George looked out the window, spying Joe out on the balcony.  The evening drizzle lent the atmosphere a hazy grey appearance, but George decided nonetheless to go outside and engage his old friend in conversation for old time's sake.

"Hey, Joe, what's going on man?"

Joe tilted his head slightly left to address George's presence, the reddish ember from his newly-lit cigarette lightly illuminating his face.

"Hey, George."

"C'mon man, this is a bachelor party.  You're supposed to be inside enjoying yourself with the strippers and booze, not out here being antisocial.  It's kind of messing with everyone else's festive attitudes."

"Sorry George, but none of that stuff really appeals to me for some reason.  To be honest, I'm having doubts about Lisa, and your motives for marrying her."

"Seriously Joe?  What do you mean?  I thought you liked her."

Joe took a deep drag on his cigarette.  "She's a conditional friend, you know that.  I'm only friendly with her because she's your fiancee.  You know as well as I do that if she were to do something to you, she and I would be nothing to each other."

"Okay, so you're conditional friends.  Big deal.  It still doesn't explain your coldness, if I may be blunt here.

Joe sighed, the ember from his cigarette lending his face a dim orange glow.  "Well, it's all rather complicated.  I don't know, I just guess..."

[...]

It's been a while since I've been here that I figure I should re-introduce myself out of common courtesy.  So, hey all, what's going on?

Well, I figure it's high time I made my triumphant return to these forums, so I'll reintroduce myself to those who aren't savvy:

I am Leonidas. I like booze, playing guitar, fooling with computers, weightlifting, playing football and basketball, sleeping, and being sarcastic.  I am also an HN refugee with a lot of free time on my hands, so you may be seeing a lot of me from now on.

I believe this is my third introductory thread here.  I like to take lots of vacations, apparently...

Uh, baseball season's over.  It's now basketball season, whoopee!  And so I dedicate this thread to how much I like the Duke Blue Devils and also how much Kentucky Wildcats suck.

Once again, Duke has a young ball club.  However, they have some very talented freshmen, as well as the talented sophomores returning from last season with more experience.  It might take some time, but they'll be national champions before long.  I hope they beat Florida State this year, though.  That game's been downright embarassing the past seasons.