I was finally able to look at the teams in our deadpool today. The spreadsheet was sent by our "commisioner" a while back, but being that I had no access to my hotmail with my computer, or at least with a computer with software that applied, I was unable to look at it. Last year I had four down, out of my group, rest their souls, but the combined ages were not low enough to take the Coffin. Here's my team:
Terra Inferma
Yukichi Chuganji
Gordon Lightfoot
Mary Christian
Al Lopez
Claude Levi-Strauss
Nick Nolte
Henri Cartier Bresson
Michael DeBakey
John Kenneth Galbraith
Edward Teller
Alistair Cooke
George Beverly Shea
Les Paul
C. Douglas Dillon
Elia Kazan

Unfortunately, we drafted late on the night of the 11th of January, and my fourteenth pick, C. Douglas Dillon died the day prior, unbenounced to me, so I cannot get credit for him. I was really banking on having the first pick overall this year and spending in on the Excitable Boy himself as he is in the hurt locker.
Some people find the prospect of this to be horrible, but you gotta go sometime.
Initially, we picked up the practice from a group of middle aged women a friend of mine used to work with back in 1995. They informed us of their basic ground rules and we drafted our teams the next year. I won in 1996, as I had George Burns and Tupac Shakur among others. This year, I am not so confident in my staff, though Yukichi is the oldest man alive in Japan, and Mary Christian is the oldest living women in the United States so there certainly is promise, if you can call it that.
Gotta run and do some reading but I should be back soon for updates and such.
To the end, Inferma!!

Okay! It seems I am no hooked up to the net in the sanctuary that is my room, so now I can work at all hours of the day and night. Now I just need to get a desk of some make and manufacture, because as I type this I am in bed, and my mousepad is an old yearbook from my basic training cycle back in 1983. But I am now connected, and though I just checked my email and some errors occured, I am that much closer! Have at you~!

Well if THIS isn't one of the coolest things.....talk about a node in a tree concerning Wikis....wow. I think I like these wikis. They are gooder.

Still have no true access to the ISP. Searched for a long time tonight for various blogs on the web. There does seem to be a billion of them though at present none inspire me. The battle rages on.
I have a mighty powerful headache. Sleep.

I lost a couple of days last week to sickness. For the first time since I don't know when, I actually had the flu. At least I think it was a variant of that. Had it coming out both ends Wednesday, Thursday, and was simply hot and cold most of Thursday and Friday. Very tired. I drove south Friday morning to meet my family in St. Paul. It was my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. It was a great couple days, I guess. Definately with the 'parental units', and the stories that everyone has. A book was compiled, literally, by my sister Alison, as she had old family friends email, snail mail, and anyway possible-communicate old stories to be compiled with pictures that they also sent along for the task. Seeing it all in print, hearing other person's thoughts on Bob and Barb; pretty damn funny, it was, but then we're pretty odd. In a good way.
I was able to see my sister Gayle for the first time in 26 years. A quarter of a century, plus. She left with the water carnival in 1976 after a spat with Bonzai Bob. No, we're not stubborn, we just see it our way. Amends had been made some years ago, though I and my sister Susan had not seen Gayle since the day. I had Western Unioned her $500.00 back in the late 80's when I was initially going to school. She needs family when she needs money, I guess, and that does create an odd adversarial tension at present.
Seeing her again does not torment me, really, other than it did not play out as I had envisioned it happening as the chasm of time expanded. She is my sister, yet I had nothing of any relevence to say to her. I don't know her. I know some classmates as well as I know her, and I feel truly an island unto myself. Still puting lotion on the timetan.
It is in change that things find purpose.
Leviticus was a wise mammajamma.

I was just at Ayleen's blog and see that a reference was made to slashdot. Great minds think alike? Also, I think I remember Mr. Morgan referring to a MUD on Wednesday, and meant to say something about them, because not long ago I played a pretty fun one called Illusions of the Mind. They are a blast and remind me of a time when, in seventh grade and onward up into my senior year, we used to let ourselves into the University and use up their "time" on MECC by usurping usernames and locking ourselves into days on end of fighting clay golems, shambling mounds, and animated statues. Myself and my friends had our own "dossiers" with the BSU plastic cops. Sorry Casey, but the statute of limitations has passed, correct? I was a minor. I didn't know what I was doing. Is this a cell phone? I don't know you.....

Cram the info into cracks.
Crushes what I knew before.
Crude re-invention.

I saw on Rantinrogue's blog a list of music. Its my release. Better than beer. Well, when there is no beer. Or Booker's.
But thinking of music, I think of course, of the name of this blog, which comes from Frank himself in a song titled, Packard Goose.
He's perhaps the one artist I never saw that I wish I had. I was set to go to his "Jazz From Hell" tour way back when, and a test in some class dictated otherwise. (When did that ever stop me?) I figured what the hell, I will see him next time he comes around, and of course he never toured in the United States again. He went and visited Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia and gave a concert and speeches among other things, with his tour, "The Best Band You've Never Heard in Your Life" and was diagnosed with colon cancer shortly thereafter. So much for smoking lettuce, ay Frank?
In the event anyone is ever in the Milwaukee area, though, there's a sweet little venue that has some highly righteous acts come through, by the name of Shank Hall, which originally was a fictious venue from "This is Spinal Tap" and ambitious entrepreneur took it upon himself to open up a club of the same name. I've seen some pretty groovy acts there, such as Ozric Tentacles, Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush, and Wishbone Ash. Of course it doesn't hurt that the club happens to be in the heart of Beer country in WisconSIIIIIIIIIIN.

Just taking a quick swing through some of the other blogs from the daybook, and I see on the crustyprofessor's blog and he mentions macs, their software, and the politcal arena around it all. There is a site a friend had recommended to me a while back that is for the most part anti-Micro$oft so being that earlier, the retail goliath, Walmart had been brought up, if you like looking at the little people chip away at the giants, then take a Gander. An old friend of mine is still managing a little sporting goods store in town, and it makes me wonder how Gander Mountain will chomp down on his business. I spoke with him and he doesn't feel like there is true competition as he can "deal" more than they can and they have different products, but he did mention he is peering at other avenues for the future. The town I grew up in looks more and more like a suburb ever day. Similar but vastly different.

Just unpacking some of my crud and corruption, not that I have any space to unpack it to as of yet, but uncovered some of my favorite books. Presently an author living in Minnesota, who wrote with Terry Pratchett, and perhaps still does, Neil Gaiman, is definately worth a read. Take a look~
http://www.neilgaiman.com/

Que ondas. I am truly dumb all over. Up at six and to school by eight. Locked. Couldn't even get into the bibliotech. MLK day. I coulda gone out and partied last night. If I had money. If I had time. If I had fellow delinquents. Back to the grind for the day, there's certainly other writing I can do, and shall.

It seems my site has not set up as intended so there is more initial work to be done. As my access to the net is presently limited I can only hope to get at this problem a small step at a time. Forcefully jumping back into academia would be some much easier than falling. I will gain control of the wheel, though my mind is not yet prehensil.

It was cold this morning, I felt the iced air run through my hair...on my back.