This last weekend was a big one for both the City of Richland, Washington (where I live) and the Crandall Clan (which I am a member of, on my mother’s side.) The former packed two of its biggest tourism events into the weekend. Cool Desert Nights (a classic car show) ran Thursday to Saturday, while Ye Merrie Greenwood Renaissance Faire ran Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, the Crandall Clan has its regularly-scheduled reunion the same weekend way up north somewhere. (I slept through most of the trip, so I couldn’t tell you exactly where.)

My mother, one of my brothers and I dropped in on the reunion Saturday, and I was compelled to visit the Ren Faire on Saturday, and while I didn’t attend any of the Cool Desert Nights festivities, its parade got in my way on the way to Karaoke.

Friday night’s Karaoke setlist:
Stacy’s Mom – Fountains of Wayne
My Best Friend’s Girl – The Cars
One Piece at a time – Johnny Cash
Return to Sender – Elvis Presley
Blue Monday – Orgy
Donald Where’s Your Trousers – Andy Stewart
Closing Time – Semisonic

(edit: I originally did this as an ordered list, and it looked right in the editor. Of course, then Xanga “helpfully” “corrected” my HTML code so that it was idiotic nonsense. Not able to figure a way around this, I eventually went to the unordered list. *sigh*)

As you can see, there’s quite a variety there. You never quite know what you’re going to get with me, and I’ve been told I’m quite good. Of course, my trick to that is a good musical background, years of practical experience and actually doing the show stone cold sober. If you ever have the opportunity, you ought to come out to the 3 Margaritas on a Friday night. I’m usually there, and the show’s usually pretty okay.

One Piece at a Time was in honor of Cool Desert Nights — it’s a car song (though a rather strange one) and that’s really how most classic cars have been assembled. The astute will also notice the Cars song in there. That’s actually just a coincidence. I do the Cars all the damn time. I don’t usually do Elvis, but we have an Elvis impersonator who usually comes in, does one song, and then leaves. I’ve taken to following him up with a different Elvis song every time. I’m not a huge Elvis fan, but what this man does is more a mockery than a tribute. We had a couple of kilted “scotsmen” in the bar as well, I assume in preparation for the ren fair, the sixth song (basically a suicide, I’d never heard Andy Stewart’s version of the song before) was for them. One of them even joined me at the mic. The last song I usurped from the hostess because she tried to do the last song herself…it was my turn.

Driving aside (I do find travel quite tiresome, and driving doubly so,) the reunion was pretty fun, I got to catch up with relatives I hadn’t seen in years, including my cool aunt from Alberta, and some of the first cousins I never see. They’re a pretty varied bunch, but there are enough Adventists among them that finding vegetatian fare for the two meals we stayed through wasn’t especially hard. I didn’t bring either swimming trunks or a guitar, but religious tunes aren’t really my thing anyway, and the river was probably quite cold.

To be honest, the Ren Fair now tires me. I was part of the company for three years, and after over a decade in some degree of attendance, I’ve been there and done that and it holds little remaining fascination for me, so I couldn’t really get into it, and I wasn’t really there long enough anyway. If I had the time and the money, I might like to rejoin the company (since acting and especially stage fighting still appeal to me,) and the shopping’s always good at a Ren Faire, but of course, shopping without money is just depressing.

Also, I helped move a piano. The less said about that the better, though it was a lot less troublesome than feared. Having the right equipment and a few strong men always helps.

My final grade on my last run through Calculus (with analytic geometry, not that pansy business calc crap) II was available today, a 2.5. Thank the gods, now I can advance to Calculus (with analytic geometry, not that pansy business calc crap) III. Huzzah.

In EVE politics, we are now under attack from the formerly scrupulously neutral xXDeathXx alliances, and Goonswarm proper. Well, so be it. We killed Red Alliance and we can kill you too. Or we’ll land back in empire, which would probably be more fun than this constant PvP NAPtrain bullshit anyway. Our towers in 3h5 are now in reinforced mode. Joy. But at least that means I don’t have to fuel the bastards.

I’m always astonished at how infrequently I update this thing. It seems like I should have more to talk about. Some bloggers I know actually update multiple times daily. Part of it’s energy, and  part of it’s not feeling like I really have enough to say or anything to add. Most of those bloggers are actually part of huge communities, and are mostly just relaying something from an e-mail or someone else’s blog, maybe with some commentary.

This one’s actually sort of about me and my life, which is mostly slow compared to the breaking news on a dozen fronts of science and skepticism (or whatever.)

So what’s going on?

Well, we’re re-taking the loop. Red Alliance suffered a failed coup attempt that seems to have gutted them and they’re fighting for their lives in Insmother, leaving them apparently no time to bother about the nine new towers BLHI has dropped in 3h5, or the many towers of theirs we’ve been hitting and killing. R-6 is still going to be painful, just because it’s sov 3, but it looks like we’re actually winning now. Of course, now I’ve jinxed it. On the other hand, I don’t believe in that sort of thing.

Setting up and fueling towers is a pain in the ass, and I have to thank Alison for her tireless work in that regard, even if she does insist on fitting them up with guns and hardeners when I just asked for bare towers for the sov counter.

Mixed news from WSU. Reinstatement looks less certain than I thought and finaid may prove impossible. On the other hand, it looks like I can still redeem my tier 3 capstone credit. Yay. I’ll probably need to look into third-party lenders whether I can get finaid or not. They have this thing about paying to repeat Ds…and I have a lot of Ds. Depression sucks. Unfortunately, that’s going to mean them looking at my credit score, which I think is still not good.

I’ve started up a facebook profile and begun seeking out people I went to High School with and random others. Most notably, a CBTer or two, and my EVE Alliance now has a facebook group. I also ran into a gal from high school who wasn’t in my class entirely outside of facebook. Technically she was in Alison’s class, but we knew each other socially and talked a fair bit. She mentioned her father’s company may be looking for someone with skills like mine. Fingers crossed.

The benefits of having Alison around aren’t always obvious. In this case, we were at the farmer’s market because of her, late because of her, and I’m pretty sure the only reason Paula picked us out of the crowd is because of that long copper hair you’d notice absolutely anywhere. And, of course, they were closer than we were.

Jason (my brother) came down for Father’s Day, and we got to hang out a bit and had some good conversations. There was no gaming, but we did manage Karaoke, which my dad probably appreciated a great deal. We also did some kind of weird family movie/pizza morning on the day itself. I got what might be a pretty good plot for a Starfire and Diamond Dust story. Maybe even a novel. I still need to develop it into an outline.

I’ve also updated my fanfics over at btechunits.

Over the last couple of days, I read the whole Girl Genius webcomic to date. It’s pretty awesome, worth a look if you’re not already familiar. I would link you to it, but by helping you, I would be depriving you of strength. Use google.

My year-long ban at Classicbattletech.com has expired. In recognition, I have hauled down my “Banned JediBear” avatar and changed my signature to reflect my new status. What you will not be seeing at this time are new posts from me on the forums.

This was a difficult decision for me. I’ve been a part of that community since it was Warner’s Battletech University (many years ago,) and it’s been kinda my social center of gravity on the web since I was at Pullman (too many years ago, considering.) A huge amount of my time and creativity were tied up posting fanfics, articles, and designs; answering questions, playing games and (most importantly) getting into arguments there. I made a lot of friends there, some of whom I still communicate regularly with, and I have a strong feeling of missing out on the action because I can’t stop myself from browsing sometimes.

(Yes, I’m aware that’s pathetic. It’s just some internet forums. I should get a life. You’re reading a blog. So now who’s pitiful?) 

What it ultimately comes down to is that I can’t tolerate the way some of the staff there have treated me. The current moderation practices may keep the boards relatively trouble-free, but they also unfairly punish people for contributing. The rules are unclear and unevenly applied, the line moves, and the moderators have no discretion over punishment, which is determined by an arbitrary system based only on number (and timing) of previous offenses.

Worst of all, there are some among the staff who think I’m still sixteen, which is especially troubling since I just turned 28. (And holy crap…I just turned 28. Gods, that’s depressing.)

Some of you may have noticed the lack of a Birthday Gift Table. While it wasn’t a bad idea, it’s a fair amount work to do it right, and I just didn’t manage to find the time or the creativity this year. I hate doing things wrong, so I just didn’t do it. Your forgiveness please. If you’re wondering what to get me, I could use some nice leather or pseudoleather seat-covers for the Burgundy Beast. I’ve also been wanting a copy of Sins of a Solar Empire and its Entrenchment expansion.

June is a month-long festival in celebration of my birth, which means ya’all have 20 more days to get me something. If you’re really hurting for ideas, ask some of my other friends or my brothers. They know the kinds of stuff I like.

Hell, just reading through this blog ought to give you some ideas. A lot of stuff on the last Christmas table is still valid, for example. Of course, since I don’t buy any of you presents (I’m unemployed and broke!) There’s no obligation at all.