Hey, it’s already Wednesday!
So this past Friday night was Dave‘s surprise book party thrown by Raina to celebrate the launch of Agnes Quill: An Anthology of Mystery which Dave’s been working on for almost ten years now. And it was a really good time! Got to see a bunch of familiar faces, some of whom I hadn’t seen in a while, such as Jason Ho, along with Jeff Zornow, who drew some of the stories in the book. Though the funny part is how both guys were actually at my house a few weekend ago for the birthday part of a my roommate’s boyfriend’s friend which was being thrown there (and whom both guys know). So they ended up going “Holy shit!” once they discovered I live there and proceeded to do impressions of me the rest of the evening. Apparantly I was the star of the party without even being there (I believe I was out of town since the Clam ‘N Jam was taking place that night). Anyway, back this past Friday night’s party, it’s always interesting to see someone mix with crowd that I don’t normally associate them with, like Alec Longstreth and the Dave Roman gang. I had no idea that Alec was from Seattle! So he got all my Almost Live references. And I also got to thank Heidi MacDonald for mentioning my NY Comic Con report, which got me some hate mail from five different folks who were annoyed that I tried implicating the teamsters with the mess that was. Though as Heidi said it best, any response is a good one! And MK & I were both pleased to read that she considers us a “glam comics couple”.
But best of all was that the surprise was actually a surprise. Raina went to great lengths to make ensure it would be, which is no easy task, and Dave was able to appreciate this fact first hand since he threw me a surprise party a few years back. But it was less to celebrate the launch of a book and more about me not dying from e. coli. Also, when people all went “SURPRISE!!!” for Dave, it didn’t trail off near the end with people looking at him and going “Jesus Christ, he lost a ton of weight! Looks kinda gross.”
And yes I know… I need a better camera:
Saturday was John‘s post-marriage bachelor party at Great Adventure. It was originally planned a few weeks back but was called off when the weather looked to be shitty, and then the rest of the afternoon was super nice, which got a nice collective “FUCK!” from a few of us. So with the season ending at Great Adventure, it was either now or never. And while there was some rain in the morning, it was nice and dry the rest of the day and evening, thought it was pretty windy and cold throughout.
It was myself, John, Dave, Zack, and Scott: five dudes, five men cutting loose. In an amusement park. But it was loads of fun, just going on one roller coaster after another after another, despite the fact that we froze our asses off, both in the air and on the ground while waiting in line, which was a lot, though that’s to be expected. There were a few minor annoyances, such as how the Kingda Ka ride was shut down, and the crowd was really ghetto. Which meant far and few parents with kids running around, which was a shame since it was the Halloween weekend when Fright Fest is supposed to be in full effect, with boogie men and witches scaring the crap out of little kids, which is part of the whole appeal. Instead it was just an army of thug youths running around screaming and cutting lines. And you know, what’s five nerdy white guys going to do about it? But in the end, it wasn’t much of an issue; we were determined to have a blast, and we did. Though it was clear by the end that Zack and Scott weren’t nearly as hardcore as the rest of us, since Dave & I could have easily gone on either the Batman ride or even Nitro five times in a row without skipping a beat. Actually, the last time we were at Great Adventure, we did end up going on Batman about five times in a row, at the end of the night when the operators were all “fuck it.” And I guess that was biggest disappointment, that at the end, they didn’t let the late night riders have cart blanche like they usually do. Once the clock struck 11, everything began to shut down; it was obvious that the kids running the show just wanted to go home, and I really couldn’t blame them. John and I sorta cheered one on when some line cutters got caught and kicked out.
The two definite highlights were being in the second car along with John for what we thought was going to be just some haunted house ride, with folks jumping out to you from the dark, but instead it was a magic mountain type rollercoaster. Zack, who was by himself in the first car, was all chilled out like John & myself, when he noticed the tracks in front of him disappear and went “Uh oh” I had my index finger wedged squarely in the bride of my glasses the whole time; before each ride I put them away in my jacket since I obviously don’t want them flying off, and in this case it was just too late. And speaking of, the other highlight was being on the Superman ride and see money fly out of the pants from the woman in front of us. It looked to be at least a good $20 worth of bills.
Sunday was a nice and lazy day; MK finally got the chance to play a bit of Guitar Hero, then we checked out some design shops in Park Slope, with the best one being Rare Device. Then it was a trip to Rocketship and we got to tell Alex that SPX was actually pretty awesome! He was one of the dudes whom we expressed much doubt about the show beforehand. Also got the latest issue of Dork. Monday was nothing special, just work, work, work. As for yesterday, I accidentally made history: I had my first sip of soda in over seven years. I’m so pissed.
I had lunch with Jason at Burger King (he was dying to have one of their Italian chicken sandwiches) and I ordered a fruit punch to go with my meal of cheeseburgers with only ketchup and chicken tenders. BTW, what is the deal with the chicken tenders? Why are they still shaped like N64 controllers? Anyway, I took a huge gulp, and immediately felt that something was… wrong. It was all fizzy and simply strange tasting. The dumbass BK soda jerk has given me orange soda instead! I wanted to spit it out, but it was too late; I had already swallowed it all. I was fucking livid. If not for the fact that there were about four cops in the place, I swear to God, I would have thrown the soda back at them. So instead I demanded a new drink, and at least I got that. But yeah, I was pissed. Yet thankfully, the reaction was a desirable; for the longest time I wondered what would happen if my taste buds touched soda once again. Also, I used to be a real big fan of orange soda! But instead, I totally hated the taste. It just felt weird, so I guess I’m no longer a hopeless addict!
Yesterday was also Halloween, and I was a total lamer that didn’t do anything. First off, I never got around to putting together any sort of costume; there just wasn’t enough time to sink towards a Hamburglar outfit, nor a Teen Wold’s Dad get-up. For a while I was thinking of being the Blue Raja since Liz and her crew were going as the Mystery Men and they were missing one, but that never happened either. I was even thought about whipping together an older one, that being the Mexican wrestler running for Congress, which would have been totally perfect with it being election year and all. But in the end, I passed. Also most of the Halloween parties took place earlier in the weekend so there weren’t as much going on last night. I guess I could have bummed around the city, but I just wasn’t up for it. There’s always the parade, but like a lot of long-time New Yorkers I’ve spoken with, I also find it rather annoying. It’s fun to check out once in a while, like if you’re with someone who’s out of town, but otherwise the same old, same old shtick has long grown tiresome, such as the political overtones. Once more, saying that Bush sucks is hardly shocking these days, and I can’t help but wonder how many of the dumb NYU students that go around screaming about how shitty politicians are and how they need to be overthrown are even registered voters or are even aware of the election next week. I had also thought about checking out the scene around Brooklyn, but I already knew what to expect; a sea of hipsters, each of them dressed up as a Wes Anderson character. No thanks. Instead, and as sad as it might sound, I just sat around the house wearing my La Parka mask, with the intention that I would at least be dressed up when kids come to the door asking for candy. Only one showed up the entire evening. I was also hoping to catch some animated specials, but they either already showed Charlie Brown’s the Great Pumpkin over the weekend, or like MK theorized, they only show that stuff on cable theses days, which I don’t have (and I’m pretty certain they don’t show the Garfield Halloween special at all). So instead I watched the Curb Your Enthusiasm trick or treat episode which is always awesome (basically, two dumb cunt teenage girls ask for some candy, Larry tells them to fuck off since they’re too old and not even wearing any costumes, they tee-pee the place and everyone thinks he’s the asshole for not giving them candy). Once again, Larry David is my hero.
Plus I had work to do last night; the original plan was to have a special double feature look at scary video game movies for GameSetWatch to celebrate the holiday, but I only had enough time to write about the first of the two, that being the ultra shitty Stay Alive. My write-up on the second, and far superior film will have to wait till tomorrow, which is when the article is normally scheduled anyway.
Yesterday was also when I had hoped to have my first proper video game review for this site ready by, for Final Fantasy XII, which was also released yesterday. But alas, that same excuse again: not enough time. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve only been able to log in about ten or so hours, which is simply scratching the surface, but I will say thus far that its a pretty amazing game thus far, and this is coming from someone who’s pretty sick of Final Fantasy and jPRGs in general. Though I hardly doubt my recommendation is going to matter since everyone else has been ranting and raving about it, plus, its fucking Final Fantasy, people are going to buy and play the game no matter what I have to say. So yeah, last night I just did some work, watched Curb Your Enthusiasm, played some Mega Man ZX, and even ate some candy while wearing a Mexican wrestling makes. Pretty awesome, eh? Hey, at least I had some candy!
At one point, I was going to take a picture of myself, but thought against it since that would be, you know, pathetic, so instead here’s some pictures from last year when MK & I dressed up as Clark Kent and Lois Lane for Liz and Zane’s wedding once again.
And check out this other blast from the past, courtesy of Katie: its a pic of her and MK over two years ago at MoCCA. This was actually the very first time I met both girls, so seeing the pic again is totally crazy…
Speaking of the past, this upcoming weekend looks to be another big one; myself, MK, and Robin will be heading up to Syracuse to visit Katie. This will be my first chance to finally check out where MK spent her formative years (as well as Robin?s, plus Katie still in school herself), which has been the source of quite a few stories. Plus Katie has been telling all her friends of my tales, and they all apparently want to meet me. Gotta say, I’m a bit nervous about that…. MK in particular is totally psyched to check out all the familiar sights, sounds, and smells, to the point that both her and Robin stated earlier this weekend that there’s a good chance that they may become so wrapped up with the past that I might have to keep myself occupied, in which case Katie and I will have to hit the mall and play Time Crisis 4.
And speaking of video games, haven’t had much of a chance to look around and what’s really going on, though I have stumbled across a few game related vids, including…
- a pair of totally hot Eurodance/technotrash music videos starring some pretty boy Swedish DJ that sings about geeky shit, including “owning” all his foes in Warcraft 3, and getting all the ladies and some love song for an IRC bot called Anna
- another music vid, this one starring Lady Sovereign and Tetris EDIT: It’s been pulled! Boo-urns YouTube.
- footage from a Simple Series game from Japan, one that combines Pikmin with cavemen.
- some crazy audition footage from an Xbox 360 commercial
-further proof (as if anyone needed any) that Second Life is something to be avoided at all costs (NSFW)
Oh, and this one’s not game related, but from the realm of anime… some might recall me talking about the movie Mindgame once or twice, which I consider to be one of the finest animated motion pictures to hail from Japan, ever. Mainly because its so un-anime like, meaning there’s no big eyed characters with spikey hair, in school girl outfits, fighting big dumb robots, and other trite anime cliches. Well, for those who might be interested, you can finally check it out, albeit in bits and pieces, via YouTube. Though to really enjoy the film, you need the original DVD and see it on a nice big screen, but its better than nothing, right?
And lastly, I was happy to discover that Slonie is yet another satisfied customer!
Though I guess the really funny part is how when Slonie showed me the pic, he also asked to see if I could name any of the NES games in the background. Pointing out Super Mario Bros 3 was hardly difficult, though he was might impressed when I spotted Life Force.
