Missed Web free your inner fez

an update

There are, perhaps, only a handful of you left who may not know that I served on a grand jury. For six. Long. Months. It was, perhaps, one of the most boring experiences I have ever had in my life. While it was only, for the most part, two days per week, the vast majority of our time we spent waiting. Justice isn't blind, she's slower than a snail. Most of our time was spent watching movies some of us would bring in. Some of us did work, others, read, and many slept. Me? It was very hard to contain myself. You can't expect a person with adult ADD to actually sit around for however many hours without stimulus to behave! Yes, it was very rough.

The saving grace of it all were the people with whom I served. 22 amazing individuals, each with their own story to tell. Each morning, those of us who were the early birds would walk in with breakfast and we'd shoot the shit about how insane the world is. Way too many laughs were held at the expense of the morons who would grace the tabloids. We spoke about life, and shared our experiences with each other. I think that if it wasn't for our little group, each of us would have probably gone insane from this experience... an experience we are not allowed to, by law, to share with others unless we'd like to suffer the penalty of something like a $10,000 USD fine and four years in prison.

When I wasn't in jury duty, I did some work-related travel in September. My first trip was to Austin for the Game Developers Conference there. This was my second time in Austin and I love Austin. It's one of the best towns in the country. I also got to see some longhorns along the road from the airport. They are seriously as majestic in person as they are in photos. In Austin, I got to spend some time with a few of my favorite co-workers, got to see Val again, and Hero Jeff, and finally met the amazing Xannie, Val's daughter. I got a (planned) tattoo on my ankle (yes, it is what you think it is), and also found myself gifted with the wonderful marks of a number of bed bugs, which was completely unplanned and unwelcomed. I also had my first drink of the year. I'm not supposed to drink due to health reasons, but when you work for CCP you pretty much absorb alcohol from all the vikings around you. It was a very good drink ^^

My second trip was my return to Iceland. God, I love that country. This was my second time in Iceland, and my second EVE Online Fanfest. Each year my company puts on a convention for our players. It's an extremely huge affair for everyone involved, and our team is intimately involved in putting on a number of events for attendees. This year we added a poker tournament (I lost to Ryan, my boss's boss's boss, so yes, a wise move on my part ^^) and a battle of the bands tourney, which featured players and devs competing in Rock Band. We had amazing responses to both events and, along with our Silent Auction, raised a lot of money for charity. I also got to meet some of the people I know via email mostly from both our Reykjavik and Atlanta offices, and seeing the old gang again was ozom as always. That's the one thing that does suck about working remotely: you work intimately with people you rarely, if ever, get to see.

I also think I'm much more used to Icelandic water. If ever you go to Iceland you need to know this: cold water smells like rotten eggs. They don't mention this in guide books, but I think it's an extremely important thing to know, especially if you think that that shower you just took is going to make you smell like fart all day (it won't). The other thing to know is, and many a CCPer will dispute me on this point: Hlollabatar makes a much better bacon sub than Nonnabiti. There, I've said it! I prefer the Hollabackgirl subs to Nonni's!

But seriously, Iceland is a country I would recommend to any adventurous person who is not afraid of trying out weird, offensively smelling food. I've come to strongly believe that eating hákarl isn't going to make you a viking but is instead a very amusing joke Icelanders like to play on very drunk foreigners. And no, I am not a viking

And finally, this week marked my third concert with Pixies, one of my favorite bands of all time. I had seen them twice for their reunion tour, but this tour is special: it's in honor of the 20th anniversary of the release of their brilliant Doolittle LP. "Monkey Gone to Heaven" was the song that sold me on them, and it's the final song on Side One. The concert was simply amazing. They started off with some b-sides before doing the entire Doolittle album in order. Lots of brilliant visuals. They did two encores, and then snuck back on stage when everyone was leaving to do a final song. It was amazing seeing everyone rush back to partake in this parting shot, and amazing that no one got hurt.

What's also cool is that my brother Michael is going to see them this weekend. He and his girlfriend are driving out to Boston (if they're not there already) to see them perform in their hometown. Sweet.