Yeah, I got pride

So fuckin' what?

Wining

Twitter came and ate this blog. But last weekend, Crystal and I spent the weekend up in wine country. We stayed at the Gaige House which I definitely recommend. It's got a nice garden pool, the rooms have huge granite tubs for two and they layout makes it feel more like a little house than a hotel room. Note that this is only true for the newly constructed Zen suites ... I read that the rooms in the main house are not as nice.

I've never really done the whole wine country thing before. I've been up there a couple times but only to a winery once. Mostly I remember it being hot.

Well, it is hot. But also fun. I recommend checking out the Benziger estate in Sonoma. The tour gives you a great overview of their biodynamic practices. It's very cool to see a winery that uses no chemicals, recycles close to half of their water and employs an entomologist to figure out what bugs they should attract (to kill the bad bugs).

Bull to Breakers

Bull to Breakers
Originally uploaded by goldtoe

Physical digital assets are dumb like me

I rented Darkon last night from the local video store, Lost Weekend Video. I'm a big fan of both.

Darkon is a really intense documentary about live action role playing. The filmmakers take the subject very seriously which I admire. The homemade-LOTR-style of it makes it easy to get wrapped up in the in-world narrative.

I'm also fascinated by the game mechanics of Darkon since it requires so much from the participants. My initial reaction to seeing the actual gameplay was "Wow - this would be so easily griefed." I mean, you determine how much damage you take from an incoming attack, not the attacker. I don't think it gets gamed a lot because people are willingly creating this world. They want the narrative to work. Not once during the documentary did they show any disputes about rules or abuses.

I also love Lost Weekend Video. I've rented movies there for years, even through my Netflix addiction. I actually suspended my Netflix account several months back because I was getting all my stuff through Lost Weekend.

So it was a little disappointing when, on my way to return the video at the store this morning, I accidentally put it in the mailbox instead.

I guess it makes up for the time I accidentally mailed Eugene's copy of the Two Towers to Netflix by mistake.

SteveJ's Birthday

Steve's Wishes
Originally uploaded by goldtoe

Is Christmas safe...

I am distracted by shiny things.

Cannonball

I've blown past Shel and moved into Dom DeLuise territory.

Calypso bulbosa

Crystal and I went on a great hike near Mt. Tam yesterday and right toward the end we saw a whole mess of these orchids. They bloom in late March and can be seen on the Benstein trail near the Rock Springs trailhead.

They're commonly known as fairy slippers. Which is pretty fruity even for a flower.

Horn of Plenty

Had my most common recurring dream last night: I somehow end up with a massive, seemingly inexhaustible supply of video games.

I've had this dream since the time of the Atari 2600. In the dream, I'm just surrounded by boxes of games and the games are more fantastic and amazing than any in real life.

I get so into the dream - figuring out what I'm going to play first, how I'll tackle this avalanche of games - that it's always very disappointing to wake up. It's my most realistic dream, the one where it takes me the longest to realize it was a fantasy.

I guess I could go buy a whole big mess of games. But I don't really want that. It's kinda sad that now that I can have the object of my dreams I don't even want it that much. But in the dream I do.

Of course, last night I also dreamt I had an inexhaustible supply of yogurt. So it's a little unclear what my subconscious wants.

Brother from the same mother

Haven't seen my brother in well over a year. Thank you Oracle Training Center in Pleasanton for bringing him to our shores.