Today, when I passed the Northwest Harvest bin, I noticed it was half-full of groceries. Mostly canned goods, dried pasta, dried beans, bags of rice, etc. I felt much better about people in general.
I thought up a new store today. A chic clothing boutique that caters to the modern cross-dresser, with only the finest in elegant clothing and accessories so that you can look your best as the other gender.
This morning as I entered the building where my office is, I noticed a rectangular box next to the door. It was a white box, open on one end with "Place donations to Northwest Harvest here!" printed in blue on each side. For those non-locals, Northwest Harvest is a local food bank and hunger relief charity.
I smiled, made a mental note to bring canned goods and jars of peanut butter, then looked into the box to see if anybody else had donated. No donations, but there was a Starbucks cup leaking some coffee and a spent napkin in there.
Presumably someone didn't read the box and simply mistook it for a garbage can, but considering there is a large garbage can on the other side of the door outside, I didn't think so.
I reached in and picked up the cup and napkin, blotted up the drops of coffee that had leaked out and then threw them away outside. People suck.
So I'm perusing the Internet. Nothing strange, just my usual friends, blogs and haunts when someone in describing someone said that he had "an INT of 3." Even though I'd been thinking of Sondheim, my brain started in with:
"So after all the rolling of dice, the DM gave me my character sheet and I saw that he had written, 'For DEX - 10. For INT - 3.' Well!
DEX 10, INT 3, gaming for my own enjoyment gaming 'cuz I ain't got employment That ain't it kid! That ain't it kid!..."
I had to go by the hospital today where Greg had his surgeries and when I got there, there was a black pickup truck parked in one of the scant parking spaces in front of patient discharge that wasn't for loading only. Inside the cab of the pickup was a black and white Springer spaniel that was panicking.
I initially heard the dog on the third floor of the parking garage where I had to park. I checked out the SUV next to the elevators thinking the sound was coming from there and that a dog had spotted me and was going crazy. No dog.
I heard the dog again on the way into the hospital itself and on the way back out. I still couldn't tell where it was coming from. When I got back to the third floor, I walked over to the railing and looked down. That's when I saw the head of the spaniel sticking out of the driver's side window. It was anxiously hopping from foot to foot, looking left and right, and whining. The whines went from a gentle squeak to full on panic mode. You know how a dog sounds when you step on its foot? That was pretty close to this noise.
The dog ran over to the passenger side window and continued looking right and left while making these awful noises. Since the truck was parked between the parking structure and the hospital itself, the sound of the dog's whines became amplified.
I wondered where the dog's owner was. I was hoping he or she wasn't far away as this dog was not having a good time of being separated in a strange place.
Finally, I got video of Onyx meowing like there was no tomorrow. This is her daily morning routine, and I mean DAILY. As soon as one of us moves in the morning she runs for the sink.
I didn't do any costumes for Halloween this year, choosing instead to spend the weekend quietly at home.
However, that being said, if I had the skill and money required to pull it off, I would have done a Prince Vultan costume from the 1980 "Flash Gordon" movie.
"I love my obstetrician. He took me from conception all the way to birth, and at the end, including all the hospital costs and such, it only cost me $10,000!"
I was reading an article from the Seattle PI website about what our lovely state senator Val Stevens had been saying about Referendum 71. Now, most of the comments below the story were pretty sane and supportive, but then there was this bozo:
The real problem with the issue?
My girlfriend and I have been together for five years, and have a child together, but NOWHERE are we (in our thirties) mentioned. Our group aren't considered because we aren't gay or old? If something happens to her, I'm out of the ER just as much as the chick in Seattle who's girlfriend died in that flood, but I'm neglected because I'm straight?
BS to it all...until it's a truly equal argument on both sides...I'm voting against REF 71. It has nothing to do with gay. It has everything to do with equality.
Hey, douchebag: YOU CAN GET MARRIED! You want on your girlfriend's insurance? MARRY HER. You want to be treated like a family member? No problem! GET MARRIED. You want equality? LET ME AND MY PARTNER GET MARRIED!
Recently, I was talking to some folks in my guild and someone mentioned that it was very hard to get invited to a pick-up group as a priest if you were playing the character with Shadow traits instead of Holy traits because those with Shadow don't heal as well as those with Holy. This got me to thinking, and then today, this coalesced in my head. With apologizes to vixyish:
While others seeking treasure scheme and plan A figure stands alone in Dalaran But no one needs the power he can wield For raiders only want those who can heal
Beware to those who heed Forsaken's call There may not be a need for you at all I guess it's just the nature of the beast For no one wants to group with you when you're a Shadow Priest
On the way into the grocery store today, I was accosted by two Cub Scouts hawking popcorn to raise money for their troop.
I thought to myself, Should I let them know why I won't be buying their popcorn even though I had been a Cub Scout myself? Why I will not in any way help them financially? How their organization shuns people like me and calls us "inappropriate role models for young men"?
"No, thank you," I said politely and went into the grocery store. There are times when advocacy is just not the right thing to do.
I was walking out the front door of my apartment this evening and was greeted with crisp, slightly nippy air carrying the delicate lilt of burning wood. I immediately thought of Christmas in San Diego.
You see, it usually doesn't cold enough in San Diego to warrant building a fire in a fireplace until December, so by the time one smells that scent, it's a few weeks until Christmas.
So it's early October and my brain just said, "It's CHRISTMAAAAASU!" (Yes, anything with an extended vowel sound followed by a terminating S picks up a Japanese whispered U these days. I'm weird.)
I'm done with a copy of The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes. I can't describe this one easily. It's a novel set in Victorian London that starts off like a murder mystery, but then rapidly goes weird places that I can't really talk about without spoiling it.
Comment if you would like it, and I'll send it to you!
Ah, daytime TV talk shows, where would we be without them? I was watching a program that I had taped of a new medical-based show to see what it was like.
Hoo-boy.
The host started one of his stories with the following: "The problem of overweight pets has become a national crisis!"
Woah! Hold the phone! Call the White House! We don't need health care reform, we need pet reform! NOW! March on Washington.
I was reading Facebook recently and a kid who I'd done shows with had posted a status where he asked for some help with his college requirements. It read:
is anybody out there able to switch there crew assignment with me? text me if your interested
It was very hard to not post the reply, "Just how did you manage to get into college?"
This morning on the way to work, I stopped at the grocery store to get something for lunch and of course, they had a mountain of Dan Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol. Now, while I like the kind of intellectual thriller that he writes, I don't like his repetitious writing style and how his intelligent protagonists can be so mind-crushingly stupid.
But, since it's been five years, I thought I'd flip to a random page and just read a little bit. So I picked up a copy, flipped to a random page and started reading.
She stared down at the symbols and thought, I have no idea what this means. She frowned and looked up.
I was playing World of Warcraft recently and as another player character wandered past me on screen I noticed that her guild name was "The Unstopables."
I wondered if their slogan was, "The Unstopables! You can kick our ass at PvP but you can't mine us!"
At work last week, I was heading down the hallway to my office when I was stopped by someone who had a tray full of desserts that was left over from a corporate meeting held in the building. She presented the tray to me and said, "Have one!"
There were two choices: a lemon meringue tart, or something with coconut sprinkled on top, and since I loathe coconut, I opted for the lemon meringue tart. She went on her way and I bit into it. The meringue slid off the top of the tart, landed sticky side down on my shirt and then slid down my shirt and pants until it fell with a delicate thud on the floor.
I picked up the now rather deflated dollop of meringue and went to go fix my sad, sorry state, which resembled collateral damage from a Three Stooges short. Thankfully, it came out with just a few gentle swipes of a wet paper towel.
As I left the men's room, I heard Gene Kelly say, "Dignity. Always dignity."
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jhitchin's journal
eh
really sleepy
reasonably decent
silly
irritated
blah
not too bad, really
cheerful