Made It To Friday, Social Network Stuff

Well, made it to Friday in the first full week of the quarter. That means that theoretically things should START slowing down at work. They'll still be pretty hectic for awhile, but not as insane as they've been these first two weeks.

Amy's been out of town since Wednesday, so it's been yet another installment of Max's Home Alone Adventure. This actually will be the longest one of the year I think, and she gets back tomorrow, so it's really not too bad. I will be very happy to have her back home though... As for what I've been up to while she's gone, just taking care of the pups, not a whole lot really. Nothing out of the ordinary by any means.

As for the weekend, just because she gets back into town doesn't mean Amy gets to relax, unfortunately... Saturday we're going to one of her friends' wedding. So no rest for the wicked... I should get my car in for an oil change this weekend as well, but I'll probably put it off a little longer. It's due time-wise, but not mileage-wise yet. Enh. After having to get new brake pads then a new tire on the van, I'm a bit worried about the "extras" that might come with the oil change at this point.

So what else have I been doing? Well, futzing around with various social network services. I'm still not completely sold on them, but they're all neato "tools" and a big part of Web 2.0, which is a really interesting concept that I'm trying to stay on-top of.

So far I've tried out:

• Livejournal -- more of a blog/journal service than a social network, but the profile page and it's interlinking with other folks who list the same interests was a core-part of the others...
• Yahoo 360 -- Yahoo's still very raw version which also feels more like a "uniform personal homepage" then a social network...
• Orkut -- Google's social-network service. (Which is invite-only, though if you want to check it out, the invites are not hard to come by, and I can invite whomever.) Orkut seems to have a lot of great groups, and is one of the better organized that I've seen... but it's also been swarmed by Brazilian folks and as a result a LOT of the discussions and such are in Portugese.
  
• Friendster -- One of the "original" social network services. Haven't checked this one out too much yet, but it seems like it might be a little more dating/hook-up oriented, which I obviously have no want or need for.
• MySpace -- Another of the older services. It strikes me as ugly and chock-full of ads.
• Facebook -- Originally only for college folks, they've now created a separate one just for high schoolers as well. The college one is very much like the other social networks, but seems to have a pretty huge buy-in among alot of the young'uns coming through the past year or so.
• Imeem -- Different from the others in that instead of being web-based, it's actually more instant-message based, with groups, blogs, and such all tied in for added flavor and overlap.
  

So what does it all mean? Well, not really much of anything... but it's fun to screw around with all the different technologies. Hey, Amy's been out of town... ;)

Weekend Ups and Downs

A pretty bi-polar weekend, to be sure.

Saturday we were supposed to be going to the Ohio RenFest with some friends. I went last year but Amy was out of town for work and couldn't go. I think she would really enjoy it, and have really been looking forward to going... but sadly, Amy was really having a rough day Saturday, woke up pretty sick and wasn't going to be able to go. We were going to be driving folks in the van. I was originally still going to go, so I took the van out to get some gas and I heard this thumping... sounded like a flat tire, so I pulled over to check it out... but it wasn't flat. Was walking around to check the other side when I saw a huge bolt sticking out of the tread. So... plans cancelled, instead I went to NTB and got a new tire. Fun fun. The upside was I got to watch some of the OSU game. Didn't get to watch the whole thing, b/c we had to get out to Grove City and pick up Amy's nightstand from the Kittles warehouse. Still, nice seeing OSU give the Hawkeyes a clubberin.

Sunday was a much better day... we headed down to Via Colori 2005. It was a pretty cool setup. I was disappointed by the very limited food options (like two places), but there was some really awesome artwork. I wish I'd brought the camera - going to have to remember that next year. Luckily some folks on flickr took some pics. After that we had lunch at the North Market, then saw Corpse Bride. I really dug the movie - it was kind of short (about 75 mins, maybe even a little less), but a nice little story. Very cool stuff, highly recommended.

Television

Going from a pretty extended period where the only thing I was interested on tube-wise was Rockstar, we're now solidly into Fall Season Premiere Week. All kinds of good stuff coming back into action.

This week's Rome was just enh ... kind of a treading-water kind of episode in between major events it seemed. The side-story (about a Centurian's family) was pretty interesting, but the main dance with Caesar and the gang was kind of boring. Hopefully things pick up again next week.

The Rockstar: INXS finale was this week. As I predicted/feared some time ago, JD won. I do have to admit that he's a very talented guy, and his style seems to mesh pretty well with the band... but man it always sucks when the dickheads win. I don't feel quite as cheated as I have with some of the other reality-TV screwjobs I've gotten sucked into in the past, and both Amy & I feel a lot less opposed to JD then we used to be. The jury is out on what I'll think of the "new INXS", but I do still have my eye out for an INXS "best of" album, and I'm sorely tempted by the Rock Star: A Night At the Mayan Theater CD. Especially b/c it's got Jordis's version of "The Man Who Sold The World", which is probably my favorite song from the series.

Since FOX started their fall season a week earlier than most, I've now seen two episodes this season of Bones and House. I'm extremely underwhelmed by Bones... it seems to be just another CSI wannabe show, with nothing to really distinguish it from the scores of other crime drama shows... blah characters, blah stories. House though... I only watched one episode of it last year, and was really unimpressed. Both episodes I've seen of this season, however, I've really dug - I think it's extremely well-done. It also cracks me up that the main star (the guy who plays Dr. House) used to be the idiot on the Black Adder shows... so very different characters.

Lost premieres tonight. I'm still mad at them for the complete, horrible, horrible, non-resolving ANYTHING cliffhanger from last season. That won't stop me from eagerly watching tonight, however.

Mmm... boob-tube brain-rot.

Where'd the Weekend Go?

Yeah... so that wasn't much of a weekend, I suppose.

Saturday Amy had a bunch of stuff to do in the morning, so I spent most of the time she was gone trying to get as much of the housework done as possible, so that we could enjoy the rest of the weekend. The last thing on her list for the morning/early afternoon had been to take her car in for an oil change and get the brakes checked. Turns out she needed new pads, which are pricey (though could be worse)... and takes time. She wasn't feeling too hot, so she called me to come pick her up rather than waiting two hours. By the time I made it over there, it wasn't going to take all THAT much longer, so I decided we could go to my parents' house and she could relax there.

Well, my Dad was there, and his foot had really been bothering him... He had told Mom not to worry about it and go to the OSU game anyway, but was considering how he was going to drive himself to the urgent care when we showed up. So I took Dad to Urgent Care, once they took him back, I headed back, took Amy back to the car place, then headed back to Urgent Care to get Dad. Turns out, they wanted him to go to the Emergency Room b/c it could be a number of things which they couldn't diagnose or treat in the urgent care. So I took him up to the ER. Luckily, they were showing the OSU game in the lobby. The ER was, of course, very slow... they took an x-ray, ran a bunch of tests, etc...

We were planning on hitting up MadLab Saturday night (had tickets and everything), but the window on that slips by while in the ER. Thankfully, Amy's a superstar and called them and got them to apply the tickets to another show. Saturday was their last "Choose Your Fate" superhero show, but their other stuff looks interesting too. Also around this point, my Mom calls Amy b/c she can't find my Dad... so she winds up leaving the game early and meeting us at the ER. Thankfully, when the tests came back, it looks like it's nothing mega-serious - they're "mostly sure" he has gout. Yuck. Very not fun and painful, but treatable.

That was pretty much Saturday. Sunday I worked move-in day all morning from the Schott, went out to lunch with Amy at Walt's 50s Diner, and went grocery shopping... And that's about it. Yeah. And here I am at work, first week of the quarter, woo-hoo!

This should be a pretty damn good week for TV. Haven't watched last night's new Rome yet, but looking forward to doing so. Most of the fall seasons premiere this week - Lost, CSI, etc. Additionally, the Rockstar: INXS finale is this week. I'm 95% sure that JD is going to win, which is somewhat disappointing, but both Amy & I find ourselves hating him slightly less... I think he's toned down the dickery somewhat, and he's definitely very talented. I'm still pulling for MiG, but I guess I'll be happy with any of the final three. Still really hoping I'm wrong about JD though. There are enough mega-ego frontmen in the biz already.

Linkstorm

It's the busy time of year at work, and I've got a bunch of things that need done, but I've gotta throw these links up here, they're histerical..

• Gillette is making a FIVE-BLADED RAZOR. Because obviously four blades just can't cut it. The best part is this was predicted by The Onion early last year, in a hysterical little article. And Mad Magazine called the "blade wars" way back in the 70s, which you can see some of here. It's just insane. And each new multi-blade cartridge gets more and more expensive. I've been going backwards in the razor technology simply because they're so damn pricey.
• Forget regular Velvet Elvii... you need a Velvet Yoda Elvis. More crazy black velvet art here.
• If you're at all familiar with the concept of Magic: The Gathering, check out Katrina: The Gathering. It's hysterical. Sure to offend a lot of folks, but madly funny nonetheless.
• Speaking of offending folks, this dude is batshit psycho.
  

Rome

So thanks to the wonders of HBO On-Demand, I've seen the first three episodes of the new HBO/BBC original series Rome. I have to say I'm really happy about what I've seen so far. It definitely appeals to the history-bug in me, being set in "the epic days of Rome" (basically the same timeframe as Shakespeare's Julius Caesar).

The story is decent, but nothing spectacular - I'm not sure how much of that is writing and how much of that is the constraints of historical fiction, but still, it's not bad, just could be better. The acting is very good (all British folks), and the scenery, costumes, sets, etc are all AMAZING. Randy tells me this is supposedly the most expensive TV series ever made, and I could totally see how that would be the case... it doesn't feel stripped-down at all, very epic, very high-quality movie-esque.

If you have HBO, I definitely recommend checking it out. If you don't, well it's an HBO series so it'll definitely come out on DVD.

Here's For Football

Yeah... so not a particularly great weekend for football. Went over to Beth & Paul's place on Saturday night to watch the OSU-Texas game. It was a pretty good football game, but so heartbreaking, and so frustrating to watch. I definitely have to agree with Mike about getting Stanley Jackson/Joe Germaine flashbacks and not wanting to see that again. The really frustrating thing is I can't even see how there was a question about it... one moved the ball and scored points, the other didn't. Sure, Troy Smith didn't move the ball as well as they SHOULD have (only field goals from all those turnovers is DEPRESSING), but still... and putting Zwick in when we all we need to do is move the ball into field goal range (which Smith HAD managed to do)... yeah. Fumble!!!

The Browns lost too... this didn't surprise me. The nice thing about the Browns this year is that my expectations are SO low that should they actually manage to stumble into a WIN, I'll be pleasantly surprised. There were some moments of greatness for the Browns in the game, that was nice.

Linkosity Revisited

Some more quick links for you:

• Though I'm an admitted huge addict of the Shadowbox, I'm not averse to finding other theatrical-type things in town which may be cool. Along those lines, I'd really like to check out MadLab. It also helped them get my attention that they're currently doing a superhero thing.
• The new Walkman is damn sexy looking. I love that integrated display BIG TIME. This seems likely to be the first serious competition the iPod may have to face.
• If you haven't already heard of it, you should read up on the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
  
• Progress is a good thing, and the folks at Adult Swim think so, too...

Freakshow 2005

Get your butt over to Shadowbox and check out Freak Show 2005 as quickly as you can. They've managed to put on another AWESOME show, keeping up a pretty good streak, especially following the muy-awesome Best Of this year. It's got a lot of awesome sketches including a great kids show sketch (with a slightly different set-up for it which was nice), and several recurring favs. The band's set list on the night was the HUGE stand-out. Definitely may be one of the best shows music-wise that I've seen there. Highly recommended. One of the best parts of the show for me (and Amy too) was that it's all new (or at least new to us) -- they've been recycling some stuff even in their non Best Of shows lately, but this was all new. In fact, I was really happy with everything but the very last sketch -- that wasn't too bad, but seemed a little slow. The more than made up for it with the awesome finale.

In more Shadowbox-fandom, they've also set a date for the Fall Fireball , October 21st. Amy & I will definitely be there (unless Amy ditches me again), as will Gary, Randy, Heather (supposedly), and Pat & Cindy... and probably some other folks too. If you're interested in going, you should - it's a great time, and for a good cause.

Linkage:

• I'm definitely not a legal expert, but if this case doesn't have serious national importance before it's over I'll be really surprised. Unless one of the parties backs out, I'd expect to see some Supreme Court activity. The whole background behind that case is a complete mess, and one of the hugest uphill battles that same-sex couples will have to face... Regardless of how serious you are about a relationship, or even if you adopt the kid, in the end it's still only genetically related to ONE of the parents. I'm very interested to see where that goes.
• People like this are why I have so little faith in the world. Saying he's got a history of psychiatric problems is a bit of an understatement don't you think?
  
• Another day, another moron. Here's a tip: If you're going to steal things, try not to beat up your girlfriend afterward. The real shocker there is that FOOTBALL TICKETS are valued over $10,000. You have got to be kidding me.
  
• iPod mini too big for you? Fear not, the mini is no more - now get yourself an iPod nano! Can the iSophagus be far behind?
  

Tired & Awake Too Long

Ok, I've stayed awake much too late and need to be getting to bed.

That said, before I do I'll kill some time and throw a quick weekend recap and some links at you. Thursday for my birthday dinner we hit up The Ocean Club. It took much deliberation on my part, since I didn't feel like Fujiyama (mainly it didn't feel different enough since it hasn't been all that long since I went), but I finally picked OC, and was very happy with the results, as always. Our server was phenomenal as well, and made the night much more fun. She even hooked us up with a free dessert.

My memory is absolutely awful - I have to strain my brain to remember what I did three days ago. Yet I can remember all sorts of pointless trivia without any problem. Go fig.

Also this weekend (Saturday I think), Amy & I went and saw The Aristocrats at the Arena Grand. For those of you not familiar with it, it's a documentary about this one "special joke". It's extremely, extremely tasteless and will most likely offend most folks not very desensitized to that kind of stuff. I thought it was pretty well put together, and it was very interesting to see all the different versions of the joke. I think Gilbert Godfried or Billy the Mime were my favs. Amy really didn't enjoy it at all, and I feel pretty guilty for taking her... I guess I should've tried to prep her more for what to expect, or just skipped it altogether...

Sunday we went to the Greek Festival downtown with Laurie. It's a pretty good time. Not much different this year from last year - dancing was fun, but the same, food was tasty, but the same, cathedral was pretty, but the same... you get the idea. Tickets were only $4, but parking was pricey and the food wasn't cheap either. It may not end up being an every year thing for me...

I leave you with link central...

• It's always good to learn something new every day. Today I learned that you don't have to be currently serving on the US Supreme Court to become Chief Justice. Go figure. In fact, Rehnquist was actually one of the exceptions. Most Chief Justices weren't previously on the court. Nutty.
  
• White flight is some scary stuff. I couldn't believe when I was talking with someone the other day who'd never heard of it. Not only have I heard of it, I've seen it slowly happening to the area where I grew up. Gary sent me this link about how bad it's gotten in Detroit. Columbus is seeing plenty of gentrification as well... (see this documentary) When I get really geeked up about this kind of thing, I wonder if I should've went into Sociology.
• What to get the spoiled rich brat who has everything? A WHOLE TOY STORE.
• Although most of you already know my opinion about politics, the current administration, etc, I'm very disappointed that it took less than a week for the Hurricane Katrina/Gulf Coast disaster to become the next big political boiling point / finger pointing parade.
  

Let The Good Times Roll

I really should've updated earlier in the week to get that mopey entry off the top -- the doldrums really only lasted through Monday, and it's been a pretty good week since then.

The news from Katrina has been pretty grim. It's sad to see all that devastation along the gulf coast. From the sounds of things, it's going to take a long time to get everything cleaned up - lots of people without homes or places to work, etc... In addition to the tragedy factor is the economic impact, which is already in full effect here. Gas prices yesterday jumped from about $2.69 to $3.09 in the course of four hours or so. From reading stories like this one, it's a pretty safe bet they'll only be getting higher in the near-future. Gas prices over $4/per gallon are a distinct possibility, and that's some scary stuff.

Tuesday I had a workshop in the new South Campus Gateway building where HR has it's offices now. It was a very snazzy new space. Still pretty opposed to the whole Campus Partners thing, but it's a done deal now... and I don't think protesting the stuff would really be all that effective. I'm not that passionate about it at any rate. Like I said, the new building was very cool, and the 4th floor view over campus was very snazzy. After the workshop I briefly wandered through the B&N and hit up the new Potbelly Sandwich Works for lunch with Amy. I didn't go very far in, so what I saw of B&N was pretty typical... Potbelly was a pretty good place. The sandwiches are good sized and pretty well priced ($3.79). I got "The Wreck" which was ham, turkey, roast beef and salami - very tasty. They grill the sandwhiches in a similar way to Quiznos. Good food - I'll definitely be going back. The atmosphere inside was pretty cool as well - a lot nicer than most other campus places.

Yesterday was the Mike Nelson show at Shadowbox, and MAN was it a great time. Group-wise, it was just Amy, Pat, and his co-worker Amy. I really can't believe I couldn't talk more people into going, but a) I didn't try TOO hard, and b) it did come during kind of a financially pressed month for more folks. The good times started out pretty quickly, actually -- on the Shadowforums, I'd mentioned that I was a little bummed they'd added the tonight's show AFTER I'd already had tickets for the Wednesday show... and that it would've been nice to come on my birthday. Now, I know we could've probably gotten our reservations moved to the second night, but we stuck it out. Well, because Shadow-folks are 100% completely awesome, they had Mike sign a t-shirt for me with happy birthday wishes. VERY COOL! Could I love the place any more? Big thanks to Jimmy, Julie, and whoever else was involved in that deal.

The show itself was awesome!! Some spoilers below, so if you're going tonight (which you SHOULD) don't read after this: XXXXXXX It had a good portion of the current Best Of show, but also had a sketch Mike had written specifically for the show (which he was in as well), another sketch where he ripped on a few movie clips MST3K-style which was very funny (and defintely brought up some MST3K nostalgia with a quickness), he was in Gary & Galinda (which became Mike & Melinda), he was in Girls 101, and he played Dr. Mystery in one of the older Dr. Mystery bits! Band-wise, the music was almost all from Best Of, but they did do a rockin' cover of the MST3k theme-song, and Mike sang the lead on Sci-Fi Girl!! Such a cool time, and I'm so glad I went - definitely worth the price, and then some!

I've gotta get back to work now, slack-time is over. I'll leave this interesting link: a library in Holland lets you "check out" people with non-mainstream lifestyles/viewpoints/backgrounds and chat with them, learn about them, etc. I think that's a damn cool idea! Being open minded to other viewpoints is a GOOD thing, despite what the moral majority would have you believe.

Back To Reality

There's a silence surrounding me
I can't seem to think straight
I'll sit in the corner
No one can bother me
I think I should speak now
I can't seem to speak now
My words won't come out right
I feel like I'm drowning
I'm feeling weak now
But I can't show my weakness
I sometimes wonder
Where do we go from here

I suspect listening to Pink Floyd can bring on the doldrums in most people, so I've probably done this to myself, but I'm having one of those kinds of days, and I think this sums it up perfectly.

Back at work today, vacation's over. It wasn't too bad when you consider it was a Monday back at work after a week off, and there's catching up with work, with what's been going on at work, etc, etc.... In addition to the usual work stuff, the weather this morning and the news of Hurricane Katrina's havoc down on the Gulf Coast are all probably contributing factors as well.

As usual, I'm sure it will clear up in time. They usually don't last too long. If nothing else, the Shadowbox Mike Nelson show on Wednesday should help. Looking forward to that quite a bit, and I'm really happy they wound up selling out the first show.

The Mind Is Willing But The Wallet Is Weak

Went to Lunchbox today at Shadowbox. It was, of course, a good time. They had a really good sized crowd for a lunchbox, which was great to see. Apparently they're trying to get folks in for the show tonight though - a couple different Sboxers asked us if we were coming back tonight. They were even offering $10 tickets, which is a good deal for a Friday night show...

I'll admit, I'm a huge addict and was sorely tempted... but Amy convinced me that we need to be good, so I've got to go with the voice of reason on this one.

We're still going next Wednesday for the Mike Nelson show. They added a second showing of it on Thursday (my birthday)... if anyone is having trouble thinking of what to get me for my birthday, I could be tempted to go two nights in a row... ;)

Thursday Already?

I can't believe it's Thursday already. This week has flown by, and even though we haven't done anything all that big, it's been a nice break. And we still have tomorrow and the weekend, then three-day weekend after that too. Fun stuff.

Yesterday we went to COSI to check out the Titanic exhibit. We've been hoping to try and go with some other folks, but unfortunately schedules just weren't working out, and the exhibit's run is almost over, so we went ahead and took advantange of a vacation day to check it out. I can't believe how crowded it was for a weekday -- I mean, I guess school isn't in session yet, but don't all those adults have to work? There were actually more adults there than kids I think. Anyway, it was a great exhibit -- I can't believe they managed to pull up and preseve that stuff after almost 90 years on the ocean floor. The whole passport thing is really cool too - going in, they give you a boarding pass with the name and vitals of one of the real passengers, including what class they were travelling, what their room number was (if known), etc. At the end they have a list of all the passengers, broken down by 1st class, 2nd class, 3rd class, and crew, and whether or not they survived -- so you can see how your person fared. I was Isidor Straus, owner of Macy's department store, traveling with wife, maid, and "manservant". Traveling in 1st class, naturally... but I didn't make it. Amy was someone in 2nd class, and she survived along with her two daughters... It's kind of grim, but a fun little feature. The opulence of the first class cabins was insane... as was the ticket price: adjusted to about $70,000 per ticket equivalent. Ugh. Even third class ( "steerage") adjusted comes out to around $600. Just nuts.

Today was almost entirely slugging around, which was just fine for me. I got in lots of good CoH time, which was fun, though I'm sad because almost everyone I normally play with has gotten an invite to the City of Villains beta-test, and I have not... Ah well. We did go out to dinner at a local Greek place named Tria which the Fishes turned us onto. Fun stuff -- got the saganaki (which was funny because our waitress was so obviously not into the flaming thing... she looked really nervous). Amy had the house specialty (which I don't even remember the real name of), I had the SpanaGyroPita (like a Spanakopita only with gyro meat added), and we had the "Galactic Burrito" for dessert. Mmm...

Tomorrow we're doing the lunchbox show at Shadowbox (surprise, surprise)...

I'm On Va-Caaaa-Shun

Amy & I are off all this week, getting some much needed relaxation in before the fall quarter rush starts for me and the fall travelling season starts for her. We're not going anywhere or doing anything in particular, but right about now slugging around the house for a week sounds like a great time.

Really got started on the slugging around thing this weekend -- we didn't do a whole heck of a lot. We did wind up seeing the remake of The Longest Yard at the Screens. Here's where I sadly must admit that I've never seen the original... I've heard many good things about it, but have yet to see it. I guess I'll have to do that sometime. The remake wasn't bad. It was an Adam Sandler/Chris Rock comedy, so it can't be all bad -- and it was actually a good step up from the complete brainless humor of a lot of Adam Sandler movies. It was funny seeing all the people playing players or guards in the movie - Michael Irvin, Bill Romanowski, Steve Austin, Kevin Nash, Brian Bosworth...

Also yesterday we went to Blendon Woods, one of the Metro Parks in the area. If you haven't checked them out, it's really worth visiting some of the local Metro Parks. They have some really nice places with great trails, some fun wildlife to see, etc. Blendon Woods is a particularly nice one with some awesome wooded trails, and it also has Thoreau Pond, home to the Walden Waterfowl Refuge. At the moment thanks to our draught it's looking pretty lame (they lower the water level in August anyway, and the draught has left it pretty raw)... It's also got a cool disc golf course for those of you into that.

Today we checked out Glacier Ridge, another park. This one is in Dublin and actually only opened a couple years ago in 2002. It used to be farmland and they're converting it back to wetlands and small woods. It's a really neat concept, and the little wetland area is kind of nice, with a cool wooden boardwalk running through it. The trails there are pretty lame, however -- they're almost all paved for mixed use (biking, hiking, pets, etc), and they go through mostly fields where you can see 161, local barns and houses, etc... just doesn't feel very parklike. One really cool thing though was all the meadows and fields there were lots of butterflies to see...

Random Crap

Working orientation this morning. Only a couple minutes before I've gotta head over, but I want to throw out a couple links...

If you're tired of the election nonsense from '00 and '04, then here's your candidate for 2008.

People like this [video] is why gaming/comic/sci-fi conventions are always seen as nerd fests, or "nerd prom" as Warren Ellis puts it.

I was so excited to use this pun yesterday, then I forgot! Anyway, yesterday was the anniversary of the day Japan surrendered in WWII. So happy VJ day!

Gigantour

So last night was Gigantour in Cleveland, and it did NOT disappoint. Doors opened at 2:30pm, and the show was at Tower City Amphitheater, which neither of us were familiar with... so we got on the road at about a quarter till 11. We made really good time heading up, even with stopping at a DQ for some lunch and got there in time to be very near the front of the line to get in. They let us in around 2:40pm, but then the actual "tent" (the main part of the venue) was roped off until around 3pm.

I checked out the merch -- they had a pretty good selection, including some really choice Megadeth shirts, but I've already blown too much cash on concerts and such this month, so I passed. If they had had a really cool Nevermore shirt maybe...

First up was Bobaflex, which I had heard of, but hadn't heard anything by, other than one song I downloaded from their web site to try and get a preview. I have to say I definitely enjoyed them - the music was pretty good, and they were hysterical -- a very goofy, entertaining set. I think I'll have to pick up some of their stuff - it was fun. After them was Dry Kill Logic, which I hadn't even known was on the tour until we got there. They... weren't so good. They'd have fit in really well with all the craptastic second stage bands at Ozzfest. Then Symphony X -- unfortunately there were some serious time problems and setup problems, and they only got to do THREE SONGS! It was really terrible because not only were the spot on, but the crowd really got into them - they had a great reaction, which was very enheartening. After that came Nevermore -- they were awesome. I've been wanting to see Nevermore live for quite some time, and it was worth the wait... though again, their set got cut a little short and they only did FOUR songs. Bleh. Two of the songs were off their new album, which I really need to pick up. Dillenger Escape Plan is very much a hardcore band, and they weren't really like anything else there... very loud, high-energy, chaotic... noise. Not my thing at all, but they were really energetic on stage, and got a small crowd whipped up pretty well. Fear Factory also had a fairly short set, but they were SOLID. I saw them back in '97 on Ozzfest, so it was cool to see them again. They seemed to win over a lot of folks as well.

Then came the two headliners. Dream Theater, who I was seeing for the second time, came first. They played around 1.5 hours, a really good set with some serious highlights, including "Under A Glass Moon" (during which the singer James LaBrie's pants ripped open pretty wide in the back, prompting the drummer to ask if the song was called "Under An Ass Moon"...), "Home", and some good stuff off their new album as well. They're awesome musicians and it was awesome to watch. Worth noting is that at this point I was only one row back from the front barricades, or about 15 feet away from the bands. AWESOME. After a very solid set, they came back out and did "Pull Me Under" as an encore~! That was so awesome to see live. The thing about Dream Theater is that they change their set lists a LOT, almost never doing the same set two nights in a row... and are definitely NOT one of those bands that play the same 5-10 songs in EVERY show... so seeing them do "Pull Me Under" live was QUITE a treat.

Finally, Megadeth finished off the show. This was really "Megadave", since the rest of the band are all new folks, but they still ripped up the stage with a great show, including some pretty cool pyro. They hit pretty much ALL the Megadeth classics, as well as playing a good amount of stuff off the new album. The only disappointing thing (and in reading some forums, I wasn't the only one who thought so) was that the mix was pretty bad, and the vocals were pretty muddy and overwhelmed by the drums and guitar.

So after the show, we headed out, got back on the road pretty quickly, and made it home around 1:40am. All things considered, not bad at all! Somehow I even managed to get my ass awake and in to work today, and am actually still doing pretty well even now.

Good times.

For anyone that cares, I'll include all the bands and setlists in a comment, so check the comments.

Crazy Turnout

Man, we had a great turnout last night. Amy had invited over a ton of the res-life crowd, and literally everyone she invited showed up, including spouses and babies and all. It was a little chaotic at first, with two little babies, two one year olds and two 4-5ish boys along with all the adults, but after everyone got settled in, it was a good time. One of those things where there's so much going on that you can't really talk to everyone at once.

Today's been a pretty lazy day. Can't complain about that at all -- it's nice to have a break and just sit around and relax. Going to go over and help my parents with their wireless network later on -- fun fun.

In other news, I made our reservations for Mike Nelson @ Shadowbox Friday. It's just me, Amy, Pat & Cindy so far, but if any of you change your mind, it's not too late - just give them a call and make reservations, asking that you be connected to us. (We've got floor seats). You know you want to -- it'll be a good time.

Certifiable, Rockstar

Well, according to my test yesterday, I am now an HDI-certified help desk manager. Fun stuff. Just to clarify, this is just a certification thing, not a new job or anything like that (though it does go well with my changing job). Thought that was a fun little note.

If you're still not watching Rockstar after all my recommendations, shame on you. Last night was another great night of performances (to make up for the slightly subpar set last week), and as more chaff gets weeded out, more and more awesome performances remain to be seen. What you REALLY need to do is go to this page and watch the video of Jordis doing "The Man Who Sold The World". It's freaking unbelievable. I need to get a copy of that song... they DO sell the tracks, but unfortunately it's only in DRM'd Windows Media format, so screw that. Warning though -- to watch the video you have to use IE and Windows Media Player. Bastages.

Fair Thee Well

Been a pretty good weekend so far, I think. Friday night we went to the new Rave Motion Pictures theater up by Polaris and saw Must Love Dogs. The theater was just "enh" - for some reason, I was really interested in checking it out, but it's just another theater - more garish and loud along the lines of a Cinemark (especially the one at Carriage Place). And they serve coke. Don't need to rush back there any time soon, though the convenient location does give us another option when looking for last minute movies. I still think it's opening doesn't bode well for Marcus or Crosswoods as a whole. The movie -- well, it was Amy's pick, so I can't complain. It picked up at the end a bit, at least.

Saturday Irene & Jeremy came up and we hit-up the Ohio State Fair. Headed straight for the Ohio Food Pavillion and got the gyros -- much better this year, worthy of reclaiming the World's Best title, I think. Ironically, they had a banner up indiciating that it won best sandwich last year. Not sure how that happened, unless we just went on a really bad day. Here's my checklist:

• Ohio Food Pavillion gyro
• Roast Sweet Corn
• Deep fried something (twinkie, in this case)
• Fair fries
• Lemon Shake-up

Man, that's good stuff.

In other news, I'm totally psyched to see Mike Nelson at Shadowbox -- he's up next in their Celebrity Series. I think we'll be sitting on the floor (though NOT in a VIP table). Anyone interested in going with us?