Looking Forward to Thanksgiving

I am so excited about Thanksgiving! For years, my oven has been busted. I've had various "handy" friends replace the thermostat and the selector knob, all to no avail. And after soaking so much useless money into the project, I got kind of tired of the whole thing. Because I'd mostly just make dinner for my mom and myself, it was okay to just do chicken breasts in the toaster oven. However, a couple years of that became extremely tedious, since juggling all the dishes was always quite a feat. I'm proud to say I've been able to make some pretty successful pumpkin pies in that toaster oven, though.

But finally, earlier this year, another friend who's an actual electrician poked his head in my oven and discovered there was a short in the connection wires in the back. He was able to strip them back and reconnect, and I have an oven again! So this Thanksgiving, for the first time in a long time, I'm able to do a nice roast turkey with all the trimmings! I am so jazzed! I've been planning all week, doing a lot of shopping, and planning some more. I can't wait to get cooking! ...And eating!

My Latest Time Waster

Back in 2001, a friend begged me to join him in Ultima Online. I had never even played a single game of the Ultima Series, but I gave the online version a go. Holy cow, did I get addicted to that game! There's just something very cathartic about taking out the day's frustrations on pixelated monsters. So often, I'd join my friend in game and he'd ask what I wanted to do -- often it was magery or animal taming or provocation, but sometimes it was "I wanna kill stuff!" which meant logging on with my warrior and we'd go bash monsters. ...Good times...

The subscription fee was a killer, though, and I gave the game up after about 6 months. That was plenty. Since then, I have played the Ultima games (U7 -- both parts -- is pretty cool). But I've lately found myself wanting to play something new, with a low learning curve (just don't have the patience for mountains of homework to play a game), and stumbled upon RuneScape. Free! Hooray! UO-lite! Hooray! Then, after about a week in the game, I realized: Populated by children! Hoo-- wait. Wow. The kids in this game are intolerable. Greedy, self-centered, rude little brats...with hormones that just won't quit. Surely I'm not the only 20-something on there? Am I...? Or are all the people with brains and self-control off playing WoW?

Regardless of the frustrations, I've been spending far more time in RuneScape than I should. I keep wondering what will drive me away first: the kids, or the lack of activities in the "Free to Play" world...? Time will tell.

Bah! Humbug

This is the second year in a row that I have not played Halloween. I don't have any moral opposition (heh, I originally wrote "obligation"!) to the holiday, it's just no fun anymore. When I was a kid, the whole family would dress up and go trick-or-treating. But when I became a teenager and my dad died, that sucked a lot of the fun out -- we didn't trick-or-treat anymore -- but we still did fun stuff for the kids who would trick-or-treat us. Now, as years have gone by, the trick-or-treaters just seem to be doing it under duress. Gone are the days when you would open the door to a riotous "TRICK OR TREAT!!!!!" Now they just stand there, silent, holding out their bags. The parents have to prod them: "Say trick or treat!" Some manage to mumble it, followed up by another puppeted, mumbled "thank you" and then they stagger down the stairs. And forget trying to help them out:

"Oh! Don't you look cute!"
Blank stare.
"What are you supposed to be?"
Blank stare.
"Um. Well, here you go! Happy Halloween!"
Blank. Stare!

It makes me think these parents should just save their kids the misery and themselves the trouble. Just go to the store, buy a bag of candy, sit your kids in front of the TV and let them eat the candy. Boom. Halloween done.

Hopefully your kids enjoy it more than the ones who live around here....