Xyzzy

Iraqi Invasion: A Text Misadventure
Revision 88 / Serial number 54892


Oval Office
You are standing inside a White House, having just been elected to the presidency of the United States. You knew Scalia would pull through for you.

There is a large desk here, along with a few chairs and couches. The presidential seal is in the middle of the room and there is a full-length mirror upon the wall.

What do you want to do now?

> INVADE IRAQ
You are not able to do that, yet.

> LOOK MIRROR
Self-reflection is not your strong suit.

> PET SEAL
It's not that kind of seal.

> EXAMINE CHAIRS
They are two several chairs arranged around the center of the room, along with two couches. Under one couch you find Clinton's shoes.

> FILL SHOES
You are unable to fill Clinton's shoes.

I about fell out of my chair reading this. It's the Bush presidency in the form of a Zork-esque transcript. The full thing can be read over at defective yeti. Give it a shot - it's an absolute hoot! I originally found this over at boingboing.

-B

Tags: bush, iraq+war, satire, funny

How to eat sushi

This is a very instructional video on how to eat sushi. It has details that I'll bet even the most devout sushi connoisseur didn't know.

I think I know what I'm having for lunch today.

Enjoy!
-B

(Found here.)

Tags: funny, sushi, video

And now, your moment of zen...

It's the Falling Sand Game. Draw lines, plant plants, divert the sand around. It's amazingly addictive.

-B

Tags: zen, art

Hooray for Maryland! (I think...)

This morning at Yahoo! News I found an article that made me happy. The state of Maryland has passed a law that employers of over 10,000 state residents are now required to spend a minimum of 8% of their income (or was it revenues?) on employee health care coverage. That sounds like a pretty broad law, does it not? That's what I thought. However it turns out that (guess who?) WalMart is the only employer in the state that meets that size requirement that's not already spending that magic 8%. Yet another reason that WalMart is an evil company and why "Everyday low prices!" has its cost in the community. And that, my dear readers, is a cost I'm not willing to pay. I have actively boycotted WalMart for a couple of years now (the number of times I've caved and had to run in for something I can count on one hand), and will continue to do so.


The 'I think...' part of the header comes from the slippery slope that is single-company-targeted legislation. On one hand if WalMart would just do the right thing (tm) this wouldn't be an issue, but on the other, I don't really like the idea of state legislatures targeting one company with a particular law. It seems sorta like Gov't micromanagement. So which is the lesser of the evils?

-B

Tags: walmart,Maryland

The Cow Game

The Cow Game is a great time waster. It's in German, but you don't really need the instructions to figure out how to play it. The big hit in our house is the the little swinging udders in the victory dance.

-B

Tags: puzzle,game, cows, udders

SWH3 600th Hash

SWH3's 600th Hash is today!! Woot!! It's a little cold and windy for my tastes, but hey, it January in NC.... whaddayawant?

On-on!!

-Bill

Tags: hashing

Fun Jobs!

It's a hell of a long shot, but I'm trying to get a mental-health sabbatical to go work for the Mouse. I want to burn all my available vacation (55 days, I think?) to go be Cruise Staff on the Disney Magic. The Cruise Staff are the crazy, loud people who jump around and yell and lead the deck parties, run the game shows, lead on-ship activities, call bingo, and in general make sure that everyone on board is having fun and has plenty of cool stuff to do. This job would be sooo much fun and be such a great break from 15+ years of computing.

So many things have to happen just so for me to actually pull this off. I started with my dear darling Susie and Bonnie, who consented for me to go off and do this wild hare idea. Then I went to SixthStar entertainment, the folks who do hiring and staffing for DCL. A brief email exchange taught me that this *was* possible, but the position I wanted was only available as a 4-month contract. Duke has limits on how much vacation one can take off in a year, so I'd have to get the 4 months split across a new-year boundary, which means Thanksgiving, Christmas, Anniversary, New Years and my Birthday would all be spent on-ship, away from my family. I talked to my director about it (he's a Brit and exceptionally cool, and damn smart as well), and he didn't say no. His words were that there were a lot of details (ie. all the HR stuff) to work out with my direct manager to make it happen.

So, although it's not a done deal, it's made it much, much further than I ever thought it would. I'll keep pushing, and talking to people, and see if I can make this happen.

-B

Meta

I hate blog posts about blog posting, as it seems just like so much self-important navel-gazing to me, but here I am doing that exact thing. I've been paralyzed for a while on posting, because I have no clear idea of what I want this blog to be. Is is a personal diary for sharing with friends and family? Is it my soapbox to shout about what's right and wrong with the world? Is it a creative writing outlet? Do I want it discovered and read by the world? Do I care if someone finds it in 10 years when I'm running for public office? The truth is, I don't know. That is, I have no good clear answers for those questions. So, I'm throwing those blog meta-questions out there and getting back to writing. It's gonna be what it is. Read it if you want. Comment if you want (please!). I don't have a reason other than I want to do it. Enjoy.

-B