You get the full impact of LJ at the weirdest times. I'm coming off the Percocet - didn't take any last night, haven't taken any today because I haven't been in any pain aside from an occasional twinge when I stand up or sit down. My head is still in a weird space, though.

So it was a shock when one of the people I "know" through catholicism posted from Trashcanistan that she'd been thinking seriously of eating her rifle. Fortunately she mentioned this in e-mail to her husband back in CONUSstan, who promptly got hold of people who got hold of the Army and her chain of command did the right thing by her. Finally. After making it pretty impossible for her in the first place. I hope somebody's career goes in the shitter over this, and that they wind up dying slowly under an overpass in Wyoming after being kicked out of the service. In the meantime, I guess she's going to be okay, but still...shit.

On the other hand, some of my other friends are having a good Hanuramakwanzmas season, which makes me happy.

Everything else this week is up in the air until I talk to people about stuff. And things.

This is beautiful. Go look at it!

Dutch was kind enough to invite me over to chez Dunham last night so we could watch Game #3 of the World Series on their rather impressive flat screen TV. Unfortunately, the game was delayed by rain, but this was all right since it gave Dutch the chance to show me the first couple of episodes of the Bertie & Jeeves series with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. Laurie does an outstanding Bertie Wooster, while Fry is so good as Jeeves that I didn't even realize it was him until the end credits rolled. Yow.

World Series unfortunately was not as good; Phillies jumped out to an early 3-0 lead but Cole Hamels seemed to come apart after A-Rod clubbed what should have been a ground-rule double off a camera down the first-base line. Apparently the umpires had decided this would be a home run before the game THE FIX WAS IN and conferenced on it in the umpire room using video replays before confirming that it was a 2-run homer. I'm sure the constant drizzle didn't help Hamels, but the bullpen didn't do a lot better. Phillies offense also seemed to be in all-or-nothing mode as most of their runs came off solo homers (2 byJayson Werth) and the final score was a depressing 8-5. Here's hoping the weather is better tonight and that the Phillies can come back to tie it up.

Some linkagery for your Sunday: Stuff White People Don't Like and The World of Tomorrow (If the Internet Disappeared Today). The former seems more true of the UK than the States, although that may be because I'm not tied in well to either of the groups he talks about. (Instapundit and Moe Lane, respectively)

Happy birthday to digex!

...to geekboyonline and jamestrainor!

Well, as I said to those of you on Facebook, I went and kicked the tires at Blessed Sacrament, lit a fire, and filled out paperwork to sign up with the parish. The church building is modernist, but not oppressively so; the 1100 Mass is fairly traditional, with a choir and altar boys/acolytes and eucharistic ministers helping hand out Communion, so it's quite the three-ring circus. People actually took the time to talk with me a little when I handed in my paperwork, which was a pleasant change from every parish I've been to since...well, ever. This may actually be a parish community where that phrase isn't an oxymoron. So I'll be going back next week, probably to an earlier Mass, but not the 0900 Mass because that's the folk Mass. I hate folk Masses; they have really bad associations for me going back to my days as an Air Force brat in the 1970s, and if I can avoid them, I will.

On the secular side of things, I met with Messrs. therevdrnye and Groark at Five Guys for lunch and we discussed anime, manga, RP campaigns past and current, and the state of things in our respective lives. That was over too soon, but therevdrnye came over to my place and I dragged the drafting chair out of the kitchen into the newly-cleared living room for him. (Someday soon I will acquire actual chairs people can sit and relax in, or at least sit.) More discussions of RP campaigns followed, mostly revolving around Twilight 2000, until he had to shove off and retrieve his laptop, which was being beaten back into submission by some technically-inclined friends of his of the Mac persuasion.

So here it is 2200. I have an appointment tomorrow at the VA, and even if I didn't I'm too ragged out by the day's activities to want to stay up half the night playing internet spaceships. Even if lag-free fleet action is in the offing. Going to take pills, shoot up, and go to bed.

After various bureaucratic misadventures the VA turned me loose with a bag of antibiotics this afternoon, and fortunately P was there to help me shift things in her pickup truck. She also treated me to a belated (and low-carb!) birthday dinner at Malibu in Fairfax while we were waiting for huladavid to get back from marching & protesting.

I'm going to be laying low this week, continuing the cleaning of the apartment and tending to other errands while trying to remain horizontal as much as possible. I have fourteen days' worth of Clindamycin, and intend to give it every opportunity to smack down whatever evil germ -or germs- is making my leg miserable.

Well, the Twins lost to the Yankees 7-2, partially because the Yankees are just that good and partially because Ron Gardenhire is a retard who doesn't get that it's better to start Gomez and Span in center and right while DH'ing Kubel than to have Span and Kubel in the outfield and some random infielder playing DH. Honestly, how hard is this to figure out? Elsewhere, the Phillies whipped the Rockies 5-1 and the Dodgers beat the Cardinals, which is the part that gives me mixed emotions because honestly, I want California to fall into the ocean and destroy both of those goddamn teams. I suppose I hate the Dodgers a little less this year since the overrated Tony LaRussa (did you know he has a law degree? Yes, Tim, now STFU) is managing the Cards and I've hated him with a white-hot passion ever since his days with the A's.

No time to blather on and on about this, though; huladavid will be arriving in town around 1-ish, and I need to make myself and this apartment more presentable before he arrives.

Up way too late and had way too many Diet Cokes last night at the pre-reunion get-together in Greenbelt, but it was good times. Lots of folks I hadn't seen in 30+ years, lots of people from the class of '79 who remembered me for one reason or another, lots of good conversation and some interesting pix which will probably be posted o FB since LJ's picture galleries blow chunks.

All that Diet Coke made for painful burning leg wounds and not nearly enough sleep. I figure I got a little less than four hours before getting up, throwing on random clothes & damp socks, and rolling out to score a McBreakfast before doing the Foreign Service Officer Test, formerly known as the Foreign Service Exam. I signed an NDA so i can't really talk about it, but I'm fairly confident that I whipped that sucker and whipped it good. Here's hoping the folks in Foggy Bottom agree and hire my unemployed (but very very learned & experienced) ass for satisfying amounts of good old $$$,

Anyway, the test having been polished off in 90 minutes and a celebratory munch at Shilla consumed, I'm going back to bed and get a nap in before I do the laundry thing, after which I will do the picnic thing, and then I'll probably come home and collapse.

Woke up at 0900 and proceeded to do the leg squeeze thing for an hour -actually 90 minutes, since I was playing Civicrack and lost track of time. Morning sugar is mediocre, which is better than yesterday when it was pretty awful. May have to add pita bread and hummus to the "eat this and die" list.

Uncertain what to do today. I kind of sort of want to go outside, since it's not raining and I'm feeling an oots restless, but on the other hand the wallet is not encouraging wandering around with no particular place to go. I may compromise by taking some boxes of books to the storage locker and/or hitting the library; equally likely is that I'll stall out and wind up playing EVE for the next eight hours.

Hanging out with Mark was entertaining as usual. I'd brought my external drive so that I could introduce him to CONELRAD, but his Mac didn't recognize the drive, so he wound up downloading some tracks from Function Creep and Not A Gun. He found it as entertaining as I thought he would. :) After that we sat around talking about books, movies, TV, and aerospace history, which is of course his particular specialty. Good times.

Having eaten a (perhaps excessively) large lunch, I was okay with not having dinner until late, and so it was that I wound up at P's eating grilled cheese sandwiches made with raw cow's milk and sun-dried tomatoes. Pretty awesome stuff, especially with apples; so much so that I had some fairly vivid dreams and woke around 0500 this morning.

Off to Mr. Taylor's to burn meat & consume salad for lunch.

P wants to do a road trip, so this is going to be quick & dirty.

Most important: Alexandria accepted my application for substitute teaching. Fairfax County, on the other hand, deprecated my lack of classroom teaching experience and said they'd take me only as a substitute instructional assistant. Which counts as classroom experience, so it's a step toward the eventual goal of landing a FT teaching job.

Still no call from Don Beyer. For all I know they sold the Sportage for scrap and are hoping I don't find the fatal flaw in the Legacy they loaned me.

Smittypalooza was great fun, and the host has a recap here. Lots of good conversation in addition to meeting the legendary Paco, R. Stacy and Smitty their own selves, and some lovely ladies who had flown in from Arizona, Idaho and Michigan for the 9/12 rally*. All in attendance agreed that this would have to become a recurring event, so we might well see this happening on a monthly basis, or maybe only every six weeks. Much depends on whether Smitty was able to cover his tab with our contributions. :)

I said a couple weeks ago that I'd review Inglourious Basterds and Reservoir Dogs, which I saw while in Ocean City.
( Spoilers )

Finally, Allahpundit's account of 9/11. Original Twitter feed here. I read this when I got home early this morning, and it put me in a somber mood, remembering how the day went. (Ace)






*Also present was Matthew Vadum, who writes for the American Spectator.

Tremendously relieved to find that my substitute interview with Alexandria is Friday and not tomorrow. This means I have an extra day to heal up from the self-inflicted burns and maybe even get an uninterrupted night's sleep, which I sure didn't get last night.

No call from Don Beyer means no Sportage until tomorrow. At least.

One of the things that really annoys me about my current jobless state is that I'm not in a position to do anything for the growing group of friends who are having problems more serious than mine. I'm not used to this, and it bothers the hell out of me that all I can do is express sympathy and send encouragement through the internets.

Next week is going to be busy in a good way. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday morning, a meet-up with some conservative FB friends from out of town that evening, and PRSFS Friday night. Also, if I get there early enough, I'll be seeing a pre-screening of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone at the Japanese Embassy. So if nothing else, I'll be getting out of the basement more. :)

The Sportage isn't ready yet, and probably won't be until Wednesday or Thursday.

I'm registered for the October Foreign Service Exam, which for better or worse is right down the road from the Ye Chon. Going to brush up on my math a bit; sinec I've been immersing myself in foreign affairs these last two decades I don't see a lot of point in boning up on that.

Sunburns still hurt, and I suspect the burns are doing ugly things to my blood sugar levels since they zoomed up to 298 this morning after being pretty good all weekend. The VA advice line basically said they don't want to hear from me about it unless it goes over 300, so I guess I'm okay by their lights.

Most of my friends on Facebook are going "OMG IT'S THE END TIMES" over the Disney/Marvel deal. Personally, I could care less. chebutykin has what may be the most rational response to the whole thing; she thinks it'll be a good thing for both parties and perhaps for the comics industry as a whole. Implied in this is that the American entertainment industry may be moving toward a more Japanese model, where aspiring artists create comics which then become movies if they're really successful.

In spite of the sunburn, I am heading over to College Park shortly to assist therevdrnye with moving. Because this is what friends do.

It was a good weekend, and I'm very grateful to Kathy & Chuck for having me over to their place in Ocean City and being very generous and gracious hosts. I got more exercise and ate better than I usually do on the weekends, and if I came home with first-degree burns on most of my pale Black Irish skin, well, that's my fault for not putting on the sunscreen (as was suggested to me at least twice) or at least coming out of the sun after an hour or two instead of sitting there with my T-shirt off for four hours. You'd think I would have remembered the misery of sunburn from my junior high school days when Dad used to take me to the Knights of Columbus pool in Forestville, but nooooo...

The beach outing did give me the opportunity to rinse my wounds in the salt water and fry them in the sun, and some of the smaller leaks are now history because of this. So that was a big plus, more broiling of the wounds in the sun will follow unless my doctor says "OH GOD NO, STOP THAT AT ONCE!".
( A lot of whining about sunburn )

Pulled out victory in tonight's game of Kingmaker against the Dunhams by dint of old age and treachery. At one point Mason had all the Lancastrian heirs and I had the sole Yorkist (after having bumped off two of the others as his nominal ally) and then he -predictably- turned on me. Edward VI died to an event card pull, and then I managed to draw a Catastophe. Two of his most powerful lords got drawn off by peasant revolts, so I went after him and managed to nail one of the other heirs. Catastrophe then expired, and he piled on. I lost the Earl of Arundel, who with his offices was worth a good 100 troops, but managed to preserve my heir (who had already been crowned George I), and took off for the Irish Sea. As a parting gift, I sent a minor lord after his stack - and managed to bag the last Lancastrian heir. This put Beaufort into play, but Dutch and Brenda were too tired to want to keep playing.

So, I was treated to an excellent dinner with lots of fresh garden veggies and had a thrilling game of Kingmaker. Yeah, I should have been home assembling shelves and doing laundry, but being social with people is a Good Thing.

Futzed around some with the OB of a scenario I want to do in The Operational Art of War, because I'm bored with Bejweled Blitz and Civicrack and not in a good headspace to work on the APAzine and cover yet. (I wish to God they'd quit screwing around with the National Guard OB. ;_;)

Anyway...going to take the floppy drive, Failbox and some chikuns up to brian_edminster's place for grilling and hacking and stuff.

So...Saturday P and I got together to do the Goonmeet, which involved driving from Alexandria to Ashburn to the DC waterfront and back to Ashburn again. The Goonmeet went well; there were about a dozen Goons and Battlestars and IGNE guys there, which was a good turnout, and there was a lot of grilling and drinking and conversation. Awesome party barge was awesome; breeze off the Potomac was particularly fine. We'll have to do this again, if at all possible.

Got back home Saturday night ~0030 after a brief stop on the way home for coffee and filters, and thought I'd have problems with sleep since I really needed to be on the road for Baltimore to meet deathquaker and onsenmark in Baltimore for breakfast by 0700. Oddly, I woke at 0500 and couldn't get back to sleep, so all of Sunday's hegira was accomplished on FOUR HOURS SLEEP...and a buttload of caffeine. Anyway...motored on up to B-town, found the Blue Moon without much problem and arrived only 10 minutes late thanks to some incredible luck with parking spaces. The chorizo with eggs was great, the cinnamon roll was extremely good (I only took samples!) and the service was outstanding. This may turn into an annual thing.
( PIX BECAUSE IT TOTALLY HAPPENED )
Unfortunately breakfast was over far too soon because there were panels deathquaker wanted to attend, and onsenmark had to pack and check out. They did get me 90% of the way toward volunteering for staff at next year's Otakon -too old and experienced to gofer, thank you very much.
I then woke my niece up with texts and phone calls, and about 20 minutes later picked her up in front of the Baltimore Hilton, which at $138/night fails badly; no free breakfast, only 1 TV in the room, perks nonexistant. Welp. We then drove down to my apartment where she ogled my vast collection of anime and manga (ha, stuckintraffik, revolutionaryjo, and others - if she could have seen yours she would have plotzed!) while I changed my shirt. We then headed up to Frederick for a visit with brian_edminster and his lovely fiance.

Failbox was still fail; those primitive screwheads at MSI have a BIOS flashing procedure that insists on using a floppy drive and does not recognize modern innovations like thumb drives. There's also a possibility that the SATA drives are mounted too close together and the heat they're throwing off is messing things up. Joy. So the next thing on the agenda is to get an IDE floppy drive, remount the SATA drives, and try that reflashing thing again. At this rate I may be able to afford a a new box from Gateway before this thing is running without problems. In the meantime, it's back in my living room waiting for the next step.

Got my niece home around 2300, drove home, took meds, and fell over. Everything went black until 1100 today. Still kind of tired, but I took care of my obligations to the VEC and tried to get caught up on some other stuff online. As much time as I spent in the Sportage this weekend, I think there are a couple of things I need to go out and pick up tonight. We'll see what happens.

Well...yeah. Today is going to be mostly eaten by the Goonmeet tonight and preparations for it, since P has managed to screw up her ankle (again). So I need to start getting decent in order to roll out for Ashburn ~1400 so I can be there ~1500, which will allow some time for shopping (beer, dogs, buns & mustard) before we head downtown to the Gangplank Marina. Should be a good time, if truncated early since P has to work tomorrow and I have to get up early so I can do breakfast with my peeps deathquaker and onsenmark in Baltimore, since they're both there for Otakon. I'll also be picking up my niece from there and carting her back to PG, possibly by way of Frederick, but we'll see how that goes.

onsenmark is 37 today! Congratulations!

...to chocl8fiend!