Jeff’s Journal

In somewhat chronological order:

* Karaoke with dodgeballers. I sang Meat Loaf’s “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” and then Rickrolled the bar on a dare. I surprised them because they don’t know that I sing. Much more fun than anticipated. Liz, I thought of you about a dozen times - you must hate people like me.

* The Andy Warhol: Pop Politics exhibit at the Currier Art Museum. The whole art museum was great (it may have actually been the first time I’ve actually been to an art museum), but the Warhol exhibit was maddeningly wonderful. Ann has a very visceral, negative reaction to Warhol which is interesting and fun at the same time. The rest of the museum was great, too, but the Warhol exhibit was what brought us in. Also, free Saturday mornings at Currier? Awesome.

* Dinner with Jackie and Matthieu, followed by a maddening game called Bananagrams, which is like your own personal Scrabble with a race against other people. Strange, but it worked.

* Fried chicken. I really fried chicken. About that whole losing weight thing…

* Being done with my amoxiciillan. And without hives!

* D&D today. First game with our campaign in close to 6 weeks or so, and it was nice to get back in the swing of things. I don’t like trolls anymore, though. Or my dice. Stupid dice.

* Weeds. We’ve watched 5 or 6 episodes over the last four days - surprisingly fun and addictive show.

* The library. Because no matter how hard I try, I always have roughly 17 books out at once. I brought 8 back and thought “finally, I won’t have a ridiculous stack.” Whoops. As we were checking out, I saw a book I wanted across the room and sent Ann after it. The woman behind the desk gave me a look. I can’t blame her.

* Football. Who cares if I was 0-4 in my NHL predictions? The Colts are out in the first round!

I’m not a resolution guy, but I am a goal guy. I like words. So, beyond the stuff I can’t yet discuss publicly:

1) Write more. While the Kroger Babb bio is my priority, that doesn’t mean I can’t do more other stuff:

a) I’ve always talked about writing a novel, I’m a NaNoWriMo failure 6 times over - a 120k word novel requires about 330 words a day. I think I can force myself to write a paragraph or two a day on most days, right? At the very least, just be able to say I’ve done it. The fact that I have zero faith in any of my ideas or ability to execute them can be dealt with later.
b) I need to get moving on this Babb bio. The window of opportunity is closing on a few things, and with the various life changes that are inherent, if I don’t get a lot of legwork done now, it may hamper my ability to get anything done later. At the very least, I need to get more significant research done - locate prints, locate people, maybe locate an agent/publisher where I can get some help? I dunno.
c) Blog more consistently. None of this “life is depressing and so I need to stay away from my keyboard until I want to explode and then get everyone angry.” It’s no good for anyone, and keeping my mind sharp and informed is important to me.

2) Get healthier. I don’t eat great, and I don’t exercise enough. The federal government thinks I’m 5 pounds away from obesity, which is somewhat ridiculous, but the fact remains that I could stand to lose 15-20 pounds. Dodgeball once a week ain’t gonna do the trick, and my diet is unlikely to change because I simply have too many food issues, but I was at 155 in college and that was fine, albeit when I didn’t eat period. If I were at 165, I’d be pretty happy with myself, to be honest. The other roadblock, though, is that writing about it is pretty much the extent of my significantly caring, so if I really want to lose some weight, my level of caring has to increase.

3) See better movies. I’m actually considering a self-governed project where I’ll watch all of the Best Picture winners in order, but then I fear eventually having to watch The Greatest Show on Earth, never mind Titanic or Crash. But, while it’s fun to throw on Harold and Kumar for a diversion, that’s 90 minutes I could put toward, say, Kicking and Screaming instead. I only watched 30-something movies last year, that’s something I’d like to improve upon.

4) More gaming. Hopefully, this will be easy once Mike’s Genius game gets off the ground, but I would like to feel comfortable enough with things to possibly run a one-shot near the of the year. It’s a goal, hey.

5) Be a better husband. I don’t pull my weight enough, and I know it and Ann loves me for it anyway. I need to stay more aware of it, though, and make a better effort.

6) Be more creative. I haven’t recorded a piece of music in 2 years now, for instance. Even if I’m writing 300 words a day, maybe doing some short stories might be fun. Why hold back?

Actually, I think that may have to be my mantra going forward - why hold back? I’ve become too concerned with my own perception of myself and, as much as I hate to admit it, my own perceptions as to how others see me. I know what I’m capable of. I’m going to be 28 this year. Why hold back?

I’ve been looking for an excuse to use this again for about 3 weeks

THINGS I DID:

* Got rolling on my character for Mike’s Genius: The Transgression game. Assuming Mandy’s prediction doesn’t come true, that’s going to be a fun game to play in.
* Continued to fill an mp3 player. I haven’t wanted to spend money on a boombox, and I have a 6gb mp3 player I bought for recording purposes that I’m not using, so I bring that to work. 6gb is a lot of memory. Also, I still don’t know if I like the whole mp3 thing, but this is pretty handy.

THINGS I KIND OF DID:

* Wrote a very important letter. At least a portion of it. In my head. I’m being vague.

THINGS I DIDN’T DO:

* Clean.
* Organize.
* Respond to about 4 e-mails/Facebook messages. I’m so bad at this.
* Read. I’m loving Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks and wanted to try and finish it tonight. That’s not going to happen.

THINGS I FORGOT TO DO:

* In my recap post, note two things:
** Ken and Emily had a baby, and Emilie had a baby! I knew there was at least one other baby in there, and I just found out today that Emilie had her’s a couple weeks ago. So yay for that.
** Meeting Jackie and Matthieu! Our Manchester buddies we met back in January, back at the Jeff Kinney event. It’s been almost a year and we get along with them so well I forget we’ve not known each other a year yet. I’m a dummy.

THINGS I’M LYING TO MYSELF ABOUT:

* Ann is officially allergic to amoxicillian. I caught her strep throat, so I’m on it now, too. I’m now afraid of being allergic, to the point where every itch I have makes me think I’m getting hives, too.
* That I’m not going bald. Because I clearly, CLEARLY am. In the right light, I’m a step away from combover territory, which may sound ridiculous and it may be something only I notice, but whatever.
* That I’m not addicted to Puzzle Quest. Because I clearly, CLEARLY am.

Mixing memes:

What age did you turn this year and how did you spend your birthday?

I turned 27. I think I actually had to work late on my birthday, if I remember correctly.

Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Well, I’d say some of it. Got more politically involved to a point, but didn’t get much done with the book as compared to what I wanted.

What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Had surgery, I suppose, even though wisdom tooth extraction is hardly surgery. Played a tabletop RPG, which took way, WAY too long for me to get involved with. Quit a job with no actual fallback in place. Was in a movie that people saw. Ate black olives and liked them.

Did anyone you know give birth? Did anyone you know die?

My grandfather died at age 94. That’s the only real noteworthy death from this year I can remember. Congrats to Andy on his second kid, that’s the only one I’m remembering at the moment.

Tell us about some noteworthy things done by people you know.

Chelsea got her movie in a bunch of festivals. That was probably the most noteworthy thing I can think of.

Do any traveling?

I only went 2 hours from Manchester once. Didn’t leave New England at all.

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

A less ridiculous work situation, financial stability, a place closer to home.

What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

No clue.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Standing up for myself. As strong a personality I am, I tend to wilt considerably when it comes to defending myself or doing what I think is the right thing. This means both recognizing where I’m correct and admitting where I’m wrong. I’m still not perfect, not even close, but the Jeff of even 2 years ago would have never done what I did concerning the library debacle this year. The Jeff of 2 years ago wouldn’t have apologized for wronging someone so long ago and thus repairing a relationship that had no business being repaired.

What was your biggest disappointment or failure?

The library, the election, the Super Bowl. My relative inaction on the Kroger Babb bio. The American news media.

Did you suffer illness or injury?

Wisdom teeth and strep throat.

What was the best thing you bought? Best gift you were given?

Interestingly enough, I didn’t actually buy all that much for myself. I spent a good deal of money on gaming stuff (video and tabletop), but nothing crazy.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

My wife’s, without question. She trusts me to do the right thing, stands by me when I need her support, and doesn’t hold back when I’m wrong. The fact that she hasn’t bailed on me for a better model after the activity of the last 3 months is a testament to how lucky I am to have her.

Whose behavior did not?

Library-related entities. The American electorate. Manny Ramirez. Benefit Concepts, Inc.. Pigeon.

Where did most of your money go?

Bills.

What did you get overly excited about?

The amount of reading I accomplished. D&D v4.0. Left 4 Dead.

Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Sadder. The world was my oyster last year, and this year I have absolutely no clue where I’m going to end up.
ii. thinner or fatter? Same. I’ve been a steady 177-182 for 4 years running no matter what I do.
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer, since my new job is essentially a $10k/year pay cut.

What do you wish you’d done more of?

Worked harder on the book, was more active physically, socially, and politically.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Moping. Getting too far into my head.

How will you be spending the end of the year?

Ann’s babysitting, so I’ll probably play Left 4 Dead until the clock strikes midnight. I don’t really do much on New Year’s these days, nothing will trump New Year’s 2001/2002 for me. Then again, if something interesting did come up, I might dive at it.

With whom did you spend the most time on the phone with?

I avoid the phone as much as possible.

Did you fall in love in 2008?

Tiffanie’s kitten is quite adorable, yes.

Best TV shows and/or website? (passive entertainment)

The new ones on our plate are Mad Men, 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother. I don’t think we watch anything else that’s new new.

Websites? Cracked.com is the ultimate timewaster, as is Shelfari.

Best video game?

I spent the most time with Team Fortress 2, Geometry Wars 2, and Left 4 Dead.

Best book/comic?

Book was Anathem, no contest. Comic? Ultimate Spider-Man or the Buffy/Angelverse.

What song will always remind you of 2008?

Interestingly enough, probably “Sultan” by What Made Milwaukee Famous.”

What was your greatest musical discovery?

For so, so many reasons, the Two Man Gentleman Band.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Must not publicly berate people. Must not publicly berate people. Must not publicly berate people.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

How many ways can you match your Chuck Taylors to your button-down shirts?

What political issue stirred you the most?

Other than the election itself? Possibly the Employee Free Choice Act.

Whom did you miss?

Everyone 75 miles south of here.

Who was the best new person you met?

There are a pile of people who fit this here, so I’m just going to say that getting to know Mandy, Bill, Mike, Billy, and Jenny has been a pleasure I’ve not had in quite a long time. Hopefully I don’t irritate them too too much.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Must not publicly berate people. Must not publicly berate people. Must not publicly berate people. Honestly, though, not especially. I don’t *hate* the one person who essentially made my life a living hell as much as feel sorry for them, and as much as I get irritated and upset with people I know and love when it comes to matters of personal beliefs, I don’t ever hate them and never could.

What did you want and get?

I wanted little, and got little.

What did you want and not get?

See above.

A valuable life lesson you learned in 2008?

Be yourself, because your principles matter.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Must not publicly berate people, an Obama loss, and $20k.

Quote to sum up your year.

I’m so bad with quotes, but this one book I read this year, Parenting Without Belief, had a really interesting passage in the introduction that brought a ton home for me in terms of things that went on this year in a lot of areas. It applies to almost everything noteworthy that’s happened with me this year, so yeah:

Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins shares a heartfelt letter to his 10-year-old daughter Juliet about his own intellectual values. …[S]ome others [may] find Dawkins’ approach disrespectful to religious belief. There is a good reason for this: he does not respect religious belief. Not one bit.

This raises an important question…. Is it okay to disrespect someone’s beliefs? Notice that the subject is beliefs, not believers - we can presumably agree that people themselves deserve respect. But can we allow disrespect - not just disagreement, but disrespect - for opinions?

If the word “respect” is to retain any meaning whatsoever, then respect must not be granted to all opinions automatically. I may disagree with an opinion but still respect it, if I feel it was arrived by legitimate means…Though I disagree strongly with my friends, I respect their argument since they back it up with reasoned argument.

I know full well I didn’t achieve this in either direction in many of my doings this year, in more than just discussion on current events but on my life in general. I wish I had seen this in January and not December.

Ah well. 2009 has the potential to be an amazing year, and I’d be smart to embrace that. I’m more comfortable in my own skin now than I believe I’ve ever been before, and that can only translate positively. Let’s hope so, at least.

1) I was invited out to a friend’s birthday, but it took me nearly 50 minutes to make the 20 minute drive home, and that’s before the snow picked up.

2) My wife has strep throat. This means that I’m probably going to get strep throat. Who has two thumbs and no interest in strep throat? THIS GUY.

3) Addiction of the moment? Good Old Games, which has two point-and-click adventure games for free for download. The whole site is awesome, and you should all feel pity on my financial situation and buy me some gift credits or something. I could spend $100 here, easy.

4) Christmas is six days away and I’m still not feeling it. That’s very depressing.

5) Karma’s frustrating. I reconnected with someone I wronged this year, and it’s been a very good thing. Unfortunately, I’ve lost a friend that I miss a bit too much sometimes, and I was having a nostalgic moment about the whole thing and I have no clue what happened for real, although I have suspicions. And no way to approach it. And that makes me sad.

6) I really, really don’t want strep throat.

7) I used an mp3 player for the first time ever today. I admit it - they are pretty neat. I bought a Sandisk for eventual voice-recording stuff, but pulled warehouse duty today and ended up using it while picking books. I will say this much, though - earbuds? Not cool. Very uncomfortable, very strange.

8) Seriously, throat - if you’re swollen and ridiculous in the next few days, I’m going to be very angry.

Tongiht, Ann’s laptop somehow contracted a virus. The scanner stuff thinks it’s the Zafi.B, buit that’s from 2004. Whatever nasty she’s contracted denies her access to virus scanning websites, which is incredibly dastardly.

I’m really looking forward to having one night at some point in the next few days where absolutely nothing happens. Please. I need it.

* There are, as of this writing, 73 aired episodes of How I Met Your Mother.

* Each episode is approximately 21 minutes long.

* Netflix sent the first disc of the first season of How I Met Your Mother to my home, arriving on 5 November 2008.

* On Friday, 5 December 2008, Jeff and Ann watched the episode of How I Met Your Mother that originally aired on Monday, 1 December 2008.

* It took Jeff and Ann exactly 30 days to get through 73 episodes of How I Met Your Mother.

I have absolutely no clue whether to be proud or ashamed.

Life:

* On a whole, not bad, actually. If you asked me this 24 hours ago, I would have probably had a pretty different answer, but things are decent. Ann had last week off, so we got a few days in to just hang out and chill. We learned, among other things, that we still don’t travel well and we’re very into our routines. We had a minor breakdown sometime on Saturday when we realized how off-kilter we were. But other than that…

* The dodgeball team is 4-3, and we need a win and some help to make the playoffs from the looks of things. The #1 team shut us out when we played them, but hey.

* D&D is taking some time off, but I’m playing in a one-shot on Sunday, which happens to be our only free weekend day in the entire month of December. Yay living far from home!

* The 360 should be back this week. So much for catching up on games while I was unemployed. Oh, wait, I logged 45 hours of Team Fortress 2 on the PC over a 3 week period. Go me.

Things That Were Good About the Last Month:

* Seeing Georgy for dinner. It had been a criminally long time since we saw each other, so it was good to do that.

* Some of the absolutely crazy interviews I was on. It’s easy to laugh now about the insurance company that was essentially using me for leads during the interview process, or that anyone thought I’d be a good fit in telling people that, no, I wouldn’t be able to turn their electricity back on, but to think that I actually gave them a good, honest try is rather amusing.

* I got a few good leads for the book - two from people who care about me and this book too much, and a couple others that I tripped up on. It’s not dead!

There’s a reason I don’t post much personal stuff - I have absolutely nothing fascinating to say about my life.

A turbaconducken would be wonderful.

Today feels like a rather big day.

1) Three interviews scheduled for this week. One I’m very, very excited about. Crossing fingers…

2) I spent Friday afternoon playing Gears of War 2 with dodgeball buddy Dave for a few hours. Good times there, and a good game to boot.

3) Seeing the parents for dinner. Seeing the brother too. Good to be home, even for a little bit.

4) Seeing Michelle and Josh. Ann & I hadn’t been down to see them since the spring, and I only got to see them at the AMC pub night, so that was great.

5) My old high school put in a wind turbine. It’s huge. And random.

6) D&D - best session yet. I nearly died again, but that was by choice as opposed to me being stupid! We beat up on some crazy, crazy, CRAZY stuff. It was awesome!

I’m confident right now.

So, memes.

01. What’s the last DVD you watched?

Ann & I watched Rocket Science last night. Good flick.

02. What are you wearing at the moment?

Jeans, my Elizabeth Elmore guitar pedal t-shirt, socks and black Chucks.

03. Who is/was your favorite cartoon character?

I was always partial to Danger Mouse.

04. What is your favorite scent?

Thoughts that passed through my mind for this: a burning clove cigarette, burning wood, barbecue, vanilla.

05. What do you drink the most?

Probably water.

06. Is there a useless thing that you cannot brace yourself to throw out?

I can see roughly a half dozen things from where I’m sitting.

07. Who was your first big crush?

his girl I went to school/danced with. I was six. It would have never worked out.

08. What did you want to be when you grew up?

In order: a crayon maker, President, meteorologist, actor, music teacher, politician, director, librarian. Still don’t know for sure.

09. What mythological figure are you?

Zeus, because I’m that awesome. Or something.

10. What characters are overrated?

Thoughts that passed through my mind for this: Starbuck and Roslin from the new BSG, Jack Bauer, Tony Clark.

11. What 3 people would you invite to dinner?

There’s no way I can narrow this down. None at all. I’d love to dine with Jefferson, Kroger Babb, Thomas Sowell, Sarah Vowell, Peter Buck, my best friend from kindergarten, my uncle Tom, and roughly half the people reading this, but there’s no way I could get them all interested in each other.

12.What is your current desktop?

A Diesel Sweeties-style turnip landscape.

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?

A fun, if enigmatic, friend. Meant entirely complimentary.

14. What are you afraid of?

Failure.

15. What’s your favorite item of clothing?

I hate clothes. I suppose my red Chucks are well loved, though.

16. What are you into right now?

In no particular order: dodgeball, Jenny Lewis, movies, fantasy books, Mad Men, and my wife.

17. What did you do today?

Ate breakfast, went food shopping, watched the Pats game, played some video games, applied to three jobs.

18. What do you want?

One of the jobs I applied to last week to call me back and hire me.

19. What should you be doing right now?

Cleaning, applying for more jobs.

20. What’s the meaning behind your LJ username/name/nicknames you go by?

I am Jeff, and Badly Drawn Boy is a musician I love, but not as much as I probably used to. But the name sort of fits in a lot of ways, so it stays.

Five from Adam:

1) Barack Obama - Where will he rank among the worst presidents ever?

I can’t imagine Obama or McCain doing better than Bush, and I would probably place Bush somewhere in the bottom ten ever on a good day. Neither of them have the answers to solve the problems we’re looking at. So my prediction would probably be somewhere in the bottom 10.

2) Bill Ayers - is that REALLY a legitimate thing for the McCain/Palin campaign to bring up?

Yup.

3) McCain/Palin - What happened? Who’s to blame?

I think the campaign management is the biggest problem. They never seized the narrative, they never went after Obama in a clear, focused way, and they squandered a great opportunity with Palin. It was a hard enough year for a Republican as is, and Obama was like a gift. Kind of pathetic.

4) Palin - You sort of touched on this above, but, really, what is it about her that really does it for you? Just her policies, or her life story and situation too? What do you think about her numbers now?

It really is her policies. That she comes from a pretty middle class background doesn’t hurt, but I don’t respond well to populist angles. Her numbers, well, I’m not sure she ever had a really good shot to do anything about that.

5) Recession - Any thoughts?

We’ll see.

Now from Lee Anne:

1. How would you vote on Massachusetts Question One and what’s your reasoning behind it?

For those unaware, Question 1 would eliminate the Massachusetts state income tax over a two year period. I voted yes on this in 2002, and I’d vote yes today if only to send a message to the legislature. They’re just going to overturn it later anyway, after all.

2. What’s your junk food of choice?

I’m really not much of a junk food guy. I’ll have some cookies with my lunch, I like tortilla chips. If I have a significant junk food vice, it’s probably milkshakes.

3. You and Ann have exposed each other to a lot of new stuff. What are you proudest of getting her into?

Man, I don’t know. This may sound like a copout answer, but she likes so much that I do that the fact that she trusts me enough to not steer her into something she’ll loathe is probably the best part. That I can take her to a bizarre concert and she’ll enjoy it, that she’ll roll dice with me or explore a historic island. It’s the ability to share anything that’s probably the best, and I’m proud because it means that I’ve shown myself to be a good judge of those things.

4. On a different note, what has she introduced you to that you really like?

This is a tough question, since I’m considered the “entertainment coordinator” of this household. The first things to pop into my brain were black olives and red grapes, but that sounds trite. So I asked her:

Jeff: “What have you introduced me to?”
Ann: “Nothing. Seriously, nothing. Foods. Quesadillas, maybe? Tacos. Ooh, I know - non-tapered pants.”

See?

5. If you had a million bucks to donate to the charity of your choice,

Alzheimer’s research. Start a nonprofit to give interest free loans to people who want to open small businesses. Make some sort of fund for rural libraries to be able to get newer, lesser known books for their children’s collections.

Now from the wife:

1. It’s Groundhog day, you’re Bill Murray, but at least you can control what happens that day. What’s your day’s agenda?

Lots of illicit sexual escapades I’d probably try more new things over and over and over just to see what happens.

2. What would Pigeon be saying if she could talk?

Food? Food food fo– hey, what’s that shadow?

3. Alright, the condo is on fire! Pij and I are okay, what do you have in your two hands? (Yes, yes, I know you wouldn’t have time to go digging in the closet or whatever, but suspend reality for a minute, okay?)

It’s funny, because I don’t have a lot of stuff with sentimental value. Or any non-financial value. Sure, the CDs are there, but, well, that’s a lost cause. The Rickenbacker has no personal value, the “big ticket” items can be replaced. Honestly? I’d probably grab all the Kroger Babb stuff, because that’s the only irreplaceable stuff I have.

4. What do you like most about ManchVegas? Is this the city where you picture us raising our children?

It feels like what I wanted Worcester to be. I still think our future is further north, but I’d be happy with here, too.

5. You have known me five years now(!) In what ways have I changed the most? How do you think you have changed?

You’re more confident and self-aware. You care more about everything. I’d like to think I’m similar, but I don’t know.

I say “weekend” as if I’m not just feverishly trying to recap life in general since I’ve had no desire to write much of anything. But that’s slowly going away, I think. But anyway, less Sox talk and more real life…

1) I went to a children’s library conference on Thursday, and I’m amazingly glad I did:

a) It was held in Bethlehem/Littleton, NH, which is about 2 hours north of Manchester, through the White Mountains. I’m not a “ooh, nature” guy, but holy crap was it gorgeous. It was a pretty crappy day, but as I got to the mountains, you could see the clouds and fog rolling off the hills and mountains, and the foliage was pretty, and I could honestly pick up shop and move up that way for good if things were different in my life right now. Just such a perfect, gorgeous, beautiful area.

b) The conference was enlightening, both personally and professionally. I’ve gotten a bit of a reputation from other librarians with the authors and events I’ve been able to get, apparently, which was a very surprising and nice thing to hear, but each panel was just as interesting as well - one on autism and dealing with autistic kids in the library was great, but my favorite was the Native American materials presentation, which really spoke to my personal vendetta against bad nonfiction in children’s collections. The whole day was really great in that regard.

The whole thing was a very uplifting experience for me.

2) Dodgeball didn’t go so well in week two, but I did nail someone in the babymaker, so that’s worth something.

3) I took Friday off, and went to meet the wonderful, amazing Jon Scieszka on Saturday:

It’s always wonderful when a guy you’ve admired for 20 years ends up being even more awesome than you could have thought. In the picture is fellow librarian friend Jackie, who joined us on the excursion. We got to talk to Scieszka for a good 5 minutes before he spoke, and he signed a couple things for me and posed for a picture. Wicked down to earth, amazingly funny - he has a Norm MacDonald-style delivery which is just hysterical - and really someone I’m happy is cool, and makes me appreciate his work that much more. Really wonderful stuff.

4) Yesterday was D&D, first time in a month. Wow, did I miss it - a really crazy battle with some undead dragon newborns, some crazy challenges, and the afternoon really flew by. Every session becomes more and more fascinating, which is great. Two more weeks? Really?

5) Currently obsessed with the following:

a) 30 Rock. We’re all caught up, finally. Talk about a wickedly funny show. Anything that can make Al Gore fun is fine by me.

b) Anathem by Neal Stephenson. A less talented author wouldn’t be able to make me care about monks who study math and philosophy, but there you have it. Rick has been trying to get me to read Snow Crash essentially since the day I met him, and I may have to bump that up considerably.

c) Mega Man 9. No video game hates you quite the way MM9 does. Yet I can’t stop torturing myself.

d) Acid Tongue by Jenny Lewis. The CD isn’t anything special, except that every song feels as if it’s better than the song before it, and you’re disappointed when it’s over. That means something, right?

e) E. L. Fudge cookies. The double stuff variety. Yeah. Cookies shaped like elves are my anti-drug.

This weekend, too my knowledge, we have nothing planned. I’m looking forward to a late-night High School Musical 3 and a lot of sleeping.

…that I have no clue as to whether I can remember everything.

1) So remember that short film I was in? It made its debut at Lumen Eclipse last weekend, and apparently to pretty good acclaim. I have a copy of it, there was one on DailyMotion that doesn’t exist anymore, and when I am able to share it with you all, I will, because I think it’s worth seeing - it’s offbeat, it’s a fun Nancy Drew homage, and if you hate it, well, it’s only 60 seconds out of your time. It’s worth noting that I’m on screen for roughly .75 seconds, which is a new record for any sort of film presentation, and thus makes my role as “The Pianist” of similar substance to Dame Judi Dench’s Oscar-winning turn in Shakespeare in Love. Just sayin’.

2) A couple weeks ago, Rick and Mark came up for a long weekend. It was essentially like old college times all over again, which was exactly what was needed and a good time. We hit the Anna Maria alumni weekend pub night - it’s my 5 year reunion this year, which is scary in so many ways. Saw a lot of people I didn’t expect, a few I did, and I’m honestly glad I went. The rest of the weekend went smoothly except for the amount of money I spent on food and the fact that my 360 hates EA games.

3) Dodgeball started up this week. A solid W for The Ocho, and I didn’t play half bad, either. I forgot how much I missed it, too - good competition is fun, and the team’s a pretty solid good time, too. I wish I could be one of those people who can hit the gym 4 times a week or whatever, but I can’t even blog regularly. But I feel great tonight, even if the tops of my thighs are absolutely on fire from the running around.

4) With my time at the library coming to a close, I’ve been trying to get myself set up better at the Manchester Library, which means navigating through their new system and getting used to the kinks, especially from a patron side as opposed to the librarian side. Instead of getting into the nitty gritty details without knowing the specifics, I’ll say this much - every so often, I’ll tell Ann how sad it makes me that I simply will never get to read all the books I want to. I’ve read over 100 this year alone, so it’s not as if I’m a reading slacker - it’s just that a) I know my list at Manchester is about 60 titles deep right now, b) it could be doubled if I wanted to take an hour and play around with it, and c) that doesn’t even start getting into the books that the library doesn’t have and, scarier, probably can’t get.

My literary holy grail at the moment is Zen in the Art of Slaying Vampires. I’m not paying $44 for a used book on Amazon, and even weirder is that no library shows as having it on WorldCat. I may never even see this book in the, uh, paper flesh in my lifetime, never mind get to read it. It has apparently been optioned as a film (yeah, that’s right - not that anyone’s ever seen the book or anything), which bodes well, but still, this book is essentially the story of my life when it comes to books. Not that I won’t have hundreds of others to read instead, of course, but still.

5) Related to the above, I’ve tried LibraryThing and couldn’t really get into it. I tried the iRead application on Facebook and found it difficult. I did GoodReads and got annoyed. Finally, I’ve found a web-based book program I actually like - Shelfari! I know it doesn’t do much new with certain things as perhaps the others I’ve tried have, but I love the interface and this just feels easier. I don’t know if I’ll keep up with it - after all, I’ve read over 400 books in the last 3 years, and I can’t normally remember what I read last week without keeping it written down somewhere - but if you’re unhappy with your other ones or whatever, friend me over there and check it out.

6) I feel like the only human being in the world who doesn’t understand Twitter.

7) At this point, I think the best move is to NOT talk about the Red Sox in fear that it might, like, bring Mike Timlin into a close game or something.

8) Finally, I can’t decide which one of these videos is more awesome, so enjoy them both:

1) SARAH PALIN OMG.

2) Tonight we had Red Sox tickets. Earlier this week, Matsuzaka was the starter to be ready for. Then, two days ago, it was David Pauley, he of the 10.XX ERA. Today? Michael Bowden, pitching prospect, making his major league debut. Awesome - awesome game, awesome experience, and $6 parking.

3) Tomorrow, we’re surprising my Uncle Jeff, who I haven’t seen in about 5 years. He’s one of those close family friends who you end up calling uncle even though they’re not actually related, and we’ve swung in and out of contact with him over the years, and it turns out he’s staying about an hour away and my parents are visiting him right now and invited us up tomorrow. So that’ll be awesome. Very awesome.

Talk about a sea change in attitude.

Ahhhhgfdgdfgdfgergbrbn.

1) Summer reading = over. A good summer, but also glad it’s over and I can somewhat relax again. I’m always amazed at how much I end up running on adrenaline rushes for a lot of stuff, and then I’m shocked when I’m exhausted at the end. I took Friday off, slept in, and pretty much stayed on the couch all day playing games.

2) Life doesn’t seem to want to slow down, either - we have a Red Sox game coming up, another weekend in Massachusetts, we still have to figure out when to see people we haven’t seen in a while, still house hunting. Why is life insane?

3) D&D was awesome on Sunday. We went Wyvern hunting, and did it well. Ann played her first week as a Dwarven Fighter, and was pulling action movie stunts almost immediately, and it was pretty awesome. Best battle I’ve been in since I’ve started playing, hands down.

4) Someone want to explain why Pac-Man: Championship Edition is so addicting? Anyone?

I hope to reach some sort of basic schedule again at some point this week. Business + craziness = no time for annoying people on the internets.

1) Another busy weekend. August is poo!

I shouldn’t say that - it was busy, but another generally fun weekend. We hit a movie on Friday, did an Irace family gathering in Maine followed by a stop at the Great Lost Bear and home on Saturday, and a Sox game on Sunday followed by dinner in Watertown with the D&D crew minus Billy.

1a) At the Sox game, I sat next to one of the crazier people I’ve ever encountered at a Sox game. He’s convinced there’s a massive conspiracy to oust all the nonwhite players a la the Yawkeys of old, that the games are fixed by the pitching coaches, etc. Stunning, really.

2) Downsides to the weekend? I’m probably more sunburnt right now than I’ve been in a very long time. I tried to be proactive, too, but my face is all bright red as well as the tops of my hands. Ah well. It’ll be a sore day or two I suppose, but the switch to a long-sleeve shirt paid some serious dividends.

3) This week’s the last week of summer reading. I don’t know if this has been more harrowing because of drama or just because, but I’ll be glad when it’s done nonetheless.

Enough for now.

Still recovering, in a way.

1) Saturday morning, we went up to Hillsboro to look at this house. Interestingly, I think Ann ended up liking it less than I did - the floor plan was great, and there was a lot to love, but there was also more we didn’t - for instance, the interesting choices the former owners made with things as simple as doors and flooring to more questionable issues like the converted shed-like structure in the back that was tilted at a 20 degree angle. Whether it would realistically pass inspection was another concern, but by the time we got around to thinking about that, I think our minds were made up. The location was pleasant if we were 10-15 years older, and it just wasn’t for us.

House hunting sucks.

2) We hit a small party with a former dodgeball teammate in Haverhill later that day - a ton of fun. Good group of people, good conversation, great food, and a really solid chance to reconnect with a couple people we lost track of. After the disappointment of the morning, that was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

3) We then hit my friend Mel’s place for dinner and games with her boyfriend before crashing there. Always good to see her, nice to spend the morning in Worcester getting breakfast and again seeing how things change in such a crazy short time between visits. A good, relaxing evening, even if I did have a crappy game of Carcassonne.

4) In the morning, we grabbed breakfast at Culpepper’s and then headed off to D&D. One of our regulars in the group couldn’t attend, and Ann decided to give it a shot for the day. First, she did quite well - only dropping once (which was to be expected with the copious amounts of marking she was doing) and killing a few big baddies. She struggled a bit with the roleplaying aspect, but given that she discounts that as not really having an interest in the storyline at that point, it was a good day for her.

Not to speak for her, but I think she really liked it. Either that or her reading my Unicorn Slaying Handbook until 10:45 last night was simply a coincedence. That and she doesn’t think Bill’s table is big enough for a 7th player.

So we’ll see.

As for me, I didn’t die! Yay! I came close, but I was smarter and it worked. And now I have leather armor. Fear me.

Hopefully I can catch up more with life tonight.

Ann’s coming to D&D with me Sunday. She spent about an hour with the Player’s Handbook last night.

Ann: “The words in italics kind of confuse me, but they’re the only way I know what I’m doing.”
Jeff: “You can mostly ignore those, it’s just flavor text - roleplaying stuff.”
Ann: “You mean the text - is has a flavor?”

Later, she was reading over the paladin powers and tripped over Astral Speech:

Astral Speech
You speak with such compelling conviction that others find it difficult to refute your beliefs and claims.
Effect: You gain a +4 power bonus to Diplomacy checks until the end of the encounter.

Ann immediately turns to me and says “Hey, that’s what Obama has!”

A busy weekend coming up…

1) So Ann is coming to D&D with me next week - Jenny can’t make it, and I’ve been trying to find an opening to have her try it. She mocks me about it plenty, but she’s actually been somewhat fascinated by the whole thing. We were talking about it over dinner tonight, and some good stuff came of that.

Ann: “So what’s her character?”
Jeff: “A minotaur.”
Ann: “A minotaur?! That’s, like, a horn away from unicorn!”

Ann: “So her minotaur, does she do anything?”
Jeff: “I think she might be playing a cleric” (note: the minotaur is a paladin)
Ann: “A clerk? Really? Do I get to process things?”

Note: She really thought I said “clerk.”

Jeff: “So yeah, you’re playing Jenny’s character, and she’s Mike’s wife.”
Ann: “Oh no! I only know him from pictures on the internet! Worlds colliding!”
Jeff: “He’s fine, you’ll like him.”
Ann: “Wait - if I’m playing his wife’s character, does that mean I have to sleep with him?”

In all seriousness, while Ann never pictured the day she’d be rolling dice for fun, she’s pretty excited to see how this goes down.

2) I also surprised her with Breaking Dawn today, since the waitlist at the library is crazy long. We ended up at Barnes and Noble at the same time this morning, and I was doing my best James Bond to stay out of her sight.

3) The Nashua Pride ballpark is really gorgeous. Just sayin’.

4) I’m so obsessed with 3oh!3 it’s not even funny:

Holla ’til you pass out.

After how down I felt about bizness in general, talk about needing a getaway of some sort. Luckily, this past weekend came at precisely the right time.

1) After work on Friday, I picked up Ann and we went to Old Orchard Beach in Maine. My parents rent a place up there for a week every year, and they invited us up, and we took them up on it.

I had never been to OOB. Ann spent time there as a kid, only living about 15-30 minutes from the area, but my treks north rarely left New Hampshire. It was entirely different than what I expected - more of a shoretown-type atmosphere with a random carnival in the middle than the spectacle that Hampton Beach or Wildwood provide - and that was kind of nice. It does have a bit of an older flair to it, though, which was different. The crowd may have been influenced by the people we were with - namely my parents - but it was more an interesting, unexpected thing than anything else.

I’ll say this much, though: bar-hopping with your parents is something everyone should try once. We ended up at this one bar (my mother insisted it was Irish, I’m convinced she thinks all bars are) that was essentially a fortysomething bar with the worst of the 80s and 90s pumping on the stereo. Patently absurd, Ann & I were the youngest people there by at least 15 years, and yet, in the end, it was totally awesome. If they had a better beer selection, it would have been even better. We hit a second beachside bar afterwards with a crappy cover band and a crappier drink selection before getting a slice of pizza at midnight and calling it an evening.

Apparently, it was correctional officer week at OOB, though - my father must have known about 30 people at the various places we ended up. Completely weird.

2) Saturday, we went from OOB to Little Sebago Lake to see Ann’s mother’s family. My parents came, since they were only 40 minutes out as it were, and it was a good time as usual. It’s always interesting to see them because we don’t see them much, so it’s hard for me to keep track, but year. We were there 6 hours or so and then came home, caught a late movie, and yeah.

3) Sunday was D&D day. After the rough grind of the session prior, I know I was looking forward to better results this go ’round. So, naturally, I end up the target of two hobgoblin archers and nearly get myself killed. Again. Never mind that I had cover and threw a shield up, I just got absolutely pummelled. I know there’s an aspect of “Wizard: You’re Doing It Wrong” if I keep dying like this, but this felt like total dumb luck.

Regardless, a VERY fun session yesterday for no specific reason, except that I feel it was fun and that’s what matters. We left things on a very interesting note, which is great, and yeah. I’m really excited about the upcoming game. As long as I don’t keep dragging everyone else down what with the dying and stuff…

Why did I wait until I was 27 to pick this up?

4) Upcoming plans: househunting tonight, gatherings galore in the next few weeks, work, life, etc.

In no particular order. Ann went to visit Boston, so I largely had to make do on my own, which was cool.

1) Seeing Lee Anne. We were trying to figure something out all week, and finally she just decided to come up to Manchester and hang, which was great. We hit the local bar/food joint of choice where I had fried pickles for the first time - they were AMAZING. We also wandered around Manchester proper a bit and hit an Arena Football game, which was all sorts of weird and awesome all at once. Even without all the fun stuff on the side, spending an afternoon with Lee Anne is always a good thing. Adding fried pickles to the mix just makes it that much better.

2) Nerd Alert #1: Civilization Revolution came out this week. I love the PC series, and they made a console version which is pretty great, if not a little flawed in places. But I did pick it up and was able to save $20 on it with some skillful eBaying, so that’s good.

3) D&D yesterday. I’d say that the rounds we had yesterday were probably my first experience with some significant grinding - a couple tough battles combined with some difficult preparation for a confusing magical item. It was the first time my relative newbieness really reared its head, as I was both trying to do things that didn’t work, made things a little more complicated than they needed to be in some places, and didn’t quite catch onto another idea Mike had in one battle where we were getting more than a little punished until it was almost too late. Still a fun afternoon, but yikes. Still, the whole episode opened up a few cans of worms, and has completely opened up a new idea for my character I hadn’t thought of. So that’s something.

Ironically, the punishment debacle in the second battle? My character didn’t take any damage. Granted, I’m playing a wizard controller-type, which means I’m not supposed to get into the melee, but there was something annoyingly amusing about that - annoying for everyone who nearly died, amusing to me. Then again, if any of my dice rolls decided to work properly in that battle…

A shaming exercise, because I have been slacker extraordinaire over the last week, moreso than usual.

Things to Do Before Sunday:

* Finish updating all D&D stuff before Sunday gaming. Tonight is a good night to do that, with no Red Sox and no wife. This includes, but is not limited to, adding information to the group wiki as not to put Bill at a disadvantage, and getting my level 2 character sheet finished up for quick transition when I theoretically level up on Sunday.

* Reply to e-mails. Three in particular that I’ve put off more than 7 days, which is unacceptable in every way.

* Clean my desk. I don’t normally get bothered by the desk situation at home, but I’m at critical mass and can’t operate.

Things to Accomplish Before the End of July:

* Consistency: For every political blog I put up, write a non-political one. I’ve meant to do this anyway, but I haven’t been, and keeping myself on a tighter schedule is important, and it’ll annoy fewer people as well.

* Actually visit some houses and get paperwork rolling. Less looking online, more looking in person, stat! We’ve seen two houses(!) we like, and one condo which is still on the market from the last discussion, so why lollygag?

Things to Improve as Time Rolls Along:

* Contact. I’ve gotten better, but not great - it dawned on me this week, for instance, that the last time I saw Georgy was last August. That’s a bit ridiculous, and there’s no excuse for that. I’m guilty across the board - Lee Anne and I haven’t seen each other since hockey season, I don’t make it to Worcester as often as I should, etc. I know I keep saying I need to change that, but I need to change that. If I can find time twice a month to get into a game, I can find a couple hours to meet up with people for drinks after work or something, bare minimum.

* Get to work! The book has fallen by the wayside and that’s bad. I’m capable of spending 15 minutes a night compiling research and sending e-mails right now, which is where I need to be, so I just have to DO IT. Enough nonsense.

Things seem to happen in weird waves, I guess.

1) I came down with…something last week. Your typical cold, runny nose, hacking up a lung thing with a little digestive irritation to boot. There was some minor fear that Liz infected half the universe with whatever she has/had, given that I know at least a half dozen other people who had a similar thing, but my throat stopped being sore and now I just cough and poop a lot. I’ll be better, for sure, but I’ve gone through so many tissues lately it’s ridiculous.

2) The 4th was fun - Ann & I ended up in a parade in Amherst, NH, for the summer reading program. The Amherst librarians did a book cart drill team, which was fun, and we got to lead the charge and make sure no one ran into the shriners. We then spent most of the day with Jackie and her husband and their friends, playing Guitar Hero and French bocce ball and just having a good time. We pretty much bonded instantly with their friends, which was a great feeling and made the day that much better. I knew things would rock once we met people up here.

3) Sunday, I headed down to Somerville to help out Chelsea with her entry for a short film competition. The initial plan was to hit Somerville, run my shots, and head to Worcester, but the Worcester plans fell through (which is why I didn’t get ahold of you, Georgy - I was right down the street, too), so I ended up hanging a bit and lending a hand where I could. Chelsea needed me to play a Tom Lehrer-type, which was both wicked fun and rekindled my joy for Lehrer. I did have to lose the beard, so I’m facially nude for the next week, but it was totally worth it - Chelsea totally knows what she’s doing and what she wants, and she pulled together a great group, and now I’m all creatively inspired and stuff again. So awesome. So thanks for the opportunity, I can’t wait to see the final result.

4) Outside of all this business, life feels rushed, but sane. I finally feel like a routine is coming back again, the finances are finally normal and the only downer is that the Tampa Bay Rays are for real.

That’s not a bad shake, all things considered.

1) So my grandfather’s wake/funeral went by fairly easily. Again - still uncomfortable with the entire idea. Still thinking a lot of is superfluous, still a little angry about how the Catholic funeral mass seems to not really be about the deceased at all. There was the requisite family drama to go along with anything else (short answer: my grandfather was apparently quite the pimp), but we spent late Thursday night with my cousins and aunts, just hanging around and catching up. Really good quality time. My cousin wrote a song for the burial which was actually fairly perfect, and that was that.

I won’t go into my rant about funerals and death and the complete insanity that seems to go along with it right now. Ann & I essentially made a pact to not be like that when we eventually have to bury each other. But yikes.

2) Saturday night was a lot more fun than I anticipated. We met up with Liz for her thirtieth birthday in Boston at one of the weirder restaurants in town, Eastern Standard, with a menu full of raw foods and livestock brains. Very weird. Along for the ride was Sarah, a pleasant surprise, and a number of Liz’s friends including Deb and a Beth who’s LJ I don’t know and Courtney. The place was quite nice, the conversation great, and we probably would have stayed longer if we could have. I didn’t even gag when I saw the brains! I win!

3) Sunday, my father came up for a father’s day/birthday thing - we got great seats for the Sea Dogs/Fisher Cats game. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and it ended up being rained out. We went out for barbecue at a local place afterwards, my father napped on the couch for an hour, and then went home. It was a good afternoon, all things considered.

4) Ann was also able to get Red Sox tickets for last night. Needless to say, I was getting tired from the weekend already, and with summer reading kicking off this week, I told her to bring her friend Christina. So they went, had a good time, I caught up on stuff here. Not a bad night, actually, although I did stay up waaaaaay too late.

5) This weekend is a blast from my past - we’re having a big ol’ get together with the old friends I fell out of touch with from high school. All my fault, and we’re having a mini-reunion of sorts. I’m ridiculously excited about the whole thing. A long time coming.

6) Barring any natural disasters, we start the major D&D campaign this weekend. I’m actually ridiculously excited about this, too - I’ve been spending a pretty sad amount of time poring over the Player’s Handbook and seeing what works, tweaking my character, etc. Since (I think) everyone in the campaign reads this in some form, I’m not sure how much is reasonable to divulge, but I think my character is going to be pretty fun. I bought a big bag of dice and everything!

Okay. That’s it for now.

1) I’m so excited about getting rolling on our D&D, I could pee. I’ve been going back and forth on e-mail with Bill, who’s DMing the game, on character stuff and whatnot. I got the handbook about a week ago and I’m just having a blast with the whole thing. I have to say - playing with the 3.0/3.5 books threw me for a loop, and I never came close to getting a grasp on anything, but it’s much, much easier in this edition to catch on. Not to say I haven’t made my share of mistakes already, but I feel like the entire thing is pretty simple.

I got a big bag o’ dice, which is a fun little addition. eBay is funny like that, I suppose. If you need any miniature 6 sided dice, let me know.

2) Funeral is on Friday. We’ll probably head down tomorrow night. Not sure yet.

3) Because I should, a meme:

a) First Name: Jeff

b) Age: 27

c) Location: Fabulous Manch-Vegas. Manchester, NH

d) Occupation: Children’s librarian! 18 months and running!

e) Partner?: Ann. 15 months and running! And I still kinda like her! d;-)

f) Kids: I sure hope not.

g) Brothers/Sisters: My brother Kyle is 24 now, has his own place in Millbury, my old hometown. We exchange lolcats on MySpace a lot, but he seems to be doing well when we do talk.

h) Pets: Pigeon, the kitty. She’s been extra cute the last few days, too. She also wanted to play with the minature 6 sided dice.

i) List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life:

- Work. Because work is work, and it’s hard, but it’s great. And summer reading. Yeah.
- The book. Because I keep stalling on it, and then life happens, and then I remember it and get angry that I’m putting things off.
- Life. It’s a copout answer, but life is very big for me right now.

j) Where and for what did you go to school for?:

Anna Maria College, Paxton MA, class of 2003. Went in as a music major, went out a history/political science major, using little of it.

k) Parents?

Two, still. Heh. My father is coming toward the end of his tenure at the prison - one of the good guys, not the guy behind bars. We continue to have a better relationship than we ever did during my more formative years, and that’s a good thing.

My mother is doing well. It’s hard to judge properly being away, but “is doing well” feels right.

l) Who are some of your closest friends?

At this point, we’ve finally become close to a local couple, also a librarian. We’re still quite close with Michelle and Josh and we’re long overdue in seeing them, and it’s just like old times whenever we catch up with Julia and Tiff and the like. So it’s been decent, all things considered.

1) Stimulus check arrived and deposited. Of course, $1000 of it was spent already on bills and taxes, so there’s $200 left - oh, whoops, Ann’s starter in her car went. Starter + tow + labor = a hair more than $200, for sure.

Sigh.

2) Even with that minor setback, this looks very, very enticing.

1) First, a meme. Don’t feel like tagging, but list 8 things people may not know. These are always hard for me because I lay so much out there as is, but it’s been a while, so…

a) For a long time, I couldn’t stop a book after starting it. My tolerance level has shifted dramatically in a short time - if a book doesn’t hook me in quickly, I’m generally not going to finish it. I have no clue what caused that shift.

b) I’m currently looking at my desk at home (it’s 10pm on Tuesday) and I’m shocked - I cleaned this before my wisdom teeth thing, and within 7 days, it’s possibly worse than it was before. Unopened mail, CDs to listen to and mail out, etc. It’s incredible, my ability to accumulate stuff.

c) I’ve been picking up my guitar a lot more lately, and I feel like I’m making some minor breakthroughs in ability. Not so much where I’m going to be more than above competent, but better than I’ve ever felt in the 10 years I’ve been playing now.

d) I find it odd that I have so much nostalgia for 1990s alt rock, yet dislike most grunge and was a little too young to truly appreciate it.

e) One of the best things I’ve done for myself the last few years is fully embracing my inner nerd. I wish I had done it in high school - it couldn’t have gotten much worse for me socially as a whole anyway, and it would have saved me a lot of strife in college.

f) I have no clue why I’m so bad at e-mailing.

g) As bad as I am at e-mailing, I’m worse with the phone. Still.

h) I still regret too much. I think I always will, no matter how happy I am with my lot in life.

2) My first day back to work was interesting on a number of levels, but keeping it on a health note - wow. I was wiped by the end of the day. It’s amazing how something so small as this can really throw you off your game. My jaw was really killing me by the end of the day, my voice was really ragged and shaky beyond the compensating and the remnants of the cold/allergy battle, and yeah. Wow. If I wasn’t so damn busy with summer stuff, I might have considered going home, but I barely convinced myself to stay home on Monday. Working through things is good, I suppose.

3) I’ve been following R.E.M. setlists since the tour started and since my show is next week - the lists are VERY impressive. plenty of Accelerate, of course, but they’re pulling out a lot of great old stuff. “Heron House,” “Ignoreland,” “Circus Envy,” and “Pretty Persusion” are all songs I’ve wanted to hear live and that have shown up on lists, “Ignoreland” being a staple thus far. I’m still pulling for “Auctioneer” and now perhaps wishing for “9-9″ isn’t completely out of the question. One week! ONE WEEK!

4) So I was, uh, able to see the 4th edition D&D player’s manual. They’ve done a LOT of streamlining, but I can’t say I miss too much from what I knew of 3.0/3.5. I still wish I could play as a multiclassed bard, but I think my understanding of things has opened up a decent idea for a character. If I have any real disappointment with it early, it’s that the alignment structure has changed - if i’m reading this correctly, no more chaotic good? We’re stuck on only neutral (or, in 4e terms, “unaligned”)? That’s kind of crappy, but it also fits in with some of the said streamlining. Regardless, I find it difficult to work off of PDF files, and I hope once I get the book in my hand, I can work some other stuff out on my own.

Given that the 4e book has leaked, we did work with it more in our game on Sunday, and to great result. It, again, helps that we have a really great group going, but everything moves incredibly smoothly with it, and yeah. I’m gushing a bit, I suppose - we’re halting the pre-made campaign after this weekend, and then two weeks off before we dive into the long-term. I can’t wait.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got. Enough outta me.

Ann hit Massachusetts for a wedding and friends and babysitting (oh my), leaving me to my own devices this weekend. Good times!

1) Ann left Saturday morning, and I decided once the cat woke me up at 8:30 that I was going to try and be as unproductive as possible for once. I’m proud to say I generally succeeded - I took a shower and ate, but I was otherwise completely lazy: playing video games, catching up on the stack of CDs I’ve been meaning to listen to, listing some stuff on eBay and Amazon, watch a couple things on demand - exactly the kind of day I ultimately needed.

2) Yesterday was the inaugural of a new D&D group I’m involved with, this time with people I’ve known in various ways for a while. The Fourth Edition is coming out in a few weeks, and a pregenerated campaign was put out to help familiarize/transition to the new rules and such. Having very little experience overall with the older editions, this essentially was starting from square one for me, except that I knew the basics of the basics. So even with some tolerant hand-holding from all involved, I feel like I was getting a pretty good grasp on things to the point where the final battle we faced (and we ran 5 battles over the 8ish-hour period, which was AWESOME) I was essentially able to work on my own without asking too many questions or screwing up to the point of almost getting killed, which was great.

I have to say, though - holy shit did that kick ass. Excuse me as I completely lose any mainstream cool cred, but if I had realized it was this much fun, I would have tried harder to get into a group in high school and not blown Steph off 5 years ago when she tried to get me in on a game back then. As a timesuck, the time flew by like nothing else. I arrived at 1:30 and we essentially dove right in, and I looked at my watch and it was 3:30. Just like that. I was pretty surprised, but hey, that’s how it goes. Beyond that, it’s really great - coming at it from no significant battle experience in my limited D&D encounters before, diving in and nuking some kobolds is amazingly easy. I played a human wizard, and the level one spells are actually worth using. You have your basic magic missile, but you can actually give cold/fire/acid damage early, and have it mean something. Plus, the wizard has a Scorching Burst which is essentially a low level tactical nuke - by the time I got the hang of it, I was able to nuke 5 guys on one spell with the correct positioning, and the one time I was able to use Burning Hands was pretty nifty, too.

One thing I didn’t expect, however, was the fun tactical maneuvers we were able to pull off. Mike (who’s a very fun guy and I’m especially looking forward to gaming with him) worked out a pretty great pincer technique on one encampment that worked wonders (especially since a rogue/warlord battle combo appears to be potentially devastating), and the smooth battle system (which appears to be much smoother than previous incarnations) really speeds things up. In a word, friggin’ awesome.

So the group appears likely to be myself and Mike, Mike’s wife Jenny (who is wonderful), Steph, Mandy, her brother Bill, and Mandy’s husband Bill running the eventual full-scale campaign. I’m very, very excited.

3) I’m also home today, and so is Ann. So we’ll probably do something, whether it’s hit a movie (Young @ Heart is up at the indie theater in Concord) or grab lunch somewhere or just hang out, but another wide-open day isn’t a bad thing before the next few weeks come barreling in…

Jeff: “Ooh! They’re making a Captain America movie!”
Ann: *silence*
Jeff: “…and that’s really exciting! And the guy who played Jayne on Firefly is attached to play him!”
Ann: “Oh, I can see that. I liked the red.”
Jeff: “…huh?”
Ann: “The red. Fire.”
Jeff: “What?”
Ann: “Oh, shit. I thought you were talking about Captain Planet.”

Then a discussion commenced about the following, which input would be appreciated:

1) Is Captain Planet really a super hero?

2) Is Captain Planet simply propaganda masked in colorful animation?

3) Ann: “Would Captain America help his wife clean the fucking kitchen?”

Mario Kart anyone? 2707-2006-6250

For those of you who don’t wanna play, I offer this: