It’s Friday night, which means copious amounts of DOOM II and mo’fuckin’ HeroQuest.

It’s like I’m back in my teenage years again, except now I’m happier and better looking. It’s…pretty cool.

Sitting at San Diego International, and gorging myself on a chicken and pesto sandwich. The plane for Dayton, by way of Charlotte, will be boarding shortly.

Gonna miss Sarah and the gorgeous weather here, and the views like the above.

I’ll have another update with lots o’ pictures up in the next few days.

When I was in San Diego last spring visiting Sarah, one of the nerdy things we did was visit the apartment complex where Veronica Mars “lived.”

As it turns out, the apartment complex is actually a motel called the Inn at Sunset Cliffs. It looks nice, if a little shabby in that “seen better days” kind of way. I for one would stay there. The filmmakers used it as the exterior location for her apartment when the show originally ran.

I am curious if they’ll be able to film there when the recently Kickstarted (or is it Kickstartered?) movie goes into production. I hope so. It wouldn’t be quite the same if they don’t.

In one day’s time I will be in San Diego again, this time with Kristin, visiting Sarah. I’m excited to see her. It’s been nearly seven months since I last saw her. Far too long.

Also, not being at work for a week? That’s gonna be pretty groovy, too.

Saw this on Wil Wheaton’s Tumblr, and it made me both laugh and almost feel bad for a Creeper. A thing which, after having played Minecraft enough, I would have thought impossible.

And then this comment on Reddit made it even better:

Is that a baby creeper? It’s really short compared to the guy. And considering that it is all in one piece, I assume it hasn’t actually blown itself up and destroyed anything yet.

So the way I see it, this racist dick just walked up to a little kid and destroyed his sand castle, just because someone who has the same color skin as the kid did something mean to him once upon a time. And now this kid is being taught that everybody hates him for the way he looks. There’s nothing he can do to change their minds. He becomes more bitter and hateful as each day goes by.

By the time he’s fully grown the anger has been welling up inside him for so long, that the mere sight of some guy building a house just makes him want to explode.

[source: Just Desserts by Omni87 on deviantART]

Today has been a very good day. I am not yet allowed to publicly talk about certain parts, but suffice to say it’s been a helluva day. And yes, yes, you Ice Cube fans, I didn’t have to use my AK.

And tonight should also prove entertaining as I am seeing the one and only Nightbeast play at Blind Bob’s.

I don’t really go to shows anymore. That sort of thing stopped being my scene a long time ago. I get bored easily listening to music, and most shows are held on weekdays and don’t start ’til late, and I like my sleep. There are few bands that I will make an exception for.

Nightbeast is one of them. The best way that I could describe their style is a mix party rock and rap, the sort of music I would ordinarily not look kindly upon. But their tunes are well-written, hugely catchy, and funny.

Below is a photo I snapped of them sometime last year. If memory serves, it was taken at — sigh — hipster prom at Blind Bob’s.

Yeah, that was hipster prom. You can tell because of the PBR chandelier. I know — classy.

If you’re not doing anything tonight — and even if you are, cancel your plans — you should come out. Nightbeast is, if nothing else, entertaining as shit.

This is one of the more curious pieces of spam I’ve received in a while. It raises some interesting questions: just what endeavors have Jim and our narrator been involved in during the first eleven chapters? Who needs to be dug out? Why are they uneasy? Probably because they’ve reached a point in their lives where they have to remove a person from the ground.

I am downright intrigued, Ms. Huggins. Please send me more chapters. I will be careful.

Went to Columbus on a work-sponsored field trip today, to a rally being held at the Statehouse in support of Medicaid expansion in Ohio.

We caravanned via charter bus to the rally, and dined on sack lunches, which were downright edible. I wanted to make a sign that said, in the Jon Stewart tradition, “I may disagree with you, but you’re probably not Hitler.” Alas, I did not, because I like my job and would really like to continue working there. Instead my battle cry was, “Mister Speaker, tear down that wall! Between Ohioans and healthcare.”

The rally itself was a fun and enthusiastic exercise in free speech. It rained like a son of a bitch at times, but I was shielded by a fancy umbrella and an emergency poncho. The speakers were all passionate, and the stories of the people actually affected by a lack of access to health care were pretty moving.

My employment overlords, of course, had a somewhat vested interest in Medicaid expansion passing and were thus pleased to have us volunteers there. However, despite the encouragement from work, I would’ve been happy to be there to support The Cause. I’ve had enough friends without access to medical care who could have benefited from expanding Medicaid. Shit, I would have loved to have been able to be on Medicaid during my two-year tenure as a gentleman of leisure.

The Columbus Dispatch has a nice write-up of the rally. (Fun fact: the gentleman whose picture accompanies the article was standing directly behind me.)

After the rally, my confederates and I snuck off to acquire coffee and snacks to reinvigorate our soggy selves. Then it was back to the buses.

Honestly, the whole experience took me back to my high school days and the trips the marching band would go on, except this time I gots paid to travel in uncomfortable style, and there wasn’t nearly as much assholery on the bus. Oh, high school.

Thought I might make it through an October without catching the dreaded komodo dragon flu, but no such luck. Thankfully it was a lot milder this go-around than it’s been the past five or six years, so I didn’t feel like I was approaching death for the bulk of the Halloween festivities like I usually am.

Party-wise, Kristin and I attended a party thrown by one of her work-friends last Saturday. We partied on as Wayne Garth and had a very good time. Schwing!

It sounds weird to say about one’s lady, but Kristin made a fantastic Wayne. She had his mannerisms and facial expressions down. I was so proud.

Then on the 31st the overlords at my work also deigned to let us dress up. I was supposed to go as Luke Skywalker to complement some friends, but I was starting to feel like someone had thrown me in a dryer set to tumble at this point, so I opted instead for an old favorite of mine — Clark Kent.

There was also a coloring contest for prizes, and candy was passed around. My work is a lot like being paid to attend Kindergarten again, except with the potential for more people to shout at you over the phone.

Warren Ellis has a new column appearing weekly on VICE magazine’s website. In his most recent piece, “The Death of Fun in Politics,” Ellis has interesting things to say regarding the lack of “authentic monsters” in the world of politics today.

And his thoughts on Lyndon Johnson are particularly entertaining:

It’s kind of awful to contrast [Obama], with, say, Lyndon Johnson, a man so frightening that to this day some people still believe the legend about him skull-fucking John Kennedy’s dead head during the flight back from Dallas. Washingtonians spoke of “The Johnson Treatment”, where they would discover that Johnson knew everything about them and beat their minds into submission with a welter of promises, debts and threats. Johnson blithely destroyed South American democracies, almost started World War III a couple of times, drove civil rights through, became the first President to cause the arrest of Klan members in a century, and threw the ’68 election to Richard Nixon. He was clearly unbalanced and lived to intimidate people. He was interesting. Democrats today just can’t compare.

With K currently in Pensacola with friends, listening to bands and soaking up the vitamin D, I am left up here in Ohio to staycation my way through a long weekend.

This mostly involves me doing bachelor-y things like making my Seekrit Recipe instant mashed potatoes for dinner and watching MAD MAX and SOYLENT GREEN last night. The latter being part of my own personal Charlton Heston-themed sci-fi film fest, which will also include THE PLANET OF THE APES and THE OMEGA MAN. Though now that I think about it, along with MAD MAX, those movies aren’t just sci-fi, they are dystopian sci-fi. Guess I ought to rename it My Awesome Post-Apocalyptic Film Fest.

I won’t lie: it’s kind of great being left to my own devices for a few days. Not saying that I would want a permanent return to bachelorhood, but a few days’ break from one’s counterpart every now and again is bloody marvelous. I have no doubt K feels the same way.

Tonight I’m having a few people over to make pizzas, drink cheap wine, and watch the American version on THE GIRL WITH THE INSUFFERABLY LONG TITLE I mean DRAGON TATTOO. I am a big fan of the original, so the remake not sucking hard would be a pleasant surprise.