Wow. I had lost track of time and now the next show is tomorrow. As always, it will be a fun time and my guess on the play schedule will be:

8pm - 8:30/8:45/9 : Background music since people don't start coming in until closer to 9.
9 - Sometime : Me
Sometime - Another time : Josh
Rest of the time : Josh and I trading off in the booth.

Hope to see you there!

The viral marketing for The Dark Knight has been incredible up until this point. One of the many viral sites is Citizens For Batman: http://citizensforbatman.org/

You will see there is a countdown on that page along with co-ordinates.

One of the two is for Chicago.


For anyone here in the city, this is the information for the Chicago rally:

200 Wacker Drive South
Chicago, IL 60606
Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 9pm CST

Content to be delivered at a later date. For now, I just need something funny damn it.





Also, a fair approximation of me since yesterday:

Things just became a little more interesting in the case of a woman 7 months pregnant found dead in a motel room.

A letter was sent to a local paper from a person saying he is responsible for the woman's death.

The very interesting part... he signed it with the symbol used by the Zodiac killer, his role-model according to the letter.

Michael Turner passed away this weekend. He was one of the biggest names in the comic art world and had a distinctive style that many, MANY tried to copy. No details besides he was being troubled with an illness. My guess is complications from the cancer he had been fighting for the last 6 years.

Stray thought:

Want a pretty fair indicator of how the current economy is hitting people in the US?

Watch eBay. See if the number of auctions stars going up and up because people are selling off things they don't really need. LV or D&B bags will probably be more common. Electronics. Video games and DVDs.

I would be cutting my throat if I was an investor right now.

If I happened to be on the board of GM, I might go a little further and let the employees take turns beating me with a baseball bat.

GM, that staple of American automobiles, has seen their stock price fall to a level it has not seen in over 50 years. Maybe it has something to do with the fact oil prices closed just a hair under $140 today.


Oil futures has my attention. Yes, I REALLY dislike increases in gas prices but I'm more concerned about what it will mean for my company. Higher oil costs means higher costs for resin and that hurts our bottom line. Time to smack around oil futures investors and beat them into a shallow coma that will last until the prices begin coming down.

What's going through my head as I try to get through the new applicants. These are rambling thoughts without research behind them:

A man has an argument with his boss at work, goes home at lunch to get a gun, then returns to kill six people. I'm trying to remember the specifics of other examples of what I would call "spontaneous planned murders." Moments where people just snap and take others with them.

Seems to be happening more often now.

And I keep wondering if this is some dark recess of our species' brain kicking in. The part that is keyed in to the world around us and detects that things are getting more and more difficult. Imagine if a person had empath powers... can you begin to fathom the rush of stress that would hit them walking out the door and away from the tin-foil-lined-wall security of their home?


This is something I'll have in the back of my head for a while. I'll definitely be paying more attention to news feeds to see if it does continue to pick up.

So how do you make the Highland Games even better? You make it a mini-Bulldrek gathering!

Eva, Megan and Claus were all there along with the usual Chicago crew. It was great to finally meet Eva and to see Megan and Claus again.

Pictures to follow when I can upload them.

The Hippy Dippy Weatherman has signed off for the final time. I don't think George Carlin ever expected to make it to age 71 with his history of heart disease but it is still a shame he's gone. He was a trend setter and was always good for some insightful commentary.

Let all children swim in some toxic waste to honor his memory today.

Made it to work just fine (no vicodin).

Started working.

Pain returned.

Popped vicodin.

Now back to working and trying to make sure I don't mess up these offer letters.

"Hey, you know, this person deserves 8 weeks vacation..."


And now... your daily awesome:

Went to the dentist.

It is never a good sign when they look in your mouth and say "oh dear."

Tooth is severely abscessed. Like in the gum infection.

(My apologies now for stranger than normal grammar since I'm on two vicodin without anything to eat)


I'm on some very potent penicillin to stop the infection. I'll be seeing the oral surgeon sometime this week and that's when I set up the surgery. Dentist thinks they might be able to just do a root canal and save the tooth but that's about 50/50. I'm guessing it's an extraction.

Until then, it's antibiotics and vicodin. Thankfully the pharmacy was able to get it ready in 15 minutes so I only had about an hour of pain.

Staying home today. The meds will stop the pain but also make me pretty damned loopy in the process.





...this is not exactly how I wanted to spend our anniversary.

Two vicodin and two excedrin later...

Odds are I have an abscessed tooth right now and it's causing severe amounts of pain. There is no such thing as a 24-hour dentist around here so I'm going to have to make it through the night and see one first thing in the morning.

This assumes I don't take a hammer and screwdriver to the damn thing first.

Tornado sirens and impending weather doom do not make for a restful night.

No restful night = more brain damaged than usual.

More brain damaged than usual = random picture posting.

Enjoy and have a good weekend.

Your epic win of the day:





(With many thanks to Josh for finding.)

After reading the latest reports on gas prices and such, a few thoughts come to mind:

- Do people really think that the prices will decline that much? Even if the price of oil drops, I doubt we'll see a dramatic drop in the price for gas. Now the larger gas companies can see what the market will maintain.

- Related thought... how long can the market maintain paying this price? Note, I'm speaking only of America right now. Yes, I am aware that prices in Europe are much higher but Europe also has a public transportation system that makes living without a car more viable.

- Will companies begin giving cost-of-living wage increases to help offset the higher costs of gas, food, etc.? (...you can stop laughing now)

- My company makes plastic and paper cups, plates, and other related consumer products. Higher gas prices raise the cost for plastics. Should make for some interesting profitability reports this year.

- Going back to my point on Europe vs. America... it's impossible for me to take public transportation to get to work. Wait, let me rephrase... it is nigh improbable to be able to take public transportation to and from the office. I would have to walk/bike from the house to the nearest train station. Unfortunately, the nearest train does not go near my office, it goes downtown. There are no trains that travel east/west in the northern suburbs. So, to avoid using my car, I'd have to ride a bike 15 miles to a train station for a line that stops "near" the office. Then it's just another brisk 3-5 mile ride to get there.

Add it up, and that's about 2-2.5 hours each way. This isn't even factoring in that it is really bloody cold here for 4 months of the year.


- More people who can take public transportation are already doing so... and suddenly new problems appear! Namely the "uhhh... we have been cutting funding for public transportation for years and can't really handle much more volume."

Because, really, it's the perfect image.

EDD made the mistake of letting me borrow his Paranoia XP book. His mistake led to Friday night when everyone came over for a fun little ZAP game. How did it go?

Well, within the first 5 minutes, Josh's clone was trying to swallow his entire night-cycle ration of neatloaf. All at once. This caused him to choke. EDD's clone came over to check on him and was the main target hit by the up-chucked neatloaf. As a flagrant hygiene violation, he was "escorted" back to a cleansing unit. He was happy to have his first hot shower in... well, forever right up until the point the acid started to burn his skin.

He did not die! A few 3rd degree burns are nothing when you are called to serve Friend Computer. Of course, OOC, he simply stated "bitches will pay!"


3 hours (and many drinks) later... they managed to get their equipment from the PLC and only had to blow through about 2-3 clones each.

My personal favorite moments:

"Congratulations Citizen! You have been chosen to take part in this daycycle's episode of 'Are you a traitor?' Citizen Pink-R-TON, please step forward."

Josh's clone had just accused Zemookie's of being a mutant... even though she is registered as one. Friend Computer opens up the mandatory voting to everyone in the sector. While the votes were counted, everyone was treated to the newest Loyalty Song. Vote results:

99.99999999999999999% - Traitor
00.00000000000000001% - Not A Traitor (Pink-R-TON was required to vote as well)


I'm sorry citizen... what was that phrase?

This related to the above scenario. After Josh's clone was picked for the show, EDD chimes in with "Ha ha! Its the garden weasel up the ass for you!" Friend Computer immediately chimed in with, "Citizen, that phrase is not in the official vocabulary for citizens of your clearance level. Please step forward as you will be contestant number two."

Thanks to some very convenient excuse making (and a LOT of help from Josh), EDD managed to survive AND be named Hero-Of-The-Sector for the daycycle.


"Itsh da lawnguage od wuv!"

The troubleshooters are trying to get to the conference room. Their path leads them to an intersection with heavy, high-speed traffic. EDD? Hit by a bus. SPLAT. Zemookie? Clipped by a Speeder but her regeneration powers keep her alive (even with every bone in her legs splintered). Josh? He activates his adrenalin control and leaps over the intersection... and lands on Zemookie... and slips backwards into traffic. Thankfully traffic has now stopped because of the massive accident pile-up... and the fire that is spreading.

Josh, now on fire, tries to use his toothpaste to put it out. Sadly, he did not realize that hygiene levels had been on the decline in that sector so all toothpaste was fortified with a higher grade of cleaner. Teeth were never whiter but the paste was like napalm. No, scratch that, it was napalm when ignited.

Flames: *Grow*
Fire: *Travels up stream of toothpaste and into container*
Josh: Oh bollocks!
Toothpaste: *Explodes*
Pink-R-TON: *blinded and burning*

Hilarity ensues as Pink-R-TON runs around on fire before Stop! Drop! and Rolling! his way to extinguish the flames.

Zemookie has begun crawling down the corridor away from this.

Josh, after realizing he cannot see, calls Friend Computer:

Pink: Friend Computer! Commie Mutant Traitors have struck!

Friend Computer: Thank you citizen Pink-R-TON. You are performing your duties well. Tell me, where have the CMTs struck?

Pink: Right here.

Friend Computer: Citizen Pink-R-TON, the HRE sector is designated as Violet and above clearance. Please explain why you are in a restricted area?

Pink: No, I mean, I'm right here. By where the CMTs attacked!

Friend Computer: Again, Citizen Pink-R-TON, you are not authorized to be in that sector. You are hereby remanded to Re-Education training. Please stay where you are until the edu-bot arrives. And remember, flossing is happiness.


The Edu-bot is actually a modified interrogator bot. It is at this point I need to mention that Josh's pre-designated tic for this character was "finding bots incredibly erotic". Edu-Bot clamps onto Pink-R-TON's arms and drag him away to a Re-Education room. The whole trip, Pink is hitting on the bot and the bot is very appreciative of the comments (unlike the cleaning bot that blew Pink off with a "sorry, I'm in a committed relationship" line earlier).

Once in the re-education room, the Edu-Bot plays a game of "Where's the squishy ball?" with Pink. Every wrong answer results in a hard smack to the side of his already pretty melted face. As you can imagine, this is a difficult game to play when you are blind.

Pink survives through the re-education and tries to speak but the damage means the best he can manage is "Itsh vuz fung."

...uh oh.

Edu-Bot: Citizen Pink-R-TON. I am unable to understand what you are saying. Please be aware that not using Computer-approved Basic is treasonous. What language are you speaking?"

Pink: Itsh da lawnguage od wuv! (It's the language of love!)

Edu-Bot: *Vaporizes the obvious commie mutant terrorist*




It worked! Too well.

Zemookie: *In notes* I use my mutant power to regenerate through the damage.

Me: It works. You can feel your legs again. A hand pats you on the back. Literally. And the hand in question is attached to your shoulder.

Zemookie: Uhhh...

Me: Also, your coveralls don't seem to fit that well anymore. Might have something to do with the third leg growing.

EDD: Isn't she a female?

Me: Yep. A female with a very long dangly bit right about now.

Problems I cannot fix or solve bother me.

I keep trying because I'm stubborn and want to believe there is always something.

Damn my lack of metahuman powers.

For those having trouble downloading the show...

"This evening at 4:55PM CDT in our H1 data center, electrical gear shorted, creating an explosion and fire that knocked down three walls surrounding our electrical equipment room Thankfully, no one was injured. In addition, no customer servers were damaged or lost."


So, yeah, the company that hosts the servers exploded. Literally. If it does not work when you try to grab it, give it another day.