Motorin'!

So.

Alex started walking last night. It was so cool.

He's been standing unsupported for a couple weeks now. Not for more than 30 seconds or so at a time, but he'd recently gotten to the point where he could bounce up and down and clap his hands and not fall on his butt.

Last night, I stood him up and he bounced a little, then reached for me. I backed off just out of his reach, and to our amazement, he moved a foot forward -- and stayed up! Even more amazing was the fact that he took 3 more steps before finally falling down. And he repeated the feat a number of times that night.

He's about 9.5 months old now, the same age Elizabeth was when she started walking, though we don't expect him to master it as quickly as she did. (She was walking from one end of the house to the other without touching anything within a week of her first step.)

On an unrelated note, my brain keeps pumping out ideas for Give Me The Brain! expansions. I should be posting PDFs for the first 2 later this evening; I've got an add-on to the 2nd expansion in progress -- I just need to color the artwork before testing can start; and I'm taking down ideas for a small expansion that adds crazy, perhaps overpowered cards to the mix.

And last night I hammered out an expansion that's been brewing in the back of my mind all week which adds another new type of card to the game: Shift cards. I ran 4-5 simulated 3-player games, and I was pleased by how well it worked. I've typed up the first draft of the rules, finished the graphics, printed out the prototype cards, and am ready to begin actual testing. Barring any setbacks, it shouldn't be more than a few weeks before this set (which will be labeled the 3rd, though it was conceived fifth) is uploaded.

Book read: The Golden Queen

Saturday night I finished The Golden Queen by Dave Wolverton. It's actually the first book of the Golden Queen trilogy, and though I put off reading it for a while because I don't own the next books yet, I eventually figured it would stand alone well enough by itself, so I read it.

It was decent. I won't describe the plot really, since most of it is slowly revealed as you read. I will say that it starts out in a rustic Irish setting on a backwater planet. That's where you first meet the main protagonists: Gallen O'Day, a swaggering but kindhearted bodyguard; his friend, Orick, an intelligent, talking bear; and Maggie Flynn, the girl who works at the inn and has a thing for Gallen.

It isn't long before some strangers arrive, danger breaks out, and the trio are whisked off on an adventure. Which is kind of too bad, because I think that first section of the book is my favorite part. After that, it gets pretty sci-fi-y, and though it's competently plotted and written, it just doesn't stand out as much as the initial chapters. The characters, though, are good -- especially those main three. The aforementioned strangers, Everynne and her bodyguard Veriasse, drive the plot, but never seem as fully fleshed out as Gallen and his friends. Now that I think about it, though, that's probably because (a) they're strangers to the rest of the cast for a good chunk of the story, and (b) it's really Gallen's story anyway.

Last year I read the more-recent epic fantasy series The Runelords by "David Farland", which is just Dave Wolverton's pen name. Knowing that, I could see definite similarities between the two, especially in the alien creatures: the Dronon (from Golden Queen) and Reavers (from Runelords). So far, Runelords is the better series; not surprising, as it's the more recent.

There was a slight twist at the end of Golden Queen that I kept waiting and waiting for, and when it finally popped up in the last two pages, it kind of fell flat for me. Other than that, I enjoyed the book. I'll definitely need to keep an eye out for the next two books.

Up next is Bernard Cornwell's The Archer's Tale, the first book in the Grail Quest series. My brother's been trying to get me to read it for the past year. Happy now?

Friday gaming recap: Out of Africa.

Lane and Matt came over again. We had the Twins game on in the background, as Minnesota beat the Chicago White Sox to take the wild card lead.

Meanwhile, we started the night with a game of Settlers of the Stone Age. I start out quickly, jumping out to an early lead by making an explorer and running around Europe picking up tiles; finding Adaptation VPs and winning the 2VP Exploration card early on. But I petered out shortly thereafter, running out of meat with which to move my explorer, and not being able to convert him into a camp until near the end of the game. Meanwhile, the other players moved out of Africa as it turned into desert. First Matt passed me in points, then Lane, and finally Sarah tied me. On the last turn, with 7 VPs, Matt moved his explorer to reveal a tile: sure enough, it was the Adaption VP for the Americas, which also took the 2-VP Exploration card from me, giving Matt the win and putting me in dead last.

After that, we finished watching the Twins win, then set up a game of Res Publica. Sarah disappeared briefly, so the rest of us (as usual) broke out Give Me The Brain! with our expansions:
I actually won that game, breaking my winless streak from last night. Then Sarah came back, and Res Publica began. It was a pretty poor showing for me, though I did build the second city, I only laid down cards once after that (building a second city and the game's second monument at the same time.) Then I couldn't do anything else until the end of the game, when I finished with 6 pairs in my hand. Final scores: Sarah, 29; Matt, 27; Me, 20; Lane, 19.

After that, Sarah went to put Alex to bed, and Matt and I convinced Lane to play one more hand of GMTB!, which Matt won. Then Lane went home, and Matt and I each won another game apiece, so we decided to play a fifth-game tiebreaker. I won the bid, dropped the Brain, won the bid, played a Butterfingers!, won the bid, played another Butterfingers!, Matt won the bid, and played his last card, Caring is Sharing -- leaving me with 1 card in my hand: also Sharing is Caring. Since that game took less than 3 minutes, we decided we might as well play a sixth, which I won. Then came the game 7 tiebreaker, which, anticlimactic as it sounds, I can't remember who won.

Thursday gaming recap: Huzzah!

Lane and Matt came over last night. After watching the Twins thwomp the Orioles, we headed to the kitchen for a game of Pirate's Cove. Steve gave this to Sarah for her birthday, but we hadn't played her copy yet. (Matt owns the first edition, which has seen 4-5 plays.) One thing's for sure: the revised rulebook in the second printing is a huge improvement. I do miss the grid on the mapboard, though, even if it was completely pointless. It was pretty.

Anyway, Sarah and I both got off to a great start, but around midgame, I had a couple unfortunate battles that pretty much put me out of the game. Sarah, meanwhile, beefed her ship up until she was ready to take on (and defeat) Blackbeard at the end. Sarah won, followed by Lane, Matt, and lastly myself.

Then, while Sarah tried putting Alex to sleep, Lane and Matt and I played 4 hands of Give Me The Brain! with our finished expansion cards. Matt had brought over the final graphics printed out on sticker paper, and I cut them out and adhered them to a spare GMTB! deck. The new cards look incredible, and it's so much fun to play. (Hence the "Huzzah!" in the post title.) In the first 4 games last night, Matt won 3 and Lane won 1, with Lane ending the first 2 hands with the Trophy of Dubious Merit. Then Sarah joined us for a fifth and final hand, which lasted close to half an hour, and was quite possibly the best 4-handed game of GMTB! I've ever played. Lane won it, and I had my first winless night in who knows how long.

I will be getting files for the GMTB! expansions uploaded to BoardGameGeek (and linked here) soon, it's now just a matter of compressing the images so the file sizes aren't as ridiculous as they are currently. I'll have pictures up even sooner.

I do some of my best work in the shower.

Or when I'm mowing the lawn.

I've been writing a song for my brother's wedding for, oh, 4 months or something, now. I came up with the chorus in the shower one morning, and hammered out the music, then tried piecing together the verses. And though I got music written for the verses, I just couldn't find any words. And the chorus, well, I liked it, but I've gotten to the point where if the chorus lyrics aren't different every time, it just feels lazy, and the format I had written this chorus in was fairly restrictive, so I was having problems coming up with those, and...

Anyway, that song sat for a couple of months without making any progress.

Then I'm mowing the lawn and I come with the chorus for a new song. And I have an idea how the verses might go, even if I don't have any actual words for them, yet. But I get the music and lyrics done for the chorus, and I like it. And yes, I realize that the chorus will be the same throughout the song, but that's okay, because it works in this case.

But weeks go by, and still no verses.

Until today. In the shower. A complete verse! I'll have to hammer out the music when I get home, but it's honestly not that far off from the chorus, so it shouldn't be too hard. But I'm making real progress now. Here's the verse, by the way. (Spoilers ahead!)

There's a flame kindled within your soul
But it's the spark of another that makes you whole
And as years go by, oh, whate'er you do
Keep that heartfire burning inside of you
And inside of her, too

Maybe it doesn't read like much, but one of my biggest obstacles as a songwriter the past few years has been getting past the point of having just a chorus. I have a lot of those lying around, it's fleshing out the whole song that gets difficult. (And to think I used to crank a couple of songs out a night back in high school!)

Another piece of good fortune: I got a little tune stuck in my head at work a week or two ago, and on a whim, I recorded it on my cell phone in case I wanted to use it later. Actually, I think that was the day before I started the latest song. Well, I went back, dug that recording out, and it actually fits with the new song. So finally things are starting to come together.

Now, if only that second verse would come to me...

Less-than-sterling Silva.

Well, so much for my predictions for the American League Central race this week. Detroit's taken 2 from the White Sox, to take a 7.5-game lead, and the Twins last night dropped their first game to Baltimore, 6-3, though they now trail the Sox for the wild card lead by a mere half-game.

I didn't watch much of last night's game -- we took the kids to the park -- but it was probably better that way. Carlos Silva gave up 5 homeruns, including 3 solo shots to rookie Nick Markakis. That's pretty much all you need to know about the game went.

Here's hoping we win the next two, and Detroit finishes a sweep of Chicago. I'll settle for the wild card lead if I have to.

The lesser evil?

The Tigers versus White Sox series starts tonight. But as a Twins fan, who to root for? The Twins and Sox face off again this weekend, and right now the standings look like this:

Wild Card standings
1. White Sox
2. Twins (1 game back)

AL Central standings
1. Tigers
2. White Sox (5.5 games back)
3. Twins (6.5 games back)

We play the hapless Orioles this weekend, so there's a good chance we'll leave Baltimore with a sweep. Given that, if the Tiggers sweep the Sox, we're looking at this:

Wild Card standings
1. Twins
2. White Sox (2 games back)

AL Central standings
1. Tigers
2. Twins (6.5 games back)
3. White Sox (8.5 games back)

But, if the Sox sweep the Tigers, the picture looks like this:

Wild Card standings
1. White Sox
2. Twins (1 game back)

AL Central standings
1. Tigers
2. White Sox (2.5 games back)
3. Twins (3.5 games back)

On the one hand, it'd certainly be nice to take the wild card lead again. But on the other hand, that gets us no closer to Detroit, and a 6.5-game deficit is nothing to giggle at. However, that last picture, with the Twins within 3.5 of the Tigers, and right behind Chicago for the wild card -- within striking distance of both teams -- looks real inviting.

So I won't be actively cheering for the White Sox, but I can honestly say I'd have no problem with them extending Detroit's recent slump. No problem at all.

Weekend gaming recap: Trains, Brains, & Catanians.

A fair bit o' gaming over the weekend. I'll break it down day by day:

Thursday

Matt wasn't feeling well, but Lane and Tara were over. Matt doesn't do "traditional" card games, but Sarah, Tara, Lane and I do (we played a lot of cards in college) so I convinced them to give Wizard a try. Steve gave it to Sarah for Christmas, but it had yet to be played.

First off, about the game. It's a standard deck of cards (minus the Jokers), with 8 new cards: 4 Wizards and 4 Jesters. It's played basically like the old trick-taking game Up and Down the River (aka Oh Hell!) where trump is random each hand, and you bid on how many tricks you're going to take. The main difference is that Wizards and Jesters are wild, and can be played at any time. A Wizard always takes the trick, and a Jester always loses the trick. These come in handy, because you're punished if you don't take the exact number of tricks you bid.

So it was a lot of fun. The scoring system kept everyone in the game for all 15 rounds. I pretty much ran away with it at the end, but missed a single trick in the final round and got beat. The Wizards and Jesters add a lot more to the game than it would at first appear. Highly recommended if you enjoy trick-taking card games.

Friday

Matt felt better Friday, and came over. Steve and Becca also showed up, we all had pizza, and apparently Becca's favorite game is Cities & Knights, so we set up a 5-player game of that. The game took a long time, partly due to the crummy way the number tokens ended up. Matt, Steve, and Becca each got a metropolis, and though scores were relatively close at the end, Becca ended up winning fairly easily.

Matt and I also played 3 hands of Give Me the Brain! (with our expansions), of which I won 2.

Saturday

Just Matt came over Saturday night. We hit Pannekoeken Huis for dinner, where we played a game of Pass the Pigs while waiting for our food. Everyone rolled really poorly for a long time, even after Matt took an early lead. But then Sarah jumped ahead, and I began slowly making way up, point-wise. We cut the game short when food arrived, and Sarah thought she had won -- but Matt had surpassed her by a couple of points!

Upon arriving home, Matt and I played a couple hands of Give Me the Brain! with expansions, including one that ran through the entire 157-card deck and took close to half an hour. I won the first 2, Matt won the next 3. By the end of the night, we had evened it out a 4 to 4, but Matt won the decisive 9th game.

With Sarah, we played Ticket to Ride: Marklin, one of Sarah's current favorites. I intentionally cut off one of Sarah's routes early on (in retaliation for her unintentionally cutting me off) and it ended up costing her points at game's end and handing me the win. Boy, she was pretty grumpy with me for a while.

We also played a game of Sole Mio! which I won easily, and a game of Mystery Rummy: Murders in the Rue Morgue that Sarah ended up winning.

Sunday

Lane came over, and on Sarah's request brought Ticket to Ride: Europe over with him. I won by a wide margin, having ended the game far earlier than the other two were happy with.

Then we decided on a game of 3-player Settlers of Catan, and I suggested playing with my homemade "River" expansion. I had made the expansion a year ago, and it had only been played once -- and that with the paper prototype tiles, not the nice high-quality ones I made shortly thereafter. Lane had never played it before, and had shown interest in the past, so we tried it out. It worked out quite well. We played to 11 points, and Lane reached that in under an hour, thanks to 3 hexes of his that gave him 3-4 cards each, allowing him to build cities quickly.

At the very least, it got me to back to work on getting the instructions for the expansion finished up, and hopefully I'll have it ready and published to BoardGameGeek in the next week or so.

Sarah and I ended the night with a game of Lost Cities. I scored 75, 75, and 72 in the three rounds, soundly beating her 222 to 93, and winning for the first time since I-can't-even-remember-when. I intend to relish my victory while it lasts.

A Buggy's life.

I've just started a new comic strip! It's called Buggy, it's cute, and it's based on my kids. New strips will go up Fridays if I've got any, but I'm not going to promise regular weekly updates; that never ends well for me.

You can check it out here. It's also linked on the blog index page on the righthand menu.

Enjoy!

Book read: Wyrms.

Yesterday, I finished reading Wyrms by Orson Scott Card, for the second time.

It has the distinction of being the first Card book I'd read outside the "Ender" series. It was a bit of a departure from those books -- even the "heavier" of the Ender books like Xenocide -- and I decided that it was pretty good, but it really didn't do anything for me.

Fast forward a few years, and now I own almost all of Card's books, and have read most of those, and my impression is still that Wyrms is one of the weakest of the lot. So, wanting to read some more Card, and barely remembering a thing about Wyrms (though still maintaining my opinion on it), I decided to give it another read.

Wow.

The book hasn't changed any in the intervening 3-4 years, but apparently I've grown a lot as a reader. Wyrms is a great book. I'm a huge fan of early Card (like Treason, Hart's Hope, and The Worthing Saga) and this ranks right up there with those.

The story revolves around the girl, Patience, whose father is the rightful Heptarch, but is slave to King Oruc. This makes Patience the rightful heir to the throne; there's also the matter of a prophecy regarding the seventh seventh seventh daughter of the original Heptarch: which happens to be Patience. It seems that her destiny is to bear the Unwyrm's child which will either save or destroy humanity, and the story essentially chronicles Patience's journey from her home in Korfu to Unwyrm's lair.

Like most of Card's early work, everything about the book smacks of originality. The characters are sharply drawn, and quite memorable (aside from my own inherent forgetfulness) and the dialogue all has a very philosophical bent to it. One of my favorite aspects of the book is that whenever someone speaks, you feel like Card is imparting little nuggets of Truth to you. There's definitely a lot of wisdom in the text, and a lot to think about as a reader. The climactic scene is as disturbing as the buildup leads you to believe it will be, and the denouement by contrast feels just the opposite: rushed and happy.

Though the book is rooted in science-fiction, based in a far-flung future on a colonized planet and concerned with genetic manipulation, reproduction, and evolution, it reads much more like a fantasy. As with most of Card's sci-fi (the later Ender books included) it takes place in a fairly medieval setting, with kings and castles. The story itself revolves around the genre-standard quest or journey. In fact, I couldn't help noticing that the day before I finished Wyrms, I read on Card's website a review of a fantasy series that said:

"Too often, the world of a fantasy novel consists of: Two cities, a mountain range, a forest, and a desert. Oh, and a river here and there that will serve either as transportation or a barrier."

And, sure enough, Wyrms has two cities, Korfu and Cranning; a mountain, Skyfoot; a forest, Tinker's Wood; and though there's no desert, there's the Cranwater river that serves as transportation from the forest to the mountain.

Definitely fantasy. But definitely good. So I'm slightly dissatisfied with the ending; as with most fantasy, it's all about the journey.


(*edit: Apparently, the system hiccupped when I first wrote this post, because it didn't initially show up anywhere. Frustrated, I rewrote the entry and posted it -- only to see that the first entry did make it through. I've deleted the second write-up from my blog proper, but if you want to give it a look, here it is.)

Joe Mauer t-shirt idea.

Jim Souhan mentioned in the Star Tribune last week how Twins players' living at MLB-leading-hitter Joe Mauer's place have seen an increase in their offensive production:

"Jason Bartlett grabbed a bunk last year, and he's hitting .355. Josh Rabe is the newest tenant, and he's hitting .317. Mauer may become the first American League catcher ever to win a batting title, and Morneau is threatening to become the most feared Canadian hitter since Marty McSorley."

Which gave me this idea for a t-shirt:

(quick mock-up done in MS Word.)

I'd buy one.

They sure don't make things like they should.

Or: Adventures in grilling.

We decided to grill hot dogs last night. Mmm, Ballpark beef-pork-turkey dogs. I go to the grill, turn on the gas, and start 'er up. When I notice that the left side doesn't look very flame-y, I play with the burner settings to make sure that it is, indeed, working. Eventually, I turn the left burner off: oh, looks like it was working. So, I shut everything down and start it up again.

Except this time, when I go to turn the ignition switch, it just spins freely. What the--?! I pop the ingition knob off, and what do I see? The post that the knob is attached to is made out of plastic. Freaking plastic with 4 slender ribs to hold the knob on via friction. Of course, we all know what happens when friction is applied to plastic over and over for a long time: it wears away. And sure, enough the plastic ribs on the ignition shaft were stripped right off. Whose brilliant design idea was this? Seriously, what do you expect to happen to plastic ribbing when that much force is applied to it on a regular basis? I'm no physicist, but I can tell you what happens. I'm holding a useless ignitor knob in my hand; I can show you what happens.

Seriously, everyone who makes anything needs to run it by me first, so I can tell them how stupid their designs are:

An ice cream scoop with the bottom half of the handle made entirely of rubber? Stupid.

A Dustbuster designed so that not only does junk get wedged inside that can never get out, but the whole thing's made of clear plastic so you can see the crap that's wedged in there? Stupid. (And quite unsightly.)

As for the grill, I had to light a wad of paper with a cigarette lighter (ouch! my thumb!) and toss it in: mini-fireball!

At least the hot dogs were good.

Saturday gaming recap: Two-thirds loser.

Sarah had to work a double-shift today, so it was just me and the kids most of the day. Matt came over in the evening, and when I finally got Elizabeth to nap, and Alex was being content (for the moment) we broke out Diceland: Deep White Sea for the first time since we started logging games at BoardGameGeek over a year and a half ago.

We played 3 games, random teams each time, and no obstacles, as I think we were both feeling a bit rusty. Matt jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first game, though I eventually tied it up in a single, devastating blast. But he went on to win 57-42 (with 57 being the most points possible against my team.) I pounded on him the second game, winning with a humiliating 54-14 score. But he returned the favor in the final game, and did so by keeping only his 2 robot dice alone on the table almost the entire game: I would throw a die out, be unable to do much of anything, and then on Matt's turn, he'd kill it. He won handily, 51-18, and the game would have been much shorter had I not thrown 3-4 dice off the table. Cumulative score for the three games: Matt, 122. Chris, 104.

After that, we sat down (as usual) for some Give Me the Brain!, with our "Unpaid Overtime" and "In Character" expansions mixed in. (Just a few color tweaks, and the sets should be finalized within the next week or two.) I took the first 2 games quickly, but Matt went on to win the next 4 games, making excellent use of the Joey Character card that allows you to play a random card from your hand at the cost of a single Hand. He also managed to end the last game with the Trophy of Dubious Merit in play, so he'll get to bid last the next time we play.

1-for-3 in Diceland, 2-for-6 in GMtB! I guess it just wasn't my night.

All done and ready to start.

Well, the site layout's finally been finalized; admittedly, my profile page needs some work, but everything else is 100% ready.

Don't be alarmed if my style of posting varies from day to day, as I attempt to find a "voice" I'm comfortable posting in.

A handy iconography.

Each post on this blog has an icon associated with it. This is a reference of those icons and what they mean. This post will continue to be updated as necessary.

Indicates a post about my music.

Denotes a post pertaining to books and reading.

Marks an entry about boardgames or cardgames, game night recaps, homemade game expansions/scenarios, and the like.

Denotes a post regarding the Transformers.

Indicates a post about baseball, usually the Minnesota Twins.

Denotes news or discussion on a project of mine. Often artwork, or another website.

Indicates a general post that falls into no particular category.

Marks an entry concerning the status of the site itself.

So that's why Liriano started in the bullpen.

Matt Garza, the Twins' Next Hot Pitching Prospect, made his debut in the bigs, and it was a rather rude awakening. After a promising start -- striking out the first batter on 3 pitches -- he went only 2-2/3 innings, giving up 7 earned runs on like a bajillion (okay, 8) hits.

Even though he's now got an ERA approaching 24, Garza looks to have a promising future in the Twins' rotation, once he starts throwing his off-speed stuff for strikes. Which is, of course the main reason the Twins' management had kept him in the minors until the Twins' rotation woes got so bad as to leave no other option but to call Garza up.

It doesn't help that Garza still would have had to pitch a shutout last night in order to get the win. The Twins scored 1 run, exactly one more than in last night's game. Suddenly, the Twins are winning on the road and losing at home? They're still right in the middle of the wildcard race, but they'll need to step it up to stay there.

Thursday gaming recap: Chris' European Tours.

Well, Matt's parents made a surprise visit, so he was unavailable for our traditional Thursday game night.

Tara and Lane and Sarah were over for supper, and we had fajitas and sweet corn, then followed that up with a game of TransEuropa. The game lasted only 3 rounds, on account of Lane getting completely hosed the first two. Sarah and Sarah tied for the win, and I came in third only a couple of spaces behind them, having lost 3, 3, and 2 points over the three rounds. Tara came in fourth, but didn't go out the bottom -- Lane most assuredly did.

(I log all of the games I play over at BoardGameGeek, but that site's down at the moment, so it looks like I'll be logging everything we play over the weekend here.)

Who's who: a primer.

I think a brief summary is in order of people who will likely be mentioned with some frequency in this blog. Here they are:

Sarah - My lovely wife. We were married June 16, 2001, if anyone ever feels like sending flowers.

Elizabeth aka "The Bug" - Our daughter, born in 2004. The prettiest little girl ever.

Alex - Our son, born in 2005. The cutest little guy ever.

Lane - A friend. My roommate in college.

Sarah S. - Lane's wife. If I omit the "S.", the context should tell you whose wife I'm referring to.

Kai - Lane and Sarah's baby boy.

Matt - A friend of ours, he's pretty much responsible for our current boardgaming habits. He's actually Lane's best friend since childhood, but after college he moved into an apartment about 5 minutes away from me.

Steve - My brother, Matt. The nickname is to differentiate the Matts, and originally came from the movie, Multiplicity.

Becca - My brother's wife. (Note that "Matt and Becca" refers to 'Steve' and Becca -- context clues, people!)

Tara - A friend. My wife's roommate in college.

Anita - A friend from college. Tara's current roommate.

Sam - My sister, Samantha.

Books read: 2006.

This post is mainly for archiving purposes. Of course, feel free to comment on it if you wish. The most recent book read is listed first.

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
Star Wars: Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn
The Man Who Fought Alone by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Man Who Tried to Get Away by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Man Who Risked His Partner by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Man Who Killed His Brother by Stephen R. Donaldson
Cradle by Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee
Blade of Tyshalle by Matthew Woodring Stover
Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover
Heretic by Bernard Cornwell
Vagabond by Bernard Cornwell
The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell
The Golden Queen by Dave Wolverton
Wyrms by Orson Scott Card
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Cruel Miracles by Orson Scott Card
Lovelock by Orson Scott Card & Kathryn H. Kidd
The Runes of the Earth by Stephen R. Donaldson
White by Ted Dekker
Red by Ted Dekker
Black by Ted Dekker
A Planet Called Treason by Orson Scott Card
Code to Zero by Ken Follett
Whiteout by Ken Follett
Kutath by C. J. Cherryh
Shon'Jir by C. J. Cherryh
Kesrith by C. J. Cherryh
Thr3e by Ted Dekker
Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb
Mad Ship by Robin Hobb
Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
Transformers: Fusion by David Cian
Transformers: Annihilation by David Cian
Star Wars: Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning
Star Wars: The Swarm War by Troy Denning
Star Wars: The Unseen Queen by Troy Denning
Star Wars: The Joiner King by Troy Denning

Books read: 2005

Books read: 2005.

This post is mainly for archiving purposes. Of course, feel free to comment on it if you wish. The most recent book read is listed first.

That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis
Perelandra by C. S. Lewis
Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis
Maps in a Mirror: Flux by Orson Scott Card
Eye For Eye/The Tunesmith by Orson Scott Card/Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
Monkey Sonatas by Orson Scott Card
Stone Tables by Orson Scott Card
Worlds Enough & Time by Dan Simmons
Viscous Circle by Piers Anthony
Thousandstar by Piers Anthony
Kirlian Quest by Piers Anthony
Chaining the Lady by Piers Anthony
Cluster by Piers Anthony
The Abyss by Orson Scott Card
Deadman Switch by Timothy Zahn
Hot Sleep by Orson Scott Card
Star Wars: Survivor's Quest by Timothy Zahn
Olympos by Dan Simmons
Ilium by Dan Simmons
Utopia by Roger MacBride Allen
Inferno by Roger MacBride Allen
Caliban by Roger MacBride Allen
The Lair of Bones by David Farland
Wizardborn by David Farland
Brotherhood of the Wolf by David Farland
The Runelords by David Farland
Prostho Plus by Piers Anthony
Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
The Hollow Man by Dan Simmons
The Disapparation of James by Anne Ursu
Homebody by Orson Scott Card
Treasure Box by Orson Scott Card
Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card
Maps in a Mirror: The Changed Man by Orson Scott Card
Neq the Sword by Piers Anthony
Var the Stick by Piers Anthony
Sos the Rope by Piers Anthony
The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons
Endymion by Dan Simmons
The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Shardik by Richard Adams
...And Eternity by Piers Anthony
For Love of Evil by Piers Anthony

Books read: 2004

Books read: 2004.

This post is mainly for archiving purposes. Of course, feel free to comment on it if you wish. The most recent book read is listed first.

Being a Green Mother by Piers Anthony
Wielding a Red Sword by Piers Anthony
With a Tangled Skein by Piers Anthony
Bearing an Hourglass by Piers Anthony
On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony
Songmaster by Orson Scott Card
Triplet by Timothy Zahn
Nightfall by Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg
Cube Route by Piers Anthony
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card
Treason by Orson Scott Card
Silverlock by John Myers Myers
The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov
The Crystal City by Orson Scott Card
Heartfire by Orson Scott Card
Alvin Journeyman by Orson Scott Card
Prentice Alvin by Orson Scott Card
Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card
Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card
Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card
OX by Piers Anthony
Orn by Piers Anthony
Omnivore by Piers Anthony
Prey by Michael Crichton
The Smoke Ring by Larry Niven
Sir Apropos of Nothing by Peter David
Foundation's Triumph by David Brin
Foundation and Chaos by Greg Bear
Foundation's Fear by Gregory Benford
A Man Rides Through by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Mirror of Her Dreams by Stephen R. Donaldson
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov
Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov
Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov
The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov
The Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov
Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov
The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
Earthfall by Orson Scott Card
Earthborn by Orson Scott Card
The Ships of Earth by Orson Scott Card
The Call of Earth by Orson Scott Card
The Memory of Earth by Orson Scott Card
Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
Speaker For the Dead by Orson Scott Card
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel
The Valley of Horses by Jean M. Auel
The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
First Meetings by Orson Scott Card
Star Wars: The Unifying Force by James Luceno

Pardon our dust.

Just so you're forewarned: I'm going to be playing with the layout a bit in the next few days. Sorry for any weirdness that results (colors, images) but it shouldn't last very long.

Justin Morneau is my hero.

Twins versus Tigers, with Minnesota in the hunt for the wild card lead. Johan "Cy Young" Santana on the mound; an early lead for MN. But then Johan pretends to be human in the 7th, and a 2-run homerun puts the Tigers ahead. Not to worry, though: in the top of the 8th,

BOOM!

Justin Morneau blasts his own 2-run homer, putting Minnesota up for good and becoming the first Twin in 19 years to hit 30 homeruns in a season. Oh, yeah, not to mention 100 RBIs.

{sigh}

My hero.

And so it begins.

I have entered the blogosphere.

I've no lofty goals, no delusions of becoming an internet presence; I wish merely to carve out my own little corner of cyberspace. But that phrase may be misleading: my various webpages have been plaguing the internet for almost a decade. But theirs has been more of a static existence; by joining the ever-growing ranks of "bloggers", I can have a more dynamic impact.

The purpose of this blog, as is the purpose of so many, is rather open-ended: it will be a place where I can comment on any subject I want. I will comment on books I'm reading. I might have something to say after a Twins game. Quite likely I will be logging our weekly gaming sessions here. I'll share my artwork, perhaps my music, whatever projects I'm currently working on, whatever I feel like.

I'm digging it already.