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 »

Redundancy

Can we add "information overload" to the list of phrases retired from the language due to clichéd overuse? It is apparently now used to describe anything remotely intense. Go »

PIMP

Many thanks to Miah Poisson and Ines Sarante for throwing a great 30th birthday party for Miah this weekend. I don't play much Guitar Hero, but apparently I play enough to win a tournament against Miah's GH-obsessed coworkers, or maybe it's just because the game is ridiculously handicapped against experts. I'm just happy because I won a pimp stein: We ate lots of great food, had fun with karaoke, and talked until the hour was late. Go »

The Honeymoon

After our wedding, it was time for Kelly and I to enjoy our honeymoon: Ten days in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the coastline between them. We (really I, with Kelly's signoff) spent weeks researching and scheduling to pull it off, and the effort was definitely worth it, as we had ten days of bliss. We rode new rides at Disneyland, toured a movie studio and historic ship, saw whales and dolphins up close, ate lunch atop a mountain, hiked among the redwoods, explored Chinatown and Alcatraz, and along the way ate some amazing food. Go »

Blog Entry Post

Pet peeve: Why do people redundantly call it "tuna fish?" You never hear "parrot bird" or "Cocker spaniel dog." Go »

Wests Take Southwest to Southeast

As Steve West mentioned, he and Brenda recently visited Sarasota for a week of fun. In advance, we rented an AirBNB (cat allergies prevented staying at my place) and kicked around some ideas for what to do, but we were concerned about unpredictable fatigue and other medical complications and knew that we had to take it one day at a time. The trip had a bumpy start, with Kelly taken by ambulance to the ER the night before (she recovered quickly) and a difficult Southwest flight and Uber pickup for the Wests, but that all quickly felt like it was behind us as soon as the fun began. Go »

When Erik Met Matthew

The spark for the idea came during the pandemic, when we here on Funeratic decided to try some Zoom conversations and games. Two people who I admire for (among other things) their ability to converse quickly and freely with strangers and to get along instantly with seemingly anyone, Erik Bates and Matthew Preston, talked to each other for the first time and of course they hit it off immediately. I knew I wasn't imagining it, because other people on the call remarked on it. Go »