| I haven't made one of these post in a while. |
[Jul. 15th, 2009|02:06 pm] |
Aragorn: Gentlemen, we do not stop till nightfall.
Pippin: What about breakfast?
Aragorn: You've already had it.
Pippin: We've had one, yes. What about second breakfast?
[Aragorn turns and walks off in disgust]
Merry: I don't think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.
Pippin: What about elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn't he?
Merry: I wouldn't count on it. |
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| CON and the Can |
[Jul. 15th, 2009|11:57 am] |
For the last two years I've been raising money for the Breast Cancer 3-day. One of my biggest contributors was CONvergence. Because of an ambiguity around pledge drives at CON I carried around a can that said "Ask me about this can." It worked very well. What really helped with the drive was the Tribble adoption program. Someone had made hundreds of tribbles and let them loose at CONsuite all weekend. At the end of the weekend they were put up for adoption and the procedes went towards the walk. I can't tell you how much that meant to me.
This economy this year really the can. No one had the time to make tribbles and there was another group raising funds for the U. I can't compete with a kissing booth. I managed to get just over a hundred bucks. Even if contributions were on the same trend as the last two years I would still be short.
I don't blaim CONvergence I know it's been a tough year for everyone. It's just really discouraging. |
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| My long week old CON post. |
[Jul. 15th, 2009|11:10 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | con | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pleased | ] |
At the top let me just say it was a blast!
Tuesday
I helped unload the office. The weather was perfect this year. We had fun passing around the big clown.
A plumber came in to look at my wonky shower faucet. He said I need to replace it and that I could do it myself but I would have to get parts from a specific plumbing supply place. No one else has the works for a claw foot tub.
Wednesday
Spent the morning emptying out the pod and the afternoon making buckets of pins. After the active morning it was nice to sit down for a couple of hours and make little portable pieces of Chris Jones art.
Thursday
Spent this morning with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cressida42 we slept in and then looked at a couple of houses. There was that portion of the afternoon where everyone got their stuff together and in the same room. We compared panel choices and headed out for opening ceremonies.
At this point I'm not sure which day I did what but our weekend included.
A shot of blasphamy
I was introduced to The Monster Squad. A comedy show from the sixties by the same people who produced Batman. MS makes Batman look somber. The show is very goofy and I noticed that the big fight seen at the end was done with either Pillows, novelty inflatable bats, or something else soft and harmless. I've heard of the program and having seen it again I vaguly remember watching it when I was very young. I remember liking classic movie monsters at least.
After that we watch bloopers and outtakes from Dark Shadows. Since the program was done live there was far more gafs then usual and because everyone is trying to be so serious it's a little funnier. They showed a couple of episodes of What's My Line with cast members from DS. I like to look back at how people dressed and how shows look back then.
I volunteered a lot. Besides badging and elevatoring and the move in I helped scrub pots for the rice and the soup. It sound like it was something that not everyone wanted to do. I enjoyed hanging out and being useful.
I went thru the dealers room several times and picked up the usual loose assortment of patches. Several people gave me patches as well.
I already posted about the silent auction.
I was handed a Guinness Hat by a party room when I walked in. It fits three tribbles and a teacup.
I bumped into a lot of people that I don't usually see anyother time of the year then at CON.
Listened to a couple of bands including one two of my friends are in.
I bought several DVDs but only one CD of a band I've never heard of but really liked what little of their music that I had heard.
I got Cinematic Titanic's Autographs. Years ago I used to do open mike night comedy nights at Steve Ray's when it was in uptown. Frank Conniff did too. I wore the patch coat I used to wear then and mentioned the old days. It was actually less nostalgic then it sounds but it was cool seeing him again.
Sunday
After closing ceremonies I helped pack up. I mainly helped with the main stage stuff, holding lifting and carrying. I was volunteered to crawl under the stage and look for weights.
Monday
I helped load the pod and return stuff to the office. After a week of CON it's sad to see the hotel go back to normal. I made my 25 hours. I AM UBERVOLUNTEER! FEAR MY HELPFUL ATTITUDE.
Tuesday
I went to supply place the plumber recommended and I paid a lot for the faucet that I needed but didn't want to deal with. The whole process turned out to be a piece of cake and nothing broke, water didn't spray all over my bathroom and I didn't knock out the water for the whole building. I'm a little embarassed that I did take care of this years ago.
I carried the Breast Cancer can around at CON but I will talk about that in the next post. |
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| Thank you Capt. Obvious |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|03:37 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
I got an e-mail from the Heart Association suggesting that I take more walks. Walking would help lower blood pressure and it's good exersize. While I know they don't read my journal I still think it's funny to e-mail especially since I walked so much last week. |
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| Breast Cancer 3-Day Pancake Breakfast |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|10:43 am] |
Team Boobylicious will be holding a pancake breakfast at Applebee's in St. Louis Park on Saturday, August 1 from 8:00-10:00 a.m. Breakfast is $6.00 and includes pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, coffee and orange juice. The address is 8332 Highway 7 and it is located in Knollwood Mall facing the south side. Tickets can be purchased from one of the team members, or at the door that day. I hope to see you there! And if anyone is interested in helping work the event, that would be awesome as well!
Thanks for your support!
Joe |
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| Walkies |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|07:29 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
I went around Lake Calhoun six times today. All together I think it adds up to 19 miles. And I drank 6 liters of water not including the liter of seltzer that I'm finishing off right now.
No vorrent I'm not crazy. The voice say so. |
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| I'll make a more detailed post about CON later. |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|09:11 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  quixotic | ] |
But I had to mention what I won in the silent auction. CON had a bottle of Crystal Head Vodka autographed by Dan Ackroyd himself. It's a skull shaped bottle made of glass filled with vodka that has been filtered through herkimer diamonds which supposedly have healing powers.
I knew Dan Ackroyd was a bit of a nut but I didn't think he was that into it. The more I watch the video on his website the more I think he believes his own crap.
Omnifarious pointed out that this bottle of vodka will gain in value after the promotion bombs kind of like Billy Beer.
I went to the silent auction to pick up some replica NASA patches. The vodka came up and when the bidding got high I offered to make a bid if the auctioneer quoted some lines from Hamlet. He stumbled over a few worked and then another auctioneer tried it too. I kept the bid anyway. I was a little embarrassed at the time but the more I think about it the more I like the novelty.
The patches went for far more then I would have paid for them. The NASA buffs way out bid the patch fan. |
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| I'm glad I have a week off because this place is nutz. |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|04:22 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | Flabberghasted | ] |
Someone was trying to use a copier that needed paper and instead of loading paper just keep trying to make the same copy thirty five times! I checked the paper and it was in the drawer but the drawer hadn't closed completely. It doesn't take that much time to clear out the copy files but it task even less time to check for paper and to make sure the drawer is frikken closed!
It ain't rocket science people and it's not like we haven't had copiers since the seventies. We shouldn't be having these problems any more.
Someone suggested that I put up a little "check for paper" sign. I had to point out that if they are not reading the screen that says "Feed Me" they are not going to read the one that says "THINK".
Thank you I just needed to let that out. It's a pet peeve of mine. |
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| from the Writer's Almanac today |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|09:31 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  nostalgic | ] |
On this day in 1613, the Globe Theatre burned down. It was built by Shakespeare's acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, in 1599. It was a round, wooden building with thatched-roof balconies for the gentry. A cannon was fired during a performance of Henry VIII to mark the King's entrance, the thatched roof caught fire, and the whole theater was lost in an hour. It was rebuilt the next year, but taken down in 1644 to make space for tenements, after the Puritans closed all theaters. A replica, the new Globe Theatre, was built in the mid-1990s. |
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| Writer's Block: Childhood Firsts |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|09:12 am] |
I was told my first words was Fire. Considering I had a bad pacifier habit I pretty sure I wasn't a infant pyro. |
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| four movies we watched recently |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|03:01 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  creative | ] |
Up
This was an amazing piece of cinematic art. It's a kids movie but there is subject matter for adults. It deals with an elderly man losing his wife but there are talking animals and the talking animals are thrown in as an after thought for the toddlers like most Disney films.
I respect the reviews from Spill.com. A web site where four regular guys review films and they know what they're talking about. They don't use pretentious cinematic dialog and they don't pander to the producing companies. Four regular adult guys said that UP was Better Then Sex, their highest rating.
Man on Wire
This is a documentary about the guy who, with the help of his friends, broke in to the World Trade Center, strung up a wire between the two towers and WALKED ON THE WIRE. All of this happened during the seventies. A time when you could go to a foreign country, meet like minded people and plan out a crazy stunt like that. I have to admire the courage to pull it off never mind being that high up on an inch wide cable. There is a beautiful balance between the passion he has for his art and the sheer madness of what he's trying to do.
I don't remember this happening and I'm surprised that I never heard of it since. I suppose they did't what people trying to break into the World Trade Center for other reasons.
Religulous
This is the Bill Maher vehicle where he investigates different religions and basically flips them off. If you are a person of faith this will probably offend you. As an agnostic I thought it was amusing but kind of lame. He really doesn't present a good argument against religion beyond "Doesn't this seems a little silly to you?" The film is shot well and there is a lot of stock footage from educational films but it's not something I wouldn't watch twice.
X-Files-I want to Believe.
Wow this would have been slow and lame for an episode and I can't imagine it as a movie. I was expecting the B story to fit into the A story somehow but it never did. The underlying theme was stem cell research. That's not much of a spoiler. This film felt like a contractual obligation. Chris Carter really didn't put his heart into it. In the extras there is an interview with him where he spent most of his time talking about how eviromentally conscience the set was. Everything was recycled or biodegradable. I appreciate his green enthusiasm but I wanted him to talk about the movie. |
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| Same old |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|02:52 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | content | ] |
162 |
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| D&D |
[Jun. 20th, 2009|10:22 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | d&d | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
Our Saturday afternoon group changed slightly. the guy who hosted was struck down with a real job and could no longer host. Considering that I live half a mile away from him I offered my place. We were introduced to two new gamers. One of them took up the character played by the absent host. It's interesting to see how a new character is introduced to the party. Our game involved The Rescue. We came across a group of warforged slavers harassing an half elf warlock. I got to use the onyx dog that was a part of a previous treasure. I'm the tank of the party, the big guy in armor wielding a great axe of terror so of course I named the dog Daisy.
We kicked a lot of ass and generally had a good time. I think I will be less tempted to snack if we game at my place. At least I have the option of snacking healthily. |
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| No change no pain |
[Jun. 17th, 2009|06:54 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | 163 | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | pleased | ] |
I've been 163 for the last week or so. That's better then it going back up. |
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| He bundts for an easy base. |
[Jun. 13th, 2009|11:53 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
Mom asked me to make a bundt cake for her. She didn't say that she could follow the recipe instructions but I had the impression that's where she was coming from. She wanted to be sure that I knew how to make a bundt cake before I started. I figure get a lemon cake mix and follow the instructions for a bundt. I wasn't sure about the lemon glaze she wanted but I knew I would find something on the alternet. (thank you Cook.com)
Now that I've made one cake I'm a little concerned that I will be expected to make them when ever she wants. I have friends who knit and it seems like the second they learn that people expect them to knit stuff.
I also thought this might a sideways attempt to get me back into Catholicism. First it's a bundt cake then the jello dish with the marshmallows and the carrot shavings.
Well the cake is out of the oven and it turned out just lovely donja know. *GaaaHHHH*! |
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| Well thief I smell you. I feel your air. I hear your breath.... |
[Jun. 13th, 2009|11:39 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | creative | ] |
The answers to the dragon question generally came under two categories.
Greed-Either under the magpie quality of "Oooh Shiny" or the dragon feels that S/he should have that much treasure.
Necessity-The dragon uses the gold as bait to bring in the adventures/food trying to steal it or because they breath fire gold is the only substance that they can comfortably sleep on.
One I hadn't thought of was that they don't hoard gold at all. Dragons don't digest it and well they are sleeping on a large pile of very expensive poo. Our DM mentions that we've found treasure but doesn't say what it smells like. That's something to think about the next time my thief bites into a coin. |
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| Quote of the day |
[Jun. 13th, 2009|11:36 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | thoughtful | ] |
I believe in a higher power and I know for a fact it's not me.
Micheal J. Fox |
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disappointed