Last night, I encountered the galaxy's strangest aliens. I have proof of their visit, though. This morning, I found "crop circles" on my _____!

(Yes, it's good to be back. AnthroCon was the inspiration for this one.)

(Three cheers and a plum bun if you know the reference.)

Yes, it's another one of those AnthroCon posts that have been jamming up your friends list for the past few days. So, I'll keep it brief.

Slothpuck was my roomie this time. A couple of bumps in the road early on, but it worked out for the best. He had a good time at AC (as opposed to last year), and I had a good time at AC.

This year, it was A Very Cooner AnthroCon for me as I picked up the FIB clear Lucite badge I ordered from him, got his mini-folio (Wolf and Otter), also got him to do a great sketch in my book, as well as another sketch by him that Slothpuck gave me as a gift. (THANK YOU!!) Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE Cooner's artwork? I also managed to find Grisser and got his doujinshi (both issues -- mmmmm... Bulkas). I finally met up with PalladinThug and friends at the Dead Dog Party (and got another very yummy sketch by him in my book).

Made it back home in one piece. AC was mostly a blur, but a fun blur. Didn't get to spend as much time as I would have wanted with Vince, The Gneech, Mamallamadevil and company, but I guess the time I did spend with them was quality. (FIVE DOLLA! FIVE DOLLA FOOTLONG!) (and MLD, I hope you didn't get a virulent, or ANY, case of con crud this time around.)

I've spent far too long on this. It's time for bed.

Sorry for leaving you all hanging after my last post. My replacement flight left Dulles on time and without issue. Made it into Pittsburgh, got my shuttle, arrived at the hotel, met up with Slothpuck, got my room and proceeded to decompress.

I'm in the Westin now, in room 2125.

Dialysis was a treat yesterday. I was given the wrong start time at my dialysis center (9:15am) and I ended up going on an hour and 15 minutes later (10:30am)... which, essentially, threw off the rest of the day. Not that it wasn't truly expected. Very rarely do my dialysis sessions go smoothly when I travel. Whatever. That's just one more thing I have to discuss with my dialysis center at home.

Well, off for some breakfast and to figure out my plans for the day.

Well, my flight into Dulles arrived and docked about 15 minutes too late for me to even HOPE to make my connecting flight. So, after checking the United flight customer service kiosk, I see they rescheduled my flight for one leaving FRIDAY AT 5:30PM! This will thoroughly not do, at all. So, I hop in the customer service queue. About 2.5 hours later, I make it to the head of the line and chat with a nice person to get me onto another flight leaving today. A few keystrokes here and there, and I'm on a flight leaving at 5:01 tonight. Much better than 5:30-something tomorrow.

I grabbed a sub at the Subway, chowed it down, and I'm sitting here at gate D16 waiting for my flight.

A friend of Slothpuck called to get my status (sadly, I didn't catch his name). So Slothy, if you're reading this, I'm still on my way and I'll be there tonight.

I really hope I'll have a better time when I arrive at AC.

I'm sitting here waiting for my flight to AC. I have a stopover in Dulles, because I can't get a non-stop flight from Providence to Pittsburgh. *shrug* ANYWAY...

I'm on my way... Here's to hoping it'll be a worthwhile excursion.

T-minus 5 Hours 30 minutes and counting...

EDIT: BRILLIANT! As soon as I made that entry, I found out that my flight from PVD has been delayed. I'll still arrive in Dulles before my connecting flight, but just barely. And, true to form, my arrival gate and my departure gate are on opposite sides of the airport. They're saying I'll have 20 minutes to de-plane, run from Terminal A to Terminal C and board my flight to Pitts. It can be done, I imagine, but every minute I stay on the plane after we land is one minute less that I have to make my connection.

WILL Punk make it to his connecting flight? WILL the plane make it to the terminal in time? WILL the plane get hit by lightning and explode in a spectacular fireball somewhere over New Jersey? Stay tuned to this LJ for the next thrilling episode!

Sakes.

OK, yeah... So I decided to take a whirl on The Crowdsource Tarot, ( and this is what it had to say... )

Interesting. A lot of people are giving this "deck" the thumbs-up, and I can see why.

I received the latest Polysics CD single, "Young OH! OH!" today. Holy crap! If the two latest CD singles are any indication of what the new Polysics album will sound like, it's going to KICK ALL KINDS OF ARSE!

The best thing about this release is that it's the first edition... which means there's a BONUS DVD that came with it! Polysics Live at Shibuya CLUB QUATRO 09/April/09. They pull out a bunch of old and new tracks. The playlist is:
AT-AT (opening)
Bye Bye Red Sneaker
Nice
TECHNO DRACULA
Sony-san
Modern
Oh! Monaliza
COLON
Ganbare MIRINDA
COMPUTER Obaachan

The big surprises for me are Bye Bye Red Sneaker (one of my favourite tracks), Techno Dracula (from the Kaja Kaja Goo EP), and Computer Obaachan. Please, oh please let there be a similar bunch of surprises like that when they swing through the US again!

Stay tuned to this channel for more Polysics action... =D

I was watching The Weather Channel's "Local on the 8's" just now and the music they had playing was "Gut Feeling" by DEVO!

It makes this old punk happy to hear classic Devo pouring out of the TV.

Having trouble figuring out how much to tip your server at a restaurant? Here's a simple rule of thumb: Tip $1 for every $5 on the tab and round up (if the service was good) or down (if the service wasn't so good).

For example, if your bill came to $27.45 and you received good service, tip $6 (you would be tipping as if the bill was $30). If the service wasn't so good, tip $5 (you would be tipping as if the bill was $25).

Of course, if the circumstances deem otherwise, you can tip a little more or less. This rule of thumb gives you a quick starting point to use your discretion.

BrainGate!

Such a shame the benefits of this research and technology won't be reaped in my lifetime. Or, if it is, I'll be too old to enjoy it.

I've seen this Elemental meme making the rounds, so I decided to give it a whirl.

( What element am I (apparently) associated with? )

Not bad. Within 24 hours, all but one of the lyrics were positively identified.

1. We're behind you, we're behind you. And let us, please, remind you; we can send a car to find you if you ever lose your way

It doesn't surprise me that this one wasn't identified. I still love the freakin' heck outta this song.

I love it when my family sends me mixed signals.

A few weeks ago, when my sister and two brothers were here for my father's funeral, My sister let me know, in no uncertain terms, I can continue to live in the house for as long as I can afford it. This bit of information stems from a fight that she and my eldest brother had about the house soon after my mother passed away. My brother wanted to sell the house and get his share of it, while my sister (who owns half the house thanks to my mother's will) refused to kick out my father and I. It took a few years of not talking to each other before my brother apologized to my sister, and things seemed smoothed over.

The house does need some work, because my father never wanted to have work done on the house -- it essentially was a shrine to my mother. *shrug* Whatever. We're all in agreement that the roof needs replacing, the trim needs painting, the 2nd floor bathroom needs some serious renovation, the wallpaper on the 1st floor and hallway needs updating, The kitchen needs some updating, the back hall needs a total colour change, and the basement... well, that needs some cleaning out. So we're in the process of getting estimates for the various repairs.

Anyway... I get a call from a family friend this afternoon, asking about how I'm getting on. She confides in me that the reason she's calling is that my eldest brother called her and was asking her advice about SELLING THE HOUSE. (Said family friend was my mother's best friend, she was also her partner when they were real estate agents.)

I'm probably reading WAY too much into this and jumping to conclusions, but I can't help but feel that someone wants the house sold sooner rather than later, regardless of what my sister told me.

I'm not going to freak over this, but it just makes me uncomfortable. It looks like I might have to seriously start looking at houses in the area, should I be forced into making a decision. Heck... Maybe I can move in with my aunt.

As if I don't have enough stress in my life as is.

A federal judge rules that Crunchberries are not real fruit.

Janine Sugawara (plaintiff), turn in your opposable thumbs and GET OUT OF THE GENE POOL!

The Jukebox in my head has been playing a selection of hits recently. Some lyrics are below. See if you can guess which songs they are. As per the norm, Googling the lyrics is right out.

1. We're behind you, we're behind you. And let us, please, remind you; we can send a car to find you if you ever lose your way

2. Feelin' that it's gone can change your mind / If we can't go on to survive the tide love divides "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" by Journey

3. Buying bread from a man in Brussels / He was six-foot-four and full of muscles "Down Under" by Men At Work

4. Tried Peggy Sue, tried Betty Lou, tried Mary Lou but I knew she wouldn't do "Barbara Ann" by The Beach Boys

5. It's okay I understand, this ain't no never-never land / I hope that when this issue's gone I'll see you when your clothes are on "Centerfold" by the J. Geils Band

6. You look into my eyes and lie those pretty lies / And pretty soon I'm wondering how I came to doubt you "Here You Come Again" by Dolly Parton

7. Hey, listen to me, y'all do thangs, do thangs, do thangs - bad thangs with it...
Well, you wanna do thangs, do thangs, do thangs - good thangs with it - yeah! "For The Love Of Money" by The O'Jays

8. I know a place / Ain't nobody cryin' / Ain't nobody worried / Ain't no smilin' faces... liein' to the races "I'll Take You There" by the Staple Singers

9. I keep your picture upon the wall / It hides a nasty stain that's lying there / So don't you ask me to give it back / I know you know it doesn't mean that much to me "I'm Not In Love" by 10CC

10. Friday night they'll be dressed to kill / Down at Dino's bar and grill / The beer will flow and the blood will spill / and if the boys wanna fight, you'd better let 'em "The Boys Are Back In Town" by Thin Lizzy

NOTE: OK, so #1 isn't a "hit" in the popular sense, I just love the freakin' heck out of the song. Song #6 is somewhat uncharacteristic for me, almost considered a guilty pleasure. I added the next set of lyrics to #10 because I'm amazed no one has gotten it yet.

Now that you're being shaken up, and now that you're going through restructuring, please, please, PLEASE do something about your dismal choice of automobile interior and exterior colours!

Have you shopped around for cars recently? Go to the web site of the auto maker of your choice and configure a car just for laughs. I can tell you now, car colours will be limited to black, white, red, two or three shades of grey, and maybe a shade of blue or two. Very rarely will you find a green, yellow or orange, and brown is mysteriously absent.

Interior colours? Black, maybe grey. If your car colour is red, you might be lucky to have some red trim inside (costs extra). On that rare occasion where you might find a green car, you could possibly have a choice for a tan interior.

Why can't I have a white interior if I got a white car? Why can't I have a tan interior if I got a red or blue car? Remember when auto interiors used to be in a contrasting colour to its exterior? Cars in the 50s, 60s and 70s had that. My parents had a blue 1963 Chevy Impala, and the interior was blue and white. Now, everything is black.

Look at this cool Candy Apple Blue car... with the black interior.
I got a Fire Engine Red sedan... with a charcoal black interior.
This frosty white convertible is smokin'... shame about the boring black interior.

C'mon, car makers! Give us more of a choice than just black, white, grey and red on the outside and basic black on the inside!

I am looking for someone adept in creating applications using Adobe (Macromedia) Flash. I'm specifically looking to commission the creation of a card game.

If you're interested, or know someone who might be interested, please reply to this journal entry. All comments will be screened. Please help if you can. I'm rapidly running out of ideas.

I dropped off one of my brothers at the airport yesterday, I dropped off my sister at the airport early this morning, and one of my other brother's friends took him to the airport about an hour ago. That now leaves only me in the house.

I love my siblings dearly, make no mistake, but the one thing I needed after my dad passed was to have some alone time. I'll have the remainder of today and tomorrow to sort out my mind and figure out what I'll need to do. I'm hoping the worst of it has passed, but with my luck, I don't think so. There are still plenty of loose ends, many projects have been started, and the ball has begun rolling on some serious work that needs to be done on the house (painting, roof work, and some remodelling and updates). My sister and eldest brother will be back a few times during the year to help with the massive amount of sorting and purging that still needs to be done. But for now, I'll have to concentrate on straightening up the place after the whirlwind of activity over the past week or so. There are Thank You cards to be sent, remnants of shredded papers to vacuum up, garbage to bag up and wait for garbage day, there are two broken recliners that I would LOVE to be rid of, charity donations of old clothing and stuff to transport to Savers, things to ship to my siblings that they couldn't carry in their bags (a modest coin collection, glassware, candle lanterns, and other miscellaneous bulky items), and some sorely needed down time for me to reset and reflect on my future.

To sound like a broken record, it's going to take me a while to re-adjust my lifestyle, and I'm going to be a bit harder to get to sometimes, but all this is a step in the right direction for me to get my life on a different (and hopefully better) track.

Something I wish had existed: Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good/Theme From Boat Weirdos" 45 on Asylum (Asylum 45493), but with the _full_ version of both songs. Yeah, shoving 8 minutes of stereo music on one side of a 45rpm record is quite unfeasible, but it would have been nifty.