So, after a somewhat lengthy time apart, my Highschool and Junior High yearbooks and I are together again. The timing is pretty good, as those ‘good ole days’ have been on my mind quite a bit of late. See, the great 10 year reunion is coming up in a month, and somehow someone has convinced me to actually attend. I have mixed feelings about this…

See, I’ve changed a whole lot since then. At least I like to think so. And while I wouldn’t say all of my memories of those days were terrible, not many of them were all that great either. No doubt it is possible that I have forgotten most of what happened, but from what I do remember they weren’t the most pleasant years of my life. Reading all the signatures in these yearbooks didn’t bring back as many memories as I had hoped… It was mostly thought of who on earth were these people, and how do I know them at all? Something tells me seeing them in person will probably be much the same.

I’m trying to think if there are any people from those times that I keep contact with… I worked with a couple people, and we did remember each other from school but not much else. Those that I really considered friends have gone their own ways and most I haven’t talked to for several years. They have their lives, I have mine. Then the image of my old “nemesis” comes up on the page, and I wonder what on earth we had against each other… Would those feelings last longer than those of friends? Guess we’ll see in a few weeks then.

Also, I must admit I am a bit nervous on what to say for the standard 30 second of catching up the past ten years… “So yeah, I worked at the same company in the same job for six years then just got laid off. Nope, not doing anything with my life right now. Oh, and my first marriage fell apart. How about you?” I’ve seen the bios listed, showing wonderful jobs, growing families (though I do realize that one was my choice and don’t regret it), world travel, and real progress in the past 10 years. And here all I can do is wonder if I’ll ever get the Led Zeppelin CDs I lent to one of my old friends back…

I even ran across one of the old friends a few weeks ago, at the store. It was a girl that I had a crush on for quite a while. We had hung out, spent quite a while talking about all sorts of things… I would have considered her a friend. Haven’t seen her since graduation. All I got was a “hi” and she kept walking. Can’t really say I expected much more, but had hoped. In her defense, I really don’t look at all like I did back then and she might not have realized who I was. At least that’s what I tell myself!

How I look is also causing a bit of concern for me. My chosen presentation is something I enjoy, something my wife enjoys, and something my friends are at the very least used to. But everywhere else I go, I see and feel the eyes on me… While I do know it’s mostly in my head, I also have lived life both ways recently. When I was clean cut, I never got the same looks as I do now. But I really don’t know why it’s such a concern for me anyway. I am planning on heading to this thing, and spending the entire evening alone with my wife. That is how things tend to go with us on social occasions.

I do feel that I should say I am happy with my life no matter how it looks in comparison. I do know that most the things that will keep me apart from the highschool group are things I have decided to do for myself. I’m not a social person, and I like it that way. I enjoy my friends even if we don’t get together much. I love my family. While currently un-employed and car-less, thing are still going to be ok. Sure I stress… but I know things could be much worse. I don’t regret the choices I’ve made, just the choices other people made for me

But enough of the senseless rambles. I can only guess at how many hundreds of similar journal posts hit the internet every year when the reunions get close. No doubt, I’m not alone in this. Stay tuned for the updates I promised weeks ago, and at some point the report of a ten year school reunion.

First, I uploaded just so darned many pictures of my camping trip here. Well, three that is. Will try to take more better ones next time I’m up there!

So following the adventures of camping, we came home planning on just relaxing for a few days. That was until The Child IMed me and invited us to go with their family out to the lake. See, their family has a couple Seadoo’s and they often take a trip out to the local lake for an afternoon. Since I had been expressing that I was bored that evening, the little one got permission to invite us along. So off we go!

Those of you who know me should be reeling back in terror at this point. Yes, this did entail me wearing shorts out in public. It also involves me being out in sunshine for more than 10 minutes. But you’ll never believe this (you might want to sit down). I actually am starting to get a bit of color on my flesh! I even have this odd thing called a tan line! Disturbing I know. But back to the re-telling of the events.

Out to the lake with us. We met them right outside the entrance, and hitched a ride in their truck (since for some reason it costs $2 per person to walk into the area…). Next thing I know, I’m sitting behind a 16 year old kid on a bright yellow Seadoo. At this point I’m starting to wonder if someone has been putting something funny in my water. How had this simple computer nerd gone from going literally weeks without seeing sunshine to having a “tan” and being out on the lake? I have no doubt there have been a lot of drugs involved in this… Strong ones.

Amidst this realization, I decided I needed to be prepared for what was about to happen to me. Looking over the Seadoo, I see a speedometer. It’s broken, pointing at 35MPH. It went up to 60. Here I had been expecting going maybe 10-15 MPH, and cant imagine how this is going to work going much faster. Where are my hand holds? Shouldn’t this have seatbelts or an airbag or something? The lake administrators are in on this whole plot I’ve found… They’ve got some “rule” about going slow “wakeless” while still in the dock area. What they really made this rule for is so I had a good 10 minutes of contemplation on the pending doom. It’s like going uphill on a rollercoaster, except it just doesn’t end.

And then the wait was over.

Yeah yeah, I’m exaggerating here somewhat. It really wasn’t that bad, was mostly a chance to learn all the rules so I can drive the device myself. I will say I am impressed with what those little buggers can do. After much speed, and several fun turns, my driver decided it was time for him to try out something “fun.” He warns me to hold on tight, and turns directly into the wake of the other Seadoo. I held on tight. But sadly, my “mass” was too much for the poor thing and over it flips. Those of you who know where I live, and what local lake I’m talking about know how much fun it is to be in such water. Especially when I have a slight under water phobia (drowning incident as a child). For those who aren’t familiar, on a good day you can see a couple inches down into the water. It’s nasty. And sadly I had to stay in there for a while. He flipped the Seadoo back up, and it wouldn’t start. Bad battery. Never really thought I’d see a jumpstart in the middle of a lake in my life time. But it did eventually get going again, and I got to take over the drivers seat. It was just an amazing amount of fun. It’s like being able to do all the stupid things I want to do on my motorcycle without the whole fear of death thing.

After a few minutes, we went back to the dock and swapped out riders. Brandy and I went off and kinda hung out for a while. Took pictures of a bird that wasn’t a duck (you had to be there), Brandy’s little brother continued to be cute, and was just kinda nice and relaxing. At one point Brandy and I got to go out with me driving. That was quite a bit of fun as well, and rumor has it she had a good time too. And that was our day on the lake!

Stay tuned for future updates, we still have the wedding and zoo to go over!

Wow, once again I find myself not posting for months on end… I’d go into details about my silence, but I really don’t see a reason to. Anyone who cares should know why! (or can just ask me)Quite a bit has gone on these past few months. I think I’ll probably be writing a few posts this week to catch up, and to avoid having everything showing up in one massive post. To start off, let us discuss my recent ventures into the world of camping!See, Brandy’s family (I guess this also means my family as well, huh) owns a nice large plot of land up Fairview canyon. Everyone from her grandparents (and one of their siblings) down has full access to 20 acres of beautiful land. There is an area set up for camping, with a nice concrete fire pit, not too bad outhouse, pretty flat cleaned areas etc, as well as all the wilderness a lazy person like me could ask for. We had tried to go up camping some time in May, but sadly the road up there still had too much snow on it to make it across. But we did get a couple more chances to head up this month. And well… to be honest, I quite enjoyed myself!The first time we went up we were planning on meeting Brandy’s parents and siblings there, but on our arrival we were surprised to find out that one of her aunts + family were there too. All in all 8 kids and 6 adults. We picked out a spot and set up our little tent (much to the amusement of the two other groups, both with campers). Now, when I say little tent, I mean it… We had an inflatable bed, and it literally filled the tent from the front flap to the back wall. Sure, it was ok to sleep in, but not for spending any sort of time in.The weekend itself was a lot of fun. It was nice to have everyone there, but at the same time everyone in charge of themselves. If someone had spare food, they’d offer to share, but no one had to make anything more for anyone other than themselves. So, we had some of our own meals, and mooched a few off of everyone else we did repay them with some of the most delicious peach cobbler Brandy made up for everyone though. Next time, I’m going to make her do the chocolate cherry one… mmmmm.

Anyway, the first full day there we wandered around, looked at some of the interesting things in the area, lounged outside and just enjoyed the nature. Sadly, nature enjoyed me a bit too much, and I got some serious sunburns on my feet… Fortunately, I didn’t “notice” till that night and was still able to do some other stuff that day. Brandy and I went out on a 4-wheeler with her uncle to see some of the more hard to get places of the property. I will admit I was scared to death at first, but eventually got the hang of it. Was a lot of fun.

We had planned to go back home on Sunday, but unfortunately we got a flat tire on our way up and no one in town would be able to fix it till Monday. So poor us… Had to spend another day up camping. Everyone else went home Sunday and we had a night alone. Wasn’t too bad, though we did borrow a camper, because the tent was just too small for us. Back to civilization on Monday, and off to do some camping shopping! Getting a few things we had discovered we needed (giant tent for starters) and a few things we decided we just wanted enough to buy at the time. Suffice it to say, I’ve built up quite the camping supply closet. Then that Thursday… Back up the mountain we go! This time there was no one else there. It was quite different to say the least. All Friday we sat around inside and out of the tent pretty much just reading. I must say I’m proud of myself, as I am finally reading The Count of Monte Cristo! Amazing book. Saturday was a family reunion in Fairview, so we went back down and hung out there most the day.

The reunion was better than I expected actually. Other than the fact that I had to wear a bright red shirt all day… I just don’t do bright red. I had been picked to be the official photographer for Brandy’s part of the family, so I spent a while taking a lot of pictures of everything. It really was a lot of fun. And don’t tell anyone this… But I could spend hours following that 3 year old around taking pictures of all the just adorable things he does.

From there, we grabbed Brandy’s youngest sister and took her back up the mountain with us. She camped up there with us till Monday, when we all headed back to home sweet home and crashed. After a long hot shower that is!

I really must say that I never expected that I would have so much fun camping. It really is different than camping I’ve done before… No crowds of people around in the official camping areas, no noisy people at night, no expectations of when to rise and when to sleep. Just me, Brandy, and a whole lot of trees. Guess that might be why we’re planning on going up again at least one more time before the summer is up, huh?

Now, keep an eye open this week for further adventures in the life of Kishkumen! Hear about my daring escapades on the local lake, be filled with wonder as I reveal the secrets of photographing weddings, shake in terror as the ravenous creatures of Hogle Zoo come to life before your eyes! Or just go “yeah, whatever” and assume I’ll not post again for another 4 months, that works too.

One of my lifelong goals has been realized. I am the proud owner of a Zippo lighter! A while ago, Brandy took me to a “nameless” store, and wouldn’t tell me what we were getting. We wandered around the jewelry section, when she was about to give up her search, and there they were! Mmmm… So, I got myself a “Black Ice” Zippo. It is just freaking sweet. The sounds, the texture, the fire… It’s a beautiful thing. So, I decided I was going to start collecting them, and found out that “One in four Zippo owners consider themselves collectors.” Oh well, so I’m going with the flow. Still fun stuff. Only one problem… There’s like two stores in the area that sell them, and one of them charges twice as much as they’re worth… So I have a limited selection. But, the other day I got two more. A brushed brass, and a matte steel one. All just so very lovely. One of these days I’m going to get a titanium one as well! Brandy also got herself a slim matte one, it’s just cute.

In addition to the Zippo collection, I’ve also increased my sets of dice by 4 more… Don’t go into a gaming shop when slightly depressed and wanting to spend money. I’m working on getting some pictures of everything, hopefully I’ll have them up at some point.

So I’m still around and kicking.  Rumor has it I’m handling the whole getting laid off thing better than expected.  So, go me!  I fear I did do something silly, and as soon as I got my first check, ran out and spent a whole lot of money…  I might break parts of it down to other posts, but the biggest thing I did was upgrade one of my children.  That’s right, Betsy has hit 2.0!

Lets see… I upgraded the motherboard, processor, ram, vid card, hard drive, power supply, and case.  So currently the only things left behind from older versions are the sound card, and CD/DVD drives.  Quite a bit of improvement to say the least!  Now I’m running an Athlon X2 4200+ with 2 gig of ram (the shiny LED ram), and a Radeon 1800xl vid card.  The change has been quite impressive, games are running nice and smooth.  And well, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the past week gaming, so this is a good thing!

Went to a LAN party on Saturday with my brother, was a lot of fun playing battlefield 2 with everyone.  Once the servers started getting mobbed with clans destroying everyone one, we went back to just a local game.  By that time only 4 people (of the 10+ there) were still playing BF2, where everyone else had gone to play original Day of Defeat…  Oh well.  We still had fun.  Found a small map, and did some entertaining games with things like pistols only, grenades only, snipers only, and C4/grenade/knife only.  Was quite a blast.

More updates to come!  Has been an eventful week, it’s amazing what happens when you don’t have to sit at work all day.

And I just got laid off.  Hooray for being unemployed…

This past weekend has found me at the movies.  Twice even!  Last Thursday we caught an evening show for V for Vendetta.  Unfortunately, due to not getting out of work till 10 minutes before it started, we didn’t have the best of seats…  But oh well, as it turns out we didn’t need good seats to enjoy the movie.  It’s been a while since I’ve been so captivated by a movie from start to finish.

I feel I should point out that no matter what the marketing team tries to make us believe, the Wachowski Brothers did not direct this movie.  And it shows.  They did write the screenplay for it, and much like their earlier work they do a good job when they’re just taking someone else’s idea and making it into a movie.  The real director was James McTeigue,  and this was actually his first time as a full director.  He did a lot of work on other movies, including all the Matrix movies,  a Star Wars, and one of my favorites, Dark City.  Suffice it to say, he did a good job.

The movie itself was breathtaking.  I really enjoyed that for the most part it didn’t use a lot of gimmicks to placate the audience.  Yes, there were some scenes with CG, but unlike most movies these days it wasn’t a scene to say “LOOK!! We have CG!!”  It was a scene that said “oh btw, we couldn’t do this in real life so we had to do it with a computer.  But don’t worry, you won’t notice.”  I feel the acting was very well done.  I was afraid that having Hugo Weaving as the main character would bring on nothing but endless Matrix and LotR cliché jokes, or that I’d not be able to separate the voice from the actor (IE Liam Neeson in Narnia), but I was happy to find that while I Knew it was Hugo Weaving, I didn’t feel it detracted from the character at all.

I think another of the points of the movie that I enjoyed was that it made zero attempt to be Politically Correct.  I mean considering the current global thoughts on terrorism they took a movie and made the terrorist the hero!  There is no doubt this wasn’t made for the faint of heart.

So yeah, those are my basic thoughts.  Anyone else seen it?  Have any comments?

Oh, and the second movie we saw this weekend…  V for Vendetta.  We got seats to the IMAX showing of up, and saw it with P.  He enjoyed it quite a bit as well, and I think it was even better the second time through.  Always a good sign! And as we left, I commented on how I’m dying to see the “3 hour extended super massive version” then realized there really isn’t much more I’d want in the show.  I think they did an amazing job of getting everything you needed into the timeframe, and leaving enough un-answered questions to keep it interesting.  Bravo, good work!

So, while visiting the local game store (Under new ownership, in a new building, and actually CLEAN!) checking to see if they had got my book in for me, I made a bit of a mistake…  I looked down.  There, lying before me, was a collection of some of my greatest temptations ever…  Suffice it to say, I now own a couple more sets of dice.  Got Brandy another set as well!  I’ll need to get some pictures of them all and post them, as they are all quite lovely.  Just hope the colors come through.

So now I own yet another full set of dice…  Bringing my totals up to 4 bricks of 6 siders, and 5 matched sets of polyhedrals.  And various others as well.  Having all of those dice laid out before me, I started longing again for the days of Role Playing…  I’ve been reading over old Star Wars notes, and remembering how fun those games had become.  I would love to get another Star Wars campaign going again, but alas I lack players.  The old group has been scattered far and wide, mostly due to the recent situations…  And a two player game just isn’t all that much fun.  Maybe I should start working on my Geek Meet site again, see what I can pull out from that.  Though, from looking at most of the local geeks… and remembering what it was like having certain other people in the group before (lets not be subtle here, I’m talking about Cassie)…  It seems not all that likely that I’ll be getting a game up again any time soon.  But at least I can look at my massive collection of colorful dice!

So, a couple guys at work just showed me something they’ve been working on for a while.  an 8 foot by 4 foot printout of Axis and Allies!  They scanned in the original board at a very high res, then photoshopped it all to clean up everything, then using our Photomax service, had it put on two 4′x4′ posters.  The final product is just so very impressive!  They’re mounting it on some boards, then covering it with plexi glass.  I’m so very jealous.  This is definitely going on my list of things to do this summer, right next to the cherry wood MAME cabinet.  Should be an eventful summer!

So, I went ahead and got a domain. I used to have so many, I think at one point I had about 10 total! Now, I have three. Counting the new one. Oh well, the rest weren’t doing anything anyway!

As should be obvious, the new domain is everyonessecrets.com. Was thinking on the site name, and the theme for the site… Thought, we’re just sharing the secrets with everyone. They’re no longer ours, they belong to the masses. Or something like that, chances are it wasn’t as poetic in my mind. But yeah, thought about it and it works for me. And even better, it’s available. So up goes that domain. The site is already up in a very very beta form at www.savvypc.com, but it should have full functionality right now. Even if it doesn’t look as I’d like it to. So, currently people can anonymously submit news (will be changing that to say secrets, when I learn how), comment, etc. Unfortunately, the e-mail to a friend link only works if you’re registered and logged in… But, at the very least you can send the links to the specific topics. Here goes the start eh?

Ok, so now that I’ve gathered a reader or three…

I’ve contacted the owners of PostSecret, and unfortunately, they said I can’t use the name for anything for legal reasons. I can understand that, since they are using it to publish books, etc. They didn’t say I couldn’t borrow the idea though! So, I guess I’m still going to work for it, since I’ve got nothing better to do with my bandwidth. The question remains, now I need a new name for it. I was thinking ShareSecrets, but that domain is taken (though blank, and expiring in April). This means I’m currently open to suggestions. I think I’m going to keep looking into the slashcode path, since if I can get it to work I’m betting it’ll work well. Or maybe learn PHP and write my own site… Yeah, right.

After the rousing success of my last post, I figured I’d continue in the same train of thought.

One of my favorite sites to visit weekly is Post Secret, where hundreds of people send in post cards containing their secrets. Some of these are posted online, for all to see. There has been no end of positive feedback about this, about how people feel the weight lifted off their shoulders at seeing their secret is no longer just theirs. I’ve wanted to send stuff in, but I fear I am not an artist by any means… So, after my last post, and thinking about how nice it would be to sometimes have a totally anonymous place to vent or share, I thought maybe an online version of Post Secret would be a nice thing to have. Then, people could post whatever they want, anonymous or not, and let the world see what’s going on. Then, they might even have the guts to send their friends or others that are involved in their lives to the site to see what’s going on. Discussions about the secrets… All sorts of things. Personally, I think it’s a fun idea. I just need the software required to run it… I was thinking of a submission system like bash.org, with a discussion system like Slashdot. I can get the code for Slashdot, but don’t know how easy it would be to configure on this server…
So yeah, just throwing the idea out. Who knows, maybe it will happen.

So here I am typing in the dark… Please pardon any spelling mistakes I’m to lazy to try and find the backspace key to try and fix. Just kinda sitting up tonight, killing time. Thought I’d try and continue my posting here. Who knows, maybe this will actually turn into a common thing!

Recently I’ve been considering letting this blog be a little more open to my personal life, and not as much just a place to find out what pointless things are happening… You know, add a bit more meat into the sauce. My concern is I am not so anonymous. I really don’t want to cause un-needed offence, and un intended might I add, to others who might be looking to see where my life is currently going… Guess that means I just find something else to talk about other than other people. But it seems there is very little more to life than interaction with other people… Well, that and gaming!

I’ve gone through a lot of life changes recently. And I don’t mean only what has changed with how I interact with other people… What’s inside of me has been changing as well. I like to think I’m growing up a bit more. Learning more about how life works, and what my part in it entails. Realizing that no matter how much I like to think I know everything, I am learning that there is so much more I have yet to figure out. Just hope I stop causing problems with other people’s lives while I do figure it out… And well, I want to try to work things out with those whom I have caused problems with. Time is an amazing thing. It never ceases to amaze me just how much it changes things. While not always for the better, it seems it is more often than not.

So, I’m thinking… I need to have a reason to have this blog, and while I intend to keep rambling about games and such, why not try for something a bit more? I know there are people out there who read this thing. At least I hope so! So, if you are reading no matter who you are, lets talk! And I mean the not matter who you are part. I really don’t care who’s reading this, and assume everyone is. Ok, I hope everyone is, makes me feel better. So, be ye friend or foe (don’t think I have any foes… Friend or “other”?) let your voice be heard. If I have offended, let me know. Tell me why. Be bold, be blunt. I want to try to work things out. If I have not offended, then heck let me know! That’d be kinda nice too, to find that I’ve not damaged my relationships with everyone in the world. If somehow I’ve even done something good, I’d not mind hearing that either. With all this, I can understand not wanting some things to be broadcast all over… Feel free to be vague, for both good or bad. Feel free to send me an e-mail, I should have an address listed on the site somewhere (if not, let me know). Oh, and for the total strangers who have stumbled across this site… Why not say something anyway? Talk about someone else, good or bad. Tell us what you want in life, what good you hope you’ve caused, or what bad you fear you have. I’ll even turn on anonymous posting for those who desire it. But I would ask that if you can you include some information about who you are.

Something tells me I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. I do that from time to time. Oh well, what’s the worst thing that can happen, no comments? I’ve already got that!

It seems the few posts I’ve had on this site have, for the most part, gone un-answered. So, I guess it’s time to lay those pressing questions to rest!

Yes, I am Kishkumen. But sadly, I don’t play World of Warcraft currently, nor am I any of the Kishkumens that you guys seem to have seen. Sorry. I played that name as a low level undead warlock for a few rounds on some server I can’t even remember any more. For the most part I played a night elf rogue named Tailyn. Sadly, I can’t even remeber which server I was on! I was in a guild of local friends called “The Unmentionables.” That’s about it, I stopped playing due to my time schedule and not having anyone on to play with when I was able to play. There you have it, the life of Kishkumen on WoW in a nutshell.

The Homestar Runner store! While I did update this on the actual old post, I need more of an excuse to keep typing or something. See, this was a local only store in the mall in the city I live. The guy running it was cool and printed off several just cards for the coupons. The store disapeared a few months later… So, the coupons are of no use to anyone. But, saying things like “homestar runner store coupons” has increased the hits on my site quite a bit!

So yeah, if anyone has any other questions, post away.

So yeah. I own a PSP. Due to recent events, I’ve been finding myself spending large wads of money to keep my head above the depression level (But no more!). Yeah yeah I know spending money is just a quick easy fix that causes more problems in the long run, but lucky for me that’s all I needed! So, one large credit card bill later, here I sit with a PSP and 3 (at the time) games to play with. Lets see how this excerpt thing works, so you all don’t have to see everything if you don’t want to! Read on for reviewish things on the PSP, GTA: Liberty City Stories, Mercury, and Lumines!

The PSP itself is a thing of beauty. I know for a fact that I will never use it to it’s full potential, but what I have been able to use it for has been breathtaking to say the least. I was surprised with how easily it all fit in my hands, and how naturally the controls worked. Guess its to be expected as they did try to keep it as close to the standard PS2 controller as possible. I just liked it.

The first game I loaded up was Mercury. I’d been excited to play that one since I first layed eyes on it. The premis of the game is quite simple, you control a blob of mercury in a maze like environment. It’s a lot like the old table top game of Labyrinth where you tilt the entire level to move the blob around. But well… This is mercury! The greatest substance on earth! The PSP really makes this respond like a real blob of mercury. Splitting into pieces if it hits something etc etc. The game has been so much fun to play with! There are mutliple “goals” in the game for different levels. One, the goal is to get to the end as soon as possible, another is to do it with as much mercury left in your blob as possible, and the third involves solving “puzzles” with colors and switches. Then, as you continue, they start combining the goals together to make things just plain difficult. It’s a great game to play when you have a few minutes spare time and want to try and get the best score you can!

After that, I gave Lumines a shot. Can you say addicting? The game is surprisingly simple. Somewhat like tetris, where you have stuff falling from the top, and you can move and rotate the pieces. But, instead of different shapes, you always get a cube consisting of blocks of two colors. Always the same two colors that is. So, the goal is to make complete squares of the same colors once the blocks hit the ground. Might be easier if you see it… But wow, it’s a lot of fun! There is also an amazing multiplayer mode. With that, each person has their own PSP, but are still playing in a sort of split screen mode… You both see what the other person is doing as well. If you get more completions in a time period, you “attack” their side of the board, and they lose a column of space where you gain one. So, if you’re quick you can get them down to only having 4-5 blocks wide to work with. Quite satisfying to say the least.

Once I had my taste of those two games, I moved on to the biggest game I’d gotten at that point. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. I’ve been a big fan of the GTA games since GTA2 back on the PC. I have, or have at least played, every game since then. So, when this came out for the PSP I just had to have it! Honestly, the gameplay is exactly like it is on the PS2, and that’s a great thing! The game itself takes place in the same city as GTA3, but with different stories etc. Don’t know what more I can say other than it’s amazing. More than I ever expected I’d be seeing on a portable game system. The story, the voice acting, the people wandering the streets… All combine to make this by far the greatest game I’ve seen on the PSP. It also has a multiplayer feature, but sadly I don’t know anyone else who has the game yet, so I couldn’t tell you what it’s like… So someone get a PSP and the game so I can play it already!

I think that’s it. Well, other than the fact that I now own several more games… But I’m not going to write about them as of yet. But, look forward to hearing about Burnout Legends, Tokobots, Ghost in the Shell, and Pinball Hall of Fame. And maybe a few more comments on the PSP itself.

I’ve been finding myself saying that quite a bit of late. Mostly when I’ve heard news of people doing things most of the world would call insane. Must be something about Christmas time eh?

So, the cat is out of the bag as they say. I’m divorced. And “involved” with someone again. I do realize what everyone has to say about this… Too quick, rebound, etc etc. I also realize that the advice usually joined with all of this is to do the oposite of what I’m currently doing. I do realize I’m taking a chance here. But as a good friend of mine said, when I told him all the exact same things “The chance is there… I can take it and risk getting hurt, or not take it and know I’m missing out on something good.” And I fought him like mad because of that. And he’s denied the odds and is still happy (for the most part). Fortuantely for me, he knows I was just trying to help him and doesn’t hold a grudge against me for it. Just like I know others are trying to help me, and I’ll not hold one either.

So, other than that… how’s my life been going. Some surprisingly good events have happened! My other half’s family has finally decided that I’m not the anticrhist made flesh, and have pretty much welcomed me into the family. That was very un-expected. Made the time spent with them on Christmas that much better. Overall life has been going quite well for me. I’m enjoying my new apartment, location, current job, etc. Now I just need summer to show up so I have my own mode of transportation! Well, summer, and enough spare cash for registration, etc.

I think I’ll split up other updates into multiple posts. So, don’t be shocked to see a whole bunch on the same day. Woo!

It’s been over a year. Amazing how much can happen in such a short time wouldn’t you say? I had all but given up on this site, but out of nowhere I started getting all sorts of comments posted on my last blog! It would seem quite a few people are under the impression that my nether regions are in need of improvement, and that I should be spending all my time online gambling. Damned spammers…

So, I figured I could either just pull this site down like I have my others, or update the software and see if that does anything. Should be obvious to anyone paying attention that I went with the latter option here. And since I spent all this time and effort updating the site, I might as well make use of it! So, where to begin?

Doom 3 vs Half Life 2. No competition, I could barely play Doom 3 for more than a couple hours before I gave up. Just a waste of time. A pretty waste of time yes, but a waste none the less.

World of Warcraft consumed me for quite a while after I last posted. I got up to level 44 with a rogue character, and was having a great time… That is untill all my friends I was playing with had to move on to other things (Getting married, life, work, etc). So, all of a sudden I find myself alone at level 44. That sucked. I trudged on like that for a while, but never really got back on my feet. I closed my account a couple weeks later. The game itself is great, but for non social people like me, it’s lacking. No doubt the recent patches and upgrades will make it fun to play again, but alas I have not the time.

The headphones? All I can say is DAMN they are nice. Everything just sounded better, more full and enjoyable. Then, one day I dropped a monitor on them… 21″ sucker. Are the headphones OK? Amazingly enough yes! The monitor landed on the heavy aluminum clamp thing holding the actual headphones. It got bent a wee bit, but still works fine. I’m just impressed!

I think that catches me up on posts. In other news, I’m getting divorced. Will be getting the paperwork done this week… Long story, and who knows maybe I’ll talk about it some here. Guess we’ll see.

I just got a lovely package today… My birthday present from my dear wife was back ordered till recently, but I must say it was well worth the wait. See, I just got me some Beyerdynamic DT 880 headphones. Read here for an amazing review of them. So far, I’ve had to be at work, so I’ve only been able to use them on the crappy output on our cheap-o computers… But even then… these things are amazing! And so comfortable. Assuming I don’t melt when I try them out with my home system, I’ll give more details on them later.

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft quite a bit lately, having gotten into the stress test beta going on this week. So far, it is just frickin amazing! I can’t wait for the final game, where we have a large group playing together. Playing the beta has some ups and downs though… I love the game, but now that I’m at a pretty good level, I don’t look forward to having to start all over again. Then, I’m going to have to wait until the game actually comes out before playing again… Shambry has been more than kind though, putting up with my constant playing over the weekend. She’s the best!

An odd thing happened Monday, I was running over to my Mom’s to help setup some sound equipment, and when I came back the people in our apartment complex were out having a gathering. Ok, that wasn’t so odd as they all know each other quite well and do that pretty often. But, they invited us to join them, and the odd thing is we went! Even though World of Warcraft was calling to me… we went. While there, I had something re-distinguished to me. Shambry and I aren’t normal. We really just didn’t fit in there, and spent most of the time sitting there and nodding from time to time… We don’t have any kids, we’re not both going to school, I don’t really want to play the squirt gun games with the other guys… They were all really nice people, but they were just different from us in so many ways it was hard to follow the same conversation paths and such. Lucky for us, we have a group of friends who are all more or less in the same boat as we are, which works out very nicely. Unlucky for us, most of them are planning on leaving Utah as soon as the chance arises, and we’re not… Best make use of the time we have eh?

So, I spent this weekend camping. Those who know me realize this isn’t something that can often be heard of me… In fact, recently Penny Arcade had a couple comics that defined my expectations of said trip, though instead of the Doom 3 release, I got to miss the open beta for World of Warcraft… But, much to my surprise, I actually had a good time! Details as follows:

Friday, after work, we head up to Idaho (good 4ish hour drive, starting ’round 9 PM). Once we get there, we mingle with the family for a bit, then head for the great sagging bed. You know, the kind that has no support in the middle, and almost touches the floor when you lie down. When I was single, that was fine… but having two people in one of those creates some odd anomaly where both parties are constantly on top of the other… I have no idea how it works, probably related to how our parents had to walk uphill both too and from school… So, after a scant couple hours of sleep, we stagger to the next car for the trip to the campground (Red Fish Lake for those who really care). That was quite the trip, somewhat smushed into the back of said car with my dear wife, and a stack of luggage/pillows. After several hours of that we finally get to the camping area. I must admit, I was a bit impressed. Our sister, who works at the lodge there, managed to snag us a nice camping spot with room for all our tents and other gear. Setting up was cake, mostly because everyone there was Shambry’s family, and I think they’re all too scared of me to actually ask me to help…
From there, we did the proper tourist things, including looking around at the amazingly beautiful lake, and spending WAY too much money in gift shops. Then came the one thing that had been tempting me to actually go from the start… Kayaks. As said sister was an employee of the lodge, we got to use all the lake equipment free of charge! So off we go for a little paddle around the lake. It was impressive to say the least. Most of the time we hung around the crystal clear waters of the beach, occasionally slipping out to less populated areas. We got to see a giant tree that had fallen in the water years ago, and collected random pieces of driftwood and cool rocks. Most of all, we avoided all the bugs at the campground. I don’t like bugs… That night was a rather calm evening of hot dogs, and soup… Then the sleeping started…
It seems there was a bit of a competition that night, for who could snore the loudest. It also seems I must have won… due to the dirty looks I was getting the next day. The 2nd night, I even got threats at night to prop my head over to shut me up. Its good to be loved, really.
Enter the morning! Getting up early camping isn’t as hard as I feared it would be. I’m betting it has a lot to do with other people in the tent being loud while waking… and that tent walls don’t block out sun as well as our house walls. It wasn’t too bad though, as far as mornings go. We walked to the lake and took pictures of the mists rising off of it. Then I avoided eating breakfast. We passed the time till lunch feeding the local wild life, particularly a friendly squirrel named Ralph. I would have to assume Ralph was used to people feeding him, as he had no problems coming right up to us, even as far as jumping on our hands to get his food. We spent quite a while playing with him, taking several pictures/vids. From there, we got a couple motor boats, and took a tour all around the lake, stopping at one point for a nice lunch. It was quite entertaining, even got to see a couple more sunken trees! After that, more kayaking… Did I mention I don’t like bugs? No bugs on the water, that’s for sure. This time we were far more adventurous, going out to the middle of the lake, trying to catch the waves from passing boats wakes, etc. That night was a pretty eventless relaxing night. Guess there really isn’t much you can do after dark in the middle of the woods… well, nothing you can do with a bunch of family members around at least. Then after breaking camp, we made for home… All of the driving in one day this time. So, not nearly as bad as I was expecting. I’d even be willing to do it again! Well, that is assuming I get free rentals of lake equipment again that is.

Oh, and for those of you who were worried, though I missed the World of Warcraft signup, a friend of mine was able to find a spare key for me. All was not lost! And, should you be interested, all the pictures from the trip are here