A little glass vial? A little glass vial!
I've been keeping up with a few things over the holidays. I hung out with Guillermo and his roommate over Christmas and played WoW for a significant portion of that time, and then went to a New Year's Eve party where everyone completely forgot about midnight (my favorite kind of NYE party; the other kind are just too depressing).
Regarding World of Warcraft, I'm finally in a guild. It's a small guild, but everyone in the guild knows someone else in the guild in the real world, so it's mostly a local North Texas guild. I can get behind that. I also now have a character at level 80 (max level). It's kind of funny just how much stuff Blizzard has for the end game. I have no actual data to confirm, but I think there's as much stuff to do from levels 70-80 as there is for the first 70 levels. And once you have a level 80 character, holy crap does it become a butt-ton easier to get other characters up to that level.
To recap, the GoGirl gift went over great for the Christmas party, so my fears were unwarranted. A tenuous plan has been made to watch the Rifftrax of Twilight and then New Moon at a dollar theater so we can all make fun of it. However, color me skeptical. I'm not very trusting of set in stone plans, let alone tenuous ones. That said, I've learned a few things about that. Sure, I'm being a selfish prick, but no longer am I going to allow someone else's flaking out affect my having a good time. Since I give any plans a 75% chance of having one or more people flake out on them, I've chosen to take the approach that I'm going regardless. If people decide to show up, that's great, and if they don't, it's their loss.
Example: a couple hours ago I just came back from a shadowcast of REPO: The Genetic Opera called Amber Does Dallas. I knew several people getting extremely excited about it when I mentioned it, I sent out periodic reminders to the derby fora, and yet when I got there, I didn't see anyone I recognized. That doesn't mean they weren't there, but if they were there, it'd have been nice to meet up with them beforehand or afterward. As for the show itself, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's like seeing a movie with your hundred closest friends, yelling out at the cast and at the characters on screen. This is good if everyone's already familiar with the movie, not so much if the movie's new. If you're a fan of the movie, I'd highly recommend going to see it at the next midnight showing, Friday night, February 12th, at the Lakewood Theater on Abrams.
There are a few other things I think people should be aware of going on in Dallas in the near future. Tonight (2/9) is the Dead Rock Star Party at the Barley House. It's Assassination City's pre-bout party. It's going to be great, and it'll be even better if you dress up as a dead rock star.
Toward the end of this month on Saturday the 30th, 7:00 PM, there's the actual bout at Dad's Broadway Skateland, 3022 Moon Dr. in Mesquite. Come out once as a spectator and we hope you'll leave as a fan.
Non-derby stuff? Well, there's Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm on February 4th at the Granada, Henry Rollins at the Lakewood on 2/24, and the Amour Burlesque Show at the Lakewood on 2/27. Flogging Molly's playing the House of Blues on 2/9, and the Dropkick Murphys are playing there on 3/1. Like I said, lots of stuff to do, and this doesn't even count the local music at Trees on Thursday nights.
Oh! I've put in to be transferred to a different water plant than the one in Carrollton. I've put in to be transferred to Sunnyvale. Even though it's in the middle of nowhere, it's still a lot closer to everything I do on my days off than where I currently work and live. Too bad I've got to endure city bureaucracy. If I'm very very very lucky, I'll be transferred before my 6 month lease runs out in May. I'd be able to celebrate with a scone and a large house blend.
Oh, final thoughts. Midnight movies at the Inwood on Fridays and Saturdays. Check it out, they've got some good ones coming, namely Black Dynamite next weekend and The Evil Dead at the end of February. That's not even considering other awesome flicks like Vertigo and The Jerk.