( some random thoughts on the Lymond series )

What else? I haven't been posting much. Let's see...

I went to Las Vegas and ate vegan donuts. That was fun. Details and pictures are here.

And then there was this... which I don't even want to write about so I'm going to copy and paste from an email I wrote to 10zlaine:

I was kind of just going with it... enjoying the pool while ignoring the massively overpriced bad food and the leers of drunken frat boys... and my front row seat was perfect... the show was amazing... AIC played "No Excuses," which I hadn't heard yet... I cheered like an idiot when they announced Sean Kinney's name--he's the drummer, and my favorite member of any band ever, and I've adored him since I was 11 years old due to his combination of ass-kicking musical ability and genuinely funny and good-natured personality... and at the end, he came over and HANDED ME A DRUM STICK... I was in heaven... already imagining how I'd frame it in glass and make it the center-piece of my apartment... I carried it around with me for 40 minutes while waiting in line for a drink... I went back to my seat... put the drumstick in my bag, put my bag on the floor between my feet and the barrier... and SOME ASSHOLE REACHED INTO MY BAG AND STOLE THE DRUM STICK.

No matter how much I tell myself that it's just a THING, and the cool moment was when Sean handed it to me... I am so fucking pissed off and I seriously wish I could flay alive the person who stole it from me... and that pretty much ruined the vacation, and killed my ability to ignore the disgusting exploitative sleaze of Vegas...

So yeah. This time when I say "I am never going back to Las Vegas," I mean it.

At least the donuts were good.

On Tuesday I saw Ian McKellen in "King Lear" at BAM. It was SO GOOD. I am not a theater person at all, so I can't really comment technically, I can just say that I was completely riveted every time McKellen was speaking, and completely riveted during the entire last act. The seats were incredibly uncomfortable and the view was weird (so steep that we were nearly looking at the top of the actors' heads) but I didn't even notice for the last hour or so. I'd never seen or read "King Lear" so I was really into the story, too. (I know, stop laughing at my ignorance.) I'm SO glad that I got to see it. If you ever have a chance to see Ian McKellen in anything, definitely go.

Then last night jaydk and I saw her favorite soap opera actor, Tom Pelphrey from Guiding Light, in a play in this weird little office-building theater that seated about 40 people. We were literally sitting on the stage. Pelphrey was good, but the play was pretentious and terrible. Alas. I'm sure it also suffered in comparison to Lear! I did make jaydk stick around and get Pelphrey's autograph, though--it was totally worth it to see her happy fangirl expression. ;)

And this weekend I'm going to Austin to see Alice in Chains unplugged. Honestly I'd rather just stay home and sleep, but, plane tickets already booked....

*is exhausted*


[Cross-posted to my InsaneJournal]

Thank you so much to everyone who sent me birthday wishes. You guys are awesome! :)

My friend Tammy (10zlaine) is insane. She's vowed to raise $2,200 in donations and then walk 60 miles. It's part of this raising awareness/raising money to stop breast cancer thing.

I'm not nearly so selfless, so I'll just watch in awe from the sidelines. Oh, and do my tiny bit to pimp her donations page far and wide. So far she's raised $805 of the necessary $2200, so, y'know, if you think this is a good cause, go donate and help her out. Or post a link to that page on your FL.

You can read all about the event here: The Breast Cancer 3-Day.



In other news, I'm going to see the Deftones tonight and Skinny Puppy tomorrow. Yay for summer concert season!

Here's what I've been up to lately:

* I went to an art auction benefit for the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. It was fun, except that it was in a yoga studio and everyone had to wander around barefoot. But the art was cool, there was a TON of free food and free alcohol, I got to hang out with Livi, Jessica, Anne, Ariela, and Patrick, and I won a raffle prize!

It's a really cool raffle prize, too--about $200 worth of fancy vegan lotions, body wash, shampoo, toothpaste, razors, toner, toothbrushes... every kind of thing you can imagine. It was so huge and heavy I couldn't even carry it home by myself. So now I won't have to buy lotion or shampoo for the next couple of years! (It was from United Foods which I guess is the distributor).

This marks the second raffle that I've won recently. (I also won a Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival t-shirt when I was in Iowa.) And I never win things. How random is that? They say this stuff happens in threes, so *knock on wood*.

* I dyed my hair wacky colors. It's a brighter red, with red-orange-blond streaks. Not sure I'll keep it; it might be too bright for me. But it *is* kind of summery.

* I hung out with Livi a lot. We ate Indian food, we ate Cuban food, we drank pina coladas, we went to a gay bar... it's been fun.

* I saw Spiderman III. It actually wasn't as bad as I expected. There were four things I liked:

( very vague Spiderman III spoilers )

* Voltaire continues to stalk me. I saw him coming out of a bank in the East Village; he glared at me. Last time, I saw him at the post office. Why won't he leave me alone??!!

* Um, seriously though, I'm never putting my number on Craiglist again. I got a really creepy crank call from some crying woman at 6am. People suck. (And the number it said it came from was my own--how do they do that?)

* I did find a roommate, though. She seems a little... overly detail-oriented. But she was good with the cats, which is the important thing. Cross your fingers for me.

* I played Sam & Max Hit the Road. Awesome classic LucasArts adventure game. I loved it. It's hilarious, especially all the dirty things coming out of the cute little rabbit's mouth. I can't believe they got away with marketing these games to kids.... And, seriously, I loved how well designed it was, and how brilliantly scripted the humor was.

* Now I'm playing Grim Fandango. So far, it's astounding. I'll post more when I finish.

* I watched the entire BBC Robin Hood series. I'm totally in love with Guy of Gisborne now. (I already babbled about that here.)

* I had nightmares for three weeks straight. Seriously. Ugh. Which is part of why I wasn't posting. But last night I finally had a cool dream. I had been playing Grim Fandango and watching Robin Hood, so I dreamed that I was playing Robin Hood. Like it was a game that I could control. So naturally I was playing Guy...! (I can't really remember what happened, but it was definitely fun.)

jaydk and I went to see the most insanely funny movie Saturday night: "Hot Fuzz."

Somehow I'd managed to avoid even hearing about this movie, but luckily jaydk dragged me to it. It's been years since I've laughed so hard in a movie theater. It's from the same people behind "Shaun of the Dead," which is also a classic, but I liked "Hot Fuzz" better. It's basically a parody of the "buddy cop" genre, with an incredibly twisted sense of humor.

I do not want to spoil it, but I will point out some of the elements that were awesome, so that everyone who has missed it so far will be tempted to go see it:

( awesome things about Hot Fuzz, with minor spoilers )

Also, I got my ticket for "Pirates of the Caribbean 3"! It's coming out on Friday May 25, but for some reason they are showing it at 8pm on Thursday May 24. So we went across the street and bought our tickets in advance--I have them in my hand! "Pirates 3," here I come! I think we are also going to the midnight showing at the Ziegfeld immediately after. We need our "Pirates" fix! ;)

You guys know 10zlaine, right? She's fannish, she's awesome, she really ought to post more non-friends-locked entries?

She and her sister lonners (also awesome) are participating in the Breast Cancer 3-Day in Boston on August 3-5, 2007. They'll be walking 60 miles in three days in order to raise money!

Net proceeds benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure, to fund breast cancer research and community outreach, as well as the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund, to provide an endowment for breast cancer initiatives.

They have pledged to raise $4,400 in order to participate as a team. This means they need tons of donations! 10zlaine currently has raised $530 of the $2,200 that she needs, so help her out! Every little bit helps. And tell your friends as well.  This is for a great cause.

Click here to donate

I've been listening to Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral and due to this travesty I now can't stop myself from laughing during "Hurt." Damn you, Sad Kermit!

***

Thanks to the anonymous person who gave me a tree! I'm not sure why you gave me a tree, but it's cool. :)

And I've been meaning forever to thank kellyhk for giving me a Valentine's flower. Sorry it took so long. Thank you Kelly!

Oh my god, Albion actually closed!

But... but... that's the first Goth club I ever went to! I was 17, with Stefanie and Athena, and I totally didn't fit in, but that night I fell in love with the Depeche Mode song "Walking in My Shoes."

I got my fake ID for the main purpose of getting into that club. (It worked.) I saw Uranium 235 there, and Joe (who didn't have a fake ID) snuck in as a roadie, and the band hung out outside with us and the underage fans who couldn't get in, and Chrissy's hair got stuck in Shane's nipple ring, and I was trying to prevent drunken Margaret from falling over, even though I barely knew her.

Steff, Chrissy, Jitney, Shane, and I went there after Uranium 235 played the Bitter End, and we took these goofy pictures, and no one could believe that Jitney was only 13.

That same night I had my final confrontation with a psychotic lunatic of a former friend. We had a tearful screaming match on the second floor, where the coat check is now, and I never spoke to her again. One of the best decisions I've ever made, and it taught me how to recognize (and avoid) the psychic vampires and pathological narcissists I've encountered since.

I saw Godhead there with Stefanie and Lisa and Helyne, and we papered the bathroom with Uranium 235 fliers, and some dude calling himself "Voltaire" hit on Helyne, and I thought he was creepy. And then afterwards the girls came back to my dorm room and we drew goofy pictures of Chris Bride and did impressions of Jason Miller.

I saw The Cruxshadows there more times than I can count. I'm sure I spent at least one Halloween there, and I spent a New Years Eve with drujan seeing Voltaire and Melotron. I saw Bella Morte and Slick Idiot and dozens of other bands. I saw Chemlab there for the first time, and met Jared Louche there. I saw PIG there when they didn't play until 3am and the poor friends I'd dragged along went home, and then 10zlaine and I took Guenter Schulz out to breakfast at a diner on 9th Avenue. I've hung out there with nearly every friend I've ever had, including plenty who would never have entered a Goth club otherwise.

They can't be closed.

I hated the snooty atmosphere and the overly-loud speakers and the disgusting bathrooms and the awful, expensive drinks, but still, I have so many memories of that place. :(

( general Veronica Mars thoughts )

( random personal babble )

I kind of miss Buffy fandom. It was fun having that kind of all-consuming obsession with something, and being able to share it with so many people. It was also so neat getting into the culture, learning all the acronyms and terms and references.... I don't know if I will ever get into a fandom the way I did with Buffy, and it makes me really sad to think that. I was so naive and clueless at the time, and now that I know so much about how TV shows and fandoms work, how could I ever work up that same level of investment and idealism about the story and characters? (On the plus side, I'm way less wanky now that I know not to care so much!)

Maybe I am just in one of my periodic "OMG life is so dull without a fandom" phases. Something come along and seize my attention, dammit!

I'm very grateful for the new remake of The Hitcher. Yeah, it looks like a dumb movie, but it's resulted in Sean Bean being on my TV every five minutes due to the incessant commercials. He's even in the subway in gigantic scary-looking ads! (Not that I find him scary; you know I'm totally going to be rooting for his character. How could the guy who played Sharpe really be bad?)

Also, OMG CUTE!!! (Photos of young Sean Bean.)

10zlaine visited this weekend. It was very last minute, so I wasn't terribly prepared, but we had a good time anyway. Mostly we hung out at my place and talked, while watching The Adventures of Brisco County Jr DVDs. (Damn, that show is classic.)

The point of the visit was for 10zlaine to collect one of Livi's kittens and bring him home with her. So we went to Livi's house last night, and 10zlaine fell in love with Otto (who greeted her by giving her hand a cat-bath with his tongue). Livi and Jessica made vegan taco-things, and then we hung out with the cats for hours. They are insanely playful at this age (about three months); my hands and arms are covered in little cat-scratches (which are totally worth it). 10zlaine brought this bouncy toy that got Marty to do insane flying leaps, like three feet in the air; you wouldn't imagine that such a little cat could jump so high. And then she gave them catnip, which drove them all even more insane. It was very fun.

10zlaine slept over at Livi's place and left early this morning; she's on the train right now going back to Maine, and has been sending me cell phone photos of Otto in his carrier and on her lap. It's really sad to think about him being separated from his brothers, but he's going to have an awesome life with 10zlaine and her cat and dog. (And I'm so jealous! She's got a fresh new kitten to take home with her!)

We also went to see Children of Men on Saturday night with drujan (and then we had horrible drinks at this chain Mexican restaurant, because we were in the culinary wasteland that is Times Square). I thought Children of Men was a good movie, but I didn't actually enjoy watching it.

( Children of Men )

Dear whoever just gave me an extra year of paid service (plus more userpics!) -- thank you! You are awesome! (I wish I knew who you were!)

:)

I'm so very tired.

I had jury duty Monday, went to work afterward and worked until 10pm, then had jury duty again the next morning. Jury duty requires getting up early and taking the subway and walking far. WAH.

I did have a nice lunch in Chinatown -- vegan dim sum at Buddha Bodai. And I read the equivalent of a Sharpe book over the two days (the last half of "Sharpe's Eagle" and the first half of "Sharpe's Enemy"--this is definitely the best period of the Sharpe series).

I didn't get called to a trial yesterday until 3:20--we were all cursing, because we'd been so close to getting out. I got called up to the jury box and interviewed (god, it's scary), so I answered the questions honestly and glared miserably at everyone. They dismissed me. Yay! Apparently the key to getting out of jury service is to look really mean, or perhaps to wear a purple shirt decorated with glittering silver spiders and webs. (Hey, it was Halloween.)

They actually told us (the eight people who'd been interviewed and dismissed) that we'd have to come back the next morning to pick up our forms, since it was already after 5pm, but we objected and they printed out the forms for us there. Yay! I'm done! Four years of freedom!

Then I rushed to the Astor Place Barnes & Noble, bought Courtney Love's book, and got a wristband which allowed me to wait outside in line for two and a half hours. I finally got in around 7:15 and got my autograph at about 8pm.

The book is huge and cool and expensive. It's mostly drawings, diary entries, and clippings.

Courtney was trying to look serious in black framed glasses, was wearing lots of makeup to cover her bad skin, and she's clearly had lots of plastic surgery. I have mixed feelings about her--she represents a lot of contradictions in American culture, I suppose. She's smart and observant and her critiques of society's attitude toward women and celebrity are great, and yet she wants to be part of everything she criticizes. I was really sad when she quit being punk rock and went to Hollywood.

But anyway--I waited in line and went up to get her autograph. She said "Nice to meet you, Laura" (we'd written our names on post-its so she could personalize the autographs) and I said "Nice to meet you," and that "Live Through This" is an amazing album and that it really means a lot to me. (True.) She said thanks, I said bye and happy Halloween, and that was that. She was nice.

Then I went to meet jaydk and drujan at a place on 14th and 9th that has Belgian beer, but it was impossible to get across 6th Avenue because of the parade. It took me a half hour just to walk from 8th St to 9th St on 6th (and was a little scary, with all the people trying to get through and the crowd not moving) so I walked to Union Square instead, dropped off my heavy stuff at the office, and took the L train over to 8th Avenue. "Borat" sat next to me on the train and spoke to me in character, but I grinned and ignored him.

There I met my friends and had the only vegan dish on the menu (pasta with garlic, pretty good) and three delicious beers. One was a raspberry lambic that was awesome--not as sugar sweet as the more mainstream ones, richer flavor.

Then we went up to "Evil Dead: The Musical," and got there just in time. Third row! But jaydk hadn't realized we were in the splatter seats, so she moved back at intermission, and drujan covered herself in plastic. I was all like "Bring on the fake blood, it's Halloween!" but it missed me. The guy next to me got soaked, though.

The play was awesome. It was just what you'd expect--Evil Dead, only a musical, and funny, and the guy playing Ash was good, and the crowd was awesome and went insane at every reference to the movies. I couldn't imagine a better time to see it. (Although I will be missing Bruce Campbell, because he's there tomorrow and I'm seeing Alice in Chains then.)

So I got home at 1:30am, and then had to come to work today. (And my boss called me at 8:30!!! WTF???) Because yesterday while I had the gall to be busy with jury duty, one of our sites got mentioned on Slashdot and the server slowed way down. Now I am trying to explain The Slashdot Effect to my boss so that I will not have to move all of our sites to some gigantic new server based on the remote possibility that we get mentioned on Slashdot again someday. *sigh*

On the plus side--a site I built got mentioned on Slashdot!

And tonight (and tomorrow) -- Alice in Chains! And let's just hope that I manage to stay awake and remain standing for it.

I am wearing my new favorite t-shirt today: babydoll size, full (and accurate) color, sun logo. I used to draw this thing in all of my school notebooks--Layne Staley designed it and it's on the inside of "Dirt"--so I am very happy that they finally made it into a tshirt that fits me.

It's deadline time. Last week I was at work until 8pm, 9pm, and finally until midnight on Friday night.

Then I had to take a wacky detour home, because a crane working on a building I pass every day decided to collapse and land on a taxi. Several blocks were blocked off and I was very lucky that my apartment was just out of the range of inaccessible buildings. It was quite weird, walking home after midnight, past all the people waiting at the police barriers to be allowed back into their apartments.

I've been listening to Marilyn Manson's album Antichrist Superstar. It's making me incredibly nostalgic for the mid-1990's, for being a teenager, and for some of the best concert experiences of my life. Manson used to put on such a great show, and I was naive and enthusiastic enough to enjoy it thoroughly. Wish he hadn't gotten old and lame. :( I think "The Reflecting God" is still one of my all time favorite songs, and Antichrist Superstar really is an amazingly cohesive album full of interesting ideas. Manson's more a writer than a musician ... but a good writer, and back then he was working with actual good musicians.

I have two more Sharpe books to read, but I'm not rushing because they're the final two (Waterloo and Devil) and I'd rather drag them out. Once they're done, that's it for the Sharpe book series, and despite its cheesiness and predictability, I've really been enjoying it. Sharpe is totally my kind of hero, with his social awkwardness and inability to fit in and ruthlessness and need to prove himself...

drujan and I hung out on Thursday night (commiserating over work problems and how much the INS sucks) and she stopped by so that I could lend her Sharpe's Sword (book). I also showed her the cover of the Sharpe's Eagle DVD. She stared at it for 30 straight seconds and I was afraid she was going to start drooling on it. We now have plans for a Sharpe movie night. ;)

Saturday I watched a 1988 movie starring Sean Bean called Stormy Monday. It also starred a surreal group of actors including Melanie Griffith, Sting, and Tommy Lee Jones. It was an atmospheric, moody film noir that didn't really go anywhere, though I think it was trying to make some kind of comment about the destructive power of American capitalism. Mostly I was distracted by how ridiculously gorgeous young Sean Bean was. Like, ridiculously, insanely, mind-boggling gorgeous. I watched it twice, despite it not being all that good. Sean Bean played a naive young man getting disillusioned by life, and falling in love, and walking around in jeans and a Walkman and looking adorable... ; it was nice seeing him as something other than a historical figure or a supervillain.

Then I had to go to Brooklyn. Twice in one weekend, which, in my opinion, is two times too much Brooklyn. I really, really, really hate that borough.

Saturday night I went to some concert ("industrial festival") because my friend April was going to be there. She's the one who just got married, so I wanted to see her. Unfortunately this involved getting on the L train, which took a half hour to arrive, then went only two stops into Brooklyn before stopping and announcing that this would be the last stop. So a whole mob of pissed off people had to get out and get on a bus, which took us the rest of the way. My stop was some empty wasteland full of abandoned warehouses, and I had to walk five blocks to get to the venue. (Happily I found a girl who was going to the same place, so we walked together.)

Then when we got there, we had to wait in line 45 minutes (with people smoking, ick) because the ticket takers were so stunningly disorganized. (The only good part was that there was a hot guy milling around who looked like Brian Kinney.) Once we finally managed to pay our $18 fee ($28 if you weren't on some promotions list), we had to go upstairs for the concert. "Upstairs" meant up the rickety metal outdoor fire escape. It was barely more than a ladder. And it shook. And it was see-through, not nice for all the girls in skirts. Half of us were clutching the sides in terror as we climbed up.

Once inside, the place turned out to be an utter shithole. Some old crumbly warehouse, horrid fire hazard (with wooden floors and only that one stairway), sweltering from all the people packed in. I entirely missed the band April was there to see (Imperative Reaction), but I did manage to find her. We headed to the bathroom, had to wait a half hour, then it was so gross that I decided to wait until I got home. So we went to the bar and it took literally a half hour to get a bartender's attention; it wasn't even a real bar, just some coolers and people running around. And did I mention how it was swelteringly hot, and the only air came from the fire escape, which you weren't allowed to stand on (probably because it would've collapsed from the weight of people trying to get air)? At least April drove me home so that I didn't have to rely on the L train bus, and of course, it was awesome to spend time with April, who is a good and true friend.

Still, in my many years of attending shithole music venues, this place was the very worst.

Sunday was better. My friend Livi organized this "Vegan Buddies" gathering at Red Bamboo Brooklyn (a veg restaurant in a much nicer neighborhood), which had some interesting speakers, good food, and a surprise birthday party and cake for Livi. I got there around 5pm and didn't leave until midnight, but it was worth it for the fun of hanging out with Livi and our fellow SuperVegans.

And now back to work. And, happily, Netflix is sending me more Sean Bean movies as we speak. :)

drujan informed me this weekend that BAPS is closing, which makes me sad, particularly because they're deleting the archives.

I haven't been back there in years, but that's where I entered fandom. (And my opinions have certainly changed dramatically since!) Still, the nostalgia is strong.

I'm looking through old posts now. 2001, and everyone's wondering what's going to happen when Riley returns. (Kelly suggests that Buffy will have to kill him to save Spike--oh, those were the good old days!) There's drujan, 10zlaine, kellyhk, redeem147, chenanceou, ww1614, spikewriter, jerrymcl89, jaydk, shipperx, klytaimnestra, cindermom... and plenty of others, but I can't spend all day scrolling through BAPS. To think, the different places we were in our lives back then.

It's amazing, looking through the list of people posting, how many of those people I later met in person, and how many I still know today. Fandom is crazy. In a good way.


The weekend was fun. jaydk and I finally celebrated drujan's birthday with a dinner at Pukk, which involved lots of their excellent sangria, and I secretly squeed over the fact that I'd gotten my two omnivorous friends to be enthusiastic over a vegan restaurant. ( seeing The Illusionist and other movies )

On Sunday I got some actual work done, and then watched my three latest Netflix movies, which were Less than Zero, Richard III (with Ian McKellen), and Wonder Boys.

( Wonder Boys )

( Richard III )

( Less Than Zero )

( Sharpe's Honor, the book )

Oh, and I'm leaving for DragonCon tomorrow. I'm not really into anything fannish at the moment, but I'm sure I'll find stuff to do, and I'll definitely be seeing Godhead, the Cruxshadows, and Voltaire, and hanging out with jaydk and 10zlaine.

I think that if there was a heaven, it'd be a lot like WriterCon. You're surrounded by hundreds of brilliant, talented people, all of whom share your interest in delving deep into the meaning of TV, movies, books. Everywhere you turn, there's an old friend who you haven't seen in ages, or have never even met in person, or else there's someone you don't know but would love to meet. There's even yummy vegan food in the hospitality suite, so you never have to starve. And random strangers keep coming up to you and either 1) thanking you for your website or 2) complementing your shoes. And then when you finally go back to your room, there's three people so cool that, even though you're exhausted, you stay up another hour chatting.

Heaven would probably have a nicer hotel, though, and in (my personal) heaven no one wakes up until at least noon. Aside from that, it was pretty much perfect. I just wish I'd had more time to talk to and meet everyone--there were so many awesome people that I did get to hang out with, but plenty more than I either missed entirely or passed in the hallway and went "OMG, it's you! We'll have to talk later!" and didn't see again.

There's no way to list everyone, but just, y'know, to everyone who was there: I miss you! I want to go back! The whole weekend was awesome!

( Here's a more specific con report )

So, yeah. The point is: WriterCon was awesome. And, seriously, if I could choose any social group in the world to hang out with, it would be the WriterCon crowd.

I know this already making the rounds within fandom, but for anyone who's managed to miss it, you really must read this: apparently a huge amount of the wank that's gone on in Harry Potter fandom for the past few years was all caused by one batshit insane fan and her zillion sockpuppets. I was over here (barely) participating in Spike fandom, yet even I remember a bunch of this stuff happening. Crazy to see that it all ties together like this.

It's quite a fascinating study in human social interaction--almost a guide on how to manipulate people and play on their biases in order to gain social power. Very much worth reading, even just to recognize the signs and avoid such people in the future.

10zlaine, you'll find it quite interesting.

( personal/tmi )


In other news, now that I've had a good night's sleep and washed off the ickiness of the Hartford train station, I've decided that going to Hartford wasn't a mistake after all. I mean, you know, it was PIG. And ... yeah.

Now I'm trying to decide--should I go to San Francisco and LA, or should I try for the three Texas dates, Austin, Dallas, and Houston? I want to go to the ones that'll have better crowds. I'm leaning toward SF and LA, but those guys I hung with in Florida might be going to the Texas ones, in which case it would be fun to have traveling partners. And then, should I go to the final show in Nashville, too? I'm tempted, but it's on a Thursday, meaning I'd have to take two vacation days. Argh. I'm going to wait and see.

Dude... insane hoyay in old comics.

And also, I just caught up reading chase820's latest post of "The Man Who Sold the World," which is so dark and angsty and awesome. I've pretty much forgotten what happened on the actual Queer as Folk; Chase's story is so infinitely better that who even needs the TV version?

Go check out the New York City restaurant guide at SuperVegan. I built this whole nifty little mechanism for users to rate restaurants and post reviews, so if you've ever visisted a veg-friendly restaurant in NYC, please go there and share your thoughts. :) (And if you find anything that doesn't work or seems weird, let me know so I can fix it!)

I saw Depeche Mode at Jones Beach last Saturday with jaydk and drujan. It was freezing, but the band was good. I'm seeing them again this Saturday in Atlantic City at the Borgata (have I mentioned how much I SO don't want to go to Atlantic City again? Maybe I can get my mom to go with me...)

On Monday I'm flying to Boston to see Alice in Chains, because I couldn't get tickets to the show in New York. This does feel kind of insane, but whatever... you only have one "all time favorite band EVER," right? Even though it's not really the band I loved *sigh*.

Got a new roommate. So far, so good. I get the feeling she doesn't really like the place, though. I'm just waiting for bad news...

Real life has been so crazy and busy and stressful... ugh.

Oh yeah, I did see the Veronica Mars finale. I thought it was good, not great. ( VM finale spoilers )

I'm looking forward to a couple of media things: the new X-Men movie (please for the love of god let it live up to the Bryan Singer version) and the new season of Rescue Me (wasn't Denis Leary awesome on the Daily Show the other night?).

Oh, and 10zlaine is visiting soon and we're going to see Spamalot and Common Rotation. (Haha, look at the comment they left on my MySpace profile: "don't be afraid to list us as a band you like. we promise to growl more.")

AND early June (PIG TOUR!!!!) is coming up faster than I could imagine. I've got a one way ticket to Fort Lauderdale; now I have to decide whether to go to the Tampa show, too.

Damn, I need to get my hair cut. And dyed. Not enough time in the day!!!

Oh, and I'm working on THREE huge website projects, in addition to work (I now run the entire web department by myself.)

I really just want to go take a nap for about three months.

Insanity at work right now. I don't want to talk about it. Just... UGH.

Anyone want to go see Bella Morte with me at CBGB tonight? I'll probably be getting there around 10:30.

Also, new Pig photo: Raymond inspects the merchandise. MySpace banned this photo. Nice.

At least South Park was good this week. Cartman eating the treasure: priceless. Though their ripping on Al Gore was lame; you have to ignore their weird conservative ideology and just enjoy the show.

I downloaded Veronica Mars, but haven't had a chance to watch it yet.

jaydk was over last weekend, showing me more Jonathan from Guiding Light. We watched like 8 1/2 hours and barely got through one storyline; it's amazing how much screentime soap operas manage to fill. I enjoyed it, though, violence and sex and nihilism and all the other fun stuff I enjoy in my fictional characters.

Back to work.

I'm leaving tomorrow for New Orleans and Convergence. Eep! I really need to plan these things more in advance; I haven't even printed out a list of vegan-friendly restaurants yet, never mind choosing clothes and packing!

I'm going to the con with drujan, so at least I'll have someone to hang out with. Assuming we don't kill each other. ;)

Strangely enough, there's no one there I really want to see. Rasputina should be interesting, but I don't love them, and I'm still annoyed at Bella Morte for not touring with PIG. Strangely enough the one I'm most looking forward to is Voltaire; at least he's funny.

Speaking of funny, did you guys see South Park last night? Totally awesome. More than made up for that lame-ass San Francisco episode. It had Bart Simpson! And Cartman's line about feeding the kid his dead parents! And "at least Family Guy's not all preachy and up it's own ass with messages" (paraphrased). Hee!!! And a really chilling message about censorship, too, for that matter. *loves*

Have you guys been reading Kevin Smith's blog? "Me and My Shadow" is brilliant. Thanks, 10zlaine, for pointing this out to me. Kevin Smith rocks.

Oh yeah, and now for some totally obvious self-promotion: Want to stay up to date with the latest in vegan news? Add superveganblog to your list by clicking here. (I blog there! It's cool!)

Oh my god. It's a Colbert Report/Harry Potter crossover. Awesome.

Veronica Mars. The last few episodes haven't sucked nearly as much as the beginning of the season, so I'll post some thoughts, in no real order. ( spoilers for aired VM episodes )

Other stuff...

* I had a strange dream last night, in which I was back in my 12th grade history class with Ms. Moran as the mean scary teacher. I didn't bring my books, because they were heavy and I thought we wouldn't need them, so she snapped at me and then handed out a memo to everyone which included a note about how irresponsible I was for not bringing the books. And for some reason, ros_fod was sitting at the desk next to mine, and kita0610 was sitting behind her. And then there was a fire drill, and I was in trouble because we were supposed to stash our books somewhere, but I hadn't brought any books to stash. And then ros_fod was feeling faint, but Ms. Moran was mean and made her go to the nurse alone, even though kita0610 offered to go with her.

Yeah, don't ask me to explain dreamlogic.

* I randomly flipped over to NIN's "Closer" video on VH1 Classics last night. I'd actually forgotten that Trent used to be skinny and fucked-up and leather clad and hot, instead of looking like your friend's uncle who works as a bouncer. *sigh* Wish I'd seen them live back then.

* South Park hovers in this weird territory between unbelievably funny and just ... stupid. The last two episodes were quite a contrast, as the return of Chef episode was fucking brilliant, and the San Francisco episode was just... so lame. As if those "heartland" folks proclaiming their superiority over the gays and atheists on the coasts aren't just as smug? Way to completely miss the obvious. But, whatever, it's South Park; if you get offended, you're giving them exactly what they want. (I think they mostly just get off on the "subversiveness" of offending as many people as possible, especially the groups that Hollywood usually overlooks.)

I'm too busy:

* Friday night - V for Vendetta with drujan and jaydk

* Saturday night - marathon of Jonathan from Guiding Light with jaydk (and she's agreed to let me force PIG videos on her! Whoo!!)

* Sunday night - WriterCon meeting

* Monday night - I'm going to the Daily Show! I can't wait. :)

* Wednesday - I have jury duty. Yuck.

And somewhere in the midst of all this, I'm working on this other thing, a really cool, really complex project that is supposed to launch in a week. I have a feeling I'm not going to be getting very much sleep in the upcoming days. *deep breath* But I can do it. And it will be cool.

(And on top of it all--I'm still sick from San Francisco! Damn West Coast germs. :P)