Went to the Dethklok concert tonight. Fricking awesome. Opening band was High on Fire. They were solidly acceptable, predictable, but solidly acceptable and a damn sight better than last year's opener Soilent Green. The second band were a bunch of fucking hacks who needed to get off the damn stage. Mastadon was excellent, if slightly less so than last year's Chimaira, if only because of their relative lack of stage presence. Dethklok looked like it had a slightly different line up this year, but their show was a lot tighter and their stage presence was much improved.

Other than the second band, whose name I didn't catch, the show was spectacular, my only real gripe: If you're not going to mosh, get the fuck out of the pit.

I did go to the concert with a cold and a pretty bad sinus headache. A headache to a metal concert, I didn't expect to last through, but it actually seemed to knock loose the pressure build up causing the headache, therefor curing it. I drank, which will probably not help with the cold, and I shouted my throat raw, and my hearing is still a little fuzzy, but that's to be expected. I did notice a handful of posers at the concert with their Sean John jackets and ear plugs. Ear plugs. Seriously. If you are going to wear ear plugs, don't go. Oh, this year had a larger percentage of legal to drink attendees, but also a pretty high percentage of kids with fake IDs and/or someone of legal age illegally buying them drinks.

And now for something completely different.

I am now, with the exception of tonight's ep, pretty much caught up on Criminal Minds. I'm missing some of the early stuff, but I've seen everthing from season 3 on. I still don't get the Emily/JJ pairing. I don't get the Elle hate, she really doesn't deserve it until the handful of episodes before she goes bye bye. I don't get why my Uncle Alan is gaga over JJ. I have solidified my absolute hate of Shemar Moore in everything he does. Hated him in Birds of Prey. Hated him in Nikki & Nora. Hate him in Criminal Minds. It's not like my thing with Joe Flanigan, where I hate every character he plays, but don't actually mind the guy. I just can't stand Shemar Moore. He needs to go away. Sooner would be better.

Made an offer on a house, still waiting on a reply.

Tags: concert, criminal minds, dethklok, house, music, tv
Current Mood: bouncy

For once, I have no idea what my Halloween costume is going to be. I was hoping to be a Lycan but didn't have a chance to get a new prescription, and therefore the blue lenses, and I definitely didn't have enough time to get custom double canines.

Maybe I'll find a shirt I don't care about and some old jeans that I still fit into but need to toss and just splatter red paint on them and be an axe murderer. Who knows. I'd be a zombie, but that's so cliche this year and I don't want to risk an allergic rash reaction to the make-up.

In other news, I have been watching Criminal Minds pretty religiously. It's not a bad show. I just don't see the Emily/JJ pairing at all. Like, at all. Not even a hint of there even possibly, maybe being the faintest whiff of chemistry. I don't know why people are so insistent it's there.

Sick of all the vampire crap floating around. All the Twilight love, the swooning over True Blood, etc, etc. Vampires are cool and all, but really? Can't we get back to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Blade: The Series, and Interview with a Vampire? Shows and movies that aren't just about Vampires being emo and getting laid all the time? Okay, so there was still some emo in Interview, but seriously, only from one character.

Looking forward to the new Wolfman movie in 2010. Sir Hopkins and Hugo Weaving in one movie? It may not be great, but it can't be bad. Suckage to the remake of Alice in Wonderland. Enough already. Just because you make it trippy doesn't mean you make it better. Stop already Burton. Stop already Depp.

Possibly selling condo and getting a house. Still in process.

Tags: holiday, movie, tv

So, the new seasons of Bones and Fringe premiered today.

Bones = awesome because there was tons of Cyndie Lauper and I loves me some Cyndie Lauper. Also, they took a step back from last seasons ender and didn't jump the bloody shark. Yay!

Fringe. I find myself liking the show more and more. Over summer I realized if I just ignore the plot and let myself enjoy a random collection of cool scenes, entertaining characters, and quippy lines, I get far more enjoyment from it. It is the unreal science TV show version of GI Joe: Rise of Cobra. It's entertaining. In an almost completely mindless way. Fringe's science is so out there that, unlike Trek, you don't feel the need to waste mental energy exploring the physics behind it. And there's a cow in a science lab. A cow, in a science lab.

In other news, there is the possibility that I will be selling my condo and buying a house within the next couple of months. The timing? Horrible, since I'm so busy with Faire on top of work and other things. Getting my condo sold and being able to buy a house? Awesome, if it happens. The mere possibility already has my mind spinning with all the things I want to do once I have a backyard. Setting up a combat training area, getting a real grill (or getting a fire pit and building a housing for it), building an outdoor bar at which I will host beer and wine tastings for my discerning friends, the possibilty of getting a pet (which I will adopt from a no kill rescue), my mind in almost ready to burst in glee. Of course, the real planning is being reserved until the sale becomes more solid and I get an idea of what I can buy.

Tags: bones, fringe, house, tv
Current Mood: indescribable

If there is one thing I really, really fucking hate, it is being stabbed in the back.

Most people who have been stupid enough to decide to do it to me have also been stupid enough to not hide it very well, which just annoys me even more because if you're going to stab someone in the back don't be trying it to their face.

Recently a couple stabbed me in the back. And, for the most part, were able to not make it obvious it was them. I had my suspicions, but nothing solid. Well, now 4 different people, all with different relationships or no relationship with this couple have told me it was them.

What pisses me off even more about it is that I stood in their house, with their family and mutual friends and participated in an oath of honor and support that THEY asked us to be part of. So not only have they stabbed me in the back, they have broken oaths that they made, not only to me and the others in the group, but before their gods. And they stabbed me in the back over something that would have benefited them as well.

My response to being stabbed in the back is that I will burn you. It may not be blatant and it may not be immediate, but it will happen, because I absolutely cannot abide something so cowardly and dishonorable.

Current Mood: aggravated

Back in college, early junior year, I had a dream that freaked me out. It wasn't a nightmare, it wasn't prophetic, it just freaked me out.

Last night I had a series of dreams related to that dream. They freaked me out even more. I was a little off all day because of it.

Anyone have any mental bleach? I need some. Now. I don't like that this theme has come back. Seriously. Fucked up.

Tags: dream
Current Mood: discontent

I was not really interested in watching Gamer, and then I saw the expanded cast list and now I have to see it.

Keith Jardine
Zoe Bell
John de Lancie (!)
Keith David (!)
John Leguizamo

In addition to Michael Hall and Gerard Butler. G'dang it. I've watched more movies at the theater this year than I usually do in 3 years. And I still haven't seen District 9, which I will be seeing soon.

Tags: movie

Day 2 of the Vancouver trip. Ate at De Dutch. Good pane... whatever it is called. A little more filling than I expected.

Blenz: The Canadian equivalent of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Notably better than Starbucks and nearly as common in certain areas. There's still 3 starbucks for every 2 Blenz.

I bought a bottle of Meaghers Triple Sec to bring home because it's the bottle used as the Ambrosia bottles in Battlestar Galactica. Forgot I can't bring it into the airport with the liquid in it. I can undoubtedly get some at the Duty Free shop, but I have to empty the bottle I got here and see about mailing myself the empty bottle along with a few other food things I've seen here, like chocolates and the like I've never seen in the US. Now, I'm crazy enough, I don't mind spending $21 on a bottle to convert into a BSG prop for my ever growing collection, but I'm not a triple sec fan so it's pretty guaranteed every drop after the initial taste sip is going down the sink.

Actually, just had a sip. Spit it out. Yeah, it's going down the sink. Not that it's bad, I don't know, it's just not my thing.

By the way, food is really expensive here. Even at the grocery store because they charge a 12% plus sales tax, even on food from the store.

Oh, and the Cigar store was open before the crepe shops. Sad.

UPDATE: Walked for over 6 hours today, 4 hours, 1 hour break, 2 hours. My calves? Screaming.

Ate at another place on my list. Salt Tasting - good, nice set up. More than a little pricey, but very knowdledgable staff. Almost impossible to find unless you know where it is already. Had coffee at Coffee A Go Go, another place on my list. Comfy, but in this day and age, what self-respecting coffee shop closes at 5PM?

Just arrived at my hotel. The Blue Horizon. Very awesome. Clean, newly done, and quite a comfortable size.

My initial impressions of Vancouver. From the airport to downtown and through downtown. Transportation is fricking expensive. The area looks like a cross between my parent's neighborhood in San Jose, the suburbs of Burbank, and downtown San Francisco. With narrower lanes. The houses look like they are from San Jose or Burbank, the shopping centers look like they were airlifted from San Fran downtown and dropped here. Right down to the fresh produce store with asian grandmothers shuffling by in front.

More after I get food.

P.S. Customs here is worse than Heathrow, Narita, and Hong Kong.

UPDATE: Ate at two of my earmarked places.

Hons: Not bad, very reminiscent of HK food courts. Better than Las Vegas, not much better than San Jose.

Japadog: Very unique, but not overly obviously different. Good.

Just got off the phone with my stock broker. Wants me to switch funds. The switching funds is not a surprise, the fact that he even had a thought to look at my account, to look into my options, and then to go to the trouble of calling me was a shock. It either means he is really slow or it means he is bored. Or both. Most of his accounts have lost more in the past 12 months than my entire portfolio is worth at it's peak. My account is a favour to my mother, not because I actually meet his minimum requirements. He also may be thinking that I'm one of his younger clients and most of his others are at retirement point and will be looking to take money out, whereas I'm in the position to put money in. Who knows. Still surprising.

I am ready to go to Vancouver and spend my office coverage bonus. I've got my flight, I've got my hotel, I still need to lose 5lbs in the next two weeks.

In other news, I am looking to get a small case media center to drop next to my entertainment center to act as a go between for my laptop and my DVR. Basically, the goal is to have it be able to rip from my DVR onto the onboard hard drive, where I can wirelessly access it from my laptop wherever I am in my condo and watch it, screen cap, etc. Unfortunately I cannot find one. All the compact media centers don't have a really comprehensive range of video/audio in options or are outrageously expensive for the goal. I could build one, but I can't even bring myself to rebuild my monster tower, much less some small little thing. I find it insane that in the day and age of $300 laptops I can't buy a small computer that has a solidly capable video/audio in card, a DVD RW drive, and wireless networking card without spending over $600 and being forced to buy crap I don't want or need. If you go look, pre-built systems sold as media centers have no capability of capturing video without you having to go buy a video-in card and installing it yourself. This is crazy. This has to be a pretty common need for all those tech geeks out there to want systems that integrate their entertainment systems with their computer networks. Why is this need not being filled? Why is it so hard to find something to do all this?

Grr.

Tags: computer, money, tv
Current Mood: annoyed

I stole the title from thrace_'s comment on what Zed is saying in the trailer for the 2nd season of Legend of the Seeker. If you don't watch the show, there really isn't a reason to. My approach is to watch the show on fast forward until something interesting happens and then watch at regular speed until it's done and then go back to fast forward. It takes me about 15 minutes to get through each hour. I do like the costume designs of the evil forces though. Very snazzy.

Anywho, I've realized my life would be much more interesting if we possessed the technology to record dreams. At the absolute very least I would have something to watch when there's nothing on TV that isn't Penn & Teller's Bullshit and You Are What You Eat. The oddest thing about my dreams is that quite often I can point at the stimuli that influenced my dream, and sometimes they really do just come out of left field. Oh, and I'd finally be able to prove that the bull about not being able to read in dreams is a giant crock of shit. I read in my dreams all the time. In fact, one of the dreams I remember best is where I dreamt I was in my room reading a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel. The novel itself doesn't exist, but I remember the basic plot, and I remember the very first line of the novel, over a decade since I had the dream, and I remember it featured Troi and Ro.

So, like last night, I dreamt about watching bits and pieces of Rich Franklin's movie, and then things shifted so I was sort of observing like it was real life, but in the movie. And it was a Musical/Comedy/Action flick. Rich Franklin was a teacher, no not a math teacher, and an action hero. And he would duck into a locker to change, and his body guard came running after him, flying kicked the lockers, which knocked them over when they rebounded off the wall, and then he pulled them back up. At which point Rich's character, in action costume, climbed out of the lockers and they started arguing about why would the bodyguard do that, there was no reason to, and it just drew unnecessary attention to his transformation and then they walked off frame still arguing. Skip to later in a bar and Rich is kinda checking out this chick he's interested in who is in an on again, off again relationship with this other dude at the bar, and he's kinda paying attention to this kid's history book he has in front of him which theorizes on the reasons for the floating pyramid that is in low orbit around the earth, which is Rich's character's ultimate mystery to solve. Interestingly, even though the technology to float a pyramid in orbit around the earth doesn't exist in the timeline of the movie, much less back in its ancient Egypt days, the debate is not how the pyramid was made and how it got in orbit, but it what its purpose was and the book Rich is kinda reading has theory drawings of it being a rocking bachelor pad, a tomb, an alien bar, and some other random stuff. Anyways, chick he likes comes up, he asks her something, and she breaks into a song shifting between him and the dude she's sorta with. Later on, he goes back to his apartment/lair and confers with his team of sidekicks, which are a bunch of nerd kids who help him solve crimes, but are younger than the age group he teaches in his normal life so I'm not entirely sure how he got them as sidekicks. And they do the eager, let's solve the mystery of the orbiting pyramid thing and break out into a throwing theories back and forth song and start running out in the street to go visit all the local libraries and book stores and drug dealers, who they will interogate for information on the orbiting pyramid.

Now. Wouldn't that just be the most craptasticly hilarious movie to watch while drunk? I think so.

Tags: dream, tv