by john | Dec 6, 2010 | Travel
From the Great White North, although it wasn’t really white, in the sense that there was no snow, but it was cold in New York City this weekend. Suzy and I went up for our anniversary, just a quick Friday-Sunday jaunt, and had a great time. We spent time wandering around Rockefeller Center looking at all the decorations there, then checked out some of the 5th Ave. store window decorations, like the killer windows at Saks, then I took her shopping at Mood Fabrics on Saturday (she’s a Project Runway junkie, so this stop was a must), and I got to pop into Midtown Comics on the way back to the hotel.
Saturday night we saw American Idiot at the St. James, and it was a great show. Except for the seats. Let’s face it, I’m a big guy. I know I’m overweight, but I should still be able to fit into a seat in most places. But the older Broadway theatres are built for midgets! I literally had to sit almost completely sideways in my chair with my legs out in the aisle, because there was no way I was going to fit comfortably facing completely forward. This of course led to a sore neck by the time the show was over. But the show was very good, I highly recommend it to both fans of Green Day and of high-tech shows, because this was certainly a technical bonanza. If you’re looking for deep plot, go elsewhere. We both felt that there were several cliched moments in the show, but that the strength of the popular songs and the incredible lighting covered for it. On a purely lighting geek side, now I see what the new VLX fixtures can really do, and I was blown away by the intensity.
Then we went right next door to Angus McIndoe for a nice post-meal dinner, and I’m pretty sure it was the most reasonably priced, well-prepared, well-served meal we had all weekend. The service was excellent, the food was great, the atmosphere was wonderful. I highly recommend it for a quick bite after the show. We got out for under a hundred bucks, in a restaurant in the heart of the theatre district, so you know you can’t beat that. And we each had a drink with our dinner! Very reasonable prices and great food.
Here are a few photos from the trip –
Rockefeller Center
View from our hotel window – gotta love travelling on Marriott Rewards points! Two nights in the heart of Times Square for free!
The Mood Fabrics shop dog – Swatch
Suzy in front of the big tree
Me in Times Square with the World’s Greatest Hat
by john | Nov 22, 2010 | Real Life, Travel, Vegas, Writing
It’s going to be a busy few weeks around the old Casa de Hartness (since the last few months haven’t been chock-full AT ALL). This week is obviously Thanksgiving, which we’ll be spending in South Carolina with mi familia. It’s either a note on how frugal I’ve become or what a cheap bastard I am that I’d really like to take a Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake with us for dessert, but I’m balking at dropping the $50 on it. It’s not that $50 is a huge sum, but it’s a lot of money for one 10″ cheesecake, and I’ve gotten cheap about things like dessert recently.
Then Sunday I have a book signing at Park Road Books, which is one of only a couple of independent bookstores left in the Charlotte area. I’ll be signing anything anyone wants to buy, hopefully my restock order will be in by then (and hopefully I’ll need it!).
Next week I’ll be in Atlanta the first part of the week for work and then when I come back to Charlotte Suzy and I will be getting on a plane to go to New York for our 15th wedding anniversary. Sometimes it feels like just a few months ago that we were in college down at Winthrop together, and now we’re going off to the Big Apple to see the big tree at Rockefeller Center, check out America Idiot on Broadway, and go shopping at Mood fabrics in the Garment District (I’ll take a book, hopefully they have chairs for husbands). Suzy and my sister Bonnie are HUGE Project Runway fans, so this trip to Mood is a real highlight for her. Me, I could meh about the whole thing because I don’t know anything about fabric, but if it makes her happy it’s worth the trip.
And then I’m home for a couple days and then I turn around and head off to Las Vegas for the annual WPBT debauchery-thon. I’ve got a room at the MGM and would like to do a small book signing there for some folks if people let me know that they want copies of books. That will take some logistical figuring out between now and then.
And then there’s Christmas. We’re probably not doing much in the way of gift exchange, because there’s not much we want, and because we’re going to NYC a few weeks before Christmas. I think the whole family is pitching in together to get my parents a new TV (which I can blog about here because my parents are blissfully internet-free), so that will be a nice upgrade over their 20-year old Zenith console TV. We’ll have to get a stand, too, because despite my sister’s protestations, having a TV sitting on top of the old, busted TV is never acceptable.
Oh yeah, speaking of sister – she’ll be staying with us for the week after I get back from Vegas because of her second hip replacement. Yeah, her second hip replacement this year. Sucks to be her. Except that she came through the first one with flying colors and now is in a lot less pain, so I guess it sucks less to be her. But anyway, that’s neither here nor there, since Suzy is the one with the caretaker gene and my contribution to having her in my house for a week is mostly whining about sleeping in the guest bedroom.
So that’s life here lately. As you can see, I’m trying to make a more concerted effort to revive the blog. At least this week. I’ve started on the sequel to Hard Day’s Knight, so hopefully it will be ready to go sometime in the spring. And I got word from Rob that the ebook conversion for HDK should be finished this month, so it will come out on Kindle in time for Christmas, which is exciting. I have about enough story for five books with those characters right now, and I’m working on a couple of other things intermittently. I don’t see me becoming Hocking-level prolific anytime soon, but maybe in a few years I’ll generate some real revenue from this little side gig and be able to focus on it more full-time.
by john | Nov 19, 2010 | Comics, Travel
Last weekend I went to Raleigh to participate in the NC ComiCon. I had a great time, despite feeling kinda crappy all weekend with the crud that eventually levelled me and kept me out of of work for the first half of this week. But I got to meet some great folks, including Jim Valentino and Richard Case, and my booth neighbor Rob Anderson, creator/writer/publisher of Animal Control: Special Creatures Unit, a futuristic comic featuring funky hybrid animals like gatorsnakes, pandadogs and pocket dragons. Rob was very friendly and in good humor through the weekend and his upbeat patter kept me from turning into a bag of phlegm-filled sulk like I can easily do when I don’t feel well. I just hope I didn’t infect him with the crud as a thank you gift! Also had dinner with Rob and Chris Flick, who writes the hilarious webcomic Capes n’ Babes, which I’ve been a subscriber to for a couple years now, so that was a blast. I sold about enough books to make the whole thing financially worthwhile, so I’ll be on the lookout for other cons to exhibit at in the future.
And of course there was cosplay. The costume contest was Sunday, so anyone who wandered by my table with a decent costumed got corralled into having a photo with one or more of my books. Here are some of my faves.
by john | Apr 4, 2010 | Poker, Real Life, Travel, Writing
Not a ton of time before I’m off to Atlanta, but a whirlwind week here at Casa de Falstaff.
Hired a new sales guy at work. We didn’t really have a position open, but when a competitor closed their doors unexpectedly we hired their Sales Manager quick like bunny. He’s a sharp guy and I think he’ll add a lot to our team long-term, but now I have 13 people reporting to me when it was 5 a little more than a year ago. Still trying to strike the right balance between the Sales part of my job and the Manager part, but that’s going to be an eternal struggle I think. Currently leaning more on the manager bits with three new hires in the past few months, so my other salespeople are having to step up to carry the load. Good thing for me I’ve got good people. Still kinda shaking my head at the speed with which we created a position and got this guy hired – our company just doesn’t work that quickly. Ever. We tend to expand very slowly, so getting this deal done in eight days was huge.
Had a book signing at a bookstore in Salisbury yesterday, and sold two books. Pretty good for a glorious Easter weekend sunny day, where no one wanted to be indoors. I had forgotten about the signing until last week, so I didn’t do enough to promote it, but I’m still learning the ropes on this whole thing.
Got my first short story accepted into Connotation Press, which was exciting. It’s a story I wrote on a lark, but I think it’s pretty good. I’ll link it up here when it goes live. I also started another novel, which I mentioned here earlier in the week.
Booked my first winning session at poker of the year, and it only took me into the 2nd quarter to do it. Fortunately for me, it was a nice win and offset most, if not all of my year’s losses so far. And we all seemed to have a good time, too. It’s been nice the last couple of weeks to get the home game going again semi-regularly.
But there won’t be a game at my house this week, because my travel schedule is ridiculous (I know, what else is new?). I leave for Atlanta today, stay there ’til Wednesday. Head home on Wednesday, stopping in G-Vegas to meet with the new guy, who will be working from his home office there. Then Thursday morning I get up and head towards Manteo, in the Outer Banks, for a Friday morning meeting. North Carolina isn’t a very tall state, but going from Charlotte to the far northeastern tip is every bit of a seven-hour drive. Friday I have a meeting in Manteo that will likely take most of the day, so I figure I’ll only make it as far as Raleigh on my way home. Get up Saturday morning and drive home from Raleigh, collect the wife and head down to my parents’ place in SC for a belated Easter cookout in the afternoon. Bail on that around 7 and head back to Charlotte for a birthday party for two of our best friends. Really it’s just one buddy’s 30th, but his girlfriend’s Bday is a couple days before, and she’s a close friend too, so it’s like a twofer.
Then Sunday I’m sleeping for 17 hours.
I’ll try to catch up with y’all some time this week, and I’ll try to keep up with the Poem a Day thing for April. I wrote two yesterday while I was having the less-than-eventful signing, so that gives me a cushion for today, right? No. But it was a nice thought.
Happy Easter to those of you that celebrate such things, and Go Blue Devils!
by john | Mar 15, 2010 | Real Life, Travel
So there are a lot of things I did wring with my computer security that led to plenty of anxiety over the last week. I’ll out myself here with all the stupid things I did in hopes that some of you will realize that theft and burglary are real problems in a down economy, and that it can in fact happen to you.
1) I didn’t password-protect my laptop. It’s a simple thing, but I thought it would be too much of a pain in the ass to put a password lock on my machine. That left my computer hugely vulnerable to the folks that stole it. As far as I can tell, they made no effort to access any of my accounts, even though I had a ton of stored passwords on there. So I lucked out in having stupid crooks that didn’t realize the potential goldmine they had found, but it still left me standing in the hotel lobby using their internet terminal until 2:30 AM trying to remember all the places I had online accounts and changing those passwords.
2) I didn’t password-protect my browser. Now I use a master password on my Firefox (that is different from the password to the computer) so that even if someone gets into the machine, they have another roadblock to get into my stored passwords. I know none of this is foolproof, but it’s all about making things inconvenient for thieves. I made it too easy this time, so I’m determined not to make that same mistake again.
3) I carried too much expensive shit in one bag. My backpack was worth nearly $4,500 by the time everything was tallied up, and that’s just nuts. It’s a great idea to carry your digital SLR in a bag with your laptop if you’re a pro photographer, but if you’re Joe Average like me, a separate bag might have saved my camera at least.
4) I was lazy. I sat at the office thinking about driving back to my hotel and dropping off my backpack, but I didn’t want to fight traffic for 30 minutes just to drop off my bag at the hotel and turn right around and go back to Little Five Points. You can bet that my bag won’t be sitting on the passenger seat in plain view ever again, and next time around I’ll certainly take the extra steps to secure my shit in my hotel room.
Through all of this, Nationwide has been great, they’ve responded to all my requests quickly and with no BS. I couldn’t be happier with the customer service I’ve received from them. I doubt I’ll replace my digital camera right away, but when I do it looks like the Nikon D90 is the way to go. It’s a significant jump in price from the Rebel XTi that I had, so I’ll have to save my pennies. But I think I’ll come out of this not hurting too badly. Thanks for all the concern, it was a huge nuisance and a feeling of violation, but now everything is getting back to normal.
by john | Feb 26, 2010 | Music, Real Life, Travel
Not really, although it kinda feels like I’m back from the dead. I realize that I’ve neglected this little piece of the interwebs for a while, but that’s what happens when real life gets in the way. And speaking of real life getting in the way, that’s what today’s whine is all about. You see, a whole bunch of my friends are getting together next weekend in Greenville to play cards, drink like college kids and generally behave very poorly in a celebration of Neanderthalism known as Mastodon Weekend. I was there for the events last year, and can honestly say that it was one of the best weekends of the year. Note that I said “my friends” will be there next weekend. I, unfortunately, will not.
Every year since 1994, I have been in attendance at the Southeastern Theatre Conference annual convention. Since 1996, this has been part of my job, to go to the show and drum up business. This year I’m teaching three workshops, hosting a reception and will generally behave only moderately badly while on the company’s nickel. Typically this is the trade show I get the most joy out of attending, as it’s more a gathering of several hundred old friends than a work outing. And we get a bunch of business out of the show, which doesn’t hurt my feelings. So this year my love for SETC will be tempered a little by the party I’m missing in Greenville. Both events have some similar appeal – these are groups of disparate individuals brought together by a love of either poker or theatre, and I only get to see the attendees once or twice a year. It just sucks that this year the two events that are the brightest parts of my spring overlap. Oh well, drink one for me in G-Vegas, and I’ll drink one for y’all in Lexington.
Anybody wanna join me & Suzy in New Orleans for Memorial Day Weekend? A friend of hers from high school will be down there at that time, and I’ve got a shitload of Marriott points burning a hole in my account, so I’m gonna eat up about a week of vacation time and travel to NOLA. Lemme know if you will or can be anywhere close and we’ll hang.
And in other upcoming ridiculous news – the week of March 9 may be the sickest concert lineup I’ve ever done that didn’t involve a festival. If you’ve got the chops, you oughta just hitch a ride with me for the week. Tuesday night in Atlanta I’m going to see Reckless Kelly and Cross Canadian Ragweed on a double bill at the Variety Playhouse. Then Wednesday I’m driving back to Charlotte to see They Might Be Giants at the Visulite (it’s the 20th anniversary of Flood). Then Thursday night I’m going to see Robert Earl Keen at the Neighborhood Theatre. I’ll probably take Friday night off, but if I can drag my ass out, Acoustic Syndicate is playing Friday at the Visulite. Then Saturday night is Southern Culture on the Skids.
Then Sunday I try to recover. Merlefest is around the corner, with a killer lineup, so get your ticekts or be a big fat loser!
