I received the first 2 seasons of Enterprise for my birthday from Tigs. We also got season 3 of Stargate from DVDswap still in it's shrink-wrap. It even had a Wal-Mart sticker on it. The swapper said they just didn't have time to watch it. I'm wondering if it was acquired illegally? However I can't seem to drum up any indignation that someone may have stolen it from Wal-Mart.

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1. What's one of the nicest things a friend has ever done for you?

Probably the going away party that Eric set up for me was the nicest.

2. What's one of the nicest things a stranger has ever done for you?

There have been so many little things.... :-)

3. What is a trait in another person that you instantly admire, and that draws you to them?

If they're big readers it usually gives me something to talk about with them.

4. What is a trait in another person that instantly repels you, and prevents you from forming a close relationship with them?

Being a smoker tends to repel me pretty quickly.

5. Time to vent: tell us about something rotten someone has done to you.

When our ex-neighbors urinated on my car... twice.

6. Describe where you grew up:

I grew up in Lancaster City PA, right next to F&M College.

7. Do you wear any jewelry?

Not currently, but I've worn rings in the past.

8. What do you have too much of?

Things to do, I have way too much of that.

9. Who is a fool?

Everyone sometimes.

10. What's your nickname?

DM – for either Dungeon Master or DavidMonster

11. How do you feel about spicy food?

I think spicy food is yummy.

12. What kinds of condiments do you add to food in order to spice things up a bit?

Mustards

13. Not counting salt and pepper, what's your favorite flavor enhancer when cooking?

Mustard

14. What's the spiciest food you've ever eaten?

Thai I think…

15. In what way might some other aspect of your daily life be spiced up, and what's keeping that from happening right now?

For the moment I actually like my spice pretty well confined to my food. Right now I've got enough other things going on that spice in my life would just give me heart burn.

16. If you knew that you had only one day left to live, what would you do for the 24 hours?

I’d start the day by making breakfast (everyone’s favorites) then I’d go for a hike with Tigs and Lucy, and have a picnic lunch with them. Then take Virginia out to dinner, something nice and romantic, maybe on a sail boat in the Chesapeake.

17. Do you think that life has meaning?

It has all the meaning that you bring to it.

18. What was your favourite childhood toy/object, or some of your favourites?
(Remember childhood according to the United Nations is anywhere from 0-18 years, so this is a fairly broad span of time).

Joggy Lion

19. When you clasp your hands, do you put your right thumb over your left thumb, or your left thumb over your right thumb?

Left thumb over right

20. If you had to teach the most ignorant person on earth the most difficult thing you have ever learned, how would you go about doing it?

Slowly! I’d start with the basics and take it step by step, breaking it down into its smallest components.

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So a new dishwasher installed will cost about $500. Well we don't have that right now, so we searched the internet for a cheaper solution.

( The solution )

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I've found a game board that has just about everything I'm looking for. This looks more like a museum piece then a game board.

( I want it... )
More then that, I want to build it!! And then game on it!

I am posting this from the new house, where we now have internet access, and the rooms are looking fuller as we shuttle boxes of stuff that can fit in our cars (rather then in the truck we're getting tomorrow).

In fun car news, my check engine light came on and I brought it into the shop this morning. It's going to cost about $1600 once all is said and done. However they have to order parts, so we'll get that all taken care of on Wednesday-Thursday.

In less depressing news all seasons of Star Trek are selling for $35 each. (Sorry silentrequiem, but I had to) Seasons 1 & 2 of Enterprise will be shipped out to me shortly.

I’m so glad that the accounting test that was originally scheduled for this week was pushed back to next week. On the other hand if it hadn’t, I probably would have spent more time studying this past weekend. So either way…

After work Wednesday night I went straight to the “meet and greet” up in White Marsh. Overall I think it went really well for what it was. It’s kind of hard to gauge on two 5 minute interviews, but I *think* I may get a call back, even if it’s simply because I’m an internal candidate. I decided to go in my scrubs after tigergladys convinced me that it was a good idea. Her reasoning was that this being a very preliminary interview, the guy coming in directly from work wearing scrubs stands out against the horde of guys wearing dark suits. It made sense to me! Now we’ll see if it pays off.

Thursday after work I headed directly for school, as I still had the make up test to take. It was a bigger hassle getting there, signing in, and waiting for them to take me back to take the test then it was to actually take the test. I’m pretty sure I only got one question wrong, and that’s because I couldn’t remember a vocab word. It was a fill in the blank question! Once the test was over I went and joined tigergladys at the dog club to help pack for the event this weekend. After that we went home, ordered Chinese, and finished the first disk of season 2 of Bones.

This weekend will be a busy one. There is an agility trial down in Millersville where I’ll be entering the scores for the runs. Then there is the usual First Saturday activities up in Frederick. We wont be getting there as early as we usually do, because of the agility trial, but that’s ok, cause most of the stuff tends to go on in the evening anyway! Plus Brainstorm is open till 7!

Next week’s business management class has been cancelled for unknown reasons. This is fantastic news as I can now use that time to get some serious studying done for my accounting test, something I’m not going to get much of this weekend.

You know what I’m going to miss doing this weekend though? Painting. I could probably squeeze a little bit of time in to do that, but that’s time I know I should be studying. The guilt wouldn’t be worth it this weekend. So no painting, and that’s ok.

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1. What is your favorite color? Forest Green
2. What colors do you like to decorate with? Greens and blues
3. Is there a color that you absolutely hate? No. There are some that are completely inappropriate for some things (hunter orange for bedroom walls for example), but none I hate.
4. Which colors look best on you? As rarely as I wear it I like a strong red.
5. Which colors do you wear most often? Light blue scrubs.
6. How long can you hold your breath? About a minute, probably longer if I really needed to.
7. How long do you wait to cut your hair? Cut? I trim it when the ends get bad, but no cutting.
8. How long do you normally wait at the grocery? I usually only wait a minute or two in line.
9. How long can you sing a song without getting the lyrics wrong? It depends on the song!
10. How long is the best relationship you've been in? Well the best would be this one, and it’s been 4 years, 8 months, 12 days.
11. Of the people in your life, who is Most Likely to Succeed? Me! Accounting, here I come!
12. Of the people in your life, who has the Dreamiest Eyes? Tigs
13. Of the people in your life, who is the Cutest Couple? Lucy and Tonks
14. Of the people in your life, who is Most Changed? Eric
15. Of the people in your life, who is the Geekiest? Oh man… the levels of geeky that pervades my friends makes it really hard to quantify.

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And in a total moment of geekery I would so love to do this. Unfortunately that’s the same night as agility class.

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Meant to post this last night....

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

This is the first of an annual series of short story collections written by the fans. Basically it's published fan-fiction. The rules for submission require that you can't have published more then 2 other works to be published in this. So some of these stories are really raw, and some are just downright bad. The Next Generation ones are probably the worst of the lot, but there were bad ones in each section, except DS9, which only had 2 stories, both of which were decent. I think the only ones I really enjoyed were a story about Data and a deep space encounter where the enterprise was almost lost that took all of a couple of seconds. The other was one where the Enterprise went on an adventure without it’s crew.

Hit by a Farm
or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn
By Catherine Friend

tigergladys ordered this one, and this weekend while I was waiting to go out, I picked it up off the coffee table and started to read. It wasn’t long before I was laughing my way deeper into the book. If you’ve ever thought about working on or even owning a farm, you need to read this book. And even if you haven’t, you probably know someone who does have those thoughts. This is then the book for you (and them)!

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
By Christopher Moore

What do you get when you mix a small town who’s psychiatrist has taken everyone off their meds, a drug lord, an ex-C-movie starlet, a stoner sheriff, and a prehistoric monster? A romping good time!

Alone
By Admiral Richard E. Byrd

Ever want to get away from it all? This is the tale of one man who did. Admiral (ret.) Richard Byrd, as part of an Antarctic scientific team decided to set up a meteorological base about 100 miles further to the south then the primary base. Further south then anyone had ever done before. The bitter cold and creeping darkness weren’t the only obstacles that had to be overcome. This is a compelling tale of a man’s struggle to survive in one of the most inhospitable places on the planet.

I should be more tired then I am. I've been busy, both physically and mentally. On Thursday I helped load up the equipment needed for the agility trial this weekend. This included all the jumps, the teeter, the dog walk, all the tunnels, plus several hundred pounds of sand bags. Friday I mostly did homework. Saturday was spent at the agility trial, and at the park, both with Lucy. Today we were back at the agility trial after hitting the farmers market this morning. Then when the agility trial ended we helped pack everything back on the truck, came home, and then I went to help unload the truck. Granted they were mostly done by the time I showed up, but still. I should be more tired.

I'm reading a Star Trek book of short stories right now. It's the first of the Strange New Worlds series. A yearly publication of the best fan submitted (non-professional) stories. For the most part, it's awful. You can really tell it was the first year they did this. Most of the stories, the authors just don't have the characters voices. So far the best ones are the ones that focus on secondary characters, the Data story, and the story about the Enterprise D without any crew on her. Luckily, the stories are short and so pass quickly. I have to say though that this is one that is going to be relisted onto paperback swap very quickly.

Games Workshop is releasing a new Chaos Space Marines Codex in September. From what I've read online so far, I'm rather disappointed by it. Compared to the current (for the next couple of weeks anyway) codex it's very bland. Chaos armies have always been some of the most characterful and diverse to be fielded on the gaming board, and yet this new codex drastically changes some things, removes numerous options, and reduces the 11 types of lesser demon to a single uninspired unit that is more bland then raw tofu. In some ways I'm glad I don't play much 40K any more, and when I do play I can use the old codex.

In other gaming news, Wizards of the Coast has annouinced that 2008 will see the release of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. While I am neither surprised nor disappointed, I'm also not interested. I have more then enough books to run D&D in a number of different editions, (though I did recently get rid of most of my 2nd Edition collection) so when I play again, it'll be using one of them.

With all this recent gaming news and my reactions to it, I've been wondering about my state of mind. Why am I so resistant to these changes? Is it because of my limited gaming time, that I don't want to take the time to learn something new right now? Or am I just getting old, and am now ready to sit in my rocker and reminisce back to when playing an elf meant you had a level cap of 12, used magic and swords, and that's the way it was, and we liked it that way. And how kids these days with their new-fangled elves with classes are spoiled rotten. And get off my damn lawn you brats!

Poll #1041969 Old or Busy?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Am I getting old, or just too busy?

I'll leave it up to you!

This makes me sad. I haven't seen it yet, but... there's a plot? They picked them to be the writers? Man....

I don't even know if there is any hope at all.

I had things I wanted to write about... Last night in fact something happened that I said out loud to tigergladys that I wanted to post about, and now I can't remember what it was.

Nope, still can't remember. Ah well.

Yesterday we were considering going down to DC to see all the cherry trees in bloom, however the unseasonably cold weather combined with Tigs suffering from bronchitis (again), and having no idea where to park in DC for less then the down payment of a small house made us head out to Frederick instead. We walked around the down town area about 3 times, hitting the usual places (Two Paws Up, Ten Thousand Joys, and The Trail House) and Lucymonster visited with everyone she could!

When we got home we snuggled on the couch and watched the first disk of the first season of Star Trek Voyager. I really think that they should have spaced episodes 2 and 3 farther apart. They were really too similar. In fact the treknobabble was almost exactly the same.

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What if Joshua Bell played for over 1,000 people, and they didn't even notice?

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I tried to sign up for my summer classes. It seems I have to take a placement exam before they will let me, so I'm gonna get out of work a little early tomorrow and do that. Can you say waste of time? I have 2 college degrees done already, what are the chances that I'm going to fail at an exam that covers such things as basic mathematics? Needless to say it's silly, but then I was expecting a good portion of this whole exercise to be silly. I just need to remember that the goal is worth a year or 4 of silly. Besides it's free!

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What the hell is up with the weather? Seriously, I left New England, and expected that wild shifts in temperature wouldn't follow me. Well, it seems they did. It was in the 80's this week, and it snowed yesterday.

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I've posted a couple of role playing things to e-bay. They are items I've never used, and I know I'll never use, so I'm clearing the shelf space for things I'd rather have! Like seasons 4 & 7 of Voyager!

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I was looking for some computer game recommendations. Both Tigs and I really enjoyed Diablo II and are looking for something else pretty much exactly like it.

I was also thinking of picking up one of the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games. Which one should I go for, or does it not matter much?

Along the same lines, what is everyone's experience with The Sims?

I’m of two minds about this whole daylight saving time thing. On the plus side is the extra hour of light at night during which we can do stuff. Said stuff includes painting, playing with the puppy outside, and generally fun activities. On the negative side it means that the sun is barely up by the time I get to work, I lost an hour of sleep last night, and it screws up my internal clock for at least a couple of weeks. *sigh*

There are two things you can count on in life. Last night I started to tackle the taxes part of that duo. I say started because Tigs and I moved last year. For those of you who have not moved to another state in your adult life, let me share the excruciating joy that it brings at this time of year. You see, even if you have an insanely simple set of federal taxes, the states in their infinite wisdom have to have a special form for those who leave or come to either of their fine dominions. This form of course requires at least 2 other forms, possibly more, to complete. These forms are not included in the booklet they send you (if they sent it to you) and so require multiple trips to the computer to print out.

Helpful hint, make sure you print the correct year's forms!

In over 3 hours of work, I finished most of my taxes (I think) and started Tigs’. So far things look good, especially seeing as we were both unemployed for at least a month, maybe more, so our rebates should help us to pay off our debt. Always a plus!

Last night we also finished off DS9. The final scene in Vic’s with most of the main cast still makes me tear up. I remember sobbing when it first aired. Tigs pointed out something about it too. I don’t remember exactly how it was phrased but it was something like “Well, I guess you liked it at least $700 worth” and it’s true. I really do like it that much. I probably like it more then that, although what kind of Quark fan would I be if I spent more for it than I had to?

I haven't touched the keyboard in weeks. Tonight I'm getting back on the bench! Well, actually it's a chair, but you get the idea. Also, I think I'm going to replace this icon with one of Odo playing the piano at Vic's. I'll probably have to do the screen capture myself, but that's ok, it'll make it more personal that way!

A big thank you to Tigs, without whom my posts would be a mess of miss-used grammar.

From Thursday:
Subtitle: I am a giant dork when it comes to food, and I will probably never be a food writer.

Last night I did a fair amount of cooking. I put a potato and bean soup in the crock pot in the morning, and when I got home I fried up some onions to toss into it. I chopped up the onion, and put it in the frying pan. Then I returned to the fridge and thought, “Well, I might as well toss in some garlic too!” and looking into the fridge I noticed some mushrooms from a little while back. “Those are going to go bad if I don’t use them up.” So I grabbed the mushrooms and the garlic, chopped them up and tossed them in the frying pan. Then I thought to myself “I can have the soup, but what will Tigs eat for dinner?” You see, Tigs doesn’t eat soup, potatoes, or beans (unless it’s in good chili) because they are gross. Also she had a terrible migraine. So I looked in the freezer (there was't much else in the fridge) and pulled out a bag of Quorn chicken bits. I nuked them to defrost them, and then tossed them in the frying pan as well, and put on a pot of rice. It ended up being a very yummy dinner. I thought a lot while making this, as you can tell. I ended up adding a couple of tomatoes to the soup, along with a seasoning packet that came with the beans, salt, pepper, and basil. After I finished my rice dish I then had a bowl of soup. It was good too! I ended up filling the 3 remaining Pyrex bowls with all that I made, and put the biggest one in the freezer. I still have some chili in the fridge too!

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From Today:

Saturday Tigs and I took the Toyota Camry in for its safety inspection so we can officially register it here in MD. Seeing as it had been inspected not all that long ago when it was registered in North Carolina, and was inspected again back in August, and had new tires put on it 2 months ago, we felt reasonably sure that it would pass or only have a small amount of work to be done. Nothing more then $500 or so. However, when we got the call saying that there were over $2,000 worth of repairs, we were to say the least, shocked. According to the place we took the car to the damage is as follows:

The outer CV boots are split with no grease ($710)
All 4 wheel bearings are loose and need to be replaced ($478)
All 4 struts are bottoming out and need to be replaced ($993)

Oh plus new wiper blades. *rolls eyes*

Mind you the car, being 17 years old, is worth maybe $900.

We were not yet panicking, as the car still seemed to be driving fine, so we picked up the car and went home. We have until the 16th of February before the temporary registration expires to make a decision. Unfortunately, just going without the car is at this point is not an option. While there is some public transportation in Baltimore none of it goes where we need to go. The route to Tigs’ workplace was discontinued in December. The route to mine would be somewhere around 4-5 hours round trip every day, and would be more expensive than gas. (Also, we just renewed the insurance to the tune of $1300 last week.)

So, what are we going to do? First, we’ve scheduled an appointment with the Toyota dealership to take a look at the car. Somehow I doubt that this level of damage occurred in the last couple of months. If there is that much damage, then we are looking at replacing the car, using this one as a trade in before the temporary registration runs out. The most likely replacement will be a used Camry, Civic, or Accord. (Tigs wants a Camry, you've got to admit that 17 years is pretty good advertising.) Right now we are researching online, and tonight we plan to visit a dealership. On Thursday when we deposit our paychecks we’ll be talking to the bank about financing through them.

If only we could hold out another month or two, financially it would be a lot better. We’d have a lot more cash available for a down payment.

The thing about it is we aren’t panicking. (Tigs is panicking.) There isn’t a need to, amazingly enough. (Because she has bad credit and no money and she has to be the one to get the loan.) We are finally at the cusp of being financially secure, and while this is a pain, it’s not going to break us. (Although we may not eat for several months.)

Comments in parenthesis were written by tigergladys.

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I sorted through more of the miniatures that I have all boxed up, and picked out which ones I actually want to do something with, and which ones I don’t. For instance, back when I was at Sarge’s, a company called Foundry wanted us to carry their stuff, so they sent us a box of some random minis. Vikings, witch doctors, chicks with guns, elves… random. Those can now be found on e-bay. On the other hand there were a couple of Mordheim minis that I’m looking forward to painting. At the moment there is a warlock that is high up there on my want-to-paint list. I’m going to hold off on painting anything I really want to keep, and see if I can clear through some of the massive backlog of minis I just want to paint and then sell.

Sometimes it’s nice to have all the variety I could want, but sometimes it’s just overwhelming. It is especially overwhelming when it is hard to fit in the closet.

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Sometimes Star Trek makes me sad. Other times... no, wait, still sad. What is it with these people?? Trek is supposed to be about a bright future for mankind. Yet they aren't giving me anything to be hopeful about now...

I'm gonna go practice the keyboard now.

( My Interests Collage! )

Light FM is the music of choice for most offices, the one I work in included. Now, much of what is played is music from the 70’s through today. This isn’t really a problem for me, except that for artists who have a dozen or more albums they play the same one or two songs, every day. I really need to get some headphones for the IPod…

It seems that with the passing of the Labor Day weekend summer really is over. Since then the fog and cooler breezes definitely have the feel and smell of fall upon them. It makes me wonder if there is any good apple picking to be found in Maryland. I hope so, as it was one thing I really enjoyed doing last fall.

So what you don’t know about the past week is that tigergladys’ mother was down visiting us from Tuesday night till Saturday morning. I’m just gonna leave that alone to sink in.

Saturday was also the birthday of Star Trek. 40 years ago Captain Kirk and the crew of the starship Enterprise first began to boldly go where no man had gone before. And now 40 years, 5 captains, and 7 ships later, the dream and hope that Gene Roddenberry showed us that night is still a guiding light. Here is to 40 more years!

So, there has been a press release the Star Trek XI is in the works. According to the report, the story will focus on Spock and Kirk's early years at Starfleet Academy and their first mission.

Can you hear the Trek fans crying out in pain? CAN YOU?!?!?!

As if we didn't have lots of evidence that prequels are generally a bad idea!

Now, I can't say anything about JJ Abrams. I've never seen Alias, or Lost, and I have no plans to watch Mi:III.

I point you to this most accurate comic on the situation as it now stands.

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As a distraction from this horrible news I ask those in the greater DC area to click below!



( Have you ever been bored at work? )

Yesterday tigergladys and I went out to Home Depot to pick up some bins to pack our winter clothing into. This isn't the first time we've gone to do that. Yet everytime one of us says "Ok, it's warm! Lets pack the winter clothes" the temperature then immediately drops 10-20 degrees. You can see the dark clouds roll in, frost form on the windows, and mother nature point and laugh at us. Well, we shall be deterred no longer! The winter clothing shall be packed!

Peace, Love, and dear gods let someone a Paramount/Viacom realize what a bad idea this is...