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A pan of brownies is a very dangerous thing.

Heh, more Probe is online.  I’m not sure if I’ve seen this episode, but it involves a science fiction writer.  I’m trying to figure out just how much of his contemporaries Asimov wrote into the character.  There was an article a while back about transferring YouTube videos to DVD.  I’d so it with this show.

Doing more drug research.  I can’t just name the drugs they might use in Weordan and describe their effects, you know.  It all has to make sense.

Afternoon drowsiness is setting in…

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Saturday stretched on and on.  DMing Rifts over Skype…was…interesting.  The connection with Chris wasn’t grand so we spent a lot of time reconnecting him.  That didn’t bother me too much because I was able use the time to prepare.  Chris did get a little out of hand with his shifting character background.  He said he had fun all in all, but I can see that he might have been somewhat frustrated.  I might be DMing tonight.  Not a whole lot of idea what I’m going to do.  Maybe I will use that one adventure only with Madhaven mutants instead of demony-types.

Sunday was just over too quickly.  Got up, found an updated player list and captain groupings in my mailbox.  Eric and I fiddled around with possible draft choices most of the day.  Alas, though as expected, many of the women I had wanted to pick became captains.  Draft took up a large chunk of the evening, even though Keith was picking three and a half of them.   I think we ended up with a decent team.  Picked Tom again and Eric I. and  Andy & Jee.  And so Cutting Can Be An Art is born.

Today, I need run.  And run.  And continue teaching myself CSS.  And…

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So, found this article via

ukskeptic

 this morning: Lawrence of Arabia was really a Zionist, historian claims.
” While the discoveries overturn many popular assumptions about Lawrence in Britain and much of the Arab world, they will come as less of a surprise to prominent historians…”  Or to me.  I’ve been slowly making my way through a book called T.E. Lawrence by his Friends (edited by A.W. Lawrence).  It’s a collection of generally short reminiscences about the man by people who knew him.  Included are contributions by Chaim Weizmann and L. B. Namier on the very subject of Eastern Politics, which support the notion of Lawrence as a Zionist…sort of.  While he was in favor of a Jewish homeland, and could see aspects of it that would be good for the Arab people, he was dubious of the Jewish people to pull it off and maintain it.  Sir Martin Gilbert, the historian bring this “new” information to light in his upcoming book, also notes that Lawrence “had a sort of contempt for the Arabs”.  And while I’m not all-knowledgeable on the subject, that would seem to be true as times. 

But the thing that knocks me over repeatedly about in our current society is the perceived incompatibility of support and criticism. 

Lawrence saw the faults of the Arabs and the Jews, even though he supported some of the interests of both and could see common good for both.  These are not incompatible things.

One can be patriotic and love one’s country, and still criticize the shortcomings of the current government.

One can love one’s children, but still point out and correct when said children are being utter brats.

(One can still think the in-progress manuscript should be finished, even though some sections suck sulfuric rocks and need work.)

Betterment only comes through the correction of what is at fault.  More likely than not, someone needs to be around to point out those faults because we’re not good at doing it ourselves.  Maybe this lesson will be learned eventually.

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Completely exanimate today.

Did a small amount of CSS coding for the VOTS site.
Did some rewriting.  Getting to know my characters.
Put together an amenable iTunes “party” mix based on Suzanne Vega, Sting, Dave Matthews, and Cake.
Did the dishes.
Didn’t fall asleep at 4pm like I have everyday since Tuesday.  It’s the loratadine.  Instead I felt like a nap at 5pm.
Ordered ginger broccoli chicken for dinner, even though I don’t care for broccoli.  Just wanted something different.

Don’t know exactly what tonight will hold.
Or tomorrow.
Sunday will definitely be league draft and the Oscars.

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Book #6 – A Terrible Beauty by Graham Masterton

Good, interesting setting.  Otherwise, lacking.  I’m okay with slowly laid out plots.  I’m okay with bringing in a new character halfway through a book.   I should be, I do it myself. 

What bugs me is when the plot meanders about until a character is introduced halfway through a book, and that ends up being your villain.   Could have been better if some elements were worked in earlier in the plot.  Could have been better if Masterton had spent less time describing torture scenes and worked some story telling magic by letting the reader get to know the killer without showing who it is.  Instead he’s purposefully vague about the killer by being completely distanced from her.  And sorry, I keep forgetting that unearthly beauty is short hand for “She’s got a penis in her trousers!”  And what was the point of mentally torturing the protagonist?  I was waiting for that to come into play, but really, it didn’t.  No pathos here.  Just a bit of blood and gore and a hermaphrodite.

I got past the first big Ricard part yesterday.  Before I fell asleep in my chair.  I closed my eyes for a minute and woke when I nearly pitched forward on to my desk.  Took a nap and then tidied a few things.  I somehow managed to get myself wrangled into a Rifts campaign via Skype.  It’s doomed, of course, but we’ll give it a go.

Today, I sent stuff off to Chris for the above mentioned campaign, and finished reading above mentioned book while burning DVDs and doing laundry.  Last load is just about to come up and then I’ll be back to Ricard’s makeover.  Sounds like we’re going out to practice tonight (instead of open play) so we can catch Chris on Skype.

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Never did get around to posting yesterday.  Meant to, didn’t.

To account for myself, yesterday I:
Wrote an AC article in the morning while watching Heroes.
Played around with the women’s league roster in the afternoon while stressing about how I want to rewrite Ricard.
Played disc.
Read.

Today I have:
Fiddled around with CSS while listening to Extra Life Radio.
Not played disc. No disc due to low numbers.
Talked to Eric about Ricard changes.

This afternoon at 2pm I will turn everything off aside from Word and Excel and work until 4:30 on Ricard.

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Working through drugs usage in Weordan, which has led me to doing research on drugs and methods of taking them.
Link of the day:  Erowid Experience Vault.  Dude, people do a lot of strange things.  Nutmeg?  Seriously, people ‘do’ nutmeg?

Wish I could find that pages that had a list of esoteric names for medieval jobs…

Free wrote on the man I’d like Ricard to be.

Kicked “Wicked, but Effective” back out the door.