Yes, I know I have been Lax on my posting. Some of it is that there hasn’t been that much going on. Honestly, the last few weeks have run together. The big thing that has happened is not really a good thing. I had to go to the Dentist. Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows I hate going to the dentist. Having done the whole military thing with the military dentists that like to practice on young airmen, I grew a serious aversion to anything dental. Well, I had a tooth that started bothering me, a lot. So I looked around and found a dentist that is nice, helpful, and inexpensive. He and his staff have great personalities, they know about my fears and work with me on them.

It turns out that I did need a root canal on this one tooth (number 19 if that means anything). As much as I hate the process, I knew it was needed so we started. The first appointment was to check out the tooth, and discover that it needed the procedure. The next appointment was the actual root canal. Except that it was discovered that the tooth had a total of four canals. It would take another appointment to finish up. In the second appointment something bad happened. A file got broken off. Try as he might, my dentist couldn’t retrieve it. I understand the nature of a root canal so I know these things happen. He referred me to a specialist to have the file removed. (So at this point, one tooth has had 2 hours of work.)

Thursday I went to se this “Specialist”. My guard had been let down from having been to my dentist for a while and going in I felt fine. While I was under the drill I tried to find out how the process was going and the only communication I got back was “Wow, you are impatient”. She spent 2 hours using this drill that had a bit on it about 2-3 inches long, and I swear that she ran it to the hilt. It made the most horrible noise on the face of the earth. After all of that, there were some issues with the billing and they charged me out the tooth for the procedure! I am working with my dentist to see if they can work something out with the other and they are being very helpful. I haven’t had an experience like that since the military.

So that was on Thursday. The rest of Thursday and Friday even was fine. When I woke up on Saturday morning I felt a little ache. I figured it was normal for a tooth area that had been worked on so much. This is why my dentist gave me pain meds in the first place. By the end of Saturday, it felt like my head had been in a vice all day and someone was giving it a quarter turn every 10min. I was taking every pain med I had on hand and I still wanted to cry. We aren’t talking the “Ow that hurts” sort of pain, we are talking the deep down bone wrenching “Oh dear god can I chop off my head” pain. By the end of the day I wanted to curl up and cry…..and that was while I was ON the meds.

Sunday was marginally better. I managed to get up and do some work around the house. Then I spent some time down at the comic shop with my laptop working on homework. After all of this, I still have two more appointments for that tooth. The crown process starts next week.

Ugh, time for more meds.

Silver Surfer
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801

Anyone need a big silver guy?

You know, I sometimes wonder why it is that I will go for weeks with posting things every few days, and then I hit a slump and don’t post for a long time. So yeah, this is apparently one of those slumps. Key things that are going on……

School: Am in the home stretch! I have finished all of my tech classes and have just a few more core classes left. This session is Science and Math. I love the science course, its environmental science, but I hate Math. I think my big problem is that I understand logical math and real numbers, but when it comes to variables and x+y-g=z crap I just get lost. Only 4 more weeks of that though.

Shoreleave happened last weekend! Cheeky Monkey Boy came up from Atlanta and shared some room space. This was very obviously not the same as Farpoint. Well, I mean the con itself is the same practically, but this time there wasn’t near as many close friends there. A lot of the core people that make the con fun weren’t there and so it was kind of a relax-con. This was Sarah’s first big con and I really wish it was more, but I guess that it’s nice to just easy into things like this. Since there wasn’t a whole lot going on we managed to slip away and see the latest Harry Potter movie and Transformers!

Transformers: It was like I was twelve years old again and playing with my Optimus Prime in the back yard. It was Giant F’ing Robots beating the crap out of each other! Honestly, what could be better? My only complaint is that the robots themselves were very busy looking. Too much detail made some of the fight scenes hard to watch. As soon as the robots locked together it was just one ball of robot rolling around until they separated. Everything else was pure cybertron awesome!

Harry Potter: Ok so I am not a HUGE Harry Potter nut. The books that I have managed to read were good and all, (I think I made it through book 5). The movie was good and a fun watch. I think my favorite character in this one was Luna. The girl playing her was just right for the part. As far as the new book goes, some people are just insane! Here we have the final book in one of the biggest book franchises in the last decade. Stores are most likely going nuts to just carry the book for sale. Some stores I was walking through had “Pre-order your Book!” signs all over like there was going to be some shortage of books! People lined up on Friday night just to be the first to get it and secure their copy! Saturday evening, a full day after the release, I walked into Walmart and they had a full pallet of books. No lines, just grab one and go.

Now I know that I have done some things like waiting in line for Star Wars Movies so I can see them on the midnight show. Mostly this is because of the people I am with at that time. When you go see a movie like that, it’s fun to see it in a theater full of people that care about it as much as you do. Pre-ordering something and waiting for it like that though, you are all fighting over who is getting to it first! I guess there are some stores that had special programs going with games and fun stuff for kids, and that’s good, but sometimes…..

Oh and for some fun, here are some Harry Potter Spoilers! (no, not really)

Voldemort is Harrys Father and Hermonie is Harry’s Sister. Together they lead a rebelion against Voldemort……wait.

Harry, Ron and Hermonie carry the Sorcerer’s stone to Mount Voldemort and Cast it in the fires to destroy it and kill the Dark Lord

Harry finds an egg that contains a dragon that he bonds with. He then leads on army against Voldemort and the evil dragon

Harry gets bit by a radioactive magical spider and gains all its abilities. He uses this new found power to fight Voldemort, who is trying to create a Sun like power source to destroy the world

Harry, upset over the death of his parents, uses his new cloak to hide his identity and chases bad guys distributing vigilante justice.

Take that IPhone!

Ok, so where was I? Oh yes, Hunger struck while at the folk festival and, while there was plenty of really good smelling food at the booths, I was in dire need of hydration and air conditioning. By the third or fourth time of Sarah asking if I was ok, I realized that I needed nourishment. I had never been to the National Gallery so it made a perfect choice for food and rest stop. We had sammiches at the café and then went upstairs to see the permanent collection of art. We must have spent a few hours just browsing the different paintings, commenting on what we liked, taking breaks on some of the couches. I could see spending much more time there as well. It felt nice to get some culture in me!

We headed downstairs to see a few of the exhibits and found something quite interesting. By now you should know about my friend Doc, or Caleb, or even his other name that he would kill me if I called him. I have posted a few pictures of him in my gallery. Well downstairs we found the painting of Bartolomé Sureda y Miserol by Francisco de Goya. For those that haven’t seen it, it looks like this:

Well, for reference, here is a picture of Doc:

Needless to say, it was a tad eerie. I am now convinced that Doc is an immortal and I plan to chop off his head and steal his power!

After being astonished by this new discovery, we met up with Paul and went over to the Natural History to see an IMAX show and kill some time. I even got the chance to play around with Paul’s Iphone. (It’s a cool gadget, but after about 2 weeks I think I would grow tired of it). We saw Lions in 3D and apparently, while we were in the show, a Storm hit DC and they had to evacuate the DC mall. I know this more-so because EVERYONE crowded into the museum. Sarah and I both went into anxiety overload and headed out to a less populated area. The Sandwiches were starting to wear off so we sought out new food locations far away from the main strip. Unfortunately, there was no getting away from the sheer multitude of people!

After being nearly turned away from two places, (hour and a half wait? I don’t think so) we stopped in at BudFruckers Fubblubbers Fu%$buckers, Fudruckers and had a burger. This would be the point where I said “Screw this” and we decided to head home. It has been a super long day, I was tired, and there were far too many people. I have seen fireworks before and I didn’t mind missing these. On the way back there was no one on the metro, we got back home by around 8:30ish in the PM and was able to see the Capitol Fireworks show on PBS in HD. Shortly afterwards, we gave in to sleep.

Had we stayed, it would have been crowded the whole way home and we wouldn’t have gotten to bed until probably 1am and 10 times more exhausted.

It was a good choice.

GHII Mod
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801

A mod I did to my Guitar Hero II controller

So yesterday was a very long exhausting day! We woke up at 5am after a night of restless (if any) sleep. Andrew needed to be at the Airport for a 7:30am flight. After moaning and groaning a bit, whining about wanting to stay in bed and pleading not to go, I finally got up and went to go wake up Andrew. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, there weren’t that many people flying out of the area so the lines were sparse. Given that we had some extra time, we stopped off and had a Cinnabon for some breakfast. Camping out near the security line I managed to inhale my sugar coated dough ball called a cinnamon roll. Andrew got to say his good byes and he headed off through the gates. Sarah and I headed back to the house to catch a quick nap.

This is when that syrupy monster took its revenge. My stomach began to twist and started to test out sailor knots with my intestines. I was experiencing the Red Bull effect. (for anyone who knows what Red Bull does to me). After expelling the demons, I was beat and took my nap. While we had only planned for a quick nap, Sarah fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 10:30am. I was so passed out that she took quite the effort in getting me awake again. We got up and headed downtown for our day off. You see, Sarah works different hours and, where my days off are Saturday and Sunday, hers are Monday and Tuesday. The fourth was one of the few days where both of us had off. So we parked at the Metro and went for a downtown adventure!

The first stop was the Botanical Gardens. I had never been to any of the places on our list so this was all new to me. The Gardens were really cool to visit. All of the different plant life growing was just awesome to see. They also had a Titan Arum there, also known as the Corpse Flower. It was not entirely in bloom so it didn’t stink yet, but it did look very cool. I managed to get some pictures of some of the cool flowers, but haven’t uploaded them yet. Right next to the Botanical gardens is the Native American Museum. It served as a great checkpoint into the DC Mall Cordon. (Set up for the 4th celebration). We took a quick tour of the top floor before our Stomachs turned on us and we needed food.

Thankfully, there was a folk festival going on all along the DC Mall and one of the booths had a great big “FREE FEAST” sign above it! We made a bee line and were treated to a yummy pasta salad and some curry or saffron flavored trail mix. Not entirely a feast but it defiantly helped with the hunger. All brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Hare Krishna. There was a whole section of the folk festival set up for India. We even learned what Ghee is! Unfortunately, the experience was soured by the extremely loud and obnoxious booths that a few Christian groups had set up to overpower the Indian music booths and warn of the Heathen ways! Apparently some people haven’t grasped the concept of “learning about other cultures”. After the India visit, we toured some of the local Virginia booths and saw some of the Irish culture set-ups. This was when the pasta salad gave out and we required more to eat. The National Gallery was a great choice and we headed over to the Café there to get some much needed nourishment.

On that note, I will continue the rest in part 2!

So, yeah, umm I haven’t really posted in the last few weeks because, thankfully, everything has been just status quo lately. Work has been the standard, there haven’t been any big events and everything else is just going along swimmingly. The future, however, has a number of things coming up. First though, Video Games Live

A few months ago, one of my friends from work sent me a video for a concert that was coming to the DC area. Video Games Live is a show where a Symphony Orchestra performs music from many popular video games. For the DC area it was going to be the National Symphony Orchestra playing at the Kennedy Center. Needless to say I was excited. I bought 3 tickets 3 months ago and have been eagerly waiting for June 30th.

The show itself was amazing. It was in one of the smaller sides of the Center so the stage was not as large as what you see in the trailer off the website, and because of this it was limited as to what “on stage” things they could do. Really though, you don’t go to the NSO to see a stage show. They had the big screen above the stage to show different clips from the games, and the lighting and visual effects were awesome. They played music from all sorts of video games, from classic arcade games to Halo and everything in-between! It was, by far, one of the best concerts I have been to! Even Andrew was excited to be watching it. Many of the games they showcased he had played and knew the music from.

Speaking of Andrew, as of Wednesday he will be out visiting his Mom in Arizona (as well as a whirlwind west coast tour) for 2 whole months! Which means that it’s going to be very strange around my place. To fill the void we have Shoreleave coming up on July 13th and this will be Sarahs first convention hanging out with the rest of us wackos. We should also have Episode III for Stupid Hobbitsess out very very soon (I hope). I guess more to come as it happens!

Video games live!
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801

It’s a me! Mario!