It hurts so much

Every once in awhile you just decide to break out of your normal routine and try something a little new and original. I made such a decision two days ago when Nastassja finally, successfully begged me into going to a club with her.

There's a relatively small 18-and-over club called FX down on Taylor and Naito, right on the waterfront. We arrived, unfortunately, right after they opened at night, and just sort of watched the crowd slowly grow. In some ways, it was pretty cool. The crowd built up nicely and I was observed busting several moves myself. I would say that I "got down" rather effectively at least once.

By around 12:00 the more hardcore dancers started to show up and we were interrogated in a ruthlessly friendly fashion by person named Scott who claimed repeatedly that he was on ecstasy that he had purchased for cheap. Fun times.

Someone remind me, I need to make and post some pictures of this place. A few people have asked and I keep forgetting.

A new world order

If you read this at 11:18PM PDT, then I'm coming to you live from my new shag pad in downtown Portland. Lord be praised, the move was not nearly as painful as it could've been. It only took about three hours and two trips to move in almost all of my stuff on Sunday, and only one trip for Andy on Monday. We spent most of Monday and what of yesterday I was home getting furniture arranged and fun stuff like that.

There are still some boxes and bags sitting around, but most of our gear is as unpacked as it's going to get. Now we just need to throw away the huge pile of garbage we accumulated in the process. It's interesting to note that we got almost three complete kitchen sets between Andy's and my stuff. That means that I have three sets of measuring cups, three pizza slicers, and three sets to pots and pans. Naturally, most of that is going to remain pretty much unused since the amount of "cooking" we normally do consists of heating pre-cooked entrees in the microwave.

It's interesting to note that Andy and I have barely seen each other for the past 36 hours, since he worked all night last night, and will do the same tonight, and I worked the late shift today. Meaning, even when we are here together one of us is sleeping. It's not like we're both needed here at any one time for most events, it's not like an RPG where you need the fighter and the healer to completement each other's skills.

Hopefully I'll be able to upload some pictures later. The view from our roof garden is a pretty spectacular vista of downtown Portland and the park blocks.

The usual suspects

Alien vs. Predator is a difficult movie to review, because it crosses some undeniably cool moments and some very interesting scenery with poorly-conceived plot and far, far too much foreplay.

The movie starts out with a Weyland Corporation (presumably a predecessor of Weyland-Yutani Inc. from the later Alien films) expedition to a mysterious heat source 2000 feet beneath the Antarctic ice. There, near the level of bedrock, they find an ancient temple with elements of several early Human civilizations, including the Aztecs and Egyptians. Turns out, naturally, that it's merely a breeding and ground for the infamous Xenomorph alien, and it's hunting time once again.

That last paragraph is almost 45 minutes worth of movie. The viewers patience is finally rewarded, however, with a half hour of some of the coolest fight scenes ever in a science fiction movie. The Predator unleashes some awesome new weapons and technology, and there's plenty of hardcore fisticuffs. Also worth noting, the Predator's spaceship is one of the coolest in recent memory just for its awesome screen presence. Oh, and there are more than a few references to older films in both series, some subtle and some less so.

Overall, Alien vs. Predator is a film worth seeing in the theater. But probably only once, as this is really a DVD-friendly movie, where you can skip all the two-dimensional character development and go straight to watching Xenomorphs getting speared, stabbed, shot, blown up, and chopped into little pieces. Because that really does make the whole deal worthwhile.

The Ganymede Elegy

Today was my last significant period of time to pack before I move on Sunday. As will all major life changes, I view it with a certain degree of mixed excitement and melancholy. I very much like routine, and any disruption to my daily life tends to send reverberations that take a little while to calm down. Still, I am certainly looking forward to moving.

Much of my room is in boxes, either to take with more or store in the attic. One of Becky's friends is staying with us for the rest of the school year, as her family moved to Arizona and she wanted to finish high school at Reynolds. It's kind of a weird situation, I know, but I'll spare you all the details and just say that she's going to be occupying my room full time during the school year. That means I have to take down all my posters and back up all of my garbage, whether or not I'm taking it. This is the third time this calendar year that I've packed some or all of my belongings up, and I'm getting kind of sick of it. Invariably I end up having to throw things away, which goes against my pack-rat nature so hard it hurts. I'm getting better, though, despite what Mom would say.

I've thoroughly overhauled my sidebar section. I added a few links that I was unforgivably rude enough to forget when I slapped together my prototype section a month back. If there's anyone else I'm forgetting, let me know. Also, turns out I prefer Haloscan comments to the native Blogger ones, so I'm switching over. Hmm. Yes, yes, I think that's about everything. This will all be on your final exam so make sure to ask questions if you have them.

The Happiest Place on Earth, part Two

At long last, the final second and final partof the series. I'll return to my irregularly scheduled programming after this. This was written on July 18, 2004.

"Just returned from our first day in the Disney parks themselves, I find myself in the peculiar condition of being mentally awake, as in possessing physical energy, but so achy and physically tweaked out that I just feel like collapsing on my tiny bedroll and falling into blissful unconsciousness.

Disneyland is crowded, but the whole place is designed to funnel guests into and through attractions, into the little theme shops afterwards, and to the next attraction that it’s only when there are huge attractions that you really get a sense of the mass of people in the park. The nightly fireworks display is one of those times. If you stand on one of the innumerable park benches, and take a slow turn around, you can see literally tens of thousands of people, all with identical expressions of awe, staring at the sky as flashes from the tons of fireworks set off nightly flicker in their faces.

There was an unusual theme throughout the day, for us. At least four times, rides closed either as we approached them or were in line for them. Indiana Jones’ Adventure closed when we were right in line, and Grizzly Peak, Thunder Mountain, and another ride we passed on the way to somewhere else were just being roped off as we approached or walked by. It was like an Anti-Wheeler Conspiracy, is what it was.

Our hotel, the Grand Californian, is only about four years old, and is almost an attraction in its own right. Boasting 704 rooms, a swimming pool, arcade, four restaurants, a conference room, and innumerable small services, plus a huge lodge-style common room with a massive stone hearth. I don’t know how much it costs to stay here per night (we bought a package deal through a travel agent), but it must be tremendous. I’m not used to being waited on so single-handedly. They even turn our beds down in the evening. I prefer it to the actual Disney Hotel, not only because it’s newer, but because the Disney-ness of it is much more understated. The theme of the place as a whole is like that of a gold rush-era hunting lodge, with Disney-style paintings and sculptures scattered about."

And there you have it. Thank you all, and good night!