A Photographic Interlude

The punchline to the trip is that we made it, so there.

"Thee Phurther Adventures of..." will return tomorrow.

Here's some pics to get up to date with our story:

Prior to the farewell party at Mustafa and Kathy's on Sunday, we had folks over for a help-us-drink-all-of-our-alcohol party.



This stuff is amazing. Italian Cham-pag-nay!


Elaine wonders, "What happened to all the stuff?"



Very sad and fond farewell to the mighty Polypterus. We hope you enjoy your new home.


The night before the departure. Sleeping on the floor sucks.


Nestled in at Wall, SD.

The Great Northern Route, Part Deux

Leaving, Day 1

After Jill’s skillful packing of the car, we loaded Zoe, Arya, and Elaine into their respective slots for the trip. The cats were stacked in separate carriers in the front seat. Elaine was in the middle of the back seat, attended by an adult on one side. Thus, the non-driver could not see the road ahead, and the driver could not see the view to the right. This was fine for the first day, as we took turns driving and sleeping for about 22 hours. Jill took the first shift, from Ann Arbor to the suburbs beyond Chicago. I got us to Minnesota, and Jill went about 4 hours to dawn. I had about an hour of Minnesota and 2 hours of South Dakota. A few hours later, Jill ran into some bad weather and called 511. They recommended no travel west of Rapid City, which was less than an hour away, so we pulled off and booked a room at the Day’s Inn in Wall, SD.

In a bit more detail…Elaine and I snoozed for the first leg of the journey. The cats had their say, in turns, to register their dissatisfaction with the suite of decisions that had landed them in carriers. Jill, having not slept for about 41 hours, crashed out for the second leg. Thus, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin were resolved with a minimum of fuss. Dry roads and light traffic made it a swift and pleasant night. However, as I approached Minnesota, a fog had begun to settle in, particularly after crossing the Mississippi. So the third leg ended up being quite difficult for Jill, as she strained to see through the pea soup. She says that she tried waking me a few times, but that I was just completely out.

When I took over Minnesota duties, it was just barely dawn and still a bit foggy. Flat and farmy, there wasn’t much in the way of a view. Eventually, as the light increased, I was able to make out larger stretches of the landscape. Ghostly wind farms rose out of the rolling hills, white steel on white mist. Faint red barns emerged through the haze, and traffic picked up. All was quietly beautiful. Then, we entered the strangeness that is South Dakota.

South Dakota contains the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and the geographical center of North America. I-90 runs basically E->W through the center of the state, which is mostly flat. But somehow, it’s flat in a pretty way. I actually enjoyed the view, although I can see that it would get old if you had to drive it regularly. Still, it beats the Ohio Turnpike, or really anywhere in Ohio. South Dakota is the billboard capital of the United States. I don’t actually know that that is true, but they must have more billboards and signs, per capita, at least, than anywhere else. One interesting hand-painted sign declared, “South Dakotans reject animal activists! Meat, fur, and livestock are OUR ECONOMY”.

Roughly one third (my estimate) of South Dakota billboards are generated by Wall Drug, a drugstore in Wall, South Dakota. An interesting feature of the Wall Drug billboards is the absence of any reference to the location of Wall Drug. A sign with a picture of a rodeo cowboy says simply, “Giddy Up! Wall Drug”. Another with a cowboy roping a doggie says, “Dally Up! Wall Drug”. Then there’s the famous “Free Ice Water! Wall Drug”, as well as the signs disclaiming that Wall Drug has received the attention of the New York Times and Time magazine. “This sign in Kenya, Africa – Wall Drug” indicates that South Dakota is not alone in its billboard-associated reverence of Wall Drug.

When Jill encountered harsh, blowing winds and snow on her shift, we located the nearest pet-friendly hotel. Was it fate, or chance, that the Days Inn we found was in Wall, SD? Fate? Or Chance? Fate….? Anyway, we got some crappy food at the Cactus Bar (seriously, the food totally sucked. What’s the deal, Cactus Bar? They can’t even make a decent sausage gravy, and there’s a SIGN on the outside of the building raving about how they have biscuits and gravy. Your gravy sucks. Sorry you had to hear it here. Hope you had a great Christmas.) and got a decent night’s sleep. I practiced putting chains on the car the next morning, in anticipation of the dreaded Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascades. We also had our first of three free hotel breakfasts that day. This was easily the worst. Also, I saw a guy who had a dreadlock mullet. Seriously, a white dude with dreads, except the top front part was all teased up and short. Really bizarre. To be fair, since this was a bit of a touristy spot, he could have been from North Dakota.

After a brief stop at Wall Drug, which, as you’d expect, has five times more space devoted to hideous souvenirs than to drug store items, we hit the road again.

To be continued…


(pictures forthcoming once we get a bit more organized)

The Great Northern Route = 21 pts

Packing

Our packing adventure was based upon the fallacy that it is easier to only pack the things that you need. That is, to prune down your possessions to a manageable size will facilitate the packing process. Instead, it leads to a kind of paralysis, where you put off difficult decisions until the time of the move. In our case, this effect was exacerbated by Jill’s insane schedule, Elaine’s understandable neediness, and my keen ability to procrastinate, which combined to prevent our boxing up of our possessions until the week before the move.

We used ABF, or U-Pack. This outstanding company, which I unreservedly recommend, drops off a trailer one day, and picks it up a few days later. We used about 13 feet of this truck for our belongings. The truck arrived on Friday. I got up early on Saturday, and made sure that I was ready to go. My dad and brother showed up to help with the loading. We had loaded the heavy furniture and most of the boxes in a few hours. Of course, I had not yet packed up the kitchen, bathrooms, clothes, nursery, or basement. So we stayed up all night Saturday packing the various rooms. By morning, it was clear that we had only just made a dent. Also, there was a bit of a blizzard going on outside. The latter detail meant that my dad and mom couldn’t make it, so Elaine was without a sitter. We did the best we could over the course of the day and night, and by pre-dawn Monday, I felt that we were ready to get the truck packed up.

Unfortunately, the lack of sleep had taken its toll. I carried quite a few things out to the truck, but I couldn’t see how to pack it efficiently. Total brain lock. So I called my parents and brother for assistance. Jim stood in the truck calling out what he needed. “Big boxes. Flat boxes. Anything shaped like the letter K.” I carried everything out to him, and we had the truck packed, using a 13.5 x 8 x 9 volume, by 3pm, with the bulkhead rammed in tight. After verifying that the paperwork was in order and the truck on its way, I got some much-needed sleep.

Early the next morning, we rented a 14’ U-Haul truck to dispose of the rest of the stuff in the house. This process turned out to be much more of a chore than expected. We had three stops to make: First, the Food Gatherers to drop off our unopened non-perishables; second, the Salvation Army to donate our furniture, kitchen goods, etc.; and third, the Ann Arbor ReUse/Recycle Center. It took several hours to load the truck, and I made a poor job of it again, such that a second trip would be necessary. The Salvation Army was decidedly picky about the donations, and I ended up with much more of a load to take to the Recycling center.

At the Recycling center, I encountered a very special group of people, starting with Cathy (I think). Here’s the setup: I’m pulling into the center with a U-Haul about half-full of a wide variety of stuff. Cathy was working the guard/payment booth. I pulled in and told her that she’d probably want to take a look, since there are charges for a variety of items. Ann Arbor only allows a certain amount of free garbage pickup at your home each week, so any excess needs to be saved for the next week or taken to the center for disposal. They charge about $2 per large black bag, plus fees for large items like TVs or computers. Many people are taken aback by the charges, but I like the idea of actually paying for the service. Seems more sustainable than having the center be subject to the whims of city/county/state budgets.

So Cathy was pleased that I knew the drill, and was pleasant about it. I got out and opened the back of the truck and bantered a bit while she ogled my disposable goods. She ended up snagging a few items and taking them to her car before giving me directions on where to take things. I headed into the recycling part, where a long-haired fellow explained to me about the difference between cardboard and greyboard. I quickly learned to separate all of the different types of paper goods, and I disposed of several boxes of bottles. Cathy took another look at the truck and found another gem or two for her collection. It’s not like I was throwing away crap—we just didn’t have room on the truck. I had to double back through the gate to go up to the refuse bins, and Cathy stopped me to say that I had made her day by being pleasant and positive. I returned the sentiment and headed for the tip-in area. As I was lugging my 20 or so heavy trash bags to the bin, one by one, a gentleman driving a mini-dozer pulled right up to the back of the truck and raised the scoop up to floor level. All I had to do was pitch the bags off the back of the truck. I suspect Cathy sent him over to help me out.

Since the center would be closing in an hour, I returned the truck to U-Haul, where I reserved a cargo van for the next morning. That evening, we went to Mustafa and Kathy’s for a nice going away dinner. Joanna, Jonathan and Emilie were all there, and great merriment ensued. It is really tough to leave people.

The next day, Mustafa had to come by the house to pick up the famous Johnsen family sourdough starter, and ended up with a few other things that we were “donating” or “foisting upon” them. He jumped in and helped me to load the van, and then volunteered to ride along. Thus, he got to experience firsthand the friendly and scavengy nature of the kind Recycle center folks. This time, Cathy and a few other workers there ended up with our ex-household items. Cathy fairly filled her car with loot. After bidding farewell to Mustafa, I made one more trip with the van, and then turned it in. Several hours and many trash bags later, we had finally reached the point where we could pack the car. It was 5:30pm on Thursday.

To be continued

going off the grid

As of some undetermined time today, I will be cut off from the electronic teat. Reconnection occurs on Dec. 26. Be strong.

The Slow Decline Into Gray

In case you haven't guessed, the great 2007 Pack-a-thon is in full swing. I have been performing triage on various aspects of our household goods, and creating nearly as many donation boxes as keeper boxes. We're doing a "load it your own damn self" deal, where they drop off a semi trailer (that's a lorry trailer to the UK contingent) and we have a few days to pack it. Today, my family came over to help load most of the heavy stuff (books, furniture). Tonight, we'll try to get most of the rest of the house into boxes so that tomorrow we can just mindlessly lug things out to the truck.

Did I mention the blizzard? Well, there's not one yet; it's merely snowing. But the National Weather Service warns of "blizzard-like conditions" in the morning, following an evening of approximately 5 inches of snowfall. That should keep us cool as we work.

I had thought that we would be slipping out of Michigan prior to the crappy winter, since it usually starts getting really sucky around Christmastime, but now I'm convinced that Michigan Winter actively dislikes me and my plan, and did resolve to be as sucky as possible starting on Thanksgiving day and continuing until we leave the state.

OK, back to work with me. May you all have a safe and happy holiday, and I'll see you on the other side.

A quick note

Jill has decided to grace this here weblog with her commentary. She back-commented on the last two months of posts!

So, if you need a dose of Jill, why not revisit some older posts and bask in her wit?

A happy surprise

And, no, I'm not talking about the resurgence of really good Achewood comics lately (starting here and continuing to the most recent), but a happy discovery that I made while tearing the house apart in our hour of packing.

There are times that make you stand back and reflect on what got you where you are. This was one such time. There I was, you see, digging furiously--well, furiously is rather overstating it; perhaps intently covers it somewhat better--so, intently, then, in our so-called 'chicken' cabinet, in which our occasional dishes and glassware are kept, when I discovered a certain amber bottle. This was a bottle with the number '23' scrawled upon the cap, and bearing no label. So, my immediate thought was, "Well, what is this? It has all the comportment of a homebrew, but we never got to a vaunted number like 23. 23 calls to mind the likes of Michael Jordan, or more recently, LeBron James. What's a bottle doing in my cupboard bearing the auspicious number of 23?". That's just what I thought. But then, a certain other thought occurred to me, you see. The other thought was that some other person may have left that bottle there, so as to cause a bit of commotion. I was thinking of perhaps aliens or the government at this time, them being one and the same in any case.

But then! (imagine me speaking in a hushed whisper here...oh, do humor me, will you?) Then! I spoke with Jill, who suggested that this was the bottle of Festive Ale that Jim and Sonja, may God rest and have mercy on their souls, left for us in their final loungings at our abode, and that I--not the government or aliens--secreted away to this place in the cabinet so that I wouldn't drink it, and so that it would survive until such a time when Jill was no longer pregnant! (conspiratorial whispering over)

So! Here we are. Having a nice bit of quiche and pondering the impenetrable mystery of the '23' bottle in the fridge. If anyone has any ideas that will bring this matter to a resolution, your comments would be appreciated.

Evidence of quiche



Evidence of a certain mystery bottle

Shell Games

My, aren't I the unusually prolific one! Guess I should take a few days off after this.

There were two news items that I read with some amount of cynicism yesterday. First, the report that Iran had "halted" it's nuclear weapons program. Second, that Hugo Chavez had been dealt a "defeat". Much has been made of both items. The Venezuelan vote was sans monitors, and is probably Chavez' way of saying, "Hey, look. Would I fix this referendum to narrowly FAIL? Of course not! Democracy is alive and well in my dictatorship. Go away now.", prior to a series of subsequent referendums in which he narrowly wins. Still, evidence of a healthy backbone in the Venezuelan populace is quite heartening.

Regarding the Iranian "Hugs not Bombs" story, the Democrats here are using it, clumsily, as an election year whomping stick. Harry Reid, et al, are calling for a rethink of US/Iranian relations based upon one report -- a report that contradicts a previous report. Not only is this dangerous and irresponsible, it's transparent enough that it could end up hurting the Dems in next year's general election. The candidates now have to be extremely careful. I see the Republicans coming out looking much better on this issue. I generally align with Democratic policy, but those in charge now are largely tone-deaf, gutless, mewling incompetents.

Crows

One of the more foreboding sights here in Ann Arbor is the immense flock of crows that rise and fall over the old growth trees in Forest Hill Cemetary and the Arboretum. As of two days ago, however, they have suddenly begun to settle in my neighborhood for the night. All night long, it's like having little yappy dogs arrayed around your house at bedroom level. When the wind picks up, they go silent. When that wind dies down, it's a cacophony.

In addition to the noise (which wakes up my 6 month-old), they have covered much of the immediate neighborhood with poop. My car is not even under a tree, and it is nearly completely overwhelmed. Apparently, they're only in three trees that triangulate around our house. Jill has just come running into the house from work, saying that she was dodging splatter bombs all the way from the car, which she parked across the street.

So, what do I do? It is illegal to fire weapons within the city limits, and I don't own a shotgun anyway. Some people have suggested a fake owl. The US Air Force uses a recording of a falcon's call to scare them off of runways. Fireworks? Insults? Celine Dion?

I'm glad that the crows were not wiped out by West Nile a few years ago, but I wish that they'd keep to the Arboretum.

My So-Called Dollar

I have little to no practical knowledge of macroeconomics, so I ask for your patience here. There was a feature on an NPR show this past weekend about how the rise of the Euro over the dollar was actually helping some sectors of the retail economy. Specifically, major city destinations, such as New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, etc., were doing very well this holiday season. People from the UK and Europe were arriving with empty suitcases and filling them with electronics and luxury items because of the exchange rate. Even cities bordering Canada were experiencing an uptick in international traffic because of the historic alignment of the $CA and $US.

Two things occurred to me: First, the relatively high sales in these specific sectors are going to drive up the national numbers, which may lead to an increase in consumer confidence, even in the less fortunate areas. Second, many of the products that are being purchased were made in China, spurring the retailers to replace their inventory, which benefits Chinese manufacturing. So even when our economy is shitty, the pain is not passed along to our main supplier of retail goods. Or at least, the pain is attenuated.

Is it well past time to engage in a bit of protectionism vis a vis our lopsided trade status with China? Would this sort of action be devastating to our most poor? Who decided that we don't need a manufacturing class here in the US?

I think it was Clinton or Bush the First who first talked about restructuring our economy to be more based upon creating a new kind of job -- the so-called "knowledge-based" economy. While this is a laudable goal, it doesn't account for the fact that many people have no interest in working with computers or advanced technology, and who would be miserable attending college or university. The fact is that many people really are happiest using their hands and backs to earn a living, and may not be successful or happy if forced back into school. I'm thinking specifically of those aged 45 and up.

The economic reality, I think, is that manufacturing and farming jobs provide national stability, and it is important to protect these jobs with tariffs and other protectionist strategies.

Now, I await the better-informed to tell me what's wrong with my thinking. I'd really like to understand this a bit better.

Happy 500th to me!

As enumerated here and here, I have logged my 500th game on Boardgamegeek. That's a hell of a lot of fun and laughs with a lot of great people. Check it out.

The dam breaks

Guess who got to play some games recently?

It was ME!

Holidays have proven, over the past few years, to be boom times for boardgames. My game playing spikes every November and December, and I hope this year is no different. Last weekend, Jill's friend Kathy came for the night, and we got in several games of both Ticket to Ride Europe (my #1 gateway game) and Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers.

Yesterday, Gwen, Clint and their kids came for a belated Thanksgiving, in which Our Hero attempts his first turkey. Dinner was awesome, and was followed by much boardgaming. First, Clint taught me Blokus, and we played two games. We both played poorly in the first game, and improved in the second, but Clint beat me both times. Then I taught Clint Mr. Jack. He hung on as the killer with only two suspects for 4 rounds, forcing me to accuse one of them in the final round. I was wrong. He really played very well, thinking through every possibility. While it slowed the game down to a glacial pace, it was a great effort, and it payed off for him.

Then Clint played Stephen, fresh off of a string of Hey! That's My Fish! victories against Christine, at Mr. Jack. After all the youngsters were in bed, Jill and Gwen went head to head at Blokus. It was tense, tense, tense. Those are two competitive sisters right there.

Finally, we all played a game of Citadels. We played one rule wrong, in which an upturned King card should be shuffled back in to the character deck at the start of each round. I won pretty easily, having no trouble finding gold or maintaining useful cards in my hand. I was assassinated once, and one of my buildings was destroyed, but the rest of the game was smooth sailing.

Finally, I played a "goodbye" game of Blokus with Clint this morning. I'm really going to miss all of them. It's so nice when you get along with your spouse's family so well, and I love that we share this craze for boardgames. Their kids are really cool, too.

So, Blokus. You've seen it at Target and other mainstream stores. It's one of the few success stories from the "indie" gaming world. Blokus is an abstract strategy game played on a grid. In the 2-player game, each player has two piles of colored pieces. I played blue and red against Clint's green and yellow. Each set of colors has the same pieces as all the other sets. Within a set, however, all of the pieces are different (straights, ells, crosses, like Tetris). The game has two rules: When placing a piece, you must connect diagonally to a piece of the same color, and you must not connect orthogonally to a piece of the same color. In other words, blue pieces may only be placed where they contact with the corner of an existing blue piece, and cannot ever be alongside another blue piece. This creates gaps between blue pieces. There is no restriction on placing pieces next to a different color, as long as the placement is connected to the same color diagonally.

So you begin placing pieces from the corners of the board, in the order blue, yellow, red, green. Most people quickly make for the center of the board and attempt to carve out a zone of control. Once you are butting up against opposing colors, you have to decide whether to defend gaps or to invade the opponent's areas of the board. It is very hard to keep someone out of your area, as there is often more than one site to worm in. The game is over when no one can place any pieces, and is won by the player who has the least "area" of pieces left over (if a piece takes up 5 squares of grid, it's worth 5).

Close to midgame-- strangely, I don't remember the board this way. Usually, blue and red start on my side, and green and yellow on Clint's. Not sure how this happened.



I really liked this, as did Jill. I'm normally not big on pure abstracts, and I had initial concerns that every game would play out basically the same, but now I think that this could have some decent shelf life. The original version can play either 2 or 4 players, and there's a travel version that is 2p only. My BGG score is 7 out of 10.

Christine, Elaine, and Senor Froggy Buddy

Please choose from the following list of options...

I recently found out that I have a still-open derogatory item on my credit report from two of the three main reporting agencies. I found this out when my mortgage agent received our combined credit statement. After obtaining evidence that the debt has been satisfied for over 11 years, I contacted the credit agencies by phone. I spoke with a nice woman at Trans Union who was very helpful and who clearly explained the process.

Then I called Experian. It was the phone tree from hell, and there was absolutely no way of talking to a human. The website was even less help, with no other means of contact. Eventually, it turned out that Experian will not allow any dispute to their reporting if you, personally, have not purchased a report from them in the past 60 days. There's a special phone number on the personal report that allows you access to the dispute process.

*sound of hair being ripped out*

So, because of their bad data, not only is my pending loan and good name thrown into question, but I have to do the legwork to lay this to rest, AND I have to give them $10 and wait for a report to come in the mail in order to fix it. They have the nerve to call dispute resolution a "service". It's their DUTY, given the power they wield!

I get that it's my responsibility to pay my bills, and that the credit reporting companies are not going to keep calling my debtors to see whether I've paid them yet, but I don't understand the policy of requiring payment to fix an erroneous report. More than that, I become apoplectic when a company arranges matters so that you can never actually speak to a human, or even email a personally worded message. Worse, the list of options they offer doesn't include "Dispute a credit report", which, aside from "I'd like to purchase a credit report", HAS to be the most common reason that people call these companies!

*deep breath*

Fortunately, our mortgage agent now has the documents that I obtained from the York County Clerk of Courts (who were VERY helpful and kind), and he is well-positioned to take care of this for me. So a happy holiday season to Courtney at Trans Union, Debbie in York County, SC, and Michael at WaMu. A very sad and guilt-ridden holiday season to the people who set customer service policy at Experian.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is a pretty good holiday, all around. Getting together with family, eating huge portions, football on TV...I can't think of many bad Thanksgivings. Thanksgiving is also the busiest bar night of the year, as college kids from out of town return home and go drinking with their high school buddies after dinner. I know that I used to do that.

We went, as usual, to the Bavarian House Inn in lovely Frankenmuth, Michigan. For those unfamiliar with Frankenmuth, it was settled by Germans way back in a previous century, and they never lost the old German swagger. Most restaurants in Frankenmuth are attended by lederhosen-clad wait staffery. The facade of the main streets is supposed to recollect a Disney version of a quaint Bavarian village.


When we sat down for dinner (I will digress here to explain that it is a buffet-style Thanksgiving feast, and my dad's side of my family has been coming here for years since it's centrally-located in Michigan) the waiter took our drink orders. I asked for a hefeweizen, and he looked at me strangely. So I slowly repeated, "He-fe-vite-zen". Again, the blank stare. The booze list only included wine, but I had ordered beer here in years past. Finally I tried, "Wheat beer? Hofbrauhaus?" That did it. With a look of relief, he asked, "Light or dark?". My eyes narrowed, and I dryly replied, "Light." He apologetically admitted that he didn't really know much German. I threw up on his shoes in tacit protest of his ignorance. A few minutes later, a bottle appeared in front of me with a label that read, "Hefeweizen". However, there was no yeast settled on the bottom of the beer ("mit hefe" = with yeast), and the glass was better suited to a Pilsener of inferior quality. Somehow, I made do. It's hard out there for a snob, y'all.

The major attractions at Frankenmuth are as follows:

1)the faux-Bavarian atmosphere,

2)Chicken dinners! (see the 500 billboards before you arrive at Frankenmuth. When I was a kid, if we ever drove within 25 miles of Frankenmuth, we would be pulled in by the chicken dinner tractor beam. Honestly? I've had better.)

3)Bronner's. Theres a gigantic store called Bronner's just outside of town that is "Christmastime 365 days a year!". I'm talking 10 acres of Christmas. Hey, now!



Thanks, Germany!

So, I'm having a bit of blogger guilt over the shameful neglect of the past week. I'll keep up the posting a little better for the next week or so, but then expect it to die altogether for a month as the Great Cross-Country Move takes place. I'll email all 4-5 of you when I'm back up and running.

Gee, thanks. Another lame link.

I'm racing against the clock to get this out before Elaine wakes and my free time ends. I can hear her rustling around through the monitor.

I just erased a rambly paragraph that is supposed to lead into my pathetic excuse for content, which is simply a link to a YouTube video. Shorter lead-in: There's a writers' strike underway, and so there have been no new Daily Shows or Colbert Reports lately.

So here's a small treat for anyone who's been missing their dose of leftist humor...

Oh, and in personal news, there is currently a SOLD sticker on a sign in front of a house in Seattle, and this situation is directly related to our current state of pennilessness. So don't hold your breath for a Christmas present, blog nation.

Also on a personal note, I'm getting sick and damn tired of not playing any boardgames over here. All the Boardgamegeeks are at the BGG.Con in Dallas this week, and I'm just as jealous as I can be. I'm not talking about a leisurely game of Ticket to Ride Europe, either. I want the whole Saturday marathon, starting at 8am and concluding with an into-the-wee-hours long player like History of the World or Here I Stand (my current Grail). SIGH!!!

















Uh, oh...she wakes. "Ayyyyy...eeeyeee...ayyyy...aiiii...".

Have a great weekend!

---BONUS "CONTENT"---

Following Jim's advice, I employed the Random Comic button at Achewood and came up with this classic:

This is not review of the latest Radiohead

Most folks have probably heard about the most recent Radiohead release, In Rainbows, and the revolutionary manner in which it was released. I heard a few tracks off of it when wandering through a game store the other day, and it sounds really good.

As mentioned previously, I have had the tendency to be a bit of a fanboy when it comes to music. In the past, I've gone for long stretches where I fixate on a few bands, purchasing any material that I can find, and listening almost exclusively to them. There have been times where the same cassette or CD has gone around and around in my car for a week or more.

It probably started when I was a kid, and my brother got all of these KISS albums. Although I listened to the radio quite a bit, and heard some great songs, I had this internal resistance to seeking any further, unless it was by KISS. Then in middle school and high school, my focus shifted to Iron Maiden and Rush. When I burned out on those, it became Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and later the Rolling Stones.
Variously, for the next twenty years, I got totally into the Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, the Tragically Hip, Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler, Sublime, Outkast, Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and, finally, Radiohead. I was turned on to Radiohead when OK Computer came out. I quickly scarfed up the previous two albums, The Bends and Pablo Honey, as well as the OK Computer B-sides, How's my Driving?.

When I moved to Michigan, I bought the next two Radiohead CDs that came down the line, Kid A and Amnesiac. Same deal--listened to them incessantly. But one thing changed: I wasn't driving nearly as much, so my time to blast music began to diminish. I didn't listen to rock music at work, because I find lyrics too distracting, and I don't tend to rock out in my room. So when Hail to the Thief came out, I was less than motivated to pick it up. Plus, the Kid A/Amnesiac sessions really seemed to be the boundary of sustainable experimentation for this group. Like the supposed "heat death of the universe" theory, the sound had expanded so far beyond The Bends pure pop rock that further expansion would probably yield something that I wasn't interested in listening to (see the latest Bjork), and a step back towards OK Computer would be a shame. Somehow, despite the genius of Kid A/Amnesiac, I didn't trust them to pull off a follow-up.

I still haven't listened to Hail to the Thief. I'm not avoiding it or anything, but that sense that it was too soon after their best work pervades. I do look forward to picking up In Rainbows, however, as the tracks that I heard indicate that they have found their way back to more widespread accessibility with a sound that has evolved nicely. After spending the past few years actively expanding my palette of new music, it's kind of nice to look forward to something by a previously beloved artist.

Oh, Bolly!

A quick one today...

Back in fifth grade, a teacher told my class how we would all have to take a foreign language in high school. We would even be required to write essays in that language. I remember thinking that other languages were like a code. For example, garden would still be garden in Latin, but you just substitute the Latin letters in for the English. I had no idea that there would be totally different structures of speech, and completely unrelated words that meant the same thing. Needless to say, I was very disappointed in my first Latin class.

Anyone who regularly reads Neat-o-Rama or spends a lot of time on YouTube has probably seen some hilarious Indian versions of things, like the Indian Beatles or the Thriller knockoff. The latest hilarity comes in the form of a YouTube member named Buffalax who adds homophonic English subtitles to these videos. It's a new spin on making fun of people who regularly butcher lyrics in English songs--let's put embarrassing words in the mouth of foreigners!!!

I think that both of these were taken from Bollywood musicals (I know the first one was). I found these to be as funny for the dancing as for the lyrics:

The Benny Lava Song

and the newly subtitled Indian Thriller...

Let's explore the finer points of beardery

This is an oldie to some of you, but I felt that I needed to put it out there. I occasionally decide to grow a beard, which lasts exactly as long as it takes for me to recognize the significant amount of gray hair on my chin. Sometimes, though, I wonder what life would be like if I was one of the select group of mustache-sporting individuals. The mustache is a funny thing...either it looks completely foreign on your face, or it is impossible to imagine you without it.

I warn you, the images below are graphic. I am keeping this as a reminder to never grow a mustache. I do believe that I could probably pull off a 'stache if I had patience, and let it grow over my lip a little bit. However, hair actually overhanging my lip is a tickly dealbreaker.

Without further ado...

Really?

And the winner is...
Jim and Sonja! They were the only participants, so their answer is naturally closer to the correct answer than the collective "whatever" of the rest of you deadbeats. Jim and Sonja will be awarded the 1500 Blogpoints at a special ceremony on the banks of the roaring Huron.

The correct answer is (get ready to slap your forehead BECAUSE IT WAS SO OBVIOUS)
God did it.

Thanks for playing, everyone! I feel like we really made this a thing, with community sauce!

A Devious Mystery

I vacuum our living room area once a week on average. Many a visitor has rested his or her kiester on our faux Klimt rug, replete with those puffed wheat symbols that represent...well, puffed wheat, of course. It is a large, heavy rug, of excellent construction, and it is arrayed upon wall to wall "cranberry" colored carpeting. First, I vacuum the rug, then I work my way around it, folding over each end in turn to get access to the irregular areas of the room. Finally, I return the rug to its original position. You cannot simply pick up the side of the rug and pull it, as the friction is much too great. Instead, one has to pick up one side until a significant amount of the rug (>30%?) is off the carpeting. Then you can pull it into place.

The point here is that the rug is sitting on the carpet. It's sitting there real good.

So why, every week, do I have to return the rug to it's original position? Sometimes it moves a large amount in a week's time, sometimes a little. Occasionally, one side is curled up against the sofa, as if driven there by a steady, inexorable force. It always moves in the same direction.

I'm stunned, baffled, and kerfloozled.

Won't you help?

The images below are before and after vacuuming this morning. The line in Exhibit A represents the original placement. I welcome any suggestions that do not involve leprechauns or other tiny little bipeds.

NOTE! The person who responds with the correct answer will be awarded 15 blogpoints. So get crackin'!

Exhibit A
















Exhibit B

Driving around Seattle noting pub locations

Well, we're here! It's 5am, but that's 8am to Elaine, so we're up.

We spent a solid day looking at houses yesterday. For those who haven't been here, Seattle is kind of shaped like a knee joint, with Lake Union separating the two halves.



Downtown, where Jill is going to be working, is on the western side, facing the Sound, south of Lake Union. North of Lake Union, you have Ballard to the West, Ravenna and the University area to the east, and Green Lake in the middle. Ballard is a really cute neighborhood, with narrow streets and old homes that are typically on hills above the street. It feels very cramped and "neighborhoody", which appeals to me. The Green Lake area feels more happening, as it includes a huge park that goes around the lake, a zoo, and a lot of shopping and eateries. Ravenna feels like Ballard, but somehow has less personality or coziness. Maybe it's somewhat less hilly. There is easy access to the best features of Green Lake and University, however. The University area is pretty built up with businesses, apartments, and the usual college stuff, and there is a dedicated campus area that is on a peninsula adjacent to Lake Washington and Union Bay.

One of the interesting things about the residential areas in Seattle is that there are very few stop signs. Most of the neighborhoods that we looked in were grids with an easy address numbering scheme (8018 20th St would be very close to 20th and 80th). So most intersections are 4 ways, but with no stop or even yield signs. So you just kind of slow down and scope out the situation before you go through. Many of these intersections have a circular garden area in the middle of the intersection, creating a makeshift roundabout that functions as speed control in the neighborhood.

The Huskies have a puny little stadium. It's not a bowl, like the mighty Big House. It's not even a half bowl, like the Evil Empire's horseshoe. It's two slabs of bleachers facing each other, with rain protection over the top 50 rows or so. I looked upon it with scorn and disdain. They need to turn that "W" upside down and add some proper ends onto their stadium.

There really is a coffee shop every damn where you look. If it's not a coffee shop, it's a tattoo parlor.

Anyways, we may be making progress towards finding a home. Today should be most informative in that regard. If it works out, cool. If not, try try again. We're certainly not desperate, and that's a good place to be.

At the dawn of history....

Yes, so I got all excited when reading this book History of the Ancient World(v1) by Susan Wise Bauer, which explores what is known from the earliest recordings of history. By history, she means historical records, as opposed to speculation, however sound, that is based solely upon the layout of ruins. So she means lists of kings, codes of law, recordings of battles and catastrophes and epic tales. Her historical description, then, begins around 4500 BC, with the Sumerians, Egyptians, Indians of the Indus Valley and the early Chinese cultures. The vast majority of early writings were inventories and records of trade, with increasingly sophisticated levels of abstraction over a brief period of time. So I've followed these regions over the course of 2 millenia (or 200 pages), and now we're getting into some other cultures, like the Minoans. The Sumerians were lost to the Akkadians, who subsequently lost to a coalition of the Elamites and Babylonians. Upper and Lower Egypt was united into the first Dynasty (Old Kingdom), fell into civil war, was reunited in the Middle Kingdom, was dissolved again by war and drought (and the Hyksos from the East). The Longshans were absorbed into the Xia Dynasty, which was undone by corruption and replaced by the Tang.

I just finished the journey of Abraham into Canaan, and the rise of King Minos. It's been a really interesting read. She has a very engaging style, and covers a lot of ground in a short while. This is pretty much what I was looking for, as I wanted a starting point that gave a decent overview with timelines. Clearly, though, you can't just take one person's word on something as important and emotionally charged as history. I'm definitely going to go back and explore some of these areas in more detail. In particular, the story of the Sumerians, and how no one ever managed to fully unite their territory (which is only 5 major cities on a plain that is bordered by river on all sides). It's interesting to consider the state of a "kingdom" that is one city in size where the city council has to approve the actions of the king. The famous king and warrior Gilgamesh wanted to war against a neighboring city, but the council wouldn't support him, so he didn't get enough manpower to do the job. He went ahead anyway and failed. Then he failed again. Finally, near the end of his reign, he swept in on the heels of a rival's attack and took the city. Within 200 years, the first epic retellings of his life began to emerge, painting him as a godlike man.

The reason I'm going on about this is that I was really struck by the level of sophistication of these distant people. 5500 years isn't a lot of time, evolutionarily, but I guess I had the conceit that our sense of society and culture was an evolving thing. After all, we advanced Americans just recently decided, nobly, to NOT engage in slavery. You only have to go back a few hundred years to find large societies that performed human sacrifice to appease the gods. How crass is that? But if culture/society is an evolving organism, how can one explain away the beauty of the Epic of Gilgamesh. It has all of the elements of the tragic epic that one normally associates with biblical stories, or the poems of Homer and Virgil, or the epic Beowulf. I would really like to explore other oral to written accounts from the earliest days.

I'm going to move quickly over a couple of unrelated items that struck me in my reading, so as not to make this an epic itself.

-What balls it took to engage in trade in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, especially since they probably cleaved to the coastline where possible. What a risky exercise in trial and error! I'd like to look into what a 3500 BC trade ship looked like.

-Every early civilization except Egypt had a Great Flood account, most of which happen around the same time, coinciding with increased global temperatures. In every case, the world is profoundly changed after the flood (more wicked or worldly, kings are no longer semi-divine, etc.).

-I was always puzzled as a kid by the story of Cain and Abel. As an adult, I can see that they could be analogous to different peoples warring for religious reasons, but the point seems to be that God chooses one over the other, and that's that. It's about obedience, just like the Adam and Eve story, Abraham and Isaac, and so on. But an earlier account from the Sumerians shed light on this story for me:
Bureaucracy, writes Bauer, arose because someone had to make sure that the various elements of society would cooperate to survive in the inhospitable environment of the so-called Fertile Crescent. This required strong leadership, which led to kingship and city building. So the people who had committed to the settled, agrarian life of the city-centered civilization found themselves at odds with the nomadic hunter-gatherers, who were also herdsmen. In an early tale "The Wooing of Inanna", a character named Dumuzi is a shepherd and a king, and he vies for the hand of the goddess Inanna (Ishtar), daughter of Marduk. She rejects him, saying,
"The shepherd! I will not marry the shepherd!
His clothes are coarse, his wool is rough,
I will marry the farmer.
The farmer grows flax for my clothes,
The farmer grows barley for my table."
Class warfare, old school. Dumuzi later offers her fresh milk with cream, and she offers that he "plow her damp field", so he must have done something right. As it turns out, the nomads and farmers worked out a mutually beneficial arrangement. The fifth king in the Sumerian king list was named Dumuzi. But clearly, as writing was an advance brought about by the necessity of "civilized" existence within a city-based community, the city mice got to record the tales of gods preferring them over the country mice...er, or something like that. Actually, the gods ended up pleased with the shepherds on both counts. So maybe the city mice had jungle fever or something.

/dork alert over/

House Hunting

We're off to look at homes in Seattle tomorrow. This is just a wee bit stressful, given that home prices are roughly twice as high there as in a place like Cleveland or Charlotte.

A few mentions...Jonathan's Halloween bash last Friday was quite fun. Jonathan and Emilie were Zack Branigan and Leela from Futurama. I also saw a Frankenstein and bride couple, a few characters from Street Fighter II, several characters from some cartoon called the Ventures (very nicely done costumes, although I don't know the reference at all), a Dude (Big Lebowski), Black Mamba, and many more. I went to Kroger and bought a bunch of props which, once assembled about my person, actually resembled a unified costume that could best be described as Goth Princess. I would post a picture, but small children may happen across these humble pages.

The World Series is over! No more baseball! Yay!

A week ago, I made a kickass eggplant curry, which reminded me of Sonja's great curries (also because they gifted us with a large sack of Basmati rice when they left). I also thought of you guys when Tony and Joanna called me up that night to invite me out to the pub quiz. We actually got called up for the $160 bonus question (Joanna went for the group) which was "In the movie Memento, who killed his wife, according to a tattoo?" None of us knew it, which sucks because I love that movie. Once again, we did great at Hodgepodge, great at Presidents and Politics, OK at Movies, fairly badly on the Picture section, and just got murdered in the Music section.

Have a great week, and wish us luck on finding a great house!

*crickets chirping*

...and a tumbleweed rolls past.

Sorry, no time, no time. And exhausted when there is time.

Check back Monday, won't you?

In case you aren't caught up on Neatorama, I thought this was pretty funny:

"Medical student Wes Pemberton was wearing shorts one day, when he noticed the strangest thing ever:

"I thought it was a hair from one of the girls in the car and it was attached. I’m just wondering ‘what is this long hair doing attached to my leg’," he said.

On his calf, surrounded by normal hair, was a hair that measures five inches long. It doesn’t have a name, but it’ll be famous.

"The world record is 4.88 inches. So I just kind of washed it, and tried to protect it. When I get in the shower, I condition it to make sure it stays nice and strong."

Wes thought that it was the neatest thing in the world. His wife, understandably, did not, so doubtlessly it’ll be gone soon.

Scandal!

Thanks for the hundreds of sympathetic emails over the past week. It's really been a trial, and I've got to throw an index finger to the big guy in the sky for just helping me through it all. I'm happy to let you all know that my rash is clearing up. My personal physician wrote me a prescription for some steroids to knock down the inflammation, and everything is healing up without itching. Better yet, me and Zoe are now Prednesone buddies (DAP!). Her skin has healed, her coat is back to a glossy, soft sheen, and I'm no longer shuddering and calling her Scabbers whenever she twines through my legs. This is just few short months after getting her a Prednesone injection.


I've discovered that I really suck at recreational Photoshopping

In other kitty-related news, Arya has had her front claws removed. Despite our fears of being added to her nighttime litany of names, she seems to have taken to it well, as did Zoe and Escher in their time. The best part is that her destructive clawing of carpets and rugs was the only reason we ever yelled at her, so she will have a yell-free future. Zoe's probably going to be happy about the development, too. We may have a bit of a kitty hierarchy shakeup soon, but I'm confident that Jill and I can swing the tide back in Arya's direction. We have discovered that Zoe does not understand that a successful alpha cat employs the "Tough but Fair" strategy to the role. She's more the "Beat you down at every opportunity and lord it over you whenever possible" type.

We did our annual apple-picking yesterday with Amber and Elaine out at Spicer's. The weather was magnificent, but we about a week late for the good apples. The Mutsus were done last week, and only the Ida Reds were any good this year, and even they had slightly rubbery skin. It was a warm October, which is probably why it seems like the season shouldn't be over yet.











Elaine loves stand-em-ups! And slobbering!

Slow week

Between this and that, I haven't been able to get much work done on the manuscript.

Hence, slow week. I might get something up tonight, I might not.

Probably the next thing is going to be a bit on the earliest recorded history of the Sumerians and Egyptians. Really. I'm reading a non-fiction book, and so now you get to see me wax sophomoric about how we're not really so different after all.

To whet your appetite, here's a link to the oldest known creation myth (it's called the Babylonian creation myth, but it substantively figures into pre-historic Sumer). Cast of characters include Marduk, the eventual creator, and Tiamat, his mother. Tiamat also represents chaos, war, and water (specifically the waters of the seas and oceans).

Oh, poor me

Just saw this quote in my Quote Generator module (how recursive!): "Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery`s shadow or reflection: the fact that you don`t merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer." --C.S. Lewis

My personal suffering is assuredly orders of magnitude less than whatever existential malaise that Lewis was trying to describe, but I've had this [string of expletives] poison ivy reaction on the top of my foot for over a month. Just as it starts to heal, it seems to take off again. My favorite pair of sandals, which I wore every day of the summer, became infected with the stuff somehow. Then, about two weeks ago, I changed my bike's rear inner tube, and developed the same rash across the first knuckles of both hands. I managed to prevent the advancement to from bumpy rash to weeping pustules on my fingers, but the knuckles are all cracked and raw now. That rash has spread to my hands and up one arm to the elbow.

I hate poison ivy. This came from the ivy patch in our front yard, where the poison stuff is mixed in, despite the claims to the contrary from my landlord.

Have a great day :-)

Favorite Flash Timewasters

I have a love/hate thing going with flash games. On one hand, they're free, simple, and often fun or amusing. Since I do everything on a notebook, I can't play the high-res, graphics-heavy games anyway, as laptop screens have a poor refresh rate, making everything choppy. On the other hand, they are designed to be addicting, and some of them can achieve this without offering the slightest in mental exercise. I recently "played" one game where the object is to keep a dot, controlled by mouse movements, moving for as long as possible. That's it--no obstacles of any kind--just keep the mouse moving. At 10 seconds, it taunts you; at 20 seconds it offers a half-assed compliment and taunts you again; at one minute it challenges "Can you keep it going for five minutes?". I didn't try to find out, but that's the trick--to keep you entertained like a baby. "Look at the bunny! Ohh, the bunny's over here now! Look at the bunny!"

My other main complaint about flash games is that they try to do too much, sometimes. Most games start out fairly easy, and become hard as you adapt to the controls. Often, getting more difficult means introducing more elements, and this slows down the game. For games that involve timing, it's a fatal flaw, as all of your practice on the earlier levels developing an internal clock is wasted. Plus it's just frustrating to sit there waiting for the program to catch up with you. Many flash games have no end; they simply get harder and harder until you hit the breaking point, or until they are so sluggish that you quit in disgust. I do like it when you can reach the end, though.

So what makes them addicting? For me, the successful ones are either abstract puzzles with simple beauty and very few rules, dexterity-based games, or games where you level-up incrementally, meaning that you accumulate gold or experience in each level, and you can use this to enhance your capabilities for the next round. It is this latter type of game that usually suffers from the overload slowdown alluded to above.

My earliest favorite was Double Jeu, from the crazy French guys at Zanorg. Their games page includes a lot of ok games, most of which are "keep it going as long as you can"-type games. The shining stars are definitely Double Jeu, Get Rich, and the Poodle one. My favorite thing about all of their games is that they always taunt your progress when the game ends, as only the French can do. Note: after selecting a game, be sure to click on the Union Jack symbol at the bottom of the instruction screen for English instructions and insults.

Addicting Games host a ton of flash games from a variety of developers, many of which are rather sucky (this is where you find the infamous Keep it Moving). They don't seem to filter. Some great finds on that page are Pac-xon, Bowman 2, the Impossible Quiz, and Tanks (make sure to play against at least 3-4 enemy tanks or it's too easy).

Desktop Defense type games are great time-wasters where you place turrets of various types in key locations as wave after wave of increasingly tough enemies crawl across your territory. If too many of them make it through, you lose. I'll link to my favorite one.

Finally, give Portal a shot. It's a game that has just been released for one of the console systems (PS3?) as part of a software package, but someone has made a flash version that's pretty fun. I've gotten to level 32, and I figured out how to get past that level during Elaine's early morning feeding. It's very cool.

Some Flash games that come sooo close, but miss, often fall within the Accuracy category. The two examples in my head are Bloons and Ball Revamped. I love both of these games for the first 20 or so levels, before they FAIL. In Bloons, where you have a monkey who is throwing darts at balloons, you hold down the mouse button for the strength of the throw and move the mouse up or down for the angle. In the higher levels, you often have to throw the darts absolutely perfectly to get past the level, which is just a boring-as-hell exercise in trial and error. Many of the earlier levels have more problem solving, which is what makes the game so cool. Similarly, in Ball Revamped (particularly IV and V), where you're trying to keep a ball aloft by tapping the up arrow and bouncing the ball around obstacles, the early, satisfying problem-solving devolves into the cold sweat of getting the ball between two closely apposed obstacles. Plus, they have an annoying, graphics-heavy splash of stars between each level that chops up the flow.

I'll post my favorite flash games in a links module off to the left (adding more as I think of them). Happy timewasting!

(Please feel free to suggest your favorites in Comments)

The Nobel Prizes

At this point, most people know that Albert Gore, Jr. and the IPCC won the Nobel Peace Prize today for "their efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change". The rumors swirling around the announcement were that the committee intended to focus on climate change this year, since many emerging and future conflicts will probably have their roots in evolving local climates. I'm pretty sure that many people with much more to lose (like their lives) have been engaged in this conversation for a long time. Rachel Carlson, Lois Gibbs, the Sierra Club, countless missionaries and priests in South America, Asia, and Africa, the Chipko movement, and lobbies in North America and Europe who have worked on debt relief for poor nations so they have the option of saying "No" to lumber and mining companies. Thus, it strikes me that this year's award has more to do with visibility than results. They might have well given it to Bono. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as Gore is proving to be an effective spokesperson who has a long reach, and he is probably capable of pulling more money and political clout towards this cause than anyone else alive.

I'm not sure, but this may be the first time that the prize has been awarded in anticipation of results, kind of like a Power-up for the protagonist in a video game. So, will Gore, brimming with glowing energy, do some damage with this advantage, or will he run around fruitlessly, wasting money and time until the power blinks out, and he's just another shmoe again.

The answer? None of the above. I was just enjoying my analogy a little too much. Environmentalism starts with you, Mr. Gas-powered lawnmower, and you, Dr. Leaves-all-the-lights-on-all-the-time (that's me), and YOU, Mrs. Throw-your-damn-cigarette-butts-out-the-window!

As far as the other awards go, I was pleasantly surprised that I had some rudimentary knowledge of them (conceptually) before they were announced. Medicine: Gene targeting is an essential biological tool that provided me with important reagents for my thesis work. Physics: Clearly, if you're reading this, you get that improving the efficiency and storage capacity of hard disks is important. Chemistry: The surface chemistry work laid the groundwork for modern superconductors and many industrial catalysis applications. Literature: I have no idea, however, who Doris Lessing is, or if I need to read anything by her. Economics: To be announced on Monday, but I predict that I will (a) never have heard of the winner, and (b) not grasp the importance of the celebrated work/findings.

A. Verweij Stroopwafels (100% Butter)

I ate most of a 10-pack in less than 24 hours. They go well with tea.

Time to start jogging again.

This is what it would be like

Who's a cute girl?

To wash away the unpleasantness of the politicos from yesterday, here's a fresh video of a Girl and Her Frog.



I had a cute video of Terry trying to entertain a fussy Elaine, but the sound was dominated by me, offscreen, explaining the premise behind The Order of the Stick to Visco. I'm such a dork.

Addendum

So the poster below is sponsored by the Young America's Foundation. If you order one poster, you get a free poster of George W. Bush! Did you hear that, kids?

I tried to get a list of the dignitaries on the poster, but the YAF online store was down for maintenance. I'm sure it had something to do with people flooding in to take advantage of that great offer.

Another website, Shelley the Republican, which I recommend visiting if only to see their take on this poster, lists John Ashcroft, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Robert Novak, Ward Connerly, Dinesh D’Souza, Walter Williams and many more. Seriously, check out that site.

Linkin Marc

Jill has a week of service, which leaves me home with the Slobber Monster all day. Yesterday it was tough to get anything done (like lunch) when I couldn't put her down for more than a few minutes. Hopefully, she'll feel like snoozing for a while today.

I've got a couple of new links here. First, an interesting interactive video of the title track from the Arcade Fire's Neon Bible. Not the best track on the album, for sure, but it works well for what they're trying to pull off with the video. I wouldn't mind seeing more of this sort of thing -- perhaps styled like one of those decision tree books. You know, where it says "If you go into the cave, go to page 183. If you continue to the beach, go to page 190."

The other one is an impressive collection of over 800 albums freely available for download. I don't think I need say more.

One final thing:



You know, they're right. No education is complete until the student is warned to avoid these sanctimonious gasbags for all they're worth.

It's Hangover Sunday! Random Items! !!

OK! All copies of the dissertation are off to the bindery. I'm officially and unofficially D-U-N, done.

Old roommate Dave "Visco" Vislosky and our friend Terry came in to town on Saturday, which can only mean one thing: Hangover Sunday! I haven't been out that late in a long time, and it was quite a blast. We closed the Arena and got some early morning grub at the Fleetwood Diner. Somehow, they went out into the 88 degree heat and played golf this afternoon. I just sat inside and drank all kinds of water, and plus I napped. There was a bit of staring and blinking in there, too.

Here's Terry and Elaine, and a very tired-looking Visco.





So for some parting hilarity, enjoy some wonderful de-motivational posters:

First Impressions: Tahuantinsuyu

Mustafa and Jonathan came by for some gaming this Sunday, and it was official Marc Day, where your gentle host got to select all of the games for the day. We played one of my unplayed acquisitions, Tahuantinsuyu, and a beloved classic that neither of the two guys had played, Java.

"Tahuantinsuyu" means "Land of the Four Regions" in Inca. The game is a loose abstraction of the expansion of the Incan empire. Thus, the board is a map of the Peruvian region of South America, a skinny corridor flanked by the rainforest and Pacific. The map is dotted with features important for gameplay, such as City Sites, Significant City Sites (places like Macchu Pichu), Garrisons, and Huaca (villages), that are connected by a network of dotted lines that represent roads. The map is subdivided into small regions that are bordered by a faint color. Every region receives a small, face-down chip that indicates what the level of resistance is in that region, and what one would receive in points or manpower if one were to conquer that region.

The game turn is made up of 4 possible phases: the Inca phase, representing the efforts of all to expand the empire; the Sun phase, which emphasizes the importance of religion and the weather; the people phase, where work actually gets done; and the Sapa Inca phase, in which scoring takes place. The game consists of 7 rounds with a varying number of phases. For example, in the first round, only the Inca phase and two people phases occur. In round two, it goes Inca, Sun, People, Sun, People, Sapa Inca.

In the Inca phase, players receive a set number of Labor tokens, which indicate available manpower. If you had previously conquered a region that provides labor, you receive that here. The Labor tokens are used to build and upgrade sites, or to conquer regions during the People phase. You may also build up to two roads by drawing on the dotted lines with the crayon of your color during the People phase. In the Sun phase, the cards come out. Every player has a hand of Sun cards, which can change the game state slightly for the better or worse. Sun cards are placed between two players. In turn order, each player places one card face down between the players of his choice, so that all players have a card to their right and left. The cards are revealed, and the players adjacent to a card are affected by it. Some rounds have 3 Sun phases, so every player is affected by 6 cards in the final People phase of that round.

I think the card placement mechanism is pretty cool, and it makes turn order important. Many of the cards are helpful, so you don't want to place it near the leader, but if you're late in the turn order, you won't necessarily have an option of where to place your card. Some of the cards are too powerful, however. The Great Pilgimage cards (3 different ones) refer to different Significant City sites. If there is a temple built at the site(s) listed on a card, and the card is played next to a player has a road built to that site, that player may skip his road-building to go on a pilgrimage for 5, 6, or 8 points, depending on the site. In the later rounds, when there are 3 People phases, this is a HUGE jump in points, since a player may then use this card 3 times for 15, 18, or 24 points! This can be unbalancing if one person controls the two cards that refer to the northern temples. This is what happened in our game.

It may be that the designer intended these cards to be a large points boon late in the game to engender more competition for access to Significant City sites, but control of the card means that person can decide when, where, and for whom the advantage will emerge.

My other complaints: 1) There's little competition in the early rounds of the 3p game, since there's so much room to maneuver. 2) The board. It is cardstock, and is meant to be drawn upon with crayon. However the board never fully unfolds, so scoring markers go sliding away, and the crayon lines are rather hard to see. Road markers a la Age of Steam would probably work better. Also, it is often unclear whether a road is in one region or another, which is important. Next time, we'll try plexiglass and dry erase markers.

The first time you play any game, especially if it's new to everyone playing, it's difficult to see what to value highly. I would like to try this again, preferably with 3 opponents, to see how this experience changes my perspective. My biggest fear with Tahuantinsuyu is that you have to suffer through a boring few opening rounds before you start having fun. Otherwise, I think that it's a decent idea that could use better production and perhaps a dash more development. Ideally, that dash would include some thematic spice that creates a bit more conflict. I'm thinking something like an ambush marker that you could place on specific roads or regions -- something directly confrontational to reflect that you're basically attempting to conquer a huge amount of territory, and that always leads to bloodshed and destruction. I would also like to see an improvement of the 3p game to increase competition in the early going.

Do you realize...?

Hot Karl was kind enough to offer me his spare ticket to the Flaming Lips show at Clutch Cargo in Pontiac tonight. The Detroit music scene is pretty weird, in that the clubs are rather far flung. Pontiac and Royal Oak are suburbs north of Detroit that have a lot of clubs, and there are a few live music venues in downtown Detroit. This was an hour drive from Ann Arbor.

The show was pretty cool. The Lips have this overarching sensibility of fun and optimism, and they do their best to infect the crowd. Confetti cannons, giant balloons, musical asides and singalongs are standard fare. Tonight, they handed out hundreds of laser pointers, which led to some predictable hilarity, but which were also used in a slower tune where the lead singer, Wayne Coyne, was lit up solely by the cumulative laser pointers of the crowd. He is a great, positive presence, but sometimes he can really ramble on between songs. For example, there was an extended anti-war rant that spanned two songs.

I'm familiar with three of their releases: Transmissions from a Satellite Heart, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and War of the Mystics. They played 4 or five tunes that I didn't know, and two of them were really great. The rest of the show was pretty well done, with some renditions more punchy than others. I thought "The W.A.N.D.", in particular, totally rocked. The closing song was, predictably, "Do You Realize", which I've long found to be moving and emotionally powerful. They did two encores, including "She Don't Use Jelly" and a fantastic cover of the Rolling Stones' "Moonlight Mile".

All in all, it was a nice show, and I had a really good time.

There was one issue that came up for me the following day. The show, and others on this tour, was apparently sponsored by Camel. Back when I lived in Charlotte, I was a smoker, and I would often be approached by reps from RJR and Philip Morris when I was out at a bar. In these cases, the establishment allowed the reps access to their patrons. So when I saw the ridiculous level of Camel presence at Clutch Cargo, I assumed they had secured permission from the club. As it turns out, they've been investing heavily into this Flaming Lips tour.

So why should I care? Smoking is legal, it was an 18 and older show, and the sponsorship was used to subsidize the extravagant cost of the arena-worthy Flaming Lips spectacle, rendered at the level of a club show. My ticket was $25, and there's no way that small crowd paid for that show at that cost. On the other hand, this band that seems to exude a "Make the world a better place" ethos is taking money from an industry that sells, exclusively, a product that is secretly addictive and leads to death and disease, not to mention poverty for those addicts who can't really afford them. They are also granting these people access to their fans. While I have trouble believing that a non-smoker would see the display at age 18 and say, "You know, I think I'll start smoking. The Flaming Lips tacitly said that it's OK.", I can't help but be disappointed in the mixed message put out by a band that touts "Changing the world" as one of their goals.

In the end, they aren't what they want me to believe they are because of this. It's not that I have so much invested in these three guys vis-a-vis faith in humanity, but there's a sense of loss there nonetheless.

BTW, the little larcenous seagull off to the left was forwarded to me by Jim Brodie. It apparently resides in Aberdeen, UK, and locals are so taken with its antics that they pay for the snacks that it steals. It only takes Doritos, and it shares its filthy lucre with other birds. [Edit: URL is no longer valid. Google "Aberdeen Thieving Seagull" if you want to see the video.]