Battles with Integrity

Does anyone want some Tori tickets?

In August, we bought four tickets to the December 8 Tori Amos concert at the Paramount. Since then, other events have conspired to make this date a big conflict for us, so we can't go.

Balcony, Row C, Seats 118-124. I'd like to get back what I paid for them, if possible. Does anyone know someone who wants to see Tori?

One of my new schoolmates is vision-impaired. I intend to invite him over sometime soon for dinner and after-dinner entertainment. I'd love to introduce him to the wonders of gaming, but what games are best enjoyed without needing sight as an essential component to play. Almost all of my card-based games are out, as is most of the Days of Wonder catalog, alas. What do you recommend?

ca_snowflake recommended that some icehouse games might work well, when playing games that don't involve the colors of the pieces.

Maybe I should skip board games altogether and go straight to RPGs? Anyone know where I might get some Braille dice, perhaps?

Edited to add: I found an interesting article on the subject.

Dear Internets,

I read yesterday about internet television from a company called Joost. It's from the guys who came up with Kazaa and Skype, and I'm very curious about their product. I would like to know more. I would also like an invitation to Joost. What do you recommend?

Sincerely,

~caramida

Dear LJ:

I am going to see the Decemberists at the Warfield on 19 October for the Rout of the Patagon Tour. ca_snowflake, basmati, and byronium are coming with me. Don't you want to come, too?

Respectfully,

~caramida

Sometimes, what with all of the frustration, anger, hatred, sin, pain, famine, war, and just plain hurt in the world, it can be easy to forget that there are occasional bright spots.

It is sometimes neccesary to seek after those bright spots just to have enough perspective to understand that the whole thing is worthwhile. To that purpose I humbly offer for your consideration... baby animals, bright sunrise on a frosty morn, the refraction of light by a prism, backrubs, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, tomatoes fresh from the vine, a genuine smile on a friend, monkey bread, happy children, La Dolce Vita, snuggling, and Jon Carroll.

Anthropologists sometimes get it wrong, in part because it's so much fun to lie to anthropologists.

How about you? Riddle me this dear reader, what things bring you uncomplicated joy?

Some many years ago, when I first started going to these BYOF BBQs, there weren't so many of those really short proto-people I saw running about (or laying about) last night at the play, the potluck, and on the rock. What's happening that all my friends (extended and otherwise) are threatening to wed, are becoming troth, and are associating with these heartbreakingly adorable little creatures?

Could it be, that when no one was paying attention, when we were distracted by the mundane, that maybe we... <looks left, looks right> ...we grew up?

T, you were our Peter. Cy, you were our Smee. Where have gone Wendy Darling, Slightly, Tootles, Curly, Nibs, and Tiger Lily? How have they been replaced with people who talk of Joint-Filings and Legislative Councils, of Mileage and Foreign Policy?

Still, I can only be grateful, as I look through this window out onto the morning of a gray, dull, adult world, that you my friends, are ones with imagination. I am gladdend that, despite your necessary adaptations to the dreary world of Men and Women, Politics and Work, that you are people who can still retain the liberty and capacity from time-to-time, to remember how to have good kid's fun. My friends play let's pretend. They climb upon rocks like mountain goats in the dark. They sing songs and tell stories. They remember when it is necessary, that when we choose it, we can still be Lost Boys and Girls whenever we want.

This is why Indian Rock will always be a small part of Never-Never Land to me.

Thank you all. I love each of you so very much.

If I had a paperback book that I wanted rebound as a hardcover, where might I go to find that?
Bonus points for Bay Area specific information.