Vacation Almost Over
I took a week off of work. It’s been really nice. Breaking the doldrums of the same old same old. I can say fore sure though, I didn’t get as much relaxing and gaming time as I had hoped.
The family and I all went out to Cimarron to help my Mom move to a new house. It went about as smooth as a move can possibly go I think. We started the heavy lifting at 8AM on Saturday, and we were done by noon that day! We had a bunch of help, so that sure made thing go smoother.
I really like their new place. It has lots of room both inside and out. Luke loved running around and there are all sorts of different areas of the house that you can use for different things. Upstairs is going to be a cool football room. I had the pleasure of hanging my first flat screen TV on the wall. It was actually a lot simpler than I thought it would be. We got their sound system working and they have a pretty awesome setup now. It will take some tweaking and organizing, but I helped get everything hooked up. It’s up to Mom and Duane now to make it the way they want it.
We came back on Monday and on the way home, we realized that the leak I thought I fixed in the Jeep… wasn’t fixed at all. The carpet on the passenger side was soaked from the condensation dripping from the AC into the cabin. Thank goodness for the internet I found a fix. Unfortunately it called for cutting a hole in the side of the frame on the Jeep! Something I don’t really have any tools for. But $25 worth of Dremel accessories and $5 of plastic tube and clamps later, I think I have it fixed. I ran out of time to thoroughly test it because Andrea had to go bowling and I needed to watch Luke. He’s just not to the age yet where you can go, “Stay where I can see you, don’t drink any poison.” So letting him roam around the garage while I work on cars still isn’t a good idea.
On top of that, Luke and I took a shower and I noticed that the tub wasn’t draining. This has happened before and usually I just have to plunge it out. However this attempt of that has proven fruitless. I even poured some drain clog remover down there, and nothing. So I called the Landlord. Something I haven’t had to do very often since we moved here. Most of the time because it’s easier to just fix stuff myself rather than wait and rely on someone else. But for this project, I got to the point where I said… “Why am I still screwing with this? I rent!” so I took advantage of one of the benefits of NOT being a homeowner and called this one in. A plumber is supposed to be coming over sometime today and I won’t have to worry about the bill!
So I planned on helping Mom move, that was the reason for the timing of the vacation. But I didn’t plan on having to tear apart the Jeep and mess around with plumbing. Feels like a lot of the time I’ve spent on “vacation” I’ve been working and fixing things. Andrea says that’s sure not her idea of a vacation. But you know, times like this when I can kick back on the couch with the laptop, a cup of coffee and write a blog in the middle of the morning… this is what it’s all about.
If anything this time off has helped me get back to my natural state, which is “laid-back”. Work gets me so uptight and hi-strung sometimes. I didn’t used to get all stressed out about stuff. Just not enough time any more I guess, blah, blah, cue what everyone always says.
I feel like I can go into work now with a bit of a re-freshed perspective. That is going to help a lot. I really am going to dedicate myself to dumping the stress from my life. Get done what I can get done and don’t sweat the rest. That’s my plan. We’ll see how long it lasts.
Bygones Are Bygones
I was never a Sega kid. If you look back through the archives of this blog, or explore the “Video Games” category, you’ll know that I am a fair tempered Nintendo fanboy. And in the 16-bit days, the console wars were at Defcon 2. It just so happened that I really ended up sitting out of the 16-bit era. I never had a Super Nintendo growing up, but I had friends with both a Genesis and an SNES. Maybe that’s what made adding the Genesis to the collection feel so right, or maybe it really is that enough time has passed, we can put those quarrels behind us.
I got a small amount of birthday money in the past couple weeks, and combined with a small amount of money I saved up, I had enough to buy this Sega lot on eBay. A Genesis, 1 controller and 22 games. I pretty much inherited somebody’s complete Genesis collection!
What do I play next? Now, granted a lot o those games are mid 90’s sports games. But it was really fun watching Andrea play some football that has almost more in common with the old vibrating metal football games of the past than it does today’s sophisticated Madden games. Still just as fun though. And neat to think that at the time, that was the pinnacle of gaming achievement for the genre. Plus it’s kinda cool to play as Joe Montana for the Chiefs. I mean, c’mon. If you don’t like that you can play as one of the OTHER 27 teams! (Hint, there’s 32 NFL teams now).
Of course there’s Sonic in there, and some other arcade/adventure style games. Really a pretty nice collection. I know positively nothing about Sega, but it will be fun to experience these games for the first time!
08.6.13Oldest of Friends
Tonight was Retro Night. I really was at odds as to what to play. What I NEED to play is Final Fantasy VI… but I wasn’t up for something that required such focus and investment. To be honest, I really contemplated just sitting at my PC and watching all of the fantastically hilarious “Geek Week” content on YouTube. But I said to my self, you have begun this tradition of Retro Night, and you MUST honor it. I thought and thought. Then I decided, you know, if it came down to any game you could play at this moment… of all time… what would it be? And from there the choice was simple.
Andrea and Luke are out of town. Some men might use this as an opportunity to go out on the town, hang out with the guys, smoke some cigars. Me? I decided to play Mario Kart 64. And drink. Infact I was doing equally as well at both. Well, by the end I was doing much better at drinking than I was at Mario Kart. Still got gold on all four cups in 150cc though. Not really saying much though. I’ve played so much of this game, I could play it even practically unconscious.
I would like to think that being slightly inebriated helps me experience these old games at a point in time before I had mastered them. That is severely not the case. It serves only to frustrate me as I know what these hands are capable of, only what I see happening on the screen isn’t matching what I’m telling them to do. Slamming into walls, running into traps… not my usual style; not my style at least not when it comes to this game. We go way back.
I tweeted a picture of the poster above a few days ago. I’ve been tweaking out the Retro Room recently and knew I had this stashed somewhere, but it hasn’t been displayed in probably almost 10 years. It was originally a poster insert in the Tips & Tricks magazine that I used to get back in the 90’s. The magazine always published the fastest times for Mario Raceway, and I always would practice and beat the published time before the next issue came out. Of course, then there would be a new FASTER time that some other reader had submitted.
At any rate, this poster appeared in one of the issues. On the flipside, it has a similar scene for Kalamari Desert (wish I would have photographed that before hanging it). Hopelessly lost in my Nintendo 64 addiction, I pinned this up in my room at the height my my Mario Kart 64 obsession. Over the years I let go of some of the more minute parts of my collection, game boxes and the like. But I could never bring myself to throw this one away. It’s an emotional anchor back to a really different, but very pleasant, time in my life. Sentamentally, I value it almost as much as the Mario Kart 64 cartridge itself.
It was a fun night. Though I couldn’t help but think of all the fun we had with Biebs, Bef, Bobby and the rest of my family playing battle mode on Block Fort or Double Deck. An experience that sadly I don’t think I’ll ever be able to re-live quite the same way.
08.4.13Luke is Two!
Luke celebrated his 2nd birthday yesterday! His big shindig party isn’t until next week. But we wanted to at least commemorate the day.
We didn’t have a cake, but we did make some brownies, which he probably ate too much of (along with chocolate milk) since he spit up a bit of it later while he was playing, haha. I could have swore we had some extra birthday candles laying around. I couldn’t find any, so we used some tea candles. We lit two of them and set them on the plate with his brownie. He wanted NOTHING to do with them! He squirmed and cried. “Fire Away!” he kept saying. I think he’s still scarred from his 4th of July experience!
Then get got to open the present we got him. Just a little racetrack with some wind up cars. It’s actually pretty cool for as cheap as it was. He has had a blast with it so far. I’m sure by next week it will be “just another toy” but it is fun watching him just get completely fascinated by something. Then we let him stay up until about 10pm, which is way past his bedtime.
We definitely spoiled the little guy. But hey, it’s your birthday!
Everybody says it, but I can’t believe it’s been 2 years already. Seems like just a few weeks ago we were heading to the hospital with Andrea. It has been completely amazing though. Luke has to be the easiest kid to have around. He’s almost always in a good mood, loves to play, can entertain himself… sometimes. And is just a love filled little boy.
It’s so much fun watching him grow up. He’s really becoming his own person. He has his own preferences, his own favorites, his own habits even. If it wouldn’t go quite as fast, that would be great though!
Automotive Night
Well, I may have come across a bit of a kink in my plan. I’m taking one night a week to focus on something different you know, Thursdays I try to work on the cars. Well the flaw here is what happens with pretty much all my car projects. They always take thee times longer than I plan on them taking. And with my weeknights, I only have about 90 minutes to dedicate. So as it ends up, there’s not much I can get torn apart AND back together in that amount of time. Not while digging for the right wrench and lifting a few beers anyway.
I set out to fix two issues on the Caprice, which turned into three in the short drive to the garage. First I wanted to sort out an electrical issue with the voltmeter. I was driving home last time and the volts would drop to zero, then come back up, or stay at zero indefinitely. I found a wire on the intake that is a bit frayed, but I don’t know that it’s the culprit. I patched it up just the same. Second issue was a water leak somewhere on the top of the engine. I thought at first it was the thermostat housing, but it really looked sealed up pretty good. Then I noticed that it seemed most of the water was leaking from the heater hose coming off the intake. So I pulled it off and found the fitting all pitted and corroded. Pretty sure this is the cause. Just for good measure I pulled the heater hose fitting off the water pump too. They’re only a few bucks to replace, so might as well. I’m debating whether I should replace the hose itself too. I guess if it leaks when I put it back together, I’ll go that route next.
Oh and remember that as a cooling system heats up, it pressurizes. The engine had cooled down, but it was still warm to the touch. So when I pulled off the heater hose, coolant sprayed everywhere…
So I just took the opportunity to clean up the engine bay a bit. (This is why things always take three times longer).
But as I was pulling it around, I noticed the exhaust seemed louder and rattled more. The damn header bolts at the collector are working loose now. I saw one of them just sitting there vibrating and spinning. Sheesh. These things are a PITA. So I’m sure I’m going to need new collector gaskets now too. Just need to get it apart and see what it looks like.
The point however is, I think Automotive work is going to have to be relegated to the weekends. Significant mechanical stuff anyway. I guess Thursday nights will be relegated to cleaning, waxing, and minor adjustments.
Off the Grid
Well, this weekend was Mom’s 50th Birthday celebration. Duane, my stepdad, rented a cabin out at Coldwater lake and invited all the family out. It was a lot of fun! We enjoyed some frosty beverages, grilled some burgers and hot dogs and generally just did a lot of relaxing.
I made the decision that as soon as I got there I was turning the phone off. I already warned everyone I’d be out of cell phone range. And I can’t tell you the last time I was completely out of contact with the outside world. No phone, no internet, nada. I wanted to TOTALLY disconnect, and I found the experience to be a joyous one. I just popped it off as soon as we got there and left the phone in the Jeep. My mind was so free knowing that that phone wouldn’t, and couldn’t ring. At first my free thoughts were wondering how things were going back at the station, or if there was severe weather. But eventually my free thoughts became occupied by other more relaxing things like. How beautiful the sky was, how cool it would be to build a cabin like the one we were in someday. It was totally NON-stressful and it was great.
Luke is such a good little guy. He really does great in pretty much every situation. I suppose it helps that the weather was beautiful and the bugs weren’t bad at all. He had a great time playing outside the whole time with shovels, trucks and cars. His cousins Bryson and Brody were there and Luke was a good little worker helping them excavate the ground around our campfire.
We took the Jeep, which made me a bit nervous since we’ve been having issues with the oil pressure dropping down to zero. But the whole way down and back (about 4 hours round trip) you wouldn’t even know there was a problem. I still think there is an issue because I’ve heard the lifters ticking when the gauge drops to zero. Most of the research points to worn out cam bearings, which at that point you might as well get an engine rebuild. So for now we’re going to keep driving it until it starts getting noisy on a regular basis or it just plain explodes.
Bending the Rules
Well… Monday’s are supposed to be Guild Wars 2 night according to my new weekly regimen. But I played a fair amount yesterday, and since this morning for some reason I really wanted to play Guild Wars: Original Recipe.
So I took my GW2 night and made it a GW1 night. A lot of the night was spent opening up new birthday presents. All my characters except one had a birthday present to open. Seems like it must have been that long since I’ve logged in. And I got one of my most desired minis! The Mini Candysmith Marley!
Mini Candysmith Marley
I spent the rest of the time mostly roaming around with no purpose. I feel like when I log into Guild Wars now, I really should have the goal of accomplishing something. With the Hall of Monuments, some of your achievements in GW can actually carry over to GW2. I guess I sorta met that requirement by dedicating 5 new minis I didn’t have. Wasn’t enough to get me another point, but it got me closer.
And because I always take gratuitous screenshots. Here’s some nostalgic screenshots from tonight! Man I can’t believe it’s been over 7 years since I started playing. I also didn’t quite appreciate how much of an improvement GW2 graphics were over GW1 but next to my previous post, you certainly can notice the difference. Guild Wars just doesn’t have the layout that allows for the wide open vistas like Guild Wars 2. I still enjoy the screen shots just the same.
Wading in the waters of Ascalon City, thinking about old times.
Trudging towards a Xunlai Chest in the Shiverpeaks to deposit a new Mini Pet.
Excited to get my Candysmith Marley! Next to a Gwen Doll, this was the one I wanted most that I don’t already have.
Some of my Mini Pet collection. I’m such a junkie.
My main character in the Hall of Monuments.
Still enough people playing to warrant more than one District. The Pre-Searing community has always interested me. I don’t think these guys will ever leave. They may play other games, but they stay logged in just to chat if nothing else.
Looking back at Ascalon City. It’s never looked so good. And (SPOILERS)…it never will again!
Pre-Searing Ascalon is still one of those places that relaxes me. You can’t not enjoy the countryside.
As the maps were designed, you never really get far reaching views of the horizon like you can in Guild Wars 2. This was surely due to graphical limitations and system requirements. Funny that I never even noticed until now.
“The Gate” at the Great Northern Wall. Requires another real player partner to open and allow you to run through. Many players hire a “Gate Monkey” to perform this service.
The often screenshoted Ashford village.
Rolling hills and woods in Ascalon. Too bad it all had to end.
Pick a Direction and Go
One of my favorite things to do in Guild Wars 2 is just set out with absolutely no objective other than exploring. Every map is gorgeous and there’s so many times where you’re walking along thinking, “This is so beauti… WHOA! That’s amazing!”
Here’s some screenshots from tonight’s expedition!
Lion’s Arch skyline at night.
Outskirts of “LA”.
Full moon. A surreal night sky isn’t exactly realistic, but it is sure beautiful.
Just a loading screen. JUST a loading screen? Hell there’s times I wish the map hadn’t loaded yet because I was still appreciating the art!
Swamp in Kessex Hills.
Higher ground in Kessex.
Nothing particularly special. Just appreciating some of the nuances. The crazy number of buildings you can actually go in. And I thought the lighting looked cool on my character.
- The last several pictures all have been literally just like 20 steps into Kessex Hills. There’s amazing stuff every inch!
And that’s where I called it a night. What else could be out there to explore?
Project Night: 1
What a rockin’ success! I went into today not knowing for sure what project night was going to be. Ultimately I envision some large time consuming project that I can whittle away at every Friday and maybe on weekends. Something like building a MAME cabinet. But I haven’t quite narrowed down the sweet spot of awesomeness and what we can afford right now. So for tonight, I decided to do a little one night project.
I had an old 2×4 screwed to the wall a while ago that I used to hang the shovels on. Well since then, I’ve out grown it a bit. I’ve gotten tired of walking around tools or propping them up in a corner, so I figured a great project for tonight would be to do something about it!
It really doesn’t get more simple. I took some more 2×4 and screwed them into the wall where the studs are. Then just used regular nails for the “hooks” to hang the tools on. It’s ghetto fabulous, but at least it’s organized.
Most of my projects take three times longer than I plan on them taking. So I usually plan on them taking that long (yes, it’s a vicious cycle). But tonight went about as quick as it should. Well, almost. I guess it took twice as long as it should because the battery for my circular saw kept dying. It just doesn’t hold a charge anymore. So it took me about 30 minutes to cut a 2×4. So I guess it was about right.
I then started looking around and thinking, what else can I hang and get off the floor? That’s when I saw the car ramps and noticed they had a nice little hole in them, perfect for hanging. So I got some more spare fasteners that I had and made new perches for my car ramps and wheel chucks. Got ’em off the floor and since they hang under the cabinet, they aren’t in the way.
It was a good night for sure. I freed up some space and in one car garage like mine, space is a premium!
I look forward to the next project night. I’m almost more excited to see what the next project will be that will make life even better!
Retro Game Night!
I’m so excited. I have officially dubbed Tuesdays as Retro Game Night in my house. You’re probably thinking, I could play retro games every night around here if I wanted to. And I COULD, but then I couldn’t get a lot of other things done, be it gaming, or actual, you know… responsibilities.
So I decided in order to be able to enjoy a few of the things I’ve really been wanting to do, and not just plow through them one at a time like it’s a job, I would take different nights of the week and dedicate them to different areas. All part of this preparation and organization kick I’m on lately.
Monday – Guild Wars 2 Night: Officially started last night as Andrea and I were playing through with her new character. This game is incredibly fun, but will literally consume every minute of your life you’re willing to throw at it. Part of this new schedule is to keep me from spending ALL my time playing GW2. Haha.
Tuesday – Retro Game Night: A night to play anything not in HD. That’s (begrudgingly) how I’m defining “retro” gaming these days. Right now I’m focusing on Final Fantasy III. It’s tough because it’s been so long between play sessions I’m having trouble remembering what to do next. Hopefully playing on a more regular basis I can follow along a little better.
Wednesday – Guild Wars 2 Night: Because honestly this game deserves 2 nights a week. It’s the game I’m most interested in right now and the game I’m having the most fun with. These game night themes aren’t the same forever. But this is how it is for now.
Thursday – Automotive Night: This makes the list because generally I kinda like working on my old cars. And matter of factly, I NEED to work on these old things to keep them running. Basically there’s only one thing that matters when you’re driving old cars on a daily basis like we do. And that is fix things faster than things break. If you can do that, it will last forever.
Friday – Project Night: This one I’m most excited for. Mostly because I don’t know what my project is going to be yet. Ultimately I’d love to build a MAME Arcade Cabinet. But this night will rely on funds being available for big stuff. But right now I know there’s plenty of little projects around the place here that I need and want to get done. And this sets aside some time to do those.
So there you go. This whole idea is all about making time for the things I want to do. I’ve felt so busy since Luke was born. But hopefully putting a little focus behind my recreation, I can not only actually get to them, but also enjoy them. All to often I feel like I’m just plowing through something I’ve wanted to do, making it something I have to do because I don’t know when I’m going to get back to it. This adds some structure. And it helps me remember I will get back to things, so I don’t have to force my way through them.
We’ll see how long this lasts. I get on these kind of kicks then eventually they fizzle out for me, but right now, I’m pretty excited about it.