The Dragon's Cave

Music

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:16:34 GMT

For our family reunion in August, I've been asked to pull out a music composition that I did a number of years ago.

Back around 2001, when I lived in Houston, there was a talent show put on by our church congregation. For my entry, I arranged a jazz big band version of the old Sesame Street song 'Rubber Duckie', on my computer, and I played the melody on my alto saxophone. It was a lot of fun.

Well, apparently, my mother-in-law got word that I had done the piece, because she has asked me to bring it back out for the family reunion we're having in Utah next month. However, in the years since I put that piece together, computers have changed, and I no longer own a computer with an ISA slot (which incidentally is what I used to hook up my old SoundBlaster AWE 64 gold sound card when I made the original composition). Back in 2001, the midi composition sounded pretty decent. Now however, without a good sound card, it sounds, well, awful.

Kimberly surprised me greatly last week when she asked me to look into buying a good sound card for music composition. Out of the blue! I didn't need to come up with good reasoning for it or anything. She told me to look at buying a new one, so that I could again generate some good tone quality using my computer. She also asked me to look at a new set of music composition software, as we've been using a 1998 version of 'Cakewalk Express' for years now. She wanted to make sure that we could compose music, and then print out sheet music from the same software package.

SO! I very happily drove over to Fry's during my lunch break yesterday, and I picked up these:

Sound Blaster X-Fi ExtremeGamer Sound Card

Cakewalk Music Creator 4

I came home from work last night, had a very nice dinner with our family (that chicken was delicious, Kimberly!), put the boys to bed, then went into the computer room to install my new sound card and composition software. I started at about 9:45 PM. Once I got it all installed, I started playing with some midi compositions, changing voices around, adding effects, learning about sound fonts and software synths, and generally having a marvellous time.

By the time I decided to turn it off and go to bed, it was... *GASP* nearly 1:00 AM?!?

Weekend

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:02:14 GMT

Kimberly has started a blog! And apparently, she does a much better job at getting pics of our boys than I do. Take a gander--there are some great pictures of our three boys at swimming lessons.

Kimberly's Blog

This weekend had its ups and downs.

We were able to do quite a bit of cleaning around the house on Saturday morning, and now the house feels better. I had the rare opportunity of completely cleaning out our vacuum cleaner--apparently, the last few times it has been run, there has been a lot of cat hair and carpet fluff, and it got jammed up in the main tubing! I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that I had to drop a metal butter knife through the entire tube several times before all the gunk came out.

Went out and ran some errands for Kimberly, half of which resulted in failure for various reasons (i.e. the Library closes at 5:00 PM on saturday--who knew?). Kimberly, on the other hand, made a yummy stir-fry for us, and we all got to sit down for a nice family dinner.

After dinner, I decided to show the original Superman movie to my boys (who haven't seen it yet). It was a fun movie, and I even brought the good sub-woofer sound system downstairs so we could do the soundtrack justice. However, I guess I had forgotten just how graphic some of the scenes are in that movie (namely the people getting tossed about like rag-dolls when Krypton blew up, and then Lois Lane getting buried alive during the earthquake).

After the movie, we cleaned up, and put the boys to bed. It wasn't long before Jeffrey (our 9-year-old) came out of his room, saying that he was frightened--he saw John Kent (Superman's adoptive earth father) die of a heart attack, and now he was really worried about heart attacks. I tried to re-assure him that he didn't need to worry about having a heart attack, and I led him back to bed. I found that Bryce (7-year-old) was also frightened, worried that his dreams would be filled with images of cars falling into great cracks in the earth and people getting buried alive under piles of dirt. Before long, both older boys were crying, while Nathan (our 3-year-old) calmly sat in his bed, without a worry at all.

I FAIL.

Here I wanted to show my boys a fun superhero movie, and instead they get the heebie-jeebies scared out of them. Gosh, I felt like crap. Luckily, Kimberly was there to save the day, and she helped calm the boys down. We sang some songs together, then we all knelt down and said a nice family prayer. That worked like a charm, and the boys slept just fine that night.

*sigh*

Shocking Events

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:06:31 GMT

Last week, a man from our church congregation apparently got into an ugly exchange with his ex-wife over custody of their son.

I've known Lonnie Ramos for a while now. He's always been the quiet, humble man that I saw in Gospel Principles class at church. He always contributed to the class discussions with thoughtful, positive comments. He has spoken about his 9-year-old son Ryan fondly, and has related the difficulties he's had with his ex-wife and with securing custody of his son.

I knew that Lonnie was going through some tough times. I always tried to extend a hand of friendship and brotherhood to him when I saw him. Now I wonder if I could have done more.

Last week, on wednesday night, when Lonnie was scheduled to turn over his son to his ex-wife, he instead shot her when she drove up in her car, then drove off with his son. She was hospitalized in critical condition, but she is expected to survive.

We were all shocked to hear what Lonnie had done. Yesterday in church, our Bishop offered counselling and a listening ear to anyone in our congregation who wanted to discuss the matter. My wife and I were both very surprised and worried for Lonnie. We hoped that he would be caught, that he would be brought back, that Ryan would be safe, and that perhaps Lonnie would be able to recover from this.

It was not to be. According to the latest news reports, Ryan is safe. Lonnie apparently dropped him off at a church in Juarez, Mexico yesterday, and called the authorities to tell them where Ryan was. However, the report also says that Lonnie was killed in a car accident early this morning in the same town.

Click here for the report.

I am shocked. Lonnie is dead. Just like that. Less than a week ago, I knew Lonnie as a man from church, one who was deeply concerned for the welfare of his son, but could never be violent or resort to kidnapping. Since then, he attempted to kill his ex-wife, he abducted his own son, and tried to flee across the border. Perhaps he realized what he was doing, and thankfully delivered his son to the authorities before Ryan was hurt or lost. But then what happened? Did Lonnie commit suicide? Or was this a freak accident? Either way, he's gone.

I am stunned... not sure how to react. What could/should I or any of us have done any different? Would it have made a difference? What Lonnie did was wrong. No questions asked. But what drove him to do such a thing?

Gosh... I can't get my mind off of this. I wanted to post about how my weekend went, but that all seems so insignificant in comparison.

My Story

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:10:33 GMT

Well chapter 6 of my story has been posted on Chris Yost's website, and I'm working on chapter 7 now.

Click here to read it

My friend richard_renard read that chapter last night. He contacted me today, and told me that he was inspired to do some artwork based on my story! With his permission, I'm posting his artwork here.

I'm flattered! The little girl in the picture is absolutely precious. :)

Twilight Princess: 3rd time is a charm

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:04:38 GMT

I did it! I finally passed the cave of ordeals this morning. I went and equipped myself with three blue potions (full heals this time), and I only ended up using one of them. Practice makes perfect, I guess.

But MAN, it felt good to finally beat those three nasty armored guys. As a reward for finally completing the cave of ordeals, I can go to any fairy spring and get a bottle of Great Fairy Tears (full heal) for free.

Now I need to make a decision: do I have the patience to go through the game and capture all of the remaining Poes (ghosts)? I already have 37, and (from what I've heard) there are 60 of them in the game. Is it worth it? Or should I just go ahead and finish off the last dungeon and beat the game?

Zelda: Twilight Princess -- Strike Two

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:30:50 GMT

Tried the Cave of Ordeals again this morning. I got a bit further, but I still died. In fact, I didn't get much further--I died on the same floor as I did yesterday, with the three heavy armor enemies. Only this time, I was able to kill one of them, and knock the other two out of their full armor.

I've realized that fairy bottles just don't cut it here--they only restore 8 hearts. I've got to go in with some heavy-duty healing, like Fairy Tears. Now where did I get those again...?

Zelda: Twilight Princess

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:11:33 GMT

I have been playing a lot of Zelda: Twilight Princess lately, since my brother Brent so graciously gave the GameCube to my son Jeffrey for his birthday. I can honestly say that this is one of the most fun games I have played in years! It really brings back the feel of the classic Zelda series, while making everything fresh, new, and exciting.

For those of you who have played any of the Zelda series before, you will know that there are a number of hearts you can find in the game, each of which will increase your life capacity. Back when I played the original 8-Bit Zelda, I think I got close to finding the maximum number of hearts in the game, but I don't think I ever found them all.

Well, this morning, I finally got the last heart piece in the game, and my life capacity is now a full 20 hearts! Some of you will probably call me crazy, or say that I've got too much time on my hands. However, believe me when I say that this game has been fun enough to make me want to go find them all. To make things easier, there's a fortune-teller in game who will give me clues to the location of each heart piece, so it's not simply running around all over the world looking in every possible location for them.

I've completed every main dungeon in the game except the final one, Hyrule castle itself. However, I've discovered that the developers also added a number of 'mini-dungeons' and side-quests that are not required to complete the game. However, completing these mini-dungeons and side-quests allows you to open up neat, useful upgrades and events in the game. For example, if you score a certain number of points in the shooting-gallery boat-ride side quest, then you will be given double-capacity bomb bags, allowing you to hold twice as many bombs as before (I can now hold up to 180 bombs!).

One of the mini-dungeons actually has nothing to do with 'mini': it is called the 'cave of ordeals'. It is comprised of 50 successive rooms, each filled with progressively harder groups of monsters from all areas of the game. In addition, the monsters in this dungeon drop only money (no hearts, no bombs, no arrows, just money). The first time I tried it, I got to room 36, then had to warp out because I had 1.5 hearts left and I was out of healing potions. I tried it for a 2nd time this morning, equipped with 20 hearts of life capacity, a full healing potion, and two fairy bottles. No problem, right?

WRONG. I got down to room 47 or so, and I was confronted by 3 huge armored soldiers (the same enemy who serves as the mini-boss in the Temple of Time). By the time I got there, I had used up all of my healing, and I had only 5 hearts left. Not a chance. Though I fought bravely, I was quickly demolished.

GOSH, that was hard, and it's not even required in order to complete the game! It really makes me want to go back and beat it, just so I can figure out what possible reward I could receive!

Memorial Day

Wed, 28 May 2008 21:23:37 GMT

Well, I expected to spend Memorial Day cleaning up the house and spending time with the family. However, it turns out there were some heavy rains in Southern California near the end of last week, resulting in some flash floods and mudslides.

Apparently, one of the homes in a neighborhood near where I live was hit pretty hard. Read the report here.

On sunday, our Bishop got up and asked anyone who was willing and able to do some heavy lifting to come out and help dig out that home on Memorial day. So I went with about 50 other guys to help out.

When we got there, it really looked bad. This picture shows a walkway on the side of the house--that overhang is normally 9 feet off of the ground, easy to walk under. I had to really duck to get under it, and I still hit my head on it.

This is a picture of his back sliding glass door. When I first saw it, I seriously thought it was a window. The mud broke through the door and filled his back bedroom and garage.

We spent the morning hauling out huge rocks by hand and digging out piles of mud. I spent a long time on a bucket brigade taking buckets of mud out from his back room. After a few hours, we were able to make some significant progress. Here is a shot of his backyard after about two hours of work. You can see that we had made it down to the patio cement.

One of the biggest helpers was this guy who brought in a little bobcat mini-bulldozer:

All in all, it went pretty well, and the home owner seemed very happy to see us. Even today, two days later, my shoulders are still pretty sore (us gash dern geek programmers never get any exercise...)

LJ Meme

Wed, 21 May 2008 19:09:28 GMT

Leave a comment and I will
a) tell you why I friended you,
b) associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc.,
c) tell you something I like about you,
d) tell you a memory I have of you,
e) ask something I've always wanted to know about you,
f) tell you my favorite user pic of yours,
g) in return, you must post this in your LJ.

The weekend

Tue, 20 May 2008 20:53:34 GMT

First of all, I got to go to my 2nd furry convention this weekend: Califur! It is a much smaller con than FurCon (there were only around 300 attending, where we had 2000+ at FurCon in January). But the good news is, Califur is only a 20-minute drive away in Irvine, so I didn't need to pay for a hotel room or gas for a long trip. :)

On friday morning, after working on them for about a week, I finally finished matching dragon tails for my two oldest boys, Jeffrey and Bryce. They were *very* happy with the tails, and wore them around the house proudly.

I went up to the con center in the morning and registered, walked around the con for a while, and met up with richard_renard and his brother. I've known Richard for a while here on LJ, but this was the first time I've met him in real life. That's me in the middle, with Richard on the left, and his brother Dave on the right.

Once the boys were out from school, I went home and picked them up and brought them to the con. I let them hang out with some of the fursuiters, and then we attended two drawing classes together: intro to art, and then an anatomy class.

After that, I wanted to take the boys to an ice cream social, but I found out (too late) that it was pre-pay only, so we couldn't get in. Instead, we went into the gaming room, where Jeffrey and Bryce got to play Rock Band and Super Smash Brothers Brawl. They both had a great time! I snapped a couple of pictures of some fursuiters *attempting* to play Rock Band, though they didn't do very well. :)

Before I took them home, I had Richard take a photo of the three of us together so you could see all of our tails. We got a number of comments from lots of different people about the fact that we were all walking around with matching tails. Even the workers at Burger King started talking back & forth in Spanish about our tails.

After I came back from taking the kids home, I met up with wolfbrothersong and redstar918. In talking with wolf, it came out that I've been a dungeons & dragons dungeon master for many years, so they asked me to run a D&D session with them. We got started at about 8:30 PM, and we didn't call it quits until 3:30 the next morning! It was loads of fun.

The next day, after about 4 hours of sleep, I went in to watch the fursuiter's "show & tell". Since Kimberly took the camera to Scout-o-rama that day, all I had was my cell phone camera, so the following pics are pretty poor quality.

It was fun to see the suiters up on stage, and some of those suits are *really* well done. I'll post some of the better pics that I got:

I met up with wolfbrothersong and redstar918 later that day, and they invited me to a Wii party that evening. Let me tell you, I've never had more fun playing Wii than I had that night.

One hotel room.
Three Nintendo Wiis.
Two Televisions.
One Projector.
Twelve Controllers.
Fourteen Guys.
Pizza, Drinks, Snacks.
Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
Mario Kart Wii.
Add in a GENEROUS helping of shouting, laughter, and cries of dismay when people got beat.

I really hope we didn't bother any of the other hotel guests or staff, but MAN, that was FUN!!

Game Console Sales for April

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:57:39 GMT

I just got the hardware/software sales figures for the U.S. for April 2008. Keep in mind that GTA4 was only on the shelves for 5 days during April.

Hardware:
1. Wii - 714,200
2. Nintendo DS - 414,800
3. PSP - 192,000
4. Xbox 360 - 188,000
5. PlayStation 3 - 187,100
6. PlayStation 2 - 124,400

Software:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360) - 1,850,000
2. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 1,120,000
3. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) - 1,000,000
4. Wii Play (Wii) - 360,000
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 326,000
6. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (PS3) - 224,000
7. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) - 202,000
8. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS) - 202,000
9. Guitar Hero III (Wii) - 152,000
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) - 141,000

To be honest, I'm pleasantly surprised. Nintendo is demolishing the competition, while the XBox 360 is essentially in a dead heat with the PS3. Here I thought that, once Blu-Ray won the Hi-Def war, the PS3 would start selling better. However, it looks like that hasn't panned out; the Wii is still out-selling the PS3 at nearly 4-to-1.

In other news, I'm getting really excited to attend Califur tomorrow. My two oldest boys are going to come with me for part of the time (kids under 10 get in free).

Both boys asked me to make dragon tails for them, so I used the leftover material from my tail to make smaller tails for them. I finished the main work this morning; all I need to do now is stitch some denim material to them for belt loops, and they'll be finished.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:59:11 GMT

My son Jeffrey is having a grand ol' time with his new GameCube, and he loves the game Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is the first time he has played an epic-sized adventure game, one with mental challenges nearly every step of the way. He is doing fairly well overcoming those challenges, and he's also having a lot of fun with some side-aspects of the game.

Last night, when I came home from work, Jeffrey was laughing and laughing, and said, "Hey Daddy! Look at THIS!" He proceeded to jump into a pen full of chickens, and began swinging his sword wildly at them. For about 30 seconds, the chickens ran away from him in panic, but then they all stopped. They turned toward him, and began to attack him en masse. CHICKEN ATTACK!

My son ran his Link character all over the village trying to escape an entire flock of chickens that came fluttering and chasing after him, pecking him to death, while Jeffrey laughed the whole way through. Finally, Link lay dead.

I commented, "Jeffrey... that's embarrassing. You were killed... by a chicken!" At that, Jeffrey dropped his controller, fell onto his back, and laughed even harder.

Was a great moment.

Happy Birthday

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:45:30 GMT

My son Jeffrey just turned 9 years old. 9!! I have a son who is really growing up--that means I'm getting old & grey & decrepit... :P

Jeffrey had a fun birthday. We wanted to make a cake, but he said he wanted donuts instead. SO, Kimberly took two chocolate donuts, cut one of them up, and pieced them together to make a big number 9. We put candles in the donuts and lit them up just like a birthday cake.

His favorite present was a gift from his uncle Brent. Last year, Brent bought a refurbished GameCube and three Zelda titles (Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess). He has since finished them all, and he wanted one of his nephews to get into the excitement and brain-grinding fun that the Zelda games are. So, he gave me the GameCube along with the three zelda titles. I went ahead & bought Mario Kart Double Dash and an additional controller, then gave it all to Jeffrey for his birthday.

Since then, all three of my boys have been up super early (6:00 AM!) each morning, getting dressed, combing their hair, eating breakfast, and packing their lunches for school, all so they can get some time to play before school started. They all love to play Mario Kart, and even little 3-year-old Nathan has more or less figured out how to drive his car around the track without simply going in circles.

Jeffrey has also really gotten into Zelda: Ocarina of Time; he loves it! In the days since his birthday, he has already gone through the Deku Tree, gotten himself into Hyrule Castle, and met the princess. Last night as I was driving home from work, he called me on my cell phone, asking me how to do such-and-such and where is such-and-such in the game.

Our company has finally announced our latest title for the Wii: Order Up! To see the announcement, click here. It's a family-oriented cooking/restaurant management game with a great cartoony style, and it has been called a mix between Cooking Mama and Diner Dash. I'm not one of the devs on this project (I'm working on a currently unannounced Wii title), but from what I've been able to test-play, this game is a lot of fun! See what happens when you get three orders at once, and you've got to manage how to cook pancakes, hamburgers, and mac & cheese all at the same time so that they all arrive hot and fresh for the customers.

I'm taking my sons camping this weekend with our church group. I've been put in charge of making the desserts tomorrow night, so I'm going to put together a large-scale dutch oven peach cobbler fest. I've got access to 7 or 8 dutch ovens, and I'm probably going to spend most of the evening preparing and cooking cobbler for between 60-70 men and boys. Camp cooking is lots of fun! :)

Personality

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:18:01 GMT

Not too shabby.

My Personality


Neuroticism	29
Extraversion	34
Openness to Experience	37
Agreeableness	80
Conscientiousness	73

You do not experience strong, irresistible cravings and consequently do not find yourself tempted to overindulge, however high levels of stress can lead to you feeling panic or confusion, but usually you cope with day to day pressures. You tend to feel overwhelmed by, and therefore actively avoid, large crowds. You often need privacy and time for yourself. You prefer the security and stability brought by conformity to tradition. You see no need for pretense or manipulation when dealing with others and are therefore candid, frank and sincere. People find it relatively easy to relate to you, however you are mostly a compassionate person, however you prefer to make objective judgments when possible. You are well-organized and like to live according to routines and schedules. Often you will keep lists and make plans.

Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report.

The best Ugg Boots.

Tagged

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:26:42 GMT

I've been tagged by kathrishali to write 10 random interesting things about myself. Okay, here goes:

1. I've been a computer programmer since I was age 7, when my dad brought home that now-ancient Apple II computer with the black-and-green screen. He taught me how to set up, code, and run some simple programs in BASIC, and I was hooked from there on out.

2. Whenever I learn a new computer language, I never consider myself proficient in it until I use it to build some sort of a game. Thus, I have built games in BASIC, Logo, Visual Basic, Microsoft Access (using VBA), Java, and C++. Unfortunately, I have learned some other programming languages in my days where I discovered it was *impossible* to create any form of a game (i.e. COBOL, SAS, JCL). In my mind, if you can't program a game with it, it's not worth learning.

3. I've been a musician for most of my life. I sing, play the saxophone, direct congregational singing in church, have been a church choir director twice, and even served once as the music director for an entire stage production. I was in band, choir, marching band, and jazz band all through junior high, high school, and college.

4. I am very serious about the word 'love'. When I was a teen, I saw folks going around saying 'I Love You' to their girlfriend/boyfriend and then break up with them the next week. I promised myself I would never say it to a woman unless I truly understood it and meant it.

5. I was voted 'Babe Magnet with the Biggest Harem' by my fellow band members in high school, and 'Most Likely to Become a Minister' by my senior class.

6. I once broke a bone in my hand (boxer's fracture from accidentally running into the table), but didn't get it checked by the doctor until two days later. I took 2 high school final tests with a broken hand (I ended up doing one of them with my left hand because my right hand hurt so much).

7. I don't drink alcohol at all, but I am a root beer connoisseur.

8. I have loved stories about animals (anthro and normal) all my life. Some of my favorite stories when I was a child were Disney's Robin Hood, The Secret of Nimh, Watership Down, Where the Red Fern Grows (made me cry), most books by Jim Kjelgaard, and the entire Chronicles of Narnia Series.

9. I've been an amateur writer since I was a teen. I've written poetry and stories off an on for years. A poem I wrote about the last time I saw my grandmother before she died was submitted (without my knowledge) to the school poetry contest, where it won first prize. Just this past summer, my story 'Ruled by the Water' won 3rd prize in a short story contest.

10. I worked as an I.T. analyst for ExxonMobil for 3 years, my first job out of college. Though I was bored out of my mind and I switched careers after that, I did gain something very valuable from my experience. As part of employee development, the company sent me to a workshop where they analyzed what motivates me and helps me to feel passionate about what I'm doing. I discovered that I'm not motivated by money, power, fame, position, or anything like that. I am motivated by 1) the ability to make an impact, to make a difference, and 2) by the ability to impress others by what I do.

Update

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:13:55 GMT

Last week I attended my Grandfather's funeral. Much like my Grandmother's funeral back in '91, it was a joyous family reunion. Certainly, there were some tears and sadness, but it was a very peaceful and mostly happy occasion. I was able to see some of my cousins, aunts, and uncles that I haven't seen in a long time--John, Rusty, Adam, Randall, Rebecca, Jodi, Sarah, Suzie, Todd, Heather, Theresa, Emily, (gosh I have a big family don't I...?), Kathy, Kelly, Joe, Ben, and many others.

I was reminded of some of the great things about my Grandfather, and I learned things about him that I never knew. I knew he had worked for Boeing for many years, but I didn't know that he was one of the production supervisors on the B-17, B-25, and B-52 bomber planes during World War 2! He was drafted into the army three times, but all three times the government retracted his draft because they decided he was more valuable producing bombers than being a foot soldier. After the war, he was the production manager for the Boeing 707--he knew every inch, every bolt, every wire on that plane.

An interesting tidbit about the funeral--here it was, first week of april, day before the funeral was nice and sunny. The morning of the funeral, it starts SNOWING. By the time the chapel service was done, there were 2 inches of snow on the ground. As pallbearers, the eight of us carried his casket through the snow (in our nice suits and shoes) to the gravesite. My father (who is currently the Bishop of that congregation) gave the graveside dedication, and my brother Chris played 'Amazing Grace' on his penny whistle.

It was very nice to be with family again, and though we'll all miss him, we know that my Grandfather is happy now, happier than he's been in a very long time.

My Grandfather

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:31:15 GMT

For all of you who have kept up on my blog, you'll remember that I made a post several months ago about my paternal grandfather. We had expected him to pass away soon, and we were surprised that he recovered and continued to cling to life.

Well, last week, he had a fall while attempting to use the bathroom. He was examined multiple times and the nurse didn't find anything broken, but he was apparently in quite a bit of pain. That, coupled with the fact that he had very little ability to communicate, move about, nor do pretty much anything for himself, made him pretty miserable. I guess he finally decided that it was time to go.

Yesterday, my mother called me here at the office and told me that he passed away very peacefully in his bed, surrounded by his children and grandchildren. My mother held his hand as he took his final breaths.

While we knew that this was inevitable, and we're all happy that he is no longer suffering, it is still very sobering that it has actually happened. Max Carlton Wilson is a very good man, and he is now in a much better place. He is free from the effects of his stroke, from his weakened body, from his inability to speak more than a word or two at a time. Though we will miss him, I look forward to the day when I will see him again.

Good bye for now, Grandpa.

Update

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:39:54 GMT

Wow I can't believe it! That was really fast. In my previous post, I ranted about Sony charging an extra fee to not install a bunch of junk on a laptop. Apparently there was such a media uproar that Sony decided to retract that fee and do it for free.

Sony has actually done something right for a change. True, they did it because of media pressure, but they still did it!

Click here for the announcement.

Just had to post this

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:11:02 GMT

For all of you who have ever bought a pre-configured laptop, you know that most of them come with pre-installed crap software for games, software, and other junk that you don't want and don't need.

Lo and behold! Sony has finally seen the light and fixed the problem. For a simple additional fee of $50, they won't pre-install any crapware on your new laptop.

Click here for the story.

I can't *FREAKING* believe this! Where do they get the gall to charge customers an additional fee just to *not* install crap on a new laptop?!

Out in Utah

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:24:48 GMT

Greetings and salutations from snowy Logan, Utah! Kimberly and I traded turns driving during most of Friday night, and we arrived here at Kimberly's parents' home at about 12:30 PM on Saturday. Why did it take so long? Well, at about 1:00 AM, I could tell that I was starting to fall asleep, so I pulled off into a gas station and zonked out for about an hour and a half before Kimberly woke up and started driving again. Moreover, we stopped for about a half-hour in Provo to see my parents before driving the last two hours up to Logan.

Yesterday (Sunday), Kimberly's youngest sister Karolyn gave her farewell talk in church--she has been called to serve as a missionary in Russia! She will enter the missionary training center on Wednesday, and after a 2-month training period she will head out to Russia for 16 months. We're all equally excited and freaked out for her.

It's been fun hanging out with Kimberly's family and extended family for the last couple of days. Today (monday), things should calm down quite a bit, and hopefully I'll get some time to write/draw/relax. (pshaw, fat chance.)

I've missed seeing snow during the winter. After living in Houston, TX for 5 years, and now 3 years in Southern California, I've spent many winters with no snow at all. :( Yeah, you can say what you like about snow being cold, dirty, slushy, messy, etc., and I would probably agree with you, but I really love waking up in the morning and seeing the world blanketed in a beautiful white.

High-Def War

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:35:21 GMT

Well that's it, folks. It looks like Sony has won the High-Def war with their Blu-Ray technology. For those of you who don't know, Toshiba has officially dropped support for the HD format, and many of the biggest movie production houses (such as Warner Bros.) have announced that they will move exclusively to Blu-Ray.

View the Toshiba Announcement

So how do I feel about this? Frankly, I don't care much for high-definition movies. I dont' have a high-def T.V., and I don't plan to get one. I am content with my DVDs, and as long as I can buy my movies in DVD format, I will be content.

However--those of you who have been watching my blog for a while will know that I am fairly anti-Sony, as far as video games and game consoles go. For a bit of background: Sony launched its latest gaming console, the PS3, back in November of 2006. Ever since then, the PS3 has had a dismal sales record, consistently trailing behind the XBox 360 and Nintendo's Wii and DS handheld. As far as I've seen, the PS3 has pretty graphics and sound, but most of the games I've seen go that far and no further. The games look absolutely gorgeous but they're really not much fun to play. Add to that fact that the PS3 carries a $600 price tag (as opposed to XBox's $400 and Nintendo's $250), and it looked to me that the PS3 was going down the tubes.

HOWEVER!

Now that it appears that blu-ray technology has won out over HD, consumers are finally free to purchase a high-def player for their home, without worrying about whether it will soon be obsolete. Thus, folks have been going out and shopping for a blu-ray player and discovering, to their dismay, that most blu-ray players on the market cost $1000 or more. Oh despair!

"BUT WAIT!" Says Mr. average consumer. "What's this? This PS3 thing comes equipped with a blu-ray player? And it only costs $600? Hot dang, that's great! I'll take it!"

So, there has been a sudden spat of PS3 sales, finally boosting the game console's sales numbers. For the first time since its release, the PS3 out-sold the XBox 360 in January 2008 (it still trails sales of the Nintendo Wii).

It makes me cringe, because now I expect Sony to take the opportunity to announce that their game console is a huge success, and that gamers everywhere are flocking to buy it. The reality is, consumers are buying the PS3 because it just happens to be the cheapest Blu-Ray player out there, and the buyers don't care about the games. (*gasp* This thing plays games too?)

*SIGH*

Okay, done ranting.

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:03:01 GMT

Saturday morning I got up early so I could go meet a friend from PlanetFurry for breakfast. Kellan Meig'h (as he calls himself) is an old Scottish war horse, and he brought his daughter along. We went to Coco's and had a good hearty breakfast while we discussed a wide range of topics. Kellan is an author of sorts, and has written several stories of his own that can be found on The Raccoon's Bookshelf. It was great to meet him and his daughter, and I hope to see them again some day.

At 10:00 that morning, I was delighted to attend a live animal event! A company called 'Leopards, Unlimited' brought a number of wild felines into a meeting room for all to see and take pictures. While we watched, they told us about each animal, their habits, and special traits. They reminded us that, while these cats appear to be loving and cuddly like domestic cats, they are still wild animals and should not be approached by anyone but professional handlers.

My favorite was the cheetah! I had no idea that a cheetah purrs and meows like a domestic cat, but there it was, with a low meow and the loudest purring I've ever heard. As it turns out, this very cheetah was the motion capture model that was used for the computer-generated cheetahs shown in 'The Chronicles of Narnia.'

They also brought in a bobcat, lynx, african serval, and cougar.

Later that morning, I attended a class that talked about dragons, their biology, legends, behaviors, and their affect on modern fantasy.

I decided to go back through the dealer's den so I could convince myself to buy some stuff from Bill Holbrook or Dave Simpson, but my frugality won over once again. However, while I was there, I ran into none other than Max Blackrabbit himself! For those of you who don't know, Max Blackrabbit is the creator of one of the most iconic and well-known characters in the furry fandom: Zig Zag!

That afternoon, I attended a seminar on "Introduction to the Gaming Industry", where a professional game reviewer game and spoke to a bunch of us about how to start a career in the Gaming Industry. Why did I go? I guess I was feeling a bit like a show-off, but I wanted to support the seminar and offer a few tips of my own. I passed out a few business cards, and met some aspiring designers and artists that asked quite a few questions.

Once that was done, it was time for the fursuit parade. There were more than 360 people there dressed in fursuits! I heard (though this wasn't confirmed) that we broke the Guiness World Record for the largest number of 'mascots' gathered in one place at a time. Here are a few pictures from the parade:

Later that evening, I attended a workshop on "Enhancing your communication skills." It was listed as part of the writing track, so I thought it would be about how to better communicate your ideas through writing. As it turns out, the workshop was mis-listed; it was about verbal communication and how to overcome personal and social communication barriers. Though it was not what we expected, Desert_Wolf and I stayed for the workshop.

It ended up much like one of the communication role-playing sessions we had back in my management communications classes back in college. I thought the psychologist who ran the workshop was very well-prepared, and she helped a lot of us to recognize our own personal communication barriers--I realized that when I confront someone, I often use the passive voice and say "People don't like it when you do such-and-such", instead of coming out directly and being clear with my feelings.

Later that evening was the WILDEST game of chess I have ever played! They laid a 30' x 30' chessboard outside on the parking lot, and a bunch of us played as the individual chess pieces. I was white bishop #2. Each piece received a manilla envelope that contained a number of poker chips for hit points (i.e. the amount of damage you could sustain before you were killed), and a number of 'special power' cards that could be used on your turn. I had powers like 'raise dead', 'heal other', 'destroy undead', etc.

The way the game worked was that a game master had a card for every piece in the game. During each round, he would shuffle the deck and then read off each piece one by one (thus giving every piece a turn each round). We moved the same as regular chess pieces. Combat was determined by rock-paper-scissors, resulting in lost poker chips (hit points) every time you lost. Thus, it was possible to be attacked and still come out the winner.

The players themselves totally got into their characters, with our king and queen stealing the show. The queen was dressed to kill, and she totally hammed up her part, often flirting with the other pieces. I played the pious clergyman, making comments such as, "My Lady! That is highly inappropriate behavior!" We finally lost the game when our king used a teleport spell and attacked the enemy king directly. Unfortunately, the enemy king had a power that boosted his combat luck, and our king was quickly defeated. Despite our loss, I had a marvellous time.

Our king and queen!

Deep into the game, the enemy black knight 'trash talks' our white pawns:

I walked back to the hotel that night quite happy, geeking out about the whole experience.

FurCon 08: Friday

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 06:07:26 GMT

Continuing my FurCon 08 report:

I got up early on Friday morning, and was delighted to discover that the FairField Inn provided breakfast as part of the hotel room fee. Not just the wimpy little continental breakfast with a mini-muffin and fruit; this was a full breakfast bar with eggs, sausage, bacon, bagels, cereal, oatmeal, juice, milk, you name it. My roommates and I ate very well in the mornings.

When the con opened at 10:00 A.M., I attended an art class of all things. The class was on how to draw basic anatomy (body shapes, hands, heads, eyes, etc.). I brought along a brand new sketch book, the first sketch book I have ever bought for myself. The class was delightful; I learned a lot of great stuff about how to draw characters with correct proportions, and I gained some good tips on how to bring out character depth by varying the thickness of your lines.

After that, I went to the dealer's room. Now this was one of the main reasons I went to the con--I was really hoping to meet some of my favorite online comic artists. I wasn't disappointed! I got to meet:

*Susan Rankin (A Doemain of our Own)
*Jon 'The Gneech' Robey (The Suburban Jungle)
*Eric Schwartz (Sabrina Online)
*Bill Holbrook (Kevin and Kell)
*Dave Simpson (Ozy and Millie)

Susan Rankin and Jon Robey graciously allowed me to take their pictures.

I bought Sue's latest book, and she signed it for me! GLEE! I also bought a button from The Gneech that says 'Kiss the Geek', which I now proudly wear on my jacket.

I was really tempted to buy stuff from Bill Holbrook and from Dave Simpson, but my overly-frugal nature took over and I didn't. Now I kinda wish I had. :(

At 1:00, I met up with Desert_Wolf and attended a class all about Foxes. We discussed their nature, habitat, characteristics, and the legends and myths surrounding them. I didn't know that foxes are much more like cats than canines!

A bunch of 'foxes' showed up at the class as well...

Before the next class, I wandered around the con hallways and lobby, taking pictures of some cool fursuiters. I found a bunch of bunnies chasing around a dog that was holding a carrot on a stick.

I also found a very well-done fursuit of one of my favorite furry characters, Zig Zag! Big props to kathrishali for her fursuit. She later went on to star in a couple of the Furry Night live performances.

The next workshop I attended was "Bad Dog Boot Camp: The Fundamental Story." This was a writing workshop, talking all about the basic building blocks of a good story. I was rather impressed at the idea of the old Greek 5-act play, and how those five acts can be readily applied to most good modern literature in some form or another. I realized that my own stories lack quite a bit of structure; I will look at ways to incorporate these ideas in the future. The workshop was taught by Alex Vance of Bad Dog Books.

Later that evening, I decided to duck in on a puppet show. The puppeteers were pretty amateur, but it was fun to see them anyway, and I enjoyed the songs and improv.

I got recruited to be part of the 'Furmily' Feud game show that went on that evening, hosted by none other than The Gneech himself! It was just like Family Feud, with the lights, music, answer board, and the big dreaded buzz sound when you gave an incorrect answer. The questions covered aspects of the furry fandom, such as "Name a food you shouldn't eat while wearing a fur suit", and "Name a popular furry video game character." I loved it! I went on to win $12.50 in prize money. :)

Finally, the last event of the evening was the dance. Though I went and enjoyed the music and watched some cool fursuiters, I didn't go out and dance. Maybe because the music wasn't right, but gosh, who would expect to hear a waltz with this crowd?

I was especially impressed with this one, who was dancing in full horse hooves!

After a long, fun, and exhausting day, Desert_Wolf and I walked back to our hotel in the rain. Oh, did I mention that it RAINED FOR NEARLY THE ENTIRE WEEKEND? It was windy, too. My poor umbrella didn't do much to cover the both of us, and my tail got a bit wet by the time we made it back to the hotel room.

Con Badges

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:20:26 GMT

Ok, I'm at home now, so I can post the con badges that SherylWhiteWolf made for me. I was very happy with them! Moreover, I only asked for one, but she made two for me.

Fur Con 08!!

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:45:20 GMT

WOA! What can I say about my first con? I am sad that it's already done and over with. I had such a fantastic time that I don't think I can post everything in one entry. So, I'll post a day at a time.

On thursday morning, I picked up my ride shares, Sheryl and Justin. Sheryl was VERY kind and drew not one, but two con badges for me! I don't have them scanned yet, but she did a great job on both of them. I'll scan them and post them in a later entry.

We tried to head up I-5, but we were stopped dead at grapevine pass: it was completely snowed out. So, we backtracked and took the 126 over to the 101, and headed up to San Jose that way. A much prettier drive along the beach, and we only lost about an hour of travel time.

We got to the con itself around 4:30 PM, and I checked into the FairField inn (which is about a block away from the con over at the Double Tree). I put on my tail and walked over to the con.

I quickly realized how valuable it is to pre-register for the con! I went through the registration line in about 5 minutes, while the line of folks who hadn't pre-registered had about a 2.5 hour waiting time. Woa.

I saw someone dressed in a GREAT Willy Wonka suit, so I snapped a pic of him as well. You can see the line of those who didn't pre-register stretched out behind him.

Once I was registered, I ran into Desert_Wolf, my hotel roommate. We spent most of the con together--he is a great guy to hang out with. He's the one on the right in the picture here:

That evening, I met plenty of fursuiters, but there was one in particular that I recognized from FurAffinity. It was a really good suit, so I got a picture of the two of us together:

That evening, I met up with my other two roommates, Airstrip and Rabbit. Unfortunately, Rabbit had a couple of friends that had roommates drop out, and he wanted to help them out so they didn't lose money on their rooms. I told him that I felt he should keep his previous commitments, but that the decision was his. Fortunately, I was able to do a quick post on the FurCon forums and got Jupiter to come and take up the last roommate slot the following night (so I was only out about $20).

At the initial 'Welcome to FurCon' meet and greet, I met quite a few furs, such as RaveHusky and BushyCat, and I was again impressed by how friendly the furry community is. Later, Desert_Wolf and I went back to the hotel room and scanned the con program to decide what we wanted to do during our stay.

I'll post about Friday later.