House of Jorob

World of Warcraft: Deldodin's Blog

Walking through Dun Modr

I'm out wandering Dun Modr the other day.

Run into Motley, Longbraid, Rhag, and Roggo.

Bunch of nice guys to bend an arm with.

Whatever.

All four of them were kind of preoccupied out there in the field.

Which I guess is the right way to be when you're emptying Enforcers into a nearby nest of dark iron dwarves.

Couldn't get Longbraid to say very much about it, either.

That's usually a sign for me to move on, come back later when I've had a chance to figure things out, gain a few levels.

Nooooooo.

Not this time.

This time, not having anything better to do at the moment, I snuck on over to the barriers.

Figured I'd see what was so important they'd spend most of the day blasting away at.

When I woke up, the first thing I did was go downstairs and ask the Innkeeper for a dictionary.

And there it was:

"Train."
n. also v.
Common.
The resulting chaos formed by the sudden shrieks of a gnome as encouraged by Ashlan Stonesmirk's dynamite tossing.

Stonesmirk???

I knew I had miscounted.

Author's note: Deldodin is a gnome, a rogue living in the realm of SteamWheedle Cartel.
I've decided to post his more coherent writings.
When I find one.

My Post Office is Dying

I think the Lansdowne post office is on the way out.

One of about 8 post offices within a 3 mile radius, it will probably be one of the thousand or so closings that will pop up in the next year.

You walk in, and the walls behind the counter are bare. Couple of pieces of tape still stuck on the wall, from where posters used to be. The lines are ginormous; normally you can expect to wait 15- 20 minutes for counter service on a Friday afternoon. There are just two clerks working the counter. One goes to lunch at.....Noon. Right when the people who run errands on their lunch hour arrive. But there's no choice--the counter folk have a right to a lunch break, and there don't appear to be many staff there.

The Box lobby is still open for service during off hours.

But the automated postage machine--the thing that the Post Office touts as a feature in post offices that will have their hours reduced--has been removed.

The hole in the wall has been boarded over.

The sole clerk working the counter wearily says there are no plans to replace it.

The next person in line steps up. She wants to buy postage: 10 first class stamps.

The clerk refuses. She has no more sets of ten to sell.

And won't break open other, larger sets to accomodate her.

I'm still trying to figure out the logic behind that.

People are just not using the mailstream as much as they used to.

Who the hell wants to wait in line for 20 minutes to buy postage only to be told there are no stamps?

Last summer's gasoline hikes must have strangled a business that needs thousands of trucks to move letters around, at less than fifty cents per piece.

And the post office gets no taxpayer money.

It's a mess.

When the post offices around my home town get closed up, and the nearest one is 5 miles away, some enterprising teen is going to make a mint, charging a buck to carry your mail to the post office for you.

Woodstock: 40 Years After

They're gathering at Yasgur's Farm in New York this weekend, kicking off a grand music festival of peace, love and rock and roll....

Please.

Stop.

Woodstock is over.

It's been over for almost half a century.

That's what 40 years is.

<sigh>

Okay.

I'll lighten up.

The concert is the Bethel Woods Music Festival.

I guess the Faithful can't be blamed for wanting to hear at least a passing resemblance of what their musical heroes sound like live.

So, rock on.

Even if it is for only one more day.

Still, I can't seem to shake the mental image of the line of ambulances needed to carry all the stroke and heart attack victims out of the place when the sun's finished baking the over-sixties types.

Paycheck: Worth the Viewing

Philip K Dick stories make the best movies.

A 2003 example: Paycheck.

A twisty little film starring Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman.

And a neat little supporting role by the guy who played John Adams in last year's HBO adaptation.

This one's no Blade Runner.

But it's a nice little popcorn flick.

Now playing via NetFlix, Blockbuster, and various download sites.

And the John Adams guy?

Paul Giamatti.

(C'mon. Did you really think I'd end this without listing the actor's name??)

NaNoWriMo warmups

National Novel Writing Month kicks off in just three months.

Write a novel.

From scratch.

In one month.

50,000 words in 30 days.

1,6667 words per day.

The mind boggles.

Well, no.

Not really.

More like an extended cramp.

This November will be my fourth shot at the magic number.

Haven't made it to the finish yet.

I mean, with the 50,000 words.

I'm usually gamely plugging along, filling page after page.

Just not enough of them.

Last year I tapped out at just over 19,000 words.

That I'm thinking about this year's Nano project three months in advance is a good sign.

That I'm actually drafting an outline is even better.

Although, I've never worked from an outline for Nano.

Been letting the characters develop themselves, and work out the story between us.

We'll see what the outline does.

It's legal, as far as the NaNo writing rules go.

You can't use prewritten chapters, that kind of thing.

Outlines and character sketches, sure enough.

As long as it's planning material.

I don't have a clean ending on this post.

Kind of like my NaNo novels, to date.