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I had the honor of attending an academic discussion with renowned author and zombie expert Max Brooks tonight. He appeared completely in character and schooled the assembled crowd on the ways of zombie survival in an honest and frank way, but with a certain degree of self-awareness about it. Things I learned, presented in bullet-point form for your convenience:

*A sledgehammer or blade is preferable to a firearm for the simple fact that you do not need to reload one.

*Were zombies to invade a college campus, like say UWM, jocks not only make excellent workhorses but also serve as cannon fodder.

*The phrase "Hey babe, wanna be in my zombie group?", in addition to being a poor preparedness-builder, is not particularly effective as a pick-up line either.

*The line between zombie and stoned-out hippie is much thinner than you might expect, though you should put a cap in either of them just to be sure.

All in all, perfectly worth missing House for.

I returned to the Ancestral Motherland over the weekend and slipped back into the role of Dungeonmaster to preside over a game of Dungeons and Dragons for my younger blood relations and some other guy. Among my devious machinations were the Corruption Corpse and the Gelatinous Cube, a D&D standby. The players escaped with little but their lives and a tale to spin at the local inn.

Roommate the Second is having a very lively discussion with a Bot right now. And goodness-do-I-really-have-a-class-in-eight-hours?