Weekend Rundown (Finally!)

Finally, a moment to breathe and time to recount the weekend.

As most geeks will know, this past weekend was the NY ComicCon at the Jacob Javits center. Some of us gomo bloggers decided to attend. The short list of attendees in my group was myself, MacboyX, his traveling companion R, and Mike P. of Blather and Bosh.

Saturday was the first opportunity for MacBoyX and I to meet in person since we fostered a friendship online. We were both looking forward to it. Expectations were high in general for the the ComicCon and our first meeting, so it would reason that things wouldn't go well.

Problems started before we even got together. Mike P. called to inform me that MacBoyx and R had arrived at the Javits Center to discover that there were no more tickets being sold to the event. Bother.

A few, quick phone calls had Mike P. heading to Jim Hanley's Universe to pick up one day passes while MacBoyX waited at the JJC. Everything was back on track or so it seemed.

Arriving at the JJC, I headed downstairs to the cafe to meet up with MacBoyX. He is much cuddlier and huggable in person. It was a general relief that we finally met, since it seemed that we never would. But we did. It was cool. We fell right in to a conversation, like the old friends that we are. It was great.

Impressive was MacBoyX's traveling companion R. He has similar interests as me, ie. anime, die-cast japanese robots and was very knowledgeable. We discussed the merits of old style die-cast in Bandai's Soul of Chogokin line and the new engineering. All the while, Mike P. trudged crosstown to meet us.

When he arrived, we located him online with his two friends to get in. The line was ludicrous long and we learned that the FDNY had closed the event to any new entries. Double Bother.

Some traded in tickets for refunds and some of us grabbed wristbands for preferential, express admission for the next day. After that we hightailed out of there.

Walking along as we made our way to ImageAnime, to make up for the not getting into ComicCon, I fought with Mike P. to prevent him from polluting his body with hot dogs or any other assorted street meat.

R got quite a reception from the proprietors at ImageAnime. "Where have you been? What have you been up to? Why haven't you been in?" Even I, who has been in the store quite often, have never received such a spirited greeting. I picked up one two items and R picked up a few more. He out-bought me on robots.

Crumbs.

Mike P. stank up the place with a street dog that he surreptitiously acquired, eating and gloating. um… Gross.

We grabbed a bite at Mustang Harry's with more good conversation there. I coined the term "Yellow Anger" of which I wish Mike P. would exhibit less of.

Quick pitstop at MacboyX and R's hotel for check-in and drop-off their bags and robo-spoils.

We herded down to the Apple Store to check out the MacBook Pro. Its fricking sweet and fast especially with the Apple suite of natively written applications. iTunes opened in a snap as did iPhoto and iDVD. Overall the system ran smoothly and you could feel the speed. Checked out the image/video quality of the built-in iSight, nice. I want a MacBook Pro, but I'm holding out for a 17" version with a dual-layer DVD burner. Breath-held, turning blue… bah!!!

Not to mention, I've read too many reports of problematic iSights, DOA machines etc. It is the shakedown machine after all, so I'll wait a few more months while they work out the kinks.

After our run at the Store, it was time for me to bid adieu. It was great to hang with everyone and especially nice meeting all the great people, MacBoyX, R, Zell, Steve, Peter, Paul and Wally. Oh and Mike P., quit picking on me. >:P

I headed off to meet up with my old friend Peter, who from now will on be known as Mutant. It was awesome catching up with him and meeting his girlfriend. She's sweet. I stopped by their swanky love nest for a shindig they were throwing. Nice place with cool people, plenty of eats (White Castle burgers!!) and drinks.

However, it'd been a long day, I couldn't last any longer, heading home early. Exhausted yet satisfied.

Oh, I did make it to ComicCon on Sunday. While I was there for only an hour and a half overall, I'm disappointed. It felt thin. Perhaps they were hit harder than expected the day before, but I didn't find much to hold my interest. If I had more time and went to a few of the sessions, maybe I would had a better experience instead of feeling gypped.

iPod by… Microsoft!?

Jury Duty.

At 9:00AM, on a Monday morning, who wants to be sitting in a courtroom with a bunch of huffy-puffy strangers, waiting breathlessly to hear if they've (you've) been selected for jury duty?

Nobody, especially me.

The court warden, Rhonda, was good. At 5' 4", looking fierce in her vertical striped and tapered button-down, well-tailored pants and smart, rectangular rimless glasses, she had the restless courtroom under control. With a booming voice, she kept it real, detailing how it was our civic duty and responsibility to serve dutifully. No one disagreed. We all quietly resolved to fulfill our obligations as United States citizens and residents of Brooklyn.

Still, anyone one of us wanted out. They (NYS, Kings County) were selecting three juries of 23. In a room of approximately 80-90 people, we weren't all getting out.

They sorted our juror cards, according to ability to serve without hardship. (FYI, I don't clock hours, I don't get paid. Hardship? Yes.)

Slowly, they filled the juries. First, the 23 person jury that was to sit for 4 weeks (WHAT!?!) for which they took volunteers to start. Then the second jury, one of two sitting for two weeks, was filled. As people's names were called, some either accepted or walked up to discuss the possibility of being excused. Most were turned away.

Filling the third jury, my name was called. I was nervous. I wanted out, badly, but played it cool. I spoke with Rhonda (fierce!) and she acknowledged my hardship (fierce!), she put my card aside, for the moment, as they went thru the rest of the candidates.

I watched as they shuffled my card around. Rhonda (fierce!) called me up again, asking if there was anything they could do to accomodate me in the next two weeks. I humbly responded, I don't work, I don't get paid. My manager will fill my position with someone else.

Momentously, my name was called a final time and I was excused. FIERCE! Well, reprieved until August.

Whew.

Truth be told, if I had been called upon, I would have served happily because of Rhonda (fierce!)

So much to say…

…and no time to say it.

Its been a busy and hectic weekend, but in a good way.
Finally, met in person and hung out with some great people, reconnected with some old friends (finally) and finally got in to the ComicCon to much harumph and yawn.
Top that off with a long day of work on Sunday. Bleech.
Hopefully, I get out of jury duty tomorrow, so that I can bring some blog love to my peeps.

New Loot

Hmmm… a new line item appeared on my AMEX statement.

G.N.P of Japan… uh oh.

Silent Hill

If you were into video games around the time of the Playstation, before it became known as the PS one, then you're familiar with the game Silent Hill.


A horror game, it opted for a slower pace with emphasis on atmospheric tension, making it a creepy as all hell adventure. Not a crash, bang, shoot em up but there were things that needed to die… again.

The basic story: your character, after a car crash, is separated from your child. You're left to wander around an abandoned town called Silent Hill. Engulfed by a perpetual fog, you try to find your missing child, searching through hollowed buildings and empty streets, solving brain teasers and puzzles to gain entrance to other parts of desolate town.

The kicker? Every know and again, the world is turned inside out. The walls resemble flesh, blood flows freely on the floor and you question your sanity just a little bit. Pasty, white bodies become animated and sacks of humanoid meat chase you and snip at you. Hell on earth, it seemed.

Sound creepy? You bet it was.

Now, Sony Pictures is making it into a movie.



Yes, it is another video game to movie, in the same vein as Resident Evil and (shudder) Doom. Not going to include Lara Croft:Tomb Raider as we're going to stick to games of the horror genre, although TR the movie was pretty atrocious.

Silent Hill, however, looks to be different. The nature of how the game derived it's scares and chills, if done correctly, will make for a memorably scary movie. From the trailer, it looks like they've got the right mix so far. I'm excited but still skeptical.
In writing the screenplay, I hope they don't feel compelled to explain anything, something else I picked up from the trailer.

Check out the trailer and tell me if you don't feel a little disturbed.

Best Buy Run, Feb. 21 2006

Its new release Tuesday.
Pick ups for this morning:

President's Day Weekend 2006

Saturday, Feb. 18

I'd promised O that we'd go out for President's Day weekend. I was resolutely against going to Alegria, while my suggestion of Cielo with Junior Vasquez, garnered a violent, unpleasant reaction from him.

All that was left, the Roxy.

I hadn't had great expectations. It was the Roxy. It was the debut of a DJ, unbeknownst to me, untested and untried, DJ Joe Hickerson. Wow, he's handsome. Still his only listed credit on the Roxy advertisement…



A vote of confidence, but I've been burned before. Off we went into the freezing night.

Upon arrival, the line was short. The $30 admission was higher than I'd like to pay for Roxy. Trying to make up for the anticipated low attendance, I'm guessing. Regardless, O and I would enjoy each other's company.

Inside, the crowd was spartan, not a capacity crowd. Muscle Alley was noticeably absent, saving themselves up for Alegria.

At first, the music was so-so, nothing spectacular and jawdropping, nothing to scoff at either. Ok, maybe that clangy, noisy Madonna remix I could have done with out, and the remix of the Ferris Bueller track was completely and utterly necessary and unnecessarily long. Trying to be too cute. Joe Hickerson seemed to be feeling things out, slowly building the night up. Musical breaks were far to frequent. Soon he'd found his beat/sound by peak time, he kicked it up and the breaks were gone. I found myself pleasantly surprised by his mixing and his music selection. He kept it close to the classics and opting for tried and tested tracks. A remix of "Perfect Love" by House of Prince, I'd never heard before, completely blew my mind, followed into "Someone to Hold" by Veronica. Eventhough my expectations for the music were low, this musical highlight ranks high. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Eventually, my legs were tired and I was bored of dancing. But the music was making me stay. I waited for a "bad" song to come on, but Joe H. kept dropping classic after classic. I simply left.

Dropping O home, I raced the sunrise home.
Evilbuddha -1 Sunrise -0

Sunday, Feb. 19
After a long day visiting Pleasantville, where I ate and catnapped from the night before, I got home later than I'd hoped around 9:45PM. Junior was playing Cielo from 10PM-4AM or was it 8PM-4AM… there were conflicting/overlapping reports.

I should have headed out on my own, but I wanted to relax for a second. Instead, I was going with friend Frank, which I knew would be a bungled mess and I wasn't completely wrong. I'd arrived by his place around 11:45… he was still showering. Whatever. We were supposed to get to Cielo by 12:00. It was a quick drive into the city but I knew there was a distinct chance that we would not get in. A Junior party on the night of a long weekend, the Pre-Alegria crowd, it would be difficult for sure.

There was a line of 15 or so people when we arrived and we took our place in the queue. They weren't letting anyone in at the moment. They were at capacity and the fire department had been there. It was very, very cold and we waited for 20 minutes. Frank was ready to concede and head over to APT but I'd just overheard the door man saying it'll be another 5 minutes before they let more people in. Shortly they were allowing 10 people in. Fortunately, some people ahead of us had given up and left the line as I ended up being the tenth person.

I was immediately struck by the moisture, hot and sticky, when I walked into Cielo. Not cute at all. Guess AC was out of the question.

Coat check was a chore. They closed the front one moments before we got in and I had to wait on a line that extended into a main doorway to the bathrooms and smoking area. Bother. We were in I wasn't bothered.

People were having a great time. You could definitely tell the Pre-Alegria crowd was there, shirts off, twirling, buzzed bodies.

The music was typical Junior fare, vocals and heavy beats. Fun.

Nothing off color to speak of. We stayed until the end, which was 2.5 hours after we'd gotten in.
Short but sweet.

I was tired from the night before and the long day, and hadn't allowed my body and mind anytime to refract, so I never got going. Frank, his two friends and I headed around to APT, but the foyer was packed with people wanting to get in, pushing and shoving. I declared, I'd had enough, said my goodbyes and headed back to AutoLove and homewards. 5;30AM, another early evening.

Channeling.

Martha Stewart to Bob Villa.

Ran home today to:
Pack up 89 lbs. of laundry and drop it off.
Home Depot run, picked-up shelving for the closet and associated hardware, new bulbs for the kitchen with new acrylic paneling.
Installed the new bulbs and paneling. (Bright Light! Bright Light!)
Steam-cleaned the bathroom. (WTF?!?)

I think I've lost it. So does the BF.

Sunglasses at night.

Vegas Recap in a flash.

After re-emerging back in to the world from my undisturbed slumber, life has been relentless. Instead of spending Valentine's Day with the BF, I worked till 2:00AM in the morning.

Last night was another late night.

Crumbs.

So before talk of my trip becomes completely moot and while life has afforded me a free moment… here goes a brief recap of the highlights of Las Vegas.

Thursday, Feb. 9

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!

BF and I celebrate 10 years. Love you babe. :)

Shades of Mandalay Bay.










Anniversary dinner at Restaurant RM.
Great food, attentive service, accompanied by a nice, celebratory bottle of "J" and a deliciously, decadent chocolate dessert made for a memorable and special dinner.

Howie Mandel at the MGM Grand.
In a word, funny. Nothing spectacular to report.

A good anniversary night and awesome start to the trip, we called it a night around midnight. Tired, we also had things to do early the next day.

Friday, Feb. 10
Morning in the spa.
Workout in Mandalay Bay's wonderful gym facility, followed by lazing around in the hot tub, naked. Topped off with a deep tissue massage. Simply exquisite.

Tried some of the casino tables. They were… unkind.

Elton at The Collosseum at Ceasar's Palace.
Great concert, done up Vegas Style. Nice visuals and funny inflatables by David LaChappelle (The two story tits were a bit much).
They checked all cameras, but I snuck a shot with my camera phone.



Saturday, Feb. 11
Walked the Strip. Shopped.

Tried some of the casino tables again. They were MOST unkind. fin for the tables for me.

Zumanity at New York, New York.
Great, sexy show with Joey Arias as Madame and NY familiar Raven-O. Alex Castro was the latin beefcake playing up to the ladies but I recognized him, clubbing in NY. I recall, the ladies weren't his interest. :-P

Good time. I wish I could find a picture of the man in th Body2Body performance. YUM.

Hit Krave for some booty shaking and cocktails.
Nice club space, could use songs with less vocals. That's my preference. Regardless, fun to hang /dance with the BF.
Porn star Jason Hawke made an appearance, throwing out copies man porn. He seems to have let himself go some and danced very "white." Pity.

Sunday, Feb. 12
You've probably read.

“Home at last… home at last…

Thank the almighty… home at fucking last!!!” my mind was screaming this morning. I was so deliriously tired, I couldn't muster the energy to vocalize it.

After a long, long, long day in McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, we boarded a flight bound for NY at 12:20AM. In total we'd been in the terminal for 11 hours and I'd been up for 16 hours on 1.5 hours of sleep.

The flight: uneventful but damn uncomfortable. Seat 26E, last row, middle seat. The BF sat 1E. We couldn't complain, we were thrilled to have our names called, the BF nearly jumped for joy. This was our biggest win in Vegas.

We'd landed at 8:20AM EST… The JetBlue terminal was a zoo, with people probably in much the same situation as I from the previous night, but in a much uglier and less spacial terminal.

Our luggage made it home TOO!!!

The NY taxi stand was a freezing bore. Vegas had that working much better. The cabbie drove like a maniac, but through slitted eyes (more so from fatigue), I didn't complain as the landscape blurred. Every now and again, I'd ask "Where are we?" not really looking for an answer, not really capable of discerning a landmark, not really caring.

Upon arriving home, I needed to shovel the walk. I weeped inwardly. Sooo tired. The BF went to grab some food as I begrudgingly started. grumble. grumble.

Then the BF brought me the wonderful gift of…

…two Mexicans.

Not for that silly.

To SHOVEL THE WALK!!! THANK GOODNESS.
"Best $40 I'd spent." exclaimed the BF. No… no happy endings.

I'd just concluded my interpretative performance/impersonation of a ROCK, sleeping soundly, unperturbed from 10AM-6PM. Waking to eat my first meal, lovingly prepared by the BF.

A part of me can't help but wonder if we could have done things differently and had a better time of it. After having put ourselves on standby, we could have hit the strip again. Or we could have said "Fuck it." stayed a few days, without a care (so wasn't going to happen).

Sigh.

The uncertainty of it all and the fact that I was way over Las Vegas, pretty much cinched the fact that I wanted to be out of there. The end result is, we're out of Las Vegas and I'm happy with that.

Vegas Recap: still to follow.

Leaving Stuck in Las Vegas

The trip was a blast… recap to follow. Currently, we're trapped in Las Vegas as NYC is blanketed in snow. Our flight was officially cancelled as we arrived at McCarran Airport.

The BF and I, in our turns as two Viktor Navorski, are inhabiting McCarran Airport for the next 6 hours, 8 if you count the 2 we've already been here, all in the hopes that we get on to a plane tonight. We're on standby for a flight at 11:10PM. Everyone hope for us. fingers crossed Thank goodness they've got free WiFi here.

If not, Plan B. Head back to the strip, get a room at the Luxor and hang.

Tomorrow… the BF claims he'll have a squad of travel agents on the case, to assist us in acquiring safe passage to NY.

Otherwise, shudder Plan C. Flight out to Long Beach on Tuesday Night, connecting to a flight to NYC, arriving Wednesday morning.

Yikes.

It would not be funny to see Planes, Trains and Automobiles right now.

VIVA Las Vegas!

Trading one city of sin for another.

On the iternary…




Not necessarily in that order.

Oh… blogging will be light to none. Hotel amenity listed as "Two phone lines with data port capabilities." Wow. I feel like I should get 8 track tapes too.

Back on Sunday. Be good.

Arm Bummed.

Like an insolent child testing his parents, I've been perpetually evaluating the limits of my lame arm.

Impatience is trumping prudence.

My arm doesn't hurt all the time. No, I won't go see my doctor. It twinges with pain, from time to time, when I'm doing fairly, normal activities: picking up a book, handing a pen to someone, putting my coat on. Generally, when my arm is extended outward, bearing it's weight or locking out, contracting the tricep, there's pain. No, I won't go see my doctor. Forget additional weight, pain is guaranteed. No, I won't see my doctor. Although… I do have a new year's worth of physical therapy sessions…still… no… I won't.

Today, my arm's still a little sore, stiff. Probably is a muscle strain. The radiating pain makes it difficult to pinpoint.

In the gym, I have been tempted to move weight around, to loosen up. Stretching isn't helping… can't seem to hit that part of the muscle. grumble. frustrating. After my cardio this morning, I figured I'd do some tricep extensions. I'd reluctantly convinced myself not to since time did not permit.

Whine.

Groan.

Sorry.

I'm bummed. I was making progress. I'm annoyed by this setback. Sigh.
My arm won't stay lame forever but patience is a hard thing to do.

I'll have to keep telling myself, "This is a rest phase."

Update: Tying my shoe, I jerked the lace tight. It hurt. Ow.

Malfunction

Um… hello? brain? Yeah, this is the nerve center around the left elbow.
Long time no speak. I wouldn't normally bother you with anything but
we've got a problem down here.

?

Remember Thursday, while working out, I sent you a pain-o-gram. Something didn't feel right during the machine reverse flys.

!

Yes, you did stop immediately, that much you've learned.
Still that didn't stop you from carrying whatever it was yesterday night.



Um… more robot booty? You couldn't have waited till we felt a better before hefting it home?

:-(

Sorry, no point in dwelling. But you need to chill out on the left arm for a while.

:-\ :-| :-]

Oh, you're doing some research now. Hmmm… muscle strain? so we hurt the Triceps Brachii. Probably in fighting to keep the arm straight with too much weight. You did work chest and arms the day prior, didn't give us enough recovery time.

:-
Well, let's rest. No lifting. And you'll need a sling.

? :-P

No silly, an arm sling. Yeesh.

Ker-Splat!

The sound of shit hitting the fan.

Work isn't going to be easy today.

Please join me…

…in wishing Happy Birthday to ROBOCUB!

He's cough, cough years old today.



He and I grabbed some celebratory, pre-birthday drinks last evening. The night would have been identical to the night, nearly a year ago to date, he and I first met face-to-face, if it weren't three days too soon.

We kept it to a low roar, three drinks at the View, if you could call them drinks. They were incredibly light, watered down and more ice than drink. Bah. Robocub and I whiled away the time chatting about geeky things as we're apt to do and enjoy.

We left barely buzzed and had two more drinks at GYM. These were proper drinks.
Chilled some more and called it quits. It was a "school night" after all.