Joe Reardon: He walked 18.

Larry: New league record!

Joe Reardon: Struck out 18.

Larry: Another new league record! In addition he hit the sportswriter, the public address announcer, the bull mascot twice...

[Joe laughs]

Larry: Also new league records! But, Joe, this guy's got some serious shit.

(One more BD quote at twitter.com/bobmungovan)

"Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You'll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you'll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back and the press'll think you're colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you are a slob."

-Crash Davis, Bull Durham

I spent yesterday off the grid because I had my worst migraine ever on Monday night. Migraines are either a) mostly new to my “repertoire” or b) some percentage of headaches I considered to be sinus headaches were really migraines in the past.

At any rate, I slept the evening away Monday night and then slept restlessly the rest of the night. So, I skipped work and spent most of yesterday morning asleep. After a bit of video gaming I helped clean house for our 16^th parenthood anniversary. Er, my son’s 16^th birthday. Had the in-laws and our close friends over for a pretty low-key deal. My son scored enough cash to squeeze out a bare bones Dell PC. It beats WoW’s recommended requirements, which was his primary concern.

Nonetheless, I’m back in the saddle, and more rested than I’ve felt in awhile.

Via many...
 

Do you re-roll cocked dice? Typically. There are varying degrees of cock-ed-ness, though.
Do you re-roll floor dice? Always
Do you roll where everyone can see it? Yes, if I’m a player. As GM, it totally depends. For the ast few years, we have been doing GM combat rolls in public.
Do you feel betrayed by your dice when they roll poorly? Not anymore. I have taken on the attitude that I’m simply unlucky.
Do you have a favorite type of die? What is it? The d4. Magic Missiles! It’s a weapon in the real world. One of my favorite tricks is that I can spin d4s.
Do you have different dice for different functions? Not really.
Do you have different dice for different games? No. My dice are not divided at all.
Do you have more of a single type of die than the others? What is it? Technically the d6. I play plenty of non-rpgs, so it’s much more common.
Do you have FUDGE dice? No.
Do you have scatter dice? No.
Do you let other people touch your dice? Yes.
Do you have dice superstitions? What are they? I have been known to “charge” dice, setting them to their highest number at the table, while not in use. I will “punish” dice by placing them in the freezer.
Do you buy more dice even though you don't need them? Yeah, I bought a “pound of dice” when I didn’t even have an active game. I bought a big scoop at GenCon. However, I’m not particularly diligent when it comes to keeping track of my dice.
What's your favorite die? A factory defect clear translucent die with a wisp of blue in it.
If you were to put custom symbols on a die what would they be? I can’t think of anything OTTOMH.
Do you have dice made of anything particularly different than normal? What? Nope.
What do you keep your dice in? The classic: a Crown Roval bag. Also, a bag from the Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (2001) game. Lastly, in my cardboard minis box.
Do you have more than one dice container? Yes. I could even add that I keep some of them in their original plastic set cases, and then place then in the above containers
Do you keep dice in your pocket? Your glovebox? Your workplace? Not right now; sometimes (but I have some in my trunk right now); not usually.
If you have a partner that games, do you have separate dice? My wife doesn’t really play anymore.
Do you have any of the first dice you bought or received? No, much to my regret.

Do you play certain games just because they have you roll lots of dice? Not really.
Do you love your dice? How much? Uh, no.

yttrai

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times: Bull Durham               
2. Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in a theatre: Goodfellas
3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie: Will Ferrell
4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie: Mel Gibson
5. Name a movie that you can quote from: The Princess Bride
6. Name a movie musical that you know all the lyrics to all the songs: The Wizard of Oz

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with: The Little Mermaid
8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see: The Princess Bride
9. Name a movie that you own: The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition)
10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops: Will Smith
11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in?: Yes
12. Ever made out in a movie?: Yes, at a drive-in, no less. J
13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't gotten around to it: Saving Private Ryan
14. Ever walked out of a movie?: No, although I should have for Eye of the Beholder. (However, I ran screaming out of two movies: Pinocchio and E.T. I think I was calmed down by my mom and returned to see the end in both cases, though.)
15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theatre: E.T. (See above.)
16. Popcorn?: If I’m with my wife. Generally, I’m not down with theater concessions, though.
17. How often do you go to the movies?: A few times a year.
18. What's the last movie you saw in the theater?: The Dark Knight
19. What is your favorite/preferred genre of movie?: Fantasy/Sci-fi/Supers
20. What was the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?: Pinocchio

This was excellent. I had only caught bits and pieces when it originally aired, and then saw part of a marathon one weekend (On Comedy Central, IIRC) a few years back.

As a sports fan, I enjoyed sports centered storylines. The actors were good and the ongoing storylines were interesting. The character interplay and development was outstanding. It was mostly funny, but still addressed serious issues.

There were a few episodes that seemed to have the Sorkin soapbox going on where a character would take a social justice stand and pontificate for the rest of the episode over it. It seemed forced and sudden a couple of times so it stood out to me. This approach was also used the The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, so it was interesting to see the technique in the proto-stages.

I can also see, however, why it may have had trouble generally. Watching episodes constantly back to back made much of the ongoing story lines easier to keep track of. There are bits and pieces that probably would have been hard to keep track of week to week. Also, it might seem to make episodes incomplete, especially for a “sitcom.” Some plot points called back several episodes past, and I had trouble realizing some of those immediately despite watching them all across the course of a week. The last few episodes were even calling back to the very beginning of the series. They weren’t crucial, but since I had decent recall of them, I was amused. I figure many people completely missed them.

Beyond this, I am now officially in a Sorkin retrospective mode. I reserved West Wing season 1 yesterday. We have all the seasons plus Studio 60 on DVD, here at the MCLD.

This book is the retelling of the motorcycle journey Peart took in the aftermath of his daughter and wife dying within 12 months of each other. The travelogue was interesting – he mostly traveled the non-interstate highways across the Western Canada, Western US and Mexico. He really laid his emotions out on the page. It gave great insight to see how he dealt with and began to overcome the grief. It also explained how his healing led back to many aspects of his life he had set aside, including the trail back to reforming Rush. Reading this really showed me how “dead” Rush was in those days. He wasn’t drumming at all for a couple of years.

One of the reasons I hadn’t made a real effort to read it was that I was under the impression he didn’t address the band’s situation in it. I thought it was straight travelogue only. My impression is that he treats his Rush work as “business only” and wasn’t particularly connected to Alex and Geddy when not working. I was totally wrong about the relationship aspects of this.

My only quibble is that through the third quarter of the book he relied more on reprinting letters and journal entries over actual narrative. His use elsewhere was more balanced and effective. I really need to give the Vapor Trails album a new listen given this context.

Recommended for Rush fans and armchair travelers.

Recapping various and sundry over the holiday weekend:

I have acquired a Wii. It was my “early birthday present” from my mom. All we have games wise is Wii Sports and Wii Play. My favorite thing so far is the Bowling training game where the keep adding 1 row of pins across 10 rounds ending up at 91. Game rec appreciated, especially the type I might be able to get cheap at the local re-seller. Do they have a “Wii classics” line yet?

I finished (Rush drummer/lyricist) Neil Peart’s Ghost Rider. Mini-review to follow.

I also finished the complete series of Sports Night. Mini-review to follow.

The mighty-mighty Greenway Demons lost unceremoniously in the State playoffs Friday night, 42-0. 4 of the 6 TDs were gift wrapped via turnover. However, my son actually wasn’t too down because, FWIW, he had a great game. His snaps were perfect and on their last punt of the game, he de-cleated a dude as he ran down field to cover.

I played (most of) my first game of Descent. Big fun and lots of potential. A slow player causing an extremely dragged out already long did start to wear on me, though. I had fun and look forward to playing again.

Lots of stuff I’ve been meaning to post, but haven’t

Last Wednesday and Thursday I connected back up with guys I hadn’t seen in awhile.

Wednesday night, I hooked up with a friend who I really need to hang out with more often. He intends to come to my rough-starting D&D4 game (see below.)

Thursday night was my triumphant return to guys’ night. With my son’s JV football games being on Thursday night, I was out for 8 weeks. Then, he was called up to Varsity, and the first week there was a Thursday night TV game.

Friday was a second round state playoff game for my son’s football team. The game was in Queen Creek, which seems a lot closer when I go there for work related issues. (We have a library in QC.) They won in dramatic fashion, because QC’s last second field goal fell short. My dad, mom and step-dad came up from Tucson to see the game.

Saturday, I went down to Tucson to see the Wildcats game. Met up with my dad and took my older son. They lost in dramatic (and disappointing) fashion. However, I’m a bit conflicted because I had a great time. In a fandom sense I feel I should be more upset than I am.

Sunday, my D&D game completely fizzled. Too many known absences combined with a couple of last minute troubles caused the cancellation. I ended up making my triumphant return to Sunday night dinner at the in-laws’. The fun part there is I did get to watch the pro football in HD on a huge screen.

Throughout all this, I’ve been taking an inadvertent break from City of Heroes. Despite planning to play one month, and then take a break until I get some Christmas cash to reactivate. The biggest culprit here is Sports Night, the complete series DVDs I’m borrowing from work. It has been very enjoyable viewing. I intend to have a longer review forthcoming.