It's about that time

I start at my WAHM job today, and I'm majorly stressing out. I don't get paid until April, which really bothers me a lot. in the meantime, I'm trying to pick up extra work to offset the cost of living while I'm waiting on that paycheck. If you feel like supporting a starving mother-to-be, feel free to drop me a donation anytime. My paypal address is rloaks79@yahoo.com.

Wish me luck!

"We don't care about your package"

I swear, we have the worst UPS delivery person ever. Because we have to buy so much merchandise online for both the store and our other jobs, we have to have it delivered to our home. Most of the time, the companies we use choose UPS, and the people that deliver our packages don't seem to understand the concept that the things that we have delivered are actually worth money.

For example, the normal operating procedure for our UPS delivery person is to leave the package at the back door. This wouldn't be such a bad thing, if the back door that is visible from the street were actually our back door. Unfortunately, we share that back door with three other units, so there's a distinct possibility that one of the other tenants would be tempted to run off with the package. (Fortunately, we only have one psychotic neighbor, and she's usually not around when UPS does their "deliver and dash" routine.)

I think that we may have gotten a new UPS delivery person, though, because the delivery style has changed. For the last few deliveries, the UPS delivery person sets down the package, rings the doorbell...and then runs like hell for the truck. Every time I hear the doorbell, I get to the door in time to see the UPS truck speeding away, leaving behind my package right next to my front door. I swear, the man delivers packages like he's dropping off bags of flaming dog poo. Our most recent package was sitting at such a bizarre angle when I opened the door that I wondered whether or not he just threw the package from his truck and happened to hit the doorbell in the process.

Perhaps UPS is understaffed; however, they only ever seem to advertise for package handlers in their local shipping and receiving facility, so I think that the UPS delivery people just don't care that much about doing a good job around here. In my home state of Missouri, the UPS delivery person actually knocked on the door or rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer and sign for the package.

On the other hand, maybe the UPS drivers are just scared that they will get robbed and/or get shot if they stay in any residential area for too long. I know that there are some places that are really bad in this village, but there haven't been any local shootings for several months, and none of them were in my neighborhood. The worst we've had around my neighborhood has been domestic violence and vandalism to a couple of abandoned businesses. I realize that the problem is only going to get worse over time, but until that happens, there's no real excuse for UPS to provide such poor service. After all, my front door is visible from the street, and there's very little stopping someone from stealing my package if I don't happen to be home to pick it up.

While I realize that delivering packages for UPS is a dangerous job, I still feel like there's no excuse for putting down the package, ringing the doorbell, and running away as if there's an explosive in the box. Many of the things that my partner and I purchase are things that we would prefer not to have stolen. Until UPS starts getting drivers that care about doing their jobs correctly and not just abandoning packages wherever they please, I think I'll be taking my business to the post office or DHL.

In Honor of E. Gary Gygax, one of the founding fathers of modern tabletop gaming

Who was Gary Gygax? To some people, he was a creative genius, taking tabletop games in a previously unexplored and unused direction that changed the face of gaming and led to legendary games such as tabletop gaming’s Magic: The Gathering and video gaming’s Final Fantasy series. To others, Gygax was a monster of depravity, luring innocent Christian youth down a road of fantasy and paganism with his phenomenally popular game, Dungeons and Dragons.

To me, Gary Gygax was one of two innovative geniuses who changed the face of tabletop gaming forever. He and his former friend and co-creator, Dave Arneson, worked together to create Dungeons and Dragons after both had achieved limited success on their previous roleplaying games. Gygax and Arneson combined Gygax’s success in fantasy roleplay (with the Chainmail medieval wargame) with Arneson’s success in military strategy wargames (particularly naval strategy) to create the basis for modern Dungeons and Dragons.

Dungeons and Dragons was first sold in 1974, and it found enormous success with people who enjoyed wargames and roleplay, as well as people who were fans of fantasy literature such as Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings series. What started out as a small venture for Gygax and Arneson turned into a worldwide phenomenon, with BBC News estimating that over 20 million people play Dungeons and Dragons as of 2006.

Not everyone was happy with Gygax and Arneson’s success, though. Jack Chick, Patricia Pulling, Bill Schnoebelen, and many religious groups raised a furor about D&D being a “gateway” to Satanism, the occult, witchcraft, suicide, homicide, sexual deviance, necromancy, demon summoning, and many other potentially problematic actions, beliefs, or behaviors. Fortunately, Christian authors such as Tracy Hickman have done much to dispel myths and fears surrounding the concept of playing Dungeons and Dragons.

The creation of Dungeons and Dragons opened up a whole new world in tabletop gaming. Gygax and Arneson’s combined skill created a viable fantasy gaming world where mythos came to life and people could roleplay as various fantasy creatures, be they from fairy tales, mythology, or even the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Because of the advances that Gygax and Arneson made in tabletop gaming, game ideas that would have previously been discarded were scrutinized more closely. It was because of the success of Dungeons and Dragons that tabletop games such as Magic: the Gathering (which was developed as a portable game for convention attendees to play between events) and the d20 gaming system were able to be exist and thrive. The success of Dungeons and Dragons was even instrumental in the creation of Final Fantasy, which is one of the best-selling video game franchises in the world. Final Fantasy’s success, in turn, opened up the way for the modern roleplaying video game genre.

Would the world have tabletop games and roleplaying videogames without Gary Gygax? Of course it would, but the landscape of gaming would be vastly different. Fantasy tabletop games such as Dungeons and Dragons may have evolved eventually from early war and military strategy games, but the course of that evolution would have been vastly different. If it weren’t for the work of Gary Gygax, fantasy adventures might still be solitary, lonely mental exercises done after reading an H.P. Lovecraft or Anne McCaffrey story, and video gamers could still be relegated to arcades, playing Super Pac-Man XIV. Because of the changes that he brought to the gaming landscape, Ernest Gary Gygax will be forever remembered by gamers of every stripe as one of the founding fathers of modern gaming.

Pardonnez moi, M. Mayor, but how would that work?

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL0552076620080305

Cemetery full, mayor tells locals not to die

BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - The mayor of a village in southwest France has threatened residents with severe punishment if they die, because there is no room left in the overcrowded cemetery to bury them.

In an ordinance posted in the council offices, Mayor Gerard Lalanne told the 260 residents of the village of Sarpourenx that "all persons not having a plot in the cemetery and wishing to be buried in Sarpourenx are forbidden from dying in the parish."

It added: "Offenders will be severely punished."

The mayor said he was forced to take drastic action after an administrative court in the nearby town of Pau ruled in January that the acquisition of adjoining private land to extend the cemetery would not be justified.

Lalanne, who celebrated his 70th birthday on Wednesday and is standing for election to a seventh term in this month's local elections, said he was sorry that there had not been a positive outcome to the dilemma.

"It may be a laughing matter for some, but not for me," he said.

(Reporting by Claude Canellas, Writing by Andrew Dobbie; editing by Sami Aboudi)

So, how is he going to punish someone for dying? Publicly beating the corpse? Jail time? Cremation?

In all seriousness, he'd probably fine the family of the deceased or some other nonsense. Unless the deceased was murdered, it's not as if anyone has any control over when a person dies.

France brought the world cuisine, revolutions, guillotines, existentialism...and now, punishment beyond the grave...

This ought to be interesting. Let's see if M. Mayor can enforce his new edict.

To be honest, I don't think that they needed any more

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN0736682420080307

Hey, tanks a lot!

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian tank crashed through a villager's house after the crew stopped to buy more vodka at a nearby shop.

Footage from a mobile phone camera showed the tank hitting a corner of the house and a laughing, and apparently drunk, driver awkwardly trying to clamber aboard with two bottles of vodka.

"Get him out of the tank," screamed a woman in the village in the Urals.

The army promised Friday to pay compensation and said the tank must have been broken and fallen behind a column heading to a test site for exercises. Earlier it said the vehicle slid on melting ice.

"Of course, there were violations but the crew acted in good faith to catch up with its unit," said Colonel Konstantin Lazutkin, spokesman for Russia's Volga-Urals Military District.

"Thank God, they didn't shoot," the house owner said on the video.

(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Stephen Weeks)

The Russian Army: Doing nothing to diffuse stereotypes about Russians since...ever, really.

"Wait a second...you're not Serena!"

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUST4228820080222

"Girl" at Japan school was 39-year-old man

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man was arrested for trespassing this week after turning up at a high school dressed in a girl's uniform and a long wig, local police said.

Thirty-nine-year-old Tetsunori Nanpei told police he had bought the uniform over the Internet and put it on to take a stroll near the school in Saitama, north of Tokyo, on Wednesday, the daily Asahi Shimbun said.

When students standing outside the gates started to scream at the sight of him, he dashed inside the school grounds, hoping to blend in with the crowds of teenagers, the paper said.

They also screamed, forcing the man to flee, losing his wig in the process. A school clerk pursued him and stopped him at a nearby riverbank, the paper said.

Police confirmed the arrest of the man in school uniform and wig but declined to give further details.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Apparently, Happosai is alive and well in Japan. I'm sure he would have stolen some bras and panties, given half the chance.

Who was this guy, anyway? A random otaku? A guy who likes his girls young and magical?

Anyway, good luck, Sailor Midlife Crisis. From what I understand of Japan, the schools don't take too kindly to baka hentai scaring their schoolgirls.