Whispers in the Windstorm

Oh, my GOD, has that song been stuck in my head. And it's a terrifyingly depressing song, it is.

LOTR went better than I expected. Rob wasn't obsessed about Greenleaf, and indeed actually built one or two decks I was creatively impressed with. I figure in about three weeks I'll be annoyed to death with them - or I'll start packing Terrible As The Dawn just for sport. But Charlie, Rob and I played three three-player games and they were all right. Maybe there's hope for the dear boy. He's a nice guy - which is part of the problem - but he's a pro player in a casual player's body. Sigh.

Monday night was pretty keen. After a bit of misnavigation on my part (in which I was delightfully accompanied by phone), I arrived at Sebastian's place. We played Kung Fu Chaos for a bit, and in Freestyle mode I totally kicked. That shotgun limit break is just whacked. Anyway, we then watched Season 2 of Red vs. Blue. Sebastian says it's more coherently laid out than Season One, and it's pretty darn good. I'm surprised it can be done with just the basic Halo game. The switching back from Red to Blue can be disconcerting, but the sweeps over the landscape help. Then I showed them a little Foamy the Squirrel, and they were unimpressed. Hmph. They're not getting into the cult, that's for darn sure.

Yesterday at work was annoying and busy. Plan documents are starting to sweep my way - I've got four on my desk that are halfway through, and two already done this week. And it's only a three-day week. In addition, Rick HAS to have a Powerpoint presentation done today, so I've been running that down, too. I was also tired after my fruitless attempt to pull away from chatting and HL2 on Monday night, so I don't think I was really in a mental frame for writing Amber - hence my post on the OOC thread, maudlin and all. I'm feeling okay right now, and the afternoon promises to be free. So I've got hope.

(But LORD do I feel rotten for having let it bake so long. And my players are KILLING me with their patience, bless 'em.)

I also have to write more for Laughing Boy - but I hit his first Flashback so right on the money that it's hard to go further. (And yes, Kathy, I owe you two files. I tried to send them once, but apparently I hadn't updated my email at home for current addy. Again tonight.)

Matt tried to set up a lunch, but he's way tired. I might try to find my way to Crooked Hat Games tonight, as he's playing a tournament there. (Might sneak up on Brian, too - little rascal that he is.)

And I wish someone would take my car money and buy me a newer car. Putting down so much money is terribly intimidating for me, even though I [b]do[/b] need one that can make long trips. To Iowa, dear. :)

Feelin' pretty good.

Eat Snacky Smores.

P.S. I will try to be online and connected to AIM for most of Friday. (You hear that, Kathy and Karen? AIM! Not MSN, which not only has a lesser interface in my view, but also appears to be randomly activating (sorry about that, Kathy).

Or at least, it's certainly making me suffer for my enjoyment.

Let's reverse this entry and talk backwards. First, this morning.

Got up at 8:16. AGAIN. Icky. Threw on my stuff, put White Rain on my hair as a totally inadequate substitute for shampooing, and rushed to the car. The section of Dundee immediately adjacent to my work is still closed, so I'm taking Palatine to work. (I could take Route 22, but it's got many more bottlenecks.) Went a lot less smooth than yesterday - I think I left two minutes later than yesterday, and arrived about 20 minutes later. Half a lunch for me. Got to work, had a bagel and an apple and found out that Outlook was down. Said "Unable to display the selected folder or item. The attempt to log on to the Microsoft Exchange Server computer has failed." In addition, the scanner continues to not like us. We had a guy from the copier company come out to look at the scanner. He managed to figure out that it was more than likely a result of our server thinking that it's maxed out on hard drive space. So we await the tender attentions of the good people at Sterling to look at our hard drive, our virus protection, AND our email system. Oh, the joy they will have.

After putting that in motion, I started in on today's workload, and since they can't scan things (yayyyy!), I have a respite from counting. So it's all good. :)

(Mid-write update - we can no longer back up files. The server is so full that the catalog for a backup tape can't be stored anywhere. The whole server is going to Heck in a handbasket, and Sterling appears to have given a 'whenever we get there' response. Wonderful people.)

After I got home from Mike's house last night, I told myself that now was a good time to clean off my bed, bring my laundry downstairs, and tidy for an hour. I then proceeded to play Ratchet and Clank 3 until 3:30AM. In some respects, it's nastier than Diablo in the addictiveness angle. While Diablo encourages you to continue to play through loot drops and leveling, it can be a very sedate game at times. Excluding the time spent loading levels, RC3 is rather adrenaline-filled. You're moving, running, shooting and (cooool Splitter Rifle) sniping the whole time. Plus, there's no 'lives' concept - you just play and play and play. You never have to reload a saved game - you play until you stop, you save and quit, you load and play again. Sheesh, this thing's got a moray eel's teeth.

But I've gotten to Qwark's Secret Hideout, I've bought the third level of armor (I think), I have only one weapon to buy right now (the Kwak-a-lyzer, I think), and my hit points are at least above 60 if not above 80. I have 5 skill points and have found at least 10 platinum bolts, plus the trophies for the Plumber and Dr. Nefarious. Oh yeah, and I only got 4 hours sleep - but who needs that? Silly silly.

Sebastian missed us at Mike's house, so Ernie, Mike and myself played War of the Ring. Quite a neat game, I thought. There are many Shadow side cards that allow you to kill your own guys to give the remainder combat bonuses. Quite reminiscent of Operation Human Shield from South Park: BLAU. I played Saruman, Mike played Sauron, and Ernie played the Free Peoples. (I thought Mike should have played Free Peoples, myself. But the dice do not lie.) Saruman juiced up his forces, but only attacked after Sauron had moved. The Southrons, on the other hand, rallied beneath Pelargir, and in addition...sacked Erebor. Yeah, that was a march. :) We slew all the defenders - including Gandalf the WHITE. The Witch-king invaded Minas Tirith, which went down to a strong siege. Rohan only went to war late and never mustered any troops. The Fellowship was in Mirkwood when the Fords of Isen fell to Saruman's attack. With little to defend Helm's Deep and the only substantial force of Gondor holed up in Dol Amroth, Frodo and Aragorn decided that the world was unsavable. They walked up to the nearest Orc and handed him the Ring. (Translation - Ernie was getting irritated and I offered to call the game, which he accepted.) On an unrelated note, EQ is probably done for the year more or less, as Ernie has accepted a nighttime hours post for $0.90 more per hour. Can't blame him, but I suspect Sebastian might become a little erratic as well. We shall see.

Yesterday at work was pretty reasonable. I spent the morning training Mary how to use Corbel to generate a retirement plan document. I went into the situation somewhat unsettled - it's not an easy thing taking your essential skills in your position and making sure someone else knows them. But as the morning drew on, I came to a different conclusion. To wit, the situations she was encountering were rather lame from my jaded perspective, and yet I was still asked a lot of questions about Word interface and Windows file manipulation. So even if I pass on how to USE Corbel, I'm still quite the passed master at it - which restores some of the sense of security I was feeling erode away before this. After lunch, I worked on the problem of our server a little, did some regular work, and otherwise felt busy and valuable for the rest of the day. It felt pretty good, actually. Stopped off at Randhurst Mall to look for stuff, then went to the Pretzel Bakery. Two large pretzels and a large pop, only $3 and change. Not too shabby in this day and age.

Monday's driving, despite the construction on Dundee, was really quite nice. Palatine was mostly quiet and fast, and there were only a few minutes of congestion near Waukegan. Shame, really - it was pretty comfortable. I'd no idea how annoying the same route would be that evening or the next morning. (And yes, I'm taking it tonight, too. There's just no good way north, and it's the closest reasonable east-west route south of here. Actually, I -could- take 94 - I think there's a northbound exit east of here on Dundee. I'll research it.)

(Interruption of the present - walked to Starbucks for a sandwich and brownie lunch, and when I had returned the network was back up and running. So back to work I went. Icky. :) And Decipher's announced that they are rotating Fellowship block out of their tournaments. Which means they'll be designing cards they don't really intend to be used with Fellowship block cards - which our group has no intention of abandoning. Ooooh, joy. Decipher's just gone crazy.

Once again, spent a LONNNG time Sunday night/Monday morning playing RC3. I'm thinking about going back to RC1 after I finish 3 - just because I feel funny having won 2 and 3 but not 1. Just a completionist. I've also been playing Deus Ex from time to time - played the opening mission about six times. I've mellowed from a few years ago - I'm much more relaxed about stunning the terrorists as opposed to taking head shots on them. But I'm snagging passwords for all of my co-counter-terrorists, so I've become more devious. Neato-keano. I'm trying to remember what else happened on Sunday - drawing a blank right now. Aargh. Stupid swiss-cheese head.

Tonight's LOTR promises interest. Rob is absent for a second week, having gone to Disneyworld despite having only a part-time job and 2.5 kids to feed. He can't spend $6.25 for a starter for LOTR, but he can throw airfare and vacation money around. Weird. His life, his choice. I might tune some existing decks to go to Shadows format - I won't have to lug my cards outside this time. :)

And a question for the madding crowd of fans. What do you normally do for New Year's? I'll answer it first. I'm a holiday grinch, more or less - I'll eat a meal on Thanksgiving, hide from idiots on Halloween, and give and receive on Christmas. I might say "Happy New Year's" to the world if I'm outside at the moment. Otherwise, most holidays are either annoying (because I have to work but I get no mail) or the rare occasion of comfort (because I get to sleep in - but still no mail). So what will I do for New Year's?

"What do we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world."

Eat Snacky Smores.

Last night was lame, but okay.

I drove out to Games Plus, but they're still out of LOTR Reflections. Crap. Got myself some Return of the King, some more Kamigawa, a pack of LOTR click-tech, and a pack of Star Wars minis. Got a second Obi-Wan Kenobi - almost DEFINITELY being traded to Brian tonight.

Drove out to Mike's house. Ernie wasn't there - again. And no email, no call, no nothing. Getting a little annoying, ya know? Anyway, we hung out for a few hours, just Sebastian, Mike and myself. We didn't play anything, but we talked about work, WWE stuff, games. You know, the usual. Sebastian left, Mike and I talked, I left. I got home and decided I hadn't walked enough that day, so I walked out over to Caribou Coffee. Unfortunately, they closed approximately 5 minutes before I got there. Arrgh. So I doubled back to the Blight of Lake County. By then, of course, I was a LOT hungrier and thirstier, so I got more than I should have. But hopefully, I exercised some of it away. I got back home, talked with the folks a while, and then went upstairs. Chatted with Matt and Lori, and got REALLY tired. I think I finally got to sleep before 1AM! Wowzers.

Today's been slooooow. Caught up with PM harvesting, caught up to Demon, just generally caught up. Still reading GilGalen's piece (sorry, dude), so that's on my agenda for lunch. (Which I think is gonna be Subway at Northbrook Court in ten minutes.)

So hey, if you read my LJ and like it, leave a comment to this one, just to check in and say hi. Tell me what your favorite restaurant is. And your birthday - I never have those down.

Eat Snacky Smores.

Well, it's been a rather...annoying...two days since last I wrote here seriously. Let me preface my remarks by saying that I hate, I mean I HATE counting pages! It's so meaningless as to be truly Sisyphean. Our company has endless reams of paper for retirement plans that no longer exist. We are obliged to keep records, however, in case the IRS decides to suddenly look up our butt for records on the 12/31/1998 plan year for the XYZ XXX plan that was only maintained from 1997 to 2001. But we are not obliged to keep the actual paper, however, and so we are converting the lots and lots of truly old documents to PDFs. To give you an idea of the scale of the project, right now we have a directory with 20,212 files taking up 60.3 GB. GB. But when you're scanning 2,000 pages a day, apparently it's important to verify that the copier/scanner didn't pull two pages at once, or otherwise screw up. So, first I get to rename the files from the random stuff the scanner spits out to something meaningful. Our computer consultants put together an Intranet page to do this, so that's not so bad. Then, I pull stacks of folders from material that has been scanned.

Step 1 - Pick a folder at random.
Step 2 - Find the PDF that matches the contents of the folder
Step 3 - Look at the page count at the bottom of the PDF (anywhere from 1 to 400-something)
Step 4 - Count every freaking page in the folder to make sure the contents match.
Step 5 - Throw the paper away, save the folder for later re-use.
Step 6 - Die a little inside.
Step 7 - Lather, Rinse, Repeat. (Which, on a separate note, IS a good idea. The first shampooing normally just handles the oil on your scalp. The second shampooing really does the work. This tidbit is mostly for guys to learn.)

I usually call it a day of scanning when my trash can can't take any more. And that's after packing it down once or twice. And another annoying part of scanning is, of course, that alt-tabbing and typing are relatively difficult to accomplish while doing it. It's like driving at 7 MPH. It's not fast enough to actually get anywhere, but it's too fast to do something more enjoyable, like read or sort cards. You just get to sit there, making sure the gap between you and the guy in front of you doesn't grow too rapidly.

Siiiiiiiigh...

Anyway, back to the news. I last left off on Monday afternoon, I believe. I got an email from Sebastian saying that he was socked under with work, both that night and early the next morning, so he'd be missing Monday night gaming. I decided that I had plenty to do at home myself, so I notified Ernie and Mike that I would not be available. I told the folks I'd be home, and we arranged dinner at Chili's. (No, I'm not gonna link it today. There was a linkfest, and now it's over. Cry if you need to.) I had the citrus lime chicken and shrimp - definitely both a health AND delicious choice. Then it was back home. I was all ready to sort and build for LOTR - just need to check my mail. Hey, look who's here!? Cool! I get to try out Scrabble Online two days early!

And suddenly it's 11:30, and Mom's reminding me that I said I'd go to the store. But in the intervening time, I apparently had some sort of weird savant moment and won two games out of three. That never happens. I think she was just upset by the Cards losing another game in the ninth. (Or she was upset that she couldn't watch the game, because the Red Sox were taking the Yankees to 14 innings.) Anyway, we said our tearful goodbyes, and I went grocery shopping.

I love, I mean I looooooove Dominick's when I'm the only customer. It's so ME-centric. Of course, if I didn't have my headphones on, I could take advantage of this by pestering all the clerks. But that's the other bennie to shopping alone - you can wear headphones and not have to maintain your peripheral awareness. You can even walk side-by-side with your cart, so you can move faster without constantly kicking it. AND, you get to pick out semi-reasonable stuff and put it on someone else's bill. Heh heh. So that was good. Got home, unloaded and put away groceries, and went upstairs. Unfortunately, now it was 1 o'clock AM, and my motive force was quite depleted. So I screwed around with MTGO for a while, played some more Scrabble, and drifted asleep.

Tuesday. Yucky, yucky Tuesday. I don't remember when this happened specifically, but one thing I found out was that the nice book on tape I'm listening to comes on many tapes, and the first six are tapes 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 and 6. And I'm not skipping tape 5 for any reason other than it isn't in the flipping box! Arrrgh. And of course, the receipt is long gone. But I'm going to Barnes & Noble tonight to ask anyways. But far worse than the book being interrupted was the return of the counting. It was set aside (as far as I can tell) with the rush of October 15th projects, but it's back, and in spades. I'd take a picture of the stack in the copy room, but I don't want to frighten myself unnecessarily. But anyway, I picked up Return of the King Anthology, so my lunch was fish on the run. (Not on the swim - I'm not swimming to All-Star Trading.) I was surprised at the amount of Reflections in the box, and only somewhat startled that there was no Siege of Gondor. But 4 packs of Reflections, 6 packs of King and 1 pack of Doom retail for close to $45 - and Paul's listing them at $26! And then you also get the mighty fine box AND the Tengwar promos? Not a bad deal at all. And I now own four Morgul Kings, always a good thing. Of course, some idiot brakes hard in front of me on the way back (taking Waukegan rather than I-94, as I noticed on the way south that there was lane closures northbound), and the cards wound up on the floor. I picked them up quickly, but it was still one more crap to put up with.

The afternoon either sailed by very fast, or was blotted out of my mind due to the horror that IS counting. I don't know. But I don't remember much of it. I remember taking three phone calls in ten minutes on the way home (two being Chris, so they count as one), and then she called me after I got home and had sat down for a minute. I was glad to talk to her, but my mood was rather spoiled at the time. Sorry, my dear. But I decided that I'd gather my cards and take them to Charlie's, as he had asked for two cards from inventory. My new big-a$$ bag is definitely longer - I can fit four shoeboxes in it side-by-side and still have room. But it's also a little more unwieldy due to its larger size. Time will tell as to whether that is a property of the bag or of my reflexes still trained on the earlier one. I snagged a dinner in components and headed out the door.

LOTR was okay. I didn't play - merely sorted and filed - but Ken, Charlie and Rob played two three-player games. We also watched Game 6 of the ALCS. Quite neat to see Boston doing so well - it's cool to come back from so far down, and it's cool that they're another of the 'never-won-in-SOOOOO-long' teams. I cannot root for them in the World Series, as that would constitute rooting against the Cards. But I do want them to beat the Yankees, as they've gotten more than their share in recent years. And I hate foreign foils. Icky. But by the time I left LOTR, I was in a much better mood and generally felt better.

Drove back home, brought the bag upstairs, said hi to Mom, and then brought stuff up from the dining room table and made a reasonable attempt to clean up the floor. I also bumped into Garvey online, and he and I talked for quite a while. He's apparently figured out a critical feature of his wannabe chat program, so we might be talking more as time goes on. Tee hee. That was a good time. And "Five More Minutes" came back up! Foamy the Squirrel rocks. I'm contemplating getting the DVD, just to have it available away from the PC. "Jiggly Butt" is also good, albeit embarrassingly so, some would say.

Drifted to sleep around 2:30, woke up at 7:30 - and then 8:50. That sucked. Called work to say I'd be late, showered and brushed, and pretty leisurely drove to work, which was nice. I wish work started at 11AM, ended at 4PM, and gave me a full eight hours a day. Where's that job? I want it. But the counting is still here. I've progressed a little bit, but I'm also catching up to my Amber game and keeping current on the other games. I've got three of four LOTR spoilers typed out (apparently Decipher's server broke down in the middle - rats), and then we went to the October 15th Lunch. It was good, albeit a little fatty. Everyone else talked about baseball and favorite/unfavorite clients, and I stroked my beard. Just finished that a little bit ago, and I'm back to counting pages agains. Siiiigh.

I hate counting pages.

Eat Snacky Smores.

But sometimes we'd rather not have done. In other words, I'm a little tired.

Yesterday. Work was light on Columbus Day, but more people were here than I might have expected, given that schools are also out. Maybe all the parents here had their partners stay home - I don't know. But it was odd. It was more odd that they were here on October 11th, 4 days before the deadline, and so little got done. Thursday is starting to look pretty scary. ;)

I had nicely long email/PM conversations with several people, and I brought my LOTR Access database up to speed with around six to eight of the new spoilers. (I'm beginning to suspect that "archer" as a keyword on the Free Peoples' side might be over with, as 'ally' has been generally retired. BOTH versions of Legolas out of Shadows lack this important keyword that he has never lacked before.) I also got two more people to post on the Who Are All These Fine People thread - and that was a chain, as I only asked one! Whoo-hoo! Give it up for peer pressure!

After work, I drove out to Games Plus, looking for some items friends asked me to look out for at the auction. No luck. Wahhh. Maybe I'll find them somewhere else. (Reminds me - alt-tabbing to write a letter, back soon.)

Anyway. Went from there to Mike's house. Sebastian showed up soon enough, and we chatted amiably for quite some time. (Not to mention Natalie's wonderful a$$ cookies - I *must* ask what they were for.) But as it became clear that we weren't going to see Ernie, and therefore wouldn't be playing EQRPG, we started talking Bush/Kerry. Sebastian and Mike seem to be some of the ONLY gamers I know who support Bush. Sebastian is just a social conservative/Darwinist - I became more convinced during our argument that Bush could have been found to have killed his parents and he'd still vote for the Republican. Mike actually presented a cogent argument for electing Bush - he continues to impress me, even though he is pure evil. But the argument is that Bush's experience is more management and team-oriented, whereas Kerry is more a doer and an active participant. Such a quarterback might be unused to either handing off the ball or letting the coach call in the plays as needed - which would be fine if we trusted him in all arenas of national and international politics, but if we believe he needs advisors, he might not be relied upon to listen to them. I used a classic Socratic, lead-them-into-contradiction technique, and had Sebastian call Iraq both "a war" and "not a war". He quickly clarified each wording, but I pointed out to him that the GOP's chief complaint against Kerry - that he is wishy-washy - can emerge from similar situations. Nobody moved in viewpoint - that so rarely happens in political discourse as to have an accompaniment from the Vienna Boys' Choir when it does - but it was educational, I think. Then we called it a night and I drove home.

Dad was asleep, brief words with Mom. Once again forgot to deposit my check - it's to my right now, but unendorsed. Went upstairs and launched AIM. Chatted with Matt about new LOTR spoilers and a nice development in his future. Chatted with Selyna about...well, go read her journal. Chatted about sleeplessness and pink elephants. Then, I got Matt's script working - YAYYY! Harvested around 200 or so messages while I chatted. I could have spent TODAY doing that, but it's nice to have gotten it out of the way. Mad props to the codemaster. Slept.

Morning goes as all mornings go, but traffic was annoyingly stop-start. I want to either DRIVE when I'm in the car, or be so blocked that I can read. This whole drive-ten-feet-wait-fifteen-seconds crap drives me up the wall. But I got here, I've got a few bits of work that wonderful people gave me last evening at 5:20, and things are going well.

Eat Snacky Smores.