Mongologue
Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Chiaroscuro Lyle Themyst" journal:[<< Previous 10 entries]
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02:57 am
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Gaming Meet: December 11th!
Howdy folks! Since ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.6) spotweld is still taking time off from gaming meets while he and his main squeeze get properly settled in their home, I'm taking it upon myself to host a gaming meet.
When: Sunday Dec 11th, Noon until midnight.
Where: Norwich, CT (note, this is NOT at Spotweld's home, though the same crowd is expected); a short distance off of I-395 and CT-2. Restaurants aplenty are a short drive away, if we wish to break for dinner.
The address is:
70 Mckinley Avenue
Norwich, CT 06360
Note: The driveway must remain clear for the landlady's use. Ample, free parking is available on the street.
Who: Everyone who wishes to attend.
What to bring: Yourself!
Any game of your own that you want to play.
Any munchies you wish. It's a good time to practice your holiday baking.
Alcoholic beverages.
ESPECIALLY DESIRED: Folding tables. There's plenty of folding chairs on hand, but table space is modest .
What will be there: Games! We do have a modest range here.
Soda, coffee, and assorted munchies!
Crash space is quite available Sunday evening. Saturday evening as well, but that requires advanced planning due to my work; contact me and I'll see what can be done.
Wi-fi!
Please Email to chefmongoose@gmail.com, reply to this post, or reply to @chefmongoose on Twitter if you plan to attend; we'd appreciate a count.
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05:19 am
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The California trip, part two!
Saturday, September 17th: Lunch at Adamson's French Dip (Tasty but overpriced), a fast drop of some Brand New Conference documents off at FedEx, and then off to Alameda for the Pacific Pinball Museum with arokh, ![[info]](../../img/userinfo.gif?v=3) warphammer, kreggan, and archai. Lovely pinball place, a little less impressive than the Silverball Museum in New Jersey, but with a machine that quickly made its way into my top 3: "The Party Zone". Wonderfully wacky pinball, similar to Addams Family but with its own stylish touches. Also Xenon, a late-70's Superman, Hurricane, and a few other nifty machines. We wandered out front, shot the breeze, went back in for another hour.
Followed that up with good solid BBQ at Emmitt Jones's, and then all back to DragonHaus. Internet while racing was vaguely watched and commented upon.
Sunday: A moderately late start, and lunch at the Sonoma Chicken Co-Op (Rather forgettable, honestly) after which Warp, Kreggan, Archai and I hit Starbucks. I had more Starbucks this trip than in the year preceding. After that, Kreggan headed off to grocery shop, the rest of us to the Computer History Museum! Warp's last-minute membership purchase worked without complication. The museum's full of just wonderful stuff. Archai learned about Abacuses - "No, they're not base 5. You never had one as a kid?", and we all had a lot of oohing and ahhing. Only managed the first half of the museum at that due to a late start.
Then, back to the DragonHaus, where I observed and professionally commented on Kreggan's Bolognaise-ish sauce, cleaned out their fridge, and I did up a side dish of peas, onions, and bacon. It might've been more successful had the onions not been cocktail onions, but you work with what's in the pantry some days. A quiet evening with TV and internet.
Monday: Lunch for Kreggan, Warp and I ate at California Sourdough, delicious and wicked cheap. Warp and I continued to Fry's Electronics, which was largely me doing a wander-and-enjoy and Warp being bemused at me barely buying anything . It'd been 7 years since I was at a Fry's, I needed wander-through-one time. I did pick up a laptop sleeve, much needed.
Then grocery shopping for the night's dinner- I made a salad with feta and soupy[*1] crumbles, couscous, and some beer-and-lemon marinated chicken. Lemons picked fresh from the tree outside DragonHaus. Oh man. So good. So. Good. Then a mellow evening of Venture Brothers season IV and internet. (Sensing a trend? Good. It was a quiet vacation, and TV whilst using a borrowed netbook was exactly the right sort of thing to do.) And Warp zipped out to get me an It's-It. Yummy. :9
Tuesday: Korean BBQ Buffet for lunch. On Eapa's recommendation, though minus her presence. Tasty enough, with a grill-your-own-meats on a little table-center barbecue. Followed by BevMo, which is a.. truly vast liquor and sodas store. Fox-themed Cider and some Sprecher were my grabs, and an enjoyable walk aroudn the store, amused and taking a photo or two of silly beer brands, being enthused to see Vernor's and Cheerwine in the same store. Fiddling with the laptop (MacBook Pro, as yet unnamed) that Warp had given me to replace Lappet, which was lost/stolen at Anthrocon. :P
This was followed by the logistical nightmare of getting Warp, Archai, Kreggan and terraluna_bat to Indian dinner, while waiting for Astolpho to drop by just to grab something, while bigtig , suerankin , khromat , and Ken were zooming there ahead of schedule, and weren't about to be rerouted to DragonHaus. The lesson is: '7ish is a dangerous time to ish'. Thankfully.. it all worked out okay, though I sort of ate with two tables of people in shifts. All my fautl anyway. Later that night, finished off Venture Bros, said goodbyes to Arc and Kreg, and then to bed.
Wednesday: Up early with Warp for Hobee's in the morning. (Delicious blueberry coffee cake), and then to the airport. Sad final goodbye, and waiting for my flight a long while (Tried to get on an ealrier one on standby. no luck.) Through DFW again, this time with just snack foods, and into Bradley quite late at night. Travelling eastbound added the hours. Kasi Frost was kind enough to grab me from the airport, and with a bribe of Denny's breakfast, delivered me safely home to heavily kerthud to bed, and rather wish I was still in California.
And that was the trip.
[*1] Sorpresatta, that is.
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03:58 pm
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The California trip, in summary.
So, I got to enjoy by far the longest and most relaxing vacation I've had in three years, earlier this month. For my memory as much as everyone else's edification, the report, part one.
Wednesday:, June 14th: Gary gave me a ride, leaving Norwich about 3am and getting to the airport at 4am for my 7am flight. This is altogether usual travel stuff, still, one of these days I'll know what it is to fully sleep the night before a plane flight. Pleasant flight into DFW, where I get nostalgic for the TRAAIN predecessor to the Skylink. Still, Dickey's Barbecue made for delicious and cheap lunch, and then on to San Jose airport! Small talk with the info desk employees while killing time waiting for warphammer to get me.
And then, to the DragonHaus, where he, archai, and kreggan reside; I flopped down for nap while he headed back to work. After nap, I mentioned that In-n-Out Burger was on my list of California musts, so we hit it promptly. Mmm. Double double Animal style, delish. The fries animal style, not so much. I got set up with Warp's netbook, and then, a proper sleep. The next morning early...
Thursday: Onto the Caltrain (Ooh, double-decker ride. Wow. the CVSes look wacky. Wow, the hills) and then the overly-crowded Chinatown bus into San Francisco. Time for the excuse for this vacation: Brand New Conference. Arrived by 9am, with Armin and Byrony, and soon many volunteers arriving. Bag-stuffing: fast! Discussions for the next day, and all wrapped up by noon. We're good. Off to the Apple store briskly, then for tourism wanderings! Cream puffs at Beard Papa! Coffee at Peet's! The Cartoon Art Museum! The California Historical Society! A quick sandwich at Lee's, free chips from Sabra, as I wandered down towards the water.. right to the Ferry Building at Pier 0.
From there, a nice steady wander northward. Walking along piers, looking out of the prettiness of the bay, the birdges, the ships, the ..dang that's a big gull. (o_O) Stopping in at the TCHO factory for free chocolate samples, and all the way up to pier 39.. where I could see, hear, and smell the sea lions. I rode the carousel there, in part because austin_dern and bunnyhugger would expect me to, and I rode the bunny naturally. From there, to the base of Telegraph hill.. and then, posessed of an hour to kill and nothing else to do, I climbed up the stairs. and then the more stairs, all the way to Coit Tower. Pretty views. And then back down, in time to meet Warp and eapa for dinner at Il Fornaio. Pleasant food and conversation indeed (Including mention of fenris_lorsrai whom Eapa knew as a kid), and then rode the street cars to the BART to the Crowne Plaza SFO for the night.
Friday: Up in the stupid-early hours to catch the BART in, and after Jack-in-The-Box for breakfast (Don't judge me. I can't get it in Connecticut) on to Brand New Conference! Volunteers all did a fine job, and despite the usual last-minute complications (Book sales? No one told me about book sales), it all went swimmingly. Fine speakers- as usual the later in the day, I more I got to see them. Glad for the mid-afternoon brownies, because I didn't get to escape for lunch this year. Next year in NYC, there'll be better/more options surely. NYC is full of 8$ falafel places to dine, San Fran.. you have to hunt a little more for fast cheap good ethnic.
After the conference, the after-party! Which was like last year's: too hip and noisy for me, but still, enjoyable. Warp joined me for some of it, we chatted with the Photographer and folks about, and then left to return to Los Altos for dinner with Archai, Kreggan, and arokh at a birdy-ish pizza place, then back to Warp's place for TV and internet and relaxation. The working and scheduled parts of the vacation done.. and now onto high-quality relaxation time.
..but I'll get to that in the next post.
--Chi
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02:54 am
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2011 and work.
So far this year:
There was a record-snowfall blizarrd. I came into work.
There was an earthquake. I came into work.
There was a hurricane. I came into work *early*.
..I hope someone in my management recognizes that I am a badass. I'm running out of things to overcome.
--Chi
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05:29 am
[Link] | ...wait a second. Has he been through the desert on a horse with no name;
Or has he been through the desert, on a horse, with no name?
This is why punctuation matters.
--Chiaroscuro Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.
Tags: music, via ljapp
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04:52 pm
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testing of...
New LJ native app on the Android phone. Hopefully it shall encourage me towards greater communications, instead of just playing Wordfeud.
Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.
Tags: via ljapp
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04:56 am
[Link] | Recently in discussion, the subject's come up of convention attendance 'records'. Now, I'm probably about #3 or so in "People in the world who care about attendance at furry conventions", mostly because it is in my job description as Registration Director at Anthrocon. Every year we need to project attendance for placing orders of materials, for estimating space, for blocking out hotel rooms.. and the numbers for that fall squarely on my shoulders. So I spend a fair amount of time looking at convention numbers. I'll brag I'm pretty good at it by now: I projected 4200-4300 with an exacta of 4224 for Anthrocon last year.. and we got 4238. My mind is in this space often.
Now, the aforementioned Anthrocon does have a fair number of attendance records as well: First con to cross 2000, 3000, 4000; highest attendance of a furry convention in its 5th year (and 6th, 7th, through the present). Anthrocon does not have the record for highest attendance in the first through fourth years of a convention. That record is held by Further Confusion. Sources for this are at http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Convention , which has derived information from http://www.mustelid.com/otterhall/afcis.html and other sources.
Now, in current discussion, the following statement was said: "FC basically ate ConFurence. We don't consider that a third year, because there was an established con already."
I'm going to very strongly disagree. Let's cover three reasons why FC deserves its attendance title.
#1: It's in a totally different location.
ConFurence occurred in the following cities in California: Costa Mesa, Anaheim, Irvine, Buena Park, San Diego, Burbank. All of these cities are located in Orange County in Southern California, except for San Diego, which is even further south. Further Confusion is a Bay Area convention, and has been held in San Jose, San Mateo, and Santa Clara. The closest locations both conventions were held at are still hundreds of miles and six hours of driving apart.
#2 It's totally different management.
Further Confusion is and has been run by different fans than Confurence has been. The core directors of CF- Mark Merlino, Rod O'Reilly, and Daniel Exline- have not been involved in FC's management, nor as far as I can tell, were FC's founding management involved in CF before then. Some of FC's management structure (AA&E as a 'board' selecting a chairman each year) would appear to be a deliberate reaction to CF's management setup, though I can't prove that conjecture.
#3 Confurence kept going.
Confurence's decline in attendance started in 1999, when CF shifted to a new time slot and south to San Diego. And yes, that was the year Further Confusion premiered in CF's old time slot in January. It's generally safe to say the decline of CF can be somewhat attributed to FC's rising success; but CF still continued for five conventions after FC debuted, and there are other reasons why Confurence ended.. Unlike Califur, which started in 2004 and can somewhat be considered a successor to CF (Though I'd argue it's rather a different con as well), the two co-existed long enough to be clearly established separate entities.
In spirit, in management, in location, in legal sense.. Further Confusion was a new convention. It deserves its records of first through fourth year held highest attendance.
--Chi
Tags: confurence, furry cons, further confusion
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05:09 am
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2011 Resolutions.
It's been since 2007 since I've done one of these. Some long-wanted things have come to fruition, some slipping has occurred. Let's set forth the plan for '11.
Category One: Things I need to improve.
#1 :Lose weight to 222 pounds by AC, 201.2 by year's end. Weight loss is good (man, did I drop a lot in 2010), more will be better. I've been plateaued at 235, which is both an astonishing drop, and a point I need to push further at. I've adjusted my diet to handle this weight, and pushing it further.. I really need to ponder joining a gym.. or see about sneaking in to the free one 'For hotel guests' at Wolfie Solar Casino.
#2: Finish the computer. The new hard drive is right there. Ditto the printer. Gotta order a new keyboard, shift key's going ont his one. These need to get connected and set up, which will be a solid day's work, but ought happen.
#3: Continue attacking inboxes, email and physical. Doing well about keeping just what I need to keep of newly incoming mail, but some backlog still needs to be processed. my new phone lets me knock out more of the 'chaff' quickly, and I need to get much more focused on the 'wheat' getting quickly dealt with. I let it stack up too often, though I'm better about it now.
#4: Do things more resulting in long-term benefits, especially as regards friends and family, over quick and simple short-term things. Delayed gratification. LJ posts over twitter posts. Do AC stuff first. etc.
Category Two: Things I really shouldn't be spending money on...
My budget needs a ratchet more tightening to get things how they should be. So, taking a break specifically from:
#4 Alcohol. I've mostly trimmed this out my budget, but let's make this stick: No alcohol purchases. Exceptions: Housewarming gifts and the like, hard cider for Furfright, or perhaps cooking sherry. Nothing I'm going to drink, in simple. You're allowed to buy me a drink if you like, mind.
#5 Artwork. Outside of C4C and TAZOM, I'm going to avoid buying commissioned art except for cons; and C4C is a 'collect these at Anthrocon' project; TAZOM likely to next be doled out at AC unless an opportunity drops in my lap. Otherwise, I need to call in outstanding commissions with some emphasis, and hold off on buying more. Feel free to deliver gift art, though.
#6 Eating out, alone. Expections: road food for overnight trips (Anthrocon, etc) and not dining alone..but mostly? I need to cut out the occasional impulse munch, from the pricier choices to the $1.19 Slurpee/candy bar combo at Cumberland farms. Unless I'm dining with someone, it's groceries or work food. I need eat less anyway.
Category Three: Miscellaneous.
#7 Get to California. 28 years, about, since I've been there. It's far too long, and far too many friends live out there. There'll be some trick in doing it, though; vacation time runs thin as it is. Maybe this'll be the first year i give Furfright a pass.
#8 Keep up with Test Drive Tuesdays when the weather's nice. for those of you not following on Twitter, I've been taking Tuesday afternoon before work as a nice spot to test drive cars, looking for Meefer's eventual replacement. Hopefully that's a 2012/2013 purchase, but I need to get ready now and feel out everyone's small cars.
#9 Get all my junk out of Mom's place. I've been moved out nearly two years now; I shouldn't let anything linger. Get the finality of my things over here, and sift the junk out to Goodwill or trash. That's as much as I can guaranteed-control in Mom's house, it'll be a start.
#10 Call friends and family more. I'm not very good at initiating phone calls, and I really need to start doing so. I've become a bit too insular, and spend a lot of time talkign to folks on computer. Which is good, but I need just _call_ folks more. I have unlimited calls on the home phone. gotta do it.
I think that'll cover it for 2011.
Tags: resolutions
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02:51 pm
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2010 in brisk review.
So, let's see what's been the big news in 2010. Some folks may be behind in the news, and I've not done much posting on Livejournal of late; I seem to be fairly Twitter-focused for updates. (To note: I'm @chefmongoose there as well.)
2010 routine properly settled in the new dwelling in Norwich, CT after the hasty November 2009 move from Willimantic. The new place is very nice, and I've hosted a lot of guests. In Willimantic we had only one overnight guest (Badger Ben Rodriguez); This past year.. Amber "Scruffy" Lionflame, James "Milgrove" McCoy, M. "Everguest" Yun, W. "Tricuspa" Myers, Erika "Chillymouse" Rosengarten, and Andy "Warphammer" Oxenreider all stayed here. Wow. It's good to have company.
The shorter commute to work at Mongarikkiville[*1] at Wolfie Solar Casino[*2] has been appreciated- one of the shortest, time-wise, I've had in my life. 15 minutes of driving and about 5 of walking. I'm now the official trainer.. the only trainer they have for cooks, at that.. and I'm hoping to take the next step up the career ladder there in 2011, or seek other opportunities. My housemate (Kevin 'Slickpuppy" Mulder, for those who are that far behind) is also been working there as a prep cook, which has brought in some much-needed cash.
My 'other job' with Anthrocon has brought its share of challenges and fun, as well. 4238 attending this year, and 4800-4900 projected for 2011. This con keeps getting bigger, sheesh. I also worked security shifts at Furfright, which was.. okay. Tried to do too much in too little of time, it all felt rushed and under-relaxed. I also worked as Staff Manager at Brand New Conference in NYC, a logo/branding/design event that was very fun and helped me branch out a little in this con-career.
What else, hmm.. picked up a PlayStation 3, and have made this shift to an Android phone, techwise.Took my weight down from 270 at the start of the year to 235, a big change indeed. Feeling the difference, and slowly, slooowly shifting wardrobe to smaller clothes. XL shirts now instead of 2XL. Smaller jeans.
Meefer's up to 174,000 miles after 11-and-change years of ownership. Had to drop a good thousand-plus on repairs earlier this year, but it's been worth it.
And for 2011? .. that'll be the next post.
--Chi
[*1] Not the real name of the theme restaurant.
[*2] Not the real name of the Indian casino.
Tags: 2010, year in review
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02:44 pm
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The Rebranding begins.
Still me. Just a new name, which should be a little easier for folks to remember. You'll see it pop up more across my overall online presence, too.
For example, those of you on twitter know I'm @ChefMongoose there, yes?
--Chi
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