The Last Days of Technicon 25
My Sunday Technicon experience was brief and poignant. Reluctantly awake by 10:00, and out of the Microtel by 11:00, I headed back to McBryde for a final time.
My plan was to leave Blacksburg by 1:00, thereby getting home around 6:30-7:00 and having time for dinner and decompression, so my time was brief and rushed. I got to catch up briefly with nanoreid, had my picture taken with ranchonmars‘ Skull plush, and won an awesome Thunderchild print from rattrap. (It’s based on a plastic model I designed and we built many years ago.)
I finally had a few seconds to stop into Spiel, where I talked to jsciv for the only time during actual con hours. Touched base with rubinpdf, too; I hear ashoemaker was there, but I didn’t see him, though I did see markush on the way out. Since auction pickup hadn’t yet started, shrewlet offered to collect the print for me so that I could get on the road, and as I left the auditorium where the auctions were held, it seemed like half the con called out goodbyes. Just a little tiny bit verklempt, I was.
I drove home on 460 rather than battle the interstates; I got a far more peaceful drive for my trouble. Faint rain misted my windshield most of the way back, but posed no driving hazard, though I more than once encountered the damned “I refuse to be passed by a Hyundai, even if I was 15 miles under the speed limit!” attitude. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I was so bushed that I sat a couple inches lower in the car seat, making the hood seem to disappear behind the dash.
Finally, I made it home. Starr and Midori were most pleased to see me. I presented Starr with the custom art I commissioned from rainbowsaber, and heard happy squees for the rest of the evening.
Sleep came upon me with no trouble at all, that night; and thus endeth the story of a happy Technicon. I’m already looking forward to next year’s: Jerry’s a good man who knows a thing or two about making a con happen, and I’m already tagged to do my shtick again. And this time, I’m bringing Starr!
(Say, who’s FanGOH for 26? And who’s got pics online?)
Molten Muppet Pollen Prediction
See, this is how you “rickroll” someone. Rather than just posting random stupid misdirected link, post YouTube video claiming to be Muppet bloopers which even a savvy person will want to click just in case; then, play skillfully re-edited video of Beaker and the Electric Mayhem singing “Never Gonna Give You Up”.
The funny thing about Blizzard’s “Molten Core” joke is that you can still find people writing games for the Atari 2600, though they’re almost always played on emulators. It’s quite the programming challenge to get a fun game tucked into less storage space than my LJ user icon requires.
Two days of warm weather have produced an explosion of plant sex here. My car’s turned an unhealthy yellow-green, the streets have pale stains, and there are drifts of powdered lemonade in the gutters. We’ll see if I can breathe by the end of the day!
This weekend, I found out what the “Age of Aquarius” actually means. The Earth’s axis wobbles a tiny bit (but does not fall down). Some astrologers define a “Great Year” as the time it takes the axis to perform a complete wobble, approximately 26,000 years. A Great Year is divided into 12 Ages. Astrology being the exact science that it is, the Age of Aquarius is to begin sometime between 2062 and 2680. Or maybe it began in 2000, though any way it’s supposed to take a while to get up to speed. But now I know! (Yeah, I like that song. It’s happy.)
Gonna try to finish Technicon posts today.
Stellar Hospital
After two weeks of “we can’t really find anything wrong,” Starr’s cardiologist read her 130 bpm pulse, her 90/60 blood pressure, and her severe anemia, and said, “Okay, we’re admitting you.” This is actually something of a relief, as both of us want this fixed, whatever it is. The leading theory is still that it’s a bug which has dehydrated her to this point – the nurses last night had a heck of a time getting an IV needle into any of her veins. I went to see her last night, and will go again today. Right now, we’re hoping that she might get out by Monday, though I rather suspect that her hopes for getting back to work on Monday are a bit optimistic.
More rain this morning, including some of that weird rolling rumbling thunder we get so close to the water. On the other hand, it’s 70 degrees again.
Time to pull myself together and start the errands of the day.
Anyone for a swim?
Bad night last night to leave your car windows open.
The wind was so violent that you frequently couldn’t hear the thunder. The rain lashed the roof of my apartment building so heavily that it woke up more than once, and Midori, unsurprisingly, stayed pretty close the whole evening. (She didn’t like it either that Starr was spending a night with her mom last night.) I peeked out the front of the building during a laundry run to see visible waves and sheets in the torrent. The fresh mulch that the groundskeepers had spread Monday was all over the sidewalk and parking lot this morning.
It was the sort of night where I was utterly grateful for 21st-century shelter. It was also a good night to finish two more levels of my “yes I will beat the Terran Starcraft missions before Starcraft II comes out” campaign. I started fresh a few days ago, to get back into the rhythms, and I won Mission 8 last night – two more to go. The funny things is that I have a strategy guide, but always end up doing it my own way. This is, by the way, part of the awesomeness of Starcraft – it can support multiple play styles.
The sky is crystal clear this morning. Shame we’re losing those soothing high-60s temperatures.
Frankie Say Relax
The other day it was cold enough for me to wear my Fourth Doctor scarf to work. This morning it’s so warm I didn’t really need a jacket, and there are mightily-confused birds singing in the trees.
Elfie.org seems to have been down since yesterday. How am I supposed to see all your comments of love and adoration without my e-mail? Sob. Weep.
I was unsettled and short-tempered all weekend, and I’m not really sure why. Was it a late bout of S.A.D.? Have I been obsessing too much about my sundry responsibilities? Or was it just my time of the month? Not sure, but I’m done with it, and I’m determined that this week is going to be a week where I get things done and yet enjoy myself.
And I’m-a gonna crack this Writer’s Block I’ve been having right down the middle, yes sirree.
Tweets for Today
- 08:12 “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” on NPR may be lightweight comedy, but it’s funnier than morning DJs. #
- 10:09 Walking across two parking lots in 25 degree weather is enough to make the hip start hurting. #
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Tweets for Today
- 08:32 New pantz fit well. Thank goodness. #
- 10:36 We’re back to being busy again here on the base. I’m strangely relieved. #
- 11:28 I’ve just realized that my opinion on fictional ‘canon’ has completely changed since I was a teenage fan. #
- 12:31 Flurries! #
- 21:33 Someone today tried to insist that there were a billion people in Times Square on NYE. I smiled politely and moved on. #
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Tweets for Today
- 09:02 @snidegrrl: great job acing that final – woo! #
- 09:03 Humid and warm this morning. Will be claening the apt. tonight, but got TSO tickets tomorrow! #
- 14:26 I am indoors. It is 75 degrees outside right now. Why am I indoors? #
- 17:46 Thought my concert tickets had gone missing. Just found them again. BIG sigh of relief. #
- 23:11 Just watched Science Channel video of people doing repairs on the Empire State Building’s spire. Vertigo- and nausea-inducing. #
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Freedom of the Knees
I wonder if there’s a chance in hell I could get away with wearing my kilt to work next Spring.
Don’t know why I’m thinking about that now – it was 55 degrees Fahrenheit and foggy this morning. Of course, that’s good bracing Highland weather, so maybe was the cause.
I like my kilt. It’s comfortable. I don’t think I’d go Regimental at my workplace, despite jameshroberts‘ insistence at yubbie and colleenk‘s wedding that “If you wear underwear with it, it’s a skirt;” to which my retort was, “well, I have a little experience in those matters too” (cf. the Technicon 2007 Dance for example).
I probably just haven’t awakened yet. Ah, well. Back to work.
Narcis II: The Wrath of Sassoon
Okay, I admit defeat. I had fun growing my hair out all year, but as the weather cooled it started to bug me. The wind was blowing it in my face, it got matted under hoods and caps, and was always on the wrong side of my collars.
So, without fanfare, I went and got a haircut on Saturday. What do I look like now? Somewhere between the 2003 pic in this previous entry, and the usericon on this current one.
Reactions? Everyone thinks it’s a huge improvement, including the folks who said the long hair looked good. My cubicle-mate says I look like a choirboy now.
I’m not saying I’ll never grow it out again (and style it better if I do) but, for now, the short hair is back. And I must confess, it does save showering time in the mornings.
