I used to post regularly about the trivia challenges and tournaments my wife and I entered. Previously, we played as a couple against other teams that had between 4 and 10 players, and we did pretty well. We won several nights, and at least did respectably on the other nights.
Last Fall, we entered a semester-long tournament at Shakey's Pizza, and finally developed an honest-to-God TEAM that consisted of one friend of ours, plus threee friends of his. Two of his friends were nerdy and geeky, but the other guy was awesome. He knew tons of shit, but had the alarming habit of arguing relentlessy about each question. Although we did remarkably well with him, it ended up not being worth it, and we booted him off the team before the start of the Spring tournament. We lost that tournament, but had lots more fun without him.
In the summer, the tournament was suspended, and we saw our team numbers dwindle back down to three people. I identified another team that had also done well at the beginning of the summer, but had suffered terrible attrition down to three people. Therefore, two weeks prior to the start of the Fall tournament, I approached their team with the offer of a merger into a Super Team, and they agreed.
We now call ourselves "The Justice League" and we are unbeatable. We have won every single night since the tournament began, and all the other teams HATE us openly.
Cool.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Update: The new hair
My journey towards Locks of Love is almost over. I think I only have a couple of more inches to go before I hit the required 10 inches.
I absolutely LOVE having long hair, and I feel like I finally got to achieve one of my long-time wishes. And since I love having it so much, I will most probably grow it out an additional 2 inches, so that when I cut it, I'll have enough left over to keep a ponytail and start again.
Laura seems to be kind of freaked out by it, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't like it. She can accept my hair when it's pulled back, but she's definitely let me know she doesn't approve of it when it falls straight down.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Update: The new body
On July 26, 2009, I weighed an alarming 291 pounds. Since that time, I have lost an astonishing 97 pounds, and I'm down to 194. My goal is 186, so I have 8 more pounds to go. The main thing about my "goal" is that it's related entirely to Body Mass Index (BMI), which should be at 25 for me in order to be at a "normal" weight. Therefore, I'm still technically overweight since my BMI is 26, but I'll make it.
I used to dream of dropping a few pounds, maybe even a miraculous 50 pounds, but I could never even conceive of losing all the way down below 200 and arriving at a normal weight.
My pants were size 44-waist, and now I'm wearing either 33 or 34, depending on who makes them. I was wearing triple-X and double-X shirts, and now I wear either medium or large (again, depending on who makes them).
Damn.
I used to dream of dropping a few pounds, maybe even a miraculous 50 pounds, but I could never even conceive of losing all the way down below 200 and arriving at a normal weight.
My pants were size 44-waist, and now I'm wearing either 33 or 34, depending on who makes them. I was wearing triple-X and double-X shirts, and now I wear either medium or large (again, depending on who makes them).
Damn.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Update: The new house
We finished our new home, Vision Quest, and we moved in. We closed on the house June 30, although it still wasn't finished. Normally, a house must qualify for a Certificate of Occupancy by meeting all the local codes and standards, and you can't get a final appraisal or mortgage without one. However, since we are out in the middle of nowhere, there were no codes and standards to follow (our builder didn't even have to get a building permit!). And since there were no codes and standards to worry about, there was no Certificate of Occupancy to obtain, which meant that the appraiser had to do his job on an unfinished house.
We chose to go ahead with the closing because June 30 was the deadline for obtaining the large home-buyer's tax credit (even though it was later extended). So, we got the closing and signed the motgage on June 30, and finally moved in on August 7. The house is still not completely finished, as our builder is taking care of our little list of doo-dads to be taken care of, but he's pretty close. He still has to do a couple of things, like attach a towel bar, attach a mirror, attach two door knockers, etc. Little things like that.
And we're still in the process of moving stuff in a little bit at a time (from our storage unit and the old estate home), but we're mostly finished with that, too.
The house itself is incredibly gorgeous, and we're hundreds of acres away from our nearest neighbors. It is perfect. This morning, I walked 2/3 of a mile to get my newspaper and then back again - all along a country road in the dark. When I left for work, I drove around a pond and through a pasture and stand of pine trees. When I got home from work, I watched my wife slip and fall in the pond. She laughed all the way back to the house, riding in the bed of the pickup truck since she was wet and covered in mud. She took off her clothes on the front porch and I threw them in the washer.
Life is wonderful.
We chose to go ahead with the closing because June 30 was the deadline for obtaining the large home-buyer's tax credit (even though it was later extended). So, we got the closing and signed the motgage on June 30, and finally moved in on August 7. The house is still not completely finished, as our builder is taking care of our little list of doo-dads to be taken care of, but he's pretty close. He still has to do a couple of things, like attach a towel bar, attach a mirror, attach two door knockers, etc. Little things like that.
And we're still in the process of moving stuff in a little bit at a time (from our storage unit and the old estate home), but we're mostly finished with that, too.
The house itself is incredibly gorgeous, and we're hundreds of acres away from our nearest neighbors. It is perfect. This morning, I walked 2/3 of a mile to get my newspaper and then back again - all along a country road in the dark. When I left for work, I drove around a pond and through a pasture and stand of pine trees. When I got home from work, I watched my wife slip and fall in the pond. She laughed all the way back to the house, riding in the bed of the pickup truck since she was wet and covered in mud. She took off her clothes on the front porch and I threw them in the washer.
Life is wonderful.
Monday, September 13, 2010
It'll be just like starting over
Today is the first time I've even looked at this old blog since my last post of April 1, which means this is the first time I've seen the last comment left by Deeziner. Thanks, by the way.
And her comment only underlines how sad everything turned out. It was a giddy, happy time all those months ago. We were all excited to be going back to Listverse Forums again, and it was all going so well.
Until...
I don't blame dangorironhide for deleting my profile (and therefore all my posts). I've never blamed him. He's just a kid, and it's not like being an internet moderator was his chosen profession. He's a musician, like me, and if anybody can understand how badly and innocently a musician can fuck things up, it's me. Dangorironhide e-mailed me the instant it happened, and had the decency and respect to explain everything to me and apologize. That meant a lot to me then, and still does.
The thing that continues to chap my ass because it hurt so badly then (and still does), is that NO ONE else from Listverse managed to send as much as one syllable to me. I didn't get any kind of explanation, apology, remorse, or even a "fuck you, good riddance" from anyone at Listverse (other than dangorironhide's initial contact). There should have been something. Jamie, Cyn, Trigun, Mom, or the newly annointed astraya should have at least said SOMETHING. But all I got was silence. And that hurt worse than anything else. The Listverse forums look ridiculous with so many threads created by me, but now without any of my words in them. People's posts seem to respond to thin air. It's weird-looking, but I guess that's exactly what they wanted. Don't you think if they really did feel any remorse at all for such a gigantic boo-fu, they would have said something?
I can only surmise that it turned out the way they wanted. But six months later, it still hurts.
I'm not reviving this blog as a platform for a campaign against Listverse. I'm not reviving this blog in an attempt to recapture dead magic. I'm not even reviving this blog with the intent of anybody reading it (which I don't expect to happen).
I'm reviving it for me.
I need to write, and I'm too lazy to start a new completely brand new blog.
so this is me...writing again. In Alabama. During football season. Lord help us.
And her comment only underlines how sad everything turned out. It was a giddy, happy time all those months ago. We were all excited to be going back to Listverse Forums again, and it was all going so well.
Until...
I don't blame dangorironhide for deleting my profile (and therefore all my posts). I've never blamed him. He's just a kid, and it's not like being an internet moderator was his chosen profession. He's a musician, like me, and if anybody can understand how badly and innocently a musician can fuck things up, it's me. Dangorironhide e-mailed me the instant it happened, and had the decency and respect to explain everything to me and apologize. That meant a lot to me then, and still does.
The thing that continues to chap my ass because it hurt so badly then (and still does), is that NO ONE else from Listverse managed to send as much as one syllable to me. I didn't get any kind of explanation, apology, remorse, or even a "fuck you, good riddance" from anyone at Listverse (other than dangorironhide's initial contact). There should have been something. Jamie, Cyn, Trigun, Mom, or the newly annointed astraya should have at least said SOMETHING. But all I got was silence. And that hurt worse than anything else. The Listverse forums look ridiculous with so many threads created by me, but now without any of my words in them. People's posts seem to respond to thin air. It's weird-looking, but I guess that's exactly what they wanted. Don't you think if they really did feel any remorse at all for such a gigantic boo-fu, they would have said something?
I can only surmise that it turned out the way they wanted. But six months later, it still hurts.
I'm not reviving this blog as a platform for a campaign against Listverse. I'm not reviving this blog in an attempt to recapture dead magic. I'm not even reviving this blog with the intent of anybody reading it (which I don't expect to happen).
I'm reviving it for me.
I need to write, and I'm too lazy to start a new completely brand new blog.
so this is me...writing again. In Alabama. During football season. Lord help us.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
April 1 is Homecoming
I won't be able to wait for the weekend. I'm too excited. I have already heard from 19 people (ka is a wheel) and I'm feeling like a kid at Christmas. Tomorrow morning, I will repair my LV profile and start making posts again.
Remember, we must deny everything. The next time I talk to you on the LV side, I will have selective amnesia.
And no, bucslim, this ain't no April Fools gag.
But it would be funny as shit if I forgot how to log in again.
Now go then. There are other worlds than these.
Remember, we must deny everything. The next time I talk to you on the LV side, I will have selective amnesia.
And no, bucslim, this ain't no April Fools gag.
But it would be funny as shit if I forgot how to log in again.
Now go then. There are other worlds than these.
Floating an idea
The last two blog entries have contained some revealing comments to me. I wasn't aware that the Listverse Forums had dwindled so much. I also wasn't aware how severe the disconnect has been between some very good online friends. And I wasn't aware how badly many of you wanted to rekindle the so-called "old days" of Listverse Forums.
So let's do it.
What do you think of going home again?
I have an idea that needs a lot of feedback before we try it. Don't you think it would be cool as shit if a boatload of us just suddenly showed back up on the Forums and started posting again just like we used to? Same old topics? Same old funny, classic threads?
And we would all show up at the same time and pick up right where we left off WITHOUT A WORD! How cool would that be? We would all vow that we'd NEVER refer back to the "black hole" and we'd resume our posts and threads just as if nothing had ever happened. En masse. Simultaneously.
It would be like something out of The Dark Tower - "there are other worlds than these." A large group of folks would reappear like ghosts and pick things back up as if nothing had ever happened. And not only would we not ever refer back to the "black hole," we would all deny that it ever happened. If anyone asked about what the hell was happening, we'd reply with confusion. We'd all agree to say that we don't know what they're talking about. We would all pick right back up where we'd left off completely and totally as if nothing had ever happened and have a chance to rewrite reality.
The funny thing is that almost exactly one year ago, I attempted something very similar with the drive to get the most possible people online at the same time. Although we didn't hit our target number, I think we succeeded very well. It failed and worked at the same time.
The absolute only way - ONLY WAY - this could work is if we really all do it simultaneously. If we trickle in one or two at a time, it won't work. We couldn't pull of the "deception" unless we all showed back up at our previous posting levels all at the same time. And the second part of the key is total deniability.
Round 'em up. We all need to know how many folks we can get BEFORE we do it. It's possible that enough people aren't interested in this idea, and we need to know that. Once again, we all need to pick a specific date to give this a shot so that we all show up at the same time. I have lost touch with almost everyone. I speak fairly regularly with Lizzie, Gezza, and bucslim, but that's about it. The only significant contact I've had with cheeshygirl and Shifty have been through this blog. And that's it for me. It's going to take all of us to round up everyone BEFORE we do it.
Can we all agree to at least contact all the old regulars and report back here as to what their feelings are? What date should we shoot for? I have jury duty next week, but I would certainly be able to post early in the morning (like this) and in the evening during that week.
And it would be a much bigger impact if none of us posted anything on Listverse about it. We can discuss it here, on Facebook, or through e-mail, but let's don't make any kind of pre-event tip-off on the Forums. It's much cooler if we don't announce it - we just do it.
Can we get this rolling by the weekend? Is that too soon?
So let's do it.
What do you think of going home again?
I have an idea that needs a lot of feedback before we try it. Don't you think it would be cool as shit if a boatload of us just suddenly showed back up on the Forums and started posting again just like we used to? Same old topics? Same old funny, classic threads?
And we would all show up at the same time and pick up right where we left off WITHOUT A WORD! How cool would that be? We would all vow that we'd NEVER refer back to the "black hole" and we'd resume our posts and threads just as if nothing had ever happened. En masse. Simultaneously.
It would be like something out of The Dark Tower - "there are other worlds than these." A large group of folks would reappear like ghosts and pick things back up as if nothing had ever happened. And not only would we not ever refer back to the "black hole," we would all deny that it ever happened. If anyone asked about what the hell was happening, we'd reply with confusion. We'd all agree to say that we don't know what they're talking about. We would all pick right back up where we'd left off completely and totally as if nothing had ever happened and have a chance to rewrite reality.
The funny thing is that almost exactly one year ago, I attempted something very similar with the drive to get the most possible people online at the same time. Although we didn't hit our target number, I think we succeeded very well. It failed and worked at the same time.
The absolute only way - ONLY WAY - this could work is if we really all do it simultaneously. If we trickle in one or two at a time, it won't work. We couldn't pull of the "deception" unless we all showed back up at our previous posting levels all at the same time. And the second part of the key is total deniability.
Round 'em up. We all need to know how many folks we can get BEFORE we do it. It's possible that enough people aren't interested in this idea, and we need to know that. Once again, we all need to pick a specific date to give this a shot so that we all show up at the same time. I have lost touch with almost everyone. I speak fairly regularly with Lizzie, Gezza, and bucslim, but that's about it. The only significant contact I've had with cheeshygirl and Shifty have been through this blog. And that's it for me. It's going to take all of us to round up everyone BEFORE we do it.
Can we all agree to at least contact all the old regulars and report back here as to what their feelings are? What date should we shoot for? I have jury duty next week, but I would certainly be able to post early in the morning (like this) and in the evening during that week.
And it would be a much bigger impact if none of us posted anything on Listverse about it. We can discuss it here, on Facebook, or through e-mail, but let's don't make any kind of pre-event tip-off on the Forums. It's much cooler if we don't announce it - we just do it.
Can we get this rolling by the weekend? Is that too soon?
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