1. Had dum-dum food.
2. Finally finished the last grading for the summer class.
3. Book Group. We read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. Really good book. Good discussion.
4. Came home and watched some comedies with my Co-Vivant.
5. Level 33 Dwarf Rogue. Missing Crystals. Yeti Cloak. King's Tribute. Entire Farren sequence.
6. BigFishGame actually looks fun for today, but I'm exhausted, so maybe I'll play it tomorrow.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
8/9: What I Accomplished Today
1. Graded remaining courses for the last time except for two students who are having extraordinary circumstances.
2. Had lunch & picked up my car.
3. Pogo badges.
4. Watched various comedies on television.
5. Finished Chretien de Troyes and its quiz. Started Eschenbach. When this is done, then I can actually put the finishing touches on the course.
6. Level 32 Dwarf Rogue. Hunter quests in Strangleplace. Dinged 33. Went to Loch Modan and killed Chok'sul (yeah, I was supposed to do this years ago, but I was able to solo it easily). Found little quest camp and corpse in Badlands while stealthed, then ran the heck away from there; I don't think anyone who doesn't have stealth will do those two quests for awhile. Will do Hillsbrad tomorrow.
7. Five more levels in Wedding Dash (up to 4.5).
8. Lottso Deluxe. I bought this yesterday; it gives goals to Lottso, and as anyone who has read any of this babbling at all will probably have ascertained, I like goals, structure, quantification. I bought it through BigFishGames, so it doesn't seem to have all the mini stuff and token addition features, but whatcha gonna do. I have access to the fourth parlor, but I haven't finished all of the goals for any of the parlors since the first.
2. Had lunch & picked up my car.
3. Pogo badges.
4. Watched various comedies on television.
5. Finished Chretien de Troyes and its quiz. Started Eschenbach. When this is done, then I can actually put the finishing touches on the course.
6. Level 32 Dwarf Rogue. Hunter quests in Strangleplace. Dinged 33. Went to Loch Modan and killed Chok'sul (yeah, I was supposed to do this years ago, but I was able to solo it easily). Found little quest camp and corpse in Badlands while stealthed, then ran the heck away from there; I don't think anyone who doesn't have stealth will do those two quests for awhile. Will do Hillsbrad tomorrow.
7. Five more levels in Wedding Dash (up to 4.5).
8. Lottso Deluxe. I bought this yesterday; it gives goals to Lottso, and as anyone who has read any of this babbling at all will probably have ascertained, I like goals, structure, quantification. I bought it through BigFishGames, so it doesn't seem to have all the mini stuff and token addition features, but whatcha gonna do. I have access to the fourth parlor, but I haven't finished all of the goals for any of the parlors since the first.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
8/8: What I Accomplished Today
1. Students found papers that had to be graded. Blech. But now the actual complete-with-annotations grading should be done for the summer.
2. Pogo badges.
3. I don't remember if we watched anything on television. We must have.
4. Level 31 Dwarf Rogue. Highperch. Shady Rest quests. Shimmering Flats. Dinged 32. Outgoing Shimmering Flats quests to Ratchet and Booty Bay. Set to run up Stranglethorn.
5. Was hoping to finish the Chretien de Troyes today, but didn't quite; should tomorrow.
Man, what a waste of protoplasm I am this week.
2. Pogo badges.
3. I don't remember if we watched anything on television. We must have.
4. Level 31 Dwarf Rogue. Highperch. Shady Rest quests. Shimmering Flats. Dinged 32. Outgoing Shimmering Flats quests to Ratchet and Booty Bay. Set to run up Stranglethorn.
5. Was hoping to finish the Chretien de Troyes today, but didn't quite; should tomorrow.
Man, what a waste of protoplasm I am this week.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
8/7: What I Accomplished Today
1. Graded two classes. It was the last day when they could have rewrites, so this took about eight and a half hours.
2. Watched a little television.
3. Didn't see Pogo today.
4. Level 34 Gnome Warlock. Desolace. Dinged 35. Stats and Mail. Level 30 Dwarf Rogue. Finished Look to the Stars & worked a little on Missing Diplomat.
5. Played five levels of Wedding Dash. Tried to improve my score on episode 28 of Miss Management. Unable to do so.
6. BigFishGame doesn't look fun.
7. Read in Arthur.
2. Watched a little television.
3. Didn't see Pogo today.
4. Level 34 Gnome Warlock. Desolace. Dinged 35. Stats and Mail. Level 30 Dwarf Rogue. Finished Look to the Stars & worked a little on Missing Diplomat.
5. Played five levels of Wedding Dash. Tried to improve my score on episode 28 of Miss Management. Unable to do so.
6. BigFishGame doesn't look fun.
7. Read in Arthur.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
8/6: What I Accomplished Today
1. Useless today. (It's the week after my birthday, so I'm taking a research vacation.)
2. Watched stuff on television. No recollection of what it was. Wait; we saw that Meerkat Manor is starting the third season later this week, so I remember we watched the recap to refresh our memories for that.
3. Pogo badges.
4. Level 33 Gnome Warlock. Worked on various hunter quests in Stranglewhatever Dale. Dinged 34. Soloed Dark Mines except I couldn't do the last crummy battle, so I still don't have the Van Cleef items. Did miscellaneous Hillsbrad and Warlock quests; got Felhunter. Was hoping to get to 35 today, but couldn't quite pull it off.
5. Got a beta invitation for another game, so played the 45 minute focus group version of that.
6. Read quite a bit in Arthur. (I need to get the reading done soon because I'm not done writing it, and I was reminded today that school starts in less than a month. Blech.)
2. Watched stuff on television. No recollection of what it was. Wait; we saw that Meerkat Manor is starting the third season later this week, so I remember we watched the recap to refresh our memories for that.
3. Pogo badges.
4. Level 33 Gnome Warlock. Worked on various hunter quests in Stranglewhatever Dale. Dinged 34. Soloed Dark Mines except I couldn't do the last crummy battle, so I still don't have the Van Cleef items. Did miscellaneous Hillsbrad and Warlock quests; got Felhunter. Was hoping to get to 35 today, but couldn't quite pull it off.
5. Got a beta invitation for another game, so played the 45 minute focus group version of that.
6. Read quite a bit in Arthur. (I need to get the reading done soon because I'm not done writing it, and I was reminded today that school starts in less than a month. Blech.)
Monday, August 6, 2007
8/5: What I Accomplished Today
1. Puzzle Day. For my birthday, we had ribs. They were very good. We also won Puzzle Day.
I got several books and magazines, and I also got gift cards for tennis shoes and iTunes. And a bill organizer. I got a bill organizer like the one the Fellas have. I have admired it.
2. Took a nap.
3. Pogo Badges.
4. We watched His Girl Friday from NetFlix. We'd both seen this before, but it's funny.
5. Level 32 Gnome Warlock. Did the Hillbrad Foothills quests. Went to Thousand Needles and worked on the Shimmering Flats quests. Dinged 33. Finished the five hunter/gatherer quests and took the run-around quests. Did two in Ratchet and two in Booty Bay.
6. BigFishGame is a marble thing.
7. Played Miss Management.
I got several books and magazines, and I also got gift cards for tennis shoes and iTunes. And a bill organizer. I got a bill organizer like the one the Fellas have. I have admired it.
2. Took a nap.
3. Pogo Badges.
4. We watched His Girl Friday from NetFlix. We'd both seen this before, but it's funny.
5. Level 32 Gnome Warlock. Did the Hillbrad Foothills quests. Went to Thousand Needles and worked on the Shimmering Flats quests. Dinged 33. Finished the five hunter/gatherer quests and took the run-around quests. Did two in Ratchet and two in Booty Bay.
6. BigFishGame is a marble thing.
7. Played Miss Management.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
8/4: What I Accomplished Today
1. Today is my birthday. Now I am 43. Most of my presents will come tomorrow at my birthday-lunch-cum-Puzzle-Day, but today I received a set of three containers of Foamy Soap. I love Foamy Soap. Two of the three are Bubble Gum Foamy Soap. I love Bubble Gum Foamy Soap. It makes me inordinately happy.
2. Co-Vivant and I went to lunch.
3. We saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This was the longest of the books; I believe it had 800-odd pages, yet they movie was kept to a little over two hours. I enjoyed the movie, but I think it's the weakest of the series so far; it had sort of the breezy airiness of impressionism without actually telling people who didn't already have the broad strokes of the plot in their heads from having read the book. All of the other films have had several really delightful, fresh, new images; here, the primary new image was the thestral, which was made to look like an emaciated, depressing horse. (Giving the Death Eaters sort of a blacky ethereal speedy travel form and the Order members a white ethereal speedy travel form was cool, and made sense within the confines of the book, but there wasn't enough of it for it to count.)
There were some nice visuals and foreshadows; the entire Percy Weasley subplot was cut down to one or two visuals, and he wasn't even a speaking role in this film, but if you knew what you were looking for, you saw it. In the books, one of the first hints we get that Ginny kicks keester is her Bat Bogie hex in Half-Blood Prince; here, her Protego is faboo. (She's the seventh child, and both her parents are from large families; they could also be seventh children. There's a nexus thing goin' on there.) We also see just a split-second of her turning around and looking unhappy when Harry is heading for Cho.
Co-Vivant doesn't read the books; she only watches the movies. She said she enjoyed the film but it lacked continuity; for someone without the background of the books, it wasn't always apparent what was happening, although she's very good at reading nuance. For her, the constant changing of directors and screenwriters in the series has left some disjointedness, not so much in the kids (the changes felt like their maturing), but in the adults. I totally agree that many of the adults were flattened; both Sirius and Molly become Generic Caring Adults, a grave disservice to rich, interesting characters. (There seemed to be concerned that Sirius needed to be likable. No, he doesn't. Frankly, I never much cared for him; he was an arrogant jerk. That doesn't mean I didn't bawl my eyes out for Harry's sake when he died.)
Her overall assessment: she enjoyed the film, but it was the first one in which she'd wondered what time it was. Since it's the shortest of the films, that's rather damning.
4. We bought a floor lamp. Now we've done things like this before, obviously, but normally, our technique is, "Go to Target; select least hideous option; drive it home and try not to break it by putting it together." Due to a series of circumstances that aren't particularly interesting, we don't have to do that anymore. We went to a dedicated lamp store. There were dozens of floor lamps. The cheapest was two or three times the price of the most expensive model at Target. Now we like Target; it usually offers fine value. But this was like we'd died and gone to Lamp Heaven. (I shouldn't say that; if I die, there are lots of sorts of heavens to which I wouldn't object, but I'm not convinced Lamp Heaven would be a heaven for all that long.)
I'm having the same issue with presents this year. Normally, I have an extensive list. Often, it contains things most people wouldn't consider presents, like Tennis Shoes (I get one new pair a year, on my birthday; in previous years, more than that has seemed like foolish wastefulness, poor stewardship). I also usually have all the books and movies and such that I'd like to see but that I couldn't have bought for myself. I usually also have some sort of household things (towels or sheets or pans or such) because we need some but can't realistically buy them. Well, this year, we've bought all the household necessities and several of the non-necessities; we also have Netflix now, so all the movies that I suspect we're going to watch once and never see again don't have to be $20 expenditures. I had only three things on my list this year: new tennis shoes, the Stephen Fry audiobooks of the British version of the Harry Potters (okay, this is seven things), and some white or gray Ohio State T-shirts. I am fairly certain (primarily because I helped Co-Vivant order several of them) that I am getting all of these things, although probably not all tomorrow. I also know that I am getting the British version of Harry Potter at my birthday party with friends (which may not be for a few months). It's odd, not having to use the birthday list for necessities. My attitude toward Stuff is different. I've never been a particularly greedy, materialistic person, at least I hope not, but since we can go get things if we need them, I'm just less...panicky about the whole thing. It's going to be okay.
5. Went to dinner. We were going to go to P.F. Chang's, but the wait was too long, so we went to Claim Jumper. She can never remember from visit to visit that we've eaten here before.
6. Worked a little on Pogo badges. Watched Big Love and a Biography of celebrity mothers and daughters.
7. Level 31 Gnome Warlock. Missing Crystals. King's Tribute. Yeti Fur Cloak. Farren up to the nagas. Dinged 32.
2. Co-Vivant and I went to lunch.
3. We saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This was the longest of the books; I believe it had 800-odd pages, yet they movie was kept to a little over two hours. I enjoyed the movie, but I think it's the weakest of the series so far; it had sort of the breezy airiness of impressionism without actually telling people who didn't already have the broad strokes of the plot in their heads from having read the book. All of the other films have had several really delightful, fresh, new images; here, the primary new image was the thestral, which was made to look like an emaciated, depressing horse. (Giving the Death Eaters sort of a blacky ethereal speedy travel form and the Order members a white ethereal speedy travel form was cool, and made sense within the confines of the book, but there wasn't enough of it for it to count.)
There were some nice visuals and foreshadows; the entire Percy Weasley subplot was cut down to one or two visuals, and he wasn't even a speaking role in this film, but if you knew what you were looking for, you saw it. In the books, one of the first hints we get that Ginny kicks keester is her Bat Bogie hex in Half-Blood Prince; here, her Protego is faboo. (She's the seventh child, and both her parents are from large families; they could also be seventh children. There's a nexus thing goin' on there.) We also see just a split-second of her turning around and looking unhappy when Harry is heading for Cho.
Co-Vivant doesn't read the books; she only watches the movies. She said she enjoyed the film but it lacked continuity; for someone without the background of the books, it wasn't always apparent what was happening, although she's very good at reading nuance. For her, the constant changing of directors and screenwriters in the series has left some disjointedness, not so much in the kids (the changes felt like their maturing), but in the adults. I totally agree that many of the adults were flattened; both Sirius and Molly become Generic Caring Adults, a grave disservice to rich, interesting characters. (There seemed to be concerned that Sirius needed to be likable. No, he doesn't. Frankly, I never much cared for him; he was an arrogant jerk. That doesn't mean I didn't bawl my eyes out for Harry's sake when he died.)
Her overall assessment: she enjoyed the film, but it was the first one in which she'd wondered what time it was. Since it's the shortest of the films, that's rather damning.
4. We bought a floor lamp. Now we've done things like this before, obviously, but normally, our technique is, "Go to Target; select least hideous option; drive it home and try not to break it by putting it together." Due to a series of circumstances that aren't particularly interesting, we don't have to do that anymore. We went to a dedicated lamp store. There were dozens of floor lamps. The cheapest was two or three times the price of the most expensive model at Target. Now we like Target; it usually offers fine value. But this was like we'd died and gone to Lamp Heaven. (I shouldn't say that; if I die, there are lots of sorts of heavens to which I wouldn't object, but I'm not convinced Lamp Heaven would be a heaven for all that long.)
I'm having the same issue with presents this year. Normally, I have an extensive list. Often, it contains things most people wouldn't consider presents, like Tennis Shoes (I get one new pair a year, on my birthday; in previous years, more than that has seemed like foolish wastefulness, poor stewardship). I also usually have all the books and movies and such that I'd like to see but that I couldn't have bought for myself. I usually also have some sort of household things (towels or sheets or pans or such) because we need some but can't realistically buy them. Well, this year, we've bought all the household necessities and several of the non-necessities; we also have Netflix now, so all the movies that I suspect we're going to watch once and never see again don't have to be $20 expenditures. I had only three things on my list this year: new tennis shoes, the Stephen Fry audiobooks of the British version of the Harry Potters (okay, this is seven things), and some white or gray Ohio State T-shirts. I am fairly certain (primarily because I helped Co-Vivant order several of them) that I am getting all of these things, although probably not all tomorrow. I also know that I am getting the British version of Harry Potter at my birthday party with friends (which may not be for a few months). It's odd, not having to use the birthday list for necessities. My attitude toward Stuff is different. I've never been a particularly greedy, materialistic person, at least I hope not, but since we can go get things if we need them, I'm just less...panicky about the whole thing. It's going to be okay.
5. Went to dinner. We were going to go to P.F. Chang's, but the wait was too long, so we went to Claim Jumper. She can never remember from visit to visit that we've eaten here before.
6. Worked a little on Pogo badges. Watched Big Love and a Biography of celebrity mothers and daughters.
7. Level 31 Gnome Warlock. Missing Crystals. King's Tribute. Yeti Fur Cloak. Farren up to the nagas. Dinged 32.
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