Book learnin'

I just finished another book, the Best of the Realms volume 1 anthology. This is a book of short stories set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting in Dungeons and Dragons. It's not a great book, but one of my guilty pleasures is reading books like this; sometimes I like to not think when I'm reading. It's a good escape from the rigors of avoiding my school-related duties.
The fact that I read about (and play, when I can) D&D is a source of much chagrin for my wife. I have been playing since I was about 6, when my oldest brother introduced myself and my other brother to the game. I've played sporadically since then, and have always enjoyed it. I haven't gotten around to finding a group with whom I could play here in Socorro, but I reckon that, given the amount of time I already leave my wife bored and alone, it wouldn't fly very well if I was away an evening every week. Plus, I'm pretty sure I would be older than everybody else playing.
Next book on the reading list: The Highwayman by R.A. Salvatore, easily my favorite D&D novel author. I also met him once at Comic Con in San Diego. He was very nice. After that, it's some hard literature with a Dostoevsky excerpt. If you're looking at my blogger blog, my reading list is to the right.
And in just a few minutes we'll be leaving to go camping for the evening! Hurrah! Pictures to follow, hopefully.

Honeymoon pictures, YES.

You can go here to check out pictures of our honeymoon. FYI, I am NOT going to complete the Honeymoon days 8 and 10 entries in the blog. You can reconstruct day 8 from the pictures. Short recap of day 8: 15 miles of hiking, 2700' of elevation gain, a little snow, and some limping. No quiche. Day 10: drive, drive, drive. "Gas, brake, honk. Gas, brake, honk. Honk, honk, punch. Gas, gas, gas." Tour of Berkeley. Fly to Abq. Drive home. Fall asleep.

P.S. Quote is from Homer Simpson.

No fake degree for you! Take that, Jeb!

Trolling the news stories, I ran across this: Jeb Bush denied honor at U. of Florida.
Apparently the faculty senate overturned a recommendation that Jeb be given an honorary degree from the UF. Of all the indignities! The university president said it was "unheard of" that a recommended person would be overturned by the senate. Maybe that's what happens when you recommend a controversial person, hmm.
Jeb actually has a degree, which he breezed through in a mere 2.5 years. He got his B.A. in Latin American studies at UT Austin. I wonder what the family thinks about him being a papist?
Well that blog was neither interesting nor informative.

Edit: This just in: Jeb given honorary alumnus status. I guess whatever works.

R.E.M. saves Darfur

OK, so not really. But they have recorded a song for an upcoming album of John Lennon music called Instant Karma: the Campaign to Save Darfur. Look here for the "video" of the song (consisting of the lyrics and a number of factoids about the shit going down in Sudan.
Now it's of course debatable that recording a song is the best way for a person to help people, but I guess if you're a musician it is very effective. The best way for me personally to help them would be to send letters to my congressman, and to send money. However, since the gumming already called it a genocide, I heartily doubt my letters would have any effect. Too many irons (or Irans or Iraqs) in the fire, so to speak.

Hail yeah!

It just hailed here. Crazy amounts of hail, but it lasted no more than a couple minutes. The hail never got more than pea sized. But have I ever mentioned that I just love hail? Hail. There's something that seems vaguely unnatural about little spheres of ice falling from the sky.
The only thing I don't like about the hail is that it brings up many trepidations here in Socorro, due to this event.

The Rio Grande in trouble? Who knew?!

The Rio made the list of the top ten most endangered rivers worldwide. The outflow is so low at the Gulf of Mexico that sea water is backing up into the estuary. This is threatening freshwater fish at the end of the river. According to the article, there are 69 species of fish (including the endangered silvery minnow) that are only found in the Rio.
I wish that the government here could enact legislation forcing water conservation. There's little to no grass in this state (unlike the incredible water sink Phoenix), but there's also whackloads of agriculture and (open, evaporating) canals running right through Socorro. But I also know that this kind of legislation won't happen, because people are comfortable and uninformed, and would rather jeopardize the water resources future of the desert than become interested in what is happening. This is the story in pretty much every environmental field today, not just water resources.

Gay people: move to Tucson!

According to The Advocate, the following are the top 10 best places to live if you are part of the GLBT (or, if you're a gay-hater, you'll like this one better) community:
Columbus, Ohio
Dallas, Texas (WHAT?)
Ferndale, Michigan
Ithaca, New York
Lexington, Kentucky
Missoula, Montana
Portland, Oregon
San Diego, California
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Tucson, Arizona

Hooray for Tucson being accepting! Interestingly, check this out. According to this map, of those top 10 only 4 are in states that went blue in the last election; I would expect something more like the opposite distribution. Only one of these towns is up in New England. I find that sad. It is, however, exciting that Tucson is a good place for gay people. Maybe one day they'll be treated like real people.