Tweaks & Updates

It's a good thing the world doesn't verify my existence by how often blog posts are made here, as I have a sneaking suspicion my death certificate would have arrived and my access cut off :P

Anyway, a few tweaks have been made to the side for 'Hito no Tabi', and 'Anime', there are a couple places I've grown to like changing 'Streaming Audio' to 'Streaming Bits' due to a large shift in my viewing habits going from television to streaming it online. Most likely I'll need to look into increasing my bandwidth as the rest of the world discovers this lovely way to watch what you want when you want it with minimal cost.

It feels weird... not having played WoW this long. I think it's the first time in around 4+ years I've not gone trick or treating at the inns around Azeroth. For now I've been out of the MMORPG online for the past few months, however I'm still checking the sites I found helpful on a regular basis - - not sure what this bodes for the future, but the links are down toward the bottom now. Now that I think about it this in someways this might be like the recovering alcoholic checking the bar sites to keep tab on things while in rehab...

First Stop in the Pearl

I escaped on Saturday. Hopped a train on this side of the Rockies for the first time and went to Portland. This was more of a scouting mission, not only to explore a new area I've never been to, but to see if physically I could handle 16 hours on the rails in one day for a round trip.

Below are some of the pics I took on the trip - - these are all from the Chinese Garden, which was my first spot after leaving the train station.

Portland, OR

I'm so glad I was able to get some advice from J and Holly before leaving - - next time I think I may want to stay longer - - traveling for 16 hours on the rails and walking around the pearl district was a bit long/rough for one day... but so worth it.

Dr. Horrible

Okay this has been one of my most recent addictions... much more than i thought it would be.

For those who haven't seen Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, pls enjoy, and for those of the addicted - well, will see if you can pass the video to the next part of this post without watching....Muhahaha.

It has been years since I've had a desire to put together a costume for all hallows eve, but i may give the doc a shot - - if i can find the howie lab coat for a reasonable price. right now i think i can put the costume together for between 200-250 us dollars, and with the lab coat being the bulk of the purchase (150-200 us) I'm just not sure how many places i will be wearing the lab coat later - not like a good lab coat is daily wear at work for me :P

Tech Test - Lenovo S10e

Trying out a new bit of hardware today, actually this is new to me on many fronts...

The hardware is a Lenovo S10e netbook. It's the smallest computer I've enjoyed working on in a long time. (Palms and Handhelds just didn't do it for me - - something about needing to suck the universe through the equivalent of a coffee straw)

Now if only the keyboard was full sized, I have a feeling that this would cut down on my typos, and the strange way the cursor will occasionally jump to the top of my active window. Some extra RAM would be a major draw too, since this little jewel came running WinXP, and a 1 gig RAM - - with Win7 out and about in the world a jump to 2+ gig would be nice.

Seems like there are so many manufacturers that have gone into the netbook production craze I'll definitely need to do some more research. (although the S12 with full sized keyboard, and 12in screen is rather tempting)

HBO - Kids

Yeah, this sums it up rather nicely... cute got burned out a while back.

100 Stations...

Recently we've gotten satellite television here at home... it's been interesting, a little better than just the two or three stations that were left on the analog lines when the world got sucked into digital programming. [not really sold on that yet - like many new technologies maybe it just needs time to grow...]

Okay it might not be exactly 100 stations, yet here i sit enjoying anime as it was meant to be, in the original language with subtitles. Doesn't matter that it's in Japanese - that's actually a bonus, yet even now there is just something relaxing about this moment...

Tidbits, and Shuffles

I feel like a slacker when it comes to the art of blog... coming up with tidbits and interesting things discovered along the path, but never quite getting around to hoisting any of it upon the digital void of 'net.

I'm not doing much better on Facebook for that matter either...

I'm having trouble taking much seriously... short of a concerted effort of energy into areas that resemble trying to fight the tides. I sense two options in this leave for higher ground or thicken my resolve and learn to breath under water. [ i think i need to get some more incense, and a better way to find calm in the chaos ]

It's amazing how views change as we make our way through this life, but enough of my philosophical rant.

Bending:
I got tired of waiting, waiting for that moment when kids are gone and distractions can be avoided to enjoy shows I purchased months ago. It's amazing how much my youngest niece has in common with her uncle, both will talk through anything you are trying to focus on, and will double their efforts if you are in the last 10 min of any movie or television program.

So I've started rolling the dice in my head and if the pips are up I hide in my room and put the DVD into my computer and enjoy the show. Still cringe a bit when a knock comes to the door but generally I can make a successful pause and not worry too much about interruptions.

Avatar was my test series for this - - loved the series and only had minimal interruptions. The kids love this series and did their damn'dest to wear out any copy they received from NetFlix a while back. Like in life I guess if I had waited for the perfect moment it never would have appeared...

Strawberries:
About the only thing the really keeps me logging into Facebook at the moment is a couple of "social" games that are gratefully not totally 'clan/group/extrovert' biased - I think I was aiming for based there but biased works just as well. So I've started a small farm, and a drunkass monkey fighter... we'll see how that goes.

Time Shift:
It feels strange not to have a current MMO running. I let the trial account time run out for the villains, and am not really ready to go back to WoW, it's not the game it used to be - doubt it ever will be. I have been keeping and eye on the new FF though, I'm curious to see where it goes in it's further development.

5 Blocks from Port:
I'm still looking through the rails on Amtrak in the immediate vicinity. I think my first test trip will be a visit to Portland. If all goes as I hope it does, there is a Chinese park only about 5 blocks away from the railroad station in Portland's old Chinatown, and if I make sure to print out the maps before hand it looks like I may be able to visit the famed Powell's bookstore as well. I know this will limit my time as I would love to spend a few days - but this is more a scouting mission to test the value of a quick escape - even if I can't keep it for a few more days.