April 2007 Archives

Busy, busy, weekend. Ready, steady, go:

Friday: Saw this amazing, amazing band called "Spock's Beard." (Yes, that Spock. Remember the alternate universe episode of "Star Trek" with the beard and the eyeliner? OK, good.)

R took me to see them about a year ago -- I hadn't heard anything by them at all -- and I thought they were great and put on a good show. They define themselves as a progressive rock band, but really? To me, they're more a rock band with progressive tendencies -- and none of the pretentiousness that prog rock bands can sometimes have. They're all great musicians, they clearly love to play, but they don't take themselves too seriously -- that shows on stage, which I love in any band.

They're currently touring around their new album, and I strongly encourage everyone to see and purchase. :)

Saturday: Agony day! And I wish I was kidding... For school (see below), we wound up walking from City Hall allll the way over to Chinatown: about the most walking I've tried to do in a few months, at least. I was okay for most of it, but then my leg finally started to tank. We walked from about 1:00-ish to 3:00, straight, and I think it was just too much. I'm hoping my shots came out good -- we'll see.

After class, we went to go get lunch at a Dim Sum place in Chinatown, but as we were sitting, I was feeling the muscles constricting, and I knew I needed to get home, get iced, and get pain relievers in my bod, quick. So I made a call, came back to the table (we hadn't really ordered yet), made hasty excuses, and hobbled over to the train. I felt bad, and I'm sure my class thinks I'm a complete flake -- but how do you politely say, "I've a leg condition, and if I stay here, I won't be able to walk to the train?" >:P

I wound up going home and crashing on the couch, waking up disoriented about an hour before running Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace. I don't think I was on my game that night, but we didn't wipe too many times, so that was good. :)

Sunday: Ogred my way into the cobalt riding Talbuk. :) Cake is now at 70, with a nice set of armor and a Talbuk...and I'm a wee bit burnt. Couldn't get motivated to do much more yesterday, so I did some PvP (poorly!) with some guildies, and will probably take a break and level my Druid next. :)

: cranky : Realized over the weekend that between the sprained ankle and the tendonitis, I haven't been able to walk properly for about a year now. Damnit. Let's hope this clears up soon, please, so I can do and DO things?

This pretty much says how our weather is today. It's so bad officials have actually asked residents to evacuate Fire Island because they're expecting a bad storm surge. Gah! Glad I'm living on Manhattan island instead... although I'm sure this downpour's killing the subways as we speak. Hey, it's happened before...

Back to skewl!

So I started my Digital Photography workshop class yesterday. :) I'm taking it at NYU, and started it all off by being...uh...fifteen minutes late. I totally lost track of time and the class is all the way downtown -- I basically had to traverse the length of Manhattan to get there. On a local train. Le sigh.

The class looks promising, though. The focus will be on composition, with the technical aspects as a secondary part. All of that works for me, as I need to work heavily on both. I've got to turn off those "automatic" controls and switch to manual... We shoot on Saturdays, then do critique on Thursday nights. Our first shooting session was to shoot in broad daylight, then shoot in an alley. I need to bring in my best five shots to class on Thursday, and I'm NOT allowed to use Photoshop. For ANYTHING. No cropping, adjustment of exposure, NUTTIN'.

: scared! :

I was a little taken aback to realize the instructor was different from whom I'd expected. They had opened up a second section in the class because it was full -- so if you went in the second section you'd get more individual attention, which is good. Since it met at the same time on Saturdays, I assumed that it would be the same instructor, just at a different time during the week. Nope! I walked in expecting Joe, whose work I really admire (and part of the reason why I took the class) and instead got Benjamin. :) I'm going with it, though...maybe it's karma?

Great Big Sea!

Rob and I saw Great Big Sea last night. They put on a frickin' AWESOME show -- always a good time, and particularly good last night. But what happened made the show even better...

See, I have plantar fascitis, which is a bad, bad inflammation of the heel and muscles of the bottom of your foot. Basically, it means I've been in a lot of pain and gimping around a lot -- I haven't even been able to put my heel down some days. I've been taking a lot of cabs. And gaining pounds. :(

Hammerstein Ballroom, where we saw the band, is mostly general admission but had some seating in the balcony. Typically, we would have gone GA but because of my condition, we needed to sit. This was a good thing last night, since I'd been out shooting with my class earlier -- I was in a LOT of pain by the time I made it to the show, despite massive amounts of Advil. And lots of pain during the show, too. :(

Unfortunately, our seats were in the last row of the balcony. For whatever reason, Ticketmaster didn't show us where our seats were, so it came as a total surprise. I felt terrible, since Rob loves this band, and we had such crappy seats because I couldn't stand up for the length of a show. We wound up squinting a bit for the first half. Happily, the two guys in front of us moved, so we were able to see the band...just from very very very far away.

But. BUT! During intermission, as I was getting up to hobble to the bathroom, a man came up to us and said, "Are you two sitting here?" "Uh, yes," we replied. "And it's just the two of you?" "Yup, just us." "Would you like to sit in that box down there, on the side?" Stares from us both. "What...uh...YES, sure!" "Here, take these tickets, and follow me." And we got the Golden Tickets of Fabulousness and followed the very very nice man to the box at the side of the stage...where we got to sit in the front.

Best seats in the house.

Holy shit! :)

The tickets read "comp" on them, so we're guessing it was Great Big Sea's publicity person, or tour manager, looking to do a favor to folks with bad seats by filling up AMAZING seats that were going empty. Rob had gotten up to dance during the last song before intermission -- we're guessing that this is how the guy spotted us to take us down. Why not give the seats to someone having a good time? (This is the first show ever, I think, where I didn't get up to dance. :( Lots of chair dancing, though!) So the picture above? That was taken from our box seats. You can see the rail in front of us. (Go clicky for the big version!) Amazing, eh? Total Cinderella moment! :)

And the Jedi mailbox...

As we were leaving, we heard a guy in front of us say, "...and before we leave, I've got to show you the R2D2 mailbox." Ears pricked up. I went for it. "Um, excuse me? Did I hear you say 'R2D2 mailbox?'" "Yup, sure did -- follow us!"

It was close by, so we went for it. Too bad the couple leaning on it wouldn't move, since there was a crowd of seven folks staring at them. But still...there ya go.

World of Warcraft Dire Maul run tonight ...and I've got to do my taxes. That about wraps up the weekend!

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has teamed up with Google Earth to allow users to literally see the genocide and destruction happening in Darfur as we speak.

Using coordinates provided by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Google acquired high-resolution imagery over the region of Darfur and Eastern Chad. Now you can witness the destruction in Darfur via Google Earth. Zoom down and see what a burned village looks like from above, the vast tent cities of people displaced from their homes, and photographs on the ground of refugees struggling to survive. Read eyewitness testimony of atrocities in attacked villages. Visualize what genocide looks like today in Darfur.

I hope that as much as governments use technology to destroy, civilians and peacekeeping agencies can use technology to watch, take action, and most important, prevent atrocities such as Darfur.

We spent Easter with R's family, and it was good. It was also R's dad's birthday recently, so it was more of a double-celebration thing. :)

Sometimes, though...

It's been almost seven years since my Dad died, and I think I've come a long way in accepting things. Accepting that he's gone, and all of the implications of that: no more birthdays, will never see how my life turned out, nor my family's, nor (maybe) my future kids, etc. Dad's story ended seven years ago. He doesn't get a speaking role in the movie anymore. I've tried to accept that, and for the most part, I've succeeded.

Having said that, sometimes his absence just trips me up, chokes me, and makes me so damned sad. Easter dinner...I mean, our Easter dinners could sometimes be great, sometimes be nightmares, but they were our nightmares, you know? My parents, my grandparents, nieces, nephews, other family...everyone who used to get together...my Dad is gone, my grandparents are gone, one sister's out in Los Angeles and she's not likely to be home anytime soon. It's not the way it used to be, and it won't ever be that way again. The stories we told, gone. The jokes, gone. That's the first heartbreak...the second, of course, is that R won't have seen any of it, won't know. Can't know.

So I cried a little on the way home, on the train. I enjoy his family, but days like today can be bittersweet. And it hurts.

This guy rawks: I'm dealing with the exact same thing.

Also, woke up this morning with half my lip swollen. Just half. Like a collagen injection gone wrong. Maybe Ashlee's getting revenge for doubting her and Bob Smith.

Robert Smith and...ASHLEE SIMPSON?!!!

I need oxygen and some valium, stat!

ZOMG. So in the next ten days, I have to produce several things, including a brochure, a billboard, ads for mass transit, and a giant display banner.

The catch: I've never done large-format things before. "Large format" being three out of four of the items above...

Warm milk or valium, anyone?