A blog by Cameron and Shannon

June 9, 2009, 4:18pm CST
Cameron:
so i’m doing a d&d run this weekend in pensacola
Sean:
wow
I’m speechless
you went there
Cameron:
yep
my friends are rolling me an eladrin ranger
like a high elf
we are doing a level 1 quest
myself, a dwarf fighter, and a tiefling wizard
i guess a tiefling is like a demonspawn person
i gotta think of a good name for my eladrin
this isn’t helping
Sean:
wow
that might be the nerdiest thing I’ve heard you say
which is saying a lot
don’t forget to pack your amulet of protection
I think your character’s name should be Chewbacca
Cameron:
that’s not a good eladrin name
dude did you check out that link?
excerpt:
”I removed it because the race as a whole does not typically live on Arvandor, but in the Feywild and Toril. There are, indeed, as you say, quite a few eladrin in Arvandor - but they’re mostly noble eladrin. Hence, I changed it to Feywild and Toril and moved the Arvandor reference to noble eladrin”
”Weren’t these Fey already on Toril? I mean in the text of the GHtotR, p.8 it was written “Continuing their work to undermine dragon rule, the Fey open new gates, allowing the first elves to immigrate to Toril.”“
Sean:
well, of course. That all makes perfect sense.
Sean:
I think your name should be “Trans Am Camaro”
Cameron:
hardy har har
Sean:
just saying, that’s what my name would be
Cameron:
a kind of annoying part is i usually play as girls in rpg video games
but i don’t think i could do that in tabletop
Sean:
why not?
Cameron:
i dunno, it’d be weird
i have a good girl elf name
the etymology is complicated
Sean:
I don’t see why it would be weird
Cameron:
i guess it depends on how you look at it, whether you see it as controlling a character or playing as a character
or something
but it is different to me
whatever
Sean:
ah, I see
in video games you think of it as controlling a character
where as in this you feel like are the character
Cameron:
well that pushes it a bit far
but i think it’s more that tabletop is so much of a blank slate
so you’re participating more in its existence
Sean:
well, if it’s any help, I think you would make a fetching girl
Cameron:
…
that explains why shannon is always putting makeup on me as i sleep
Sean:
hah
Cameron:
and i constantly wake up with a perm
Sean:
wait, is she making you look like a girl, or a clown?
Cameron:
i don’t want to talk about it

May 11, 2009, 3:52pm CST
Shannon:
http://whoorl.com/archives/1802
the cat could never top something like that
there’s something about sentient destruction that only children can bring to the table
Cameron:
sure
but there’s something about sentience that only children can bring to the table too
Shannon:
http://www.greeblemonkey.com/2009/02/that-night.html
yes, and that thing is lying
Cameron:
i like how your new defense of the cat is trying to come up with things that are worse
our couch isn’t relatively clawed, it’s just clawed.
Shannon:
hahaha
no, I just read that and was saying, “Aren’t you glad that, for now, we only have a cat?”
Cameron:
relatively glad, yes
Shannon:
is that a pun?
Cameron:
no
how would it be a pun?
Shannon:
children
relatively
get it
GET IT?
children
are relatives
Cameron:
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Shannon:
OMFG THAT IS HILARIOUS

From age 7 ‘til college, I lived in Pensacola, Florida. Pensacola, Florida does not have four seasons. Pensacola, Florida features Relentless Summer from April to November, with an occasional snap of malignant cold sometime between Thanksgiving and Easter.

A few of my sisters were born in or spent their early childhood in Pensacola. These poor kids weren’t familiar with the concepts of leaves changing colors, because in Pensacola, leaves don’t have time to casually tint toward orange. One day they’re green, and the next day some winter cold front viciously copulates with the gulf-side humidity, resulting in a damp cold that bites to the bone. The leaves fall directly off of the trees due to pure fear.

There’s no time for Fall or Spring in Pensacola. The weather is far too busy planning its next ambush.

Nashville, on the other hand, is in a more temperate climate. We have pleasant autumns here. The leaves change to beautiful shades of red and orange, the air has a fresh, dry crispness, we can take long walks outside in hoodies without freezing to death. Here’s the downside: Spring.

Spring! Where a young man’s fancy turns to love! Where Bambi’s voice changes! Where flowers bloom and winter melts away to life! No! These are lies! Spring is the worst season in the world. By far. Here’s why.

So far this spring, we’ve had no less than four tornado warnings in Nashville. Maybe I’m not used to living in “Tornado Alley”, but in my defense, I thought that alley ran through Kansas or Toledo or something, not Tennessee. Apparently I was wrong. Just today, a tornado ripped through Murfreesboro (Nashville’s kind of weird little brother who doesn’t take enough baths) and killed a woman and her baby. It also carved a very tornadoey swath of destruction across a neighborhood or two.

There were other spring-related things I was planning to complain about in this post, like how it also rains a lot in this “spring” I’ve heard so much about, and the daily high temp swings about 30 degrees daily, but heck, a tornado took some lives today.

Just last week I was on the way to pick up Shannon from work when the weather got so bad that I actually chickened out, pulled over next to a fire hydrant, and took cover in the Big River Brewery downtown. Granted, I ended up having a nice pint while the tornado warning passed, but that’s not the point. Spring isn’t all posies, songbirds, and deer going through puberty. It’s a vengeful, malevolent hellbeast.

We have some fresh strawberries today, so I used the Cocktails+ iPhone app (hey, free this week only!) to make a “Blood-Hound Cocktail”:

• 1/4 dry vermouth
• 1/4 sweet vermouth
• 1/2 London dry gin
• 3 crushed strawberries
• Shake with ice, strain into cocktail glass.

It is delicious. Shannon is generally anti-gin and yet agrees that it tastes like a field of fresh strawberries. I heartily recommend that if you have the implements on hand, you should whip yourself up a Blood-Hound. (I believe that’s 1920’s-style hyphenation.)

What else? I owe you some updates, people.

So, we’re on a budgeting binge. Shannon’s working on replacing all of our cleaning solutions with vinegar, baking soda, and a giant bottle of Dr. Bronner’s, which should be easy on our wallet, but I suspect our house may just start to smell like salad dressing. She also ordered some Crunchy Clean All Natural Detergent, which she claims is 100% “green”. It’s 9 bucks for 80 loads, so I’m a fan, as long as the “crunchy” part of the equation is purely metaphorical.

We’re going to cut back on cable. When we bought our HDTV — a magical wall of beautifulness — we also upgraded to The Digital Cable Premium Ultra Plus Pack, or whatever. In true Comcast style our promo period ran out, and our bill mutated into a sentient, malevolent being and rampaged through our wallets on a monthly basis.

No more, I say! We can watch Netflix Instant Watch on the iMac and on our TV (through the XBox), we have $30 in gift cards to iTunes, we have the 1-disc plan with Netflix, there is a Blockbuster down the street, and Hulu exists. We don’t need OnDemand, and we sure has heck don’t need 200 TV channels. We’re going down to Arbitrarily Limited Basic, as soon as I gather up the necessary personal constitution necessary to dial 1-800-COMCAST and battle the evil robot lady voice.

I’ve also listed a bunch of stuff on Craigslist. Hopefully somebody will take our electric organ (I impulse-bought it for $50 a while back but can’t actually play keyboards), or our Dance Dance Revolution mat (it came with a GameCube system and pile of games that I bought off of Craigslist, but the only DDR game on GameCube is Mario Mix, which features Mario characters throwing down to techno remixes of various public-domain songs, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, not kidding) or this pile of movies (because we got 3 free Blu-Rays of lousy movies when we bought our TV, and while we like VHSes in some respects, nobody actually needs Quantum Leap: The Leap Home in VHS format).

Saving money. It’s what’s happening with the Daigles! Oh, and drinking Blood-Hounds. Mix yourself up a Blood-Hound. Or at least have a strawberry.

So we’re back from vacation in Puerto Vallarta with 100ish digital photos, an hour of Flip video, and 3.5 rolls of film (Oktomat, I hate you hate you hate you for not winding properly ALL VACATION).

We owe you lots of news. But hey, we’re tired. Work has been oppressive.

In the meantime, here’s a new thing: I started a Tumblr! It’s for posting the random vagaries and tidbits I run across daily, so they don’t clutter up good ol’ Marverous, which is supposed to be full of actual writing (sigh).

So, I hope you enjoy! I’ll be updating it regularly so add that sucker to your RSS for a constant feed of linky goodness. And soon: Vacation stories!

I can’t decide what I should write about. Every time I open the Write window to make a new post, my brain is immediately drowned in all the stuff that has gone on in the past few months — stuff that, had it been blogged about at the time, would be fairly interesting/entertaining (entrestaining), but is so day-to-day that it’s lost its punch now.

Look at that — I can’t even write a decent sentence anymore. What was that monster all about?

Anyway, If I was to keep a diary (which I tried once — I can’t do it; I just end up reading back through and picking out my own flaws), I wouldn’t be able to write “Dear Diary, Christmas Was Great!” in February any more than I could do it here.

Regardless: once, we had a Christmas. Then we flew down to Florida a few weeks later and had another Christmas and also attended a wedding. I can’t just write about that stuff now, though. (See: previous paragraph.)

Bulleted life list ahead:

Read More »

February 3, 2009, 3:56pm CST
Cameron:
i just thought of the best name
Cameron:
for a character
Sean:
yeah
Cameron:
or maybe i’ll change my own name to it
Cameron:
Don Tuxedo
Sean:
HAHA
Cameron:
get it? get it?
Sean:
uh, I’m not sure
Cameron:
“don”
Cameron:
as in “put on”
Cameron:
verb
Cameron:
SEEE????

Read More »

January 7, 2009, 10:15am CST
Shannon:
There are so few movies we should own
Shannon:
we’re not movie buying peple
Shannon:
or people for that matter
Cameron:
hold the phone
Cameron:
we’re not people?
Cameron:
this explains so much
Cameron:
the strange dreams
Shannon:
HA
Cameron:
the disconnection
Shannon:
shut up
Cameron:
the glowing poo
Shannon:
you had to take it there, didn’t you?
Shannon:
didn’t you?
Cameron:
what, your poo doesn’t glow?
Cameron:
you should talk to the Archmagister Of The Galaxy about that

Here’s my second iMovie 8 effort. You will note that I was slowly learning to exert extra effort towards holding the dang Flip still. It’s very light, and I’m a rather shaky individual, so the combination is nauseating unless I’m careful.

In any case, I hope you enjoy the controlled chaos that is Christmas morning with the Daigles. Hey, at least we take turns opening presents.

note: I realize that there is a tremendous typo in there, and will upload a version with proper English tonight after work.

Filmed this the other day. Given the way things are this year, it’s pretty appropriate, so I thought I’d share it with you. Happy Holidays, and may you get that pony you asked for.

Merry Christmas, Or Whatever from Cameron Daigle on Vimeo.