Kaboda's Head

6 Month Well Baby Exam

2008-10-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well we had our 6 month doctor visit and it went relatively well. He had done so great at his last two when it came to take his shots wasn't expecting anything different. The nurse kinda laughed and said yeah that happens but usually the 6th month is worse due to increase in their nervous system and other developments. Low and behold it was true. He screamed after the first shot this time and as predicted by the nurse he started crying when she rubbed his leg with the alcohol pad. Poor kid. But fortunately shortly after the last shot he was good to go again! Whoot! What a trooper!

Well here's his latest stats:

Weight: 18 lbs - 14 oz (75%)
Height: 27 1/2 inches (75-90%)
Head Circumference 44 1/2 (50-75%)

6 Months Really??

2008-10-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

It's been 6 months, half-a-year, since the little man was born. Man where does the time go?

As noted before he's got his bottom two teeth in. He's sleeping at night really well with just minor setbacks every once in awhile. After how he started what with being a super fussy baby, wouldn't sleep anywhere but in our arms sitting in the rocking chair, we feel lucky to have such a good night sleeper. His daytime naps are still a work in progress some days they go smooth and as scheduled. Other days hmmm... like today for example they go haywire. But overall based on the book I'm reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" he and we have done well throughout his short life so far as sleeping goes. Lucky first timers I guess to have guessed right on some things along with some advice here and there.

Another development is he loves to stand now. He's always had really strong legs since the day he came out into the world. Last week we were doing "sit-ups", with him laying down I hold his hands and we sit up together, when I noticed at the end of one he lifted his butt off the ground. So I held my hands a little higher and he pulled himself all the way up. Whoot! What a big boy he's becoming.

On the solid food front we were a little slow and late on starting the cereal. But after some slow going and setbacks, attitude mostly, we've been going well. This last weekend we had our first Veggie, Peas.

Well not much else to report but here are some pictures from today.

We got Teeth!

2008-10-09T13:53:00.001-07:00

Was going to post this last week but was waiting to try and get a picture of them.

Anyway, last week the little man's bottom two front teeth broke through the gum. They're still coming through a little more each day. Now we're wondering when the upper two front teeth will come.

Whenever, we do get a picture of the pearly whites we'll get them up as soon as we can.

Fun Education

2008-09-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

Well the San Ramon Rec Guide showed up and after looking through all their offerings I found quite a number of online classes that looked interesting. So I decided to take one to see how they are.

So you are no reading about a new student in the 6 week class "Introduction to the Game Industry". Week 2 just finished up and so far it's interesting. The teacher is a person who's worked for a number of companys in the industry and has written some well received books on the subject.

One of the reasons I chose to take this class first is when I do head back to the working world one of my listed options right now is working for a game company. So I'm learning more about that industry to see if it's something I want to pursue or not.

Some other classes I'm looking at from this online learning are: discover digital photography, introduction to java programming (I'm currently teaching myself this computer language) and writeriffic:creativity training for writers. There is a new one that I just noticed called "Ready Set Read!" a course by a long time teacher with a degree in Child Development. In this class you learn about how children really learn to read and write. Sounds like something a new parent should at least look into right?

Well as I take more classes I'll keep you posted. Now back to learning!

Funky Town and Music

2008-09-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

I love listening to music and I used to listen to it as I went to sleep. It always seemed to help but over the years since I've been married I've gotten away from it since my wife and I don't necessarily agree on the same type of music to sleep to.

Where am I going with this well with our little man I've been wanting to play music in his room during naps and nighttime to help him sleep. Well I think it might help not sure really but my wife didn't like my idea of listening to Metallica for bedtime. D'oh shot down again! Anyway Funky Town and I started listening to the Metallica station on XM when we go out for our errands. So far he's not complained about the music, I know he doesn't know the difference yet but let me keep my delusions a little longer. Anyway, we went out to Best Buy to pick up the new Metallica CD when it came out. However, Best Buy had put the incorrect release date in their ad so it wasn't available yet. But I happened to glance down from the notice to the Metallica section and saw an album I hadn't seen before.

Yes I found a Metallica CD that is meant for Babies! Whoot! In looking at this company I see some other artists that I like as well so maybe we'll end up getting some more of these.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. I brought this CD home and gave it to my wife. We've played it a number of times now. We're not sure if it is helping him sleep and stay asleep or not. But we like to think so. My wife really loves the CD, she also likes many of the Metallic albums as well just not something she likes for relaxing like I find it.

So if you have kids you might want to check out this site and then look for these CDs at your store of choice.

BarCon Portland Trip Labor Day Weekend(Week)

2008-09-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

Well for this year's BarCon the whole family took it's first plane trip since the little one arrived. Luckily for a first go it was only up to Portland. The trip up went smooth with just a minor fuss but nothing major.

We went up on Tuesday, August 26th. We dropped by my old office to show off the little man to my old co-workers and to have lunch with Nancy. Everyone loved Funky Town, thanks Uncle Bar for the nickname! After that we left to go stay with Grandma and Grandpa L down in Sheridan. We had a good visit for a couple of days.

On Thursday we had a family photo set with my Brother-in-law (BIL) and family, Grandma and Grandpa L, and Great Grandpa Cliff. It was a nice photo shoot and some good pictures were taken. (note: when we get some ordered I'll scan and add to the post) The wife took me over to BarCon and she continued on to my BIL's house.

The wife and kid stayed at her Brother's for a couple nights then swapped over to our friend Dawg's house for the rest of our visit.

BarCon as usual was a blast and a good time to catch up with folks both known old and new. This year's theme was The Good, The Bad and The BarCon. So many games came out with Western motif's along with some bales of hay for seating out in the garage gaming room. Friday morning was the Disc Golf tournament ("Flying Buffalo Chip"), which for the second year in a row I had a good start but faded quick! As one competitor let me know for the rest of the weekend. No names now but you know who you are. Then it was back for more games leading up to yet another year of Befferdy. Was this the year for me to claim back my rightful crown as undisputed Befferdy Champ? Well with the help of Wilson, along with a side of help from Unc, we eeked out the Victory in order to avenge my lone loss from last year! In your face Mr. Bar!!! Later that night the wolves came out to play.....not just any wolves but Werewolves. Werewolf is a great group game that you should check out if you've never played before. It's also a BarCon Icon! Saturday brings the biggest day of gaming with games all day. For the second straight year the Wilson kids hosted a Battleball tournament. I had a good showing for once but was knocked off by the biggest cheese of them all...Big Tim! After more gaming it was time for one of the biggest events in BarCon history the 4th Annual BarCon No Limit Texas Hold'em Tournament. This year in final heads up play it was Gene Gene the Gnome Stompin Machine (WoW reference couldn't help myself) versus Big Game James with Big Game pulling out the Victory! Sunday started off with the fun run ("Stagecoach Robery") like usual I didn't participate, what a surprise, but I did help out with doing timing and taking some, hopefully, killer video! After that it was game time until the big BBQ to wrap BarCon all up.

For me I hit a wall when my son showed up. I wasn't prepared for how much I was actually going to miss him. That on top of having to say goodbye to my long, long time friend Bar was a bit much emotionally for me. Had to get out of there. But unfortunately I didn't get to say goodbye to Kong but did make amends by calling from the airport on the way home.

After BarCon we stayed with our friend the Dawgs Sunday and Monday night. Dawg and I caught the move Dark Knight and it lived up to all the hype. One of the rare sequel better then original movies.

So Tuesday morning we flew back home. We had a slight melt down on the flight but luckily again nothing too bad compared to what we had prepared ourselves to go through. Hopefully this bodes well for our Hawaii trip.

Well until next years BarCon watch out for your Brains!

Long Break Time to Catch up

2008-09-25T16:35:00.000-07:00

Well another big snippet of time has come and passed with no Blog update. Well let's get that changed up shall we. So let the catch up posting begin.

Forest Mage

2008-08-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

Forest Mage
Book Two of the Soldier Son Trilogy
by Robin Hobb

The second book from Robin Hobb in the Soldier Son Trilogy is just as compelling as the first book Shaman's Crossing. In this book we continue the story of a soldier son, second born son, named Nevare Burvelle starting with life at the academy after the end of the Speck Plague. Nevare recovers better then anyone else effected by the plague but as he soon finds out his side effect is about to change his life for good. Nevare heads home for his brother's wedding but instead of the triumphant return he was hoping to make. His side effect leads to him being ostracized by his family and fiancee. Eventually his condition causes his father to renounce him and his story continues as he tries to become the soldier the Good God made him to be as a second son.

Again Robin Hobb does a great job in character development through the book and her descriptions of the environment is vivid. In the world she created for this trilogy it is very similar to the US and the interaction between the European descendants (Gernians in the book) versus the native population (Plainspeople). The only difference is a third entity (Specks) and magic making it a somewhat familiar to reality fantasy series.

Expand review to include spoiler information

Nevare after recovering from the nasty Speck Plague that broke out in the capital city that decimated much of the population and that of the academy's future officers in the King's Cavalla. But for some reason instead of being left weak by the plague like most survivors of the Plague he instead retains his stature. However, very shortly he starts to realize things aren't quite as they were before. He's gaining weight despite his physical labor and normal portions of food. Which baffles not only him but the Academy's doctor as well. Before long though Nevare is off for home for his brother's wedding which will cause him to miss a month of school.

On the trip home despite small meals and a long arduous trip he is still gaining weight. During one part of his trip he stops off at an attraction called the Spindle Dance. It is a wonder that was created by the Plainspeople and their "magic". Now the village is empty and it is a tourist stop run by some half-breeds. This wonder looks at a distance to be spinning and looks like the rock that it is made out of is defying gravity. However, for Nevare no matter how close he gets to it it continues to spin. Some other tourists show up and during a confrontation with a kid who is trying to deface the wonder with his knife something bad happens. During the struggle to save the kid from falling into a crevice the knife slides down to the base of the Spindle and it causes it to stop spinning not to mention the agony it causes in Nevare. No one else seems to notice this strange effect. Note: in this world the magic of the Plainspeople can be negated by iron. Which is how the Gernians defeated the Plainspeople.

At this point it would probably be a good idea to recap some of the story from the first book to explain how Nevare is in tune with the magic that is counter to the beliefs of his country's religion. Nevare's father in hoping to make him a well rounded soldier son and to toughen him up gives his teaching over to a Plainsmen called Dewara. At Dewara's side he is beaten, taught the ways of the Plainsmen and even asked to do a ritual to become one of his people. During this ritual he is taken to a "Dream" like existence. Here he is told to go across the bridge and kill the enemy on the other side. However, this enemy is a woman, who he'll come to know as Tree Woman, and Nevare has always been taught to protect women not to harm. This delay costs him as the woman captures him and takes a part of him from him. After returning from this place he is dropped off at his father's estate at deaths door. Later in the book when he goes to the carnival he sees some Specks there and for some reason feels compelled to make a sign to them. This sign is a signal done through him by Tree Woman who uses that part of him that she took to see things and do somethings through him. At this signal the Specks do the Dust Dance which is what causes/spreads the Speck Plague unbeknownst to the Gernians. During the plague outbreak Nevare with the help of his "occult aware" cousin Epiny takes on the Tree Woman in this other Dreamlike world. When he's traveling through this world he sees people in a long line crossing the bridge to other side. These are people who are effected by the plague and once they cross they'll be gone. Nevare slays Tree Woman with Epiny's help and is able to turn back many people from the bridge including his best friend Spink. Spink after recovering marries Epiny. Anyway Nevare having slain Tree Woman gets that part of him that she took back. However, that other part of him is Speck like and being so also brings the magic of the Speck people into Nevare.

Back to this book now. Nevare then heads home where he is treated as a pariah by his family as he is now so fat that his clothes are bursting at the seems. His father puts him on a fast and makes him work hard all day. Nothing helps. At his brother's wedding he is spurned by his fiancee, Carsina. His father still disgusted by him end up locking him in his room since he feels that Nevare is lying to him and is sneaking food in the middle of the night after catching him in the kitchen one night. The reason for the late night meal was that Nevare and his old teacher Sergant Duril had gone out in search of Dewara so that Nevare to ask him some questions. In the confrontation of words with Dewara Nevare's other self, the Speck Self as he calls it, makes Nevare say something that enrages Dewara into attacking Nevare. He ends up skewering Nevare with his sword but before he can finish him off Duril shoots Dewara dead. Nevare thinking that he's going to die from the wound instead discovers it's no more then a scratch. Which is counter intuitive to the evidence of blood on the sword. It also heals up within a couple of days. During this time that he is locked away his father brings him his meal at night and during the day a servant oversees Nevare doing his chores during the day. Even after a long time of doing this his weight still doesn't drop in fact he's gained more. His father asks what he has been bribing the servant with to give him more food. His father will not believe him that he has nothing to eat but what he's given at night. So his father leaves him in his room and only brings up meals to him and never lets anyone else to ever see him. Still he does not lose any weight. By this time a bout of the Speck Plague comes through the area. Claiming Nevare's older brother, mother and his older sister. In the midst of the plague Nevare is forgotten about but instead of dieing somehow the Magic inside him keeps him alive until Duril comes to free him. While his father is recovering emotionally and physically from the plague and the loss Nevare and his youngest sister, Yaril, run the household quite competently. However, once his father recovers he thinks that Nevare is trying to rise above his soldier son station to take over as Heir. After a big fight Nevare's father disowns him and sends him away.

After leaving Nevare still wanting to fufill his destiny as a soldier son takes off in search of a regiment to join up with. After a long journey he winds up in a run down town of Dead Town. This town was made up of convicts, who are working off their sentence building the Kings Road, and their families. However, there are not many left and those that are there are barely holding on. Nevare befriends a woman and her children by doing work for a place to stay. While he's there he teaches the women to hunt for game, cultivate a garden correctly and basic skills needed to live off the land that she hadn't learned growing up in the city. One day a Scout, Hitch, for a fort not too far down the road, Gettys, comes in hurt from a wild cat attack. Nevare gives him some first aid and decides to help the man get to Gettys a four day trip. On the trip Hitch isn't doing so well and at one point confides to Nevare that the Magic sent him to get him. Nevare and Hitch finally make it to the fort where with Hitch's recommendation he gets taken on, even with being too fat, as a cemetery guard. Once he gets to his lodging out at the cemetery he gets to work making it up the best he can.

The issue with the cemetery and the need for a guard is that bodies get taken by the Specks. They are usually found in a tree and returned. After a while at his post a body gets stolen and when he finds it in the forest it is being absorbed into a new tree. When he goes to remove the body he is confronted by two Specks who tell him that the man wants to stay there and not to be put back in the ground. This doesn't make any sense to Nevare so he ignores them and brings the body back.

Back in town Nevare sees his cousin Epiny in the streets but not wanting to dihonor her and her husband Spink he doesn't approach her. But in stairing at her he attracts the notice of one of his fellow soldiers. Who from then on takes a big interest in everything he does. Spink runs into him a little later and recongizes him but Nevare tells him he must be mistaken. Nevare is trying to spare them the embarassment of his situation but Spink is having none of it. He comes out to see him later and they end up meeting in secret from time to time. During this time Nevare gets blamed for the disappearance of a whore he had visited in town. To top that off he runs into his old fiancee, Carsina. When he trys to approach her to ask for her help in contacting his sister, as he knows his mail along with Spink and Epiney's is not reacher her due to his fathers interference. But she pretends not to know him and from this he is accused of harrassing her. Every time Nevare thinks things are settling down in his life something gets in the way. His reputation in town is just getting worse as people think he is a rapist, murder and accoster of women. So he starts to stay away from town.

By doing this he ends up in the forest one day to try and get some logs for making a fence along the cemetery to keep the Specks from stealing the dead in the graves. However, instead the same Speck man from before shows up and tells him he will lead him to some good trees. Instead he ends up leading Nevare to his daughter instead. In Speck culture it seems the women are in charge of everything so she sets her claim on Nevare. Their relationship is one of her taking him for her own and trying to fatten him up as she recognizes him as a Great One, a powerfull man of the Magic. The more Magic a person can use the bigger their physical appearance. He is now caught between two worlds one is the world of the forest, the Specks, and the world of being a soldier, Gernian. For the rest of the book this drives just about all he does.

As the story goes on he learns more and more the Magic is the source of everything bad that's been happening to him. It wants him to do something and he's not doing it so it helps him move along so he'll be able to do it. First it got him kicked out of the academey, then it killed off those he was close to at home so that his father threw him out, it cause his friend Hitch who also has some of the Magic in him to kill the whore that died and to cause the blame to fall on Nevare. The Magic wants Nevare to drive his countrymen away from the forest. This is because as Nevare will discover via his new Speck contacts the tree they are cutting down to create the King's Road are in fact the spirits of their ancestors.

The final part of the book goes really fast and things just keep heading downhill fast. Due to the Speck Plague causing more deaths in town and the fact that some of the dead seem to come back to life. Nevare gets accused of Necrophilia on the corpse of his old fiancee. On top of this there is proof, that was setup by Hitch, that he killed the whore who's body was recently discovered. So Nevare finds himself on trial. After he is convicted his cousin Epiny working with the woman from Dead Town, who is now working for Epiny and Spink, work to set him free. In the escape attempt he is caught by a mob. Spink is trying to get to him and the woman from Dead Town is about to be raped because she is helping Nevare. Because of all this Nevare gives into the Magic completely and causes everyone to stop. He makes everyone think that they killed him and buried him. Then he makes his way off into the forest to figure out what he has to do for the Magic.

Next Up: Blood Bowl: Rumble In The Jungle

4 Month Check up

2008-08-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

Well on Wednesday the little man hit 4 months and on Thursday he had his 4 month check up. His stats are now:

Weight: 16 lbs - 14 oz (87%)
Height: 26 1/2 inches (90%)
Head Circumference 42 3/4 inches (55%)

We have been warned to have some Infant's Tylenol handy to help ease the pain of the shots he gets at each of these Well Baby visits. However, luckily for us both the two month and four month have gone very well. This check up was the best in regards to shots he didn't even cry until after it was all done and even then he only cried for a few minutes. For the second visit in a row no Tylenol help was needed. I feel really proud of my son for going through this all so well. Lucky for me he holds up to shots like his mother and not me. I hate needles more then just about anything else, except maybe snakes. I've had a fear of needles ever since I was in the second grade and was hospitalized for a week for my asthma. Horrible story there but back to the visit.

We had thought with the way he had been acting recently that maybe he had an ear infection or something. But other then some minor skin irritations, and the before mentioned acid reflux problem, he's doing really well.

Baby Update He Rolled Over

2008-08-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

Well as a proud father I'm happy to announce that just the other day my son rolled over on his own for the first time. I would love to have had a video to post for you in order to share it will all my family and friends but I can't. For days before it happened I could tell he wasn't too far from rolling over as he was building up to it. Every time I'd put him down on his pad for some stomach time I'd get the video camera out and recording. Of course the one time I didn't get it down right away he rolls over. I saw it coming and ran for the camera got it turned on just as he did it. Ugh so frustrating. But hopefully he'll do it again soon and I'll get it on video that time.

Well in other news he's doing well he's almost 4 months now and is weighing in at about 16 lbs. Other then what might be some acid reflux issues, which he's taking medicine for, he's doing very well health wise.

Well I'll post more information as more developments come along.

Star Wars: Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight

2008-08-07T19:04:00.000-07:00

Star Wars
Coruscant Nights I
Jedi Twilight
by Michael Reaves

This was a book I was looking forward to reading as it takes place not long after the Jedi Purge via Order 66. Also it's written by an Author who's books I've also enjoyed reading. Now while it was still enjoyable to read it just seemed as if something was missing from his writing. It was almost like the whole thing was rushed instead of being flushed out more. Or maybe it was not re-written/edited in the same manner as normal.

Of all his books only one other that I've read is by him alone, Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, the other 3 books, Medstar duology and Death Star, were written with Steve Perry. Now I enjoyed the writing in all these other books so maybe it was just an off book for him.

This book brings back the reporter Den Dhur and his Droid compatriot I-5YQ, also known as I-Five, from the Medstar Duology. While they are not the main driving force behind this story they do have a big part to play. I-Five is looking for his old partner's son who was given to the Jedi, Jax Pavan, soon after he was born as he promised he would. However, I-Five and Den aren't the only one's looking for Jax. His old Master Even Piell is also looking for him along with the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader. Everyone has their own reasons for locating Jax.

Jax now a Jedi fugitive on the run is trying to fit in any way he can down-level on Coruscant without drawing any attention to his true abilities. He's sent on a mission, by Master Piell, to retrieve information from a droid for the new underground resistance that is starting up. However, he's not the only one looking for this droid as both the crime syndicate, Black Sun, and the Empire are looking as well. Through the mission he meets up with Laranth Tarak, a Jedi Paladin, Nick Rostu, an ex-Republic Army Major now on the run, Den and I-Five.

Expand review to include spoiler information

Master Piell is caught by some Empire Stormtroopers and is dieing when Nick Rostu enters to drive off the Stormtroopers. Before he departs Piell informs Nick of the mission he has and asks him to seek out Jax for him. Jax meanwhile gets exposed as a Jedi by some henchmen for a local Hutt crime lord, Rokko. When troopers show up to arrest him he and Nick, who shows up just in time to follow the troopers into the building, fight their way free. After explaining the mission to Jax they part ways. This is where the Paladin, Laranth, comes into play as Jax tracks her down. Together they go to to Rokko to work out a deal with him to look for the droid together.

Meanwhile, Den and I-Five are searching for Jax as well. Through some dead ends like finding Jax last known whereabouts deserted and news of a fight with troopers in the area they decide to follow Den's reporter methods. In searching the records they find a video of Jax having a meeting with Rokko and his bully boys. Following this lead they "sell" I-Five to Rokko and interestingly enough his first assignement for the Hutt is to retrieve his guests to come before him. Hmm someone's Karma is working overtime here. Yep I-Five finally meets his old partners son face to face for the first time. Jax's reaction is to just dismiss the droid as he has no use for him. However, fate intervenes as Rokko feel uneasy about his newly aquired droid knows his new partner and hold them all at gun point. I-Five gets them out of that situation and a few more. As time goes on he starts to think differntly of I-Five, but that does take some time, like most of the book.

Meanwhile, Vader has his aide, Haninum Tyk Rhinann, looking for Jax as well. In looking for Jax he tracks down the fight in Jax's building and identifies Nick as a fugitive. Thinking it would be easier to find an ex-soldier versus a Jedi with a very common name he tracks down Nick and has him brought in before Vader. Vader basically blackmails Nick by saying he would wipe out his entire Clan if he didn't turn Jax over to Vader. With no choice but to comply Nick takes off after Jax.

From the Black Son front Prince Xizor is set to find the droid with the data that everyone wants. Also, a second mission is given to the Prince's main rival for an open Vigo spot, Kaird. That mission is to assasinate the Prince and if possible retrieve the droid. Kaird botches the attempt and ends up being the prisoner of Xizor who has already found the droid.

At about this same time Jax and his group, which now also includes Nick, enter the same area just as Xizor is interrogating Kaird. During a firefight Xizor, Kaird and the robot take off for the other side of the planet. Jax and company in hot pursuit. The enter an abandoned section of the planet that is populated with wild species as well as feral droids. This is the lair of Xizor's secret labratory. As Jax and co show up they get attacked by some feral droids. Nick meanwhile moves off to communicate with Vader but ends up running into Xizor. Nick leads them back to the other group. A big fight ensues where Xizor and Jax battle it out.

Even though Nick never made the call to Vader he noticed the traker they put in Nick had moved to the other side of the planet so decided to start heading over.

Xizor end up escaping form Jax and leaves the area. Jax meanwhile senses Vader approaching so he has I-Five use his lightsaber to set a chain reaction off in a reactor below them. With limited time to get out of there they barely make it out of the area before the whole place blows. Vader also barely escapes via an escape bod from his ship.

Next Up: Forest Mage: Book Two of the Soldier Son Trilogy

Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two

2008-07-31T18:47:00.000-07:00

Star Wars
Darth Bane
Rule of Two
by Drew Karpyshyn

This is the second book written by the author about Darth Bane, the Sith Lord who made the Rule of Two. In the first book you saw the downfall of the Sith from a large group down to just one. This book picks up where the previous book left off. Darth Bane is now training his Apprentice to one day replace him as the Dark Lord of the Sith. On top of this he is trying to collect all information on the Dark Side of the force that he can and is starting to meddle in the affairs of the Republic so that one day down the road the Sith will take over. Meanwhile, the Jedi are asked to step down now that the war with the Sith is over by the first non-Jedi Chancellor. So the book covers the beginning of Bane's education of his apprentice and also sets up the changes in the Jedi that we see later in the timeline.

Expand review to include spoiler information

I really enjoyed powering through this book. It was fast pace, probably more so due to the authors limited writing time on it, and had some decent intrigue. Bane's young apprentice is a young girl named Rain that he finds in the midst of some Jedi she killed. But she gives up the name of her youth for Zannah. In her journey which covers a decade in this book you see her go from a reluctant apprentice into a most willing and deceitful apprentice. You see this in how she treats her cousin, Darovit (Tomcat). In the fist meeting after her apprenticeship begins she cuts off her cousin's hand to save his life as Bane would have killed him. By the end of the book in order to save Bane she makes her cousin insane and enraged so that the Jedi would no choice but to kill him. By doing this she also makes the Jedi believe they have killed the last Sith Lord thus keeping herself and Bane hidden once again.

This book also chronicles the life and death of some Jedi. Leave it to happen in a book about a Sith Lord to put a lot of time and background in on some Jedi only to have them slaughtered the Bane and Zannah. With such a setup I won't delve into them too much.

Bane during this book first starts out by testing his new found apprentice by abandoning her on the planet he found her and giving her the task of making it in 10 days to another place where he would meet up with her. He did this one to test but also so she wouldn't be around while he went looking for the Holocron of a dead Sith Lord. In his attempt to find the Holocron he becomes infected by these parasites, Orbalisks. He soon discovers that these creatures feed on his Dark Side energy but in return he gains more strength, healing abilities, armor and a greater strength in the Dark Side. However, as the story progresses his apprentice gets him to start doubting that the trade off is all good. Because for some unknown reason Bane cannot construct a Holocron of his own. Each attempt ends in failure. That is until his apprentice stumbles upon an unlikely source for information of the Dark Side. A noble, Hetton, of a minor house is trying to start a movement to overthrow the Republic but when Zannah meets him he knows what she is and wants to become her apprentice. She as any good Sith Apprentice would do gets him to attack Darth Bane with his Force Assassins. She figures either Bane goes down or Hetton does either way she wins.

Bane of course is the victor and with this new information gained from Hettons resources they find where a Holocron exists that may have information on creating Holocrons. So Bane goes after that and sends his Zannah to the Jedi Temple to do research on removing the Orbalisks.

All in all it's a decent book with a great story line, I mean who doesn't want to read about the Sith doing their thing. I hope he writes more in the Darth Bane series.

I'm still not feeling I'm doing that great of a job in my reviews so feedback is welcomed.

Next Up: Star Wars: Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight

Star Wars: Death Star

2008-07-28T19:18:00.001-07:00

I got to thinking and figured I should start posting reviews of books as I finish them. I greatly enjoy reading so figure I should share that joy. Being this is my first book review in awhile it will be a bit short and hopefully outside what is already known from the movies doesn't spoil any of the book. Any feedback on the review is greatly appreciated so I can get better as I do these.

The latest book I just finished is Star Wars: Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry. This is the third Star Wars book they have collaborated on and they have also collaborated on a few other books. One of those other books is one I need to put on my reading list, along with suggesting it to my friend Bar, just based on the name "Thong the Barbarian Meets the Cycle Sluts of Saturn". With a name like that you know it's got to be funny or at least you'd hope so! Both authors have also authored alone one Star Wars book as well both of which I've read. Steve Perry is currently a book reviewer for The Oregonian, so those of you in Oregon may have heard of him that way.

This book covers the Construction, Shakedown and Destruction of the first Death Star as seen in Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. The story is told from the point of view of the Empire and people 'working' for the Empire in the Death Star. Along the way you meet a group of characters who's lives seem so very disconnected but through the telling story they meet up for an interesting take on what happened inside the Death Star right before the end. You get to meet the man who actually pulled the switch on Alderaan. Everyone's favorite villain Darth Vader is of course a re-occurring character throughout the book.

Normally knowing the outcome of a book before you even start reading it is not a good thing. However, for me knowing the outcome of what happens with the Death Star seemed to enhance the entire reading experience with this book.

"That's no moon. It's a space station.": - Obi-Wan Kenobi

For anyone who is a fan of the Star Wars movies, even if it's just the classic Episodes, this book is a must read.

Next up: Star Wars: Darth Bane: Rule of Two

First Week Of Stay At Home Dad

2008-07-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

Well the first "week" of being a Stay At Home Dad has come to a close. Well guess it was more like three days really versus five. Anyway, semantics aside let's get into how the week went.

The Wife returned to work for the first time in about 4 months this last Tuesday. So it was to be my first time being alone with my son for more then just a few hours. Heck it was the first time either of us has. Anyway, currently our sun is sleeping through the night most nights. He goes to bed between 8:30pm and 10:30pm and getting up around 4:30am and 7:30am most days. However, sometimes he gets up a bit earlier. He's also only napping most times between feedings for about 45 minutes to 2 hours. His daytime sleeping is still mostly in our arms as he doesn't always go down in his bassinet during the day without waking up within 10-15 minutes. He eats about every 2 to 3 hours during the day and he lets you know when it's time with that good set of lungs he got! Well that's the background on where things are with him now.

The first day for me was more an issue with it being in my head that "oh know it's my first time alone all day without any help". That made me a bit antsy and worrisome to start out with which made me a bit tired very quickly. However, my son was so good that day for the most part that it all went rather smoothly with the exception where I scared him into a blood curling scream. I figured out in the middle of the day that you tend to take on the temperament of your kid. I was changing him when he had been crying for the last 10 minutes or so when I went to "shh" him. Unfortunately due to being amped up it came out about 20x the volume I would have like to have used. D'oh! Well that scream just made me feel like such an ass for doing it that I got a wee bit depressed. Not quite as bad as the day I nipped him with the finger nail clippers but still it was a big bummer that on my first day I caused my kid to scream bloody murder. The Wife came home around 3pm which is way earlier then her normal time used to be.

The next two days went really well other then some minor crying, which was usually over being tired or hungry which is understandable, things went real smoothly. The Wife came home around 4pm each day so it was better then I thought as she used to not come home until around 7pm most days. As it was also her first "week" being away from her child I think she came home not only to make it easier on me but also she was missing him.

On Friday she decided to work from home which made the day a real breeze as there were two of us there again for the day. So for things that come up if I needed it she was there to help. I'm grateful for her taking that day off as it gave me a rather easy first "week"

We'll see how the next week goes!

2 Months and Counting

2008-06-19T22:31:00.001-07:00

Well it's been 2 months plus now and the kid is packing on the weight! Below is a picture taken on his two month milestone with Mom.

He is sleeping by himself a lot more now. Some nights are better then others though. One night we'll get a nice 3 or 4 hour sleep window which makes us feel real good. But the norm is usually that long sleep happens early evening instead. D'oh! Most nights we'll get a hour maybe two out of him. Which for Dad isn't that good since it takes me an hour or more to fall asleep. I've always had problems getting to sleep unless I was just completely exhausted and even then sometimes it takes a while. Mom on the other hand drops off to sleep as soon as the head hits the pillow. Damn that makes me envious! So for me it's usually a little sleep through the night until morning when Mom takes him downstairs then Dad gets a nice long sleep. Thank you Honey!

He's also started to become real fussy. If he's not eating or sleeping he's usually Mr. Grump with the exception of a few windows of time where he'll play. The last few days, he just got shots for his 2 month Well Baby which might be causing this new behavior, he screams bloody-murder when you set him down to unwrap him. We're really hoping this phase goes quickly. The doctor said usually the fussiness like this will go away after 2 and half months or so. We can only hope.

All these things make me a bit worried as the day is soon approaching of Mom heading back to work and me being home alone. It's real nice now with the exception of errands and appointments we're both around to deal with the Munchkin. Soon though it will be the Gelfling and Dad show. Hopefully we can get a good sleep schedule set by then and get him into his room at night, well I have to convince the Wife on that one. This will help both me and the Wife. Me so I'm good to go come the morning time and for the Wife so she's not dead tired at work. I can at least get in some cat naps during the day when he sleeps so not too bad if I don't get that much sleep. The good thing is he'll be 3 months by the time she goes back to work so hopefully we get things somewhat set into a pattern by then.

Well until next time enjoy the following pictures of me and my Son.

Dad and Son catching some Zs

Dad catching a uppercut to the old noggin!

Memorial Day Weekend

2008-06-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

Well we had a busy, fun and pocket emptying Memorial Day weekend.

To kick the weekend off early my Brother-in-law, his wife and the Nephew flew in Friday morning. It's been since the shower since we've seen them. They came down to check out their nephew. After they got here me and my BIL went out for some shopping chores. First up I needed his help with looking at TV's and Blue-ray disc players. With his help I got a good idea of what to look for for when we decide to got that way. Then it was off to Lowes to pick up a Barbecue. After doing some looking and deciding we picked one up and then had the fun task of trying to load it into the Trailblazer! Well after some trial and error we got it in. Then got it home and hooked up! Whoot now we can barbecue! As they had a long day with getting up early and traveling down here with an almost two year old they headed to the hotel to call it a night.

The next day they came over in the morning and we hung out for a bit. Then they kicked the Wife and me out for some alone time. So we headed out for Lunch at Over the Border, a Mexican restaurant we go to down here. After that we went over to Best Buy to look for movies, games and such. Well we get there and while I'm looking for a game that my friend gave me a gift card for the wife comes over with a bunch of Blu-ray movies. I'm like you're already buying Blu-ray but we don't have a player. That's when she got that smile I know oh so well. Well needless to say they didn't have the game I was looking for but we did pick up a new Samsung Blu-ray player. Got home hooked it up with the BILs help and watched our first movie in HD! Whoot! That night we christened the BBQ with a London Broil with Corn on the Cob! Hmmmmm delicious!

The next day we had to head over to Sacramento to have a Baby Shower with my family members down here in California since it didn't make sense for them to go to the one up in Portland. My two Aunts put it on. Not to worry my BIL and family had some family and friends to visit as well that day. Back to the party. My Son got to meet his last Uncle, another Grandpa, two great-grandparents, some great-aunts and great-uncles, and many cousins of some type or another! The whole cousin thing gets confusing. Like what is my Mom's Cousin to my boy or my Cousin's kid to my boy? Very confusing so we'll just stick with Cousin for all! Well it was a great get together and no shortage of people willing to hold the boy! So he had a great day. Plus we got some good stuff for him as well. Afterwards we drove home and met up with the BIL and family for some Pizza and to bid farewell as they had an early flight in the morning.

Well the shopping for the weekend wasn't quite done. I was looking in the paper and found the Best Buy ad and noticed they had one of the TVs my BIL suggested while we were there for like $620 off. Plus they were doing 3 years no interest. Well since we had jumped in and picked up the Blu-ray player figured we needed a bigger and better TV for it! Well since we had also recently gotten our tax refund we felt that we deserved the upgrade as well! So we now have a new TV stand and 52" LCD Samsung HDTV! Whoot! Man things have never looked this crisp and clean before even normal TV jumps out at you with better image quality! Putting the new TV stand together was a nice long project! But well worth it!

Well below are some pictures from the weekend. Enjoy.

Me with Son and Nephew

Brother-in-law, His wife with my Son

My Brother with my Son

Wife and Family

More Family, Son with his Grandma

Lego Mania!

2008-06-06T15:57:00.000-07:00

On the Gamecube a few years back a game was released called Lego Star Wars. I bought it for being a Star Wars game more so then for a Lego game. I had some worries that it would be too kiddie of a game. But was that further from the truth. It was such a great game I'm not even sure where to begin describing the game.

Lego Star Wars is set in Episodes I-III of the Star Wars movie franchise, of which I'm a huge fan of all the movies. So you start out with just two playable characters of Obi-Wan (Padawan) and Qui-Gon Jin aboard the Trade Federation ship. Oh and you are the Lego version of them! Sweet! When you blow things up in the world, oh by the way did I mention everything on the screen is made of Legos, they shatter into their the core Lego pieces and spit out collectible Lego studs. As you progress through each chapter of each episodes you unlock more playable characters and earn studs to buy things with. Also, after completing a chapter you can the go back and play in free-play mode which allows you to switch between more characters then the story play mode. And you'll need to in order to find everything you need from a chapter some things are only reachable by certain characters.

A few months later they released Lego Star Wars for Episodes IV-VI for those who like the classic better. It's game play was the same with maybe some upgrade character interaction stuff. But still a great game! For the Wii they released both games as a combined game. I haven't picked it up as I don't know if there are any changes to the games I have and can play via my Wii.

Well just this last week the released Lego Indiana Jones for the Wii. I naturally picked it up. It's great just like the Star Wars versions. Here Indy's got a whip instead of the force and a lightsaber. But the game still rocks especially running form a big Lego ball that's rolling at you! I've only played the first chapter and ran around the holding area a little bit so far. Tough to get too much grinding in yet with the little one! But I'll try!

Wii Excitement

2008-06-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

Well as many know I was one of those fools who waited for hours in the wee hours of the morning to pick up a Wii when it was released. The system is an absolute blast and I have seen even the youngest of children having fun with the basic games that come with it. Bowling is a blast as is the golf game driving range. Since the release I have bought a few games here and there. Of course the classics Madden, Zelda, Metroid made it into my larder of games and all are fun. I'm a big golf person so Tiger Woods made it too and it is fun, and frustrating, to swing the controller in a mostly realistic golf swing. I played that game almost everyday for months on end. Ever since the first Tiger game came out I've been hooked. Well now just recently a new game has come out that is also a classic good time Mario Kart! For the Wii the game comes with a wheel that you insert a Wii controller into to give you a better driving feel then trying to just turn the controller. Man is it a blast!

The game is much like all the other incarnations in that you have the standard 50cc, 100cc and 150cc selections. And so far I've only done the 50cc you have your standard circuits of Mushroom, Flower, Star and Special. with at the start only Mushroom and Flower being playable. These are new tracks just like with the past versions they always update and create new tracks. However, there are also two other circuits available Shell and Banana with two to be uncovered. These circuits have tracks from all the old versions. They have been updated graphically of course but take you back in time to learning all those old tracks.

On top of the new courses and being able to relive the old courses you now have your choice of three vehicles when you make your character selection. This is cool as you can pick a type that works better on certain circuits and tracks. Each one has different stats. Also outside of the old classic carts there are now motorbikes to race too! I haven't gotten to those yet as they are for 100cc and 150cc. But can't wait for it.

The coolest feature of all is the ability to play online! Yes that's right you can race against people in your friend list, regional area or even world wide! I've only done this a couple of times and have gotten my ass handed to me but it was loads of fun to race against 12 other people instead of computer controlled opponents. You can also do timed events that you can then see how you rank versus your friends, regionally and globally. There are even tournaments you can enter. Online play allows up to 2 people per console to play online. This make it an even better game for me since I've moved away from all my friends who play vids with me. Now if I can just get them to pony up for the system and game! Come on guys and girls you know who you are!

Well that's it for now.

Been awhile but...

2008-06-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while again since my last post but this time it's with good reason. On April 13, 2008 at 4:23 AM the wife and I welcomed our Son into the world. The weeks leading up to this big event and after have prevented me from doing any posting. Things are settling down around here again so there should not be as many interruptions as there have been recently.

Anyway back to the exciting news! He weighed in at 8lbs even and measured a length of 20 1/2 inches. The birth process went rather smoothly I think the wife might have a different view. She started having contractions around noon or so on the due date. We ended up in the hospital around 8pm or so. Then at 4:23 am he joined us out in the real world kicking and screaming. Boy did he kick. He kicked the nurse while she was trying to do his initial checks. He also loved grabbing on. There was some tubing on the table which he reached over his head to grab and then reeled in hand over fist. Also, when they brought him over to mom he grabbed her IV which sent a few hands darting in to make sure he couldn't yank it out. After a couple of days in the hospital it was off to the house. Below is the first family picture taken on our way out.

My Mother showed up about two weeks before he was born and stayed two weeks afterwards. She was a big help before, during and after. It was all greatly appreciated. My Mother-in-law made it down a week after he was born and between her and my mom they were able to help us out immensely that second week. If it wasn't for them not sure how well we would have made it through those first two weeks.

We also got a visit from my Father-in-law and his wife the same time that my Mother-in-law showed up. So the little man got to see many of his grandparents very early on which was great.

All in all the whole birthing process was not so bad but the weeks afterwards were real tough with the lack of sleep that was going on. It's gotten better and better as time has gone on. The last few days have been good for the most part. He's taking to sleeping on his own a little better now. But he's just a bit more crankier then he's ever been in between feedings and sleep.

One and Done Ducks

2008-03-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

Well the NCAA Tourney is up and going strong and my braket couldn't be in any more disarray! Very strange tournament so far we had 2 games in the second round of 12vs13 seeds. That's just insane! Way to go Villanova, Siena, Western Kentucky and San Diego. All four number one seeds are still alive but UCLA and Memphis had tough second rounds. Hopefully for UCLA my champion pick it was just a fluke and they'll run over the rest of the way to the Final Four. Two 2 seeds both lose. Too bad Duke was one of them I was really looking forward to two freshmen from the state of Oregon to face off for the right to reach the Final Four.

As for my Ducks nothing new to report yet again they have a double digit lead in the second half of a game only to lose yet again! Both UCLA and USC games were that way and we couldn't pull those out either. They just don't seem to be able to put people away when they should! Oh well now it's waiting time for the Maui Invitational next season for which I'll be there to root them on! Go Ducks!

Baby Shower PDX Edition

2008-03-03T21:40:00.000-08:00

My Wife's good friend threw a baby shower for her and many of our family and friends in the Portland, Oregon area.

My friend Dawg picked us up at the airport and we started the weekend off right with a great meal at Fat City. Hmmm do I miss the food from back home. Note the food will be a common thing for the weekend not as much as I wanted but enough to satisfy me of some of my cravings. The Wife then went to her hair appointment with her stylist up in the area while the Dawg and I headed back to the house to relax a little. The Dawg and I went and saw the movie No Country For Old Men. I was really disapointed in this film. While cinamatography for the film was elegant and epic the story and acting was just so sub par I don't even know where I'd begin bashing this flick. I don't see why it's getting such a huge response. But did provide some levity in the sense when talking to my friend Bar trying to plan out the next day we told him that we felt that Rambo had a chance at being the better film. So bad but it just might be true.

The day of the shower the Dawg and I waited with his son for Bar and Wrench to show up. After that Bar, Wrench and I went to stop by the shower so I could make sure to see my Mom, Grandma and my old co-worker. I also got to see a few other people that made it totally worth sticking around until the shower was about to start. Then it was off to Fire On the Mountain in order to get my fix of their heavenly wings and especially their Spicy Peanut Wing Sauce. Hmm just thinking about it is making me go all Homer Simpson on the keyboard! Hmmmmmm Spicy Peanut Wing Sauce........ After an evening of some game action back at the house Bar, Dawg and I went off to see Rambo. And yes after coming out of that movie the Dawg and I both agreed it was better then No Country For Old Men.

The next day we met up for some breakfast with the Wife's Father, Step-Mother, Brother, Sister-in-law and our Nephew. Man he's getting so big now. Hadn't seen him since Thanksgiving and boy has he grown.

Weekend Getaway to Whistler

2008-03-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

In January the Wife and I went on a nice Weekend Getaway to Whistler, BC. This was our last big Excursion before the baby comes, well other then the Baby Shower in Portland, OR. We flew up to Vancouver, BC on the 25th and took a bus up to the Delta Whistler Village Suites. The bus trip was a great way to get up there. No rental car to worry about driving in the snow conditions. You could just sit back and relax for the 2-3 hours it takes letting someone else who does it on a regular basis deal with the road conditions.

We spent the next couple of days doing some shopping, eating and I even got in some runs down the mountain. Boy was I out of shape so wasn't able to get much in. The first day I got in one nice long run but was so worn out by it I was done. The second day I got in the same run and felt like I could have done it a couple more times but with the Wife being alone felt I should get back and do some stuff with her instead. I've got to get in shape so I can do more snowboarding then this.

We flew back home on Monday. The whole trip was quite refreshing and relaxing. Nice to just get away. This will have to serve us until our next trip. For right now that isn't until Thanksgiving week when we'll be off to Maui to try and attend the Maui Invitational with some good friends and their family from back east. The Ducks and Tar Heels will be attending so it should be great as I'm a Duck along with a friends wife and everyone else will be pulling for the Tar Heels as that's where the family is from.

Some Pictures from the trip:

Me in the Gondola Ready to hit the slopes

View from our room's patio
(Mountain in picture is Blackcomb)

The Winter Olympics will take place in Vancouver, BC but some events will be held at the Whistler/Blackcomb area.

Our third trip to Whistler happened to be the most snow we had seen before. This is a picture in the Village.

Bask Season Not Going Well

2008-03-03T16:26:00.001-08:00

Well as many of you out there especially those who have no Idea who I am probably don't know is I love the sport of Basketball. Have always loved playing, watching and attending games.

This year what was a very hopefull begining has turned out bad for my Alma Mater the Oregon Ducks. After only losing a couple of players only one of whom started I thought we'd be able to get back to the tournament again this year. Early season stumbles were due to injuries more then anything. The second half season collapse though has me baffled, since I don't get many of the games down here in the Bay Area I don't get to see for myself what's going on. It seems we're winning most games until the very end. And games we're not in are due to a fall off of shots being made. Under Kent the team has always relied on being able to shoot the outside shot especially from 3 range. So if we struggle from there we have tough times. Another staple of the Kent era is defense. While some years we've had great defensive teams most others seem to be lacking. I'm not sure if this is just due to lack of talent or motivation on that end of the floor. I like Kent and what he has done for the program which probably puts me in a minority of Alumni who do as he always seems to be on the hot seat. However, I'm not sure what to make of this ever couple of years break down the team seems to have under his leadership. Is it just cockiness of the players who've been winning that cause the collapses? Or being told you're good by the media causes them not to fight like they do when they are being written off. Without some kind of Miracle or another Conference Tournament Title I'm don't think there is much chance of getting into the Big Dance and might have to settle for the NIT.

The Pac-10 is strong this year. UCLA and their traitorous big man Kevin Love (note: for those of you who don't know his old man played ball for the Oregon Ducks) have the most talent of the bunch but I don't think they'll win it all. They should get close to another Final Four appearance but not sure if they'll get much past there. Stanford is just a seriously dangerous team for anyone as the season moves along. With the twin Lopez brothers leading the way they should go deep into the NCAAs and probably have the best shot at making the Final Four of any Pac-10 team. WSU is just baffling they look so good one game then so bad during another. Until they can get settled down I don't think they'll make it out of the second round. USC is a team I don't understand how they have won that many games. Yes Mayo is a star player but I don't see much team in his game reminds me of Luke Jacksons Senior season at Oregon. They will bow out first or second round of the tournament. Arizona State, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Cal all have shots at making the tournament. I think Arizona is probably on lock because of who they are. The other teams need to win out and/or make a statement in the Conference Tournament. As for the Pac-10 Player of the year I would vote for Ryan Anderson of Cal followed by Jon Brockman of (ugh hate to give them any props) Washington and Kevin Love of UCLA.

One thing that is really great for the State of Oregon is that two Freshman, Kevin Love and Kyle Singler, are shining so bright after all the hype they've had coming from Oregon. It's a great thing to see. Hope we don't have to wait this long again for some super star players to come again. Way to go Kevin and Kyle!

As for my Orangemen of Syracuse yet another year where they are a bubble team who will probably be kept out of the Big Dance due to lack of quality wins. Ugh so diapointing. I'm hoping one day to see a game in the Carrier Dome before Coach Boeheim calls it quits which I hope is a long way off.

The Portland Trailblazers are having a decent season with an excellent stretch of games that they had for a while there. They are back to being where I thought they would be but the sudden burst they put on there for a while bodes well for the coming years as these young players with talent and more importantly heart and the ability to listen to Coach McMillan. Next year they get Oden back to complement and allow LaMarcus Aldridge to move over to a PF position. Those two down low will be a beast of a duo that will put Portland back into the Playoff picture and along with Roy a potential run at a title in the next 5 years. Keep up the good work guys!

Been awhile but.....

2007-12-29T18:48:00.001-08:00

Well it's been some time since I've posted anything. That is due to Hectic Holidays and being sick for 3 weeks. Well it's time to get back to it. Let's see since last I wrote:

The injuries to the Ducks, mainly Dixon, caused a major melt down. Finally in the Civil War they showed signs of life again. Oh well time to look forward to the bowl game and next season.

Meantime the other Ducks the Men's Basketball team have had 3 big lapses. 1 against a decent opponent and 2 against what I'd call the dregs! Ugh well luckily unlike in football as long as you get an invite to the Big Dance you can still win a National Title!

The Wife and I traveled back to the Portland area for her family's big Thanksgiving feast. This was her families turn to host. About 70+ people showed up for food and other goodies. We stayed with my wife's Brother and Sister-In-Law. Our Nephew is so much fun to hang out with and is growing like a weed. We got to have dinner with our friends the Greens while we were there which was great as we don't get to see them that often especially now. We were also able to visit for a short while with our friends the Dawgs! They have a little man who I just love to see and hang out with. Oh and his parents are fun to see too! Hi there D and J! This was also time for my sickness to get worse as well.

After Thanksgiving I had just the blahs that come with being under the weather. Then the following week I had a terrible cough and 100+ temp for a couple of days. So off to the doctor after my Mother-In-Law and Wife harassed me enough. Turns out the doctor thinks I had Bronchitis (SP??) so time for the anti-biotics and some serious cough medicine. And did they do the trick I finally got more then a couple hours of sleep in a day since three weeks prior!! That in itself was a big deal.

Well the sickness put me back a bit on my Christmas shopping for friends and family. So the Wife and I were pushing it in terms of getting everything we needed and still have time to get them shipped. We were able to pull it off as well as get our Christmas Cards out as well.

For Christmas this year we had the opportunity to attend the Monday Night football game in San Diego on Christmas Eve. How you might ask? A Partner that my wife works with is married to the Offensive Coordinator of the San Diego Chargers and she was kind enough to invite us along! This was so cool that I was looking forward to this so much! I'm not a Charger fan as most of you know or can tell from my posts I'm a 9er but you can't pass up an opportunity like this. Plus one of my really good friends, Bef, is a life long fan so at least I could go root on his team against the hated Broncos from Denver! The seats were great and the game was a blast especially since the team we wanted to win did!! Way to go Chargers!! Below you'll see some pictures from the game. Oh yeah while waiting before the game I got a quick shot of 2 of the announcers of the game good ol' Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser. Didn't see Mike Tirico. The day before the game we went and visited the San Diego Zoo. That place was cool and nicely put together even though there were major remodels going on.

We got back on Christmas day where upon arriving home we found some presents left by the big man himself....Santa! The Wife got a GPS unit to help find her way around our new surroundings. The family picked up a Digital Video camera for filming life's little events like the one coming up in the near future. I got some Video editing software. Man we must have been really good this year!

To top off our Holidays we attended the Beaver Bowl Game here in San Francisco with my Wife's Aunt and Uncle who were kind enough to bring us along with them for the exchange of a couple nights stay. That was greatly appreciated. It was my second bowl game, first was 1995 Rose Bowl game Ducks versus Penn State, and the wife's first Bowl game. It was also our first time in AT&T Park as well. But we'll visit that place many times in the future as my Mother is a huge Giants fan. Anyway the game while being cold and rainy, luckily we were under an overhang, was just a blast! Especially since the Beavs pulled off the victory!! Whoot that was two games during the holiday's that we attended that the team we wanted was victorious!! Whoot!

Well that's really about it for all that you've missed up to this point. In the coming year we already have a couple trips thought out. In late January we'll be heading to Whistler, B.C. for a long weekend. Hopefully we'll get some company from some friends as well. Then around Thanksgiving time we hope to be in Hawaii for the Maui Invitational with our friends Bar, Kong and Bef and a big group of their family from back east. Both the UO Ducks and UNC Tarheels will be attending the tournament. I'm of course a Duck Alumni and Bar and Bef's family are Tarheel fans. We're not sure about ticket availability right now but we do know we'll be heading to Hawaii no matter!

Well I'll post more as it comes up and hopefully won't get a big blank area again.

MNF Announcers Kornheiser and "Jaws" Plus special appearance by Santa

Welcome to Qualcomm Stadium

Final Score of the MNF game

Forgot to mention that OSU Alumni Gary Payton was 3 rows in front of us at the Bowl Game! Nice!

Final Scoreboard of the Emerald Bowl

Injuries doom the Ducks

2007-11-15T22:31:00.000-08:00

Well it was a hard fought battle by many backup players for the Ducks. They almost had enough to make it back into the game. But just not enough. In a game that saw Dennis Dixon leave early by re-aggravating his knee after a brilliant start and Jonathan Stewart go out late in the game it was still a great showing by the backups even if it did take Brady Leaf a while to warm up. Hand it to Arizona they capitalized on Leaf's rusty play and injured ankle. Heck even if Dixon had stayed in I think they would have made it a tough game. Our Defense in the second half was stellar! Now if they could play like that all game long!

Well until we know the extent of Dixon and Stewart's injuries it will be a tough last two games. Dixon Heisman hopes probably went with his knee in this game as most voters will not have watched the game and all they'll see is Leaf throwing a Int for a TD and tag it to Dixon. If the injury is bad enough that he's done then his chances are also gone. This all has some deja vu for me in that it was Dixon and Leaf getting into their first serious action happened a few years back at Arizona when Kellen Clemens broke his leg and was lost for the remainder of the season. I hope the same is not true with Dixon. But I also hope he doesn't risk his future football or baseball career by trying to do too much with that knee.

Well it was a good season so far and with games against UCLA and Oregon state we can still possibly make the Rose Bowl or a decent bowl outside of the BCS.

Beaver News as Requested

2007-10-30T12:02:00.001-07:00

At the Request of my friend Bar here is some news about that other Oregon school the Beavers of Oregon State. Well really more of an update on the best quarter back to come out of OSU in a long, long time. Nope I'm not talking about the much beloved Jonathan Smith, who's coaching at the University of Idaho, but the much maligned Derek Anderson! Yep I said it back then and I'll say it now Beaver Nation he is the best Quarterback to ever grace your campus. Did he make you want to cringe and cower throwing over the middle late in a losing game. Yes! He made mistakes but many of his mistakes were due to receivers dropping the ball and worse yet deflecting the ball to the defense. His numbers would be out of this world and he would own every record if his receivers would have just caught 1/4 of the balls they dropped. Now on the one point I think everyone saw and agreed on was that he was slow and had trouble moving out of the way. Well we were all wrong! In the last 5 games of his Senior season he moved the ball really well with his legs. Did we forget that this guy was the Oregon High School Player of the year in both Football and Basketball? Oh yeah he was also on the track team in High School, go figure. But I figured it out he's not so good at the side to side speed but once he gets moving North and South he just lopes out there. He beat my Ducks his senior year by running not by passing. I thought he'd make a good to above average NFL QB. Look at his size and arm strength and there are not many that match up to him in the NFL. Now the biggest issue with him is his ability to forget what happened before. All Beaver fans remember that Junior year where he'd get one Pick, his fault or not, and he'd end up turning the ball over more or just being so damn tentative it just made you want to close your eyes. His Senior season he won me over in the department as the year went on he seemed to mature vastly in this department.

Last season due to injuries to Charlie Frye Derek was given his shot at leading the team. He didn't put up great numbers but he did lead his team to a comeback victory with his running ability against Kansas City. After that he struggled much like he did at times in his college career. And that brings us to the present.

Now in his third season in the NFL he finally was given the reins to the Browns. After game one the Browns unloaded their starting quarterback....Huh? Who does that? Weird but it was a move that has payed great dividends for the Browns. In his first game as a starter this season he went 20 of 33 for 328 yards 5 TDs and 1 Int against the Bengals in a match up featuring a couple of Great and I mean Great OSU receivers in Chad Johnson and TJ Houshmandzadeh! He since has still put up good numbers while still having a huge INT day especially on the road, he's thrown 5 of his 8 picks in 2 road games. So far his total stats for the season are 7 games 6 Starts 119 of 209 (56.9%) 1,744 Yards 8.3 Average Yards per Completion 17 TDs 8 Ints and a QB rating of 95.5 for the Cleveland Browns of all teams!! Now I'm not saying he's made it but he sure has proven he belongs and should be able to hold off Brady Quinn for a while if he keeps playing like this. I've watched almost all his games this season, as I have Sunday Ticket, and have been greatly impressed with him even in the bad games. He seems to just shake it off and continues to sling them in there. Maybe that's why I like him is he's a big QB who just rifles it in there even when he shouldn't. So far his receiving core in Cleveland (Braylon Edwards, Kellen Winslow and Joe Jurevicius) are making the plays for him to keep him able to thread the needle. I hope he can continue his play and will be able to play for a couple of years with this team to see if he settles in or has a fall back to earth. In either case he's still making plays and leading his team 4-3 (4-2 as a starter) and in second place by one game in the AFC North.

Note: If Matt Lienart were healthy and playing still we would have 3 of the top 5 QBs from the same High School Recruiting Class starting this week with Clemens getting the nod with the Jets. Anderson and Clemens were the top two QBs that year. And I believe they were the top two QBs in the Pac-10 during their tenure as well.

Ducks Rock USC!

2007-10-29T00:14:00.000-07:00

Whoot Ducks finally beat USC again. It's been a few years. So now that USC is no longer a National Title contender and more then likely out of Pac-10 but not really yet. It's time to move on to our next challenge taking on ASU. ASU usually gives the Ducks fits. Which like Cal has had an ex-offensive Duck Coordinator as their head coach. But now it's that wiley guy who wins everywhere but the NFL, Dennis "the Menace" Erikson. Welcome back to the Pac-10 and a nice ride his teams had. No one knew what to expect from them but they've played really well and look like they are for real. I'm not sure how their defense will stack against or offense only USC has really stopped us. Cal did an Ok job but the Ducks stopped themselves mostly in that game and couldn't get a stop when needed against Cal. But since that game the Ducks have been on a scoring tear all be it against the bottomfeeders. But even the USC game we moved the ball at will and should have had another 100+ yards of offense but we went conservative with the lead and it almost cost us. And this against one of the best Defenses in the Nation. So we'll see how this goes could be a big shootout like in past years with the score up in the 40's for both teams. Should be a good game and luckily it's at home!

Well the 9ers lost yet again. With Norv gone and the injury bug going on the team just isn't playing well. The Defense even seems to have taken a step back as the seasons gone on. But that's probably due to the Offense being bad. Alex is back and if he stays healthy maybe they can get something back, but that's a big if as he looked like he reagrivated the shoulder again. Adam Snyder has been playing lately and doing an Ok job as you don't hear his name mentioned much after the introduction of the starters. Which is a good thing for an 0-line as he's not making the big mistakes.

Some news I can post finally.....

2007-10-03T09:12:00.001-07:00

Well after letting family and close friends in on the news I can finally post that I'm going to be a first time Father around April. This has been a long and tiring process as my wife and I have been trying for quite some time and have had some issues.

For a long time I just wanted to live out my life with my wife and felt no need for a child. After many years of reflecting on this issue one day out of no where I just felt that I was willing to try. I'm still not sure what caused my change of heart maybe just the thought of not having anyone to call my own to pass things along too. Don't get me wrong I love my little guys and gals, children of close friends, and would have loved passing that information on to them but something changed one day. Maybe it was the fact I was no longer being told to make a child by others. Or maybe it was the reflection on the sense of loss I've had in the past finally coming into play. Hmmm guess I could keep on guessing but the final notice is I did change my mind.

After having the talk with my Wife about this change we made a decision to try. Well after a frustrating year of no luck we did have one success that was marred by complications that required surgery. Needless to say my worst fears had come to life and I'm a worrier by nature so that was tough. After that little setback we had to take a short break before trying again. In the meantime we moved down South to the Bay Area, I left my job and boom we've hit the jack pot coming out of the gates when we start trying again. Weird that you try for so long then have a stroke of bad luck and then things just go like clockwork.

Now we're past that initial safety mark that we felt comfortable sharing the news with friends and family. Now we're just on to the rest of the pregnancy which hopefully goes as smooth as the first part has. *knock* on wood!

When my wife first told me she scared the hell out of me, mostly because I was asleep and it was damn early in the morning. Then I freaked out a little bit. We were in temporary housing and it was still unknown what was going to happen with me, still is. Just so many things up in the air and then this it was just a little much. But now we've moved, I wouldn't quite say settled yet but getting there, into our town house and things are getting somewhat back to normal. So now it's just the normal fears: Will the baby be healthy? Will my Wife have any issues? I hope these are all normal and just not me being me.

For me I really don't want to know what the sex of the baby will be and I'm not sure if I can put into words why. Am I afraid of knowing 'til their here because I'm scarred that something might happen still and knowing might make it worse? Or is it just I just want a healthy kid and don't care to know until the happy day? The Psyche sure can play tricks on you can't it. It just seems sometimes I never know the real reason for a decision I make.

But if asked what I hope for and the quick, easy and first thing that comes to mind is a little girl. Now my Aunts on my Mom's side of the family should find that quite hilarious as I used to complain to them that they were 0-x because they had girl(s) and no boys. When my brother came along I would also add that my Mom was 2-0! LOL! Speaking of my Mom when thinking upon why I'd like a girl I think it comes down to her and wanting to give her a girl from her son. I know that sounds weird and probably even stupid but it is the only answer I can seem to find.

On a more where we are note so far we've had 3 ultra-sounds and everything is looking good so far. *knock* *knock* The Wife is still not feeling all that well as food just does not treat her well at all. We're hoping that passes soon as it's making her life very unpleasant right now. I'm also hoping her aversion to Peanut Butter stops soon as it's one of my favorite things! We also heard that she needs to eat some spicy food so that the kid will like it. Ugh that will be hard as my Wife is a wimp when it comes to spicy. I love things hot and spicy can't get enough really.

Well that's it for now will write more as we have more to pass along.

Ducks Stumble

2007-10-03T09:03:00.001-07:00

Well the Ducks finally stumbled and while I'm upset about that for losing. The good thing to take from it is we lost not necessarily to a better team but to one that we're on an even par with really. The Cal Bears won by a narrow margin and even if we had finished the game without imploding I would still say what I was saying before the game that it is a coin flip between the two. Now let's see if we can win out which will be tough as pointed out by the UW (ugh)/USC game this past week. USC is going to have real problems winning out I think as they have both us and Cal on the road. Cal could win out but with USC, at UCLA and at UW might be tough. For the Ducks they have a tough road with USC, at UW and at UCLA (where the scores always tight it seems).

Well I'm hoping that last year's 4-0 stumble doesn't repeat this year. Hopefully the team is in a better place mentally and will recover and play well again.

Heroes Continued

2007-09-27T21:42:00.001-07:00

Well I've now finished the 3rd through 6th discs from Season 1 of Heroes. This show has me hooked and still wanting more. The last disc is in the mail so I can't wait to see how the first season will come to an end.

Some notes since last I wrote on this. My favorite character the power borrower, Peter, has come into his own over the last few episodes and it looks like my deepest fear of him becoming a bad guy might have been for naught based on some of the Future time episodes.

Hiro is still up there but think I've got him falling to 2nd on my favorite Heroes character. He rocks plus his dad is played by Sulu from Star Trek, George Takei. Also, when reading up on the actor that plays him he's worked for a very cool company....ILM on such movies as Star Wars Episodes I-III and Pirates of the Caribbean. As for his character he is still one of the main drivers of the story line and doesn't look to be ending anytime soon. His ability to manipulate the space\time continuum will keep the story moving. Afterall if it wasn't for his warning of "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!" things would not have moved as much as they have.

It was a sad time when "Nuke" man got his brain tapped by the main Villian of the series Sylar. I liked him because he was a little unbalanced and threw a loop into things which is perfect! But now we got two other "Nukers" out there. Well there's Sylar of course due to the brain buffet mentioned earlier and my favorite character Peter. Peter and Sylar are two very similar characters as far as powers go but how they do it is completely different. Peter can pick up powers just by being near another "special" person. Sylar on the other hand likes to take them apart to see how they "tick" thus ending their life but he's then able to absorb their abilities. Currently it's tough to get a estimate of how many powers they each have. I think they will have another big confrontation but I think either Hiro or the Cheerleader will finally get Sylar.

Well back to watching the last disc once it get's here and then I can watch Season 2 as it goes this year. I'll write more in the near future.

The Name Game

2007-09-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

Makita at Starfish & Coffee tagged me with The Name Game.

The rules: List one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don't have a middle name, use one you would like to have. Tag one person for each letter of your middle name.

Here we go:

Devoted - As a friend and a husband I'm a very devoted person.

Abnormal - Is probably one word many people would use to describe me. It's a family trait on my Father's side I believe.

Vocal - While upon first meeting me I'm a shy person who doesn't talk much. Just watch out for when I get comfortable around you because I can talk any one's ear off! And it's damn near impossible to get me to shut up.

Impassioned - I am by nature a very passionate person. More times then not my emotions will get the best of me whether it's a movie, book, music or life.

Devilish - By nature I'm a very mischievous person who loves to cause trouble.

I would love to tag someone but alas being somewhat new I don't know many people out here other then the one that tagged me.

Heroes

2007-09-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

Well a while ago a friend of mine, Mikey, mentioned I should catch a television show called Heroes. So it's my latest addition to the NetFlix list. We'll I watch the first 6 episodes on disc 1 and 2 and I can't find enough good things to say about this show. So far the story and characters seem really well thought out and that the writers already know how the show will end and are just merely working their way there with lots of twists and turns. The time travel really makes it feel this way. Hopefully they will follow continue on in the same fashion so as not to just drag out the story line too long. I really like the feel of it. It's like a comic come to life but is more realistic then the comic world. The premise of the show is similar to the premise in the X-men movies where mutation has given rise to powers in humankind. You've got the time altering Hiro, the regenerating Cheerleader, the Heroin addicted Fortunetelling Artist, the flying politician, the split personality slaughterer of a single mom, the telepath and the power borrower who wants so bad to be a Hero. So far the characters that I'm liking the most is non-English speaking Hiro and the power borrower. Hiro just rocks as he's a Japanese Nerd who thinks he should be able to stop time and does. Then happens to travel across the Space and Time continuum to see what will happen. Later he shows up speaking english and from the future wearing a nice looking sword! I can't wait to see how he get's to that point. The power borrower I like but feel like I'm being setup here to take the fall as he seems a little too anxious in wanting to be a hero and not living up to his expectations early. Seem to be a character that is being setup to slip to become a Villain. Much like Anakin Skywalker, Jacen Solo, Pyro etc.. were pulled to become Villains. But none the less he's one of the main story drivers along with Hiro right now which might be why I favor them more. Well I'm waiting anxiously for the next two discs to show up in the mail.

9ers Lucky to be 2-0, QB's with Oregon ties perform well

2007-09-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

Now don't get this post wrong I'm happy that the 9ers are 2-0 in both league and division standings. However, how they got there has to be the ugliest, sloppiest games I've seen in a long time. Not to mention a little luck! Our offense other then one or two drives in two games looks like absolute shit! Our call playing leaves a lot to be desired. Come on could you use your mobile Quarterback more in the mobile category? He wins the first week for us on a broken mad dash scramble to save the winning drive and you don't do more to get him out running? Come on coaches take you heads out of your collective asses. Defense still doesn't look all that well yet but at least they haven't given up or broken down too much yet. Just shore up the little stuff and they'll be a good defense. Where the heck are the plays for Vernon Davis? The guy is just a freak of an Athlete and you don't run more plays for him? See comment on not using the QB above. Again glad to be 2-0 but we need to see more improvement on Offense as so far it looks like the entire offense has taken a step backwards! Speaking of Offense what's up with the choices on the line? I know I'm a Duck and a homer but come on last season Adam Snyder played better then a couple of linemen *ahem* *cough* Kwame *ahem* Baas. I know they have more invested in these other guys but give him some equal playing time as they're getting in back up roles.

Well onto other updates in the world of the NFL and players from the state of Oregon we had a few QBs in action today. Joey had a game where he didn't cost his team but also didn't do anything spectacular to help his team either. Off to another under his potential season. If I could get all the writers off his back maybe he'd start winning. I mean look at college his stats were good but his biggest quality was at being a leader and doing what it took to win. He also had track stars at WR and a couple strong RBs to help him during his years as the head Duck. So while I've been disappointed with his pro career as many I also realize probably too much was expected of him stat wise at the NFL level. I think this is his last chance and stop on the circuit. Derek Anderson the much maligned QB for the Beavers, although I thought Beaver Nation never gave him a fair shake. I mean come on he leads the league in offense and yes he had way too many INTs. But in both cases if his receivers wouldn't have had butterfingers or short arms stuff both those numbers would have been even better. I can't count the number of times his OSU receivers would have it hit them square in the chest and the other team would get the carom. Anyway back to his day it started off horrid missing on his first 5 passes but then he just goes ballistic on the Bengals defense for 5 TDs and one INT. What a huge game he had. I watched this game and yeah he got a couple of lucky breaks on some passes but that is just make up for all the bad luck he had with his OSU receivers. Karma always evens things out in the end!! Way to go Derek!! Now just have a decent game next week and the talk of Quinn stepping in will quite out for most this season. Good luck man!! And last but not least Kellen Clemens got his first career start for the NY Jets, because that snake Chad didn't want to get beat up by Baltimore! Well for 3 quarters that is what happened to Clemens he got beat up including a couple of hellos with his old Duck teammate Haloti Nagta. But in the 4th quarter down 17 he just went ballistic, or as in the old classic video game NBA Jam HE'S ON FIRE. He leads the team back on 3 pretty impressive drives. On the third of those drives he had one TD pass dropped by a wide open receiver, under threw a second TD pass and then finally the 3rd TD, a little high, pass got tipped and intercepted in the end zone. Now if he can just show up at the beginning of a game he looks like he'll have a decent career in the NFL. The game was a loss and that's never good but the Jets at least know they have a good backup QB who will continue to push for Chad's job. Although he might not be ready to be the full time starter yet I don't think it will be more then a year out before he is a starter in this league.

Well good job by all the players with Oregon ties all throughout the day.

No Ducks on TV but sounds.....

2007-09-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

Well down here in the Bay Area I no longer get the Fox Sports Northwest, guess I should get the Sports Package for DirectTV, so probably won't get to see many Duck games unless they are on National TV. This week they took care of the always pesky Fresno State Bulldogs. Again the offense stats look great. The Defense based on the score must have done their normal adequate job. Biggest boost this week was the Michigan shellacking of Notre Dame.

Pac-10 was looking at a good weekend what with Washington, ugh can't believe I was routing for them for conference power, held their own for almost 3 quarters with OSU. But then UCLA decides to make a no show against Utah and just got dismantled!! That has to hurt the conference's National reputation. What was arguably the 2nd best team in the conference getting man handled. We'll see how it goes once the conference play starts in earnest.

Are you kidding me????

2007-09-09T16:17:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow!!! That's about all I can say after my Ducks waddle into Michigan and just destroy them!! I thought that Big Blue would be just seriously pissed off after losing to a great Div I-AA team the previous week and just had us our collective asses. This game from a scoreboard looked like we just dominated. However, in actuality Michigan was doing quite well for most the game. They moved it well against us but like the old Rich Brooks teams our defense bent but didn't break. They even came away with some great stops in the Red Zone. Great going guys! And as the game moved on they just started to push around Michigan and started to just dominate the tone of the game. Meanwhile on the other side of the ball Dixon after a horrible end to last season looked like he was unstoppable for most the game. Those 2 statue of liberty plays were quite unexpected and worked to perfection. Our double headed running backs just pounded the D relentlessly even the reserve running backs looked good. Dixon gets the game ball and well deserved! Those long passes right on the money in stride was his weakness last year as he tended to under or over throw them. Great off-season work to get that corrected. I don't think I've seen passes that on the money since Joey and Sammie were here!

I would love to say coming out of this game things look really great for the rest of the season. But somehow I just can't. We proved we could play offense and score but it seemed like we left quite a few points off the board there in the second half by just not concentrating. Also the defense which got better as the game went on needs to shore it up early. But if they can continue to progress forward they should be able to compete with anyone in the league and it looks like the league will have some contenders this year. But is everyone playing for 2nd or have teams caught up to the Trojans finally? Well only time will tell.

Back From BarCon and Ready to....Unbox??

2007-09-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well this past week I've been out of town at the BarCon!! It's a weekend where our group of friends (Beeners (nickname for the group of friends I've had for a long time. It's along the lines of the Goonies in Goonies) and others who are friends) gather at my friend Bar's hut for a long weekend of Gaming. This is the 4th year that BarCon has happened. Year one there was no real theme just BarCon. Year two it was Monster Menace (think Godzilla, Rampage and such). Year Three was Pirates and all things Pirate like. This year it was Close Encounters of the BarCon Kind. Well the weekend went down as follows:

Thursday Flew into town and met Bef at the airport say Hi Bef!!

Well after a quick stop at the Car rental where we got upgraded into a Rav4, which was actually quite spacious, we headed off to BarCon. B!'s navigation to BarCon was a little off in one area but we persevered and made it at last to the BarCon! Only to be greeted by this year's guest host:

Zelnak

For the rest of the evening we had drank some, people smoked, people gamed and most important of all people got in some Deck Chit-Chat. Deck Chit Chat is an unofficial event during BarCon that happens once or even multiple times. But one thing is clear what's said on the Deck stays on the Deck, well except for the neighbors we probably annoy! For dinner we have homemade grilled pizza and was it delicious as always when Kong and Bar tag team it!! *ding* *ding* *ding* Ladies and Gentlemen we have your Grilled Pizza Intercontinental Heavyweight Champions of the World!! I give you Bar and Kong!!! Well after some more drinking, gaming, smoking and chit-chat it's off to bed for everyone at the BarCon. This year I didn't get my deck bed but did get the coolest room in the Hut, oh did I mention that the Hut doesn't have A/C??

Friday I wake up to the stoke of the keyboard and an elbow if I'm not mistaken. Yep that's right our friend Bef is logging into the Realms to do some daily quests for rep. After the blowing up of eggs it was time for some break and then off to the BarCon Annual Frisbee Golf Tournament. Being as I'm not working this was my first year of enjoying BarCon all the way and the first time I got to play in the Tourney!! Unfortunately I haven't played in a while so I did alright for being so rusty. After the tourney we headed off for Wings and Poker/Trivia at a local wing joint. Hmmmmmmmm Wings!!!!!! Well then it was back to headquarters and time for some more gaming! After another night of eating, drinking, smoking, chit-chat and gaming it was off to bed but not too early.

Saturday I received multiple elbows to wake up to. And also throughout the day. For some reason there was a bounty placed on B! you got a 1,000 Space Bucks to drop the elbow. Oh well I just gave watts back and also some Elbow justice of my own!! LOL!! Well Saturday followed the same pattern as the previous days with gaming, eating, smoking and we can't forget the drinking. That is until the 3rd annual BarCon Texas Hold'em No Limit Tournament brought to you by BefBoda Enterprises. This year's final three, we give out medals and other prizes for finishing in the top three, featured two familiar faces. In 3rd place was last year's winner "The Big Cheese" Tim and in 2nd place moving up one spot was "Stonewall" Barsky!! We're already laying bets on the big Barbosky taking the title next year as he's been a constant at the final tables. We also give out prizes for being the first to leave and a hidden bounty prize.

Sunday was another round of waking up to Bef dailies and elbows galore. Also was the first annual Fun Run titled this year appropriately since everyone was surviving on minimal sleep, well everyone but one of us *nod* *nod* *wink* *win* you know who you are, "Sucking Vacuum" Fun run!! It was a mile and for those who did it they got a little rejuvenation while getting the old blood pumpin'. Then came the sad part of BarCon the BarB!Q where we wrap it all up by gorging ourselves on good quality grub, birthday cake (for the two little girls who's birthday's are close to BarCon) and of course the Auction for games and other misc items. Did you save up all your Space Bucks well time to put in a bid!! I got a super hard alien head puzzle game and alien head pen that lights up when you write.

Well Bye BarCon it was a great year!

For most people that was the end of BarCon and for me it was too but I got to stick around and help get the Clean up effort started on Monday while the shuttle services got Bef to his flight. I was staying a couple extra days to meet up with other friends I haven't seen since we moved down to California. Monday we took in the Transformer's movie so that Kong and Bar got to see it, it was the second viewing for me. It's not a great movie but is a good action film with lots of explosions and stuff. Good Time!! We also made it over to the sponsor of BarCon Rainy Day Games where I picked up the 5th expansion for Munchkin and some packs for a new game called Star Wars Pocketmodel TCG.

Tuesday I went to Fire on the Mountain,the best Wing place I've ever been to, with my friend Dawg. If you ever make it there you've got to try the Spicy Peanut sauce. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Then I made a quick stop off at the old office to drop off my keys and to say high to all my friends who are still there. It was a good visit to check up on folk and stuff. Then it was off to my friend Mike's house for dinner with his family and a good friend, and old boss/coworker, Robert. It was good evening just to sit and talk with friends and eat some good food. Then it was back to the Bar Hut for some shut eye.

Wednesday I met my Brother-In-Law (BIL) at Chipotle for some Lunch. Him and his family had just gotten back from our place down in California where they were visiting some family and friends including my wife and our new hut. He had some good things to say about the place and that was great to hear because I value his opinion very highly. Then after that it was a quick stop off at REI to pick up some new shoes as mine were starting to fall apart. Then off to the Airport. Man was that an adventure. 84 was backed up so I stayed on I-5 then that was backed up so I got off at an unfamiliar exit, can you say uh-oh!! Well I felt lost for the next 15 minutes until finally the road I was on looped back to where I thought it would go just off I-5. There were no issues with the flight so got home on time.

Man and what a good job my wife and BIL and family did unpacking tons of stuff and getting things setup. Great job you guys and thanks for helping her out greatly appreciated. Oh and Jere I got the TV up this morning just had to rotate it a little onto the narrow side and it was actually pretty easy to get up there. So that's one thing down. Well two if you count that I got all my books unpacked and into my bookcase. Hmmmmmm I don't seem to remember it being that crowded before. I have a shit load of books!! Oh well so I think based on what I've seen I've only got like 5 boxes to go through. Like I said they did an Awesome job while they were here.

Well that's all for now!

Long Tiring Weekend and Begining of Week....Now off to BarCon

2007-08-30T00:35:00.000-07:00

Well the weekend was a bit tiring and a bit of an ass kicker!! The movers showed up on Saturday and we got stuff moved in. Lucky for them we wanted our boxes in the Garage as we weren't sure where things should go and also figured it would make it faster for the movers. Ugh it was a long day. I helped out and seems like I might have moved quite a bit of the stuff myself. The Driver said I was a natural!! LOL!! Yeah years of hauling Hay for my Papa (Grandfather) I know how to pile stuff up and move it efficiently. As Papa always said "Work smarter not harder." Well it was a nice warm day and I got a little bit of red on my neck, nose, arms and legs. Not too bad as it doesn't really itch but my neck was probably the worst.

Over the next few days I unboxed the boxes we had them move into the house. Then got to work on the boxes in the Garage. That was a slow process and after awhile I felt like I was getting nowhere and that our Garage would never have room for the coches. So I decided to just concentrate on getting the boxes that needed to be inside the house close to where they should be based on the description on the box. Well finished that today(er make that yesterday, Wednesday, it's after mid-night now) around noon. Then got to work on starting to unpack what I could before the wife get's home. Ugh another story there she was supposed to land around 9pm but she landed just a short while ago. D'oh! Well I didn't get as much done as I was hoping but I'm so tired I know I did a lot of work. Moving into a 3 story townhouse is a good way to get into shape. I felt like I sweated away 20 pounds over the last 5 days. Yeah probably not really but it feels like it.

Well I'm off to BarCon, an annual event one of my best friends throws at his house for gaming over Labor Day Weekend. It's a complete blast!! I'm staying an extra few days to meet up with friends I won't see and haven't seen since we left.

Well report more when I get back.

Townhouse Is Ours

2007-08-23T00:48:00.000-07:00

Well today we got the keys to the new Townhouse!!! Yeah we're now officially in Debt again!! LOL!!

Well not much else to report other then the painting has begun along with me sealing the grout in the tile floors. The painters got a good portion done this evening but before they showed up I took some more pictures and some videos.

Closing Delay

2007-08-21T17:00:00.001-07:00

Well Monday afternoon we got some bad news the loan didn't fund so closing wasn't going to happen on Tuesday. What happened you might ask? Well Well Fargo had a nationwide computer issue that started on Sunday. Needless to say they didn't get it fully fixed in time so alas our closing pushed out. Luckily this morning they funded the loan and closing will now be tomorrow.

Well now hopefully our timing will not thrown off. We've got painters coming in to paint the house another color other then the base white. We're going with a Tanish color that is similar, for those who've been there, to the Ceiling of my room in the old house. Anyway they were supposed to start tonight with painting and I was supposed to start sealing the grout in the tile floors. Well now it's all pushed a day. We're hoping they'll be done by Friday as the Movers show up Saturday morning to move all our stuff in.

We also get our new Frig delivered on Friday as well. Had to get a new Frig since the appliances are all Stainless steel and our old Frig was White!

Well will report back more later and will post more pictures and maybe some videos as well.

House Orientation and Signing

2007-08-15T12:09:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday was a full and busy day for us. We did our Construction Home Walkthough, Signed papers for closing at the Title company and attended a class put on by Centex. Below are some pictures from our walk through:

Living Room (or B!'s Play area Wii will be here)

Family Room Entertainment Nook and Fireplace

Other side of Family room and part of Kitchen

Kitchen (with sweet appliances and big Island)

I would like to show more but having issues with the editor placing pictures in the wrong spot then not being able to move them but instead having to move the text around. Once you have loaded a picture how do you link to it. I loaded some of these pictures multiple times but don't see where you actually reference them from within the editor if you want to include the same picture again. Any pointers?

Books, Books and Books

2007-08-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

Well now that I have some time to do things during the day I've gotten a chance to read more books. Unfortunately sometimes it's hard to remember what I have and what I don't of certain series I'm on due to them being in storage back in Oregon. But since I've been down here I've read a couple of books.

First book was Book 2 of the Darkwar Saga: Into A Dark Realm by Raymond E. Feist. Now REF is one of my favorite authors of all time. How this came about was I got my first book by him for a Birthday many years ago by one of my Best Friends Bar. After tearing through Magician: Apprentice I went and bought his next few books of the Riftwar Saga. Magician: Master, Silverthorn and Darkness at Sethanon. This first two books were actually one book upon first publication called Magician. The books center around an orphan boy named Pug and his adopted, well somewhat, brother Thomas. The stories follow the path of both boys throughout the war. I'll keep from explaining more so as not to give it away to anyone who would like to read them. He since has gone on to write more books and stories for award winning video games that center around the world him and his friends created while making their own RPG based on the D&D core rules but which they found not up to snuff (See. Midkemia Publishing). Well for most of his books Pug is usually found with the exception of his one book outside this realm of fantasy called Faerie Tale which is set in the real world but is fantasy. I'd say more but it's been a while since I read this. Anyway, back to the book at hand. I blasted through this as I can never seem to set down one of REF's books ever. It was good but just not as good as the original series and the series he did with Janny Wurts which are probably the two best complete series he did. I continued the story of the Epic battle between the Conclave and a certain Diety. But in order to continue the struggle Pug and some friends have to make a trip to the dimension below theirs. Which without the proper guide and training would kill them within minutes of arriving. It also brings in the story of one young Dasati to give you, the reader, a look into the enemy's point of view. Good book can't wait for the next one as it left me wanting more.

After finishing this book I immediately dove into the Final Chapter of the Harry Potter books The Deathly Hallows by J.K Rowling. Ok you might be asking how I got into this series. Well at first I thought they were just kids books but after seeing the first movie I loved the story line, characters, and originality so much I just started pounding through the books. One thing I love about these books is they are written for children but unlike many children's books these don't talk down to children. As she's gone through the series she has almost made them like a progression for children to increase their reading skills by including more vocabulary as she's gone along. The books are quick and easy reads for me as an adult but they also speak to me greatly. As for the latest, and possibly last installment from her on this subject matter (but that is a debate for another post), book it just one up the previous book as that book did to the previous and so forth.

See Possible Spoiler

In this book we see Harry finally grow out of his angry teenager phase into while not quite adult at least a maturing young adult. While I appreciated his angry phase as I was once a unreasonably angry teenager mad at the world and everyone around him it was nice to see him come out of that. After the last book everyone was wondering who is Snape and what side is he on. I read one article that was quite nicely done if I could find it I'd link it. It was about is he on the side of the OOP, a Death Eater or possibly his own side. I personally thought Snape killed Dumbledore at his own request, which turned out to be true, but I also thought it was a elaborate ruse and that Dumbledore was still alive, which turned out not to be the case. I was truely bummed out about that one not being true. The body count in this book continued along and some characters we've loved time came to an end. Well in War people die and at least she wasn't afraid to go there and take down some characters she had devoted a lot too in order to make it more true to real life. The biggest tragedy for me was Dobby the freed House Elf. That was truely a tragedy for he was an Elf who fights the bonds of his master to help Harry out even if he almost got him killed/expelled, which as we all know is the same thing to Hermione, a few times. Dobby will be missed but his death brought about a key turning point in the chase for the Horcruxes so it was not in vain. Voldemort goes down with some help from the stories subtle other Hero Neville who takes out the final Horcrux before Harry finally brings Voldemort down. I aslo enjoyed the first day of school for the next generation of children and Harry's tribute to Snape.

I'm now working on plowing through the next two books in the Star Wars series Legacy of the Force. I'm a big Star Wars fan. My friends and family call me fanatic but in the grand scheme I'm probably just a big Star Wars fan compared to the people I've seen at convensions and movie premieres. Ok yeah if I was artistic enough I'd make my own Stormtrooper, Chewbacca and Jedi outfits but alas my talents do not lie in that arena or at least I'm not sure where to begin on that. So maybe I'm just a fanatic in the wings. I've always loved Star Wars but never thought I'd get into reading the books since there were so many and I wasn't sure which would be the good ones. Then one day I got a shipment from the Science Fiction book club by mistake and it had a book called I, Jedi by Michael Stackpole. I read the book and immediatly got into the character of this book and Stackpoles writing. So I started at the begining of the story line with the X-Wing Series of books by Stackpole and others. These told the tale after RoJ and take place before the much acclaimed books by Timothy Zahn. In these books the Rogue Squadron group grows and then a second unit gets formed called Wraith Squadron. A great set of books if you want a good read and are into Star Wars at all. Since then I've read almost all the books in the Star Wars universe. I'm still short by about 10 or less books I think. The New Jedi Order series in my opinion changed how stories are told in book series. This was a refreshing idea they mapped out a story line over 20+ books and then assigned different Authors different points along the story arc. This gave the series an advantage over other long series in that you got a different voice to hear from in each book. Now that could have easily backfired on them but I think it worked out great as you never felt like you had read this before as you do with some long running series with only one Author. This led to the next mixed Author story chain Legacy of the Force which I'm now reading. It is a 9 book series writen by 3 authors who will each write 3 books in the series. I'm currently reading the 5th book Sacrifice. This is the story so far anyways of a potential Second Empire to come about by a new Sith Lord. One different twist in this series is we the readers got a chance to submit names for the new Sith Lord to take. So this gave us some ownership which is unique to anything I've seen before. In these books you see a rift forming in the Skywalker/Solo clans who throughout the years together have kept things going but apart will it tear everything they worked so hard for apart? Will history repeat itself? Well we'll have to stay tuned and find out.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them. If you'd like more detailed reading lists for REF or Star Wars please let me know and I'll give you my opinion on where to start to see if you'll be into it or not.

Flags at Half Mast in 9er Land

2007-08-01T15:54:00.000-07:00

It is with a heavy and sad heart that I write this entry. Bill Walsh the man who is the San Francisco 49ers to many of us fans passed away this past week after battling leukemia. The Bill Walsh era of the 49ers happened during my childhood so it is the 9ers that I remember the most and still to this day love. Eddie DeBartalo, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Dwight Clark, Tom Rathman, Ronnie Lott, Roger Craig (the greatest and most under-appreciated RB)..... The list goes on for those teams of my childhood but the man at the helm has always topped that list in my opinion when it comes to the 9ers. While he had all those great players it was his ability to get the most out of them and to utilize their talents properly that made all of them Super Stars.

I can remember one year in College when Stanford came to play my Ducks I sat there the entire time looking at Stanfords sidelines looking at the living legend for the entire game. I can't even tell you who won that game because one of my Idols from childhood was there doing what he does best coaching. And I see it as a great great honor that I got to have that experience in my lifetime. The only thing that would have been better was to be at a 9er game when he was still coaching.

Well Coach Walsh you will be missed but you have impacted many people over the years that you will live on in memory for a very, very long time.

Back Online and Ready to Write

2007-08-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

Well it's been longer then I thought since Last I wrote on this site. Well a lot has happened since last we met.

Let's see you already know our house sold very fast and has since completed. One thing you may or not know is that we also in that time span purchased a Townhouse in the Bay Area for what we feel is a great deal. We're upgrading footage but lowering the number of bedrooms. Only snag is it isn't ready until August 21st. So we had to scramble get the movers to now store things for like 2 months and to find temporary housing. Luckily we found out that my wife's company was going to foot the bill for the storage and the temp housing which was huge and a dramatic change from what they had said before.

The movers showed up on the 25th and started the packing process. They were in luck as my wife had done a ton of pre-packing for them. Which was also lucky for us as it saved us some money. Then on the 26th of June the movers packed the last of it and we took off in our overloaded vehicles for the long trek down to the Bay Area. The first day we were just heading to my Grandparents place who were just about the half-way point and gave us a good excuse to visit them since it had been a while. The first leg of the trip went by without much excitement other then the guy biting it ahead of us on the road. Didn't see it actually happen but did see them pass us then probably less then a 1/4 mile he bit the dust in the road. He could get up and stand not necessarily meaning he was OK. Gees who's OK after hitting the ground doing 75+ MPH. But as 5-6 cars had already pulled over and were helping him out and since we hadn't seen the actual accident we kept going. We had a nice diner and breakfast with my Grandparents then headed off for the second leg of the trip. This one went really uneventful until we go to the temporary housing we had. Now that was an adventure. First thing that struck me as odd was the place didn't know to expect us and never asked for ID or anything. Strange yes? Well guess that's how the service we were using works. So anyway we get the keys after they had to make a set for us then headed into the garage to unload the cars. Well we try the key in the apartment and wouldn't you know it they didn't work. So my wife headed back to the office and got a different set of keys. So we then try those and they work. Great right not so fast there people! We open the door and there's stuff in the apartment already. Yeah we were getting a furnished apartment but I don't think clothes and jackets are part of that deal. Oops something isn't right here. So the Wife call the company we're going through finds out the had re-assigned us to another apartment in the complex, luckily would have sucked if we had to go somewhere else as it was getting late. So we got those keys and got in and this looked much better. Well after that was over we unloaded the cars and got everything in here. That took some time then we had to unpack everything. So now we're here....... or are we...

Well the next day the 28th I'm on a plane pack to Portland for work for 5 long days. Short end of the stick we were doing an upgrade and it didn't necessarily go very smoothly. I got back home and worked out of the apartment until the 13th when I went on Vacation. Well "Vacation" was better then working but still I was working at least an hour a day if not more until the glorious last day arrived the 27th of July!! Whoot the end of my 12 years with my company. It was a great feeling but at the same time a very sad moment as I was leaving behind many good co-workers that I enjoyed talking to and working with. The biggest hit I had was my office mate who I've known for my entire 12 years with the company. She I will miss the most but luckily we're friends as well as fellow employees so hopefully that relationship stays in contact.

Well that brings us up to date as far as what's happened so far in my life since last I wrote.

Stay tuned for more posting in the very near future.

Long absense

2007-05-09T16:39:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't posted anything in quite some time well that's because of everything that is going on in my life. Selling house, buying house, trying to wrap everything up at work etc....

Well once things calm down I'll once again start posting but it will probably stay a barren waste land for the next month or two due to the above shackling updates.

Weekend of Shattered Dreams

2007-04-12T20:08:00.001-07:00

Well the wife and I spent the weekend in the San Francisco area looking at a couple of different areas in hopes of finding a good area to concentrate the house hunting for our upcoming move.

Saturday we spent in the Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hills area. Oh man downtown Walnut Creek is just wonderful and feels like a great place to be. There were shops and restaurants all over and it felt like a good place for a late evening stroll. They have a beautiful auditorium, Architect is from Portland which seemed like a weird coincident, that I thought just put the icing on the cake. I love the theater and all that kind of stuff so that’s a huge plus for me. So after a quick drive through that area we kept on going out of town and ended up in Pleasant Hill where we found this awesome little neighborhood of Spanish (or at least that’s how I characterize them) style homes. We figured these are all 1.5-2 Million dollar homes. We saw one for sale so grabbed the flier for it. It was only a mere 990K. But was a really nice home being a little over 2,600 sq ft. It had all the amenities that we could think of. Great kitchen with granite counter tops, dual convection ovens, jacuzzi tub and walk in shower in master bath, loft, 4 bedrooms, living, dining, family great room into dining and kitchen, built in gas grill outside, tiled outside eating bar and great landscaping. Man we said if that's what 990K buys man we should be able to find what we want for a reasonable, well for the Bay Area anyways, home that is close to our 1,600 sq foot home here. Well were we wrong. Most of the houses we looked at were 780K-850K for 1300-1800 sq ft homes built mostly in the 70s and early 80s. Nothing was even close to what we were looking for. Some had good features but all of them had some major work we would want to do to it to make it more what we wanted. And at 800K+ we just didn't feel like having to put a ton of money into remodeling.

Well the next day we went looking on the peninsula. We started over in Pacifica before we even met the Realtor my wife pretty much vetoed this area. It reminded her of some of the older costal cities in Oregon. Well I wasn't too heartbroken as if I wanted to live in a town like this we could move back to the Oregon coast for a lot cheaper!! The next area we visited was San Bruno this reminded me of my home town of North Bend, Oregon big time. Lots of older ranch homes with pealing paint and of course that Ocean smell. We really weren't too impressed with this area. Then we went onto San Mateo where we actually saw one home, with a detatched living area, that was probably the best house we saw all weekend. But the biggest issue with the peninsula area was the prices most were again in the 800k+ range and were only for 1,000-1,200 sq ft home all of which were probably 40+ years old maybe. After this day we felt the other houses we looked at looked much better to us today then they did yesterday.

Well to finish out our trip we headed over to the Dublin/Pleasanton area to just take a quick drive to get a feeling for that area. We liked that area and our Realtor from day one was going to look in the Dublin and San Ramon areas.

Well I'll report more as we know more.

‘Cuse out and now the Ducks!

2007-03-29T10:57:00.001-07:00

Well ‘Cuse lost last week to Clemson. They were way back but at least stormed back to make it a game near the end. Good job and way to continue to fight and scrap until the very end. I’m of course disappointed in the loss but I am glad they never gave up. Hopefully they can replace the key seniors leaving but somehow I don’t think you can replace a player like Nichols right away nor the big man down low. But do have a good core nucleus coming back which bodes well.
Ducks oh my wish I could have seen the games but unfortunately I was traveling this weekend (see post on this). Looks like they were in control of the game against UNLV until the end when they let them get back into it. Luckily they did enough to fend them off. Nice job!! Way to go TP huge game in the National Spotlight!!! Against Florida it sounds like they put up a fight but weren’t quite shooting as well as they had been. At least it was a game and not all one sided. Man I can’t wait for next year. Aaron meant a lot to the team this season but we return 4 of the starting 5 and get some in coming talent coming that should help out. Ohh boy this should be good. I’m hoping all the Kent doubters will stay off his back for a while, doubtful, but I can hope. But I know if they don’t finish in the top 3 of the Pac-10 and go deep into the NCAA’s next year they will be calling. Unfair but that’s the way it goes I guess. I would have to say the Pac-10 looks set for next year to dominate the nation again. Oregon will stay strong, UCLA barring something surprising gets even better, USC gets stronger, Arizona after a off season should be back to form and I think Stanford should be in the mix. The others will all get better as well.

Ducks and Cuse move on

2007-03-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

*Sigh*

That is the sigh of relief as the Ducks have moved onto the Sweet 16. In Round 1 they were just a tad off, well more like way off, from their Pac-10 Tournament games. Miami (OH) played well and almost got us in that game. We made a couple of moves but never could shake them even at the end. After that game I didn’t feel very good about our match up with Winthrop. I watched the Notre Dame/Winthrop game from round 1 and they have a post player that has some really good moves down in the post. Without a real big man of our own, sorry Maarty but you’re more of a forward then a center, I was worried they would eat us alive down low. However, Maarty and Malik did a fantastic job down low on the defensive end. Tajuan and Brooks both helped out as well I wish we could have seen the look on the guys face as he turned around and realized he had a 5’ 6” defender on him. That had to make him go WTF!! Great job all around by the entire team. Bryce again made baskets when needed and Tajuan and Brooks provided the 3-point daggers to put it away. However, even with Tajuan's 3-point barrage to start the second half I say the game ball should go to Maarty and Malik. Both of them worked hard on both ends of the court to fight for position, rebounds and put back shots.

Well now it’s onto the next round and a surprising, nationally anyway, UNLV team. Man this team looks dangerous. They might have been relatively unknown before the tourney but people sure see them now. This is going to be a tough game to pickas both teams have been shooting lights out in recent games. I didn’t get a chance to see either of UNLV's tournament games but reading the recaps this is a game where if either team has any cooling off at all it will cost them. I’m rooting for my Ducks but I can honestly say I don’t know who should win this game. I think both teams are similar but I’m hoping the off season workouts that the Duck players took upon themselves will allow them to out run the Running Rebels. In either case I think you might just want to strap yourself in because if both teams stay on the streaks they’re on currently this will be a high octane game that just might blow you out of your seats.

On the NIT front Syracuse has moved on again! Oh yeah the walked in that game! Now onto Clemson. This should be a tough game and even though I hate to say it I think Clemson has the edge in this game. But I’m still pulling for the Orange to pull it out with a gritty performance from Nichols. He’s going to want to keep it going into MSG and the finals for his last run!

As I’ve mentioned before many people probably wonder why a person who grew up on the Oregon Coast is a Syracuse fan. Well you have to go back to High School I think it was my Junior year and I was just getting into watching college basketball because I had stopped playing ball in school, which is another story in itself. At this time I had no ties to any of the in state schools other then OSU because my friend was going there. I hadn’t quite started looking at colleges for school yet. Anyways, the tournament was on and I was following it pretty closely as I love basketball more then just about anything in my life. I’ve never been one to really track players or remember when people were on what team. I’ve just always liked watching the games. As I’ve gotten older I have my teams I pull for and have less time to devote to my first love and passion. I’m hoping with the move I may reconnect again with this sport. Anyway back to my point in the tournament Syracuse was in and playing a game when I remembered my Stepfather went there. Now for some reason, looking back on it I think it was because how much my Stepfather has meant to me and what he had done for me yet another story for another time, I just clicked with them and their coach. Since then I’ve been hooked. I hope to never have to pick between the Orange of ‘Cuse and my Alma Mater Ducks because I don’t know who I’d side with. So far I have not had that dilemma and hopefully I never will unless it’s a title game!!

Well good luck to both teams in the next games hopefully both can move on.

A Sad and Happy Day

2007-03-08T15:04:00.001-08:00

Well for the sad news first! The Orange just couldn’t recover late in the second half in their game against the Golden Domes of Notre Dame! Ah they were up at half and were keeping ahead during the beginning of the second half. Then the brief meltdown where they couldn’t do anything right and went down 9. They kept it within striking distance all the way through and ended up losing by 6. Well hopefully on Sunday they’re name will be called for the Dance.

As for the good news the Ducks took care of Arizona in dominating form! Holy cow I thought this would be like the two regular season games with a down to the wire finish. Just like the last game at the Pit we got a good size lead but this time instead of wilting we pushed it to a 20+ point lead. In the back of my mind though I still had doubts and they were almost founded as Zona brought it back to 14 again. But the Ducks settled down and played efficient down the stretch to keep the lead. Next up the winner of the UCLA/Cal game. I want UCLA as it would be nice to have another shot at them as a measuring stick.

Luckily the games were both going on during lunch and were even on the TV where I was having lunch. So I got to see about an hour of both games before heading back to work. I was able to keep up on the ‘Cuse game via ESPN.com and got the Duck game on the radio.

So I’m sitting here fingers crossed the ‘Cuse gets into the Dance and I’m hoping Oregon wins the PAC-10 tournament to get some hug momentum going into the Dance.

Classic Video Game fun with the Wii

2007-03-01T15:46:00.000-08:00

Yes I am one of those people who picked up the Wii! This system I was very excited for as it was Ninendo’s first backward compatible consoles. You can play your GameCube games on the device with the old controllers and memory cards plus the new Wii games. Another good feature is the built in Wireless Networking. It was a pain at first to set up the networking but I think that was due to something wrong with the software on the system. After resetting my wireless router and letting the Wii do its automatic updates I was then able to resecure my wireless router again and the Wii worked just as before. Another sweet feature of this system was the ability to download old games from other Nintendo systems (NES, SNES, Nintendo 64) along with the Sega Genesis and something called TurboGrafx. Not sure what the last system was but the others excited me greatly as I’d be able to download old games for small fee ranging from $5-10 depending on the system. The motion sensing controllers sounded really cool and in use are great.

I love when playing the Wii Sports games that come with the system that you actually make real life motions to do things such as Pitch a baseball, swing a bat, swing a golf club, swing a tennis racket, bowl, or box. It’s actually a great workout and a great party game even if it is simplistic. I had a friend of mine who wants to get one now after we made her do the home run hitting mode. She knocked one so far it went out of the park. On another she swung so hard she slipped on our hard wood. But she was laughing the entire time. Her little girl did the practice range mode for golf and after a little trial and error was having a blast playing. This probably led more to her wanting the system then the fun she had. I personally can’t wait until Tiger Woods or Mario golf comes out for the system. I also want to see what they do with the basketball games.

When I bought the system I picked up Zelda and Madden. Two staple games for any Nintendo system. Zelda just rules!! I love the fact in this version you can fight from horseback and that you actually swing the controller to attack. Very fun and well put together game. Madden is a ton of fun like normal but with the Wii Controllers it’s even more fun. To hike the ball you pull the controller towards you. To throw you select your receiver and make a throwing motion. When running you can swing the controller/numchuck right or left to stiff arm or juke. Kicking can be very sensitive if you don’t watch the orientation of the controller all the way through the upswing motion. Any right or left tilting of the controller will cause the ball to slice or hook. Absolute blast and easier then remembering what button does what.

This system should appeal to just about any type of gamer I would think as even the first person games should absolutely rock what with aiming at the screen with the controller for you gun and stuff. I just can’t wait for some of the upcoming games to get released.

Currently I have only downloaded 2 games from the online store. They are Kid Ikarus and Donkey Kong Country. Kid Ikarus was one of those games that always stuck with me and my friends growing up. Hell we even have a common saying that came out of my frustration with this game. “You little dorks”. I’m having a blast remembering this game and reliving my youth. Donkey Kong Country, for the SNES, was a great game at the time and while the graphics are not quite what I remember it is still loads of fun to control Donkey and Diddy Kong in their mad cap adventures.

Well back to gaming for me I write another write up on my current video game of choice World of Warcraft sometime in the near future.

House of Boxes

2007-02-28T16:00:00.001-08:00

Well the latest on the move situation is that we, the wife mostly, have started to get extra stuff boxed up or in some cases things I’m gonna want in the next few months but will have to live without! We’ve got the majority of our DVD’s and CD’s packed away. The wife has packed up the extra towels, bedding, clothes and such. Her and the MIL have gone through our garage sale items, that will be going into a friends garage sale, and Goodwill items. So now we have boxes stacked in the garage and closets. It seems really weird to see all that stuff in boxes and then stacked up.

On my front I started with my closet and got that emptied and most of it put into a box or at least in an grouped area for figuring out how I’ll pack it. I have board games that are big to fit in most moving boxes as they are too long. My biggest concern there is damaging them or them coming open during the move. I have a few miniatures that I’m not sure how best to pack. I have a bunch of them that are a plastic of some type I think so those should be ok. However, the metal figures I’m gonna probably have to individually wrap or it might work by taping two pieces of foam together between two boards or something. Oh well the fun of discovery. After those items I need to get my bookshelves mostly emptied so I need to pack all my books. I have both paperback and hardcover books not to mention my collection of Role Playing Games (RPG) material. I really want to pack the hardback books well so as to not ruin the covers or the books themselves. I also want to make sure I pack my paperbacks in such a way I don’t get bent up covers or pages. But probably the biggest thing to deal with is all my collectable card game (CCG) cards I have. I have a ton of Magic: The Gathering, Wheel of Time, Star Trek, Star Wars, Netrunner etc.. I’m not sure if I should pack all of them for the move or look at unloading some of them via Ebay or a local store. Big question is do I keep them in the cardboard card boxes they are in or do I find something else that will keep them dry in case the box they go in gets wet? I also have a collection of comics and graphic novels that I need to get some covers and backings for. Next time I head over to the comic shop I’ll look for something. I think outside of that I just will have some statuettes and other knickknacks around the room to pack.

Well once that’s finished then we’ll be real close to getting the house on the market for sale. We’ll need to get the house cleaned like never before and to get the outside painted. We’ve got some quotes for painting the house so hopefully we get that all setup to go in the next few weeks.

Keep tuned as there will be more updates to come I’m sure.

Welcome Home Fred Jones!!

2007-02-23T14:03:00.000-08:00

Well one of my all-time favorite UO Duck men’s basketball players is coming home to Portland to play for the home town team of the Trailblazers. I’m very happy for him that he’ll get to play for his hometown team after an illustrious High School and College campaigns inside the state of Oregon! Now after his years at Indy and the last year up in Toronto he comes home. All the Portland locals and Duck fans will hopefully be rejoicing this new outcome. I don’t necessarily like they traded Dixon to get him but overall they got a better defender and athletic talent. Dixon was the better pure shooter but if Freddie, I just can’t not call him that sometimes, can get that confidence he had his Senior year at UO or during the suspension season for Indy that might not be an issue. Fred can play point if need be or the shooting/post up guard. Get him in space and he can beat just about anyone off the dribble to the hoop. He’s explosive still just known for getting down on himself and doubting his ability. Luke and Luke were able to get him to play to his fullest and when pressed to shine in the absence of the Indy stars he shined as well. Maybe being home and playing in front of a friendly, supportive hometown crowd will get him back up there.

Earlier I said Freddie was one of my all-time favorite. For a little insight into myself my favorite Duck basketball player ever was OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOrlando Williams!!! He had one of the sweetest rainbow, and I mean rainbow, shots I’ve ever seen. The guy just drained shots. I remember he was shooting from outside the three one game and he hit the scoreboard that’s how high of an arc he had. Plus standing in the student section we would always shout out “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” when he had the ball. In no particular order here are some of my all time favorite UO ball players (note: to be considered they had to be someone I saw during my UO timeframe Fall 1991+ sorry to the players from before):

Orlando Williams
Freddie Jones
Clyde “The Glyde Air” Jordan
Luke Jackson
Luke Ridinour
Alex Scales
Kenya Wilkens
Jordan Kent
AD Smith
Bryan Bracey

For the Women’s Basketball team:

Jenny Mowe
Arianne Boyer
Debbie Sporcich (probably the greatest to play at Oregon in my time)
Shaquala Williams
Cathrine Kraayeveld
Jamie Craighead

If you have a favorite that is on or not on these lists let me hear from you. If I’ve misspelled a name of a player my apologies as I’m not the best speller ever and names are hard to spell check!

Comic Convention

2007-02-20T22:15:00.000-08:00

Well this weekend I attended my first Comic Convention with my friends Bar, his wife and Mr. Green. It was a fun experience but a bit overwhelming when looking for a specific set of items in all that mess. I went to this convention looking for the comic series based on my favorite author's, Raymond E. Feist, book Magician: Apprentice. Most booths were very helpful in letting me know they did not have what I was looking for (Heh-heh *Nelson Muntz voice*). But only one booth was so kind as to say while they didn't have any there that they did have some back at their shop and might even have all the issues I was looking for. Thank you Karen's Comics for actually being helpful and having great employees. Luckily I checked this booth out right before we left the convention and actually found a couple of items to purchase there. So I'll be giving them a call this week to see if they have all the issues I'm looking for. Even if they don't have what they thought they did I will still visit them for the helpfulness they gave.

Also, at this convention the Dark Side Troopers were there and we got a group photo taken. Unfortunately they have not posted our picture on their website for us to download yet otherwise I'd show it to you (Update: 3/4/2007 we scanned the picture in via our printer see here). Bar and I got to stand next to the big guy himself, Chewbacca!!! Nice suit by the way man!! Many of the other suits were very sweet. I wish I was talented enough to even think of trying to make a Star Wars suit myself.

Ducks Free Falling!

2007-02-20T22:09:00.000-08:00

Well my Oregon Ducks Men's basketball team seems to be free falling the second half of the Pac-10 season. After a miserable trip to the Bay Area, my future home, they are looking to right the sinking ship with 3 home games where they should go at least 2-1 to head into the Pac-10 Tournament on a better note. The Cal game seemed identical to the game in Eugene with the exception we couldn't hold onto the lead in the second half after coming back from being down in the first half. That knocked our wind out and then Stanford deflated us completely. Not sure what the issue is other then the big scoring droughts but then again they seem to have happened all year long. It was just that in the first half we did enough to pull out the wins. Maybe it's just the law of averages playing out. But there is still hope and I'll keep holding to it but if we don't get that 2-1 at least over the last 3 games of the Pac-10 regular season I may lose that hope. For Aaron Brooks' sake I hope they get the ship righted in time to make a push in the NCAAs. He deserves some time to shine in the prime time spotlight of the Big Dance!!

The Move

2007-02-11T12:23:00.000-08:00

Well my wife and I are reloacting to San Francisco later in the year. My wife was given an opportunity to relocate at work and this opportunity is a fantastic one for her career. I'm very excited about the move because I'm ready for something new in my life and a new city is just the thing to get a fresh start on many levels. It also doesn't hurt that the 49ers happen to be in San Francisco. I've been a 9er fan since I was born. My Grandmother instilled that in me but that's a story for another time. Anyway while I'm greatly excited about this there are some things that worry me.

First off is of course the cost of living down there is much greater then it is in Oregon here. Then of course there is where will we live? This will depend upon how much commuting my wife wants to do. But with her job, auditor, she'll be traveling to clients as much as she's in the office so not sure what area will be best in terms of location, cost and traffic. Well we still have a while to figure this out but I know it will probably go by faster then it should.

What will I do for a job? Now this question is the big one. I've been given an opportunity to figure out if I would like to change my occupation or not. Currenlty I'm a Computer Programmer by trade, although in my current job I don't really get to do any programming just system analysis and other support junk. So I could stick with programming and will probably have tons of options in the Bay Area as there are lots of tech companies down there. But also I have been thinking about teaching High School math and computers for about the last 10 years or so. Most people tell me I'd make a great teacher and my time in my current job has reinforced that notion with the many times I've sat down and walked people through how to do SQL, report writing and other stuff. So I may look into that.

Will we be able to sell our current house? This shouldn't be so bad as my wife's Sister-In-Law, she's a realator, will be helping us.

Well as more stuff comes up I'll be writing more on this subject.

Ducks Basketball

2007-02-11T12:08:00.000-08:00

Well for a season that started out with such promise on the Men's side it is now starting to show the signs of weakness. After going 6-1 in Pac-10 play the ducks are now 8-5 and just can't seem to put games together again. I'm hoping this is just a slump and not a sign of things to come. Aaron Brooks just scored less then 15 points this last weekend when coming into the weekend he was the Pac-10 leading scorer. Ugh hopefully the team will sweep in the Bay Area, a tough thing to do, and then run the table at home against UW, WSU and OSU. The biggest problem I see is sometimes they just get into a rut offensivly where they don't move well without the ball or put up unwarrented shots. Sometimes those shots go in and it makes me even madder!! I don't care if you make a bad shot it was still a bad shot and making it will only encourage. The team moves the ball well when they want and we have the team speed to move well without the ball to get good wide open looks at the basket from about 10+ feet out or a quick dash to the hoop to take the feed. However for some reason we don't do this on a consistent basis. From a coaching standpoint I'm still not sure why we aren't pressing the whole game. The team worked hard on the offseason to make sure they got in great condition. Our bigs run the floor well and I think if we full court press the whole game we'd probably be winning all these close games by 15 or more. On defense our biggest problem is not blocking people out and not getting any over the back calls. But if the refs aren't calling that you have to make sure you block everyone out and go up strong to get the ball as it's coming down. Against many of the Pac-10 teams we should not be getting out rebounded with Marty, Malik and everyone else in the post position. Teams like Stanford will because of the amount of size they have on the team. But teams like Arizona give me a break we are bigger then they are. Oh well just have a few more weeks before the Pac-10 tournament. We need to go at max of 1 loss until then to get the team confidence back. I think the Pac-10 tournament if we can get to the final game that will bode well for the NCAAs. In the NCAAs we'll at our current rate bow out by the second round. If we can get the swagger back we could push into the elite eight again. Well only time will telll.

As for the Duck women I'm not sure what is going on but I'm thinking many people are wishing that the admin didn't bow to the players wishes and would have done everything in their power to make Jody Runge stay. Bev Smith is a good coach but for whatever reason she just doesn't get as much out of her players as Runge did. Now Bev is definitely more popular with her players then Runge ever was but then again you don't need to like someone to play for them especially when you are a Pac-10 powerhouse. I still have hope that Bev can pull in a great group of talent and get them to play ball as she wants. But I don't think fans nor admin will wait much longer before moving on.

First Post

2007-02-10T01:05:00.000-08:00

Well this shall be damn boring as it's 1am and I'm tired and this is my first post to my Blog. I'm hoping I'll keep up with this Blog as a way to meet new people with similar interests as well as letting my friends and family participate in my thought random or straightforward as they might be. I decided to get into this because of a friend who Blogs about all things in her life and my nephew has a site devoted to his growing up.

As a young man I always enjoyed writing but as I've gotten older I got away from it. I'm hoping in keeping a Blog that I might revitalize my imagination and writing skills again. This Blog will be a place where I can reincarnate old ideas. Back in college I used to publish via e-mail to friends a magazine type letter called B!SPN. It mostly dealt with sports but it also dealt with just day to day stuff to keep friends up to date on things. It was a very wacky thing I even had a Classified section and staff writers. So hopefully I can get something similar up and running here. If anyone has any ideas on how to accomplish that please let me know. I think I'll have to make a second Blog site that I can allow others to contribute to in order to get that old feel back.

Other things I hope to write about are my online gaming in The World of Warcraft, Movies Reviews, Book Review/Discussions, Board Game reviews/Discussions, Role Playing posts and just random crap. One thing that will probably be an issue is trying to keep the swear words out of my posts. I'm one of those people who swears almost every other word. Hell just thinking what I'll type I'm self editing out all the fun words to say!!

Well guess I have ranted on long enough. Goodnight dear World Wide Web!!