Ten thousand dancing girls kicking cans across the sky

Yes, I'm still alive.

I haven't been around these parts lately, and I'm hoping that that'll change. I'm not going to make any promises, as all of my promises heretofore have been empty. However, I'll try to keep this thing alive.

The other day at work, we played a fun game that reminded me of something I did on this page a few months ago. Way back in October of aught-five, I played a band name game where you mash band names together to get things like

G Love & .38 Special Sauce
or

Busta LeAnn Rimes

That whole post is here, and it was inspired by a post I read at a friend's blog here.

Anyway, the new game is to combine the name of a band with the name of a fish. Here's some of the better ones we came up with (it helps to say some of them out loud):

Cod Stewart

Koi Division

Tuna Live Crew

Skinny Guppy

Nine Inch Whales

Carp Shoot Carp

No Trout

Backstreet Kois

Squid Vicious

Catfish Power

Eel O

My Life With the Thrill Krill Cult

Belle and Sea Basstian

Ase of Bass

Public Anemone

Betta Band

Moray-ssey

The Housemarlins

Salmon Dave

Barry Minnowlow

Then, because we really wanted to be able to use this one, we stretched the rule to allow the use of an album title. That's a whole nother can of worms, but the one in question was

Flounder Than Bombs

Any additions to this list are welcome.

now playing:

Explosions in the Sky All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone

Superstar in your own private movie; I wanted just a minor part

Here's the thing.

I like to make games of just about anything. Fortunately, at work, there are a bunch of other guys who like to make games out of the same things. We have several games involving the radio. The oft-mentioned "Two-fer Tuesday" game used to be the only one, but now there's a new one. The way we play this game, though, is a sad indicator that we spend WAY too much time playing fantasy sports.

The way this game works is that we get to pick songs we think the station will play. The format of the station we listen to isn't important here, but let's just say it's a pretty specific format. Before we start working, three of us select ten songs that we think will be played in the course of the day. We have a slection order (a "draft order", if you will), and the selection order reverses order in even numbered "draft" rounds. Just like fantasy sports drafts. After the "draft" is over, all remaining songs become "free agents" and can be picked up. It's not that simple, though. There's a waiver wire priority, just like in fantasy sports. Once I pick up a "free agent" and drop a song to even my roster, I move to the back of the waiver queue.

Trading is permissible, only if the other player(s) approve. It's quite complex, and if anyone working that day doesn't play fantasy sports, they're really confused by these rules, which have not quite been fully developed.

If any player gets two of their songs played back-to-back, the other players have to give him $1 each. Three songs = $2 each, and so on. So far, nobody has made any money off of this, and as you might imagine, the scoring is pretty low.

In comparison to the "Two-fer Tuesday" game, where the scoring might go something like 7-5-4, the scoring of the "music carousel" is often 2-2-1.

However, the "Two-fer" game has an added dimention that has nothing to do with the radio. Bonus points can be had for being proficient at a carnival-style game of chance.

Don't ask me. I just work here.

Coming soon -- a post about "new car shower-offers" and commentary about TO.