Mind Games. Board Games.

I am almost through the second day of a five-day weekend I unceremoniously gave myself for no reason. Such a state of being breeds inaction, and renders inert my ability to form wholesale thoughts. More so, it feels somehow wrong to type on such a day.

With the above in mind, it's that time again: random thoughts!

* LOST this season? Loving it. I shall not spoil, but it's like the show is rewarding me for watching for so long, while whispering "those other jerks just tuning in won't get this, but it's blowing your mind" into my soul. I take on board and recognise the criticisms that are circulating across the internet, but I simply do not care. 

* I played RISK 2210 last night. For the uninitiated, or those who are sufficiently adjusted socially to have never used board games as both armor and lubricant, RISK 2210 is RISK -- in the future! With robots! And the moon! And nuclear weapons! It is, suffice to say, right up my nerd alley. [gross]. For anyone who may one day google "how to win RISK 2210", my advice is thus: grab a continent but make no enemies until the fourth year. Attack sparingly, then use your well-preserved forces to annihilate all on the final year, during which you should go last. Although enemies are unwelcome, do laugh at people who fail. You want to have fun, yes?

FYI: I totally won.

* On a similar, groupie-encrusted note, I am all about the Dungeons and Dragons right now. I'm running a 4th edition game and it is the system of my dreams. Today I created for a friend a paper-based avatar within which resides a creature that kills like a dog but walks like a man, who shoots arrows as big as the sky. Next week he shall stand alongside two con men - one whose dad was a demon and the other with the head of a dragon, a stab-happy human in a shiny shirt, an insane, pointy-eared loner with a God complex and a direct line to God, and a crippled gnome who is blind in one eye. That is, suffice to say, how I roll.

* After a few phone conversations and a healthy does of hold music, I discovered that our modem, the magical box which brings my voice into your head right now, was likely malfunctioning. After replacing it, our internet was suddenly running as fast as it should always have been. Depressingly, it transpires that our internet had been running at approximately 1/10th its intended speed for years. We are now basking in the swift stream that is internet as intended, able to download a 350mb file - the size of say, an episode of LOST, but certainly not an episode of LOST - in 10 minutes, rather than eight hours.

* Beauty and the Geek is on. I worry the title could be used as a label on my home life.

* For reasons I won't go into, I have recently discovered that if I am punched in the stomach immediately upon exiting the shower, it makes a noise much like a drum stuffed full of beef.