Fantasy Football Fail

The Bad News

So this year I really dropped the ball in fantasy football and half forgot, half acquired apathy for trades and the waiver wire in our league.  As a result, my team regularly had injured players, second string players, or players who were just plain bad.  That being said, our league consisted of 16 people, which guaranteed you were going to have at least one player who was lacking.

Even though I had a legitimate reason to have some sub-par players, I really have no excuse for playing 16 out of 16.  Joe (my other half) and I actually battled for last place… or as it’s called in The League, “The Sacko.”  I am now the ashamed proud holder of the Sacko Award.

Now yesterday I was driving in to work and heard Daniel Powter’s “Had a Bad Day” on the radio and immediately thought of the NFL Fantasy Football commercial that has been around and playing for at least a year or two.  I realized that I would never be able to listen to that song the same way again and will forever think of this commercial:

The Better News

At least I didn’t go 0 and 14… My heart goes out to “One Giant Step” in that commercial, poor fellow! And I had a new found drive to do well during the next season.

This year really made me realize that I need to step it up next year, especially if I want  to at least beat Joe and give someone else The Sacko Award.  As a sober reminder, I made a picture that will assuredly be my desktop background during fantasy football season next year.  Go Skins!

The WAAAAGHShington Greenskins have seen better days…. maybe if they just played Blood Bowl instead…

Yo, Shatner – Bring It!

This past weekend the hubby and I went to go see William Shatner at the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center.  Once I have another spare moment I will write about the show itself, but today I would like to focus on the newest edition to our household.  Once some of our friends learned that we held tickets to go see The Shat, these anonymous persons snuck up  to our door the night prior to the show and left us a little present…

Yo, Shatner – Bring It!

Due to security and our inability to smuggle a gnome into the Shatner show, poor Gnomie Jr had to wait in the car while we enjoyed the show.  I’m sure his rivalry with Priceline Shatner drove him stir crazy while he was stuck in the car that night, so the next day we had to do something about it!  In the true spirit of Travelocity gnome and all of his followers, I give you…

The Wondrous Adventure Day of Gnomie Jr

A Confession

Like many of you, I too started the new year with renewed inspiration and tackled my goals with a vigor that was slightly lacking towards the end of the year.  One of those goals that I had been working on, and continue to do so, is writing.

But, but, you haven’t posted anything all year!

Yes yes, I know, and that’s where this confession comes in.  Part of my blogging endeavor was initially created to put myself on a writing schedule, to have timelines that I had to stick to, and to keep my fingers from gathering dust.  I’m here to tell you that even though I’ve been trolling the internet with little to no presence, I have not given up my New Year’s goal.

I hesitate to say “resolution” because it’s so finite, so easy to fail.  A goal is something to aspire to, something that is obtainable, so different than the typical resolutions that we all commit to at the end of December and then let fizzle out as the new year progresses.

To the untrained eye, it seems as though I have failed in my writing goal for the new year.  Much to the contrary, I’ve been creating something of a storm on my laptop, living room, and even local coffee shops with the flurries of keystrokes that have been going on!  Even though the blog has been quiet, it’s the eye before the storm of literary creation.

If you missed one of the previous posts, To Boldly Go, I am running a comedy LARP next month at DunDraCon up in San Ramon, California.  The story creation and character writing has been going swimmingly.  So swimmingly, in fact, that I’m slightly disappointed to have only slotted 16 characters in the game!  Though unlike some beloved Mutant Sagas that have been going on for years, I will try my darndest to keep within the limits of character creation for this game.  Next one?  I will in all likelihood add a good number of characters to the game list.

So while my presence on the internet may be slightly less active, fear not!  I am, and will continue to use my creative powers for good.  Keep an eye out for less frequent posts, writing updates, and photo shenanigans…

 

What I Think I Do

In a recent email thread friends of mine were discussing what they do for a living and inviting others to do the same.  It got me thinking of that “What My Friends Think I Do” meme that was floating around the internet a while back and how that applies to anyone giving a resume-esque response to job title questions.  Myself?  I’m a specialist at a bank.  And nowadays when people hear the word “bank” they cringe and give me a venomous look as if I had just been eying their wallet.

But that’s not how everyone views bankers, at least I would like to think so.  So I’ve put together a written example of that same meme that used to plaster our facebook walls…

Christmas Ripley

Image

Merry Christmas from Warrant Officer Ripley! ♥

I hope none of you get a gift from a facehugger…

Photo by Brian J Matis, Happy Holidays edit by Lauren

Bah! Humbug! – A Christmas Story

Grumpy-nezer Scrooge

Well, just one more day and we all will have made it through the 3+ month-long “holiday season.”  But other than internet shopping, politically correct pleasantries, and the annual contact with distant family members, what is Christmas really about?  I mean aside from religion…  Because let’s face it, a large amount of celebrants are either A) not religious at all, or B) not celebrating it for the religious connotations.  I’m talking about how the season as a whole has evolved, especially within our lifetimes.  Now, is that evolution something that is seen across the cultural board, or is it simply growing up? Or is grumpy cat finally rubbing off on all of us? I think one of the lessons we can steal from Mr. Scrooge is that we should take a step back and look at how Christmas has affected our lives with the help of his three ghosts.

Though instead of the ghost of Christmas Past/Present/Future I’d like to think that we could choose whomever we’d like to guide us on our holiday spiritual journey.  Mine would be three Doctors… preferably 4, 10, and 13.

Friday Food Porn: Maine Lobster Meets California Cow and Paso Fowl

Maine Lobster with Fran

My good friends Rick and Fran were kind enough to invite me to partake in a feast of Maine Lobster that had just been imported from… well Maine!

The Night Before End Times

‘Twas the night before End Times
And all through the city
No sane man was fearful
Not even a bitty.

The work keys were hung
On the key rack with care
In hopes that the End Times
Meant they would stay there.

Harry Dresden, Books, Talks, and Creative Motivation

Back in 2008 while I was still living on the East Coast, I was lucky enough to play a part in the student-run SciFi convention known as MadiCon.  That spring we were proud to play host to Jim Butcher, New York Times Bestselling author of the Dresden Files.  At the time, he had just published the ninth book in his contemporary fantasy/mystery series… and I hadn’t read a single one of them.  Not that I wasn’t interested, of course, but I was more along the lines of not-on-the-up-and-up when it came to new(er) books and movies.  As a courtesy to our guest of honor, and so that the Con-Chair didn’t have to, I bit the bullet and buckled down to read a book or two before the con.

Harry and Sue

2012, the Apocalypse, and Impromptu “Bucket Lists”

2012: the end of an era… or so some people interpret from the Mayan Calendar.  Incorrectly. Or is it?  I highly highly highly doubt that the world is going to end on December 21, 2012, but just in case… what do I want to do before the apocalypse happens?  What do you want to do?  I know that people spend more than half of their lives creating, building , and expanding upon a bucket list (as Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman showed us), but what about for those of us who are still in our 20s and 30s, with (hopefully) well over half a lifetime ahead of us?  Of course we have the “oh well I want to go to Egypt/Hawaii/Europe/whatever before I die” because we don’t have the money for it now, along with other goals that require the savings and free time that only come with retirement or winning the lottery.  But if the world does end in a week and a half, what do we have to show for it?

That’s where the Impromptu Bucket List comes in.  It’s not drunkenly illegal enough to get us thrown in jail if the world does not in fact end, but it is ostentatious enough to puff your chest out and say “HEY! That’s right, I did that!” before whatever fate befalls us at the end of next week.    You don’t want to be Steve Buscemi taking out thousands of dollars in loans to blow on hookers before blasting off to stop the asteroid and then owing the loan shark all that money upon your return.  You want to be the heroic guy/gal who pulls off the totally story-worthy shit that gets you the fandom you deserve if/when the apocalypse comes.  Whether it is a grizzly end that validates our Impromptu Bucket List, or (more likely) and anticlimactic Friday that still validates our Impromptu Bucket List, you’ll still feel good about this upcoming week and a half.  Who am I kidding though, unless you work on the weekends what Friday is ever really anticlimactic?  Grab some beers after work to celebrate the end of the world!  Worst case scenario?  Being slightly embarrassed that life still exists and having beers on a Friday night! I mean… worst case scenario: end-of-the-world.  Yeah. That’s it.