I Told You I'm Different. I Could Have Dropped You with the Sharks.

"Root beer float" or "Flute rear boat," which one?

Dang... triple-spoonerisms are hard... I'll have to see if I can come up with one that actually makes sense...

Greetings, one and all! 'Tis I, Dave the Weary, back from a full day of LANning it up at the Wilson's. It was me, Dimitri, Jayson and Keno to go along with the resident Wilson's (Vye, Laythe, Shannon and Christian), and we played Unreal Tournament 3, Warcraft 3, and a Warcraft 3 mod called something along the lines of "Heroes X" or something. I'm sure Vye will correct me on the name. It was a veritable buttload of fun. I won my share of rounds at UT, and contributed to a 7 vs 1 victory over Vye (2 of them, actually)... yes, Vye is that good that it takes 7 of us to beat him, including 3 of us who are quite good at the game as well. Of course, I'm not one of those 3, lol... well, one person struggles, we all struggle. One person triumphs, we all triumph.

Nevertheless, games were played, snacks were eaten, wind was passed, and a good time was had by all. I took my camera so I could grab a few pics for tonight's blog post, but I never took any... Anyway, I look forward to the next one. But I am spent. I'm going to sleep well tonight, I'm sure. I'm gonna need good sleep too... tomorrow Dr Diane is teaching at the morning service, so I know both barrels will be fired, that's for sure. She carries some spiritual weight, for better or worse. In my case, it's for better, but not everyone is as big a fan of her as I am, I don't know why...

As I mentioned yesterday or the day before, I finished up the second of Scott Lynch's books in his Gentlemen Bastards Series... at least, I assume that's the name of the series - it doesn't say on Amazon, and I'm too lazy to check for a Lynch website at the moment. Here is my brief review, for the zero people that might be interested... the rest of you can skip over the next paragraph and pick of the tepid-stream-of-vapidity-that-is-my-blog at that point...

Red Seas Under Red Skies Review: It's missing what made the first one unique, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The first book (Lies of Locke Lamora) skipped back and forth through time so often, it required often intense focus to follow. Red Seas eschews that approach, for the most part, especially in the middle, with a very long straight-forward narrative at sea, where Locke and Jean pretend to be pirates. Early on, the stage is set for a huge conflict between our heroes and three Class A villains (and a couple Class B's as well)... and as the book nears the final hundred pages, they are still out at seas, nowhere near in position to tie everything up, unless it ends up being severely and unsatisfactorily rushed. Needless to say, Lynch is sadly swift in his resolution, quickly handling all the villains (but one), leaving one open end, and a cliffhanger to whet the appetite for a third book. I give the book a C (or 2.5 stars out of 5, or a 6 on a 1-to-10 scale, whatever), and will stick it on my shelf, next to book 1, to gather dust until a friend or relative is desperate enough to ask me for something mediocre to read...

OK, one more brief addition, sorry... if you're skipping the review, continue one more paragraph, if you don't mind. The only reason I will likely read the next book in the series (The Republic of Thieves) is to see if Lynch reveals anything about the ancient and long-gone civilization that built the Elderglass Cities that the people of the present world currently inhabit. I hold out very little hope that Lynch will actually realize the potential inherent in his two main characters, Locke and Jean. There's actually a prequel in the works as well, I found out tonight... It's called The Bastards and the Knives, and it is actually a pair of novellas (in one volume) that set down some of the back story of Locke's merry little band of thieves. Amazon has the same release date for both books, so that can't be right...

OK, I'm done. Not a traditional review, per se, but hey, I'm not exactly a traditional dude, ya know? Don't make me have to talk about the Holocaust again....

Better drop a Funny Picture in here, to break up the monotony...

Thought I'd keep the "super-geek" content trend going and post this nerd's Star Wars tattoo. Pretty funny, actually... we'll see how funny it is in 10 years, 20 years... tattoos are forever, baybay! I saw another funny tattoo recently... it was a tat of Elvis and Abraham Lincoln, jumping and giving each other a "high five"... not sure what the symbolism was, but it must mean something...

Todayve in History: July 26
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- July 26, 1775: The US Post Office is born! (Their first act was to raise the price of stamps.)

- July 26, 1908: The FBI is born! (Their first act was to investigate the Post Office...)

- July 26, 1944: The first German V-2 rocket hits Great Britain. (You want my blood? Take my blood!)

Among those celebrating birthdays today are: Gracie Allen (1895), Stanley Kubrick (1928), Mick Jagger (1943), Kevin Spacey (1959) and Sandra Bullock (1964).

Joseph had a birthday on the 25th! Joe, you are The Man. Sorry, I didn't buy you that motorcycle you said you wanted. If you do get a motorcycle, here's an invention you might find useful...



I don't have anything else in the tank for tonight, sorry. I'm gonna go read and go the heck to bed. Until tomorrow, remember, although I disapprove of the things you've done, I can't quite bring myself to condemn you.

PS Sorry, Shannon, I couldn't find a good place to squeeze your suggested movie quote in... I'll try again tomorrow...