That’s a lot of cardboard….

 Life in General  Comments Off
Sep 212011
 

Okay, so I’ve been in my new place for about a week and a half so far. This month has actually been refreshingly busy in terms of me doing things on evenings and weekends rather than just sitting around thinking that “I should be doing things.” Here’s a quick recap of the whole apartment move/settling in events:

  • I screwed up on my timing — I forgot that on a month-to-month lease, you have to not only give a least a month’s notice, but that it can only happen at the start of the month. So, when I gave my notice to my old landlord in the middle of August, I discovered that I would have to pay for the whole month of September, anyway. This caught me off-guard, and I was not too happy, as I am actually right now paying for two different apartments.
  • However, I did manage to salvage some of this. The person who was in my current place wasn’t out until the very last day, and then the painter needed to stop in, and then Hurricane Irene was coming up the coast, and well, it just made more sense for me to put a hold on moving until the following weekend, on the 10th.
  • This also helped in that I was able to get Lacy and Dex to stop out and help me pick up the U-Haul and then proceed to load it up. There was some concern on my part about getting the truck in time, and we took a wrong turn looking for the U-Haul center (all my fault), but in the end once we swung into loading action, we finished up within an hour, easily.
  • I learned that next time, I need more boxes. I had a lot of bags for my linens, and they just do not stack very well.
  • I wound up dropping pretty much all of my furniture, some earlier that week, and some that morning. That means that my futon, dresser, computer desk, and tall bookshelf were broken down and tossed. I was saddest about the futon, as was really the first thing I had bought in NYC, and had been with me through my earlier moves. I was thinking about selling it or something, but given that the frame was just $20 when I bought it, and the mattress was covered in sweat stains, well, I didn’t see it commanding a pick-up, let alone any type of price.
  • Lacy took my old desktop (which I had mailed from my parent’s house and then wound up never using — not a good sign that I wound use it ever again), and I recycled my old laptops, but I did remove the hard drives from all of them, so I’ll look at getting some of those external hard drive mounts to plug in to the current computer so I can be sure to salvage my old files.
  • Dex mentioned that I was driving into NYC the weekend of the 9/11 10th year anniversary, and that there had been some terrorist threats going on, and wondered at the wisdom of it all. Not the news you want to hear after you’re all packed up.
  • The attempt to do a final vacuuming failed miserably as the vacuum was still stuffed with all of that carpet fluff. I happily left it on the curb.
  • Then, after Lacy scored some of my old electronics, they bid me farewell, and I was off. The trip was not too bad — traffic wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared, and I was only stopped 3 times at safety checkpoints to have the truck inspected by the cops. There was about 30 minutes of frustration in Brooklyn when I was suddenly confronted with an onslaught of “No Trucks” roads, blocking me from getting the places I needed to be. After a bit of backtracking and slipstreaming, I finally managed to get through and reach my place.
  • Over the course of the next few hours, people started to show up to help. People I knew, that is, not just random strangers on the street. Julia & her hubby, Joe, and even eventually Will (with his wife and daughter, although they were excused from hefting boxes). What started out slowly with just me making one trip at a time from the truck to the apartment ended up with the 5 of us acting like a well-oiled machine, getting the truck unpacked and everything up to the new place.
  • Afterward, Joe gave me a lift to and back from the U-Haul drop-off place, and I learned how to use the Navigator app on my phone, finally. Well, sort of, as I must have hit something wrong since it wasn’t following my little arrow.
  • Since then, I’ve made several trips to the Brooklyn Ikea, mostly for research. Between that and my research online, I was able to go ahead amass a large quantity of inexpensive yet sturdy furniture, such as a dresser, desk, and many bookcases.
  • I also got a Couch and matching comfy chair for free; a lady who was moving out 1 floor below me was giving them away. They are of decent shape, are bug free, and certainly fit into my budget, so I was happy to take them in.

At this point, it’s a matter of breaking down/storing some cardboard boxes, throwing away most of them, organizing the many things on the bookshelves that aren’t, in fact, books, and getting plants. Oh, and hanging pictures. So, yeah, still much to be done.

It’s also been a bit on the pricy side as well — the furniture wasn’t too costly individually, but whew, there was a good amount of it. After all, I spent about 6-8 hours putting it all together, and wound up surprisingly sore for a couple of days afterward. I still think I need to pick up a few more items, too: a couple of lamps, some placemats, maybe another bookcase with doors, etc. But the bulk of things have been dealt with.

So, that’s one thing that’s been keeping me busy. Another is the start of rec sports season for me.

Basketball scrimmage was last night, and things kick off next week. Ironically, despite it just being Jen, Jack, and myself for the full 40 minutes, I never got winded. True, aside from a few moments I never really was pushing hard (it was just a scrimmage, after all, and I had no desire to get hurt), but the really weird thing was that I played a lot better than I have in a long time. I think it might have been because I was pretty much relaxed and loose during the game, so I wasn’t tensing up on my shots and passes. We actually wound up destroying the other team, something like 26-14 or something, but part of that was just due to some mismatches between me and the guys guarding me, and also that I think they weren’t as comfortable as a team as Jack, Jen, and I have gotten. I’m sure once the regular season kicks in and things pick up, it’ll be a lot tougher.

We also need to find a couple more players, especially on the female side of the bench. We only have 2 girls on the roster, and since you have to have at least 1 girl on the court at all times, this doesn’t give a lot of elbow room if someone has to miss a night. It’d also be good to get another guy, although I certainly am not complaining about having more playing time.

I also got involved with a football team, much to my surprise and delight. Apparently, the captain was friends with a girl I played with this summer, and my name was passed along when the captain was looking to fill out the roster. So far, so great! We had our scrimmage 2 weekends ago and played our 1st real game this past Sunday, winning both. What I’m most excited about is that we have a few really good QBs — Scott can throw the length of the field — and if there’s one thing I learned from playing so far, it’s that you live or die by your QB.

I also continue to be amazed by the fact that I have been playing consistently well. Part of it, no doubt, is that the other teams so far have been playing together for the first time, and have not been really hardcore. When I volunteered and reffed the next game this past Sunday, both teams were really intense: one, in particular, huddled before every play to draw up a play, had their own custom shirts, and seemed to constantly have a grimace on their face, like it was causing them pain every second that they weren’t scoring. A bit disturbing.

As far as I can tell, things will continue to be busy for the foreseeable future. Besides sports twice a week (when did I become a jock? This still blows my mind…) I’ve been pushing to get the apartment wrapped up so I can have a little official housewarming party, and I want to do that before October. Beyond that, the “push for Madness” will begin in earnest, and that will soak up quite a bit of free time as well.

As long as I keep turning “busy” into “productive,” I’m in good shape.

Weekend drizzles

 Life in General  1 Response »
Aug 142011
 

It’s currently drizzling outside — been raining in varying degrees of intensity sine last night, and even though I was planning to go to CostCo and the gym today, I have to admit that I really have been enjoying this rain. It’s been rather soothing, and that’s been good after an absolutely monstrous week at work: I checked, I put in about 86 hours this past week. Basically I worked from 9-6, came home, then worked another 5-8 hours at home. We had a hard deadline for this Friday, and there was a lot of work in terms of level design to do. Even though the levels I made will need to be balanced and adjusted, it’s good to know that at least they are all in place, and I fixed all of the outstanding bugs in them so that people can play through them. This week I’ll spend more on the actual balancing, making the score thresholds proper, and also trying out some more “interesting” designs — I had some ideas the past couple of days, the type that only come about after you’ve played through the levels and started to see how you can make a tweak here and there to really crank up the fun of the game.

It was also interesting because, since I had been spending so much time in front of the computer over the past week, when I got home, I decided to go for a short jog. Only about 2 miles or so, but it was a beautiful day, and I really wanted to not only spend some time outside, but also get moving around again. So, I donned my running shoes and shorts, and was off. Overall, a nice little run, and I kept the pace simple, so I didn’t overwork myself, but it was still nice to moving again. I also realized that this would be a good time to start getting back into a regular workout routine. As a result, I have now added to my Task list “30 Min of High Impact Exercise” as a daily recurrence. With the rain, I might do another home workout today, but it would be nice to get into the gym to work on some weight training; I need to get the core muscles strengthen up so I can support the spine better, you see. And just look better in general.

This upcoming week, I’m trying to make up for my lack of social life the past week by scheduling a lot of lunches and after-work drinks/dinners. Being NYC, it’s hard to actually get people to commit to something, so who knows how well I can pull things off, but I’m hoping to at least catch up with a few folks.

Also on the plate is the apartment hunt. This is going to be rather tricky, as I’ll need to see about checking out places after work, since I doubt I can pull it off during lunch — I’ll likely need to go out to Brooklyn and Queens to check things out, and getting there and back to Manhattan will likely take longer than an hour, esp. if I intend to take my time to inspect the place fully. Even though I haven’t moved, I have found myself actually getting creative with how I want the apartment to look, in terms of decoration. I’ve decided that I’m going to go with a “Tech Farm” look. By that I mean I plan to have a mix of rustic, country imagery and high-tech devices blended together. The color palette will be green and blue, the two colors I realized I missed the most when I was surrounded by gray, brown, and beige, back in L.A. I’ll go through my photos, pick out the ones I like that fit this motif, and then get them printed out and framed. I also think I’m going to actually get some plants for the new place — I’ll have to read up on how to properly care for plants in an apartment, how often they need to be watered, and if daylight bulbs can help replace the lack of sunlight — and then for the Tech side, I’ll just have to look at properly setting up all of my electronics in a nice, balanced display. I have all my game consoles, my computers, my nice TV: I’m sure that with a little wiring and ingenuity, I can make them all connect easily and look awesome at the same time. But — first I need to find an apartment; then I can make something which will go on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens.

Oh yeah, and how about those Browns, eh? Can’t say too much about a preseason game, especially when not all of the starters are playing on either side, but Colt did lead the team down the field on 2 touchdown drives, and even better, he did so with some great passes and great reads. We’ll see as the pre-season goes on, and really see in the first regular season game, but so far you have to like what you see. The offense looked much more crisp and precise than we’ve seen in years, and this is really interesting because most of the plays were, in fact, passing. If nothing else, it would be a wonderful change of pace if the Browns offense was fun to watch, rather than the dull, inept force is has been the past few years. Incidentally, I’ll be interested in tracking how Brain Daboll does down in Miami. The Dolphins snapped him up right away, so not only will it be interesting to watch how the Browns offense works in the West Coast offense system, but also how well Miami does with Daboll in charge. Maybe he hits his stride, but I have to be honest: the Dolphins are more unsettled at quarterback than the Browns were, so I really expect them to rank offensively at #30 or lower.

Marples and Basketballs

 Life in General, Reviews  2 Responses »
Jun 122011
 

Over this past Christmas, I received a box set of Joan Hickson “Miss Marple” mysteries on DVDs. I’ve managed to catch up on them all, and have definitely enjoyed them. Not surprisingly, I liked some more than others, but overall, Hickson’s performance was a lot of fun to watch. I still need to get some more, as some of my favorite episodes are actually still only found on YouTube.

Now, having been around for awhile, there has been more than 1 version of Miss Marple wandering around. My mom mentioned that she had always been a fan of one of the earlier versions (Margaret Rutheford, I think) who had been in a few films as Miss Marple. Also, recently, they have been making a recent set of Miss Marple mysteries featuring Geraldine McEwan, and then Julia McKenzie in the starring role.

I have not had a chance to really watch the new Miss Marple mysteries that much, so while at the moment I definitely prefer the Joan Hickson version of character (more on that later), I have watched bits and pieces from the two versions of the Agatha Cristie novels, and noticed something that says more about the time and place that these shows were made.

First of all, in the most recent incarnation, all of the characters just look “better.” Part of this is due to technical aspects – make-up, lighting, video quality – but the main difference is that the people in the early 1980s BBC series just look more, well, “normal.” People look more frumpy, humdrum, and simple. In short, they look very much like the simple folk of the English village (I’m thinking in particular of “A Murder is Announced”). Even the more “attractive” people in the tales look more like someone that you could see meeting on the street, as opposed to just coming out of an all-day spa treatment. The only characters in the old series that I’ve seen, so far, who look better than their modern day counterparts are Blake and his S.O. from “The Body in the Library.”

But it’s not just the people who look more appealing; the sets, as well, seem to be far more like spacious IKEA showrooms then places people actually live. Part of this is, again, due largely to technical issues: more room to place and move cameras opens up a lot of possibilities for camera shots and angles. Nevertheless, moving from the modest yet cozy surroundings of the older settings to the more grandiose versions of the new settings makes me feel like a piece of the humanity was left behind. Like the difference between your grandmother’s living room and the lobby of a Holiday Inn.

I should note that the Poirot mysteries of the more recent years often do the same thing, with highly attractive people wandering around in spacious and lavish settings. But in those cases, it makes sense. Poirot has always been a lover of creature comforts, and hangs around the rich and powerful within pre-WWII england. Miss Marple, on the other hand, has always been a simple and modest village woman, so it seems a bit different when she’s wandering around the dressed-up areas.

The biggest difference, though, between the Miss Marple of Joan Hickson and recent incarnations (and, to be fair, earlier versions as well) is the style in which they play the character. The recent Miss Marple is shown as a sweet, kindly, elderly lady that is always sharp as a tack and always on point. And while I haven’t seen a lot of the recent episodes, I also get the feeling that she is always on top of the ball, and doesn’t get side-tracked. Joan Hickson’s Miss Marple, on the other hand, plays a character that acts, like, well, an elderly, gossipy, village woman. And it’s brilliant. For one thing, Joan Hickson’s version of the character strikes me as more realistic, in that she gets distracted, makes slightly wry comments, and often makes comments that confuse others, mainly because she just assumes that they have already come to the same conclusions, and so rarely bothers to explain before talking. And underneath all of this apparent scatterbrained front, as others have pointed out, is the best criminologist mind in all of England, derived entirely from her life with people within that sleepy village. It’s this contrast that makes the character stand out so well: she is funny, harmless, and totally irrelevant. But when the time calls for it, her insight shoots home like a arrow, and the fact that it’s coming from the person that you wrote off as irrelevant makes it all the more astounding. Very similar to how Columbo operated, and it’s just as much fun to watch.

Also, to be honest, the recent version of Miss Marple really comes off more like David Suchet’s portrayal of Hercule Poirot (not nearly as OCD, mind you), so that take on Miss Marple seems to have less of a personality; Joan Hickson’s Miss Marple is entirely her own, and it lends a lot of gravity to the character.

I should actually try watching a few more epsiodes before making final determinations, but overall, I prefer Joan Hickson’s portrayal of Miss Marple. The presentation of the character is subtly brilliant, and the character and settings make it feel like you really are hanging around in proper, yet deadly, England in the 1950s.

[ S H E I L D B R E A K ! ! ! ]

So we had basketball last the other night. Well, actually, we had a game scheduled – it was the wildcards for the playoffs. We were squeaked out of second place (and a first round bye) by 1 point in the standings. So we showed up at 9:30 PM for our game. Now, this is really late for a game – the way that things run, I was entirely expecting not to get finished until around 10:45 – 11 PM, which would mean that I wouldn’t get home until shortly after midnight. Not so great.

In the end, however, the other team never showed – not a single player, and nobody called the league to let us know, so that was rather annoying. Nobody likes traveling out there that late only to find that there is no game. At the same time, I’m not complaining too much, because it’s still a win, and gets us to the semi-finals next week. We did a light scrimmage for maybe 5-10 minutes – until Joanna banged her finger, and we decided to call it a night.

It was also good that the other team didn’t show as our best player was currently out of town, so now we’ll at least have him back to help out.

Late Night Thoughts

 Life in General  Comments Off
May 262011
 

Played basketball again last night, and again had a lot of fun; it helped that we went 4-0, despite the fact that Joana was the only girl on the team to show up (meaning she had to play the full 40 minutes with no subs) and sprained her ring finger halfway through the 3rd game. She stuck it through, though, and we all manged to rally around her and pull out the wins. To be fair, I didn’t really play all that better than I normally do, but in this case, the opposing teams weren’t able to capitalize on my missed baskets. Still, as a group we played pretty well together, and by no means were the games easy. We had some tough moments, so it was good to see us close out the games, esp. because it seems that Abiy, our best player by far, will miss the wildcard match-up (again!). So, we need to get a bye for that first week of the playoffs; if we play without Abiy, well, it would not be a pretty sight, I think.

I was thinking — a dangerous pastime, I know — again about if I might have missed out playing basketball growing up, but once again, I seriously doubt it. Too many factors weigh in to make it highly unlikely that I would have enjoyed it as much in school:

  • First and foremost, high school was Hell on Earth for me; with the exception of a few close friends, I never connected with anyone, and thanks to a massive mistake I made my freshman year, I was constantly made fun off throughout my entire time in the school. So yeah, it was not a pleasent experience. The last thing I needed was to get out in front of a bunch of people already ridiculing me and “try my best.” The school crowd meticulously and brutally beat the self-esteem out of me, and ye gads, did it take a long, long time to rebuild it.
  • I am easily in better shape now than I was in high school. My endurance is much better, and my strength has definitely improved, as well. This makes it a lot easier for me to play the game and actually hold my own against the other big men in the league.
  • I’ve mentioned it before, but again, I just didn’t have the proper motivation to get involved in school sports, really. It wasn’t until my Junior and Senior years that I got into the art and theater crowds, even. But, after getting hit by the car, it really inspired me to take advantage of my mobility and stamina while I had it. So far so good!
  • Last but not least, while I could easily play basketball every night of the week given the chance, the truth is that I like it for the fun of it. Playing in a far more competitive league probably isn’t my thing; I’ve never been comfortable around people who take the game too seriously, or get into the whole trash-talking-macho-bravado approach. Oh yeah, and practices, while nice, are not something I’d be too thrilled with. Sort of like Brett Favre.
 Posted by at 10:47 pm  Tagged with:

The Power of Matt Compels You To Clear The Lanes!

 Games, Interactive, Life in General, Stuff I Made, Work, Writing  2 Responses »
May 112011
 

You can tell when I am in a zone for basketball these days: I run into, over, or through at least two of my teammates.

Tonight, one of the teams did not show, so that meant our team played the other team twice, in 20-minute games. Which each got 2 wins for the other teams forfeit, but we really needed to work to get any other wins — 20 minutes is quite a bit of a push. The first game we lost as we had a slow start, but more importantly, a slow finish; they pulled away with three free throws to make it 17 to 12. Second game, however, we shut down their drives to the baseline, and topped them by a score of 12-4. Also, in the second game, I really had another good game. I played for about 10-8 minutes at first, and when I can out for my break, I was really tired. Probably the most winded I’ve been in a long time. But, it was great, because I was a monster on defense, using my height and size really well. In fact, I don’t think anyone I was covering ever scored, so that was pretty nifty.

I also jumped into a pick-up game with some guys from work yesterday, and played for about 90 miniutes (60 total playing time, really) and again managed to do fairly well.

It’s worth a thought if I might have missed out on playing basketball in high school, but honestly, I really don’t think so. The big difference between now and then is that I have the motivation to do this, and that only really came about because I was hit by that damn car and broke my leg. As I was grunting my painful way back to recovery, it wasn’t until over a year later that I got clearance to try any sports, and I swore to take full advantage of that. Also, I think a big difference is that rec leagues are more relaxed and fun, whereas playing competitively probably wouldn’t have been quite my thing. Here you can make some mistakes and generally shrug it off. In more structured programs, you get benched — assuming that you even see any playing time.

In any case, summer leagues are signing up, so I’d better grab a few sports. Laura T from work actually is on a soccer team, so I think I’ll try signing up for that. I’d also like to do another basketball season, and maybe football. Just anything to keep playing outside. :)

[ S H E I L D B R E A K ! ! ! ]

So I finally got my 1st byline! The marketing team at work has put out the calls to writers for articles we could send out to various print and online publications, and after a slow start, I wrapped up a short opinion piece concerning the role of reality within games:

http://www.develop-online.net/news/37615/OPINION-The-designers-need-to-forget-reality

It’s nice to finally get something up and in “print,” and I definitely own Tina at work a big thanks, since she’s the one who is contacting all the possible locations for publication. Now, the trick is whether or not I can maintain a steady pace of articles. I have a couple of ideas for more, but the question is whether or not they pertain enough to the business/industry. I’ll need to write up the basic ideas and bounce them off Tina to get her feedback.

If nothing else, though, this was really nice. :)

Thoughts on the Draft

 Life in General  Comments Off
Apr 292011
 

I normally don’t really follow the draft, but this year I’ve been interested in how it would play out, both to see how the Browns did, but also because there are no rules or guarantees in terms of how the rookies will be signed, as there is still no CBA in place.

Personally, from my own limited knowledge in the ways of the draft (which, as far as I can tell, puts me on par with a lot of the “gurus”), I was impressed with the haul that the Browns got in terms of picks. The talk is that the Bengals were also approached by Atlanta (so the Falcons could get A.J. Green) but that deal fell through at the end.

My guess is that the package originally offered to the Bengals was not as sweet as the one offered to the Browns. Instead, what I think might have happened is that after the Bengals decided that they wanted Green for themselves, the Falcons realized that Jones was the only other highly-rated receiver in the draft, and that with Peterson gone, it was highly likely that the Browns would take Jones. So, they offered more to the Browns, as they could not miss this chance.

I also think that the fact players could not be traded, only picks, was another big advantage for the Browns. Maybe the Falcons wouldn’t have wanted to trade some of their players, but they did have a lot of quality starters that the Browns could have used. With that option gone, it was all picks, and that’s something to relish. After all, 2 number 1 picks in the 2012 draft (assuming the NFL still exists at that point) is a luxury that few teams have.

The Ukraine Report: Trips, Spills, and Losses

 Life in General  1 Response »
Mar 272011
 

So, first of all, we did not go out on Friday night — rather, we wound up hanging out at the office playing games. It started with a farewell party for one of the Producers who was leaving to join a different company, and then spilled out into a small group of us playing the Ukraine version of Charades, called “Crocodile.” There were a few moments of confusion with some of the words that were introduced (no easy translation between Russian and English) but overall was fun time; how could it not be when one of them was “mud wrestling?”

Saturday, we went with some coworkers to an area in the Crimea about an hour away. Naturally, I don’t know the actual “name” of it, but I know that the day started at the Khan Palace, which was the Sultan’s residence back when the Turkish Empire stretched up into Eastern Europe. Or something. I probably should do more research into this, but heck, that would require more brainpower than I am currently willing to invest in this venture. Have to save it all for work, you see.

The palace was rather interesting, especially the spots where you were allowed to walk around the various rooms and courtyards. Some locations were more typical, in that there was a railing between you and about 80% of the room, but nevertheless it was fun to be able to wonder around this rather sprawling palace. My spotty knowledge of the history of the area through a combination of my father’s Teaching Company audio lectures and playing through games EU II and EU III allowed me to appreciate the surroundings a bit more.

Then, it was off to lunch in an outdoor cafe which followed a more traditional Middle Eastern approach of having table about 2 feet off the ground, and everyone sits around it without shoes, on assorted cushions and pillows. I sampled some traditional Crimean food (again, I don’t know the names — I’m a lousy travel blogger, I admit), all of which was very good.

Then it was time to head off to the primary attraction. Now, the palace and town we were in was at the bottom of a valley, with some high cliffs on both sides. A river once wove through there, leaving the rather sheer cliff-faces. So, we started a hike up one of the valleys, to see, in this order:

  • A Monastery that had been carved into the cliff side. It’s been constantly renovated, but I believe that it’s been around since around the 14th century or so. There was actually a service going on when we entered, so it was tough to get a good view of the inside, but it was still quiet cool, as it was somewhat small (compared to contemporary churches), had a low ceiling, and had a bit of an Indiana Jones feel to it.
  • One of the oldest cemeteries in Eastern Europe, located at the top of the valley. This place was “established” around the 1st century, although I think most of the tombstones we saw were actually from about 200 years ago. Still, it is apparently the oldest Turkish cemetery in Europe, and walking through it with all of the toppled, moss-covered tombstones gave it an unmistakable air of having been forgotten and neglected.
  • “Cave City.” I’m not really clear on the history of this place, largely due to a lack of both English placards around the place as well as any motivation by me to spend 5 seconds doing a Google search. I get the feeling that this place, which is a series of “caves” (they are rooms, really) carved into the tops of the cliffs have been around since the times of Christ, and then later on, when the Monastery was built, had additional work done. What really made this a lot of fun was that after you pay your $5-$10 admission fee, you are free to run around the place, climbing into the rooms, through the holes, and over the walls. This is a pretty stark contrast to most historical sites I’ve been to (in the West, mind you), where things always seem to be roped off and tourists are required to stand 500 yards away. Naturally, this open policy has a price, as vandalism is present, but it’s not really that bad, and the joy of just getting to be able to wander around the ancient dwelling was so fun and interesting that I think it was well worth it.

The sun was setting by the time we got back to the car, and we enjoyed an impromptu meal from the generosity of our drivers, who had packed away various foods for us. It helps when said drivers our your coworkers. I nodded off on the way home, but then was up late at night playing video games.

And it’s a good thing too, as you will soon see.

Today (Sunday) I slept in, then dashed off with Allen to join some of the guys from work in a game of volleyball. I had to stop by and (finally) buy some gym shorts, but we eventually got to the gym, met the other players (some from work, some not from work) and began a fantastic set of 6 games. The teams split the games 3-3, and I had a blast. I had some great front line plays, and some not so great moments, but the good news is that everyone there was about equal level. To be fair, I think some of the guys were definitely better, but not so much that it really made a difference.

One note about this: Some of the guys spoke a little English, but during the game, the only guy who I heard speak in English was Stas, one of the guys from work, and even then, it was pretty sparingly. Yet, what I found most interesting was basically the power of sports to really transcend language. We all knew the rules of volleyball (a couple of minor disagreements about a play popped up, naturally, but nothing that wasn’t settled in a minute), so, at least for me, I really never worried about the communication barrier that much. In general, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference if we all spoke English or not — when you are playing well, it’s because you just know instinctively where to be on the court, when to give support, and when to press the net.

In any case, it was a lot of fun, and reminded me of why I need to do more sports this upcoming summer.

Oh, and although at one point I did feel my right ankle waver dangerously, it never gave out. Woo!

The bad news, however, came swiftly after that.

First off, I lost my hat. Again. Damn, I seem to do this every winter now, like some sort of required ritual before Spring is allowed to begin. Best I can figured, it must have fallen out of my coat pocket on the way to the gym. We checked the stores we had shopped for shorts, but they never saw it. To be fair, this is why I buy cheap hats. But it’s gotten colder out, and I’m peeved that I may have lost my hat right before i really need it. I’ll see if I can get it replaced tomorrow during lunch (our office is in a mall, after all).

Then, at home, I was Skyping with Vanessa when I accidentally knocked my lovely WD “My Passport” off the desk and it clattered to the ground. It was plugged in and running at the time, which is never a good thing. To be precise: it’s busted. My laptop doesn’t see it when I try to plug it in, and after some Google searches based on the noises I heard, the spindle needle is stuck. So now, I do not have access to it for the rest of the week, and will have to replace it upon my return home. I’m also peeved because I’ve only had it for about 3-4 months. Bah.

However, I should note that it’s not as bad as it could have been. For one thing, the only thing I lost are the games files for Dragon Age II, which I had been playing this past week. Everything else was backed up from home, and I still have some of the flash drives I can use. I was also able to move the pictures I took over the weekend from my camera to the laptop, so those have been saved off, as well.

But, then, I tired to reinstall Steam so i could at least download another game to my laptop for the rest of the week, and run into this issue with the new Steam Guard, which, in effect, won’t let me log into my account because, well, my account hasn’t been logged into yet. I wrote tech support an email, but then saw that it would take 3-4 days to get a response (if not longer), and so managed to poke around a bit more before I finally managed to get it working. I’m currently downloading a game in the background, and ye gads, it’s taking longer than I would prefer, but at least it’s working.

To top things off, I noticed that the lovely coat Vanessa got me for Christmas has developed a nasty rip in the shoulder lining, and my iPod is acting funky from (I think) a drop earlier in the week; the Play/Pause button isn’t always registering a press.

But, things have since settled down. Now, I am doing another run of laundry, and then I shall retire for the evening.

Tomorrow, the goal is for Cindy and myself to get into work early so we can get a jump on things. Like I said, I hope to be able to replace my hat, at least, and then that evening Simon, Laura T., and Alona shall make their debut in the office, so i suspect that there may be some going-out again that night.

I currently have 4 more days of work, and I think that my nights will be pretty busy as well (hence the laundry tonight). Here’s hoping that I can get through and back to New York without any more icky events.

Bleh day yesterday

 Life in General  1 Response »
Mar 022011
 

Yesterday was one of those days that was not a good day all around. Things were pretty much mediocre and blase all around, and each time I was hoping that the next thing coming up would provide some momentum, it just sort of settled back into the same bland gray area.

I didn’t get as much done at work as I was planning on, so that was disappointing, and then at basketball… ugh. I honestly cannot remember the last time we, as a team, played so badly. This was against the two teams that swept us earlier in the season, and we had since gone on a pretty strong win/loss record. But last night, the game was just bad from every aspect: we were missing shots that 9 times out of 10 we would have made, passes were off and errant, every bounce seemed to go to the other team, and we got more bad calls than the other teams. I generally don’t mind losing if I feel that I at least played well, and we really didn’t.

There’s one more week of basketball left, and then the playoffs. For the first time that I can remember, they are having the two playoff games on separate weeks. Well, of course, they are, because now this means that if we make it to the finals, I won’t be able to play — the finals is on the 24th, when I’m in the Ukraine.

Oh, did I mention that I’m going to the Ukraine? Consider it mentioned. I’ll be flying out on the 18th for two weeks to help kick off a project for work. I’ll be traveling with Cindy from marketing, so this should be a fun trip. One thing I need to try and do is take some video so I can put together another short video. I actually made one of the Warrior Dash a couple months ago, but have not been able to get around to optimizing it for the web. It’s never just as easy as I would like….

Steelers lose! Whoo-hoo!

 Life in General  Comments Off
Feb 072011
 

Well, I would be supporting the Pack, regardless of the opponent, for a number of different reasons. Partly because I support Aaron Rodgers and the decision to go with him over Brett Favre, partly because Donald Driver has always been a class act and deserved to finally get a ring, but mainly because the Packers are my second team behind the Browns. I don’t live and die with them as I do with Cleveland, but they’re still close to my heart.

However, I was really much more happy that the Steelers lost. And, ironically, this has little to do with them being division rivals of the Browns, and everything to do with the QB, Ben R. I used to support the Steelers in the post-season, because I liked to see the AFC North constantly represented, but now that Ben’s gone through 2 separate cases of alleged sexual assault, I just can’t support a team that has him as a starter. Yes, he was never charged with anything, but to me, it’s clear that he knew he did something “very bad,” and lucked out from having to pay for his transgressions. I see it as a little bit of justice that he was denied another Superbowl ring, and with any luck, he’ll never get another one.

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