The Diary of A Simple Man
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Peter Maranci" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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11:21 pm
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Christmas campout
We put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving (it's artificial, so what the hell; Sebastian really wanted to). On Friday night Sebastian and I camped out in the living room, sleeping on the sofas. We left the lights on the tree on all night, of course. It wasn't the most comfortable night for me (he woke up several times, and woke me up), but he really enjoyed it.
Current Mood:  content
Tags: sebastian
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10:09 pm
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Placeholder post
Just a note to remind readers that the vast majority of posts here from now on will be friends-only. If you're not a nut or a stalker and want to be added to my flist, drop me a line or comment here.
Current Mood: fine
Current Music: Rednex - Cotton Eye Joe
Tags: administration, livejournal, lj
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09:29 pm
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Sebastian
Sebastian's been sick for the past few days. He's had a sore throat, an intermittant temperature just under 101, and complains of nausea sometimes. His doctor doesn't think it's swine flu (although nearly half of his school has swine flu now), more likely a cold; but he's had to stay home the past couple of days.
Tonight he asked me to go upstairs early. He'd found Pitter-Pat, the stuffed toy ant that I'd bought for him a while ago; he'd been lost under the bed. He set up Pitter-Pat's bed in a little box, with an old Spider-man mask for a blanket.
Once we got upstairs, he wanted to lie down and rest in his bed. This was EXTREMELY unusual, because it was nearly three hours before his bedtime! We lay down, and after a few minutes I found myself thinking that some music would be nice. I didn't say a word, but he got up. I asked what he was doing, and he said he was going to go turn on the TV in our bedroom and turn it to the New Age channel. I was amazed, because that was just what I'd been thinking of doing!
So we went to the bedroom and turned on the music. We chatted a little; he said how nice it was to relax. And then we both fell asleep.
Fortunately it wasn't hard at all to wake up up just enough to get him back into his own bed a few hours later, when Teri came upstairs. And he fell asleep again almost instantly. What a good boy!
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: happy
Tags: sebastian, sebastian's health
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11:12 pm
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Oklahoma Smith!
Sebastian was the first to sign my cast, of course. It says "DADDY I LOVE YOU" signed "sebastian".
He was asking for scary stories recently, so this weekend I dug out Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery - ghost stories for young teens. Read him the introduction (which bored him), and then read Dunsany's "In a Dim Room", which I'd told him a few times before but never actually read to him. He loved it.
He wanted another story, so I read "Obstinate Uncle Otis" by Robert Arthur. In it, a character gets a bump on the head and gets amnesia; he believes that he's a furniture salesman from Cleveland. Sebastian went berserk. He decided that he had amnesia, and started saying in a silly voice "I'm Oklahoma Smith!". It's become a regular catchphrase of his in the last few days. 
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: amused
Tags: books, humor, sebastian
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11:16 pm
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Cox Confusion
We got a new bill from Cox on Friday. It's about $65 less than the last one. No one has called us or explained this to us. We're really confused. Is someone at Cox just making up our bill every month?
"This month, let's charge them $200. Then next month $135. After that, in order, $179, $209, and then $196.93 to really confuse them. They'll never question their bill again!"
By coincidence (I presume) we also got a mailing the same day from Verizon. They're offering FIOS service in our area - we think. But it's a bit confusing, because their TV is apparently via DirecTV. They didn't quite spell out if it was FIOS or not (that's the implication I get, though), and there are various tiers of service which don't include a price. I don't like it when an offer isn't clear, and I don't care for low introductory prices that are followed by unspecified increases after the introductory period ends.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  tired
Tags: consumer, money, shopping
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09:37 am
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Halloween
...went well. Sebastian dressed up as Darth Vader. Once again he didn't go to that many houses; maybe nine or ten, which is a new (high) record for him. He's just not that crazy about getting candy. Maybe if he had other kids to go with he'd be into it more.
He did a great job at saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you". But he kept yanking his mask off as soon as he turned away from the doors. Apparently it was really hard to see through the eye-holes.
The weather was beautiful - just the right temperature, windy, with clouds scudding across the night sky more swiftly than I've ever seen before. There were a few tiny drops of rain now and again, but nothing to worry about. Sebastian got to give out candy to trick-or-treating kids, too; he really liked doing that, although one small child was scared of him even though he wasn't wearing his mask.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: calm
Tags: holidays, sebastian
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09:30 am
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Update
From this point forward, most of my entries will be friends-only. So if you're not a pyscho or a stalker, and would like to be added to my friends list, drop me a line.
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: fine
Tags: administration, livejournal
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12:06 pm
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Status
Lots to tell about.
My hand still hurts, so I'm taking a regular dose of ibuprofen twice a day. The bruising has faded somewhat.
I still can't put pressure on it in the direction I fell; it hurts too much. I called the urgentcare clinic where I had it x-rayed, and they confirmed that it's not broken. I may call my doctor if it doesn't feel a lot better soon.
( Read more... )
Current Mood: good
Tags: consumer, electronics, health, life, money, music, shopping
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11:49 am
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World of Warcraft: Linkomac
I've been home more than usual for various reasons, and so got to play a little more than usual. I'm handicapped by having to play with only one hand; the pain is decreasing and I can use a finger or two on my left hand to hit the shift key, but I'm not playing anywhere near as well as usual.
Still, I've made progress. The primary beneficiary is Linkomac, the Draenei hunter. He's up to level 19, and now I'm in the process of trying to scrape up enough money to get him a mount and training at level 20. His skinning/leatherworking is going pretty well, but it's hard to make much money selling leather at this level.
I got him to Ironforge a while back to pick up Gun skill, but his crossbow still does more damage. He has a pet; a Nightstalker (?), a panther who is quite useful. Between him and his pet, they can finish off enemies quite quickly, even ones a couple of levels higher than he is.
I have to say that hunters seem to be an extremely effective class! Linkomac has been levelling far more quickly than any of my other characters. I've heard that the Draenei and Blood Elf starting areas are better-designed for levelling than the starting areas for the original races, so maybe that's a contributing factor.
His biggest problem is lack of inventory space. All of his bags are 8-slot, which really sucks. Unfortunately Domac can't make anything better, and none of my characters can afford anything better.
Haven't played the other characters much. Domac's enchanting skill is over 50, and she made some minor wizard's oil for Omacmage; I hadn't realized that it was five doses per batch. I need to level her up more, so she can make bigger bags and better enchantments.
I got Omacmage across the sea to the elf-country again, and did some fishing on the shore. Got some oily blackmouth and some sealed trunks. As I was fishing, a huge Horde expedition raced across the sea in front of me, somehow solidifying the water momentarily as they passed. They must have seen me, but luckily they ignored me. They wiped out everyone on the docks, I believe, but by the time I got there they were gone.
Current Mood: geeky
Tags: crpg, health, wow
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11:45 am
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Fire and the moon
I grilled burgers for dinner last night. That's not easy to do with only one hand, believe me! So Teri and Sebastian helped a lot.
Sebastian spent quite a bit of time out in the back yard with me. It was dark; it's been getting dark early, of course. The moon was just over half-full, hanging over our house near the chimney. I looked at it, and thought of Sebastian's telescope. My father gave it to him a year or two ago, but we hadn't been able to look at anything much with it so far. I wear glasses, you see, which makes it really hard for me to focus the damn thing. It's also really hard to aim it right.
But Sebastian took a look at the moon, and suddenly ran in the house and came out with his telescope. It took some work, but I was able to get it focused on the moon. The view was breathtaking. Sebastian loved it.
The burgers came out great, too. 
Current Mood: happy
Tags: cooking, sebastian
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02:43 pm
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No call
No call from the radiologist. But my hand is black and hurts a lot.
Current Mood: hurt
Current Music: Talking Heads - Road to Nowhere
Tags: health
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01:59 pm
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Separation of Powers
This is an absolutely delightful (political) video:
( Read more... )
Current Mood: amused
Tags: politics, video, youtube
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12:45 pm
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WoW update: ow
It's really hard to play WoW with only one hand.
I'm sticking to safe areas and mostly harvesting. No parties. I've still managed to level some of my lower-level characters, though.
Current Music: Talking Heads - Road to Nowhere
Tags: crpg, wow
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02:15 pm
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Askville: politics
"Is Government the Solution, or Is It the Problem? Or What?"
( warning, politics )
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: hurt
Tags: askville, politics, religion
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05:03 pm
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Break or sprain
I was home today, and took a bad fall while out walking with Teri. I've either broken or sprained my left wrist and/or thumb. On first look the doctor didn't see a break, but the radiologist will look at it tomorrow. He'll call if it's a break.
From the pain, I believe it's a break. For now, it's immobilized, iced, and I'm waiting for Teri to bring back some ibuprofen.
Current Mood: hurt
Tags: health
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01:54 pm
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Askville: Assassination
This topic bothers me, but I have a hard time not replying to this sort of question.
"Do you approve of our government using predator aircraft to strike at terrorist targets?"
Oh hell, I assume that this is political.
( Read more... )
Current Mood:  angry
Tags: askville, politics
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01:51 pm
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Askville: Spelling & Grammar
This question was obviously inspired by the "lovee" question I wrote about a minute ago.
"Is anyone else concerned with how today's youth can't spell and don't know grammar or simple capitalization/punctuation?"
The problem is our educational system and our culture. Television bears a large share of the blame, for sure. So do parents...and, I suspect, the popularity of divorce (although I think that's probably a reflection of the decay of our culture as a whole).
America has been a bastion of anti-intellectualism for many decades now. That's ironic, when you consider that we were founded by intellectuals - brilliant men, all of them.
As far as eduction goes, I suspect that a key element of the problem is school funding. It's profoundly unfair for school funding to be based on local property taxes, as it so often is. It virtually guarantees that the children of the poor will receive inferior educations, and that goes against the whole idea of fairness in America. True, an exceptional teacher or administrator can sometimes provide a great education to students even with very few resources - but that's the exception, not the rule.
Level funding for all schools should be mandatory, and it should NOT be based on the wealth of the specific community. Every American should receive the best education possible.
I have to admit that on World of Warcraft, it bugs me when almost everyone uses textspeak. Even things like saying "grats" instead of "Congratulations!" annoy me. So I make a particular effort to use proper English.
Of course, that sometimes means that I stand there and let my companions get killed while I'm typing...no, I'm kidding, I wait for the right moment and I type pretty fast.
Current Mood: amused
Tags: askville, humor, wow
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01:46 pm
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Askville: "why doesz lovee huuurt?"
Someone asked "why doesz lovee huuurt?". Oh, hell, I'm going to post their entire question because the spelling is so insane:
( Read more... )
Current Mood: amused
Tags: advice, askville, humor
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01:37 pm
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Askville: Re-reading
Someone asked "What is the last book you RE-read?"
I re-read all the time. I'm currently reading The Fellowship of the Ring out loud to my son. It's around the 40th time I've read it, but it's the first time I've read it aloud.
I re-read The Lord of the Rings more than any other book, perhaps twice a year. Every time I get something new out of it. I consider myself very lucky in that I can re-read my favorites and enjoy them just as much as the first time, if not more!
Others that I re-read often include Kim by Rudyard Kipling, Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, I, Claudius by Robert Graves, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, and Shogun by James Clavell. Among many, many others. I re-read them every six to twelve months. I generally save Shogun for long trips, because it's so huge.
The most recent non-favorites I've re-read were The Still Small Voice of Trumpets by Lloyd Biggle, Jr., and The Escape Orbit by James White. It's been at least three years since I'd read either. I liked The Still Small Voice of Trumpets very much; Biggle brought art and culture to science fiction, and that's very refreshing. The Escape Orbit strikes me as one of White's lesser (and probably earlier) works, but it's still enjoyable, entertaining, and thought-provoking.
Current Mood: good
Tags: askville, books
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12:27 pm
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GoodReads Review: The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets
 The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets by Lloyd Biggle Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Lloyd Biggle Jr. is best known for bringing the arts to science fiction (just as Mack Reynolds brought sociology and economics to SF). He had a gentle, thoughtful style that made his books a pleasure to read; in that, his work resembles that of James White.
The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets is classic Biggle. The premise may perhaps seem a bit naive in these harsh days of realpolitik; a Galactic Federation which cannot expand unless a planet at its borders becomes a planetary democracy, without overt interference by Galactic agents. The natives of the planet, Gurnil, have a relatively low level of technology; they are not aware that aliens walk among them. If they discover that, the planet will be considered "blown", and the Galactic agents will have to withdraw in failure.
Those agents are also hampered by a web of regulations, rules, and maxims.
When Forzon, an officer of the Cultural Survey, is mysteriously reassigned to Gurnil he must not only find out why he was reassigned, but how to apply his speciality, the arts, to turning a brutal monarchy into a peaceful democracy. The natives have a magnificent appreciation of beauty and art, but seem to have virtually no political awareness. Forzon is allowed to introduce one technological innovation to the planet, but how can a single change literally revolutionize an entire world?
Biggle's answer is memorable and believable.
It must be noted that the book was first published in 1968, and that Biggle was not one of the "New Wave" authors who were in ascendence at that time. To some, his style may seem a little old-fashioned, though it's eminently readable. The romantic relationship between Forzon and Ann Curry, one of his agents, may also seem rather a bit dated - although accusations of sexism are not credible, since Forzon never treats Ann with less than respect, and her mistakes are not the stereotypical "stupid helpless female" behavior that was a staple of the poorer sort of science fiction a generation earlier.
The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets is a short, elegant, and thoughtful example of a type of science fiction which is still all too rare. It's well worth reading, and re-reading. Although it's quite a short book, Biggle wrote other memorable books on the same general theme, and most of them are back in print.
View all my reviews >>
Current Mood:  thoughtful
Tags: books, goodreads, review, reviews, science fiction
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