Beth and I went to the Mercury Lounge last night to see Rasputina. I'd never been there before. There are a few bands I like that used to play there, but it's a small venue and they outgrew it before I saw them live. They Might Be Giants did several shows there around when they were putting together their 1996 album Factory Showroom. Anyway, the opener was Ryder Cooley, who's in a band called the Dust Bowl Fairies, but this time she just played solo. She had backing tracks, and played accordion and saw, the latter of which she held in her legs.

It seemed a little weird, but I guess I've never put that much thought into how saw players usually hold them. I believe the first time I saw a saw played as an instrument was at a show by some German musicians I saw with my junior high German class, and I don't remember at all how they supported it. Cooley showed up with a taxidermy goat head on her back, which she hung near herself later in the set. She also played in the main set, accompanying Melora Creager on saw, shakers, and tambourine. As with other Rasputina shows I've seen recently, but unlike ones back in the day, Melora was the only cellist. There was also a drummer, so it was a three-piece band this time.

They played a good mix of songs. Rasputina's setlists tend to vary quite a bit, maybe partially because I don't usually see them more than once on the same tour, but also because I don't think they have any big hits they feel obligated to play every time. Melora asked the entire audience to sit down on the floor, which we did, and it wasn't that comfortable, especially considering the size of the crowd. Everyone around me was really friendly about it, though. I guess that's the sort of oddity you just go along with. It was one of the few times where I was relieved to stand up, the others usually involving riding in a vehicle for a long period of time. Melora wasn't as straight-faced with her weird banter as she often is, and commented on how absurd some of her introductions were.


After the show, we went to Katz's Delicatessen for the first time, as it's right down the street. Houston Street is the one that divides the numbered streets of Manhattan from the area farther downtown where they all have individual names. I'm digressing here, but I'm a bit fascinated by patterns in street names and how they got that way. The grid of numbered streets was established by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, and I'm not entirely sure why Houston was used as the boundary, although it looks like it might be because the area south of that already had an established street system, albeit a somewhat haphazard one. It also didn't include Greenwich Village, which wasn't part of New York City at the time. Anyway, at Katz's, I had chicken noodle soup and half a pastrami sandwich, while Beth had an open-faced brisket sandwich with fries and cole slaw. I don't care for cole slaw myself, but Beth said it was really good.

The food is expensive, but they give huge portions, so you basically get your money's worth. I'd heard about that, so it's one reason I went with just half a sandwich, aside from that being part of a special. The food was excellent, but be forewarned that you should either be really hungry or prepared to take something home. Oh, and I saw Ryder Cooley eating there as well.

I've gotten back into playing The Sims 4 in the past few days, and I honestly feel a little guilty that I'm neglecting other video games that actually have a defined endpoint. I played through Glory of Heracles up through Troy, where the difficulty seemed to ramp up quickly; it was never all that hard before. And in Final Fantasy IX, which I have on my PC, the part where Kuja forces you to go to the Forgotten Continent was kicking my ass. I always have plans to do so much when I'm not working, but they often go awry. Even fun things can be frustrating if you're not in the right mood.

bethje and I were supposed to go to the doctor and get our IDs and voter registration switched over to New York, but I got a call a few hours ago saying that the doctor wasn't going to be in today. Since the doctor's office is near the motor vehicle department, we're just going to do them both on Wednesday. It's kind of a shame, as I'd wanted to get them over with, and besides I can't check things out from the library without a New York ID. Speaking of which, I made a brief trip to Secaucus last week to return a book I still had checked out, and it wasn't quite as weird as I thought it would be. I have a thing about places I can no longer go back to, or that if I do they'll be totally different. I have so many dreams about the first house I lived in, the house in Virginia where my grandparents lived for most of my life, and my old college dorm. Seeing as how they're dreams, they're never exactly like they were in real life, but they still awaken melancholy nostalgia in me.

We did finish our taxes, but we still don't have jobs. I talked to a temp agency last week about a records management job at an architectural firm that sounded like something I could do, but the firm filled it without the agency, or at least that's what they told me. It's strange how, when I have a job, I never seem to have enough time to do anything. Then, when I'm unemployed, I spend a lot of time staving off boredom. It's not that there aren't things I COULD be doing, just that I'm not really in the mood. And of course there's always the money issue. I want to try more restaurants in the area, you know? I've been replaying Dragon Quest III a little bit, and have made it to Baharata. I remember the upcoming battle with Kandar being a real challenge for me before. Playing through a game I've already finished, especially a turn-based role-playing one, is sort of like seeing an old friend, the difference being that games don't change like people do. Okay, it's on a different platform (Game Boy instead of NES), so it's a little different. For instance, you can look inside pots and dressers. Still, it's mostly the same, and it's not like there are any significant story points to uncover. In other game news, my Sims 3 has refused to load twice when trying to get my Sims back home from an adventure, and I'm not sure there's anything I can do about that. Since The Sims 4 is out now, I doubt there will be any more Sims 3 patches. Any suggestions for how to fix that problem?


Last night's Simpsons was a little uncomfortable for me in that I've really become sympathetic to the cause of preventing prejudice against overweight people, and I feel that the show just reinforced the idea that being fat is unhealthy. There isn't always a direct correlation there, and even when there is losing the weight isn't necessarily as simple as eating fewer doughnuts and going on a walk occasionally. Not to mention how often I come across people claiming that they're only putting down heavy people because they're worried about their health, which I believe is now known as Concern Trolling. That said, it did seem a little more sympathetic to Homer than some past episodes have been in that respect, and I really liked the first act with Bart and Lisa writing a new town song. So I guess if Hans Moleman was mayor thirty years previously, he isn't really only thirty-one years old?


I also watched the first disc of the first season of Veronica Mars, a recommendation from SamuraiFrog, who has similar tastes to mine and is a major Kristen Bell fan. I like it so far, although I have to wonder if it goes a little too far over the top in terms of how intelligent and competent Veronica is and how much trauma she'd been through. But hey, a lot of really successful characters have been the tragic genius type. It's also interesting how detective stories pretty much always have a bit of the ends justifying the means built in. I have to wonder how much of that is true for real-life private detectives, as you'd think following somebody around and taking pictures of them in compromising situations would pretty much always be immoral, but some degree of this sort of thing might be necessary at times. Sort of like drone strikes, I guess; I don't like the idea that they could be used against innocent people, but it's probably better that Khaddafi was taken out quickly without a land war in Libya. On a lighter note, this disc was next on my queue after John Carter, and I guess if they'd had the same director, the show would have just been called Veronica.

I haven't made a post here in a while, mostly because I really don't have anything personal to say. I'm still not working, and my leisure time can be somewhat fitful, with my sometimes switching between the Internet, reading books, and playing games. I've played quite a bit of The Sims 3, to the point that I'm kind of bored of it now. I've come to hate those zombies that mess up your garden, but it's kind of funny to mention. "Hey, what happened to your garden?" "Zombies killed all the plants." One thing that kind of bugs me about Sims 3 when compared to the first two Sims games is how much of a hassle it is to change households. I've also played some more of Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, but set it aside when the part in the tree became too difficult. I should probably build up my levels and try again at some point. That's the way to deal with most difficulties in a role-playing game.

bethje and I went to the Monster-Mania Convention on Saturday. As usual, we just attended the question-and-answer panels rather than meeting anyone. Dave, the guy who runs it, has said he's turned down some people who would only be willing to do panels and not sign autographs, but I for one would be fine with that. There are some people I wish I'd gotten autographs from, though. One was a totally non-horror-related guest, the now late Captain Lou Albano, whom I probably could have gotten to sign my Super Mario Bros. Super Show DVDs. Also, if Fairuza Balk ever comes back, I should probably get her to sign my copy of Return to Oz, if she doesn't charge too much for it. We also learned that Kane Hodder, who played Jason Voorhees in four of the Friday the 13th movies, chokes people who get autographs from him, which would certainly make for a story to tell.

As far as the panels this year went, we missed Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), whom I really did want to see. He was sort of a replacement for Carrie Fisher, who canceled all of her appearances due to illness or something. We did see three of the people who played Jason, then some of the stars of Freddy vs. Jason, Rob Zombie's films, True Blood, and The Walking Dead. We've never seen either of those two TV shows, but Beth's friend recommended she watch The Walking Dead because of its hopeless vibe, which is the kind of thing she's into. The show really does sound pretty bleak; a lot of the discussion they had involved characters dying off, including child characters. Those zombies are even worse than the Sim ones who destroy gardens! {g} There was also a panel with Tyler Labine from Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, which we also haven't seen but is on our Netflix queue. So, yeah, it was a fun time, but a little too much of sitting in the same place for hours on end. Oh, and speaking of horror stars, Bill Moseley (the one from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and the Rob Zombie movies, not the one from the Narnia films) has a pretty interesting Twitter.

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"Gaming system game"? That's a bit awkward, Writer's Block person. Anyway, I have to say The Sims 3, which I've played as recently as yesterday. It's getting a bit tedious at this point, but I'll bet if I started playing again I would do so for several hours. I'm also playing Final Fantasy III on the DS, but I've found the caves I had to explore recently to be more irritating than fun. I now have the key to the Kingdom of Eureka, so I'll have to see how that works out, but I'm not sure when I'll do so. I tend to play console games more when I don't have computer access. Finally, I've started on Golden Sun for the Game Boy Advance, and will probably write about my early impressions this week. My obsessive-compulsive mind has had a bit of difficulty figuring out when to write about games (i.e., how much should I have finished before writing?), but I'm currently favoring an entry on my first impressions and then a later one when I've either completed the game or gotten as far as I can. Since I play mostly role-playing games, they tend to be a bit on the long side.

Today is L. Frank Baum's birthday, and if you look here, you can find a podcast of Baum's short story "The Littlest Giant," in which I do the voice of the Giant King Goola. I have a pretty high voice, not all that appropriate for a giant, but Jared lowered my part and added echo, so it sounds a lot better than I would on the fly. And if you're interested in stuff I've done (and I hope you are), I also contributed to the 2012 issue of Oziana.

I had a dream I was back in second grade, with my original second-grade teacher. There was some quiz on several subjects, including the Smurfs. I was doing pretty well on it, but didn't have enough time. The dream unraveled when I realized the premise made no sense. So why second grade? I don't know. In some ways, that was the last time I felt I fit in with my classmates. I'm not sure I totally did, but I least I was comfortable with them. It was also the last year I really had a birthday party. So I guess there's a bit of nostalgia there. Not that I have any desire to be a child again, but I do want to recapture the best parts of my childhood. Another dream had Amanda Palmer calming me down when I accidentally wore mismatched socks to work, which kind of sounds more like an after-school special than a dream.

I've been spending too much time playing The Sims 3 recently. I guess it's not all that damaging to my life, since I still go to work and fulfill other obligations, but it's kind of a weird feeling when you've been playing for a long time and your eyes are tired of looking at the screen, yet you still don't particularly want to stop. Does that happen to anyone else, or do I have some kind of problem? Anyway, the pre-made neighbors who started out as adults are now dropping like flies, making me wonder why so many of them were created to be pretty much the exact same age. It makes the game pretty morbid, I must say. Are there going to be new people generated to populate the neighborhood, or will any new Sims I make be living in a nearly empty town? I could create my own Sims to fill the gaps, but when I create a character, I usually want to play them. And one thing that this game makes more difficult than the first two is switching between households.

Aside from that, I've started reading The Royal Explorers of Oz, and I have Outsiders from Oz on order. I've actually read rough drafts of both, but not the finished versions with illustrations and all that. I really should try to get one of my own Oz manuscripts published, shouldn't I? I'm just not sure how to go about it.

The most recent Simpsons episode felt really disorganized. Better than last week's, certainly, but with less of a plot. I guess since Bart's affinity for graffiti was established quite early on, they pretty much had to do something with the more modern idea of graffiti as art and social commentary, but no one seemed to be able to make an actual story out of it. Instead, it kept switching back and forth from that to other ideas that could potentially have made decent plots if they'd bothered to develop them, like the opening of Swapper Jack's. And Marge's new bunny was a waste as well, being used for just the one plot point and then a few jokes with the cage. I liked some of the jokes, but the whole thing was a mess overall.

Well, according to three-time failed apocalypse predictor Harold Camping, today was supposed to be the end of the world. After predicting the Rapture would occur back in May, he changed it to October, and then had a stroke. I believe he recently said the end would "probably" occur today, which doesn't sound very sincere. Maybe God passed him over like the Great Pumpkin did to Linus, and all Camping ended up seeing was Snoopy. Seriously, how many times does he have to get it wrong before people stop listening to him?

I installed The Sims 2 on my current computer, and played it quite a bit in the past few days. It's still just as addictive as ever, but it kind of feels like a waste because I know The Sims 3 has been out for some time now, and if I get that I most likely will never get back to the Sims I've spent so much time building up in the second game. There's still stuff I haven't done with The Sims 2, but most of the time I just have my Sims build up their skills, which gets a little bit tedious. I did get to see puppies being born in the game last night, though, so that's something. I've never had anyone turn into a werewolf, either.
Also, Suzanne was telling me about The Sims Medieval today, and that sounds like another time-consuming game I'd enjoy. I often like to pretend my Sims are kings and wizards anyway, so it might be fun to actually have them legitimately fill those roles. I understand the game is a lot more linear, though, and based on quests more than simulation per se. It's probably silly to be thinking of new games I could get when I still have older ones I haven't played much or at all, though. Sometimes deciding how I want to spend my leisure time is even more complicated than working. Much more fun, however. I probably SHOULD be spending that time writing, but that takes more effort.

Anyway, I just finished watching Hatchet II, and now I'd better get some sleep. I'll try to write a mythology post tomorrow night.

I recently wrote a post on Tir na n'Og for my WordPress blog, and it struck me that the Internet is a lot like one of those fairylands where time flows differently. I can look at stuff online for what seems like a few minutes, and it turns out to be a few hours. I guess it isn't quite as bad as when I played The Sims, which was made even more confusing by the fact that the game had its own internal clock. Anyway, I've been checking out some new Tumblrs, as well as revisiting ones I already subscribed to, quite a bit in the past few days. I seem to look at a lot of pages with pin-up pictures nowadays, which kind of strikes me as a hobby it would have made more sense to have when I was single. Not that married guys never ogle other women, but shouldn't it be unnecessary at this point? Even though bethje has said she doesn't mind me looking at other girls, and she's pretty vocal about what guys she likes, but I still can't help feeling a little guilty. And I wasn't even raised Catholic! I must admit I'm a little envious of couples like my Tumblr-friends SamuraiFrog and Becca, who appear to share a love for pretty girls. In fairness, the only time I went to a burlesque show and a strip club were both with Beth.

Beth is actually away today, seeing Elton John in New York and having an actual social life with our friends therealtavie and Stephanie. I'm kind of jealous, but I didn't really have the desire to go running off to New York on my two-week break between classes. Besides, I like Elton John, but I'm not the fan Beth is. Seeing him live three times was enough for me. Honestly, I'm kind of gotten over concerts in general, which isn't to say I won't go to any more, but I'll almost certainly attend less. I still have fun while I'm there, but all the waiting and the crowds just get more and more overwhelming as I get older, and it's not like they were any picnic when I was younger either. While years of crippling social awkwardness have made me someone who's fine entertaining myself, I do sometimes wish I had more of a social life. But I don't know how to meet people, and everyone I meet online who seems cool lives far away. Honestly, I'm not really even sure how to socialize online. I used to use Instant Messenger a fair amount when I was in college (that's how Beth and I first became friends), but I don't seem to have the energy for it now. Don't let that discourage you from contacting me if you're interested, but keep in mind that I'll probably have about a hundred other tabs open (I'm only slightly exaggerating here), and might be a little slow to respond. I don't know that people use IM anymore anyway, and I haven't yet tried to figure out Skype.

No new Simpsons tonight, but Bob's Burgers was funny, and I liked the parody of Dumbo's pink elephant scene. That sequence really was creepy, wasn't it? As for Family Guy, it had some good moments, but I think it was one of those episodes that simply used an old cliché rather than doing anything to make fun of it. That's been disturbingly common on that show recently. And now, well, I should probably go to bed before too much longer, but I probably won't. Beth and I both stayed up really late last night, and while I went back to bed after dropping her off at the bus terminal, I didn't get a full night's sleep. Since I didn't get up until the evening, though, I'm not tired now. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we don't have a regular sleep schedule! Oh, well. At least I only work four hours tomorrow, and Beth has the day off, so I don't have to take her. So in the end, it doesn't really matter a whole lot, does it?

I know I said I was ending the tradition of Wednesday as video game night, but I've thought of some new game-related topics to address, so I might as well start it up again until I've run out of ideas. You might have noticed a clown theme to my last few posts, and I'm continuing that today. The evil clown trope appears in quite a few games, from Final Fantasy VI's arch-villain Kefka to Mega Man's Gear Clowns. And who can forget the notorious Koopa Clown Car?



The clown that I'm focusing on in this entry, however, is the Tragic Clown from the original Sims, who isn't so much evil as just incredibly obnoxious.



Several years ago, I took a look at the official Sims message board, and it seemed like every other post was either asking how to get the clown to appear, or how to get rid of him. Actually, it's pretty simple, although I'll admit that I'd heard about the clown long before seeing him. A tragic clown painting shows up in the original game, but you need the Livin' Large expansion pack for the joker to put in an appearance. If you have the painting and the moods in the household all fall into the red zone, that's when he shows up. He'll do his best to cheer you up, but not only is he not funny, but he's constantly crying and blowing his nose. And if you think you can trap him in a room with no doors, think again, because he can teleport short distances. (Something tells me THAT'S not a trick you can learn in clown college.) There are two ways to get rid of the pathetic Pagliaccio. One is to improve everyone's mood, which is kind of difficult with the blubbering buffoon hanging around and irritating everyone, but certainly not impossible. The other is to call the Clown Catchers (who actually aren't included in the expansion pack itself, but were available in a free download back in the day), who, for a fee, show up to eject the dejected jester, also taking the painting with them. In a later expansion pack, Hot Date, the clown would occasionally show up downtown. The expansion informs us that the clown's name is Sunny, and that he had a failed fast food chain.

I don't think the Tragic Clown shows up in The Sims 2, although maybe he's in one of the expansions I don't have. I have to wonder if he returns in The Sims 3.