Returning Networkers

Got to see Jen and Emmy today:) Some of the more local networkers are returning home for break, which means I get to see a few friendly faces :3 Jen was as happy as she always seems to be and glad to be amonst family. SHe is also trying to match my excitment levels at the idea of Maureen coming to town, so it was nice to share in the excitment of that.

Emmy was here at church too, showing her boyfirend around the building. She seemed glad to be back and we got to talk a little bit. Her boyfirend seems nice, if a little shy. He's been to japan I belive, but I keep getting confused on details, I might be wrong. I do know he's involved in the same orginzation as Emmy which is nice :)

To all you networkers out there: WELCOME HOME :)

Narnia at KCS

What a day.

THe plan was to show up at the school at 8:00 to help watch the front desk while the kids went to go see the new Narnia movie.

THat was the plan.

Turns out my trunk was ajar the whole night and I had no battery power. Having been reminded about my car's roadside asstance warranty, I called Hyundai and got informed that a tow would be avaibel in an hour :p Terribly upset, but unable to blame anyone but myself; I just sat there and waited.

After an hour and a half, I got an call from a Hyundai rep asking me how the tow went. I told her the tow had'nt happened so the rep called the Two company....who cancled the tow. I've had issues with towing companys, but I've never had one decide that they are'nt gonna tow me after all. THey tried to set me up with another tow, but by then my sister had come home with jumper cables. (much thanks to a wonderful sister)

All that drama aside, I found myself showing up at the school quite a bit later than expected. I then proceeded to handle th office for a couple hours until the students and staff returned. 1st and 2nd grade and the preK-preschool department did'nt go see the movie, so I had plenty to do.

THat's when the gifts started arriving..as it was the last day of school I suppose that's normal. I always figured that a few presents were exchanged at christmas, but I had no idea how different it was for a private school. It was nuts I'm talking parent's popping up everywhere trying to find the next teacher or staff person on thier list. As the new teacher and a part time one, I got off lite with only a few gifts that had a lot of heart behind them....but our poor secretary needed a handcart.

My theory is that this is a side-effect of the Christmas attitude the school carries with it. I've never seen a group of people more excited about christmas. The whole school is so jazzed, you would think Jesus himself was about to walk trough the door. (which would totally kitt arse, btw). I think this is a good attitude to have, but is so complete that even my church does'nt seem as excited about christmas as these people. I find that even myself is looking foward to christmas more than usual...It's infectious.

The reviews of the peopel who saw narnia was intresting as well. The girls loved it, the boys tought it did'nt have enough gore. (They actually said gore...not just blood, they wanted internal organs...ewwww)THe parent's, of course, felt that the battle scene was too violent.

The talk about the need for gore with the boys revealed something: Half of them own Grand Theft Auto 3. FOr thsoe who have'nt expiernced it, this was the most contversial game ever when it came out, designed solely for schock value. It seems many of the kids play games in their room and their parent's have'nt a clue as to the content.

Just how bad is GTA3? Let me put it this way, you recharge your health by sleeping with prositutes, but you can't always get the money back...you jsut have to beat the prositute to death with your bare hands..or with a crowbar.

THis is a private christian school....how can we shape these kids when they have stuff like this? It sends a contrdictory message.

Well there you go, a praise and a rant. It was defintly a good day though and I'm very happy.

good site for rating video games: http://www.familymediaguide.com/features/EditorsPicks/ViolenceUnderTheTree.html

Happy B-DAy Moe!

Happy Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to you

Hapy Birth maureen

WE all really miss you!

It Maureen's B-day today :) While I forgot the date (oops!), I still got some good time, hanging out with her. She;s promised me a really big hug, so i have yet another reason to be happy about the 30th.

All fuzziness aside, I'm looking to get networkers together 1 day in the first week of Janurary...If I have'nt been able to contact you, drop me a line!

Fog

Woot! Fog Season!

Fog is the only significant weather in the central Valley. Ironic, given that the attetion it receives is usually negative, but is beautiful nevertheless.

If you're not local, I want to imagine a fog so fast and so think that it rolls over buildings and cars like Sea tides breaking against the shore. I want you to imagine standing in a parking lot and not being able to see any of the buildings in it. Everything is both a mystery and surprise when you walk trough it.

Such a Beautiful thing has it's downsides though....I was well reminded of that as I drove trough the freeway this morning at 65 Mph with less then 10 feet of visibility :P
Usually there is at least one major fog-related pile-up each year on the 41 freeway, with anywhere form 20 to (one time) 96 vehicles involved. Still, that's a far better statistic than Florida or any of the snow states.

I'm gonna drag out my camera and see if I can get some good pics this season :)

Other Stuff:

Met a urban missionary from LA who was visiting the school. Turned out he was a fellow swordfighter :)

Posted my Project on some RMXP boards. The project got a lot of helpful comments and a lot of criticism :P I'm reworking a lot of the details and trying to figure out if I can fix the plot. I'm also still on a crusade to find Alpha testers, so drop me a line if you're bored. I'm mainly looking for an opinion on the plot/cutscenes :)

GETTYSBURG the movie CAME OUR ON DVD :) !!!! WOOT !!!

I watched it twice already :)

Narnia came out, but I haven't seen it :(

other than that, I'm in a total ADD mood :)

Project Priest

Just an Info update on Project: Priest

*The game now has an official name: Steel Priest: Unbreakable Faith

*I finished the Introduction and half of Chapter 1

* You can now Fish using a bow and arrow, is that sweet or what?

*totally rewired the combat system..Which is something only fellow programmers care about :P

The main issue is one of experience. After having gotten this far I have been faced with a difficult Desicion. Completely scrap my progress and redesign the game from the ground up to create a better game, or toss everything out the window and create a better game from the ground up.

It's a tough choice so I'm letting people review the game so far and give me their opinions. I'm being careful with this descions as I'd had to lose two months worth of work, but with the average game taking 1-3 years to make I want to be certain I do my best.

Chapel

I called in sick to work (again) in order to attend the school's chapel service. It was a moderately lengthed sermon for the kids and a lot of singing and acting silly. I met a man who was a missonary to Los Angles inner-city and we got along well. I also foudn out he was a fellow swordfighter (fencing specialist:P) and we chatted about that for a while. It is strange, in fresno there is not a lot of christian swordfighters, but I get the feeling that this is the exception to the rule, not the rule itself.

The kids had a blast and are in full christmas mode now. Some of the after school kids are even making Advent Wreaths :)

Oh yeah, spread the word to any parents who are worried about what to get thier kids viedo game-wise. Avoid these!
10 most Violent Games of 2005

Christmas tree lane :)

(I have got to post more reguallry)

Tonight was the WHite Elephant gift excahnge and walk down Christmas tree lane :)
All the college students first got together and hung out at Patsy Cooper's place, where I got to see Ryan and KK and some of my other friends I have'nt seen in a while. I'll pos pics when I can, but until then here's my list of Favorite memories:

* The Norman's boys literally steaming pants

* Wearing a huge set of antlers(with deer ears) and my black raincoat....Scott Jett said I looked like somoen from ComicCon

*The following comments were uttered as we walked Christmas treee lane:
- "Nice Antlers!"
- "Nice Rack" ( :P )
- "Mom! Look! It's rudolf!"
- "It's the Black Reindeer!" (guess who siad that one )

I also got 2 laughs, a compliment from santa, and I totally scared one poor woman

* Debating the virtues of Tomato bisk vs. Tortia soup

* haveing a walk-race home

The white elephant gift exchange went well too. For those who are unfamilar with such a game, everyone brings the most useless gifts they can and exchanges them, taking turns either openign a gift or taking someone elses, giving them a chance to steal/take a gift. One of the Norman boys got my gift ( a dancing homer doll) and I got a game boy pocket...which KK promptly stole :( I then opened a ...set of sruchnies and a AP goverment book. I then traded that gift to littel Sierra Jet (who is 8 years old) for the Phone cards she had recieved.

I now own 60 minutes of phone time, watch out maureen, honey...I might jsut be calling :)