ME: You didn't show up last night. Nine or ten more times and I'll start to take it personally.

VIGILANTEGIRL: My friend got ran over by a car last night. She's still in intensive care and might not live.

ME (THINKING): Wow, this foot sure tastes terrible.

And now for something completely different.

To see this post go to the bottom of the page and enter the password into the search field.

(crossposted from pool 'blog)

Just a follow-up on the theft of my PDFs and videos by another site.

I've had two conversations with the owner of the business with the website. He's assured me that all of my files will be removed from their site during a change of their outsourcing company. That change will take place within the next few days.

They're changing outsourcing companies at least partly because that company was, I believe, responsible for putting my stuff on the site to begin with.

I believe that the business with the website had no idea that this was being done, and I'm giving them several days to make the changes we've talked about.

I check my own website access logs regularly, and today I was able to follow the trail back to what looks like a new version of one of the offending pages. So far, it's exactly the same except for a little blurb at the end about how the videos came from www.barenada.com.

I don't know if the plan is to leave things that way, but if so, those plans will not be acceptable to me. My files are still there, and I want them gone.

Please people, just put up a link to some pool pages. Don't copy their files to your own site.

This while thing still has several days to get straightened out.

It's surprising how many attorneys are pool players. I've been contacted by several. I just tell them what I told the guy - if they remove my material from their site then I'm quite willing to drop the whole matter.

VigilanteGirl has invited me to this new club this coming weekend.

I've asked around at work, and nobody has heard of the place. Since the people at work are generally the same age as me - maybe a little younger on average, I'm convinced that I'll be the oldest person at the club.

Hopefully there won't be too much staring and pointing.

Or laughing.

Or screaming.

I need to tell VigilanteGirl that she's taking me waaaaay out of my element, and that she's in charge of keeping me entertained and making sure the night doesn't take a Logan's Run type of turn.

There are too many damn shows that I watch on Tuesdays.

I need more TiVos.

Tonight I find myself trying to watch seven different shows between 8:00 and 11:00.

Last Comic Standing (Finale) 8:00 - 10:00

Extreme Home Makeover 8:00 - 9:00

Big Brother 5 9:00 - 10:00

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy 10:00 - 11:00

Thing I Hate About You 11:00 - 12:00

Joe Schmo (Finale) 9:00 - 11:00

The Amazing Race 10:00 - 11:00

I've ended up skipping the last half-hour of Last Comic Standing, and I'll Tivo Queer Eye during its 1:00 AM showing.

Man, I have a pretty exciting life don't I?

(crossposted from pool 'blog)

Today I got an email from someone I didn't know telling me to check out another pool site.

What I found there were copies of my PDF files and videos. Exact bit-for-bit copies even.

I received no credit, and if not for my URL at the bottom of every page in the PDF, and the fact that it was me shooting in my basement in the videos, there would have been no mention of me or barenada.com on the entire site. The files were clearly meant to look like they belonged to the company with the website.

After a few phone calls I spoke to someone at that business. He assured me that they had no idea that the site contained copyrighted material, and that he would take care of it.

Time will tell I suppose.

For now I'm not sure whether to feel violated, or proud, or both.

Last night LaptopGirl was talking with her friend about "This old man that seemed nice but would probably hit on her at some point and gross her out" or something like that.

For a second there I thought she was talking about me but she wasn't.

Or was she?

This stuff is funny to me.

This morning I told VigilanteGirl that I was going to Burger King for breakfast. When I offered to pick something up for her she promised to "love me forever" in a jesting tone.

In my imagination I heard her promise to "love me long time" which would actually be a very different promise - and one that would probably be easier to keep.

un-com-fort-a-ble
adj.
1. Experiencing physical discomfort.
2. Ill at ease; uneasy.
3. Causing anxiety; disquieting

2. doomed
adj.
1. Marked for certain death.
2. In danger of eternal punishment of hell.
3. Marked by or promising bad fortune.

I didn't even want to go out tonight.

My body seems to be rejecting alcohol. Last weekend I got quite a hangover from three beers - this weekend I got quite a hangover from just two beers. Clearly something inside me is telling me to stay away.

Just as clearly, I'm not listening, though I hope to change that.

Tonight Rich O's was about as dead as I've ever seen it. This may be in part due to the incredible boringness of the beer board. IPA this, ESB that, not the best arrangement for someone with my tastes.

My first attempt at a beer was an NABC Beak's Best. Something was incredibly wrong with this beer. The bitterness was almost eye-watering. I could only take a couple of sips before returning it.

While I had a Diet Coke to calm my stomach back down I talked with LaptopGirl and her friend FLAZNCGuy. Actually I sat feeling uncomfortable while they talked. After a little while I got the idea that a Belgian ale might make me feel better so I had a Mad Bitch.

I was right - this helped a lot. By the time it was gone I was feeling like myself again so I ordered an NABC Tunnel Vision.

I think I've had this before, but I didn't remember much about it.

I liked it. The pale color scared me to death but this beer proves that you can't always judge a book by its cover.

Anyway, at one point we were joined by NotGeorge and CoffeeDude. I welcomed them both as they gave me something to do besides stare at my feet.

A bit of comedy was introduced when a bachelor party showed up at Rich O's. The poor groom had a bowling ball chained to his leg to symbolize his impending nuptials. Even though the ball and chain was cleary done in jest, I thought LaptopGirl had a good point when she said she'd never want to marry anyone that thought of her that way.

Anyway.

I've clearly screwed something up, and I feel like I'm under a microscope - everything I say or do is being noted and analyzed. People are making unwarranted assumptions about me, and while I suppose in some ways that's better than being ignored, it's still not welcome.

This, combined with my body's new behaviour of punishing me for every drink I take, has led me to the following decision.

I need to lay off.

I need, for a short while at least, to stop going out to the bar every weekend night.

This drastic measure would hopefully accomplish two things.

First, it would allow my body the time to heal from whatever the hell is causing alcohol to affect it so much.

Second, it would let me prove to myself and others that things I've been saying are true. I'm tired of being looked at with concern and pity.

I'm fine.

I don't believe in this stuff at all, but an old roommate of mine used to swear by his astrology books, and I remember he'd always tell me how August was my opposition month (I'm a Pisces) and how that opposition would tend to throw one obstacle after another at me. It was up to me to overcome these obstacles.

I'm not sure that "avoiding obstacles" would really count as "overcoming obstacles" but it's the best plan I can think of at the moment. This whole situation sucks and I have nobody to blame but myself.

mis-in-ter-pret
v.
1. To interpret erroneously; to understand or to explain in a wrong sense.

Apparently I've screwed up.

I wish I hadn't, and I hope the misunderstanding can be resolved.

I thought I was being completely honest and that I was doing all I could to avoid this misunderstanding, but I guess I didn't do a good enough job.

Anyway, today after work I went to The Bank Shot to shoot for a while. This was the first time I'd been there in several months, and I guess it was good to see that not much had changed. I suppose I'll post about my play in the pool 'blog.

I got to Rich O's at around 10:00 and, like it's been lately, the place was filled mostly with strangers.

There were a few people I knew, and I spent some time talking with them while I had my boring beers.

NotGeorge explained to me that I had fucked up.

CoffeeDude assured me that he was doing just fine.

MisunderstoodGirl reported that her sunburn was healing nicely.

I had a Fischer's and a Stone Smoked Porter, and that's it. I'd last eaten at around 4:00 and I didn't feel like I was ready for anymore alcohol.

There were several Russian girls at Rich O's. I was semi-interested for a bit until they started talking about how much they all hated cats.

What kind of person hates cats?

Not the kind of person I want to know.

One of the Russian girls had pretty cool hair though, and I urged MisunderstoodGirl to grow her hair out like that. I doubt she will.

This is the tale of two people who happen to inhabit the same body.

The other day I was driving to the doctor to get my dog bite looked at. Sharing the bridge with me and several other vehicles was DrunkOrStonedAsshole in a little black Neon. This guy was driving at about 30 MPH and was weaving across all three lanes, nearly causing a half-dozen accidents. Once I finally got in front of this jerk I felt safe enough that I called 9-1-1 and reported his ass to the police. I gave his license number, vehicle description, and a basic description of the driver. I told the police that he'd taken the first New Albany exit and just when I told them that, the guy sideswiped another car and just kept going. I hope they caught the guy before someone got seriously hurt.

So that was GoodCitizenDave, defender of the roads. I felt pretty good about my little bit of crimefighting, and I made sure to tell VigilanteGirl that she'd inspired me with her earlier adventure.

Now fast-forward to Thursday, and I'm sitting at a red light.

For 10 minutes.

With no cross-traffic in sight.

The light was obviously broken, but I still tried the old backing up/pulling forward trick several times trying to get the light to notice my truck and change to green.

It didn't work, so I ran the thing.

Of course I made quite sure that it was safe to proceed, but for the rest of the way to work I couldn't help but look in my rearview mirror every three seconds for the flashing lights that knew were inevitable.

The lights never appeared. I seem to have gotten away with my little crime spree, but I'm sure that VigilanteGirl would kick me out of the SuperFriends if she got word of my alter-ego, CommonCriminalDave.