my moral standing is lying down

I'm pretty sure I mentioned last year that Rich reeeeally didn't want to move out of our old place at the end of his 12-month lease. And who can blame him? He's moved 6 times in the last 7 years (I've moved 5 in the last 7), but technically, we moved after 1 year and 3 months, so I guess it doesn't count?

Anyway, we're all moved out of the old place (where we shared a small 2-bedroom with a roommate) and into a small 1-bedroom! I've never gotten the chance to live alone (sadly, as it's something I wanted to do), but fortunately this is only a step removed from that. It's not the same as living alone, but it's definitely not the same as living with a roommate, even if you're pretty darn close with them.

I'm super excited for this new place as it's got tons of natural light-- something the old place didn't have. And not to mention, it's now HALF A BLOCK from the train I take to work every day. So I've cut what used to be a 12-minute walk to the train down to a 1-minute walk. It's pretty much the NYC-work-life equivalent of rolling out of bed and going to class in your pajamas. Have I mentioned how much I'm enjoying Bushwick? It's pretty nice (as long as you look out for where you're stepping).

In other news, I randomly watched the new P!ATD video (This is Gospel: Piano Version) and then watched the regular version (after not having heard it since shortly after the album release) and... LOL apparently I'm TOTALLY IN THE MOOD FOR PATD RIGHT NOW. Who knew? Watching the video even made me want to read (and re-read) fic that I haven't been interested in for years now.

TBH I don't expect this feeling to last but it was nice to have it. I miss my stint in bandom; obviously online friends are too much fun for me to handle!

Watched the first minute of the BTS video for TIG which led me over to this other video by the same director, which I thoroughly enjoyed.



Last thing... NYR IN THE EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALLLLLS! I can't believe we fucking won against the Penguins in an AWAY game 7. It feels pretty great to be a Rangers fan right now!

THIS is why I will always love Ed Sheeran, even when most of his stuff is just waaaaay too light for me. Check it out at 2:40 when he goes right into Tinie Tempah's Pass Out. =DDD



Rizzle Kicks is touring with Professor Green; I wish I could be there. =/ ONE DAY I WILL SEE THEM LIVE. ONE DAY.

BUT! I will, at least, be seeing SIX CONCERTS within the 11 days right after I get back to NYC from Indonesia. I AM SO FUCKING EXCITED. Here's what that looks like:

Mon 10/24 - return to NYC mid-day
Tue 10/25 - sew Halloween costume?
Wed 10/26 - sew Halloween costume?
Thu 10/27 - P!ATD in Clifton Park with akamine_chan
Fri 10/28 - New Found Glory in NYC with thedreamerworld
Sat 10/29 - MY HALLOWEEN/WELCOME BACK/ROOMIE'S BDAY PARTY!
Sun 10/30 - recover from said party, likely with hangover
Mon 10/31 - P!ATD in DC with sansets
Tue 11/01 - lol, possibly sleep all day?
Wed 11/02 - Empires in NYC with Katie & la_dissonance?
Thu 11/03 - P!ATD in Philly with Katie and chaneen
Fri 11/04 - dubstep!KORN in NYC with ???

Sat 11/05 - COLLAPSE FROM EXHAUSTION
Sun 11/06 - RESIGN MYSELF TO A FUTURE WITHOUT FUN to make up for all the fun I just had... and also the money I need to save seeing as how I'm JOBLESS.

Mon 11/07 - Hahah, hopefully interviews for potential jobs I will have contacted in the previous two weeks?

*I don't even like P!ATD this much, I'm just suuuuuper excited to see the shows with friends! Also: SPENCERRRRRRRRRRRRRR. (But thank fuck I'm ending my wannabe-groupie-endeavor on a bass-heavy dubstep note!)

I've had an insanely busy week in Indonesia. Liz and I landed in Jakarta on Saturday night local time and spent two days there with family. Then:

- flew out to Bali (with my cousin Ade and her friend/coworker who were on business) for three days wherein we stayed at a beach resort hotel and did SO MUCH EATING. AND SHOPPING. I actually got these awesome awesome bone talons with a wing shaped carved on one side (almost exactly like this pair).
- flew back to Jakarta Thursday night, SAW A CONCERT (the famous boy band kahitna, don't even ask) then drove out to Bandung on Friday for shopping and food
- drove back on Saturday; Liz flew back to NYC
- flew out super early on Sunday morning to Kalimantan (with Ade's friend/coworker for more business)

It's Monday now and I'm sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for Yantri to finish up her business. Our flight back to Jakarta is at 6pm tonight and I'm REALLY REALLY looking forward to being able to sleep without having a specific wake up time. Especially one that's not 4am to catch a flight, or to go to the floating market before it disperses.

Here are a few photosets of some highlights:

- Bali resort hotel
- traditional market in Bali
- driving and traffic in Indonesia
- Banjarmasin Floating Market in Kalimantan

( In more detail.... )

And last (for now), but not least... and weirder than I can possibly express... I... didn't realize this at all until about an hour ago, but... Panic! At the Disco is playing Big Wave Festival in Jakarta tomorrow. And... I'll be in Jakarta tomorrow... so, I'm going to try to get tickets.

HOW FUCKING WEIRD IS MY LIFE?!

Like asolarfever said on twitter, I'll be able to say I've seen them in two countries! (Even if it'll be ridiculously weird that those two countries are THE US and INDONESIA. O_O

This totally beats the (probably unpopular) awkwardness I feel about the news of Bden & Sarah's engagement. =/

-----

Feel free to ask any questions you want about Indonesia; I'm sort of keeping things (relatively) brief in this post, but I don't mind expounding furthur on anything you're interested in. =D

So I was just dreaming that Brendon could turn into a little black cat with green eyes and Spencer had the ability to transport and float.

The one woman in my dream was a single adoptive mother of three, two of which were twins, and all of them rascals. I don't know why none of them ever realized that Brendon was the cat, but it took the whole dream for her to finally have that realization-- and it sort of took Spencer pointing it out.

What's really interesting is that Spencer (who looked exactly like his neatly-trimmed, conflicting-patterned-outfits, Pretty. Odd.-era self -- pretty much exactly like this, fucking UNF) was totally interested in the woman but stayed away because he thought she was interested in Brendon.

OH HET LOVE TRIANGLES. WHY AM I DREAMING ABOUT THEM?

The woman -- unfortunately I never named her, and I was only in her POV some of the time -- was, of course, interested only in Spencer, but she'd always ask about Brendon because the kids had so much fun with him (insert scenes of kids frolicking with Brendon here) and they all missed him. And then she'd, like, snuggle with the cat. So Spencer thought she knew. But, no.

And then there was this weird section of the dream where the woman was walking through the elementary school yard/park where I actually went when I was little, and some sort of mini-fair (like a bake sale?) was happening, and Angelica/koyappi was there (where she was trying to get Spencer's drumstick signed so she could sell it) and Vijay (a former coworker/still-friend) was also there (I'm not sure WHAT he was doing there, actually).

Anyway, the woman saw the drumstick and got all sad that she didn't have anything of Spencer's signed and that he never hung around even when Brendon would show up to play with the children. (Possibly I was projecting some of my own feelings onto this woman, ahahahaha...) She walked home (which had the same entranceway as my old apartment building across the street from the elementary school yard, but in the dream was actually a two- or three-story house rather than a 7-story apartment building) and found Spencer floating in her doorway.

Yeah, actually floating? Leaning his back and shoulder against one side of the doorjamb with his legs crossed at the feet and stretched past the other side of the doorjamb-- as if he was sitting up in bed with his legs out. He had the smirkiest smirk you've ever seen on his face; arms crossed. This is when he sort of leads the woman to the realization that Brendon is the cat. Clearly Spencer can't read minds, but I wonder how he was tipped off to her mood? It could've been Brendon, I suppose.

In any case, Spencer looked delicious and flawless and sort of bitch-facey, as always, and I wanted to devour him and also to push him and the woman together and tell them to stop being idiots and look, Brendon's right there so tell him to stop fooling around and take the children out so these two can have some alone time.

I don't understand why, if I'm having a HET dream about Spencer, I couldn't at least have BEEN THE WOMAN. My own dreaming mind is cockblocking me, WTF.

Now that I woke up to write this all out, maybe I can get back to sleep for a couple of hours... =/

I always end up meeting the coolest people waiting on line, or even just next to me in the crowd, etc. And somehow I'm not shy about starting up a conversation with strangers at a concert like I am pretty much EVERYWHERE ELSE. starsparkle333 suggested that it's because we're all there for the same reason/same interest, but I'm still super shy about chatting up strangers even at CONS, with fangirls, ffs!

...and did I mention how many lovely, lovely fellow bandom fangirls I met and chatted and squeed with yesterday? ILU GUYS! <333

In any case, some guy ordered too much pizza and offered my group the extra slices (which was awesome because other than a jamba juice at 2pm, that would be all I would eat until 11pm). And then I made two friends waiting in line. One SKYDIVES as like, a serious hobby -- like, she goes every weekend or something and packs her own chute and dives alone (not tandem) and she's like, I COULD TEACH YOU HOW TO PACK, YOU CAN COME DIVE WITH ME (in Michigan). We were sort of going on about how awesome it is and basically the other girls with us looked at us like we're nuts. If I'm in/near SF again I'm going to Lodi and diving again for $100, no matter what.

The other friend I made took this photo that's making the rounds; she's a pretty big fan of Panic and bandom-related bands like TAI and Empires and such; we bonded over previous concert experiences and also claiming our spots in the third row when we were let in, making a much-needed beer run even though the crowd was already ridiculous, and being surrounded by 15-year old girls. UGH. While I'll make an exception for a few Panic shows, I'd really rather stick to metal shows in the future.

The Black Cards were cute -- because PETE WENTZ IS TINY AND ADORABLE AND HAS THE CUTEST SMILE (second only to Spencer Smith's). But I'm not a huge fan of his music and it seems I never will be. Neon Trees were... good? The crowd was actually the rowdiest for them? Or, it seemed that way because I'd gotten to the barrier by the time Panic played and so I didn't have to fight for ground so much anymore. The singer is sort of fascinating to watch, but I'm just not a fan of their music. He does remind me a lot of a former coworker of mine, which amuses me to no end.

Then Panic came out and the first time Brendon ran over to our side, I thiiiiiink he may possibly have recognized me because of my glasses?! He complimented them on Wednesday when I MET HIM AND ZACK IN CENTRAL PARK. And then I got into this conversation with Zack about whether my glasses were Not Real a la the Matrix. =DDDDDDDD

As concerts go, Panic's show really isn't my idea of a good concert. I think there are just too many 15-year old girls for me to be able to get into it... also the lack of, you know, hard rock/metal sound... but I've pretty much started thinking of concerts as paying to see canon performed live. And that works for me. =D

Seeing Panic partially cover Personal Jesus also works for me.

In celebration of Spencer's birthday today, Brendon dedicated Always to him because -- in Brendon's own words -- "he's a sexy bastard". Spencer ran out in front of the stage to, you know, be serenaded and open his arms to Brendon's metaphorical embrace. The whole thing was sweet, including when the crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to Spencer and Brendon was amused and happy about it, and just. There was really just so much happy there. SO MANY SPENCER SMILES. I wish I'd been able to capture them all but Spencer is just too far away for my lack of zoom. =(

AND THEN PETE WENTZ JOINED THEM ON STAGE TO PLAY IWSNT AND IT WAS BEYOND ADORABLE TO SEE DALLON SHOWING PETE THE PROPER FINGERING WHEN PETE DIDN'T KNOW IT.

Yes, I said proper fingering.

But my favorite part (besides all of Spencer's parts... and maybe also a few of Pete Wentz's parts -- oh yeah, did I mention I got to touch his hipbone one of the times he dove into the crowd?), was seeing Brendon's spazzy dancing. I love it to death. <3333

So, in case you didn't see me spamming the rest of my social networks with Flux Pavillion updates, the show was awesome and I danced for ever! 1. There was a MOSH PIT. At a dubstep show. This is total win. 2. I was so soaked through with (my own and others') sweat that it looked like I got caught in a rain shower; my hair was plastered to my head. 3. Pot. People shared. I took a toke here and there and didn't have to pay and it was perfect. 4. I slapped some hot girl's ass. With permission, of course. <3 5. DIRTY BASS. THERE WAS SO MUCH OF IT. FUCK YES. I'm always disappointed when I go to a dubstep party and the DJs aren't spinning stuff with lots of dirty or wobbly bass. IT IS SO MY THING.

Can I just go to a different concert every week? That's not greedy, right?

So I will be getting inked again a week and a half from now. Yeah, no, I kind of can't really afford it. But I've been planning to get these tats done for months now, and even at that point it was getting to be an urgent feeling. I've only lasted this long because I had a date to look forward to. LAKJSDLFJASLFJLSAJFL;AJ GUYS, I WANT THESE TATS SO BAD I COULD CRY. RIGHT NOW.

This is for MY WOLFPACK (ILU GUYS). And also just because SPENCER FUCKING SMITH.

 

The Brendon Pain Kink Pornathon!


Go forth, and contribute!

I like to imagine that somehow, somewhere, Spencer is very pleased about this. And maybe waving his stun gun around. =D

Ahahahah, so this is what I did with a little of my free time. I've added them to my header, too, so I'm looking forward to randomly seeing them.

( yeah, i kind of don't know what i was thinking with the second one, but it made sense at the time. it's sort of hilarious. BOYS. )

While I'm not normally a huge fan of A Softer World, I find the ASW remixes to be hilarious. Let me know if you've got a request or something. =D

You can also view them on tumblr:
restraining order | metaphor, not fantasy

ETA: Just added this one: zombies

It's nice, though, to be in a fandom with regular canon updates? Ahahahah, this is mostly very new for me since even in fandoms with canon updates during the TV season, I never actually watch every episode as it airs. So yeah, this is kind of cool? Also, it's MUSIC. I will always flail over music pretty much more than anything else.

Anyway, it's awesome to finally have a HQ acoustic version of Ready to Go (Get Me Out of My Mind). This time it's Dallon and Ian along with Brendon and Spencer, so there's, like, backup vocals and everything!

Here's the AUDIO RIP with, as usual, the intro-talk trimmed out.

Spencer was the boy at the drums with the gorgeous smile who could lay out a joke so dry it wasn't funny until Ryan laughed.

This description from Anywhere You Let It Go by skoosiepants has been stuck in my mind since I read it earlier this week; I just can't stop thinking about it. Anyway, if you haven't read any of her fic (which you probably have since it's like four years old by now), just go and read it all. Because it's all insanely quirky and amazing. And I now know more about fanon!MCR and fanon!Cobra Starship than I ever thought I would. Everyone in bandom is clearly nuts. =D

In other news, I have been a hermit this whole week, have barely talked to anyone, and it's sort of freaking me out but I can't seem to do a whole lot to fix it. =/

ETA: Oh yeah, Liz and Juliet found an apartment in Woodside, right off the 7 train, so even though it's not suuuuper easy to get to, they're going to be pretty close and it will all be theoretically awesome! Technically, there IS a bus, at least, that goes pretty closely between our places, so there's a plus.