Reading: History of Pirates: Blood and Thunder on the High Seas by Nigel Cawthorne
Music: Flogging Molly
TV/Movie: History Channel lately
Link o' the Day: A Flintstones World

Twitch, twitch!

Mucho snow falling on cedars, oaks, pine, and so forth around here. And when it’s done falling, it’s going to freeze colder than Republican’s heart (brrrr!). And it’s going to get slippery, and my leg is twitching. It doan wanna go out to that nasties nasties snows. (Nasties!)

[Update: it’s now freezing rain. I went outside for a quick smoke and found footing more slippery than an Iraqi arms dealer. I knew smoking was bad for my health, but yeesh!]

I’ll deal with it. I took a cab in to work this morning which was something of an adventure. Sliding and skidding most of the way, we could have qualified for a slalom event. Tomorrow will be better, and if not, I have no problem staying home and off my feet for a day.

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Got some cosmetic adjustments to do with the Sybil Json book tonight, and then it’s back to work on the Peggy Garner book which is going to be a rush. Busy week. Still, I’m hoping to install a video card in my computer at some point and try out one of the games Pretty Maggie picked up for me for Christmas.

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So I’m reading a couple of interesting books right now. One is a book on pirates called History of Pirates: Blood and Thunder on the High Seas by Nigel Cawthorne. It’s not bad--probably not the best-written history, but it’s a good background. I’ve noticed that when people write about pirates they tend to favor one side to the other. By that, I mean they either present pirates as these individualistic wild pioneering adventurers of the high seas, or they’re vicious, murdering, raping, no-good sea thugs. This book leans toward the latter, although there are brief moments when the book will occasionally indulge in romanticism.

As for me, I prefer to allow pirates into that special world of romanticism where reality is nice, but not necessarily required. Give me Jack Sparrow, Dread Pirate Roberts, or the Crimson Pirate over an unwashed thug hanging from a tree branch. (I’m not alone in this. Anyone care to hear just how chivalrous knights _really_ were? I didn’t think so. Anyone want to discuss the Puritan search for religious freedom in the New World? Nah, didn’t think so. Illusions are fragile, skittish critters.)

But all that aside, one of the games Pretty Maggie got me was the remake of the Best Computer Game Ever--Sid Meier’s Pirates! Soon I’ll be sailing the Carribbean, looting Spanish ships, raiding towns, looking for buried treasure, and chasing down clues to the whereabouts of my kidnapped family.

Avast! Hoist the black flag! Load the cannon! Send o’er the longboats.

Draw your sword..... ‘tis I, Red Jack the Pirate!!!

hehe.

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Hey, remember that song from the old Flintstones cartoon, The Bedrock Twitch? "Oh there’s a place I know where the hipsters go called Bedrock! Twitch! Twitch!"

No? Yes? Anyway, all this talk of legs twitching made me think of that song and (God bless the Internet) I found the lyrics at A Flintstones World. They have the Twitch song as well as a bunch of others that you’re sure to remember in that most fuzzy, dim way we have of remembering things from distant childhood.

Enjoy!