madlikeahatter

04:21 pm: Seven Useless Facts Most People Don't Know About Me
1. I was once in a movie.
2. I helped design plans for a lunar base that NASA has on file somewhere.
3. I attended Big Bird's birthday party.
4. I can sing the alphabet backwards.
5. I once bought a long out-of-print book I'd been seeking for years on eBay only to discover after winning the bid that the seller was the author.
6. I wrote a book that can be found in bookstores, but I am not the author.
7. I not only performed in two Shakespearean plays in High School, I memorized one of them.

09:54 am: Wheee! Its a wee me!


Yeah. I don't know why I did this either.

09:48 pm: Things that cut
Today, I was shopping at Target. I needed some blade refills for my razor, a shick quatro.

When I arrived at the aisle with the amazing assortments of things you use to cut your face with, I found the refill cartridge for the razors. $8.99 for 4 replacements. I've paid it before, yeah, but today the price just really got to me and I decided to look at the other razors to see if I could find one a little more economical.

Well to my amusement, I found that right next to it was the Shick Quatro TITANIUM razor for $7.99. And it came free with 4 blades. So let's see.
1. Cheaper.
2. TITANIUM
3. It comes with the razor /and/ the blades.

Well, its pretty obvious which was the better buy. But naturally the Titanium refill cartridges are even more expensive than the Quatro refills. ($9.99 I think it was). So I've decided. I am no longer buying refills. The prices make no sense. Why pay /more/ for a refill when you can get the razor and the blades for a lower price? From now on I'm just going to buy a new razor every single time I need new blades. It's the only logical outcome from the pricing scheme.

On a side note, four blades is my absolute limit. There has to be a point where adding more sharp cutty things to your product ceases to be a benefit. I'm sure eventually they're going to release the Fleshreaper with 22 blades and a medicated comfort strip (doused in rubbing alcohol no doubt) and tout it as the closest shave ever. I bet!

But medicated comfort strip or no medicated comfort strip, you can color me not interested, fleshreaper! Unless of course you package the razor with free replacement blades for $2.99. Then I will give your maximum perfor--owwwwww--never mind.

08:46 pm:

My BYOA Ending Will Be...

I Will Be Eaten by Cannibal Pygmy Witches In a Thatched-Roof Gingerbread House!

You will be eaten by cannibal pygmy witches in a thatched-roof gingerbread house! And it will suck. What's your BYOA Ending? Find Out Here! This quiz brought to you by Blog Your Own Adventure Another fine web programming project by Roy Huggins

11:51 pm: Tell Me About Yourself - The Survey
Name: Clinton Rice
Birthday: July 21, 1973 (6:12pm)
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
Current Location: Approximately two feet to the left.
Eye Color: Green/Hazel
Hair Color: Dark brown
Height: Around 6'
Right-handed or Left-handed: Right
Your Heritage: English, Danish, Swedish
The Shoes You Wore Today: Some black shoes from Payless with velcro.
Your weakness: Meteor rocks known as Clintonite
Your fears: Being alone.
Your perfect pizza: Pepperoni, sausace...really most any kind of meat you can find on a farm.
Goal you would like to achieve this year: Get a new PC.
Your most overused phrase on Instant Messenger: I just had a really twisted idea.
First Thoughts Waking Up: Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt. Must. Bzzt. Turn. Bzzt. Off. Bzzt. Alarm.
Your Best Physical Feature: My eyes, I suppose.
Your Bedtime: Midnight.
Your Most Missed Memory: I forgot.
Pepsi or Coke: Pepsi: The choice of my generation.
McDonalds or Burger King: The employees at BK know me by name.
Single or Group Dates: At this point, not choosy.
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Uhhh...Nestea?
Chocolate or Vanilla: Vanilla (Esp. Thrifty's French Vanilla)
Cappucino or Coffee: Never! You'll never make me try either! *Jumps through a window*
Do you smoke: If I had the choice between smoking and dying lonely and miserable, I still wouldn't smoke.
Do you Swear: Hardly ever. There's more satisfying use of vocabulary.
Do you Sing: Let's not go there.
Do you Shower Daily: Yes.
Have you Been in Love: Twice.
Do you want to go to College: Someday, I may go back.
Do you want to get Married: Eventually.
Do you believe in yourself: No, but I believe in leprechauns.
Do you get Motion Sickness: No.
Do you think you are Attractive: No.
Are you a health freak: The employees at BK know me by name.
Do you get along with your Parents: Yes.
Do you like Thunderstorms: I don't dislike them.
Do you play an Instrument: I can't even play the radio.
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol: Not in the past 383 months.
In the past month have you Smoked: Not in the past 383 months.
In the past month have you been on Drugs: Not in the past 383 months.
In the past month have you gone on a Date: Not in the past 383....wait. Ummm...*does the math* It's been a while.
In the past month have you gone to a Mall: Almost daily. I work in one.
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos: No, but I wouldn't mind.
In the past month have you eaten Sushi: Gross.
In the past month have you been on Stage: No.
In the past month have you been Dumped: No.
In the past month have you been Skinny Dipping: EPA has rules against that.
In the past month have you Stolen Anything: Nope.
Ever Been Drunk: Nope.
Ever been called a Tease: I don't think so.
Ever been Beaten Up: No.
Ever Shoplifted: I was young. Candy. Didn't like it.
How do you want to Die: In whatever way causes those I care about the least pain.
What do you want to be when You Grow Up: 83 feet tall. Or a mad scientist. Or an 83 foot tall mad scientist.
What Country would you most like to Visit: Australia.
Number of Drugs I have taken: 0.
Number of CDs I own: Uh, about a dozen.
Number of Piercings: None. Ouch!
Number of Tatoos: None. Ouch!
Number of things in my past I regret: Many, but only one I hope to remedy.
In A Girl...
Favorite Eye Color: Green, but color isn't the most important quality.
Favorite Hair Color: Darker colors. Not blonde.
Short or Long Hair: Definitely long.
Height: Medium to tall.
Weight: Unimportant, as long as she's healthy and only needs one seat at the movie theater.
Best Clothing Style: Feminine but casual. A little old-fashioned.

11:40 pm: Things about me you may not know. (Neither did I!)

I was reading someone's blog and they mentioned "The Google Game" where you search for your name followed by the word "is" in google, to see what it says about you. She'd posted a lot of amusing tidbits she'd found. Naturally they weren't really about her. Just about her name. So here goes. Here's what I found out about me.

Clint is...

• ready for the world!!!
• a hybrid text generator written in C++ under Windows.
• located in far west Texas about 25 miles southeast of El Paso.
• seeking to reinvent the one thing that may actually be older than the wheel.
• the son of an African-American jazz musician and a British opera singer.
• one of Chicago's top Personal Fitness Trainers.
• a wonderfully engaging read.
• somebody who doesn't discuss his private life, at all.
• so rusty in the dating field, Emma has to show Clint all the ins and outs.
• a petty criminal who has already served some jailtime for stealing cars.
• a farmer and a family man.
• so adorable that you almost expect to see a tag bearing the name "Gund" protruding from his rear end.
• a fascinating individual.
• a miracle man!
• quiet, self-effacing, and seemingly mild-mannered.
• a good pilot.
• one of Prince Albert's favorite entertainers.
• known as one of the best buckle makers working today.
• an American hero.
• the man to call if your sewer is backed up.

So there you go. A whole slew of things you probably didn't know about me (I know I sure didn't). Of course most of them are lies. Except maybe that one about me being a text generator written in C++, and being rusty in the dating field. (But who's Emma?)

I guess I'd better go learn to cope with these truths about myself.

08:35 pm: Long Day...
Today was not an especially good day for me.
Out of the 3 people who normally come in to help me at work on Sunday, not one of them was able to make it. One had to take the day off for his daughter's birthday party. One called in sick. And one had car trouble. So I was left all alone to get the work done. Unfortunately the person who had car trouble was also my ride home, so it was the bus for me. Then about a mile of walking from the busstop because the connecting bus doesn't run that late on sundays. Meh. Other things have not been going well this weekend but I won't bore you with all the details. I'm just glad the weekend's over.

A couple of points of interest from my day today however.

1. I saw that Bruce Campbell will be appearing at the San Diego Comicon. Very cool. One more reason to go.

2. I passed by a small hamburger place walking home tonight called Johnny's #2 Burgers. Urr... That's pretty high on the list of unappetizing restaurant names. I've never eaten there but I don't recommend the #2 burger.

12:00 am: This Time I Mean It

A shout out to the two of you who actually read this (Hi ramerk and sjb_7 !)

I've decided it's time to get a new PC. Actually I decided a long time ago that I probably should, but this time I really mean it. I'm now actively saving up toward buying myself a new PC. Its time to give my current PC a retirement. Really it should have been replaced a long time ago. But its stubborn. And so am I.

My PC has been serving me well for a decade now. It's a trooper. It's been there for me. Maybe it can't keep up with all the fancy new applets and programs out there, but damned if it doesn't try. Its been a good PC to me. When it was new, it was a very high-end machine. And I've been sticking by it as its gotten more and more out of date. And because of my own quirks, I haven't really upgraded it since it was new. Yes, it still is running Windows 95. Yes, it still has 64mb of ram, a 33.6k modem, and a 1 gigabyte hard drive. And yes its all one unit combining cpu, screen, drives, and speakers into a single unit (like iMac but before iMac 'invented' the idea). That's not the point. The point is it still works. It's been good to me.

It also partly has to do with my obstinate little notions that keep me from upgrading my PC until its absolutely positively unavoidable, and I'm pretty much reaching that point now. Upgrading the RAM, hard drive, and OS on this PC isn't really worth the effort I'm afraid. And if the screen ever goes out, the whole unit is useless. So its time to give in to the monster. Part of the reason I hate upgrading is because every time I do I feel like its another victory tally on Microsoft's scoresheet. "Hah! We got another one!" Computers get more and more powerful, and Microsoft demands more and more power (in both global domination and computer hardware).

( Comparison Between Microsoft And Evil Blood-Sucking Plants Below The Cut )

10:41 pm: Games Nerds Play
I got the latest issue of the Mensa Bulletin this afternoon, and in it is a challenge for a wordplay game.

The idea is to come up with a brand name whereupon removing an uninterrupted series of letters from somewhere in the middle, joining the first part of the brand name and the last part of the brand name can form a new word that in some way describes the original brand.

The provided examples were:
Timex -- Tix -- what watches say
Marshall's -- Malls -- Where they're found
Toyota Prius -- Toys -- these hybrids aren't real cars, are they?
White Castle -- Whistle -- How you order more sliders
Vaseline -- Vane -- What you use to stop your wind indicator from squeaking
Verizon -- Vern -- I can still hear you, knowwhuttImean?

So I thought I'd try to come up with some of my own and see if maybe I can get any in print when they show the results. Here's what I came up with.

Stouffers -- Stuffers -- People who overeat frozen foods.

Nike Shoes -- Noes -- Answer for kids who want pricy sneakers.

Levi's Jeans -- Leans -- What type of people look best in their pants.

Macy's Department Store -- More -- What shopping there will cost you.

Only time will tell if any are used.

10:51 pm: Ruling With An Iron Fist
`Well, this IS grand!' said Alice. `I never expected I should be a Queen so soon -- and I'll tell you what it is, your majesty,' she went on in a severe tone (she was always rather fond of scolding herself), `it'll never do for you to be lolling about on the grass like that! Queens have to be dignified, you know!'

I discovered an interesting little game this evening, called Nation States where you create and rule a nation. It takes about a minute a day to play. Essentially, you're faced with moral dilemnas, and how you choose to react to them affects how your nation is changed. Also the nation is based on a short questionare you fill out at the beginning and can be quite amusing. It also lets you set up allegiances with other nations, and even join the United Nations if you're so ambitious.

My nation is called Cheschiria and is described as such:

The Dictatorship of Cheschiria
National motto: "Deal With It!"

UN Category: Corrupt Dictatorship
Civil Rights: Some
Economy: Weak
Political Freedoms: Unheard Of

The Dictatorship of Cheschiria is a tiny, safe nation, renowned for its compulsory military service. Its hard-nosed, cynical population of 5 million are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The large, corrupt, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Healthcare, and Social Welfare. The average income tax rate is 32%, but much higher for the wealthy. A tiny private sector is dominated by the Cheese Exports industry.

Crime -- especially youth-related -- is well under control, thanks to a well-funded police force. Cheschiria's national animal is the speckled jackalope, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the pringle.

Yes, it does sound like Utopia. Doesn't it? At any rate, I'll be sure to provide occasional updates on the national progress of Cheschiria.

Signed,
Prime Magister McCheese of the Dictatorship of Cheschiria

06:34 pm: I'd Rather Not
`Who ARE you talking to?' said the King, going up to Alice, and looking at the Cat's head with great curiosity.

`It's a friend of mine--a Cheshire Cat,' said Alice: `allow me to introduce it.'

`I don't like the look of it at all,' said the King: `however, it may kiss my hand if it likes.'

`I'd rather not,' the Cat remarked.

---

Well, its time for my 3rd post. Not a whole lot of interest has been happening to me in the past week, but today something a little unusual happened.

Now on AOL, I've long since become used to receiving IMs from other people on AOL who live in the geographic vicinity and are trying to meet people. These conversations usually start with "A/S/L?" or "Wanna talk?" and more often than not, turn out to be high school girls who aren't seeking to chat with someone in his 30s (nor am I necessarily seeking to talk to high school girls) so I usually dismiss these chats, stating that I'm not interested.

Today was a little different. Today it was a guy, and his opening line was this:

AngryDude: you wanna go out on a date?

At this point, I should iterate that I am a straight male, and that I have never spoken to or heard of this person before. The shock involved with this opening was not merely because he was a male either. I would have been just as shocked if a random female unknown to me had approached me the same way. And I would have turned them down as well. I do not consider myself to be homophobic. If others are interested in same-sex relationships, I won't try to stop them, and I'm not going to attack their beliefs because of it. But I want no part in it. Just as I don't actively seek to stop the lifestyles of vegans, smokers, and alcoholics but wish no place in that world. I have had friendships with people who live each of the lifestyles mentioned above, including homosexuals. But I have no interest in that life, and I have no intention of trying to change them (except for the smokers because it really is a senseless filthy habit, but that's a conversation for another day) not do I appreciate them trying to change me. Which is where AngryDude starts going wrong here. Keep in mind that this is not his real AIM name, so please do not try to contact him with it. The conversation continues as follows.

AngryDude: you wanna go out on a date?
Me: no
Me: I don't date guys
AngryDude: are you sure?
Me: yes, I'm positive I don't date guys
AngryDude: ok
AngryDude: but let me ask you this......
AngryDude: if someone's going down on you, does it matter if it's a guy or a girl? a mouth is a mouth, right?
AngryDude: stumped you, huh?

I was not at all stumped. I was actually typing my response, while he was quite certain that he had won me over with some logic that he's probably used many times before (perhaps even successfully). At worst, he probably thought I would call him some sort of name or attack his lifestyle and he could have the fun of an argument. I wasn't going to go down that road either.

Me: yes, it absolutely does matter. A mouth may be a mouth, but the act doesn't make any difference to me if I don't care about the person the mouth is attached to
Me: and in that sense, it doesn't mean every girl is just as good as any other girl
Me: because I'm more concerned with feelings than fucking
Me: which it sounds like you're not
AngryDude: i never really thought about feelings
Me: stumped you, huh?
AngryDude: lol, guess so.

Oh the fun of turning the tables of someone. The guy seems nice enough however, so maybe he'll find someone out there. But it won't be me. If he'd tried talking to me in another way, maybe we could have even been friends. But this approach did not impress me. The story dosen't quite end here either. A little over an hour later...

AngryDude: Changed your mind yet?
Me: No, I still don't date guys.

Apparently that still didn't get the point across because some hours later I had an e-mail from him

Hope you like
in case you change your mind
me


On the upside, he's not too bad looking. It's refreshing to know that were I ever to go gay (the day after I become a smoking alcoholic vegan), I could attract a decent callibre of men.

And with that thought...*click*

11:36 pm: Wasting Time
If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, `you wouldn't talk about wasting it. It's him.'

Today I was at work, working on a survey about the Internet that's conducted entirely in spanish. Which was entertaining because I don't really speak spanish. I can understand it well enough when I'm reading it but I'm a long ways from fluent in it. Yet, it seems that everyone else in the office was worse at it than I. Including Alice who is of hispanic descent. *chuckles*. Anyways, I made my way through a few of them.

Then came home to find that a book that I had ordered nearly 2 months ago from someone online had finally arrived. After much badgering. 'Crash Priority' for the Paranoia XP game. Now I finally have all the Paranoia XP materials and think I would like to run a game in the near future. It's a rather amusing, if sadistic, game. It suits my sense of humor well.

Then I ran my Forgotten Realms D&D game tonight. That was fun. The party faced a couple of baddies at their own Challenge Rating and were getting whooped by them. Even the Paladin who is usually like Superman, untouchable by the monsters and delivering nearly enough damage in return in a single turn to destroy whatever craeture I've thrown at them. Not this week. The Paladin was nearly killed. While the werewolf in the group took out both baddies with impressive attacks. It was great to see. I think it reminded them that combat can be a scary thing still, even at their high levels, and that the paladin won't always be able to pull their ass out of the fire. But they persevered, and I think they enjoyed it.

Today is also interesting because suddenly the biggest news isn't the Pope anymore. The biggest news going around is the fact that Cookie Monster is going to learn that cookies are only a 'sometime food'. I don't think its worth the effort of trying to convince him personally. After 40 years or scarfing down trays of cookies (or crumbling them up and spewing them out), I suspect its too late for the chubby lazy-eyed toothless blue monster. Let him enjoy his cookies. It's his only joy in life. He was made to love cookies. You wouldn't turn the Hamburglar into a vegetarian, would you? Hmmm, come to think of it, I haven't seen the Hamburglar in years. It's possible he entered cardiac arrest. Or perhaps was locked away in McPrison for life. Rubble rubble indeed.

Tomorrow at work, surveys for tv spots for the new Fantastic 4 movie. Woohoo. I haven't seen the trailer yet, so this will be fun. I've heard potentially bad things about the movie, but I don't care. Just the idea of a Fantastic 4 movie cries out to my inner child. It's Clobberin' Time! Good stuff. Hope they do a Dr. Strange movie sometime. He was always my favorite.

In other movie news.
Only 3 weeks to go...



That's it for tonight. *click*

08:00 pm: My Very First Blog Entry
Yeah, okay. This is my very first Blog entry, so people can see just how boring my life is for such a bizarre person as myself.

Let's see. The highlight of my week was going to Target on Saturday to get the new Episode 3 action figures. Especially the exclusive 'lava reflection' Darth Vader. I like Star Wars action figures. They remind me of my childhood and have gotten better as I've gotten older, and I hope some day I'll have kids who will enjoy them too. No hanging them in walls in their original packaging for me. I rip them out, stand them up, and pose them. They're toys. Not investments. Han Solo should be encased in carbonite. Not encased in cardboard and see-through plastic. But enough of that.

Anyway, I'm avoiding Episode III spoilers, so some of the figures I don't even know yet what they are, and the ones I do have (Vader, Obi-Wan, Palpatine, Yoda, R2-D2, Chewbacca, General Grievous, Dooku, Royal Guard) I don't read the backs of their cards so I won't know what they say. As I type this, I can see the figures perched around my desk in various poses. I saw a word once that I liked to describe the area around a computer desk. That word was 'geekosphere'. It certainly fits. My figures clutter my 'geekosphere' along with all my various roleplaying books which are scattered everywhere.

Speaking of roelplaying books, I ran my Mutants & Masterminds game today. Turnout was low, but the players were enthusiastic which makes up for it. The heroes went up against some kind of alien monster that is like a cross between a cartoony pterodactyl and an alien lizard. And a little lovecraftian. Now they've been scooped up by a society of omniscient alien watchers as can be found in most every comic book universe. Very stereotype, but in a comic book world, I have fun playing to the stereotypes that I recall from my comics.

Races of Eberron comes out tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to this. Eberron has been a very exciting fresh roleplaying system, and I've been wanting a new book for it for some time. I'll probably be picking it up Monday just in time for the next Eberron game. I saw another book on Amazon that's coming out soon too that sounds interesting. It's not a roleplaying book. It's called Gil's All-Fright Diner, and it has vampires, werewolves, and zombies in a humorous diner setting. Definitely one I'll check out.

I also finished reading Orson Scott Card's Children of the Mind this week which concludes the 'Ender Quarter' that started with Ender's Game. Excellent books. Very powerful. I definitely think I'll check out the next book in the line.

Well that's enough insight into my nerdy life for today. *click*