We Shall Remain

Tuesday Q&A: Tom DeFalco & Howard Mackie
The writers of SPIDER-MAN: THE CLONE SAGA discuss being infamous, the original storyline, and their new take

So, I see Xanga has survived its transition, although not all of my Xangan friends seem to have kept their accounts in the transition. I seem to have lost the hyperlinks between blog posts. I also seem to have lost some images but not others. I further lost my blog header; but I had been planning on changing it anyway the last time I posted. It's a little sad that the Amazon links to what I'm listening/reading/watching are gone; as are my Google ads. However, I'm hoping the fres start for Xanga means that it will be here for the long haul.

I'll slowly begin changes around here as time permits. There's a lot to explore in the new Xanga 2.0, and I'm looking forward to it.

You were born during a Third Quarter moon
This phase occurs in the middle of the moon's waning phases, after the full moon and before the new moon.

- what it says about you -
You like to make up your own mind. You may find it hard to relate to mainstream opinions on issues, and you definitely don't always like what's popular. You can work out solutions and give birth to big ideas when left to yourself, and other people will be impressed with your conclusions even if they're not sure how you arrived at them.

What phase was the moon at on your birthday? Find out at Spacefem.com

"In order to perform miracles, one must take notes." ~Robert Sheckley

Currently Reading
Tunnels & Trolls Superheroes -- Power Trip 2nd Edition
By Ken St. Andre
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Notice how Disney Insider Warwick Davis USPS Star Wars is nearly identical to "Star Wars" Weekends with Star Warwick Davis?  I wonder who plagiarized who?

A month or two ago I was riding my bicycle into work when my path crossed a couple of patrol cars with their lights on which were stopped at the southbound bus stop at Bethany Home Road and 27th Avenue.  All of the traffic was merging left into the inner lane so as to give the cops an open lane between us and them.  Then, 3/8 of a mile later, I was pulled over by a patrol car myself.  When the officer asked me if I knew why I was pulled over, I admitted that I did not.  He tried to claim that I passed them without giving them a lane of clearance.  When I stated that I had indeed moved to the inner lane as required by law and then went back to the outer lane afterward he seemed taken back, and then told me that I was only going to receive a warning.  It is very frustrating to be accused of not doing something which I did indeed do.

Yet it doesn't stop there.  Friday night I was bicycling home from Wayne's place after work.  A similar situation happened on 7th Street between Northern Avenue and Butler Drive when traveling northbound at night.  This time, when I merged into the inner lane, I had one guy in a van who honked and shouted a threat at me, "You're gonna die!"  Immediately after that a black car with thick tinted windows honked at me and drove in the open lane between the rest of us and the patrol cars.  Yet, once I was between Butler Drive and Alice Avenue I was pulled over by the three officers we had all just passed.  Did they pull over the guy in the van who they must have heard threaten me?  No.  Did they pull over the car that illegally drove through the lane next to the patrol cars?  No.  They pulled over me, and then had the audacity to ask me why I had merged into the inner lane.  Once I explained to them that it is a requirement of the law, I was told that in the future they would prefer that I pass them on the right by pulling up onto the sidewalk.  When I pointed out that the people they were speaking with were blocking all traffic on the sidewalk, I was told to be slow and careful when passing patrol cars on the sidewalk in their preferred method.

Is it any wonder why society in general is losing respect for our law enforcement?  All of the officers in these two incidents were kind, friendly, personable people who truly seemed like they cared.  Yet they are pulling over a law abiding citizen for following the rules of the road.  Worse, in one instance they're trying to accuse me of doing the exact opposite of what I did; in the other instance I'm being told to do something incredibly dangerous instead of following the law.  Still worse, in the later incident the cops chose to pull over the law abiding citizen rather than either of the law breakers who passed at the same time.  Worse even than that, all of these are cops who are all employed by the same city who are giving me conflicting advice within a few weeks of each other.  Know your laws.  It's your only defense against unwarrented police harassment.

Your result for The "What Type of Intellectual are You?" Test...

The Bibliophile

Take The "What Type of Intellectual are You?" Test at HelloQuizzy

“What's another word for Thesaurus?”  ~ Steven Wright

How does a song like "Something in the Air" end up on an album titled More Mellow Sixties?  What's so mellow about "Hand out the arms and ammo" or "...the revolution's here" as lyrics?

It's been a long, long time since I journaled anything about my life.  I'm not willing to look at the date stamp of the last post.  Some things in my life have stayed the same.  For instance, Father Milt gave another excellent homily tonight.  Other things have changed, such as no longer being single.  My plan is to post here again, despite the fact that I've mostly migrated to Facebook (due to work obligations).  We'll see how successful I am at returning to Xanga.  I could definitely use the peace journaling used to give me.  I've missed it.  Maybe all of the people who discovered this site will have forgotten it and no longer check it.  I should probably go though each post of the journal and see if it should be public or not. Anyway, I'm not likely to fill in the large gap, but just pick up already in progress.  It'll be like when Doctor Who relaunched through BBC Wales. 

Thanks to Trollgod for the quiz:

Your BrainHex Class is Mastermind.

Your BrainHex Sub-Class is Mastermind-Achiever.

You like solving puzzles and devising strategies as well as collecting anything you can collect or doing everything you possibly can.

Each BrainHex Class also has an Exception, which describes what you dislike about playing games. Your Exceptions are:

Learn more about your classes and exceptions at BrainHex.com.

Your scores for each of the classes in this test were as follows:

Go to BrainHex.com to learn more about this player model, and the neurobiological research behind it.

"He who considers his work beneath him will be above doing it well." ~ Alexander Chase

Character Cover Sheets

So Monte has talked me into joining his Tuesday night D&D campaign.  Apparently, the Tempe players quit, so they were moving the campaign into central Phoenix from north Tempe.  All three other players were Mikes, so the DM nicknamed them as DM-Mike, Host-Mike, and Player-Mike.  The campaign uses a few optional and house rules including rolling for defense (instead of a +10 static AC), alchemical and magic items can be purchased with starting funds but will be scarce afterwards, magic (divine and arcane) users and items are rarer than rare, certain races and subraces are changed for player characters (including orcs and goblins as options), unnamed characters with 1 HP (basically using the rules for mooks in Feng Shui terms), and no psionics.

I created an Aquatic Elf Cleric of Deep Sashelas.  I don't know why aquatic elves were on his list of allowed races, but I've always wanted to play one.  While I was finishing up my character, the other two players began the mission.  Our characters were hired by Quarius the Sorceror to root out the evil which has infested a temple of Heironeous.  Player-Mike is playing a Half-Draw Sorcerer by the name of Galen, Host-Mike is playing a Dwarven Fighter by the name of Garik, and DM-Mike is playing a Human Fighter named Harod to fill out the party.  The three reached the temple during a downpour and began killing the faithful guards of the temple.  When the found young acolytes they let them flee for their lives, then began looting.  Once my character was done, he raced to catch up with the rest of the party.  When he met the fleeing young acolytes, they warned him of the evil infesting the temple (ie the other player characters) and so he was spurred on toward his quest. 

Once all the player characters reunited, he used his divinely granted powers to heal the party.  That freaked out Garik and Harod, who distrust magic despite working for a sorcerer.  Our characters stumbled across some small, flat-nosed, blackened creatures who fled from our assault.  They tried claiming that we were on the same side.  When more guards showed up, they didn't believe us about how they were preventing us from chasing these evil creatures and joined comabt with us.  I chose to have my character defend himself without injuring the guards, the others chose straight out combat.  As they were losing, they retreated -- separating my character from the others.  As Rek'lawd-Nal freed himself from the combat he continued his search in the pouring rain for the little buggers who were infesting the temple, lighting a sunrod in the process.  How we pick up next session should be interesting.

Out of character, it's fairly obvious that Quarius has hired our characters to exterminate the good faithful of Heironeous and sent some evil minions to assist us.  In character, Rek' hasn't seen his party attack any of the good folk, but has seen dead guards, fleeing children, and evil minions.  Not being a denizen of the surface world (and not having any ranks in Knowledge:  Religion) he assumes that the temple is neutral, nor does he think of his faith as a cult.  He thinks nothing about revealing his faith nor using the divine might provided by his faith.

Thanks to MaulKat for the quiz:

What Lord of the Rings race do you belong to?

Hobbit

You belong to the Hobbits race! Undoubtedly related to Men, in these halflings lays also the future of Middle-Earth. When Hobbits are called upon they do not stray from their quest, and they seldom fail. Their origins are neither known nor recorded in any book or scroll, but they, too, spawn from multiple houses. They befriended Elves and are skilled in song and speech, but also have a tradition of hunting. They all have curly hair and hairy big feet. Some other Hobbits are Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry.

Hey - try this personality test and see how we compare

Currently Reading
The Tomb of Dracula
By ROBERT RODI
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The Animated Hawkeye Trilogy is based upon the original Bullpen Bits #s 3, 17, and 18.

So Monte has begun a new Star Wars:  Clone Wars camapign using the 3.0 rules.  Of the three of us, only Rusty has seen the related movie.  Rusty used the Human Jedi Padawan Learner template to create a human jedi guardian, while I used the Human Jedi Scholar to create a chiss jedi consular.  Monte wanted us to pick existing jedi for our character's masters, so Rusty chose Aayla Secura for Ostrik and I chose Ylenic It'kla for Naidraug Ralusnoc. 

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away...

Four jedi were sent to the neutral world of Tatooine to ascertain what it would take to get Jabba Desilijic Tiure to allow the Galactic Republic to place a garrison there.  While the troops were left in orbit, the four jedi went planetside.  After getting a feel of the locals in Mos Eisley the masters set up a meeting at Chalmun's Cantina without the padawans.  While awaiting a resolution of the meeting, the area shook from an explosion.  Naidraug tried telepathically contacting the Ylenic to no avail, so the two padawans rushed to the cantina.  When they arrived there was no evidence of their masters, those whom they were meeting, nor whomever was responsible for the damage done to the cantina.

The padawans tracked down Jabba's operation to a palace outside the city.  Deciding that infiltration was better than direct conflict, Naidraug sought an audience with Jabba while Ostrik snuck inside.  Jabba had indeed been behind the plot that captured the jedi masters.  Naidraug tried bargaining for their release, but Jabba intended to Keep Aayla as one of his dancing girl brides.  In fact, while Jabba thought about a trade for Ylenic, he insisted that a dancing girl attend to Naidraug.  It was clear that the jedi masters were being drugged intravenously to prevent their lucidity and that the padawans would need to do some serious rescuing.

Meanwhile Ostrik was able to rescue the various people in the palace's prison cells and take them to the warehouse dock.  Naidraug noticed that one of the palace toughs had Aayla's lightsabre on his belt.  The tough was proud of the prize, and was reluctant to lose it.  He finally settled on a case of Corellian whiskey for the sabre, which Ostrik was able to take from a pallette elsewhere in the warehouse.  Ostrik and some of the freed prisoners moved the case to the dock doors, then informed Naidraug that the "delivery" had been made.  That was both lightsabres and one drugged jedi master down, one drugged jedi master to go.

Finally, Naidraug did manage to secure the trade of Ylenic for a metric ton of spice.  He requested that the clone commander escort the spice down, with the full battalion ready to rock.  When the spice was delivered, Jabba's forces found themselves surrounded on the dock with heavy armed troops on one side and Ostrik's assorted freed captives on the other.  The padawans successfully rescued their jedi masters, the other jailed captives, and the other captive would-be brides of Jabba.  While most of the captives chose to leave on their own, some even commandeering the landspeeder the padawans had rented, one of the brides requested that she be taken home to planet of Zeltros.  With both jedi masters recovered, the five headed to Zeltros.

Once planetside, the jedi reunited the young woman with her parents: the king and queen!  Thankful to have the princess back safely, a grand festival was held with the four jedi as guests.  Roll credits.

Your result for The Superhero Archetype Test...

Granted Immense Power, You're the Divinity-Gifted Hero

Take The Superhero Archetype Test at HelloQuizzy

“The JLA's success was mentioned in a friendly golf game between DC's publisher, Jack Liebowitz, and Marvel Comics' Martin Goodman.  Upon hearing this, Goodman turned to Stan Lee, his editor-in-chief, and asked for a competitive title.  Lee, thinking he had little to lose, teamed with artist Jack Kirby.  With that, the Fantastic Four -- and a new chapter in comics history -- was born.”  ~ Robert Greenberger, "Remembering the Millennium," Millennium Edition:  The Brave and the Bold 28, February 2000

The crime that created Superman: Did fatal robbery spawn Man of Steel?

It's been a busy August.  My maternal grandmother has died, I've attended the first annual Tunnels & Trolls Convention, lectored at my grandmother's memorial mass, attended her graveside service, flew out to the fourty-first GenCon, and am preparing now to run At-Con Program Operations for CopperCon 28 this upcoming weekend.  My bicycle broke down a few weeks ago, and they're still awaiting the part as of yesterday.  My house became a complete mess due to no time for cleaning, and I received a notice about the uncontrolled growth in my yard. 

So I find myself with some time to post here, for a change.  Yet, strangely I'm not in the mood.  Perhaps it's due to the fact that I am woefully out of practice.  Thus I am forcing myself to post anyway.  Or perhaps I'm not ready to compose a memorial for my grandmother. 

I found a stack of Batman Adventures volume two comics which I had never read.  I had had a subscription to Batman:  Gotham Adventures which was canceled and replaced with this second run of Batman Adventures.  I didn't like the drastic change in tone and theme, so I never read the rest of the series and let the subscription expire.  So I read the first seven issues this month.  It was well paced, well scripted, and brilliant in making drastic changes in character circumstances while maintaining continuity and characterization.  It's amazing what five years of perspective will do.  Now I regret not having any of the subsequent issues.  The previous series was more a series of one shots, while this newer series had stand alone issues which wove into a single whole.  Each issue laid the groundwork for future issues, without a need to own any other issue than the one in your hands.  Yet the story made you want to own all of the other issues.  Issue one takes the step of introducing the main characters, letting readers see how each of the heroes and villains will be portrayed in this series.  A great place for new readers and old readers alike.  I understand that this first issue was also published with a Free Comic Book Day cover. 

"Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him, 'Father!'" ~Lydia M. Child

A couple of weeks later I attended St Francis Xavier Parish again.  First I had the final LepreCon XXXIV committee meeting (at the JB's on the southwest corner of Indian School Road and 24th Street).  Half way there I realized that I had forgotten my phone at home.  I could go home to retrieve it and be late, or deal with not having the phone.  I chose the later.  At the meeting we finalized everything we could, with the few committee members who bothered to show up. 

From there I rushed to Burton Barr Central Library, so I could quickly go online (using an Express Workstation)and write down the instructions for getting to LunarLumiere's new place.  I had forgotten to print them up or write them down, and without my phone I couldn't just call her up and ask.  Once I had that information, I rushed to St Francis Xavier Parish for mass.

One of the things I was impressed by was that, like St Raphael Parish, the Ushers open doors for those entering from the vestibule.  It's a very welcoming gesture, one I wouldn't mind seeing implemented at more parishes.  Another thing that impressed itself on my memory was that the first lector was so soft-spoken, it was extremely hard for even me to hear her, even from the miked raised ambo.  Hopefully, someone will have impressed upon her the need to project her voice. 

Afterward I attended LunarLumiere's house warming party.  I teased Charles about him opening up the mother-in-law house he was renting from her, to have his own house warming.  However, he was too embarassed about how it looked still.  There was much, much amazing food to be had.  And, I ran into Eva, an old chum from FK.  We were both very involved in different student organizations, so we knew each other from that.  Apparently, Eva is a friend of LunarLumiere's and also a teacher.  Small world!  She's now married with a small daughter, who was very into capturing live bugs and drawing things while at the party.

I started rereading To Kill a Mockingbird because I wanted to reread it before seeing it at the Herberger Theater Center.  However, I just noticed that I missed that chance.  I always seem to miss my chances at seeing live performances (music, theatre, et cetera).  At least I thoroughly enjoyed the novel again.

“People in their right minds never take pride in their talents.”  ~ Miss Maudie Atkinson, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

FlashLARP PotterSpace

It was a busy weekend.  Saturday after work I headed over to Tricuspa's so the two of us could enter all of the HLA events into the Phoenix Con Games web site.  We had started to enter them during our Thursday night meeting, but he was going to be unavailable the following Thursday and we were working against a deadline. 

Sunday morning we finally finished playing my Christmas themed D&D game, in the middle of Easter season.  Everyone seemed to have fun though, and gave suggestions for when I run again.  Of course, I have other priorities at the moment, such as LepreCon, Phoenix Con Games, and Chaos Out of Order for one of my other groups of friends.  I'm not adverse to running again though, and have several unfleshed out ideas I could run for them or others. 

After the game I rushed over to St. Francis Xavier Parish for mass.  I hadn't attended mass there before.  It's built in the classic domed ceiling style.  The ambo has a set of stairs leading up to it for proclamation (probably predating the microphones).  The main interior colour scheme was a very light aqua marine blue, like this colour only with a glossy sheen.  It made for a lovely worship space. 

From there I rushed to Copper Star Coffee to meet with LunarLumiere and her friends to see Levi Weaver in a live concert.  Charles ended up showing up after the concert, only expecting to be partially late.  Silly kid, he missed out on a great show.  Levi Weaver is a very remarkable and talented musician when playing live.  He manages to truely be a one-man-band, without needing to record several tracks separately in a studio to create the effect.  No, he creates that effect live, in a very impressive format that completely meshes with the songs and their performance.  I'd definately recommend seeing him live, and appreciate the fact that LunarLumiere talked me into seeing him.

The heat has come.  Friday morning my butter was just starting to separate, so I had to put it in the fridge.  It'll be there for months, until it's safe to leave it out come November or December when it cools off.  Friday afternoon I also noticed that my sweatpad was still damp when I left work.  If it absorbed enough sweat that it didn't dry completely during the work day, that's a sign that the heat has come as well.  It's only going to be getting hotter, too. 

Speaking of bicycling, I finally had to come to terms with the fact that healthy people who exercise are more unnormal that I ever expected.  A week ago Friday Paula made sure to tell Jessica about my commute.  I'm kind of used to people doing that, so I've become blase about the whole thing.  But then she made sure to tell her something about my thighs.  I didn't really understand what the big deal was, so I just let it go and stayed out of it.  Then this Friday Stephanie did a similar thing.  She made sure to tell Sandi about my commute, then wanted to see my calves.  So, she hiked up my right pant leg and made a big deal about my calf, and made sure to show it off to Sandi.  So I guess I can't deny it anymore.  Trying to be healthy by exercising has made me a deformed freak.  I mean, my body looks natural to me, but then again I don't focus on other people's bodies like many women do.  It's not going to change my regimen, but at least I can be aware of how other people view me.  I know a lot of times I can be clueless about that.

I also wanted to comment some on my weekend, but I have to go.  More later.

"Plants cry their gratitude for the sun in green joy." ~Astrid Alauda

The Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time

News-Talk 92.3 KTAR is pulling a hilarious April Fool's joke.  How do I know?  It's just too outlandish.  Last night the State Legislature supposedly passed an emergency measure so that starting tomorrow, Valley freeways will now be tollways.  Hah!  Tollways always get voted down.  The legislators are too chicken to pass such a thing on their own.  It'd be political suicide.  Then there's the prices:  $0.51 for SR51, $1.01 for SR101, and $2.02 for SR202.  And you'll have to have exact change or be turned around!  Hah hah.  Like they wouldn't accept overpayment.  They have Doug Nitzel from ADoT in on it, as he tells listeners to plan an extra 3-4 hours to commute tomorrow as they'll have toll booths at every onramp, including those at highway interchanges!  Like there's a safe place to do that.  Like they can man that many booths without advertising a job fair.  Like they can come up with enough toll booths in one day.  Then there's the State Representative from Wilhoit, who claims that it's a great way to deal with the State deficit.  He also admits that it doesn't directly affect him, but he hopes more people will choose to move to Wilhoit where there aren't any tollways.  Hah!  The traffic reporter is in on it, too, claiming that people should enjoy their last free commute.  Then there's the public reaction...

But I have to get ready for work.  I'm sure you get the idea.  It's rather humourous.  Probably their best April Fool's Day joke yet.  They even have been giving out a special Toll Road Hotline and mentioning that more information is on their web site -- neither of which I have time to check.  Just remember, this "news" is at the end of the newscast.  Something this major, not only would it not have so many loop holes or just plain silly things, but it would lead the local news, if not all the news.  Thanks for the laugh, KTAR.

Thanks to jada_marnew for the quiz:

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

"No two gardens are the same. No two days are the same in one garden." ~Hugh Johnson