Computers, Cars, and Community

Writing this post makes me feel good, because I'm actually doing what I said I'd be doing.  Example; not posting very often.  As unexciting as that may be, looking back and seeing that you've done what you set out to accomplish makes me feel really good.

As another example, see my last post; I set out to build a computer, and I did!

My friend David helped me make it, as this was my first time, but dang son, it's nice!  And this is just a snapshot of some of one of the games (Star Wars: The Old Republic) my computer can do:

My character: Bryker Rickriver, Bounty Hunter, Republic's Most Wanted

Next on my goal list: acquire a new car!  I've thought about if I actually need one, and I think it's a wise decision.  I keep pouring money into this one, and it's not going anywhere.  I'm also afraid of the car breaking down because of all the repairs I regularly delay putting into it.  So I think in the spirit safety and financial wisdom, it's time to make my first grown-up purchase!

Actually, yesterday I took my first test drive of a car ever.  So get this; I pull into the dealership, and I'm on the phone when I get out of my car, right?  I'm like 20 feet from the door into the dealership, standing there while I finish my phone conversation before I go in.

My brain: "Oh, so exciting, time to be assertive!"

But apparently, they stop at nothing, not even social norms.

My brain: "Oh crap I'm alone and he's already coming at me!  Must try to look..imposing..."

 

My brain: "OH S*** HELP"

Apparently, looking imposing and having a fake phone conversation louder right next to me is a great way to sell cars.  I still don't know if he was mocking me or trying to be funny, but whatever it was, it made me feel like a helpless puppy in the rain.  Good thing my friend came, otherwise I probably would have bought a 2005 Dodge Stratus for $53,000.

But yeah, I got to test drive a Nissan Versa!  It was pretty neato, but I think it's too small.  Since I'm still really not sure what I want and what's the wisest decision, I'm going to look around a bit more.

Some other random thoughts:
-I have a Crock Pot now!!!  It rocks.
-I get to play racquetball like, all the time!  Hurray!
-I like my friends in FUSE.  Here's a picture of a bunch of us!

I FEEL SO LOVED IN THE MIDDLE OF EVERYONE

 Well, that's that I guess.  I'm growin' up fast...

Happy New Year!

Happy new year!

Well, I'm back!  And man a lot has changed for me!

As I wrote before, I moved.  I now live alone; both S and G are no longer in Texas currently.  I had a bunch of my friends from church help me move, and man they are awesome.  Moving was a breeze with their help, and although I still have some unpacking to do, I'm mostly settled in.

And let me tell you, the place is nice.  I'm feeling lazy right now, so I have no pictures.  But there's new carpet, nice appliances, a garden tub, crest molding....it's a very nice place.  And on site, there's a volleyball court, tennis courts, a pool....and...a racquetball court.  I've already played on it like 5 times.  I feel like I'm living like a rich man.  Kinda feel bad about it, heh.  But hey, I'm getting much more regular exercise now!

But living alone is weird.  I get pretty lonely quickly.  I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.  It's nice having a place of my own to manage however I want.  But I don't like being alone a lot.  I think I need another month to decide.

Well...I don't think I'm going to post too regularly on here.  I've been getting settled into some good routines in my life, so I don't think there's much blog-worthy very regularly anymore. Get up, make breakfast, make lunch, work, get back, make dinner, be a bum or go to small group.  All good things, but unless this is my journal, I don't want to put up the nitty gritty details of my life here.  But when some bigger things happen, I might come here to write about them.  Here's a list of things I plan on this year:

• Buy a new car
• Build my first new computer
• Go to ACL

...yeah, that's not much.  But, just a forecast of what's to come.  Thanks for reading and being with me for my first seven months in Austin :)

P.S. Also...people I know from Illinois are moving to Austin soon!  YAY!

P.P.S. I just tried some Chicago style deep dish pizza at a restaurant here in Austin.  I now feel like Austin can be home :D

Fun with Friends, Fun with Family

Well, these past two weeks have been really fun.  Let's get to it.

Alcohol and Adults in an Arcade = Absolutely Acceptable in Austin
Man, alliteration is too easy.  Anyway, last Friday, the one before Black Friday, I went with a friend to this place called Pinballz.  Basically, it's an arcade with a lot of pinball machines.  Pinball machines for Sherlock Holmes, X-Files, Frankenstein, Batman, Playboy (yeah, weird, I know)...and some other non pinball games, too.  Normally when I go to arcades with my friends from back home, they're filled with 10-year-olds. And some teenagers. And we're kinda creepy, being the 20-somethings that we are.  But...in Austin...well, look at the title!

That's right.  It's a BYOB arcade.  And on that Friday night, it was filled with buzzed 20-somethings and 30-somethings playing a bunch of arcade games.  We fit right in.  So awesome.  They got cupholders everywhere!  I know where I'm hanging out Friday nights from now on...

Church Camping
The next day, I also went camping with some friends from church.  That was a lot of fun.  Camping is definitely different down here.  For one, there's a burn ban, so that was the first camping experience I had without fire.  Kind of weird, but I enjoyed not being all smokey the next day.  Also, instead of just dense forests, there were less dense forests with a lot of open fields too.  One of those fields was also a dried up lake.  The drought has been pretty intense lately, apparently.


On Wednesday, my friend helped me make my desk at work a standing desk.  We'll see how that works out.

Family Time in San Antonio
...And then my mom came in!

We headed right to San Antonio, where my mom's husband's son and daughter-in-law live. We spent from Wednesday to Saturday there.  Here's a list of some things we did there:

• Watched a lot of TV
• Nothing
• Had Thanksgiving dinner with their family
• Nothing
• Had breakfast made for me by my mom
• Nothing
• Ate a delicious Mexican meal downtown
• Nothing
• Saw the Mexican markets downtown

As you can see, I did a lot of nothing.  By which I mean, I did a lot of sitting on the couch watching TV, being lazy hanging with my mom.  It was kinda nice.

On Saturday, we headed back to Austin.  On the way, we hit Rudy's.  I've not talked about this place before on this blog, but it is great. It's a barbecue place with all kinds of meats.  Sausage, brisket, ribs, etc etc.  And they have creamed corn, and..you know what?  It's so amazing, I really can't describe it.  So, if you ever come to Austin, go to Rudy's.  And don't even think about complaining that you can't eat at a gas station.

Back in Austin
Also, our car stopped to get me some new kitchen supplies for my new apartment.  Then, when we got to Austin, our car stopped at Hey Cupcake!, a trailer with, well, cupcakes.  It's really neat; you can get them with a Whipper Snapper, which means they inject whipped cream into the middle of the cupcake!  Tell me that's not cool, I dare you.  They're freakin' good cupcakes, too.

When we met back at my apartment, the other car apparently went and got me a new flatscreen TV for my new apartment as a Christmas gift.   You know, like you do. So, thanks mom and company :)

After my place, we went to...Master Pancake!

Ok, seriously, if you're reading this and you don't know what Master Pancake is, read my past posts about it or search it.  Because Master Pancake is amazing.

This was to celebrate "Hanksgiving".  It was awesome.  I can't even really describe it...but do you know how many scenes in movies Tom Hanks pees in?!  Everyone knows about Forrestt Gump, "I gotta pee", and then he does.  If you've seen The Green Mile, you know half the movie is about Tom Hanks's character not being able to pee.  In Castaway, remember when he pees into the ocean?  No?  Well, he does.  Then there's this movie called Money Pit, and he pees in a forest in there too.  No more, right? Wrong.

Remember when Rosie O'Donnell actually was getting famous for something other than just being famous?  That thing called acting?  Yeah, A League of Their Own.  The flick about the women's baseball team.  Well, a drunken Tom Hanks stumbles into the women's bathroom and pees for ....you know what?

This explains everything.

Anyway, it was great, hilarious, and I tell you again, if you come to Austin, we need to see one of those shows together.  Trust me. :)

Anyway, we got back, my mom cleaned my entire kitchen (thanks again), and then left the next morning! 

Sorry I was so lazy on this post.  So much happens, it's hard to sum up.  But yeah, that's my last few weeks.  Now, it's going to be some time before I write back here. I gotta move soon, and then I'm going to Chicago for Christmas time.  I'll write more once I get more settled into my new place in January...so, until next year!  Have a Merry Christmas!!

Comic Con Austin 2011

Saturday started off really boring.  Peaceful, nice, but boring.  After getting up at 8am and doing errands and chores, I decided to hunker down and resort to playing video games for the rest of the day. 

But then destiny called.

I got a call from my friend from church, and he asked me if I was still interested in going to Comic Con.  I had decided not to go up to this point in order to save money, because I've dumped so much money on moving costs and the flight home for Christmas.  However, he mentioned that another one of our mutual friends had an...extra ticket. For free.


I instantly realized my fate for that Saturday.  My Cyclops gear, completely untouched from Halloween, was quickly put in order.  We met up, ate some Whataburger (really delicious), fixed up our costumes, and walked to the con. 

As we were walking in, I started feeling self-conscious of my costume.  I knew it wasn't con-quality, and I commented that I'll probably run into a much better looking Cyclops.  Literally, within 10 minutes:

Go figure.

 It was still pretty cool though.  I mean, the fact that I had a costume was awesome.  People kept wanting to take pictures of me and my friend, even though our costumes had absolutely nothing to do with each other.  I felt like a freakin' celebrity!

Speaking of celebrities...you remember the bratty girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?  You know, "I want it now!" Veruca Salt?  Yeah.

We got to meet her!!

I also got to meet Peter Mayhew, the guy who played Chewbacca.  It was really cool talking to him, asking him about his favorite scenes (the Mos Eisley Cantina in episode 4), if he still keeps in touch with all the other actors (yes), and stuff.  Sorry, no pic though!  But trust me...he's huge!!

And then I met one of the lead artists for Star Wars Galaxies and Star Wars: The Old Republic.  And then he signed a REALLY nice print for me.  For free.

That's the Star Destroyer from SWG!!

At this point, I was just geeking out.

Level 85 Geek

Speaking of World of Warcraft references...

A quest giver.

For those of you who never played WoW, people who had quests for you to do had yellow exclamation points above their heads, like above.  I passed her, did a double take, and came back to her.

I asked her, "Do you have a quest for me?"

I expected her to giggle, and say something like, "Yeah, I've been getting that all day.."

Wrong.

She immediately opens her bag, takes out a piece of paper, and hands it to me, very seriously. It's a full on quest, just like the real game.  The quest?

Click to read easier.

I knew the drill. Apparently, so did she.



Also, have you ever played Street Fighter?  If so, you might remember a weird character named Zangief.

Only semi disturbing.

Well, here you go folks.

Actually disturbing.  Click to enlarge for more disturbing.

There was so much more there, but these were definitely the highlights.  I think I'm one of those people...you know...those Con-people. Oh jeez.


Man I wish every weekend was this cool.  Trust me, it's not.  Well, have a good week!




P.S.  Phat lootz. Magnet.

Mom, remember we used to make these?  How come we couldn't make cool ones... :(

Halloween and a new Home

 Hello again on this fine, quiet Sunday morning.  It's slightly rainy, overcast, and about 68 degrees outside.  It's kinda nice, peaceful, serene...

Anyway, I've been really busy just like, doing chores and errands and stuff.  I've been trying not to go out too much either, because I need to cut back on spending.  Hence, my life hasn't been all that exciting.  I guess that's growing up for you.

Halloween was kind of cool though.  I didn't do anything on the actual day of Halloween.  Well, I played tennis, but that's like saying I blew my nose on Christmas.  No one cares.  Anyway, that weekend, some friends from work hosted a costume party!  So, I worked on this costume, and my friend from church helped me out a TON.  So now presenting...

Geordi LaForge!

Just kidding...although that was some people's first guess.  I was Cyclops from the X-men.  See the big X on my jacket?  I got the idea from this video for the visor; click here to check it out.  It wasn't perfect, but it was still pretty cool.  Better than just resorting to red sunglasses, right?


Other than that, I found a place to live finally!  And the place has a racquetball court.  VERY excited about that.  I'm moving in early December, which means I'll be living in two places for a few weeks.  Bummer, but if I really want to go home for Christmas, I'll have to pay double rent for a bit.  Oh well.  I get to move again....yesssssss.

And to end this post, I saw two of these...things.  I call them booze trolleys, but they're really called PubCrawlers.  Look at this:

Drinking and Pedaling is different from Drinking and Driving, apparently.

These things exist in Austin.  Apparently, you can bring your own keg and drink while you pedal through town!  Absolutely crazy.  Check out their site if you're interested, click here.

Have a good week, y'all!

Halloween Imminent

Yes Jacob, apples do taste better in the shower.

 Hey guys!  It's been about two weeks being back in Austin after having gone to Illinois twice.  I can honestly say it's good to be back here without all this traveling. 

Here's some bullet points:

• I got a tetanus shot.  All by myself.  It's like I'm an adult.  I'm so good at fooling people...
• I realized: awful horror movies still scare the crap out of me. Even if they're awfully hilarious. (e.g. The Thing)
• I played this board/card game called Dominion.  If you ever get a chance, play it.  Awesome.
• I'm working on a Halloween costume...hopefully it doesn't fall through!
• I realized this past week that one of the things I'm working on at work is really cool.  But I'm not allowed to tell anyone.  Guys....it's so cool!!
• My mom might be visiting me for Thanksgiving!? What?!

 So yeah.  Let's see.  Oh yeah, I made spinach and tofu pizza!  Here's the recipe.  I thought when they said prepared pizza dough, they meant like, Boboli, or some crap.  Apparently not.  Here's the finished product:

It wasn't really bad, actually.  Probably too much tofu and not enough cheese, though.  Will have to try again!

I also went to another Master Pancake. Guys, these are so good.  This one was on the movie, Halloween.  It was freaking hilarious.  They do great commentary on these things.  Guys, did you know that this movie's setting is in Illinois?!  Yeah, well, watch the movie.  Watch it closely.  Look at the greenery of October.  Look at outdoor lockers of a high school.  Look at the lemon tree.  LOOK AT THE PALM TREES.  Yeah, that's Illinois alright.

(start paraphrasing)

Also, when I was in line (I was wearing my Illini Racquetball shirt), this girl near us was like, "Liek, omg, you're from Illinois?  OMG can we get a picture together?!  My friend goes there and she's gonna flip when I she sees that I met an ill-eye-nee!!!!"

"Haha...uhh..yeah, it's actually Ill-eye-nye."
"Oh, liek ogm ok, well, let's take a picture together, Mr. Ill-eye-nee or Eye-lye-nee or whatever!"
*snap*

(end paraphrasing)

So, yeah!  I'm looking for a new place to live now, as G moves back to Illinois in December, and that's when our lease ends.  Let the hunt begin.  Busy busy busy!  Thanks for reading!

Chicago, Ich liebe Dich

They made Paris, Je t'aime.  They made New York, I Love You.  Now...it's time for Chicago, Ich liebe Dich. Don't you think?

This weekend was awesome.  It was another wedding weekend; my friends Peter and Amanda got married!

I flew in Friday morning, and I just spent great times with great friends that I've missed dearly.  I was reminded of a few things that I had almost forgotten about back home:

• Most of my friends are still way taller than me.
• My friends beat me all the time at video games and board games.
• Chicago pizza is really delicious.
• Chicago weather is still stupid.  Seriously.  Two weeks ago, I show up in a T-shirt and shorts, and it's 50. This weekend, I show up in jeans and a long-sleeve, and it's 80.  Thanks Chicago.

But yeah, I got to spend a ton of good quality time with a ton of great people.  Played video games, board games, drank some wine, ate Giordano's deep-dish pizza, ate an apple in the shower, went to church with friends, gave some head rubs, made breakfast, and...did I mention Peter and Amanda got married?!  It was super cute.  It's so weird to see my friends getting married now, but I'm also really happy for them.  :D :D :D

Wow.  I just loved this weekend.  I just kinda want to gush about my friends, and how welcome I felt, and how much we all just....were together.  It felt so right.  I felt like...like I was in love.  I can't express how much those kids mean to me.

Alright, well, I just wanted to share that with you.  I could go into details, but you probably don't want to hear about the nitty gritty details.  I gotta focus on my life back here in Austin.  Because, like 2 weeks ago, I'm realizing more and more that Illinois really isn't my home anymore.  Gotta keep moving.  Gotta keep arbitrating!

 So, in the next few weeks, I've got some things I gotta do.  Like officially become a Texas resident.  And get my eyes checked.  And my teeth.  And maybe the rest of my body.  And get a Halloween costume.  We'll see.  Maybe they'll be some interesting stories.


P.S.  Yeah, I danced again.  It was awesome.
P.P.S. Did you know that the guy who's credited for inventing Chicago-style pizza was from Texas?!  He went to school at the University of Texas here in Austin!!!!
P.P.P.S. That Home Slice Pizza place here in Austin is alright.  It tastes good.  But it's still not Chicago-style pizza.