Chrono Trigger must be mine!

PS: Saw Wall-E tonight… such a great movie. Choked me up more than once.

From Digg:
There is a god! And he lives on as a Square-Enix exec!

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Nothing better than free food.

I hadn’t even thought about getting a salad from them until today, and I must say they make good salads.

Took a bit getting through the drive through, but it was well worth it.

Yum!

Originally uploaded by FlipSide3

I was on our enclosed porch the other day feeding the cats, when I saw something moving in the backyard. At first I thought it was a cat, as that’s not out of the ordinary. Only took a moment to realize that was a wrong assessment.

A gray fox padded its way right onto the patio. He (or she) sat there for a bit scratching itself and otherwise acting like he owned the place. Didn’t see me or the cats due to the solar screen (wonderful invention).

I snapped a couple videos since the normal pictures didn’t work through the solar screens (so there is a small drawback to them). We saw the fox wandering down the neighborhood street last night, and he was sitting out there this morning as well.

Bridget called animal control the other day, but they just told her to leave the fox alone since it’s a wild animal and it would probably go on its own. I’ll be giving them a call tomorrow and letting them know that the critter seems to have made a home. That and taking a stroll down the middle of the street can’t be normal behavior.

I’m personally not bother too much, because I’m sure it’s eating up the vermin. Which is one less thing I have to worry about. I just don’t want the kids down the block at rabies risk… or having a fox get in our garage.

I thought I’d actually post something about my newly born son on my blog. I’m afraid all the posts about him have so far only gone onto the family blog and nothing has made its way to my blog. He was born a week ago at 2:29 p.m., weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces, and was 20.5 inches long.

He’s been a gem of a baby so far. Sleeps all the time and isn’t even bothered by the invariably loud racket his sister makes running through the house. Speaking of his big sister, Katie the 2 year old, is taking things rather well. She’s a bit clingy and needy, but not terribly so. We’re doing our best to make her feel very important and loved.

Randal has been getting gifts like crazy. Here are two of my favorite so far. A blue monster named Big Toe and a bib stating “Here Comes Randal.” The latter being a reference to one of my favorite films, Clerks.

My little dark jedi of a daughter had her 2nd birthday over the weekend. Katie got to eat a lot of cupcake and ran around in a sugar infused frenzy. We had more than enough relatives to fill her grandparents house, so much so that she played shy for quite a while when we first arrived.

Tomorrow she’s in for a bigger shock. If all goes as planned she’s becoming a big sister. Bridget is scheduled to be induced tomorrow at 7am… well that’s when we’re supposed to get there at any rate. We’ll see how long it takes for the boy to come out… took Katie all day but 2nd babies come out faster… so THEY say.

Keep an eye on the family blog at http://www.greatwhitepaw.com for news and pictures. I’ll be posting them directly from my fancy pants cellphone. Everyone send the happy vibes so that every thing will go wonderfully!

Oh, and I just found out that my cousin Brad and his wife Bri are pregnant. The family tree just keep getting bigger!

Not long ago my main character in Guild Wars, Satine the Necromancer, had no titles… and I hadn’t really even bothered with it. Then I noticed how close I was to getting the Protector of Tyria title, and I decided to give it a go. Now I’m all about the titles… well at least the ones I think are accomplish-able.

I have to say the Cartographer title has been the biggest pain so far. I wouldn’t have even bothered if I hadn’t come across a texture replacement utility that makes it easier to see what parts of the map haven’t been explored yet. I’ll move on to mapping the other two continents once I’m done capping elite skills.

I’ve got all the Elonian elites and am almost done with Prophesies. Next will come the elites from Factions, which I already have quite a few of… but the biggies (Assassin and Ritualist) have barely been touched. It is so much fun capping, because you get a feeling of accomplishment checking another item off the list.

Granted I’m fully aware that all my time spent on this game is like working in a factory that produces products that will never be sold. One day the game servers will be turned off and what will I have to show for the time lost. Still it serves as a nice distraction to throw my excess energy or frustrations at, which keeps me happy productive member of my family. Better I’m playing this game once everyone’s asleep that getting into trouble somewhere, right?

Well with the new kid about to come into our world demanding feedings and diaper changes… the game is going on backseat duty. I bet I’ll squeeze in some time though… probably when I should be taking a nap. Crazy time, here we come!

I am really waffling on giving this a 2 or 3 out of 5. I’d give it a 2 just cause I was glad when it was done, and parts of it I little said (out loud even) “now this is just dumb.” I’ll give it a 3 though just out of charity. I’m amazed that the movie Blade Runner came out of this book, though now I have a greater understanding of why the films script was a tad muddled.

While I understand what the author was going for with the whole future folks’ obsession with living animals, it just seemed so silly to me. The whole android psychology aspect was fairly interesting, but Mercerism didn’t do anything for me at all. In the end it was hard to care about any of the books characters, and I always see that as the worst mark any story can have against it.

Oh and one final thing that bugged me the entire time. Why would the android producing corporation be hell bent on making replicants that are indistinguishable from normal humans? Would it be so much easier to just make all androids so they have an easily distinguishable feature to show they aren’t a normal human? I’m thinking no belly button.

Then instead of making everyone take a stupid question and answer game, the cops just say show me the belly button. Quick, simple, and there ya go. Besides I never really got the point of hunting down the androids in the first place. Not like they’re going to live very long anyway, just leave them be. Granted if they killed someone you’d just treat them like any normal crook.

The daughter of one of my best-est friends in the whole wide world came for a quick visit yesterday. Honestly I had completely forgotten when they were going to visit. I knew they where coming, but when was just a vague tickle in the back of my brain.

I’m glad I answered my cellphone, since I don’t alway answer numbers I don’t recognize. The last time I saw Lily, she wasn’t all that much bigger that Katie. She’s a darling young lady now, and looks just like her Mom did way back when.

Lily was quite impressed with Katie’s smartness, calling her “quite advanced”. Katie was rattling off the ABC song most of the time and counted her numbers up to around 7. For an almost 2 year old, I guess that’s pretty good.

The next time we see Lily and her Grandma Marion will probably be in October 2009, and I can’t wait!

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The 2nd book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin continues with more misery for house Stark. Kings and their attempts at conquest fill the pages of this novel, with no less that 4 contesting each other. I’m still greatly enjoying the way Martin jumps perspectives between the various characters of the book. Feeling the events from different points of view gives the story a little more life than if it was constrained to only one character.

I’m eager to get started with the next book in the series just to see what happens the the Stark children. That and the dwarf of Lannister is becoming a favorite too. Plenty of books left in the series, so who knows where it’ll all end up.

It just means that you realize – and remember in your everyday life – that the thoughts and emotions are just things flowing through you.

You are not them though.

You are the consciousness observing them.

Cool, no?

From digg:
Besides being an awesome fighter and iconic figure Bruce Lee also had some very useful things to say about life.

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I really enjoy the Discworld series. I’m slowly working through the series, with the help of the library next door to my office. This book has more fun with the magic of Discworld, and the gender politics of its magic users.

The ending was a bit of a jumbled mess, but that was probably the point. I can see this as setting up people, places, and events for use in the future books. The humor was as sharp and witty as ever.

Will I get to attend and purchase a signed copy of Starslip Crisis: Volume 1… probably not. I imagine it’ll be another weekend of crazy, exhausting, kid watching time.

The team died once, but that’s because I wasn’t paying attention. It went rather well after that misstep. Ending as it must with an Undead Prince Rurik (dead again), and the Lich Lord with him.

Which took me to the new ending area where you can chat it up with all the NPCs you met along the way. It was a nice touch and really fits with the endings the made for the other campaigns and expansion. Ties a few plot bits up too and the expansion fit a little better into the storyline.

I even got myself a fancy new staff. Funny thing is that after making over half a dozen characters, I realized the only one I really use… and thus the only one I should be getting stuff for is this character, my necromancer. Thing is all the other end game items I’ve acquired I gave to other characters… so even though she really didn’t need a new weapon, she deserves to get this one.

But lest you think I spent my time re-beating the game just for a shiny new stick, my time at Hell’s Precipice was well spent with other pursuits too. I capped an Elite (since I’m back doing that now that I finally purchased the skill trainer for my Guild Hall) from Rurik himself, no less. I also mapped what I could and now am proud to say I’ve hit 99% on the Tyrian Cartographer title. Getting that last 1% is going to drive me insane.

Just for fun, here’s a little picture of the Edge of the World that I ran into while messing around the Northern Shiverpeaks the other day.