October 2012

NYC was fun as usual.  Who else but a magician spends >$70 on decks of cards? They're all quite lovely. Shifters, Arch Angels, Rebels, White Lions... Cool, baby, cool.

Vegas was wonderful. I score a 93.8% on the ACMT hardware test.
One of my best friends, Spencer, was in Vegas performing in the America's Got Talent live show, so I got to see that show twice, on the house. ;-)  Spencer and I got to hang out a few nights. One of my other best friends, Steve, flew out to Vegas for the end of the week-weekend and so the three of us got to hang out a bunch together. =)  Also went and saw Penn & Teller's show, which has been on my to-do list for many years. Pics are on my G+ profile.

This weekend is my cousin Joe's wedding, in Williamsburg VA. I'm a groomsman. The thing I'm most looking forward to actually, is seeing Joe's older brother Steve. We used to be close until he moved to the other side of the country. I haven't seen him in years now! =(

The next weekend my sister and bro-in-law and I are doing our annual Fall tradition, taking a trip up to Lancaster PA for the outlet malls. Need a new watch? Need a new leather jacket?

Actually, in Vegas I bought myself a Nike Fuelband. It's pretty nifty. I love it as a watch. But I'm fascinated to see how many steps (thus miles) I walk in a day, and how many calories [rougly] I burn because of it.

The next version of Ubuntu (12.10) is released tomorrow. Has lots of neat new features, and cool integrations.  If only it would play WoW, Photoshop+Wacom tablet, and most PC games naively  I might never use Windows again. ;-)

World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria is great. I took the release day off of work (with my manager's full knowledge of why!) so I could go to bed early, get up at 2:30am for the 3am (midnight PST) release. That was exciting.  This expansion itself has lots to do, looks beautiful, and has a good flow to it. I'm enjoying it. =)

XCOM was release last Tuesday. Of course I bought it and have sunk more than a few hours into it, as time has allowed.  It's very modernized compared to the original, but in a very good way. The overall game and gameplay is faithful to the original. Two thumbs up!
I need to apply the update to my BIOS on computer, as it currently stutters the game a bit and won't let me crank up the gfx like it should. But the BOIS patch file says it's for 32-bit Windows (and of course I'm running 64-bit). I don't have the time (won't for a while?) to mess around with making a bootable drive to apply it the old-school method. Sigh.

Fall weather has hit DC for a couple of weeks now and I love it. I love Fall. You know that. ;-)

Recap, and Blogging on G+

I've been too busy "doing" to stop and blog about it. A good position to be in.
Notably I've been glued to Facebook much less than before and using Google Plus more & more actually, and lately using G+ as a blogging tool.

What's been up?

The temperature in July & August. DC had many days that clocked in over 100 degrees. I think the highest heat index I saw was 112? Ow.

Finally hung all of my jazzy and swing framed pictures on the wall, in a mass collection like my last apartment.

Took a 2'x3' piece of white paper and framed it. Hung it on a wall with an attached black Sharpie. Sketched the Capitol Building big in the middle. I mean for this to become a random collage of everything: adventures in DC, goings on, random doodles. And anyone who comes to my apartment is welcome to grab the Sharpie and add to it! This is better than a mural on a wall, because it's portable. =)

BrickFair '12 -- fun as usual. I mounted my heavily customized UFO Mothership onto a programmed pair of walking Mindstorms legs, so it was a very large walking UFO machination. Pretty cool. See it in action on YouTube. 8:-]

August week at the beach (LBI with Fam, annual trip) -- I really unplugged from my digital worlds, stopped checking Facebook and Twitter and such by the second half of that week. Found some inner peace and felt like I achieved a step up in enlightenment (a Zen like calm of rising above the problems of the world). Sure it's been shaken a few times since, but overall has been sticking.

*PAX Prime* in Seattle with a coworker and his friends. Fun!! Of course, a gaming convention is right up my alley. Definitely want to go to PAX East in Boston in the winter. Definitely still in love with Seattle. ^_^

My cousin Joe's bachelor party weekend in Atlantic City. Lots of fun. That's all I'm at liberty to say. ;-)

Glass blowing class in the suburbs with my sister & bro-in-law. AWESOME. Last Fall my sister & I were talking and she said "Wouldn't it be neat if..." and then 6 months later we see a LivingSocial deal for one. Score.

NYC this weekend.

Then for 7 days I'll be in Vegas. Taking the AMCT course. All expense paid (and/or reimbursed) trip via my company. Rockstar. \m/

Traditional Fall outlet shopping trip to Lancaster PA in October. And my cousin Joe's wedding in Williamsburg, VA.

New expansion for WoW is released next Tuesday. =D
XCOM is released in the beginning of October. I attended a panel about it at PAX Prime, and got to play it for ~45 minutes. =D

I plan to do a lot of relaxing and a whole lot of nothing on my weekends in November. Well, let's see if that plan lasts. ;-)


Dig my Google Plus posts for more Diavo.
>8:-]

RP

I started a new character on a Role Playing server in WoW last week, for the first time.
I chose Alliance on Moon Guard because even in these doldrums of the end-of-expansion lull there are tons of players active playing.

Open-world role playing in Stormwind is alive and constant, and that's pretty cool. I pretty much always role play in my head with most games and make up character bios to myself. Now I get to share that with strangers and play together to make stories. It's given the game a whole new dimension of enjoyment. Racing to the level cap doesn't mean anything if you're RPing (except maybe that you have more higher-level gear options for what to wear/transmog) but instead the goal is to be able to play as your character, not the Game, but the life-&-times: actions, emotions, dialog. It's fun when you're with a good group.
I even got lucky and was invited to a guild that does a "guild hall" chat channel so we can all type out what's going on in the guild hall (as if we were all together there hanging out) while we're actually out in the game world doing our various things.

I started a Worgen Death Knight for this sever because well... I quite enjoy the werewolves in WoW and I have a fascination for the unique lore of DKs. And because DKs start at level 55 and not level 1.  :-P

Adventure in Seattle, in June-uary 2012

Last week I went to Seattle to visit Manny and the office to help out. This was my first time to the West Coast (previous not having gone farther West than Vegas), only my third time flying, and the first time flying by myself. Exciting!!

Seattle was pretty cool.  Herein are the chronicles of my adventure in true photo-blog style. (The full album, public, is on my G+ page.)

But first, I need to point out that I found the location for my future castle in the sky. My friends are all welcome to come visit. =)

I got to my hotel, The Inn at Harbor Steps, around 2am.  That was 2am EST, so it was 11pm PST. Having been awake since 7am EST... I was exhausted. The chick who checked me in (as I checked her out -- woo woo!) actually walked me to my hotel room and opened up the door for me! I was both impressed and confused... if Manny hadn't given me the heads up that people in the NW are much friendlier than the East Coast, I would've thought she was coming on to me. ;-)

Then I was impressed again at the greatness of my room:

 

 

Then I crashed. Hard.

 The office was only 2 blocks away, down some side street... hmmm I wonder what its name was...

I had to pass this fancy stair area to get there, and walk down the block:

 

          

When I got to the office, I found the rare treasure!

 

I think I may have drank every bottle during my stay.  <_<   >_>

Then Manny hooked me up with a local liquid:

It was still warm, so I think it may have been recently "harvested"?

I was more interested in the Coffee Machine of Caffeinated Wonders (+3!)

No time to waste, I got hard to work!

While Manny... ummm... where's Manny? That's her beer...  is she hiding under the desk trying to avoid the Postini fallout?!  Poor Manny...

So after the first full day I decided to walk all around and explore. I love wandering around cities. ^_^
Because Seattle is farther North than DC, the sun sets like 30-45 minutes later than I'm used to. When I took the Ferris Wheel photo [below] it was ~9pm and still very light out, and I was walking around yawning my head off because it felt like midnight my time. Trippy. My brain was thoroughly confused!

I thought I started off walking down 1st Ave, but this coffee house suggested otherwise. It wasn't even open!  WTF Seattle?

Fortunately there was a map shop nearby, so I wouldn't get lost!

Also be warned: people in Seattle have a great sense of direction! Just to park your car you need to know cardinal directions, or have a compass in hand...

Naturally Seattle has whole shops dedicated to selling umbrellas...

Fun fact: all of Seattle gets its light from this one store. That's good because it can be frequently cloudy in Seattle.

But when I went in to ask how much it would cost per lumen, they wouldn't help me. Also, they didn't appear to sell vessels to carry light in to get it home, so idk wtf was up with that... ;-)

I made my way farther North and admired the Space Needle. It's like the Eiffel Tower of Seattle.

 

A few neat shots of the cityscapes:

 

 

 

 

 


I don't know WTF happened here, but I'm very glad they fenced it in and locked it up!

I love street art.

 

Ferris Wheels are cool.

If you can stomach it, these last photos are of the gum wall on Post Alley. This area even smells like bubblegum. It's neat and gross at the same time.

Normal graffiti wall:


And then... gum.  Gum?  GUM!

 

I dare you to use ^that^ as a background wallpaper for your phone or desktop! Bleh.

Hope you enjoyed my tongue-in-cheek style. ;-)
The full album, public, is on my G+ page. There are more photos there, additional shots and misc other Seattle pix.

All photos were taken with my Droid X phone (before I upgraded to the Droid RAZR).

Psychological Smell Association Experiment Plan, with video games.

Sometimes I light a vanilla candle in my apartment when I'm going to play games on my computer at night, long into the night. Often WoW or Minecraft. A pleasant smell.

There have been times in my life when I've been playing a video game, even if not actively playing but just idling by having my character standing around in a city or serene spot, while I'm on the phone with a friend and they tell me some news.
Months later when I recall that news, I've said something like "I remember that was the day you told me X, because I was in bird-form in Stormwind, perched on the clock tower looking down on the city at the time."  Interesting memory-location association phenomenon that obviously only gamers are going to experience.
Another, similar example -- whenever I listen to Billy Joel's River of Dream album, it reminds me of playing the later 3 episodes of Wolfenstein 3-D [omfg released to play free in a browser just today! 1st 3 episodes] with my cousin Joe (swapping who was in control each level) when I was in Jersey for Thanksgiving back in 8th grade. STRONG memory association with that album and that game, still after ~17 years.



With smell being a strong trigger of memory in humans, I wonder about experimenting with smells and locations in games. Different smell per location. For example:

Minecraft

• You have the overworld: "outside" with it's different lands and hill and grass and trees.
• There are many caves and caverns that interconnect. Exploring one cave network thoroughly can lead you deep into the earth and thru many cave networks and could take a couple of hours even to fully explore.
• You can build a portal and teleport to/from The Nether. This place resembles Hell, with red-themed landscape and lots of lava.

What if a brand new player of the game had someone changing their room's ambient smells based on location? Would then later smelling that smell remind them of the location/zone in Minecraft?


Step 1. Sit a brand new Minecraft player at his/her computer, launch the game, generate a brand new world.
Step 2. Light Scent #1 candle and let it burn until Step 4.
Step c. Player starts the usual methods of staying above ground, harvesting wood, making torches & tools, collecting cobblestone, and building a shelter.
Step 4. Once well equipped, player then decides to explore a cave network.
Step 5. As the player approaches and enters a cave, extinguish Scent #1 candle and light Scent #2 candle. Allow to burn the entire time the player is underground exploring the cave networks.
Step VI. Once the player returns to the surface, extinguish Scent #2 candle and relight Scent #1 candle.
Step |512-519|. Continue this candle swap as long as the player plays Minecraft. Add Scent #3 candle for burning while player explores The Nether. 
Step The Last. Some time later (days? weeks?) light one of the scented candles when the player is not playing Minecraft or any game. Ask if this reminds him/her of anything... any place... any place in Minecraft.

Inspire

I've found it's impossible to save the world or change it on a global scale.
But focusing on being a very good friend to a few people at a time, perhaps I've changed their worlds and changed their paths for the better.

Perhaps still I have or will inspire someone to go on and do things that could make change I wouldn't be capable of.

That is a more valuable contribution to society & humanity than wasting time behind action-less causes.

Paradoxical Traits of the Creative Personality

I read this article and every last word describes me.
A little creepy, like the time I read that article on synesthesia and realized I wasn't alone in the world.

The guy who wrote it says he's been studying creativity for 30 years. Some of what's written sounds like generalities [I'm jaded by things like palmistry & fortune telling since I know they're based on widely sweeping generalities so as to draw the customer in]. Even so, it's very accurate to me.

Hacker

This is a good article, describing that "Hacker" is a mind-set, not a stereotype.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

First Snow of 2012 in the City.

SNOW!

It started snowing early this afternoon and continued thru the early evening. It's started to stick on grass, bushes, parked cars, and rooftops (I can see those from my apartment window).
Snow, like Christmas, makes me feel like a kid again. It's almost magical. ;-)
Since starting working in DC I've been looking forward to the day when I would walk out of the office to walk to the Metro and it would be snowing on me. That day is today! I was all smiles walking out of the office, and again walking from the Metro to my apartment.
Not driving to/from work = big win!
I'm also enjoying it because even tho the air is frigid, I can breathe like a normal person, and deeply! No more asthma that I had had since I was a kid, and that is awesome.

At first when I put my headphones in while walking my thought was "I don't have a snow/winter playlist yet" and then I thought "Skyrim soundtrack". That's perfect -- Skyrim takes place in the cold, snowy north of Tamriel; and an orchestrated soundtrack to me is always good for walking in the city. B-)

Just wish I had brought gloves... brrrrr.

But still: happy dance!


The picture above was taken a block from my office, the Christmastime snowflakes are still up on the light poles. =)

Reflection on 2011

At the beginning of the year, instead of making trite New Year's resolutions, I make a list of all the good things & positive experiences & events & jazz from the previous year, roughly in month-order. This way I can see all the wonderful things that comprised my life, and be thankful for.



TL;DR version:
This year has a short list; the first half of 2011 was pretty sucky and I was unmotivated to do anything. IT support during tax season for a financial institution for the 2nd year in a row (altho I wasn't doing IT, but co-managing the order processing dept so the work wasn't bad but the company/treatment was). Then I got deathly ill for a week in May. Then I got better and decided to stop cruising through life and finally set and accomplish my life-goals & write my own destiny. And I did!


Here we go...!
*Had a blast out to dinner & drinks with Steve & Andrew on my birthday, tons of laughs. Then Steve & I filmed a short parody magic trick using cars instead of cards --> blog entry with vid.
*Brought Steve down to Raleigh a couple of times, for Lego conventions; my cousin & I introduced him to our NC friends.
*In April I moved out of my apartment and in with Andrew at his house -- great experience, lots of fun.
*Cirque du Soleil TOTEM was awesome; perhaps more than KOOZA was. Reminded me of the time I did sound for Cirque when they did a cabaret party at our bar, and we got to hang out with them at a diner after. ^_^
*I got terribly sick in May, and part of that included a return of asthma which I hadn't had since I was a kid. Went to the doctor for the first time since high school, was prescribed 2 inhalers and 3 types of steroids. Lost my voice for 2 days (a first!). Got better. And I didn't realize until 6 months later, while walking in the cold, that my lung capacity is now fully normal! No longer am I short of breath while walking in the cold; something I've experienced all my life. I am cured!
*Took the biggest literal step in my life, as silly as it sounds: took a commuter bus into DC for a job interview. It left from Columbia MD at 7am and I had to drive 35+ min from Owings Mills MD to get it on a Tues morning, skipping work. The distance traveled + the high stakes of what it meant felt like the biggest most important thing in the universe that day. In fact, in my universe it turns out that it was. It was daunting, it was worth it.
It seems silly now because of the leaps & bounds I've been making since!
*Left my crappy call center "help desk" job and got an awesome, hands-on IT job at an awesome company in DC -- which was my exact goal. I feel fortunate and lucky every day: I made a transition to a different & better & better-paying job during a bad economy, and I blasted myself so far forward doing it; both career-wise and personally.
*22nd annual family vacation at LBI. I came a day late because BrickFair was that weekend. I think it was the best family vacation yet. =)
*Excitement & adventure in DC during my first earthquake (August, 5.8 Mag) -- a city full of people standing around outside the buildings!
*Lived at my sister & bro-in-law's house for the first 3 months of my job, during the weekdays; I was commuting via commuter bus from Columbia into DC each day. I'm really glad I was able to live with them, I feel it was a great bonding experience! (My dad lived with his sister & Fam in MD for 3 months before we moved from NY way back when.)
*Moved inside the DC Beltway; downtown Silver Spring, 1-bedroom apartment to myself in a very nice building, with garage parking for my car.
*Tony Stark for Halloween -- with authentic light-up arc reactor in my chest. B-)
*My sister had her first baby; I became an uncle and the Godfather. Finally the title I've wanted since I was a teenager. >:-]  I'm also humbled by having Luc's middle name named after me. ^_^
*Big huge Fam'ly party at my parents' house the weekend before Christmas. Reminded me of ones when I was a kid. Family should be together at the holidays!
*City life. Walking everywhere. Love it!
*I met and made friends with so many great people; decent human beings.
*Rediscovered love for magic & performing. Part of my rejuvenation with my new life, rediscovering the hobbies I have passion for! I'm looking to get a new Wacom tablet for digital drawing... maybe a come-back tour of webcomics...??
*Lots of video game playing -- including the sequel to American McGee's ALICE: ALICE Madness Returns. Was just as good as the original, I thoroughly enjoyed the return to the dark, twisted Wonderland...
Minecraft provided many hours of creative fun; especially lloonngg late nights playing with Steve via Skype. Crazy! It's popularity proved what I've always known -- a good game is good because of the gameplay, NOT the graphics.
And Skyrim. Oh yesssssss... Fus Do RAH!~~~
*Expanded my music collection and variety like crazy. Awesome. (Now at 49Gb of music.) Bought an iPod Touch 4G. I've always hated the previous iPod's scroll wheel, but this is basically a mini-iPad. hehe.
*Rang in the New Year with my sister, bro-in-law, and baby nephew at their place. Low-key fun evening of laughs & sushi & sake.
Cheers to a new year and a new life!

I'm always amazed / By what can take place / Within the span of three hundred, / Three hundred and sixty-five days! [Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "365 Days"]

I told you my reasons for the whole revival / Now I'm going outside to have an ice cold beer in the shade. / Oh, I'm gonna listen to my 45's / Ain't it wonderful to be alive / When the rock 'n' roll plays, yeah / When the memory stays, yeah. / I'm keeping the faith / Yeah yeah yeah yeah keeping the faith. [Billy Joel, "Keeping The Faith"]