Athene Numphe

All Nerdvember events are now over.

The month started with w00tstock 2.9, of which I have already done a full write up, but here are two pictures to prove how close I was to the stage (I have an original iPhone, the camera has no zoom).



Two weekends ago was Austin Comic Con. I got a free pass for spending 10+ hours helping out the Austin Browncoats with their booth. I'm really glad that I made that commitment because I think the Con was too small this year (being it's first year) to have been exciting for me for 3 days. lordaerith got a one dat Saturday pass, which worked out really well for both of us. I did see two panels: Billy De Williams, which was okay, and Buffy, which was actually kind of cool. Missed the Batman panel with Adam West and Burt Ward because it was right after Buffy. I also got to hug Doug Jones and Nicholas Brendon. I need to be less shy of going up to actors that I think are cool and just thanking them for the work they've done that I've appreciated. Got to be there on Sunday when the discussion of this happened.

After the Con on Saturday, there was a Something Positive/Hijinks Ensue meet-up, which was a lot of fun and involved meeting cool people, like bluejedi81 who is dating a friend of mine from grad school, and getting awesome drawings from Randy.

On Saturday afternoon, Aerith and I went to see HP7.1 at the Drafthouse. I dressed up in my Death Eater mask and cloak and scared people. hehehe. Ended up sitting right next to a little girl who was dressed in a Gryffindor outfit. I thought the movie was very well done. I cried a lot.

Sunday night was the Dresden Dolls concert. Got to the venue just in time to get in line with bluejedi81 and her boyfriend (who I went to grad school with!) who were near the front. We ended up standing (this was a standing only concert) about 3 rows back from the stage. So we ended up standing for an hour before the opening band. But we were having fun chatting and joking around and stuff. The opening band was okay. I wish I could have understood what the sexy lead singer was singing better. Ran into a bunch of people that I know when I went to get water.

After what felt like forever, Amanda and Brian finally came on. They KILLED it. The energy between them was so amazing. I don't remember most of the songs or the order (couldn't find a set list to snag), but they played a mix of old, new, covers, and two off of Amanda's solo. I do remember how awesome Brian was, as always. He's so expressive on the drums. At one point Aerith leaned over and said that Brian is like a human version of Animal. They played a 3 hour set.

I took a few pictures with my phone, but this is the only one that I really like:


Moments that stand out:

1. The lead in to the second song when Amanda and Brian were staring each other and playing slowly and you could feel the electricity between them.

2. The Pirate Queen song from Three Penny Opera

3. Amanda and Brian bringing a whole group of people on stage to sing and dance to the Jeep Song. I ended up in the back, but in the beginning of this video you can see me helping someone else up onto stage:



4. Brian starting this crazy drum jam and Amanda joining in. They two of them just pounding away at the drums and keyboard for a good 5 minutes at least before going into the next song.

5. Being part of the crowd that helped Amanda crowd surf during Mein Herr (part of the first encore).

6. Almost leaving after the first encore because my feet were killing me and Aerith's back was beyond dead, when they came back on and ended with "Sing." This was about 3 hours after they started playing. It was crazy, but awesome.



We left after Sing. We were going to stick around to say hi to them, but after standing for the better part of 5+ hours, we had to get home.

And that is Nerdvember. Next month is is also nerdy as there is the Webcomics Rampage and the Felicia Day signing at the Dragon's Lair the week after. I ♥ Austin so much!

Yesterday I spend (almost) the whole day at the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek volunteering with the Austin Browncoats for Can't Stop the Serenity. Got there at 10am and helped with the set up and didn't end up leaving until 1:30am this morning after I helped with as much of the break down as I could.

Ended up becoming "Gift Bag Girl." I was on a mission to make sure that every single person who went to showing got a gift bag. For the 12pm showing I was on my own giving out the bags, which was because the first rush of people was way more than the number of bags the table could hold, and I was slowing it down trying to get out bags as people were filing by me. For the 5pm and 10pm showings I had a helper who kept the table stacked as I gave out bags. It went much better then. I also was in the theatre at all of the break points giving out bags to people who didn't have them.

In addition to that, I also helped out with the raffles and auctions, giving the prizes to the raffle winners and helping to pimp the auction items. haldira was really amazing at getting people to bid on the auction stuff.

The whole day was so much crazy fun! Some of the servers at the Drafthouse even dressed up. In the day we had a Jayne and then for the 10pm there was a Dr. Horrible and a Captain Hammer server. Was worried that everything the Dr. Horrible server served would smell like cumin :) I even got to sit in at the 5pm showing. Seeing Dr. Horrible on the big screen was AMAZING! And as always, it was great to see Serenity, even if I walked out during the part that always makes me cry cause I didn't want to see it.

What I found really interesting was the crowd reactions to Dr. Horrible. It was the first time many people had seen it. At the 12pm showing, there was dead silence for almost a minute when the show was over, everyone was in such shock. At the 5pm, the clapping started almost immediately, probably because more people had seen it before. At the 10pm, there was the dead silence again, but it didn't last as long because haldira started clapping to get the rest of the audience clapping.

Today my feet are killing me. I thought I was wearing comfy shoes...but maybe not so much.

During the second weekend in October (10-12), I attended the 2008 Browncoat Ball, hosted by the Austin Browncoats.

Friday night I showed up in a take on River from Safe outfit. I got to hang out with lots of cool people and make new friends (some of whom I'd actually met before, but didn't realize it). Hung out by the merch booth and took part in some of the general sillyness. There was food and crafts in the reception room and Ammy from SF taught us some folk dancing for the ball the next night. Dancing in combat boots is not the easiest thing in the world. I think my favorite part of the dancing was when we were learning a traveling dance that included dancing with everyone and my partner (who was one of the people helping Ammy teach) said to me, "This isn't a very monogamous dance." To which I responded, "That's okay, I'm not a very monogamous person."

After it was over, oracle_tx and apryl_knight were kind enough to give me a ride home via Kerby Lane Cafe. They had a really awesome sounding meatloaf on the menu, but they were out of it by the time we got there.

( Pictures from Friday night )

On Saturday, emeraldliz and DCS picked me up bright and early for a day of fun sessions. The first session I went to was about video editing. I think that it went over the head of a lot of the audience. The second one I did was learning Mahjong.

After the second session, it was lunch break. Liz, DCS, and I ended up taking Ammy out to Threadgills for a true Southern lunch. After that there was some time to kill before the next session, so I crashed in Inara's Shuttle (aka the hospitality suite) for a while. Ended up in a cuddle pile watching Shindig.

My last session was Bellydancing, taught by apryl_knight. It was a lot of fun and a really good workout. We even learned a simple routine to perform at the Ball that night (which I ended up not performing due to wearing a corset-type top). After the session, we headed home to get ready for the Ball that night.

lordaerith and I decided to wear our wedding outfits to the Ball. It took us a while to get ready, but it was totally worth it. We got there near the end of the cocktail hour and got to chat with a bunch of lovely people, including zyrain, who had told me that he was coming to the BCB, but I was worried that he'd forgotten about it because I hadn't seen him all day.

The Ball itself was a ton of fun. Everyone got announced in. There was a string quartette during dinner. Dinner was quite good. We sat with emeraldliz, DCS, and a bunch of Austin Browncoats.

After dinner, the bellydancing class did their routine. Then there was dancing, including some of the folk dances from the day before, and talking and performances from the Brobdingnagian Bards and the Bedlam Bards. There was also a raffle and prizes for various things. zyrain ended up winning best male dancer.

( Pictures from the Ball )

On Sunday, Zee and Adam were kind enough to drive me to brunch. Mmm...brunch. Ended up leaving a little earlier than planned with oracle_tx in order to drop off a friend from LA at the ER to get her arm checked out (she had injured it at the Ball and it was swelling) before her flight later that day. I'm still not sure what became of that.

Came home and crashed for a little while.

More pictures from the BCB 2008 can be found at:
Sky Pirate
Robyn's Roost
Flickr Group

I've been enjoying my last week of "freedom" before I rejoin the working world.

I've spent most of the week so far cleaning up the apartment (gods, did it need it). The study is in a MUCH better shape than it has been in a long time. There's still a lot to go on it (can we say total reorganization of the closet), but the paperwork is off of my desk-bed/the floor and has been put away, put into meaningful piles, or been trashed/recycled. Last night syhira brought over the futon base that she no longer needs so we put my desk-bed up on top of it. It's going to take some time for me to adjust to my desk-bed being up so high. I've also tackled the mess that was the kitchen and just finished doing a dark hand-wash load in the washer (I love that my washer has that setting).

I hope to finish cleaning this place up this week, which includes lots of vacuuming and possibly reorganizing my clothing (especially the clothing in the closet...I may need to buy more hangers).

I've also spent some time reading Children of Dune, watching Season 2 of Weeds (wow it's a good show!) and watching some Firefly. Had a nice long conversation today with artemis42, which I think we both needed.

Last night I went to karaoke and stayed out very late doing so. It was a lot of fun (as always) and I really had a good time/felt that I rocked it. I sang a bunch (yay for a short rotation). I think that my favorites of the night were "Call Me", "Walk this Way" (the pure Aerosmith version), and "The Time of My Life" duet with zyrain.

Next week: work. In three weeks = week long trip to Massachusetts. October = filling up fast with the Browncoat Ball, TRF, and Halloween parties.

Oh and lordaerith and I are planning to go to RHPS this weekend. Let us know if you are coming too.

so, life in Austin's pretty good so far. lordaerith and I are definitely making friends around here, which is cool.

School has hit that OMG I have wayy too much work to do ahhhhh state. Kind of figured it would happen soon. I have a mid-term on Thursday, a paper due friday, another paper due the tuesday after that and a project due that thursday. wheeee. But I'm getting it done. So, that's good.

Boris has an annoying habit of sitting on the papers that I need to use to write things. cjovalle insists that he's trying to "help" me with my schoolwork. I think he's just being an annoying fat pain in the butt. but he's too cute to be annoyed with for long.

We've gotten into a D&D game with cjovalle, qyandri, bubbles, ranger, and gruff (they don't have LJs, as far as I know). I'm playing an Elven rouge/sorcerer who's a brass dragon's familar. Hehehe. It's been a lot of fun so far. I want to hang out with these people in other-than-game contexts.

Also, I'm probably going to be playing in the UT Vamp Larp. We'll see how that turns out...

And last weekend we met up with some Austin Browncoat at the Spider House (a very cool coffee shop) and watched Serenity. I cried again (before it happened...).

This weekend, I took a break from writing my paper on Intellectual Property issues as related to three items and their digitization possibility to go see Little Miss Sunshine at the Alamo. It was a really funny movie! Late late last night we caught the roast of Pam Anderson on Comedy Central. They weren't cutting it at all! They didn't even bleep fuck. They did bleep one thing, that that was "Diet *****." I was a pun on Diet Coke, but if it was cunt, they didn't bleep that word later in the show, so i have no idea. still it shows how the evolution of cursing and what is/isn't acceptable in this day and age. Personally, I think that cursing is loosing the power/shock that it once had. I'm not really sure what that says about our society, but I it makes me feel that maybe we're more open. It definitely shows the evolution of a language.

Oh, and i found out that "Carry on my wayward son" is probably on Guitar Hero 2. I'm excited.

Time to read more about qualitative studies as they relate to LIS research and order chinese food b/c I've been craving it since Friday.

When you see this meme, post a quote from Firefly in your blog.

"What does that make us?"
"Big Damn Heros, sir"
"Ain't we just."
-Mal and Zoe, Safe

"Also, I can kill you with my brain." - River, Trash

"Ah, the pitter-patter of little feet in combat boots" - Mal, War Stories

"They say the snow on the roof was too heavy. They say the ceiling will cave in. His brains are in terrible danger." - River, Janyestown

"You're my beautiful sister."
"I threw up on your bed."
"Yep. Definitely, my sister."
- Simon and River, War Stories

( Quotes from the movie not in the trailer (i don't think). You have been warned! )

Having watched the first 2 discs of Firefly yesterdy, we are watching the second two today.

Come by and watch firefly with us. We're starting at 1pm.

Yarrr...as I cannot be watchin' more o' the New Orleans Saints (as they be loosing...the ball, the game, you be the chooser), I'll take this moment to remind ye that there be a Firefly Marathon at me and me man's house this saturday. And we best be see'n all ye scalliwags here.

More details here.

If ye be needing directions to me house, (arrr...another field goal for the blasted Giants...no...I'm not watching the game cast from ESPN in another window...why would you ever think such a thing) and ye be on my friends list, my contact info is posted on my birthday. If ye not be and ye want to come, drop me a line and I'll get ye directions.

Also, if ye be from out of town and need a place to crash, let me know so I can provide a bed for ye.

sundart, do ye know when tickets for the fair show Serenity be goin' on sail?

(This post brought to you by Talk Like a Pirate Day)

being that 1) i have less modivation than usual to get things done and 2) i don't care, i'm updating again.

I had 2 really good days sandwiched between two really sucky days.

Teh suck:
Friday:  Too much cleaning to do for party = not being able to make it to game.  Well, at least we got the place very clean and got posters up in the study (finally).  Also got to hang with the kiten even if the dust made her sneeze and pyramus showed up for the weekend.

Today:  See today's eariler post.

The good:
Saturday: Went to Six Flags with pyramus, lordaerith and aerith's sister and  11-year old nephew.  His nephew was scared to go on rollercosters.  So we let the three who are crazy and like the upside down rides go off on our own and he and i hung out.  I got him on the swings that raise in the air and go around.  he liked those.  So then we went down and checked out the Poison Ivy ride.  I played it down a bit for him.  So he agreed to go on it and I agreed that if he didn't like it, no one would preasure him onto another coster all day.  We get right on the ride (it was cool enough that there were almost no lines for anything).  I put my arm around him and then the ride starts.  It's a little bit more intense than I expect it to be and definatly more shakey.  I'm worried that he hates it.  However, when the ride is over, the only thing that he wants to do is to go on it again :)  So we do.  This time we sit near the front and i even get him to put his arms up once or twice.  He wants to go again, but i sugest we try something else.  We get a quick snack and do the swings again.  This time he sits on the outside swing and takes his hands off of the bars and everything.  So then we check out the Thunderbolt.  I tell him that it's not much worse than the Poision Ivy and I know that he can do it.  So we get in line.  There's this kid in front of us who keep talking and talking.  Anyway, we finally get onto the ride.  He says that he's scared and I explain that that's part of the thrill of the coster.  During the Thunderbolt I look at him and every time we hit a downhill part his head is tucked into his arm.  I'm sure by the end that it was too much.  But the first words out of his mouth was "that was awesome. I want to take my mom on it."  hehehe.  I win!  We go meet up with the others at the meet-up spot and get food.  Then he, his mother, and I do the teacups and get nice and dizzy.  Then we go to the other end of the park and he and I do the scrabler (which he now thinks is a wimpy ride).  Then his mother and I do the Cyclone.  When we get back to the boys, we go up to him and say, "hey, you wanna know what the Cyclone is like?" then I shake him while his mother punches him in the arm.  Everyone is laughing.  Then pyramus and I wander around for a while and we find an airbrush tattoo place so I get "KITTY" airbrush tattood on my lower back.  I don't think i have enough courage for a real one though.

When we get home, i realize that i need a 233 tip to decorate the cat cake that i made.  So I call up the party store.  They are have it, but are about to close.  As aerith isn't feeling well, we leave him at home and pyramus and i run to the party store for the tip and then head over to the store for booze and food for the party.

When we get back, I decorate the cake while the boys rest (aerith's sis and nephew have left by this point).  PE shows up from eastern mass and we put on Firefly to show it to him (btw, thank you queencimmy, you are the best sis ever!!).  Slowly other people start to trickle in.  It was a really small party, but good.  The cake came out really well as did aerith's butterscotch icecream.  And I got to cuddle with starcatsinging which was much wonderfulness.  Finally it was just a few of the boys and they started up godspiel's game cube.  I took this as my cue to go upstairs and go to bed (as i was the only one who went to six flags who didn't get to rest after the park).

Sunday:  We get up.  pyramus and PE leave.  Aerith's mother shows up.  We take her to the Warfield House Inn.  The ride is beautiful as the leaves are all turning colors.  It's a beautiful view from the Warfield House Inn.  We eat in the pub part.  The food is good (as always) and I win $1 at Keno (his mother paid for a game for all of us).  Also, Aerith and I got to talk with the owners a bit about our wedding, which is always good.  There's still a lot to be decided.  But we now have a ceremony start time (3 pm) and a reception is over and Andrea will kick us out with cattle prods time (10pm).  Also, we got to see the downstairs room set up almost exactly how we want it, which is cool.  The dance floor is slightly smaller than i would like, but it will do.  Also, I got florist recomendations and the first one on the list is one that someone at work mentioned too.  so that's a good sign.  And i found out that open flame is ok as long is it's not tapers.  Pillar candles, here we come!

Right, time to do something.  bleh.