You are lost

The holidays are over and things are starting to calm down again at work.  However I won’t receive the bulk of my personal time back until later this month as one of my coworkers is gone.  He just got married and will be away on honeymoon for a while.

You would think that after two and a half months I’d have a bunch of things to tell you about.  Sadly this isn’t the case.  But life hasn’t been completely uneventful either.

We had a cold snap with a little snow that lasted a couple of days.  Not exactly winter but enough to throw a couple of snowballs… er… slush balls.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years:  all pretty uneventful.  We did a couple of dinners when we could, trying to balance out everyone’s busy and conflicting work schedules.

December 28th was a sad day as Skol & Jen had a death in the family.  Their youngest child died.  It feels like I should say something more, but what more can you really say?  Tragic.

December 29th Jeff and Jenny had a baby.  I don’t speak with them much but I still wish them luck.

Matt got a truck from his father.  A Ford F-150 I believe.  Free.  Trucks are always useful.

Yesterday while playing scratch tickets Matt won $1000.  Pretty sweet.  A good way to start out the new year.

I find out in the next couple of weeks if I get a bonus this year (it’s looking like I won’t but I don’t know for certain yet).

In my limited spare time I did manage to find a few things of interest to me.  Massive Attack has a new album coming out soon.  I found the video for one of the singles, Paradise Circus, which I found to be very enjoyable.  Link NSFW as it does contain pornography.  A little more safe for work would be a Zombie Kitten Apocalypse cartoon.  New to my musical interests is a group called Cage The Elephant.  Not a favorite, but not bad.

Speaking of Cage The Elephant, let’s talk about video games.  Even when I don’t have time to play them myself I often will watch Matt or whoever else play.  One of the new games in the house is Borderlands, which is where we were introduced to the music of CTE, who did the intro.  Other games around the house lately have been Super Mario Bros Wii which is great fun, Left 4 Dead 2 which I haven’t had time to really get in to at all (although I want to), and Animal Crossings DS which is by no means new but pretty relaxing when you haven’t got time to commit to anything in depth or involving.

I didn’t make any resolutions for the new year.  I figure all my goals are the same as last year… and the year before.  More of the same “nose to the grindstone”  routine with maybe a touch more time management.  For those of you interested in Chinese horoscopes, February 14th marks the Chinese New Year; 2010 will be the year of the Metal Tiger.  The correlation here is Tiger symbolizes aggressive energy towards the completion of tasks, seizing of opportunities, and otherwise reaping the rewards of hard work.  I don’t put much stock in horoscopes but it sounds good to me.

Here’s hoping the best to all of you in the new year.

Before getting too deeply enveloped in work I managed to do something interesting last month.  I threw an Unpregnancy Party.  The idea came about while talking with a friend who was going to be going to a baby shower.  She mentioned wishing someone would throw her a party but she didn’t want to get pregnant, to which I responded something to the effect of “I throw a small party every time I find out the girl’s not pregnant.”  I decided my personal feeling of elation should be spread to an all encompassing celebration and made it in to a reality.  Pics here.

I also had the chance to unwind with a copy of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.  After the first title, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, I became a big fan and the latest installment was no disappointment.

I’ve now been with my job 2 years.  That kind of made me sad.  Not that it’s a bad job, not that I’m ungrateful or anything like that, I just want to leave this town state.

Goodness, the month has gone by so quickly.  Work eats my life.

Monsoon season is coming, which excites me.  Last year was the 5th wettest on record and was such a pleasant experience.

For relaxation I’ve been playing Left 4 Dead lately.  Shooting zombies in the face with shotguns is quite refreshing after a long day of work.

Not much else going on, just figured I should post something.

Sara won a mattress set during a work event, so we now have a brand new Bamboo mattress to sleep on.  It usually goes for around $1,000 so free is pretty sweet, but most importantly it’s pretty comfy.

They put a 2nd Stacker machine in the mall, so now we have 4 to raid in the area.  I probably haven’t had a chance to mention yet that our household, Matt in particular, is pretty damn good at Stacker.  Our haul so far?  An electric scooter, a Nintendo DS, a Creative Zen M Mp3 player and 2 GPS systems (one is a Tom Tom, I don’t remember what brand the other is).  We’ve maybe put $50 – $70 into the machines since we started playing so we’re pretty pleased with our success thus far.

Here’s a fighting game called Faith Fighter.  Use your deity in a death match!

And here’s a set of maps depicting density of sinners per county based on the seven deadly sins.  What did I learn from it?  Wyoming is as boring as it seems and never move to Florida.

Still not fixed.  Hmm.

It’s been 1 week of not smoking.  So far so good.

Explored around Prescott and Prescott Valley a bit more lately.  Found some neat areas.  I’ll have to take some new pictures soon.

Fallout 3 is great, and the soundtrack is wonderful too.

Full of buffet… must digest.

My blog is all hurr.  I’m still working on that.

I’m attempting quitting smoking again.  So far 4 days.

Wii fit is fun.

Starbucks is not fun.  Or cool.  Tell your friends.  Not cool.

So here’s what I’ve been doing for the past month.  I’ve played/beat Professor Layton and The Curious Village (DS), Portal (XBox) and Army Of Two (XBox).  I am still currently playing Beautiful Katamari (XBox), Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Ring Of Fates (DS)  and Every Extend Extra (PSP).

I’ve also been doing some reading.  I finished “Hello, I’m Special” by Hal Niedzviecki, an interesting analysis of the promises and realities of western pop culture and the rise of the conforming non-conformist.

I’ve also finished Disinformation’s “Book Of Lists” by Russ Kick, “The Stranger” by Albert Camus and am currently engaged in a re-read of Brave New World.  I’d really like to read Lord Of The Flies again, but I no longer have a copy of it, and I’ve got plenty of other things to read without picking up more things at the library.

In the way of music, it’s been a little of this and that.  New stuff from KMFDM, 16Volt, Juno Reactor and a few others.  Some Katamari Damacy tunes, some Calexico, Iron & Wine, my playlist has been all over the place.

Not much else is new or really going on.  Reading, playing video games, listening to music; this is what you do when you don’t have everyone to hang out with.  Play with my cats, work on the yard.  I quit smoking for 2 weeks in there somewhere, but that failed.

I think I’m going to organize some kind of yard sale or something.  Sara and I have a bit of clutter going on and selling it off wouldn’t be a bad idea.  I think the Pirates could do with something like that too.

It seems that days off come with 20 million things you should/need to do.  Today is no exception.  While I drink my coffee and debate my desire to tackle the mountain of chores ahead of me I thought I’d write a little something.

It’s spring here.  My lawn is coming up, trees are blossoming and the cats are being mocked by a pair of house sparrows who decided to build their nest right outside the window.  I’ve been relaxing with a copy of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles:  Ring of Fates, which has proved to be very enjoyable (yay video games!).  There’s a little carnival in town, which I’m tempted to go to tonight.  Riding a Ferris Wheel sounds pretty relaxing.

Money is still pretty tight, but there have been some improvements that allow me a little more room to breathe.  Sara has paid off her medical bills and I’ve taken care of one of my credit cards.  Although there’s still a long way to go to be out of debt (and I’ll be focusing on that primarily) I can spend a little on… living.

Now on to some cleaning before I lose all motivation.