The Troof Will Set You Free

[elfs]

This afternoon, for lunch, I went into downtown from my office to run some errands. I wanted to pick up Best Buddhist Writing, 2007, since it's just come out, although I have to say that when I started thumbing through it I was less than impressed. I'm not happy with the way Mahayana is seeping back into the American nominally non-theistic practice; Theravada's got a much harder row to hoe, but it's core principle of your being responsible for your own journey is much more interesting to me. The whole Bodhisattva thing is, well, it smacks too much of gods and angels for my taste. You can't find that stuff in the words of Siddhartha, the Buddha. When asked if there were gods or angels who made the world, Buddha said, "When your house is on fire, you don't care who made it or where they are. Get out of the house." Don't worry about the gods, Buddha taught. Deal with your own life first. (Confucious said more or less the same thing: "When the nation is in disarray is not a time to worry about the gods." I've always had a soft spot for Confucious, but he wasn't giving a religion; he was teaching law.)

I didn't buy the book after all. Instead, I went over to The Dragon's Toybox and picked out a card game for Kouryou-chan called Quiddler, which the woman behind the counter recommended as a gentler introduction to word games than Boggle, a game that Kouryou-chan finds frustrating. I bought a lox sandwich at the bagel store next door, which makes them with red onion and capers and just the right amount of cream cheese.

Walking back, I passed through Westlake center. I'd forgotten what day it was. There was a guy on the cement dais on the edge of the big outdoor triangle that takes up half the city block, strumming his guitar. He was surrounded by Truthers holding street signs and yelling out random things, handing out stickers and pamphlets. Two held up a big banner proclaiming, "The WTC was Demolished!" I studiously ignored all of them.

While I was walking around, I saw a traffic cop on a three-wheeled contraption vaguely like a knockoff Segway. I said to her, "They couldn't even buy you a real Segway?"

"I can't stand those things," she said. "They hurt, you know that? You spend all day on one of those things, balancing back and forth, and it really starts to hurt in your calves and your feet. This thing is a lot better."

I did not know that. I thanked her for the knowledge.

I was deeply saddened to learn that both McCormick Bookstore and Blue Canary Stationery have gone out of business. Bleah! Now where will I buy my soft-backed Moleskines no-lined notebooks?

On the way back to the office, I swear, the bus driver was, um, happy. Very cheerful; obviously dreamed of being a train master some day. Said "Thank you" and "You're welcome" very loudly, and when we paused at a bus stop with a lot of people he even shouted, "All aboard!" I said "Thank you" to him as I got off and he said, "Take it easy, bro."

And I finished my Africa story on the bus, and immediately started into a new one:

Charles had made the mistake, two parties ago, of mouthing off the opinion within her earshot that Geena was one of those nekomimi furry freaks who pretended to be a Bastet. He had no doubt Lucien knew a lot of those. Geena, however, had turned out to be the real thing.

Oops.

Comments

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised it took you this long to get around to Quiddler -- I bought it right after you introduced me to Set.

Ah, yes, thanks -- I haven't been to SetGame.com lately. *runs off to try to win something*

[wyrdone.livejournal.com]

Another good one along the same lines is a game called "Wordthief". It's like Quiddler with an added dash of competition.

[whatthehay.livejournal.com]

I swear, the bus driver was, um, happy. Very cheerful; obviously dreamed of being a train master some day. Said "Thank you" and "You're welcome" very loudly, and when we paused at a bus stop with a lot of people he even shouted, "All aboard!" I said "Thank you" to him as I got off and he said, "Take it easy, bro."

We've had the bus driver from hell driving our bus for this past quarter. He's mean to the customers and obviously distains them. He drives too fast and jams on the brakes too hard. This week he toppled folks onto the floor twice and this health care worker (I'm guessing from the clothes) started yelling at him for driving badly. I thought he would take her head off, but he was oddly silent. Maybe he respects it when people fight back.

Once he tried to chastise my friend and I for talking and laughing on the bus. We hadn't seen each other since hubby and mine's handfasting which was 8 years ago and we catching up. My friend, in her 60's (probably about the same age as he) just looked at him and walked off the bus at our stop. I think I sputtered something.

He usually yells at people for not having what he says is the correct fare. Someone told him he ought to get a new job since he dislikes people so much. I totally agree.

But yesterday, the 311 route was running late on the way home so I got the driver before him. Sweet, cheery, actually saying silly things like "bumpity-bump" when we went over the construction downtown, she was a nice change from him.

Happily, the shifts change this Sunday and I'm hoping not to see that rotten bastard again. Hope you don't get him either and if he had been the driver when poor Y-C missed her stop, I shudder to think how he would have dealt with her.

Bus drivers are a crap-shoot. Sorry this is so long, but you just hit on something that's been bugging me. I know I should report him to Metro. I'm sure others have already, for whatever that's worth.

[wyrdone.livejournal.com]

Bus Drivers: Not all bus drivers are rundown people with the last dregs of their humanity being routinely crushed by their job. I drove a bus for a year and it certainly takes a peculiar mindset to be able to do the job and continue being and upbeat person.

Quiddler rocks!

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

My entire family plays it, and my sister has a game group that comes to her house for it, ranging in age from 10 to 70+. She's played with an 85-year-old in a nursing home, who beat all of their butts, and who was really fierce.

Moose and I bought our own deck and play regularly. Since my great-nephew Jake started playing about a year ago, his spelling and addition-on-the fly scores have gone way up.

Moose and I like the game so much that we have the deck, a soft-backed dictionary and my Gary Gygax Memorial Die (not necessary, but fun for rolling for the first round) all together to grab so we can play in restaurants!

Re: Quiddler rocks!

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

I took it over to my father-in-law's house once -- despite his multiple beers and my zero, I got seriously toasted. :-)

The 10-year-old is a killer player, too.

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

He's a rules lawyer, and there's sneaking anything past him. I wish I could resurrect my Dad (born in 1902 and long in his grave) just to see those two square off. The fireworks would have been amazing, because Daddy not only had a weapons-grade vocabulary, as I do, but he cheated at every word game he played unless we challenged him vigilantly!

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

Now where will I buy my soft-backed Moleskines no-lined notebooks?

Same place I do: Amazon.

[loba.livejournal.com]

Now where will I buy my soft-backed Moleskines no-lined notebooks?

Or if you *have* to have them in hand... I found them over at Third Place Books. (I just got some there.) :-)

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

Quiddler rocks. And you might try the occasional return to Boggle with adaptations. In my family (which currently typically includes no one under 18), we never use the timer, for instance. And when we play Quiddler, if there's 4+ of us, sometimes we'll end up teaming up a bit - each person has their own hand, but we'll look to the person next to us for some help - for things like "Is this actually a word? How do you spell this? Is this the best I can do with this hand?" It's not how the rules are written, no, but we have a good time with it. When I play Boggle and Quiddler with friends (and occasionally family), we might also decide that something isn't a word, but it might be creative/impressive enough to give brownie points for anyway because damnit, it *ought* to be a word!

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

If you like Boggle, have you tried http://www.wordsplay.net/ (used to be http://weboggle.shackworks.com/)?

We sometimes collaborate, too

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

and occasionally play a round with really loose rules--foreign words allowed, bigger dictionaries used as the official arbiter, etc. We do always allow consultation of a official dictionary as long as it's not your turn in our variation. It may not be in the rules, but that's how we roll. ;)