Morning status report

Didn't get the best sleep in the world last night. Woke up at about 5:30, couldn't get back to sleep, finally said the heck with it and went in to the computer. Maybe being a little tired will help me nod off better on the bus tonight; I sure hope so.

Before heading to work, I took some screen caps from episodes of Mospeada that I had been doing for the sake of helping one of my friends from the Robotech Research Group puzzle out whether a certain type of motorcycle seen in the show is actually a transformable early-model Cyclone, and discussed them with him. Had a Clif Bar and a Starbucks Double-Shot, then hit the road. Got sprinkled-on a little on the way in, but not too bad.

Got to work, checked my blogs, and listened to a 20-minute interview segment with Harmony Gold producer Tommy Yune about the new Shadow Chronicles project, on Roboblog III: The Odyssey. Interesting stuff, a few things that hadn't come out before, like how Funimation is pestering HG for the coolest stuff it can find to put as extras on the DVD release. If you're a Robotech fan, you should take a listen.

My new router arrived, along with the Cyber Acoustics noise-cancelling headphones I ordered from NewEgg.com. The headphones are very nice. They've got large soft cups, so they fit well over my ears—not like the Maxell ones I had where the cups were smallish and got to pinching my ears pretty badly after an hour or so of use. They won't cancel every sound, of course, not for $25, but I expect that what they will cancel combined with what they won't let in will combine for a good, quiet listening experience on the bus.

Still undecided on the blanket issue. Would like to check with a blanket-carrying store to see if they carry anything that would meet my needs, but there aren't any near me that I know of. Guess I'll have to check the yellow pages or Google Local.

For now, I'm starting to feel kind of hollow, so I should go downstairs and see if the vending machines have anything edible for lunch. Or maybe I'll see if the rain is light enough that I can get by with biking a couple of blocks for something. More later.

Final Trip Prep

At work today I called down to the Kmart to see if they had anything like a travel blanket. I figured I really ought to have one just in case I needed it to help sleep. I guess I have a thing about needing blankets to help me get to sleep; not quite as bad as Linus, but I need to feel that weight on me as a sort of mental cue that I should be engaged in the business of sleeping. Which is why I tend to run the air conditioner and pile blankets on, when it would probably be more economical to turn it up a few notches and use fewer blankets. Ah well. Anyway, they said they had a couple of them, and would hold them at the service desk for me to come down and check them out. So go down I did, also picking up a 20 oz refrigerator "chug bottle" that's just the right size for that hip pouch. I could just have used 20 oz bottled water and refilled the bottle, but the wider mouth of the bottle means I can put ice in it from ice machines and it'll stay cold longer. Waited a half hour, caught the next bus back, and commenced the business of finalizing my packing as well as setting the router up.

Managed to get the router working without much trouble, apart from an annoying habit of timing out my TinyFugue connection to a chatserver I use, but t hat's dealable. To celebrate getting pretty much everything squared away, I went down to Imo's and had a pizza. Well, 3/4 of one, anyway. The rest of it is in a ziplock baggie in my fridge, and should make a good late-night dinner for me when I get back on Monday. As I got back, I happened to notice that my iPod's battery was down to a sliver. Oops. Attached it to my computer to charge; hopefully an hour and change of charging will serve to play a few hours of music for me to sleep by.

I've decided I'll be checking my duffle bag and carrying on my knapsack and laptop bag (as well as the hip pack, which doesn't really count as a "bag" in my opinion). Toward that end, I arranged my stuff so that my knapsack had a few snacks, blanket, pillow, a book, and writing materials in it, and my duffle has all the stuff I won't want at least until I hit the con. And if I should decide I misjudged, I can always change stuff around when I change buses at St. Louis.

Heh…an hour before catching the cab is probably not the best time to rummage around for your buried dice bag. I found it, though. I don't know if I'll really need it—I hadn't been planning to get in any games—but better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Went ahead and showered, took care of the cat litter and feeding the cat, put plastic bags around the air conditioning vents in the bedrooms. I plan to leave the thermostat set to 80 or 85ish so the cat doesn't overheat or anything if it gets really hot, and just cool the main rooms where she'll be. Now it's about time to get dressed and finalize the preparations, as the cab should be here in 15 minutes. I may leave a voice LJ or two in a while; barring that, if you need to get a message to me quick, click on my user info and use the send a text message to my phone function. I may or may not also be logged into AIM.

See folks around!