So I get to this lady’s house, and when she opens the door, she spotted a frog on the corner of her porch. “It’s back!” she said, surprised, explaining to me that the frog had the habit of migrating to the porch whenever a storm was on the horizon. This was at 5:30, and as the day progressed, minus a small splattering of rain drops across my windshield shortly after this conversation, there was not a rainstorm to be spotted.

Until I walked out of the grocery store, after getting out of work, and found that the humidity had doubled in the ten minutes I’d been inside. Dear goodness, nevermind the steady splatter of raindrops across my shoulders and head, the heat …

Lately I’ve been running the a/c, both in my apartment and in my car. I can’t remember any other summer when I’ve had to run either a/c quite this much. I hate running the a/c. I feel guilty about doing it, primarily from a financial concern (as opposed to an environmental one, sorry Al).

Zap and I were talking at work today about how all we wanted was a nice long delivery to the farthest ends of our area so that we could escape the oppressing heat of the Indy and enjoy the wonderful, beautiful invention that is the air conditioned automobile. As it turns out, I won out, with a delivery to Falls Road — I took the scenic route, to and from, and I even, in a moment of winter-lust and weakness, cranked the a/c from “low” to “freeze, bitch!”

What a wonderful drive, escaping the heat and the humidity, up to the moment I stepped out of my car and my eyeglasses fogged right over.

Have I mentioned autumn is my favorite season?

(Well, it is).

This blog was apparently mentioned in the WaPo publication The Express, which is put out for Metro riders (I say “apparently” because I won’t believe it until I see it, thanks for the Head’s Up, Chris!). Two things: Seriously? This shouldn’t boost my ego as much as it has, but yes, it did! Second: their online site doesn’t seem to be complete. Slight ego deflation.

In Conclusion: I am the shit.

(Or, “I am a shit.”)

Whichever you prefer.

(Update: Michael Grass and blogger TC the Terrible for pointing out that, yes dumbass, there is a PDF file of the actual paper clearly marked at the top of The Express‘ website.)

It’s coming.

- The creators were such big fans of the book that is why they decided to do this project.
- From viewing it, the DVD was kind of disappointing. It was made for young kids. The animation reminded of that cheesy Liberty Kid’s cartoon. The segments between the choices were way too long where it might as well been a normal cartoon. And if you get a bad ending you don’t get to see the kids get eaten of anything bad. BOO!
- if you have suggestion of books you want to see made into the films send an email to them. They want to make these movies for the fans.
- Voices featured are William H. Macy, Frankie Muniz, and Mark Hamill.
- There are 11 possible endings with 4 possible storylines.
- Each DVD comes with fun facts about the country the story takes place in a booklet. If kids read the booklet it helps you make good decisions when you watch the DVD.
- Only recommended for people with young children.

I used to love those books when I was a kid. I think it’s a cool concept for a movie, and I also think it’d be neat if they geared some towards a more adult audience. I realize they couldn’t do a theatrical release (how could the audience choose?), but more grown-up themed DVDs would, I think, be pretty neat.

For the record, my favorite CYOA was The Curse of Batterslea Hall.

***

Also: Monopoly with debit cards? What’s next, Risk with nuclear missiles? Wait — that’d be awesome!

So I’m slowly but surely getting the hang of Civilization 3.

I just fought my first war — it’s 1090 AD in game — against the Americans (I’m playing as the Brits). They torched two of my cities, and I occupied Detroit. I was about to make a push on Baltimore when Lincoln (who looks like a hippie in his purple robes and no top hat) called me up and asked for a peace. I have some ornery Koreans on my southern border, and some pissed off Summarians to my east, and some Arabs to my west who were a little tired of sending my troops across their land to fight Lincoln.

My biggest problem was budgetary. I think my mistake, made early in the game, was allowing city governors the power to manage their own production. I’m playing on “chieftan” (the easiest), while also having set all my random opponents to the least aggressive settings. My governors, apparently, are paranoid wanna-be-warlords, possibly why I was spending a lot of money maintaining my large military forces — click on a city and, oh, look, warriors, spearmen, archers, oh my! Thank goodness for the disbanding feature which saved my budget right before I went completely into the red.

I wish workers would automatically build roads. Just select from what city to which city and let them work. I keep forgetting about them, and I’ve noticed with the automated feature they seem to run around masturbating, instead of doing anything valuable. I’m also not so thrilled with the “movement” features — probably my noviceness speaking, but all too often all I want to do is move a single settler, yet he gets a full military escort, umpteenth troops, out with him.

The biggest problem I have is with city populations — out of probably twenty cities or so, and a good fifth of ‘em weren’t growing at all. Very frustrating, and I really wasn’t sure how to deal with it. I abandoned one, but then the Arabs got a chunk of my former territory. Grr. I fought a war with them, too, and I got my ass royally kicked. My fault. I declared war on them. Figured I’d pick up a few cities with the frightening names (for obvious reasons if you watch CNN) Basara, Mosul, and Baghdad. Then, as I mentioned, I got my infantrys’ collective asses royally kicked by the Arabs, who invaded my territory and started wholesale conquering. So I did the only thing I could — I quit the game without saving, and reopened it from prior to that poorly thought war because, really, when you have such a restart option, why not take advantage of it…?

I’m working on developing muskets (I think). I want a rematch with the Americans.

As election time approaches, I’ve been noticing campaign signs starting to creep onto lawns and bumpers. One person campaigning in Harford County has the unfortunate last name of “Stifler”, and all I can think about when seeing her campaign signs is Paul Finch saying, “Stifler’s Mom, are you trying to seduce me?”

And y’know, Donna Stifler and Jennifer Coolidge? Don’t look all that dissimilar …