The kids have a teacher work day, so I'm just taking it easy working from home. Usually not very productive, since there are thousands of distractions just clicks away, but since I did so much work yesterday on a Sunday, I feel like I'm ok if I veer off course here and there. I can't wait until 2 though, that's my unofficial stop time. Then I'll get back to Rise of the Tomb Raider for more exploration.


Yeah, I'm not sure if my gaming preferences changed over time, but I tend to get more invested in games that have an overarching storyline, like Uncharted, Tomb Raider, or GTA. Shooters are fun for sure, but it does get repetitive and somewhat samey after the first half hour. Overwatch is still tremendously enjoyable, but does have limited mileage after a while. Perhaps it's the graphical fidelity whereby now I don't mind spending some time in a world that's rendered beautifully. In the past it was about the gameplay but now there's an additional advantage of just being fun to look at. Uncharted has some amazing vistas to just marvel at.

After years of feeling like I shouldn't be playing any more video games, I think I've finally accepted that I'm a gamer and I love doing it because it makes me happy, and I should attached minimal guilt to spending a few hours a day just doing that.  It's a passive, consuming activity that doesn't yield anything productive, but it makes me happy.  I think that should count for something.  There are many ways of self-improvement, and I feel like doing something that makes me happy is a way of improving my self-fulfillment.  I'm supporting a creative industry, can't be all bad, right?  Right now between doing my regular job at work and being a family man is already my way of making my mark in this world.  I feel like that's good enough.  I may never discover land masses or pen something mind-blowing, and I'm learning to be ok with that.  There are lots of talented people doing those things, and I shouldn't feel like I'm not.  My writing has its audience, and my contributions to society are just fine.

Last week I decided to stop paying attention to social media, since Trump's administration has been causing so much distress for so many Americans.  It's a bit of looking away from the car crash, but the constant headings, social media shares, and being generally reminded of our standing in the world.  Luckily, the world in general seems to be pretty understanding that it's Trump specifically and a small subset of the American population that seems to be addicted to close-mindedness and racism.  It's an ugly side that's probably prevalent in all walks of life, but it's happening to us right now.  We got complacent and look at us now.  Now we've got to fight for what we took for granted for a very long time.

Gunning for some Gunnars

I've been trying to get computer glasses for a while now, first starting with cheap knockoffs from Amazon that didn't fit my giant head, then trying for Gunnars. Now I have two pairs downstairs that I'll have to send back to this AV House place. Because they're not Amazon, the shipping back isn't free, and there's a bloody restocking fee on top of that. Fuckers. I'll be out about 30 bucks or so and still not have any goddamn computer glasses. Why is this so hard? I definitely would not be able to get any prescription glasses over the mail. Not with my giant noggin anyway.

As glad as I am to have this new laptop, I'm still pretty peeved that a bunch of stuff doesn't really work on it. I can't get the ODBC connections to work on it, so I can't do queries on it for work. The wireless adapters like to turn off when I close the lid or put it to sleep, so I pretty much have to reboot when I want to use it again, which is also quite silly. But I am still enjoying the laptop. The full keyboard that lights up, the brilliant display that's a nice 16:9... I guess I have to stay at the job so that I can keep my paws on this laptop. Part of me want to make the kids happy by installing Minecraft on this thing for them. But no, it's my work laptop. Installing Minecraft is a little too obnoxious.

It's been an interesting week. Started off Monday when I went to Mom's to drop off some corned beef that I had made up on Sunday evening, and after a slight delay, she opens the door and she's been crying. She tells me that my aunt, her younger sister, had passed. The details that came out were a little sad, that my other aunt had come home late from work and found her on the floor, dead. They wouldn't be doing an autopsy because either it's a cultural thing or maybe in their minds, it wouldn't matter anyway because she'd still be gone, and it wouldn't make that big a difference. Kinda a bummer though. I've been feeling rather bad for my mom, because that's her youngest sister.

The homework thing continues to be a struggle with Zoe, but I'm going to try to not let that dictate our whole relationship. I've been a little cruel when it comes to that, not enforcing it unfairly or anything like that, but letting that become the focal point of our interaction. Everytime I talk to her, it's always about remembering to hand shit in or how much screen time she won't have. It's really not making her my friend and I'm honestly pretty sick of hearing my own voice bumming everyone out. At least the weekend's here and I get some respite and Alex gets his video game time.

I've been thinking about writing, and filmmaking, and I think it's finally dawning on me that if I really had wanted to do something about it, I probably would have done it by now. It feels so terminal, that this will probably be the job that I'll do for a really long time, and that filmmaking is now so out of reach that it exists in my mind only to torture myself for the time that I squandered away. But like I said, if I was ever going to do anything with it, nothing would have stopped me from doing so. In a way, when I had kids, I grew more vulnerable and afraid to fail. I miss the old me. Having only been in a couple plays and I go out and write and put on a whole play. Something so fearless and foolish about that. Now I just do the bare minimum because I refused to accept this reality as mine. I keep waiting for something that will never come.

Yeah, I should probably move on to something else.

Take Your Kid to Work Day

So today was take your kid to work day, and Alex tagged along with me to work because we finally organized an event for this annual thing that has been going on for 23 years. Zoe had overdue assignments and since she needed to recognize that good grades equals rewards, she didn't go. Overall, it was a pretty good day because he got to do some CPR, play with some AEDs, and got to spend some time with me as well. It was actually a pretty sweet day because I got to spend some time with him, and he was having fun laughing at the various spillings of liquids on my black polo shirt that he had borrowed. The downside of today was the complete lack of productivity on my part. Between ducking in and out of those sessions, having a brand new laptop from work that isn't set up properly to do much of any work, and Mom needing me to fix the phone and scan some documents, I've barely gotten anything accomplished. I was under the false assumption that I would be able to do a little work from home before I realized that I had never really used this laptop to remote into work before. Even a little tweaking from the co-worker didn't help matters. There's so much to do and I'm crippled by my shiny new laptop which has no ODBC connections or remote functionality. I still haven't figured out what the hell is wrong with my old Nexus, but at least Mom has a working phone now. That's most of it right there, her having the means to communication. If the phone doesn't come back to life I'll just install the apps back on her old phone. Meanwhile I'm thinking if it does come back to life, I'd like to use one of the phones for Google Play Music again. Listening to the old songs on my iPod is ok, even though I end up skipping most of the oldies and weird music selections that I usually don't accommodate. Well, would like to type more but I'm pretty wound up right now. But damn, this is a good looking laptop with a crisp display. Just wished I could do some work on it.

Vegas 2012 (posting the draft)

We've been back for about a week now, and I still get back on routine. It feels as if as suddenly as I was placed in Vegas, I'm back in my old routine which feels foreign and not very exciting. But some very great memories came from this vacation. Here's are my highlights. I was going to do a top ten but felt like I would either have to inflate my list or reduce my list to fit the format, so here's to arbitrary lists in no particular order! The Beatles "Love" show. I didn't really know what to expect, but my expectations were certainly heightened. Elaine didn't even know that it was a Cirque du Soliel production until we were seated - she was under the impression that it was just four guys in wigs all along. Stepping into the theater, I was a little concerned about the nosebleed I would getting from the distance of the seats. The view seemed a little strange, obstructed and partitioned. Then the show started. There's a burst at the end of "Get Back" I think, when the stage literally explodes with action, light, and my heart just exploded right along with it. Tears just streamed out of my eyes because I was just overcome with emotion. Here was the music that I love and here were people who loved the music much more and had reimagined the song with a show. It was almost like seeing some odd alternative footage of the Beatles that I've never seen. I was listening to the album at work and it occurred to me that there were portions of songs whereby I don't even remember what happened on stage. I was just so entranced and elated that it was just a life event that took all the analysis out of me. AdventureDome We pretty much hit the midway and the AdventureDome throughout the week, but one of the days we got the kids wristbands because it would just end up costing entirely too much money to pay for each ride. The adults cheaped out since we weren't going on too many rides anyway, and half the rides would just be too small for the adults. The kids did their usual kiddy rides but Alex and Zoe actually braved the little roller coaster with smiles on their faces. It was by no stretch of the imagination a scary ride, but it was unexpectedly and uncharacteristically brave of them to pick the little coaster ride. In our eyes, they grew a little older that that. The lines were shorter as well, so they basically got off, and went back on again. Along with all the other stuffed animals they had won earlier, Circus Circus was truly a great choice for our family.

A Good A Time to Restart This Thing.

I think thinking about Tumblr to get more of an audience but really, the only person that I need to be writing is still myself. It's a therapeutic practice that allows me to express myself without feeling like a drone. But the trick of it really is to dive right back into the details that don't seem interesting - at least not for the time being. Years from now I'm sure that it'll be interesting. So here's the uninteresting bit of my life. The financial honeymoon has finally leveled out, and it's rather harsh. We are house poor, having sunk a lot of the savings into the house (ultimately a good thing, don't get me wrong) and having almost half my paycheck go toward mortgage every month. It's not like I can avoid it, if I wanted to stay in this area. It's just expensive having a 3 bedroom house with 2 dogs in the state of Washington. I bet the neighborhood has a lot to do with it. I am living in a fancier neighborhood than I deserve, but it's a good thing. I just have to worry about rich kids bumming my kids out with their privileges and iPhones. That isn't too bad of a thing. But back to the point. So when we moved in with my mom, we didn't pay rent - just the utilities, our food, and helped out whenever we could. The rent was covered, so we were doing ok. My mom started to push us out so that she could sell the house, and incidentally around the same time I got a much better paying position, so that was grand. Then my wife's stepmom passed and the inheritance came in, which helped with the repairs to my mom's house, and to get set up on our new house. But once we got a new car, paid toward the house, and took all the family to Disneyland, we're now back to level. There is no extra money floating around anymore. It's just what I earn, and what the wife earns. It's been harsh. Having to drastically alter our spending habits to be frugal again has been a tough lesson. We're recovering, but it's slow. The kids have changed in the few years I've stopped blogging as well. Currently the crisis is regarding the boy's attitude and the girl's motivation. Alex has been pretty good, keeping up with the homework to earn that screen time that he so desperately covets. He has to bear the injustice that his friends are able to play M rated games while good old Dad insists that he keeps to the Teen rating, unless he's playing with me. It's really not a real issue - I keep plenty of good games to keep him interested, but he wants what he can't have. The attitude comes about when we stand in the way of his video games - when he butts up against the rules because he's got a late assignment, or a grade below B. Then it's like a low grade conflict whereby he's passively upset that he doesn't get video games. He lashes out at my wife more than me, probably because he knows that beneath my mild irritation can be a furious hothead. It's not like I resort to hitting or demeaning him, but I do lay into him if I think he's having an attitude problem. But overall, he's doing well in school. He's trying hard to get my attention and I'm not trying hard enough to give it to him. I call it just clashing personalities. I don't know how girls are supposed to act, but I have an impression of how boys are supposed to act. And I have these incorrect expectations on him. It's not fair. I'm working on it. The girl has an interesting predicament in that she's not really indifferent when we're talking to her about late assignments - but her actions say exactly that. She had 11 late assignments over Spring Break, which she spend a good chunk of her time during Spring Break making up, and then proceeded to not hand in any of those assignments in the week she was back at school. It was just baffling. Like making a meal and then hiding it from others. It's elevated to my wife making Zoe write lines over and over again, how she should not hand in late assignments or something to that effect. I feel more distant with Zoe than I'd like, but she's just growing up. Needing me less. Getting interested in boys, as far as I can tell because she's chatting about them with Erica. The thing they never tell you about parenting is that keeping them alive is relatively easy, but making sure that they grow up to be responsible, humble, empathetic human beings is the hard part. And it's not even like they'll get rewarded for having non-selfish behavior. It just makes them better people overall. At least in my eyes.

Kidney Stone

Well usually there's not a lot going on in terms of life changes, but since this is the first time I've had an adult type ailment, thought I might as well document it for the sake of being thorough. Something like that. It kind of started off as a weird one off thing - it was Thursday night and after dinner, I just started feeling a little off, my stomach was starting to hurt. After I put the kids to bed, the pain became much more crippling and I was just laying in bed trying to be comfortable and to ward off pain. The guess at the time was that all the corn that I had eaten in the prior two days - five ears of delicious corn - had failed to digest properly and was now clogging up my intestinal tract in some manner. Because of my son and stepdaughter having a similar type situation, that's just what I chalked it up as. It was painful, and took a few hours to subside, but it was enough to make me cautious and work from home the next day. The next day was pretty uneventful, other than the fact that I work terribly from home because of my lack of self discipline. But nonetheless, no pain episodes, it was all good. On Saturday we were going to pick up Mom and make it to the Ramen restaurant by Crossroads, and so that was in place. We headed out there and I was a little tired to begin with, for whatever reason I didn't sleep very well and was still quite tired with a headache. In retrospect, this headache should have been a very big clue of being dehydrated. But we as we looked into the restaurant, it was still quite packed so we went to Barnes and Noble just to kill a little bit of time. While in there, the abdominal pain got to affecting my walk, so I tried sitting on a bench but it wasn't real comfortable. After a while, I just sat on a comfy chair and the pain escalated to a level of strong discomfort. I told the family to go ahead and eat without me, since we were already there anyway and I didn't want the others not to eat on the account of my pain, so I just sat at Barnes and Noble, trying to look normal as I was wincing and taking short breaths. The pain in the abs were one thing, the back muscles spasming was really painful. When Elaine came to check on me, I suggested just sitting in the car so I can have my suffering at least in privacy. So we made it outside and she was going to drive the car closer to me, and I couldn't really cover much distance in the state I was in anyway. After an initial attempt to locate the car, she did finally find the car, I got in there, and she finished lunch with the family and it was off to Urgentcare. There they proceeded to not give me anything for the pain, make me wait far longer than it was really necessary, and come away with a diagnosis of having a kidneystone about 6mm that I was going to have to pass. "It's comparable to the pain experienced during childbirth", she said, as I kept shifting in the uncomfortable patient chair. When we got back to Mom's, I thought that maybe if I just tried to nap it off, the pain would subside but no such luck. Her place was cold and it was causing the pain to be amplified. When I went to the bathroom to attempt to have a BM, ended up throwing up - which actually made me feel better. I just wanted to be home at that point so poor Elaine had to drive home in the dark. The next day, I was fine. Nothing major happened, but I did send the boss a note about what happened. Just in case last night happened. At around 3:20 am, I woke up in pain and begun a long night involving severe abdominal and back pain, labored breathing and sweating, and lots of throwing up. Like an obscene amount. I tried to keep my pain from Elaine since she had to work, so I went into the office to attempt to be comfortable. As she tried to lay down with me in the office, I moved back to the bed and it was just hours of shifting around, moving to the couch, back to the bed, to the toilet to throw up, and I didn't feel anywhere close to human until 1 something in the afternoon after I had gotten some decent sleep. And after that, I still have some pain but it was more manageable. It wasn't crippling me. So now I sit up in bed, extremely worried about what lies ahead for me. I've eaten very little today, drank a lot, and took a vicodin before bed. The pain is so palatable that I'm actually afraid to go to bed. We'll see what happens I guess.

It's been a while.

Haven't thought about blogging for a long time. I think I held off for a while because I just didn't have anything new to say. The kids are fine, I'm frustrated about my life choices, and work is stressful. It had become a cycle of routine of banality and patterns. But recently, a couple Christmas ago, I started on a path that allowed me to revisit the reaches of my imagination. There was less and less of "stop daydreaming and more and more of "this is happening now." It was a reawakening of the way I used to let my mind shoot around without the consequence of probability. And suddenly, I gained new perspectives, got more comfortable with the truth, and am starting to reach some level of understanding that was only hinted at before. We are all searching for the truth in many different ways, but for some it's focused on different things. Some of us find truth in our relationships, some our jobs, some our religions. I find truth to be very freeing and very intimate. I seek to see the truth within our people but they are unwilling to open up to me. And perhaps wisely so, since I approach it in a more obtuse way. I just now started to realize that there was something, after all, to pass on to the kids. It wasn't learning how to fish, or fix a car, or anything like that. It was my passion and I had two eager children who are willing to put in the time to learn this odd hobby of mine of making believe and making little videos. I still don't think I'd be able to pull of something good a lot of times. I just don't have the kind of conviction it requires from start to finish - at least not anymore. I lost the foolishness of my youth when there was a monthly mortgage to pay off so that my children could have shelter and food. I still don't have the organization that is needed to tell a good narrative. I just have bits and pieces, and my skill level will stall out a little pass mediocre. It's never soaring above the rest so it would be noticed and marvelled at, it will just rise close to the top. One of the photos that I really want to get at some point is one of me and Zoe holding hands, just being Daddy and Zoe. In a couple years, that may disappear. Like forever. Well, perhaps until I get older and it would seem okay to hold your father's hand again and he mopes around unwittingly. Really right now I still enjoy that Zoe wants to hold my hand. When we get out of the car, I'll even expect a tinier hand to slip into mine without fail. When my hand doesn't get gripped, I would instinctively wonder where she was. The hand has gotten bigger over the years, but it's a familiar bond that I'll cherish for many years to come. And I have to get that photo before it stops happening.

Unmotivated

Here I am with a little free time on my hands and I should be working on my story, but as always, I'm a little stuck on words and the feeling that my story outline isn't quite complete is bugging me.  The tone isn't quite right so I keep doubting myself, and my mind isn't quite on track to focus on a story right now.  I don't know right now what it would take for me to get going on the story, but I'm not about to solve it right now.  Right now I'll just jot something on the blog and call it a day.

Taking an extra day to burn off some PTO, which has been kinda nice because I've been a little burned out from work.  Not that it's hard or stressful, just very routine and uninspired.  I can't complain because it does pay the bills and the roof of which we're under.  Different things inspire me than what my work offers, which aside from the customary monetary compensation, also offers the good karma of being a lifesaver.  Which is barely passable because I'm not entirely sure what I do have a direct effect of somebody's life being saved.  Nonetheless, the thing that inspires me the most is perhaps the power to inspire others, to invoke emotion through the medium of writing, or photography, or video.  That truly is my muse.  The entertainment industry would get me working for next to nothing because it fills that void in my soul that none of the other jobs I've done can.  But until the house is paid off, this is what I'm doing, I guess.

One of the things I've been struggling with of late is my incessant multitasking, and I don't mean that in a productive, awesome way.  I mean that in a distracted, destructive manner whereby I have to fill every waking second with some data intake of any sort, whether it be news or reddit on my phone, or audiobooks in the car, or podcasts at work.  My brain does not get a calm moment to cultivate a thought in my head because I'm constantly bombarding it with information.  On Saturday I had to just step outside into my backyard with my ukelele, strum a few chords and just lay on the trampoline and stare at the clouds.  Yes, you could argue that's still doing too many things at once, but it was exactly the thing that I needed.  Something that did not benefit anything.  Just to be present in my own world. I need to do that more in order to be productive.  To force my brain to vacate once in a while.  Because even when I sleep, my brain often goes into overtime, formulating dreams that always result in me waking up and being mentally exhausted.

On Saturday we also went to see Star Trek Into Darkness, because after our accidental viewing of Iron Man 3, I found that I actually do enjoy going to the movies.  Except we just saw the 2D version of Star Trek because I didn't want to spend 60 bucks seeing a goddamn movie in 3D.  I'm all for technological progress but ever since the 3D craze reemerged a few years ago, I honestly can't say that it has enhanced my viewing experience.  I still remember going with my wife to see Superman Returns in IMAX and what a big deal that was.  And only sections of that movie was in 3D.  

I think I'll go read now.  That sounds relaxing.

The Tree of Death

Was trying to conjure up an interesting title about the tree incident and the Terence Malick movie came to mine. That silly movie about evolution and a bratty kid in the 1950s. Okay, the movie wasn't really that bad, but it was a wee bit frustrating. Anyhow, I had previously written an entry about this incident but I had accidently deleted the whole thing with one swift keystroke. Then I was so annoyed that I just put it off till today. So a few days ago, I was standing there with Elaine, looking out our porch window at the trees at the preserved area next to our house. This preserved area has a swampy feel to it, with a wild growth of different scrubs, tree, and growth all over it. There's really nothing appealing about the area, but our concern was with a couple of bare trees that were tall and menacing. We were debating about its reach - whether or not if it fell, it would make any contact with the house. Later that night, I was in the office messing about with the computer when there was a snapping sound, following but a massive crash that sounded dense and dangerous. I ran downstairs and Elaine asked if I was alright, but I said it was an outside thing. We stepped outside and she was startled by the big log on our back porch. I looked at the fence but couldn't see any damage, and there didn't seem to be any damage to the house, so I couldn't quite figure it out. Turns out the tree had actually fallen against the neighbor's house, chipped off a portion of the roof, and then the top bit of the truck flew off, slammed against the side of our house and dented the down spout, and bruised the paint job a little. After helping the neighbor clear the debris from her driveway, I was out of breath, drenched, and a little in shock. It was a little strange all that stuff happened in such a short time, and we had to react so suddenly. This weekend I've got some hatchet shopping to do because a simple saw would just take too long to work through the truck. But yeah, it the span of three months, we've had two minor house issues, with the roof leaking and the murderous flying tree of death. Hopefully this next year we shall see nothing else.

Procrastinating

Even though I don't technically get back to work until tomorrow, there's really some work that I should be doing right now in order to prep for work. But somehow, I'm still not doing it. Just clinging onto the last few hours of my winter break. It's some exploratory experiment I have to do for Sharepoint but I'm not versed enough to do exactly what I need to. I'll get around to it eventually. But yes, tomorrow it's back to work for me. Right now Alex has his friend Matthew over, and after a Nerf gun battle, they're settling down to play some Little Big Planet. They're just as raucous as ever, they are children that can be heard from a ways away. It's nice for Alex to find a friend especially since he's not quite on the same wavelength as the other children. I feel like that's okay, I've always been the same in that the rest of the kids are always so anxious to be grown up and hold different statuses while I've been the one who really wants to go at my own pace. Alex tends to stick closely to his pace and so far hasn't really noticed that nobody else is running alongside him. Being in this house really does make me happy - it's not about home ownership or some kind of status symbol, but just having this space and knowing that unless I don't pay my mortgage or something extraordinary happens, this is my space, and me and my family members give this home a soul. I honestly haven't taken too many photos of the kids in the house or the house itself, but I believe it's just a matter of me dropping the portable devices and spending some time doing that. Maybe right after this I'll go snap a few pics just to fill my 2012 quota of photos. After watching compliations of failed stunts and tricks on youtube with Elaine, there really is a fine line between bravery and stupidity, and the line is drawn very much in sand. I've done hours behind the video camera and perhaps I never churn out anything worthy of youtube or AFV is basically I'm usually pretty mellow. I don't jump off high places or sail off ramps to impress anyone. Some might call that boring, but I prefer to think of it as self-preservation. I prefer the absence of pain over the basking of glory.

2012.

Unbelievable. Had half a page of crap written down about how I was going to start the new year by blogging more and trying to get some writing mojo going and I decide to sabotage myself by a sequence of keystrokes which deleted everything that I had written. Pure genius. Save. So as I was saying, there's one more day before I have to get back on the grind. It's a different kind of grind, not like the tedious, repetitive grind that I had been doing before, but rather a challenging one whereby I'm supposed to level up my experience and knowledge every day I'm there, proving to everyone that I'm supposed to be the guy they need. Yes, my job is like a RPG. It's work, and I'm not completely certain where I'll end up, but I keep plugging at it, striving for greatness. Save. So instead of retreading and telling about how Christmas went and how I spent the day taking down Christmas lights and reorganizing the garage, I'll just reflect about the year ahead. Other than possibly going to Disneyworld, I've really got nothing planned. Damnnit, they're watching AFV. I've got to go.

Playing Hooky

Well, technically since I did put it a PTO request and I'm where I'm supposed to be, it's not really hooky. It's just and extra day off tacked onto the weekend so I can reclaim some of my own time. There has been momentous changes in my life, and it's been a little over a month since we've moved into our new home. We have more or less settled into a routine, and the house that we were trying to slowly fill with our dream furniture and furnishings is almost completely filled out because of our impulsiveness, impatience, and a little wiggle room in our checking account. In a couple weeks, we will fill this house with family for Thanksgiving, and I will be rocking the deep fried turkey for perhaps, the most awesome damn bird I've ever had the pleasure to cook. We also have friends visiting this weekend, so that will be fun for us. We also have been exploring our home improvement roots, taking on repainting Mom's house with a light orange coat of paint. We are not in the least careful, having spilled paint in various spots on the carpet that we have every intention of replacing, even before we had the notion that we could pretend to paint. That's going relatively well although it is going rather slowly. Either using too much caution or not being brave enough. November is shaping up to be a pretty exciting month - we should be getting our IXXI's next week hopefully, which is coming from the Netherlands, which I imagine have nordic looking printing out our photo cards and wondering why I consider my photography passable for any wall on any house. Also next month, I will be the owner of a Kindle Fire, which is like the poor man's iPad. Still though, it will be nice to have this tablet that I don't have to strain while reading, or suffer 3rd degree burns from like my laptop. And of course, Thanksgiving and the day after orgy, which is when I hope to acquire another television for our bedroom. Hopefully in the near future as well, I can get to revising and somehow producing one of my old screenplays. I glanced at it recently and it was a little rough. Somehow a 11 year old script will seem dated and awkward at whatever stage of life you read it at. Anyway, enjoying the new house, living the life. Stressed about work more than I've ever been but I guess it's got to give somewhere, right?

Getting Rid of the Landline Affordably.

This is a work in progress, and certainly not the best possible way, but I think it should suffice.

So we're finally deciding to ditch the landline, and switching over to mobile phones.  But because of budgetary contraints and since we generally don't use the cells enough to warrant a plan, I had to come up with a good method to keep everyone connected for as cheap as possible.  This is what you'll need if you're interested.

1) A broadband connection with Wi-Fi

2) A Skype account

3) An Android phone

4) A google Voice account

Costwise, it'll be about $140 for the phone, $30+ for the Skype subscription (annual), and whatever you pay for your broadband.  Naturally, if you don't already have broadband, or a computer, it's not very cost effective at all.  But for my particular case (broadband and computer a necessity), the mobile solution got a lot easier.

So, to start things off, what I did was to purchase a prepaid phone with Android.  You can actually get a refurbrished phone from T-mobile for 99 bucks, but I ended getting my wife and mom new T-mobile Comets for about 120 bucks.  Because the phones work on Wi-Fi, I turned off the 3G and all my data goes to my phone via my home Wi-fi.  I downloaded the Google voice and the Skype app.

I already had a Skype account with Unlimited Nationwide calling for about 30 bucks a year, it's basically a subscription that allows you to call anyone using Skype (computer or in this case, Android phone) to anyone in the US, landline or mobile.  It's not a bad deal with the computer, an even better one with the Android.

Then, I got a google voice account with a local number.  What Google voice does is a little hard to explain, but basically it's like smart voicemail.  Say my number is 555-5555.  If someone calls that number, GV will forward the call to any number of mobile phones, like me and my wife.  If either of us answers it, it stops ringing.  If nobody answers it, it goes to voicemail in GV and it can email you the message or you can access it on the computer.  It also has a transciption thingy but it's rather buggy.  So what that means is that to check your voicemail, you don't have to use your cell minutes, just use your broadband to check the messages.

So with all this setup, when I make a call at home or anywhere with Wi-Fi, I call the number, choose skype out, and I'm talking via Wi-Fi.  No minutes used.  When someone leaves a voicemail, I reject the call, it goes to google voice.

There are limitations because I can only use Skype to make calls via Wi-Fi.  When I receive calls, it will cost me minutes so basically I have to be the one who calls.  Also, Skype's a little buggy on the Android.  It stays signed in, and then for some reason it gets stagnant and doesn't want to place calls a few times.  You basically have to kill Skype before you make a call, which is a free app at the Android store.

This hasn't been fully implemented, but I'll be sure to update if it does/doesn't work out.

 

Facebook Statuses about Pearl Harbor

Yesterday before heading out to McDonald's with the kids, I saw a Facebook status that was akin to it being "Karma" that Japanese people are dying because generations ago, the Japanese military bombed Pearl Harbor.  And the status also noted that we shouldn't be collecting donations for the Japanese people because they didn't do anything for us.  I had a very instant "WTF" response, and it pretty much tainted my whole evening because it was so amazingly ignorant and xenophobic in nature.

It's gotten a lot of blowback from the internet community since, showing up even on reddit, and I just have to get up on my soapbox for a minute here.  I really shouldn't have to state why that avenue of thinking is dangerous and self-centered, not to mention incredibly stupid to boot.  But I just have to say this:

You can be a patriotic American without being hateful towards another country or its people.  

It's simple common sense but everytime I read about the religious protesting the right for a mosque to be built, or Indians being targeted because they looked like Muslims, or even that vapid comedian with his goddamn terrorist puppet - it drives me insane.  They perpetuate the stereotype of the narrow-minded gun-toting American that the world is wary of.  Shoot first, ask questions later.  

In recent months, I've read about troops in the Middle East disobeying orders to shoot citizens protesting their governments, and these troops no doubt love their country and have swore to protect their homeland.  But they have to know the difference between right, wrong, and being patriotic - and where that patriotism rests on the scale of ethics.  

So if you read about one of these Facebook statuses, I think the best thing to do is to comment on their post, and tell them that you've donated some money in their name for the people of Japan.  I think that's the most patriotic gesture you can show.

My ass is encased in a form-fitting cushion of awesome.

The memory foam that we ordered from Amazon finally came today, and it was a little sketchy when I pulled it out of the box initially.  It was so tightly folded up and bounded into a bale that it didn't look like much.  Even as I was dismantling it, I had to peel off what seemed to be a half inch of foam that looked and smelt like dried animal hide.  I had hoped that it was a good purchase, and wasn't so sure when I left to return to life.

But when I returned a few hours later, it had grown to it's natural state - the thin slab of stinky cheese slices was now a hefty, thick slab of form fitting heaven.  I'm not quite sure how it'll play on my back, but here's to the hope that it'll fare better than my memory foam pillow.  We had gotten those in the mail yesterday and although my wife claims to have had the best night of sleep in a long time, my experience was far from endearing.  In fact, I kept waking up to find my head laying on what felt like a chunk of cold cut.  My back was stiff and annoyed when I got out of bed this morning.  But I'm going to give it a week, see if I adapt to the pillow or vice versa.  If it doesn't pan out, I'll set the damn thing on fire.  I guess it's a bit flammable from what I read.

I uttered something witty today, even though I'm sure even the person I was talking to probably didn't even hear me.  But someone asked me if I was leaving too, and I replied that no, someone has to stick around to swab the decks of this sinking ship.  Sigh.  So many of my jokes never get realized because I don't have the same kind of audience as I used to have.

One of my major shortcomings is my constant feeling of regret.  Nothing to do with my family or anything like that, I truly love them and secretly thank them for preventing me from becoming this train-wreck it could've been.  But rather just the little things.  Things that I've done that, in other people's perspective, may have been good, bad, or just fine - but I still feel bad one way or another about it.  Probably one of my worst life decisions had to be that I went into wedding videography.  I know there have been customers who have recommended me, who simply love what I've capture on their very special day, but I've also had customers who have either not given any feedback - which I feel is probably because they hated it but didn't say anything, or they straight out disliked my work. 

I think the idea of ever being that responsible for someone's life event terrifies me now.  I don't mind doing something like that as a friend casually, but if money was involved or I was the sole person capturing that event?  No thanks.  I even had a dream the other night about an idea for a short film, had it all ready to go - but the lead actress had a schedule conflict.  I just don't want to deal with that anymore.  I'm getting comfortable with the idea that I'm a better follower and contributer, and not so much a leader.  I loathe the responsibility of being one.  I often even wonder if I'm a good enough father - although in that analogy, it's probably good that I'm even questioning that notion.

Anyhow, that's something that I have to work on.  Letting history be just that and not reliving it over and over again.  I suppose writing things on a blog isn't necessarily the best path to living in the moment either.  Hmm.

Migraines and change

Really nothing that says good morning like waking up at four in the morning with a killer headache. Then I just got hyper-freaked about the time and tried to sleep despite the constant worry that I just wasn't going to get rid of the headache. When the ipod finally sounded, the headache was itself in full blast. So, utilizing one of the perks of the job and the fact that my manager is in Sweden, I emailed in that I was going to work from home after I slept the headache off.

So hours later, when I woke up feeling a bit confused, I ended up going into work anyway because there really is a ton of work to do and my job isn't the type of job whereby the work goes away you make it go away. So I went in, stayed really late, and now my schedule feels off again.

At any rate, I really needed to work today because our weekend was a giant spending spree, and amazingly a lot of it was done without even leaving the house. We got a memory mattress and pillows at Amazon, then got another Roku box because despite the PS3's streaming capabilities, it is more of an afterthought app that sometimes stutters at what it has to do. And I love that company anyway. I think we've bought 5 Rokus from them now. All the power to them. Then we went on another spree at Old Navy, because I really need more clothes than polo shirts and sweatshirts, so I got some dress up shirts and kids clothes. All and all, a grand damage to the checkbook.

High Strung

It's ironic that I was once so bored with my job and I felt like I wasn't challenged enough. And above all that, I had no time to do anything at all. Because now I'm constantly thinking about work, worried about work, and dealing with constant deadlines that I have to constantly tell myself to relax and pace myself. It has gone the opposite direction and considering the circumstances, I am feeling much better about my job and where I stand in the world, although I don't feel like I have enough time to do everything that I need to do.

For a while when I was helping out at my current position, I would simply enjoy the longer days, playing a lot of video games, feeling much more relaxed. Now I play far less video games, mostly on weekends and not even that much. For some reason I'm gravitating toward watching shows more, its passive nature somehow seems a little more appealing to me. And perhaps, just being able to find the time and place to play my type of games can be difficult.

I've been thinking about video a lot, it really seems to be my medium of choice despite its inherent difficulty. It's easy to take a bad photo and make it interesting, but bad video is just bad video to me. My expectations for my HD camera have been borderline, recently hearing about people using their DSLRs to take classy looking videos have gotten my interest spiked, even though it is still lingering in the ball park of the prosumer cameras. I don't really have a great reason for getting a high end camera of any sorts, since I'm not actively pursuing any artistic endeavors. But nothing like nice looking video gets me feeling giddy. The Nikon D3100 has entered my field of vision, and it's a camera that retails for about the same as my D50 years ago. I don't really have any need to upgrade the still photography aspect of it, although having that bundled with HD video is something that I would love to be able to do. And with the lenses that I have? Sweetened the pot instantly.

I don't know, it's just to fulfill that gadget bug that constantly bites at me, I'm not even entirely sure how much shooting I would actually do when I do get a camera with video. Probably not much than I am now. For now I'll likely shelf the idea because of the moving in June, the possibly layoffs, and god knows what else.

It's really like a lie that I tell myself, that I'm ok doing what I do, when I really miss going around shooting movies and telling stories that nobody really watches. If only I had the gift of drawing, or animation, or having friends to make movies with me. Well, off to bed. Friday's around the corner.

Star Brite

My brain is rotting.

Trickery