Yes, I Am Still Here

Wow - it's a little dusty around here, isn't it? I haven't updated the ole' blog in months, and every time I did think about updating it, I said to myself, "but it's been so long!" That is a nice self-perpetuating situation, so now it's time I break free from the shackles of stupidity and update the damn thing.

I am very well aware that I still need to post pictures up from last summer's vacation, but those will have to wait for another day. Instead, I'll try to catch you up with what has happened over the last four months or so.

Little League

As I may have mentioned previously, I am on the board of directors for our local little league. Finding volunteers is always a challenge, as many people are just too busy (or unable) to help out. I have managed my son's team for the last three years, and really enjoyed it and the kids and parents in the community that I have been lucky enough to meet and get to know. Since the league was in dire straits to find a new board, I volunteered as the information officer.

It has been a lot of work, but overall, I think it is worth it. The people on the board are all good people, doing their best to make sure that the kids of our community have the opportunity to baseball in a safe and fun environment. I have spent late nights at monthly board meetings, weekends doing sign-ups and field prep work, and time during the day responding to board emails and the like.

I am not managing this year, and am instead, merely coaching. It's sort of driving me nuts not being in control, but I'll get over it.

Christmas

I took my normal two weeks off after Christmas, and promptly got sicker than I was all year. During the coarse of 2008, I took two sick days off from work. While on vacation, I was bed ridden for nearly three days. That'll teach me...

Other than that, we had a very nice Christmas and New Years. No Christmas cards were sent this year, due to the ebola plague that swept through the house. I like to think of it as a minor inconvenience to our friends, and a minor bonus for the tress.

Tech-talk

The day after Thanksgiving, I braved Fry's and purchased parts for a new computer at prices almost too good to be true. Actually, they were too good to be true because of those damn rebates. Here it is, four months later, and I am still waiting on my final rebate to arrive from Abit.

The system is an Intel Core Duo 2.6 Ghz machine with 2 GB ram, and nice Nvidia video card, and a decent SATA hard drive. It plays Team Fortress 2 beautifully, and I haven't really bought any other recent games due to time limitations. It should last me for the next couple of years easily.

So, that is a very brief update of what I've been doing over these last few months. I'll try to update the blog a bit more regularly as time and obligations permit.

Guitar Hero and Me

We bought the kids a PS2 for Christmas, and bought two new games that don't involve just sitting on your arse all date long: Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) Supernova and Guitar Hero. I bought DDR plus two dance pads for my wife and daughter, whereas Guitar Hero and the axe that comes with it was for my middle son and I (really).

DDR is fun, and a good work out as well. However, this post is not about DDR. No - this post is an ode to Guitar Hero (GH), one of the best games I've played in quite a while. At it's base, GH is a rhythm game, where you press down 'frets' and strum as the game directs you. The music is divied up into sections which advance in complexity, starting with "Opening Licks" and progressing in difficulty until you get up to the final the "Face Melters".

The selection of songs is outstanding, and each is performed not by the original artists, but it is difficult to tell. Another bonus:I've been exposed to a lot of music which I never heard before, and like most of it. I have now almost completed the game at Medium difficulty, and will probably make the leap to the next level sometime in the near future.

The neat thing is that this has caused me to pull out my Fender Stratocaster and clean it up and play with it a bit. My son is fascinated with it, so maybe I'll try and practice a bit with it. It's been a longgggg time since I last practiced, so it isn't going to be pretty. I'd take lessons if they were'nt so damn expensive...

Anyhow, if you get a chance to play it, give it a shot. I bet you'll enjoy it if you like rock music.

Thy Dungeonman 3

Ok, this post is brought to you by the fine folks at Homestarrunner.com. If you can remember the first generation graphical adventure games, then you will certainly get a kick out of Thy Dungeonman 3. While it is a parody of the old games, it is in fact a complete mini-adventure game, which I just finished in something under 10 minutes or so. Give it a spin, and relive ye olde monochrome graphics adventure.

And yes, I know that Zork I was not a graphical adventure. However, it sort of defines the genre (sans graphics, admittedly), so bugger off!