One taste of you my magdalena…oh, sorry, am I on? I actually don’t have much to say, but I felt like saying SOMETHING. I’ve been in the format mines for the past half hour, trying to see if I could tweak the current format to have rounded corners on the cells. So far, everything has looked like shit, so I dropped that idea. I’m also coming up with a few drafts of what a segmented features page might look like, because at some point I know that the long listing method we’re doing now will become ungainly. It’s not a pressing matter, rather, just something for me to do while I’m bored and trying to resist weird urges that tell me to drive my car to the home of everyone I know. Which I can’t do, because I have to work for nine hours tomorrow. Wee. Anyway, I also feeling like mentioning the newest Penny Arcade. While Gabe may only enter this stage of gaming once in a butterfly eclipse thingie, I spend my entire life in that particular mode. In fact, I’m pretty sure that exact expression was on my face when I first touched Chrono Cross, although I can’t be sure. That whole week is pretty hazy. I remember my girlfriend getting angry, and something about eating.
Hey hey! Actually, I’m nowhere near that happy, but it’s nice of you to care. Zen is back from vacation, so we’re running a full crew again. Just a few more things to work out with the host change, until we’re done the myrmid account is just going to mirror the adelphia one. Once the domain is fully up, the page will be taken off of the adelphia account and a simple redirect page will be set up in it’s place. Yes, it will be a slightly sad day when the Jux Entente moves from its embryonic home out into the big, scary world “outside” (aren’t there bears outside?). Try not to get too torn up over it. In the mean time, I’ve got a new feature posted on the site to end the drought, but I don’t think anyone is going to be too happy with it. Once Zen recovers from the long vacationary drive, and when Kitty is done with his race, I’m sure we’ll get more up as well. Plus those nagging commentaries that have been lagging behind. So much to do, so little time.
The vacation break ends with a most unpleasant feature.
News is archived. Domain isn’t up, but we’re on the new host! What, you’re not there? Try http://juxentente.myrmid.com.
When I left, I told myself I wouldn’t be doing one of those long, rambling posts when I got back about everything I did while on vacation. Then I started thinking about the number of times I was going to have to repeat the story if I didn’t. Since most of my friends read this page, I figure doing it here will save a lot of time. So get ready for the longest post ever folks, as I give a complete account of my time on the west coast. I got up about 4:50 to start my journey to Hartsfield for my 8:00 flight to SFO. With all the new security it’s always good to establish a little bit of a time buffer, especially when you’re leaving from the busiest airport in the world, several times over. It turned out to be a good thing, since security wasn’t happy with me. First they dropped my ID, slowing down the whole line, and then they deciding that my bag needed searching. It could have been worse though, my sister Erin was wanded for about 3 minutes straight, until they finally determined that it was her belt setting off the alarm. The thought of my sister, the super yuppie, being any sort of security hazard is just funny, but it would have been a hell of a lot funnier if I hadn’t been having my bag searched at the same time, causing the general populace to look at my parents as if they had raised the world’s two most evil children. Of course, in their defense, I look like a terrorist, and all the SODWIC’s in the world aren’t going to change that. Of the flight itself, there is little to say, other than it was perhaps the smoothest of the many I have taken in my life. That pilot knew what he was doing. Once we got to San Francisco we shuffled ourselves to the rental car office to pick up our sparkling new Buick (I like Buicks, so shut the hell up), and begin our trip to the hotel. Let me say something here: every single radio station in San Francisco sucks. The DJs were horrible, boring, and obnoxious, and instead of the same 5 or 6 songs we’ve come to expect here on the east coast, they stick with about 3. And they’re really bad. And they had every single kind of station possible except for a rock one. So I had to listen to pop bullshit on some station named Alice for a week. Whee. My fun began once we got to the hotel, when I turns out that it was ON STRIKE! We were in a really nice hotel, it was on the Embarcadero right alongside Fisherman’s Wharf, and the management were running the whole place. All the services were still running, with management fufilling normal duties. Basically, completely normal except for the angry picketers outside. Of course, this is wonderful fun to me, since the first time they got angry at me for crossing their picket line, I got to tease them. I even took out a camera and took pictures, which they didn’t like too much either. Even more good came out of this, since to appease us the hotel bumped us up from a normal room to a full suite for no extra charge. Go! Once we were checked in we set out immediately for Alcatraz, where I toured the island, the prison, and just about everything else. We then headed back to the wharf, played with the Sea Lions that have taken over Pier 39, grabbed a quick dinner, and went back to the room so my family could sleep off the jet lag. I proceeded to play Breath of Fire for a few hours in my room, before sleeping myself. The next day held what I really wanted to do anyway. We woke up at about 6:00am their time, grabbed breakfast, and hit the road to San Jose in the Buick, with the horrible radio stations as a companion, to go see the Winchester Mystery House. I’d seen God knows how many specials on that place, I’ve always wanted to see it, and damnit, I can now say I’ve toured it. It kicks so much ass. If you don’t know much about it, google it and come back, it’s worth your time. I’m left with the distinct desire to build my own insane mansion now. Once we’d spent a few hours there, we went back through San Francisco and across the Bay Bridge into Oakland, and Berkeley, just to say we’d been there. When we got back we realized we didn’t really have time to do anything else before grabbing dinner, so we just went and did a round trip on the world’s only moving historical monuments, the Cable Cars. After that we grabbed dinner at a place on the wharf with a name that sounds vaguely like a horrible disease, Scoma’s, and then back to the hotel to catch a movie before turning in for the night. The next day would be another Graeme day, since immediately after we woke up we were off for Muir Woods. If you don’t know, Muir Woods is the world’s most famous Redwood forest. It contains the single tallest measured tree in the wood, and the whole place is just amazing. If you’ve seen the movie Vertigo, it’s one of the places where she runs in her insanity, you know, with the giant wood cut out of world history. We walked for miles in that place, and they finally had to convince me to go back. I wanted to see it all and cover every trail, but we ended up just doing a loop across a few of the main ones. We had other things to do that day anyway, but one day I’m going to go back and walk every possible inch of that forest that they’ll let me. Once back in town, we had more walking to do. We had already driven across the Golden Gate Bridge to get to Muir woods, but this time, we decided to walk it. You see, it just happened to be exactly 65 years since the bridge’s completion on May 27, 1937. So I walked the length of the Golden Gate Bridge on it’s 65th birthday. Then we got dinner and went to the Aquarium of the Bay, and I got to pet a real live leopard shark! Plus we saw some fish, but I got to play with sharks, so that’s all that matters. Then it was back to the hotel to prepare for another day. The next day began with us driving south on coast road 1 so my mother could see the cliffs and the Pacific ocean, which she decided to wade into so she could say she’d touched both oceans. Then we reversed our direction and went north on 1, back across the Golden Gate, and to Muir beach, perhaps the most impressive sea scape I’ve seen yet. Then we went back and caught the cable car into downtown San Francisco. My sister made her pilgrimage to the world’s first Gap and Old Navy, and I was unleashed upon the Sony Metreon. I don’t think it’ll be the same for awhile. It was my sister’s birthday, so I treated her to dinner at the world’s most Godawful restraunt chain, the Rainforest Cafe, but she wanted it so I had no choice. Then we were done for the night again. The next day, today, actually, saw our return home. Erin got wanded again, my bag wasn’t searched outright but spent an abnormally long time being x-rayed, and I’m home. I had an awesome time out there, but damnit, I was glad to be back on the East Coast. California just isn’t for me. Of course, I can’t get my cat out of his hell until 7:30 tomorrow morning; I’ll probably be waiting at the door when they open. In site news, I won’t be archiving the news, despite this massive post, until tomorrow, because I’m really freaking tired and I need to catch up on a few things. Look forward to Jux’s true return tomorrow.
More hiatus day festivities. I just put up the new Kitty Vertigo feature, with any luck, Zen will toss one on here before the night is done. I wouldn’t hold your breath though, he’s not real good with fufilling obligations. In non-site news, I just got back from putting my cat in boarding for the trip. He looked so sad, and he was mewing so pathetically when I left…*sigh*. Sure, I know it’s better this way than flying him across the country in a kitty carrier and keeping him in a hotel room for days, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it. I just hope the people there understand that he is capable of killing them should they do anything wrong.
I’m trying to get everything that needs doing before the move “wrapped up” before I leave. That involves getting commentary put on three features, and…actually, that’s about it, unless I decide to sort the features page by author. I’m packing at the moment, but I just thought I’d toss my new feature online while I’m doing it, for your reading pleasure. Or pain, if you’re French. Sorry France, but it’s just funny. I’ll be sure to update at least one more time before I leave, so this isn’t the last you’ve heard of me!
Well, things are getting ready for the brief shutdown that will accompany both Zen and I leaving for vacation. At 6:00am Saturday I board a jet bound for San Francisco, which resides within the depths of my second least favourite state, and will remain there until late Wednesday. During that time the page will not be updated, which means I’m going to try to get a new feature from all of us up to tide you over. Zen’s vacation starts Monday and lasts until Thursday, but the page will be updated as soon as I get back, so don’t worry about that. As soon as I get back we will be migrating to our new home, and juxentente.com, which means you’ll have some excitement to fill your days the second I return. I can’t think of much else to say here. Features will up later today, E3 continues to amaze, and Netscape 7 should be the only browser I see accessing this site. That is all.
Anyone up for a game of Wall Twister?
All the geckos, squirrels, evil cattle and world conquest you can stomach! Plus the nuking of France.
