sweasel.com

I bought Aliens: Colonial Marines on sale on Steam…hopefully will get some time to play it this weekend!

If it’s good, let me know. I still haven’t come close to playing through all the stuff I bought in the Summer sale, though, so I haven’t bought anything more.

I can’t believe it, but I’m back in Skyrim for my third time through. You know, as far as I’m concerned, they could just keep adding to that game forever, and I’d buy updates and keep playing it.

Yeah, I’m like that with Left 4 Dead…just like to go visit once in a while.

True also, I haven’t played through most of the stuff I have.

Yeah ‘Murica! We got the MOST guns, booze, shopping, and cars on the planet! Oh, yeah, other places may snivel and whine that they got better but ain’t nobody got MORE.
And we take our shit seriously too. I always tell visitors that you can get arrested or shot for not finishing your beer in Texas. And by the way, Ms. Weasel, ma’am…. We ain’t got no stinkin’ puny 10 Items or Less lines here in Texas neither. It’s 15 Items or less, cause, well, everything’s bigger in Texas.

Hmmmm I have a file on my desk this evening …
Amerikan citizens must declare all cash assets and investments abroad. The NZ government is being pressured into revealing the assets and income of US nationals, where, according to rumour …

The NZ government plans to freeze their assets under new anti-terrorism laws and hand it over to the US, until they can prove they have paid tax on it.

Remember all that seized Libyan government money?
Oh you fein ignorance? I did mention it at the time.

Now they want yours …. pay up!

If I did venture forth to one of the centers of acquisition on Black Friday(I don’t – mama didn’t raise no stupid children), I’d still be unlikely to encounter the riots, etc. that make the day so charming. I’m not a customer for any of the stuff people riot over, nor a patron of most of the retailers that sell such stuff. I have no place to put a 55″ TV, and we’re WAY too close to West Virginia to want to go into a Wal-Mart for any reason excepting maybe the day the weekly ammo shipment comes in.

In AZ they have a deal that annoys the crap out of me.

When on line with more than 10 items, they split it up into more than one pile of goods so they only check-out with 10 at a time.

That annoys the crap out of me, it would be quicker if they would just do it as one step.

I just can’t understand how or why that makes sense.
“Hmmm, they try to restrict the number of items in this line to make the line go more quickly. So what I’m going to do is have more items and then split it up into two groups to make things go even more slowly! Brilliant!”

Luckily, the local stores all have self-check out lanes, idiots generally avoid those lanes so I can go about my day without any human contact.
Yay!

I avoid Black Friday shopping. I especially avoid Black Friday shopping at WalMart.

I ‘never’ leave the domicile. If I want something, I order it online to be delivered. Food is the only exception. I go to walmart three maybe four times a year. Early sunday morning when the drunks are still unconscious, the pious in church, and the hard working still asleep.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Quest

We’ve been painting the house for the past month. Oh, not me – I’m just the financial guy. A _very_ happy filipino gent has been doing the labor for me. Our flat (penthouse? bunker?) was dark green and ‘amazing’ green for the past 4 years, time to change and plus the paint was peeling due to the lovely atmospherics in the islands (read: constant humidity, occasional freakin’ heavy rain). I sure hope I learn to love pale yellow / BRIGHT yellow. What started as painting/repainting the 3rd floor flat has turned into a complete repaint of the entire building – 5 floors! *sigh* I hope everyone in the family enjoys their bags of sugar and cans of tuna for Christmas, because we are _broke_. Oh well, at least we are weather-proofed – sorta. Did I mention we painted the entire OUTSIDE, too? *double sigh*

We had a lovely Thanksgiving feast with friends I haven’t seen since before my wife was born. Turns out many of my old friends have moved from the US to southeast Asia in the subsequent years. I’m still trying to figure out why that is. Oh, yeah, well – our conversation at the dinner table _did_ focus, for a while, on the fact that _none_ of us are on the hook for ObamaCare. We all got a big chuckle out of that. I’m still hoping that everyone in the US will get a chuckle out of it, too, but I’m not so sure.

I’m still recovering from the filipino versions of lasagna, turkey, and mashed potatoes.

I did get a ‘job’ out of the reunion, tho – turns out my one friend is quite the entrepreneur now, and has a factory here that turns out Christmas lights. I am now the design team. The ENTIRE design team. Should be interesting, hopefully I don’t kill anyone because they tell me that lights are not blinking in a proper sequence.

And if the ‘job’ turns into actual ‘work’, I quit.

Can’t do on-line games from here. Our internet access barely surpasses dial-up. And that’s on a good day. I don’t have the attention span for games anyway – which kinda sucks since I’m in the position to be a gaming monster 24/7. Well, 12/7. I go to bed early.

Oh, and the black Friday crowds in the US? That’s a typical shopping day in Manila. You should see it on paydays/holidays. We’re used to queuing up. And waiting. And queuing up. And waiting some more. No fistfights, tasers, or gunshots here. Hard looks and muttering is as bad as it gets. I mutter in Thai (ex-wife), so no one understands or gets offended.

BTW: Skandia Recluse – I hear ya. I try not to leave the bunker if I can help it. But I _do_ go grocery shopping (which is within walking – ah, er – ‘gimping’ distance) once a week, just to make sure I get what I want. Otherwise it’s corned beef, sardines, and rice for a week. Ugh.

Re: Oceania

I have to report ALL of my foreign accounts / assets to the Treasury department. That has been going on for years.

On Black Friday I needed a new scratching post for my two cats, who had turned the sisal rope wound about the wooden post into fluff. But have you priced those things, especially a tall post? $35 to $50 at Petco and PetSmart!

Hmph. At Ace Hardware I bought 50 feet of sisal and a packet of double-pointed tacks. I cut off the old rope shreds and wound the post with the new rope, tacking periodically to keep it tight. Then I rubbed the post with my hands and sprinkled catnip on it. My furry potheads took to it right away.

Cost: $9.79 and an hour of my time. When they destroy it, $7 will get me more rope, and I’ll make it look even more professional next time.