09:34 pm - No internet
 | VoicePost  89K 0:28 | “This is KT. I'm in Joplin, Missouri. Transcribed by: multiple users |
The drive from Springfield to Chicago was shortish and uneventful. Finally I got to the Westin, where I checked in. There were a few furries here already! After I got my stuff moved up, for lack of anything else to do, I went to the movies a day early.
I got to the Lincolnshire 20 theater 15 minutes too late for Pirate Radio and 3 hours early for the next showing. So, to kill time, I saw A Christmas Carol.
( Review of A Christmas Carol; possible spoilers. )
When that was over, I went and bought a ticket for "Pirate Radio". ( Possible spoilers again. )
Now to figure out what to do tomorrow.
Day 1: Drove from Houston to Denton, TX. Weather was good... until I got to Dallas, where the sky turned ugly and then opened up on me. I was able to handle it... but some other idiot wasn't, getting me stuck in a traffic jam for half an hour. Phoo. Spent the night in a La Quinta.
I saw a billboard on the road:
Lost
The map is in my book
- God
So Dinosaur Comics was right! God can't punctuate!
Day 2: Drove through Oklahoma. Much colder. Also some rain. I took I-35 to Oklahoma City, then got on I-44, which consists of two turnpikes with Tulsa in between. I got to the Holiday Inn in Joplin, Missouri, where I first struggled with the luggage cart, took a wrong turn, had to struggle a lot more than I would otherwise, got pissed, and then got more pissed when the internet failed to work. I was able to connect to the wi-fi network, but the signal-bar icon popup said "Limited or no connectivity". I should have called the front desk first; instead, I tried fiddling with my settings, then calling iBahn tech support (and either I got cut off or they need to get some hold music). Then I saw it was getting late and gave up.
Day 3: Drove across Missouri to Springfield, Illinois. Missouri was cold, foggy, wet and miserable (though I was warm, dry and happy in my car with my winter coat and my music!) Kept seeing a billboard: Nothing's too hard for God (except using punctuation).
Then I crossed the river into Illinois where the sun went down, the trucks got aggressive, and it warmed up a bit (though still rather cold and windy). Reached Springfield, checked into a Holiday Inn Express, and finally made a Livejournal post!
Tomorrow: Driving to Chicago. Shouldn't take too long.
Thursday: Hanging around in Chicago. Think I'll see "Pirate Radio", arrr.
| VoicePost 89K 0:28 | “This is KT. I'm in Joplin, Missouri. Transcribed by: multiple users |
So I was planning to see "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" on Thursday before MFF, but apparently it's only playing in a few coastal-town theaters right now, and it won't open nationwide until Nov. 25? Furriest movie to come along in a long time, and nobody can see it until after the con?
This does not help the Fun. This is Doing It Wrong. I'm sure the distributors of the film don't know about MFF... but if they did, they couldn't have chosen a better way to say "Screw you, MFF!"
Fine then. Maybe I'll see some other movie. I've been wanting to see "Pirate Radio".
EDIT: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
wbwolf explains that The FMF has suddenly had to be pushed back to a Thanksgiving weekend release so that nobody mistakenly thinks that Mr. Fox stares at goats or visits any fifty-something-th planets. Thanks for the info, Wilford.
Rosie the Robot Maid never looked so... BOT-eelicious!
Y'know, other comic strips have been making fun of websites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc...
...but at least this one sounds like it was written by someone who actually uses the sites! (There's also been a story arc about Roland Hedley using Twitter... and he's been depicted *actually using* Twitter.)
Also... I don't think (have any reason to suspect) that Alex or any of her friends are furries. Remember that next time you think of dragging out the ol' "FURRY = DRAMA" chestnut.
I see that "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", Wes Anderson's stop-motion Roald Dahl adaptation, is opening on Friday the 13th. (Let's hope Mr. Fox doesn't get stabbed to death by Jason, hyuk hyuk! There, the obvious joke has been made and is done with.) Y'know, I'd like to see it before Midwest Furfest!
Thing is, I leave town for MFF on Sunday the 15th. I want to experimentally take a different route this year; plus I want to arrive a day earlier than usual. My itinerary is as follows:
Sun Nov 15 - Houston to Denton, TX
Mon Nov 16 - Denton to Joplin, MO
Tue Nov 17 - Joplin to Springfield, IL
Wed Nov 18 - Springfield to Wheeling, IL
So for seeing "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", I have three choices: see it on Friday, on Saturday, or on Wednesday or Thursday in Chicago. I don't really like to see movies the day they premiere, or on weekends, because of the crowds. So what I'd like to do is see it on Thursday somewhere near the Westin.
Anyone care to join me? Any locals care to recommend a theater (or warn me away from a bad one)? I will of course have my car and can drive someone there.
EDIT: Ground rules.
1. Anyone wishing to go with me better be ready to go when I am, because I hate missing the beginning of a movie. If you're not ready to go when you should be, I'm leaving without you and you're not allowed to complain about it later.
2. I will ask you before we leave if you have money for a ticket. If you don't, you can't go.
3. I can take a *maximum* of three people, and I'd honestly rather just bring one or two.
New diary:
KT's Rainfurrest 2009 Diary!
Nine pages:
Title page
Page 1: Flew to Seattle while meeting Devilduk, watching Kiki's (De)Livery Service, and standing in line at the car counter.
Page 2: Shopped at Archie McPhee before going to the hotel. Met 2 and Tallyhawk. Visited the hilly 7-11.
Page 3: Offered some furs a ride to Denny's and Subafeway.
Page 4: Opening Ceremonies. Awesome atrium! Zombies. GOH dinner and roast. 2's show.
Page 5: Talk Like a Pirate Day. Variety Show rehearsal. Fursuit Parade led by Alexander J. Adams. Jon showed up!
Page 6: Alexander J. Adams's show. Variety Show. Sunday: Lunch at Ivar's. Underwater billboards!
Page 7: Ice cream social. Dinner at 13 Coins. Beatles: Rock Band with Jon.
Page 8: Sunday: Harmonies tripped me up. Monday: Flew home watching Toy Story and eating at a Subway.
Lookit this thing I did last night for no reason!
http://kinkyturtle.masemware.com/misc/L
There was this band local to Pearland, TX, called The Judy's. I might have mentioned them here before; they were one of my favorite bands back in college, and when I learned recently that their albums were available on CD, I ordered my own copies. The songs are still every bit as much fun as I remembered...
But there's this one song, "Grass is Greener", that touches on transgender issues, and hearing it again now, though it's still as fun and catchy as ever, the attitudes behind the lyrics are now rather badly out of date. It goes as follows:
Johnny is a boy
He wants to be a girl
More than anything
In the whole wide world
When he's up and able
Right off the operating table
Where they tuck it in...
He'll be a girl.
It's an old cliché
Heard it all his life:
"Grass is greener on the other side."
Jonna is a girl
She wants to be a boy
Just the thought of it
Fills her with such joy
When she's up and able
Right off the operating table
Where they sew it on...
She'll be a boy.
It's an old cliché
Heard it all her life:
"Grass is greener on the other side."
They'll never be happy
They'll never feel satisfied
'Cause grass is greener on the other side.
Whoa ah oh
The undue focus solely on genital surgery, the failure to adjust pronouns, and of course the false assumption that TG individuals can "never be happy"... it's all wrong! (Not to mention the name "Jonna"; meh, I don't like it!) But still... it's such a catchy tune. Rather than pretend this song doesn't exist and sweep it under the rug, I decided it needed updating, so I've taken the liberty of modifying the words. My version goes thus:
Johnny is a boy
He wants to be a girl
More than anything
In the whole wide world.
When he fills the forms out
And takes them to the district courthouse
Where they change his name...
She'll be a girl.
It's an old cliché
Heard it all her life:
"Grass is greener on the other side."
Jenny is a girl
She wants to be a boy
Just the thought of it
Fills her with such joy.
With hormones injected
Until a beard can be detected,
And a change in voice...
He'll be a boy.
It's an old cliché
Heard it all his life:
"Grass is greener on the other side."
And now they are happy
And now they feel satisfied
Their grass was greener on the other side.
Whoa ah oh
Much better, don't you think? I like to sing my version over theirs when I play the CD in my car.
Song can be temporarily found here: http://kinkyturtle.masemware.com/sound/m
Y'know what? I've been working on the diary for Rainfurrest, off and on, since I got home from Seattle. But I've been lazy about it; more off than on. Maybe if I set a deadline and make it public, that will spur me on to finish it.
So: I will have the Rainfurrest diary completed and uploaded by Wednesday of next week, November 4. Shouldn't be hard; it's only like 8 pages long. But it will be 8 pages of pure con-diary fun!
Guess what: R2D2 has H1N1.
In other news, I'm going to spend Halloween wearing my wolf suit and making mischief of one kind and another. Specifically I'm going to write a sequel to "Where the Wild Things Are", in which KW shows up at Max's door, asking to sleep on their couch because she and Carol had a big fight. Max's mom will be the one to answer the door, and not having seen the Wild Things before, she'll be all AIEEEE!
And then I'm gonna make naked Lego people.
My photo page has fallen so woefully far behind that it hasn't been updated since 2006.
So I've decided it's time to start uploading photos to Flickr. Here's my photostream, which so far only has a few photos on it, from the Cake Wrecks tour.
Oh wait, yes I have. I went and saw "A Serious Man" today. It was good, although I can't help wondering if the ending would make more sense if I were Jewish.
I see WtWTA has been getting mixed reviews. Clearly, people are responding to it in different ways. Me, I liked it; it was emotionally intense.
( Possible spoilers; don't let Carol see. )
Several people on my friendslist are posting memories of the Loma Prieta earthquake, which happened 20 years ago. So I'll do the same:
I saw it on the news. I remember seeing pictures of collapsed freeways and buildings.
Didn't feel it, of course. Here in Houston, TX, I have never been in an earthquake, nor felt shockwaves from earthquakes anywhere else. The only thing remotely like that that I've ever felt was when a chemical plant outside town somewhere exploded. The windows made a "thud" noise, as if a large basketball had been thrown against the side of the house.
Oh, then there was the time lightning struck a tree in our yard. I was at home reading, and suddenly there was this deafening *BANG* from outside. When I went out later after the storm, I saw that one tree was missing a thin strip of bark from a high branch all the way down to the ground, and there were strips of bark lying around. That tree died and had to be removed.
Other strange things happen around here occasionally. One time there was smoke in the sky from some forest fires in Mexico. Then it rained dirty rain, and everyone's cars got dirty. I had to take mine to the car wash.
Then there was *&^%$#@!ing Hurricane Ike.
The Cake Wrecks event in Austin was fun! I finally got to meet John and see the slideshow, a sort of brief history of the Cake Wrecks blog. Also, I brought sprinkles. Y'know, just in case Jen and John might want sprinkles after all they've been through. They were very appreciative.
While I was at the bookstore, I also bought some other books, such as The Cartoon History of the Modern World by Larry Gonick, I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar by Sharon Eliza Nichols, and Who's To Say What's Obscene? by Paul Krassner.
After the event, I drove home. It takes about 3–4 hours.
I'm going to say something primarily because I don't see anybody else saying it.
Woooo! Way to go, Obama! Winning the Nobel Peace Prize, you lucky man! Hey Republicans, SUCK IT! Hah!
| VoicePost 474K 2:26 | (no transcription available) |
Well, Jen of Cake Wrecks's husband John is out of the hospital and feeling better, so they've decided to resume the book tour where they left off. They'll be appearing in Austin on Saturday at Book People at 2:00. I'll be there!
And I'll only be away from home for one night, so I'm not going to bother bringing my laptop. This means no updates from the road. One oughtn't use a laptop while driving anyway. I mean, if you thought texting was bad...
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