So, I’m thinkin’ of getting a little companion for little Penny. I’m gone most of the day, and sleep most of the night, so that leaves only a little time in-between for Penny to have any time that’s not to herself. So, I think she needs a sibbling. I don’t know whether or not I’m going to get a kitten, or one that’s a year old (around fully grown). If I got an adult cat, I wouldn’t have to worry about Penny getting into the kitten food (thereby growing her already chubby self to Godzilla proportions). But, then again, a kitten would be a lot of fun.

In other news, I’m headed up to Chicago in a couple of weeks. Should be quite the hoot; I’m going up to visit family, take in the museums, and even a Cubs game 🙂 I always love going up there; I go every summer, and it never gets old. I wouldn’t mind moving back up there one day, but we’ll see where things might take me. If not, I can always worship the Cubs from afar 🙂

I think my bro is finally over his little wisdom tooth fiasco. Poor guy had them removed last week and hasn’t been able to eat much in the way of solid food. I still have mine, and in fact they are pretty much completely in-place on the left side. I don’t know if the right ones will ever poke through; there’s just not as much room over there. I really don’t like pain, so I really don’t think I like the idea of taking them out. Keith is definitely braver than I 😉

Off to do that Superman thing I do every day.

Just when I thought it was all hopeless, the Cubbies are 2 games up in the wild card race after last night, 2 games ahead of San Diego and 3 ahead of San Francisco. The Cardinals, the most detestful baseball team ever created by mortal man, are 10+ games ahead of the Cubbies.. Soo, I think the division is pretty much locked. But, hey.. The Marlins won the World Series off the wild card last season. Even if it means crying in my beer in the end, I still have uber faith that my Cubbies will go to the dance.

This weekend has been a very relaxing one. It’s been quite sunny, and very fall-like. I’ve been playing a little more Doom 3, without any nightmares. lol. I would say that this game is about as scary as the scariest movie I’ve ever seen.

I’m about to be making some uber upgrades to my website that should be quite awesome-ish. I guess other than that, things have been same-ol’.

Off to go root on the Cubbies 🙂

So, I got Doom 3 last nite 🙂 It is just such an unreal game. Well, basically it follows the same plot as the predecessors. On the whole, it seems like pretty much the same game as before only on steroids. I was playing at a friend’s house last night (has a mediocre multiplayer package, btw), when he brought up the good point that no genuine strides in gaming have come along since the first Doom. Basically, the main thing that has been improved upon has been graphics engines and method of play/input. You still have the basic types of games you had back then: action and rpg. It’s just interesting that we all spend $50+ on these games, when nothing really changes except the fluff.

But, that being said, Doom3 has good fluff 🙂

This weekend shall be one for relaxing. It was kind of a long week, and I think I feel like doing nothing more than sit around and read–I’ve been gaming way too much to not take a break from that 🙂 My book library is so big that I could almost be my own bookstore; I guess I’m kind of a total packrat when it comes to books, especially of the Sci-Fi variety *nerdish grin*

But maybe I’ll play just a little Doom 3 before getting to it 😀

My router has been down the past day or so. Last night, I was playing UT2004 with a friend. I opened up all ports on the computer that I was using as a dedicated server. I hope I didn’t get cyberschmacked by some disgruntled punk 13 year old 😛 DMZing your server isn’t generally a good idea, but I forgot to UN-DMZ it when I went to bed. *place dunce cap here*

Other than that, it’s been a fairly uneventful day–which isn’t bad.. It’s better than Penny constantly biting my feet 🙂 She has this crazy little thing she does when I’m on the computer in the den. When I call her in the living room, and move my hand toward the floor, she starts walking sideways over to me, arching her back and curling her tail behind her.. it’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in a cat. I don’t know; maybe you cat owners out there know what the freak is up with that 🙂

Anyway, off to play a lil more UT 2004 (and this time i’m freakin closing the DMZ when I’m done. lol).

So I was watching the Cubs tonight. Penny usually gets quite fiesty in the evening, making an extra effort to take some nibbles at some feet–or any other dangly body parts. Tonight, though, she was as smooth as glass. I think sitting around watching a Cubs game has as calming an effect on her as it does on me. Especially when they win, of course 😉

With all that cochranejv has been writing about his jaunts into the hills with his trusty steed (a.k.a. bicycle), I think that I shall seriously consider getting one. I haven’t really had one since I was a teenie bopper, but I know I could use the exercise. Being a code monkey isn’t exactly friendly to becoming and staying buff 🙂

Well, anyhoo.. That’s about all for this evening. I’m quite wiped. And it’s only Tuesday. UGH. lol.

So, the 2004 Game of the Year came out yesterday. Halflife 2, you say? I think not. Doom 3? HA! Nah, the most uber awesome game of 2004 is Peasant’s Quest!!!! It’s probably one of the kewler games to grace homestarrunner.com in a while.

I’ve been slacking on my dorkish ways. I still haven’t seen SG-1 or Atlantis yet. I shall, however remedy this and watch with some luscious buffalo wings to accompany the warm fuzzy nerdish feeling.

It’s frickin August already–Just a couple of weeks until I head up to Chicago for a lil excursion. And less than a frickin month until DragonCon!!!

Well, anyway.. Enough of this nerdfest. I’m off for some luscious wings 😀 *insert pig out sounds here*

So, we had a lil LAN action going today. It wasn’t all that big of a LAN; there were three of us, and we mostly alternated between UT2K4 and Call of Duty. I played some of the mods, which actually turned out pretty darn sniffty. In LANs past, my machine has spontaneously rebooted at least twice over the course of the twelve hours of arse kicking. This time, though, my lil machine was a good girl–perhaps I’ll reward her with some extra RAM 😀

So, that pretty much sums up my day of nerdy nerdiness. I shall sleep most soundly, and perhaps quite late. hehe. I still need to see SG-1 and Atlantis from Friday night, which I most diligently recorded.

Ahh, well.. of to sleepy sleepiness.

Well, I’ve finally made it to the 21st century. Not only do I have the state of the art Athlon in my system, and a pretty kick butt ATI vid card, but now I have a new monitor 🙂 It happens rarely, for sure, that I would splurge. So you should count yourselves lucky to witness such an earth shattering event. How on earth will your reality ever be the same? 😉 Here’s what the lil lass looks like:

She’s such a pretty lil one. I’ve done a lil bit of gaming tonite on it, and it seems to very much kick some major arse–all 17″ of her. I’ve been so used to CRTs that this seems so concave to me. lol. It’s something to get used to, for sure.

I’m quite glad that tomorrow is Friday. I’m having some friends over on Saturday for a little LAN action. We’ll most likely be playing some UT2004 and perhaps some Call of Duty, if they happen to have the game. Should be quite the kewl day/evening/night. Usually, we play from noon to midnight–or whenever everyone gets tired.

Anyhoo, tomorrow nite should be kewl, too.. I’m going to see The Village with the bro. If the movie is even half as good as Signs or The Sixth Sense then it’ll be well worth it, indeed.

Off for some more gaming 😀

So, before coming to the boonies of Alabama, my family used to live in a Chicago suburb called Streamwood. It was a nice little town; it kinda reminds me of Madison, where I live now–only a good bit kewler. It was fairly close to Chicago which meant museums, Cubs, and a darn good time chillin’ downtown while eating some kick butt pizza from Gino’s East on Ontario & Wells.

I was surfing a good bit online today, going down memory lane. I looked up my first school, Oakhill Elementary. It has kind of an ugly website, very old content, and little useful content. But, still–it was good to see that the school is still there in the old neighborhood. The only familiar name on the whole site was Mrs. Wohlever, my 3rd grade teacher.

I also looked up the high school I would’ve gone to had we stayed there. I cruised the guest book a bit, to see if there was anyone I knew. I think there was one, but I moved when I was 10, which is a good frickin while ago–I’m gettin frickin old 🙁

Anyhoo, she was listed as being an AOL address. It’s been like 15 years, but perhaps this person might remember me–or perhaps my name will be as familiar to her as hers was to me.

All that surfing around made me realize how much I miss Chicago. I miss it enough when I go back there every year, and I never get tired of going back. And it’s always good to visit it vicariously through the web 🙂

I had the strangest & trippiest dream last night. Maybe it was the article I read yesterday about all of the solar activity that sparked it. It’s all fading now, but I dreamt that the sun was going nova. I think I remember watching an Outer Limits along these same lines.

Humanity had an afternoon of warning. So, as the planet got hotter, I spent the afternoon making peace with everyone and saying goodbye to all of my friends and family. When the end was swiftly approaching, I was in church; but it wasn’t my own. And there was a woman priest, which made Confession quite interesting. lol. It was hotter than blazes; a lot of people had lost consciousness. I was calling everyone I could–for some reason, the cell network was still working. When the sun was finally about to explode, I was speaking to my brother–I don’t know where he was, but I was speaking to him on the phone. We were about to watch the world end together when, for some reason, it all stopped. I really don’t know why it stopped, especially since it was at this point that I woke up.

This would make a great short story, if it hadn’t been written already. lol. But, perhaps I’ll put it to disk, anyway, and perhaps post the link here–I’ll just have to fill in the details and the ending, but it might make a good one. Especially since it involves me, my family and friends.. And all of humanity, of course.

It was quite the dramatic dream, but the instant I woke up the astronomer in me took over. Theroretically our sun, being an average-sized G-type star, wouldn’t go nova in such a way unless something really strange acted upon it. Stars that go nova in that way are usually smaller and quicker-burning. The sun will expand, but it’ll take a few billion years for it to engluf Earth. Anyway, while it was a really sad dream, my brain quickly reassured me as I woke up. Go brain! 🙂