I bought some new music, let's review it!

One of the main things I go to DragonCon for in recent years (besides the scantly clad girls) is the music. And it seems every year there's more and better bands. Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

I picked up 3 CD's at DragonCon this time around - Dying and Falling from I:Scintilla, Hate Lives In a Small Town from Voltaire, and Celldweller's self-titled album.

OK, ladies first. Well at least the band that's fronted by a lady first. I was trying to explain I:Scintilla's music to my father. Normally I don't discuss music with him because to him The Rolling Stones were the greatest band that ever and will ever exist, but their frontwoman, Britney Bindrim, is related to one of my dad's oldest friends. I:Scintilla is kind of a mix of metal, punk, and electronica with rather amazing vocals. Britney has some serious pipes and the drums guitars and electronics back her up quite nicely. If you are into metal or industrial, I suggest you look them up. If they are coming to your town, I suggest you see them. They put on a good show and I actually think they sound better live than on the CD. Speaking of the CD, Dying and Falling has a rather good mix of music on it. It's a great showcase of many of the things the band is capable of. There's a mix of fast and moderate, hard and light, guitar heavy metal and electronic. While I can't find a song on it I don't like, Ammunition has got to be my favourite. Also, the album art is pretty cool too. It's all paintings by Britney Bindrim.



Next up is an old favourite that did something unexpected and it turned out pretty cool. In fact when I heard of this album I actually thought it was a joke. Voltaire's latest album, Hate Lives In a Small Town, is a country album. I was talking to him about it at DragonCon after having heard a few of the songs he posted on Facebook. I thought it was good, but not what I would have expected, then I got to thinking some of his other songs did have a country feel to them. He even said a lot of his songs actually are or can be country songs. Honestly, I hate country music. Oddly enough, so does Voltaire. However the country music on Hate Lives In a Small Town is not modern country, but more old timey country. Think Johnny Cash. Now think Johnny Cash with Voltaire's warped and spooky sense of humour. That's about what this album is like. If you like old timey country and western, you will probly like it. If you don't like that, well, listen to it anyway, you may like it as well. If you like anything Voltaire has done in the past, you will like it. I enjoyed it and like I said, I hate country.



Finally, a band I never heard of before. They have been around a while, I just somehow missed them. Celldweller is a one man act, that one man being Klayton. Klayton is a very cool, very talented and very nice guy with a pretty damned impressive resume. I'm surprised I never heard of him. I've heard his music before and probly so have you. He's done a lot of work in T.V. and movie soundtracks. My girlfriend wanted their CD after we saw their live show at DragonCon. I wasn't about to tell her no, I wanted it too. The live show was just wow. A mix of very hard rock and pounding electronics with 2 really busy guys switching between keyboard, drums and guitars, singing and dancing all the way coupled with intense visuals on 3 screens. The CD provided more of the same, sans visuals of course. I'm glad I went to their show, more so that I bought their CD. If you like your music intense and aggressive with rock and classical influences, buy this CD. Seriously. If they (should I say he?) are touring anywhere near you, go see them. This is another CD that not only can I not find anything I don't like on it, I can't even find anything I can call my favourite, it's all that good.



So yeah that about covers my DragonCon music purchases. Just another reason I'm broke at the moment. And another reason for the Perseph - A - Thon. I know I haven't been making a post every day like I said I was, but I'm going to try to make up for that this weekend. Hope you enjoyed the music. I might be back later with a rant later on, watch for it.

So what have I been up to lately?

Quite a bit. Honestly, I spend most of my time exhausted when I'm not doing stuff, but it keeps me out of trouble. Here's some of the highlights:

Thanks for the overtime, could have done without the bad mouthing though.

So Tuesday morning I had to call the GSM of the hotel I work for because there it was 7:15 am, I'm all alone, she's the only one on the schedule and I just heard from one of the maintenance guys that there was an accident that may have been on her route to work. Now I thought I was nice and respectful, I even felt a bad about waking her up, but according to what I have been told, she had a bit of a different story. I'm not sure exactly what was said, but apparently I was shitty to her. I also heard she got corrected by the same maintenance guy that was present when I called her. Oddly enough, when I called her back later on because I noticed I left with the desk keys she didn't seem to have a problem with me then or when I saw her Friday when I picked up my check. Heck, she was pretty nice both times. I thought about confronting her about it, but I'll be over it once I'm done typing this.

Yeah, I'm over it.

Look Mom, I know you are trying to help me here, but I'd rather carry 100 pounds of lead than 10 pounds of feathers!

Well, my mom is out of the hospital, but not quite 100%. I've been helping her out. Kinda wish I could do more. One big thing though is doing the grocery shopping for my parents. May not seem like a big deal, but try carting a weeks worth of groceries across town taking buses and walking. Every week it's the same thing when my mother is giving me the list - she keeps worrying about the weight of the things, I'm worried about size. I'm built like an ox, I can carry a lot of weight. I'm not very big though, and my backpack can only hold so much. I try to keep it limited to a full backpack and 2 bags. I don't care if the backpack is full of canned goods, that's cool. But when I'm carrying a family size box of waffles, a bag of hoagie rolls, a big bag of chips, etc. well space gets to be at a premium. And in case anyone it wondering, my father can devour a family size box of waffles in a few days all by himself.

And speaking of my father....

There's some program he's on now. It's like a day care for geezers. As opposed to putting them in a nursing home. I'm thinking it's not very good. He goes on the days my mom is at dialysis. So my mom has to get him ready before dialysis and usually take care of him when he gets home. He's come home a few times with a Depends full of shit and piss. Also, I don't know what they are feeding him there, but his blood sugar has been higher than ever a few times afterwards. The program he's on is called PACE. I don't know all the details, but if things don't straighten out, expect a rather big long rant from me after we get him out of the program.

And all that being said....

It's getting up on the end of my shift here at work, which means my computer time will be significantly limited until I come back to work. I still need to buy a new laptop. I still can't afford it. Well I could afford it just fine if I was not going to DragonCon.

BTW, you can help me in a small way be clicking on the Google ads, or in a slightly bigger way by clicking on the "tip jar" in the corner.

Costume changes for DragonCon

Due to time and budget issues, I will not be making the clear acrylic wings for DragonCon. They will be made for another time/event. Instead, since I have a lot of hang wire, I will be making sets of wings like the other set that I am still working on. So I'll have wire framed nylon wings in purple, neon pink, neon green, and possibly a red pair too. I'm going to do them in different shapes too.

Other than that everything is falling into place quite nicely. I have some new clothing items on the way, including a new corset. So Dragon this year should be some serious good times.

Annoyance and excitement

I got a call from Dell today. They wanted to make sure I got the box they sent me for the laptop. I got it Wednesday and sent it back to them the same day. He then tells me they recieved it today and would have it for a few days before they sent it back. I asked if the people working on it can call me with a status update and he tells me that they don't have access to that.

This guy had a thick Indian accent and was difficult to understand. I doubt he was in the same place as my computer. My computer was being shipped to Texas. Now I do understand that he could have been there, but more than likely I was talking to yet another outsourced call center worker. I'm really annoyed about this.

On to more exciting news, I have just a little over a month until DragonCon.

I need to update my blog

No, I don't.

Ok, maybe I do.

Not much going on here. Been working out as often as I can. I don't appear to be losing any weight according to the scale, but I look more deflated than usual. I keep pushing myself harder every time I go to the fitness center too. With my computer gone, I'm there more often. Nothing better to do.

I've almost got my finances stabilized. Which is good because DragonCon is a little over a month away. I have the room and the car reserved. Just need to get my costumes done at this point.

Life is pretty damn good.

It's official, I'm a fairy

Crüxshadows fairy that is. I'll be helping them promote their new single and concert at DragonCon. And doing whatever the hell else it is they have fairies do. I'm quite excited.

I can't wait!!!!!!!


So who am I going to see at DragonCon?

So after a week in the new place

Life is pretty good and my finances are starting to find their way back on track. I've still got a lot of stuff in boxes but I have started decorating. I'm thinking there's going to be a lot of purple and black. Just what I'm seeing now.

My old landlord still has not paid me back my deposit. Last time I spoke to him was Wednesday. He was still out of town. Said he would be back in town on Thursday and would be checking the apartment and mailing my check then. I'm going to give him a call in the next day or 2 and see what the status is.

My laptop has been down. The AC adapter has been giving me trouble for a while, it finally died out totally. I bought a new one today. The good news is I have a laptop with a fully charged battery. The bad is that replacing it didn't cure the video problems I'm having and I have a feeling it's going to be the motherboard. So much for my idea that they were the result of an underpowered vid card. :(

To keep my sanity on the past 2 days I've had off, I've been working out in the fitness center and doing lots of design work on my DragonCon costumes. Most stuff is drawn, next is patterns, schematics and a materials list.

Well since posting a public check list worked pretty good for me last month...

...Lets do another this month.

Now that I have moved, my intentions have turned toward DragonCon. I seriously cannot wait. I have a little under 2 months to get costumes together and make sure I have the money for this. This month I will be mostly focusing on the financial side of it. Moving has left me broke, I'm still waiting on my deposit from my old apartment as well. So I'm really poor at the moment.

• Write up a new budget for monthly bills as things have seriously changed.
• Fix my bike, this will keep me from having to ride the bus to and from work.
• Design costumes, making efforts to keep costs down. Costumes will be constructed next month. I've got at least 3 sets of faerie wings plus quite a few accessories to make.
• Work out in fitness center for a minimum of 1 hour every day. I want to look good.
• As I have been doing, work to keep utility bills low.
• Work to keep food cost down as well, but still eat healthy. And no eating out no matter how good the Chinese buffet down the road is.
  

I think that's about it, I may have to expand on this one a little but that's the gist of it. I'll probly be putting together a workout plan and setting some goals for that as well. Next month costume construction begins. I will be posting pictures. So keep an eye out for those. I got some really cool stuffs planned. Here's a cool how to vid I found featuring Emilie Autumn for a teaser.

BTW, if you have never been to Dragoncon, you should seriously go. Seriously.