Cultivated Nonsense » tickets

We Swear It's Better This Time!

Jason — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:00:23 +0000

I've been busy lately, so blog posting has been to a minimum. I'm starting to come out from under the load though, so I should be able to get going a little more than I have been.

Yesterday though, was the day the Trans-Siberian Orchestra tickets for this year's tour went on sale. This year I'm going with Wassy. Even though she's not into the whole holiday-themed aspects, she got a new found love of going to concerts and there's nothing out there on the scale of TSO, so we're going to a show this year.

Last year, the fan club presale tickets were a total mess. The site was buggy and crashed a lot, you had to wait in long lines and even that was bugged so you were just staring at a page with a little animated graphic and would never go anywhere else. Not to mention some of the seats weren't that great.

This year they were touting a new and improved presale ticket system, to lock out scalpers and get the fans the best seats in the house. They swore that they fixed the problems from last year and that everything would be better!

So…10am rolled around and the site promptly crashed and burned. It alternated from a black screen to telling me that they're unable to process my request at this time. Eventually, I got through and find that I'm waiting in exactly the same endless lines from last year. They even ported over the same animated image, although the trappings were different and cooler looking.

It was exactly the same system! Eventually, after about 30-40 minutes of trying to get through, I managed to snag some tickets. Second row, which I promptly threw back into the pool. If you're going to a TSO show, I would recommend sitting a little further back. That way you can get the full effect of the light show while still seeling the performers do their thing. If you're too close, then you can't really see any of the laser stuff. I decided to get a block of 8 seats to push us further back and discard all but 2. That worked out and now we're sitting around 17th row. Close enough to see the performers and far enough away to see the stage show.

Can't wait for december now!

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Cupcakes Expand Your Mind Man…

Jason — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:18:45 +0000

Better late than never! I totally forgot to write up a report of this weekends activities due to other things happening tonight (which I will detail probably tomorrow. In short, I got myself a new fish tank last night for my betta. Sooon!)

Anyway, Saturday was the day the tickets for the DC show of Progressive Nation 2008 went on tour. I managed to snag two sets, one on the floor, about halfway back on the center aisle. The other set is one of the boxed seats. Now we just need to decide which set we're going to use and which we're going to sell. Both aren't "great" seats but they fit squarely in the "decent" category.

But the real meat of this post is going to be Sunday. Because on sunday I went over to my friends house to hang out and watch some DVD type things. MST3K and some Anime, as well as some Girls Next Door which they somehow sucked me into even though I attempt to avoid most reality TV like the plague.

However, the fun didn't start until after dinner. Wassy had bought this really, really nice wine, a Bully Hill Banty Red. Now I'm not generally big on red wines but this one was right up my alley. Very, very nice. A little on the strong side though as we seem to have discovered. So we were drinking a glass of wine and watching Girls Next Door and they had two shows in a row that referenced cupcakes. Which was very mean because we're all trying to lose weight and the last thing we need is to be tempted by cupcakes.

However, it got to a point where it was simply necessary for us to have some cupcakes. So at 8:45PM on a Sunday night we went on a cupcake run. We quickly came to the realization that this was quite possibly the strangest thing we had ever done. Which brought upon another realization that we're pretty boring people if going on a cupcake run sunday night is up there on the strange meter. The title of this post references our realization that this is quite like something that somebody who was high might do. It was very strange.

We struck out at the first store since we were trying to find cupcakes with chocolate frosting but there was another grocery store nearby. Unfortunetly their cupcakes were only availible in packs of 12 or so…which was way too many cupcakes. So instead, we settled on a tiny cake.

The Tiny Cake

Armed with our tiny cake, we returned to the apartment to enjoy a small slice of our hard earned treasure. The cupcake run will live on in epic legend. I should mention that when I took the above picture, there was another person coming towards us in the same aisle, which I didn't notice until after I had taken the picture. They must have thought we were crazy. They weren't too far off the mark.

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Of iPods And Rock Shows

Jason — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:17:53 +0000

Two years ago, I went to my first Trans Siberian Orchestra concert and I was blown away by the amazing presentation and light show those guys put together. Unfortunetly, last year, I skipped the show because I didn't want to spend the money on tickets.

I couldn't skip two years in a row though. Yesterday was the fan club pre-sale for this years show. The plan was for my Dad to buy the tickets, since he was paying for them anyway. Not to mention he got us really good seats for two shows in a row. But unfortunately, this wasn't going to happen. The presale website was all messed up yesterday, and he got stuck waiting in line. I decided to take matters into my own hands and try for tickets myself.

The website said to wait patiently while in line, but I took a peak at the line page to see what was going on and figured I had a better chance refreshing the page every few minutes. A couple of cycles through this I scored… I managed to grab 8th row to start with, but it was off to the side and up near the wall, so I tried again. Instantly more tickets showed up. A bit further back, but more centered than the last time. I told my dad and we jumped on those. Last I heard he was still waiting in line…

I can't wait until the end of December now.

I also mentioned the other day that i was worried about the new Apple announcement with the iPod refresh. Thankfully, Steve Jobs didn't release anything that I absolutely wanted to have. There were some nice products and I'll probably end up with a iPod Touch somewhere down the line, but it doesn't store nearly as much as I'd like. I'll look into it if my current iPod dies I suppose.

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Random Dump O' Stuff

Jason — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:00:21 +0000

I'm still alive! Honest!

I just really haven't had much to talk about since the state fair. Or much that I'd like to throw up on the internet anyway. There have been a few things going on but nothing that I could make a full post out of, but now that there's enough collected random stuff…

I got sunburned at the state fair, just below my eyes. That was annoying. I guess I forgot to put sunscreen there.
I've determined my Dad should purchase all concert tickets for me from here on out. First 2nd row at the Porcupine Tree show, now we've got 4th row center seats to see the Blue Man Group in October, a week or two after seeing Porcupine Tree. Next up, Trans Siberian Orchestra tomorrow.
Apple is going to be releasing new iPods today based on popular speculation. Several of my friends are on strict orders to knock me unconscious if I even imply that I'm putting my credit card into any web forms.
My apartment has a new green screen door and will be receiving a brand new front door at some point in the future. Also green.
My software engineering professor is really hard to understand, and he says "ummmm…ah….errrrrr…" every 2-5 words.
I met up with a friend from my high school who was also taking software engineering. Which is handy because the course requires group work.
I'm currently in the process of eBaying the more expensive cards in my Magic:The Gathering collection. I used to be big into it but they've sat in a closet for a couple years and I figure I should sell them before people stop playing the game. Looking back at my last 31 days of eBay history, I've sold $768.53 total worth of magic cards so far, bringing me to the realization that I spent wayyyy too much money on that hobby.
My Belkin iPod car adapter (charger + line out) has been on it's last legs for a while after the casing got broken on the dock connector part, leaving just the bare connector and the wires. Yesterday wires started falling off, until finally, it killed the sound, so I need to get a replacement at some point.
Another one of my Zebra Danio's vanished. This time it wasn't in the filter. I have no idea what happened to this one. Vanished like ol' one eye.

And there we go. Random facts related. Now to tag that mess…

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All Tickets, All The Time

Jason — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:08:18 +0000

I have a couple of things here related to concert tickets. One good, one bad. First up…the bad.

The Dream Theater tickets I was holding on to for the August 20th show had a bit of an accident. They got a tad bit wet and stuck together, kinda ripping slightly and obscuring some of the ticket information. I noticed yesterday morning and was in almost a near panic because of it (since one of the tickets isn't mine). I called up the venue though and described the damage and they said it should be fine, and if it isn't we could visit the box office and they would straighten things out for us. Looking at the tickets now, the damage isn't that bad. You can still see all the relevant information on both tickets…just not in all the spots it was printed

Second story, the good. The tickets went on sale for the October 18th Porcupine Tree show at The Egg in Albany. Second row. Woo! First time I've ever been in the first couple rows. I've been 8th row before, but second row is something else.

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