File this under “Life just has more meaning when it’s measured in experience points” but I finally hit level 70 on my main character in WOW. Hard to believe I only started playing back in March! I initially created my first character, then after about 15 levels of getting my feel for the game I deleted him and started my main character, a Hunter that I named Arachis. I started playing my first alternate character at one point and got him to level 20, but ended up deleting him because I didn’t like the class/race combination I chose. If I hadn’t done that Arachis might have hit 70 sooner, but what can you do? I recently started a female alternate character (a Paladin) named Arachnia and she’s currently at level 12, but I’ve been ignoring her as Arachis got closer to 70. One of the many bonuses of this level (which is as high as the current version of the game supports, hence the nerdy big deal, but it will go up to 80 with the next expansion) is that I was able to buy a flying mount. So now I can FLY most places instead of running along the ground, which is awesome. Do you know what makes a nerd feel better about himself? Flying above the other nerds on his flying mount, that’s what. Oh yeahhhhh!

And yes, my pet is a purple tiger named Muffin. If you have an issue with that I have no problem swishing right over there and giving you such a pinch!

Well my prediction came true: Gillian departed this world for the great beyond on Sunday. My first betta’s name was Gill, and the next one was Gilligan (Gill AGAIN, get it?) and then when Gilligan died I was fishless for a while. When I started looking around there was a betta shortage in Portland for some reason and I had no luck finding a male. Females were scarce too, and I only ended up with Gillian because my manager at work had bought her to try to breed them but she didn’t get along with the male. I’ve had her about 9 months or so, but my other betta’s lived much longer...Gill lived to be almost four! So I’m going to replay the ritual...clean out the tank, buy a new filter cartridge, and start over with a new male. I’ll post photos as soon as I get him, probably this weekend. Any votes on colors? I’ve never had an all blue or all green betta before...or a white one, that would be cool too. Throw any votes in the comments. :)

Another year goes by, and the national reserve of boxed wine drops another notch. I had a great time with all my peeps that came out to share, I don’t know what I would do without my circle. You guys rock! Now, who ended up with my underwear from Saturday? Seriously, I need those back because they aren’t mine. Don’t ask!

I ate so much garbage this weekend in the name of said birthday I’m now paying the price. Pics will be posted soon. Well not of THAT. I’m working on some changes to the site at the moment, have you noticed?

Also, I think Gillian is dying. She wasn’t looking good last week and after I got back today she is looking really slow and lethargic and her color is way off. I did a water change and she is eating, but really slowly. Bettas only live a few years but still...I’ll be really bummed if she dies. :(

This last week was truly “the suck” and things both in and outside of work had me in a funk, but in the end hanging out with my awesome circle of friends this weekend brought me around. Thursday night I went to see Virgina do stand up at Suki’s, and hung out with my friend Pete (who was visiting for the weekend from SF) and his friend Aimee G, whose taste in staplers is without question. Friday night after an awesome talk with Kelly (thank you!) Pete and I connected for sushi, IKEA and general shenanigans. He couch-surfed at my place that night and as we geeked out on our Macs he explained very politely that my website publishing software was “backwards, weird, and totally effed up.” Real friends tell it like it is! After I stopped crying he gave me some ideas I plan to run with, so the look of the site won’t change but the method of publishing will. Maybe. He seemed surprised that a geek like me didn’t know shit about HTML and CSS, but my argument was that with most modern web authoring programs, I don’t have to. Learning is hard! Far be it from me to be one of the sheeple, so I’ll see what I can do to branch out. I got even with him by abducting and cleaning his MacBook. I can’t stand dirty laptops and his wrist rests were covered in oil, dirt, and maybe a tinge of regret. I kid!

Saturday I worked at job 2.0 while Rachel and Pete went off to the country fair. Later when they got back we met up with the Jones’s (Virginia and Tom, both of whom I truly adore) and had drinks at a little bar on Gladstone. I took Pete to Leland’s for the night and came back home to WOW from 11:30-3:00 AM. Two failed guild runs, as we had people dropping out left and right because of the late hour. But like always, it was still fun. This morning I met up with the Jones’s and Pete again for breakfast at Genies. All in all it was a great weekend: I got to see a lot of my friends, and I did a lot of thinking about my job(s), life, and the people I know and care about. Call me a big sap, but I think that reflection really helped me square some things away in my mind and get me grounded. In the words of those zany Hindu’s, Namaste.

As I type this I’m eating berry flavored light yogurt, and it’s tasting a little like wine so it might have fermented. If I get drunk I’ll let you know because at 10 for $4, that shit is way cheaper than Franzia, which isn’t an easy claim to make.

Here’s to an onward and upward week ahead...keep it shiny!

This is a screenshot of my WOW character, sporting a new piece of chest armor. I got it on a guild run and it was a big boost to what I had been wearing as far as stats go, but it leaves nothing to the imagination and I feel like he’s running around half naked. I want to get a better piece just to cover him up better, but it makes me giggle so I had to share. I’m also at level 58 now so I should be able to go to areas I have never been able to get into before, which is cool.

In related WOW news I joined a guild a while back and I’m really liking it. We’re on the Khadgar server and the guild is called Horde Reapers. Charming name, I know. We use voice chat and all kinds of geeky fun, and the players are all mature and helpful, not at all like my other guild experiences. I was about to move my character to a West coast server to lower my latency (I am usually at 100-200 milliseconds on Khadgar, it’s an East coast server) but now with my guild I will stick it out a bit more. Plus I’ve been promoted twice...I’m a commander now! One of my other toons I play (that I have since deleted) was on a west coast server, and my latancy never went above 5 or 6 milliseconds and I could really tell the difference in gameplay.

I need a real life but in the meantime, this is working out just fine. :)

Well I did it: I am now an Apple Certified Support Professional in OS X 10.5. Yay! I should get my certificate this week so I’m pretty stoked. I completely suck at any form of studying and testing, so I’m pretty excited about it. This was for the Desktop Support Essentials course, and now I move on to Server Support Essentials. If I pass that test (which would amaze me shitless) it would combine with the first one to make me an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator for OS 10.5 Leopard. When the OS gets updated again, I’m screwed. Well not really, but I will have to take the clases and tests over again, which kinda sucks balls. I will still retain the certification so it’s still a good thing to have, but it would be nice if I could take a delta class that would just cover the differences. But I passed the test (finally) so that’s all that matters for now. :)

...but you can’t afford the freeway.

I’ve been singing that line a lot this last week, as it’s the opening line to Aimee Mann’s new single “Freeway”. It’s from her brand new album, “@#%&*! Smilers” which just came out. Naturally, being the rabid mann-fan that I am, I bought it instantly. A few days after it’s realease, there was more good news: Aimee is coming to Portland in July! It will be the 11th time I have seen her in concert. Stalker alert! A day or two later, more good news: Aimee launched a contest on YouTube to have fans submit videos of themselves singing “freeway”! The winner gets to sing the song with her live in concert (twitch) and ten runner-ups get autographed CD’s. When I came-to after reading that little bit of news, I knew I was genetically mandated to enter that contest, even tho I can’t carry a tune worth a shit and I will BUTCHER it, but I’m doing it anyway. The first few days of the contest there weren’t any submissions and I was feeling like wow, this might actually be something I have a shot at! Going to the YouTube page now however shows it’s sporting over 50 entries so far, and a lot of them are simply amazing. Many of them are playing the song on their guitar while singing, which is something I simply can’t do. There are still a few weeks to go of the contest, but it seems like the winners are probably already chosen. I mean, some of them are just incredible. But I’m still going to enter it, regardless of the outcome...it’s all about the fun, after all. When will I ever get a chance to show Aimee Mann what an ass I’m willing to make of myself just for her music? I’ve loved her sound since the Til’ Tuesday days, and stood in line to get her first solo CD way back in 1995 the day it came out. OK there was no line, it was just me, but I was the first one in Portland to get it! I’ll update with a YouTube link when the video is up and post it in the video section here...it should be worth a laugh and a cringe or two.

*Update* OMFG, how will I ever compete with this guy? This is gold! I love robots!

A “ding” is another name in World of Warcraft for when you level up...which my character is seen doing here. This was my ding for level 49, so I am one away from 50, which represents an important milestone for my character. If you are part of a guild and you ding, the other members are notified and you get the traditional reply of “Grats!” when it happens. It’s a fun feeling of community, and one of the reasons I love the game so much. Often times I will be on a quest, and another player will be nearby. One of us will ask the other “ hey, are you on such-and-such quest?” and if you are on the same one you can team up...two swords are better than one, for sure. Two strangers from different parts of the real world join up and play together, completing the quest, and then you say your thanks and go your seperate ways. Or many times I will see a player in over their head and come charging in to the rescue, which can be a lot of fun, and plenty of people did it for me when I first started. I have no idea who these people are, where they live or shat they do, and it doesn’t matter. When I started I relied on the help of others quite a bit, and the guild I used to belong to was a huge help, as were several real life friends that would go with me on quests and help me along. I try to do that now, and if a lower level character asks me for help I always assist if I can. I used to be a frightened noob afraid of almost everything...there are lots of things in Azeroth ready to eat you, and it can be a bit scary at times for a beginner. Now I stomp all over, accepting quests and gaining experience, and now I’m almost over the hump to level 50 and on my way to that all important and defining level...70. Of course as you progress leveling gets harder and harder and takes longer, so the longest part of that is still ahead of me. And of course the tasks (and monsters) put before me are getting tougher as I gain experience. All in all it’s a big hoot, and I look forward to all the fun (and scary) stuff ahead.

There, I said it. I'm a dude, and I pee sitting down. Now it's out there.

Why am I bringing this up? I was at a friend's the other day I excused myself to the restroom. When I rejoined my pal, he said "didn't you go? I didn't hear you." Most guys go standing up, so I guess he expected some noise. I assured him that yes I went, but I had gone sitting down and for exactly that reason, so he couldn't hear me. I for one don't enjoy hearing guys making a thunderous splash in the bathroom. He made a joke about me going "girly style" so I pressed him for the advantage to going standing up, and of course he had no argument. Is it just to see your wang? Well I'm 38, and I know what my wang looks like, thank you, I don't need to get reacquainted with it as I maintain my aim. True, most men pee standing up but in my opinion, this has the potential to make a mess. How many times has a guy friend used my bathroom (or yours) and later you see a drop or two on the seat, the floor, or god forbid the rug? Too many times! Sometimes a guy has no control over where that first bit of tinkle goes, and then you have a mess to clean up. Don't you love it when your urine stream decides to split, one aiming for the toilet and the other for the floor? I know I do. So I sit down...when I'm at someone else's house, peeing sitting down is the most courteous thing to do. My only exception is in public restrooms. If there is a urinal, I'll use it over a toilet any day because public toilet seats will either get you pregnant or give you impetigo, neither of which are good. Plus I'm lazy, so as Winston Churchill once said "why stand when you can sit?"

My "Social Networking" (a term I can't stand) has been out of control lately, so I killed Twitter and Facebook. Not enough of my friends use Twitter, and I find following people I don't know to be yawntastic. Plus the available clients leave a lot to be desired, and it just felt like IM'ing with a bunch of people I don't know. The service also goes down several times a day, so maybe I will look at it again after they mature a little and become more reliable. My friends and I have IM, text messaging and our own blogs, so why bother? For now I am on most IM services, have my own site, and kept MySpace over Facebook just because of my number of friends there. All told, it's not like I'm a hard guy to reach. :)

My friend Pete Ellison did this for me in the "Hello Kitty" theme. I absolutely love it, and those who know me will attest that this is pretty much how I dress all summer long. And since summer is just around the corner, it's even more relevant to me. Thanks Pete! This will be my new site logo along with some other flash goodies from Pete that will soon be dressing up the home page. Stay tuned!

In other geeky news I finally have a Swatch "Paparazzi" watch that my friend Virginia got me interested in. It's a "Smart Watch" that gets news and information from the internets, telling me the news, weather, movie listings and traffic information for Portland and the world. The only down side is that it uses the MSN Direct service so I had to pay Microsoft $40 for a year of service. Twitch. Once I get the new iPhone that's coming that I probably wont be as fascinated by it but still...it's pretty freakin rad!