Sad little fair

Its 46 degrees here. Thank the gods our booth is inside. Despite
similar weather yesterday we still did pretty well. I don't have as
high hopes for today but we soldier on.

Technology...is there anything it CAN do?

Back on the road at the North Carolina Ren faire. This is the show we specifically bought a GPS unit for. This expensive bit of technology frankly has NO idea where the hell anything is. We justhad the unit repaired and I'm beginning to think that it was a waste of money. Of course, this area DOES have a lot of construction. We had to hit Walmart for some lights. My iphone got us the address.

But when we got to the area the store was literally hidden behind some low hills and scrubs. Bonus? NO SIGNS. I understand cities not wanting large ugly signs soaring into the sky. I do. But NO signs? We only found the place by sheer chance.

I would hate to be a business in this area. You could be giving away free bars of gold with complimentary steak diners and blowjobs but there's no way anyone will ever find you in this place of madness.

Other than that, all is well. Setup went fine. It will be cold tomorrow. Well, 60 degrees. That is considered cold around these parts. In Ohio we go out and play water polo in the freshly thawed lake. Go figure.

Related to absolutely nothing, GO SEE 'DOOMSDAY". It totally rocks. Don't think about it too much. Just enjoy the pretty pictures. Double bonus? The use of Frankie Goes to Hollywoods "Two Tribes" during a car chase straight out of Mad Max 2.

MegaCon and more

I ran into R2 at the Con. He looks good for his age but I thought he might want to try out "The Shatner" model to keep that slight gut in check.


















The very rare double headed Rhino. She's a beauty!





















THIS is what you look like after the ride that "doesn't get you very wet" according to my beloved wife.

















Two lorikeets sharing some nectar at Busch Gardens

Keen

Long ass day today. 14 hours or so. Setup was a clusterfuck. No
assigned tables. At least we did some sales. Bonus, Peter Mathew did
some shopping at my booth today. If you don't know who that is then
turn in your geek card. (or check the googles).

edit: I meant Peter Mayhew aka Chewbaca!!!!!!

Meh

Two website upgrades went horribly wrong just as we departed Ohio.
Megacon was so-so.
Caught a cold.
On the other hand its 70 down here in Tampa and yesterday we went to
Busch Gardens.

Like clockwork...

Tomorrow we head out on the road for Florida and MEGACON. The house is clean, Cat Nanny, Lindsey and our neighbor are looking after our hyperactive Cats. Van is loaded. Audio books procured.

And then the phone rings...

At this point you'd like I would have learned not to answer the damned thing. But I, like Pavlov's dog, am well trained.

It's my friend Rupp.

He's early. His site shouldn't crap out until I'm at least 500 miles from home. Preferably in another country. Surrounded by headhunters.

I fire off some emails to determine what's up with his website. Then another client calls. He's been dragging his feet for MONTHS on a project and now he has an overwhelming urge to get the thing done TODAY. I spend several hours on the phone with the client, more in a chat session with support people, another hour on hold before talking to a real human. All culminating with the certain knowledge that the pinhead at my clients bank ignored all the instruction we gave him months ago.

A developer call me back. We've been talking about trying to find out what makes my friend Rupps site crash. We settle on doing a pretty serious upgrade. Settle on a price.

Call Bank, bark at moron.
Call Rupp, get approval for project.
Call Developer, green light upgrades.

Clicky-clicky on computer. Set up everything.

And now, I leave. Tadaa!

I'm sure that nothing at all will go wrong.

The memory of snow...

When the snow came last week I stayed inside. Work to do.

But at last I could no longer stand being cooped up and I walked out to the shop. The moment my shoes hit the snow I had the strangest feeling of deja vu. Or maybe not deja vu. Maybe the strange sensation of knowing this snow. Of having felt it before.

It's almost impossible to explain this to someone who hasn't lived in a Northern clime. They say that the Eskimos have 50 different words for ice (which I doubt) but there are many kinds of snow. It can take on many textures and weights. From a fine powder to a packable mess. And as I stepped out into the cold air I remembered the last time I had felt that exact snow before. It was the winter of 77/78.

You can go and look up records for that year. You can see pictures of people in Buffalo digging down 6 feet to find the top of their cars. I made a lot of money shoveling snow that year and spent a lot of time out doors. And since that year I have not felt snow exactly like it. It's crunch, it's stickiness. After some 30 years or so.

Strange.

When you need a slushie yesterday...

How is this for a cool concept. A faux store with a time travel theme! It appears that money raised form the sale of things like "Barbarian Repellent" and "Robot Cow Milk" goes to support a non-profit tutoring and writing center.


This is the kind of thing that I could SO get behind. We need more coolness like this in the world.