Temporary Insanity

4:44pm: Transformers 2
I take it back.

7:12pm: Head Explodes! (house fallout)
So I only got two hours sleep last night... A combination of heavy thunderstorms, a restless wife, and too much thinking. I was good though. I stayed in bed and didn't get up to play games, watch TV, surf the net, or clean house.

I wrote the deposit check for the house bid this morning. It should have gone in when we placed the bid but I didn't have the checkbook with me when we saw the house and our realtor did all the papers the following day. A flurry of faxes got our signatures but, alas, I was at work and my money was home. :p

My boss hadn't picked up the new supplies I need to paint after work (for great overtime!), so Tina & I went to Wal Mart to buy some storage--all the better to implement the apartment organizing plan I hatch while laying in bed all night. Our realtor catches up to us there to collect the check and tells us that the contract has us closing by July 31 if all goes well. *swoon* I'm not ready for this!

*breathes*

(I'm eating dinner as I type. I'm feeling a little better. OK... No... Now I'm panicking! *breathe*)

OK.

+ I don't have a bad feeling about this.
+ I've been poor before. I can hack it.
+ Tina is positive about the house and we see a lot of ways to make it work for us. I can't overstate how important her positive outlook is to me right now.

- I'm afraid that we are going to end up short so that I won't be able to afford my ticket for the cruise next year (Tina's parents are having a wedding ceremony).
- I'm worried that the stress of ownership and money will have a negative effect on me. Based on past history, not an unwarranted fear.
- The closing date is just days before Tina's spinning retreat, WOOL. I'm hoping everything goes well so that she and her Mom can enjoy the retreat.

7:21pm: House Hunting
Just a quick update because I don't have my thoughts together just yet.

Tina and I have been looking at houses for the past couple months. We've made an offer on a house in Athens and the bid was accepted. We're nervous (and excited)! There's a lot yet to do and we may not get the house BUT the price is good and we're in as good a position as we can be at our level of income. *fingers crossed*

11:44pm: That's Entertainment!
Looking back, I never did a comprehensive post on my current AV setup at home. Its nothing to shout about (I can just turn up the volume and do much, much better) but it represents about 4 years of various technologies that were bought on a budget and perform very well considering the money spent. I got lucky, did a lot of research, and judiciously used my Best Buy card to avoid interest payments.

For everyday use, we have only one TV--the Samsung PN42B450 42" 720p Plasma HDTV. This is a widescreen TV with a built in digital tuner. At this size, I don't need 1080p resolution to look good. Our seating is 6-10 feet away and our DVDs look quite good on it. The few HD channels we get look fantastic.

Attached to the TV, we have a Nintendo Wii. Because of our oddly shaped room, I've removed the home theater system and put in a very servicable progressive scan DVD player from Magnavox. For $30, I was impressed enough to buy one for my grandparents when they decided that they wanted one. It's great for travel too. Both the Wii and DVD player are connected using component video.

Also attached to the TV is my media PC. I don't have a full list of parts but you can assume that its pretty close to this guide, which I consulted in my research. I don't have a DVD burner, a blu-ray player, or the cool media case (I reused my existing, ugly tower case). I used to run Windows XP Media Center Edition but upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate. Media Center is best used as a DVR with no monthly fees. There are a few drawbacks (which makes great rant material) but its an all-around great replacement for a VCR.

However, the main function of the media PC is streaming media from the internet and playing it directly to the TV, full screen in most cases and sometimes in HD. Our Netflix subscription allows us to stream in standard definition. They have a lot of old TV and movies but there are some recent selections from time to time. A lot of people already know about Hulu but they have mostly standard definition content. Virtually every major network has high definition streaming from their website. That's a good thing to know if you are trying to catch up on Castle!

Occasionally, Tina or I will want to watch something the other is not interested in or want to crank it up after hours, so I bought some wireless headphones--the Sennheiser RS 120. The range is so good, I can actually sit on the front lawn and listen to music from the PC if I wanted too. In the living room, the sound is crystal clear and I can turn down the volume almost all the way and not lose any clarity of sound.

For special occasions, I picked up a projector used from a friend who is much more serious about his home theater than I am. He was upgrading an I picked up his InFocus X1 DLP projector. We had to make our own screen to save some money, so I picked up some white blackout material and thick dowel rods. Tina sewed up the edges and made loops to put the rods in. The screen is seven feet wide :D I moved our home theater--the Sony DAV-FC7 Dream Home Theater System (I was very lucky not to get a defective system, which is why the unit gets horrible reviews)--from the TV to the projector so we can match the big theater sound with the big screen. The results are impressive once the sun goes down.

The only component I'm missing here is a Blu-Ray player. The projector can handle up to 1080i through a VGA cable and the TV is 720p. DVDs look good but for a select few movies, such as Transformers or Planet Earth, it would be truly spectacular to see in High Definition. So if I hit the lottery, I might buy a Playstation 3 which is still one of the best Blu-ray players on the market. Or I could install a player on the media PC. Upgrading the PC would cost significantly less (and I made sure to purchase a compatible motherboard when I assembled the PC) but I had some issues with DVD playback through Windows Media Center which has left me wary of using the PC in that way. Regardless.. I won't have the spare cash for a while.

Anyhow, that's the current setup. I'm happy to answer questions if you got them.

12:08pm: The Shiny, Big Red Button
Friday night I get to jam that button until it breaks. I'm going on vacation! The last was the second week of Oct 2009 (when Tina went away to SOAR). That's almost 8 full months! We had been short-handed for much of that time and I worked very hard for three straight months in there. It's definitely past time.

Apparently, stress has been effecting my mental health lately. I've been unusually tired and *very* irritable. Tina asked me the other day if I thought I was depressed. The though had occurred to me too. I'm certainly on a downswing and I need to right myself and get back on track.

I usually set myself a project around the house but not this time. Sure, I'll clean a little and I may have to install the ACs but I'm going to try and focus on myself and small activities. First off, I'm going to take a walk every day around 9-10 AM. It will not be a short one either, weather permitting. I am going to cook a dessert that I have not made before. I'm going to add a thin layer of semi-sweet chocolate between the pretzel and cream cheese layers. This is Tina's "birthday cake". And I may play a ridiculous amount of Guitar Hero too.


There are also events! The Catskill Cats for 2009 are on display. Tina will be attending the Cummington Sheep & Wool Festival and Jess's after-party. Sadly, I'm going to miss it this year. I'm just not up for it yet. Tomorrow's D&D game is canceled so I may use the time to see the new Terminator flick. Next Thurs is Tina's actual birthday. Next Saturday is the picnic at Dutchmans' Landing where we're meeting friends and family to celebrate.

Ah crap. My lunch break is over.. but you get the idea. If you have time off or just want to say "Hi!", give me a ring or look me up online. I'm trying my level best to enjoy myself this time and I should be around.

10:02pm: Star Trekkin' (no spoiler review)
We just returned and I have to say that this was a damn fine effort from the boys at Bad Robot. they took on a daunting and difficult task, navigated the landmines inherent to adapting a beloved and long-lived cultural phenomenon, then came out the other side with guns blazing.

For me, there are two keys to Star Trek. Abrams and crew focused on the characters, specifically Kirk and Spock, and made sure that they came to life brilliantly on screen. The philosophy of Star Trek has yet to surface but, after this movie, I have faith that we may yet see it.

10:55am: Rigged for silent running...
No, you all haven't been imagining it. I'm online a little less and not putting myself out there as much. It's spring! I'm doing some dusting in the house and in the mind.

The labor has already yielded some fruit! Tina and I started a new blog to collect and share family recipes. We have some interested parties who will be contributing and my brother has offered some hosting space. Mark registered the domain Chast.US for the family to use with this and any other projects we may come up with.

Everything is up and running smoothly. Wordpress(.org) software is awesome like that. Tina is tinkering with the look of the site but I think we're 85% there. Now to start cooking so we can take pictures of the food!

Blog dump time!

Sadly, my Star Wars PBEM (Play By E-Mail) game has stalled. It's all me, actually—my players have been great. I gotta decide (quickly) what I'm doing there.

My Aunt Sue has organised a lovely extended weekend for family in PA. Unfortunately, I can't afford it unless.... nope, no state parks with camping within 30 miles.

Tina is raising seedling for her plot in the new community garden which is starting up this year.

I've installed Skype on my laptop. Anyone else using?

I'm thinking about taking some web design classes to move beyond the basics. I've been ten years with the company I'm with and I'm looking ahead towards a second career. I can do XHTML strict and CSS to match but CSS on the scale of a new Wordpress theme or LJ is a bit daunting. Plus, I don't know any scripting languages.

Been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender. I'm very happy to report that someone was recently making a good all-ages cartoon. By that I mean I can enjoy it as an adult without the filter of children (well, maybe my inner child). It's like good short fiction to me. I don't need a 300+ novel or an 1-3 hour drama to be entertained. sometimes you want something light and fun (that still doesn't talk down to you). It's like candy!

10:49pm: 2009 Judo Senior Nationals ~ the results
My brother, Mark, flew out to California with his girlfriend to compete. Mark and Jen did very, *very* well.

For those of you who aren't also in contact with him, here's how they did:

===
They will only be broadcasting the finals for Shiai. Here are our results!

Jennifer and I competed in 4 of the 5 kata divisions for mixed (M/W).
Nage-no-Kata - GOLD
Katame-no-Kata - GOLD
Ju-no-Kata - Silver
Goshin jujutsu - Bronze
Mixed overall - GOLD

Jen also competed in the womens divisions and took gold, silver, 2 bronzes and the overall gold fir women.

A very good day! We are going to go celebrate!

===
Congrats to Mark and Jen!

The National tournaments are a big deal. From what I understand, participation in these tournaments can qualify you for the Olympic team, if you do well in a couple of them.

Also, Mark turns 31 tomorrow. Happy birthday brother!

12:38pm: Spring Cleaning
It's that time of year again. I am actively seeking to make some elbow room online and off.

We started this weekend by going through the kitchen and getting rid of pot & pans we haven't used in a long time. Next week, I hope to hit the rest of the cabinets and do more in the pantry. The plan is to eventually go through the whole house to reduce and repack everything in storage and buy new storage solutions as needed. It feels like a monumental undertaking but we know that it is necessary. If not for creating a little extra flexibility in our existing space, then at least as prep for moving when we find a new home.

Online, I've started going through all my bookmarks. Man, do these things get out of hand. I began using Google Reader about two months ago and I spend a lot less time browsing for my friends and looking for things to do online. Facebook has also been a great compliment to blogs for reconnecting. Between the feed reader and Facebook I can already see how I may not be able to keep up and be "social" unless I am very careful in prioritizing my time. Offline, "IRL" activities always trump online but I would like to leave some room for both.

Getting (re)organised is a real priority for me at the moment. I can get overwhelmed, if I'm not careful. In those times, I become less responsive and less responsible to my family, friends, and my obligations. No matter how well I seem to be doing when you meet me, this is a juggling act that I'm afraid will never entirely disappear. I came through the late-winter doldrums well enough but the past two weeks have been a bear for me and since slowing down isn't an option yet, I have to work on other methods of maintaining my equilibrium.

Hopefully, I will find more time for creative pursuits. I really want to make them part of my weekly activities. I've about 2-3 blog posts (mostly gaming related) which I haven't gotten around to which are in danger of losing relevance (in my mind). I had a really good reaction to the D&D game I wrote (usually, I run pre-written stuff by other authors) and I want to continue that story the next time I come up in the GM rotation. Some people paint, I game and design games. It's a great multi-disciplined hobby.

10:35am: New England Webcomics Weekend wrap-up
"Back in the day", when I actively ran in certain circles, it was a tradition to post a convention or tournament report to share with the online community. Since I don't currently belong to a community of like-minded people, I'm sharing here. If you don't want to see me waving my geek flag high, run. Run while you still can!

I don't use a digital camera, so I apoligise for the lack of pictures. Maybe I'll get some from my wife later. She's the shutterbug, thought she mostly was caught up in her side-trip to buy yarn and the unusual features of Eastworks, the converted factory where the Con took place.

New England Webcomics Weekend is, so far as I know, the first convention focused soley and webcomics. Several of the more famous artists and writers had tables but it seemed as if a majority of the crowd were also cartoonists too. There was a lot of conversation about the business and the craft everywhere you turned. If I was still drawing, this could have been a phenominal opportunity to network. For that alone, this event is considered a success. If the organisers don't do this again, I'm sure someone else will. It was a great idea.

Prep and the Drive Out

( Read More... )

SATURDAY
( Read More... )

SUNDAY
( Read More... )

In Summary

Overall, we had fun and were glad we went. Jenny and Matt are good people and I'm happy to be able to count them as friends. Rubbing elbows with so many creative people can be inspiring. I used to draw (it's in teh family) and I even took private lessons at one point. No matter how busy and run down I'm feeling that creative impulse and I appreciate the effect.

Pluses
+ Wonderful premise. I don't think there's another con out there focusing exclusively on webcomics.
+ Great people. Just like when I used to deal with traditional comic book professionals, they are great people to know and spend time with. Many of the lesser known artists and writers were just as talented and as much fun as the big names. There are several other people who stepped up to help make the event more fun for everyone. And Dave Kellett! Seriously, you should be reading Sheldon.
+ Inexpensive. This will have to change if they do it again but I really appreciate that I didn't have to pay a lot to participate. It made all the difference.
+ The food was great.
+ Free, open wifi through most of the building.

Minuses
- Lack of Organisation. Canceled and late panels set a bad impression. We were hearing about them from other people when we weren't discovering them for ourselves was. I hope that doesn't keep Merideth and the gang from trying again. Many of the larger names have been saying good things in public now that they are home and blogging. Everyone wants to see this go again.
- Too much party? Both a pub crawl AND and drinking on Sat night? I don't go to cons--is this normal convention staff behaviour? The game room reeked of beer on Sunday and the garbage in that room wasn't taken away until late. I hear that this event wasn't originally going to be open to the public. I'm not sure they fully made that shift in thinking from party to convention when planning.
- Late and canceled panels. No Rock Band!
- Gaming, which is the preferred hobby of many webcomics creators/readers and the cornerstone of many strips was almost totally ignored. It's the other "social lubricant" and a great way to keep people entertained between events. The game room was also the only social/lounge space to hang out in. There was very limited public seating anywhere else inside and all of that was on the first floor. On both days, I saw people sitting on the floor right up against the Artist Alley for pickup games.

Edit: It took me three days to write and edit this thing because I've been running a little ragged lately. My apologies to anyone if I got something wrong. Let me know an I'll fix it up ASAP.

8:39am: The Secret to My Success (and why I talk about games)
If it weren't for my wife, I wouldn't be blogging today. Back in school, the only guaranteed failing grade was a journaling assignment. I just couldn't bring myself to write about me. I didn't think I was that interesting and I was much more concerned with not drawing attention to myself.

Of course, people do change. I've changed substantially over the years but writing about myself? Yeah, right. Pull the other one.

Tina joined Livejournal years ago and was so happy with the experience of blogging that she was determined I should share it with her. Since some of our mutual friends were also using the service, I joined so I could leave comments and made a private commitment to post at least once a month. I'm happy to say that for the last year I've averaged two posts a month without even having to think about it. Go me.

I think that the secret was learning to be comfortable talking about things that no-one else is talking about. By finding that niche, I feel more like I'm contributing something—I have something unique to add. If other people were talking about the things that I do, I think I would feel much less likely to do more than leave a few comments and move along.

There are some topics I avoid in a "public" area like the internet, where prospective employers increasingly often plumb for incriminating evidence of bad judgment. I will only speak of work in the most general sense. Apart from shared articles, I rarely speak of my politics or religious ideals. If my friends e-mail me direct with a question, however, I'll happily engage them in a discussion about these topics; within a private medium.

Games are the low-hanging fruit. Of all my blogging friends, I'm the only one to engage in the hobby to any extent. Sure, we can get together and play Scrabble, Hearts, or Apples to Apple but beyond that, I have a unique experience that they lack. Whether that is something that makes my greater world view more interesting or not is something I suppose we'll learn in time.

9:25am: Near Death Experience
I was driving to work this morning and I was forced off the road. It was a very bad spot and I could have been killed quite easily but I'm fine and the car doesn't have a scratch.

The Thruway is a divided toll road running north and south with two lanes in each direction. Between Catskill and Coxsackie, the NYS Thruway literally cuts through stony hillsides and forest. In many places, the guard-rail is so close that you can't fully pull off the road. It was in one such place that the accident occured.

I was part off a line of vehicles in the passing lane. We were slowly working arouns a slower delivery vehicle in the right-hand lane. A large non-commercial truck towing an even larger trailer came speeding up on the right. The driver slowed down next to me when he realised that he couldn't press forward. Less than a minute later, he puts on a turn signal as he veers into my lane.

I hit the horn, I hit my high beams and he just keeps coming. I jerk the heel and swerve left, off the road. I miss the guard rail by *10 feet* and reach the safety of the grass before hitting my brakes. That's when I notice another trailer-toting truck, just like the one that ran me off the road, pulling in behind me with no brake lights. He changes his mind and twists back into the passing lane.

In no particular order, I thought:
OMG, I didn't die!
Oh Fuck, my new cars is gonna get wrecked!
Tina is going to kill me.
How are we going to afford our first home now?

After a few moments to collect myself, I pulled back into the lane and went to work. I was only 5 minutes late.

Dutifully, I inform my boss that I almost died. We're short-handed so that would have left him without a billing department! After a few minutes of swapping similar experiences, it was time for him to give me my annual performance review.

I was a little apprehensive. I believe I do good work (And I have been told so many times on previous reviews. I will have been with the company 10 years in August.) but this was the first year under a new supervisor. Fortunately, I did well. I'm not only still employed but I am a valued employee. I was given some very specific suggestions which would allow me to advance (if sideways) in our small company and a raise. I think I left the room with a good understanding between us regarding where I need to improve and my take on some of the developements in the office over the past year. I don't know if anyone could ask for more.

Now that I have that off my chest, I need to motivate myself to do some work. I feel quite a bit off balance.

4:34pm: Comic Books Saved My Life
I've tried to write this post a few times but it always branched out into numerous digressions and tangents. The truth, however, can be reached without touting my my geek pedigree, so here I am on attempt number four, trying again.

I graduated high school with very few social skills, zero self confidence, and about four friends, of whom I ever saw two regularly. It was only then that I started to get my head on straight and learn how to function on a person to person level. Comic books were a part of that. More accurately, it was the foot in the door I needed to discover a community I felt marginally comfortable exploring, which led to gaming and ever greater levels of participation/social proficiency.

If it weren't for comics, I wouldn't have started a business (never mind that it failed), I wouldn't have met my future wife (it took 8 years but she came around), and I wouldn't have met virtually anyone I know and call a friend today.

Which leads me to Webcomics Weekend. Though I started with the more traditional comic books, the influence remains and I read about two dozen different web comics. I've not been able to afford the traditional venues for meeting and thanking the creators but *this* time I can swing it and I'm thrilled! Tina's coming with me and we're going to share a room with a knitting/spinning friend of hers from out of state. Turns out this friend volunteers at Connecticon and knows some of the people I'll be meeting.

This is going to rock!

7:19pm: Happy Birthday John!
I will be missing my friend, John's birthday party this weekend. There's nothing for it but bad poetry, I'm afraid...

Meet my friend John from Chicago.
He turned forty not that long ago.
He kissed the reaper
said, "Please to meet you
but I'm not done proofing my dough!"

Life doesn't end at forty, especially when you have a child to raise! Sorry that I'm missing the party John.

12:50pm: Viscious cycles. Frustration leads to Retail Therapy (again)
It's not unusual to be a little short after the holidays and this year is certainly no exception. However stressful work may have been of late, I finally broke this morning when I realised that I left my docking cable for the iPod Touch at work... again...

I nearly ran the battery out las night as I was too wound up to sleep. This morning I was scratching around the house like a crackberry addict, looking for the cable to charge and synch yesterday's "Wait, Wait..." podcast. Sure, I could listen to it on my laptop but that's just Not How It's Done ®.

No go, so it's a quick shower and then off to Wal-Mart.

I also came home with milk, a y-cable (mini-headphone out to stereo RCA jacks), a second docking cable to keep at home, and Battlestar Galactica season 4.0.

Battlestar represents another bout of frustration but I'll get to that in a minute.

In my previous post, I talked about reloading the media PC. I found great little program called MCE Buddy that runs as a service in the background. It removes commercials and transcodes to H.264 which makes for a much, much smaller file without losing quality. The program ran for a couple days, no problem! So I added a new twist, I enabled a second pass to create another copy of the shows in a iPod compatible format. Suddenly th ePC crashes every few hours and won't restart properly. I've removed the second pass encoding; no change. I've uninstalled MCE Buddy and, so far, no crashes. That's one more thing to sort out.

Back to Battlestar.

First, as with season two, they are releasing the first and second half of the season separately. they will not be releasing a combined set at a later date. Buying each half-season separately costs more hang it would to buy one season (1 or 3) as a single package.

Second, like with season one season 4 includes a stand-alone movie (BSG: Razor) which I already purchases. This jacks up the price again and I have no option to purchase the half-season separately. There is no benefit to buying the movie with the set. It's the *exact same disk down to the art and features* as what I previously purchased.

Third, Best Buy really let me down. I thought I had two $20 gift certificated through their rewards program. I tried using them both a couple weeks ago and I was told that I couldn't because the remaining balance (before tax) was 19.98. They could only use the certificate for the full amount and they may not apply it to taxes. That sounds weird but that's OK, I'll come back after the next paycheck and use it for BSG 4.0. That'll take some of the sting out. When I return within a week, I'm told that it's that I had two copies of the same certificate and I used the $20 reward last week. They could not give me another. Grrr.. wasted trip!

Fourth, despite not having re-viewed season 4.0 (literally) I decided to go ahead and what the first episode of season 4 (soon to be sold as season 4.5). This is the final season; plots and subplots will be wrapping up very quickly and all of geekdom online is watching. Unless I want to be a net hermit to avoid surprises, I should keep up as best I can. I get through the "previously on..." segment and don't recognize a damn thing. Apparently I missed more of Season 4.0 than I thought and I really need to pick it up if I'm going to do this.

Fifth, since MCE started crashing the media PC, I missed taping the second episode of BSG 4.5. Oddly, unlike the last episode and the next episode, this one will not be airing a second time this week for me to DVR it on the media PC. Luckily, as I was looking for links for this post, it seems that I have a limited time in which I may stream the show directly from Sci-Fi. I better get cracking on those DVDs!

Honestly, this is all small, petty, non-essential stuff. I probably wouldn't be bothered so much if I have had more time to take off and recharge from work. But we've be so short handed for a couple months and even though I know I'm not doing that much more, for some reason it feels like I'm coming home exhausted, physically and mentally, all the time.

In additional to work, my father just had surgery to get his left shoulder replaced. He can't use his arm and is often dozing off thanks to the percocet. So for the next few weeks I'll be doing some chores for him and my grandparent' Chast (whom he helps regularly) which includes snow removal when necessary.

Is it any wonder I'm tempted to spend on luxury items which tempts me to escape for a while?

In an attempt to end on a slightly amusing and more upbeat note, I finished putting all of our Buffy, Angel, and Firefly/Serenity DVDs in a small cloth binder to save space. I quipped to Tina, "Look! There's just enough room left for Joss' next two prematurely canceled series!" (I really, really need a vacation!)

1:30pm: Day Off ~ Reinstalling the media PC
I got up early today because we had snow and the alternate parking kicks in at 8 AM (and PM). I sat down and played Guitar Hero World Tour until I broke a sweat on the drums (medium difficulty, I suck) then took a shower.

"Lo, then he sat down to watch Battlestar Galactica which he recorded Friday night...."

I have a lot of room on y data drive and I've never had to delete shows and shows are now missing. This included the first episode of True Blood which I have not been able to burn off yet. (HBO uses a broadcast flag to prevent burning to DVD through Vista Media Center. Microsoft respects broadcast flags, even thoug they don't have too.)

I am upset.

I am reloading Vista.

I'm sure this isn't the whole answer but I've been meaning to do this for a while. Initially, I performed an upgrade over XP MCE 2005 and it worked flawlessly. I just had to reinstall a few drivers and it worked great with two exeptions.

First, iTunes no longer recognised my iPod. Since iTunes runs poorly on my laptop, I should really get this fixed.

Second, I somehow lost the ability to change the quality of the Media Center recording and the files are just way to damn big. I can't seem to fix it.

Anywho.. back to work... *headdesk*

7:48pm: 35 +1 day
I meant to write about my birthday but there were (and continue to be) distractions.

In short, I feel good and I'm happier than I've ever been.

Aside from many, many well wishes received on Facebook, I had Friday off from work. I got all of my house chores done then so I could relax all weekend with Tina. Sunday we went to Albany for shopping and dinner. We ate at the Outback. I haven't been there since they opened! (no, I didn't order the blooming onion... why do people keep asking me that?)

After dinner, I went to Best Buy and spend a gift certificate I received from the store for my birthday. It paid for Firefly, which I've seen but didn't own. Of course, I couldn'y buy that without also picking up Serenity! As I went to pay, I discovered that I had another $20 certificate in my wallet (from buying the TV, I think) I'll use it next week on Battlestar Galactica 4.0.

(There's a rant there, regarding the packging of Battlestar episodes. You are spared... for now.)

Goodies aside, I'm told I should be reevaluating my life. 35 is, after all, a milestone of sorts. I've decided that I do want to try and pay more attention to a couple things:

Physical fitness. I've been a slightly shabby 215 lbs just about forever. I could lose a few pounds and tone up a little. I have a Wii Fit, I should start using it regularly. Once I can hold a schedule, I can trade up.

Community. It's been a while since I've run public gaming events. With Tina's encouragement, I may do so again. I was somewhat inspired by the America Library Association's Nation Game Day a few months ago. I heard about it in NPR, I think, but I came to discover that there were no local events. I was unable to volunteer at the time but I think I can do it starting in March.

Speaking of games, time to advance the RPG I'm running for family (by e-mail). I took a couple days off because, you know... I got older...

10:15am: Endgame
The holidays are done and we've sent out invites to a New Years game party at our house. We're almost ready. I have a copy of Guitar Hero World Tour arriving at work today. :D

Also, the Star Wars RPG that I am running by e-mail (mostly for family) is still active. Players are leveling up and we'll resume with the new year.

Let the good times roll!

2:49pm: Oooow...
I need to stop buying and building things taller than me.

Keep in mind, I live on the second floor, and, because the apartments are taller than usual, I have *two*

Yesterday, we bought a new bookcase and a pre-lit artificial tree (both 7+ feet tall). I assembled to bookcase yesterday, with much moving of books and the old book-case.

Today, I carried three loads of laundry out to be done (and then back again). Then I assembled the tree which comes in three parts. There's a lot of work to spread out the wire fingers and make it look more tree-like. At the end of this, my lower back and shoulders started hurting pretty bad. I'm not used to this level (or position) of discomfort.

Even so, I couldn't be finished yet! I still had to make room in the spare room for the tree-box and to move some items which have been hanging out in our hallway back into the spare room while still leaving room to continue sorting and cleaning in there.

So now I think I will sit very still for a while :( Ooowww...

Also, I updated Facebook to import my public posts as notes.

7:21pm: Make-over
It's no secret that Tina and I are not very good housekeepers. Still we make our progress where we can.

We've begun to slowly clean, update, and upgrade. I've written about some of it in the past, mostly tech stuff, and here's another dose.

Tonight I began to clean up the spare room. Lately, It's been used for storage but our cup runneth over and our mis-matched storage bins stack precariously upon each other. It's destined to become a craft room. There are several challenges.

First, it's a very, very dim room. There is only one small window which gets light in the late afternoon for par of the year. There is only one outlet, which is located on the floor next to the close. The floor, not the baseboard! (note to self, don't spill your drink). That outlet has to power light and anything else that may require electricity... sewing machine, laptop, music... Also, if it is to remain accessible, my comic book collection has to be stored in there.

I just took apart the computer desk fro min there and need to give it away, anyone interested? It looks like this but with a lighter finish and black metal. It's slightly worn but in excellent condition.

Tina's car is broken down and needs to be replaced. We'll be researching all week.

We still need new chairs for the dining room. The ones we own are mismatched and falling apart.

We have many, many books and magazines. We need at least two tall bookcases to begin to sort and store them properly.

We also need a new storage solution for our clothes.. we're already looking at new dressers or wardrobes. Before we knew about the car, that was going to be our January purchase.

So anyway, it's *a lot* of work on our plate and I believe it's all necessary work. It's not the pride of owning something nice but the feeling of living in a well-ordered home. It makes me feel better about myself and my ability to get things done. It's going to be some tough choices in order to afford it all (in terms of money and time) but I think we can pull it off.

10:14pm: Happy Thanksgiving!
Today, I'm grateful to be alive.

6:37pm: Shocking!
I just paid my electric bill and it was $135.52 (for two months).

My electric usage is down from last bill and from the same period last year.


Dad had sharp words for anyone, living at home, who didn't turn off a light or appliance that wasn't needed. I am still in the habit and an sometimes be quite annoying to my wife when she doesn't do the same (We're both getting better on that score).

Still, there comes a point where you simply aren't going to change habits further and you just have to find other ways to cut back. Four years ago we replaced out air conditioners for more efficient ones. Three years ago was the microwave. Two years ago was the refridgerator and Tina's computer. Last year was my computer and the light bulbs. This year was our TV and "green" power strips (if the main appliance is off, there's no power going to anything else on the strip, so items which have to remain powered to detect a remote control signal are dead).

I wish I was keeping track of our actual energy usage sooner so I have some numbers for you. However, I can clearly recall a visible dip after each change. That didn't always translate to the cost of the bill but I still feel good about it.

1:36pm: Face time
I've let myself get talked into giving Facebook a try. If you're on it, look me up!

In other tete a tete news: I had today off but Tina didn't. I called her up to see what she wanted for lunch and then brought her McDonalds. Yay, I win at Husband!

Now, off to pay bills and advance the Star Wars RPG I run...

6:36pm: Test message

Testing LJAPP on iPod Touch.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

2:22pm: touched....
How do you know when you haven't spent enough money?

I installed iTunes and synced all the music that i keep on my work machine (No worries folks, I'm allowed!) with my new 8GB iPod Touch. 7 MB for ~1300 songs (MP3 VBR up to 320 kbps).

Maybe I should has spend the extra $70 for double the capacity :p I think that I may need to re-rip some music in a different format. I think the AAC format Apple promotes has better compression for comparable quality. It's going to take some research before I undertake that task, however.

I haven't had a chance to play with it yet but it it looks and feels very nice. I will use it to play music in the car for the commute home. Once home, I need to do some housework but then I get to put it on the home network and try out the internet functions. I was surprised to see that it had a calendar too ( I shouldn't have been, though) and I want to see if there's support for the Google calendar I've been using. Otherwise, I need to dupe all the family info. Oh, and it can act as a remote for iTunes on machines at home as well as for Apple TV, (not that I need one of those! The media PC is performing admirably). Pretty sweet.

Of course, my brothers can do all that and make phone calls too but I'm no longer jealous.

This is probably the last expensive personal purchase for a long, long time. I'm pretty much out of hardware to buy, after all... *pointedly ignores the impending hardware refresh for the Nintendo DS* All the major elements of my electronic comforts are in place, the rest is tweaking... (and new furniture for the home).