eyelessgame

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next three sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"Vespucci came to the world's attention chiefly through the publication in 1503 and 1504 of two brief letters he purportedly wrote to Lorenzo de Medici about a voyage undertaken for the king of Portugal. Obviously the work of an educated man (the Vespuccis were a prosperous family in Florence), the letters managed to be both scholarly and entertaining, combining a sober discussion of navigational issues with the news that the natives of the New World would have sex with anybody, including Mom. Vespucci, or perhaps his anonymous publisher, also had the wit to entitle the first letter Novus Mundus, the New World, an audacious and, as it turned out, accurate claim."

ok, this was fun, stolen from hzatz. Hugo-winning novels, bolded if I've read them, italics if they're on my shelf but I haven't read them yet. Actually, come to think of it, it's nearly depressing... if nothing else it will keep people from trying to loan me books...( Read more... )

I took the 'rate my life' test that others have taken.

Not going to post the answers. But it suggests I might benefit from socializing more, and it's probably right. Not sure how to work that, though.

It asked a good question which stumped me -- how many "good friends" do I have?

I have a ton of acquaintances. I have a lot of old friends whom I see occasionally. I see gamers more or less weekly, feed them dinner and torture their alter egos.

But. Other than my wife, I don't have any contemporary confidantes -- friends I see and socialize with regularly, other than in a gaming context. This may partly be because I don't watch sports or drink.

By confidantes, I mean... what do I mean? I have this probably apocryphal notion regarding What Men Do ... men are supposed to go sit at a bar and drink beer, complain about their wives, discuss the local sports teams, and thereby Bond (tm). That seems kinda odd. I seem to have gotten all my spectator sports mojo out when I was a kid -- wasting hours watching sports seems, these days, like playing Dungeons and Dragons probably seems to a lot of former geeks; watching sports is something you did when you were a teen and had time and no life. And as for having people to complain to about my wife? I dunno, I don't think I could ever bring myself to. Not that I have a perfect life -- no one does -- but any complaints I might ever have would seem far too private to discuss with anybody else. Gauche. Rude. Oversharing. You know what I mean.

So I don't know. I suppose I should get out more. But where, how, with whom, and more to the point, why? The job makes it a bit difficult -- I already spend one and a half evenings a week away from Sherilyn, so the idea of spending any other time "out" just feels unfair, and frankly not what I want to do. I was gaming for a while on Wednesday nights, but that just increased my exhaustion. I don't have any interest in getting together with people from the church, the only neighbors I feel I have much in common with are moving away.

This seems to come across as more of a downer than I really feel. I have a great time socializing at lunch at work. I am by and large happy with my job, and my family is absorbing and wonderful. I see my bay friends when they visit, and I am largely content with my life at present. I don't feel like I'm missing something; instead, I feel a little like I ought to feel like I'm missing something.

Yay, the one I expected to be.

You scored as Kaylee Frye. The Mechanic. You are a natural mechanic, and you are far too sweet and cheerful to live out here. How you can see the good in everyone around you boggles the mind occationally. Still you don't seem to be any crazier than that, and it is a nice kinda crazy. </td> Kaylee Frye 81% The Operative 75% Simon Tam 69% Hoban 'Wash' Washburne 63% Capt. Mal Reynolds 56% Shepherd Derrial Book 50% River Tam 50% Zoe Alleyne Washburne 44% Inara Serra 25% Jayne Cobb 25% Which Serenity character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

1. Go here.
2. Pass it on.
( my answers )

10 things I've done that most people probably haven't

1. Went door-to-door campaigning (for Hubert Humphrey) when I was two
2. Broke my femur (at age 3)
3. Wrote a six-part choral arrangement of a Broadway song, then conducted it for my high school choir
4. Elected to editor of the college newspaper
5. Petitioned successfully for reinstatement to college three times after unacceptable GPAs, then had all three expunged from my record after grades were later changed
6. Given software tech support to Alan Alda
7. Wrote software that won a PC Magazine editor's choice award
8. Accidentally pissed off James Randi (then had an essay printed in his newsletter after I apologized)
9. Been in total eclipse umbra and seen live lava flow on the same day
10. Found Neptune with a telescope, armed only with almanac and star chart

Threat rating: High. The Bush administration is
concerned that it may not get a second term.
Therefore, we are going to change the rules so
that each Democrat vote only counts as 0.2
votes because Democrat is a shorter word than
Republican


What threat to the Bush administration are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Came a bit late to the party, but this is my list of the opening lines of my top thirteen (sorry, can't get it down to ten) works of fiction... and even so I started by eliminating anything that showed up on Sherilyn's journal, a couple of which would otherwise have displaced something here.

A couple of these are sets of stories as opposed t osingle novels, and I picked either the first, best-known, or favorite among the stories (sort of arbitrarily).

The unfair bit is that I'm so utterly conventional that I'm not going to attribute them. Very few people who are the sort to read my journal will fail to identify at least nine or ten. No particular order...



How to explain? How to describe? Even the omniscient viewpoint quails.

In the nighttime heart of Beirut, in one of a row of general-address transfer booths, Louis Wu flicked into existence.

"No good!" said Lamont, sharply. "I didn't get anywhere."

Callahan's Place was pretty lively that night.

Fins had been making wisecracks about human beings for thousands of years.

The volcano that had reared Taratua up from the Pacific depths had been sleeping now for half a million years.

Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.

Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach.
This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face.

When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.

When Mr. Dildo Bugger of Bug End grudgingly announced his intention of throwing a free feed for all the boggies in his part of the Sty, the reaction in all Boggietown was immediate -- all through the messy little slum could be heard squeals of "Swell!" and "Hot puppies, grub!"

How could I have died and gone to hell without noticing the transition?

"Wake up, sir. We're here."