ok fine, I'll bite...
The Friday Five
1. What was your most memorable moment from the last week?
Realizing that the $1,000+ order of furniture coming for Sarah's room probably wouldn't fit ;)
2. What one person touched your life this week?
My wife.. She constantly touches me.
3. How have you helped someone this week?
The ferret shelter lady. I scooped ferret crap.
4. What one thing do you need to get done by this time next week?
Probably my next school assignment.
5. What one thing will you do over the next seven days to make your world a better place?
Try not to miss the potty.
Friday, March 28, 2003
ARGH. Finally a day where not much is going on and I wake up with a sore throat, and I have this stupid assignment for school to do. A 3-page essay.. When was the last time I wrote a 3-page essay?? Years! Well, maybe I can just plug away at it and knock it out in an hour or so. Yeah right. Oh, hey, check this out: www.gamefly.com We're pretty addicted (as in, change of lifestyle addicted, not health-harmful addicted) to a few excellent services here: TiVo, NetFlix and now I'm thinking of joining GameFly. It's a service like NetFlix for console games, where you pay $21.95/mo for 2 unlimited rentals at a time. You keep them as long as you want, but you can only have 2 out at a time. What this means is, I can play something like FFX and Kingdom Hearts, finish them and return them when done, and if I finish both in a month, it only cost me $21.95. Yeah, you don't get to keep them, but you can buy them at a discounted price (around the same as a used game from FuncoLand). It's a good deal. Last year I joined a Blockbuster plan that was the same way, but you had to renew each month and it was only for the summer. I might do it. This way, it will satisfy my "I must play it all" hunger. I tend to start a lot of games, but finish few. I'd hate to BUY them all and have them sit there. Sure, I have enough games, but this service is really cool, and NetFlix kicks so much ass, this can only be a good thing. I just hope enough people sign on to keep it going. I just need to weigh up whether or not this would be cheaper than buying a game every few months, because I do like to hold onto them, I never trade games in, although lately I've been thinking about it.
Well, time to buckle down and do this damn assignment.
Well, time to buckle down and do this damn assignment.
Thursday, March 27, 2003
Ahh.. the morning coffee. Today it's Vanilla Nut Creme with my usual added vanilla creamer. I'm out of the creme coffee after today, so it's Swiss Chocolate tomorrow. The chocolate is a generic brand and I can tell the difference. The best recent coffee i've had was the stuff that came with the Godiva gift pack Julie got me for Valentine's Day. That didn't last very long at all.. I am thinking about that Gevalia stuff, since I like coffee so much. Maybe I'll do the sample thing and see if it's any good.
Today is ferret shelter day. It's not something I look forward to, and the reward for the time and effort comes only when you're leaving the place, knowing you helped out. I love ferrets, but after taking care of the 7 we have, I get enough personal ferret time for anyone ;)
Today is ferret shelter day. It's not something I look forward to, and the reward for the time and effort comes only when you're leaving the place, knowing you helped out. I love ferrets, but after taking care of the 7 we have, I get enough personal ferret time for anyone ;)
Wednesday, March 26, 2003
Well, somehow I've managed to go a week without playing EQ. It's amazing how the longer you stay away, the less you want to play. Having finished a few games a few weeks ago, I decided it was time to pick up some old ones or try some new ones. I know this sounds silly, but I almost hate leaving a game unfinished more than leaving a house project unfinished. Ok, so unfinished games bother me more. Let's justify this.. it's money spent and not used.. er.. money tied up until a game could be finished and re-sold.. umm.. yeah!
Games I started and want to finish: Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind (yeah like you can finish that one), Drakan 2, Icewind Dale 2, Hereos of Might and Magic 4, Arx Fatalis, and maybe Jedi Knight 2. I played all the way through Quake 3 Arena in a few days, I had forgotten how much I loved Quake. Can't wait for Quake IV. Lotsa good stuff coming out this year too. I did pick up Kingdom Hearts (PS2) and Blood Omen 2 for the Xbox that was collecting dust. Yeah.. BO2 was the first game I bought. I want Panzer Dragoon Orta, but I'll wait until it's not $50. I like buying used console games a while after they've been out. The new Zelda game is tempting though.. Of course I still need to finish Ocarina of Time AND Majora's Mask.. The N64 doesn't get used too much these days.
The current household addiction seems to be Animal Crossing. My wife sends love letters to my daughter daily, and my daughter returns them. Even I created a little friend, and when my son gets off his endless grounding from video games, he might make one as well. The town bulletin board is chock full of "I love you" messages. It's really mushy.. My wife nearly shed a tear just now after receiving a fishing rod.. yes, a fishing rod, with love from Sarah.
One thing about not playing EQ.. You have a lot of time for other neglected games...
Games I started and want to finish: Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind (yeah like you can finish that one), Drakan 2, Icewind Dale 2, Hereos of Might and Magic 4, Arx Fatalis, and maybe Jedi Knight 2. I played all the way through Quake 3 Arena in a few days, I had forgotten how much I loved Quake. Can't wait for Quake IV. Lotsa good stuff coming out this year too. I did pick up Kingdom Hearts (PS2) and Blood Omen 2 for the Xbox that was collecting dust. Yeah.. BO2 was the first game I bought. I want Panzer Dragoon Orta, but I'll wait until it's not $50. I like buying used console games a while after they've been out. The new Zelda game is tempting though.. Of course I still need to finish Ocarina of Time AND Majora's Mask.. The N64 doesn't get used too much these days.
The current household addiction seems to be Animal Crossing. My wife sends love letters to my daughter daily, and my daughter returns them. Even I created a little friend, and when my son gets off his endless grounding from video games, he might make one as well. The town bulletin board is chock full of "I love you" messages. It's really mushy.. My wife nearly shed a tear just now after receiving a fishing rod.. yes, a fishing rod, with love from Sarah.
One thing about not playing EQ.. You have a lot of time for other neglected games...
Monday, March 24, 2003
Woohoo.. I got home late from work, and slept until 8pm. Talk about wasting the day away. Plus, I missed the last few hours of my auctions and lost them all, LOL.
Oh well, I'm getting too frustrated with Ebay anyhow, maybe it's for the better.
Nothing much to say today, since I haven't been awake all that long.
Oh well, I'm getting too frustrated with Ebay anyhow, maybe it's for the better.
Nothing much to say today, since I haven't been awake all that long.
Sunday, March 23, 2003
Ebay is frustrating. You finally find that item you had been looking for, in just the perfect condition and...
1) Some auction squatter had been waiting for just the right time to outbid you with literally seconds left
2) Some idiot comes along and pays the preposterous "But it Now" price
3) Some idiot comes along and puts in a max bid way over what you'd spend, so you are fractically rebidding trying to find a reasonable compromise, only to learn that you still won't win in time, nor for a reasonable price. You'd have to set a max bid way over what you'd really spend..
4) You realize that you still haven't met the reserve price, so it doesn't matter anyhow, because the jerk collector/seller wants top price for his phat lewtz
5) The same idiot comes along and does the same top 3 annoyances to ALL the items you've bid on.
I'm a pretty avid gamer in many ways. It doesn't just stop at computer and console games, we play a lot of board, card and dice games as well. My kids are really into games that make you think a little more, but the occasional Sorry or Yahtzee isn't bad either. Lately, I've been having some cravings for old, old school gaming. Games that I may have played in my childhood.. You know, like the Wonder Woman game that was probably only in print for 2 years, but was actually a good game (just for example, of course!). One of these games is Talisman, the Magical Quest Game. It's a tabletop board game that allows you to play avatars of different character classes, like warriors, priests, etc. The premise is simple: become the strongest and make it to the center of the main board, and conquer all. The game itself can take a few hours even wtih 2 people. The beauty of the game is that many expansions were released to add to the original game, including new boards like a dungeon, a city and many new adventure and event cards. The only way to obtain Talisman anymore is via online auction or game conference. I haven't been paying attention to local game shows and conventions, so I end up spending time on Ebay. So far, I only have the core game. There are about 5 expansions, one of which is very rare, a collector's edition. I've seen that one sell for $350 or more. Most of them are $50 a piece, which isn't horrible. You'd spend that much on one game today. Most game expansions are about $30 anyhow, so $50 for a long-OOP game isn't too bad.
Anyhow.. if anyone is interested in playing something beyond the usual Bonkers and Chutes and Ladders (I'm a game snob, these games bore me, even my kids agree), stay tuned and I'll post some links to decent board game review sites. Here is a list of games we love:
Settlers / Seafarers / Starfarers of Catan (the original was Settlers, a CLASSIC among board games now)
Lord of the Rings + expansions (Friends and Foes, Sauron) - The original LotR game is cooperative and F&F makes it tougher. The Sauron expansion allows one player to play against the Fellowship. A very well-designed game. It was released before the movies and not based on them, like some of the recent ones have been.
Acquire - The guys at work love this one. Stock trading and company selling.. it's cutthroat.
Hacker and Illuminati - Two card games by Steve Jackson that are just too unique to explain. Very well designed and lots of fun. Play any way you like, cooperatively, aggressively.. anything.
Aladdin's Dragons - Great game that's not too hard for kids to pick up. Bid for gems and spend them later to gain artifacts and spells to win.
Tigris and Euphrates - Another hardcore strategy game. Tough to master and relies a little on luck so even playing against the toughest strategist won't stop you from playing again. It's tough to learn, but the conflicts when 3+ people play are just awesome.
That's a short list.. We have probably upwards 70 board, card and dice games. Enjoy.
1) Some auction squatter had been waiting for just the right time to outbid you with literally seconds left
2) Some idiot comes along and pays the preposterous "But it Now" price
3) Some idiot comes along and puts in a max bid way over what you'd spend, so you are fractically rebidding trying to find a reasonable compromise, only to learn that you still won't win in time, nor for a reasonable price. You'd have to set a max bid way over what you'd really spend..
4) You realize that you still haven't met the reserve price, so it doesn't matter anyhow, because the jerk collector/seller wants top price for his phat lewtz
5) The same idiot comes along and does the same top 3 annoyances to ALL the items you've bid on.
I'm a pretty avid gamer in many ways. It doesn't just stop at computer and console games, we play a lot of board, card and dice games as well. My kids are really into games that make you think a little more, but the occasional Sorry or Yahtzee isn't bad either. Lately, I've been having some cravings for old, old school gaming. Games that I may have played in my childhood.. You know, like the Wonder Woman game that was probably only in print for 2 years, but was actually a good game (just for example, of course!). One of these games is Talisman, the Magical Quest Game. It's a tabletop board game that allows you to play avatars of different character classes, like warriors, priests, etc. The premise is simple: become the strongest and make it to the center of the main board, and conquer all. The game itself can take a few hours even wtih 2 people. The beauty of the game is that many expansions were released to add to the original game, including new boards like a dungeon, a city and many new adventure and event cards. The only way to obtain Talisman anymore is via online auction or game conference. I haven't been paying attention to local game shows and conventions, so I end up spending time on Ebay. So far, I only have the core game. There are about 5 expansions, one of which is very rare, a collector's edition. I've seen that one sell for $350 or more. Most of them are $50 a piece, which isn't horrible. You'd spend that much on one game today. Most game expansions are about $30 anyhow, so $50 for a long-OOP game isn't too bad.
Anyhow.. if anyone is interested in playing something beyond the usual Bonkers and Chutes and Ladders (I'm a game snob, these games bore me, even my kids agree), stay tuned and I'll post some links to decent board game review sites. Here is a list of games we love:
Settlers / Seafarers / Starfarers of Catan (the original was Settlers, a CLASSIC among board games now)
Lord of the Rings + expansions (Friends and Foes, Sauron) - The original LotR game is cooperative and F&F makes it tougher. The Sauron expansion allows one player to play against the Fellowship. A very well-designed game. It was released before the movies and not based on them, like some of the recent ones have been.
Acquire - The guys at work love this one. Stock trading and company selling.. it's cutthroat.
Hacker and Illuminati - Two card games by Steve Jackson that are just too unique to explain. Very well designed and lots of fun. Play any way you like, cooperatively, aggressively.. anything.
Aladdin's Dragons - Great game that's not too hard for kids to pick up. Bid for gems and spend them later to gain artifacts and spells to win.
Tigris and Euphrates - Another hardcore strategy game. Tough to master and relies a little on luck so even playing against the toughest strategist won't stop you from playing again. It's tough to learn, but the conflicts when 3+ people play are just awesome.
That's a short list.. We have probably upwards 70 board, card and dice games. Enjoy.
Friday, March 21, 2003
Every so often, a milestone comes along in a parent's life that teaches a lesson. The first one begins before the birth of the first child, then another at birth, and many small ones en route to the first full night of sleep with a newborn. Over the course of time, there are countless milestones and obstacles in a parent's life that either make or break you as a parent. Sometimes they just teach you things that you can tuck away for future use, or that maybe you do not always make the right decisions.
Tonight was one of those milestones. Let me just share with you all (all 2 of you), the beauty and awe that is 8-year old girls, specifically speaking, 8 of them, which multiplied is 64. Which brings me to one of my new Uberlaws of Life: The Multiple Child Factor. When calculating the impact and damage potential of a group of small children, you must take the median age of the group, and multiply it by the number of children to get the MCF. The MCF is the actual number of people that it FEELS like you are entertaining. So, in my case.. 64 possible pieces of pizza on the floor.. 64 possible chocolate milk spills. 64 possible head traumas and dancing accidents. 64 possible headaches and 64 times I have to say "SETLLE DOWN" within the course of the 64 hours that it feels like I've been awake and shouting "SETTLE DOWN".
Now, on to the milestone.
I've learned a great many things about 8-year old girls tonight. I thought I knew it all. HA HA. Here's the top ten:
1. Little girls are fascinated by death and injury. They enjoy comparing who's grandma was hurt more in a car accident.
2. Little girls tend to learn coniving parent-fooling tactics to get out of cleaning up messes or anything else they wish to avoid.
3. Little girls always break off into cliques, and it's nearly impossible to get them all to do the same thing at the same time.
4. All little girls fart.
5. Little girls love to pretend they are farting just as much as little boys.
6. Little girls love to talk. This I knew, but never the extent.
7. Little girls that use Barbie dolls as weapons are scary.
8. Little girls do not understand the delicacy and value of electronic equipment.
9. Little girls do not understand the concept of "quiet time".
10. Little girls are not necessarily easier to manage in a group over little boys. In fact, they can be just as messy and obnoxious as any ONE boy.
Well, all I can say is.. whew.. and all that in just about 5 hours. Only 11 to go, most of which I am hoping will be eaten up in sleep.
Hmm.. I still hear thumping upstairs. I wonder how long it will REALLY take for all 8 to fall asleep. So far, I only noticed two were "out". 6 more to go...
Tonight was one of those milestones. Let me just share with you all (all 2 of you), the beauty and awe that is 8-year old girls, specifically speaking, 8 of them, which multiplied is 64. Which brings me to one of my new Uberlaws of Life: The Multiple Child Factor. When calculating the impact and damage potential of a group of small children, you must take the median age of the group, and multiply it by the number of children to get the MCF. The MCF is the actual number of people that it FEELS like you are entertaining. So, in my case.. 64 possible pieces of pizza on the floor.. 64 possible chocolate milk spills. 64 possible head traumas and dancing accidents. 64 possible headaches and 64 times I have to say "SETLLE DOWN" within the course of the 64 hours that it feels like I've been awake and shouting "SETTLE DOWN".
Now, on to the milestone.
I've learned a great many things about 8-year old girls tonight. I thought I knew it all. HA HA. Here's the top ten:
1. Little girls are fascinated by death and injury. They enjoy comparing who's grandma was hurt more in a car accident.
2. Little girls tend to learn coniving parent-fooling tactics to get out of cleaning up messes or anything else they wish to avoid.
3. Little girls always break off into cliques, and it's nearly impossible to get them all to do the same thing at the same time.
4. All little girls fart.
5. Little girls love to pretend they are farting just as much as little boys.
6. Little girls love to talk. This I knew, but never the extent.
7. Little girls that use Barbie dolls as weapons are scary.
8. Little girls do not understand the delicacy and value of electronic equipment.
9. Little girls do not understand the concept of "quiet time".
10. Little girls are not necessarily easier to manage in a group over little boys. In fact, they can be just as messy and obnoxious as any ONE boy.
Well, all I can say is.. whew.. and all that in just about 5 hours. Only 11 to go, most of which I am hoping will be eaten up in sleep.
Hmm.. I still hear thumping upstairs. I wonder how long it will REALLY take for all 8 to fall asleep. So far, I only noticed two were "out". 6 more to go...
Well, with Julie's help I've been able to add blogrolling, which is a slick way of easily linking stuff to me and for me to link stuff to the blog in a snap. Not that you care about my links.. ;) Next is comments, because I know everyone (all 2 of you) is dying to tell me what a geek I am.
More to come.. It's Sarah's sleepover party tonight, so most of the day will be dedicated to getting ready for that. Yay! 12 squealing, giggling girls for 16 hours... Ugh.
More to come.. It's Sarah's sleepover party tonight, so most of the day will be dedicated to getting ready for that. Yay! 12 squealing, giggling girls for 16 hours... Ugh.
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
Let's see.. life update:
School: Sucks. Taking a required XP class. It's too exciting to talk about. Really. I won't even mention the even more exciting Internet research class I'm taking too.
Work: Sucks. My boss has me involved in some things I'd rather not be involved in, however with yet another "re-org" coming, he said it would be best to bury myself in new duties to save myself from the fate of others, as in, being moved to other teams and under other management. Not that I'm a poor worker, just that the company likes to move people around a lot to put people in groups where they belong and best fit. Even though I best fit in the group I am in.. you never know. Corporate life really sucks sometimes.
Home: Crazy. Sarah is 8.. 8!!! What does that make me? Old. Everything is "normal" here, just the usual daily routines.. eat, sleep, yell at kids, comfort wife, watch TiVo, play a game or two, scoop ferret crap, remove ferrets from places they do not belong.. run from ferrets that want to chomp on my ankles... [insert more ferret duties here]. I feel like I work in a zoo.
OMG, I am playing (not just playing, addicted to) Everquest again. How in the hell did that happen? Well, there's nothing better at the moment, that's how! I fit some quality Morrowind time in there when I can, too.
Well, this is all the updating I can handle on 4 hours of sleep in the last 24, and I'm way late for bed. Hi to anyone that's stopped by (hi Me!) and wondered "WTF" or as we now say "What the Frell??" when seeing October as the last update. Hmm, maybe I'll hack that and make it look like all the posts were from this week.. yeah!!
School: Sucks. Taking a required XP class. It's too exciting to talk about. Really. I won't even mention the even more exciting Internet research class I'm taking too.
Work: Sucks. My boss has me involved in some things I'd rather not be involved in, however with yet another "re-org" coming, he said it would be best to bury myself in new duties to save myself from the fate of others, as in, being moved to other teams and under other management. Not that I'm a poor worker, just that the company likes to move people around a lot to put people in groups where they belong and best fit. Even though I best fit in the group I am in.. you never know. Corporate life really sucks sometimes.
Home: Crazy. Sarah is 8.. 8!!! What does that make me? Old. Everything is "normal" here, just the usual daily routines.. eat, sleep, yell at kids, comfort wife, watch TiVo, play a game or two, scoop ferret crap, remove ferrets from places they do not belong.. run from ferrets that want to chomp on my ankles... [insert more ferret duties here]. I feel like I work in a zoo.
OMG, I am playing (not just playing, addicted to) Everquest again. How in the hell did that happen? Well, there's nothing better at the moment, that's how! I fit some quality Morrowind time in there when I can, too.
Well, this is all the updating I can handle on 4 hours of sleep in the last 24, and I'm way late for bed. Hi to anyone that's stopped by (hi Me!) and wondered "WTF" or as we now say "What the Frell??" when seeing October as the last update. Hmm, maybe I'll hack that and make it look like all the posts were from this week.. yeah!!
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