Getting started around here!

LOL So I was waxing nostalgic for the old days of Live Journal because, back in the day, it was the most accessible blogging platform around. Indeed, for my money, the old LJ format still is! Plus, I wanted a place for my personal stuff separate from my work. Well, somewhat separate anyway. And I love the fact that DreamWidth has the old LJ format that makes it so easy to post LOL without all the crap LJ's come to have! But yeah, if things look pretty plain and unsnazzy around here for a while, it's because it's going to take me some time to figure out all the bells and whistles. And it'll probably require some sighted help to get a good theme and lay-out all set up. LOL And of course, this has to take a way back-burner to all my work! Indeed, I'd been debating for a while whether to take on yet another online presence LOL. But a chat with a bunch of friendlies from church this past Sunday finally convinced me! :-)

Anyway, really hope I can find here some of the Phantom folks that used to be on LJ. That'd be awesome!! In fact, I had originally hoped to import my old LJ account. LOL But I couldn't get it to work. I think I lost the password somewhere along the way. I thought I remembered it, LOL but apparently not! So starting from scratch instead. Hope to connect with lots of people!

P.S. For the record, I really hate the way my screen-reader pronounces my account name when it's spelled without capitals (thephantomscholar). Arg!!

Going to Phantom in January! Yay!

So I recently learned that there's going to be an in-concert version of Phantom in Montreal next month. Needless to say, I was ecstatic!! Because, A, I've been dying to go to a Phantom that wasn't the bloody Lawrence Connor production for years now! And B, Phantom in French!! Which is historic, because, as far as I know, there's never yet been a French language production (there was supposed to be one in Paris back in 2016, but a serious fire at the theatre killed that for the time being). Plus, my birthday's next month. So needless to say, I got myself tickets!! I was really worried they'd be sold out, because tickets had been on sale for a month or so by the time I found out about it. But thankfully they weren't yet! So I'm going on January 25. Yay!!! I'm super excited about this!!! And I really hope the French concert production will be recorded. I so want to get the soundtrack if there is one!!

Of course, I also hope I'll get tickets to the touring production that's coming to Toronto in January, too, even if it is the blasted Lawrence Connor version. Because, I'd like to go, LOL but I don't want to spend my own money on it! I'd go into why, but honestly I don't have the energy right now. Suffice it to say that Lawrence Connor, the director/producer of the current North American touring production of Phantom, has restaged and redesigned the show. And IMO not for the better! In fact, I honestly find a lot of what he's done with the show quite problematic, thus why I don't want to give my own money to it. If you really want the gruesome details, check out episode 15 of my podcast (see my profile for the show URL)!

Either way, though, I'm hugely looking forward to the concert version on the 25th! I hope the cast are good!!

Yay, we're getting my Christmas tree today!!

So we got Mom's yesterday. She and I actually live together because Toronto rental rates are insane, so that's all either of us could afford. But the place isn't really big enough to have a living-room/family room to Mom's chagrin. But thankfully the "living-room" and the one bedroom are equal sized! LOL So she gets the "living-room" as her space, and I have the bedroom as mine. It's actually quite a nice, decent place even if there isn't enough footage for us to have a common family space! And God knows many folks in this city have way worse. Which is obscene over Christmas/the holidays!! Actually it's obscene any time. But especially this time of year!!

Anyway, so yeah, we got Mom's tree yesterday. And that was originally going to be the tree for the house, but then I decided I wanted to get a tree for my room/space, too. And bless Mom for not being offended! :-) So we're going to pop down to CanadianTire and get mine today.

The reason I didn't get mine at the same time as Mom got hers was that I decided I want to get an artificial tree if I can afford it. I used to have one that I got second hand from some one, LOL but it eventually got very bedraggled and rather rusty (it's frame was metal), so we eventually had to dispense with it. So I want to get a new one if I can! First of all, I think that'd be easier for me to handle every year than real trees, love real trees though I do. :-) But also, for decades, I've wanted to get an artificial Christmas tree and spray-paint it black!! LOL I know that might seem a tad weird. But I saw it done decades ago in the shop of a couple of awesome fellow Phantom Phans, who, you guessed it, had theirs decorated with Phantom stuff. Which was so awesome!!! So I've wanted to do that myself ever since, but have never quite gotten up my nerve/gotten my shit together LOL. But this year I decided I want to give it a try!! LOL Decorated my tree Phantom-themed won't be a problem. I'm just a bit nervous about the spray-painting part, as neither Mom nor I've ever done that before! LOL So we'll have to see how that goes. Here's hoping! :-)

But of course, it also depends on if I can actually afford an artificial tree, even a small one. I don't need a huge one. But even so, I've heard they can be a bit pricy! LOL And I've still got a bunch of relatives to get presents for, not to mention that I just bought those tickets for the Phantom concert in January and I still need to get my bus/train/MegaBus/whatever tickets out to Montreal and back. LOL So any further self-splurging is going to be kind of restricted till all that gets done! So we'll have to see if I can get it within a decent budget. Keeping fingers crossed!

And of course, if this works LOL, I'll endeavour to post pictures once it's all up and decorated!! :-)