Nowhere Man
This shouldn’t be considered an opinion on Michael Jackson’s guilt or moral character; I just think it would be a sweet irony if he went broke defending himself and had to sell his song catalogue to Paul and Yoko.
On a loopy Tuesday
I remember all the summers I spend, back in my school days, sitting around the house and reading because I had no friends to go anywhere or do anything with. Today, for the third time in the last few days, I’ve been invited to something I can’t do because I have a prior social commitment. My modern social life is an improvement over sitting around, but I sure hate to miss some of these parties.
Thought of meiran Friday night – we were in Best Buy (I was checking out the shiny new Macintosh retail goodness) and I saw an English version of the “Read or Die” anime in the DVD section. Might have to rent that eventually.
So: 1) I picked up some virus or something which knocked me flat on Thursday… 2) was still feeling kinda sick Friday, but went out in the evening with raininva and enjoyed her company… 3) still had a cough and some weakness Saturday, but we drove down to South Carolina to see some friends, and stayed up all night gaming… 4) still coughing and a little off Sunday, but I walked all over an amusement park in 90 degree weather and 95% humidity, and rode a few rides – then got drenched to the skin by a sudden downpour, and stayed up late attending a Weird Al concert… 5) got up way too early Monday to drive 5 hours from S.C. right into work… 6) got up way too early this morning to drop Rain off for work, then headed in for my weekly 13-hour shift. This all adds up to 7) if I can still stand up by the time I get home tonight, it will be a minor miracle.
Some would call this lunch… I call it a temporary cease-fire
Things I like about being the only one in the office:
* I can look at any web page I want providing I remember to clear my history and caches when I leave 🙂
* I can do really stupid chair dances when iTunes is playing techno and nobody can look at me strange.
Things I dislike:
* The phone rings every 5 minutes, and I usually have to answer with “They’re not here right now” or “I can’t give you a price on that, may I take a message for one of our sales reps?”
* I can’t get anything else done because of the above. It has taken me over an hour to finish this single LJ entry, and I’m only managing that because I’m waiting for a PDF file to finish generating.
* I have to lock the front door and put up a “Back Shortly” sign just to use the men’s room.
Thanks to everyone who read my first poll, and voted. For everyone who picked choice #3, I want you to know that I really truly feel the love, and it takes one to know one. :p Discounting choice three, the top pick was “An appreciation of women in panties is a natural form of sexual expression, thankyouverymuch” which gives me hope for the future of this society. And I’m glad someone had the nerve to pick choice #6.
My tastes for background music have been sliding farther away from rock and pop, and more towards techno and dance. I think it’s ’cause my brain needs the endorphins these days. I’ve been trying to listen to some house music, but every time I play a house track, I keep feeling like it’s the world’s longest intro to an actual song (which never starts). I did surprise one of the salespeople yesterday… she heard “Popcorn” playing on my speakers, and named three other 70’s pop/rock instrumentals she used to like. I had them all and played them for her. 🙂
That’s it for now…
Technicon prep underway
Gonna be a busy night tonight and tomorrow night – lots to do before Technicon. Last night, raininva and I assigned stats to all the Badge Wars characters, so progress is being made on that front.
- Run more laundry tonight.
- Rain and I need to make sure that the BattleBots are ready and that we have good batteries for them.
- Burn a CD for Dwight (with the dance cuts he wanted).
- Contact trenn to see if he has duplicates of the last two XXXenophile cards I need for a complete set. Offer trades.
- Build actual badges for all Badge Wars characters and enter assigned stats.
- Design Badge Wars rules cards.
- Rebuild my Junkyard Geeks video-capture system to get badge photos for several characters. Still not sure what I’m going to do for art for a few characters such as The Vile One.
That’s everything I can think of off the top of my head, though I’m sure there’s more.
“The Mighty Stephen Hawking is a Freaking’ Quake Master!”
Got my snickering in for the evening:
“So many people know of Stephen Hawking’s contributions to science, but so few of his career as a rap artist and his l33t skillz as a Quake player. Now, we can learn the truth, at E=MC Hawking’s music site!”
Actually, a decent tune… not for the tender of ear. Probably says something about my sense of humor that I find that track so funny.
Two Warps to Neptune
The classical station at Virginia Tech is playing Halloween-themed music this morning (though they are stretching the definition in places). Unsurprisingly, they played “Tocatta and Fugue in Dm”… but do I free-associate anything involving Halloween? No, not me. I immediately start thinking of Gyruss.
Mmm… think I need to fire up MacMAME when I get home… play some nice emulated old-school games. “Red Five, standing by!”
They just played Madonna’s “Vogue” on the radio, and I had a flashback to a VTSFFC party where we all tried to Vogue, but we just couldn’t manage it, so we fell back on something we were familiar with. We all started summoning Zords instead.
“Power Ranger Vogueing,” while odd-looking, doesn’t look any odder than actual Vogueing.
Very Personal Stuff
Well, we all have a face, that we hide away forever
And we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone
Some are satin, some are steel, some are silk, and some are leather
They’re the faces of the stranger, but we love to try them on
— Billy Joel, “The Stranger”
So often, I want to bring my stranger out into the open, and just openly be that facet of myself. I repress him and keep him locked away, but he won’t stay there, and I can always feel him rattling the bars of his cage. Sometimes, he gets loose for a bit and expresses himself – in fact most of my self-expression comes from my stranger.
I dream of just breaking the lock, showing everyone I care about my bare naked self, and being free of the pressure. In my fantasy, this makes everything in my life okay, and we all live happily ever after. I rather doubt that reality would work that way.
Over the years, thanks to my friends and the semi-anonymous means of expression that is the Web, I’ve been able to let the stranger roam farther and for longer periods of time before he’s locked away again, and I’m thankful for that. Half a loaf really is better than none, and I can accept him a little easier than I once could. Rain, of course, has had a great deal to do with this.
My stranger is, of course, mainly responsible for this post. It make my heart race and my body tense simply to write these words, but I hope he’ll be satisfied for a while.
Found a streaming server for Japanese anime music and j-pop… http://japanaradio.com/. Listened to it this morning while getting dressed – it was nice background music. I would listen to it here at work to annoy everyone, but our ISDN connection isn’t fast enough. Besides, the only other person who will be here today is my coworker Adam, who wouldn’t be annoyed by it at all – and how much fun is that?
As near as I can tell, the only game shop in Roanoke that has available stock of Mechwarrior: Dark Age is a little place called “Ground Zero” that doesn’t even have a phone. We got our figures, though… but then Rain had to stay at work until 10pm ’cause of a stupid virus outbreak on their machines. We’re not even sure what time she’ll be home tonight. So no playtesting. 🙁 The figures are nice looking, and we got a Unique Hatchetman and an Elite Centurion in our first boxes. (For those not familiar with the game, those are two of the most playable mechs in the original Battletech.)
Gonna be hot and sticky again today 🙁
The latest bill that Hollywood is pushing through Congress would, if they suspect you of piracy, allow them to hack your system, disable your file sharing, and delete things they don’t like.
Oh, and if they delete the wrong stuff or break something else on your machine, you probably can’t sue.
So, I’m thinking that next time Hollywood lobbyists do something I don’t like, I should have the right to break into their house and smash stuff up for a while. Seems only fair.
