pyroguysr's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Random Meanderings RANDOM MEANDERINGS Today�s been an odd day. Had an early doctors appointment that went well, but afterwards, I decided to head downtown for lunch rather than go out to Wally World and eat there before geting my script filled� and ended up getting a ticket. Seems they recently changed a yield sign to a stop sign. I didn�t quite stop (more like �hesitated� before GETTING ON A FUCKING HIGHWAY) and then looked over, saw 6 motorcycle cops sitting in the grass and one pulling out. I knew I�d had it. It�s gonna cost me $10 for the ticket� and $110 in court costs. Aside from that, I got my script filled, then headed home and discovered that this post-nasal drip I�ve had for the past week (from what one friend refers to as �the tree bukake� around here) was starting to really get to me. I laid down and slept for about 6 hours. Got up in time to watch Hugh Laurie in �House� tonight. I�ve been� acquiring� 80�s music on my computer over the last month. I don�t know why that period�s tunes are so comforting to me. Everyone tells me �it�s the music from your high school years� that should give you that comfort. Somehow, listening to Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath and that ilk is not very comforting to me. Yes, I used to read while playing that stuff at 150db on my headphones - which is probably why I now have a 30% hearing loss and incessant ringing in my ears. I no longer do that. Instead, I now listen to classical music to read. I�ve been rediscovering a lot of stuff that I used to listent to at work when I was in my late 20�s and 30�s when all the �kids� in the machine shop where I was employed were listening to WhiteSnake, Poison, Guns 'N' Roses and other hair bands that all sounded the same to me. I was into The Cure, Spandau Ballet, Oingo Boingo, The Pet Shop Boys, Simple Minds, Mister Mister and others because they seemed more melodically and lyrically interesting than Jon Bon Jovi's bleating. No, I was never a rabid fan (though I did show up to an Oingo Boingo concert/party where they asked their fans to come dressed for a �Dead Man�s Party.� I and three other friends in their 30�s were the only ones to show up in costume� among 3000 much younger fans). Tonight, though, I hit paydirt� Siouxsie & The Banshees� �Passenger.� Woot! We were vendors at the Southern Maryland Celtic Festival this weekend and managed to stay at our friend, Tiger Torre's house (you should Google her name and check out her leather masks, folks! Great decorator ideas or something fun to wear for Halloween). We brought Kat's laptop with us and Tiger managed to fix it up for wireless internet. Now to see what neighbors may have an unsecured wireless connection going!!! Nya-ah-aaahhh! The weather for SMCF was absolutely gorgeous and the turnout was great! (Which is good for the Festival sponsors because the last two years had just about broke them) Sales were about average, though. I watched silly men in skirts tossing telephone poles and feed bags in the air, had a friend performing there (Darcy Nair) and was able to watch her for a few songs. My tour of the vendors didn�t turn up anything really interesting. Then again, the only thing I really was interested in purchasing was a pewter Clan pin. (I�m a MacDonald sept on my mothers side) My main goal is to buy a kilt this year at the Maryland Renaissance Festival (which, including all the accoutrements, will probably run me close to $1000). After the Festival, several of us were invited to a barbeque at our friends, Chris & Gigi who, I found, live only a short distance from this festival site. They were lovely, gracious hosts and we had a wonderful time sampling a home-made merlot which was surprisingly good. It still needs a bit more aging, but I truly enjoyed it. Kuma, the dog, was an affection whore, as always. Chris also was showing us this British program that's sort of like "Mr. Wizard" meets "Mythbusters." They have this thing about blowing things up at the end of the program - mainly what they called "caravans" (what we call travel trailers). It was a hoot to watch. On the intellectual side, on Sunday, I bought 2 interesting books this weekend from a side-trip to the Border�s in Frederick, VA (Kat went to visit a friend). One book is called �Under The Black Flag� by David Cordingly. It looks into the myth and facts about pirates and is the book that Johnny Depp used to define his character in the movie, �Pirates Of The Caribbean.� Yes, the sequel to that movie is out/coming out soon! So far, the book is proving very interesting, though I�m not deeply into it just yet. The other book I bought was sort of an encyclopedia about the U.S. Government. I know� ho-hum! But I like trivia like this. I call them my �research books� and I�ll pop one open from time-to-time to further clutter my brain with useless but interesting factoids. Every once in a while an idea for a novel pops out. Speaking of research, my comments and post about torture has garnered me some email � obviously from people that don�t know me. I�m officially a �fascist� and �sick.� I�ll admit to the second, but to the first? Well, a true fascist tries to suppress knowledge and the only people that have ever tried to do that to me have been the uber-liberals and socialists. But anyway, get over yourselves, people. I�m a novelist when I�m not actually trying to earn a living! I thrive on the esoteric to make my novels both believable and accurate (if not interesting). I happen to have a character in the book whose father worked under Josef Mengele in Nazi Germany before escaping to South America (Argentina). This character, in turn, worked as an interrogator for the Pinochet administration. And yes, he gets killed by the hero, so back off, ok? Well, I�m going to bed because I�m coughing so much my teeth hurt. Hope you all have a great day! Sorry this was so boring. 1:34 a.m. - 2006-05-04 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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