Well well well...

I know it's been a while since I've even thought of posting in this thing, but hey, I've got the free time and might as well while I have the access. I just got back from my vacation to maine to show off the new baby to the grandparents. Everything went as well as can be expected. I know that didn't come out how it was intended but let me explain...The visit itself was great, and I'm pretty well considering moving back up there when I get the chance. The problem came in the form of Delta losing our luggage. Then, when we got the luggage back we discovered that they had lost our carseat. That was a lot of fun, lemme tell ya. Anywho, just wanted to let everyone who matters know that everything went great.

From the Frozen North...

I know it's been forever since I've blogged, but I just thought I'd go ahead and do it while i'm on vacation. I came home for christmas and it's been a lot of fun since I got here. I got a camcorder for Christmas so I'm gonna be taking a lot of video I see. It's been an absolute riot.

It Lives....

Just wanted to write a quick little something to say that I'm still alive. Unfortunately, I'm without internet at the moment. The funniest thing about being a new parent is, I've found, that there is a few things that you seem to re-prioritize as things go along. So, instead of the cable bill, I've bought diapers and such and supplies to remodel parts of the house. I have little weekend projects that I've been enthralled with so the internet will have to wait until I get things caught up. I've been practicing with my CSS in my "spare" time as well, and am getting to the point where I have it pretty much memorised...the important parts anyway. That's about all for now. I've gotta get things together and get ready for work in the morning....I'll return eventually.

Now That I Have Your Attention

I haven't really had much time to write in this thing since last weekend, but there is a very good excuse. Even better than "My dog ate my homework." I'm am the new owner of a 2003 model baby boy. His name is Patrick Everett Vance. He weighed 5lbs 12oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. Personally he's a little angel. I stayed up at the hospital until both him and yvonne came home, which should win some sort of award in itself. The little cot they brought me was engineered for maximum uncomfortability. Yvonne hasn't seen much of him since every opportunity I've been home he's been with me.

Someone should have published a handbook or something though. I was expecting the emotional from Yvonne afterwards, but no one prepared me for the emotional rollercoaster I've been on since Monday night. I look down at him while he's lying there and can't help but smile. It breaks my heart everytime he cries. I went through a good crying spell with him at the hospital. I'm sure there's no doubt in anyone's mind how much I love the little guy. I also see where the term "overprotective parent" comes from as well. I never want to see any harm or heartache come to him, and again it breaks my heart thinking about it, even though I know it's bound to happen sometime. I find myself wanting to get home just so I can see him. I also see where the term "Proud Daddy" comes from as well.

Which takes me to another topic, of which I'll be vague, but I'm sure the people who read this will know what, and/or whom, I mention when they read this. I don't see how anyone could leave their child, or claim that they don't love them. I don't care if it was conceived at a time when you weren't wanting/expecting/needing a child. My boss Stacy said it best I believe. He said "You don't plan for children. They happen and you just incorporate them into your life." Anyone who hates their child, or feels they don't love them, or just wants nothing to do with them, has no heart in their chest at all.

Another Sleepless Night. Another Boring Day

Well, as has become my trend over the last few weeks, my sleep has wittled down to nil. I was up until about 6am this morning chatting with friends and playing Gunbound. I've been a sucker for these online games lately, and for some reason this one has become all out addictive. It's uber cute but, if you liked the game Worms then you'll dig it. I was going through some old websites last night and I figured it was about time that I come up with another one. After the loss of the Hyperswitch server all of my pages have been in limbo. So, when that happens I'll put it up here for all you guys...all five of you.

On other breaking news, the Department of Highway Safety saw fit to send me a letter saying that my insurance company had reported me to them saying that I didn't have insurance. I have until the 22nd to bring them the insurance card from my insurance company...not just the agent, to them or i lose my license. Now I know everybody's saying "Bad Mike" but here's the way it actually happened. My policy was up with my current agent and since they'd hiked my premium up but at least ten dollars a month since I started the policy, I saw to it to find another insurance company. This was, um, Friday before last. I got a new policy and this week this letter arrives. Anyone who has car insurance knows that it takes somewhere around two weeks to a month to get the card from the company so I don't know quite how this is gonna work out. I'll figure it out I'm sure.

Well, I'm sure I'm about to pop back in to either Gunbound or Star Wars Galaxies so have a good day or something like that.

Weirdness..

I was thumbing through a few files i have backed up on cd from god knows how long ago, and I got a little melancholy. I dunno, but it's just kind of a longing for the way things used to be. Granted I haven't had an uber exciting life, but there's things i've been looking through that I realise that I miss a lot. We started talking about stuff in an online group I'm in, and the conversation swung towards the old Vampire: Redemption community, since a couple of the other members of the group were in teh clan I keep ranting and raving about through all of my psycho babblings on this thing. Some of the screenshots I've taken and some of the memories that were dredged up teh other night got me to thinking about everything else that I miss that's just gone by me. I live life pretty happy-go-lucky, and I guess this leaves me to take things for granted, that they're always gonna be there. And they're not, not like they used to be.

I think back on when I started this strange Internet trip that I've partaken in, of my own accord since probably around '96, though I'd been online over at chad's a while before that...closer to about 93 there. And I think back on when I was first learning HTML, and the excitement and awe I had over creating my own web page and sharing myself with the rest of the world. I put up the Poetry Corner, which to this point, has seen several incarnations. Then followed the Domain, which had all of my poetry on it, along with a few other things. The site was frankly ginormous. I think it weighed in at a grand total of about 84 separate pages on it. back in the infancy of my web designing, that was incredibly exciting. I could go on for hours about my web pages, frankly because there've been too many to count. But I think the first time I truly had FUN on the internet was when i started Vampire. This is probably why I keep ranting about it through all these months. It was the first time that I'd actually enjoyed my self, not only online, but in a game as well. I met some incredible people, formed some incredible bonds. Several, if not most, of these had deteriorated considerably in the meantime. And I think that's where the melancholy comes from. Much when I realised that the arcade was dead, I missed the experiences I had with those people, for good or bad. It seems like we get on now in a more-or-less friendly manner now, but not like it used to be.

So, I guess the moral of this story is to keep your friends and loved ones close, and your enemies closer, but keep all of them where you want them, because they can disappear just like that.

A pretty damn good time.

Last night we all ended up going out to dinner. A damn good friend of mine (one of the few i have left) from high school came into town. We started out at dinner at Appleby's, but we migrated after that and stayed up well past my bedtime. We had, or at least I had, a blast. We talked about all sorts of stuff, and even though it had been almost seven years, it almost seemed like it was just the next day. I wish the Starbucks had been open because I was sooo in the mood for a four shot mocha. Anywho, Jackie leaves thursday night, or afternoon and i'm sure i'll run into her at least once before she goes.

Wow...

I've been playing Star Wars Galaxies now for a few days....NON STOP. I promised chad I'd check it out when I got my new computer built. And I made good on that promise last weekend, in spades. I have a budding Pistoleer that's almost ready to progress. I'm sure I'm gonan play with it a little bit more when I come home. I don'thave too many complaints about the game really. I just wish they'd make with the vehicles....oh yeah, AND THE FUCKING JEDI!!!! But my Marksman/Medic/Artisan is coming nicely. matter of fact I'm thinking of scratching the medic field and picking up scout so I can go the way of the Bounty Hunter. Woot.

Hey There Everybody

I've taken a small break in Disgaea and thought it would be nice of me to come out here and post a bit. The next few posts are probably going to be a little unusual. The next couple of posts aren't going to be me bitching about something. I unearthed my old web page on the Vampire game I used to run and found that the narrative journals are still in place. So I'm probably going to be sprucing them up a little bit and posting them up here, kind of like a really crappy serial story. So keep reading as I go through them.

Things are going pretty good all around. I've been brainstorming amongst myself today about some comic ideas and concepts. So all things being equal I should at least have some rough sketches sometime soon.

Can I retract that last statement?

That last statement that I made has been rendered false. Disgaea now officially has my soul. The game is incredible...tactical RPG elements with an incredibly deep item and class system that lets you do pretty much whatever the hell that you want. Yvonne's playing it right now while we wait for the impending child to drop from her womb. Enough of that...back to my games...

Jedi Academy PwNz my soul

Sorry it's been so long between blogs, but I've been engrossed entirely in Jedi Academy. The same thing happened when Jedi Outcast came out, but this has been far far worse. It's pretty well been every available moment I get I've been playing in the multiplayer saber duels. I've been re-learning CSS in order to get this web comic into some sort of pre-production. It'd be nice to actually get it going this time around.

The Day that No One Updated.

My morning routine is quite simple. I get up and go out to the computer to check my e-mail and the web comics. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are great mornings because that's the schedule under which most web comics update. But not this morning. Not a single one updated. Usually if nothing else, Penny Arcade will have the comic up if not the newspost. Or hell at least one of them will have updated. That ws not to be this dark morning. I'm positive that they'll have updated this afternoon, but until then the day will be without mirth.

Stranger Things HAVE Happened

I was thinking today, and I seem to suffer from a strange affliction. Unlike the others the doctor says this one isn't immediately curable. I seem to work best under pressure. Though I believe it goes a step beyond that, I don't seem to work at ALL until the pressure is on. I can always find a reason to put something off until the deadline is straing me dead in the face, and then I can work magnificently. I don't quite understand it, but it comes in handy quite a bit. This webcomic is a brilliant example. I've been putting it off for a while now. I pretty well stopped drawing and things screeched to a halt. now that chad has the inkling to do it again the wheels have started turning and things are kicking into overdrive in my mind. I have it all worked out...the "master" plan if you will. And i know all i need is a date and I'll have everything done at the last conceivabl second. For some reason it's just the way that I prosper...

And Tonight....

Tonight's musical slection is The Cult. In my opinion they're one of the most underrated bands of all time. I think Ian Astbury has one of the best rock voices I've ever heard. As it says on their website. "Too Hard for Goth, too metal-edged for alternative." This would keep them pretty well out of the mainstream. But I really don't know anyone who doesn't know Fire Woman or She Sells Sanctuary nearly by heart. If you're ever bummin' around a cd store, check out their selection. Check out their compilation "Rare Cult" It would have to be the greatest compilation set I've ever seen, with over 90 tracks, and a bunch of unreleased stuff. The 80 page book that comes with it doesn't hurt either.

Finally coming back around.

Well everything was up and running..until Intel struck an unforeseen blow. In the process of getting everything back online I installed the Intel PRONet drivers, and it assimilated my USB network. This took me offline entirely. Though it was a minor setback, it does kinda leave me on schedule for my final act of vengeance to the Vampire community. Most of you know about my incredibly favorable view of the Vampire: Redemption community. The friends I made, along with the enemies were possibly the best I've had in an online experience. But tonight I'm going back in after nearly a year hiatus to wreak my last and final act of retribution opon said enemies. I believe Redemption will be a good term for what is about to happen. So if any of you reading this play, and are either a member of the Society of Elders, or know members...tell them to run. Run for the pathetic little online undead lives because tonight is payback for the Network Card, payback for the crashers and the hackers and the raids. Tonight there won't be an Elder Cainite who won't feel my fangs sink deep into their neck. And Renee...Hide in your locked room as you always do, it'll make it just that much more fun to find you.

The Battle is over...but there were casualties...

Well I'm posting this from my house tonight, so that can only mean one thing...HAL is up and running. It was a grueling battle but I came out on top...for the most part. My 13.6 gig Hard Drive; affectionately named Vinnie, was the first casualty. He bit it hard and will be greatly missed. Another casualty was EVERYTHING on my 80 gig hard drive. There were 7 years worth of music web pages, and various things that I had written...all gone. *sigh* Let the rebuilding commence i guess.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is King

Well, the computer didn't go quite to plan. After I got it assembled I found that the motherboard (more than likely) was screwed so I've gotta take it to where I bought the parts (Unfortunately, Tech Advanced Computers) so they can "assemble" it, just in case I'm a fucking moron and can't build a computer on my own. So with any luck I'll be back online this weekend.

From an Undisclosed Location...

With my computer completely out of operation now, the next two days can't get here fast enough. If all goes well, HAL 3.0 will be online and completely operational by saturday afternoon. I can operate on the web in safe mode...very carefully. so far the only thing I can't access is my mail. For some reason HAL 2.0a doesn't like my mail. Oh well. I haven't been on it much anyway since it died. I've been playing my PS2, waiting for the next .Hack game to come out. Maybe write a longer one Saturday when I rejoin the world of the living.

Soon...

Well next Saturday will be the official birthday of HAL 3.0. I'm stripping down the current HAL next week and rebuilding him in a new case, processor and other assorted hardware. Next week I move up to 2.4 GHz. WoOt. I will have full functionality back instead of having to operate my computer in safe mode. It will be a thing of beauty that just can't be missed. For on that fateful day, I WILL RULE!! anywho, just letting everybody know that I'm still alive around here.

One Bong to Rule them All...

Sorry for the usage of Bong in the title, but I felt Water Pipe to be a little unwieldy in the title. Jon got this killer Hookah for his birthday. It's pretty damn slick. last night it was sitting on his dining table like some sort of centerpiece. Thursday was Yvonne's birthday and friday was Jon's, so we had a little celebration friday night to cover everything. Then we ate the mescaline and went swimming. Just kidding. I've been watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas lately, not to mention just finished the book again for what is probably the hundredth time. So I've been spouting quiotes from the books every now and then, as I'm sure you can tell by the title from a few days ago.

So we're in the mall playing DDR yesterday and chad is bemoaning his single-dom and I offer him sage advice, as I'm often paid to do. "Just point a girl out and go do your thing" is along the jist of what i tell him. And we're playing DDR and this chick is up there and chad decides to go for it there. what's truly sad is the first thing that came to mind was "Wow, someone actually listened". We played a fair bit of DDR yesterday. I was pretty damn stiff for the first couple of songs, so I looked truly rediculous on songs that I normally can ace no sweat. I think the chick is bad juju because as soon as she went to the bathroom I got my groove back. Well I guess as much groove as a 26 year old white guy can have. I'll have to hunt chad down to find out how the movie date went last night.

I'm probably gonna head up to the mall in a little bit to play some DDR. I'm thinking of being saucy and strating my conquest of Heavy, though I might wait until I'm a little better at Max 300 and Orion .78 on Standard first. I'm pretty decent, but not as decent as I'd like to be at them. I can whip through them on Light with no problem now, so if I can ace them on standard I think i'll feel like I've gotten my grasp of Standard.