Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Six Flags Saga

Memorial day, my wife and I joined a bunch of couples from our Church and headed off to Six Flags New England. I was extremely excited to go. Let me tell you why.

I love roller coasters. Before I moved to the Eastern side of the states, I hadn't really been on many. Disneyland had pretty much been the ultimate experience for me. In college I got to go to Six Flags in Atlanta, Georgia and I had a blast.

After being in Boston for a couple years, I had the opportunity to go to Six Flags New England for the first time last summer. I was pumped and literally screamed on every ride, and even when we were done I was so excited. My brother-in-law and father-in-law will attest to this. I was like a kid in a candy shop, running from coaster to coaster. However, there was one roller coaster that I did not ride. Which coaster you ask? Oh, only the #1 Steel Roller Coaster in America.

That's right, while I was there, Superman, the Ride of Steel, was shut down for undefined reasons. While this might scare some people off, I just kept asking if they would open it up later. They, being the park staff, gave us hope, but ultimately let us down as the ride did not open at all that day. I was a little miffed, so I went and rode Batman again, and the Cyclone wooden coaster 3 times in a row.

I wrote an email to Customer Service later that week and they were sympathetic and provided me with half price tickets and exit passes for a couple rides. I had to use them by the end of the Summer, and that opportunity presented itself a couple months later when some friends invited me. (Sadly, my wife couldn't make it that day.) Again, I was super excited, most of all because I would get to finally ride Superman.

Uh..no. Just Kidding.

The ride was closed again! It was either a terrible coincidence, or it was me, that out of the two days I pick to go that summer, it was closed both days. We were told they were waiting on a part form Europe or something. Whatever. I want to fly! I still had fun. How could you not?

The year turns and here we find ourselves in the Summer of 2008. As an end of season party for our couples small group at the church, the group organizes a trip to Six Flags. Rock on. And my wife can come this time. Awesome. I have one thing to say. Superman better show up.

And show up he did. After a year, and 2 failed attempts, Superman was open and it was the first ride I went on. It was amazing. Definitely the best roller coaster there. The first drop is at a 70 degree angle, with which you reach about 70 miles per hour in speed, and the ride doesn't let up after that. It's fast. And the curves and the ups and downs make it exciting. It doesn't loop, or corkscrew, but it doesn't matter.

My only regret is that I didn't ride it again! (I know, what was I thinking? I should have only ridden it all day!) But we were with friends, and they weren't all as excited about Superman as I was. (go figure) I doubt this is the last time I go to Six flags New England though, and I'm sure to ride Superman again. He owes me two more.

Facebook...yeah, it took me awhile

My wife got invited by a friend to join Facebook. And after she got on, she invited me. So after however many years, I've finally joined Facebook and can now stay in touch with a whole lot of people I haven't stayed in touch with. It's actually pretty cool how many people I found from high school and college right away, just after signing up.

I've now updated my profile with useful information, and even started a few "wall" conersations with people as well. It's probably a good thing for me too, since I am NOT good at staying in touch with people. I'm the person that fails to return an email to someone or a letter after hearing from someone who I haven't talked with in a while. I still keep in touch with my best man from my wedding, but that's because he's the one that almost always calls me to see how I'm doing. Speaking of which, I should call him sometime soon...

Another positive is that I was able to post my blog address on my Facebook page which means that someone else besides my sister and my wife might actually read this stuff that I write here and at my other blogs. Well, that may be a positive or a negative. We'll see.

The downside is that I have yet another distraction from work in checking the Facebook page. I should really save it for when I get home, but I'm too curious when I see an email pop up with "so and so has left you a wall message." Just have to go check it out.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

What I really want to do

So lately, my life has been sort of low key. Things are pretty much routine. I work. I eat. I take care of the dog. Watch my TV shows. Play my video games. Clean the house when it's dirty. Go to church on Sunday. Earn money. Spend money. Sleep. nothing too exciting. And while most of the time, I really like just being laid back and routine, I sometimes find myself, like now, wishing I made more time for other things. Things that would be more meaningful, constructive, worthwhile, enriching, and productive. It's not even a matter of can't or won't. It's just that I don't make the time or the effort for these things, even though I do want to do them. At one point or another I have tried to incorporate them into my routines, but they never stick. So here's a list of things I wish I did, things that I can do, but I just haven't been able to motivate myself to do.

Play the piano more
I took lessons from the age of 8 and through part of high school. I've played in my church, I've played for weddings, and I've written a few songs of my own. But lately the keyboard sits in the back room gathering dust and odds and ends that need to be organized.

Train my dog
Our dog, Hannah, is beautiful. But she's also stubborn, willful, and mischievous when she wants something her way. Rather than training this out of her, we've learned to distract her with food, toys and what not until she stops. This is just lazy. She can sit, go to mat, roll over, play dead, and a few other tricks, but she really needs to learn some basics.

Work on our website
When my wife and I got back from Scotland, I put together what I thought was a pretty cool website of our pictures. It's still active at www.tjandteresa.com, but I haven't updated it in over a year, maybe two. For one, I really like to work in Flash MX, and now I'm over a year behind in the program. It's probably all different now. On top of that, the website is incomplete, and so much more could be added to it. I'd like to start it over from scratch and make it better. That will take time to learn new programs and set it up though.

Exercise more
I'm not a small person, and I would really like to have a better looking and healthier body. That's not unique, I'm sure most people would say they want to look better than they do. One thing I have done is kept up riding my bike to work, and eating less sugar. But so far it's been negligible. A year or so ago, my wife got me one of the coolest presents: a wooden sword for exercising. It's a whole exercise program using a sword. I mean, awesome. I kept it up for a few weeks before doing what I always do and neglecting it. I'd really like to pick that up and keep at it. I'm not convinced it will help me lose weight, but it would be good for me to exercise.

Learn more Russian
In high school I took three years of the Russian Language. In college I took a trip to Ukraine for 3 weeks, and developed a flash based teaching CD for the basics of the Russian alphabet. Since then, nothing. I have the books, I have the knowledge, I just need to work on vocabulary and grammar. Eventually, I'd like to take a trip to Moscow or St. Petersburg with the confidence that I can speak the language.

Write more
I have a couple blogs. That's more than I've ever had in terms of writing sources. I need to write in them more. I like fantasy and science fiction, and I like to create. I don't really consider myself good at it, but I don't really think I'll ever be a writer for tv/movies/games or even a book. Well, at least one that gets published. But you never know.

Compose music
This goes along with play the piano more, but takes it another step. I want to write music and actually record it. I did a very very rough recording of a song I wrote for my dad. I'll post it up later. My sister asked me to do it, and I decided to take the challenge. It was a lot of fun and I think I could get better at it. I would especially like to learn how to use Garageband on my Mac to record these things. There's a new mac store near where I work that might offer classes on these things. I should check that out.

Find a better job
It's not that I don't like accounting. I do, and I can make a career out of it that I'm sure will support me and my family into the future. But sometimes it is so repetitive, and mundane, and tiring, that I really wish I was doing something more dynamic, more creative, and with less routine, repetitive tasks. Since video games happen to be one of my biggest hobbies, I often think about working in the video game industry. Once upon a time, I dreamed of becoming a composer for games. I scrapped that idea when I started college and became a business major. But I still think about it. I can't code, I can't write, I can't model in 3D, but I just might be able to write music. It's something I wonder if I couldn't try my hand at on the side, while still keeping my day job.

I said earlier that I've tried to do a lot of this stuff, but can't maintain the routine. But I can't let that be an excuse not to keep trying to work this stuff (back) into my life. So maybe if I choose one, and try to do it half an hour every day, or every other day, it might just stick well enough for me to eventually get another thing in there. It might mean giving up some time in front of the computer, or the TV, but I know it would be worth it.

The first one to work in would need to be one of the smaller ones. Maybe just playing my piano for 30 minutes a night. Maybe I could by a book on the latest Flash MX and see if I can't reteach myself. Maybe I could get out my sword and exercise for 30 minutes. 30 minutes really isn't that much, but it could make a big difference.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Business Trip

So for my work, for the first time in my career, I will be making a business trip. The trip itself is pretty bland. 5 days in a small town in West Virginia looking over financial documents for an audit on one of our properties. I will be going with my manager to sort out their accounts in one week. It has to be done too, so we'll be working long days. We're staying in a Best Western where we have our own rooms, so that's cool, but I'm not really looking forward to it. It's not like I'm getting away from anything except maybe the office, but I don't like to leave my wife behind, and there's nothing really fun to do in the few off hours we will have.

My manager looked it up and apparently found a horse racing track within a couple miles, and that was the only real entertainment. I might like to see a horse race, but I'm not a gambler (which seemed to be the draw for him), so I think I'd much rather spend the time in my hotel room on my computer playing WoW or talking with my wife. The hotel room comes with a king sized bed. I guess that's a plus, but I like to think I'm not king size, so it's actually a lot of wasted bed.

I'm thankful that we have a dog now as she can keep my wife company while I'm gone, and with any luck, we'll finish early and I can catch a stand by flight home on Friday. Some people like to travel, but I'm not really one of them unless it's with and for family. Here's to hoping I don't have to do these new business trips very often.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Congratulations Sis

We just got back from a long weekend trip to the west coast where we went to visit family and see my sister graduate from college. She is now a fully educated nurse getting her degree from Northwest University of the Assemblies of God. I had actually spent a year there when it was still Northwest College and it was fun to see the campus again.

We got to spend time with my Grandparents and my mom's family in Oregon before trucking up to Seattle to see my sister graduate. I love Oregon, and seeing it again made me miss it again, but I'm sure I'll forget about that in the next few weeks as I get back into my groove here in Boston. We did a lot of hanging out, visiting, and eating. I swear. From the first place we stopped for lunch after leaving the airport, to the last meal we had the eve of our flight, I was full.

While in Seattle we had time to visit Pike Place Market which was a pretty cool place, and my sister and wife graciously allowed me two whole hours of gaming at Gameworks to rock the arcade games. Even with that much time I still have a ton of points on a gameworks card that need to be used. The other cool thing about going to Seattle was that we got to spend two nights in a sweet hotel. A friend of my sister and me works there, and got us a good deal on a weekend stay. Apparently it's a business hotel, so they are busy during the week, and light on the weekends. The rooms were really cool, and the king size beds were amazing. Nicely decorated bathrooms, clean facilities and free apples too. If you're ever in the Kirkland, WA area, check out The Heathman. The hotel is located where my favorite arcade was when I was in Seattle, Quarters. It's not there anymore, and that made me sad.