Busy, Exciting Weekend

Wow!

I couldn't have asked for a better weekend full of fun.

I kicked it off Friday night by hanging out at my buddy Imperfect's place and playing with my niece and nephew. (Mostly my niece, though)

"Uncle Ferretnick dance with me. Uncle Ferretnick let's make a (pretend) cake. Uncle Ferretnick spin me around. Uncle Ferretnick read me a bedtime story."

We shared a pizza that I brought and although I didn't get to share the magic that is Wonder Woman with her, we had a lot of fun!

--------------

On Saturday, Hotness & I ran some errands which included picking up prezzies for George & Elwood for their combined birthday party Rockbandapalooza.

That was just all kinds of good time wrapped up in a big fluffy bow.... with cake!

Here are some random pics from the night:

I can't sing, so finding me willingly doing it is like finding a unicorn pissing rainbows on Feb. 29th*.

But sing I did, and not just one song but TWO!

I managed to belt out "War Pigs" and "N.I.B." both by Black Sabbath.

I think Ozzie would've said "Wh-wh-wh-what the bleedin' hell, mate? My head f***kin' hurts now!"

The birthday party was a blast, and both of the guys got a bunch of awesome gifts.

Hotness and I cut out sometime around 11:30 and headed home.

----------------------------

Then on Sunday we slept in late and woke up to snow. Again. In Spring. Yeesh!

We kind of stumbled around the house until close to noon, when we left to head into Lynnwood for the second volunteer meeting for this year's ECCC.

We got our job assignments, this year's volunteer T-shirt, stuffed a butt-load of 'give-away' bags and just hung the around the shop having a good time with each other.

Afterwards, some of the group took off for a fuel-injected overdrive movie-fest, while others of us went over to Red Robin for burgers and alcohol. (Mmmm... Bailey's shake)

There were 5 different groups of people celebrating their birthdays, and we seemed to be in the middle of all the cheering and yelling.

When we were all finished, everyone parted ways and Hotness & I drove south to Seattle to meet up with her brother (who is on his way back to Hawaii) and his lady friend.

They were waiting for us at Gasworks Park, which I've never been to before... even though I'm a native from here.

It was getting dark when we showed up, but I still managed to get a few pictures:

We hung out for a bit until it started getting too chilly, then we left them to go home.

On our way, we stopped in at Pomodoro to see one of the waitresses we know and show her Hotness's new engagement ring.

After that, it was finally time to go home.

And when we go there we hit the sack hard and slept harder.

*Whew!*

And now I'm coming down with a cold... yippee, just in time for the convention this weekend.

I'm dosing up on echinacea and vitamin C. I am determined to power through the rest of this week and be okay for the show. Time will tell.....

* This has become my new favorite saying for things that are extremely improbable.

Another Milestone

This morning on the way to work (thankfully NOT behind another litterbug!), I passed the 100K mile mark on my car.

And all but 12 of those miles were put on there by me.

Well, okay... Hotness and whoever else I let drive it. But mostly me.

I still love my car, despite the battlescars it's aquired over time.

And I'm soooo close to paying it off, I can almost taste it.

Once I do make the last payment, I'm going to put that money into fixing all the little dents, scratches, etc... that have accumulated and make it all bright, shiny and new-looking again for the next 100K miles.

The Litterbug

"Dear Morning Commuter,

You were in front of me this morning on my way into work, and as we were poking along I could see that you were smoking.
I'm not going to chastise you about your choice of vices, it's your decision and you're obviously a grown up.

I am, however, going to call you out on being a litterbug.

You see, you may think that nobody saw you take your used cigarette and drop it out of your window (all stealthy like... or so you thought) but I did.
And I watched as it hit the ground and bounced a couple of times before my tires ran over it and put it out.

Obviously I could be mistaken, as I wasn't in the car with you, but I'm pretty darn certain that your car came with an ashtray.
And since you don't seem to mind smoking in your car and stinking it up, they why not do the 'green thing' and use it instead of littering the road?

I may not know your name, but because you chose to be a dick and litter I got your license plate number and I'm posting it for the world to see which car is owned by a smoker who likes to drop their ciggie butts out the window... since you more than likely throw other things out of it as well.

You were driving an silver/blue Hyndai Elantra with WA State plate # 608-TKP.

If I have the chance to be in traffic with you again and catch you tossing another cigarette butt out your window, just know that if the opportunity presents itself I'll pick it up and toss it back into your car when we're stopped.

Thanks and have a crappy day, --- Ferretnick"

Linkdump - Bootleg Style!

I've mentioned before that I really like Mashups.
So much so, that I have about 4 Gigs worth and I'm still adding more!

What's a "Mashup" you ask?
Well, allow me to let Sue Teller explain it for you:


I've been kickin around the idea of posting up a bunch of links for you to check and see what's out there, and maybe grab a few of your own to listen to.

So here is a list of links to find out what Mashups are available.

First up is Masuptown, where he finds them and posts the latest mixes.

It's a great place to start looking if you want to get your toes wet. Lots to choose from many different sources.

Then, here are a bunch of DJ's that are doing their own remixes and mashups.

DJ Lobsterdust

Divide and Kreate

DJ Earworm

The Hood Internet

DJ Schmolli

Dunproofin

G3RST

Rhythm Scholar

.... and many, many others.

Just check out the "links" page on each of these sites for more.

Lastly, here's a great place to find a bunch at one time.

This guy has collected over 2700 mashups and has them available on his site to listen to.

So check them out and let me know what you think.

There are a lot of different styles, and if you like various types of music I'm sure you'll find something to enjoy.

Have fun and happy listening!

Dwarfed Punk

I kind of got away from doing Music Madness Mondays.
Partly because I wasn't always finding a good enough video and felt pressured to "perform". And partly because I figured what I thought was funny or cool... wasn't to the rest of you.

But screw all that!
I just saw this and thought it was pretty nifty, so in lieu of actual content I'm posting it for your audio / visual pleasure.


You know what goes good with this?
My "Robison Crusoe" milkshake!
In a blender mix:
2 scoops of vanilla ice cream
1 shot creme de cocao (the clear kind)
1 shot banana liquer
2 shots Malibu rum
2 shots mango liquer (if you have it, otherwise substitute real mango chunks and use vodka for the alcohol)
and a heaping spoonful of crushed pineapple.

Blend, drink, enjoy!
Goes well with weekends and awesome music.


Stay tuned as I have another "contentless post" coming up soon.

How To Demonstrate Your Enthusiasm For A Movie

I don't really have anything worth mentioning today except for this....

My good friend Imperfect sent this cartoon to me today. Being a comic book geek, it hit home.


And be honest... a few of you would TOTALLY by one if they marketed it.



More funny can be found at Basic Instructions.

Monday Night Movie Madness (Madness, I Tell You!!!)

I trust you all had a terrific St. Patrick's Day, with lots of corned beef and green beer to end the day's festivities.

As I said I would, here's what went down the day earlier:

About a week ago, I got an email from Technogreek asking if anybody was interested in seeing a special screening of a movie at the Sci-Fi Musuem in Seattle.
After making sure I didn't have any other plans and coordinating a ride with Elwood, I said, "Heck yeah! I'm in!" and we all went to go see "Alien Trespass" Monday night after work.

I met up with Elwood at the Comic Stop in Redmond, and we carpooled into the big city where we also picked-up fellow comic store alumni, Bogath. Then on to find parking and join up with everyone else.

I like B-movies... I like just about ANY movie as you can tell if you've been reading this for any length of time... and this was a fun, campy tribute to '50's sci-fi.
Having just recently watched all three of the original "The Fly" movies, "Tarantula", "Dr. Cyclops", and a bunch of other old flicks I was ready for some good old-fashioned, cheesy 'alien-comes-to-earth' kind of action.
However, this movie was made recently so it's more of an homage to those classic films.

It was in color, rather than black-and-white, and the colors practically popped-out at you. Sort of like the old Technicolor films.
The acting was just what is should be... hammy and over-done. Just right for this type of movie.
The alien, or rather aliens (as there were two different ones) were cheesy and fun.
Oh! And Jody Thompson?.... Rawr! (Makes me wish I was scientist in a movie!)

Overall, I just really liked this film.
Would I recommend it? Only if you have similar tastes in goofy, cornball movies.
Does it live up to it's predecessors? Oh yeah. Almost perfectly.
Will I see it again? More than likely if I can catch it in the theater again, otherwise I'll probably get it on DVD when it comes out.

Afterwards, everybody was kind of hungry so we walked to the Dick's next to Seattle Center for burgers and good conversation.
Nothing extraordinary other than a good time and tasty hamburgers and fries with friends.

When we got done eating, it was was getting late so we all walked back to our respective vehicles of choice and headed home.

Elwood dropped me off in Redmond and that wrapped up the evening.
Fun times with friends, food and a goofy movie. I rate the evening as A+.

** Update 8:30 p.m.
The trailer link wasn't working so I removed it from the post.

Ye Best Be Wearin' Yer Green Today!

Well a fine top o' the mornin' to ye!
I hope you're all wearing your green, lest you get pinched by those that are.
And may the wee folk pester those around you and leave you well enough alone on this fine Irish day of celebration.

I'll be back tomorrow with a regular post and tell ye all about my Monday night in Seattle with friends watching "Alien Trespass" and burgers at Dick's.
But today, I'm going to dance a jiggity-jig while a lamb stew cooks in the crockpot for later this evening.
No off with ye!

Laughs. Tears. And A Ring Was Involved.

Tonight was a rather important night.

The day itself proceeded without too much fanfare, but as evening approached.... well, that's when things started happening.

We had tickets for the ballet tonight.

The evening's performance was four short pieces titled "PNB Broadway Festival".

Each one was a bit more modern than your typical "classical" ballet and based on more contemporary works from the stage and screen.

Normally I'd give you a review of each piece, but I have to say that they were ALL fantastic and very enjoyable. (Well, at least the three pieces we stayed for that is. We cut out after the second intermission and left early)

If you're interested in attending the ballet, but don't want to go to some 'stuffy, old performance' this was very entertaining and well worth the price of admission.

I highly recommend seeing this the next time they present it.

As I mentioned, we left early after the second intermission.

Hotness was getting hungry, so we left before the show got out to head over to Pomodoro and have something to eat.

Mmmm... Calamares a la Plancha and Ravioli de Hummus y Truffa. Muy Bueno!

While we ate, we sat and talked about the performance and just things in general.

Our original plan was to go for appetizers and dessert, but after the appetizers Hotness was quite full so she passed on the dessert while I had their Grand Marnier Chocolate Mousse Cake.

She had a few bites (even though she said she was full), and waited for me to finish.

I had been planning on this evening for quite some time, and so far everything was going according to plan.

First the ballet, then a late dinner, followed by... well hang on. I'm getting to that part.

After I finished the cake, we were ready to pay the bill and go home.

Hotness excused herself to the restroom before we got in the car for our drive back.

While she was in there, I placed a card on the table in front of where she had been sitting.

When she came back and gathered her stuff together, she didn't notice the card as it kind of blended with the tablecloth. (Uh-oh. Not going so well)

As she picked up her things, that's when she saw the card was there. (Whew! Back on schedule!)

"What's this?" she asked.

"What's what?" I said, all innocent like.

"It's a card," she replied.

"Well, I guess you'd better open then," I answered.

So she did.

It was a mushy kind of card. Filled with lots of words that you want to say, but never can get out right. Thank goodness for people who know what you want to say and can do it much better than yourself.

It was about love and finding the person you want to spend your life with.

She got a little teary-eyed and said "Aw, thank you."

"But wait," I said, "That's just the first part. This is the second part", and I pulled a small box out of my coat pocket.

It was a box about... oh, 2 inches square by an inch-and-a-half tall.

Just big enough to hold a ring.

I opened it up in front of her at the table.

She looked at it, then looked at me, looked back at it and her eyes started to get all teary.

"Are you serious?" she asked.

"Yes," I said, "Will you marry me?"

By then we were both getting sort of weepy-eyed.

She grabbed the napkin and blotted her eyes and said "Yes!"

"I-I-I..... I don't know what finger I'm supposed to put it on!" she said.

I told her it belongs on her left hand next to her heart on her third finger.

It went on and fit just perfectly.

She is very anxious to show it off, so when you see her, be sure to ask about it.

------------------

We've been together for 11 years.

It's not that I wanted to drag it out forever and see how long I could string her along.

I just had some issues that I needed to work through before I could bring myself to make that decision for the second time. (My first one was a disaster and left me very bitter for a long time)

But we've been through a lot and we've put up with each other despite all of it.

Recently things had just come to the point where I either needed to make the final step or just never move on.

Only a very small handful of friends knew about this ahead of time. And if you are a friend that I didn't tell in advance, please don't take it personally. I had to keep from having it being revealed to Hotness before I asked.

I had the fortune of getting her dad's blessing year's ago before he died and her mom and I discussed this not long ago, so I had her's as well.

Most recently I received her brother's blessing, so her family approves.

(My mom has been bugging me about it for a while, so I didn't bother to check with her!)

I will keep you updated on when the wedding will be and all that stuff, so stay tuned for further developments......

It's Called SAFE SEX For A Reason..... Idiot!

I don't make this stuff up, friends.
I just report it.

A Maryland woman was badly injured recently when her partner (boyfriend, husband, "aquaintance"?) attached a sex toy to a saber saw (a.k.a. reciprocating saw) and attempted to use it during sex.
The saw cut through the toy and then cut the woman, causing her to bleed.
The man called police who in turn had the woman taken to the hospital.
The accident was deemed the result of mishap during consensual sex, and it was determined that no crime had been commited.
No further word on the woman's condition at this time.

-----------------

Okay first things first.

WHAT THE HOLY F&@KING HELL?!?!?!?

Who's bright idea was it to do that in the first place?
I feel bad for the woman, since she got hurt pretty seriously.
But she apparently agreed to let him do it. It's not like he tied her up and forced her.

And a reciprocating saw? Really?!?
This is what one looks like:


Those things are made for cutting through drywall and crap. And they put a shaft of soft rubber over the blades and thought "it'd be good for some fun"?

Has the whole world just totally lost it?
How could anyone POSSIBLY think it was a good idea?
At the very least, they should have taken the blades off of it. There's still the potential to get hurt, but at least there wouldn't be any JAGGED F&@KING SAW BLADES to risk cutting into her body!!!

Hotness & I aren't above a little slap & tickle ourselves, but when it comes to incorporating power tools into the bedroom I think we both know better.

I just don't understand where people's heads are anymore.
It's like there's nothing in them to tell them "Hey! This is a bad idea and isn't going to end well. You'd better stop."

Can I Show You My Crack?

If you're not a regular reader here.... you perv! (Ha ha ha!)
And if you ARE a regular reader, well I already knew you were kinda 'pervy' already.


Anyway, it's not THAT kind of crack you sick monkeys.
It's my windshield crack on my car.
Here, take a look;







Back in Nov. '07 I got a nasty rock chip on the passenger side of the window. Followed by another really bad one smack dab in the center right above the dash.
Nothing much happened after that, and I've been waiting until the car was paid off to fix all the little dents, chips, and scratches on my "baby".


Well, this winter has been a little harsher on it than last year and the rock chip in the center has begun to form cracks. At first they were only about an inch in either direction.
But as you can see in the photos, they have spread a lot farther than that.
I even watched as one continued to grow while I was driving into work yesterday morning.


So I may be replacing my windshield a lot sooner than I had planned on doing.
Rassin' frassin'......

Five Little Words

I have a nagging, low-level headache that's been going on now for the past 2-1/2 days.
Not to mention I just had to sit here and listen to one of my co-workers suck on his teeth while I'm eating lunch, because he's too lazy to go and brush the damn things.

So I have a rant coming on.
Something I've been thinking about for quite some time and I figured since I'm in a foul mood anyway, why not today?
I figured I'd better warn all of you in case you just don't want to bother reading any further.
-----------------------------------------

Please
Thank you
Excuse me

Five words that I don't hear very much anymore but would make a big difference in our day-to-today dealings with people.

I can't tell you how many times I've held the door open for somebody (at a store, movie theater, etc.) and had them blow right by me without even a simple "thank you". As if it's my job to open the door for them.
On almost every occasion I say, loudly, "You're very welcome!" and wait to see if they even look back. Most times they don't, but the few that do I look right at them.

Or people that push past you without ever saying "excuse me". We obviously see each other, but rather then be polite, they just push you out of their way.
I really can't understand the ones that come from behind you and push you out of the way.
I'm more than happy to let someone go by if I knew they were there in the first place. But coming up behind me and pushing me out of the way? That's just a dick move all-around.

Sometimes at ECCC, I like to hand out stuff to people waiting in line to keep them occupied until the doors opened.
I usually take things from the "free table" that are in limited supply and pass them around to a few random attendees.
One year, I grabbed some T-shirts along with a few other things and went outside.
As soon as I got out there, a guy in line saw me holding the T-shirts (mind you, he didn't know what size they were or what was even on them) and said "Give me".
I said, "What?"
"Give me. Gimme the shirt, man", was his reply.
I looked right at him and said, "Yeah, you know what? You get nothing now" and went further down the line to hand out stuff.
If he'd said "Oooh T-shirts! Give me one, please", I'd have had no problem.
But instead, he acted like he deserved it.

Which is the point I'm (finally) getting at.
I'm seeing more and more where people think they are owed something just for breathing air on this planet and I'm really sick of it.

Mostly it's people younger than me, but I'm also noticing it more with people who are my parent's age.

What the hell happened? What happened to saying "please" after you ask for something?
Or "excuse me" when you want by somebody or to enter a conversation?

This lack of manners is not just rude, but seems acceptable by society, and I'm tired of it.
It takes no effort to be nice and in return you get "nice" back.
But instead, they'd rather be a dick and think the world revolves around them and you're just in the way.

And people that are already acting this way are raising their kids up without manners so it's only getting worse. If nobody's teaching them to say "please, thank you, and excuse me" who's going to?

I think we'd all be in a lot better place emotionally if we'd stop and take the time to be nice and use manners with one another.
I'm not talking about just with friends, but with everyone. Your barista. The shoe salesman. The clerk at the DMV.

A little niceness goes a long way, especially if you want something.

The Breakfast Club II: Mandate For A "Man Date"

Hello there!
Yesterday morning I got up super early (WHY?!? Every weekend it happens. I wake up around 5:30 - 6:00 a.m. and can't go back to sleep!) and putzed around the house until heading into town to meet up with friends.

A group of my non-comic peers was getting together to have breakfast and spend some "guy time" (read: sausage-fest) before going to see "The Watchmen" that afternoon.

The five of us met up at the Grill to catch up and give crap to one another, as we ate a H-U-G-E breakfast and drank a lot of coffee before going to watch a 2-1/2 hour movie. (We're smart like that)
It was fun, as some of us hadn't gotten together since camping this past summer.

After we had finished eating, but while we were still sitting around, Hotness dropped by to say "hi" before going to visit her favorite coffee shop and see her friends there.
We were there for quite a while and noticed that it was getting close to time for us to leave and get to the theater, so we paid our bill and headed off.

Getting to the theater, I was surprised to see that the parking lot wasn't that full and there wasn't a line for tickets.
I had purchased all our tickets the previous Tuesday so that we could slide right in without waiting.
We got in, found our seats and.... were only joined by maybe 15 other people.
It was weird. I really expected a lot more people to be there, since this movie was hyped-up so much. But it turned out to be rather low-key, which was also nice as there wasn't a lot of distraction.

I really enjoyed the movie, although having read the book I found myself anticipating what was going to happen next which was kind of annoying (for myself).
I knew going in who the characters were, what they would do and why they would do it so nothing was surprising to me. But the fact that the director stayed as close to the original source material was amazing. It was like watching the book come to life.
My non-comic friends who went really enjoyed it as they had never read the graphic novel, so it was a brand new story experience for them.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this again, and especially when the DVD comes out and they can weave in the extra story components that wouldn't fit into the theatrical release.

After the movie, we all head back to Imperfect's house for a bit until it started snowing and then headed home.

The remainder of the day was pretty uneventful.
-----------------------------------
This morning, woke up early AGAIN. Arrgh!

I did some dishes, finished up a project I was doing for an ECCC guest (yay! finished!) and starting making breakfast for Hotness.

Since she was out of town for Valentine's, I picked today to make up for not having her here.
I made heart-shaped pancakes, a heart-shaped piece of cinnamon toast, scrambled egg and bacon. All served on a big, red, heart-shaped plate along with coffee.
After she'd eaten, I gave her the card I'd gotten and she opened her present. (Which is a sexy little thing and I'm not going to tell you about it. Let your imagine wander....)

Then we just kind of did our own thing until around noon, when we drove into the "big city" for our first volunteer meeting for this year's convention.
It was mostly just laying some groundwork out and getting to know who's going to be working at the show this time around.
We'll have another meeting in a couple of weeks to assign jobs, get our T-shirts and do some pre-show bag stuffing.

After the meeting, we came back to our hometown where we met up and had dinner with one of our neighbors.
Then it was home to watch an episode of "Buffy" before falling asleep on the couch.

We are such party animals.

Not Dead Yet

Not to make light of a serious situation... well, actually yes I am.

Hotness's mom is still hanging in there.
Everybody (doctors, hospice nurses, and close friends) all thought that she was on her way out and would be passing away soon.

That was about 4 weeks ago.

After Hotness had spent as much time back with her as she could, it looked as though that was going to be the last time she saw her mom.
With all the painkillers and anti-depressants her mom was on, her condition was just getting worse by the day.
She wasn't eating or drinking and started wasting away.
But she didn't die.

In fact, she's been taking fewer drugs and has begun to get her appetite back (such as it is).
This isn't to say she's going to make a miracle come-back from death's door, but it is quite amazing that she's doing as well as she is.

When I talked to her a few weeks back, I thought it was going to be for the last time.
But I got to talk to her on this past Wednesday and she even called me at home on Thursday night to talk to me. (She called for me and not Hotness. Ha ha!)
I wasn't home at the time, so I returned her call on Friday afternoon and we had a very nice talk.

She told me that aside from feeling extremely weak, she's been able to drink some de-caf coffee, tea, and even had some soup the day before. (Things she hadn't been able to get down a couple weeks earlier)
She was even home alone for a few hours, since she didn't seem to need constant attention the last few days.

She's said many times that she's ready to die, but apparently her body isn't.
It's nice that she's still around and we've been able to talk together, but it's emotionally difficult to be on this up-and-down rollercoaster with her health.

Hotness spent all the time she could with her mom, thinking that it was going to be the last.
And Hotness's brother has taken time off from work to be there in their mom's final days... which don't seem to have an expiration date.
So its' really tough for them to know when to say "goodbye", plus they don't want her to be alone. But bills have to be paid and so eventually they have to return to work.

Their mom's recent turn of good spirits and health sort of reminds me of this:


And I post this with 100% assurance that Hotness's mom would even find it funny.

The Alps On Fire

One of my favorite places to stop at along Hwy 2 towards Leavenworth, The Alps, suffered a fire that damaged part of the shop and destroyed about 600 recipes.

Hopefully they didn't lose their "green lizard pickle" recipe, but since it was their best selling item they'll probably have that one down from memory.

Best of luck to them as they plan to re-open as soon as possible.
And if you're ever travelling East (or West) along Hwy 2, stop in and check them out. They have a lot of really unique sauces, dips, marinades, etc... that you won't find just anywhere else.

Tres Wonder Senoritas

On Wednesday night, Hotness accompanied me to the Comic Stop to pick up new comics and meet up with friends.

Our friends from Canada were in town this week, but unfortunately we missed them that evening and will have to see them in about a month at ECCC. (Only a month! WOOOO!)

But all was not a total loss, as we still caught up and had dinner with the regular gang from the store.

When we got there, Qtilla, Palindrome, and Elwood were already hanging out.

We all went for some Asian food down at the H-mart.

When we got done and back at the shop, we were joined by Geeked and The Maimed Man.

We all feasted on some home-made chocolate chip cookies that I got from a friend as a payback for sending some bootleg concert CDs. (Ssshhhh! Don't tell anyone!)

And just had a good time hanging around giving George a bad time.

While we were there, I got this picture:

l-r: Qtilla, Geeked & Hotness (oh, yeah.. and George!)

They were showing off their brand new Wonder Woman tiaras.

Don't they just look sweet?

Well, that's all for now.

Coming up.... "Man date" breakfast and "The Watchmen"

Stay tuned.

So What's New?

Nothing much really.
I just haven't had much to really talk about and share on here, so I've kept to myself and sort of been "offline" as it were.

I was bummed to find out last week about Elwood's emplyoment status, as we had just had lunch a few days earlier and it looked to be pretty secure.
After a few sullen days, he's taking it in stride and moved on. I'm glad to hear he's doing good. Best of luck to him.

The convention draws closer every day, and with it I'm running out of time to finish projects I wanted to do for some of the guests. I hope to have them all done in time.... but my procrastination knows no bounds. Guess I'd better get serious.

I recently purchased an external hard-drive and have been in the process of moving some of the content off my home computer onto it. (Music, videos, etc...)
I didnt realize how much I'd aquired, but I needed to clear space on my internal hard-drive and doing this has made a big improvement in that dept.
I'll probably carry it with me to work or the comic store so I can listen to music at lunch or share some of the crap I've gotten with everyone else. You have been warned.

Hotness's mom is still on the downhill slide, but mentally doing much better.
She's not taking quite as much of the drugs she was taking at the onset, so her mood has actually improved even though her body continues to deteriorate.

I've been trying to 'share the love' when it comes to ECCC this year.
I've had a lot of friends who have expressed interest in going to the show in the past but never went.
So this year I've been getting extra tickets for them as as incentive to come and experience it.
I'm hoping it pays off and they'll want to keep coming coming back.
At the very least, I'm looking forward to having my friends show up and have a good time and seeing what it is I do that makes me talk about it all year.

I still haven't gotten around to watching "Tokyo Gore Police" or "Meatball Machine" just yet.
I really have to be in the right frame of mind to start those movies and I just haven't been.
However, I did recently purchase the old-school "The Fly" series at Costco.
I've watched the original and the sequel, but fell asleep watchig the third movie.
What's interesting about the first movie, is that it was produced through 20th Century Fox which also made the original "The Day The Earth Stood Still".

Both of these movies were unconventional in their time as they didn't portray the monster as the villian in these films, which was very untypical at that time.
In "TDTESS" the alien came to earth to warn us that our violent tendencies were going to get us into trouble, and we (being stupid, paranoid humans) attacked him at the onset.
In "The Fly", the scientist discovered too late what it means to tamper with science and tried to destroy himself before becoming any more of a monster than he'd already become.

So that's about all I've been up to recently.
Nothing too exciting.

Hope I haven't been keeping you in suspense for too long.