everything will be alright

Keep meaning to do this but keep getting side tracked, so in the interest of time here's a little update by way of bullet points beneath the cut.

( Stuff! )

I haven't been updating this as much as I should, but will try to cover everything that's been going on lately, with convenient LJ cuts and everything. :)

( On Work )

( On Writing )

( On Hockey )

( On Reading )

( On Movies )

( On Gaming )

( Misc. )

Big Brother is in full swing now, which has been pretty much the only tv show we watch regularly now, aside from the ever present Storage Wars / Love It or List It / Pawn Stars etc. that's almost always on otherwise. It's been entertaining this year, better than last year, and it's nice to actually have someone here watching it with me instead of just texting my sister about it. We still do text and e-mail, of course, but sharing it with my wife makes it much better. :)

Other than that, I've mainly entertained myself by reading and messing about with various mini games, namely Marvel Avengers Alliance on Facebook and The Simpsons: Tapped Out on the iPad. There's also been some MMO playing again, with the Guild Wars 2 headstart having gone live as of Saturday. That's been pretty fun, especially because I picked up a couple of novels set in the Guild Wars universe that's gone a long way towards familiarizing myself with the lore of the game. When I played the beta ages ago I felt a little overwhelmed and lost in the game, both with its setting and its lore being so unfamiliar to me, but having just about read one of those books when I started playing on Saturday it was way more familiar to me which helped a ton. I still need to find a strategy guide or something for it as I still have a lot of questions about the mechanics of the game but that'll come in time; the game has a Wiki but it's down right now, and an online "manual" which is a bunch of videos, so I need something more than that.

I finally watched The Hunger Games last night too, having picked it up on Blu-Ray when it came out last week. Thankfully watching it at home didn't make me sick unlike the IMAX experience where I had to leave and ask for a refund. I enjoyed it, though I hope I didn't bug Sara too much with my "it's different in the book..." and "instead of that, in the book..." comments throughout. XD

Last night while watching the Oscars I was thinking about movie watching in general, and my lack of it lately. I think this year's Oscars was the worst ever for me in terms of having seen nominated movies - Moneyball was the only one of the nine Best Picture nominations I'd seen and I think the last Harry Potter movie was up for a technical Oscar or something, but other than that I hadn't seen any of them, I don't think. The whole Oscars in general got me thinking back to the Oscar pool Yahoo used to host and how we'd always do them each year in Law School, having a viewing party at Jillian's place, it was always a good time. Back then I would have seen most if not all of the big pictures, but things have certainly changed.

These days I hardly watch movies at all, it seems. Even my formally frequent forays to the theatre are more and more infrequent lately. I still pick up the odd Blu-Ray or DVD (being a video snob nonetheless I go with the former when I can, but still don't mind DVDs for TV shows) but you should see the stack next to my TV alone, ugh. I've been better lately, as part of my global media initiative to consume what I have before buying more, but even with that working well for books, CDs, TV shows, and video games, it's not really working with movies. I just don't watch them.

A big part of it is this: for some reason, I'm always telling myself I need to do more. I need to be mutlitasking. Why sit back and watch a movie when I can put on a hockey game (which, thanks to the NHL Network, there's virtually always a game on every night), listen to music, all while either writing on the computer, chatting with people, or playing a PC game? I can do 3-4 things at once instead of just one, so the choice is obvious, right? I've broken through that line of thinking somewhat with reading, as every now and then I'll just read instead of doing a bunch of things, but that's reverted back to being a bedtime thing; that's how I wind down at night, unplug myself and read for awhile before sleeping. I haven't sat down and read just because I could since, oh, a few weeks ago when I powered through the first Hunger Games book, which ironically enough I did in anticipation of the movie, heh.

Does anyone else feel this way sometimes? Like you have to be doing all that you can in your free time or else it's a waste of time, that you're not maximizing your potential? I'm wondering how much of it is influenced by the world we live in today, where you can always be plugged in thanks to cell phones, tablets, wifi, 3G, etc., and how much of it is my own way of thinking. It's a question that comes to mind all the time lately, about whether I'm doing enough or if I should be doing more, or am I doing too much as it is? Just food for thought, I guess, which came to mind last night and I figured I'd throw out here just to see if anyone else has ever pondered the same thing.

Hope everybody had a good weekend! Mine wasn't that bad at all, despite not really doing what I would've liked to have done. It being my first full weekend at home since returning from the US, I have a lot of books, movies, tv shows, etc. that I was just planning to immerse myself in but instead I had other obligations to fulfill.

Friday night was nice and relaxed. I think I had a brief nap after work and then started in on watching season one of Flashpoint. I picked up seasons one and two in the city last Wednesday and I'm pretty excited about it, and have been really enjoying the episodes I've seen so far. After that I puttered around a bit, putting in some time on SWTOR, and then I did my first bit of raiding in LOTRO in awhile. I finally got to see the new raid, and more than just see it, we did what I think is all four of its wings (albeit on tier 1, the easiest level of difficulty) in one go, in just over two hours. That was nice, even though we had to stop and couldn't do the final boss that evening. Still, I hadn't even set foot inside it before then so that was pretty awesome, getting to see almost all of it like that. Of course winning is nice too, so doing all of those bosses without any wipes (except for one non-boss pull that got us twice, hehe) was nice. The only downer to the night was me making an announcement that I'll no longer be looking after the kin's SKL, which is how we keep track of loot, because I just can't be around all week. Somehow a new schedule got set for raids (still no answer on how/when that came down, but it's set now anyway) and I won't be able to keep up with it, so that's all you can do. I'll still be around when I can, mainly on the weekends, but we'll see how that goes. Regardless, Friday night was a nice time and I even got in bed at a decent hour, around 2am, though Kristen Bell was on Craig Ferguson so I had to watch that haha.

Saturday was the day I wanted to stay home and absorb all the new things, but instead I had a party to attend. Which, well, I knew I'd have fun, and I did, but I was a little reluctant to head in for it. Maybe that makes me a bad sibling, because the party was a birthday get together at my sister's place for her and our friends Jackie and Chris, since all three of them have their birthdays within 4-5 days of each other. I slept in pretty late, because even though I had a decent-ish bedtime I was pretty tired from my first week back to work post-vacation. When I did get up, I pretty much showered and got ready to hit the road asap, getting into the city before dark. I went to my sister's first to drop off some things Mom had sent in for her, then I went to the comic book shop where I picked up the Schism trade, a D&D supplement (I have plans!), and some dice. Next was supper at Quiznos, mmm, toasted subs, and then a quick pop into Chapters where I only walked out with a new magazine (PC Gamer that covers Diablo III, SWTOR, and Skyrim ftw) and a Starbucks coffee. I went to J&A's place then where we hung out for a few hours before going to my sister's place. It was a great little party, so many people showed up, and I picked up a little flask (375ml) of scotch that I polished off over the entire night, haha, complete with a large can of this yummy German beer. I haven't drank that much in a long time and thankfully somehow I avoided a hangover, though I was pretty drunk. Those of you who follow me on Twitter could probably tell that. XD I went home with J&A because the stupid parking ban is in place now and I can't really park at my sister's place (not without a lot of fancy maneuvering but it's too much of a hassle and really only works with two smaller cars and my Sorento's too big I think) so I left the car at J&A's, since they have a double driveway with room for more cars on the side, and A was driving anyway since he was feeling under the weather. We were home by 1:30 or so, so another earlyish night out, and I slept like a champ until 10:30 or so. I was afraid I'd have a horrible hangover so I did have something to eat and a lot of water before passing out and it appears to have done the trick. \o/

Sunday was nice and quiet. I woke up and hung out with J&A some more, having lunch with them before stopping by my sister's place around 1pm or so. She was up and about and cleaning up from the night before, and apparently everyone else at the party had stayed until 3am. A good time was had by all and she said the landlords upstairs got home at around 3:30 and mercifully they were only stomping around for 10-15 minutes before sleeping themselves so Jen got a decent night's rest. I hung out with her for an hour or so before heading back out home. I got back around 3pm and spent 30-45m at the office, sending out a quick letter before I went home since I knew I wouldn't want to come back over once I was home, hehe. Then it was a lovely evening at home by myself, which is what I'd planned for Saturday, but I still had a fantastic time so it's all good. I had a little nap, then a nice supper, followed by a relaxing shower and then a good shave with my new straight edge razor and oh my. It is so choice, if I may borrow a line from Ferris Bueller. If you have the means I highly recommend it. And I didn't even cut myself this time, woo! I think I need to sharpen it though, as there was some tugging and such, but it shaves so nicely and is just a relaxing process, I dunno. I'm so glad I gave it a shot, it's an investment I'm happy that I made. Plus I shaved with it last Sunday and yesterday when I shaved again, the first time since last Sunday, it felt like I only had 2-3 days' worth of stubble, so it cuts way better than an electric razor. Plus it makes me feel all grown up and manly, haha. I wonder when I'm shaving with it if this is how Hemingway felt all the time or something. Shh, yes, I'm weird.

On the writing front, I have a lot of plans but need to sit down and actually write. Last night I meant to but then pre-shave I put on last week's Sherlock episode and then post-shave I watched some more Flashpoint. I keep seeing all these big bangs being advertised, as I joined a channel that pimps them here, and I keep wanting to sign up for them ALL, haha, but I can't. I did sign up for one (an SPN crossover one), and have another ambitious fic plot started that may or may not fall under one of the other big bang categories, so that's more than enough for now. It's exciting, though, gotta say, I'm enjoying what I've done with it so far and hopefully there'll be much more writing done as a result of it all. :D

Lastly, in general as well, I've been listening to Watch the Throne and really, really liking it. Which is so weird because normally the only rap I listen to is the Beastie Boys. I got turned onto it from another rap album, by Childish Gambino which is Donald Glover's rap name. I love him from Community and follow him on Twitter so when he put this album out I gave it a listen and loved it. He makes lots of references in the songs to many things, as most rappers are wont to do, and it lead to me checking out the Kanye/Jay-Z album and voila. Weird, I know, but hey, I'm proud of my wide spectrum of musical tastes. :)

And today I'm back to work. The boss is away until next week and I've no court at all, so it's a nice, quiet week, or so I hope. Next week and most of the week after will be crazy busy so this week is for prep work and such, so I'm enjoying the quiet while I can. Hope everyone else has a good week!

It's been an interesting week or so. NaNo has been chugging along, with me being very slow after getting the daily quota on day one (I started at midnight, November 1st, as is my custom) but catching up to the quota yesterday after writing all day. Movember is moving along too, and it's neat to know that the bailiffs at the court house are doing it too so I won't feel as goofy when I appear in court. Or, well, no more goofier than normal. :D

LOTRO has been ok, I suppose, as I put in more effort over the weekend at it and made some headway with new gear and such. Oh, and even though our kin did it before when I wasn't around, I managed to take part in a successful completion of the new raid which... mreh. Really not impressed with it, it's actually very long and pretty boring, at least for my class. Maybe for others it's better, I don't know, but it was a little disappointing. Lots of loot though, which was nice, I think there's like four chests in there, plus some new crafting items needed to make a kick-ass cloak that everyone wants. It's alright, I guess, but it's not the same lately.

I've been keeping up with the reading too, finishing Rise of the Governor yesterday afternoon which was pretty good. And musicwise I'm still really, really digging Foster The People and their debut album, it's become somewhat of a daily ritual for me, to listen to it at least once, usually several times. Between that and getting hooked to the new Rihanna single (I heard it through a YouTube clip and it stuck) I'm wondering how I've managed to expand my musical horizons into more techno-y/electronic frontiers, but I guess I started leaning that way awhile back when I think about it.

So, long time no post! I've been insanely busy with work lately, and then I come home and bury myself in something else to forget about it. Last week LOTRO put out its latest expansion, upping the level cap from 65 to 75, so you can guess what my latest time sink has been, heh. Well. Same old time sink, I suppose, just in a different light. Now instead of just raiding on the weekends I'm leveling up most week nights. I did take most of Saturday and Sunday off, though, after a very frustrating Friday night, but I've been working on it again lately. I'm still amazed at how past some people are burning through it, though; I saw people in the game hitting 75 the effing day after it came out, just, why? And people in kin are flying too, we have 4-5 75s now, and have for awhile. To each their own, I guess.

In the new music category, so many good new things lately. Namely the latest Jim Cuddy album, Skyscraper Soul, and the newest Wilco album, The Whole Love, both of which I've already given several listens and both of which I am fond. I've also been playing the accordion a little, haha, mainly because of a traditional song I downloaded on .mp3 back in my law school days (when I lived away from home and was nostalgic) that comes on after the Jim Cuddy album on iTunes. I heard it the other day and realized it was in the key of G, which my folks' accordions can play, and I picked one up and messed around with it until I figured it out, hehe. Need to transcribe it, as it were, for Mom since she asked. All their songs are in simple notation, not sheet music, i.e. there's a row of buttons for each key and the songs they play are written out with button numbers, with a stroke over the number if it's a pull out note instead of a push in, hehe. So that was kinda neat. :)

What else... hockey starts soon, which reminds me, once again I've failed to call my buddy Marc about that, whoops. I'm guessing we'll pick our teams either tomorrow or Wednesday night before the season starts, though due to people being away and/or busy we've picked teams after the season has started in the past, it's just not preferable. We'll see, and I also need to talk to him about potentially visiting him this weekend, if I still wanna do that, I dunno. On the fence but leaning towards going, I think.

I'm also reading a lot more again, thanks to some various books I've dug out of the "oh hey I forgot I had that!" pile, haha. XD Mainly a Christopher Hitchens one I started months ago, and an Elminster book I should finish since I've already gone and bought the next one in the series on hardcover for some reason. ^_^;; I'm horrible like that, I know, I know.

I also finished a Resident Evil marathon of sorts tonight, though I suppose since I started on Saturday night it's not really a marathon, haha. XD I watched the first two movies Saturday night, then the third on Netflix last night, and tonight the latest on Blu Ray. I bought it in the US ages ago when it first came out but kept meaning to watch the first ones before seeing it, and finally broke down and did just that this weekend. I meant to awhile ago but couldn't remember if I owned the third one and couldn't find it if so, but finally realized it's on Netflix so that solved that. I'm watching season 6 of How I Met Your Mother too which is awesome.

Speaking of tv, I also finished Supernatural season 6 and have started watching season 7 now, and am attempting to watch many tv shows this year: The New Girl, Survivor, Supernatural, The Ringer, Community, and Archer to name a few. There may be others that I'm forgetting, but yes, am trying to get back into the swing of things.

Alright, off to bed for me now, trying to get back to a better bedtime since it's been helping with work when I do, so it's something I should keep up, yes? :)

Just need to get through this week and then it's vacation time. Only a brief one, just over a week, but still. This week is mercifully shorter than usual, too, since Friday is Good Friday, though I won't be leaving to fly out until Saturday afternoon, getting into Philly late on Saturday night. That's a bit of a bummer, as I usually fly in the wee small hours of the morning and get there in the afternoon, but that's all you can do when that's all that's available. Likewise for flying on Saturday instead of Friday; Friday had nothing available for flying on points, and to buy a ticket would've been insanely expensive, since it's a holiday and the airlines don't let you forget that they know it is, heh.

Been listening to a lot of music lately, which is pretty cool. In the last few weeks I've been grooving to new albums by The Strokes, Jeff Martin, Elbow, Foo Fighters, Paul Simon, and TV On The Radio, not to mention dipping into some Muse that I've never checked out before but am loving - namely Absolution and Black Holes and Revelations. Will definitely be checking out more of their stuff, love it. And of the new material, all of it is great. The Paul Simon album is classic Simon, to me anyway, from his There Goes Rhymin' Simon era, The Strokes is rocking, all of it is awesome, I'm very very happy and musically satisfied. :D

I've also been reading more, finishing off two Star Wars books, Fatal Alliance and Deceived, both of which were good. I've now moved on to the George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, thanks to friends' recommendations and the new tv series, which I'm liking so far but am only a few chapters into at the moment.

Also, coming up I'll be traveling to be with my wife for a little over a week, which is totally awesome and I cannot wait omg. Really need the break, and it's been far too long since we've been together, so that should be awesome. :) I'm leaving on Saturday and will be back on late Monday night, May 2nd, so if you don't hear much from me during that time you'll know where I am. :)

What, me, counting down until I leave? Preposterous. >.>

It crossed my mind earlier today (though who am I kidding, I totally am counting down) when a client brought in papers recently served on them with a court date during the dates I'm away. Of course it'll have to be moved, since I wasn't advised ahead of time, and I've e-mailed everyone involved to do so asap, so it'll be ok, but it has me thinking about and anticipating the trip once again. Work has been so busy lately, even if the court time has tailed off as of late, so I really do need this break.

Not much else to report, really. Saw Sucker Punch over the weekend and even though I know it was a bad movie I still enjoyed parts of it. Hoping to see Paul tomorrow night with friends as I'll be in the city for work the next morning. Also want to get back into writing some more, thanks in no small part to rereading some of my older projects, but still haven't done so.

Oh, and started reading yet another series of books, as if I didn't need to start yet another book, based on the Star Wars universe and in line with their upcoming MMO set in the Old Republic. I'm really liking the one I'm reading now though, which is good, so that's something I guess.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. :)

Waiting at the airport in Philly for our plane to arrive from Norfolk. We were supposed to have boarded an hour ago so running pretty late, but thankfully (now anyway) I had a 5+ hour layover in Toronto so I thankfully am not in a hurry, unlke a little over two weeks ago. *grumbles about missed connections to Cleveland* They just announced that we're a full flight and that there's people waiting on standby too, thankfully I have an assigned seat so I should be ok. It's 5A too, wonder if that'll be first class on this ickle jet? HmmMMmm.

Had an amazing time, as always. Love my time with believeitup and onlyonechoice (feat. samzimmerman & some crazy cats). I missed my little buddy Simon and was glad to get to know Ms. Kensi Kensington the Third, Esquire (aka Kensi, which is her real name, I am just ridiculous sometimes), who I think warmed up to mesa the trip went on. I owe everyone a great big write up, which maybe I'll do in Toronto, depending on when I get there I suppose. Suffice it to say it was a blast and I miss my wife and everyone dearly already, and can't wait for my next visit.

Not much else to say at the moment. I am in full on travel mode and focusing on that rather than missing my wife, and enjoying the seat I finally found - I was seated on the cold hard floor there for a bit - and may read a bit more. Sort of inspired to write a bit, I meant to during the days / evenings Sara worked this week but never did. Instead I just slept / watched tv / spent incredible amounts of money, take your pick. Some days all three. XD

Alright, reading it is then, I think. Got so many books on this trip, and may have just enough time to finish the Coffee with Hemingway book this darling girl got me for Chrismas before our flight boards. Hope everyone else is having a nice weekend! :)