Bret-Blog

Lake of the Woods

2007-07-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've thought about posting something to the blog. I've neglected to post anything about the wedding (Oct 7th 2006), the honeymoon in Hawaii and a couple of birthdays. Looks like I've got a lot of catching up to do. Lets start with Tenise's birthday camping trip to Lake of the Woods.

We've been wanting to camp for a few years now but something always gets in the way (laziness). So we finally overcame our procrastination and set about making plans for the weekend in the woods.

I put together a checklist of items we would need. Found the maps, started planning and packing. This involved several trips to Wal-Mart of course. We ended up with all new camping gear except for a very nice tent that someone gave to Tenise some years ago. Its one of those big ones with 2 rooms inside.

We drove for about an hour to get to Aspen Point; where we wanted to stay. It was a very busy weekend there and we were lucky to get a nice spot down by the water. We arrived about 1:00 p.m. and camp was set up about an hour after that.

We weren't really paying attention to the tent so much as looking around at the scenery, and so we set the tent up facing the wrong way. Whoops. Once that was finished we decided to drive around and get some lunch at the nearby resort. The food was great, the service ... not so much.

After we got back from eating (best steak sandwich ever) we went for a hike around the shore-line. There were tons of people around, (bikini girls included) boats and jetskis racing all over the lake, and every campsite was full.We aren't all that active in our daily lives, so after a few little hiking adventures, we were tired and it was time to go back to camp and start a fire, kick back and relax.

We took a LOT of pictures of fire. When camping, the campfire is our replacement for the TV. It was great, we sat around talking about all kinds of stuff, then we played with fire!! When we got tired of fireplay, we retired to our luxurious tent and played cards until we "passed out". The campground was pretty noisy the first night and we heard yelling and screaming until about midnight (summer camp across the lake). Heh.. those suckers who go to bed early were probably getting angry.

Tenise and I are two of the whitest people on the planet. We were reminded of this when we went swiming the next day. We found a private little beach to hang out on. I forgot my sunglasses and had to use rocks over my eyeballs instead.

So we hiked and we swam and we ate and then we hiked some more. There were also times when we roasted things such as marshmallows and mushrooms.

This trip was in celebration of Tenise's birthday so after we got home we rented a bunch of movies and we hung out on the couch and tried to recover. My legs were sore for a full day after we got home. I made Tenise a mini birthday cake out of strawberry fig newtons and frosting. She loved it, but she loves anything miniature.

Happy birthday!

Blogger is being retarded or I'd post more photos here. If you want to see the rest go to www.flickr.com/photos/bret_blog

Ebaum's new TV show

2006-01-27T00:49:00.000-08:00

Variety and The Hollywood Reporter confirm this morning that the popular humor/entertainment site, eBaumsworld.com has landed a TV deal with USA Network. Fox TV Studios will produce the show and it will be on following Monday Night Raw this spring. Full press release >>

Although I really hate ebaum for his theft and deception, I find it fascinating that USA would risk having a show made entirely of stolen material. So, I'm liking to the article. I found the comments in this digg thread far more interesting. Be sure to visit ebaumsworldsucks.com

The New Year

2006-01-26T22:37:00.000-08:00

Hello again. Its been far too long since I've posted anything here. There is so much to say I don't know where to start

First
I'M ENGAGED! I proposed to Tenise, near midnight, New Year's Eve.
I planned for months to have the perfect engagement. To find that perfect moment, and say just the right thing. I shopped for the best ring I could afford, learned a lot about diamonds, and spent some quality time with mom discussing my plans. I knew Tenise wanted to go out-of-town for the New Year, so I made sure Zales would have my ring ready before we left town.

(I could go on forever bout this part) Zales screwed up my order, couldn't deliver on the promised date, and subsequently had to give me a temporary setting for the stone. I was so stressed because they finally admitted at the last possible moment that I couldn't have my ring for New Year's Eve. We worked out a deal and everything went as planned. (almost) Tenise and I returned weeks later to get the actual setting (shank) for the diamond.

We went to Yreka for a NYE party. While Tenise and her mother (Jennifer) were out shopping, her father (Don) and I went to coffee and wandered around the local hardware store. It was the perfect opportunity for me to ask him for his blessing before I popped the question.

I told Don that I had something important to say. Pulled out the ring. Told him how I couldn't imagine life without Tenise, and he gladly gave me permission to marry his daughter. He warmly welcomed me into the family, as did Jennifer later that night when she found out. Its been a wonderful experience, and I'm glad to be part of the Middleton family.

The proposal was after midnight, on bended knee and oh so very nervous. The perfect moment. I wouldn't change a thing. Don and Jennifer cracked open a bottle of champagne when we came home after 2AM. We stayed up late, and slept in late, and then drove back through the snow storm to Medford.

Its been kind of a blur since then. So much has happened. Our wedding date is October 7th, 2006. It will be held in Mt. Shata, CA. And will be a small, mostly family oriented affair. (more news to follow)

Second.
This blog will be changing a bit, as I am more interested in posting current events than posting stuff about my life. I'm sure news will make better reading material. I'll continue to post personal stuff, but mostly I'll be posting technology & political news from now on.

Third.
There is a bunch of stuff I'm too tired to write about. So I'll summarize:
Jeep problems... again. Computer problems that prevent me from reading text on screen for too long, hence the delay in posting. Changes at my job involving more work, in less time, for the same pay. Overtime, people quitting and me having to cover for them, the usual mass of video game playing (WoW mostly).... etc. and so on.

I've been interested in nuclear physics lately. I'm currently working on a Tokamak reactor, art project. I've also been playing with flash video encoding and action scripting lately.

I've been reading a lot. I just finished "The Radioactive Boyscout," and I'm continuing to read Robert Jordan's WoT series and Terry Goodkind's SoT series. I'm Also reading some fantasy by Mitchell Graham.

Sites of interest:

Radioblog: Almost any song, for free, in your browser (ie or firefox) temp folder. Low bit-rate, but the playlist feature is nice for access from any computer.

digg: My new favorite web 2.0 site. A community news site, with a technology focus. The comments are just as interesting as the articles... most of the time.

That's all for now (btw spell check seems to be broken, so forgive me.)

Testing Flock

2005-10-22T12:18:00.000-07:00

This is a test. This is only a test. In the case of an actual blog post, this would not say test.

I am currently participating in the Flock browser beta testing. I've been using the new browser for a little while and I wanted to test out the built in blogging features. So, If all goes well, this post will end up on my blog, without me having to log in or anything.

Check out these links if you are interested.

flock del.icio.us

Wordpress.com

2005-10-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've had anything to write about. Today, I am proud to announce that I'm wasting even more of my life blogging.

I was recently granted the privilege of opening a Wordpress blog account. They have some great ideas and tools for blogging. Unfortunately the site is by invitation only. You can sign up at wordpress.com.

I started a blog to document the crazy wallpaper I use at work. I hope you check it out. Glimpse

Liquid Sculpture

2005-09-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

Some really cool photos of liquids in motion.

http://www.liquidsculpture.com

International Talk Like A Pirate (TLAP) Day

2005-09-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time again. Break out your eye patches and fake shoulder parrots, it's Talk Like A Pirate Day! (or TLAP for short) Get the latest on this silly little holiday over at www.talklikeapirate.com. (I think it should have been www.talklikeapirate.ARG!) Anyway, I was granted my very own pirate name today.

My pirate name is:

Dirty Tom Flint

You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

The quiz seems to be pretty random, so don't worry about your answers too much.

10 Year Class Reunion

2005-09-06T17:31:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot to post something about my 10 year class reunion.

I went! I was fun!

Near the end of August the class of 1995 held a reunion here in Medford. I think less than a hundred people showed up. I attended the first night event and only 40-50 people showed up to that. There was a barbecue the second day and a formal dinner at the Red Lion.

Most people looked the same.
About half were married with kids.
Some on 2nd marriages with multiple kids.

Most of us are still struggling with our careers. Those with family owned businesses were doing the best (of course). I was really jealous of those people who purchased a home right after high school. They are rolling in money now since the housing boom.

I had a great time speaking with the Iraq veterans that were there. It really brings things into perspective when you can talk to someone who has first hand knowledge. Those boys really believe in what they are doing. They say the people of Iraq are eternally grateful and we did the right thing. In other words, don't listen to the media. Bryan is going back for a 2nd tour, Dan is now in the reserves and one other kid from my class is still over there.

Well that's all I can think of for now.

The last summer excursion

2005-09-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

Tenise and I managed to pry ourselves out of our tiny apartment for another weekend at the coast. We both had a week of vacation time lying around, so we took advantage of our free camping spot at Salmon Harbor

First I had to fix the Jeep so we could get there. My clutch was toast and I had a leaking fuel line. :( Bad news, I don't want any of my expensive gas leaking out... not to mention the fire hazard. Anyway, the total bill was just under $500 for a new clutch, fuel line, filter, misc parts and a shitload of labor. I had to learn how to drive again!!! I forgot what having a functioning clutch was like.

Tenise and I left on Thursday and camped through Saturday before we were tired and wanted to sleep in a real bed. The weather on Thursday was beautiful, but Friday and Saturday were gloomy, foggy & cold.

We spent the first day exploring a new beach and getting situated in our campsite. We collected rocks on the beach and I made a scary "medusa head" sand castle. We walked until our legs hurt. Somehow I avoided sunburn. Yay! Oh and the signs of Internet withdrawal were becoming apparent on the first night.

The Tuna Can Ashtray
I entertained myself by making and then destroying a "tuna-can ashtray". It's amazing what you can do with a few beers, a pair of pliers and a tuna can.

... or maybe it's not so amazing.

Tenise and I spent the second day collecting unusual plants from the cliffs surrounding our favorite beach. We hiked and hiked until we could hike no more. We found some great specimens. We were collecting succulents. (A puffy, water-filled sort of plant)

I climbed cliffs to get a few. We looked in caves and even threw rocks to knock a few down from higher cliffs.

Although the rock throwing was not so successful, we got a few plants down. The next day my arm and shoulder began to ache. (and would for the next few days) I guess I'm really out of shape if throwing rocks wears me out. I woke up on day 3 thinking..."did someone beat me up while I wasn't looking?"

On the third day we found ourselves sore (from hiking around) cold (from the crappy weather) and bored (from the lack of Internet and video games). We did a little shopping, sat around, read our books, then started staring at each other and giggling. Time to go home! We were on the road within 20 minutes.

It was a great vacation. I'm really glad we went. But our limit is apparently just short of 3 days away from our comfy bed and interweb. I guess that if we had a hotel we could have lasted a few more days.... and more money. There are TONS of things we could have done with a few extra dollars, but alas, we are poor. I'm just glad we had enough extra cash to go somewhere. Maybe next time we can pick somewhere with more predictable weather.

We have been playing tons of World of Warcraft! Great Game!

This is my paladin character and Tenise's hunter, in the Wetlands at night.

W.o.W I'm a video game addict.

2005-08-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

Well... quitting video games didn't last very long. I tried to play Star Wars Galaxies again... just too boring now. They changed everything and it's just not for me anymore. Still one of the greatest MMORPG ever! If you've never played, check out starwarsgalaxies.com

Ok so... I canceled my Star Wars account and Tenise and I started playing World of Warcraft Great game! It's either my 2nd or 3rd favorite MMORPG. I like FFXI about as well as WoW. I can't say which is better until I play a bit more of WoW. I purchased a copy of the game in late July and Tenise got to use a free trial account. Well the marketing scheme worked, she got addicted real fast and I had to spring for an extra copy of the game so we could play together. It's so nice having a teammate to slay rabid thistle bears with.

I still play KoL but not very often. The greatest attraction now is the radio program on radio-kol.com. The game is pretty boring now but they keep adding new stuff. (Just enough to keep us old-timers coming back to check out the new zones and monsters.)

On to more important matters:

Since our last trip to the coast, Tenise and I have been craving another vacation. We plan to take the last week of August off, and go camping, probably at the coast again. I'll try to take some neat pix to post on the blog.

I got new tires for the jeep last month. The ride is much better and I feel safer by far. My old tires were really worn out. Next I plan to fix the clutch and brakes. During our week long vacation I will drop the Jeep off at my local mechanic. I'll probably have to put off the brake booster for a while. I hope I don't smash in to anyone!

Our "party animal teen" neighbors got evicted at the beginning of August. (By unanimous disapproval of all of their neighbors.) Those brats were the worst! They drove about a dozen neighbors to the point of calling the cops. After several visits from the local authorities, the landlords finally woke up and gave those party animals a 72-hour eviction notice. I guess the apartment was thrashed. Maggots and filth everywhere, not to mention big holes in the walls. I can't believe some people are so.... stupid!

We got to know our neighbors and landlords a little better because of the evil party animal teens. We met "? Jin Kwan ?" our .. sorry for the politically incorrect label "oriental" neighbor. I'm so bad with names... bad with people really. We have lived next to some of those people for over 2 years and I still can't get their names right, let alone their country of origin. Anyway Jin had a real tough time with those kids since he lived right on top of their apartment. They made racial comments about his son, and pissed in his garage.

That's about all for now. I'll try to keep this blog updated on a more regular basis (even though I usually have very little to say)

A Month's worth of stuff

2005-07-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

We just got back from vacation!!!
Can you believe it ... We left the house!

We went to the coast to celebrate Tenise's birthday. There was a kite festival, and all kinds of fun stuff to do. We took our first trip to a casino, got a fabulous steak dinner, walked on the beach and spent tons of money! YAY!

We didn't win any money at the casino, it was really crappy and small and we only played for about 30 minutes. The food was great, but the service was bad. We were having too much fun to notice. The restaurant staff in pirate garb was quite a laugh. All in all a confirmation for both of us that we aren't the gambling type.

The kite festival was neat, but we forgot the camera. :(
They flew this giant teddy-bear ( about 30 feet tall or more )
It would have made a great picture.

We stayed in Tenise's parents trailer at Salmon Harbor. It was very nice of them to lend us the free space to stay. Salmon harbor is not all that spectacular but we had fun anyway. We played cards at night and watched TV. We went shopping for playing cards, poker chips, books on card games etc. It was tons of fun. At night we learned new card games and sat around drinking a few beers and playing poker and cribbage. And ofcourse, we slept in late every day.

During the day we ran around to different beaches for walks and ate dinner at the beach one night. I packed the giant yellow cooler backpack with soda, beer, sandwiches and snacks and we set out for a walk on one of our favorite beaches.

We sat on our favoirte log and watched the sun bake my forhead in to a plesant shade of red.

A very fun 3 day weekend. I hope we do it again soon.

I haven't had time to write in my blog very much lately. Well... not that I was super busy with one particular thing, I just never made time for it. So, there is a relatively large amount of catching up to do here.

First off, I basically quit playing all of my video games in the middle of June. So, sadly there will be no more Wardy updates. I canceled FFXI and played a free trial of Ryzom for a couple of weeks. Not very good.

I still play KoL sometimes, but not often. The new game for us has been anything game cube. Frank, a friend from work, let us borrow his game cube and all of his games. So that has been fun. Mario Party 4-5 have been the most fun. The bongo games were not that great.

The 4th of July holiday has come and gone. We celbrated Tenise's birthday a little early at the 4th of July barbecue. My brother cooked, we hung out at Mom's house, then left to go for a walk and watch the fireworks. I roller-bladed and Tenise walked actually. We've been better about gettting regular exercise lately. She got some neat birthday presents from my family. ( pictures, jewlry etc. )

I got Tenise a pretty dorky gift for her B-Day. I upgraded her computer... again... same as last year. I'm borring and stupid when it comes to gifts. Anyway, Tenise wanted to play the Star Wars Lego game, and her comp was to crappy to handle it.

I went a little overboard, as usual when it comes to computer parts, and got her a very nice Video Card, a fast 80 GB hard drive (SATA), orange cables, orange mouse, orange network cable, and some other random stuff. A new floppy drive fixed that gaping hole in the front of her tower. The upgrade was.. difficult.

Something always goes wrong when I buy computer parts. As it turns out, I got her a Hard Drive that was too advanced for her motherboard to handle. Back to newegg.com to order an adapter. :( and .. I still managed to forget the power cord for this fancy drive. So, all in all, it will be 3 separate orders to finish her upgrade. Sigh... Oh well. If it all works, her system will be way better than mine. She already beats me on video card benchmark tests. Now.. suddenly my computer is crashing, it must be jealous.

We have these idiot new neighbors. Young kids with a huge stereo, play it all night long and keep us up. They yell and scream in the back yard until dawn. :( We are so frustrated. We've talked to them about it, called the cops etc. The next step is to go to the landlord.

Well, thats about it for now. I'm sure I missed a bunch of "exciting" stuff... or not.

A is for Ascension, C is for Carnivale

2005-06-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

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

2005-06-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

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

2005-06-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

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

2005-06-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

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.

—