Well, I’m supposed to be downtown peeking at some fine tech products and such as I type this. Instead, after spending most of today moving a LOT of stuff around I’m about to go up a ladder and spend some time strategically taping a drop cloth from the ceiling around a bunch of stuff so it’s not covered in dust early tomorrow morning.
Whee. But at least another segment of this long apartment nightmare is getting taken care of. Of course, my somewhat limited enthusiasm about this will only last until I see that they didn’t do everything that actually needed to get done (as usual). If that leaky drainpipe isn’t finally yanked out and replaced (something the last few maintenance guys have said needs to happen), all the work they’ll do tomorrow will be a temporary and useless outside of some temporary visual appeal. It’s certainly not a pretty sight now, that’s for damn sure:
Yuck. it actually looks worse in person and there’s another section of the wall with a series of cracks in it I can’t seem to get a good angle on to photograph. It’s supposed to be a two day job (not counting the repainting part), but we shall see. In better news, those windowsill-grown mild peppers have been doing quite well, thanks for asking. The garlic bulb is just for size comparison because that pepper turned out larger that I thought and there are a few more that size that haven’t yet ripened.
Alrighty, then. Back to work here. I do wish I were somewhere else a lot more fun, but this crap needs to get taken care of so I actually have a place to come back to that’s actually fun to live in.
It’s June already? Yikes. Well, I have a headache from trying to quit coffee (but it’s not the massive migraine I had last week from other stressy stuff), a pile of work to do (as ever) and some icky things going on with some precious bodily fluids behaving somewhat badly (but not at all painfully, thankfully). Posts are piling up as drafts, but those will get whittled down as I take care of a few things this month. There’s no construction today and I think tomorrow thanks to the rain blowing through here, so that will extent the roof repair a few more days. Shortly after that (barring incident), the screaming starts anew when the apartment gets slammed with hammers and such as a few things are repaired and replaced.
On the *all* good news front, it looks as if I’ll be doing something with a bunch of small peppers that are growing a bit bigger than expected. I’m not sure how hot they’ll be as the plants are from a mixed lot of seeds I’d been saving up that got mixed together by accident. Hot or not, I’m betting a mushroom and some sort of cheese blend would go with them perfectly. We’ll see. Back in a bit. I also have a bit of a backache today. But that may be from getting up far too early this morning and falling asleep with a book in bed that ended up under me (ouch).
Let’s see now. Not counting the usual outside world lousy news that will absolutely drive one bonkers if one pays attention to all of it, my life is in a bit of a bumpy phase. No, you’re not getting any juicy details other than things are about as complex as Ernest Hemingway’s hamburger recipe right about now. And nowhere near as tasty. Okay, I haven’t tried that recipe yet, but it sure sounds as if it packs in a ton of flavor. But I digress. Let’s talk mostly in music because it makes things easier and funnier when all is said and done.
What’s Up With the Roof? Well, it’s still being repaired and it seems that June 5th deadline may or may not be met thanks to some rainy and windy days where not much took place. They’re doing a bunch of the buildings here at the same time so it looks like Scaffold City in some spots. Given the amount of drilling and pounding going on, it seems that the intent is to make this fix a bit more “permanent” than previous jobs. That were also supposed to be “permanent”. Yes, “permanent” is in quotes because maintenance such as this is never really going to be “permanent” (which is why it’s called MAINTENANCE, correct?). Which leads me to the apartment (eek):
The place got one a few months back before the roof repair but needs a new inspection after it to see if anything’s been shaken loose from all the pounding from above. A different set of inspectors came in and checked the ceilings in every room to see if they needed any repairs. Of course, nearly every room in the apartment now has red marks on the ceilings were some work needs to take place. Wonderful. Even more annoying is the wall that was completely replaced twice over the past twenty years thanks to the drainpipe behind it that more than likely should have been replaced during the first wall job. My brain boils every time I recall assorted inspectors and workmen saying variations on “Well, that pipe really needs to be fixed, but it’s too much work because the whole line needs to come out” meant all of the current issues really didn’t need to happen.
That and while terribly inconvenient for the tenants along the line below me, had the work been done back when it needed to be, it would have cost less and probably been done with far better materials. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right. The wall in the home office was last “fixed” last October and painted but a month later was showing signs of (that’s right) minor water damage. By the time the inspector popped back around to check something else out, I had to show off the now more cracked and damaged wall to him just to get a reaction. Yep, he actually asked me when was the last time it was repaired. Le sigh. Le annoy! I also need to figure out where to move over 1000 games, a bunch of systems and other stuff as I’d planned to use the formerly empty back room here that’s now occupied by a relative who’s moved back in.
Eh, I’ll figure that out. It may involve a screwdriver, hex wrenches and disassembling some furniture to make room, a few drop cloths and a LOT of tape. Ugh. Well, at least I have some masks in the closet so I can hang out and get all dusty with the workers here while I keep an eye on my stuff. It looks as if the rest of June past the 5th or so will mostly consist of me packing stuff up, moving it around and unpacking it later. Yep, I’m moving in my own apartment but keeping stuff in the same room. Whee. Science? Or just insanity.
What’s Cookin? And nope, the kitchen still isn’t at 100 percent thanks to a combo of the assorted workers not putting things back together completely. I have two sink legs under the sink that need to be reattached, some trim that needs painting (well, once they actually finish making and adding the rest of the trim around the kitchen ceiling) and there’s a small hole in a wall that was somehow missed during all that earlier kitchen nonsense that I just spotted when moving the refrigerator back to its original spot. “If I had a hammer…” I’d probably be doing 2-5 for some sort of Three Stooges meets Screwy Squirrel assault.
Feh. Add all that up and the fact that I need to make some money fast (and legally, of course!) and things are a bit stress inducing of late. If I can make it through June without Hulking out, it’ll be a good month. My poor head is stuffed with stuff I need to do, but concentration isn’t an easy thing to concentrate on with so much crap in the synapse.
Back in a bit. How’s YOUR month (or hell, just this Friday) going?
*Yeah, I know that Bruce Cockburn song is used way out of context. But so is every other video in this post.
Hmmm. So, here’s a random nonsense post courtesy of the Emergency Postcast System. If you’re reading this it’s because it’s a nonsense post experiment running in case of emergency. Now, what constitutes an “emergency” will vary from person to person, but let’s just say that I’m taking some much needed time off to handle things and that’s that. I have a few posts in reserve that will run (well, once I set some dates up) and will check back in to drop in stuff when I can. I hate the way the internet works these days because it’s expected that nosy people need to know too much and anything less than that is considered “not sharing”, “rude” or whatever. Nonsense. Anyway, dinner’s ready! Come and get it before that cannibal chicken has her fill.
Back in a bit. I’ll be around… just not “around” if you catch my drift. If you don’t, don’t worry. All won’t be explained when things get back to resembling “normal” around here. And that’s exactly as it needs to be.
Ah, memories. Anyway, it’s been an intense and stupid week for me, but at least I got other stuff done besides grow a few new gray hairs from all that annoying tech nonsense.
In honor of one of my favorite books from my childhood (that you should buy whether or not you have kids of your own), here’s what I did of note on a few days this week:
I made a nice pizza on Monday. I also got a nicer new phone, but that’s an ongoing post in the making as far as getting some stuff sorted out before I can activate the damn thing.
I got some stuff to review including three more excellent Blu-Rays from Arrow Video (thanks, Clint!) and a nifty tablet stand that’s actually pretty cool.
Speaking of movies, the greatest book I’ve read (this month) also arrived for me to review. You should buy a copy just for the cover alone. Okay, the insides are great as well.
I found some cool original Kenner Star Wars stuff when I was looking for something else in a bin of lots of something else. Yeah, I’ve kept a few of the things I’ve bought from when I was younger. Not enough of them, sadly.
I played a bunch of new and old games I’d been needing to get to. That’s Elminage Original, a PSP and Vita RPG very much in the Wizardry vein that initially had a lousy English localization until a patch over half the size of the full game cleaned things up considerably.
Some other stuff is on the way or has arrived, but you don’t need to know about a box of packing tape, some razors and a few other mundane items. Okay, back to poring over my email and figuring out what sort of time machine I need to build in order to catch up to the workload backlog. Or I can avoid that rabbit hole fantasizing and just get back to the grind. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Off to get some sleep now. I’ll be back in a few hours after waking up and soaking my eyeballs in a cup of coffee. Or trying out the Uptime energy drinks I got in the post last week to write about. Hmmm… there’s an angle right there to work, right?
Hey! Do you live here in the U.S. of A.? Do you like to win random prizes because who doesn’t like to win random prizes? Are you a fan of The Legend of Zelda series? Excellent. Well, the folks down at Merchbro.com want TWO of you lucky Americans to win a nice Bella+Canvas 3001 Unisex T-shirt (that one in the photo to the left – male model not included). All you need to do is click here or on that photo to enter and use the entry code fanboydestroy when prompted.
Winners will be chosen as RANDOM and nope, you can’t enter more than once. Play nice, now. US residents only, please! Merchbro will handle the notification of winners and shipping out of prizes, so make sure you have an actual US mailing address they can ship to!
Call it kismet, serendipity or maybe it’s just some good karma working its way through the universe – I’ll take it. Amusingly enough, I’ve been talking to a few people over the past few months who want to get a bunch of T-shirts and other clothing printed, some using my art, some using theirs. I tend to not think of my own artwork as wearable, but that hasn’t stopped folks from asking if I do design work on the side. Perhaps I should, but my brain tends to flick through ideas far too quickly to settle into a creative groove for long.
Anyway, I got an email out of the blue from Dan at Merchbro, a company that just so happens to do custom T-shirts and other goodies and it looks as if I get to forward that info to the folks that want to put my art and theirs onto assorted gear. How weird is that for timing? As for the quality of Merchbro’s work? Well, that image above is pretty cool, isn’t it? I’m betting some of you may even want one of these shirts, hmmmm? Well, stay tuned – we’ll see what we can do about that…
(Not that Link being able to run would actually happen given Link’s current immigration status. But hey, it really would be nice to see more variety on the ticket in the next election.)
Oops. I should be asleep, but I wasn’t and while working on a draft, hit “Publish” instead of “Save Draft” annnnnnnnd… oh well. You all got a preview of a longer article a wee bit too early. Feh. Well, at least you know I’m not slacking off, right? The stupid slow connection up here won’t let me properly edit the post, so you get a new short post to say yeah, yeah, I know that other post isn’t complete. Just hit the pause button between your eyeballs and come back to it in a day or two. It’s going to be a nice little piece once it’s complete…
Okay, I’m going to go to sleep now. I need to get up in about five hours or and roll out into the city for the last day of Toy Fair…
Soooo, I didn’t intend to do ANOTHER pre-show event before Toy Fair, but like yesterday’s Superherostuff.com and Sphero event, today was *special*. I ended up hoofing out to Astoria (in Queens) to see and play a bunch of games at Indiecade, and if you just so happen to be in the NYC area, love games and want to try some awesome ones, you NEED to get yourself out thataway before the show ends on Sunday. I could only cover one day thanks to Toy Fair eating my weekend plus whole, but I’ll have a few longer articles on the stuff I tried out next week.
Hell, if it weren’t for indies, I’d be doing a lot less gaming these days. Pretty much the only AAA release I’m looking forward to is The Witcher 3 and that’s because CD Projekt RED is going the extra mile plus to guarantee everyone who plays the game on anything it’s on is getting the best experience possible. Anyway, it’s off to sleep for me soon, as I need to pop up at 5am and be out of here before 6. Eeek. Back with more eventful posting tomorrow…
Let’s see now… I’m sort of taking today off because I’m making a new, longer list of Toy Fair 2015 meetings for this weekend and I have a pre-show event to pop into this afternoon to check out a few items. I’d initially promised myself I wouldn’t do any more pre-show events because under certain circumstances it gets to be SO busy running around that I end up too pooped when the show actually starts. However, I made two exceptions this year because of the folks who reached out that didn’t forget they reached out and didn’t suddenly get back to me to say their events were overbooked.
I get invited to a load of events and respond as soon as I see the invite. Once in a while, the PR person who contacted me and took my reservation will get back to me a few days after I confirm or too often, right around the day the event takes place to say something like “oops, we overbooked!” without letting me know what I can do about seeing the product they were gushing about so fervently in that invite. The latest example of this was a big deal film screening/press junket I was SUPPOSED to attend this week, only to be told last minute that they ran out of room AND to hold out for a new screening date (which didn’t happen). Gee, thanks. So much for promoting your film or whatever else you were looking for from me, big megacorp deluxe who’s burned me one too many times. I got yer Throwback Thursday right here, Foo. Anyway, let me get back to my regularly scheduled day.
Back in a bit, maybe with a quick followup post if I make it back before the library closes.
Well, I’m supposed to be downtown peeking at some fine tech products and such as I type this. Instead, after spending most of today moving a LOT of stuff around I’m about to go up a ladder and spend some time strategically taping a drop cloth from the ceiling around a bunch of stuff so it’s not covered in dust early tomorrow morning.
Yuck. it actually looks worse in person and there’s another section of the wall with a series of cracks in it I can’t seem to get a good angle on to photograph. It’s supposed to be a two day job (not counting the repainting part), but we shall see. In better news, those windowsill-grown mild peppers have been doing quite well, thanks for asking. The garlic bulb is just for size comparison because that pepper turned out larger that I thought and there are a few more that size that haven’t yet ripened.
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 