From His Red Right Hand...

Repurposed

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:20:24 GMT

This journal will soon be the home of my serial writing.

What a Wookie

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:37:17 GMT

Diane,

Everything is going well. I am currently a bit under the weather, but we are closing in on a house!

Over the weekend I had a chance to watch the Clone Wars animated film and play with Wii Lightsaber duels game. I also didn't get a chance to play my BSG board game, but that's a story for another time.

The film wasn't as awful as I had feared. Big Gay Capote the Hutt was the major misstep,both because it took the Alien Sterotype to a whole nother level, and because his plot was completely unnecessary to the rest.

As Plucky Sidekicks go, Ahsoka had some moments of Being Too Cute, but motuhing off to Anakin won her some points as well. And I'll be damded, but I thought the Huttlet was kind of cute.

The video game, I'm sad to say, is not the Lightsaber Wii game anyone signed up for. It's a big waggle fest and while I like the cut scence and quick time events that break up a very pedestrian fighter, I prefered the lightsaber fights of TFU. On the plus side, it's not as bad as Teras Kasi.

I also should know how much of the next project I'll have. I'm excited because it looks like there will be a bt more creativity involved in thisone, instead of summrizing Wookiepedia and attaching stats afterwards.

The Victims Have Been Bled

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:56:52 GMT

According to the Vampire Name Generator (via xbeyondinsanex ) -

The Great Archives determine you to have gone by the identity:
Claudius Shakespeare

Known in some parts of the world as:
Master of Seducers

The Great Archives Record:
Beautiful and alluring - hiding great power, great danger.

Secret, Secret, I've Got A Secret

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:31:39 GMT

I know what my next Star Wars gig will be.

No, I'm not telling you. But I've already given you a clue.

Get Up Off that Wall

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:35:09 GMT

Diane,

Details are forthcoming, but I am hopeful I will have another gig forthcoming from a galaxy far, far away.

I also pitched something to that rival Angsty Company...and got shot down. 0 for 2 there, but I'm okay with it.

I recieved a tip on a freelance copywriting gig. We shall have to see about that one.

And I finally got my main characters in line for Indigo.

Dreaming My Life Away

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:06:36 GMT

Diane,

It's been an interesting weekend.

Friday was Changeling, which started off with a last minute cancellation. The game was riddled with some focus problems, but I think the last scene brought things back on track. I also never thought I'd run a WoD game that primarily took place inside a Jimmy Buffet restaurant.

Saturday was my cousin's wedding. In the evening some folks got together to celebrate Bounty Hunter's birthday. My plan was to originally cut out a bit early to head over there for a few hours, but instead I cut out early because I felt like hell and didn't want to throw up all over my family. I spent most of Saturday drinking fluids and sleeping under linbtl 's watchful eye. I only wish I could have stayed up to watch psychic detectives with her. Instead I watched the Sea Hawk and The Spanish Main, two great pirate movies starring actors from Casablanca. The perfect choice to keep me excited about pirates and my upcoming 7th Sea game. I also got a pretty sweet deal on some pirate 'treasure' that I'll be using for Drama Dice this time around.

I feel better today, though still a little off. I'm taking it easy and planning on watching some more movies until the finale of Money Sluts is on tonight. I also have to write Hughes High penultimate game, which will be an action packed romp into Roldavia. I may also be tinkering with the sea battle rules so that they'll make more sense.

A Pina Colada at Trader Vic's

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:14:27 GMT

Diane,

Work has improved somewhat. I'm still swamped, but I have a goal and some guidelines in motion that seem to be working. There's a temp add-on that supposedly coming, and chances are it will be one of my fellow temps from my days at Uncle Herb's Cubicle Farm.

I finally came to a decision about gaming. Gaming will be on Fridays. I told the monday group that I would be shutting it down after Hughes High ends in a couple weeks. I game them priority slots on Friday, but nobody took them. It was sad, really, but something had to give. The deal maker was the time I has at the premiere of Changeling - good drama, good time with friends, and a yummy dinner. I'm sure someday I'll get a game together with the crew from Monday nights again, but for now, the end is near.

Last night was a lovely evening at No Disassemble and Fortinbras' place. It was a large nerd gathering that watchd the debates with bits of snarky commentary here or there. Neither guy delivered a Knockout Blow, but debates are usually Rorschach tests to begin with. Afterwards, Rovcket Boots came by and taught us how to play Mafia aka Are You A Werewolf? It's a fun little game of accusations, treason, and betrayal. We played it for the rest of the night, changing each time to a different theme (Witches, 1950's Communists, Arkham Migo Cultists, etc.) I think a game of Cylons would go over great at the next Bunny Thing, xbeyondinsanex . It was fun enough that I didn't even mind that the big tub of games I brought went unplayed.

Absolute Horror

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 15:39:07 GMT

Diane,

While at lunch with Rocket Boots and Tarantula today, I ran into someone from high school. Or, to be more specific, he walked past the table and said hi.

This person was, in high school, the example of the Dingy Gamer Stereotype, known by the wags on RPG.net as "the Cat-Piss Man". He was a haze of oily unkempt long hair, faded heavy metal t-shirt, and bad vibes. Whenever he would approach, we would flee or have a nervous, awkward conversation. Even during the years when Gen Con was still in Milwaukee during college, when he approached, we fled. As if he stood close enough to us, we would lose our minimal amount of cool and staying air guitaring "Master of Puppets" while talking about our Werewolf character. He was so well-known for these traits that I'm pretty sure that those readers that knew me 9in high school know exactly who I'm talking about without the clever use of a pseudonym.

Still, he was good for a few things. Gold Piece came over to our group of friends hanging out after school one day because he had fallen in with a game they were running and asked us if he could play with us. And he has been one of our good friends for 15 years or so. And, its sad to say, this guy was an easy punchline to how you or I might be a geek, but at least we're not bad as him.

Today he was much less intimidating. Most of his long hair had migrated to a ZZ-Top-style beard and he was wearing. We shared a few moments. I'll bet he works in an IT department somewhere.

When I say I didn’t go to my 10-year reunion because I stayed in tough with most of the people I wanted to, that's the truth. But there are still those corner cases that I wonder about.

It also got me to thinking about the Things I Learned in High School. I thought about grudges I still held. I thought about friends lost. I thought about that waiter in Paris..what was his name......Jean-Luc!!!

I thought about how some people I know still aren't talking to each other after ten+ years under the bridge. How I still refer to some of my Old Girlfriends by juvenile, spite-filled names.

And, of course, how I'm on this same path with EP. Rocket Boots said he called him and got a call back, which kind of stung. Rocket said "You get the silent teatment for being a good friend, but he calls me because he's guilty of what he said after the breakup." I'm not sure if that is correct or not. I don't think he thinks I was a good friend, which is too bad, because I don't know what I could have done differently.

PS. And I won’t mention how Rocket Boots still tried to flee the scene.

PPS. Whoops.

Faces Come Out of the Rain

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:27:09 GMT

Work:

SWSE: Revisions returned and awaiting the next pass.

Indigo: Outlining the first five chapters. Starting on chapter 1 this week.

Play:

Changeling - Season Two starts September 12th.
Hughes High has four episodes left!

Here are some more wikis for your enjoyment -

New World of Darkness - Includes my Vampire, Mage, and Changeling games.
Houses of the Blooded

Strange:

Mark Rein*Hagen, creator of Vampire: the Masquerade, is a refugee from Georgia

The Point of No Return

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:39:51 GMT

The Big Gig is done. I should hear back in a week or so what they think and if I will be asked to return.

Two Big Drama Points are affecting two good friends right now. So pray to whomever they get sorted out soon.

Get Me To The Church on Time

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:57:47 GMT

Interesting Work Fact: Today I discovered the web-blocker blocks bible websites.

It's tha 1st of tha month

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:29:55 GMT

I've been out of contact, Diane, to which I am very sorry. I can't promise I'll do better, but I will let you know how things are going.

MegaHex: Work has been mostly ups with a few downs. The fellow nerd that I knew from xbeyondinsanex 's wedding moved on to other things, but the ground there seems pretty fertile for New Recruitment. I've had to come in on weekends ( and will probably have to do so in the future) to stay on top of my workload, but the other copy writers are in my position well. This week we find out if we get another copy-writer or if one of the other parts of the department gets our new hire. If we get it, there are plenty of names from Uncle Herb's I can toss their way.

Writing: The Gig mentioned in my last post proceeds apace, and it is at the same time fun and strangely constricting. It's very exciting to b playing in this particular sandbox, but most of the things I have to write about have already been severely written about. When I was working at AEG, I had a lot more wiggle room. I guess it's adjust to being in the Bigger Pond.

The Edge of Midnight book is on pace to be a Gen Con release. I'm excited to see another book with my name as a co-author. My co-workers at MegaHex seem genuinely excited about my author stuff, so it will be fun to crow around with that book tucked under my arm for a day or two.

I also came up with an idea that straddled the line between "Fun game idea" and "Ooooh, I want to develop this." I bounced the idea off of romsveld and Rocket Boots and they both told me I should develop it. More will be forthcoming, but I've got the title - "Indigo". I've also been reading 'Firestarter', which deals with a similar premise, but I feel like my take is different enough that it is inspiring me rather than chasing me off.

Life: Still married. It's really not that different, though there seem to be more and more moments where I realized I made the right choice. I'll refrain from burning too much popcorn here, but there are nights where she makes me laugh till my throat is sore and my sides hurt.

We went to my sister-in-law's wedding last weekend. The interesting thing was, I think linbtl was more stressed about that wedding then our own. It's just their dynamic and it's something I find difficult to understand with my only child background. \

Reading: In addition to King, which always so easy to pick up because you can always find a dollar copy down at HPB, I traded for a huge chunk of Fading Suns books. I always wanted to get into the game, and I remember enjoying the one game that muzzie ran for us before he dashed off to his destiny in Minnesota.

I am enjoying the read very much, because its a perfect example of gaming in the 90's - richly defined worlds where mechanics are an afterthought. After the toolbox, DIY nature of D&D 4th and the nWoD, it's a refreshing change of pace. When I find some open space on my schedule (hah!), I think a chronicle where the PCs discover a lost colony sounds really cool. And the "Beginning is the End is the Beginning" is the perfect theme song for the game.

The Watchmen trailer also got linbtl reading my Absolute Watchmen, which I always find sexy. She read Preacher and Lone Wolf and Cub because she saw them on my shelf. How can I not love that?

Game: More ups and downs, though its the opposite with more downs and ups. Monday is back to Hughes High. I think I discovered that Star Wars is a game that I prefer to play rather than run. We got a chance to finally play Prince of the City after the abortive attempt that got me sore at Bounty Hunter. I lived it, because it felt like Vampire, which is a tough thing for a board or a card game to do well. The last time something felt like its source material was the Call of Cthulhu CCG, which has a lot of "Crap, we can only win one, which one do we lose?" moments. Rocket Boots gets more Mondays when he's back in town and after that, we're going to be playing Vampire for reals.

D&D in Milwaukee is going well. I have no idea if we'll make it to 10th level or whatever, but the fights have run fine and people are getting into filling out the wiki pages.

Madison is my current trouble game. I didn't like how D&D went, and most of the players are out until Fall. I want to continue out there, if only because Mr and Mrs. Peacoat Ranger are moving back to Madison in November. It will be fun to see them and who knows, maybe they'll become friends with Lemming Wrangler and I won;t feel like I'm her only connection to a social group.

Why-Eau-Dee-Ay

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:31:04 GMT

The outline came today. 10-16k gig. But a totally awesome opportunity.

Now the question is,do I tell Bounty Hunter and draw upon his knowledge, or blow his mind when I open the book up to the credits page?

What is the secret of your power?

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:33:41 GMT

Yes, I am a big enough dork to have made a wiki for my D&D game.

You're just jealous.

What Have You Done For Me Lately?

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:26:39 GMT

I apologize for my absence, Diane. I keep meaning to update, and update, and update but something gets in the way. So what have I been doing with my time?

Reading the greatest Actual Play thread in the history of man,
Scoring a sweet freelance gig with the #1 RPG publisher writing for a game I love.
Exercising on the Wii. Also, playing Lego Indy.
Doing research for my next novel.
Recruiting for my D&D Fourth Edition game. If you want to play, let me know.

Stuck in the Middle With You

Wed, 14 May 2008 20:46:45 GMT

We have returned from Hawaii and are enjoying this lovely day off. If you want more details on the trip or the reception, feel free to give me a call or drop a line. In the meantime, in a format you know and love, we have...

High light: Making it through the wedding ceremony without passing out.

Low light: The 11 hour flights there and back in coach. I know I've been spoiled by Midwest Express, but

Best experience: Seeing everyone at the reception have a great time.

Worst experience: Running across the Minneapolis airport to catch our connection...and watching the plane pull away even as the pilots and the ground crew see us banging on the glass.

Best bargain (had to buy it, no freebies): 6 Hawaii T-shirts for 20 bucks.

Best Freebie: Seeing sea turtles from a foot away in the water while snorkeling

Most welcome surprise: Horb, DeadDogg and I catching up like it was yesterday.

Most unwelcome surprise: No EP. Sigh.

Coolest guest and why: The Mercy Girls need to go out on tour.

Strangest wedding gift: The fertility idol.

Favorite wedding gift: The handmade Asian two-sided quilt

Best Restaurant: The Kona Inn.

Stuff got for free:
Baseball cap
Beach towels
Mugs
2009 Calendar

Stuff that was wanted that was unavailable:
Volcano rocks

Things to buy with our cash:
Wii

Best souvenir: Not sure yet.

Best Quote: "There is no way any wedding this summer will top yours, and in that I include my own!" - Bounty Hunter

Coolest nickname/in-joke: Drunk Carol, linbtl's Luau Buddy

More will be added.

We're Heading to Venus

Thu, 01 May 2008 01:44:05 GMT

This is not entirely true. We're actually heading to Hawaii in a week.

But we have to get married first.

I finally settled on a new car. I drove a 2008 Pacific Blue Metallic off the lot two weeks ago. We were at the lot until somewhere around 10:30, but got a pretty good deal with a good rate, a better car, and some of the amenities thrown in. Mississippi Gary, as the vessel is currently know, drives well and I'm still driving on the full tank of gas provided by the dealership. Granted, I am carpooling to work and haven't had any Madison games to drive to in a while, but two weeks between fill-ups is a wonderful feeling.

The wedding proceeds as well. We have just a few more last minute pieces to put in the puzzle and we should be ready. My suit is being altered as we speak and we make final arrangements with the Safe House tonight.

I spent Friday night over at xbeyondinsanex reading the ravings of a madman. While it was meant to be in fun, after awhile it just made me sad. But it was still refreshing hanging out on a Friday night and chatting around. Most of the weekend was taken up with wedding prep and fending off last minute relative questions.

We made a final push on the Netflix we've had laying around the apartment. We finally watched Elizabeth which was both pretty and amusing (since it was basically The Godfather in Elizabethan dress, complete with the rivals all getting whacked in the finale). We both really liked The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters as well, which is a documentary featuring the conflict between the World High Score Champion of Donkey Kong and a lovable loser set on beating the goal. I put this on the queue due in main part to the champion, a man named Billy Mitchell. He was featured on an MTV documentary about video gamers a few years a ago and came off as this fascinatingly self-absorbed obsessive when it came to video games. The low stakes of the contest bring the struggle and dirty tricks to the forefront, and I can't believe how into the movie I got.

In the Back Row

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:43:13 GMT

Stolen from gadiel.....it's the guess the movie quote game!

~~1)I am shocked, SHOCKED to discover there is gambling is going on in here.~~Casablanca

2)I love you.
I know.

3)And then I ram my ovipositor down your throat, but I'm not an alien.

4)You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.

5)I'm hysterical, I'm in hysterics! I'm wet, I'm wet and hysterical! I'm in pain! I'm wet, I'm in pain and I'm still hysterical!

6)But if we're right, and we can stop this thing? Lenny…you will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters.

7)You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you.
You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die.

8)It's not the years, it's the mileage.

9)How's that for a slice of fried gold?

10)What are you gonna do? Nice college boy, didn't want to get mixed up in the family business. Now you want to gun down a police captain. Why? Because he slapped you in the face a little? What do you think this like the Army where you can shoot 'em from a mile away? No you gotta get up like this and, badda-bing, you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit. C'mere.

11)C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like we're going into Wisconsin.

~~12)Where the white women at?~~

13)That there is a damn fine coat you're wearing.

14)They were vampires. Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don’t give a fuck how crazy they are!

15)Damn! We're in a tight spot!

16)Where's your father?
He's upstairs, masturbating to gay porn.
Again?

17)Something my granddad used to tell us. You know Macumba? Voodoo. My granddad was a priest in Trinidad. He used to tell us, "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth."

18)I thought charity was one of the…cardinal virtues.

19)You are the ones who are the ball lickers!

20)Help me.
You won't need much of anybody's help. You're good. Chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get in your voice when you say things like 'Be generous, Mr. Spade.'
I deserve that. But the lie was in the way I said it, not at all in what I said. It's my own fault if you can't believe me now.
Ah, now you are dangerous.

I Heard He Has a Wooden Leg

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:20:17 GMT

The insurance dance is done, Constant Reader. In the end, I got more than I expected but less than I wanted. I guess that's about the best that you can hope for in this situation. Now I must embark up the quest for a new car. The top contenders in the new bracket are the Fit and the Yaris. Both are on the upper end of the econo car range and hit a decent compromise between good gas mileage and good safety ratings.

We went to the Kids in the Hall show on Saturday. It was a decent show, though the years have not been kind. The new sketches held up well against the ones featuring recurring characters. The audience was an interesting mix, from teenagers to Packer jacket blue collar types. I even ran into an old associate from Uncle Herb's Cubicle Farm there. linbtl was ecstatic to get a Girl Drink Drunk shirt. Sadly, there was no Simon/Hecubus related sketch or memorabilia for me.

This weekend brings more car shopping as well as a shower for linbtl. We're also probably going to squeeze in some test driving this week, and I will get a visit from No Disassemble, Brab, and Fort on Friday. I'm working on a game of Trail of Cthulhu (three whole days!) for the occasion, but if we end up sitting around and chatting I'm also okay with that.

Everyone Look at Your Hands

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:52:48 GMT

I contacted the driver that killed Hecubus on Monday. After making sure I was alright, we started the insurance dance. The Insurance Dance is much like the Safety Dance, but if you don't dance, not only are you no friend of mine, but you also are subject to litigation. He was hoping that we wouldn't get the companies involved, since he just got his license back. His brother buys cars at auction and restores then and was hoping I would take one in lieu of calling his insurance. He also was willing to make a cash offer after I informed him I was thinking about a new car.

After thinking about it for a moment, I realized I was not Tony Montana and declined. I consulted with my insurance guy and decided to go through his.

I decided to play detective. One can view the Milwaukee Circuit Court records on-line. I looked up the driver and was shocked, SHOCKED to discover that he had multiple citations for driving on a suspended license, as well as few other charges. This definitely cast him in a less sympathetic light but made me feel a lot better about not doing things under the table.

I finally got my loaner, a grey Chevy Cobalt that couldn’t be more generic if it was renamed the Chevy Rental. I raced to the junkyard by 5 and waited in a strange combination of junkyard office, family living room, and neighborhood tap. I slogged through the mud and the snow in my nice work clothes and cleared out the majority of my stuff (I still need my mirror dice, my Summer Fun Cthulhu, my street parking permit, and maybe this paddleball game). I headed over to the Greenfield Police Department for my report, which took the last two dollars of cash I had on hand.

This weekend will be a mix of test drives and furniture shopping. I'm sad that I didn’t get to run that game of Kingsblood in Madison, but Real Life wins again.

Died In Your Arms Tonight

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:15:55 GMT

I was in a car accident today.

The other driver whipped around the corner without stopping and didn't see me over the snowbank.

His truck T-boned me. My driver's side was completely crumpled. I had to crawl out of the passenger side. The door handle on the inside was pushed out, like Hecubus was squeezed like a tube of toothpaste.

I'm fine. I was definitely in shock for the past few hours. I thought I posted this already and wondered why it wasn;t on the site until I logged back in.

Hecubus, however, has joined the Parking Lot Invisible. I start the inevitable insurance/new car tango tomorrow.

Feel That Life is But a Joke

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:48:16 GMT

All the World Seems in Tune on a Spring Afternoon

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:25:04 GMT

A decent weekend here in Milwaukee. I got my first paycheck from MegaHex and it's nice. I also got my last paycheck from the Condo, which is a bit of a bummer. I really could have kicked my credit card's ass had they kept me around. Instead I'll just have to win on a TKO.

Friday night was my first trip to Madison in a while. Driving in from Downtown Milwaukee to Madison wasn't too bad. I wish I could get there earlier in the evening, but now that I can sleep in on Saturday's it's not as much of a big deal. We mostly sat around. We watched a couple episodes of the old D&D cartoon (peace to EGG), played a few rounds of catchphrase with Lemming Wrangler's catchphrase gadget, and hashed out some basic ideas for the REIGN game I'm running up there in two weeks. There are a few Game o'Thrones fans in the group, so that's a definite influence.

The damned town's finally warming up a bit, so we got out and about yesterday. We bummed around Bay View during the day. It was a decent neighborhood. linbtl wandered around the artsy and crafty places, while I checked out the comic book store and their nerd store. I dropped some money on comic books to celebrate my First Paycheck. We engaged in some idle home chatter, and we like the feel of that part of town. We're still going to stay in the Casa del Cass for another year, but when we decide to purchase some real estate, that area is a definite target.

I've read two of the trade paperbacks so far. I was disappointed by the Barracuda miniseries. It felt too much like warmed over Preacher, but if Ennis has to get it out there so it doesn't flood his Punisher stories with it, more power to him. The Star Wars KOTOR trade started slow but won me over by the end. I like our Unlikely Hero being the Worst Jedi Ever instead of the Chosen One or the Guy With the Secret Jedi Heritage. And Gryph is a blast of a character, written by someone who clearly understands the necessity for the scoundrel character to make a star wars party work. For whatever reason, whenever I read Gryph, I hear Paul Giamatti in my head, doing his sleaziest sleazy voice. Rumor has it they actually have the author of the comics working on the KOTOR SAGA book that's coming out this summer. If so, that's going on the must buy list.

Whew. Almost made it through another entry without a gaming reference.

Whistle While You Work

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:41:15 GMT

This morning at work, we started with a discussion of the Catalyst Building, which is supposed to go up next to our office.

Me: Hey, it is me, or does that look look like a Blade Runner-style screen down the side of that building?

The Director of the department: Maybe it will rain all the time and there will be weird origami pieces all over the place too.

My god, it's full of nerds.

I love this job.

It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:41:52 GMT

I apologize for my absence, Constant Reader. I am sure you have been waiting breathlessly for tales of my Grown-Up Job. What follows are various observations, strange coincidences, and snippets from my first week at The Company: Store.

(Please note: No parts of this post were actually made from work. I'm trying to be a Good Boy and not abuse my internet. At least blatantly.)

Monday was a morning filled with orientation. I shared my time in HR with a lady who is apparent a new director level hire. I found it strange that this person making, probably making a six figure salary and someone that would fit in down at The Condo Job, has to sit around with me as we watched an OSHA video about contaminated blood.

The small world effect kicked in as I already know two of my co-workers. Canandy I met through xbeyondinsanex and spent a goodly amount of their reception chatting with them. It's always good to have a gaming nerd on staff, though it's strange to be the person that's not making the majority of d20 references on staff. EZ-E was one of my cohorts up at the Farm, and didn't make the cut either. Of all the temps that were a part of America's Next Top Copywriter, only one was offered a full time gig up at the Farm. While this sucks for them, this also means that if any more positions open up, EZ-E and I will be Getting the Band Back Together.

The video was awesome in all the right ways. The basic message? If you ever see blood, expect it to be contaminated by HIV, HEP-C, scurvy, and the girl from 'The Ring'. It's a small wonder the first aid kits around the office don't have crucifixes and proton packs in them.

I actually have my own honest to God cube, which should speak to the variety of closets, corners, and card tables that I've had to work on during my years of temping. Sometimes these arrangements were good. The conference room at Uncle Herb's Cubicle Farm turned all the temps into a tight-knit group. I brought in my decorations on Tuesday, though with the new Indiana Jones toys coming out, I plan on starting fresh with my traditional Indy icon. I have enough room that I'm tempted to get one of the deluxe figs like the temple idol.

Thursday started with a jarring run-in with a black man who informed me that "all you white motherfuckers are going to die." Such as it is living in the big city. Rather than park in the garage directed connected to the offices, I have to park in the mall garage and cut through the mall to get to work. I like seeing the dichotomy of the office workers at lunch versus the urban black youth wandering the stores.

Friday had an amusing conversation about Star Wars weddings that I did not initiate. I feel a lot more t home in this office than any ones in a very long time. I think this is a Good Thing.

I also got the call from The Condo Job that they would no longer be needing my services. While I am sad that Operation:Credit Card will take longer to pay off, getting my weekends back during The Wedding Planning is nice.

I had a sub-par experience at Bounty Hunter's on Friday night, but we hashed it out and are cool again. It looks like both Scion and Whatever We Play Here in Milwaukee will wait until after the Wedding, since there's a bit of tumult in the Whitewater side of the family. It's the usual mix of graduations, finals, and Drama Inspired By World of Warcraft. I may also go shopping for some additional nerds as well.