Mishaps and other haps

Ever have a day when you feel like an airhead because you buy something and idiotically leave it at the freaking store, or have to run up and down the stairs several times to perform a simple task because you keep forgetting the things you need?

It has been an afternoon like that so far.

However, I have finished all of my errands and am ready to settle in for a weekend of WOW and hopefully some company at some point.

Mlitiagrl has runnoft ’til Wednesday and my roommate must have disappeared this morning as well. Not sure if she had werk or a game or something else. Inle and PhysOrg are both werking.

So not much happening at the moment. Let’s hit the Scarlet Crusade server and see what happens …

As a general note, caffeine does not *cure* fatigue. Caffeine simply *postpones* fatigue. Also, under certain circumstances (cf. my years as an undergrad), caffeine can make you extremely *jumpy*, but still leave you feeling fatigued.

(Jumpy exhaustion is a strange feeling.)

Only rest and water can really cure fatigue. If you can’t immediately rest, drinking plenty of water may help a lot– maybe because dehydration can also contribute to fatigue.

I was driving through the company grounds this morning, which happens to be landscaped with native (i.e. restored) Wisconsin prairie grass and other native (i.e. restored) plants and it looked rather odd.

I wondered what was wrong with the landscape and then it dawned on me– there were no prairie wolves, plainstriders, swoops, or mountain cougars in sight. Which was OK, because then I realized I didn’t have a mace and I wasn’t even sure my mace was in fully-repaired condition.

My roommate has already been teasing me about my addiction. The first sign of an addiction is that your jaw clenches involuntarily when someone suggests that you might be an addict. You try to joke about it, but your voice takes on a shrill, whiny tone as you say something like “I can stop any time I want to!”

I’m not saying she might be right, but from the *outside* it might look like dependency. My hands always shake like this in the morning.

I have been playing a new character since Wednesday evening, Montanni the Tauren warrior. He is already up to level 8, but my addled mind keeps thinking that he isn’t levelling fast enough. I tried to join up with my party members, who were at 12th and 15th, and just couldn’t manage to keep pace, as I was retrieving my corpse every two seconds and running from hyenas a lot.

So I will finish doing some baby warrior preparation quests and catch up with them again in a few days when I am tougher and meaner.

It’s funny, though, how “must level faster” sounds a lot like “must snort another line.” They have the same sort of cadence, don’t you think?

Two weeks from now, I will be on vacation.

This will not be an “I have to move” vacation, nor will it be a trip to visit family, which typically requires most of two days spent in airports and on planes.

Originally, we were going to go to PAX at the end of August, but plans have changed. However, I still have the time off– if I want it– and boy, do I want it.

So now my time off is free, non-planned vacation time. I am thinking that I will spend a lot of time playing WoW and probably staying up late and spending time with people to an extent that is usually impossible during the week.

I may also take a day trip to Chicago and do a bit of shopping.

PhysOrg surprised me with my own copy of World of Warcraft last night!

Unfortunately, there were some server problems about the time I tried to start a character. I managed to set up an account last night, but did not create a character until this morning.

I will be playing Montanni (a Tauren warrior) on the Scarlet Crusade RPG server.

A while back, I stated that there isn’t *necessarily* a conflict between living a vegetarian lifestyle and practicing cannibalism.

Much to my amusement, others seem to agree with me.

(Comments related to cannibalism start further down the page, so you will have to scroll)

Anyone who hesitates more than five seconds before answering this question should not be running for a political office in this country.

For one thing, it’s an issue that is already resolved. Reopening it will set back women’s rights more than 60 years. As it is, it’s a horrible, horrible shame that birth control in the United States was both scandalous and ILLEGAL until 1938.

Second, this is the situation:
We have three male candidates so far–
Three male candidates for the highest political position in state government–
No female candidates so far–
And they are being asked about their position on an issue that affects basic human rights–
Something that seems so obvious that it should be taken for granted by now–
Unless, as a political body, we still think *some* citizens are second-rate.

I simply don’t see where people get off. I am completely insulted. I know this is a legitimate legal issue, but it shouldn’t be a legal issue at all and I am completely put off by the fact that anyone would question a person’s right to *choose* when and whether to reproduce.

slightly modified version of an e-mail to my sister this morning

I saw that the space shuttle got back safely. I was thinking that there have probably been plenty of times when bits of stuff have fallen off and hit part of the shuttle or gotten stuck in places that could have been potentially dangerous. However, they didn’t have so many cameras monitoring it before.
(Apparently, the news coverage about the potential for disaster was sensationalized a bit, which is what I figured)

I’m not sure why they didn’t invest in more cameras before– I guess a lot of people have speculated about why NASA took such a laissez-faire approach to safety after launch. They always seemed really concerned about everything up to launch and less concerned about what they could do if there were problems after the shuttle launched.

From what I read in the NY Times, it sounded like there was conflict between managers who were in control of the missions and the engineers who pressed safety concerns. Most of the old managers were reassigned or left NASA after the Columbia accident and they were replaced with people who were more concerned about safety.

I really wish, as human beings, we had the sense to stop sinking money into wars and occupying other countries and other petty things that we do on this planet so that we could really fund a decent international space program. Shuttles aren’t what we need to get to Mars and to explore our solar system and beyond. We need to invest more heavily in new types of spacecraft and technology that will give us more options.

Also, we should always be concerned about safety– it doesn’t make any sense to invest in new technology if we won’t invest the research and time in keeping current technology as safe as possible. How many space flights have we had? The risks for launching a space shuttle should be known inside and out by now.

Congratulations to:

Mlitiagrl and Inle, who have officially registered as domestic partners (yay, benefits!)

Singularity and his new fiance

Theta, who has obtained his loans and a one-way plane ticket and is about an inch from a student visa (oh, watch out all you young, eligible English women!)

By the way, we need 9 people to start a guild in World of Warcraft, right?

NINE!!!

So we should find lots of people who want to play and set up characters who have a guild together!