The next monthly update
Hi there, LJ. Miss me? The holidays are almost here, so I might as well take a moment to breathe and go ahead and update the world on what I've been up to.
On the home front, things are progressing. The large dent in the hallway drywall has been replaced with a new section of drywall. I still need to put up joint compound and tape (and hope I've done everything right so far), which I may do this weekend. This is mostly unexplored territory for me, so I've been moving forward with some trepidation. Not so much that I haven't been doing anything, but it keeps me from taking the initiative as much as I probably should. I'm probably being overly cautious; I'm just afraid of screwing this up. Also, the house is a bit healthier - the_z and Andi have been vaccinated against the H1N1 flu, so hopefully we can start going back to church (we'd been avoiding it because the children's area would likely be one big disease vector). I haven't had the H1N1 shot yet, but I've had the seasonal flu shot, so between the two of us we're immune to most of what's going around. At least one of us should be healthy at a given time.
Outside of office work (which keeps me busy, but not in a bad way) and house work, it's been a gaming month for me. I celebrated getting my laptop back by getting a copy of Borderlands. As expected, I'm lagging behind my friends, who have all finished at least one playthrough, but I'm making progress and getting near the end. Monday nights have been good - between evildennis, richman1, and myself, we have three laptops with the game installed, so we just LAN party out at Richard and Dan's place. The fusion of FPS and RPG is reminiscent of Fallout 3, but with more emphasis on the former than the latter, and with Diablo-style random loot, it's got me hooked. Also, I've been playing around with Torchlight, a budget-priced Diablo clone from the developers of Diablo (surprise, surprise) with some WoW-ish features thrown in for good measure. Finally, Z found a copy of GTA4 on clearance at Target last week, so I've finally been getting back to the adventures of Niko Bellic in the seedy underbelly of Liberty City.
I've also joined the Cult of the iPhone. I've been wanting one for a while, and last week I received my 2-year anniversary bonus at work, which was just the right price to get me upgraded. (On a side note - two years. Has it really been that long? It's gone by so fast.) I am still no fan of the Mac (and I'm a bit annoyed that the iPhone app SDK is Mac-only), but I can't deny that Apple makes a great GUI. The phone is just wonderfully intuitive. I was surprised by the lack of a real manual for the thing (compared to the ones that came with my past Nokias and HTC), but after playing around with it I've realized that it's not really necessary. It's slimmer than my old phone, easier to use, and far more powerful - what's not to like? I haven't gone crazy in the app store yet, although I did pick up Button Men for nostalgia value (and because I needed a game on there). I'm sure I'll pick up more over time, but for now I'm just enjoying exploring what the phone can do.
Thursday is Thanksgiving, and then my holiday season begins in earnest. Of course, Christmas items have been in the stores since before Halloween, and it creeps back earlier and earlier each year, but I'm trying to remain steadfast when it comes to the "traditional" holiday window. This means it's time to put up my Christmas list, get the tree out, get some lights up, and figure out when to do my shopping so I can surprise Z again this year...
On the home front, things are progressing. The large dent in the hallway drywall has been replaced with a new section of drywall. I still need to put up joint compound and tape (and hope I've done everything right so far), which I may do this weekend. This is mostly unexplored territory for me, so I've been moving forward with some trepidation. Not so much that I haven't been doing anything, but it keeps me from taking the initiative as much as I probably should. I'm probably being overly cautious; I'm just afraid of screwing this up. Also, the house is a bit healthier - the_z and Andi have been vaccinated against the H1N1 flu, so hopefully we can start going back to church (we'd been avoiding it because the children's area would likely be one big disease vector). I haven't had the H1N1 shot yet, but I've had the seasonal flu shot, so between the two of us we're immune to most of what's going around. At least one of us should be healthy at a given time.
Outside of office work (which keeps me busy, but not in a bad way) and house work, it's been a gaming month for me. I celebrated getting my laptop back by getting a copy of Borderlands. As expected, I'm lagging behind my friends, who have all finished at least one playthrough, but I'm making progress and getting near the end. Monday nights have been good - between evildennis, richman1, and myself, we have three laptops with the game installed, so we just LAN party out at Richard and Dan's place. The fusion of FPS and RPG is reminiscent of Fallout 3, but with more emphasis on the former than the latter, and with Diablo-style random loot, it's got me hooked. Also, I've been playing around with Torchlight, a budget-priced Diablo clone from the developers of Diablo (surprise, surprise) with some WoW-ish features thrown in for good measure. Finally, Z found a copy of GTA4 on clearance at Target last week, so I've finally been getting back to the adventures of Niko Bellic in the seedy underbelly of Liberty City.
I've also joined the Cult of the iPhone. I've been wanting one for a while, and last week I received my 2-year anniversary bonus at work, which was just the right price to get me upgraded. (On a side note - two years. Has it really been that long? It's gone by so fast.) I am still no fan of the Mac (and I'm a bit annoyed that the iPhone app SDK is Mac-only), but I can't deny that Apple makes a great GUI. The phone is just wonderfully intuitive. I was surprised by the lack of a real manual for the thing (compared to the ones that came with my past Nokias and HTC), but after playing around with it I've realized that it's not really necessary. It's slimmer than my old phone, easier to use, and far more powerful - what's not to like? I haven't gone crazy in the app store yet, although I did pick up Button Men for nostalgia value (and because I needed a game on there). I'm sure I'll pick up more over time, but for now I'm just enjoying exploring what the phone can do.
Thursday is Thanksgiving, and then my holiday season begins in earnest. Of course, Christmas items have been in the stores since before Halloween, and it creeps back earlier and earlier each year, but I'm trying to remain steadfast when it comes to the "traditional" holiday window. This means it's time to put up my Christmas list, get the tree out, get some lights up, and figure out when to do my shopping so I can surprise Z again this year...