Thought this might be a fun thing to get into the habit of doing.  Though I'm already doing this from memory a few days later; the game of 7 Wonders we played before this has already pretty much faded from my memory.

For a while, we tried to use negotiation to settle on a game that everybody wanted to play, but by now we're doing more of a cycle.  We put all our names into a hat (a pink cloth cowboy hat of Jinian's, to be precise), and then pick out a name; that person gets to pick the game (though not with infinite latitude, but objections have to be purely procedural, not preferential), and then their name doesn't go back into the hat until it's empty.  And having said this, I can't quite remember who it was who got to pick Talisman; I was the one to pick 7 Wonders, so it wasn't me...maybe Simon?  We've been playing the digital version on Steam on the computer, but it's mostly one human player vs. three AI players, and sometimes they can be mind-numbingly stupid, so beating them isn't always that much of an achievement.  It does mean that I've gotten more familiar with the rules...but I think not quite the same rules as our boardgame version uses.  (The computer version uses "Fate", which allows you to reroll dice, and our boardgame has none of that; the other changes tend to be more minor.)

Anyway, I ended up as the evil Wizard, Nicole as the Minster, Luke was the Prophetess, Simon was the Monk, and Jinian the Warrior (we let her pick, but the rest of us chose randomly).  Simon quickly got the Orb of Knowledge, so both him and Luke got to draw an extra card all the time.  I rarely got any spells that I actually needed, so I didn't get much chance to draw new ones.  Nicole drew most of the monster cards, and didn't win a lot of battles, but she did get three Dragons (who didn't attack her because of Minstrelness); the only animal she got to charm was a Wild Boar, though (she was disappointed that she didn't get to charm dragons, but she was happy to be able to discard the Hag).  Three people got turned into toads, between Witch, Enchantress, and the Random spell; this was how I lost my mule and a ton of stuff (including the Unicorn and the Ring) in the Inner Region, most of which Simon picked up later.  Jinian ended up with a Poltergeist, but made great use of this going back and forth between the Oasis (which had a Pool of Life) and a Desert square next to it (luckily she had the Holy Grail).

Simon got to the Crown of Command first, and nobody else really managed it.  In fact, I don't know if anybody else got past the Crypt/Mines.  So it was a bit of an unbalanced game, but at least it didn't drag on forever.  We normally play it in the afternoon, and on the table in the basement, where we can leave it set up during meals; this one we let the kids stay up late (with a break for book-reading), but it would have gone on longer if Simon had had any real competition.

And that's pretty much all the bits I remember at the moment.  We'll see if I do this again next family game...

I think I'm burnt out on screens. 

32 hours left in Jarnsaxa Rising's Indiegogo campaign. It's been a learning experience. I still haven't figured out the difference between annoying and persuasive. Today I did a lot of editing, and I have more work to do tonight. 

Jill was persuasive. She got Rodney Anonymous and Kyle Cassidy to re-tweet links to the campaign. We also got 32 new likes on the podcast's Facebook page in one day. 

I have more work to do, so I need to get off the internet and do some more work before I get tired. But, here is some other news. 

This exists, and has a program at a prison in Philadelphia:

New Leash On Life

There is a possibility that we might, maybe, possibly, be able to adopt a dog through this organization. Vince fell in love with one, and applied. We won't know if we get this dog or not until mid-August. 

An NBC news piece about the program said, "According to Philadelphia prison stats, 41 percent of the inmates released in 2013 will be rearrested in Philadelphia county after one year. Compare that to just 14 percent of inmates from the canine program." 

If our application is accepted, we do some visits, to see if we're a good fit. Because Vince is an employee of the District Attorney's office, the city covers our adoption fee (as an incentive to adopt).  All I can say right now is that this means we might have have a big, young, trained dog by fall. 

Ok. back to work. 

This has nothing to do with anything and there are many more exciting things you could be reading right now. Supreme court decision, ISIS attacks, go read something more interesting. I'll wait. 

tall, and tan, and young, and lovely, the girl, from Ip-a-nema goes walking and...

Oh, good, you're back. OK. 

The other day, I was thinking, "hey, shouldn't Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter's kid should have been born about now? they must have named it." 

Google... news... yep, born. Name? Nothing. 

On the one hand, it's good that a celebrity couple is keeping their kid's name and image out of the media spot light. 

On the other hand, come on. Please tell me that the kid's name is Sophedict Huntabitch, and that its middle name is Danger. 

Cream of wheat (since I made it upon request then the kid decided she wasn't hungry for breakfast) , coffee, coffee ... OoooOh, then fresh cherries from my pseudo-csa (I.e, I give my retired neighbor $15-20 to hit the local farmers market for me, since he goes anyway) What, pseudo csa included a pie ?!!? We talked about this yesterday!! Only fruits & veges! I'm dieting! I'm at my "scary" weight! Le sigh.

I felt like a cad returning the pie to him, my friendly neighbor. 

Leftover tortellini, handful of sunflower seeds. Iced Tea. Hot Tea (Fighting a head cold)

Fresh Corn on the cob! , leftover 1/2 a porkchop. Cherries, cherries cherries! And 2 fresh strawberries as I chopped up the delivered pint.

also, 1.1 miles on treadmill. And ate a few more cherries

hungry, and the interwebs keep showing me food posts tonight. Going to bed early.

Saturday was a Life Peak Experience.

Jenn and I went to a fundraiser at Laurel Hill Cemetery, their Soulstice party. It was basically a cocktails and nibbles party, and because the weather report was threatening rain, not that many people were there. We had a nice wander around the tombstones. The music was provided by DJ Scopitone, who plays early-20th-century music on two antique Victrolas (Victrolae?). They are no joke. You can get a fake victrola with a fancy horn that plays vinyl record albums, but these really depended on hand crank technology. The music echoed off of the tombstones like something in a dream. They had balloons holding glow-sticks hanging from the trees, and a little tent with a cocktail bar. It was lovely. After dark we went for a longer walk around the outside trail of the cemetery, where it was darkest. Looking down the hill, the sky was heavy and marbelled reddish, black trees silhouetted against it, and then the white spires of the obelisks silhouetted against that, and then fireflies were dancing in the air; it looked like a fairy city. and some jazz music and a nasal-voiced singer, echoing around from all directions. 

I have to start painting or drawing again. It might almost be worth going back with a camera that has a huge lens and a tripod and picking up as much light as I possibly can, but my memory of it might be better than the reality. When I got home, Vince was already asleep, and I tried to tell him about it. He seemed slightly lucid at the time. The next morning, he said, "Did you tell me that last night you were taking photographs on another planet? It was a city of white stalactites and black trees under a red sky, with little glowing creatures flying around?"  

I had my tarot cards read. the girl who did the reading was really sweet and cheerful. I said, "I've invested a lot of time, effort and money into my MFA, but I don't have a job and I'm disillusioned." she said that I'm definitely on my right career path, this is what I'm supposed to be doing, but I have to self-promote myself like a flame-thrower. She also said that more disappointment is coming, but that I would find balance soon. She also said that I have a big strong man to help me. which is good. 

Anyway, like I said: life peak experience. 

Sautee garlic, mushrooms and a little spinach in olive oil. Add 1/2 cup black beans, a half-teaspoon of cumin, a dash of salt and half a tablespoon of grape must.

What — no grape must in your kitchen? Use soy sauce, if you have one of those fancy "digestive systems" I've heard so much about, or a really swanky vinegar if you're like me.

Mash well with 1/4 cup of oats (quick oats will disappear better, but it doesn't really matter). Add a little liquid for easy workability but don't drown it.

Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Set a timer so you don't get impatient.

Make patties and pan-fry in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Heat the oil as much as you dare (olive oil scorches easily; we're talking medium low here). Cover and pan-fry for 4 minutes on each side.

Add fixins to taste and serve.

Makes roughly 3 patties.

I get angry at the injustice in the world. At thoughtless people. At selfishness. At unmutual behaviour.

But I can't change people. I can't change the world. So all the anger just sits there and festers. "I'm always angry."

But constant anger is constant stress, and constant stress is very damaging. So I tamp it down. I say I don't care. I shrug it off.

But I can't seem to just diminish my response to anger. Everything else gets diminished, too. If I don't feel anger, I also don't feel joy, I don't feel love.

But that's depression. I have to choose between being angry or being depressed? 

How to be authentic and in the moment and emotionally responsive without burning up?

How do people do this?

New pages today. Six of notes & longhand writing, which became 5.5 typed. Pulled everything out & put it in a different environment, paid homage to BP's response to the Gulf Coast oil spill. 

New clothes washer is beautiful and it makes our clothes smell good. 

Mom tomorrow. Sleep now. 

This exists. 

Handiemail: Real Handwitten Words

And, they're hiring. At last, the day job I was born to work as a supplement to my fabulous lifestyle. Sadie Doyle would be proud. 

I completed my application, with the exception of a writing sample. I printed out their gridlines, put it under a piece of paper, and copied the sample text as faithfully as possible. It was a thing of beauty. 

I got all the way to the very end, and signed the sample letter with, 

"Handemal." 

According to their specs, this means I have to rewrite the whole thing from the beginning. 

Further hilarity: as I typed this, I spelled "faithfully" as "failthfully." 

Edited to add: Here's another thing. As I was copying the text, concentrating on my handwriting, and making sure my words and sentences fit within the line guides and so on, only checking to make sure everything matched (it's more like drawing, honestly), something sort of unlocked and woke up in my brain. It felt really good.  I haven't been able to find my magical purple journal for over a week now and it's driving me crazy.  My point is, long hand writing does something in terms of brain activity.