Paris: The City of Virtual Memories

The other night I got to watch an amazing movie.  Midnight in Paris.  If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and check it out.  The funny thing is, something happened to me while I was watching it that made me really think for a moment.

I’ve never been to Paris, France, though I do long to do so someday.  Yet, even though I’ve never been, I have distinct memories about the city.  Distinct memories tied to distinct locations in the city.  Its an interesting concept, and after the movie was done, I stepped back and tried to do that with other movies and cities.

The Importance of Multiple Honeymoons

From a very early moment in our relationship, Lisa and I knew we’d have to take multiple honeymoons, no matter how silly it seemed.  The only thing we couldn’t truly agree on was the timing of these things.

The main honeymoon is the no brainer one.  The romantic time alone.  The problem is all the things we have to get together for that one.  We quickly decided on a cruise, as its something neither of us have ever done, and we’ll get to see tons we truly want to.  So, I’ll need a passport, we’ll need to change over Lisa’s name completely and get her a new passport.



After all that, we want to wait for off peak times, not only to go cheap, but to not have a younger crowd.  Needless to say, this one is still a ways off.  We are both saddened by that, but not worried.  It will give everything more time to settle down in our lives post wedding.

The first honeymoon was technically just an escape.  It became more and more obvious, as our wedding date marched forth, that we would need a break from all the hustle and bustle.  This particular one was also the last fully hashed out.

Putting together the wedding was a ton of stress, but a ton of fun.  It was nice to step back in time and stay at a bed and breakfast.  It was definitely an escape from the norm.  Beland Manor was a true impressive little place, with the most charming of people running it.  They made the entire stay feel more like we were just visiting friends.

On top of wonderful breakfasts we enjoyed taking a four hour scenic train ride, on which I nabbed some pretty nice photographs.  It was pretty nice, just to sit back and watch the scenery roll by.  I’ve always known there is a time for excitement, and there’s a time for relaxation.  Part of me was worried about Lisa being bored on the train, but she enjoyed herself quite a bit.

After that, we stopped by a small art center that was having a small exhibit on the Mona Lisa.  I’ve never been a huge fan of the painting, and I’ve always thought all the ‘hype’ about it was quite funny.  After seeing the exhibit, all the work done on it, all the research, all the science, I was left with a ton more knowledge than I had before, and an even more humorous look at this poorly painted, incomplete work that was worked and reworked to the point that its shocking lack of vision is only compounded by all its flaws.

All in all, despite a horrendous movie experience, we had a wonderful first honeymoon, a relaxing weekend vacation away from stress.

The family honeymoon is the real kicker though.  Lisa LOVES Disney World, her and CJ have been numorous times.  I have never been.  We knew, the instant we were putting CJ directly into the wedding, that we needed a family honeymoon.  So Disney World it is.

So yeah, the day this posts, I’m there, having fun. *grin* Expect a later blog on it, and for me to edit this to a link to it.  Because, honestly, I’m ending this right here, I need to go get my picture taken with Belle and Beast, which decorated our cake.  Yay!

(poem) - Cahsh Dynar Night.

Back in Ballad of the Emerald Bard: Making the Band - 5, I knew that Deeya, for the second time, would be called out to perform on stage.  It was a wonderful opportunity to pull out a song from her early days as a video game character.  The problem is, the song I had in mind was quite interlaced in that old video game's lore.

So, I set about rewriting it.  As I rewrote the poem, I created a new city, a desert city named Cahsh Dynar, where there are sultans and the slave trade, giving the city a very ancient Arabian city, with a seedy side.  This, in turn, brought out the character named The Masked Canary, and inspired parts four through six of Making the Band.  It also allowed me to bring in a different version of Deeya's backstory and add a bit of mystery to her history.  I truly love it when inspiration goes in a circle like that.

Either way, please enjoy this poem, out of the story's performance setting where you can judge it on its poetic merits.

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The Dog's Reaction to the Wedding

Now that it’s a couple of weeks since the wedding, its fun to look back upon the whole experience and make some observations.  The main one I’m going to focus on for this post is the most interesting one that I really noticed.  The fact is, for the wedding, we had some people stay at the house.  My parents, my aunt, and the best man.

The house is easily big enough for everyone, and it felt nice when everyone came over to hang out the night before the wedding, and the day of.  There were so many people in the house, playing pool, hanging out talking.  It was a whirlwind experience that I wish would have lasted far longer, as seeing all my old friends together under the same roof...yeah, it was amazing.

The SimCity Effect

Last week, I had the joy and pleasure of being part of video gaming history.  It is rare for any video game event to be so in the media as what happened on March 5th, and the days that followed.  I could site page after page of news story, showing how widespread this was, but instead, I’ll just stick to my own observations.

SimCity is a gaming franchise that goes WAY back in time.  It has always been a favorite of mine, and I’ve enjoyed every incarnation of it.  It had been a decade since the last true SimCity game, and the video game market was dying for the return of the franchise.