For those that don't know, "d6" means "six sided die."

I've never tried embedding a video into a blog post, but I saw something on FaceBook which I think is the best thing since Weird Al Yankovic's White and Nerdy...


Roll a D6 from Connor Anderson on Vimeo.

I'm a fan of song parodies in general. A good parody doesn't mess with the cadence or syllables in the original, and stays true to the rhyme schemes. Furthermore, a good parody doesn't just replace various words or phrases in the original, but maintains a story or structure of its own. I think these guys really did a great job with this one. Check it out and enjoy!

"Vacation, all I ever wanted. Vacation, had to get away!"

Yes, those are Go-Go's lyrics... and yes, I just got back from a vacation. We had a meeting just now to talk about scheduling vacation time, and it got me thinking about upcoming trips and looking at the calendar.

My next big trip will be in November, when I head out to Dallas again for BGG.con - a sweet 4 day open gaming convention with 600 of my closest friends. But that's not what sparked this post, rather while perusing the calendar I noticed that Christmas Day is a Thursday this year, which means everyone and their brother will have Friday off. This is the perfect situation for SedjCon - my after Christmas gaming party!

Maybe I'll plan ahead a little bit, and advertise SedjCon to my friends so they can plan their holiday trips to accommodate it if they want. Looks like it'll be December 26-28th (though probably mostly 26th and 27th). Maybe this year it'll include a disc golf outing Saturday morning or something.

Who can it be now...

Who can it be knocking at my door
Make no sound, tip-toe across the floor
If he hears, he'll knock all day
I'll be trapped, and here I'll have to stay
I've done no harm, I keep to myself
There's nothing wrong with my state of mental health
I like it here with my childhood friend
Here they come, those feelings again


I have this sitemeter thingy on my blog, which gives me some (very limited) information about who checks it. I can tell when, for example, my parents are checking in on me (Hi Mom and Dad!) or when my sister from Seattle clicks through. There are also a bunch of random hits from random places, people searching for the strangest search strings and my blog comes up. What puzzles me is when there's a hit from the U of A, referred by a search for my name. I suspect it's got to be someone I know, reading up on my birthday BBQ for whatever reason. I know a lot of people who go to the U of A, or work at the U of A, but I can't imagine any of them being interested in what's going in in my life enough to follow my blog.

I just thought I'd post this and call you out, whoever you are... I can see you! Ha! Feel free to leave a comment so I know who you are and what's so interesting about my BBQ plans. Or maybe you were just looking for the Bacon Chocolate Chip cookie recipe.

Lyrics on my mind

I am everything you want
I am everything you need
I am everything inside of you That you wish you could be
I say all the right things
At exactly the right time
But I mean nothing to you and I don't know why

This is from a song by Vertical Horizon called Everything You Want. I'm not entirely sure what the song is about, but the lyrics above strike me as analogous to a recent relationship I had. It's not entirely accurate - I never said any of the right things - but there's a sentiment that is close.

I don't think I need to go into details, but long story short, I liked this girl more than she liked me, so we're just friends now. Maybe it's a good thing she lives 500 miles away! The confusing part is that everything she complains about in other guys she dates, and everything she's ever said she was looking for, are qualities I have. So I guess it's just too bad she wasn't all that interested.

Or maybe not too bad in the end...

Since I met her, this girl has been relatively unpleasant to be with in person, and thinking back this includes most of the time I've known her, not just since we broke up. It was much different than when I talked to her on the phone or IM. I just didn't used to care. As such, my romantic interest in her has gone away, and my platonic interest in her has dropped off as well. After spending last weekend hanging out with her* I was asking myself what I ever saw in her in the first place.

* Doing things I thought were nice, like waiting on dinner for her to arrive (at 11pm) rather than eat with the group, and bringing her breakfast to the room when she didn't get up in time to get any... but evidently my normal, everyday behavior is intolerable to her. *shrug* So I spent much of the weekend avoiding her.

And then I see her when she's sleeping and I remember. When she's asleep, or in the morning before she puts on her big city and people person facades, she looks at peace. Content. Maybe happy or innocent. When I see that I see whatever it was I fell in love with, and talked to on the phone all those times.

So I'll just pretend that that's true - that she puts on a facade to deal with her busy, big city life, and that facade wears her down and makes her grouchy all the time. I'll pretend that's true because it stings a little less than the realization that I invested myself a little too heavily in something I was so very wrong about.

I think this girl reads my blog, and I don't know how this post will go over with her. It may be a little awkward. But frankly, me creating an awkward situation between us is about par for the course.

I don't need you to worry for me 'cause I'm alright...

They will tell you, you can't sleep alone in a strange place
Then they'll tell you, you can't sleep with somebody else
Ah, but sooner or later you sleep in your own space
Either way it's okay, you wake up with yourself

I don't need you to worry for me cause I'm alright
I don't want you to tell me it's time to come home
I don't care what you say anymore, this is my life
Go ahead with your own life, and leave me alone

I think what Billy Joel was trying to get across is that you have to live your life for yourself and not for other people. Whatever I do, I'm the only one I have to wake up with in the morning, not anybody else. I want to find my own space, where I'm ok with the me.

I am at home with the me. I am rooted in the me that is on this adventure.