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    • CommentTimeJul 6th 2012
    Haven't seen this 'un for July so here goes.

    I'll try not to be too crabby. I'm trying to reach for the silver lining.

    Just two more days of this freaking show. It really is a thing of wonder. I really am proud of what we did. We have some strikingly talented people working here for less than peanuts.

    But it's just two more days and it's over, thank God.

    Two more days and then it'll be a while before people question me again on knowing what I'm doing, no more actors arguing with me and then telling me they don't want to feel upset, no more ASM questioning me (in front of the actors!) like I've never done this before, no more director bitching to me about the actors and actors bitching to me about the director and me just having to hold it all in.

    Come 'ere, my darling Balvenie, let's be friends.
    • CommentAuthorflecky
    • CommentTimeJul 7th 2012
    I'm flexing my hug-muscle to give our inside fed' operative, the great government spy, a fat slice of happy-pie to celebrate the creation of government spy: the next generation. Metatemporal physicians are buying cigars by the bulk-load to celebrate the arrival of Baby GS: Prime.

    Congratulations, matey!

    It's my fleshvurld birthday today. I think I'm something like 3000 years old/young...or maybe just 2, it means so little to me. I suppose I'll have to get some custard and ginger beer out to keep order at my space-chimp's tea-party. Bastards! I refuse to wear make up and a dress to stop space-chimp from humping my leg, that much I'm certain of.

    I'm a cancerous crab-person, me.

    • CommentTimeJul 7th 2012
    @flecky - A superlative birthday, sir!

    Hmm. I've been kinda quiet around these parts for a while, and going through a really nasty phase. Yesterday some sort of switch finally flipped, and I've ... regained some sanity points, I guess? I'm looking at the thing that's been gnawing at me for a year now (and really digging into me for the past three months) and thinking: "What? THAT thing? Huh."

    The thing is still there, but I feel utterly calm about it. I think I'll pour it another cup of coffee and we'll talk things over.
  1.  (10753.4)
    @Flecky - magnificent birthday to you
    @Taphead - glad whatever it is you're putting in perspective is being put in perspective... down with the thing...

    Weather here is abominable, so just having a quiet day of consolidation in my study, with green tea and the rain pounding on the roof. Now have a WWAN card back in my new laptop, have got the GPS working of sorts (although I've never found a use for GPS in a laptop when one has it on one's phone), ASIO4ALL installed which seems to have alleviated the need to drop more megabucks on a new soundcard, couple of letters ready to post, now about to sort out the unholy mess that the room's in.
    • CommentTimeJul 8th 2012
    One of the best shows of the run tonight, despite my screwups. I love my guys.
  2.  (10753.6)
    @ Flecky - A joyous day of birth to you, sir!

    Me, I've been waking up at 8:30pm. And I'm totally ok with that. Much as I hate summer heat in NYC, it does provide me with the environment that is so disgusting and caustic that I can live the most extreme of nocturnal lifestyles with total and complete lack of guilt. And that's awesome. This is the first month that I've been not freaked out about the government and money and applications and I actually have enough money to exist.

    Also, seeing Wrath of Khan as a midnight show last night, finding out through post movie discussion with others that Ricardo Montalban's chest was NOT in fact a prosthetic but his real flesh (hotness!), and following it up by watching Search for Spock back at a friend's house. Go geek life, go!
  3.  (10753.7)
    Flecky: Happy belated womb spawning, friend! And thank you (and everyone) for the kind words and wishes.

    Me and the future Mrs. Spy are really excited, and trying to navigate governmental bureaucracy to get me off of work for a couple days to actually get married and have our mini-moon.

    Managed to work on the 4th, (yay holiday pay), followed by a double-shift (yay overtime) and then I got a credit card from my Union, so I should be able to pay for all of that, and not be completely broke right away. Going to stress myself out eventually, I can feel it coming. I need a beer.
  4.  (10753.8)
    Blah, moving here from the old thread:


    Hmm, I think I've been welcomed into the neighborhood. I have developed a habit of having a good beer bar as a home away from home, ie. a living room with good selection of beers and a chance for random encounters, a good place to read, write and code games. When I moved to my new apartment, which is on an island next to Helsinki downtown, it took me a little while to find a good place, but finally managed to find a cozy place with a rather good beer selection and a friendly staff and atmosphere.

    For the last two evenings I've been sitting in the chosen place, playing The Walking Dead. The local denizens just started chatting with me at the bar counter about beers, and the bartender joined in - later turned out that she was the boss woman of the place. Enter a fun evening where the bartender didn't bring me the trappist beers I was ordering, but instead of what she thought I'd like :) Had nice chats of The Island, as the locals seem to call the place, with "nah, you don't need anything from the mainland, just raise the bridge up and all is good".

    Camaderie! Also just found out that there are bike and pedestrian lanes leading out to the other islands around here, so when the sky stops pissing down like a racehorse, dive to do some exploring on a bike!
  5.  (10753.9)
    The long, horrible saga of my divorce and forced moving house is almost over.

    We exchanged contracts on the house we're buying late this afternoon. Which was a good thing, as we're moving tomorrow.
    (Admittedly, we're moving to Hebden Bridge, which just had the second major flood in 2 weeks... but that's just details at this point! Our place is safely uphill.)
  6.  (10753.10)
    Two things: First, the weekend of too much at once is over. I don't have to go back to the crappy weekend job for two weeks, and the last of the relatives from the family reunion have left. My parents' house is so quiet!

    Second: I'm actually going to an Amanda Palmer concert. Granted it's in October and I have to drive to the Twin Cities to go it, but the tickets were surprisingly affordable (my great-aunt actually offered to cover the costs if it wasn't - to my surprise). I've wanted to see one of her shows - her theatricality is widely known, so this is going to be quite fun. Maybe I can manage a Whitechapel meetup the day after even.
    • CommentTimeJul 9th 2012 edited
    So it's my friend's birthday and she really wanted to go for a tour of the Steamwhistle Brewery with her fiancee, but when they got there they were sad to find that all the tours were booked and decided to instead hang around the bar and text me letting me know that they can meet me early since the plans were a bust. Well, I decided that I was having none of this, contacted the brewery and got them on a tour.

    I don't know what feels more weird. The fact that I seem to have clout or that I did a good deed.
  7.  (10753.12)
    @GovSpy - Congrats on your kid news!
    @Flecky - One more year who's teeth you kicked in. Good man.
    @Raz - Way to survive the show.
    @Vorn - It's good to have a home away from home. Sadly, mine's an hour an a half drive away, which makes staggering home at the end of the night challenging. And thus the three years of excessive sobriety. I'm not sure at what point it's officially a lifestyle, but I think I'm getting close.
    @Cat - Glad to see you got that sorted. I saw your tweets earlier and was a little worried on your behalf.
    @trini - Way to score tickets to a show.
    @oldhat - Ain't you all TV and internets famous beer goddess or some shit? Personally, I'd be using that to have the brew-master make a special batch to sell to the tourists made from hops used to exfoliate me, but that's why I'm not allowed near anything that might be ingested by other people.

    My hugs? Well things are generally going pretty well. I'm bracing for a week from hell, but I had a first date last night that went well. Not a shag in the back seat of her BWM well, but that relationship ended poorly, so perhaps it's best if I pace myself a bit anyway. I'm still marveling at how great my Yamaha HS80Ms sound. This weekend, I'm going to mix like a mutha'. And now to beer and sleep. Cheers y'all.
  8.  (10753.13)
    On my near daily trip to the local store, I saw a young grocery employee that I sometimes talk to. I don't know if he's even 18, but he's very polite and cute, and had previously asked me if I knew of any book clubs or anything so he could practice his english, so I try to talk to him every time I go there. In any case, when I saw him today he was wearing this AWESOME purple hoodie with a yellow Bizarro Superman logo, which happened to match my purple and yellow Batman chucks perfectly. When I gushed about his hoodie, he asked me if I wanted it and then he tried to take it off and give it to me on the spot. So adorable!
    • CommentTimeJul 11th 2012 edited
    MORE fun beer clout news.

    - Got told that I'm getting some special Euro Cup Weiss glasses in the mail. Yee!
    - Having a fancy dinner later this month and decided that a bottle of DeuS Brut des Flandres, a Champagne beer from Belgium that is served in champagne flute glasses and goes for about $35-$40 a bottle, would do well. Problem is, our liquor stores don't sell it and it's only available at two bars in the city that I know of and no takeaway allowed because it's illegal. So after a day-long search I contacted the importer, said who I was and asked if I could purchase a single bottle if they had one lying around (normally importers only do private orders by the case). Not only did they say I could have one, but they're giving me a couple for free. A good reason is apparently the beers from this brewery are coming in to LCBO in the Fall so to me anyways, a review before they hit definitely couldn't hurt.

    And the brewery? Bosteels. They also produce a beer called Kwak, which this importer also deals in.

    So they're also throwing in a Kwak glass and stand for me as well.

    • CommentTimeJul 11th 2012
    @oldhat - Total Woo.
    that is awesome.
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2012
    I love Kwak. Can't get enough of it. (sorry, couldn't resist)

    Any beer that looks like a science experiment is OK by me. Really enjoying your beer coverage Robin :)
      CommentAuthorAlan Tyson
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2012 edited
    Nothing to actually do with me, but my dad and a buddy of his (also name Alan) made it onto the local news yesterday. Them, and their kickass WWII trainer biplane, Rocinante. Dad's the first guy you see, in the red shirt, and the guy who does most of the talking over the radio.

    I'm saying this here because I'm pretty sure he doesn't read it, so it's okay: My dad is basically the coolest grownup in the world.
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2012
    @oldhat.... so jealous
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2012 edited
    I gilded a bunch of hamburgers this week and it even got covered on Boingboing and Laughing Squid - comments on BoingBoing are fun as always!

    Went to a seekrit (as in, not sharing the location) beach in NYC where I got to run around topless with my friends and swim in the ocean and fall asleep under the sun while stuffing myself with beer and chips and salsa. It was the best day off yet.

    Am getting a replacement laptop soon as Mirabelle II is about to kick the bucket with her faulty battery and increasingly slow RAM.

    Also have plans in place for next paycheck to get a magnet installed into my finger. Endless Magneto jokes to follow.

    edit to add: @oldhat did a quick search on beermenus and it's sold at a place down the street from where Nick now lives. We're gonna pick one up too!
  9.  (10753.20)
    Yesterday I managed to finish photographs for a deadline, and then successfully dragged myself awake again after 2.5 hours of sleep to make a doctor appointment where I was told I lost 4 pounds from being on this blood sugar medication (rock!). From there I walked to Central Park where I met my awesome friend and his doctor mother who gave me advice about supplements to take for my health stuff.

    Later that night, standing on a street corner, my friend and I were approached by a fellow asking for change. We'd already given away our change, but my asked the man if he smoked, to at least offer him a cigarette. The man was quite rude and said:

    "If you gave me a cigarette, I would crush it into pieces and give it right back to you. I'm smart enough to not smoke. If you keep smoking, you'll look like you are fifty by the time you are thirty."

    It was my friend's 37th birthday. Hah! Awesome!
