all the power in the universe conspires to carry you"
It was an unexpectedly good weekend, at the time when I needed it most. Actually it was downright fantastic, and has done wonders for my state of mind.
"We possess the power
if this should start to fall apart
to mend divides, to change the world
to reach the farthest star"
Friday night was the VNV Nation concert at Jannus Landing. I went with
alias_node and his friends Ashley and Aaron. I also got to trade real-life hugs with my_affair, which is always a high point of even the best of events. :-)
The show was, as always, spectacular. The band sounded great and put on an excellent show, and the weather was perfect- not too cold, but cool enough that being in a crowd wasn't uncomfortably warm. I picked up a new VNV t-shirt and their new CD (not yet available in the States!), and had an experience that almost makes me believe in karma (I'll make a separate post about that). BTW, all song lyrics in this post are from their new album, Judgement.
"It's just you and me now
It's just you and me now
against the world"
On Saturday the awesome continued when
femetal and I went to Islands of Adventure. It was the first time in over 10 years that just the two of us have gone to a theme park together, and we got annual passes for both Universal parks. The park was packed and lines were long, but since we were on no particular schedule it really wasn't a problem for us. We ended up riding Dr. Doom, The Hulk, and Dueling Dragons, and while in Jurassic Park I bought... things...
Yes, those are lollipops. Yes, the one on the left (banana flavored!) has a real scorpion in it! The one on the right has a cricket, complete with a little bit of grass. I'm absolutely going to eat the scorpion pop- possibly right after I finish this post. I'll *try* to eat the cricket, but may not be able to get beyond the squick factor. I'll keep you all posted. Side note: I photographed them on my new Brotherhood of Nod mouse pad. Props to the Brotherhood! :-)
After Islands of Adventure, we made a quick stop at Universal Studios so I could commune with the object of my darkest, most inappropriate fantasies...
"Judgement Day's not coming
Judgement Day's not coming
Judgement Day's not coming soon enough!"
(In case you couldn't tell, I'm the one on the right.)
*LUST* This thing is beautiful beyond the telling of it, and the photo doesn't begin to do it justice. It's life size, all metal, chromed, and fully detailed (Trust me. I know endoskeleton physiology!). The pedestal it's standing on has skulls I took a bunch of photos of it. I also held its hand, cuddled up to it, tickled its toes, and put my head up to the barrel of its plasma rifle and had inappropriate thoughts.
It's six grand, so sadly I'll have to go visit it at the T2 store rather than having its cold, unfeeling visage greet me in my bedroom every morning. I resisted the urge to ask how much it would cost for an hour alone with it, but if anyone happens to have that information please pass it along. ;-)
After a tearful goodbye, we left the T-800 and Universal. After 40 minutes of bumper-to-bumper traffic just to get out of the parking garage we let the Voot Runner guide us to the nearest Village Inn. We picked Village Inn partially because have yummy pancakes but mostly because they have wi-fi access, and I wanted to be sure to order Serenity blueprints from QMx as soon as they went on sale. We had a pleasant dinner, placed the order right on time, and had a non-hurried trip home.
"We bring destruction, we bring war without an end"
On Sunday we slept in (blessed, blessed sleep!), then I wrestled with getting a wireless card installed and working on Destroyah, the shuttle PC I use for Half-Life and Command & Conquer. After a bit of cursing and remembering why I prefer Macs to PCs, we loaded the computer into the Voot Runner and headed over to
cyber_wolf_2020, nekidsteve, and indigofae's place. It was really nice getting to just hang out and (eventually) game. I actually wasn't expecting to see Sebastian at all, but was pleasantly surprised that he, Steve, and I got to do a 3-way together (That is to say, "multiplayer C&C 3", you pervs!). There were some connectivity challenges, and for some reason Destroyah doesn't recognize that a bought, registered, legitimate copy of the game is in the DVD drive (so I have to use the no-CD hack to make my legal copy work! Stupid PCs!), but we still got two good rounds in. We played co-op, with me playing GDI, Steve playing the Scrin, and 'Bass playing Nod. Much fun!"If we fall and break
all the tears in the world
cannot make us whole again"
So overall my state of mind is much improved. The weekend was therapeutic and this week, while extremely busy at work, has been going smoothly as well. Kim and I went to Kobe for a late Easter dinner on Monday, and it was fantastic. I know it sounds odd, but Japanese steak has been an Easter tradition in my family since I was a little kid. :-) Tuesday was Ice Cream for Dinner night, and last night was Stay At Home And Watch Soft Porn night. 8-)
If I owe you e-mail (and there are a few of you), I apologize for letting things drop. In between work and recompiling my world I'm slowly getting caught up. Thanks for everyone's well-wishes, and hugs to all of you!
Now where's that scorpion pop?...
