FISH ON THE SHIMMERING HORIZON

Not being an avid Dungeons and Dragons player, there isn't any reason why I should have known, automatically, how to spell 'polyhedral dice' (singular: polyhedral die). The closest I've ever gotten to such an activity is enjoying that scene in Reno 911 when the geek hacked at someone with a real broadsword in a role playing game. Oh, and the giant bin of engineering kible at one of the computer companies at which I worked. It had both m&m's and Skittles! Mmm, Skittles!

One of the programmers once showed off his handiwork of which he was very proud.

He had repaired his severely worn underwear with duct tape.

Skittles contain cancer causing chemicals.

He did not get out much.

Mmm, Skittles!

No, I shan't mention his name. I still remember all of the people who worked in the lab, both in alphabetical and height order. As well as who always won at the beta version video game we had hacked into. Played after the chief engineer had left for the day and the owner of the company was in charge.

For some reason I cannot remember any of the names of people in the sales and marketing departments there.

RIVER IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Despite having seen a lot of California (by night, largely shrouded in tule fog, when driving through it several times), and having lived here for approximately and exactly 71.875% of my life, I haven't been out of the urban Bay Area in the wilderness much. So I've never gotten poison ivy, bitten by a rattlesnake, or infected with West Nile Fever or Dengue.
Even when I was living in Valkenswaard I was a city boy.

Which isn't something of which I'm ashamed.

Deliverance Country starts once you cross bridges and drive through tunnels, except for a brief flash of Hunter S. Thompson territory in the great American outback, where there is glitz, vulgarity, and an endless buffet.


If a place does not have a well-stocked Chinese grocery store, a decent tobacconist, and a place with good coffee, it might as well be Australia or Placerville.
There is no point in even going there.
Orcs.



A few of my friends play Dungeons and Dragons. I commend them for their intense escapism and shrieking flight from harsh reality, no doubt inspired by where they live.
They also watch Lord Of The Rings movies. Obsessively.
Hobbits who own polyhedral dice.



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