I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

January 01, 2014 - 11:56 a.m.

Nerdin' New Year's Eve

Hey I got like four hours of sleep. I should be able to write, right? I have to blogging is a rite, I'm a blogwright.

Is that enough to post? Probably not. I should actually try and say something.

So guess what, I wasted most of yesterday. Once again I didn't write my novel, but I did work on it. I know more about where it's going and what I'm trying to accomplish. Of course that could change again today. Or I can throw it all away and start one of the other books that I'm always thinking of writing. People often ask where writers get their ideas. Ideas are easy. I have ideas every day. cracking the whip and writing is the hard part. At least if you have my brain. If you do have my brain can you please give it back. I might want to use it one of these days.

Last night was New Year's eve and for I think the fifth year I spent it at Warren and Tina's house. That's not the easiest place for me to get to. It's in Queens out of the subway zone. I had to take the to the to the Q16 Bus. It took over two hours and I made good connections with the trains though I had to wait a long time for the bus. I got there an hour late because I left here 45 minute later than I planned. I had planned well too. For dinner I had the soup that I made a few nights ago. That's a great thing about soup. It's two meals I make at once. For some reason soup's the only food I can reheat and not have it be dried out. OK I do know why but that was funnier. And I have to add that I make a hell of a potato-sausage-cheese-garlic-chicken soup. I really need a shorter name for it. I'll call it George.

So everything was running like clockwork when I walked into the kitchen and got it out of the fridge. As I was about to pop it in the microwave my phone rang. My phone never rings. It was someone I really wanted to talk to so I did. You have to feed your soul not just your stomach. It's a party, it's OK if I'm a little late.

The trip was long but even that has a bright side. The subway is where I do almost all my reading I do some good thinking there too but not as good as in the shower. I come up with half my blog ideas when wet. I've always been that way. I did my best math in the shower too. My therapist asked why I thought that was true. I have no idea but suggested that it was because there are no distractions and I'm nice and warm and comfy.

Why have I been listening to WfUV all morning? WQXR is doing their 2013 Classical Countdown. No they aren't. They finished last night at midnight. Awww, look at that list. I have quibbles, putting Beethoven's 7th above his 5th is just wrong, but I'll take any of the pieces on the top 10. I just got operavore working on Windows Media Player. They changed the file on me.

OK, so where was I got to Tina and Warren's around 9. As I love telling people this is a Nerdier group of people than me. How nerdy? We were discussing different breeds of nerds. When I say nerdier I mean in the classic gamer sense. OK maybe that's not classic but it's what I meant. My nerdiness expresses itself left socially. Well except when I blog about it. Oh and talk Elvish. oh and make sure to distinguish between Sindarian and Noldorian Elvish. And doing statistical studies of just about anything and publishing them in online forums. But other than that I'm totally not nerdy. Well sure I couldn't resist giving the title of a Twilight Zone episode when someone posted the description on Facebook. Isn't Gary Crosby enough for anyone to identify it? And sing the song?

But where was I? On right nerdfriends. there are usually two groups, people playing games and people talking. I usually play one game and then talk. Tina is a math prof. We get some shop talk in. But last night I sat right down at the gaming table. oh who was there. Well I'll just mention people who are my Facebook friends because the rest won't know that I left them out. And of course I don't know their names. There was Bruce and Mrs Bruce, yes she has a name. No I don't remember it. Stop looking at me like that. There was Larry but not Mrs. Larry. OK I know Mrs Larry's name, it's Diana. I can't actually even fake not knowing her. Wow the only other FB friend there is Tabitha, Warren and Tina's daughter. Then there was Mr and Mrs Tina's sister and assorted children.

The first game we played was great, 25 Words or Less. It's exactly the kind of game I told my friend who called earlier that we don't play. It's a social party game. You divide into two teams. then a card is drawn that has five words, people, places, or things on it. One player from each team looks at the card and they bid on how few word clues they need to give to get the rest of the team to guess the words. For instance to guess "The Great Wall of China" I was going to use three words, Protect, Beijing, and Mongols. you figure out how many words you think it will take, add a few as a safety margin, and bid down with the maximum bid being 25. I think the lowest anyone went was 7 to guess 5 words. If your team guesses the word you win the round. If they don't the other team does. So here was the hardest one that we couldn't get. What clues would you give for "pansy?" I would have bid very high on that set and let the other team win it. That's exactly the kind of game that I like to play in a social situation. In encourages discussion and it's very easy to learn. Oh and my team won.

The next game we played is of the type I tried to describe to my friend on the phone. I call them all Fizbin. This is exactly what it's like playing any of these games.

No I am not a nerd.

The actual name of the game is 7 Wonders. Now if the idea of the game was to name the 7 wonders or if it had anything to really do with the 7 wonders I'd be a whiz at it. But it wasn't. I got the Pharos at Alexandria. It didn't even use the word Pharos. I think it might have said lighthouse somewhere. The Tomb of Mausolus just said "Halicarnassus" on it. It did me no good to know exactly what it was. All fizbin games come with cards and cardboard tokens. Usually there's explanations in small print on the cards. In this one there were just tiny pictures that told you what to do if you had the ability to decipher hieroglyphics and have excellent vision. Otherwise you need to have memorized the rule book.

I knew I'd have fun talking about that game.

Ten minutes to midnight we went off to the TV room to watch the ball drop. We watched Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve. Dick Clark is dead. I thought they should have dropped his skull instead of the ball. I did not fake drinking champagne. I had apple cider. But I clinked glasses with everyone. I actually enjoy these parties.

After the ball dropped we finished 7 wonders. I came in second to last. Yes I'm a sore loser and that's the only reason I made fun of it.

I'm not sure what I left, perhaps around 1:30. Larry lives in Jersey and gave me a ride to 125th street where I could catch the train. That probably saved me an hour. But when I got in the station I saw the next was not for 18 minutes. there was a though and as I didn't like some of the drunks on the platform with me I took that to 42nd street. And low and behold instead of waiting 18 minutes for the next it was only 2 minutes. We passed one on the way down. The rub was that it was running local. I don't know why. But I took that all the way home and arrived around 3 AM. Of course I couldn't go right to sleep and that's why I'm so tired now. I was up at 8:30 to play the WfUV question of the day. My year started just like the last one ended. They did not play one of my songs.

Today I'm off to another party I go to every year. Coco and Bruce's open house. I thought I'd get there late but I might not. I'm not sure how long I'll stay or what else I'll do today. I'm playing it by ear. I am a wild and crazy guy.

Late addition. We got into an argument over whether slaves built the pyramids. I said they didn't. It was essentially a public works project. It kept the population busy in the period between the harvest and the next flood of the Nile. Instead of arguing I said, "I have a friend that's an Egyptologist, I'll ask her. So I texted Leah. I just got her answer now. Of course I was right. Now I have to hope whoever it was I was arguing with read this. I'm still going to do the "I was right" dance. Or maybe this.



I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile January 01, 2014
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