comic_monkey!

I hope this year is one of continued success for your game, creativity and fun for you as well as for those you care about. I also hope that happiness abounds for you and yours!

So. The family is watching the TV show Glee. As part of the show, one of the female characters (Quinn) is impregnated by the school lothario (Puck), but her regular boyfriend (Finn) thinks the child is his and she is allowing that misconception. Puck knows the kid is his and everything goes round and round in humorous fashion.

In the most recent episode, Quinn actually considers that Puck might be a better father for her child than Finn. Ultimately she decides on Finn as the best father of her baby. My wife and I had a discussion about this and thought it would make a good Livejournal discussion.

Finn is the all American stereotypical quarterback. He's none to bright and shows an amazing lack of initiative. One gets the impression he is pretty good at doing what is expected of him but you get the impression if he were left in a field he'd just slowly starve to death. He's very nice and caring. He is surprisingly progressive. (He objected to the football players tormenting the oddball characters and has been surprisingly tolerant of the Gay Character although that could also be a sign of his cluelessness)

Puck is a criminal. He sells pot. He lies and steals. He sleeps around with not only other high school girls, but their mothers. However he is very resourceful. He owns his own legitimate business in addition to his drug dealing. He obviously cares a great deal about the baby and is willing to do 'whatever it takes' to provide for the baby.

So here is the thing. Is being a nice guy better than being a provider? I think both Finn and Puck will love the child. I don't think Puck necessarily loves Quinn. But I also don't think Finn will be a very good provider for the child.

As part of the hypothetical, Quinn cannot give the child away. Who does she spend her life with?

Insert atypical Holiday blather here.

If you knew what God has planned...would you try to stop it?

An interesting question of discussion that came to me in the shower. Simply the implications of asking such a question are intriguing. Tell me what you think...

Our “BRUCE COOKS OMG MAURER COOKBOMB” dinner party was a big hit. I think we will do this again in January (I’d say monthly, but December is massively overbooked). Thanks so much to Bruce for playing chef and to everyone who attended. Yaay!

In other news, the evite as gone out for the Maurer Holiday Party (Saturday December 12). Mark your calendars, and if you haven’t gotten the evite, let me know and I will add you!

My music du jour: Utada Hikaru's "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence -- FYI." The original it's based on by David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto is hauntingly sad.





Here's the original song called "Forbidden Colors":

speaks!

I hope this year brings you great fun in all leisure endeavors, you and your family having one of the best years so far, your business soaring to great heights, and enough time and money to do what you and those dear to you want to do when you want to do it. Happy birthday, man!

1. Busy, busy weekend. A flurry of kid's activities that I could barely keep up with. By the way, I don't thrive on this kind of stuff. . . H had to go run Portals. I had to stay home and teach my Saturday class. I felt so bad about not being at Portals, but I went to Nashville last weekend for the Pooklet's tournament and had to find a sub. I couldn't ask for another sub this weekend. Sometimes I wish I was independently wealthy and didn't have to be obligated to show up at work in order to get money. . .

2. The pooklet had a friend sleepover last night. I could hear them in the next room and her friend was trying to get her to do something that I had told them to stop doing. Pooklet whispered, "no, I'll get into trouble", and her friend replies sassily, "So what!" Pooklet said, "My mom said no." *shakes head* My kid is so cool, and so well mannered. She obeys me when it seems to count most ( but I still can't make her eat her veggies). What is really terrible is that growing up I was the troublemaker, the triple-dog-dare-you kid (sometimes I was good). I think it is my insight into that kind of kid that helps me keep her straight..

3. I think my adolescent cat is in heat. She chirps and yowls all night long. She is an indoor cat, but last night I thought about throwing her out to the tom cats just to shut her up. I've lost so much sleep this week. . . .

4. I meet with an advisor from the College of Nursing at UT on Monday. I'm bracing myself for a bunch of negative talk ("the program is very competitive, you should choose another major, etc"), but hoping they will be somewhat encouraging. I have a 3.8 GPA from college 10 years ago, but it wasn't a science heavy curriculum. I will have to maintain that in math/sciences to get into the program. I don't have alot of room for failure - the average GPA of those admitted is 3.6. Also, this economy has made alot of people consider going back to school, and nursing is one of those recession proof jobs. So you have hundreds, maybe 1000+ applicants applying for 275 slots. They start knocking out anyone lower than a 3.6GPA, then do 15 minute interviews. It is ridiculous, and I could complete Pre-Med easier than I could complete this (but then I'd have to go to med school, and I just don't wanna). I also looked ahead at my classes for the next few semesters. I might have to apply for progression into the upper division classes a year later than I had hoped (Spring 2012). Starting in Spring kind of screws up my timetable for UD nursing courses because they only accept applicants in a Spring term, and UD classes start on a Fall term. I'll be completing the last pre-req during the Fall when I wanted to be ready to start CoN. It is a 5 hour lab course, and I just can't cram it in before then. I thought about trying to cram in an extra course each Semester so I could apply Spring 2011, but there are so many labs (2 part Chem, 2 part Biol, 2 part Anatomy) that I feel there isn't room for another lab during any semesterl. I already have a few semesters where I'm taking 2 labs - I think it would be a mistake to add a third, let alone 5 hour one. And unfortunately, I don't think some of the labs are offered during the summer, which would really solve my problem. But really, what's another year at this point? I'm already looking at 5 years to complete my bachelors and masters, so why not make it 6 and take it a little slower?

As soon as you were tall enough to sign up for the navy you enlisted. The regular elven training on your forest isle only whetted your apatite for the thrill of combat. You passed through the mandatory combat training and were put to work at an oar in one of the wood elf galleys. Your time there was hard but rewarding. The master of marines, Calimon Caremos, took you on as a student. While the techniques of the sergeants were rewarding, the philosophy of Calimon sparked something in your soul. While the other galley men train at the rank and file below Calimon had you balancing from the mast atop the ship. Forcing you to perform the same maneuvers over and over again. Over time the training began to pay off though. Soon there was not one amongst the galley crew who could match you. Until one day

For a fisherman's son in the Isles life was not necessarily bad, but from an early age you had a penchant for wandering. Taking Boats out to far, exploring every nook and cranny on the small island you grew up on, asking questions no one else bothered to ask. It's no surprise you petitioned your former master, Jamed Lightfoot for apprenticeship when he visited your isles. Since that point life was a strange series of places and knowledge. The first tenant of the god Janos Farstrider is the absence of material possessions. Jamed taught you how to live off the meager flora of the islands, he gave you instruction in the arts of healing and the nature of religion. He accepted your sacred vows on behalf of your god and guided you through the channeling of his divine power. After several years of training you found yourself standing at a cross roads with your master as he turned to you and said, "My path is to the left, yours is now to the right, farewell fellow cleric of the Farstrider." As you watched him recede into the distance you were both saddened and excited at the new sights to see and people to meet on your path through the world. You have made friends and enemies in your journeys, offering your services for a fair wage, then dispensing your wealth to the needy, working for food and passage from here to there. Which is how you ended up in Portsmith, a conglomerate community built around the Dwarven smiths who sell metal goods smelted from their sand surrounded mountain jutting up out of the sea. Your time here has been fun, The local bards and beggars providing ample company as you sleep on the streets, wandering the city. Now your time is done and you find yourself boarding the ramp of the Celestine, a small deep water cutter. The Captain, Alec Breeze, is putting together a skeleton crew for his latest trip to the far out islands, he's not offering allot upfront but that doesn't really matter to you. A trip to the outskirt isles sound like just the thing, maybe the huge Elf standing on the deck has some interesting stories to tell.

the_doker!

To my longest standing best friend, the best man at my wedding, and two-time roommate:

I hope this year is one of amazement, stellar performances, rave reviews, ever-increasing artistic achievement, as well as beautiful love, great friendship, and exactly what you want in life.

Driving back from dinner tonight, my sharp-eyed daughter Cosmo spotted our owl! I stopped the car at the top of the driveway and we all got out to gape until he got tired of us and flew away toward the neighbor’s house.

We’ve been hearing his (her?) cries all year almost every night, but never caught sight of him. Cross referencing photos on our bird-book with call recordings online, we’re now pretty sure he’s a Barred Owl. I also think we must have more than one, because sometimes it sounds like a whole bunch of them having an argument. You can click on the image (no I didn’t take that photo) if you’re interested in going to the site with the audio files.

They have a pretty weird call and it startled me awake the first few times I heard it, but now I’ve gotten to like it. Nice to know someone is out there dealing with my rodent problems… Now if only the squirrels would come out at night!

Do they make “Depends” for elderly dogs?

So I am doing a closing today and the broker, the buyer and his son are chattering away in Spanish. Most of it was explaining the documents to the father who was buying the house. I caught about 1 word in 5 or so. My vocabulary, particularly where Home Closings are concerned is good enough to comprehend but not to speak.

At the end of the closing, the dad looked at me expectantly as if to say "Is that it?"

I smiled at him and exclaimed "Feliz cumpleaños!"

After a brief moment of staring at me, they laughed and I explained, "I don't know how to say 'Congratulations' in Spanish so I used the next best thing."

And I gave a silent prayer of thanks to Dora the Explorer.

"My contemperaries have always tried to convine me of the wealth of knowledge to be gain by distance concealed study of certain Xenos species, slowly pealing back the layers of thier socieites. It is with great pleasure I can attest that the closest I have ever come to such activites have been with a lasgun, behind flak board re-enforced trenches."-Vespatian Latnok, Adeptus Biologis, Former Munitorum Biologis of the 7th Charon Regulars

"In the fire of battle we are forged anew,
Judged by the demons we have fought and slew,
For the sake of thos weaker we stand here and fight,
By the strength of our convictions we withstand the long night,
With bolter and blade we wage war without end,
For only in the fire do the Sons of Vulken meet thier end."
-From Icarus Swifts "Ruminations of a Herticus", on fighting with the Adeptus Astartes of the Salamanders Chapter during a Daemonic Infestation

silverstah!

I hope this year is one of kicking much legal ass, passing all your classes with flying colors, becoming a master of law and memory, as well as a year of great success in fun, love, sewing, SCA, and friendship!

Yay, 27 weeks! Suddenly I feel like I might have this baby someday. I really ought to start looking at names... The baby should be almost two pounds by now, which is cool. :)

We filled up the birth tub several days ago. ( Times and temperatures for reference. )

I had a fantastic time at KG this weekend and even managed not to injure myself tripping over anything this time!

The staff was short-handed and I was really impressed by the way they kept up with the busy-busy schedule anyway. I missed the missing, but can’t say that the fun was spoiled. Everyone seemed to be really “on” and enthused, and we had a good group of enthusiastic newbies to boot. Great season closer folks! - Thanks to everyone involved for giving me something to really look forward to next year!

Also, thanks to Llwyd for reading the Faelin poem at dinner. It made me so happy.