The Menagerie

Apologies to Roger Waters

We're constantly altering songs and singing them to the dog (and now the baby).  For example, I used to sing the hymn "Be Thou My Vision" to Nika, our border collie. Instead of "Be thou my vision, O God of my heart," I'd sing "Be thou my vision, O Dog of my heart."  And for Norris, I adapted a sea chanty. So instead of:

Boney was a-warrior
Away-ay-ya
A warrior, a tarrier
Jean Francois

It became:

Norris is a stinky dog
Away-ay-ya
A stinky and a barky dog
Norris dog

Yeah. We're not all that sophisticated around here. You were expecting what? Motets? This morning, though, we really outdid ourselves.  After I yelled up the stairs, "Norris, you'd better leave that baby alone," when I heard him jingling around, it turned into:

We don't need no tripod doggies
We don't need no Norris control
No barking dogs waking the baby
Hey, Norris, leave that baby alone!

All in all, you're just another dog in the hall.

So...you had to be there.  But we're amused, anyway. 

Game time

It took Matthew a long time to get me to play a massively multiplayer game.  The one I agreed to play was City of Heroes (and later the corollary City of Villains), which is a sort of superhero game where you stop bank robberies and fight pseudo-nazis and aliens.  You know, hero stuff.  As villains, you get to do things like rob banks and destroy library books.  You know, Republican stuff. 

The game itself is kind of fun, but it's the playing in the online group (via voice) that's the real kick.  There are guys (and yes, guys) from all over the country who participate -- a group of 10-15, with about 6-8 hardcore types, Matthew among them.  Part of why Matthew and I RPGed for so many years was the banter around the table before and after games (and if we had our way, sometimes during, because we can derail any conversation).  This is the fun bit.

For example, here are some recent topics of conversation via Teamspeak:

• How many women play the game? (Consensus: at least four, me among them)
• The complete lyrics to Superchicken (Relayed by Matthew)
• Are there any heterosexual Furries? (Consensus: yes, or at least there are some women Furries)
  • frightening encounters with Furries
• The proper way to eat boiled peanuts (No consensus: I still think they're better cold)
  • where to get green peanuts for boiling in the west (Asian markets)
• Why Matthew and I often put the dog out together (Answer: we suffer together)
• Why the Dev[eloper]s should be taken out and shot for nerfing character types
  • which character types have been nerfed the most
  • the good old days
• I have become meaner since I became a lawyer (well, sharper, anyway)
• Where everyone lives (for looking up in Google Earth)

And so on.