The Other Blog

I'm not sure where to begin with things, so I'll fill in a few fun facts first, and then move to the exciting stuff. :-)

First, as some of you already know, my wife Jinny and I along with an investor and our friend Chris, opened a coffee shop and computer gaming center called Roxx Coffeehouse and Games. ( www.roxx.biz/forums). This has consumed our lives to the extent that we didn't even make it to Marcon this past May. Which is huge, because not even having a newborn and being broke stopped us from day-tripping back in '03. The store is beginning to take off, now, and heading into winter, we are getting a LOT more coffee sales. Without the help of good friends of ours, we wouldn't have made it to OVFF either. So hugs and thank yous to ladysoapmaker and her husband for putting us up in a room (putting up with us in their room? *grin*)!

OVFF keeps transcending itself. Every year, you think it can't possibly get any better... and then you attend the following year, and it is. For me, the biggest thing at the con was the Pegasus Nominees concert on Friday night. I got to go last, alphabetically. This gave me enough time to really think a lot about getting up in front of 200+  people and singing, when in fact I hadn't performed publicly since last year at about this time. No worries. Lots of adrenalin. And for once, I think I actually performed up my own expectations.

As it turns out, I was up to everyone elses also, cause I won a Pegasus.

I won.

A Pegasus.

It felt like getting hit between the eyes with a big rubber mallet made of Awesome. I have never experienced the kind of energy thrown at me when I went up to get it.... it was nearly overwhelming. Part of me still can't quite get over it. I had let my hopes peek out of their box in years past, but I have absolutely NO problems with the nominees that won those years, over me. :-) Songs like "The Lady" and "Velvet" and  "Rocket Ride" were written and performed by some of the best people filk has to offer. I am honored and proud that Uplift was voted into that august circle.

I've said it before, and I will repeat it here:  THANK YOU to everyone who's performed it conventions that I couldn't attend. THANK YOU to anyone who's passed along lyrics or copied an MP3 of it to a friend, who then learned it and did their version of it... in another country. THANK YOU to Tom Smith (and anyone else) who was actively promoting it... I can't think of a stronger endorsement than that. Hugs to everyone who made this my best OVFF ever.

Whew. Today is back to walking the hard path for me, running my own business. Lots of planning to do for our Halloween party, gaming events, and publicity stunts like having lightsaber duels at 6:30am in our parking lot to attract coffee business. :-) 
 

Friday evening, Jinny Chris and I went to a political rally for Barak Obabma in Music Hall in downtown Cincinnati.  Himself was not the guest star that evening, but his wife Michelle was, and she is at least as intelligent and well-spoken, if not as polished as her husband. I must admit, this was the first time in my life I felt compelled to actually take part in politics. I've lived most of my life watching with vague disinterest the political rallies and presidential elections (up until the last one) and slouched along under my black Gen-X veil of cynicism.

But something fundamental changed for me in 2004. I had more than my own vague Liberal/Libertarian rants to think about....  I had a son who I assumed would have a bright future...  and I watched as greedy, opportunistic criminals hijacked my government in the name of Fear. I found myself squawking almost daily at the news of what was happening... illegal, immoral and ruinously expensive. What's worse, I watched my friends, parents and some co-workers voting for them as well, for what looked like vague and uninformed reasons. I was shocked that they still seemed to think this was just the usual Washington shennanigans, or worse, watched FOX news on a daily basis.

So I decided to try to step up, DO something about it before Darth Cheney and the Chimp-in-Chief succeeded in turning our nominally free country into a police state. I gave up a date night with Jinny and we both accompanied our housemate Chris to the rally.

Ok, after all that, I'm sure everyone thinks this pretty lame, by activist standards. Somewhat like proclaiming: "...and so after I found out that he had stolen millions, murdered his three children and defecated on the front lawn, I wrote a firmly worded email!". For me, it's a start, and I feel a good one. No, I didn't chant along with the slogans, but I clapped and even let loose with a few "Woohoo!"'s. I found myself nodding along with Michelle as she pretty much reiterated (in polite public speech) nearly every point I had made in 2 years of ranting to my wife or anyone else who would listen, even at the brick wall of my parents' staunch Republican fortress.

The other really stunning thing was that over 1500 people showed up with less than 2 days notice, and they had to turn 300-400 away. On a Friday night, in the cold, with expensive ($7 for 2 hours!?) parking. In Cincinnati, known to be the most Republican city in the state! And we're talking the most homogeneous crowd this white suburban guy has ever seen. The crowd was only about 1/3 african-american. There were young college students, older businessmen in expensive wool overcoats, 30-something white couples with kids, black women who probably attend the local Baptist Church o'Gawd... Obama's fanbase is huge, diverse  and growing.

And now, following his recent spate of wins and the growing popularity of his candidacy, the Murdoch-owned media leans against him with all it's stinky 800 pounds of simian bulk. See, after trying REALLY hard to discredit Obama via the usual channels, it's resorting to calling his political movement a "cult". It would be laughable, if it wasn't so vicious. And if I wasn't so afraid that this argument will sway some weaker-minded component of the "undecided" voters.

To end with a light note, though, we three who attended were on screen on the evening news (local channel 5). watch the video on the link, me and Jinny and Chris are in a shot right after Michelle Obama talks about schools.

http://www.wlwt.com/video/15317537/index.html

Thanks for listening!

The Good, the Bad and the Sniffly

In the interest of not elating or depressing everyone overmuch, I will
interleave the Good and the Bad, and throw the Sniffly in the middle.


Good is John's vocabulary is at a point now where he's attmepting to say things
in differnt ways using different words. Like at bathtime, he'll say "I wanna
bath" and then "Go in the bath." and then "I'm in the bath."(once he is). Maybe
I'm reading too much into it, but I'll be darned if that's not what it sounds
like. :-) He's growing like the national debt, too.... 4 inches in 5 months!

The bad... well... While we did take possesion of the Chevy Blazer my dad
procured for us, it was offset by the fact that our little Toyota's alternator
went out halfway between Cinci and Columbus, when I was on my way up to visit
Becky last week. It was gonna be fun; she had a guest pass lined up for me at
their health club. I don't often have the odd combination of Time and Money
required to make those kind of weekday trips, so along with a $260 car repair, I
missed out on spending the day splashing around in a pool, sharing a hot tub and
relaxing and talking geeky stuff with cute redhead. *pout*. Toyota Corolla, thy
name is betrayer!

Good is the fact that I have almost 40 hours this week at work, instead of my
usual 15, cause the boss is on the annual EBGames-Let's-Get-Drunk-In-Florida
meeting for managers, as he puts it. This means I need to fill in for him, and
thusly rake in a big ol' gob of cash coming on the paycheck before OVFF. Woo!

Also good is the fact that I found out through the assistant manager at EBGames
that Paul the Manager seems to like me, and that once the Asst. Mgr is out of
school (next summer) there will be a position open. He said if I keep doing a
good job like I have been, Paul would likely promote me. Yee! It would be the
first job I've ever had which had me in mind for a promotion. Ever. Next summer
isn't so far away...

There are a few other small cool things about EBGames, too. Discounts on games,
for one. Free promos, for another. I got me a spiffy t-shirt, with the new
"Vampire: Bloodlines" logo. For those interested, it uses the same graphics
engine as the upcoming Half-Life 2, which is why it's cool. :-)

Another bad: Half the people in this house are sick, as are my close relatives.
My Mom, sister, her husband and daughter are sick with fevers and coughing. Pat
is currently in the hospital for pneumonia, John is staggering around with a
stuffy nose and a mild ear infection (and having grown up with them constantly,
I wouldn't wish even a mild earache on my worst enemy), and our housemate Chris
shuffles around groaning like a zombie... when he's not sleeping for 14 hours at
a stretch. To my own growing astonishment, I have yet to contract this plague,
and neither has Jinny. Now, I expect this from my wife, who has a Constitution
score in the high double digits. Myself, I get sick if I look at a picture of
someone looking through a microscope at a germ. *shrug*

Good: Last week, we saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow on opening night.
I'd say about 1/2 the audience "got it", the rest left thinking it was stupid. I
got it. Sky Captain is a love letter to anyone who likes old B&W adventure
flicks. I've seen enough of them, over the years, to let me appreciate what the
movie was trying to recapture, and it not only recaptured, it bred in captivity
and released it into the wild. They pull EVERYthing in... Giant Iron Robots with
Death Rays, Cool Experimental Airplanes, Lost World Monsters, Huge Rockets to
Space, Jet Packs, Flying Dirigible Airfields. If it graced the cover of Popular
Science or Amazing magazing between 1930 and 1950, it was in the movie, and
beautifully rendered. The female leads were Spunky, the male lead was Dashing
and Brave, and wore a leather flight jacket most of the movie, the Evil Villain
had a secret island hideaway.... All the tropes and then some. And it WORKED!
I should add something here about my family... They are all mostly 'danes. Nice
people, and I love them, those on my mom's side especially... but the only other
True Fan in the family, for 4 generations, was my Grandfather on my mom's side,
who shares a middle name with my son. I miss him terribly at moments like this,
remembering that he grew up reading this stuff, and would have been sheerly
delighted by this movie. Right now, I'm the only person left in this bloodline
who got the "fannish gene" in enough quantity to truly apprecite just how
magical Sky Captain truly is. Go see it. Go see it with an older fan, if you
know any. We need more of this stuff on the big screen!

The final Bad: Interpersonal issues between Jinny and Chris. I have tried to be
equivocal and non-judgemental in the past year and a half, but there are some
lingering issues which keep popping up, and we need to have a Talk with him
about them. Even Ron has noticed these issues, *has* been noticing them since he
started hanging out here more than a year ago. Long Talks with Chris about
Issues have been known to turn into 5 hour discourses, where points are made
which he doesn't want to accept, and we need to restate things a few times, and
then beat it to death. I'm hoping this one will go better, but it won't be fun.

The final Good: Joy Parker (iolanthe95), Jinny, Kevin Eaches and I have been
playing D&D over AIM on Thursdays. Given my druthers for role-playing, dialog
and story, this has been exceedingly fun. I've finally found a venue to explore
my Big D&D City, with characters that mean something to the players. We're
delving into backgrounds, inventing all kinds of neat NPC's and weaving a very
detailed picture of the struggle they are undertaking, and the enemy they face.
Telling any of you even the basic plot outline would fill another LJ post, but
suffice to say that everyone looks forward to the game, and I'm having a blast
DMing it. :-)

---andy

I started work at EB Games last Friday, and it was actually FUN. I don;t think I've had a job as fun as that since I worked at King's Island 12 years ago. I got to talk to a bunch of other guys about games and learned all about the registers and money drops and other retail-stuff and they paid me to do it! *big grin* I like my boss a lot, and my co-workers are all intelligent and most share my appreciation for the gaming industry.

Garbage Pick of the Week: a solid oak dresser left out to the trash by the people down the street. And I mean *solid* oak. Getting it down the basement steps was a job best left to a well-trained house-troll. It's got some pieces chipped, some minor stuff inside, but is mostly in ok condition. I'm glad we drove by when we did, or the rain that came later in the evening would have soaked it and ruined it. Jinny's gonna make it her Special Refinishing Project. :-)

Chris is now working for Supportcare (the company Jinny and Pat both work for), with Pat's old client. He gets all week off, and works all weekend. This will be convenient for *my* work schedule when I start working more nights during the week. According to him, Trucking School happens in April next year. *shrug*

Speaking of hard labor, work on the basement goes on as time permits. We are awaiting the arrival of Jinny's next paycheck in order to buy a decent door for our new bedroom. It's still only half finished, since we still need to put in some insulation and drywall and The Painting Project (when everything but the carpet is done). One of these days I'll actualy put time into figureing out how to post pictures of this madness. :-)

We will also hopefully be taking possession of a '90 Chevy Blazer (2-wheel drive version with a towing capacity of 2500 lbs... we could tow another, bigger Blazer!) which my dad was able to procure for us for $500. Yes, Five Hundred. It's got a new engine in it, and it's beat-up enough that I have no qualms about hauling rough stuff like 2x4's or particle board in it. Because it's not a 4x4, the insurance is WAY cheaper than it would have been otherwise. Much as my father and I disagree about stuff, his Superpower is Getting Stuff Cheap Through Connections, and I gotta give him props for that.

Saturday was Jinny and my 5th wedding anniversary! ((*sings to BNL tune* "It's been 5 years since we said 'I Do'...)) Yeah... six residences in five years, four cars, three roommates, two major knock-down-drag-out fights and one baby. It’s been an adventure, lemme tell ya. The TV show of our lives has gone from romantic comedy to soap opera to dark and tragic and back again. Friends have helped and guided and/or moved on to other things. Others have gotten married and/or moved away. Our trials have made us stronger, more mature, more aware of pitfalls which might have destroyed other couples. We’re hanging in there, and we love each other more today than we did on 9-11-1999.

That serious stuff being said *grin*, we had a wonderful dinner at The Bamboo Club (Pacific Rim Cuisine, oh so VERY good) and saw the new Resident Evil movie. It was light on zombies and heavy on the Sci-Fi plot, this time. Good action scenes, lotsa blood and CG creatures reminiscient of Doom 3. It was plotted and shot as if I was watching someone play a RE game on their Xbox. Very satisfying: 3 splattered zombie heads out of 5. :-)

Oh, and John can now count to three... "un-doo-t'reee!" we taught him this by bouncing him lightly in time to the numbers before lifting him out of the crib every morning. So, now, when he wakes up before us, over the baby monitor we hear "un... doo... T'REE!" like it's a magic spell that will lift him out of the confines of his crib (sans parental help) and let him fly downstairs so he and his favorite stuffed bunny can get some coffee and a donut, since momee and dadee clearly aren't awake yet. Cracks me up. :-)

-- andy

We got to see Alanis and Barenaked ladies last weekend! Woohoooo! :-) We were not expecting it, but Ron and his wife angie decided that they wanted to do their usual Anniversary Dinner at a fondue place called The Melting Pot, and sold us thier tickets for cheap!

It ROCKED! Alanis has changed much from the last concert footage I've seen of her, circa 1996 or so. She was very "wispy" then, not very animated, compared to last weeks concert. She did all the "radio" songs and a few I'd never heard, and BNL came onstage to help with "You Learn" which was her finale. She's really grown as an artist and a performer, and I beleive she will one day be seen by us aging X'ers as an official "Voice of a Generation". Of course, when an X'er says something like that, we usually roll our eyes ironically at the same time. :-)

I new going in that BNL usually does a fun concert. They make up rap songs about the cities they're in, sometimes quoting Duran Duran or Madonna to do it. But what they had for *this* show, outstripped my expectations. For those who aren't familiar with modern concerts in large venues like Riverbend in Cincy, The layout had 5 big screens posted around the audience, three in the ampitheater, and two facing the "lawn" area up the hill behind it. BNL took full advantage of this by showing weird little movies (which were freaking hilarious!) between songs. One was footage taken from the XBox game HALO, where armored characters made pithy comments in voiceovers from the band. Like calling out to another armored guy on the cliff above them "Hey blacony! You suck! Why doncha get a real job so you can afford some real seats! Losers!" Hmm... maybe it doesn;t translate well... :-) It was funny. Trust me.

The bestest thing about the concert was the $12 I spent for the rights to download a copy of the concert in MP3 format from their site. I mean, how cool is THAT!? :-) The MP3s won't feature Alanis joining them for If I Had $1000000 at the end (probably for intricate legal reasons), but there were at least 6 or 7 songs they did during their set that I am just dieing to get my hands on. :-)

Also, it appears as if I will be getting a *real* part time job, ie Not With A Temp Service. There is a new outside mall opening in Mason, which is a Greater Cincy community just north of us where a lot of rich young families are moving. EB Games (fomerly Electronics Boutique) was hiring just three people, including a manager. Pay is as low as you'd expect, but the hours are regular and its a GAMING STORE(!!!) which is simply unassailably KEWL. I beat out literally a hundred other people, because, (says Paul my new mgr) I have the unique combination of age and responsibility and knowledge about games that he was looking for. He told me of all the other applicants, I was the only one over the age of 30 he'd gotten (Paul is 36). Hmm... any of you remember that Simpson's episode where homer get's his dream job at the bowling alley? :-D

Basement Update: It took me two hours, but I finally got everything measured, plumbed, squared and marked. I'm building around some weird features, and the bricks in the support wall which bisects the basemt arent exactly straight, and the we can;t use the door leftover from previous construstion done by The Idiot (as we've taken to calling him) who owned the house before us. Said door turns out to have been half rotten and way too flimsey. Such predicaments! I must forge ahead... (so the song goes)

Pat is recovering from her surgery nicely, although I've had to step-n-fetch a bit. It'll be about 6 weeks before she'll be back to work, and another 2 after that before she'll get a full paycheck, so it falls to me and Jinny to take up the slack again. She thinks she can get on some sort of Disability, but I'm not holding my breath.

Also, I *finally* got my MP3's archived on DVD, thanks to Chris' new burner (4.7 gigs per disk! Woo!) My collection is just shy of three disks. Yeah, me gots da MAD muzic. :-) And Star Wars radio plays, and audiobooks and movie audio tracks (for car trips) and a bunch of other stuff. It's nice to know that no matter what else happens, my music is safe from Media Server Self-Destruction, Tyrannasaurus Rex attack or the RIAA (getting worse in that order. *grin*).

--andy

Time for the Big Updates. :-)

It's my birthday today. I am 31 years old. I can't even PRETEND to be young anymore. :-) Unfortunately, very few interesting things have happened in the past few months. Not enough to write about, until now. So, where do I start...

Um... Wayback to Late May....

Marcon. As usual, was really fun. I played host to Ron, who got special dispensation to go to the con this year, due to his recently aquired New Job, which he's been going to school to earn for the past 3 years. He had a wonderful time, and is going to make a point of going to Marcon every year, from now on. Got to see Amy (briefly), Bridgette (even more briefly), Amy's friend Jessica (happy birthday to you too, girl!) and a friend of *hers* named Athena. Seriously. Not a net-name. :-) Two things out of the ordinary happened at this convention. The first is that I found out that someone I least expected to be in a relationship at all was, in fact, involved in a *poly* relationship. Coulda knocked me over with a feather. Actually, I'm very happy this person found someone special, and the couple involved with this person definitely has the Wisdom score to handle it. The second was that I did absolutely ZERO filking. None whatsoever. For the first time since my first Marcon, I didn;t go into the filkroom to perform. The major part of me just wanted to relax, hang out, and talk with friends. I dunno whether this will continue at other cons or not, but my utter lack of drive to filk caught me off guard.

Jinny was working like mad through June, all kinds of crazy hours because they couldn;t find anyone to staff her client's sites. This was good for the coffers, but bad in that when John said "DADDY!" he reached for me, and when John said "MOMMY!" he reached for the phone. :-) Our housemate Chris finally found work as a deliver guy for Arhaus Furniture, after Supportcare kept giving him the runaround. Working for Arhaus pays very well, but includes LONG hours (14 hours days, usually) and a LOT of heavy lifting. Mostly of very expensive fru-fru furniture for very rich people. So, he's got lots of money and no time to spend it. This will enable him, after this next paycheck, to quit, go to trucking school, and still have a good buffer of money to keep the house running smoothly. Did I mention that he wants to become a long-haul trucker? He confirmed this vocational choice when he got to drive the Arhaus truck into Kentucky early in the morning. He likes to be alone a lot, he's got a perfect driving record, and OTR truckers are in SERIOUS demand. I still work as Mr. Mom, of course. Laundry. Dishes. Lawncare. Bathrooms. Baby Duty. The money is non-existant, but I love my client. :-)

The gaming group has decided (once again) to change venues. According to one member, the Star Wars d20 system is "broken". *sigh* So, we're back to D&D. I'm still DMing, and it's still in AndyLand (1300 years in the future from their last adventure there) but this time it's a monk-inspired campaign. Chop-saki, "You killed my master and dishonored my family, prepare to die HYAA!" etc. :-) Should be a lot of fun. Unlike last time, I'm plotting the WHOLE adventure in advance... Major villains, overlapping bad guys, side quests, the WORKS. I'm pouring a lot of work into it this time... let's hope it's successful. :-D

Pat's health has been iffy these past few months. We discovered that she has a umbilical hernia, which she's getting fixed next Thursday. Due to this, she will not be able to climb stairs for weeks and weeks. This would either leave her on the couch/family room for that long (a solution we all find unacceptable) or we'd need to change rooms, and finally finish off the long-overdue basement...

SO, in a flurry of activity which began at 9:30am Sunday, and didn;t end until about 9pm Sunday night, Jim, Trish, Me Jinny and Chris carried out trash, moved, cleaned, swept and otherwise arranged the basement in the best way possible. Also, with my father's help, we bought 15 bags of cement (60 lbs each! My shoulders STILL hurt) and a mixing bin, and leveled off the floor. It's an older hourse which had a 5 inch depression in the middle of the floor for drainage. We got EvrDry, and thus no longer needed that kind of depth. This was the largest and hardest step. Mixing cement by hand in a tub is like wet sand, only denser. :-) The next is to build a wall across part of the back, turning it into Jinny and my new bedroom. Then new carpet, paint, ceiling tiles and trim. We're looking at $600 more in materials and about 80-100 more man-hours of work, but by the end of September it should be completed. We're already talking about the big filk party we want to have. Maybe New Years, we dunno yet. :-)"

Finally, Doom III is out! After 3 years of waiting, id software's newest game is done. And boy-howdy is it purdy! Everything is razor-sharp, even at lower resolutions. The animations, lighting effects, character animations, ALL are the herald of this Next Generation of First-Person Shooters. Unfotunately, it lacks everything else: story, plot, immersive free-form areas to explore, characters you care about, intelligent monster AI, etc. It's basically Room-Monster-Hallway-Room-Monster... Pretty repetative. It does manage to scare the crap out of you once or twice with some really neato effects, and having monsters beam in to surround you instantly can be nerve wracking. But in the end, it's a VERY pretty engine over the same dirivative old old-school gameplay we've seen in a hundred other games over the last 10 years. Not a disappointment, really, it just had room to be WAY better than it was.

So that's the nooz from Cincy. Hope you enjoyed. More later. :-)

As I may have posted here before, there MUST be someone on the staff of The Onion who's a Fan:

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4019&n=3

The most interesting thing about this article is that it just *feels* like it was written by someone who's been there.

I've not really been to a con since OVFF and am GREATLY looking forward to Marcon.. I miss Fandom. I miss friends I don't see outside of housefilks or cons. I miss having a regular audience to sing and play for. I miss T-shirts and buttons and hall costumes.

Especially chicks in Farscape outfits. :-)

--andy

Ok, this is officially the COOLEST THING EVER!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3647437.stm

I knew tech like this was being developed, but I had no idea it was this close to commercial reality. For those who don;t wanna link: this article details an actual, in-use, 3D display being used by Honda. It uses a low-power, scanning laser to make a 3D image appear to float before your eyes. Ther is NO reason images made up of red, green and blue can be concurrently projected as well. Who needs big screen TV's? Or computer monitors for that matter? Heck it's really low power and portable... plus the inevitable arrival of ubiquitous Wi-Fi... Can anyone say "Dreampark?" ;-)

EEEE! I'm having geek-gasms!

Sometimes, the future is SO cool, I can't wait to get there! Freeze me, send me out of the solar system at lightspeed, gimme a convenient wormhole or even chronoton particles, I don't care!

Andy

Auuugh.... just got back from the orthodontic surgeon. The hurting teeth are gone. Although I think it was greedy of them not to let me defray the cost of the operation with the Toothfairy kickback money they're gonna get. Luckily I was put under for most of this procedure, which probably spared me some serious Marathon-Man-like torture. I have sockets now, but, weirdly, they hurt MUCH less than the recurring toothaches. Maybe my oral pain threshhold has been adjusted over the last few months. *shrug* The doc says they'll take a week to heal and then I can get fitted for a temporary denture plate and schedule implant surgury for next year (the bone sockets are all in good shape).

Wednesday was John's First Birthday, which was a lot of fun. We wore party hats and had a lot of munchies and cake and he got an entire Jesusload of toys (a load of toys big enough to make someone say "Jesus!"). The only part of the whole thing which annoyed me was my mother's insistance that I didn;t know what I was doing with her new digital camera. I did indeed know, made sure things were focussed with flash used. Mom simply tured the camera on and started clicking, which cause d all kinds of half-blurred pics due to the low-light sensitive CCD's in the camera. My parents want to own technology, but never seem to find the time to learn how to properly use it, or practice with it until they get good. I stand vindicated, though... only the shots I took came out. :-) And John is having a great time with the box from one of the biggest toys.

Recently, my housemate Chris has decided to join E-Harmony. There were several events which prodded him to do this, which I won;t go into here, but he was cynical about it in the past. The first time he answered their profile questions, there was no one who fit his match. I asked to read his profile, and it had things in it which tended to seek a male outlook... straightforward, honest, willing to argue/debate, not afraid to stand up for herself... And then it hit me: my friend Chirs needs to find a Cowgirl. And not the Dallas kind. Chris is emotionally attracted to men, and physically attracted to women, thus a Tomboy/cowgirl/daughter-of-a-mechanic type would do him perfectly. On this try at E-Harmony, he got three hits and is getting more of them every day, with several surprisingly decent matches. Maybe it'll work for him. At the very least, he'll get more practice at the fine art of smalltalk.

---andy

Lately, I've been watching Deep Space 9 on DVD, shamlessly and complusively borrowed from Todd, one of my gaming group. I had only ever seen maybe the first season and a hlf or so, because it stopped airing in Cincinnati at the time. Many friends from cons were loopy over it, saying it was the best Trek ever. There were even rumors that the concepts were stolen directly from J. Michael Straczynski himself when he shopped B5 around to Paramount back in the day. I had always meant to try to catch it on reruns sometime in the future, and the past few months have been my chance.

I was very impressed. I thought Worf had more to do in two seasons of DS9 than he did in 7 of Next Gen. I thought having more Ferengi around was marvelous, inasmuch as we got to see more of thier overwrought capitalistic culture. I loved to hate Wayoun and Kai Wynn and Dukat. In short, DS9 exemplified everything that mature Trek fans have come to realize: Trek is at it's best with character driven stories. Exploring the universe, fine... but some of the most memorable moments came from characters, and DS9 really came through on that account.

One of the neatest characters in the show was named Vic Fontaine, a Rat-Pack 60's lounge singer in a holosuite Vegas, who was (as far as I can tell) a sentient hologram. Vic sang old standards... Dream a little dream of Me, I've got the World on a String, Volare, etc. Here's the weird part: I never used to like old standards. I thought they were tuneless, boring.. a relic of a bygone and somewhat tacky era. I know Jinny's likes them, having grown up with old people who played them all the time... the tunes have memories connected to them. But suddenly, as if by some wierd chronological alchemy, I turned 30 and began to enjoy them. I'm not alone in this; my housemate Chris has found the same transformation in his musical tastes recently. As to the reason... we're stumped. Maybe these songs CAN'T be enjoyed unless you are over a certain age, or have a certain level of maturity. Maybe, before, they simply weren;t appealing because they were (to the youthful american male) slow, boring and uniteresting... and now I begin to see that they are acutally sweet, charming, melodical and express simple ideas suitable for crooning while dancing. So I downloaded a bunch of them... And when I listen, I'll remember Vic's Lounge in holosuite 3. :-)

I also went to the dentist after a decade lapse in treatment. Yes, you read that right... a decade. Having no health insurance sucks Bantha snot. :-\ Anyhow, she was very kind and very comprehensive. I need two root canals, a bridge and 4 extractions, implants to come next year. *shudder* I earned it though. 30 is a year of renewal for me, so it's time to get the old pot-holed, twisty road torn up, regraded and resurfaced.

How will I pay for all this construction? A new job. Fresh from CBS's laserprinter, customer service call center work for an automotive parts inventory company. Regualr hours, good pay... enough to afford getting my teeth fixed. Training starts Monday, so I should have something interesting to say after my training is done.

And John's 1st birthday is this coming week, too (April 21st). Where did the YEAR go?!?

---Andy

HOUSEDAD

As I was halfway expecting after 2 days of training in the new department, I was laid off. I am convinced they were looking for reasons not to keep myself of the other temps, because they made a point of telling us that they were cross-training other employees to do, essentially, our jobs. I managed to get $500 worth of paychecs out of them doing grunt filing work and recieving almost no training for a week and a half before it happened, though.

So, here I am. Unemployed again. Nothing on the horizon this week or last week. Ordinarily, I would be starting to get depressed because of lack of money, but we just got a humongous tax return, and Jinny's new supervisor position is paying her very well. We're only short about $150 a month from when I WAS working.

Ordinarily, I would be very upset with myself for not finding something else by now, but me staying home and being a househusband seems to be working out. At least for now. There is this illusion of "free time" when you have a baby crawling around. Like you *should* be able to get some creative work done on something... like the Sunday Gaming plot or feeding the old filk tapes into the computer for MP3 digestion, or finally organizing all the errant paperbacks which seem to accrue in piles around the house. But this round of unemployment is diferent. I'm "working" at being a dad, making sure John is fed and napped and played with and loved. The results of this "work" are intangible, but present... whenever he giggles and holds his arms up to be picked up... whever he babbles at me, telling me something Very Important in the cryptic language of babies... whenever I rock him to sleep at night waiting for the Baby Tylenol to kick in and ease the teething pains. The time spent is more valuable than ANY paycheck, and this feeling has staved off the usual round of depression and guilt that crops up whenever I'm between jobs.

Being home during the day also means that I get to do a lot more work on tthe basement. Pat's room is nearly done, all it needs in another coat of paint. The drywall is up and mudded and sanded smoothe. Next week, we will be buying the cement to level the floor out with, and the materials to put tile in the upstairs bathroom. Mr. Mom, Mr. Do-It-Yourself, that's me! :-)

The disconcerting thing which is happening is that I'm loosing track of days. Is it Wednesday today or Thursday? John's doctor appointment is THIS week? I thought it was next week... (checks calander and it is, of couse, "next week" already). I try to kep track of days by doing something notable each day. Paint the walls in the basement, or cook something elaborate for dinner, or just go to the library for awhile.

Every now and then, I get some computer time, which is usually spent either getting ready for the Game on Sundays or playing a freshly downloaded First Person Shooter. This week it's one from Ubisoft called Far Cry. It takes place around a series of South Sea islands.... one big contiguous area. I mean like, you can see more than I'd guess a mile away over to another island. When you attack the mercenary base, they call for help, and guys from the other island get into their boats and come over to investigate. The sound design is awesome. I will actually BUY this game, when I get cash.

We took the first step in securing a bankruptcy today. We have an appointment in two weeks to talk to a lawyer and we hope to have a credit report and our major creditors listed by then. It'll take probably until OVFF to get it straightened out, but when it is, we will be able to get a secured credit card and start rebuilding. All things considered, I'm rather proud that most of Jinny and my problems are monetary. Those are a lot easier to fix than emotional or familial ones, although we've had our share of those, too.

Finally, I want to make a major announcement here, as I will also do from the account:
I will no longer be using or checking my Fanboy0510@yahoo.com account. It has, over the years, become so clogged with spam, that trying to maintain it has become a daily 10 mintue chore. Even clikcing on the "This is Spam" button for over 400 emails over a week-long period, it still pours in. :-( I'm not too sad about it. I've had that addy for over 5 years, and while I will always be a fanboy at heart, I'm past 30 now, and I can't really give that address to employers and laugh it off at "something I used to use in college".

FROM NOW ON MY EMAIL ACCOUNT WILL BE:

ANDREWEIGEL@CINCI.RR.COM

I will check that more or less every few days. Please disseminate to your clan, pod, posse or pouchmate.

Later, guys.

GREAT CHRISTMAS, FULL-TIME HOURS AND A SEALED BASEMENT

I really gotta keep up with this more often. Lotta stuff's been happening over the last couple months, and I've kept MEANING to write here... and then get sidetrackd.

First off, it was a GREAT Christmas. I got everything I wanted, except for a fully functional new computer. There were some glitches, but it finally all got ironed out, and I am now in the possession of something REALLY kewl which will last me well into 2006 (new video card updates notwithstanding). I also got a nice geek-watch, a new pair of shoes, a clock radio and a baby who crawls.

Yep, John crawls now. Everywhere. At speed. And is making serious inroads now on walking, although the finer points of Balance and Timing still elude him for the time being. He has also picked up the ability to mimic expressions and vocal intoantions without actually saying words yet. So one gets the idea that he wants something, or finds something entertaining, and also that he's frustrated that he can't actually TELL you yet. :-) It's very cute. Also, he now has 8 teeth... and still no hair.

Oh, and in other techie news, we finally got our house media server up and running, connected with our file server. Nothing compares to being able to digitally select and play MP3 playlists, DVD's or one of over 100 movies on the file server (500 gigs and growing) and stream them over the TV and speakers in the family room. Just awesome. Better than TiVO (although we got one of those too, for automatic recording of our favorite shows, digitally archived on the file server). The media server used to be my machine, cobbled together with an old 10 gig HD, a cheap TV card and a wireless networking card.

As I may have mentioned in earlier postings, my mother in law Pat is now living with us. In January, we paid to have the very-well-accredited EvrDry company come and seal our basement. Basically, they dug trenches down the sides of the foundation and under the basement floor and installed pipes out to the storm drain in the street. We had jackhammers going for 3 days straight, causeing our housemate to loose sleep and several bits of shelving to come crashing down. The upside of this is that for a ridiculous amount of money ($12,000 at 12% interest for 20 years, with an option to take John and put him to work in the spice mines if we default) we have a permanently leak-proof basement. This weekend we began to frame in the newly dry but still very cold brick walls with the help of my dad who used to do carpentry in his youth. We also bought insulation and drywall and a plethora of other construction-like materials. Devoting every Saturday we can to this project, Pat should have a livable space downstairs in a few months.

Given that our house is relatively small, with one dinky-ass bathroom, we all agreed to pitch in and cause to be built in another corner of the basement a VERY nice Master Bathroom. Oh, yeah, we gots some big plans. It'll cost a lot, but in the end the frumpy Cape Cod exterior of our house will disguise a pit of sybaritic excess, complete with glass-block shower stall (with two shower heads!), commode, sink and mirror, sealed sandstone floor and a bathtub large enough to accomodate two fannish people. The other cool thing is that we plan to replace the hot water heater with one of those neato insta-heat devices. No heater with tank, just a sleek and efficient wall-mounted unit producing endless hot water. I SAID it was gonna be a sybaritic pit, din't I? ;-)

How can we afford all this luxury? I just got on full time hours at Luxottica, where I've worked in the EyeMed insurance department for the last 7 months. I interview for it officially on Monday, but it's only a formality. The hours are 10-7, with an hour lunch (PERFECT hours)... although I'm still working for the Temp agency. They've told me not to give up hope of being hired, but... *shrug* I'm a temp. If I do get hired into the coroporate machine at some point, I'll dance a rowdy jig. (At home, in private. No one should watch someone like me attempting a jig, much less a rowdy one). But until then, I'll be happy to be a well-paid and somewhat disposable cog. We were doing well on Jinny's pay at SupportCare and my part-time efforts. But now with me at full time, and Jinny getting a promotion to Supervisor at her job, (just last week, actually) we'll be in a position to get another car, pay off some personal debts and finally discharge our bankruptcy (which we should have done last year). We're not real concerned about the repercussions of it, simply because we're living where we want to live, have the cars we want to drive, and none of the debt is from credit cards.

Pat and Chris continue to have little spats, and it's been an uphill battle sometimes getting them to see eye-2-eye on certain things. But I think they're getting better, and I think their bickering was more a symptom of Pat being out of work (for medical reasons) for the past two months, and Chris also being out of work and at home all the time. When the basement gets done, it will be a fine efficiency apartment and Pat can have her own space downstairs, so that Chris doesn't have to look at her all day, or deal with The Food Network on the family room TV 24/7.

That's all I can remember to update for now. A belated hiya to all my long-neglected-but-never-forgotten AIM and Y!Mess friends.... I miss you guys. And I am, as evidenced here, still actually ALIVE. :-) Till next time, y'all....

What a GREAT weekend!

Friday night, after working a LOT of hours last week, Chris and Ron and I got to have another Geek's Night Out. We decided that a veiwing of The Last Samurai was essential for the outing. It's a great Guy Movie. Honor and swordfighting and Ninjas-versus-Samurai, and Tom Cruise, who once again turns in a surprisingly good performance when he could have really sucked. Yeah, it's a total fiction, and yeah, it had a hollywood ending. But who cares! NINJAS! SAMURAI! And absolutely bar none the best cinematography outside of LotR. We were up till 3am talking about stuff.

Saturday, I got more Xmas shopping done, and also a membership to Costco. Ah... I love Costco. Better than Sams Club in so many ways, not the least of which is that we found HUGE cans of dried baby formula for under $20 a can. After we buy two more cans, the membership has paid for itself.

I miss talking to my friends online these past few weeks. I find myself working late in order to get enough hours to get good gifts... and I end up effectively dropping off the face of the earth. Hopefully the grind will end, and in a few weeks, I will be able to happily state that I'm back to a schedule which more closely resembles normal, and that I'm telling y'all about it on my new computer. :-)

Parenthetically, for those who are interested, I just got the processor (Athalon 2600) and Memory (1 gig of Corsair) delivered today. On wednesday I'll order the wireless card, and on Xmas eve, I can go to MicroCenter and get the case/mainboard. Hee! Merry Christmas to me! :-)

Anyways... On Saturday night, one of my favorite irish folk/rock bands played at the Dubliner: Fannagin's Isle. This is the first time I had seen them in concert in nearly 5 years, and they were having a lot of fun. Rick Fannin, one of the duo (Tom Scheidt (sp?) is the other), actually recognized Jinny and I from all those times we went to Dayton to see them play at McGuffy's for St. Paddy's Day and also at Flannigan's by University fo Dayton. It was REALLY flattering. He also said that he's going to try to be part of the usual Sunday night Jam sessions the Dubliner hosts on Sunday nights, and was wondering if I'd be there. I was amazed he remembered us, and said so. He told me that among the true Fannigan's Isle fans he'd seen around the most over the years, he remembered our group the most and wanted to thank us for coming to the shows and actually LISTENING to them play instead of getting drunk and rowdy. The best part is that FI has a monthly gig at the Dubliner for the forseeable future. FI, 10 minutes from my house, and Rick Fannin remembered Jinny and I. I'm just all hyper and bouncy and stuff, to the point where if I were telling you all this in person, you'd wanna superglue my ass to the chair and issue me heavy sedatives. Or just apply strong blunt force trauma to my cranium.

Sunday was really laid back. The Gaming Group has decided to give Star Wars a try, which means I'll be running two separate groups. This is JUST fine... anything to keep the Cheesemasters from overruning my universe with obnoxious meta-magic feats. :-) Besides, I'm far more an SF fan than I am a Fantasy fan. Coming up with interesing things for Wookies and Jedi and Scoundrels to do is far easier for me most of the time than which spells counter which other ones, except for these here OTHER spells, which are found in WoTC's New Expansion Rulebook Dujour.

So that's it for this week..... Tune in NEXT time when Andy buys the rest of the computer components and sez: "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEe!"

THANKSGIVING

Had a decent Turkey day, including a couple Guest Stars and Cameos. I was able to pick up some extra hours over the week, due to others in the call center needing to travel for the holiday, so that was pretty kewl.... Our friend Bridgette stayed over with us most of the weekend, cause her family was many hours away and she couldn't afford to go see them, so we invited her to our TG at mom and dad's condo.

Most of my mom's side of the family made it, as well as my sister and her husband. As we've been doing for the past few years, we made use of dad's 5 gallon turkey fryer. Don;t laugh, it produces damn good bird. And of course dinner wouldn't be complete without my Aunt Trish and Uncle Obie's applesauce. Homemade, with little cinnamon red-hots in it. *auuugh.... Homer Simpson Drool* If they could market this stuff it would cause world peace.

I also found out that my sister is pregnant with her first child! No names picked out yet, but the kid is due in early June. I'm hoping it'll be a boy, so John has someone close to his age to roughhouse with. All my cousins were 3 to 5 years older than I, and I usually got clobbered. :-)

On Sunday night, Amy and Benet came thru Cincy from Columbus on their way back to Berea college, and took Bridgette back with them, which was very efficient and cool of them. I was finally able to give Amy some of the pictures of John I had printed out, and she seemed to like them lots.

I had a good week at work, as I might have mentioned... I've been picking up lots of hours since I let it be known to the whole call center that I was available to pick up any extra time anyone wanted off. 38 hours this week, nearly 20 next, and the week after that, PLUS holiday pay for working Xmas eve. Also, I'm hoping this will show the call center manager that I'm willing to work hard... and maybe they'll hire me. :-)

I also figured out that, along with giving everyone decent gifts this year, I can afford to also buy a new computer. Finally. Everything is caught up enough to get it, and the one I'm looking as is one of the new sub-minature "shuttle" models. Not very expandable, but it's got EVERYthing built in, except for memory and processor. It's the size of a toaster, specifically designed with portability to LAN parties in mind. Beleive me, when I get it, I will devote a whole nother extra post to how cool it is. :-)

Bye for now...

IT'S A MEAT PROCESS

Had an interesting experience last week, when my dad informed me that he had bagged not one, but THREE deer in Kentucky over the weekend. Due to a mysterious bone disease, there was a hunters bulliten which stated that butchers were not allowed to process deer meat in any way which required cutting into the bones, cause that's where the disease was carried. So, dad told me that we had over 75 pounds of deer meat to be ground and packaged, and that if I wanted any, I was gonna help.

Naturally, since I grew up eating venison, and free meat is never a thing to be turned down, especially when one is on the Atkins low-carb diet, I agreed.

As I may have mentioned here before, my father owns a set of buildings thru wich he runs two businesses. During the summer, he runs Olde Loveland Mower Repair out of the back garage, and year round he runs Butch's Carryout, which sells tobacco, liquor, lotto and other vices. Between these two buildings is a back room with facilities suitable for food production... big double sink, floor drain, big deep freezer, and metal food prep table, which is usually in peices and leaned against one wall.

We assembled the table around 6:20pm, and retrieved dad's electric grinder from a back shelf. This thing is older than my dad and I put together, circa 1920's or so, with a fading mongram on the side which read "HOBART Dayton, OH". Dad informed me he got it at a farm auction for $100.

We set up an assembly line of meat pans. One was being filled by hunks of deer haunch dad carved off, and the other being fed thru the grinder by myself. Deer meat is very tasty, very tender and extremely gristly. The only way to make sure you aren't chewing on something the consistency of dry rubber cement is to double-grind the meat, which will remove the extra gristle. This is time consuming, but ultimately VERY worth it.

I had flashbacks to every bad horror movie I had seen as a child. The sight and smell of blood doesn't really gross me out much, but other little things do... deer hair, for example. There were little flecks of deer hair all over the carcass before we started, which did gross me out. Not the blood, muscles, tendons, gaping empty chest cavity etc... nope. Hair. I'm such a wuss. (For those keeping score, we washed it off before grinding. :-) )

All told we got something like 3 milk crates full of 1 pound wraps of ground, and another crate mostly full of roasts. If we had been able to do "chops" we coulda had another crate. So, now I have enough ground bambi for chili, taco meat, hamburger helper, etc for about a year.

More about Thanksgiving in a few days...

It's been a pretty good week.

Workwise, I got two more LEGO blocks for perfect attendance and Schedule Adherance. I should explain that. See, many times a call center will try to make efforts to recognize their drones' accomplishments. In some call centers, they give you a ribbon or a star. At Luxoticca, which is officially the Coolest Call Center In Existence, they give out LEGO's. Small red 4-stud squares for perfect attendance, six-stud squares for Schedule Adherance (basically going to and from your breaks on time) and big 8-stud blue ones for a customer compliment. I now have, after 8 weeks of being officially on the phones, 2 red 4-stud blocks, 2 yellow 6-stud blocks and one big blue one, due to a 30 minute call and a complimentary email sent back by a customer a few weeks ago. I now have more blocks than any other temp there. W00t !

Homewise, we spent a lot of last Saturday painting the porch, due to the anal-retnetive boredom-inspired inspection by a Blue Ash beauracrat. "Paint or face fines!" So we painted. Just enough to last till nexxt year, we think... we're gona replace the porch and extend the family room over it later, methinks. Next year and a few thousand dollars from now. Other good news is that Chris was OK'd for the financing to EverDry (tm) the basement. They dig around the foundation and into the basement floor and put underground gutters in, basically. They guarantee their work for the life of the house. And once the basement is sealed, we can start finishing it off.... real dry wall and a half-bath maybe... make it more livable for Pat, who will be sharing the expense.

Baby-wise, it's been a week of firsts. John held himself up off the floor with all fours the other day, a stunning precursor to actual crawling, which we're expecting sometime between thanksgiving and Xmas. His range of expressions and vocal intonations also keeps increasing. I swear, I had a whole conversation with him using only the syllables "Da" and "Nga" and "Tk!" (a tounge click). Also, he's breaking his first tooth, a lower left incisor. I can't imagine him getting any CUTER, but with odd teeth coming in, it's almost a guarantee. :-)

Car-wise, Chris' 'Stang is still in the shop for transmission work. Apparently, his habits of shifting wore out the "bearings" or something, which I am told is somewhat unusual, and not likely to be the first thing that goes out in a manual transmission. Chris tends to be rough on things which aren't electronic, I think. Also, Pat's car failed the E-check, so she needs to get the exhaust replaced (or at least prove to the state that she spent over $300 in the attempt) or she has no registration, and thus, no drivable car. To those who live out of the Great State of Ohio, Hamilton County, the E-Check is a local boondoggle which requires everyone, by law, to get an exhaust system check every two years on even-yeared vehicles. This check costs you 45 minutes, 20 dollars, and does approxamately NOTHING to lower the total amount of emissions in the area, because of the massive amounts of trucks which go thru on the highways, which are the actual culprits. We HATESES the E-check, my Precious!

Managed to pick up some extra hours this week and next, which should help with getting us squared away with bills this month, seeing as we have a car repair (probably gonna help out with Pat's) and a $100 painting bill, and unlike other months, we need to get Chris the rent and bills by Dec. 1st, instead of a more leisurely 13th or 15th. (Xmas is coming.)

Chris and Ron Clough and I managed to get in a decent Geek's Night Out on Friday, a tradition which fell by the wayside after Chris and I moved into the same house. The tradition is like a Guys Night Out, except with less drinking, more Pizza and Hot Wings, and more talk about computer games, technology, the latest kewl movies, our Star Wars RPG, etc. We went to Willie's Sports bar for dinner, but found it MUCH too noisy to carry on a conversation, so we ended up at The Dubliner, the bar Amy and her band plays at. It turns out, the Dubliner has a perfect mix of live music in the background, good ambience, and small-private enclosed booths, so you can talk without being bunmped into by drunk people. It's a very clean place, not dingy and smokey, and it's only 10 mins from our house. Although... (sigh)... I can't drink, cause beer isn;t on the Atkins. :-( (Having trouble getting back into it... I'm still 232lbs)

The more I talk with him lately, the more I see how much Ron *needs* this geek-time. Literally every minute he's not working or at school he's doing homework, or watching the kids, or doing chores or errands. Carving out not just 2 weeknights a month for gaming, but additionally, one Friday a month for a Geek's Night will have a massivley positive effect on his outlook.

Till next week, fans...

I figured a week was long enough to wait to post my thoughts about OVFF, so here they are. :-)

Firstly, I should note here that Jinny and Pat (my wife and my mother-in-law, respectively) have been running the consuite for the past 6 years or so. In that time, they have done an exceptional job of providing actual real FOOD for the fen, oftentimes provoking comments like "I never would have been able to make the con, except that I know I can eat our of the consuite for most of the weekend." For better or worse, I have also, by proxy, been a helper with the consuite. Not so much manning it, but basically being set-up-boy, take-down-boy, and Go-for-more-supplies-at-Kroger-boy. I feel as if I've given back to the con, making it a better place overall for the people for whom one of the last 6 years has been their first OVFF.

But, all good things come to an end. Next year, Jinny and Pat will no longer be running the consuite. They will probably take a shift or two, but as of 2004, the consuite is under new management. As for me, I will be enjoying the con as a paying member for the first time in 6 years.

Leaving out most of the attendant side-dramas, here's my con report:

Jinny spent most of the afternoon and evening running down to Berea KY in order to pick up Amy, her girlfriend Bridgette and B's roomate Jessica, who was also serving as primary childcare for the con... someone who would always be availble to take John if or when Pat/Jinny/me/Bridgette/Random-Consuite-denizen couldn't. This left me to pack Pat's car, drive up and help with setup, to some extent. USELESS DIGRESSION: I was given as a gift, some years ago, a large Sears X-Cargo (tm) car top clamshell storage unit. It straps to the roof of the vehicle and provides about 16 cubic feet of storage space. It remains one of the best and most useful gifts I have ever recieved. I cannot count the times myself or someone who's used it would be completely shit-outta-luck without it. OK, BACK TO LIVE ACTION: Becky McGraw Sisk was Consuite Mom that evening, and I think, with all of us scurrying about, we managed to assemble drinks, munchies, candy and assorted other food-like things in sufficient quantities to sate the grazing filkers until the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. I spent a lot of time getting our room set up, too (pac-n-play, portable cot for Jessica, clothes in drawers, etc) although I was just as glad no one else was there. I could zip around and have the whole hotel room to myself, and not have to worry about braining someone with a playpen support strut.

Got to see a lot of old friends who I'd not seen in a year... Seanan and her friends from the Left Coast, BatyaTheToon, Merav, and a whole host of other Mondegreens. Every year this happens, and every year I feel the same way: Fandom needs Niven-esque Jump Booths! It's not fair that I only get to see these cool people for a few measly hours! Anyhow, due to other concerns, I missed the Mondegreens concert, but thought I had it on tape.... *sigh* The battery in the condenser mic was dead. I got a whole hour of tape hiss and nothing else. Ah well. Next year, ladies. :-)

Friday night was also remarkable in that I got to be on stage and performing next to the likes of Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers and Micheal Longcor. My song Uplift was nominated for Best Filk Song, and I had the distinct honor of singing the last song of the last set of the whole Pegasus Nominees Concert. At first, I was terrified. I mean, not only did everyone else get to go first (and get voted on before me) but I gotta follow MOONWULF!?! Turns out though, whoever scheduled the concerts was crazy like a fox. Uplift nailed it shut on such a powerful stroke that, trying to be objective and not egotistical here, I don't beleive any of the other songs in that segment could have done it as well. I got a LOT of "I voted for your song!" afterwards, and actually managed to sell a few more copies of 545, my little EP/CD. I had printed out 20 copies of Uplift for the con. By Friday evening, they were mostly all gone. Other mind-blowing Egoboos: I am told (by her) that Juanita Coulson, largely known as The Den Mother of Filk, who has been singing this stuff since my PARENTS were kids, has added Uplift to her regualr repertoir. I've learned that others, who have only heard the song done by filkers who heard it off a *freinds* copy of 545, are learning and doing the song at cons in States I've never been to. Looks like I might have a filk hit on my hands. Trust me, I'm still suitably dazed about this.. :-)

I got to see and have a nice long decent conversation with my friend Susan Rati Lane, late of Indianapoilis, and now a resident of sunny Albuquereque. Married life appears to be suiting her well. Teran, her hubby, also seemed to enjoy the convention, although with all due respect, I think filking is not his first choice of convention activity. :-) As a special bonus, I also got to buy Susan's old Visor off of her. I've been wanting a Palm replacement ever since the one I got for Xmas '99 died (RIP, little 'puter).

Let's see... other people I got to talk with at length.... Authographed Cat was there with his lady (and your real names ALWAYS manage to escape me when I'm writing about them! ARRGH!). She wore a t-shirt which read "I'm Bi, Poly and PICKY." *snicker* Heather Munn (maedbh7) was also there with her son Brian (who is 8 years old now, and HUGE, comparitively. I remember when that kid was like 3!) .... Jim and Trisha Mills showed up later on Saturday night, which was really kewl, since we hadn;t seen them since the wedding.... Solomon Davidoff's sister Joelyn made it from Boston, but Solomon and Elka were missing. Although in the excitement, I forgot to ask after them. (Sorry, Solomon! I hope you and Elka are well!) Jo is really a neat person, and I miss her at local gatherings since she moved away from Cincy. I don't have any older siblings, but if I did, she'd be the Big Sister I never had. :-) .... I got to have a very nice conversation with a lady from Chicago who has regular basement folk/filk circles. I was officially invited to stay with them if we're ever up that way, which is VERY nice of them. My brain-like-a-seive refuses to recall her name, but I offer a thank you for the invite, and we may just take you up on it sometime!

Saturday afternoon I participated in a group Improv workshop lead by Seanan. Surpassingly fun. It ended with a game of "Freeze!" (a la Who's Line Is It) which was as outrageous as anything seen on the show on TV. Everyone who participated agreed that we need a 2 hour slot next year. :-) A few key points from it, which might help others who are shy about performing: Everyone is watching you. You cannot, by nature, be on stage AND be shy and retiring at the same time, so ACT OUT! It's the same as Juanita's rejoinder of "Whatever ya sing, SING LOUD!" And if you want people to laugh, BE FUNNY. Soon enough, either they'll be laughing AT you, or WITH you.... either way, you are entertaining them. Sage points. Useful to ANYone who seeks to be an entertainer, musically or otherwise.

Dinner was, for a good portion of OVFF attendees, either a really kickass beef stew served by Jinny in the consuite, or the different, but equally kickass Pegasus Awards Banquet. I had small conversations and scarfed stew until they opened the doors to the rest of the con for the Peggy Awards. Moments of truth.... The final envelope for best filk... and the winner was... Michael Longcor for "Shooting Star". Exatcly as I had suspected... it was the right song to win this year. Next year it might not have had quite the impact, I think. While I personally feel it was not as catchy as The Swordsman, or hisotrical and poignant like Tribes of the Draft... it WAS (most importantly) written from the heart. And in memoriam for an event of that nature, that was all that mattered. As he said in his acceptance speech, "I didn;t write this song to win an award." He wrote it as a tribute to the 7 who died, and the next 7 who go up. Amen. Congratulations Mr. Longcor! :-)

Saturday night saw me flitting about, always orbiting conversation circles, and engaging Seanan and crew in a really interesting BS session back in her hotel room. If you get a chance, ask her to tell you the story of how she was concieved sometime, and how her name was almost Mailbox Rainbow McGuire. I swear, authors struggle for YEARS to come up with backstories like this... it's like something out of Tom Robbins novel.

Bridgette and I played around with some arrangements for a song she wrote, but never actually managed to PERFORM said song. *sigh* So many fun things to do at OVFF, so little time. Bridgette, if yer reading, we'll arrange it in a way you can play and do it at GAfilk, I promise!

I finally found a small filk on Saturday night, and managed to play for a good couple hours, doggedly pursued by sleep. Several interesting points there, including getting to do Regrets live for Susan (who really likes it) and getting to hear Smac's girlfriend Alyse (sp?) sing. She's not a bad performer atall, and a very neat person to boot. I can see why he loves her. :-) The final cool thing was that I got to hear Smac sing Uplift, something he couldn't do while administering the Peggy's (needed to reamin fair and impartial, etc). To me, this was a chance to see how one of my filk mentors did a song I wrote.... especially when a good-sized chunk of my style and songwriting come from saying "How would Steve do this?" :-) Heh. Needless to say, it was really great, and I got it on tape to listen to later. If I got no other recordings this year, that one was the best. I finally staggered off to bed about 5:30am... Daylight Savings Time change or not, it FELT like 5:30 am. :-)

Sunday was a day for saying goodbyes. I regretted not being able to schmooze with Daniel and Melissa Glasser, Joy Parker and the rest of my old college friends, as well as Mark and Roberta. Spent the afternoon getting stuff folded and put away in two differnt cars. We managed to pull off a minor miracle AGAIN this year, by getting a LOT of people together and moving in the same direction at the same time (getting any 5 fans to do this is sometimes akin to herding cats) for the yearly BD's Mongolian BBQ run. As usual, BD's is a real treat. Best way to describe it to those who haven't been there: imagine a stir-fry buffet, containing a raw form of everything which might sound remotely tasty over rice. Line up and give the bowl of fixin's to one of three slightly insane guys who use two huge chopsticks to cook this stuff around a circular flat top the size and circumference of 8-person hot tub. It's a meal AND entertainment! Needless to say, I was off my diet this weekend. :-) It was Jinny's birthday on the 27th (her big Three-Oh *grin*) and the gang all sang the Fannish Birthday Dirge for her. The BD's guys loved it. I managed to be in the bathroom, changing John. I dislike freaking the danes... I know it makes me weird among the weirdos, but there ya go. Jinny and Bridgette and Amy and Jessica all left for Berea directly from the dinner, so they could get home at a reasonable time (from Columbus Ohio, Berea Kentucky is a 4.6 hour drive).

There was some great filking after dinner, which included Kathy Mar singing Sam's Song, which is always a neat ending to a filk con. Pat and I were able to draw ourselves away by midnightish Sunday, after many final goodbyes and hugs and more goodbyes.

It was a good con this year. I was smart and took monday off to recover, recouperate and process. Glad I did, cause I slept past noon. Thanks for sticking with this report for as long as you have, dear reader.. It rambles a bit, I know, but this is really the first year I've had a chance to coherently assemble my thoughts in this format, instead of scattered over many separate emails and/or chats.

Bye for now!

It's been a pretty good week, followed by a pretty good weekend.

Last Thursday, Jinny and I got to go on a Date Night... no Chris, no kid, no one but us, Dewey's Pizza and a movie. In this case, Underworld, which was VERY good, and I highly recommend it to fans everywhere. Also saw Kill Bill. If you are a Tarrantino fan, you'll love it. If you dislike violence and samurai warrior ethics, skip it.

Saturday, went to King's Island on free tickets given to us by my mom. Me and Jinny and Chris and Chris' 11-year-old nephew LJ. He's a pretty kewl kid. Had an active discussion about why HALO was not, in fact, the best shooter ever... that right is reserved for Half Life. Rode the Flight of Fear (no hill... they launch you with magnetic impellers from zero to 67mph in 3 seconds. Do the math. My eyeballs are still stuck to the back of my skull). Rode the Beast for the first time, in the dark. Riding that coaster and hitting the second hill and the second tunnel gives me the impression of what a multiple orgasm must feel like for women. A rushing, screaming, overwhelming sensory overload ... "Omigawd, ANOTHER ONE?!? AAAAAHHH!" *grin*

Chris downloaded a new gamed called Max Payne 2, a third-person shooter with BulletTime, a unique ability to hit a button and make the game run in slow motion while your character can aim and move in real time. Unutterably kewl effect... like a John Woo movie. But, frankly, I'm glad we didn;t pay money for it. Max Payne 1 was FAR FAR better where drama, story and character development was concerned. The game was prettier, no beef with that. Much higher polygon count, better explosions, etc. But the story was a bad sequel trying to capitalize on the success of the original. Finished it in just under 17 hours. Most computer games give me 40-60 hours of entertainment for the buck.

My scanner I got from my parents does not work with XP. This upsets me, since the thing is only about 4 years old. So I bought one off of my friend Ron. Pending installation, I'm gonna give that baby picture website another go.

I'll think of more stuff later.

OVFF creeps up behind me, preparing to pounce....

Sometimes so much life happens that you forget that other people are interested in it, too. :-) This is a short summary of the major events I feel like sharing here, since the last time I wrote:

1) My housemate Chris is very likely going to be starting a software business with Mark Peters sometime next year. Details forthcoming, but from the sorts of things Chris and I have discussed, it could be massively successful.

2) Jinny finally got her driver's license back, which made me download and play the Hallelujah Chorus at nearly full volume to commemorate the event. :-) She also got glasses. I'm usually not biased, but... Jinny looks MUCH better in contacts, without ANYthing hiding those beautiful blue eyes.

3) My mother-in-law Pat Whitten (due to circumstances not entirely within her control) is moving in with us for the next year or so, into the basement. LOTS of pros and cons to that, details forthcoming.

4) I got a Real Job. No, seriously, I did. I am now working part time (with full-time coming after Jan 1 '04) at Luxoticca Eyewear in their Eyemed insurance customer service department. I look forward to going to work every day for the first time in a LONG time. And the pay is wonderful. And they came thru about 4 days before I was gonna commit to working much worse hours for much worse pay at Cincinnati Bell. *whew!*

5) Baby news: John Arthus is almost 6 months old now. He's teething like crazy, *nearly* has the hang of sitting up pn his own, and loves to roll around and explore things, like Hammie in the comic strip Baby Blues. He's developing tastes for dfferent baby foods now. Likes Peaches, Pears, Apricots, carrots and squash. Hates sweet potatoes, green beans and peas. He can hold his bottle all by himself now, sometimes with hands and feet at the same time, which makes him look rather comically like a baby chimp. A cute, bald, pink chimp, but MY little baby chimp, all the same. :-) He's responding to fun with actualy laughter now, instead of just squeals, and I swear he's trying to talk. You can watch the little gears turning.

7) ERRATA: I got my little laptop back and working again, although still no USB port usage. *shrug* oh, well. I can type on it, play Total Annihilation and l;isten to MP3's. It's still kewl. :-) --- Our new Corolla continues to perform well. --- We never did make it to Confluence, due to recovery from illness on my part and also a car repair (brakes) which we were not expecting, wiped out the con money. --- For my birthday, my parents got me a window AC unit for upstairs, so we finally got the computers moved up there and organized. (Which was good, seeing as Pat is moving into the basement, my computer's previous home). The baby's crib is right over in the next room, which is convenient for having some computer time and still making sure he's safe. --- Our friends Jim Mills and Trisha Hilton got married a week ago. I got to do a reading, Our friend from the Ivanhouse days Kyle Marcroft and his wife Mona came back for the ceremony, and it was great to see them again. Trish looked very good. Jim, as a wedding-gift-to-me-as-a-reader, gave me a silver remote, "One remote to rule them all..." .. I got the bestest friends... :-) --- Finally, We've started up a Star Wars role-playing game with my old buddy from back in the day at FACS, Ron. He';s got a LOT of other responsibilities, but I figured, he needs a fannish outlet, and it's only two weeknights a month, and I think it helps him thru those times when all he's got is a load of responsibilities (family, job, church, etc). As long as me and Jinny and Chris are running the game, he can look forward to coming over on Mondays and blasting stormtroopers. :-) Plus, its a small group, so I'm not stressed out with the sheer numbers of people. (See previous entry for D&D rant. *grin()

Well, that about nutshells the important stuff. Life is better now than it has been in a long time (knock on wood). My innate sense of optimism tells me that it will continue to get better, especially after Xmas when I get that wonderful Luxoticca pay rate at full time instead of part time.

OVFF approaches....