven a 5-speed in 10 years, but it was easier than I remembered it being. I loved the car. loved. The salesmen were sharks, though, and I wanted to try an automatic, so I walked off the lot.
At that point I stated doing heavy research on the xB online and calling dealers all around SC, NC, and GA. The only xB in Greenville was a 2005 with 42k miles that the dealer wanted $17,995 for. I found my black box in Augusta, GA. A 2006 with only 18,039 miles with a sticker price of $15,000. I talked him down to $12,500 and agreed to buy on Thursday just after lunch.
I had already setup financiang, so I just had to take my blank check from Capital One with me, but the problem was finding a ride down to Augusta within the next hour. Since it was Thursday afternoon, I was betting that Elias might be over at Jacob's apartment and drove over there (he never has any minutes on his phone), but no luck. Just as I was pulling out of the apartment complex, Leigh called me. She said she was having a bad day and needed to hang, so I told her my predicament and she volunteered to drive me to Augusta if I'd pay for gas. An hour later(4pm) we were headed down the interstate to Augusta.
I bought the car at Augusta Dodge, and it was a very good experience. Since we had already negotiated price on the phone, there was no haggling involved. I showed up, test drove the vehicle, filled out the paperwork, and drove it home. They even filled the gas tank for me.
Since it was an econo-box with a 4 cylinder engine, I expected anemic highway performance, but was greatly surprised how easily it accelerated to 80 mph. It is boxy like an SUV, but it has the chassis and suspension of a car, so it handles well on the road. We had an uneventful drive back and I bought Leigh dinner at Stax's Omega as a thank you for schlepping me 200 miles and driving that back again.
All in all, I love my black box and will post some pics after I take them today.
Friday, June 13, 2008
New (to me) Car!
After the second time of my Lumina being in the shop in as many weeks, I decided to stop delaying the inevitable and get a newer car. The Lumina is a 1999 model and has 150k miles, so I don't think there are too many miles left, and certainly not enjoyable miles at that. I'm giving it to my 17 year old brother as a first car.
Over the past two weeks, I've test driven many cars. Everything from a Volkswagen New Beetle to a Honda Pilot to an Audi A6. This was more to familiarize myself with the cars out there and decide what attributes are important. First of all is reliability. I'm tired of cheap american econo-sedans that all look the same and crap out after 100k miles. Second was fuel efficiency, of course. And the third was comfort. I am a big guy, and a Yaris would not be a good fit. These were my only major considerations, but I also wanted something that wasn't like every other Camry out there, and something I can be enthusiastic about instead of yet another ho-hum-mobile.
The first vehicle I seriously considered was a Honda Element. On paper it was a good match, and the look of the car didn't bother me. When I test drove one however, I was not impressed. The driver area was not terribly comfortable(the window controls jammed into my leg) and the car had very little acceleration.
I tried a Saturn Vue next. Another small SUV with not terrible gas mileage. There was nothing bad about this vehicle, but nothing leaped out as nice either, and since the ones I looked at were $15-17k I didn't want to spend that much on something I didn't really care for.
Enter the Scion xB.
Over the past two weeks, I've test driven many cars. Everything from a Volkswagen New Beetle to a Honda Pilot to an Audi A6. This was more to familiarize myself with the cars out there and decide what attributes are important. First of all is reliability. I'm tired of cheap american econo-sedans that all look the same and crap out after 100k miles. Second was fuel efficiency, of course. And the third was comfort. I am a big guy, and a Yaris would not be a good fit. These were my only major considerations, but I also wanted something that wasn't like every other Camry out there, and something I can be enthusiastic about instead of yet another ho-hum-mobile.
The first vehicle I seriously considered was a Honda Element. On paper it was a good match, and the look of the car didn't bother me. When I test drove one however, I was not impressed. The driver area was not terribly comfortable(the window controls jammed into my leg) and the car had very little acceleration.
I tried a Saturn Vue next. Another small SUV with not terrible gas mileage. There was nothing bad about this vehicle, but nothing leaped out as nice either, and since the ones I looked at were $15-17k I didn't want to spend that much on something I didn't really care for.
Enter the Scion xB.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
I've been neglectful
I haven't updated the blog in a while. Sorry about that.
The main reason is that I've been so busy at my website www.upstategeeks.com. We've had a lot of growth in the past month, and it's all I can do to keep up with the damned thing. :)
Brag: we just hit 100 members, we have over 6000 posts total and we've averaged 208 posts a day for the past week. Not bad for four months out.
The main reason is that I've been so busy at my website www.upstategeeks.com. We've had a lot of growth in the past month, and it's all I can do to keep up with the damned thing. :)
Brag: we just hit 100 members, we have over 6000 posts total and we've averaged 208 posts a day for the past week. Not bad for four months out.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Drinks, Depression, Panic Attacks
After work on Friday, my friend Teresa came over to finish watching Juno, eat pizza, and drink. About an hour later, Jacob and Elias came by bringing more booze. For the first few hours we had a great time.
When Jacob drinks too much he often gets depressed. This happened last night and it took 2-3 hours to get him out of the depressive funk he was in. At this point Teresa was tired, so I let her sleep in my bed and told her I would take the couch. Very soon after she left, Jacob went outside to smoke a cigarette and calm down and Elias started going into a panic attack.
Elias' panic attacks are not your standard version. He growls, hisses, speaks in gibberish languages that sound like orcs, and grinds his teeth. I've seen him attack his brother a couple of times in that state, but usually he just flails around for a while and eventually calms down.
I wish there was more I could do to help both of them. We've tried therapists, prescription drugs, non prescription drugs, etc., with little effect.
After the panic attack Elias wanted to go home, so went outside and discovered that Jacob was asleep in his car. It was now three a.m. Elias wakes up Jacob and they went home. Since he'd had five hours of sobering up/sleeping time, I didn't try to prevent them from driving.
I hope we didn't freak out poor Teresa too badly. It was definitely an interesting night. What's that old saying, something like it being a curse to live in interesting times. Whoever said that had the right of it.
When Jacob drinks too much he often gets depressed. This happened last night and it took 2-3 hours to get him out of the depressive funk he was in. At this point Teresa was tired, so I let her sleep in my bed and told her I would take the couch. Very soon after she left, Jacob went outside to smoke a cigarette and calm down and Elias started going into a panic attack.
Elias' panic attacks are not your standard version. He growls, hisses, speaks in gibberish languages that sound like orcs, and grinds his teeth. I've seen him attack his brother a couple of times in that state, but usually he just flails around for a while and eventually calms down.
I wish there was more I could do to help both of them. We've tried therapists, prescription drugs, non prescription drugs, etc., with little effect.
After the panic attack Elias wanted to go home, so went outside and discovered that Jacob was asleep in his car. It was now three a.m. Elias wakes up Jacob and they went home. Since he'd had five hours of sobering up/sleeping time, I didn't try to prevent them from driving.
I hope we didn't freak out poor Teresa too badly. It was definitely an interesting night. What's that old saying, something like it being a curse to live in interesting times. Whoever said that had the right of it.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Scored an Xbox 360
Monday morning at work one of our programmers listed an Xbox 360 for sale. The 20gb hard drive version with 3 games(Halo 3, Rainbow Six: Vegas, and Tony Hawk Project 8) and several accessories (charge & play, media remote control, messenger bag carry case, chatpad and headset) for $325.
I've been trying to decide if should get an Xbox or a decent dining room set with my economic stimulus payment, but this made the decision for me. Less that five seconds after the for sale email was sent I sent a short email saying "I'll take it". It was a good thing I didn't take a minute to think it over; three more offers came through in the next five seconds, just after mine.
I haven't had a chance to play much yet, just a bit of Halo 3, but I can't wait to get GTA4 and start exploring Liberty City. I'll probably do that Saturday night after the D&D Meetup.
I've been trying to decide if should get an Xbox or a decent dining room set with my economic stimulus payment, but this made the decision for me. Less that five seconds after the for sale email was sent I sent a short email saying "I'll take it". It was a good thing I didn't take a minute to think it over; three more offers came through in the next five seconds, just after mine.
I haven't had a chance to play much yet, just a bit of Halo 3, but I can't wait to get GTA4 and start exploring Liberty City. I'll probably do that Saturday night after the D&D Meetup.
HOG Day/ Browncoat Karaoke
Last Saturday was a great, if long, day. I picked up my friend Leigh and met Chaos Mandy and Evil Mandy downtown for HOG Day. We were originally supposed to paint low income housing, but were switched to working the afterparty at the last minute. Evil and I checked IDs and handed out free beer wristbands, which Leigh and Chaos staffed the volunteer check-in table. Three hours later and we hopped on board the free trolley to rest our bones and saw the elusive astroturf limo.
Afterward, we went by Free Comic Book Day at Richard's Comics and Collectibiles where we took all of the Stormtrooper, Iron Man, and Silver Surfer photos. We also spread the word a little about UG; it's really too bad I didn't have any business cards with me. After finding out how disturbing Evil's Superman obsession really is, we went to Atlanta Bread Company to chill for a bit before Iron Man.
For those of you who have seen it, I don't have to tell you that Iron Man kicks major ass.
After that we proceeded to Browncoat Karaoke. I made a short video of Patrick & Laura singing Time Warp from Rocky Horror, and the other highlight was all four of us HOG Day volunteers singing Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up.
All in all, a great time was had by all. In all.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Pascha 2008
Well, after all of my deliberation, I went to Pascha Saturday night along with Jacob and Elias.
For those of you unfamiliar with Eastern Orthodoxy, Pascha is our celebration of Easter, and is usually on a different weekend than Western Easter. Pascha is the greek form of the word Passover, and is calculated in a very similar way on the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar, which is why some years it is the same and some it is later.
The service starts at 11:30pm in a darkened church with prayers, readings, and hymns that harken back to Old Testament prefigurements of Christ (Jonah and the Whale, The burning bush, the three youths in the fire, Habbakuk, etc.). Then all of the lights are extinguished and the clergy start singing the Resurrection Hymn. Slowly from one lit candle passes it’s flame to everyone in the church and then a procession is made around the building with everyone singing. After that is a long, but joyous service that ends at 2:30am or so and after that we feast for a couple of hours and stagger home sleepy and full of the meat and dairy given up for Lent. Being that we are not teetotalers there was a decent amount of not only wine and beer, but also vodka and Jaeger shots.
At that point I went home and slept for a few hours and was back again at noon for a short Vespers service. Following that, we went to a family’s house for a huge party and I had more meat and drink. Well a few drinks; Bob has a bar in his house. I got home around 8pm yesterday and after nearly 24 hours of praying and partying I gratefully jumped into bed and slept until 7am this morning.
There were a few awkward moments, like when a guy who had been there maybe six months greeted me at the front door like I had never walked in the place before. Nice guy, but a surreal experience.
I think, though, that I will get back into going at least a couple of times a month. I’ve forgotten how nice the community is, and this is one of the few churches out there that combines ancient liturgies with modern views on many issues (evolution, gay church members, etc.). I’m still trying to work out a few issues of belief, but that will work itself out eventually or not.
For those of you unfamiliar with Eastern Orthodoxy, Pascha is our celebration of Easter, and is usually on a different weekend than Western Easter. Pascha is the greek form of the word Passover, and is calculated in a very similar way on the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar, which is why some years it is the same and some it is later.
The service starts at 11:30pm in a darkened church with prayers, readings, and hymns that harken back to Old Testament prefigurements of Christ (Jonah and the Whale, The burning bush, the three youths in the fire, Habbakuk, etc.). Then all of the lights are extinguished and the clergy start singing the Resurrection Hymn. Slowly from one lit candle passes it’s flame to everyone in the church and then a procession is made around the building with everyone singing. After that is a long, but joyous service that ends at 2:30am or so and after that we feast for a couple of hours and stagger home sleepy and full of the meat and dairy given up for Lent. Being that we are not teetotalers there was a decent amount of not only wine and beer, but also vodka and Jaeger shots.
At that point I went home and slept for a few hours and was back again at noon for a short Vespers service. Following that, we went to a family’s house for a huge party and I had more meat and drink. Well a few drinks; Bob has a bar in his house. I got home around 8pm yesterday and after nearly 24 hours of praying and partying I gratefully jumped into bed and slept until 7am this morning.
There were a few awkward moments, like when a guy who had been there maybe six months greeted me at the front door like I had never walked in the place before. Nice guy, but a surreal experience.
I think, though, that I will get back into going at least a couple of times a month. I’ve forgotten how nice the community is, and this is one of the few churches out there that combines ancient liturgies with modern views on many issues (evolution, gay church members, etc.). I’m still trying to work out a few issues of belief, but that will work itself out eventually or not.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Asian Night
Tonight I met my friend Linda for sushi and we saw The Forbidden Kingdom with Jackie Chan and Jet Li. It was equal parts campy and mythic, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It reminded me a great deal of a late 80s movies. Mix a little Karate Kid in with Kickboxer and a touch of Army of Darkness and you'll get something approximating this movie.
Sushi was good as always at Sushi Murasaki. I ordered a bagel roll(smoked salmon, avocado, cream cheese), a Clemson roll(spicy shrimp with black and orange maduro), and an asaparagus and avocado roll(this was pretty mediocre).
I also took my boss out to lunch at The Pita House today. He had never been and ended up enjoying the meat dishes greatly, but didn't care for hummus or falafel. I guess there's no accounting for taste. :)
Sushi was good as always at Sushi Murasaki. I ordered a bagel roll(smoked salmon, avocado, cream cheese), a Clemson roll(spicy shrimp with black and orange maduro), and an asaparagus and avocado roll(this was pretty mediocre).
I also took my boss out to lunch at The Pita House today. He had never been and ended up enjoying the meat dishes greatly, but didn't care for hummus or falafel. I guess there's no accounting for taste. :)
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Firefly/Serenity LARP
Most of you should know that I'm a big fan of the shortly-lived television series Firefly and the movie Serenity that followed a few years later. My friends Linda and Good Mandy from the Greenville Browncoats have spent months organizing a weekend long Firefly LARP that took place this weekend at Camp Buckhead in Paris Mountain State Park.
For those of you not familiar with the term, LARP is an acronym for Live Action Roleplaying. Instead of the usual roleplaying game where you sit around a table and use dice to determine success or failure at a LARP you dress up as your character and are in game for most of the weekend.
The game was set in a small town on one of the planets on the rim of the Firefly 'verse. We had set up a judge's/sheriff's office, a restaurant, docks, and a bordello /bar.
My character was Samual Seamus McGee or "Sam the Sham". He is the bartender at Red Annie's, which is the local house of ill repute. Since alcohol is verboden in SC state parks, I served varities of soda with Firefly-esque labels: Tsunami Cola(Coke), Diet Tsunami Cola (Diet Coke), Blue Lotus Soda(Sprite), Wasabi!(Ginger Ale), and Ju!(Diet Sunkist). I also sold coffee, biscotti, and desserts when our kitchen could provide them. When you check into the game, you receive a character packet that has the rules, health coins, your deck of cards (more on this later), and your "cashy money", custom made currency to use to buy drinks and meals, item cards, services at Red Annie's(backrubs, hot towel shaves, and foot washings), and a few miscellaneous things. We also gambled quite a bit, as I ran games of blackjack and Texas Hold 'Em when the bar was slow.
The plot of the game revolved around a missing Alliance ship that supposedly crashed near the town years ago during the war that carried a vast amount of unusual plat coins. It's been a local legend for years, but just now a few of the coins have shown up and all kinds of untrustworthy folk are in town making life more interesting than it generally is. I won't go into all the happenings here, but if you go the this thread at UpstateGeeks.com you'll find more information.
Saturday night we had the annual "Festival of Lanterns" which wrapped up the game with a filk concert and an improptu drinking party in cabin ten. While we didn't have real alcohol in the game areas, many people discretely brought beverages to share in their cabins once the gameplay stopped for the night. I brought an entire cooler full of discrete: 1600 Reposado Tequila(a new thing for me), Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, Maudite Belgian-style Ale, and the surprise hit: lots of mini bottles of various flavors of Smirnoff vodka that were $0.50 each. Next time I'm not going to get a large bottle of liquor, I'll just spend $25 on those mini bottles and get some decent beer. If I did that this time I would have spent about half of what I did on booze.
Anyway, a good time was had by all and Linda might throw another one in 6-9 months.
For those of you not familiar with the term, LARP is an acronym for Live Action Roleplaying. Instead of the usual roleplaying game where you sit around a table and use dice to determine success or failure at a LARP you dress up as your character and are in game for most of the weekend.
The game was set in a small town on one of the planets on the rim of the Firefly 'verse. We had set up a judge's/sheriff's office, a restaurant, docks, and a bordello /bar.
My character was Samual Seamus McGee or "Sam the Sham". He is the bartender at Red Annie's, which is the local house of ill repute. Since alcohol is verboden in SC state parks, I served varities of soda with Firefly-esque labels: Tsunami Cola(Coke), Diet Tsunami Cola (Diet Coke), Blue Lotus Soda(Sprite), Wasabi!(Ginger Ale), and Ju!(Diet Sunkist). I also sold coffee, biscotti, and desserts when our kitchen could provide them. When you check into the game, you receive a character packet that has the rules, health coins, your deck of cards (more on this later), and your "cashy money", custom made currency to use to buy drinks and meals, item cards, services at Red Annie's(backrubs, hot towel shaves, and foot washings), and a few miscellaneous things. We also gambled quite a bit, as I ran games of blackjack and Texas Hold 'Em when the bar was slow.
The plot of the game revolved around a missing Alliance ship that supposedly crashed near the town years ago during the war that carried a vast amount of unusual plat coins. It's been a local legend for years, but just now a few of the coins have shown up and all kinds of untrustworthy folk are in town making life more interesting than it generally is. I won't go into all the happenings here, but if you go the this thread at UpstateGeeks.com you'll find more information.
Saturday night we had the annual "Festival of Lanterns" which wrapped up the game with a filk concert and an improptu drinking party in cabin ten. While we didn't have real alcohol in the game areas, many people discretely brought beverages to share in their cabins once the gameplay stopped for the night. I brought an entire cooler full of discrete: 1600 Reposado Tequila(a new thing for me), Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, Maudite Belgian-style Ale, and the surprise hit: lots of mini bottles of various flavors of Smirnoff vodka that were $0.50 each. Next time I'm not going to get a large bottle of liquor, I'll just spend $25 on those mini bottles and get some decent beer. If I did that this time I would have spent about half of what I did on booze.
Anyway, a good time was had by all and Linda might throw another one in 6-9 months.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Prodigal Dave
To follow up from my last post I went to church for the first time in three years.
It was awkward, but less awkward than I had anticipated. As expected, I was immediately pulled over into the choir.
I'll most likely go back for Pascha(Orthodox Easter) on the 26th. That should be interesting. It's a service that starts at 11:30pm completely in the dark, then a candle is lit in the altar and the flame is passed through candles held by every person and there is a procession around the building three times while singing. After that all of the blood red vestments, curtains, etc have been changed into snowy white and there is a service with some of my favorite music. The service ends at around 3am and there is feasting until dawn with lots of meat(usually a roast lamb) and drink(beer, shots, etc). The next morning at noon is a very short service and then everyone goes over to a party at someone's house with more meat and booze. It's usually a pretty good time.
So, no immediate self-realization of where I should be in life, but it feels good to reconnect with the people I've spent so much of my life with for the past ten years.
It was awkward, but less awkward than I had anticipated. As expected, I was immediately pulled over into the choir.
I'll most likely go back for Pascha(Orthodox Easter) on the 26th. That should be interesting. It's a service that starts at 11:30pm completely in the dark, then a candle is lit in the altar and the flame is passed through candles held by every person and there is a procession around the building three times while singing. After that all of the blood red vestments, curtains, etc have been changed into snowy white and there is a service with some of my favorite music. The service ends at around 3am and there is feasting until dawn with lots of meat(usually a roast lamb) and drink(beer, shots, etc). The next morning at noon is a very short service and then everyone goes over to a party at someone's house with more meat and booze. It's usually a pretty good time.
So, no immediate self-realization of where I should be in life, but it feels good to reconnect with the people I've spent so much of my life with for the past ten years.
Monday, April 14, 2008
"Are you there God, it's me, Margaret."
A few posts down, I was commenting back to Jenny regarding my religious history, and though I should just make a blog entry about it.
It's kind of odd for me, as I have a pretty different religious history than most.
From birth until age seventeen I had maybe entered a church building three times. My parents are culturally Southern Baptist, but never practicing. At around fifteen I started to read the Tao Te Ching and various Buddhist and Neopagan texts.
A friend of mine got me into C.S. Lewis, and a lot of his stuff made a great deal of sense to me at that time. I started going to that friend's Baptist church and as I decided to leave music performance behind at high school graduation, I looked for something to fill the void, and newly found religion was just the ticket.
I went to a private SBC university (Bob Jones lite), ran into several professors and students professing Hypercalvinism (there is no free will, God chose who was going to heaven and hell before the planet was created, Jesus didn't die for all people, etc) and that seemed like lunacy to me. I started to look at all kinds of churches in the area; Catholic, Lutheran, Wesleyan, etc., and ran into a close friend's father who is an Eastern Orthodox priest.
I talked to him several times and visited the mission church he was assigned to, and from the moment I walked in the door I was home. Everything, from the poetry of the liturgy and the chanted psalms, to the a cappella choir performing ancient chants, to the historic icon reprints, to the candles, bells, and incense enveloped me into a multisensory communion that I finally got an idea what heaven as a state of being might be like. Six months later I had gone through the catechumenate and was chrismated as a member of the Orthodox Church on Christmas day 1998. I was nineteen. The next day, I traveled with my sponsor(kind of like a godfather) to a monastery in Pennsylvania and spent a week amongst the monks.
I had a great seven years like that until some of my own issues got in the way and I felt the need to isolate myself. Up until that point the priest was trying to get me to go to seminary and I was directing choir and teaching church school. I was dealing with some of my own head issues and I kept telling myself that I was a complete hypocrite and that all of the people there would be much better off if I wasn't around. So I stopped going around three years ago.
At this point I've been away for three years and I'm not sure about some of the core beliefs anymore. I don't think there's anything wrong with gay men and women, I don't think premarital sex is always a problem. It seems like when I would pray multiple times daily that my life was much worse than it has been for the last few years. For the past few months I've started to drift toward agnosticism.
I'm going to go to a lenten Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts on Wednesday, see how awkward everything is, and go from there.
I miss the people, the music, the liturgy. I need to see if there are any holes in me that this fills again. "Are you there God it's me, Margaret?"
It's kind of odd for me, as I have a pretty different religious history than most.
From birth until age seventeen I had maybe entered a church building three times. My parents are culturally Southern Baptist, but never practicing. At around fifteen I started to read the Tao Te Ching and various Buddhist and Neopagan texts.
A friend of mine got me into C.S. Lewis, and a lot of his stuff made a great deal of sense to me at that time. I started going to that friend's Baptist church and as I decided to leave music performance behind at high school graduation, I looked for something to fill the void, and newly found religion was just the ticket.
I went to a private SBC university (Bob Jones lite), ran into several professors and students professing Hypercalvinism (there is no free will, God chose who was going to heaven and hell before the planet was created, Jesus didn't die for all people, etc) and that seemed like lunacy to me. I started to look at all kinds of churches in the area; Catholic, Lutheran, Wesleyan, etc., and ran into a close friend's father who is an Eastern Orthodox priest.
I talked to him several times and visited the mission church he was assigned to, and from the moment I walked in the door I was home. Everything, from the poetry of the liturgy and the chanted psalms, to the a cappella choir performing ancient chants, to the historic icon reprints, to the candles, bells, and incense enveloped me into a multisensory communion that I finally got an idea what heaven as a state of being might be like. Six months later I had gone through the catechumenate and was chrismated as a member of the Orthodox Church on Christmas day 1998. I was nineteen. The next day, I traveled with my sponsor(kind of like a godfather) to a monastery in Pennsylvania and spent a week amongst the monks.
I had a great seven years like that until some of my own issues got in the way and I felt the need to isolate myself. Up until that point the priest was trying to get me to go to seminary and I was directing choir and teaching church school. I was dealing with some of my own head issues and I kept telling myself that I was a complete hypocrite and that all of the people there would be much better off if I wasn't around. So I stopped going around three years ago.
At this point I've been away for three years and I'm not sure about some of the core beliefs anymore. I don't think there's anything wrong with gay men and women, I don't think premarital sex is always a problem. It seems like when I would pray multiple times daily that my life was much worse than it has been for the last few years. For the past few months I've started to drift toward agnosticism.
I'm going to go to a lenten Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts on Wednesday, see how awkward everything is, and go from there.
I miss the people, the music, the liturgy. I need to see if there are any holes in me that this fills again. "Are you there God it's me, Margaret?"
Sunday, April 13, 2008
My Name is Waaay Too Common
I just created a MySpace page for www.upstategeeks.com. (I know I know, MySpace sucks, but I want to build up some traffic for the site) I searched for my MySpace profile to send a friend request so that UG would have a friend listed, and I had to go through 5 pages of David Galloways before I found me! There were 12 pages of DGs total!
I'm seriously thinking about changing my name. I went to high school with two other David Galloways, but fortunately they were freshman when I was a senior so that wasn't too bad. In fact, when one of them was sent home early, I'd get the note since everyone knew me. And there is another David Galloway at my company of less than 200 people. We constantly have emails, calls, and mail sent to the wrong person.
I could go by my middle name, but that is Elias and one of my best friends is named Elias so that won't work. Incidentally, Elias' middle name is David. Go figure.
Anyway, I'm thinking of perhaps taking on another name. Haven't thought of exactly what yet, but there are a few that are rattling through my head, mostly Celtic and/or Norse names.
If the three people who occasionally read my blog happen upon this post, I'd appreciate any constructive criticism on if I should do this. Need input!
I'm seriously thinking about changing my name. I went to high school with two other David Galloways, but fortunately they were freshman when I was a senior so that wasn't too bad. In fact, when one of them was sent home early, I'd get the note since everyone knew me. And there is another David Galloway at my company of less than 200 people. We constantly have emails, calls, and mail sent to the wrong person.
I could go by my middle name, but that is Elias and one of my best friends is named Elias so that won't work. Incidentally, Elias' middle name is David. Go figure.
Anyway, I'm thinking of perhaps taking on another name. Haven't thought of exactly what yet, but there are a few that are rattling through my head, mostly Celtic and/or Norse names.
If the three people who occasionally read my blog happen upon this post, I'd appreciate any constructive criticism on if I should do this. Need input!
D&D Meetup 4/13/08
Last night I went to the D&D Gamers Meetup for the first time in nine months, and had a great time.
I stopped going a while back because of some disagreements with the guy who was running the group then. He has had to step down because of health issues, and someone else has taken the group over. I'm sorry that the first guy is going through serious health problems as I never had a problem with him personally, but the new guy has really reinvigorated the group.
Anyway, the new organizer was looking for DMs, I sent him an email telling him how I DMed every Meetup for over a year but I stopped going because blah blah blah, and voiced my other concerns. He send a very lengthy sincere email that assuaged my concerns so I agreed to run a game for the group.
When I first walked into The Command Post(the gaming store where the Meetup is held) I was a little worried, as the only gamers there I recognized were people I did not want to have at my table. But cool people filtered in slowly over the next half hour and thankfully the people I didn't want did not come to my table.
Last night there were 22 people there divided into five gaming groups (I think). I had four at my table. We got off to a late start as two players had to make characters and the other two were an hour late and then left halfway through to get sandwiches for 25 minutes, so we only got halfway through the adventure. The players seemed to have a great time though, and we're planning on picking it back up next month.
The crazy thing was that the new organizer is giving out all kinds of schwag. In addition to every member of the group getting a membership card that lets you receive a 10% discount on D&D stuff at two gaming stores, all the DMs were given BI-LO gift cards and a set of every Eberron rulebook was given out as a door prize. I don't know where the organizer is getting his funding, but I hope it continues.
So to sum up, lots of fun. If you're in the Greenville area and like D&D be sure to come check it out.
I stopped going a while back because of some disagreements with the guy who was running the group then. He has had to step down because of health issues, and someone else has taken the group over. I'm sorry that the first guy is going through serious health problems as I never had a problem with him personally, but the new guy has really reinvigorated the group.
Anyway, the new organizer was looking for DMs, I sent him an email telling him how I DMed every Meetup for over a year but I stopped going because blah blah blah, and voiced my other concerns. He send a very lengthy sincere email that assuaged my concerns so I agreed to run a game for the group.
When I first walked into The Command Post(the gaming store where the Meetup is held) I was a little worried, as the only gamers there I recognized were people I did not want to have at my table. But cool people filtered in slowly over the next half hour and thankfully the people I didn't want did not come to my table.
Last night there were 22 people there divided into five gaming groups (I think). I had four at my table. We got off to a late start as two players had to make characters and the other two were an hour late and then left halfway through to get sandwiches for 25 minutes, so we only got halfway through the adventure. The players seemed to have a great time though, and we're planning on picking it back up next month.
The crazy thing was that the new organizer is giving out all kinds of schwag. In addition to every member of the group getting a membership card that lets you receive a 10% discount on D&D stuff at two gaming stores, all the DMs were given BI-LO gift cards and a set of every Eberron rulebook was given out as a door prize. I don't know where the organizer is getting his funding, but I hope it continues.
So to sum up, lots of fun. If you're in the Greenville area and like D&D be sure to come check it out.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Three Meals
The past 30 hours can be summed up with the three meals I had in that time.
Yesterday evening I met up with my friend Linda who took me out for sushi as a "I'm glad you're out of the hospital" gift. We went to Sushi Murasaki and I had seaweed salad, a bagel roll(smoked salmon, cream cheese, and avocado), and a wasabi scallop roll(exactly what it sounds like plus green fish eggs). We then walked over to Cherrydale Cinema and saw Leatherheads. It was a decently fun movie that never had any great moments, but the entire thing was fairly enjoyable. Since a large chunk of the movie was filmed here in Greenville you can recognize several of the buildings. I never thought much of Clooney when he first became a star but since O Brother Where Art Thou? I've been slowly admiring most of his work.
Today for lunch I met Fr. Marcus at Handi Indian Cuisine downtown. A bit of background: I haven't been to church in over three years now and while I was in the hospital Fr. Marcus found out about it and visited me and asked me to forgive him if he did anything that drove me away. Now when I left I had a bone or two to pick with him, but it's funny how unimportant that is after three years. At this point in my life I'm not sure if I want to get back into going to church. Hell, right now I'd probably even consider myself more agnostic than not if I'm being completely honest. But I do miss the people and the liturgy. I spent seven years of my life with these people and for good or for ill I am connected to several of them in a very real way. Not seeing any of them for the past few years was very painful.
One might ask, "If that was the case why didn't you go back before now?" Well, my craziness manifests itself as a voice in my head telling me that I'm not good at anything, no one could possibly ever love me or probably even like me, and that these people are better off without me in their life. I realize that this is not reality but the crossed wires in my head messing with me, but it feels very real at times, and I let myself think that in this instance the voices might be right. I'm still working on that.
Anyway, lunch was great and it was nice to spend some time talking with Fr. Marcus again. He didn't pressure me into coming back, at the end when we parted ways he merely told me that I'm always welcome and he hopes to see me again soon. I want to go back as it's been a long time, but I'm worried about my current doubts. As the old prayer goes, "Lord I believe! Help my unbelief."
And the third meal was chinese delivery at Jacob's house where he, Andy, and I got together for our first poker night. We each put in $10, dealt out the chips, and played several poker variants including No Hold 'Em, Five Card Stud, Seven Card Stud, Five Card Draw, and Loser No Hold 'Em where you place your two cards on your forehead and everyone gets to see them but you. Jacob ended up winning after four hours on a No Hold 'Em hand where Andy and I both went all in. All three of us had straights, but Jacob had the highest one. Ten bucks is a good amount to use for a friendly poker night. It's not enough that you'll miss it, and the winner will get enough to do something fun. The chinese meal was Roast Pork with Mushrooms, which is my new favorite chinese dish.
So to sum up, three great meals and three interesting experiences. It has been said that the act of sharing a meal is the last natural act of communion that we have left in the modern era. From my experience I would say that is true.
Yesterday evening I met up with my friend Linda who took me out for sushi as a "I'm glad you're out of the hospital" gift. We went to Sushi Murasaki and I had seaweed salad, a bagel roll(smoked salmon, cream cheese, and avocado), and a wasabi scallop roll(exactly what it sounds like plus green fish eggs). We then walked over to Cherrydale Cinema and saw Leatherheads. It was a decently fun movie that never had any great moments, but the entire thing was fairly enjoyable. Since a large chunk of the movie was filmed here in Greenville you can recognize several of the buildings. I never thought much of Clooney when he first became a star but since O Brother Where Art Thou? I've been slowly admiring most of his work.
Today for lunch I met Fr. Marcus at Handi Indian Cuisine downtown. A bit of background: I haven't been to church in over three years now and while I was in the hospital Fr. Marcus found out about it and visited me and asked me to forgive him if he did anything that drove me away. Now when I left I had a bone or two to pick with him, but it's funny how unimportant that is after three years. At this point in my life I'm not sure if I want to get back into going to church. Hell, right now I'd probably even consider myself more agnostic than not if I'm being completely honest. But I do miss the people and the liturgy. I spent seven years of my life with these people and for good or for ill I am connected to several of them in a very real way. Not seeing any of them for the past few years was very painful.
One might ask, "If that was the case why didn't you go back before now?" Well, my craziness manifests itself as a voice in my head telling me that I'm not good at anything, no one could possibly ever love me or probably even like me, and that these people are better off without me in their life. I realize that this is not reality but the crossed wires in my head messing with me, but it feels very real at times, and I let myself think that in this instance the voices might be right. I'm still working on that.
Anyway, lunch was great and it was nice to spend some time talking with Fr. Marcus again. He didn't pressure me into coming back, at the end when we parted ways he merely told me that I'm always welcome and he hopes to see me again soon. I want to go back as it's been a long time, but I'm worried about my current doubts. As the old prayer goes, "Lord I believe! Help my unbelief."
And the third meal was chinese delivery at Jacob's house where he, Andy, and I got together for our first poker night. We each put in $10, dealt out the chips, and played several poker variants including No Hold 'Em, Five Card Stud, Seven Card Stud, Five Card Draw, and Loser No Hold 'Em where you place your two cards on your forehead and everyone gets to see them but you. Jacob ended up winning after four hours on a No Hold 'Em hand where Andy and I both went all in. All three of us had straights, but Jacob had the highest one. Ten bucks is a good amount to use for a friendly poker night. It's not enough that you'll miss it, and the winner will get enough to do something fun. The chinese meal was Roast Pork with Mushrooms, which is my new favorite chinese dish.
So to sum up, three great meals and three interesting experiences. It has been said that the act of sharing a meal is the last natural act of communion that we have left in the modern era. From my experience I would say that is true.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Indian Cooking Tips
I like to make Indian food. Okay, not as much as my friend Elias, and I'm going to have to make some of the recipes more healthy now, but I love me a curry.
Anyway, if you love eating Indian but have never made it, give it a try sometime. Elias, Jacob, and I all began making Indian from the cookbook Curries Without Worries by Sudha Koul. That and a dozen or so spices should give you a good start.
Maybe it's my own food snobbery, but I tend to avoid any recipe I find that calls for curry powder. Curry powder is a British invention to try and add Indian flavor without fresh spices. It's rubbish, don't use it. There are thousands of combinations of Indian spice mixes and using just curry powder or the step up ground Garam Masala is like putting Lawry's Seasoned Salt on everything you cook and calling it properly seasoned.
I also don't recommend premade spice mixes for specific curries sold in Indian grocery stores. It's like buying seasoning packets at a regular grocery store in that you pay two bucks for something that would cost you ten cents if you had a regular supply of spices at home. Go to the Indian grocery and spend twenty bucks on 7 oz bags of a dozen spices. You'll be good to go. You may also want to pick up some ghee(clarified butter), basmati rice, and loose-leaf tea while you're there.
Anyway, if you love eating Indian but have never made it, give it a try sometime. Elias, Jacob, and I all began making Indian from the cookbook Curries Without Worries by Sudha Koul. That and a dozen or so spices should give you a good start.
Maybe it's my own food snobbery, but I tend to avoid any recipe I find that calls for curry powder. Curry powder is a British invention to try and add Indian flavor without fresh spices. It's rubbish, don't use it. There are thousands of combinations of Indian spice mixes and using just curry powder or the step up ground Garam Masala is like putting Lawry's Seasoned Salt on everything you cook and calling it properly seasoned.
I also don't recommend premade spice mixes for specific curries sold in Indian grocery stores. It's like buying seasoning packets at a regular grocery store in that you pay two bucks for something that would cost you ten cents if you had a regular supply of spices at home. Go to the Indian grocery and spend twenty bucks on 7 oz bags of a dozen spices. You'll be good to go. You may also want to pick up some ghee(clarified butter), basmati rice, and loose-leaf tea while you're there.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Uneventful Weekend
My only real excitement was on Friday evening (is that technically part of the weekend?) when Andy, Elias, and Jacob came over and we played a lengthy game of Robo-Rally, a great boardgame where each player controls a robot running a race through a dangerous factory. The robots can fall into pits, get crushed, travel on conveyor belts, and even shoot lasers at each other. Elias made fresh guacamole which was incredible. I need to research guac and see how bad it is for diabetics.
My parents were supposed to come over on Saturday at noon to see my new place, but something came up. No big loss.
I went out on Saturday and in addition to running errands (refill RXs, get gas) I went by Boardwalk and Park Place and bought a case of the new D&D Minis set. I've been buying this plasticrack for the past 2.5 years now, and I have over 3,000 in my collection. It's really the only thing I collect other than books and dvds, and I only spend around $200 three times a year so I guess it's not that bad, but it still feels excessive. When I got home with the case, I went through my ritual of opening each booster individually, taking each mini out of the plastic, marking that mini off on a checklist, and putting the cards in protective sleeves. This is a very zen-like process for me.
I also played a few mock minis games to familiarize myself with the new rules, which I think are mostly an improvement. I would like to play this game more often, but I don't know too many other people in Greenville who play.
Other than that I pretty much just hung out at home on Saturday and Sunday. I watched season two of Weeds and most of season one of 30 Rock through Netflix Online and did a bit of straightening up.
I went out to Publix a few hours ago to pick up some groceries, and now I'm in love with their freshly brewed iced tea with Splenda. I need to start making this myself, because at $2.29 a gallon I can go through at least five bucks worth a day.
My parents were supposed to come over on Saturday at noon to see my new place, but something came up. No big loss.
I went out on Saturday and in addition to running errands (refill RXs, get gas) I went by Boardwalk and Park Place and bought a case of the new D&D Minis set. I've been buying this plasticrack for the past 2.5 years now, and I have over 3,000 in my collection. It's really the only thing I collect other than books and dvds, and I only spend around $200 three times a year so I guess it's not that bad, but it still feels excessive. When I got home with the case, I went through my ritual of opening each booster individually, taking each mini out of the plastic, marking that mini off on a checklist, and putting the cards in protective sleeves. This is a very zen-like process for me.
I also played a few mock minis games to familiarize myself with the new rules, which I think are mostly an improvement. I would like to play this game more often, but I don't know too many other people in Greenville who play.
Other than that I pretty much just hung out at home on Saturday and Sunday. I watched season two of Weeds and most of season one of 30 Rock through Netflix Online and did a bit of straightening up.
I went out to Publix a few hours ago to pick up some groceries, and now I'm in love with their freshly brewed iced tea with Splenda. I need to start making this myself, because at $2.29 a gallon I can go through at least five bucks worth a day.
More Back at Work Stuff
Again, I was terribly pleased to get back to work on Thursday, but I'm glad I only had a two day work week as I'm still not 100% and my leg would get stiff in the last few hours of the day while at my desk.
I came back to 348 emails. 50-80 were intercompany chit-chat as EP is a pretty casual company and you'll routinely get company-wide emails from people selling their houses, showing photos of a stray dog they're trying to get rid of, or selling tickets to a show or game. The rest were things I had to attend to, and I took care of the mission-critical stuff before lunch that day.
We had two new additions to my department in the three weeks I was away. One was an accounting manager who may become my supervisor over the next several months. He seems like a nice, quiet guy, and I'm estimating that he's 3-4 years younger than I am. I think I'll get along with him with no problem. The other new employee is a 20 hr/week temp to help out the billers that I haven't even said hello to yet. I didn't mean to be rude, but I had a lot of work to catch up.
I also missed the (yearly?) drug test while in the hospital. I'm glad about that, not because it would have been a problem (Two half-joints in 1998 were my only illicit experiments), but I am kind of opposed to mandatory drug testing. If someone seems to be on something at work, or is showing evidence that they might have a problem great, test that person, but I don't think companies have any right to intrude on their employees in this manner if there's no job related problem. I guess I'm leaning more libertarian in my old age.
Anyway, once again it's good to be back in the saddle at EP. It's not my ideal method of employment, but I'm pretty damn happy with my coworkers, my usual tasks, and the company in general, and I earn a very fair salary with great benefits. I don't plan on leaving anytime soon and I hope the feeling is mutual.
I came back to 348 emails. 50-80 were intercompany chit-chat as EP is a pretty casual company and you'll routinely get company-wide emails from people selling their houses, showing photos of a stray dog they're trying to get rid of, or selling tickets to a show or game. The rest were things I had to attend to, and I took care of the mission-critical stuff before lunch that day.
We had two new additions to my department in the three weeks I was away. One was an accounting manager who may become my supervisor over the next several months. He seems like a nice, quiet guy, and I'm estimating that he's 3-4 years younger than I am. I think I'll get along with him with no problem. The other new employee is a 20 hr/week temp to help out the billers that I haven't even said hello to yet. I didn't mean to be rude, but I had a lot of work to catch up.
I also missed the (yearly?) drug test while in the hospital. I'm glad about that, not because it would have been a problem (Two half-joints in 1998 were my only illicit experiments), but I am kind of opposed to mandatory drug testing. If someone seems to be on something at work, or is showing evidence that they might have a problem great, test that person, but I don't think companies have any right to intrude on their employees in this manner if there's no job related problem. I guess I'm leaning more libertarian in my old age.
Anyway, once again it's good to be back in the saddle at EP. It's not my ideal method of employment, but I'm pretty damn happy with my coworkers, my usual tasks, and the company in general, and I earn a very fair salary with great benefits. I don't plan on leaving anytime soon and I hope the feeling is mutual.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Back to Work!
I had the PICC line removed Wednesday afternoon and I went back to work yesterday.
No pain at all when the home health nurse removed the PICC line. She basically just removed the dressing covering the tube and started pulling it out of my arm slowly. It was around the same diameter as a thick spaghetti noodle, but 26 inches long. The wound will take a day or two to heal and I'm still not supposed to pick up anything heavier than ten pounds with that arm.
It's kind of strange to say, but I was really excited about going back to work yesterday. It's funny how many hugs and well-wishes you receive after you've been out sick for three weeks. My only problem was my leg stiffening up over the last two hours of work, but that should only be temporary as I've been mollycoddling my leg up until now.
Oh, and in the morning before going to work I met with a nutritionist to go over how I should modify my diet to deal with type two diabetes and lose some weight. It's a pain, but hopefully if I work at it I can stave off insulin injections and whatnot.
No pain at all when the home health nurse removed the PICC line. She basically just removed the dressing covering the tube and started pulling it out of my arm slowly. It was around the same diameter as a thick spaghetti noodle, but 26 inches long. The wound will take a day or two to heal and I'm still not supposed to pick up anything heavier than ten pounds with that arm.
It's kind of strange to say, but I was really excited about going back to work yesterday. It's funny how many hugs and well-wishes you receive after you've been out sick for three weeks. My only problem was my leg stiffening up over the last two hours of work, but that should only be temporary as I've been mollycoddling my leg up until now.
Oh, and in the morning before going to work I met with a nutritionist to go over how I should modify my diet to deal with type two diabetes and lose some weight. It's a pain, but hopefully if I work at it I can stave off insulin injections and whatnot.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Not much to say...
...still stuck at home, doing IV injections and sleeping throughout half the day. At least I have fast DSL and a projector to comfort me.
I may try to venture out with some friends for a few hours tonight.
I may try to venture out with some friends for a few hours tonight.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Out of the Hospital
Well, I was released from the hospital on Sunday. My ex-girlfriend Lisa picked me up and dropped me off because everyone else was busy on Easter Sunday.
I now have to self-administer vancomycin, my antibiotic, via an IV PICC line going into my heart. I have to do this twice a day until next Monday, when hopefully the damned thing will be removed and I can go back to work. Here's a graphic of the PICC line:
Being at home is better than the hospital, but I have to rest and elevate my leg so much I'm not getting anything done around the house and I can't really spend the time watching movies or playing around on the internet as I would like. Hopefully, I'll get a little more stamina soon.
I now have to self-administer vancomycin, my antibiotic, via an IV PICC line going into my heart. I have to do this twice a day until next Monday, when hopefully the damned thing will be removed and I can go back to work. Here's a graphic of the PICC line:
Being at home is better than the hospital, but I have to rest and elevate my leg so much I'm not getting anything done around the house and I can't really spend the time watching movies or playing around on the internet as I would like. Hopefully, I'll get a little more stamina soon.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Greetings from Allen Bennet Hospital
Thursday evening I started feeling extremely nauseous with both a fever and chills. I left the board game event I was at to go to my old place and rest for a few hours. I fell asleep in the overstuffed easy chair in a weird position and when I woke up all the circulation to my left calf was cut off. I hopped around on that leg for a while and drove home.
When I woke up on Friday, the numbness was replaced by extreme pain, swelling, and redness. I called in at work and like an idiot I I'd give it another day before going to the doctor.
Saturday bore no improvement, in fact I felt worse. At this point I called Jacob and asked him to come pick me up and take me to the emergency room. I decided to go to Allen Bennett as I thought that would be less of a wait(I was right, no wait at all!), and at first the ER doc thought I might have a deep-vein-thrombosis blood clot. I had an ultrasound performed and discovered it was not a clot thankfully, but cellulitis and an infection. So I've been here since noon Saturday as an IV-dripping, bad food eating, open butt gown wearing, bad movie on tv-watching inpatient. I called EP this morning and let my supervisor Michael know what was going on. He told me not to worry about anything here but just concentrate on getting better. I also received a flower from EP a few hours later.
So this is day 3 of my hospital stay. I'm not certain when I'll be able to leave. Hopefully by Friday. Having a laptop and an internet connection is my one saving grace.
When I woke up on Friday, the numbness was replaced by extreme pain, swelling, and redness. I called in at work and like an idiot I I'd give it another day before going to the doctor.
Saturday bore no improvement, in fact I felt worse. At this point I called Jacob and asked him to come pick me up and take me to the emergency room. I decided to go to Allen Bennett as I thought that would be less of a wait(I was right, no wait at all!), and at first the ER doc thought I might have a deep-vein-thrombosis blood clot. I had an ultrasound performed and discovered it was not a clot thankfully, but cellulitis and an infection. So I've been here since noon Saturday as an IV-dripping, bad food eating, open butt gown wearing, bad movie on tv-watching inpatient. I called EP this morning and let my supervisor Michael know what was going on. He told me not to worry about anything here but just concentrate on getting better. I also received a flower from EP a few hours later.
So this is day 3 of my hospital stay. I'm not certain when I'll be able to leave. Hopefully by Friday. Having a laptop and an internet connection is my one saving grace.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Rock Band Endless Tour
Today after work I got together with Jacob and Andy at my old place and we played the Endless Tour on Rock Band. Basically, it is a concert where you play every song you have installed for Rock Band, one after the other. It was a total of 58 songs and took from 5:30pm to 12:35am, with a one hour break for dinner(mmm...Mexican).
We started with both guitars on hard and vocals on medium and passed whatever we were playing clockwise every three songs. It was a lot of fun, but not something I'd want to do terribly often.
Also, www.upstategeeks.com is coming along nicely. I put up some basic banners, and we're getting more users and more posts. I'm going to order some "free" business cards from vistaprint.com with the site to leave at game shops and other geek natural habitats.
We started with both guitars on hard and vocals on medium and passed whatever we were playing clockwise every three songs. It was a lot of fun, but not something I'd want to do terribly often.
Also, www.upstategeeks.com is coming along nicely. I put up some basic banners, and we're getting more users and more posts. I'm going to order some "free" business cards from vistaprint.com with the site to leave at game shops and other geek natural habitats.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
