Friday Fail

In which I am unable to blather about five songs randomly selected from my playlist as I listen to them because my iPod is, somewhat mysteriously, not charged.

Behind the Music

With today's installment, I've done Friday Five 40 times now. I keep track of them on a spreadsheet - mainly to make sure I don't repeat songs, but also because sometimes it's fun to analyze data. For instance, the top ten artists by appearance:

#1: U2 (40)
#2: Barenaked Ladies (16)
#3 (tie): INXS, The Pogues, R.E.M., Sting/The Police (6)
#7 (tie): Creedence Clearwater Revival, David Bowie (5)
#9 (tie): Del Amitri, Lyle Lovett, Simon & Garfunkel (4)

There are 7 artists that have appeared 3 times. There are 12 artists that have appeared twice. There are 53 that have only come up once.

In the very first installment, I said that U2 comprised about 20% of my playlist. I thought I was exaggerating, but apparently not. Now I'm worried that I will run out of things to say about them soon. Other than the oddities tied for 7th (I really don't listen to CCR and Bowie all that much), it seems to be a pretty accurate reflection of my music collection.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

It was a pharmacy, by the way. In case you are a lonely DEA agent and have been reading this hoping for a hot tip.

So anyhow, since I last committed electron to screen (lucidly, at least), I have had to have a tooth extracted, an unknown virus involving just a few too many bodily fluids rampaged through 80% my family (I was not the lucky 20%), and there was a large-ish meal involving a couple of birds, some pie and grumpy in-laws.

On the gaming front, we had a character creation session for the new modern weirdness campaign I've been working on, but only Matt and Mike could make it. With my recent misadventures, that's as far as we've gotten with it, though. We had a quick session of Battle of the Bands after that, but I can't even remember who won it now. We also played '80s Edition Trivial Pursuit on Thanksgiving, which underscored yet again why I am uncomfortable playing any sort of trivia game with family (long story short, I tend to be ludicrously good at games like that).

Tonight... poker?

Blogging Under the Influence

So it turns out there's this place in my neighborhood where you can get Vicodan pretty cheap. Or at least the generic equivalent. Hydro-something. You have to know a guy, though. In my case, the guy was an oral surgeon who just got through yanking a tooth out of my head.

Apropos to nothing, I found these online a while ago. I have no idea where they are from, or why, but I though they were funny.

In conclusion, why am I so dizzy?

And We're Back

Last week was primarily consumed with making final preparations for Nuke-Con (long post on that later). I think I'll be back to my regular posting schedule, such as it is, now.

And just a quick update on Project Runway: last week's decision to not have an elimination was a cop-out, but I guess I can understand where they were coming from (nobody did great, but nobody was terrible either). I was disappointed to see Jerrell go this week, but I think it was the right decision. Based on what we've seen of the final collections so far (and I've avoided looking at them online), I'm really interested in what Leanne has going. Her bridal/bridesmaid's dress combo was far and away superior to anything else on that stage.

Cosmetic Surgery

I've been playing around with the colors here, trying to strike the right balance between usability and aesthetics. The thing I am must unsure of are the maroon post titles.

Also, it never occurred to me at the time, but incorporating a color into the title of your blog really limits on what you can do with color (without confusing people, at least -- "Why is Intense Beige so... blue?").

Incidentally, there is a good resource on available colors and how they interact here.


Edit 6.2.08
The maroon is gone, obviously. Saddle brown is now the accent color, with a darker brown taking over for text and a darker orange for links. Many thanks to the peanut gallery (ie, Patrick) for opinions offered.

The Obligatory Links Post

Friends:
Patrick Riley: Sinister Things
Todd Furler: An Unlikely Story

Role-Playing Games:
RPGnet
Nuke-Con (my local convention)
Mutants and Masterminds (official site)
Marvel Super Heroes RPG (pdf depository)
Eden Studios
Jeff's Gameblog

Other Games:
Board Game Geek
Heroscape (official site)
Home Poker Tourney

Geek Culture:
The Order of the Stick
Chris's Invincible Super-Blog
mightygodking
Superdickery
Something Awful

Infrequently Asked Questions

05.08.08
Q: Is your beige really that intense?
A: The title of this blog shares its name with a song by the Judybats, whom you've probably never heard of (and I probably wouldn't have either, if it hadn't been for this one girl; but that's another story). I happened to be going through my music collection at about the same time I was trying to come up with pithy domain names. For some reason the imagery of concentrated blandness really seemed to fit where I was in my life at the time. Since then, it's kind of grown on me as I've come to realize that I prefer my quiet little life in a mid-sized Midwestern city to whatever grandoise, glamorous plans for myself in high school. Plus, the song is pretty damn catchy.

05.15.08
Q: Are you the Matt Helms?
A: Probably not.

10.10.08
Q: What was that about a girl?
A: It's even less interesting than it sounds.

I Am Not That Guy

To whom it may concern:


For the record, I am not this guy (he is a fictional character) :


I am not this guy, either (although he is all too real):


Also, I do not write for the Detroit Free Press.

And even though I do post at RPGnet, I am not this guy either.



Thank you for your consideration in this matter,

Some other guy.

Hello World

I've had this domain registered for a couple of years now. Until now, it has festered while I waited for some grand inspiration to strike on what to do with it. It still hasn't arrived yet.

So, in lieu of something really mind blowing, I now present you with random opinions on whatever happens to catch my attention. Because if the internet has taught me anything, it is that you are entitled to my opinions.

Enjoy!