Obsessive? OCD-ish? Me? Naaaahhhh....

One mister Dueckman commented to me this ev... er, last evening, (I really thought it was friday, not thursday, or I wouldn't have gone out)... he said I get a little obsessive over things.

True enough.

Exhibit A: Some time ago at his place, I watched a Rammstein concert on his big honkin' TV, and since then I've become a big fan of Rammstein. As long as I don't worry too much about the lyrics. They sing 95% in German, and I've found that lyrics I don't understand allow me to concentrate better on things like writing. They're easier to ignore. Now and then, I look up a translation for a song. Half time time I discover it's really not something I'd want to be listening to, nor for any German-speaking person to hear me listening to. Thusly, when the German student I'm hosting is around, you bet I use earphones.


My wife got understandably sick of my brining up Rammstein at least a couple times a day. So, I looked into music by other German rock bands. Die Krupps sing mostly in english it seems. No thanks. 'Oomph' sings in German a lot, but they're.. too pretty. After the guttural vocals, and wall-of-guitar and synth that the flaming (literally, not in the gay way) Rammstein offered, these other bands were like eating mayo after developing a taste for grapefruit. So I'll kepe listening to Rammy, and just shut up about it. Right after this. I promise. I guess.

Exhibit B:Video games. It might root from my younger years, when I got roughly two, maybe 3 NES cartridges a year, but I'm picky about games. I still get games that I know will last me a long time. Usually I'm more or less stuck into one game at a time, and I get stuck deep. Since I got my PS3, this has meant over a year of Oblivion, then half a year of littleBIGplanet, and most recently about half a year of Fallout 3. Each one, in turn, became topics my wife got sick of.


Exhibit C: Creative hobbies. Once upon a time, I was huge into music composition. I released over 200 tunes in the 604 area back in the day, the bulk of which were techno, with a little orchestral, and other genres. Rowan Lipkovits called me the msot prolific creator in the areas code. Note that he didn't say BEST.


Then I rediscovered art of the visual variety. The result can be sampled in the art section of my website, as well as various graphic works and contracts that ave happened over the years. The art led to image descriptions, which led to short stories, which led to books, which I have trouble shutting up about. You'd think that would feed well into some ability to self promote.


Verdict: Yeah, I might be a TAD obsessive. Shucks. Darn. I consider it as appreciation of a topic, a full immersion. Many of my obsessions are a waste of time. Arguably, all of them are. But to quote Phillip J. Fry, "You can't waste my time, my time is worthless!"

So long, Lucy

Doggone!
Our dog, Lucy, has gone to a better place. Somewhere in Burnaby. (Did I fool ya?) We stuck her up on Craigslist for free to a good home, because after 3 and a half years here, "Pain in the butt" had been turning into "Look, this just ain't workin out."

One of our neighbors has a couple dogs trained as attack dogs. They've already attacked our tenant's puppy who snuck under the fence, and later the 2 attack dogs snuck under another fench to chump on another neighbor's dog. When you have kids, why are you training your gods with padded "maul me" sleeves?

The other reason we wanted Lucy outta here is Caitlin. They get along GREAT. Except at meal time. Caitlin likes to share, and Lucy doesn't know when enough is enough. And yes, we did try a lot of things to make peace, but the beagle in her found a way to destroy all possible solutions in one way or the other.

I tried to put her on Craigslist once, and couldn't make myself submit the posting, but a week later, I managed it. I felt better once I got it through my head she's be going to another home, not a wood chipper. The home she went to has a 7 year old boy and a beagle/terrier, so that family is used to breeds with attitude. They go for daily walks in a dog park, and overall, it sounds like a great place for Lucy.

Say Aah!
At 10 and a half months, Caitlin's 7th and 8th teeth are finally peeking out, surrounding her 2 lower middle teeth. Crawling is a mastered art now. Standing without support has happened many times, but not for long. I think a solid 7 second count is the current record. And she has dance fever. Tunes from a few select noisy toys can get her rockin' out like there's no tomorrow. For food, she generally has whatever we're having, cut into manageable chunks in many cases, but a bottle now and then can supplement dinner if it's something she want very fond of.. though she seems to like most things..! Check Caitlin's site here.

Optimism in the streets
The MeadowRidge Optimist Club will soon have it's won website which I'm putting together with design/content guidance from the rest of the club. When it's up, the address will be posted here, on some business cards for members to hand out to whoever, and some signs for generic uses.

These signs will be making their first appearance at the first annual MeadowRidge Optimsit Walk for youth, which will be a part of the Pitt Meadows Day parade

Lifehack and Watching Yute
2nd edition of Lifehack is in the hands of my last of many volunteer editors. And maybe my dad might take a crack too.

Yute is still being chipped away at. Not much of a page count increase over 130, but a lot of segments are getting streamlined, and re-sorted from the sort of 'sketchbook' phase that many scenes get written in originally.

Game On
I'm pretty much done my Oblivion addiction, looking forward to LittleBigPlanet, Home, and Bionic Commando: ReArmed. (2d gameplay! SLICK 3d graphics!)

Now playing: Crash Bandicoot:Warped (had an urge for some platforming) and FF7. Why FF7 all of a sudden? Blame Advent Children. Sure, the flick isn't new, but it triggered new toys! Right now I'm surrounded by AC and original costume versions of Cloud and Tifa, original Aeris, and AC Vincent and Sephy, which I've been buying one by one since AC originally came out. I'm not trying to get them all, but 'Reno' is on my 'get me' list. Anyway, I guess having all these guys standing around got me in the mood to play the game.

Lifehack progress and game pre-order stupidity.

Well, I'll have the 'edit copy' of Lifehack in my hands this thursday. I had it sent to our PO box in the US, saving a pile in shipping and junk.. but It's gotta wait until my wife goes shopping across the line.

I've got my own copy of Oblivion, (game of the year edition, no less) after a couple extra weeks of delay in the Canadian release.. traditionally, Canadian release delays are attributed to legally requiring a french/english cover and manual.. but this delay was a lot longer than usual.

They're smarter about it now though.. Instead of making a whole other package for the bilingual cover and manual, they just take the english US copy, and slap a new wrapper around it containing all the bilingual junk. The face-stabbingly stupid art of it all, is that essentially 0% of games that get treated to a francophone-friendly addition for the printed material... well... they're all english in the actual GAME...

Somewhere is there a player who knows only french, who picks up an RPG game, overjoyed with the detailed french manual, then pops the game in and suddenly knows how to play the game with it's english content? It's a typical example of ridiculous canadian red tape. And it kept me from Oblivion:GOTY for two added weeks. Heh. Oh, the cruelty of it all.

Ironically, if I just ordered form the US instead of doing a pre-order locally, I would have been playing a lot sooner.

Note to self: Never do a pre-order again. The last time was for Warhawk. I did the pre-order online. Granted, Bestbuy had a sale that must have been a mistake, the game priced at around half what anyone else was selling it for... but when you do pre-orders, isn't that supposed to tell the store how many they need? Why then did they have none for the people who essentially made a reservation?

Well, that was OK, it turned out good for me.. futureshop beats competitors prices, and gives ya 10% better... so I got one for my friend, too. They weren't so happy to be selling a brand new game for half price... the irony? Futureshop and best buy are owned by the same parent company.

Edit copy of Lifehack ordered

That's about all I have to say..

been busy spooking folks at the 'Ghost Ridge', but managed to get a little work done yesterday.
(ghost ridge is a volunteer 'haunted house' type event, staged in 2 barns.. one for 14+, one for kiddos....) At the end of it all, the clubs helping run the show split the money. I'm there with my Optimist club, 'natch.

I took the 3rd night of the event off to go to a friend's halloween party. My one yearly excuse to get good n plastered, and I did a darn fine job of it. The world was still kinda spinny at noon today.

Back to the ghost ridge tonight for 3 more nights of 'acting'.....! Then I'm gonna pass out until thursday, when Oblivion GOTY edition gets here... as some point in there, I'm going to get moving on 'Watching Yute' again.

I haven't given many updates on the international students front lately.. but today I got an email from 'Asuka' (from Germany) She's considering coming to visit in the summer...!

Lifehack passed 90%, Ghost ridge, every day shooting.

The lifehack revision passed 90%. I can see the finish line..! LEt's all keep in mind though that after that, I still have to send a copy around to my new volunteer editing taskforce. I'm not going to hold my breath while that happens, so it'll be a good time to attack other writing projects.

I'm torn between my 3 options.
-Continue "Watchihng yute" which is at about 75% done the first draft,
-Attack "Lucy Doesn't get it" more, (Which SHOULD be a pretty small project.. ha..)
-Hack away at "Wasn't worth the parking space" my gimptacular semi-autobiographical... thing.

Maybe I'll just let my whim take me about them all.... I'm attacking Lifehack hard right now because it needs to get done, and get finished, and I can finally put the first story on the shelf, and not have "azu-1:Lifehack" nagging me so badly. Yes yes, a creative work is never DONE done, but AZU1 needed help badly.

Aside from fixes, I've also added a few neat scenes that flesh things out, and I've come clear a bit out WHERE Autar, Meston and Yute are, which lays a bit of groundwork for Watching Yute, and the third book.


In MeadowRidge Optimist news, things are going gangbusters on the ghost ridge project, which is pretty much taking all out attention right now. Did I mention before that I'm slated to be an actor for the show? As a gory yelling victim. Whee! I might be able to fend of Ninjas on a regular basis, and mash up people's ankles with the greatest of ease, but that doesn't make me any more menacing as a guy in a wheelchair jumping out saying 'boo'. I'm gonna need a lotta energy drinks to get through this thing... it goes on for a week...!

Our past president still wants us to go in with the Coquitlam club's Walk for youth, but I think by far the majority find november to be too short of notice to do it justice, and we're also eager to do our own thing. The walk itself (our own) will probbaly end up happening next spring, giving us loads of time to make connections for participants through schools and such.

My PS3 has been a happy camper lately. While waiting for "Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition" (oct17) so I can continue the saved game from the original version which I rented for a friggin month, I've been doing a little warhawk... It's a neat game, but not really my thing. I got it mainly because of the deal I snagged on it, and the free headset thingamabob.

Yesterday was a good update for the PSN... MY fav downloads yesterday?
-Video teaser for 'Fallout 3' (fall 2008) Made by the same guys who made Oblivion
-Demo for the new 'Ratchet & Clank' game
-Downloadable purchase ($10) of 'Everyday Shooter'.. Simple controls, OLDskool code-driven graphics, and addictive as heck... and somehow amidst all the action, strangely mellow due to the soundtrack and musical sound effects..