The Twilight Report

cracker

2007-09-30T02:26:00

Backyard barbecue, warm fire and I suddenly thought to myself: SMORES! Then I remembered no graham crackers in Australia. Pity, except I hate graham crackers anyway.

04

2006-08-09T06:30:00

These were taken at Bradstock 2005. See also:

Party

2006-05-20T21:44:00

Last night we had a birthday party for Mitchell, who is my boss at my old job at Sydney Uni, and somebody who likes bears. All his machines at work (which I have been sys-admin-ing) are named after bears. He is an old friend of my mother, so we had the party at the flat. I took some pictures:

friends.whitedactyl.com/gnr/public/mitchbday2006

Pictures

2005-11-22T18:55:00

e took most of these pictures at my Final Enchilada party.

Party goers enjoying themselves. (more)

Leaves

2005-10-31T19:45:00

Party went well. It was nice to see Megan, Sherry and e, all of whom traveled from out of state to celebrate. Went hiking with Megan on both Saturday and Sunday, it was esepcially bright and colorful on Sunday.

P.S. I am ready to quit now.

Also: "Terwilleger" contributed this Hiku:

enchiladas good
full gut and visual joy,
next time, australia

Everyone should come visit me February in Salt Lake City, and Australia in 2006.

Australia Day Party 2005

2005-01-30T15:05:00

The shoe is on the other foot

People usually ask, when they see pictures of my parties, "Yes Graham, but where are you in these pictures." Usually the answer is "behind the camera." Anyway, I asked someone to take this picture so as to provide some evidence that I actually attended my own party. I am looking off in the other direction so as to pretend that it is a candid shot, when in fact it is not. I am such a good actor.

Anyway, the party went off really well. Unfortunately, e couldn't make it because her dog got injured while frolicking in the snow, but before she left (and well before anyone else arrived) she got me started on the apple martinis. Kathy and Steve showed up bringing treats from the southern hemisphere. They were in New Zealand over Christmas, and apparently Kathy did what I do when in Australia, which is to buy up the sweets section of the grocery store.

Some people actually wore green and gold. I had a green "jumper" which my mum knitted with real Australian wool and a yellow T-shirt underneath which I got today for the occasion. Kathy had some beads and Mike had a tie-died T-shirt which included some green and gold and a basketball. When are Kathy and Mike going to go head to head on the basket ball court anyway? But I digress.

Joanna called to wish everyone a happy Australia Day, which was sweet.

The meat pies got devoured. I had like three and a half pies, and there is about half a pie left over. I should actually be able to finish it off before I leave on Thursday. I owe this to the indestructibility of the recipe, which I will be posting here at some point, because I am sure there is stuff that I got wrong.

Oh speaking of candid shots, here is one

Cicely, Joe and Mike

of Joe which is totally candid. He had no idea I was taking this photograph while he was pointing his finger at my camera. Anyway, here are some more shots:

Australia Day

2005-01-18T22:07:00

I'm having an Australia Day party on the 29th. Visit the Invite page for more information:

http://www.wdlabs.com/australiaday

Fair Thee Well?

2004-12-15T21:06:00

Today was the holiday bowling party. I don't bowl because years ago when I was just a wee little Graham Cracker, I attempted something kind of dumb and made the stupidest split second decision I have ever made in my life. I tried to catch a bowling ball when I accidentally dropped it. Kids, don't try this at home. My right middle finger is permanently disfigured, although not in a way that you would ever notice.

At the party, Linda takes me aside and asks if I want to sign the going away card for Kari. I didn't even know Kari was moving. I don't talk to Kari any more, not since The Incident really. We're not really friends anymore, I am not even sure that we ever were. I didn't really feel like telling Linda that I didn't want to sign the cared, so I just printed "Good Luck in CA - GRAHAM" in a space that hadn't been overwhelmed already by signatures.

I don't understand why Kari is such a popular person. If I had to think of the least nice person I have meet since moving to New York I have to say it would be her. Even Richard doesn't like her: he said good riddance. As Kathy would say, dealing with her is so like being in Junior High all over again.

I left early with the intention of coming home and doing some work, but let's face it. This project isn't going to be done by the end of the year. Who am I kidding?

Festivus

2004-12-05T16:27:00

So, Brad hosted Festivus this year. We had airing of grievances when Rachel threatened us with a long rusty pole while complaining about lazy students. Brad carped about Teachers. Then we opened presents and spitefully stole the good gifts from each other. There was some alcohol and the punching of a piñata involved. Those two may have been related in some causal way. Not sure.

Raining Candy

Then it started raining candy... somebody said "It's a Festivus Miricle!" I think Brian was in rapture.

Piñata Hat

Next we passed around the piñata hat while I took pictures. This is what I do. I take pictures.

On The Couch

Oh yeah, Paul and the two women he brought were about this close to having a threesome right there on Brad's couch. They left early. There was absolutely no speculation when they left. About anything. Why are you looking at me like that?

There are some more pictures here:
http://www.wdlabs.com/gnr/public/festivus04

Halloween Pictures

2004-11-05T00:40:00

Flaming Mike

Got some slides from Halloween night scanned finally. Here they are:

htt://www.wdlabs.com/gnr/public/halloween04

Mike's Visit

2004-10-31T22:08:00

Mike

My high school and CORE coding buddy Mike came up yesterday and brought his wife Sarah so they could attend my much anticipated Halloween party. It is hard for me to convey just how nice it was to see Mike. Sarah is also from Los Alamos, so I had the rare opportunity to talk with people who grew up on green chili and who know about Mrs. Moss and have heard about Mr. Farley's Butt-Ear. They stayed at my place last night and this morning we wondered around the city of Beacon. I am equally looking forward to seeing Tyler in February now!

Mike, Mike's manager, and Mike's weed

Anyway, the enchiladas came out like clockwork. I've got a fairly established procedure for it now. I threatened to give people costumes if they didn't bring their own, but alas... they were not worried, because most didn't come dressed up. Enchiladas, Posole and Guacamole were a huge success, and everyone was super impressed with Mike's fire breathing prowess. When I get the slides back (and if they come out) I will scan them and put them on my web site, along with the digital general party milling about pictures.

For some reason, iTunes "randomly" chose to play Born Slippy like three times during the course of the party. Granted, they were different versions of the same song, but still. The third time I swore vociferously and got up to advanced to the next song. My consternation made Steve laugh quite vocally, which is always fun, because he is usually so quiet.

I was so glad that Mike was able to meet all my friends. I love it when friends from different aspects of my life come together and get along well. It sort of affirms what I already know: my friends rock!

Mike's Visit

2004-10-31T22:08:00

Mike

Mike, Mike's manager, and Mike's weed

Halloween Party Arms Race

2004-10-16T01:45:00

Went to the bar tonight to meet up with some friends. The idea was to hang out for a bit before the movie. I asked Joe if he and Cicely were coming to my party, and he said that he might stop by, but that he also wanted to hit someone else's party that night. So it has come to this: The Halloween Party Arms Race.

Mike

Personally, I think I have the advantage, since Mike "The Blowtorch" is going to put on his fire eating, and I got the Enchiladas. The Enchiladas gets me Brad, and Brad gets me Sherry. Apparently Brian was sold on the fire eating. Joe and Cicely are a harder sale. I guess I will be working on them. I just wish I knew what my opponent had in store. Perhaps if I could intercept an invitation...

The movie we went to see was Team America : World Police. If you like Southpark you may feel the need to go see this movie out of devotion to its creators. I thought it was pretty terrible, although it did have me laughing at times. But anyway, I was watching this silly movie and it occurred to me that I have been taking life too seriously again. I have to get in touch with my humorous side.

A Very Special Nintendo Halloween

2004-10-01T14:46:00

So yesterday hiking up Wilkinson Ridge I accidentally volunteered my apartment for a Halloween party. It's not so bad; I was actually planning on having another of my New Mexican Enchilada Parties^TM anyway, now it will just have to do double duty and include costumes. So: What to be for Halloween. My first thought was to be Starscream. I was comforted by the fact that in all the time that I have been a fan of The (G1) Transformers, Starscream has always been my favorite transformer. I'm not sure why that comforts me, but somehow it does. Anyway, then I was thinking that Starscream's wings are going to be very awkward, especially if I go down to the city for the parade. Now I am leaning toward being Simon Belmont. No masks required for that one. I think with a whip, and some medieval armor I could make a passable Belmont. The only thing which gives me pause is the religious paraphernalia which goes along with being a Belmont.

I'm really going to need some Castlevania music for my party now... hrm... wonder where I could get some of that... *hint* *hint* : )

Oh... and it also occurs to me that the first two costume ideas I had are also names for my computers that I use. Totally accidental of course.

Bradstock 2004

2004-09-26T23:36:00

(click for more pictures and movies) Yesterday I went to Brad's place to see Wappingers' own back yard cover band Fire It Up! Everyone who is anyone was there. Megan came down from Boston and Sherry took a break from all those law books to play keyboards for three songs. The band also debuted their new single: SnakeFish, based on the hit TV B-movie Snakehead Terror. I had a great time, and am looking forward to next year.

Nothing of Interest Here

2004-08-23T01:04:00

On Friday, I was doing the laundry and they were playing the Beetles song "Hello, Goodbye." This made me laugh after the previous entry because this song reminds me of another old friend from my past. I won't go into the details, but in elementary school my best friend (at the time) "gUe" and I performed a skit to this song for the Aspen School talent show. It was by far the most creative performance that day, although I can't really take credit for that... the idea had been gUe's mom, who seemed to like the idea of putting us in the talent show.

I thought this was funny, because earlier in the day the song Ruiner had reminded me of another old friend (see previous entry), and I have been thinking about old friends a lot lately. Old friends in this context meaning anyone I was friends with before I moved to New York. I had been thinking also about how I don't keep in touch with anyone from the Los Alamos period in my life to talk to them about these thoughts, but then I remembered that I was going to Philly to see my friend Mike, who goes all the way back to my junior year at high school.

Just last year, he married a nice girl named Sarah who is also from Los Alamos; although I'd never met her until I went down to see Mike this weekend. So I had a bit of Home Town Overload, although it was surprisingly nice. I was pleased with myself because I recognized their wedding photographs as being taken at the White Rock Overlook, which incidentally was also featured in the film Silverado.

Mike was having a summer BBQ/party and I got to meet many of his friends and coworkers. A few of whom I had met the couple of times I have seen Mike since I moved here. He has very nice friends. They are all of the married/have young children age group... which I don't quite relate to yet. I only know one married couple who plan to have children, and that is still some time away. Anyway I was glad to go down there.

Next weekend I go to Maine!