Joe’s 3rd attempt at keeping a blog

This is going to be a short post because I don't think this really needs any more explanation.

I went as an IBM'er.

"Together we can build a smarter planet."

Ah! The business trip! Traveling on these excursions across the country have really become part of one of the cores to the working individual in the US.  I recently got to experience Reno, NV and my excursion was a life changing adventure. 

Wonderful Phoenix decided to be 100 degrees the night that I left and of course I'm too damn cheap and too damn stubborn to turn my AC on in October so I spent the entire night as if my bedroom were a sweat lodge leaving me to travel in less than comfortable style and also smelling like an armpit. Luckily I was going to Reno, NV so I in my current state I would fit right in with the locals. 

Arrival at Sky Harbor, packed bus from economy parking to the Southwest terminal.  If there is one thing I know its that Southwest Airlines really has the flying thing figured out, smiles, friendliness no swine flu and certainly no H1N1, barely enough time to hide my iPhone and pretend like i turned it off when in actuality I'm listening to Dylan wail about social change while smirking slying at our flight crew the whole time and BLAMMO, touchdown Reno Nevada.

After scuttling off the plane I hopped into a Hepatis C filled taxi with a man who told me his name was George in the thickest Indian accent I've ever heard in my life to take me to my place of employment.

A full day of work later and a car ride from a friendly co-worker to the wonderful Atlantis Hotel Casino and Spa.

As I entered my loding for the night I was greated by an outwardly friendly asian man on crystal meth who promptly asked "What the fuck Bigfoot? Why you do that? I do that once...but...shiiit" and then he hurried on his way to argue with the concierge about timely world events.

After check in I made my way to my room to unwind and relax before heading down the wonderful resturants available to get some grub.  The hotel room itself was standard, one king bed, one TV circa 1998 and a wonderful view of the fat midwestern people in the pool.  I started to settle in when I realized that I had forgotten all of my luggage at my place of employment.  Downstairs I returned to hop in a taxi and head back to my companies building to pick up my luggage.

This time my cab driver was the happily optimistic Czech cabbie / economist named Gustov. Gustov's cab smelled exactly the way the inside a pack of cigarettes would smell and Gustov himself had the ever so slight odor of vodka cologne emanating from him. The cab ride round trip may have taken 20 minutes and Gustov spent the entire time trying to convince me that the American system as we know it was going to collapse if people don't start going and frequenting Reno's fine brothels and strip clubs.

Fast forward two hours.  While enjoying in my delicious 21 dollar room service pizza when I receive a phone call on my hotel room phone.

"Hey! Keith man what's happening?"
"This isn't Keith you have the wrong number sir."
"This is room 521 yeah?"
"Yes."
"And you aren't Keith?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
*Click* 

So the guy called a wrong number these things happen right? Fast forward another two hours. Someone starts a rap-tap-tapping on the room door, I head to check on my mystery visitor and I do not recognize the person outside.

"Can I help you sir?"
"Heath(Notice that the name has changed) man quit kidding around." 
"This isn't Heath, now please go away"
"Oh I'm sorry sir"

I watch stranger #2 scurry down the hallway to the elevator. What a coincidence! Keith-Heath is pretty popular here at the Atlantis and room 521 seemed to be the hotspot.  Gosh golly just my luck...

9:21 PST and the hotel phone wakes me out of a dead sleep, it seems someone is trying to locate their dear friend Heath-Keith.

10:43 PST Another visitor to my door...I let this one go unanswered. 

Why would a man be getting so many visitors and calls to his hotel room you ask? My only answer to that question would have to be because Heath-Keith most likely was a working man if you catch my drift.  Usually a when a thought like this crosses my head it does not phase me, however it is completely unsettling when you are trying to sleep in a bed when you can only imagine what kind of acts of debauchery and sodomy were done in your resting place the night before.

Thank god I had to wake up early to go to work.

The moral of this adventure is that if you are looking for male on male sodomy or perhaps some loose "slots" Reno Nevada is the place for your vacation destination!

After another hard fought battle with the undead that rendered me unconscious (My REFLEX MOD sucks) we emerged victorious! Stephen Caturday utilized his instinctive knowledge of arcana to turn the undead's own inimical  aura's against each other.

The rowdy band of rangers was then befuddled by a portcullis as no one seemed to be able to pass a strength check to break through the door. (Then we discovered that if you push the space bar you can make an arrow with your cursor and things just went a little crazy with laughter)

I summoned the power of the earth spirit and assumed the form of the fearsome ram charging at the large beast and slamming into it with the speed of the raging winds, knocking it prone and eventually taking down the beast; only to have the startling realization that it could rise again unless we destroyed out the fell  powers controlling it. As we had entered the large chamber we experienced a powerful sense of foreboding.  This place was a tomb, and we had just woken its keeper.

The zombie hulk returned from whatever death its kind have only to meet my cold steel and sweet, unsullied justice.  I turned slowly, long dead gore dripping from my weapon.  Caturday and the death mage had been exchanging magical assaults to little effect, but with it's massive bodyguard banished back to the Twisting Nether, the necromancer was quickly overcome by the combined might of Rackham's Rangers.  With the fell creature slain, the Goddess of Halfings, Sheela Peryroyl, cleansed the den of evil so that the adventurers could continue their on-going investigation into the source of the evil.

       

Click here to download:

The_continued_Adventures_of_Re.zip (116 KB)

My younger brother flew out to visit me this extended weekend to share in what we hoped was a strong CMU Chippewas victory over the Arizona Wildcats.

First off, driving to Tucson sucks; I mean sucks like a black hole. There is nothing to draw your attention besides the 55mile an hour two lane road and the assholes who want to drive 2-3 mph faster than the person to their respective right or left.

Upon arriving in Tucson we attended Championships Sports Bar. Drank our faces off watching college football on 100 flat screen televisions, and prepared ourselves mentally to whoop up on the Wildcats. We studied our trash talk playbook for hours while throwing beers down our face just to attend the tailgating festivities. Well you know what U of A Wildcats?  Your fans were too god forsaken nice!  I expect to be ridiculed, ripped on, and razzed when I'm wearing the opposing teams colors!  I went to a MAC School and I'm down at your Pac-10 school because I thought my team had a legitimate chance at upsetting you and you did your damnedest to make it impossible to be mad at you by feeding me the best food I've ever had tailgating and offering me all the free beer I could drink. It was honestly tailgate heaven and as much as I want to hate you for it all I can do is thank you.

After watching one of the most boring live college football games I've ever seen in my life (Congrats Wildcats, you made every ESPN Analyst shut their mouth about Dan LeFevour FOREVER).  The night gets a little patchy here but at some point in time the night actually turns into a National Lampoons movie and the story is one of those "you just had to be there" stories that my brother and I will remember for the rest of our lives.

Started to slug my way though Fables Graphic Novels tonight.  So far I'm very impressed with the art and overall atmosphere that the first volume is bringing to the table.   The whodunit in the first volume has to deal with the mysterious disappearance of Rose Red.  We don't quite know what happened to her but we do know that she's vanished and left in her place is an apartment full of blood.

If you've ever read the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman you'll probably enjoy Fables quite a bit.

Dan Veresh Eat your heart out

So a group of good friends and I have started to play D&D every Sunday night!

We are using Skype and Maptool to shrink the country down so that even though we are in different locations we can feel like we are in the same room dorking out together.

I'm currently playing Reginald Ketchum a Lawful Good Goliath Warden. We just recently joined "Rackham's Rangers" in an ever going battle against the undead.  Rackham has asked us to investigate a "haunted house" near a small village to help try discover the cause of the undead swarm which has recently decended on Aglarond.  We decended slowly into a dark hallway that lead to an underground cavern under the house.

I was encased immediately by a gelatious cube when I entered the room which was a struggle and almost was killed but our cleric got off some clutch heals.

Yesterday I also found a very cool comics shop called Atomic Comics down by my old stomping grounds, the comic book guy that was in there enlightened me to a new series of graphic novels that I am going to check out called Fables.