Feed me!

I finally finished setting up the RSS feed for this blog. There you go, Bookworm. ^_^

Vulkon is this weekend, and I'm pretty excited about it. We'll be hanging out with our friends from the USS Myrddin, and we've had very few opportunities for that in the past few months. I'll probably be getting fairly inibriated, too, which I also haven't done for a while. I'm sure there will be pictures soon.

Tampa Bay Anime announced a new age restriction policy at the last meeting. It used to be open to all ages, but members must now be 17 or older or accompanied by an adult. We did this because all of our regulars are that age, anyway, and it will allow us to have as much fun as possible without having to overly restrict ourselves. It also means that we can show a broader range of anime. I'm pretty excited about it. I also need to update the web site to reflect these changes. Anybody know a good web-based task list?

November is going to be expensive for new games. Guitar Hero II, Zelda, and the Wii. I've reserved them all, because I must have them all. ^_^

Short post today. That is all.

Current weight: 311.6 lbs

To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
-- Oscar Wilde

Seven of Seventeen

I'm really fucking tired of doing interviews at work. I'm a programmer, and I want to write programs, but my boss keeps giving me other things to do like interview prospective hires. I know somebody has to do it, but it should not have to be me. I'm already having to push back all the time to get time for coding instead of team management. I'm wondering these days, if working for such a big company is a good fit for me.

I requested the Tuesday through Friday after Christmas off, but I'm not sure I'll get it all. I may actually have to come in to work on Friday. That would suck hard - I'd have to cut my vacation down by three days, just to go to work on a day where next to nothing is going to get done. I'm crossing my fingers and the fingers of any other people I see.

I attempted to post to this blog from my MDA, but it didn't publish, for some reason. Here's the post:

Misty and I just got back from Gamestop. I traded in 9 games for a total of $90!Some of that went into getting the latest Mortal Kombat. The rest is reserved for tomorrow, when I'll be sitting in line to reserve a Wii. I've never camped a line for a console before, so it should be fun. Even cooler, I've decided to "live blog" the event. Come back tomorrow to follow ny harrowing tale of facing the hordes and the elements armed only with my wit and my DS.

I did sit the line, along with 16 other people. I was number 7. These were
the people in front of me (minus one camera-shy woman):

And here are most of the people that were behind me:

Notice the relatively high female : male ratio. I think that's very telling about the demographic that is interested in the Wii.

I lost weight again this week. Woohoo!

Current weight: 313.0 lbs

You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.
-- Isaac Asimov

Attack of the 50-Foot List

Last week's diet was a wash. I did very well over the weekdays, but I overdid it over the weekend. I seem to have negated my five days of diet with two days of bad eating. Oh, well. At least I didn't gain any. This just means that I have to buckle down on weekends. Lay off the soda, keep track of my points, and act just like it's a weekday.

I have a problem with follow-through. I get great ideas, and I start to work on them, but I rarely ever finish them. I'm the same way with video games, but my lack of progress with my project ideas always frustrates me more. Maybe I should use this blog to keep track. It seems to work for The Bookworm.

My projects and their status:

1. Program Go library and game. (hiatus)
2. Translate my friend's board game designs into Flash. (suspended)
3. Create a tabletop gaming portal website. (designing)
4. Create guitar lesson "flashcard" program for my smartphone. (ongoing)
5. Build organizational tools for my Shadowrun rules. (hiatus)
6. Create a self-contained Dungeons and Dragons adventure. (suspended)
7. Create a Slayers RPG adventure. (ongoing)
8. Organize my comics collection. (suspended)
9. Create UFS card game organization and analysis program. (hiatus)
10. Add automation features to the TampaBayAnime website. (suspended)
11. Create an automated site for myself. (suspended)
12. Create anime and comic organizational program. (hiatus)
13. Learn about .Net 3.0. (new)
14. Study for and take MSCD tests. (suspended)
15. Create "in flight" games plug-in for World of Warcraft. (hiatus)
16. Create in-depth desktop guitar lesson programs. (suspended)
17. Create cross-posting blog tool. (new)

"Hiatus" means I haven't worked on it for a while. "Suspended" means I've worked on it recently (to some degree), but I'm not right now. "Designing" means I'm working on the design of the finished product, which is the first stage of a big project. "New" means I've had the idea, but I haven't done anything with it yet.

This probably isn't even a complete list. Quite the mess, isn't it?

Current weight: 314.4 lbs

In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.
-- Robert Heinlein

More Games, Less Me, More Baby

I have the following games on reserve at Electronics Boutique:

> Guitar Hero II
> World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
> World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Misty's copy)
> The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (For the Wii)
> The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (For the Gamecube)

I need to cancel that last one. I've been trying to get in a reservation for the Wii, but nobody is offering them yet. I may end out hanging out in line at Target or (shudder) Wal Mart.

I'm back on my diet again. Finally reaching the dizzying heights of 320 pounds, I found new resolve. The only difficulty is that Misty can't diet with me, seeing as how she's in the family way. Still, it has worked well. I've been on the diet for 10 days this time. As of my last weigh-in on Monday, I've lost 5.2 pounds. I expect to drop at least 3 this week. By the end of October, I should be under 300 again, which will be a comfort.

Misty's pregnancy is proceeding well. Little Kay (for that is her name) is already recalcitrant and stubborn, refusing to cooperate for sonograms or let her mother sleep through the night. She rails against her imprisonment by repeatedly punch and kicking Misty in the bladder. (If you want to see sonogram pictures, look at my web site.)

Speaking of Misty, she returns from a familial visit today, and I'm getting off work early to pick her up at the airport. I hope to get there early to partake of their free, high-speed wifi. Did I mention I had a new smartphone?

Current weight: 314.8 lbs

The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children.
-- King Edward VIII