Patrick's Livejournal

Birthday Wishes!

2009-11-29T16:46:42Z

Happy birthday to kythera !

My milkshake brings all the boys to the Oscars...

2009-11-27T16:37:33Z

How the ending of "There Will Be Blood" was written:

The Christmas Creep: Part Deux

2009-11-26T18:21:58Z

Santa Claus, like Kanye West, appears today as always to interrupt celebrations that are not his domain. "Look, I know you just got turkey and Imma let you finish, but Christmas is one of the best holidays of all time. OF ALL TIME!"

:P

Mordor by way of Floston Paradise!

2009-11-26T01:56:40Z

Observation on Holiday Creep

2009-11-26T01:42:00Z

Santa only comes once a year but he gets well over a month of foreplay.

Pop-pop! Hope no one sees me...

2009-10-29T23:02:44Z

Yeah... dunno why I didn't make this ages ago...

Do you have our card?

2009-10-28T16:37:52Z

I'm on the verge of needing to carry a second wallet just to hold all my non-credit cards. The following companies and stores have forced their own little plastic customer cards upon me now:

AAA - I haven't needed emergency road service in years but Murphy's Law says the minute I leave this one behind... yeah.

Ford - Two cards! One for service discounts, one that has the code to the number pad that unlocks the door on my car.

Hertz, Continental Airlines, Hilton Hotels - more stuff to remember to take when I travel.

Officemax, Staples, Best Buy, Sears - "rewards" programs to encourage you to BUY MOAR STUFF NAO!

Giant Eagle, CVS - where "sale" prices are only valid if you have the card.

Costco - where you can't even walk in the door without the card.

And then there's the other cards that I need to carry, like my license, insurance cards, ATM card, etc.

On second thought, maybe I should just get a purse. :P

The The Impotence of Proofreading

2009-10-27T21:40:20Z

Leeloo Dallas Multipass!

2009-10-24T22:22:28Z

Yeah this movie is goofy but I still love to watch it over and over again...

And Chris Tucker in his best role ever...

Incidents and Accidents

2009-10-15T02:07:47Z

Only a few people are going to know how this got into my head tonight... ah, the 1980s...

Decorating the Gargoyles Way

2009-10-10T00:03:54Z

Ordered the custom frames and such for my cels. Might get them as soon as the end of next week, but promised two weeks at the most. That'll give me something to put on the walls in my home office... as in the time since I repainted, I have put up nothing except a calendar.

Also on my to-do list...

Figure out where to get a frame for the ginormous poster promoting the "Gargoyles" comic that I came home with from the Gathering 2007.

Put up shelving for my ever-growing collection of dolls by Vox Mortuum (shes_not_there ).

This room will look like a "Gargoyles" geek-gasm by the time I'm done.

It's all sticky! Covered in jam!

2009-10-08T23:24:50Z

So I pulled apart that framed Goliath / Elisa cel eBay to see what was what. Sadly... after however long they've spent sandwiched together, the cel layers are stuck to each other and to the background sheet. So there's nothing I can safely do but put the whole thing into a new frame with new glass and a new backing. I won't make that same mistake with my other pieces that have yet to ever be put in frames.

Do the Neurotic

2009-10-08T03:49:39Z

What's the point of gluing brown paper to the backside of a wooden picture frame? It must be just to mess with my head. I want to open up this framed cel I bought off eBay two years ago so I can move the art, mats and all, to a new frame that's not all scratched to hell... but it feels so weird to contemplate attacking it with a razor blade or ripping it open with my bare hands like gift wrap on Christmas morning. It's like that paper being glued down is saying "No, this is sealed never to be touched again!" :P

Pirate Fail

2009-10-08T03:01:07Z

Yo ho, oh noes!

Don't mess with the French! :P

Framing Art

2009-10-05T23:17:27Z

Will I ruin the value of animation cel if I break the seal on the cardboard portfolio that it came in from Disney and have it framed with archival quality materials? Does having Marina Sirtis' autograph on the portfolio change the answer?

I've been reading up on how to preserve and display cels, and all the sources say that intermediate mats should be used so that cels never touch the background and multiple cels (such as when there are two or more characters) never touch each other. Yet... all the layers are touching in the packages that Disney puts together to sell them originally.

Birthday!

2009-09-16T10:54:12Z

Happy birthday to crzydemona !

Remember, remember, the 11th of September...

2009-09-11T21:20:15Z

Feeling a lot less melancholy about today than I did this time last year, but I still wanted to say "I remember."

Here's hoping that the new 1 World Trade Center (formerly known as the Freedom Tower) will be tall enough to see from this same vantage point by this time next year.

Random

2009-09-03T16:50:39Z

Still alive. Since getting home from The Gathering, I've been posting much more in Facebook, much less in LJ. It seems I only have finite time for social networking sites... which is why I'm still avoiding Twitter. That and I do not have a phone that does text messages. Farmville is the devil, btw. Curse you, games that make me plan ahead for my next session!

No, I have not written a Gathering con journal yet. I still don't quite feel like the con is over since I've still got a bunch of warp-up work to do. Maybe once there's less con clutter laying around my home office, I'll be more in the mood.

Also been looking at October... where of course two different cons I'd like to attend both fall on the same weekend. I wish HeroCon had a schedule telling me what time it begins on Saturday and what time it ends on Sunday.

Home

2009-08-27T12:44:40Z

I'm back. The late-running flight landed me just in time to join rush hour coming through downtown. I need a shower and a long nap.

Last Day in CA

2009-08-26T16:08:52Z

The final Gathering of the Gargoyles was a blast. It was great to see all my friends again, and I know many of us will continue to find excuses to travel and see each other even though the con is over. I'm looking forward to a get-together that's an actual vacation for all of us, where we don't have to race around on a schedule or carry heavy things around or herd 50 guests or keep 100 other people entertained or stay sober 90% of the time. ;)

Seriously, though... a huge Goliath-size "thank you!" to everyone who lent a hand to the con staff this past weekend. I won't make a big long list of names because almost assuredly my con-scattered brain will miss one, but you all know who you are. :)

I've got a little under 8 hours before I leave for the airport for a short hop to Vegas to catch an overnight flight home. But I think that time will vanish fast as I still have to unload Art Show boards from my rental, repack three suitcases, and find a U.S. Bank. I like Southern California but I don't think I could ever live here with the way half the day must be spent in the car.

Birthdays

2009-08-18T15:00:20Z

Happy birthday to karine and gregx !

I'm in California now for the final ~~last minute running of the headless chickens~~ prep work for The Gathering of the Gargoyles. Expect me to be scarce on LJ for the next week.

Don't forget this fact, you can't get it back... cocaine.

2009-08-07T23:21:26Z

High Billy Mays here!

Well now this makes sense...

Moms are gonna love it!

Still Alive

2009-08-05T16:37:16Z

Haven't had much time for LJ-posting. I'm in full convention prep mode now from the moment I get home from work at the end of each day until the moment I crawl into bed at OMG o'clock AM.

The A/C has been broken in the building where I work for a full week now. There's a pretty decent breeze to be had most days on the 10th floor if you can manage to get one of the nearly 100-year old windows open. Yesterday, however, was intolerable... just hot and humid and no relief to be found. I'm glad we haven't seen many days like that in the high 80s or anywhere into the 90s. Today, however, is awesome. I don't even have to run a fan. Yes indeed... I'm much more productive at 69 degrees than I am at 96.

It also finally hit me yesterday that shortly after I get back from The Gathering of the Gargoyles, it'll be Labor Day and "summer" as a state of mind will be pretty much over for another year. I've been plodding along feeling like it's not even begun because the con hasn't happened yet, and last night suddenly I'm hearing "Back to School Sale!" on the TV.

Next year, with The Gathering as it existed over, I'll have to find something else to plan my summer vacation around. There's gotta be a way to hang out with my friends without having to invest countless unpaid hours of drudge work for several months ahead of time. :P

Moulin Rouge + Meat Loaf

2009-07-24T01:55:28Z

House hates me.

2009-07-09T00:04:49Z

Had my spring HVAC system check-up today. Not news I was happy to hear. Furnace blower motor is slowly dying and sucking twice the amps it should be (no wonder the lights nearly blink out every time it comes on) and the air conditioning condenser and compressor need so many repairs it makes more sense to replace them with newer, higher efficiency components. Also factoring into that... R-22 refrigerant is being discontinued in January 2010, so even if I spend a ton of money to repair it, the next time it needs work it'll cost over $1000 just for the refrigerant.

But yeah... either way, money I didn't really want to spend right now... but it's either fix it before it dies, or wait for it to break down and spend a week or two with no A/C or heat waiting for them to get to me. All things considered, I'd rather head this off before it gets to that point. If I play the lotto with it, I know it'll be the hottest day of summer or coldest day of winter when my number comes up.

Blech.