misterdeath

Re: A Thread for Random Musings I really need to mow the lawn, but yet again, the "afternoon rain in selected neighborhoods" has hit my neighborhood. Too wet to mow. I hate mowing lawn, so I feel guilty about the happiness I feel about not having to mow lawn. Damn, I absorbed way too much Calvin growing up. D

Re: A Thread for Random Musings I successfully pulled off "Tucker's Kobolds" in D&D3.5 last night. Damn that was fun. 40 battle trained 1st level Kobold Rogues, with crossbows and alchemist fire a commando mindset, and a pre-prepared trapped, fire zone. vs the party of 4 2nd level gestalt characters. If they hadn't won initiative in the second fight, there would have been a TPK. About half of the Kobolds got away, rather than staying and fighting to the bitter end. And, I taught the party about teamwork, and tactics, so it's all good. D

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Well, thanks to Skaramine, I've got all the seasons of Stargate SG-1 on order. Thanks buddy. D

Re: A Thread for Random Musings So, I call my grandmother for mother's day yesterday, and she casually mentions that "We'll, we'll know tomorrow". Me: "Know what?" Grandma: "About your dad's biopsy. Didn't you know?" Nope. They found a spot in dad's lungs, and decided they had to biopsy it. He went in for surgery last week, and he had a 9:30 am meeting today (monday) with the doctor because the test results would be back. And, well, somehow, my mom couldn't be bothered to call me and tell me any of this. It could just be scar tissue (he gets bronchitis shading to pneumonia every year). But that's no excuse for not letting me know. It isn't the first time she's done this to me. We'll talk on the phone for an hour, and she'll tell me all about work and the people there, and her friends, and her medical problems, but never once mention dead relatives, or major surgeries, or cancer scares. I figured that after 36 years on the planet, mom would stop playing those games. Alas, I was dead wrong. But, here I sit by the phone, waiting to find out what's going on. Happy birthday to me. I hate the damn month of may. Something always goes to hell during this month. D

Re: A Thread for Random Musings So, I was going to my favorite sandwich place for lunch today, and as I was walking up, this guy comes walking up next to me. We kind of fell into step, and I held the door open for him. He called me sir. Staff Sergeant, US rmy, 101st Airborne. Dress Uniforms are pretty. FWthat 'sW. The line was long, and we talked about the weather. He tried to let me cut in line ahead of him. He's recently returned from the freakin desert, risking his life, and he's trying to let me cut in front of him. I passed on the cuts. "I've got to take an hour for lunch. They get grumpy if we don't. No OT." "That'd be nice. They don't even like for us to not work through lunch. 'That's what the MREs are for'." I almost bought him lunch, but he was just getting some drinks and getting back to work. I didn't want to insult him, either. He mentioned that there's rumors that they might be shipped back soon. It doesn't surprise me, but I was hoping that they'd have some more time back home. I thanked him, and wished him good luck. And I'll do the same here. Good luck Sargeant. And Thanks for everything. D

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Hmph, I thought I had turned that Reputation thing off. D

Re: A Thread for Random Musings There was an article on the Tennesseen (the Nashville paper) yesterday. It was talking about the Christian Music industry and that "Christian Teens are stealing Jesus music. They're doing it through internet downloads and compact-disc burnings at nearly the same rate that secular music is being pirated by non-Christians". Later comment "I'm surprised and disappointed that the behavior isn't that ardently different between Christians and non-Christians" Comments from me: What they've never dealt with the Choir director buying one copy of a piece of music for the group and photocopying, rather than actually buying, enough for everyone? That's stealing music too. And, what the heck is up with the whole "If you're downloading non-Christian music you're not a Christian" vibe the article gives. Sigh. D

Re: A Thread for Random Musings When do you finally have to cut someone off? I mean, when does your responsibility to help someone require you to say "I've been your crutch for far too long, now stand on your own two feet." When is helping someone hurting their self reliance? Sigh. It's even worse when it's family. I want to help. Heck, we all do. But I know that we'd just be enabling, rather than helping. She's got herself into this mess, she's got to be the one to get herself out. Sometimes, I think the nicest thing you can do for someone is watch them implode their life and hope that they can make something of themselves. But, damn, it's painful to watch. D

Re: A Thread for Random Musings This has been an interesting 6 days. I took two days before and two days after the easter weekend off to travel up to the old homestead and see the relatives. Met with Mandy on saturday. Met her new fiancee. He's much better than any of the 10 or so other fiancees she's had. More social. More on the ball. He's a gamer, and was amazed that we were too. He's got "Superman Syndrome"; He's sweeping in to save her from her bad situations, though. Plus, she's having Loser Stalker guy's baby, so he gets a ready made family, which he really wants. Shane reminds me of nothing more than a much more social version of her father. The evil part of me wonders if he's way to damn good for her. Of cource, I thought the same thing when my cousin married her mother. Jaime is three now, and just learning how to talk. You see, his mamma and her live-in both smoke like a coal fired powerplant, and guess who's so allergic to cigarette smoke that he gets continual ear infections, which has so damaged his hearing that he's going to have to undergo surgery? And do speech therapy? Megan's living proof that people should be required to get a licence to have children. Baby number three is doing well, cute as a button. We're standing in line to get the food (we had swiss steak for easter this year) and my brother turns to his wife and asks "who's baby is that?". She says, "Don't know." Says I, "That's Megan's new baby." Then I had to explain that the only reason why I know that is because I call my grandma directly to get info. Calling my mom gets me more information that I could ever care to know about her medical problems, and about people that she knows that I never have met. Relatives, nope. Family, nope. Some person she works with. Enough data to choke a horse. Sigh. Cousin April's husband has taken a severe turn for the worse. His kidneys are failing rapidly, and they're trying to get him a transplant. He's type O, and everyone of his approximate size in the family is A. So, none of us can do it. Funny thing. His sister would donate, but she's A too. His brother is O, and could donate, but won't. Brother's wife lost a sister before she could donate bone marrow, and is pissed that her husband is being that selfish. Damn glad I don't have to go to Easter at their house. Dad and CJ and I had a long talk while mom was out. It was fun. The reason why he hasn't come for a visit to give us our Christmas present (to help us figure out what we need to get this place fixed up right) is because Mom keeps telling him he has to wait for her. Um, mom, the point was to get him to come down so that you would be rid of him for a couple of weeks, and we'd get to show him around. You can come down in the summer like usual, and everything will be hunky dory. Speaking on mom, Pyrex is your friend. Use it. She's making iced tea. Boil water, plunk in tea bag. Let steep, pour over ice. She boils the water, pulls out a pretty glass pitcher, and pours the boiling water right in. Crack, splash, there's broken glass shards and boiling tea water everywhere. So, I clear a path and get mom to go into the bathroom and run cold water on the burn on her foot, and dad and I clean the entire floor. Sigh. Fortunately, we were there, or she'd have probably stepped in the glass, and we'd have had another trip to the emergency room. The termite treatment went well, we're out $1700, but we should be good for a while now. We were a little mislead about how long it was going to take. They got here at 9:00 and left at 3:30. Somehow, my wife and I were under the assumption that they'd be done in two or three hours. So, rather than doing all the shopping and stuff we took today off to do, we spent it at home doing nothing, because we couldn't leave. Sigh. At least we got to go out for dinner. Thai again. Go figure. Good to see morningstar's back. I always miss him when he goes. D

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Football team jokes forwarded to me today. Thought I'd share. Q: Why did the University of Tennessee choose orange as their team color? A: You can wear it to the game on Saturday, hunting on Sunday, and picking up trash the rest of the week. Q: What does the average Alabama player get on his SATs? A: Drool. D

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Cliche's are cliche's because they're true. D

Distribution runs tomorrow and all those lovely songwriters will get their checks. I got all my work done (the stuff my boss was getting pissy about me not having done), plus all the last minute stuff, plus tons of stuff that other people didn't get done so I did it for them (note that they didn't get into trouble for being behind, only me...). In fact, other than 1 hour today for the stuff that came in at lunchtime, I've spent the last week on other peoples stuff. That's the advantage of the team structure, we can help one another when someone gets behind. And I kicked ass while doing it. Ha. Of cource, I think I pulled something in my shoulder, because it hurts like hell. I wonder, can you type so much, so fast that you get a shoulder strain? D

Ok, I told both of them. Now what? It's a great book. I'm really enjoying it. Thanks for making it. D

Just before my group imploded, I had finished running the Omegaworld part. It's working pretty good so far. I enjoy it. The pieces work best if spread out in amongst other adventures, IMO. I'm using the Black Paladin adventure for that. I think Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth makes a better Linear adventure (We start playing, and keep running straight through till the end). And, McCoy rules. That's a good idea. I'll have to borrow that. Oh, yeah, issues with the adventure. The bomb was a touch too easy for Super Inventor Girl with 50 Int to disarm. By the time they dealt with Black Harlequin at Omegaworld, they were ready to pull out the stops and take him down hard. That's about it that I can think of. D

In the for what it's worth department, since it's the near side of the Atlantic, I got my copy on Friday. Looks pretty good, got lots of neat stuff. Good, clean cheesy silver age fun. When I get a chance, I'll have to Hero Designer all the characters. So, what's next for the Omlevex line? D

My family is so white trash. My cousin's oldest daughter just had baby number three. From three different baby daddies. I don't think she's planning to keep this one either, Sigh. While I well understand how babies are made, I'm not sure how it keeps happening in my family that people keep getting knocked up. Apparently, we're a fertile bunch as well as white trash. D

The problem with slob breeders... A friend of my wife's bought a cute little Japanese Chin/Shih tzu. The woman who bred the dogs was doing so because she knew she could sell the cute puppies. The 10 week old puppy is going to have to have surgery to correct un-opened nasal passages. The dog can't breathe through it's nose. It has to have surgery, because if not, eventually the heart will collapse because it won't be able to pump enough oxygenated blood to the various organs. The cheap vet said $200 with so many caveats that Corinne is totally freaked out. She went to another vet today and they said $300 to $500 because they have a less invasive laser surgery set up. Apparently, another of the puppies had no tail. Obviously, there's some genetic problems with matching those two parents. A responsible breeder wouldn't be producing mixed breed puppies for sale anyways. But also, a responsible breeder would see the problems, and never ever breed those dogs again. This slob breeder has already said she's got orders for the next batch of puppies. Breeding animals shouldn't be for the financial pay off. There are way to damn many of them that get put down for more of them to be made for the money. Oh, yeah, and now I find out that another cousin want's to get into breeding Cocker Spaniels, because lots of their friends want to buy a puppy like theirs. Sigh. D

My cousin April's husband David has just been diagnosed with total kidney failure. He's got to go on dialysis immediately, and they've put him on the "Get a Kidney" list. Let'see, April is 8 years younger than me, her husband is two years older than her, so he's 30. 30 years old. Total renal failure. Boy, I'm feeling pretty mortal. D

We're all working lots of overtime. Alison hates working overtime. Especially overtime that comes about because she wasn't told she actually had a new task to do. So, she was feeling depressed. So, I cheered her up the only way I know how. "Alison, some thoughts that might make you feel better. Walmart sells shotguns. They also take Visa. " It took her a second to process what I had said. Then she laughed. Michelle, the team 6 team leader overheard, and busted out laughing. Everyone was very happy. I don't know if the idea that going on a killing rampage cheers people at my work up scares me more than me making everyone laugh made me happy. D

Diet Coke with lime really rocks. D

Just when you think you're out of the game, they pull you back in. My ex D&D gaming group wants to reform because my wife and I do a better job of running than the guys they went with closer to home. I've got a feeling I'll be running 3.5 any day now. Yay for me. D

Not all babies are cute. The one that someone brought to work today wasn't. And that was before it decided to have the screaming fit. D

Is it just me, or is Alicia Keys' "You don't know my name" a stalker song? She sees some guy at the restaurant where she works, picks up his business card, makes up elaborate fantasies about their future life together including their first time having sex, and then calls him on the phone and asks him out. D

Thanks to the magic of overtime, and busting my ass, I did two weeks worth of work in three and a half days. Whoo. A little self-congratulatory indulgance for me. D

Word of warning: Tennessee state police are driving white Yukons. That sport ute sitting by the side of the road is mr trooper. And he's waiting on you. And when the nice guy ahead of you starts slowing to 5 over the speed limit, cutting around him so you can go 15 over will attract mr trooper's attention. Them lights sure are pretty. Ha Ha! D