The Birthday Week has ended. You will be Remembered!: wanderlustzero

wanderlustzero

The Birthday Week has ended. You will be Remembered!

Mar 30, 2008 16:36

And what a bloody week it was!

green_dreads and I started proceedings with a day in Camden, where
gothyjdarkstarand
maznigewere so kind to accept us in their motorised conveyance to Gotham 9. Beforehand we dropped in on a vegetarian Thai buffet, all powered-up in our gothic battlegear. And of course, being Thais, they attended to Julian and my needs first. Hehe, somewhere being transgendered is actually an advantage - who'd have thought?
We arrived at Gotham just in time to see the end of Razorblade Kisses, and catch Novus (by whose grace we were able to attend the event), who were brilliant. Psyche were excellent too. And I got to meetMrs Novus and Mr Psyche, and do my excellent impression of a stuttering social reject, always good fun. Gothminister left me pretty cold, after playing all the tracks by them I like in the first few minutes. Hmph. It was definitely more of a social occasion for me anyway, being the first time I'd been out of the house in weeks - I'd all but seized up from all the time spent making my game, spriting the graphics and such. Good company from

_bunster_and friend, and
nephilimbabe with his excellently cynical dissection of all and sundry.

With not a moment's rest (considering Steve and I were both completely knackered to start with) we headed out the next night into the traffic with

litus666 to Slimes, where Inertia and Hocico were playing. I bloody love Inertia, I've a lot of time for them. So friendly too, not to mention sextacular. After my disgraceful display of sycophancy Hocico came on. All was great until, waving my arms in the air like a whiteheaded windmill, I brought them down in the head of a dumpy girl with a face only a mother could love. I immediately apologised profusely, being the good Catholic I am (not), and was met with a face more suited to a worse occasion. Whereupon you're guilty of running over someone's mother repeatedly, for instance, before penetrating the corpse. I repeated my apologies, but this 'woman' (sorry, just can't take someone less feminine than me seriously as a female :s ) just stared like a monged-out puffer fish. This carried on for about 30 seconds, and then she let out a barrage of words, ending in 'an' i'll kill your fackin' mate too!'. I glanced over at Stephan (looking asleep on his feet, to my left, nowhere near this idiot) and wondered what she had against him, befire giving her the 'talk to the hand' hand. I tried to be nice! Such idiocy aside, Hocico were great. Just a bit too intense and long for me at that point :(

What else... Had one quiet day, and then some work, which was pretty shit. Then it was the actual birthday, which of course, I had to go into Uni on (one week of Easter holiday, one day back, then a month of holiday - and guess which day my birthday is! :| ). It was to be a big day - I had my laptop with me and all my notes, for this was the big presentation and progress report of my major project. I was suitably geared up and ready, when one of the lecturers handed me a familiar plastic sleeve. 'Oh by the way, Craig left you this.' It was the Script I'd handed in just after Christmas for scriptwriting. 'Great,' I thought, 'I've been waiting for this.' And the wait was worth it - a sustained barrage of slagging, with words like 'banal', 'cod-philosophical', 'not even worthy of parody' all the way though, backed up and added to by the other lecturer. While it took the wind out of my sails a bit, I was actually pretty damn pleased. For too long now I've been worried I'm being treated with kid gloves. Every piece of writing I've done has been a resounding success...Now I've found somewhere I can fall down - and can eliminate the inefficiency.

I don't really remember the presentation on the game that came later, because it was generally really positive. You have to concentrate on your failures really, don't you? And besides, there was pubbing to do.

Friday was a work day, and as such shrouded in doom and gloom. Adding to that, I wondered if my workmates would remember it was my birthday. I actually got really badly hurt when working at Blue Arrow, when my then boss publically cancelled my birthday card and whip-round (he was going out of his way to be a complete twat to everyone - and it turned out later he was having a nervous breakdown. Think he's in a mental home now).

Time ticked on, nothing happened. 'That's fine,' I told myself. 'Can't take these things for granted. Be grateful for what you do have.' (which at that point was my 'Birthday Cake' - an extra fishcake given by the nice fish'n'chip shop man). Of course by 4'0'clock I was depressed to the point of starting a big long email to my boss telliing him what a cnut he is, that I've been working here two years with no real rewards or perks... I emailed one of my workmates who said 'Yeah, I think it's right out of order. They said they were cancelling all birthdays starting with yours. Sorry man.' That did it. I was just about ready to send the email that'd get me fired when... Bang. Everyone was stood around my desk with a big silver-wrapped package. It was all a bloody wind-up! Gahhhh. Lucky I don't think anyone saw the email, and I walked away with renewed faith in humanity and a fridge shaped like an alien egg :)

In another twist, that same evening we all went out for a drink in uber-middle class St Albans for my birthday and a friends 'firing party', during which he got drunk and 'outed' me. Hm :| Have to see what comes of that...

And then there was the main event: Extinction, down in Win-kachester. Poor old

green_dreads had been sweating bullets trying to organise this, with only minimal help and encouragement from me (no phone, was my excuse), and things had been getting pretty strained at the last minute. We had to cancel our plans for a minibus because no-one would have wanted to pay £25 a head. Wesforcian Medals of Excellence go to Marna and lil_beer_monster for driving down, and the Wesforcian Citation of Honour goes to everyone else who came down (including two bitterly feuding friends who put their differences, and illnesses, aside), and to
selerox and
drdave for running the night. Great time was had by all, the music was better than I could've hoped for, and a girl with really nice and prominent cleavage told me how pretty I was.

Can't ask for more than that :)

Photos;

Where's your other hand, Loopy?