travel recap: fwiw
I've been on the road nearly a month straight now. This means more books read, more eve time and a few worthwhile travel stories. Recap:
I drove from Kansas City to Springfield MO, to Columbia MO, to St. Louis, to Terre Haute, then back to St. Louis. I drove on lots of ice. 792 miles total during the week. Finished off Jack McDevitt's latest book "Odyssey" which I whole heartedly recommend to eve players and fans of sci fi in general. Would make a great movie imo.
New CD from Apes and Androids- basically its Call Florence Pow with a new member or two and a new name. One part Castlevania soundtrack mapped to a Nordlead II keyboard, one part Freddie Mercury with backup vox who can actually harmonize and one part indie rock band who aren't afraid of losing hipster cred by using distortion pedals. For fans of Beck, Queen and Self.
Next week I went to Columbus OH, where I met bzarcher and his eve corp mates from Hack3r Inc. at Gameworks. An excellent group of guys- thumbs up across the board. We discussed choosing a system as a 1/2way point between their normal stomping ground and ours to meet up and pirate a few unsuspecting boats together. I finished "Everfree" by Nick Sagan. (No, not Nick SABAN, bama fans... astronomer Carl Sagan's son.) Disappointing read by way of comparison to the first two books in the series. His first, "Idlewild", remains a "must read" on my list of recommended fiction. I stayed in the room across the hall from the suite that John McCain was in during his Columbus campaign stop.
I woke up at 2:40am in my hotel room acutely aware of a jiggling at the door. My first inclination was that my hotel neighbor was getting in late and perhaps drunk- maybe they were sloppy with the key? Another jiggle, followed by a direct hit from someone's shoulder trying to force my door open. Someone is trying to break into my room! I called security and, in spite of my spider sense going off like mad, went to the door to observe the situation closer. "Come on motherfucker! Come on motherfucker! I'm gonna bust some heads," said the would be intruder. OK. Clearly drunk. But why my room? Another shoulder thrown into the door, another string of insults and threats, and security showed up. Turns out my intruder was an intoxicated guest who the front desk had told was in my room #. He thought I had broken into his room... he received a pat on the head and was escorted to the appropriate room, in spite of my protests that the threats were unnecessarily violent and I wanted him moved to another floor.
This past week I was in Minneapolis where I had a coworker in tow for training. Neither he nor I could give a toot about the NBA, but we were given free tickets to the Timberwolves vs Jazz game, and had nothing better to do on a Tuesday night. We felt like 2nd row tickets were too good to pass up, and made our way over to the Target center. I think we were both pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the evening was. Wednesday night I had a chance to meet thaadd. We swapped eve stories and talked about Combichrist for a bit before agreeing to meet up again the next time I visit the frozen tundra known as the twin cities. I purchsed the Rocket From the Crypt RIP disc, documenting their final and farewell performance, and Pelican's "City of Echos" CD. Why I don't own the entire Pelican catelogue is beyond me, as this band is right up my alley. I'm about 1/2 way through Ben Bova's "Titan". This is the 3rd Ben Bova book I've read... I think when I'm done with this one I will take a break from the sci fi genre and switch to something more classic. Recommendations on reading material and music always welcome here. baphometmoon turned me on to audible.com. More and more of my rental cars have 1/8" jacks to line an ipod into, and when you drive 792 miles in one week, a good audio book can really make the time fly by.
Next week I'm in Orlando for a convention. At least I don't have to leave until Tuesday and will have a chance to play in the Monday night poker game with mi homies. thank god for a brief taste of normalcy.
I drove from Kansas City to Springfield MO, to Columbia MO, to St. Louis, to Terre Haute, then back to St. Louis. I drove on lots of ice. 792 miles total during the week. Finished off Jack McDevitt's latest book "Odyssey" which I whole heartedly recommend to eve players and fans of sci fi in general. Would make a great movie imo.
New CD from Apes and Androids- basically its Call Florence Pow with a new member or two and a new name. One part Castlevania soundtrack mapped to a Nordlead II keyboard, one part Freddie Mercury with backup vox who can actually harmonize and one part indie rock band who aren't afraid of losing hipster cred by using distortion pedals. For fans of Beck, Queen and Self.
Next week I went to Columbus OH, where I met bzarcher and his eve corp mates from Hack3r Inc. at Gameworks. An excellent group of guys- thumbs up across the board. We discussed choosing a system as a 1/2way point between their normal stomping ground and ours to meet up and pirate a few unsuspecting boats together. I finished "Everfree" by Nick Sagan. (No, not Nick SABAN, bama fans... astronomer Carl Sagan's son.) Disappointing read by way of comparison to the first two books in the series. His first, "Idlewild", remains a "must read" on my list of recommended fiction. I stayed in the room across the hall from the suite that John McCain was in during his Columbus campaign stop.
I woke up at 2:40am in my hotel room acutely aware of a jiggling at the door. My first inclination was that my hotel neighbor was getting in late and perhaps drunk- maybe they were sloppy with the key? Another jiggle, followed by a direct hit from someone's shoulder trying to force my door open. Someone is trying to break into my room! I called security and, in spite of my spider sense going off like mad, went to the door to observe the situation closer. "Come on motherfucker! Come on motherfucker! I'm gonna bust some heads," said the would be intruder. OK. Clearly drunk. But why my room? Another shoulder thrown into the door, another string of insults and threats, and security showed up. Turns out my intruder was an intoxicated guest who the front desk had told was in my room #. He thought I had broken into his room... he received a pat on the head and was escorted to the appropriate room, in spite of my protests that the threats were unnecessarily violent and I wanted him moved to another floor.
This past week I was in Minneapolis where I had a coworker in tow for training. Neither he nor I could give a toot about the NBA, but we were given free tickets to the Timberwolves vs Jazz game, and had nothing better to do on a Tuesday night. We felt like 2nd row tickets were too good to pass up, and made our way over to the Target center. I think we were both pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the evening was. Wednesday night I had a chance to meet thaadd. We swapped eve stories and talked about Combichrist for a bit before agreeing to meet up again the next time I visit the frozen tundra known as the twin cities. I purchsed the Rocket From the Crypt RIP disc, documenting their final and farewell performance, and Pelican's "City of Echos" CD. Why I don't own the entire Pelican catelogue is beyond me, as this band is right up my alley. I'm about 1/2 way through Ben Bova's "Titan". This is the 3rd Ben Bova book I've read... I think when I'm done with this one I will take a break from the sci fi genre and switch to something more classic. Recommendations on reading material and music always welcome here. baphometmoon turned me on to audible.com. More and more of my rental cars have 1/8" jacks to line an ipod into, and when you drive 792 miles in one week, a good audio book can really make the time fly by.
Next week I'm in Orlando for a convention. At least I don't have to leave until Tuesday and will have a chance to play in the Monday night poker game with mi homies. thank god for a brief taste of normalcy.