Sorry I've been a bit incommunicado the past two or three weeks but I've been a bit preoccupied with other stuff.

First off, a belated Happy New Years to everybody(all two of you :p)!

So what have I been up to? I celebrated Christmas, celebrated New Years, did a bunch of unsuccessful job hunting, saw some new movies, had a few gaming sessions, hung out with my Star Wars club, went to karaoke in NYC, and in the middle of all that I celebrated my 25th birthday.

Christmas was fun. Got a lot of DVDs, books, and clothes, but the best gift was probably a new camera to replace the one I lost at Dragon*Con back in September.

My birthday was a week later, on New Year's Eve. Went out for Italian food with the family, played a few games waiting for the ball drop, and finally went to bed at around 1:30 or 2 in the morning. The gifts were more DVDs and books, which were fine, but now I've got even more books sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. I'll get to them all eventually, but I still have an obsession with the printed word, one my family helps me indulge in during the holidays.

My brother was home from St. Louis for Christmas and New years, and we spent a lot of time together while he was home. We saw Sherlock Holmes together, and also went karaoke-ing together. Sherlock Holmes was entertaining, but not what I expected. Karaoke was less fun than I had hoped it would be. The place we went to had a rather poor song selection, and nothing I was hoping to sing was actually included. I guess my tastes in classic rock just don't fit in with what most people are looking to sing at a karaoke place these days.

I was able to see James Cameron's Avatar shortly after New Years. It was visually impressive, but the story was a bit derivative. Kinda felt like Dances with Wolves in space.

I got in a few good gaming sessions recently. I'm currently involved in two different Warhammer 40k RPGS. The first is Dark Heresy, a sci-fi horror investigative game where you play an agent of the Imperial inquisition hunting down aliens, traitors, deamon-worshipers and other far worse threats to the Imperium. The second is Rogue Trader, a game of exploration, conquest, and profit amongst the uncharted stars beyond the borders of the Imperium. Both are very fun, and use the same system, but have very different feels.

I've also started playing the World War II tabletop wargame Flames of War. I'm slowly building up a small force of US Paratroopers. Thankfully this game is surprisingly cheap. The core of my force only cost me $60, and that gave me two full platoons and the company command team.

In addition to all the fun and games, I've been continuing my job search. A few months ago I quit the family business in a moment of irrational rage. In hindsight it seems like both a blessing and a curse. It motivated me to go out and look for something instead of just relying on the generosity of my grandfather and his company, but at the same time there's nothing out here to find right now. God only knows when I'll actually be working again. At least I've got enough saved up in my bank account that I can live off of my savings for a while until I do find my new job.

I guess that's it for now. I'll probably post up my reviews for Sherlock Holmes and James Cameron's Avatar pretty soon.

-- Dren

Tags: birthday, books, christmas, dark heresy, flames of war, james cameron's avatar, job hunt, karaoke, movies, new years, real life, rogue trader, role playing games, sherlock holmes, update

As many Star Wars and Family Guy fans know, the first Family Guy Star Wars episode, "Blue Harvest" was one of the best Star Wars spoofs to come out in the past few years, so my expectations for Family Guy Star Wars 2 "Something Something Something Dark Side" were fairly high.

Unfortunately, while "Blue Harvest" was a home run, "Dark Side" was far more hit and miss.

The episode starts off the same exact way as "Blue Harvest" and the lack of originality or true humor becomes instantly apparent. While there are some jokes that are actually funny, the majority are merely slightly amusing, and others are just not funny at all, or even worse, are blatantly in poor taste, even by Family Guy's standards.

All the characters from "Blue Harvest" resume their previous Star Wars roles, but some of the new "casting decisions"(for lack of a better word) make no sense at all. I have no idea who is supposed to be playing Yoda, and Mort Goldman as Lando is a bit weird for my tastes.

Over all, it's watchable, and you'll get a few laughs out of it, but it just doesn't rise to meet the expectations.

Bottom line. Don't bother buying it. See if you can rent it or download it instead.

-- Dren

Tags: family guy, review, something something something dark side, star wars

The insurance info for my car finally arrived in the mail today, so I was finally able to go over to the DMV and register the damn thing.

No more borrowing other cars! I can finally drive my new car that's just been sitting in the driveway for the last week.

Tags: new car, update

I finally purchased my new used car, a White 1999 Ford Taurus with only 64,444 miles on it.

Now I just need to get it insured and register it.

Too bad my old 1999 Hyundai Elantra was considered totaled by my insurance company. I'm really going to miss "Zippy".

Huh, that reminds me, I'll need to think up a nickname for my new vehicle.
Not really sure what to go with yet.

-- Dren

Tags: new car, update

For the longest time I kept insisting that I would never get a facebook page.

My Resistance has lasted years.

But now that my fan club created a page for itself, I decided what the hell and created an account for myself.

Oh dear God is it fucking addicting! And not in a good way.

And to add to it, people I haven't seen or talked to in ten or more years are coming from nohere with friend requests for me. I don't even really know these people anymore!

And strangest of all is that some of my friend's parents have sent me friend requests. Granted their almost like aunts and uncles, but that still seems a little wierd.

Maybe this was a mistake.

-- Dren

Tags: facebook

Happy Thanksgiving a day late.

Hope you all had a good time visiting family and eating lots of food.

My holiday was... interesting. It's hard to be an ungrateful bastard with a highly disfunctional family on Thanksgiving.

-- Dren

PS - Bonus points to whoever can guess where I got the post title from.

Tags: thanksgiving

God it's been a long month. Way too long.

Where to begin...

Well, first off, I decided that I was way overdue to leave the family buiness. I explained my reasoning, and quit. So far this has been both a good thing and a bad thing for me. Good because I finally feel like my life might finaly be going somewhere, but bad because my family keeps breathing down my neck about finding a new job. They seem to think that since it's now the holiday season I would be hired in a heartbeat, what they fail to understand is that I'm not looking for a short-term low-pay holiday job, I'm trying to start a career search, figure out what I actually want to do with my life and then go do it. They seem to think something like this ahould only take 3 weeks or so, when the reality is that it might take 3 months or so. They threw a shit fit when I told them that, and then insisted that I get a short term holiday job instead of just sitting on my ass doing nothing. I guess doing research about who is hiring, what skills the job requires, seeing if I'm quallified, polishing my resume, etc., counts as "doing nothing". You can understand why I hate my family some times.

My mother is back in the hospital. She blacked-out the other day at the end of her dialysis session and was taken to the hospital. Apparently she remembers nothing from the time she started ther session monday, to the time she woke up at the hospital tuesday. Which is wierd because she was wide awake and screaming at the doctors and nurses moday afternoon and evening. We're starting to think that she overdosed on what ever medication she takes to stay calm durring the treatment and that is what caused her to black out and act like a woman possessed on monday.

My car is in the body shop. I had parked my car in a parking lot between a Hollywood Video rental store and a Dunkin Donuts store. I had just barely walked into the rental store when my friend called me back outside to tell me that some idiot woman backing out of the Dunkin Donuts had hit my car and totally fucked up my front bumper. Her insurance company has accepted responsibility for the accident and is paying for the repairs. Hopefullt I'll have my car back by monday or tuesday of next week.

Not having to go to work everyday has allowed me to catch up on some tv, movies, books, and comics that I haven't had time to watch or read, so I should have some reviews up soon.

I just find it funny how even without work my life has been so stressful this past month or so. God I hope things get better soon.

-- Dren

Tags: family news, friends news, real life, update
Current Mood: stressed

Earlier today the older of my family's two Yorkshire Terriers, Riley, passed away.

I'm still in a state of shock.

I'd like to say I'm handeling it well, but I know I'll become an emotional wreck when I actually see the body tomorrow.

He was a good dog, a bit loud and exitable at even the faintest noise, but he was always readly to play or to just lie down next to you when we would all sit on the couch. And he loved Christmas. Every year he would go lie down under the tree. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was my mother's Christmas present to herself, but he always loved the holiday and loved sleeping under the tree.

I'm gonna miss him.

Rest in Peace Riley.

Tags: death, family news, my pets
Current Mood: depressed

Dagon*Con Day 2 - Saturday 9/5

Woke up later than planned for the only time the entire trip.

Grabbed some brerakfast and arrived very late to the Dragon*Con parade. I took lots of pictures, but since my camera dissapeared you won't be seeing any of mine.

The costumes were amazing and there were just so many of them. You name a fandom, somebody was dressed as a character from it.

The funniest part of the parade had to be my friend Joe from Philladelphia and his Kilted Trooper Brigade who marched in the parade as kilt-wearing Stormtroopers to a bag-pipe and drum version of "The Imperial March" from Star Wars. I seriously hope that's on YouTube somewhere. You need to see it and hear it to truly understand how great that was.

After the parade I went to a Prop Building contest and was nowhere near quick enough to grab any of the cool looking bits. Needless to say what I ended up building looked like complete and total crap.

After lunch I go and watch the Star Wars costume contest. The costumes there were quite impressive. Hopefully I'll be able to find some good pictures of them online to share with you.

After that I went with some friends to a Monty Python Pannel I thought would be interesting, but I sat there bored shitless as the pannelists discussed possibly the least well known of all the Python sketches and movies. Not a single mention of The Holy Grail, the Spanish Inquisiton, the dead parot, The Ministry of Funny Walks, or any of the more famous stuff at all.

After that The Room was cleared, so I had to go outside the room so I could try to get back in for the Mythbusters pannel with Adam Savage. I didn't get in, so I wnt to go see a Star Trek pannel hosted by Garret Wang, Voyager's Ensign Harry Kim. It was far more entertaining than I expected it to be. He pretty much did nothing but tell hillarious behind the scenes storys about the things that happened on set when the cameras weren't rolling. Lets just say that one prank played by Tim Russ(Tuvok) is so scandalous that the "Ponn Farr" video would become the bestselling item at every convention if it were to ever dissapear from the Paramount vaults.

At 7:00 we go to a Brewery/Pub Restarrant called Max Lager. The food was good, but I had to split slightly early so I can make it to Dragon*Con Night at the Atlanta Aquarium.

That was a fun event, and there were lots of people there in costume, including some awesome Pitates of the Carribean costumers that just fit in so well.

While I was there I went through the Titanic exibit that was there. Your ticket to get in was actually a replica boarding pass for the Titanic that included a name of one of the passengers, reason fro travel, destination in the United States, etc. At the end of the exibit you could check to see if you were one of the survivors or not. I wasn't.

The displays were all very interesting, but a lot of the historical Information I already knew.

After the exibit I walked around the Aquarium some more ubtill we finally got told by the staff that it was time to leave. Most of us didn't want to since it essentially turned into a Dragon*Con party but without any of the hotel bars.

After that we call it a night.

-- Dren

Tags: con report, conventions, costumes, docking bay 516, dragon*con, star wars
Current Mood: nerdy

Dagon*Con Day 1 - Friday 9/4

Wake up at 7:00, almost two hours before my alarm is supposed to go off. I try to go back to sleep, but I fail mizerably. So I get up and start getting ready for the day.

I decide to wear my Stargate costume  since so many people were costuming already the night before.

Somehow my friend Dana convinces me to go with her to the practice for Doctor Horrible Live at 10:00. I had participated in it the year before, but I was uncertain about if I wanted to do so again this year. It turns out that they are so badly under-casted that I am quite litterally not allowed to say "no". I wind up playing pretty much every extra in the late showing, but more about that later.

After grabbing some lunch I spend the better part of the early afternoon walking two of the three dealer's rooms. I inquire about some games I'm looking for, Space Hulk and Rogue Trader, and am told that Space Hulk would be officially released the next day and to come back then. As for Rogue Trader, there is still no word from Fantasy Flight Games on when they are officially releasing it. A few lucky bastards got their hands on a pre-release at GenCon a few weeks earlier, but the official release keeps getting delayed.

At 2:00 I attend a pannel about the art and science of starship design for sci-fi movies and games. It was an interesting pannel that discusses design elements of human versus non-human vessels, military vessels versus civilain vessesl, etc. It quickly devolved into a discussion of existing ship designs, how they work, and why the work, which was still highly interesting.

After that pannel I walk the third dealer's room. I have some ideas about what I want to buy and from where, but I decide to wait a day or two to make my purchases. The dealers always drop the prices on Sunday or Monday and I would rather not spend too much money on games, prop replicas, etc. if I can avoid it.

After that I meet up with Rob, Dana's boyfriend, who is quickly becoming my new best friend. We try to find something on the schedule that's worth seeing, but are unable to find anything that catches out interests. So he decides to purchase one of the varients of Munchkin that he doesn't own yet so we can kill some time before dinner playing it. He won one round and I won the other.

For some reason we decide to go Trader Vic's again for dinner. I order the same apitizer as the night before, a really strong rum drink called "Navy Grog", and the Mahi Mahi with some sort of honey glaze and wasabi mashed potatoes. Words can not describe how good that meal was.

I leave dinner slightly early so I can make my way to the backstage area in time to play my roles as pretty much every extra in the late showing of Doctor Horrible Live cast. Felicia Day(Penny) shows up and introduces us, saying that she is surprised, and impressed by the amount of time, energy, and effort we put into re-creating the actual Sing-Along Blog. I want to make a snide comment that the cast for this showing only had about half an hour of practice that morning, but I keep my mouth shut. Dragging the celebrity into my hatred for the early cast hogging all the practice time would not be apropriate. And besides, the main cast and crew for both shows did put a lot of time energy and effort into recreating as many of the props and costumes as they could. So with the exception of me and my fellow extras, she was probably right about the time, energy, effort, and love of the source material that our producers, casting director, and all the main cast put into making it a success.

During the show I run around like a chicken with my head chopped off trying to remember all of my cues for all of the different male extras I was playing. God. This is why I did not really want to do this. I knew I would drive myself insane if I participated in this again, and I was right.

After the performance I go out drinking with a few of my friends. I remember that I didn't have much to drink, but forget exactly what I ordered, probably a rum and Coke or a Jack and Coke.

I decided to call it a night around 2-ish, with many insults about being a light-weight thrown my way by my far less sober friends.

I also managed to see quite a few impressive costumes the entire day and will be posting a link to some Dragon*Con pics as soon as possible.

-- Dren

Tags: con report, conventions, costumes, docking bay 516, doctor horrible, dragon*con, gaming, rogue trader, role playing games
Current Mood: nerdy