Friday Unrelated Information

1. Last night Mom, Frog, and I sang karaoke at Pipa's Asian Tapas Bar. If you haven't been to Pipa, you are really missing out. They've won the City Weekly "Best of Utah" award for best Asian fusion, and it is well deserved. From standards like BBQ pork and lettuce wraps, to exotic dishes with shark and eel, Pipa is hands-down the best 'chinese food' I have ever ingested. You're life is sorely lacking if you haven't experience the culinary masterstroke of their Snowball Shrimp. The new karaoke night, Thursdays from 7-10pm, is a lot of fun too. I tore up The Cars' "Just What I Needed," Mom nailed "I Will Survive," and Frog even stepped up to do an especially accurate rendition of Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places".

2. Tonight, Genre Zero is putting on a very special dinner show at Sun and Moon Cafe. What is it that is going to make this show special? We're going to break out all of our current material, and maybe even a few of the newer songs that we've been working out. Also between our two whole-band sets our bassist, the legendary Remodel Man, will be performing a solo acoustic set. Following that, I'll be dusting off a few of my most personal and poignant songs, before the band rejoins me to crank out our dazzling electric set.

3. Though I don't attend any more, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't stop by The Peoples' Market this Sunday, for their annual Animal Appreciation Day. This has been one of the most enjoyable days at the market in past years, featuring dogs and cats up for adoption, various animal advocacy groups, and the pets of vendors and customers alike. Perhaps if a certain someone has cooled off enough to no longer consider my mere presence an act of harassment (as the police advised it could be construed - hence my lack of participation in the market this summer), I might even stop by briefly, as I am looking to adopt a kitten...

Have a great weekend everybody!

Friday Unrelated Information

1. A fellow camper sent me some pictures from last week's camping trip. Beyond the glory of the San Rafael:

Yes, that's right: I suited up in full camouflage utilities. I explained that coupled with the red dirt, this would help me have flashbacks - sarcasm, it's wonderful!

2. Tomorrow is the Peoples' Market Seedling Swap & Sale. So if you are so inclined, you can go buy some awesome locally grown tomato starts and plant them.

What a Weekend

Just a brief post this morning to recount some of this weekend's awesomeness:

* My dinner party was fairly successful; everyone seemed to really enjoy the awesome food.

* People's Market, despite a few hiccups, appears to be gearing up for a successful season. I spent some time helping them out at the Live Green Festival at Library Square, and their seedling swap & sale coming up a couple weeks has generated a lot of interest.

* The Chicken de Mayo show at The Garage was entirely awesome. I was on the guest list, first of all, placed there by my friends in No No Yes Yes. The first performer was Tupelo Moan, and they rocked the earth. No No Yes Yes did a great job, too. To finish out the night, The Chickens played some far out jazz that was really rad and very danceable. The crowd was great the whole time, a lot of dancing went down, and at the end of it all I helped the bands with the load out. Fun fun times for him.

* Sunday evening we went to a friend of the family's for outstanding, muy authentico carne asada and quesodillas, followed by Tres Leches milk cake. Deliciouso! My Spanish is no doubt misspelled and hopelessly broken, but the food was great. I also had a blast playing piano tunes with our host; he had learned a bunch of Beatles songs from a book of sheet music.

Now I have a couple of days to gear up for an awesome camping trip. More to come in the following days!

Ahhh! I have felt especially overwhelmed lately. Nothing in particular; I am a bit behind on schoolwork and there are Peoples' Market activities I could be up to, but it isn't really that. I think there is just a lot of apprehension since I (still) don't have internet at home. Also, my apartment has been really cold lately, even with the warm weather.

I am trying to make a daily and weekly schedule and stick to that, I think that will help. Also, I've been trying to go on little walks around my new neighborhood. I would like to switch to either walking, biking, or using public transportation when the weather is nice. I think that will help eat up some of my idle time (the devil for me, always, is my own idle hands), and also help keep me in shape and things.

Okay...gotta put in a solid school day today. I hope you are all out there pulling for me (just a little), I could use the good energy to help push up and out of my little rut I've been in...

People's Market Site Makeover & General Awesomeness

The Peoples' Market website has received a welcome and fabulous update:

We have our friends over at Third Sun to thank, as well as Patrick Commiskey, PR Guru, Tweeting Expert, and horn section in the market's house band. One of the coolest new features is an online vendor application.

In other Peoples' Market news, we have been officially recognized by the IRS as a 501(c) 3 tax-exempt public charity, and we were selected to receive a Pete Suazo Community Justice Award for Community Leadership and Advocacy.

Still no convenient internet at my apartment...regular posts will resume then.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Better Living and I are having friends over tonight for drinks and a fancy dinner, possibly followed by more drinks! Hooray! Now I just have to get the patio set all cleaned up...

2. Dustin finally got his leave all worked out and should be arriving in town sometime during the first week of August. Hooray!

3. This Sunday at the Peoples' Market is "Jordan River Day". Celebrate this vital part of Salt Lake City by riding your bike or floating your boat to the market, as a combined bike ride/boat float will be heading up the river at 2:30pm. There will also be presentations and workshops on the importance of the river. Hooray!

4. Hooray!

Friday Unrelated Information

1. The Peoples' Market is really booked up for music this weekend! We have Misty Rivers scheduled for a long set in the morning, Jose Banillo and everybody from Lutheran Community Services, and Didjeridan may even be there to play his didjeridoo. Of course the house band, Rick, Tiffin, Patrick, and myself will likely play throughout the day. We also have a neat workshop scheduled that day on electric vehicles, starting at 12:30.

2. This weekend, I am going to the Utah Delta Epsion Chi (ΔEX or "DEX") State Officer Retreat. We have a whole day of leadership classes, teambuilding exercises, and the good stuff: decision making. I also get to report on my progress towards starting a ΔEX chapter at Westminster College, where I start as a junior this fall. Woot!

3. I have been talking about the Tau from Warhammer 40k on here, and I think that there may be some unfamiliar readers out there. The Tau are an alien empire in the distant future of the fictional (obviously) Warhammer 40,000 Universe. They control a small but dense piece of space, far from Terra and at the fringe of the Imperium of Man. The Tau have absorbed other species from planets in their empire, all working for "The Greater Good", and have a technology level far beyond that of humans. Consequently, in the game they have many of the best weapons around, and many ways to apply special bonuses to their shooting. As my Blood Angels army is fairly focused on close assault, the Tau get to shoot me up as I try to advance on them, and are usually able to out-maneuver me and delay my assault for several turns if not the whole game. Below is a picture of Josh-from-the-game-store's Tau, from the most recent tournament:





















...and here is a picture from the game, with one of the Tau "Piranhas" advancing on my tactical marines:





















In the game, I eventually shot down both piranhas with that big gun one of my guys is toting, a "multi-melta". However, Josh's Kroot eventually came and took this position over, in what I think was the critical objective that caused me to lose instead of draw. What is a Kroot, you ask? Kroot are one of the main alien species that has joined the Tau empire. I don't have any pictures of Josh's excellently painted Kroot, but here is a picture of mine (they are the guys on the right):




















Okay, folks...have a good weekend! Valentine out.

Busy Weekend

Wow! What a holiday! First, great sunshine at the water-park, and continuing all day on Friday into my parents' big party.

Saturday was a blur...sleeping in, then prepping for the 4th of July celebration, where People's Market had a booth. We also ran a big sack-race that was a huge hit and had kids running in from all over the park to participate. I cut out before the big fireworks show...so I could make it home and head out with Better Living to a park up on Capitol Hill...where we watched fireworks going off all across the valley.

Sunday, the market was a blast, although I caught a lot of open hostility. Apparently, some people just don't have any manners (or class, or humility). It is okay, though...they are like a shadow to me now; an echo of a person. No sense letting one little shadow ruin a fantastic weekend!

And how about all of the SUNSHINE?

Friday Unrelated Information

Taking (stealing) a cue from Better Living, I will reserve Friday posts for random bits of news, info, game talk, and stories that bear little or no relation to one another.

1. Warhammer 40,000 "Planetstrike". So GW came out with a new "expansion" for 40k, "Planetstrike", detailing invasions of planets from space. While that sounds awesome...I just don't know if it merits an entire new book. Also, and I might be wrong, I can't see there being a whole lot of new material in there. We already have drop pods, orbital bombardments, and deep-strike. Are there going to be rules for all sorts of *NEW* drop pods, orbital bombardments, and deep-striking? I guess I can see this sort of as the 40k version of Warhammer Fantasy castle sieges. Which are cool. But I'll bet there won't be, say, cauldrons of boiling oil for your Marines to pour down on the invading Tau. If they are going to put out this product, I would hope for it to have detailed rules/scenarios for sieges, boarding actions on enemy ships, amphibious assaults from the oceans, etc. We'll see.

2. Peoples' Market is in the lead! Apparently, someone nominated the Peoples' Market for a "Nickelodeon Parents' Pick Award" (I am assuming some parent). Now, anyone can vote online for best farmers market in salt lake city...and Peoples' Market has currently edged out the behemoth Downtown Farmers Market for the #1 spot! We're ahead 36% to 32%. So come on, you one or two people who read this, click the link and vote for Peoples' Market! You can vote multiple times; once per day.

3. North Temple / TRAX Community Planning. Last night I attended a "community planning workshop" addressing the TRAX line going in on the the west end of North Temple street going out to the airport. The Mayor and his crew have expressed their desire to turn this stretch of North Temple, home to the power plant, trailer parks, the famed Red Iguana, and some blight, into a "Grand Boulevard". So there we probably about 200 people in attendance, some of whom I knew (thank God), and we listened to different people talk about the TRAX project. It is expected to open late 2011 or early 2012 if I am remembering correctly. Then, we broke up into dozens of little "work groups", where we actually drew on nice big maps of the street what we would like to see. I was pushing for lots of greenspace, community gardens, a community supported agriculture urban farm, and of course several large, impressive 5-15 story office/residential buildings. Let us expand downtown to the West, across I-15, only instead of the empty lots and surface parking that plague the current downtown zone, we'll have green space and parks and gardens and farms. Sounds good to me anyway.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. I won't get any gaming in, although I will probably have some painting time.

Valentine, signing off.

What a fine Tuesday!

Look at that, Salt Lake City!

A big, bright, sun-shiny day! I think I might go play around in the garden! Of course Warhammer is always, always calling to me...I have to finish my Blood Angels for the tournament in August (and I am close to doing so), but then I have decided to re-boot my tiny 500pt Tau force also...and then, my best friend Dustin is coming to visit on leave upon his return from Iraq in a few weeks...so I am scrambling to make some terrain and write some scenarios so we can play at home as well as making some trips to the Friendly Local Gaming Store.

Still, with all that sun...my thoughts turn to gardens and vegetables and such. Speaking of which, I had a great time this weekend at The Peoples' Market, a local west-side farmers market that runs all summer on Sundays and the International Peace Gardens. Some of the issues with the band were a bit off, but I felt that my set went well. I hope everyone else had as good a time as I did!

Well, blogging world...I have a lot to do today...and hopefully some of it can be outside!