Hey y'all.

Since I've started the new blog on the New Mirador, traffic has been really good! Thanks for everyone taking a look at the New Mirador, something I've fallen in love with and will keep up with for as long as possible.

I've created a syndicated feed for your continuing Livejournal users, so you can continue to get the latest Thomas Billo II news and also stay on Livejournal. It's really easy to add and very simple to manage.

To add: Go to your friends page. In the "Add Friends" section at the bottom, add the friend "tjbillowp" (without the quotes) and save your changes. My syndicated feed (all the posts on tjbillo.com) will show up on your Livejournal Friends page for your easy viewing. Enjoy and happy blogging!

Dear Livejournal Friends and Communities,

It's official! Thomas Billo's blog on the web has made the switch to Wordpress and I am now writing in my blog there. It's been an adventure to create my own domain, register it, and do the design work. It's been tough--since I lack some of these skills--but now at least feel like I am enjoying blogging again and having more freedom to play around with it.

You can find The New Mirador at www.tjbillo.com.

Head on over! Remember to bookmark it!

I didn't really do much at all this weekend, besides go out with my roommates for Three-4-Ones on Friday, and then do a little bit of board gaming and WoW. Even so, the weekend felt like it last forever....*sigh*. Gotta love it. The bad vibes from last Wednesday have mostly faded.

In addition, even though my roommates aren't very touchy-feely or intimate around me, it can be challenging to live with a couple. They're excellent roomies, though--they just remind me of how much I want what they have. I've been single for far too long!

I also just finished writing what I feel to be one of the most comprehensive and well-thought-out 90-day reviews I've ever had. I have my review tomorrow morning and am really looking forward to it.

On a final note: can other human beings smell desperation?

Sounds like Livejournal's going down the loo. Time to step up development of my own website--now I have plans for the weekend!

Weekend recap time everyone!

Friday
The work week ended a little roughly, with one of my major projects now starting to stare over-budget in the face. So, I was a little downtrodden that I reported to Three-4-One's with the roommate Mike. He looked a little awkward, a little askance, as I introduced him to my bear-friends at the Eagle. It's always great seeing Dave and Drew, and the remaining collection of friends. It was a good time, but unfortunately, I didn't know that we had reservations at 7PM at Psycho Suzie's.

Almost 25 of us reported to Psycho Suzie's for dinner. It was an excellent place! Very nice, hipster-esque pizza parlour. I ordered the BBQ Chicken pizza, which was almost kinda sweet. It was awesome, I loved it. Finally got someone's phone number I had been angling for for some time, and promptly memorized it. Afterwards, we went to plaghs and Luke's house for some Catchphrase. The night ended with Dave and Drew dropping me off, and me apologizing profusely to my roomie for leaving him in the dust.

As traditional photographer, here are some pictures:

Jeff, Brian and Shannon think you should put a ring on it (if you like).

Jeremy, Jerren, John and Jason.

Jake Zeman, a mutual friend, Gary and Jake Sutherland hanging out.

Joel, Al and Jeff laughing it up. Jeff should've been taking the pictures, he's much better at it than me.

Aww, Dave and Drew, freshly tanned from Cancun. Well, Drew is tanned, Dave is permanently flushed.

Sunday
Sunday was rough. I woke up early, excited to be going over to gaming at my friend Dave's house. I got in my car, witha  backpack full of fresh bread, pickles, cheese and butter--and merged onto the highway. That was when it happened. The front passenger wheel exploded.

I'm not sure what happened, but it was a real explosion. Suddenly there was a puff of white smoke on the right side of the car, and snow and little water droplets went flying. The woman, driving beside me, freaked out almost as much as I did; I was more concerned with controlling the car, which suddenly was trying to veer into her lane. She raced ahead and I took the first exit I could. It took me almost an hour and a half to get the emergency spare on the wheel (thankfully, I have done this before) and then I headed back to my place, to commiserate and find a cheap replacement tire. I missed out on hanging out with Dave and Kameron again; almost a straight month of no gaming!

Finally, to perhaps assuage my lack of functional vehicle, I called the number I had so diligently memorized on Friday night...and got the voicemail. As of today, no call back...so, I think I will be forgetting that number.

All in all, a mixed weekend.

Video straight from the event. :)

This weekend, my friend perkk hosted an Iron Chef Competition at his place, during his usual Sci-Fi Friday night. By all accounts, it was a great success: lots of food, lots of wine, lots of talking and holiday commiserating, and I got to know a couple people better. Here's the host, John, with his dog Fancy.

Ingredients for the night: chicken, eggplant, peanuts, and a rare type of small, red pepper.



Our three judges were Josh, dogs_heart77 , and minnesotatoast . Note Claire's consistent expression. She called it Japanese, I called it hilarious/annoying/lovable.

Round One: The amuse-bouches

The first round was a bunch of amuse-bouches, which was explained to me to be essentially teaser food, a small snack that gives insight into both the chef's methods and of what's to come. My personal favorite was the stuffed red peppers, which had both a spicy-sweet taste and were just delicious. These were sampled by everyone at the party.




Furiously cooking...

Round Two: The entree

The full entrees were brought out about an hour later, right when the crowd was threatening to storm the kitchen. The judges were ready for the food, which was an excellent showcase of some of our chefs' many talents. The first was a chicken-vegetable stew with cauliflower puree and paprika, very tasty and hot; the second was an almost alfredo-chicken style pasta dish with eggplant and mushroom, very garden-y; and the third was torn chicken cooked in bourbon sauce on a slice of fried eggplant (my favorite). This last dish got rave reviews from almost everyone at the party.




Fresh food!

Round Three: Traditional Curry, Experimental Chicken Chocolate, and Fruity Meat

This last round, though inconsistent, had the biggest surprises of the night. Now, I have tried my hardest to make a good curry dish at home, but this surpassed even my best attempts: a traditional curry and vegetable with rice dish that I really liked. Second in line was a surprise for everyone: originally touted as a chicken/chocolate/peanut crepe with powdered sugar, it was later revealed to be lacking chicken. I thought it was good, and would have been better served with a dark wine, or tea, or perhaps hot chocolate. Very thick and heavy cocoa. And finally for the evening, another dish that got good reviews, was a chicken with orange and asparagus that had obvious Asian influences but was cooked almost Italian style.




Insert lolcat-like comment here for minnesotatoast...




Jake Zeman won the competition, and got a slightly-used plasma globe.






We destroyed John's kitchen in the process. My Geiger counter was indicating severe levels of radiation.




Stop it, Claire!!!

This past weekend I moved from east Saint Paul to Midtown in Minneapolis. It was an adventure...that I am not soon to repeat.

Saturday was awful. Even though I woke up really early and was able to get my cargo van from U-Haul for the move a couple hours early, I did not count on my friends sleeping in. :/ Therefore, just as the snow started to swirl down, I loaded up the van myself with the first load. I was truly impressed at my handling of the couch and some of the heavier book boxes--proof that even though I still am not particularly strong, I am pretty damned determined.
 

dogs_heart77 and Josh #2 showed up to help unload and also brought gifts of a few cookies and Riesling wine to help move in. Mike and Cody, the new roomies, also helped unpack and get into the new apartment. Many hands make the work light, and the first load was finished rather quickly. Jake and I headed back to Saint Paul to get the remaining stuff. At this point the snow was coming down pretty seriously, and driving was rather treacherous. We got the second load to the new apatment and unloaded it.

Unpacking and setting all my stuff up has been really the hardest (and longest, most drawn-out) effort. It's been a matter of both organizing and setting up an entire apartment's possessions and items into one and a half rooms. Everything feels compressed, which isn't exactly bad; but I am glad that I got rid of so much stuff before I moved in. Things like my TV stand, those chairs out in the front porch, or the kitchen table would've had nowhere to go.

 

Overall, the new roomies have been pretty cool. I sometimes feel like we just don't have a lot to connect on--they're semi-geeky, and can connect a little bit with some of my hobbies and interests--but we are certainly not attracted to the same type of men, nor are we really clear on what sort of information if off-limits or undiscussable. It's a little strange living with a couple--navigating their spats and romantic moments, attempting to discern where one person ends and the other begins--and it is fascinating learning more about them. I just wonder if I'll really be as good friends with them in the end, with the differences between us really being the deciding factor.

 

This short story series was published in June 2008 on my blog in five parts. I've collected them all and made on large entry, a bit simpler to read for those who missed it. Enjoy!

I remember the time I was in an organic body. A meatbag. I reflect on it now as not so much a time of infancy but rather of gestation. The feelings of elation I had when I left my home planet to live on its moon, and later on one of the asteroid carousels, was so small; it felt universal at the time. For almost 300 years I lived in this form: a slowly decaying, rotting corpse containing my consciousness, first sustained with genetic treatments and later with nanomachinery.

( Read more... )

Despite the fact that minnesotatoast was the evil genius at gaming this Sunday, I still got these results taking this quiz tonight. Whew--almost thought I was leaning a bit towards Good today...can't let such a slip-up happen again!

Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Demon   Your raging id needs no chemical incentive to break out into a fiery orgy of destruction. When you're not burning, you're brooding. All you need is someone to point the way out for you.
Cthulu Spawn
Sorceror
Vampire
Ghost
Werewolf
Incubus/Succubus
Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

More pictures from Sunday gaming...

From Drop Box

Double woof!

From Drop Box

Dave (rebisbear ) knows what to do

From Drop Box

Halloween and Bladerunner think it out

From Drop Box

The cruel (but fuzzy) feet of minnesotatoast 

I've tried going different places for haircuts (the Bear Barbers, John English, Winston's) but usually get the same results as something simple at Great Clips. The young man at the Sunray location worked me over yesterday.

Also noted that, after the merciless taunting of my family and relatives, I have shaved my beard and destroyed my facial hair ambitions for this year. Meh.

Poll #1308112 Haircut time!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

I got a haircut! How does it look?

From Profile

From Profile

This weekend I celebrated 5 years of graduation from Eden Valley-Watkins Secondary School. While my experience at high school was positive (being both popular, successful, and interested) it was very strange to see so many of my old friends this weekend. I didn't really interact with many of my high school friends during their "College Phase" and seem to have skipped to the "Job Phase" or "Married Phase".



The evening wasn't complete--even though I saw Aaron and Chad, I didn't see Kris Stade, Brad Ruhland, Lisa Christman, Kevin Ruhland or Christy Huberty, all of whom I was close to in high school (and try to remain so today). Maybe sometime this winter I can figure something out to get them all together.







My biggest surprise of the evening was when everyone simultaneously did the Electric Slide. Where do people learn these things in the country?!







50% of the Weekes brothers. Talk about w00f.







Aaron Albright and Chad Henfling were two of my good friends from school. Aaron gave me a bunch of big hugs for showing up--it was great to see him there.







Amanda Huntley, Danielle Rudolph, Sarah Magedanz and Michelle Cook. Some of the married women from my class, Danielle even has two kids!! It's so strange to think of my high school friends, my locker buddies, as having difficulty finding babysitters on a Friday night now...








Is he going to kill me?







And, of course, KT Billo and her gang crashed the party. She sang "Sweet Caroline" with Bobby Weekes, Justine Meierhofer and Matt Stommes in this photo.

It's been wired shut as she recovers. Hopefully with adamantium.

For those interested, here are the stats on my gaming PC. It's about two or so years old, but still a very robust machine.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.00Ghz 1333FSB 4MB L2Cache 64-bit
Quad-Core 1333FSB MSI P35 Neo2-FR Intel motheboard
2GB DDR2 RAM
74GB 10,000RPM 16MB cache main drive
500GB 7,200RPM 16MB cache storage drive

Dual nVidia 8800GTX 768MB 16x PCI Express video cards

1.44" Floppy drive
18x DVDR/RW + CDR/RW
Internal 12-in-1 card reader drive

Xion III Gaming Mid-Tower
850 watts power supply
Thermaltake MaxOrb Enthusiast CPU Cooling Fan
3 extra case cooling fans
12" cold cathode green neon light

Webcam
Standard speakers
Genius Touch/Pen pad
Standard 10/100 ethernet network

So I tend to leave my computers on, sometimes for weeks at a time. And recently, I had formatted and restored my desktop computer, pictured here in all its processing glory.

From AirMe

My computer has dual SLI cards for when I do higher-end gaming, and unfortunately, after I had reformatted, I had neglected to enable the dual cards, so only one card was being used. Because of the way that the cards are set up to both help each other and cool each other off, it was getting to seriously high temperatures. I caught it, just in time--everything seems to be back to normal now.

I was also going to write a theatre review of Jungle Theater's Souvenir but unfortunately, the play was cut short when the lead actress tripped and injured herself on stage. I felt so bad for the poor woman...she was carted off in an ambulance. I get to go back for another show, when she's better!

I found this post on reddit.com. Epic hilarity.

I've just invented a new unit of measurement. It's called the cuil.

One Cuil = One level of abstraction away from the reality of a situation.

Example: You ask me for a Hamburger.

1 Cuil: if you asked me for a hamburger, and I gave you a raccoon.

2 Cuils: If you asked me for a hamburger, but it turns out I don't really exist. Where I was originally standing, a picture of a hamburger rests on the ground.

3 Cuils: You awake as a hamburger. You start screaming only to have special sauce fly from your lips. The world is in sepia.

4 Cuils: Why are we speaking German? A mime cries softly as he cradles a young cow. Your grandfather stares at you as the cow falls apart into patties. You look down only to see me with pickles for eyes, I am singing the song that gives birth to the universe.

5 Cuils: You ask for a hamburger, I give you a hamburger. You raise it to your lips and take a bite. Your eye twitches involuntarily. Across the street a father of three falls down the stairs. You swallow and look down at the hamburger in your hands. I give you a hamburger. You swallow and look down at the hamburger in your hands. You cannot swallow. There are children at the top of the stairs. A pickle shifts uneasily under the bun. I give you a hamburger. You look at my face, and I am pleading with you. The children are crying now. You raise the hamburger to your lips, tears stream down your face as you take a bite. I give you a hamburger. You are on your knees. You plead with me to go across the street. I hear only children's laughter. I give you a hamburger. You are screaming as you fall down the stairs. I am your child. You cannot see anything. You take a bite of the hamburger. The concrete rushes up to meet you. You awake with a start in your own bed. Your eye twitches involuntarily. I give you a hamburger. As you kill me, I do not make a sound. I give you a hamburger.

6 Cuils: You ask me for a hamburger. My attempt to reciprocate is cut brutally short as my body experiences a sudden lack of electrons. Across a variety of hidden dimensions you are dismayed. John Lennon hands me an apple, but it slips through my fingers. I am reborn as an ocelot. You disapprove. A crack echoes through the universe in defiance of conventional physics as cosmological background noise shifts from randomness to a perfect A Flat. Children everywhere stop what they are doing and hum along in perfect pitch with the background radiation. Birds fall from the sky as the sun engulfs the earth. You hesitate momentarily before allowing yourself to assume the locus of all knowledge. Entropy crumbles as you peruse the information contained within the universe. A small library in Phoenix ceases to exist. You stumble under the weight of everythingness, Your mouth opens up to cry out, and collapses around your body before blinking you out of the spatial plane. You exist only within the fourth dimension. The fountainhead of all knowledge rolls along the ground and collides with a small dog. My head tastes sideways as spacetime is reestablished, you blink back into the corporeal world disoriented, only for me to hand you a hamburger as my body collapses under the strain of reconstitution. The universe has reasserted itself. A particular small dog is fed steak for the rest of its natural life. You die in a freak accident moments later, and you soul works at the returns desk for the Phoenix library. You disapprove. Your disapproval sends ripples through the inter-dimensional void between life and death. A small child begins to cry as he walks toward the stairway where his father stands.

And so on.

...because apparently is starts NOW.

I actually really enjoy this kind of weather--cold, damp, foggy, with snow clinging thickly to wet pine branches and sloppy leaves on the ground. I sort of wish it would be like this all year around.

But when the snow starts to fly, I need to resist the massive waves of nostalgia that threatens to block out all reasonable thought.

...all the gay marriage bans succeeded.



Sorry for the brief break in bloggin here, but I'm focusing on the new job and getting ready to move back to Minneapolis. I'm still working on short stories and hope to back up to full speed soon!