Where has December gone?

I was blogging at a pretty good pace back in November. What happened you may ask? My answer is what it always is: life.

Been really busy with painting. I'm working on 6 pieces from my sister right now, 2 pieces for a client down in Alabama, 1 piece for my dad's cousin down in Tampa, 3 pieces for a client here in town, and I'm kicking around ideas for a piece for Patrick of My Morning Jacket (the drummer). It's hard work but very, very rewarding.

Fantasy Football came to any end. I had an abysmal year. It was horrible. I was hovering in last place in the league most of the season and I just hated it. I took data during the season to see what went wrong. I'll analyze it later. There are a few things that jump out at me. One is that at one point I had 100% own rating on 5 of my players and 99% on another two. So I guess there goes the theory on wisdom in crowds. Another stat is that that in week 5 I had the highest ranked receiving squad and the 2nd highest ranked rushing unit and my record was still 1-3-0. And that leads me to my next stat: my schedule difficulty after week 5 (which was a loss) was calculated at the highest and never wavered. Hell, there was only so much I could do (I'll blog about FFL final thoughts another day).

And hey, Christmas is coming! We've been busy shopping for everyone. We, like everyone else, are feeling the pinch from the economy and opted to not buy anything for each other. It sucks, but I'd sacrifice that everyday of the week to make sure everyone I love gets what they want. Besides, with the love that I have for my wife I can't ask for anything else :)

Issue 13

I play games. My obsession started out with boards games as a child. It moved to the Atari and Commodore 64 in adolescence, with a little traditional D&D thrown in. And I still played board games along the way - Stratego and Scotland Yard being two favorites. I continued my affair with the Nintendo game consoles - the NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, and Wii. I picked up an Xbox along the way. I play PC games. I am what some refer to as a gamer.

I'm not hardcore. I give my wife and family the time they deserve. I usually game after everyone goes to bed. Sometimes I game during the day. And when Will is home I play games with him... Star Wars: Battlefront (1 and 2), Halo 2 & 3, Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, Nazi Zombies, and this little game called City of Heroes/City of Villains.

This game is an MMO. That means that the content is meant to be played with any number of actual, live people teaming with you. It is *possible* to play the game solo but it is designed for team play. In it you create a hero or villain, complete with super-powers, and run around completing missions. Sounds kind of bland on paper but it really is a lot of fun.

So anyway, Issue 13 - which is just their lingo for the thirteenth content update - is being installed onto the live servers as I write this. And I'm pretty stoked. This issue has a bunch of new features including new powers. But the thing I'm really excited about is the leveling pact. This feature ensures that when I play with Will, we create a "link" between two characters (referred to as "toons" in game) that keeps them in sync. It's like our two toons will always be teamed together. And that sounds pretty cool with me.

I see gaming, when it involves others, as a wonderful bonding experience. Can it be obsessive? Sure. But all things in moderation, right?

Thanksgiving, Triple Feature, and Japanese Pajamas

What a tremendously sweet long weekend it was. It was nice having time off to spend with Jooj and the kids. And it was very nice to be able to see our families over the holiday break. I was much too busy either relaxing or being busy to blog about anything so here are some highlights:

* Thanksgiving was great. I ate three times. We started at my mom and dad's for a small dinner (times two for yours truly) and then picked up the kids to head over to Jooj's brother's household to celebrate on her side. I ate again and was truly fat and happy.

* Kim and Marcy rule (you know why I wrote that :D )

* Black Friday. Jooj and I went shopping. We weren't out long and didn't leave at the ass-crack of dawn so it wasn't too bad.

* Kelsey's Japanese pajamas came in. We couldn't wait until Christmas to give them to her so we woke her up and surprised her. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head and she rose like a possessed demon-child when she saw them. I don't know really how many times I saw her after that without them on. I must admit, they are adorable...

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/marron-kuriya/599182/1766677/

* The shelves are finished and we all spent some time priming them and painting them. They are going to look fantastic when they are done.

* Over the break the kids and I watched "Cloverfield", "Pan's Labyrinth", and "Saving Private Ryan". Will and I also watched "Raiders of the Lost Ark". He had never seen it before. Jooj even joined us for "Cloverfield". I believe everyone enjoyed everything they watched. I love movies!

So that was the weekend in a nutshell. I'm sure more went on but those were the highlights. We need to get Will two more gifts and we're waiting on one more for Kelsey in the mail and we'll be done with the kids for Christmas. Yay!