My Aching Muscles!

So it's been over a month since I updated this last and I think it's time to get busy again. All mine and Elizabeth's family came and went last month and now we have an empty house all to ourselves again. My brother in law stayed with us for the last 2 weeks and it was nice having someone to game and hang out with. Arturo is a good guy, and I see a bright future ahead of him.

I know what you're thinking right now. You're thinking "Why the aching muscles?". Well, as I mentioned in my last blog I stated that Elizabeth's new job helped us pay for gym passes. We've been going lately and it's been over 4 years since the last time I hit the free weights. The first time we visited the gym we did about 20 minutes of cardio and then spent the next 45 minutes on free weights. By the time we went home I was feeling tired and I knew I probably would be a little sore the next day. Not the case! I spent the next 5 days constantly stretching and moving my chest and arms hoping the pain would subside. It was a grrrrrrrrrreat! :(
Last night Liz and I went again and performed a similar routine and today my arms are tired just from typing. I'm not new to the stress training routine so I know it will be a few months before I'm fully accustomed to the free weight routine and the soreness will ease some. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the pain!

Work has been pretty crazy as of late. I'm solely responsible for the general operation and maintenance of a Financial Application and its hardware for the company I work for. I've been doing this job for a little over a year now and have enjoyed it. It's a major step up as far as responsibility and money goes from what I was doing before which was Tech Support. Lately though, the hardware (servers) have been acting up and I've spent many hours on the phone with Oracle trying to resolve some issues. I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue to learn more about technology that is the future of how business is done. I'm also hopeful that the experience I earn here will eventually lead to something much better in a different city. Only time will tell...

On Tyler and Anna Young.

Tyler is and has been one of my closest friends for many years now. He and his wife Anna came to visit us a couple of weeks ago and stayed for the weekend. Because they were only here for such a short period of time we tried to make the best of the days by staying up past 3am and playing games. We spent quite a bit of time on the Wii and playing LAN games on the computers. One of the more fun things to do is network our machines and play Warcraft III with all the AI opponents fighting against our team and the other AI's. I think we managed to pull 1/10 victories but it was all very fun. We also pulled out another real time strategy classic called StarCraft. It's always fun to go back and play some of the classic games that used to entertain us for months on end when we were teenagers and college students. It's not only good for the joy of playing a fun game, but also for the memories it brings back of a time of few responsibilities for us.

Back in the late 90's when I was working part time and going to college, computer gaming was relatively new. I have always been a video game freak owning an Artari, Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Playstation, and several other little game consoles.
Getting to know other gaming freaks like me and being introduced to the new drug which is "PC Gaming" was probably the best thing that ever happen to me take away the whole marriage thing. Yeah that was cool too :) My click of about 10 different guys, would meet up either at a hotel or someone's house on a Friday night and spend over 12 hours LAN gaming Command & Conquer, WarCraft II, Quake, Big Red Racing, or whatever the latest fun game was at the time. These sessions weren't just for the gaming, but for the atmosphere and circle of friends and the laughter that would ensue from so many different personalities. Our little click of 10 guys would later become a social party of guys and gals that would hang out every weekend and drive the neighbors mad! Peeling out on a friend's lawn and honking the car horn down the street for a minute straight at 4 AM were but only a few of the crazy things we got away with.

Tyler is one the few friends I've managed to keep in touch with that grew up with me during that time. We share a lot of funny memories and I admire him and his family. His military family background is very similar to my own and I think that's part of the reason why we can relate so well. One of the dreams we shared was the desire to become jet fighter pilots one day. I'm very happy to say that one of us followed that dream through and Tyler is now but a few months away from living that dream as an F-16 fighter pilot in our USAF. Through his stories and the videos he shared about his training I get to experience what was once a desire I had. I'm proud of him for seeing this through and am even more happy that he found the right girl to share his life with.

Anna, Tyler's wife is a complete riot! I can see why Tyler and her make such a perfect match. Anna is outgoing and charismatic. She's not afraid of laughing at herself and definitely not afraid of making fun of Tyler which is great. I've enjoyed getting to know her a little more since this last time they visited our home. Here's a few new things I've learned about Anna.
1) She enjoys SNL skits
2) She loves Doctor Mario
3) She likes using the word "Crass"
4) She thinks "I'm Boring"

Ok so that last one is an inside joke, but who knows maybe whoever is reading this right now probably thinks I'm boring. Well, if that's the case maybe you can suggest what else you might enjoy reading about here. Drop me a comment or two and I'll be glad to open up.

One last thing I'm going to add for my WoW friends who may be reading this. I'm really happy with the way our once small guild Netherguard has once again prospered. It's not the progress of our raid groups or the amount of end game equipment that we own, but the quality of people behind each character that make up such an enjoyable social atmosphere. I've met several new folk in game that I did not know back before I quit playing WoW for a year. It's been exciting seeing how much the game has changed and yet at the same time how much it hasn't changed. There's all kinds of new content which is nice, but then there's always the drama that ensues. It holds true with all MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) games and its just a matter of getting yourself involved. Lucky for my friends in our guild, drama has been rare and we will continue to acquire mature and friendly people into our circle of friends. It's this circle of friends that resembles that old group of friends that I used to hang out with back in the day.

Till next time,

-Me