I did go to the CD release party. I missed the opening band who the posters informed me was called “Disguised by Birds” and Jason informed me that I would have liked. The second band, Test Site, was extremely loud and screamy, but pretty skilled in a speed metal sort of way. I enjoyed them, but my ears are still suffering a bit. 1956 closed strong with some songs from the new album. They also played my favorite song of theirs. I can never remember the title but the first lyrics are “She’s got lightning… in her eyes… don’t you?” Good stuff.

I felt like maybe Jason threw that one in for me, because they had just finished a song and he kind of whispered to the other guys and they nodded consent before they started it. If it wasn’t for me, I’m still glad they played it. If it was, then good on you, mate. Not only did you remember my favorite of yours, but you played it for me. I feel genuinely honored by that.

My ears were still ringing the next morning when I helped Steve move into his new place in Bayview, across from the Ancient Well. Definitely an upgrade. Regina, the girl he’s seeing, made her bid for sainthood by actually cleaning his previous place. She stayed while the rest of us unloaded the truck. I hope he gave her a nice night out at least. She earned that much.

I went home and had a nap. I was still a little hungover from the night before. While I did drink a number of beers before leaving Steve’s, I think my body just wanted to sleep. Sleep and eat a lot of melted cheese. The second urge I satisfied with some pizza and cheese garlic bread. It was highly satisfying.

The rest of the night was sort of social, but mostly just chatting with friends. Steve, I think, was having some sort of drunken revelry, but I just wanted to laze about the house more than anything. I feel a little guilty, because there was some talk about it being his birthday, but I don’t know that I would have been much of an addition to the party in such a lazy mood. Steve knows me from the college days where I would gleefully monkey about entertaining people. He might have been disappointed that I would not perform, and I sort of did not want the pressure, particularly in front of new people.

On Friday, I listened to an hilarious podcast where the Penny Arcade guys and Scott Kurtz from PVP played 4th Edition D&D with a Gamemaster from Wizards, the company that makes the game since TSR went under. Their experience with the game is varied and they are all funny fellows, or such an idea would have simply been an exercise in ego, really. People (me included) who play in games like that all think that their game would be interesting to an outsider and it rarely is. But this was funny.

A colleague of mine texted me an excerpt from the podcast. We had both been chuckling over some of the ridiculous things that Gabe, the newbie to the game, had been proposing. Chief among them was his character’s name, Jim Darkmagic. Later, he revealed Jim’s rich heritage from the New England Darkmagics, his sudden hatred of owls, and his tendency to refer to himself in th third person. Some of the jokes were sort of old hat to gamers, but they sold well in this instance.

I’m a little nervous about these “morning pages.” Only took two times through for that to set in. Still, with this sort of stream-of-consciousness I am bound to say something offensive to someone. I haven’t been the best person about keeping my beefs with friends away from the glaring light of the internet in the past, though I’ve been sober in that aspect for over a year now (Celebrate!). I guess I could just save them as private, but I feel like either I’ll forget or that little devil on my shoulder will have me publish it just to stir the pot.

Some of my friends have rightly said that I can be drawn to drama. I set myself up for complication purposefully sometimes, even if I’m not one hundred percent conscious of it. Since I am using this as a way of boosting my creativity and productivity, and since I certainly don’t count this among my greatest writing, why should I publish it? Confirmation, I guess. Or maybe just because without these babblings, I am a bad blogger who rarely posts things of merit. I’ve been mainly a link aggregator in the last year.

That is another question I have been pondering. Why do I blog? To post links? Typically, I’m just regurgitating things from Digg or Metafilter. To hone my writing? Hardly. It definitely was not working before I started just typing this somewhat inane prattle. Why then? I honestly do not have an answer. I guess there is a sort of satisfaction in the minor self-publication for me. The comments are gratifying, no doubt.

Probably someone somewhere has ruminated on this subject. I will look into that. And then I won’t feel like I have to comment on it at all. Rather, I will link to that post and assume people understand my position on it. Such is the problem of me in the age of the blogger.