The Shoemaker and the Brownies is probably what inspired Hermione to create S.P.E.W.

Our parish always sends us little gift booklets at the start of each Advent and Lent.  This Lent we recieved Lent 2007: A Time for Mending: Daily Scripture Meditations and Prayers.  The entry from Thursday After Ash Wednesday reads, “Imagine a life where we can peel away our many disguises and let the world see us as we truly are:  vulnerable, valuable, hurting, hoping, dreaming, believing, yearning for love and acceptance.  Finally, we can be honest about our shortcomings, transparent in our motives, and genuine in our love.”  That totally sums up why I switched from a hard drive journal to a web journal. 

Then the entry for Sunday of the First Week reads, “When you’re in the midst of troublesome times, write down your wake-up calls in a journal.  What truths are they telling you about yourself?  How are they renewing and reviving your spirit?”  Awesome blogging material to be sure.  Hopefully I have done and will continue to do as such.

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Friday I had an inspiration while riding past a KFC.  They have these commericals about a Fish Snacker.  So I turn in, lock up my bicycle, go inside, and wait in line.  I asked the lady in the line if they stocked fish snackers, as they had nothing about fish anywhere inside the restaurant.  She confirmed the hidden menu selection.  So I asked if I could order a fish-based KFC bowl.  No.  So I left.

If they have the fish in stock, why not offer it as a fish bowl?  Because KFC doesn’t want my money, that’s why.  Silly KFC.  Why turn down good $US?

Saturday night after work I stopped by Metrocenter to pick up some February and March cards from The Card Shoppe.  Afterwards, I dropped by Game Nightz to find out why they never called me back last year.  The owner’s lame excuse:  he wasn’t able to find a distributor which carries Shadowfist, so he had no reason to call me back.  Lame.  He couldn’t be bothered to call and tell me even that?  He obviously doesn’t want my business.  He and the people at KFC must have gone to the same school for bad buisness. 

So, I told him that Shadowfist Games sells direct, but that if he needed a distributor that he should try Potomac.  He was so obviously disinterested, he didn’t even bother to write anything down.  I’ve offered to run demos in his store, but he claims that there’s no room in his schedule.  That night there was no one in the gaming area, but he still turned down Shadowfist demos in his store.  I bought Shadowfist from him when he was still an employee of Game Daze.  I just don’t see his current resistance.

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Ugh.  I’m tired.  Time to go to bed.

What Your Bathroom Habits Say About You

You are a very considerate person, but that doesn’t mean you let people walk all over you. Your idea of fashion is jeans and a t-shirt. Clean, if you’re lucky. You are a little shy and easily embarrassed. You often wonder if you are normal. In relationships, you are practical and realistic. You have a romantic side, but you only let it out when it’s appropriate.

 

“There is plenty of room at the top, but no place to sit down.” ~Unknown

Currently Reading
Welcome the Light:  Daily Devotions for Advent
By Joyce Rupp, OSM
see related

 

Of all the famous Scrooges, Carl Banks’s Scrooge McDuck is one of the tops. 

My “Currently Reading” listing, Welcome the Light:  Daily Devotions for Advent, has been of great help to me this Advent season.  It speaks to my pride and self-denial issues, and hopefully I’ll let it help me grow more mature.  As my grandmother gets worse, I’ve been spending a lot more time over there.  It’s really opening my eyes as to where I get my various possitive and negative traits.  Of course, I read somewhere once that our negative traits are really just our possitive traits made sinful. 

I have a lot I want to journal out and not enough time.  Mental prayer will have to suffice.  Otherwise I’ll be on no sleep all week at work, which would be bad this time of year in retail.

Of course I’ve never seen any of the movies I supposedly match.  *shrug*

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic

Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy – your life appeals to a select few. But if someone’s obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky. Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

“The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure.” ~Vince Lombardi

In preparation for next week, check out some Advent Customs.

It’s about time.  The way Protected Lists were written it was implied that eventually multiple Protected Lists would be permitted, similar to the Multiply Relationship concept.  However, Xanga decided to create Networks instead.  If any of my various friends are interested in creating a private network, just let me know.  In the meantime I’ve already joined the Fan Force network.  It’d be cool if Trollhalla had a network, hint, hint.

Your Blogging Type is Unique and Avant Garde

You’re a bit … unusual. And so is your blog. You’re impulsive, and you’ll often post the first thing that pops in your head. Completely uncensored, you blog tends to shock… even though that’s not your intent. You tend to change your blog often, experimenting with new designs and content.

“If an idea’s worth having once, it’s worth having twice.” ~Tom Stoppard

Where did fortune cookies come from and are they really Chinese?

similar_stranger said, “Somehow your quote makes me feel guilty. Oh well, small mind… at least it works–no?”  I certainly never meant anyone to feel guilty.  After all, journals (including weblogs like mine) are naturally about discussing people.  This here ‘blog is a discussion of me.  Does that mean we all have small minds?  No, my interpretation of the quote is that people that only discuss people are small minded;  those which discuss people and events are average minded;  and those which discuss people, events, and ideas are capable of being great minded.  It’s the natural progression of social development in people, IMO. 

I’ve been catching up on my lj blogs, but not my Xanga blogs.  Normally I do the opposite.  I need more time,  It’s had to believe that Advent starts next week.  My mother pointed out to me that I hadn’t put away my Christmas videos from last year when I pulled them out and placed them atop my television set.  (Why do we call it a set, when it’s a single unit anyway?)  There’s a lot of things I don’t make time for in my life.  I obviously need to reprioritize, something I seem to always be saying but not doing.   

Speaking of bad priorities, check out the most recent Onna Chance for another great gaming moment.  How could you not laugh? 

A week ago Sunday our hiking group resumed, doing the short basic trail between 40th Street and Tatum Boulevard and back.  Afterwards we went to 5 & Diner for breakfast, which was fun.  Then I went home for a nap before mass.  Father Joy read the gospel which inspired one of the best sequences in The Last Battle.  His homily focused on the Communion of Saints, a theme throughout all three readings.

Monday Bill and I went to Chuy’s before finally seeing the new Pirates movie at the discount theatre.  Can you believe that it’s $3 to see a discount movie now?!  The discount prices keep creeping up and up.  (I must be getting old.)  It was OK, but it was like The Empire Strikes Back or Back to the Future Part II in that it was obviously the dark second act of a three act story.  You knew early on in watching the film that it would end unended.  And amazingly, it did so fairly predictably.  That didn’t make it unfun, just not as entertaining as I had hoped.  That may also be part of the long period of anticipation preceding my chance to finally see it. 

Thursday saw a day off from work, so I went with my mother and grandparents to Thanksgiving Day diner at Cracker Barrel (yes, just like last year).  Afterwards we headed back to their place to celebrate my grandfather’s concurrent birthday, where my stepfather joined us.  He received a Marines ball cap from my grandmother, cash from my parents, and The Railroaders (from Bookman’s) from me. 

Friday my mother and I hit the Black Friday sales before I had to go into work.  We hit eight stores in two hours, plus eating breakfast from Jack in the Box while waiting between the stores we had already hit and the stores which hadn’t opened yet.  If you plan your sales out right the night before you can usually get everything you need quickly and without a lot of fuss.  Unfortunately, my mom know what I bought them and I know what she bought me, but that’s the price we pay for shopping when the best bargains are.  Of course, once I was at work it was relatively dead, as we don’t offer any Black Friday sales.  Thus, our holiday customers will hit the time-sensitive sales first and hit us when convenient.  Saturday was kind of slow, too, as usual. 

Saturday after work I also ran the first installment of Chapter Three in Chaos Out of Order, my continuing Dark Sun campaign set 300 years after the normal timeline.  They get some of the mystery so right, but then they get some of it so wrong.  It’s fun watching them slowly solve it, especially when one or the other has the right idea and the others disagree.  I think they’ve all been right at one time or another while the others disagreed.  As long as they’re having fun I’ll continue.

Yesterday I went to BJ’s birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza before my mother picked me up to go to mass.  It was fun, and BJ seemed happy with all of his many gifts.  I can’t recall them all, so I won’t bother trying to list them.  I gave him some Throne War, Netherworld 2, and Two-Fisted Tales boosters, a rule book from 10,000 Bullets, and a box of Deck Protector Sleeves so he finally has enough cards to hopefully build a deck and use the box.  Between the boosters I gave out for demos and those that he purchased at Hexacon, he didn’t have enough yet to build anything remotely playable.  I also had a chance to play Lisa in air hockey, which was enjoyable.  The time went too fast.  Despite my mother being antisocial, she did seem to enjoy talking with Kim and Lisa.  Maybe someday she can get the ladies to see what’s enjoyable about Doctor Who. 

At mass I was supposed to be the first lector, but ended up being the only lector.  Christ the King is a fun mass to attend every year, because before the main procession of the gospel book, altar servers, and priest we have several eucharistic ministers process forward with candles as the music minister announces sacramental and ministerial statistics for the past liturgical year (one stat with each candle that processes forward).  Of all of the parishes I’ve attended on Christ the King, St. Paul is the only one to do this. 

Father Gene noted before mass in the sacristy that one of the altar servers was now sporting an ear ring, and seemed surprised that his grade school allowed such a thing.  He didn’t make the server take it out, just as he never asks me to hide my long hair.  He did mention once again about his desire to retire in the next year.  I wonder if Father Joy would become pastor or if they’d assign us someone else.  In his homily Father Gene discussed kings and kingship, and how Christ is a holy king rather than a material king.

Before and after mass I was part of the team maintaining the Christmas Angels on the trees in the vestibule.  My mother volunteered to help, which was nice of her.  The Christmas Angels are clothing items (green angels), clothing sets (blue angels), or something nice–such as a toy for children–(blue angels) for the poor of El Mirage.  When I first was involved in our parish’s El Mirage Christmas Angels Project, El Mirage was a poor hispanic community in the rural area outside the metropolitan area.  Now El Mirage is mostly composed of upper middle class anglo families and retirees in various cookie cutter developments.  The poor of the community are now disenfranchised by their own city, which is now considered to be part of the metropolitan area.   The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Or something like that. 

Hey, I found my missing Feng Shui sourcebooks Back for Seconds, Thorns of the Lotus, and Blood of the Valiant today while looking for something else completely.  They had been filed with my outdated calendar collection.  Yes, I keep everything.  But, I was actually looking for some stuff I knew I had somewhere that I will be getting rid of after years of storing for absolutely no good reason.  Don’t ask me why the books were hidden with the calendars.  I have no idea.  And, no, I won’t be getting rid of my calendars.  They’re a journal of sorts with various events scribbled in them.  Future generations might want that history. 

Then I submitted some corrections to the RPG Wiki of RPGnet for the Feng Shui entries.  I’ll have to scan some covers sometime to complete their Feng Shui data for the Daedalus Entertainment (and Ronin Publishing) era.  Then I’ll work on inputting all of the Dark Sun data that they’re missing.  Remind me if I forget.  Thanks.

Well, Heroes:  The Best Show on Television will be on soon, so I’m gonna jet. 

Thanks to the_chaos_opera for the quiz:

Horus Sparkling personality, intense will, intelligent, understanding, impatient to exert influence. Colors: male: red carmine, female: gold Compatible Signs: Bastet, Geb Dates: Apr 20 – May 7, Aug 12 – Aug 19 Role:God of the pharaoh Appearance: Form of a falcon-headed man, wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt Sacred Animal: falcon What is Your Egyptian Zodiac Sign? Designed by CyberWarlock of Warlock’s Quizzles and Quandaries

“If an idea’s worth having once, it’s worth having twice.” ~Tom Stoppard