Uncle Froggy

I have been pretty busy lately with work and Skyrim. Yep, Skyrim. Its an amazing game and will suck up vast quantities of your time. I could go on and on about how great the game is, how good the graphics look, etc, etc, but I won't. I have also been trying to work on my book, which has been tough because my desktop is dying - one of my hard drives crashed already. Luckily that stuff was backed up and my book is stored online in my dropbox account. But that is not the biggest news. My sister had her baby yesterday and I am an Uncle! Technically I am already an Uncle on Joyful's side but this is the first on my side which is cool. His name is Abel which is a very cool Biblical name. They are doing well and we drove up to NH to see them today along with my parents, sister, brother and his wife. To top it off, my Dad had 4 tickets to see the Celtics and our seats were in a luxury box! We arrived a little late but we got free food and drink and had our entertainment for the night. The Celts lost by one in a very close game but it still was a lot of fun. Soon we shall have a baby of our own and as much as I look forward to that, I also think of all the adventures we will not get to do. Once our child arrives though I am sure all my thoughts will be about making the best possible life for him or her. As I work on my book I can still remember a lot of what happened and how awesome the whole trip was. I long to be back there, on the trail, in nature, roughing it, exploring, battling nature, and staying in hotel rooms once in a while. And maybe one day I will get back, with any luck, maybe by myself but hopefully with Joy. Yet I know that being a parent will bring its own challenges, its own triumphs and joys, and rewards.

Snow

It snowed a couple of inches on Thursday night and today it snowed close to 7 more inches! Luckily we didn't have to do anything today besides lounge around. This was the first real snow storm of the year after getting pummeled last year. But of course when I saw the snow falling and swirling outside I longed for a little adventure outside. So after lunch Joy and I suited up and took a walk around our neighborhood. It was just an hour and half but it felt good to be outside battling (and enjoying) nature. It may be the middle of winter but thoughts of the Trail are upon my mind. We never had to walk through snow although it was cold enough on several occasions and there was precipitation.

2095

Finally got my desktop up and running. Told me the year was 2095. I need to upgrade. Or maybe this computer will last until 2095? What version of Windows will it be then? Windows 95 the second coming? One of my goals for this year is to finish my book and I need a decent computer. Until then, save early, save often! Saving in the cloud of course - yeah cloud!

The Dream Terminator

I had a dream last night that I was in a big spaceship filled with other humans. It also was filled with Terminators of the T100 type, like Arnold in the movie series. And just like the movie they started to take over. Humans were getting captured and killed. We were getting herded into rooms like cattle as doors (I assume they were blast doors like Star Wars) were shut tight all over the ship. A few us managed to hack into a computer terminal and then...then Joy woke me up. Not sure if I wanted to know the end of that dream. Although maybe the resistance would send somebody from the future to save me!

In real life, I don't remember if I mentioned it but I bought Skyrim for PS3 and the Lord of Rings extended edition on bluray. LOTR was only $48 on Amazon, normally $120! Awesome deal and I plan on doing a marathon soon (yes I guess that's pretty nerdy). I did get the Star Wars original series on bluray as well, not sure if a marathon is coming for all 6, or just the 3. I don't really want to buy DVDs/CDs/books any more. They just take up space and with movies, I'll watch it once a year and I could just get it on Netflix anyway. Digital music is easy, just download it. Books? Kindle or the library. Video games? Well that is tough. I am on the fence about Gamefly. It seems worth it for games you only play once. The cost would be equal to buying 3 games a year, which I probably do anyways, but wont do once the baby is here. At any rate I bought Skyrim and it is every bit as good as people say.

Ninja Time 2012!!

I woke around 11:30 today. Looked at my phone and saw a message from an old co-worker asking if anybody wanted to go for a ride today. Oh yeah, today is supposed to be pretty nice out! It was already above 50 so I responded back and quickly got dressed. I headed over to my parents house to get the bike ready. The battery was dead so I had to charge it but it started right up after that. I met my friend at a gas station where we fueled up and headed south. We took some back roads, jumped on the highway for some nice s-curves, and made our way toward the beaches. It was noticeably colder as we neared the water but it was well worth it as the ride was fantastic. Riding down the coast with the ocean on our left made me realize that this is one of the most beautiful spots in Rhode Island and also that I need to ride this route more often! Joyful was off at a baby shower so she didn't get to experience it and she loves the beaches! I'm not sure how much riding I, or she, will get to do once the baby is born, but it was nice to start riding on January 7th! Usually, even if it is warmer out, there is snow on the ground and sand everywhere, which makes riding a lot more dangerous, so you don't ever get to ride this early in the season. Fun times!

Beautiful RI Coastline

The Ninjas - 500 and 650

 

Laptop or desktop?

You know what I had to use the other day at work? A floppy drive and diskette. They don't even make computers with floppy drives anymore! But alas, when dealing with XP, SATA drives, and RAID controllers, sometimes you need a floppy drive. At least it was a USB floppy. That stupid computer took me all day to get working right. It can be frustrating when you think something will only take a couple of hours and then it takes the whole day. At least work goes by quickly!

My computer, which was setup at my grandma's, is still not setup at the apartment. The way my desk is now I don't have that much room and as far as computers go, it is really outdated. My phone might be as fast as it is! I really want something that I can play the next wave of games, do my bills and such, media, movies, etc. It doesn't need to be super fast or have a super-high framework for games either. Just enough to play Diablo 3, which comes out in March. I built this computer about 8 or 9 years ago and it has served its purpose, so I think a replacement is not out of the question and is in fact justifiable. Computers are my profession so it definitely helps to have a decent one at home. The question is, do I go laptop or desktop? I have been wavering between the two ever since they announced Diablo 3. Every time I think I've made up my mind, I change it. A laptop would be nice because it would be portable (obviously) and could be just as powerful as a desktop as far as gaming. When I am at home, I would just hook it up to my LCD, keyboard and mouse, and then could take it with me for mobile gaming and such. The problem is, a decent gaming laptop is expensive, probably close to $2000. You could build a comparable laptop for a third of that price. For the price of a laptop, you could build one screaming fast desktop. The desktop is not mobile, but even a cheap one gives you a lot of options for upgrading in the future. And with the baby coming, cheap is better. Or maybe not at all is better. Time will tell. Being a Dad is more important than gaming and probably won't leave much time for it either. I'm taking a break from Magic as well. My last tournament was a Top 8 performance at FNM at Die Hard Games on New Year's Eve.

Fedex me a happy day

Yesterday at work, we ordered a blackberry and had it over-nighted to us. Fedex delivered it to us today, but not before running it over with a truck. I kid you not. The box had a huge tire mark on it and the phone was a bit warped. Fedex even told us they ran it over! Why deliver it then? Needless to say, they are getting us a new phone.

In other news, I found my slippers! I have been looking for them since we moved in, and it turns out they were in a bag in my trunk the whole time. Oh happy day! 

Big News!!!!!

Last time I had big news, close to a year ago, I announced that Joyful and I were going on our Appalachian Trail hike. When I said we had big news last year, most people thought we were pregnant, which wasn't the case. Well I am happy to say that Joy and I are expecting!!! The trip was to be our last grand adventure before having kids and we told many people on the trail that we were doing this so that we could have kids. So was our hike the end of one chapter of our life, or the start of a new chapter? Or is having a baby the next chapter? Or perhaps you can say that the journey we started last year has ended and a new journey is beginning. However you look at it, we are excited for the birth of our first child, and still do not know how everything will work out with jobs, money, and the likes. Our little bundle of Joy should be born in July - yes it is in the middle of hiking season but we won't be doing much hiking this year. The next great adventure has started!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!! Happy 2012!! Last year was pretty awesome with our Appalachian Trail hike and all and I hope this year has plenty of adventure as well! In fact, I have some exciting news that I will be sharing in the next few days. Joyful and I finally got the apartment looking decent and although we still have lots to go through, it is a big improvement from having boxes everywhere. We finished 2011 with the movie Rocky. Perhaps a fitting movie for last year, although Return of the King would have been nice. I remember watching The Two Towers at the Hiker Hostel the night before taking our first steps on the trail. Speaking of movies, another one I really liked was Conan the Barbarian with Arnold. I just saw it for the first time the other day and enjoyed it, especially the soundtrack. At times during the movie, it was not dialogue moving the story forward, but the music. I even downloaded it I liked it so much.

Goodnight 2011 and hello 2012!