I've decided to step away from the internet for a while. It's eating up too much of my precious time.

I really do wish that people I've chosen to call friends would act more like a friend and less like a bastard.

Why is it that, whenever I try to be a friend to somebody, they treat me like shit? Of course, this could be the reason I have no close friends now. I'm too nervous about being abused again.

Anyway. All teh bored drama is making me tired and cranky. I like Ed's World a lot. Ed was the only smart man in the world, you know.

And since it's not OVERWHELMINGLY HUGE, I'm hoping to see a few bubsters and Spartuses and Krissys and AmandaPandas over there. And lots of others too. :)

Holy crap. The reserve for the e-Bay sale of the Board was met yesterday night. $9,850 AU! Jeebus fark.

That sound you're hearing would be my jaw scraping the floor.

Over four grand in American dollars. For a UBB! *blinks* *be's gobsmacked*

I'm astonished. Really. I'm not sure what to think about this. I mean, ok, good thing the board is still a going concern. But FOUR GRAND?

Shit Storm, Shit Storm, Roly Poly Shit Storm...

Well, I'm faced with a sort of conundrum. There's all sorts of angsty stuff happening over at The Board, which involves a lot of people that I like being very upset. Including myself.

The guy who owns the code for the Board is trying to auction it off to the highest bidder. For over $1000 AU dollars. The reasoning behind this is that, when he pulled a power trip, and was called on it, he decided to step down out of his Head Janitor status. Now, he's selling it, and if it doesn't make reserve on e-Bay, he gets to step back into his Head Janitor role and do whatever the smeg he wants, whenever he wants, and the people who help run the board (Hey, I'm one of those people!) don't get to say a good god damn thing about it.

This pisses me off to no end. And yes, I don't care that this is a public blog. He's being a wanker, and I say this for all to hear, including said wanker.

If I had even the SLIGHTEST bit more knowledge about coding and running a UBB, I'd set up one myself. Just so that way, I'd be able to control what the devil is going on. Benevolent dictatorship. ;-)

In less drama-ridden news, I went to Toys R Us the other day, and got myself some new toys. Silly Putty should be on a short list of simple things that relieve stress. As should little green army men and Mr. Potato Heads. And Lava Lamps. I really wanted to get a Cabbage Patch Kid. They make them like they used to again, none of this silly "They eat things, like water and imaginary food and, incidentally, hair..." stuff. But they were $60! Holy cow! I had, like, 8 of them when I was a kid, and I'm pretty sure that they weren't that expensive. (Granted, this was back in the 80s, when Reagan-omics was in full swing...) There was one that had cornsilk blonde curly hair, and her name was Cynthia Breegan. Awwww!

Of course, the other reason that Chuk and I go to Toys R Us is to baby watch. Munchkins of every kind, all over the place! Baby baby baby baby! I almost went into cute convulsions.

But, wow, toys sure are different these days. Fer example. There's a new type of the old Operation game. It's the bloke with the nose, yeah, but it's only his head. It's about a foot tall, and there's a hole in the top if it. And there's little plastic gew-gaws of different shapes in there. And you have to reach into his head, see if you can tell the difference between the shapes, and pull out a specific one. It's called Operation: Brain Surgery.

Gah. Morbid. I can only imagine what this is teaching children. "Yes, honey, people have little plastic things in their heads, and it's perfectly all right to try to reach in and grab them. Also, brain surgery is easy, anyone can do it!"

Also, the television marketing tie ins are overwhelming. Ok, yeah, I had all the TV stuff when I was a kid. But the toys themselves didn't do much. My Little Ponys just stood (or sometimes sat) there. G.I. Joes didn't talk, except in my head. Legos were sold in generic packs, and sure as hell didn't become Yoda or Hogwarts when I was done with them. And Yu-Gi-Oh wasn't even a pipe dream. Hell, the guy who designed that show was still playing D&D in his mother's basement when I was 7.

Speaking of D&D... I've re-discovered how fun it is to play with a d4. That is all.

Don't you just hate it when you write out a really long and angsty blog entry, only to see it vanish before your very eyes for no good reason?

I know I sure do. Blogger busy and full my sweet fanny adams.

Gonna get my own website soon, and not deal with this smeg anymore. Yes, yes I am.

Ok. Lack of updates can be blamed on the media. Or space aliens. Whatever. (Hmmm, maybe the media ARE all space aliens!)

Not a lot going on, really. I mean, tours and stuff. Yeah. Good stuff happening at home. We've gotten a new fridge, two new sofas, a whole slew of nifty Ikea accessories and a digital camera.

Yes, I am a DINK*. How did you know?

My parents came and took my tour today. Which was fantastic, and I'm really glad they did. But...

Ok, daddy the proud needs to come out to see my tour. Daddy the director needs to stay at home. See, my dad, being a director, insists that he knows everything about giving a performance. So today, for the first time, I wear sunglasses on the tour. Not DARK BLACK or anything, just mildly purple. You can still see my eyes and stuff. But dad gets off the tour and says, "You'd get more laughs if you weren't wearing sunglasses."

Daddy, I love you, but you're not a Universal Tour Guide trainer. You don't know how this works. Please do not give me notes. Please do not assume that I'm getting no laughs. (Actually, I got MORE laughs with the sunglasses than I usually do. I think that the "Cool" factor comes into play. Then, when I get really doofy, it's even funnier.) My mom was mortified that he was giving me notes right in the middle of all those people. As was I.

But the rest of the day flew by, and I got over it.

So pictures coming soon. The new camera is very, very spiffy, by the way. Fuji FinePix 2600, 2.0 megapixel, optical and digital zoom. You can make little quicky movies on it, too, so that's fun. Chuk and I are having way too much fun taking pictures of each other. (And no, you can't see those pictures. THOSE will not be on-line.)

DINK = Double Income, No Kids, in case you weren't aware...

From insistance from Krissy, I am updating the blog. A few days late, but what the hey.

Yesterday was a great day. Charlie and I went to the LA Natural History Museum. If you've never been, check out http://www.nhm.org/

Every summer, they do a butterfly habitat exhibit. And as I'd never seen it before, I just had to go.

Wow!

What a wonderful, beautiful world this is that has butterflies in it! We spent a good half an hour in there, just sitting around and watching the butterflies do their thing. They even had a big Luna Moth. Now that is a beautiful thing.

We also saw the 3D IMax movie about the International Space Station. Holy cow. Now that is frigging cool. My mouth was just open in amazement from start to finish. If it's playing anywhere near you, for the love of Pete, check it out! It's about 50 minutes long, and the views! I can't gush about it enough. Go see, go see, go see!

So Charlie and I are re-discovering the art of dating. And I'm thrilled. We're going to go miniature golfing next week. And if I'm working on Thursday, he, his mom, and our niece Mya are all coming to see my tour. And if I'm not working, we're all going to the park together.

Every day in every way, we're getting better and better.