The Life of Riley

Life.Life.Life.Life.

buggerlark — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:03:19 +0000

It goes on. Not much has been happening here. We started doing a little accupuncture. We’re trying to get rid of the processed foods in our diet (harder than it sounds). And we have rats in the attic.

An eventful time in the Riley household.

We have a new cat, Okie, that ran in the house a little over a year ago and she became Gregg’s cat. I also bought a car, so we are now a two car family. Gregg has been doing really well at work – he’s been keeping a little *too* busy, in my opinion.

He spent last weekend in Vegas with friends, and we are going to be able to spend Spring Break together. Don’t know if we are going anywhere or if we are just going to have a staycation. I’d love to zipline to the treehouse “hotel” off in the Hill Country, but we haven’t made any plans just yet.

I’m still here.

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:32:32 +0000

There’s this proverbial doubled-edged sword that comes along with blogging: there’s part of me that doesn’t want things to be kept secret or hidden and I would be perfectly happy with a no-holds barred blog. But there are more people involved than just me. I don’t want to be

So what do I do? Create yet another anonymous blog (which I’ve already done) and start another half-assed project, or just continue to use this as a emotional vomitorium?

I have no idea. Blast technology.

Summer

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:20:12 +0000

Kurdish
Backtrack fresh steak
tho junk edin fun, krebs inc junk
tests west fresh feeds
stock games
mighty kgb
Showgirl reckon return

Posted from WordPress for Android, so please be mindful of typos, please!

Captain’s Log – Game 2

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 01:33:41 +0000

Recieved monies from 22 for the damage to the ship. Honest enough. Didn’t seem to be bothered with financial stresses.

Dear Wiglaf has learned much from The Machine. Perhaps I can listen to him ramble on about infidels if I can get a decent Sunday roast out of it.

Dropped B- and 22 off at the agreeed upon location to meet someone who might have knowledge about where we could find fuel. We are slowly running out, and this planet, as I have already determined, is lacking in compatible resources.

Before we could make contact with our contact, swine decided to engage us in combat. Large swine. B- was trying to negotiate beer, and somehow that turned into a fight. It could have been their aggressive nature that triggered phyical violence, or it could have been something… else.

The Machine, advocate for the less fortunate that he is, tried to reclaim the meat from the swine. Coupled with our extraordinary feats of figthing prowress terrified the locals. Luckily, B- was able to distract The Machine from taking the corpses back to the ship. While I do love a good bit of bacon, I daresay I did not look forward to supping on the flesh of my fallen enemies. I like more… subtle victories.

We did recieve a tidy bounty for the swine who attacked us. Word must have spread about the attack, for people stayed clear of us after that. I think most talk centers around the good doctor.

Protected: Disappointment

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 23:37:24 +0000

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Captain’s Log – Game 1

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 23:06:57 +0000

Had quite an interesting day. I took on a few new passengers quite unexpectedly. W- brought back two people (male and female) and a rather large, intimidating machine who seems to have a God complex. They had not been aboard the ship long enough to exchange introductions and other pleasantries when they were attacked. And by they, I include the ship and her crew.

In the midst of this battle, yet another strange event happened: a large alien lizard fell from the sky, damanging my ship even further. Luckily, it ended the enemy fire, as he (?) took out a good many enemies with his descent. He seems to be semi-intelligent, and is trying to speak. I hope he has come value where he can work the off his damage to the ship.

The new passengers, B- and 11, are rather odd. I cannot tell if The Machine leads them or if it follows them. The girl is quiet and disturbed. The man seems to be in charge, as much as one can be in charge of that group. The Machine seems to think it is a God and is trying to convert people. So far, it seems only to have one convert – the Lizard who now calls himself Gabriel. This is going to be a long journey.

The good Doctor has been rather quiet lately. I certainly hope that she does not decide to bite any of our new passengers. They seem to be quite foreign to land as well. Not sure if they are from this world.

I decided to leave through the portal in case of more attacks. B- was rather shocked that the ship is capable of space travel. Seems to be some problem with space debris from a way of some sort.

Took them out to an abandoned space station. B- seemed to know pretty well. From what I understand, he is from this world, just from a different (earlier) time. He must have left right before an attack of the S-, and the ship went down. The one fellow who is still around melded himself with the technology and went crazy. I don’t know if he is in control of the space station or if some other devious entity is in charge, but we were attacked by reanimated corpses. We ran.

New plan. These people seem to attract trouble and I still haven’t talked with them about prices. They don’t seem to bother much with *where* we head, but I will talk to them before I make any final plans.

The Lizard, however, is another story. He seems to be gaining basic conversation skills and limited talents. Perhaps he might be useful after all. At the very least, he is an impressive curiousity.

I am quite bored. here’s hoping that these new passengers will add a bit of interest whilst searching for fuel sources!

Test

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:01:19 +0000

Testing my new phone.

Darling

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 21:44:14 +0000

Papa was always an adventurer at heart – I fancy that’s where I get it from. When I only a very small child, my parents moved to the British colony on Mars. When Mama died, we moved back to Earth, but still lived with the savages in Kenya. As a representative of the Queen, Pap tried to bring order to where we lived, but it was still a rough life. He never could find a suitable governess for me, and consequently, I was raised by my father. I spent a lot of time on safari and working with weapons. I learned how to bluff my way through pharo before I knew how to play it, and soon enough, I was forbidden from playing for money with my father’s foremen.

When I was 13, Papa was called back to London, and I was introduced for the first time to life with my own people. I didn’t fit in. I was more comfortable wearing a pith helmet and trousers than a corset and a fan. I was socially awkward. I was given a little leeway, seeing as I had been raised with savages, but I soon learned that I felt more at home with the savages than this self-proclaimed nobility.

Papa soon hired a proper governess, I was quickly taught the ways of a gentlewoman. I can dance. I can play the piano. I know what gloves to wear with which dress. But it was so uncomfortable. I’d much rather be shooting skeet on the range, or visiting the colonies on Mars, but that was not to be.

I was presented to the court on my 20th birthday and the suitors followed. I would get scolded for leading the men on and wasting their time, but I was not interested in them at all. Besides, they only wanted to marry me for my dowry. Luckily enough for me, Papa knew it. When I told him that I wanted to leave, he silently agreed. The rest of the court thought I was mad, anyway. It was easy to leave. With his blessing, I took one of his ships – The Silver Darling, and took a crew who were eager to adventure.

After about four years of travelling sea, space, and sky, I ended up discovering a rift – and landed in what seems to be an alternate universe. Once again, I do not fit in, but I’ve been able to make friends quite quickly. I am a fast learner.

My crew, for the most part, is handling the shock of this alternate world rather well. The ones who came with me were had nothing to leave behind – no wives; no children. So while we would all like to find out way home, we are interested in exploring this new world. We have a gentleman’s agreement regarding salaries in this new world: we all work together as a team. Any money we earn is split evenly amongst the crew, although truth be told, most money goes toward food and repairs on the ship.

Would I Do It Again?

Mon, 24 May 2010 03:06:21 +0000

Now that I’m done, I have to ask myself: would I do this again?

Basically, after taxes and stipends from my district, I have got this degree for (almost) free. I like that. I like that a lot.

But, was it worth it? Was it worth having the fight Lamar trying to get a straight answer out of them? Was it worth catching representatives in bold-faced lies? Was it worth the BS assignments that were worded so poorly that even the TA couldn’t explain what to do?

Honestly, no. I would have taken my money elsewhere. A different school. Something other than Lamar. Every time I walk into my teacher’s lounge at school and see the poster advertising the program, I want to throw it away. Every time I get an e-mail from the district promoting the partnership, I want to respond by sending them the link to this blog.

I skipped my graduation. I passed on the pomp and circumstance. Why? Because I hated the program so much that I refused to give them any more of my money.

Please, if you are wandering on my site after doing a random search engine of the Lamar Academic Nightmare, please go through and read a snippet of my saga. E-mail if you have any questions. And good luck.

And, it’s done.

Thu, 20 May 2010 23:01:55 +0000

I’m really and truly done – graduation was Saturday, and instead of walking, I had a party here at my house. Last night, the “diploma” came in the mail – may as well have been a cracker-jack box for all I care.

I’m a member of the Lamar Academic Partnership group of Facebook, and someone has the nerve to post the question “Who’s going on for their doctoral degree?” I almost wet my pants.

Do they really think that the program that we just went through PREPARED them for a Ph.D. (or Ed.D.)? Then, someone said that Lamar was actually thinking of doing their own program. Yeah, right, No way in HELL that I am going to be the guinea pig for that program. How long as this Academic Partnership Program been going on and they can’t get that crap right.

I also caught Lamar in a few more lies. I finished my ILD training in March, and was trying to register for the TExES test, and contacted Lamar with my ILD information. I was told that I would have to send over (via gmail) my TEA number and my SS number. I responded back with my TEA number, and said I didn’t feel comfortable giving my social out over e-mail: was my TEA number sufficient? A few days later, I got an e-mail that told me to call “R” to get this taken care of.

While on the phone to “R”, she explained to me that I could have just sent them over my TEA number. I said that I did. *pause* “Well, that e-mail wasn’t to me.”

YES, IT WAS!

In any case, I’m all ready to take the TExES test next month. Wish me luck!