The Mighty Quynh

There are two stands recommended for my synthesizer. They’re not sold anywhere. Who does that!?

Sure, I could get any stand, but I want one of these. At least the Roland Juno carrying bags are still available.

My Juno will go in no other case, I do declare!

On Wednesday Rich and I went to the Video Games Live concert at the NJPAC in Newark. It’d be our second time together and my third time in all. We had central front row seats, which was pretty awesome, especially since last time at Beacon Theatre we were back in the mezzanine. This allowed me to get some snazzy pics I’ll put up sometime. At least I hope they’re snazzy, I had to put my camera on the Dumbass setting since my brain explodes if I’m not taking pictures on a bright, partly sunny day and all my subjects are standing still as statues (or are statues, as is often the case).

VGL is definitely worth seeing more than once if you like it the first time. They change the lineup a little and have some different composers/performers. This time the original Castlevania composer was there. I’m jealous of her because she’s approaching her 40s and still looks cute as hell and has a kickass job and made (makes) awesome music. Bitch.

I used to be a huge fantasy fan and since I got a Nook, I’ve been trying to catch up on all the books I never got around to reading or was afraid to start (I didn’t want to start Wheel of Time lest the author not finish—but I guess it’s safe now). I’ve also been getting a lot of the free eBooks available from B&N, most of which have been classics, though I thought I’d try out a fantasy novel called The Unsuspecting Mage.

Thank goodness it was free because this has some of the most atrocious writing ever. I realize it’s self published, but seriously, dude? You couldn’t hand it to a friend to read over? I’m talking changes in tense within the same sentence bad. I’m only a few pages into the second chapter, but I can’t take it anymore. And apparently I didn’t even get to the parts where he completely misuses words!

From a comment on this review on Amazon:

I rarely never finish a book, but when I came across the phrase “jambed pact” I stopped reading and deleted this book from my Kindle.

I don’t say this often, but: LOL. This is going in the trash.

Citing better ventilation and more space, Rich got our Hammy a new wire habitat. I’ve been wary of wire cages since my first ever hamster, whom I had at a very young and impressionable age, got old and broke her leg on the wire stairs going up to one of the floors. Plus she’d always shove her bedding out of the bars (not on purpose), as well as perch her rump up against a corner and spray her piss right out of the cage (on purpose—clever little bugger). This cage, however, has solid plastic stairs and platforms, which I think are safer, and the bottom part is much deeper, so no messy bedding and toilet mishaps.

Hammy the Acrobat

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Interior design finalized and cage is in its proper place on the dresser.

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I think she’s much happier in her new digs. It’s billed as a rat cage, but I personally wouldn’t use it for anything bigger than one Syrian hamster.

Holy crap, my name is in Urban Dictionary.

Good thing there’s enough nice Quynhs out there leaving good impressions and very few people who know me, or the definition would be very different. Well, let’s leave #3 out of it.

(Also, I’m glad my name is oddly common enough that you can’t really Google me.)

I hate when I have to pretend to taste the wine at dinner. Yup, it’s wine. You just opened it two seconds ago, it’s all going to taste like cat piss to me at this point. Heck, I don’t really care about wine, I just want to find the most tolerable, socially acceptable way to get buzzed during dinner.

Last time I wrote about Circus Saturdays at Webster Hall (Sean Tyas was the DJ), I only had a few stinky camera pics. This time I remembered my camera, so here’s some pics from the Guiseppe Ottaviani and Kyau & Albert show last weekend.

I never really developed the style know-how to put together a truly polished outfit—how could I, when everything I ever tried on made me look like I was a 6 year old playing dress-up with Mommy’s clothes? So my work wardrobe this season consists mainly of turtlenecks and a few slacks. The turtlenecks are easy for me because they’re made to stretch so they’re actually small (plus they’re European or Japanese, which is smaller than US crap) and the material means you don’t really notice the sleeves are too long and bunched up due to me being petite.

Turtlenecks and slacks. A sweater here and there. My style is a complete and utter snore. No wonder I can’t get up in the morning.

I found a number of blogs catering to pint-size girls like me which I look to for inspiration now. But even those discourage me. Those girls still have to take half their wardrobe to the tailor to have things taken in and hemmed. I’m too damn lazy for that. I was thisclose to buying a skirt today when I remembered I still have at least half a dozen pieces in my closet that need to be taken to the tailor, and that skirt would just be adding to the pile.

Zzz my life.

Did you get candy, or did Zwarte Piet beat your ass?

Zwarte Piet was all over the Netherlands during our visit. I don’t think that tradition is going away any time soon.

Well, Iceland didn’t do an Earth-fart like I’d hoped for, but our Aer Lingus flight did have to go through Dublin, which experienced heavy snowfall just as we were coming in for our connection back to NYC. Our flight was was diverted to Shannon Int’l where we had to take a harrowing ride on a coach bus to Dublin Int’l. Dublin Airport wasn’t going to open any time soon so we booked a couple nights in Dublin and I ended up really enjoying the city. That may be due in part to the fact that Aer Lingus lost our luggage so I had a good excuse to go clothes shopping there. We were supposed to be back to the States on Wednesday but ended up taking a flight out on Saturday.

As for Amsterdam, we stayed in a short stay apartment, which I totally prefer to hotels now. It gave us a little taste of local living. I must say, though, there is nothing more sobering than having a whole city (outside of the tourist spots) shut down at 6pm. I think between that and the arrival of the first cold snap of the season, all desire to stay out late and party was sucked out of me, such that by the time we arrived in Dublin, one of the drinkiest cities in the world, I had no urge to have more than a couple pints at the pubs. There was even a lively club in the very basement of the hotel we were in, steps away, wouldn’t have to trudge through any snow, but I didn’t feel like hitting it up. Incredible.

Photos are up in the usual spot.