About the New Me
I have been writing here over 20 years now. That’s an absolutely mind blowing thing to think about. 20 years of a blog that I started in my little studio apartment in Milford, KS that I lived in which was an old motel converted into apartments. $250 per month… all bills paid!
I can remember creating my Blogger account on my old Toshiba laptop I had at the time. I was working nights at Platinum Broadcasting, I’d get off at midnight, and would come home amped up from trying to bring energy to the radio, and I’d stay up until 3am working on crap like this. It’s funny how I feel like the same person, but so different at the same time.
And I noticed that it’s about time that I updated my horrendously outdated “About Me” section here on the Blog, because yeah… things have sure changed since I wrote that 14 years ago. So here it goes:
About Me:
I don’t know how the heck you found this place. I mean, this is my own blog, and I rarely think about it except for once a year. So either… you’re me. You’re stalking me. Or you found this place through a pages deep Google search about Deal or No Deal being rigged, Mario Kart 64, or El Monterrey Burrito scams. At any rate, here’s a little bit about me.
This site is 20 years old. When I started it this blogging thing was all the rage. And the internet was a very different place than it is today. Nowadays people don’t even go to websites. Again… how did you find this place? And I was a pretty different person. But everything you’ll read here is a mile marker along my journey. I still journal a lot privately, but so much of what I’ve shared here is dear to me, and so much has brought me joy.
I’m a husband. I’m married to a wonderful woman named Katie. We met on Bumble. I’d never used a dating app in my life, but I was looking for someone to share the fun stuff with. As fun as it is to type here into the void, there’s just something about sharing an experience with someone, and when Katie said she was a hockey fan, I was instantly interested. Then I learned how passionate she is about her work. When we met, I could tell she had a plan, and knew what she wanted. That was so hot! And I’ve been so lucky to watch her work hard and achieve those goals for herself. Nobody gave it to her, she had to put in the hard work, stand out from the crowd, and she has made her dream real. I swear so many people seem like they want to complain their way to the top. Like if they bitch about something long enough, or hard enough, that someone will give them a shot. But not Katie, I’m excited to be married to her, and I’m excited to cheer her on, through all of life’s adventures.
I’m a dad. I have two amazing kids, Lucas and Emma. All I ever wanted was a boy and a girl. I wanted to do all the boy stuff. Play with Hot Wheels and play video games together. And I wanted to do all the girl stuff. Have the tea parties, and paint rainbows, unicorns and princesses. My dream came true. And these kids are just some of the most fun, joyful, curious kids I could have ever asked for. I remember when Luke was born, that I told myself, (or rather everybody told me), “enjoy it while it lasts”. It goes fast. I made up my mind early on and I remind myself all the time. That I want to enjoy every phase, every change, all the moments. To be present. And I feel like I have done that. Now that they are getting older, I won’t lie. I do have some heartache at times for days gone by. But they still have so many adventures ahead of them that I can’t wait to watch them take on. They are getting more independent every day. And I’m excited for the life they will make for themselves.
I’m a radio guy. This year marks 23 years in radio. We do so much more these days. When I started we had three radio stations. Now I work with 28 radio stations, multiple news websites, streaming stations, translators, digital marketing campaigns, a board member, and a bunch of things that I’m probably forgetting. Man… when I put it that way, it’s no wonder I barely play games anymore. Radio and the media world is changing a lot, but I still love the intimacy, and opportunity that radio has brought to my life. I’ve worked with some truly life changing personalities. I’ve talked to people I’d never get the chance to talk to otherwise. And I’ve made a difference in communities that I never thought a solid B student from Southwest Kansas would ever have the chance to do.
I’m a gamer. And if any part of my life seems out of balance, this is probably it. I always joke now that gaming is my retirement plan. Some people want to retire and travel, or semi-retire and start their dream business. When I’m done, I just finally want to beat Wind Waker. Ha! When I was a teenager, I told myself, that no matter where life takes me, I’m always going to make gaming a priority. And that’s not untrue. I have found time in recent years to play games. Gone are the days of sitting down and playing something for 6 hours straight. But I still will wake up early before the family on the weekends and get in a couple hours of Guild Wars. Or play some Final Fantasy X on the couch while Katie is watching TV. And those moments keep me in touch with this part of my soul. Every year, on New Year’s Eve since 2009 I have spent the countdown in Animal Crossing. I will keep finding ways to make it a priority in my life.
I am a DIY weirdo. I change my own oil. I own old cars and fix them when they break. I do my own remodeling. Part of that is from my Dad. Dad was always working on some project when I was a kid. We never called a plumber. Dad tore up the house and fixed whatever was broken. We hauled a literal I-beam into the attic of my childhood home to fix a sagging roof. Then we re-roofed the house ourselves. So that’s sure where I learned it. But now that I’m here, I really value the independence that comes from being able to do things myself. I mean it saves money, sure. But now that my time is limited, the time it takes really hits hard. I would have so many more things done if I had more time. I mean, hell I’ve been re-doing the trim on my house for a year now. And it’s just hard to get to those things. But the work I see from paid places, I mean, am I worse. Sure. Am I $10,000 worse? No way. For as long as I have my health, I’ll always be looking to fix the things we have and make them work.
So there you go. That’s the guy behind the blog here. Me. I really can’t even imagine what the next 20 years are going to bring. Will this blog still be functional? I can self host it if I really need to. I might be a grandpa in 20 years. What joy and hardship awaits? I hope I can write about some of it here.
If you’re looking for some more timely updates, you can always look me up on Facebook. Or I’m on twitter @kartmaster. Thanks for stopping by. Even if it’s just to lurk. And if you want to say “Hi” I won’t judge you.
¡Hasta la proxima!
It’s been 2024
The year of the floors and doors I might call it. There has been a lot of change this year, and it will probably in the long run be remembered by the long running remodel of our house. Throughout everything that has been going on . All the ups and the downs, this remodel project of the new house has been a constant.
I spend a decent amount of time journaling on my old computers (not as much as I would like) but I still need to handcuff myself to a keyboard in order to crank out a blog here. Then I find myself condensing these huge swaths of time down into a just a few paragraphs. There has been a ridiculous amount of things happen this year, and a ridiculous amount of ridiculous things.
It has been a year of loss. Katie lost both her best friend and her mother within weeks. I still wish I could help carry the weight of her grief from time to time. Even just for a day. It’s hard watching someone you love suffer. Then later this year we lost my Grandma Dee and a co-worker of mine within weeks. I’m sick and tired of funerals.
I will have completed a year here in Hutchinson on January 1st. By all measurable metrics, it’s been a great year. Sales are up, profit is up. But it has been challenging to balance work and personal life for sure. Whether at home, or at work, there’s always something I could be working on instead of relaxing or playing games. It’s been hard to do things I want to do for fun, without feeling guilty I’m not giving that time instead to family or work. And it’s hard to line up so many obligations without resenting that it’s taking away from my own personal interests. I don’t think I’m unique in these struggles, as everyone strives to find that balance. But for sure I’ve felt off balance for a good part of the year.
The Youtube channel has been on the back burner. I have some video yet of the move from January that I still need to find a way to edit into a video. And I have been reluctant to dive into making new videos until I get my room set up the way that I want. And of course that’s something that will take time from all the other things. But I need to just crank out a quick and easy video to get me back in the swing of things.
So the house… we moved in December 15th, but even before that we ripped out all the floors upstairs in 2023, painted all the walls. It’s an old doublewide trailerhouse, so we pulled all the wall strips off that they used to cover up the drywall seams and mudded in the drywall so that it looks more like a normal wall without all the strips.
The goal was to have everything done by Christmas. It was a good goal. Haha. We were sorta on track too, but a delay in the trim of about a month, and here we are still working on it. But even though there is still work to do, we have gotten so much done. Replaced the floor in every room upstairs except the bathrooms. That’s three bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room hall, foyer, launrdy room. It’s a lot of floor! Painted every room but the bathrooms. New doors…
The doors have been a journey. We went and bought some pre-hung doors. In trailer houses though, they didn’t have door casings. They just trimmed out the rough opening with fake wood and hung a door on it. So when we measured the door openings, and bought doors, the new doors were too wide. I mean the DOOR was the right size for the opening. But the door casing wasn’t in the measurement. Learned that about buying doors. Also, every door was about 2 inches too tall. So we were faced with either returning these doors and custom ordering special doors. Or … making these fit. The cost of 10 custom doors didn’t make much sense, so we busted out the sawzall and made them fit. We widened every single doorway. And we cut the bottom off of every door. It has been a monumental amount of work, but I’m satisfied with the finished product.
It’s hard not to be proud of all the work we have gotten done. It’s not perfect, but I can see the finished product in my head and we are really close.
2024 is also the year I got engaged! Katie and I had been talking about it for quite a while, but on her birthday I finally got down on one knee and asked her with all her friends around. It was a lot of fun and even though we knew it was going to happen she was still surprised! It was nerve wracking having the ring around for the couple weeks leading up to the day. I’m not especially good at hiding things, or waiting to give gifts that I’m excited about. So I was pretty proud of myself.
The only one who knew was her Dad, as I had talked to him a month or so prior and asked his permission to ask Katie to marry me. He was a good partner in crime too because he never said a word!
We’re set to get married in October of 2025. Probably before I write the next blog entry here!
Looking back we’ve gotten to do so many cool things. We took the kids to the KC Renfest again this year. Ever since my first trip I knew I wanted to share that with Katie and the Kids. And this was the second year we all got to go. Luke started asking about it last year, asking when it was going to be and when we would get to go again. This year it was quite a different experience than last year. 2023 was rainy and mild. The crowd was pretty small. This time it was warmer and the crowd was big! Luke did find a cool knife to take home, and Emma got some pretty jewelry. It was a blast, but I think for 2025 I want to try to find another location and see what it’s like. Colorado Springs has a big Renfest out that way and while it’s a longer drive, it’s not so far that it’s impossible.
This place is the first place I’ve had where I live “in the country” since (depending on how you look at it) Woodlawn. I guess if you count living at a feedyard the country, then there was that too! But first time I’ve ever had to worry about the propane tank. Maintaining a driveway. All the critters you’ll find.
We’ve had deer drinking out of our pool. An armadillo got stuck in our basement window well one day. Rabbits ate all the sunflowers we tried to plant this year. And there’s about three cats roaming around that we don’t claim but they stop by. No snakes yet!
We are far enough from town that it’s no big deal to run and grab what you need. I’m actually closer to a grocery store than I was when I lived in Albert. But we are far enough off of pavement that you really have to come looking for us. Nobody is ever “in the neighborhood”!
So you may have gathered from the tone of this blog that this year has been a lot. It’s been tough mentally but really so many great things are going on. We have accomplished a lot both here at home and at work. And the losses we have had have really been driving home that life is too short to be anything but happy. There is so much I am grateful for in my life right now. And I have a lot to look forward to! Another year in the books.
08.22.19The State of Things
I am in my zone. For whatever reason I feel like a lot of stuff has been coming together. Yeah sure there’s a lot out of place, but nothing that I feel like is out of control. We’ve had a tree fall on our house, well a big part of one. A flood. ATV problems. Car problems. Budget problems. But all that seems like stuff that we can knock out just given enough time. All the imporant stuff is great.
Emma is growing so fast now. Every day she is picking up new words and phrases, she is starting to be able to communicate. It’s a little bit of a relief. Every stage is a lot of fun with kids, but communication sure makes the job of parent easier in a lot of ways. She wants to be involved in everything, absolutely everything. Yesterday I was going to run out to the shop real quick to get some tools for the basement, and she absolutely would not stand for letting me go alone. She had to tag a long and see what’s up. And then she followed me down to the basement and took some screwdrivers and went around touching it to various things and promptly exclaiming “I did it!”. Then she grabbed the hammer and put a couple new dents in the walls before I could notice…. oh well. It’s all getting rebuilt anyway! At least I have an expert in demolition on my team.
Luke is in 2nd grade. That’s incredible. I hope he’s enjoying growing up. From about 3rd until 5th grade I remember having the time of my life. He’s a smart kid but takes a little pushing to get going. But it’s so cool when he wants to learn about something and gets totally into it. For the longest time he was all about Titanic. It was Titanic everything. Right now he’s getting into games and stuff. I had my first parent scratching my head at a video game moment when he wanted to play Robox. I had just assumed it was a Minecraft knockoff. But when I started to read about it… I was way off. If anything it seems more like “Second Life” for kids. People can create these different scenarios that you can play and partake in. And that means that people can create ANYTHING, and the internet being the internet… it’s not all wholesome, even if it is wrapped in this kid themed playground. So we locked down his permissions. He can’t chat with anybody, he can only play approved scenarios. But you know, he’s 8 years old. He’s a good kid, but at 8, you still trust pretty much everybody.
Andrea and I got to go on a little impromptu trip together a couple of weeks ago. The kids went to stay with Andrea’s sister, and we decided we were just going to go hop in the Jeep, camp at Wilson then drive. We had the top off the Jeep and got a bunch of sun on day one. I myself got a little crispy. I think Andrea did okay though. It was hot as balls at Wilson Lake. Not bad in the shade, but there wasn’t hardly a tree big enough to catch any. We ended up spending time sitting on the ground in the shade of the Jeep drinking all the water we brought with us.
After that it was fun just to explore the countryside. We generally stayed off the highways. We found the Geographic Center of the United States completely by accident. Just little stuff like that. Exploring, being together, wind in your hair sorta thing. It was a good time, but I think we both also appreciated home when we got there.
And on the homefront the basement is the big looming project. It feels really daunting to be honest. We are still doing de-construction and clean up. There’s so many little things, and I want to make sure all the mold is as dead as I can get it. I know mold can always come back if it gets wet down there again. But I just don’t want mold to find a way to start going again under normal circumstances. It doesn’t smell all musty down there anymore, which is a good thing. I think we’ll get to the point here in a couple of weeks that we can start hanging sheetrock again. We want to build some shelving into the walls for the media stuff while were at it. Kind of like the bookshelves under the stairs. I guess it will go quicker if we don’t have to be careful this time! Haha.
But where’s all the money for it come from? Well, we have some savings, but we’re pretty good about earmarking our dollars and what they are saved for. We have some money saved up for an insurance deductible. We think we can use that and take some from a few of our other goals to get this done. I’m planning on doing all of it ourselves, except for the carpet. I love learning new skills, but carpet is a job that doesn’t look fun, or sound fun, and if I mess it up, I’ve wasted a lot of expensive carpet.
So that is the current state of things. A little off balance it feels. But excited to have the projects that we do. Now I just need to get cracking on all of it instead of playing Rocket League and Octopath Traveler in the evenings… but those are goals too!
06.3.19See… SEE!
I told you. I told you in the last post. Be careful what you wish for. I was so excited to get the last of the floor wrapped up, the Jeep put back together and be done with projects for a while. Then what happens?
The biggest flood since 1993. So more projects! Yay. All things considered, we didn’t get it that bad. Sooo many people around us got it so much worse. We didn’t have any of the nasty floodwater come into our home, but we did get lots and lots of crystal clear ground water bubbling up through any nook or cranny in the basement.
It started on Friday. It’d been raining for probably 2 weeks at this point and the flood was already forecast. At the beginning, it was just some wet spots in the carpet. By the end, the whole floor was drenched.
So gutting the carpet and dry wall quickly became a project on necessity. It took a few days, but with Andrea’s help, we got everything moved out of the basement. All the wet stuff cut out, and loaded up on the trailer. Later today I get to make a run to the landfill… if it doesn’t rain.
I’ve never experienced a flood first hand before. And I think my town has to be the absolute best place to have to go through such a thing. We live in a very small community, so everyone was pitching in, helping each other out. Checking on each other.
Once all the sandbags were stacked, everyone as prepared as you could be for such a thing, there was just this errie calm that fell over the town. Up and down the streets, everyone was just sitting out on their porch, waiting for it to roll in. What else can you do? There was an attitude of indifference about it all no matter who you talked to. So we fell in line, pulled up some chairs, and waited.
For Luke especially, this was an event I wanted him to see and take in. There’s not a ton of stuff a person remembers when you’re seven or eight years old, but this is something that I bet he will remember for the rest of his life.
It’s going to take some time, but we’ll be fine. It’s been about a week and water is still coming into the house. Our sump pump keeps pumping it out non stop… after it runs across the floor of course. So it’s not like our basement is filled with water. All the mold friendly spaces have been cut out. So now, we just wait.
The stress hasn’t got too me too much… the only annoying thing is having half of our belongings stacked up in the garage taking up space. Well that and all the water in my basement. But 6 months or so from now, we’ll be back to normal. This is just temporary, and will definitely be an experience we’ll never forget.
Goofing Around
Not a long blog this time around. Just a couple pictures of running around last night. Andrea was stuck working, and Luke had put on his calendar over the weekend that today was the day to go to the park. So we loaded up for a little cruise into town and decided to take the back roads.
Andrea had just washed a ton of mud off the Jeep from a muddy ride we took together on Saturday. And we happened to hit a couple small puddles on our way into town. Don’t worry, I cleaned up my mess, haha.
The park was PACKED. Was a bit refreshing to see. People say kids don’t play outside anymore, but there was no shortage of all ages this evening. Little itty bity babies, litter than Emma. All the way up to the jerk teenagers. Saw one kid tackle a girl to steal her Takis. A kid three or four years older than Luke took great pleasure in out running Lucas all over the playground playing “tag”. I didn’t mind though. Luke went out pretty early.
Kids can sure be jerks though. And it’s a little tough to explain why to Lucas sometimes, because I really don’t know. Heck usually the kids don’t know why they are mean. One boy called Lucas a baby. Luke was fairly concerned because he knew he wasn’t a baby, and it was important to him that this other kid knew that. But the other boy was just trying to rile Luke up. Instead of getting upset, Luke just followed this kid around the playground for about 10 minutes explaining how, objectively, he was not infact, a baby. Haha.
09.15.14Where’d Summer Go?
Man, time really does fly. I was talking to Mom last night and realized I haven’t been back out to Cimarron since June and here it is September. It doesn’t seem like that much time has passed, and I couldn’t really tell you exactly what’s been taking up all that time between then and now.
Luke is growing and changing every day it seems like. He’s really gotten into Hot Wheels cars. We all have around the house I guess. Andrea has been cataloging them all on the Hot Wheels website, I’ll even find myself in the store alone looking for cars he doesn’t have. Getting harder and harder to do!
Luke playing with the neighbor boy at his birthday party.
We have a lot of that orange track, and Luke got one of those big tower launchers for his birthday, so we set it up and have a lot of fun drag racing them, or setting up a course to run them through and seeing which cars make it the farthest. Luke gets so into it. It’s serious business to him and he has a blast. Andrea has a hard time because sometimes she comes up with rules (like the car that finishes first wins) and Luke isn’t so much about following anyone else’s rules but his own (which change on a whim). But playing with cars is always a fun time for all of us no matter what.
I’ve been playing some games. Mostly Mario Kart 8 and Guild Wars 2. I haven’t written much about Mario Kart 8 here yet. A lot of what I feel about the game is an echo of what I’ve already written about for Mario Kart 7. The two games are VERY similar. The biggest difference being the amount of detail in the graphics for Mario Kart 8. It is an absolutely beautiful game. Oh, and I finally got my Royal Raceway re-make. =)
I played some Mario Kart 64 last night before I went to bed, it was a bit alarming how I had gotten used to the way the new game plays and took some getting used to to get back into the swing of things on Mario Kart 64. I wasn’t breaking any records, but the old N64 stuff comes back to the top pretty quickly.
I’ve slacked off a bit in completing FFX-HD. I’m quite close to the end, I need to just power through. But I’ve gotten to a stage where I’ve been power leveling up my characters a bit so there hasn’t been a lot of action and I need to come back and push forward in the story. Then on to play FFX-2-HD. A game I haven’t played since I beat it the first time. I’m probably more excited to replay that one than the first!
And I’m finally closing in on the completion of my personal story in Guild Wars 2. It’s only taken 2 years… After that there’s still a ton of content to play. It’s a fun game and there is still so much to explore and see, when I have like 6 solid hours to kill on a Saturday, it’s a great way to soak that up, but that just doesn’t happen as much as I wish it would!
So that’s a very vague update. I’m getting a new phone this week which will be nice because I’ll be able to take some more spontaneous photos and use twitter more often. It’s just an exercise in frustration with my current phone. And those pictures are always great for enhancing the blog posts here, so I’m looking forward to that a lot!
But for now, lunch break over and back to work!
07.31.14Slip Slide’n By Himself!
Last week and this week we’ve been doing swimming lessons with Luke. The goal isn’t to get a 2 year old to swim, but more so get them comfortable around water and be safe. But today he actually got to swim in the “deep” end by himself with a floaty kick stick (with mom right next to him) and he got to go down the water slide all by himself! What a big boy!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/r5XsSRVEv-Y]
06.2.14A Day Out With Thomas
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho23N7me32U]
What an awesome day! My Mom got Luke and us all tickets to A Day Out With Thomas for this past weekend. Luke is huge into trains, and most prominently, Thomas the Tank Engine. Little Guy could watch the same ones over and over again for hours. We have fun playing with all his little toy trains and making them talk to each other. But this event really brought it all to life.
I didn’t really know what to expect. If anything I figured it would be kinda like a “car show” for trains, with Thomas being the centerpiece. Well Thomas was the centerpiece, but there was so much more to do that walk around and look at trains. There were fire trucks there, a petting zoo, inflatables to play on, great food (for kids and grown-ups), toys and entertainment for all the kids. I was really impressed by it all. We spent about 5 hours there and Luke never was bored and cried when we had to leave.
It couldn’t have been any cooler. Thomas took a 5 car train for a 25 minute ride which was basically down a stretch of track and back. But we made it a point to get in line early so we could sit RIGHT BY THOMAS. We waited in line for probably 45 minutes before our departure time, but it was completely worth it. Luke was at the front of the train as close as you could possibly get while Thomas was pulling us down the track. I feel like if it were me, I would have felt a little disappointed if I was way in the back where you couldn’t even see him. We had fun pretending to talk to Thomas and just taking in the ride.
I really enjoyed it too. Everything was just so neat and perfectly set up for kids Luke’s age. There were a bunch of tables with toy trains for them to play with, temporary tattoos and lots of little freebies. He even got a whistle that sounds just like Thomas’s whistle from the show. I don’t remember anything this cool and authentic when I was a kid aside from maybe, Disney Land. And it was cool seeing Luke get to soak it all up.
So thanks to Mom for the tickets, and to Andrea’s sister Michelle and her family for letting us crash at their place just a short drive from the event. It was worth it in so many ways!
Luke Plays Minestorm
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGg3vCuxQ9I]
05.27.14Downtime
It feels kinda weird, yesterday and today not doing much productive around the house. I suppose there’s a few things I could busy myself with, like organizing the garage, or getting the old server stuff migrated over to some new hardware. Nothing critical though, and instead I’ve spent my time watering the grass and playing Minecraft.
There’s a lot of work that needs done, but it’s all in a holding pattern right now. The Cutlass is at the transmission shop right now getting rebuilt. The Jeep needs to be looked at next. The Toronado is ready for ball joints, but I only have half of them, the other half should come in tomorrow. Don’t get me started on the long list of stuff the Black Car needs. The Toro obviously has kinda just been sitting there a while, but the Jeep and Cutlass both kinda all happened at the same time. It’s a giant sucking sound to the bank account… but oh well. Just a setback, nothing more. Small potatoes in the grand scheme of what’s important in life.
So I sorta feel like I’m procrastinating if I kick back and game a bit. But in reality, I couldn’t get much done right now in the automotive realm if I wanted to. So the only real procrastinating I’m doing is by NOT gaming. I keep talking all the time about how I don’t have as much time to play games as I would like to, so if I don’t take advantage of that now, I’m being a bit hypocritical.
So I’m off to play some more FFX-HD. What a fantastic game. This is probably my 4th playthrough of the game and it’s totally time well spent. Even with the backlog I have piling up. Oh yeah. I need to update my Backloggery. Welp, add that to the list!
I leave you with this video of Luke playing Duck Hunt for the first time. =)
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkPUc3S3EsU]