Disgruntled Service Employee In Black Tie Blows Up Place With Machine Gun

Do I really want to get into a rant about my night at work? The thing is, I have waited tables before. I know that bad nights happen. The nearly-breaking-down-in-tears was more due to the fact that I had the last table in the restaurant and they were there till 11:15 when we stop seating at 10:00 than the fact that they didn't tip. And honestly, this restaurant is a generally expensive classy place-- this was the first time in the month I've been there that I've had tacky low-class people. I should probably be thankful for that. But I am somewhat ashamed at my near breakdown. I can't explain it. The closest I can come is to explain that if tears had arisen, they would not have been because I take waitressing personally. They would actually be tears of rage.

Perhaps I ought to just quote Jerry Maguire that my job "is an up-at-dawn pride swallowing SIEGE that I will NEVER fully tell you about!" You know, except for the up-at-dawn part. "Up till 2 AM" would be more accurate. So yeah. I am not going to tell you about it. I am not going to blog it.

With the caveat that, if you go out to a nice restaurant and beg to be seated five minutes after closing, and are the last table in the place, then order drinks, every appetizer in the place, a three course meal including WELL DONE RIBEYES, then have your extremely attentive server (because she doesn't have anything left to do except wait on you, and because she is excited you are the only expensive table she has had on a slow Wednesday night and will double what she's made so far) bring you steak sauce, ketchup, sprites with no ice, and all manner of stupid requests, then want your ribeye RECOOKED, which requires the kitchen guys to reopen the grill that they have already cleaned, it being 45 minutes after closing, and smile and be nice, and get boxes for your leftovers, look at the bill which is $170, smile, and leave A FUCKING FIVE on the table...

... I hereby ban you from ever eating out again. No, really. Ever. And don't be surprised if you get gunned down on your way out of the parking lot.

Off to work.

Tags: waitressing, rant

How Many People Told Me I Needed to See Firefly?

You people were right. Watched the first disc, which comprises the pilot and two episodes, last night and I have to say I'm loving it. I don't know where you ever got the idea that a space western would be my kind of show... really... ;-) I really enjoyed the ambience of it, and went to bed (at 3 AM, after watching the entire disc) imagining out all sorts of adventures in space.

But um, for the record, if I ever finish tinkering with my book and it ever gets published, I wrote it before I saw this show. K? Good. I'm not saying it's similar; the setting's certainly different... it's just that whole straggling group of slightly ghetto rebels thing.

Tags: firefly, netflix, dcds, science fiction

That Explains My Road Rage...

Courtesy of my dad, a study shows that my astrological sign are the worst drivers.

'The number one worst drivers were Geminis, "typically described as restless, easily bored and frustrated by things moving slowly," explained Warren Duke, Suncorp's national manager of personal insurance.'

I wouldn't say I'm a bad driver. My accident in January wasn't my fault. But there is something about traffic that makes me twitch. And people who are rude on the road. I have perhaps a little too much righteous zeal when it comes to driving, as well as an inability to let things go. (I once drove the entire way up St. Charles behind a guy who came within inches of slamming me through his failure to yield, with my middle finger sticking out the window.) I just don't see why someone doesn't do something about I-10 being slowed to a stop between here and Metairie every hour of every day ever. What is the point of a highway you rarely go over 30 mph on? "Frustrated by things moving slowly"? Um, yeah.

But for those of you who didn't believe me about the Post-Katrina potholes, this picture from the Times Picayune will be enlightening.

Tags: road rage, new orleans, gemini, hurricane katrina

A Box of Books!

Many people cannot imagine the sort of life in which receiving a box of books in the mail is THE coolest thing that can happen. Oh, but it is. I live that life. I walked in the door after work ($120 in tips = not the greatest night), and saw a box of books sitting on the chair. They're my freebies for joining the Science Fiction Book Club. I will probably spend the next three days reading nonstop. In case you are interested, I got:

A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords, George R.R. Martin (now I have them all in hardcover)
The First Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny
Gardens of the Moon, Steven Erikson
Crystal Rain, Tobias Buckell
Elantris, Brandon Sanderson

And again, once more with relish: A box of books! A box of books!

Tags: books, fantasy

Frozen Four, Saints vs. Badgers

Let no one say I didn't support Saints hockey, even in Louisiana!



Edited to add: Wisconsin 1, St. Lawrence 0. Dammit.

Tags: st. lawrence, hockey

Does This Look Like the Face of Pure Evil?

Mike: (to the incessantly yowling cat) Jolee, you cocksucker! (to me) How do people have kids and pets at the same time?
Me: What do you mean?
Mike: Well, then the kids would hear you when you swore at the cat.
Me: Maybe people... don't swear at the cat?
Mike: But he's such an asshole.














OK, that was a gratuitous cat picture. You got me.

Tags: cat, jolee

Eeee! Take That, Katrina!

Today my goal was to attempt some careful bleach magic on one of my favorite items of clothing stained by Katrina. Quick recap: The ceiling of my closet collapsed during the hurricane, and then the clothes sat there in the wet humidity for a month before I could get to them. I lost a fair amount of stuff. Technically, I lost more, except that I hate to throw things out, so I saved a lot of stained clothes, figuring I could just wear them around the house. I had a serious heartbroken breakdown in a laundromat in Raceland, LA (a long story which you can read about here or here), over some items that were just too stained to save. Anyhow, to my horror this dress (in fact the only white piece of clothing I think I did not throw out) had mold stains. (Click on the close-up to witness the creeping crud along the top.)

This dress is kind of important to me. I wore it at the Tick Tock the night before I graduated. Strangely, this picture of my brother Bryan posing with me on the dance floor that night is the one that gives you the best idea of the whole dress. Besides the fact that I wore it to practically every event in college, I just like it a lot. I've washed it twice since the hurricane with no luck. I've Shouted it to no avail. Yesterday I bleached some ink spots out of my work apron, which reminded me of the dress... It was a delicate process, because I didn't want to bleach out the embroidered flowers, some of which are dangerously close to the creeping crud. I did it in my underwear, since I was using way more than the prescribed amount of bleach per gallon of water and definitely did not want to splash. And now...

The Katrina creeping crud is gone! Aaahhhh! I love my dress. :-) Am now soaking a white cotton skirt from White House/Black Market. (Fine, I lied, the dress wasn't the only stained white thing I kept; I have this horrific inability to throw anything away, OK?)

Tags: hurricane katrina

Feminism, Star Wars, and Writing

There's a very interesting Livejournal community dedicated to feminist discussion of SF/F. It spurred me into an examination of my own novel, which I'm going to run with.

Once I met a guy at a party, and we got to talking about Star Wars. He asked me what my favorite part was. I have always had sort of a theory that you can tell a lot about someone by their favorite part in Star Wars. I said, "This might sound kind of weird, but it's when Luke is standing on Tattooine looking at the twin sunset." He said, "No way, me too!" Just that one moment. No action, no special effects. For me, that moment has always been the epitome of what science fiction/fantasy (and Star Wars) means to me: a glimpse of possibilities, the appreciation of being a small person standing on a world made of sand, the knowledge that something is out there. Anyhow, I ended up breaking up with the guy because he was, well, too much of a dreamer for me... but the scene remains.

I took some stream-of-consciousness notes on my novel this afternoon, a list of questions and missing scenes and things I need to emphasize better. I've had these characters kicking around for years. (I think I have a complete list of planets in the system on looseleaf paper dating back to when I was fourteen. This also why the character of Ari remains fourteen; even though I've grown up, I didn't want to lose that.) The crux of the matter being this: I love Star Wars. But it always bothered me that there was so much of this galaxy far, far away that Lucas left unexplored. Or rather, just ignored. Where were the people like me in Star Wars? Princess Leia was a pretty cool female character-- she was opinionated and she could shoot. But why the hell was there only one of her?

I wanted the characters in my novel to be people I would want to read about. I have four female main characters. They take turns having scenes. I figured, since I have four women, not just one, they will actually have distinct personalities, unlike most SF (how I detest the "token beautiful young genius" who appears in every ensemble cast of males to sleep with the hero). My failed rebellion against the evil government is a girls' club. I've got the behind-the-scenes computer programmer who is suddenly put in charge, the space jock who doesn't care about much of anything except getting her impounded ship back, the sophisticated bomb maker who wonders when the glamour in the whole rebellion thing disappeared, and the tagalong teenaged former waitress with paranoia and an attitude. The characters you'd expect to hook up don't.

I have a feminist vision myself. I want this to be reflected in my writing. The fact remains that I'm not writing a deep thought-provoking type of novel. I'm writing a soft sci-fi space opera adventure. I'm keeping it sort of campy; for instance, I've got a bomber who is attacked the morning after a one night stand and has to nakedly kill a bunch of assassins. I'm trying to have humor and also to have some deeper thoughts about war, people, and the vastness of space. But mostly it's a noir adventure in a corrupt city.

I just really want to accomplish what I'm trying to do. Is the simple fact that my characters are there enough, in this genre? I want to believe it is.

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, star wars, writing, feminism, dcds

Honkings & Other Stories

Just now on Prytania Street a man driving a truck full of Port-A-Potties honked at me. My only question is, I wonder how much play you think you're going to get with a truck full of Port-A-Potties.

Yeah.

I'd like to give props to the St. Lawrence Women's Hockey Team. The Saints are 31-4-2 and will be playing in the NCAA Division I Frozen Four this Friday. The #3 Saints (who I personally believe ought to have been #2 but were the victims of a crappy bit of bracketology which is a moot point now) face #2 Wisconsin in the semifinal. Two of the Saint captains were freshman residents on my floor when I was a CA my senior year... Go girls!

So a really big issue in New Orleans is the upcoming mayoral election. There are a ton of people running, from politial heavyweights to Joe No Teeth From Da Hood. Mike and I saw on TV that a 24-year-old grad student was running and said, "Awesome! We're voting for him!" On examination of his site, however, I have decided that he is a tool. I admit this isn't a highly researched political opinion... but I know some of the people on his site that he's friends with, and they are tools. So he's a tool by association. I don't know who I will actually vote for yet.









Gratuitous Jolee Photo of the Day

Tags: st. lawrence, hockey, new orleans, jolee

Internet Kitty

One of the animal rescue volunteers from the shelter where I adopted Jolee has him featured on her site. (I told you I wasn't making it up that they called him Mr. Bitey!) She also has some great accounts of her Katrina rescue experiences.

Jolee says, "Mrrrrff!" Well, actually he doesn't say anything. He's asleep.

I finally got my car back yesterday. Yes, I've been driving around in a rental for two months. The car looks as good as new, though, which isn't surprising because it WAS new before it got hit. It turned out we got hot water and my car in the same day. Needless to say, it was an exciting day here in the 504.

Tags: cat, jolee, car accident

Ignorance on CNN

SERIOUS FEMINIST RANT
Mike and I were watching Anderson Cooper on CNN last night, when something came on that made me flip out. A female correspondent was doing a segment on the recent deaths that may have been caused by RU-486. The headline on the screen read "ABORTION PILL DEATHS" or something like that, but the reporter said "... two recent deaths from taking the morning after pill." I immediately sat up and was like, "Hello? Which is it?"

Those are two entirely separate drugs. The morning after pill is Plan B (levonorgestrel). It is an emergency contraceptive, NOT an abortion pill and in fact will not work if you are already pregnant. The abortion pill is RU-486 (mifepristone). Since the correspondent stated the WRONG DRUG on air, the only way I knew which one they were actually talking about was seeing the close-up shot of the pill bottle which clearly read "RU-486."

This kind of carelessness has the effect of grievously misinforming the public about an important women's health issue. Conflating these two drugs is NOT OK. This is all we need, some ignorant teenager seeing CNN and thinking it is not safe to go and get emergency contraception. I have taken Plan B, and it is more like a large dose of birth control and NOT NOT NOT the abortion pill. It so safe the FDA is considering making it over-the-counter. I knew what they really meant because I am very familiar with this issue and recognized the name of the drug. Casual viewers might not. This mistake was extremely upsetting to me. It almost makes me think it's not a mistake and part of a huge conspiracy by conservative America to equate birth control with abortion... I mean, geez.

I emailed CNN to that effect today. (But didn't mention the conspiracy.)

/SERIOUS FEMINIST RANT

Tags: feminism, pro-choice, women's health, rant

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE!

Hark, what is this glorious sight? A truck with a trailer full of hot water heaters parked outside my house! Aaaaahhhhhh! They will be turning off the water for an hour and a half, and then... hot water! After three months, I've almost forgotten that normal people take showers, instead of just putting their head under a freezing cold faucet. Too bad I heated up a bath Little House on the Prairie style yesterday-- I don't even have to shave my legs. But you can be damn well sure I'm getting in and having a totally superfluous shower anyway!


(Jolee reacts in surprise and alarm to the sound of the hot water heater men in the basement. But he knows not the joy of hot water, because he is a cat.)

Tags: new orleans, post-katrina, hot water, jolee

Book Geek Thing

I discovered Library Thing yesterday, and proceeded to waste several happy hours of my afternoon away. It's an online service that allows you to catalogue your books, with little cover pictures and everything.

A couple of people asked, "Yes, but why?" I do not know the potential purpose of this site (apart from being able to put a really cool little bit of javascript in the sidebar of this blog, which pops up random books that I own), but it's still the neatest site ever. I guess it's something that appeals purely to book geeks, aka people who can think of nothing more satisfying and fun than staring at their own bookshelves all day.

Tags: library thing, geekdom, books

Cancel That, We're Going To Have A Rant After All

The U.S. Postal Service. What the fuck?

OK, so I previously noted that in our neighborhood the mail has been coming on a regular basis, which made us lucky compared to a lot of people from New Orleans. Yeah, well... can someone please explain why the mail has gotten WORSE over the last month? I am not making this up. The man came every day like clockwork at 3:30 during January and February. I'm home. He parks the truck on our corner. It didn't come Saturday, nor did it come today. Two people called me this weekend and said they got mail returned, which should not be the case because I left a forwarding address. And if I said, "Guess whose car payment is now late?" and you guessed mine, you'd be right. Walk to a mailbox? Can't! Because they picked them up off all the corners! Today I stuck mail in our slot with a post-it saying to please pick it up (sort of the annoyance of having a slot instead of a box). I was out twice today and could have gone to the post office. But no. For some reason, I trusted that the mailman would come. Yeah, well, that's not going to happen again. I put that mail out there at noon, and when I got back from class at 6:15? Still there. The funny thing is I joked to Mike at three that the mailman wasn't here yet... and he probably wasn't going to come because it was raining.

That joke is so much less funny now.

Irritated. And you know, one of the few pieces of mail I got last week was a postcard from the USPS saying they're back in business and here's their 800 number for feedback. Are they sure they really wanted to distribute those in this city?

Tags: post-katrina, hurricane katrina, rant

And Now, a Nice Interlude

I don't have to work till Wednesday, nor do I have any major school projects this week. This is hopefully going to manifest itself in a couple of good writing days. Mike had a convenient break from the journal this week, which allowed us to do nice things like have dinner at Upperline (I love Upperline; it's this eclectic art-filled Creole restaurant near my house), and go for a long walk through Audubon Park and past some amazing New Orleans houses. Most of you probably know the houses are one of my favorite things about this city, and why I love the Uptown neighborhood the best.

Paid some bills today, and registered the cat's microchip. This is the coolest thing ever, although as my dad remarked, it is rather X-Files. When the people at the shelter took him to the vet, he got a microchip. Then you go online and pay a fee and register it. Name: Jolee. Breed: Himalayan. Markings: Seal point, blue eyes, clipped left ear, broken front tooth. Owner: Me... And then if he gets lost, they just scan the microchip and call me! It makes me sad that if more people had done this, they might not have lost their pets after Katrina. But I am not about to let Jolee lose us like he lost his other people.

Speaking of the X-Files, last night's DVD viewing featured the original appearance of the alien bounty hunter. But we are going to have to stop burning through the episodes so fast because we have been neglecting our Netflix.

Why is it impossible to reminisce about St. Lawrence without a beer?

Seriously. I have tried, but somehow never managed to succeed. I randomly started scrolling through the college stuff on my website, and I found myself laughing out loud. Then I thought, "Damn, what I need is a Blue." But of course, I live in New Orleans, where Blue is not readily available, so I grabbed a nice cold Miller Lite in a can.

Sigh. Sometimes I suspect I go long periods without reading these things or looking at pictures because some part of me knows I'll miss it and refuses to let that feeling bubble up. For instance, I have all my diaries from my St. Lawrence years (put them in my backpack and carried them with me out of Katrina, in fact), but I won't read them. Sometimes I even feel reluctant to talk to my friends because it will make me miss it (and sometimes, it's just geography and how busy we are).

I am just one of those people who truly believes I had the absolute best college experience ever. It's almost hard to describe how hilarious, and fun, and real it was. Blows me away that 2003 was three years ago... Well. Those pages just cracked me up this afternoon. The in jokes of the girls, the crazy nights at the Tick Tock (funny note: Mike's mom went to SLU and saw one of my pictures and said, "Is that place still there?"), the antics of me and Packy... If any of you Larries ever want to come down to New Orleans, you have a place to stay. All of you are welcome. And you're welcome forever.

Tags: st. lawrence, college, memories, SLU

NaNoWriYe

That's right, I've decided that I'm not going to finish my novel unless I go all NaNo on myself. So, henceforth, I will be doing at least 1,000 words a day. I figure, this is a really easy total to enforce. It doesn't take very long. It's just a little chunk. This is Novel Writing Year for me. The reason I feel an urgency to get back to writing every single day is that I've been frustrated lately with how little writing I've done in the last two weeks. I feel as if, in my head, I'm all ready to write, and then the actual sitting down doesn't materialize. I had some projects due for grad school this week, and the training for my job has pretty much been eating my life. Plus it was Mardi Gras. It's also a problem that Mike is so busy-- he's in his last semester of law school and is Editor in Chief of a journal that's trying to play Katrina catch-up by putting out two issues at once. So when he is home, of course I can't write, because I hardly ever see him.

I found myself thinking serious thoughts last night... about writing, about inspiration, about some stories I did in college in particular. Mostly about my weaknesses, one of which is a tendency toward the lack of revision. I am one of those writers whose work has been so self-edited before I let anyone see it, I almost resent it when someone tells me to rewrite. I thought about some things I maybe regret. The characters I was writing then (you can see some of the short stories I'm talking about here) were very close to me, probably too close. On the other hand, I want to bring more of that into my novel; just because it's a science fiction adventure doesn't mean I can't try harder to really, deeply get into my four characters. I also thought about a writer I was working with then, who was the first person to ever rip my work apart and tell me to start over, instead of just handing me an A. I learned that writing is hard and writing is being pushed.

I did finish a flash fiction story (at least, I think it's flash-- it's just under 1,000 words) at the laundromat Sunday night. I'm not sure I want to send it anywhere, because it's kind of sensitive. I don't know the etiquette of how long you should wait before submitting anything Katrina-themed. On the flip side, lots of people may be doing this and editors are already sick of it...

And Asimov's has had one of my stories for two months. Can't they just reject me already so I can get on with it? This is the part of the writing process with which I am not patient enough.

Did I Say No More Cat Pictures?

This is Jolee employing what Mike calls "the Pimp Hand." It's one of his favorite poses when he lurks in wait for us outside the bathroom, we suspect to lay the smack down or something else equally shady. It also shows his mutantly impressive number of toes. See how he has thumb toes! So cute. (The other foot is like that too.) Cats are supposed to have five toes on the front feet, and four on the back, for a grand total of eighteen toes. Jolee is a polydactyl cat. He has seven toes on his front feet. Four are his fingers, and three are his thumbs. He kind of uses the thumbs to sit up on tiptoe, which I haven't managed to get a good shot of. One of these days I'm going to train him to pick stuff up...

See the Jolee album here...

Ten Things You Might Not Know About P.K. New Orleans

1. There are still few traffic lights working. Instead, we have four way stop signs at major intersections, and the mysterious blinking red/blinking yellow. OK, so I get that a yellow is yield. What's a blinking yellow? And if the other street has a stop, then who are we sort-of-yielding for, the idiots who were too dumb to stop? And is making the light change colors that much more expensive than making it blink? Logic has flown out the window in Post-Katrina traffic control.
2. The water pressure is crap. We're lucky to get a drizzle out of the sink. It's part of the reason why NOFD is having such trouble with fires.
3. Picture your favorite race track video game. That's what driving is like here, only the "obstacles" are dumpsters, dead scavenged cars, furniture, debris, and holes in the road.
4. Speaking of holes in the road, I'm not talking about potholes. I'm talking, the BellSouth truck came and dug up a section of the street that's 6 feet across and 4 feet deep and just left it there with a few pathetic orange cones because no one has the money to fix it. These chunks of missing street are all over town.
5. 24 hour groceries are no more. Store hours are still limited here.
6. We have been living here for over two months with no hot water. There are many, many others camping in New Orleans without various utilities.
7. You'd better not get a DWI because lord knows how long you will get lost at central lockup. Traffic court is not functioning, and neither is the courthouse, meaning the justice system here is effectively stalled.
8. Those flooded houses you saw on TV in the Lower 9th Ward? Today it looks exactly the same there as it did in September.
9. Our mayor is a well-intentioned man who probably has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and should really be barred from addressing the national media.
10. In our neighborhood we mostly get mail every day... but this is far, far from the norm. We just lucked out. I've heard tons of stories about Christmas cards just coming.

So, as you can see, it's not over yet!

Tags: hurricane katrina, post-katrina, new orleans, road rage

100th Post and a New Layout!

My apologies if you visited the blog in the middle of my HTML fiddling and found it a mess. This is Still Life With Soup Can's 100th post since I started blogging last July. I thought I would celebrate with a more customized look (since Blogger only has, like, 10 templates after all). Let me know if you like it!

Who's Out There?

My hit counter tells me I get around 15-20 unique visitors here per day. I know most of you are my relatives, maybe some friends, maybe people from SF and writerly sites that I frequent. Who are you? Leave a comment and let me know! You may also tell my cat he is pretty. He isn't opposed to that.

I went over to Latter Library this afternoon to return the first two Harry Potters, which I've had out since last July. They survived TWO collapses of the roof, and somehow managed to stay dry. It sort of felt like my good deed for the day, to bring those back. In fact, you should go to the New Orleans Public Library's site and see just how much they've been through. And if you're one of my bookish friends looking for a great place to make a donation, please consider it. But I don't have any money, so I returned my Harry Potters. It was the least I could do.

In other news, Mike and I are watching The X-Files Season 2 on DVD. This was the season I started watching, when I was in high school, and I am remembering how much I loved the noir feel of that show. I also crack up whenever I see a pile of sunflower seed shells on Mulder's desk, because I happen to have the same fixation. I used to have the poster Mulder has on his wall, the I WANT TO BELIEVE poster with the picture of the UFO... but it got wet in Katrina. I suspect some secretly geeky part of me would find it super cool to hang out in the basement and be a Lone Gunman.

Jolee Says, "Beads! Beads!"

I can't believe it's been five days since I've had time to be on my computer. Training for my job is killing me... 9 hour nights, not getting home till 1:00 AM, and no tips. Plus it's Mardi Gras. We were at the parades all day yesterday. Hopefully next week things will settle down. I feel like my feet will thank me when they do. Anyway, Happy Mardi Gras!

Tags: cat, jolee

The Galaxy's Best Waitgirl

I'm employed again! I start orientation tomorrow at _____ on St. Charles. (Hey, I'm not about to be one of those bloggers who gets fired for talking about work.) Once I finish training, I'll be waitressing 4-10 Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. When I add this to my current schedule of grad school 4-6 Monday, Tuesday, and every other Friday, this means I'm pretty much free all day! The manager at _____ promised me lots of $$$ for few shifts. I hope I don't make as much as I did at my "real" job. Then I'll be really depressed.

This really takes me back to when I was working at Anthony's Lobster House, over two years ago. It was this restaurant near the convention center downtown, where one wall was made entirely of windows overlooking the Mississippi. During the day it was just barges and tankers. But at night the bridge would light up, and you could see the colors in the water, and you could stand there refilling the guests' water glasses and imagine... somewhere else. One night after waitressing, I came home and scribbled in my notebook a few paragraphs about a redheaded waitgirl who has a secret, a waitgirl who works in a place with a view. Only her view wasn't of the lights reflecting on the Mississippi: her view was of the skyway, the flare-lit road I imagined winding above a huge city on another planet, and the stars. And one night this waitgirl took off her apron, let down her hair from its ponytail, said, "Keep the change," and walked out.

Her name was Ari Kloss. And that scene was the beginning of my novel. Well, damn, it's funny where inspiration comes from. I'm going to go write.

Tags: waitressing, writing, dcds

Geekdom = Right Here

Just warning you. Until this fall, I had never played a computer game. Then I got sucked into Knights of the Old Republic, or as we call it, The Game. I played for, like, 30 hours straight. SO MUCH FUN. Really. SO FUN! Like being in Star Wars! I guess I never did the role-playing thing because it made me think of guys in basements. But the writerly part of me loves naming my characters, figuring out who they are, etc. Then I discovered mods, and that opened up a whole new aspect of geekdom. For some reason, I really really like being a Twi'lek in a skanky outfit. I haven't been a guy yet, and I haven't managed to be evil because it makes me feel so awful. But I have been:

Malta Amakiir is my character in Neverwinter Nights, which I'm several hours into. She is a half-elf ranger. She is a chaotic neutral character, which I interpret as a reluctant hero who helps the good guys but isn't above taking on some shady quests for fun and profit. Malta has a direwolf called Nymeria (just like Arya Stark!). Though it lacks the Star Wars factor, this game is pretty cool.



Palyn Nu is my current character in Knights of the Old Republic II. She's a hottie who somehow manages to fight without her boobs falling out of that shirt. Really I just run around in the game watching myself and going, "EEEE I look so cool!" Thanks, pcgamemods.







My current character in KOTOR I, Mariorav Fortuna was supposed to be evil, but I couldn't do it. Sigh. So yeah, she's a Scout/Jedi Guardian. And she's purple. And her midriff-baring robe is pretty cute. I really need to get going on that Dark Side thing, but my party gets so upset with me when I beat up random people and take their credits, I just get depressed.




Arkady Darell (tribute to Asimov) was my first KOTOR II character. She was a paragon of the light. But the game wouldn't let her hook up with Bao-Dur, which was a huge letdown, because he is pretty sexy for an alien guy with horns. Arkady rocked the double-bladed silver lightsaber (which really just looks white.)


Duru Antilles holds a special place in my short gaming experience, because she was the first. No relation to Wedge (I figure Antilles is the Smith of Star Wars), she was a sarcastic Scoundrel who became a Jedi. Duru favored two lightsabers, one blue and one purple. She was such a bad ass. And she saved the galaxy. And it was awesome. I miss you, Duru!
... But this morning, I think I'll be purple for a while.

Tags: geekdom, rpg, kotor

The Parade Must Go On!

I don't think there should be any controversy over whether Mardi Gras should have rolled. It had to. The argument is that if Mardi Gras goes on as usual, people will think everything is OK here. Which it is not, but I got news for the detractors: most of America already thinks that anyway. I know better when I drive down Gentilly on the way to class. And did you know that the cable company here devotes an entire channel to playing music and showing photographs of the 9th Ward and Lakeview 24/7?

But today's floats showed a sense of humor about things, and it's a healthy idea. It makes you forget for a while that you have to dodge giant piles of debris and derelict cars everywhere you drive. I now have a lovely Krewe of Carrollton "Blue Roof Blues 2006" cup. The parades are much shorter than usual, but my usual spot at St. Charles and Milan was crowded enough. Let the parades roll!