This past weekend I...barely had anything to do. I saw a Rocky Horror-style production of Repo: The Genetic Opera on Friday night (which was FREAKING AWESOME and presented by the folks at Addicted to The Knife), Saturday I saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in IMAX (which was freaking amazing), but other than that...I watched Ever After for the first time (loved it), finished the fifth book in the Temeraire series, Victory of Eagles (loved it, depressing as it was) and...that's it.

This has been the first weekend in I believe two months or so wherein I've had nothing at all planed. Nowhere to go...nothing to do...nothing expected of me...and it was freaking amazing. I don't think I realized how burned-out I was feeling until I was able to just sleep and relax for a while. Not that I'm complaining about being busy...oh not at ALL...because I've been busy with so much awesomeness it isn't even funny (it is awesome though ^_~), but still, it's nice to have some time to decompress, unwind and just...be...now if y'all will excuse me, I think I'll cap off this weekend with some Eddie Izzard. Maybe Dress to Kill. ^_^

I hope y'all had a splendid weekend with whatever it was you were doing, and may you have a fabulous week ahead. ^_^

Apparently there was another celebrity death this past week. She wasn't as famous as Michael Jackson or Farrah Fawcet, but fans of Supernatural and Battlestar Galactica will undoubtedly recognize Lorena Gale, who died this past Sunday after losing the fight to cancer. I liked her whenever I saw her on screen, so she'll be missed.

K, it's funny...I just wrote a scattebrained draft of how I wanted to write something, but couldn't think of what...and then it hit me as to what to write about. ^_^ As many of y'all know, I'm kind of a social media whore. ^_~ Twitter, Facebook, LJ, etc, I'm all over the place. I like keeping up with my friends and such on these various services, as it helps me feel connected into their lives. So I had it set up wherein whenever certain people posted a blog post, tweet or facebook status update, I'd get a text message about it. This really helped me keep track of what's going on in the lives of my friends.

However, about a week ago I turned it all off and get no more notifications, so I could focus on the excellent company I was spending time with. ^_~ Unlike previous times though...I didn't feel the urge to turn the notifications back on when I had the opportunity, and left them off for several days. In a way I felt disconnected, but in a way I felt...relieved...free...it's hard to explain. As an experiment, I turned them back on and off a couple of times, including today, and as I'm watching the notifications come in I realize it might be too much. I follow too many people, try to maintain too many connections, and I think it might be making me a bit scatterbrained. It's not as if those friends won't be there if I don't get text messages of their tweets, you know?

For example, on Facebook I have it set up so maybe when any of 40-50 people update their status, I get a text. It's about the same number on Twitter. I've decided that I'm going to scale that way, way down to maybe less than a dozen at most, maybe half-a-dozen. In a way I feel bad because I feel like I'm picking and choosing amongst my friends as to who to follow, but at the same time, it's getting too noisy, and I need to get a little more quiet. As much as I love Twitter, Facebook and other social media networks, I'm starting to realize there are better uses of my time, like writing stories (I have several in mind I've never put to paper), reading more, spending time with friends, work on my RPG, or my blog that I keep saying I'll create.

I think that, overall, scaling back my connections will leave more energy in my brain for other things as mentioned above, and hopefully help me be more constructive and creative overall. In my past I have a history of focusing more on others than myself, and I think in some ways, it's time for a change. ^_^

Anyway, that's my rambling bit of nonsensical jibber-jabber for today. ^_^ Hope y'all are having a great day. ^_^

So a couple of nights ago, I got together with akarui_sekai, kaycee_a and her boyfriend as well as some of their friends from Santa Barbara to see LA TheaterWorks' production of "The Importance of Being Earnest." We originally got our tickets a month or so ago when Niel Patrick Harris -- who I'd never seen in person before -- was slated to be in the cast, but sadly he bowed out. This led us to wonder whether we should still go or not, but we decided that we'll go anyway, since it's such an awesome play. Well, to our delight, they replaced NPH with James Marsters -- who I'd never seen in person before either -- for the role of Jack/Earnest.

Well, suffice it to say, the whole presentation was fantastic. It was done like a radio play -- which is good because it was being recorded for broadcast on Public Radio later in the year -- with a sound effects fellow doing things like stomping books and serving tea off to the side, which was adorable. Everyone in the cast was fantastic, my favorite being Matthew Wolf who played Algernon. Another stand out was Charles Busch, who played Lady Bracknell in such a splendid fashion that, if I weren't there to see it, I could believe it was actually a woman. ^_^

I'd not read the play itself in many years, since I was in it myself as part of a theater class way back in college in the early '90's, so I'd forgotten how funny, biting and well-written it was. I laughed a LOT, as was to be expected, and was thoroughly entertained. I'd probably go again if all the shows weren't sold the heck out. ^_~

Overall, it was a ton of fun, and I actually got the book from Amazon that night so I could re-read it. ^_^ If any of y'all are going, I know y'all will love it. Have a great day and weekend everyone. ^_^

My shiny tweets for today!

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My shiny tweets for today!

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My shiny tweets for today!

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Having just awoken from a three hour tour...I mean nap...I'm still basking in the glow of what a truly awesome weekend this has been. Friday night I turned in early in preparation for all the awesome, and it was just as well, because there was so damned much of it. ^_^

Saturday afternoon, akarui_sekai came over (which is awesome in and of itself ^_~) and together we watched the third Harry Potter film. I'd not seen these films before, so she's been edumicating me. Suffice it to say I've been enjoying them a lot (especially talking back to 'em MST3K style ^_~) and will probably (okay, okay, definitely) be reading the books once we've watched all five movies.

After that, we grabbed some nommy Thai food and headed over to downtown LA to see a free concert of the music of Battlestar Galactica given by Grand Performances. We got there maybe a bit too early (we were told emphatically to get there two hours ahead of time to get a good seat), but this gave us plenty of time to eat our yummy food picnic style (with an awesome picnic basket and all) and socialize with friends who came to see the show, several of whom trekked down from San Fransisco, and rightly so.

The concert itself -- much like the one from last year -- was frakking amazing. Seriously, there are few things as magical (yeah, I like that word ^_~) as good live music, especially good live orchestral music. The music of Battlestar Galactica is so amazing in its power, its energy and its emotion that it's just all-consuming when you hear it performed live. Brendan's Band -- led by composer/conductor Bear McCreary's brother Brendan -- opened the show, and they were frakking fantastic as well. Need to pick up their albums at some point.

After that we went back to akarui_sekai's place to crash, which was made difficult by a puppy with a problematic tummy, the poor thing, so neither of us slept much due to concern and what not. Eventually we dragged ourselves up and back down to LA for today's screening of Can't Stop the Serenity, which was the fourth year we've run it and the third screening I myself have had a part in running as well.

With a final attendance of around ninety people, we actually had more people in attendance that I had originally feared. We had a wonderful time watching our beloved movie with a bunch of Browncoats and raised well over $1,000 for Equality Now based on initial projections. akarui_sekai even won something in our prize drawing: An adorable little knit Jayne hat on a keychain which is just tooooo darned cute.

Once the screening was over, a little over a dozen of us walked over to Sushi Dan's for a celebratory "OMG we made it through our first screening" lunch, which was full of nommy goodness. After that, I was dropped off back home so akarui_sekai could go home and take care of her puppy, and I immediately crashed to the welcoming paws of my two kitties, who were happy to see me...yet annoyed as to me being gone overnight. You can't please 'em all I s'pose. ^_^

So all in all, a wonderful weekend of amazing company, frakking awesomely magical music, great food and a wonderful movie. Who has an awesome life? Yeah, this guy. ^_~ Hope y'all had a wonderful weekend too, and a magical (yes, there's that word again) week ahead. ^_^

My shiny tweets for today!

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My shiny tweets for today!

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My shiny tweets for today!

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My shiny tweets for today!

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My shiny tweets for today!

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Hey folks, we have some updates on the SoCal Browncoats website regarding this Sunday's Can't Stop the Serenity LA screening, but I'll go into some of 'em here.

First, QMx is having a live auction in which they're auctioning off a prototype of a Jayne little damn hero figurine. You can also bid remotely if you wish, and bidding will start at 10 AM on Sunday!

Secondly, the cut-off time for online ticket sales for LA will be 11:59 PM tomorrow night (Thursday, 6/11/09), so if you want to buy your tickets before the show, click here. Tickets will also be available on-site the morning of the screening. All pre-ordered tickets will be available at will-call the morning of the show.

Thirdly, if you weren't able to get a shirt, the CSTS Global organizers are setting up another round of printing, so you can pre-pay for your shirt on Sunday if you wish.

Thank you all for supporting Can't Stop the Serenity, and we'll see you on Sunday! Woohoo! ^_^

My shiny tweets for today!

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My shiny tweets for today!

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Hey kids, Can't Stop the Serenity LA is in less than a week -- this Sunday, June 14th -- so head over to the SoCal Browncoats website to buy your tickets today! Hope to see ya there! ^_^

My shiny tweets for today!

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My shiny tweets for today!

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