Random musings

First, I've gotta pimp my game again. This game is the primary reason I've let my blogs go. Dicing Dangers is a multi-player online role playing game. Lots of fun. It runs right in your browser. Absolutely no downloads required to play. It's free. It's very social. I've made friends with people all over the globe. Give it a try. http://www.dicingdangers.com/index.php?ref=6591

If you sign up look for me online. My new analogy for the clan I belong to is that we are the Jedi Knights of the game. My two character names are "Spiker" and "ZoeChihuahua" (yes, my freaking dog is one of my characters).

I guess what's got me so hooked is that there are so many international players. The person I'm most friendly with lives in Tasmania, Australia. Our clan leader lives in England. A couple of times all three of us would be chatting in Windows Messenger. The first time we did this it struck me. How cool is this? Between California, England, and Australia we are about as far apart as three people could be from each other yet there we were talking to each other like we were all next door neighbors.

Our clan has members in Lithuania, Singapore, England, Australia, and the Ukraine in addition to the US. Our American clan members are in New Mexico, Ohio, and South Carolina. I just find that so cool.

So if you sign up and don't see me look for members of my clan if you need help learning the game. Look for either [EGO] or [NEW] next to player names in the chat column.

I forgot to mention this in my last post. When Imani and I entered Fry's after having waited in line for about 45 minutes before the doors opened the whole Fry's staff were lined up inside applauding us as we entered the store. It wasn't clear why they were applauding but I got the feeling the sentiment was "thank you for waiting outside in the cold like an idiot". It was quite awkward and just a little embarrassing. It made me feel as if I should be raising my arms in victory like I had just won something.

On Monday's Howard Stern show one of the staff members announced that he was gay. Personally, I thought the guy, High Pitch Mike, was a real asshole. I now understand why. He said that he had been in the closet for so long because his mother once told him that she would disown him if she were ever to discover that he was gay. He has lived the balance of his life with the anguish of knowing he would lose his mother if he were ever truthful about his sexuality. He mentioned the special commentary Keith Olbermann had on Countdown following the passing of Prop 8. I thought the commentary was worth watching here if you're interested.



Also on that same show they reviewed the new Guns & Roses album, "Chinese Democracy". According to Howard this album's been 13 years in the making and Rolling Stone had given it four stars. I have never been much of a G&R fan but I decided to download it and give it a listen. It's actually quite good. The songs are very strong and the guitar player was surprisingly excellent. Slash isn't their guitar player anymore, but I think that's a good thing anyway. I definitely wasn't a fan of Slash. If you like heavy rock you'll like this album.

In my widget column on the left you'll see a new widget for Grand Central. If you click on it the program will call your phone then call mine to connect us. What I like so much about Grand Central is that they will provide you with a telephone number that you can keep for the rest of your life.

Most people become very attached to their phone numbers. Whenever I have to place an order for a phone customer that is moving I often encounter people that get quite upset when I tell them they can't keep the number. The reaction is natural. It is a hassle making sure that everyone has your new number and it's inevitable that there will be people that you end up forgetting.

What this service does is forward calls from the number they have provided you to another phone number that you can be reached at. This means that it will no longer matter if the phone company assigns you a new phone number. As long as you set Grand Central to call that new number you won't ever have to worry about making sure everyone has it. As long as people are calling your Grand Central phone number it will never be an issue.

The service is still in beta. There's no telling if you'll ever have to pay whenever it gets out of beta, but it's worth trying. It's a great way to manage your telephone services, at home and with your cell. Register for a number for life of your own at http://www.grandcentral.com