Lord Vader + Heidi Klum is a video worth watching before or after getting a cool wakeup call from Lord Vader himself! 

 

Today was not a good day.  Yes, it was worth mentioning that before going to bed.  Night.

Dogs and cats eat human remains in Iraq. 

 

So, the malls already have Santa set up to take pictures with him, Salvation Army is already ringing their kettle bells, and at least one local radio station is already set to holiday music 24/7 with prerecorded holiday wishes from soldiers overseas.  It's not even Advent.  It's not even American Thanksgiving.  The slow creep of the retail holiday season seems as if it won't rest until Canadian Thanksgiving becomes the new start of the season.

 

Here's my Xanga Metro.  Don't expect me to join it any time soon, as I would have joined a local blogring if I wanted to be connected into random local people. 

 

DeAnne, Wayne, and I had a Hogwarts Live Action meeting on the 10th.  We finished plotting out each time block of the weekend, and came up with a list of locations needed and when for submission to Ivan.  

 

Monte, Rusty, and I played The Hobbit on the 12th.  Jason, Kendal, Monte, and I played Steve's FR campaign on the 13th and had steak and chicken for dinner.  The 13th also saw the death of my friend Marcella, which I already commented on here. 

 

On the 14th Father Gene gave a homily which warned us that our expenses have increased and our income has decreased along with the decrease in mass attendance.  This didn't really surprise me much, but you could tell it had Father Gene surprised that the parish had reached such a point.  Moon Valley isn't what it used to be in its day.  The Catholic Church is still dealing with the fallout with its various recent scandals, which has discouraged some from participation.  That's led to less people in church each year these past three or four years.  I guess our parish was so caught be surprise that we had to cancel our lawn maintenance crews and make our staff maintenance people take care of it.  We also had to drop the leases on some office equipment and lower the payments on our parish hall loan. 

 

The 15th was the LepreCon XXXI Program Team meeting, with Larry, Mike, Margie, and a new guy, Kevin who was recruited from TusCon XXXI earlier this month.  He wants to learn Program, and what better way to learn than show up to our meetings.  Hopefully he'll be a good resource. 

 

After work on the 16th I went to the viewing, where I finally met Figment.  He had a certain magical prescence about him that is rare in humanity.  I could see why people would become fascinated in him.  I also met Marcella's Mom, who seemed relieved that so many friends had turned out for the occassion.  They had this creepy atrium behind the open casket.  A coy pond in the reception room of a funeral home is one thing, but an atrium as the backdrop of a viewing room is just totally different.  While the flowing water and darting fish were calming, the fluttering birds and swaying branches were distractingly creepy.  Yet everyone else there seemed to really find that peaceful.  To each there own, you know? 

 

I didn't go to the funeral on the 17th because so many people were off work the previous two days due to sickness.  After work I stopped by Wayne's to watch Jack and Bobby.  He wanted to see what I was seeing in the episodes, so during commericals I would point out some of the different connections.  I think he was catching on by the end there.

 

Monte finally ran his Star Trek (powered by Feng Shui) campaign for Kitty, Rusty, and I on the 19th after a long hiatus.  My character was back to being a Betazed, but Kitty's was still stuck transformed into an Andoran.  Meanwhile, because the same amount of time passed in game as out of game, our characters have adapted to being ten years out of synch as best as they can.  However, the ship they are assigned to has mysteriously changed from the Titan to the Excalibur in a way identical to their racial shifting.  We were introduced to Melanie Law, head engineer, number one, and love interest of the ship's captain.  She apparently is a brilliant engineer but one who would rather see results than follow Star Fleet procedure.  We fought a plague of zombies on a planet, but were called away on an emergency mission before confirming that our attempted cure had worked. 

 

We headed into Klingon space to an abandonned mining colony where an archaologist  who specialises in phenomonology had disappeared. 

 

Yesterday my mother and I attended mass at Our Lady of the Valley before going to my grandfather's birthday party.  Father Milt (yes, the same.  He's a busy priest.  His day job is priest for St Joseph's hospital) gave a great homily in which he took the message of Christ the King and the recent Afgani and US and upcoming Iraqi and Palestinian elections and tied them all together. 

 

My grandfather turns seventy-seven this week, so we had a lasagna dinner and apple pie for lunch.  Afterwards we played Mexican Train Dominoes, Golf (a card game which uses two standard fifty-two card poker decks), and some game who's name I don't recall which required three standard fifty-four card poker decks.  However, the reason I don't recall the game's name is because it was so obviously a Sorry! knockoff it wasn't funny.  The only things it lacked were slides on the gameboard and quality production values, or it would have been Sorry! only renamed.  After that we had a ham sandwhich dinner with peach pie before going home. 

 

Today I was able to get my bicycle out of the shop and did a bunch of chores.  But now I'm tired so I think It'll turn in to bed. 

 

I haven't owned or extensively played any of the video games listed and they don't have a none of the above answer, so I can't get the quiz to work for me, but for any other Star Wars fans who may have more video game experience than I, try this quiz out:
What Colored Lightsaber Would You Have?
brought to you by Quizilla

 

Once there was an imperfect woman.  She made friends and enemies, but had the strength of character to stay true to herself and her God.  We met in the college speculative fiction club, where she had a leadership possition (which officership I can't recall anymore).  It was there that she introduced me to the World of Darkness, which eventually led to the regular gaming which I have done the rest of my life.  Before that I had done some role playing, but usually those games lasted only a few sessions at max before the game would collapse.  Most games lasted only the one session, even if they stories weren't set up as one shots.  Such were my middle school and high school gaming experiences. 

 

She also helped me search for my first job.  She helped me to look through ads, and occassionally would walk with me to job interviews as emotional support.  She invited me to seminary as have other Morman friends, but I never took her up on the offer.  I had already accepted the offer once in high school and felt I had learned enough about the experience.  I had walked her to seminary once or twice while we chatted, so I knew where it was if I ever changed my mind. 

 

In fact, she used to talk about this SCA gentleman know by the nickname of Figment alot.  She discussed him as a matter of irritation, so for fun once I named one of my vampire characters Figment to play upon that irritation.  My character Figment would eventually grow to be one of the best characters I would have the opportunity to play, and come out from under the shadow of the original Figment who was his namesake. 

 

Eventually she was politically outmaneuvered by another woman who wanted to be the alpha female of the World of Darkness gaming group which had spun out of the Cyberwyer club.  So, while I didn't game with her we still kept in touch on campus until she finished up taking classes.  I think she stopped by the campus one or two times after that.

 

A few weeks back DeAnne mentioned knowing Figment, the same someone who had annoyed this woman back in the day.  So I asked her if she knew my friend, and it turned out that she had married him!  I had asked DeAnne to say, "Hi," for me and to see if my former club mate would be interested in getting back in touch with each other.  Well, yesterday I got the call from DeAnne that my old friend passed away in the morning. 

 

I owe a lot to this woman, and I don't know whether she ever knew how much I appreciated that. 

 

RIP Marcella Chapman, 1973-2004.

 

Well, Ben has asked that I further explain why I voted for Kerry over Bush.  Bush has done some good, and like I said before I voted for him the first time around.  Bush is smart enough to surround himself with people smarter than him to fulfill various knowledge and experience gaps.  Bush doesn't let politics interfere with his regious beliefs (after all Kerry claims to be Catholic, but won't let his politics be influenced by those beliefs).  I'd also like to see Bush have the chance to finish his Iraqi occupation unimpeded. 

 

But what has Bush done wrong?  My federal taxes have raised every year in drastic amounts ever since he started these mythical tax cuts (I know I haven't seen a single cent of tax savings these past four years).  He took the first federal surplus in my lifetime and turned it into the worse federal deficit in my lifetime.  He's signed into law various bills which protect big business from lawsuits.  He wants to destroy Social Security as it exists instead of rolling back the age of retirement benefits as our lifespans get longer.  He wants to protect businesses from having to offer basic benefits such as medical issurance and shift the burden on the consumer.  Will businesses offer their employees another form of compensation for their work?  Almost certainly not, and those that do will almost certainly not give an equal amount of compensation.  So, as people have lost jobs, had their pay dropped or frozen, and/or had extra duties pilled on them without additional compensation he wants to reduce the compensation and increase the cost of living.  He promised to work with President Fox on the illegal immigration issue and has basically failed to do much more than lip service since 11-09 (Patriot Day).  What about these moral issues? 

 

Bush has said that he has no doubts about his War on Terrorism.  So, of course I'd like to see how it plays out.  In fact, I'd have voted for Bush if I thought Kerry would be a viable candidate in four years.  Kerry, as a Vietnam Conflict veteran who protested the Vietnam Conflict, promised to have a more restrained view on how to conduct the War on Terrorism--one more in line with my moderate view point.  After all, despite where Afganistan, Iraq, and Palestine are in four years, I expect the War on Terrorism to still be going strong. 

 

Finally, despite Kerry's decision to let his politics be run by advisor who discouraged him from showing much in the way of emotion or faith, he himself has often seen multiple sides to an issue.  In fact, he'll often discuss the various sides of an issue to the point of confusion to lesser people.  I like someone who can do that, something Bush hasn't shown a capacity for.  Bush's big thing is his ability to connect with individuals, something Kerry hasn't shown a capacity for. 

 

So, like I said, I'm not offended Bush won, however, he didn't earn my vote.  Clear enough?  If not, feel free to ask more specific questions. 

 

 

Well, I should recount the past week.  I left off with last Monday.  Tuesday I got up and went to vote, and was surprised to find an hour wait!  I guess that just goes to show how many more people are moving into the area and chaning it from the out-of-town it was ten years ago when we moved here.  I ended up late for work, which was no big deal as everyone else seemed to be trapped in voting lines rather than out buying maps.  It proved to be a good day for starting my latest work project, updating the products for our Web site.  It's easy but time consuming.  Worse, it hasn't been done in months so I have a backlog of stuff to do. 

 

Wednesday I was surprised to discover that most of the propositions and candidates went my way.  Usually I have few things for which I vote that I actually get.  For the record I voted:

 

US President:  Kerry

US Senator:  McCain

US Rep Dist 3:  Shadegg

AZ Senator Dist 7:  Waring

AZ Rep Dist 7:  Barnes & Cain

AZ Corp Comm:  Fowlkes, Hatch-Miller, Manoil, and Mundell

Maricopa Attorney:  Thomas

Maricopa Sheriff:  Arpaio

Maricopa Special Healthcare Dist 3:  Williams

PV Unified #69 School Gov Board:  Case, Greenberg, and Skidmore

PV Unified #69 to join West-Mec:  Yes

Central AZ Water Conservation Dist:  Bitter Smith, Bray, Deibel, Hendricks, and Kohloff.

Prop 100:  Yes

Prop 101:  No

Prop 102:  No

Prop 103:  No

Prop 104:  No

Prop 105:  No

Prop 200:  Yes

Prop 300:  No

Prop 400:  Yes

Prop 401:  Yes

 

I also voted to retain all three AZ Supreme Court judges, all eight Court of Appeals Divison 1 judges, and thirty-five of fourty Superior Court judges.  The judges I voted against retaining were Araneta, Contes, McClennen, Steinle, and Trujillo. 

 

The week went by pretty fast.  As I already stated, Friday night's session was canceled and I chose to stay home and organize my neglected house rather than try to join Mer or Bill at the last minute.  Saturday was another session of Steve's FR campaign which I should do recaps of soon.  Sunday Father Milt gave a homily on the modern troubles of identity theft and how our identity as children of God cannot be taken away from us.  It brilliantly wove the readings and gospel together and contrasted the attacks against our identity as God's children against the identity theft fraud.  My grandmother says she missed having Father Milt at her parish. 

 

The office today told me that the economy is so bad that they're going to not have a trash bin for tree and bush trimmings this autumn.  Instead, they'll only have the one for holiday trees in December.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. 

 

Anyway, it's time to bid everyone a great week.  God bless!

 

 

Bill called me this week and wanted to go see The Incredibles on opening night because the first Revenge of the Sith trailer is supposed to be attached.  I had to beg off until I have the funds.  I recall this happened when Wing Commander came out, too.  Eventually I got to see the trailer attached to something, I just don't remember what. 

 

Mer called me this week and wanted me to go to First Friday with her and her friends, but I have work early on Saturdays so I turned her down.  Besides, at the time I still thought we had a Friday night at my place.  I feel bad because we never seem to have schedules which match up.  However, I'd have to leave downtown by 21:30 if I wanted to be home in time to get enough sleep for the next day, which wouldn't be enough time to do much.  Sometimes my work schedule can get in the way. 

 

Instead I seized the afternoon cancelation as an opportunity to catch up on stuff at home.  Saturday we still had Steve's FR 3.0 campaign.  However, today I spent the day catching up on more stuff at home.  I haven't had this much time to catch up in ages, and I like it!  I need more me and my house time.  I spend too much of my time with others.  Next up, me and the outdoors time would be nice too. 

 

 

Well, Rusty and Kitty are sick, so it looks like I have some time tonight to catch up.  Four years ago I was undecided in the presidential election, because I thought all of the candidates were not of presidential quality.  It wasn't until I was in the booth that I decided on Bush.  This time around I was undecided until Monday.  While I was working on the yard I decided I'd choose Bush.  I was satisfied with actually having arrived at a decision, but crazily enough when it came time for me to fill out the sample ballot for the next day, I ended up filling in Kerry. 

 

The truth of the matter is that while Bush matches many of my Catholic values, which is what disturbed me the most about Kerry (Catholic in name, but not in practice), Kerry was otherwise better qualified to be our president.  If I thought it was a viable option, I would have the best qualities of Badnarik, Bush, Kerry, and Nader all in one candidate.  But that's just a fantasy.  Oh well, I'm not one of these heart-broken people who think that the world has ended with Bush retaining office for another four years.  I think we're slowly heading towards a time in the history of this country when people will backlash against the bipartisan politics as usual that the Democrats and Republicans offer us.  Maybe we'll never see the multi-party coalitions required to govern the nation as other countries have, but for how long can the moderate majority allow this country to be stretched to its limits by the extremists on the left and the right?

 

 

Let's see, on Monday the 25th I worked the early schedule at work, then had two more regularly scheduled days after that before World Fantasy.  I had been trying to get a Participant list and the Program schedule for some time before I received an E-mail Wednesday directing me to the Web site.  So instead of enjoying the lunar eclipse, I had to work on generating signs for teh next day.  I received a 30th Annual World Fantasy Convention book bag packed full of free promotional novels, periodicals, excerpt compilations, a Tempe Visitor's Guide, Program Book, pocket program, et cetera.  Coolest of all was a Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events movie promotional given at registration.  Inside the sealed package were three randomly inserted cards from a set of thirteen.  There was one card thirteen in the whole box supplied to the convention, but no one got it so the remaining set is going to TusCon XXXI.  The holder of card thirteen gets to go to the world premiere of the film with transportation and accommodations.  While I didn't win, I was able to eventually get a complete set of twelve before I left on Sunday, which is close enough to winning for me.

 

I took notes for Fred throughout the weekend, most of which are too boring to report here.  However, if there is enough demand I'll do so.  However, I will post a few non-Programming things of note to me.  I missed Paul Cornell's reading (because of my duties) and was disappointed that he chose to not be at the Autograph Reception.  I did get my Books of Lost Swords signed by Fred Saberhagen at the Autograph Reception, which was cool.  I did attend a reading of a short Irene Adler story told in first person letters about her encounters with Count Dracula by Carole Nelson Douglas called Dracula on the Rocks.  She was a gracious reader, and the story had excellent suspense.  I also attended a reading of the first two chapters of a novel under development by Matthew T. Baker.  Wow!  I wanted to buy the book right there, but he and his agent said that the book was probably going to end up around 1500 pages and wouldn't be finished for about five years.  Remember this name and look for this book, it'll be worth it! 

 

Dennis L McKiernan was telling Cassidy and I about some of his future novel ideas as well as the most recent events in the campaign his gaming group is running.  Interestingly enough, their group has this idea called Strategy and Tactics.  Whenever someone calls out for Strategy and Tactics, the in-game clock stops and the group can discuss their characters' strategy.  This is how their group has decided to replicate the role familiarity the characters should have in such a situation.  I kind of like that idea and would love to see how it would work in practice. 

 

Sunday I lectored, but I kept having my practice at-con interrupted so as soon as the banquet started my mom picked me up and I finished practicing at home while she took a nap.  At mass, Father Milt had a homily about how Jesus's mission is to seek out sinners and offer them salvation even when others look on in disgust at that.  Afterwards, Mom and I handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters while she watched The Raven and I fried up some cinnamon sugar doughnuts and some chocolate chip doughnuts.  Mom has a nonstick baking sheet for doughnuts at her house, but that means she doesn't get to have any doughnut holes.  Because I have a doughnut cutter, I do make doughnut holes, of which she seemed grateful. 

 

Monday I did the lawn, fixed my late uncle's bookcase and set up some of my books in it, did some house cleaning, and prepared my Sample Ballot for the next day.  More to come later, I fell asleep at the computer already this evening...

 

The Dias de los Muertos have come and gone, and I thought I'd share with you this interesting article about La Santa Muerte.  Considering how the Dias de los Muertos were moved from mid-August to Halloween, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day when Catholic missionaries began converting the Aztecs, I find it facinating to discover that such an ancient tradition seems to be returning with the festival day for La Santa Muerte being on the 15th of August.  Everything old is new again, eh?

 

Well, I'll do recaps at a later time as its late.  I just wanted to write something here as part of my resolution to write more.  At WFC2004 I was asked if I was a writer, and when I said that I wasn't I was asked why I was even there!  Despite the fact that they were obvious excluding artists, editors, musicians, publishers, and reviewers, they were discounting the fact that fans might be on the staff as well.  I remember a time when I had it all planned out.  I was going to get an AA in Classical Studies, a BA in Regious Studies, an MS in Library Sciences, become a librarian, and eventually start a comic book and graphic novel library (as usually people have to buy comics either new or as back issues, unlike most other periodicals).  My ideas for microfiche comics and the like are unnecessary in the digital age, but for the most part the dream could still happen.  However, I allowed the fact that UofA lost its Library Science accrediation to derail my plans.  I couldn't afford out-of-state tuition, so I kept taking at least one class a semester while I switched to full time employment to keep me in the classwork groove until I figured out what I was going to do.  Then my mother got married, everyone seemed to lose their jobs and I was supporting four people on my own and I quit taking classes.  Now, years later and I'm still in debt from that time, haven't resumed classes, almost never write or sculpt anymore, and seem to have otherwise let my plans for the future go by the wayside. 

 

One of the many reasons that I bicycle is that I would never otherwise make time to exercise.  What I need is something similar that would require me to write.  I don't know what it would be, but I would like to get back in the habit of using my creativity for something other than role playing games.  Not that I want to quit doing those, they're my one remaining outlet of creativity.  Instead, I'd just like to compliment that outlet with other forms which may fill other niches of my creativity.