Happy Mother’s Day!

I’m taking a break from my birthday posts to with all you mothers a Happy Mother’s Day!

The Long Birthday

Well, friday was my 31st birthday, and it was a pretty good one that extended throughout Saturday! Because it coincidentally fell on my last day of work for the semester, we had a mini-party, complete with delicious chocolate chip cheesecake made by Charity. Besides an hour-long meeting for a project we’re working on over the summer, I just sat on a computer, surfing the internet, catching up with my friends at the Straight to Hell message board, and strumming on my guitar.

After work, I went to Chili’s to meet with the writing center crew (including some who didn’t work that day) to get a beer and some nachos. Then, I went home and crashed for a couple of hours (I suspect this was due to a sugar crash from the cheesecake, coupled with a lack of caffeine from the cafeteria being closed).

When the otter got home from work, I went to her place, where she gave me presents! I got a ticket for Cedar Point, which I was expecting, as well as a record player (I was NOT expecting that!) and Belle and Sebastian’s Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant on LP. The otter’s mom baked me a cake and gave me some coffee.

These things, plus the money from my parents and grandparents, made for a birthday full of loot! But it didn’t end there; I went to Cedar Park the next day (opening day!)! More on that in the next post, though…

EDIT: Today, my brother came into town and gave me an XBox. Not just any XBox, however. No, this is a special XBox. I am not legally allowed to tell you how awesome and special this XBox is. I can tell you that I’ll be playing lots of NES, SNES, Arcade, Sega Master System, Game Gear, and Genesis games, but I can’t tell you if that has anything to do with the XBox in question.

Mixtapology: The Race

Here is my mixtape for the race. It’s only 5 songs long because I knew it would take me less than 20 minutes to finish.

“Today’s Lesson” -Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“In the Craters of the Moon” -The Mountain Goats
“Hell Is Other People” -The Ne’er Do Evers
“16 Military Wives” -The Decemberists
“None Shall Pass” -Aesop Rock

As with any mixtape, there was a logic to this one. “Today’s Lesson” starts off with a driving guitar that’s not too fast, so that I wouldn’t wear myself out too early. The second song, “In the Craters of the Moon,” starts off slowish, but builds in intensity at the end, so that I get a short burst about 6 minutes into the race. Next, “Hell Is Other People” is a slower but steady song, which sould let me sink into a rythym . “16 Military Wives” is another song with a steady rythym that’s not too fast, but it’s a little faster than the Ne’er Do Ever’s song. Finally,”None Shall Pass” has a fast beat for that last sprint at the end.

My problem was that I started off to fast, despite my best efforts, so that I was worn out by the end of the first song. It didn’t help that the first line of “In the Craters” is “If the strain proves too much/ Give up right away.” After that, the Ne’er Do Evers helped me find a comfortable pace, which I kept until the beginning of Aesop Rock’s “None Shall Pass”, which started at the foot of a long hill.

Still, I think it was a good mix for this race.

Run Run Run

Early, Saturday morning: Rain clouds, baleful and ponderous, loomed accross the hills. The land was still, for the birds and the woodland creatures were hiding from the portentious weather.

A perfect day for a race!

Yesterday, I ran in my first race since last year’s Hall of Fame 2 Mile. This was the 3rd Annual Louisville Area YMCA’s 2-Mile Fun Run (Say that 5 times fast!), and though the weather barely cooperated (the rain stopped just long enough for me to get from the starting pistol to the finish line), I had a lot of fun. I was actually 2-3 seconds slower than I was on the same course last year, which I blame on a knee that’s been bothering me lately, as well as my recent recovery from a week-long illness and having a tooth pulled on Monday. I really was not physically prepared for this race, so I’m just glad I finished.

The otter beat me, of course.

Happy May Day!

Happy May Day to all of you, whether you are celebrating the proletariat or just the cycle of nature!

Grey. It’s definitely grey.

So, this saturday, the otter and I made our bi-weekly trip to Akron, the land of milk, honey, and old tires. On the way up, I was looking at myself in the mirror (because looking this good takes CONSTANT ATTENTION(tm) ) when I noticed something in my hair. It looked like a white thread, so I tried to remove it. OuCH! It was attatched: my very first grey hair.

The next day, I was visiting my mother on her birthday, and I decided to show her the hair to make her feel even older.

“Look, Mom! A grey hair!” I said.
“Let me see that!” She dug through my hair to find it. Then, she said, “Ohhhhh! You don’t have a grey hair! You have 5 of them! No, 6! Umm…7, 8, 9!”

So, I guess I’m almost-semi-officially going grey! This is good news; I’m only 30 (well, 31 in a week), so I’m by no means old. Therefore, this isn’t a sign of age, but of somewhat early greying. And, I don’t seem to be going bald, like they do on my mom’s side of the family, so that’s cool.

I just wish I was greying along my temples, like Reed Richards or Nick Fury. That would be so badass.

Sick. AGAIN!!!

Ok, so at work, we like to play this game called “virus tag.” Right now, apparently, I’m it. Sore throat. Snot dripping, no, pouring from my nose. Coughing. Sweating. I other words, I don’t feel so well.

Anyway, yesterday, everyone took a vote and voted me off the island about 2 hours early, with the recommendation to get some sleep. A capital idea! I went home, slept, and sweat some of the sickness out of me.

A couple of hours later, I woke up and called me friend Jodi. He’s in town from California, so he only makes it up here about once a year. I told him that I was sick, so I shouldn’t come out, but he said that it was cool; everyone is outside and the weather is nice, so my illness won’t inconvenience anyone. Alright, that’s fine; I didn’t want to miss out on seeing him, so I went with the plan of only staying for an hour.

About 2 hours later, I had to leave. I was feeling a little worse than when I woke back up. Just then, the otter called. She hadn’t seen me in a while, so she wanted me to come over. I told her that I could, but I ad to leave by 11 so that I could get to bet.

11:40 rolled around, and I was out the door. Feeling sicker and sicker, I knew that I was in trouble, and if I didn’t get back to bed, I would have to miss more work in the morning. So I drove half-way home, and POP! my tire blew out.

I pulled into the nearest parking lot, and, weak from sickness, was not in the mood to change my tire. So I walked. Forty-five minutes. At midnight. In the cold air. Without a jacket.

Yeah.

Ahhhh…spring!

Yesterday was the first day here in Canton, Ohio that it actually felt like spring. After work, I ran around and did all my errands (with the car windows rolled down!), then went home, opened all my windows, and slept for an hour as the breeze came in the bedroom.

After that, I threw some birdseed onto my balcony and read while watching my cats stare at all the birds.

Around 7 o’clock, to prevent myself from falling asleep again, I went out to the park to play some Disc Golf.

I forgot how much I love spring.

I’m trying…

Ok…so the otter is reading a book caller…er…OK, so I don’t remember what it’s called or who wrote it. Something like The Big-Box Swindle. Anyway, it’s all about how places like WalMart destroy the economy. Nothing I hadn’t already known about, but it does bring it back out of my peripheral vision.

So…I’ve decided to try to support locally owned businesses. I’ve come up with a 4 phase plan to live a life that is more morally acceptable to me; I’m in phase one of this right now: no more Wal Mart. Yesterday, I went to Marc’s, a local grocery store that I hate because I used to work there, and bought a lunch bag (as I’m also trying to produce less trash…no more plastic bags!).

Phase 2 will involve things like no more Best Buy. Phase 3 will include fast food restaraunts, and phase 4 will be…n-n-no more Borders. *wheeze* *weeze*

Sorry. Still having trouble wrapping my head around that one. We’ll see.

Meme time: Top 5 Favorite Video Games

Ok, ok…I haven’t been writing on my blog very much. I’ve been sitting at home, playing the XBox. Because of this, I haven’t had much to write about. So let me ask all of you: What are your top 5 favorite games? Here are mine, in random order:

Pac-Man-Arcade. This was the first arcade game I ever played, back in 1980 or so. I remember clearly: It was at Fisher Foods, a local grocery store. My mother had to lift me up to see the screen. I was running from the ghosts, and I suddenly reralized that “the big dots” made you eat ghosts! For my 3-year-old mind, this was the greatest thing ever. I have this game on my cell-phone, and I still play it (I beat my cell-phone highscore on friday!). Ahhhh, memories.

Gladius-PS2, XBox. I’m playing this one again. It’s a fantasy, Roman-Gladiator-style turn-based-strategy role-playing-game, that, while complex in the abilities charactes can have and in the strategy of puting those chaacters together, is actually easy to learn to play. I’m over 20 hours in the game now, and it only gets better as you go. The basic idea is that you must lead your gladiator school to the championship in Caltha, the capital of Imperia. To do this, you must travel the world, fighting the best that each region has to offer. This game is endlessly replayable, but a little too easy to save over your game (my ex-wife played for over 100 hours before accidentally erasing her game. She then played at least an additional 80 hours!).

Sid Meier’s Pirates!-XBox,Genesis,NES. This game is one of the original sandbox, or open-ended, games. there is a main plot, and you can finish the game without even touching on that plot. I played this game on the NES fiorst, and it was my favorite game for that system. The Genesis version was better, with improved graphicsa and sound. The XBox game added features, like the ability to take the daughters of the governors to the Ball (where you hit certain buttons in rythym to dance well and impress them). I think any version of this game holds up well, but the XBox version manages to improve on the game without changing what made the early versions so great. You can play this game from beginning to end in a few hours, just blowing up enemy ships and stealing their loot, or you can get into the story and hunt for your missing family. You can decide to call yourself a pirate-hunter and kill the 9 most notorious pirates on the Spanish Main. If you like, you can even do nothing but buy and sell goods, only fighting to defend yourself from pirates. Come on, though…who doesn’t want to be a pirate?

Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight-PC. This game is not the best 1st person shooter. It’s not the best Star Wars game. It doesn’t hold up well against games today. So, why is it a favorite of mine? Well, it was the 1st game I played online. I met lots of friends (with whom I have completely lost touch), I honed my online gaming skills (although, really, what skills do I really have?), and hey,I got to play as a Jedi. How cool is that?

Marvel Ultimate Alliance-XBox. I know, this game’s a little new to be called one of the best. However, it has many of my favorite characters (Dr. Strange!!! Spider-man!!! Silver-Freaking-Surfer!!!), and though pretty mindless, is pretty much infinitely replayable, as you can go back through the game, levelling up to get every power for every character. I’ve beaten this game 5 times, in some cases making my own teams (S.H.E.I.L.D. Black Ops:Nick Fury, Electra, Wolverine, Deadpool; The Mystic Avengers: Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider, Elektra, Blade, with Thor in reserve), and other times using pre-designed teams (The Defenders: Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, Luke Cage, Iceman). It’s a great game that does everything that the X Men Legends games did right, and corrected the mistakes of those two games.

So, what are your favorite games?

I’m looking at you:
Amuirin AND Imtay (I want posts from both of you!)
Matt
Zach
David B.