Nobody, darnit

Last night I played Munchkin for the first time. Now I want to make my own deck using the characters from Oglaf. <-- Totally not work safe.

I've been researching Australian Aborigines for a story idea. I found an archive of old newsletters (1969-1974) from one small community. The newsletters are a combo of typewriter and handwriting, and are always fascinating. Here's an ad from one of them:

I went hiking with my dad today, in honor of Father’s Day. We hiked up into the Chuckanuts and got only a little lost in the winding labyrinth of trails up there. The first part of the trail goes like straight up the hill, and the second part meandered in these ridiculous loopy switchbacks down a gentle slope were you could literally get from one bit of the trail to the next in two steps, but no, they wanted to mess with you and make you go four times farther than you had to.
This is a hike that ten years ago, I could have just barely made, but now I can charge up the hill without too much effort. My dad actually commented on how much better shape I’m in than when I was a teenager, which just seems backwards to me.
Dad also brought me official documents giving me power of attorney if anything happens to him, as well as his will. He told me to make sure I pay myself for executing his estate, that that will make it feel easier. All this means it’s probably time for me to get a real, grown up safe deposit box.
Then I saw Up, while still in my hiking boots, having just returned from an adventure with my dad. <3 That movie totally made me cry, and I can count the number of crying movies on one hand. (Life is Beautiful and Brokeback Mountain are the only ones I can think of right now, but I know there’s a couple more.)

Oh yeah. There were two boys (maybe thirteen years old) at the mall, who, when I passed them, said, “I stepped on a cookie!” Having bought my movie ticket, I had only $3.50 with which to entertain myself for over an hour. I bought a notebook and pens from Target, and settled into one of the comfy chairs in front of JCPenney’s to write. The afore-mentioned boys eventually came over and threw themselves on the couch, announcing alternately “I stepped on a cookie! (He stepped on a cookie) (It was a mean cookie)” and the depth of their boredom. They said “I stepped on a cookie!” to everyone who passed by. I was truly impressed with their perseverence, and if I hadn’t been engrossed in my writing, i would have struck up a conversation about this cookie. What kind was it, after all?

I really, really looked forward to driving home around the peninsula. I used to go out there all the time as a kid, and there's so much beauty and fascinating things to be found. The hitch was that the Keystone ferry run is a tricky one, so they've witched to a really small ferry that requires reservations. So we had to be in Port Townsend and 6:45. We estimated the trip would take 3.5 hours of driving, so leaving at 1 should give us plenty of time. If we arrived early, we could hang out in Port Townsend and have ice cream.

We woke up to 4 inches of snow on the ground.

I got up early because I'd promised Nancy Kress I'd play chess with her. Before I did that, though, I took one last walk to the World's Biggest Spruce. Thin tree limbs bent over the trail, weighed down with snow. Before I discovered that a simple tap shook off the snow and sent the branches springing upright, I ducked under them and got snow up my butt. I'm glad I went though--the snow was pristine and the marsh frosted in a thin, uneven layer of ice.

Back in the lounge, I think I just managed to eat a Clif bar before Nancy showed up. Her portable chess board was a warped sheet of card stock, and we had to use two pennies for pawns, but those pennies murdered me in that game. She had a solid barrier of pawns in the center, which I managed to break up too late. Fortunately, we're both terrible at chess, and both made boneheaded moves. But when I was on the offensive and had her cornered, I skipped an obvious move that would have sacrificed my bishop to try something else. I got a little overconfident, and then I was screwed.

Nancy's great. At breakfast, she asked us what sort of stuff we liked to read, saying she wanted to know what the young people were reading--magazines, new writers, old writers. She knew exactly how to stimulate interesting and informative conversation. She does a lot of teaching at Clarion and other workshops, and she's wonderful at it.

Later, snowballs were thrown at tbclone47 and tiny snowmen were made.

When we finally left, there was just a little slush on the road. Just a little ways up Highway 101, we found a rusty, burnt-out old...place. We saw a few that were in use, but couldn't tell what it was. It consisted of a tall, silo-like fornace, with a shaft leading to the top, presumably to dump material in for burning. There's an open covered area, and that's about it. I speculated it might be a charcoal-making place. If anyone knows what it is, let us know. Anyway, it was full of upside-down cars, amusing graffiti and random bits of mechanical equipment. There was a bathroom with a shower that had been used for target practice.

We passed Kalaloch, one of my favorite places in the world, but instead visited Ruby Beach, with its sea stacks and maze of driftwood.

Then we went through Forks.
None of us like Twilight, so we thought it funny to dab glitter on our faces and take our picture with the Welcome to Forks sign. I'd wondered if Forks would cash in on Twilight, since it's one of the poorest, most desolate towns in the state. I didn't realize how much they'd cash in. The lady at the Chamber of Commerce was basically Chief Fangirl, and from the posters and "We <3 Edward and Bella" signs everywhere, you'd find it hard to tell there was anything else in Forks. Chelsea bought some of the homemade-looking souvenir stickers. We got a packet with a map of relevant places in town, and a quiz. Every place in town has Bella Burger or Twilight Sandwich. Reportedly, we're not the only people to run through there with glitter. Keffy noted it was a strange game, with the girl at the Subway pretending we weren't fans (who were pretending to be fans) and us pretending we weren't there to act like idiots.

PS If vampires really did base their school-going habits on whether it was sunny or rainy in the morning, they'd be screwed, because the weather changes CONSTANTLY. We cycled through rain, sun, snow and hail just in the half hour ro so we were there.

We did indeed miss our ferry, but Audrey, Chelsea and I wandered through Port Townsend, looked at masses of frilly white sea anenomes, and had ice cream. All the shops were closed by that point, and it's a good thing, because there's lots of fun, affordable stuff in that town.

We didn't get home until midnight, and we had to dodge a drunk driver around Alger, but other than that, I've had the most fun I've had in a long time.

My companions took ten zillion photos, so hopefully those will follow.

"The winner of the $500,000 lottery drawing came forward Saturday to collect his prize, and the man who will pocket a half-million dollars from a raffle designed to benefit a sex abuse victims charity is a three-time sex offender." Irony in Alaska.

Today's batch of synchronicity has brought me -- through Wil Wheaton and Keffy -- a wealth of Star Trek fan music videos. Considering they all have almost exactly the same clips, I think it just goes to show how editing and music really make the story.

Star Trek meets Monty Python:



Broke Trek (In which Spock is awkward an cute)



Star Trek meets Nine Inch Nails (In which Spock is awkward and a rapist)



And one last one, for those who like to imagine the Enterprise crew as sailing through the stars finding ever newer and stranger drugs to do:

When I heard that Sarah Palin was "going rogue", the phrase didn't bother me. Apparently this is because "going rogue" is only an acceptable phrase in science fiction and fantasy (and spy thrillers). Which leads us to this paragraph from the entry at Language Log:

"It's interesting — but not surprising — that (some) political operatives think of their candidates in the way that others think of robots, animals, elves, and death-squad members: useful but dangerous creatures whose initiative needs to be carefully restrained by programming, training, or magical spells."

I got this from my co-worker:

When Lolcat's fame started to dwindled but he still spent money like water he had to find a new source of income. And like so many other washed up celeberities he turned to hard drugs, sex tapes, talk shows and kidnapping...

...I hope they hasn't hurt my Fume.

-R

(I don't has any pics of my catz here at work to lol for you)

Begin forwarded message:

From:< --------->
Date: August 28, 2008 5:50:05 PM PDT
To: <---------->
Subject: We have hijacked your baby

Hey We have hijacked your baby but you must pay once to us $50 000. The details we will send later...

We has attached photo of your fume

(attached ZIP file)

I just flushed my mp3 player down the toilet.