Blankshield

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Teach Your Children

You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good-bye.

Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh
and know they love you.

And you, of tender years,
Can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.

Teach your parents well,
Their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh
and know they love you.

On a related note, I would like to acquire a legitimate copy of Adobe InDesign for somewhere below $200 CAD. Is there an enterprising student with access to cheap university bookstore prices or someone with a legic copy mouldering on their shelf?

thanks,

James

Well, it's currently only built with the massively limited toolset that comes free with it, and has squat for content, but at least it's mine:

http://www.blankshieldpress.com/

And, just in case anyone was in any doubt, Paint as a image editing program sucks big hairy balls.

James

In a comment on Lazarus' blog, I wrote the following in response to his litany of games, and semi-humourous/semi-serious suggestion that he's got a bit of a problem.

----
Speaking as a mostly reformed (I game on average about once a week) gaming junkie myself:

You can cut back. You can even stop playing. It's even possible (gasp!) to stop going to Thursday nights.

The price? You lose 90% of your social schedule.

The gain? You learn the difference between friends and "people I game with".
----

I've since had some oblique indication that this was considered a bit cold and snobbish. And perhaps it is. Certainly, there are a lot of people I have gamed with that are fantastic people, and not at all to be looked down on but yet are not friends.

Perhaps the problem is that people are used to "gamer" being a purjorative term, and I do not (typically) mean it so. It is also perhaps that, with the whole working-full-time, raising-three-kids, doing-other-hobbies I am also not necessarily seeing *friends* nearly as much as I would like, and people who I consider friends are reading too much into it.

But the underlying point, is I think, still relevent, and probably a good idea to think about from time to time: I think a lot of people throw around the term "friend" a little casually. If the only interaction you have with someone revolves around one activity, they aren't a friend. I work with a whole bunch of really cool people, many of whom I have a lot in common with, but they ain't friends. If I quit tomorrow, I wouldn't interact more with any of them, and neither side of the equation would miss the other a whole lot.

I don't have some sort of magic formula that deems someone friend/not-friend, and I can't point to "the difference" except in very general terms, but I think a friend is more than just a person with things in common, or that I see a lot of, or even someone I like - I have friends that I don't really like a whole lot.

"Know who your friends are" is an old cliche that typically is used to really mean "be paranoid", but I generally aim to take it more literally and apply it to my life. I may not know if I'm your friend, because that's your judgement call, but I've got a pretty good idea if you're mine.

And I'm very fortunate to be able to say: I've got a lot of really good friends, and I wish that I saw more of you.

James

I am evil.

I realize some of you didn't have doubts on that score, but just in case:

Last night I showed Dogs to Cam. He's hooked.

James

I had a pretty good weekend, although pretty busy. It involved lots of really good food.

Friday night was regular Friday night gaming, with a few extra bodies thrown in for good measure. We hosted the friends and fiends Thanksgiving this year, a week-ish late. I cooked a turkey (stuffed and everything), multiple side dishes et al; you know, the traditional signs of western excess.

Then a few folks vegged in the living room while others of us played Mystery at the Abbey, a really fun board game that is a bit like Clue, only less predictable because the cards move around. Afterwards we all watched a couple episodes of Firefly, and that was the evening, more-or-less. It was a pretty fun and relaxed time. I dumped the carcass o' dead bird into a pot with lots of water and assorted make-things-yummy bits and set it to gently boiling.

And it snowed.

Saturday Raven went to work obscenely early and I took care of the kids all day and generally cleaned up from the night before. The carcass continued to boil, it continued to snow. I used the excuse to sneak in bits of Christmas music.

Saturday evening, after feeding kids and cleaning up 1/2 the garage so that Raven could park her van inside before working in the morning, I went out to Star and Eric's. Or to put things in their proper perspective: I cleaned ~6 inches of snow off my van, then drove very very slowly to Eric and Star's. My timing was impecable as I arrived literally as supper was being served. Yummy cloven pork roast with apple gravy and other associated trimmings. Afterwards we watched a Peter Gabriel DVD, which was mostly cool and a little bit weird, sat around yakking, and looked at Davyd and Myrna's honeymoon pics, which were very Vancouvery. Went home very very slowly and went to bed. The carcass continued to boil, it continued to snow.

Sunday got up with kids again, although they slept in a bit, which allowed me to sleep in a bit, too; I didn't have to crawl out of bed until ~8:30. Raven had made coffee before going to work, and there was much rejoicing. Kids were actually pretty good on Sunday, and I was getting a bit lazy so mostly sat around reading a book.

Afer Raven came home, I geared up in all my winter stuff and went around to the back yard to remove the sun shelter from our deck. Note to self: next year do that earlier: 6 inches of snow on a cheap vinyl sunshelter does not a happy sunshelter make. The roof is awfully stretched now. Came back in and got ready for the regular Sunday dinner, which was beef roast with all the expected extras, including some really yummy ciabatta buns from Costco, and a chocolatey cheesecake for desert.

Sunday after supper I did a little bit of cleaning, but Raven was awesome and agreed to take the lion's share, so I had a shower, a glass of white zin finished my book and went to bed more-or-less on time. The carcass continued to boil, it continued to snow. I used the excuse to sneak in bits of Christmas music.

Got up extra early this morning to allow time for snow sweeping and vehicle warming and crappy roads and stupid people and managed to get to work a bit on the early side as well; a 40 minute drive, which is normally about how long it takes in rush hour traffic. I'm glad I left early and mostly beat rush hour.

The carcass continues to boil, it continues to snow.

James

Life has been uninspiring lately; sorry folks. In the list of 'things occupying my time lately are:

I've been grinding away at the pile of Lego in the basement, trying to get it sorted and dealt with enough so that there's room to store the HLB/River Valley chunks that are living here over the next year or so.

...
Hmm. That's a shorter list than I thought. I'm also watching Firefly, which is only convincing me more and more that Joss Whedon Knows What the Hell He's Doing, pity I've got about 6 episodes to go and I'll be in the same outraged state as all of the original fans when it got cancled.

On my list of Things Upcoming is: clean the garage before it gets even colder out, and the fun thing I'm looking forward to a lot: I'm playing a game of Dogs in the Vineyard over IRC starting next week.

And yeah, that's life in a nutshell these days. Or at least, life that isn't involved with work and family, which is most of life.

James

Hey Jodi? I'm not sure if you're reading weblogs while you're in town, but you, uh, forgot your clothes here the other night. And my wife... kinda found them. In the master bathroom.

James

You will have to forgive my temporary assumption of what is typically considered by our society as a very "female thing":

I (he said in a 'gosh, ain't I something' tone) can fit comfortably into the jeans I was wearing ten years ago.

Getting back into kung fu and generally trying to be more healthy appears to be working for me. I have lost the extra pant size I picked up in the last decade or so. Now, to the Minstry concert, Batman!

James