Utter Failures

My grandpa, Roger, was a cool guy. He passed away a few years ago; today would have been his birthday. Every year my family would get together around this time and throw a party for him. He was cool that way, getting a birthday party every year. I miss him. He had a way of making you feel like the most important, special person, even if you were one of 30 people in the house or one of the grandkids vying for his attention. When he was with you, he focused his attention on you. I think we all had something we enjoyed doing with Papaw that we felt was "our" thing -- whether playing a game, watching a movie, or listening to music. The thing I enjoyed doing with him was drinking coffee and watching Star Trek, preferably The Original Series. He loved  it, and so did I. Usually we sat watching and sipping coffee in silence. You really didn't have to say anything when you were with him. Just being around him was comforting somehow. I don't recall when it was, but at...

I love playing video games -- well, many  video games, not all (cough, Gears of War, cough) -- but I tend to take them personally. I consider it a personal achievement when I beat a boss. Like, I am a better person for it. And if I fail, I fail at life. My first video games that I remember were Mario Bros for NES, Link's Awakening and Donkey Kong for the original Gameboy, and then for computer, Commander Keen and original Duke Nukem. I once peed in my pants because I refused to get up from fighting the boss in Duke Nukem to go to the bathroom. There was no pause! I remember beating Twilight Princess (a Legend of Zelda game) around 3 a.m. one weekend many years ago and yelling in triumph! You really shouldn't yell at 3 a.m. when you're not the only person in the house. I play League of Legends, but never solo queue (when you just jump into a random game with other people you don't know). I only play premades, and usually that consists of four family members pl...

I've been reading The Silmarillion for months now. Really since early this year.  I read fairly quickly, but I hate reading for deadlines. I spent too much time reading to finish books and not to really understand, so now I really try to take my time with books. With The Silmarillion, which I will heretofore refer to as T.S., this "trying to understand" bit presents a challenge.  <side note: Don't you love the word "heretofore"? I do.> I love Tolkien and his world. The Hobbit is awesome. I've been known to get into somewhat deep discussions about it on Reddit. Same with the trilogy. Shall we discuss the real villain in The Hobbit? I will! But T.S. is a history with every sentence packed with INFORMATION. ALL the information. Like, you can read a paragraph and have an entire family history. The version I have comes with 2 maps, at least 5 family trees, and 2 glossaries. For a ~300 page book. To remember names, I created a l...