While I usually tend to think of the end of September or early October as the end of summer, the weather here lately has reminded me that the warm comfort of summer is nearing an end. Even more-so than the weather is my calendar, which if everything holds steady, I will have something going on every weekend between now and November. Once November gets here? Well, it will be time for the holidays.
Fall is always a busy time it seems, and this fall will be no different. As far as I'm concerned, my fall season begins next weekend. The rest of my 2009 is pretty much mapped out, and it looks something like this:
Weekend of September 4th
This weekend is quite a kick-off to the fall season for me. I have a hog roast on Saturday which I'm looking forward to quite a bit. From what I hear it is quite a big deal.
That Sunday I will be hanging out at the Fulton County Fair, one of my favorite local fairs. It will be my last chance to indulge in my favorite greasy treats.
Weekend of September 11th
All three days of this weekend features the Black Swamp Arts Festival, of which I'm planning to go to all day Saturday with a variety of friends. Saturday evening I also have a benefit dinner for my cousin, who is in the hospital at the time of this writing. After dinner I intend to return to downtown BG for drinks, music, and great times at the festival.
Weekend of September 18th
This weekend is going to be a good one. First off, two major games will be released on September 15th - Scribblenauts for the NDS and Batman: Arkham Asylum for Steam on the PC. I intend to spend the first half of this weekend gaming my heart out with what I think will be two solid games.
That Sunday will be spent at Cedar Point with some out-of-town friends, Jason and Melissa. I love their yearly visit to Ohio.
Weekend of September 25th
Roche de Bout Festival is this Saturday. The yearly festival that is closest to my house, I find Waterville's Roche de Bout Festival to be very relaxing - by no means overwhelmingly huge and annoying, but not small enough to becoming boring too fast. Even better, Colleen's family makes setting up a little "homebase" convenient, and I get to bring Elli too. What more can I ask for in local, easy fun?
Weekend of October 2nd
If all goes to plan, this weekend kicks off a week-long vacation off work. I. Can't. Wait.
I'm also tentatively planning to make a trip to Gatlinburg, TN beginning Friday the second and staying into Monday the 5th. This trip is highly up-in-the-air, so I can not say much about it now.
But either way, my 25th birthday is that Sunday, October 4th, so either way I will be doing something amazing this weekend (except for Sunday, of course, as I spend my birthday alone for personal reasons). With a week off work, the possibilities seems endless for this weekend, so I will have to see what rolls.
Weekend of October 11th
Another of my favorite festivals falls on this Sunday, the Grand Rapids Apple Butter Festival. A huge festival with thousands of people, long lines, but plenty of good food and top-rate entertainment to match. A day-long commitment for sure, but an absolute blast every step of the way.
Weekend of October 16th
Finally, things start to wind down. I don't have anything explicitely planned for this weekend, but I will say this: I'm on track with a goal to move out of my house and get settled into Findlay sometime in October, so if I'm able to I will definitely use this weekend for that purpose, whether it's moving my belongings or simply organizing for a move at some nearby time.
Weekend of October 23rd
While the core of this weekend will be mostly quiet, I am expecting an extended three-day weekend with a concert that Monday, October 26th: SSPU, again. I saw them and loved them in Columbus, and I love the Headliner's venue in Toledo, so this will be a very good combination for a concert.
And everything else...
And the following weekend will be... November, just in time for the holiday season to get started for me. If nothing else I will be exhausted a lot over the next two months, but with so much going on and so many great times to be had I do not think I will mind a little fatigue for a change.
So with next weekend's hog roast, fall for me will be underway. Bring it on.
B3 out.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Where Did Summer Go?
What's coming up:
- A wonderful weekend spent outside: I'm cooking breakfast Saturday morning over an open fire: eggs, toast, bacon, and pancakes if I feel up to it. Looking forward to that unique experience.
- More SSPU. Having finally confirmed that Silversun Pickups will be in Toledo again in October, I'm ordering tickets this weekend to see them for my third time. Bloody awesome. They will now tie Tantric as my most-seen-in-concert group.
- I'm starting work on another essay, and just like "Just a Crush, or True Love? 6," I am revisiting my past work to bring a new perspective on classic themes.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Reboot Weekend
UPDATE: Scratch that, I forgot I have stuff in Findlay going on Saturday afternoon. Maybe a couple weeks from now? I sure hope so.
I will be offline (AIM, Facebook, Critically Correct, etc.) and unplugged (no iPod or cell phone) for 60 hours or so.
Just me, myself, and I and probably the peaceful, wonderful outdoors all weekend long. Hopefully I come back into next week a renewed person. I need the break and time off.
I'll be back once more on Friday most likely. Until then, B3 out.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
A Random DSi Upgrade
Since it was released earlier this year, the Nintendo DSi has not had a place on my gaming radar. With my iPod touch and a DS Lite serving the forefront of my gaming needs, I found very little reason to upgrade to a DSi.
In fact, without Game Boy Advance games capability, the DSi seems like a big step backward for Nintendo. The DS Lite's biggest strength for me was being able to tow around two games at once - one classic GBA game and one newer DS game. This loss of functionality alone made the DSi a hard sell for me. While the DSi is more Wii-like in its online connectivity (with an online store and internet browser), I have yet to see killer-app software made exclusively for the DSi - something that would force me to buy the hardware.
Instead of an awesome gaming coming along for the DSi, I instead find myself upgrading for a different reason: my DS Lite broke. While technically still functioning, a faulty D-Pad and a cracked hinge finally gave me enough reason to buy a new DS. I sprung for a DSi for no real reason other than I could, and I'm glad I did.
In fact, without Game Boy Advance games capability, the DSi seems like a big step backward for Nintendo. The DS Lite's biggest strength for me was being able to tow around two games at once - one classic GBA game and one newer DS game. This loss of functionality alone made the DSi a hard sell for me. While the DSi is more Wii-like in its online connectivity (with an online store and internet browser), I have yet to see killer-app software made exclusively for the DSi - something that would force me to buy the hardware.
Instead of an awesome gaming coming along for the DSi, I instead find myself upgrading for a different reason: my DS Lite broke. While technically still functioning, a faulty D-Pad and a cracked hinge finally gave me enough reason to buy a new DS. I sprung for a DSi for no real reason other than I could, and I'm glad I did.
Not even a week old, I have found a new love in my DSi. While I continue to avoid many of my older, well-played DS games, it is the newer functionality of the DSi that I am enjoying.
For one, the hardware isn't that bad. A little thinner than the DS and perhaps a little lighter, it feels great as a tech toy. The larger screens are the same resolution as the DS Lite's which means those 256 x 192 pixels are stretched out quite a bit, making the DSi' screen's a bit pixelated. Still, the larger size is appreciated for my fat fingers. The touch screen seems much more responsive too, closer to an iPod touch than the older DS model.
The internet browser on the DSi is not half bad. While no Mobile Safari, it's fairly capable of handling "Web 1.0" and text-heavy pages, although the screen resolution means you see a very tiny speck of any webpage at once. The camera on the DSi can pretty much suck it: photo quality is on par with a 2000-era cell phone. This is sad, because the ability to instantly post pictures to Facebook is definitely a selling point that perked my interest in the DSi. It will suffice for quick, random snaps.
Thus far, from a hardware persective, the DSi is about what I expected: a marginal upgrade over the DS Lite with a media-heavy focus.
By far my favorite feature of the DSi so far is a free application available from the online store called "Flipnote Studios." This application is the Mario Paint of the new millenium. As where I spent more time on Mario Paint than any other game on the Super Nintendo back in the 90's, I can see myself losing months of my life to Flipnote Studio: it's a quick-sketch notepad that can be "flipped" through to create basic animation. The concept is simple, the idea basic in every way possible, but it has exposed a creative side of me that has been dormant for nearly a decade now. While rudimentary animation is the most likely outcome of my little sketches, I find it useful to storyboard writing ideas, plot points in my fiction, or as a vehicle to express my nearly impossible-to-understand imagination in visual form. In short, I now feel that Flipnote Studios is the reason I bought a Nintendo DSi.
And as long as I'm cranking out little short animations, I'm okay with that.
See some of my work here:
B3 out.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Priority Mission: The Future
As I approach my one-year anniversary at CRI (really!?), I have been looking back on the last two years of my life: the my final year of college, graduation, my job search, and my growth at work in the past 10 months.
I observe quite a bit. I went from student to professional within just a year's time, yet I still feel as if I have lots of learning and growing to do. With my 25th birthday approaching this year (and statistically, my life roughly one-third complete), I now turn to focus on the next big aspect of my life: my career. While I have been having a great time at CRI thus far, and intend to grow with the company for years to come, I also want to push myself in new ways that CRI does not afford me. While IT is a large part of what my CS degree was intended to be used for, I can't help but dream of learning lots more, particularly real-time applications and web-based platform development.
I intend to do plenty of learning in the next couple of years, both for my job and for myself, and I consider this learning to be of the highest priority for me. Granted, I do have a lot else going on too: moving away from home, balancing my social life, my fiction writing (and all my creative arts, really), and lots of other little things, I am sure. But overall, the most important thing for me now is my career - getting focused, becoming a valuable employee, and getting myself in a position to be successful so that I can be a reliable person - reliable enough to start a family within the next five or ten years.
Am I a little forward-thinking? Yes, definitely. I have a lot to look forward to, but I have to be in the right position to get off the ground with any of this, and there's no better time to start than now.
I observe quite a bit. I went from student to professional within just a year's time, yet I still feel as if I have lots of learning and growing to do. With my 25th birthday approaching this year (and statistically, my life roughly one-third complete), I now turn to focus on the next big aspect of my life: my career. While I have been having a great time at CRI thus far, and intend to grow with the company for years to come, I also want to push myself in new ways that CRI does not afford me. While IT is a large part of what my CS degree was intended to be used for, I can't help but dream of learning lots more, particularly real-time applications and web-based platform development.
I intend to do plenty of learning in the next couple of years, both for my job and for myself, and I consider this learning to be of the highest priority for me. Granted, I do have a lot else going on too: moving away from home, balancing my social life, my fiction writing (and all my creative arts, really), and lots of other little things, I am sure. But overall, the most important thing for me now is my career - getting focused, becoming a valuable employee, and getting myself in a position to be successful so that I can be a reliable person - reliable enough to start a family within the next five or ten years.
Am I a little forward-thinking? Yes, definitely. I have a lot to look forward to, but I have to be in the right position to get off the ground with any of this, and there's no better time to start than now.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Reboot Coming Up
With all that has been happening in my life lately, I think I am due for another Reboot Weekend - a wonderful two and a half days of blissful peace for my heavy-burdened mind. Essentially, a weekend to myself. It helps, a lot.
Every so often the little "negatives" in my life add up and really hit me. This weekend has seen many of those surface and collect like honey from a beehive - slowly developing a day at a time until I'm covered in a gelatinous goo that makes me feel lethargic in the worst ways possible.
What especially sucks about this is that I have had so many great things in my life to be positive about. 40 Pounds Down, my six-month plan to lose roughly 40 pounds - has been going far better than I expected. Work has been a little slow lately, but nothing awful, so I'm happy there. I have had to reshift my priorities with some of my old friends, but I've come closer to one, made a new one, and get to start over with another - all fresh faces or new angles on old relationships. But still, why do I feel so bogged down lately?
Well that's the point of my Reboot Weekends - to disconnect from everything I currently know, to break from routine and mix up my life for 48 hours and see what comes of it. This total break lets me consider everything that's been going on in my life without my usual routine getting in the way of this - without seeing anyone, without chatting with anyone, or without video games turning me lazy all weekend long. What do I do then? Usually hike outside all day; hit up the various parks in the region, do experimental creative writing, or just putz around wherever I feel like it. Anything that frees my mind from the usual hum-drum of what's been keeping me down and out.
So, will it be next weekend or the weekend after that? I'm not sure, but with all that's on my mind, it needs to be soon.
B3 out.
Every so often the little "negatives" in my life add up and really hit me. This weekend has seen many of those surface and collect like honey from a beehive - slowly developing a day at a time until I'm covered in a gelatinous goo that makes me feel lethargic in the worst ways possible.
What especially sucks about this is that I have had so many great things in my life to be positive about. 40 Pounds Down, my six-month plan to lose roughly 40 pounds - has been going far better than I expected. Work has been a little slow lately, but nothing awful, so I'm happy there. I have had to reshift my priorities with some of my old friends, but I've come closer to one, made a new one, and get to start over with another - all fresh faces or new angles on old relationships. But still, why do I feel so bogged down lately?
Well that's the point of my Reboot Weekends - to disconnect from everything I currently know, to break from routine and mix up my life for 48 hours and see what comes of it. This total break lets me consider everything that's been going on in my life without my usual routine getting in the way of this - without seeing anyone, without chatting with anyone, or without video games turning me lazy all weekend long. What do I do then? Usually hike outside all day; hit up the various parks in the region, do experimental creative writing, or just putz around wherever I feel like it. Anything that frees my mind from the usual hum-drum of what's been keeping me down and out.
So, will it be next weekend or the weekend after that? I'm not sure, but with all that's on my mind, it needs to be soon.
B3 out.
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