May. 2nd, 2008 @ 01:43 pm Various things
walter, profile, eeeevil, sadjax, football, wrong, rex, predicate, mothra, hero, kitty, in the flesh?, obey the kitty, WOTD, anger, kissy, logo, warrior, skulls, obey the kitty 2, metalfan, smile
Don't mind me, I'm just: tired
Hey, that sounds like: Monster Magnet -- Crop Circle
  • Busy weekend coming up: tonight is Bo-topia (a.k.a. [info]wurdsome's birthday party) which I'm leaving for straight from work, then tomorrow evening I'm off to see Testament (and several other metal bands I've never heard of) as part of Powerfest 2008 in scenic Mokena, IL. And Sunday I'll spend doing the chores I should do Saturday, but won't because I have the excuse of the concert.


  • My BushBucks have arrived! And it looks like I'll be stimulating the economy more than I thought. I decided to spend some of it on new books and somehow that turned into a $100 orgy of expenditure last night at SFBC.com -- they were having a sale, $9.99 per book after you buy two at regular price. I'm getting A Canticle For Leibowitz (which, inexcusably, I haven't read yet), World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, and the first six (!) books in Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, which is projected to run to ten.


  • And while I was being frivolous, I also spent another hundred bucks for a ticket to the Metal Masters Tour in August. Actually, make that $45 for the ticket, $30 for parking, and $25 in various fees and fuck-you charges. The headliners are Judas Priest and Heaven and Hell (which is basically Dio-era Black Sabbath, minus Bill Ward, plus Vinnie Appice) and the opening acts are Motörhead and Testament (again!) In a way this show will be me coming full circle in my concert-going history: the first concert I ever attended was a Judas Priest / Megadeth / Testament show at Rosemont Horizon in 1990. But to be totally honest, the thing that clinched it for me is "how many chances am I going to get to see Motörhead?"


  • For those of you who are going to the Cubs game on 5/17 -- and [info]neonhummingbird, I'm still counting you as a "yes" because [info]stankow has volunteered to cover some of your ticket, so please let me know if you weren't aware of that and have made other plans -- and have been wondering how to reimburse me, I haven't been able to think of an easier means than PayPal to take care of that, unless you want to bring a personal check with you.

    Accordingly, my PayPal account is under exaustinite(at)hotmail.com, and the ticket price is $52.00, so whenever you're ready, willing, and fully-funded, let 'er rip. I'm covering all the taxes and fees and whatnot, to apologize for the crappiness and priciness of the seats, so don't worry about that. If you would prefer to send a personal check or something through snail mail, send an email to that address instead and I'll give you my meatspace coordinates. :)

    (Oh, and there's still one ticket left, by the by...)


  • What else? Ah, yes. Those of you who were privy to my red light violation post back in March may be interested to know that I did go ahead and contest it by mail after all, but I ended up having to pay it anyway, as many including myself suspected I would.

    On the other hand, I also got a notice from the IL Tollway Authority a few days afterward, demanding $220.00 in unpaid tolls and fees, which I managed to deal with over the phone without having to pay a single cent for. Turns out the expiration date had run out on the credit card I had tied to my I-Pass account, and I didn't realize this for about a week. When I updated it, the account still showed a small balance, so I figured I'd gotten lucky, but alas this was not the case. The gentleman I spoke to on the phone was very helpful and waived all the fees -- as well as the unpaid toll charges, which turned out to have been paid automatically as soon as I corrected my info on the I-Pass Account. So thanks for the pointless scary mail, IL Tollway Authority.
That seems like enough for now. TGIF! And PSA: Mother's Day is a week from Sunday! Don't forget!

--- Ajax.
Apr. 7th, 2008 @ 09:39 pm Update to the Update
walter, profile, eeeevil, sadjax, football, wrong, rex, predicate, mothra, hero, kitty, in the flesh?, obey the kitty, WOTD, anger, kissy, logo, warrior, skulls, obey the kitty 2, metalfan, smile
Hey, that sounds like: Iron Maiden -- Caught Somewhere in Time
Got 'em.

10 tickets purchased via StubHub at $52.00; the seats are waaaay up in the upper deck between home and first base, and they are general admission, but they are ours. :)

We have 8 confirmed attendees at this time: [info]byrneout, [info]dogofthefuture, [info]mule242, [info]stankow, [info]resplendentoops and guest, [info]neonhummingbird and uh, me, I guess.

Mathematics reveals that there are still 2 tix going begging. One of these is reserved for a friend as a 95% maybe, but the other I trust will find itself a home before the Day. You all know how to reach me if you're interested.

--- Ajax.

P.S. Re: paybacks, don't worry about it just yet, I'm not having any cashflow problems. I'll let you know what's up when I figure something out. :)

-- A.
Apr. 7th, 2008 @ 12:01 pm Cubs Game Update
walter, profile, eeeevil, sadjax, football, wrong, rex, predicate, mothra, hero, kitty, in the flesh?, obey the kitty, WOTD, anger, kissy, logo, warrior, skulls, obey the kitty 2, metalfan, smile
Hey, that sounds like: Ten East -- Aqua Beard
After double-checking, it looks like the direct link to buy tickets from Wrigley is only allowing me to select up to 1 ticket for the game on 5/17. So that's no good. :/

Our alternative is getting them from StubHub, which will involve a certain premium to get us all seated together. The cheapest I can find for a group our size (currently 9, but I'm assuming we can scrape up a 10th or dispose of the extra ticket somewise) are these, located in Row 09 of the Infield Upper Deck Reserved 525, at $52.00 apiece.

After that it looks like we have these, which are Row 20 of the Outfield Terrace Reserved 208, at $75.00 apiece.

I've never ordered from StubHub before, so I don't know what to expect on continued pricing/availability. But it would be useful to know if this alternative has made the tickets too rich for anybody's blood, so if you were in and now you're out (or alternatively, if you hadn't heard about this before and want in), please let me know ASAP. I'll probably want to order as soon as I hear from several of our principals, so probably mid-week at the latest rather than next Monday. :)

--- Ajax.
Apr. 2nd, 2008 @ 05:15 pm On Taking Oneself Out to the Ball Game
walter, profile, eeeevil, sadjax, football, wrong, rex, predicate, mothra, hero, kitty, in the flesh?, obey the kitty, WOTD, anger, kissy, logo, warrior, skulls, obey the kitty 2, metalfan, smile
Don't mind me, I'm just: happy
Hey, that sounds like: Kyuss -- Molten Universe
If you've ever wanted to see the Cubs (or the Pirates) play at Wrigley Field, we're organizing a group trip for the 12:05 game on Saturday, May 17th.

Six of us are on the list so far, but as decent tickets tend to go fast, I wanted to make sure all potentially interested parties knew about it well in advance. I'll probably try and buy them by April 15th, which is two weeks from yesterday. The current favored seating choice seems to be the $24-$28 Terrace Reserved spots. We might be willing to be bleacher bums on another day, but in this case one of our party will be a very handsome and well-behaved 4-year-old gentleman, whose comfort is best catered to in order to ensure a fun afternoon for all concerned.

Of particular note to [info]neonhummingbird (and any of youse who attended last June's Stankowpalooza '07 gathering), [info]stankow will be going -- as will [info]mule242, who as you can see, owns a killer pair of shades. :)

So if you're interested, please let me know ASAP.

--- Ajax.