Ok, so I have been out of it for the past few weeks. Work has absolutely hammered me. With different servers failing and political crap going back and forth, when I get home I don’t want to go any where near the PC and I am way to busy at work to do stuff there. So I just needed to take a break from everything. I haven’t posted on any boards, not blogged, anything! I have had a number of things that I wish I could have blogged about too! We missed out on Talk like a pirate day. I finally got around to canceling my COV account which means I am MMORPG free at the moment. Those are just a few.

A friend of mine has introduced me to some new music too! While we were at DragonCon, I was walking through the area where a lot of the bands have booths. Now, these are usually some punk bands, or goth bands etc. They all pretty much sound the same and the band next to them. After a while I stopped paying attention to them. Well, there was this one guy down towards the end of the room, Voltaire. He had a very typical looking booth set up, lots of black, lots of emo feel to it. So, I really didn’t pay much attention to it at all.

Flash forward to the now. I decide to give a few of the tracks a listen to and holy cow! This is NOT your typical goth band. Actually is have only trace amounts of the goth feel to it. I actually sat with my headphones on at work and zoned out while focusing on my work. I have to say I was very much floored by the sound of the music. One of the tracks actually got me so lost in the rhythm and music that I lost track of the lyrics. His website actually has a few tracks available for download, go check it out!

Outside of all that, you know, all the stressful crap, it’s been pretty tame as far as events and such. Last week Andrew and I did attend a garrison event where we trooped the Best Buy release of the Original Trilogy of Star Wars on DVD (again). School has also kept me busy as of late. I am currently in a “Programming Concepts” class which is supposed to teach the logic and layout of programming. So far I have learned that my teacher is an ass and has no desire to actually teach and help students. I have had a few very bad conversations with him and have finally taken it to my Student advisor. We’ll see how this turns out.

Back in January of 2005 I reposted my story of 9/11. Instead of just re-posting it again (Mostly because I don’t want to go through and adjust for dates and times and stuff) here is the direct link to the story: http://www.wizzer.org/2005/01/story-time.html

Hi there, I am here to inform you of the dangers of Post Convention Depression, or PCD. PCD is a very serious condition that effect thousands of people across the world! Let me demonstrate:

This is little Stevie

Stevie: “Hi!”

Stevie has been preparing for a convention for the past 8 months. This convention is called DragonCon. It’s a 4 day convention down in Atlanta.

Stevie: “That’s in Georgia!”

Thank you, Stevie. So for the past 8 months, Stevie has been preparing costumes, and making reservations for hotels and such. Anticipation started to build even more during the last few weeks before the convention.

Stevie: “Like when the grid came out for all of the Panels and such!”

That’s right! When the convention finally arrived, Stevie couldn’t have been happier! All of the planning and project work that has kept him busy for so long is now going into effect for a full 4 days of non-stop fun and frivolity!

Stevie: “WhooHooo Party!!!”

But this all comes with a cost. PCD!! The convention is over. Stevie is now back home. All the costumes are packed back up in the closet. The clothes have been washed and put away. Everything that has been keeping Stevie busy and kept him distracted is now done and over.

Stevie: “But I still have Pictures!……and ….and….Stories!”

Yes Stevie, but what will you do now? It’s still too early to start preparing for the next convention. What will you do now?

Stevie: “Wow, I never thought about that. Hmmm Let me just lay here on the couch and think about that.”

And this is how it starts. PCD starts to set in. Stevie finds himself not wanting to do much of anything aside from the needs of life. The only way out of this slump is for Stevie to get up off his rump and start experiencing normal everyday life again! (Exercise helps too)

Don’t let PCD take over someone you love!

You know how when you go out and drink heavily, the next morning you are usually extremely tired, sore, and just plain running in slo-mo? Well, the con hangover is a lot like that. DragonCon lasted for 4 days. Add on top of that a 10 hour drive there and a 10 hour drive back. I feel all of the normal hangover effects, the headache, the tiredness, the not wanting to eat, etc.. Not to mention that surreal feeling of being home and trying to get back to a normal routine. Work is more than happy to help me out with that as I jumped back into fixing all the crap that broke while I was gone so, I got that going for me.

Pictures have been uploaded, but I haven’t gotten around to captioning them yet. There will be a full trip report coming, but I am sure that it will probably take me a week to wade through it (kinda like the Vegas one) The main point is that we had a blast. Andrew loved it even though he was starting to get overwhelmed. I look back over the pictures from other people and realize that there is just too much to see at DragonCon! I know I saw a lot of it, but every now and then I find a picture and think “Wow, that would have been cool to see!” More to come later.

Pictures will follow soon, Just had to throw in a post that We made it here. Andrew is drooling over the giant game room! Not much is open yet so we are just relaxing. The plan is to do SuperHero for today. I will be changing into either GL or spidey later on. Tomorow will be Biker and Pirate.

Last nights MIB was a huge success! Again, I will post pictures as soon as I can. It would appear that someone in a room next to me has purchased the 9.99 internet access and threw a wi-fi router on it. Hopefully, it will last! More to come!!!!!

Time is counting down and I am getting really excited. We have already laid out the plans for the trip down. We leave here at oh-god-early on Thursday morning. Andrew and I will be meeting up with Doc and Diz, and then onto meet up with Roger (our garrisons Vader) for the long road trip to Atlanta! I have been checking out the schedual grid for the con and I already see a few things that I am excited about:

The Faces Behind Your Favorite Voices
Come see the voices behind some of our favorite characters. Squidward, Space Ghost, Zorack, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Sigmund the Seamonster, just to name a few. Roger Bumpass, C. Martin Croker, Walker Edmiston, George Lowe, Billy West, Jerry Winsett. Sat 07:00 PM, International South, (H)

Firefly/Serenity Shindig
Join the Southeastern Browncoats as they host this party to celebrate the Serenity and its crew. There will be a costume contest, so come dress as your favorite character, or just in the style of the show, and join in the fun. It will be Shiny! Sat 10:00 PM, Hanover CDE, (H)

Drum Circle
Bring your drum, get in a circle, and play. That’s the idea. Sat 11:30 PM, All Night, Centennial I, (H)

Done The Impossible – A Screening
We’re pleased to present a screening of Done The Impossible, a documentary on Firefly Fandom. Following the film we’ll have a Q/A session with producers Brian Wiser and Jeremy Neish Brian Wiser, Jeremy Neish Sun 05:30 PM, 2.5 Hours

So you wanna be a voice actor?
Hear about and learn the business of voice acting from those with years of experience Michael Brady, C. Martin Croker, George Lowe, Jerry Winsett. Sat 10:00 AM, 2 Hours

Venture Bros.
Mischief and mayhem abound with the Venture Bros! Come join a highly entertaining panel on the venture brothers — one of last year’s faves! Ann-Marie Gearhart Sun 09:00 AM

Voice Actors Extravaganza!
These are some of Voice actings best know voices. Join us to hear them talk about there experences in the studio. And learn what new projects they are working on. Roger Bumpass, C. Martin Croker, Stephen Furst, George Lowe, Billy West, Jerry Winsett. Sun 02:30 PM, International South, (H)

Dragon*Con Parade
Join us as DragonCon spills out onto the streets of Atlanta! Costumes not only welcomed, but encouraged! Show your support for all things McCaffrey and march with us behind the Weyrfest banner Sat 10:00 AM, 1.5 Hours

Neverwinter Nights 2 Preview
Obsidian Entertainment will provide an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming sequel to one of the best-selling role-playing games of all time. Panelists will walk fans through every aspect of the game’s progress included with Neverwinter Nights 2. Chris Avellone, Shane DeFreest, Josh Sawyer. Fri 11:30 AM

Meet the Mythbusters!
Drop in and say hello to Tory, Kari and Grant – they make a living building and blowing things up for your entertainment and enlightenment! Find out what they did before hooking up with Jamie and Adam, and what they do when they aren’t mythbusting. Fri 01:00 PM, Centennial I, (H)

Mythbusting for Fun and Profit
How do the Mythbusters decide which myths to bust? Which were their favorites? Which, um, weren’t? Tory Belleci, Kari Byron, Grant Imahara. Sat 01:00 PM, Centennial II-III, (H)

I will try and squeeze in another post before we leave on Thursday!

There are a few things to go over really. One of the first being that Pitching Lucas has been loaded into IMDB. The coolest thing about that is that I now have an IMDB entry for my name! It also comes up first on Google! It’s just kind of cool to see that, especially after doing theater work for years and years. It’s really neat that IMDB is opening up to things like Indi films and Fan films.

The next is that I am almost ready to submit a picture for my official 501st trading card! I went out yesterday and took a bunch of pictures. We used a green screen to photo some ewok hands holding playing cards and found an Awesome park nearby that had a nice set up for the background of the picture. You can see the different shots here. Feel free to comment and let me know which is the better one to use.

Only 1 week left till we leave for DragonCon. We still haven’t finished Andrews boots, those will be this weekend at the latest. Aside from that, everything is good to go.

With less than 2 weeks left before DragonCon, I have been trying to get things in order for the trip. This year I am only doing 4 costumes total, and probably won’t be in them full time. Let’s face it, most spandex has no pockets. All of my costumes are now done (Including a nifty new flight suit for my Biker scout). Andrew will be in 2 costumes for the con, he is also doing a Biker Scout and Conner Kent (Superboy). The Biker Scout for him is the one taking up all the time. Thankfully we only have the boots left to finish. Those shouldn’t take long at all.

Saturday I was conked out till like 11:30. It was a very late start to the day but we still managed to get a lot done. While we were out doing the grocery shopping, Andrew got a call reminding him (and thusly me) about his friends birthday party. It only started 30 min ago! A quick rush to the wal-mart and he got dropped off. This gave me the chance to run a few errands, Comic book store and lunch. I also picked up a new fascination. I started watching a show called 30 days, so I picked up the season 1 DVD for it.

I am sure you have heard about the movie “Super size Me.” In it, the host eats nothing but McDonalds food for 30 days straight. Every day, every meal. As you can guess this was not the best thing he could do for his body. Well, the movie gained a lot of acclaim to the point where the FX network gave its creator his own show. The premise is, take a person and give them 30 days in a situation. Every episode is a different situation. The ones I have seen were the: Atheist in a Fundamentalist Christian household, New Age treatment, Minimum Wage for 30 days, and Christian in a Muslim world. Much like his movie, the host interjects during the show with little factoids about the situation that are fascinating. I was floored to learn that the Minimum wage limit has not been raised since 1997. I HIGHLY suggest checking out this show.

Sunday was spent working on the costumes. We had to go out and pick up a few extra things. As much as I hate going to G-street fabrics because they are horribly expensive, they happen to be the most organized and have exactly what I need. On the way back though, we stopped off at the Walney Park. It’s a very tucked away little park and rec center. They have quite a few trails and events. We didn’t stay long, just enough to get some info. The rest of the day was bouncing between costuming, playing some COV for a break, and a little bit of TV. By the end of this week, all costumes should be finished and we will be good to go! Pictures will follow that.

Ok, so this minor irritant known as the little head cold has now turned into a week long “oh my god I feel like crap!” I ended up staying home on Wednesday because I just couldn’t focus at work. It sucked. Even now my head is still congested. I am not the only one with this either, there appears to be a bug going around. Ugh!

Well anyways. I guess I could mention that I took last weekend and did some re-arranging. I finally have a real dining room now. When I moved into the apartment it was just me, so I maximized my space and put the computer desk in the dining area. Well, the problem with this came about when Andrew came to live there. The dining area is right next to the door to his room. So when he is in school, I have to be super quiet when I am on the computer. Those that know me (and my gamers tourettes) this isn’t the easiest thing for me. One of the factors in not moving the desk was that there is no network drop in my bedroom. I solved this by picking up a wireless-G router and desktop card. Now the place almost looks normal! Well, except for all the sci-fi stuff all over the place.

I also picked up a nifty new camera. I got a major deal over at Micro Center. I was planning on just getting an in-expensive digital camera, maybe 4 mega pixels. While talking with the guy, he says he has one not on display that he can go grab. While in the back he finds a return of a 6.2mp HP R717. It’s good as new and priced for $135!! How could I pass that one up? It was cheaper than the 4mp ones I was looking at and tons better. I will be out and bout taking pics this weekend.

This weekend will be filled with costume enhancements and such to prepare for DragonCon! Less than 2 weeks!

You know, these little colds suck. I have a little like 24-48 hour bug. It came on yesterday, with the runny nose and the slightly scratchy throat. Last night I was feeling pretty crappy. This morning is probably the worst of it, but I took some Tylenol Cold and am fighting it. Here is the problem though, it’s not enough to really warrant staying home. I am not so out of it that I can’t function. It’s just enough to be an inconvenience. That’s the part that sucks. I think I would be able to handle it better if it was like a full blown flu, or something like that where I would feel like I should just stay home and get better. This is more of just an irritant. Ok, wow, that medication is starting to kick in. Head feeling a little loopy.