Had a bad, had a good, time for some random:

I had the wackiest game of BattleTech I've ever been in last night. I was playing on the Computer with MegaMek, 4 on 4. 3 of my Mechs got taken out in the first ten Turns or so, with little significant damage done to the opposing force.

My last Mech, a Hoplite, was a Fire Support build, almost useless up close, with no Arms even. Soon it was swarmed, it's Particle Cannon blown off, and it's Missile Launcher out of ammo. And it then proceeded to literally kick apart my Opponent's entire force.

I can't even say single-handedly, since, like I mentioned, it doesn't even have arms.

Like the title says, I think only fenmere will fully get how improbable all this was, but there might be others who will take a little amusement from it.

Cookies got sent out today for those of you who signed up! Priority Mail, should be there in a couple to a few days, depending on where you are.

I went into the PO before hand, planning on getting Flat Rate boxes, only to find out that a Flat Rate box in that size runs almost $11. Dropped over to the Drug Store* to try and buy some suitable boxes, and they said that, although they don't have them for sale, they do keep the boxes they get their own products in, and give them to people for free! Found just enough, in exactly the right size, just made my day.

*For a while now, they've been the best source around here for Padded Mailers, so I figured it was worth a shot for other packing supplies.

Google Chrome just hit Beta for Macs. And doesn't support PPC processors, only Intel, so I'm still stuck with FireFox.

Just for the record, FireFox is nice, it's just feature-rich enough that it crawls on a machine this old. Chrome's speed was the main pushing point.

Y'know, with Energy Prices being what they are these days, a Stocking full of Coal is starting to sound like a pretty nice gift ;)

But I got a pretty good one:


Also, I got a note today from one of the Leads saying that he couldn't properly describe my last batch of Croissant Dough, since he's just a Baker, not a Poet :D

I've been listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen lately, and he's got a few songs that make reference to, or are even centered around, the concept of Babylon in the Bibilcal sense, as a destroyer of Virtue, or otherwise as a bad thing. This got me thinking and poking through my Music Collection, and I've got rather a lot from various Genres in this vein, but nothing going the other way.

Where's the Music celebrating Babylon as the Cradle of Civilization, the joy of the Hanging Gardens, the fact that we'd all still be Hunter-Gatherers if it weren't for the innovations there in Mesopotamia?

If some dude started randomly flashing people in Whitechapel, how many News Sources do you think would dub him Jack the Stripper?

And TSO in Concert takes me to a very high peak indeed. I ended up sleeping through basically all of Sunday, and will probably be back in bed again by midnight.

Not going to talk about the concert. I've tried to do that in the past, and the English Language just doesn't have the words. It was good.

skellington1 and I were going to have lunch before hand, so I went over to the City rather early. This was good, because when I was up by the Pike Place Market, I realized that I'd left the tickets on the shelf by my front door, where I'd put them so I wouldn't forget them. Headed back down to the Ferry, just caught that boat, was the first person off, ran back to my Apartment, grabbed the tickets and ran back in time to make it back onto the same Boat before they finished their turnaround. I love living in the closest Apartment block to the Ferry.

I'm incredibly sore today, though. I can't actually remember the last time I ran, and those muscles are very, very out of shape. Surprisingly, though, my bad knee isn't giving me any shit about it, which is good. It's just Muscle pain, and that passes.

Sometimes I really like having a Job with shifts that last almost 'til 1:00 AM. After everyone else left, I tossed on some Motörhead, and had myself a little...well, singalong ain't quite right, shout-along perhaps. That was more fun than I've had in a while.

For whatever reason, at work, we refer to the Chocolate Croissants not as such, but as Pain au Chocolat. I went to pull some out the other day, and noticed that when the new guy had sheeted them, he'd labeled them as "Pain Os".

Worst. Breakfast Cereal. Evar.

First day back at work went rather more smoothly than I expected, given how I was feeling Thursday Night, and the fact that I got essentially no Sleep last night. It definitely helped that one of the four Employees I have trouble dealing with got fired while I was gone, but even so, I was expecting some grating and irritability and such, but not really. Looks like the Vacation did at least part of its job.

nebris has a Rule at his place: When you're tired, go to bed.

I had planned on following this for the duration of my vacation, but forgot that I've gotten my body's signals too fucked up over the years, and basically anything out of whack goes to "tired". Hungry, too full, thirsty, sick, stressed, sleepy, it all feels the same anymore. Which means I've spent a bunch of time lying in the dark wide awake, when I should have been eating, or rehydrating, or whatever, instead.

My other plan was to let myself fall apart for a bit, and then try to pull back together after I'd let a few things out. Unfortunately, the timing worked out badly, and I hit my low ebb with barely a day before I've got to go back to work, and many of these wounds I've re-opened over the past few days will be at best scabbed over when I've got to get back out into the real world, rather than at least recovered with some halfway decent scar tissue.

The thought of having to go back on Friday is already making me feel ill.

Someone I didn't recognize commented on my last Entry, and I took a look and noticed that several people had Friended me since last I checked. So I Friended back everyone who'd made a Post in a Language I speak within the last Month or so. Welcome aboard, y'all!

@queenlyzard: I thought I'd Friended you months ago, but when I looked just now, it turns out I hadn't. Would have sworn I did that (I mean, I said that I did, and I usually manage to do what I say I do) after our discussion in padparadscha's LJ, but apparently I hit the wrong button or something. Sorry about that. Took care of it now, and went back and read through the Entries I'd missed. In particular, thanks for the link to averagecats.com!

When I clocked out of Work, it was just sprinkling a bit, and I had my Raincoat and Hat with me, so I figured "Hey, even if it kicks back up a bit, I'll be fine." And went for my usual evening Constitutional. The rain picked up a bit, but I've got pretty good gear, so everything stayed groovy.

About halfway back to my Apartment, the Storm really hit. Crazy winds, so much that the Streetlights started flickering, Rain pouring down in literal sheets, soon with Hail mixed in, I was soaked to the skin in a couple of seconds, right through the raincoat. Enough of the Rain was coming in sideways that it went through the vents in my hat, too.

The storm was loud, but I still wouldn't be surprised if some of the people in the houses I was walking past could hear me laughing and shouting praise to Thor, I can be pretty damn loud, too.

Once I got back, just out of curiosity, I stepped on the scale, and then changed into dry clothes and tried it again. Fifteen Pound difference. I had a gallon and a half of water soaked into my clothes.

It was awesome. In both the original and common senses of the word.

I think I was actually in this situation yesterday, only a few hours after I read the comic in question. As usual, figured it out just too late for it to matter.

...Burning Bodies Hanging from Poles
I Remember Halloween

What do you call a Bear with Mental Health Problems?
A Bi-Polar Bear!

What do you call a Jewish Disco Band with Horror-themed Lyrics?
The Heebie-Bee-Gees!

And, finally, where do Jewish Vikings go when they die?
( Read more... )

nebris posted this a little while back, and it really clicked with me in a lot of ways, so I'm spreading it a little further.

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~When I first started dealing with disability in myself, I heard of something called “The Spoon Theory”. It's a concept to explain the 'invisible' diseases where prejudice is often encountered, you know, “Gee, you don't look sick,” which then leads to being judged as 'lazy,' 'faking,' etc.

The idea is that we start out with less 'spoons' aka amount of energy/stamina each day than the non-disabled. While I certainly understand the concept, from the very beginning I thought the metaphor a stupid one. I mean, WTF do spoons have to do with stamina? It's annoying me right now.

So, I have decided that I'm shitcanning the damn thing and am campaigning to replace it with a metaphor that makes more sense, what I call “The Battery Count.”

Okay, when you're at the checkout line, you see those packs of AA batteries hanging opposite the checkout conveyor belt. They come in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and some times even 20 packs. We use them in almost everything, usually two at a time.

The metaphor here is that 'normal' e.g. non-disabled folks generally get a 10 pack each day and that's what gets them through their day. Some days even they only get an 8 pack. And some folks seem to get that 20 pack everyday! [We all hate them, don't we? lol]

But those of us with the 'invisible' diseases, like Depression or MS or Chronic Fatigue or Lupus and a whole host of others, we only get a 6 pack, or 4 pack or, on particularly bad days, only a 2 pack.

We simply don't get the same Battery Count as the non-disabled folks. That's just the way it is and we have to make adjustments so we can function with the Battery Count we have, not the one we'd like.

Honestly, I really would love to be one of those 20 pack folks, seriously, because I have a 20 pack mind. But, while I some times - on a Really Good Day - get an 8 pack, I usually just get a 4 or 6 pack.

And berating myself for that just drains those batteries all the quicker. Better to work with the pack I actually get and make the most out of the batteries I really have.

So, don't that metaphor make more sense? Screw a bunch a spoons! I'm a Battery Count Gimp, and you should be too!

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I've been down for long enough that I don't really know what someone getting 10 Batteries a Day actually gets done, but I know I'm below that point. At a rough guess, I'd say I'm at around 8 per Day most of the time.

This morning, I was dreaming, and right as my Alarm went off, there was one point left to resolve in the Dream. I hit Snooze, and managed to go right back in the Dream. I tied up the loose end, walked over to a car where a Friend was waiting, got in, put on my sunglasses and we drove off. And then it literally faded to black and rolled credits. Everyone was credited as playing him- or herself, but it still rolled credits. I've never had that happen in a Dream before.