My Damn Opinion

I really wish I had a camera.

I was sitting in my nerd hole, enjoying my day off, playing Fallout 3, when I noticed some odd new sound effects coming from the game. Some kind of distant wind noise, like a low pattering. Then another new sound effect - thunder. Suddenly I thought to myself,  "There's no weather in Fallout...." Killing the sound and looking up at the windows, I realized this was no clever foley effect - something was going on outside. Rain, no doubt, we've been having a bit lately. So I went upstairs to my door that faces the street to check it out.

The River Yale was flowing by.

Actually, you could see the yellow lines in the middle of the street just past the water flows, which meant it was technically still a one lane street. Cars were carefully making their way past each other, mostly SUVs and other high-centered vehicles. The noise I had though was the game was the mix of rain and hail that was coming down on the plastic roofing over the back porch area, and the splash of cars brave stupid enough to drive closer to the curb.

Giggling madly at the spectacle of it all, I made my way through the house to make sure no rain was getting in anywhere else. All was well, and I went back to the porch and pulled a chair up to the door to start texting people. As I sat there, a wooden box with something in it floated by, bound for distant shores and exotic locales.

As I sat and watched the waterline grow higher and higher, I also noticed my poor landlady's garden, making a muddy tributary down the driveway and into the larger stream, her plants and soil swallowed up by the budding rapids. I decided to check the front of the house to see how that looked, and maybe stand on the porch and watch it go by.

Dennison was entirely flooded, no sign of street could be seen. Something had jammed into the curb in front of the house and had caught other things in it, creating a brilliant impromptu dam any beaver would be proud to live in. The water was well up onto the lawn and my neighbor's truck was getting wet. It wasn't close enough to be near the basement windows (Thank the Gods), but it was close enough to make a wonderful spectacle.

Finally, the squall passed and the waters receded, and Yale expanded out to three lanes. The texts I got said that other people mostly fared as well, some got wet, but fortunately science has discovered a cure for that.

I'll take this over snow any day.

So, I'm talking about running a Star Wars game here when Earthdawn is done. ( And Shiloh already has his character planned out. )

"I just want you to recognize me in the Temple,
You can't hurt me, I've found peace within myself."

 - Michael Jackson, Jam

To bigdaddydonut , biracialpartizn , das_sumisu , derrosencrantz , elthar , jdporter , sigmabat , and all you other cool Dads out there....including mine! ^_^

Thou artless tallow-faced hedge-pig!

Thou perfidious plume-plucked fustilarian!

Thou lascivious folly-fallen fustilarian!

The Shakespearean Insult Generator

So, Troy loaned me Zack and Miri Make A Porno, because he loved it and wanted to share it with people. I've been watching while I work out, and I had a rather surprising (to me) reaction to it. For those who haven't seen it or don't want to read my bullshit, ( here's a spoiler cut. )

wardkebot , check this out. Simply amazing.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Ahh, good ol' Shiloh. He always finds the best stuff. ^_^

Jedi police woman harnesses the Force to catch criminals. And she's HAWT! ^_^

Always keep your words soft and sweet, Just in case you have to eat them.

*nomnomnomnom*

Sometimes, there is just something very comforting about the driving, pounding beat of relentless techno played at top volume. Dunno if it's some throwback to hearing my mother's heartbeat in the womb or something, but sometimes I just need it. I miss the days when raves were fun and not just drug-holes.

Paul Potts and Susan Boyle.

Wow. Turn up your speakers. Just wow.

For wardkebot and nomadphoenix :

Braid is now on PC.

That wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I will say, it was not as good as Mortal Kombat. Take from that what you will. ^_^

So, it's Good Friday tomorrow and there's some conversation among the Catholics in the office, which led me to browsing the internet to banish my ignorance of Christian holidays, and finally to a really fabulous list of various patron saints. Some of my favorites:

Adrian of Nicomedia - Patron Saint of Arms Dealers
Basilissa - Patron Saint of Breastfeeding
Eustace - Patron Saint of Difficult Situations (Kind of a broad definition)
Willibrord - Patron Saint of Epilepsy (Not of epileptics, that's a different one)
Venantius - Patron Saint of Leaping, Patron Saint of Jumping, and Patron Saint of Falling
Barbara - Patron Saint of Gunners
Fiacre - Patron Saint of Hemorrhoid Sufferers
Joseph - Patron Saint of House Hunting
Gengulf - Patron Saint of Unhappy Marriages
Nicholas of Myra - Patron Saint of Pawnbrokers
Genevieve - Patron Saint of Excessive Rain
Lidwina - Patron Saint of Skaters
Maurice - Patron Saint of Swordsmiths
Dismas - Patron Saint of Thieves and Theft
Agatha - Patron Saint of Volcanic Eruptions

These are awesome. That very first one was what got my attention. ^_^

I am sick and tired of watching the women I want most end up with other men.

*puts on little hat, blows noisemaker*

How you you tell the difference between the Light side and the Dark? When you are calm, and at peace. You will know.

I must remember this. I have been flipping into "Red Alert" mode too much lately, as someone on NDK Staff so wisely pointed out to me. I just about fired all torpedoes and jettisoned the warp core too, if I may be so loose with my metaphors. So foolish of me...

I love April Fools Day. ^_^

So, we're not getting into E3. They've changed their standards for what they will accept as "industry credentials" quite a bit, and effectively eliminated NDK staffers from the possible list. I tried emailing them and begging, I considered forgery and fraud, and I even thought about starting up a "company" of some kind to get us in. But to no avail.

I think the reason they're much tighter about who can get in with industry credentials is that they're now selling tickets to the show floor, which is new. When they refused my attempted credentials, they told me I could pay $400 if I still wanted to get in.

Maybe next year. I'm going to start saving now.

So, I'm comparing the prices for traveling to E3. JD and I drove one year, although I have flown in the past. The drive wasn't bad at all, and splitting the driving made it a lot easier on both of us. Plus, we could leave when we felt like leaving. However, he had a nice (relatively) new car at the time, and it could easily swing the long trip to LA.

However, I've been looking at flights since Tuesday, and I'm thinking that might be a decent way to go. I've been wary of airlines since 9/11, not because I think they're unsafe, but because I have seen people get fucked by the airline companies too many times, and I really don't want to be stranded for three days because the airline has "indefinitely delayed" my flight, or any of the other horror stories I've heard.

I found a rather extraordinary price on Southwest Airlines website, which I have heard is one of the better airlines right now. Roundtrip to LA and back, $160.00. Given the general estimates I put together for the cost of driving out there, that's only about $10 more than I was guessing it would cost to drive, assuming we rented a car and all five drove together. And it's going to be one hell of a lot faster.

I'm looking for people's opinions or experiences, good or bad, with airlines lately, especially Southwest.