Week 3 Weigh-In

Christmas week. Cookies, cookies everywhere and not a bite to eat. Yes, I blew the diet some this week. Two, three, four bites maybe. I was simply entirely too surrounded in sweet treats and then my mother-in-law cooked a delicious feast for us on Christmas day so I simply had to partake... you know... out of obligation... yeah, that's it. Even with all my "illegal" food, I still managed to drop a pound this week, which was a relief considering that the Christmas feast was the day before this week's weigh in. So I am now down to 197 - 17 pounds to go.

Hopefully everyone enjoyed a pleasant Christmas day whatever you were doing. Ours was great. It was the first year that Killian was really into the whole ordeal. He understood that Santa brought him presents because he had been a good boy and was thrilled about opening and playing with them all. I think that if he had a favorite so far, it would have to be his ClickStart computer from Leapfrog. It is pretty amazing watching him quickly pick-up the mouse and keyboard concepts. I received an Xbox 360 - ok, I actually got it a couple of months ago, but it was an early Christmas present -, Family Guy Season 5, Star Wars trilogy (episodes 4 - 6) and Flight of the Conchords on DVD, as well as some money and gift certificates. Bobbie received a sewing machine, some clothes, an iRobot Scooba and the hardback trilogy of His Dark Materials along with some money and gift certificates. I probably forgot some gifts for all of us in there, so if you sent us something I didn't mention, sorry and no doubt we appreciate it.

So how did everyone else make out? Drop me a comment or an email and let me know. Oh, and in case I fail to blog between now and then, have a safe New Year's Eve celebration.

Amazingly Simple Home Remedies

Got this one by email from a friend, Kevin. It gave me a chuckle.

1. Avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold while you chop.
2. Avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat by using the shower.
3. For high blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure in your veins. Remember to use a timer.
4. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.
5. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives, then you will be afraid to cough.
6. You only need two tools in life - WD-40 and Duct Tape. If it doesn't move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn't move and does, use the duct tape.

Week 2 Weigh-In

Looks like I failed to post after my 2nd week weigh-in. Week 2 brought a 2 pound loss, bringing me to a total of 5.5 pounds down. Exactly 20 to go for the goal. The diet isn't so bad. Frequent enough eating that I'm never really starving, but I don't exactly feel stuffed after the meals either. I have learned that there are a few NutriSystem meals that are less appealing than others though. I'm very much not a fan of the protein enriched chicken patty. Yuck-o. Also, the blueberry muffins leave much to be desired.

Week 1 Weigh-in

Well, I just stepped on the scale for my weigh-in after the first week on NutriSystem. Registered 200.0, a loss of 3.5 pounds for the first week. Fine with me. As long as the word "loss" is in there, that's what we're shooting for. It appears that the average loss is 1.5 to 2 pounds per week, so I imagine it will slow down the longer I am on it. So, only 20 more pounds to go to hit the 180 goal. If I can hit the high average of 2 pounds per week, that means another 10 weeks to get there though. I'm not starving on the diet, which is a good thing. I do get hungry and there is tons of stuff that I want that I can't have (can you say "holiday cookies"?), but so far I've been pretty stringent about sticking to the program. I will tell you one thing, a gallon of water per day will definitely step up the pee frequency. Good grief!

Where Am I Now?

A few things have transpired since last I took time to compose a post. Some significant, others very much not so, but here is a bit of a recap.

My grandmother passed about a week before Thanksgiving. It was mercifully quick and relatively painless. I had the fortune of spending some hours with her twice very near the end and am eternally grateful to my boss for allowing me the time to do so. She was a wonderful woman and will certainly be missed by all who knew her. I chose not to eulogize at her funeral. It was a decision that I thought long and hard about as I certainly have many wonderful things to say about her and I had spoken at my grandfather's funeral just a few short years before. However, it occurred to me that the primary reason that I spoke at his funeral was for her sake. Not only to verbalize some of the things that I didn't get to say to him before he passed, but to let her know that those things were in my heart and to hopefully let that be some comfort to her in his passing, which was more unexpected than the warning time we had with her. At her funeral, I chose to simply relish quietly in my memories of her while others spoke. She is the first person to pass that I have spoken to who knew the end was near and was ready for it. She had her mental faculties in check throughout, and for that I am thankful. I cannot say that it was good to see her go, but I can say that I was more comfortable with her passing than I have been with any others and hope that I can grant a similar level of comfort to my loved ones when it comes time for me to go. I could certainly type for pages more, but as I chose to go silently through her funeral with my memories, I will choose to cease posting about this event accordingly. Farewell, Mamaw. May I find it in my soul to even remotely reflect your love and compassion in my own life.

And switching gears to an entirely unrelated note, I began NutriSystem today (see weight loss graphic to the right if I can ever get that thing working) in an effort to get myself in shape. Yes, I realize that I did Weight Watchers a year or so ago to the same tune, but that actually worked out pretty well. I just failed to stick to the program after I reached my goal. The one benefit of NutriSystem is that it's pretty much prepared food delivered by mail to your door, unlike Weight Watchers where I had to find the right foods. It runs about $11/day, but blowing an average of $7-$9 on lunches at work, considering that it includes breakfast and dinner along with snacks, that's not so bad. You have to supplement with fresh veggies/fruit/dairy, but it still will come in under the $13/day limit, I'm thinking. I'm kicking off the effort weighing in at a record (for me) 203.5 pounds. My goal is to get back down to 180 pounds, around which I have spent most of my adult life. No clue how long that will take, but I'm banking on 2-3 months if I can stick to the program. One thing I can already attest to, drinking a gallon of water/day adds quite a few restroom trips to the regular routine. So, keep an eye on that chart and hopefully you'll see it keep sliding in the right direction.

On another note, we have Christmas decorations around the house. Pretty exciting that we actually have a yard and such to decorate. Killian is very excited about seeing the decorations when we are out driving around the neighborhoods and continually points them out to me. He was all geared up about putting up the tree and decorating it with mommy. It's fun because this will also be the first time he's actually excited about and involved in the whole Christmas package. Potty training continues with a mix of successes and failures, but hopefully we will be able to say goodbye to diapers, other than the overnights I'm sure, soon. I can't wait. I am soooooo tired of buying (and changing) those things. His speech is so much better and continues to improve every day. I'm sad about losing some of the cute mispronunciations as he improves, but it's all for the greater good. :)

I signed up for LinkedIn the other day. I'm not sure of its longevity, but it's a unique social networking site for business folk. If used appropriately and if it doesn't fall victim to becoming a MySpace fiasco of an environment, it's a pretty spectacular concept in my opinion. I was surprised by how many of my colleagues were already signed up when I joined. I was really behind the ball on this one.

My fun time occupations of late in the gaming world have been: Deadlands RPG with a couple of friends, for Xbox 360: Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, Skate and - sort of embarrassingly - Puzzle Quest, and, of course, my weekly boardgaming at the store which covers lots of different games (see the All Fun & Games blog for more info on what I've been playing there).

One positive thing that came out of my grandmother's passing was my longest visit to Newport News since my move to Raleigh. We were there for a full week and I got to spend time with many members of my family. I even got to check out an AHL Norfolk Admirals game while I was there - hadn't been to an Admirals game in probably 15 years or more - and as a bonus, they *destroyed* the visiting Philly team in a huge upset victory. In any case, it was nice to have my immediate family with me visiting extended family for an extended period of time.

Fun Animation

Long time, no post. Yeah, I suck. But here's a little something funny to keep you entertained until my next:

Animator vs Animation

Happenings

So Halloween went exceptionally well. It was the first year that Killian knew what was going on and he was very excited about going up to houses by himself to get the candy. As we came up to a house with the lights on, he would turn around to Bobbie and me and say "Stop, stop" with his hands held out like a crossing guard. That was our cue that we were to stay at this location while he foraged his own way up to the door where he would proceed to knock, look back at us until someone answered the door, say one of the following: "Trick or treat", "Candy please" or "More?", receive said candy, say "Thank you" and then barrel back to us at a full run to show us what he just got. I have to say that it was among the cutest things I have witnessed in life (barf!). He chose the Pablo costume shown in the pictures from my previous post and we actually visited quite a few houses - enough to have to dump his collection bucket so that he could fill it a 2nd time. As a bonus, the new neighborhood is and AWESOME community for such events. There were far more houses with treats available than dark ones and tons of kids & parents lining the streets for the adventure.

Killian is visiting the zoo in Ashboro, NC today, so I'm certain I will be hearing all about that when I get home from work tonight. I wasn't lucky enough to be able to go with him, but mom and grandma have assured me that it will be a filmed event so I will be able to tag along for the ride vicariously.

On another positive note, I picked up Call of Duty 4 for the Xbox 360 on Friday. It's a spectacular looking game and the online play is fun, even though I suck miserably at it (give me a keyboard and mouse and I could probably up that to just sucking without the miserably factor). My friends list continues to grow on the Xbox 360 as do reports of people getting the red ring of death and having to send their machines in for repair. I don't think that I know anyone with a machine that hasn't had to do so, actually. Here's hoping I don't get to experience that joy.

The giant negative in my life in the past few weeks is that my grandmother is not doing well at all. She is in the hospital after a very quick descent in health. I won't go into details here, but just know that there is a rough spot out there for my family right now.

Killian Gets All Halloweeny

First as Pablo from The Backyardigans. Note the clever hand puppet accessory and background Wiggles action! He then quickly changes into Sesame Street gear and a character that is unrecognizable.

Archival Paul

I just found a bunch of some of my older blog posts when it was hosted elsewhere. I've posted a link to them on the right under Useful Links --> Older Paulblog Archives


Have a read if you are so inspired. I'm still missing a big chunk between then and now and am working to get that posted online.

Monsterized

Beware my scary "monsterized" blog name for the Halloween season (yes, the "L" looks like an "I" but apparently that's unavoidable).

*Blog!*

I want the capability to turn the Batman fighting words on and off in my own life. You know the ones, the words that appeared in colored bubbles whenever Batman and Robin were in a fight on the television show. Granted, I'm never in fights so the would have to pop up for other activities such as *Staple!* or *Sit!* or *Type!*. I've seen this utilized in a few animated shows over the past few years and it's typically hilarious. How cool would it be to have this happening in real life. Of course, it would become annoying pretty quick so that's why I'd need the on/off option.

Hiccuping Chicken? What the?!?

So Killian was watching The Wiggles the other day and I paid attention for the first time to a song that has played a thousand times. The song is apparently titled "Here Come the Chicken" and the lyrics go something very close to:

Here come the chicken
(here come the chicken)
Walking down the road
Here come the chicken
(here come the chicken)
Walking down the road
That chicken's got the hiccups
(that chicken's got the hiccups)
That chicken's got the hiccups
(that chicken's got the hiccups)
Won't somebody help that chicken, please!

What the...?!? Could we have a more bizarre concept? Granted, it's not rare to encounter odd lyrics in a children's song but it's just a particularly strange one to me. Then again, the show does have a pirate captain with a feather sword.

Fun Links

Some entertaining links that were brought to my attention over the past couple months:

• Phat 70's Fashion
• If FOX News had existed throughout history

Avert Not Thine Eyes

I made a modification to the blog template just to change things up a bit.

Xbox 360 Joins the Family

I finally sprung for an Xbox 360 today, thus explaining my gamertag now appearing on the right of my blog. Skate was the final straw. Aww yeah, early Christmas present...

Photos of the new joint

As promised, here are some shots of the new house. All interior. I'll post some exterior shots later. Have a look: click here for photo set

A Little Bit of Nothing

I have yet to unpack the cable to extract pics from the digital camera of the new house, so you shall have to continue waiting for those. On the other exciting things though:

• Killian's swing set arrived yesterday. Granted it's in boxed form, but it shall be constructed on Saturday barring inclement weather.
• The bulk of our fence has been stained (that was a messy affair).
• The house is about 1/2 way unpacked, but it's slowing down as we go trying to weed out unnecessary stuff.
  
• DirectTV is installed and working well. Just have to get used to a new channel lineup.
• Watched the series premiere of The Bionic Woman. Can't say that I really enjoyed it. I will give it a three episode chance though. If it doesn't improve by #3, it's off my list.
• Family Guy, The Office and My Name is Earl came through with flying colors for their season premiers, as did Prison Break though I still can't figure out why I continue to watch that one.
  
• I mowed a lawn for the first time in about 20 years.
• Many neighbors have been met - so far every one of them is almost too nice.
• I've had sinus fun going for just over a week now. Oh, joy.

Alright, just wanted to toss a quick update out there. Until next time.

Completely copied and pasted from gamerhelp.com (<-- click for actual link), but very, very funny for video gaming types:

Who says video games can't teach you anything useful? The Fecal Jesus names 57 bits of wisdom that anyone can pick up simply from playing video games. by The Fecal Jesus

1. When you're about to beat someone in a fight, they will rapidly flash between red and their normal skin tone.

2. Chickens are easy to pick up.

3. Tennis is really easy.

4. Hockey is almost entirely about checking and fist-fights.

5. Most people don't say anything of interest.

6. On any given day, a 16-year old girl can beat up a gigantic bear, or an old man can beat up a robot.

7. The best way to open a container is to destroy it.

8. When you enter a town, the person closest to the entrance will welcome you to the town and tell you its name.

9. When driving, a full 360 flip is routine, provided you land wheels down.

10. Pay attention to shiny things.

11. All ninjas will try to kill you on sight. Unless said ninja is a super badass ninja who refuses to talk. That guy will run away after saying "..." But beware--he'll be back.

12. Parachutes are standard issue for all soldiers, regardless of what they're tasked with on the Battlefield.

13. Food heals all wounds.

14. Eating typically takes one or two seconds, and can usually be accomplished by standing on top of food.

15. If you run out of bullets, you die.

16. Everyone, everywhere, at anytime is capable of jumping at least 5 feet straight up.

17. Eating mushrooms can make you grow taller. Eating flowers let you shoot fireballs out of your hand.

18. Female martial artists are either little girls in Japanese school clothes, or scantily clad vixens with ginormous boobies.

19. The Web was basically built for people to play puzzle games and tower defense.

20. Windows sucks.

21. Your thumb is your most powerful weapon.

22. Pokemon, though vicious fighting animals, will only attack other Pokemon. Even the biggest, nastiest Pokemon won't hurt a human.

23. Princess Peach really needs a security staff.

24. And so does Princess Zelda.

25. Most people don't mind if you wander into their house unannounced. They also don't care if you go rifling through their chests and barrels looking for items.

26. A large number of doors and gates are controlled by elaborate pulley systems involving statues and clay tablets.

27. Barrels with radioactive signs on the side will explode if shot.

28. Hemorrhaging head wounds can be healed by standing on top of any box with the red cross symbol on the side.

29. Bad guys and monsters tend to enjoy carrying around the same types of bullets your guns use, even if they themselves are not armed.

30. Big ass boobs are great. 3D big ass boobs with a proper physics engine behind them are even better.

31. Massive boobs do not, in anyway, interfere with physical and athletic performance.

32. Most cities, though appearing large, are composed of small alleys and single streets blocked off at both ends by garbage, fences, cars, or mysterious invisible barriers.

33. 90% of all doors are completely fake. They're just painted onto the wall.

34. Solid Snake's co-workers are completely incapable of shutting the f**k up.

35. Turtles come out of their shells if you press down hard on them. Additionally, turtle shells are really slick on the bottom, and thus they slide around on normal surfaces as though they were ice.

36. For the most part, jumping on something's head will kill it. If it does not, then throwing a dead animal at the thing will do the job.

37. All adventures will take the protagonist through an "ice world."

38. If you get poisoned, you won't die as long as you stay still.

40. Grenades are easy to locate in major metropolitan areas. And in fields. And in suburbs. And in airbases. And in hotels. And on the bus. And in schools. But if you find grenades in a military base, they're probably fake and don't really exist.

41. 95% of all computers, desks, tables and chairs are exactly the same.

42. Killing people makes you stronger.

43. When someone dies, their body will decompose within 5 minutes of death.

44. Dead people, after decomposition, tend to leave behind weapons, food, or keys.

45. Bad guys like to build elaborate mazes around their headquarters.

46. The head guy involved in anything is usually trying to destroy the world.

47. Bad guy managers are usually far stronger than any of their underlings.

48. If a bad guy is really really big, you'll have to flip a number of switches in order to damage him. These switches will always reset within 30 seconds of being hit, making Mr. Big Baddy invulnerable again.

49. The more you kill, the better the stuff you get.

50. All store owners will buy any old crap you have in your bag, no matter how much of it you own.

51. If in combat, your enemies will usually stand around and wait patiently as you go through your rucksack looking for your rocket launcher.

52. A knife in the back beats three bullets in the face.

53. When you go to bed at an inn, a 3-second jingle will play before you go to sleep..

54. Hedgehogs do not have blood flowing through their veins, but giant gold rings.

55. The greatest of warriors often communicates in childish aphorisms.

56. Clothing only comes in one size.

57. If you come across a locked door, you have to find the key, even if it's a brittle piece of wood that a grenade should be able to obliterate.

The Man Code

My sister sent me this by email some time ago and, in playing catch-up, I just ran across it and gave it a read. Not bad. :)

• The universal compensation for buddies who help you move is beer.
• Never hesitate to reach for the last beer or the last slice of pizza, but not both. That's just plain mean.
• Bitching about the brand of free beer in a buddy's refrigerator is forbidden. You may gripe if the temperature is unsuitable.
• Any man who brings a camera to a bachelor party may be legally killed and eaten by his fellow party goers.
• Women who claim they "love to watch sports" must be treated as spies until they demonstrate knowledge of the game and the ability to pick a buffalo wing clean.
• If a buddy is outnumbered, out manned, or too drunk to fight, you must jump into the fight. Exception: If, within the last 24 hours, his actions have caused you to think, "What this guy needs is a good ass-whoopin", then you may sit back and enjoy.
• Unless he murdered someone in your immediate family, you must bail a friend out of jail within 12 hours.
• The minimum amount of time you have to wait for another guy who's running late is 5 minutes. For a woman, you are required to wait 10 minutes for every point of hotness she scores on the classic 1-10 scale.
• No man is ever required to buy a birthday present for another man. In fact, even remembering a friend's birthday is strictly optional and slightly gay.
• Agreeing to distract the ugly friend of a hot babe your buddy is trying to hook up with is your legal duty.
• Before dating a buddy's ex, you are required to ask his permission and he, in return, is required to grant it.
• If a man's zipper is down, that's his problem. You saw nothing.
• When stumbling upon other guys watching a sports event, you may always ask the score of the game in progress, but you may never ask who's playing.
• It is permissible to consume a fruity chick drink only when you're sunning on a tropical beach... and it's delivered by a topless super model...and it's free.
• A man in the company of a hot, suggestively dressed woman must remain sober enough to fight.
• If you compliment a guy on his six-pack, you better be referring to his beer.
• Never talk to a man in the bathroom unless you're on equal footing: either both urinating or both waiting in line. In all other situations, a nod is all the conversation you need. In any case, not talking is appropriate behavior.
  
• If a buddy is already singing along to a song in the car, you may not join him...too gay.
• Thou shall not rent the movie "Chocolat"
• Under no circumstances may two men share an umbrella.

That Boardgaming Thing 2007

Honestly, I haven't forgotten that I have a blog hanging out here. The standard excuse still stands - it's been a crazy busy time at work and we've spent the last couple of months preparing to move: selling our house, finding a new house, making an offer, getting rejected, finding a new new house, making an offer, getting a counter-offer, countering the counter, having that accepted, planning the move, oh, and coordinating a 4-day board gaming event to occur the weekend before the move.

Well, the board gaming event, the 4th annual That Boardgaming Thing, went fabulously. I had a great time and had an opportunity to play with many people that I only get to see once/year if that in addition to many that I see more frequently. As a bonus, I managed to come in 2nd (first loser) in the poker tourney that we held. Only 24 players, but still a decent challenge. Additionally, I managed to lose to one Alan R. Moon, who graced our event with his presence, so that was pretty entertaining as well.

Pics of the new house to be posted soon - moving in 2 days!

The Dangers of Association

I encountered a situation the other day that may have been happening all of my life and I may have simply not been realizing it. This may be one of those epiphany moments. I headed to the restroom to take care of the quicker version of the standard visitation needs and as soon as I entered the room it hit me. An aroma so indescribably bad that the best I can do is chewed puppy lit afire and doused in wet manure to extinguish. That and sweaty goat testicles. I think that about sums it up. The room was empty. The culprit escaped without notice. So I brave the deadly stench long enough to resolve my situation, wash the hands and start heading out. As I cracked the door to leave, a thought occurred to me; what if I encountered someone entering at this point? The rotting corpse-like foulness would certainly be attributed to me. How does one escape that invalid supposition by the other party? Vocal denial would certainly draw suspicion. There is no way out of it. It is your cross to bear even though you are a mere victim of the situation. So unfair, so unfair. Not only do you have to suffer through eye-watering discomfort while attempting to alleviate your own needs, you must now carry the label of "that guy that destroyed the atmosphere in the restroom". Fortunately, I got off easy in this case. Nobody in sight as I exited the polluted facility and I have only this tale and realization instead of an unwarranted label.

EVE Online

New video game to me of interest: EVE Online. Playing the 14 day free trial of it at the moment an enjoying it very much. It reminds me of the old BBS days of Tradewars 2002. I've been looking for something to fill that void for quite sometime. Earth & Beyond did a pretty good job of it while it was around, but it has been gone for awhile now. EVE Online is very similar in play from what I can tell. Spectacular graphics for a MMORPG though. A really excellent interface as well. The fact that it appears to only have 1 server is pretty amazing as well considering how many players are active in the game.

Adding Injurty to Insult

Some insults simply do not work in particular situations. "Son of a bitch" is one of these.

For example, calling a sibling a "son of a bitch" without doing the same to yourself as a result. Similarly using a statement such as "Son of a bitch!" when you cut yourself shaving or step on a sharp object walking by yourself can have unintended implications. Without specifying an article for your insult, you indirectly imply "you". In turn, if alone, then that "you" must be directed at the closest logical unit, physical or ethereal. In the physical sense, we must suppose that "you" is oneself (in which case you really should say "I'm a…") or a nearby inanimate object (in this case you are talking to inanimate objects - this is a thing that crazy people on the street do - don't do this). If, however, we suppose the likely more logical ethereal target of your insult, then we assume something like the entity of the universe or your perception of a God or gods. In these cases, considering the karmic or smiting repercussions, then said insult should likely be reconsidered. Yet another case in which this insult can backfire is when targeting someone who is either a) adopted or b) without a living mother. In one case, you toss the label "bitch" on a completely unknown so it is relatively ineffective. In the second case, even if your statement is accurate - it's one thing to toss the mom insult out there, it's a whole other thing to throw the deceased into the mix. Again, potentially unintended consequence.

So, be careful in your usage of insults of the like. Be sure that your target is a valid and good one. Cater your insult to the appropriate conditions. It will be far more effective.

Late Nights

So I've spent the last three nights up late doing work for the day job.  Apparently I am old because I am tired as a result.  Didn't *used* to be tired from such forays, but I'm beat.  Got another late night tomorrow for the store's game night and then I'll probably "waste" my Friday night by going to bed early as a result.

 

Where do I apply for these senior citizen discounts I hear tale of?

News of the Inside

Yay me.  I don't have stomach cancer.  Not yet, at least.  Not that I'm trying for it, but you never know what the future will bring.

For those of you baffled completely by my first sentence, here's the story.  I went in for my every-few-years-upper-endoscopy thanks to an acid reflux issue last Wednesday.  While there was a camera down my throat and in my belly, they discovered some polyps in the upper portion of my stomach and removed about 1/2 of them, biopsied them and I just got the results back today.  So, I've been somewhat panicked over the past week that I was in for some bad news come today.  Mostly because the only time I've ever really heard the word "polyp" used was in reference to some form of cancer.  However, the biopsies came back negative and the only bad news (which is, of course, well overshadowed by the good news) is that I have to go back fairly soon to get the rest of them removed, which means another adventure of "Hey, is that a camera down your throat or are you just happy to see me?" and likely a follow-up of the same a year or two later along with every couple of years thereafter for... oh... ever.  Additional good news is that they didn't have to do any stretching while they were in there this time (ask me for details of previous events if you have no idea what I'm talking about here), so the Prevacid that I've been taking for the last 3 years seems to be doing its job well.

Woohoo!  Reason to celebrate.

New games

Played a new boardgame last night. Well, it isn't a brand new
boardgame so much as it is new to me. Rum & Pirates. Enjoyed it quite
a bit. Played with the full player lot of 5 people. Managed to come in
3rd. Thought it was going to be a better showing for me, but not bad.
I was only one point behind 2nd.

Also picked up Neverwinter Nights 2 last weekend, but I haven't had
much of a chance to play it yet.

Posting by Email

Sweet.  Just figured out how to post by email.  This might help me to update more frequently.

Have you seen me on a milk carton?

So, as should be most evident by this point, I have failed miserably in my New Year's resolutions. I can blame only an insane schedule bleeding itself through the beginning of this year. Lots of happenings over that time, but rather than toss them into a big review entry, I'll maybe try to toss them on piecemeal here and there. I have recently been told of another blogging form that may better suit my situation, offering an option to pop out one-liner status messages vs. a full blog entry. It's called Twitter. A kind of neat little idea, but I can't quite pinpoint how best to use it in my life. It's kind of a stagnant instant messenger, which is to say that you don't need the other party(ies) to be present to toss out your message. Check it out and feel free to check out my entries at http://www.twitter.com/do10hedron. You'll have to sign up (free) and request to be added to my friend's list to read my entries in an effort to keep the spammer types at bay, but if you're so inspired, have at it.

I managed to crack a tooth on Saturday. Not sure how it cracked actually. I didn't feel or hear anything, just bit down on something hard which turned out to be a part of one of my molars. Fortunately, the dentist was able to repair it with just a filling which meant it wasn't A) crazy painful or B) crazy expensive. Lucky me.

Killian continues to grow and develop in unbelievable leaps and bounds. He's talking constantly now and does something amazing (to me) every day. It's a pretty fascinating experience. Trying at times, but fascinating nonetheless. I have also managed to miserably fail to capture much of this development on any form of media other than memory. This is probably the area that I am most disappointed in myself from the New Year's resolutions standpoint.

I hope that the readers that are still with me are doing well and that I can pick back up and start posting with any degree of frequency again.

Not-So-Burning Crusade

I failed to take a picture of my kid today. Man am I quick to fail these resolutions. I did take both video and pictures yesterday, so I suppose I could credit myself a day.

Bobbie finally got back from Oklahoma at almost midnight last night. Killian was very happy to see her today (as was I, of course) and apparently they had a good reunion day overall.

I managed to avoid the draw of the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion today. I can't say the same for our roommate Mike as he sits and plays a Blood Elf character behind me. Since the new character race is all that it would buy me and I don't even have a 50th, much less 58th, level character, the temptation is fairly easy to ignore for the time being.

I've spent a few moments here and there over the last several days importing my CD collection into iTunes. Glad it's a fairly simple one-click process, but it's still taking forever even though I only have a little over 200 CDs in total. I'm running across all kinds of things that I forgot I even had. For example, I just encountered Peter Murphy "Deep".

The Carolina Hurricanes are on TV playing against the Florida Panthers in Florida which reminds me that I went to the game last week when Florida was in town playing us. It was pretty cool because I got free tickets and they were box seats, so that came with free food and drink to boot. The game was mighty crappy as we headed into the 3rd period down 0-3. However, it then "got all crazy" as the Canes proceeded to score six, yes six, goals in the 3rd period eventually winning 6-4. The place lit up. Two of the guys that were with me were at their first NHL game, so that was very cool for them to see and was a first for me. The most goals that I can remember ever seeing live in a period before that game is three. Woohoo, go Canes!

Whiteboards on Mopeds

Whiteboards. They are mysterious to me. Ink that turns to powder but doesn't crumble until you run an eraser over it. Amazing! Sure, it seems like a simple device that office folk encounter daily, but it's a pretty frickin' cool invention if you think about it. So, having thought about it, I was obligated to research them. Rather than re-post my findings, I'll simply provide a link to some info about them for your reading enjoyment:

whiteboard-info-a-plenty

On a good news note, Bobbie is actually in the air as I type this on her way home from her Oklahoma entrapment. She is scheduled to arrive in Raleigh close to midnight.

Also, I managed to stick to all of my resolutions today with the exception of the exercise one, but that's probably going to have to wait another week or so for the ankle to heal up a bit more. Today was my first day back to work without the ankle brace. It's a little sore, but not too bad.

OK, short and sweet tonight. Just wanted to get an obligatory post in. I'm now off to clean the place up a bit before Bobbie arrives.

Immediate Failure

Here we are 14 days into 2007 and I have already managed to fail at all of my resolutions. That may actually be a new personal record. However, I'm not going to let that discourage me. I simply pick up and re-initiate my 2007 resolutions. In fact, I'm even going to add a couple based on recent events.

6. Take a picture of my child every day. It doesn't have to necessarily be a good one every day, but I have neglected to capture much of the first 2.5 years of his life and he's growing faster by the minute it seems.

7. Spend more time with my family on average. 2006 was a crazy year both at home and work and it afforded me an opportunity to spend a little more time with Killian, but not with he and Bobbie both. The passing of her father has helped me to realize just how precious such time is.

Speaking of Bobbie, she has been trapped in Oklahoma for the past 3 days due to an ice storm. She spent the past week there trying to get her father's affairs in order and then, on the day she was to fly out, they got hit with a pretty significant winter storm and flights out have been cancelled for the past 3 days. We're hoping that she will get out of there tomorrow afternoon, but it's still iffy. In the meantime, I'm solo dad again, but thanks to grandparents and friends, it doesn't appear that I will have to miss a workday. Well, that is unless she doesn't make it home by Tuesday. If that's the case, I may have no other choice.

The biggest bummer is that I wanted for her to be home on Saturday for Killian's arrival back to Raleigh for the first time in two weeks to help raise her spirits. It has been a tough week on her and being trapped in an ice storm states away from her immediate family can't be helping much. On a somewhat humorous note to that end, Killian thinks that "Mommy is at work." It's been one heck of a shift! He is fine though. No doubt he will be thrilled to see her upon her return, but he has been reasonably distracted by his return to Raleigh and a visit with his grandmother today. Hopefully the babysitter visit tomorrow along with her 4 year-old son will help to keep him so. He has been in a really good mood and comparably easy to deal with over the past many weeks. He's at a really fun and cute stage right now. OK, enough rambling about the boy. I will throw in a picture from his most recent grandparental adventure in Virginia though seated atop his grandfather's Harley.

I also need to start capturing more video and audio of him. I'm going to miss the way he used to say things and not have anything to turn back to for listening pleasure. I still get a kick out of old recordings of myself as a kid made on reel-to-reel and cassette tapes.

Bob Burrus

Tonight I blog of solemn news which, though somewhat rare for me, I feel that the subject is worthy.

My father-in-law, Bob Burrus, passed away late last week.

He was a man that I did not know well, having met him in person only 3 times to my memory over the 10 years that my wife and I have been together (dating and married). Thus, I do not have true knowledge to tout his positives nor to attack his negatives (not that I would on such an occasion). However, he was the father of my wife and a grandfather of my child. My experiences with him did not prove in anyway unpleasant and it is my hope that he will be remembered fondly.

As stated, I have not the knowledge to compose a true obituary for the man and will leave it to those who know him better to do so. I can tell you only that he spent his career as I know it acting on stage and would, no doubt, have held countless interesting stories that would have been told in skilled fashion. I regret that neither I nor his grandson will have an opportunity to know him so. Additionally, as a stage actor, I don't know that many, if any, of his performances were captured in recorded form for us to enjoy. To my immediate knowledge, he only did one motion picture, Tully, which we own on DVD. I hope that this isn't the only "live" version of him that we have to show our son, but that remains to be seen.

In any case, I wish him well in whatever lies beyond this mortal existence and thank him for helping to produce the wonderful woman that I have the honor to call my wife.

Vista - Ultimate or no?

In keeping with 2007 tradition, I shall now proceed to post...

Over New Year's weekend, I decided to install Windows Vista Ultimate edition as my primary operating system at home. Ballsy, yes, but I had to do an OS dump/reinstall in any case so I figured I'd give Vista a go in order to get a look at it.

I won't bother posting all of the new features and changes from XP since they have been documented all over the place, but I will point out the things that stuck out most to me just diving in:

• They have dumped the "My". "My Documents" is now just "Documents". "My Computer" is now just "Computer".
• The power button icon formerly known as Shut Down is now the equivalent of Standby mode. In order to shut down or logoff, you now have to go one step deeper into menu structure.
• The Recycle Bin now defaults to the top left of the screen. Maybe it has always done that and I have habitually moved it to the bottom right. I can't really remember at the moment.
• There is a gadget bar on the right side of the screen that is blatantly the Widget bar from Mac OS X.
• Internet Explorer 7 installs with the OS - woohoo tabbed browsing. Welcome to Firefox's world.
• The start button is a round blue icon rather than the ovalish green one from XP.
• There is no longer an Add/Remove programs in the Control Panel. Its somewhat equivalent is now called Programs and Features.
• The Event Viewer in Computer Management is a little prettier. No more pop-up windows to view details.
• There is a cool new Reliability Monitor feature that I like.

Off the top, those are the only key ones that come to mind. I was pleasantly surprised that pretty much all of my hardware was recognized and picked up during installation with the exception of my SoundBlaster Audigy 2 sound card. There were no Vista drivers on Creative's website, so I guess that one will have to wait awhile. However, the onboard Realtek is working just fine, so iTunes is still cruising along. No problems with software compatibility yet either, with the exception of Symantec Antivirus. I had to download a beta version from their website which will expire in 30 days. I'm assuming that they'll have a retail release by then.

I do have one outstanding Vista issue, however. It won't boot without the DVD in the drive. I've read some online feedback on this and it appears to be a known issue where it will load the boot info to an incorrect drive on occasion. No simple way to fix it, so I'll live with it for now.

OK, off to bed. I head to Virginia tomorrow night for work, so I may not get around to another posting until I return on Saturday night or Sunday. I will try to post from there however.

2007 - Better than 2006?

Let's hope so!

For those that read my infrequent postings to date, you'll know that 2006 brought an unpleasantry to my immediate family that was most unwelcome - cancer in the form of melanoma for my wife. I don't think I actually blogged about it, but my grandmother also suffered a heart attack. So, both very sucky things, but much to our fortune, both victims pulled through with minimal changes to their lifestyles. I thank all of those who were along for the ride on these to give me support. So, to that end, I say "Good riddance, 2006!" It is a year I'd like not to repeat.

So, with those ugly items staining last year, I look forward to 2007 to be a better venture. Here's hoping that it brings health in prosperity to my family as well as those of my readers. That's not to say that there weren't bright spots in 2006. In fact, there certainly were. But, the negatives definitely outweighed the positives last year. Thank goodness for Killian to keep me entertained in the down times.

I haven't posted much of late because I claim to be busy and to not have time to post. Though it is true that I'm busy, it's more true that I don't take time to post than it is that I don't have time to post. I'm hoping to change that in 2007 as well as I intend to dedicate 30 minutes/day to piecing together a blog posting. It's not much and I may well not use the full 30 minutes or come up with anything that I really deem worthy of posting, but I am going to attempt to at least toss something up here each day that I have access to a computer to do so.

To that end, I present my five resolutions for 2007. Sadly, there are likely a few unaccomplished leftovers from 2006 in here, but that was last year...

1. Daily blog posting - I resolve to post at least something to the blog on any day that I have access, regardless of its readworthiness (yeah, creating words on the fly).
2. 180 - Goal for weight loss. I haven't weighed myself in a couple of months, but I'm sure that I'm bumping right up against if not directly on top of the 200 pound mark. I resolve to get down to 180 and, hopefully as a result, to get my blood pressure and cholesterol in check. I'm on blood pressure medication now, but I'd very much love to not be so anymore.
3. Pizza and fried foods reduction - I had initially intended to resolve to give up pizza and fried foods (ties right in with resolution #2), but I don't think that would be a realistic goal given my daily lunch opportunities. So, instead I resolve to eat fried foods or pizza at the most three times/week. If all goes well, I will do my best to keep that to 0-1 times/week.
4. Routine - I resolve to add some routine to the daily aspect of my life. Specifically to the organization and cleaning issues. I am going to introduce a daily/weekly chore plan (ie. vacuum every Saturday, clean home office/desk every Sunday, etc.). It will not be overbearing and the chores may be minimal to keep it realistic. However, in doing so, hopefully it will be a habit that I am able to upkeep.
5. Exercise - Yep, another one that ties into goal #2. I resolve to introduce an exercise regime (hey, that ties in to #4 sort of as well - sweet... synergy). It may also be fairly simple... DDR, a walk around the block nightly, treadmill, jumping rope... but no matter what it is it will definitely be much more than I have done in the past couple of years which amounts to just shy of absolutely nothing.

So, there you have it. Those are my initial goals for 2007. All achievable, I think and I'm even starting on the right foot for #1 by posting this very entry.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I sincerely hope that 2007 brings us all a better year and if you had a great 2006, then how about a fabulous 2007?

Happy new year to all!