Weird night

I know it's nearly 5am and all, but I've just taken my test and there's no way I can go to sleep yet, and so I think I need to talk about the latest mini-crisis. I am writing this on the laptop which is on the dining table - I went and grabbed it off the bedroom end table which is where Rob usually uses it - because I think my monitor has decided to die. There was a smell and I think I saw a little spiral of smoke. It was working fine and the smoke or whatever seemed to have stopped but I turned it off and unplugged it just to be safe. I'll probably end up just going and buying a new one tomorrow - that was the last part left of the pre-storm computer system, and all of the rest of it has gradually succumbed so I think it's just the end of that chain of failures. Even if it's working I'm not going to be very inclined to trust an electrical appliance after it's been smoking. Another thing to blame on Ike. (I am at this moment downloading LOTRO on this computer just in case. I'm assuming if WoW worked on the laptop then LOTRO will too.)

Anyway, I overstudied for that test - I made a 96. I still need to work on learning the muscles more - I have the Medical Terminology test on the same material still to take. The questions the anatomy test gave were pretty easy if you'd done the reading; I have trouble remembering the names of the individual muscles in the quadriceps and hamstring but I do know that the quads are in the front and the hamstrings are in the back, which was a question that was on the test. (It did ask the same question about the names of the hamstring muscles twice, though, also. Proofread, people!)
  

It's the small things

I have an omelet that actually looks like an omelet - which is very unusual, for me - and it tastes yummy, and hey, it even has some vegetables in it, so it's healthy(ish) too! and I have coffee (left over from yesterday's Starbucks outing) and baseball is on and well, life is good. Nevermind that I've had about three hours sleep and I have to go buy a new monitor later, those things can be overcome. Life is still good.

I think a nap is definitely in order later, though.

The pleasures of the Shire

Anybody who is a Tolkien geek at all should go play LOTRO for a while. Seriously, just make a hobbit and run around the Shire and geek away. It has been a pleasure to me just to get the map of the Shire straight in my head. My copy of Fellowship of the Ring has gone AWOL (it's here someplace, I had it a month or so ago) so I can't verify exactly how accurate it is, but it all tallies with what I remember. The only thing not "canon" is that they've shrunk the distances quite a bit, presumably because if they were accurate nobody would want to play. MMOs get too frustrating if the monsters you have to kill (or, in the case of the Shire, the pies you have to carry to Holly Hornblower) are miles away from you. So the twenty miles from Buckleberry Ferry to Brandywine Bridge becomes about 500 feet. Which I can't say bothers me a great deal. It's just so fun to see all the minor characters: Farmer Maggot in front of his farm, with Grip and Fang (Fang is always asleep). Gaffer Gamgee, and Lobelia, and Shirriff Robin Smallburrow holding down the bar at the pub. And the pubs! The Green Dragon, the Golden Perch in Stock - that's the one Frodo wouldn't let them go to, to Pippin's dismay - and if you get to Bree (which isn't difficult) there's the Prancing Pony, too, complete with Butterbur, and Strider lurking in a back room. (The foursome of Frodo, Pippin, Merry and Sam has not been seen so far - although I hear rumors we may catch up with them later. I think at the point we're currently at in the story, they're still lost in the forest.) If you haven't figured this out already, I seriously recommend it. Go get a free 10-day trial and take a tour. (I'm really not trying to get you to come play with us or anything, I just think more people should see this thing.)

And a note to columbina : the game is all downloaded and installed on the laptop and seems to be working fine, so I should be able to play tonight with or without the recalcitrant monitor. Which is good because I may not make it to Best Buy this afternoon. I am about to go take a long nap.