Virginia: Land of the Leet?
I've noticed a big difference in license plates between Virginia and the rest of the US. Namely, I have seen a LOT more personalized license plates down here. There are a lot of stupid ones, like STOPH8N, MISTAHB. There are also some funny ones, like CYNICAL, NSAINE, GOT MOJO, IM LOST, and some others. However, I've noticed a very disturbing trend: there have been some license plates written in leetspeak. In fact, in the last few days, I have seen both ROXORS and ROFL. I find it kind of scary, personally. A little funny, but mostly scary. There is also someone in my court that has fuzzy D20s hanging from their window (and no, it's not me). Nerdiness follows me wherever I go, I guess.
Speaking of nerdiness, I'm pissed that I'm going to miss Dragon*Con. Granted, I haven't gone before, but I was hoping to have done so this year. It may be for the best, however, as I still need a few essentials for my Jayne costume. Most notably, the knit cap. It's just not Jayne without the cunning cap. I really don't wanna half-ass my first costume.
I also need to take care of the knife and its holster. I know what kind of a knife it is, and where to get it, but does anyone know what the typical con rules are on weapons? It's going to be holstered, but I don't want to catch crap for having a real knife. Also, I still need to figure out how I'm going to craft the extra pieces for the airsoft pistol in order to make it look close enough to the movie, put these extras on the gun itself, and make it still fit in the holster. Luckily, I've got everything else covered for that costume, and when it all comes together it'll (hopefully) look pretty badass. I'll still probably throw together a few extras when I get some time, but it's nothing that's seriously necessary.
I also might want to come up with additional costume ideas. Shaun (of the Dead) would work fine if I could find a cricket bat, but that's REALLY HARD to do in the US. Nobody plays cricket, thus no stores sell the bats. Beyond that, I don't have any good costume ideas. Working with the goatee is rather difficult. Well, on the bright side, I'll have about 8 months before con season rolls around to think about this and do some more work.
Work's going fine. I actually have responsibilities now, which is good. I've been traveling between Richmond and McLean about once a week. Let me tell you, having a shuttle bus between the two campuses is great. It's a lot nicer to put in headphones and close your eyes for 2 hours at 6:45 AM than it is to deal with the traffic on 95 close to DC. I also just got my corporate card. That'll come in handy when I head back to Columbus to help with Campus Recruiting (which is October 5th. I'll be in on the 4th. Mark it on your calendars) Speaking of work, if anybody knows anybody that is looking for an analyst job, let me know and I can try and hook them up.
Richmond's nice. The new hire group at Capital One is a fun group as well. I've already earned my namesake down here, as there's now a rating on the inebriation scale known as "Brandon Drunk". It fits between drunk and trashed off your ass. In other words, you puke multiple times, but you give the person driving you home ample warning so that they can pull over and let you puke outside of their car. Not that I'd know anything about that, of course...
I do miss some stuff about Columbus, though. Columbus wins hands-down in the food department. I miss The Dube, Thurman's, Schmidt's, North Market, BD's, and the Fish Market, among others. The bars around Columbus have a lot better specials, too. Hell, some of the bars down here don't even stock Red Bull!
Buying stuff for a new apartment gets expensive quickly. My first paycheck (which was actually paycheck * 1.5) went directly to paying off the credit card bill I incurred since I've been down here. Hell, I still need to buy a couch. After rent gets paid off, maybe I'll be able to buy one with this check. Hopefully, after this I'll be able to actually start saving money. Of course, I'll probably find some stupid things to spend my money on.
Finally, a big Fuck You to Citibank. I loved their Dividend Platinum Rewards card. I got 5% cash back on gas, groceries, and drugstore purchases, and 1% back on everything else. But I just got a letter in the mail that they're "restructuring" the reward program as such: now it's 2% back on gas, groceries, drugstores, convenience stores, and utilities. So, in other words, not a damn bit different than what anybody else offers. And I'm going to lose a decent bit of cash from that. Those assholes. Oh well, guess that means I have to go back to rewards card shopping again.
Time for sleep.