In media res

Nu, it's a Saturday night, and Amanda Wilde is on the air, and the tea is hot, so it must be time for blogging.

I keep getting tagged on Facebook™ for my 15 (or 16 or 23 or 25) Things about Me meme. Hey, I was the only who responded to Apple's tag, like, two weeks ago. We were meming before meming was cool! So, dig out the note, or just read this blog instead.

I'm heading into the tail of a whirlwind time at work. The submission of my second annual tenure portfolio coincided with a particularly busy stretch of grading, so I have been humping it for about a week and a half now. No rest for the wicked, either; another assignment just came in on Friday, and I should get it back by Monday if I want to keep my Cool Teacher® status, so there's still plenty to do.

I did take time out yesterday for the weekly D&D game. We have been trucking along nicely since we started back in late November. DM Johnbai created a great world for us to play in: he took the typical D&D high fantasy structure, moved it to a desert environment (consistent with the geography from the campaign last year), layered on some semi-steampunk, lost civilization technology, and then crafted a complicated realpolitik for the adventure to play out against. All this and bigger fireballs for Soapy, too! Otis is thrilled because her druid can now talk to and change into various animals, Dingo's rogue has been kicking some serious butt, and my new monk character has been a ball to roleplay. The only downside to the whole thing is that John took all the good ideas, including some that are rather too close for comfort to things I had been contemplating for our next Fudge game. Now I have to cast about for something new and good!

Hey, while I was out with a slug of tenure-trackers the other night, I ordered a pilsner, as is my typical contrarian wont in an alehouse. I think it was a Rademacher, but I wish I could remember for sure, so I could make sure never to order it again, because it was terrible! I sent it back, and through a concatenation of circumstances wound up with a bottle of Fox Barrel Black Currant Cider. I was dubious, but, man, was it good. I think I may have a new favorite drink. Of course, I am sure it's so unusual that I will rarely be able to find it when I go out, but maybe that will just make it all the more special. If you ever run across some, give it a try.


And now, let me clean out the link bin:

Well, it's not a jet-pack, but I'll take one of these any day! (It wouldn't take much to steampunk it out, or to turn it into a Whirly-Bat, either.)

Of course, one of these might be even more practical, if only slightly less cool.

Here are some cool pictures of food, in 300 and 200 calorie piles. Besides just being fascinating their blandness, they would provide a great diet plan: just eat seven (or ten) selections a day!

Here's a more artistic picture: a 100 meter by 78 cm photo of people on a bridge called We're All Gonna Die.

And finally, is this stupid or awesome? I haven't decided. (Here's the .com.)