| Been a while |
[Aug. 14th, 2008|11:36 am] |
Wow. Almost 6 months since I last posted. Sounds about right though. I have been very focused on the internet of late, and LJ is not one of the places I've been spending a ton of time. I'm mostly in the DMTools Chat hanging out with fellow Paizo addicts, on the Paizo boards, or updating the PathfinderWiki. I also have not been updating Thoughtsonfilm.com, as it's a ton of work to maintain and it was really making me anxious because it created an expectation of what I would do every time I watched a movie and I couldn't handle it. Maybe I'll catch up at some point. We'll see.
Today I am hitting refresh over and over and over, as the Beta Playtest edition of the Pathfinder RPG comes out sometime, to coincide with the start of GenCon. Once I get that, and my most recent subscription package from Paizo, which includes the hardcover campaign setting, I'll be a happy, happy man.
I went with Alison to Los Angeles last weekend and have decided that I want to move there, so when she goes abroad, I'll probably pack up and head west at the same time. I got the same feeling there as I did ten years ago when I came to NY for the first time and just knew that I had to live here. I think it'll be good for my career and mental health to make the change, though I will miss the friends I have here, especially my weekly D&D buddies. But I'm sure I can find someone else in LA. It's' a big city. I imagine I'll be there by next spring, so if you want to see me before I go, this is your warning.
Gotta get back to work now, but maybe I'll use this lj a bit more in the coming months. We'll see. |
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| Sick again |
[Mar. 6th, 2008|11:40 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | d&d, health, x-files | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | amv | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  geeky | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Magnetic Fields - Drive On, Driver | ] |
I was sick yesterday. Gross sinus stuff. It's amazing, though, how strong a remedy can be found in the combination of a ton of pills, my grandma's crocheted afghan on my lap, a cat at my feet, and twelve episodes of X-Files on the tv.
In anticipation of the upcoming feature film, I have decided to finally finish season 9, and I guess I'm now about half-way through. I like that Doggett and Reyes seem to have their own budding romance, but there's just something missing without Mulder there. Sure, he was gone for most of season 8, too, but his absence is much more pronounced now, and the super soldier plotline isn't anywhere near as captivating as past throughlines. Oh well, what can you do about it?
I'm feeling much better now, and am at least functional. Tonight is gonna be a big night of D&D. We're finished with the second of 12 magazines in the adventure path we're playing and the characters will be setting off on a long sea voyage away from the home base, so we have to wrap up all of the loose ends in Sasserine before going. Additionally, we have decided to run alternate games with a second set of characters that will stay in the city, so we have introduce them tonight. I need to finish creating my half-aquatic elf bard for that one. I probably shouldn't be doing a long night tonight, but I can't pass it up, even for my health. I think I got sick yesterday because I was out late on Tuesday night at the 4th edition playtest campaign we're doing. I guess I have the weekend to recover, right? |
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| Gary Gygax |
[Mar. 4th, 2008|05:56 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | d&d | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | AMV | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  melancholy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Magnetic Fields - The Bitter End | ] |
The great Game Master hit neg-ten today. It's sad, but I am involved in a very involved Greyhawk campaign at the moment so I feel that he will still live on through the world and game he created. I'll have to play extra long tonight for him. RIP. |
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| Near Death Oscar Predictions |
[Feb. 24th, 2008|06:22 pm] |
I got food poisoning form some Chinese food I had on Friday and spent 8 hours in the bathroom dealing with that until the sun came up Saturday. Alison almost had to take me to the emergency room, but I stopped right as we were about to go and passed out. I am better now, but my throat is gravelly from all the spewing. So I sound worse than I am.
This prevented me from going to see ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) honey_rider yesterday to have her translate 12 for me in real-time, but I watched it today and think I have a basic idea of what's going on. It seems like it was a mostly a direct translation of the original film. I don't think it will win.
Now Alison, frankieteardrop and I are going to see The Magnetic Fields at Town Hall, and I will catch the Tivo'd Oscars when I get home. I'm not letting anyone ruin it for me, and I'll get to skip boring parts and commercials. My predictions are below, just for the record:
( 80th Annual Oscar Predictions: ) |
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| I used to be |
[Jan. 10th, 2008|12:29 am] |
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I used to be so much more reflective in journal entries. I was reading some from about 4 years ago, when I lost my job at A&E, was dealing with a bad roommate, met Alison, etc. and the entries are so much more in depth and personal than anything I write these days. And I updated soooo much. It's just weird to look back at that time and see not only how I was feeling and thinking with so much detail, but also that LJ seemed to play such an important role in my life. I both miss it and I don't. |
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| A Political Meme |
[Jan. 6th, 2008|02:37 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme, politics | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | 214 | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  blah | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Please Read the Letter | ] |
These are nice this time of year, especially since all the candidates seem so similar aside from personality differences. At least on the Democratic side. Watched the debate last night, and was really upset with the right-wing rhetoric filled news segments ABC threw in there as well as the terrible moderator. There were numerous times that Obama was moderating the moderator. Unacceptable. Anyway, here's my results.
( What candidate am I most similar to? ) |
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| Oh What the Hell... |
[Jan. 4th, 2008|02:09 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme, music | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | AMV | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | bored | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Gorillaz - Demon Days | ] |
If you have a last.fm profile, list your top 50 bands and use them to answer ( the questions below: ) |
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| You think you're good at Mario? |
[Dec. 30th, 2007|12:48 pm] |
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Try this. Ha! |
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| Xmas v2.0 |
[Dec. 27th, 2007|11:30 am] |
Last night was a wonderful Christmas reunion for Alison and I, who hadn't seen one another in a week. We had a nice little dinner, opened presents, and watched A Christmas Story, which I had seen on Monday but can never get enough of. She was surprised by both the book of New Yorker cartoons and the knitting supplies. I was even more surprised that she got me an iPod! Since mine was ruinated last winter when I doused it in wine, I've been severely lacking in music. But now I'm good again. 80 gigs is more than I have on my whole iTunes library, so I'll have to work to fill it up. Time to rip more of my thousands and thousands of CDs.We had a $50 limit that we set on ourselves, so I was even more surprised than I would have been otherwise since an iPod is quite a bit over this limit. I've been told it's also my birthday and anniversary present. I'm fine with that.
I got four tickets to the Jets/Chiefs game on Sunday. My brother and his girlfriend are coming down from Boston for the weekend, so they're going. Alison's in Michigan now, so she can't make it. Thus, I have an extra ticket. Anyone interested? It's bound to be a great game. Really...ok not really. But it's the Chiefs. Suck or not, I haven't seen them live in ten years or so. At least seven. Probably more. That's one of the things I miss about KC--nothing compares to a Chiefs game.
Tonight should be some D&D playing and then tomorrow I'm going to go see a movie. I have several on my list (mainly Sweeney Todd, Persepolis and There Will be Blood, though now I've discovered that The Orphanage opens this weekend as well, so I'm sure to have plenty on my plate for the next few days. |
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| I ail! |
[Dec. 11th, 2007|01:37 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | health | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | 214 | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  crappy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - Ramshackle Day Parade | ] |
I have ailed now for three days. It started on Saturday night after I drank waaaay too much at Tood's party. I made myself throw up to not be hung over the next morning, but when I woke up, I had no voice and was so exhausted. I went to see I'm Not There with Alison and her dad, and then came home and went to bed. Yesterday I went to work, but couldn't really get anything done cause I felt like crap, so I went home early. Today I am home and slept until after 1. I hope I get better after tonight. I hate being sick. |
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| It's Autumn and I'm Cold |
[Nov. 8th, 2007|11:05 am] |
I don't really update much anymore do I? Well, now I am.
I quit Kim's. Working fifteen hours a week for just $100 wasn't worth the lack of social life, loss of sleep, and overall stress of juggling two jobs. I make twice what I got there at AMV, so a single hour of overtime at my primary job equated to 3 hours of Kim's. Since I've been clocking in five or so hours above 40 for the last month or so, it seemed silly to sacrifice the occasional late night for a bullshit retail job. While I'll miss the non-taxed cash flow each week, and the free rentals, I'll welcome the time to actually watch movies, and the freedom to dedicate myself fully to AMV and see what that does for me.
A few weeks ago Alison and I went to see Tori Amos (my 6th time) at the Theater at MSG and it was another great show. For the current tour she has been performing in character as one of the American Doll Posse, each night a different girl, for the first half of the show and then switching to be Tori. She was Santa for us, which was great cause her character does the best songs on the album. Her father was in the audience as well, which brought on an amazing rendition of "Winter" and a powerful improv about Jesus loving everyone and not hating gays or minorities. Her other improv was about how wonderful it is to be a cute boy in New York. YouTube vids are here (Cute Boys) and here (Jesus is Love).
( Full )
Tomorrow night is Kaiju Big Battel in Brooklyn. It'll be my third Battel and Alison's second. Few entertainment events are as much fun as Kaiju. I'm pretty hyped.
I now weigh over 200 lbs. I am a fatass. I need to work on that.
There is little other news. When there is, I'll post it here a month later. |
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| In Rainbows |
[Oct. 11th, 2007|04:13 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | music | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | AMV | ] |
| [ | music |
| | In Rainbows - Videotape | ] |
I'm a fan. What's everyone else think?
I like the return to a more late-90's-Radiohead sound, as Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief were nowhere near as good, in my opinion, as the preceding three albums. That said, all the songs sound pretty much the same unless you're listening closesly to them. My favorites so far are "House of Cards" and "Nude," the latter of which was on repeat for a while today. Certainly one of the top albums of 2007 thus far.
I think the biggest achievement of the album isn't musical or creative, but rather financial and systemic. The record companies have to be worried about this. If this model works, I see no reason that other established bands won't follow suit. Sure, small and new acts will still need the advertizing and PR help of a label to gain a name and fan following, but other big names, in all genres, can now bypass the labels altogether. Since they get 100% of the profits, as opposed to 20% of the gross in a top-down coprporate setup, and have very little overhead, with an all-digital format, they stand to make a lot more money per album. And though they leave it up to the fans to set their own price, most people I know are payign a reasonable amount for In Rainbows. Even is someone pays onyl a few dollars, that's straight to the artists, and I'd wager they make more with all of $2 than they do with their small cut of a $15 cd or $10 iTunes purchase. I'm eager to see where this goes. |
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| Free All-Star Concert |
[Sep. 17th, 2007|11:08 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | amv, music, work | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | AMV | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Santana warming up | ] |
Though it's highly soundproofed, all the padding in the world isn't keeping the blaring music going on next door to me in the studio out of my office. Thus, today I get a free concert from none other than Carlos Santana, John Legend, Aretha Franklin, and Stevie Wonder, as well as some others that I haven't been made aware of yet. Sometimes this job's not so bad. |
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| Commitments |
[Sep. 15th, 2007|09:57 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | d&d | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | 214 | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pissed off | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Cure - Treasure | ] |
Why is it so difficult for people to commit to things and then stick to their word!? Since my last long running D&D game broke up in January after the holidays kicked in, I have been completely unable to get a group of even three people to show up more than one week consistently, and of my four players in the game I started in July, three have now quit. So I'm stuck with one player, and his cousin who wanted to join starting tomorrow, and a whole adventure I've been working on for weeks and a world I've been developing for months and I don't know what to do. I need to find a group of three or four gamers who could actually commit and follow through. Why is that so hard to find? |
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| Finally |
[Sep. 5th, 2007|12:23 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | alison, vacation, work | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | AMV | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  calm | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Who Wants to be a Millionaire Theme on TV | ] |
After four months of working seven days a week, Alison and I took a four day vacation over the weekend to the Poconos on the PA/NY border. We stayed at a quaint little inn on a lake aptly named The Inn at Starlight Lake. It was amzing how quickly I shut off all the stress and enjoyed the weekend with no cell phone, no tv, no computer, no anything. It was just me and my book and my love and the lake. There was a nice cocktail lounge and restaurant in the lobby was phenomenal. It as so relaxing to just do whatever I wanted when I wanted to instead of living by external (or self-imposed) schedules and requirements. On Monday, we stopped by my aunt Chris & uncle Jerry's house in Delhi and had lunch with them and my cousin Lisa. I hadn't seen Lisa since I went there to get away after 9/11 almost six years ago. Since we had the rental car until yesterday morning, we went to Target, Bed Bath & beyond, and PathMark to buy things in bulk or that were too heavy or big to bring home via train or pushcart any other time. It was the break I desperately needed.
Then at Kim's last night I found out that my request to lose 5 hours and pick up another weeknight in exchange has at last been granted. So now I have 1 day off week, and will no longer work Saturdays after this weekend. In exchange, I'll be working both Tuesday and Wednesday nights, but to have one day on which I don't have to work anywhere I'm more than happy to work two extra-long days.
Now all I have to do is carry the relaxation of the weekend through my everyday life for as long as possible. I'll let you know how that goes. |
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| I knew it already |
[Sep. 4th, 2007|11:16 am] |
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| Now I Know Why People Think Cure Fans Want to Kill Themselves |
[Aug. 30th, 2007|01:53 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | concerts, music | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | AMV | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  irate | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Billy Joel - Only the Good Die Young | ] |
The Cure Tour set for September and October - including the Sept. 23 show scheduled for the Madison Square Garden show in New York - has been postponed, it was announced today. The tour will be rescheduled for the spring of 2008, and all current tickets sold will be honored for that date.
In a statement, The Cure said: "With all apologies for any inconvenience or disappointment it may cause, we have made a decision to move the September/October 2007 North American Cure shows to April/May 2008. The schedule as it stands only gives us a couple of weeks to finish our new double album before we hit the road again, and we know this just isn't enough time to complete the project to our genuine satisfaction.
"We also want to create a new live show for North America, and incorporate new songs ... and we need time and focus to do this.
"So although we can agree it is a great shame to move these dates - believe us we have been looking forward to them more than anyone - we honestly feel that in the bigger picture we are making the right decision."
Refunds are available and details on both refunds and rescheduling will be announced soon.
Luckily I got the email from Ticketmaster about the rescheduling. I'm not going to get a refund or anything for the original date, it just sucks that I now have to wait an extra eight months to see The Cure, whom I've wanted to see for years and never had the chance. This new album had better be worth it. |
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| Stardust |
[Aug. 13th, 2007|11:38 am] |
Went to see Stardust last night after work. Though I'm putting in 60+ hours a week, just getting out with Alison to see a movie one night a weekend is enough to rejuvenate me. This is the perfect date movie (and even more so if you're a fantasy geek like me). Shame it only debuted at #4 behind Rush Hour 3. Who sees that crap?! Anyway...
Click here for all the details.
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excited
