| Worth Reposting |
[Jul. 17th, 2008|05:15 pm] |
Ganked from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) adamjury |
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| A Busy Week |
[Jul. 17th, 2008|09:19 am] |
This has been a busy week, but not in a bad way. Remarkably, I feel like I am actually getting some summer this year.
Anyway, this is just a "head above water" posting. More a little later. |
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| Terrastock 2008 |
[Jul. 14th, 2008|10:02 am] |
My photos from Terrastock 2008 are finally up on my Flickr account. A lot of bands I didn't end up getting pictures of, and I really need to go search out the photos that others took. I'm probably even in some of them.
For video of some of the awesomeness, check here.
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| Weekend Odds and Ends |
[Jul. 13th, 2008|11:21 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | good | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Tegan & Sara - Burn Your LIfe Down | ] |
Just a few quick Sunday morning notes.
• Hellboy II is excellent, probably even a bit better than the first one. See it .
• Your key to Saturday afternoon productivity is NOT eating a huge pancake breakfast at 11:30.
• Having an Aunt with a couple of acres out in the country is pretty cool.
• My Nationals, while a terrible team, are at least not boring to watch.
• My house is a mess. This must be addressed.
• The Remote application on the iPhone is AWESOME.
• It remains to be seen if this will be a "go out and do fun things" day or a "stay home and do necessary but far less entertaining things" day. I am leaning toward #2.
• I am sentencing a tree to death this week. And I have not a single regret about that.
• 2008 is turning out to be a not so bad year.
Lots to do this coming week, but it is all manageable. Rock on.
And now, breakfast. |
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| And in tech-nerd news... |
[Jul. 10th, 2008|10:06 am] |
The App Store for iPhone has technically not opened yet, but a little bird told me that you can download apps from the iTunes Store right now. A good amount of 'em are free. Mind you, they will be of no use until the 2.0 firmware release tomorrow...but hey, download early and avoid the rush.
You'll need to upgrade to iTunes 7.7 first. |
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| Back to Planet Earth: 36 Hour Layover |
[Jun. 24th, 2008|10:58 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | My Armed Compound | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | cheerful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Never Said - Liz Phair | ] |
So here I am, home for 36 hours after a massive weekend of music in Louisville. Terrastock was incredible...I'll refer anyone who wants some bits and pieces of my experience here. Pictures will be up eventually. By the way, blacksnail, I ran into your friend Rick from Columbus at Terrastock. Talk about unexpected!
A belated thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. You guys are awesome.
Today is cleaning up the house, doing a bit of work, and packing for Columbus and Origins. Oh yeah, and a chiropractor visit, as I nearly destroyed my back standing for three days, and sleeping on a crappy hotel mattress.
Tomorrow morning, it's back on the road. See you guys at Origins! |
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| Happy Birthday to ME! |
[Jun. 18th, 2008|11:20 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Murky | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | hopeful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Runaway - Ladytron | ] |
It's a beautiful day, and it's my birthday. Happy Birthday, me!
Work seems to be settling into some sort of rhythm, which is good. I've been busting my hump to get some things done, and they are coming out well. George R.R. Martin described himself as "overall very pleased" with the work we've been doing on Wild Cards and A Song of Ice and Fire, and that pretty much made my morning. During the approvals process, it's easy to get caught up in the minutiae of art fixes and so on, and lose sight of the overall project. It was good to hear some approving words.
While this past weekend was workariffic, the previous weekend was bandariffic. That Saturday I caught m83 (with the surprisingly interesting The Berg Sans Nipple opening), which made me feel like an old man. I wasn't THE old guy there, but I was definitely AN old guy there. Far from doing the "ring finger of the left hand" check, I was more often doing the "x on the hand" check.
Sunday night was the re-united Swervedriver, with Terra Diablo (Scottish, not bad, CD is not too bad, but I may not hold on to it), and Longwave (from NYC, really great live, somewhat limp on record) opening. Swervedriver were in fine form and, while there was not a hell of a lot of interaction with the audience, the looked like they were enjoying themselves. New album perhaps?
We had more violent storms roll through middle of the week, and my power got knocked out for another evening. At least not as many trees went down this time around. I thought the storm might do me a favor and take out the evil mulberry tree in my back yard, but it looks like I'm hiring professionals to do that instead. July should see the end of that tree's Reign of Mulberry Terror.
This weekend, I am off to Louisville, KY for Terrastock 7. Good thing I stick to booze, 'cause the music alone will be head trippin'. Psychadelic substances combined with music of such frequency and intensity could be mind-bending. After that, I'm home for a day and a half, and it's off to Columbus for Origins.
Good, busy times. |
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| To Boldy Go... |
[Jun. 11th, 2008|09:43 am] |
You can now view THE ENTIRE RUN OF STAR TREK (non-digitally enhanced, with new commercials inserted) here.
Truly, we live in enlightened times. |
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| More...power..needed... |
[Jun. 5th, 2008|08:05 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Murky | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | irritated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Circus Of Horror - Quiet Village | ] |
Due to some VERY heavy storm activity, my power at home has been out since about 3:45 yesterday afternoon. Mind, you I'm hardly alone; Dominion Virginia Power was reporting outages for 275,000 people.
So, with no power, I did what anyone would do: I decamped to the DelMerei Grille, my local watering hole, for the evening. I'm enough of a regular that I have the restaurant WiFi password so I actually did work for a few hours, but that was along with deflecting a few other customers asking "do they have WiFi in here?". I don't want to abuse my privileges.
I got a few things done, and then just settled down to dinner, and some conversation with a very nice architect who had also been driven out of her condo by the power outage. More rain rolled through and at one point I had to run home to meet a guy from Freecycle to get rid of some crap, but the power was still out, so I went right back to the bar.
I got home for the night about 11:30, lit up some candles (nice effect in the house, actually) and read late into the night. The 19th century style lighting was pretty appropriate, since the book I finished up was Will Thomas' entertaining two-fisted Victorian pot-boiler Some Danger Involved.
Anyway, still no power today. My freezer seems to be holding to chill pretty well, so no worries there yet. We'll see what today brings. |
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| Return to Bugtown |
[Jun. 4th, 2008|11:58 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Murky | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | surprised | ] |
| [ | music |
| | American University Radio | ] |
Matt Howarth has been one of my favorite comic lunatics since I was a teenager. I first ran into his work by pure chance; I won a shopping spree through the "weird and independent" boxes of a local comic store, and a few issues of Those Annoying Post Brothers and Savage Henry ended up in my stack. I was immediately captivated by the ridiculously violent and sonicly outre' adventures of Ron and Russ Post, Savage Henry & the Bulldaggers, Hiroshima, etc. I made sure to start picking up both comics (even going so far as to have a fan letter printed in one issue), and gradually began to track down everything by Howarth that I possibly could. I mail-ordered his old self-published comics (WRAB: Pirate Radio, This is Heat, Changes, and MANY many more), faux 7" sleeves for the Bulldaggers, and strange mini-comics. I stumbled onto odd old indy published material that he was part of. I bought Konny & Czu, Keif Llama: Xeno Tech, and a wealth of other strange material that he produced.
And then came the hiatus. Howarth seemed to burn out on comic work, only doing a little bit of inking, and some novel writing. Rumors of (and actual attempts at) Bugtown RPGs came and went, but the lack of comic output was a big disappointment. I checked his embryonic website less and less, and Bugtown was receding into a fond past memory.
But today, linking through an auction posting by kajafoglio, I hit Howarths site for the first time in many years.
Holy crap.
In addition to a bunch of print publications that I somehow missed, there are a TON of electronic comics that Howarth has been putting together. Looks like I have a LOT of catching up to do with my Bugtown friends. |
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| Random Notes |
[Jun. 4th, 2008|10:01 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Murky | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | upbeat | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Alpha - Holly Goes Blind | ] |
Just a few notes on things...- Worky worky worky worky...
- I'm pleased that Obama has finally locked up the nomination. For some cogent thoughts on the race, and some good counterpoint to the way a lot of people on both sides have been acting, I direct you all to the blog of the very fine fellow John Rogers, the Kung Fu Monkey. A small sample of his wisdom: "I didn't want a female senator out of the race. I didn't want a universal health-care advocate out of the race. I wanted the weirdly Republican-lite, crazy rules-changing, stereotype-reinforcing panderer that had somehow burrowed into Hillary Clinton's skull out of the race." Well said.
- I'm single again. This is officially "an okay thing."
- Adventures into Darkness should be available on Drive Thru RPG a little later this week, after I finish getting my account set up. Atomic Overmind will announce it's newest project in a couple of days as well...something else in conjunction with princeofcairo...
- I have been on a David Axelrod kick lately. NO, NOT the political consultant...this guy. In addition to picking up 1968 to 1970: An Axelrod Anthology and his Songs of Experience CDs last week, I also ordered a copy of a 2006 live appearance he did in the UK, Live: Royal Festival Hall. Ordered on a Friday night around midnight, and it arrived Monday afternoon. Now THAT'S service.
- And finally, I bought my plane ticket for Louisville in two weeks. I'm off to:
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| It Has Come to My Attention That I Am Not Very Interesting |
[May. 29th, 2008|10:59 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Murky | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | thoughtful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | So Percussion - Fire Escapes | ] |
I have fallen into a rut over the last 18 months or so, and I am not very happy about it. My life has sort of devolved into work, work, eat, drink, read, computer, internet, work. I live near one of the THE cities, and I;m not doing much to take advantage of it. Boring life = boring person.
Just a general bitch. I need to start poking around and looking for stuff to do, I think. And maybe start doing some stuff on my own, totally unrelated to work. |
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| A Memorial Weekend |
[May. 28th, 2008|09:48 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | St. Elmo's | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | thoughtful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Contradiction Lusine rmx - Apparat | ] |
A good weekend, overall.
Friday night, Jodi and I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I would rate it as a completely satisfactory and entertaining entry in the series, still miles ahead of Temple of Doom, and falling perhaps *just* short of Last Crusade. There were some moments where I think most viewers might have started to go "hey, wait JUSt a minute!" at some particularly improbable event or stunt. But such moments were almost always followed by something shiny/explosive/funny to get your mind back on what was important: enjoying the ride.
Saturday, I FINALLY sold my Dad's car to CarMax. It was a strange experience, but I got the money I was willing to accept for it, and removing all the decals an so on from his car was enough to depersonalize "Dad's Subaru" into just "a Subaru". Maniha and I ran by Dream Wizards after that and said hello to Laurel, and I picked up Thurm and Taxis for me, and the newest Carcassonne supplement for him to compensate him for carting me back from CarMax. Then it was off to Ikea for pot-racks. We also checked out the Ikea kitchen department (John also has a kitchen that needs some work), and I think I'll probably go with them when kitchen renovation time comes. I had dinner with Jodi, and a friend of mine was supposed to come over, but didn't show. I ended up watching JLA: New Frontier late-night. MIni-review: fun, but really they really had to cut a lot of context to get the thing into a reasonable running time in one movie. Some interesting extras on the DVD though.
Sunday, Jodi and I headed to Nationals Stadium and watched my Nats put a (rather erratic but still effective) smackdown on the Brewers.
Monday I put up all the pot-racks, and heeded a last-minute invitation up to my cousin Amanda's house. A ton of food, family. two babies and two dogs equalled a good Memorial Day. Especially when you add in the fact that I drove the BW Parkway, traffic free, both up and back.
So now (well, yesterday) it's back into the breach. Summer's coming.
Summer's coming. |
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| Since I'm linking today... |
[May. 20th, 2008|12:15 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Murky | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | satisfied | ] |
| [ | music |
| | WAMU 88.5 FM - American University Radio - | ] |
This one is for all my friends out there who just have too much money cluttering up their lives. Enjoy. |
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| Ummm.... |
[May. 20th, 2008|12:03 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Murky Coffee | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | WAMU 88.5 FM - American University Radio - | ] |
No. |
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| Quick Update |
[May. 19th, 2008|10:00 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Murky Coffee | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | stressed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Apartment Story - The National | ] |
Hello world.
Usually when I go silent for a month, it's unreservedly bad. Not so in this case. I AM drowning in work, but having someone to hang out with has been pretty great. I have started the process of getting crap out of my house, should be selling my extra car this week, and have managed to go to the gym three times a week for two weeks straight. Slow progress on all fronts, but at least it's progress. Hopefully, by the end of Summer, everything will be in order.
I've been listening to a ton of music, watching baseball, actually trying to read some books, and may even make time for some games. (Battue is calling to me.)
The weather has been good, my cat less cantankerous than normal, and I am actually beginning to have space in my basement. And I have no travel planned for a month.
Hardly the world's most interesting update, but there ya go. It is what it is. :) |
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| A Busy Week |
[Apr. 4th, 2008|09:53 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Murky Coffee | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | satisfied | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Careful - Hot Chip | ] |
This was a pretty good week, albeit it a busy one. Well, actually in some ways it was a GREAT week...but there was some suck to balance it out.
The Good:
I seem to be dating someone all of a sudden. It's pretty great.
I got one major project off to press, and another smaller but as-important one ready to go today.
I am managing to ratchet back on some bad habits, and start some good ones back up again.
Baseball is back.
The Bad:
My house looks like a bomb hit it.
I still have a TON of work to do.
My allergies have been trying to suffocate me this week.
I think my Germany trip disrupted me a bit more than I expected it to. Which reminds me, I need to finish my account of the trip. Hopefully I'll do that this weekend.
Apropos of nothing, this Hot Chip record is pretty great. |
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