Category: General

I was amazed, mystified, astounded, dumbfounded, and stupefied by the calibre of fantastic swag donated and be-gifted upon me this birthday goodness. It includes, in the order that I remember/am looking at it – some black plastic vhs cases (yeah!), some superiffic ultra-classy “royal blue with gold” six-sided dice, some Tank Girl comics, gaming minis (pirates and brigands), tons of KICKASS camping gear that I am so fucking stoked about that I absolutely have to use words like “fucking” and “stoked,” the Wheatus CD that I’ve been longing for, stickers, and the whole caboodle was lovingly catered by Anghold & Yvonne. The chip dip was so popular that I wasn’t quick enough for anything but the scrapings once everyone was gone (but I found some leftover celery, mushrooms and veggie dip so that made up for it and then some). We’ve got tons of chips leftover so if you’re feeling a mite peckish feel free to stop by for some junk food. I’ll be having pakoras, tabouleh, and pita w/ houmous for breakfast tomorrow!

My brother called – I had forgotten to invite him to the party because…well let me put it this way – no email = no invite. Actually I could have sent him a text message through his phone, but I forgot. But he’s coming into town next week to magnanimously drop off a birthday present. My mom also sent me fiddy bucks in the mail – thanks mum!

Everyone seemed to have a good time – James especially. I don’t know if he had had too much to drink or not enough but he was certainly more “on” than usual. And that’s pretty on! It was pretty loud and boisterous, especially when the little cat pins and faux-fur covered water bottles came up to the block. My old pal Tom from the island came over this morning to drop off two amazing Star Wars posters – he said they were the only ones his older brother saved for him, the others included Ghostbusters. It got thrown in the trash. Sorry to break your heart there, Stewie. Attendees made off with some super good deals – tons of H.P. Lovecraft & other Cthulhoid books for pennies a glass, and a swanky brand new suitcase, a vertical grill, amongst other cool and fantastic items. What did you get?

Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn’t you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name,
and they’re always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows Your name.
You wanna go where people know, people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.

Chris Woods and I stormed The Normandy* this morning where I had a reprise of my dinner at Denny’s the night before. It was an interesting experience with, as Chris put it, the tiny David Lynchian Chinese maitre d’**, and a waitress who was clearly somebody’s crazy aunt. She was quite astounded that Chris is from Chilliwack. I think I’ll make it my slacklustre mission to try to find the cheapest place to get a breakfast in town. Of course – if you already know then please tell me and my mission will be at long last completed, leaving only the paperwork to do. Key factor will be hash browns. The browned hash at the Normandy was not as good as the home fries from Denny’s, but they were still better than the hash browns at Denny’s. Does that make sense? Let’s have a look…

Shredded hash browns. The worst. Usually undercooked at that.

Hash brown patties. Typically shredded hash browns in a patty form. McDonald’s style.

Tater tots. AKA Mexi-fries if you’re at TacoTime (pronounced teh KAW’ tih MAY). Kin to the patty. Usually restaurants don’t have the audacity to pass these off as hash browns. Usually.

Sliced hash browns. Like the shredded, these are usually underdone. Oh, they’re cooked (sometimes), but their not browned. Sometimes the edges are browned but usually the flats of the brown are soft and white. And then you don’t have hash browns, you have hash whites.

Tiny diced hashbrowns. These are the kind you get at the grocery store. They’re also the kind they serve at de Dutch Pannekoek House. Which is in itself shameful but the worst part is I know people who work there so I can’t hurl my plate across the restaurant in a huff, screaming Dutch expletives.

Home fries/Country fried potatoes. I don’t know how size makes the difference, because if you just triple the size of the tiny diced hash browns, you’ve got the winner. Cut them any way you please – as long as they’re chunky!

* on Granville and 11th, across from the theater (not to be confused with the cinema).

** Maitre d’ is short for ma�tre d’h�tel which literally translates to HOTEL MASTER.

Monkey’s Eyebrow AZ, Kill Devil Hills NC, Gaysport Ohio, Happyland OK, Hell MI, Krypton KY, Tingley Iowa, French Lick Indiana, Experiment GA, Yeehaw Junction FL, Intercourse PA, Chocolate Bayou Texas, Honey Island Texas, Humptulips WA, Petting Germany, Titty Ho England, Maggie’s Nipples Wyoming, Climax Springs Missouri.

Places it wouldn’t be fun to live: Boring MD, Boring Oregon, Burning Springs KY, Gun Barrel City Texas, Black Charlie’s Opening Australia, Mount Buggery Australia

Can anyone offer suggestions for my poor mum?

I am having trouble, crashing while trying to download almost anything. I have tried to run my scandisk program to fix errors but it only gets up to 10 per cent and quits, it says something is running behind the program and cutting it off. Could it be my Symantec virus protection program? should I disable it and run the scandisk? I am afraid to disable it because I might not enable it again. Help, ask your techie friends could you please. My memory is only half full so I don’t know what the problem is, and it shouldn’t be any virus because I have full symantec’s virus protection. it started when I first came back and re-connected with my server in April,- it especially doesn’t like Pdf files and any picts I try to look at. I did put in Kodak Shareware but that is all. I have avail physical memory 288.00KB and avail virtual memory 1.83 GB. I have Microsoft Windows 4.90.3000 Toshiba Satellite 1730/1750 x86-based PC.
Thanks, Mom

Tonight I went to the gallery with the two Chris’ for a showing of Billboard and a talk with Chris & slides. It was very good and I learned a few new things about Chris’ paintings. After that we went to Denny’s. I looked through the menu for several minutes and everything that was decent was over 8 bucks – and considering I’d filled up on crackers, cheese & grapes at the art gallery I just wasn’t prepared to go that far. So I asked for 2 eggs over-medium with 2 pieces of sourdough toast and those cubed potatoes known to some as home fries but known to Denny’s as country-fried potatoes. That was exactly what I wanted. And to my surprise and delight, that is exactly what I got, and it on the bill it appeared as a “2 egg breakfast” for $4.99. I expected guff from the waitress, I expected something would go wrong with the order, I expected it would be $10 or more because it was a custom deal. I didn’t get what I expected. Beautiful. Even better since Chris picked up the tab.

I got James a copy of “Careers” – a classic 70’s boardgame that I played when I was a kid. I especially remember the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. That’s cool and I want to play it. My destiny is in James’ hands. In other exciting board game news I have a copy of Senet that Stewie put on the auction table. I was playing Senet online for a while and went to the trouble of asking Darcy at Drexoll’s if they stock it and how much. It was too expensive for me to justify, as much as I’d love to cough up a few dozen bills to support Drexoll’s, but now I have a copy. Only trouble is it’s only a two player game.

Senet – a board game from ancient Egypt
Board games were very common in ancient Egypt and people from all levels of society played them. Many game boards from ancient Egypt have been found by archaeologists. However, the rules explaining how to play these games have not survived. By studying game boards and other evidence, experts have made some educated guesses about how these games were played.

To: thickets@uniserve.com
Subject: Screenphoto of Charlie Collins’ wife from the BTAS episode “JOKER’S FAVOR”
Dear Thickets,
Can you send me a close-up screenphoto of “Charlie Collins'” Wife waving at her husband outside from the “BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES” episode “JOKER’S FAVOR” to anwarbw@netzero.net, please?
From,
Anwar Washington

This is an interesting article on how long power would last if there was a zombie apocalypse. It occured to me as I was reading that a power plant would be a pretty good place for us all to meet in a zompocalypse. If we kept the station running (using our inherent technical know-how) Now, all we (you and I) have to do is find out where the hydro plant is and the best route to get there. And bring some Ho-Hos on the way.
(thanks to mbeck for the link)

This morning I had a dream that the robots we had built to serve us were rebelling. First it was just one so I started yelling to people about it, but then the other robots came to kill me. Luckily I had x-ray vision and super strength so I managed to take them out. Even my best friend robot turned on me after he said he’d help me to escape…pouring some sugar into a mug and telling me in a mean spirited way “Here, have some hot water and go start your plans to save the world” as he pointed to a drawing board.

I usually do a drawing anywhere from 120%-133% of the size it will appear in print. Sometimes even up to 150% or more if it’s a monster. The drawing I did today I did at 100% because I wanted to make sure I got it done on time. I got it done with time to spare – enough time to play some poker with Y, A and Stewie. When we quit I had the most money. And in this case money = beads. Next time we may play for real pennies.

We finished up the second chapter to World Wildlife Federation of Justice tonight. Metalligator (Norm), Invisible Fink (James) and Bushido Dragon (Mike Demers) tracked the stemroid dealer’s goon to the stemroid lab that is run by Fatcat. At the lab they found several other armed goons and also a supervillain – Tarmadillo, which they fought and after much fighting managed to take down. Invisible Fink followed Fatcat and his goons down to their car and kept them from escaping while the cops showed up. The heroes did a good job and the game was a lot of fun. Metalligator spent time ripping doors off of walls and throwing them at bad guys, as well as smashing through walls 2 stories up, Bushido tried to intimidate immoral chemists, and the Fink slid down stairs on his own musky grease. We’ll play again in less than 2 weeks for a brand new adventure, possibly with Jeff, Theo, Kate and/or Miikey joining in. I think Theo’s character is going to be Drako (some kind of fire-breathing duck) and Jeff’s will be Rabbit Punch (martial artist).