posted by Gene on Jan 8
posted by Gene on Dec 27
posted by Gene on May 24
I bought the New Super Mario Bros. Wii last week. I was planning to get it eventually. I was sorta waiting for summer so I’d have Lauren to play with, but I found a deal and got it a bit early.
We played some last weekend. Mother played with us, as well, and I played a bit solo after Lauren left. I haven’t played enough to give a detailed analysis, but I enjoyed all the play experiences very much.
I get a great deal of nostalgia joy out of the game, since Mario for the NES and SNES were ever favorites of my youth. Plus, the game is just well made. It has enough new stuff to not feel dated, at least to me, but it has so much good oldie feeling to it.
I think the multiplayer along with features they implemented will give the game a long life and good replay value. It is a bit tough, I think, for the people I generally associate with, which is a bit of bummer. I hope other people like it enough to want to play it with me some. Even if they don’t, though, I’ll have enough fun playing it by myself to make the purchase worth it.
I’m trying very hard not to over play it when nobody is around to join me. I have only played maybe 1.5 hours alone, and most of that was trying crazy things on the first few levels trying to find secrets and such. So… I’m not practicing a lot. When you come over and see me, I’m just that good naturally. Don’t feel bad, I’m sure you have a talent, too.
I think I have a copy of Mario Galaxy 2 headed my way soon (thanks Pat), so I’ll use that to distract me if necessary. I hope to have fun with that Mario game as well.
I know I’m a bit late to the party, but just in case anyone was waiting for my stamp of approval for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, you have it.
posted by Gene on Sep 3
Tomorrow is PAX! Big times ahead. Pat’s coming down today, and tomorrow morning we’re gonna head over the mountains and enjoy the nerdfest. The show is completely sold out in all it’s forms, and they bought the whole convention center and increased hours this year, so it should be crazy. I’m probably most excited to see Jonathan Coulton and the CO-OP and TRS shows, plus all the demos of video games to come.
In preparation I’ve already purchased many snacks while at Costco last with my parents, so I’ve gotta figure out how I’m going to carry all of that w/o smashing/melting it. I got PuzzleQuest Galactrix so I’ll have something to play while I wait in lines. I also want to buy ear plugs, cause I’m not into hearing loss. I’ve gotta get our sleeping arrangement figured out a bit better still, too. And possibly see if I can meet up with the folks and get the GPS and stuff like that.
Now that I’ve written all of that down I’ll probably remember to do it. What else? Pat and I might camp after PAX w/ his folks for a day, although I don’t know the odds of that since I haven’t talked to Pat in a bit. He’s always sleeping, or working. He apparently doesn’t get chances to chat much at work. /shrug
K, so in work related news, all the other interns left last week, so for this whole week I’ve had the biggest office in the building. People are circling, though, so I think others might be moving in soon. I’ve been told I’ll be moved out at the beginning of October, though. I’m getting an office with a window, and an officemate, but just one. Her name’s Cara. She seems acceptable.
I got my picture taken to be put in the records. I’ll be up on the wall and in the memory game soon, apparently. I also have to write up goals for the next FY soon, as the current one is ending. Not sure how I like the non-coding aspects of work, but it seems like they’re unavoidable.
Last post I mentioned I didn’t think I’d get to see Lauren again before she left, but I did. Mother was kind enough to find and excuse to drive me over there for the weekend so I got a good couple days to say goodbye right before she left. It was all good. I think she’s got herself aligned properly and she’ll be fine over there.
Also saw my cousin’s new baby. Mother and Aunt took many pictures with it stuck in my arms like a prop, so they might show up on the internet soon. I’ll stick in a link maybe.
Home life stuff… Aaron mowed the lawn, which is nice. (I’ll mow the lawn if you guys keep it clear of dog feces, ffr roomies) He also bought an aerator for the faucet in the kitchen so it doesn’t spray water everywhere. Kim and Kelsey paid rent early, so that’s going well. We still haven’t gotten a utility bill, so that’s a bit concerning. I think I’ve done all I can to try and get things set up, except possibly the check-up nagging. I really don’t see how society developed to require such nonsense, though. Seems like we should try and evolve past the need to nag.
Oh, also last post I said the aquatic ape theory discussed on that TEDTalk was probably bogus and to let me do research. Well, I didn’t have to, cause the Skeptical Rogues did it for me. Here‘s the episode of interest. The specific chunk is from about 29:30 to 46:10, but you should listen to the whole thing. 
posted by Gene on Aug 20
Let’s hit the highlights you’ve missed.
The weekend after the Kaitlin’s wedding Mom and I went back over the mountains to go to Steve’s birthday party (get Lauren). We did some family visiting and whatnot before we stole Lauren back to the Tri-Cities.
So Lauren was here for a week. I had to work so we didn’t do anything truly awesome, but we did the whole happy couple thing. On Sunday we went to Morgan Fuquay’s (friend since preschool) engagement party. Hung out a bit and fed the wasps. Went to Costco and bought a 40” 1080p LCD and an ice cream bar (I love those Costco ice cream bars). We went on some walks, saw a Princess Bride in the park, I got Lauren to ride a bike, and of course we did a lot of watching podcasts, TV shows, and movies.
The only other interesting thing that happened during the week that I can think of is that someone egged our house on Wednesday. Well, threw an egg at the front window. Aaron rushed out and got all excited, whereas I was inclined to just ignore it. Kim convinced me to go out and make sure Aaron didn’t get beaten up, though, which was easy cause we didn’t find anyone. The next night someone wrote “Bitch” on the drivers side window of my parents car, which Lauren was borrowing. They did it with soap or something, so it came off easily enough, but Lauren kinda got freaked out. She thought she knew who it was and that they were after her or something. There’s been no events since then, though. I postulate that come the weekend they had better things to do, and if we make it this whole week without event I’ll assume they got bored, or they really did dislike Lauren and her absence is saving my house from further attack.
Donny is back in town for a little break, so he visited a few times, and Elisabeth, recently returned from the orient, came down on Saturday. We all went and saw District 9. I had no idea what it was when we went, so I was pleasantly surprised. It was definitely a good movie. I don’t think it’s actually as amazing as the hype would suggest, perhaps, but it’s good. If you factor in the low budget it’s quite incredible. I admit I can’t really comment on the hype much, being totally insulated from it, but I hear there is hype. Also, just a side note, I don’t think it counts as a sci-fi movie. I think to be a sci-fi movie that science has to play an important part in the plot, it kinda has to be a character. Maybe you can make a case that District 9 fulfills that, but it’s pretty thin.
So, Elisabeth stayed for a night, and then stole Lauren away. 
It was nice of her to drive her home, I guess, since she needed to get back and my parents are gallivanting around on some road trip.
So, with no parents and no girlfriend for the last 3 days I’ve been living the bachelor lifestyle. Pretty much work, and then go home and watch podcasts and such. I’ve also been wrangling w/ my computer trying to make it suck less. And chatting w/ Lauren. Really it’s just the bachelor life in that I have almost no food. I’ll go shopping some day. I want someone with a car to take me to Albertsons, or anywhere that sells the new thick shelled Klondike bars. I wanna try them, but the stores close enough for me to buy ice cream at don’t seem to carry them. However, I could buy milk and bread and such on my own if it comes to that.
So, I have had some free time and I haven’t been blogging. Part of that is because I started watching Peep Show. It’s a British comedy that Keston suggested when the Central gang went down and stayed at his place. It’s about these two losers. It’s really funny. One of the actors’ voice sounds really familiar to me, but I don’t think I recognize him. I wonder if he voice acted something, or if all Brits sound the same after a while.
I’ve watched 2 seasons (series) which to the BBC is 12 episodes. It’s got some of that awkward humor that I don’t like much, where someone is just in a horrible situation and it’s supposed to be funny, like Curb Your Enthusiasm, but it’s British so it’s better, and that’s only like half the humor. The characters are just so retarded and do the most ridiculous things. I LOL every episode. And Wikipedia says it’s not cancelled yet, so hooray for that.
I’ve been riding my sister’s bike to work for the last couple weeks. It’s red, so it goes faster. Actually, if it does go faster, it’s cause it’s a hybrid bike. I’m leaning towards the idea that it does go a bit faster, although it’s difficult to judge w/o the speedometer. I think I’m getting to work in about the same time w/ less effort. Kinda makes me wonder how much a difference a full road bike would make.
I worry a little bit about going much faster. People are clueless and deaf and always walking on the bike path. Today there was a woman walking her dog, and she stopped at this point where the path goes up a curb, turns 90 degrees and then goes down a steep hill. I was riding slowly at her, while she stopped, turned towards me, and let her dog off the leash, so I thought that was a little strange but at least that she’d seen me. But, as I got closer I figured out she hadn’t and saw she had in ear buds. Anyway, it was too late and I was passing between her and her dog and as I was she turned to reach for her dog or something and almost hit me and recoiled in utter surprise. It was kinda funny, but only because we didn’t collide and die.
Also, today on the ride home I almost rode over a snake that was lying in the middle of the path. It was dead in the middle. I’m meaning directly in the center in the previous sentence, although it maybe been literally dead as well. I zigged around it but when I looked back it hadn’t moved, and I can’t have missed it by much. It might have gotten run over earlier.
David Mitchell is the name of the Peep Show actor I was saying had the familiar voice. Wikipedia says he did the narration for Beauty and the Geek, which I did see like 5 – 10 minutes of. I hope my auditory memory is that good. I can’t find anything else on his filmography that I’ve seen. /shrug
I have a bunch of spider bites on my legs. I think I got them all in one night, but I’m not sure. Sometimes when I get up in the morning, my bike is part of a spider’s new web creation, even though I parked it only 12 hours before, so, that’s pretty cool. I wonder if we manage to get the yard taken care of a bit through the winter if next spring the insect population will be more limited.
So Lauren’s leaving in 11 days for Spain. When she left I was thinking it was further off, so I thought there was a better chance of us seeing each other again b4 she left. Now it seems somewhat unlikely. /sigh It’s ok though, I hate those big goodbyes anyway. Plus internet, I mean, what’s the big deal with being 9 hours ahead.
So, it looks like I’ll just be chilling out at home this weekend. Haven’t really done that in a month or so. My parents are getting back from their trip, so they might crash the party and make me do housework, but they might be busy with their own stuff. /shrug Pat’ll be around, I think, but he has 40 gigs of Hercules to watch, so he’ll be distracted.
I think I will end this post. I just want to quickly mention one thing. There was recently (sorta, I’m a bit behind on my podcasts) a TEDTalk about the aqueous ape hypothesis of human evolution. I strongly recommend people watch TEDTalks, and in general you can trust them, but this particular one, I’m pretty sure is crap. I haven’t had time to do the research yet, but I feel confident that it’s a fringe hypothesis for a reason. I’ll let you know if I find time. Anyway, I wanted to warn against this particular talk because the speaker is not un-compelling, and the audience seemed really taken, and I’ve also seen signs that more and more people I know are actually watching the TEDTalks, so the impact could be great if not countered.
posted by Gene on Aug 4
This is what I'm talking about
He txt’d saying he was leaving, eventually, so I guess he made it.
We didn’t end up taking the truck and stealing the Carr chairs, as previously reported, because the information that said I could have those chairs was incorrect. I mean, partially. I can have them, eventually, maybe. Whatever.
The big story of the trip was the big fight that occurred around us soon after we arrived on the scene and I met all of Lauren’s family. You sorta had to be there, but the gist is that Kaitlin cried, some assumptions were made, Lauren’s aunt got booted from the house and wedding with lots of yelling and goading to violence, and then there was lots more crying, and then in like 10 minutes there were apologies and everything was pretty much back to the way it was before. I was only tangentially involved, and so it wasn’t my fault. At least not the way some of you are thinking.
That was all the day before the wedding. The actual wedding day seemed to be pretty uneventful, in that regard. There was the wedding, which is quite the event to those involved. I just watched from the balcony. It was like 20 minutes long, so that was good, and they, meaning the bride and groom, actually managed to pull off the first kiss in front 130 people thing really well, I thought.
The reception afterwards was neato, I guess. I mean, I’m not much for parties and whatnot, but this one didn’t have booze, so that’s up my alley, and I got to sit at the head table, which is also up my alley, and I got to sit next to Lauren and hang out with her the whole time, which is really the reason I went over the mountains in the first place. There was all the usual reception stuff, dancing, bad dancing, toasts… yeah.
The rest of the weekend I basically follow Lauren around like a puppy and hung out with her family. We ate and bowled and stuff. I think I was very witty and charming, and nobody tried to exorcise me, so I had a pretty good time.
Ok, enough about that. Ask Lauren if you wanna know more about her sister’s wedding. We came home Sunday and I did laundry (yeah, I know, lame huh) and set up my Drobo I bought and got ready for work.
My cousin, Steve, is having a party on Thursday, so we’re going back over the mountains (yay! More Lauren!) for that. Consequently, I’m trying to work long hours so I won’t fall too far behind taking off two Fridays in a row, and half a day on Thursday. So, I’ve basically been working all the time since I got back.
I installed this plugin, SunCult, that tells me when the sun will set and what not. Yesterday I managed to ride home entirely during twilight. The weather addon says the apparent temperature was 94 due to the wind. It was actually 98. Nice eh? Twilight riding is definitely as cool, temperature-wise, as I can do w/o biking in the dark, but it also has the greatest number of bugs to contend with. I’ve been careful to bike w/ my mouth closed, and I managed not to swallow any, but I know if I keep biking at twilight they’ll get in my eye or nose or something.
So that’s what’s been happening. I have a busy few days ahead of me, so posts might not be coming.I was just wondering, though, can anyone tell me if poppy seeds actually add anything to the taste of poppy seed muffins?
posted by Gene on Jul 30
Ok, so there have been some grumblings (from ex gfs) that I should post. So I will.
Lauren came and visited, like I said in that last update post. Sidney came the next day. We pretty much just hung out at the new house. We also did some food shopping. Twice. Girls like food so I think they enjoyed that ok.
The first day, when Lauren was here and Sidney wasn’t, Lauren helped my mom clean out the garage and clean the new house in general. They got the garage clean enough to park Pat’s car in there. He has to store the ol’ I-Rock, iRock, irock?
Aaron’s got the band stuff pretty well set up in the basement, I think, because they practiced over the weekend. Most of the time the girls and I were taking Ace for a walk, so I dunno how loud it was really. I dun think it’ll be too annoying, though.
Sidney’s car battery was acting up, so we spent some time jumping and idling and stuff like that. She made it home easily enough on a jump, but I think her battery is pretty shot. She shouldn’t care though, she’s going to Korea in a few days.
Besides that we did a lot of just hanging out and watching stuff. We watched all the new episodes of Bullshit! we were behind on, and also UHF randomly. I think it’s pretty funny, but I dunno if the girls quite appreciate all the subtle genius.
So, they left too early on Sunday, and I can’t think of anything much that’s happened since. Yesterday, on facebook, Emily Anne Geddes took some husband quiz thing and it said I was the #1 husband for her. I told Lauren and she got all upset so she took it too. Turns out it’s a 1 question survey asking only for the gender you’d like. Anyway, I was her #1 as well. And Pat was #2. I wonder what the odds are of me being randomly selected in both cases. Seems kinda strange to me. /shrug
I’ve been biking to and from work every day this week, except mom gave me a ride one day cause they showed up at the house earlier than I left. Going to work seems to be harder than leaving. It takes me about 30 minutes, 25 today, and I seem to average like 12 MPH. Going home takes about 20 minutes and I average like 14.5 MPH. There was quite a bit of wind one morning, so I think that was the slowest day, kinda makes me think of it as harder than it really is. It must be uphill a bit, since it’s up river, and I think that can account for the discrepancy. Bob, my boss guy kinda, bikes to work and says he averages 18-20 MPH. He might be in a bit better biking shape than me… maybe, but even still, I gotta think most of that is from road bike vs. mountain bike. I was going to try mom’s hybrid bike today but the tire was making strange sounds so I deemed it too risky. Anyway, like I said on twitter, I might have to try a road bike.
The biking itself is quite enjoyable. It’s kinda a hot and sweaty affair sometimes, but that’s cause I push myself for no reason basically. I bike on a path through a park pretty much the whole way, so I get to see all the happy Richland people doing their strange things. Playing volleyball and doing yoga, and jogging with babies and such. It’s really pretty active during my biking time. This morning there was a baby bunny on the side of the path. I dunno if it was a baby baby, but small, like the size of my fist.
Regarding this morning and wild life, there’s a small anecdote. So this morning I ate breakfast and wandered around and gathered stuff I need at work and then headed out back to get the bike. I had stored it out there for the first time last night, since Aaron is pretty much moved in now and we don’t have as much space in the middle of the living room anymore. Anyway, so I had just left my helmet on the ground out there with it. I was sorta morning groggy so I put the helmet on with the chin strap crossed so they didn’t work, so I took it off again and fixed it and put it on again and it felt like something spiking hit my head, or more likely Velcro pulled a hair or something. I took the helmet off again to check for anything that would lead to lasting discomfort and happened to notice this huge spider just chilling in one of the helmet holes. I kinda instinctively blew at him and he fell from the helmet and was never see again. I just thought it was kinda odd how I looked at the helmet at least once before and didn’t notice, and how I almost rode off with that spider on my head. I wonder if he woulda started crawling around and caused an accident or something.
I plan on leaving early from work tomorrow so I can get over the mountains. Mom and I are going to go to Lauren’s sister’s wedding on Saturday. We’re also gonna grab Yusuke on the way and take him to the airport so he can get back to the land of the rising sun… and swine flu paranoia… and giant robots… and tentacle rape. We’re driving the truck so I can bring back the huge lounge chairs Mr. and Mrs. Carr have generously offered me for the new house. I was thinking of repaying them by stealing their youngest daughter while I was at it. They don’t want her hanging around anyway. K, probably won’t actually do that.
I just looked it up and according to earthtools the total climb from home to work is about 40 feet. Doesn’t seem like much. Guess it’s not nothing.
That’s about all the news for now. Sorry about the sparse posts. I am just too busy to put as much effort in as I was before. I am getting caught up again, though, I think. Maybe in another month or two I’ll be back to bored enough to post more frequently and diversely.
posted by Gene on May 20
Well, I’m still at Central. We went to Lauren’s last weekend and chilled and ate. There were lots of people around all the time, so I couldn’t really be doing what everyone was doing all the time, but there were some good times anyway. We played capture the flag and I got to show that I’m fast. People keep thinking I’m not fast just because I don’t move fast very often.
Donny’s around. Occasionally he disappears all day with his other friends, but he’s around more than never, so that’s cool.
On the whole getting my degree from Central front, I think it’s all taken care of. I looked at my report and as far as I can tell the master computer agrees now that I did the work required. So I just have to wait until June and see, I guess. And then I’m sure there will be more paperwork and stuff related to the internship. Evermore.
This weekend the central gang is going to Portland for fun and to meet up with Sidney’s friend, Emily Anne Geddes. Since I’m still hanging around I’m planning on tagging along, and since I am we’re gonna sleep at Keston and Ody’s place, it looks like. It’ll be good to see those guys, so hopefully the find some time to chat and stuff. I’m gonna try and meet up with some of the other Linfieldians and Portland dwellers too, but I’m not very hopeful. Lots of people have plans for the weekend already I’m sure.
My sister is home, apparently. I haven’t seen any evidence, but that’s what mom claims. Sorry I’m not there with my gaggle of friends, sister dearest. Umm… I hope someday you can forgive me. And to you other Kennewickians who have been left behind, umm… come visit, or text me or something. I dun want to leave you behind really.
posted by Gene on Apr 2
The Central gang is coming back to visit in like 39 hours. Yay! We’ve set up Skype and webcams and stuff so I’m pretty sure I talk to them more now than before. They’re being very nice to me.
Pat’s gonna DM a few of us TC locals. We decided we’re rolling stats straight down. I got good rolls. The restrictive nature of the chosen character creation process has me leaning towards Bard. I need to wait and see what Gar and Kim do, though, before I make any firm decisions.
Also, I had the idea that one could probably sell some sort of self help doctrine around the idea of harnessing one’s need to go to the bathroom as a source of motivation for success in the rest of one’s life. Kinda like one of those self empowerment strategies and stuff wackos are always spending money on. I know it sounds crazy, I just want to say I thought of it before it comes out for real so people will believe me when I say I thought of it first.
Tomorrow I am going to play some board games with Mom and Ms. Craig, my kindergarten – 2nd grade teacher. And then Kim is gonna come over and work on her character, supposedly. That’s the plan.
posted by Gene on Feb 17
I’ve not had a big update post in a while, but that’s because I’ve been busy having things to do. Let me explain.
Mom came to visit. Well, not really. She came to see Tyler and Danny, and band, play. She brought my PS3 and bought me PoP and LBP, so I’ve had new games to play in my free time. PS3 is getting quite a bit of love. LBP is a good game for my crowd here. Lauren and I have beaten the main story. The gang sorta paired off since I only have two controllers. Anyway, we’re working on getting all the items still, which will take a while. We explored some player made content today, which was pretty neat.
Ok, besides that, I also had a big 481 paper and presentation on Friday we were working on all week. Well, really just Wednesday and Thursday. We were busy working on the actual project for 481 on the other days.
Immediately after my presentation I went to Elisabeth’s with her and 7 other people. Like, immediately. I was still wearing that ridiculous get up they make us wear for presentations. So, we did a lot of hanging out and whatnot at Elisabeth’s. The guys, Hiro, Yusuke, myself, and Dan, played basketball.
On Valentine’s day each gender made food for the other. We male’s got fish, since there’s a female veggie, and a couple other fish haters, and they chose stuffed peppers for us to make them. In the end the division of labor was a little fuzzy, and there was quite a bit of sharing, but it was a very fancy occassion. We had candles, and the sparkling cider, and fancy plates, and suits and ties and dresses and all that good stuff. After that we went hot tubbing. After that we males did pushups. Then we watched Star Wars Episode IV. Kinda, there were two people who watched it, and everyone else kinda watched or slept or goofed off.
There was also some incidental shopping and driving around during the Elisabeth visit. And we all went and saw some children’s musical for some reason. Elisabeth’s mom got us in for free. Put on by homeschoolers, in like a church. Yeah. Whatever.
So, that’s pretty much the gist of what’s happened. Had today off cause it’s a national holiday and all that. School soon, though. Rest of the time for me here at Central is going to be quite busy, I think, so if I dissapear from the blogosphere for a month or so, pity is the appropriate response.