Memnison Journal

This was a very odd Christmas for me; some really high points and low points. Some old traditions unexpectedly brought back, and some things mucked.  Julbord and full holiday report after the cut:

Black mutant squirrels are taking over Britain, comic book denizens are aging, setting sheep on fire when you’re drunk will cause extra problems when they turn out to be people, and kids stealing parental credit cards and ordering up hookers - to play X-box games with them in hotel rooms.

No, dammit, I’m not talking about your binges at Amazon.com.   I’m talking about those areas where Unless You Pay, You Can’t Get In.  I will, for the sake of argument, allow inclusion of the places you pay to download all of your MP3 crack and the like, but only for the stuff that is digital [...]

And yes, I used to own this one - REELECT JFK. You’re JFK, you’ve managed to miss getting killed in Dallas, and now you have to get re-elected AND find out who was behind the plot to shoot you (being your own historical detective). As this reviewer says: “Yes, [...]

…especially for Role Playing game mappers, I’m looking for thoughts on which software they think works the best for doing up maps…I just ran into my receipt for NBOS Fractal Mapper 6, and I have a full and updated Campaign Cartographer set, but I have never fooled with it to get going with the mapping [...]

Love what you’ve done with your hair and the outfit.  Is that a Cuban cigar?

..by Scott Lynch, is a heck of a rip-snorter read.  Funny, dynamic, byzantine in its plots and descriptions, and a total mess in its background universe - but you don’t care, because the plot and the characters keep things going quite nicely.
I was at a con some time ago, in a panel that called on [...]

Recently, I’ve dabbled a bit in the online thingy called Second Life - my moniker there is Jestam Meredith (Meredith is actually one of a short list of names that freebie members can use, and the Jestam part is a sort-of-alter-ego of mine in my SF writing stuff).
I’m not really one for online or [...]

Sauron’s Barad-dur in San Francisco. They left out Coit Tower as the Phallic symbol, and - hey, that makes Two Towers! Aaaah!
Now, that’s an airline I could fall in love with. The new Virgin America service. Normally, I think virgins are overrated, but…as I found out, there’s always exceptions.
Grocery store manager [...]

I’m looking for a good place in the area (western Chicago suburbs vastly preferred) to laminate a pair of star maps. 23 by 35 inches. Nice stuff, and I don’t want it damaged. (Susan thinks I want them framed - heck, no, I’m gonna use these suckers.)
Tyge, you should check these [...]

When I first became a computer professional around 20+ years ago, my boss doofused by (he was an engineer, but knew zero about computers) and asked half-laughingly if I had some games on the computer I was using. (It was about the first PC in the whole several-hundred-person division. I sort of lifted an eyebrow [...]

This Christmas season was relatively low key, partially because Susan, Mere and I are all still Under the Grippe (or Mystery Colds, if you prefer, That Aren’t Going Away) and so we aren’t feeling like stipping down naked, rolling in the mud and doing jumping jacks. Or a lot of other things. [...]