Colors Show
So Christmas came and went, and I got some great gifts from my wife, but best of all, a quiet break at home. I really feel this apartment is my home, at least for now.
In other news, and to reveal what it really takes to make me update…
IfoundoutthatthenewlivingcampaignforD&DisForgottenRealms.
I’ve found that when delving deep into my interests, it’s better to get the first sentence out and let people laugh until they are quite done and then continue.
Go ahead.
Anyways, I have gotten a bit of hope up, considering this Metroplex is so huge and full of people who aren’t going to have jobs or money soon(RP city!), and Forgotten Realms is my favorite. But alas, Wizards has moved on to 4th edition D&D and I just don’t trust it. I’m reading the new player’s handbook with a VERY skeptical eye, and while most of the “MMORPG-elements” are just suggestions and layouts rather than formats and rules, I must say, the restrictions/changes are strange. Universal applicability of a rule, that rule which is so simple and efficient you just heuristically inject it into a given situation and watch it work, is the heart and soul, the magic(if you will) of D&D. Some changes(Tiefling and Dragonborn a basic race??! No BARD??!? WTF?!), while shocking and somewhat repulsive, are not a violation of this principle. However it is with the alignments I primarily take issue.
For those who don’t know D&D–you play a character in an imaginary world that isn’t necessarily you. There is a label for your moral and ethical stance, called Alignment. It consists of two variables, with 3 values.
Ethics: Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic.
Morals: Good, Neutral, and Evil.
Here’s some examples of each.
Lawful Good - Youth Group Leader
Lawful Neutral - Policeman
Lawful Evil - The Guys at Enron
Neutral Good - Mother Theresa
Neutral Neutral - Most radio DJs
Neutral Evil - Drug Dealers
Chaotic Good - Shane Claiborne
Chaotic Neutral - Walter from The Big Lebowski
Chaotic Evil - Charles Manson
Why would you break up such an easy and utilitarian system?! And leave us with “Good, Lawful Good, Evil, Chaotic Evil, Unaligned”?! As if everyone who is a benevolent being and hopes for life and peace is never going to break a man-made rule?! Or that there is no evil that cowers under oppression, blindly following orders? It’s not really going to affect the gameplay, as roleplay will always direct your character, but WHY WOULD YOU JUST HACK UP A ONCE BEAUTIFUL SYSTEM AND KEEP PARTS OF IT LIKE SOME KIND OF SICK TROPHY, LIKE A COMPANY BOUGHT BY THE COMPETITION THAT ONLY KEEPS THE OLD LOGO?! WHAT THE HELL, WIZARDS?
Car repair
Yesterday, my day was ruined by my car suddenly shutting off whenever it pleased. I could start it, and it’ll work, but just won’t stay on.
Long story short, I used my manual and some brainpower, and help from the internet and people on it, and I got it fixed today for a lot less than I thought and now it works! It feels good to fix a car, or pretty much anything.
To everybody who can’t fix a car(and won’t try) and everyone who gives me trouble for reading manuals to things I don’t own: *nah nah nah-nah nah*!
Eamon =P
Livin the dream…of a 10 year old
When I was a kid, I used to go around with my dad on errands for fixing things around the house. Our local hardware store, Bracht’s, sold very few, if any candy in those days. There was one shelf of gatorade, and a tiny rack of candy, including my dad’s favorite, York Peppermint Patties, for 44 cents. Very rarely, and much to my quiet delight, my dad would buy one and give me a piece. I was never able to eat a whole one, the mint was just too much for me, being accustomed to a whole-foods, “granola” diet(out of necessity, not fashion). Sometimes, we’d stop the UPS guy and my dad would ask him for directions, or if we had packages. I never figured out why they were always so sweaty and ready for my dad to leave them alone, but now I know. I saw the uniform, the big trucks, and LOVE getting packages, so I thought, “I wanna do that!”
Today, there was a delivery we did to a Dentist’s office, and(I suppose for job security) they keep holiday candy for us UPS guys. Everyone loves UPS guys, we spend the day seeing people looking bewildered or elated, but never angry. A nurse asked if I would like some candy, and I said sure. She then said,”You have to give [the driver] some.” I looked down and what do I see?
4 York Peppermint Patties. I got out to the truck, buckled up and ate one as we drove off, and I still can’t eat one in one bite.
Christmastime in Texas isn’t as wintery or romantic
I think the whole word looks strange if you put the two together. Christmas + time = ???
The UPS helper thing is CAKE. Man, I wish I’d known about this job for the last 2 years, I’d be a regular. It’s easy, the pay is decent, and well, it’s pretty easy. It’s tiring, don’t get me wrong, all that running up and down driveways and being in 20-30 degree sleet and wind, but once your body gets the heater running, you really hardly notice.
I went to the T-Mobile store to get a quote on the purchase price and monthly plan cost of upgrading to a G1 for my wife and I. It’s sizable, but I still think it’s worth it!
All this driving about, taking Mae to work, going to my work and back, and picking her up, and then all of our errands has chewed a hole in the bottom of my gas tank. I’m driving my little Honda into the ground, but it’s a trooper and a half. I spend the gas to let it warm up, and don’t run it for less than about half an hour at a time. I need one of those stickers that says “I <3 my Honda”.
Eamon
UPS lyfe
So basically I’m on call, so I get up super early(15 till six) and take Mae to work, then wait around all day to get work. *sigh*…being seasonal help has it’s downsides. But it’s WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY BETTER than working at Panera, and the pay is more.
In my freetime, I’ve been using Netflix’s instant movie queue more lately, to watch Primer, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Word Wars. Good stuff! I also have become addicted to my fish hobby, since discovering aquariacentral.com.
If only I had the money to throw at my hobbies.
Eamon
UPS!
I’m up early, cause in 20 minutes, I’m calling the UPS distribution center to see where I work today.
Holiday Driver helper job FTW!
After that, I got an interview with Scott’s Lawn service, and MAN do I hope that goes well.
My baby is the size of a fig!
Eamon
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why does cutting hair make it grow faster/longer?
-Asker
It doesn’t! It’s a myth, likely stemming from the fact that short hair is tougher, as it is closer to it’s established roots. But it doesn’t. The pathetically bare spots on my face is a testament to that.
Ubuntu!
So I finally got my INTREPID IBEX cd in and popped it in to give it a go. That’s right, they will send you a cd for free, you can install it as much as you want on as many computers as you want, for free, and you can even try it out by rebooting with it in the drive, without installing the thing to your computer. Just to see if you like it, and want to keep it(but not ever pay for it).
It’s amazing! My internet works, everything is well-set up and helpful, but I want to install it so I can use it. Then came the curse word.
That’s right. The thing that ruined many a lovely potential night of D&D or Diablo II or flaming soccer*, when Jef would attempt to install Red Hat in the dark adolescence of Linux, and come to us sighing and saying words like “fat32″ and “back-up drivers” and “external hard drive”. To which we would blink and wonder why Jef didn’t want to just keep using Windows 98 and help rush us through Nightmare, or turn the dang thing off and go Tarrasque hunting.
But now, here I am. Realizing how bad I wish I had dedicated my whole drive to fat32 in anticipation that I grow balls and get Linux, worrying about losing all my drivers and photos/videos/music if I don’t back them up and wondering if anyone’s got a spare external hard drive, even for like, a day.
The body has truly changed…And now he loses his mind
Eamon
*We used to tie old shirts into large knots, soak them in gasoline, and kick them around on the road at night until they fell apart. This was after growing bored of throwing rocks up in the air to see if they’d break. We weren’t exactly overstimulated.
Questions!
I will take a break from typing my resume a million times along with endless work history forms to bring you these important announcements. Ok questions.
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What does Valium look like?
-spambot190823409832409
A lot like this.
Can I get generic Levaquin?
-drugspam69
You can buy Levofloxacin under the names Levaquin, Tavanic, Gatigol, Lebact, Terlev, Cravit, Lecox, Levores. Levores is considered the more low-cost “generic” drug. It’s a bit of a misnomer though, since “generic” is really in reference to how heavily advertised it is.
Can I take Ambien while pregnant?
-sexndrugs13294081209
It hasn’t been tested for that, but it’s a “Pregnancy Category C” drug, meaning it’s caused “adverse effects” in animal fetii, but doctors and drug companies are so money hungry and conscience starved that they will still give it to you if you REALLY wanna sleep.
In our art history class our professor showed a picture with a pelican piercing its own breast with it’s beak to feed its young with it’s blood. Do they really do that if they cant find food? Seems a little disturbing, yet they show their compassion and commitment towards their young in this way. I also want to know what “mija” means and why Betsy keeps calling me that.
-Katrina Cerk
No, sorry. Birds do not have teeth to macerate food with, so they possess a sack called a Crop that will bust up the food, the first stage of digestion. When I was a kid, we’d feed chickens oyster shell chips so their crop would effectively grind up bugs and chicken feed.
When mother pelicans are sitting doing nothing, they are more likely digesting fish they ate when the observer wasn’t around. When the chicks are hungry, they will push on their gullet with the bottom of their massive beaks to ensure the food they throw up will be nice and mushy for their offspring. Sometimes, the beak of these birds is so overgrown that it punctures their chest, giving the appearance that a bird with a suddenly hungry chick stabbed herself to feed it.
This myth is a popular one, and many have found it as striking as you did. The State of Louisiana even incorporated it into their flag’s insignia.
The phrase “mija” is an abbreviation of “mi hija”, or “my daughter” in Spanish. It’s a popular way to condescend to females in South Texas.
Will barrack obama solve the economic crisis?
–JDog871698298
No. Not unless he suddenly comes into the kind of cash that John Rockefeller had in the start of the last century. It is not a president’s job to solve economic problems–they descend from George Washington, Commander of the Revolution Army…hardly a financial position. The man you are looking for is Ben Bernanke, the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve. He’s the King of America, successor to the last King of America, Alan Greenspan, and was picked about 2 years ago, just before the “temporary downturn” became the “present recession”. Oh and he just happens to be the nation’s foremost expert on The Great Depression.
why does red ink dry slower than other inks?
–Sophie
Well, Red is a shade, not a type of ink. So you’re gonna have to be more specific. Plus I’m not familiar with the kind of ink you are talking about, or that this even happens. Perhaps it’s all in your head. You should give me some more info though!
why has sushi become so popular lately?
–Knuck
Sushi has been a part of American pop culture for decades! Even in the Breakfast Club there was a sushi reference. But the reason it is popular, I’d attribute to the length of immersion Asian peoples have had in the States. With Vietnam long over, and WWII a distant memory, Asian food, people, and culture is more readily accepted. Plus it’s delicious, and not made from corn.
So I understand how we use roots, suffixes and prefixes and stuff to make up words, but who on earth sat down and came up with it all in the first place? For example how was it decided that “re-” would mean again or that a hard lumpy object on the ground was a rock?
–Collins
You know, etymology is one of my big interests! But what’s funny is that the words all seem to come from some root language, like Sanskrit, Norse, etc. OCCASIONALLY you run across a word with a very storied or well-documented lineage, and the root gets more and more rudimentary. Words related to birds start sounding like bird noises, hard things like rocks tend to get short, brisk names, and water bodies start to sound like wooshing noises. Nobody really knows for sure what the original names were for things, but if you find someone who speaks a language you do not, and you communicate the object, it is very probably similar to the way humans first communicated outside ideas.
As for rules of syntax, it’s just decided upon by popular culture mutilating the existing tongue. Sometimes people come along like JRR Tolkien who make you realize how amazing language is supposed to sound. If I created a language, the letter “a” at the beginning of a word would always imply “by means of”. So you could say “I came acar” and that means “I came by means of a car”. Or “I have more money now apromotion”. But no, they get decided by what people think is acceptable, and how lazy the populace is. Which is usually pretty lazy.
Coffee
I went to Dunkin Donuts today, to see what the hubub is about. A friend of mine is always raving about how she LOVES THEIR COFFEE ITS SO GOOD AND ITS NOT EXPENSIVE ITS THE BEST MONEY CAN BUY.
I went and got a small coffee and a glazed donut, for literally pocket change. The donut was just a normal, unimpressive, unspectacular, unremarkable glazed donut. But I kinda hate donuts. Only Krispy Kreme makes decent donuts, cause I’m a cake guy. But the coffee. I’ll preface by saying that I see what she likes about it. It’s got that “smooth bite” that makes the coffee seem almost hotter. It tastes kind of shocking, if that makes any sense. I kept thinking I burned my tongue but I didn’t. But it was ultimately, stale. Metallic. Bitter. Dry. Bitter. Burned. Bitter. Stale. And bitter.
See, coffee was ruined in the last century…in America at least. Coffee is classified as a “sweet” beverage–that’s coffee as in “beans roasted, ground up, and steeped in water”. Coffee originally comes from one source. COFFEA ARABICA, which is the proper name for a coffee tree, indigenous to Yemen and Ethiopia. When you hear chowderheads like the CEO of Community Coffee say that their model “is commited to using only 100% Arabica beans, to ensure premium quality coffee”, they are CARPET BAGGING you. The species Coffea Canephora, the “Robusta” tree is a relative that produces an inferior tasting, high caffiene, low quality, easy production bean. In other words, it’s barely coffee, but it is close. But then again, Potatoes are in the Nightshade family.
What makes coffee different is WHERE and HOW the tree grows. In France, they call it Terrior, the taste of a place. Is the soil a bit more alkalyne? Is the atmosphere thin from altitude? Does it get heavy afternoon sun on a hillside and full shade the other 18 hours a day? Does the tree starve dry until watered by flooding, or is it nourished conservatively by a constant sprinkle? It will affect the way the tree develops, grows, and produces. The bean will not taste the same. How and when you roast is just as, if not more important. When you heat the bean, it hardens, and essential oils cook out, drying the bean, and making the flavors, nutrients, and chemicals more readily available.
In the 1940s, the modern world began it’s mass industrialization, and the assembly-line/super-highway/world-war/public-institution culture began. Coffee quotas were agreed upon, to ensure everyone can have a piece of the coffee market pie. These were renegotiated, about every 15 years thereafter. Mass production was in effect, people started putting corn in burgers, tar in cigarettes, Mercury in vaccines, and all kinds of weird crap in coffee, from Robusta beans to Chicory to flavoring agents.
In 1986, there was a huge crop failure in Brazil. The freeze was especially bad, and Africa wanted to come up in the coffee economy. Brazil, by and large the biggest producer of coffee, had shortages that jacked up prices of coffee so high that people and companies weren’t willing to pay for it. So they were getting beans from elsewhere, cheaper beans, and stale leftovers like those “Manager’s special” bins in the Dairy section of a grocery store. America soon forgot what coffee was supposed to be. They continued on the caffeine high, drowning the poor drink in milk, sugar, hazelnut syrup, cinnamon, and whipped cream. Nobody cared, and what was once a huge player in determining what cities thrived in Europe became “just a cup of joe”.
Then along comes. Starbucks. They put it in a hip cup, play hip music, hire cool young kids, and charge you about 5 times what people should be paying for coffee. But what never changed was the bean. It’s stale. Roasted here, there, anywhere. Picked, cured, roasted and ground, vacuum sealed, and shipped to America from Africa, Thailand, and Brazil. Imagine if we took grain, picked it, ground it and made bread out of it, and shipped it overseas, left it on shelves in warehouses, and eventually bought and left in the pantry and then one day, opened up, sliced, and made into a ham sandwich.
Coffee cures over time after picked and dried, and will only improve with time. After it’s roasted it’s COOKED. ROASTED. Like a turkey on Thanksgiving, or a loaf of bread. It’s only good for about 2 weeks. After you grind it, it’s prepared. Like that turkey carved, or that bread sliced, and its only good for about 2 days. After it’s brewed, it’s like that turkey on a plate, or that bread buttered and jellied, only good for about 2 hours.
It’s hard to find real coffee in America. But it’s worth the effort, at least to know what real coffee is. In Austin and Arlington, there are a few places to get real coffee. I actually found green coffee beans in my local imports grocer, sold by the pound, for $6. Worth every penny.
Eamon
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Im pretty sure i’m this websites number one fan. can i get a shirt or something?
–Betsy
Um…I’ll see what I can do. Right now, I don’t have a job, so I money is short. But maybe!