Category: Uncategorized

woohoo!

Okay, all my eggs in one basket, not too smart, I know it. But the GAO sent me the “we want to interview you” email. Washington, DC. Physical Infrastructure group. A little part of me is following an old pattern or maybe just wanting to follow it. Be excited. Be scared. Want to hide behind a bush and poke the offer with a stick. Want to grab it, run off to a corner and keep it all for myself…

But that’s not really how I feel anymore. Motorola is part of my past. Other people’s present and future, but not mine. This is an interview offer, and unless I act in ways I am unlikely to act, I’ll probably get a job offer out of it. The golden ball is not yet mine. Should I get the golden ball, it’s not like game over, quest completed, world saved. It’s more like new game starting. And an opportunity to discover how much I’ll like it.

Still. Woohoo! =)

Constantine and the Furies

I saw Constantine last night. It was a pretty good movie, despite the reviews. Definitely an action movie, and it has the judeo-christian portion of the sandman mythology down pretty well, at least. I was impressed that Keanu’s acting is continuing to improve; perhaps on his deathbed he’ll actually be a good actor.

Before I properly critique the movie, I want to be at least marginally aware of the Hellblazer series. My only prior exposure to the character of John Constantine occurred through Sandman and the Books of Magic. What seemed to be missing from the movie version of John Constantine was the continuous stream of understated, dark, ironic humor. You can tell when the comic book character is deeply upset because he stops joking. Not so in the movie. An impression born out by the first couple of stories in the initial Hellblazer graphic novel I purchased and read. Also, Hellblazer seems to be one of the denser series. There was no way I was going to make it through the entire graphic novel in one sitting, unlike, say, Bone, no criticism of either implied.

But, while I was there, I saw another DC Vertigo piece, The Furies. It’s a story about what happens to Lyta Hall after she comes back to her life, when her son is irrevocably gone and her vengence complete at the end of the Sandman series. Surprisingly, I liked it. Having just watched Constantine, I was a little tired of the “gains insight by going to hell and back” dramatic meme, but I suppose that’s part of the Monomyth, eh? Still, it was good. Greek mythology, cameos by two of the Endless, even if not my favorites, and a glimpse of Dream 2.0 that seems consistent with the Sandman series. The fallibility of humanity and superhumanity, alongside the potential for personal growth and the realization of such. Tragedy and victory. Of such things are good stories made.

I just wish I got half the references made in DC Vertigo stuff. But no man is an omnibus for human literary efforts, or rather, that is not my main ambition in life. =)

Dreams of far away places

I slept in this morning, and I remember a dream. It was an odd one. It started off in a waterslide tower on a giant forested hill in kentucky. Throughout the dream I was being hit on by the sporadic guys climbing the stairs with me. It was also a really odd ride down. some places where it was just giant steps with water flowing down them, and a large area in the middle one could fall down, in another it was just a giant, calm wading pool. In the basement was something like a bowling alley, but with water. I don’t get it either.

Later on, I was at a houseparty, I think I was taken there by one of the guys from the waterslide. Mostly gay guys, and a few girls as well. It was a socializing type party. I was once again hit on, someone grabbed my butt, and I warned him away for health reasons. The entire gay population of the party was guys who weren’t out publicly. For some reason, I turned them all down (multiple offers in the dream) and left.

I later recall walking along a street near an intersection that reminded me of Zanesville (ohio, where I lived while going to high school and where my parents still live). And a small suv with a new driver was turned at a 45 degree angle across an oncoming lane of traffic. In the back seat were someone who was like 60% and another person who was about 80% and 20% the former livejournal user known as vegzcity (damn for exacerbating my thing for red heads). They recognized me and waved.

In another totally disconnected dream sequence I was asking someone why they hadn’t told me I smelled, and why they didn’t smell (see prior post).

These dreams clearly tell me one thing, I need to get laid. 😉

bitter taste in my mouth & its removal

When I woke up this morning, I had a terrible taste in my mouth. Absolutely awful. I had to brush my teeth before I could go back to sleep. Then I smelled it on my blanket, my sheets, my clothing. It was everywhere. My initial guess that it might be related to my recent decision to cut back a bit on the volume I eat until my butt gets back to normal, and thus possible increases in fat metabolism, seems unlikely. Marginally more likely is that the foul aspartame in the metamucil I mispurchased is polluting every fluid my body manufactures. Other possibilities include “sick smell” from my recent bout with whatever it is that’s been making me cough and sneeze so inconveniently or “drug smell” from all the painkillers I was taking (I took a 24 hour hiatus from all such meds, and am now taking only ibuprofen.) I’m guessing sick smell.

So, I’m doing all my dirty laundry today, which is quite a pile, but so be it.

Also, the spaghetti squash with homemade mushroom and spinach marinara has helped with the taste factor. Quite a bit. *pats self on back* I would swear this is the first time I’ve had spaghetti squash, but the way it shredded into little strands so automatically felt familiar. It definitely looked neat, pity it tasted so bland. Better nutrition, ambivalent taste, more time consuming to produce, more expensive. Neat as an experiment, but unlikely to start a trend in my cooking.

I still wanna try breadfruit, though. It sounds cool. And the phrase “breadfruit pudding” keeps dancing through my head. Heh.

roleplaying games typology

Yesterday after gaming a bit with as I was chatting with both him and , I shared my typology of roleplaying games.

Type 1, the rollplaying game, is the stat wanking, my-character-can-kill-your-character sort of silliness. It’s fun up to a point, but generally has serious sustainability problems for me. Games of this sort are characterized by religious adherence to rules, endless comparisons of character abilities, and weighing of character development options. Also, lots of monster-killing-item-grabbing-leveling-up type stuff. Computers are amazingly good at these types of games. Diablo would be a great example from the computer genre; D&D, GURPS or, god-forbid, rolemaster would be a great example from the table top genre. This may be the most popular sort of gaming, and there’s almost always a certain quantity of this in any given game.

Type 2, the plot-oriented game, is more like an interactive movie. Best served with byzantine politics and plot twists, rich scenery, and, in the computer varieties, lots of artfully crafted, 3d cut scenes. This also shows up in some video games, “final fantasy”s 2e(4j), and 7 definitely have some type 2 roleplaying going on. This also fails to stimulate my gamergeeky happiness. My impression is that this is the sort of thing that Vampire the Masquerade (and other world of darkness games), and perhaps to a certain extent, Shadowrun are supposed to thrive on.

Type 3, is a bit more mercurial and emotional. It’s the appeal of the imaginary person. In final fantasy 7, there is a character who is pure goodness and light personified, and she bites it while trying to save the world from the big bad nasty of the game (actually, it’s the big bad nasty that kills her). It’s hard to say which character has the more devout cult following, but they both certainly do (really the bad guy’s cult is bigger, but I was more into the good girl). Also Vivi (the cute, retro blackmage) from ff9. But what I really love is the creation of these unique characters, and giving them a chance to express their own identities. This works best in table top games (maybe in larp, too, but I never larped, myself). I will remember with great fondness my “slutty bi elf-chick cleric who was mother to the party’s half-elven rogue and had a thing for human bards” and my “nearly-adolescent street kid mega-mage” and their interactions with the other personalities in their respective parties.

Drugged Haze & First dumps

Well, walking through life in a drugged haze is much more noticeable in school than when killing a weekend at home. Apparently, it has lowered my class participation barriers, and my presentation sans powerpoint didn’t seem to go too badly. I ‘um’ed alot, and may have lacked overall structure, but I knew the article backwards and forwards. The instructor’s feedback was nothing more than “good”. *shrug*

And now a little note about bowel movements. cut for the squeemish