Congratulations, Arica and Trevor I'd like to congratulate Arica and Trevor on their beautiful wedding this Saturday, and wish them a long and happy marriage. I meant every word I said in my speech : You're truly the greatest friends a person could ask for.
Yes, it's a crappy picture, but it's the only one I had. I'll post prettier ones when I have'm.
The plastic guitar made my fingers hurt less Last night was a blast. There was a full moon eclipse, but that's not why I was overjoyed with last night. In fact, I barely saw it. I was too busy rocking out. And, for the first time (keen readers will notice this is a "Friends Like These" post, and not a "Games We Play" post) it had nothing to do with Guitar Hero.
No, this time was an honest to goodness, artistic, fun, musical jam session. We played "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star that Amber and I were kind of working on - Carl picked up the solo parts nicely with his new slide, which sounded beautiful, and Josh jumped in on bass skillfully as ever, having never really heard the song. It didn't sound great, but then, unless we're talking about Rock Gods like Eric Clapton and Dave Gilmour, when do 4 random people sound good when they're jamming for the first time? The vocals were a little light, but we couldn't get the amp to stop feeding back... but we DID have a tambourine that we picked up downtown before everyone got set up.
After a bit of belaboring that song, we plunked around on a few other things, and Josh started laying down the bass line for "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" by Jett. Now, sure enough, I was listening to that very song on the way home from work, and was thinking, "this would be a cool song to try." So, I pulled the tabs up on the computer, and literally 5 minutes later, I was jamming along with him. It's really not that tough of a song to play, but phenomenally fun. Plus, it gave me leave to use the distortion on my new amp.
This all came together very nicely, though. From all different angles, all of my friends seem to want to be serious about music. It's actually very reminiscent of how I ended up getting into Warhammer 40K - I always wanted to be in the hobby, but only dabbled because it's usually a group activity, and nobody else was serious about it until recently. Then, a few friends said, "Let's try. I'm willing to make the commitment." And, a few weeks later, we're playing Warhammer / Guitars. Same story, different hobby. Carl has been plunking around on an old acoustic that's been tearing up his fingers, and decided to make the leap to a real electric guitar. Josh has been playing bass in his church band for years, and Amber recently wanted to get into a choir... and that left me and my sadly under-used guitar, wondering at how all my friends are being musicians. So, I said, "Let's all do this in the same place at the same time."
Its an entirely new type of rush, and I don't quite know what to make of it, other than it felt great. It was like a dream come true - all those years ago, watching my brother and his friends be an actual rock band, amateur as they were, and now it was me. Hell, my brother was even cool enough to loan me his vocal mic for the evening, so it was all the more significant. Amber was rockin' the same mic as my brother did in Atomic Cantaloup. Is it possible to be star-struck... with yourself?
Ah well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We have a bass player, two guitarists, and a singer. We have a second bass player who has no bass and has never really played one but really really wants to if he can wrangle the money and the time to learn... and we have no drummer. Also, we have no formal commitment that this is actually a band and not just a bunch of friends jamming on various instruments. We joked about being a band, but I don't know how much I'm jumping the gun on calling us one. We toyed with the name "Full Moon Eclipse" because it sounded cool, and our first jam session was on the night of one.
We'll see where this goes. Hell, if it goes far enough, I'll create a new category here on my blog for it. And if anyone knows a drummer...
Carl finds the most ingenious things http://hybridmultimedia.com/?p=61
It's a link to a children's book that a co-worker of his showed him. I don't think it's real... at least, I HOPE it's not real. I fear for the world if this is, indeed, a real book.
It did make me laugh pretty hard though. Take a gander.
Speak Easy So, this weekend came and went, and with it, one of the cooler parties I've been to in a while! And I'm not just saying that because I helped plan and execute it.
For Ed's birthday, we through together a 1920's style Speak-easy party. We dressed up, and it was brilliant. Here's some of the pics. Pics are worth 1000 words, so they do most of my writing for me.
That is me, however, dealing the craps and the poker. The tournament was fun, and congratulations to Jason and Nicole, our first and second prize winners respectively.
Here's Paul and Ed.
Amber, looking great in her flapper dress.
Marcy and Tony.
Bill and Jonathan, locked in an epic struggle of good vs. evil! (But I'm not sure which is which)
Me, running a craps table for the gathered masses. No, no money changed hands.
The poker tournament!
Wedding Photos Bob sent me the photos from the wedding. They're available at http://www.steelpenguin.net/ftp/wedding.zip
M*A*S*H will never die I thought this would never happen. As it turns out, I didn't need to do anything to bring it about.
A while back, Amber and I were joking about Sanctuary at Kanar, and how, as it's essentially a hospital we're trying to create, it would be funny if we all went by names of M*A*S*H characters. I insinuated that she'd have to be Hot Lips, since she's the token girl.
I was, needless to say, rebuked on the "Hot Lips" issue.
So, months later, we're chatting innocently over IM about the upcoming Roaring 20s themed party for Ed, and this little gem of a quote pops out of her mouth... er... keyboard:
So....
I win. :P
A happy Couple I'd like to extend my congratulations to Carl and Mackenzie Morlock, the happy newly wed couple as of this weekend!
The whole wedding, from location, to weather, to ceremony, to people, was beautiful. You have every right to be proud of yourselves, and happy with how things went.
I'll have more to say on the matter when I can hunt down some photographs - as Best Man I didn't really have a lot of time to snap pictures of anything. I could describe the place, the day, and the ceremony, but I wouldn't do anything justice without visual aid.
Bob, if you're reading this, I suggest a prisoner-exchange. My bachelor party photos for your wedding photos, okay?
To mention the unmentionable So, I know you've all been waiting for this. Those of you who were there wanted to see the pictures I'd been snapping all day, and those of you who weren't want to hear what happened and see the pictures I'd been snapping all day.
Let me forewarn you, though.
What you will find herein will not be a tale of debauchery. It will not split up the marriage-to-be. There are no dark secrets to hold as blackmail here. So, if you're looking for a cheap thrill, or to point at Carl and say, "OMG I can't believe he did that!" you won't find it here. Sorry to disappoint.
With that out of the way, on with the show!
First thing's first - Paintball. There's nothing quite like waking up in the morning, throwing on some clothes, and getting pelted with high velocity spheres! We all met up at Maxx Play for a little "Reball" action. Reball is a bit like paintball, only you use rubber balls instead of paint filled balls. They don't break on impact, so it's kinda honor-system on whether you're hit or not... until you lift your shirt and see the evidence.
That's not a welt. I want that perfectly clear. This game is SO manly, that if we don't slam beers, slobber over naked women, race monster trucks, or watch football, the testosterone starts to bubble up in the form of these large testosterone blisters. Here's one developing on my ribs.
The games were 3v3 once Carl's father Bob showed up - Thanks for being a good sport and playing with us kids, Bob! You kicked ass! Generally we just randomly started assigning "team captains" per round and arbitrarily picking people. One got first pick, the other got choice of side of the arena. Then we'd pelt one another with rubber bullets, talk about how awesome it was, and go at it again. Never was a dispute raised, and we all had a great time!
After that, it was off to Uno's for lunch. We realized we actually had a lot of our Warhammer 40K group there, so the discussion quickly turned to that. We ate, we chatted, and shared war stories from an hour ago when we were all intent on maiming one another with air guns. I had the teriyaki salmon, and it ruled.
Midday, we all split up and went our separate ways. It was off to take showers, change clothes, take care of whatever real-life stuff that needed to happen, and prepare for the night ahead. Then, it was off to Osaka japanese restaurant - one of the finest dining establishments I've ever had the honor and privilege of patronizing. We lost Pat to work, but gained Gherik (who sadly, pulled up just as we were leaving). It was dinner at the hibachi, and all the sake I could cram down Carl's throat. Carl liked to make a show of how I was getting drunk and he wasn't even on his way, but he tipped his hand a bit later in the night when he turned to us and exclaimed, "... whoah," in that I just got really dizzy way.
Dinner was exemplary as always, and then it was - after short discussion on what we all wanted to do - off to Wellington Pub for alcohol, alcohol, and karaoke!
This is the point in the night where things got terribly interesting. I spent the evening going drink for drink with Carl, and testing the waitress' knowledge of shots to mix of all exotic colors and flavors. Among that list:
I'm pretty sure there was more, and there were some that were multiples... I remember more than one oatmeal cookie, and definitely more than one incredible hulk. But wow.... were WE drunk! We had one another crying mercy by 11:30 that night.
Trying to do a blow job shot the way they were intended - with no hands. Wellington needs smaller shot glasses - I couldn't fit it in my mouth, and had to drink it the regular way.
That's alright, though, Carl couldn't do it either. Though trying to do a blow job shot wasn't the only iffy thing we saw Carl do that night...
But the thing that made that night entirely worth while was not what we all added to the mix for Carl, but specifically what his FATHER put into the mix... The ball and chain padlocked to his ankle.
Yup! Sure enough, he had to lug that thing around with him everywhere he went... and as I was holding the keys, I didn't remove it from him before I left for the night. Josh was cool enough to DD for us, so he dropped me off first, and I took both keys with me, with the promise of removing it the next morning.
Apparently, though, since Carl had thought himself clever in slipping out of it earlier, his dad padlocked it a might bit tighter the second time, and it was actually hurting Carl all night. He called me about 8:30 in the morning, and told me to bring the keys over ASAP. At that point, i was feeling funky, but I was still in bed and hadn't grasped the depth of my hangover yet. So I said, naively, "sure thing. Be right there."
Boy was I in for a surprise.
I made it to the couch. For that, I'm proud of myself. I gathered the courage to pop two pills for the massive headache, and got a whole sip or two of water in before - as my friend Jason put it - I got the "containment breach imminent" warning from my stomach.
I did not turn out to be a good day for me at all. Sadly, I never made it to Carl's, and he ended up having to borrow someone's Dremmel tool (or something like that) and ground through one of the links. Sorry Carl. :(
All in all - I'd say everyone had a fun time, and the party was largely a success! Thanks to everyone who helped make it what it was, and sorry for those who couldn't make it!
H.P. LOLCRAFT Herbert Philip Lovecraft, I would like to apologize - postmortem as it may be - for the crude and foolish treatment your beloved and feared literary creations are about to receive. Though you may boggle at the majesty of what phenomenal powers must be mustered to make an Elder God like Cthulhu look foolish, I assure you, sir, there is nothing majestic nor phenomenal about it.
In fact, it's rather base.
... and really REALLY funny.
Thank you, Josh, for aiding and abetting. Here's to you. /tiphat
It's about damned time! So, FINALLY, Carl has done something with the webspace he's been sitting on for a while, and has joined the blogging revolution. you can find his very VERY attractive blog at hybridmultimedia.com and on the side-bar of this blog.
Welcome to the World Wide Web, Carl! Remember - the internet is not a big truck, it's a series of tubes!!