My father passed away Saturday morning. He was in the hospital for bypass surgery, which went well. Everything was going great, the hospital was getting ready to discharge him to recover at home... A nurse had just set him up with his laptop and walked out of the room when the machines started going off. They spent over four hours trying to get his heart started again-- every time they'd get it, it would just stop. He passed away at 3 am.
The funeral was held today. There was a huge number of people there, which would come of no surprise if you knew my dad. Even with such short notice, he had friends from all over the country fly in to stand in the snow and pay their respects.
Below is a copy of the eulogy I wrote for him. I know it sounds trite and cliche, but I really can't even begin to imagine how different life is going to be now that he's gone.
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My father and I were two very different people. Where he was the type of person who could strike up a conversation and become friends with anyone, anywhere, I am more quiet and conserved. He loved to travel, but my idea of the perfect vacation is sitting on the couch.
He was always trying to get me to do things with him, to go up to New Hampshire and go boating or skiing, to go on down to Florida with him. To my detriment, I turned him down at almost every opportunity.
I am happy to say that in the last couple of years our relationship had strengthened quite a bit. Only a few months ago, he taught me to drive a stick shift. It sounds silly and small, but looking back I am so happy to have had him share that with me. It's something I'd always wanted to learn, and in particular something I'd always wanted to learn from him.
In good times and in bad, my father was always there for me, always ready to support me in any way he possibly could have.
But the truly amazing thing is that there are so many people out there who could say the exact same thing about him. It is nothing extraordinary for a father to want to provide for his son, but my dad was there for anyone who needed him. He was the kindest and most generous person you'd ever meet, and his death is a tragedy that has been felt by many.
Finally got around to seeing Avatar. Had low expectations, and it was actually really good. I don't know whether it lived up to all the hype, but it was good.
Best part of movie: The main character was covered in these little white jellyfish-like creatures, and then they all flew off him at the same time. I leaned over to my friend and proclaimed, "Reverse cumshot!"
The main character then says, "What was that?"
And his companion shouts, "Come!"
And then she shouts, "Come!" a couple more times. It took effort to hold in all the laughter.
So I posted my landfall deck yesterday, and I've gotten to play a little bit with it. It works well enough and is fun, though it could use some creature removal. Here are some specific things I noticed.
1: I'd feared I didn't have enough basic lands to search for, and I was correct. The very first game I played with it went a bit long and I failed to pop a Zektar Shrine Expedition with two harrows in my hand because I only had basic 2 lands left in my deck!
2: The Goblin Bushwhacker has proved himself to be as solid as I'd expected, and I desperately need to acquire a fourth.
3: Rampaging Baloths is really, really great, but not strictly necessary. Not that I'd remove it, but this deck is very aggressive and tends to win before the Baloths come out. Also worth noting that with a second turn Khalani Heart Expedition/third turn Harrow, you start turn 4 with 6 mana meaning you can play baloths and get a landfall trigger to boot.
4: It occurred to me that I can play Gruul Turf and have it bounce itself, allowing me to make at least one landfall every turn. It sucks when you run out of land (and, it's worth noting, it's awesome when you're hoping to top deck a land!).
5: Windrider eel is nice, but I probably won't take more than the two.
6: I still haven't really gotten a great chance to evaluate the Mold Shamblers' worth in constructed, but the ability to destroy a land even if the opponent doesn't have any other targets is nice, particularly in my local casual metagame which features a lot of the Ravnica bounce lands. Killing those is very nasty, since you set the opponent back two mana.
So with all that said, I'm not going to be making a lot of changes to the deck, aside from the mana base. Gruul Turf and Terramorphic Expanse are going to be the only non-basic lands, which will let me up my basic-land count to 16. I think that should be quite a bit better.
4:37 PM - .:|JYP|:. Soundwave: http://www.fpsbanana.com/skins/72763 4:38 PM - Asmor: meh 4:38 PM - .:|JYP|:. Soundwave: Downloading it because I know it will get taken down 4:39 PM - Asmor: Why would it get taken down? 4:39 PM - .:|JYP|:. Soundwave: FPSBanana admins are becoming Nazi-like 4:39 PM - .:|JYP|:. Soundwave: Anything that might be slightly offensive to anyone gets the boot 4:40 PM - Asmor: Yeah, that is really nazi-ish. Those nazis hated offending anyone. 4:40 PM - .:|JYP|:. Soundwave: jafnajfbasjgs 4:40 PM - .:|JYP|:. Soundwave: I hate you 4:40 PM - Asmor: I hate people who degrade the horrors of nazis by misusing the term hyperbolistically. 4:40 PM - .:|JYP|:. Soundwave: Touche
I don't know why but I absolutely love the transcriptions Google Voice makes for my dad's messages. Here's one example:
Hey Ed, Dad just calling to say hello. Falls, Evan good pricing on the fireworks in, and you would like to lock in the car and then heading back to me after tomorrow afternoon if you wanna have lunch tomorrow. Give me a holler. So I'm going to me and I will talk to you later. Take care and the news on the John 5.
In Google's defense, my dad is really difficult for humans to understand on the phone, never mind automated natural language parsers...
In case you're curious, that was him calling, saying Hi, telling me that Paul was having a party for the fireworks and that Becca and I are welcome to come. The next bit's pretty close. Then it ends with him asking me if there's any news on the job front.
7:18 PM - Asmor: You there? 7:18 PM - AGiganticPanda: no 7:19 PM - AGiganticPanda: :) 7:19 PM - Asmor: Quick question 7:19 PM - Asmor: Has anyone really been far even has decided to use even go want to do look more like 7:19 PM - Asmor: ? 7:19 PM - AGiganticPanda: what? 7:19 PM - Asmor: Has anyone really been far even has decided to use even go want to do look more like? 7:19 PM - AGiganticPanda: read what you just wrote 7:19 PM - Asmor: Yeah? 7:19 PM - AGiganticPanda: are you having a stroke on the internet? 7:20 PM - Asmor: No... I just wanna know if anyone really been far even has decided to use even go want to do look more like 7:20 PM - AGiganticPanda: really been far even has decided to use even go want to do look more like 7:20 PM - Asmor: k, thx
Last week I was at Barnes & Nobles and picked up a moleskine. It's got graph paper, which is a personal favorite of mine... I've been keeping it in my pocket with a bic ballpoint pen, but something as nice as a moleskine demands an equally nice writing implement...
And it just came today. My new Bullet Space Pen. And it is entirely too cool for school. It's tiny and strong, but when you put the cap on the other end it's full-sized so it's comfortable to write with. And it's got a good amount of heft to it, which is also quite nice. And it's got my name engraved in it, too. :)
Total cost was $18.70 + $2.50 for the engraving, free shipping. Got it off eBay.
Also really amusing: It came with a much crappier ballpoint pen, the sort companies buy to put their names on and give away. And this one says, "My other pen was bought from Cyber Space Pens."
We are pleased to inform you that your e-mail address has won the Siemens Draw Promo.Therefore you have been approve for a lump sum payout (750,000.00 GBP) Seven Hundred And Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterlings.
Just had an awesome idea... a Gunstar Heroes-inspired FPS.
You can only hold two weapons at a time, but the weapons can be combined to create a new weapon.
Each weapon would have to be unique, to ensure that all the combinations would be interesting. So I suggest...
Ripper (Unreal Tournament): Fires spinning blades which bounce off walls.
Rocket Launcher: Fires explosive rockets in a straight line which explode on impact.
Flame Thrower: 'Nuff said
Biorifle (Unreal tournament): Fires globs of acidic goo which stick to surfaces and enemies, damaging them.
Now to combine them...
Biorifle/Ripper: Globs of goo which bounce along the floor, seeking out the nearest person.
Biorifle/Rocket Launcher: Proximity bombs which detonate after a set time if not triggered.
Biorifle/Flame Thrower: Sprays napalm which coats enemies, keeping them burning for longer, and coats floors.
Ripper/Rocket Launcher: Fires bouncing rockets which explode when they hit an enemy or on third bounce. Alternatively, rockets explode in a shower of grenades.
Ripper/Flame Thrower: Shoots a bouncing fireball which does significant damage on a direct hit but also sets people near it on fire.
Rocket Launcher/Flame Thrower: As normal rocket launcher, but anyone hit by splash damage is set on fire.
The new packaging for lunchables really threw me for a loop. The very conservative design featuring simple, matter-of-fact illustrations and text made me think when I first saw them that someone had found a crate of lunchables from the '50s and put them out for sale on accident.
It's really quite refreshing to see a brand opt for simplification. I'd like to see more do the same.
So there's a lawn in front of a court house in Eastern Tennessee where people file for permits and put up various statues.
As I'm sure you can imagine, this has caused a bit of a problem among people with varying viewpoints.
The twist here is that that last statement is a bold-faced lie. Everything is entirely reasonable, and it's actually quite interesting and refreshing to see. They allow a variety of displays including a Jesus statue and a FSM statue, and everyone seems to be taking it all with good humor.
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