Last night was the concert my friend B snagged tickets for, and I must say, System of a Down is a wonderful stage presence. Those guys were just up there having fun, goofing off and putting on a great show. I think this is the only concert I’ve been to, where the band did a good job of mixing in the old and the new. The opening band was, um……. interesting. The promoter did a shit job on putting way too many genres into the mix. Anyway, opener was Bad Acid Trip, a punk band. industrialreich and I got there just in time for the meat of the set, and their little attempt at a political statement (I laughed at the fact they had Amnesty Int’l hosting a booth out front). They would have been good at a punk show, but bad opener for Sys oD. Mars Volta was up second, and I have the same issue with them that I have with Opeth….it’s not that their songs are too long, it’s that their live songs are too long and they jam inbetween songs. Almost fell asleep during their set, several good songs, and the singer definitely has the James Brown/Michael Jackson dance down….even for a Mexican.

Other news, I’m dead tired, but I got my package from my Zoomie today, nifty OIF t-shirt that I can sleep in, along with commemoration coin for the AMMO group. Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It’s nifty, but didn’t know it was in there till it slid out of the shirt and nailed the ground. The protection case is scratched up now, but my coin is still pretty. Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Tonight, is UFC 54, yummy. Blood, violence, happiness. WT is coming over for it. *bouncebouncebounce*

So, around 2ish, I hear a pop, that coincided with a lightening strike. It was right outside my office window, now, my server is down. But here’s the weird part, the only two computers in the house on the ethernet network that are down are the Macs, the PC is still getting in and out of the network. At first I thought it was a specific line, so I switched cords. PC still connecting outside, iMac is not. Network parameters on the iLamp says that it can get outside the internal network, but actually doing so proves otherwise. Tried restarting the modem, no-go. Macs still not connecting. After several re-starts and trouble-shooting, still no connectivity. Which is really odd, as this started last night with my inability to access the server remotely via the iBook. Scotsman says to check new security protocol, so I download that, still no-go. However, the server could connect to the iBook with no problem.

So this is why you won’t be able to access the playground right now. My apologies, because I have no clue what’s going on. Hopefully, it’ll be back up and running tomorrow, but I’m not betting on it at the moment.

As my list here is full of Geeks, for those of you who are looking to actually do something to feel warm and fuzzy, and make others feel massively warm and fuzzy…..SGT B. is looking for tech geeks for Operations Valor-IT. This also goes for those of you who have PR experience and publication design experience. Check out the list and let him know if you can help out. These people are doing some awesome stuff.

Yay!!! Monday didn’t act like Monday!!!! Stress-free and I even got to meditate and do some yoga/armwork! My collar bones are still clicking and popping in and out of joint, but my rotator cuff muscles are starting to heal. Had a cool shoot with waymerich, this evening, got some more shots for my boys overseas and to potentially add to the calendar portfolio. MY THERAPISTS TODAY ROCKED!!!!!

Anyway, not much going on, otherwise. I got my first full-blown review today, by my Zoomie, nothing but positive. Eep! I have decided that next week I’m going to begin another detox and cut caffeine for a week (yeah, should have been this week, but hey, can’t time everything the way I need to, now can I?) I’m trying to decide what I’m going to do about the Autumnfest issue, as my mentor wants us to start teaching at these things, and I don’t think I can really count the stuff I do with BorderPagans with him, as he hasn’t been to one of my classes (which yes, I know I need to do my 200 and 300 class). My main problem, is that the things I want to teach about, I don’t have my basic research even done yet, and I need to see if I can snag erynn999 time at D*C to see if my current theories have enough merit to even continue on (if you’re reading this, I will be contacting you beforehand, as we’re not staying in the hotel this year). Which, is another thing. I’m contemplating whether or not I really want to go this year. From the looks of it, the line-up is almost the same as last year, even most of the EFF panels are repeats. About the only reason I’m going now are the panels that I haven’t been to, and seeing my friends (but with the lack of crash space, I won’t be hanging out long). And as there’s no crash space, there’s no changing space, so it pretty much makes the concept of doing any costuming pointless, unless it’s something I’m comfortable with wearing all day – and potentially all night. So photogs, if you want to do shoots with me there, please let me know ahead of time so I can make arrangements. Right now, I’m planning on going to a fight out in Athens the first night with WT, gonna go watch one of the local fighters lay it down again.

Ok, I lost my train of thought. Anyway, cheers. Still working on the dark stairwell post.

Ok, so far, today has been nothing but wonderful (with the exception of the current sugar drop I’m experiencing). Woke up to the announcement of my nephew’s birth, and woke up late because my weekend starting therapist rawks my socks (I know she’s going to be on-shift and on-time). Nothing but love and nuzzles from both my Zoomie and my Scotsman (who is starting to discover the world of slacking….and he does it so well). I spent an hour in the shower, for my ritual shave and scrub, my gods it was wonderful. For you women who despise shaving, make it into a weekly ritual, doing so made it an amazing and relaxing experience for me. So my body is almost completely clear of hair, got to use the face stuff my neighbor gave me, has peppermint in it and is wonderful itself (I’ll post the link for her company when I get it). My shoulders aren’t totally relaxed, but they’re getting there, and I have enough cash on me to hit my Therapist up for a painful session.

Anyway, tonight is date night, going to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I’m feeling nothing but positive with the coming week, have boy’s night out on Saturday with WT, hoping to snag some Franki time for the next fight night, so I gotta get in touch with him on that.

I think it’s the prospect of going back up to NC that’s got me going. Yeah, yeah, middle-of-nowhere, my friends that live there will say it sucks, but I love visiting them. Oh yeah, and meeting my friend’s wife….really looking forward to that one. *bouncebouncebounce* (if she reads this, YES, I’M EXCITED ABOUT THAT!)

For the last two weeks, my days have started before I even get out of bed. I have to sleep with my laptop and my phone, because the first phone call comes in at 8.45A, or so. Once I’ve taken care of that, and any issue around that phone call, I can slowly drag my ass to the rest of my day, skipping the morning shower, I walk directly to the coffee maker and get that first shot going, then into my office where I plug in the laptop and start on the days stuff (please keep in mind I haven’t changed out of my sleeping clothes at this point, maybe I’ve taken the time for a tank top change). I eat breakfast around 11 or 12, sometimes I just make lunch and have 2 dinners. If I’m lucky, I make it to the gym sometime in the afternoon. The rest of the day is taken up with de-stressing via my Zoomie, and dealing with the ever-present bullshit. I have 3 therapists a day I have to keep up with, when they show up for work, it’s less stress because I don’t have to deal with the ray of Sunshine that likes to make my job as difficult as possible so we fuck up.* Anyway, the majority of my day is spent sitting and stressing at my desk, I’ve neglected my spiritual schedule, ceased both my meditation and yoga practice and I haven’t had time for kickboxing or anything of the like. My trips out of town, and that I have designated as “phone off” time haven’t provided me with the relief or the release that I’ve needed, I haven’t had time to write in my pillow book, or have been too depressed to get into the proper mind-frame to write in it. I would like to wake up, one of these days, not have to have my phone in hand when I do, and be able to take my time in starting my day. Of course, my Scotsman says to start my day earlier, which could be useful if I was going to bed earlier than 1A. Which is a whole other problem to start with. Gods, I can’t wait till my LeJeune trip. Yeah, it’s out in the middle of nowhere, but my captors are wonderful and pet me often. They feed me good food too. 🙂 (must get their treats ready).

*We’re currently on the hotel shit-list because of therapists missing shifts, missing sessions, etc. And since I’ve cracked the whip, that ratio has started to drop. However, when I have to move to my back-up plan, this woman does everything in her power to make sure that a session is missed, down to following a 2 hour lead time for each walk-in session on days with an on-call therapist. The last issue, a therapist was running late because of parking issues, instead of making the earliest available time slot at 10, she schedule for 9.30, 15 minutes after the therapist said she’d definitely be there. Instead of explaining to the client that the earliest available time-slot was x hour, she said the therapist was running late (as there’s no visable difference between the hotel and us, to the client, she makes the hotel look bad). There was another whole fuck-up with that one too, once I talked to the therapist and got the full conversation that was had before the session was scheduled.