madelineusher is forbidden to ever go to Japan.

Because in Japan, Spiderman has a giant robot and and fights badly-dressed ninja and a Gorn in bad armor.

http://tsoya.blogspot.com/2006/04/japanese-spidey.html

This really, really broke my brain.

So, this is what you hip young kids call a "life", hm?

A few notes about the state of the Doug.

Amazing thing about painkillers. They do such a good job that you forget that you've wrecked you back.. until you wake up at 0600 in agony and need to wake up your wife for help sitting up. I will not even go into the sheer joy that is coughing with a strained lower back. Ah, well. The meds and heat rubs are helping, and there is nothing for this but time.

Work improves (other than the idiot I mentioned in yesterday's locked post.) I'm getting more comfortable with the routine, and learning my regular stops. Right now, my main complaint is my truck. I'm driving an older Hino model, and I swear the only way to get that heap up to 65mph is to drop it off a cliff. The ergonomics are weird as well. It's a cab-over model, meaning I'm pretty much sitting on top off the engine. (Ever see a truck that has a flat front instead of a normal hood? That's a cab over. This is pretty close to what I'm driving these days. This configuration puts the accelerator and brake right next to each other on the right side of a thick steering column, and it is kind of difficult for me to climb in at times (especially if I'm trying to load my personal stuff in the mornings.. lunch box, driver's bag, etc.)

But the best thing about my job is the people. When I came back on Friday, it seems that everyone had heard about my injury and near-resignation, and wanted to let me know that they were ready to help me out. It's just a vibe you find in places like this. M. one of the senior warehouse guys helped me pull the gates off the truck so I could use the tie downs instead. Much easier! And I found out that the Friday before payday is pizza day for the drivers. Now I just need to get an order in for an all-meat pizza...

To celebrate the new job, I finally ordered the Astrogator's Handbook. Deluxe edition, of course. Along with the hard copy of the book, I got a free download of the pdf version. Compared to my unfortunate experience with Hero Games, these folks were a dream. I emailed about the password for the download after my order confirmation mails proved not to contain them. Within the hour I had a personal email from the publisher, saying that she was just back from mailing my book and given me the codes. I may very well order from these folks again. since I was in a spending mood, I finally used the BN.com gift certificate isomeme et al gave us for Wintergift. Kiri had agreed to let me use all of it, so I grabbed Red Thunder by John Varley (about which I've heard many good things) and Iron Maiden's Powerslave [Limited Edition]. With shipping, I had to put a whopping 28 cents on the card.

I've been reading Collapse on the train home. Just as good as Guns, Germs, and Steel in my opinion. and yes, it gives me gaming fodder. I'm also slogging my way through Life As We Do Not Know It, which is much harder for me since my background in biology is much weaker. So I'm having to take notes for later net research. Both books are really influencing the shape of the Concordat (more on that in a bit.) I'm also keeping up on my fiction reading. I just finished Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer (loved it) and am about to start Starship: Mutiny by Mike Resnick.

What, y'all don't read several books at once?

I was supposed to take the chaoswolf out for driving lessons this weekend, but my back put the kibosh on those plans. Apologies!

Looking at my work on the Concordat, I've decided to trash most of it and start over. Some of it stems from dissatisfaction with how things were looking; other parts need to be re-examined in light of things I've learned recently from my reading. I've decided to make the actual Concordat smaller (34 member worlds, plus 100-200 colonies and outposts) with each member world having three Senators. I've also decided that there is no single court system. Each ministry has its own law-enforcement apparatus and system of courts. The Concordat uses a inquisitorial system. So a corporation accused of illegally introducing a non-native species to a colony world would be tried in a Ministry of Health and Ecology court. Actual crimes against people or property are handled by the Criminal Courts Division of the Ministry of the Interior. Interior also contains the Office of Judicial Review, which functions as a court of appeal. Yes, I love jurisdictional conflicts. They increase dramatic tension, in my opinion. The more people with fingers in the pot, the more likely you are to find corruption, competition, and opportunities for adventure.

Kirsten has found us a good deal for our 15th anniversary dinner. Ye Ghods, has it really been 15 years? Amazing.

And in religious news, the Giants sit atop the NL West, one game ahead of Colorado. Last night, Bonds finally got his first homerun of the year, number 709 overall. GO GIANTS!!!

Both of us have managed to pick up some sort of bug. Not overly fun. So today I'm taking it easy, watching my Giants, doing a little laundry, and redoing the Concordat outline. Beer may be involved at some point.

Have a good one y'all!

Baseball quote.

"There are two theories on hitting a knuckleball. Unfortunately, neither of them works." - legendary hitting coach Charlie Lau