Out of the 17 designs I submitted to the client (all of which could have been used for this project), only ONE was approved for printing. Now I feel like a no-talent piece of shit who should just go flip burgers at McDonald’s.
Author: Chas.
Movies and Music
Well. Life is slowly chugging along. There is still lots of just hanging around the house for the moment. Spring is finally underway here. So thankful for warmer temps! David is now fully vaccinated and I have one more shot left to go before I am. I am really looking forward to being able to hang with friends and have some limited movie gatherings. Yay!
We did brave the elements and went and saw Godzilla Vs. Kong in an actual movie theater this past Friday. Lordy, I have missed movie theaters.
The movie itself was fine. The plot was nonsensical at times but big monsters destroyed a lot of shit … so I was pretty happy with it. Plus, Alexander Skarsgård is so pretty. *Sigh* I still think Godzilla (2014) is the best of the MonsterVerse films.
Meanwhile, John Grant and Garbage have both announced new albums. Yay!
John Grant’s Boy from Michigan drops June 25th. I *might* have pre-ordered the limited edition, deluxe vinyl.
Garbage’s No Gods No Masters drop on June 11th. I *might* have snagged the Deluxe CD + Neon Green Vinyl Limited Edition with Signed Print before it sold out. Whoo!
And, hopefully, I will get back to some sort of regular posting schedule. I really something to focus on other than pandemics and hurt feelings.
Where’s My Sugar Daddy?
This super cool Hublot Cold Fusion Chronograph Watch designed by Shepard Fairey is only $22,000. Who wants to buy me one?
Guess What?
Rumors of my demise are fake news! I am still around … though I have not felt like posting at all. Honestly, what is there to post about in this life that is on pandemic pause?
My mood has really been all over the place the last month. Some days have been bearable. A lot have been me feeling overwhelmed and helpless in the face of life’s curveballs. I am hoping that with Spring getting ready to blow into the mountains I will stay on the upswing since it won’t be freezing with us stuck in the house all the time.
As a distraction, I did order Paul Thomas Anderson Masterworks by Adam Nayman. This book is so cool and I highly recommend it to any PTA fans.
About a week and a half ago, I started building the LEGO 1989 Batmobile™ set I bought last month. It’s been fun to work on so far. Last night, I finished Bag 12 of 24 which means I am approximately halfway done. The big question is where am I going to display this beast once the build is complete.
So, that’s the major news … somewhat depressed and building LEGO’s. Ha, ha.
How’s you?
Friday Vibes
Distraction [LEGO Edition]
So. I might have been bad at the end of last week and bought myself an expensive distraction.
Yep … That’s the massive LEGO 1989 Batmobile™ set! At 3,306 pieces, this will be the biggest LEGO set I have ever built. Once complete, it will measure a whopping 23″ x 8″ x 4″.
The instruction manual is a super thick 435 pages. Whoo!
I am pretty excited to get started on this once David is back to in-person classes and I can reclaim the dining room table as my work area. There are 24 bags of pieces. So, if I do two per night, it will take me 12 days to build this (though I suspect it will go a little faster than that).
Now, I am just going to have to resist the urge to get the 1989 Batwing set to go along with this. It sucks having a LEGO fetish and being poor.
Alive, Barely Kicking
I sure do have them winter/pandemic blues. You could probably tell from my lack of posting. But, honestly, what is there to talk about? Life has fallen into a dull routine of cardio, work, eat, stare mindlessly at the TV, sleep, repeat. The weather has been too cold and dreary on Saturdays for any afternoon fire pitting with Shortlegs and Co. (one of my few mental health activities). So, it’s mainly getting takeout on Saturdays that breaks up some of the monotony.
February is ticking along and hopefully the temps with warm up quickly in March. JR and I have been distracting ourselves with plans for various backpacking trips in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Some sound fun. Some sound grueling. Time will tell!
Meanwhile, let the photos below break up the monotony of your day and week.
Nostalgia
A few weeks ago, I got into a “pitch and toss” mood. I am a bit pack rat-ish when it comes to bank statements and any other statements that might have account and/or social security numbers on them. Before my cleaning spree, I had boxes that had bank statements dating back to 1989. Sheesh.
While going through all these boxes, I did find some cool things … the punk/alternative buttons I wore on my jacket in high school, notes left by dear friends, and lots of birthday and thank you cards.
One of the major things I found was a stack of letters written to me by a really good female friend while we were in high school. I knew I had saved them and that they were in a box somewhere. Over the years, I have developed a sense of joy at having saved these. They were important. They were special. So, I was excited to find (and read) them again.
I guess nostalgia (and faulty memory) clouded my expectations. I remember us being so cool, intellectual, and above all that petty high school nonsense. Maybe that was because we got good grades and listened to cool alternative music. These letters sure proved that wrong. They are filled with talk of crushes, unrequited love, betrayal, secrets, suicidal thoughts, and an extreme dislike for one fellow student. It’s exactly what you would expect from a bunch of emo teenagers.
Needless to say, I was a little disappointed that these letters from 30+ years ago didn’t live up to my memory of them. I still saved them. I collected all the cards and letters and buttons (30 years worth) and put them in a new plastic bin for safekeeping. I can get rid of those old bank statements and such but I just can’t get rid of the personal things … even if the memory is better than the reality.
Alive, Not Kicking
Not much to report here really. Just navigating the winter and pandemic doldrums.
I wish we would get some warmer weather. I miss (socially distanced) fire pitting with friends. I want to get out on some camping trips. I am tired of just sitting around the house worrying about finances and COVID-19. I want my county to get on a roll with the vaccinations so that I can get my shots (of course I am in the very last “everyone else” category).
And, I am tired of feeling underappreciated. It’s making me bitter. I have felt bitter most of the day … for most of the last several days, to be honest. Sometimes it just feels like people are just paying a lot of lip service in regards to my abilities/training. I am always getting duped into feeling the expectation that someone is going to put in a good word for me when they are not. And after months of lip service, I am bitter. Honestly, I think I’d prefer to be treated with indifference. At least then I wouldn’t have these expectations that people are standing up for me or are advocating for me when they are not.
Meanwhile … I finally got the two packages that the USPS has been holding hostage. Yay!
This Week’s Excitement: Trump is out of office! Thank Christ.
Off to the Races
And 2021 is off and running. The Biden/Harris election win is official, Democrats have taken the majority in the Senate, and Trump Cultists stormed the Capitol because “Boo hoo! Trump lost.” What an amazing time to be alive. (Psssssst … that’s sarcasm.)
And now, some randomness.
This is always a fun sight to see when you actually haven’t told your PC to update. Thankfully, Geek Squad nerds got me back up and running in a few days with no major data loss. They think the hard drive was starting to fail. Pretty lame for a computer that is only four years old. This is why I have a Macbook Pro for all my non-official work and personal stuff.
We rang in the New Year by drinking the last of the egg nog. I was asleep before midnight. Old Fart for the win!
The USPS *finally* came through and delivered the last Christmas presents well after Christmas.
A&A sent these really awesome Divine/Pink Flamingos-themed socks and I LOVE THEM! Now, if I could just get David to watch the movie.
And, David got me these stupidly expensive yet totally awesome screenplay books from A24. I am a total sucker for their brand of slow burn, artsy horror.
Now if the USPS would locate and move along my copy of Arrow’s 4K release of David Cronenberg’s Crash, I would be the happiest man on the planet. It’s been stuck in South Jersey since December 21. Ugh.
2020 Wrap Up
I had a long, thoughtful post planned about the trials and tribulations of 2020 planned. But, I took a nap that was too long and now feel discombobulated.
2020 was sure trying at times … from the messed up trip to NYC in March to loosing pretty much all my extra freelance work to a pretty isolated existence all year to this past month wherein, Bowser had a growth removed (it ended up being non-cancerous, thank God) and my work PC crashed causing lots of stress about the potential of even more lost work. Ugh. I find the older I get, the less successfully I am handling life’s speed bumps.
Going forward, I really need to sit down and figure out what the fuck I am going to do with myself in 2021. I am not really sure that I can financially continue along the same path I have been on without extra money coming in. It doesn’t appear that any of my extra design work is going to return any time soon (if ever). So, maybe McDonald’s or Walmart is in my future. Who knows?
But, at least we have come through the pandemic so far without getting sick … so, that is something to be thankful for.
Beast Mode
The big excitement recently has been the arrival of Vinegar Syndrome‘s new 4K UHD release of The Beastmaster. I have very vivid memories of seeing this at the local movie theater in 1982 (when I was on the cusp of turning 11 years old). I pretty much knew I was different at this point in my life and that men grabbed my attention more women. It was a weird, scary, and thrilling feeling. The Beastmaster just helped reaffirm all this. Marc Singer running around in a leather hula skirt that barely covered anything was an amazing site for these young eyes.
It’s weird to think now that my parents probably thought I was excited to see Tanya Roberts topless in this movie. Nope. I was all about Marc Singer. I mean, c’mon … look at him!
The Beastmaster is one of three films from my childhood that I feel helped solidify my gayness. The other two are Flash Gordon and Gwendoline. Maybe it’s of note that all three are from the fantasy/sci-fi genre … and maybe it’s not.
Drudgery
Ugh. With only mere weeks left, 2020 still feels tedious and never-ending. Personally, I don’t think the prospects for 2021 look any better.
The day job has been plodding along. I spent two days upgrading one of the retail sites to the newest version of the shopping cart software. Everything looked good in the off-site trail run. But, once it was live, the Guest Checkout function that was working now isn’t. Gah! So, I get to spend God knows how many more hours trying to figure out why it’s not functioning. Seriously … kill me.
I checked my checking account last night and found the sum total to be pretty dismaying … and that’s total is without the Christmas spending factored in (since that’s all on a credit card right now). My freelance work this year has been shit because the pandemic cancelled all the events and gathering I normally to work for. So, yeah. I guess the “endless spending with no extra money coming” in has finally caught up with me. And it’s my own fault. Needless to say, I am now feeling super stressed and considering a weeknight/weekend job at Walmart or some sleazy fast food joint to help get me through.
Bowser has a mole on his undercarriage that has started getting bigger over the last month or so. A trip to the vet on Monday brought about the results we expected. They want to remove and biopsy said mole. There is a chance it could be cancerous and a chance that it could not be. I am hoping for the latter as I am not sure that I can mentally deal with Bowser having cancer. He goes next Friday (the 18th) to have it removed.
Meanwhile …
David got me a complete set of Creepshow Enamel Pins from Waxworks Records for our anniversary. These are something I want to display, so I got a shadowbox frame to put them in. It works well enough, but I think the frame might be a little too small. While I was at it, I also framed the enamel pins that came with the Haunt Collector’s Edition I got a few months back. This one turned out much better. The pins all came together on one 5×7 card which I mounted on foam board and then mounted inside an 8×10 shadowbox frame. Now I just have to find some wall space on which to hang these.
I really do need to find more crafty projects to try and keep my sanity.