Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Speed of the Pentagon

Phew, here I went again without updating regularly. Probably will forget to include some stuff. But in general, things haven't been bad. There's good days and overwhelmingly bad days, but that's life, eh?

Memorial Day Weekend I was up playing XBox Saturday morning when I had a knock at my door... Mike had come for a surprise visit! I hadn't expected him, since when we do visit one another we normally leave Fridays after work. Instead, he had stayed in and played DnD (jealous!) Sneaky sneaky gingerbread man! We went out to eat at a couple of places I hadn't gone to yet, but nothing too awesome. We did run into Nathan and Jamie at a sandwich shop :) And actually, Anaba turned out to be disappointing :( Was really nice to just realx with him, play some video games, cuddle-up for some movies and TV shows.

A package arrived at my apartment one day, and I opened it up to find a Naga Wrath waiting for me :D Mike had ordered it; he's so sweet, spoiling me so!



That weekend also gave-way to the headstart days for Wildstar, which we've been playing with a steady frequency ever since. It's wonderfully refreshing in almost every aspect of the game, and I'm a huge fan of the humor throughout. We just hit level 29 last night (so I guess we haven't been too crazy at leveling); I'm a spell-slinger and he's a stalker. I'm tempted to get my warrior up to par to play instead of my SS though. I just don't feel like I'm doing decent enough damage, but I was most likely going to switch to healing once we're max level. Not really interested in carrying around two sets of gear while leveling, and we don't participate in a ton of grouping besides.

The following weekend, I participated in the Dragonboat Races as a part of my office's team. I've never done any type of crew in the past, and I've only been in boats a handful of times that I can remember in my life. This was actually a lot of fun! We only had one hour's worth of practice before we had to participate in race day, but even with just that, we didn't do too terribly. I was almost late to the races, as I showed up with what I thought was more than enough time (45 minutes) to get on the bus from the parking lot to the lake. Apparently, their bus system was crazy slow and people were waiting in line over an hour to get from the lot to the races. Since I was a participant, I got moved to the front of the line and made it just in time to run to the dock to hop in and go :) I was in the front seat with Terri, and we did our best to lead the team's strokes. I think I could really get into crew! Would love to do it again :D



I've been feeling creatively deprived lately, and with Mike participating in some computer support technician courses, I feel like I'm a lazy bum not practicing/learning anything. Really though, almost every day at my job I'm learning something new. Always something new to code, or something awkward to figure out. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but maybe that makes me feel like not taxing myself more when I get home :P I did work toward refining my Japanese for a little while there, but it didn't last long. I was just so tired when getting home a few weeks back. So instead, I started taking up sketching again with my tablet Mom had gotten me for my birthday last year :) I still suck horribly at drawing, but it's gotten me to transition into some vector art. Nothing I really feel like sharing at the moment, but maybe this new one I'm working on I will :)

I suppose not utilizing my creative energies recently isn't entirely true. I came up with a great Lovecraft-inspired tabletop story about 2 months ago and have been writing it out (dubbed 'Ascension'.) I also created my own offshoot of a D100 system to go along with it, and even mixed-in some Arkham Horror. Super excited to play it, but not sure when I'll be back in Gainesville to get people to play. It's intended to be a one-time, real-time scenario, so it'll take a good portion of the players' day. My plan was that it would start around lunchtime, and go into late night/early morning. Whatever time it is IRL is what time it is in the game sort of thing; keep it as real-time as possible (gogo 24.) I think it'd be different and fun :) Definitely need people who are willing to talk/roleplay.

My laptop died at work a few weeks ago. Turned it on one Monday morning... tick... tick... tickticktick BSOD. I knew it was the harddrive, but I told myself it would be okay. Gave it a minute, turned it back on... No OS found :(



Thankfully, almost everything I had was backed-up to a network drive (*AHEM* ASO employees!) so it wasn't a big deal. I was given a loaner laptop, had to install a ton of programs on it, but managed to get some work done that week while I awaited my replacement harddrive. Could've been worse, but I only ended up losing a day or so worth of coding. And since I had already done it once, it wasn't so bad doing it again. I have also since set up some Git repositories for the projects I'm working on. Hooray for additional safeguards in the future!

Steam Summer Sale is in full effect! I've already picked-up Democracy 3, a copy of Monaco for Mike, E.Y.E., and some Anno 2070 DLC. Mike bought me copies of Unepic and Titan Quest.

Democracy 3 is awesome. My first go-through I selected Canada, and was shortly thereafter assassinated by an extremist religious group. My second country was France, and that game is still going strong. I actually feel like I may have broken it, because there are only so many random occurances, and all of my attributes are so strong now nothing is really faltering them. Besides, my people love me!

Monaco I've played before by myself, but I wasn't impressed. They now have the enhanced (and zombie) editions, and it's so much fun co-op :D We haven't played zombie mode yet, but I can't wait!

Unepic was just that. I guess the developers were going for rogue-like? But instead it turned out to be just ridiculously difficult and unfun most of the time. We'll probably play it some more, but I can't play it for too long.

Haven't played any of the other titles yet, and I'm sure I'll be buying more before the sale is over. I know at the very least I will be picking up Endless Space since Max gave me a 50% coupon for the game and it's DLC awhile back. Plus, SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE.

Been going out every once in awhile with Nathan and Jamie. Typically on Friday nights, we'll have dinner and mosey around for drinks. Ended up at XYZ (the gay club) once, and saw my first ever drag show! So hilariously awesome :) Was also accosted by a bachelorette party, but they were nice girls. The three of us went out to see Maleficent another night, and it was okay. I was mostly disappointed with the things they changed from the original Sleeping Beauty story :/ Also, Nathan and Jamie are moving to Nashville for Nathan's dream job in just a few weeks. Sadness :( I've already determined that I will need to visit them. Apparently there are at least several cool bars that require my attendance.

Went to Knoxville Brewfest this past Saturday with Teresa (and her husband Craig), Crystal, and Stephanie from the office. We had a blast! Drank tons of different beers, photobombed people, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. By the end of it (around 830), I had drank so much that I was in ubersleep mode. Teresa, Craig, and Crystal wanted to go out for Indian food, and while I may have joined them, I was practically asleep at the table :) So much fun!

I've started brewing my own iced coffee at home. I was tired of paying $3 for Starbucks iced coffee :P It's actually not difficult, and comes out deliciously. Just have to plan ahead, since I let it steep for at least 12 hours before straining.


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