Well its time to do yet another weekly update I suppose. I don't know where the time goes. It isn't sleep, that's for sure.

First and foremost, my heartfelt condolences to those that have suffered the loss of Taarna Renee Wiltsie. I have no words to help ease such pain.

Drake is getting medicine for what appears to be acid reflux/heartburn. I don't know if it's helping or not, but we'll see. He's due for some sorta test thing to ensure his stomach and stuff is OK.

Our major milestone at work ended Wed, so these past few days I'm a bit less busy than usual (which means I'm busy but not overly so). I'm happy a majority of my work will finally be enjoyed during the guild open beta scheduled in December.

Our house sucks, temperature wise. (It sucks for many reasons, this being yet another one).
Some rooms are cold, like 60 or 65, while others are comfortable, around 70. Thankfully, the nursery is one of the warm rooms. And since that's where I've been sleeping most of the time, I've been OK. Violet sleeps in the bedroom and thats one of the coldest rooms, but she prefers sleeping in the cold. Craziness I say.

Speaking of Crazy.... Rock band. Yeah. That's crazy like a fox cool. I wish we had the money for such things, but I just spent 150 bucks on rechargeable batteries and charger for all the baby stuff. Swing, Chair, Mobile, etc. ACK! I say.

(PS, I'm getting Rock Band anyway, via work, at slightly reduced cost.. Still can't afford it, but meh, whatta gonna do.. car payments are for suckers, anyway.. am I right? )

Umm, its hard to recall the events of the past week.... its all kinda a blur due to sleep deprivation, constant baby interruptions, and working hard to get the game done.

Lets see... where to begin?? Watched Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
It's been on the shelf for a month or so (via netflix). I liked the movie, though the baby interupted every 20 mins or so. I realize Galactus as a cloud seemed dumb, but I thought it was a good effect and concept for a world-devouring entity. Some good funny moments too. Overall, I didn't have too many things I didn't like about this movie. Better than the original? Maybe, maybe not.. I'd say about the same.

I went to a Halloween party on Oct 27th. I didn't have time or money to make a costume, so I just wore jeans and a T-Shirt like always. It was fun. I don't get invited to parties very often, if at all.. so I was happy to have attended. Oct 31 was work-day dress up, but I didn't dress up for that either. Maybe next year I'll have the time and resources for an actual costume. We'll see.

I haven't been able to play UT3 demo much lately (baby interference) but I was able to get through a few puzzle levels of Portal. I look forward to playing HL2 Episode 2. I also played two of the songs on he Guitar Hero 3 demo( Hit me with your best shot, Rock you like a hurricane). I wish I had the money (and some time) to buy this game. And Rock Band. (sigh)

Work is going good, and I am very happy and thankful for that.

On Sat Oct 20, 2007, Violet, Drake, and I drove to and then on Skyline Drive. Yes, its taken me more than a week to make a blog post about it.

Located within the Shenandoah National Park, Skyline Drive is a 105 mile scenic drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains in Northern Virginia. It's only about an hour away, and only cost like 15 bucks to get in (which is good for a week's worth of re-entry), and was a splendid way to spend an afternoon. The drive also features lodging, restaurants with a cabin feel, bed and breakfasts, camping, and stuff like that there. We just drove up and down Skyline drive though and stopped at one of the few gift shops in the middle. It was a great drive, we stopped at a dozen or so overlooks (out of the 75 or so they have) and took about 30 pictures. Drake slept pretty much the entire time. Violet loves scenic drives, and she loves Fall Colors, so this was a great trip for her.

And now, for some of the pics...

I really like the new UT3 Demo. It's full of awesomeness. It'll be out in stores next month.
I particularly favor the flying vehicle in vehicle CTF. The map is pretty awesome too. I've been playing during lunch at work.

I bought The Orange Box. I haven't played anything except a little Team Fortress 2 thus far (Also at lunchtime). but I look forward to playing Half LIfe 2 Episode 3. And maybe Portal.

As it is this post has taken 20 mins to type up because the baby keeps interupting. He's a stinker that way. Maybe he's upset because I havent had a chance to update his blog...

If that wasn't enough, I also have the Crysis Beta to play.

In other news, my mom sent her first ever text message via her cell phone to mine yesterday. Quite the accomplishment.

I dont even remember whats happened in the last week or two... excessive fatigue, lack of sleep, full work load, and taking care of wife and newborn have all contributed towards my lack of updates. I'm not even on my computer much anymore (I type this on a laptop in the nursery, in fact). I havent played a game in I dunno how long. I'd like to check out Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2, but with Violet not working I cant justify the cost right now since I wouldn't have time to play them anyway. LOTS of people at work have been playing TF2.. I hope to join them at some point. In other news, EA bought Bioware / Pandemic. I think this is pretty awesome, myself. Well, Drake's starting to fuss (no surprise there) so that's it for this update.

Yes, I'm posting this at 530 in the morning. After having just changed the boy's diaper (it was soiled) and his clothes (and using socks as mittens to keep his little fingers warm), I've set the boy within his gym since he's still awake but so so fidgety. yet. he will be. He's fussy. but I think he's starting to sleep better. maybe.

Yesterday the three of us and Violets' folks drove through DC. We had McDs, Krispy Kreme, and saw the Washington Monument. Violet & Drake stayed in the car because the baby isnt allowed in public yet. His immune system is too immature to risk exposure.

It was closed when we got there, so we just walked around it. whoo hoo?
Once I get pics from Grandpa B's camera, I'll post them.

As the sun eases its tired smile upon the world,
As the day no longer competes with the night,
As leaves begin to show off their new Autumn colors,
As stars dance around Violet Twilight,

A sense of meaning fills the land,
A sense of belonging envelops the air,
A sense of purpose colors nature,
A sense of love surrounds Drake's Lair.

Avast me buckos, tis another fine day indeed. Since many of you land lubbers don't have a pirate name, I've taken the liberty to help ye out. Ye owe me a rum. ARRRRRRRR!

I've added a few web comics to my usualy reading. I only remember the address for one, so here it is.

The Secret Life of Mobs

Its great in that it a web comic about Warhammer, mostly Warhammer Online, the game I'm working on. Its pretty amusing.

So like, I've been pretty busy having a baby. I mean, *I* didn't have him myself, but I helped. Anyway, check out Drake's Blog for what been happening the last week or two, since I havent had time to update mine too much :)
Here's a quick list

• Worked a lot
• Celebrated Violet's bithday
• Violet went into labor
• Started paternity leave
• Tried (and failed) to find time to get enough sleep.

Lily is the name of Violet's 2000 Nissan XTerra. (She's blue). Yesterday Lily wouldn't start. This is not good for a 39 week pregnant woman with no real food at home and a hospital that is farther away than the front door. It seemed to be due to the battery not having enough power. Some lights flickered dimly, but not enough to start the car.

Not ever having got around to buying any kind of jumper cable kit, I stopped at Sears on my way home from work, but I didnt care for their choices. I went to Home Depot and picked up one of those units that uses the 12v DC adapter in your car instead of needing to use cables connected to the battery. Unfortunately it wasn't portable like I thought. It plugged into the DC adapter all right, but I then had to plug the other end into a 120v wall outlet, and THEN it still took 5+ mins to charge the battery enough to attempt a start. Bleh.

After going online I decided I wanted the Simple Start™ Vehicle Battery Booster, from Black & Decker. Pretty slick little device, small enough to fit in my glove box or rear compartment, starts the car via in-car DC adapter in a few mins, built in LED, DC accessory outlet, etc.. Nice feature list. Although Home Depot lists in on their website though, my local store didn't have any. It was close to 10pm, closing time, so my choices were looking bleak.

I did some searching online and discovered that Wal-mart also carries it. Most stores close at 9 or 10, but I called by local store just in case, and lo and behold, they're open till midnight every day of the week. Score! I ask if they have any in stock, and they do! and at 8 cents below MSRP. SCORE AGAIN! I race down there, buy it, and discover that it has to charge for 15 hours before I can try to use it. Bah!

So Lily didn't get fixed last night.
Today I got home and tried the device, and after 15 mins or so of trying to boost charge, and the car not starting still, it just wasn't working out. I kept getting beeping noises and LEDs indicating some kinda warning. I followed the instructions to the letter. I was about to go buy a new battery when I decided to unplug the device and yet again and try the headlights. They came on for a second. So I tried starting the car (without the device attached) and it started fine. Maybe the device boosted it and I need to disconnect it before I tried starting the car.. I dunno. We drove to DQ and back in order to ensure the alternator was charging the battery OK. We just got back and it seems OK right now.

I suspect that the very short distances Violet travels (< 2 miles once a day or two) isn't enough to charge the battery with the AC, radio, lights, or whatever else on. I hope the car starts tomorrow morning.

This week was busier than even most of my busy weeks.

I worked around 55 or so hours this week at work. Not because I had to or because we're in "crunch" mode. I'm just passionate about what I do and I want to ensure I get it done on time and with a very high amount of quality. I'm pretty much done, and my stuff isn't due until Tuesday, but this gives me more time to tweek, test, bug fix, and otherwise polish my work. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on "what" I've been doing, only that it's great :)

Violet's Birthday was yesterday. We didn't do much, her being 9 months pregnant and all.. (She's due Sep 19th, which is National Talk Like A Pirate Day). Besides, I'm not sure I can top previous years... last year we went to the Godsmack / Rob Zombie concert in Boston (Sully's home town) and to Wicked, the musical, in Chicago the year before. Maybe we can do something nice next year, like visit San Diego. I'm glad Drake wasn't born on Violet's birthday. It would have made the occasion less special for them both, me thinks. We had Wendy's for dinner on her birthday. I need to try one of their new Oreo frosty's.

Violet went to a Baby Shower yesterday, so I went to work :). I wasn't there long though before some friends of mine called for my help. The furniture people they got delivered their couch, but just left it at the front door. Apparently these guys didn't get any games as kids that involved putting the round cylinder in the round opening and the square peg in the square hole. I arrived shortly after the movers had left (given up and were dismissed). The couch had been removed from its protective packaging and several scraps and rubs were all over the walls and some on the couch. Sure the couch was longer than the doorway was high, and entering the front door leads to an immediate right hand turn. Seemed hopeless to the movers, I suppose. Fortunately, I got lucky and was able to help them put the couch in the apartment without any scraping or scuffs. We tilted the couch straight up, then tilted it under the doorway and slid it in and up. The doorway was too short for the length of the couch, but the ceiling certainly wasn't. It didn't take too long. It's a pretty nice couch, IMO.

As I was leaving the friend's apartment Violet called me saying she was done with the baby shower (I had driven her so she didn't have to find parking and besides, it was close to work) so I went and picked her up. So I didn't really get any work done, but that's OK. We had dinner plans at 6, and it was around 430ish. So not wanting to drive 30 mins home and then 30 mins back to the same friend's apartment I was just at, we went over there early. Violet wanted P.F. Chang's for dinner, so we decided to do it Sat night instead of Friday night. Friday was book club, which Violet and I made a cameo appearance at. The place was near the friend's apartment too.

Important Tip: If you plan to go out to a fancy place on Saturday night in ritzy Fairfax, VA. make a reservation.

I didn't even think of doing so, and so we waited over an hour to get a table. Our friends had 2 kids (a toddler and a baby), so the wait was somewhat difficult for everyone. I ordered the only thing I like at a Chinese restaurant: Chicken Fried Rice, no veggies, no soy sauce, and no scallions. Chicken, Rice, Egg. That's it. It was pretty decent, better tasting than the PF Chang's in Madison, Wisconsin (Though WI has MUCH better service). I still prefer Pick up Stix.

Today I trimmed the hedges near the community mailbox, because no one else has. I also applied a primer coat of paint to a glider bench I acquired from the side of the road. It's in good condition, but the wood is a little worn. Works well. I cleaned and sanded it last week. Next week I'll paint it and be done with it. It'll work out well in the backyard, I hope.

In gaming news, I created a website for my new D&D group. It only took like 2 hours to make. I'm quite proud of it though.

I guess that's all for now. Leave a comment sometime, eh?

Happy Birthday to Violet. May your special day have more fun than candles.

Since its been so long since Ive last posted I'll just summarize as much as I can remember.

Lots of work.
Great relaxing weekend with the wife. She working fewer hours. Mmm Clifton Ice Cream was good. Saw Stardust last weekend, it was really good. Cleaned and sanded a bench. I was gonna paint it, but got lazy. I've been putting in a lot of overtime at work so I've just been sleeping and working mainly, and just got caught up on all my TiVo'd shows. At some point I should probably list what those are. I bought and played BioShock for a little while last week, but havn't got around to continuing it. ALso been trying to put in some Brain 2 whatever ya call it on the DS. I have the brain age of a 50 year old. I guess that makes me wise at least. I got the A Team theme as a ring tone on my cell phone. Took the dog to the vet and Gwynn is fine, just needs to heal a bit more from her apparent neck injury or whatever it was that was causing her to squeak. I started a new D&D game with some co-workers. I'm actually a player for a change. I'm, playing an Elven Cleric of Corellon. SO far so good, we've only had 1 game. I tossed together a quick website for it too. Once its DM approved and I get more info on it I may post a link.

Thats all I can think of for now.

If you thought my post on dangerous beavers was amusing, you should check this link.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/swedenanimalsoffbeat

I got a ticket about a month ago (41 in a 25) and appeared in court Thursday. I could have paid it online or via telephone or via snail mail, $145 bucks or so I think, but I never got around to it so I had to appear in court. Parking wasn't great near the courthouse and I ended up parking several blocks away. But it was free.

While walking towards the courthouse I passed an old building that used to be a school. Apparently when they were building it "way back when" they discovered civil war soldiers buried on the hill. Well, instead of making a big deal of it they built the school on top of the hill anyway and declared it a memorial to those unknown soldiers.

There was a line outside of probably 50 people trying to get into the court building. Two metal detectors and a half a dozen armed police guarded the entrance. I stood in line for about 5 mins or so and got about half way through when a cop came out and told everyone in the line that recording devices were not allowed in the court building. This included cell phones with built in cameras. Seeing how I recently got a phone with a camera on it, I was forced to go back to my car and leave my phone in it. Then I returned to the end of the line which had somehow gotten longer.

About 10 mins later I'm in the building and there's 5 court rooms. I have no idea which one is me since there's no signs indicating who goes where. I walked around a while and talked to a clerk who said an information desk back at the elevator was where I needed to go. I went there, saw my name on the docket for courtroom# 3, and off I went.

The courtroom wasn't too large, probably 100 or 150 seat capacity. It reminded me of a small church. Bench seats were arranged facing a large altar, err I mean desk, and a man in robes behind it preached the law. The room was about 75% full. The judge (not a commissioner like in San Marcos, CA) went through all the name to find out who pleased guilty, not guilty, no contest, or weren't present. The docket contained all kinds of offenses, not just minor traffic violations. A prosecuting attorney was sitting in the room taking notes. Several people with "fix it" tickets, like expired tags or forgot their license, were instructed to show the cop evidence of the violation being fixed and were immediately dismissed. One lucky gal got off because her officer was not present. I, on the other hand, was not so lucky. My cop had about a dozen cases. I figured he would be there though, it was a total speed trap scenario (Of which there are MANY in VA).

After having contemplated pleading no contest, not guilty, or asking for a continuance, when my name was finally called I simply pleased guilty. I sat back down and waited for the rest of the names to be called. Afterwards the attorney went out into the hall to consider plea bargains. I waited out in the hallway and finally spoke to the attorney. I had no real recourse or excuse. The cop had a laser device, did his due diligence, and I wasn't especially paying attention to my speed since the flashing school zone 25 sign ws NOT blinking. If it had been, I would have set the cruise control at 25 and not sped. I see cops in this stretch of road all the time.

I was adjacent a large white truck and when the cop stepped out into the road, I swore he was motioning for him, not me. I was a little surprised. Anyway seeing how I have a clean driving record and I wasn't reckless driving, the attorney offered 50 dollar fine (plus court costs) and traffic school (which I could do online). He suggested I get a VA license instead of the Wisconsin license I still held since the law says I should have done that within 30 days of being here.
I agreed and went back into the court room. After a time the court got back into session, my name was eventually called, I agreed to the attorney's terms, and the case was dismissed pending proof of traffic school. I paid 64 bucks and got a list of approved traffic schools.

Overall, fairly easy and efficient. I was there around 70 mins or so, and it took another 25 to wait in line, walk to and from my car several times, and find the courtroom. I was fairly angry after I got the ticket but I calmed down after a few days and simply accepted my wrong-doing. It wasn't so bad after that.

This is assuming you are part fey, otherwise it's kinda random.
I happen to be:



What type of Fae are you?

Last weekend I decided I needed to organize all the loose gaming papers I've accumulated over the last 20+ years. Dozens of folders, piles of unsorted papers, character sheets, and a few boxes filled to the brim (Gaming, School, Work, etc) have been littering our front room for months. Violet offered to help me, being the Virgo type she is. She also loves going to Staples. She didn't really want to work anyway, heh. (Organizing isn't work, sitting at a computer for 8 hours a day doing data entry is) I think her prime motivation was trying to find her old Star Wars character. Anyway, I grabbed an empty 2-drawer metal filing cabinet from the garage and used the top drawer for gaming files and the bottom drawer for everything else (old school stuff mostly, but also some work related files).

After several hours we got most of the loose stuff organized within hanging folders by game genre (Car Wars, DnD 2.0, DnD 3.x, Changeling, GURPS, Marvel Super Heroes, Star Wars, just to name a few) and then smaller manilla envelopes within them were sub-sorted, usually by player name (if there were a lot of files) or by GM (if they were NPCs or if a PC didn't warrant their own sub-folder).

It was a worthy effort and I FINALLY found the Super Hero HQ I made. It's a large foldout hex map of the HQ done in colored pencils.

Spoilers below.

I'd use the title of Transformers: The Movie, but the cartoon version took that title, thus the movie is simply named Transformers. Some people call it Transformers: The Movie 2, which is silly. I'm shocked they didn't call it something stupid, like "Michael Bay's Transformers". Whew. Spielberg was a rather un-hyped executive producer.

Violet and I actually saw this a few weekends ago, but I've been a slacker and haven't posted about it until now. So here's my review: 7/10.

• Great acting by many (but certainly not all) of the "human" cast.
• Decent story, sorta.
• Really good sound track, even without Soundwave :( Seriously, that little radio dude could have totally been Soundwave. We were jilted. I guess they're saving SW for the sequel...
• Special effects were really good most of the time, but the camera was so close you couldn't really tell what was going on. I guess that's "war-like" though.

Transformers: I liked the vehicles, for the most part. I'm bummed VW didn't give them permission to use the new beetle, but cest le vie, what can ya do. The camero was OK. I didn't care for most of the Decepticons. The tank, Devastator, was a good name for a tank, even though Devastator is supposed to be the combination of the constructicons. Meh. I also really didn't like how the tank and skip loader could travel across the vast distances as fast as Star Scream, the Jet Fighter. I really didn't like how the cube only produced crazy destructive robots. Bleh.
Oh. And my MAIN issue? The robots look dumb. Can't see or tell anything that they do. I hated the CGI robots.

I liked how the humans dealt with the aliens, although I couldn't decide if the agent dude was there for comic relief (and failed) or was just annoying. The techie cast were kinda stupid, and the hot blonde chick seemed outta place and underused. I really liked the military guys. Next movie: G.I.Joe!

My main issue is that I didn't care for the retreat to the city while being chased by the bad guys. BAD idea. Lots of innocent people were hurt and killed, not to mention the massive amounts of destruction. Hey! We're being chased by Decepticons! Let's drive from Hover dam all the way to LA and THEN evac the human with the cube. Smart!! Couldn't the choppers just evac them from the middle of the desert, or just outside Hoover dam? And didn't they realize the choppers were a bad idea cuz Starscream would blow them up? Oh, Jazz's death was kinda gratuitous. I didn't care for it. Optimus Prime having lips really disturbs me. I was happy a lot of the original voices were used. Neat!

Lastly, Megan Fox needs a shrine or sumthin. I have two words for her. D and AMN.