Adventuring For Autism Empowerment!

Exciting news! Tomorrow evening, starting at 5pm Pacific, Dan (bass player for Second Player Score) and I will be participating in a livestreamed Dungeons & Dragons campaign on the Punky's Mixtape show on Twitch. Best of all, one hundred percent of all donations, subs, bits, and cheers will be going to benefit Autism Empowerment!

It's been ages since I've played D&D, but I've armed myself with the 5th Edition manuals (borrowed from my daughter), multiple sets of polyhedral dice, and various how-to YouTube videos. My character is a 3rd level high elf bard named Nairb, and Dan's is a 3rd level half-orc bard named Leinad. We're two-thirds of a traveling minstrel act called "Staging Plate" (long story, inside joke), and have found ourselves in a bind after our third member ("Elyk") challenged and defeated a powerful wizard in a drinking contest only to have said sore-loser-wizard polymorph him into a small animal of a yet-to-be-determined species. Now, we're following the trail of the wizard to a distant continent and having random adventures on the road while learning more about our adversary and trying to grow stronger in preparation for eventually facing them again. How will we fare? How long do we have to turn Elyk back? What kinds of allies and enemies will we make along the way? Tune in here to find out!

Interview With DJ Dex

Hey there! Just an announcement that tomorrow, Friday, March 19, from 3-6pm Pacific Time, I will be a special guest on 99WNRR radio with the illustrious DJ Dex as part of their 8th Annual Radiothon benefitting FACES4AUTISM Family Support Group, The Children's Air Ambulance, and David's Dream and Believe Cancer Foundation.

I'll be talking about the Joel Suzuki series and other stuff in between DJ Dex playing requests and taking donations to support the aforementioned organizations. $5 gets you one song, $10 gets you three songs, $25-50 gets you a special commemorative shirt and 5 songs, and $100 gets you two shirts, 10 songs, and the chance to be a guest DJ and announce your requested songs on the air! More details are at this link.

Hope you can check it out!

April and Lydia Predict The 2021 MLB Season

In what is now becoming an annual (or biannual, in last year's case) tradition, we welcome some very special guests to the blog: our in-house baseball experts/die-hard Seattle Mariners fans April Hayashi and Lydia Sanchez! They'll be giving their thoughts on their predictions from last year, what they expect from the M's and baseball in general during the upcoming season, and more.

Brian: Hello, ladies.

April: Hello.

Lydia: 'Sup.

Brian: So - 

Lydia: I know what you're going to ask.

Brian: You do?

Lydia: Yeah. Something about Mather-gate.

Brian: Well, I was planning to bring that up at some point, yeah.

Lydia: Just more evidence that there's still a curse on the Mariners.

April: Well, now that he's gone -

Lydia: Thank goodness.

April: - maybe things will start to turn around.

Lydia: Let's hope so.

Brian: And that brings me, sort of, to what I was going to start off with - the M's record from last year's pandemic-shortened season. Let's see... (checks notes) April, you predicted that they would finish at 23-37, in last place. They actually ended up in -

Lydia: Third place, at 27-33. Ahead of the Angels and Rangers.

April: You really should let him finish his sentences.

Lydia: Oh, you're so polite.

Brian: No problem. But yeah, they seemed to have exceeded expectations.

April: And almost made the playoffs!

Lydia: Too bad the Astros didn't finish at 8-52, like I wanted.

April: Well, they did have a losing record. And the A's won the division.

Lydia: True.

Brian: All right, moving on - you folks thought, both in March and in July, that the Dodgers would win the World Series.

Lydia: And they did! We're psychic.

April: Well, I mean, with a roster that stacked, it was an obvious prediction.

Lydia: I still say we're psychic.

April: Okay.

Brian: What are your psychic predictions for this year? Let's start with the Mariners' record.

April: I'll go out on a limb and say 83-79, third place.

Brian: So, still no playoffs?

April: Yeah. Unfortunately.

Lydia: I'll see your limb and raise you: 92-70, AL West Champions. Shock the world, baby!

Brian/April: Seriously?

Lydia: Sure, why not? I mean, the bullpen looks better, the Big Maple is back, and we have the reigning Rookie of the Year. 

April: But -

Lydia: I know what all the projections say, and I don't care. Besides, aren't you the one always saying that we need to have hope?

April: Yeah, I guess.

Lydia: Also, I'm gonna say that Marco Gonzales, Kyle Lewis, and J.P. Crawford will be All-Stars. And Jarred Kelenic will be Rookie of the Year.

Brian: Wow.

April: This is certainly a big change from last July when you didn't want to predict anything.

Lydia: Well, I thought about what you just said about things starting to turn around, and I figured maybe you're right. Heck, maybe Mather was the curse!

Brian: I guess we shall see. So, what about the World Series Champs?

April/Lydia: Dodgers.

Haiku Hour

Yes, it's time for another Haiku Hour! To recap, a haiku is a Japanese poem that consists of seventeen syllables divided into three lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Traditionally, they include references to seasons and/or have nature as a topic, but, well, whatever. Hajimemashou!

What the heck is this?

Snowstorm in February

Can't drive anywhere

(bonus points for the seasonal/nature reference)

Neko nihiki

Means "two cats" in Japanese

Warm lap on Sunday

Look, homemade hot sauce!

Red is hot, green not as hot

Thanks to Punky B.

Awesome custom lamp

Joel and SPS logos

Thanks to Daniel D.

Even more hot sauce

Carolina Reaper, yikes!

Thanks to DJ Dex

If you enjoyed that and you missed my previous two Haiku Hour posts, you can check those out here and here. Or not.