Ringworld and kabobs
A poster on websnark this weekend pointed out exactly what’s bothering me about the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds trailers; they make it look like a run-of-the-mill disaster flick. Instead of concerning invading aliens, most of the scenes in the trailer could be cribbed from any asteroid impact – tidal wave – volcano – invading commies / killer bees / killer tomatoes / plague-carrying R.O.U.S. – movie.
Finally finished Ringworld’s Children. It was substantially better than The Ringworld Throne, and had an interesting bit at the end that nevertheless seems somewhat implausible for a Larry Niven novel. Still, two months to finish a single genre hardcover is a depressing record for me, and the Public Library isn’t much happier about it. 🙁
Scientifically implausible, with spoilers
Best-laid plans gang aft agley
I’m quite pleased! My work is giving me an extra hour to vote tomorrow; I think I’ll take either a long lunch or a late morning. I’m loving getting up an hour later by my body’s clock, but I know all too well that I’ll adjust soon. And I’m gonna hate driving home at night for the next few months.
This morning, I gave all the buttons on my radio the chance to hold my attention by playing some music. Sadly, they all insisted on taking phone calls instead, so they lost to the mp3 player.
I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to VTSFFC Halloween – especially since I’d been looking forward to it for months 🙁 But 2 tanks of gas hit my check card a lot harder than they used to, and I just couldn’t swing it. Those VTSFFCers I don’t see at MarsCon, I hope to see at Technicon.
Since my original Saturday plans didn’t work out, I ended up going to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Naro theater down here. It was a pretty fun show, with some good cast members and excellent costumes. It suffered from “line creep” – so much shouting of lengthy response lines that 75% of the movie’s drowned out – but hell, it’s not like I don’t know all the dialogue already. Yes, I dressed up 🙂 They run their show about once a month, and I’m tempted to make it a repeating thing for me.
Sunday was a very good day. In a seeming non-sequitur, I want to mention that I love raininva very very much. She’s always reminding me why I’m so happy to be with her.
The toting begins
Just dropped off the first load of boxes in the new place.
On second look, I like it even more. There’s room for 3 or 4 gaming tables for a party, 1 fewer if we want a PlayStation/DVD group or a chat group. I’ve tentatively claimed the smallest bedroom for my office, and it’s twice the size – I can get back to modeling and miniatures. I’ve found the closest grocery store, a nearby Taco Bell for Rain, and a nearby lingerie store :p And I drove from work to the house in about 17 minutes, so the commute will actually be a little shorter than my current one.
The garage will only fit one car, but we might be using it for storage at first anyway. I’m not sure where the closest Wal-Mart is either, but I do know where to find a movie theater, a Barnes & Noble, and a Best Buy within about 20-25 minutes. All very important.
Happy me!
Lots and lots of blacktop
Feeling better this morning. Went to the pub last night with Tom and Donna and had a pretty good time.
Tom wants me to go up to the new National Air and Space Museum with him on October 10th. I like the idea – I’d hardly want to miss a chance to make a pilgrimage to the STS Enterprise – but October is loading up quick. The 22nd is a weekend trip to Salem for Rising Star, the weekend of the 29th includes a trip to Blacksburg for VTSFFC Halloween, and the weekend of 11/05 is another con I’ve always wanted to go to.
My poor car. The last months have been really hard on it.
All Virginia’s Parties
Quite a weekend! I burned myself out just a teeny bit, but I did have a lot of fun.
Friday morning, I decided I’d get right on the road after work, so I threw a weekend bag into the back seat. I even got to leave work a bit early to take care of an iMac repair at CompUSA. It was a good thing I did leave early, because there were 30-60 minute delays at every tunnel out of Norfolk, and if you’re heading north, you pretty much have to take a tunnel.
I’ll spare you the next in my ongoing series of traffic rants, because I still showed up at kittykatya‘s place just in time for lekythen and pulp_tarentino to return from an errand. Spent a couple hours catching up with J.J., whom I haven’t seen in 6 years. We’ve both grown up a bit, and I almost felt that we clicked better as reunited friends than we did when we were dating. So that was quite good.
Friday night and Saturday morning were spent catching up with Alex & Barb & Chris (look, alphabetical). Unfortunately, I had to head off before J.J. came back for her stuff, so I didn’t get a final goodbye. It was a good thing I left when I did, because the sky opened up as I left, and I lost another 90 minutes heading back down 95. Luckily, platypusgirl and krysturtle were willing to accept a soaked, bedraggled Borg into their home and I had a very good time at their party.
I met many people, some of whom I recognized from con meetings, but few of whom I can remember their names 🙂 The party was fun – lotsa people, good food, nervous kitties. We established that cat toys are far better for amusing small children than small-children toys are, and I have finally seen more than 50% of “The Goonies”.
Sunday, I napped a lot. I also tried to track down used copies of the “Riverworld” books – so far, no luck, but there are lots more places to look.
Phew.
Movies! Music! Games! Parties!
For the first time since moving here, my weekend return to Salem was marred by traffic delays in both directions, both at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. Neither time did I see an evidence of an accident – it was instead as if a claustrophobe had realized too late, “oh, I’m going through a tunnel!” and slowed to 15 mph, causing everyone for 6 miles back to have to slam on their brakes.
However, the Game Day / raininva‘s Party / Con Meeting / .Hack Session was lots of fun. Rain proved once again why she’s nearly indispensable to Rising Star, I demoed MegaMan, and Nick P. showed me a .Hack//Enemy deck which is no fun to play against :p I also got to say hi to a bunch of Blacksburgites who I don’t see as often as I did before the move – I might not be in B-burg again before Rising Star.
Despite reviewers’ best efforts, I have figured out the plot twist in The Village from reading reviews, just as I did in The Sixth Sense. The difference is that the deduction made me more interested in watching Willis and Osment, but I know I’m going to give this new movie a pass. Instead, rattrap nearly talked me into seeing Thunderbirds after all – at the very least, I can sit back and enjoy the CGI rescue vehicles.
Moving to Virginia Beach has certainly improved my concert situation. I saw a Chicago / Earth, Wind, & Fire doubleheader last month, and this month Blondie is playing a show less than 2 blocks from where I work. Yes, I am still all about the 80’s – if I can catch Duran Duran on their 2004 tour, I can check off two more bands that I always wanted to see.
Time to go fix another laptop…
Should’ve chosen Rt. 460
Yesterday’s drive could have gone better. I made excellent time up to the Busch Gardens exit of I-64; suddenly, the highway turned into a parking lot, and I sat there for the next 90 minutes. Good thing the iPaq has Solitaire and a power adapter. Now we just need flat-rate nationwide 802.11 access!
I think the 90 minutes of inactivity wiped me out more than the drive would have, but I did have enough energy last night to load up DDRMax to make sure everything worked okay – tonight will be my first “workout mode” session. Then I played an hour of Fatal Frame, since that’s on loan and I want to finish it. Nice graphics, very atmospheric and creepy, though I haven’t actually been scared by it yet. I also need to be quicker on the draw with my camera!
I miss Rain already – I’m so glad I’ll see her again Friday. I have to get one or two more items for my costume for Lorelei’s party – I can’t wait to see what Rain picks out for herself. Lots to do this week!
