AWESOMENESS!!!!!!!!!!!

I forgot to tell you guys something rather important in the realm of geekdom. Well... not forgot so much as just couldn't decide how to tell the story. A little while ago, while tripping through the backlog of posts at Wheaton's blog (see links to the right) I stumbled upon an post inquiring as to interest in owning one of the last nine of the first group of books Wil ordered to take to cons. Apparently his closet is TARDIS of odd goodies. And in the bottom was this stack. And as all things go in the realm of Wheaton the response was overwhelming. So he developed a lottery.

I put myself down for the lottery: a chance to win a signed, personally inscribed first edition of The Happiest Days of Our Lives. I debated hitting the enter button. One of the requirements was a Paypal account so that you could fork over the shipping cost. Do not disparage the thought. You pay for other lottery tickets to win some thing of greater value. And I told Wil as much when he said that he thought that he might have over stepped his good grace. I think I have a treasure worth far more than an ascribed dollar value. In fact... I know I do. So, having weighed all of these thoughts against my current fiscal situation, I hit the enter button to submit my name.

And I knew I won.

In two days I received from Twitter the most awesome announcement: Hey you won!

Twice now Wil has sent me a Tweet. My life may not have more meaning, more significance but it certainly has more joy.This joy sustained me through the long wait for the tome's arrival.

And when it came... I'd like to think I would be as excited over the second coming of Christ. But I think that would scare the Jebus out of me. Pun intended. When I finally got through the plastic envelope I saw that the book was wrapped in a letter... I did not expect that. So I read it carefully and quickly, stashed it and searched for the inscription. And there on the inside title page.... my blessing from the Wheaton.

I'm not sure what tickled me more, the wish for successful critical rolls, the trading card I was not expecting or the personal guide to all he pictures on the back cover. But if I had to say for sure... i think it would be that extra letter. Because instead of addressing it to me "Sherry" or to my twitter moniker "glyphgeek" he addresses me as "6 of 9" as my name was drawn 6th out of the 419 entries and there could only be 9 winners.

I know... I'm weird. But I'm a geek and I think that is part of the job description.

WOOTs to me!!!!!!!!!!!!

Extended Christmas

Sweetie and I did Christmas on the day as he steadfastly refused and rebuffed my bids to do one for Christmas Eve. He is rebuilding his kitchen supplies and I was anxious to have him open the one gift before dinner production got under way.Turns out I had nothing to worry about, as usual. The deviled eggs weren't done until right before dinner... plenty of time to open that egg tray under the tree. Christmas didn't end there though as one of my gifts didn't make it till this morning.

I got a call at 5:10...come over. So I left my frigid bunk and made my way to Sweetie's. There I found a present wrapped in peppermint candy paper. It looked Cd sized but was rather on the thick side. "Don't look at the tag yet." He took a picture of before. Then I read the tag, "von Wiennachtsman".
Sweetie: Can you guess what it is?
In My Head: He wrote it in German. Could be cause we both like the language. But he didn't label anything else in German. Could be Matze's Cd but... well he was waiting for shipping.
Me: Matze's new CD?
Sweetie: You suck.
Me: [tears open wrapping paper] It is!
Thank you Sweetie.


And the CD is fabulous!!!!!!! Way better than the audio on my laptop let me believe while I was listening to the online jukebox. And it comes with a calendar. Full color a month on each side photo of Matze with the days down the right hand side. Flip the jewel case backwards and its an easel for the photos. Can't wait to see what the fan edition lets me into on the site. We already got free downloads of Wallpaper for Christmas.

It was a fabulous Christmas as it was. Every gift from Sweetie had been well thought and bore the signs of someone who listens to your inflections in addition to your words. But by far, the CD was the most special because he had collaborative help from my cousin in Germany. It was a merrier Christmas than I have had in many a year.

Target Acquired

CDs have arrived!!!
First thing I did was pop in Kussen order so to here that song and Gib Dein Herz um Keine Krone. Rockin!!!! It is pretty awesome with the crappy youtube sound system. But it is totally phenominal in the car stereo. Now in the visor holder is: Sensationall, Alles Klar, Kussen order so, deja vu, Wolkenreiter, Morgenrot, and Manner sind Krieger. And more than ever, after fighting with the wrappers, I am convince that my next purchase will be a Swiss army Knife. Sheesh who does that with plastic!!!

The first thing that I notice is that three of the CDs are open. No problem. I think that James' fiance really likes him too so he might have taken a listen. Always happy to spread the joy. The other thing that I notice is that the Germans don't seem to worry about theft. None of the CDs have that stupid sticker across the top and bottom of the jewel case that makes it more difficult to get into than a Ferengi wall safe. And the celophane wrappers are a better quality. Only two of them are labled copy protected with any kind of obnoxiousness. My own diatribe against the paranoia will come later.

The second thning that I notice is that I did a poor job of avoiding repeats in song titles. Its okay though. It isn't like I've heard the music all my life and one more Piano Man is going to throw me off the edge of insanity. and I really only managed to repeat the 3 songs that I've already learned.

Thirdly, Europeans do things really differently. Alot of the song titles are whole sentances whereas here we try to keep things simple for the Short Attention Span Theater crowd. The concepts in the songs can be a little weighty despite the pop nature of the music. It is wonderfully geeky!!! :)

When Kev handed over the bag he asked, "So you really like this music?" And Lin asked how I even heard of the guy. So I told the story. And Kevin was surprised that I too kto it so well. "So he sings in German?" Yep. "He has three or four songs in English that I know of. But all German."

So as is my habit with a new CD, I carefully opened then, slid out the liner notes and poured over the information. My German is not good enough to have a conversation. But I can learn what the meaning in the music is with enough time to translate it. So the legible lyrics is a huge bonus. And there are tons of photos that I have seen in the youtube videos. But the surprise is that I found someone who looks like my half sister in one of the fan photos. And I saw another of my Doppleganger. I am so German it isn't even funny.

Monday I have a road trip. So I will have a chance to listen to them uninterrupted. I'm going to see my sweetie. and how silly is this? I'd rather spend the day on the beach listening to and absorbing this music into my soul the way I've done with Sting. I'm still going. It's just that I'd rather have the Summer afternoon to myself under the clouds with Matti and there being no pressure to do anything but exist.

Do you have music that does that to you: opens the doors to your own soul to connect you to something etheric and transcendent?

Here's what an Encyclopedia can't do

I just spent the afternoon watching PAUL MCCARTNEY LIVE IN HYDE PARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

How much more cool does it get? Yeah yeah yeah... Sting. Matti. ...not the point. I just lamented the loss of printed compendiums because you can't "feel" the world. But Paul played to a great crowd who chose him over the World Cup. And I got to watch it live. Singing with the crowd. Crying with the happy and absolutely tickled that life is good enough for the whole world to watch if it wants to. This is what the Internets can do for you.

Youtube hosted with twitter. So just like all of us who got together over the Spiner fic thing last year, we got to watch and comment together; people all over the world. It was amazing. I wonder if concerts could go that route in the future.

hmmm...

I'm in!

I am now part of the techno age. Woo hoo!
Last night I finaly figured out how to download pictures from my computer. It requires using the webcam for still shots. But i got it. Iwent home and played with pictures of my artwork. That will be a bit problematic as there is tremendous washout in artificial light. This gizmo doesn't have advanced adobe adjustments and the basics just don't get it right. Yes, I am a littlee anal retentive about it. It's my art. My soul... my stars! I just sounded like Shatner in my head... I need caffine.
I probably really need protein, but that is another story. So now that i have some concept of what I am doing, I am very much happier about the state of my blog. For my next trick... art on a blog!
WOOOOOOOOTy WOOOOOOT!!

More to woot about

August 7th

• Officially an employee at [redacted] with rumors that we will be participating in a wellness program with the goal of slimming down and toning up.
• blog gets it first comments

August 8th

• Liz wants to trade shiny rocks for computer lessons
• on Green Lake with friends

More to Woot! aboot, eh?

Yep... in very good mood.

• Still squeeing about yesterday's second to my nomination of Matt Beck as t-shirt design guru #1.
• Chicago guy congratulated me on avoidance tactics re: photo downloads, AND said I'd made MacGyver proud. Two woots for him.
• Self doubt and over-reacting on the paranoid side of things is no good for anyone.

Why does that realization mean anything a good mood? Maybe now I won't have to have as many bad moods with that bit of knowledge tucked into my utility belt.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

I do not blog for kudos. I do not post comments on other people's sites for validation. But today, I was cruising back through some comments at the last post I commented on. Wil did not respond to anything I wrote. The "rookie Wesley mistake" comment regarding the Rock Band Incident(forever known now as an RBI which will stand in for "anything that you would normally do without dire consequences which produces, for reasons known only to Fates and Muses, unexpected dire consequences and instills paranoia surrounding future attempts at repeating same said action without dire consequences) might have been in rather bad taste. I had a few qualms about posting it but... in the name of Humor I command thee speak. I spoke.

Meanwhile back in the hall of justice:

Matt Beck photo shopped a pic from a Public Appearance. I commented on said photo in an attempt to redeem myself. Today, nearly a week later, I return to the site, read the follow up posts and find that I was snipped!
Someone took a part of my post and made a comment of their own. And agreed with me!
We now have two votes for Matt Beck's photo shopped poster as the next Wheaton tee. It was too much to expect that the GMGoHO himself would respond. But... another of his minions agrees with me. And I was snipped which is the same as quoted. My elation is rising to the same heights as having Somerset Studio publish my work. That is something to WOOOOOT about.

Yes, I just squeed