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voice tracks [May. 14th, 2008|08:05 pm]

sinewaves23
I've done a few short music pieces using my voice, not too sure about using it often in my music.

But it has come to my attention that my sounds like a mix between Annie Anxiety and Genesis P-Orridge. Or something like that.

The voice recordings were improvised, since I can't be bothered to write stuff.

snails - a discussion
floating down the river
shivering
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an insane collection agency [May. 14th, 2008|06:44 pm]

penh
[Tags|]
[mood |agog]
[music |Sloppy Seconds, "You Got a Great Body, But Your Record Collection Sucks"]

I am sad that we don't have a gizmo to record phone calls, because this last one was a doozy. Portfolio Recovery Associates wants us to give them money. Amber tried to bully the inestimable [info]flint_otter into basically taking her word that we owe them some kind of 15-year-old credit card debt and should send them money. Flint, while adorably cute and snuggly, doesn't take well to that sort of approach. He's rather like that cornstarch and water mixture you've seen on YouTube -- apply gentle pressure and it's a squishy playful liquid, but smack it hard and it rears up and hits you in the throat with a chair. She was very, very reluctant to offer us anything in writing that would document whatever the hell this debt is supposed to be. She kept trying to interrupt Flint, which doesn't work because no matter how high you raise your voice, his voice will just stand on it and drop things on your head. She finally passed the call along to her supervisor, who said his name was Steve.

Oh, how promisingly did things start off with Steve. Pleasantries were exchanged, such jovial words! Amber was criticized for her rudeness, and karmic balance was slowly restored to the world. Then Flint asked for written documentation of the debt, which seemed to anger our new friend. He didn't want to send us documentation. Apparently he's quite used to people just trusting him on such matters, and our lack of faith disturbed him. As I said, we don't have the proper surveillance equipment to make wacky recordings of phone calls, but the conversation started to go seriously south right about here:

Good: I just want a written record of this matter so I can investigate the details.
Evil: You can have a written record. Just pick up a pen and write this stuff down.
Good: I've got a pen here, so what's the... wait, so you aren't going to send me anything in addition to this?
Evil: Look, I don't want to waste a stamp sending you this stuff.
Good: You don't want to waste a stamp?!? You don't want to spend 42 cents to possibly collect a $900 debt?

Having heard the ruckus, the rest of the household was now gathered around the phone, and I suspect our muffled laughter was starting to make Steve feel bad. "Look," he gushed angrily, "you're not going to pay this debt anyway! I've got customers, paying customers, I could be calling right now!" I'm not sure that "Pay up or I'll leave you alone and go bother someone else!" is really an effective threat for a collection agent, but he seemed fond of it. By this point, Flint had abandoned as hopeless any attempt to maintain a professional demeanor, and was openly laughing at the sputtering bundle of indignation squawking over the speakerphone. I'm not sure exactly when Steve hung up, because we had all decided to boost his clearly sagging self-esteem with a shower of positive affirmations and weren't really listening to him any more. But hang up he did, leaving nothing in his wake but a dial tone. I miss him already.
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Chicago, day 2 [May. 14th, 2008|08:20 pm]

kinkyturtle
Ugh, last night I felt sick, probably from eating a late late dinner at Denny's. Fortunately I didn't throw up.

In the morning, I felt better, and drove over to the suburb of Wheeling to see the Westin North Shore, where Midwest Furfest will be moving to this November. It's swankeh! (Caution for those arriving by car: there's major construction on I-294. It's passable but tricky and highly congestion-prone.)

Then I went looking for a place to have lunch. I thought I knew where all the restaurants were, but I guess I didn't remember my custom Google map very well. I was hoping to find a Subway... Instead, I found Potbelly Sandwiches, and I'm glad I did, because the sandwich was good, and there was a folksinger, named Jeff Wolf, with an acoustic guitar providing music for the lunch crowd. I heard him sing "Slow Boat To China", "White Rabbit", "Sloop John B", and oh yes, "Puff the Magic Dragon" with an extra verse he wrote himself (so it wouldn't have a sad ending). It goes:
Puff got into rehab,
Took twelve long steps to see
That Jackie Paper never had
The answers or the key.
Puff's gone middle class now,
Has a wife and family
And lives in San Diego
And runs Puff's Pottery.
--Jeff Wolf

After I left there, I drove downtown. I have two questions about downtown Chicago: 1. Is it ever not cold and windy there? 2. I am never driving into downtown Chicago again. Okay, that's not a question. If I ever want to go to downtown Chicago again, I'm either taking the train or asking someone who drives around there every day to take me. I went to Millennium Park again, and got to see Cloud Gate a.k.a. the Bean again, and I got to see the Crown Fountain with the huge glass-block monoliths that display pictures of faces.

But I wasted so much time and sanity traveling to and from downtown that I didn't have time for anything else. Also, the CD player in my rental car has a problem: it can't play some of my CDs. At first I thought it just didn't like Mika, but there were others it wouldn't play. One thing the unplayable discs have in common: they're all new. But there's one new disc it was able to play: "Funplex", by the B-52's. Anyone who knows how the music industry works, and who loves puzzles, want to try tackling this?

Discs the machine played:
They Might Be Giants, "Cast Your Pod to the Wind" ("The Else" bonus disc)
Cake, "Comfort Eagle"
Elvis Costello, "The Very Best of Elvis Costello", disc 1 (not to be confused with "The Very Best of Elvis Costello and the Attractions")
The B-52's, "Funplex"

Discs it couldn't play:
Mika, "Life in Cartoon Motion"
OK Go, "Oh No"
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, "Love Their Country"
R.E.M., "Accelerate"

Anyway, I eventually got back to Schaumburg, and went to Woodfield Mall for dinner. I had a steak sandwich at The Great Steak & Potato Co., and a scoop of tiramisu ice cream at Baskin-Robbins. (Yummy!) It was nice to see the mall without its Christmas decorations up for once. :}

Tomorrow: Columbus, Ohio!
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I can't get no sleep. [May. 15th, 2008|08:51 am]
spikeda
[Tags|]

Might as well continue the musical journal titles to some extent, as long as they continue to be rather apt.

Last few days, I haven't been managing to get more than 6 or 7 hours' worth of good sleep - waking up just a little before my 6.00am alarm. Take this morning for instance. I went to sleep at about 10.30pm, but woke up at about 5.20am instead, and had a fairly disrupted sleep trying to get more up until six. I think the night before I went to bed a little after 9 but woke up at 4.30.

It hasn't seemed to affect me the past couple of days, but it's just a little odd.
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WOW unexpected [May. 15th, 2008|06:56 am]

fallimar
Might be doing the cover art for a fantasy novel

OMG

Also chapter images...

OMG

:D
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They're getting stupider [May. 14th, 2008|08:40 pm]

andygates
[Tags|, ]
[mood | confused]

Wired has this rather unsettling story about a survey which shows that Americans seem to be deciding that global warming's nothing to do with them:
Over the last year and a half, the number of Americans who believe the Earth is warming has dropped. The decline is especially precipitous among Republicans: in January 2007, 62 percent accepted global warming, compared to just 49 percent now.
Is this just election-year partisan bullshit, or is it general-public-can't-think-longterm bullshit, or what?  A reaction against Al Gore for daring to tell people what to do?  Just Plain Dumbness?

See, this is why humanity is fucked.  Because humanity is too damn stupid to save itself.  Do not waste time trying to save modern civilisation, just plan for you and yours to ride out the storms, water wars, economic collapse, famine and mass migration.
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I can has apartment! [May. 14th, 2008|11:43 am]

aatheus
[mood |joyful]
[music |Madness: "Our House"]

After much searching (and help from my dam... thanks Mum), I can has new apartment!! It's a one bedroom - I was originally holding out for two - but it's gorgeous! It's also still in Redwood Shitty, so it's reasonably close to work still.

Anyone wanna have a housewarming party? Or does someone else hold those for the new tenant? :-)
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I are an organ donor! [May. 14th, 2008|10:49 pm]

madmanmarkau
I has an organ donor card. Now, if I can just figure out how to remove it from the paper, all will be well. It seems to be two stickers stuck front and back on a piece of paper with the outline of the "card" scored into the plastic. How slack :P

Nope, I don't think it's coming out... I'll leave it there.
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Slippery! [May. 14th, 2008|09:30 pm]

chicago_lollie
[Tags|]

I lost control of my car tonight, on the way home from work. One corner had more loose gravel on it than usual.

I was like "... :DD" afterwards, and got my ass back on that road. Then I decided to change the track on my iPod.

BUT IT WASN'T THERE.







Wait, lemme tell this story again with pictures.



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I HAS A TRUCK! [May. 14th, 2008|02:06 am]

zrath
[Tags|, , ]
[mood | sleepy]
[music |Eat Static - "De-Classified" album]



So, like I mentioned a while back, I was about to get a pick-up truck.
Transportation! Finally! After all these years! I was standing there beside myself!
It is a 1992 Ford Ranger XLT pick-up truck with a shell. The truck is dark grey, like Zrath. :)
I've been thinking about a callsign for a while and I've decided on STRANGER 6.
It's a (St)Ranger, I am a foreigner, a stranger, and the number "6" pops up a lot in my life.
Here, have a picture of the Stranger!



(Not the actual license plate. I'll try to get them ASAP!)

The truck had to be fixed first, there was a problem with coolant leakage.
It was taken to the shop on Saturday April 19th, and was fixed by Wednesday 23rd.
Saturday 26th was picked as the day to do the transfer of ownership.
On that day, [info]coyoteseven retrieved the truck from the shop and came to pick me up.
Then we went to Alhambra to rendez-vouse (thanks Wil Wheaton!) with his parents at the AAA office there.
The pick-up truck seemed to be working fine and the engine temperature gauge stayed nice and low.
After getting a new radiator AND a new water pump, darn tootin' it should be working fine!
The only thing that didn't work was the air conditioning. And it was HOT!!!
We had to drive with the windows open OR DIE! It was over 100 degrees Farenheit in Alhambra!
But aside from that, the actual tranfer of ownership was rather quick and painless.
While I was at it, I got basic AAA membership and a quote for auto insurance.
I had 20 days to get insurance, so there was plenty of time to shop around and come to a decision.
C7 and I saw his parents off, then we looked at each other and said "Lunch!!".
It was about that time, yes.

I got into my truck (MY TRUCK!! MINE!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH HOO!!!! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!),
C7 got in too, and we cruised around looking for food. We wound up at a most un-Carl's Jr-esque Carl's Jr.
It had probably been something else before, like a Del Taco or a Jack In The Box or something.
Anyway, we got some food, and it was tasty.
Afterwards, C7 and I cleaned out the cab of the pick-up truck and threw away a bunch of junk.
We found two cassettes: "Skeletons In The Closets" (a Boingo best Of), and the "Ghostbusters" soundtrack.
I put the "Ghostbusters" tape in and we cruised around looking for our next objective: CAR WASH!
Yes, the truck had not been washed in months, possibly years! Bad Coyote, bad! No delicious babies! :D
We found a kick-ass car wash that did a great job and even cleaned the steering wheel at my request.
I gave both guys a tip when it was all done.

Then we went back to C7's parents' pad to take care of something.
Once the something was taken care of, we decided to go check out the Glendale Galleria Lego Store.
(We had gone to the one in Downtown Disney the previous weekend, so it was the Galleria's turn.)
I hit Googlesmaps to refresh my memory on how to get there (I used to go semi-regularly to the Glendale
Galleria in the mid-90s, when I had Simba, the '94 Ford Explorer Sport 4x4. That was a fun truck!).
The drive was pretty smooth and we got there quickly.
The mall was crowded, unsurprisingly. We icebreakered my way through the throngs and hit the Lego Store.
I showed C7 the building site crane I had ordered, since this store actually had it in stock.
We marvelled at the sheer number of different parts available in the Pick-A-Brick section.
I wound up picking up a few mini polybag Creator sets, small fun little things with interesting parts:
Black SUV - Jet - Triceratops - Lion
(Is that actually a lion? It looks like a lion to me.)
C7 and I had both bought a cute lil' Creator Whale at the Downtown Disney Lego Store the previous weekend.
We walked around the mall, looking for interesting stores to check out, when allsasudden, I got hungry!
It was weird because I had eaten a nice big burger at Carl's earlier (a SuperStar, I believe).
So I poked around the food court, then decided on a couple of slices of pizza to tide me over until dinner.
The pizza was not too bad. After that we wandered around some more and came across an antique furniture
store going out of business. A couple of items caught my eyes and I went in to investigate:



Yes, HIS and HERS sarcophagi! Only $600 each! They were about my height and opened and everything.
There was shelving inside, so you could use them to store your DVD collection, or something.
If I had had the money, I would have actually considered getting these! I love Egyptian stuff!
Ah well...
We clambered back into Stranger 6 and I took C7 home. The "Ghostbusters" cassettes gave up the ghost just
as we reached our destination. It was simply too old, dating back to the movie's theatrical release.
Ah well...
And then I went home. I totally forgot what I had for dinner.
And I've totally forgotten what I did on Sunday April 27th.
It will probably come back to me 10 minutes after I post this.

More later...


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Chicago, Chicago, it's this town that I'm in, it's this town that I'm in... [May. 13th, 2008|11:02 pm]

kinkyturtle
Made it to Chicago! Well, Schaumburg, to be precise. Quick rundown of my day:

Got up at 8:30. Drove to airport.
Had a Subway sandwich for lunch so I wouldn't need to eat on the plane.
Got on the plane. Watched "The Producers" (the all-musical version with Nathan Lane & Matthew Broderick) on my laptop. This is why I didn't want to eat on the plane; so I wouldn't have to interrupt the movie.
Discovered how cramped it is for me to try to use a laptop on a plane.
Had to pack up the laptop just as "Springtime for Hitler" was starting. Landed in Chicago.

Got my bags. Took shuttle to Avis.
Stood in a sloooooow line waiting for a clerk while my laptop bag and camera bag tried to cut off the circulation to my shoulders.
Got a white Chevy Impala.

Got onto I-90. Paid a toll. Stopped at the Des Plaines Oasis for a quick snack.
Remember that time I got confused by the freeway signs, missed my exit, and had to pay an extra toll? I didn't let that happen again!
Got to the Hyatt Woodfield, the first time I've ever been there when it wasn't the dead of winter. The trees around the hotel were doing something weird! I think it's called "blooming".
Also, a bunch of rooms in one corner of the building have been all torn out for some sort of renovation. Fortunately, my room wasn't near them.

The inside of the hotel looked weird too. No furries!
Checked in. Plugged in the laptop, watched the rest of "The Producers". Watched some deleted scenes and outtakes. Man, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick sure got the giggles a lot!
Some guy tried to get into my room. Fortunately for me, his keycard wasn't working. I told him this was my room, and he left, presumably to return to the lobby and ask why they tried to assign two guests to the same room.

Went out to a coffee house called Coffeehaus. Met [info]linnaeus and other LAFF (Lake Area Furry Friends) members. We chatted awhile.
We went to a nearby Denny's for dinner, and chatted another while.
One of the furs went outside and came back in wearing a wolf suit. The staff got a kick outta that!

Returned to the hotel. My key didn't work. Wondered if it had something to do with the guy who tried to enter my room earlier.
Went down to the lobby all tired and annoyed. The clerk seemed to have trouble finding my reservation in the computer. Hoo boy.
Eventually he gave me another key card, I came back up here and tried it, and it worked.

Tomorrow: Sightseeing!
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In Other News [May. 14th, 2008|07:06 am]

atpaw
The Large Hadron Collider is already bending space/time.

http://www.lhcountdown.com/

The countdown timer says that activation is in 17 hours time if you're in Australia on the East Coast...

33 hours time, says [info]triggur

26 hours time, says [info]wruf

One presumes that it's meant to go off of local time for the LHC (+1 hour from [info]wruf), which would put it at 25 hours to go.

Well, just in case a black hole does form inside the LHC - you've all been great friends, and I appreciate that.
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Movies [May. 14th, 2008|12:55 am]

bastett
I just finished watching the movie Next.
This is another Philip K. Dick adaptation, starring Nicholas Cage.

The plot focuses on the main character who has the ability to see 2 minutes into the future, whom the government tries to force to act for them 'for national security'.

It has some decent action scenes and the plot is ok, but the obligatory twist was a little predictable.

If you want a movie, light on deep thinking, with some action and with an interesting plot element (to make it 'not just another action movie'), then it's worth watching. Don't assume it's going to be a 5 star item though.
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Well I'll be damned. [May. 13th, 2008|10:00 pm]

chicago_lollie
I think I've actually managed to hit a music-block.


I'm not used to music blocks!
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Packed for trip [May. 13th, 2008|12:11 am]

kinkyturtle
All packed!

Tomorrow I fly to Chicago.
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photos from today [May. 12th, 2008|06:16 pm]

sinewaves23


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String is a wonderful thing [May. 12th, 2008|11:21 pm]

andygates
[Tags|, ]

String
Is a wonderful thing.
Rope is thicker
But string is quicker.
--Spike Milligan
I was mooching around looking for lanyard ideas for my sexy new multitool when I stumbled across Stormdrane's blog.  The man does some very practical and extremely pretty things with paracord.   Turk's head tastic!
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Sandbox gameplay... [May. 12th, 2008|09:47 pm]

sandroo
This little java toy has wasted far too much of my time as I figure out all the interactions...

http://andyslife.org/games/sand.php
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Are you free Friday 16th of May? [May. 12th, 2008|09:42 pm]

perthfurs
[muchikins]
[Current Location |Myyyyyyy house.]
[mood | chipper]

'Nother open house meet here at my place this Friday night. I am jobless and hopelessly poor so again, no foods for you. Well, none that shall be provided. There's still a Red Rooster, Subway, Noodle Box, Charcoal Chicken and Fish and Chips place at the Dianella Plaza, they should be open 'til 9pm if I recall correctly. Also, if you want to bring food thats' easy to prepare (noodles, microwave meals etc.) you can, and please feel free to use the kitchen so long as you don't leave a huge mess. Noodles on the ceiling are a no-no.
If you're wondering, I've decided that Luen should be okay with a house full of people, but you'll have to forgive him if he gets loud (he WILL compete with people who shout or speak loudly). He gets overly excited easily, and for that reason will be staying in his cage while many people are around. So no, there shall be no bird poop on the furries. Unless you're one of the people who likes to hang around 'til there's only five furres remaining, in which case I may let him out for a bit... though not for the soul purpose on pooping on you. He just needs a lot of exercise.
Address is still the same - unit 7, number 23 Bathurst St in Dianella. For those without cars, it's fairly easy to get to from the city, it's the 886, 887 or 889 from Wellington St bus depot in the city (from memory). If you can get to the city, you can get here. It's the stop just before Woodrow Ave (near the Inglewood Pools). I'd advise you check a street directory beforehand.
Nearly everyone is welcome. I think it's pretty clear by now who isn't. If you want to play the Xbox 360 feel free to bring games/controllers so you can, as we only have a few games and two controllers. My brother will be here, my mother will be working and getting back about 10pm... Jack says he'll be here too.
People can start rocking up about 4pm onward. If you want to come along, please post here or SMS me.
Hope to see you here :}

~Muchi, Jack and Araluen
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Movie night [May. 12th, 2008|06:31 pm]

flye
By the way guys, I need confirmed numbers for the movie night by this Sunday.

It's $15 for under 18s, $20 for over 18s, and includes pre-movie drinks and nibbles.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Saturday May 31st at the Astor theatre in Mt Lawley.

Please respond to this post if you're coming.
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