So Todd and Wy came back from attending a Food and Beverage convention with Todd's folks in Vegas, and delivered into our grateful hands all sorts of fun schwag from their forays - thanks, guys! One of our favorite items is a shot glass that has an electronic LED die (as in dice that you roll) at the bottom - you "roll" it by tapping the bottom of the glass on the table, and it beeps and flashes and stops on a number.
Wee and I decided that we must come up with a drinking game to utilize this handy accessory to its maximum extent. The game we devised is brutally simple - but then, so are most drinking games, so we think that's appropriate enough. Since we know that most people don't have a super-cool dice glass like ours, we've adapted it for play with regular dice, and even have two versions - one using five dice, and one using one die with cards (useful if you don't happen to have 5 dice floating around the house).
Thus, I present to you the beta versions of our new game, which for the moment we've named, in honor of the nature of the item that inspired us, "Schwag".
Schwag – Dice Version
Requirements:
• 5 dice and a shot glass (or preferably, 4 dice and a shot glass with its own electronic LED die in the bottom).
How to play:
Shot glass is filled with alcoholic beverage of choice.
First player rolls one die (or taps the shot glass to make it roll), and sets it aside. Player then rolls other four dice, and looks for numbers matching the first die thrown.
If none of the dice match the first die thrown, the player drinks.
If one die of four matches the first die, no one takes a drink and it's the next player's turn;
If two dice of four match the first die, the player gets to make another player drink;
If three dice of four match the first die, the player gets to either make another player take two drinks, or if playing with more than one other player, can make two players take one drink apiece;
If all four dice match the first die, it's a "social", and every player drinks.
Schwag – Card Version
Requirements:
• A shot glass and a die (or preferably a shot glass with its own electronic LED die in the bottom).
• A deck of cards
How to play:
Separate the ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 cards from the deck; these are the only cards that will be used to play. (Optional: add one or two jokers or jacks to the pile, making them "wild cards")
Each player is dealt 4 cards, which only they should look at. (If playing with more than 4 players, cards from two decks should be used). The balance of cards are set in the middle as the "draw" deck, from which players will replace their cards after they play them so that they always have four total in their hand.
Shot glass is filled with alcoholic beverage of choice.
Player rolls the single die or taps the glass to roll; player then reviews their cards to see if they have any that match the number shown on the die. If they do, they show the cards to the other player(s), then place them face-down under the bottom of the draw deck.
If the player has no cards that match the die, the player drinks.
If one card of four matches the die, no one takes a drink and it's the next player's turn;
If two cards of four match the die, the player gets to make another player drink;
If three cards of four match the die, the player gets to either make another player take two drinks, or if playing with more than one other player, can make two players take one drink apiece;
If all four cards match the die, it's a "social; every player drinks.
Repeat until drunk or bored, whichever comes first.
In other news, Suzi and Pete came down and we had a great visit with them. We went Geocaching down in Rose Canyon on Saturday - Suzi and Pete released their first "Travel Bug" in a cache down there. It was a gorgeous weekend to be outdoors, and we were glad S&P were here to enjoy it now, rather than if they'd come a couple weeks earlier when it was rainy and gray. Weather like this makes us incapable of successfully bitching to people about anything that makes living in San Diego hard...
Wil Wheaton has offered up another good link, this time to a CNN article about Ass't Sec. of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and the modern version of manifest destiny - now termed "Neoconservatism" - that he's brought to the forefront in the current administration.
Just now, in thinking about how the impact of our aggression toward Iraq is going to play out in years to come, I found myself unconsciously humming the CCR tune "Bad Moon Rising"... I went and read the lyrics, and got kind of a chill up my spine. I do think we're in for nasty weather. All of a sudden I don't want to live in San Diego - I want to live in Oregon, or Colorado... someplace where I won't feel like I'm walking around with a big target on my head.
Once upon a time, I earned a bachelor's degree in Political Science, with emphasis on International Relations and Military Affairs. I used to think I'd become a diplomat someday, before I realized I lacked the ambition and intellectual stamina to make it happen and let life take me elsewhere. So please bear with me as I dust off my foreign policy opinion cap and take a stab at being a pundit - albeit a very rusty, off-the-cuff one - for a few minutes...
Starting more or less where I left off on the last entry... Some would claim that trade sanctions are the sole cause for of the degree of suffering that's been endured by the Iraqi people in the years following the Gulf War. Certainly, the embargo has affected the average Iraqi's economic state and thus their ability to care for themselves and their children. However, the whole reason for the Oil For Food program has been to enable Iraq to sell oil for food and medicine. Their gov't could have brought Iraq out from under the sanctions years ago had they simply decided to change course and focus on building national strength through economic power instead of military might. Instead, though, Saddam has continued on his megalomaniac quest for firepower, and has robbed from the Oil for Food program, as well as made extensive deals under the table not to help his people but to underwrite his own Lifestyle of the Rich and Psychotic. His destructive ambition and his failure to comply with UN resolutions is the reason Iraq has continued to suffer despite global efforts to help its citizenry.
Speaking of aggression, however, a related question begs itself: Did the U.S. and its allies had any right to preemptively invade a sovereign nation without a U.N mandate? I have to say that we did not, although certainly our motivation in doing so differed from that of Saddam. No, I don't believe that we are only in it for the oil - sure, Iraq's resources put it on the map for us, but I don't see this as a Quest for Crude, and anyone who insists so is being overly simplistic and reactionary. Anyway... given the reality that we have invaded, I choose to believe that there is some potential for long-term good that may come out of it if the best-case scenarios do pan out. Big if, though... It's regrettable that we proceeded without the authorization of the UN. Yet I can't totally agree with those who would laud the dissenting members of the Security Council as being pure advocates for peace and the rule of international law. For all the finger-pointing about the US/Britain serving its own economic ambitions, what are France, Germany and Russia doing but the exact same thing? These particular governments didn't take this strong a stand against the U.S. and Britain just out of pacifist political philosophy and the concern for the Iraqi populace. Despite their protestations to the contrary, ample evidence has emerged they they all either trade with Iraq directly or else knowingly harbor companies that hold Iraqi oil money in their coffers, and they know that the true extent of this involvement is likely to be disclosed once the U.S. gains access to Iraqi records. These nations have been willing to turn a blind eye to the evil actions and intent of the Iraqi regime just as long as business is good and they're not the ones being targeted. Blood for oil, indeed.
The UN needs more proof of the violations, it says. But given that the very nature of the business of building a covert WMD program is, well, being covert about it, can we really afford to stand by and wait, UN inspectors playing Keystone cops while the evidence is shuffled around behind their backs and under their feet, until the black market of WMD within and pouring out of Iraq is so huge that no one can possibly refute its existence - at which point it would probably also be too late to close the Pandora's box of supply to extremists who would gladly use those weapons against our populace?
At any rate, whether it was the right or wrong decision to invade, the deal is done and now that we're committed we have to fight our society's collective sense of ADD when it comes to any controversy that just drags on a little too long to be entertaining anymore. We must support our forces in following through and finishing what they started no matter how long or ugly the fight becomes - because we've seen what happened when we failed to do in the '91 Gulf War and in smaller scale conflicts such as Somalia.
Victory will still be bittersweet at best; the only redemption we can hope for when all is done is that we end up finding sufficient evidence of WMD development in Iraq to help us at least partially justify the hideous rifts in foreign relations caused by our actions over the past few months - the fallout from which could end up being much scarier than any threat that Iraq alone could pose if we don't work hard to fix the damage we've done. I confess that the practical risk of that domino effect nagged at me much more when the push to war began than the more purist argument about Iraqi sovereignty I mentioned above. Fact is, we've done poked the beehive now - never mind that the bees stung us first.
However, despite my trepidation and personal conflict over whether or not there was a better course to take in all this, I guess enough Pollyanna exists in me so that I can still harbor a small hope that, in the end, we can actually help the Iraqi people more than we've hurt them, and assist them in recovering from decades of suffering at the nonexistent mercy of the monster who calls himself their leader. Humanitarianism toward the Iraqi people may not be our primary motivator in this war, but I believe that it does matter to us and we will make a good-faith effort to help them in a more comprehensive way than their own leader has cared to do. Maybe if we are successful at doing so, the frenzy of anger and resentment we've created in the Muslim world will subside and the world can get back to the business of making itself a better, safer place for everyone's children. Could happen...
It seems weird to do an Oscar review right now, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway.
Sadly, I confess to having missed parts of the show by accident. My first mistake was assuming in error that I'd set the TiVo to record the show; we were out shopping when it started so I missed the first half-hour. Once I got home I set it to record, then went out to plant some flowers; I wanted it to store up for a while so I could zip through commercials when I watched it later. Setting it to actively record the show instead of just relying on the half-hour's worth of "live TV" buffer meant that I wouldn't miss anything if I was away for more than 30 minutes. The plan seemed to be working fine... About 20 minutes from the end of the "live" broadcast, however, the TiVo interrupted to ask if it could switch over to start recording another show, and when I said, "No, I want to keep watching this channel", it complied – but instead of going back to recording the Oscars, it switched over to live TV mode. I didn't notice because I was still midway through watching the recorded portion. The recording thus stopped halfway through the "past winners" presentation; it took me a few minutes to wrap my brain around what happened and realize that I had missed recording some of the show. I thought I could still catch the end via the live-TV buffer; however, because I had paused so much while watching the recorded version, the original show had ended more than a half-hour earlier, so the buffer only held post-show war news. Oh well. Nothing like a war to put little hassles like lost TV programs in perspective, right?
So anyway… here in a nutshell were some of my observations about the portion of the year's awards that I did manage to catch:
- Noticed that many women really muted their look – lots of black dresses and low-key designs, and carefully understated hairdos. How does one dress up in such down times?
- Catherine Zeta-Jones may be a smug prima-donna… but you have to hand her some credit for being an intrepid entertainer as well; props must be given for her performance of a duet with eight months' worth of baby shoving up against her diaphragm and teamed with a professional songstress, who apparently stepped in when Renee Zellweger decided SHE couldn't stomach the task, poor fragile waif…CZJ is a force of nature in comparison to her pallid costar, so she may as well work that good Welsh robustness for all it's worth.
- Adrien Brody won Best Actor – who saw that one coming? Halle Berry sure didn't know what she had coming with that outrageous kiss he stole from her – their impromptu stranger's embrace made the love-me-long-time smooch Al Gore gave Tipper at the Democratic Convention seem downright patrician in comparison. I'm dying to know what her husband thought of the whole thing (as if he could possibly take a moral stand on the issue, alleged Prince of Philandering that he is). I thought it was sweet and funny, albeit pretty damned presumptuous. He proceeded to give a brilliant off-the-cuff speech – nicely worded acknowledgment of the weirdness of accepting such an award at such a time, and a much classier reference to the war than that of the ever-pugnacious Michael Moore. If the win didn't increase his career cache, his energetic acceptance of it certainly did.
- Ah, Michael Moore – as soon as they announced his name as the winner of the Documentary Award, I scooted forward in my seat and thought, "Well, this should be good…" Sure enough, he didn't disappoint. Bringing up the other nominees was an interesting touch – wonder if they all agreed to do that no matter who won? The crowd reaction to what he said was equally noteworthy – I don't think I've ever heard booing like that during an awards show. I wanted to see more shots of people who were doing the booing; instead we got a lingering shot of the jury-like row inhabited by the likes of Nicole Kidman, Denzel Washington, and Ed Harris – all of them sitting still with tight inscrutable little smiles (OK, except Amy Madigan, who was cackling but just seems like a spaz in general).
- Barbra Streisand got her dig in too, albeit a much subtler one about free speech applying to artists as much as to anyone. Fair enough; why shouldn't they, as concerned citizens, make use of their high profile to express their opinions, as long as they're making clear the fact that they are speaking for themselves and not for America at large? Doesn't mean anyone's obligated to listen to them or agree with them.
- I'm glad Chris Cooper got Best Supporting Actor. It's great to see recognition go to someone who's worked hard for years and finally achieved professional acclaim based on their talent rather than their genetic endowments, and has also managed to preserve a good life with his family. He seems like a good and humble guy, dedicated to his work, and I'm just happy for his success.
- Brendan Fraser was far less creepy during his presentation than he was at the Golden Globes. Glad to see it.
That sums up the Tess take on Oscars 2003. Back to life, back to reality…
Earlier in the day we got some badly-needed yard clearing done on the east side of the front yard after our neighbors cut down the nasty half-dead tree that overshadowed the hill; they also cut down all of the bamboo on our side without asking, but we actually didn't mind so we didn't say anything. That side of the house is much brighter and neater now – it was pretty messy and ugly beforehand, so we're really glad to have it cleaned up. We also talked to them about finally getting estimates to have our shared fence replaced, which has been on our to-do list since the day we got the house. Hate to say it, but between that, the leaky roof, and the patchy stucco on the house, it may be time for another equity loan…
Can't muster up much commentary for the war at this point, other than to say that I hope our POW's make it out OK in the end. It's sad to be reminded that the faces of warriors are sometimes also those of scared-looking kids. Sad also to see images of Iraqi children hurt or killed by our bombs. Then again, will fewer children die in the long run if Saddam is no longer able to use their nations' wealth to build palaces and weapons instead of putting food in their starving mouths? So many shades of gray in this situation...
Wil Wheaton's site mentioned a link to a site that provides books for service personnel serving overseas. I think this is a great idea, and I plan to go through my bookshelf this weekend to see what I could send.
I'm glad to note that it's actually somewhat unlikely that my brother will be going to Iraq - he was told after his last hitch in Afghanistan that that was the last deployment he'd have to make, and that his work would keep him stateside from now until his retirement in a couple of years. This was well before war commenced, of course, but I'm hoping it holds true, especially since he's in charge of his shop now and needs to be available for meetings with suppliers, etc. I'm so selfishly glad that he's not there, especially when I hear of things like helicopter crashes taking out some of our guys before they even see combat. T. can take care of himself in battle (name an international trouble spot over the past dozen years and chances are he's made a guest appearance there); but what can a guy do when his Blackhawk takes a header?
Anyway, I'm still hoping hard for the families of those who were deployed that future losses are few, and that we come to find out that, all taped messages of defiance to the contrary, Saddam and/or his psychotic demon-spawned sons were actually blown into kibbles and bits by that first round of missiles on Wednesday (Assassination? Nope - not when there's a war and he's the Supreme Commander of the Iraqi forces... Should've kept wearing that nice Western business suit instead of switching back to the uniform and jaunty beret, eh Saddam, old bean?).
I was not in favor of this war, but now that it's underway, I can't help but hope that a way will be found to assist Iraq into becoming a nation of progress and peace instead of oppression and war. We've really stirred up a hornet's nest over there, not only in Iraq but in the rest of the world, both Muslim and non-Muslim. I think the way the Bush administration handled the Iraq situation was a diplomatic debacle. The only thing that's brought me close to believing that what we're doing could be the best option is actually the display of conviction evinced not by our own president but rather by Tony Blair. Blair is one of the most intelligent and genuine leaders we've seen in our generation, a true servant of the people he represents; so if he's in, then I have to try to see what he sees. This guy's putting his whole career as one of Britain's most popular Prime Ministers on the table to support this effort, not to mention the UK's relations with its EU partners; I believe that he's truly convinced that this effort is, albeit not an ideal solution, still the best choice among a host of bad alternatives for how to deal with the danger of advanced weaponry falling into the hands of third-world tyrants, whose religion may make them regard mutally-assured destruction not so much as a deterrent but as a quicker path to Heaven. What good is deterrence to an enemy convinced that their afterlife will be a nice permanent vacation from their nasty brutish little lives on Earth?
At any rate, I guess I've come to terms with the fact that, for better or worse, we're committed now. The history buff in me is, I admit, fascinated at the balls-out boldness of this action and the fact that we are living smack dab in the midst of events that will change the course of international relations for years to come. To paraphrase the Chinese proverb, we are indeed living in interesting times.
This is the funniest thing I've seen in a while. Thank God the Dept. of Homeland Security is there to continually provide us with clear, unambiguous communications about personal safety in these dangerous times! Or, at very least, an easy target for gallows humor...
So it looks like my brother's friend Dubya is sending him to war. T. is a veteran of Gulf War I; lucky him, to land a part in the sequel... (working title: "Gulf War 2: Electric Boogaloo").
As for me, I buy parts that go into microwave communications assemblies that go into missiles and jets that will soon go to Baghdad and bring on the funk, as well as satellites that will be watching it all happen. Guess we're both assured of job security for the forseeable future... Like it or not.
All the protests in the world - literally - are not going to stop this thing from happening now (if, indeed, they ever could have). My hopes are centered, at this point, on the following: a short duration of the conflict, surprising levels of support from Iraqis who are ready for a regime change and a normalization of relations with the outside world, a solution that will get both Saddam and Allied troops out of Iraq as soon as possible, and sufficient diplomacy to calm the tidal waves of political discord that we're stirring up and prevent this conflict from escalating into World War III and the U.S. from turning into a police state in the name of keeping us secure from terror. And most of all, selfishly, I hope no one I love gets hurt.
Reckon that's all I have to say about that, for now.
So, when is a French fry not a French fry? Why, when the , that’s when!
Jesus wept… "Freedom fries"? "Freedom toast"? Now, far be it from me to defend anything Frog, but honestly... this penchant the Republicans have of coming up with shamelessly hokey monikers for things (“Homeland Security Department”, fer crying out loud? Sounds like Mr. Rogers (rest his soul) was given the job of naming new Cabinet posts...) is reminding me unnervingly of Orwell's "Newspeak". Will we all be drinking "Victory Roast" coffee instead of French roast soon? Will the act of employing a little tongue action in your smooching soon be termed “Patriot Kissing”? Double-plus-ungood, I say!
I’m fucking embarrassed to be an American under this administration. Give me a philandering smart-ass President any day over this jumping jimmy jingo crapfest.
So I have been victim to my first flat-out scam deal in my career as a buyer...
Three weeks ago I placed an order for a digital camera from a company called "BridgeViewPhoto.com". The site seemed just as authentic and professional as any other e-commerce business I've done business with; they even called El Jefe (whose name's on the card) to confirm the order (although they also tried to give him a big spiel about upgrades/accessories, which he rather bluntly deflected), and that was it.
My end user let me know today that he hadn't gotten the camera yet; when I tried to call their 800 number, I got a busy signal, and when I tried to check order status on their website, I found... well, you can go see for yourself.
Basically, they redirected their site to the site of someone who has no connection with them whatsoever - the guy was nice enough to explain the deal and list the info he was able to glean about these assholes. It seems as if they've been running this same scam under various ecommerce fronts for several years. Why they haven't been nailed by the FBI is beyond me... unless it's because the Feds are so up to their ears in anti-terrorist stuff that they just haven't been able to get around to it?
I feel like an idiot now - I really should have done more research on these asswipes before I placed my order. The weird thing is, though, that they had a pretty good rating from PriceSCAN.com, and some people did appear to get their orders filled OK, at least within the timeframe in which I placed my order... unless the scammers went to a LOT of trouble to create false "happy customer" logs. Considering all the trouble they went to in creating an authentic ecommerce store-front, it wouldn't surprise me.
Anyway, I'm sure that our credit card provider will compensate our account for the order without too much grief, and obviously I'll report them to the Better Business Bureau, FBI, whoever... but I'm still very pissed at having been duped. I want these people to suffer. Anyone know anyone in Brooklyn who has a hard, pipe-hittin' cousin I could hire to see if these folks live at the address that was found for them?
Throwing together an entry just to confirm that I haven't been incarcerated, or dragged off into the bush by dingoes, or spontaneously combusted. Just FYI.
So HBO's Six Feet Under is finally back for a new season - right on, right on! The first episode was kind of weird, though. Nate's being the opening-scene stiff was odd, but not totally shocking. I can actually wrap my mind around his coming-back-from-death-and-marrying-the-mother-of-his-child thing... But what's with the phantom visions of him having a kid with Brenda? I'm sure all will become relatively clear soon, but it was a strange way to start the season, for sure.
Visting the accountant tomorrow - should be interesting to see if we get anything back this year. Last year we withheld too much and ended up getting a lot back, so we adjusted our withholdings so that we weren't giving the government as much of an interest-free loan this year - I just hope we didn't overcompensate and end up owing. Guess we'll see... It would be so nice to get enough back to fix our perilously sagging back fence, at least. Pretty soon it's just going to be a pile of rotted planks on our hill. Getting the house's stucco repaired and painted is quickly becoming a priority as well. Not to mention fixing the leak in the roof, and finding out why the fridge has suddenly decided to start leaking water... Bah. Maybe I SHOULD start playing the damned lottery...
What else to comment on? Man, I'm drawing a blank. Is my life really this boring? Rhetorical question, mind you. =) I'm actually really happy with having no trips coming up, no major social activities on the weekends, just time to relax, sort things out around the house, catch up on reading, etc.
Well, yeah. There it is. Hopefully inspiration will hit me like it means it pretty soon, and I'll actually have something semi-interesting to post...
