Snow
Between the snow and the sleet, Carla and I decided that today would be a good day to stay home. I've been pretty lazy today. Besides shovelling the snow, I've read and watched TV. I finished re-reading The Bane of the Black Sword, which lead me to re-read the graphic novel adaption of Elric of Melnibone and read a few more chapters of the Dragonlance Chronicles. Carla and I watched the first couple episodes of Sopranos season 2.

Carla picked up some new bookcases today. After putting them together I brought out a bunch of books from our rather cluttered computer room to the living room.. Now maybe I can get this computer room a little cleaner.

Transformers
OK- Some of these online tests are getting ridiculous.


If I was an Autobot, I'd be:


Take the Transformers personality test at android5.com!

I'm not sure I agree.

I spoke to one of the Florida social workers today and as far as she knows there are no plans to give custody of the kids back to my sister. I also spoke to my Mom today and I think I was able to get her to understand that just because my sister hasn't hit the kids yet, doesn't mean she won't.

John Adams
When JA was in his twenties he kept a journal. In it he wrote a lot about the people around him and the world he lived in. The biography I am reading is filled with quotes from his journal and his writing was excellent. In a different time or place he could have been an excellent novelist. The strange thing I learned today is that during the 5 years that he was courting Abigail, he only wrote in his journal once about her and that time in coded speech. He wrote less often in general during those years (no doubt, he was preoccupied) but even when he did write he didn't say anything about her, not even a "saw Abigail today." I wonder why he didn't write about their courtship. Was it some sense of morality that told him he couldn't kiss and tell? Perhaps he feared that his journal would fall in to the wrong hands and ruin her name. After they were married they would write eachother every day that they were apart and thoughts of her filled much of his journals.

We went to C&JC's this afternoon. Hung out for awhile and had dinner.

I got a call from my Mom at work Friday. The case worker for our Neices has been changed. The new caseworker seems to have no clue about what was going on and from what my Mom said, she thinks that my sister may be able to get back custody of the girls. The last caseworker said that she would fight to make sure that doesn't happen. M&F would never be safe with C. My sister has no ability to deal with anger. If C gets upset at them, who's going to stop her from hitting them like she has my Mom? I tried calling the new worker several times, but Florida social services is extremely understaffed and overworked. I have yet to get a hold of anyone who has anything to do with the case.

M&J came over last night and we had an informal "craft night." I worked on painting some minis. These days I have more unpainted miniatures than I have painted. I haven't spent much time painting lately, but I keep buying them. I have found a couple of good miniature dealers online lately. Both of which I plan to buy from as soon as I have the chance. One is The Warstore and the other is Dragglestown. I hear that they both give excellent customer service and Dragglestown has the ability to search by sculptor.

Champions
I played Champions (the superhero roleplaying game) tonight and had a great time. The last couple of hours of the game was a massive fight. Near the end of the fight the building we were fighting in came down on us (from all the collateral damage of a superpowered fight) and we had dig ourselves out of rubble to continue our slugfest. It was getting late, but I didn't want to leave until we had finished the fight. Result: I just got home.

Nuadha Airgetlamh (Nudd [Cymru], Llud Llawereint and Nodens [Briton])
Also known as Nuadha Airgetlamh, "Nuadha of the Silver Hand," he is the Irish god of healing, the Sun, youth, beauty, poetry, and writing. Nuadha possesses the invincible Sword of Nuadha (or Findias), one of the great treasures of the Tuatha de Danaan brought to Ireland upon their invasion of the island. After Nuadha lost his hand, Dian Cecht fashioned him one of silver. Nuadha lost his sword hand in the first battle of Mag Tuireadh against the Fir Bolgs, and had to step down as king because the king could nave no blemish despite the fact that he was outfitted with a hand of silver. His hand restored by Dian Cecht, Nuadha lead the Dannans against the Fomors in the second battle of Mag Tuireadh. In this battle he was physically killed and thereforereturned the Lands of the Sidhe.
from http://www.applewarrior.com/celticworld/celticdeities_ntoz.htm#anchor1906730

Smallville
How long until there are no more normal people in Smallville? Every episode adds one more piece of wierdness to the town.

Books
I'm almost done with Althalus. I was getting worried that it was going to fizzle out at the end, but it has really picked up the last couple of chapters. I read some more of John Adams at lunch today. (John Adams is the book I am keeping in my drawer at work.) The author jumps around in time. One minute JA is at the Continental Congress, the next he is growing up in Mass.. I am not sure if I like that. Carla and I stopped at Waldenbooks today and I picked up the D&D Monster Manual. I don't know if I'll ever play D&D, but I like the art and I can use the stats for the Chainmail miniature game. Well, I'm leaving now. Smallville is on. It's the "people-eater-girl" episode tonight.

Lord of the Rings in Legoland
http://www.chem.ucla.edu/~bnh/lotr/lotrmain.html

Lost
I got a reply from my high school buddy. He sounded like he was quoting a bunch of KKK/Neo-Nazi literature. According to his reply, "The minorities have taken over this country" and "the reality is that you have to be careful about practicing your religion openly if you're a christian." I wrote a long reply to try to educate him about the Muslim beliefs and how mistaken he was about many of the things he said, when I realized that it wasn't going to work. He is too far gone. He twisted everything I said in my last email and convinced himself that I had been fooled by some great conspiracy. I don't know if my friend was secretly like this before or if the events of this last year made him fill up with hate so much that these groups were able to recruit him, but he does not sound like the same guy I grew up with. My heart is very heavy now. I guess it is fitting that I should have these conversations with him on MLK day. I got to see first hand that King's fight still needs to be fought.
"The truth is the only weapon we need." -H.H. The Dalai Lama

In case you were wondering..
My religious beliefs tend to be a mixture of Buddhism and Pagan beliefs. I believe that the God/Goddess comes to people in many forms, depending on what they need. For some people, they need a very defined view of God. Those people find religions that give them the structure they need. I just wish that they would quit trying to force their views on me.

Religion
Why do some people feel the need to convert other people to their beliefs? Are they that insecure in their faith? Sometimes I wonder if having more people agree with them makes it easier to believe in something that continues to be disproved by science. You don't usually see Buddhists out trying to convert people, but Buddhism doesn't teach anything that has gotten disproved by science.
A high school friend of mine forwarded an email to me last night. It was the first email I've received from him in a while. The email stated that God allowed the attacks of 9/11 to occur because we don't allow prayer in public schools. It went on and on about how we teach our kids that sin is good. I have warned him in the past that I don't appreciate these emails, but he continues to forward them to me. It has gotten to the point that I don't want to have any more contact with him. I have recently changed email addresses and I am not sending him my new one.
This friend was also the guy who was emailing me back in November saying that we should bomb Afghanistan "back in to the stone age." Last night he forwards an email saying that the problems with today's society is that kids aren't being taught the bible and "Thou shalt not kill." In September he called me un-american because I didn't support the government sponsored murder that was going on in the Middle East. Last night he tells me that the government should ignore the Freedom of Religion and force a religion down kids throats. I guess what upsets me the most is that I never saw what a hypocrite my old friend is until now.
I sent him a lengthy email back. I told him my feelings on the matter. I asked him if schools should also teach "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" or that a woman is inferior and should submit to her husband. I reminded him that "Thou shalt not kill" did not leave any exceptions and that "he who is without sin should cast the first stone." I told him that Sept. 11 had nothing to do with god, no matter what the religious fanatics on either side may want you to believe. I said a whole lot of things. After sending my long email, I still don't feel any better.
So, I am having nothing more to do with him. I like talking to people who have different beliefs than me, but if you are going to talk to me about religion, please respect that I may not agree with you. If you are going to preach to me, I hope you practice what you preach.

Changeling
I run a "mostly diceless" Changeling roleplaying game once a month. Changeling is White Wolf's Modern Fantasy (think Charles DeLint) roleplaying game where players take the role of the Fae who were trapped on Earth when the gates of Arcadia closed. In the old days, I would run roleplaying games on a weekly basis. These days I don't have the time to plan and run a game every week. (I play in a Champions game every week, but all I have to do each week is show up with character and dice in hand.) The problem I have found with once-a-month games is that occasionally you have to cancel. Such was the case tonight. If the game met every week, then cancelling isn't a big deal. When the game meets once a month, you know that cancelling means that you will have to wait a whole month to get to the next chapter.

iMacs
I have an older iMac and I love it, but it has one fatal flaw. The keyboard on the old iMacs were horribly designed. The keys are far too cramped and occasionally I will hit the wrong button. When I hit the wrong letter, this isn't too bad. I can always delete my error. The problem is that I occasionally hit the wrong button and erase what I was just typing on the internet. That is what just happened to a blog entry I just typed. I have no idea what button I hit but suddenly the whole entry was gone.

Books
I'm reading the Dragonlance Chronicles right now. I have the Annotated collection, where the authors made comments about the book on the side margins. It's really cool. It's like a DVD with a director's commentary and deleted scenes. Some of the scenes that they tell about in the sidebar are really good and it's really sad that they had to cut them out. I am also reading The Redemption of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings and John Adams by David McCullough. Both are very good books so far. I'm almost done with Althalus (Only about 50 pages left) and I don't want to finish it. I have enjoyed the build-up of the story too much and I'm afraid that the ending will be a let-down. MK told me yesterday that the ending is good, so I will have too go ahead and finish it.
That's the way I am sometimes. Many of the books that I never finished, I never finished because I knew the rest of the book couldn't be as cool as I imagined it would be. Wierd, eh?

These polls get a tad silly.

Boromir If I were a character in The Lord of the Rings, I would be Boromir, Man of Gondor, proud heir to the Steward Denethor II, and elder brother of Faramir. In the movie, I am played by Sean Bean. Who would you be? Zovakware Lord of the Rings Test  with Perseus Web Survey Software

My wife and I are currently trying to become foster parents for my niece, F.. This has been occupying much of time and thoughts, lately. My wife and I decided a while back that we are "non-breeders" and that we weren't going to have kids, so we have never thought about making room in our lives for a child. This is going to take some adjusting.
I will probably ramble a lot here. I'm looking at this page as one big free-form writing exercise. Try to stay with me.

I used to keep a journal. I think it's a great a idea to keep one. Unfortunately, I wasn't very good at keeping it up to date and eventually I completely dropped it. One day I went to write in it and I realized that there had been too many changes in my life since I had list written in my journal. I was a whole different person and I couldn't imagine trying to write about all of the changes. So, rather than trying to update the journal, I hid it away.

In case you are wondering, my name isn't Nuadha. I recently decided to borrow it from Celtic mythology as my new web identity. Nuadha was one of the great kings of the Tuatha de Danaan.

There are many things happening in my life these days and I will try to keep you, the reader, informed. Right now, however, I need to get going. My wife is cooking fish tonight and we are out of Tartar Sauce. I'll post more after I get back from the store. (Okay, so the story is starting out kind of slow. Great adventures sometimes start out that way.)