Let's kick out an October update ( Read more... )

Rhythm games have been around for decades but over the last ten years, the peripheral-based guitar simulators like Rock Band and Guitar Hero have rules the streets and been quite a time-sink for my friends and family. I remember countless tunes being strung out when I first got to play the very first Guitar Hero way back in 2005. Since then, the ( Read more... )

Nicole and I have had a lot of stuff happening with our teeth these last couple weeks. She's begun using her dental health insurance to visit a general dentist for her first real check-up and cleaning in years. Unfortunately, they found several cavities and areas that could use some work on her teeth, so twice in the last two weeks she's gone in to ( Read more... )

Last week was a crazy week around here. Nicole and I finished up dog/house sitting for her friend and coworker but both of us came down with a cold so it was a rough beginning to the final week of October. Immediately after that, Ryan and his fiancé Kim hastily moved to Ohio from here in Portland.

Now, we knew this was coming. Ryan got laid off ( Read more... )

Nicole's first few weeks at her new job have been very rough. Several times, she'd come home completely ravaged by the stress. It sounds to me like the place-a private practice counseling and psychological therapy clinic-needs more staff and desperately. Nicole was brought on board because another staffer is leaving for a few months on a maternity ( Read more... )

Nicole and I have been racking up milestones in our relationship for months now. They've all been wonderful events and with each one, it seems we fall a little deeper for each other. Having her living here has been educational and fruitful and even cathartic. There are no conflicts and sharing my entire apartment with her is even easier than was ( Read more... )

A couple Sundays ago, I got out with Matt and Ian and did three rounds of indoor airsoft. I didn't know what to expect. Cassandra gave the three of us these passes as gifts nearly an entire year ago and we've been dragging our feet on using them. They were about to expire, so we finally made it happen. None of us had ever done this before (We're ( Read more... )

It was an otherworldly event nearly two weeks ago. My brother, Ryan, who happens to work along side me at the microprocessor producing industrial fab we work night shift at, surprised everyone on the shift by abruptly quitting with no warning. He told me about it early on in the shift but kept it a secret until telling his boss towards the end of ( Read more... )

My apartment is finally truly coming together! I've collected just about everything I need to really properly function here. I've got all the furniture I need and all the little gizmos that make it work. Several of the rooms are also what I consider complete and furnished. My independence is becoming more and more permanent by the day. For those of ( Read more... )

Alrighty, it's New Year's Day and I've got a moment so I'm gonna push out my yearly "Year in Review" entry. Let's do this thing!

In January I was notified that I would become the information technology support person on my shift at work. In February, I officially began being the shift's IT person after a week of training. In March, I got my first ( Read more... )