Ending the year on a good note

So, I woke up the day after xmas and lo and behold, the fridge had croaked it – blowing warm air and melting, thawing, spoiling everything. We saved what we could with a cooler and some ice, which I’m still using until the 2nd. I got a new fridge for the holiday.

It was kind of a downer after getting things in order to get new glasses (again) and I mentioned it in passing on Daily Kos. Well, during the week they decided to put me on the list for gifting lifetime subscriptions, and out of all those more deserving folks someone picked me out and I got one. No idea who or why.

I returned the favor with about $100 of charity donations of my own; just got paid on Friday, so I can afford that much. I’m looking into getting some new glasses somewhere cheaper than Sears or Lenscrafters. Get what you pay for, I know. But it’s tiresome. It’s either that or I may wait until I fill out my tax forms and get a refund, which I most likely will. It was a nice gesture from the DKos crowd, though, and also nice to, in a way, pay it back. At the advice of some of them I also saved a portion; the savings account I had to start at the credit union made that easy, and maybe I will make a regular practice of that, saving a little bit from each check.

Then later in the day, someone spoke up after holding back for…months, probably, and said they needed $2000 by Monday to avoid getting evicted. I had already given away what I felt comfortable with, so I looked on helplessly as…well, they raised that much in one evening.

The folks on DKos are a real mixed bag, and when it comes to politics it’s like cats fighting, but there are moments like those, when it pleases me to be a part of it at all. It could be societal indoctrination, leftover religious garbage, or the evolutionary advantage of altruistic behavior (that’d be my pick). But there’s no fooling to it, giving to worthy causes made for a happy day. Good way to close out what has been a Chinese-curse-interesting year.

Your days are numbered, broken frame. In the meantime, superglue FTW.

Not much for wine, but…

To the handful of folks who bother to check here, have a good holiday. Hope you got your books, Dave. If not well…hell, I don’t know what to do about it. It was just something sentimental, which suits the theme of this holiday song.

Cats, always loafing

…even in middle-earth, it seems. Since SWTOR will be in the stores tomorrow I expect to be installing it and witnessing long queues and server crashes. Tonight I was taking care of my affairs in LOTRO and having a look in the Lone-Lands. My remaining deed points in Bree-land are ridiculous, so they can wait (killing hundreds of barrow-wights and spiders). Came back to Bree to crash in the Prancing Pony, and I spotted this cat doing what cats do. Even the pixelated breed.

Musical interlude

After finally laying WoW to rest, I’ve been goofing off playing LOTRO – just a stopover, a fill-in until SWTOR hits the stores next week. Could have preordered, I suppose, but I’m in no particular hurry. Being on a raiding schedule is not something I miss.

Yesterday was interesting, though, and not just for the frivolous Deeds I was working on to accumulate Turbine points rather than buy them. My elf hunter is ready to move on from Bree-land, but I have lingered there awhile to finish some content that’s worth points. But working out of Bree allowed me to see a little in-game concert being held outside the Prancing Pony.

I already knew that there was a system for generating music in-game, and how files could be written up, stored, and then called from within the game. But I hadn’t seen it in use extensively before, much less by a group. Not sure how they handle timing it so they all begin at once, but it was nice to watch groups of 2, or 4, or 6 get together and play.

I stuck around for about an hour and they were still going in ‘open mic’ mode, with individuals and pairs stepping up in turn to play a tune. Xmas music, LOTR music from the movies, the Star Wars theme, current RL music…well, someone had to translate it into LOTRO’s version of the ABC notation.

Of course, the song that got the most cheers was Tom Bombadil’s theme. The most popular character that somehow got cut from the movies, sheesh. Got time enough for five different endings but not this fellow, what gives?

Having played through almost all of the Bree content, and certainly all of the Shire stuff and the epic book quests that involve him, I can see why. Tom’s this one bright, happy spot in the middle of a forest full of nasties, next door to the Barrow-downs full of wights. Bree is not the most pleasant area. Quite a contrast from running mail and spoiled pies around the Shire. There’s actual orcs and such.

I suppose the game will get somewhat more grim, should I venture onward at some point. Nice to see the community there, however small it may be, thriving in its own way. It’s a good thing that the game went F2P.  It shouldn’t go under the way some other MMOs had to, for lack of subscriptions.

Can you tell I have more spare time?

I think this is two diaries/posts this week on Daily Kos. Today’s entry follows a theme I have run with before: state sponsorship of religion. Now, the last one was inexplicably popular, not expecting another stroke of lightning as I think that was a slow news day. But we’ll see.

In this case, a school board in Tennessee settled a lawsuit with the ACLU that evidently was not going their way. I can imagine! The news on the subject mentions the school allowing unsupervised youth ministers to preach to students in the lunchroom, rather a captive audience eh? Along with teachers leading prayers and bible studies with students. Agents of the state, couldn’t be much clearer.

And hardly anyone in the Sumner County school district thinks anything is wrong with that. Natch.

Quick edit: less than an hour later, my post hit the Rec List on DKos. It could be another coincidence (or slow news day). But the evidence suggests maybe some people actually like this particular topic. I’m wrong again. Well, I did copy my earlier title, thought it would be amusing. Maybe this will become a theme for me.

Impressive though, that I got some additional info from a source that wishes to remain anonymous. Speaks to how bad it can get there. And that’s all I have to say about it!

For great injustice

…I have a new post on Daily Kos to address it. In this case, it’s a systematic failure in our state’s prison system to offer adequate and timely medical care to inmates, which has resulted in suffering, disfigurement, and some few deaths and suicides. Although the department of corrections claims it’s not widespread, and they want the names of inmates reporting problems to retaliate upon them, er, investigate the problems…sure, that’s it.

I continue to be ashamed by what is permitted to go on in our prisons, Arizona’s in particular, but problems like these are spread across the country. Gawd help anyone who tries to do anything about it, because the electorate sure won’t. Right mom?

/wink

Calling it a day

The Old Republic beta testing is finally over, leaving me with a couple of weeks to find something else to do. This evening I took care of some business that turned out to be a lot sadder than I’d expected.

Tindalos has found his spot to settle down.

With access to the new replica gear vendors and the transmog reskinning of armor pieces, I picked up his DK starter blues from back when he was just taking off for Outland and transmogrified his mix of Cataclysm gear to resemble the best gear set death knights ever had. Better even than the junior-Lich King model from Icecrown Citadel. Would have liked to leave him with Shadowmourne, but I figured out a long while ago that it just wasn’t in the cards.

I have parked him in Grizzly Hills, down the hill from Conquest Hold, where he can relax with the Horde left behind in Northrend and fish for Glacial Salmon. I liked death knights enough, I guess, that the game felt…done after the end of WotLK, slaying Arthas and finishing what the death knights set out to do.

While I took my last cruise around the zone looking for a spot, it figures that my favorite piece of music would cue up (the first song from the Night Music set). Good sendoff from the game. I have some pre-paid subscription time left until January, but little reason to play again. Maybe in the future I’ll be back at it, playing pandaren monks or the next big thing after that, but for now, all done…and that will probably close the book on WoW posts here as well. Seven years playing WoW, a good run.

I played a lot of toons in WoW before settling on my DK (and his/her many races, genders and faction switches) as the character and story I liked most. I wonder who my next avatar will be in a galaxy far, far away?

Union-stripping – not just for the heartland

Today on Daily Kos I found some cause to post a new rant. It seems our illustrious governor Jan Brewer spoke at an ALEC conference (cause enough for concern, that) about a proposal to make it easier to fire state workers. It looks to be on her legislative agenda for next year. They seem to think we should have faith in their ability to fire, hire, and offer bonuses at will.

Should be some good red meat for the Phoenix-area Republicans to chomp on in an election year. With some cronyism on the side.