I am starting to write again- just a little bit, but it's still definitely something.

I am an RPG dice junkie. I own far more dice than I could play with in any one game, and I can outfit stray players easily should the need arise. I dream of having a giant glass jar filled with dice and sitting on the windowsill.

And so this will be my downfall.

I threw a couple more photos up on Deviant

...I'd been thinking about Cam again lately- well, more than usual, I suppose. I really need to get the pics printed out so I can make that album for him.

Futon Samurai

I don't think I'm going to get picked up for a series or anything, but I thought it might amuse you people.

Another great thing about futon mattresses- when they get compressed from sleeping on them, even with the weekly flipping and rolling, it's recommended that you beat them. With a plank, tennis racket, or, in my case, a wooden katana, since that's the sturdiest thing I could find around the house. And you know what? It works great! It's also pretty fun as well.

Things *not* to name your kids.

Dear lord, this is both hilarious, and rather saddening for the children involved. These names are really, really, really bad. It's one thing that you want to be unique, and give your kid a unique name, but you have to think how this name is going to affect your child's life, and how it will look on job applications and college term papers and work projects and everything else. The truth is, if your child has an incredibly doofy name, it is going to cause them problems, and life is tough enough without adding to it at the very beginning.
Personally, my basic guideline is that I refuse to name my kids anything that sounds like something you'd run from in Call of Cthulhu.

see more crazy cat pics

I had the coolest dream last night- I was running a rooftop parkour course with Brock Samson.

So I happened to hear that song, "Tear You Apart" by 'She Wants Revenge' on the radio today, and yeah, deliberately caricatured, following Depeche Mode and Bauhaus, yadda yadda yadda, but where, precisely, is the bit that explains why their lead singer has to sound as much like Fred Schneider as is humanly possible? I can't believe I missed that the first time it came around; I was teaching camp and it was on heavy rotation on the Buzz. Heh. Nothing important.

"I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling. I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you. I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kind of songs and to sing the kind that knock you down still farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think you've not any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I'd starve to death before I'd sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your songbooks are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow."

-Woody Guthrie

I'd never seen any of the film from Johnny Cash's performance in San Quentin- I mean, I'd heard the music, of course, but I'd never seen the actual footage before, and I can't get over the looks on the prisoners' faces- they look so open, so happy- it's just amazing.

Clean Room

Well, not so much that you have to wear suits and static strips, but still.

I has a sushi!

"My father once wrote a monograph on communication in the workplace."
"...Iz dat so?"
"All seven popes ordered it burned."

Don't recognize this? Then why aren't you reading Girl Genius right now!

A Moment of Silence

Gary Gygax passes away at 69.

My third thought, after a horrified "Oh no!" and a sudden rush of fond memories of playing D&D, was extremely crass, but not altogether inappropriate- "He must have missed his saving throw." I'm sure I'm only one of millions of geeks who had that thought leap immediately to mind, and in an odd way I find that comforting, because it's occurred to us all through our familiarity with and love for the games Mr. Gygax gave to the world. I couldn't count the number of happy hours I've spent in my life playing D&D (and other RPG's that wouldn't have been invented if it hadn't come first), and I hope to have countless hours more.

Godspeed, Gary.

Workdesk of Order

More or less.

I noticed last night on the IMDB boards for Hogfather there's a discussion of who should play Vetinari. What? Why is there even an argument? Alan Rickman, end of story.

I can't believe I'm number one on Google for the locating and purchasing of a certain type of amphibian. I won't name it here so it doesn't throw off the search, because according to my referrer logs, it's actually a fairly helpful and well-used post. It's just a very odd thing to be ranked for.

I love Going Under, don't get me wrong. Live, studio, whatever, it's one of my faves in all its iterations, but it just drives me absolutely crazy. The music, because it goes up and up and then drops back to the beginning, over and over, without ever reaching a climax. The lyrics, because they remind me that I missed out on those early days of Devo, that I missed out being packed into dim and dingy clubs with other newfound Spuds, missed the sweat and smoke and fights with the normals and late nights and whatever happened backstage, and most of all the music, I missed out on the music. I've got it all now, but if I'd been able to be there then, to see it all firsthand... Gods, if I had a Tardis, that would be my first stop, but I don't.

It's never straight up and down.

Workdesk of Chaos

Gee, I wonder why I haven't gotten any work done lately...