Dallas, 11:25 PM: Tomorrow marks my “return” to work, so in the back of my mind all night I get to imagine just what my email inbox will look like. Completely barren? Thousands of unread messages to go through? Ideally somewhere around the 50-100 mark since that should mean only 10 or so that I need to care about.
My dad and I went out and bought a TV to mount in the wall on his study today as a way to retire the streaming TV setup I’ve had rigged up for years. The fact that the chipset fan on that computer died and wasn’t booting up properly was definitely a factor in going that route, so I now just am left with dealing how to replace that machine. I’ve contemplated doing a WHS upgrade in Seattle for a long time, and it seems to make sense to go ahead and do that in the near future so that my existing WHS machine can come be the replacement for down here. I know, it’s so horrible that I have to buy new computer parts. Let the research begin?
Dallas, Personal - Seattle
Dallas, 10:50 PM: Reading about my last Christmas here, I see posts about how I gave my dad Tiger Woods 11 for the 360 and was concerned that he and my mom would become hugely addicted, causing me to have to fight with them over the 360 when I came back. Yeah…pretty sure aside form when I absolutely berated him once, the 360 has never been on aside from when I’m here. This year I decided to try the Kinect approach and see if talking to the TV + ESPN will draw any additional use out of it while I’m in Seattle. I also threw in a copy of Kinect Sports Season Two since there’s golf in it, and maybe my dad will enjoy Kinect-enhanced golf more.
My game choice of the day was actually Orcs Must Die!, a game that I first learned about back at PAX East that I hadn’t ever gotten around to playing yet. Fine, I was also motivated to play it because of one of the achievements for the Steam sale/contest, but I would have gotten around to it eventually! The same may not be able to be said for the plethora of other games I’ve picked up through Steam while on sales, but all it takes is the promise of free stuff to get my attention.
Dallas, Personal - Seattle
Dallas, 11:10 PM: It’s never really made sense to me why car manufacturers release in year X the model year of X+1. Strange numbering choices aside, my mom is now driving in the future for the next week while the calendar catches up to her new car. Now, when the auto companies get around to releasing the model year X+2, someone is going to have to put their foot down (or figure out who invented time travel).
I do have my priority of family over games straight and as such did not play Old Republic any today. With much less family stuff on the docket for tomorrow, even though it’s Christmas, the probability is higher but not a given. I’d still really like to beat Assassin’s Creed 2 this trip, but that’s just going to require tearing me away from my computer and Kindle for a much larger time period than has been possible so far.
Dallas, Personal - Seattle
Dallas, 11:40 PM: So, I’ve mentioned a couple times before that I have a plan being put into motion soon. I’ve been intentionally vague about the whole thing because, really, isn’t it more interesting that way? You won’t have to wait that much longer to find out about it though. In fact, I’d give it just a little more than a week before all shall be revealed.
This isn’t going to be some vlog-like plan either that lasts for all of a single day. This is a 12-step plan if you will; a carefully crafted, selected, and strictly controlled plan that will be put into motion. It’s also a plan that I can really only do once since I’m working with a limited set of resources. In fact, I’m even stretching it a little bit to begin with, but the plan’s integrity should still remain intact. After all, everything included is aiming for the same purpose, so I’m fine with not being completely inflexible with my requirements.
Dallas, Personal - Seattle
Dallas, 11:50 PM: Who would have thought that if you just sit and read for a couple of hours, you can finish the remaining quarter or so of a book before you go to sleep at night? It’s like I don’t have any experience power reading from Harry Potter or anything. So, now it’s time to power read again I guess?
While I haven’t had the desire to check my work inbox at all this trip, my mind is wondering just how many unread messages I’m going to have come Tuesday. My phone hasn’t even been syncing that account, so I’m completely in the dark as to what’s been going on. In past years the email traffic has been (predictably) quite light, and I don’t really have any reason to believe this year is any different just aside from the fact that it could be…
Dallas, Personal - Seattle
Dallas, 11:50 PM: I’m balancing playing through The Old Republic with reading on my Kindle so that I can move onto The Hunger Games and finish it by the end of the month to take advantage of being able to get my December book from the Prime lending program. This has meant that my 360 has been quite unloved, and those plans to make progress in those games haven’t been in full effect. I’m also not nearly as close to the end of Assassin’s Creed 2 as I thought I was, so the plan to wrap that up over this trip may not end up happening.
So to not fall behind in my movie review duties once again, I went with my parents today to see the new Sherlock Holmes that just came out. I don’t remember that much about the first one (I’ve seen it all of once), but according to my previous review I scored it a 7/10. I felt like I was definitely more entertained by this one, and fortunately no knowledge of the first was necessary for any reason. Mission Impossible was better and I’m guessing The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo will be also, but it was at least able to hold its own. My score: 8/10.
Dallas, Personal - Seattle
Dallas, 11:40 PM: Yep, today marks me having been alive for a quarter century. By extension, that also is the amount of time that my parents (and the rest of my family) has had to put up with me. For the first few years I was pretty inefficient at most things though, so I give myself until 30 to claim a quarter century of subjecting them to my sarcasm and sharp wit.
My birthday present this year from Bioware was the launch of The Old Republic, and it’s a pretty fun game that runs quite well on this computer now that I upgraded the video card. I don’t have any major complaints with the game which is a good thing, and it’ll be interesting to see how quickly some of the more minor issues are dealt with. Also, the update cadence will probably have a direct correlation to my interest in the game; Burning Crusade was pretty much the only WoW expansion that had me hooked throughout the entire interim of it.
Dallas, Personal - Seattle
Dallas, 10:40 PM: Twas the night of The Old Republic launch and all across the internet, people were waiting next to their computers, unable to be a Jedi yet. The clients were installed onto hard drives with care, knowing soon they would be in the world made by Bioware. The servers were racked in the datacenters with ease, knowing players would soon come and go as they please.
Just then out of Austin arose such a clatter, people rushed to their computers to see what was the matter. People dashed onto Twitter and the forums with haste, fearing “extended maintenance” were the words to be faced. “Fear not!” cried the producers, the developers, and the crew; “the world of The Old Republic is now open to you!!”
People opened the launcher, clicked Play, and then waited, finally able to play the game not dare called overrated. What they thought would be joyful quickly turned to despair as they stared as their monitors reading the words present there. “Server full,” the game said as people went into a queue, destined to spend yet more time waiting, approximately an hour or two.
Slowly people got in and began their first quest, hoping not to remain behind those in the test. As the bad guys were killed and the loot was acquired, people slowly logged off once they just were too tired. “I’ll be back soon!” they all said as they crawled into bed, letting dreams of their characters dance around in their heads.
Dallas, Personal - Seattle
Dallas, 1:40 AM (12/19): Clearly I’ve been seriously slacking in my movie review duties because not only have I missed one review that I promised (Ghost Protocol), but I also completely neglected to mention watching Live Free or Die Hard on my flight to Dallas yesterday. As an apology, I shall work to remedy this right now by giving you a double dose of movie reviews. Hopefully you’ll be able to forgive me for this horrible tragedy.
Let’s start off with Ghost Protocol since I saw it first. Going into the movie, I had a mental checklist of expectations that I expected the movie to provide. Explosions: check. Completely unbelievable stunts: check. Certain actors reprising roles from previous movies: check. Turns out that in addition to meeting all of my desired criteria, it was actually a pretty good movie as well (and the critics appear to agree). Purchase worthy? Yeah, I think so. My score: 9/10.
Live Free or Die Hard is a movie that my parents actually went to go see when it first came out, told me that I’d love it, but I only ever got around to watching it right now on my Fire courtesy of the free money I have to use or lose from Amazon. I don’t feel like I missed out on anything amazing by not seeing it earlier, but it was definitely entertaining. You also have to wonder just a little bit how I went so long without seeing it given the subject matter. It’s probably worth adding to my Amazon cart as well, although I may want to watch the rest of the series and see if a boxed set is going to be the better purchase. My score: 8.5/10.
Dallas, Personal - Seattle
Dallas, 1:40 AM (12/18): Awww, how cute, Seattle is trying to be like Dallas! Tip: don’t try to be like Dallas in the ways that anger me though. Weather is the primary way I’d like the copying to happen. Causing me issues when I’m aiming to travel is one of the things to avoid. Sorry if that wasn’t obvious from the start. Also, the issues aren’t supposed to happen on my way to the airport, just once I’m there. Hope we have all that cleared up now.
For my birthday coming up in just three days, it’s not even on my radar all that much. Even Christmas isn’t really registering on my anticipation meter much this year. Maybe that’s because I can tell you exactly how it’s going to go: hint, I’m basically just getting lots of money. Don’t get we wrong, I’m not complaining about this arrangement, but I can buy whatever I want at any other point throughout the year though, so it’s basically just numbers changing around in my back account more than normal.
Dallas, Personal - Seattle