Coin Sleights on the Metro

I love the cool/cold weather because I like wearing jackets. In every jacket I always keep some coins in one pocket. That started way back when ;-) when I used to pay cash for things and get change. Where to put it? Then it became smart to keep some coins on hand in case I bought something that came to a few pennies over an even dollar amount -- if you pay with just bills you'd get 98 cents in change; who wants to carry that the rest of the trip?

So when I'm standing on the Metro going to/from work (I generally prefer to stand, it's not a long trip anyway) and put my hand in my jacket pocket I sometimes fiddle with the coins.
If I feel a quarter, I instinctively want to play with it. So what I've been doing lately is pull it out of my pocket, usually hidden, then magically produce it with a sleight. Then vanish it. Then maybe do a coin roll. then maybe a couple more vanishes & productions, then put the coin back in my pocket (or if I made it "vanish" then I just put both of my hands in my pockets again.

I don't draw attention to it. In fact, about half the time I'm practicing these sleights I'm not even looking at my hand (which are about at my waist). To me, I'm just fiddling with a coin and doing so via sleights I know. What I hope is that someone sees it and thinks "Oh my gosh, there's a magician on the train" but again, I don't want any attention. I just want it to be a piece of curiosity and interest to a random person.

/shrug

Luxzaterna

Luxzaterna: the autobiographical origin story of a Death Knight.

My life before my undeath is fragmented bits of memories, filled in by my inquiries.  I was born on Draenor, which means I'm younger than many Draenei extant.  Strong and full of brawn, I naturally took the role of a Paladin, wielding The Light and a powerful swing of my mace. Perhaps this is what drew the interest of the Lich King when my corpse was laying on the battlefield. I was named "Lux" which means Light, not an entirely uncommon name for a Draenei.

When we fled Draenor and our ship exploded into the sky of Azeroth I was in the chapel section with a few others. That section of the ship was blown much farther than the rest, and we were not able to reconnect with the rest of the survivors.  From what I've been told, we met a group of followers of The Light and to gain their favor we joined their ranks to fight the army of the Scourge.

That didn't go so well. Had I known then of the full power of the Lich King's forces, I would not have joined that cause. The first battle we fought ended in our slaughter: the Lich King himself was fighting. I've been told that when the Lich King resurrects a Draenei, that our bodies nearly fall apart and our minds are not intact, such that we can only become "Ghouls" or zombies -- mindless corpses. However perhaps because of my Paladin teachings, or that connection with The Lich King's former profession as a Paladin, he was able to resurrect me, body & mind.

My once vibrant, bluish-purple skin is now as the pallor of the grave. Decay even had begun to eat away at my cheeks and tendrils. My undead breath is ice cold; I am as cold as a corpse, and almost as emotionless.

I was clothed in the traditional Death Knight initiate's plated robes, with a hood covering my face. I was taking orders from the Lich King himself, he branded me one of his personally chosen Death Knights to reign destruction upon his enemies.  I was powerless to do anything but follow his command.
I had retained my free mind, but it was as if there was a puppeteer guiding my actions. If my masters ordered me to slaughter a town, I did so immediately. And it felt good. I quickly learned that Death Knights, as a curse, are addicted to pain and suffering. We must inflict this upon the living to be satiated. Being of a race that follows The Light and practices good, I am now an unfortunate, and uncontrollable, abomination.

Once our master and the strongest-willed of us Death Knights broke free from the control of the Lich King, we joined Azeroth's factions in the campaign to vanquish him. And it was done.

With free will I have sided with my Draenei brothers and sisters with The Alliance. I have taken the name "Luxzaterna" which means Eternal Light. A name to remind myself to never lose all hope.

DC Life

I'm really enjoying my new life style.
My apartment is a good sized 1-bedroom, with a good layout. I like being on the 8th floor, I have a wide view of the sky and all the buildings in downtown Silver Spring (I can even see the Metro). The walk from my apartment to the Metro is 5-10 min. The Metro ride to Metro Center is around 15-20 min, and the walk from there to my office is only another 3. And walking everywhere feels great.

I don't have my car with me (it's at parents') because I'm on a waiting list for the garage parking at the apartment, and there's no close place to park it 24/7 (just free weekend parking). Honestly the only major thing I need to have a car for convenience is going to my parents' and/or my sister's houses. For Thanksgiving I took the train from Union Station (DC) to BWI and my Mom picked me up.

UPDATE: A month later I now have a parking permit for the garage. Car is with me in DC and it's in the garage so I won't ever have to worry about weather/snow! =)

Goals Completed

All of the goals I set for myself about 3 years ago have been completed, step by step.
I took a crappy call center "help desk" job just to beef up my resume. As it turned out I was able to shift into the order processing sub-department and rise there, providing extra XP for a boost.
For the job, I moved NW of Baltimore, not my ideal spot, but perfect Suburbia (if you're into that...) with every kind of suburban shopping and fast food within a mile in each direction.
I found an excellent job in DC and nailed it right off the bat.
And now I've moved to Silver Spring, MD.  Yes it's a Maryland zipcode, but it's inside the DC beltway and, truly, is DC.

The final goal -- to work and live in DC -- has been realized.

Now what? ':-)


Everyone knows I want to get married and have a family. I'm old school Irish-Itaian -- of course I do!
But I'm in no rush, and want to enjoy the DC nightlife.
I got a taste of it last Thursday, company-paid happy hour, and following that a few of us went to Lima, which had live trance DJs.  Cool. B-)

The Change, part 4.

Been at the job now for just over 2 months -- still love it. I'm actually doing and feel accomplished. The company and the way they go about business and treating their employees is the exact opposite of the Hell That Was T. Rowe Price Help Desk (and I hear that TRP HD policies are actually getting worse but I can hardly believe it).

I'm securing a 1-bedroom apartment in Silver Spring all for myself. Move-in date is a few weeks from now. Then my commute turns into a 10-min walk to the Metro, a 15-18 min Metro ride, and a 3-5 min walk to the office. EASY. No driving.

Still to come:
* Move into the apartment
* Get settled in it.

Yes, that was me you saw walking downtown yesterday.
Yes, we should probably contact each other.
No, you most likely won't try.
Curiosity killed the Cat?

':-)

Got the world in the palm of my hands...

Some people think I'm blessed, and the non-religious think I'm very lucky. Overall I've had a great life! Most of the time I've just cruised thru, enjoying what comes my way and traveling where the wind takes me.

It's only been recently that I've been setting goals for myself and *attaining* them such that I get things my way. And everything is going my way. It's very invigorating and makes me smile every day. I'm writing my own destiny. I have more plans, and they will be fulfilled.
Muhahahahahaaaaaaa!

Good stuff

Been at the new job for 3 weeks total. AWESOME. Love the company, love the job itself. Stuff I do as a hobby I'm now getting paid to do. Almost no stress at all. Fun company with a great setup. Also my co-techies are great people.
Currently staying with my sis & bro-in-law in Columbia during the weekdays and taking the [very nice] commuter bus to/from DC each day. The bus ride is about an hour, sometimes a little longer if there's traffic. Then I have about a 10 minute walk to my office -- and that is nice. I've actually started to lose a little weight (a little)!

I'm still in the process of looking for apartments near DC. I've mostly decided on Silver Spring, MD. It's inside the DC beltway, but a Maryland zipcode, so I don't have to fuss with changing my driver's license and car registration to the District. And there's a redline Metro stop in Silver Spring, so I can commute easily via the Metro each day, and not have to drive to fun stuff on the weekends. The city is mine! ...will be once I get a place.


Tuesday, 8.23.11, we had a 5.8 earthquake. Felt it strongly at work in downtown DC. They evacuated all of the buildings downtown so that official people could inspect for structural damages.

Making the change, part 3

Tuesday I took the bus into DC and had an interview with my top-choice company: LivingSocial.
I interviewed with 3 gentlemen from tech support separately and had a very good feeling afterwards.

I spent the rest of the day in DC; had lunch with my dad, then I popped into the Air and Space museum after. Then relaxed at a Starbucks for a while, keeping cool, waiting for the time when the commuter buses started their afternoon rounds.

Today I got a call from the manager and he offered me the job and I accepted!

Stage 3 complete.


Still to come:
* Start working for the new company and get acclimated.
* Step 4 -- Move into an apartment in DC (1 bedroom, by myself).
Stay tuned!

Synesthesia in Vibrance

My background in Synesthesia.


Today my color-grapheme Synesthesia was heightened, much more vibrant than it's been in a while. I don't know why. It was accompanied by a dull headache all day.

I first noticed that the normal green & purple auras around some letters in text were green & red, a first. On top of that change, there were more red auras than there are purple on any normal day ("normal" as defined by my world). That faded by the end of the day back to my normal.

Additionally, groups of numbers were also getting a per-group aura. So at work when I saw a cost center number of "20157" the entire grouping of numbers had a red background/aura to it. It seems the 5 took dominance. Similarly the number "20138" appeared as green blending into yellow, due to the proximity of the 3 and the 8. Both of these had a little bit of blue on the left, due to the "2" to start. Sometimes I see a color aura, sometimes the numbers are actually in the color.
This all makes sense to me, and I documented the colors I usually see for single digits as follows:

1 - sometimes yellow, sometimes nothing distinct
2 - blue
3 - green
4 - orange
5 - red
6 - no distinct color
7 - no distinct color
8 - yellow
9 - usually reddish
0 - no aura, but in my head the digit 0 appears white

Planning for a change, step 2

Step 2 is now in full swing. Resume is beefed up and polished; I've applied to a few tech support jobs in DC.
Today I had a successful phone interview with my top-choice company. It sounds like everything I'm looking for. They want to set up a face-to-face interview for some time late this coming week!

If I'm extremely lucky, everything will fall in place quickly and smoothly. I find that most things that I feel are "meant to be" happen that way.

I'm very excited and anxious to make this happen. I'm trying not to hype myself up in case of disappointment, but I can't control it. I'm cautious that way in my brain, but my heart always takes over and directs my actions.


In case you're curious:
Step 3 -- Nail the Face-to-face interview, land the job
Step 4 -- Move into an apartment in DC (1 bedroom, by myself)

Preparing for change, stage 1

I was sick all last week with a nasty sinus infection and a return of Asthma, which I haven't had since a pre-teen. I had to see a doctor for the first time since I was a teenager, and he prescribed 2 inhalers and Prednisone for the inflammation, and said I needed to rest, a lot.
This gave me a lot of downtime at home (all week), but with no energy to do anything remotely involving concentration (move, play video games, etc). I haven't logged into WoW for 2 weeks now (whoa).

In that dead time, I was not unproductive. I searched and bookmarked a few IT jobs in DC. I also bookmarked a bunch of apartments in DC.
One afternoon I did a financial analysis to see how much money I make, less my bills, less my housing costs (both at the apt and now at Andrew's). Then I reverse-engineered my spreadsheet to determine how much money I would need to make (roughly!) in DC to afford apartments at a couple of price points. Very exciting! Very expensive, but very exciting.

Tonight I nearly finished my new resume. I just have to throw all the Order Processing jazz I do/am responsible for in, and then polish it all up and I'm good to go. I've got my references available (thanks!) with one more I'd like to get in touch with.

I'm very motivated to change my life entirely, uproot from suburbia, plant down in the middle of the city, even change aspects of my lifestyle. =)

Let's get the hell out of dodge!

I need to get out of this town. Now.

Suburban life gives you the convenience of every type of shopping you could want within 2 miles. And no culture.

A corporate job in a suburban environment means my day can be summed up thusly:
Get up > Go to work for 9 hours > Come home > Eat dinner > Chill out > Go to bed
Repeat 5x/week. Six if I'm unlucky.
The problem is the "chill out" section involves nothing productive -- there's nothing to go do in Suburbia; nothing to get excited about with friends. So I just play video games, or read. Time gets wasted, life gets wasted.

I'm stagnant.
I have been for a long time now.

I can't remember the last piece of art I created!! According to my deviantArt page, it must have been the character portraits I did at the beach last summer. That's sad. That hurts my soul.


I need out. I've focused my sights on the city. DC is feasible, and has lots of museums & culture and I'm familiar with it. Also, even though Manhattan would be the ultimate goal, DC is close enough to my family, and they mean everything to me.

I Like Coffee

Coffee addiction may be grounded in genes
This explains why I like coffee so much. My dad drinks a ton of coffee. I enjoy many varieties of coffee, and I dig "coffee culture" (my own phrase, involving an affection for designer coffees from Starbucks and Caribou Coffee, etc).

(Thanks, sis!)

Moved

This weekend I moved out of my apartment and into Andrew's townhouse. Let the good times roll. =)

I was getting a bit stagnant living by myself for 14 months, so it'll be nice to have some daily companionship.

The thin, squeeky ceiling at my apartment was fine for the first half of my tenency; the single girl who lived above me was quiet as a mouse. But then she graduated college and moved out.
Then this couple moved in with a newborn. She's a skank and he's a hick & a mouth breather (literally, and he reminded me of an ogre), and it's very obvious that he got her pregnant and both kicked out of their families. I don't care, except they were *not* light on their feet, and had very loud, yelling/screaming fights once a week (again, literally). They smoked in the apt, with the baby in there! I could go on, but let's let this die. ::partial memory deleted::

Now I'm at Andrew's and it's such a nice quiet neighborhood. It's just on the other side of OM, not far.
He and I get along famously. =)

This weekend, with help from Steve today, we moved my bed, computer jazz, dresser, and some clothes: The Essentials. I spent the first night Sat night, and I slept well in my new bedroom at my new sanctuary.
It's important for my home to be a place to retreat, relax, always have fun, and definitely be safe & sound. My homes are always my sanctuaries. I always felt that way about Jason&Megan's house too, and my sister's.

A bunch of stuff will be stored at my parents' (I don't plan to stay at Andrew's terribly long... I've got goals and other plans). The rest of the clothes and misc jazz will migrate over. I have all of April to move stuff out. The only issue is my huge leather couch...!

Mmmm, it's thunderstorming now. ::happy Dave::

The negative side of my job

"Help desk analysts are the Rodney Dangerfields of the IT world. The people answering the phone on the help desk get no respect from clients or other IT professionals. They are expected to solve as many problems as possible at tier one but are not paid the wages befitting that level of technical expertise. When the phone rings, there is almost always an unhappy customer on the line. Help desk analysts take unwarranted verbal abuse for circumstances beyond their control and are rarely recognized for their efforts. Their performance is typically measured... not exactly a formula for friendly verbal banter, low stress, and thoughtful problem resolution. Respect? Even Rodney Dangerfield got more respect without the added stress."

From: TechRepublic
(Thanks, Brandon!)

Strange and vivid

I had a strange and very vivid/realistic-feeling dream last night. The type such that in the morning you have to stop and think "Was all that made up, even the background it was basing itself on??"

In short, I had traveled to NYC alone, not with Steve as I've recently been. The weekend trip was supposed to be all fun, no plans. But then I was commissioned, by some unnamed shady underworld employer that apparently I dealt with frequently enough, to track down the whereabouts and goings-on of an ex-girlfriend of mine. Who knows why. And so I went to several bars and lounges where she & I used to hang out, and a couple that I remembered that she used to go to without me in NYC. In most places I was friends with the owners, so information gathering was easy enough. Never found the girl.

Here's what's odd... the girl I was tracking was a real life former girl friend. I've never been to NYC with her, I'm not even sure she's ever been there. But the dream felt so real that I was questioning my past!

Death Knight

After leveling a Worgen Druid from level 1 to about 53 with heirloom gear and guild perks (a total of +35% XP gain!), I kind of got bored with being a ferocious cat. I really enjoy the feral druid's shape shifting, and was anxious to get to lv60 and learn to shift into an eagle-like bird to fly, but I got bored with the cat/rogue attack style.

Not wanting to go thru those levels again from scratch, I instead started a Death Knight. They are a "hero" class and start at level 55, and after their starting area you end up at lv58; ready to go straight to Outland (the first expansion pack).
I've played a few Death Knights in the past. On the old server Steve & I were on, I leveled a DK to 70. On the Horde side of realms, I've created DKs just to boost my starter characters' cash, since DKs, after their starting zone, will have about 30gold. That's a lot if you give it to your level 1 noob character.

And the Death Knight starting zone is my favorite, well, second to the Worgen one now I guess. It's a toss up.
You start as a slain hero of whatever race you chose, but with glowing, light-blue eyes and a pallor of the grave. You've been resurrected to be an undead servant and warrior by & for The Lich King, and your will is not your own. The bulk of the starting area quests involve assaulting a town, driving the people out and also killing quite a few. Then the elite Death Knights and yourself are told to go somewhere and defeat the defenders of The Light. During that massive brawl of undead minions vs holy warriors, it is revealed that the Lich King sent you all on a suicide mission, expecting you to die the final death. The Death Knight leader regains his own will, and the holy paladin fends off the Lich King, who retreats. The DKs decide to rally against the LK and break free of the LK's control. So they form a new faction, dedicated to his demise.
It's very good, lore-wise. You start by feeling like a wicked bad guy, then you feel betrayed and treated like a hunk of meat. Then you feel empowered. And you ARE empowered. =)

So, I specced Unholy. I'm like a cross between a warlock and a warrior. That means I get a ghoul as a permanent companion, and during a fight I can empower him and he temporarily transforms into a beasty undead monster. I can also summon a gargoyle to fight with me temporarily. I have a couple of "spells", can apply and spread diseases, and carry a big sword or axe for serious melee damage. And I wear plate armor for max protection. >:-]
I named him "Luxætera", after the song from Requiem For A Dream. Latin for "eternal light" and that kinda fits.

WoW, post-Cata, early 2011

Cataclysm has been a great expansion pack so far. I very much enjoyed the leveling experience from 80-85. It was full of good lore, without many tedious, grinding quests like in the past. The updates to the 1-60 quests removed a lot of tedium and added a lot of things of interest. Without going on and on, I give it 2 thumbs up.

So my main, Ixmucane, a human Warlock, is 85. But I haven't felt like doing much in the way of dungeons to gear up to do Heroic dungeons at the moment. And the serious raids always seemed too serious, too much "work". That's not why I play.

I've been starting alt characters and seeing if any other classes are interesting enough to take all the way to 85. I like Death Knights that are spec'd Unholy because they are basically melee Warlocks. >:-]

I leveled a Worgen shadow priest to 40-something. "Absenthe", green glowing eyes. Very much like a Warlock without a pet, so not super exciting. I love shadow form though, it looks so cool.

Then I leveled a Worgen rogue to 26. "Valintyne". Rogues are the WoW archenemies to Warlocks in PvP, and they play very much the opposite, so that's been fun and refreshingly new. Plus rogues can go into stealth mode and sneak around, and they kill stuff FAST! But they are very 1-dimensional, with very repetitive gameplay.

So this week I got it in my head that I'd like to play around with a Druid again. I have a level 20-some Druid on the old server, so I'm a little familiar. So I started a Worgen Druid (good lore there!) and am spec'd for Cat form. Meow! =^..^= Druids shape-shifted into Cats play like rogues, with similar stealth ability and jazz. But being a hybrid class (multiple forms emulating other classes), Druids also have spells and self healing spells, which makes them more appealing then a straight-up rogue, yeah? I named him "Elunar". Elune is the moon goddess that the Night Elf Druids follow, so it's fitting.

I LOVE the Worgens' starting zone. Maybe you could tell? Good lore, good variety of gameplay for those first ~12 levels. You start human and are defending against the Worgen (werewolf) invasion of the city, get bitten and later on, after an awesome cutscene, you wake up in the stocks AS a werewolf. It isn't until some time later that you meet the Night Elves who assist in teaching you to control your inner animal so that you can become human again... and then transform at will. =) Love it!

I now have 3 pieces of heirloom gear to give my alts, giving me a total experience gain increase of +25% and the higher leveled guilds my characters are in give an extra +10% XP gain, so leveling is going very fast...! =)

Magic Vid - The Ambitious Car.

After a night of drinking with Andrew and Steve, Steve & I went back to my apartment to chill.
He told me about this weekly Saturday Night Contest at Theory 11 (this one in particular, for last night) wherein you had to film yourself doing a magic trick with a card magic plot, but without any cards.
Steve had this silly -but brilliant- idea to use cars instead of cards, using the Ambitious Card plot where the card, lost in the middle of the deck, keeps rising to the top of the deck.

We talked about some options (to the head of a line of cars, to the top of a parking garage, etc) but at that time the contest would be over in just over an hour.
Probably it was the resident booze in our system, or just the full-of-laughs night we had had, but we spontaneously went outside, hopped in my car, and moved it to the visitor section, and went to town with the idea.
Steve filmed it on his Droid X at 720 (HD) and we slapped it together and uploaded it to my YouTube acct with plenty of time before the deadline. We didn't win, but then again this really was just a JOKE. Brilliant, hilarious.
Later I spent 20 min and put together a slightly more polished version which I uploaded to my Vimeo account.
Enjoy!

Reflection on 2010

At the beginning of the year, instead of making trite New Year's resolutions, I make a list of all the good things that I experienced in the previous year, roughly in month-order.

*Moved into my own, all-by-myself apartment. Cooking and cleaning and taking care of myself, just as my parents had raised me to be well rounded. Cut my commute to <<10 min. =)
*Learned that I enjoy cooking just like I enjoy creating art and building Lego models.
*Expanded my digital painting skill, so that it looks quite painterly
*Started dual monitors for my computer
*Started reading a lot more, now that I have a comfortable place.
*A friend sewed and made me a neat shower curtain (from fabric) to match my Steampunk themed bathroom
*LAN parties at my place!
*Surprise birthday party for turning 29. My cousin Joe super-surprised me by being there, up from NC.
*My sanity survived The Blizzard of 2010 where we got ~50" of snow
*Officially took Lindy Hop lessons and learned the proper way to do many things I had already been doing, plus more
*Bought a 2005 PT Cruiser convertible! Something I've wanted back since the tragic accident which destroyed my PT Cruiser a few years ago now. LOVE IT. Modded it a-plenty, to make it look more retro, more hotrod. =) Lots of topless driving followed...
*Survived tax season while working tech support for a financial institution (yikes).
*Drove to NC at the last minute to join a Lego convention, put on by our friend Joe Meno. It was a success, and Joe (my coz Joe) and I gave 2 of our lectures on how to make stop motion animation videos with Lego
*Bought an iPad. Used it that next weekend while in NC to remote into my PC in MD and email Joe (sitting next to me in NC) the finished PowerPoint presentation of our lecture.
*Received random acts of kindness in online games. ^_^
*An incident made me reflect on the great friends I've had for years and how much I really do appreciate their friendship, even if I don't see them frequently.
*Late night parties at my place, plenty of booze, video games, YouTube vid sharing. Then late night runs to diners.
*The owners of the Chinese restaurant I frequently get take out from totally love me. They call me Mr. Dave. ^_^
*Starcraft II was released. Played it online frequently for a while with friends, learned to use Skype too.
*Topless drive to the beach for a full week with my family! I drove my sister & bro-in-law. This was the 21st annual trip. Even though it rained/was chilly the first days, it was still glorious as always. I had plenty of free time in the evenings to stay up late and sketch on my iPad. I wish I could do that all the time.
*Several trips to Manhattan with Steve. Got to hang out with a magician friend one of those evenings. The first trip kicked off a realization: I need to live in a city and get out of suburbia.
*Got the Droid X phone. After the 1st half hour I couldn't understand how I had lived without it. I find it's better than the i*hone because it's customizable, not locked down to what the creator-company wants. Customization, flexibility, almost flawless voice searches, and all the misc jazz -- good stuff.
*Went back to Illusions a year later.
*Bought a pair of grey jeans which I thought we just normal and slight stylish, and they turn out to be my Grey Jeans of Attractive Power, with +13 to Luck!*Was hit on by a college-age girl, who was acting very cute and very much like a star-stuck schoolgirl (and no, I hadn't done any magic or anything impressive).
*Bought a black Wii on Black Friday. Hack it 3 weeks later to put the HomeBrew channel on it to play old ROMs. >:-]
*Spent Christmas weekend at my parents' -- my sister & bro-in-law are living there for a few weeks before moving into their new, 1st house. Hail, hail, the gang's all here.
*Hung out with Steve at Illusions on New Year's Eve. It was nice to be out, and also nice to be low-key. I was remembered by patrons.
*Made many advancements in my IT career experience (beefed up my resume).
*Made lots of new friends!
*Played lots of WoW, and the 3rd expansion pack was released in Nov.
*Was definitely appreciated, loved, and missed. =)


"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." --Dr. Seuss

I told you my reasons for the whole revival / Now I'm going outside to have an ice cold beer in the shade. / Oh, I'm gonna listen to my 45's / Ain't it wonderful to be alive / When the rock 'n' roll plays, yeah / When the memory stays, yeah. / I'm keeping the faith / Yeah yeah yeah yeah keeping the faith. [Billy Joel, "Keeping The Faith"]

Christmas & New Year's Eve

CHRISTMAS 2010
I worked Christmas Eve -- one of four people on call. It was quiet and relaxing at least; nice to chat with a couple of my coworker friends. We closed at 4.

Then I came home, packed, relaxed, and drove to my parents' house for the weekend. My sister & bro-in-law are living there for a month until they move into their new (first) house in Columbia so it was a lot of fun -- the family all together.
I didn't sleep in my old room or in my old bed -- I preferred the larger space of the pull-out couch in the study upstairs. Very squishy, but comfortable. I'm used to a big bed now. =)

Went to bed Christmas Eve around 11pm -- I was so exhausted from the week and the past couple of days getting up an hour earlier for work than normal. :-/
My sister woke me up at 8:30am on Christmas and we opened our stockings as like every year. Except this year we didn't get to then wake our parents up -- they were already up!
Quick breakfast, unwrapped presents galore. Then showered & dressed & went to church.
After coming home, Mom made us bacon & me eggs. =)
Aunt Alice & Uncle Bill came over in the afternoon and a good time was had by all. Big turkey dinner (Thanksgiving all over again). My uncle & I devised mischief in the form of creating Cesium explosions, creating ball lightning in an old microwave, designing a Vortex Ring gun, and well... other fun dangerous projects. >:-]

The day after Christmas we went to Arundel Mills mall and I got a migraine, as chronicled in the previous post.


NEW YEAR'S EVE 2010
Again I worked all day on New Year's Eve. It was fairly quiet, so it wasn't too bad. Got out at 6 as usual.

Steve met me at my place, and I changed my clothes & shaved and we headed out.
Ate at Chic Fil A (my girl wasn't there) then Steve drove us into Baltimore: Federal Hill.
We spent the evening hanging out at Illusions Magic Bar & Lounge. [Brief recap: our best friend owns Illusions. We helped him build it; run it; and we worked, tended bar, and performed there for a few years.]
That was fun, although we knew it would be busy on NYE so we didn't get any time to just chill & chat with our friend Spencer. Ah well, The Hot Shots will have to get together another night.
We met a guy in the Army Res. who spent the summer in Iraq and learned a few card tricks. He was extremely excited to meet real magicians, and Steve obliged by showing him a couple of tricks with the guy's own deck of cards.

Steve & I left Illusions around 1am and went back to my place. We started drinking and playing Super Smash Bros Brawl on the Wii. I popped the requisite Dave-and-Steve-late-at-night-drinking-at-Dave's-place kettle corn popcorn(TM). ^_^ Around 4am I was falling asleep, so I went to bed.

I never feel like midnight between Dec 31st and Jan 1st means anything. It's not until I wake up the next day (Jan 1st) that feel like "Happy New Year!"


At Illusions I got spotted by a few patrons who remembered I used to tend bar there & do magic at my bar -- hell, one gal remembered my name! (And I hadn't seen her in about a year and a half, and only really met a few times!)
I had forgotten how powerful magic can be for a layperson. Especially to people who aren't exposed to it or the performing arts continually. When it's our way of life, we definitely take it for granted.
For a while at Illusions last night Steve & I were sitting at a high-top table in the back, overlooking the whole room. I love being the quiet, semi-mysterious guy in the back corner overseeing the operation. Like the Godfather. Very cool, very old-school. So one girl notices and asks us why we're special and get to sit up higher than everyone else. We just smiled and then she said "You're magicians!" So we spilled the beans, and she begged us to do magic for her. ;-)


Stay tuned for my Reflection on 2010, where I post all the good stuff that's happened in the past year instead of making trite resolutions!