I just answered a phone poll about some of the candidates for Illinois state comptroller.

First they read off the names of the candidates and asked my opinion of them. I hadn't heard of them. Hmm.

Then they read off statements that supports say are reasons to vote for their candidate. Not to bad, they sound pretty decent over all. Only one supported something that I oppose (internet filtering, go search Boing Boing for details if you need info on all the various evils of the filtering available today). Overall, the choices were pretty positive.

Then they read off statements that opponents say are reasons not to vote for these candidates. Ah, here comes the dirt! Seems they're all a bunch of crooks. One was the guy who mismanaged BrightStar and cost the program megabucks. Another is apparently an ambulance chaser who goes around suing cities. And then there's the corporate puppet. Once they got through those questions I didn't want to vote for any of them.

Almost forgot - she read one of the statements as "opponents describe him as ethnically challenged...."

I said "you said 'ethnically' but you mean 'ethically' right? There's no 'n' in that word?" She answered, "you're right, I've been pronouncing it wrong all day and nobody point it out until now! 'opponents describe him as ethically challenged...'". You know, that one letter makes a big difference.

This morning on the Bristol Board is was noted that people enjoy debating politics there because everybody remains polite and civil - rare in political debates.

I was half tempted to jokingly suggest holding a flame war - completely silly, of course. To keep it friendly and silly, there would have to be some boundaries or rules. Like a game. Then I thought of Fluxx.

If you're not familiar with Fluxx, there's a nice summary here: http://www.wunderland.com/LooneyLabs/Fluxx/Fluxx.html

So, here's my idea for Flame Wars Fluxx:
Goals: Aside from the usual "you must have some combo of keepers/creepers" I don't have much in the way of specifics. There's an old rule of thumb that says any flame war on the internet culminates in one person being called a Nazi. That's not really fun or silly, but it might make a good ungoal were everybody loses.

Creepers: Trolls, Internet Outages, Hackers

Keepers: Search engine. Smart Phone. Fast internet connection. Caffeinated drinks.

Rules: the usual mix of draw/play so many cards, negate specific creeper/keeper cards

Actions: win/lose an argument in the war - thus you give away your creepers, etc

Could be fun.

 I find it amazing that I can send out an automated broadcast email to our entire choir, in which we have some extremely talented musicians and vocalists, announcing that we would like some help providing music for the All Souls' Day Remembrance Mass, and the only people who show up are the ones who can't sing or play worth a damn.  *sigh*  I realize this isn't a very Christian attitude, but at least I can honestly say I'm not lying.

Every day I have to remind myself that our choir is a ministry, not a performance ensemble, and we don't turn people away from ministry.  I just wish that all the people who felt called to our ministry actually had some talent as well.

Tags: church, nablopomo, rants
Current Location: home
Current Mood: snarky
Current Music: The Acapodcast with Chad Bergeron

It was good to see some old friends yesterday. This was the annual end-of-year party for a bike club I used to belong to (pedal power, not motorcycles). I whipped out a couple batches of scones - triple chocolate, and green fairy.

It was hosted by friends, who left a phone message late the night before. They didn't really expect us to show up, and somehow didn't expect us to bring food if we did. I have no idea why they thought they could invite me to a pot-luck and have me turn up empty handed.

The scones were well received. The triple chocolate was more popular, I think in part because it was more familiar. People liked the green fairy scones as well, but were cautious when we wouldn't just come out and tell them the mystery ingredient. Somebody did eventually figure it out, after a bunch of hints.

I still have to figure out a good rum scone (rum tends to bake out, so it's hard to get a good strong rum flavor without artificial flavoring - rum cake is usually soaked in rum after baking), and it's the season to make some pumpkin scones (along with pumpkin pie, bread, etc).

 While I wait for my leftover pizza from the Children's Choir Halloween party to reheat (it's not the kind of pizza you want to eat cold), I thought I'd share my Halloween experiences with you:

( My Costume )

( The Haunting )

Tags: church, faire, halloween, nablopomo
Current Location: home, but not for long
Current Mood: nostalgic

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Mr Fox was a great way to spend Halloween.  Hunters Moon as usual very crowded, couldn't stay long after, so couldn't say hallo to many friends. Nice to see those that I did.

The "couple" in period style in the dance added a different slant. Must find out who they were and what they represented - more celebration probably.

And nice to see friends yesterday who provided the lift, and a couple of episodes of the Goodies, that was good fun to watch.

My wife is participating in this again, so I thought I'd join her.

Yesterday we helped a friend haunt his front yard for trick or treating. I wound up handing off my costume to a friend, and I took over the bouncer/photographer duties. Near the end of the day I got out the video camera and used up the rest of the battery just playing. I haven't done anything of the sort in a long time, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what I got.

It's a pretty nice camera that works well in low light, but it was pretty much dark by the end of the night, so there was just the artificial light, mostly behind the participants. Since I couldn't see much of the faces, I started working on silhouettes and negative space instead. I've done that with B&W film, but never with color video, so I'm curious about the results.

Today we go to a party hosted by friends we haven't seen in too long. Probably be a few people there I haven't seen in years, and my wife has never met. It's a nice group, should be fun.