For your entertainment :) Lyricosis site

Lyricosis

Dan has a habit of making up his own lyrics to songs. I think I'll start letting you guys in on the good ones ;)

"I love my kids today - Not like yesterday,
They're cool, they're calm, they're gonna get their way (uh-huh)
I love my kids today
Take them to the park today...
'cause it's the last park,the last park forever!"

The last line was a little weak. But now you too can have the wrong lyrics stuck in your head all day :) It was pretty funny when he sang it, complete with headbanging.

An interesting site I came across while searching for the patch to a certain game...here.

It has everything from the genetic code, to Beowulf. And my personal favorite "Varny the Vampire"

Women's rights! Now!

So here's a conflicting post for you...

There has been a lot of coverage in the Times Colonist lately regarding the flagging Women's Rights movement here in Canada. The leading feminist organization owes the government and other financial organizations so much money, that they can't even hire someone to answer the phones anymore. Women have been on a resurgent tread to take their husbands name in marriage, and everyone has been moving back to their small-town origins.

Personally, I don't think it's such a bad thing.

Women have been taking huge strides as well, in all areas of the Western World. It's not strange to see women managers, professors, doctors, lawyers, laborers, or cooks. We asked for respect and equality, and we are now in a position to get it. Sure it takes a little work sometimes, but men have to work at it as well.

Banners of rebellion against the chauvinists, such as keeping your maiden name, don't really make any point anymore. Except maybe to say you side with the increasingly radical, potentially militant stance of the feminist movement. IMO a runaway train which is now doing more harm than good to women in general, at least in Western society.

On the other hand...a google search on women's rights shows that their war is by no means over in other areas of the world.

Girls, be thankful that we live where we do.

Cefir (Cleric)

Here's the background story of Randy's new character (by Randy of course). I thought it was a great piece of creative writing, and it goes well with what I wrote on the death of his last character ;)


As long as I can remember I've been surrounded by elves. My earliest
memories are of my mother singing to me softly as I cried, but for all my
efforts I can't remember why I was crying, but the song sticks in my head
and to think of it still makes me drowsy. As I grew older I came to realize
I was unlike my elven brethren, I could never climb as far, run as fast or
sing as clearly. Not that my childhood was a disappointment, in fact it was
full of wonder and whimsy. My teenage years on the other hand...
Growing Older I often felt anger I couldn't explain whereas my
contemporaries remained calm and contemplative I often felt the need to
question everything and act out in an aggressive manor, little did I know
puberty was upon me. One day when playing games with my brothers playing
orcs and elves, I was always an orc, one of the boys hit me too hard with
his stick and knocked me to the ground and when he bent over to see if I was
Ok I rose up in a rage I've never felt before and knocked him to the ground
and began to hit him with my stick, it took the other youths to pull me off
him, upon regaining my control I realized that my friend was unconscious and
I ran away in fear and confusion and hid in the woods. Know knowing the
futility of hiding in the woods from elves I may have picked a better
place to hide; My father found me and brought me back to the village it was
then I started to hear the word "Human" being used to describe me. Confused,
I asked what a Human was and then with a sad look in his eye my father told
me it was time to learn the truth. The truth as to why I looked different
from everyone, the truth as to why I grew hair on my face and no one else
did, the truth about my past and the reason as to why my earliest memories
where of tears.
They told me of an elven patrol to which my parents belonged and
their discovery of an orcish war party who had just finished decimating a
Human caravan of which I was a part of; apparently my adoptive parents had
saved me from the cookpot. Rather than leave me to the elements they chose
to adopt me and raise as their own. My current issues with rage was my human
heritage coming to bear. In penance for my beating of my friend I chose to
devote my life to Corellon Larethian, the God of the elves, to atone for my acts
against the people who gave me life, and in the future would provide me with
my vengeance against those who took my real parents from me.

Thanks Randy :)

Happy Monday!

I'm back! Sorry there was no post this weekend, but we were very busy for the most part...

Friday of course was chore day...I got the floors done and that's it :( Saturday morning it was like it never happened, so I really feel like I accomplished something there.

Saturday Dan's parents came down in the morning, bringing presents for the kids (a couple of outfits and a bunny for Teresa, and a fire truck and summer sandals for Liam). We actually got to see Sylvia for a while there. Not a very common occurrence anymore. Saturday evening we had Stacy, Evie, Randy and April over for 6 player Settlers of Catan/*sshole cards, and we had a blast! Thank you so much for coming over guys :)

Sunday we loaded up "Sacred" this new PC game and wasted a good part of the day playing that...Scott is already level 13 with his Vampire! And Sunday afternoon was Liam's first time attending a birthday party! Falcon Gymnastics...Remember that for when you have your own kids...They had trampolines and a huge blow up slide...And a foam pit with rope swings and dismount boards, oh my! Liam was the youngest one there, but he still had a blast!

Of course over the weekend I had stored up a couple of good rants, but the moment has left me now, so I have to leave it for another day.

I'll just leave you with one question...Why DO they still print Garfield in the comics section? He is no longer funny and is just taking up space...It's time to retire, man.

B**b!

So my Mom took Liam shopping with her this afternoon at Cosco's. She says he behaved like a little angel, with only one embarrassing moment while she was looking through the lingerie section. She turned around and Liam was poking his fingers at the bras saying "b**b, b**b".

*Sigh* Time to start bre*stfeeding Teresa in another room...

MPD Continued...

Persona...What number am I on?

Martha Stewart : That's right folks, you thought she was put away for good...The menace that she is...But truth betold, I have this special psychic ability to channel Martha in her worst form. Domestic Diva ! Mattel should make a domestic Diva barbie...They could cloth her in dyed strodel, hand made of course. Anyways, This is my nit-picky, tidy, dust, clean, and rearrange all the furniture in the house persona. The one that'll attempt to bake bread from scratch, make her own jewelry, and on very rare occasions sew something. She's been brought out of the cell today to help wash the floors, clean the bathrooms, and generally make this sty presentable...Goodness knows it wouldn't get done without her ;)

Multiple Personality Day !

Lucky you guys! I'm going to let you know all of the things I do in a day, and the corresponding personas I put on to get the job done :) This of course is in honor of my theme song (see earlier post).

Persona 1: Oscar the Grouch

5 am: There's this irritating buzzing in my ear. I turn over and tell Dan to turn off his stupid alarm already. He tells me that it's not his alarm, and then rolls back over. Oh. I drag my butt out of bed and turn on the hall light so I can see to get dressed. And then slouch downstairs to where Scott is waiting to go do papers. We don't talk except in monosyllables. It's cold, it's dark, it sucks. When I get to the gym I stare at the floor and avoid all eye contact. The people there respect that, possibly from an instinctual sense of self-preservation.

Persona 2: Pollyanna

6:45 am: I leave the gym...My heart rate is up, and so is the sun! The last rays from sunrise are illuminating some feathery clouds in the distance. The song birds are up and chipping merrily. The sun is warming the ground and drying the morning dew off the grass. What a beautiful day!

Persona 3: Mom

Multitasker, breakfast maker, diaper changer, boo-boo kisser, scolder, hugger, dance instructor, teacher, photographer...The list goes on and on

Persona 4: Sylentlucidity

I take a break from Liam and his trucks, to run downstairs and write a post or read a comment. It gives me a social outlet besides talking to children.

More to come............

Bittersweet Symphony

Leanne's post and a comment by Stacy has sparked this days blog. Stacy said "A friend of mine once asked me "If your life had a soundtrack...would you buy it?" "

My Question is...if your life had a theme song, what would it be?

Go to Leanne's comments section to answer it...It'll help her get into the groove ;)

Here's the game that Stacy posted...Helicopter

And for those of you bored with the penguin game...a new twist...from Adrian

The joy of motherhood :)

Absolutely nothing in this world is better then a kiss-fest with your children. The amount of unbridled love is hard to express...But you know me...I'm going to try :)

Teresa is just a rather squirmy teddy bear at the moment, so a kiss-fest with her consists of cuddles and drool. She gets the cutest wide-mouthed smirk on her face when you go to kiss her checks. Followed up by her trying to latch onto your nose with her mouth. She's young...She has to go for to biggest target :) Nothing sounds better then Teresa when she giggles.

Liam on the other hand gets jealous when I pay too much (any) attention to Teresa. However I really have to convince him that he wants cuddles and kisses. He's a big boy now and has more important things to do then hang out with Mom! If I ask him if he wants kisses, he always replies No! With his face scrunched up like I'll give him cooties or something. But if he thinks Teresa (Tessa) wants kisses, she always gets them...Usually about an inch over her head...He has problems with his aim as well...But nonetheless. Then I get a good slobbery kiss, smelling like cheerios and raspberry jam. Then the couch gets a kiss...His favorite trucks...Any cats that he can pin down (usually Linx)...The floor...The walls...The fishtank...And maybe the sliding glass door to outside. He's an equal opportunity kisser :)

I probably haven't come near to expressing how good it feels to hang out with my kids, but hopefully you get the idea :)

Join the Cult !!

Leanne has set up a blog for herself. http://2ndskin.blogspot.com
You can find it listed as SecondSkin under Blogs on the sidebar :)

Obituary for Kronk - Part 2 of 2

Kronk the Dwarven Warrior

A very talented dwarf, skilled in the arts of stoneworking and well versed in war time expertise. He was well loved by his god Morridan, as well as Pelor for his virtuous acts in defending the realm from undead soldiers. He was a great asset to our group and will be greatly missed by us.

Kronk could always be counted on in a fight, his bravery and selfless actions saved his King, and many of his people from slavery and certain death. His quiet stoicism was ever a reminder to us of the loss he suffered, of his sister and mother, at the hands of the orchish invaders.

Kronk, you are ever in our hearts and on our minds, you will be remembered as a hero.

Rest in peace Brother Kronk

....In the name of Pelor and in the customs of Morridan, I hereby bless and consecrate this gravesite...

Kronk - Part 1 of 2

...Speaking with a bard in the Silver Horn...Sometime in the near future...

*clinking of glasses, laughter*

"No, no, wait! That's not all!"

*takes a swig of ale*

"So there he was hanging there in mid-air holding onto nothing but the immovable rod with one hand and his morningstar in the other. Somehow he managed to swing himself back up and onto the ice bridge..On the very spot he had fallen off of!"

*laughter and applause*

"He stands there for a second taking in the battle...At the time the rest of us were all indisposed, battling these ice mephits...And he finds his target. A mephit flying fifteen feet off of the south side of the bridge!"

*sounds of beer swilling*

"Kronk flings himself at the air beside the monster and triggers the rod. Swinging his morningstar he puts a huge dent in the mephit's skull, sending it flying straight down at the speed of gravity!"

*cheering!*

"Unfortunately his momentum and the icy rod were not working to his benefit just then and his hand slipped, sending him after the mephit at the same speed. 60 Ft he plunged into a distant snowbank. We all watched from above while he got up and brushed himself off."

*laughter, sighs of relief*

Bard - "What happened then?"

"Well...You see this is where the story takes a turn..."

*pause for a slow swallow of ale"

"You see, there was a pack of Winter Wolves roaming down in that gully..."

I love you Dan :)

D&D

Anyone reading this, who doesn't play D&D, will just have to humor me today. I have a couple of posts on the subject to get through.

This first post isn't a fun one for me because I need to word it carefully....

People! Stop Arguing with the DM!!!

Was that ok? Did I get the point across? I'm not writing this post because said DM told me too, I'm writing it because I have the honor of listening to him vent every night after gaming...When I'd much rather be sleeping.

At first he wanted input from the players on rulings as he was just learning the system as well..But now that he has a grasp, he wants to have more control then the rules allow for. For example allowing a dwarf to perform death defying feats...Hold the rules please! We're about to have fun ROLEPLAYING.

Not only does the constant bickering over rules disrupt the game and annoy the DM, it's counter productive in a big bad way. Combat already takes half the night...Just let him make a ruling and move on folks. Please don't waste time by arguing...I'm begging here.

Let the man do his job!!! He has trained for it...I promise you...he won't let you down.

Penguin Game

I believe that 588.8 is the distance to beat in the "Smack the Penguin" game. See side bar -->

This is for Sean, who wanted to know where I got my background information from as far as the Kings of France thing goes. A year or so ago, I was researching tid bits here and there on the internet for inspiration in Demon:the Fallen. A story that I Storytold for a very brief time. I came across this alternative news site called The Daily Grail which was basically a post board where the readers would keep their eyes on newspapers world-wide, and send in anything odd, interesting or of archeological significance. The site has been swallowed now by a bigger magazine, but it's still around if that sort of thing interests you.

Anyways one of the stories I hit on was on "Rennes-le-Chateau". Basically a knights Templar conspiracy theory with descendents of Christ thrown in for good measure. If you do a google search you come up with tons of wack job sites on it. Also try "Merovingian Kings" - they claimed the story about Magdalene was true and they were Christ's descendents. "Tour Magdala", "Arcadia", "Visigoth", and "Carolingian" (The first two are places, and the last two are conquerers who married into the line). But those names are really there for you so you'll play them in Europa Universalis II ;)

Well, this morning was my first workout at Curves, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. The way that it's set up, is that there's ten stations separated by "recovery boards" all in a circle. You do 2 1/2 rounds, staying at each station for 30 seconds. The recovery boards are where you run, jump or skip on the spot. I've heard some people say to watch out, as people have gotten really hurt. I have a hard time seeing how that could happen unless you go in there with the wrong mentality. The idea is to get your heart rate up, and give your muscles a mild work-out. Every 3 minutes you stop and check your pulse to make sure that you are on track for your age. I can see that if someone were to go in thinking they were going to drop 10 lbs in a week, or bulk up or whatever they could miss-use the system. But personally I think it's very well done for what I want.

I don't hurt. Just a slight warm feeling in my side muscles. I'm sure that if a fitness person were to read that they'd say I'm not doing it right. Frankly, the pain is what stops me from exercising in the first place. Why should I bother if I won't be able to move for a couple of days? At least it's got me moving and working muscles that I usually don't. For now I really like the system, and it's the kind of thing that will help me do other things...Like the garden city 10k :)


I've moved this link to the sidebar (see Demonology 101)

Sorry Leanne, I had the book wrong...it's "Kushiel's Dart" by Jacqueline Carey (not Dagger).... Amazon listing

Happy Ostara!

It was only a matter of time...

As anyone who has roleplayed with me recently can tell you, religion and the whole "good vs evil" thing has been a common theme with me in the last year or so. Sean has lent me a book "Kushiel's Dagger" that has given me a lot to think about this morning.

The book is written with a little known offshoot of the Christian mythos as it's foundation. (No wait! Come back!) As it IS a mythos, it has very little to do with reality...But I'll come back to that.

So the story is as follows: After they removed Jesus from the cross, the Magdalene (no, not his mother..The other Mary) sat next to Jesus's body and wept tears of blood. From these tears was born a son of Jesus, Elua. But everyone was too busy morning the death of his father to notice him. Up in heaven, God was busy as well, but a group of angels noticed him and decided to go awol and help him out. This group wandered Europe and Asia, and had many adventures that don't fit in with modern Christian ethics. Finally when they came to an area of what is now France, they decided to stop and settle down. At this point God finally noticed his grandson complete with angelic bodyguards and sent his emissary to bring him "home". Elua resisted and charmed the angel into returning to God without him. This of course ticked God off, but he was a newer more gentle God, so he decided not to smite Elua on the spot. Instead he sent his second in command to ask Elua to leave. Elua said he would only leave if he had a place just as beautiful to go to...And God created Heaven as we know it today.

The Kings in the France area worshiped this version of Christianity until civilization swept through and burned them all as witches at some point in the dark ages (you can tell that I'm really clear on this).

So now onto my morning musings...

My biggest issue with Christianity and all of the "Christianity with a twist of lime" religions. Is that they've switched from being about faith, to being a way to control the people. In this day and age, most people are smart enough to know that, and are leaving structured religion for something a little more personalized. (A dash of astrology here, a dab of Christian ethics there, zen for the morning, paganism in the evening and Wa-la! Make it up yourself and you don't have to make time to worry about whether you're going to hell or not).

The Norse religion (Odin and friends) is dead for the most part. But because it had such a colorful mythos it will still be remembered. As long as someone can remember the personalities, it can be resurrected at some point. The Christian religion has been systematically killing off it's mythos for centuries. When it's gone, who wants to remember it? If the church were to switch it's emphasis away from good vs evil, and back to conflict vs peace (a topic for another day) and reintroduce some of it's more colorful characters into it's cannon. It might stand a better chance of recruiting people from my generation, myself included.

On that note...Any Christian who is reading this...Please don't take that last sentence as an invitation. The only people that annoy me more then Amway salespeople are "Born-agains".

~~~Join me tomorrow when I discuss the benefits of burning green or white candles at your Ostara ceremony~~

*smirk*

Ducks

We just had a great afternoon...Liam, Grandma, Teresa and I all walked down to Royal Roads and took a tour of the gardens. I fed the ducks and geese, and Liam chased them away. It was great fun. Mom told me about how she had been channel surfing the other night and snagged on a shot filmed in the Italian gardens. Turned out it was a B-grade vampire flick shot entirely in Vic. She never caught the title though. So, out of curiosity I went and asked the museum curator if they had a list of projects that had been filmed there. I think I stumped him. Here he was sitting surrounded by artifacts of three incarnations of the castle and grounds : Family estate, Military college and University...Yet he had absolutely nothing on it's film history.

SO........Any of you experts out there know where I should start? I have the name of the woman in charge of the film aspect of Royal Roads. But the curator seemed doubtful that she would have a record of everything ever done there let alone before 1997 (when I think the university took over the grounds). It might be a good personal quest to compile such a record myself. I think that it would be an important item to add to the museum there :)

Oh! I forgot to say...Thank you Adrian for hooking me up with the feedback form. Now if people wish to leave me feedback they can do so :)

Curves

Today is Friday, which means Grandma Dorthy has the afternoon off. Which also means that I get a lot of stuff done that was impossible during the week because of the kids being a handful. She usually comes out on Fridays and takes one or both of them off of my hands. Today I plan on signing up at Curves. For those of you who don't know what that is...it's a women's only fitness club that has been popping up all over the place. I was talking with Evie about it the other night, and she sold me on it.

Summer is comming on quick here, it's a benefit to living where I do. And this year I'd actually like to wear skirts and maybe a bikini again. I have a lot of work to do to get there. I'm not saying that I think I'm very overweight, but when I walk into any mall, the stores here say differently.

It really surprises me that the fashion industry is still this ignorant. Even with the looming "obesity epidemic" in North America they continue to create fashions that are only availible to a small portion of the body types out there. How did we go from THIS to THIS in such a short period of time? When I walk into a store and look for cloths in my size (the same size as popular propagana claims Marilyn was) I find that they are usually sold out. I asked one sales woman what the deal was, and she shugged. Extra large and sizes 16 to 18 are always the first to sell out. Most stores don't carry anything over a size 18, and some don't even carry that. Where do obese (and not so obese) people buy thier cloths?

So anyways I feel like THIS most of the time when I leave the house. So something needs to be done about my self-image. I guess we'll see if this Curves thing works out when summer flies around the corner

What gives?

I love my husband!

Just spoke with him on the phone. Had one of our typical conversations about roleplaying, and he signed off in the end of the conversation "See you in a half hour". It took me a second...he's not off work for another 5 hours, what gives? He explained that he wasn't feeling well this morning (we were up late drinking with Stacy and Evie) and had since then been looking at what a beautiful day it is. He wants to come home and spend time with me and the kids. A mental health day he calls it.

To put this a little more in perspective, for those of you just tuning in...Dan has a granite work ethic. I've known him for 5 years, been married for 2 1/2 years. That whole time he has only called in sick twice. And one of those times was because I was sick. He'll go to work sick and visit the bathroom between appointments or just suffer, before he'll stay in bed.

So once again I have to say "what gives?" this is so unlike him, but such a treat!

Ola! Here is my first post...I guess the only way to get started is to tell a little about myself.

Things about myself in order of priority :)

1) I'm a young mother of two darling children: Liam the toddler and Teresa the infant
2) Married almost three years to Dan
3) Canadian

Why I wanted to start a blog? I began a paper route last November, about a month after Teresa was born. My thinking was that I would be forced to haul my still looking pregnant b*tt out of bed and exercise it off. Not to mention a small amount of income for which I could do with what I will. As a side effect of getting up and walking at 5 am every morning, the rants I form in my head on various topics, rather amuse/scare/make me angry at times. Thus the vent page.