Idoru.us

From the five-star rooms down to skid row

So its been over two months since I updated this sucker and it seems that there have been some changes again. I should really try to get into the habit of updating this at least every other week again but who knows whether or not I will… Especially in light of the fact that outside of work I have been trying to spend less time online intentionally and that has been a good thing for me.

Speaking of work… its the slow season and like everybody else I am looking around to see what is out there and like everybody else I am seeing pathetically little thanks to our troubled economy. Still, the best time to find a new job is when you have one so I figure I might as well look. That said, my company has actually been making it somewhat appealing to stay with them since they lifted the freeze on salaries and such. It might not be much but hey, a raise is a raise in this economy. I have been doing a lot of reading and talking about this economy lately and, just my personal opinion, its going to get worse further before it really gets better and that downswing will last a bit longer then people are predicting (which is already into spring /summer of 2011). I also think the effects of this downswing are going to resonate a hell of a lot longer then people really realize. The people graduating college right now who can’t find jobs? That’s going to stick with them for years to come and effect their careers in negative ways. But enough depressing talk, lets switch to something a bit more fun.

In February I took a trip out to South Korea and it. Was. Awesome. Got to see one of my very good buddies, got to get myself to another continent (only 4 left on the list) and got to see all sorts of crazy stuff. Some of the highlights: Going to the DMZ, seeing the Gyeongbokgung palace in Seoul, the Namsan Seoul N Tower, seeing where my friend works/lives and how he lives and of course the food. I will be honest, here in the states I am hit or miss with Asian food, sometimes I really crave it but oftentimes I’m pretty indifferent. Well, the food over there was largely great. the fried shrimp thing wasn’t very good, but the rest of it? Fantastic. Fried thick bacon, ribs, Bulgogi, all of it was just absolutely fantastic. That said, they do have some strange takes on pizza as well. They also have a crazy market that we went to, just jampacked with everything you might want to buy and thousands of things you don’t want to buy. The food section (talking about the raw ingredients section) had a ton of food that you would never really see in America in the same way. So all in all it was a fantastic trip, I got to experience a ton of things that I have never really experienced before and I call it, overall, a complete win. Even the flights (about 19 hours to get there, roughly 15 or so to get home, including layovers) didn’t bother me much. The Jet lag sucked but I certainly can’t complain and I know how to deal with that. Regarding pictures, I took about a hundred which is actually fairly few for me and many of them are of the same sort of thing but as soon as Gallery3 gets released and I upgrade the gallery on the site I will be uploading at least some of my pictures to the site. I will make sure to make mention of it when I do.

Speaking of traveling, later today I will be buying some plane tickets to go out to visit CO. Haven’t been there in a few years (2007) and I miss it. Other then that, I am planning a motorcycle camping trip (might be as short as one night) for this summer and starting to figure out another trip overseas. I can’t decide, right now, between Egypt and Argentina. A few other places on my radar as well, like Greece and Turkey, Australia, etc but I think I want to make use of my Typhoid shot while its still valid and Argentina is looking pretty tempting at the moment.

Since I brought up motorcycling already… I am looking forward to the weather getting the rest of the way into spring/summer mode and getting out there on the bike. I see some people out there already but the potholes/crap on the road are just too bad at the moment for me to want to fuck around with it yet. Still, I can feel it getting closer, most of the snowpack is gone and I am starting to get antsy again… huge shock I know. Hopefully within a month I will be wiling away my weekends on the bike again but we will see.

Other then that… reading, started writing some again although its nothing worth sharing with anybody, and tons of video games now that BFBC2 is released. Its a good game (primarily the multiplayer is what I have been playing) but man do DICE and EA need to figure out how to do the online thing a bit better. Were they not expecting a rush of people? Hopefully having the servers down for a chunk this weekend will help them quite a bit and we can get back to capping flags and blowing M-COM stations. Till then… well I guess I can play the single player. I am also planning on picking up Darksiders from Amazon later today. We’ll see how that goes I guess but I won’t be able to complain much since it should only really run me about $20 after gift certificates and such.

I think that’s about all of the news that’s fit to print at the moment. So I just want to tell you that nobody loves you like your mama. Remember that.

Speak up my darlin’ I have been waiting

Been a long time coming on this update but it seems as though life has been entirely too nonstop these days, in a largely good way. Lets start with the holidays. They were good, got to see a bunch of family, got snowed in for Christmas (not that it would stop me) and still had a pretty solidly entertaining time all around. Oh, skipped turkey day. Ate a bunch, drank a bunch, good times. New years eve was spent, as always, at home. It just seems like the best idea considering MN has a fair number of drunk drivers anyway (lady in SD who blew a .708? Yeah, MN resident. Guy in St. Paul just got his 20th DUI, etc) and amateur night is not a time to be out of the road. Plus, its frankly just nice to spend the time sorting out the end and the beginning of the new year. Plus playing video games is always pretty great.

Work is past its mind numbingly busy season and I made a decent amount of money. That said, having the time back is way more important to me at the end of the day so I am glad that its over and that I am starting to get back into the swing of things outside of work as well. Now that its the new year as well it means that it really and truly is the time for me to figure out what the hell I am going to do with myself career wise. Time will tell I suppose with whats available. Doesn’t help that I think the recession is going to hit a bit more.

Video game wise things are good. Beat the ever loving crap out of AC2 on a single playthrough and now I need to decide between my collector self (and hey, maybe I will play it again…. maybe) and the fact that I can sell it for most of what I bought it for still. That said, aside from the fact that it was too easy (in my opinion) and it had some bloat with unnecessary additions to the game, it did improve on the first one in really every way. Story gets fucking weird part way through, fair warning. Otherwise, I have been playing some 1943 again and its still fun. The most recent game though has been Trials HD. Its a fun game. Its a frustrating game. Its … I dunno whether it was good to spend the money on it or not. I have played a fair amount of it and I think if it were easier it would feel like a waste. That said, I am not very good at it. Although I can see myself improving every time I play which is actually a really interesting phenomenon. Watching people do the final level with no faults in super fast times? Well, it is impressive to watch. Plenty of other videos of trials (and its various levels) on youtube as well.

Started reading again recently. It has been kind of a shame to me that I didn’t read much for a while considering how much I enjoy reading. Read Logicomix last week and I would recommend it to people. Next two books in the queue are “The girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Gathering Storm” I believe. Who knows though I might get distracted and go back to some other books or something. Either way its sort of surprising how much I had missed it.

In other news, since tickets are bought and such, later this year, and not terribly far away actually, I am heading to Korea. Thanks to the wonders of the date line it will be a day and a half of travel local time to local time to get there and roughly …. 0 hours to to return. Actually technically I return a half hour before I leave in local times. That one will be a first for me. Either way, looking forward to it, no doubt about that. Have another, much smaller, trip in the works for this summer as well. That trip is still under wraps for the moment since tickets aren’t bought but it should be a good time if everything comes together the way I expect it to. So yeah… traveling again.

Lately I have been feeling a need to disconnect from the net a bit (odd for me to say really). Its going to be an interesting experiment to see what exactly happens witht hat and how it all pans out. I think that it will  probably be a good idea for me though, at least in the short run.

Man I was about to say something really pretentious and crap. Good thing I caught myself. The gist of it is that “09 was, at the end of the day, a pretty good year for me” so lets leave it at that. Hope 09 was good for you and here is a song that I heard earlier today that always catches me off gaurd.

Bunch of other stuff too but that can all wait for now.