Relentless and Restless

Detail of Big Box Zombie by Nathan Fox, illustration for Bloomberg Businessweek (Oct 18, 2012)

Some days leave you feeling like a shambling ruin, one of the walking dead, too tired to do anything but slump over a meal and look at anything on television. It can be a grind.

For me, this is one of those days. Fortunately, I had some interesting videos to get my brain back into functionality, and the pizza was a help too. Yum!!!

My life has been consistently bad this year, with only a few upsides. Yet, I have somehow been able to keep up a daily stream of blog posts. I really don't know how I set aside some time to write these things, but it's kind of cool that I do. Yeah, almost nobody reads my stuff, but that's alright. I take pleasure in composing these little works, from attempting to structure eloquent prose, to searching out a photo that best captures the mood of the text, and then selecting some fun videos to wrap things up.

Eh, I don't know if I'm doing a good job at it, but practice makes perfect. I'll keep on going until I finally fall apart, a moldering mess at the keyboard. ;-)

Friday Flowers: Lilac

Syringa Vulgaris: Common Lilac "Letha E. House"


Yeah, I have a whole bunch of flower photos to share with you all. This is one that I took last week while visiting the Descanso Gardens. There weren't many flowers in bloom, but this pretty little lilac was holding strong in the face of our California winter. ;-)

Purple is my favorite color. So, lilac has a special appeal for me.

Common Lilac


Very, very pretty.

Cowabunga, Fries, and a Strawberry Pie

"Veggies" Card illustration from Lord of the Fries (Cheapass Games, 1999) by Brian Snoddy


Whenever I become significantly ill, the wanderings and incoherent flights of fantasy that twist through my mind like dust devils, churning up the detritus of memories, disrupting my regularly planned activities, be it at work or play, with images of absurdity and logical non sequiturs, these fevered whims knock me silly!!!

Over the past few days, I have been unwell. My apologies for neglecting duties here at Paideia. Although it didn't seem to disrupt readership in the slightest, I feel bad that I didn't even pop in with a vid or photo. I'm not at full health, but I'm not going to let another day slip by without a post or two. Since I'll not be hitting our ten post minimum, we'll be shifting our Weekly Wrap to Thursday night this week.

So, what's up with that zombie up above? Well, that's just an example of something lost in the caverns of memory that illness draws back to the surface. Monday morning, I commented that I felt like a zombie. It was pointed out that zombies are fashionable at the moment. I replied that I didn't feel like a scary undead killing machine, but a moldering corpse toiling at endless banality. The image of "fast food" zombies came to mind.

I spent an anguished eternity trying to remember from where the vivid image originated. Yesterday, the memory clicked. It was from a card game, Lord of the Fries, designed by James Ernest and illustrated by Brian Snoddy, published by Cheapass Games in 1998, with a "de-lux" edition released in 1999.

"Sauce" card from Lord of the Fries (Art: Brian Snoddy)

The game was nominated for an Origins Award. It's a general hand management game in which a player receives a set of cards and needs to work on building "order" combinations that yield points. The game ends when one of the players empties their hand, at which time point tallies are compared. The deck with the highest point yield wins. That may sound a bit complicated, but it's actually easy and fun in actual play.