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How ‘Bout Those Resolutions Fat Boy?

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Well we’ve completed another trip around the sun, and I always like to look back at the prior year to see how I did on my resolutions.  Kinda half and half this year, so let’s see how I fared:

Enjoy my family – On this one I think I did very well.  I made it a point to schedule work trips around recitals and gymnastics meets, and made it a point to say yes more often when I get asked “Do you want to play?”  Could I still be better?  Sure, but for the most part I didn’t let work consume me, and was able to let my family know they were important.

Maintain my weight and Exercise SOME – Nope.  Not even close.  I’ve gained back about 15-20 pounds since last year at this time and I’m not happy about it.  I just need to get my head back in the right place.  I’m sure this will be something for 2014.

Play more Games – I absolutely excelled on this one.  I completed both Startcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm and Bioshock: Infinite.  I got sucked into the addiction that is Minecraft with my daughters and spent many an afternoon or evening building and mining with my girls.  We also played a lot of Settlers of Catan, and Ticket 2 Ride on the board game front.  Santa brought Risk: Plants vs Zombies edition, Tsuro, and Zombie Dice for Christmas.  My parents also bought us Sour Apples to Apples.  I’ve got Plants vs. Zombies 2 and the next Walking Dead series queued up on the iPad.  So I feel I can once again call myself a gamer.

Learn some stuff – Once again, not really close.  I try to tell myself I’m too busy, but unfortunately the times I could be learning I tend to plop down in front of mindless TV.  I know I’ll do better in the coming year.  I just signed a two year contract at work with lynda.com.  I’ll make sure to take advantage of that.

Update my personal websites – I actually completed this as well.  I tried a couple new themes here on the blog, and have come up with one I like.  In addition I took roling.com and set it up to point to all of the places I spend time online.  I figure I’m putting content in a lot of places, so I should make those places easy to find.  They might evolve more in the coming year, but I’m happy I finally got around to completing the updates as my places were feeling kind of stale.

So like I said, I was about 50/50.  I really need to get healthier again, and that’s the one I’m most upset myself for failing on.  I’ll definitely turn that around in 2014.  Now to think about what else is important to me for the upcoming year…

Wii will, Wii will, HURT YOU!

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Well, Santa was good to our family this year and brought us the Wii. The wife and I were excited by the prospect of the Wii because we thought it was perfect for my daughters (aged 4 and 6.) Well we couldn’t have been more right, the Wii was a huge hit with the girls yesterday.

The console comes with Wii Sports bundled in. So you get Bowling, Golf, Baseball, Tennis and Boxing. And man, does boxing make an impression. We had our whole family along with Grandma and Grandpa playing everything and it was a riot. But boxing was the true workout. You dodge and punch and block your opponent in the air, and you really get winded. The funny thing about boxing was that my four year-old beat EVERYONE she played. Repeatedly. In fact, she still hasn’t lost. And trust me, after getting knocked around a couple times I tried my damnedest to beat her to no avail. It was amazing. My little girl, my little princess, simply beat the living snot out of everyone. It was pretty hilarious.

I have to say I really like the bowling too. It is the perfect type of game to showcase the motion sensing characteristics of the Wii controllers. My eldest asked the wife to play today, so the girls have been perfecting their bowling ball spin. My guess is that they are going to dominate this hard-core gamer for quite some time.

All I know is that today I hurt… bad. My arm, shoulder blades and back are all killing me. So are my cheeks, but that’s just because I can’t wipe the smile off my face!

To the land of corn

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Well, I’m back to posting within a week, but that’s still better than my previous bi-weekly attempts at personal publishing 🙂 I have been developing applications for three whole days so I’m starting not to see straight. I love being able to develop, it’s probably the most fun part of my job. But alas, I’ve hit a wall.

That’s okay, tonight will consist of some mindless TV (Fox’s Fastlane) and then on to the computer at home for some Neverwinter Nights gaming. We’ve skipped two full weeks of our Friday night ritual, so it’s time for some mindless bloodlust after the mindless TV. Ahhh Relaxation!

And tomorrow I will return to my birthright, the land of corn, Iowa. We’re visiting my parents so Kali can see grandpa and grandma. It’ll be nice. I can use a relaxing weekend in the middle of nowhere. Who knows, maybe I’ll get some golf or some horseback riding in too!

One thing that will make the driving bareable will be my XM Satellite Radio. I have the Delphi Ski-Fi unit, and it should allow me to listen to uninterrupted music all the way from Chicago to Iowa. It worked well on my test in the car today. Now we just have to see how it will hold up on the trip. My guess it will hold up flawlessly…

Lastly, with all the work I’ve been doing lately, you start to lose sight of the important things in life. That’s why I taped a couple of fortune cookie fortunes to my monitor at work. This will always remind me that “Family is more valuable than money” and “You have so much to be thankful for.” Indeed. Indeed I do.

Should I Flash You?

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AHA! A post just THREE days after my previous one. Something must be amok! Actually, it’s the Friday before Easter, and half the business world took today off, so it’s been a slow one on phone calls. Made for a nice change. Got to catch up on some development work that I’ve had coming up. It was a nice day actually.

The dev work made me really want to start working on my personal website at roling.com. Basically I want to revamp it and make it more visually appealing and maybe even more interactive. Also, I’m going to add the blog to the site, so the world can actually see what I’m up to out there. Seems weird to bare your soul to the world on the web, but I guess that’s what makes us tick as narcissists. Once I get the whole thing done, I might re-do the entire site in Macromedia Flash. Basically just to get using some of my Flash skills so they don’t get stale. Then when someone comes to the site I’ll have a lo-band version and a high-band version. Now to get motivated, and to get time…

Well no NWN tonight. Our DM didn’t have enough time to work up a module for us, so we’re holding off another week. I’m starting to have withdrawals. Might have to finally fire up the MOO3 for a long romp.

Another thing at the homefront was the addition of a small swing set for Kali in the back-yard. Jen bought it on Tuesday and she and my mother-in-law put it together the other day. Along with the playhouse that my parents got her, the backyard is starting to shape up to be a nice play area for Kali. I think she’ll be spending a lot of time outside this summer. She’s so damn cute. It’s nice to have a Daddy’s girl.

Time to MOO3, and Pronto!

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Well no more blahs. I’m back in the saddle again so to speak. It’s not that I’ve necessarily been more creative, i’ve just been busy.

Anyway, My parents ended up not coming that weekend, so we got some stuff done around the house. And re-reading my last blog post I actually wrote that re-installing operating systems was “fun.” God, am I boring or what? On second thought, please don’t answer that.

Well two things will keep me creative for awhile. One is that I picked up the TSU 3000 Pronto remote control from Philips. It’s totally customizable with your computer, and it can do ANYTHING. I already had a TSU 2000 but I just upgraded, and now it’s time to party 🙂

The other thing that will keep me creative and busy (and might make Jen a computer widow) is Master of Orion 3. This is a massively in-depth computer game of interstellar conquest. I was a huge fan of MOO and MOO2, and I’m sure this will be no different. Now I just need time to play…

Time…