Something I dug up.

I was digging through my computer files at work today, and I came across a tiny little project I wrote up sometime during the past year.

It's a simple webpage that randomly generates Transformers names by basically taking two words and mashing them together. So you get names like "Bombfight" or "Turbotrap" or Cam-Blaster". Anyway, I thought some people might get a kick out of it. It's linked in the upper-right corner of my front page, or you can just click here.

Musical Monday: Super Mario Polka.

For the second installment of Muscial Monday, here's a piece I wrote a few years ago on the computer. I just took some of the music from the first Mario Brothers game and set it in a polka-like theme, complete with accordian.

» Super Mario Polka

duration: 1:20
file size: 1.23 MB
written: 2002
recorded: N/A
instrument: N/A
recording medium: computer

Musical Monday Archive

Weekend gaming recap: Über alles.

Just recapping this weekend's games. Who won what, etc. I've been pretty lazy about that lately. Or is it that I've been actually working at work?

Friday (10/27)

Sarah had to work (boo!), so it was just Matt and myself. First we played 4 games of our modified Give Me the Brain!, splitting the series 2-2.

Then we tried out the Settlers of Catan Card Game that Matt gave me for my birthday. It was pretty good; Matt won 12-7. It definitely has the Settlers "feel" to it, and is a better 2-player game than classic Settlers (Though I think I like Starship Catan better.)

After that, we pulled out another of my birthday gifts: Mystery Rummy: Jekyll & Hyde. Sarah and I had played this once, and both liked it. I hammered Matt the first hand, and the rest of the game was fairly balanced, but that first round gave me the victory.

Finally, we ended with a game of "Über-Carcassonne" -- played with all of the American expansions: The River, Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders, The King, The Count, The River II, The Princess & the Dragon, and the newest, Matt's birthday present: The Tower. With 2 players, it wasn't too bad; took us about 2.5 hours, factoring out all baby-related distractions. Matt beat me by just over 100 points, and I had over 300. I have to say, playing with the Tower and the Count makes for some evil, evil combos. (Like when Matt placed a tile to complete my giant city, placed a tower on that tile to capture my follower, and then sent one of his own followers in from Carcassonne to take all those points. Evil.

Saturday (10/28)

Matt and I played 2 games of Give Me the Brain! (which Matt won) and 1 game of Nexus (which I won) before Sarah joined us.

Then we played Through the Desert for the first time in a while. I took the fewest oasis points, and got probably 2nd place in watering holes, but I captured a bit of area, and got 3 of the 5 longest caravans, winning the game with a just handful of points more than Sarah.

Our game of St. Petersburg (with The Banquet expansion) after that went the opposite way: I led early in the game, thanks to a key building purchase in the first round, and actually was in the lead once the game ended. But then we calculated Aristocrat points, and Sarah jumped ahead by a dozen points.

We ended with a 3-player game of Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper. I had a great first hand, but then actually lost half those points the second hand, and never caught back up to the others. Sarah won; oddly, a common theme for her with games she purports not to like.

Books read: Acts of Caine.

The first book I read by Matthew Stover was the Star Wars book, Traitor. I whipped through it in 2 nights, and it still remains my favorite of all the many Star Wars novels. Until a month ago, it was also the only Stover novel I'd read. That changed when I read good things about some of his original novels, and found 2 of them at Half-Price Books shortly thereafter. They're the first 2 (and currently, the only) books in a series called The Acts of Caine.

The first book, called Heroes Die, stands on its own as an excellent adventure story, but also sets the stage for the second book. The story takes place on a future Earth, where the human population has fallen into a caste-based society, and the popular entertainment of the time is "first-handing" Adventures. You see, through a process called the Winston Transfer, professional Actors are able to be transported off to a parallel Earth called "Overworld" -- a land populated with dragons, elves, dwarves, and ogres, and where magick works. The Actors' thoughts and perceptions are then transmitted back to Earth for their fans to experience.

Hari Michaelson is the most popular Actor of his time, specializing in particularly exciting and violent Adventures in his role as the assassin, Caine. His wife on Earth is also another famous Actor, who plays the freedom fighter Pallas Ril, and when a magick spell cuts her off from her connection to Earth, Caine is sent in to save her.

That much of the plot is fairly straightforward, but there are plenty of twists and turns along the way. Not only must Hari contend with the Imperial forces in Overworld's capital city of Ankhana, but also with the heads of the entertainment Studio he works for. In fact, Caine is only allowed to go after Pallas by consenting to kill the new ruler of Ankhana, the self-proclaimed god Ma'elKoth.

The story itself is incredibly dark and violent, the text laced with profanity. Definitely not for a lot of people, but it's never really gratuitous because humanity's love of violent entertainment is one of the book's big philosophical points. And there is a lot of philosophy in here; for all the f-bombs and blood and guts, Stover definitely has something to say in Heroes Die, and manages to give the reader something to think about, as well as a rip-snortin' adventure.

The sequel, Blade of Tyshalle, takes place seven years later, and everything about it is double what Heroes Die was: Hari's opponents, both on Earth and Overworld, are bigger and more terrifying; the depths to which the protagonists fall are lower, the stakes higher. The plot is twice as convoluted. As unthinkable as it seems, the violence is cranked up a couple of notches -- reaching the point of distrubing, at times. And the philosophical musings come more frequently and more heavily.

At one point, a little over halfway through, I almost wrote the book off. Not that I wouldn't finish it (I don't feel I can judge a book until I've read every last word of it) but I didn't figure I'd really enjoy the whole thing, not like I did its predecessor.

But it works.

When I finished the book last night, I was grinning like Caine. For as low as the book gets, I think the highs are that much higher for it. The ending is almost uplifting. And it makes you think -- or, at the very least, it makes you want to think. I've got my next book (not the next Caine book, sadly -- that hasn't been published yet) sitting next to me, but I'm not anxious to start it because I'd rather just sit and contemplate Blade of Tyshalle. And that's not normally how I operate. It's just that good.

Now I can't wait for the next chapter, tentatively called Caine Black Knife. (Well, I guess I can wait; I mean, I have to, right?)

Rating for both books:
(excellent)

Musical Monday: Daydreaming.

I thought I'd start up a new, regular feature here: Muscial Mondays. Each week, I'll post an MP3 of one of my songs for your listening pleasure. I've got easily a year and a half's worth of material, so I'll have little excuse for not posting a new song every Monday.

For this inaugural post, I'll treat you to a more recent instrumental:

» Daydreaming

duration: 4:29
file size: 4.11 MB
written: 2004
recorded: 2004
instrument: piano
recording medium: computer
album art: Yet Still

Musical Monday Archive

28.

Happy belated birthday to me!

I turned 28 last Wednesday the 18th. Went out to dinner at Fuddrucker's with Sarah and the kids, and my parents and sister. The burgers were great, but everyone was done eating by the time the shakes finally arrived. We got a refund, but I didn't even bother asking for my free birthday sundae. Besides, there was awesome chocolate birthday cake back home.

My parents gave me a set of shirts, and 3 pairs of khakis that I had had problems finding in my size (apparently, only short fat men buy pants anymore.) Sam got me a knock-off Transformer set that she found while in Jerusalem. Amusingly enough, I have the original set that the knock-offs were based on.

Thursday, everyone got together at our place and played games. My dad had been wanting to play TransAmerica while he was out, so we played a 6-player game (me, Lane, Matt, Sam, Tara, and Dad -- Sarah was working) that Dad won handily, as I came in second place with only 3 or 4 points.

We also exchanged birthday presents, as Matt's birthday was back on the 13th and everyone was busy that weekend with the wedding.

From Matt, I got the 2-player Catan Card Game, and the Settlers of Catan Event Cards. Lane got me the James Ernest card game Dead Money. And Sarah got me the other 2 Mystery Rummy games: Jack the Ripper and Jekyll and Hyde. (Meanwhile, Sarah and I gave Matt the expansion to Ninja Burger, which 5 of us tried out Saturday night.)

I really like Jack the Ripper; Matt and I played a 2-player game on Friday (which I won), and we later played a couple of 4-player games. Sarah is definitely not a fan, though.

We played Jekyll and Hyde (2 players only) for the first time last night. Sarah ended up winning, but it was fairly close, and we both like it.

Sam and Matt and I played a hand of Dead Money (a variation on Give Me the Brain!) on Friday, but I wasn't too impressed. The game seemed to take forever, and for a game where the goal is to get cards out of your hand, it's awfully hard to do. It's likely we haven't adjusted our bidding strategies properly, but I don't see this one as catching on too well.

And the Settlers card game looks good, but it's only 2 players and takes a couple of hours to play, so I don't know when we'll get that played. It's got portability going for it, though -- I fit the entire thing in a standard-sized deck box. I just need to print out a rules cheat sheet to fit in there, and I'll be set.

A feeling of unreality.

So, um...my brother's married? For reals? Still pretty hard to wrap my mind around that.

Everything went great with the wedding on Saturday. I screwed up the to intro my song, but recovered nicely after that. I guess the sound system was wonky, so some people said they couldn't hear my voice, while others said it was just fine. Ah, well. I got a lot of nice comments all the same.

"It's a small world" moment: Becca's matron of honor lived across the street from me when I was a kid (before we moved when I started kindergarten)! I even wrote in my Dr. Suess All About Me book that she was my best friend. 20-some years later, I (the best man) walked down the aisle with her at my brother's wedding. Weird, huh?

Matt and Becca are off on their honeymoon: flying out to Jamaica today. They're actually going to the same Sandals resort that Sarah and I went to on our honeymoon. That place was great. There are 3 hotels, with different restaurants and events, and shuttles back and forth between them every 15 minutes or so. Sarah and I stayed at the cheap hotel, and then just shuttled over to the more interesting ones during the day. Everything is prepaid, so you essentially eat and drink and play for free as long as you're there. When we got back from our honeymoon, we had to actually remember to pay, and not just get up and leave, when we finished eating at a restaurant. They'll love it. We hope to go back in 5 more years, but we'll have to see.

In the meantime, my parents and sister are staying here in Minnesota until Saturday. We'll do something for my birthday on Wednesday, and then on Thursday we'll have a big ol' Game Night/birthday thing for Matt Armstead and myself. (Matt's birthday was Friday.) And then Saturday, we're helping Lane move (again) into their new townhouse, and later that evening my family's flying back out to California.

Looks like another exhausting week ahead, but it should be fun.

Not a moment too soon.

Finally!

I finally finished writing the song for my brother's wedding. I still needed some intro music and an interlude, and I was able to get that done yesterday. Last night, I stayed up at the computer, sick (thanks to my son for this wonderful cold!) and finished laying out the score in Finale. Hopefully I'll get to practice it a bit tonight before the rehearsal ceremony tomorrow.

Man, I can't believe the wedding's almost here. My little brother: married?

Anyway, since no one reads this blog :) I don't figure I'll spoil anything by posting the song here. Click here to hear the MIDI file -- the vocals are represented by the clarinet line. The lyrics are:

THIS MOMENT

Well, you've known him only the shortest while
But just hearing his name now evokes a smile
And daydream'd fancies of wedded bliss
Oh, who could've known it would lead to this
From that very first kiss?

CHORUS:
And when you're looking backward in years to come
And rememb'ring everything you have done
Don't ever forget that it's all begun
In this special moment when two become one
It's that special moment when two become one

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

CHORUS

Oh, the future's just around the bend
It's a heckuva journey from start to end
But just keep your hearts focused on this day
And hold fast to each other and stand and say:
"Oh, come what may"

And when you're looking backward in years to come
And rememb'ring everything you have done
Don't ever forget that it's all begun
From this special time that awaits you now
Don't ever forget everything you vow
And remember all that's been said and done
In this special moment when two become one
It's that special moment when two become one
Here comes that special moment

NO, TWINS!!!

Well, the postseason was fun while it lasted.

I take that back; it really wasn't much fun. The Twins pretty much played their worst baseball this year. The starting pitching was excellent (even Radke's 4-run effort Friday wasn't bad for a guy pitching with a broken shoulder in what was probably the last start of his career) but the offense was pathetic, the defense was inexcuseable, and the bullpen was atrocious. As an example, look at the 7th inning from yesterday's final game: Oakland was up 4-2 in the 7th inning, and had the bases loaded with 2 outs on 2 walks and an error. Jesse Crain comes in to pitch and promptly walks the first batter he sees, making it 5-2. The next batter hits a double that scores 3 more runs. 8-2.

At the plate, the Twins were 1-for-19 with runners in scoring position for the series.

At least I got to attend the best of the 3 games. One of the trucking companies that my company uses invited me and a co-worker to the first playoff game at the Metrodome, where we got to watch Johan Santana dominate Oakland in what would eventually be a 3-2 loss. But it was fun.

And hey, there's always next year.

GO TWINS!!!

You may or may not have heard: the Minnesota Twins won the American League Central Division on Sunday!

Which means that the playoffs begin with the Twins playing the Oakland Athletics at the Metrodome TODAY!

Just as exciting? One of the carriers we work with here at my company offered my division a ticket; which means I'M GOING TO THE GAME TODAY! It's gonna be awesome.

More when I get back!

House update.

Let me bring you up to speed on our house situation. I last posted on Monday, after Sarah and I made our offer and had it accepted. Tuesday night we headed down to Apple Valley to meet with the owners and their agent and filled out the Purchase Agreement and other paperwork, and set a closing date of October 31st. Thursday monrning, I went down to the house and met the inspector and got his report. Bascially, everything looked great. He did say that we need to put in a fire-rated door between the house and the garage, and the owners agreed to take care of that. My parents were up for the weekend (Dad flew back to California on Sunday, but Mom will be here for 3 more weeks) and they got to see the house.

Sarah's getting really excited, and I am too. Only a month left until we own a house!