Paranoia

You're not paranoid if they're really out to get you.

Sunday I played in my first Paranoia RPG game since... the KGB game sophomore year of college? Something like that.

Gid-R-Ley returned to Alpha Complex, this time as a member of the Armed Forces (laser rifle and mystery grenades!) as part of a team of five crack troubleshooters (or are they troubleshooters on crack?) charged with protecting the 425 Mark IV Warbot. So far we're down five clones (I got first death!), with one person down two and one person down none. All of the kills have been by party members. As near as I can tell the greatest danger to the 425 Mark IV Warbot is us. The second greatest danger to the party are the mobile anti-personnel mines that appear have somewhat suicidal artificial intelligence, and pain sensors. You know you're in Alpha Complex when a mine says "Ouch."

Much hilarity, much laser fire, and in the war between the Gamemaster and the Players we seem to be ahead on points. :-)

Is this a joke?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120602661

"State Department Office Reaches Out To Muslims
"A new division opened in the State Department this year: the office of the Special Representative to Muslim Communities. Farah Pandith's mission is to reach out to the world's 1.2 billion Muslims. She tells Steve Inskeep the office will influence how Muslims perceive the United States."

Well, judging by the "Special Representative's" comments and responses to questions, we don't want to talk about anything remotely substantive or relevant. Lots of doubletalk. Lots of evading questions.

The only silver lining I see here is that fanatic muslims probably won't want to talk to a female envoy at all, so at least she won't spend a lot of time with the communities that are calling for jihads against us.

As for her bright hopes for the new generation... is this the generation only 40% of whom think islamics executed the 9/11 attacks? 47% of whom think of themselves as muslims first, americans second at best? And that's in the US. She's talking about the world.

Puppy Training

Kaylee had her first puppy class wednesday night. At first she was completely terrified - shaking and cuddling up as close to me as possible. She came out of her shell about halfway through, however, and spent a fair amount of time sniffing other dogs and trying to leap upon humans.

Overall things went fairly well - by comparison Kaylee is actually relatively obediant and not a barker. I'm not sure if she's actually an above-average puppy (in which case I really feel bad for most puppy owners) or if we've just got a class of hard cases.

Veteran's Day

My friends, to Absent Companions.

Puppy Love

Well, Kaylee has now been part of the family for over a week.

I have never seen anything more clearly and completely happy to see me than Kaylee after I came home from my first day of work. She jumped all over me, up to twice her height off the ground, panting like mad and wagging her entire body. She then proceeded to bounce around the house like a gas molecule for several straight minutes.

Her greetings have gotten a little less intense each day, but she still puts on quite a show.

Kaylee has had her first bath, which went better than I expected, and her first nail clipping, which did not. Training is going slowly; I'm hopeful that formal classes will help. Her behavior at night is much better (quieter and for longer periods). At some point I may even be able to sleep through the night again. :-}