We are supposed to get our bags tonight.  Presuming all goes well and the stars align and the weather forecast is correct.  I am not holding my breath.

We're teaching a class, but that's not the kind of optempo I'm used to on a deployment and it is leaving me with more than a little bit of free time.  I've got books in my bag.  I've got DVDs in my bag.

What I have here a couple books I'm done with already, and one set of DVDs of the Fullmetal Alchemist.  I actually like Fullmetal Alchemist.  I mean, seriously, I'm not a big fan of anime, but this is fun.  I'm not quite through the first half of the first season (for those playing the home game, 2 seasons, 51 episodes total, I own 'em all).  

I've got a NIPR connection at the office that, as long as I turn off proxy server settings, is pretty much unlimited (obviously, or I wouldn't be posting here).  But it's slow, which takes a lot of the fun out of it.

And I'm dinking around with Exalted.  I'm considering running a game of Exalted when I get back from Iraq.  I'm not going to use the 'default' game setting.  I'm considering setting it during the collapse of the Shogunate (for those of you for whom this means something).  So I'm half-heartedly playing around with that, although I'm not in a massive hurry.

I'm considering building a homebrew setting from the ground up, but the way Exalted's magic works is so tied into the cosmology which is tied into the history of Creation that tinkering makes it very, very, very difficult to adjust big things without doing it all from scratch.  On the other hand, you can fit nearly anything into a corner of Creation, but it has to work the way Creation works unless you're willing to shove a bunch of stuff behind the curtain.  It's enough to keep me busy.

It's time for you to just scroll on past....

• 10:06 @elmofromok yech. that must be why we saw youre car still at home this morning (we drive past your street on the way to daycare) #
• 11:41 errand time #
• 13:20 @okaycitynate The psychic? #
• 14:01 @okaycitynate I was close :P And you're welcome #
• 15:35 @mwsmedia done and done. Needed a change from screaming Kirk anyways :) #
• 15:48 @mwsmedia looking forward to getting my own print copy here :) #
• 16:34 @mwsmedia I always thought it came from an icanhascheezburger entry #
• 16:36 looking forward to family game night tonight. I have something for @galateadia's kiddo :) #
• 16:37 @mwsmedia I can't find it now, unfortunately. :( #
• 22:32 got tired of being murderized in GTA4 deathmatches, gonna watch some daybreak #

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• Well, the one thing we had that helped keep her asleep longer just starting making a horrible racket that wakes her up. *sigh*
• @lizzistardust: A vibrating chair.
• If the Wii noises wake up Theda it's all James' fault!
• The packing of book has begun...it's official, we're moving.

Yep, this post is brought to you by the letter Z, the number 11 and LoudTwitter.

Ha! All I needed was to fall asleep while thinking about the sequel to Rustler's Roundup! I woke up with not only a title for it, but a direction for it, as well as several scenes. Woohoo! \(^o^)/

Anyway, the working title is Desperado Dawn, as this is the book where Joshua takes the fatal step that leads him over the cliff and lands him so deep into the outlaw life that he can't get back out. And it's all because of Jenny's vengefulness. I knew she'd be a great character, even though I really want to throttle her. ;P She has just gone on to get nastier and nastier, as the story progresses. It's kind of hard to believe that someone so pretty could be so ugly!

Here's the tagline that I have for it, so far:

Young outlaw Joshua Love tries to leave the desperado life behind, but his former lover, vengeful Jenny Sue Carter, means to keep him on the run--or see him die.

I'm going to wait another day to start trying to write out the scenes in my head. I want them to percolate a bit. Maybe they'll spawn some others, while they're bubbling in my mind, and I can get a good start on the book, this weekend! I'll need to, since Thursday's installment is the final chapter for Rustler's Roundup. I will need fresh story for next week! I'll also need to make a piece of art for it, though that's much lower on the priority pole than writing actual story.

I also made a "Where do I go from here?" page on the Outlaw Starr site, so that new readers will have some guidance on where to start reading. That page is here, if anyone wants to check it out. I'm hoping it will be helpful in keeping more of my visitors on the site. I think it will, as I've received one email already asking me where the best place is to begin. I like to try and have my page navigation laid out so as to make things as easy as possible for the reader, and give them a way to get anywhere, from anywhere on the site, without having to use the back button or hunt around for links. I hate having to fumble around on other people's websites, and decided a long time ago that I wouldn't do that to my visitors, if I could help it.

So, a series of odd nutritional decisions, brash questions and unusual sartorial purchases turned me into a lizard-man today. A reptoid. I won't explain more because I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did.

The rest of them all under the Earth, in the kingdom of the Hollow Center. (Them? Us?)

The reptoids say that power makes you blind to justice. They say that maybe I'm of some value to their hundred thousand year dynasty. They offered me a minor administrative position in their cthonic judicial system if I can answer two conundrums:

First, what does justice-flavored ice cream taste like?

Second, how do we know for sure that Soylent Green is really people? The movie could have been lying. They're hungry for human flesh, but skeptical.

They didn't say anything about a lifeline so I assume it's okay. I'd love a little help, guys.

At what income level does an individual person become "rich" and worthy of extra money being taken from the government as a "tax" for being successful? $50,000? $75,000? $100,000? $250,000? Even more?

***

I want both Senators McCain and Obama to answer that question candidly and then tell me how they came to that conclusion. As a follow up, I'd like to know what level of income should be immune from taxation, if any.

What matters to me in this conversation is the establishment, once and for all, as to which people in general are being talking about when they say "tax the rich."