Be notified of page updates

it's private

powered by ChangeDetection

trivia inspires trivia

Listening to:	Kamakiriad by Donald Fagen
Reading:	Diamond Age
Weather:	30, partly cloudy

After the rousing game of Trivpursuit at the Thanksgiving table, I decided to go for some more trivia testing last night. Liv and David went to see some terrible horror movie (Grudge) at the Warner (the mall is offlimits to her until 2005 because she was late at our pickup point 3 times in a row). I had 1:40:00 to kill, so I went to BW3. OK, there's no more Weck and it's called Buffalo Wild Wings now, but you know what I mean. I grabbed a trivia box and played 2 and half games. The box is different since I last played some years ago, but the games are pretty much the same. I signed up for Players Plus between games, so now I can accumulate Plus points from game to game. There's a 50'ss 60's 70's music game on Saturday nights, that sounds very tempting. But who knows when I'll get to play again, will it be yet another few years?

This album is excellent. It's a futuristic concept album, very groovy like the other Donald Fagen albums and several of the modern Steely Dans. All groove, jazz chords, layers of arrangement including lots of aux percussion, perfect production. On the Dunes is a really great track. He definitely knows how to arrange for backup chicks.

Oh, and I blew my "don't spend a bloody penny" plan for yesterday. I bought a taco salad at BW3, and it was really good.

Liv was remarking about how freakin dark it was at only 7:30 last night. It seemed like midnight. But it's only 3 weeks and change to the solstice, my favorite holiday!

Monday the US Supremes hear an important medical marijuana case, Raich v. Ashcroft. It attacks the supremely stupid commerce clause theory of federal authority in the drug war, at least as far as medical marijuana is concerned. The lead plaintiff is compelling, mother of 2 with inoperable brain tumor and lots of other diagnoses. If they uphold the 9th circuit, patients in the 10 states with medical marijuana protections can breathe easier, and probably many other states would quickly pass similar laws. If they reverse, not much harm done, same shitty situation we're in now, sick people go to prison for following their doctors' treatment plans. It's a glimmer of hope in an otherwise dark political climate. Though the unbridled power the pharmaceutical corporatocracy unleashed in the stupid Medicare Modernization Act makes me think they probably have a way to control the Supremes, too.

I went to the NORML conf in 1997 or 1998 in DC, and it was killer. Got to meet and see many of the great freedom fighters, policy analysts, scientists, lawyers, and other activists I've been reading about for decades. Somebody ought to research the fountain of youth properties of THC, cuz so many of those old guys were total young-looking hotties. Anyhoo, there were so many brilliant speakers from many disciplines, but my favorite was Ann Druyan. She is Carl Sagan's widow, and strictly genius, as you might imagine. Very sweet and groovy, too. She promoted the idea of a national day of coming out for pot smokers. A major ad campaign leading up to it, with people from every walk of life revealing that they smoke pot and showing what normal and valuable people they are. Sounded like a fabulous idea to me. I'd love to go to another conf, but something else frequently conflicts. Last year it was in San Fran, how cool would that be.

I got a used 17" monitor for $15, as a backup (mine is about 9 yrs old, I think) and to perhaps hookup as a second monitor (with XP you can easily view your desktop across multiple monitors). But I either need a new video card with two monitor outputs, or a second video card. After consultation with my favorite geek I'm thinking pick B, cheaper and simpler. I have 2 spare PC card slots, what the hell.

Cirque du Soleil Varekai is coming to Pittsburgh this spring. Qui Dam was totally amazing. It's even more pricey this time. It was such a radically fresh experience, I'm thinking it can't be quite as awesome the second time you see one, but then again, these cats are of the highest caliber, they don't do anything second rate. Hmm. I'll probably go for it.

permalink posted by cat 8:38 AM

read 0 comments