A purposely incomplete summary of 2006

[vakkotaur]

My New Year's Resolution? 1280x1024.

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More than what I am listing happened, but I'm going to try to leave the bad behind and recall the good.

January

I found out a about a small new (new to me anyway) faire in the area. I also started pondering participating in a panel or two at RCFM, at jugularjaguar's suggestion. And after shedding some weight by being more careful about what I ate and by exercising regularly, I found out that my blood pressure had gone down from "well, not too bad" to a "quite good" level.

February

I acquired an LCD monitor which took a bit of getting used to, but that part wasn't all that difficult. The new monitor is why the resolution is higher than last year's, which was 1024x768. Looking at a much older CRT now feels like looking at a fishbowl. The same trip also resulted in finding a good Chinese restaurant in Mankato, something Fairmont was lacking for a while.

March

I won a little something in a drawing: a case of bottled water, which was useful for road trips. I also posted about a couple examples of sleazy advertising. It amuses me greatly that my LJ post about one company is what shows up when folks consult Google about the jokers.

April

I discovered there was a Pickle Barrel sub place in Sioux Falls and found that the sandwiches there were, as I remembered from Platteville, huge. I also went to Penguicon for the first time and found it enjoyable. Hopefully if I go again it will be just as enjoyable, even if Frank Hayes isn't a guest of honor. Later I managed to figure out enough about X-chat and Python to get a pong reply script working.

May

The faire I had heard about in January was a nice, if small, event and pleasant way to spend a Saturday not too far from home. I went to RCFM again, this time by way of Kansas City, soI could pick up a couple passengers. They got a ride, and I got to avoid motel expenses on the way to Huntsville.

June

Siouxland Ren Fest was at new location and quite good, as well as nearly mud-free. An amazing discovery was made: With sufficient treatment, peas can be rendered good enough to eat. The result is wasabi peas A discovery of different nature was made, the ammonia smelling "Nasti-Snack" of double salt licorice.

I also got to see part of the video shoot for the "We Are the Web" video. I, like Jay, would have liked to have met Randy "Peter Pan" Constan, but he wasn't there the day we were. Stumbling around the web and changing search terms a bit, I finally rediscovered the name of a TV show I'd been partly-remembering for some time: Quark.

July

jmaynard and I (and a good many others) attended the wedding of desireewarner and pharwarner at Lake Whitney in TX. I finally got to meet Phar's friend Ezra and we got along rather well and not just because he liked to make a gin and tonic in the evening. On the way back, due to Jay's travels, we got an upgrade I got to experience what flying first class is like.

Jay and I went to see Minstrosity at the Wisconsin Renaissance Faire (which is good aside from the javascript-addicted website). It was good to see Minstrosity again and to see that WIRF has more going for it than any other faire starting so ambitiously. I hope we can go again and see Merry Measure.

August

After a couple weeks without it, it was good to have a working XM set again.

September

The first Amana Colonies Renaissance Faire was quite good and the little faire of the Nodaway Corn Carnival was likewise good. On a different note, I finally got rid of Windows on one of my main computers after not having really used it for a few years except for those rare occasions when I had hardware trouble with another machine. A few years earlier one fellow who rather liked Windows (at the time, anyway) looked like he was thrilled to hear of my Linux computer crashing. That is, until he found out what it took to crash it: one of the voltage regulators on the motherboard was smoking.

October

Jay and I managed to visit Sioux City Riverssance and had a pretty good time there. Later, Orvan showed up.

November

At Midwest FurFest Orvan made his real debut and was quite well received. I was very pleased when brace_bear told me later that he "saw Orvan everywhere."

December

I met up with Gerry & the team of belgian horses again for Fairmont's Midnight Madness (or whatever they might be calling it now) this year. It was Butterbiscuit's first night pulling the trolley and it showed, but not just too badly.

I had some time and so made a rather sudden trip to Florida and spent a few days there, getting to know folks better, having a bit more time with them than I tend to have at conventions, and generally relaxing.

What had been the good Chinese restaurant closed in October or November as the owners (it had been leased out and had become a so-so buffet place) and after some remodeling re-opened and is once again quite good, even as a buffet place. I'll have to order from the menu proper sometime. Though I might have to order it as take-out as the place tends to be quite crowded in the evening now.

Comments

[thecanuckguy.livejournal.com]

Your new Year's resolution is 1310720? Good luck! If you're like most, though, you'll only get to 622840 before you call off the resolution.

[haystack.livejournal.com]

Doggone it, Vakkotaur, I was thinking about doing that resolution gag until I saw this entry. ;)