Think of the Kittens

Monkey asked why am I not commenting on the Democratic National Convention. An excellent question, with a very clear cut answer: because they don't mean jack any more. Years ago the delegates from the various states would travel to the conventions, and wheedle and bargain and make deals, and then the whole thing would culminate with the announcing of the candidate. Now We The People(tm) decide long before the convention who the candidates will be. This renders the conventions little more than masturbatory exercises where people who were tearing at each others' throats just a few short months ago now pretend to be bosom buddies. The speeches are pointless grandstanding and posturing that take preaching to the choir to unbelievable new levels of self-gratification. If old wives' tales truly reflected the universe, every one would leave these conventions wearing dark glasses and carrying a white cane. Now I would never poo-poo any reason for a great party, and I am sure that they don't get much better unless you have a ticket to Mardi Gras at Heff's place, but that doesn't mean that I have to watch the revelry.

But fear not, gentle readers, once the debates begin ready yourselves for some genuine vintage Marius outrage and indignation.


Yours, under God, indivisible,
Marius

My Current Favorite Song

A Good Day

I went back to work today, got some stuff done, had pizza for dinner, didn't have to yell at the COA, and in 20 minutes a new Mythbusters will start where they take on the fake Moon landing myths.

Yup, a good day. :-)

Tonight...We Dine...at the table, actually.

Yeah, the highlight of today was that I made mashed potatoes from scratch. For some reason I expected it to be hard. It wasn't. Yup, I'm a rebel.

more animals

To Seek Out New Libations

Our friendly neighborhood silver smith and Violet Femme, The Purple Pigeon, is quite the fan of a beverage known as Strongbow. As she dwells far away and over the sea in Jolly Old England I did not imagine that I could sample said fermented delicacy here in the US of A. Imagine my surprise when, on a mission of great import to Mrs. Marius who needed a disposable baking pan for her pot-luck breakfast on the morrow, I spied a six-pack of Strongbow in amongst the more mundane lagers and pilsners in the cooler. Swiftly I pounced upon the unsuspecting bottles and after a brief pause to pay for them, absconded with my loot and came home to sample. My first misconception about this particular libation is that it is a beer. Au contraire, it is a hard cider. Imagine apple juice with a kick. It took some getting used to, as it tastes very much like Champagne, which I care not for, but it is sweeter. I have imbibed two bottles this eve, and I cannot say that I am a fan...yet. But I do know that oft times the palate must needs be trained to like a new sensation, and I am willing to give this one its due.

I'll keep you posted.

Toodle pip!
Marius

I Got Nothin'

So, here's a cute LOLcat:


more animals

Brain Dump

So I was reading Doonsebury, as I do every morning, and today they gave a laundry list of the bad things the Bush administration will be remembered for: Iraq, Guantanamo, Abu Graib, Torture, Black Sites, Extraordinary Rendition, Recess Appointments, Signing Statements, The Valerie Plame Debacle, etc. As I was reading this a thought came unbidden to my newly caffeinated brain. Just as our recent military incursions have helped to teach Americans Geography, our bumbling Buffoon-In-Chief had shows us far more about the inner workings of our government than we ever knew before. That's a good thing, right?

While I was visiting my friends A & B the other week they introduced me to a video game called Overlord. It is a Playstation 3 game where you play an evil warrior out to conquer the world, but you do it using these goblin-like minions and it's rather amusing. We don't have a PS3, nor are we likely to get one any time soon, so I searched and found a PC version of the game on eBay. I bid, and won, and got the game for less than $10! Alas, my computer is too slow to play the damned thing. That'll teach me to look at all the system requirements. I need a 2.4 GHz processor, and mine is only 1.8. And my motherboard won't support a bigger processor. This is probably also the reason I can't get back onto the City of Heroes game. So, if anyone out there is getting rid of an oldish computer that has a 2.4GHz processor, I can give it's motherboard a good home. ;-)

So work doesn't start officially until September first, but I am going nucking futs just sitting around the house. Money's tight, so we can't go out too much, and the weather has been less than clement, so I've been for all intents and purposes on house arrest for the past three days or so. ARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!! If this is what retirement is like, I think I'll keep working til they take me home in a box. To hell with the schedule. I think I'm going to start back either Wednesday or Thursday. I need to get the shop organized anyway.

Ok, that's it for now. I hope you are all having a groovy Sunday.

Peace,
Marius

Obama Veep Announced

Joe Biden. This announcement does nothing for me, but what did we all expect? People were treating Obama's running mate announcement like it was Oscar night and the Best Picture envelope was being coyly kept away from Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. Did anyone with a shred of sense really think that putting Hilary on the ticket would have been anything other than political suicide? I earnestly hope that, should he win, Obama makes her his Secretary of State, but her bid for the White House was, if possible, even more polarizing for the country than George W's. Biden seems like an adequate choice, a competent legislator, and a worthy second in command. Yes, he's a veteran politician, so what? It's not like Barack was going to hold a lottery and choose Bob Jones from the local Quick-E-Mart as his running mate. This bullshit belief that a non-politician will run for political office is starting to get on my nerves. Unless we, as a people, are going to unify for the first time since 1775, and unanimously vote every one of those lying, power-hungry, elitist bastards out of office and start with a clean slate(not a bad idea, by the way), we will have politicians running politics. I still think Obama is the man for the job right now, but I have no illusions that if he stepped out onto a swimming pool, he would sink. Biden seems as good a choice as any. Besides, once puppet master Cheney is out of office the Vice Presidency will go back to being the mostly irrelevant, ceremonial duty it has always been.

Have a groovy weekend, y'all.
Marius

And Another One Gone...

The celebrity body count just keeps on going up. Tuesday Julius Carrey, better known to yours truly as Lord Bowler, bounty hunter and chief gadfly to Brisco County, Jr. died from unknown causes. Finding information about his demise is almost as hard as finding a decent picture of him. All I do know is that he was 58, and one of the best things about that short lived, but brilliant TV show. Someone needs to get the reaper out of California stat!

Henry Rollins' Letter to Anne Coulter

It's kind of scary when Henry Rollins is the voice of tolerance and reason, but this is also hilarious. It is also definitely not safe for work, or around kids. And Mom, you probably won't like this one. ;-)

Thievery and Weirdness

I stole this from Stinkypaw. I'm shameless.

You. Can. Only. Type. One. Word. Not as easy as you might think.
1. Where is your cell phone: charging
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend: adjacent
3. Your hair: missing
4. Favorite store: Lowes
5. Your father: deceased
6. Your favorite thing: tranquility
7. Your dream last night: bizarre*
8. Your favorite drink: DC
9. Your dream car: new
10. The room you're in: living
11. Your last ex: unstable
12. You are: unfocused
13. What do you want to be in 10 years: lucrative
14. Who did you hang out with last night: family
15. What you're not: youthful
16. Muffins: tasty
17. One of your wish list items: RAM
18. Where is the: justice
19. The last thing you did: paste
20. What are you wearing: apparel
21. Your TV: deactivated
22. Your pet: Starbuck
23. Your computer: pernicious
24. Your life: adequate
25. Your mood: semiconscious
26. Missing: legions
27. What are you thinking about right now: dream
28. Your car: Hyperion
30. Your summer: boring
31. Your relationship status: hitched
32. Your favorite color: blue
33. When is the last time you laughed: yesterday
34. Last time you cried: unknown
35. Work: impending
36. Boys: annoying
37. Football: soon!!
38. Love: present
39. Drama: life
40. Camera: elsewhere
41. Red: blood
42. Jewelery: minimal
43. School: job
44. Clock: plethora
46. Marriage: stable
47. Smell: acute
48. Winter: past
49. Fruit: underwear
50. Pillow: feathers

Your turn. It's actually kind of fun, and tricky. I'm not going to specifically tag anyone, but if you want to give it a try put it in the comments. :-)





*Somehow Ripley, from Alien, got her consciousness stuck in a computer at a school where I was building a show. I became her caretaker, and introduced her to Commander Riker at one point. Then the dream fast forwarded to many years later and her computer, which had been the size of a large dimmer rack, was now about the size of a CD player, and I had found a way to get her back into a body, but the FBI was closing in on us. Then Starbuck woke me up. :-o

Today I am Alive!!

I just put the 1/4 cup of water into the rice BEFORE the two full cups. By all the gods, today I am a man!!!!

Ain't We Cute

This is my brother and me, although I have no idea when or where this was taken. Mom?

Fay? Feh!

Above is the radar picture from about 25 minutes ago. The storm made landfall well to the south of us, and is expected to creep up the peninsula dumping lots of water. Today should actually be a nice, if cloudy day, with the weather gradually deteriorating into gusty winds and heavy rain tonight. We took this one seriously, and stocked up on hurricane supplies, so we should be just fine. I did a bit of research and it appears that the last time the Tampa area took a direct hit from a hurricane was all the way back in 1985 when hurricane Elena(remember that one, my SCA brethren?) stalled just off the coast and then took her sweet time crawling onto the shore. So if you are worrying about the structural integrity of Castle Marius in the face of Nature's Fury(tm) fear not. We're just going to get a bit damp. But thanks for the concern. It's nice to be worried about, sometimes. ;-)

Safely yours,
Marius

Why?

Why is it that people think that traffic rules don't count in parking lots? Why is it that when a recipe calls for 2 1/4 cups of water we put it in in that order? And why am I jealous of the fact that my former high school students seem to have gotten a good teacher this year?

I need a time out.

Marius the Blithering

The Time Tunnel

So the Lady Marius and I celebrated our final day of being child-free by visiting Fort DeSoto in Saint Petersburg. It dates back to the Spanish American War, but the Florida climate is rather harsh on wooden buildings, so only the concrete munitions bunkers, and the big guns are still there. So we wandered around the grounds, then found our way to the beach. The intention was to watch the Sun set over the Gulf of Mexico, but the weather did not cooperate. So we watched the sea birds, played around on the pier, and just had a good time. So here are some snaps of our day. I hope you like them.


This is the sign at the entrance to the fort.

Mrs. Marius thought this was a good place to keep me. ;-)

The big gun.

Jane Bond?

Oi! I think I've found what's blocking the barrel. Try it now!


Don't mess with Mrs. Marius.

This feller was taking advantage of the coolness inside the former powder storage bunker.

Behold the Tropical beauty of Saint Petersburg.

What a dashing couple of rogues.

The horribly ancient non-Euclidean protuberance of ancient R'lyeh makes a comfy perch.

Fred Garvin goes to the beach.

Obama Roll

And Now...Culture

Sound Advise

Stay away from the pointy part.

Crap!

So I had a great day planned for yesterday. I bought ingredients to make a nice omelet for breakfast, then we were going to the movies, then spend the rest of the day in St. Pete. Unfortunately as I was making the omelet I started feeling nauseous, and as a result burned the eggs. As the morning went on I felt worse, to the point where my wife had to go to McDonald's to get breakfast. Then it started raining. So we went to the movies(The Mummy 3...don't bother. It's not even worth writing about.) and then came home. I finally got hungry and we went to Moe's for dinner, then I passed out at 8:30 and completely forgot to post yesterday. Shit!! But I am not giving up. So I stumbled a bit, I'm going to press on with my daily posts, and since I posted twice the day before, and at least twice today, can we call it even?

Marius the Tardy

Why Thank You, Canada. I Accept.

Star Trek MMORPG

Sweeeeeet!!

Not The Best Way to Start The Day

more cat pictures

Gustatory Glee

A couple of weeks ago Stinkypaw initiated a snack food exchange. I sent her some Oreos, Combos, Orbit gum, Key Lime juice, and a pack of Twinkies. And she sent me the above pictured yummies. Actually there were two Coffee Crisp thingies that I already ate. The Kit-Kats are familiar, although the packages are different, and the Smarties, but those maple sugar cookies are FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC!! They're more addictive than Oreos! I don't know if they are available down here, but I'm going to look. And I pray that they aren't.

We have yet to sample the other treats, but I can only imagine I'm in for an insulin rich couple of weeks. :-)

Yawn

Damn, I'm beat. I cleaned the house and cut the grass, and now I'm just tired. I'll post pics from the trip soon, I promise, but I'm feeling rather Jabba-esque after gorging myself on delicious maple cookies sent by that lovely, yet insidious Madame Stinkypaw. Those things are far more addictive than Oreos.

Alas, the Sandman is kicking my ass and driving the spell check to a dangerous overload. I'll be back tomorrow.

G'night.

Mari...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

S...so s.s..scared...

Hi, everyone. It's me, The Corner. Marius is away for the day, and I'm all by myself. It's creepy around here when he's gone. I keep hearing noises and stuff. I know it's just the sound of the Internet settling, and not some scaly, tentacled freak of nature coming to tear my RAM out and show it to me before my CPU shuts down, but it's still scary. Won't someone talk to me, please?

Star Wars ala The Simpsons

My days in South Florida draw to a close today, and I'll be unable to get to a computer for a bit, so here's an amusing tidbit to tide you over.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Here's To Good Friends

I just got home from a bittersweet evening. Most of my friends from my pool playing, beer drinking days gathered tonight for one final night of billiards, beer, and laughs before we all head off to our varied and distant lands. J and R are off to Holland tomorrow morning. I'll be heading back to Tampa via Naples. T divides his time twixt the Panhandle and West Palm, and S, J, and K live down here. If only Mrs. Marius, Kimbo, and Jeana were here it would have been perfect. But still it sucks when there are mere days between hello and goodbye, and months or years between goodbye and hello. Ah well. Better to see them infrequently than not at all.


Good night, my friends.

Ya Got Me!

Mdme. Stinkypaw tagged me to tell you four things about me you should know before inviting me to your house. And as I am nothing if not obedient, I shall oblige.

1. I am very polite. Too polite sometimes. So if I ask you if it's ok if I use your bathroom, or for a glass of water it's because I live in fear of just assuming that all of the toilets are in perfect working order, or that my host/ess considers their kitchen sacrosanct. I suppose I should have been born British. That being said, if I say make yourself at home in my house, I mean it. If you want to take off your shoes and take a nap on the couch that's groovy.

2. If you want me to come visit, ask me to come at a specific time. I am very bad about open ended invitations, and my innate shyness will prevent me from inviting myself. I'm kind of neurotic that way. So please, don't take my lack of 'hey, can I come over' as a lack of wanting to. I'm just not programmed to initiate the invitation. I don't know why.

3. That being said, if you are having a party, and the only person I would know is you, please don't invite me. I have always been uncomfortable in such situations, and the older I get, the worse it becomes. Even if I seem excited about the idea at first, as the hour of the gathering draws nigh I almost always start finding reasons why I just can't go. However, if there is even one other person that I know there that I can hang with, then that's cool.

4. Please don't ask me what I want to eat. I am perhaps the least picky eater on the planet(well, except for the freaks on Fear Factor) and if you go to the trouble to cook it, I'll eat it. Fix what you, and your family, like, and I will gladly eat of it. It is ok, however, to ask me what I don't care for, since that list is very short. Guts and beets are pretty much it. :-)


And there you have my house guest neuroses laid bare. Oh, and feel free to drop in any time. :-) (well, call first and give me a few minutes to tidy up a bit) ;-)

And now I pass the toe tags along: Turtle, Sheeps, Dmarks, and Pidgey, y'all are it! :-D

See ya soon,
Marius

Rudy Returns

Hi, Folks,
Rudy had the day off yesterday while I did some housecleaning and carpet steaming for my parents. Somehow that rascally sloth managed to get some photos taken while I was toiling away. He took a trip to Okaheelee park and got these shots.






Here he tried to fake me out by telling me that he had been thrown in jail for soliciting a prostitute.(this wouldn't be the first time)


Just as I was about to remind him that I had promised the last time to never post his bail again he couldn't keep a straight face anymore and laughed his fuzzy little ass off as he showed me this pic:


Later, being the ladies sloth that he is, he started putting the moves on my friend C, with whom I am staying:


All the while I was up to my eyeballs in pet fur and carpet cleaner. But I got the last laugh as my folks' new puppy, Hercules, had his way with Rudy.



But I guess he one-upped me again as later he was hitting on my friend J.



Sly sloth, that one. ;-)

More tomorrow.

Marius

Me Seepy

Ok, Blogger's being a diva tonight and won't let me load the cute picture of a yawning kitten, but the gist is that I'm really tired and am turning in early. I promise more of Rudy's pics, and an update tomorrow.


G'night, y'all.

Marius

No Time

Rudy is too busy relaxing to post much today, but he promises to get back in the swing of things tomorrow.

A Sloth's Journey

This is Rudy, my vicious attack sloth.


Rudy decided he wanted to do a travelogue of our journey to South Florida, and since he rarely asks for anything I decided to oblige him.

Here we are on our way out of town. Rudy didn't feel too well about those clouds, but I managed to reassure him that we'd be ok.


I wanted to get a shot of Rudy pumping the gas, but he felt that this picture more accurately captured today's gasoline purchasing experience.

Rudy insisted that I get this shot of him enjoying the scenery.

Topography? We don't need no stinking topography!!


Rudy had to pee, so we visited a rest stop on the Turnpike.


And who can leave a rest stop without some snacks? Not Rudy, that's for sure!



Then it started to really rain, so we put the camera away and Rudy went to sleep. Today we are going out looking for scenic and interesting places, so tune in tomorrow for more of The Adventures of Rudy the Attack Sloth!!

Go for Launch

When next we meet, dear friends, I shall be in South Florida. See ya soon!