| big plastic barrel of pretzels

Been a hectic couple of weeks. I got a new job. Still with the city, but after next week I'll no longer be with the crime lab. Moving over to records in San Pedro near the port. It's a little more money and a lot more closer to home. 15 minute commute versus 45+. The only weird part is that after a few months I'll be moving into a AM shift which is Midnight-8:30 in the morning or so. Yikes! Been years since I worked a night shift. Can't wait to see how it goes. I think it will be an adventure.

Applied for a passport this morning. Never had one but since they last 10 years, figure this will spur me to travel some. I think 8-11 (never forget) and the need for a passport to visit Mexico or Canada also played a part. I'd like to take a cheesy cruise some day. They're so damn cheap and local, so in 5-6 weeks I'll be legal to get off the boat on occasion.

Finished Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama". It was good but hasn't aged as well as some other classic sci-fi. It has a really dry narrative and felt "too safe". I never feared for any of the character's lives. The basic story is interesting and I'm glad I read it. There are a bunch of sequels that were written by a collaborator, right up into the 1990's, and the plot summaries are hilariously bad.

Still going to write a novel in November, so taking Stephen King's main piece of advice from "On Writing" and READING as much as possible.

Next on my to-read list are a bunch of Elmore Leonard's short-story westerns, random Steinbeck I've never read (I loved Grapes of Wrath in school and never really read much else by him), and "The Passage" vampire book.

I've gotten horribly out of shape again, so I've also been trying to bring hiking back into my routine. I love it and it's convenient to where I currently work, but I'm going to have to find a new exercise hobby when I start work in San Pedro. Maybe riding my bike at the beach?

| Xamnation

Well... Nothing really terribly exciting for all you Actionteam members. Just boring work news:

We just sold our building to yesterday for a cool $265 million. Of which I get a little less than the real estate brokers. They get 3%. I get 0%. Sweet. It's cool though, I do get to keep my job for another 6-12 months at a minimum. After that, I will hopefully be joining the new management group with the rest of our staff. A new company. Again. That will be 4 companies in 6 years for the same job at the same location. The good news is this company is a long term asset holder, so hopefully no more name changes. Also, I don't like my current company. It is a big, bureaucratic, company filled with Kool-Aid drinking cheerleaders. That and the left hand never seems too know what the right hand is doing.

I also joined the nefarious eLzar sponsored fantasy hockey league. Yay hockey.

Also, I hear eLzar likes green.

jr0n, I am stoked that you started reading The First Law trilogy. I really enjoyed the series. I have the second and third books if you are interested.

D>M>

or defined as a website that helps you pass that test to all your college courses,

or a site dedicated to diagnostics for aids/herpes/genital/mamographic testing.

| Hot fresh content needed for hip website

Xamn people, what's going on?

(xamn: hip new swear word? Or typo?)

Problem with iPad is reading something that hellaciously bright at night IS going to fuck up your sleep. Kindle/Nook has the eye ink thing, so no backlight, but easier on the ol' circadian rhythms.

Everything old is new again:
- Just finished reading the revised 2nd edition rules for Tannhauser! We played this game a bit back in the day and it was fun but with a few really niggling design problems that held it back (no overwatch, limited functionality of heavy weapons due to minimum range restrictions, fiddly dice mechanic). The 2nd edition fixes ALL these problems so I'm excited to get this sucker back on the table.

- I think I'm gonna sign back up for WoW, dammit. Cataclysm just sounds too good, but I want to finish up the high level content (Death Knight, and get Borst to 80) before making a new character.

- I will run an extended Earthdawn campaign at some point in my life. You heard it here first, folks.