In under 30 minutes (for Dallas, the ball has already dropped in NY) it will cease to be 2006 any longer. My mom pointed out that this is the first time in many years where I haven’t been babysitting for someone on New Year’s Eve, although I bet I would be if the Bambachs hadn’t moved. Not that this is really any different; I’ve primarily been watching TV (switching back and forth between Disney and ABC), but I do have my computer to use.
I don’t know if there’s really a good New Year’s Resolution for me to make or not. Any of the “obvious” stuff I’d either do anyway (i.e. get all ‘A’s in school) or is just plain impossible (i.e. put a significant dent in my game backlog). Contrary to what many people might think at first, I actually do save a lot of money, so that doesn’t work. This past year it’s obvious I’ve been updating my blog a lot more, so that resolution would be pointless. There’s a lot of stuff I want to do this next year, so I guess just to follow my passions is the best resolution I can make. So, 2007, let’s get it started!!
Personal - Dallas
I must be slacking on my random fact awareness because not only has one of my blog streaks been broken, it’s been broken 3 times since May. My previous record for sequential days with posts was 10 (5/12/05-5/21/05), and I broke that actually exactly 4 months ago on a streak that went for 14 days (9/20/06-10/3/06). Since that one went unnoticed, I then technically broke the known record again in October with a streak of 11 (10/10/06-10/20/06). Finally, I’m on a current streak that even breaks the one of 14 with this post being #18 in a sequence starting on the 13th. I don’t think the “longest time without a post” record of 15 days has been broken, but with all the posting I’ve apparently been doing, it would be surprising if it was.
Also, looking back at my post from May recounting my second year, I’ve also made almost one and a half times as many posts so far this year as I did in each of the first two years. With still about 5 months to go, it’s probably very likely I’ll double my post count at least. I guess what people say is right; third time really is the charm. :)
Personal - Dallas
In my post on the 22nd I said, “After that [going to Arkansas], I pretty much have nothing left until I go back to school on the 8th”; I would now like to retract that statement. I have Twilight Princess to keep me busy, I should be working on a program for Andrew more than I actually am, and I have a pending tech support call on my grandparents’ computer. Never let me complain that my life is too dull.
The Disney Channel has better shows than I would have given it credit for even just a couple of months ago. I keep finding myself seeing what’s on it when I get bored, and there are a couple shows that I actually enjoy. Yes, they’re “kid shows”, but they’re still pretty entertaining. The only problem with that? It keeps me from doing the work (listed above) that I should be doing…
Personal - Dallas
So in the process of spending $340 today (which could have been over $400, but I decided to hold off on getting Seasons 1 and 2 of Numb3rs on DVD), I went ahead and bought Twilight Princess on Gamecube so I could play it now instead of waiting until I got my Wii. So far, the game is really fun (I’m playing through it without a guide, so also semi-difficult), and after having played it for about 5-6 hours this afternoon, I’m not even to the second dungeon yet. This will put all my other games on a pretty much indefinite hold because, come on, this is Zelda we’re talking about.
Personal - Dallas
We got home this afternoon after about an 4:30 long car trip, so I was extremely happy to get back to my house. Nothing overly strange happened between my last post and this one, so I’ll keep it short as I’m attempting to get back onto a normal sleeping schedule before school starts back up in a week and a half. I haven’t made as much progress as I wanted to on my “3 languages”, but there’s still time to maybe get done what I wanted with two of them.
Personal - Dallas
As much as I didn’t think it was going to happen, I hit $1000 from my birthday and Christmas yesterday when my aunt gave me $60. Even more surprising, my count is at $1000 and I haven’t counted any of the money that another one of my aunts gave me (some of it is in change, don’t ask, and I’m going to run it through a coin counter machine). That should be about another $100, so even with the modified system in our family of giving gifts to each other this year, I still got just as much money as I have been (only fewer presents, which arguably I never really used anyway).
I think I’ve made my decision to skip actually beating Kingdom Hearts and just move onto Chain of Memories. I’ll probably do the same with FFX if I can’t beat the final boss in another try or two. I just don’t have the time to go back and level up when there are so many other games I have which are unplayed. This means I’ll work on finishing up FFT by the end of the week and then move onto FFXII.
Personal - Dallas
That’s correct, I’m actually in Hot Springs right now and will be until Wednesday afternoon (so my post tomorrow could share the same title, but it won’t since I’m witty enough to come up with another title). Anyway, neither my PSP nor my GBA got any play time in the car since I just rested in the backseat with my eyes closed for a good 2 hours (but not asleep, I can tell you lots of stuff that went on during that time). After I got bored of just doing nothing while resting, I decided to listen to my iPod while resting (Straight Outta Lynwood).
We opened presents here this afternoon, and while I’m not complaining about this (although I know it’s going to come off sounding spoiled), it is the first time in recent history that I can recall not getting all the games I asked for on my list (only 2 out of the 7 from my grandmother). I did, however, get a Wacom tablet that will get put to god use while I try to learn Photoshop and design websites for me, my mom, and my aunt. I’ll save the reason why I don’t really mind picking up the other 5 games I didn’t get for tomorrow because I can already think of a title for that post. :)
Personal - Dallas
As we have for the past couple of years, my parents and I opened gifts tonight rather than waiting for tomorrow morning since we’ll be leaving around 9-9:30 for Arkansas. This will be out first time to go this “new” way (cutting across from McKinney to Greenville), so me might get….lost. Of course, I’d rather we didn’t, but getting lost typically isn’t something you plan on doing. If you do, I don’t think it’s called being lost anymore, but more along the lines of being an idiot.
So, tonight I have to pack my clothes along with whatever entertainment I want to take. I didn’t beat FF Tactics, so I probably won’t be taking FFTA along, and then since I don’t really feel like playing “don’t lose the stylus in the car”, that means no DS either. Therefore, my primary entertainment forms will be my PSP (Metal Gear Acid and MGS: Portable Ops), my GBA SP (Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons (GBC games, one of which I still haven’t beat) and probably Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising), and my laptop with a DVD or two. That’s how you entertain me for a 4 hour car ride, at least I hope it is…
Personal - Dallas
I have fairly large plans for our eventual media center and network, but basically right now it’s at a state where I can’t do much of anything until the technology catches up with my desires. Time Warner has (or will be imminently) changed our cable system to the standard one outlet system, so that means I can how utilize Cablecards to tune to all the digtal channels. Well, that’s great except for the fact that Cablecard support won’t be coming until Vista, which releases at the end of January. And then, Cablecard tuners will only come in new PCs that have been “certified” by CableLabs, so it’s not like I can upgrade one of our existing computers or buy the parts on my own.
Additionally, my dad wants to get a TV down in his study. Well, there’s no cable outlet, so my choices there are either to have one installed or go with some solution utilizing our network. Sony has their LocationFree line of TVs that operate wirelessly, but they’re (IMO) overpriced and people have made less than stellar comments about the video quality. So, that means that any other TV would need to use a Media Center Extender, which requires a Media Center PC, which I don’t want to get until I one can use Cablecards, which…
Finally, I also want to set up our network so that essentially our entire (read: primarily my, but some of my mom’s and dad’s also) music and movie collection can be streamed to any computer (and eventually TV through MCEs). Well, right now the file server I have set up is running Ubuntu Linux, and the primary technology used by MCEs (Windows Media Connect) isn’t available under Linux. So, that means I’d need to install XP or Vista onto the computer to achieve that functionality, but the computer I have set up to be the file server right now isn’t powerful enough to run either of those. That means I’ll wait until we get a Media Center PC running Vista and offload all the media duties to it, keeping the file and backup storage handled by the old computer (which I eventually want to replace with a sleeker, smaller one, but that’s like a next summer project).
Personal - Dallas
I’m now into the second chapter of FF Tactics, and this is probably the best way I can sum up the story to this part: imagine having a deck of playing cards, and the first chapter lays them all out on a table nice and organized. Now, for the second chapter, rub your hands around on the table messing up all the cards, then step back and let others try to figure out what is going on. I’m not saying the story is bad, but it definitely falls into the “convoluted” realm.
Tomorrow I’m going to see a movie, Sunday we have a candlelight service at our church, and then Monday morning we’re heading up to Arkansas to spend Monday and Tuesday with my grandparents. After that, I pretty much have nothing left until I go back to school on the 8th (although I do have to go get my books sometime before then).
Personal - Dallas