strangefootball

( Here are my predictions for Week 16. )

More later...

San Diego Chargers (11-3) at Tennessee Titans (7-7)

As much as I hate to say it, I don't think the Tennessee defense can stop Phillip Rivers' passing game. Or his arrogance and rudeness.

San Diego 27, Tennessee 20

How Wrong Was David?
Week of Bad Officiating Edition

Before this week, I needed to be 13-of-16 for each of the final three weeks in order to hit 70% on the season. Now, I need to be 15-of-16 in each of the final two weeks. Something tells me that ain't happening.

( This is how wrong David was. )

One of my favorite writers is William Gibson. In at least three of his books, either narration or characters refer to a technique of cooking in which the cooks never -- never -- stop cooking their stew/soup/whatever. They just keep adding ingredients to the pot as they continuously serve food out of it. Because of this, the pot never gets cleaned out, but they do so much volume that on average everything is very, very fresh.

I remember the first time I read it; it was such a unique idea to me that it jumped out and stuck to my brain.

The second time I read it, I thought -- "Oh. He totally just re-used a story he'd used before." Admittedly, it was in a different context and even had some subtextual allegory to the overall theme of the book, but I felt like he had forgotten that he had used it once before.

The third time -- which, unless I'm mistaken, was in a different series of books -- I started to wonder if it really was a mistake. Gibson is a careful writer. I wondered if there was something more to what he was doing -- some deeper meaning. While I don't intend to do so now, I could write an entire paper on the artistic or philosophical ideals that the story-within-a-story might represent, the nature of urban legend in shaping culture, and so on and so on... and I would not be at all surprised if Gibson himself thought of all of this ahead of time. (It's the one thing I'd want to ask him about if I had the opportunity.)

I worry more that I will re-use particular phrases that I really like, because I can't remember if I used them before. For example, I'm a big fan of using adjectives as measurements.

"On a scale of one to crazy, she tips heavily to the right."

"He went from zero to obnoxious in three-point-five drinks."

"How old is that guy? Eighty? Ninety? Jurassic? Jagger?"

I'm fairly sure I used at least one of these in my first book... but I'd hate to think I would need to keep track of things like this just so that I don't become too redundant in my writing.

Ganked from biscuitpig.

It's time once again for the year-end meme that is simply the first sentence of the first post of every month of the year. HOORAY!


JANUARY
For some reason, every morning when I wake up, I get a song caught in my head.

FEBRUARY
Phil Simms is borderline intolerable.

MARCH
This is how the conversation should have gone:

Her: How many more minutes do you have on that microwave?

APRIL
Insomnia sucks.

MAY
In the past five days, I have seen no fewer than eighteen Army soldiers in and around Indianapolis, walking around in their camouflage.

JUNE
The long and short of it is, my grandmother passed away this past Thursday.

JULY
Job description for today:
1) Ass kicking

AUGUST
We loaded up our sedan with travel snacks, luggage, and Ann's parents, and hit the road for the Twin Cities (Minneapolis & St. Paul).

SEPTEMBER
Once again, my office smells like fresh-popped buttery movie-style popcorn...

OCTOBER
Posted something here that belongs elsewhere.

NOVEMBER
OK, let's see.

DECEMBER
I'm not always the biggest fan of Improv Everywhere, but this cracked me up.

I'm starting to feel like I've abandoned LJ in favor of Facebook. I don't think I like that.

I guess I feel, though, that I can update Facebook in about twenty seconds, and when I want to post something here it takes more time because I want to go more in-depth.

Ironically, that's my entire post at the moment. I remain, as always, too dang busy.

( Here are my predictions for Week 15. )

Here are some archetypical missions found in video games, along with brief examples.

• Kill
  • Assassinate "Kill the ARM Commander."
  • Annihilate "Clear out the Den of Evil."
• Find
  • Collect
    • Farm "Mine 10,000 minerals."
  • Explore "Scout the base."
  • Discover "Find the missing gear."
    • Solve (usually) "Figure out how to start the elevator"
    • Trek "Get to the flag!"
• Defend "Don't let it die"
  • Escort "Follow the bomb truck and keep it from exploding"
  • Guard "Keep the convoy from using the pass"
  • Hold Off "Defend Black Sun until it fires"
• Escape
  • Flee "Run for your life!"
  • Ghost "Get out without being seen"
• Build "Build a barracks"

I'm sure you guys can come up with more. Tell me more!

How Wrong Was David?
Time Crunch Edition

( This is how wrong David was. )