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Dark, cold, and rainy...... (Cheesus)

Cheesus — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:18:57 -0500

May 02, 2008 - 11:18:57 CST
and all I have to say about that is......

PICKLES!!!!!
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Hair update (calvsie)

calvsie — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:06:13 -0500

May 01, 2008 - 12:06:13 CST
Well Thought I should post the before and after shots here...BeforeAfter
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A Serial Killer and Happy Wednesday's Live CD (Traegorn)

Traegorn — Thu, 01 May 2008 08:15:06 -0500

May 01, 2008 - 08:15:06 CST
The two topics in this post are, to be clear, totally unrelated. I just wanted to remove any confusion before I moved forward at all. I will, also, be covering them in reverse order.

First off, I know I've made a post about it on my forums a few days ago, but I just wanted to point out that Happy Wednesday's first Live CD has been released. Live at No Brand Con 2008 was put together earlier this week and is now available for sale. It contains the entire performance from No Brand Con (click here if you want to refresh yourself on what that is like) along with three other Live tracks, and a bonus studio track. It's $8 plus shipping, and I think it's not a bad deal.

I wanted to put something out while people were waiting for the studio album we're about to start recording, so I hope you enjoy it.

Now, on a totally different subject, my website has been getting a lot of traffic directed towards a really old Flip Side article I literally wrote years ago. It's about the hidden dangers in a small city that get swept under the carpet, but one of the big things I talk about are the drowning deaths in Eau Claire and La Crosse, and I theorized that something sinister might be happening. I wasn't the first person to think that, but I hadn't heard anything new on the subject since I published that back in 2003.

Well, the subject is back in the news.

Two retired New York Police Detectives are convinced there is a serial killer at work in this area of the country. I'm not certain that I agree that all of the deaths are related, but I've always believed a majority of them seemed too similar to not be related. Of course, as to be expected, local police are doubtful. They usually are. From the article in the Leader-Telegram:

Two retired New York City detectives believe serial killers are behind the drowning deaths of 40 young men nationwide, possibly including three victims who died in Eau Claire.

But Eau Claire Police Chief Jerry Matysik has concerns about the detectives' claims.

"We would all like to have easy answers to these deaths," he said. "Believing in a conspiracy is appealing to many people because terrible events make us uncomfortable."

Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, who have been tracking the suspicious drowning deaths of young men across the country ever since investigating the death of a college student who drowned in New York in 1997, told ABC News that the death of University of Minnesota student Chris Jenkins became "the link" connecting the drowning deaths of usually high-achieving college students in 25 cities in 11 different states.

I recommend reading it. It's also nice to know that I'm not the only one who looks at these circumstances and scratches their head.

We have a habit in towns like Eau Claire and La Crosse of wanting to hide ourselves from the dangers of the real world. We want to pretend we're safer than everyone else. Well, I go back to my original point: You're Not Safe, Get Over It. I'm not saying walk around like a paranoid git, but instead just be aware and take precautions. Just because you live in a town with only 60,000 people in it doesn't mean that the real world magically went away.
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No Brand Con 2008 (Traegorn)

Traegorn — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:22:51 -0500

Apr 24, 2008 - 08:22:51 CST
So, I've been behind and I know I haven't posted a vlog entry for a while. Sadly, I got like no footage or photos of No Brand Con, so while I'll still do a full report soon about it, I don't have a nice little "Life of the Traegorn" for you. On the other hand, Cheesus got the entire Happy Wednesday performance on tape. So, y'know what, I thought I'd post that here as a Playlist and let that sit in for Vlog 2.9. In fact, that's exactly what I'm doing:
That was Happy Wednesday's debut performance -- all 20 something minutes of it (it was a short set). We are going to start recording the new album shortly, so I'll post about that here when it's done.

I'll write up one of my normal "Con Reports" in a few days, but I knew that I had to post something fast as it's been almost a week since the convention and I hadn't posted any sort of wrap up. This year, Crysta, Biedermann and I ran the Rising Stuff booth for Peso and Vinnk, so I didn't have any major responsibilities during the convention beyond the hosting duties I had been asked to do. This was, in fact, really nice. It meant that any con work I did was when I had time to help out, not because I had to. And when you're helping because you can and not because you have to, you don't feel any stress at all really.

The con was fantastic by the way. No Brand Con 2008 wasn't steps and bounds beyond 2007, but it was right up there with it. We hit a new attendance high with 1075, so we're officially a "Medium" sized convention instead of a "Small" one -- but just barely.

There were no major disasters during the con, which is always good. Sure, there were glitches (some caused by equipment failure, some caused by human error) but nothing that wasn't caught by a backup plan before it could turn into doomsday. Believe it or not, but after seven conventions, we're aren't all that bad at this. *grin*

Again, I'll do a full Con Report write up, but until then I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has said such wonderful things about the con, and that it was great seeing so many awesome people this weekend (even if was only for a few minutes in many cases).

No Brand Con rocks, plain and simple.
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rawr. (Yushadonga)

Yushadonga — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:22:49 -0500

Apr 22, 2008 - 16:22:49 CST
NoBrand was fun and I'm still a raging faggot.

Sorry girls =/
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nobrand weekend (pinky)

pinky — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:52:36 -0500

Apr 22, 2008 - 15:52:36 CST
sadly, another year has come and gone. its depressing, well because its a hella good time, and it reminds me how old i am and that im getting older. ick.i will probably post some sort of recap of my weekend when i have more time.
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Persona log 4/18/08 (calvsie)

calvsie — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:54:42 -0500

Apr 18, 2008 - 12:54:42 CST
This is a private message
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Prepping for No Brand Con (Traegorn)

Traegorn — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:08:53 -0500

Apr 15, 2008 - 10:08:53 CST
So, I know that I've been quiet lately, but between work, prepping for Happy Wednesday's premiere performance, and just No Brand Con planning in general... things have been busy. And yes, if you haven't realized it, we're only a few days away from the annual festival of awesome that is No Brand Con.

And I'm giddy.

This weekend Crysta and I went through 99% of the Rising Stuff merchandise - checking prices, replacing any jewel cases that got damaged, and making sure CDs were actually in their cases (three weren't). I'm not sure which spot we'll have in the Vendor room, but we should be relatively near the entrance. Make sure you stop by an say hello at the booth, as I'll be spending quite a bit of time there (along with Crysta and booth mook Biedermann). Biedermann and I may be rocking out behind the booth too... so who knows what you might find in our emporium of bizarre Japanese pop culture.

No Brand Con is always such a strange thing for me these years. When it was something that four of us were dreaming up in an Excel Inn room at a microscopic Scifi convention in Wausau back in 2000, I had no idea what it would turn into. But now it's 2008, and we're about to run our 7th con. It's just... incredible to me. I think I look forward to No Brand Con more than anything else in the year sometimes. It's just so much friggin' funn.

FUNN DANGIT!

Derek is coming into town for it, as he usually does for No Brand Con, and I'm fairly excited about that. For once he's not crashing with me -- instead he's staying in a hotel room with his girlfriend. My couch will be occupied though, instead by Kaje who is also coming into town.

Everyone comes into town for No Brand Con (if they can get off of work). Everyone. You should be there. It will make your life better.

It's true.

I'll be filming a Vlog from there, as well as doing some live coverage - so if you can't come I hope to find ways to tickle your fancy. Honestly, I don't know why I'm bothering to Live Webcast it -- everyone who ever watches my live webcasts is going to the con, so they won't be watching it... because they'll be there.

It's very confusing.

In anycase, I think Happy Wednesday's debut will be well received, as the setlist is down pretty tight. I know I've put MP3s up, but I don't think anyone is going to know what to expect with our live act. A nerd rock comedy act isn't what a lot of people will be expecting, but I think they'll love it.

Or else.
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Could you kindly get off my back now? :P (Snazzy Azzy)

Snazzy Azzy — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:55:10 -0500

Apr 13, 2008 - 14:55:10 CST
Well, I did it. After having to put up with it from countless people for NOT having seen it, I finally got a copy of it on DVD last week and today I watched.........The Goonies. It is indeed quite an entertaining movie, no doubt about that.
But anyhoo, the Chicago trip on Friday was pretty cool too. It did kinda get off to e bit of a rough start, as I got to school only to realize that I had left the receipt I needed to get on the bus back at home. So I speed my way to and back with minutes to spare, only to get on WITHOUT them checking for the receipt. ARRGGGHHH!!!! Seriously, what was the point in giving us those reciepts when we pay for the trip if you're not gonna check for them!? Thankfully though, that was the ONLY frustrating/bad thing that happened. Well, unless youcount having to see that "renovated" monstrosity that is Soldier Field on the way in. Seriously, it looks like a UFO crash-landed on it.
Anyways, I ended up making my first stop at the Art Institute of Chicago. You could seriously lose yourself for days in that place. It is so amazing and so different to see the paintings and sculptures you could only first see in the textbooks right there in front of your face. Totally awesome. After that, I got back on the coach bus (it was going around a few areas that day) and ended up getting off at the Museum of Comtemporary Art with a friend of mine from Anime Club, Phil. While we did eventually enter that museum, we first did some wandering around the downtown area when a friend of his who recently graduated tagged along. We stopped at one of the local malls, where we got some good 'ol authentic Chicago-style pizza for lunch. Good stuff. We wandered around the mall a bit, then made our way to a nearby Borders bookstore where I managed to snag a copy of Vol. 18 of the Eyeshield 21 manga. had I not needed the extra money for dinner, I would've snagged a copy of Vol. 19 (the most recent volume) too. Not much happened afterwards. We went to that other museum, stopped in the area of Belmont and Clark streets for dinner and made our way back home.
But what I'm most looking forward to is NoBrand Con this Friday-Sunday. Until next time!
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I apologize for yesterday's Rick Roll (Traegorn)

Traegorn — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:42:28 -0500

Apr 02, 2008 - 08:42:28 CST
First and foremost, I want to apologize for Rick Rolling everyone yesterday. Okay, so I don't actually feel bad on any level - but still.

It was April Fools and I was lazy.

Traditionally I have loved April Fools day, and since I didn't have time to prank anyone in the real world this year, I thought "Spend two minutes on the internet and that should due." So, a fake vlog was planted. A fake vlog that Rick Roll'd all of you.

I thought it was funny.

I was mostly worried that people would figure out that the preview image was taken in Milwaukee (three years ago no less) and not Eau Claire... where I live. But, apparently none of you pay freakishly scary attention to my life. Y'know, like I do to yours.

Because I'm in the bushed outside your house right now.

Okay, maybe not.

But, y'know, I've been the mastermind behind terrible real life ideas before. Like, last year -- I was still working for housing. Manda, who had been the old Hall Director at my old dorm K.T. is now the Hall Director in Towers North. In the lobby of K.T. hangs a painting of the eponymous Katharine Thomas. A painting that creeped out Manda something fierce. So, I stole the painting, walked it up the hill, and with the help of one of the Towers North RAs I got into Manda's office and we hung it opposite of Manda's desk.

We're bad people, I know.

Back to the present though. I will say everything else in yesterday's entry was true, and that I'll eventually do another real vlog when I get the chance -- but that takes several hours for production that I don't actually have these days. Now, you may be saying "You used to be really busy too! When did you find time to do it back then?" and the answer is simply that I used to do them on Saturday mornings... and since then I've decided that I like to sleep on Saturday mornings.

Selfish? Maybe. Whatever.

I slipped some new tracks into the Happy Wednesday online player that you might want to listen to (Sandwich, His Tentacled Glory) to get a better idea of our sound. So yes, Calvsie, there is new music actually out there. I love His Tentacled Glory -- but sadly I must give all the credit to writing our "Cthuhlu Worship Song" to Biedermann. It's all his.

And I think it's genius. Not that you can necessarily tell from the online version (as the recording quality isn't that good).

The good news is that my headache -- after a full 30 hours -- finally seems to have gone away. Crysta also is no longer feeling ill either, so that's good news. So yes, on the health front, it seems everyone is doing better in general.

Time to go be productive though...
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An April Snow (Vlog 2.9) (Traegorn)

Traegorn — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:29:41 -0500

Apr 01, 2008 - 08:29:41 CST
So they tell me this is the beginning of April. I'm telling you that I don't buy it, and I think someone has dialed back our calendars a month and hoped we haven't noticed. In any case, there is a large amount of white stuff on the ground.

{TRHVIDEO}http://otaku.trhonline.com/video/rickroll.flv{TRHVIDEOICON}http://www.trhonline.com/jan05rain.jpg{/TRHVIDEO}Click Here If Video Doesn't Load

Music in this entry is, of course, from a multitude of local nerd rock sources. I've put a little bit of To Slay Zombie Newton back in there, and you can (of course) find a new track by Happy Wednesday that I hacked together the other day as well.

Seriously, the snow is annoying as heck. It's not the first time that I've seen snow on April 1st though - no, that would be the first day I moved to Wisconsin back when I was six years old (April 1st, 1987). I remember sitting there as a kid, boxes piled high around what was then an unfamiliar room - but is now something that I associate with home. The snow came drifting down outside, and I remember just being very excited.

Not so much excited about the snow right now though.

Crysta was home not feeling well yesterday, and I wasn't feeling that good myself. She managed to go off to class this morning, but I still have a massive headache that is making it hard to read what I'm typing right now. I think after I'm done with this brief entry that I'm going to hunt down some Aspirin or something and hope that this goes away.

No Brand Con closed it's preregistration last night, and while we haven't tabulated the mail ins yet, we've already beaten last year's prereg numbers... which is pretty sweet. The con is growing and I'm always a fan of that... well, unless we get too big, but I see that as a ways off anyway.

For those of you I haven't told yet, which shouldn't be that many of you who read this, my band Happy Wednesday will be playing their debut live performance during the No Brand Con cosplay contest intermission. Last year, that was a room full of at least 700 people...

...not bad for a group that has of sofar never played a room bigger than my basement. I assume that if you're attending No Brand Con that you're going to the Cosplay Contest anyways -- so you're already stuck going. But you'll like it.

Trust me.

Anyway, the real world calls, so you guys have a good April 1st. It is the best day of the year.
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Bachelor Cooking: Crook Pot Chili AKA Black Olive Chili Bombs (calvsie)

calvsie — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:01:00 -0500

Mar 31, 2008 - 09:01:00 CST
I made this two times in febuary due to a chili cook off my church had and it got cancelled once due to snow.Crock Pot Chili AKA Black olive chili BombsIngredients: 2 pounds hamburger 1/2 jar tomato juice 1/2 jar spaghetti sauce 1 can whole medium black olives 1 can diced tomatoes with chilies 1 family sized can of kidney beans in chili sauce 1 can pinto beans 2 tablespoons garlic preferably not dried or salt 2 - 3 splashes tabassco based on taste 4 tablespoons chili powder 1 teaspoon olive oil 2 teaspoons vanilla add the following to taste: Italian seasoning Cayenne pepper Cumin Powderdirections:Brown the hamburger so that the pink is gone and the meat is in really small piecesThrow everything in the Crockpot (including hamburger)Turn on high for 1 - 2 hoursTurn on low for 2 - as many as you like more hoursServe with a smile! or a frown if your not in the mood...I find the the longer you let it simmer on low the more full the flavor becomes.The juices stuff gets inside the whole black olives and when you bite into them they are like little explosions of flavor!Give it a try but be warned this is fairly spicy...
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A Post about Happy Wednesday (Traegorn)

Traegorn — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:54:05 -0500

Mar 26, 2008 - 16:54:05 CST
It's been a while since I talked about my band Happy Wednesday in this space (beyond listing a song credit to them) since November's release of a terrible EP that I'll probably eventually pull from the internet and pretend I never made (and just admit to the "This Side of Awful" LP). For those of you who haven't been paying attention, there have been a lot of changes to Happy Wednesday since then (like a new sounds, new members, new songs, etc.), so I thought I'd talk about them.

First off, we have a very different sound now. We're dropping most of the electronica from the music, and going more towards a rock sound. We'll still be performing some of the older songs off of This Side of Awful (Restorative is pretty much ready for Live Performance and The Worst Rock Song Ever needs some work... but eventually that will be in the live act) but the new stuff is much more interesting. Because of that, I'm going to stop labeling my random electronica as "Happy Wednesday" tracks. Instead I'll be using the artist name I used back on the "Bob and Giant Robot" cartoon soundtracks (Lt. Snorkel) for those particular songs.

I don't think I've said much about the band lineup online, so I probably should cover that. Most people who know anything about my band know that I recruited Matt Biedermann a while ago to be the guitar player. Since then though, two other people have joined the band -- Kevin Renstrom has actually been our drummer for a while, and Katie Hatheway (who some may remember from The Fourth Squashing of America) has recently joined as our Bass player. Our rock percentage has now, in fact, doubled.

If you want to see us, we're going to be performing live at No Brand Con this year -- definitely during the Sunday Variety Show, and possibly during the Cosplay intermission (depending on circumstances). So, you should come and let us rock your faces off or something.

Because it'll be good.

I like to offer new MP3s when I make posts about this sort of thing, but I don't have any new album quality tracks to share with you at the moment. I do, however, have an MP3 I recorded from our practice session the other day that I find hilarious. It's a little improv piece that just sort of... happened. It's the most 1337band thing Happy Wednesday has ever done... and I've remixed an actual 1337band song on the first album. It's called "God Damned Parisians" and you can download it here on MP3. And no, I don't actually hate the French.

Even though, officially, I've now written two different songs about how I do.

Sigh.

It's not on purpose. I swear.

I should also mention Happy Wednesday also has a MySpace Page and a Facebook Page that you should add to your "Friends" or become a "Fan" of if you use either of those services.

Because the numbers just look so sad on those right now.

On a personal note, Crysta and I went down to Milwaukee over Easter weekend. I'll probably write more about that in a few days, but it was nice to get out of town... and then get 18 inches of snow dumped on us while we were down there. Who knew that going South would mean there would be more snow? Yeesh.

Edit: I've also uploaded a rough version of one of our regular songs as well. Download Children's Song (Bad Person) on MP3 Here.
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Stuff that's awesome. (Traegorn)

Traegorn — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:01:50 -0500

Mar 19, 2008 - 11:01:50 CST
After last week's angst, I thought that it was due time to add some levity to this blog. Therefore, I have decided to do a quick write up of things that I've run across that are, for lack of a better word, awesome.

We'll start with the least awesome item, and that's just because it's a gun. Some guys thought it was a good idea to build a transforming sub machine gun which should make it significantly more difficult for people walking around with larger flashlights at night from avoiding getting shot by the cops. On the other hand, I keep seeing "MEGATRON" and think "Transforming Guns are neat!" Ah, when the realistic and gadget loving sides of my brain go to war, nobody wins.

But the thing is sort of awesome.

For something less... morally conflicting... I move onto one of the sweetest casemods I've seen in a long time. A guy made what would best be called a Mac Mini Pro. He took a Mac Mini and case modded it to look like the Mac Pro line. It's pretty damned sweet. The guy also dropped in a slightly faster processor and upgraded the hard drive too. Seriously, this is something no geek would mind having on his desk.

On a totally unrelated note, the Military's BigDog Robot is pretty sweet. The thing is a quadrupedal robot that can make it over almost any terrain. You can kick it, give it mountains, and pretty much throw anything at it... and the thing keeps moving forward. It can carry 300 lbs too, so it's pretty dang handy. It's also a bit terrifying looking, which will probably help in the battlefield.

But who cares about real military robots when you could have a fictional military robot? Have you ever wanted to have a full size Cylon Centurion in your house? I know I always have. Well, now's your chance! Sure, it's $7900, but it's worth every penny in my mind. Now if they only made a version that moved and, y'know, shot at your neighbors with paintballs or something.

That would be really sweet.

What could be more awesome than a full size Cylon? Well, to that I respond a product that combines my love of Nerf weaponry and my love of videogames. Nerf has made a combination Nerf Gun/Wii Blaster. You plug in either a Wiimote to use it with your Wii, or the Nerf cartridge to use it as a Nerf gun. It's pretty damn bad ass.

And now for the best, most awesome thing ever. Have you ever thought "Gee, I love Guitar Hero and I love the Commodore 64. I wish I could put those two things together." Well guess what? Someone much more awesome than you already has. That's right Shred64 is a Guitar Hero clone for the Commodore 64. The man who programmed this is officially my hero. He also built an adapter to use the PS2 controller with the game so you don't have to fake it with a keyboard. You have to admire the guy who came up with the idea -- the C64 has an impressive Midi chip, so the songs don't sound terrible either.

Just, y'know, like Midi songs.

So, that's the stuff that's awesome. I'm driving down to Milwaukee with Crysta on Thursday. We'll be in town until Monday, so if anyone wants to get ahold of me to do something, just give me a call.
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