"I'm alive" and other startling facts
Well, Ok, I guess that isn't that startling. But it is a fact.
Wow, I can hardly believe it's been a month since my last entry-- time just seems to fly on by!
Anyway, as usual, Teeka and I had a good, if uneventful month. In fact... I can't even think of one particular event that's happened during that time that merits individual noting...
Hmmm... So, for lack of anything else to say, I will say the Teeka and I are kicking ass and taking names! She's started putting a lot of time into making avatars to sell in SecondLife. (Check them out and buy one!) I think she's having a lot of fun doing so, and they seem to be selling better than her plushies have been selling. And it's always encouraging to be making money, eh.
I've been putting a lot of time into a programming project which, well, I've been meaning to do for about 5 or 6 years now. It's a helluva lot of work; Y'all probably won't see a public beta of what I'm working on for several more months yet. But it's really fulfilling to me to be working directly on something that has been a life-long ambition for some time now. I won't say what it is right now (don't want to ruin the surprise, eh. ;) other than to say I'm also learning a lot about different web technologies in the process. Fun, fun!
Teeka and I have also started exercising again. And we've been doing a good job sticking with it this time-- Intense DDR sessions for a half hour about 3-4 times per week. So far we both haven't really lost much weight (we've not changed our diet much-- just cutting down on soda intake and some of the more unhealthy foods), but I think we both feel better and more fit.
We've worn out the soft (and very crappy) Red Octane DDR pads I bought a couple years ago (we're getting almost as many errors as good inputs from them at this point), so a couple weeks ago I ordered a couple Gamesis GS-9300 pads. They got here last Thursday... and I could immediately tell they were crap. Don't believe the site: They're claiming the pads' frames are made of 100% stainless steel, and the pads can handle a 600lb+ player. The truth is the pads' frames are made of a thin stainless-steel sheet that's been bent and welded into shape, but the all-important base-plate is made of cheap plywood. It's a Very Bad Thing if I can easily bow the dance pad using just my bare hands. And the button triggering mechanism? Don't get me started. When will the DDR pad manufacturers finally figure it out that aluminum tape + a small charge grid = one of the worst and least-durable ways to activate a foot-triggered switch? Apparently pretty-much all the commercial high-end DDR pad manufacturers do it this way... well, all except one...
The one good thing about this pad is the reseller has been very cool about letting me return them thus far. The pads will arrive back at their place tomorrow, and then we'll see what kind of refund I get. (And how ferociously I pursue the task of ruining the manufacturers name among the online DDR crowd.)
In the mean time, I've ordered a couple of new dance pads (which should hopefully be able to withstand this 275lb dancing fool jumping around on them) from Cobalt Flux. These are just a little bit more expensive than the pads I bought from Keepgaming.com (which were already damned expensive-- and ludicrously priced considering the quality of their product), but from everything I'm reading about this company and their products online, these are *the best* home-use DDR pads in the industry right now. And heck, if they can handle an enthusiastic fan running over his pad with several different cars, then immediately playing and scoring well on a difficult song with the same pad right afterward, well, then I'm pretty sure they'll handle my mediocre efforts. :)
Um... and that's the month.
During July, Teeka and I will be going on two different week-long vacations, both of which will take us out of the country at least once. (Well, kinda-sorta. It *is* Canada, after all.) We'll take cameras, of course, and hopefully the pictures we take will eventually end up on the web, eh. :)
Edit: Actually, there is one unusual thing that happened this last month...
This last week I was contacted by my old friend Tarcel, who I hadn't really e-mailed, IMed, or otherwise communicated with in about 5 years. (And I was -> <- this close to getting away from him entirely. ;D Also, I logged into the #transformations channel on irc.menagerie.tf for the first time in about a year... It seems June has so far been the month for rekindling old relationships for me!
Wow, I can hardly believe it's been a month since my last entry-- time just seems to fly on by!
Anyway, as usual, Teeka and I had a good, if uneventful month. In fact... I can't even think of one particular event that's happened during that time that merits individual noting...
Hmmm... So, for lack of anything else to say, I will say the Teeka and I are kicking ass and taking names! She's started putting a lot of time into making avatars to sell in SecondLife. (Check them out and buy one!) I think she's having a lot of fun doing so, and they seem to be selling better than her plushies have been selling. And it's always encouraging to be making money, eh.
I've been putting a lot of time into a programming project which, well, I've been meaning to do for about 5 or 6 years now. It's a helluva lot of work; Y'all probably won't see a public beta of what I'm working on for several more months yet. But it's really fulfilling to me to be working directly on something that has been a life-long ambition for some time now. I won't say what it is right now (don't want to ruin the surprise, eh. ;) other than to say I'm also learning a lot about different web technologies in the process. Fun, fun!
Teeka and I have also started exercising again. And we've been doing a good job sticking with it this time-- Intense DDR sessions for a half hour about 3-4 times per week. So far we both haven't really lost much weight (we've not changed our diet much-- just cutting down on soda intake and some of the more unhealthy foods), but I think we both feel better and more fit.
We've worn out the soft (and very crappy) Red Octane DDR pads I bought a couple years ago (we're getting almost as many errors as good inputs from them at this point), so a couple weeks ago I ordered a couple Gamesis GS-9300 pads. They got here last Thursday... and I could immediately tell they were crap. Don't believe the site: They're claiming the pads' frames are made of 100% stainless steel, and the pads can handle a 600lb+ player. The truth is the pads' frames are made of a thin stainless-steel sheet that's been bent and welded into shape, but the all-important base-plate is made of cheap plywood. It's a Very Bad Thing if I can easily bow the dance pad using just my bare hands. And the button triggering mechanism? Don't get me started. When will the DDR pad manufacturers finally figure it out that aluminum tape + a small charge grid = one of the worst and least-durable ways to activate a foot-triggered switch? Apparently pretty-much all the commercial high-end DDR pad manufacturers do it this way... well, all except one...
The one good thing about this pad is the reseller has been very cool about letting me return them thus far. The pads will arrive back at their place tomorrow, and then we'll see what kind of refund I get. (And how ferociously I pursue the task of ruining the manufacturers name among the online DDR crowd.)
In the mean time, I've ordered a couple of new dance pads (which should hopefully be able to withstand this 275lb dancing fool jumping around on them) from Cobalt Flux. These are just a little bit more expensive than the pads I bought from Keepgaming.com (which were already damned expensive-- and ludicrously priced considering the quality of their product), but from everything I'm reading about this company and their products online, these are *the best* home-use DDR pads in the industry right now. And heck, if they can handle an enthusiastic fan running over his pad with several different cars, then immediately playing and scoring well on a difficult song with the same pad right afterward, well, then I'm pretty sure they'll handle my mediocre efforts. :)
Um... and that's the month.
During July, Teeka and I will be going on two different week-long vacations, both of which will take us out of the country at least once. (Well, kinda-sorta. It *is* Canada, after all.) We'll take cameras, of course, and hopefully the pictures we take will eventually end up on the web, eh. :)
Edit: Actually, there is one unusual thing that happened this last month...
This last week I was contacted by my old friend Tarcel, who I hadn't really e-mailed, IMed, or otherwise communicated with in about 5 years. (And I was -> <- this close to getting away from him entirely. ;D Also, I logged into the #transformations channel on irc.menagerie.tf for the first time in about a year... It seems June has so far been the month for rekindling old relationships for me!