Meh

Fruit flies are driving me insane! They seem to have decided to make my apartment a permanent home until winter comes. Can't seem to get rid of them, but they did lessen after I cleaned the place a bit. lol.

It looks like I'll be taking a position of tester at work, leaving my developer status for now. The big boss wanted me to do it and see if I like it... I'm not really thrilled but it could be easy. Just don't know how the rest of my career will pan out. As long as I do a good job they/I will be happy.

29 days until FFXIV comes out. Pumped!

One Year Later

It's officially been one year since I've first started this blog and one year and one month since I've moved to Connecticut. Wow, I cannot believe how much has happened in the past year and how quickly the anniversary came. About this time last year I was living with Josh. I remember playing Call of Duty 4 after work all the time and I remember picking like 20 lbs of blueberries. I remember cooking a lot and making sweet deserts on Sundays. I remember meeting a boy for a month and making a mistake with Josh. I remember tearing myself apart over it and barely hanging on. I have so much to thank you guys for helping me through it. I am very fortunate to have started this blog.

After I split with Josh I got my own apartment and I've been living under my terms. I haven't talked with Josh since. In the end I think it was better for me, emotionally. I was always depressed when I was with him because I knew I could never have him. Now that I'm on my own and living without him I don't get depressed anymore. I've honestly never had a moment since then where I have been really sad.

Nowadays I still play Magic: the Gathering a lot and I'm looking forward to the release of Final Fantasy XIV online. They finally published a release date for it: Sept. 30th! It'll be coming out the week of my birthday and I'll be taking about 2 weeks of work off to play it lol...

Next week is Connecticon, a convention held every year in CT. It'll be a fun filled weekend of Magic and other geeky activities I am sure. Looking forward to it!

Another day

I've probably done a lot the past few weeks. Last weekend for example I went to Rhode Island with an attractive yet obnoxious teen to play in a magic tournament. I've also recently gone back to eating real food for dinners. Tonight I'll be playing cards again as well.

Final Fantasy 14 has been making advances in development and they had a display at E3 which was today. I can't wait for that game to come out. I've given up on FF11 because I just can't play without my original character.

When I logged into MSN messenger today an article popped up called "Australian 'angel' saves lives at suicide spot". I read it and felt my tears well up at one point. I think it might have inspired me to post. Here is the link: Link

Paranormal

Okay, normally I would think I'm just going crazy but I'm convinced something paranormal just happened to me.

I was out playing Magic tonight, as Wednesday is Magic night and all. After magic I headed back home and stopped to get gas. I noticed that I didn't have my phone on me and I checked my pockets and the seat of my car to see if my phone had fallen out, but to no avail.

So I thought maybe I had left my phone at home instead of at the card shop because I really didn't want to drive all the way back. I checked at home and I didn't see it there so I decided to drive back. It is about 12:20 AM at this point so I know I have just wasted sleeping time but I couldn't wait until Friday night to get my phone back.

It had been raining hard earlier and apparently hail as well and when I left the rain had stopped, but not five minutes after I left for the card shop again the rain had started back up but this time it was raining really hard. Like flash flood hard. AND it was terrific lightning storm.

So I finally get to the card shop thanking God I made it there safely and I see that there are no cars there... everyone had left and I couldn't get into the store. I ran from my car through the pouring rain and back because I had to make sure in case the door was locked. I was so afraid of getting hit by lightning.

I ran back and jumped in my car and climbed into the back seat. I decided it was best to wait out the eye of the storm. So I waited about 10-15 minutes and decided to climb back into the front seat when I saw it. My phone was sitting there on the driver's seat........ I said "God?" out loud in a frightened voice. Seriously, I know I checked the seat and my pockets and all around for my phone. It didn't just fall out of my pocket into my seat. Normally I would just say wow I am such an idiot how could I miss it, but my phone magically appeared in my seat. I'm not even mad that I made the trek "for nothing" because I'm convinced it wasn't with me. The lightning on the way back though was just spectacular.

Alumni weekend and more Magic

Well, it's been like 2 weeks since i've updated... so much for returning to frequent posting lol. 2 weekends ago Jamie and I left to go visit our fraternity in western PA. They were having an alumni golf tournament, so we wanted to see some old friends (we had no intention of golfing, haha). We rented a car because we didn't want to put the miles on our cars and we drove off to New York to pick up another fraternity friend. After we picked up Adam, we went south to Philadelphia to pick up another friend to make it 4 of us. Shortly after we left Philly the rental car started shaking violently and we realized it wouldn't go in reverse! We spent a couple hours but we eventually found an Enterprise to swap cars with us. Man, I can't believe a rental company gave us a crap car. I mean really crappy...

It was about 12 hours on the road since we left when we arrived at our fraternity. We met up with old acquaintances for dinner, then spent the evening at our favorite local bar. The next day my Mom came up to visit and she and my sister and I went to a park for a few hours. It was nice of course to see family during my visit, since I really don't drive to PA very often.

Sat night involved a BYOB at our fraternity house. It was an enjoyable night until one of the girls blacked out and hit her head on the ground and had to go to the hospital. She looked as pale as a ghost! The party ended then and we set up our beds in the lounge and watched Kill Bill until we fell asleep.

If you were a follower from way back you may realize that this was the same fraternity that Josh went to. He didn't go because his girlfriend's graduation was the following week or so and he was going then. Yes, his girlfriend goes to the same school and is friends with my 'brothers' so without a doubt I expected her to blab her unintelligent mouth about what happened between Josh and I. Well no one said anything to me, but I could tell that some of them knew. One of my closer friends that is also friends with Josh didn't really acknowledge me :/ I was/am upset about the whole thing but what's happened is in the past and I have no control over that.

...

I've figured out that I have played magic at the card shop for 7 out of the last 8 days... Last weekend was a pro-tour qualifier, which we all played in. I went 2-2 and then dropped because I just wasn't feeling well. I needed more sleep and food to eat to be more competitive. This Saturday is another large tournament called Regionals that I will play in. I hope to do well there at least.

...

Work might get interesting soon, since I will be on an Agile team soon enough. Right now my manager is off for the next like 3 weeks, so I'm just keeping myself busy until then. At the end of this month it will have been exactly one year since I've started working there, WOW. I cannot believe how fast time has gone and all that has happened to me in the last year. I plan on having an anniversary post around that time since I started this blog shortly after :)

The weekend

During the week I noticed a crack in my windshield. It starts on the passenger side at the top and runs down to the left past my rear-view mirror. I think it might even be getting larger, so I need to have it looked at this week. I'm planning on driving myself and 3 other friends back to college next weekend, so I might need to have that fixed...

Wednesday night was another magic night. I managed to build a crazy deck and won 6 packs. Last night, Friday, only 5 people showed up for magic including myself, so we couldn't sanction the event. It's unfortunate that we couldn't and that all the shops around seem to be competing for players. I did manage to open an expensive card, so I was at least happy with that. Sunday night there is a "release event" that I'll play in too.

Lots of magic

So last weekend was member appreciation day at the card shop I play at. So I got up at like noonish and went and played there until 5AM lol... Non stop magic. We often do what we call a 2v2, where just four of us draft and the winning team gets to keep all the rares.

Well for one of the 2v2s I got paired down with an inexperienced player so I was a little upset. Then I opened a really rare and expensive card and was a little flustered, because I knew I was probably going to lose it, so I really tried my best to draft the best deck. I believe I did and we had some great games. In the end we went to overtime and I lost the final match. But afterwards Jake (who beat me) came up to me and asked me to sign his card! With a sharpie! He said it was the best game of magic he's played in a long time and wanted to remember it. I don't know, but I think signing his card was more memorable than if I had won it myself...

This Friday at midnight is the release of a new card set, so I'll be playing at the shop then.

Back to posting regularly?

Well.. sorry I haven't been posting very often like when I started, but now that it's Spring maybe I'll be in a better mood :P 2 days ago I started really cleaning up the apartment. I even unpacked my last box from when I moved in! As I was cleaning I thought about "Spring cleaning" and wondered it there is something about spring that makes us want to get stuff done? Another human trait perhaps that is (mostly) unavoidable for even non-conformists as they won't even realize it? I'm rambling :P

I've been playing Magic a lot, mostly 2 nights a week for quite a few hours each night. I think I'll have to stop playing on Wednesdays, since I have to work the next day. Last night I got back after 1 AM and I had to get up early for work.. that didn't work out well. I woke up almost missing work and I decided to work at home (which I can do with my laptop) so I wouldn't be late. I was still tired though and I still have to do some work before I go to bed.

Next Friday a new Magic set is coming out, so I've been pre-ordering some of the cards on ebay. I'm getting a few lots of cards for cheaper than I think they'll end up being when they see play, which if fun and actually is kind of a rush to try to outbid people haha. Like I have to wait until the last second of the auction and click bid.

So I got my computer set up and it's working great! Windows 7 runs very smooth on it and the 24 inch monitor is nice, lol. I also went out and got a high quality mouse, the Razor Death Adder. It's a precision mouse that requires only the slightest movement to move the curser around the large screen, which is really handy.


In other news, I've been thinking about getting a smart phone kind of soon. Probably a Motorola Droid after my trip at the end of the month. I'll be going back to my college in PA to attend my fraternity's alumni golf tournament. I've never actually golfed before, haha... but I'm going just to meet up with the chapter before they graduate.

Gloomy day.

Did the dishes and cleaned up the place quite a bit. The apartment looks pretty good with the area rug I got a few months ago... Doing laundry at the moment and waiting for the FFXI update to complete. It's rainy and was gloomy all day, but it was the good kind. The kind where it's not too cold so it's ok. Stirs the emotions.

Tomorrow my new computer will be arriving, over a month after I ordered it... wow was that slow. Hopefully it will be delivered after I get home from work so I can actually sign for it.

Today is my sister's birthday. She just turned 22. My brother's birthday is at the very end of the month as well. He'll be 19. I sent them both cards today.. hoping to brighten my brother's day since he probably doesn't get much mail at the clinic.

Alice, Final Fantasy XIII, and Magic

This past weekend I played in a Magic "Standard" tournament with Jamie and a few other friends. 3 out of the 4 of us made the top 8, which was pretty cool.

Today I picked up Final Fantasy XIII and the special edition strategy guide. I was planning on playing it all day, since I took the day off, but I've only played a little bit. It's not bad or anything, just gonna take it slow I guess.

Sunday night I went to see Alice in Wonderland (by myself). I normally wouldn't go by myself unless I knew the theater was going to be empty, but this was just a movie I had to see. I loove Tim Burton + Johnny Depp. Two of my many favorite people. The movie was alright, except for the drunk guy sitting next to me laughing his ass off at stupid things and talking the entire time... Maybe he was on drugs, idk. I'll see it again on blue ray when it comes out :P After the movie I went out and got a poster with the Cheshire Cat on it, lol.

Another day

Well, my brother seems to have gotten worse than where he was at a few months ago. I haven't mentioned him much so it will be hard to explain everything, but basically he was taken off of his psychotic medicines cold turkey and his behavior has now reverted to his erratic self. He tried to overdose on his depression meds with some other drug but failed and now he is at a mental hospital where they are trying to get him back on his original meds. He was diagnosed a while ago with first stage schizophrenia, probably surfaced by his history of drug use. To top it off, this girl he was not really seeing thought she might be pregnant with him........ but we don't think it's the case, at least we hope to god not.

ANYWAY, I just got done ordering a new computer. It's pretty nice, not top of the line but close and has room to upgrade. Decided to get one today instead of a giant HDTV, guess I'll save that for another day.. maybe closer to when FFXIV comes out.

I told my managers that I'm taking a vacation day on March 9th. I didn't tell them the reason - because that's the release day of FFXIII :) Love my job that I'm able to take a paid day off to play video games, lol. I plan on taking a week off for FFXIV.

My bed comes tomorrow, w00t! Only one night left on the air mattress and I'll be sleeping like a king (or queen).

Got my new glasses and contacts last night too... man I have spent so much this month, I think more than I ever have.

Life

I've been thinking a lot lately how lucky I am and how much I love life. I also ordered a nice bed and it'll be coming on Saturday... In the meantime I find out my brother is in the psych ward and I should "call mom" for more details. I'm afraid to call, cus I'm pretty sure why that would be.

PS3 and Dilated Eyes

So I did my taxes recently and was fortunate enough to get a nice sized tax return. I've been thinking and scouting hard how to spend my money since then. So far I've determined that I really should get a new bed and bed frame, both of which can be pretty expensive.

Last night, after work I decided to pick up a PS3. I had some money saved from Christmas that I was dedicating for it, so it wasn't going to take much from my pocket so I felt justified in buying one. I went to Walmart looking for one and they were sold out, but on the way back I realized I should stop by an Optometrist (eye doctor) to set up an eye exam because I needed to get more contacts / new glasses. I figured I'd get the PS3 after I set up the appointment.

So I get to the Optometrist and they confirmed they take my health insurance and then they said they could do the eye exam right there, right now, so I'm like alllriiight sure that will save me another trip. During the exam the doctor put a drop into each of my eyes and told me they'd feel funny for about an hour. I didn't think much of it, I figured it was something like Iodine or something to help him see blood vessels or God knows what. After the exam I pick out a pair of glasses and pay for them (wow, glasses are expensive and there goes a chunk of my money already).

Right after the exam I decide to drive to Best Buy to look for a PS3, even though my eyes still feel funny and something just didn't feel right, but hey, no one told me I couldn't drive. I get to Best Buy did a little looking around but I was happy when I found they did have a PS3. I got the 120 gig PS3 slim with HDMI cables and I also got Harry Potter 6 and Pirates 3 on Blu-Ray.

I went home and went to look in the mirror because my eyes really did still funny. I think I scared myself, because I was looking into a mirror in a bright room and my pupils were almost completely dilated! My mind was racing trying to figure out why my eyes were like that and I the only thing that could come to mind was the eye drops the doctor put in my eye. But surely, the doctor would have TOLD ME that he was DILATING MY FUCKING EYES. The people at Best Buy must have thought I was on heavy drugs... So here I am in my apartment upset because my eyes are fucked up and the doctor never told me that I shouldn't be looking at bright lights or using a computer because the monitor emits so much light.

I turned out all the lights, turned off my monitor and proceeded to set up my PS3 in the dark with the light of my cell phone. I tried many times but I am unable to get the PS3 set up with HDMI. My TV is an Insignia 720p HDTV so I figured it would work, but all the directions I find online aren't helping... so I'm trying really hard to fit a new TV into my budget as well as a new bed. I think I can do it.. oh and a new couch to watch the TV on lol. I'm off to play Magic, wish me good luck!

Microburst Snowstorm

It was snowing a good bit today and then it stopped. Just when I was leaving work it started up again, this time a little heavier than before. Half way home all of a sudden a thick sheet of hail/ freezing rain came down and the roads were COVERED and out of nowhere a bright flash was in the sky and I heard THUNDER! I have never ever seen lightning while it was snowing out, I was like WHAT THE FUCK in my car. Everyone was having a hard time on the road and I was a little nervous about making it back safely. Thankfully I did make it back and now my car is in the garage. Hopefully the roads will be clear for tomorrow.

Shane the Navi

Hahahaha I just photo-shopped myself into a Navi. Yep, that is me.

New Years, not much going on

This past week was really nice for me at work since it was a slow week. Most everybody has this week off anyway, so I worked from home most of the week. It was really just great. When I come back after the holidays it's going to be really busy for the remainder of the year though, so it will be interesting. I suppose my new years resolution is to give a lot of effort in learning more about my job so that I can become a valuable asset to the company.

With several days working at home and having New Years off and the weekend, I haven't really seen or talked to many people, and it kind of put me in a depressive mood.

According to Microsoft support my Xbox is on the way back from getting repaired, but the site won't tell me when I can expect it... which means they will probably try to deliver it while I'm at work of course. I've gone like a month and a half to 2 months without playing Modern Warfare 2 and I really want to get back into that.

I went out a few days ago and bought a variety of beers. It's kind of funny really, more than half of what's in my fridge is beer... I was reading a message board and someone was raving about authentic German beers and they were raving about Paulaner and any Hefe Weissbier in general, so I picked up Paulaner and Weihenstephaner and I already had a bunch of Blue Moon in the Fridge. I also bought a six pack of organic Coffee Porter made by Wolaver's. It turns out to be a very good beer, one that I hope isn't just a seasonal beer, which I think it is.