As seen here. Alright, so here's the up to date attendee list at the moment (please inform me if there are any ommisions or cancelations), looks like we got a pretty good group. :)

A number of people have been asking me what everyone else is bringing, lest they inadvertantly bring the same thing, and we end up with like 5000 pounds of mashed potatos or something. ;-P Thing is, most of you still have not told me yourselves, so... I don't really know! So, here's your chance to compare notes with each other. If you see your name below, that means, at some point, you've told me you're coming. If you do not see a food next to your name, that means you haven't told me what you'll be bringing for pot luck ;-P (or perhaps I've forgotten).*

So, please comment here, and let me / everyone else know! :) I will keep the list updated periodically. Please keep in mind that just because someone is making/bringing something, that doesn't mean you can't as well - different people's takes on similar recipes may come out very different - but, yes... do try to keep it varied a little bit. ;-P Once again, I'll be sending out directions to our place sometime next week.

*if you are really really really unable to cook, store bought items may be acceptable. As is booze.

**Besides below pot luck, we will be providing the traditional turkey and stuffing.

Quentin - beans n' franks / deviled eggs
Rex - Homemade peanut brittle
Fal - pulled pork
Wolfgang
Wraith
Batty
Watcher
Wulven
Shy (tentative)
Kuper - chocolate chip cookies
Merlechaotix
Xerxes (tentative. Bringing Snow Husky?)
Foxwell (tentative)
Ersis - meat lasagna
SkippyFox
Lupine
RustyTiger
Diago
JBadger
JimmyWolf (tentative)
Sashatigress - Mashed potatos
Cubbi - dandilion wine
Mae - brownies
Tony Ringtail
Snow Kitty
Steph
RedFox (Maybe. And, I'm assumimng that means TigerKitten?)
Ethan Husky (maybe)
Zech (tentative. Bringing Layne?)
Marin - sweet potato casarole
Yips - mashed potatoes w/ bacon and cheese

Lady Gaga - Bad Romance


Lol.. I particularly love the bear rug dress at 3:44 :-P

So, for much of my adult life, I have had a single credit card – from Citibank.  I’ve had this same card ever since college, and throughout that entire time, I’ve never even once made a late payment.  Since the last recession in 2001, when I was jobless for over a year, I racked up a substantial amount of debt on it, trying to stay afloat.  Still though, I always made my payments, usually paying over the minimum, and I’ve slowly been working on paying it all off. Through much of this time, my APR was something like 6 or 7 percent. 

That is, it was, up until the beginning of the year, when I got one of those letters from them that so many others have received, saying “Due to the circumstances of the economy blah blah blah, we are forced etc.”  Whereupon, they summarily jacked up my rate to like 11 percent.  Canceling the card outright was not an option, cause I still had all this debt to pay off on it, and I wouldn’t be able to finish doing that during their grace window.  This, coupled with the fact that I’ve been very displeased how they’ve been behaving on the national economic scene in general (and, coupled with the fact that they have like no freaking branches out where I lived in Jersey anyway ;-P), finally forced me to decide to switch banks all together.  So, this spring, I opened up a bank and credit card account with TD Bank, and proceeded to divest myself of all things Citi, transferring all my remaining money into the new bank account, closing the old one, and transferring the entire remaining balance of the Citibank credit card, onto the new TD Bank one.  So fuck you, Citibank, and your 10 percent APR hike! :D 

I did not actually completely cancel the card though, because for one, I’ve been told that canceling any credit card at any time, for any reason, is bad for your credit score somehow, and two, like I said, I’ve had this card since college, and have racked up a shitload of reward points on it that I’d never even touched before now, and I wasn’t sure what would happen to them if I did. (Those points though, with a decent helping left over, have now completely paid for Rex’s and my plane tickets to FC in January. ^.^ )  In any case though, I also had a pretty substantial credit limit on the card (as they kept on raising it, back when I was living off the thing, and would get near, but never ever over, to that limit.) So, I didn’t want to lose that either (credit score, and all that), so I’ve basically just kept one or two very small recurring things on that (my iTunes stuff, and my gym membership) just to keep the card going so they don’t cancel it for inactivity.

So, all of this has been going along fine since then, Citibank could go fuck themselves with their rate hike, but I’d still retain my credit score, and I’ve been very happy with TD bank so far.

Citibank… was apparently not done, however.  For yesterday, I received another letter from them, stating the following, and I quote: “We are making changes to your account terms. These changes include an increase in the variable APR for purchases to 18.99% and will take effect December 20, 2009. 

18.99%! 

NINETEEN FUCKING PERCENT!!????!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!DLRJGLDSKJRGSALDKF????

ARE. YOU. OUT. OF. YOUR. FUCKING. MINDS???? 

I’ve NEVER made a late payment in my entire life, I’ve had good credit, I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong for 15 years, and you’re gonna jack me up from 7 percent to 19 percent??? I like how they don't even bother trying to have a pretense anymore, either. Before, it was all like, "due to the circumstances of the economy", and now they're just like "we're changing your terms, um... Because we feel like it!"

On the one hand… I dunno.. it’s somewhat academic, since I’ve moved everything to TD Bank like I said, I’ve been keeping a zero balance on the Citi card, so I dunno, maybe they can charge me 19 percent of zero instead of 11 or 7 percent of zero, and still fuck off for all I care.  Know what my APR on my TD Bank card is?  Seven percent, OOOHHH!  Citi was at least making some money off of me in finance charges before they decided to be such bastards, and now they’ll make none.  Though, god help me if I’d just let everything sit, and they were charging me this rate on my old balance. :-/ 

On the other hand, it’s the principle of the thing. Nineteen percent? Really? REALLY???  I’d call them up and scream at them, except that I know for a fact that I’ll just get some poor lady in fucking Bangalore or something, where they’ve farmed out their customer support to. ( 1) No, your name is not Jenny, 2) over here we address people by First Name - Last Name, not Last Name - First Name, 3) I can hear it in your voice, no matter how much American English accent they’ve tried to train you with.).  But in her way, she’s just as much an indentured servant of Shittybank as anybody, and my ranting will not be heard by anybody that actually matters, cares, or is responsible for any of this.

 

Or I can just shrug my shoulders, maybe lose my remaining points, take the hit to my credit score (is it actually that big for this kind of thing?), and just plain cancel the card fuck you very much.  It’s people just lying down taking this kind of thing (or worse, have no choice), that let’s them keep doing it.

 

I dunno… Thoughts? Opinions? What Should I do? :-/

As I've mentioned previously, we will be having a Thanksgiving potluck meet at our new place. The meet will be on Friday Nov. 27th, starting around noon, until whenever, and we will have crash space for the weekend.

At this point though, I really need a more firm headcount of how many will be coming, so that we have an idea how big a turkey we need to get. (Once again, we'll be providing a turkey with the usual trimmings, but we ask that in the potluck style, everyone please bring at least one thing to share.)

Please note that, while we've got a decent amount of room at the new place, we don't have an infinite amount of space, so if the guest list gets too large, I'll have to start cutting it off. That being the case, the sooner you let me know that you're coming the better, please. :)

At the moment so far, we have:

[Updated list}

Quentin
Rex
Fal
Wolfgang
Wraith
Batty
Watcher
Wulven
Shy (tentative)
Kuper
Merlechaotix
Xerxes (tentative. Bringing Snow Husky?)
Foxwell (tentative)
Ersis
SkippyFox
Lupine
RustyTiger
Diago
JBadger
JimmyWolf (tentative)
Sashatigress
Cubbi
Mae
Tony Ringtail
Snow Kitty
Steph
RedFox (Maybe. And, I'm assumimng that means TigerKitten?)
Ethan Husky (maybe)
Zech (tentative. Bringing Layne?)
Yips
Marin


I think a few other people from long island told me they'd be coming as well, but I wanna reconfirm that. So, in any case, please comment here if you will be coming, along with what you will be making or bringing. :) (all comments are screened)

Directions will be sent out to confirmed attendees.

See you there! :)
Q.

Here's a few awesome pics that ersis took of the concert



Brendon Small, AKA 1/4th music of and 4/5ths voices of Dethklok. ;-P








Into the Water

So since I've picked up several new friends since furfright, I figured maybe I'd throw my memories section out there again, in case y'all wanna get to know a little more about me.

I haven't really been writing quite as prolifically as I used to, but life has been going really well lately with smooth sailing. I guess a happy yote makes for a boring, less creative yote. ;-P

Back from Furfright now. Maybe will post more later, maybe not, we'll see. But, it was *definitely* a great time when all was said and done, and I'm glad to have met so many cool new friends. Feel free to add me if you find me here. :)

Take are all,
Q.

Republican candidate for Governor of NJ, Chris Christie, says if elected he would ban gay marriage in the state, amending the state constitution to do so if necessary.

Also, he would deny women with a history of breast cancer in their families coverage for mamograms.

Please, if you live in New Jersey, or have any friends or family that do, then if you care about gay rights or women's health, please support Democrat Jon Corzine for Governor

ZOMG BRUTAL LEDGENDS DEMO - DO WANT!!!

Seriously, as much as I loved Psychonauts, and Tim Schaeffer games in general, I really wasn't sure if I'd think this game was going to be any good or not. Well, I just downloaded and played the demo, and I was ready to go out and buy it before the first scene was even over. It's like if Metalocalypse and The Pick of Destiny had a baby. This game is gonna rock!! XD

Joystiq.com has an article on the new industry survey for gay video gaymers (link to actual survey is there as well. Good stuff, go check it out. Straight gamers welcome, too.)

Today is Rex's and my two year anniversary. :)