Jim-kun's Journal

 So, first the big news, I'm going to Louisiana, tomorrow, leaving in about 13 hours, now.  More about that later...a couple other things to mention.

Obviously I'm not posting all that much on LJ anymore, and I don't really see that changing.  I will keep posting here, from time to time, but if you really want to keep tabs on me/what I'm up to, I suggest sending me a friend request on Facebook.  My page.

And I got a new phone, LG Lotus Elite + unlimited texting.


Another note is that my classical show's time has changed from Saturdays at 11am to Mondays at noon.

And onto the main topic...

So, yeah, Louisiana.  I assume most of you know that that's where my girlfriend, Beverly, lives; if not, you do now.  There had been plans for her to visit me over the summer, but they sadly never worked out.  So I'm going to her.  Leaving the house tomorrow at roughly 4am, and will be landing in Louisiana around 11am.

I'll be staying with her and her folks (yay).  We'll be doing all sorts of stuff, I'm sure...I know a renaissance faire and Beethoven concert will be involved.  Also know we'll be watching Haibane-Renmei together, and some other shows...Father Ted, and some other animes I have, probably.  I sadly won't be able to bring my guitar, but that just leaves something to do when she does finally visit me here.

So, yeah...anyway...I'll be posting some stuff on Facebook during the trip, but I probably won't post anything more on here until after the trip...and knowing me, it'll be a few weeks after I get back.  :p  So if you really care about what's up with me...Facebook.

 Firstly, I wanted to remind everyone that my show is tonight.  I have some stuff I've never played before lined up...most of it good...I think.  We'll see, I guess.  :p  Or you will if you actually listen.

As to Beverly coming up to visit...that didn't work out...as in it never happened.  It's complicated.  I'll just say that we're trying to set up new plans to meet, this time with me going to her.  I'll post more about this once things are more settled...maybe.  Or maybe I'll just post when I get back how awesome the trip was.  :p

Lastly, this is the premiere test of the LJ/FB "Repost" crossposting connection dohicky...no clue if it will work, or frankly exactly what it is supposed to do, but I'm about to find out!

So, I've not posted much lately, I know.  I'm not sure if that is more about lack of caring about posting here, annoyance at all the ads, or I'm just posting more random bits on Facebook.  *shrugs*

So, yeah...I've been not posting much.  I should post more.  I know.  =p

So, sorry about all the posts on my f-list I never read.  I'll be trying to keep up with that more, and hopefully post more, too.

We'll see what actually happens...

A Letter to My Friends and Listeners

This is a letter about my Thursday evening show known as "The Maelstrom."  In short, I need more listeners that actually want to hear my show and the symphonic and progressive metal that my show is meant to be geared toward.

I know some of you already listen very nearly every week, but I need more like 30 or 40 regularly listeners, which I simply don't have.  Don't worry, my show isn't going to be canceled or anything, but until I get more regular listeners there will have to be less of the prog/sym metal on my show, which is what I think makes it special.

So, I'm asking you all for help getting more listeners; any help of any sort, be it advice or just simply tuning in or asking a friend to "check out my buddy's show."  Obviously, I could post on forums and blogs, but I don't know any, at least not any that don't explicitly prohibit "spamming and advertising."  I am going to look into more of those on my own, of course, but if you know of any place good to post about such things, let me know.

For the next month or two, I'll be mixing in a lot of mainstream music into my show, until I have an idea if I can really get enough listeners to validate my current playlist at my current time.  If things don't go well, I'm going to have to move my show to a different time, likely during the day when a lot of my present listeners probably won't be able to tune in.

So, tune in, tell your friends, and if you have any other ideas how I could get more listeners, however obvious or dumb you think it sounds, please tell me.

DJ Slim Jimmypants

What's a really bad thing to happen?  Nuclear war?  That's awfully  bad.  If that happened, the world as we know it will be gone, billions of people likely dead, cities wiped off the surface of the planet, countries gone.

Clearly we must stop it.

The voice of reason: Ultimately, we can't stop it, not if someone really wants to start one.

Oh, we can't stop other countries from launching nukes?

The voice of reason: No, we can't.  Not even if we force them to dismantle their nukes, because we can never know if they dismantled all of them, or won't build more.

But we could build defenses against it!  And shelters, huge, massive shelters for all the population of America.  While we're at it, let's mandate that all houses have a fallout shelter built into the basement.

VOR: That'd cost massive amounts of money.  It's not even vaguely reasonable!

But the government could pay for it!

VOR: That just means everyone's taxes would have to be raised to fund the projects.

Oh...so...you're saying that the government will have to tax people more to pay for it?  Wouldn't that hurt the economy?

VOR: No doubt.

But we have no choice, it's the only option to stop nuclear war.

VOR: We don't know there ever will be a nuclear war, nor do we know that anything we build could stop it.  Yes, nuclear war could happen, but it's really unlikely.  And we know that increasing taxes to the highest levels EVER will cause massive economic problems.  Millions will be forced into poverty, millions more will lose their jobs and into welfare state that is already being pushed beyond its bounds.

But we'll ALL die if there's a war!

VOR:  We may all die even if we do build all those defenses you like so much, but we don't know if they'll work as we hope.  Moreover, if our economy is crippled by the cost of building the shelters, we won't have the resources to deal with other much more likely problems, like an large earthquake, which no one claims will never happen.

But think of the children!
VOR: I am.  That's exactly why I don't want to go and spend trillions of dollars on missile defenses and shelters, which we don't even know if will work, on the off chance that something many experts do not think will ever happen MIGHT happen.

Why must you be so stubborn?  This is important, we simply have no choice; we must do it.

VOR: Yes, it is important.  Why do you think I stopped and actually considered the possible outcomes?  Do you think we should build giant space lasers to shoot down the alien invaders?

Don't be silly, there there's no space invaders.

VOR: Can you prove that?  It could happen.  I'm sure there's "experts" who claim it will.  And all of humanity will no doubt be enslaved when they come.  We have no choice but to spend quadrillions of dollars on space defenses, it is humanity's only hope.  The only way of running such a large operation will be for the government to take control of all large companies, though, and dictate what they are allowed to manufacture and to who they can sell them to and for how much.  And, of course, they'll control all the salaries of the workers.  We must act now or it is too late!

But there are no space invaders!

VOR: Exactly.

Exactly?

VOR:  Yes, exactly.  And there's no nuclear war, either, but there could be space invaders, and there could be nuclear war.  But what could we do to stop either?  Build defenses we don't know if will work for an event we don't know if will ever happen?  What we do know is the cost of building those defenses.  And, historically, all such efforts have been greatly more expensive than predicted.

This is a dream I had last night...it's not cut because I'm feeling lazy.

The dream took place in a sort of olden days setting...I don't
know if it was more old western US or possibly something kind of
medieval.  I was more like 18 in the dream, and not "Jim" either.  I
traveled around a lot, but don't remember much of the details...until
I came to some town that was mostly empty because everyone ran away
from a huge guy (maybe 6' 6" and 450 pounds with huge arms) with some
sort of club...with a blade on one side, sort of...really nasty
weapon, anyway.  And he was pissed.

Not too clear on the details...but me, and a blacksmith and his wife,
managed to convince him to stop trying to kill people and calm down by
offering to fix his chainmail shirt for him...which was cutting into
his skin, since it didn't fit him properly.  They decided to wash the
leather padding, too, since apparently he had never washed it and had
been wearing it since he got it probably years ago.  >_>

But, yeah, they were doing that, and I really didn't know how to deal
with chainmail, so I was hovering around them some, and just wandering
a bit, too...until the big dude got impatient and broken down the
door/front wall of the house and in his next motion chopped the smith
in half with his club-sword.  D'oh!

At this point, I did the heroic thing--no, wait, I didn't...I ran away.  :p

I actually ran to my parents (or whoever I was in the dream's
parents).  They seemed to live on a sort of farm, a bit more modern
than the rest of the dream.  I knew they were in danger, now.
...because of what they knew?  What I knew?  I wasn't sure.  It had
something to do with the Big Dude, but he was just a pawn in the end.
And I got home too late, since "my dad" was already dead.  But I was
in time to warn my mom and tell her to go hide someplace that was
apparently a good idea, since she (who was maybe 40 and rather thin of
face) was already going to go there.

When I told her to take my little brother...WHO I DON'T HAVE...with,
she told me to take him, to look after him...and he wanted to come
with me, too.  He ran up to me and hugged me, happy to see me, and
happy that he'll be able to come with me...

I was wracking my brain, trying to figure out exactly who we were
hiding from and why, when I "woke up" into another dream.

In this dream, I was in my room, and needed to pee.  So I went to the
bathroom...and found a tall (or maybe he was floating above the
ground?), mustached, and fat man, wearing a purple suit.  I was
surprised, since he was supposed to be dead--how I knew this, I had no
clue.

And apparently I knew he was a writer, so I told him about this idea I
had for a new story, which was basically the 'dream in this dream' I
just had, but I didn't tell him the idea was a dream...but rather a
story I was already working on, but it would be silly and embarrassing
to write a story based on a dream...I guess?

So, this sort of adventuring 18ish year old man runs off to
adventure...and he's sort of a "Gary Sue" other than when he ran away
from the big guy...and he tends to be a bit apathetic about other
people, but he's really good at most things, etc.

I told the dead author dude my MC was a "Mary John," because I
couldn't remember what male Mary Sues were called.  To which he
gruffly said, "Oh, yes, the Mary John, one of Beethoven's terms for
one of the many literary archetypes. Not too bad of one, though, since
he's got some flaws."

Then I speculated on how the story might proceed beyond where my dream
ended, mostly revolving on exactly who was chasing after the MC and
why, and coming to the conclusion the reader didn't need to know
exactly what was so horrible until the end of the book when the MC is
finally trapped and cornered by his foe, and probably cut in half.

And then I woke up.

For real.  :P

I fail.  I know.  Not posting much.  I think I said I'd post about the big Angmarian LARP thing...that would take a long time, so I'll just summarize by saying that it was very big and long and complicated, and there was civil war!  Yes, civil war.  Fun!

Some changes in plans with Beverly coming to visit--which boils down to the month.  lol.  She'll be here the end of July, not June.  Which is good, since the house really isn't clean, now.

I ordered some new PC speakers that were on sale.  They should be here, tomorrow, in time for my show.  \m/

I have some fun pictures I could post, too, but I have them all on Facebook...anyone want to see them that doesn't have me friended on Facebook?  If so, comment with your FB name and I'll friend you on there.  And if you don't have a facebook, I can just post them here, then.  Ok?  ...ok.

So, I haven't posted in, what, a month? Yesterday was my birthday. I actually haven't gotten anything, yet...mostly for lack of me telling anyone what I want...which I suppose is a plane ticket to Lafayette, Louisiana.  It was a good birthday, though.  Spent the evening talking with Beverly on Skype.  I actually worked on a couple of my songs, too. Been ages since I did any composing.  It felt good.  I need to keep at that, but won't have time for the next few days.

Going back to the issue of birthday presents...one thing I want is a new cell phone, which I should be getting sometime soon. After looking around for months, I'm planning on getting the Lotus Elite. Oddly shaped phone, I know, but I like the rest of the features it has--and the keyboard feels the most comfortable/natural of all the ones I have tried.  Beverly's also mailed me a present, but it has yet to arrive.  I know some stuff about it...like it "doesn't have a practical use" and is in a medium-sized shipping package...and she didn't mail it herself (bought online, is my guess)...quite curious what it is...

Yeah, that paragraph talked about two very loosely related topics...maybe they should get their own paragraphs?...meh.

I recent changed my guitar strings, as well as semi-recently got a new webcam; it can actually record at 720p. Only recorded one video with it, mainly as a test, but it came out well...not that I played well, but the video looks good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un2hvi5FK_Q

Plan on making more, especially since I don't have to upload videos from my camera to the computer...just click "record" and then "upload" and it's done.  Much easier.  Now I just need to actually PRACTICE playing so I can make some decent recordings.  Derp.

In other news...things that I'll be busy with the next few days:

Thursday night is my show, so have to make a playlist and of course actually DJ it.

Friday I may be going to Dan's place for a proxy-birthday hangout.

Mike is coming over to do his show from my place Saturday, and I have my classical show, of course.

Saturday is also the LARP I'm going to (and so is Mike, which is why he's coming over here to do his show), called Under Angmar's Shadow.  It's a huge LARP with 40+ people and I got nearly 100 pages of info sent to me...back story, politics, rules of the game, etc...

Sometime before Saturday I need to reread my LARP sheets and take some concise notes to carry around with me at the game (that is normal practice).

After the LARP I'm heading back to Mike's place and staying the night and hanging out with him on Sunday.

And, in theory, I'm still cleaning the house out for when Beverly gets here.  WHEE.

As per requested, here's some pics of my cloak.

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