Sooner or Later. . .

Someday soon I will hopefully be finished moving. Today was a good day for getting things done though. I was able to move pretty much all the rest of the large, heavy items I’m going to take with me. I was thinking about taking one of the dressers that is still left in Blackberry but it’s really not in that good of shape so I’ve decided I’ll just make due with one for now and start looking for a nicer one on CL or make a trip to Ikea in the next month or so. I need a coffee table to so an Ikea trip is definitely in the running. Right now the biggest thing I need to work on is unpacking and cleaning up the mess from all my various boxes, as you can see here.  I’m just glad I finally have my desk set up so I can start using my computer again.  I like uploading pics from Vintage asap so they are available if anyone needs/wants them and the fact that I wasn’t able to even edit them until last night was frustrating.   I still need to get my blinds hung but that is on hold until I can pick up a drill to replace the one that died.  Hopefully that will happen on Thursday, though it might happen tonight.

Comcast will be coming out tomorrow to hook up our cable and internet and I’m surprised they are doing it that fast.  Last time I moved it took them almost a week to send someone out.  Apparently the guys who came by to verify our address know people who know people, or something like that.  I’ve actually had really good experiences with Comcast when it comes to transferring service.  At least when they are making you pay an arm and a leg for service, they give you good customer service.  Anyway, my battery is winding down and I’ve done what I need to for now.  Time to get some dinner and head back to the Man-Pad.  Ciao!

Small Victories and Epiphanies

As part of getting moved over to my new house I’ve been talking with Comcast to get them to set up my cable internet and tv.  Unfortunately they can’t find my address so it is going to be a few days.  Fortunately I was able to set up my cell phone as a bluetooth modem tonight so I will have at least fast enough access for email, blogging, and limited surfing.  Now I just have to figure out what I am going to do for getting internet to the Xbox.  If I put my modem/router in my bedroom then I will have to either buy a 100′ ethernet cable or a $100 wireless adapter for the Xbox.  The other option is to put the modem/router next to the Xbox and then use my old 802.11b adapter on my computer for now.  I’ll have to think about that.  It would be a waste of a big fat pipe to throttle everything through a wireless-b adapter to my computer just so I can plan Halo 3 and get killed by some 12 year old.

So getting my phone to work as a modem was the small victory I accomplished.  The epiphany I had is that I can no longer move by myself.  I have way too much stuff to move with just myself as the man power.  Even having Danny help me move the bigger stuff, it seems like a never ending task to get moved over.  When I move back to Seattle, I definitely am not going to be moving all of my stuff.  I would have a yard sale to get rid of things before I make that kind of a move or I would have professional movers come before I would try to do the whole thing by myself.  I wouldn’t say I wasted today because I did get a good amount of stuff moved but I still have a desk, dresser, kitchen counter, two chairs, a coat rack, a cloths rack, a steamer trunk, a computer and large monitor, and a whole bunch of random other boxes of “stuff” to move before I’m finished.  I was hoping to be finished with the move this weekend but I think it will be Monday night now before I can finish.  I know that there are now people waiting to move into my unit but I would have to kill myself to be completely moved out by tomorrow night before church.  Some stuff I do need to throw away but a good chunk of stuff I just have accumulated over the course of time.  And there is stuff I would still like to get, like an actual bed frame (which I started looking for on eBay).  Anyway, I’m feeling pretty tired and I still have some organizing and cleaning to do before I do more moving tomorrow.  I don’t know how I would ever move a whole house full of stuff.  Yikes.  Being an adult isn’t so much fun right now.

I’m Old: Part 2

So I got off work today and asked a friend from work to help me move some of the bigger items I couldn’t move myself. It took us about two hours to move my bed, love seat, tv, and a book case. When we finished, I was exhausted. I’m not tired so much, I can just tell every muscle in my body is tired and weak. I know already that I am going to hurt come Saturday morning. It’s good to be about halfway done with the move though. I’m able to start moving things around and deciding how I want to set up my stuff. Hopefully I’ll get to talk more with Kevin tomorrow to see if he has an entertainment center we can use and any other furniture. I need to get a van again tomorrow to finish moving some of the larger items still left, like my desk and dining room table. I’ve already scheduled the first party we are going to have for next Wednesday. It will be the second “Man-Fest” to coincide with the wedding shower that is going on that night. It is kind of fun to be hosting events like that for guys to get together and hang out. We had a bunch of fun last time playing Fight Night boxing on 360. I’ve got a couple people psyched up already to play Halo 3 next time.

Speaking of Halo, I beat the game. It was once again shorter than I thought it would be, just like Halo 2. Fortunately this time though, there wasn’t a “throw your controller at the screen” ending. The second game ends so suddenly and at such a high point that you wanted to scream and play the rest of the story right then. Bungie definitely comes through and cashes in on letting you “Finish the Fight.” The ending does, as many have said, leave the door open for more games in the future featuring Master Chief, which would be very welcome if you ask me. I think the character of Master Chief might be the greatest video game character ever created. Certainly characters like Mario and Sonic (maybe others?) have sold more games and been much more successful when it comes to number of titles moved, but do either of them feature the rich back story and “bad-ass” mentality of Master Chief? One of the things I love most about the game is that they nailed the sense of scale. When you are playing as Master Chief (which you fortunately spend the entire time doing in Halo 3) you are a full head taller than any of the earth marines and when jumping or running, you clearly outclass their physical ability. The way the NPC’s in the game (both human/Elite and Covenant) react to your presence is perfect. The story is also set up perfectly and paid off perfectly. When you finally rescue Cortana, you truly feel a sense of release and like you/Master Chief are whole again with Cortana back in your head. The way that Master Chief acts around Cortana (and vise versa) is also telling, they have a crush on each other, at the very least they share a special connection. The Master Chief knows that no human woman will ever understand who he is or what he has done and Cortana knows that Master Chief is the only living being that will ever live up to her expectations. Any one else would have failed to save her from the Gravemind but Master Chief makes good on his promise. I watched a review of the game today where they talked about how this isn’t a perfect game, but it is a 10 out of 10 because it is everything you want a great game to be. The story draws you in and makes you want to keep playing. In the first two games, there are too many levels where you are just mindlessly killing flood with no real purpose or goal other than to survive. This time around, you feel a sense of urgency as you play through the game, you know what’s at stake and you know you can’t fail. Bioshock may have been more “shocking” (no pun intended, well, may it was ) and surprising in how good it turned out to be, but Halo 3 (from the series that set the bar in each of it’s previous releases for what a great game should be) once again delivered what it promised and once again establishes itself as the measuring stick for what great games should be like. Anyway, I’m back to the “Man Pad,” as Brenda named it, to do some more unpacking and settling in before my big push tomorrow. I’ll post pics on flickr as soon as I get everything set up. Ciao!