For puropses of downsizing, we've moved into a smaller, lower cost house (I wasn't willing to give up our pets for the sake of saving a few bucks.. we adopted them, they're ours, and I just don't feel right giving them away because they're sometimes encumbersome).
Old House:

• 4 BR
• 2.5 bath
• 2,500 sq ft.
• 25-35 min commute
• $1,800

New House:

• 3 bedrooms (Mush smaller than the previous house, and no master bath)
• 1 bath
• 1200 sq ft, if that.
• 15-20 min commute
• $1,300

Hopefully the smaller house will reduce our utility bill as well. I spent most of my weekends for the last month or so packing, which is why my blog posts have been non-existant. Last weekend was the big move. Thank goodness several of my coworkers helped my on Saturday! I moved more stuff Sun and cleaned Mon night and took Tuesday off work to finish cleaning. It was so much work, I cannot even put it into words because I'm too tired. (And that really says something)

And now, its time to unpack and organize. (sigh)

Happy late Easter. I've been too busy or tired to post.

All I've been doing is working, packing (we're moving at the end of the month), housework, or taking care of Drake. I had to sacrifice some sleep to play DDO during its 2nd anniversary free week of play. I didn't gain a level, but I got closer than I was. They have a 9.99 deal until March 14 I think, if you pay for 6 months at once.

Speaking of lost sleep, I've been having to get up 2 or 3 times every night to put Drakey back to sleep. I'm still sleeping in the nursery for this exact reason. He does OK for a few hours, but then wakes up and realizes his pacifier is gone and starts to fuss. Once I reinsert it he goes straight back to sleep. Then we both wake up around 6am and I cant go back to sleep. So for the last few weeks Ive been averaging 6-7 hours in broken spurts. So I'm kinda tired.

Gwyen had some kinda injury about a month ago, dunno if I mentioned it. She seems better overall, but she isn't eating as much as she used to (and may have lost some weight). Vet thinks its some kinda blunt jaw trauma.

In preparation for the move I tried to get my trailer, but I couldn't get the hitch lock I put on it to unlock. I tried wiggling and did both correct keys, but it just won't turn. I called the manufacturer (Coquent) and they've had some reports of this issue. Even though its well past its 90 day warranty, they're gonna send me a new one. Course, I have to hack-saw off the old one.

That's all I have time to type. Sorry my updates are few and far between.
Check out the Lost Boys 2: The Tribe info. If you dare.

Easily my 2nd favorite web comic ever is Evil, Inc. It's been around for years, so if you haven't read it, do so as soon as you finish reading this post. Do not past Go. Do not collect 200.00. Unless, you know, someone owes you 200.00. But then go read it. It's full of awesomeness.

Another good one is Amazing Superteam. Poor art but good dialog and decent storyline keeps this comic going. I like it a lot.

I turned 37 today.

I went to work. (I have a deadline on Tuesday). I took Drake with me too. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked.

We drove to Vienna and Annadale (30 mins) to look for a place to live. A few are decent possibilities.. We'll see if any of them pan out.

We went to Fuddruckers for dinner. Now I remember why we don't go there.. too expensive. Drake was really fascinated though and was extremely good our entire time there.

The evening was spent trying to organize a schedule for house hunting for tomorrow. And Drake is really fussy this evening so I didn't get much done. I also have to do taxes, not to mention pack. Also, Gwyn has been sick (can't drink water) and after a vet visit 4 days ago, we don't know what's actually wrong with her. But there's blood in her water bowl, so I had to isolate her to the extra bedroom.

That's pretty much it I suppose.

I specifically asked for nothing for my birthday, since we can't afford it. I got some nice cards and an outrageous gift from my mom, which I really appreciate.

Just follow the link, check the video, and sit there in bewilderement. I cannot, in all good conscious, post any pictures.

Pimped Out Powder Room

A few weeks ago I had a full physical. I got the results a week or so ago, and after a lot of non-returned phone calls, I had an appointment today for the follow up.

I'm fairly healthy, normal / average whatever... except for my Cholesterol. It's like one of those commercials with the happy healthly person doing happy healthy things, but then they get hit by a bus or trip or something. I knew that would be me one day.. I just figured it would be after I was 40. I'm not sure when my last full physical was, but it was probably a few years ago, and it was fine. I blame donut day.

Every Wed EA Mythic has "donut day".. several boxes full of awesome donuts. I usually try to avoid them, and as a result I end up only eating 2 or 3 or rarely 4. Every week. For nearly a year. Before that, Mad Doc Software had Pizza Friday.. all you can eat free pizza and soda (well OK, the hot chocolate and soda were always free). I was there for about 8 months. Since I suffer a -5 to Will rolls when it comes to donuts or cookies (mmmm Cookies), and a -5 (cumulative) to free food, it's no real shock that my Cholesterol is high. How high? Very.

Cholesterol can’t dissolve in the blood... it has to be carried by the blood.

There's 2 types of Cholesterol: Good (HDL) and Bad (LDL). The bad stuff is what clogs up your arteries. That's what causes things like heart attacks and strokes (Which my family has a long history of). The good stuff supposedly carries the bad stuff away and into the liver. If your good stuff is too low, and the bad stuff too high, that could be an indication of elevated Triglycerides, a body fat.

Normal Good (HDL) Cholesterol is 40 mg/dl (milligrams per deciliter) for men and 50 for women. Mine was 32. That's bad.

Normal Bad (LDL) Cholesterol is less than 200 mg/dl for a person with no other risk factors. 200-239 is "Borderline" High risk. 240+ is high risk. If I remember correctly, mine was 243. It could have been 234. I don't remember. Either way, it's very bad.

I have to take an aspirin and some medication every evening. I go back in 3 months to see if my cholesterol has lowered without any liver problems. Joy. Now I feel old.

As a result, as of yesterday, I started exercising. I'm doing the Walk away the Pounds DVD program by Leslie Sansone every morning at 8am for 30 mins. I hope to keep up with the program, since it, Weight Watchers, and Violet's use of them both, is largely responsible for my weight loss a year or so ago.

Our lease is up end of March, so I've been trying to find another place to rent. I have high hopes but little faith in the industry I have chosen, so I can't risk buying a house at this point in time. So we will rent yet again.

Having a roof over one's head is easily, and by far, the largest contributor towards our high cost of living. (We spend in excess of $4000 each month). It's very difficult to lower it, as I have been trying to do for a while now. If we could somehow get rid of our two dogs, 1 of the vehicles, cancel the cable and lower our cell phone plan, and then find a cheap (<1400) apartment or condo we'd probably be better off. But I cannot seem to do any of that.

The dogs are our responsibility.. I knew getting them was a bad idea, and I said so at the time of adoption, and I've complained about them ever since.. But I cannot seem to give them up. They are a part of the family now. I was strong enough to say NO when we got them, but not enough to enforce it. Besides, legally I'd have to return them to the shelters... one in Texas and one in Cali, and that's certainly not worth the drive. I tried Pet Finder up in Boston and came very close to giving away Sebastian. I'm pretty sure I blogged about that though.

I can't risk only having one vehicle. If it breaks, we're screwed. And even though Violet drives hers fairly infrequently, its almost worth keeping it until its paid off, which should be sometime this year. Mine isn't worth selling.. I owe more than its resale value is, so I'm stuck with it. Which sucks because the fuel level thingy broke, so I have no idea how much fuel remains. I just refill every 250 miles or so now.

We need internet access, for Violet's job.. that's a need. TV, not needed, but stupid Comcast package deals are such that we wouldn't be saving much by canceling it. Same for our cell phones. We tried eating from home, but I don't think that works. Our grocery bills are 80-150 bucks.. much higher than going out every night.

Sure the kid isn't cheap, but I knew that a long time ago, and the little guy is worth it. Have you SEEN his pics on Violet's blog? D'oh, he needs me right now, so that's gonna cut this blog short. I was gonna ramble about figuring out ways to earn more money since I can't seem to reduce my outgoing expenditures, like canceling my 401K and making my # of W-2 deductions really high. But I'm not gonna do either. For now.

Can't decide what console to get? No problem.. Here's a handy chart! (Courtesy of the Penny Arcade forums)

I'm not sure I've mentioned this before, but for quite a while now I've been enjoying free games courtesy of Kongregate.com.

One of my favorites is Desktop Defense, in which lemming like creatures go across the screen, and you have to place towers to shoot them before they make it across. Its free, fun, and doesn't take a whole lotta time.

Usually, I don't much care for pie. But this is awesome.

The Booby Wall.

Naturally, I approve.

Last week was not a good week for my computer. This tale is a gauntlet of suck. And a long one, which is partly why I'm telling it a week later. Also, this didn't all happen at once. Fixing it wasn't my top priority however, so the suckage simmered for 4 days over the holiday while I occasionally had between 30 min and 2 hours to work on the issue.

Let's begin with my setup.
Windows XP, 300GB hard drive (split into 3 roughly even NTFS partitions), DVD RW, and a external 40Gb drive.

• C: is my main boot, system, and games drive. ~93.1 GB
  
• D: is the DVD-RW (Can't find a link for this BTC-1008IB sucker).
• E: is the 2nd partition. It's where I keep all my stuff. ~93.7 GB
  
• F: is the 3rd partition. It's where I keep all my crap. ~92.5 GB
• And some letter later is my external drive. My DVD-RW has a built in 5-in-1 memory card reader, as does the external drive case, so I never know which drive letter is which.
  

(Yes, I realize that my 3 partitions don't add up to 300GB. That's just the way formatted file systems go)

--------------
I don't know how, when, or why, but all of a sudden I got a pop-up application in my taskbar saying I had spyware. The name of this app was Awola. Not only did it update itself with new "protection", but it also started scanning my drives. It almost looks legit, and after scanning my drives it found a few malware/spyware apps and some other stuff, but not a virus. This was not a good thing. I quickly disconnected myself from the network and used my laptop to check into it. Apparently its linked with a trojan virus and is very difficult to remove. I followed the link's advice, and also ran Trend Micro's online scanner, Housecall (since its free, fast, and fairly effective, in my experience).

I couldn't get rid of it. I tried force quitting apps, deleting executables, uninstalling crap, Booting into safe mode... nothing worked. At this point I instructed Violet to disconnect her PC from the network (Naturally, her Mac wasn't in any danger), just in case. I ran Housecall on my laptop as well, and it was clean. I did a few windows updates, but that didn't work either. I was hosed.

When smart people do dumb things, stupid results occur.
I decided to format and reinstall Windows. I had installed XP on my system, like, well over a year ago, so I was probably due for a reinstall anyway. I backed up my important docs on my other 2 drives, E: and F: (which are part of the same hard drive.. do you see where this is going?)

Dumb people do dumb things:
After I booted to the XP CD, as a reflex habit from doing this so many times, I deleted my C: partition, created a new one with the max remaining size, quick formatted it, and installed Windows. No problem. Then I tried accessing my E: and F: Drives. They didn't exist. Mmm.. that's not good. Must be a Windows issue. I did the updates, service packs, etc.. All was fine. Still no drives. Not good for our hero.

Careless people do careless things:
So I booted the Windows CD again and started over again. Same result. Like, Duh. I kinda sorta remembered something about Windows not seeing really big drives, and after a quick search on Google, I remembered that I had to go into the Windows Disk Management Tool (Which is not intuitively placed) There I saw some avail space, but the numbers were off, and there was only one. I figured 1 partition was better than none at this point, so I clicked on it and set it up. This didn't seem right to me, but it had been so long since I'd done any of this, and I didn't have a lot of free time to really think about it, so I just did it anyway.

Stupid people do stupid things:
That, of course, didn't work. So I quick formatted it. That didn't work anything either. Then I reinstalled windows from scratch a third time, and this time I did a full format instead of a quick format. Needless to say, this didn't solve my problem.

At some point I remembered the Master Boot Record.
Man, did I screw THAT up through all this. Things were not looking good, and they'd get worse...

Crazy people do crazy things:
At some point I finally realized that the partition I was formatting during the XP install was 131 GB. Since my partition was less than that, I found this to be a bad thing. I decided to start over completely, and deleted ALL of my partitions. The data was still on the drives, I just couldn't access it. So I didn't think this was too bad a thing at the time. Time to break out the hacker toolbox...

Desperate people do desperate things:
What I needed to do at this point was get my partitions back in place. I searched and downloaded several partition programs, but none of them did what I needed to have done. Either they were demos, couldn't restore lost partitions, or were too complicated to use.
I eventually found a link to Testdisk 6.8 on an Ultimate Boot CD forum. It searched and found around 6 lost partitions. I had no idea what my drive geometry was, so I guessed. I figured there was a decent chance I had lost everything at this point anyway. I soon ended up with screwed up drive geometry and very weird, very incorrect, partition information. I also couldn't boot using the Window XP CD anymore. Very bad. After fiddling with this program for well over a day, I eventually figured out how things were originally setup.

Then I tried to install XP again. Even with the partitions seemingly correct, XP would only partition and format to a single 131GB chunk. Mmm... that's interesting. I didn't continue installing XP... instead I took the time and effort to do some web research.

Smart people do dumb, careless, stupid, crazy, and desperate things all at once.
To make this long story shorter, I won't go into that whole ordeal. Suffice to say that I ended up using Bart's Preinstalled Environment(BartPE). It's pretty awesome. AND it saw all my drives. Now that I had access to my E: and F: drives, I backed up what files I really needed to my external drive.

So BartPE saw my drives. I tried the Window XP Boot CD again. No luck. Something strange was amiss. Turns out that the original (Pre-SP1) Windows XP install CDs don't recognize partitions larger that 32GB. Pretty stupid. Well, that's bad. I searched and found my other Window XP install CD (I have 2 legal copies.. one for my PC and one for Violet's PC). Using her install CD didn't work either. Sad Panda :(

More research. I discovered from Paul Thurrott's SuperSite that I had to "slipstream" Service Pack 2 onto a new Windows Boot+Install CD. Problem was, I didn't have any burn software to create a bootable CD. More downloads of demos and programs that didn't work. I eventually found my copy of Nero, but it's tied to the device I purchased it with. I tried oldversion. com, but that didn't help me too much. Not knowing if this would even solve my problem, I mostly followed Paul's advice, and used the following:

• Bart's PE Builder, to boot to the PC and run the Testdisk program.
  
• ISO Buster, used to extract out the Windows Bootable image file.
• AShamoo Burning Software , to create the Bootable CD with windows on it.
  

The CD I made didn't boot. I wasted a 2nd CD trying to make another copy of it. Third time's the charm though. I booted to CD with Windows XP and slip-streamed SP2. It saw my partition at the correct size! I eagerly installed Windows, and this time SP2 was built in, which would save me from having to download and install it again. Turns out you can slipstream lots of stuff into a Windows XP installer. Anyway, that's my tale, as best I can remember it, with as short as I care to make it. If you've read down this far, you're really bored.

I almost forgot to blog that I went to the dentist a few weeks ago. Since I hadn't been in like, 2 years, Violet thought she would make an appointment for me. How nice of her! (/Sarcasm)

I didn't have any cavities, which is great. However I did need what they call a "deep cleaning", which is where they numb my mouth and really dig deep under the gums. I've always had good teeth and bad gums, mostly because I don't floss. Except for my front right tooth. It's a bit yellow, but that's not due to negligence or lack of hygiene.. apparently I had some kinda trauma to it as a kid and it was damaged or died. I don't remember what this could've been... I've hit my head on so many things its hard to keep track of what happened when.

I've been using the Oral B Cross Action Plus brush for about 9 months now, and I like it a lot. Violet uses a sonic care brush, but I don't care for it. Anyway the dentist office we use is fantastic. Very up-scale, courteous, and professional. I watched the DVD of Transformers on an overhead LCD screen while they did their work on me. Pretty awesome. They also prescribed me an oral rinse. I've been mostly good since the appointment... They want me to brush twice a day, and I've been doing it at least once a day. They want me to floss at least once a day, and I've been flossing about 4 or 5 times a week. Hey, its better than before. I have an appointment in Feb. We'll see if my new oral habits work out.

On Christmas Day, we all went to Mount Vernon (George Washington's House). The weather was good (mid 50s, mostly clear). considering winter in Metro DC. This is the only time of the year when they open up the upper floor to the public. It was a lot less crowded than our previous visit. The shops and food court were closed though, which we didn't think about... so we ended up snacking the whole time on the pretzels I had brought. We visited the main house, then strolled down to the docks, and then hiked back up through the trails to the Upper Garden. Now, for the obligatory pics:

Violet and I started a tradition a few years ago that she really enjoys... Driving around Xmas eve and looking at Xmas Lights. We usually just randomly drive around places where I think there might be some good, festive, neighborhoods. King's Corner in Plano, Texas was awesome. Madison, WI people don't seem to like lights... This may be due to everyone preferring to pay for heat instead of lights, but who knows. Anyway, there's usually some sponsored lights, often in a park.

This year, we went to the Festival of Lights at Bull Run Park.

It wasn't cheap. 15 bucks a car Mon-Thu. Unfortunately, we went on a Friday, which cost $20 bucks. Ouch. Our internet coupon for $3.00 off was better than nothing.


This Portal Wreath Arch greeted us at the entrance.

And this Old Mill piece.












Minimum posted speed is 10mph, so you're not supposed to stop... I did most of the time anyway.. no one seemed to mind.. but some of my pictures are a little bit blurred (I bought the Sony Cybershot 7.2. a bit before image stabilization became the norm) There might be some setting on it to make it better, but I dunno what it is.




Santa was near the end.



All in all, most of the lights were repetitive (Lots of spheres) and really spaced out. There were a few good pieces, as shown here, but by and large the entire drive wasn't quite worth the high cost of admission, in my opinion. The run is divided up into 6 sections: Winter Wonderland, Candy Land & Fairy Tale lane, Twelve Days of Christmas (this section was very well done), Toyland, and Santa's Workshop. At the end of the drive was a small carnival called the Holiday Village. Admission to the village was included with the light show. It was kinda cold but we bought some Funnel Cake, which was excellent, and I bought Violet a wooden rose. We didn't ride any of the 3 or 4 rides or play any of the 5 or 6 carnival games they had.

Some stats:

• Length of run from Start to Finish: 2.5 miles
• Number of LED lights in show and village > 75,000
• Minimum time to setup: 3 weeks

This is weird, but somewhat amusing at the same time. I personally think I can take on more than this, but that's just me...

26

Looking for payday loans?

I almost forgot to post that Sat I went to the IGDA (Its website sucks) meeting here at EA Mythic. I was a judge for an exercise in which several groups of 3-5 (non game industry ) folk had 2 hours to present a game concept based on some random words they were given. Sounds kinda silly, I know. Anyways, it was good to be on the other side of the security door, so to speak.. with students and such asking ME questions about the industry instead of 4 years ago when I was asking the same questions to industry vets.

My company Xmas party was last night.

I went with my friend Gary, but our wives had to stay home with the kids. The company provided daycare, but only for kids over the age of 1 year(or was it 2?). Violet had a book club meeting anyway and a book gift exchange, but she's bummed she missed it. Me too, since she can gamble better than I can... but more on gambling later...

Enter the main ballroom of the Marriott Hotel, several things were clear:

• EA is a big-ass corporate company
• I was under dressed

I should have wore a suit and the Tigger Xmas hat.. but instead I wore business casual (khaki's and a polo shirt). And a ball cap. Ah well.

It was a bit better than the company Xmas party I experienced at Raven (Owned by Activision).
There was probably about 200 or 250 people at the EA Mythic party, overall.

In the middle of the room was a refreshment table of fancy drinks and appetizers, and an EA Mythic ice sculpture. I dared Gary to lick it, but he's a coward and didn't do it. The main course was a buffet of fancy French foods that I didn't like, couldn't pronounce, and don't really remember. I skipped most of it and just had some turkey, which was good. Desert was fancy chocolate mousse with cream. Half way through I bite into something nasty, and later discover there were a few blueberries at the bottom. WHY THE FRICK do people hide fruit in desserts?

There was an open bar, but all I had was Diet Pepsi. There was a dance floor, but I didn't get on it. There were 2 Rock Band units, each with a projector and a huge screen. Although I can achieve around a 90% on drums on easy, these people were playing on a hard difficulty level that I would have quickly failed. So I passed on that too.

My main salvation was the fact that it was also a casino night. We each got a voucher good for 300 credits. At the end of the evening the top 10 winners would get various prizes like Xbox 360s, Wiis, Rock Band, stuff like that. Losers were given an entry into a raffle. I started off light with some blackjack and was doing OK, but the pace was slow and I wasn't earning very much very quickly. Some people had already won over a thousand credits.

So I decided that the big money was in roulette. I was wrong. I did OK at first, but then lost it all as quickly as I had won it. I had lasted about an hour or so though, so I was content.

I found a 5-credit chip on the floor. My big comeback lasted 3 seconds. I put it on Roulette 9 and didn't win. I don't think roulette is my game...

Later on I was watching some friends play and Chris' wife had a voucher and didn't care to gamble, so she gave her voucher to Chris. Since Chris was doing OK, he gave it to me. So I went and hit the poker tables. It was Texas Hold 'em, of course.

I stayed at the table and was holding my own for quite a while, but then I was whittled down to a mere 100 credits. So on a whim (and a Queen + King on the deal), I went all in. Howard decided that he could easily grab my chips, so he called. Several other people decided to go all in as well, since they had less than 100 credits left anyway. So we all turned up our cards. Someone else who had went all in with her 20 credits matched me with her own King and Queen. Howard had hockey sticks (pocket 7's, that is.. a pair of seven's), and so was the favorite going in. The flop (3 cards) went face up, and they were all nothing but suck. Not good for our hero. Then came the turn.. another nuthin... It appeared the pair of 7's would win it. But then the river came and went, and I ended up winning with a pair of Queens. I got most of the pot, the other person who matched my cards got some, but not all, and the remaining people got a little bit too. You see, when someone bets more than you have, the pot splits. Our pot was split into 3 piles. Confusing, I know, but the dealer did a good job of figuring it all out (Unlike my blackjack dealer who had trouble with adding cards on numerous deals). Now I was top chip count at the table, but the table was thinning. Soon a 5-minute warning came and with only 1 more person at the table, and her chip count fairly low, I went to go bet my 550 or so credits on roulette.

With only 1 spin remaining, I tried to put all my money on 9, since that's my lucky number, but the operator wouldn't let me for some reason.. she said I needed to split my chips. Since I had five 100 credit chips, I put one chip on 15 (Drake's birthday), one on 7 (Violet's Birthday), one on 16 (My birthday), and one on 9 (my lucky number). I put the remaining 100 chip on the MC, which is the column of numbers in the middle (it pays 3-1). I then put my last few chips on 0 and 00, just because no one else had.

The spin....

The Result....

Red 32 or some such nonsense. Total BS. Roulette sucks. I lost everything except my middle bet, so I ended up at the end of the night with 300 credits, the same I had started with. Bah. Roulette definitely isn't my game.

Overall I had fun, but I didn't socialize and make new acquaintances like I would have preferred. I don't know who the top 10 winners were, but it certainly wasn't me. I didn't win the loser's raffle either.

I may not have won any prizes, but I did win a good night out. Thanks, Violet, for watching baby Drake that whole time!

I should really update this blog more often.
Anyway, I finished Rock Band, with a usual drum percentage of 88-92% for most songs. Not great, not bad though. The kick drum kicks my ass for some reason.

Other than that I have no updates. I come home, take care of drake and provide/cook dinner, and then goto sleep. No games, no blogs, not really a whole lot going on right now.

Drake's been pretty fussy lately.. Violet has all the details so there's no need for me to repost them here.

Violet has graciously given me thurs nights off so I can game. I'll be in Dark Heresy (warhammer 40k rpg) every odd thurs, and I just recruited players to play in my evil rises campaign on even thursdays. I hope this game last longer than the last one.

I finally got a chance to winterize the house. Basically I buy the cheap window insulation kits at home depot and keep them on all summer. for 4 bucks I get 3 window sized sheets of plastic and some adhesive. I outline the window frame with the double sided adhesive, then I put the plastic on, and then I hot air blow dry it to make it tight and remove wrinkles. There's some minor glare, but mostly you don't notice its there. This provides a layer of air between the glass and the plastic. It works pretty well, and is easily removed once winter is over, though I suppose you could keep it for summer use too. I did 3 windows in the bedroom and it made a noticeable difference. I also did the kitchen but since I didnt do the sliding glass door their effectiveness is somewhat questionable. I've been doing this for a few years now and I think its well worth the minor cost and effort. I couldn't find a link on home depots website to the product, but they have lots of other window insulation kits available, including film that gets applied directly to the glass.

Now I just need to find my receipt so I can have warranty service done on my seized snow thrower.