Crocheting and [adult swim] Obsessions

So a couple more new listings on Etsy. Finally relisted the red Mario mushrooms and the mini-brain slugs are finally available on Etsy.
Linkies:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=41318384

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_2&listing_id=41124388

Going to be stocking up on amugurmi for AnimeBoston, the first convention of the season. It's the first weekend of April, so I only have 4 weeks to make as many amigurumi as possible. Also gonna make some jewelry, but I'm not as concerned w/my stock cuz they don't sell as well as the amgurumi. I did sell a fair amount of guitar pick earrings though. Starting to shy away from the hemp and friendship bracelets, although I'll probably make a handful of Harry Potter house color friendship and beaded bracelets because those sell well at the conventions (actually got a custom order for beaded house bracelets last summer, I was very happy)

I also did some internet sleuthing last week that I'm kind of proud of in a nerdy way. [adult swim] prides themselves on their guerrilla style of advertisement (except that one time in Boston...) and lately they've had a series of mural-style graffitti advertisements in major cities all around the US. On the bumps they'd show a picture of one w/the city and say "Go find this" and one of three murals which I will title "the viewer graph," "series flow-chart," and "what to expect in 2010 pie chart." So I started my search for the Boston ones looking for clues to their locations on the interwebs. Naturally, I started on the [adult swim] message boards where I discovered viewer graph was already painted over. Using the picture posted by a sad viewer, I was able to zoom in and see it was on a street that intersected Cambridge St. Another viewer posted finding series flow chart on the side of a Russian shop on the border of Brookline. I then checked out flickr to see if anyone has found them yet. User walknboston had found viewer graph before it was painted over, and by his tags I found that it was specifically in Brighton, which narrowed down its location further. Later, I found a picture of an older mural ("Do you still care?") on Gordon St. A second picture of said mural revealed that this mural was in the same location as viewer graph (an electrical box with a tell-tale graffitti located in both pictures clued me in) therefore I learned that this former mural was on the corner of Gordon and Cambridge in Brighton. More flickr searching found other shots of series flow-chart that showed the block of stores that it was on the side of. I was barely able to make out "Babushka's Deli" and did a Google search. It's on Washington St in Brighton. Checked out MBTA for closest T stops, they're both on the Green Line "B" BOOSH. ("B" line doesn't stand for BOOSH, BOOSH is just the exclaimation I make to punctuate moments of success or one-upping). Wig and I were going to go into Boston Wednesday but of course it was raining buckets. We'll be heading in this Wednesday instead. Although they've already been found and posted by other people we have to see them for ourselves. Also, I believe that all three murals are in each city and if that is true, the pie chart hasn't been accounted for in Boston and I could still be the first to find it.

Sources:

http://boards.adultswim.com/adultswim/board/message?board.id=bumps&thread.id=37775&jump=true

http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkn/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adultswimphotos/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffesposito/

Christmas Haul

It was a pretty good Christmas. My mom was beside herself that my dad broke down and got her her own Wii and my dad is very interested in learning how to sync music to his new iPod. His only concern is figuring out the most effective way to listen to it at work while keeping the bluetooth headset required for work in one ear. The cats got stoned on catnip and Frankenstein was totally enthralled with his first Christmas ever. I got lots of great stuff.

A new peacoat
A new bathrobe
New pillows with satin pillowcases
Slippers in the shape of Gir from Invader Zim - my favorite gift as I had a pair like 4 years ago but they got wrecked and had to be thrown out when I had a bedbug infestation
Peanuts Collection 1960s and 1970s Volume 1 on DVD
Watchmen on DVD
The Essential Weird Al on CD
Rockers and Rollers: An Automobile Autobiography by Brian Johnson of AC/DC
Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk
$50 Kohl's gift card
Various candy and skincare/beauty products in my stocking
No pads for once LOL (inside joke from back when my grandmother was still alive)
$250 from my grandfather.

My other grandparents are paying off a medical bill as my gift and I haven't gotten the gift from my aunt yet but I can only assume it's yet another Nintendo sweatshirt from Hot Topic (seriously, I looove Nintendo but three's enough). I haven't gotten Wig's gift yet. I asked for Parker Lewis Can't Lose on DVD (only the BEST forgotten show of the 90s) but if he couldn't find it, a new ring or 2 to replace the 2 I lost at work this Season.

My grandfather, uncle, and my mom's cousins Raymond and his partner Tom and Julie and her husband and 2 daughters all came for dinner at our house. Olivia is 2 and Sophia's 3 months. Olivia's one of those toddlers that is too smart and clever for their own good. And y'know the old saying kids say the darnedest things. Raymond was telling a story of when he took her to some Santa's Village thingie and they're waiting in line and some other kid was acting up she goes "It OK Unky Raymond. I think he's retarded" Like where'd she learn that word? When we babysat her a few weeks ago she just turned to my mom and addressed her by her first name, like "Hey, Carolyn!" and my mom's like "Call me auntie!" Also it was quite funny to see how enthralled with my uncle Richard both Olivia and Sophia were. My uncle Richard's waaaaay out there. He's tapped. So they're just staring at him like "WTF?" He spent half the party watching Christmas Vacation and the other half watching Elmo because we put it on for Olivia but she wouldn't stand still...but he left it on, even after my mom's like "Y'know, Rich, you can change that..." no response "...unless you want to watch it..."

After the horde of people left I headed over to Wiggy's where Wig shit a brick when he got his special edition Nintendo DSi. We watched Santa Claus Conquers the Martian (Mystery Science Theater version of couse) which is our new Christmas tradition after it went over so well with him and Gahmstead last year.

...and WTF Luis Guzman is in Crocodile Dundee II? Sorry that threw me off. It's on TVLand right now and I look over and I see the one Hispanic actor who's in EVERTHING...besides Danny Trejo, but he's technically only in everything directed by Robert Rodriguez...and Bubble Boy.

Anyway, after the movie Wig gave me a different kind of Christmas gift if you know what I mean *wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more* We called it an early night soon after because even though it was Christmas it was still a Friday which means he HAS to go over Jack's with the rest of the gang to play 360. LOL.

Christmas Eve was fun too. In the morning after the overnight shift was over, a huge group of us went over to Denny's, including Ed our manager. I'm surprised we weren't kicked out for being loud, obnoxious and continuously talking about vaginas. Something about Christmas vaginas and everyone was replacing the word Christmas with Vagina in song titles...yeah, we're very mature. A couple of them were noticably drunk. How professional. Jason actually passed out in his aisle and John got a hysteriacal picture of him just curled up on a couple boxes. Not that Ed can do anything cuz John's also got a picture of him asleep on a shelf. See what I miss when I'm closed off in the RZone? Neither of them were as drunk as this one kid who was actually drinking AT work, having smuggled in old-school alocholic egg nog in a water bottle, but he didn't come to Denny's. Probably for the best. Good thing Season and the overnight shift are over tonight because he wouldn't have had a job still anyway.
Anyway, that was one breakfast/dinner/whatever that was chock full of innuendo. And male cleavage (Mikey makes some really convincing cleavage when he squishes his chest up, which is odd because he's a skinny guy and doesn't have man-boobs or anything). God we were there for like, 3 hours just stuffing our faces and laughing hysterically. And Ed paid for the whole thing as a Christmas gift to us - despite our protests. But we all threw in for the tip. It's bittersweet. I'm so glad Christmas is over and hours and general foot traffic in the store are going back to normal and I can get back on a normal sleep schedule, but I was finally starting to have a real rapport with some of the night crew (I don't see them much because we're in our own respective sections but after work we started getting to talking only in the past week and Dan's a funny-ass guy...and he's the only other person I know so far besides me and Wig that have see Dayjob Orchestra's video dubs on YouTube! I also got him addicted to iCarly LOL) There' always Facebook, which I HAVE to friend everyone on, especially to nab copies of John's pics of Jason and Ed sleeping and Mikey's hot tits LOL.
After stumbling home from Denny's I slept a little and headed over to Wig's. His friend and drummer Mikey was over and we all watched Dragonball Evolution and the Invader Zim Christmas episode. Then when Gahmstead came home we watched Dodgeball which I FINALLY got to see. Hysterical. Dragonball wasn't bad but it wasn't great. If you're a fan of the original manga and anime, it's worth renting because they get a handful of things right like character personalities and the balance of action and comedy, but took a lot of liberties with the backstory. I don't think they even used the term Saiyan once. If you're not a Dragonball fan, this movie doesn't hold up much as just an action flick. There's some cool martial arts stuff and a fiery lava Mount Doom-esque landscape where the final showdown happens and there's an evil alien (played by Spike from Buffy and Angel) trying to take over but it's too cheesy even for people who like cheesy.

All in all it was a good end to a mediocre year.

WTF?

So I took the most bizarre, disquieting survey earlier. I just HAD to screen cap every question. I can't believe this was an actual e-Rewards survey...

The clincher? I ended up not qualifying for the survey! Apparently, I'm too confident in my sexual interests and desires for their study... Sorry about the 2nd picture, it's on the Large setting on the uploader and is still too small. If I try to enlarge it it gets blurry. But you still get the idea from the other three.

Also, my sister has finally joined the workforce. One of her friends works at a seasonal store in the Cambridgeside Galleria (ie, it was all Halloween costumes but now it's going to be Christmas stuff like decorations and wrapping paper and gifts) and convinced her into applying and she got the job. I think she starts tomorrow. She's happy because right now they're just setting up the merch so she doesn't have to deal with people at all. I give it a week before she get's sick of it and quits or gets fired for mouthing off LOL.

Seasonal Update

I have to get back in the swing of blogging more frequently. It's been too long since the last time I updated. So even though it's 2 months before New Year's I'm going to make a resolution to update my Blogger, Twitter and FaceBook on an almost-daily basis.

So I think I'm having a quarter-life crisis. I'm turning 25 this month. On the one hand that's not old at all, but on the other it's 5 years from 30, and nothing I had planned to have accomplished by now has come to fruition. I'm still living at home, and I'm no closer to starting my career and getting married. I realized that subconciously I've been trying to recreate my youth. Over the past year or so I've been slowly collecting all my favorite childhood shows on DVD, the most important being Peanuts specials. For some reason, Snoopy will always stick out in my mind as being a big deal when I was growing up, and recently I've been rewatching the specials I already have on DVD or VHS and have been trying to collect the rest that are available on DVD (no small feat as there were over 130 made between the 1960s and early 2000s and not all of them are on DVD yet) I've been on the Peanuts wikipedia page and I found out there's a Charles Schultz museum in Santa Rosa, California that I MUST go to - and there's even a statue of Charlie Brown and Snoopy in Santa Rosa center. Other series from back in the day I've amassed in my nostalgia stupor include Garfield, Adventures of Pete & Pete, Darkwing Duck, Inspector Gadget, Clarissa Explains it All, Alf, and Punky Brewster. Not to mention all the old movies I have as well. I'm too young to be freaking out about my age and trying to recapture my youth, but right now the desire to relive the simpler times in my life is at full force. But it's not necessarily a bad thing. Those were some great shows and the fact that they're on DVD and I can watch them whenever I want is great - especially when there's bonus features because I'm a trivia whore.

They're having a Price is Right Live event at Foxwoods now through the 18th. Being the game show whore that I am and the fact that it's only 2 hours away and $25 for a ticket, me and Wig are thinking of going next week. Who knows? We might luck out and win some awesome prizes. It's worth the shot. I'd fare a lot better on Cash Cab, Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy though, it's less up to chance and more reliant on my unending cache of useless random trivia. Also I just found out that there's a little sci-fi convention being held the 21st and 22nd in the Framingham Sheraton (the castle on the Mass pike) and fucking Brent Spiner is going to be there. Only my favorite actor who played my favorite character in the entire Star Trek universe. And tickets are only $35 for the whole weekend. I've already started overnights for the season, and getting weekends off is normally impossible this time of year, but my manager is a fellow nerd and he totally understood. I only really need Friday off so I can sleep and be well rested and get there early then I can do my normal Saturday overnight after I get back from the con. I don't need to go Sunday unless I miss Brent on Saturday and he's going to be doing signings on Sunday too. But I think Sat will suffice. But if I couldn't get the days off, I could function on a couple hours sleep and still work and go to the con. I can forgo sleep for one weekend for Brent Spiner. I know I'm being a total spaz right now, but this is a big deal. I've been a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation since I was eight and Data has always been my favorite character, so this is a lifelong dream.

In other news, I had a couple Etsy sales a few weeks ago. Two in a row. I also joined an Etsy Team. It's the CreateCrochet team and it's wicked fun. Every month there's a new challenge theme. This month's is "winter" and the possibilities are endless. You make your item, list it, and it gets featured on the blog and in treasuries. Every week there's a featured seller and I was the featured seller 2 weeks ago. I got much love for my brain slug amigurumi as usual and a bunch more hearts but no sales. We're also doing a swap right now where we were matched up with other members to convo back and forth and get to know each other and make each other surprise gifts. I have to work on the swap and the winter challenge item plus some new ideas I have for the shop. I don't know what I'm going to do for everyone for Christmas yet. I have a lot of ideas that cost a lot of money but no money to pull them off, but I don't know what I can crochet for everyone that I can get done in time. But I'll think of something and pull it off last minute.

I actually had a decent Halloween for the first time in years. Me, Wig, Inyx, Sin and Ed went into Salem. It's so overrated and overcrowded and has been totally ruined by the tourists. But the highlight of the day was seeing a DeLorean decked out just like the one in Back to the Future! Complete with a Marty McFly and Doc Brown for photo-ops. They were collecting donations for TeamFox for Parkinson's Disease research and any donation allowed you to take a picture in the driver's seat. I love the Back to the Future trilogy and I love DeLoreans because we share the same initials, DMC. My dad used to joke I was named after the DeLorean Motor Company, and I'm even considering keeping my maiden name when I marry just to keep the coolest initials ever. More pics on my flickr.

I had a job interview a couple weeks ago. While the position was in Beverly I had to go to the main office in Sudbury for the interview. It was for a part-time music teacher for a daycare/school called Next Generation Children's Center. I thought the interview went really well but I got a rejection letter literally 3 days later. With my license still pending and no experience, it's next to impossible to get a job in anything remotely teaching related. But I'm not giving up yet. I have a list of online resources for private school job listings someone my mom knows sent her for me, and there's the option of private lessons. I'm also seriously pursuing the idea I had for a children's book: Hayden Go Seek. I don't know whether I want to do it like an I Spy book or for younger children where you lift open flaps to find items, but the plot is that you have to find specific orchestral instruments, parts of the musical staff and composers. Also my eBay sales have been steady. No huge hauls but I'm getting a few bucks for things I don't need anymore (or promotional items I got for free or for as little as a penny!). Although I'm having some issues with a couple buyers not having paid yet. They're already late, it's been over a week, but I try to be understanding and lenient. I mean, there could've been a death or medical emergency and they haven't been online in a week. Who knows? But if I still get no reply or payment in a few days I will file a claim with eBay. This is the first time I've had this problem on eBay, although I had it once on Etsy. Generally I get paid instantly or within the first 3 days. I pride myself in having 100% positive feedback and everyone praises my fast shipping and communication. I'd hate for my reputation to be tarnished.

And my car has been in the shop TWICE in the past month for leaking coolant. The first time was a cracked something-or-other valve and then 2 weeks later the radiator went. When they were replacing the radiator, they found that the transmission lines were rusted and one broke so those had to be replaced. Fortunately, the guy that does all my repairs is a close friend of my dad's and didn't charge any labor. I still owe my dad and my grandmother a ton of money for helping me with car parts and repairs. :(

And we have a new kitten! Heather's friend couldn't keep him and she didn't want to see him go to the animal shelter, so she brought him home. We were supposed to find a new home for him but we got too attached and kept him. His name's Frankenstein. He is the most obnoxious pet I ever owned but he's adorable. And my parakeet Gemini died the other day. Sad, but not devastatingly sad as I wasn't too attached to him, and he was old for a parakeet and I think het got sick in the past couple months.

I saw Boondock Saints II: All Saint's Day. If you haven't seen the first one, what the fuck are you waiting for?! And if you have, see the sequel you'll fucking love it! It was much like the first one with the action and the spurts of comedy but it had a deep backstory that Saints fans will appreciate. Wig and I both give it two thumbs up.

Well, I think I'm going to work on some crochet projects and rest before my overnight shift. I'm going to try to blog more often so my few readers know what's going on. Until then...

Sightseeing and Other Things

So, Wednesday, Wig's cousin JT flew in from Mississippi. He's originally from Texas, which is where his mother - Wig's crazy aunt Marilee - moved back in the 80s, but didn't spare any time moving away from her once he was 18. So, he moved to Mississippi where his father is. Anyway, he's up here for the week and is staying w/Wig. Wig's mom Susan has his grandmother's van for the time being because she (Phyllis, the grandmother, not Susan) isn't in the best of health right now, so Susan went to pick up JT from the airport and Wig and I went on for the ride. I stayed w/the van while they went into the terminal to find JT and everything was fine until literally a minute before they came out when a statie told me to move. So I think I'm just going around in a circle, but I somehow ended up on the far end of the terminal, then spent about 10 minutes following signs until I got back to where they were. Fucking Logan airport. Then we went to Phyllis' for pizza. Phyllis had two mild strokes about 2 weeks ago, but you wouldn't be able to tell just by seeing her. She looked really good considering her recent health. Apparently, she also had a stroke back in November and didn't bother telling anyone, not even her 3 children. Wig's family is fucked up, but more on that some other time. I think her deteriorating health has mellowed her out, because when she saw me, she gave me a big hug and I don't think she's ever hugged me once in the 8 1/2 years I've been with Wig LOL.
So Wed we just chilled since it was about 8PM by the time we got back and JT was kinda tired. We played some video games and watched TV and the boys smoked. JT likes pot too, and he's into the same kind of music and video games as Wig and Gahm, so there was no awkwardness at all. I finally played Portal - which is an awesomely addictive puzzle/shooter game for the PC/360/PS3. If you've ever heard the phrase "the cake is a lie!" or the song "Still Alive" (not the Pearl Jam one) this is the game they're from. Basically you have a gun that makes holes in walls, ceilings and floors that transport you to other areas and you use these portals to get through mazes and move cubes around to unlock doors. The computer, GLaDOS, says some really bizarre, funny things and then sings the ending credit theme, "Still Alive" which is incredibly catchy and has some fucked up lyrics.
Today we wanted to show JT some of Boston so we took the train into Fanuiel Hall. We just walked around and looked at the shops and bought some Boston Chipyard cookies. We watched one of the street performers - an escape artist get out of a straitjacket and ropes while hanging upside down. Then we came back and got some subs and then I dropped Wig, Gahm and JT at Jack's house - which is where Wig and Gahm go every Friday and Saturday night to hang out and play video games.
Also this week Wig, Gahmstead and I made the best investment of our video game collectors' lives. Toys R Us was having the greatest sale ever: Guitar Hero: World Tour Super Bundle (that's the full setup w/drumset, guitar, microphone and game) for $99.99 regularly $189.99. But that's not all. You also got at $10 gift card. Then factor in my 10% employee discount plus a 15% off coupon and a $10 off coupon. It ended up coming to $61. That's split 3 ways between me, Wig and Gahmstead. While my mom and Heather would definitely play Guitar Hero with me (they loved the PS2 version), I don't really have the room in my room or in the living room for a drumset, and I'd play it more frequently w/Wig and Gahm anyway, so we're keeping it at their house. That also decided whether we get the Wii or the 360 version. If we got the Wii version, I could take it to my house whenever, I don't have a 360. But Wig and Gahm do, and the 360 has a lot more downloadable content so we settled on the 360 version. Sunday we christened it and me, Wig, Gahmstead and his girlfriend Janice rocked the shit out of it. Then Wednesday I finally got the AC/DC Live Rock Band track pack (yes, Guitar Hero and Rock Band instruments and games are 100% interchangable, at least on 360). My only beef is the pitch recognition on the mic for both Guitar Hero and Rock Band isn't very accurate. Or I'm just a shitty singer...No I can sing all right if I don't overdo it, but trying to follow the pitch bars can throw you off, especially if you naturally sing lower than the pitch bars want you to.
But I can't do my Brian Johnson impression as usual because it doesn't register as the right pitch, which sucks cuz I can't sing AC/DC songs without doing a Brian Johnson or Bon Scott impression.
Speaking of AC/DC, the concert at Foxboro Stadium is next Tuesday and I CAN'T WAIT. First time in 8 years seeing them! And I'm going to be completely decked out in AC/DC gear. I got the limited edition AC/DC Chucks, I have an AC/DC shirt, AC/DC skirt, AC/DC hat, AC/DC hairclips - even AC/DC underwear :) Then Thursday I'll be leaving for ConnectiCon, the last convention of the year unless we go to Another Anime Con in November. This is the big one, as almost everyone in our anime circle goes and we have the Artist Alley Networking Party. We book a suite just for Saturday night and get tons of pizza and booze and everyone shows up and just networks and draws and gets drunk. Expect tons of pictures on my Flickr, and when I get the chance I'm going to upload pics from past ConnectiCons too.
Tomorrow Wig's sister comes back from Texas where she's been staying w/Marilee - the crazy aunt and JT's mom. Marilee's coming back with her to see Phyllis. I wonder if I'll finally get to meet Marilee. From all the stories I've heard of her, I kind of want to avoid her at all costs, but it's been 8 1/2 years and I have to meet her sometime. It's kind of a morbid curiosity, like "I have to see for myself how bat-shit insane she is." Examples: She "doesn't believe in" cellphones. Something about brain tumors I guess; in high school, she lied about having cancer just to get attention; she tried tightening something broken on her car with her teeth and broke all her teeth; she shot at her cheating husband and HE went to jail for kicking out her car windows; she attacked a carjacker with a field hockey stick. Yeah...so I'm gonna just leave on that note there, cuz this woman's too fucked up for words. Talk to you later blogland.

PortCon, Wheel of Fortune, and the Death of Many Legends

So I didn't have a chance last week to blog about PortCon Maine, which was actually 2 weekends ago, so time to blog about it now.

It was just Inyx and I, as Wig had the opportunity to make $120 and get some of his old parking tickets paid off and get his license renewed in exchange for working with his father and uncles. We got up to Portland quickly and checked in. The convention was back in its old location, which was the South Portland Sheraton but is now the Wyndham, which is a much better location than where it was last year. It's right across from the Maine Mall and only a few blocks away from a lot of major restaurants and a Hannafords.
After an easy set-up, we headed over to the Maine Mall for a quick dinner at Panda Express. There was a David's Bridal there and Inyx thought it'd be fun to look around. I saw a couple on display that I kind of liked because they had old-fashioned elements, but I didn't see any I really wanted to try on, but Inyx weaseled her way into getting a fitting and tried on a dress herself and sent a picture to her boyfriend in Maryland to see if he'd freak, but nothing fazes him. We also went to Michaels because I forgot to pack my glue gun. Then we went to the hotel's pool and hot tub.
Sin arrived the next day after a delay because her friend Ed's car was in the shop and business went as usual. Friday night we went to Old Country Buffet with a group of other Artist Alley people. It was us, Sin and her group, Zodi-ack! a mother/daughters business also from Massachusetts, and a couple of Zodi-ack!'s friends. The food was decent, because OCB is really luck of the draw, depending on when you go there's shit to choose from or there's a good spread. At one point, someone got a taco, and another said "They serve tacos? At a Chinese food place?" And her friends are like "This isn't a Chinese food place! What made you think that?" and I go "Did you think the 'Old Country' was Thailand or something?" And hilarity ensued. I think the staff was happy when we finally left. Then we went swimming and hot tubbing with Sin and her crew.
Saturday after Artist Alley closed we all went to Olive Garden. Instead of squeezing into Ed's car, we threw Sin, Ed and Anzu into Inyx's truck bed, because it was only around the corner. I don't know if it's illegal in Maine to ride in the bed, but it is in Mass. But Anzu kept making Mexican migrant worker jokes and talking in a bad Mexican accent. On the way back from Olive Garden Sin's sitting up on her knees and dancing and waving her arms and when Inyx took a wide turn she flew forward and landed in Ed's lap. I have 4 videos of the entire trip to and from Olive Garden with the stop at Hannaford's to buy booze, including Sin's spill. They'll be up on YouTube eventually. Hannaford's wouldn't let us purchase the alcohol because not all of us had ID.
We all decided that the entire crew for PopCult and Plastic Love are going to dress in steampunk for ConnectiCon so now the race is on to get some Victorian-ish clothes and accessories that look like they came out of a Jules Verne novel. It's going to be fun. ConnectiCon is alway the big con because we have the Artist Alley Networking Party. Fortunately, it's not until July 31 so I have a lot more prep time.

After I got back from PorCon, Wig and I met up at Dunks w/Flav, Ricky, Alison, Jay, Gantz, Tony and Joey. Alison was down in Boston to celebrate her birthday. Mark and Katie also arrived and later Doug. We spent most of the time looking through yearbooks and photo albums reminscing about high school. Wig and I left early because I was exhausted after 2 conventions in a row and very little sleep. I've actually been out of it for a while, sleeping til 1130 and noon most days. I'm trying to get myself up at 9 to get shit done, but 10/1030 is all I can muster.

Yesterday, I drove an hour to Marlborough to Solomon Pond Mall because the Wheelmobile was there holding try-outs for Wheel of Fortune. As everyone knows, I'm too good at that game and it's my goal to get on there and/or Jeopardy. The ride was easy, just 93 and 495, but long, but it took me 20 minutes to find parking. But I only had to stand in line for an hour and a half before they began to call out names from my application group. Alas, they didn't call me :( But while I was at the mall I took the opportunity to get the AC/DC Chucks and also ended up getting Thundercats Season 2 volumes 1 and 2 for $9.99 each and Season 1 volume 1 for $20. Considering when they first came out, each volume was $60 each, this was a great value.

Of course, you all know that last week was the Week o' Celebrity Deaths with Ed McMahon dying at 86 on either Monday or Tuesday and Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson dying Thursday. Then yesterday while in line at the Wheel of Fortune event, Wig's brother texts him to say Billy Mays died. At first I insisted it was a prank because so many deaths already happened last week somebody's starting a rumor. I couldn't look it up on my phone because internet on my phone sucks. Wig called his friend Guru to look it up online from a reputable news source and it's unfortunately true. The report so far is that he was unresponsive yesterday morning but no foul play is expected. Saturday he was in a minor plane accident and hit his head, but he insisted he was fine and didn't go to the hospital. My theory is he had a concussion that he didn't treat and fell asleep and you know you're supposed to keep concussed people awake. But we'll see what the autopsy says. I'm devastated, he was an icon. Easy to parody, very memorable. I won't be able to laugh at the YouTube poops anymore. Would it be in bad taste for Wig to continue on with his spot-on impression? What will become of the reality show Pitchmen? And who will promote products like OxiClean and Mighty Putty now? Vince is good, but nowhere near the same caliber of Billy Mays. Incidentally, Wig wants to create a tribute song in the style of Dethklok, the death metal band from the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse. One of the suggested titles is "Sinfomercial" I'll post lyrics as soon as they're written. He already has one line about Zorbeez sopping up your blood or something. Meanwhile, jokes about Michael Jackson molesting small boys continue on even after his death while simultaneously everyone praises him for his memorable music...much like when he was still alive. And Farrah Fawcett's death seems merely a footnote. Who's going to die next? With all the rain and celebrities dropping like flies, someting apocalypic is going on...It's been a fucked up summer.

Amusing Friday...A Musing Friday

I had a funny moment w/a customer today: she just happened to be quite large and she decided to take advantage of our Buy one Get on Half Off on the 20-packs of Philips AAs. She literally said, "Never have too many batteries. I eat through them...not literally." I'm thinking, "Did she just make a fat joke about herself or just making a joke about figures of speech?!" So I just politely chuckled, but that phrase choice is just priceless right there.
Then Flav and Ricky stopped by unexpectedly, so that was a pleasant surprise. I couldn't persuade either one to buy a Wii though. Although I will admit, if you're only casually into playing video games, the DS would be the better choice. It's more casual-gamer-friendly and there's a bigger variety.
Everyone is familiar with my cheesy string of composer puns (I'll be right Bach, can you Handel it? I'm going Chopin...etc). Well, today I came up with a great idea for a children's pop-up book that teaches about classical music and composers. It'd be titled "Hayden Go Seek." It's so clever I'm afraid it's already taken, so I'm going to have to research that. It's a slightly better idea than my old classmate James Peters' movie idea: "Bach to the Future." I don't think that the great German and Austrian composers of the Baroque and Classical eras realized the extent of punniness their names would amount to.
Then I was looking at stuff on Etsy, namely stuff with skeleton keys and vintage typewriter keys, and I found one made with a really rare typewriter key for a punctuation mark known as an interrobang, which is a combination question mark and exclamation point. Y'know, for when you have to exlaim something incredulously like "He did what?!" Instead of using both a question mark and and an exclamation point you'd just need the interrobang. First off, I just love the name: it combines the word interrogate with BANG! It's a question with pizzazz! Actually, it's because "bang" is printer's slang for exclamation point. It kinda makes sense. It's for sentences with a bang. But now I'm thinking "Damn, that would've made a great band name, or company name." You already have a built-in logo. But now it's too late. Wig would never rename Umbilical Cord and I don't have the wherewithal to start my own band, and I'm kinda already established as StringTheory101 on Etsy. But yeah, the interrobang. It was invented in the 60s and was basically only used in printing and on typewriters for the 60s and 70s. It was a fad - and I didn't think you could have punctuation fads. That'd be like not using semi-colons anymore.
So when I got home from work today and brought in the mail, there was one of those "We're sorry we missed you" things from the Post Office for when they can't drop off a package cuz they need a signature. So it's for me, it's certified mail and it's a letter, not a box or anything like that. So I'm hoping this is my long-awaited degree from Berklee. We'll see tomorrow before work. Woot. Also my tax return dropped into my bank account either yesterday or today so now I got a huge chunk o'money with which to pay bills. Yay! And it'll be gone in less than a month...
Where do all those people come from in the Verizon commercials? I mean one minute there's no one, and the next there's an army of IT guys and operators. And if you need that many people per account making sure it's working right, then your service isn't as good as you make it sound. I think I'm gonna stick with Sprint and their pretty laser light shows LOL
Well, that's enough amusing musings for now. I somehow lost 3 hours because last time I checked it was 8 and now it's 11...so I think it's time to put the computer away and either do something productive or call it an early night and get some much-needed rest

Hi! This is Vince with a lawsuit against Scientology

So tonight I've come across the most bizarre bit o' information in the entire interwebs. Thanks to TV personality Olivia Munn's obsession with the SlapChop, I gathered from the comments that Vince, with his buggy eye and unneccesary headset, has an ongoing lawsuit with the Cult -er - Church of Scientology. Sounds made up? Of course it does. But it's a litle too elaborate for someone to make up. And who in their right mind would think ShamWow + Scientology + Underground Comedy Movie + Lawsuit = Awesome rumor

A comment on heyolivia.com led me to this blog -http://skepchick.org/blog/?p=5490 that has the whole story. I googled that shit to confirm it - I mean as much as you can confirm something on the internet (if the same exact story exists in numerous sources - especially reputable sources - it's usually true). You'll have to read the whole thing for yourself, but I'll give you a quick rundown:

His full name is Vince Offer - and that isn't even his REAL name. His real first name is Offer (apparently it's Israeli, he said in an interview his dad was Israeli. Shlomi might be his real last name according to a Scientology website I found but I can't confirm that) and he was a Scientologist. In the 90s he started making The Underground Comedy Movie with a handful of fellow scientologist actors. The Scientologists fucked him over royally in retaliation against the movie and ruined his movie career and his business. So he started selling some kitchen products at flea markets and swap meets until he came across the ShamWow and the SlapChop - both products he outright owns - and began selling them on infomercials. He also realized he could sell the Underground Comedy Movie via infomercial, which despite the fact that it's considered one of the worst movies ever made and is the most offensive movie ever made, has sold very well. So he is using funds raised by the sales of these 3 products to pay for his ongoing lawsuit against the Church of Scientology for almost ruining his movie, ruining his business and nearly ruining his life.

Also, back in the 90s he sued Anna Nicole Smith for backing out of her contract for the movie and the Farrelly brothers for allegedly stealing scenes from Underground Comedy Movie for use in There's Something About Mary. The Farrellys are like "We never even heard of him or his movie"

So buy the ShamWow and the SlapChop. Even by the Underground Comedy Movie if you like extremely crude, offensive b-movie quality sketch comedy. Support a man's right to stand up to a made-up religion for fucking him over. I'll never look at those commercials the same way again

Absorbing the Hate

WTF

So I emailed the head of the graduation department at Berklee asking about when they mail diplomas or if I had to pick it up. She tells me I still had to fulfill 3 history credits. I'm thinking to myself, the Professional Music chair, Kenn Brass, went through my whole transcript to make sure I fulfilled all the credits, manually overriding exception courses and everything - since I had to switch majors. But before I said anything in a reply email, I checked my graduation evaluation (EVAL) and it said I still needed to complete 3 credits in a history course. I'm like, what the fuck? Back when I took my required history courses, you could do, like, World Civ 1 and 2 or American History 1 and 2 or something like that, but then they offered prototype courses that you could take instead of World Civ 2, so I took a class called Gender and Power in History. That should've been credited for history, but what happened was Kenn stuck it in the required Liberal Arts electives credits. It's a simple mistake, it looks more like a Liberal Arts course than a History course.

The good news, it's an easy fix. All graduation department lady, Grace Aldrich, needs is an email with the clearance from Kenn to apply Gender and Power to the history credits and Japanese 1 to Liberal Arts electives and I'm 100% credit-fulfilled. The bad news is Kenn Brass is taking a sabbatical - he's taking the whole spring semester off. I don't know if he's checking his emails or not. But I just realized something - some Pro Music major always needs something done -a waiver, guidance, credit substitution, etc. Kenn Brass is probably the busiest department chair. It's just the nature of a versatile, catch-all major like Pro Music. His office waiting room was always packed during his office hours and he frequently had to extend his time so everyone could get seen. He couldn't be away from his office for a whole semester, so he either has to keep up with his email and remotely take care of things or have someone else in the department doing what he usually does. In the Music Ed department, chair Cecil Adderly had an assistant, Mary Deane, who took care of EVERYTHING. I don't know how she did it - and she remembered practically every Music Ed major's name too. So Kenn has to have someone like that running the department while he's gone for the entire semester, otherwise students would panic and things would fall into shambles. People who need to graduate in a semester or 2 need a waiver to get into a required class or else they'll lose their student visa and get deported because they have to remain above 5 credits or something like that...
So it should work out. Kenn or somebody will give the OK for the switch and Grace will put it through the system and I'll get my diploma when they mail them all out in February and I'll officially be able to say I have a Bachelor's Degree and I'll get a real job. I think when I frame it, I'm going to put it on a chain and wear it around my neck like Flava-Flav for about a week, just to prove I got it. Either that or I'm fucked - again. (and it's things like this why I keep sending in those Publisher's Clearing House entries even though it's a one in a billion chance...I want my $5,000 a week for life so I can pay off my student loans and finally move out!)

Today I'm got a few things I need to work on. Lesson plans - cuz I'm still aiming to teach private lessons, craft projects, reorganizing my DVDs, and trying to get back into doing Wii Fit. I also promised to drive Wig to work at 3. Then of course when I'm home in the evening, I never miss Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. I'm such an old person LOL. But I am AWESOME at these shows and I've actually applied to be a contestant on Wheel and am considering trying out for Jeopardy too. Then I'm going to New York and flagging down cabs 'til I find the Cash Cab.

2000 Pontiac Grand Prix of Fail

Why does everything on my car have to break at the same time? So I've already mentioned the whole no side mirrors thing in a previous blog, but then the other night there was a weird warbling noise under my left front tire whenever I was in motion, and it would speed up and slow down in tandem with my speeding and slowing and would stop when I stopped. It also made a reverse-sounding sound when I was backing up and a weirder noise when I was turning left, so it was definitely tire-related. But I wasn't having any problems driving or braking so I drove like normal - to Peabody and back twice and everything - and it was fine. Until today when I was on the way to Flav's and that left front tire decided to go flat right on Glenwood St. So I wait about 20 minutes for AAA and when he got the flat off he discovered I had a broken strut and it was digging into my tire. So now my car is undriveable until at least Thursday when my dad's friend can start fixing it, maybe longer depending on how long it takes to fix. Fortunately, I can borrow my mom's car while she's in Florida, but she doesn't want me parking it on Harvard St so I can't go over Wig's. LOL. So yay, a $400-$500-something fix on top of all the monthly student loan payments. That's a kick in the financial ass. I'm sad...

Why am I still up?

I should've waited until tomorrow to start blogging again. It's 3AM and I'm still setting up all the little frilly things on this thing. Granted, I don't have to be at work til 1030, but I still gotta get up a 830 to give me enough time to get ready then it takes 20-30 minutes to get to work. So now I only have 5 1/2 hours sleep. Brilliant. So I guess I'll call it quits now and do all the Etsy mini-ads and shit tomorrow after work and before Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra. I can tell having a laptop of my own is a bad idea. I'll be online instead of doing anything else.

I love how Stephen Hawking played himself on Star Trek: The Next Generation (and Simpsons and Futurama)

Good night

Or should I say Good morning?