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

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

I hear that I do this exact same thing when I fall asleep on my feet.

john pulsed:

When I see a blog with 5 stars but no comments, I know they’ve self-starred. I too have self-starred (I was young and needed the stars). You?

The world is diverse enough, that you should realize that people will use the system properly even if you don’t.

WASH: Pilot You scored 55% roughness, 60% intelligence, and 33% isolated!

Congratulations, you are Wash!!! Wash is Serenity’s pilot and is also married to Zoe. He is unassuming, self-deprecating and not at all the fiery hero type. Raised on a world so polluted he couldn’t see the stars, Wash entered pilot’s training to get a look at them. But he got more than a job when he applied to be Serenity’s pilot—he found a wife in the ship’s first mate Zoe. A laid-back, jovial guy with an active sense of humor, Wash just wants a ship to fly and his wife alive and at his side. Wash loves to fly but hates to fight. Other Possible Results… KAYLEE: Mechanic WASH: Pilot INARA: Ambassador SIMON: Doctor JAYNE: Mercenary ZOE: Soldier RIVER: Fugitive MAL: Captain SAFFRON THE OPERATIVE SHEPHERD

Catholic_Kelly encouraged readers to read up on each day’s saints to better appreciate the Communion of Saints. Another option is Saint of the Day, revised 5th edition, for times when you’re away from the computer.

I know it’s a big jump to go from Halloween 2007 to Easter 2008, but I need to catch up somehow.  Maybe I’ll return to the time inbetween in the future, maybe I won’t.  I know that I need to get back into the swing of things, as I’m losing my ability to fully articulate my thoughts and forgetting the details of the events in my life without journaling them.

As is family tradition, my mother, step-father, and I went to the Easter Vigil mass at our former parish, St. Theresa.  That was our parish when I was in high school, and while we live in different dioceses now, we return togther there every year for Easter Vigil.  Our friend, Matt, is a transitional deacon now.  So he gave his first baptisms at this mass.  It was awesome.  The entire time at Matt he had the complete demenor, vocal intonations, and mannerisms of a priest.  Yet after mass when I talked with him, he was the same old Matt.  How cool is that.  I’m so excited for him. 

Fr. Mike, soon to be our new pastor — replacing Fr Gene who is retiring, gave the homily.  Apparently, he’s stationed at St Theresa through the end of June, before he begins his new position at our parish in July.  It turns out that Fr. Mike is a convert, who never expected to be a convert nor when he converted did he ever expect to become a priest.  He was able to tailor those experiences into an excellent homily, not only for the newly elect, but for all the assembly.  I congradulated Fr. Mike on becoming our new pastor after mass, but he was dismissive.  Hopefully he’ll be better than that as pastor. 

I also had the chance to talk with one of my 8th grade RE instructors and Dave from Game Depot.  I saw Patty briefly, but didn’t get a chance to talk with her.  Dave gave me a hard time, saying that he old ever sees me anymore at the Easter Vigil and at Phx Con Games.  It’s true, but I don’t ever go to the southeast Valley anymore.  I don’t hve a current gaming group over there, and my father and I don’t visit that often.  I should try going over there to visit them, see the Jim Henson exhibit, and see the Walace and Ladmo exhibit.  Some day.  I’m still busy using all my free time painting my house.  Today I tore off the old, worn out carpet on my stairs and painted them. 

I spent the night at my parents’ place, then Mom and I went to my maternal grandparents’ to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday.  We had cake, played games, and otherwise enjoyed socializing. 

Easter Monday my friends and I were going to complete Centicle’s Legion, but Lisa suffered a setback in her recovery from surgery.  The rest of us ended up browsing AZ Mills instead, where I had the first Garcia’s food in many, many years.  Back in the day, it used to be a birthday dinner tradition.  Back when this journal was still paper. 

The Second Sunday of Easter was Divine Mercy Sunday.  It was my turn to lector again, and I ended up needing to do both readings.  Luckily, I always prepare both just in case.  Father Milt gave another excellent homily.

Thanks to Alluveal for the music video:

“Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve.  You don’t have to have a college degree to serve.  You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.  You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve.  You only need a heart full of grace.  A soul generated by love.”  ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Batman’s arrival ruffles HK politicians.

And we continue from our twice-interrupted narrative…

We were going to join Troy for brunch, but Steve decided to skip. This is when Steve and Troy did the Guardian 6 trade off, although it ticked off Steve later when he found out that Troy just used his slot rather than buying his own.  So we went to the Johnny Rockets in Circle Centre Mall.  Troy needed to stop by the Playroom Entertainment booth, where we played a sample of Portobello Market.  It was a game I’d play again, but not one I’d buy for myself.  He ended up picking up a copy of Mother Sheep for his family after chatting with his friends at the booth.  We also ran into Chris while in the Exhibitors’ Hall.  I had thought that he wasn’t coming, but I guess he was able to do so at the last minute, although without Michelle.  I ended up accidentally giving him the wrong directions to the Paradigm Concepts booth, as I hadn’t yet made my way there. 

After we succeeded in retrieving SANDMAN and returning it in the biocontainment chamber to G6HQ, I parted company with my G6 comrades and headed to the Shadowfist Dueling World Finals.  On the way I ran into Ivan, who asked if I was going to the 4dventure panel that evening.  When I said that I wasn’t he mentioned that he had to go clear out the RPGA and their tables, set up the room for the presentation, keep the RPGA folks organized as their were likely to be the same attendees for the panel, et cetera.  (He’s the night manager for GenCon Indy.)  He hinted that their might be a correlation between the title and the room they chose to hold it in, but I told him not to worry.  It couldn’t be 4e as WotC had promised that all future D&D announcements would no longer happen at GenCon, but at D&D Experience.  (That was supposed to be the whole reason they renamed the convention, previously named Winter Fantasy.  Of course I didn’t believe that.  Hasbro has never proven to be that trustworthy.  Sure enough, later in the convention I heard that they had announced 4e at the event.)

At the dueling finals I played my Dragon Dojo deck, and did very poorly.  People were amazed that I had a Capoera Master in my deck, citing that it isn’t cost effect for a ramp character.  Maybe I should submit a new version of the card in the next set of submissions.  Between beat downs,  I organized the backpack full of Power for Promos I had brought, stacking boosters into 38 piles of 48 points each.  Allen didn’t bother to count them all, and let me submit a list of Promos he would get to me before the end of the convention. 

Friday night was also our True Dungeon Hardcore Puzzle night.  We survived, of course, earning not only a Hardcore Survivor pin but a special treasure token.  When we got back to the hotel room, something strange happened:  Troy decided that he wasn’t going to play our True Dungeon Hardcore Combat run the next night because Bill had invited Troy and Steve to join him and the other KFGers in a Hardcore Combat run Thursday night.  Once Troy bowed out, Steve, Bill, and Brian did too.  So, if I wanted to play I would have to assemble my own group or Steve was going to get a refund on our batch of tickets.  Even pointing out that the Hardcore survivor exclusive tokens might be valuable for trading would not deter them from their decision.

Saturday I had had enough of skipping breakfast.  I enjoyed the hotel’s full buffet breakfast, which was very good.  I chose to play Guardian 6′s Operation Deep Six rather than play the Shadowfist Multiplayer World Finals.  I had to pass by the Shadowfist room while on my way to pick up the identity of Component Alpha, and I saw a large group of players.  I did really want to play, but I was committed to trying this new G6 game, and I had no team mates for Saturday (as much as I tried to get Troy to join me).  I couldn’t risk not finishing in time.  I learned later that Ken had hoped to run into me at the event, and was surprised to see that I never showed.  However, I can play Shadowfist later.  I can even play in the world finals next year.  I cannot play G6 later, nor can I play Operation Deep Six next year.  So, it was a no brainer.

Plus, I was still trying to get a team together for a True Dungeon Combat run.  I contacted Kristin, Dan, and Eric as they had expressed interest in a Combat run.  The only tickets they were able to purchase were Puzzle, which had left them disappointed.  However, when I called with the offer they expressed a scheduling conflict.  I checked with some of the Shadowfist crew who had also expressed an interest during one of the earlier Shadowfist tournaments, but they, too, declined.  Ken wasn’t interested in spending that kind of money for an event.  I tried some of the G6 folks who had expressed earlier interest to no avail, and so I eventually had to give Steve the OK to get his refund.

Ken and I ran into each other wandering the Exhibitor Hall, and ended up sample playing ShaZamm! at the Z-Man Games booth.  It was fun enough to play again, but I probably wouldn’t buy it.  It was intuitive enough that Ken and I didn’t need much help from the demonstrator.   We stopped by a few other booths before and after, but then I ran into some G6 friends and I lost Ken. 

Near the end of my G6 run Troy gave me a call and he ended up joining me anyway.  I think he was enjoying G6, and after finishing the mission we went to the True Dungeon Tavern.  He was looking to do some token trading, and I chatted it up with Kristin, Dan, and Eric for a bit.  After they left for their game (the previously mentioned scheduling conflict) I tried my hand at the Rogue’s Game.  I failed miserably, and I was pressed into service as Nightshade’s token collection caddy.  After my service, Troy and I went to the G6 Safehouse.  There we cashed in our paychecks to play some poker.  I, once again, proved my inferior poker skills, having to be bailed out several times by Troy or others just to keep me in the game. 

Eventually, I bowed out and went back to TD to try my luck as a walk-on for a combat run.  I succeeded and played the new Druid character option through a Standard Combat run (with only seven players despite two walk-ons).  Woah, the monsters were so cool!  The TD crew took the time to have actual costumes for a wraith, rock golem, and medusa, plus a full-sized beholder on a track!  Way, way awesome stuff!  After that, we came out of the dungeon into the chaos of them tearing down.  Apparently they tear down the game room by room as the last group leave it and goes into the next.  It kind of acts as a buzzkill, especially as some in my group didn’t ever get to experience the tavern (which had been the first to be torn down, despite the fact that you’re supposed to get a free tavern visit after the TD run.  They felt that was really unfair, and the organizers countered with the fact that they wanted some sleep before the next event was scheduled in that room in the morning.  TD should give a free GenCon event ticket for the Tavern for each GenCon event ticket purchased for the TD.  That way you could go before the Tavern closes if you have one of the later TD runs.  That’s just my opinion. 

Afterward I returned to the G6 Safehouse, where I played some more poker, then hung out with Steve and some of his National Security Decision Making Game friends.  Eventually, because I was starting to fall asleep, I walked Bill, who was already asleep in the Safehouse, back to the hotel.

Sunday I got up, had the hotel breakfast buffet again, then rushed to mass.  Fr. Noah gave an excellent homily, asking that we be on fire.  It was very inspirational, and just what I needed to hear.  As his summation said, “Let us be caught on fire by His love, and let us become the fire of the Gospel in the moments and times of our lives.” 

After mass I went back to the hotel and grabbed my stuff for the day.  I hadn’t had time before mass to do so.  Then I went to the other Whirlpool of Blood tournament.  This time we drafted from Six Guns and Shurikens, Critical Shift, and Red Wedding.  I started drafting Purists, but discovered that someone else must have been so I switched to what I was getting a lot of:  Shadow Syndicate.  As the draft continued, I found myself with enough cards to make a Morphic Spirit deck anyway, so I did.  My final factions were Ascended, Eaters of the Lotus, Purists, and Shadow Syndicate.  The four player final saw me nearly win, as the other three banded together for a twenty-minute discussion on how to stop me.  By the time it was my turn, I was so anxious to do something I went off half-cocked and forgot half of my strategy.  Lesson:  I need more patience as I more than likely had enough to win that turn if I had played it right.  The game swung Braz’s way next.  Later, it swung away from both Braz and I and towards Daniel and Josh.  I started reascending, but not in time to stop Daniel from winning.  At least I won second place, much better than I’ve done previously at GenCon!  In addition to winning the second place set of promo cards, Daniel let me have the wrappers (and hence their Power for Promos points) as he had witnessed my previous usage Friday evening.  After saying my goodbyes, I headed to the Exhibitor’s Hall to see what kind of last minute discounts were being offered.

I ran into Kristin, Dan, and Eric at the Exile Games Studio booth.  They had asked me to check the booth out several times during the show, and mention that I knew them.  So that was kind of serendipitous.  I took pictures of the booth staff with the three of them for Kristin, before saying my goodbyes to them. 

I met the GM Syndicate folks after only knowing them from the Dundjinni boards.  They had some cool stuff, both current and pending.  I suggested that making animals as Objects was fairly useless to me, but that animals as Tokens would be something I’d buy.  I think they’re going to take my suggestion to heart, and offer the same images both as Objects and Tokens on the same product.  Once they do, I’ll be sure to buy it as promised. 

The folks at Paradigm Concepts had their new hardback copy of Psionics Unbound, which was supposed to only be available at the big three conventions:  Origins, GenCon, and DragonCon.  However, the folks at the booth told me that the hardcover was going to be available in game stores by October.  Huh?  I thought game stores were only going to get softcover.  No, apparently not.  Well, fine then.  I saved my money and didn’t buy it there. 

I have yet again run into the limit on the number of tags I can put into this blog.  Oh well, I’ll just split the week one more time and complete this week in history with the next entry.

Thanks to strangehermit for the quiz:
You are Apocalypse

Apocalypse 50% Magneto 48% The Joker 44% Green Goblin 44% Dr. Doom 43% Poison Ivy 41% Dark Phoenix 40% Riddler 40% Lex Luthor 37% Mr. Freeze 33% Mystique 32% Two-Face 32% Venom 30% Juggernaut 28% Catwoman 21% Kingpin 20%

You believe in survival of the fittest and you believe that you are the fittest.

“A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.” ~  English Proverb

Here is a clever parody that mixes the Lord of the Rings movies with The Princess Bride:  Is This A Kissing Book?

And we continue from our interrupted narrative…

Wednesday, Steve, Troy, and I had brunch in the Circle Centre Mall food court (I went for Chick-fil-A).  They we went to the convention center to buy events tickets, pick up a program book, and pick up our freebie bag.  Bill was busy with the Forum Stink, but he met up with Steve and Troy as I left them to attend mass for the Assumption.  When I got back to the hotel Brian and some of his HeroClix friends were there, too.  We all went to dinner at Battery Park.  Our waitress was a cute twentysomething who, as we left, Troy asked about late night opportunities in downtown.  We had noticed that most things were closed by 17:00-18:00.  She said that she and a coworker always go to a bar on Wednesday nights to play Trivia, but that the two of them never have a chance to win because they’re competing against teams of six and seven.  So, when we got back to the hotel I suggested that we go join her team of two.  As gamers, we’d likely be of some great help.  None of the others were willing to go fourteen blocks.  This caused Steve to be concerned for Troy, a theme that lasted until we left him at Sky Harbor on Monday.  I wasn’t willing to walk alone fourteen blocks at night in a strange town, so I was stuck doing a whole lot of nothing with the others.

Thursday, I ignored my wakeup call.  By the time I got up and showered I ended up skipping breakfast to rush over to the convention.  I showed up too late to play an 08:00 game in the Mayfair area, as had been my tradition.  So I wandered on down to the Guardian 6 area, despite the fact that the game didn’t start until 09:00.  There was already one woman there.  We worked out the GenCon Puzzle Hunt for Tiamat before others came, including my friends from a few years ago, Kristin and Dan.  They had Dan’s brother Eric in tow, and they expressed how they had missed me last year.  Well, once it was 09:00 we started pulling out our tickets when I discovered I had left my event tickets in the hotel room!  So, I said my goodbyes and headed back.  The others were finally getting up, showering, and headed to breakfast (to which I was invited).  I just grabbed my tickets and headed back.  By the time I got back, the Guardian 6 folks had just arrived!  So everyone told me to get back in line (luckily, as it was very long by this point) and I was still second to sign in.  They didn’t have their dossiers yet, so we created a second line after signing in as we awaited the dossiers.  Eventually Mike Selinker came with the dossiers, and we began Operation Firefly.

Troy decided to join me that day, so I met him on the steps of the capitol.  The first puzzle we chose to tackle was set inside.  After we finished that puzzle we moved onto the only unfun puzzle of the entire G6 event:  the phone tag in the exhibition hall.  At least it gave me a chance to stop by the Fiery Dragon and Flying Buffalo booths.  We also ran into Mike, who Troy gave a hard time for having such a small picture and text in the program book (a mere quarter page).  Aparently Steve had just recently gave him a hard time for the same reason.  Other than the phone tag mission, we had a lot of fun doing the G6 event until Troy had to go to the World Series of Poker Tournament.  I finished what I could by myself before I had to go to the Comrades in Arms Tournament.  I passed on what I could to Troy when he was done, and the two of us rushed to the G6 booth to both get credit for finishing.  Then I rushed back to the Whirlpool of Blood Tournament.

During the Comrades in Arms I used my Jammers Ape City deck while Ken used my Ascended Monkey King deck.  Ken had a horrible time with the deck, which is one of Monte’s favorite decks to borrow.  I did OK with my deck, often fooling players into using the designator “Monkey” with their Discos then playing “Simian”s out the wazzoo.  Neither of us made it to the finals. 

Ken couldn’t stay for the Whirlpool of Blood, as his ride to the hotel wouldn’t wait until midnight.  The Flying Buffalo crew was staying at a low budget hotel miles from downtown, and he wasn’t willing to spend that kind of cab fare just to play another game.  It was the first draft I’ve played with pods.  We drafted Six Guns and Shurikens, Critical Shift, and Dark Future.  I ended up taking two Shadow Syndicate pods, and built my first Syndicate deck.  It worked fairly well, but my unfamiliarity with the 6G&S and CS cards worked against me.

Friday saw Steve choosing to join me for Guardian 6 and Operation Pandora, but Troy bowing out.  Steve got very frustrated with the first mission at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument.  He gave up on the game, chewed out the G6 staff at HQ, and Troy took over his slot.  Friday’s G6 “failure” was that people couldn’t operate a simple eTrex unit during one particular mission, so by the time I went to do the mission they skipped out on giving me a unit.  I was kind of disappointed, as folks at work call me a “GPS guru.”  (I really hate the term guru, but that’s another blog entry all together.)  However, there’s nothing cooler than meeting a contact in a back alley and being driven around downtown with a black hood over your head.  That’s immersion storytelling at its finest. 

I have apparently run into the limit on the number of tags I can put in my blog yet again.  Oh well, I’ll just split the week yet again and continue further in the next entry.

Thanks to otaku-d for this quiz:

ayca introduces Featured Question.

So, there I was:  I had one week to go before GenCon and I got nothing done (other than finish HP7).  Thus, the Sunday before was busy:  doing laundry, packing for the trip, building a deck for my first Ritual of the Unnameable tournament, attending mass, buying chocolate for my catsitter, checking for last minute updates on Guardian 6, and packing for work the next day; all the while trying to make time for my cat before I left.  At mass Fr. Gene announced that a new associate pastor, Fr. Bob would be introduced at all of the masses.  I’m sure he was happy to get a replacement for Fr. Joy.

Monday morning Bob was kind enough to give me a ride to work.  Midmorning I realized I had left my badge, event tickets, and my hand written schedule at home.  Luckily, my mom was kind enough to stop by my house on her way home from work and drop them off at my work.  After work, Doug was kind enough to give me a ride to Troy’s place.  It was the first time I’d met his third child.  His daughter showed me their baby scrapbooks (again), while his older son showed me the Over the Hedge console game.  Ken called and asked if I could bring some extra Shadowfist decks for him to borrow, as he was having trouble finding any of his built decks and didn’t have time to build new ones.  Then we all watched the first few episodes of Jack of All Trades, which turned out to be an awesome television show!  We interrupted an episode for dinner, but never returned to it as we adults chose to watch Star Wars:  Fool’s Errand instead (as Troy’ brother-in-law has a small part) while the children went to bed.  As we needed an a/v cable to watch it, Troy and I did a quick trip to his bank and Wal*Mart.  After the film we all called it a night.

Tuesday morning Troy and I headed to Sky Harbor.  We met up with Steve and had a overpriced, overly heatlamped breakfast at the terminal’s Burger King.  After a short delay, we boarded.  Steve busted out Settlers of Catan to pass the time.  The flight was mostly uneventful, though we had to wait through some very light turbulence for the storm to calm down at Indy before we could land.  Bill came and picked us up, and we went to check-in at the hotel.  It turned out that the hotel was having a Guest Appreciation Evening in their 120 West Market.  They had cocktail tables set up throughout the restaurant, some delish fruits, breads, and cheeses; sushi and sashimi; gourmet pizzas (including an awesome salmon pizza); and the piece de resistance:  a mashed potato bar!  For dessert they had various cakes and tarts, plus a chocolate fondu fountain with pretzels, cake cubes, and fruits.  The mashed potato bar was too incredible.  The server would take an ice cream scooper and scoop either mashed sweet potato, mashed yukon gold potato, or mashed garlic potato into a large martini glass.  She’d hand the glass over to you, and you could load it up with over a dozen different topping choices.  I could have ate that every day for the whole week, but the hotel didn’t offer the mashed potato bar ever again, even for a fee.  We settled into our hotel room while Bill went to run some Cthulu for KFG at the Ram.  I called up Mary to confirm that she and Ivan would be joining us for True Dungeon on Friday night.  Steve and I played a couple of hands of Shadowfist.  That’s when I discovered that I had somehow packed several decks, but not the Ritual of the Unnameable deck I had built on Sunday.  That was very frustrating.  Meanwhile, Troy had an online game to run, the name of which escapes me.

How lame, apparently there is a limit on the number of tags I can put in my blog.  Oh well, I’ll just split the week here and continue further in the next entry.

	My Flixster

“Continuous effort is the key to unlocking our potential.” ~ Black Elk, Indigenous North American

“There’ll always be sexual tension between male and female friends; we’re animals, after all, wired to accept each other on a sexual level at all times.” ~ former Dawson’s Creek co-star Joshua Jackson, to the London Observer
This totally explains why people in Hollywood always end up dating and/or marrying their coworkers. 

This is cool.  I discovered how to set a background colour for my text using html instead of using the Highlighter tool.  I know, I’m easily impressed.

Friday The Repugnant once again earned it’s nickname.  A story about Rocky Horror now playing in Chandler was the fold story on B1 while a story about our governor meeting with the president of Afganistan was buried on B6.  Guess which story was shorter, too.  B (or Valley and State) is the local news section of The Repugnant.  Shouldn’t the governor meeting with a foreign president be front page news?  Even if it couldn’t make A1, it ought to make B1.  What a sad state of affairs.

After mass on Sunday I saw a brochure in the pew by Bishop Olmstead and started to flip through it.  I probably would have taken it with me had I not been distracted.  A lady I recognize as being a regular mass attendee approached me somewhat hesitantly.  She complimented my lectoring ability (ironically the week between lectoring weekends), and said that I appeared to be more serious about it than many of the others.  I really appreciated the compliment.  She then hesitantly gave me a photocopied advertisement for Our Lady of the Roses Shrine.  She asked that I check it out, that it should help my faith journey.  I was touched that she would share with me something which had so obviously touched her. 

Thanks to jada_marnew for the quiz:

Your Brain is Green

Of all the brain types, yours has the most balance. You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver. You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don’t get stuck in bad thinking patterns. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual).

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.

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.

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

With all the major sporting events going on today, I thought I’d let people know:  What is a Knickerbocker?<

Mass this evening was emptier than I’ve seen it for a SuperBowl Sunday.  And that’s saying something.  Mass was over in 45-50 minutes, and that’s with a longer than average homily.  We had that few for Communion.

ABC’s Perspective covered The Blasphemy Challenge today.  Apparently it’s a lot worse than I thought.  The folks behind it are paying for ads on web sites targeting teens.  Both the lady and the guy behind it shared how they were both tired of the condemnation within Christianity, so they started an atheist radio show under assumed names.  Even now, they claim to get death threats.  Why do so many people spread fear and hate in the name of Love?

Thanks to Footprints, I discovered someone in Ohio reading this site through MaxStealth.com.  It seems obvious now that I’ve seen it, but I never realized that people’d bother with making web site reading anonymous.  Hello anonymous reader(s)!  I don’t know why you’d need to read this site anonymously.  All Public posts are Public for a reason.  I choose to assume that all Public Posts could be read at any time by any people I might know, might know me, or even might know of me in the past, present, or future. 

Monte had us watch Lifeforce on Saturday night.  It was interesting seeing the parallels between it and X-Men 2. 

Friday Bill had Jay and I over for Earthshock and pizza.  I actually stayed awake through the whole episode!  I recalled parts of it from previous viewings, but now it all makes sense.  :^)  Unfortunately, I stayed up too late for a Friday, and got to work a few minutes late.  I barely got the store open in time.  :^(  Luckily, no one seemed to notice.  :^)

Speaking of work, we’re so understaffed right now that I’m stuck with a Monday and Wednesday through Sunday schedule.  That’s the first time in all of these years I’ve been switched for more than just a single occassion.  It’s less than optimal, as I won’t be able to attend Parish Time tomorrow (and potentially the rest of the year).  It also means that work is rather hosed by my submitted time off for Presidents’s Day.  Hopefully, people will be hired and trained asap.

Hamster You scored 52 Loyalty, 49 Affection, 64 Spontaneity, and 57 Demeanor!

Although you aren’t particularly affectionate, you are pretty loyal, mainly because the last time you broke out of your cage, you ended up in the toilet, and the view was terrible. Not wanting to repeat that set of circumstances, you tend to stick close to home and close to your humans, or at least, close enough to see where they are stepping so that you don’t end up like your paralytic Uncle Marvin. You love running your little hamster course, especially since you always forget its layout and each run is like a new course. Sometimes you will just dive off and into the exercise section of the cage and go for a nice, long hamster wheel run. Altough a pretty nice hamster, you aren’t a big hugger, again, mainly because of all the injuries you have witnessed in your little hamster life from humans who don’t understand their own strength.

“Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.” ~Teilhard de Chardin