For I Toss And Turn, Can’t Sleep At Night
Oh, wow. Bet you haven’t heard 1981’s “Tainted Love” covered in quite this manner…
I’m hitting iTunes – if this guy has an album, I want it. If only he’d cover “Girls On Film”…
The Hunt for Red Hyundai
The first folks I asked for transport to Roanoke had other commitments, and that’s completely understandable: this all happened on pretty short notice. I was getting a little panicky about finding someone.
Then, by the sheerest coincidence, I was talking to a friend on Thursday night who’s a woodworker. He had an appointment in Staunton on Friday, and casually volunteered to drive me the rest of the way down I-81. I couldn’t say no! The trip turned into quite the adventure, as his delivery truck has no stereo, no AC, windows which must be wrestled into place by hand, and (it turned out) a bad left turn signal. But, while the whole excursion was draining, the conversation was great. I have no complaints.
Thanks to missed connections and three separate car-accident highway backups, the trip took nine hours, and I reached Mom’s place around 11 or so. We chatted briefly, but I had to beg off because my energy levels were almost non-existent. When I came back in the morning, we talked for quite a while, and I fixed her air conditioning set up, the new shower sprayer, and her computer’s Internet connection. When it came time to leave, I took her red Hyundai back to Chesapeake as promised. The five-hour drive on Rt. 460 stayed pleasant, and I got home in time to surprise Starr with a scallop dinner after her workday.
Today, I have done nothing useful. I am exhausted, and the house needs a lot of work still, but I have managed little. I will need to make up for it this week. And now to whine about something trivial: today, the ‘not-Easter’ celebration starts in WoW, and it begins with a ‘not-Easter’ Egg hunt. This is a lovely idea, except there’s some nice rewards for collecting large numbers of eggs, and you can’t get to any of the places where they appear; the micro-second an egg spawns, someone else has already clicked on it, and it fades right back out. People are ‘camped’ at all the spawning points, collecting eggs. Perhaps they’ll get bored, or finish, and I’ll have the chance to pick up a few after work later this week. 🙁
Car and house and car
Okay, quick recap of the last ten days: Starr’s doing really well. She’s had to do a lot more physical labor than someone who’d just left the hospital should, but since I was working my butt off as well, I really couldn’t relieve her of the necessity.
The rest of our stuff is out of the storage unit and in the house, and 95% of Starr’s parents’ stuff is out of the house. There’s an epic tale right there, but I’ll just say that this is why she and I are still physically exhausted. The house is a wreck, but we’re working on that a bit at a time.
The insurance company paid off the car loan on the PT Cruiser, but won’t provide for a new vehicle. Of course, we’re still trying to buy a house, and extra funds are non-existent. So, my mom has generously offered to loan Starr her car for a while, which is a perfect solution; if I can pick up the vehicle this weekend, she won’t miss a day of work. Only problem: the car’s in Roanoke. I’m going to need to plead with someone to come up with me and drive one of the cars back. I haven’t figured out who to ask, yet.
I’ve been a little forgetful recently. I think my brain’s overloaded. Have to come up with a workaround for that.
No More Collisions!
How I Spent My Saturday Night (or, another of many reasons I’m behind on much correspondence)
I dedicated my afternoon to the kitchen and living room, as I’d promised – got them looking pretty good, too. Around 7:30, Starr called to let me know she was on her way home, so I started dinner (boxed stroganoff).
Just before 8, my cell lit up with an unknown number, but I went ahead and picked up. It was Starr – she was calling with a borrowed cell phone from the scene of the car accident she’d just been in. I later found out that someone else had apparently missed a turn; and in confusion occupied the middle lane of a 60 MPH highway, doing about 20. Starr came out from behind another vehicle that was spewing smoke (oil leak perhaps?), saw brake lights, and did her best to stop in time.
All her windows shattered, and the airbag fired. The accident totaled her PT Cruiser’s front end, doing an estimated $8,000 in damage. Starr’s seatbelt and airbag did their jobs, and we later discovered that her greatest injuries were bruising from the restraints. A passerby unjammed her door and helped her from her car, and medical professional that she is, she quickly went to assess the other driver for injuries (no serious issues there either).
I abandoned dinner to spoil, issued a quick Twitter note to the world, and jumped right into the car. I didn’t speed – I mean, how stupid would a car wreck on my part have been right then? – but I somehow reached the hospital before Starr. A number of people replied with support on Twitter, Facebook, and email, and I would later find many phone messages after I left the hospital’s signal interference. Thank you all so much! One of the first things I did was pass along everyone’s messages, and they boosted morale for us both! (Thank you, jsciv, for the “Creeps” recommendation: Starr played that until we nearly killed the phone battery!)
Several X-Rays and five hours later, they decided that Starr was merely bruised, and sent us home. We’ve spent much of today trying to recover from adrenaline overdose and poor sleep. We already have some lines of attack with securing a replacement vehicle. The funny thing is that today’s a happy day for us. First of all, Starr literally walked away from a full-speed highway crash. Second of all, we’ve had our friends pouring out love to us all night and day; how could we be grumpy?
Thank you all!
Starfleet Vice – 1990
The RoVaCon 15 Starfleet Vice video, as threatened promised…
So, I’ll explain a little of what’s going on. I’m in the wheelchair because I’d been in a life-threatening car accident only weeks ago, but I was too stubborn to miss the con. Heather and Valerie are dressed in costumes from the anime Dirty Pair. Mike Allen represented KODRA, a ruthless Klingon-Orion terrorist organistion out to rule the Alpha Quadrant; while Markus… well, he had a lab coat, so we worked that in. And of course, Tom, Mike, and Beth were solely there to support our blatant swipe of Monty Python material.
I don’t remember the name of the dude working the camera… but he really liked the anime costumes.
More edumacation
Wall-of-text post is finally up (behind the lifestyle filter) about my Saturday night panels. That was a bumpy ride, to be sure. But we had sandwiches!
Looks like the chances are good to be doing my schtick at MarsCon 2010 and SheVaCon 2010. I think I’m almost relieved that the NekoCon audience is probably far too jaded for such a thing.
A Fanatical Devotion to Admiral Maddox
Speaking of cons, tonight Starr and I were doing just that (speaking of them, that is). Thomas Atkinson friended me back on Facebook today, and when I told Starr that I had an old costume skit of his on VHS, she begged me to dig it up.
That tape, dating from RoVaCon 15 back in 1990, also contains one of the most elaborate Starfleet Vice skits we ever did. The performers for this installment included myself as officer Stubble, Heather McLaughlin and Valerie Brugh as “Dirty Pair” Kei and Yuri, time_shark as a KODRA Dreadlok, markush as Doctor Whizbang, Tom Monaghan as officer Paisley, Mike Layne as officer Harold, and Beth Lipes as officer Ruth. The camera operator for the con spent most of the skit focusing on the skimpy anime costumes Heather and Valerie wore.
Many of the jokes are esoteric, but some of them are still fairly funny outside of the late-80s Starfleet context. This little performance would be a good candidate for my first test of the new video-to-computer setup, right? I think we all want to see this posted.
Starr says I’m much better looking now than I was when I was nineteen. Any doubts as to why I’m in love with her?
Shiny!
The observant reader of this journal may have noticed that I didn’t mention exactly what outfits I wore as my hall costume or Costume Call garb. There’s a reason, and I think pictures are worth quite a few words, to begin with. So, my Technicon 26 hall costume and evening costumes:
It’s my take on the current ‘steampunk’ craze, in lace and black vinyl; and the anime character “Sailor Mars” in PVC fabric as well. I’ve actually had the second outfit for a while, but only found the nerve to wear it at the Technicon final blowout.
So I trust you to see these, as the folks at Technicon did, and understand that this is just a geek having some fun. These pictures are of a nerd who kept himself repressed and emotionally shut down for decades, and is making up for it now by going a little harmlessly wild, and collecting smiles and a few seriously startled looks in the process.
Unfortunately, I can’t trust everyone out there to understand these things. Call me a freak with a grin on your face, and I’ll laugh along with you, but say so with fear or anger in your eyes, and we’re going to have a problem. This is my LJ, and I like it that way. If anyone’s going to put that much effort into finding pictures of me in a dress, let ’em.
I had loads of fun over the weekend. My friends in fandom are some of the most awesome people I ever met: for all of Saturday and well into Sunday I was met with pleased laughter, friendly teasing, not a few admiring remarks, and jokes about who really ought to be bidding on the silk stockings in the White Elephant auction. I live for all of that, and the fen at Technicon were remarkably obliging.
As the years pass, I know more and more friends who are afraid society will punish them for being the perfectly decent, if offbeat, people they feel they are inside. My lifestyle panels and my costume choices comprise my own little rebellion against this prejudice. I love the folks in fandom who offer me the chance to misbehave.
Thanks again, guys. I hope to be amusing and mildly disturbing you at many events to come!
Turning Out the Lights
I’m staying up too long again tonight, but I really want to write down my weekend impressions while they are fresh.
The clock read quarter-to-eleven before I could drag my carcass out of bed, which meant that Closing Ceremonies were only three hours away. No panels, no costuming, just time spent with friends today. I wandered the halls, trading hugs and saying hellos and goodbyes, until noon when the con auctions were to begin. My interest this year remained solely academic, as I’d vowed to spend no money at the con: the budget this spring wouldn’t support it.
The White Elephant auction at 1:00 contained many fascinating items, including Shadowrun gaming materials that almost tempted me. (I looked carefully, finding none of the books that my group has specifically mentioned searching for.) Soon enough, though, the Closing Ceremonies began, dragging on for almost three hours before everyone could tear themselves away. I joined jsciv and candidevoltaire for an evening of gaming that lasted until 11 with a dinner break; we played the new Battlestar Galactica board game for two hours, and I judged it worth playing but not one I’ll be purchasing soon, if for no other reason that it plays best with exactly five players. Now, I’m back in my hotel room, bleary and typing away.
Was the con a success? Indeed so, from my perspective. Rumor has it that attendance numbers reached average Technicon levels, which must be a good thing. I had a lovely time, as did anyone else I got to ask. Should there be one next year? I’m not as sure. I think this must be the last Technicon in its current form: future versions with or without the same name will need much new blood, and perhaps new ways of doing things, to attract college students jaded by DVD players and online gaming. I’ll always be available for the panels and performances I’m good at, but I have no interest in a strenuous staff position, and I doubt many other of the con’s veterans do either anymore.
I’d like there to be another T-Con; but I feel that forcing the issue would cause more harm than good. I’m comfortable biding my time and letting things take their natural course. And until I learn what that course is, staff members of SheVaCon expressed strong interest in having me present my late-night insanity at their event, which will give me something to do while waiting for Technicon 27 or Technicon Next Generation #1.
