Traitorous Cats!

So my little brother and his roommate came to visit for Halloween weekend.

The first night they stayed over, Squee (the friendly cat) walked out from my roommate (codename) Rick and slept at my little brother's feet. I'm sure Lil Bro was slightly nervous about this, being eye-swellingly allergic to cats, but at least his feet were warm.

In any case, Rick walks out to see her cat sleeping with the guest and she makes and goes "Traitor!" Because Squee always sleeps with Rick. And if he doesn't sleep with Rick because she's not around, he sleeps with me.

And Squee looks back at her like "What? I do what I want; I'm a freaking cat."

So the moral of the story is, your cats may or may not sell you out for no discernible reason. Disheartening, isn't it?

A Funny Thing Happened on the Drive Back Home

I grew up with a mother where anything less than ten miles over the speed limit was normal. It was a weird time during the summer when I went back. Apparently, the cops in my hometown have started cracking down on speeding. Mom did everything in her power to stay at the speed limit, and here's why.

My older brother is riding in the passenger seat with my mom driving. They get pulled over and my brother is cracking up. Mom being pulled over isn't really big news especially since she's always let go with warnings. But not this time. By now, the cops should at least recognize the car and the license plate. He thinks she's in for it, and I admit that it is pretty funny.

So the policeman comes and asks to see my mom's license. She shows it through her wallet, and the policeman asks her to remove it so he can take it back to the car. 

Here's another anecdote about my mother --- her wallet is stuffed to the rafters. Don't ask me what's in there, but there's a few cards from various places, membership cards, cash, coupons, receipts. She almost needs a mini-purse to fit all the things she wants to carry in her wallet. Instead, she usually gets the biggest wallets she can find. And they're still hard to zip closed.

So it doesn't really surprise me when Mom can't pull her driver's license from her wallet. My brother tries, and fails. And the policeman tries and fails as well. Finally giving in, the policeman goes back to the car to get a pad of paper to copy mom's information. No, she wasn't getting away just because her license was stuck. Here are ways around that.

The officer returns and copies the information, and then he goes back to his car. Mom and my brother sit in the car for a while. A few minutes later, the policeman returns.

But he doesn't have a ticket.

He says the printer in his car isn't working, so he's going to let her off with a warning. I think my brother balked or something because, dude, mom gets away with everything. She's just that awesome.

Saturday Morning Adventure

Today's adventure is brought to you by my roommates Rick and Far.

Last night, Rick asked if I wanted to get a work out and help the community by helping her pull up wild parsnip in a park this morning. I said sure, why not, and she said "we're leaving the house by 8:30a."

This morning we left at 8:30a. Far drove us and on the way, he commented about his clutch, but I wasn't paying attention because his car is loud and the scenery was unfamiliar so I was looking at that.

But we get to the park where there was less wild parsnip pulling than anticipated. You see, Rick volunteered to help a to-be Eagle Scout for his project since her internship project is in the same area anyway. And when we met with the Eagle Scout and the guy who maintains the trails, there was significantly less parsnip-pulling than I thought and more of a general "This is my idea. Let's work out the nitty-gritty details." More of a survey of the area and a discussion on what they can do and how they'll do it. And me, having little if any interest in any of this, pulled out my phone and started playing cribbage. Indeed, I'm that classy.

I did, however, pull up one parsnip plant. My duty was done, and Rick laughed when I told her so.

While we were out, Far's clutch completely gave out on his way back to the house. He called his dad who we'll call Mr. Far. Mr. Far and Far came to pick us up when we were done. Then we drove to Far's car, hooked it up to the back of Mr. Far's van, and towed the car all the way to the next town where Mr. Far lives. And it is at the Far House where the car will be fixed over the weekend.

While at the Far House, we chatted for a bit, mostly about how they'll fix the car and how we'll get back home. Mrs. Far is making part of a costume for Rick for a Renaissance wedding in September. So the women will be doing that while the boys tinker with the car. Oh happy day. In any case, we lunched on enchiladas before Mr. Far dropped Rick and I back at the house. Rick has to do something at the library and I really have no purpose in being at the Far House. I mean, I only brought my phone with me. It only lasts for so long, you know?

And that was my roundabout adventure of the day.

Good Stories plus Recommendations

I'm a fan of good stories. Not necessarily in a specific medium, but good stories in general. I've played a fair few video games (RPGs, mostly) that have some gripping plotlines. They snatch your heart and force you to continue playing until the end. And when you finish, when you beat that last boss, you breath a sigh of relief and watch the credits roll with a satisfied feeling in the pit of your stomach. It's the same feeling you get when you watch a particularly good movie, or finish that great book you've been reading all afternoon. You know it's a good story when you feel like you've just been on an adventure, and you don't regret going one bit.

When you open a book and it takes you away in those first couple pages, you know you nailed a good story. Or when you start a game or television show and you can't think of anything else until it's done. If a movie has you hooked from the opening credits, and you spend the end credits sitting in the theater trying to mull everything over. These are tell tale signs, but you can get the same feeling from stories that just really excite you.

So here is my multi-medium list of good story recommendations. Please note that this list is not extensive and limited to favorites of that particular medium. They do not reflect everything I have ever

experienced. I tried to limit the list to those that were particularly good instead of those that I just really liked on a personal level. It hasn't been a grueling process, but it did take time.

Perhaps I'll blog reviews on all these recommendations. Keep a sharp eye for them. They'll be scattered thoughout the archives once they start to build up.

Recommendations

Anime

Full Metal Alchemist

Death Note

Gundam Wing

Books

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling

The Inheritence Cycle by Christopher Paolini

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Anything by Tamora Pierce

Manga

Mars by Fuyumi Soryo

Nana by Ai Yazawa

Movies

Castle in the Sky

Princess Mononoke

I Am Legend

The Dark Knight

The Back to the Future Trilogy

Star Trek (2009)

The Notebook

Star Wars

The Whole Nine Yards

The Princess Bride

Robin Hood starring Kevin Cosner (please tell me if I butchered his name)

Juno

V for Vendetta

Wall-E

District 9

Musicals

The Phantom of the Opera

Wicked

Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical

TV Shows

Firefly

Video Games

Kingdom Hearts

Final Fantasy X

Recommendations of your own? Post them in the comments!