Joyeux fete de Bastille! It's the French Independence Day, celebrated, like ours, on the anniversary of the symbolic toppling of a symbol of the repressive monarchy. If I told you that one of the anniversaries marked the date a bunch of middle-aged men sat around and signed a piece of paper, and the other marked the date of an angry mob toppling a prison, rioting, and setting fires, well, you probably wouldn't guess which was America and which was France based on today's stereotypes. How far we've come!

We are once again embarking on our traditional AIDS Walk San Francisco! It's Sunday, July 19th around 9:30 am in Golden Gate Park in SF. If you'd like to join us, drop us a line; if not, you can still help us out. We're walking as the Sofawolf Press team, and here's our webpage:

https://www.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=302568&lis=0&kntae302568=AEEFB22847414E289B2B2C3571B54D90&supId=0&team=3447028&cj=Y

(ugly, ugly URL)

From there, you can donate to our team, or join the team if you want to walk with us. Even if all you can send us is good wishes, we appreciate that!

As of yesterday, I am the sole owner of the car I've been driving for the last few years. Hopefully it'll not take this as a sign to start falling to pieces. It loves me, right?

It was remarkably easy. The credit union that owns--owned--my loan has an office near my workplace, so over lunch I walked over, pulled out my checkbook, and said, "How much to close out the loan today?" The loan officer told me, I wrote him a check, and he said I'll be getting my title in the mail in 4-6 weeks.

Hopefully I'll have a good number of years left without a car payment. That'd be real nice.

Our neighbors on the left (as you face our house) sold their house a few weeks ago. They moved all their stuff out last weekend.

Our neighbors on the right are on vacation this week, I think. Haven't seen them since I got back Sunday, and their cars aren't in the driveway.

The roommates left for AC last night.

Rolo's in Colorado 'til Saturday.

I'm the only person in three houses on the street.

Which means that probably whatever you're imagining is going on is more fun than what actually is. :)

John Scalzi on the L.A. Times on "Don't Stop Believin'," which is one of our favorite Rock Band tracks now:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/06/29/somewhere-robert-christgaus-head-just-exploded/

For those disinclined to click through two links, here's the "whoa" paragraph from the L.A. Times story:

"Don't Stop Believin' " has become the top-selling digital download of a track not originally released in this century, selling 2,803,000 units since online single sales began to be tracked in 2003, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

David Eddings died last night.

I read the Belgariad on one summer break from high school, in between hot hours spent cleaning out our barn. I would often come back intending to take a half-hour break, look up, and find that two hours had gone by. When I got to the end of book four, which I thought was the last book in the series (come on, Tolkien only needed three), I was briefly puzzled by the fact that the story didn't appear to be over.

I still remember that series for the wonderful supporting characters. The story, the plot, even the world were fairly standard fantasy, but the characters crackled with life. Silk the thief, Polgara the sorceress, the others whose names have been lost to the twenty or so intervening years... they were alive and unique and wonderful, and I still keep echoes of them in my head when I write my own supporting characters.

Thanks, Mr. Eddings, for all of that. Safe travels.

Each year Malin and I participate in the San Francisco AIDS walk, one of the countries largest fund raising events for AIDS related causes.  We're planning on doing it again this year and we'd love to have some of our friends join us!  In these tough times I know it might be difficult to make a donations, but even if you can't donate please join us on the walk to show your support.  We'll be posting more information as the event gets closer, but if you're interested now drop us an e-mail and we'll start keeping a list.

-Rolo & Malin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENERAL INFORMATION
Q: WHERE/WHEN DOES AIDS WALK SAN FRANCISCO TAKE PLACE?
A: AIDS Walk San Francisco will take place on Sunday, July 19, 2009.  The AIDS Walk begins and ends in Golden Gate Park at Sharon Meadow.  Walkers should enter the venue at the intersection of Haight Street and Stanyan Boulevard to turn in their funds. Day-of-Event Map & Directions   

Q: HOW LONG IS AIDS WALK SAN FRANCISCO?
A: It is 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) and takes roughly 2-3 hours to complete.

Q: WHAT IS THE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FOR THE DAY OF AIDS WALK SAN FRANCISCO?
A:
9 a.m. Sign-In opens in Mother's Meadow.  Walkers turn in donations, pick up fundraising awards, and receive their official 2009 AIDS Walk San Francisco walker button and AIDS Walk Guide.
9:30 a.m.  Aerobic Warm-Up
9:45 a.m.  Opening Ceremony in Sharon Meadow.  Live from the stage: community leaders, musical guests, and celebrity speakers
10:30 a.m. AIDS Walk begins!
12:30 p.m. Post-Walk concert and family entertainment in Sharon Meadow with live music and the announcement of the fundraising total for AIDS Walk San Francisco 2009!  The KidZone features a bounce house, face painting, and free carousel rides!

Why do sandwich places insist on putting mayonnaise on chicken salad and tuna salad sandwiches? Do they not understand that chicken and tuna salad are <i>made</i> of mayonnaise? :P It's like putting ketchup on pizza.

I mean, yeah, I don't really feel we need mayonnaise on anything, really, but I won't complain if it's on ham or turkey or something dry that, y'know, could use some mayo. Seriously, it's only a matter of time before they start putting butter on under the mayo. 

<Rolo>
Malin and I had talked about participating in the famous San Francisco Bay To Breakers 12K run for a couple of years, but this was the first year we were able to trick convince two of our friends, toob  & jakebe , that it'd be great fun!  So, on Sunday morning, May 17th, the four of us and 60,000+ of our closest friends descended upon San Francisco to partake in the 98 year old tradition.  For those of you that aren't familiar with the San Francisco Bay To Breakers run, it's both a world class 12K race (in which this years winner set a new world record), as well as a wild party that embraces all of San Francisco's outrageous, eclectic charm.  It's a four hour event that shuts down 7.46 miles of San Francisco with live music, costumes, nudity and ... running.  Folks that know me know that I enjoy a good party, but for this event the four of us decided to hang up our party shoes and instead wear our sneakers as we attempted to actually ... *cough* ... compete.  It was the first time any of us had participated in an 'official' race, and I'll admit I was pretty apprehensive.  At 8am sharp, under a shower of flying corn tortillas, we embarked on our first 12k run ...

Malin finished in 1:20:42.
Rolo finished in 1:13:14.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with Jakebe, Malin and Toob for not only taking the plunge and participating in their first physical challenging street race on one of the hottest days this year, but also in posting very respectable finishes!  After limping our way back to the hotel for a well deserved shower we found a local brew pub and sat down for some tasty burgers and beers, raising a toast to a race well run.  Although we're still debating the merits of running sans clothing, we're definitely planing on participating again next year.  You should too!
</Rolo>

Is there a new TV show out or something? There's like five consecutive entries on our friends list about "STAR TREK OMG AWESOME" ... weird, you'd think we'd have heard something about it.

I can't help but be amused at the fact that I will go out and walk 1-3 miles over my lunch break, yet when prepping lunch in the kitchen to take back to my cube 25 feet away, I will invariably overload myself and balance plates and stuff precariously so as not to have to make two trips.

On a flight reservation made today, for travel in June:

"We hope that your travels go off without a hitch, however, we'd like you to be prepared for the possibility of inclement winter weather, flight delays and/or cancellations that occasionally accompany the winter travel season."

... did I accidentally book us to South America?

From AN Introduction To Mythology by Lewis Spence: "Thus it was thought in primitive days that a spirit resided in or watched over the growing grain. In time this animistic conception gave way to the idea of a departmental god of agriculture."

I know what the use of "departmental" in this case means, but it just makes me think of a big office building with the Department of Agriculture on the fourth floor, and an office with the door painted, "God, Department of Agriculture."

"You're God?"
"Yes."
"THE God?"
"Well, no."
"You're A God?"
"I'm THE God...of the Department of Agriculture."
"Oh. Well, can you tell me about the Meaning of Life?"
"No.. but I can tell you about the meaning of Cultivated Plant Life."
"Uh.. that's okay, thanks."
"You sure? It's pretty interesting."
"Yeah, I, uh, parked at a meter... gotta head back down..." *leaves*
*sigh*
"They never want to hear about the meaning of Cultivated Plant Life."

[Malin] We were in Seattle, and had seen a restaurant called "How To Cook A Wolf," after a book by famed food writer M.F.K. Fisher (it's a metaphorical wolf). So after the hubbub of Emerald City Comic-Con, Rolo and I went there for Sunday night's dinner, just the two of us.

We had a lovely appetizer of fried almonds with focaccia bread, and a small plate that stretched the definition of bruschetta by putting shrimp and beans on toast. Though we were dubious that it was actually bruschetta per se, we did have to admit that the shrimp were perfectly cooked and the whole ensemble very tasty. The scallops with potatoes and green beans were also fresh and quite good. So even though we were full, we went ahead and ordered dessert.

And while we were waiting for our dessert to come, Rolo put a small box on the table, opened it to show a beautiful ring, and asked me to marry him.

Could God create a Rock Band 2 song so difficult that even He could not get 100% on Expert mode?

Discuss. Or not.

Wow, I remember seeing this commercial once, and then it vanished. I always knew it would turn up on YouTube but I kept forgetting to look for it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbDUiaBfeKs

We made our hotel reservations for Comic-con. Problem: they mailed them to me with the name "TIM JOHNSON" on them.

(Other problem: they also mailed me someone else's reservation. But that's another story.)

So I call to get the name changed. I give them all the personal info and phone number, which matches.

"I'm sorry, sir, I'm not allowed to change the name on the reservation. Only Tim Johnson is allowed to call in and change the name."

...

So, are any of you named Tim Johnson?

(I explained that there is NO SUCH PERSON--well, I'm sure there is, somewhere, but not in connection with this reservation, and she said, "Oh! How did THAT happen?" and went and got approval to change it. It was just too funny not to document.)

[Malin] I set a bunch of processing going at work and took five minutes to do this old fake album cover thing, which jillfennec recently revived
( Instructions and the result here... )

You want ideas for a story?
( Check this out...warning, heavy topic )

[Malin] Those of you too young to have seen Return of the Jedi in theaters might not remember that CD players used to have a whole mess of "repeat" options that would allow you to repeat a certain song (in some cases, even just a section of a song) over and over and over and over and over again. I think this function was disabled when the neighbors of the guy who invented it broke his door down and forced him at gunpoint to remove it.

Anyway.

The first CD I can clearly recall (ab)using the "repeat" function with was "Boston." Specifically, Track #1. You all know what it is. It was the summer of, well, let's put it around twenty years ago, and I was living in a house in Philly with four other people who didn't want to go home from college, and I pretty much left that CD in the player for three months.

My "Boston" phases have waxed and waned over the years (I'm fairly sure that at some point I picked up "Don't Look Back" just for the title track, but it's not on my iPod now). And then we just bought That Song for Rock Band 2.

I'm sitting here at work, thinking about the next time we play it, and that weird bit in the chorus where Tom sings, "when I hear that old song" and then HE sings "they used to play" while the backup comes in with "more than a feeling"--which is what *I* always used to sing, which messed me up the first time we played it...and when to take a breath to get ready for that last "awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay"...

All I can say is, I'm glad RB2 is a communal game, and other people can stop me from just singing the same song over and over.