Torakhan's Journal

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Overstatement
"Nothing's worse than a dead battery"
-Duralast commercial

... uh... riiiight.

It made me smile
I turned on tonight's episode of Stargate Universe entitled "Life" and thought that I might have the wrong audio feed playing, but hitting "pause" told me that in fact the start of the show was indeed an entire verse from Flogging Molly "Worst Day Since Yesterday" playing over scenes from within the Destiny.
As oddly edited and strange as it was, as crude as the cut was, and how I might have done it differently (maybe show that someone was listening to the music via their iPod or something just to connect it into the show more than as an awkward music video), it made me smile a bit.

... the end also ended with the song, but somehow, it seemed to fit a little bit better.

Current Mood: amused

The shakes
Was laying in bed at around 2:20am when I started feeling this shaking... It was a constant shaking, but it my heartbeat, and it felt like my whole body was shaking. It reminds me of when I woke up a few years ago to shaking and went back to bed, only to find out the next morning that there had been an earthquake in southern Illinois/Indiana. So now I'm wondering, will I read that there was another minor earthquake tonight? Or was it just some muscular shakes? Strange.

Gamers helping children as they get well in hospitals
Child's Play Charity 2009

www.childsplaycharity.org

Kids in hospitals across the world feel pretty crappy while they're recovering from treatments, surgeries and the likes.
Wouldn't it be cool if they had something fun to take their minds off of it all during those tough times?

Child's Play offers donations through Amazon.com that will ship the toys directly to the hospitals of your choice (from their list of over 70 hospitals across the globe) as well as direct money payments through PayPal (through which they will buy scads of toys, video games and the likes.)

Gamers helping kids.

What are some other ways to get involved? Check these events out!

World of Warcraft: Hearts, Hands and Voices
November 1st - December 15th 2009
Azeroth is uniting to support Child's Play! Our goal is to join together the voices of all of Azeroth in an effort bring attention Child’s Play, and to and create a joint contribution of at least $5,000 to this worthwhile cause! Please view www.azerothunited.com to find out how the World of Warcraft Internet Community can show their support.

and Penny Arcade & gamer fans of all ages near Seattle...
Child’s Play Annual Charity Dinner Auction
December 8th 2009
Seattle, WA We hope you will join all of us from Penny Arcade and Child’s Play for our sixth annual Charity Dinner Auction. Hosted by Gabe and Tycho, this is a formal evening of food, wine, and silent & live auctions of video game rarities. Event details and ticket sales can be found here. We’ll see you there!

No MFF for me
Well, even though I put the vacation days in for this weekend (months and months ago), it is very highly unlikely that I will find myself near Chicago for MFF this weekend.

I didn't find anyone to room with, and didn't register, and so not spending that money on transportation, restaurant food, hotel, and merch/commissions is probably for the best. Also, after the stories of PAX, I'd like to wait until after I've gotten my H1N1 shot before being surrounded by a few thousand tightly packed people... especially furries, who have a tendancy to like to get very close to one another. ;) (Hey! Quit scritching me! No, don't hug me! I don't even KNOW You!)

Furry Connection North, next Spring, could be my next con... but there too, I may be avoiding this year just to save money and vacation time.

GenCon is likely... I have to let the staff know if I'm going to Senior Volunteer again. Right now that part is iffy, but the lack of financial burden makes it likely that if I go, I'll be working the 40 hours again. *sighs*

So, really, no new news.

I hope everyone going to MFF has a blast!

Why you should never cohabitate
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/personal/11/17/tf.do.not.cohabitate/index.html
A fantastic article from The Frisky about why one should not move in with an S.O.

Just a few exerpts...
"...living together is the fastest way to go from Friday-night lovemaking to Friday-night carbo loading."

" If I love a woman and am compelled to give her access to my rotten DNA, compatibility is moot."

"Whatever you do, don't move in with your boyfriend. What? It's too late? Sweet Zeus, Odin, and Quetzalcoatl, winged serpent god of the Aztecs! "

You could also go check out 5 Horrifying Things You’ll Learn When Moving In With A Guy while you're at it too. :)

Plans
This weekend is likely to be fairly un-lively for me. I'm out of work for the weekend, and I may head out to meet up with a friend of mine who recent drew a kick-ass picture of Torakhan (in a unique commission request request) and for which I'm going to throw money at him. :) [yes, my new icon comes from the new piece.] There are a few things around here I may work on... the pole barn needs organizing, dirt pile needs to be removed from the lawn, more cleaning in my room.. and maybe some artwork too.

Meanwhile, most of my friends will be at Final Haven this weekend "saving humanity from being erased from history by the elves" or something. Heh. Have fun out there!

Where Craic Wisely went
Wandering through the internet looking for Waxie stuff I stumbled upon ~~Craic Wisely's~~ The Siv's new CD "Derelict Diner" as well.

Is it just me, or does it sound like they could also be a good Caroline Spine cover band too?
I would also like to add that Todd's style is exactly the type of singing that kills me in Rock Band. XD

You can listen to their entire album with this player: http://www.tunecore.com/widgets/show/14026

LARP and stuff
I managed to get to the camp not too late and even got a bottom bunk! I took Heidi to the store and came back with snacks for myself too. Since we didn't have a cave until Saturday, there was no rush for putting up a cave and game-on was almost on time!

I gotta admit, my "duty" at Winter Haven is pretty minimal at the best. I am at the event, but I'm not involved in the game in any way... I'm sort of a fire marshal, transport, gopher, and general lazy-body who occupies space at NPC camp. But as long as I'm wanted, I'm glad to be there.

Things seem to have gone very well over-all. We had Melissa from Final Haven helping out on Friday and early Saturday (I think she had fun) and a total players in the high 30s.

Saturday was the "Beer Fest" and then the "Waxies" show. A few folks mentioned maybe starting a fire, so I got a large fire going in no time and I tended it for the next several hours. The Waxies came in-character as "Ire Rememberance Army" members who fought against the Springhold occupation... so when they played "Go On Home British Soldiers", they changed the lyrics to "Go on home Springhold soldiers." They said it was their first dry show in 3 years. Afterwards, it was off to Big T's for the game break, and to give the band food and drink. They were about to order "what was on tap", when I mentioned to them that they had a beer list with hundreds of beers... they seemed glad I enlightened them to that and I don't think a single one of them ordered off the drink board. *laughs* While I was there, they had a "Philly Steak Burger" on the menu. It was supposed to come with "Green peppers, onions, Swiss cheese and A1 Thick and Rich", but I was like, "What the hell is this?" So I had them take off the A1 and replace the Swiss with American and WOW!!! I will order this burger again!

Then, it was back to the game and putting up the cave for the battle and such. Again, I didn't do much... just mostly chilled out near the cave at times, or down at NPC camp for the couple of "Starfish" calls. Otherwise, things seemed to have gone quite well with the rest of the night.

Sunday came early and the cave and most of the packing up was done early... we were almost ready to leave by 12:30pm... except that the PCs took their time.. and we didn't get out of the camp until almost 3pm.

At about 6pm, several of us met up at Golden Corral in Muskegon, then later to Phil's for chat and decompress a bit.

However, after I got home, I was getting ready for sleep, but I had this energetic boost and couldn't get to sleep until almost 3:30am. When I woke up this morning, I was feeling uneasy and had a headache. I wasn't feeling well at all, and so I called into work and stayed in bed until about 4pm. I have little more than just a little firmness in the brain, but I'll likely be hitting the hay anyways just in case I'm fighting something off.
It seems that someone at the LARP had the H1N1. Now, it's going to be another 6 months before we have another Winter Haven, but I think we will need to implement some sort of rule of "if you think you have the flu, please leave the game" policy. I mean, not even H1N1... if you have any sort of easily transmittable virus.

Dial-Up ... fail? Winter Haven and Stuff.
So, last night I could not log onto the internet on either of my computers via dial-up. However, my mom's computer (which uses the same phone line, same username, password, phone number, service, etc.) could.

I could dial the number. It would connect. I would have 54k and both computers would send and receive packets, but it would not connect to the internet. But, again, both of my personal computers would not connect, but my mother's would. I'm running both XP and Vista. I ran AVG twice on both... nuthin'. I can't TelNet out, I can't FTP. I tried another internet service (NetZero) which apparently would dial-out, but (at least on Vista) would disconnect and pop up blank Explorer windows. WTF?!

I will try a hot-spot with my laptop shortly and see if I can connect without the modem.

This weekend is Winter Haven.
The Waxies will be performing on Saturday during the event. They'll be NPCs, so we'll see how that goes.
It'll also be a bit cold, and the flu's still going around. This should be interesting.

30th Annual Ninja Parade (ONN)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtR2m20C2YM

Bohemian Rapsidy on old skool computer equipment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht96HJ01SE4

Saturday night - Kim's Party
Last night was Kim's Birthday/Halloween party.

I got over there around 5:30pm and downloaded the Queen music pack for Rock Band 2.
Folks started showing up sometime after 7 or 8 and Rock Band 2 was played while more folks showed up and began drinking... excessively.
I don't know how much of it was because folks' systems are still a bit weakened by illness, or if it was the newer folks who haven't "partied" with us before, but apparently by Midnight several folks were not only blowing chunks, but were more than just "occupying" the available bathrooms and taking their business outside too. By (the first) 1am, everything was pretty much wrapping up.
The cops weren't called to the house, but one car was pulled over and the folks had to be rescued. Other than that, it was the only legal problem that I know of (that's a good thing, well, for the house owner at least.)

Now, I'm not a drinker (for a couple of reasons), but I have a problem when someone can't figure out when too much is enough and doesn't seem to know that others don't enjoy them being drunken, chunk-spewing, vulgar, irritating assholes at parties. And I can't figure out why so-called "friends" can't stop them from at least drinking at the party. It seems like it should be party etiquette to either make a friend stop drinking or tell them they have to go when they've gotten past the controlled-drunk phase and moved onto the problem-of-the-party phase.
Friends should be able to tell other friends when to stop... because I tell you what, having someone breaking gaming equipment, spilling drinks, ruining activities, laying down on furniture heaving into buckets, and staying in the bathroom for long periods of time while other folks need to use the bathrooms too, and drunken arguing and drunken roughhousing that endangers yourself and others (even those not drinking) does not a fun party make for me. Does that sound fun to you? And if it does... why? Is this what a "party" is to you?... self-destructive and socially-destructive actions?

I think this will be the last time I go to a drinking party with friends. The beginning was fun, and after the 3 hours where the drunks ruined it for me, I enjoyed the mellowed several hours of wind-down time. But I don't enjoy the energy I have to expend to make sure my enjoyment isn't ruined by the drunks (drawing stuff spilled on, bumped into, talked to by drunken assholes, and generally concerned for the well-being of people, drunk or not.

Thanks to Kim, Shanna, Phil and the others who threw the party. The parts of the party that I enjoyed were good.

Current Mood: annoyed

Zombie Walk in Grand Rapids, MI Tomorrow (Friday)
The living dead will take over Calder Plaza Friday as Rob Bliss's latest mega-project hits the streets. The Zombie Walk 2009 is in the running to set a record. All ages welcome. A free will donation would be appreciated and an electronic music festival follows the fun.

Yes, last year was the "World's Largest" (well, for a little while), and so, with a bitmore press, perhaps Grand Rapids will again retain the undead throne as the center of Zombie Nation once again!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=145738132086
Or check out Google Searches here.

When Hollywood comes to you?
So, Michigan passed some tax incentives to encourage movies to be made in this state.
Over here on the West side of the state, we're not used to having Hollywood (or, well, film makers in general) doing location shooting. "Road to Perdition" was shot just South of us in Holland, and scenes from "American Pie 2" were supposed to be shot here, but apparently didn't get used (After all, Great Harbor was supposed to be Grand Haven, just as Great Falls was supposed to be Grand Rapids) and then there was "The Steam Experiment" in Grand Rapids just earlier this year.

So, lately they've been shooting a movie in Holland called "What's Wrong With Virginia" (Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly [remember the girl in Labrynth?] and possibly some others that other folks might recognize) and it turns out that they're coming to Grand Haven to shoot some stuff too... and though some of it was shot yesterday (in front of the courthouse, etc.), apparently they're going to be shooting in front of our shop tonight (well, actually across the street at the funeral home.) I've no idea if it's internal or external, if it's with actors or not. They're going to be setting up equipment in the yard next to our shop, so I've no idea what all it's going to involve. Apparently it'll be starting around 8pm.
With the weather changing, leaves falling off trees, it's raining, etc., you have to wonder if their location folks chose this time of year on purpose for just these conditions, or if they spot the locations months ago, not realizing that come September-October, the environment can look vastly different from one day to the next (How do you shoot a movie out-of-order when the leaves go from green to golden to gone in less than a week?)

While it'd be awesome to have some blockbuster being filmed here, it's still kinda cool for it to be shooting so very close to me.

Galileo's Wedge - more worthless "art"

What a waste of metal. 35' tall, already rusting, and somehow touted as something wonderful.

Somehow meant to be a combination of column and a wedge, the piece entitled "Galileo's Wedge" by Beverly Pepper is now a new sculpture at the Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I mean, if it was donated, that's one thing... but I bet the group paid in the tens of thousands (if not more) for this rusting piece of steel.

Now, in concept... sure, you can explore it, I guess... but I wouldn't DARE suggest that this was worth a ribbon-cutting ceremony, nor the money put into its purchase and installation.

Will this piece of metal really increase attendance enough to pay for this piece of crap? Would having some other educational program or other event have given them more money and more attendance? *sighs*

I become increasingly frustrated with groups who decide that Modern, Abstract, or some other un-useful rusted, distorted, junk is more important than parking, or something else actually functional or useful.

Current Mood: cynical

Eddie Riggs is a roadie for Dethklok
I saw this on Cartoon Network last night and I'm surprised I can't find it anywhere else, even officially.

Toki's voice seems a bit odd, and there's a few other little odd bits when comparing it to a normal Metalocalypse episode, but, damnit, this is the first crossover with anything, really. Whoot! Of course, Mermaider is on the Brutal Legend game, but, still... heh. Cool. I just wish it was Jack Black's voice (at least, I don't think this is Jack Black's voice.)

Current Mood: excited

Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-Ray Player Update

Well... got it home, borrowed a friend's HDMI cable, plugged it all in and got about a minute of video before it flickered and went black. Occasionally it would flicker a frame of video, but nothing else... Plugging composite video cables into it gave me pretty decent picture, but HDMI would only give me a black screen. I tried the 2 other ports on the TV with the same result. I hope it was the borrowed cable, because if it's not, it's a bad HDMI port on the machine (I don't think it's a data, or wrong type of cable issue, since it worked for a minute or two before just... not working anymore.)

Tomorrow we look at a new TV anyways, but I plan on trying to get a new cable anyways to see if it'll work.

Current Mood: frustrated

New Blu-Ray/DVD Upconvert player arrived 12 hours after ordering.
So my mom came home the other day with a 46" HD 1080p LCD TV. Surprise! Then she wasn't happy with how big it was, and the picture quality. So it's likely it'll be going back to the store in favor of something in the 36" variety... but we'll see.

So, since we'll have an HDTV nonetheless, it's time for something to play HD video on, right? Blu-Ray and DVDs? Well, when I showed her what DVDs look like on the new 46" TV, neither of us were entirely impressed. So I knew that a new disk player would need to be either Blu-Ray or have DVD Upconvert. Well... Tiger Direct just happened to have a deal for a Sylvania with just what I was looking for:
Sylvania NB530SLX Blu-Ray Player -1080p Up Conversion, HDMI, Progressive Scan for $120 (and free shipping!)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4421603&CatId=4670
It's got great reviews, has both Blu-Ray and Upconvert for $120? Why not? (I can handle the lag in the Blu-Ray for now.)

So, last night I put the order in (free 3-7 day shipping), and this morning it arrived! Holy crap! Of course, I had it delivered to my work place (daily route), and it gets shipped from Chicago (3.5 hour drive), but still. Wow.

So I gotta go buy an HDMI cable on my way home, but otherwise I'm looking forward to comparing its video with regular DVD and such. For $120, I'm not expecting the world, but hopefully it'll do what it's supposed to do well.

Current Mood: surprised

This America Life investigates the American health care system
This American Life, along with NPR News, has a 2-part investigation on the American health care system.
This week's episode investigates the causes of health care costs--the patients, the doctors, the insurance companies... and what the current plans in congress and the likes will do about it, if anything.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=391

It's amazing to listen to this sort of thing without people screaming and yelling, which has totally turned me off from the "solution" side of this.

Dethklok The Dethalbum II debuts at #15 on Billboard top 200
http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/billboard-200
Dethklok: Dethalbum II debut at #15 on the Billboard 200

WHOO-HOO! 45,000 copies sold in its first week.
Their first album debuted at #21 (with 33,700 copies sold in its first week.

Also, I'm trying to figure out where the source of these "Dethklok Tour" entries are coming from, but I'm lazy tonight.
Day 04: http://www.billboard.com/#/news/dethklok-1003673451.story
Day 17: http://www.billboard.com/#/news/dethklok-1003681505.story

Current Mood: chipper

The Big Hole Cometh...

... I am a single 30 year old living in his mother's basement. (there, got that out of the way)

ANYWAYS...

So, my brother is the handy-man type, who does construction and the likes and gets stuck doing the house work for my mom. So my mom has been talking about getting an egress window in my room (apparently, a 9"x15" window just doesn't cut it for some folks, or for the local code for bedrooms in basements), and my brother recovered one from a job site he was at... and it's sat patiently in our pole barn for about a year or two. Well, with a lull in jobs, he decided that since he'd spent Friday and Saturday installing new doors in the house, he was going to begin cutting concrete yesterday afternoon. After digging out the hole, he spent the next 2 hours cutting a 5'x3' hole in the exterior of the concrete... well not exactly. The wall is 7" thick, and the blade only goes 4" in... sooo... He then spent the next 2 hours cutting the OTHER side of the wall... my bedroom. I had tarped off the area he was working in... which worked well.. except that the side facing my bedroom came undone... and so my entire bedroom is covered in a thick layer of cement dust, including my lungs. Guh.

So today will be spent cleaning, washing, and generally trying to make my bedroom (which was a mess before) into something I can sleep in again.

The funny part? I don't even want more sunlight in my cave. :(