my moral standing is lying down

So I used the Expedia super special deals thing and ended up with a different hotel - the Clarion Hotel & Suites Selby -- and of course it's not refundable. So, I'm sad I will not be in the same hotel as a bunch of other people, but I suppose I'll live -- it's only 1.5 miles away, so if I'm somehow hanging out at the Bond(age) Hotel, it'll be easy to get back by car or by foot.

I'm more annoyed than I sound, but really there's no use in being bothered by it.

In any case, it was pretty darn cheap so I shouldn't complain!

Now, to go book the car. Got the car! Priceline.com is pretty awesome. I AM GETTING SO EXCITED FOR THIS TRIP -- NOT THE LEAST OF WHICH IS THE ROAD TRIP PART!!!!



OH! If I do nothing else other than see The Headstones while in Toronto, I MUST go to the Hockey Hall of Fame. I'd have tried to catch a Maple Leafs game, but -- it fucking figures -- that their two home games that weekend are on the day before I get there and the day after I leave! WTF, TORONTO!

Considering I have "hockey" listed under "religious views" on my facebook, I offer up this prayer to the hockey gods:

Our patron who art in Chicago. Hockey be thy name. Thy will be done. The Cup be won. On ice, as well as in the stands. Give us this day our hockey sticks. And forgive us our penalties, as we forgive those who cross-check against us; and lead us not into elimination. But deliver us to victory. In the name of the fans, Lord Stanley, and in the name of the 'Hawks. Amen.

(edited by me, but originally taken from @hkygrl12)

Of course, I'd rather be saying this for the Rangers...

So my dream this morning wasn't anywhere near as weird as the one from yesterday.

Vokoun (Florida Panthers' goalie), nicknamed "The Vacuum" (is that actually right IRL, or did I make that up?), was singing along with Stan Rogers' song, Northwest Passage. He kept getting some of the lyrics wrong and I had to correct him; even tried to look up the lyrics to show him.

I fell asleep with music on, and one of the songs in the playlist was Northwest Passage, so it isn't difficult to figure out where this part came from. Still, I'm really not sure why I dreamt of Vokoun. I don't think I've even seen a Panthers game recently?

There was definitely more, but I can't remember it. =(


In any case, I'm in extreme obsession with this song, Northwest Passage. I just absolutely die over it every time I hear it. Okay, maybe not every time... No, never mind, it actually is every time. Stan Rogers' voice was absolutely amazing, and this song was sung a capella. It references explorers of Canadian history, in... uh... you know, seeking and eventually establishing the Northwest Passages, as well as comparing them (the explorers, that is) to a modern-day traveller/adventurer.

Ahh, it's so beautiful.

Listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVY8LoM47xI

Since the NJD vs TB game earlier tonight was postponed (due to lighting problems at the Prudential Center), MSG has been playing old episodes of Rangers in 60.

I got to watch two games from the '94 season:

3/23/94: Graves' NYR-record-breaking 50th & 51st goals of the season (against EDM), (this same night was Gretzky's record-breaking 802nd goal for LA)
5/25/94: game 6 of the NYR/NJD playoff series where Messier "called" the win, and got his first hat trick with the Rangers)

And dammit, it was pretty sweet revisiting with Leetch & Beuke, Mess & Graves -- and (Color Commentator) JD!!!

Appropriately, (as I just read past the part in Theo Fleury's Playing with Fire where he's part of the FLY line for the Rangers) the third game shown was from January 18, 2001, a game in which Fleury played well. According to JD he was, at that point, second in the league in scoring.

And JEEZUS, RICHTER WAS A FREAKING MONSTER IN THE NET! That night Leetch made the game-winning goal against TOR in the last minute of OT, securing for Richter the win that made him the winningest goalie in NYR history.

Damn, I miss them both so much. ;_;

Yeah, it's not like you haven't been at least peripherally aware of my recent due South obsession. That's definitely part of it. I just finished watching the complete series, and then watched two dS documentaries which can be found on youtube ("Ride Forever" and "Southbound") as well as the 10-minute blooper reel. Which is pretty amazing.

( spoilery thoughts )

That all was probably not as coherent as it could have been. And despite my select disappointments, I absolutely love the characters of Fraser, RayV and RayK, and am really pleased that there is such depth to work with, and to ponder.

So, I've also been reading Theo Fleury's "tell-all", Playing with Fire. It's sad (re the Graham James scandal, plus Fleury's substance abuse) but also exciting and a really fascinating glimpse into life in the NHL.

Liz and I were lucky enough to see Fleury in practice once when he was with the Rangers -- I vividly remember -- even in practice, the guy was just full of energy and stood out on the ice.

Despite Fleury's comment about Avery being a "classless bum", I can't help but associate them in my mind. Seeing Avery play when he was first traded to the Rangers was like seeing that compressed energy return.

If anyone is interested in borrowing Fleury's book (once I'm done with it), just let me know. =D

I have been super busy at work (still!) and also I have a Twitter gadget in my gmail, and since I'm on gmail all day long, I am also keeping updated on Twitter all day long. In the meantime, my LJ has suffered from my busyness.

KATSUCON! Will be in Virginia all weekend, running the booth (aka Cosclips, Katsucon's official photo booth)! If you're going to be at Katsu this year, stop by the booth and say hello! I have a feeling this con is going to be hectic and awesome. AND DRUNK. I'm driving back to NYC on Sunday -- hopefully by early evening. Luckily, I've got Monday off from work, so I get to leisurely return Jim's car to NJ and then make my way back into the city. I also don't have Japanese class that day, so I'm fucking set.

I have an excellent story to go along with this -- on Monday I called uline.com to order some supplies to be delivered to the hotel. So when I was telling the customer service rep the address of the hotel, she said, "Is this for Katsucon?" I was like "o_O! YES! We're Katsucon's official photo booth!" HAHAHA. It was AMAZINGLY AWESOME AND COINCIDENTAL AND COOL! So I told her to stop by the booth and say hi. I should have offered her a free photo or something, but didn't think of it at the time. Hopefully she'll stop by. That was just awesome and TOTALLY made my day. =D

There were other things I wanted to talk about. Dammit, why can't I think of them? Like how I got a PS3 and Judy got a 32" LCD HDTV, so now we're all tricked out and it's nice about the PS3 and all, but HOCKEY! HAHAHAHA! OH BABY!

BTW, today's XKCD is awesome.

Um, um, um... OH YEAH! I was talking to a coworker of mine whom I've been telling about cons and such. I sent her the link to Judy's flickr to show her some stuff and she asked if this chick is Sailor Moon? So I explained a little, prefacing by saying that it would sound ridiculous. And after a bit of back-and-forth, she said, "man, ever since i met you my life has gotten a lot more interesting and a lot less realistic."

DO YOU KNOW HOW AWESOME THAT WAS? =D That totally made my day! Now I'm just going around with a big smile on my face! =D

Con report and MORE STUFF on Monday, I hope.

Oh yeah, I also made pancakes for the first time on Sunday night. And now everyone's teasing me about it. WHAT! Jeez, it's not EVERYONE makes and eats pancakes all the time, people! =P

I guess it was inevitable. It took me a few years, but I finally gave in and got a cell phone. Now, (as Angelica says) I make up for the resistance by swinging to the other extreme. Today I went on ebay and was looking for some faceplates for the Nokia 5165 model. I don't want one of the solid colors that they have everywhere, so I was looking on ebay to see what they had (although I didn't start out on ebay with this purpose, but I'll get back to that later).

They have a lot of the usual, solid colors. But they also have a few with designs; some of them are really scary, like teddy bears, cats, dogs, raindrop patterns and tie-dye. Ewwww. ::shudder:: But some of them are okay, like the well-known American Flag (which I considered in light of this Attack on America thing, to show my patriotism, but I decided that I didn't want to spend $15 on something that I wouldn't have gotten in any other circumstances). I also saw a cute South Park faceplate, one that had stars and moons all over it, on a black background, and one that I really like, but don't think I'll ever get: a black & white cow pattern. LOL!

But the one that really caught my attention was a NJ Devils faceplate!!! Ooooh, do you know how much I want that one? Even if it is $20, I'd love to get it. The auction was closing in 2 minutes, at the time, so I didn't bid on it, but I know that the seller has more, so I'm not worried. One of the reasons I didn't bid on it then is because the faceplate is from the 5100 series, which has a different keypad than the 5165 phone. Which means I'd have to get a different keypad in order for the faceplate to fit. I don't really mind that much; a keypad shouldn't cost too much, if it isn't included with the faceplate. But I wanted to find out (1) if the sellers had the faceplate available in the 5165 style, or (2) if the auction included the faceplate. Actually, most of all, I wanted to find out if the sellers had a NY Rangers faceplate instead of the NJ Devils. I love the Devils, but I'm a Rangers fan first and foremost. (I know, they suck, but what can I say?) But if they don't have the NY Rangers faceplate, I'd definitely get the NJ Devils one.

(Can anyone tell that I'm a big hockey fan?)

So, I ended up sending them an email asking all these questions, and in addition, saying that if they'd sell it to me outside of ebay (not that I mind bidding on ebay, it's just a waste of time for them to put up an auction since it's a special order request), I'd also be interested in buying one of the dual battery chargers they had up for auction. That's one of those that allows you to charge a battery in your phone and an extra battery at the same time. And I have an extra battery already because my father used to have a Nokia 5120, which uses the same battery as the 5165. (This is what I had started looking for on ebay, to begin with -- the dual battery charger.)

But you know, as I was looking on ebay, I came across some vibrating batteries for auction and I think I might end up buying one of those eventually because I don't like the fact that I have to listen for a ring; I'd much rather leave it in my pocket or something and have it vibrate. (No hentai thoughts, people!) But this is all really kinda sad because then I'll have 3 batteries. o.O*

Oh! You know what else has me in (good) fits over this new phone? You can send and receive emails on the phone! LOL! I'm soooo dying over this, I didn't even know it could do this when I got it! It's so kakkoii!!!

God, I'm pathetic. Ah well.