First thing Thanskgiving morning, I drove up to Spokane Valley to get my brother, which is about a two and a half hour drive. After loading him and various other items into the Burgundy Beast, we hit the road again for the 150-odd minute trip back to good old Richland. That’s about five hours on the road, but I wasn’t done yet. After a brief “wait for Alison” break (that is, well over an hour,) we did some last-minute shopping and headed out to my mom’s (about 45 min) for dinner, which had to be cooked first (I got to nap, yaay.)

After an enjoyable meal pleasantly devoid of turkey (as we are in the main vegetarians,) I took another nap before driving another 45 minutes home. Then I sacked out for good, not waking up until some time Friday.

So it was fun. A lot of driving (which I’m not overly fond of) some good food, and a lot of good conversation, and then some good sleep. Thanksgiving may actually be my favorite holiday. It has all the stuff I like about Christmas with none of the annoying music or religious overtones or gift-giving, or the excessive sweets that plague both adjacent holidays. 

Friday involved a lot of EVE (missioning and a nicely sizable corp mining op,) SPANC, and Karaoke.

November 8, 2009 is the day (or so I am told) when one of the Internet’s finest souls shuffled off this mortal coil. I didn’t know Dan well, but we interacted regularly online, and he was a great guy — both a pillar of the online Battletech community and one of the best website developers I have known. He was a tireless advocate for good website design, a scholar and a gentleman, and I was proud to call him peer and friend.

He died far too young, due to complications from influenza and pneumonia. The best information I have puts him at only thirty years of age.

So why am I posting about it on November 25th? Frankly, the news shook me, and I hadn’t felt up to writing his eulogy. Even now, words fail me — but to let his passing go unmentioned seems by far the greater crime.

Rest In Peace, Albatross. I will miss you.

And sometimes I get to feeling like I should write something substantial on this page rather than just telling you what I sang on Friday Nights. But I don’t know what to write and I don’t have the time or inclination, so yeah.

Karaoke was pretty fun. I enjoyed singing and hanging out and drinking Dew and listening to other people sing. I have an amazing capacity to sit in a room-full of people and connect with noone and end up feeling more or less alone. I probably need to take my meds.

Anyway, my Karaoke setlist for tonight was as follows:

• Walk of Life — Dire Straits
• Voodoo — Godsmack
• Citizen Soldiers — 3 Doors Down
• Better Man — Pearl Jam

Been a while since I did one of these, and I don’t believe I’ve ever done it literally right after the show, so for a bit of novelty let’s get right to business.

I sang:

• Stacy’s Mom — Fountains of Wayne
• You don’t love me anymore — Weird Al Yankovic
• Voodoo — Godsmack
• She’s Got Issues — The Offspring
• Hey Jealousy — Gin Blossoms
• The Saga Begins — Weird Al Yankovic (Weird Al Rule)

My dad tried to set up a second Weird Al Rule with Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus. Unfortunately the show ended before I could follow up with Weird Al’s Achy Breaky Song.