Wow, seems to be my day for criticizing. I just got back from that Newton Summer Stage production of Jekyll and Hyde, and I have quite a bit to say. So read on after the jump.
I just went to the Natick Mall for the second time in two days and tried my hand at getting a washer/dryer setup again. This time I researched better and got something that will fit anywhere (unless someone, somehow, had 24inch doors, but *meh*). But while at the mall, I was struck with this horrible and sickening feeling. They have expanded the mall by huge amounts, and now there are multiple parking garages. There are even at least 2 where you have to PAY to park. PAY TO PARK AT A MALL! What is this? And, to top it all off, they built a rotary into this whole thing. It was my understanding that people are trying to get rid of rotaries, not build more.
So inside the mall, I couldn’t find a single store I was inclined to enter (besides Sears, and even then I didn’t really want to be there). Store after store of designer crap at inflated and stupid prices. The place is so big (and bloated) that I couldn’t even walk through the whole thing; I had no idea where the new section would end, so I decided to stop wasting my time and head back. To top it all off, my dad suggested I ask the concierge/mall services desk something yesterday. So I though ‘oh sure, its just around the corner by the entrance’. But no, that’s now a Dunkin’ Donuts. I had to walk through a huge bit of mall to find the stupid thing!
And all through the mall were all these people so totally happy to shell out excessive amounts of money to these stores, like the good mindless consumers they are. I even went to get lunch at the food court before leaving today and had to deal with some sort of ad embedded in the table (I didn’t even look at what it was, but its all this subliminal stuff). Add that to the signs and screens and flashing stuff in your face and ears all over the place, and it started to feel like an episode of Sliders I watched recently. You know, the one where they slide into a world with these huge malls in the sky and subsequently discover all these subliminal layers to the advertisements that cause people to get so far into debt that they essentially become indentured servants/slaves to the mall.
Its despicable.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I just got an email about a sale at Newegg! (Just kidding, but I’m not totally blind to my own consumerism ;p)
-K
Subsection 3, paragraph 15, line 6, of the Shadow Proclamation… wait, sorry. Wrong ‘fictional’ universe (not if the multiverse has anything to say about it). That would be what we call a crossover, and no one wants to read that, right? ;p
Ok, so just to reiterate for those who never got the hint *cough cough*, having an account lets me make you privy to private posts. And I’m going to be writing at least 2 more in the near future.
On that note, I will just say that the washer/dryer delivery didn’t go as I wanted (read: didn’t go at all). Thats all I’m saying here, but stay tuned for a much more anger-filled post, for those of you with accounts.
And then I’ll finish Mysterium stuff.
-K
$364,060 Soul Dollars
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Wow, you know, you write on one person’s LiveJournal and then delay writing Mysterium poasts, and suddenly there are more hits that in a long time. I can’t remember the last time I saw this many hits in a day.
One thing I found interesting at Mysterium was how many people there were from the Boston/Massachusetts/New England area. Its very cool to know that there are so many of us around. There were also a fair few people, older of course, who had lived in around here in the past but have since moved away. Apparently, there was even a mini-Mysterium a few years ago in Boston, but I either didn’t know or chose not to go, I’m not sure which.
Oh, and I should put this disclaimer before I go any further: if you don’t already know, I am horrible with names. Faces are OK, but I can’t place names. So, I’m going to be vague or guessing with a lot of names from here on in, so don’t get all angry at me, eh?
Anyway, on to day 2. I got there a little before 10 as I had been told TOMB people should be there at 10. I started chatting with someone with a laptop who seemed to be trying to figure out a good way for all of us (45 people or so in the TOMB group) to get there easily. Since the idea of forcing people to drive into Boston was out of the question (I certainly wasn’t driving into Boston), I suggested getting people to a Newton T station and going to the Fenway stop. So we figured out the, very simple, route to Longwood down 128; I chose Longwood, of course, because of the ample sized parking garage for boatloads of people.
Of course, then poor Eleri came in and was saying how the only way the committee had figured out to get there was to take 8 people at a time in the hotel shuttle to a bus stop and make lots of transfers till we got there. So I let the other guy suggest it to her a few minutes later (me, be proactive myself? nah), and stepped in to help with the explanation. Lo and behold, she was thrilled at this simple idea, and so we proceeded to figure out about drivers and such with the help of Nagi, who also was somewhat familiar with the T. Go figure, somehow I managed to become an expert on Boston public transit; I even got a volunteer pin (though I’m not sure the committee actually knew that, heh).
Ok, I’m being long winded again, and I need to go to sleep so I can get up in time to drive to Worcester and have a washer/dryer delivered. I’ll continue this later :P
-K
Ok, time to write the nice big poast about Mysterium. Though first, I will say that I had my physical today, and I’ve apparently lost weight somehow. Go figure!
Anyway, onwards.
Friday: Got there around 3:30, and registration was kinda/sorta setup… but thankfully it was simple if you pre-registered because your pin was already made and whatnot. Certainly easier than a Siggraph registration. It was mostly just meet and greet for a while until things got sorted out and the Heek tournament started. Didn’t play, but it was fun to watch (”well obviously, in a 2-2-1 combination, the people with the winning 2 win”… yeah). Met Sorceress who’s from Quincy and then chatted with MrM3Fan and his brother and dad. The 4 of us ended up trying to find food in the Burlington Mall, and then proceeded to make fun of security guards on Segways. Its just like being at school, except at school they have guns and are registered state police.
After that, there was a bit of sitting around waiting for Eleri to come out of the Age Building tutorial so I could pre-pay for TOMB the next day; though it turned out I could have just payed the next morning *shrug*. It was fun though, sat and listened to Eric L. talk about assorted history of the Turner/Cyan relationship (him being someone who works for Turner and knows this stuff). But that didn’t last too long because a fun circle started singing Red and Black from Les Mis. on the floor, so of course I had to go over there. And of course, the singing stopped just before I sat down, but oh well, heh.
Also on Friday, I saw River’s plushies of various creatures from the Myst series. Of course, I saw them all weekend, but he was finishing a small Sunner (I think) from Riven that was all white so that everyone could sign it, and then he worked on a Ytram, ‘painting’ on the ’spots’ so that he could give it away in the pool of raffle stuff on Sunday. His plushies are really nicely done, since he’s a professional, and he has really nice patterns for them that he wants to sell in a book to Myst fans. The problem is, he sent the request, along with a Squee, to Cyan two years ago, and he hasn’t heard a damned thing. Hopefully we can all get Cyan to decide next year, since they are going to host Mysterium in Spokane again next year (but I’m jumping ahead of myself).
Um, I think thats it for what happened on Friday. I’m actually going to spread this out of multiple poasts so that I don’t have to do it all at once (but I can still post something). So, thats all for now.
-K
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