18 October 2001 // Balloon Fiesta 2001 recap and pictures! [ap]
music //
wp //
link //
Bwaaah... too long since my last entry, moushiwake arimasen! *Dragonslayer bow (TM)*
Last week was Balloon Fiesta, and I was getting up at 4 a.m. to crew and going to bed about 8-9 p.m. ... when I had time to write, I was too tired. This week, i've just been unmotivated for some reason. It may be because my apartment is a fsckin' mess and I really need to do laundry, and it's just so daunting that I just hide on the couch and watch random anime or stay up too late chatting on AIM, reading yaoi fanfic, or RP-ing at Ethereal Realms... *big sigh* And I've gotta get my halloween costume put together (but I finally found the huge jingle bells last night nyo!), and the church Harvest Dinner/Talent show is this sunday and I don't know if i'll sound good on either of my songs and... and... daaaa. *pthbt*
I started a new diaryring in honor of last week - I noticed there weren't yet any dedicated to ballooning, so I remedied the situation. ^_^ Please join! I'm so lonely in my ring right now...
I've been listening to the Cowboy Bebop movie soundtrack for most of the past week and a half. It rocks! ^_^ I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a more eclectic and varied collection of music on a single cd... it's got rock, jazz, strange festival music that makes ya wanna boogie, music to steam up the windows to, country (!), eerie choral acapella-ness, and Ed. Ed singing about circles. Ed singing pi out to 40 digits. I kid you not. Joe has got to hear that song. ^_^ Aciel-sama has decided that his battle theme is going to be "7 Minutes". I've about decided that I need to remix the sugarcrack cd to include "Yo Pumpkin Head." Did I mention this soundtrack rocks? Go get it-nyo! Got mine from tokyopop, cd japan is good, too. ^_^
Signs that elya-chan watches di gi charat too much: 1. She's gonna be Dejiko for Halloween. 2. She says "nyo" enough at work that she's got her co-worker saying it, and he hasn't even seen the show. Scary-nyo.
Balloon Fiesta this year was so much better than last year! For one thing, we had much better weather. For another, I got assigned to a different pilot (since I hadn't heard from the one from last year since approx. July), and this crew was much more friendly! There were actually girls on the crew - a couple of days, we even had an all-girl crew. ^_^ I got to go up twice! On tuesday, we flew out from the field, headed north, and crossed the Rio Grande three times - doing the splash-and-dash thing twice, floating along the top of the trees, and even snagging a handful of leaves from the very top of the cottonwood trees as we went by. We landed - somewhat messily (the winds had picked up) - way north in Rio Rancho, almost to Bernalillo... and stopped at Krispy Kreme on the way back to the field.
Wednesday night, our crew and a couple others went out to the west mesa to party. It was so clear, and we were far enough away from the city that we could see so many stars. I had so much fun pointing out all the nifty things I knew how to find - most of these people are from big cities back east (our pilot was from Atlanta), and didn't get to see stars like this very often. For instance, Tobby said she'd only seen the Milky Way about 3 times in her entire life! Remind me not to ever move to a city so big I can't see our own galaxy due to the sky glow...
On Thursday, we flew into the field from the north - crossing the river again, but not splashing - we missed the targets on the field, but we flew right over my truck in the parking lot! Much gentler landing that time. ^_^;;
Friday and Saturday were too windy to fly, but I got some shopping done and picked up some cool pins, a cute inflatable balloon for Emily, and a "Balloon Chase Crew" magnet for my truck. See, I have this plan. I want to pilot an Alseides, right? So I get a balloon, name it "Alseides", and recruit the gamers for my chase crew... ^_^ Yah. Actually, I did do some serious looking at the balloon manufacturers' displays. I figured out that what Mike and Marie had that I crewed for all those years was a BalloonWorks (Galaxy, probably), and that they were the ones who do the sort of diagonal pattern I want for my balloon. And yes, I have my balloon designed. Flame colors and Dragonslayer blue. *grin* I will do this... sometime soon... really...
The Balloon Fiesta isn't the "most photographed event in the world" for nothing, and I took many pictures this year. Three disposable cameras worth. I need a digicam... developing is expensive-nyo! Anyway, without further ado, here are some of my favorites of the pics I took. The usual, click on the pic for a larger image, images open in a new window, all that good stuff. ^_^
 Basic nifty mass ascension shot. The balloon I was crewing for, "Stairway to Heaven" is the yellow-and-blue one in the center. |  Looking up into "Stairway" as Rick applies the burner to stand it up. Probably my favorite shot - look for a wallpaper of this soon. |
 Another WP-worthy shot of "Stairway". *grin* |  The crew on the first Sunday... Rick, the pilot, is wearing the Michigan cap. |
 Wow... lots of balloons... Mass Ascension, probably Wednesday. |  Flying over the Rio Grande. Those balloons are below us. Nif. Check out all the tiny ones way in the distance, too! |
 Flying over the parking lot - my truck is one of those dots down there! ^_^ |  Another attempt at a WP shot - many balloons from below, on the second Sunday. |
 Packing up the balloon on 2nd Sunday - I like this shot, even if someone did get her thumb in front of the camera (not me, I'm the one with the funky hat in the pic). |  Several crews, celebrating the end of the week! |
recent alterations //
21 November 2002 // I'm not dead yet!
03 October 2002 // Snarling bitch to genki fangirl in 0.8 seconds flat! [i]
27 September 2002 // He's got butterfly wings, not feathery angel wings. Geez, people!
25 September 2002 // The Great Oekaki Contest Begins! [ai]
14 September 2002 // The obsessiveness continues...
