Mon Jul  4 10:13:09 EDT 2016

Slept from twelve-something to nine-thirty. Woke once, before seven.

High of eighty-two and partly sunny. A little windy. Should be a good day for everyone barbecuing.

Did a few minutes of drawing exercises after I woke up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/04/arts/garrison-keillor-turns-out-the-lights-on-lake-wobegon.html
"Garrison Keillor’s 'A Prairie Home Companion' signed off the air for good on Saturday evening, after 42 seasons, as millions of listeners, many in their cars on a holiday weekend, tuned in via public radio."
http://www.npr.org/podcasts/381444601/a-prairie-home-companion-news-from-lake-wobegon
"It was a beautiful, beautiful summer day, one of those perfect summer days that we think are rare, and actually they are not. And, anyway, how many do we deserve, I mean, how many do we expect as our due?" The host delivers his final update from his hometown, describes reading and playing baseball in his younger days, recalls a few of the town's residents who've passed away, ponders his legacy as a writer, and offers a few limericks to live by.

I was never very interested in the songs or other dramatic bits, but I always loved the News from Lake Wobegon. I remember that I brought one of Keillor's Wobegon novels on Hayo-Went-Ha sailing trip --- reading the hardcover on the boat.

Idea: monster creation (or description/behaviour elaboration) mad libs

Half hour walk in the afternoon. Saw a pair of cardinals, a little white butterfly, a couple of turkey vultures circling very high, and Chynthia Rusk, who was visiting Kelly.

Watched some anime (Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snail#Famine_food
In the town of Dundee there exists a strange traditionary story of the plague, connected with the conversion, from dire necessity of the Arion ater, or black slug, to a use similar to that which the luxurious Romans are said to have made of the great apple-snail. Two young and blooming maidens lived together at that dread time, like Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, in a remote cottage on the steep (indeed almost perpendicular) ascent of the Bonnetmaker’s Hill. Deprived of friends or support by the pestilence that walked at noonday, they still retained their good looks and healthful aspect, even when the famine had succeeded to the plague. The jaundiced eyes of the famine-wasted wretches around them were instantly turned towards the poor girls, who appeared to thrive so well whilst others were famishing. They were unhesitatingly accused of witchcraft, and had nearly fallen a prey to that terrible charge; for betwixt themselves they had sworn never to tell in words by what means they were supported, ashamed as they felt of the resource to which they had been driven; and resolved, if possible, to escape the anticipated derision of their neighbours on its disclosure. It was only when about to be dragged before their stern inquisitors, that one of the girls, drawing aside the covering of a great barrel which stood in a corner of their domicile, discovered, without violating her oath, that the youthful pair had been driven to the desperate necessity of collecting and preserving for food large quantities of these Limacinae, which they ultimately acknowledged to have proved to them generous and even agreeable sustenance. To the credit of the times of George Wishart—a glimpse of pre-reforming enlightenment—the explanation sufficed; the young women escaped with their lives, and were even applauded for their prudence.

http://2016.js13kgames.com/
Js13kGames is a JavaScript coding competition for HTML5 Game Developers. The fun part of the compo is the file size limit set to 13 kilobytes.

Spent the evening posting slightly drunken but not especially regrettable things on the internet.

Hmm:

Zak SabbathYesterday 11:45 PM+3
there's no special role for products or people putting them out unless that is something that, in itself, makes you happy or makes you money in a way that's more fun than what you normally do. The ultimate point is playing

Paul GormanYesterday 11:57 PM
+Zak Sabbath True. But I've always said that D&D is a surprisingly *fun* game on its own. The only test is: does this seem fun? More fun than another option? The first bar is low-ish; the second bar....

Paul Gorman12:02 AM
Isn't there a Virginia Woolf quotation about how people who work for a living have no time for art? Maybe play occupies a unique territory somewhere between labor and art.

Zak Sabbath12:04 AM
all fun is somehow connected to the organism being convinced it's exercising some muscle or skill

Breakfast: coffee and half-and-half
Lunch: a couple of turkey dogs with coleslaw, a couple of beers
Dinner: same as lunch, plus a few more beers