Shows at the Amphibicatt Gardens

My good friend Gog has been lining up shows at Luskwood, and it got me thinking about my drive to give back to the SL community. I had decided that the best way to do this is to tip musicians (and any other place that accepts tips that I love to patronize), since I don't buy a whole lot of stuff. However, I rarely have time to attend shows much, so I thought, why not pay musicians to play at the Amphibicatt?

Since Frogg and I are taking March off, essentially, that leaves a lot of time for setting up some gigs! I have made plans to attend all the shows I can at Luskwood, so none of the shows I set up will get in the way, and Rosa Gardner has been a BIG help contacting various performers to find out if they will play. I'm not out to make Amphibicatt any kind of regular venue (unless people want that), but it feels really good to be able to help out others. That's something I like to do anyway, and had just never thought of it in terms of hiring performers!

Anyway, look for a schedule of events soon, once it all gets lined up!

Happy Monday! (food and diet guilt on the brain)

Wait... what? Yeah, I said it! Every day is a happy day, when you don't think about all the time you have to spend at work, while the life you want to live is on hold. Oh my, that was a bit snarky wasn't it? hehe

Not looking forward to lunch, which is just a caeser salad. I really need to start getting better at eating healthier. I did a pretty good job, once upon a time, when doctor's orders had me on a mostly fat-free, low-salt diet, exercising every other day on the bike. I did it for three months, went back in, and the doc said "Well, looks like you can lower your blood pressure through diet after all, so we won't be starting you on medications." I just went "hooray!" and um, went back to my old teenage eating habits. I've been a bad boy though, and sucking down hamburgers and other fast food. I'm a sucker for temptation, and I know SO many reasons to break a diet that it's just not funny. I can pretty much rationalize anything, dammit. :D

What I really need, is to get back to cooking my own food. It's amazing, when you look at the packaging, how much junk is in processed food. It's loads easier to prepare and eat, but at what cost, I guess. During those months "getting in shape" for the doctor's test, I made a pretty good diet though:

Breakfast = Juice and granola bar (plus 2-3 chocolate covered coffee beans in place of a full cup of coffee with creamer).
Lunch = Salad with sliced chicken and a fairly low-fat dressing.
Dinner = Broiled chicken breast with baked potato (butter substitute) and salad.

Snacks = cut up veggies with low-fat ranch, or rice krispie squares (rice krispie squares are actually not as bad as a candy bar, but still provide the same mmmmm factor!)

This regiment worked really well, coupled with vitamins. Sometimes I'd make the juice one of those vitamin enriched ones. And the leftover dinner chicken, I just slice up for salads for lunch the next day.

Anyway, I really need to get back to do that. My time after work has just been so busy lately, with playing shows, and keeping up with RL responsibilities.

Playing at the Shelter in Swinside tonight

Just wanted to let viewers know that Frogg and I will be playing at the Shelter in Swinside at 6:30PM tonight, for an hour.

Some commission art I had to share :D

The picture to the left is a wonderful commission work done of Jaycatt, by the very talented John Prengaman, Jr. John draws a fantastic webcomic by the name "Sandusky" about the joys of living with a large cougar (and Bunker, a Siberian husky/Australian shepherd mix). I was so thrilled to get this commission that I just had to share it! If I could draw, I'd draw just like this...

He would love to do other commissions as well, so please feel free to contact him via his web page, if you are interested! I know I'll be asking for more Jaycatt art in the future, to be sure!

Here's another picture John created for me, that I plan to use quite a bit to promote my piano playing. Wow! Just outstanding...

Upcoming thingies

Thought I'd write a post and mention a lot of the fun upcoming things planned this year, in the order they are happening!

March off: For those of you who haven't heard yet, Frogg and I are taking March off playing shows, as kind of a birthday present to ourselves (his is the 15th and mine is the 19th). Hopefully we'll get a little more work done on the duets album, and learn some new material! We will still be doing our Friday shows (and there are 5 in March) but one will be at Luskwood (March 2nd) and one will be at a club opening for Daaneth (March 16th). So far, all the other Fridays will be at AmphibiCatt Gardens.

Rocky Mountain FurCon: I'm planning a trip to Denver in early June to attend the FurCon there (1st-3rd). I've always wanted to go to one, and Gog's recent experience in California has encouraged me... Plus, I'll get to meet some of the Luskwood folks again, and a few people I know from the FurryMUCK universe.

Rosa visiting in July!: My wonderful friend Rosa will finally be coming to Oregon to visit me for a whole week over the 4th of July! Hooray!! I'm really looking forward to it. Can't wait to visit the coast, and other SL'ers in the area with her. Plus, I love to cook and I have a ton of movies for when the weather sucks or we're just too tired. Should be a blast! Might be some other things happening during that week too, people coming by and such, so it should be a lot of fun!

Secondlife Convention in Chicago: Frogg and I will be attending the Secondlife convention in Chicago around August 24th, I believe. No determination has been made about who is playing when, but we hope to be in there somewhere! There's a rumor Cylindrian will be playing with us, and we're hoping to ask some others to be part of it all too!

Anyway, that's my post for the day... Have a good week!

Books

Did I mention I'm an avid reader? Well, actually, not so much any more, since Secondlife, but I used to be. Before SL I would read around two hours a day after work, fitting in a little time for dinner and other tasks. Since my father was a book salesman, there were always advanced reading copies and other remnants of books around the house for me to read. I particularly enjoy detective fiction, but also a good smattering of science fiction and other assorted novels. Yes, and graphic novels too! I don't read a lot of "comics" (well, strip comics) except for my daily webcomics, but I do love sequential art, especially in a book, full-page form.

Anyway, when I was on my trip up to Canada, I brought along a ton of books and rediscovered how much fun it is to bury your nose in some literature for a while. It can be done just about anywhere, and there's never any drama or interaction required, hehe. I just finished a rather large book called "A Deepness in the Sky" by Vernor Vinge. Excellent book... Started off a little slow, but had a wonderful cast of characters that developed towards an exciting climax. I highly recommend it... Vinge has another book, "A Fire Upon the Deep", which was also good, but I honestly preferred this one, for some reason... Perhaps it was because of the civilization the Spiders had, over the Tines, or the smaller scale that "Deepness" had to it. Anyway, both are excellent reads, and have really got me excited about Vinge's work, and reading again in general!

In fact, today at lunch I am going back to the local library. Before SL, I used to volunteer two hours every Sunday at the library, picking up books and sorting them on carts for eventual reshelving. Since I was visiting the library once a week anyway back then, to switch out books, it seemed like a logical thing to do. I wasn't playing any music back then, though, and when that gained momentum, I canceled my volunteering. I haven't been back more than twice in the last year, even. But, I've been gathering a list of book recommendations from friends, and am going to see which ones might be available. One book, recommended to me by my friend Joel, is called "Orbit". Joel said it was one of those books that, when it ends, you find yourself wishing it had gone on for another 100 pages. That sold me right there! Another book I just heard about last night, "The Road", has 45 people on the waiting list at the library, so I went ahead and ordered a used copy from Amazon. I hope it's good, it sure sounds like it! I don't normally buy books blindly, but I have high hopes about this one.

Since I'm on the subject of books, I'll mention a few of my absolute favorites.

"The Time Traveler's Wife" - A romantic time travel story... My absolute favorite time travel book to date. I reread it from time to time, and the ending touches me every time... It's a study of a relationship, lived in a very odd way.

"Replay" - My other favorite "time travel" book... Not so much time travel, but living the same life over, and over... Man, I love this book... I can't get enough of it!

"Jumper" - Wow, what a talent, to be able to teleport, and such a wonderful book to explore what it all means without seeming silly.

I also can't leave out the Callahan's and Hitchhiker's Guide series, but I've talked about them before...

Been a week, yeah I know :)

Yeah, I haven't posted much lately. Last Wednesday the 7th I started getting sick, and only just got better on Saturday the 10th. Still haven't even got around to completely unpacking from my Canada trip ;)

Anyway, things are going okay for the most part. Been doing some shows, and learning more about the upcoming SLCC in Chicago. Frogg and I are hoping to be part of it, but aren't sure in what capacity yet. Things are still pretty up in the air. But, the cost looks okay (roughly $600 each for the hotel and flights) depending on how much is discounted on the registration fee (which I think was $300 for all three days last year, if you weren't involved in the event). So, we're looking at less than $1000 each, with all meals and drinks and cab fares included :D Might be doable ;) Now, it all depends on what music they decide on and what part we would be playing in all that. Even if we didn't get to play music there (well, formally) I still think I'd like to go, just to meet folks. Playing last year was fun, but socializing and such was also quite fun.

Tonight I go see Dreamgirls with a friend of mine... Not exactly my kind of movie, but she's been really eager to see it and was a big fan of the stage show. I hear it's fast paced, and that Eddie Murphy has one of the more interesting roles, so it should be fun.

Tomorrow night I get to spend with Frogg, just shooting the breeze and having a good meal before he takes off for Texas on Wednesday. I hope things go well for him there! I know I'll be doing the Risky Business thing, all by myself hehe....

I'm back!

Yes, I'm back from vacation! I added some pictures to the Flickr strip up top there, if you want to look. I had a pretty good time for the second half of the vacation, but really missed the internet!