Entries tagged with furbq

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: still can't get rid of the "New Captain Scarlet" theme!

Entry tags:

Star Trek - FurBQue - Memorializing

So I went to see "Star Trek" on Thursday Night.
I went home after work to change and grab some dinner. My plan to zoom down the 405 to get to The Bridge Cinema Delux
speedily was dashed by bumper to bumper traffic, so I took surface streets instead. I got to the theater with plenty
of time to spare. Besides, since this was an IMAX screening, my seat was reserved.
After parking the (St)Ranger, I meandered over to the Nordstrom Rack near the theater. I once found a pair of strange
Nikes for $10 there, Nikes that looked like they were made of soft-serve ice cream. I still have them.
So I checked the men's shoe section for possible deals and found plenty of shoes my size, though the prices were
not what I was accustomed to pay at Ross. Most of the shoes my size seemed to be Nikes and $49.95 a pair.
Since I usually pay anywhere from $15 to $35 for similar shoes at Ross, I passed.
I went into The Bridge Cinema Delux and walked to the appropriate IMAX screening room. I took my seat and relaxed.
The sound system was playing a medley of Star Trek music: "ST: TNG" (it was played thrice), "ST: First Contact"
(one of my favorites), "ST: DS9" (still sucky), and "ST: Voyager" (also one of my favorites, it's majestic!).
With 10 minutes to go before the 9pm showtime, the screening room looked mostly empty. The room seemed 75% full when
I ordered my ticket online. Looks like everybody was going to show up late. And sure enough, they did. The show didn't
start until 9:15pm, and the theater was 90% full by that time. No trailers, no commercials, right into the movie! :D

IMAX theaters are not really designed for viewing feature-length motion pictures. The center section is roughly
60 seats wide, without a single walkway in the middle. Try as I might I could not contain myself, and at about the
45 minutes mark, I had to GO! Since there's not much in the way of legroom, the 25 or so people between me and the
walkway had to stand up, and I'm sure that every single one of them despised me at that very moment.
When I returned, I did not even bother going back to my original seat. I grabbed an empty one on the D Aisle,
the one with the East/West walkway. Plenty of legroom there! :)
As for the movie itself, it was fun. The casting was pretty good, especially Karl Urban as "Bones" McCoy.
Poor guy's been stuck in mostly crappy mostly mindless actioners, it's nice to see him with something to work with.
Kirk, Uhura, Spock, Chekov, Scotty, Sulu, Pike, good job all around.
However, I have a few words for Mr. J.J. Abrams:
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MAN, PULL THE CAMERA BACK A LITTLE!!!
I don't need to count the razor stubbles on people's faces! And I don't need their chins in my lap!
You may not know this, but traditionally, the filmmakers who have done EXTREME close-ups on actors' and actresses'
faces have done so to hide the fact that there's very little or no set behind them. This was obviously not the case.
Also, I'd like to see the ships clearly! Especially when there's stuff going on like pew-pew-ing and missile-ing.
I couldn't even tell who was firing what from where! Everything was blurry and shot too close.
Yes, you got some good general shots of the Kelvin, the Enterprise and the Vorlon/Shadow/Romulan ship. But I still
don't know what the Vorlon/Shadow/Romulan missiles look like, or what the other Federation ships look like.
It's like "Cloverfield" all over again: there's something cool and exciting over here but no, look at this rock!
I'm in this sci-fi jive for the ships, Mr. Abrams, and you have disappointed me.
Just make sure you move the camera back a tad in the sequel(s).

Friday: went to work, got paid, went to the bank, went to Ralph's for lunch and beverages for home.
Called some people, left messages. Found out from

coyoteseven that the annual So-Cal FurBQue was Saturday.
And he found out about it from a friend, so way to advertize the event properly, you FurBQue disorganizers! :D
Went home from work, worked on some eBay stuff, watched "Day The Earth Stood Still" retread. It was not very good.
Stayed online until 3am, then went to bed.

Saturday: SLEPT!!! Got up at 1pm, took care of verious things, then headed down to Orange County for the FurBQue.
The weather was particularly outstanding for a BBQ: sunny, not too warm, with a nice breeze blowing.
I drove all the way down to Orange with the windows down (the FurBQue is held at the Irvine Regional Park, which is
not in Irvine but in Orange. Go figure. It's a public park with a zoo and miniature train ride and stuff.)
I stopped at a Ralphs 5 minutes away from the Park and called

doodlesthegreat to check on needed supplies.
Picked up what was needed: ice, burger patties, sliced cheese and a case of bottled water, then went to the Park.
I had no trouble finding the FurBQue, there was a very hard-to-miss purple moose fursuit in attendance.
In addition to Doodles, I also saw Stego, Vircoo, Iron Badger, Ken Pick, Chythar, and the usual gang of idiots.
Burgers and hot dogs and polish sausages and whole corns and pineapples were grilled and consumed.
Ken Tiger brought an assortment of offbeat bottled sodas and I tried a few.
The first one was Sprecher Cherry Cola (bottom of the page), and it was more cherry than cola. I have to admit that
the cherry actually tasted like cherry, not like some bad cherry medicine substitute. Not much cola taste though.
Then I tried some insane banana thing that tasted like every fake banana candy ever. It was GHASTLY!
Finally, I tried a pink soda made by Waialua Soda Works in Hawaii. The label said the drink was "Lilikoi" flavored.
I had no idea what that was, but I tried it anyway. It was exotic and delicious and it reminded me of the tropical
vacations that my parents had taken me on when I was little Kzinten. My taste buds were in ecstasy...
(I looked up "Lilikoi" when I got home that night. Turns out it's passion fruit. No wonder it was so dang tasty!)
Waialua also makes a mango soda and I really wanna try it. I guess a roadtrip to BevMo is in my future.
We stayed in the Park until 8pm and I was one of the last ones to leave, helping with clean-up a bit.
I took the long drive home, traffic was very fluid. Once home, I relaxed with a nice chilled bottle of Lemon Perrier
and a couple of Season 4 (New) Doctor Who episodes. And I built a Lego set from 2002, one I always wanted to own.

Sunday: not much happened that day. I slept in then went online. I watched the first 4 episodes of "Dollhouse" and
I have to say that I am now intrigued. Later, I watched a French crime film from the '60s, "Le Cercle Rouge".
Eventhough it was a caper movie, which I love, I found it to be rather dull and slow.

Monday: slept in, but not much. Took some time out to remember my great great grandfather, Papa Roux, who fought
in WWI and survived the Battle Of Verdun. And my great aunt Camille who was in the Résistance during WWII. She may
not have been in uniform, but she did her duty nonetheless. I'm not sure where she is nowadays. I would have to go
through my one of my aunts to find out where she is and we're not talking. Damn it, I'll contact them anyway.
Ran some errands and was surprised at how much stuff is actually open on Memorial Day, and normal hours too!
Had a late lunch from Tito's Tacos, and found some Pepsi Throwback at a local AM-PM to wash it down. Good times!
Ran some more errands then went home and packed some eBay stuff for shipping the next day.
Watched an obscure Sam Raimi film that a colleague lent me a DVD of. It's "Crime Wave" from 1985 and it's a lot like
a human cartoon. Slapstick humor, wacky sound effects, wild takes, 3 Stooges humor, a script by the Coen Brothers.
More about it in a future Netflixing post.

Tuesday: back to work! Glanced at the L.A. Times headlines and saw that the California Supreme Court upheld
Proposition 8 (boooooo!) but allowed the same-sex couples already married to remain so (yeaaaaa!).
Like they used to shout in French workers' protests: "Ce n'est qu'un début, continuons le combat!"
(This is but the start, let's continue the fight!)

Hope y'all had a great Memorial Day Weekend.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: The Great Luke Ski - "No Sleep Til Babylon"

Entry tags:

FurBQ 2008: Hot in the City!

It was a hot week leading up to an even hotter weekend.
On Friday, I loaded up Stranger 6 with 11 trash bags full of the late Sibling's clothing.
Pants, shirts, t-shirts, sweater, jackets, shoes, boots, some of this stuff was hardly worn.
Everything went to the local American Cancer Society Discovery Shop.
It seemed fitting.
I kept a few items as personal mementoes: the shirt Domino Harvey gave him, some of the stuff he wore
at Burning Man, his personalized paintball jersey, a leather jacket he got from my dad...

I didn't sleep too good Friday Night because of the heat.
There is no A/C in the bedroom, just a window fan, and I wasn't getting any relief from that.
I woke up Saturday morning and set about getting ready to leave for the FurBQ.
Everything had been prepared the night before to save time. There were a couple of items I had to
drop off at the post office first though, some eBay stuff. Then I hit the road proper.
The 405 was a hopeless mess, so I did the La Cienega Boogie and grabbed the 405 further down, at LAX.
Traffic was a lot smoother there, and I averaged about 75mph on the way down.
I got as far as the 55 North, then panicked slightly as the Chapman exit did not materialize.
I exited at Edinger and phoned up

doodlesthegreat to get a bit of directions.
Turns out I had exited too soon and should have stayed on the 55 past the 5. D'oh!
I got back on the 55, found Chapman, and made the rest of my way to the Irvine Regional Park.
I have been to every FurBQ evar (all 10!), so I knew where it was, but I usually wasn't the one driving.
So anyway, I grabbed the closest parking spot I could find, which was still 2 parking lots away.
The lots had been resurfaced recently and the markings had not been applied yet, so people were parked
in somewhat haphazard fashion, reducing the amount of actual available parking spots. Le grrrrrrr...
I schlepped my stuff to the gathering, put the chips (Kettle brand salt and pepper, 4 bags) and water
(case of 24 half-liter Arrowhead bottles) on the food table, and set up the suitcase and the signs.
I had a brought a suitcase full of t-shirts, along with some baseball caps and a couple of bandannas.
Half the shirts were from Amp'd Mobile and the other half was a mix of stuff belonging to DJ Pascal.
I always tried to score promo t-shirts for him whenever I went to events and tradeshows, so I had
shirts from "Pirates: At World's End", "A Scanner Darkly", "Star Trek Continuum" and others.
I had made a couple of signs in Photoshop using a fake Russian font.
One sign said "Free T-Shirts - only for furry comrades who wear size XL".
And it was true. Everything was size XL. Thankfully, plenty of furries were that size.
By the end of the FurBQ, I only had 3 t-shirts left. Everything else was gone.

The weather was hot, but there was plenty of shade and the occasional breeze.
The bugs were out in force. I have about 7 bitemarks to prove it, all on my lower legs.
Next time, I'm wearing knee-length armored boots, I swear!
And I'm bringing a folding chair of some kind.
I ate pretty lightly: a couple of cheeseburgers, one hot dog and some chips.
I had brought a couple of magazines and a Lego set, but I didn't really need 'em.
I tried the new XTREEM! Squirt soda and it tastes pretty bad. I hope they still make normal Squirt.
Otherwise, there will be a huge latino-fueled riot. I'm not even kidding!
Let's see, I spent time talking to various friends and peoples. Schirmeister showed up and tried to
get me to come to his July 4th BBQ. I made vague noncommittal noises.
I helped Stego with emptying the soda coolers of melted ice water and resupplying them with ice and soda.
I didn't take any pictures. You've seen a bunch of furries in a park, you've seen 'em all. :)
Darn, I never did post about Califur! Maybe later. I have a few photos of that.
All in all, it was a good day outdoors, talking to people and noshing on stuff.
It was really hot back at the Kzinti Freehold, so better the FurBQ than sweltering at home.

The event started wrapping up at sundown and I left soon after.
The temperature gauge was the highest I'd seen it on the truck, but it went down as soon as I hit
the 55 and reached cruising speed. I made a mental note to put more premix into the radiator later.
I missed taking the 22 Westbound and figured I would just take the 5 Northbound instead.
WRONG! You can only take the 5 Southbound when you're Southbound on the 55!
Apparently, the natives know to take the 22 West instead to grab the 5 North.
Screw the tourists!! They don't need to go North! Goddamned Orange County freeway bullshit!
Anyway, I got off the 55 and took surface streets West for a while, then North.
I eventually hit the 5, got on, went to cruise speed, enjoyed myself for maybe 10 minutes...
And then we all slowed to a crawl. At 10pm. On a Saturday. WTF?
I saw 4 identical white (or possibly yellow) fire trucks without markings zoom by in the carpool lane.
5 minutes later, we started accelerating again after passing some spent flares on the freeway and
a couple of trashed cars resting on the right shoulder. Hmmmmm, accident just finished cleaning up.
Cruising speed was reached and sustained pretty much all the way.
Upon approaching the 10 freeway transition in Downtown L.A., I saw the 4 white (yellow?) fire trucks
again, still driving in formation, and taking the 5 Northbound. Hmmmmm, fire trucks without markings.
I got home unloaded the stuff and walked into the Kzinti Freehold. And it was HOT in there!!
The A/C was turned on post-haste, and the computer in the bedroom was thoroughly ignored.
Too hot in there to compute. I dragged my futon into the living room with the intent of sleeping there.
I chilled and watched Volume 3 of "Black Lagoon", the politically unafraid action anime for grown-ups.
Fun stuff! I highly recommend it! Then I watched some Season 2 "Babylon 5" on DVD.
Then went to sleep in the blessed coolness.

Sunday: too hot to use the computer, so avoided doing that.
Went to Chipotle for lunch and got quarters for laundry. Did two loads and played "Need For Speed:
Most Wanted" while the laundry was happening. Had the living room A/C on, of course.
The Ford GT in "NFS:MW" is a BEAST! It feels heavy and powerful and reaches insane speed!
But it is not nimble. Also, with the turbo installed, it makes scary whining noises.
I'm one milestone short of being able to challenge the Number 2 guy on the list.
I need to dodge 8 spike-strips equipped roadblocks successfully. Unfortunately, the pursuit Corvettes
have a tendency to show up rather quickly and they are ruthless! And sometimes, they just cheat.
The Ford GT is not the tool to use for cop evasion. The Renault Clio works better.
Eventually, laundry was done and I had to brave the bedroom to fire up the computer and check e-mail.
Not much there to see. E-mail is usually slow on weekends.
Not much feedback regarding the DJ Pascal mix CDs. I am disappointed.
Maybe it will pick up during the week.
I made myself a light dinner and watched Disc 3 of Season 1 of "The Invaders" ("In Color!").

Then I watched 2 more Season 2 episodes of "Babylon 5". One episode had a commentary track of
Claudia "Ivanova" Christian, Bruce "Sheridan" Boxleitner and Jerry "Garibaldi" Doyle basically
goofing off and making fun of how young they looked back then.
Bruce: "Wow Jerry, look at that! You have hair!"
Claudia: "Yeah, look at that! It's like a Chia Pet!"
Jerry: "And here's Captain Happy! Seriously, you were always smiling!"
Bruce: "I know, I know. Joe came down a few times and asked to smile less."
Jerry: "Watch out Susan! He's gonna offer you orange juice!"
I haven't laughed that hard in a while!! :D
And then I laughed even harder when I heard THIS tonight!!
I got it from

klaatuwolf, it's a Luke Ski song called "No Sleep Til Babylon".
You can listen on the webpage, or download an MP3 (128).
It's the Beastie Boys' seminal "No Sleep Til Brooklyn" done Babylon 5 style!
It's also got bits of other Beastie Boys tunes in it! And special guest rapper Zathras!
It's freakin' hilarious! Make sure you listen all the way to the end!
SPOO!!

Current Mood: MUAHAHAHA!
Current Music: Bassnectar - "Diverse Systems Of Throb"

Entry tags:

Towering Flixing Terrorizes LJ!

No sooner has the horror of the BigSlab'O'Flixing Post From Monday dissipated than another one looms!
But first, a general announcement:

The Annual SoCal FurBQ will take place on Saturday June 21st at the usual location.
That is to say, the Irvine Regional Park, which is actually NOT in Irvine, it's in Orange. :)
Since I haven't missed a single one of these, I'm planning to attend this one as well.
People interested in learning more can contact me in any number of interesting ways.
I'm planning to bring several bags of those fancy kick-ass Salt and Black Pepper Kettle Krinkle chips.
Yes, I know, pearls before swine. :D
This concludes this announcement. Now back to the Flixing Horror!

( Towering Flixing of Incredulousness starts here! )

Well, that wasn't too slabby.
Next time: I don't know.
Maybe more Netflixing, maybe general faffing.
It all depends on what happens tomorrow.

Stay tuned, Kzin Believers! :D

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: 808 State - "Ex:El" album

Entry tags:

OMGWTFFURBQ

Another year, another FurBQ over and done with.

( Owwwww!! Mah biskits are burnin'!!! )

So that was Saturday.
Sunday stuff is another, shorter post.
Mazel tov!