A is for Ascension, C is for Carnivale

It’s been quite a while since I’ve had time to write in my blog. I should have a lot of catching up to do… but my life is pretty boring, so there isn’t a whole bunch to say.

I have not been playing FFXI much. Wardy is now level 14 fishing. My friends in game thought that I quit. I dropped in late last week to let them know that I’m still alive and playing, although rarely playing for more than 5 minutes.

I’ve been preoccupied with Kingdom of Loathing lately. Ascension finally happened! The kingdom has been waiting on this update for … a very long time.

I’ve ascended with 3 characters now, working on the fourth character tonight after work. I’m really enjoying the Hardcore/Oxygenarian path at the moment. This completely isolates me from everyone in the game and prevents me from eating or drinking to gain extra adventures. It should be very challenging, and it will prevent me from cheating :)

If you don’t know what The Kingdom of Loathing is… go check it out. This is a completely free game, created by a couple of nutty computer dorks that host their own radio show every Monday. Check out the listings at www.radio-kol.com.

Aside from the usual video game nuttery, we have been entertaining ourselves with an HBO series. Last Thursday our friend John (from Eugene) brought down the first season of “Carnivale” on DVD. “Carnivale” is a series about a group of carnies that lived in the depression era. The over-all plot is one of good vs. evil, with a somewhat backward perspective on who is “good” and who is “evil”. Well it makes sense when you watch the show but.. the minister “Brother Justin” is pure evil, and a carnie named “Ben” is apparently the savior of the world. The series was canceled after season 2 unfortunately, but the first 2 seasons are worth watching. We are currently bit torrenting the rest of season 2.

Tenise and I have been spending lots of “quality time” together. It’s been really great, but we have been staying up until like 2-4AM on a regular basis, which can be somewhat tiring. We’ve been sleeping late as a consequence, but it’s totally worth it.

We’ve still not seen Revenge of the Sith. :) Gonna have to do that soon.

Weird Dreams

Sunday was a completely wasted day. I had planned on finishing up some chores and going to see Star Wars ep. III. No such.. well I can't say luck... so.. how about "No Such Motivation," or "I was too lazy."

I played FFXI most of the day, after sleeping in past noon. I probably wasted about 6 hours on leveling my crafting skills (to not much avail). Wardy is now level 13 fishing and level 11 cooking. Cooking was the only skill I really leveled up. I made a ton of Orange Juice, and then proceeded to make some bait (sliced sardines). The bait turned out to be worthless to me, and a huge waste of money. I invested about 20K gil total in cooking and raised 3 levels.

Later on, Tenise and I ate some pizza, drank a few beers & watched T.V. We stayed up too late.. and I had VERY weird dreams.

The first dream was about a nuclear missile.

My grade school friend Matt Duncan and I were standing on someone's front porch. We must have been chatting or something, you know how dreams are. All I can remember is that we looked up and saw this HUGE missile floating through the air. It was going very slow, that is why I say "floating" rather than flying. Like a blimp missile! Anyway, we looked at each other and said "Well, It's been nice knowing you." Then we returned to watching the "floating" missile. It disappeared over the horizon, and the dream ended with me wondering weather it would explode far enough away for us to survive the blast.

Dream number 2 was far more disturbing than nuclear explosions.

It's the classic "I'm late for class" dream, where you wake up late, or can't find the room number. This dream turned in to a series of dreams, same theme, different details each time. One time I'm in my room waking up late, the next dream I'm out with Tenise somewhere and we won't be able to make it to campus in time. The dream kept playing over and over. It finally stopped when I woke up EARLY for work. It's a good thing some dreams don't come true. I had a ton of work to do today. The worst part was not being able to escape returning to the dream. I must have woke between each permutation of the dream, I remember looking at the alarm clock a bunch of times.

Well, that's all for today. Hopefully there isn't a crazy bum waiting for me in the parking lot.

:)~

One Boring Saturday

I think our dry erase board says it all. My girl and I started the day by sleeping in until 11:00AM. We like to sleep in. She was up until 4:00AM and I went to bed at 2:00AM. So we both needed the sleep. She went out drinking with a friend and I stayed home, as usual, and leveled my FFXI character.



My Final Fantasy XI character (Wardy) is now a level 12 Monk and level 12 fisherman. Fishin' in San d'Oria was great! I made a ton of money & my linkshell buddies made fun of me for being a dwarf. I'm now called "oompa loompa". They all seem to be afraid of me, like I'm going to bite their ankles or something. Hume ankles do taste good with BBQ sauce, I have to admit.


I finished most of the weekend chores today. Vacuuming and garbage duty and all that good stuff. We did some grocery shopping and got a few things for dinner. I just have to clean bathrooms (oh boy fun!) tomorrow. (Boring huh) Yes, I'm going to describe every boring detail of my life in this blog. Well.. Not every detail.. but.. I'll be glad to give the less glamorous details. I don't want to make my life sound too exciting.

I saw the most bizarre thing yesterday after work. I was walking to the company parking lot, and I couldn't help notice this bum walking around. Its almost 100 degrees outside and this guy is wearing a coon-skin cap, a heavy down jacket, and a skirt on top of his pants. You don't often see bums with luggage, but this guy was toting one of those fancy contraptions with wheels. Anyway, I think he was scoping out the cars in the parking lot, he looked very suspicious. He kept staring at me until I left the parking lot, at which point I noticed him messing with one of the cars in the lot. I thought I should put together a rendering just in case the police need to find him. It's a very good likeness of the "suspicious luggage toting bum". If you see this guy, call the police.

Besides working as a sketch artist, I wandered around and took some photos today. I noticed that our neighbors have YET ANOTHER FUCKING CAR to work on 10 feet away from my front door. It's REALLY SWELL having a bunch of grease monkeys working all day in front of my apartment. This is like the 8th car they have purchased since I moved in here. All piles of crap. At least it's not the freaking motorcycle they kept revving up all day long for weeks. THAT THING SUCKED! The El Camino is actually quieter. If you need a piece of shit that barely runs, these folks can help ya out.

Ok well that sums it up I guess. I'm gonna go back to drinking beer and playing video games. I suppose I'll watch Saturday Night Live tonight, though it usually sucks. We hope to go see the new Star Wars movie tomorrow. It all depends on how lazy we feel.

A Beginning

Hello and thank you for reading my first ever blog!

This is basically an experiment, to see if I have anything interesting to write about. This blog will serve as a means of self-examination & a method of analyzing what I do with my day to day life.

Here is a good estimation of what you may see in future blog entries.

Monday – wake, work, play video games, sleep.
Tuesday – (see Monday)
Wednesday – (see Tuesday) …
I think you get the picture...
Weekends are the same with more video games and less working.

Anyway, I hope I’m wrong. Maybe I really do have something interesting to say. This blog should help me examine what I do with my time, and help me understand how I'm wasting my life. My guess at this point is that this blog will be very boring.

Lets hope I prove myself wrong.


What I'm doing today.


Today I have to begin the finishing process on this month's issue of Joy Magazine. I'm the lead (and only) designer for a local women's magazine (don't laugh) here in the Rogue Valley. The Magazine "website" is here. The site only shows the cover photo and table of contents, but you can get a general idea of what the magazine is about.

I have yet to make a Flickr account so I am currently unable to post photos. I guess solving that problem is on the agenda today. ( edit* FIXED! Flickr Roxors! )

I missed a party last night. My work The Mail Tribune threw a party for our employees at a local billiards club. I flaked out as usual, and stayed at home playing video games. I guess I won an award. No wonder my boss kept trying to convince me to go. Hah! Well it was just a piece of paper, no cash, so I'm glad I stayed home.



I leveled my Monk in FFXI up to 11, far more important than actually socializing with other humans.










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