Miscellaneous goings-on:

- Work is a joy. I have become accustomed to operating in ongoing semi-crisis mode because something's going wrong at any given time, and I love it. I love seeing the pressures of schedule and interpersonal conflict force my staff to devise innovative new solutions. I love that we keep getting better every week. I did let go another staffer but I managed to do it in the best possible way, a fair outcome that benefits all. I don't have much time for anything but work (except Elder Scrolls!) but it's worth every minute.

- I did the locking-myself-in-my-apartment-all-weekend-to-work-on-the-site thing, since I've spent a lot of time with friends the last few weekends and the site needed attention, but I only got about halfway through one FIN post and reached an stalemate with writer's block. I don't blame players for taking so long to reply when it takes me so long to write a post, but it does depress me that the game lags so much.

- They're painting my apartment building. It appears they painted shut the exhaust vent for the bathroom, because now the vent makes a horrible fan-in-a-vacuum moaning sound when I turn it on. I'm just glad I woke up in time to move my car away from the building.

- King Missile's Psychopathology of Everyday Life sucks. It's whiny and depressing with no sense of fun or enthusiasm, and track after track consist only of swear words strung together. If you're a novelty act and you've been reduced to strings of pointless obscenities, it's time to go gracefully into that good night, no matter how fun you once were.

- Has anybody seen John R. Edwards? The guy who leads the group in FIN? His phone is disconnected and he isn't responding to email. John Gunter? Mike? Aaron? Anybody?

- My stereo gave me eight good years but it's broken for good. It seems to click off spontaneously and stops making noise, but I can see that the display is lit up and the equalizer pulses in tune with the input. As soon as I touch a button on the remote, it begins BLARING REALLY LOUD, and I have to jump up and run across the room to turn it off. That's super-fun at two in the morning. I guess I'll buy a new stereo this weekend.

- If I don't play Elder Scrolls for a few hours, I begin shaking.


Logical Operator

The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »

Eschew Obfuscation

For any FIN players wondering where in the hell the game is: I used my little free time over last weekend writing a mini-post – three whopping paragraphs – and at the end of the weekend I just couldn't bear to publish it so short. (The title of this post was the planned title of that post.) I have now rearranged my social so that weekends are more free, and one thing I plan to do with the time is resume writing FIN, starting this weekend by expanding my three paragraphs into more like three pages. Go »

Signs and Wonders

Driving through Georgia now. Just passed a plain yellow billboard saying The God with Moral Fault, amazon.com. Hidden agenda? Go »

Something Comes Along to Intervene

I've been enjoying "Meddle" and "Remedy" by Little Boots, two great electropop songs with catchy hooks, perfect for summer. But I didn't really take her seriously as an artist until I heard "Stuck on Repeat." It's pop music on acid, like Kylie Minogue produced by Captain Beefheart, and the unlikeliest hit song of the year. Go »

Powerless

Going without electricity in Florida can be a miserable affair. You sweat non-stop. You sleep fitfully at best, waking up in pools of your own body fluid. Go »

Chatt Story

Kelly and I are home from a brief road trip to Chattanooga. The primary reason for going was the wedding of an old friend of Kelly. The ceremony was beautiful, held on the banks of Fall Creek Falls Lake, with some of the best-written vows I've ever heard, at once personal and profound. Go »

Red Carpet Saturday

Some friends of ours recently made a short film (they're officially in IMDb) that got into the Sarasota Film Festival, so Kelly and I had to check it out. It screened with eight other short family-friendly films on a Saturday morning, and there was good turnout for the two locally-made titles in the set. I enjoyed our friends' comedy and laughed along with everyone else, and I was impressed by several of the other movies too. Go »