Rrruff Woof's - Huh? What? Aroo?

My Week Off the Azura in the UK~

2010-05-06T11:38:12Z

Was fucking fantastic.

I've always wanted to go to the UK, always wanted to go to London, and the past 6-7 years I learned so much about it when I got into Furry and became friends with some of the UK furs.

After my long-ass trip on the P&O Azura, I was able to show Gaz_a around on the cruise ship before he took me to the Train Station. He ended up fixing some equipment while he was there... Lol

So my train ride was uneventful to my new destination where I would be staying for the majority of my trip. I ended up in Waterloo, sitting in a Pub waiting for LondonWolf to show up... Two beers later, I see a man walking up with a briefcase sitting down to drink the beer I had bought him sitting on the table awaiting his arrival!

After a very short chat, we decided to hit the underground before it got too busy, then the next train to the train station near Alfa and Lupus' place.

Dinner was awaiting for us on the stove (THANKS ALFA!). It was a very fantastic Stirfry but it did not last long :)

So I was all setup to stay at their place for a few days and they had great plans for my visit!

First, we went on a local, short, pre-london pubcrawl. Lupus and I started the pubcrawl, and met Alfa later on after he got off of work at another pub near his work.. Where we ended up having out of date beer... Lol. Recieved a free beer in replacement and also our money back for that round. Not too bad I guess :)

Well, we went back to the apartment and I was so beat. Needed sleep -- So we ordered kebab and went to bed.

Next morning was an early morning. We were in "The City" by 10 AM having our first beer on the so very awesome Pub Crawl that lasted to 11ish PM.

I met a lot of very nice furs in the UK - They joined us on the crawl, some of them whom I've known from F2F and the others were just a pleasure to meet as well. I got to see some of the sites with these lovely people, and most of the Pubs :) (Thanks Chance, Phil, Gaz, Bariki, Alfa, and Lupus for the fantastic time!) - Sorry I can't name all the names, I'd get lost. :)

I ended up breaking my finger on the Large Lion in Trafalgar Square (I guess it's true what they say, those Lions do guard the square) by attempting to help Alfa on the Lion while I was on it... Basically snapped my finger.. I ended up just snapping it back into place and going on with my life in London (thanks Beer, you helped with that!). Also Gaz got it on film. :O

Well, after about 11pm, we decided to be on our separate ways and go home to sleep off the beer, for the next day was BBQ day! They told me "Oh we always get rain, blah blah blah" ... WELL AMERICA LET ME TELL YOU WHAT! IT WAS PERFECT WEATHER NEARLY THE ENTIRE TIME I WAS THERE! except when we were in London and ended up getting soaked in the 'rain' which was really just humidity.

Ended up going to the store to pick up BBQ supplies -- People showed up right on time and the BBQ started. It was a little rough at the beginning, as it was drizzling down humidity (lol), but managed to get the fire going and start cooking in no time (after almost setting the umbrella on fire). I swear, UK people are the only people I know that BBQ with Umbrellas! So weird...

Anyways, we consumed a lot of alcohol, lots of food, played guitar hero with a lot of people over... played poker, and goofed on in general. Was a great way to wind down the fun we had the previous day. Although I think I consumed more alcohol that day then in London. :P

Monday was a relaxing day with Alfa and Lupus. I took them to dinner for all of their hospitality and planning. They are truly great hosts.

As Lupus had to get prepard for his operation (Good luck!), gaz was so very kind to allow me to take my last couple of days at his house to relax and sober up before my next work-trip to France (Thanks Gaz!).

My trip is near the end. All that is left is that I go to my hotel, grab a bite to eat, head to the airport at stupid-o-clock in the morning to fly to france and meet the rest of my co-workers to take a train to my job-site.

Thanks UK Furs for all of the fun. You are all welcome to my place whenever you want and will show you a good time also :) And I will be back, as I had a fantastic time...

Roof~

Allo from the middle of the mediterranean

2010-04-24T18:33:49Z

Hello everyone!

Out in the middle of the mediterranean typing this entry :) Not many LJers people can say that! *wags*

Anyways, the job here is completed, and now I wait to disembark in Southampton, UK.. Once I do that, I am off to Lupus of London' and Alfa'ss place for a week. Thanks, mate! - Hopefully make it to London once or twice to take a look around.. Never been to the UK before so pretty excited.

After a week in the UK, I am going to France for another job. I will be returning in July (hopefully before that) and throwing a party with the help of darkwolf.. All in Fort Lauderdale.

Let me know if you are interested - There will be Beaching, Jetskiing, Volleyball, Fireworks, Drinking, BBQing -- the works :) Should be a fun weekend!

Dragged onto the boat now...

2010-03-20T07:20:20Z

Gonna be on the boat for a looooooooooooong time! Hope I can get interwebz... not sure if it will be possible but will try to get it ^_^

If not, see ya'll in a couple of months!

P&O Azura Cruise Ship

:)

Can You Trust Your Co-Workers???

2010-03-14T00:21:35Z

Okay - As you all know, I am in Italy at the moment. I am working with four other colleagues which of whom serve different roles in the company/project.

They are all alcoholics. I drink a lot, but I choose my days to drink. Not a day where we have a conference calls with our big boss etc.. I know when to party and when to not party...

Well, tonight was a night not to party. We have a huge, busy schedule tomorrow and my entire team got wasted, two of them which proceeded to sit in the same cabin talking shit about EVERYONE in the company.

Need I say, the walls in the hotel are VERY VERY VERY thin and I can hear every single word they are saying while laying in my bed trying to sleep. I heard it all, not one bit did I miss, even when trying to tone it out.

So I did what most anyone else would do, sit there and listen to the conversation while laughing at it to myself (and on IRC).

So apparently, to two brand new drunken colleagues (they are less than 3 months old to the company) I am the following:

Smart, very dependable, very nice, and will do whatever I am asked; however, to them, that means I am manipulative. They mentioned they've yet to see it, but are certain I am a manipulative bastard... Personally, I could see myself being one, but it's not my forte' to do so. I do my job, and I do it well. I help other when they ask and I am always sensible / kind when I see fit to be. Most of you who know me know this is true, so I need not to explain that :-)

I, however, found it funny that these two people have 'figured out' the entire company within a few months of working here... Whatever alcoholics =)

I have a feeling I am going to make the next few days a very long day at the work site :)

In Italy Rrruff...

2010-03-10T23:39:41Z

...gets drunk twice in one day. Start drinking at 10 am, get drunk by 11 with 1.5 bottles of wine...

...sober up in the day...

...Drink at/after dinner and get drunk again before bed.

Training for the alcohol olympics.

So Off To Italy Once Again...

2010-03-02T16:15:58Z

Hey fellas,

Well, I am off to Italy once more. This time, it's going to be for a little longer time than before... so won't be around much.

I start my journey to Trieste, Italy, and then head to Monfalcone where I reside there for a little over a month. After that, I do the first revenue cruise for the P&O Azura Cruise Ship where I will be visiting the UK (Southampton), Greek Islands, Spain and many other places on a long-ass 20 day cruise.

After that, I will have a week before my next project. It is up in the air whether I will come back to the states for a few days, or just stay in the UK before I am sent to France to do the next largest ship in the world (NCL Epic).

NCL Epic will be a 7 week at least project, and not likely to go very smooth. The Network topology is very, very complex and we're working with a brandnew system of ours so there are going to be a million bugs to be worked out within that seven week time-span.

Personally, I am being burnt out with the travel. I love traveling, but I want to feel like I am traveling and not just working in one place when I do travel... And lately that's how it's been.

As you might have noticed, I have been flying out of the state quite often to visit other people, because I know it's going to be rough for me... Not being able to see a lot of my friends or talk to them.

I will have limited internet access, so hope to see you all a little bit online. If not then I'll catch you guys when I get back.

Ciao,

Rrruff

Just an Idea - Need some help!

2010-02-25T14:43:05Z

So I was thinking... We have all these furry cons... why not have some sort of tourney for fursuiters? The catch would be to get some sort of prize for the winners, and it would have to be a substantial prize too to help get people interested and involved...

I was thinking, what would be easiest to start out a 'sports tourney' between fursuiters all around the US? Well, the only thing I could come up with that made sense was fursuit bowling. It's a relatively easy sport and anyone can get lucky in it, and the actual good people will stay consistent, so everybody wins.

Now the hard part would be to organize it...

I was thinking something along the lines of having an event in several different areas, with one or two 'captains' in each area that would hold the mini bowling tournament. The captain would be in charge of taking care of the bowling tourney of their area, which would include keeping score, organizing the date/time and handling any problems that may come up for their event. In the end, they would give the scores and the winners of their group to me and we'd begin organizing the 'final' tourney in a central location (or a con) for all the winners to go to and bowl it out for the championship.

I would like to do this, but I think we'd have to have more than just a bowling tourney to get people interested. So, just looking for some ideas to be branched out from this and would like some feedback.

If you think this may be a good idea, or have some potential, post it to other LJs you know and hopefully they can help ^_^

Grazie!

Rrruff

Renaissance Faire -- FUN!

2010-02-22T15:47:33Z

Sunday, Darkwolf, Han, and myself all went to the Renaissance Faire! It was a lot of fun... We ate junkfood, I drank beer, and most importantly, fursuited there!

I have tons of pics, so I'll post them here :D

PS: So much for my shoulder. It is completely fucked right now :P

This was a show. Three people got picked to go on stage and do something embarrassing. I was one of them! But this one another guy too:

Scary Car Accident -- Passenger in Co workers Car...

2010-02-20T21:58:29Z

Wooooooow

Bad accident, all is okay.. not my car. go into details later.. mostly ok, a little sore and hafta to get back checked out.

Edit: Dislocated nose and shoulder.. wtf nose? didn't feel that one... and doesn't hurt now unless i press on it really really hard.. but that would hurt anyways! Shoulder is sore so can kinda understand that.

Anyways, got clipped from behind, airbag went off..seatbelt locked up.. those caused the injuries.. everyone was okay, co worker wasn't at fault but is pretty pissed his car is totaled. Old beatup car, so that's why it's totaled.

Was interesting ;p took up my entire afternoon/evening!

Icing shoulder now.. wanna go to Ren fair tomorrow ;p

Two Weeks Left Before I Vanish~

2010-02-18T14:41:06Z

So March 3rd is the day I leave to Italy. I am there for a month, then go out on a cruise (for work) for almost a month. I will likely be stuck in the UK afterwards on April 28th - May 6th, where I will be sent to France to work on our new HD system... where I will be there for a while (Probably end of June). Then hopefully I'll be back in the states then.

Going to try to get an international Data plan for my iPhone, that way I can atleast use 60MB of data a month. Will likely be mostly used for work, but will have some free time on it too I'd assume.

Not sure what to do this weekend or next weekend. Sorta had plans but they fell through. If anything's going on let me know!

Valentines Weekend - Snowboarding!

2010-02-15T18:09:40Z

Friday I flew up to the DC area to hang out with FiredDHusky, Abe, and the_wood -- Abe made a fantastic Cream of Crab Soup with Green Beans and onions. He also made some Creme Brulee which was amazingly good. Thanks Abe for all the great good and hospitality. :-)

Then we spent two days at the slopes (Liberty Mountain) where I continue to learn how to snowboard. I am getting better and atleast had the balls this time to do the terrain park and bust my ass on the rails... the_wood has photos of it lol

I also broke a husky snowboarding... where I feel really, really, really, really, really bad about. I could not turn or stop in time so I slowed down as much as possible and took FireDHusky's legs out and broke one of his skii poles :( :( :( :( But we found him an upgrade on the slopes! And no one was hurt. the_wood got still photos of the entire incident, and FireDHusky wants to make a .gif out of it now :( :( I tried to get the camera and delete the photos but they would not let me. *Flatears* I'm sorry I almost killed you Husky!

We went to Double T Diner and found out that they ran out of my favorite Creme of Crab Soup, so, we had to get the Creme of Shrimp Soup instead! Which wasn't all that bad but no where near the crap soup (Or Abe's soup!).

I ended up changing my flight to Monday morning so I could stay the entire day Sunday and do more snowboarding. It was a good idea, but sorry for bugging people to get up early and take me to the airport, so I could make a half day of work :-P

Thanks Abe, the_wood, and FireDHusky for all the hospitality and fun this weekend. Hope to do it again sometime.

Flying to FC...Or I thought I was...

2010-01-22T08:55:23Z

blahblabhalbhalbhalbha

Im going to bed.. IN PHOENIX, AZ INSTEAD OF CALIFORNIA!!!!! NIGHT NIGHT! I AM STILL 1 HOUR AHEAD OF YOU!

My Condolences for a Good Friend's Dad -- And a Good Dad

2009-12-15T14:27:57Z

My best friend's dad passed away Sunday, December 13th, 2009. They were very close to my family. My dad and my friend's dad were 'in it together' since they both had the terminal disease. Unfortunately, my friend's dad went earlier than expected (but still somewhat expected). He passed away in his sleep after breakfast - His temperature spiked and would not lower. His liver failed after breakfast and passed away a few hours afterwards in bed. There were nurses there and the doctor also came -- There was no reason to take him to the hospital at that point.

I feel for my friend and his family.. It's weird being on the other side of the fence this time. We were both very close to each other's dad, so it's saddening for the both of us. And I know he'll never read this (as he is not a furry and i keep it as *my* hobby), but I figured I'll write it here before I throw this on facebook where all my buddies will see it there.

The funeral is going to be at the same place my dad's was, and the niche they got for their dad is next door to my dad's. My family and their family lived near each other since I was 4 years old, so it seemed somewhat of an ideal spot.

No good news, but atleast he's at peace now.

I have awesome friends here in Ft Lauderdale...

2009-12-03T03:37:07Z

So, ever wondered what it was like to hit a pinata, that hangs from your fan in your living room over a glass table full of stuff? Oh, did I mentioned you are in fursuit with the head on backwards? .... find out!

http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b278/DarkenWolfen/FurEvent/?action=view¤t=MVI_8216.flv

MFF '09 Report

2009-11-24T03:00:52Z

Greetings from Fort Lauderdale, FL... I am back in my home town after a long, entirely too much fun weekend at MFF '09 in Chicago, IL.

A quick note: Thank you to all the MFF staff who made this con happen. You guys did a wonderful job and I am forever grateful for allowing me to attend this con. MFF will always be my favorite Con, even though I know I don't do very many of them -- But the people who always show up at MFF, make MFF the best Con for me.

A lot of that work is a thankless job and would like for people to know that they put a lot of work into it all year long.

So, good job guys and gals. Yet, another successful con. I hope they just keep getting better and better.

I will write a story later about my experiences at MFF. But I want to throw out a shout-out to some of the people I have met and got to know better than just in passing:

The usual Chitown Group: Always great to see these characters. Never a dull moment around them and I am glad they put up with me.

The usual Florida Group: I hang out with you guys too much. :-)

Basil Fox: Nice dinner we had together and were staring at each other wondering who was going to ask "Who the hell are you?" first and realize we know each other from IRC :-)

Skroy / Bit: You're a character. Love the roller-shoes; very fun idea and I hope we don't have to take you to the ER because you said "I rolled down the stairs on accident!" ;) Very fun guy and hope to see you around at other cons to come.

Jet: Awesome to meet you again. You're as cool as I remember and I am glad you were there to take picture of me falling on my ass trying to figure-skate! :D

Yelang: Always awesome to meet you -- Finally, we meet in the United States... No more France for us! :-D

the_wood: I probably would have never made it home without you. I was too tired :P And you know you're awesome.

Kenai: Dude. You are awesome. It was fun drinking with you and fursuiting with you. I hope to see you around a lot more! Maybe even EF next year!

Eisbaer: Not sure what to say here. You're alright for a European who lives in Canada... :-) Kidding.. You are truly an awesome person. I am glad I got to meet you and hang out with you quite a bit. I really, really hope to get to EF, and if not, to see you again sometime in the states, or when I visit the other side of the pond.

Nbowa: You still suck at pingpong. Rematch. :-)

Tzup: *Gets a bowl, puts all sorts of different colored sugars and lets you have at it with organizing them*

Exile: You are very loud, uncontrollable and a big goof. Hope to see you around dude. You're fun to watch make an ass of yourself (kidding, lots of love to you :D)

Sieg: Was finally good to meet you and hang out with you a bit. Had fun -- thanks for the girl-drink party. Loved the drinks :-)

Pakrat: Was finally great to see you. Your suit is high-tech and very cute. I am sure we'll be seeing each other more around other cons! :-) And I hope you enjoyed your mead!

WallaceWolf: Truley an amazing guy. Loved every bit of time we hung out, and I am glad I amused you with my ice-skating-dunce-wearing cone moments :)

Waya and VV: Two really fun guys. Glad to have met you finally. I hope we get to hang out more often. Hopefully next time I won't be caught up in the football game to actually socialize during dinner :-) (well, that and I'm shy!).

TwoDogz: Always great to hang with you. For the little time we talked - I still had a great time with you. Hope to catch you around!

Tilt: You're crazy and full of energy. Hope to get to see you around more often. You're always a blast to hang out with.

Murrrrrrrrianti: Finally met you. I think you are tricking me though - you seem more normal than I thought you would be!!! (Kidding!) -- Was great to see you. Didn't see much of you but it was memorable :)

FordShep: I hate you and your ear-licking :-) But you can handle my RrruffSax under the table pretty well! :-) <3

Gaz: Was good seeing you again. Maybe next time I'll have a scribble-suit so you can get all hot and bothered around me! :-D

Kanu & Tal: Great to see you guys again. I hope to come up there and hang out sometime. I'll let you guys know when so you can plan to be out of town that weekend to stay away :-D

Abe: Stay black <3

Miiiiiiiiiirko: Thanks for putting up with me! You're awesome and funny - Glad to have gotten to know you. Hope to catch you around a lot more often!

Okay starting to get tired so will do more later. If I let you out, I am sure I remember our interaction, these just popped in my head freshly at the moment ;-)

Fun At Furloween

2009-10-27T02:29:50Z

So - I had fun.

Friday, after work (A very long, stressful week), the_wood came into town (to Miami) from Belize (he was vacationing / working). We left the Miami airport to go to "Infinite Bits" con

I met this guy there:

I am sure some of you will enjoy that picture!

Anyways, I went there to meet up with some local friends - I wanted to see all of their Arcade games setup and pickup "DarkWolf" the Black wuff fursuit you will see later on dressed up with a raccoon. They have a lot of the old-timers Arcade games and it looked like it was a hit with all of the people playing on them. For the short time I was there, I had fun! They had all sorts of very, very old systems (eg Atari and older). It was pretty cool to see old machines in working condition. They also had custom made systems (or modified systems) which made things rather interesting. I don't think it was quite an anime-con, but it did have it's select group of them there.

I wish they would have done it on a different day rather than Furloween weekend, but no such luck. All in all, it was fun to see the bit we did!

SO! Saturday rolls around... Jeez, what a long drive to Orlando. I hate driving long distances. Boring, nothing to do and costly. Oh well! On the way up, Wood and I stopped by a Spirit Store and picked up our Halloween costumes. They had this cool zombie that crawled on the ground... I almost bought it, but lucky I am cheap! (You find out what our costumes were at the right part of this entry: We won in the costume contest, so stay tuned!).

Wood and I ended up at Static, Media, and Elijah's place to hang out and have a quick bite to eat. Static and Elijah made us Hamburgers and Chicken Breasts; they were quite good, thanks guys! Very much appreciated!

We left from Static's place and ended up at Furloween around 7pmish. Met Ferloo there, Dibbun and a bunch of other people right off the bat. It was really good to see them again, as I have not seen them in such a long time.

Ferloo, Wood and I ended up at the bar and drank 4 shots of Tequila each (what a way to start the drinking night!) -- Then we decided to get in suit get dancin'.

After some dancing, they started the Halloween costume contest. Wood and I went up together as we entered the contest together...

"So a Priest Wolf and a Rabi Coon walk into a FurCon..."

We won the contest :-) However, it was only a $10 gift card, so split between the two of us makes it pretty worthless! So, we gave it away! The priest wuff took the mic and spoke out to his "Children" -- "Children, for all of you have sinned... Please come up and confess your sins. Confess to Father Wuff and forever live by his paw for a $10 gift card to Target."

We have several furries confess their sins! One was possessed! We fixed that (and he won the Target card, congrats)!

After Furloween, we ended up back at the hotel, slept and that was uneventful. Woke up, ended up at Denny's for breakfast with Dibbun and wood... Then we all went to the Furry picnic at Blanchard's Park. Wood and I decided to go fursuiting into the park where all the little kids were. I took off the priest costume due to the inappropriateness it would have been in a park full of kids. -- The kids had fun with us. They played with us and tried to tackle us, but we had to keep them from doing it!

We decided it was too hot so we left. Went to a movie called Paranormal Activity which was pretty lame. It was very slow and it's only redeeming factor was a husband who was slightly funny (although I would have laughed at Bill Cosby, on crack, from the Family Guy).

After that, Wood decided to fly back from Fort Lauderdale, so we drove back to Fort Lauderdale and took a trip to Applebees for dinner. We watched the baseball game and also the Giants game there while we ate. A whole bunch of Saint fans were there because they came to the Miami/Saints game in Miami (which was a good game)!

Next morning, I drove Wood to the airport and that was that, till lunch hour...

I found out that my creditcard, which looked exactly like my creditcard, was not mine! The waiter took my creditcard and replaced it with someone else's, who's looked exactly like mine. I cancelled my card and looked to see if there were any charges, and found a $200 charge to Sears and a generous $80 tip to himself. I called Applebees and found out that this guy quit, so it was obvious he stole my card and left. But, he only spend $200 bucks? What a dumbass. :)

That's it!

Rrruff

Question For Those Who Wish To Answer...

2009-10-08T13:33:32Z

Something that's been kinda bugging me - things have fallen on my birthday to disable any kind of party the weekend before or after (or ruin what plans I had) for the past 4 years (including this one) due to family health problems (though that's not saying I didn't go to dinner and hang out with some friends). Also I am not saying late parties are not fun, but they certainly don't feel the same :)

I guess I am wondering how close to your immediate family members are you? Would you cancel a birthday bash if something came up in your family? What happens if it has happened several years in a row?

This year my mom had/has breast cancer. She had it operated on and pretty much begged me to come home. After my dad dying this year I could not say no, so cancelled what plans I had so I can spend some time with her right out of the hospital this weekend.

Last year, when I returned from my work-trip, I was planning go out of town for a late birthday, but my brother ended up needing to go to the ER for his staff infection. He almost lost his leg from it so it was quite serious. I stayed with him in the hospital.

The year before that, my dad had 3/4ths of his liver taken out due to his cancer the day of my birthday. I spent time with him in the hospital and at home (I was in college at this point).

Health has been a big problem in my family as of late. My dad had been sick for over 9 years so that has taken quite a bit of a toll on my life when it comes to free time. I wanted to spend as much time as I could with him.

Anyways, wondering if your folks are that close to you or not. Do they act like they need you at times? Mine sure do!

Lots of News!

2009-10-07T03:11:55Z

Hola!

First of all - Tomorrow is my birthday! Hooray. Go me! :D

Second of all, my biopsy came back clean. So I am happy to hear that. It was supposed to come back clean but hearing it for certain is good to know.

My mom is doing well. She had her operation today. No problems at all, and she's recovering. I didn't get to speak with her, but I spoke with my Brother who was with her for the operation... He told me things are looking good. All preliminary paths reported like the lymph nodes were clear.

So today - all in all is a good day. :)

Bad News For The Rrruff Family Again...

2009-09-21T23:59:45Z

Friday, the day I got back (the 18th), my mother called me to break the news to me that she could not do over e-mail while I was in Italy.

My mom has breast cancer. It is in her left breast and it's at a very early stage. They cut around the tumor and the tissue had no signs of cancer cells, so that is a very good sign. However, my mom decided she was going to cut off her entire left breast to make sure she gets rid of it... She did not want to have a chance with taking her family through what we've been through already and are still going through about my dad.

She assured me things were going to be ok. She told me that she was going to go through with getting her left breast reconstructed as well (I made the joke to lighten the mood with her "So I can tell my friends my mom got a boob job?".. It made her laugh :D). The whole ordeal will be very long and somewhat painful. She'll be out of tennis for a while, but better that then coming back with cancer at a higher degree.

The doctors could not believe when my mom was the patient this time instead of the person bringing in the patient. They told us "It's not fair." -- and it really isn't. Not after how much time and effort she put into my dad's health.

All I have to say is fuck cancer.

Here's hoping things go as we are planning!

Back From Italy...

2009-09-21T23:52:47Z

Ciao!

I'm home from Italy! It was a successful work-trip, but very long and painful. Glad to be home!

I have pictures and videos.. But won't post them here. Just toss me a message if you wanna see'em.

Italy Update - Castle Pictures!

2009-08-15T21:08:13Z

Hi!

I went to see a castle today. Too bad it was closed. No one was around so I did random things.

Me climbing (don't laugh at me! I found a snake in that hole and backed out):

http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b278/DarkenWolfen/Monfalcone%20Italy/?action=view¤t=MVI_8072.flv

Italy Update and Pictures

2009-08-09T22:36:23Z

So here I am in Monfalcone, Italy. It is actually one of the best places I have been in Europe. This place is very beautiful.

I am in a rather busy part of Italy. It seems there are a lot of people around and in a higher class neighborhood.

My travel was pretty weird. I had to send next to a guy that was basically on his last leg. He was very old and very senile.

The guy could never stop drinking. He wanted coffee, water, orange juice and a sip of my drinks everytime I got something. However, I could never get up and get anything myself because I was blocked in the window seat and he sat in the end (no one was in between us). The original ticket I had was me on the end and he was in the window seat.. but he got there first and begged the flight attendant for the aisle.

The Flight attendant had to bring an oxygen tank to the old guy because he was not able to breathe on the plane well (one of the ones that drop out of the top from above you). He sucked on that for a while then took my drink again. The flight attendant asked me to watch him and call her if I thought he was dying (her english wasn't very good so she actually used the word dying).

The flight was really weird. But they brought me alcohol, drinks, food etc.. since I was stuck in the corner.

Anyway. I missed my connecting flight since the plane boarded late.. But they rebooked it for me. I waited for my flight, but they moved it at the last second and only announced it in Italian ( I was in rome ), so I nearly missed that flight as well. Luckily I get paranoid and check the charts every 10 minutes.

I arrive - I meet up with the clients at a bar and they try to get me trashed. They got trashed and I had to walked them to their hotel because they could barely walk. :P Good first impression I guess.

Every day, they bring me out to lunch and dinner and drink with me.. It is kind of nice -- but too much alcohol for me right now :P

My hotel has free wifi. Im happy about that.. and co workers come thursday or friday, which is good.

Pictures thus far:

Off to Italy Once Again...

2009-08-05T12:32:49Z

So I am off to Italy again... This time it's going to be for a bit longer. I hope things go well so I can come back sooner, but from what they're saying, I'm stuck there till about September 18th.

I will have limited time and limited access to the internet, so I hope to hop on every now and then just to say hello. :-)

ALITALIA S.P.A. 05AUG MIAMI FL ROME 430P 815A
AZ 631 WEDNESDAY MIAMI INTL FIUMICINO 06AUG
AIRCRAFT: BOEING 777-200/200ER

RESERVATION CONFIRMED

ALITALIA S.P.A. 06AUG ROME TRIESTE 920A 1035A
AZ 1357 THURSDAY FIUMICINO DEI LEGIONARI
AIRCRAFT: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A320-100/200

FLIGHT OPERATED BY AP AIR ONE
RESERVATION CONFIRMED

Dat's my flight info! Hope things go well on the way there!

Don't forget about me :'(!!

Megaplex Report

2009-08-01T00:32:02Z

Heeeeeeeey!

So, I had a lot of fun. This was the largest Megaplex in a while (or so I hear); however, yet, still a small con compared to the others.

I tend to enjoy smaller cons because you get to actually meet everyone at them. I made a lot of new friends and potential new friends..and made better friends with some people I had met previously... so all in all it was a great experience.

I got to play tennis in and out of suit, which was a lot of fun (Thanks Nbowa, JD, and Ferloo). And I got my ass handed to me repeatedly at pingpong (ok it was close sometimes, but I still lose) -- Damn you Nbowa.. Good games though!

I got beat up by a 5 year old swedish boy in the pool.

I got to play my saxaphone in fursuit, and out of fursuit and people enjoyed it... Which was amazingly more fun than I thought it would be. However, I picked it up recently and it does not work anymore. When I had left it in the Fursuit Lounge, perhaps someone grabbed it and dropped it on accident... so now I need to figure out how to fix it or find someone to fix it.. Bleeeh :( *depressed!*

Anyway, it was a lot of fun.. and I don't want to mention any names because I don't want to forget someone... But you know who you are :) I hope to see you fellas at many more cons (assuming I go to them!)... and hopefully I'll get my sax repaired by MFF so I can bring it with (if work allows me to go to MFF!).

Rrrrrrrrrrooooooooooofff

Back in Da States

2009-07-08T15:39:54Z

Greetings All!

I am now back in the States. It was a crazy month and a half, but am still alive.

Not that anyone cares... :P I was in St Nazaire, France. I had been there in the past back in December, but this time it was a little more fun (since it was summer and not freezing out).

The ship we were working on was the Splendida, from the company MSC. All in all the project went very well. Another record time of finishing a project and getting to the point where we had to just show up to work and watch things work. It was really nice and a nice change of pace for the company, too.

The first day off that I had we all went to Laboule. It is a beach in France that is possibly wanna the best beaches I have ever been to (and it was a nude beach too). Mostly women were naked on the beach, so that was pleasant for the eye. A lot of them were pretty hot too.. Not a lot of uglies on the beach.

We wented ATVs and road around on the beach, went to casinos on the beach, played volleyball in a tournment (which we won, GO USA!), and drank alcohol on the beach. It was very relaxing, and a lot of fun. The beach was beautifull. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera :-( I brought a soccer ball instead.

My next day off was possibly one of my most fun things I've done... We rented motorcycles and road all the way to Germany and back. It didn't leave us much time (as it took forever to get there), but it was fun. I rented a Yamaha TDM 900... It was too powerful for my riding abilities... :P But it was fun regardless. I had switched later on with one of my co workers and road a less powerful bike -- which I felt a little more comfortable on... :-D

Later that day, that same co worker and I went to the German U-sub docking stone-building. We couldn't really find any signs at start to see if we had to pay to get in or not, so I waited for a lady to walk out of the exit door and grabbed the door and signaled for my colleague to come on over. We snuck in through the back door and went onto the submarine with a tour group.

The inside of the submarine was pretty cool. Very small and would probably drive me insane from being in such a small area... But it was cool to see. We got to see how torpedos are launched, and where they are launched from and heard some stories about "Back in my day..." stuff. We noticed that everyone was wearing headphones.. and later found out that if you did the procedure right (to get in), you get headphones and a tape to listen to. Well, we didn't pay so we never got that (woops). We had to sneak back into the giftshop to make sure we didn't get caught! (Stupid americans). We both bought a submarine toy to cover the cost of the 'free' show we got ;p

That same day we went to this weird place. We were walking down an alley and saw an opening.. We ventured inside and it was a 'light' meseum of some sort. Basically, it was pitch black with lights coming from the very top -- it made shapes with the light on the ground and they changed. If you sat and watched them, it would change into shapes and make 'movies'. It was really weird... Also there was a lot of fog in the room. I would have to say it would be a great place to murder someone.. You can't see shit in there :P

We also went bowling a lot. I bowled my highest game to date (231). I was pretty happy.. the other games I was lucky to break 110.. I just had a really good few frames I guess. :-)

So, to sum it up. My trip in France was much better than the winter one. I have tons of pictures and I'll link my photobucket here so you all can see them.

Pictures can be found at: http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b278/DarkenWolfen/Paris/StNazaire%20-%20Splendida/

Password is MFF (don't ask :P)