Jaycatt Nico's Ramblings

An update!

2011-09-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

Hello hello! Just thought I'd write a little on this old blog, and update folks on how I've been

Still playing music in Second Life, although the crowds are lessened by the huge number of musicians there these days. I don't get into SL as much as I used to, mainly because I'd rather play video games or do household chores, or watch TV/movies.

My mate Hunter has a job at Cabela's now, an outdoor/hunting/sports store that opened up within the last year. So that's cool!

Jeremy's back has been giving him quite a bit of trouble, but fortunately he's able to do shows, although not as many as he'd like.

My Dad is deteriorating, but seems happy enough as long as he gets the things he's interested in (which isn't much, but is very particular). It's made my sister very happy having the company and the caregiver is a real friend to both.

I'm still at the Utility, working away. It's been 20 years now, can you imagine that?

My friend Debbie is settling into the Oregon climate and lifestyle and has been here over a year now. We both went back to Michigan recently so I could meet her family and see where she grew up. Not too different from here, except for the weather ;)

Not a whole lot else to say... My old friend Wes from Bend has been chatting recently, so it's nice to touch base with him. Another friend, Joel, I haven't heard from, but I assume he's doing okay.

Samantha the housecat is still with us, clinging to life and getting most excited when food is involved (she always was a mooch). The other cats, Remington and McKenzie, are fine, with the latter chasing the former more often than he'd like.

That's about it for now, sorry for not updating more.

Things are settling down...

2011-01-21T10:43:00.000-08:00

Whew! Well, a couple of weeks ago, my sister and I, along with a lot of help from friends, moved our father to the new addition at her house. Aside from a few bumps in his mood and agitation along the way, I think we managed pretty well, and I'm proud to say that a few weeks later he seems to be settled in. He's actually enjoying it there, compared to living in the old place on the hill.

Now, my job has been to get the old place spiffed up (it had 5 cats and a man not capable of cleaning well). I've got Marshall's HVAC service coming out today to fix the heat pump, and next week I plan to get the floor cleared off for Stanley Steamer to come out and clean the whole floor, top to bottom (it's got two stories) :D

I still think my sister's job is harder: taking care of Dad. However, she has help in the form of a professional caregiver, who takes care of him during the day, and she come back at night with the nursing know-how to help as well. He's pretty well cared for!

Anyway, that's the big news for now. Nice to know he's coping, and it's been nostalgic as I clear out junk and things in the old house. Mainly the kitchen, which has a bunch of over two year old spices and jars that really shouldn't be used. He's got a small garbage can, so it will take quite a while to get it all dealt with.

Changes!

2010-09-08T10:34:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! Since things are changing in my life I thought it would be a good idea to update my long-neglected blog. As you know from reading about me, I am slow to accept change, but eventually things even out and I calm down. :D This could be a long post, since quite a few things are going on. I'll try to talk about them in the order they've been occurring.

First off, I'm not sure I've mentioned my father, but he's starting to get Alzheimer's Syndrome, and although I think the memory part isn't *too* bad, his communication skills have decreased quite a bit. Pretty much to the point that, unless you know him, you'd have a hard time figuring out what he's talking about. Part of the problem is his trouble with pronouns. He replaces "his" or "it's" with "my". For instance, if one of his cats has trouble with flea bites, he may say: "Oh yeah, I just give a little squirt to the back of my neck and we don't get those bites." This really confused the vet, who thought he was using the medicine on himself. Anyway, my sister and I are a bit worried at times. He drives well enough, but what if he got in an accident (even through no fault of his own)? Would he be able to communicate with the police or other drivers? Also, he's up on that hill by himself. The other day the smoke detector went off (due to burning some toast) and he didn't know who to call...

So, plans have been in the works to create a sort of apartment at my sister's house, converting an old great room into a living space. Work has been going extremely well, as we have an excellent general contractor who really knows his stuff. He may not need the apartment right away, but it will be comforting to know it is finished and ready for him to move in if things deteriorate. My sister is a hospice nurse, so she would be able to take care of him, possibly even full-time if she wanted to. I handle the business end of things, such as his bills and investments and such, so between the two of us, we really have a handle on his life :)

The next change concerns my mate, Hunter! He will be joining the culinary arts program at LCC next year, so this year he will be taking all the regular classes not directly connected to the program. He really wanted to start the main program this year, but wasn't able to get the reference letters in time to make the cut. No worries though, these regular courses are also important! Plus, once he does start the main culinary arts program, he'll be at school sometimes more than 10 hours a day, so I'll miss him when it finally comes to pass :(

In other news, one of my best friends from Second Life completed her move from Michigan to Eugene just this last month. She's been planning the move for months, and it finally happened. There were a few hiccups with car trouble on the way out, but she made it, and was able to stay at my place for the time it took to furnish her new apartment and get a bit familiar with the town. I have to say, it's really nice to have face-to-face contact with someone that before I only used to see on Skype every weekday at lunch. Now I'm able to stop by in the morning on my way to work (instead of just chatting on the cell phone) and visit directly at lunch. It's really fun having her around, and although I know she's feeling a bit like a fish-out-of-water due to the unfamiliar surroundings, that just takes time and will eventually become easier. I'm looking forward to a lot of great movie nights, day trips, and potlucks between all of us!

Lastly, we have a new kitten in the house! With a story behind it, so here goes. Last Thursday, September 2nd, Hunter was driving back Springfield on McKenzie Highway (Highway 126) and noticed someone up ahead throw some gray trash out the passenger window into the center of the highway. As he passed the spot, he noticed that the trash was moving and alive! He immediately pulled to the side of the road with flashers on, and, waving traffic to stop, rescued the poor gray kitten, only 6 weeks old. He then drove to the emergency vet nearby, who determined it may have a concussion, and visually had some road rash from being ejected from a moving vehicle at 55MPH. I still can't believe anyone could be so heartless. The emergency vet didn't have the staff to watch the kitten overnight, so we took it in and put it in our spare room, worried it may not survive the night. It wouldn't leave the corner of the room, and would hiss and swipe at anyone who tried to touch it.

The next morning, he was still wary of humans, but doing a bit better, and over the holiday weekend the whole household was checking in on he, giving it food and water, and a safe place to recover. By the end of the weekend, he became a normal kitten again, purring and nuzzling, chasing a string, eating and using the litter. Hunter and I took him to the vet to check for any terminal diseases (which we wouldn't want passed on to Remington or Samantha, of course) and it passed with flying colors. After a bout of indecision on my part, we decided we would keep him, and name him McKenzie. Just think: if Hunter had been 5 minutes sooner or later on that stretch of highway, he may never have seen it and it would have died right there. It just felt right to have it be part of the family. The vet said at 6 weeks it would normally still be with its mother, so it needs some special care. I've always wanted to raise a kitten to adulthood from the start, and now we have the chance. It's the cutest thing: we also call it "little squeaker", as you can see from this video.

Well, that's all I have to report at the moment. Thanks for reading :)

A new post!

2010-03-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought this blog was dead, here comes a new post! Not a whole lot going on at the moment, still playing music, and Frogg's picked up some more solo shows to help with his income while I'm at work. Just thought I'd drop a line and say hello to anyone who still visits here :)

Just an update

2010-02-07T19:53:00.000-08:00

Haven't been doing much here in this blog, but I have been working on my FurAffinity page, putting up some music and badge art.

Effinjay Music Room - 10/26/09

2009-10-28T08:49:00.001-07:00

Effinjay Music Room - 10/26/09
Originally uploaded by Jaycatt

Here's a current picture of the music room Frogg and I use for shows.

Fall is here and other ruminations by a siamese :D

2009-10-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's fall around Oregon, and that means the leaves are changing and the weather's getting colder. I love the cold weather, and I can't wait to be bundled up in wear sweaters and such (as I think I look good in sweaters).

So what's been going on with me? Let's see...

Hunter and I had a great time up at the convention in Seattle. Got to finally see a medium-sized convention, and it was a lot of fun. It's so rare you run into other furs, that it's quiet a treat to see so many in one place. Sort of liberating, really, because you realize you're not the minority you think you are the rest of the year. Got to see quite a few of the local Eugene furs there, and that was awesome too. Also got to meet some of Hunter's friends, and we even did a little port and cheese and chocolate thing in the hotel room with two of them, which was really nice.

The local weekly, the Eugene Weekly, did an article on fetishes recently (seen here). Although they did a good job of mentioning that furries exist, they only focused on the sexual aspects some have. I wrote my first letter to the editor ever (seen here) so I could remind folks that just because someone labels themselves a furry, doesn't necessarily mean they are into the whole sex furvert part. I mean, yes, I've got my own kinks like everyone, but they're not furry related :D

On a similar topic, I'm really interested to see the new Where The Wild Things Are movie, partly because I grew up with the book, but also partly for the description of the movie. I've heard that it's a tribute to childhood for adults, which intrigues me. Also, part of my attraction to the furry fandom is my desire for simple joys unfettered by the intellectual trappings that tend to bog down the real emotion behind what people enjoy doing. No, not sex, but more a feeling of belonging and safety, or a feeling of closeness and comfort. I really hope the movie delivers, but I'm sure I'm setting myself up for being railroaded again by Hollywood ;)

There's a new trip on the horizon that I didn't mention below. I finally get to see Las Vegas! Here's the story of how it came to be: Hunter's folks really want to treat us to a trip, and they've been trying to take us on a cruise to Mexico for some time. There are a few problems with this, the major of which is that I'd need to take 6 days off work in a row, which I really can't do and still have time leftover for being sick or other emergencies, and also that we just don't like Carnival's cruises, and would be pretty bored just trying not to spend money on the trip. Sure, people think cruises are pretty exciting and wonderful, but they don't tell you that everything costs money except the food and regular coffee. So, even though his folks would be paying for the airfare and cruise room and everything, we'd still need a good portion of money just to not be sitting in the room watching movies (which we can do here in town). So, Hunter suggested instead that we meet for a few days in Vegas, which would be cheaper and take less time. They said yes! So, I'm very excited :D Hunter's an old hand in Vegas, and knows the town pretty well, having grown up in LA and driving there off and on. It'll be taking place over the Christmas holiday, so it's not too long now even! And afterwards, less than a week later, we go to the Umpqua yurt for New Years! Talk about a change of scene :D I'm also looking forward to the relaxing time we'll have there, as we've been planning it for months!

Time really flies, and at the end of this month, Hunter and I will be celebrating our two year anniversary. I am still so ecstatic to be with him, and he makes a joy of my life every day we are together. We're planning on exchanging some light gifts during the brunch at Valley River Inn, which is a bit spendy but absolutely the best brunch I've had (until I get to Vegas, Hunter tells me!)

Well, that's about all the time I have for now, and news too! Have a good fall everyone, post to you later!

Another month, another update

2009-08-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

And still not much going on! Hunter was out for a couple of weeks this month, but we got through that okay. Remington and Samantha are doing okay, Frogg is doing his own thing, he and I are playing shows, and Hunter and I are planning our trips and lives :)

Hunter and I are going to be up attending the RainFurrest convention in September up in Seattle, which should be a blast! We've been saving a little money each month for it, so it's basically all covered, woo hoo! I'm not big on the zombie theme, but I'll get to meet a whole bunch of furs for the first time, and a lot of Hunter's friends too :)

Our next little trip will be over the New Year's holiday, renting one of the yurts at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park. It'll be a great place to ring in the new year.

Then, our other planned trip is to Further Confusion, a huge furry convention in the Bay area in California. That's all the way out in January, 2010 though. It's so huge, you have to schedule stuff this far back, and I think most of the hotel rooms are already taken!

Anyway, that's all from me, catch you all later!

Update

2009-07-31T11:42:00.001-07:00

Not a whole lot going on with me, just work, home, the usual stuff. Thought I'd drop a note and say as much.

The Comfy Chair

2009-07-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

We all love that feeling of your favorite comfy chair, and I've recently discovered that's how I feel about my relationship, too! Let me explain with a little story...

About six years ago, I was asked with my coworker and friend Nancy to look for a recliner to use in our work's break room. We went that afternoon to a number of furniture stores, trying out recliners. I think we must have sat in over 40 of them, total. But finally, we arrived at an oversized blue/green recliner (picture is above). I remember when I sat in it, I had a feeling of peace; a sort of instant relaxation, like slipping into a hot shower. Nancy agreed, and we ended up getting the chair.

Since then, the office space has moved around, but the chair has kept with us, and I often sneak up during lunch for a quick nap. I am not generally known to nap sitting up, but there's something about the comfort of this chair that does it for me. Also, it reclines into an almost flat bed-like position; ideal for sleeping.

Anyway, I've recently noticed that the moment I even enter the room the chair is in, just the thought of being able to sit in it brings a wave of relaxation to me. Then, as I sit down, I just about sigh with relief and have a tough time not sleeping right then.

The point of this story leads me to last night. Hunter wanted to leave the TV on, when it was time for me to go to bed, because he wasn't yet tired, and the TV helps him sleep. I mentioned that I would have trouble falling asleep, since I focus on the dialog, and can't tune it out as white noise. He responded back by saying, "But hon, you fall asleep all the time when we're watching TV together." I realized he was right, but there was a difference. In the times that has happened, we've been snuggling. And then it hit me: Snuggling with my partner provides the exact same feeling as the office chair I love, back at work. All the cares, worries, and tension just drains away, allowing me to make any outside annoyance become white noise.

If someone had told me about this when I started this blog, I wouldn't have believed them. "That's stuff for the romance books," I would have said, "That doesn't actually happen... I can think of plenty of things a person would worry about snuggling: 'Am I crushing their arm', 'What if I want to get up', 'Am I squeezing too hard', et cetera." I'm very happy to find out that's completely untrue.

I hope you all have someone special in your lives that provides the same result!

Post? Yeah, okay...

2009-06-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

I don't post here much anymore. But then again, I don't think anyone reads these anyway... Lately I've been offline most all the time except for when I'm at work, when I need to be using a PC all day anyway. Having a partner as a companion makes RL that much more interesting, so we've been off sharing it together.

This weekend, we have helped organize a furmeet/picnic/bbq thingy out at Fern Ridge Lake, and quite a few furs said they would come! Yay! Finally, a chance to meet folks in the area. I've been wanting to meet some more like-minded furs in quite a while from the Eugene area, and this year there are lots of meets going on. I am excited!

Jaycatt and the Harvest Moon

2009-06-08T07:55:00.001-07:00

jaycat and the harvest moon
Originally uploaded by isfullofcrap

Crap Mariner took this picture of me accompanying Frogg on the Neil Young song "Harvest Moon" as we played it at the Luskwood Amphitheater. How cool!

Just another update :)

2009-06-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

First, sorry I haven't been keeping this journal up to date lately. Guess I've just been busy with other things. :) But Hunter's out of town this week, visiting his folks in LA, so I thought I'd use some of the extra time to write to anyone who follows the blog.

Things have been going better than expected with the cats. About a week or so ago, we decided to get both their claws trimmed and let them start interacting. At first, Samantha would tear off after him at first sight; cornering him on top of a chair and hissing at him until she got tired of that and sulked off. But now, she notices him, and only if he gets close or tries to pass does he get the hiss treatment. She's even letting him into the bedroom where she sleeps, as long as he keeps to himself (which he does quite nicely). So, they seem to be co-existing in that way, well enough. However, he has a habit of behaving like a normal cat, which is to eat her food when she's not looking. Samantha typically eats a bit at a time, not right away, so this has been a little problematic. We're still locking him away in his room at nightfall: partly to let her have the comfort of going down to eat without him around, and also to keep them from potentially fighting in the middle of the night. None of us want to get woken up by angry kitties :D

And the birds in the eaves have finally hushed! I researched how to do it and the starlings in the attic are gone :) An exterminator came out with some much better covers for the attic vents and sealed it all back up. Frogg is extremely happy, and they were always directly above his window and would wake him up every morning. He even has a song about it, that I can't remember the title of at this moment.

Another great news item: Frogg and I have been asked to play at the Florence, Oregon Sunday market on June 14th from 1PM-2:30PM! It'll be the longest time we've played in public (1.5 hours) so far. Sure, we've played at our local block party, but that's not the same. I hope it goes well, I'm really looking forward to a long stint at the piano in public! Frogg says we should make up a set list, which we've never done before... Sounds good to me!

The Luskwood "first Friday of the month" shows are also going very well. I can't believe we've been playing there over a year now! Tonight is another of those nights, and I'm really looking forward to it. They are a great audience, and the organizers and people who help out couldn't be better. :)

That's all for now, hope to write more sooner!

Let's Dance!

2009-06-02T06:23:00.001-07:00

Let's Dance!
Originally uploaded by Jaycatt

Here's a picture taken from last night, when I turned 4 years old in Second Life!

Local theater is awesome

2009-04-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday night, Hunter and I attended a dinner theater here in Eugene, at a place called the Actors Cabaret. I've known of the place for years, ever since I was in my 20s taking the bus from the old downtown station on 10th street. I'd be waiting for the bus back to Springfield from my night class, and directly across the street was this wall mural of a bunch of varied silhouettes of people of different sizes and shapes, all kinds of costumes (done as shadows, of course). I would look at it and imagine the different types of folks, and what might go on in that building. One day, I walked over to take a look, and noticed it was a live theater establishment, that actually had dinner theater! Ever since then, I've been wanting to try it, because I thought the idea of eating and staying to watch a show would be really kick-ass. Yeah, I'm showing my 1980s upbringing there, so what :D

Well, as I mentioned earlier in this blog at the end of last year, Hunter and I went to see A Christmas Carol, a musical version, at the Hult Center, and really enjoyed it. Turns out it was performed by the Actors Cabaret. Outside the performance hall at the Hult, there was a table with flyers of other upcoming shows. One of the shows was the musical The Producers. It's always been a favorite of mine, and it's Hunter's absolute favorite. We waited the four months, and got tickets, and the dream was realized last night!

We got there about 6:30PM, and got to our table. We'd already paid the extra, so the meal was no charge except for the drinks and dessert. One of the waiters we recognized as Bob Cratchet from the Christmas Carol :) We each had a pasta dish (which was okay), and right about when we finished eating, it was 8PM and the show started.

Wow! These folks are non-profit, but they put on one hell of a show. Now, Hunter was extremely familar with the songs and everything, and said they just did a bang-up job. I was very impressed how much sound and choreography they could get out of such a small space! The actors were very believable, and a ton of fun to watch.

At intermission, we got a couple of drinks and sipped them throughout the second half. At no time was I looking at my watch, and I was sort of surprised when 10:30PM rolled around and the show ended. What fun, and a great evening out! We definately plan to do it again :) Sorry I missed being at Heron Island that night, but it was well worth it for me :D

We've got plans to see "Curtains" now, when tickets become available.

Update from the cat!

2009-03-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

Hello there everyone! Lots has been going on, but I thought I'd update you on a few things that have been happening here in my blog :)

The big news is that we got a new cat! Samantha is still alive and well, but last Saturday the 14th Hunter and I were down at the PetSmart getting fish supplies (did I tell you we also have a fish tank and a couple of fish, too?) and the Florence Humane Society was there with some of their strays. Well, there was a particular cat that was extremely friendly, in spite of being in a cage and being surrounded by noisy customers and such. He'd roll over on his back right there and nuzzle you through the cage mesh, it was extremely cute.

I had pretty much made my mind up a long time ago that I wasn't going to get another cat; mainly because I didn't want to stress Samantha out, and I wouldn't have much time to devote to integrating them. Well, Hunter and I talked it out for a long time, and with him here, that's possible! So, here's a picture of the new kitty, Remington (named by the shelter). I call him Remy (like Remy Martin, hehe):
He's really a well tempered cat, and pretty much nothing phases him. He's about two year old, and "altered" of course (they don't like to use "fixed" anymore because it implies something was broken). As of today, Samantha is still getting used to him, but we have been taking it very slow. Here's our steps so far:

1) Keep Remy in a separate room from Samantha (who gets the full roam of the house).
2) Introduce sock rubbed all over the cat to the other cat (no problems from this except lots of curiosity).
3) Put Samantha in Remy's room and let Remy have run of the house for a little while (this worked well, too, with Samantha sniffing around curiously and finally settling down in the room).
4) Put Remy in the cat carrier, and allow Samantha to come in the room to see (first time, Samantha hissed and growled and was extremely nervous, but second time, she just watched, so this went well too)
5) Bring Remy in carrier into bedroom where Samantha sleeps for her to check him out (she hissed a bit more at him, but perhaps did not expect him to be allowed into other parts of the house)
6) We tried letting Remy out into the bedroom where Samantha was, and with one hiss he became submissive, rolling around on the floor. Only when he attained higher ground by jumping on the toilet did she freak out and chase him around until he hid. I think this is normal, though, and it seems she wants to be dominant cat, which is fine! Remy is very easy-going and will take to it well.

Remember, Samantha's been without another cat in her life for over 10 years, as she is only an indoor cat and was rescued from not ideal conditions behind a bowling alley ;)

Okay, that's the big cat news! :D In other news, yesterday I was part of a "career day" at the local middle school, where I got to represent the Utility I work for, and let kids know about why it's a good field to go into. As part of that, we asked the kids what they liked to do and what kind of job they were looking for. Most were interested in sports and the entertainment industry (I guess those are the new "fireman" and "doctor" type jobs), but one kid in particular was actually interested in going into taxidermy. I was a bit surprised, but it takes all kinds :D He had even researched it and discovered a local taxidermist he could intern at, and was planning to after high school. Well, it's good to have goals... ;)

Ah, one other thing of note is that my birthday is tomorrow, yay! March 19th for the win! :D I'll be 38 finally.. Back in the even numbers. Not long now until the "Big Four Oh" I guess, but I think it'll be great :)

Take care everyone, talk to you later!

Back from Seattle!

2009-02-20T09:29:00.001-08:00

Hey-yo! It's been a quiet week here since returning from Seattle on Tuesday, so I thought I'd update you all on the trip!

We left nice and early on Monday, about 6am, and drove straight through to the Washington border for gas and a snack, and to switch drivers.

Made it to Seattle and parked about 11am, and instantly bought tickets to go up in the Space Needle. Tickets were spendy at $16, but for $20 you could go up twice (once in the day and once at night). Hunter had never been in the Needle before, and it was in fact one of the places on his "list" to go! The view wasn't too bad, and there were lots of people checking it out.

Next, we took the monorail to the downtown area, and got coffee from Seattle's Best. Hunter has a goal to have items from places in the places they are from (i.e. Philly Cheesesteak, Chicago dogs, Key Lime pie from the keys, etc). I have to admit, it was the finest coffee I'd had, even better than Starbucks.

We walked from there to Pike Street Market, which for those who haven't been is a lot like a community Saturday market, but every day. Below, he found a cool coin shop, and we discovered our first penny smasher :D Hunter's been collecting smashed pennies from the places we go, and almost has a whole book of them! I collect shot glasses, myself, but I'd already been to Seattle and got one with the Needle on it...

We ate lunch at a great little fish and chips place on the waterfront, then headed back to the hotel. It was just a Best Western, but only $90 a night, and a block from the Needle! Pretty cool :D It was a perfect place, with a fairly comfy bed and nice shower, plus included a free buffet breakfast in the morning.

That night, we ended up at Claim Jumper, which I had never seen before except in the frozen section at the grocery store. I got ribs, and they were fantastic :D

After we got home, it was dark, so we headed back up the Needle for night time views. I think the night time views are much more spectacular than during the day.

The next morning, after tasty breakfast, we ended up on the monorail again, back to the waterfront. Got a nice walk around, and visited Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe, then noticed we could take a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island for only $6.50 each. We went, and truly enjoyed the whole ferry experience (as we've been on cruises before) and had lunch at a pizza place, then returned on the ferry to get back about 2PM or so.

Headed back to the hotel, got the car, and headed home! All in all, a great trip, for just a night.. Even though it was a 5 hour drive each way!

Update!

2009-02-11T10:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I have a dentist appointment today at 11:30 that I'm dreading... Getting a crown put in on a cracked tooth. It wouldn't be so bad, except that it's very hard to numb my lower jaw, and last time it took around 6-7 shots and a half hour to do so. Once it's numb, I don't really care what they do. It'll be better than biting down on it though, and accidentally drinking cold water and hitting it with it.

So anyway, that's why I'm writing: to mainly keep my mind off it all as it's coming up in about a half hour.

Not a whole lot going on in my life at the moment, except the usual stuff. Last night I got to play a solo show, which was a lot of fun, even though I did make a few mistakes and crashed and burned on a song or two. That'll teach me to read the room chat while playing! hehe

The other news is that Hunter and I will finally be making a Seattle trip beginning of next week, albeit a short overnight one. It's a 4-5 hour drive up to there, but we plan to leave very early (like 5am or so) on Monday the 16th, and get back very late (like 10pm or so) on Tuesday the 17th. Still, it should give us enough time to see the Needle, and Pike St., and a few other things such as the Ballard Locks.

Facebook!

2009-01-29T13:59:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but lately I've been caught up more in developing my Facebook account. If you're also using Facebook, feel free to add me. I'm listed there under Marc lePine!

hehe

2009-01-16T13:38:00.001-08:00

http://james.nerdiphythesoul.com/bennyhillifier/speedup.php?id=V68osiQykek

Up to the usual

2009-01-07T16:02:00.000-08:00

Hiya readers :) Not a whole lot going on, but I thought I'd at least write something...

Things are business as usual at home. Hunter and I finished up Doctor Who (the 2005 series and up at least), attempted to get into Torchwood (and failed) and are now watching a mix of Monty Python's Flying Circus and Blackadder. I've seen both, many times, but Hunter hasn't really seen MPFC much.

Haven't had a whole lot of offers for music shows in Second Life, so for the moment Frogg and I are just playing the regular Friday 7-9PM show and the Saturday 7-8PM show. Occasionally there are a few extras, too, but not as much as there have been. I did get Frogg set up on CDBaby so that eventually he can have his songs on iTunes, Amazon, and other outlets. If it goes well I'll put my album up there too. Still no work on the duets album, unfortunately. We really need to get into a recording studio to properly do it. I am happy releasing a "live" album, but I think Frogg would prefer something more polished. We have been working on a few new songs, covers though. Frogg and I both sing on "Sounds of Silence", and I play piano along with his "Chasing Cars" cover. I've learned "Fred Jones Part 2", a Ben Folds Five song, which was recommended to me by the loverly Michi Lumin from Luskwood. It really got inside my head, after listening to it, so playing it is the only way to really get that itch to feel it satisfied :D

Frogg and I already play a song from the Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog, "Freeze Ray", but I hope we learn more someday. I recently picked up the DVD of the album, and the musical commentary is fantastic and brilliant. It's currently my "What's in Jaycatt's Head?" answer, as I can't seem to shake humming one of the many good songs in it.

I've also been playing a lot of Mob Wars on Facebook (I'm on Facebook as Marc lePine, if you're interested in adding me as a friend there!). I am really enjoying Facebook. At first I figured it was just like Myspace, which I really don't care for, but it's quite a bit more refined and a lot of fun to watch friends on.

Hunter and I had a good time at the Casablanca showing, and discovered that there are more older movies being played there, too! See the bottom of the previous link there to see the upcoming list. Tonight is "Raiders of the Lost Ark", which I think I saw in the theater (it came out when I was 10), and it's one of Hunter's favorite movies. So we'll be going to see that :D I also hope to see Groundhog Day on the 4th of February, and maybe Sixteen Candles and hopefully Holy Grail when it comes there later in the spring :)

That's about all for now, take care out there, hope you are all having a nice weekend!

Happy upcoming new year!

2008-12-30T10:59:00.000-08:00

Hey ya folks! I hope you all are ready for the new year! I think I am, as much as I can be... For me, it's just a date that I get off work, as I try not to give it any real importance in terms of resolutions and stuff. New Year's Eve, Hunter and I will be going to see Casablanca on the big screen at the local theater. Should be a blast: I love to see old movies on the big screen, and Hunter's never seen it before. Well, like everyone, he knows the plot and a majority of the famous lines, but seeing the movie is a different thing. I think it's pretty timeless, myself. I was having this discussion with him last night. I believe a lot of older movies are considered classics not because of the story they told, but because of the technical aspects of it and the actors used. A lot of older films have been remade, with the remake being better than the original. However, Casablanca I feel differently about. This is a movie that is best exactly as it was filmed. A remake of Casablanca would never be as good as the original. I dunno, I guess it's just timeless to me. The first time I watched it, I never got bogged down in "Oh, this is an old movie, that's why *blank* isn't as good as it could be", etc. And that's my rant on old movies, hehe...

Afterwards, we plan to watch one of the New Years countdowns together with a bottle of Asti. I discovered I liked Asti on our last vacation together. This will be a fun New Years, because Hunter's first visit to Eugene was over New Years, so this will be our second one together. Yay!

Happy Holidays folks :)

2008-12-22T10:07:00.001-08:00

Just letting you all know of my plans, which are fortunately sparse!

Tonight, a good friend, Joel, will be taking Frogg, Hunter and I out to a wonderful meal at the Oregon Electric Station. Excellent food, and I always love eating there!

On Christmas Eve, Hunter and I will be headed with my Dad over to my sister's place, for a dinner there. I'm making some wonderful mashed potatoes, and Hunter and I will be making some little appetizer thingies out of Parmesan cheese.

Christmas morning, Hunter and I got each other some little gifts to open on the morning, in front of the little tree we bought. It'll really be Hunter's first Christmas, as he's been raised Jewish and normally celebrates Hanukkah. We are still celebrating that, as well, which I find very interesting! He purchased a Menorah over the weekend, and Sunday night we lit the first candle. :) I find it all very interesting and such, so I'm glad he wanted to celebrate it as well.

Have a happy holiday season out there, just in case I forget to write on Christmas day!

Blargh...

2008-12-11T11:07:00.000-08:00

Caught Frogg's throat cold... As he has already experienced, it mainly just makes you tired with a scratchy throat and the deep vocal qualities of Barry White. Probably will try to abstain from singing tomorrow at Luskwood.

Used up my vacation time earlier this week on actual vacation, so I can't go home sick... Waah! Well, the trip to the yurt was fun though, and had been scheduled a couple of months in advance with no way of changing it.

End of an Era

2008-12-04T13:12:00.000-08:00

Well, today we took down the old Hawthouse... Remember earlier in my blog, when it went up? Gosh, that was almost exactly two years ago. Times have changed since then, that's for sure! Back then, I had a lot more time to spend online and in SL. Also, I had a lot more money back then. :D

Lately though, most people I know (including myself) just haven't been in SL too much. I'm still spending $125 a month for SecondLife, and that seems excessive to me when I'm pinching pennies everywhere else in life. So, this is all part of consolidating and getting down to the next tier level: $75 a month.

We're keeping the Coastal house, and the land surrounding it, which now includes my yurt, Rosa/Patrick's skybox and studio, and will eventually include Sporked/Chatty's skybox too. My sister's skyclub has been up there for a while.

Kind of sad, taking down the old place... Lots of wonderful memories there. I collected the old Time Capsule, and will be placing it back under the Coastal place. The Coastal place will be the new Hawthouse, as it's smaller and takes up less prims.

Thanks to all my friends involved in the Hawthouse over the last couple of years; you're wonderful, each and every one of you :) I hope you'll stop by the new place (still in Lingmell, but in the opposite corner) and visit from time to time, as everyone is welcome!

Don't forget, there's a 5th year rez-day party going on for Rosa there from 5-8PM on Sunday the 14th!

Holiday wrap up ;)

2008-12-02T16:21:00.001-08:00

Had a good time over the holidays... Hunter's friend Jaffa visited, and he was a nice guy and a great houseguest. We went hiking up on Spencer's Butte on Thanksgiving, then went to see a movie on Friday. Saturday, Hunter and Jaffa went to the coast while I stayed home to take care of house stuff, and Sunday we went to the zoo in Portland before dropping him back off at the airport. Fun times were had by all! :D

Happy early Thanksgiving

2008-11-25T14:54:00.000-08:00

Happy early Thanksgiving everyone in the US :) Things have been going okay here. Hunter's friend Jaffa will be visiting over the holiday, and I am planning on the traditional dinner thingy with my sister and her in-laws on Thursday. Other than that, I've been trying to trim down the Secondlife land some (it sucks to pay for it and not really be using it). I signed up with Facebook finally, lol, but I also haven't really been using it either :D

Talk to ya later :)

Good news: More available than I thought

2008-11-13T10:43:00.000-08:00

Just finished looking through the CDs last night, looks like I have all the photos and such from 1997-December 2006! So I'm just missing 2007 and the first couple of months of 2008. There's a chance some of those exist on another PC at the house, though, so I'm going to take a look before I decide that's all there is. Pretty happy about what I could find, though, over 6 GB!

All may not be lost :)

2008-11-12T16:13:00.000-08:00

Well, I just got back from Nancy's house, and collected a very large amount of backup data. Granted there might not be a whole lot on CD post-2006 (when I helped her get a new PC and back up the old one), but still, wonderful to have something!

Also, I discovered her old camera, which has about 159 pictures on it, from April 2008 to when it broke. After that, she had borrowed my camera, and so technically between the two I should be able to get all the pictures from April 2008 to current! And, I just reminded myself that when we did the new PC, we copied the contents of the picture folder over to Kenneth's PC (the one he's still using) so a backup may exist there as well. Whew! Well, after I see what I have with all the backup CDs, I'll be able to check out that other PC and see if I can fill in any gaps. I certainly hope so! The pictures are the most valuable part of it all, really...

Extremely Sucky News

2008-11-12T11:27:00.000-08:00

So, I got the power supply and put it in to Nancy's old PC, and... nothing. Looked like the fan on the CPU wasn't moving (important, since those things can burn up quick) so I replaced it, and still... nothing.

So, rather than buy a new motherboard and other hardware, I take out the three hard drives and buy a device to connect them via USB to my other PC, to take off the data. No response from any of the drives. Okay, I think, maybe this new device isn't trustworthy, and I hook up the drives directly to the PC in the music room, and... nothing :(

It turns out all three of Nancy's old hard drives were fried when the power supply blew. They would have been my last link to her, and contained all her photos and videos, emails and documents. I was really looking forward to seeing what she had been up to right before she died, and backing them up permanently. And now they are gone; a second death, in a way. I broke down after discovering this and cried the entire night. Even Hunter couldn't console me. I'm a little better about the situation, two days later, but still it just doesn't seem fair. I had hoped that data would be a link back to her, somehow, and a way to remember her and even learn something new about her and what she cared about after she was gone. Now they are gone, as well, and I feel pretty shitty about it. Can't she get a break? Please? Even after she dies, life still comes up lemons for her. It's just not fair. What's next, the house burning down?

My only hope is that she was good at creating backups, but odds are the only backups that exist were made around 2006 or so. I'm glad it's not completely lost, but I'll never know about her final moments online, or in email, or anything, and it's tough to let that go without a fight.

Technically, the data could still be available. There are data recovery services out there, but they are primarily for businesses, as they charge anywhere from $800-$5000 to get the data back. And that's per hard drive. I just don't have that kind of money unless I took out a loan, and something tells me that I shouldn't, even though I could. Because of that, I feel like I'm giving up. I mean, there's a *way* to get it back, but due to money, I can't do it.

It's frustrating, like how I felt about Samantha the cat earlier when she was having health problems: is letting something die because you can't afford it really doing "all you can do?" Is letting irreplaceable personal memories and data be lost because you can't afford to bring it back really doing "all I can do?"

A little update

2008-11-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

Just life as usual the last week or so... It's been really nice having Hunter back; I've been feeling pretty complete lately. Now that he's back, I feel like I caught a crag on a rock face I was sliding down, and managed to start my way back upwards.

While I was out at the "celebration of life" for Nancy out in Creswell, I had tried to copy off her pictures, videos, and emails, as a memento of her. Unfortunately, the PC simply wouldn't boot after a restart. Not understanding why, I gave up at that point and visited with the other folks there for the memorial. A couple of days ago on Saturday I picked up the PC and brought it home to try and fix it. Wouldn't you know, the minute I turned it on, the power supply sputtered and popped and I shut it down fast. Tonight I'll buy a new power supply and see if I can't get it all working again. I have an ulterior motive for obtaining the pictures: One of the last projects Nancy and I talked about doing together was uploading pictures into an electronic picture frame her brother bought for their mother last Christmas. We've really been slacking on getting it done, so I want to have it completed for this Christmas, because I know it would have meant a lot to her.

Thinking about Nancy still isn't easy, especially when I read back through my blog or come across things related to her at work (which is more than half the stuff here), but day to day thoughts are not as bad. Just really miss her, is all... :)

As for upcoming plans, Hunter and I enjoyed our time so much at the yurt that we've even made another reservation for later in December. At $90 for two nights, it's a hard getaway to pass up, and we're splitting the bill and scrimping on food and other purchases until then in order to cover it.

Back from vacation!

2008-11-05T14:43:00.001-08:00

Here's a little video I took of the yurt Hunter and I stayed at over our anniversary. We just got back yesterday. :)

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T16:35:00.000-07:00

Hi folks, just checking in with you all. :) Hunter made it back, so life is pretty good because of that. Nancy's "celebration of life" is this Sunday, the same day Hunter and I leave for our anniversary trip to the coast. So it's bittersweet. I'm not feeling too hot today for some reason, might be getting a cold. However, tonight is the Friday show, and it's Halloween, so it should be fun, I'm hoping.

A bit better :)

2008-10-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

Feeling better today, had a productive weekend with shows and home cleaning. Also, Hunter comes back this Wednesday, so my mood is improving that way as well. Have a good Monday everyone. :)

Blah...

2008-10-24T11:03:00.001-07:00

Tired, feeling down, want to go back to sleep for a few days.

Time heals all wounds

2008-10-22T14:08:00.001-07:00

So the last week or so has been pretty rough... Mainly me cursing the universe for taking my friend so suddenly. This happens now only at night when all the distractions have ceased, and I'm just lying in bed with my thoughts.

Lately, during the day I just notice that I'll come across something I know Nancy would have liked, or some bit of gossip I want to tell her about, and I have to stop myself. One of my favorite thing to do was keep her up to date on the things going on in my life, and that's just not possible any more.

Hunter comes back soon, on the 29th. I can't wait, as it's been very lonely and empty since he's been gone, and Nancy's passing hasn't helped that much. I have a feeling I'll bawl like a baby about Nancy all over again when he gets back and I finally have someone to hold tight to.

But mainly, I know these things just take time. When my mother died back in 1999, I remember, months later, asking Nancy "Will I ever be able to think about her without crying?" And her answer was yes. At the moment, I'm still at that stage with Nancy, but I trust that eventually I will be able to think of her and be positive about what we shared together, and not just the loss that was created now that she's gone.

Last Friday I went over to her house to help her husband and daughter scan in a picture for her obituary, which actually appeared in today's local Eugene paper. I clipped it out for safe keeping from our work copy, as I don't get the paper at home. It's funny how your life can be reduced to what amounts to a list of facts. Anyway, while I was there, I picked up my digital camera and cables, which I had let her borrow. There were pictures and videos she had taken of her three dogs (the "girls" as she called them) taken less than a month ago up to present. In one of the videos, the dogs are racing around the house and knock over a fan. It's one of the happy memories of who she was I keep with me now. I've posted it below for you all to see, also. She loved to laugh, and was never afraid to. :)

To my dear friend, Nancy McLaughlin

2008-10-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine, one of the closest I ever had, died today. She didn't have many close friends, but I loved her as a person and a friend, and I need to tell people about her. When someone touches your life so much, you want to let others know.

When I first started at the Utility I work at, I was pretty much a loner. I kept to myself, and hid in the shadows watching things from afar. I was 21, and the adults I worked with were like the adults I always knew: serious, trying to be sophisticated, very civil.

Then I met Nancy, who started there about a year after I did. She spoke her mind, because she felt the truth was more important than civility (at times). She got that from her father, who meant the world to her, and taught her that lying was akin to betraying trust. Because of this, and her propensity to be silly, Nancy became a big bright spot of color on an otherwise dingy business office scene. Call it unprofessional (and sometimes maybe it was) but it made me smile inside. She actually stopped to chat with me, and cared about what I had to say, so we continued having conversations on breaks and before work.

We started going to lunch together; at first because I didn't have a car, and later because it was a way to socialize outside of work and keep each other company. I occasionally went over after work; at first to watch movies I knew she would enjoy, and later to catch up on each other's lives. Lots of times we'd never even get to lunch, and spend the whole hour on whatever errand it was. Nancy was a free thinker, and tended to get sidetracked in stores, only ending up with what she had originally been looking for right up to when it was time to get back to work. We had fun though, once or twice when I'd be checking out with my credit card, she'd joke with the clerk to me: "Hey hon, that's not that stolen card we got, is it?" But I got her back as well, as she was buying a carton of cigarettes: "Mommy, didn't the doctor say you shouldn't smoke?"

I grew up scared of physical contact. As a kid, the only physical contact I got on a regular basis was tickling (my Dad thought it was funny, and I suppose it is in hindsight), so I had a nasty habit of flinching when I was touched. Hugs were out of the question, but I was okay with a handshake. It was Nancy who taught me to hug, and to actually come to want them because they were enjoyable. She loved getting hugs, so to be nice I started hugging her when we'd meet, even though I didn't really enjoy it. After a while, I did get used to it, and I started looking forward to the hugs. Nancy gave me the first steps toward a close, loving relationship like I have with Hunter now, and I thank her for it whenever I can. Like now. Thanks hon, you saved me from half a life; a life without love. Other people helped with this transition too: Rosa, Kain, Xankarth... but Nancy started it all off.

Nancy had a secret, that only those close to her knew. She wore her heart on her sleeve, because it's who she was. However, to protect herself, she pretended the things that hurt didn't matter, by joking about them and appearing to brush them off. When she would feel insecure or out of place, she'd joke around or become sarcastic to cover it up. Underneith it all was the real Nancy, the one who cared and opened her heart to those around her. This is the Nancy I saw every time I visited.

She was laid off from the Utility about three years ago, but I still tried to visit once a week, and at first wrote a daily morning email to her. I confess since I have been living with Hunter that the emails weren't as common, but she understood, I'm sure of it. Having to leave the Utility was kind of a blessing, looking back on it. Work really stressed her out, and therefore made her angry lots of the time. I'm really glad she got to spend her last few years working in the garden, among the flowers and plants she enjoyed - her dogs scampering around her feet and eating the berries.

I'll miss you, hon, my dear friend. I'll miss how much you cared about me, and I'll miss helping you and making your troubled life just a little easier, even if all I did was listen.

Goodbye, Nancy :)

Just your average update

2008-10-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hey there everyone! Just had a moment and thought I'd fill you all in on current goings on. I haven't actually been up to a lot, except working around the house and catching up on some much neglected video games and stuff like that. Cleaned out the kitchen garden area yesterday, as the zucchinis and squash have all withered and dried up. Looks a bit nicer out there now. I talk to Hunter pretty much every day in chat, and occasionally on the phone too. It really does help to hear his voice, and it especially helps to be chatting like we are. It's still very lonely around the house. Frogg is there, of course, and we talk and such like we always have when things are quiet and before/during/after shows, but it's not the kind of relationship I have with Hunter, obviously ;)

Hunter's doing okay down in LA, for the most part. Also lonely like I am, but in a few days his folks will return and he'll have more company, for which I'm grateful. It's funny how if you have a lot of friends and family, you wish for peace and quiet, and a place to be by yourself. But once you have that, you realize it's actually pretty boring and dull, and it was the interactions with others that made you feel the most alive.

I managed to make it to the Home and Garden show Saturday, which was kind of fun to walk around and see the exhibits, and then out for lunch with my friend Joel. Then we had our usual shows, and Sunday I wasn't feelin' too hot so I stayed home and did some light cleaning and cooking.

Tonight Frogg's out at his guitar lesson (he gives them to kids when he can!) and I'll be cooking up large batches of chicken to use on salads and sammiches the upcoming weeks to save money :D Tuesday we have a show, and then Wednesday I'm hoping to stop by and see a good friend of mine who lives south of me (if she's feeling okay, hi Nancy!).

Anyway, I hope you all are doing well enough considering the change in seasons. I certainly love the cooler weather!

Update - Missing Hunter :(

2008-10-07T08:07:00.000-07:00

Hey there folks. Don't know if people read this blog much, but I'll make another post. So, last Monday the 29th Hunter left for LA, to help his folks out for the month. It's been a little over a week now, and it certainly feels different.

Now remember, I have never been in a close relationship, let alone a live-in one before, so this is taking quite a bit of adjustment for me. I find myself falling back into the patterns I had before I met him, which is a good and bad thing.

Good, in terms that I get the time I like to play video games and read, and do whatever, without missing time with Hunter (since that's impossible at the moment).

Bad though, in that I feel like there's a part of me that's missing... A replacement for the inner voice I have that I pose questions to. (Hunter's a far better and more reasonable inner voice than my own :D) A presence that I miss at key points in the day, like the morning, mealtimes, and bedtime.

It just feels once again like the world has no color and I have no anchor. Like I'm just afloat, fretting that I'm maybe not on top of things and that something is slipping away. Worrying that there's something else I should be doing. Well, whatever the opposite of "centered" is. Chatting in Yahoo is nice, and it keeps us in touch, but that's all it does. I guess I never knew how empty my life was before finally finding someone. I just had to rediscover that recently; how much I used to have to fill my life with distractions so I wouldn't realize how lonely life really was.

Well, all that aside, we're just trying to cope the best we can. He gets back on the 29th, which is still over 20 days away. :( Just hanging in there, keeping busy, and that's all we can do.

Feelin better!

2008-09-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

Just got over a nasty flu I've had since last Tuesday, ugh. Feeling better now though! Note to self: If you think you might be tired before a show, just say no! By the time I was halfway through the second show on Saturday, I really REALLY needed to go lie down due to lack of energy and pressure on certain parts of the body :D

Jaycatt's Flickr Mosaic Meme

2008-09-02T14:01:00.000-07:00

I was recently reading my friend Eric's blogspot, and he mentioned a meme, created by fd's Flickr Toys, called the Mosaic Maker. As he describes the task, "You type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search. Then, using only the first page, pick an image. Then, copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into this mosaic maker."

Here's my image (click the image for the full-sized version), and my answers to the questions.

1. What is your first name? Jon
2. What is your favorite food? General Tso's Chicken
3. What high school did you go to? Sheldon
4. What is your favorite color? Blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Don't Have One
6. Favorite drink? Fruit Punch
7. Dream vacation? Alaska Cruise
8. Favorite dessert? Donuts
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Retired
10. What do you love most in life? Hunter
11. One Word to describe you. Empathic
12. Your flickr name. Jaycatt

The continuing upkeep of cats :)

2008-09-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

Hi there! Had a fairly good relaxing four days off, but back to work today.

However, on Saturday, had another scare with the cat last Saturday... She started exhibiting all the signs she had previously had when Hunter and I took her in to the vet. Panting, straining to try to poop, just like before. Last time, I waited a day and a half before taking her in, because it was a weekend and I couldn't call.. This time, however, the vet wouldn't have been open until Tuesday, so I didn't feel comfortable having her wait a full two to three days.

About 10PM on Saturday was when we noticed the behavior, and so I called them and they said, "if she's panting, she should be brought in." I was, of course, trying to save costs, and the emergency vet normally ends up costing quite a bundle. So we raced down there, and it was so busy with other emergencies, we didn't get to leave for home until probably 1:40AM. When all was said and done, she got her antibiotic and liver helper pills back, and she's on them again. Total cost was only about $220, too!

The worst part of it all though, was that of the five families that brought their pets in (including us), we were the only ones to leave with ours. :( So we basically sat while the other more important cases were being talked to, and put to sleep. I just can't imagine working in a place like that. So much sorrow, and I'm just way too empathic. We were both very glad to be on our way home, with the cat, and I cherish every minute I have with her after that ordeal. In fact, she's going in today for some blood work at the regular vet, which the emergency one suggested. It'll cost a bit less at the regular vet, and they said it could wait, so that's good. The last two days, she's been up bouncing around and seems to have recovered nicely, whew.

I realize eventually I'll need to get another pet. Samantha is 13 years old, at least, and you can't prolong life indefinitely. But as long as the vet promises she'll be her normal self after a treatment, I plan to continue doing them. However, once she passes on, I am thinking I might not only get another cat, but also a puppy, so the two can grow up together and keep each other company. Hunter just loves dogs, and takes extremely good care of them, so I think it would be special to have both. I'm, of course, more of a cat person, but I do also like dogs, especially ones that I have grown up with.

That may still be a while away, though, but it's certainly on my mind lately.

Bike changes!

2008-08-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

The bikes were working out pretty well, but the one Hunter got was skipping gears on its own, so last night we went and replaced it with a nicer bike (not too much more) that had a better gear system. So, a word to the wise for people considering purchasing a bicycle: Sure, that $129 jobbie you see at the Wal-Mart looks like a good deal, but consider the shifter! The "dial" shifters, that are connected to the handlebars, tend to be imprecise when shifting, which makes it easy to be "between" gears, causing the bike to shift one way or the other based on how far the dial is over to one number or the next. We ended up switching to a bike that has clickers for the gears... Push the lever down, and it clicks to the next number. Much smoother, and much more control.

Here's looking forward to many more bike rides!

Just like riding a bike

2008-08-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

I thought of something else to write about! :D

As I was cleaning the shed (see previous entry) I also cleared out four old bicycles. Well, with the allergy season gone and all, Hunter and I thought it would be fun to get two of them fixed up for riding. We took the two most likely candidates down to the repair shop, and found out only one of them was worth fixing. No worries, so we ended up buying another one from a local store.

Last week, we went riding for the first time! For Hunter, since he was a kid. For me, since about 10 years ago. It was more fun than I remembered it could be. We've been taking evening walks lately, to settle food and just get out to enjoy the night air, but after a while the feet start to hurt, and you can't really do much except travel to the same places. Riding a bike, though, you feel the wind in your hair and on your face, and you get to coast and such. It's great fun!

Whew, finally completed some projects, yay me ^^

2008-08-13T13:16:00.001-07:00

Well, I managed to get a few things done recently that have been on my plate for some time, so I thought I'd reflect on them.

Clean shed: When I first moved into my current house, back in 2000, I realized the garage would be a bit cramped for two cars and storage, so I purchased a little 10x15 metal shed for the backyard. I promptly filled it with stuff and basically forgot about it all. Occasionally, over the next few years, I would duck in for a shovel or something, and notice a few wasps nests had moved in. Of course, this made me a little wary about entering in there again, and until 2007, I basically didn't. I finally filled up the garage to the point where I really wanted to be using the space again, and when I opened it and avoided the wasps, I discovered that quite a bit of the stuff in there was water damaged and would have to be thrown out... Oy... Well, I decided after Rosa's visit, I'd finally tackle the thing, and I did, over the last two weekends! Threw out most everything in there, and swept it out, and bought a good tarp to throw over it to keep out the rain. It's in pretty good shape now, and I just have a bunch of paint to get rid of at the hazardous waste facility tomorrow on the way in to work.

Group photo of Hawthouse crew: As some of you know, I'm part of a fairly large community in SL at the Lingmell sim called the Hawthouse. It's been in existance for roughly two years, and is a nice conglomeration of builds by a group of about 10-13 of us. Well, late last year, Rosa suggested that it would be pretty cool to have a group photo taken for posterity. Originally, we thought to get everyone together at once, and find enough interesting pose balls to take a picture. Trying to schedule that was sort of a nightmare, and trying to find a selection of poses everyone liked was proving to be similar, so I suggested taking individual shots of each person, to be cut-and-pasted together later over a nice background image. I got a nice whitescreen, and his-and-her poses, and started scheduling photo ops to collect the shots. Scheduling this, however, was also not so easy, but about three months later I managed to get approximately half the photos taken. Well, then my laptop motherboard decided to give up the ghost, and I felt I had lost what I had originally taken. Ugh... Fortunately, I discovered I could still use the hard drives from the old laptop, and removed them and salvaged the photos. Anyway, I did finally manage to complete the rest of the photos earlier this week, and yesterday I used Photoshop to cut and paste the whole thing together! Below, you see the "casual" and "formal" pictures. Woo hoo!

SL tier reduction: Ever since I bought the land for Amphibicatt Gardens, I have been up at a full tier land fee of $195/month. Now that Hunter is here, I just don't find myself in SL as much, and wanted to try and use some of that money for other things. Lowering yourself to a smaller tier is not easy, as it turns out. :) A full sim tier allows you around 64K of square meters of land. The next step down is half that. I had almost completely filled my 64K allotment, so I started selling off land as best I could, without impacting too much of the surroundings at the Hawthouse and Amphibicatt stage. Today I finally got it down to an amount that allows me to choose the lower tier, which puts me at $125/month instead. Woo hoo! And two days before I would have had to pay for the next month, good timing! :)

That's all I have for now, take care everyone!

Samantha doing great!

2008-07-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

Hi there! Just wanted to let you all know that Samantha the cat is doing just great now :) She's back on her feet and eating, meowing, and everything, just like she always has! She does have to take a liver pill once a day for a month, and an antibiotic each morning for a couple of weeks, but then should be fine.

Thanks goes out to my father, sister, and friend Joel for also helping me out with the vet fees. :) It's wonderful to have such caring people surrounding me. You are all in my thoughts!

Downsize Life

2008-07-24T07:57:00.001-07:00

Hi there, just keeping you all posted as to what's going on with me. Well, it hasn't been too great, actually. Last Monday, Samantha the housecat started having terrible trouble with cramps and not being able to eat or drink. So on Tuesday we took her into the vet. She was severely dehydrated and had a little liver disease, so they have been keeping her at the vet hospital for the last two nights. The upside is that she seems to be doing better and will be coming home today (hopefully, still waiting to actually hear from the vet). The downside is that the bill will be upwards of $1000. I don't really have that kind of money as it is, and that will pretty much max out my credit card, so I'm forced to liquidate some things to come up with the funds. First to go is a collection of DS and PSP games that I don't play much anymore. Second though is parts of Second Life. Owning land in SL costs me about $195 a month in tier fees. So, I'm actively figuring out what lands I can sell to get that cost down. Plus, the income from the land sales should help quite a bit towards the total, depending on how much I can get from them.

I do plan on keeping the Hawthouse and Ampbihicatt Gardens, as well as my little 512 plot in Lusk, but otherwise I hope to cash the rest in. Part of the Hawthouse may even have to go (it's quite large, really). We'll see... I'm not doing anything permenant at the moment with that land; I have plenty to be selling in the meantime, so don't feel you need to remove anything until still gets sorted out. Just letting you all know!

Other than that, there's not a whole lot going on... Got some shows coming up, and my sister coming to dinner on Sunday (which should be fun).

Talk to you later! I'll keep you posted on Samantha too :)

Life... it just keeps moving right along!

2008-07-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hi there folks, nothing really happening lately, but I thought I'd fill you in.

Well, so Rosa left last Wednesday, so I was a bit sad that day... However, I've got lots of memories of the stuff we got to do together to keep me going. Rosa and Hunter got along really well, which was very cool, as we spent most of the time together, the three of us. The highlight of the visit was our trip to the Oregon coast. We spent some time at the beach near the Haceta Head lighthouse, and drove around looking at the sights. The second day we did make it up to Fort Stevens, and that was a lot of fun, but quite a drive back that night. Must have been four hours in the car, whew. So, Tuesday, the day before she left, we took it easy at home. Nothing wrong with that, and it was very relaxing. She's up visiting friends in Seattle at the moment, and due back soon I believe!

In other news, Hunter's birthday is tomorrow :D Yeee! I've got a special meal planned, plus some little presenty things ;) Luckily, I just got them today, so I haven't had to keep him in suspense forever :D

Yay houseguests!

2008-07-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

Hi there! Today is the day! Rosa arrives about 2PM today at the train station, and I can hardly wait. I'm really looking forward to getting to spend some time with her again, and Frogg and Hunter are too! We have some plans, but not a ton :)

Tonight, Shady Fox and I are starting up the radio comedy/drama series, Canadia: 2056, so we'll be in SL listening to that.

Friday the 4th we will be making some food to take over to my Dad's house, to watch the fireworks and spend some time there. Around here it doesn't get dark enough for fireworks until close to 10PM(!!) so we might be late coming home :D

On Saturday, the Art and the Vineyard is going on, so we'll probably swing by that and see the artwork and try a little wine perhaps :)

Sunday, Hunter and Rosa and I head to the coast, stopping at Mo's for some nice food, then touring up the coast to Lincoln City, where we will stay in a rental overnight.

Monday we'll head up the rest of the coast, up north to Astoria and the Fort Stevens park. Should be a really fun time! I love the coast, and showing it off. Hunter hasn't been that far north either, so it'll be new for both!

On Tuesday, there are really no plans, just relaxing, maybe looking around town...

Wednesday morning Rosa heads back up to Seattle on the train for more adventures up there!

Effinjay on Tonight Live!

2008-06-17T09:08:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, Frogg and I were once again asked to be part of Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe. We christened the stage in their new studio, and got an interview too! It was a ton of fun, just like last time. They are such a professional group, and put together an amazing show.

Check out the broadcast here:
http://www.slcn.tv/tonight-live-paisley-beebe-15jun08

We're the musical guest directly after the first guest. After we play a song, we sit with Paisley and have a chat.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (part 2)

2008-06-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

Finally have enough time to finish this, and I don't want to forget it all! So here we go!

We'll pick up where I left off: trying to get to sleep before the start of the cruise. It was pretty tricky, really, because being away for a week on a ship is fairly exciting!

Sunday morning we woke up and finished packing, charging phones, cameras and laptops, and checked our email one last time. Then, it was off to the port in San Pedro, to get checked into the ship. There are a ton of people trying to board, so it can be a hectic experience! Plus, we were a party of seven (myself, Hunter, his father, his mother, his brother, his sister-in-law, and his neice).

Anyway, we finally got through all the signatures and authorizations, and made it on the ship! First thing we did was to go look for our room, but it wasn't quite open yet. So, we hung out on the deck and went up for a little snack at the buffet above. We also opted into the "soda package", which was a lump sum for unlimited soft drinks on the cruise (normally around $4 each, I heard). We didn't do a whole lot of exploring yet, since I was still carrying my satchel, and Hunter his laptop, and we didn't want to bump them around into anything. The room finally opened, and we got our first look! Here's a little video of the room, that I took a bit later as we left port.

After dropping off the gear, we took a nice tour of the ship. You can find out some of the ship details here, and here as well! At 4:30PM, we had our muster drill. While we were out there waiting, we got a nice view of the Disney Magic, a ship on the Disney cruiseline. It left port earlier than we did, and we got to hear the ship's horn, which played "When You Wish Upon A Star". How cool! As you can see below, the back of the ship even had a tiny suspended Goofy painting on the name. For the whole cruise, we either followed the Magic or they followed us.

Dinner on the cruise was at the same table every night, for us, but since it was a table for nine we then met our other two dinner companions, a couple of nice older ladies from the California wine country. The meals were exceptional. The general routine went like this. You'd sit down, and be handed an appetizer menu and an entree menu. You could pick any number of things from either menu. After a bit, a server would come around with a bread tray, and you would pick any sort of bread you wanted from it. Then, whatever drink you ordered the first night would typically be brought to you automatically the rest of the nights (I had a Sprite). Then, you'd get your various appetizers and eat them, followed by the entrees you picked. After the table was cleared, out would come the dessert menu, and you'd get your pick of whatever you wanted from that. All in all, a wonderful dining experience. I took some pictures of the menus, from the last night of the cruise. Here's the appetizer, entree, and dessert menus for the last evening on the ship.

Monday and Tuesday were days "at sea", so we couldn't go ashore, and spent the time wandering around the ship, eating lunch, playing cards, and watching Deep Space 9 on the little DVD player we brought along and hooked up to the TV in the room. We ended up watching a lot of DS9, before bed, and any time we just needed to relax! Brock (a small snow tiger we bought a while ago on a trip to Washington state, and our new found Cabo (see previous entry) leopard, really enjoyed the view, as seen below!

We were quite ready to get off the ship come Wednesday morning, and since our first stop, Cabo San Lucas, couldn't accomodate large ships at its port, we took tenders to the dock. The weather was pretty warm, so I was slathering on sunscreen like crazy. After arriving at the dock, I think we got asked for a taxi, windsurfing, para sailing, or jewelry every 15 seconds. I quickly learned to say "No, thank you". We did eventually take a taxi to the Cabo coastline, which looks pretty much just like this. First thing we did after jumping off the water taxi (which beached right on the sand in front of a cafe) was to order a couple of margaritas. After a bit more sunscreen application, we continued walking down the beach, eventually stopping at a place for lunch, right on the sand. Here's a short video I took while we were waiting for the food. We each had two beers there, because Hunter asked for "dos Dos Equis" meaning two, and joked "Hmm, quattro equis!" I didn't mind a bit, as it went really went well with the nachos I had. After lunch, we walked back a bit, and stopped at a nice spot to go swimming.

It was at this point we both got nasty sunburns, but didn't realize it yet... ;) We both kept our shirts on for swimming, but the sunscreen vanished from our legs and feet due to the water. Uh oh! However, since we didn't know it yet, we walked back to where we got our first water taxi, and each had a pina colada at the bar we had the margaritas at. Very tasty, and just what I wanted to cool down. We got another water taxi, and made it back to the ship on another tender. Here's a video of us passing a tender headed to Cabo, and here's another video of us rounding the ship in our own tender before docking.

We got back on the ship, and headed to the adults only pool to cool off a bit more and shower off the salt. The ship had two pools... One outdoor pool that was all ages, and an indoor one, in a solarium, for adults. Anyway, we went to take a nap after the busy morning, and woke up to find ourselves very sunburnt. I took a picture of my leg, but I won't show it here, as it's basically just a red lobster leg :D The sunburn itself wasn't bad, as long as you weren't wearing shoes or socks, and were lying down. But, stand up, and the blood would pool into your foot, causing sharp pains that made the two of us walk around like old men :) We limped to dinner that night, but ended up not doing much else.

The next morning, we found ourselves in Mazatlan. We could barely move, so we skipped getting off the ship. I did take a few pictures off the railing though:

A mariachi band was playing right below our window, taunting us for not being able to walk:

That's okay though, we had a great day actually. Mainly we sat around the room watching DS9 and ordered room service for lunch (bacon cheeseburgers, hehe). Ended up being a great day overall. That night we did make it to dinner, but that was about it!

The next day we ended up at our last port, Puerto Vallarta. By then we were feeling good enough to walk around, despite the terrible humidity and high temperatures you get at 20 degrees above the equator (Eugene being at 44 degrees). We didn't get too far, because of the weather, but made it to the small flea market next to the port. There, I got all my souveniers in one fell swoop, and we hurried back to the relative coolness of the ship, although I did take some video of a parrot I saw. Which I would link to, but unfortunately YouTube thinks it takes more than a half hour to put up a 30 second video. Oh well, take a look at my YouTube videos here, if you want to try and spot it.

After that, it was one more full day at sea, just enough time to lose more money at the casino :D The ships typically enjoy days at sea, as the casino is not allowed to be open when the ship is in a port. I had a good time playing video poker and keno, and Hunter had fun at the craps and blackjack tables. I had fun *watching* Hunter at the tables, as I'm a little nervous about playing real time with people who would rather I play than think about my next choice. We headed back to LA at a pretty good clip, as you can see from this video that I took of the water.

Finally, the cruise was over, and we ended up back in LA. We made it through customs (held on stage in the auditorium) and off the ship with pretty much no trouble. We had lunch with a good old friend of Hunter's in LA, and got to the airport just fine.

Well, that's when the trouble started. We had about an hour to wait for the flight to San Francisco, then another flight from there to Eugene, arriving approximately 7:30PM, but things didn't go that way. First, the flight from Burbank was delayed about 30 minutes, then just outright canceled. That meant we would miss our connecting flight in San Francisco, and would instead have to wait for 5 hours in SFO for a flight that would get us home at roughly midnight. At least United gave us meal vouchers of $15 each (which covered half the meal we ended up getting). Still, waiting there until 10:45PM was quite a trial, and reminded me once again how miserable sitting around SFO is (this had happened to me once before, due to a missed flight).

That's it from me! Hope you enjoyed reading about my vacation :) The next trip I have planned is with Hunter and Rosa, over to the Oregon coast for a night's stay in a rented house, with stops up and down the coast. Should be fun, and no airline delays! :D

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (part 1)

2008-06-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

I always wanted to start a blog post like that, hehe... This could get long, so I'm only posting part now!

On Friday, May 23rd, Hunter and I left Eugene bound for Burbank, CA. We had a layover in San Francisco, but for once in my life, a flight including SFO actually left and arrived on time at my destination. WOW! I didn't think it was possible, but at approximately 7PM we arrived in Burbank, and Hunter's folks picked us up. We then went to eat at the Original Panda (Panda Inn), a place I've been wanting to try for quite a while, being a big fan of the Panda Express chain. It was really good, I have to admit. I even got the orange chicken, like I normally do at the Express! Very tasty!

We spent the night at Hunter's folks' house in Pasadena, and got up early Saturday morning to get ready for our excursion to Disneyland. The cruise didn't leave until Sunday afternoon, so we figured it would be the perfect time to fit in a Disneyland trip, as Anaheim is really close to Pasadena.

Well, I hadn't been to Disneyland since I was around 7 years old, in 1978, so I had no idea what to expect. First of all, it seems that in the early 80s they stopped using tickets, and now the admission fee covers all the rides. Also, fairly recently they initiated a "fast pass" system, where you can get a ticket (using your admission ticket) that allows you to return to the ride during a window of time for a more express line, getting you into the ride much faster. However, you can only have one fast pass at a time, and once a certain window of time is "sold out", you have to pick a later time.

First thing we did was grab a fast pass for the Indiana Jones ride, and then headed over to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It's something of a tradition for Hunter to ride that one first, and I had no objections! I remembered the ride slightly from my time there as a kid, but I was still blown away by the attention to detail in the full-size diorama-ish scenes created from animatronics and lighting. The whole thing is huge, once you get inside, and takes a while to get through... By the end of it, you have a good feeling of being piratey, for sure. I have never seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (I know, shame shame), but I did spot recent upgrades to the ride, like Jack Sparrow, to make it more "current", I suppose.

The Indiana Jones ride was extremely thrilling, and really bounced you around inside the ride car, zooming one way and bumping up and down the other. I really enjoyed it, but I could see how some people might end up feeling a little bruised. :D I was a bit shaken up and white-knuckled, but felt pretty good after it, hehe... As some of you may know, I'm not really a roller-coaster person, as I get motion sick fairly easily, and gate being turned upside down on a ride with a passion.

Next up, we went to Space Mountain. That may have been a mistake on my part, as I hadn't let Hunter know the extent of my motion sickness. No, I didn't actually throw up, but I did break out into a drenched sweat by the end of the ride, and had to sit it out for about 20 minutes before we could get moving again. The ride started up fine, and was pretty trippy and spacey with all the swirling lights and such in the dark. Then the corkscrew turns started up, and whipped us back and forth. If it had been in daylight, and I could have anticipated the turns, I would have done okay, I think. But with all the mesmerizing lights and pulsating stuff, I got pretty ill pretty fast. :D Still, I'm glad I went on it, as now I can say I have!

After that, we left the park for a bit, and went next door to Downtown Disney for lunch. We got into the Rainforest Cafe, and had food. It was mostly decent food, but we happened to be seated next to the animatronic elephants, which would trumpet loudly every 8 minutes or so, causing me to almost lose my fork or perform a spit-take. All the little ones in the restaurant thought it was fantastic, but I grew tired of it after the second trumpeting and just wished we could talk and eat in peace. :D The best part of lunch though was the gift shop, where we picked up a small plushie leopard that we eventually named "Cabo" in honor of the first port we reached later on the cruise. After lunch we wnet and saw the new Indiana Jones movie (which had just opened a few days ago) at the movie theater there. It was really great to get to see it so soon after the ride, and a nice rest for the feets!

We took the monorail (how's that spelled?) back to Disneyland, and wandered around a little while. It's really quite a popular place... Very crowded now that is was after lunch on the Saturday of a holiday weekend. Due to the crowds, we went and got a fast pass for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, another roller-coaster (yes, I know), and boarded the Mark Twain riverboat for a little relaxation. The Riverboat was a little dated, but still a fun experience. The Thunder Mountain was very thrilling, and since it was mostly out in the light, I enjoyed it a lot more. Still a bit shaken up, but not sick hardly at all.

Well, a little more wandering around, resting, and watching part of the parade, and we were on our way back to Hunter's folks' house. We stopped at a great German restaurant first, and then were home to finish up packing for the early start on Sunday for the cruise.

More to come on that later!

Back from the cruise!

2008-06-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

I'm back! Don't have much time to write at the moment, as it's my first day back and my first day back at work! But I'll upload a few pictures here for you all :)

Our ship, the Vision of the Seas!

Me, on the beach at Cabo San Lucas

Mazatlan, as seen from the ship!

Okay, more details coming later on. It's good to be back!

Gettin' Excited!

2008-05-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

Well, it's just under 5 days now that Hunter and I will be winging out way down to Los Angeles, to visit Disneyland and start the cruise to Mazatlan. We're both getting very anxious about it, and gathering together all our packing and laundry to prepare well in advance. We leave Friday at around 3PM from the airport (1PM from home) and arrive in LA sometime in the evening. This will be the first time my mate and I have traveled by plane together... what a treat!

Saturday the 24th we will be in Disneyland, a place I haven't been since I was probably just 7 or 8 years old. When I last was there, they were still using coupon books of tickets for the rides (which they abolished in 1982) and they still had the Adventure thru Inner Space ride. I know photography is allowed at the park, so look for a lot of pictures from me, both on Flickr above and later when I get back! Hunter has been to the park over 15 times, so I'm going to let him do the honors of picking out rides :D

Then, Sunday the 25th, we board the ship and head out! I think I posted the itinerary of the journey earlier in the blog so I won't go into looking it up, here. But I'll try to keep a journal or something on the trip to recount later :)

Yesterday, to keep from getting too antsy, we drove out towards Bend, Oregon, and visited Sisters. It's a great little town, a bit touristy but with some nice shops and restaurants. It was a wonderful drive, and we even saw some snow around. Quite a change from the 90+ temperatures we've been having in the valley here.

Wow!

2008-05-08T11:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, I just happened to look, and I noticed I am the top of the page at thesixtyone! How'd that happen? lol

New music room setup

2008-05-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

Well, my laptop died when I was in Portland with Hunter recently, and I sent it in to HP. They said it was a motherboard failure and would cost about $800 to fix. YIKES! So, instead of getting it fixed, I decided to spend less money just building a new PC for the music room (which is about the only place I used that laptop anyway). The benefit of all this is that I can now read chat while playing! Or is that a drawback? Depends on how distracted I get hehe

Here's a picture of the new setup!

Fun at work

2008-05-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's what I said! I've been involved in a project to buy and install a weather station here at the utility, since last year. Well, it finally went up on the roof as of this last Monday, and over the last few days I've been playing with the web reporting feature. Add an old webcam I had kicking around the office and you get a very nice little statistical page!

Here's a sample of what the webcam is showing. That's the corner of the street outside my office window, at Pioneer Parkway West and A Street:

Feelin Skunky :D

2008-04-28T13:29:00.001-07:00

Just had to post this picture of the skunk line that I managed to take right before SL crashed ;) I'm the fourth from the right, Siamese colors of course :D

Back from the trip!

2008-04-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hello folks! Hunter and I are back from our wonderful trip to Portland. Friday night after work we drove up and made it to the hotel without a hitch. We listened to Canadia 2056 almost the whole way up and back on Sunday, and it's proved to be a very interesting space drama with lots of little comedy thrown in, and good characters. After checking in, walked around the Washington Square mall, ending up at Red Lobster for dinner. It was tasty, but I forgot about my issues with salt intake, and when we got back, I couldn't get to sleep until 5AM :( I had a rough night, but I had a lovely mate to help me through it once I got up the courage to wake him for company. We talked about it afterwards, and I need to remember to do that sooner, keeping in mind that we're in life together now, and should share burdens. Not just when he has trouble, but when I do too! It's a new concept for me, but it puts my mind at ease knowing so.

On Saturday, we had the free brekky at the hotel, then made it over to Portland's waterfront, by the Willamette River. Lots of great shops and walkways, on a really nice sunny day. We walked for probably 3 hours, then ended up back at the Pioneer Square mall, to check out the furmeet that was being held that day by the Portland fur group. Didn't really stay too long, but met a few interesting furs, then headed out to enjoy the day a bit more. We drove out highway 30 to the Vista House first, on our way to Multnomah Falls. Vista House was incredible! The last few times I've been there, it's been closed for renovation, so I went for the view. I didn't know that in 2004, they reopened it, and the inside was quite impressive. The wind outside the House was whipping back and forth with a speed that threatened to knock us over, almost ripping Hunter's sunglasses off his shirt! We drove from there out to the falls, passing a few other smaller falls along the way. Quite a scenic drive. Multnomah Falls was also very impressive, and we got to walk up to a bridge that spanned the rushing water for a great view. I have a little YouTube video here! We were pretty exhausted after that, and pretty much just returned to the hotel for some TV and room service.

Sunday, we decided to just take a drive up north a ways. We stopped for brunch at a place just over the border in Washington State, where we ate and found out latest feline addition to the plushie family, a tiny white tiger we named Brock, after the restaurant. After that, we drove almost all the way to Olympia, WA, to the Lucky Eagle Casino, for a little bit of gambling related fun. We weren't as lucky as the eagle, and left after about an hour, headed back to town.

It was a really nice trip, good to get away now and again to see the sights! Talk to ya later!

Yay, weekend plans!

2008-04-25T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hidey-ho! Another blog post from me :) Here's what I've been up to!

Last weekend was pretty blah, actually. Hunter was able to get a last minute flight to California to be with his family for Passover (which was really cool for him to get to see his friends, family, and the wonderful Schultzy doggy). I couldn't get the time off, and it wasn't very affordable for two tickets, so I stayed home and remembered how blah my life was before Hunter and I partnered. I did get to spend a little extra time in Second Life, building and landscaping, and that was fun. I also got to spend some wonderful quality time with Frogg, just talking and hanging out, for the most part. We watched some Doctor Who as well, and pretty much relaxed around the house. It was a nice little dip back into what my life was like before, but frankly, after a few days of it, I'm extremely grateful Hunter's back, and I get to be with him. Life just tends to have more color in it when he's around. :)

The weekdays themeslves have been pretty usual, just working, TV and eating. However, this coming weekend, we've got some wonderful plans up in Portland. Frogg and I are taking Friday night and Saturday night off shows this weekend, so I can travel with Hunter and Frogg can get some rest and use the car to travel around. After work today, Hunter and I are driving up to Portland to a hotel so we can relax in our little suite, order some room service, and generally just have a good time together up there visiting some of the local sights and the joy of having someone clean your room and bathroom :D We don't have any real plans, except possibly to see a movie and stop by the Portland furmeet that the group there has once or twice a month. It would be nice to meet some of the local Oregon furs, as I really don't run into much furry related activity here in Eugene. If we end up meeting some interesting furs and have a good time, we may even make trips to Portland for picnics and such! Plus, with the RainFurrest happening in September, perhaps we'll meet some that will also be attending.

The Columbia gorge is up that way too, with lots of waterfalls, so maybe I can entice Hunter to go on a little drive to see the scenery and falls. :D

More to come later, and I hope to have piccies and such as well!

Learning experience

2008-04-14T13:35:00.000-07:00

Just writing about how the weekend went. :) On Saturday, we made some cinnamon rolls (Pillsbury of course!) then went out for a little drive, then over to the Camp Putt for some mini-golf. We both had a wonderful time there! They have an 18 hole course, and had just added another 18 hole course. Since we had a coupon, we both got to play all 36 holes for only $11 total! After that we did our shopping and headed home so we could be back in time for a 4PM show that Frogg and I were doing for Yuri's Night.

Well, right before the show, Hunter felt a migraine headache coming on. Nothing too serious, but it felt strong enough that he curled up on the couch watching TV and we did our show. When I came out, he was in pretty bad pain, trying to keep the light out of his eyes and just hoping the pain would stop. Eventually he even ended up in the shower numbing his neck, to stop the constant pain. I felt a little helpless, but from what I understand, he's had these before, and what caused it was the exposure to UV rays in direct sun, which we were in playing the mini-golf. Eep! Before he moved, he had some UV blocking sunglasses, also polarized, and they did the trick. He had a miserable night, until the sun went down and it was finally dark enough for the pain to go away. How terrible! I've never had migraines before, but from what he tells me, this was about as bad as they get. We almost drove to urgent care to get some relief, but it would have been horribly expensive, and he felt it would subside on it's own. It did, like I mentioned, after dark, but it pretty much put him out of commission for almost 16 hours. Poor guy!!

On Sunday, we went to CostCo and got some more sunglasses with the UV blocking and polarized lenses, for future sun-based activities. I had no idea that just being exposed to the sun could cause so much trouble, so it was a learning experience for me, and from now on I'll be reminding him about the glasses before we go out. The rest of Sunday was just fine, with a simple show and dinner.

Other than that, this week proves to be a simple one, except that I'm taking the housekitty Samantha to the vet on Wednesday for a dental cleaning. It's something she's had done a lot before, but I still worry because they have to put her under to do it. So I'll be on pins and needles a bit that day until I leave to pick her up.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

Sunny weekend!

2008-04-11T08:36:00.001-07:00

Hi-yo! Thought I'd get you all up to date with the latest goings-on with me... It's quite the sunny day today here, and it's going to be almost 70 degrees! Yow! Quite unusual for this area, and it certainly feels like spring. Tomorrow, 74! In light of the warm sunny weather, I believe Hunter and I will be going out to Camp Putt, a local outdoor mini-golf course. Yeah, I know that's not a great link, but it's the only one the web seems to have. Although "Adventure Golf" sounds intriguing, it's really just a nicely landscaped mini-golf course, with all the typical outdoorsy stuff: but no mini-golf tricks like windmills and blocking walls, etc. I would have liked to think adventure golf would be more of an Indiana Jones experience, with players needing to putt across rickety bridges and use vines to reach certain parts of the course. Don't lose your ball over the edge into the snake pit, because it's gone man, it's gone.

We have another CostCo run this weekend, as we're running out of the meats we use for nightly dinners. It's always a struggle to visit CostCo and not spend an arm and a leg, but we're getting better at it! Normally the bill is around $100 every two weeks, but that satisfied meals for three people 6 nights a week, so that's not horrible.

Other than that, we'll be swinging by my good friend Nancy's house, to drop off some things to give to her daughter. Nancy's going to visit her for a month or so, to get to know her new grandbaby! That should be a really nice visit, I'm hoping.

I think our plans are a bit sparse after that... We may go see that Simon Pegg movie, or we may just relax at home on Sunday. There's two shows on Saturday in Secondlife, one for Yuri's Night, and our regular show at the Heron Island Performance Space. On Sunday, we'll have a show for Akumu at the Purple Paw Print, which we've played at before, to a wonderful crowd!

Hope you all have nice plans too for the upcoming weekend, take care!

Yay weekend!

2008-04-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

Had a good time this weekend... never know what's gonna happen on those, anymore! Friday night we had our show at Lusk, and Secondlife was having a little trouble with crashes all over the grid. Luckily, we give out our stream address in advance, so we actually had quite a few listening even with SL down. We continued to play and had a great time! Things came back up about 30 minutes before the end of the show, although very slow and "headless" avatars everywhere :D

Saturday, Hunter and I went to brekky at IHOP, and then out to the opening of the Eugene Saturday Market. It was fun getting to walk around, see the sights and talk to the merchants. I got a great little pottery soap dish for the bathroom, and Hunter found some really good lotion for dry hands that works like a charm in this climate. We also got to wander around the adjacent Farmer's Market, and got some honey sticks. Hunter also got some duros, and they are really tasty! Sort of like pork rinds, but fried wheat, not pork :D

After the market, we came home to watch some Columbo. We've been getting quite a few old TV series through Netflix, and have really been enjoying them. We've just seen the two so far, but Peter Falk does such an amazing job. It's easy at times to forget they were made in the early 70s, but then you see the hair and suits and the illusion is ruined, hehe. They were mostly filmed in the Los Angeles area, so it's fun to watch them with Hunter and have him pointing out places he's been and how much they have changed since then.

On Sunday, we woke up thinking of mini-golf and the new Simon Pegg movie, but instead got the urge to drive back out to the coast and the Three Rivers Casino. All in all, it was a fun drive and great spending time together, even though I lost my $50. Oh well, can't win em all :D When we got back, I ended up making the $50 back helping an old neighbor friend of mine set up a home wireless network router and laptops, so it all worked out in the end! Then, we had dinner at my Dad's house, with my sister, and enjoyed some corned beef and salad.

This morning, as usual, I got to talk to my friend Rosa on the drive to work. I really enjoy getting the chance to keep in touch, she's such a joy to have as a friend.

But, it's back to work today, so talk to you later!

Continued ramblings from a sneaky Siamese!

2008-03-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

It's been about a month since I wrote a blog entry, so I'll catch you all up! This could be a bit long... ;)

First of all, the home situation has been going really well! I'm really taking to living with a spouse, and I couldn't imagine a more comfortable way to relax, than snuggled up in front of the TV. Before partnering with Hunter, I barely watched any TV at all, and now I find myself caught up in quite a few series. Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs are two of my favorite ongoing shows at the moment, and recently we finished up the British 'Allo 'Allo series. I highly recommend 'Allo 'Allo; it's very funny :D Currently, we're working our way through the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 series. I was never really into it when it was first run, but after watching more Star Trek: Enterprise, I've got a taste for it and want to see it past the second season. We watched a clever old movie the other day with Peter Falk, too, called "The Cheap Detective", which I also recommend... Especially if you are a Casablanca fan. There were an amazing amount of cameos in it, too!

Hunter's also been getting me out of the house more on the weekends, which is a good thing! I do like the comfort and security of home, but I tend to not bother with traveling outside much since there is equally interesting things to be done at home. However, I tend to miss out on things because of this, so I'm grateful for Hunter's nature to want to explore and see the state.

Yesterday, on Easter, we drove up to Portland, Oregon, to try a sushi buffet, see the Oregon science museum (OMSI), and afterwards went and checked out an old Hudson Bay Company fort. I determined I'm not much for sushi; it all tastes too fishy for me. I like fish, but more the cooked kind with seasonings and hot rice. Frogg told me later I might have liked it more with the soy sauce and wasabi added, which I had totally forgot about somehow. The OMSI, well, was mostly for kids and school field trips, and not what I remembered at all. Additionally, it was filled to the brim with dinosaurs, which I guess kids still go gaga over. I never saw the attraction to dinosaurs, and since Jurassic Park was over 14 years ago, you'd think the popularity would have died out. But no, the place had two whole floors dedicated to the beasts. There were other exhibits too, but mainly overrun with kids treating the facility as a kind of daycare, as the parents went off to do God-knows-what. Of more interest was Fort Vancouver, just over the border into Washington. It's an old fort built to protect the interests of the Hudson Bay Company, during the middle of the 19th century. Most of the buildings had been destroyed before 1900, but back in 2000 they started reconstructing them and digging up artifacts, and they really did a great job. It was a neat slice of history to wander around the old wooden fort, checking out the grounds and imagining what it must have been like back then to be working there.

We've mainly been doing these side trips on weekends, as I'm not much for travel on a work night. Plus, the live music shows have been keeping Frogg and I busy on weeknights. We did take our birthdays off, though! We had them recently; Frogg's on March 15th and mine on the 19th. I get four days to call Frogg and "old timer" and he gets to call me a "young whippersnapper". For Frogg's birthday we went to Ring of Fire, an excellent Thai-themed place, and for mine we ended up at the Oregon Electric Station, which I truly love as a meat place.

The continued concerts in Second Life have been keeping Frogg and I very busy, as we still do about five shows a week. It's not really Hunter's style of music, unfortunately, and he is fairly bored when I'm not available during shows, but he knows they mean a lot to me and Frogg, and encourages me to play. I still really enjoy it, too, and I find it a perfect way to relax and get out some of that pesky internal creativity that builds up over time. If any of you out there don't play Second Life, but would still like to listen, you can use Winamp or Windows Media Player to connect to us, as we play live. Our regular shows are from 7PM-9PM PST on Fridays, and from 7PM-8PM PST on Saturdays, at this URL: http://TheStreamteam2.serverroom.us:8876. Most all of our shows are played at that URL, and for a complete schedule of upcoming shows, check out the calendar in this Yahoo group. I've even been doing a few more solo shows, which I enjoy, mainly to keep up my playlist from getting stale and forgotten :D

Let's see.... what else has been going on. Oh, trips! Hunter and I have been planning some trips, as well. Overnight ones, that is. In the middle of April, we're headed back up to Portland, for a more extended trip, staying in a Residence Inn as a home base as we do a little cooking and browsing around the bigger city. Then, in late May, we will be taking a week-long cruise along with Hunter's relatives to Mexico on the Royal Caribbean. It's a lot of money, and we had been planning on not going, but his folks are really eager to have us along and are helping out a bit :). After that, some time in late June or so Hunter and I will be going to the northers Oregon coast. I'd love to show him Fort Stevens, which is very impressive, and we'd both like to see the Spruce Goose again, which is also up that way. Then, in August, as part of his birthday gift, we are staying at the Crater Lake Lodge. His birthday is really July 15th, but when I tried to reserve a room, I found that the only two consecutive nights together were in late August! Ah well, it must be a popular spot. :) Also some time in there we will visit my good friend Maken Waves (Wes) in Bend, Oregon. That one probably won't be an overnight trip, however. Frogg and I are longtime friends of Maken, so Frogg will probably come with us! Lastly for 2008, in September Hunter and I will drive up to Seattle to attend the RainFurrest furcon, which I am really looking forward to. It's just a 5 hour drive from here, so that really cuts down on costs. I might even have my fursuit head by then, and I can't wait to get to try it out at a con. With a bizarre amount of luck, I may even have my partial suit then, too. That would be a blast! We do also hope to visit Further Confusion in early 2009 down in California, too, provided we can afford the airfare and room cost. And of course, if my father is still going, Hunter and I will be joining him on Vancouver Island, B. C. in late January of next year, too, at Yellow Point Lodge.

Oh yes! There are times I might not be traveling, but I still get to meet friends :) My very good friend Rosa will be visiting me again, maybe even twice! Could be as soon as mid-April she will be able to stop by Eugene to visit with Hunter, Frogg and myself. She has been here before, and we all had a really great time touring around the state and hanging out. We didn't make it to the coast last time, so this time we will! A longer trip is planned in July, too, where she will visit us and also Patrick in Seattle. Woo hoo!

Well, gosh, that's quite a post from me! I hope to keep you all updated more when I can. Take care, and have a good spring!

What's Up With Jaycatt? :D

2008-02-25T15:25:00.000-08:00

First, the music news! Check out www.thesixtyone.com, a great little site where people can vote on music and bands. Frogg has a page there, as do I, and we have a duet page too! I recently did three different solo shows, which is unusual for me! Here's a link to the show I did for Carter and Gillian at the Heron Island stage (careful, it's about 120MB!). I sing a lot more on it, than usual, which is kind of fun really! If the link doesn't work, then you're probably checking this out much later than posted, and I've had to take it down to save space.

In other news, Hunter and I are getting along just wonderfully together. We bought a dresser, a kitchen table, and a new computer desk, and are really starting to shape up the house to be more accomodating. The extra bedroom is now an office, with his and his computers, and a comfy futon couch. Actually a very nice place to just hang out. Hunter's been cooking the meals, and doing an amazing job, I might add! It's so good, I need to break out the exercise bike again and start getting a bit more in shape. :D

Slowly but surely we're clearing up the clutter, and getting into the nice routine of how to construct the mornings before I go to work, and the evenings when I've got a show or don't. It's a learning process, but very rewarding, and I couldn't be happier. We're also learning how to be more frugal, with CostCo meat purchases, and cheap sides and salads to round out a meal. Browsing the day-old bread department is an excellent way to get cheap after-dinner desserts too, as we found a cherry pie for less than $2 the other day!

Hope you are all well, I'll write more some other time!

We're Here!

2008-02-11T16:39:00.000-08:00

Yay, we made it back up to Oregon without a hitch! Hunter and I are now finally together, after all this time, and it's truly wonderful. We're both still settling in, and getting used to being together full time. There's plenty to do before things are completely settled and functional, but also lots of time to do it!

I arrived in LA about 8:45PM on Thursday last, and was picked up by Hunter and a good friend of his. We wanted to go to dinner at a wonderful Italian place, called Cafe 322, but they had just stopped serving dinner, so we ended up at Carrow's, which was still pretty good, mainly due to the company :D Afterwards, Hunter and I went back to his folks' house, and we tried to get as much sleep as possible before waking up at 5:30AM to head up north. The car was packed to the roof in the backseat and trunk, but still had a nice lot of room for both of us in the driver and passenger seats. We ended up listening to the Star Wars radio drama for most of the trip, which really made the time fly by...

We headed out early and got to Harris Ranch about 10:45 or so, just in time to still get breakfast of steak and eggs. It was absolutely fantastic tasting food. Then we headed up north again, stopping in Davis, CA to eat at the Redrum Burger with another good friend. Didn't have much, though, due to the amount of food from Harris Ranch!

We finally pulled into Redding, CA at about 6:30PM or so, dead tired of driving. It was the perfect stop. Had a pretty nice sized hotel room and got some much needed rest. Got a little food at the local Marie Callendar's and watched some 'Allo 'Allo before hitting the sack. I love that show :D

The next day was a nice easy drive actually starting at about 8am, considering the Siskiyou pass wasn't totally overloaded with snow as it had been the weekend before. Extremely pretty drive, too, with snow covered hills and wonderfully white and "nature-ific" snowy vistas. Finally into Oregon, we stopped for a bit at the Seven Feathers for a bit of gaming, then back up the 5 to Eugene, arriving around 4PM! Wouldn't want to drive that even once a year, but all-in-all it was pretty painless.

Anyway, really glad to be back, and home with my love, ready to start our lives together. Lots of planning to do, like I said, but eager to get started! I suspect it'll take a week or two before it finally sinks in that I won't be needing to take him back to the airport any time soon. :)

Personal excitement builds!

2008-02-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

Hey there folks! Been a while since I've written a blog entry, so I thought I'd drop a line to let you know how things are going on my end.

Mainly, I've been super busy in RL working with Hunter on getting the house ready for the Big Move, which is taking place this next weekend. That's right, after February 9th, we'll finally be together for good, up here in Eugene. It's going to be a big change for both of us, but a definate change for the better. Hunter was just visiting last weekend, for the third (or fourth?) time, and it just feels more like home when he's there, and big and empty when he's not. Well, internally... I'm never truly alone, since I have one of my very best friends (and musical companion) renting a room and just across the hall, but my heart feels empty, and detached somehow. When Hunter is there, things just feel complete, you know? I can't really describe it, but I imagine anyone living together in a relationship will understand. It's quite a foreign feeling for me, but it's one of the best feelings I think I've experience since I was a kid.

I have to admit, it wasn't as sad an experience, getting him to the airport yesterday for the trip back to LA. Now, it feels more like he's already here, and just taking a short "business trip" away for a few days. Not the other way around. Hard to believe that I'll be winging my way down there myself in just three days! He feels the same way: Eugene just feels more like "home" than LA does. I don't think it's just the lack of furniture in his old place, either :)

We've both got our work cut out for us over these next three days, although he's got more going on than I do. Hunter's tasks involve cleaning up his old place, boxing things up, and deciding what to take/keep, and loading up the car. My responsibility is mainly getting the garage in a condition where two cars can once again park comfortably in it. Not a huge chore, as I cleaned it out already a while back, but there's still some work to do. I bought a lot of storage supplies today to start building "up" instead of "out" with the clutter that's already in the garage :D

Aside from the Second Life shows and IMs, I may not be around too much for the next week or two, as we get acclimated into our new lives together. It's going to be quite an adventure, and one I can't wait to get started on. No more will we be trying to squeeze the maximum amount of time together into two or three short days. We'll actually be able to go to bed early if we just feel like it, and not think we're wasting time during a visit.

There's plenty to do once he gets here, in terms of sorting out his boxes and clearing some room for his stuff (I think I should invest in Rubbermade, as I'll be buying quite a few of those things!), but we'll take that slow, because there's plenty of time for it all. We'll need to get a dresser for the bedroom, and another desk for his PC, as well as a breakfast table (I used to eat on my way to work or at work, but I'm going to start having actual meals in the morning before I leave... that'll be a novel concept!). A lot of this stuff won't fit into my car, so I'll need to look into renting some type of towing trailer for it (I have a trailer hitch on the back, so that should be fairly cheap).

Anyway, time to get back to work. If you'd like to contact me in Yahoo, I have it on pretty much all day, under the username "Jaycatt".

Singingarc!

2008-01-16T09:09:00.000-08:00

Looks like I spoke too soon! Singingarc will still be taking place, unless not enough tickets get sold by January 31st, so if you're interested in attending (more details here) please sign up!

No Singingarc :(

2008-01-15T16:45:00.000-08:00

In other news, it looks like Frogg and I won't be playing in Vegas on March 1st after all :( There simply wasn't enough advanced ticket sales and sponsorship for the large 11 hour event that was going to feature 11 different musicians. Well, dang! I'll have to go to Vegas another time, I guess. That's okay :) Although I was really looking forward to playing live to real people standing in front of me once more, as we get to do it so rarely these days.

Still doing a lot of Second Life shows though, so that's really cool! I enjoy playing there so much... Such an amazing audience, and such wonderful compliments. I kind of get a swelled head sometimes hehe...

In other news, I went all nostalgic and bought some land in the Hantu sim; the same exact land (for the most part) that I used to own two years ago with my sister. I still had most of the old things that were on the land, and basically recreated my park that had been there before. It's very cool to see it again, and a nice addition to the landscape :)

Together at last :)

2008-01-15T16:41:00.001-08:00

Okay, at the risk of making this a Jaycatt/Hunter status blog (hehe) I have to write now, because I'm too excited not to report on it. :D

Hunter asked me to marry him, well, as much as is possible. And I said YES wholeheartedly!! He visited last weekend, and brought rings. I am wearing mine now (it needed a little resizing but now fits perfectly). Our date for having him move up to finally be home for good is now Saturday, February 9th. I'm pretty ecstatic about the whole thing! He's visited twice, and it feels like home to him, here in Eugene. And you know, when he is here, it feels more like home to me too, and not just a place to live. My partner, my mate, and I, finally together.

Anyway, sorry for being all mushy, but it's a big piece of news I just had to share!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T16:27:00.000-08:00

Happy 2008 everyone :) Boy, it's been a great year. Even reading back through this blog, I've had quite a whirlwind of changes in my life.

Hunter got to visit me up in Oregon, and see where he will be living later this year. We had the most fun ever, as usual, and I was very sad to see him go, to the point of sobbing in the car on the way back from the airport. I love him and care very deeply for him, and we both hate to be apart. We've upped the schedule a bit, and now he's planning on moving in come June! That gives him time to pay bills,help his parents with their shop, and organize his apartment before driving up.

We have such wonderful future plans together, it just makes me so excited to think of them. I never realized how much was missing from my life by being alone, until I discovered the joy of another's close company. I highly recommend it! :D

I don't have a lot of other news, really, except that at the end of January I'll be traveling with my father to Canada once again, to enjoy the cold windy weather they have, and relax with some good food and wine. It's a great trip to unwind, and I love spending time with my Dad. We're not doing a full week this time, just the four days or so at the Lodge (which I've posted about previously, last January). I'm looking forward to visiting with my Dad, who I don't get to see much anymore due to my hectic schedule with music and chatting ;)

Hope you all had a wonderful new year's!

Airline Rant

2007-12-28T15:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this is one of the most asinine bureaucratic red-tape nightmares I've seen. My partner, Hunter, is flying up to see me tonight, hoping to get in at midnight in Eugene.

Here's his schedule:
BUR --> SFO (8:18PM - 9:34PM)
SFO --> EUG (10:30PM - 12:06AM)

Every flight today that has left Burbank and gone to San Francisco has been upwards of 90 minutes delayed. Of course, that means when Hunter's plane finally leaves, he's already missed the 10:30PM flight. Still, no problem, right? It's only 4PM now, just put him on an earlier flight, let it be 90 minutes delayed, and he'll still make the 10:30PM one. But noooo, the airline somehow thinks his plane will be the magical one that doesn't get delayed, and is going to show it "ON TIME" until it's supposed to leave. By then, it will be too late to make alternative arrangements. And the 10:30PM flight is the last one from SFO into Eugene.

Way to think ahead, guys! There's a chance to solve a problem, but United seems to have their heads up their asses about it, and won't admit to a delay until right before it's supposed to leave. I can't imagine they think, as night falls, the weather is going to suddenly improve, allowing traffic to avoid delays.

While I'm at it, shouldn't San Francisco, I don't know, EXPECT these sort of things, since they always happen, winter after winter, year after year? Is it such a complete shock that they can't adjust schedules ahead of time to compensate? I mean, what the hell?

Okay, that's my rant. With luck, the plane that Hunter is taking at 10:30PM is arriving from somewhere that will also be delayed, and he'll still be able to make it.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

2007-12-21T11:26:00.001-08:00

Have a good holiday season everybody!

Holiday plans

2007-12-20T13:03:00.000-08:00

On Friday the 21st, I'll be flying down to Pasadena to be with Hunter for the Christmas holiday; flying back on Christmas Day (oh what fun, it is to ride, on a Canadian Regional Jet 700 toniiiight). We don't have any major plans, and are mainly going to just hang out, have some good food, and enjoy each other's company.

But then, on Friday the 28th, Hunter will be flying up to Oregon to visit me! Yay! I can't wait... Not only will it make leaving on Christmas Day easier (only having to wait 2 days to see him again) but I get to show him around town and around the house he will eventually be moving into. We'll be together until January 1st, when he'll fly back to California. Then we don't see each other until January 18th. Not a huge wait, but not short either. Ah, well. We are doing the best we can until things get more settled. :)

Dreaming of the future :)

2007-12-18T09:39:00.000-08:00

As you can tell from my previous posts, Hunter and I are starting to plan our lives together, and consider ourselves partners, as much as we can be living as far apart as we do. Well, after much discussion about how to plan for the future, we have both decided the most logical choice is for him to move here, to Oregon, and live with me. I have a good job here already, and my own house. Plus, the weather is fairly nice and temperate. Costs are a bit cheaper up this way too, since the city is not as large.

I feel badly that it uproots him to do this, and one thing I care most about is making my mate comfortable. So, I had been planning to move down there, to make it easier on him. Well, it really does make more sense for him to travel to me instead, it looks like. I've showed him a video tour of the house that I did a while back, and he agrees that it should work just fine. :) Of course, it's easiest for me, since I don't have to change much about my life, and I feel pretty guilty about that, but I do so want to be together with him, that I would take any avenue to eventually end up that way.

So! We've set a tentative date of November 2008 as a move-in date (so he can be here for the winter). It's a year out, which should give us plenty of time to get things in order and planned out. I'm pretty excited! When I go down to see him over the Christmas holiday we'll talk more about it all, also, and start making plans. Woo hoo!

What's Up With Jaycatt?

2007-12-12T10:18:00.000-08:00

Hello, and welcome to my blog post. *applause* Thanks, thanks very much, you're too kind *more applause* No really, it's you guys, you guys I write for *applause continues* Okay, that's enough now... QUIET!

*awkward silence*

Okay, well, anyway *clear throat* We've got a great blog post for you today, explaining what I've been up to the last week or so. I have no special guest, as I cannot afford one. So let's start the show!

*opening theme music plays, probably Seasons*

Hey there ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. Have you been reading the news lately? Well, neither have I, because I've been busy doing other stuff like cooking, volunteering, playing music, and visiting friends online and off. Great stuff, yeah. Let's look back at the week and see what's been shakin', SHALL WE!? *giggles*

Last weekend was kind of fun, really. On Saturday I went over to downtown Springfield to the tuba concert and volunteered at the cookie and hot chocolate booth SUB provided, making sure things were stocked and setting up the "comfort station" canopy. It was a lot of fun! Nice to help out, and also a great tuba show. They played holiday songs, and it was an all-tuba ensemble.

Then, that night, I volunteered at the company banquet playing piano during the cocktail hour before dinner. That was also quite a bit of fun, and people said they enjoyed the background music. Plus, I gots a $25 gift card for Barnes & Noble, yay! My Dad also got to attend the banquet, which was a lot of fun to do with him too.

Sunday night, my good friend Rosa had her fourth rez-day party in Second Life. On December 8th, 2003, she joined the service. So long ago! Anyway, I played for an hour, some nice tunes and requests, and then DJ'd swing music and oldies to the crowd. Nice turnout, and a great audience!

Other than that, I've been trying to get out to visit my RL friends and take care of things around the house. Top priority goes to my mate Hunter, who I miss dearly and pine for often. I leave to see him on the 21st, so it's not long now. I can't wait! It'll be a four day visit this time, so I'm really eager to get started visiting and relaxin' together. We have a lot of movies lined up and a few wonderful meals in the works. Just the kind of vacation I'm looking for. :)

Okay, I've kind of fallen behind on the whole talk-show mood, so I'll sign off for now and talk to you all later. Hope you're having good holiday seasons as well!

Eight Random Facts

2007-11-29T13:23:00.000-08:00

EricAtRandom tagged me to do this meme, so I'll complete it here :) I don't know 8 people to pass it on to, so I'll just answer the questions and stop at #2...

Here are the rules. (1) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. (2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. (4) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Fact One: I bite my fingernails. Not until they bleed, but mainly because I'm nervous, and well, I like the taste.

Fact Two: I like a certain kind of shoe for my work shoes, and I buy a new pair every year or so. Since my shoe size doesn't change, it's pretty easy to purchase shoes you like over the 'net, as long as you know the exact style and color. I don't know what these are even, cause I don't feel like taking them off to find out. :P

Fact Three: I bite the insides of my cheeks when I'm nervous. I'm not sure why, but at least I don't twirl my hair until it falls out, anymore.

Fact Four: I like to take naps at lunch in a big comfy chair that's located in a disused training area at work. Sometimes a nap in the afternoon is just glorious. Ask any cat :)

Fact Five: When I almost fall asleep in meetings, in order to stay awake I imagine myself fighting towards the surface of consciousness, and then trying to keep my "head" above water.

Fact Six: I have this really annoying crick in my neck today that doesn't seem to be fixed by any amount of ibuprofen.

Fact Seven: I had my first kiss back in May, 2007. I enjoyed it so much it's part of what's been driving me to become closer to someone long-term.

Fact Eight: There is no Fact Eight. Actually, I just really like British comedy and humor, if you hadn't gathered that yet.

Food driven holidays are teh sucks!

2007-11-28T10:53:00.000-08:00

Food pleases me greatly, so I hate to waste meals where I could potentially making yummy sounds the whole time by having a dull salad with chicken on it. However, since Thanksgiving and well, "living large" the last month or two, I really find I need to cut back. So, out come the broiled chicken, baked potato, and salad dinners, and cut up chicken on salad lunches. And no snacks *whimper*. Plus a little exercising in the morning, and I should be back to my happy weight of 185 or so. Right now I'm at 205, and really starting to feel it, especially when I tie my shoes... :D Not good!

Hunter's also going through a bit of a diet regiment, so we have been encouraging each other to eat better and get out walking and such. We compare the results over Christmas, when we will finally be together again. We do plan to go off the diets when I visit. Not exactly pig out or anything, but one of the plans is to go to the Melting Pot, which makes me drool every time I think of it. I'm also eager to try Nigiri-zushi with him, as he is a big fan and I really haven't dabbled much with sushi before. Of course, there's also the Panda Inn, where the "Panda Express" eateries spawned, that I'm looking forward to having some day. There's one right in Pasadena too, so not very far away from us!

Okay, gotta stop thinking about food, as my lunch of a salad is looking less and less appetizing!

Snugglies!

2007-11-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

Hunter and I got to visit together again this last weekend, and I had such a great time! I swear, the more we visit, the more I find to love about him. Our relationship grows every time we are together, and I truly consider him my mate now. I believe it is no longer a question of "if" we will be together, but more"when"! I don't think I've ever been happier being with someone, than I am with him. I sigh with contentment a lot when I'm there, and do a large amount of smilin' :)

Earlier last week, we both bought feety pajamas! I swear, they are the most comfortable things *ever*. They are fleece, for winter, and ideal for snuggling while watching movies. I have the navy blue, and Hunter has baby blue, and I admit we look extremely cute together snuggling in them :) I think everyone who lives in cold climates should have them!

We also went to Universal City, to the iMAX theater to see the 3D version of Beowulf. I haven't been to the Universal Studios area since the Jaws exhibit was popular (but now, the shark is "old, and stupid", and although we didn't go inside the park (it would have been $64, EEP!) I was still impressed with the outdoor City mall. Didn't buy anything, as it was too expensive, but we did go next door to the Hilton's bar for a drink before the movie started. Good bar, only found a speck floating in a glass, and a hair in the olives, hehe... As for the movie, it was well animated, and done in very impressive 3D, but the plot itself was lacking oomph. Not sure if it would be as interesting to see it on a normal screen.

We were packed like sardines in that theater, but I got to hold Hunter's hand during the show, so I didn't mind one bit. ^^

I really miss him a lot, now that I'm home. It's good to be back in some ways, though... I do miss playing piano, and my friends here in Oregon and online. However, I'm counting the days until I get to be back in California again. Almost exactly 30 days now, as I'll be there over the Christmas holiday (21st-25th). Four whole days, woo hoo!

First frost!

2007-11-14T07:45:00.000-08:00

Yay! One of the benefits of fall and winter, though, is the cooler weather. The picture above is a snapshot I took from one of the mountain pass cameras, about an hour and a half east of where I live.

The cooler weather means sweaters! I just love wearin sweaters :) Mainly because they is fuzzy, but also because the patterns are nicer than the shirts I get to wear. Also, I just think I looks good in em :D

So this morning, I woke up and saw that there was frost on the lawn! Good thing I picked my peck of peppers, because whatever's still outside now is ruined for sure. I have a nice batch of jalapeños and habaneros though, to do something with!

Also last night I discovered that the FurAffinity website, which is mainly used for artwork, also accepts music submissions! So I have updated my page there, with some material. Take a look if ya like!

Definately fall now...

2007-11-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

With the change of the seasons comes a bit of melancholy for me. I do enjoy cold weather, and rain, and being thankful for the sun when it shows up. However, I dislike the long nights and darkness that keeps me from enjoying the outdoors. Sure, I don't go out in them much since the internet ;) But I do love to look out the window. Don't think I could live very long in an apartment without windows; as I've always enjoyed opening up the shades and letting natural light in to where I live. Laying in a sunbeam, feeling the warmth of it on you as you read: these are things I identify with, as do real cats.

The short days are what really gets me down. Sometimes it already feels like more of my life than I want is going towards work, so when I arrive to my job in darkness and leave in darkness, it just feels as if the day was wasted, in a way. The company is happy, and knows it was not wasted, but what about my personal growth time? When it's dark, it feels like it's just time for bed, not time to go anywhere. I guess I never was one for the nightlife, unless it's online. :)

Monarch of the Seas

2007-11-08T11:22:00.000-08:00

I'm back! I had the best time ever on the cruise with Hunter on the Royal Caribbean Monarch of the Seas. I'd never been on a large cruise ship before, and having someone you care deeply about on one is just the best thing ever. To be fair, I would be happy anywhere with Hunter, even running errands or waiting for car repairs to finish. The cruise just gave us lots of things to do and see as well.

The meals were out of this world, and basically all you could eat. I did pretty well; ending up weighing the same as when I left. We didn't drink too much, although that seemed to be the general rule for most of the passengers. They don't call it a "booze cruise" for nothing, and quite a few were drunk before we even cast off, and drank bloody marys and screwdrivers first thing in the morning. I just don't understand how that could be anyone's idea of a vacation except someone living in a college frat. Anyway, we mainly just talked and got to know each other better, without having to worry about food or going anywhere. It was really nice. :) We didn't even do hardly anything in Ensenada, where the ship docked. Mainly because there wasn't much to do in that town, but also because we were just happy being together.

I'm headed back to visit again very soon, on the 16th! I feel so lucky that I have the ability and time to visit, as I am deeply in love and being apart for too long sort of depresses me. After this upcoming trip, I won't be able to visit until the Christmas holiday. That's close enough, I guess, but each day feels like an eternity sometimes, especially in the evenings when we would usually get to snuggle and watch a movie. It's hard being alone knowing the alternative.

Jonny Flash!

2007-10-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

Hi there! New post from me. Last Sunday, I went to visit an old friend of mine, Jonny, who was playing at a Halloween show here in town, and selling copies of his CD. Quite possibly the funniest musician I personally know, Jonny has been living in Austin, TX, so to see him back up here at his old haunts (no pun intended) was quite a treat! Jonny plays ukulele and sings. He's got quite a stage presence too (just check out the links below!)

Frogg knows him as well, even better than I do, as he was part of a backup band for Jonny called "The Exhibitionists". Yes, that's right, put together, the name becomes "Jonny Flash and the Exhibitionists"!

Anyway, here's Jonny playing a recent song (that you've undoubtedly heard before), "I Will Survive".

Here's a link to Jonny's webpage and Myspace pages too! Lots of great pictures and other songs there too!

Just about a week away now...

2007-10-24T16:34:00.001-07:00

Okay, I'm getting more and more excited about my trip to see Hunter and the cruise, that I can hardly think about anything else! It will truly be wonderful. I don't want to exaggerate things, but somehow I feel that this trip will be the start of my life, and that everything up until now has been leading to it. Doesn't that sound sappy? hehe Yeah, it probably does, but you have no idea how much I am looking forward to this.

Hunter and I have grown closer over the time we've been waiting to meet again on November 1st, and our love for each other has really blossomed. I've been in a singing mood the whole time, and have that lighter-than-air feeling around me quite a bit lately. I'm so excited!

Yay for company!

2007-10-12T12:25:00.001-07:00

I've had the pleasure of having two visitors at the house recently, both from SL! It's really a lot of fun to get the chance to meet people you chat with online. Getting to see them at home is much different, and in lots of ways better, than being at a convention like SLCC. Mainly because, well, home is where you keep all your stuff, so anything you talk about you have direct reference to. Also, once it's time for bed, you get to be in your own! Don't even have to drive home! hehe

Looking forward to the weekend coming up, as we've got a couple of shows and I have Sunday off (which I could really use).

Take care everyone, and have a good weekend!

Shipcats

2007-10-07T20:47:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been feelin' even more cattish, thanks to Hunter, someone I've started to care very deeply about. We've been friends for months now, and lately have started feeling closer to each other. :) It's nice to know another cat, as cats can be nice and cuddly together! Is their nature, yis!

Anyway, I've visited him before, but am going again in November and we're going to take a cruise! My first time on one of the big liners from Royal Carribean. It's just a few days, down to Mexico and back, but still: woo hoo! And I gets to be with a kitty who I find myself really falling for. We have a lot in common, that's for sure. Cooking, movies, traveling. And cats of course, mrrow! :D

It should be a fun trip, and it's less than a month away now! Yay! I'm looking forward to this trip more than anything. Hope to take some nice piccies for the Flickr strip up there!

New Links

2007-09-24T18:14:00.001-07:00

Just a note, I updated the links on the far right of the page, to include my favorite webcomics and a few extra blog links. Enjoy!

Flashback, 1989

2007-09-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I don't have much on my mind at the moment, so I'm going to steal ideas from my younger self. Ooo time travel! During my first term of college, I took a writing class. Part of the homework was to keep a journal, where we would write 20 minutes a day, straight through, not pausing for any thought. An interesting concept... He had us start it on the very first day, and asked us to write about our impressions of the class, to turn in at the next class. I sort of branched out from there as my thoughts wandered, as they often do! I'll try to find somethign a bit more interesting from the journal as I read through it. It sure brings back memories...

September 26th, 1989 - 7:48AM

"When I first came into my WR-121 class I didn't know what to expect except possibly a lot of homework. The teacher in front of the class was an elderly lady with a British accent and I thought, "Well, this is good," because I thought she would be easy to get along with for some reason. Sometimes in classes you get kind, older ladies who are extremely patient in teaching. Well, anyway, she left and when no other teacher showed and the room gained 7 or 8 extra people I began to get a little worried. None of us said anything because I don't think we knew one another and that's pretty awkward to jump up unannounced and say "Hey, it's 2:09, should we just leave??" So, I wonder what would have happened if the teacher had not shown at all? I guess eventually we would have to discuss it amongst ourselves whether or not to leave, although some might just wander out if they were near the door. So, finally Mr. Barger got there and told us that the next time on Wednesday we would meet in the Science Building, #111. After the class I took a walk over there to check it out and find the room. In our old classroom, we had about 8 seats empty. This room was twice the size as our old one! We might either need to spread out or bunch up real close. A good point about it though is that the door is not 20 yards from the parking lot and it looked pretty uncrowded, so getting there and leaving will be no problem. Last night I went to my Effective Learning class, you know, one of those 1 hour 20 minute evening classes? I was pretty amazed that I liked the teacher and didn't mind being stuck listening to him drone on and on. So far I don't have any teachers like that, so I'm happy for now. All I have for classes today is a math class at 11 but I need to buy my books so I better get there by 9:30! Those lines are amazing! That's 20. (finished at 8:10AM)"

The Collector

2007-09-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

There's a movie called "Everything is Illuminated", which I've talked about before. Mainly, I've talked about the eastern European music in it, but Elijah Wood plays a character in that movie that I've found myself identifying with, lately.

Elijah's character is a soft-spoken individual, who has a deep interest in his extended family. In order to be as close to them as possible, he collects things about them. Most of the time, the items he collects are not even all that significant: a dental plate, or a coin found in their pockets. He dubs himself "The Collector" because of this, and although it may seem quirky, I can certainly understand the allure. I do it myself!

When people go on trips or vacations, they want something to remember the experience by. For some, thing means obtaining something pictorial, like a postcard or a small statue of something significant from the area, such as a tiny Eiffel Tower, or Statue of Liberty. Then, when they look at the object, it reminds them of the place.

I treat mementos a little differently; more like Elijah Wood's character. Seemingly inconsequential things, like receipts or business cards, take on a world of meaning to me. If I take a trip somewhere, my souvenir is typically a receipt. If you think about it, it has all the details you need to flash back to a memorable time: the date, the time, the place, and the thing you purchased. Plus, when you hold it in your hand, you recall the first time you ever held it, and it creates a definite link to the past. These objects gain emotions, unlike just a simple shot glass or statue, because they are unique to you and your trip.

In the movie, Elijah saves things that tie directly to emotions. There's a scene where he is eating in the Ukraine with his guides, and orders a potato (as he is a vegetarian and does not eat meat). The potato accidentally falls on the floor, and one of the guides ends up picking it up and dividing it around the table before giving Elijah his slice. Everyone except Elijah laughs, and it is an awkward moment in the film. Elijah's response is to grab one of his many plastic zip lock bags, and store the slice of potato in it. The guides are puzzled by the behavior, but I think I understand it very well. Later in life, as he looks at that bit of potato, he will recall the feelings (which are typically last longer than facts) and be able to relive the moment better than a diary entry every could. As illogical as emotions are, they are a direct link to the past, more so than pictures or words.

My favorite souvenir is a rock, roughly the size of an ordinary penny gum ball. It's a small, rough piece of obsidian that I obtained during my only trip to Europe in 1999. I have ended up carrying it with me every day, ever since, in my pants pocket. It gets transferred around, and has been lost more than once, but never for more than a day, and it always ends up back in my pocket. My father and I visited Europe in July of 1999, and one of the stops was a partially excavated city on the island of Santorini called Akrotiri, that was buried in a volcanic eruption similar to the city at Pompeii. We were asked not to pick up anything from the site, but as I bent to tie my shoe on the dusty ground, I noticed the very small stone directly under my foot on the path. It was nothing special, but to me it not only symbolizes my experience in such a strange place, but it provides me something physical to hold in my hand to remember the journey by. Also, I find myself thinking about the small rock, what it could tell me if it could talk, about the volcanic eruption itself and about the city before it was buried under a mountain of ash and lava.

It's good to dream about things, and remember that there's more out there than just the "now" you're experiencing, in order to put life in perspective. Plus, it's always good to remember where you've been and what you've seen, so that you don't forget what's possible in life.

Anyway, that's my thoughts for the day. Take care!

Webcomics!

2007-09-19T11:48:00.000-07:00

I really couldn't think of another good, noteworthy website that I visit frequently, so today I'm going to list my favorite webcomics.

Some people enjoy their print newspaper, and have their favorites on the comic page. I have my own daily comic reads, but all online! Check these out if you haven't seen them before, and let me know in my comments section if you have any favorites you think I'd like.

Sluggy Freelance: Pete Abrams has been doing this comic for over 10 years now, online! It's an engaging story, with some wonderful characters and clever humor. You probably have to start at the beginning to truly understand the characters and story, but it's such a fun ride! I envy you!

Funny Farm Comics: I've always loved Funny Farm. It started out simple and has grown so much since then, especially the art style. While still keeping to a simple drawing technique, Ryan Smith is able to put so much dimension and feeling into his stories. Might need to start from the beginning on this one too...

Sandusky: John Pregaman, Jr. has one of my favorite art styles. I even commissioned him to draw me a "Jaycatt", here and here. It's very Disney-ish, and how I wish I could draw furs.

General Protection Fault: Another serial story, so it might take starting from the top to "get" it. Well, eventually it became one. It doesn't get updated very often lately, but there have been some excellent storylines in the middle of the run so far. I highly recommend checking it out.

Sinfest: Nice little daily comic that I enjoy reading, about a young pimp-wannabe and his girl friend (not girlfriend, but just a girl who unfortunately is only a friend to him). The Pooch and Percival segments are some of my favorites. For a sample, start here.

Penny Arcade: Although this comic only runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the PennyArcade crew is pretty funny at times. It's mostly video game humor and commentary, but occasionally I'll spot something that's just hilarious. Here's a quick sample.

Questionable Content: I've really been enjoying this one lately. It mainly focuses on relationships and clerk activity, but you know, it never gets preachy or drama-filled. He always manages to keep it light. Very nice! Another one you might want to start from the beginning.

Sequential Art: Very hard to describe, but some nice characters. Yes, like most, it helps to start from the top!

Gene Catlow: One of my favorite furry comics, this one takes place in a universe with furs and humans, living together. Needs to be read from the top! This one's also a Monday-Wednesday-Friday comic.

Cigarro & Cerveja: The continuing adventures of a hare and goose, pretty funny... One of my favorites is here.

The Class Menagerie: The Class Menagerie has been finished for a while, but it is still my favorite furry webcomic of all. Vince Suzukawa's artwork is excellent, and he really develops his characters.

Snopes.com

2007-09-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

My continuing entries about places on the web I like to visit!

Although I don't traffic Snopes as much as FARK, since the content doesn't change that much, I find it to be an extremely valuable resource. Still, I like to check it once a week at least.

Snopes is a website that debunks urban legends. Sometimes it even proves them right. From time to time, you've probably heard outlandish things from forwarded emails and whispered comments from coworkers that seemed far fetched. My rule of thumb is, if I ever get a forwarded message describing some particular warning or outrage and wants me to forward it on to everyone I know, I head to Snopes and do a search on the particulars. More often than not, I'll run into an entry about the very subject, and discover that not only is it false, but it has been around for over five years and is only rearing it's ugly head once again to prey on our fears.

Barbara and David Mikkelson do an excellent job describing the legend and talking about it in unbiased terms, and I'm always impressed by the amount of research they do to discover the validity of some of the strangest claims. Some legends even claim more than one thing, and they'll even break it down to explain.

The main Snopes link I placed up there actually takes you to a "What's New" page, which I find is a great way to keep up to date on stuff that's "making the rounds" before you even get asked about it.

Fark.com

2007-09-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

These next few entries will talk about what else I like to do online other than SecondLife :) Yes, there is more to me than just the musics and the catting around meowin' and purrin'.

During my breaks at work, and in the mornings, and heck, just whenever I have a few moments, I'll visit the news blog Fark.com. Fark is mainly a collection of strange and interesting news story links, paired with comments from a very large, and funny, member list. They're also big on cats, and every cat related story normally ends up with tons of cute cat pictures :D

Anyone can submit articles for inclusion on the main Fark page, but the ones with the funniest headlines tend to win and get posted for all to see. After all, it's not just the actual news story that makes it worthy for the main page, it's the humorous headline written by the submitter that plays a big part.

For example, some of today's funny headlines include (links go to actual articles, comments to the Fark comments):

"Two bridges in Quebec to be torn down after inspection finds microscopic evidence of the presence of Celine Dion": Comments

"Blind vet beats off gunman. He never saw him coming": Comments

"Osama Bin Laden to release video on 9/11 anniversary. Said to include hilarious deleted scenes and appearances from Fidel Castro, Desmond Tutu and General Francisco Franco": Comments

Anyway, that's just some of the headlines I spotted for today. Fark is always good for a laugh!

Back from the Secondlife Convention!

2007-08-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

Yay, I made it back from the SLCC 2007! Had a good time, and got to meet a lot of great folks. Even got to play a little with some other musicians and noodle around on the piano. Still, it's good to be back.

A blast from the past

2007-08-06T09:06:00.000-07:00

When I was about 16, Frogg, my sister, and I produced three half hour sketch comedy shows for our local Cable Access station. My sister was taking a high school film class, and the assignment was to create such a program. Being techy, I jumped at the opportunity to help, and Frogg had been doing a lot of theater work, so he was interested too. At the time, my sister was heavily into daytime television, too, and so we ended up doing TV commercial parodies. My family had this large gray rabbit, a giant chinchilla, so we called the program "Advertising the Rabbit Hutch Way". We got to use the recording equipment and mixing station for free, since it was public access.

Anyway, we enjoyed doing it so much, we wrote two more shows as well. The quality got progressively better.

Where am I going with all of this? Well, last night I uploaded the videos to Google Video, and so here are the links, if you'd like to see Frogg, me, and my sister in all our teenage glory, hehe.

Advertising The Rabbit Hutch Way

More Advertising The Rabbit Hutch Way

Dying The Rabbit Hutch Way

We planned to do a fourth show, but by that point our schedules were too different to all get together for filming. We ended up with one skit, not even edited, which I can't find at the moment, for "Life Time Books", a home improvement series for people not willing to do home improvements. One segment had Frogg hammering in a nail, with the comment "Well, I just got the first nail in, and it's a perfect fit!", and another segment where he says "Notice anything different about this room? I took that clock off the shelf over there, and put it on top of the TV! Thanks to Life Time books!"

Charlieeee!

2007-08-06T08:55:00.001-07:00

If you've listened to our shows, you know that Frogg and I do a medley of songs that ends in a Charlie The Unicorn tribute. Have a listen here for the Charlie part, if you don't know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I recently contacted the creator of Charlie, to let him hear the song and see what he thought. He was impressed! Impressed enough to even talk about it on his blog! And look at the comments from others too... Wow! I am amazed it was so well received!

Anyway, I just had to write and mention it here for you all, too. We'll be playing the Charlie medley at the SLCC in Chicago later this month, so you'll get to hear it in person there, if you're able to go!

Hooray for Company (part 3)!

2007-08-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

I know it's been forever for this post, but I have some other things I want to report about too, and I don't want to forget stuff I should have been writing about earlier.

When we last left Frogg and Jaycatt, Rosa had left to visit Patrick up in Seattle, and Meg was visiting for another week or so. I really enjoyed Meg's company, mostly because she's an interesting, caring person, but also because she was British and I find British culture fascinating. I also find the food fascinating, and even though Meg is a vegetarian, the dishes she made were quite nice :) One night she made a shrimp curry. Another, shepherd's pie (which I have an absolute passion for). Also, I remember a noodle dish that was excellent too.

Frogg and Meg mostly did things themselves, because I was back at work, but we did watch some movies together, which I think is always fun.

I really miss having Rosa here though :( It's funny how after a week of having someone visit, you almost take for granted that they'll be there, you know? So after they go, I found myself saying "Oh, that's right..." when I'd think of things I would have normally done when she was here. :) BUT, I get to see her again in a couple of weeks, in Chicago! Woo hoo! That'll really be a treat... Both of us visiting, but also both of us in a new place!

The house seems kind of empty now that it's just Frogg and I again. We've been hanging out more ourselves, though, and now when we visit Meg online we can include my partner Xankarth too, which I really missed being able to do. :)

Anyway, I really enjoyed having the company over. And I hope Rosa and Meg are able to visit again some day! Rosa might even get to visit in March, and I'm hoping to get to show her the Oregon coast, which we missed out on this last time around!

Hooray for Company (part 2)!

2007-07-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well, after Silver Falls, we visited the Oregon Garden, which was just a bit north and to the west of the falls. All in all, it was interesting, but not necessarily worth the $10 to get in. It seems the garden is more of a spot to hold weddings and other events such as concerts than just wander around. It's also where I got a nasty neck sunburn, so I wasn't particularly thrilled with the place. We made it back with a couple of hours to spare before the Friday show, which worked out perfectly.

Friday's live show was actually a lot of fun, what with having a real audience and all. Rosa and Megg had props arranged for the "Charlie Medley" that Frogg and I do. Rosa had brought some stuffed unicorns and made a little map to Candy Mountain that got Frogg to chuckle a bit during the song when he saw it... :D

Saturday we went out to see Nancy's place and visit her garden there, and then went on to Eugene's Saturday Market. A nice market experience, with crafts and such, but we were all pretty tired from the previous day's excursion so we went home afterwards and just vegged until the two Saturday shows (5pm and 7pm). Pretty exhausted still, but we had a big day on Sunday!

Sunday, we drove out to Bend (about a 3 hour drive) to visit our good friend Maken! We grabbed some tuna sammiches, some of my pasta salad, and pumkin bars that I had made and ate on some blankets out at a park Maken knew of. Played a little Frisbee too, until it got away from us and went in the river. Maken was nice enough to fish it out though, lol, I think because he was the one who threw it in in the first place (although I can't remember).

On the way home, we stopped at the Lava River Cave, which was pretty cool, as it is a cave you can trek through without any special gear (except a coat, as it is 40F year round in the cave). After that, we discovered another falls, Salt Creek Falls, and got a few pictures there too. Didn't make it home until dinner time, and we were all exhausted again. Fortunately, no shows, but we had plans to see Jonny Flash at a local burlesque show, except that he wasn't able to make it. So, we just stayed home and watched a movie. Good end to a busy day, anyway. :)

Monday morning, I ran some errands, then we rested until Patrick arrived around 2PM. Had a really nice time getting to know him, and eventually went out to dinner at The Glenwood, a local restaurant, which was really good! After dinner, we even had some time to play some music together (Patrick is also a Secondlife and real life musician). That was also a lot of fun! Then, Rosa left with Patrick for the night, as they were due to drive back to Seattle very early in the morning.

Well, that's the majority of the trip so far! Megg is still here for a week or so, and last night she made the most excellent shrimp curry (mmmm), a little spicy but I could have taken it hotter too. :D

That's my experiences so far, I'll keep you updated on what else happens! I'm back at work now (sigh) but that's okay, I do enjoy my routines too ^^

Hooray for Company (part 1)!

2007-07-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday evening Rosa left for Seattle to visit another friend, so the house is a bit more empty now... What a great visit, though! Most of the good pictures are up top there in my Flickr filmstrip, but I'll recap it here (this could be long, but it'll be in two parts!):

Back on July 3rd, Rosa's plane was due to arrive in Portland at about 11AM. As it's a two hour drive to Portland from here, I planned to get an early start and park myself somewhere in the terminal, biding my time by using my laptop with the airport's free wifi. I got the message right before I left that her flight was two hours delayed, so I ended up waiting a bit before actually leaving. Really boring two hour drive to the airport. Then, after my wait, it was 1PM and I started checking out the people as they arrived from past the security gates. Sure enough, there she was! She's always told me that she is short, and I've known some short people before (onces who come up to my chin) and so I expected something similar. However, I don't think she is short at all :P but I let her know and then it kind of became a running joke during the visit, hehe.

I had thoughtfully purchased some sammiches and chips in a cooler I brought along, so lunch was had while we were driving back here to Eugene. We had a really nice time chatting and such, and right before home she noticed the Coburg hills, mistaking them for mountains. I guess in Michigan it's really flat! I would find that so bizarre; around here there are always some type of hill or mountain on the horizon and it never just ends in a straight line.

We made it back home, and then went out for a little sightseeing around the town, and some shopping for breakfast stuff and dinners. Then Rosa met Frogg, and that night we watched a movie and ate hot dogs :D

The next day, the 4th, we went shopping for ingredients to make a pasta salad to take to my dad's for the holiday, and I ended up making cookies also! Then it was off to my Dad's, where we met my sister, my father, and Nancy and her husband Kenneth. We had a good dinner and lots of nice conversation, then got to see little bits of fireworks from all over town... There was always something going off somewhere out there in town, it seemed.

The 5th, we drove back into town to see the Owen Rose Garden, then were back in time to let Frogg take the car over to pick up Megg from the airport. Megg was flying in from London, and was only a little delayed. She was pretty tired after the trip, and didn't get to meet Rosa (who was taking a nap right when Megg got there) until the next morning!

On the 6th, we drove up to the Silver Falls park to walk around and see the falls. Rosa and Megg were extremely impressed, especially since you get to walk behind the waterfalls on a trail. Very stunning place. I got lots of good pictures and a little video as well!

More to come next post!

I is back!

2007-06-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hey ya everybody :D I just got back from Pasadena, and boy are my arms something-or-other. Had a great time visiting with Hunter, and a very lovable German Shepherd named Sgt. Shultz, whose namesake was in Hogan's Heroes :D We had a great time just talking about stuff and hanging out. Worked out very well because I always have a lot of questions, and Hunter knows a lot of trivia! It was a lot of fun, we each had quite a few anecdotes :D

On Saturday we went to the mall and saw Evan Almighty, which wasn't the same as Bruce Almighty, but still a pretty good story that only rarely was predictable. :D Then we had a great steak (grilled in creamery butter) and mashed potato dinner, and a bit earlier some really good 3 year old cheese with some garlic olives... Homer say "mmmmm" :) Oh, and Amaretto, I found out I really like Amaretto...

Also got to see Dracula Dead and Loving It again (Leslie is such a great actor, and it's always cool to see Harvey and Mel together), and a disc of Enterprise episodes... That show is better than I had remembered, so now I need to go out and rent them myself :D

Today we didn't do too much, but ended up having breakfast at a place called the Gaffey Street Diner. Both us of had an amazing tasting eggs benedict. I haven't had it much before, but it was really good, and huge portions. I took a pic for fun. Already got a bite out of it though :D

What's Up?

2007-06-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

So what's up with me? A couple of things are coming up! This next weekend, I get to visit a friend who loves to cook, named Hunter. He loves to have company over for visits, and I enjoy traveling and meeting people (as long as it doesn't eat up my vacation time too badly hehe). So, this Friday after work I will hop a plane down to California for a couple of nights to visit and get to know each other. :) I think it'll be a nice mini-vacation, and a chance to meet someone I have been chatting with for a few months now! I haven't talked much with Hunter aside from chatting online, but I love talking food and just hanging out visiting, so I expect it will be fun!

The other big thing coming up is a visit from Rosa in early July, which should also be a lot of fun. Rosa and I have known each other two years now, and talk every day... She's like a sister to me, and a best friend besides, so I've been excited to get to show her around my hometown and let her see "the Eugene experience", heh. She's also been eager to get to see me play piano in person, which I'll be more than happy to do. Frogg's friend Megg is also visiting close to the same time, and I'm eager to meet her as well. We've talked a little before, and played some WoW together, so it will be nice to see her in person.

That's all I have for now.. Thought my cold was coming back, but it looks like it is slowly fading once again (hurrah!)