A collection of rambling posts about gaming, running, and politics. (and, in 2009, photography.)

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Quick Thoughts: Consumerism/Obituaries, and L4D

So I like to gripe about consumerism. Here you go. 2,000 WalMart shoppers, 1 dead WalMart employee. The article does not mention how much merchandise the shoppers purchased, which is oddly important to this story. That's how we can determine WalMart's value of a human life. Boy, I bet its a few hundred bucks.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/11/29/black.friday.death/index.html



On a COMPLETELY unrelated note, I did not trample anyone on black friday, but still managed to pick up Left 4 Dead, along with three other friends, and since then, we've been doing LAN parties to fight off the zombie hoard. Oh fuck it rocks.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

A Rum Haiku

Rum is so clear, iced.
And oh, how I love to drink,
but boy I feel dumb.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Small update

So I've been pretty quiet on here. Its not because there's nothing going on, but simply because I've been feeling lazy and haven't had the urge to come type on here. It comes and goes, y'know?

In brief:

My D&D game continues to go very well. I'm having a blast with it, even though I've gotten lax again about posting summaries. I'm still very much enjoying 4e. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have any quibbles with it, but we're all having a great time.

I'll hopefully be making somewhat frequent entries on my new other blog here. That blog will be dedicated to all things related to the upcoming addition to our little family. For a variety of reasons, I'm going to have two blogs now, this one, and the one related to baby things. If I was even more scattered, I'd have one for gaming, one for general stuff, and one for baby stuff, but I'm not THAT crazy!

Running: In the tank. I was just hopping onto my training schedule, late, when we got the bad news that Krissi's job was cutting her hours back to 60%, which is a pretty hefty pay cut for us. So we've tightened the belt, and will not be buying a new pair of running shoes this year, or registering for the marathon. Disappointing, for sure, but I'll look forward to next year. Meanwhile, I've been totally off the wagon, and its taking its toll.

I'm sure there is other stuff going on, but nothing comes to mind.

I'll be back when I have more exciting stuff to share!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

You Betcha?

I've tried to resist gloating, or joyous celebration because the other guys didn't win, but I have to come clean.

I am just as glad about Obama/Biden getting elected as I am that Palin did not get elected. (and I specifically mean Palin. I'm not talking about McCain here)

She scares the crap out of me.

If you believe the news that is trickling out now, apparently she spent way more than $150,000 of donated RNC money on expensive clothes for her and her family, and this was hidden from McCain for fear that he would flip the fuck out. Which seems like a completely reasonable assumption to me. Apparently she did not know that Africa was a continent. Apparently she did not know which countries made up NAFTA. Apparently she threw temper tantrums over news articles that were unkind to her. Apparently she refused to allow people to prep her for interviews (hence we have the gem of her Couric interview). We have questions about her ethics in Troopergate. Her husband was part of a political party that wanted to secede from the US. She claims that abortion clinic bombers are not terrorists. She is a young earth creationist. Oh I could keep going...

I challenge you to find me a more terrible choice for VP on a big party ticket. Cheney is rotten to the core, but I can't really accuse him of being an idiot. Evil is different than stupid.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

These Times

Wow.

I'm very pleased with the results of the election. I'm also still anxious about the future.

I think that McCain gave a powerful and courageous concession speech. I cannot help but feel like *that* was the real McCain - not the fake, mud-slinging, religious-right-embracing guy that we've seen on the campaign trail. I applaud him.

I'm anxious about the future because I think that Obama has his work cut out for him. I believe in his message of hope and change, but I have no doubts about the next four years being easy for him, or any of the rest of us. You don't need me to tell you that we are in a tough place economically, and in a tough place with regards to Iraq and Afghanistan. I am hopeful that Obama will be able to surround himself with smart people who will be able to create a plan to lead us out of this financial mess, and out of the mess overseas. These problems do not have quick fixes, even for Obama. With that said though, I am hopeful that we will be able to see progress being made.

I'm anxious about the political division in this country. I'm sick of non-facts, and blind hate. I understand if Obama was not your candidate of choice, but please don't gripe to me about how you think that a Muslim Homosexual who aborts babies in his spare time has no right to be president. If you want to have a conversation grounded in reality, that's cool.

On another note, we found out that Krissi's work is cutting her hours back by 40%. This is rather terrible news, made more frightening by having a baby on the way. We're okay though. We live mostly within our means. It delays our timeline for paying off all of our bills, and it means that we're looking for ways to save money. It is a setback for us, but not a disaster, and I'm thankful for that.

Monday, November 3, 2008

The Shining

I caught Kubric's The Shining on TV over the weekend.

Man I love that movie.