I'm pretty sure Crake was right.

SF Bay Area Derby Girls rocked the Sacred City Rollergirls this weekend, 99-74. Came down to the last jam with 1:47 on the clock - whoever got Lead Jammer was going to win it, and Kitt Turbo delivered. It was a nail-biting bout with some brutal blocking by both sides...well worth the 90m drive to Sac.

Also, I am doing my best to absorb a crapload of research about mixing, engineering, and production. I think it's paying off in the tracks I'm working on, but since I'm wearing all the hats (songwriter, performer, engineer, and producer) it's hard for me to tell.

Just bought an ESP Viper 400 and Native Instruments' Guitar Rig 3 to replace my aging Gretsch Electromatic and Pod Pro. Love the ESP - the neck fits my hand really well and the EMG 81/85 combo sounds tremendous. Guitar Rig is pretty impressive too. Amp emulation technology has come a long way in the six years since I bought the Pod.

Mmm, tone.

ROLLER DERBY.

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I'm working on a cover of Kristin Hersh's The Letter. That song just slew me when the record came out in 1994. I went to her show at Slim's on that tour, got right up front, and asked her to play it...and she said, "Fuck no. That song makes me sick."

Hooray, my one and only Humiliating Rock Star Experience.

So recently, I remembered that show and decided to play the fucking thing myself. Hmph.

GenCon's over and done. Made the semifinals in the D&D Open - who'd have thought a D&D tournament would be that much fun? Definitely the highlight of the trip.

Glad to be through the painting grind. Got all the models finished that I was supposed to finish, and went 5-0 in pickup games to boot. Time to relax and paint something I feel like painting for a change.

I love gaming conventions - even the ones I work at. Connecting with friends I only see at cons, drinking in the frenetic energy of all those people squeezing as much gaming as they can into three days...I dig it.

Finished a record yesterday. Nine songs, 31 minutes. I think it's really solid. It's taken me something like five or six years to get it to this point, so I'm feeling a little sheepish...not much to show for that much elapsed time. OTOH, it's a big monkey off my back. It'll be much easier to move forward with the other three projects now that the fucking thing is DONE. Over the first big "completion hurdle" makes the others easier to deal with.

Planning new ink too. That's been a year coming. Whooo boy.

Where the fuck did January go?

December, I understand. December goes away fast in retail because of the consumer chaos.

But January? January's supposed to be nice relaxing downtime, reading on the couch with an Irish coffee while it's pissing rain outside. A langorous, rejuvenating time. Not gone in the blink of a harried eye.

Sigh.

At least I have some things to show for it. A bunch of new painted models, some new recording with Aki. A growing community of happy gamers at the store.

Things could be much, much worse.

I seem to be too busy living life to spend time chronicling life. No input on the boards, no logging in others' journals, just a quick look at today's girl and off to take care of business.

Not bad, just weird. I think I liked being retired better than this.

Hm.