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| Monday, April 13th, 2009 | | 4:59 pm |
These are a few of my favorite things
 So! I like go karts and water parks and hanging out with friends and meeting new people and artists and good food and music and volleyball and DDR and Rock Band and big, fuzzy costumes. WELL! It just so happens that all of those things will be at ONE GATHERING during the weekend of May 29th through the 31st. I shall be going and I shall be having a good time of it! (You should too) Current Mood:  optimistic | | Friday, February 27th, 2009 | | 7:15 pm |
| | 6:11 pm |
Back from Colorado
  These photos pretty much sum up the awesomeness (and retardedness) that was last weekend. ( the fat )This had to be one of the most fun experiences of my life! I can't wait to do it again! Current Mood: cheerful | | Thursday, February 19th, 2009 | | 11:15 am |
In Denver, excited about snowboarding, torn up by a friend's passing
After finishing up at work yesterday, I went home, waited for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kuddlepup to get home from work, piled my things into his car, and headed to the airport so he could drop me off - destined for Denver, Colorado. The flight was originally scheduled to take off at 8:10pm, but after I checked in and got to the gate, I realized that my boarding pass had a departure time of 7:35. The plane was certainly headed to Denver, so I knew I was at least going to the right place, but I have no idea how the departure time was truncated by 35 minutes. Bonus! The flight was EMPTY. There were probably about 30 people on board, and we had takeoff clearance before the last few people boarded. I think we even ended up getting out earlier than the new departure time. ( The wordy details )I had trouble sleeping all night, probably because I'm just so full of adrenaline from the excitement of being here, and probably because of the time difference or something. Although, maybe the cosmos was just trying to tell me that something was horribly wrong. After a restless night, I finally gave in, got up at about 7:15am local time, and took a shower. I got dressed, and booted up the ol' Lappy to check e-mail and hop on IRC for a bit to pass the time while Vish and Redstorm were still fast asleep. That's when I was blasted by the news of evil_dwagon's passing. Most knew him as Furp. I knew him as an intelligent, wry, fun-loving, selfless friend who seemed to always put others first and be the first to spring into action to help anyone in need. I'm completely beside myself after hearing this news - having run the entire gamut of emotions while reading the outcry from the community. It's been such a long time, I don't really remember when I first met Furp. It was probably at an MFM, sometime back in the 1998-2000 timeframe. My most memorable moment with him, though, was at this past year's Eurofurence. A fairly sizeable group of folks decided to head down into Suhl in search of a good dinner. Because vehicle space was limited, and probably moreso because we're completely wacky people, we all tried piling into kodi_pup's Renault rental car. It had a hatchback and cargo cover, and Furp and I jumped into the boot to ride down the winding, mountain road. It led to a cacophony of laughter from everyone involved, but the two of us were just giggling like children. Kodi took the turns with some added pedal, and we were all shouting "Tokyo Drifto!" the whole way down into town. Good times, good times. I'm still going to try to enjoy myself this weekend, but I know I'm not going to be able to stop thinking about this for quite some time. It's a real shame that someone who has helped rescue so many people from so many accidents was taken out, himself, in a collision with a drunk driver. I hope that driver really gets what's coming to him. :/ Current Mood: indescribable | | Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 | | 3:41 pm |
Hi. My name is Scott, and I'm addicted to snowboarding.
So dominowuff mentioned he was going begged and pleaded for me to join him and a few others this past weekend for some skiing/snowboarding at Sugar Mountain, North Carolina. Despite knowing that the conditions were going to be horrible, I decided that I'd find a way to get myself up there let him twist my arm and drag me along, kicking and screaming. I also thought, "Well, maybe since we'll be in North Carolina, we'll also somehow manage to also find time to visit CCI." ( Wordiness abounds )All in all, it was a fun weekend, but if I did it again, I think I'd shoot for sometime in December instead of February. | | Monday, February 2nd, 2009 | | 8:25 pm |
Indeed it did contain nuts - eventually
Friday night, I boarded a non-stop flight from MCO to BOS, landed at about 9:10pm, and was immediately picked up and whisked away by zschamm, lynxkitten, and a delicious pretzel of nommity goodness to rendezvous with roninotter, halioffirpine and Darius, regroup, pile into Hali's van, and trek up to Killington, Vermont for a weekend full of snowboarding awesomeness. Aside from a bit of a hard landing, the flight was unremarkable, which is good. On the way to Vermont, we stopped for some McD's, 'cause while the pretzel that zschamm made was delicious, it wasn't a meal. Although, to some, I imagine that a Big Mac, fries, and a root beer don't really qualify either, but oh well. ( My tendency to be long-winded continues ) Current Mood: jubilant | | Thursday, January 29th, 2009 | | 11:43 am |
This weekend may contain nuts
As briefly mentioned in a previous post... Last April, I went to Boston and New Hampshire to visit with lynxcat and roninotter to go do something I had never done before: Snowboarding - at Cranmore, North Conway, New Hampshire. As a result of it being the absolute last day of the season, I'm told that the conditions were horrible because we were riding on coarse, granulated ice rather than snow. Even with those conditions, even though I seemed to be on my ass or hands and knees more than I was standing on my board, EVEN THOUGH I nearly broke all of the soft tissue in my left elbow on one of my falls, I completely fell in love with snowboarding. A++++ WILL RIDE AGAIN! WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? Well, that means that I'm heading back up that direction this weekend (tomorrow night)! This time, it will be to venture into Vermont and go snowboarding at Killington Ski Resort and I'm all-encompassingly jazzed about it. Good friends, good times, good..ness. :) But wait! There's more! Come hell nor high water, I also have plans to go to Copper Mountain Ski Resort on the same weekend as Furry Ski Weekend. They're all filled up, but I'M GOIN' ANYWAY, 'cause, well, I bought the plane tickets and I don't want to waste them. Whether I'm stayin' on my own somewhere else on or near the mountain or I end up staying with the Furries, I'mma be snowboardin' that weekend, too. :) Current Mood:  bouncy | | Monday, January 26th, 2009 | | 9:50 pm |
Elliott's Previous Two Events
We had another fun, happenin' Elliott's Event last weekend that I don't remember much of 'cause it was busy, stress times for the me. Grandiose new things keep being added, which lends to a feeling of unpreparedness for the normal stuff. Granted, it's just a party, and it's free, so there should be zero expectations/quitcherbitchin' and all that, but I, personally, still like to have a few more ducks in a row than we've had for the last two events. For Elliott's Summer Celebration, a 5000sqft building was being built to house the party. That was grandiose addition #1 that got started about a month before the event was scheduled. I must say that a lot got finished before the day of the party, but because we didn't have the temporary power pole prepared enough for the power company's liking, electricity didn't get delivered. Since we were really focused on the building we didn't prepare things like... FOOD much ahead of time. ( the details... )The moral of the story is that a lot of work gets put into these parties, so COME CHECK 'EM OUT. :) Maybe we'll actually start getting things prepared ahead of time for one of them. :p Hopefully people had fun at this one. | | 7:20 pm |
I went to Germany! (a while ago)
I never did get a chance to write about Eurofurence, so I figured that I might as well get around to it. The trip was entirely too stressful for me to have much fun, so the things that stick out in my mind are: I flew there on a companion pass, so I was dressed up in a business suit, 'cause I was told that I needed to look professional. That proved to be cumbersome, hot, and sweaty by the time I got to the hotel because I had to manage 600 ELE badge holders, a fursuit, and clothing. I really needed a shower at that point. I also had to locate Vinny since he was going to be riding with me from the airport to Suhl. I let him drive. Getting there and trying to manage getting the badge holders there before registration opened, to find out that it had opened several hours before I got there and the person at registration had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned badge holders was a stressful endeavor. I waited until nachtfuchs could be contacted. He was busy (and I think stressed) at the time, and was very short with me about them not being there a week or more in advance, which added to my stress level, 'cause I hate inconveniencing people. I explained to him that he was preaching to the choir and that I was just the messenger. I never did get over the jet lag the entire time I was there and just felt drained and tired the whole time. I wasn't able to pick up a power adapter before I left because I didn't know I was going for sure until about 2 days before I left, so my laptop didn't have any juice. My phone didn't work over there, either. Aaand, I didn't get a chance to exchange any money before I left. Not as many things take credit cards in Eastern Germany as they do in the US, it turns out. All of those things, combined, generated yet more stress because Carmi didn't give me his flight information before I left, so I didn't know when I was supposed to pick him up from the Frankfurt airport - a 2 hour drive (one way) from the EF hotel. I squeezed the remaining power out of my laptop battery long enough to figure out how to get onto the wireless in the lobby and check my e-mail. By the time I did that, he was already at the airport, waiting to be picked up, so I e-mailed him back to tell him that I was on my way, dropped everything and ran out the door. I stopped to try to use a pay phone to call him, but the prompts were in German and I couldn't quite figure out how to make a successful, credit card, international call from the phone, so I gave up. When I got to the airport, I went to the places where I figured I would find him, but I didn't see him, so I tried, again, to make a call at a pay phone. It turned out that he was about 30 feet from where I was making the call, looked around while the phone was ringing, spotted me, didn't answer and instead walked over to me, just as I was finishing up the voicemail that I was leaving. I found out later that it cost me $42.00 to leave that voicemail! Note to self: Secure a mobile phone that will work in Europe before going back. By that point in the trip, my stress level was so high that I had pretty much mentally given up on the whole thing, and was a bit of a zombie for the rest of the time I was there. My memories of it are almost like remembering a dream - flashes of things, but no real continuity. Here are the flashes: Carmi and I went out to try to find a pre-paid SIM card for his old phone that I could use for the rest of the time I was there. We also went exploring a bit because he wanted to find a T-Mobile store that might be selling unlocked iPhones. I remember the puppet show being spectacular. German food is amazing. I was too shy and out of it to really meet any new people, so, with the exception of Atalon and Taylin (sp?), I mostly hung out with those who were already familiar to me. I spent a lot of time sitting with Pacer, Ip, and Kodi. We had a nice conversation with the manager of the hotel one night while he stopped to grab a bite to eat near the main bar. I got to meet someone who I hadn't known outside of the 'net, but knew since 1995 - Elfasi. He's quite a nice fellow. Elliott danced a bit and also attended the fursuit parade. My room was in the overflow hotel, so leaving way late each night to go down the mountain to the Golden Tulip was always an adventure. When I was parked at the convention, I usually ended up parking in a lot that was a small walk from the hotel because the parking immediately surrounding the hotel was usually packed full. The out lot didn't have any lights at night. My phone turned out to be good for something, because the display would illuminate the path enough for me to get there and not kill myself by tripping on something. One of the nights, I nearly ran into a couple of deer while driving down the mountain. I remember them seeming to have a rather indignant look when they had to move out of the way for me. I went swimming in the hotel pool with a whole mess of people on the last day, which turned out to be a blast. I was invited, along with just about the entire remainder of the convention attendees, to a dinner at a "Texas style" restaurant halfway down the mountain from the hotel. It went from having almost nobody to being completely overwhelmed and some people didn't get their food until about 4 hours after it was ordered. I was at the lucky table that was in and out within a normal amount of time, though. It was kinda funny watching Kage busing tables and trying to help with the dishes. I stayed with Kodi, JD, and Jimmy the last night I was in Suhl, and he and I drove back to Frankfurt in the morning. He had an awesome night the night before and let's just say due to that awesomeness, I'm surprised he was able to function well enough to make that drive and check into the hotel in Frankfurt. It turned out to be a really fun time, though, and we found a nice, little restaurant to have dinner that night, and headed to the airport in the morning. That's the bulk of the brain dump. If I come up with more, later, I'll add it. | | Sunday, September 28th, 2008 | | 11:50 pm |
| | Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 | | 2:50 pm |
| | Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 | | 5:17 pm |
Never a dull moment - ESC & Fay (EF Later)
I'm perpetually too busy doing stuff than to recount it all, but here are some of the highlights. A group of friends and I have been hosting parties, roughly once per quarter, and calling them Elliott's Live Events. Normally, they were held at a private residence on 5 acres of land in Winter Garden, but because of some logistic issues with air conditioning and a couple other things, we held the past two events at a hotel. In addition to having various activities, like video games, a dance floor, and an HD theater, we made outings to " Wet 'n Wild". For Elliott's Spring Gathering in May, we even had the whole park to ourselves for 2 hours after closing time! The event staff at Wet 'n Wild are incredibly accommodating and, among other niceties, allowed tekfox to DJ for the whole park's sound system for the extra hours. The house is in a secluded, wooded area with plenty of outdoor space, so events held there have a different sort of magic about them. It's mostly reminiscent of how the earlier MFM's felt - back in 1997, 1998, and 1999, where the crowd is smaller and the focus is mostly on being social. I also find the house parties to be a lot of fun because things like volleyball, badminton, horseshoes, and Frisbee encourage people to actually be on their feet and active. The fall and winter parties are currently slated to be back at the house, so who will join me for a game of volleyball at the next one? :) The parties, of course, come at the cost of a lot of work. Sometimes, when you get lazy about things, and procrastinate on some of the post party clean-up, more work can result. We learned this the hard way when tropical storm Fay was headed toward Florida and we decided that the various, carport-sized tents, used for the parties at the house, should probably come down so the storm doesn't haphazardly do the job for us. James, kofu, and I set out to do this task which turned out to be far more arduous than we had originally thought. 6 out of the 7 tents had at least one brown widow spider in them, and 3 of them had at least one wasp nest. We spent two, full days just taking down those tents because we had to thoroughly inspect, despider and dewasp them and their contents. All in all, we didn't make out too badly because the only incident was that James got stung by one wasp. Alas, this is what happens when you leave stuff outside in Florida for a year. | | Friday, May 2nd, 2008 | | 2:26 pm |
"What on Earth has been going on?!?!", you might say.
WELL. This year has been particularly eventful, both good and horrible, so far, and we still have 7 months of it left! In a nutshell: My dad passed away the weekend after Elliott's Winter Carnival and we still don't have the autopsy report, FWA was fun, Megaplex was a blast, I went to Boston to hang out with lynxkitten and roninotter but also got some quality hangings outs with spunkywulf, Matthew Ebel, aceswild, ganadorrex, and a few others, rode with Lynx and Ronin from Boston to New Hampshire for a day of snowboarding (also a rawkin', good time), got back from that and the company where I've been working for the past 9 years went into bankruptcy, folded, and its assets got acquired by a company I decided that I didn't want to work for, and to top it all off, the storage array on the web server that I've been partially responsible for keeping running for the past 9 years was largely corrupted by a serious bug in Xen while I was finally finding time to make backups of it (oh, the irony) - essentially, the act of trying to back it up caused the failure. SO! How's your life? :) Things are on the up and down, the next up is that Elliott's Spring Gathering is coming up next weekend, and if it's as fun and awesome as the last one, I'll be a happy camper. Sometimes these parties turn out to be a lot of work and stress, but I was able to chillax and have a good time at the last one, so here's hoping that this one goes as well. It's going to be at a different location that's more suitable for the activities, though, so here's hopin'. You should come, too, and keep me company. :) Current Mood: optimistic | | Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 | | 11:14 am |
| | Sunday, January 20th, 2008 | | 2:27 am |
Life throws you curve balls
My dad died, unexpectedly. My brother found him today, apparently having been gone for a number of hours. Cause of death is undetermined at this point. I'll write more later when I start feeling again. Current Mood:  numb | | Thursday, January 17th, 2008 | | 5:19 pm |
| | Monday, January 7th, 2008 | | 11:16 am |
Presidential Candidate Alignment Quiz
I typically don't get involved in politics, but this quiz meme thing keeps popping up in friends' journals, so curiosity finally bit me. As part of your well-balanced breakfast, I give you... 79% Bill Richardson
65% Barack Obama
65% Chris Dodd
64% Hillary Clinton
64% John Edwards
61% Tom Tancredo
57% Mitt Romney
56% Mike Huckabee
53% John McCain
52% Rudy Giuliani
52% Fred Thompson
51% Joe Biden
43% Mike Gravel
38% Ron Paul
36% Dennis Kucinich
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz Current Mood: mellowCurrent Music: Green Grass and High Tides | | Monday, October 1st, 2007 | | 7:21 pm |
Black Widow Spiders are scarier when they're on you
Some of you may remember my previous adventures with spiders. Between then and now, we had another one that I didn't write about, but kuddlepup blurbed it. The saga continues... I decided to get some yard work done yesterday - you know, the standard mow the weeds, trim the bushes, edge the driveway routine. There's a section of our back yard that has grown out of control because it was home to a small garden that kuddlepup had created, and we had been too busy to maintain it. Instead of just mow over it, I've been avoiding it in the hopes that we could weed it out and find the flowers again. That also led to letting three of our border shrubs get overrun with weeds because of their proximity with the garden. I decided that now was as good a time as ever to go ahead and at least weed the shrubs, so I started grabbing handfuls of weeds and tossing them onto a pile. While I'm transporting one of these handfuls, I happen to notice that at the end of it, there was a bit of spider webbing and egg cases. Just as I was turning around to go grab another handful, I thought to myself, "gosh, those looked an awful lot like black widow egg sacs." When I look toward the ground, I notice a matte black spider dangling on a thread of web from my knee. As it's dangling and clamoring for a foothold, it's spinning around and clearly displaying itself from all angles. WELL, it just so happened that there was a bright red hourglass shape on its abdomen, the unmistakable marking for the black widow! Normally, I keep my cool in most situations regarding insects, regular, garden variety spiders, and other things people like to consider to be "creepy crawly". This time was different, though. Even though I was wearing jeans, my wits had left my head and were replaced with reactions including: jumping back while kicking that leg, and screaming almost at the top of my lungs, "OH GOD!" I swear I heard my voice echoing back to me from around the neighborhood. The kicking worked, 'cause she was sent flying off of my leg and down to the ground. That's when the fascination with spiders kicked in and I just observed her crawl off to the fence and eventually through one of the spaces between the boards and into the neighbor's yard. Current Mood: relieved | | 6:00 pm |
Australia or bust!
So I'm thinking of taking a trip to Australia, 'cause like... I've always wanted to visit, and I can also go spend time with badger_c, my favorite aussie. I can get a pretty inexpensive flight (in relative terms) if I leave before December 1st, but the caveat is that I need to find a place to stay near LAX for the night before the flight out and the day I get back. Now I just have to figure out who I know that lives in Los Angeles to see if I can mooch a ride, a couch, and company. :) Alternatively, I'll just work a flight itinerary that'll be about $400-$500 more expensive, but doesn't involve me finding lodging in LA. Any way you look at it, though... OMG AUSTRALIA! :D :D Current Mood: bouncy | | Thursday, May 10th, 2007 | | 6:08 pm |
I'm a Daddy! (well, sort of)
So I decided several months ago that I would put aside a few bucks every month to support a very beautiful "little" girl. Meet Katrina, one of the lionesses at CCI She gets extra meaty treats whenever I visit, and I think she's really taken a liking to me. :) Current Mood: happy |
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