Wondrous Apparitions, Provided by Magicians.

Having heard that I liked trains, the universe (with the help of some of you!) has lovingly provided me with much train-based joy.

First, primitivepeople rode the very sexy High Speed One, and posted lovely pictures.

Then, greektoomey pointed me towards The Train Suite I: Viscous Oil & Persimmon Tea, which includes the lovely bit of Palimpsest I'm so in love with about the trains of heaven, and also some very nice train backing vocals.

And then! corwin00, over on his Facebook, shared this amazing paper city, with, oh yes my friends, a working paper train. I will be very disappointed in you if you don't click that, because if you don't, you will have willfully missed out on a thing of intricate and frankly fucking impressive beauty.

Now that I'm off the phone with the person currently making me craziest at work, I can get around to the other half of my post for today. This post is for anonymous commentary about things that you're really pleased with, things that you want to recognize for their awesomeness.

Example: "It's totally nice out again today, the sky is clear, and it's practically warm, and things are blooming. Winter is over, and spring, you rock!"

I'm kind of thinking I'll match these two against each other. Will there be more Fuck Yous or more You Rocks? Place your bets now. :)

LIFE'S LITTLE VICTORIES MEME (a thing that arkhamrefugee and I were talking about last night.)

We all have our big victory moments. Graduating from school, getting married, buying a new car, whatever. However, sometimes you need to take a second and celebrate the smaller things in life. Simply list ten things that you feel can be categorized as one of Life's Little Victories and give a brief explanation for each. Then post it in your journal for people to see and participate in. As a small point of egotism, please list who you got the meme from so we can see how it grows and progresses.

( The Wins! )

Yesterday, archway had a meme about things she liked, beginning with the letter C. I figured it was worth taking the time to demonstratively like things, so she gave me the letter D. If you'd like to like things alphabetically, comment and ask for a letter, and I will give you one.

I like:
1. Dogs - Particularly large dogs with good dispositions and muppet-like faces.
2. DMing - Best way in the world to be evil to your friends and have them thank you for it.
3. Derelicts - Ruined buildings are dangerous, crumbling love.
4. Deviation - Wouldn't it be dull if we were all the same?
5. Dirty songs - Everybody needs a party trick.
6. Derby girls - Roller skates and a bad attitude add at least 10% to your total hotness score.
7. Doctor Who - How have I not watched this until now? He's charming, competent, and totally batshit insane. LOVE.
8. Darts - Clearly I should spend more time in pubs.
9. Depeche Mode - Dave Gahan could read the phone book and make it sound filthy.
10. Data - Numbers, or it didn't happen!

Special bonus #11 (it goes to 11!): David. I like him. I think I'd like to keep him, if nobody minds.

Today is brought to you by the Tibetan Mastiff. They're going to be in Westminster for the first time this year! I have no way to watch Westminster, of course. But no matter. I'm still cheering for the Tibetan Mastiff. When I read The Dresden Files, and he talks about Harry's dog Mouse, I always think of these guys. I know Mouse is supposed to be some sort of fictional temple dog, but this is where my brain goes.

Today is also brought to you by Aaron Fotheringham, who is my hero of the day. I was waiting to pick up lunch in the sports bar across the street, and the TV over the bar was showing mid-day ESPN (snooze), when they start talking about this kid. He's 14 years old. He has spina bifida, which prevents him from walking. The video at the other end of the link up there is him at the skate park. He does BMX-style tricks in his wheelchair. Kid can do a backflip in a wheelchair. I don't care who you are, that's pretty damned impressive. He calls this "Extreme Sitting". :)

And now, with all that good stuff out of the way, it's time for my Two Minutes Hate.
We have a new radio station in Kansas City called "The Boulevard". It's not a bad station, particularly. It's allegedly a rock station, but seems to keep to the lighter side of the old rock-n-roll business: Elton John, REM, U2, Jackson Browne, and so on. So the station is not bad, just dull. The advertising, however, is abomination. They run this ad that goes something like "Do you ever wonder why you never hear Peter Gabriel or Van Morrison or U2 on the radio? We do too. Now you can. The Boulevard. Quality rock."

Kids, if you live in Kansas City, you will immediately recognize the problem. If you don't, let me put it this way for you: It's like seeing a commercial on television that asks you, "Do you ever wonder why you don't see Law and Order or CSI on television?". Yeah. Every damned station in Kansas City that isn't country or sports talk pretty much already plays all this stuff all the time. Would it fucking kill someone to get us a radio station that offered something *different* from what we already have? Maybe so. Maybe I'm just spoiled from my brief exposure to XM radio. But seriously, could we get a Fungus 53 over here?

It's like being clergy or something. Anyway, I'm looking for some help, and here's the deal.

From now until Imbolc (that's 2/2, for you mainstream religious types), Gaia Community is collecting money for Heifer International. Heifer is a charitable organization that gives livestock to poor families to help feed their families and their communities, and have milk, eggs, honey, wool, and suchlike for trade. We're trying to raise enough money to sponsor a flock of sheep for Imbolc, in honor of Brigid.

Wanna help out? You can drop by my donation page and make a donation, or you can join Gaia Community's team and canvass your friends, family, coworkers, whoever, for help. Or, of course, you could just go to Heifer's website and donate there, but I'm trying to make our team look good here! :)

Thanks for reading, thanks for donating. Now, I'm gonna go see orcjohn up at the hospital. Catch you later.

Except for the part where it lumps together Dan Brown and Umberto Eco, this is the best news story in the history of the world.

What happens in Vegas allegedly stays in Vegas, but I fail to see how that's at all entertaining to anybody. Anyway, kittenpants got back to good ol' Flyover Country about 2 a.m. on Saturday, and are all back in our own beds (and offices) now.

I managed to survive the Vegas experience without any anxiety attacks, claustrophobia, need to retreat to a corner and hold my head and rock, or anything like that. I also managed to do this without staying drunk for the duration of my visit (which is how I functioned last time I went to Vegas). I consider this to be a victory. Brain re-wiring is going along well.

Overall, the trip was alternately amazing and awful. Highlights in each category are below the cut, if you're interested.( Read more... )

Yesterday, I called my mom's brother to get some advice about dealing with her, and he had a lot of really useful things to say. Among them, this: "If they ask you questions, and they don't like your answers, or you don't want to answer, just start lying. But lie extravagantly. Tell them you sacrifice goats in the backyard and you're into bestiality. Tell them you're swingers, but you'd rather swing around the barnyard." Uncle G currently holds Most Favored Relative Status.

Anyway, talking to him made me feel much more solid, and I'll call mom back today and see if I can sort out some of this stuff with her, because a) apparently we can't avoid the conversation, and b) somebody has to represent the grown-up perspective in this situation, right? Anyway.

Also, starrthinks came over for dinner last night, and we had some fabulous conversation about giveaways, glamour-bombing, the temporary autonomous zone, Feri work, and the inevitable revolution, among other things. I need to remember to send her some links, and (DONE!) I pretty much committed myself to writing some copy for a website she wants to put together which will address all of these things we talked about. Oh noes, excuse to write. :)

Between talking to starrthinks and reflecting on the cancellation of the flauntish portion of my birthday party, I think I want to do another flaunt soon, with a giveaway. Something like Monkey Relocation, but with less monkeys. Anybody have any clever ideas?

EDIT: And then, this, from loltheorists: BF Skinner says...

This, folks, is a moment of wild adoration for my partners. Here's how it goes:

Yesterday, triadruid and I stopped by to pick up his tuxedo for Saturday. It's an old-fashioned cut, with a long cutaway coat, and an ascot instead of the usual bow-tie, and he looks absolutely devastating in it. I mean, really. He hits the perfect balance of elegant and dissipated (this never fails to make me go all wobbly) -- in short, he looks like the best bad idea I've ever had. I sort of squeak out, "Your wife will enjoy that", and try to keep myself from overheating or passing out in the shop.

We move on. He's got a meeting, so I take him up to 75th Street Brewery to meet his group. I've arranged for kittenpants to meet us there, so that she and I can have dinner together. Over the course of dinner and the drive home, we are full of good ideas. We design a Las Vegas casino/resort (we're thinking it'll be The Nautilus, a Jules Verne-inspired sort of place, heavy on the steampunk and aquatic elements, with just a dash of Hindu temple). We invent the sort of male strip show that would cater to us and people like us (they go on two or three at a time, dressed in frock coats and generally foppish attire, and then, they undress each other. It's a simple thing, but we think this is ideal). We decide that nobody else may ever cover "I Think We're Alone Now", unless it's a band like Tool. And so on.

We get home, we do some research about our upcoming trip to Las Vegas (it all comes back around). Then, triadruid comes home. I demand that he should put the tux back on for the edification of kittenpants. Somewhere in there, we had a lovely bottle of wine that kittenpants had picked up to celebrate our engagement a few weeks ago but that we never got around to drinking. I'll spare you the rest of the scene in consideration of your undoubtedly delicate sensibilities. :)

Anyway, these people I have somehow managed to attach myself to, they're fabulous -- clever and beautiful, fun to be around, full of brilliant plans, generous and helpful. I think I should keep them. What do you think?