I'd like to have a game of RISK! tonight at my house (GOOGLE - 244 Sanders Road, Buffalo, New York 14216) The game will start at 8:00 to allow the babies a chance to fall asleep, there will be beers, chips and well.. RISK! There will/should/can be some Rockband between turns for the ADD kid in you too!


I know this is a little impromptu but really how much preparation does beer and your RISK! 'A' game take to get ready?

There's only 4 extra slots, and I'll only go forward with it if at least 2 of you peeps sign up by 6:00pm. If RISK! is a bust I guess I'll be resigned to XBOX Live Wednesday.

I'm calling the blue pieces. Uh, sign up by replying to this post (Meggy you have to sign up too since other will be calling their armies colors by posting replies and it's only fair).

WARNING: I uh, get a lil silly when I play the RISK! Tonight I'll be donning the personage of the Baron, should the RISK! commence.



I'll leave you with a quote from his lordship:

"The armies of Anthonia will march on this eve, and the blood of her foes will flow in rivulets down the plastic faces of those who dare appose her. Avast! yon heritic! May Anthoinain steel hurry you to a meeting with your heathen maker!"

--Baron Clubfoot Von Bictchburg Master Sargent Domo Lord and Vassel of Our Lords Lands of the Raging Blue Solider, Her Majesty's Anthonia

Ok...

I know that my writing often strays off topic during it's course to finish line, but ultimately I hope at least that it gets there.

Might I point out the category of this posting. I know the postings I have under that banner are typically a bit numbing, I hope that this posting will enliven you all to the point of frantic scandal.

As quickly as I can.. the anecdote:

I was coming home from a busted bachelor party and had on NPR in a rare state of podlessness when I caught the headlines to what will describe this next image. Please allow your mind to wonder what this image could be of weather it exists, and what it means to you even if it does

What is that thang?


I'll tell you shortly, but first, answer this question in your head before proceeding. No, really answer it. Write it down in a notepad window or on paper (if you're feeling like a Flintstone, PS. The quickest way to boot notepad without touching the mouse is to hit window key + r, then type notepad and hit enter).

Think of the top 5 problems the world faces today. I'll give you some space so that my answers to this question don't spoil what you're coming up with...



















Ok here are my answers to that.

1. Overpopulation : I know, I know. Until recently you all have been only ever greeted by the mug of my drooler since she popped out seven months ago since last week, so I'm guilty of the worst crime, but the absolute worse thing you can do for the planet is make a new human for the world to have to support. It's hard fact to face as a human, but it's true. I won't get into why I decided to reproduce, maybe we can talk about that in a different post or in a response, but do some research. Nothing costs the world more resources than it's smartest creature reproducing. All this creature really has to offer is it's thoughts and those have just as much of a habit of screwing things up as the do for fixing things. In a nut shell, more humans means the world needs to produce more food, shelter (not much of a problem there's tons of space.. for now) water for it's life forms. Not just any water, but clean water that we can drink (try drinking salt water when you're thirsty young Skywalker... you will die). Which brings me to the next problem.

2. Clean Water: We've heard about this for along assed time too, and though most of our planet is covered in it, there's not enough of it to satisfy the needs of humanities needs. We don't just use it to drink, we use it for every thing. None the least is growing crops to eat (and I know I'm speeding along here, but) that brings us to the next one.

3. Food: How do we currently feed 6 billion peoples every friggin day? The answer is that we don't. This is why chubby assed Sally Struthers can cry in between shots of a kid that would be much better off it the camera man would just share a bite of the sandwich you know he had that day, but food is really hard to come by for most of the worlds population. This and most of these problems really don't effect us as humans since we're Americans, and we don't have to deal with the very poor class of person who cannot even afford homes and live in the streets to be squished by the reckless rich in their sleep (thanks (e:tinypliny) for that story, which btw ends with that rich dude never even being prosecuted, but I digress), though this next issue is one that no on on the planet is free from or can disagree with (I hope, at this point) and that is ...

4. The energy crisis : Ok, fossil fuel is expensive, finite, and corrosive to the limited amount of space that we have to live in (limited in comparison to the amount of reality there is, space, infinity etc, and how much of it we can occupy without dying or bringing something that can sustain us, a space ship for instance... don't let that last bit scare you off yet though, it's going to get really good soon). However, it's uses out strip the possibility of omitting it from our lives out right. We desperately need a new way of collecting/controlling energy that's not finite or destructive and one should exist since we understand that energy and matter cannot be created or destroyed it can only change forms. We just need a form that's not worsening the next issue.


5. The Carbon debt : I know you've heard it all before, but I'll explain it quickly and shortly. A byproduct of energy is carbon which traps the suns rays and is raising the temperature of world overall by a few degrees, which to the common man means nothing until you watch this youtube video that will probably be the subject of summer blockbusters after we run out of superheros and Saturday morning cartoons. Just check out the video I've babbled enough here:

[b]Part One of Five[b/


Ok, we're finally here. Every phase of humanities existence is marked by some technological age that pushes the capiblites of humanity to change in ways that makes all other way until that point pale in comparison, we mark them in ages(Stone Age, Bronze Age, ...Industrial Age, Information Age ). Currently we are in the information age and it's coming swiftly to a close, but not without leaving behind a world in many ways better, and quite a few more worse...

Ok go read this and come back amazed. I won't pretend I can do as good a job reporting as an NPR writer:

Spain Runs Europe's First Commercial Solar Plant

Yeah, It is a solar power plant, and it's real and capable of not only producing enough energy from solar power, but a byproduct of the energy's production is clean water, which can bring water to areas of the world that were until now to expensive to aerate, which could stem world hunger or at least this corn/rice/wheat crisis that's coming from the ethanol semi solution.

II think that as this technology spreads we'll be entering the Solar Age, and possibly a second Renaissance, but I'm getting all romantic. I really want to know what you peeps think...

Well, at any rate... happy grand theft auto 4 day, and may this uncontrollable source of free energy make fighting for finite resources I mean crime, I mean a war on terror a thing of the past...

Ok that could have been, Holy Cow, but I think I'm going to coin a new exploitive. I'm at work looking for some you tube videos to finish up a project and I came across this.

(e:terry) and I were talking about this stuff just the other day. We made wolves in to puppies and look at what we're doing to the friggin' cows

buff assed cow


yummy.

A friend of mine [Chris Howard] sent me this and she never sends crappy emails so I checked it out and I was amazed at what it had to offer. Basically it's a politician guide. It's not like any other page I've ever seen before, but if I had to liken it so some thing it'd probably be a page like "rate my teacher" for politicians, but once again it's low on snark and high on info.

Click the image to visit the site VoteSmart.org --http://www.votesmart.org--


I think this page is purely information and completely unbiased, though since I've only been on it for a few minutes, could be talking from my neither regions. Tell me what you think. Please.

I was talking to (e:terry) yeterday about my taxes and we both remarked that taxes and I think the reality of politics should be taught in what ever grade you can earliest learn it in. Ok here's a little bit of snark for all you lovas' of the snark out there: I figured they don't cause the Feds love it when anybody who should get a return don't because they're too ignorant to understand tax law... I'm just sayin.

This post might just as aptly be titled, "As the CO 2 levels in our atmosphere rise so do the irregularites of Tonys brain" or "Microhoo! bamboozled me again!" or "My overzeloulness has undone me for the last time" or... just read the damn post.

Yeah Porn industry way to give into BuRay.

Ok so we're on the brink of Sony actually winning one of it's many failed attempts at buying a starndard. Not scince the day so of the walkman has a Sony format been so widely accepted. (e:pmt) I'm sorry for stearing you down such a faulty path. You'd have been so much happier with a PS3, and you'd have had your BluRay by now.

This issue has me perplexed and dismayed for many many reasons.

Tax season is upon us and the possiblity of the Big Assed TV (which will be refered to as BATVHD) is skullking in the rafters, but why would nerd of my ilk want a big assed TV?

I'm rather social. It used to be an odd thing for me to miss an (e:strip) social event or any such event in the past (I just missed MGMT in toronto this weekend and I'm not even sad about it anymore, it's just a matter of course with is kinda pathetic), but things have changed. I have a bundle of joy and a bunch of women who need me to love and entertain them constantly. So, being the realist I'd like to consider my self I thought, "well Tony... you're not leaving the damn house anytime soon, " an attitued of defeat that I think is at the core of this perplexing delima. The social parts of me are crying out for relase lately and I fear I will do something irrespsoible if I don't find a decent outlet soon.

The Meggasaurs and I were talking about it this weekend, and it was easy to get her to agree with me on many parts of my argument. We has a few tussles about me not wanting her to buy me anything for Xmas or my birthday since I was saving up for the BATVHD (something about me being selfish for not wanting to let someone else buy my stuff, I get it I don't buy it, I digress). So, have support for the boob tube but I don't think that this TV wil really make me any happier. So she's down for the TV and for the PS3, but I don't' want that many nintnedos in my life. Especially when I'd rather hang out with peeps, and the nintendo that was supposed be like hanging out while playing nintendo dosn't really cut it. (I mean both of my white boxes of nerdiness. The XBOX w/ Live especially, but you have to invite people over to play Wii... and while it's cool if it happens to be there isn't not very cool if that's the point of a visit)

Eventually everyones gonna have to have a BATVHD but by that time they'll be reasonalby afforadable. I've been considering selling all my stupid nintendos (I have this love hate relationship with videogames), but with the HD Star Wars Animated series, and the Force Unleashed game just around the corner all this seems silly until you consider this amazing tid bit of information...

((e:mrdeadlier) sit down before you read this) I think I'm over StarWars.





::crickets chirpin::





Yeah (e:mrdealier) and I were talking about it and even he's having troubles staying excited for next big thing coming for the Lucas camp... so that game, Force Unleashed, which will be released on a silmiar device that plays more quitely, has decenty customer support, wont' eat your disks, and isn't owned by a company doing dumb things to compete that aren't effective (Yahoo! Seriosuly?) anyway.

So what does a nerd like me do? Tell you what. If I could work out more often, and go out and do thing I won't have done any of this, but I've made my bed, now I have got to sleep in it.

On a positive note I have about 70billion games I haven't even started playing or that I'm not even half way through. (I just got star #52 in Mario Galaxy... exciting news, I know), and the Meggiebyte got out and did some Meg stuff this weekend finally (she took some photo's round town while I stat with the girls on Sunday, I told her to call you (e:jim) ... well, after the fact, but I told her and she'll go again I'm sure).

So porn, which by the way has become so avaliable on the web that maybe I shouldn't have had any faith in them picking HDDVD. What more is I should have just not had faith in either porn or Sony to stand on any moral highgrounds since now you can get your porn in BluRay too.. Moral of our story here... even when you'd like to get excited about porn you just end up with a bigger mess on your hands than you'll ever feel comfortable with, so just avoid it and go hang out with real people.

OK something cool did happend this weekend. I saw an inconvient truth, which unlike 2 girls one cup gives me hope for humanity. Not because I think Al Gore can stop global warmiing as easily as he intevented these here internets, but because a person like him can exsist. It makes me feel like I'm living in an Asimov novle, and pretty darn proud to be a human. Even if we're all gonna die in storms big enough to turn cows into milkshakes.

peas
(e:muja)

PS this post is not spell checked because I wrote it in Safari on PC, silly but true.

This post might be a little scatter brained since I haven't posted in like a million years and I have a lot on my brain.

Ok... I just finished reading a ValueTales book about honesty, and I'm feeling amazing. So, in the spirit of the book I have a few things to report, and some questions to ask.

Isn't the lil Confucius on the cover super cute?


I haven't been posting half cause I'm super busy, and half because I know Meg reads my posts kinda religiously (hi honey). I used to come here to dump my brains out so that you all can help sort things for me since I sincerely value the perspectives of others and I think that airing any kind of problem out helps to solve it, but I also realize the kind of person Meg is and that she probably wouldn't feel comfortable with you all after having all of our underwear flung in your faces over these here interwebs, and she likes you guys, and so do I.

Still, after reading this book I was compelled to post something since it brought up a lot of questions in my mind as well as some fun conclusions that I don't think you all deserve to miss out on, and I could use some help.

A while back Meg did her best to explain science and religion to the midget (I know that's a terrible nickname and diminutive people the world over can send their hate mail to itsjustanickname@noreply.jez ) and Mya rung out with absolute certainty, "I pick GOD!" We shrugged and went ahead to support her decision by buying her a children's bible (my mom is pleased as punch).

Look how cute those bible people are



We've read a ton of these bible stories to her and I know their entertaining, but she has so many questions that I know when I heard these stories the first time I didn't get answers to, and that she still looks at us for some simple explanations to.

To boot, she's a very strong willed and cocksure person. She does cruel things to people, as any child will, and I haven't run across a story in the bible to help me help her with the character flaws (since that's my job). Maybe one of you peeps who know the bible better can help out with that. Still nothing has addressed this topic more directly than this ValueTales book.

A factoid For all you you who are into Larry the Cucumber who are thinking what I thought when I saw the words and font, ValueTales(mid 70's) came before VeggieTales (late 90's), but I digress...

The value tales have impressed me with the Honesty title, and I'm going to pick up the rest of the books in the series after seeing the titles and who their about.

Ok here's some lyrics to a song you can hear by watching one of the videos at the bottom of this post. Don't let the images influence you. If you want a purely musical performace of the piece try the first video, if you want the recorded version so you can understand the lyrics better check the seond. The first one is, IMHO, much more amazing since it's played in an elevator and the snare drum is a pages being torn out of a magazine.

The name of the song is Neon Bible, and though I'm not feeling particularly feisty in a religion/anti-religion sense, I'm asking you dear peeps what you make of it.

I'm really interested to ask that here where I know there are two Christians that frequent this site who's perspective please and delight me (that's right (e:mrdeadlier) and (e:drew)), but because I like the general perspective of most of you peeps on (e:strip).

So without further ado the lyrics to the Neon Bible:

Vial of hope and a vial of pain
In the light they both looked the same
Poured them out on into the world
On every boy and every girl singing

It's the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible
Not much chance for survival
If the Neon Bible is right

Take the poison of your age
Don't lick your fingers when you turn the page
What I know is what you know is right
In the city you see only light

It's the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible
Not much chance for survival
If the Neon Bible is right

Oh god, well, look at you now!
Oh, you lost it, but you don't know how!
In the light of a golden calf
Oh god, I had to laugh!
Take the poison of your age
Don't lick your fingers when you turn the page
It was wrong but you said it was right
In the future I will read at night

In the Neon Bible, the Neon Bible
Not much chance for survival
If the Neon Bible is true

I've read many prespectives from the general public here .

Some you tubey goodness...


The MTV version
.

So it looks like a bomb went off in my living room. The other dudes on the team with midgets have similar stories, the likes of which I just stole that line from. I received an email from one of them that asked what the best prices for a bulldozer would be around this time of year so he could get all of his daughters presents home...(ok, I embellished that report a tiny bit), here's my response:

Maybe it's cruel or unusual to leave my girlfriend to that mess, but here I am at work waiting for a meeting that no one is going to show up to, but I'm in a state of zen like peace.

This morning in bed with everyone (Mya, Fern, & Meg), Mya looks to me and says in sincerity only expressible by a four-year-old in deepest distress, "Tony, what am I gonna do with all that stuff?" It was kind of priceless... Well Meg's got her parents there to help her clean up a crime I consider them full accomplices of, though I'm sure she'll insist they don't (I think I am, at best, an accessories since Meg did all the shopping. "I don't know where my credit card was officer...") I'm playing house hooky... heh!

I may get going since I just found out about the basement sink clog that started 2 days ago. I'm waiting for my brother to get in touch with me, until then I'll hold down the fort, and only leave in an extreme case.

Merry, Happy, Joyful, Jolly Festivus (WIKIPEDIA - Festivus) to all. May your grievances be heard by loving ears, and bounce off of the hardened hearts of the rest-of-us.

--tony

eeeeehhhhhh...

I'm up at 6:44 am, and I've been up since 5.

Fern can be a tiny terrorist sometimes. She got hungry and decided to set off all of her alarms at once and we went from green to yellow alert in the blink of an eye.

Lots of screaming and 3.5 ounces of Target brand formula later and she's back to her usual curious self. Twisting around in my arms to see what I'm looking at while I try to check out some awful thing that I followed from digg to entertain me while my spawn feeds.

"Eeeh... she's a baby, she won't remember this. Hell, she don't even know she's got feet!" Well, that's what I tell my self right before my fatigue settles in and I get into a serious discussion with a 2 month old. "You have to go back to bed! You can't watch this..."

Hmm... the baby's growing. I didn't even realize how much until I looked at my estrip pic of her. She used to look like a bogger compared to how she looks now. She's heavier too. She's seriously half the height and just under half the weight of her 4 year old sister, Mya. I joke with Mya and tell her that I'm half troll (I use my crooked pinky finger as proof), but the way this baby is growing I'm starting to believe me.

There's other things in my life though. I swear. Um, I think. The baby has changed so much about what I can do, that it's almost like she's changed who I am. Though I know that's not true or fair. Hmm, I'm sure this paragraph might be misconstrued as a regret, but it's not... It's really just an observance. I'm still me in here. I just have my priorities arranged differently.

That's one of Meg's biggest gripes too. She hates being stuck in the house. Sometimes she goes out of her way to get outta here and I don't blame her. I love my house too, but if I felt like I could never leave it I think I'd rather burn it down than be in it one more minute, but isn't that what this period is all about? Living in a cocoon like state until the babys big enough...? I hope so. I need to find out. The one thing that I always defer to after banging my head on the wall is "Maybe I'm wrong about this, maybe I need some new insight".

All in all the baby's too young to leave with a stranger. Sometimes I fee like she's too little to leave with anyone. I had my mom babysit a few times. Each time leaving her with the kids for more and more time until things got a little wobbly. My mom's great, and she's no freak. She raised me...ok, I understand that that doesn't really support my argument, so just believe me, kay? The last time I left her with the kids Meg and I went to see Beowulf at the IMAX 3D and then did some skippin' around the town with my friend Jeremy,. When we got back my mom was passed out on the couch (not the air mattress we set up for her) in a (prescribed) drug induced stupor while the baby wailed on the monitor.

In my moms defense, she needs the drugs. She's missing a vertebrae. Some kinda freak accident involving a mentally retarded character with the PC label of "consumer", her spine, and a clock radio. Every time I hear the story it sounds more and more like something Rob Zombie would have directed. Anyway, I guess she needs help sleeping. I wish I'd of put 2 and 2 together before that night, but everyone is fine and we had a good time.

As the baby struggles to sit up on her own, and with news like "..your baby held her own bottle for like 20 seonds... it was cute, sorry I just had to call you..." the shell on this cocoon is getting more and more brittle.

I don't know I have friends that have kids and understanding friends that don't but I want more of a life for my self... I think, maybe. I don't know.

I'm doing a band with Nick Vega from work. We have a show January 4th at Neitchez, and the set list looks kinda tight. Mostly covers some orginals too though. I haven't been on stage in and age, but after a couple of practices we'll see if it's worth coming out to see this old goat do some tricks for the fair going proletariat again.

Till then...this is muja signing off from inside the cocoon.