Why, you ask, is Hawthorne ranked among the greatest of American writers? Because he finds room in his prose for quotes like this:
“Where is it, then?” asked Hilda. “I never peeped into it.”
“Wait, and it will open for you,” replied her friend. “The chasm was merely one of the orifices of that pit of blackness that lies beneath us, everywhere. The firmest substance of human happiness is but a thin crust spread over it, with just reality enough to bear up the illusive stage scenery amid which we tread.”
From The Marble Faun. Simply glorious.
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For those of you who just can’t get enough of my blog, I’ve added my del.icio.us feed to the sidebar. If you’re not familiar with del.icio.us, it’s a nifty little tool that lets you store and share your web bookmarks online. So we’ll see how that goes.
by Happy New Year! I hope your New Year’s Eve celebrations were as riotous as ours. We got together with some friends and played Im Schatten Des Kaisers, a boardgame that Michele and I bought in Germany. We were armed with a crude English translation of the rulebook, but it still took us a few turns before we were correctly identifying all of the playing pieces. (Turns out it’s an excellent game–very strategic, in the vein of Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne.)
You know you’re getting old when it’s 11:00 on New Year’s Eve and you’re ready to pack it in. That’s right–we didn’t even stay up late enough to witness the Dropping of the Ball (a ceremony the appeal of which has always eluded me). One of our friends had a sermon to deliver at church the next morning, and you don’t want the pastor dozing off during the service. So we called it a successful New Year’s Eve.
Oh, and in other exciting New Year’s news, I played around with the theme and layout here on the ol’ blog. Gone is the Squad Leader visual theme, although it’s sure to return at some point given my fondness for it.
Hope your New Year is off to a good start!
by It was with some trepidation that I took my first uncertain steps into the wide wide World of Warcraft. An entire online world, waiting to be explored–quests to undertake, magical artifacts to discover, exotic locales to visit.
Questions gripped me as I logged in, created my character, and ventured out into the icy mountain wastes of Dun Morogh, south of the bustling dwarven city of Ironforge. Around me, a jaw-dropping diversity of interesting characters darted to and fro–dedicated players going about their adventurous business.
How would I adjust to the intense online interaction required by such an ambitious gameworld? Could my dwarf paladin, through hours of hard work, sacrifice, and valiant struggles against the forces of the Horde, achieve the respect and even the admiration of this community of online Warcraft veterans?
Wait–there’s a group of gnomes over there. Maybe they can answer a few questions for an inexperienced newbie player. What’s that, you say?
by Looks like the beginning of the end for Arrested Development, the only reason to even bother owning a television these days. It looks like it’s falling victim to the TV networks’ usual logic: stumble across a show that’s actually excellent, then under-promote it, put it in a time slot so as to get it pre-empted by every conceivable sports event from baseball to curling, continually cut episodes from the season; then just give up.
Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.
by You are a low-level minion hired by the Evil Mastermind to perform some important task–kidnap somebody, steal an artifact and deliver it to the Mastermind, or something along those lines. You accomplish your task, return triumphant to the Evil Mastermind, and demand the payment that the Mastermind promised you.
The Evil Mastermind gives you a long, appraising look, smiles oddly, and says: “Why, of course. Don’t worry–I intend to see that you get exactly what is coming to you. Oh, yes, you’re going to get exactly what you deserve.” While the Evil Mastermind goes on chuckling to himself and exchanging Knowing Looks with all the other minions in the room, you:
a) Whoa, exactly what I deserve?!? Wow, what a deal!
b) Sneer at all of those other guys who told you that working for the Evil Mastermind was a poor career choice.
c) Now you have the Evil Mastermind exactly where you want him! You decide to get tricky and demand double payment for your action–that always works.
d) Run.
How do you answer? Solution follows:
(There is no correct answer. And you’re standing on the trapdoor to the Rancor pit.)
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