test post after the upgrade

oh heck, the first decade of the 21st century. Whatever it’s called.

Scary to think I’ve been out of college for 10 years! Somewhere along the way I went from being the newbie at work to knowing what the hell I was talking about. This year itself was the completion of a huge multi-year project for me. Then I go and leave the group less than a month after launch! They had some challenges post-launch and my lesson learned was I should have stuck around for at least 3-4 months. Oh well, you learn! The new job is overwhelming but just before the holiday break I began to feel like I knew what I was talking about and understood the people, processes, and technology.

This year my activity in my hobbies dwindled. I could say it’s because my work consumed a lot of my time, but in fact I think that’s coincidence. I’ve also wondered if it’s shifting gears in preparation for becoming a parent, or to put it less positively, getting frustrated/depressed about waiting so long to be picked and thus just shutting down and hibernating until then. I want to get back into my hobbies, but it’s like there’s a momentum to just do nothing and zone out with a book or the tv I have to overcome.   Still, I’m trying to get a new roleplaying campaign started (though I think that I enjoy the worldbuilding part of creating adventures and writing stories more than the actual creation of the story sometimes!).  Hopefully rock climbing can get a fresh start next year and we’ll get back into our rhythm. And I did manage to keep up regular board/card game playing, not to mention the amazing  BoardGameGeek.con convention with thousands of games and hundreds of players! The plus side is I did indulge myself a bit this year, and just did what I wanted when I wanted. I read a lot, watched TV, and just enjoyed life.

While I’ve been lax about volunteering for a few years now, I was proud of steps I took this year to be more charitable and green. I set a goal of donating a fixed amount each month to a different charity and stuck to it. We’re going to step up our amount this year. This way I get to help the many different causes I care about. And if I’m not giving my time I can at least give some dollars to help out. We switched to green energy, our co-op now purchases wind energy and resells it to us. I completely switched over to organic gardening (hopefully after the first year it will look better, I’ve heard that’s the case!), and most of our cleaning products are now fairly green from Method or Seventh Generation. A modest portion of our diet is organic, or at least natural and made from fresh foods (thanks to Ian’s delicious cooking!).

It was a good year to enjoy time with friends and family, which is what’s important in the end. I never spend as much time with family as I intend to, but I loved watching all 7 nephews grow up and learn about the world around them! A two week trip with our best friends Chris & James to Australia was a wonderful experience, and we made it on standby! Though we don’t fly as often as I’d like with my benefits, it’s trips like that where we save a bundle and let us experience places we probably otherwise wouldn’t be able to (or not nearly as many) that I appreciate them.

I love the traditions Ian and I have established with our friends and family throughout the year: from the beautiful Dallas Arboretum in the spring when it’s covered in flowering bulb plants, to Fort Worth’s Main Street Arts Festival (where we’ve found some great reasonably priced art for the house!), to tubing trips down the Comal, wine tasting parties in the fall, camping trips to Oklahoma, holidays with the families, and a great New Years Eve party (that we don’t even have to host!), there’s always something to look forward to.

We’re all growing up. Friends had babies and I went to multiple weddings. Time can fly by so fast. Enjoy what you’ve got while you’ve got it! Here’s to a great 2010 and hopefully a very positive new decade full of potential for everyone. At least we have a name for it…the teens!

I’ve been slogging through a bunch of forgettable science fiction and fantasy of late. However, I just finished Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and I have to say, my reading bug has been satiated! The book isn’t groundbreaking really in any way, just a fun, fast paced fantasy adventure. It’s full of interesting characters you identify with and root for, and plot twists and turns that keep you wondering what’s going to happen next. The magic system is very novel and well thought out. A good twist at the end had me tearing through the final pages, and I’m dying to get the second book in the trilogy now! While it does have some of the fantasy cliches in it, most are told in a fresh take that helps this book stand out from the crowd.

Here they are!

1. Cecchi Chianti Classico 2007
2. Big House Red 2007
3. Maui Splash Passion Fruit
4. Nivola Michele Chiaralo Moscato (Ann – 2nd place)
5. Turnbull Sauvignon Blanc 2006
6. Jacob’s Creek Reserve Shiraz 2005
7. White Track Sauvignon Blanc 2007
8. The Stump Jump Shiraz 2008
9. Pillar Box Red 2007
10. Firestone Sauvignon Blanc 2007
11. 14 Hands Merlot 2007 (Chris – 1st place!)
12. Keyways Krystal Ice Wine 2006
13. Wrongo Dongo 2007
14. Root 1 Cabernet Sauvignon 2008
15. Robert Craig Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 (Scott – 3rd place)
16. Layer Cake Shiraz 2008
17. Rosso di Montalcino Banfi 2007

Every year after Christmas Ian and I hit Target to get Christmas decorations on sale, and stock up on cheap holiday cards & wrapping for next year. If you know me you know I have a Martha streak and love to give gifts that are wrapped in pretty paper & ribbons. Over the years I’d end up with a few extra cards, some bags, a spool of ribbon, etc. So this last year I didn’t buy anything afterwards and instead I’m using stuff from previous years. So far it looks like I can probably even go another year without buying anything! I still want to bring on holiday cheer and see people’s faces light up when they get a festively wrapped gift, but I need to work harder on using greener reused/recycled/recyclable materials. Still, I feel like this is one small step towards that goal.

So yes, if you get a card from us you’ve seen before, or the wrapping looks familiar, just smile and don’t say anything!

I went to my first convention this weekend dedicated purely to tabletop gaming – board & card games, not RPGs. It was a blast! I haven’t allowed myself to geek out like that in a long time! I went with my friend Vic and metup with a few of his friends from out of town, and also caught up with Gabby & Heidi (whose wedding I just went to a couple of weeks ago). Together we churned through a good handful of new games. It was just so cool walking around seeing dozens (hundreds!) of games I’d never even heard of before. Everyone was very open to new players joining, and more than glad to teach someone how to play. There’s a library of games you can check out, and there are hundreds of games there! And, they’re all owned by one person!

Here’s a short breakdown of the new games I played:

• Castle Panic – Fast, fun medieval themed game of attack the monsters before they destroy your castle. Co-op and competitive together, which is rare. Simple and easy to learn. And, I was taught it by the game designer, a friend of my friend Gabby. How cool is that? People constantly walked up and asked him to sign their game boxes – a minor geek celebrity!
• Polizei-Alarm! – This is hysterical. Very short simple game. One person is a robber who is cracking safes by rolling dice and matching numbers on a card, the other is a cop. You drive through the neighborhood to find the thief by shifting a game board around over a magnet, with a magnetic police car on the board. Have to see it to understand.
• Acquire – As a grid of squares gets built randomly you build corporations and buy stock hoping to be acquired and get a payout. Surprised this isn’t played more widely in the US, it’s very mainstream and accessible.
• Ubongo – Small hex grids in random shapes have to be filled with tetris-like jigsaw puzzle pieces. First person to finish their shape wins. Quick fun game that makes you visualize how the puzzle pieces fit together. Fun but it hurt my head after a while!
• Galaxy Trucker – Probably my favorite from the con. At its heart is a zany tile grab where you have to match tile edges to build a spaceship with lasers, rockets, cargo holds and alien life support. You then compete to deliver cargo while avoiding meteors and space pirates! A lot of fun, and plays fairly quickly.
• Ra – Egyptian themed bidding game based on tiles which represent your society during an epoch.
• Through the Desert – You lay down your camel riders on a desert map to claim oasis and water holes for points. Strategy is in blocking off other players access and claiming your own space. I’m spoiled though as we played on a giant custom version that filled a table!
• DungeonQuest – Don’t let the Talisman-like cover and Games Workshop brand fool you. This dungeon crawl is insanely hard to beat and the combat system is completely random. Won’t play this again.
• Kapitan Wackelpudding – You push your boat around the ocean stacking it with goods (small wooden tokens of various shapes), trying not to knock anything off. Simple and a lot of fun, in the vein of Jenga.
• Railways of the World – Rail line building (a la Ticket to Ride) but also resource delivery. Well done. A big game that takes a while, but enjoyable. The rail theme never really grabs me as much as a fantasy theme but I’d play it again
• Iron Dragon – Very similar structure to the above game, but with a fantasy theme. So, you’d think that means I’d play it more. Not really. Way too large scale and complex. You’re constantly looking up where to obtain resources, where the cities are located. I’d pass on this one next time.

I’ve been loving my Palm Pre since I got it. The webOS is very slick. A few bells & whistles missing that will hopefully come soon. The app store is woefully lacking compared to others (i.e. iPhone). Palm says they’re taking their time to do it right…well they better hurry up or they’ll have a missed opportunity. People love the phone but without a variety of software it won’t stay a huge hit. More phones sold mean more software being built, meaning more phones sold. It’s a chicken and the egg problem right now, I understand. But it’s not like there isn’t interest, they just seem to be slow approving apps. The good thing is they’re not like Apple and are anti-’unlocking’ your phone.  PreCentral.net has a great setup to unlock it in ‘dev’ mode and start installing apps from their store (that has 3 times as many apps and is growing daily!). The process went smoothly for me. I highly recommend doing so if you’ve got a Pre.

We decided to place ads for our adoptive parent profile, or birthmother letter website. In case you don’t have it yet, it’s http://www.ianandbobby.com/. The ads are up on http://www.adoptionopen.com/ and http://www.adoptingababy.org. Otherwise we’re still on the lookout, so keep your eyes and ears open for us! FYI if you haven’t had me push any upon you yet, we’ve got small business cards with our info on them. They’re easy to distribute. You can put them up on bulletin boards, keep a few in a purse or wallet, etc. If you would like some let me know! Finally, feel free to do as I’ve done here and put up links to our site and to these profile sites in any blog posts, etc. In case you weren’t aware, the more links to a site the higher it’s ranking in search results (potentially).

Yeah, I know, it’s Microsoft we’re talking about. And the real thing if it ever appears will never be as slick as this video. Still, it’s neat to see somebody even proposing that this could be normal in the near future.

http://www.offworld.com/2009/06/e309-the-7-things-you-need-to.html

I’m a bit late to many things. I never joined MMORPGs, and even my hubbie says I’m a bit inept at home PC maintenance (I usually just throw up my hands and walk away!). I dabbled in social networks for a while and gave up. Now I’m back on facebook quite regularly. I guess I see the benefit, a quick, easy review of my friends and family’s status (I chat more with my sister on facebook now than any other medium!). Still, the web techhead in me cringes at the idea of getting married to a particular platform that’s not an open standard. We’ll have to see where all this goes.