devinsong's Journal

One for the Stranger Than Fiction Files
Apparently, we now know the cause of crop circles. Stoned wallabies.

I think Flatten the Grain may need a new verse....

Current Music: Flatten the Grain, only in my head

I Can Haz Sleep Nao?
I've posted a few con photos in

concertino09.

Great to see people! And hear people! In some ways I feel like this is my first ever Concertino- certainly it's the first one where I've ever seen any significant amount of programming. Fantastic guests, fantastic concerts, some terrific material in the 2 x 8s...it was all good.

And now I'm going to fall over.

Current Mood: sleepy

One More Step
Yesterday New Hampshire became the sixth state, and fifth in New England to legalize gay marriage.

I don't as a rule follow politics with nearly the attention that I should. And I'm not proud of that. But this time, I actually got off my butt and wrote to the governor to support this law.

It's damned rare for me to actually be proud of an elected official, but. Governor Lynch's personal inclination was clearly not pro-gay-marriage. He could have declined to make a decision- simply let the bill become law without his signature. Or he could have vetoed it.

He did neither. In his own words (from the NYT article):
Mr. Lynch, who previously supported civil unions but not marriage for same-sex couples, said in a statement that he had heard “compelling arguments that a separate system is not an equal system.”

“Today,” he said, “we are standing up for the liberties of same-sex couples by making clear that they will receive the same rights, responsibilities — and respect — under New Hampshire law.”

And yeah. I also voted for him. This morning, I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Current Mood: pleased

Annual New Year's Gaming Extravaganza
Okay...I've been on vacation (or at least my brain has) and hadn't realized I hadn't posted this here yet. As usual, games, games and more games for the new year! Come, bring a game, bring a friend, help us conquer the world (pick one, Cataan, Puerto Rico, etc, etc).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In accordance with long-standing tradition, we're throwing open the house for gaming
on New Year's Day!

Who: Everyone
What: Puerto Rico, RoboRally, Settlers of Catan, Risk, Family Business, Arkham
Horror, Munchkin ... the list goes on ...
When: Thursday, January 1, 2009, from noon until we eject you
Where: Stately Turner/Holly Manor, 17 Kennedy Drive, Nashua, NH (603) 891-1339
Why: Because we've gotten older without necessarily getting more mature

We provide space, food, snacks, and soft drinks. You provide yourselves, games,
and any other foodstuffs you'd like to have available.

RSVPs requested but not required. Please mention this to anyone else
who might be interested. Ample crash space available on a first-request,
first-served basis.

Probably I'm the Last Person On the Internet to See This
An a capella tribute to John Williams, from a group called Moosebutter:

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Moosebutter

If the 2008 Election Were a D&D Campaign
I just felt the need to share. For all those who need a break from 24-7 election seriousness (reposted from somehedgehog, see link below):

GM: OK, the bugbear attacks you. What do you do?

OBAMA: I send one of my 672 henchmen after it.

MCCAIN: OK, seriously. Why does he have so many henchmen? I'm a level 72
ranger and he's only a level 8 paladin.

OBAMA: Well, if you'd bought the Grassroots Organizing and Oratory/Colgate
Smile proficiencies you could min max it so that you...

MCCAIN: Why is he even IN this campaign? I thought this was supposed to be a high
level party.

OBAMA: Well, maybe some people got tired of the grim and squinty "Matterhorn,
son of Marathon" shtick you keep doing. Dude, could you be any less original?

MCCAIN: Oh my god, I did not leave my left nut in a tiger cage in the Tomb of Horrors
to spend my Friday nights mopping up after the new kid.

OBAMA: " 'My friends, I am a totally unoriginal grizzled character class
stereotype. I should lead the party because I have more testicular damage than
that one.' "

MCCAIN: Yeah, well, you pal around with dark elves.

For the rest (including various minor characters including Sarah, Cindy, RonPaul
the Barbarian and Mitt) see:

http://somehedgehog.livejournal.com/245807.html

obFolk: When Fall Comes to New England
I've been hearing from folks in parts of the country who want to see color- we're still approaching peak, but there are already some pretty pockets of brilliance:

More pictures from the hike up Monadnock last weekend.

I haven't been around much and have only been reading intermittently- nothing interesting, mostly just busy at work. Most exciting news of the week was car maintenance (now with more brake pads!). Wrestling with pool hardware (that I blew off to go hiking last week) and MFOs scheduled for the upcoming weekend. And doing something interesting with apples. And quite possibly more work.

Current Mood: busy

There and Back Again
A busy month- work stuff, and also getting enough ahead so JT and I could take off on a long weekend to go to Delaware.

...yes, you're now wondering, 'why Delaware?' Everyone asks this.

Delaware had three big attractions for us- a great deal of Wyeth, giant Dupont estates with lovely gardens and droolworthy furniture, and- a steam railway.

( See some pictures behind the cut: )

A nice short trip- and now it's back on the merry-go-round...

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Woats talking blues

In which I blunder through the journal in a fog of sleep deprivation...
Haven't been around much lately, even for drive-by commenting. And no real chance of that improving. Though I finally did get set up to receive reminders from the Concertino calendar so I will hopefully be a bit more present in concomm discussions.

Other than that, not much going on. My presence today can be attributed to the fortuitous discovery of a block of sweet baking chocolate in the fridge this morning...

...let's just say, that while I have no idea what I intended to do with it, any baking plans I might have had are now moot.

( Fortunately, brain dead is the perfect state of mind to knit. )

Sew, a Needle Pulling Thread
Saturday, I received the last of the fabric to make more drape (of the 'pipe-and-drape' variety) for Arisia. Thanks to a series of snafus on the part of the manufacturer, this was rather later than we had planned on- it should have arrived in say, October. Arisia is next weekend. However, my Arisia contact asked if I couldn't get some people together and do what we could. (Note this is *not* a crisis, it's a 'nice to have'.)

( Fun with fabric behind the cut )

More pictures and details on my crafts blog. And if you, too, burn with the desire to sew drape, I will be hanging out at home sewing after 6 pm tomorrow. (There will probably be a post-con session as well- I'm finding with the reversible drape, it really needs a second pair of hands to lay out the fabric and pin it.)

Current Mood: grateful
Current Music: JT, tensioning new strings

If Computer Languages were AD&D Characters
Hallo, all! Happy New Year.

JT and I are currently reading "Dreaming in Code" by Scott Rosenberg- in
it he makes a reference to Perl being "chaotic good".. this set us off
onto trying to construct the lexicon of computer languages. Feel free
to pass this along (we're curious as to how far it might go!)

Computer Language Alignments-

Perl - chaotic good
Basic - neutral with Chaotic tendencies
Fortran- started chaotic neutral but has turned to evil.
Visual Basic- chaotic evil

Java- neutral good
C- neutral neutral
DOS shell scripting- neutral evil

Smalltalk- lawful good
Lisp, Prolog- lawful neutral
C++ lawful evil

(I would have put my mood as 'cold', but? The icon is merely blue. It really needs to be blue with chattering teeth, shivering, and little icicles hanging off it's woolly hat. Just not the same. For those in warmer areas, it's currently 6 degrees F with about a 15 degree wind chill. Definitely wintry.)

Current Mood: cheerful

Second-Hand Songs
On a vaguely Pegasus-related note (it was nominated), there is now an .mp3 of JT's Second-Hand Songs available for download.

Kindly recorded for us by the talented and tech-savy

ocelotn.

Thoughts for the Day
1. Boston-area traffic is Evil.

2. The application of a large coffee and two chocolate doughnuts does not ameliorate the traffic nor does it get me to work faster. However it does make me feel better about the whole thing.

3. Happiness is having two long meetings canceled so you can Get Stuff Done.

4. If two long meetings are canceled, there will be a sudden urgent need for two reports that will take up more time than the meetings would have.

5. If you're having an annoying day, but you had two chocolate doughnuts? At least your day was better than it could have been.

Another Random Journal Entry brought to you by the letter Q and the number pi.

Current Mood: cranky

Why Yarn is Like Wine, and Attack of the Modern Architectosaur
So, I figure that if I keep at it, I'll have a collection of posts that are complete non-sequitors!

( Long meandering aside beneath the cut. )

Current Mood: artistic

Seven people, a very big truck and a trailer
Number of amateur movers harmed in the execution of this move: 0
States traversed: 2 (by me, 3 by others)
Catastrophes: 0
Number of bottles of water and soda consumed: lots and lots and lots and lots
Number of boxes heaved: gazillions
Number of seconds it will take me to get to sleep tonight: -10 (and counting)

As

madfilkentist posted, he, I,

happyfunpaul and

bercilakslady helped

edstauff,

folkmew and Ed's daughter Sarah move to Nashua this weekend. I can't exactly say 'a good time was had by all' but the move was executed in reasonably good order. We were finished both days by dinner time (very important, that....). Of course the fun is just beginning for Ed and Mew.

As an excuse to get outdoors and exercise (not to mention avoid cutting the lawn), it did just fine. *g*

Current Mood: tired

Fourth of July Head Count
So, if there's anyone out there who was planning to come up the Fourth of July Board-gaming BBQ and Pool Party, but has not already let me know, would you post a comment or send me a note?

It would greatly assist us in judging the quantity of food to obtain.

And if you have been lost in the wilderness and your pants are bankrupt?
It's at JT's and my place, July 4th, from noon until the last waterlogged guest has been pulled from the pool and sucked dry by mosquitoes. (Yes, there will be repellent available on site.)

Current Mood: curious

Adventures in England, or What I Did On My Summer Vacation....
Okay, so it was really late spring, and they weren't very *big* adventures. Mostly we rambled around sightseeing, eating, taking in cool and or historic sights, eating, visiting museums, eating.. you get the picture!

And speaking of pictures- I took lots.

And I also kept a trip diary. Mainly useful to the determinedly vicarious, or people looking for restaurant recommendations.

Current Mood: awake

Death to Microscopic Plant Life (in the Pool, Anyway)
Well, I'm taking a leaf from

victorthecook and thinking that possibly posting twice so far this year is a bit light, even if I don't think I'm that interesting..so:

Having sallied forth repeatedly into battle against the algae, I've got the little bastards on the run. I have size, they have numbers. But I am not above chemical warfare. I still need to do another couple rounds, but I'm happy to be able to declare the pool a Slime-Free Zone, well before the 4th of July party.

In other news...uh. Well, y'know, I get up, go to work, come home, briefly contemplate housework before doing something more interesting. Pretty much the usual.

Current Mood: calm

Book rec
While I'm still posting book reviews on my website, I thought this might be of particular interest to the filkers on my flist-

( This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin )

In other news, we're just back from vacation in the UK. An excellent trip- we both enjoyed it a lot. London, Salisbury, Warwick, and a side trip to Paris (via the Eurostar).

Current Mood: low energy

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