And he looks *dang* good for 68, too
Halloween’s a holiday dedicated to things that aren’t what they seem, so it’s a bit appropriate that George Takei is choosing it to come publically out of the closet.
http://www.frontierspublishing.com/features/feature_second.html
Good for him! I can’t help thinking that some of the people involved with RoVaCon way back when would have been less excited about inviting him had they known… but that’s far in the past now.
I haven’t decided yet what to wear to Mandy & Krys’ party tomorrow night. I do wish VTSFFC Halloween wasn’t 5 hours away. I also wish Rain didn’t work Saturdays and Sundays, making a 2- or 3am Rocky Horror evening this weekend a bit impractical.
In good news, Rain welcomed me home last night to a spotless living room lit by candles, served me an excellent dinner, and snuggled down with me for a romantic evening of TiVo’d MythBusters. (Hey, mad science is too romantic.) It was a good way to wrap up the day.
Harry Potter and the Dancers of Solid Gold
Found this in a comment on Kaja Foglio’s LiveJournal.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5409947201428088801&q=harry+pot
Ze goggles! Zey do nuttzink!!!!
Written while waiting for hot water
Busy life these days… I haven’t been taking time to slow down and write lately. I’m hoping to do more of that this weekend.
Went to Rising Star last weekend, and had lots of fun. I showed off the new Utilikilt on Saturday, and it went over quite well, though I have to think more carefully about the process of sitting down while I wear it. raininva and I scored over 20 PS2 games for around $100 or so at the auction – of course, lord knows when I’ll play any of them. With WoW on the computer, I have to poke myself to make time for my new copy of We (Heart) Katamari.
I missed meiran, ranchonmars, and madwriter… maybe I’ll see some of you at Marscon, and if not, there’s always T-Con.
We listened to the audiobook of “So You Want to Be A Wizard” on the way up and back. The narrator does good work with the voices, I’d recommend it. We bought it from iTunes, and while I understand this is not Apple’s idea, the process of getting the audiobook onto an MP3 CD for my car player was unpleasant. I hate the freaking music industry.
Three movies I want to see soon… Serenity, Mirrormask, and Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I haven’t been to see a movie in a while – no idea if I’ll make it to any of these.
I’ve been offered a ride to VTSFFC Halloween, and heard about another H’ween party in Richmond I’d like to go to, but either way, Rain can’t go because of her work schedule. This bites in great measure. OTOH, Trans-Siberian Orchestra is coming to Newport News in November, and that I might be able to see! There’s something about “Xmas Eve / Sarajevo” that makes me tingle when I hear it for the first time every season… it’s so angry and beautiful at the same time. Elton John’s “Funeral for a Friend” is the same way.
Tried “Second Life” last night. Lousy framerate and poor responsiveness were my first impressions… and this is on a Mac that does WoW quite tolerably. We’ll see if I go back.
More on my mind, but I gotta go to work.
Succumbing to the Shakespeare meme
If you see this on your friends list, add a Shakespeare quote to your own journal.
“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
–From Macbeth (V, v, 19)
My wife hangs out with Victor Davion
(Actually, probably not – they’re associated with rival Houses. But anyway.)
Rain’s now an official part of the Battletech universe, allowed to pilot any medium-weight ‘Mech from the “Age of Destruction” or later. (Yes, that could well mean Hunchbacks some day. *shudder*)
Meet House Kurita MechWarrior Reign O’Broin (time-travel does such terrible things to spelling). Personally, I think she’s a lost Kerensky; but that’s just me.
Crack open the rum
Aye, the sun’s long over the yardarm for her special day, but shiver me timbers, it seems a fine idea to be wishin’ kittykatya a late Happy Birthday on Talk Like A Pirate Day!
I canna give you any more power!
For the past year, the fan in the power supply on my G4 has been making a grinding noise. This week it got loud enough to drive raininva to distraction, so she asked me to please fix it. (Frankly, I was sick of listening to it too.) Replacement Apple power supplies run $130 – $230 on the web, so that was right out. Besides, it was only the fan itself.
I pulled the power supply out, then the fan, and took it to CompUSA. They had a wide variety of fans, but although several were exactly the right size and shape, they had three-pin connectors instead of two-pin, and the amperage ratings were different, which worried me. The technical guy there strongly suggested I just get a new power supply. (Fans are $10, power supplies $40. Hmm.)
Apparently, my G4 can use a standard ATX power supply, but the motherboard connector pinouts are slightly different, and I’d have to splice some wires (and me without a soldering iron or, indeed, much soldering practice). Also, my power supply is 237 watt. I think I can use a 250 safely, but I don’t know that.
On a better note, we played Plague and Pestilence and Dork Tower at Card Night last night, and both games went over well. Dork Tower even came with a free 8-page mini version of Dork FRAG, which means that by taking advantage of the Dragon*Con sale, I got two games for the price of half of one. Not bad!
Soooo tired.
Dragon*Con 2005 report, pt. 5
Monday, 9/5
We got packed quickly on Monday morning. Experienced con-goers all, none of the three of us had packed much or strewn it about. and we were checked out by 10:30 or 11. The Hyatt had started handing out custom Dragon*Con room keys on Friday, and we’d missed those by checking in on Thursday; but they were giving away blank ones Monday morning, so I snagged a couple for Rain and myself.
Final con wandering occurred. On one of her few breaks, Rain dragged me into the Exhibitor’s Hall where she bought my anniversary present (she jokes that WizKids bought it, since the money came from the sale of a bit of her terrifyingly vast Limited Edition figure collection).
The con forced valet parking on us Thursday, so we were glad to be able to fit all our stuff on a single luggage cart for when they brought the car back around. We made it out by 1, grabbed lunch, and hit the road. Thanks to good planning, we were back in the land of less painful gas prices by the time we needed to fill up. (We stopped for gas at Fuel Club. I’d say more, but we all know you do not talk about Fuel Club.)
We listened to all 12 half-hour episodes of the original two Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series in the car on the way back 🙂 I got home at around 11:30pm, was greeted by a loudly indignant cat, and just as in the days before, had not trouble at all dropping swiftly to sleep.
Thus endeth my first Dragon*Con experience. I wanna go again next year.
Dragon*Con 2005 report, pt. 4
Sunday, 9/4
Sunday I decided to finally drag out the only costume I’d packed, my Enterprise uniform. On a whim, I headed to the Dealers’ Room where a booth was selling animal ears, and found a pair of ‘cat ears’ which perfectly matched my head hair. The combination had unexpected results; all day, people decided I was dressed as John Candy from Spaceballs, and I was in too good a mood to correct anyone. I must have been asked to pose 7 or 8 times, so my vanity was well stoked. Costuming felt good. I will be bringing more outfits next time.
I suppose it’s possible that more people saw Spaceballs than ever saw an episode of Enterprise.
Headed to one of Connor Trineer’s panels in hopes of a picture with him, but the line outside the ballroom in question stretched practically into the next hotel. A shame, as he was always my favorite part of Enterprise. I wandered instead into a MSTing of The Empire Strikes Back, which to my great surprise, was hilarious. I’d always assumed you couldn’t MST an actually good film. Another panel with the actors who portray the Weasley twins in the Harry Potter flicks had been cancelled, so I wandered about the con for a while, making most of my actual purchases.
It was either today or the day before that I picked up my favorite bit of loot: a brand-new copy of Fourth Edition Shadowrun, personalized to me by Mike Mulvihill (inventor of Shadowrun) and Jordan Weisman (inventor of FASA and WizKids). My wife rocks, BTW.
The masquerade was broadcast on the hotel TV network, so we opted to watch from the comfort of our room. Some of the costumes were incredible – the three Warhammer 40K Space Marines, painted not realistically but as if painstakingly detailed by a giant with a telephone-pole sized paintbrush, were completely stunning – but believe it or not, Technicon and Rising Star’s masquerades run smoother and more professionally. Honestly! Perhaps at Dragon*Con’s level, it’s just too much to easily handle, but we local con staffs have nothing to be embarrassed about.
EDIT: Oh, and speaking of such, they had one filker, a relatively famous one on the con circuit, cover the kids’ costume judging; and another one cover the main judging. Keith, we have to get you to Dragon*Con. The first guy had fair material, but no singing voice to speak of. The second guy might be useful in extracting information from suspected terrorists. White Plectrum may not be as well known, but honestly – not as a fanboy at all – it’s a better act.
Masquerade over, and the hotels start truly rocking for the last evening of the con. The noise several floors up is quite distinct, and according to people’s photo journals, some of the best hall costumes of the weekend came out. Sadly, your hero is old and tired. I didn’t leave the room after we turned off the TV, and conked out before midnight.
