The Life of the Traegorn

Scenes from Lake Thompson (Vlog 2.17)

Traegorn — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:54:19 -0500

Part 2 of my Rhinelander series. These are various shots from around Lake Thompson, the Lake I stay on with my family every year. Not too much to explain about this particular entry other than that I think it's a rather pretty place.

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Music in this entry was the old standby "Just Priceless" that I put on the original, terrible, and likely to eventually be pulled from the internet "This Side of Awful" Happy Wednesday album. I think it's a fun little song though, so it fits the scenes of the Lake wonderfully.

This week has been a lot of fun. My sister came in on Tuesday afternoon, and we've ended up getting a lodge room at Holiday Acres so we have enough room for everyone. Last night we went over to the Hulina's (who have been good family friends my whole life) and grilled some Cheeseburgers and Hotdogs. All and all, a wonderful time.

We also went to play Softball at Vandervort Park/Forester's Ballpark on Tuesday and today. I won't go into that particular subject yet though, as that is the subject of one of the other installments about this vacation.

I don't know if I say it enough that this is my favorite place in the world... because it very much is. I can think of no other place I'd rather be honestly.

I am actually in a Home Depot parking lot again while I post this, as it's the only available internet within a five minute drive of the cabin. Crysta is beside me checking io9 at the moment, and I had over 200 e-mails waiting for me...

...yeesh.

Much of that was spam thankfully.

But I must go now, as the great outdoors is far more interesting than the backside of a Comfort Inn.

Rhinelander Part 1 (Vlog 2.16)

Traegorn — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:41:31 -0500

I sit in a Home Depot parking lot, stealing WiFi from a hotel to upload this. Crysta and I drove to Rhinelander, WI to enjoy my family's annual vacation on Lake Thompson -- this is Part 1 of this vacation. There will be at least a part 2, if not a part 3. Enjoy.

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Music in this entrly is by, of course, Happy Wednesday. It's a new track that will be on the forthcoming "Beacon of Awesome" album. To explain the song, it's best described as "If Nine Inch Nails, Stabbing Westward, or Late 90's Filter recorded the Hokey Pokey." You can download the MP3 of the song here if you want.

I am dead serious when I say that Crysta and I are currently sitting in a Home Depot parking lot. We're in my parent's new Saturn Vue (as my Van was parked in) using these gleamed moments of the internet to check e-mail, read blogs, and make sure the internets didn't burn down without us. It's actually quite liberating to be disconnected from the world out at the cabin, but sometimes you need to upload a video.

Or something.

Crysta and I arrived in the Northwoods on Saturday (as you see happening in the video). On Sunday Afternoon my parents arrived, and on Sunday night David and Mary showed up. My sister Jennifer flies in on Tuesday, thus completing the Dorn clan. Crysta and I will only be here until Sunday (as Crysta has to work on Monday and I need to prepare for Kakkoi Con), but it's nice to get a full week.

This is my favorite place in the world.

Period.

I'll keep you guys updated as life progresses in this generally forward direction.

Fireworks (Vlog 2.15)

Traegorn — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:31:11 -0500

Crysta and I went out with some friends to Fireworks here in Eau Claire, WI -- and we brought our cameras along. Here's the best footage from the two (footage Crysta took looks a lot better than stuff I shot).

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Music in this entry was, of course, provided by myself. I've used that particular piece in a vlog before, but I thought it worked well. As mentioned before, video footage was taken by both myself and Crysta. The higher quality footage comes from Crysta, as her camera is significantly nicer than mine is.

This is the first time either Crysta or I has gone to fireworks in Eau Claire. It's funny, I've been living in Eau Claire since 1999, and I'd never gone to fireworks here. Every other year I've either gone to them in Wauwatosa or not gone at all. But then Belkie called me, and asked if Crysta and I wanted to join him, Pink Ranger, Yushi and Buzz for them. Crysta and I mostly figured, "What the heck!" and decided to go.

I'm glad we did.

It was nice to get out, but Eau Claire actually has a decent Fireworks show. We started out meeting up at the OA house at 9pm, and then we walked to Carson park from there. I've included a little bit of the walk in the video because it contained some fairly entertaining conversations along the way. The only bad thing was that there was a group of teenagers setting off fireworks while walking directly behind us.

That honestly was the most annoying thing in the world, ever.

But all in all, a very good time. I know that I just posted a vlog a few days ago, but I need to catch up as I fell behind for months. I'm trying to turn up the production on these... we'll see how I do.

Back to watching Coupling...

A MIlwaukee Stop (Vlog 2.14)

Traegorn — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:15:43 -0500

Crysta and I drove down to Milwaukee this last weekend to go and pick up some of my stuff that I had left at my parent's house. And by some, I mean a whole friggin' van full. On the upside... furniture? Furniture.

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Music in this entry is, of couse, by Happy Wednesday. The particular song is "Cyborg Alien Girl" and can be found on the live album. Sorry, no MP3 online for this particular track. I used it for this entry... because I hadn't used it for an entry yet and the lengths worked out well.

Very scientific, I know.

The trip down to Milwaukee was fairly successful. I hung out with Derek on Friday night, which was a fairly good time all things considered - and on Saturday Crysta, myself, my parents, my brother, and my brother's girlfriend all got together for Dinner and played Balderdash. Maybe not the most exciting weekend, but a fun one none the less. I spent all of Sunday packing and loading the van (with Crysta's very welcomed help) and we drove back to Eau Claire arriving late Sunday night.

I spent all of Monday unloading and unpacking the van on my own while Crysta was at work. We now have the apartment to about 99% of what we want it to be like right now too. That really sucked up most of my day yesterday. Then, to add onto it, Monday night Biedermann called me asking me to help him move a couch into his new place. As I am not a jerk, I of course agreed to help. I went over there fairly late, helped him and Kelly unload several items from their rented U-Haul, and finally the aforementioned couch. I got home probably at about 12:30am when all was said and done.

Oh, and Biedermann's new place is only a couple blocks away from me, which means I can harass him whenever I want.

Which we all know I'm too lazy to actually do. But I can yell at him until he comes over here with very little guilt.

All this moving of stuff though has me fairly sore... yeesh.

Annoyances (Vlog 2.13)

Traegorn — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:37:44 -0500

There are things that bug the crap out of me, and this just happens to be a little rant about a few of them that are rather prominent right now. Sometimes you just have to let it out.

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Music in this entry is, of course, provided by the awesome Happy Wednesday. If you don't know why I think Happy Wednesday is awesome, you clearly are insane. Because, y'know... it's my band and all. The particular track is the well known SANDWICH! - which is a personal favorite of many people. I shot this video blog twice (as mentioned in the vlog) as the original take had absolutely no sound whatsoever. Nothing more annoying than an annoyance occurring while filming a rant about annoyances...

...or something...

To get back to the subject, this is the comment on my "Grand Tour" video which I'm talking about (emphasis mine, any errors his):

Good tour. I doubt that I have the guts to do that for most placed I have resided.
I do recall though that I and my former lived in an apartment similar to that many moons back.

Off that though I think that living in Northern Texas sucks. That darn Land of Lincoln needs me back I think and the senator Obama needs to abandon his campaign.

Seriously. That's what the guy wrote. Completely out of nowhere. It honestly hurts my brain to try and figure out why the heck he wrote that on my video. It's absolutely nuts. The video it was attached to had absolutely no political content whatsoever.

And for the record, I'm voting for Obama. Booyah.

The Grand Tour (Vlog 2.12)

Traegorn — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:48:33 -0500

I give a grand tour of the apartment Crysta and I moved into a couple of weeks ago. It's not that long, but then again the apartment itself isn't that large to start with. It should also be noted we still don't have all the furniture we own moved into it yet as well.

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Music in this entry (which plays throughout the whole of the video) is, of course, the second Happy Wednesday cover of To Slay Zombie Newton's "Davnesaur." I realize I've never made that version available for download... so I'm going to remedy that now. You can download the Happy Wednesday cover of Davnesaur right here. Don't say I haven't given anything to you lately. The Polka Version is still out there too.

I'm seriously trying to be good with updating for the world these days, I really am. The new apartment is, thankfully, much more conducive to vlogging than the Zombie House was. There's something to be said for having privacy, space, and quiet for producing short films. Of course, at this point last "Season" I had shot 36 entries, and I'm only posting my twelfth for this one.

That's fairly sad.

Well, We're fixing that. The annoying thing is that I've lost most of my viewers on LiveVideo.com since I've been gone for so long. Where a vlog might get 800-1000 views before, I'm just happy if it breaks 100 these days. Ah well, it's not like it matters all that much. The audience I'm concerned with most is the TRHOnline.com one... which isn't as high as it used to be either.

I am not doing well at this.

The apartment is quite nice though, and things are going in a mostly positive direction... so it could be worse. Hopefully, we'll be able to get Topher's couch over here, and into the apartment soon. Right now, I'm trying to find time to get down to Milwaukee to get the rest (or at least a large chunk) of my furniture from my parent's house, so expect me down there in the next couple of weeks. You should give me a call if you want to hang out.

Topher and Nicole's Wedding Reception (Vlog #2.11)

Traegorn — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:48:55 -0500

This weekend Crysta and I drove to the Twin Cities to attend the reception for my friend Topher's (and his now Wife Nicole's) Wedding Reception. It was a good time, and I managed to get a little bit of footage of the evening.

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Music in this entry is, of course, by me - under my Lt. Snorkel style. Happy Wednesday will, of course, return to the soundtrack eventually, but the studio album is far from completed. But it's getting worked on.

I promise.

Topher and Nicole's reception was wonderful, and I wish nothing but luck for the two of them. I'm no longer weirded out by friends of mine getting married -- it's become very normal these days. What does weird me out is that I'm not weirded out by it anymore.

...if that makes any sense.

The evening was truly a lot of fun, and I didn't catch most of it on video because I was too busy having a good time. All in all, a 100% successful evening. I mean, who wouldn't enjoy an evening of friends, dancing, and a DJ who couldn't find his own asshole if he tried.

I have to talk about the DJ. He wasn't bad, don't get me wrong, but he suffered from a terrible case of "Wedding DJ." Who even owns a CD with Kenny G covering Sade's "Smooth Operator"? Apparently this guy. He's also announce something like it was happening next... and then it would turn out to mean it was happening 20 minutes later. Finally, he decided they were doing the "Dollar Dance." If you don't know what the dollar dance is, it's where guests pay a small amount of money to dance with the Bride or Groom. Topher, said groom, had no idea what it was, let alone that he was doing it.

Dear Mr. DJ: For future reference, make sure that people know what ridiculous wedding traditions you're going to throw in prior to making them happen.

I'm just saying.

At the end of the night Crysta and I drove back to Eau Claire, which was very tiring and visibility was absolutely terrible. That drive home was full of absolutely no fun, but we survived it. It was worth it though to celebrate Topher's nuptials, and I hope everything goes awesome for Nicole and him.

Word.

Another Moving Day (Vlog #2.10)

Traegorn — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:31:24 -0500

On Sunday Crysta and I picked up our stuff and moved out of Zombie House and into our new Apartment on the south side of Eau Claire. Moving, by the way, is a huge pain in the butt. I'm going on record here.

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Music in this entry was by Lt. Snorkel... who is, of course, me. It's a little something called "A Happy Song (For the Blue Yarn Kid)" and is available for download on the myspace page.

I've been quiet on the net lately, and that's my fault. I somehow managed to update the site only once during the entire month of May... and that was right at the beginning. I swear though, I wasn't just trying to plug the Happy Wednesday Live Album... I was just honestly busy.

Crysta and I are in the new apartment, currently mourning our lack of couch (which will be remedied at soon as possible) and the place is a general disaster area. If you're wondering why no one has been asked over, it's simply because we'd have nowhere to let you sit down.

I have some plans to update this website (minorly) in the next few weeks, but only my schedule will see if that materializes. But for anyone concerned, I am healthy, Crysta (with the exception of a stomach based crisis that has been mostly resolved) is healthy, and life continues in a generally positive direction.

And Charter has had me on hold for quite some time... yeesh.

This upcoming weekend Crysta and I will be traveling to the Twin Cities for Topher's wedding -- which should be a good time, and we've been sorting out our convention schedule so I ought to be able to get stuff about that on the front page sometime soon.

Hopefully my next update won't take so long to put up...

A Serial Killer and Happy Wednesday's Live CD

Traegorn — Thu, 01 May 2008 08:15:06 -0500

The two topics in this post are, to be clear, totally unrelated. I just wanted to remove any confusion before I moved forward at all. I will, also, be covering them in reverse order.

First off, I know I've made a post about it on my forums a few days ago, but I just wanted to point out that Happy Wednesday's first Live CD has been released. Live at No Brand Con 2008 was put together earlier this week and is now available for sale. It contains the entire performance from No Brand Con (click here if you want to refresh yourself on what that is like) along with three other Live tracks, and a bonus studio track. It's $8 plus shipping, and I think it's not a bad deal.

I wanted to put something out while people were waiting for the studio album we're about to start recording, so I hope you enjoy it.

Now, on a totally different subject, my website has been getting a lot of traffic directed towards a really old Flip Side article I literally wrote years ago. It's about the hidden dangers in a small city that get swept under the carpet, but one of the big things I talk about are the drowning deaths in Eau Claire and La Crosse, and I theorized that something sinister might be happening. I wasn't the first person to think that, but I hadn't heard anything new on the subject since I published that back in 2003.

Well, the subject is back in the news.

Two retired New York Police Detectives are convinced there is a serial killer at work in this area of the country. I'm not certain that I agree that all of the deaths are related, but I've always believed a majority of them seemed too similar to not be related. Of course, as to be expected, local police are doubtful. They usually are. From the article in the Leader-Telegram:

Two retired New York City detectives believe serial killers are behind the drowning deaths of 40 young men nationwide, possibly including three victims who died in Eau Claire.

But Eau Claire Police Chief Jerry Matysik has concerns about the detectives' claims.

"We would all like to have easy answers to these deaths," he said. "Believing in a conspiracy is appealing to many people because terrible events make us uncomfortable."

Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, who have been tracking the suspicious drowning deaths of young men across the country ever since investigating the death of a college student who drowned in New York in 1997, told ABC News that the death of University of Minnesota student Chris Jenkins became "the link" connecting the drowning deaths of usually high-achieving college students in 25 cities in 11 different states.

I recommend reading it. It's also nice to know that I'm not the only one who looks at these circumstances and scratches their head.

We have a habit in towns like Eau Claire and La Crosse of wanting to hide ourselves from the dangers of the real world. We want to pretend we're safer than everyone else. Well, I go back to my original point: You're Not Safe, Get Over It. I'm not saying walk around like a paranoid git, but instead just be aware and take precautions. Just because you live in a town with only 60,000 people in it doesn't mean that the real world magically went away.

No Brand Con 2008

Traegorn — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:22:51 -0500

So, I've been behind and I know I haven't posted a vlog entry for a while. Sadly, I got like no footage or photos of No Brand Con, so while I'll still do a full report soon about it, I don't have a nice little "Life of the Traegorn" for you. On the other hand, Cheesus got the entire Happy Wednesday performance on tape. So, y'know what, I thought I'd post that here as a Playlist and let that sit in for Vlog 2.9. In fact, that's exactly what I'm doing:
That was Happy Wednesday's debut performance -- all 20 something minutes of it (it was a short set). We are going to start recording the new album shortly, so I'll post about that here when it's done.

I'll write up one of my normal "Con Reports" in a few days, but I knew that I had to post something fast as it's been almost a week since the convention and I hadn't posted any sort of wrap up. This year, Crysta, Biedermann and I ran the Rising Stuff booth for Peso and Vinnk, so I didn't have any major responsibilities during the convention beyond the hosting duties I had been asked to do. This was, in fact, really nice. It meant that any con work I did was when I had time to help out, not because I had to. And when you're helping because you can and not because you have to, you don't feel any stress at all really.

The con was fantastic by the way. No Brand Con 2008 wasn't steps and bounds beyond 2007, but it was right up there with it. We hit a new attendance high with 1075, so we're officially a "Medium" sized convention instead of a "Small" one -- but just barely.

There were no major disasters during the con, which is always good. Sure, there were glitches (some caused by equipment failure, some caused by human error) but nothing that wasn't caught by a backup plan before it could turn into doomsday. Believe it or not, but after seven conventions, we're aren't all that bad at this. *grin*

Again, I'll do a full Con Report write up, but until then I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has said such wonderful things about the con, and that it was great seeing so many awesome people this weekend (even if was only for a few minutes in many cases).

No Brand Con rocks, plain and simple.