Tuesday, June 24, 2008
No rest for the wickedly idiotic |5:20 AM| How impressed can you be by someone's actions if you think said actions are intensely stupid? "Wow, he's damned good at pissing on alligators! In the eye, every time!"
I stayed up for some 50+ hours over the weekend. This, that is just colossally stupid. It is the Laocoon of poor planning, something to be studied as a nigh perfect example of dumb.
There was just too goddamn shit to DO. I'd had some issues this past Thursday and was basically asleep most of the daylight hours. Guilt from wasting a day became dedication to completing a huge portion of my current job list.
It's all pretty hazy but I think I was having crepe's at Suzy's place when this started.
First off was all the damn studying on Friday, I had to skip out on a birthday party for a roommate, a party at my very house, and some kind of wandering drinking adventure that ended up as a pool party. However I punched through a ton of Oceanography chapters, and I think that's when I got my hands on the hagfish article I'm using for extra credit. At about 4am the then-drunk Sandra was nice enough to help me with the assignment "...devise a method, using household items, to describe [some tectonic forces] to a school child". I had to crop my ugly mug out of most of the pictures, since my facial expressions would have surely affected my grade.
Unable to sleep that morning, I headed up to ACC to find the location of the buried treasure of me student loans. Arrr.
I finished the write up on the tectonics project at their computer lab.
From there I went to fix Cass's computer, killed a bunch of crap plugins and realplayer, cursed the bizarre Windows.0 folder I had spawned, and ended up helping Chris fix his machine as well. "Fix" really meant "Buy new power supply and spend twice as long as usual wiring it back in because it was a friend's machine".
From there I helped with some of their party projects, circular sawed some wood using a tree stump, big dumbbells and yelling as a saw horse, and picked up my cake container from Jami (I could tell by her reaction that I already had the bug-eyed, looney tunes expression I get when I've been up for too long).
I ended up staying the night at Cass's place as a social outing. Erik presented Rambo (gorgeous BluRay, damned impressive film making, great commentary by Stallone) I knew I'd crash if I slept so I stayed awake with Erik until 9am. I stopped by to visit Suzy again, went home to prep for the Roller Derby webcast, found out they'd changed venues, started negotiations for camera risers, found out my laptop was now a big brick, the normal problems. I had free passes for Suzy, Cass, Amanda. I ran into Amanda and probably spooked the hell out of her, whoops, great 3rd impression, Brendan, handed out the tickets, made cursory introductions between parties, and ran off to fix the server (Plenty of other shit went wrong, but none of it was noticed by the audience, because we're awesome. Not a single server reboot needed this time). Broke it all down, went home.
When the ibuprofen for my shoulder took affect, a hammer could not have knocked me out more quickly.
Stupid. Effective.
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Monday, June 18, 2007
Bonnaroo Time Line |6:23 PM| Alright this ain't done. Here's a link to the gallery or you can wait and read a better explanation of most of the images as it is written here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007
Wednesday: 10-11am - They gave us a jeep and not a minivan
11:00am-3pm Loaded up the jeep
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474422414152034
Cass Packs
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#50774744782487268983
3-3:30 delays due to my being forgetful and our worries about the stuff strapped to the roof
4:00 -> ~4pm Thursday
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474521198399874 Chris ride
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474546968203666 Jimmy Ride
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474598507811234 Smile
Cass started the drive, 85 miles an hour http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474675817222594
Not a lot of scenery: http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474688702124498 Barge
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474723061862882 Chris again
The car was uncomfortable naturally, but being now almost filled with luggage it was officially "cramped"
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474753126633970
I pulled about 5.5 to 6 hours of driving duty
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474778896437762
Jimmy Took over while I tried to sleep off "All caffeine and no water make brendan crazy" right after he took another leak http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474843320947218
Near the ONLY BAPTIST CHURCH
We continued to ride: http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474869090751010
Then we waited in line for about 4 hours or so
waited in line for about 4 hours or so
We finally started makingourcamp at about...5? 6pm?
Our enthusiasm was high.
At last year's Bonnaroo Chriss, Cass, Kamon, and Jimmy had all been miserably hot, and the tent has been nearly uninhabitable. This year we tried just a giant canopy and tethered sheets to the sides.
Direc http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475015119639138
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475079544148594
It was really a palace by shelter standards
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475126788788866
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475186918331026
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475414551597794
Marked Levity http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475208393167522
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475247047873202
I need to learn how to tie some knots
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475324357284546
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475513335845634
HUZZAH TENT http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475350127088338
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475466091205362
Relaxation followed by a
More walk
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475706609374002
We caught Louis Black and Friends
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475835458392946
And then hung out to see what sort of late night fun could be found
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475869818131330
Friday:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475998667150242
OH YEAH JIMMY
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476106041332674
Peek
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476204825580514
Everyone had goofy head wear save me. My bandanna was odd but it wasn't bizarre enough
On Thursday I had become separated from the rest of the group, and since their cellphones weren't working I had no way to contact them, not place to meet them. So I started wandering in the way I was hoping they'd wander to find me. When "The Crystal Method" began playing on a P.A. system I knew one of our party would head towards it. I did manage to spot Chris from a fair distance because of his hat. He'd taken off wandering in an attempt to find me.
After that I decided it was time for me to find some horrible green head covering. It took some time on Friday, including what my friends thought was a ridiculous detour, but I prevailed. Sort of.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476329379632146
The material was thin, and cheap, and non-absorbent. I paid for the rag as they handed it to me and the moment I had pulled it from the plastic I thought "Oh dammit I've been fucked." $5 was about 350% too much for this hideous thing (in the real world that is), but it served its purpose.
After that we saw The Brazilian Girls
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476483998454850
Of whom I'd never heard before then.
We went and listened to the preaching of The Nightwatchman next.
Then Manu Chao Radio Bemba Sound System. That was a truly entertaining show. I couldn't understand a single thing they said (It was in Spanish, I believe) but it was still a blast and it compelled you to dance.
We had listened briefly to Lily Allen on our way over to the Manu Chao show, and she sounded really interesting. She is talented vocally, but upon listening to her album we all found her lyrics to be sorely lacking.
On the main stage that evening was Tool, who put on a hell of a show, at ear-destroying volume. I'm surprised I couldn't see the actual vibrations through the air from those monstrous speakers. The big video displays were showing imagery and videos in the tool visual styles. Creepy shit, I wonder if it's the same crew making those videos or if they have to change them out every so often.
Chris and Cass hit the hay, Jimmy and I tried to locate trouble of some kind. What Jimmy located was "fatigue" and "Cold"
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476707336754306
I tried out the Silent Disco.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476642912244850
The String Cheese incident didn't really grab our attention, so I can't give an honest appraisal of their show.
Saturday:
The next day's initial highlight was Regina Effin' Spektor.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476810415969442
She had a truly cute and endearing stage personality, she fumbled the words for her songs a couple times and laughed it off. She played a guitar that she said she "Sucked" at, it was a great deal of fun. There are several more images from her concert in the gallery, and Cass took a video when she started singing après moi*.
I'd been wanting to see her in concert ever since Cass introduced me to her music several months back, and her show did not disappoint. I even waited in a line that was of epic scale* to get her signature on a CD.
After we met back up with Chris and Jimmy we hit the Ween concert, which was enjoyable even if we were pretty damn far from the stage.
We then ran into this ridiculous group of dancers.
Every time a song would finish, the cheer would go up "One more song!"
The women on stilts were beginning to show a great deal of fatigue, and occasionally would just flat out stop moving around.
We did our best
to keep up.
Went to the Police concert
Then Girl Talk
Saw a glass blower
We waited in line for 2 hours just to get stopped just short of the door to the comedy tent. We had to wait another 90 minutes to get in.
The decemberists
Gooood bye!
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Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Some of the stuff from last week |7:16 PM| My new roommate and I have already begun a kind of Inspector Clouseau/Cato Fong ongoing gun battle thoughout the house. Luckily for me his nerf shotgun takes forever to reload, and luckily for him my revolver makes a very distinct noise when I load it.
I've never seen the Diet Coke on corroded battery leads trick done before, but it was great and terrible to behold.
ChrisH's car had died suddenly in his parking garage, and that just wasn't going to stand. Chris, Cass, and I went out with jumper cables and socket wrenches in hand to see if we could muddle it back into working order. When we saw the 1 inch thick cubes of corrosion and battery acid on the terminals, they wandered off to go seize some of Chris's company's free diet coke supplies. I checked a few fuses just to be safe, and loosed/tightened the battery leads.
Among the many little tricks I've picked up about amature car repair, one of the most helpful was a trick I learned myself, on how to fish lost components out of an engine compartment. I was checking the fuses on his car, when I dropped the starter fuse directly into the engine. I heard the clink, clink of plastic on metal but not the knock of it hitting asphalt. Fuck. I tried the usual trick of rocking the car on its shocks, trying to dislodge the missing component, with no luck.
It was only a matter of time before those two got back, and the last thing I wanted to explain is how I lost part of their car inside another part of their car. Now for the neato trick. I needed some long chunk of metal to push the fuse off of its resting place, which isn't something I carry around. Most car radio antennas unscrew easily from their mounting point. (If you have a power antenna you're SOL). With said antenna I was able to dislodge the fuse. In some cases, if you've lost a metal component and have a magnet handy, you can put the antenna near the missing piece, then attach the magnet, and pull the component out.
While I hope the readers of this information never need to use it, such a trick may come in handy.
Once the diet coke was poured onto the horribly corroded leads, I was able to re-tighten them, and jump the car. Success! Hooray!
Speaking of Cass, we were at Half Price books a couple of days ago looking for books on starting businesses. We happened to discuss old science fiction/fantasy novels we'd read years ago, and I mentioned liking "Hyperion" a great deal. We found a a copy of it#, notable because on the last page a woman had written "Let's stay together" and signed it (Tina? Gina?).
Something tells me her book related gambit did not work, as the book had been sold at much less than half price.
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Thursday, January 18, 2007
Birthday so far. |5:00 AM| Cass made me a cake and it was good.
My 360 came back. It's odd to hold something that has become a metaphor for the last 6 months of your life. Loss of control, being deprived of something you care about and being totally unable to regain it (Despite it still being in Texas, even. How remarkable)
We were brought in to work at 12 or 1pm. Sent home at 4:30 or so. The banks were closed.
It's very early, or very late.
I intend to post the pictures of Tengen News Editor as well as myself, THEN and NOW.
updates as they become possible.
Oh and if anyone is still seeking a birthday gift, here is a perfect example:
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Wednesday, January 03, 2007
New years |3:32 AM| Went out to a couple of events and parties. These guys put on some manner of "sky dancing" on the side of the Raddison, and it was pretty, but...not as impressive as such an undertaking might have been. While I understand how very difficult what they were doing was, it just didn't "move" me as other similar acts and performances have.
It's hard to explain, exactly.
Here is a gallery as this post kind of sucks and I mean to update and expand on it further.
http://www.terminalpacketloss.com/gallery/NewYears2007/
Not a lot of photos made the cut. Sorry. I take a shitload but I'm only ever happy with a couple, and there those that I judge tolerable. I took some movies with the camera, but they're a little large for public consumption and might trigger epileptic fits. (Footage of a strobe light)
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Saturday, December 16, 2006
Party, nipple issues |1:22 AM| I miss my nipple bars. I had to take them out, I have to let them heal so I can get them re-pierced in a better location. The previous ones just had too many issues, so I'm upgrading. Like new shocks on a car, only this is steel piercing non-functional tissue.
This means in the morning, when I stretch to scratch my sides, my chest feels differently. When I'm brushing my teeth I notice something is missing.
It's disconcerting. My deadline for re-piercing is like January 10th. Why not get it done sooner? I'm hoping to knock some more weight off before I do it, so if I have it video taped I'll look better.
Speaking of losing weight, I'm buying some new pants tommorow, along with all of my Christmas shopping.
Had the company party tonight, and it was a blast, as office parties go. I brought Cass along as my guest (It seemed a good idea to take a woman along, even one I'm not dating, rather than a dude [Like, God help me, Kamon] and "raise questions") and she took care of my drink tickets. She even managed to snag a decent set of knives during the gift exchange. I myself won the tool related raffle, and got a kit of roadside emergency tools (Which for some reason, lacks jumper cables and flares.)
Didn't win the gargantuan TV. Damn shame, even considering that if I owned it, I wouldn't be able to open the door to my house.
Got the bonus, too. I'd forgotten about it until they started handing them out, and good golly, I love my job.
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Monday, December 11, 2006
Two Parties in December |2:05 AM| I was at two parties in the last couple of weeks, and not a lot of pictures came out for either of them. I combined them into one gallery, to save hassle.
The first was a "Come as what you wanted to be when you grew up" party. My costume got buried under a bunch of crap in my car, so instead of dressing up as an astronaut, I have a new mop bucket. (Otherwise I was going to cut a hole in the side, wear it like a helmet).
My friends and I met some good people, and played word games on the porch for most of the evening. It was casual and relaxed.
The second party was for a guy known as "The Neon Cowboy". I don't know much about this fellow, other than that he can throw a hell of a bash, and his pals include The Enigma and The Lizard Man.
Two Parties in December
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The Chicago Trip |12:57 AM| I went to Chicago on a day's notice a few weeks back. A nice, eventful trip. The first couple of photos depict when I showed up, and met up with the wedding party during some pre-event celebrations. I finally got to meet the groom, who seems like a nice guy, and treats Erin well. The family was thrilled to see me, and we nice enough to rent me a room at the inn. As I am not the "thank you" card type, I thanked them with a big damn box of chocolate. Damn, I need to send them a Christmas card.
Then I met up with Chris H. (Who just happened to also be in Chicago, and who I would see less than 48 hours later back in Austin), trying to get to second city. A train, a bus, and a lot of walking later, we got to see some mediocre comedy. Well, except for SHAH 2, which is funny for Chris and I, but not anyone else.
Later is the actual wedding, and since the light was so low, not a lot of pictures came out. Erin seems really happy with her husband, which is probably a good thing, since they'll be seeing each other a lot for the next lifetime or so. The whole shindig was well rehearsed, and went off without a hitch. I even managed to do some horrible dancing. I slipped out quietly.
Later that evening, I met up with John L. outside of a best buy to wait for the Nintendo Wii. Also present was his girlfriend, Krystl, who I hadn't seen in years. The last time I saw her, she had hair past her waist, and would only wear skirts, as Pentecostal women cannot wear pants, nor cut their hair.
John and I ended up waiting quite a while, in increasingly cold air, then raining, then snowing. Information travels between these groups, these lines, (such as back during the Star Wars lines). Information like how many Wii's Best Buy had in stock (90) or how many Toys R. Us had (5, after all the pre-orders). We played bean bag related games, held each other's places in line, and generally pal'd around with a bunch of other nerds. At about 4 or 5 AM, John managed to find a Walmart that had 20 units that no one else seemed to know about, and instead of having to wait until 9am, we got the damn console at about 6. Those were an important 3 goddamn cold hours.
The Trip to Chicago 2006
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Monday, March 13, 2006
A river rock runs from it |11:02 PM| This is a post about rocks. My head is filled with them.
My girlfriend, her roommate, the roommate's boyfriend, and a mutual friend went to a place called "Uchi" the other night.
Goddamn, I must have spent $30 alone on one kind of sushi, but it was worth every penny. The total for the evening was some staggering amount of money, that I don't even want to type lest I suffer a wallet related aneurysm. The more notable part of the evening (for me, at least) was the appetizer I ordered, or more to a point, the way it was prepared.
I've been to places that let you cook your own meat at the table, that's nothing special. This was all about the presentation, the method. They serve a (fantastic) cut of raw meat, and provide you with a salted, 800 degree flat river rock "from Japan". You sear the meat on this rock, which is sitting on salt and small pebbles, and it's hot enough to cook meat for about 5 minutes or so. It was amazing, and straightforward. Did they actually go to the trouble of importing a damn rock from Japan? I don't care, it was still innovative and surprising. The dish was called, naturally enough, "Hot Rock". Who'd have thought you could take the chore of cooking your own meal, add a dangerously heated rock, and voila, $7 that I was happy to spend.
While I was dropping Wonderlust off at Cas's place a couple weeks back, I walked past what could have likely become a "Domestic Disturbance". There was a dude who I judged by his cover (White trash as all get out), a very young girl probably about 8, standing in front of a door that opened just as I walked by. The dude asked quickly of the woman that had partially emerged from behind the door "Can we talk?" With a hint of both aggression and frustration in his voice.
The woman, who I saw only briefly, had that tired, sallow look, hair pulled back, dressed in a bathrobe and clothes that barely ranked above pajamas. She recognized the guy and the look on her face spoke volumes. Surprise, anger, a little fear, and this strange kind of frustration, I'd get that look of frustration if I found out that after having my leg broken once, the doctors were going to have to do it again. A much more minor version of that "I have to put up with this BULLSHIT again?" feeling that villages being attacked by Vikings again might have felt.
As I headed towards the elevator I heard the little girl say "Mommy!" Stretching the y sound to make it clear she was excited and hadn't seen her in a while.
This was a bad scene.
I got to the first floor (they were on the second) and lacking a phone with which to call the cops if it got ugly, I looked around for a brick. I was hoping a nice solid chunk of masonry would be handy for my plan. My plan was, hang around for a few minutes, if things started to sound ugly for Mrs. "I keep my bissel power steamer outside of my house for some reason", I would throw the brick at the dude, yell some truly clever remark, and run like my ass was on fire.
I continued to look for a proper brick when I found a big pile of river rocks. Someone had gone to the trouble of erecting a strange concrete planter-thingy in the center of Cas's complex, and part of the ornamentation were these very smooth, very pretty stones, that also happened to be the perfect size for throwing at a redneck. If you asked a master rock craftsman to make the rock you needed to toss at the head of someone you wanted to distract, he'd probably say "I don't fucking exist, idiot." but it's possible he'd give you a rock like this.
I gave up on trying to come up with a witty comment to go with throwing the rock, something like "Tally-ho, why not tangle with someone who doesn't regard you as a monument to every wrong thing they did in their life!" It was probably going to have to be "HEY FUCK-O!". Luckily by this time it sounded as though the argument was winding down a bit, and I mosey'd off.
I would probably have forgotten this anti-climatic tale if I hadn't left the damn rock at my girlfriend's place. I don't want to just toss it out, but bringing it all the way back to Cas seems an awful waste. Hopefully there isn't some Hawaiian curse on the damn thing.
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Saturday, March 04, 2006
The wonderlust issue, the trashcan incident |8:14 PM| Wonderlust is in town. The mook finally managed to come to town and NOT cancel the trip at the last minute.
There have been a lot of idiotic jokes, a fair amount of driving, and sleep deprivation and we still have another couple of days.
Right now, I don't have custody, as he's seeing SomeGirl. SomeGirl in relation to me can best be described as "I'm not talking to him." which is alright, I sinned in that church, pissed on the wrong floor, my actions were indefensible, and worse, were boring. Also, I owed Wonderlust some discretion, so I ditched him as requested and became just another vapor trail.
His plan was bold, I suppose. The right words for describing a marriage proposal are difficult to find. If challenged, I'd say finding the right chunk of old sea glass on a beach would be easier. Or maybe it's just that I'm writing this shit at 4am.
Before ditching Wonderlust to his fate, we had helped shop for trashcan punch related supplies with Cas. In a tiny Celica, with 3 people, a trashcan has very few places to fit. Not to mention the 12 oranges, crapload of strawberries, 20 liters of lemon lime soda, 12 cans of fruit juice, 2 bottles of vodka, and 2 bottles of everclear. I was clearing space in the back seat when Cas decided on jumping into the can itself, and insisted on being transported in this fashion. I braced the can as best I could, told her "The cops can't see you, or they'll pull us over", then covered her with a towel.
I proceeded to drive at a level of careful classified as absurdly.
A note on Cas, she has been near saint-like. On short notice she provided lodging to 'lust and really put up with our bullshit well. (like taking a picture of her blowdrying her hair at Mr. Lust's behest)
Shit went down, I wasn't present, I'm not one to comment on it, but Wonderlust did not become engaged that day. Luckily we had a trashcan full of booze and a backyard full of goddamn savages.
That's a lot of pictures of the dude from Portland, geez. As I am an egomaniac, I'd normally have pictures of myself, but none were flattering from this set.
We had a good time. Wonderlust got an interesting facial treatment and seemed to be having an alright time.
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No rest for the wickedly idiotic |5:20 AM| How impressed can you be by someone's actions if you think said actions are intensely stupid? "Wow, he's damned good at pissing on alligators! In the eye, every time!"
I stayed up for some 50+ hours over the weekend. This, that is just colossally stupid. It is the Laocoon of poor planning, something to be studied as a nigh perfect example of dumb.
There was just too goddamn shit to DO. I'd had some issues this past Thursday and was basically asleep most of the daylight hours. Guilt from wasting a day became dedication to completing a huge portion of my current job list.
It's all pretty hazy but I think I was having crepe's at Suzy's place when this started.
First off was all the damn studying on Friday, I had to skip out on a birthday party for a roommate, a party at my very house, and some kind of wandering drinking adventure that ended up as a pool party. However I punched through a ton of Oceanography chapters, and I think that's when I got my hands on the hagfish article I'm using for extra credit. At about 4am the then-drunk Sandra was nice enough to help me with the assignment "...devise a method, using household items, to describe [some tectonic forces] to a school child". I had to crop my ugly mug out of most of the pictures, since my facial expressions would have surely affected my grade.
Unable to sleep that morning, I headed up to ACC to find the location of the buried treasure of me student loans. Arrr.
I finished the write up on the tectonics project at their computer lab.
From there I went to fix Cass's computer, killed a bunch of crap plugins and realplayer, cursed the bizarre Windows.0 folder I had spawned, and ended up helping Chris fix his machine as well. "Fix" really meant "Buy new power supply and spend twice as long as usual wiring it back in because it was a friend's machine".
From there I helped with some of their party projects, circular sawed some wood using a tree stump, big dumbbells and yelling as a saw horse, and picked up my cake container from Jami (I could tell by her reaction that I already had the bug-eyed, looney tunes expression I get when I've been up for too long).
I ended up staying the night at Cass's place as a social outing. Erik presented Rambo (gorgeous BluRay, damned impressive film making, great commentary by Stallone) I knew I'd crash if I slept so I stayed awake with Erik until 9am. I stopped by to visit Suzy again, went home to prep for the Roller Derby webcast, found out they'd changed venues, started negotiations for camera risers, found out my laptop was now a big brick, the normal problems. I had free passes for Suzy, Cass, Amanda. I ran into Amanda and probably spooked the hell out of her, whoops, great 3rd impression, Brendan, handed out the tickets, made cursory introductions between parties, and ran off to fix the server (Plenty of other shit went wrong, but none of it was noticed by the audience, because we're awesome. Not a single server reboot needed this time). Broke it all down, went home.
When the ibuprofen for my shoulder took affect, a hammer could not have knocked me out more quickly.
Stupid. Effective.
Labels: Cass, ChrisH, Erik, Suzy
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Monday, June 18, 2007
Bonnaroo Time Line |6:23 PM| Alright this ain't done. Here's a link to the gallery or you can wait and read a better explanation of most of the images as it is written here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007
Wednesday: 10-11am - They gave us a jeep and not a minivan
11:00am-3pm Loaded up the jeep
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474422414152034
Cass Packs
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#50774744782487268983
3-3:30 delays due to my being forgetful and our worries about the stuff strapped to the roof
4:00 -> ~4pm Thursday
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474521198399874 Chris ride
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474546968203666 Jimmy Ride
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474598507811234 Smile
Cass started the drive, 85 miles an hour http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474675817222594
Not a lot of scenery: http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474688702124498 Barge
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474723061862882 Chris again
The car was uncomfortable naturally, but being now almost filled with luggage it was officially "cramped"
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474753126633970
I pulled about 5.5 to 6 hours of driving duty
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474778896437762
Jimmy Took over while I tried to sleep off "All caffeine and no water make brendan crazy" right after he took another leak http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474843320947218
Near the ONLY BAPTIST CHURCH
We continued to ride: http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077474869090751010
Then we waited in line for about 4 hours or so
waited in line for about 4 hours or so
We finally started makingourcamp at about...5? 6pm?
Our enthusiasm was high.
At last year's Bonnaroo Chriss, Cass, Kamon, and Jimmy had all been miserably hot, and the tent has been nearly uninhabitable. This year we tried just a giant canopy and tethered sheets to the sides.
Direc http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475015119639138
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475079544148594
It was really a palace by shelter standards
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475126788788866
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475186918331026
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475414551597794
Marked Levity http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475208393167522
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475247047873202
I need to learn how to tie some knots
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475324357284546
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475513335845634
HUZZAH TENT http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475350127088338
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475466091205362
Relaxation followed by a
More walk
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475706609374002
We caught Louis Black and Friends
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475835458392946
And then hung out to see what sort of late night fun could be found
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475869818131330
Friday:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077475998667150242
OH YEAH JIMMY
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476106041332674
Peek
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476204825580514
Everyone had goofy head wear save me. My bandanna was odd but it wasn't bizarre enough
On Thursday I had become separated from the rest of the group, and since their cellphones weren't working I had no way to contact them, not place to meet them. So I started wandering in the way I was hoping they'd wander to find me. When "The Crystal Method" began playing on a P.A. system I knew one of our party would head towards it. I did manage to spot Chris from a fair distance because of his hat. He'd taken off wandering in an attempt to find me.
After that I decided it was time for me to find some horrible green head covering. It took some time on Friday, including what my friends thought was a ridiculous detour, but I prevailed. Sort of.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476329379632146
The material was thin, and cheap, and non-absorbent. I paid for the rag as they handed it to me and the moment I had pulled it from the plastic I thought "Oh dammit I've been fucked." $5 was about 350% too much for this hideous thing (in the real world that is), but it served its purpose.
After that we saw The Brazilian Girls
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476483998454850
Of whom I'd never heard before then.
We went and listened to the preaching of The Nightwatchman next.
Then Manu Chao Radio Bemba Sound System. That was a truly entertaining show. I couldn't understand a single thing they said (It was in Spanish, I believe) but it was still a blast and it compelled you to dance.
We had listened briefly to Lily Allen on our way over to the Manu Chao show, and she sounded really interesting. She is talented vocally, but upon listening to her album we all found her lyrics to be sorely lacking.
On the main stage that evening was Tool, who put on a hell of a show, at ear-destroying volume. I'm surprised I couldn't see the actual vibrations through the air from those monstrous speakers. The big video displays were showing imagery and videos in the tool visual styles. Creepy shit, I wonder if it's the same crew making those videos or if they have to change them out every so often.
Chris and Cass hit the hay, Jimmy and I tried to locate trouble of some kind. What Jimmy located was "fatigue" and "Cold"
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476707336754306
I tried out the Silent Disco.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476642912244850
The String Cheese incident didn't really grab our attention, so I can't give an honest appraisal of their show.
Saturday:
The next day's initial highlight was Regina Effin' Spektor.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Cecil137/Bonnaroo2007/photo#5077476810415969442
She had a truly cute and endearing stage personality, she fumbled the words for her songs a couple times and laughed it off. She played a guitar that she said she "Sucked" at, it was a great deal of fun. There are several more images from her concert in the gallery, and Cass took a video when she started singing après moi*.
I'd been wanting to see her in concert ever since Cass introduced me to her music several months back, and her show did not disappoint. I even waited in a line that was of epic scale* to get her signature on a CD.
After we met back up with Chris and Jimmy we hit the Ween concert, which was enjoyable even if we were pretty damn far from the stage.
We then ran into this ridiculous group of dancers.
Every time a song would finish, the cheer would go up "One more song!"
The women on stilts were beginning to show a great deal of fatigue, and occasionally would just flat out stop moving around.
We did our best
to keep up.
Went to the Police concert
Then Girl Talk
Saw a glass blower
We waited in line for 2 hours just to get stopped just short of the door to the comedy tent. We had to wait another 90 minutes to get in.
The decemberists
Gooood bye!
Labels: Cass, ChrisH, JimmyWiFi, Music, Pictures, Travel
(1) comments
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Some of the stuff from last week |7:16 PM| My new roommate and I have already begun a kind of Inspector Clouseau/Cato Fong ongoing gun battle thoughout the house. Luckily for me his nerf shotgun takes forever to reload, and luckily for him my revolver makes a very distinct noise when I load it.
I've never seen the Diet Coke on corroded battery leads trick done before, but it was great and terrible to behold.
ChrisH's car had died suddenly in his parking garage, and that just wasn't going to stand. Chris, Cass, and I went out with jumper cables and socket wrenches in hand to see if we could muddle it back into working order. When we saw the 1 inch thick cubes of corrosion and battery acid on the terminals, they wandered off to go seize some of Chris's company's free diet coke supplies. I checked a few fuses just to be safe, and loosed/tightened the battery leads.
Among the many little tricks I've picked up about amature car repair, one of the most helpful was a trick I learned myself, on how to fish lost components out of an engine compartment. I was checking the fuses on his car, when I dropped the starter fuse directly into the engine. I heard the clink, clink of plastic on metal but not the knock of it hitting asphalt. Fuck. I tried the usual trick of rocking the car on its shocks, trying to dislodge the missing component, with no luck.
It was only a matter of time before those two got back, and the last thing I wanted to explain is how I lost part of their car inside another part of their car. Now for the neato trick. I needed some long chunk of metal to push the fuse off of its resting place, which isn't something I carry around. Most car radio antennas unscrew easily from their mounting point. (If you have a power antenna you're SOL). With said antenna I was able to dislodge the fuse. In some cases, if you've lost a metal component and have a magnet handy, you can put the antenna near the missing piece, then attach the magnet, and pull the component out.
While I hope the readers of this information never need to use it, such a trick may come in handy.
Once the diet coke was poured onto the horribly corroded leads, I was able to re-tighten them, and jump the car. Success! Hooray!
Speaking of Cass, we were at Half Price books a couple of days ago looking for books on starting businesses. We happened to discuss old science fiction/fantasy novels we'd read years ago, and I mentioned liking "Hyperion" a great deal. We found a a copy of it#, notable because on the last page a woman had written "Let's stay together" and signed it (Tina? Gina?).
Something tells me her book related gambit did not work, as the book had been sold at much less than half price.
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Thursday, January 18, 2007
Birthday so far. |5:00 AM| Cass made me a cake and it was good.
My 360 came back. It's odd to hold something that has become a metaphor for the last 6 months of your life. Loss of control, being deprived of something you care about and being totally unable to regain it (Despite it still being in Texas, even. How remarkable)
We were brought in to work at 12 or 1pm. Sent home at 4:30 or so. The banks were closed.
It's very early, or very late.
I intend to post the pictures of Tengen News Editor as well as myself, THEN and NOW.
updates as they become possible.
Oh and if anyone is still seeking a birthday gift, here is a perfect example:
Labels: Cass
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Wednesday, January 03, 2007
New years |3:32 AM| Went out to a couple of events and parties. These guys put on some manner of "sky dancing" on the side of the Raddison, and it was pretty, but...not as impressive as such an undertaking might have been. While I understand how very difficult what they were doing was, it just didn't "move" me as other similar acts and performances have.
It's hard to explain, exactly.
Here is a gallery as this post kind of sucks and I mean to update and expand on it further.
http://www.terminalpacketloss.com/gallery/NewYears2007/
Not a lot of photos made the cut. Sorry. I take a shitload but I'm only ever happy with a couple, and there those that I judge tolerable. I took some movies with the camera, but they're a little large for public consumption and might trigger epileptic fits. (Footage of a strobe light)
Labels: Cass, Mariko, Pictures
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Saturday, December 16, 2006
Party, nipple issues |1:22 AM| I miss my nipple bars. I had to take them out, I have to let them heal so I can get them re-pierced in a better location. The previous ones just had too many issues, so I'm upgrading. Like new shocks on a car, only this is steel piercing non-functional tissue.
This means in the morning, when I stretch to scratch my sides, my chest feels differently. When I'm brushing my teeth I notice something is missing.
It's disconcerting. My deadline for re-piercing is like January 10th. Why not get it done sooner? I'm hoping to knock some more weight off before I do it, so if I have it video taped I'll look better.
Speaking of losing weight, I'm buying some new pants tommorow, along with all of my Christmas shopping.
Had the company party tonight, and it was a blast, as office parties go. I brought Cass along as my guest (It seemed a good idea to take a woman along, even one I'm not dating, rather than a dude [Like, God help me, Kamon] and "raise questions") and she took care of my drink tickets. She even managed to snag a decent set of knives during the gift exchange. I myself won the tool related raffle, and got a kit of roadside emergency tools (Which for some reason, lacks jumper cables and flares.)
Didn't win the gargantuan TV. Damn shame, even considering that if I owned it, I wouldn't be able to open the door to my house.
Got the bonus, too. I'd forgotten about it until they started handing them out, and good golly, I love my job.
Labels: Cass
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Monday, December 11, 2006
Two Parties in December |2:05 AM| I was at two parties in the last couple of weeks, and not a lot of pictures came out for either of them. I combined them into one gallery, to save hassle.
The first was a "Come as what you wanted to be when you grew up" party. My costume got buried under a bunch of crap in my car, so instead of dressing up as an astronaut, I have a new mop bucket. (Otherwise I was going to cut a hole in the side, wear it like a helmet).
My friends and I met some good people, and played word games on the porch for most of the evening. It was casual and relaxed.
The second party was for a guy known as "The Neon Cowboy". I don't know much about this fellow, other than that he can throw a hell of a bash, and his pals include The Enigma and The Lizard Man.
Two Parties in December
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The Chicago Trip |12:57 AM| I went to Chicago on a day's notice a few weeks back. A nice, eventful trip. The first couple of photos depict when I showed up, and met up with the wedding party during some pre-event celebrations. I finally got to meet the groom, who seems like a nice guy, and treats Erin well. The family was thrilled to see me, and we nice enough to rent me a room at the inn. As I am not the "thank you" card type, I thanked them with a big damn box of chocolate. Damn, I need to send them a Christmas card.
Then I met up with Chris H. (Who just happened to also be in Chicago, and who I would see less than 48 hours later back in Austin), trying to get to second city. A train, a bus, and a lot of walking later, we got to see some mediocre comedy. Well, except for SHAH 2, which is funny for Chris and I, but not anyone else.
Later is the actual wedding, and since the light was so low, not a lot of pictures came out. Erin seems really happy with her husband, which is probably a good thing, since they'll be seeing each other a lot for the next lifetime or so. The whole shindig was well rehearsed, and went off without a hitch. I even managed to do some horrible dancing. I slipped out quietly.
Later that evening, I met up with John L. outside of a best buy to wait for the Nintendo Wii. Also present was his girlfriend, Krystl, who I hadn't seen in years. The last time I saw her, she had hair past her waist, and would only wear skirts, as Pentecostal women cannot wear pants, nor cut their hair.
John and I ended up waiting quite a while, in increasingly cold air, then raining, then snowing. Information travels between these groups, these lines, (such as back during the Star Wars lines). Information like how many Wii's Best Buy had in stock (90) or how many Toys R. Us had (5, after all the pre-orders). We played bean bag related games, held each other's places in line, and generally pal'd around with a bunch of other nerds. At about 4 or 5 AM, John managed to find a Walmart that had 20 units that no one else seemed to know about, and instead of having to wait until 9am, we got the damn console at about 6. Those were an important 3 goddamn cold hours.
The Trip to Chicago 2006
Labels: Cass, ChrisH, Pictures
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Monday, March 13, 2006
A river rock runs from it |11:02 PM| This is a post about rocks. My head is filled with them.
My girlfriend, her roommate, the roommate's boyfriend, and a mutual friend went to a place called "Uchi" the other night.
Goddamn, I must have spent $30 alone on one kind of sushi, but it was worth every penny. The total for the evening was some staggering amount of money, that I don't even want to type lest I suffer a wallet related aneurysm. The more notable part of the evening (for me, at least) was the appetizer I ordered, or more to a point, the way it was prepared.
I've been to places that let you cook your own meat at the table, that's nothing special. This was all about the presentation, the method. They serve a (fantastic) cut of raw meat, and provide you with a salted, 800 degree flat river rock "from Japan". You sear the meat on this rock, which is sitting on salt and small pebbles, and it's hot enough to cook meat for about 5 minutes or so. It was amazing, and straightforward. Did they actually go to the trouble of importing a damn rock from Japan? I don't care, it was still innovative and surprising. The dish was called, naturally enough, "Hot Rock". Who'd have thought you could take the chore of cooking your own meal, add a dangerously heated rock, and voila, $7 that I was happy to spend.
While I was dropping Wonderlust off at Cas's place a couple weeks back, I walked past what could have likely become a "Domestic Disturbance". There was a dude who I judged by his cover (White trash as all get out), a very young girl probably about 8, standing in front of a door that opened just as I walked by. The dude asked quickly of the woman that had partially emerged from behind the door "Can we talk?" With a hint of both aggression and frustration in his voice.
The woman, who I saw only briefly, had that tired, sallow look, hair pulled back, dressed in a bathrobe and clothes that barely ranked above pajamas. She recognized the guy and the look on her face spoke volumes. Surprise, anger, a little fear, and this strange kind of frustration, I'd get that look of frustration if I found out that after having my leg broken once, the doctors were going to have to do it again. A much more minor version of that "I have to put up with this BULLSHIT again?" feeling that villages being attacked by Vikings again might have felt.
As I headed towards the elevator I heard the little girl say "Mommy!" Stretching the y sound to make it clear she was excited and hadn't seen her in a while.
This was a bad scene.
I got to the first floor (they were on the second) and lacking a phone with which to call the cops if it got ugly, I looked around for a brick. I was hoping a nice solid chunk of masonry would be handy for my plan. My plan was, hang around for a few minutes, if things started to sound ugly for Mrs. "I keep my bissel power steamer outside of my house for some reason", I would throw the brick at the dude, yell some truly clever remark, and run like my ass was on fire.
I continued to look for a proper brick when I found a big pile of river rocks. Someone had gone to the trouble of erecting a strange concrete planter-thingy in the center of Cas's complex, and part of the ornamentation were these very smooth, very pretty stones, that also happened to be the perfect size for throwing at a redneck. If you asked a master rock craftsman to make the rock you needed to toss at the head of someone you wanted to distract, he'd probably say "I don't fucking exist, idiot." but it's possible he'd give you a rock like this.
I gave up on trying to come up with a witty comment to go with throwing the rock, something like "Tally-ho, why not tangle with someone who doesn't regard you as a monument to every wrong thing they did in their life!" It was probably going to have to be "HEY FUCK-O!". Luckily by this time it sounded as though the argument was winding down a bit, and I mosey'd off.
I would probably have forgotten this anti-climatic tale if I hadn't left the damn rock at my girlfriend's place. I don't want to just toss it out, but bringing it all the way back to Cas seems an awful waste. Hopefully there isn't some Hawaiian curse on the damn thing.
Labels: Cass
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Saturday, March 04, 2006
The wonderlust issue, the trashcan incident |8:14 PM| Wonderlust is in town. The mook finally managed to come to town and NOT cancel the trip at the last minute.
There have been a lot of idiotic jokes, a fair amount of driving, and sleep deprivation and we still have another couple of days.
Right now, I don't have custody, as he's seeing SomeGirl. SomeGirl in relation to me can best be described as "I'm not talking to him." which is alright, I sinned in that church, pissed on the wrong floor, my actions were indefensible, and worse, were boring. Also, I owed Wonderlust some discretion, so I ditched him as requested and became just another vapor trail.
His plan was bold, I suppose. The right words for describing a marriage proposal are difficult to find. If challenged, I'd say finding the right chunk of old sea glass on a beach would be easier. Or maybe it's just that I'm writing this shit at 4am.
Before ditching Wonderlust to his fate, we had helped shop for trashcan punch related supplies with Cas. In a tiny Celica, with 3 people, a trashcan has very few places to fit. Not to mention the 12 oranges, crapload of strawberries, 20 liters of lemon lime soda, 12 cans of fruit juice, 2 bottles of vodka, and 2 bottles of everclear. I was clearing space in the back seat when Cas decided on jumping into the can itself, and insisted on being transported in this fashion. I braced the can as best I could, told her "The cops can't see you, or they'll pull us over", then covered her with a towel.
I proceeded to drive at a level of careful classified as absurdly.
A note on Cas, she has been near saint-like. On short notice she provided lodging to 'lust and really put up with our bullshit well. (like taking a picture of her blowdrying her hair at Mr. Lust's behest)
Shit went down, I wasn't present, I'm not one to comment on it, but Wonderlust did not become engaged that day. Luckily we had a trashcan full of booze and a backyard full of goddamn savages.
That's a lot of pictures of the dude from Portland, geez. As I am an egomaniac, I'd normally have pictures of myself, but none were flattering from this set.
We had a good time. Wonderlust got an interesting facial treatment and seemed to be having an alright time.
Labels: Cass, Pictures, Wonderlust
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