"Do you mind if I step out to smoke while you set up the next board?" Hip Gamer asked as Never Too Old started pulling out a new map and arranging mini-figs on it.
"No, go ahead. It'll be a moment," Never Too Old replied.
Hip Gamer and Something Catchy went outside while Sam and Curly milled around getting drinks and chatting with Never Too Old. Walking Hyperbole had left earlier that evening to rescue Adorable Nurse from a flat tire, so Curly was filling in for him.
I stayed in my chair, feet tucked under me to try and keep them warm. The weather had turned suddenly cold and wet that day, and the house was protesting the abuse. Pulling out my iPhone-turned-iTouch, I first checked in on Facebook and then scanned over Twitter to see what was what. As I idly made my way up the series of tweets an announcement that President Obama would soon be addressing the nation caught my eye.
That's strange, I thought to myself. Why would he be having a press conference this late on a Sunday night?
About that time, Hip Gamer and Something Catchy returned and took their places at the table, and the quest to rid the temple of invading Gnolls resumed.
My character (Moira, not Annie) had just buried an arrow in the shoulder of a Gnoll when the sound of Mario catching a mushroom filled the air. All eyes turned to Hip Gamer as he pulled out his phone to check the text message.
"Holy crap," Hip Gamer said, surprise plain upon his face. "I'm glad Rapier Wit keeps an eye on the news. Osama bin Laden's dead!"
"I had wondered why the President was holding a press conference..." I mumbled to myself, pulling my phone back out and accessing my list of political blogs.
Everyone babbled atop one another as more details of the raid emerged. Poor Never Too Old kept trying to push us through the encounter so we could wrap up for the night, but I at least was distracted from the game.
It was difficult to wrap my brain around the idea that bin Laden was dead. 9/11 occurred my senior year of high school, and in many ways was the defining moment when I entered into the adult world. That day marked the first time when I could truly understand the implications of a major event. Nearly ten years later, the man responsible was finally taken down.
The euphoria of the moment startled me.
It is a bizarre moment to realize that you are celebrating the death of another human being. But I also recognized that I would have felt that same euphoria had I heard that we had captured bin Laden, as opposed to having killed him. It wasn't that he was dead--it was that that particular chapter of our history was now, hopefully, closed.
An end of an era, if you will.
Showing posts with label iphone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iphone. Show all posts
Monday, May 2, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Four things
I've got some stuff to get done today, so I can't focus too much attention on the blog at this moment. However, I have come across a handful a links I feel like sharing.
- For Literary Cat: A Dribble of Ink has a post up with a series of links for free downloads of short stories, novelettes, novellas, and one novel that are all up for the Hugo this year. If you're looking for something good to read on the cheap, feel free to go through these!
- For Something Catchy: Here's a rage comic that Sam and I came across last night. I have a feeling you'll be able to relate.
- For the history buffs: from the article, I have the impression this is only for the iPad and doesn't include the iPhone, but I wanted to point it out because it's pretty freaking awesome. Basically, someone's designed an app that is an interactive newspaper that takes you through the Civil War in real time. Meaning they started releasing articles on April 12, and each day they update with headlines from the actual war, photos, military maps, and other trivia/information that had to do with that day during the Civil War. It's $7.99, but would be an awesome learning tool.
- For my D&D buddies: This video is pretty cute, and made me giggle.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Day Twenty-Three -- Games
Many people would not--do not--consider me a "true" video gamer--not the hard core video gamer that so many of my friends are/claim to be. I'm not obsessed with the gaming world, and if I play more than two new video games in the course of a year, I'm doing really, really well.
However, I am a gamer. I play it all--card games, board games, console games, PC games, flash games, word games, mind games, logic games, puzzle games, counting games, pen-and-paper games, table top games--the whole gamut. I'm good at maybe a handful, but I absolutely love playing any and all games. Nothing makes me happier than getting a group of my friends together and playing a board game, or being with my family and playing a card game, or sitting at home and playing the Sims 3, or a small flash game on my iPhone. Games bring me a joy and contentment that is hard to describe--though they certainly have their frustrating moments.
It's not that I'm obscenely competitive--in fact, most of the time I could care less if I win or lose (which is not to say I won't practice to improve--I do have pride). Mostly I just enjoy either the chance to hang out with people or the chance to keep my brain active whenever I don't feel like reading. Or when I'm trying to ignore a customer.
Wait, forget that last sentence.
Games spark my imagination in numerous ways--yes, even something as dry as Sudoku. Whenever I'm stressed games help me relax, and whenever I need to truly focus on something and think it through, playing a game at the same time diverts my attention just enough that I actually will think clearer on the problem I'm facing.
While books will always edge out over games, I must confess it is by a much smaller margin than most people would assume.
"If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
--Chinese Proverb
However, I am a gamer. I play it all--card games, board games, console games, PC games, flash games, word games, mind games, logic games, puzzle games, counting games, pen-and-paper games, table top games--the whole gamut. I'm good at maybe a handful, but I absolutely love playing any and all games. Nothing makes me happier than getting a group of my friends together and playing a board game, or being with my family and playing a card game, or sitting at home and playing the Sims 3, or a small flash game on my iPhone. Games bring me a joy and contentment that is hard to describe--though they certainly have their frustrating moments.
It's not that I'm obscenely competitive--in fact, most of the time I could care less if I win or lose (which is not to say I won't practice to improve--I do have pride). Mostly I just enjoy either the chance to hang out with people or the chance to keep my brain active whenever I don't feel like reading. Or when I'm trying to ignore a customer.
Wait, forget that last sentence.
Games spark my imagination in numerous ways--yes, even something as dry as Sudoku. Whenever I'm stressed games help me relax, and whenever I need to truly focus on something and think it through, playing a game at the same time diverts my attention just enough that I actually will think clearer on the problem I'm facing.
While books will always edge out over games, I must confess it is by a much smaller margin than most people would assume.
"If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
--Chinese Proverb
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Day Six -- Sitting at Maker's
[Note: this was typed and posted via my phone--please excuse any typos.]
9:11
I am curently sitting at Maker's in a little black dress, sipping my drink while sitting in a dark corner, and watching my husband play jazz. All the while I'm texting people and blogging on my iPhone. I feel incredibly trendy at the moment.
I love sitting and watching Sam play. He's one of those musicians that you can tell without a doubt enjoys himself immensely when he plays. It's part of what fascinated me about him the first time I watched him at the Prohibition Room.
Anyway, the "plan" at the moment is that, as the night goes on, I'll periodically jot something down on my iPhone, and when we head home I'll post it.
9:17
So I'm currently seated in a corner of the bar where I can see not only every person in the bar, but every person taking the elevators to the establishments upstairs AND everyone stumbling off to the bathrooms. This bodes well.
9:25
So of the thirty-odd people here right now, about six appear to be listening to the music--mostly middle aged couples out on a date.
9:39
Oh my, I just watched a guy walk by in the diamond sweater from Jesse's costume in It Could Be Anyone of Us. I kid you not.
9:44
One of those middle aged couples has friend with them now... and are apparently friends/family of Joey, the vibes player.
9:51
Oh sweethearts, that's not remotely attractive. Just watched two women in their late 20's - early 30's walk by, and they were both about 60 lbs overweight, had badly dyed platinum blond hair, and were wearing haltertops which showed their midriffs hanging over their daisy dukes--daisy dukes that didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of containing their thighs--and three inch strappy heels. They look like horrific versions of 1980's Texas street walker.
If ya'll ever let me go into public looking like that, I can only assume you are all secretly my enemy.
10:13
So some jerkwad decided to crack open the tinted door I was sitting next to, causing me to have to move, so I don't have nearly the view of my surroundings that I did. We'll see how that affects my snarkiness.
In other news, Sam just had his first break of the night and bought me a coffee and Bailey's--apparently I looked stressed.
10:21
For those of you unaware, Maker's is a "cigar and piano" bar, so 4/5ths of the people in here are smoking. It's a good thing it doesn't bother me; otherwise I'd have been gone after ten
minutes when there were only 30 people here. The place is mostly full by this point.
10:33
The nice thing about the haze of cigar and cigarette smoke is that it does wonders for the lighting in here. The birdies they're using to light the band make me smile, but with the smoke it works very well. Of course, the light on Sam is a warm amber, which when combined with his hair and red shirt, makes him very eye-catching. Good thing I already have my claim on him.
10:45
So I feel sorry for the poor waitress tonight--from everything I can tell, she's the only waitress here tonight, and all but like three tables are filled. Here's hoping she's making good tips.
10:50
Totally can tell university is starting back up on Monday--there's an over abundance of college kids on the prowl now. It's rather amusing. Of course I didn't go bar-hopping until after college, but that was a side-effect of age and location.
11:11
It's the second break of the night, and the official word is that the bathrooms here are completely, totally, and utterly disgusting. The kind of disgusting that makes you afraid to wash your hands for fear of leaving with more germs than you started with.
11:23
We've now reached the point were most of the people who are left are either here for either the music or are too drunk to care. However, I'd say the first half outnumber the second, which is a pleasant surprise. And then there's the guy who just likes whoop, hollar, and whistle.
11:36
Joey just took his jacket off. Either it is way hot up there where the band is or Joey's in a place of I don't care. That or he's trying to show if his torso. There are sone OCU girls here, so that is a possibility, I suppose.
11:46
If I were a character in the Sims, my mood meter for comfort would be into orange headed towards red. They have these hard wooden chairs at most of the tables, and I would need to have been drinking a whole lot more than I have before they'd feel comfortable. Still a little over an hour to go.
12:16
Almost there--one more set to go.
Meanwhile, I've had fun watching all of the really drunk college girls trying to walk by in their 2-4 inch heels. I've seen two fall on their asses, and a half-dozen more ran into the wall when trying to turn the corner to leave. Schaedonfruede? You bet!
12:28
Well, if the tip jar is anything to go by, it looks like the guys are having a pretty decent night tonight. Quite a few bills in there. Also have had two women figure out I'm "with the band," as they each made a point to let me know how good they are. That makes a wife proud.
12:44
We're down to last 15 minutes of the gig, and all twenty or so people left in the bar are applauding each song the guys play. Ah, the joys of social lubricants at work. Still, I'm really enjoying the music tonight--it's got a lot more tempo and, well, life to it than what I've heard at Sam's gigs in the past. Despite some of the aggravations, I'd call tonight a success. And while they're not officially done yet, I'm going to go ahead and start the process of posting this.
Good night everyone! Thanks for keeping me company (in spirit at least.)
"It's taken me all of my life to learn what not to play."
--Dizzy Gillespie
9:11
I am curently sitting at Maker's in a little black dress, sipping my drink while sitting in a dark corner, and watching my husband play jazz. All the while I'm texting people and blogging on my iPhone. I feel incredibly trendy at the moment.
I love sitting and watching Sam play. He's one of those musicians that you can tell without a doubt enjoys himself immensely when he plays. It's part of what fascinated me about him the first time I watched him at the Prohibition Room.
Anyway, the "plan" at the moment is that, as the night goes on, I'll periodically jot something down on my iPhone, and when we head home I'll post it.
9:17
So I'm currently seated in a corner of the bar where I can see not only every person in the bar, but every person taking the elevators to the establishments upstairs AND everyone stumbling off to the bathrooms. This bodes well.
9:25
So of the thirty-odd people here right now, about six appear to be listening to the music--mostly middle aged couples out on a date.
9:39
Oh my, I just watched a guy walk by in the diamond sweater from Jesse's costume in It Could Be Anyone of Us. I kid you not.
9:44
One of those middle aged couples has friend with them now... and are apparently friends/family of Joey, the vibes player.
9:51
Oh sweethearts, that's not remotely attractive. Just watched two women in their late 20's - early 30's walk by, and they were both about 60 lbs overweight, had badly dyed platinum blond hair, and were wearing haltertops which showed their midriffs hanging over their daisy dukes--daisy dukes that didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of containing their thighs--and three inch strappy heels. They look like horrific versions of 1980's Texas street walker.
If ya'll ever let me go into public looking like that, I can only assume you are all secretly my enemy.
10:13
So some jerkwad decided to crack open the tinted door I was sitting next to, causing me to have to move, so I don't have nearly the view of my surroundings that I did. We'll see how that affects my snarkiness.
In other news, Sam just had his first break of the night and bought me a coffee and Bailey's--apparently I looked stressed.
10:21
For those of you unaware, Maker's is a "cigar and piano" bar, so 4/5ths of the people in here are smoking. It's a good thing it doesn't bother me; otherwise I'd have been gone after ten
minutes when there were only 30 people here. The place is mostly full by this point.
10:33
The nice thing about the haze of cigar and cigarette smoke is that it does wonders for the lighting in here. The birdies they're using to light the band make me smile, but with the smoke it works very well. Of course, the light on Sam is a warm amber, which when combined with his hair and red shirt, makes him very eye-catching. Good thing I already have my claim on him.
10:45
So I feel sorry for the poor waitress tonight--from everything I can tell, she's the only waitress here tonight, and all but like three tables are filled. Here's hoping she's making good tips.
10:50
Totally can tell university is starting back up on Monday--there's an over abundance of college kids on the prowl now. It's rather amusing. Of course I didn't go bar-hopping until after college, but that was a side-effect of age and location.
11:11
It's the second break of the night, and the official word is that the bathrooms here are completely, totally, and utterly disgusting. The kind of disgusting that makes you afraid to wash your hands for fear of leaving with more germs than you started with.
11:23
We've now reached the point were most of the people who are left are either here for either the music or are too drunk to care. However, I'd say the first half outnumber the second, which is a pleasant surprise. And then there's the guy who just likes whoop, hollar, and whistle.
11:36
Joey just took his jacket off. Either it is way hot up there where the band is or Joey's in a place of I don't care. That or he's trying to show if his torso. There are sone OCU girls here, so that is a possibility, I suppose.
11:46
If I were a character in the Sims, my mood meter for comfort would be into orange headed towards red. They have these hard wooden chairs at most of the tables, and I would need to have been drinking a whole lot more than I have before they'd feel comfortable. Still a little over an hour to go.
12:16
Almost there--one more set to go.
Meanwhile, I've had fun watching all of the really drunk college girls trying to walk by in their 2-4 inch heels. I've seen two fall on their asses, and a half-dozen more ran into the wall when trying to turn the corner to leave. Schaedonfruede? You bet!
12:28
Well, if the tip jar is anything to go by, it looks like the guys are having a pretty decent night tonight. Quite a few bills in there. Also have had two women figure out I'm "with the band," as they each made a point to let me know how good they are. That makes a wife proud.
12:44
We're down to last 15 minutes of the gig, and all twenty or so people left in the bar are applauding each song the guys play. Ah, the joys of social lubricants at work. Still, I'm really enjoying the music tonight--it's got a lot more tempo and, well, life to it than what I've heard at Sam's gigs in the past. Despite some of the aggravations, I'd call tonight a success. And while they're not officially done yet, I'm going to go ahead and start the process of posting this.
Good night everyone! Thanks for keeping me company (in spirit at least.)
"It's taken me all of my life to learn what not to play."
--Dizzy Gillespie
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Prologue ii -- Phone Adventures
There may be a few of you out there who do not realize that I am not a morning person. It is for your sake that I give the following warning: I am not a morning person. I am especially not a morning person at 4 am.
Why do I mention this? Because my day started today at, you guessed it, 4 am. This wasn't a planned awakening at 4 am--if it had been, I would have been merely pissy, rather than homicidal. (Before you fear for his life, yes, Sam is still alive. Not even his fault I was awake that early.)
What happened? Well, it actually all begins last night as I'm getting ready to go to bed. You see, yesterday my phone decided to go on the fritz--completely powered off at about 6 pm, even though I had charged it the night before. Ah well, sometimes it doesn't get a complete charge, I think to myself. With this in mind I decide to plug in the phone while Sam and I settle down for the night.
It is an unfortunate happenstance that the outlet in our bedroom is on Sam's side of the bed, and the power cable for my LG enV is just barely long enough to make it from the outlet to my nightstand. In the course of drifting off to sleep, I accidentally nudged my phone, and the tension on the cable pulled the phone down to the floor. With much grumbling I manage to retrieve it, and Sam sets the alarm on our actual clock in case I knock the phone off the bed again in the middle of the night.
Fast forward to 4 am. I wake up a little as I hear Sam move around the bed, just enough to identify that yes, Sam did get out of bed. With a mental shrug I roll over to go back to sleep. Only, there's one small problem: the side I rolled onto had no bed to catch me.
Down to the floor I go.
Wide awake now, I grumble and start to get up, only to notice that my phone has fallen off the nightstand during this transaction, and of course has been pulled underneathe the bed. I crawl around--in the dark with no glasses--trying to find my phone, and eventually determine that it has fallen between the bed and the wall.
Cursing, I decide to move the bed away from the wall so I can retrieve my phone. (Sam has [wisely] by this point retreated to the bathroom--which I believe was his original intention when he got out of bed in the first place--after I nearly bit off his head telling him that "I'm fine.") So I tug on the bed to move it, and succeed only in moving the mattress but not the box springs. Thoroughly irritated, I go to push the mattress back into place so I can grab the actual bed frame to shift it, and instead manage to roll the whole bed.
Over my toes.
At this juncture I start to invent new profanity. Finally I manage to move the bed and retrieve my phone, which is also the time when Sam makes it back into the bedroom. Having successfully got everything set back up, I drop back into bed to go back to sleep.
I awake to my alarm this morning, pull out my phone to tell it, yes, I am awake, and notice that, lo and behold, it only has one bar on the battery.
Le sigh.
I manage to make it until my lunch before my phone completely dies.
However, my wonderful husband decides it is in the best interest of humanity (and our sanity [or is it his safety?]) that we should go ahead and get my birthday present early: a brand new iPhone 3GS. :-D I am totally, utterly, absolutely, without a doubt completely psyched by this!
God sure knows how to make a bad thing good, doesn't He?
"We're just going to go home, go to bed, and play with our phones aren't we?"
"Nope. I'm going to go home and write in my blog. Then we'll go to bed and play with our new phones!"
--Sam and I driving home tonight
Why do I mention this? Because my day started today at, you guessed it, 4 am. This wasn't a planned awakening at 4 am--if it had been, I would have been merely pissy, rather than homicidal. (Before you fear for his life, yes, Sam is still alive. Not even his fault I was awake that early.)
What happened? Well, it actually all begins last night as I'm getting ready to go to bed. You see, yesterday my phone decided to go on the fritz--completely powered off at about 6 pm, even though I had charged it the night before. Ah well, sometimes it doesn't get a complete charge, I think to myself. With this in mind I decide to plug in the phone while Sam and I settle down for the night.
It is an unfortunate happenstance that the outlet in our bedroom is on Sam's side of the bed, and the power cable for my LG enV is just barely long enough to make it from the outlet to my nightstand. In the course of drifting off to sleep, I accidentally nudged my phone, and the tension on the cable pulled the phone down to the floor. With much grumbling I manage to retrieve it, and Sam sets the alarm on our actual clock in case I knock the phone off the bed again in the middle of the night.
Fast forward to 4 am. I wake up a little as I hear Sam move around the bed, just enough to identify that yes, Sam did get out of bed. With a mental shrug I roll over to go back to sleep. Only, there's one small problem: the side I rolled onto had no bed to catch me.
Down to the floor I go.
Wide awake now, I grumble and start to get up, only to notice that my phone has fallen off the nightstand during this transaction, and of course has been pulled underneathe the bed. I crawl around--in the dark with no glasses--trying to find my phone, and eventually determine that it has fallen between the bed and the wall.
Cursing, I decide to move the bed away from the wall so I can retrieve my phone. (Sam has [wisely] by this point retreated to the bathroom--which I believe was his original intention when he got out of bed in the first place--after I nearly bit off his head telling him that "I'm fine.") So I tug on the bed to move it, and succeed only in moving the mattress but not the box springs. Thoroughly irritated, I go to push the mattress back into place so I can grab the actual bed frame to shift it, and instead manage to roll the whole bed.
Over my toes.
At this juncture I start to invent new profanity. Finally I manage to move the bed and retrieve my phone, which is also the time when Sam makes it back into the bedroom. Having successfully got everything set back up, I drop back into bed to go back to sleep.
I awake to my alarm this morning, pull out my phone to tell it, yes, I am awake, and notice that, lo and behold, it only has one bar on the battery.
Le sigh.
I manage to make it until my lunch before my phone completely dies.
However, my wonderful husband decides it is in the best interest of humanity (and our sanity [or is it his safety?]) that we should go ahead and get my birthday present early: a brand new iPhone 3GS. :-D I am totally, utterly, absolutely, without a doubt completely psyched by this!
God sure knows how to make a bad thing good, doesn't He?
"We're just going to go home, go to bed, and play with our phones aren't we?"
"Nope. I'm going to go home and write in my blog. Then we'll go to bed and play with our new phones!"
--Sam and I driving home tonight
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