Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
–William Butler Yeats
This latest round in LJ Drama makes me profoundly sad.
That is all.
Month: August 2007
Since one of the normal AD&D group was away this week, and because we’re about to start a new campaign, we ended up playing Space Munchkin this week. I won, looking for trouble against a level 1 Janibot and there really wasn’t much anyone could do about it.
Best moment of the night: making three consecutive runaway rolls to escape the Space Vampire, his clone, and the wandering Great Cthulhu. Yeep!
Best exchange.
Dave: I go looking for trouble against the Space Amazons. I’m beating her by five.
Me: (plays card) Sadly, there are no more Space Amazons. She’s the last of her race. You’re now losing by 5.
Dave: (plays card) But she’s misunderstood. That gives her -5.
Me: So you’re tied. She wins ties.
Dave: (examining hand) (deadpan) Oh well.
(break as everyone else falls out laughing)
Dave: So, what’s the bad stuff
Me: (still laughing) You get sodomized by the Space Amazon. You get sodomized by the Last of the Misunderstood Space Amazons!
I love a game where “Last of the Misunderstood Space Amazons” has a useful context.
- Our housewarming party was a great success! Thanks to Alice, thatcrazycajun, hilfy, anaisdjuna, joyeuse13, and abovenyquist for coming over!
- kitanzi and I met up with Alice and thatcrazycajun to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I thought it was a fine film, and the gal playing Luna Lovegood is just spot-perfect. Thumbs up!
- hilfy came over for dinner Friday night. We had good food, good wine, and good conversation. A very enjoyable evening.
- We went to see Ben Wakeman play on Saturday. I’ve been a big fan of Ben’s for years, and have even covered a few of his songs in filk circles. He gave his usual great show, and I got chat with him briefly to let him know he has a fan in the UK (bardling: he says hi and thanks!). One funny moment came when he forgot the first line to one of the songs on his new album. After two false starts, he said “Does anyone know the words to this song?” I carefully called out the first line for him, and he said “Thank you!” and launched into it. Later, by request, he did “White Male Folk Singer” and forgot the words to that too. *grin*
- The check engine light (also known on some models of car as the “set aside $400” light) came on while we were driving back from the concert, and I noticed it was idling funny. We got home OK, but i made plans to put it in the shop on Monday.
- Our 3rd wedding anniversary was Sunday! We celebrated by going out for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings Cafe, and then went shopping for stuff for the cats. What glamorous lives we lead! Sunday night, we watched the premiere of “Masters of Science Fiction”, an anthology series that ABC has already canceled. Which is a pity, because the debut episode was brilliant. I recommend picking up the 3 remaining episodes if you have a chance, and keep a look out for an eventual DVD release.
- The auto place called me back this morning, after I dropped the car off yesterday afternoon. The actual thing I took it in for was pretty minor, but there’s about $2600 worth of maintenance that need to be done. Fluid changes, full tune up with new spark plugs and cables, radiator hose, and, most expensively, new struts. We discussed the need and urgency of the various items, and I ended up authorizing them for about $1200 of the repairs. The remaining part will have to be budgeted out over the next few months.
- Shortly after the car people called, I got a half-hour warning call from the delivery service that was bringing us our anniversary present to each other. We got a king-sized bed from The Original Mattress Factory. This is something we’d wanted for quite some time, because while there was nothing structurally wrong with our queen-sized bed, it had become to small. When I started sleeping with the CPAP, I started sleeping on my back, and suddenly was taking up a lot more bed than I used to. The queen bed will now be the guest room bed, and has already been moved into place. Who wants to come visit?
- Speaking of visiting, I am going to be in San Francisco on Labor Day weekend! The reason for my trip is to visit cadhla, so I have no idea what sort of availability I may have otherwise, but, hey, y’know, I’m gonna be there all weekend, including Monday. (My return flight leaves at 10:30pm Monday and will land me back in Atlanta at 6am, just in time to go to work on Tuesday morning.) I now proceed to do the bouncy I-get-to-see-Seanan chair dance, which I’m told is very cute in a demented sort of way.
- kitanzi just e-mailed me to let me know she’d won a pair of tickets to see Peter Paul and Mary at Chastain Park Amphitheatre on Friday! Wheee!
- My friend Dina, who I have not seen in far too long, is coming down the last weekend of September with her two children, and we’re going to go to the zoo and the aquarium and the pool and who knows what else?
And that’s most of the news that’s fit to print. On the whole, it’s mostly positive, and what isn’t positive isn’t really more than annoying. So I declare it, on the whole, good.
I’ve been a member of BMG Music Club for some time, and while I rarely order anything from them on purpose, I get a lot of interesting music from them by accident, and as a result, over the years I’ve accumulated a number of free music points. I decided to cash some of those in last week, and the box came today.
Below is a sample of why my mp3 shuffle tends to give people whiplash:
Sam’s Town – The Killers
The Crane Wife – The Decemberists
30 #1 Hits – Elvis Presley
White Lilies Island – Natalie Imbruglia
Painted From Memory – Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach
The Best Of Sessions At West 54th – Various Artists
Lilith Fair – A Celebration Of Women In Music – Various Artists
Redemption’s Son – Joseph Arthur
Perfectly Frank (Remastered) – Tony Bennett(Part two of the order comes next week, and includes Frank Sinatra, Richard Thompson, Soul Asylum, and Geroge Gershwin.)
And I still have 24 “free” cds to order. So, what should I go looking for? Bear in mind that I’m limited to what http://www.bmgmusic.com/ actually carries, so really outfield stuff is usually not an option.
Open thread: Recommend me some music.
The new issue of Aphelion Webzine went up on Wednesday, right on time. Of particular interest to my friends list may be :he conclusion of On The Corner of Galaxy and Fifth, the novel that hejira2006 and I wrote in 1998. If you’d been holding off reading this because you don’t like reading serialized stories until you have all the parts, It’s all up there now:
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five
Also appearing in this issue are a review of Ookla the Mok‘s reissue of “Less Than Art” by cadhla and an essay on writing by telynor — both of which appeared in their journals and you may have already read, but if not, here’s a second chance.
And of course, there’s a whole mess of original fiction and poetry, a book review, and even a con report.
Aphelion is, like most fanzines, always looking for new material, and more importantly, for comments. If you read something that strikes your fancy, or something that you could lend some constructive criticism, please drop a note in the Aphelion Forum!.
Enjoy!