His Name is What?

Sheeple

2008-11-07T10:29:00.001-05:00

This is the one where I talk about politics a little. As anyone who knows me will testify, I don’t really talk about politics very much but this past election, I don’t know how one could get away without talking about it. For starters, I was raised right. (No one show this to my parents or they will get swelled heads). The President of the United States is the Commander in Chief. Whether you agree with some of his policies or not, he is still in the office, he got there through the democratic process and deserves a little respect because of that. Sadly I believe a lot of people have forgotten about this. (To include my parents) When I am out on my travels I head people all the time talk about how horrible Bush is and how he is screwing up the country. While in Vegas I saw people in the wax museum flipping off the wax statue of G.W..

Now, I have a very unique view on how government should be run. I claim to be neither liberal nor conservative, Republican or Democrat (or green or any of those others). I don’t like the labels because they don’t represent what I truly believe in. I am all for the death penalty, the prisons are overcrowded and we are wasting money on keeping scum fed and housed. On the flip side, I firmly believe that same sex marriage should be allowed. Their lives don’t have any effect on mine, why should I deny them the happiness of marriage? I live in a very high cost area, and because of this, I have to make a lot of money even to just survive and pay rent. The amount I make would be a fortune if I lived in BFE Iowa, but I don’t. Because of this, people look only at the amount I make and say “You are upper class and make too much”. (In the area I live, I can assure you that I am in the middle class section.) Under certain tax plans, this means that I will see a tax increase, which means that I will be taking home even less money.

We have a new President Elect now. There are some policies of his that I do not agree with. There are some that I do. Likewise with McCain, there were things I agreed with, and some I did not. Regardless, Mr. Obama has won and he will be my President. Just like Mr. Bush was my President.

What bothers me is all the hype and hoopla I see in the media, and even in some of my friends who believe that Obama is the second coming of Christ and that we are doing away with the corporate Satan. The thing is, While Bush was in office, he wasn’t the only one making decisions. While Obama is in office, he will not be the only one making decisions. We should not place all the blame on a single person. We have the Senate, Congress, and our own state Representatives that all provide input on important issues. There is a process in place for you to deal with the issues you dislike. There are plenty of people that we elect to help fight against the things we disagree with.

If we just sit and bitch about the person at the top, and ignore the process and the people that are presenting that person with the options, then we accomplish nothing. There was a time early on when Bush had an incredibly high approval rating. He was voted, by the people and for the people, into office, not once, but twice. Now the American people have spoken again. Apparently the choice made by them is looking for change. If that is what the American people want, then I will abide by that choice and accept our new President. But I will remind those who flipped off the Wax figures and called our current president names, be for warned that there are those who are not as open minded and respectful as I am, and that there will be people who do the exact same, or even worse to the new President. When that happens, remember that you have lost your right to be upset with them. This is America and they have every right to do exactly what you had the right to do. The goal in this life and this country is to evolve and accept that you don’t need to do such things.

In the next 4 years (and maybe even 8), I will not be looking for Changes, I will be looking for choices. Mine, Mr. Obama’s, and everyone else’s. Let’s hope that we all make the right ones.

Yay!

2008-11-04T10:03:00.001-05:00

Yay!
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801

It only took an hour and a half but I am done!

DragonCon Wrap up!

2008-09-03T12:28:00.000-04:00

Wow, so this was kind of a whirl wind DC for us. Let’s just jump straight to the highlight reel shall we?

We drove down on Wednesday to avoid the rush. A Big thanks to Cheeky Monkey Boy for letting us crash at his new house! Thursday was much easier because of this. We got up, had breakfast and made our way to the hotel. After checking in and parking the car, we did the annual ritual trek to the Hard Rock Café to get my DC pins. (I bet Robert forgot to go back for his). Then it was off to registration.

Side story, I don’t believe I posted about this but about 3 weeks ago I sprained my ankle…..again! I have been staying off it the whole time and pampering it so I could enjoy DC but it was still bothering me when I arrived. In an effort to preserve it I decided to use the wheel chair we brought for Sarah’s Oracle costume on Thursday. I knew I would be standing a lot in the Registration line. We had Ticket master tickets so I figured the line wouldn’t be that bad. It wasn’t, until I got pulled out of the line into the handicapped line! They assured me that it would be much faster and I should take advantage of it (even though I told them I was fine and it was just a sprain.) Seeing the world in someone else’s “wheels” is eye opening.

After registration, we headed back to the room and I put on my Jayne costume. This only lasted a few hours as we were due to pick up all of our Battle Star Galactica stuff that evening. After that it was BDU’s all night!

Friday was again a BDU day. We took this time to venture through all the dealers rooms and the walk of fame. We even got to meet Edward James Olmos and Michael Hogan! It was amazing meeting Adama and Tigh while in our BSG costumes! We wandered around until the late evening and then changed into Batman and Poison Ivy for the late night crowd. We did end up calling the evening early because we were doing the parade in the morning.

Saturday morning. This was a long awaited day for me, and an un-known surprise for Sarah. First of all I got the time mixed up and we were an hour early. The parade was at 10am and we got there around 8 for forming up. Sarah was dressed as Oracle from Birds of Prey and I was Nightwing. The Parade runs along one of the many Peachtree streets in Atlanta and bends right at the Hyatt. The whole way up to the bend I tried to speed up and give us a little bit of a gap because right at the bend I dropped to one knee and gave this to her:

You can see some of the pictures and guess her response.

For the rest of Saturday she was in a state of shock. We walked around in a daze and checked out a few things. Honestly I can barely remember much of the day after that. In the evening we prepped for and attended the BattleStar Galactica Colonial Fleet party over at the Sheraton. It was amazing! Late into the party, all the stars showed up and EJO got up on stage and talked about the Fandom and the show and ended with a rousing “SO SAY WE ALL!!” I get goose bumps even now!

Sunday morning we woke up and went off to a Photo shoot with the League of Heroes for the DC Universe. Sarah got to debut her Speedy costume and I went as Batman. The pictures looked amazing but the sun was beating me to death! After that we went for a goodbye breakfast (Lunch) with Lee and Missy. While there, Justin and Nicola joined up with us and we went on one of our very few visits to the Hyatt to see the art room. We had been avoiding the Hyatt like the plague because of all the crap from last year. There were a few incredible artworks including a 4 piece painting set of the seasons that was $25k each.

We were in need of a break so we stopped in at the High Velocity bar and sat in the glassed in section so we can watch people go by. We must have sat there for about 2 hours and chatted with friends. It was a great place to hang out. We eventually headed upstairs to hang out in Matt Nargi’s room to watch the Masquerade. We drank, ventured down to the Bar, Drank some more, even spent a few minutes drinking with EJO who happened to be visiting the bar himself.
Finally at a late late hour we turned in because the morning was already calling us home. We woke up at around 8am. Sore and tired we poured ourselves into the car and drove home.

If I find more pictures I will try and post them.

What a rush.

Mapping the Awesome Cat Genome.

2008-08-25T15:21:00.000-04:00

Odds are, if you know me, you know my cat. Charlie is so much a part of my family that even Sarah admitted that she thinks that, if it came down to her or the cat, I would choose the cat. Charlie is the most awesome cat I have ever owned, and many people who have met him have fallen instantly in love with him. We got him at a shelter in Denver back in 1998. He was the loudest cat in the place and one of the most loveable. Whenever we take him to the vet or even just out in public every makes comment about how he acts and how he looks. It’s how he looks that drew a little extra attention and proves that Charlie really is one in a million.

So if you look at Charlie’s coloring, he looks a lot like a Tortoiseshell cat. He has a mix of black and white all through him. Well, for starters, to get a Male Tortie, the odds are 1 to 3000. Now you add in the fact that Charlie has no orange in him. Wikipedia has a great article on Torties.

Enter the internet. Sarah posts on a pet forum pretty regularly and in a bout of showing off cool looking pets she posted a picture of Charlie. One of the other girls that posts there got in touch with Sarah regarding him. Turns out that she is a part of a study on the Feline Genome and they are currently trying to map out the gene that produces the color Orange in cats. When they saw pictures of Charlie they were extremely excited. You see, since Charlie is very obviously a tortie, but has no orange. By looking at his genetic makeup, they can compare with other cats and it will help them significantly in their research.

Don’t worry about Charlie through all this. They only need a small blood sample, fur sample, and cheek swab. They offered to pay for the vet visit and even help out with any medical problems with Charlie while the study is underway! We are very excited about this project and can’t wait to see the results!

My big question is if they can use his DNA and start cloning him! The world needs more Awesome Cats!

Havin Fun Doin Nuthin

2008-07-30T12:42:00.002-04:00

So apparently I haven’t done much of anything for the last like 2 months. That’s only partially true. The big thing is that I just haven’t been inspired to write about anything. There was certainly a lot going on of course. Most of what has been going on are things like getting ready for DragonCon, taking care of house stuff, being sick, etc. It’s hard to believe that this will be my 4th DragonCon! And Andrews 3rd. This year will be a low key one with only a few costumes. So far it’s Batman, Nightwing, BSG BDU’s and maybe one other.

One bit of fun I will post about was that I recently got the chance to go down to Richmond and be in a Weird Al Concert. Yes you read that right, I was “IN” the concert. The local 501st group was invited to go on stage with Al during “The Saga Begins”. I bought tickets for Andrew and Sarah so they got to see me, but being back stage for most of it I didn’t see a lot of the concert. They made up for that though with a meet and greet with Al afterwards. Check the pics for more. I had him sign my T-shirt and a paper plate. (I couldn’t find anything else!)

My “Seriously WTF‽” Moment

2008-05-28T12:05:00.000-04:00

This last weekend was quite the entertaining event. It all started when I was at my desk and I jumped up on my chair to take a look at something. Not to worry, I have done this thousands of times before. Well the thousandth and one time seems to be the charm as I lost my footing and did a free fall towards the floor, back first. Normally this wouldn’t be so bad except that my foot was still firmly attached to the chair. In an effort to protect itself from my fall the chair rotated out of the way, taking my foot with it, leaving me with nothing to land on except the floor. It’s ok though, my tailbone seems to have cushioned my fall.

So now my ankle is twisted, my ass is throbbing, pain is shooting into every nerve on my body. I manage to crawl back up to a sitting position in my traitorous chair trying desperately to catch my breath. I notice that I am a little dizzy and woozy still so I try and control my breathing……

.

.

.

.

.
No longer dizzy or woozy I pull my self up from the floor under the desk and wonder how my computer ended up on its side. Wait what? How the computer ended up on its side? Better question, how did I end up on the floor again? Apparently the woozy feeling was the start of me blacking out. But wait, it gets better. As I blacked out I apparently fell forward knocking my head on the desk hard enough to give me a huge welt and knot on my forehead, I fell down and must have knocked the computer over with my FACE as I had a nice sized gash in my lip. Some where along the line I managed to skin my elbow but who knows when that happened.

As I lay on the ground and try and catch my breath, again, I am perplexed at the chain of events that happened in the last 10 min. I call Sarah and have her pick me up so we can go visit the urgent care clinic. (the only way I will ever go to an actual emergency room is if I am doing it in two separate cars. Think about it). The doctor looks at the egg growing out of my forehead and starts the concussion tests. “So you hit your head and blacked out?”

“No, I blacked out and THEN hit my head. Could you look at the ankle please?”

After she was done poking at my butt to ensure I hadn’t broken my tailbone (I didn’t but it was bruised pretty bad), she x-rayed the ankle and wrapped it up, handed me crutches and said to spend the weekend on the couch playing Grand Theft Auto. Ok so she didn’t say the GTA part, but that’s what I heard. Sadly, that’s not what was to happen.

Lee and Missy were coming in and the plan was to hit up DC and do the walking tour. When I told the Doctor this she looked at me like I had another head growing out of my forehead. (Which, at the time, it felt like I was). After spending all of Friday laid up, I wrapped up the ankle, walked gingerly, used the crutches and bought a cane and managed to get through the whole weekend.

Saturday was the DC trip and we hit all the spots on the mall. We ended up eating at Biddys Irish pub in Dupont Circle (which was just a hotel bar). Sunday we played pool and say Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

So here is the weird thing. After the accident on Friday, the whole weekend was just a blur as it shot by so fast. I remember all the stuff we did, and going to visit with Doc and Diz. But it was like “What weekend‽”

A True Threat To Our Children!!

2008-05-16T15:17:00.001-04:00

There is a media available today that is rife with extreme violence and sexually explicit content! The worst part about this content is that is it freely available to children of varying age. To test this, my 15 year old son walked into a store, picked up off the shelf, and purchased something with depictions of brutal murder and implied sexual depravity.

It was a book.

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian was written in 1932 by Robert E. Howard. It depicts the very violent and graphic adventures of Conan the Barbarian, whom I am sure many of you remember from the popular films featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The movies, by the way, are also rated R by the MPAA. While I have not read the entire book, I did get through quite a few passages and found many scenes where Conan is viciously attacking various people, chopping of limbs and heads, graphic depictions of blood and violence, and the implied sexual demeaning of women. Now I know that this isn’t much to go on without reading the whole thing, but I am not here to review the book only to show that there are books that contain such things.

I am getting a little ahead of myself here. Let’s back up and see how this all started.

I am a gamer. I enjoy all kind of games. My current game shelf has everything from racing games to table tennis. Lately I have been playing the latest craze, Grand Theft Auto IV. Now, on top of being a gamer I am also a parent. My son, Andrew, is 15 now and has lived with me on a full time basis since he was 12. Because of the mix of the two I tend to pay attention to all the hype of “video games are a threat to our children!” Most of the time I laugh and point when people like Jack Thompson or Glen Beck get up on their high horse and bash developers of games because they are “murder simulators” and how games like Doom and GTA have caused the death of so many people.

Most of the time I laugh.

The rest of the time I am floored by the ignorance. I see the reports of school shootings and street murders and take note that the people that commit these acts were troubled to begin with. I look over at my son and wonder, for an instant, could he do something like that? Then I shake off the webs of deception and realize that, 1: I am a good parent that is involved with my child’s hobbies and activities. 2: I review many of the things he does to make sure they are appropriate for him. 3: I educate him on why certain things are not appropriate. This is called responsible parenting.

I picked up the book “Grand Theft Childhood”. This is one of the latest books on childhood behavior and violent video games. It’s not what you would expect though. This one, unlike all the ones that most of the politicians use, has FACTS! As I was sitting on the couch reading, I began to think about some of the different ratings systems that are in place. Movies have the MPAA, Games have the ESRB, and even many Comic Books had the Comics Code Authority. I looked over at one of the shelves and noticed a book that Sarah and Andrew had been talking about, “World War Z”. I know the basic premise of the book and new that it had a lot of violence and gore. (It is about Zombies you know). So I decided to test something. I walked over to the DVD shelf and grabbed a copy of “Full Metal Jacket”, from the game shelf I picked up “Gears Of War”, and the book “WWZ”. I trudged upstairs to where Andrew was reading a few comic books. (“Blue Beetle” I believe) I handed him the items and had the following conversation.

(handing game first)”Where is the rating on this game?”

(reading the front cover)”Umm, it’s M for Mature”

“And why is it rated that?”

“Because of graphic Violence and language”

“Ok then, (taking back game and handing movie) Where is the rating on this?”

(He pondered the box for a bit and found the rating on the back in small print) “It’s rated R”

“And why?”

“Well, since I haven’t seen it, I can assume that it’s because of violence and language”

“Good, now this. (hands the book) where is the rating on this?”

(This part threw him off as he scanned the inside and outside of the book) “Ummm there isn’t one?”

“Ok now, of the three of these things, which has the more graphic violence and language?”

“Hands down, the book”

Now, Andrew loves to read. He almost always has a book he is working on. There are times where he gets so engrossed in a book that he will zone out of reality for a while and even lose track of time. He tears through books very fast but can still spend hours upon hours lost in the story. This train of thought got me wondering. I know the guys at the local Game store and I know that they won’t sell anything to Andrew that is not age appropriate (or at least they check with me first). What about the local book store?

This leads us up to the experiment. I picked out the Conan book because I knew of the content of it. I also knew that the movie adaptation was rated R (even though it was barely adapted from the book). We located the book and I gave Andrew some money and told him to go buy it. I went somewhere else in the store so I could not be associated with him. I didn’t want to give the appearance that I was there and approving. Andrew walked up to the counter and bought the book with the sales attendant not even batting an eye at the content.

On the way home we looked through the book and noticed many illustrations of barely clothed women (angled as to not be too revealing), severed body parts and varying degrees of violence. Granted I had only read a few passages, the text was much more graphic than I had seen in some “Friday The 13th” movies. This was sold to a 15 year old.

Now I am not saying that we should be banning books or anything of the sort. All I am pointing out is that these political media junkies are wasting my time on my TV telling me about the horrors of video game violence and how these underage children are buying games that are rated above their age level. Meanwhile a child can go out and pick up any number of books that have the same, if not worse, content. Does this mean that we should start assigning a rating system to books? Of course not. We have the first amendment here which allows for the freedom of speech! This has worked for us for countless years/decades. As we have grown as a society we have seen countless efforts to ban various types of media and it always turns out the same way, the media grows into a part of our society whether we would like it to or not. Then some new form comes out and the efforts focus on that until the process repeats itself.

The media junkies will always be there. When the holodeck is created I am sure there will be a Jack Thompson Jr that will attack it because it “blurs the lines between reality and fiction” and he will proclaim “this isn’t the type of entertainment that we grew up with, this will be harmful to the children, and it’s not like the fictional games we knew like GTA”. I guess the real point I am trying to get at here is that we are at the next stage of evolution for media. When I was a kid, we had video games. It became a part of my life and carried with me into adulthood. It started small enough back when we had our atari’s and coleco-visions as kids and is coming to a head now. Now, the same people I grew up with are starting to make games tailored to me and my current age and it’s viewed as immoral. When I was growing up, Video games were something for kids and the adults didn’t really understand it. (Think back to when Rock and Roll was invented, kids understood, adults didn’t).

A long rant made short, we really shouldn’t be listening to the media junkies, but sadly, people will. We shouldn’t be banning and punishing, we should be learning and educating. We shouldn’t hide the games from our kids. We should be reviewing them and explaining why the child shouldn’t play it. Learn to find the games that kids should be playing, and play it with them. Does this mean I am going to let Andrew play GTAIV? Nope, but I will explain to him what it is in the game I find inappropriate for him and why it is as such.

When we got home, Andrew set out to read some of his new book. He came back downstairs in shock. He had only skimmed a few chapters but had already found a scene where Conan was attacking a ship and cleaving limb from limb. At the end of the encounter the ship’s captain, a female, came up to Conan, threw off all her clothes, and begged Conan to “Claim her with his fierce love”. This threw Andrew off and even raised the thought in his own head of “Should I be reading this?” It was right then and there that I knew I had done a good job. In educating him on what was appropriate and non appropriate, I instilled on him about what he should or should not be looking at. He set the book down and went back to his Blue Beetle comic.

I went back to playing Grand Theft Auto IV.

Well look at that.

2008-05-14T11:00:00.003-04:00

So much has happened!

2008-05-06T16:11:00.001-04:00

Ok so I realize that it’s been a while. I wish I could say that there hasn’t been that much going on but I can’t. There was a TON of stuff. Summary: New Wardrobe, Sarah and I hit 1 year, Trip to Vegas, Rock Band Tourney, GTA IV, Free Comic Book Day, Iron Man, and Andrews Promotion.

Yeah, like I said, Lots!

So let’s start out with the new wardrobe. It all started with a new position that came open at work. It wasn’t much, mostly a few administrative roles added on, but still a good boost to the career. As it was I really needed the boost. The past few years have started to drag a bit and I was starting to get a little bitter. Sadly that showed a bit in the past but over the last 6 months and I had started to pick things back up. Well when it came time for the interview, the new and improved Steve went in and nailed it, but the past Steve still had an effect. I didn’t get the position. This prompted a change in attitude.

I had been wearing jeans and polo’s to work but I could tell that if I wanted to step up the overall attitude change I was going to need more. It was make over time! Sarah grabbed her friend Jesse and we went to the mall to build Steve 3.0. New slacks, new shirts, new shoes, everything! I even managed to go through my current stuff and clean out some of the older stuff. I came away with 8 new pairs of pants, 10 new shirts, 2 new pairs of shoes and 2 new belts (because apparently no one liked my old belt). Now, for the most part this is for work clothes only, but I am trying to step it up over all and work some of them into the rotation for going out and about. Try not to be too surprised if you see some new duds in upcoming pics. I don’t plan on missing out on the next position.

I realize that this next part is about a month late but on April 13th Sarah and I hit our one year mark! It’s great to know that I have found someone like her who really understands me. On Sunday the 13th she got me a Spiderman statue that I had been drooling over for some time now (I think I have all of the symbiote spideys now) and I made her a full dinner from scratch (which is a feat for me). We are both very excited to see what the next year brings. (She will probably leave me sometime next month anyways (inside joke))

So as you can tell from some of the pictures sent to the blog from my phone, I was out in Vegas all last week! I went out for the annual Microsoft Management Summit. The conference was great and showed off a lot of new tech that MS is doing. The setting wasn’t bad either! Unfortunately I was there by myself for the most part and it got kind of lonely sometimes. I did manage to see quite a few shows. Blue Man Group was amazing! Bite was…..Interesting. The Star Trek Experience was fun, but it’s getting a little dated, and the Wax Museum was creepy but entertaining. I did do a fair amount of gambling while there, mostly Texas Hold Em. I only wish I had played better.

At the end of the conference they always hold an “After Party” for the guests. This year they threw together a Rock Band Tournament! I signed up as a random drummer and got placed in with a group of guys. We called our band the “Screaming Weasels”. Well, long story made short, out of 6 bands, we won! I know, I was floored too. For the most part we managed to just stay ahead and finish songs where others just failed. They moved us up to the main stage for the finale in front of about 1000 people. Sadly, the sound system was so loud that it caused a delay on the system from the visuals and it was hard as heck to play. We won by getting 80% through Enter Sandman while the other band only made it to about 10%. For winning we all got a folding chair and a brand new Xbox 360 Pro! (Yes I know, this makes 2)

This is a good thing as I have installed it upstairs and can send Andrew up there while I play Grand Theft Auto IV. I am sure some of you out there would give me crap about purchasing it but, the story is amazing. Honestly think of the movie Scarface. There is a ton of Killing, Sex, Drinking, Swearing, and drug use. I couldn’t even tell you how many people were killed in the movie, to include police officers. The movie is rated R. GTAIV is rated M which is the video game equivalent of R. As a parent, I am policing the content by not allowing Andrew to view it as I do not think it is appropriate for him. I do this because 1: I pay attention to reviews of things, 2: I look at the ratings that things get, and 3: I review thing myself and make the final judgment. This is called responsible parenting. From an Adult point of view, the game is stunning. The Visuals, the story, everything is very well done and it deserves all of the praise it has gotten. It does not deserve all of the admonishment from political figures who haven’t bothered to do the above steps 1-3 to form their own opinion. Nuf said.

Last Saturday was Free Comic Book Day!!! I met up with some of the other 501st guys to costume up at Phoenix Comics over in Leesburg VA. I didn’t go as a trooper though, It was a Comic event, so I went as Batman! Sarah, Andrew and I got done up as Batman, Catwoman, and Spiderman! Overall it was a great appearance! The kids loved us (well most of them, there were a few that got a bit scared of the Batsuit). Andrew stayed in Spidey for a while then switched over to Biker Scout. We had a great time and even raised some money for one of the local children’s funds.

After the event we headed over to the theater to catch Iron Man.

Wow….just wow.

Go see it

Now

And stay through the credits.

Lastly, as you may know, Andrew has been involved in Civil Air Patrol for the last many many months. Well he managed to step it up and made it to Cadet Airman First Class! I am VERY proud of him and even got to pin on his rank! I know it probably doesn’t seem like much to him, but it really meant a lot to me to see him succeed like that and I hope to pin on many more ranks in the future!

Wheew, that was a lot!

The Strat View

2008-05-01T03:19:00.001-04:00

The Strat View
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801

The view of the strip from up on the Stratosphere

Bite!

2008-05-01T03:18:00.001-04:00

Bite!
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801

The girls of Bite

BMG!

2008-04-30T03:04:00.001-04:00

BMG!
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801

Rockin it with the Blue Men in Vegas!

10000!!!!

2008-04-03T22:07:00.001-04:00

10000!!!!
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801

a nice even 10k gamerscore!

On April Fools.

2008-04-02T11:06:00.001-04:00

I love practical jokes. When I was growing up I would always try and play jokes on my brother and sister. I remember one time we even went as far as to pull the mattress out of a sleeper couch and roll myself and a friend inside (in place of the mattress) and wait for my sister and her friend to come along and sit down, then reach through the couch to scare them.

When I was in Tech School I actually drafted paperwork to have a friend redirected from her current assignment to go to Greenland instead. This involved the paperwork and all of the instructors to be in on the joke. She reported to the TI’s and complained about the new assignment but was relieved when she found out it was a joke.

And that is the key here. When it was all said and done, in the end, it was just a joke. We all had a good laugh about it. She swore revenge and I was all for it. I don’t mind jokes played on me. If they are good ones, I will suffer the humility of being gotten and laugh with the rest of them.

Since all of this, I have come to realize that there is really a time and a place for jokes in the caliber that I enjoy. That time and place is April Fools Day. April 1st comes around once a year and if you know anything about anything you know that if something gets announced on that day, take it with a grain of salt.

Just this year we saw a Project venture between Google and Virgin, Vir-gle, for a mission to Mars. Microsoft and Yahoo agree on a buyout price, and a full new lineup of Think Geek products. Now, the un-knowing person may think, “MS and Yahoo are merging? I should buy stock!!” But a knowing person would realize that 1: it’s April Fools day, and 2: These people do this all the time.

Yesterday I got a few people. Most of them got a little giggle when it was revealed to be a joke. Some people saw through it right away. I will admit that offing my cat may have been is bad taste, which is why I only let the joke go for about 4 hours. This is certainly not the worst I have done, and it really wasn’t even the worst that I was planning to do. But in the end, it was just a joke, and a reminder that you really shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet, ESPECIALLY on April 1st.

To those who were horribly offended by this joke, I apologize. Yes, it was dipping into the bottom of the humor barrel, but after some of the other things I have pulled, I really was amazed that anyone didn’t see it as a joke.

My Miracle Cat.

2008-03-23T11:33:00.000-04:00

Charlie is one of the best cats in the whole world. If you don’t believe me, ask anyone who has met him for any length of time. When we found him I was living in Denver at the time and we went to the local shelter to find a cat. He was the loudest cat in the whole place. We took him back into the visiting area and he decided that we were his. That was back in June of 1998 and he was about 2-3 years old. 10 years later I am still very much his staff and he never ceases to amaze me. People are always amazed at how I can talk to him and he listens, he follows instructions (when the outcome benefits him) and is always happy to talk back and carry on the conversation. He is, without a doubt, the best cat in the world.

Don’t worry, all of that is in the present tense, Charlie is still here and doing quite well. That’s the point of the post really. You may recall a few years back when Charlie had a few issues and needed to be rushed to the vet. Well, we took him in for a visit to the new vet since we have moved to check on a few things and just give him a once over. First of all, every Vet Tech in the area came out to see him and comment on how they have never seen another cat that had his coloring and that his personality was just the best. Charlie knows this all to well and will strut his stuff along the counter. The overall exam was good. We were concerned because every now and then he will have some issues passing food and this will cause him throw up a few times. This is usually like once a month. The vet said that it’s normal with the food that he is on and that we can try to introduce some more fiber to his diet.

She took a blood sample (Charlie was very displeased with this process) and said that she was astonished at the levels for his Kidneys. Back in the June 27th 2006 post I mentioned that there are two levels that directly relate to the kidney functions. At that time those levels were extremely high. Well apparently as of now his levels are just 1 point above Medium levels. The vet said that she had never seen a cat come back from such a traumatic event in the way Charlie has. She advised that whatever we were doing we should keep it up. We did introduce some pumpkin mixed into his wet food to give him a little more fiber and help with digestion and we also had them check his urine (currently awaiting results).

Overall Charlie is in great health. After his check on Saturday we took him to Pets Mart and he got to crawl around on the Carpet Trees there, lay across my shoulder while we walked around the store, and be adored by everyone there. He took a walk on the leash around Best Buy and marked his territory there, then came home to curl up by the fire. It was a long day for him and he took the rest. Of course this meant he was wide awake when it came time for US to go to bed. But hey, that’s normal…..for Charlie.

I am not young anymore!

2008-03-23T10:53:00.000-04:00

So this last Friday I decided that we needed a family night out. We had been cooped up inside for far too long due to weather or projects or just general laziness. I found an interesting little place just on the other side of Dulles called Panther Family Fun Center. They have Indoor mini golf, Laser Tag, and a slew of arcade games. This seemed perfect. It should be noted that when I mentioned the place to Andrew, his comment was “I will own you in both of those!!” There were four of us with Andrew’s friend Zach along to even teams out. We got there early and the place was pretty dead. Not surprising seeing as how it was out in the middle of no-where. We jumped into a game of “Cosmic Golf” which is Mini golf with black lights. For the most part it was ok. The course was a very very basic Mini golf course and the challenge level was low. It was still fun though. Final score here was 1st: Zach, 2nd by 1 point): Me, 3rd: Andrew, and 4th: Sarah.

We decided to hit up a local Kabob place for dinner and come back to the fun afterwards. When we did we went for some of the Arcade games first. Sarah is a big fan of Skee Ball and I love Air Hockey. As of right now I am still champ of the Table as I took on Sarah Twice and Andrew once, 3 for 3 Baby!!! We found that Sarah pwns at Skee Ball and that the Wheel of Fortune Coin drop machine gives a TON of tickets.

It was now time for some Laser Tag. Our first game was a free for all with about 8 total people. Now here is where I see a definite gap in age and tactics. When I was young and played Lazer Tag (yes, they had it back then, you just had much bigger guns and vests.) you would run and weave and hide. The goal of the game was to NOT GET HIT. I think some of these kids need to try out paint ball FIRST and then come back to Laser Tag. Most of them were just wandering through the maze and shooting at random, not trying to hide or anything. Me? I was in corners, covering my back, and keeping a sharp eye out. If I was tagged, I would use the 5 seconds of down time to run quickly to a new spot. Kids today. Second game. This time it was teams. Sadly it was the same tactics. They would wander around and not care, I would run from place to place, defend my position, call out to team mates, etc.

This leads me to the title of the post. I managed to get through two solid games. By the time the second was done I was beat. In this respect, (and only this) I admire what those kids were doing. By running around, ducking dodging and weaving, I managed to wipe myself out. Now I am paying the price for my winter break from exercise. My legs are killing me!!! Andrew and Zach went in for another 2 games while Sarah and I relaxed and played some Pinball. Then it was home to collapse on the couch. Overall it was a fun time for all, but wow, I am not young anymore!

So it’s been a while

2008-03-12T15:11:00.001-04:00

Yeah well, it’s winter time (or at least it still feels like it) and not a lot happens. The real story here is that I was pretty sick for a while. All Respiratory stuff so I was wiped out from just climbing stairs. I am just starting to feel better so things may pick back up. It weird, I had a ton of stuff I was working on and then I got sick and bam….nothing. So now I get to play catch up. There is some work to do on my Batman costume, I want to build new gauntlets for my Nightwing, pick back up with drumming…. The list goes on.

On the gaming front, we have tried out Galaxies again and found the game in much the same state as when we left it. Broken. It’s sad to see a genre that you love get raped so badly as this game has. I am still playing a little, there are things I want to see, but the over all feeling is that it’s dead, and something better is coming.

I also picked up Bully: The Scholarship Edition. This game is hilarious! The hoopla about it is overblown by people who have never played the game. On that note, I hate hate hate these people that get on TV and go to the press saying how these games are ruining our children and setting a bad example, yet they haven’t bothered to actually try the game or see what it is about. Bully is a great example of that. They say it teaches kids to be bullies and pick on younger kids. It’s also been called a “Columbine Simulator”. Yet, in the game, if you try and pick on a younger kid, you get pounced by the prefects, there are no guns, and the over all goal is to STOP bullies and let all of the students get along. Not to mention that, along the way, there are classes you have to attend and they actually TEACH real subjects. Things like English, Math, Geography, Biology, etc. Maybe that’s what happened is that some 50 year old Lawyer tried to play the game and got frustrated when he couldn’t find Botswana on the map!

Sheesh

Whirlwind recap and what to do!

2008-02-20T10:53:00.001-05:00

So many things going on I feel a bit un-organized. There is still so much to go through and I am feeling un-motivated. We need to get organized really bad.

Ugh

In lighter news, Farpoint was this last weekend and we had a blast. The Ghetto Garrison was out in full effect and it was great to see everyone again. I tested out a few costumes that I am tweaking for DragonCon and got some good comments. But mostly it was the partying that I was there for. A great way to blow off steam and stress. Sarah got to see the GG in full effect and was probably a little frightened but they welcomed her with drunken arms and a few of them even threatened death upon me so they could steal her. Saturday night was awesome with the party room and the drinking and the food and…. Woah… ok so it’s important to remember that if Cheri hands you something blue DO NOT DRINK!

Back on the homestead, I finally got my new glasses! When I ordered them I wanted the lightest ones I could get. The old ones were pretty cheap and fairly heavy so these new ones are adamantiam frameless and feather light. I will have a pic or two soon.

Lee and Doc convinced me to give Star Wars Galaxies another try. I haven’t touched the game in 4 years. A lot has changed but most of it still has that familiar feeling. I really missed the space combat and it still feels awesome. We’ll see how this progresses.

I also entered into the music scene with my first real instrument purchase (for myself). If you remember, a few years back we bought Andrew a guitar. I couldn’t play because I have “stupid fingers”. While I have always had hand drums around the house I never really thought of playing on a full kit. Well Rock Band kind of spurred me towards trying it at my friend Daves place and I took to it pretty quick. Enough so that I wanted my own and I want to take real lessons. So I found a good electric kit that wasn’t that expensive. The Yamaha DTXplorer. I loves it so much. I can just turn it on, sit down, and play a few rhythms. Then walk away. Once again, pics soon.

The rest of the month looks pretty quiet. Will hopefully get that motivation thing taken care of soon, and the organization thing will be worked on this weekend. (I hope)

Updates

2008-01-28T16:15:00.000-05:00

Ok so with all the hustle and bustle of the move I have left out a few things that have happened along the way. I have been just too wiped out or neurotic to do any posting. I say neurotic because I have been trying my damndest to get all un-packed and stuff put away. One thing for sure, we need more art. The walls are pretty bare and most of what I have for art is geek related. Since we are trying to contain the geek to the rec room (with minor spillage) it’s is kind of limiting. Mostly the frustration is just with the last few boxes of random stuff that was the last to come over. Mostly just things that should stay in a box and get thrown out next move but I need to go through them anyways. I also need to Sort through the storage room and reorg it so everything is accessible.

FUN!!

Well On the flip side, I do have a few things in the works to distract me from that whole moving and unpacking thing. We should see some new costumes for conventions very shortly. I am working on one that I have been wanting for a while but haven’t been brave enough to try. It will also have a side kick that Andrew can do and we are making it special for him.

On the gaming side I have been sending some attention towards three games. 1: Uncharted for the PS3. The game is beautiful and funny! 2: Half Life 2 Episode 2 (now with gnomey goodness!) and 3: Burnout Paradise! Each of them is great in their own regards and have helped me de-stress when I needed it. The only real problem I have now is that the TV, that was perfect for the apartment at a 37 inch size, now is kind of small in the townhouse and it’s a bit farther away from the couch so…..sigh.. I need my glasses on to see it. I have an eye appointment on Saturday so maybe I can get some new cooler lighter glasses.

Upcoming events are:
Farpoint in mid February
And that’s about it right now.

It’s just a sprain

2008-01-18T13:00:00.000-05:00

So for those who were wondering about my hand, turns out I just sprained my right middle finger. Probably from lifting something too heavy. I had made a Dr. appointment for today at 3:45 but after taking care of it last night, this morning it was feeling better. I have it wrapped with a splint right now so we will see by tonight. I promise this weekend to take pictures of the new place and have them up.

Moving sucks……a lot

2008-01-17T18:25:00.000-05:00

Quick update on the move. I know I haven’t posted much over the week, mostly because I haven’t had the time to really give a good update. Right now we are about 90% moved into the new place! We are officially living out of the townhome and loving it! Most nights have seen us scurrying around putting things away, re-organizing, setting things up, etc. It just seems like there is always something to put away. Andrew has started using the new bus to get to school (it even saves him like 15 min every morning). Sarah is slowly moving over her things as well. The old place is a disaster! There are still some things over there that will need moving but for the most part there will be a lot thrown out.

I am completely exhausted and will be taking the next few days off of moving because I need a break. This weekend we should be able to finish up the old apartment and get the cleaning done. For the last week I have wracked up about 300 miles of moving things from the apt to the TH, then to Sarah’s to the TH and back again. If I took off from work it was 3-4 times a day. Now that things have slowed it’s only 1 or 2 trips. My right hand is starting to swell up and I fear I may have done something bad to it. Damn, it even hurts to type.

The good news is that the new place looks great! We have the living room set up and the rec room is coming along nicely. Andrew’s room is almost done as is the master bedroom. Sarah’s office needs books unpacked but that’s really an afternoon project for her. There is still a ton of stuff we need to get for the place. We desperately need new curtains. While I had some at the old place, they are very old and dirty and they don’t match as well. Shelves for storage places, bookshelves, etc.

Ugh moving sucks!

Oh great, now it's snowing!

YAY!

2008-01-08T13:32:00.000-05:00

Application Approved!

We sign the lease at the property tomorrow at 5pm! Pictures to follow soon.

Oh God…..now I have to move all the stuff!

Fun times ahead!

2008-01-05T14:48:00.000-05:00

Well, today is Saturday and so far this morning I have dropped of the rental application, dropped of the truck for the Fairfax safety inspection, had the oil changed, had the horn fixed so it would pass the afore mentioned safety inspection, and bought a new wallet. (also had some chai….mmmmm Chai). The realtor said that, barring any felony convictions, or capitol offenses we should hear back on the application by mid week. Then it’s just a matter of signing the lease and starting the move!

So, this last week was house hunting time. We went and saw a total of 4 places. (Would have been 5 but one was already rented.) The first was a small single family house built in 1955. The layout was great with a full basement and everything but the kitchen was so tiny that Dom Deluise would pass out at the sight of it. The appliances looked like antiques. The wall paper was pretty bad too. The yards were of a nice size and it even had a small shed in the back to ~~hide the bodies~~ store lawn equipment. Over all not bad as a back up place but it would need a lot of work. The Second place was a good sized townhouse, but it was still lived in and they wouldn’t be leaving till the 25th which cuts things short, oh and they also said no cats. Since Charlie is a member of the family, that’s a deal breaker.

That was the first day of hunting. The next day we went to see a duplex not far from the house we saw. Walking in I saw the bad omen on the front lawn, they had a ceramic frog perched there. We should have just left right then. Walking in, the place was horribly designed. It looked very cramped and the layout was almost confusing. The kitchen was bigger than the house but still very small and the appliances looked very scary. The downstairs has a living area a dining area the laundry area, kitchen area and a half bath but all in a strange arrangement. It also had a scary trap door crawl space area for ~~hiding bodies~~ accessing cables. The upstairs has one very small room, the master room which was just ok and the other room was painted BRIGHT NEON GREEN. I kid you not, it was a sunny day and no curtains were up, I almost went blind. Needless to say, we were fairly against that one

The last stop was over by the Wegmans, two townhouses within walking distance. One turned out to be the one that was rented so that was a no go, the last one was a middle townhouse facing a small forested area. It has three floors, the bottom being the main living area. A large living room/dining room area with a gas fireplace. A kitchen that is about the size of my current bedroom. So much counter space that Emril would say BAM! Full pantry and updated appliances. Also a half bathroom there. On the other side of the downstairs is a full sized rec room with storage in the back (and a little cat door for Charlie). It has a nice patio that over looks the woods and a half sized shed for storing the ~~bodies~~ outside rec equipment. The 2nd floor has two bedrooms, a full bathroom, full laundry room with full sized appliances. Above that is the master suite and the room there is about the size of my current living room and bedroom combined. It has a full bathroom with a soaking tub and separate shower!

Needless to say, we liked it. This is the one we choose and set up the applications and started the process! Last night we celebrated at California Pizza kitchen and saw National Treasure 2. Then we went home to fill out the paperwork. That’s what brings us to today. I dropped off everything and we should hear back next week on when we sign the lease. While I was out I figured I would stop by my mechanic and get the Fairfax safety stuff done (it was time) and an oil change. Well, turns out my horn went bad and needed replacing. The good news is that it was just the horn unit and nothing in the steering column. That could have been pricey. So I left at 10am and got home right at about 2pm! What a day, and it’s still early! I will keep everyone updated as the move progresses.