Re-named for Continuity

In case you missed it, the east coast of the US experienced an earthquake today.  It originated as a 5.9 near Richmond, Virginia.  I was in the Malvern, PA's Home Depot training room at about 1:30 when the whole building began shaking.  It was surreal at first, as Pennsylvania isn't very prone to quakes, we weren't sure of the cause, but as the sound carried through the building we knew it wasn't an isolated event.  That was pretty much the most exciting part of my day.

After work I went to my friend's house and played some Magic.  He had picked up some boosters and I pulled my third Kozilek.

Also, the girl I had considered dating, and have been talking to everyday got asked out by another guy. She said yes, having spent enough time waiting for me to make up my mind.  Can't blame her.  I'm not even sure I'm in a position to date anyone, even they lived closer than 300 miles away.

I Don't Want to Work, I Just Want to Bang On the Drums All Day

Yesterday was on one of my less productive days, and yet it had some interesting points.  Being bored of Minecraft I decided to play my drums, which have been collecting a fine layer of dust for four years.

 

As you can see it's a bit cramped, but this photo shows the layout of my room a little bit. It's the 3rd floor loft of a town house.  My fencing rapier is on the wall and you can see a bunch of Boba Fett stuff on the far right.  Anywho, while playing the drums I saw something fall off the wall towards the stairs but didn't think much of it.  I actually forgot about it until my mom came home and found it.

Turns out the missing object was a little ceramic dragon given to me by an ex-girlfriend, the one who tried to kill herself and has a crazy family.  So I'm not really sure if I care enough to try fixing this:

Perhaps it means something. Like I need to keep things farther from the edge of the wall while drumming.  I try not to tie too much symbolism into daily events, but maybe it has to do with me trying to move on.  I'm not officially dating anyone, but there's someone I might be willing to try it with.  Downside is that it would be long distance though.

Now I'm Back From Outer Space

Greetings to all, oh, five of you, who read this.  I’ve been away for a while having attended Pennsic and a friend’s (first ex-girlfriend ironically) wedding.

Pennsic went pretty well.  Aethlemearc sided with the East Kingdom, which was good for me having acquaintances in both.  In the long run, the Midrealm and its allies were vastly outnumbered on both the heavy field and the fencing fields.  By Tuesday the East and its allies had accumulated all the available War Points up till that point, making it impossible for the Midrealm to win the war.

For the fencers there were 3 War Point battles, Town, Field, and Woods.  Each had 3, 2, and 1 round respectively.  I must say, although the Woods were highly chaotic and full of poison ivy, I think it was my favorite.  Weaving through trees to stab an unsuspecting foe is highly satisfying.  There was some foul play during the fight (EMS took out someone with broken ribs) but for the most part it was a good time.

Don't we look terrifying?

We also partook in the Atlantian Five-Man tourny, in which teams of five fencers face off.  We decided to call ourselves Aethlemearc's School of Pain, since our group is a College and most of us had been injured or to the ER within the previous two weeks.  The first few rounds didn't go well as we tried accommodating a team mate's broken foot.  Meeting no success we changed our strategy to one we're more familiar with, in which myself and Ragnar blitz rush one end of the opposing team's line in order to get behind them.  It worked a lot better, landing us at least one victory, but the damage had been done and we didn't advance past the first round.

I also spent a lot of money at Pennsic, and not all on what I thought.  Probably my single biggest purchase were some fencing pants from Gypsy Peddler for $69, but from what I hear, Peddler’s stuff will be around longer than I am.  My most ridiculous purchase was a cotton  kilt.  Yes, I bought a man-skirt.  Well worth it though, as my alternative “formal” wear was long black pants in which I would’ve roasted.

One of my best Pennsic stories would have to be while at the Seven Pearls Bardic Competition in the Aethlemearc Royal Encampment.  The final person had gone and the judges were trying to decide a winner when North Shield, an Aethlemearc shire, barged into the camp unannounced with plastic Viking helms, glow sticks, and a Beer Siege Wagon. “Do not fear, we bring beer!” they cried.  I found myself wishing that I actually liked beer, but I did get a bottle of bubbles out of the invasion.  Yes, I can be easily pleased.

Friday afternoon most of us departed camp, with four of us heading to the afore-mentioned friend’s wedding.  At the hotel we were able to shower, feel human, and catch up with some long-absent friends, mostly Ivan, who started our fencing group and was officiating the wedding.  Despite our exhaustion, we played Magic and chatted about the SCA until 2 AM. 

Saturday was the wedding, small, short, simple, and beautiful.  During the reception I had a mediocre gin and tonic and did much dancing, most of it with a recently engaged friend whose fiancé couldn’t make it. I make a decent substitute I guess.

Sunday I headed home alone in the rain.  Felt sorry for the two motorcycles that passed me.  Speaking of which, my dad just got a 1999 Honda Shadow, so now I have an excuse to get my bike permit.  Anywho.  Bummed around most of Monday. 

Today I went on a mini adventure to Oaks, PA.  for there, behind the BJ’s, are some pieces of abandoned railroad equipment.  These trains have been sitting there for a long time. I first saw them after the Regal Cinemas 24 opened there, and the trains are along the back road out of the lot.  Today I drove down there and climbed into two of them.  I took about 52 pictures between the 4 major attractions there.  The only two identifying marks I found were the steam engine’s side said “Steamtown 1” and the maintenance speeder had a sticker in it for the Tourist Railway Association, Inc.  Now I know there’s a Steamtown up near Scranton, PA.  If these trains are from there, they’re a looong way from home.  Tempted to call the park office at Steamtown and see if they know anything about these trains’ origins.

After my miniventure I made my way to my grandmom’s and then my dad’s, were we disassembled my broken iPod Touch and played with the garden railroad.

Cheers!

Rolling rolling rolling...

So this week I'll be heading off to an event called Pennsic. It's the single largest event held by the SCA and it takes place a few miles from Slippery Rock, PA.  After Pennsic, I'm driving to Athens, PA for my first ex-girlfriend's wedding.  In all, I'll be traveling a total of 821 miles, give or take a few.

Back to Pennsic. This is the 40th Pennsic, and my first time going.  I haven't been camping since I got out of Scouting, so hopefully I haven't lost all my camping know-how.  Aside from sleeping in a tent for a week, Pennsic will be full of huge melee battles for both fencers and the heavy fighters.  There's also archery, but seeing as how my car will be stuffed and I have 4 usable arrows....yeaah. Maybe next year.

After Pennsic, I'm going to the wedding of Emily and James. Legally, they've been married since last summer, but had the "ceremony" in North Carolina where James is based (Marines).  This was partially to expedite the process of getting off-base housing and what not. I don't know all the details, but next weekend, the 13th, they're having a fancier ceremony with all their friends and family.  Should be a good time.

Once I return from all this gallivanting, I'll be starting a part-time job at The Home Depot, in lumber specifically. This will help restock my bank accounts for my fast approaching student loans.  It'll also help feed my addictions like Magic, my car, fencing, trains....and METH! Well, maybe not meth, that's bad mojo there.  =P

The Cost of Power

     So Pennsylvania has been blisteringly hot the past few days.  Been spending most of my days hiding in the air conditioning, except when I have to drive somewhere in non-air conditioned car. -_-  Anywho, I happened upon an interesting, or rather disturbing, news article using my iPod's Pulse app.  A glistening example of the cost of America's power and hunger.  The article discusses the fact that there are roughly 20,000 oil spills in the United States every year.

"While most people have been paying attention to the debt crisis, another American

 disaster has been taking place under the radar in Montana. Three weeks ago, an ExxonMobil 

oil pipeline pumping medium crude into the United States from from Canada burst, spilling 

42,000 gallons of sludge into the immaculate Yellowstone River, the longest 

free-flowing river in the lower 48 states."

     The worst part is that the companies responsible for these "small" spills rarely pay any major consequences.  I could speculate about them paying off the higher powers but...

Anywho, as much as I love cars, we need to find another source of power other than oil.  America, and the world needs to find a safer, cleaner power source before it kills us all.  Of course, as long as there's money in the oil industry it's not going to go away any time soon.

     In other news, I'm currently watching the German Grand Prix on Fox.  XPSMcLaren has many more details about this weekend's motor sports events...and oddly by watching this I'm supporting the current petrol industry aren't I...dammit.

Time Keeps On Slipping Into the Future

     Busy busy busy...and yet nothing to do.  Now that I'm finally done with college, assuming I pass my project, I've been sitting at home trying to find a job.  Yippee.  I have to balance my searching between finding a career, and finding a job to fill time and make money until then.  I must say, although being able to apply online to places is great, I hate the process used. I'll Best Buy as an example, though plenty of other companies are guilty of the same.  After spending time filling out the basic stuff you are subjected to very long, tedious, and repetitive questionnaire.  I recall one from the Best Buy application that asked "Close friends aren't worth having because they'll only betray you in the end;" you then chose from "Strongly Agree, Somewhat Agree, Somewhat Disagree, and Strongly Disagree."  First off, that's a very off the wall question, and I'd question the sanity of who came posed it to me.  Now some of the questions I don't feel can be answered with the four generic options  given, and some of them you know which answer is most desirable even if you don't agree with it.  Now this process is supposed to help companies choose the best candidates to work in their stores, but you know what the desired answers are, and give those instead of your honest opinion, what does that make you? A liar? Now I'm not going to say all these employees are lying, backstabbing, do-anything-to-get-ahead people, but that's what these so called "Aptitude Tests" are really filtering for.  I feel a five minute, in-person interview would be a much better indication of a candidate's character. Oh well.
     This past Thursday I attended the U2 360 Tour show at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.  My mom bought the tickets two years ago, and then Bono hurt his back and had to postpone the entire tour.

While I'm not U2's biggest fan, the show was still incredible.  The size of the stage, all the lights, and the 360 screen in the middle was incredible even from our nose-bleed-section seats.
     In SCAdian related news, I head a rumor from one of my local fencing marshals that the East Kingdom heavy fighters might refuse to fight at Pennsic.  Apparently the current king of the East made some decisions without consulting anyone...and they are pissed about it.  So imagine one guy running out to engage an army. That'll be the East's king this August. I do hope it it's caught on tape.
   

I Don't Have a Spending Problem

I have a saving problem.

Had an awesome weekend, and as usual spent too much money on Magic.  My friend from home, who is now dating one of my ex-s, came to visit again.  We played a lot of said cardboard crack game. On Saturday I rediscovered a store at the Uniontown Mall called Sports Collector's Universe.  They have pretty good deals on all things Magic related. Ultra-pro deck boxes for $1-2, good card sleeves for $4/80 sleeves, boosters as far back as Fifth Edition and Ice Age and Homelands for $2.50 - $3 each. Fat Packs and Commander decks for $25, and booster boxes for $90.  Needless to say I spent too much there, not that they mind.

My one friend Gina, the actual before-mentioned ex, decided to split a New Phyrexia booster box for $45 each.  On top of that we were allowed to choose three other booster packs for free.  We choose a Zendikar, Conflux, and M11 pack.  Gina pulled an Eldrazi Monument:

I opened the M11 booster and pulled:

We promptly traded he two. The Conflux pack was a bit disappointing, and by that I mean there was no Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker in it.  Anywho, we proceeded to open the booster box, each pulling a handful of mythics and generally good/useful cards in the process.  I now have both

I honestly like the regular version on the left better, as it shows Sheoldred better.  Not that I'm getting rid of the promo of course. I'll probably trade the regular one for an Emrakrul, the Aeons Torn that my friend pulled while sitting next to me.  And by friend, I mean the infamous Shane. There's a funny story there too.

Before going halfers on the booster box with Gina, I had picked up the stack of Rise of the Eldrazi boosters and said "Even though there could be an Emrakul right here in my hand, I'm better off buying him online." Ten minutes later Shane opens one of those very boosters and there's Emrakul.  Not. Cool.  Irony is a bitter-sweet thing, it really is.  As pissed as I was, it still makes me smile and laugh a bit. Shane has agreed to trade Emrakul to me for a healthy stack of cards, especially rares that I'm not ever going to use.  I'll now put a list of other good cards I got, though not all....would take too long.

 

Personally I want to make a helmet based on his head.

  

In other news I'm procrastinating badly on my paper for my graduation project, which hopefully will be done Friday.  I was doing decent work on it until I was pocket dialed by one of my other ex's psychotic mother.  I hate this foul, sub-human creature enough that it lost what little work ethic I had and started ranting a little about pocket dials on Facebook.  Now, I don't hate many people in the world, but I will openly admit despising this woman's existence.  Close friends know the reasons, and they all pretty well agree.  Oh well.

Anywho, I hope everyone had a great 4th of July, assuming my few readers are all American, and if not, then I hope you at least had a great weekend anyway.