Sailbourne

I actually spotted this one myself, several years ago:

“Absolutely NO Stairway.”
–Sign at a guitar display in a Costco store

And yes, after getting thoroughly hooked on it a couple months back at a friend’s house, Joe and I last night got our own copy of Guitar Hero — the latest version, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, to be specific. Wireless ax and all.

I spent a little time playing on it, trying to work out “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” as I had worked out “Shout At the Devil” at our friend’s. For me, it is a very slow process — my learning curve on hand/eye coordination tasks is tough.

But I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun with a game I suck at so badly.

A revisit, for this Veterans/Armistice/Remembrance Day:
(yes, I know it was actually yesterday, but there are still plenty of observances going on today, so …)

“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives. You are now living in the soil of a friendly country therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”
– Mustafa Kemal, written on a war memorial on the battlefield of Gallipoli

And this is well worth checking out too:
For Better or For Worse comic for November 11, 2007

“We have cats the way most people have mice.”
–James Thurber

I’ve always loved cats, and when Joe and I moved to a place where we could have a cat, a decade ago when we came to Oregon, we had one. In reality, Mina had adopted us before we had even moved, a few weeks before when we were in Anaheim. Quite unexpectedly, in early December of that year, she presented us with a litter of kittens. I’m not sure I ever looked back.

At the moment, we have five cats in residence. If you’re curious, they have a set of webpages here.

“People do not deserve good writing, they are so pleased with bad.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Seems like this quote, which illustrates one of the things the union is up against, is about as close as I can get, for the moment, to showing my solidarity with the hardworking folks of the Writers Guild of America. Stand strong!

I’m not exactly a fan of George Will; the vast majority of the time his political views are widely divergent from mine. But you know the saying about even a broken clock being right twice a day? I think this is one of these moments.

And I can never resist sharing a good quote that strikes me as being perfectly dead-on.

Speaking of self-proclaimed “social conservatives” (aka the Religious Right), on This Week with George Stephanopolis, and quoted on the excellent Crooks and Liars:

“But there’s a vanity in this group right now. They call themselves ‘values voters.’ I’ve news for them: 100% of the American electorate are values voters; they vote their values … And this, this, kind of semantic imperialism that they have where they say ‘we vote values’. Everyone else votes what?”

“If you dig it, do it. And if you really dig it, do it twice.”
–Jim Croce

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Somewhere around seven years ago, give or take, I was really impressed with the idea of message boards. Several of my friends had started them and I was, well, digging it. So I decided to start one of my own.

The Starlight Teahouse has passed through a couple of different board providers over the years but has resided comfortably with an outfit called Forumer for almost exactly three years now. We have a lovely forum logo by the inimitable , and an easy-to-remember domain name: Starlightteahouse.com.

We have forums for discussing anything from Dubya to Doctor Who to knitting. There are also a number of forums devoted to playing a variety of different role-playing games. There’s even a place to talk tea! To post messages, you will need to complete a simple registration — it’s free, and once registered, there’s no advertising on the board.

The Teahouse has been very quiet of late, and I’d like to extend an invitation to anyone who hasn’t been there — or hasn’t been around in a while — to give the Teahouse another try. Maybe you’ll dig it too!

“Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.”
– Carl G. Jung

And here’s a bonus, from a great Republican president (who could teach a few things to the current occupant of the office):

“In most communities it is illegal to cry “fire” in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?”

This one’s brand spanking new, just overheard coming from the cube across the aisle:

“It’s not a bug, it’s a methodology limitation.”

I love my job …

Today you get a hat-trick … I have been posting these in the order in which they appear in my quotation collection page, part of my personal homepages. But the three which appear today are all appropriate to the feeling of the day for me, because …

Afterhell Volume 2 is done!
The disc is being duplicated now and copies go out starting tomorrow!

“All’s well that ends with a good meal.”
– Arnold Lobel

“It’s all malarky; even the wonderful part is malarky.”
– Robert Stack (1919-2003) on Hollywood

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”
– Japanese proverb

Anyone want to take a guess as to which national leader said this?

Lately, I often hear the terms “winner” and “loser” groups. Surely
there will be people who succeed and those who will not when
tackling a difficult situation. However, people should not put
themselves down just because they are part of the “loser” group.
The real significance is in the act of challenging ourselves to
take on a difficult problem. I believe we must create a society in
which people may keep challenging themselves even after failing
once or twice by providing people in the so-called “loser” group
with abundant opportunities.

I would rather point out that aside from these “winner” and “loser”
groups, there is the “waiting” group who are not challenging
themselves. We must create a society in which even those in this
“waiting” group will exert their talent and skills to their fullest
and in which each person will utilize their own ingenuity and
innovation. I will continue to advance reforms while aiming to
realize a society where people help each other out if there are
those whose talents or skills are not enough to stand alone, and
one well supported by a sustainable social security system.

It’s Junichiro Koizumi, the Prime Minister of Japan.

I know Koizumi isn’t perfect, nor is the rest of his country or government. But darn it, wouldn’t it be nice if government leaders in the United States talked like this, just once in a while?