A High School favorite for that one that got away.

...with reasons for hope and reasons for despair.

I'm very happy about Barack Obama's victory in the presidential race last night. It was a thrill standing on the corner of 20th St. and 8th Ave. cheering and chanting and celebrating with a bunch of people.

But California seems to be on the verge of passing what is in my estimation an unconstitutional ban against gay marriage.

A step forward and a step back.

I felt it important to state my thanks to the Subway God for a wonderful, quick and safe commute. It was one of those rare days where I was able to get a train as soon as I made it to the platform, it went swiftly to 36th Street. There I made a connection to my next train. It went quickly to it's next stop, where I got a seat. A few express stops later, I transferred to the shuttle at Times Square. I just made it into the train before the doors closed.

Basically, it took about 20 less minutes today than it normally does.

Thank you, Subway God!

Jon

...sometimes blows beyond my wildest expectations.

Just to let you know, faithful reader, I'm not going to launch into a whiney rant about how much my life sucks right now. It doesn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm feeling a little lonely right now but that's kinda par for the course and it's not a big "crying in my beer" sorta thing, so bear with me.

It's just that only now, I'm reading about the status of gays and lesbians in Iran and it's appalling. And not only is their treatment of these people appalling, I'm frankly outraged at my own ignorance on the subject. Now, I know that the c0ck-sucking doesn't give me automatic insight into the plight of homos around the world but for fuck's sake, I just wish I'd been more aware of some of the complexities of gay life around the world. Sometimes I think I live in my head too much and don't get out there in the world and make some effort to improve my life and the lives of others. This is just one small case of something that I'd love to have know about because it profoundly pisses me off.

I remember learning in school in 1979 about the Ayatollah Khomeini taking power and not knowing what that meant. I also remember considering asking questions and not doing it. So, I really want to say that it's this almost apathetic self-enforced ignorance that galls me.

That aside, I was reading about a movie entitled Be Like Others that documents sex change surgeries in Iran. It seems that many gay men are getting sex changes in order to avoid persecution there. That makes me kinda sad and sick at the same time. This from a country that had gotten to the point where same-sex marriage was nearly allowed right before the Ayatollah struck. BAH!

And what's up with people today? Is Mercury retrograde or something? It seems like nobody's fucking listening to me today.

The funny thing is that as I write this I know exactly how I'd respond to a friend's journal if they said the exact same thing: "Huh? Did you say something?" But then again, I'm an @sshole.

J

...if you can hear me in diva heaven, Nell Carter!

Okay, who posts snippets from a soap opera with a gay couple on it so that you can only follow said gay "power couple's" storylines? Huh?!? WHO?!? And why, for sweet Jehovah's sake, is it so much like a potato chip in that having started watching said snippets I can't stop!

OH THE HUMANITY!

Move along. Nothing to see here.

PS: I don't recommend going out for "a drink or two" on a Monday night after you haven't been out for weeks. It leads to overdoing it, lack of sleep and hang-overs. Tuesdays like this, I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

...with three other people.

Well, I found out yesterday that I can finally move out. I found a great new set-up on Craigslist (yet again, it helps me out...I'm kinda surprised...in a good way). So, next month I'll be moving into a room in a Brooklyn brownstone that comes complete with utilities, cable, internet, 2 cats and 3 roommates. I'm hoping it'll up my date-ability, so stay tuned (wink wink).

J

...where suddenly, I found myself working at an electrical plant.

Now, I've never worked at one of those. I've barely even seen one up close, so it could have been some sort of refinery or something, I don't know but it was weird and all technical and even involving climbing to high places, which made me very uncomfortable. Part of me wonders if some of the elements of the dream were true to real life functions at such a place, but I doubt it.

While I would love a job that involves a lot more physical activity, I think I would pass on that one.

J

...and so glad I went!

I had a great time this year at GenCon. I didn't get out to the pool as much as I'd hoped but other than that, very few complaints.

I left Thursday morning from Hell's Kitchen and was really reamed for the cab fare and was sort of broke when I touched down in Indy. Sort of upset, I wandered over to their Ground Transportation Center and looked into a shared cab and lo! there was a car available to my hotel for only $12! Score! I waited and a limo pulled up. They said my car had arrived and with my usual suave charm I replied, "Huhwhah?" and the driver picked up my bag and brought it to the limo and I got in. I then asked him if we were picking up anyone else and he said, "Nope."

Wow!

So after a lovely, comfy, cheap drive to the hotel, I ran into my roomie and checked out the place. To make a long story short, I'll summarize some highlights:

Thursday: Fun Champions game (streamlined to cut down on rules) and delicious sushi dinner.

Friday: A so-so superhero larp and a very fun (but very flawed) Seven Seas larp topped off with an outing at the very gamer-friendly Ram.

Saturday: Recovery from Friday, a game with osito71 , then dinner at St. Elmo's steakhouse, which was fabulous! Then it was off to the White Wolf party to fight the food coma. The space was alright but the bad acoustics killed the song choices.

Sunday: Last minute shopping, a demo for a friend from the Dark Ages larp to try a game he's working on and a decent flight home.

And now: back. I'm excited to be playing a game I'm in on Friday and to a game a friend of mine picked up there called AlphaOmega, which looks cool. Very post-apocalypse-ey with guns and swords and spells!

...so little time to blog.

Funny thing this morning. I got to work a minute past nine so couldn't do my usual routine of getting a cup of coffee and some water before doing the usual daily crap. I did get someone to cover me later on, though and got myself a nice cup o' joe. Yay. Then a co-worker went to the nearby deli and asked if I wanted something. I asked for an iced coffee. Then my friend that I happen to work with came in w/a large coffee for me. Then the first co-worker came back with my iced coffee. I'm still not done with all of it but my bounty of sweetened bitter brew is heart-warming!

Anywho, I have a birthday party tonight for a friend of a friend that is pretty cool and very funny, so should be a blast. Then tomorrow night there's a party for ME! I get dinner w/my friends, then back to Chez Downer w/booze flowing freely and hopefully lots of fun and freewheeling fancy! I was thinking that I might get some people aside and just basically let them know that I'm glad to have them around for the past few years but that might be weird. then again, I'm a weird guy, so we'll see what happens.

I'm hoping it turns out better than last year. Don't get me wrong, I had a nice time last year but it was very small and low-key. I want a little bit more in the way of attendance and attention this year. I want lots of hugs and kisses and validation and I don't give a fuck about being a proud, haughty bitch like I try to be most of the time. I'm not fooling anyone, least of all myself. I'm pretty sure everyone's hip to the fact that I'm a nice guy but I'm not really making a resounding success of this life thing. Oh, well. Another delusion down the drain.

The important thing is that there will be people who hold me in some esteem around me who have helped shape one small world over the course of a year. Not too shabby, if I say so myself!

Alrighty, well, it's off to Berkeley College tonight to take my entrance exam. Yay! I've had no prep time and 4 hours of sleep, so wish me well! I'll need it!

Also, I'm going to have to work extra hard at being as diligent as possible at work so I can improve my circumstances here. I would really like to do that, so here's to hoping! I should be having a bloody good time running myself ragged between working full time and going to school full time at the same time. FUN!

Of course my job hasn't any tuition assistance but I'll just be happy if they let me have my old job back. I've had quite enough of dealing with Joe Public calling a Law Firm. I would call it an interesting study in stupidity but it's not altogether terribly interesting. So, I remain as I am for the time being.

On the lovelife front, I ended up breaking it off with a boy I've been seeing from Long Island. I ran into a fling of mine from about a year ago (a couple of weeks ago now) and ended up...reacquainting myself with him. A Brazilian concert pianist. The new development: he's single now! I know, I know...I never should have...acquainted myself with him under those circumstances in the first place but we were drunk! And I'm single then and now. Anywho, I called him but didn't get a return call, so we'll see what happens there. I'd rather not be Rebound Guy but I get it...these things happen.

Now, if only I can stay up to take this damned test. I was only up 'til about 3 obsessing about it and a work problem I was having.

J

OMG I'm never posting again! Or rather not until I have 1. anything to say and/or 2. I cultivate a decent (or at least entertaining) blogging style.

It's such a tragic realization to understand I have no style. No style! Me! ::GASP:: Oh, well. Back to the drawing board. ::harrumph::

Read this.

Then, go here

If their goal falls 2 days short, I'm still cool with the concept.

Sign this. Why not?

...victory is MINE! Wait a minute...oh well, whatever.

The important thing is that with the kind help of Dell Technical Support, I was able to remove my old, broken down hard drive and replace with a brand spankin new model. I was also able to install Windows upon it, update my drivers for my ethernet card, go on-line and download and install the drivers for my video and audio cards. GO ME!

Then I reinstalled McAfee Firewall and scanned to make sure I didn't get any "visitors" in the previous process and having none, I immediately installed the most important thing EVAR...City of Villains! Not long after it updated (which only took about a half hour) and I was able to log on. Viola! The game even looked better than it had before. BONUS!

Of course now I have to reinstall such fun things as Itunes and Quicktime but that's not the hardest thing to do by far. The funny thing is that I was intimidated by the whole changing the hard drive thing but once I got the tower opened it wasn't hard at all.

Next: new video card. Mine sucks. In the meantime: must try to borrow lots of music cd's to replace my old collection. Note to self: make copies!

..on the Dell drama.

Okay, good news: warranty is still good until December. Yay!

More good news: new hard drive on the way. Yay!

Bad news: new hard drive is blank. Boo! I mean, for crying out loud, just format the thing like it originally came in my tower and send it to me and I'll plug that sucker in. But nooooo, they have to send it to me so that I'll have to go through the rigamarole of reinstalling Windows again. I'm irked that Technical Support rep. #1 didn't go through this when I called the first time. Two calls later, NOW they tell me I need the new hard drive and arrange to send it to me. Oh, well. Better late than never, I suppose.

So now time for the waiting game. They'll send the new HD to me at work, I'll go home and replace the old one with it, then reinstall Windows. The next night I'll call the fcukers at Dell and make them guide me through the finishing touches and VOILA! hopefully next week at this time I'll be up and running.

Since I'm dealing with Dell, I'm not keeping my hopes up. Something horrible is bound to happen to make this a real aggravation. I just know it. I feel it in my gut. Or maybe that's the salad I just wolfed down. Too many olives. Meh.

JJ

...on the Blue Screen of Death! problem.

Okay, so finally got around to calling Dell and their friendly-yet-foreign (God, I hate that out-sourcing thing, I wish I could only support companies that don't do that) Tech Support helped me through all the usual suspects. I found my Windows disk and proceeded to try the restore function. No good. Tried booting up in safe mode: no good. Eventually, I had to do the regrettable but unavoidable:

I had to delete the c: drive partition and reinstall Windows.

I hope you're all groaning with me. That's an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back. Thank goodness for Bravo and Work Out! OMG, RIP Doug (not you, Dougula)! Tonight, I've got to reinstall my drivers, update shit and start reinstalling mainstay programs like McAfee and City of Heroes. Especially the latter. I'll probably have to set that up and let it go all night tonight.

Then I have to beg certain people for certain copies of certain disks containing certain Industrial music to danse like machines to!

J:)

...a blue-screen error at home to go with my insomnia last night. When does it happen? Only every time I turn on the machine. So, looks like I have to zap my computer back to factory fresh and begin anew with all my downloads. ::Sigh:: Well, that will be my Tuesday evening. Tonight, I'll be larping (a downtime) and sleeping.

Sleep! That's where I'm a Viking!

...or not.

It's snowing. Blah. Done. Other stuff of perhaps more import:

Second date went well though not as good as the first. Mostly my fault so I have to be extra good tomorrow for no.3. Time to go to him out on the Island and enjoy (or do my best to enjoy) some Italian food and a movie I have no interest in seeing. It's a good thing I like this guy...and that it's his birthday.

I'm officially working at the new job, which is basically my old job with the same (low) salary and a step back in position. Now, while this may sound like a complaint, it basically isn't. I'm glad for the job. Would I like to be making more than I have for the past year. HELLZ YEAH! Would I like to be more upwardly mobile. Well, duh! But I have to recognize that I have to put more effort in (and maybe not blog during the business day) and try my best to learn about the legal field. I mean, I'm here and it's actually interesting on a practical level. I just have to decide what I want to be when I grow up.

Lastly, I really want to get a place of my own or even a share with another 30-something that's closer to work. I have to network more on that, I think. If anyone reading this also needs a place or a new place or a roommate, please gimme a hollar.

Now, it's time to file papers and answer phones. Yay, payday! Boo, hell freezing over and coming to Earth!

...or those of you that care.

So my second date was canceled this weekend due to the Plague (okay, a stomach bug but I like melodrama). So instead I found myself at primalucem's birthday party-slash-Larp. I had a very good time, got to play a cool character and save the day (well, mostly) and eat, drink and be merry. Granted, it was a slightly overdone plot-line but done very well for a last minute set-up. Thanks, D! Happy Damn Birthday!

On Sunday I pulled an Errand-a-rama or Errand-a-go-go or Errandpalooza (I think you get the point) and found out that the laundromat nearby is open 24 hours (W00t!).

Back to the work week and here we are at Hump Day already. Almost through another one. I went to check out the NY Daily News website like I do every morning and what do I see? A story about how Capt. America is being killed off. All I can think is that this must be a stunt and on some corny comic geek level "Oh NOEZ! The country NEEDS him right now."

Then the mostly rational part of me reminds that other part that he's ONLY A  FREAKIN' COMIC BOOK CHARACTER!!!

And that's about it for now. Nothing else to see here.

...as evil does!

You Are 72% Evil

You are very evil. And you're too evil to care. Those who love you probably also fear you. A lot.