Ok, so I get the latest DWM (which I have to import ever since Marvel quit selling it in the US) and lo and behold but two HP references are in the first couple of pages.  First, is the news (with cast photo) about Sean Biggerstaff playing Cambridge student Chris Parsons in Shada for BBCi and BFP.  And on the next page is an article about how Tom Baker's publistist feels that Baker has been unfairly ignored for the Dumbledore role both during casting for Philosopher's Stone and now Prisoner of Azkaban.  The article writer suggests that Baker would be better cast as Mad-Eye Moody.

Anyway, about Saturday.  Monte's orc beastmaster boarded the vedette in which the rest of us were imprisioned and arrived right as we were breaking out.  We had tried several means of escape beforehand, and were about to be executed when my T'skrang boatman found in his shirt breast pocket the reed braclet he had been given earlier that night by the fisherman.  Remembering that he had told him to toss it upon the water when in need, he threw the braclet out the porthole. 

The fisherman suddenly rammed his boat into the hovering vedette!  As we fought off our executors, Tom's human wizard and Rusty's elven nethermancer grabbed our gear from the adjoining closet.  We then jumped from the hole created by the fisherman's ramming onto the deck of the broken vedette we had rescued.  We then sped off for the House Vstrmon city on the other side of the lake.  While they were able to catch up with us once and drop four soldiers on board before we got away from them again, we easily dispatched those soldiers once they were cut off from reinforcements.  Making it safely into harbour at dawn (the Therans not risking outright war with the house just yet), we recieved cheers and adultations from those starting their days. 

After patching ourselves up we discovered that the Therans had held the fisherman captive until after we had left for the night, questioning him about our activities.  At that point, Lori's T'skrang troubadour remembers a story about a spirit which helps those in need along the Serpent River.  He often appears in the guise of a fisherman.  That explained the inconsitencies and amazing powers that the fisherman had displayed this night. 

Our resistance contact then told us that the Therrans had found the other vedettes, but none of the others were operational.  He then introduced us to some jungle T'skrang from the Servos jungle who requested our help.  Apparently Terrans are capturing their children and enslaving them to mine for something in one of the ruins of the jungle (Temple of Doom anyone?).  We've been asked to free the enslaved children with the assistance of Venerable Manke't. 

Meanwhile, due to Rusty's duties as Lord Russell at the RenFair, the elven nethermancer felt the call to visit the Bloodwood that all elves eventually feel.  Because Lori took the prestige character Venerable Manke't, the T'skrang troubadour left with him.  So we lost two characters but gained a 10000 Legend Point character in exchange.  It might be a fair enough exchange for the next storyline in two weeks.  We'll see.

As for Sunday, Mom visited me after washing grandma's hair again.  So we went to mass (which was very small due to the Super Bowl/Phoenix Open combo) and Boston Market afterwards.  Later that night Wayne called and taught me his new Quidditch card game. 

Which brings us to today and bill paying.  Before I take my leave, here's a little quiz answer that I thought I'd share:

You are pink. You are in limbo. Not pure and manipulated like white, not impure and noble like red. You are unsure of your real identity, but whatever you chose it to be, you can be it. That is your power. You change everyone you touch, and everyone remembers you. In literature, pink represents the place between heaven and hell. You are the one we will never forget.

What inner color are you?

DISNEY MALEFICENT Villains Boxed Pin Set LE looks really cool and is suprisingly cheap for a pin set.  Too bad I don't have the funds for it right now. 

Anyway, enough wishful thinking.  It's time for my weekend recap.  Friday night in Jackson's campaign our troop was teleported to the Spine of the World by the Wayfarer's Guild in order that we might catch up with Skragg's grandfather, a venerable white dragon.  His grandfather had been seen searching the mountains for something, and airborne scouts now reported that he had found some sort of underground entrance and gone inside.  Fearing that he might be the one responsible for the death of one of the silver dragon protectors of Silverymoon, and that that death was to further his goal of becoming a dracolich in the service of the Cult of the Dragon, we agreed to help the Harpers confirm or deny the incredible weight of evidence against him. 

As we followed his tracks, we found various skeletal bats, dwarves, and humans along the way.  Fearing that these creatures were placed in such small numbers in order to wear out our clerical Turning abilities, the clerics were shortly advised to save their divine might while the party physically destroyed their remains.  Eventually we stumbled into a small pack of beholderkin feeding on the remains of the last set of investigators which had disappeared.

Saturday night we wrapped up Trav's current Earthdawn storyline, "Gone Fishin'".  He started the night with the warning that one player would get the opportunity to play a "prestige character" of which we could know nothing until one player agreed to play it.  It wasn't required that anyone be willing, but if they were they'd have to choose without knowledge of the character itself.  Then their own character could move on to somewhere else within the campaign.  We all already have a character tree already, and he said he might have a prestige character available within each storyline of the campaign.  At the end of the session Lori chose the character, and it turned out to be Venerable Manke't!  Our kindness had spurred him on to join us in our legendary quest. 

Un-oh!  It's near time for mass.  I'll update on what we actually did during the Earthdawn session later.

Static Shock does Gotham City (finally!)

So I'm catching up on E-mails and weblogs when one of them reminds me of one of my dreams last night.  In it, I run into Jennifer Bentz who is hanging out with Javier Castro while the "ever-present war"* wages around us.  She's a little older (age enhanced like on the milk cartons) and dressed in a businesswoman's suit for whatever reason, and its obvious to me that she's unhappy to see me.  Apparently, she's upset with me for not having pursued her, and Javier refuses to get involved.  Her marriage has ended, and she wishes she'd married me.  Talk about weird.

For those that don't know, I had a crush on Jen the whole length of hs until the time of the senior prom.  When suddenly I realised that the friendship I had carefully cultivated with the woman for whom I'd held a torch for so long meant more to me than any potential romance.  I ended up asking Molly to the prom as a safe friend who wouldn't take it otherwise, never even asking Jen.

So why dream of her so many years later?  Does she represent not having followed the flock and settling down like normal folk do?  Does she represent a deep desire to date again?  Did a part of me always remain interested in her? 

So I started to think of what could have sparked it, and I remembered a little something from yesterday.  Thsi beautiful young woman I recognized from the Burton Barr Library came into our store.  She was there to purchase maps for the Map Library.  ANd I remember being impressed enough with her conversational abilities that I looked to see if she had a ring.  That's something I've only done twice in my lifetime.  Neither woman had a ring, and I pursued neither woman any further.  Mostly due to the fact that I wouldn't even know where to begin. Well, Theresa did have a ring on, but it was on her middle finger so I'm not counting that.

So maybe this dream was about how I always let potential mates get away from me without really trying.  I guess there's a part of me that wants a romantic relationship.  The question now is, do I ignore it or nuture it?  Do I educate it or crush it?  I guess its time for more prayerful reflection.  But before that its time for bed.  Night!

I hate being stressed about something as lame as money.  Several of my utilities require high dollar start up costs due to my lack of a utility history.  I don't know how people ever afford starting out on their own without a grant.  The fact that I've been paying at least my fair share of these utilities over the years has no bearing to them, because they have no proof in the matter.  That's logical enough, but if the account is not changing address or asking for an interruption in service shouldn't it be easy enough to assume that the roommate taking over the bills has been paying part of those bills before?  *sigh* 

Last night Wayne had me over for his first homemade pizza.  He also served a salad made from items grown in his garden.  Both were quite tasty.  First Eric, now Wayne, who's the next bachelor who will be using me for a food guinea pig? 

When I got home last night my computer was slower than my old dial up, so I had to defrag.  Unfortunately, I feel asleep while waiting for it complete.  But my computer is back to its normal high speed today.    Yay!  Now let's hope the electricity doesn't get shut off. 

Although I've long since finished The Mind Parasites, I thought I'd go ahead and leave you with this quote from page 194:

Among the various ideas Wilson puts forward in his book (written as Camus or Nietzsche, where fiction is really only there to teach their own philosophies), it was the one idea which rang the most true.  Is this pain that he speaks of the reason that some people do not like babies, to see or to hold?  It might just be a possibility. 

And his idea that adults learn at some point to devalue life, yet do not start out that way certainly seems to have evidence everywhere one turns--even when I ignore the warmongering going on and just look to the everyday values in our culture. 

More importantly, it points out to me that I, too, devalue life to a certain degree, even if I'd like to think that I don't.  When I say grace, I'm not really thankful to go for the fact that my life is continued due to the loss of another's life.  Worse, I learned long ago how to harden my heart to the news.  When I worked for a media clipping service I quickly realised I had to either harden my heart or go crazy.  That too is a devaluation of life. 

But I pray for God's guidance, which is all anyone can do.  I may not be able to fully deprogram myself, but with God I should be able to appreciate more of the life in this world that He has created.  It's all a part of the journey towards being a better Human.  And isn't that what we all want?

Currently Playing: 24 Bit Scottish Moors & Emerald Isle 2 CD Set
by Jeff Victor
Farewell to the Lasses of Mon Tays

Flippin' Yahoo! Groups and their annoying timeouts.  Everytime I post a long thoughtout message, I've timed out in the meantime and lost the whole thing.  That's so frustrating.  Grrr...

Oh well.  I'll just have to type it all again tomorrow.  I don't feel like annoying myself even more by retyping it again tonight. 

We had our first ConSpiracy Program Team meeting since October tonight.  It was sprung on me that Chris may or may not still be doing Programming for CopperCon XXIII.  They'd like me to do it if he falls through.  I can understand the desire to have a backup option, but that's a lot of time commitment they're asking from me.  Chris wanted this possition, whereas I've never really had that kind of ambition. 

Before the meeting Wayne and I saw Spy Kids II: The Island of Lost Dreams before eatting at Bagel Gourmet. I had a whole nut Italiano bagelette with fresh squeezed orange juice. The stuff was good enough that I bought a dozen bagels and some walnet raisin cream cheese spread for the week. 

Uh oh, I'm falling asleep already.  More later.

So I'm cleaning out my E-mailboxes, deleting all of the mortgage/pornography/new car/debt reduction/et cetera junk E-mail when I get a strange thought.  Remember the old myths where the male and female are so well endowed that they have to roll up their reproductive organs and carry them over their shoulder like you would a garden hose or long extension cord?  An image of these mythic progenators would make for a funny advertisement to match an E-mail whose subject line reads, "Grow Your Man." 

I mean, why can't people just be happy with what God gave them?  The same goes with retaining facial hair and avoiding makeup and tattoos.  People, you're perfect as God made you.  You don't need extra length or mass to improve your happiness.  A good relationship with God and with your fellow Human will bring all the happiness you need.  Trust me on this.

Today I finally built my push mower and mowed the lawn.  While I was at it I weeded the rock garden, weeded the flower garden, and fixed the leak I wasn't told about in the flower garden faucet. 

Then it was off to mass, where it seemed as if there were less people than usual.  Father Milt's homily focused on how the readings tied into Ordinary time, and how ordinary things can lead you into a better relationship with God. 

Saturday, between games of Shadowfist, Travis ran his Earthdawn campaign again.  We went out to retrieve the sunken vedette (air ship) from the bottom of Lake Van and we caught by invasion troops as we surfaced. 

Friday I was just as bored as the last session of Tom's game.  Mike and Steve's human characters went into town for two different days of information gathering.  Tom didn't even give us any rp opportunities for the rest of us.  At least at the end of the night we ended with our group traveling nine days to the southeast and seeing the huge spires of the next metropolis. 

Tom then ended the sessiom early and told us to make human children first level NPC class characters.  These children have to have a reason to be found within the castle in the centre of town.  I will be playing a human level one thug with the Dark Ancestry and Improved Equilibrium feats.  My character is a ratter (castle exterminator), which explains why a child thug would be tolerated within the castle.  His small size lets him reach areas where adults can't reach, and he carries some of his meater kills in a sack with him for mealtimes.

OK, that was weird.  I posted my entry, only to find that everything between my HP link and my quiz result hadits font changed to black.  It also centered the rest of my text after the quiz.  While Trollgod can't get his weblog to post properly the html script that he adds, I'm getting my weblog to post html script I did not add.  Don't worry, I've edited it back to normal.  I just didn't see any room for a post script in the entry, hense this one.  Night!

Life is good.  Maybe this will be the year I buy my own hc copies of the HP series.  Maybe not.

You are an angel.
What legend are you?. Take the Legendary Being Quiz by Paradox

Currently Playing:
24 Bit Scottish Moors & Emerald Isle 2 CD Set
by Jeff Victor
Amanda's Wedding

Watchout WebTV...er, MSNTV! - AOLTV Targets Not So Bright Internet Users

Last week was an unusual week.  One day alone I had Patrick Conley, Eric Dworshak, and my old IB counsellor all show up at my work.  Talk about your hs flashbacks. 

It turns out that my old counsellor is now working for the Heard Museum in Scottsdale, where they will be putting one of our framed suede Arizona maps in a lecture room.  It found out that before becoming a counsellor for the IB program he was a geography teacher.  Now that he's retired he's back to doing geography lectures at the Heard.  That's pretty cool. 

Patrick has apparently returned from college in the Pacific NW somewhere.  He was surprised to see that I don't look any different than I did in '94.  He's gained some height and weight since I last saw him at the end of his junior year.  Patrick was one of the people with whom I played world conquest games in hs, so seeing him in a map store seemed right somehow. 

And Eric, well I seem to see him every Monday right now while he's out of work.  Considering how we see each other so rarely otherwise, I've been letting him keep me from my Monday chores.  He was in for a book that he couldn't find cheaper anywhere else.  He used to scare Patrick and his friends away from me so we could hang out.  And even though coinsidence left Eric behind Patrick in line that day at my register, they chose not to even greet each other.  Sigh.  Old memories die hard I guess.  I've always been disappointed when friends of mine can't get along with each other.  Oh well. 

It did cause Eric to discuss this past Monday how hs reunions are good for networking.  I just think that if that's what he's so interested in, then he ought to have renewed his acquantenceship with Patrick.  Who knows what kind of networking that could have led to for him?

So, yes, this was a catch-up entry.  Tomorrow I'll be going to Eric's condo in Mesa for his first home-cooked turkey dinner.  How did I get the privledge of being one of his guiness pigs?  He'd normally never get the opportunity to be home all day to cook a turkey and all the fixin's, so I think he's decided to take advantage of his being out of work for the momment. 

At least it sounds like he's actually looking.  He's always mentioning new places he's applied at when I see him, and treats old ones I bring up as old news.  Whenever I see Monte he's still mentioning the same places, and still waiting for answers from old ones I bring up.  But then again, I shouldn't really be surprised.  Eric is a go getter, and Monte is a sloth. 

Bill used to be a sloth, too, but now that he's a workin' man he seems to be changing.  He's starting to resemble the Bill I knew in college.  But I touched on that last night.

One thing I did leave out was how the Latina greeter seemed interested in my Christmas gift from Bill.  When we showed it to her upon request, she didn't recognise it.  When we told her what part of the movie it was from, she said, "Yeah, I remember that scene.  Yoda was a badass!  He's a total thug."  You should have seen the look on Bill's face when she said that.  Total surprise and shock were his that momment.  As he stammered, "I've never heard him refered to quite like that before," she replied, "He's a thug.  You know.  He's a soldier."  As she laughed at his reaction, Bill and I cracked into song.  I'm Yoda. I'm a soldier...I thought I toldja. I got the distinct impression that she hadn't heard the song before, which made it all the more amazing.  True story. 

Currently Playing
24 Bit Scottish Moors & Emerald Isle 2 CD Set
by Jeff Victor
She Wove A Cloak of Many Yarns

News Just In - Microsoft Purchases Evil From Satan

OK, today I was going to get some bills paid, change over a few more bills into my name, and assemble and use my new push mower.  Eric came over before getting the mower completed.  However, he came over so that we could go shopping for parts for the oak file cabinet I'm commissioning from him.  Then he also helped me get a recliner from my grandfather (who would have otherwise thrown it out if I had declined it).  So we still got a lot done anyway.

Because I'd already promised to have dinner at Outback with Bill and Jay, Eric and I played Miles Borne until Bill got off of work.  Then I met Bill and we had a good time.  I gave him his birthday card and gift, and he gave me a Christmas gift.  We then got to talking about the things friends talk about:  movies, relationships, our jobs, et cetera. 

It was during this conversation that I realised one thing.  Bill's just starting to get his life back on track, and he's not realising that life is throwing him character tests along the way.  I told him to pray for discernment on God's will in these matters, but I'm not sure if he's ready yet to repair his relationship with God.  Yet I fear that if he doesn't repair that soon he'll just end up stumbling again.  As a rule I don't like to see that happen to people, although I guess we all do it at some point in our faith journeys.  So pray for him, if ye will, all you who read these pages.

Woah!  It's after midnight and I have work on the morrow.  G'night mates!