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.
Surrounded by boxes
On Friday, one of my co-workers walked into the room looking for another of my co-workers. Seeing him at his desk, she said, “Hey Dave, it’s Joan. I have a question for you…”
I thought to myself, “Errr, Dave probably knows it’s you, seeing as you’re standing right here.” Of course, the next thought that flashed through my head: “Harriet Jones – Prime Minister.” “Yes, I know who you are.”
Bummed to have once again missed Rising Star. I had a nice streak of attendance, reaching past the first RS in 1992 to 1982’s RoVaCon 7. It sounds like the convention’s doing incredibly well these days, but I just can’t swing the travel (seven hours one way). Yes, I feel guilty about that. Hope everyone who went had a good time.
I myself am packing up for another move. This has a lot to do with the Stuff Reduction Plan – at least this time, there is noticeably less stuff to pack, and I’m Freecycling / eBaying / giving away even more stuff in the next week or two. Weirdness. Didn’t change living quarters for decades, and now I’m in my fourth move in 5 years.
One foot in front of the other
New favorite bookmark – Gmaps Pedometer. Turns out that the round trip here at work that I’ve been estimating at 1.25 miles is actually 1.11, and I burned ~190 calories making the trip (or most of one 20oz Coke).
I’m really tired of my spare tire. Not only is it forcing me to get rid of perfectly decent clothes, but a couple weeks ago I was winded just coming up a flight of stairs. This is unacceptable! I am now trying to get at least a mile of walking in every day. I think it’s time to try Diet Coke again, as well.
This old convention photo shows how I was built back in the late 80s. Many people these days don’t believe this is a picture of me! I think the hair will stay a memory, and my shoulders are permanently broadened by the crutches, but I’d like my chin back, and the ability to see my belt buckle. I really feel that I can do this.
Hmmm, the pedometer says that walking from my apartment to the nearby dog groomer and back is a mile. Think I’ll be doing that one on weekends.
Trick or Treat!
I was working on a journal post this morning, but my USB 2 expansion card freaked in the middle of that, ruining an iPod update and crashing the computer. So no post.
That’s kinda the tone for the whole month of October. Good things certainly happened, but it’s been pretty rough. My workload’s been amazing – I netted almost 120 hours in one 2-week period. As well, a carefully-arranged Halloween costume failed to materialize; then sickness killed a carefully-planned Halloween party trip.
On the other hand, I was too lazy to put together an interesting outfit for a later party, and wound up just attending in my Enterprise uniform… winning First Place (Men’s), to my surprise!
I’m really bummed about missing Rising Star this year. It sounds like they’re gonna have some fun! But we’ve dropped $700 on car repairs this month, and holiday gift-giving’s on the way, so we have to watch the budget like a hawk. (Here’s hoping I don’t have to replace that PCI card.)
Questionable Content – one of my favorite webcomics, and worth reading through from the beginning – is selling a t-shirt which proclaims, “She Blinded Me With Library Science!” which keeps bringing to mind a certain Yeager crew member.
I did in fact begin NaNoWriMo this week. I have no expectation of finishing in time – the demands on my time are manifest right now – but I’m starting it anyway. This is the closest my head has been in years to having a complete plot and interesting characters lined up, and I’m not giving up now. I may even get around to reposting my WARS stories to elfie, just for my own inspiration.
Taverncast – a WoW podcast – did a Halloween episode called “War of the Murlocs” this year. Despite the fact that I listened to it during the day at work, am closely familiar with the old Orson Welles broadcast, and caught many of the in-jokes, they still managed to creep me out a tiny bit. Maybe it’s my overactive imagination: judge for yourself at war-of-the-murlocs.mp3 if you like. I’ll be having fish for dinner tonight as my own strike back against the slimy rampagers.
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.
Good quote
I wish I’d seen this one in time for trenn to make me a button of it for Rising Star:
“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.” -Herm Albright
I am a Hero
The moon demons showed up last night and tried to turn the moon into caramel candy. But I played loud techno music at them and it disrupted their spells and chased them off.
For the first time, Rising Star was an out-of-town con for me! Thanks shrewlet for crash space. I have to say that the con seemed to go swimmingly from my perspective – every attendee seemed to have a good time, and no staff member melted down in my presence. Nicely done, rattrap! Next year I’ll bring more and cooler Decipher stuff.
I had fun in nius‘ skit, though watching the video yesterday, I was struck with a sense of “Did I really do that?” Hey – it got a laugh. Wonderful thing, stage buzz.
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.
A major Thank You
I plan to post about Rising Star shortly, I really do. One of the first things I’ve noticed is that rubinpdf thinks raininva is much more photogenic than I am. Guess I can’t fault him for that. 🙂
In the mean time, the purpose of this post is to thank tzel for the absolutely incredible Masquerade prize she made for us, and on very little notice, as well. I can confirm that it was already being put to good use before the evening was done – rainbowsaber was using it to take of her Zannah makeup in the staff suite! Thank you tnhank you so much, wonderful job! Now we just have to get some money to you!
Uuuurgh
Finally woke up about 10:30 this morning… bad enough, except I’d already been at work for 2 hours by that time. I slept very badly Saturday and Sunday nights; considering that I was very busy both days, that means that by yesterday afternoon, I was pretty dead. The dreams have been many and interesting, as well; one of Sunday’s involved, myself, raininva, jdunson, and other local fen being chased from Hogwarts by bad guys. Eventually, when they couldn’t find us in the room in which we’d holed up, they just stole the whole room.
One good thing happened to me on Sunday; I reluctantly entered November’s first MechWarrior: Dark Age sanctioned scenario, and walked off with second prize. (Rain and I were supposed to compete for first and second, but I got hit with a clue round, and offered her first place before we began, thus saving a lot of useless bloodshed. *grin*)
Rising Star 11 starts in three days. Am I ready? (Insert maniacal laughter here…)
