Makin' Progress

The arcade cabinet is really coming along! I'm knee deep in creating the artwork for the cabinet, starting with the control panel. I'm sticking with Cave Story artwork for the control panel only. Below the blue buttons will be a blue shaded Balrog with arms thrown up yelling "Huzzah!", Balrog's catch phrase. Missiles will be flying underneath the trackball toward the red button side, where a red Balrog will be in pain yelling, "Ouch!" My kids are huge fans of Balrog, calling him Lunchbox due to his lunchbox-like shape. Up above the Player 1 start button will be a small picture of Quote, the main character of Cave Story. Above the Player 2 start button will be a small picture of Quote with Curly on his back, a reference to the harrowing last level of the game. Finally, the background of the control panel overlay will be a cave and have various characters hidden in the background, including the two last bosses hiding in the top corners.
I'm also busy with wiring the buttons to the keyboard encoder, attaching the control panel latches, installing the T-Molding (which is already attached to the control panel), installing the speakers and subwoofer, and mounting the marquee backlight. I may install the coin door tomorrow, seeing as how it shouldn't get in the way of anything at this point. I really enjoyed mounting the buttons, trackball and joysticks. It really beings a bit of finality to this project. Granted, I still have a fair amount of work to do, but it is really neat to know that I am nearly done! Oh, I also found a spot that needs some touch up paint on the speaker panel. That sucks!

DONE!!!...?

Well, I have a feeling that I may be a bit premature in saying this, but...

CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARCADE CABINET IS FINISHED!!!

I finished painting what I believe will be the very last coat of paint on the cabinet tonight! I may be a little premature in this only because the paint hasn't dried yet, so I can't say really how this coat is going to turn out. I feel like it is done now though! I'm so happy! It's been nearly three years of slowing working at putting this together, and now it is ready for wiring up and playing!

I started work on the art tonight too. I think that I'm going to go for a collage of 8-bit sprites from my favorite games. So, characters like Mario, Bowser, Link, Ganon, etc, will be clashing against each other on the sides of the panel. I'm also adding characters from the PC game, Cave Story. I think it'll look pretty neat once it is done.

What the Hell?

I'm a big fan of the game Rez, by Tetsuya Mizuguchi. However, some found an interesting use for add-on equipment for the game, called the Trance Vibrator. Go ahead and read her article.

Crazy Updating

As you can see, I've had a lot to say today. I realized it had been a little while since I updated. I figured this would be a good chance to show the latest on my arcade cabinet project...

I Hate MySpace... Continued...

So, I decided to expand my MySpace page some in order to get my friends to come to this, my actual blog. I actually requested friendship with my friends from work and high school. Now that they know that I exist their, they can see the link on the front page to here. I also added some pictures so that people knew it was me. I still hate the layout and social implications of the site (which is probably a debate that I don't want to start on a blog, but in person) but it is the best well to let my friends and family know about my blog, so that they can see what I'm up to, no matter where I am.
However, to contradict myself (because I like being a Devil's Advocate), I have found a lot of my old high school gang. With less than a year from our ten years after graduation, no reunion has been planned. MySpace may be the best way to find our graduating class and plan a reunion. Having a central area to meet the majority of people in America is pretty handy in that aspect.

The Sick

A sickness has spread through my family, starting with Maia. She got over it in about 24 hours, and then passed it to Sean. Because of that, Sean missed his first day of Kindergarten! After that, Juri got the Sick from Sean and was miserable for two days. Several days passed and she got better, then it was gone. Last Wednesday night, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was shaking and hot at the same time, my eyes felt like knives were stabbed into my retinas, and I was overcome with a tremendous headache!
During the next day at work, there was a test that I was supposed to take with my old section, but I wasn't up to it from my illness (sorry Jene for all the work for nothing). I called Medical, but they said there were no appointments and call them on Friday if I don't get better. Well, that night, I felt better when I got home from work (after working all day).
Catching up to today, when I woke up in the morning, I still felt well and went to work. Near the end of the day, I began to feel all the symptoms creeping back. To top it off, when I got home, Sean was sick again too. So, who knows how this weekend is going to go...

Band Aids and Best Friends

So, my daughter has this freak obsession with Band Aids. For some reason, she will occasionally ask for a box of band aids, and then proceed to stick nearly the whole box all over her legs. It's really a funny sight to behold, but at the same time, it bothers me because of the mess she leaves from the wrappers and such. I really need to get a picture of her with band aids all over her and post it on this blog...

My best friend, Matt, was shipped out to the USS Enterprise, which is currently deployed, today. He carries on the Erson Twins tradition, following in my footsteps by going to the ship that I was stationed on three years ago. We recently received a wedding invitation from him and, of course, my family and I will be attending. So, I called him last night to wish him luck during his short deployment, since it is returning in November some time. During that call, he asked me if I would be his Best Man! I was very honored that he thought of me for this. Thanks again, Matt!! I know you can't read this on the ship, but thanks!!

Huh?

Combed Thunderclap? The Library of Babel? I need to investigate this further...

Check out the card about the Library of Babel also...

Progress

As you can see, I've come a long way now from just pieces of wood and screws and wood glue. My cabinet is completely primed and ready to paint! It'll be all black when it is done. Painting will take a long time because of the thin layers I will be using in order to try for the smoothest finish possible. It'll look really nice when all is said and done!

Once the cabinet is fully painted, I'll start work on the side, control panel, and marquee artwork. I'm still at odds with myself on what I want it to look like. I want it to say something about myself and my love of games. So, who knows what I'm going to do...

Other things I still have to do: get the computer ready to go; ;get a TV for the display; get my IIDX panel cut and painted; install the coin door; wire the buttons, joystick, and trackball on the control panel; create a base for the subwoofer; install the speakers.

Link to Perplex City Restored!

On Saturday, over one thousand Perplex City players gathered together in San Francisco and online to activate a new link, replacing the link in London that was irreparably destroyed by the Third Power. We only had a few hours to solve a bunch of puzzles created by the Perplex City Academy to activate the SF link. This was intended as a friendly competition between peers, but with the original link destroyed and with a limited time until the reality bending carrier wave that allows the link to exist between our worlds would vanish forever, we had to help each other to solve the numerous puzzles and restore the connection.
With only several minutes remaining, we managed to activate the link in San Francisco and receive a message from Sente Kiteway, the Master of the Perplex City Academy and mastermind behind the plan to enlist our help in finding their Receda Cube. Apparently, at the same time the original signal was knocked out by Third Power operatives on Earth, some Third Power operatives in Perplex City formed a wormhole using stolen parts from the Academy, knocking out the power in Perplex City for ten hours and sending more people to Earth to retrieve the Cube before we do! The apparent leader of the Third Power on Earth sent a cell phone voice message to the players in San Francisco, telling them to go outside of the Palace of Fine Arts, where the competition was held. In a display of power, Third Power operatives flew over the players in two black helicopters.

The race is on to find the Receda Cube before the Third Power does.

Exciting News

I found out today after returning to work that I was accepted for a daystaff position at the Off-Crew Training Group, where I teach students in a classroom setting. Yay!! No more shift work! I start on the 21st of this month.

In other news, the link to Perplex City's web sites has been intercepted by the Third Power! What are they trying to keep us from doing? What is happening in Perplex City while our connection is lost? Hopefully, we can restore the link from San Francisco in two days!!

Say Goodbye to Perplex City???

The last wave of cards have been released and already nearly all cards are solved! The Receda Cube is still missing somewhere on Earth however, so it is anyone's game. A couple of the cards are giving problems to people however.
The Thirteenth Labour is a RC5 encrypted message that requires decrypting by either guessing the key word, or using brute force to crack the message. In order to accomplish the brute force method, someone created a program that will allow multiple computers through the Internet to work together to find the key to unlock the message.
Billion to One has a picture of a Japanese man in some unknown location with a Japanese phrase on the side of the card. After someone purchased a hint, we discovered the man's name is Satoshi. Also, the Japanese text has been translated to the phrase, "Find Me." Other than that, that is about all that we know. Perplex City players have made a website to aid in the search for this person.

On the 12th of August (right around the corner), an event is taking place to add a new link to Perplex City through the Internet in San Francisco, CA. To advertise, the company who made the game, Mind Candy, posted this animated image below on BoingBoing (seen at PerplexWiki). However, for a split second, near the end of the animation is a braille message, shown below. We have translated the braille to read: "Say Goodbye to Perplex City." Will Perplex City be destroyed? Will the current link and the new link in San Francisco be severed? I imagine that the events in SF will help to wrap up this opening season of one of the greatest Alternate Reality Games ever!

Working Hard!

After I finished priming the arcade cabinet, I took a little break thanks to the horrendously humid and wet weather. Now, I am back at it, sanding down the primer coat to get toward a smooth final coat. I was going to do another coat of primer, however after I finished the majority of the sanding, Juri and I noticed that it shouldn't need another coat. The primer should do its job of protecting the cabinet from humidity and the sanding is smoothing it out enough to prepare the surfaces for the black paint. So, after I finish sanding sometime this week, I'll start painting!!

Once I get the first coat of black paint on, I'm going to prep the control panel for priming and painting. I've been letting that thing sit for way too long. I need to get that finished up so I can install the buttons and begin playing with it!

Amazing Day

Yesterday had some of the most gorgeous weather for the year in Saratoga Springs. The humidity had finally been driven away and the air was cool thanks to a gentle breeze. I couldn't have asked for anything better. I decided that we'd eat dinner outside that day. I pulled out a blanket from the closet and placed it on the ground in the front yard. We had some kabobs with rice for dinner. Afterword, we let the kids play outside for a couple hours while Juri weeded her garden and I painted the arcade cabinet some more.
Today's weather is nearly the same, but slightly warmer. I took Maia out on her bike while I followed her around the neighborhood.

In other news, I just earned the Orange Leitmark from the Perplex City Academy today for earning over 2300 points. They should be sending it out next month. That's three total now!

Counteraction

At work yesterday, every action that we took was counteracted to the point that, for all intents and purposes, absolutely nothing was accomplished! When we made an attempt to fix one of our computer systems, after a couple of hours, the exact same crash occured as before, leaving us where we started. When I went to a training session for my qualifications in our reactor computer simulator, it crashed as well! Finally, just before we got out of work, we replaced this phone box because of the problems that have been occuring with it, but upon replacement, the same problems plagued the phone.

Journey to Virginia

In a sort of last minute change of plans, the family and I went down to Virginia to visit my friends Matt and Pam. I was originally going to go to Massachusettes to attend a Bemani festival at an arcade filled with Beatmania IIDX, but I knew that I'd have more fun with my friends, and it gave us the chance to get away and take a vacation.

So, on Thursday night, after Juri got off work, we started our nine hour drive down to Virginia. For having woken up at 6am that morning for work, I managed to make the entire drive without any near death experiences! Juri bought some Vault, which I think really helped a lot. Despite two missed turns, we made it in a little over ten hours. Of course, once we arrived at Matt's house, I passed out!!

On Friday, Juri and I acclimated ourselves back to a day time schedule after the long night of driving. Matt and I worked together to solve my latest black Perplex City card, called Little Pigley Farm. It was a cross number puzzle, and it was really tough. Our Wonder Twin powers made us a force to be reckoned with, and we finished the puzzle in only an hour and a half. Today, we took the kids to Mount Trashmore, and I am now taking a break to write this blog from helping Matt tile his newly expanded shower!

Sean's all better! ...kinda...

Sean beat his fever finally. After three days at 103 degrees, we finally decided to take him to the doctor. When the nurse took his temperature, he was at 101 degrees. Once we finished talking to the doctor (who told us that it was just a virus and that we need to just wait it out), Sean's fever broke. And that, as they say, is that. He still has a really bad cough, but it seems to stem from post nasal drip...

We Suck Again!!!

Well, chalk up another loss for our team. Today, we played against the West Milton Field Office in Softball. These are the guys who supervise us at work from the shadows, noting our mistakes and deficiencies. This was our chance to strike back against them at the ball field.

We choked.

The end result: 21-7. Terrible! They kept hitting the ball into holes or over the outfielders' heads. We couldn't get it together. We had a great first inning, but after that, we stunk. Hopefully we'll straighten up next game.

AOHell

About a year ago, we finally got rid of AOL. Juri loved the program, and had it for a long time, despite my hatred of it. When it came time for removal of the program, I went through an hour long discussion with the customer service guy in order to finally get the account cancelled. What a pain! The guy threw everything that he could at me: discounts, special deals, "faster" service, etc. Of course, I managed to get the account cancelled in the end, but it cost me an hour of my life that I'll never get back.

Now, someone named Vincent Ferrari came across the exact same problem. He recorded his conversation with the AOL customer service guy. The AOL dude managed to harass him by the end of the conversation and, thankfully, Vincent put up with it and got his account cancelled. So, Vincent posted the audio clip on the Interweb, which is now spreading like wildfire. I managed to find out about this story from MSNBC, who interviewed Vincent.

Here is an account of a former AOL customer service rep and why they are such douchebags:

About 5 years ago, I worked in the 'retention' department of AOL through a third party vendor (I was desperate, it paid 2 bucks an hour more then the job I had, and I had to change jobs ASAP for reasons that have nothing to do with this post). As it was so long ago, I don't remember the exact numbers, but there was a very strict quota in how many people you had to talk out of canceling the account (I believe it was close to 65%).

I worked through the FOUR week training period, and 1 hour on the actual floor.

There were several very strange things about this job.

1. The trainer was this very perky guy who reminded me a lot of a zelous[sic] religious motivational speaker. He was straight out of the Frat House, and had that real "Yes Man" attitude. He jumped up and down a lot, and was VERY excited to be part of 'AOL's WONDERFUL team'.

2. If you were late, be it coming back from a break, lunch or first thing in the morning, you were forced to stand up in front of the class (there were about 35 people in the class), and sing silly songs like the Theme from SpongeBob Square Pants. Not only was everyone else forced to listen to this, you were also forced to participate. So, essentially everyone got in trouble. If the whole class did not sing along, we kept doing it over and over until everyone did. Remember, this is a class of fully grown adults.

3. We were told very specifically that if a customer wishes to speak with a supervisor, to do ANYTHING possible to make that NOT happen. We were instructed that we should say they were 'at lunch' or 'on another call' or anything we could think of so the supervisors did not have to speak to the customer. Often times, other reps would get on the phone and pretend to be supervisors.

4. There were several 'steps' that you HAD to follow in the call flow process. It had some silly little catch phrase so that you could remember it. Over 75% of your calls were monitored, and if you did not follow this process 90% of the time, you were fired.

I managed to make it through the four week long training process. Oh, something else I forgot to mention, no matter what kind of abuse the customer gave you, you could not hang up on them. You had to just sit there and take it.

My 10th or so call, the woman on the other line called me a Cee U Next Tuesday. I hung up on her, got my things, and walked out.

Being homeless and/or jobless wasn't worth my pride.

I remember when AOL was first picking up in prominence as a major ISP. My computer geek friends and I would refer to it as AOHell, after the name of the hacker-created program to harass AOL customers as a pretend moderator. Now, it seems like AOL is really in Hell!

Happy Father's Day!

Yesterday was the fifth year that I have been a father. The time has seemed to really fly past, now that I look back. Juri made me more Father's Day album pages again this year. She always does such an awesome job at them! It really lets me know how much she loves me when I see the effort she puts into those scrapbook pages. This year's theme was "Before I Was Daddy." Juri dug up old pictures of us from high school and beyond, just before Sean was born.

In more unfortunate news, Sean has come down with a horrible fever! He has been 103 degrees going on the second day today. The poor guy! Medicine doesn't seem to be knocking down the fever at all. His body must be working really hard to fight the virus he has. I hope that he gets better tomorrow.

Sean's Five Year Physical

Sean has recently gone to the doctor for his five-year physical prior to Kindergarten. He also got some booster shots, but he did very well with them (just a little bit of crying). Sean's doctor had him do all sorts of different things to test his physical abilities, such as bending over to touch his toes, and hopping on one foot. He even spelled his name and did a great job at the eye chart! His doctor told me that she feels that he is at the level of a four year old now and that she was very astonished at the level of progress he has made over the last year of school. It is very nice to hear that about him! I'm so proud of him!

Kids Day

Yesterday, I took the day off of work to attend Sean's school's Kids Day. With the rainy weather we'd been having lately, it was a bit worrisome that it might rain on us during the event, but the weather managed to cooperate. It was pretty cold and windy though. Anyway, the kids had a blast jumping on the bouncy houses, playing in the playgrounds, eating popcorn and cotton candy, seeing the teachers, and getting a balloon from the clown. Our children were pretty wound up on sugar and fun after Kids Day was all done. So, we decided to go to the Drive-In to see Cars. With the cold winds and threat of thunderstorms, we decided to watch the movie in the car only. Usually we sit outside with the kids in the trunk. This time, I pulled the back seats down so our legs stuck out in the trunk, and we rested our backs on the front seats, and we watched the movie through the back window. It worked out pretty well, though Juri's butt fell asleep at one point and my back was sore near the end. The movie was pretty good too!

Spiders!!

Just a few minutes ago this morning, Sean and Maia saw a spider sitting on the wall near where they were sitting on the couch. Maia got scared, because it was a big, nasty looking black spider. Sean told me, "Get the spider, Daddy." So, we go get the vacuum cleaner and attach the extension on it. I hand it to Sean and say, "Here you go." He turns it on, puts the extender up right by the spider, and sucks it into the vacuum cleaner! I couldn't have done better myself.

As I'm putting the vacuum cleaner away, I'm talking to the kids about spiders, and how most of them are as scared of humans as humans are scared of them. I told them that the majority of spiders will only bite a person if they are provoked. Maia then tells me, "Uh uuh... Spiders no have a mouth, Daddy."
"Yes they do, baby. That's how they eat and bite people."
"No, Daddy. Spiders no have a mouth. Duhhhh!"

Softball and Electricity don't mix

Our very first game of softball was yesterday, after all the cancellations that have happened so far. Of course, as soon as we arrive to the field, we find out that the game is cancelled! So, we still have no actual games played! We were supposed to have a game today too, but the team forfeited. Because of that, our team (the Shipwrecks) is now 1-0. We decided to scrimmage since we had enough people show up for two teams of nine. During the game, a thunderstorm was approaching. So, we only played for three innings. It was a lot of fun though. Juri and I even got our jerseys.

In other news, we had a severe thunderstorm on Tuesday. I came home from work early that day so I wouldn't get caught in the storm. While getting ready for dinner, the thunderstorm was getting pretty fierce outside. So, being the funny guy that I am, I said to Juri, "I hope we lose power tonight." As soon as I utter those words, the power goes out! Go figure. Juri was pretty pissed! =)

Sobutumyeah

So, but um, ... yeah! That's what my lovely wife, Juri, says a lot! It cracks me up!

Anyway, I've been stuck for a little while now on how I should go about mounting my speakers into the arcade cabinet. They are supposed to hang down from the top of the cabinet through the bottom of the marquee, right in front of the monitor. Well, I bought a cheap, yet good, 2.1 speaker set by Creative Labs. It has a subwoofer with 2 satellites and a remote volume adjuster. The sub is going inside the cabinet with the computer, and the satellites will be installed as I described above. However, removing the speakers out of their casing will be detrimental to the sound quality and don't have any great way of mounting them. After over a week of being stumped over this, Juri's wonderful creativity saved the day!

Here is a picture of her idea:
If I take a strip of MDF and go across the middle of the speaker panel of the cabinet, and glue that brace to the speakers, it should hold on to the speakers pretty well. I may have to sand the speakers where the brace will glue to it to hold it properly. I'm also going to have to disconnect the wires from the remote volume unit to be able to run the speaker wires through the middle of the brace. Once I cut holes in the speaker panel to place the speakers into, I will mount the speaker brace to a hunk of MDF to elevate the height of the speakers. Also, in the event any light tries to leak out from the marquee through the holes I made in the speaker panel, I can use some black felt to block the light out.

She's a genius! I love my wife!

To the Movies!

Today, we went out to the drive-in to see Over the Hedge. This was, without a doubt, the best visit to the drive-in we've had yet as a family. The kids were very well behaved! We backed the car up and opened the trunk so the kids could sit in there, stay warm, and enjoy some popcorn. Juri and I sat in chairs in front of the car. Eventually, Juri hopped into the car trunk as well. It was pretty funny to see everyone in that trunk, but they all fit comfortably. The movie was quite funny too.
It was nice to be able to get out to the drive-in, despite the low funds at the end of this month. I made a mistake in thinking that I had everything set up for my Tuition Assistance for one of my college courses, but it turns out that wasn't the case. We had to cough up our own money to pay the dues, and it has hurt us. We were supposed to go to Virginia this long weekend to visit with our friend Matt. I was going to help him with his new home by working on his bathroom. I feel absolutely horrible about it because Juri was really looking forward to this trip (as was I), and she wanted a vacation. I really hope that I can make it up to you, babydoll!!

Next week is Sean's birthday party. We are having a Pirate Party, with a pirate themed bouncy house, and a treasure hunt. It should be a blast! My work has also started the softball season, and I'm playing with my section. We had our first game yesterday, but I wasn't able to make it due to prior obligations. I'll update the sidebar with results of our games.

MyPlace in Space!

So, I decided to advertise my blog here on Blogger by the use of MySpace. I resolved that I'd never use MySpace, because I think that the web pages produced by that site are utter garbage. I don't know if it is the controls that MySpace gives you, or if the majority of people just have a horrible sense of web design and color coordination, but it seems like most pages are god awful to look at (Joel, yours looks really good). So, if you came here because of my link on MySpace, and you disagree with me, feel free to comment on this blog entry with a link to your web page. Enjoy my real blog. I've got a few entries here. If you are my old high school friends, check out what I've been up to for the past while. It'll be good to hear from you again!

Oh yeah, MySpace has advertisements! Ugh!

Success?!

Juri and I were just complaining about how Sean hasn't been able to tell us when he needed to pee. He would only pee in the potty when prodded to sit preemptively. Any time he was asked if he needed to go, Sean would always tell us no. Shortly after out complaining, we went downstairs and Sean runs right up to us and tells us he needs to, "Pee-Pee Potty!" Good job, Sean!

Arcade Cabinet Progress

I've been building an arcade cabinet for almost two years now, doing a little here and there, avoiding work during the cold winters. As you can see from the pictures, I've finally gone from pieces of wood to a fully constructed cabinet. The control panel is separable from the cabinet, so it isn't pictured, but that is also fully assembled.

Last night, I came up with a ToDo list of what I have left to do to officially complete construction:

• Purchase some speakers, a marquee retainer, a monitor bezel, trackball mounting plate, a putty knife, some wood putty, a 1/16" slot cutter bit, foam rollers, a roller handle, some primer, and some black paint.
• Cut out holes for the speakers in the speaker panel.
• Cut out a hole for the middle mouse button.
• Cut out the rest of the trackball mounting hole.
• Cut slots into the sides and control panel top with the slot cutter for the t-molding.
  
• Fix some of the screws that need better countersinking.
• Fill in the screw holes and blemishes with wood putty.
• Sand the entire cabinet, inside and out, then clean up all of the dust.
• Prime the entire cabinet, inside and out, then sand lightly and clean. I will do this step twice!
• Paint the entire cabinet, inside and out, then sand the rough spots until it is smooth and clean. I will accomplish this step many times until I get a smooth finish.
  

Once the cabinet is all painted and pretty like, I will need to get my marquee, control panel overlay, and side art printed out and affixed, place some Plexiglas on top of the control panel, and install all of the buttons and joysticks and trackball. This is mostly cosmetic stuff at this point. I'm still working out what my artwork will look like. The cabinet will be ready for playing games once I have a TV and a working computer installed inside.

More Potty Training, beatmania, and... an alternate reality?

With the end of Sean's spring break, and after some tense moments, I think we've made some definite progress in Sean's potty training. He is still not able to tell us that he needs to use it on his own, but he can hold it, and if we see the signs that he needs to use it, he'll fully perform the potty routine on his own, with some prompting. It isn't quite where he was last summer where he used the potty completely independant of us, but only when he was completely naked, but at least he now wears the underwear. His routine is pretty important, especially since he has Pervasive Development Disorder, and I believe it is the key to his success. As he gets more familiar with it, and if Juri and I can maintain consistancy and insist on continual potty use, Sean will be fully independant within a couple of weeks! I'm so proud of what he has accomplished!

Last night, I played some beatmania IIDX and realized that I was doing better. For a while, I'd been stuck at a wall where I just couldn't progress beyond my abilities. I was having issues with chords (multiple keys at the same time). In particular, chords consisting of one or two keys keeping the beat (playing the drum sounds) on one side of the note chart, while playing the melody on the other side of the chart. The issue was that I was having problems getting my hands to operate independantly of one another. I'd find that my hand playing the melody would end up synching with the beat hand, missing notes inbetween beats on the melody. I found that if I speed up how fast the notes drop even more than I already do, I can read them better and I can manage to get both hands to work seperately! I've also been practicing on songs that specifically challenge that aspect of gameplay. So, I've found last night that I can pass some of the six star songs now, I've improved my scores on lower star songs, and hopefully I can start working on Hyper difficulty. Yay!

Alternate reality, you say? Yes, there is a new game genre out there called Alternate Reality Game (ARG) and it is a really interesting concept. I recently found a small blurb about one of them in my latest issue of OPM, and I think it describes the genre just perfectly. To quote: "Perplex City - Turns out the rabbit hole for this puzzle-game/collectable-card-game/alternate-reality-game is very deep. Solve puzzles on collectable cards to fill in pieces of an epic story that extends into the real world. The ultimate goal: Find the stolen 'Receda Cube"--hidden somewhere in the real, physical world--and earn $200,000 in real-world cash." Apparently, each card in Perplex City's game has a puzzle (difficulties range from easy to ridiculously difficult) that you answer on the game's website. Taking a closer look at some cards reveals more clues to the grand puzzle. Things like ultraviolet and heat appearing inks, small words hidden in the puzzle's picture, maps of the city on the back of the cards, and huge partial letters make up some of the more intricate underlying puzzling that has to be done to find the Receda Cube. There is a huge background story that occured for almost a year before the game cards were even released, as well. It is really interesting and it has me totally sucked in! At first, I liked the puzzle cards. Then, when I realized that there was so much more involved in it, I had to dig deeper. Now I am knee deep in the story and will be getting my first four packs of cards in the mail soon. I'll keep my progress updated on my blog.

Phew! I think that is enough for this entry! You can keep track of my current progress in beatmania and Perplex City on my blog's sidebar. The graphic for beatmania has my DJ name and how many AAA, AA, and A grades I've receieved, how many Full and Perfect Combos I've done, and how many DJ Points I have. Below that is how many Perplex City cards I've solved.

Potty Training

I've gone on leave for two weeks from work in order to work at getting our children potty trained (and to take a break from work). So far, things have gone quite well for Sean! Yesterday, he managed to wear a "big boy" underwear all day without soiling it. I've been using the Nintendo DS as an incentive to sitting on the potty, and so far that has been successful. Now we just need him to tell us that he needs to use it on his own!
On the other hand, Maia has shown little progress at all. She has little Cinderella panties, and I've tried to tell her that peeing on Cinderella isn't a good idea. Unfortunately, she still can't tell me when she needs to go and ends up wetting herself. Yesterday, I asked her if she needed to use the potty because I saw her grabbing at herself, and she said, "No." Like a fool, I said "Okay, tell me when you need to go," instead of forcing her to sit on the potty anyway. Not a minute later, she pees in the kitchen. So, it seems that she is not ready yet. She may be able to communicate to us better than Sean, but she isn't ready to use the potty.

Extend my file

My wife made a post about another quiz that she took called, "Which file extension are you?" Though I'm not one to do Interweb quizzes, I decided to give this one a shot, since I'm a big computer nerd and all!

Result:


Sounds about right, huh? OggVorbis it is then.

Are you ready for some... Softball?

Recently, a bunch of us a worked started working out who was going to play softball for our work section. The two prototypes have a team for each section plus the daystaffers, and the Air National Guard and NSU have one too, for a total of 14 teams. I decided that I would play this year, despite the fact that I haven't played an organized sport in a very, very long time. Sure, I played tackle football with friends on the Enterprise off and on, but it wasn't official, and definitely not very organized.

My friend , Jesse, and I have been practicing playing catch for a little while so that we could get a head start prior to official practices. Well, we've only been able to do it once. Today is our first practice and I will be there with family in tow. It should be interesting. I'm going to be really sore tomorrow!!

Catch Up!!!

Ouch! So it's been a while since I wrote on my blog. Go figure. I can never seem to keep up with things like this. Maybe it's because I really don't want people to know about what I am doing with my life, or maybe I'm just lazy to type about it. I do want to keep this going however. I am trying to use this as a way to keep my extended family updated on the events in my life. So, I'll keep at it.

So, a lot has occurred over the last couple of months. I had an issue with my car. Apparently, my spark plugs had fouled up during the winter and would no longer start my car. It was an effort to get the car out of my work's parking lot (a lot of security to deal with), but at least everything was covered by the warranty.
Spring finally came to New York, kind of. The weather has warmed up, and then it cools off every so often. We've even had snow a couple of times since the beginning of Spring. But, Juri and I managed to clean out our garage and she also cleaned out the toy room. I'm going to put the arcade cabinet in there once I'm finished with the construction. We even managed to get rid of a lot of old junk during a garage sale by making it free.
Maia got a new "big girl" bed. We gave away her toddler bed and bought her a twin sized bed. She sleeps much better at night now! We even got her Disney Princess bedding. So now, she sleeps with Belle, Aurora, and Cinderella every night.
My family has made friends with my friend Jesse's family. My kids love their kids and their house, their kids get along with mine really well, and Juri and Melissa have hit it off! It's great having new friends around. I'm just ashamed at how long it took for us to get together. It took one year and that nasty power outage!
I joined my work's section's softball team this year. We went out to get a softball and glove. I've been breaking my glove in, and Jesse and I are planning on doing some practice. Juri is really excited because she loves the whole family sports thing, and I'm excited that I get to spend time with both my friends and family at the same time, plus get some much needed exercise.
I got strep throat recently. I've been on penicillin and now I'm pretty sure that the infection has subsided, but I have to finish the medication until it is all gone. Ten days worth of pills, with two pills at four times a day. That's a lot of meds!
Kingdom Hearts II has descended upon our household! The kids appreciate it for all of the Disney characters, Juri and I appreciate it for the Final Fantasy tie in and the story, and Sean and I love the action and gameplay. It's been a nonstop event for the past week in this house. In fact, the kids are bothering me about it right now!!

Well, I think that catches us up. Coming up is Juri's and Maia's birthdays. I hope Juri is happy with the presents that I bought her. There are some unexpected surprises in there! Maia will, of course, love her princess party. Juri has done such a great job planning this out.

Kidney Stones and Electricity Don't Mix

Two big events occured in two days.

On the 16th, I went to the hospital for my surgery to get rid of my kidney stone. The procedure was called Electro Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL). Before going in, I had to take a laxative and couldn't eat anything all day so that my body was, to put it lightly, purged. Once at the hospital, I had an IV put into my hand and laid on a gurney. While my family waited, I was carted to the operating room, and put under by the anesthesia doctor. Apparently, during the procedure, which involves sending concentrated sound waves aimed directly at the kidney stone, my heart beat began to change its rhythm to the pulse of the sound waves. So, they stopped the procedure. Since I had undergone 1000 pulses already (out of the 2500 they were supposed to do), the doctor figured I should be okay and that the stone should be broken up enough to pass. That night, when I started to pass the stone, I underwent some pretty good pain, especially just before bed. The stone didn't get broken up into powder, but it did get broken up enough to finally leave my system! Yay!

The next day was the beginning of a really awful weekend. Being a Friday, our morning is really busy with Maia going to school, Sean seeing his SEIT, Juri working, and Sean going to school. At about 10am, the power went out at the house, and then came back on about 5 minutes later. All of the sudden, the wind really kicks up. We must have had gusts at 60 mph. Sean and I left the house to get gas in the car and pick up Maia from school. After I gased up, we headed toward the school, fighting the winds. All of the sudden, the traffic signals lost power. There was wide-spread power loss throughout Saratoga Springs. We got Maia and came back home, where the power was still out. The temperature in the house was dropping quickly. I took Maia to her baby sitter and waited for Sean's bus. Unfortunately, we missed it! So, I took Sean in my car to school. The winds were strong, pushing my car as we drove down the streets. Along the way, cops were busy routing traffic around the State Park. Downed power lines were all over, along with the broken trees that had fallen on them. Once I got back home after I dropped Sean off at school, Juri got home from work early. After what I witnessed on the road, it didn't take long for us to realize that power was not going to return any time soon. I quickly started calling hotels to make a reservation before all the rooms were taken up. We managed to get one down in Latham, about 20 minutes out of town.

Two days later, power was still not restored to our home. The rest of Saratoga Springs had power back, it seemed. Businesses were operating again, and traffic signals were back up. Yet our home still had no power. Worse yet, the power company was saying that we wouldn't even get power until Tuesday! It seemed that all hope was lost, until GMH (our housing company) contacted the power company demanding action. The power company worked on our downed power lines and all power was restored at around 8pm that night. Ugh!

All in all, it was a rough weekend. Between my kidney stone and the power outage, this weekend left me drained...

Valentine's Day

Today is the day of love and romance. I took the day off so that I could spend the time with my wife. Today, she is making me a special dinner and dessert a my present. I already know what the dessert is!! It is called Death by Chocolate, and it is my favorite ice cream cake from Bennigan's. BEST... EVER!!

I got Juri some underwear from Lane Bryant for her gift for the special day. She's been complaining about her underwear not fitting her any more, since she is losing weight on her diet. So, how could I not pass up the chance to get her some cute undies! She showed me a Lane Bryant ad with some pictures of panties, so I went out and bought her some. It was pretty funny walking around the store with my kids, picking out women's underwear! I didn't mind at all though. I liked the prospect of buying clothes for my wife. It's not something I do very often.

Matt has moved...

Well, it was bound to happen. My best friend, Matt Emerson, has moved away. His time ran out here in New York and now he transferred down to Virginia to be on the USS Oklahoma City for the rest of his time in the Navy. I recently helped Matt work on his house that he purchased. I hope that my family will be able to go visit him again soon, and maybe do some more muscle work! =)

PHANTOM!

Juri took me to see Phantom of the Opera today!! I'm a huge fan of the musical, which just recently became the longest running musical on New York's Broadway. In order to have the touring Phantom show come to the Captial Region of New York state, Proctor's Theater (the arts theater of our region) had to remodel the backstage of their theater in order to accommodate the special stage that Phantom travels with. The best part was that Juri purchased tickets right in the front! The show was even more spectacular! I was able to see the feeling in the faces of the actors, and feel the music and emotion. Incredible!

Thanks Juri! It was a great date!

My first AA!

I have been playing beatmania for a little while now, as I have recently aquired a controller for the game. Finally, I got my first AA grade on a song. Of course, it was the easiest song in the game, and it took 13 tries to get the high score (not continuously)... My skills in the game have been improving though. Here's to higher scores and harder songs!

Back to Class Again and... Facial Hair???

I just started my next class at the University of Phoenix Online today. That was where the quote below came from, by the way. The class is PSY320 - Human Motivation. We are discussing motivation theories, analyzing motivation in the workplace, and applying what we learn to our workplace. While this is an upper division course, it is only my second class with UoP Online. Because of my training in the Navy, I had A LOT of credits transferred and it moved me into a junior class level. This class is an elective that I need to complete prior to starting my course work in my degree: BS in Information Technology. After I'm done with PSY320, I have one more elective to complete in Humanities (ugh!) and then I'm all done with General Education!! Yay!

So, today is also my last day of leave. Lately, when I find myself away from work for an extended period of time, I grow a goatee. I thought this one turned out quite well. So, I thought I'd share a comparison head shot for everyone to see. I look pretty different with hair on my face, don't I? hehehe...

Our Workplace

"As you enter this place of work, please CHOOSE to make today a great day. Your colleagues, customers, team members, and you yourself will be thankful. Find ways to PLAY. We can be serious about our work without being serious about ourselves. Stay focused to BE PRESENT when your customers and team members most need you. And should you feel your energy lapsing, try this sure-fire remedy: find some one who needs ahelping hand, a word of support, or a good ear - and MAKE THEIR DAY." - from the book, Fish.

Demented Dora the Explorer

Sing along with me:

"We did it! We did it! We did it! Yeah!
Lo hicimos! We did it!

We crossed the bridge and killed the Troll, yeah
We did it, we did it, we did it, yeah!
We made it through the forest and smoked a bowl, yeah
We did it, we did it, we did it, we did it
Swiper came and stole our stash along the way
But Dora pulled her gat out and shot him, hooray!

Yeah! Wooooo! Hooray!
We did it!"

Juri and I have a lot of free time! hehehe...

On Vacation and WoW is EVIL!

Well, it's been quite a while since my last post, largely due to my laziness and not having much to write about.

I just recently went home to Sacramento to visit family, with an initial detour to Disneyland! We had sooo much fun at Disneyland! The kids were great, despite the huge holiday crowds, and really enjoyed every ride and sight there was to see. We especially liked the Buzz Lightyear shooting ride. It was especially cool because we were given the option to email the ride picture to our email address, complete with our high score! We also went across the street to California Adventure, Disneyland's more thrill ride area. Soarin' over California, California Screamin, and Tower of Terror were excellent rides!!

After Disneyland, went spent time with Juri's and my family. The kids were happy to see their grandparents again and it was good to see our parents too. This time, we kept our visit home short so that we aren't driven crazy by them. It was a great idea, because we are already ready to go home now! I'm writing this entry from Juri's parents and we go home tomorrow.

So, for the second half of this post. Juri's brothers are all possessed by the power of World of Warcraft, the latest craze in the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game genre. While I am a RPG fan myself, I've never thought of the MMORPG subgenre to be particularly exciting. It seems to suck so much time away from your life, and I have precious little time to spend on something like that. Well, Juri's brothers cannot escape the power of WoW. In fact, one of her brothers is laying on the floor, bored to death, while his other brother plays the game, because they only have one copy of the game so they cannot play at the same time. Instead of doing something else with his time, he idles away, hoping to get some more time in before he goes to bed. If he had any homework to do, it isn't accomplished. Her middle brother just graduated high school and doesn't have a job or plan on going back to college. I just don't think the game is healthy for relationships and life. Funny to hear that from a gamer like me.