This and that

So last week was pretty rough, with a few things going on that I will not go into here.  Suffice to say I was not in the right frame of mind to post anything, not even a song of the week.

So there are several items in this post, the first and most important being my brother Donald now has a blog.  Donald is a voracious reader and his interests are more wide ranging than my own.  His blog, An Evergreen Tree of Diabolical Knowledge, focuses on the books he has read.  So far the subject matter has concerned historical texts but who knows what he might tackle next?  I recommend you check the blog out, you might be inspired to pick up something new to read based on his assessment.

Second, the other reason I have not been posting is I have been trying to better put my life in order, and a large part of that is cleaning my environment.  My condo is a mess.  You have heard of the cliche of the bachelor's pad?  Well, I am living it, only worse.  Seriously, I am embarrassed to have anyone over to see just how horrible it looks.  So this past week I have been kicking myself in gear and getting the place put right.  Step one was cleaning off my kitchenette table:

For the first time in two years I can actually eat off of it.  In retrospect I wish I had taken a picture of it for you to see just how bad it looked.  No, not old ant-filled take out containers or the like.  Just paperwork: pay stubs, receipts, junk mail I never got around to opening, misc. junk I collected in my pockets that I dropped on the table, etc.  It took me two hours to wade through it all to make certain I did not throw out anything important (Good thing, too; I found my Winter property tax bill.  See what I mean about needing to get my life in order?  I was not late in paying it, by the way.).

I hope to get a gaming related post off in the following week or so, it is going to be another one regarding villains, character development and the like.  This time I will be focusing on several villains who are part of an organization and how different they are as well as how they are associated with one another.

Now on to something political.  I decided when I began this blog I would avoid political subjects, mostly because I am ignorant of a great many things political and I did not want to get into political arguments here.  However, I do want to touch upon something that affects everyone who might read this blog and who uses the internet on a regular basis: SOPA and PIPA.  I will say up front that the links provided are to Wikipedia and after the blackout earlier this week it is obvious that the source material is biased.  However, it is a good starting point to educate yourself regarding what these proposed laws are and how they may impact the internet as a whole.  I do know there are still a great many people ignorant of their existence, or whom is responsible for the laws, and how it affects them personally.  I was speaking to someone earlier this week who thought Obama was behind the bills.  While PIPA was proposed by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, SOPA was proposed by Republican Congressman Lamar S. Smith.  This is a bipartisan issue and I think everyone needs to educate themselves about how these acts might affect their personal lives and the web sites they take for granted.

Finally, here is your song of the week.  I remember when I heard this Hot Hot Heat tune on the radio I thought the dude was singing "Bag of chips".