something about nothing

The above is a view from the safety of our garage. You can’t really tell from the picture, but that snow is coming down fast and there is a lot of it. So, this is my first Blizzard. At least I think that is what it is. Even the locals are beginning to wonder if they accidentally woke up in Canada. Having lived in warm areas where snow was something you see on TV or in the movies nearly all my life, it is quite fun to live in an area with snow. It’s very pretty. However, digging out my car in negative temperatures while wearing my “Florida” winter clothes is not fun.

You would think since I’ve lived in this wonderful city close to a year now, that I would have bought some new winter clothes? It would seem logical wouldn’t it? But, no, I haven’t really had the money to even buy new clothes till now. So that is my mission this month. Buy warm clothes, real warm. That isn’t to say I don’t have some things that are suitable for this weather, because I do. But I can’t wear them all the time. =[

Yeah, snow. I am not looking forward to tomorrow morning when I have to dig my car out.

So, I didn’t quite make the move out time that I wanted. Instead of moving around September, I ended up finally moving  during the last week of January. You’d think that a lot would have happened since I last posted in October. But, no, not really. I’m still having to do web work to balance out the game contracting income. That ends, hopefully, next month. That’ll be awesome when that happens.

Tax time is upon us again, and I am not looking forward to that mess. It’s pretty easy when you are working for someone else, but doing this contracting thing makes it a real headache, even when you have all the paperwork ready. Ugh. I think, even once I’m working full time for someone else, I’m just going to get a tax person to do all this for me. Whatever the cost I think it’ll be more then worth it. Especially since I’ll be jumping a tax bracket with my new income…

As to my lack of posts, eh, I’ve sort of ignored the fact that I even have a blog, not that I didn’t have something to write about or post, but I, er, tended to just forget I had one. So, since it is a new year, that was one of my things I wanted to do more of this year. That and get a bike and ride more in the summer time. It’s very pretty here, and they have nice bike tracks all over the city.

Even though I’ve only just moved, I’ll be moving again come summer time. This isn’t like the last time I said I was planning on moving, this time it’s set in stone, as a thing that is already planned and ready to happen. But, that should be the last time I move for a while. At least until I can find a house, but that’s a few years off. =]

Well this sure was a pleasant surprise. While I can say I was initially interested in p0rtal when I first saw and heard about it. I didn’t think it would be my favorite in the games packaged with Valves recent Orange Box release. Surely I would enjoy Half-Life 2: Episode Two or even Team Fortress 2, with it’s wonderful art design, over some little 3 hour puzzle game? Right? I thought so too, but after playing p0rtal for close to 9 hours I can say I was wrong.

p0rtal is hands down the most fun I’ve had in ages. If you enjoy gaming in any form, you owe it to yourself to try this quirky little puzzle game. You’ll laugh, cry and maybe have some cake.

Today, CW announced that Veronica Mars is cancled. :(

I loved that show! grrr. Now SG-1, Jericho and Veronica Mars will all be gone.

Damn it! Stop canceling shows that I like!

Today did not start off well. I had just woken up, when one of my roommates came in to watch Stargate: Atlantis (I’m currently crashing in the living room until I get my own place). She’s been using my 360 a lot to watch a lot of DVDs, because it’s the only way for us to see DVDs in full screen on our HDTV. Not that watching DVDs ultimately caused the death, because after all it is a machine meant to be played a lot.

Anyway, Everything was normal when I left to go freshen up and brush my teeth. But, upon coming out I noticed she was kneeling next to the 360 and with the TV not showing anything I started to get a bad feeling. And as I approached closer that bad feeling became a, ‘no no no no…damn it no’ feeling as three blinking red lights stared evilly back at me. I could have sworn I heard silent laughter in the winds outside, but I couldn’t be certain.

After examining it and going through the process of getting the error code, I went ahead and called ToD at 1:15PM 5/17/07. You’ll be missed 360 #1, you’ll be missed. :’(

I hope since the manufacture date is 12/18/05 Microsoft will replace it for free. Apparently all systems manufactured prior to January 06 are to be replaced for free, but the one I get back won’t be unless I buy the extended warranty. I didn’t feel like dealing with MS tech support today, so I’ll give them a call tomorrow and find out if I fall into the lucky ‘replace it for free’ thing or if they are dicks and laugh at me as they charge me $160.

Sadness…

Some of my friends finally dragged me to see The Fountain last week. After bugging me repeatedly about how great it was. I was skeptical, but I’ll go see anything I don’t have to pay for.

Wow, what a beautiful and sad movie. I didn’t know what to expect going in and what I saw both surprised me and pleased me. This movie is definitely one that makes you think, and for that reason probably won’t do well. Since most of the movie going public like to be force feed their plot and shudder at the prospect of putting together the pieces themselves. There are still parts that even I am confused over, but seeing it a few more times should solve that!

I so want to talk more about it, but at the same time I don’t want to spoil it for the random person who actually reads this. Unless there is some way to do a spoiler tags with wordpress that I’m unaware of.

Anyway, Be sure to put this one on your ‘to watch list’.

I finally had the chance to see this movie a few weeks ago and wow color me impressed. I wasn’t to sure how the new Bond would play out, but he does a great job. He’s definitely the best Bond since Connery. Not to mention good looking! :)

There seemed to be much more man flesh this time then Bond babes. I for one approve and hope this trend continues!

Oh yes, how was the movie? Awesome. Simply Awesome. Finally a good Bond flick, because ever since Goldeneye they have just gotten worse and worse. The action was great, a nice romance and little tips of the hat to previous Bond characters that were no shows. Only negative that I can think of was that the pacing seemed to slow down in the middle and went on longer then it should have. Even so Casino Royale is highly recommended!

Even if you just refused to see Bond movies in the past, which considering how bad a lot of them are I can understand. Please don’t skip this one!

Even though Thanksgiving has come and gone. I figured, what the hell

This Thanksgiving was a little different then previous ones. Instead of cooking dinner for our family we were invited to join in Thanksgiving at our neighbors. They’re nice and practically family themselves. With my grandmother in the hospital for hip surgery, it was just my mom, Amanda, Melissa and me.

We went over there around 2 o’clock with some food and drinks in hand. They apparently wanted to eat dinner around 3ish. Which was funny for me, since I had just woken up not long ago, so it was really more my brunch. Once inside we said our hellos to everyone there, some still hadn’t shown up yet and there were already a lot of people there, besides us. Four of her daughters were there, some with their little kids running around and respective boy toys, heh. The guys were sitting and watching football, I couldn’t really tell who was playing. Not like I would know anyway, lol. I’m the only one in our family that doesn’t follow sports. Amanda is really into it, while Melissa likes watching it but enjoys it more for the social aspects. Which is similar to me, but I don’t really like watching it as I find it kinda boring. I much prefer to actually go to the game and watch it live.

Seeing that they had an XB360 hooked up to their other big TV, both Amanda and I jumped ship to play some Lego Star Wars II while dinner was being cooked. Which is highly typical for both Amanda and me whenever you stick us in a social situation were we don’t really know many people.

Before dinner was ready, a surprise guest arrived for the kids. No other then Santa, but not your ordinary Santa. He arrived on a Harly! The kids took pictures with Santa, the kids on the Harly and Santa even took them for a little ride! I thought it was pretty cool, kinda miffed that I was never visited by Santa on a Harly when I was a kid. :(

Dinner was great, and being a nice host they even fed Santa, hehe. After eating I was feeling a little sick so I said my thanks to the cook and everyone else and walked back home. To rest and put some time into Zelda, which is such a great game. But I’ll save talking about Zelda for another post. :)

All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving! Tempted to say the best I’ve had, but that would hurt moms feelings, so it was second best! ;)

Just finished watching the final episode of Babylon 5. OMG it was so sad. I cried almost the entire episode. Such a moving episode :’(

I didn’t want it to end! Babylon 5 I miss u <3

Only 5 more days till Gears of War and just over two weeks till the Wii and Zelda! I want to get Viva Pinata too, ugh. There are just to many good games coming out in one month. I really, really wish they would spread it out over the year more.