Best title ever! So we made it through the holidays! Finally. Now we are on our way through 2007. With any luck, 2007 will be a much brighter and shinier year than 2006. Not to say that 2006 was bad at all. I always hope that every year is better than the last year. As I stated in one of the earlier posts, a lot of things happened. I am only going to touch on each one as writing a full dissertation would be a tad much. So, to expand on a few of the before mentioned things:

Emily came to visit over the holidays, sort of. It was before Christmas so we had our Christmas early. We also had to divide up some time as it was also her brothers Graduation ceremony from Marine Corps OCS (Officer Candidate School). He is a full up 2LT now so a huge congrats out to him! I also got some time to spend with her family and visit so that was good as well. Emily was kind enough to accompany me to my company Christmas party where she got to meet a bunch of people from my work. This is a good thing as they can now put a face to all of the stories. That Sunday we woke up and had our own little Christmas where she gave me a very cool scarf that she knitted herself! She also got me a new Jack Skellington shirt and a super cool Nightmare before Christmas Poker Kit. I got her a new locket and a camera so she can take pictures down in FL and send them.

Our actual Christmas was somewhat un-eventful. Andrew had gotten grounded right before so it kind of set us up for a less than happy mood, but I gave him a minor reprieve during Christmas day. He got a nifty new remote control helicopter, and we both got some games for the Xbox 360. Later on in the day we went to see “Night at the Museum”. It was a cute movie and didn’t get too obnoxious. After Christmas day, he went back to being grounded and I went back to being the bad guy. Aren’t teenagers fun?

Speaking of the Xbox 360. See, it was going to be a Christmas present. Really it was. I bought it a month early because I wanted to make sure we could get one, what with the console war being what it was. Apparently Microsoft made sure there were enough 360’s around to back fill the people who couldn’t find PS3’s and Wii’s. As much as I think it would be cool to get a Wii (and they do look cool), there aren’t that many games or accessories out for them yet and the market is still young. The 360 is seasoned and broken in. Not to mention the capabilities! Videos, Demos, Games, Accessories, Camera Conferencing! Needless to say, I caved in and cracked it open before Christmas. Most of the games (nearly all) stayed wrapped so I was stuck playing demos and using the media features. With the Zune software it can stream MP3’s and Videos to the TV. Anyways, if you want to find me, add gamer-tag Wizzer2801.

New years was not too bad. Over the weekend we watched all of the Evil Dead movies. That’s a right of passage every father should do for their son. Andrew was a little scared of the first movie, but once the second one kicked in, he was all about Ash. We spent the evening of New Years upstairs with Don and Jen. Andrew won at “Simpsons Life” and we proved that we all were bad at Trivial Pursuit. The next morning we watched the Rose Parade so we can see one of the most amazing things ever. 200 troopers from the 501st Legion marching in the 2007 Rose Parade! All done under the guidance of one George Lucas. Mr. Lucas actually put out a call for all of the Legion to audition marching videos for selection of 200 troopers. He then flew everyone from all over the world and put them up for 7 days in LA. Millions of viewers got to see the 501st marching in all her glory! It was indeed a proud day for the 501st. And on that note I have to say to Albin, How does it feel to know that you have changed the world? Seriously! Not many people can say that they have done something in their lives that sparked that kind of change, but you have planted a seed that has grown and taken root, and that seed has had an impact across the globe.

Now here I am, back at work and back at the grind. Things are returning to normal with the holidays past. I am looking forward to January 12th. Andrew and I are flying down to Jacksonville to visit with Emily on her own turf! While I have been to Florida before, it’s only been to Disney World. From what I understand, that’s like it’s own little state inside FL so seeing some actual parts of the state will be fun. Not to mention I will get to see it with Emily! Did I mention the Emily part? So that should catch you up! Sorry for the winter break in posting, I’ll try and get back to a normal routine.

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Originally uploaded by wizzer2801.

One of the statues outside of Quantico. We visited there for Emily’s brothers graduation. Many of the families posed for pictures in front of it.

Many Many Many things to write about, not enough time as of late.

Emily came to visit! (YAY!)

Her Brother graduated from OCS!

It was GREAT fun!

Christmas!

Andrew got grounded!

I got an Xbox 360

I went a little overboard with said Xbox 360.

I am going to visit Emily in January.

Can I go home now?

There is a chance that I may expand on some of these things in the future.

A chance

Maybe.

No kidding, I did! As a special occasion for Lee’s visit we went out to a really really really nice Japanese restaurant. This was just the three of us, Doc, Me and Lee. We had a blast! I had close to 2 Carafes of Sake, along with the others. By the end of dinner, we were all kind of toasty. The dinner was amazing. I am not sure entirely what I ate, but I know there were assorted sushi as well as other things. I ate everything! Both of them were amazed. It wasn’t bad at all, but I think that’s party due to the quality of the place. Regardless, it was a great night!

So, I am sure that some of you are a tad curious about the whole Emily thing. I realize that some of it may be a bit sudden but remember, I don’t always write out everything in my blog. A lot of things in my life I leave out of print because it would adversely affect others or it’s just no ones business. For a while this was both cases when it came to Emily. I think it’s time to give a little bit of back story now though. So, without further ado, I give you the Emily history (as best remembered by me, and keep in mind, I have had a good quantity of alcohol since this began)

Sherman set the way back machine for 11 years ago. Welcome to Okinawa Japan. This was my first assignment fresh out of tech school for the Air Force. 21 years old and thrown to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It took a while to get adjusted but before long I was able to find a good group of friends who were like minded and shared many of the same interests. One of those interests was gaming of course. We had the best gaming group on the face of the planet there and I have never been able to find a group that could match it. One of the members of that group happened to be a (very) young girl who was the daughter of one of the local Chaplains. Fresh eyes and a mounting curiosity and she was surrounded by a bunch of gamer geeks. What could go wrong? Absolutely nothing of course! (Dirty minds the bunch of you!). She had an amazing personality and it wasn’t just confined to gaming or geek-dom. We spent some time together out around the island and considered each other as very good friends. Given that we were both quite young still, any encounter we had was fleeting. I left the island in 1998 and it would be a long while until I saw her again.

Now flash forward to a little over 1 and ½ years ago. I get a random e-mail from this girl who had browsed into my website. Turns out she heard about my site when a friend of hers was looking for Doc. Of course I remember her and we talk off and on. She tells me about her current marriage and such, I tell her about what’s going on here. She really didn’t need all that much info though as she was hooked as a reader on the blog. So this continues through out the year. She made plans to go to DragonCon 05, but of course that would be the year that I was picking up Andrew and, sorry, he takes a tad more precedence than the con. Regardless, the friendship keeps up over the next year with e-mails. That is until a few months ago.

Lee and I finally convinced her to use a form of IM so that we would be able to chat more actively, even though our e-mails had picked up and become more frequent. If you recall, a few months ago was the point where things started to go downhill with Amy. As much as I tried to withdraw, my friends were there to help me out with support. Of course, Emily would be dating someone back in Jacksonville at the time so the thought hadn’t crossed my mind yet. She was still there to talk and helped me out a lot. How was I to know that the pendulum would swing both ways. Turns out she now was in the process of a break up as well. Given the shared pain, we commensurated together. That’s when it happened.

It had been a long time waiting, but for the first time since all those years ago, we were both single at the same time. Here is a girl that shares nearly all of the same interests as me. She is smart, beautiful, incredible personality, and the most surprising part, she likes me! (really, it’s a lot harder to find than you would think!) It’s amazing how much we think alike. You know how, in some relationships, two people would finish each others sentences? Well, take heart people, we aren’t doing that. No, we start each others sentences. Far too many times have we said “Damn, I was just going to say that!” (Very silly, yes I know)

So that brings me to the most important part. She makes me happy! I wake up in the morning and just the thought of her brings a smile to my face. During the day my mind will drift back to something she said and I will giggle. I count down the time till I see her again. Even Andrew has noticed a dramatic change in my mood (and a skip in my step). I know it sounds like a lot of this happened all of a sudden, but it really didn’t. A friendship grew over many years and a relationship grew out of that over the last few months.

That brings us to some of the difficulties. She lives in Florida. Granted, Jacksonville is not all that far away (just about as far as Nashville), it does mean that casual meet ups are a tad problematic. She has family and friends up here so she does tend to visit quite a bit, and travel to Jacksonville isn’t as expensive as one would think. We also have a lot going on in our lives that, while it doesn’t impede on the relationship, it does interfere with the whole getting together thing. This means that we get to talk……..A lot. Personally I think that part is great. We always have something to talk about and I really feel like it’s an important part of the relationship. Granted I miss the cuddling and such, but it makes the time we do spend together that much more special.

There you have it then. Friend for 11 years, good friend for over a year and a half, close confidant for the last 4-5 months, and girlfriend for the last month. She really is one of the most special people in my life and as we are now, it would be hard without her in it.

Sorry if there has been too much lovey dovey stuff in the latest few posts, but it’s really how I have been feeling as of late. Lighter than air, walking on clouds, song in my heart, and smile on my face. I will try and bring the blog back down from the clouds over the next few posts.

Until next time, CAIO!

I have great friends, a loving girl friend, a wonderful (at times) son, and of course my health. It’s weekends like this last one that really make you realize all that you have. Thanksgiving weekend is always a long one, but this one seems a little longer than usual. As you know, the plan was to go down to Lee’s place as per usual (turns out for the last like 4 years). This year there was going to be a special guest along for dinner. No, not Andrew (though he has made that trip before), This time Emily and I would be spending our first Thanksgiving together. Of course we both had to make an extremely long drive in order to do this. She was the lucky one and got to start out a little early. You see, I had to finish up with work, then drop off Andrew at the airport. Sounds easy right? It would be if it weren’t for the fact that I had to drop him off at BWI which is (normally) 45 min away. In the afternoon of the day before Thanksgiving. So as you can imagine, I spent the next 3 hours driving to and from the airport. I finally started my drive to TN at around 7pm on Wednesday evening.

It was a very long long long drive. I did get the chance to do a burn in on my Zune though. I listened to it the whole way there. I also had a few good phone calls along the way to keep me awake. That and a TON of caffeine. It did get to the point where I would zone out and focus only on driving. Not to the point of being unsafe, but to the point where I was ready to get there. Thankfully what was waiting for me upon arrival was more than worth the journey. I got in at around 4:30am TN time and there was a beautiful set of arms waiting for me to dive into them. We managed to get a little bit of sleep (the caffeine leftovers were still racing through the system). I think we woke up around 9am.

Thursday was very lackadaisical. We were all pretty tired to begin with so we just wanted to relax and take things easy. We watched a few shows on TV, the parade, some Eureka, and a few Episodes of the Addams Family (TV series). We also squeezed in the Addams Family Values for reference. The argument continues by the way. Lee took us for a nice drive around Franklin to show us some of the houses in the area and how nice the town was. Yeah, he still keeps hinting. Since we were all pretty tired, we ended up turning in early as well.

Black Friday. Missy had to work pretty early so it was just us for a while. Emily had this great idea to get up and take a run. Well, it was a great idea in theory. Being somewhat sick with a minor cold, it quickly became apparent how little air my lungs could process on a cold morning. She finished up the run but I had to bow out a little early. We went back and cleaned up and chilled for a while. Em and I ventured out to the Comic book store to see if they had anything good (they rarely do). She picked up a few books that caught her eye. When we got back, Lee wanted to take us all out to do some sight seeing. Top of the list was the Parthenon. On the way there we stopped off near Lee’s work to visit with Emily’s old high school friend Shelley. Apparently the Cheesecake Factory is pretty darn busy on black Friday. Who Knew! We got to the Parthenon only to find out that it was closed. It was ok though, we had a great little picnic in the park and got some great pictures as well. Apparently Nashville has an over abundance of squirrels as well, and they were all around our table!

When we got back we had a little bit of time to sit and relax before missy got home. There is something to be said for just sitting in the same room with someone you love and enjoying their presence. Just knowing the person is there is somewhat comforting. Anyways, I digress. Missy came home and brought with her some sandwiches, which made for a nice easy dinner while we watched “Over the Hedge” with the kids. Once the kids headed to bed it was Adult time! Which meant that the drinks came out and we watched “40 Year Old Virgin”. (With frequent pauses for refills and stories). I have to say that the movie was a little eerie to watch when the guys apartment looks just like mine. (I’ve heard). Saturday was going to be a big day for outings so after the movie we called it a night. Well I would say that except Emily and I sat downstairs and talked for what seemed like minuets but turned out to be hours. Personally, I loved every second of it.

Needless to say, we slept in a bit on Saturday morning. This was ok as Missy was feeling under the weather. We thought it was only a hangover, turns out it was a tad worse than that. You see, when we got there on Thursday, Shiloh (the youngest) was a little sick. What we thought was just a child’s sniffles turned out to be a bit more. Missy ended up being sick through most of the day. This gave Emily and I the chance to get away just the two of us. We went to downtown Franklin and walked around Main Street. We visited many of the different little shops and even got the chance to walk around one of the art galleries there. We stopped in to the local Irish pub and had a good Irish lunch, where we stared into each other’s eyes for most of it. It was such a nice afternoon out, the type where you don’t want it to ever end. Sadly, it had to. We headed back to hear the word on what we were doing for the evening.

Missy was apparently still sick, and it got worse. Now Torri was sick as well. Lee canceled the baby sitter and we made arrangements to meet up with Emily’s friend Shelley. We decided on a place called Amerigos. We had some time to kill so we sat and played some cards. Emily taught me a new game called Egyptian War. Apparently I am better than she thought at it. (: We had a nice dinner with Shelly and got to talk about all sorts of old times. About halfway through dinner I got a txt message from lee with the “I think I got it now”. This was a very very bad sign. When we got back to the house he was feeling pretty bad. Missy had started to recover and came down to chat but in the middle of it Lee made the motion to clear a path. This was the point where I figured we should head downstairs. Em and I had planned to curl up and watch “Love Actually” on the Mac. If only we had gotten that far. As soon as she laid down, she started feeling queasy. I will keep the details short and say the rest of the night was a real test of our closeness.

So the count came out at Shiloh, Missy, Torri, Lee, and Emily all getting sick. At this point, Damon and I remained un-effected. We started Sunday off pretty slow as you can imagine. We didn’t it the road until around 11am (VA/FL time). The drive was long and painful. I didn’t hit near as much traffic as I thought I would have, but Emily had some rough spots in South Atlanta. Because of this we both got home at around the same time. Of course, this was around 11pm! We both just crashed out for the evening. At least, I had thought that it would be the end of my evening.

About 5am it hit me. Apparently when I am driving I put myself in a sort of sickness stasis where I can focus on driving and let my body deal with things later on. It was now later on. The queasiness set in and I knew what was coming. I jumped on the opportunity and medicated up with some Pepto to stop my stomach from doing what it really wanted to do. Unfortunately, this didn’t make it all better, it just calmed the storm. Needless to say, I have now spent the rest of the last two days at home either on the couch or laying in bed. Oh, and I heard that later on Sunday evening Damon caught the bug as well. Everyone in the house got it. Ugh.

So when I say I am thankful for my health, I really mean it!

The past few months have been a really interesting time. Bouncing around mentally and emotionally, it’s been quite the ride. One voice in the darkness has really shown through and been there to comfort and advice. One ear there to hear the good and the bad. Through all of this a bond has been re-created, a light re-ignited. This is what led up to the infamous date from last weekend. I was so bloody nervous over that too. Here is Emily, a stunning young woman who is bright, witty, beautiful, and intelligent. Then there is me. Not to say that I am a slouch or anything but you know what they say, you are you own harshest critic. What was strange about it was that Emily and I have known each other for years. She was a good friend out in Okinawa (possibly more, but I had a lot of alcohol back then [wink]). Then we both kind of went different ways. It wasn’t until recently that we had the chance to re-unite as friends. I was really glad that this happened. It’s amazing to see the different paths that both of us had taken.

Now, recently both of us had gone through relationship pitfalls, and here we were at an interesting cross road. Both of us suddenly single and available. Why not give something a chance that never had the chance before. So I asked her out, and I am really glad I did. I think we learned a lot more about each other during the whole process of the date build up, and that weekend. It was amazing how much we had in common, and with the differences, it made conversations all the more interesting. She has incredible views on so many different things. Even now, after the weekend is over, I can’t help but think of her and smile. (Is that silly?)

So, that brings us to the quiz. Emily and her friend Annie (yes I mentioned you by name!) decided that they apparently didn’t know enough about me, so they devised a quiz derived from many different sources, including some questions they threw in on their own. I told her that what ever she asked me, she has to answer as well. So we both sat up the other nights and answered all of the questions, then sent the answers without ever looking at the others sheet. Needless to say, I was floored. Some of the answers I knew, or felt right about, some I did not and was pleasantly surprised about. Then there are the answers that were mind blowing-ly identical to mine. I don’t know that I have ever had so much in common with someone while still having enough differences to add spice to the relationship.

Yup, I said relationship. It’s official, we are a couple! Latest plans are to meet up at Lee’s place in about a week for Thanksgiving. You know I have been at Lee’s for thanksgiving for about 4 years now! I am truly thankful!

Below is the list of questions. If you really want to know the answers, you will have to e-mail me.

What are you good at?

What is your favorite food?

What is your favorite TV show?

What is your favorite book?

What makes you laugh?

Name your favorite band

What is your favorite song?

What is your favorite movie?

What is your favorite subject at school?

Who do you admire? Why?

Why are we here?

Is there a God?

What do you want to be?

How will we find happiness?

Are you intelligent? Why have you given this answer?

Do you want to get married?

Do you want children?

Do you want pets?

Favorite animal?

Pets you don’t like?

Do you support embryonic stem cell research??

What do you think of the tests on Human cloning?

Do you believe in reincarnation?

How many siblings do you have? Names? Ages?

What do you like best about your job?

Least favorite thing about your job?

What is your dream job?

What do you consider to be your best feature?

What is your worst feature?

What was your favorite subject in school?

What scares you?

Favorite foods:

Foods you hate:

What is one of your first childhood memories?

Favorite memory?

Time that made you really sad?

Favorite smells?

Favorite actor/actress?

Favorite thing to do on the weekend?

Beach or mountains?

Lake or Ocean?

Are you allergic to anything?

Do you like roller coasters?

If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be? Why?

Do you type with your fingers on the right keys or “hunt and peck?”

What is your dream car?

What is the high point of your week at work? Why?

What is something that you’re really looking forward to doing soon (outside of work)?

How do you plan to do it?

Who is a person who’s made a difference in your life?

How have they made a difference?

What’s a way you make a difference in someone else’s life?

What’s one of your favorite places to be? Why?

If you won two free tickets what would you like them to be for?

What is a gift you would like to find waiting at home for you today?

Do you believe in Monogamy?

What do you consider to be unforgivable?

In a room full of kids what advice would you most like to give them? Why?

In a room full of parents what advice would you most like to give them? Why?

Describe one of your most prized possessions. Why is this important to you?

If you could take a trip anywhere, right now, where would it be?

Name a place you’ve never been but would like to see.

Politically speaking are you Liberal? Conservative? Republican? Democrat?

What do you want your life to be like 10 years from now?

Would you ever participate in a reality show?

What is the best thing that has ever happened to you?

There is only ZUNE. It’s out, and wow has it gotten little to bad press. Microsoft finally released it’s new media player, the Zune. I have been waiting for it for quite a while now, reading up on it where I could, saving money, etc. November 14th came around and I was at Target at 8am to pick one up. While I wasn’t the only one there to get one, there wasn’t exactly a line of campers out front to get one either. Point one against Microsoft, a little more advertising probably would have helped with this. Regardless, I went in a bought my new Black Zune. (the brown one looks like a turd brick) Target had a total of 4 of each color, and I got the first of the black ones.

So, first thing, let’s go over the publicized specs:

• WMA, MP3, AAC, JPEG,WMV, MPEG-4, H.264 media playback
• Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) connectivity
• 30 GB Hard Drive
• 3 inch video LCD 320×240
• White, Black, and Brown Colors
• FM Radio
• Dedicated song download site zune.net
• Podcast playback
• Updateable Firmware
• Tested 13 hr battery life for audio, 4 hr video
• 3 day playback of Wi-Fi transferred songs from friends
• XBOX streaming
• XBOX (Microsoft) points compatibility
• Preloaded music videos
• Over two dozen accessories at launch
• 5.6 ounces in weight, 4.4 x 2.4 x 0.58 inches size
• Metric: 158 g, 112 x 61 x 14.7 mm size
• Custom background images
• WiFi transfer of photographs
• Tag based storage system (Will not appear as drive)
• PC Compatibility (no Mac client at launch)
• Zune tag enabled
• Horizontal and vertical video orientation

The website Zune Scene also has a great comparison chart with the 30gb Ipod. Anyways, I had to head to work so I really didn’t get to play around with it till I got home (and it needed to charge) so, fast forward to the evening where I get to tear it apart. So it comes with all the parts and what-not that every other player comes with. Lets start with the pieces before we get to the player. The USB cable is on par with the Ipod one (I had a Ipod Mini and a shuffle before this), nothing terribly exciting about it, it’s a cable for petes sake. The headphones (ear buds) are good. I liked the sound of them, but for the most part, you either cope with the headphones you get or you have your own that you use. I liked the look and design of them, and the magnetic backs of the buds was kind of cool to keep them from getting too tangled. It was also a bitch to get the little foam covers on the damn things. But that could just have been me.

The Documentation was kind of a waste unless you really don’t know what you are doing. You can see in the pictures, they have the “dropping in a CD and plugging in USB for dummies” pictures. You also get a little card that has a code (obscured by my pen) for the 14 day free trial of the Zune Pass. The box itself had all this stuff crammed into little side compartments, which actually was pretty cool. I didn’t have to tear out all sorts of weird packaging to get at any particular piece. So, with that done…..let’s get to the player.

The first feel of the player was good. It has some weight to it, and the translucent over coating really made it feel comfortable. I have seen a lot of players that just feel cheap in your hands and you think they are going to break by looking at them, this isn’t the case. The buttons are few and straight forward. One of the things that is getting annoying is the constant claims of the circle control on the front being a bite off of Ipod and such. It’s not a wheel, it’s just a directional pad, and a very functional one at that. If you think they stole the design from Ipod, go out and look at 90% of other players on the market. They all have some sort of directional pad/wheel. Welcome to free enterprise. You have the pad, a back button, a play/pause button, and on the top is the hold slider.

Firing up the box, I was greeted by the standard menu and was able to jump in and play some of the pre-loaded content. I have to say, this was awesome for MS to do. Walking out of the store, you can fire it up and start playing music or videos. The menus were fairly easy to master. You can use the d-pad to move up and down the selections. Left and right are to change the category. For example, you select “Music” and are greeted by a list of albums in your Zune. Up and down will select which album (if you have a lot, you can hold up or down to zip through, a letter will show up on the side to show where you are in the list). If you hit left or right you can change to the artist category, again and you go to songs. So, going back to the albums section, if I select (center of the d-pad) an album, I get a list of the songs on that album. The left and right move me to the next album on the list. For me, at least, it was fairly intuitive. I used the back button to back out of any selections.

Next step was hooking it up to the PC (good thing I had those pictures handy). The CD was worthless, I went to Zune.net and downloaded the latest version (like I do with all new stuff). Running the install took a while to do it’s little update, and as with all MS software, I had to reboot. After the reboot, and firmware update, I hooked up the Zune and it went to town downloading all of my songs to it. Ok, so here is problem #2. I have about 60gb of songs, and my poor little Zune is only 30gb. I spent a good hour or so figuring out how to get it off its auto-sync tirade. The MS answer to get it to skip songs is to delete them from the Zune, of course this means letting it download them all first. Yeah, not so much. I set it to manual sync and…..crap just lost all the pre-loaded stuff. DAMNIT! Ah well, the Zune marketplace has a playlist with the songs on it for download, so if I really wanted to I could get them back.

After about another hour, the Zune software had completed compiling all of my library and play lists from Itunes. I went about moving over all of the stuff I wanted on the Zune and starting the sync. Here goes another hour while it syncs up. I threw in some pictures and videos as well. After the last of it was over to the Zune, I started playing around with my own content.

Setting the background was a snap, go to picture, select picture, center button, set as background. The radio function is kind of cool, if you are in a place that has good reception. The internal antennae kind of sucks, but I didn’t buy it solely for a radio. Watching videos on it is nice. I have seen videos on the Ipod and the screen is just too small. I know that the actual resolution and such is on par with the Ipod but the larger screen really makes a difference. Interesting fact: when watching a video, the d-pad flips as well as the player. Up/down = volume, left/right = fast forward/reverse. In music mode, the same functions apply. The pictures displayed look crisp and clean on the screen. I kind of wish that if a picture is in portrait mode, it would flip and fill the screen, but in picture mode it’s landscape view only. D-pad cycles through the pictures.

I also activated the 14 day trial for the Zune Pass. The Pass is MS’s all you can eat buffet of music through the market place. For a measly $14.99 (about the cost of a CD) per month, you can download/listen/put on your Zune and take with you, any of the songs in their library. You can also listen to CD quality full length music through the PC software (no download needed). This is huge for me as I hate the 30 second preview crap. So here is another test in the works. Right now I have the 14 day trial going and I pulled down some music and threw it on the Zune. According to the Zune pass, as long as I have an active subscription, I can listen to the music. If the subscription runs out, it won’t let me listen. So what happens if I don’t sync. Does the music on the Zune time out? I’ll know in about 13 days! If it doesn’t, I may think about paying for a month, loading up, then listen for about 3 months, then fill up again. We’ll see.

In the Engadget review they commented about how when the Zune is plugged in, it’s basically a brick. This is NOT true. While the Zune software is running, your Zune is “connected” and is seen by the software, if you close the software, the Zune menu comes back and you can play with it while it’s charging. It does not get seen by windows as a drive. On a whim I decided to have some fun and hook it up to the Mac (yup, I have one and like it very much). While it does not initially do anything visible (like show up as a drive), I went into the system profiler and sure enough, under USB devices it see’s it as “Zune”. (Really should have got a picture of that).

So, the main reason I wanted the Zune if for use in the truck. I have a good stereo there, and it even plays MP3 CD’s but I keep wanting more than just 700mb. I am so spoiled too, I even have XM there as well. So I bought myself a splitter and split my AUX-in for the XM to have an extra port for the Zune. It sits nicely below the 4×4 shifter in the truck. Another interesting fact: When you unplug the audio jack, whatever you are doing pauses. I understand that other players do that too, but damn that’s cool! So now it’s very nice to be driving around with the Zune, I can hit shuffle all and left/right d-pad through random songs.

Over all I am really happy with the Zune, while I haven’t had the chance to play with any of the Wi-Fi (report on that soon with Goon-Zune Buddy’s, Pukestain Pal’s help). There are a lot of things that can be improved. The Zune marketplace software could use some help, videos would be nice, but I am optimistic that those features will come. Also I am holding out that MS will implement some capability to sync via wireless, or allow us to browse some online content via wi-fi. The hardware is in place, it wouldn’t take much to push out through firmware. In the mean time, I am really happy with my choice. All of the Pictures are located here

I have officially had one of the best weekends ever! It was crazy, nervous, action packed, amazing, wonderful, and some might even venture to say…..magical. (Part of the magic was how much was actually crammed into so little time) So, I should probably start off with the question of who the mysterious girl from the last post is. She is someone who is truly a dear friend and has been for many many many years. Sadly we had lost track of each other for a while but had gotten the chance to reconnect. At first it was great to have a good friend back in my life (as a good friend), but over just the last few months something more came shining through. It’s silly how feelings like this grow where you wouldn’t expect them to, when you don’t expect them to. I hadn’t even thought about the idea of anything when bam, I was slapped in the head with the “I care for you a great deal” fish.

So, anyways, when I found out she was going to be in the area, I went for it and asked her out on a official date. It’s weird because we had known each other for so long, but we have never really gone out like this. When she agreed I went about planning one of the best nights ever. First stop, a reservation at Marrakesh. It’s a Moroccan restaurant that was VERY highly recommended. I have to say, it was one of the best places I have ever eaten at. It’s not in the best part of town, but it’s worth the trip. When we got there, we had to knock on the door (it’s very discreet). Inside was all themed in the Moroccan style, everything, it looked amazing. They took us back to the back room where we got to sit on this small pillowed bench in front of this little table. The waiter placed out a menu that had only the wines listed on it. We picked out the house red wine. Shortly after they brought the wine out, he brought by a small pot and a kettle. This was for us to wash our hands as he poured water over them. He explained the 6 courses that would be brought out. (Unfortunately, he had a very thick accent and I only caught about ½ of what he described).

First out was the “salad” which consisted of cooked eggplants in tomato Sauce cucumbers and tomatoes in Mediterranean seasoning oasis carrots with coriander. It’s important to mention the carrots here. REALLY important. The carrots were, oh my god, yeah, oh my god. Then, the B’Stella: layered pie with chicken, assorted nuts, almonds, eggs, parsley, and onions topped with confectioners sugar and traced with cinnamon. While it was hot to start with, which made it difficult to eat seeing as how, oh by the way, we had no utensils. Yeah, you don’t use them here. Every bite of this thing was heaven. At the time, I didn’t even know what was in it. It didn’t matter! Next, Tajine of lamb with almonds and honey. The meat fell off the bones and the honey added so much to the taste that it was incredible (I am so going to run out of words to describe). It was sometime during this that the belly dancing started. The music was pumping and we had an extremely talented (and muscular) dancer come out and dance. She even managed to get a number of the girls to stand up and join in the dancing. Including someone in particular.

After the dancing, we enjoyed a plate of Couscous rand Atlas topped with vegetables, chick peas, and raisins. I loves me some Couscous! Just before dessert we were treated to a good sized bowl of fruit with some of the best grapes in the entire freakin world! There was also these two really cute tiny apples, I almost didn’t want to eat them because they were so cute! (almost) Finally the waiter came out with a tray and two glasses to which he poured us tea from a kettle held about 4 feet above the glasses! We enjoyed it with our Moroccan pastries as our desert. The entire dinner took from 8:30 till after 11pm. (if you plan on going here, something to keep in mind, they don’t take credit cards, but they have a very well stocked ATM in the building.) With dinner finished, we set out on the rest of the night. A lovely moonlight walk through DC.

We found a great place to park just behind the white house. (did you know they shut off all the lights there at around 11pm? I guess George needs the lights out to sleep.) We walked around the White House and just to the east is a paved out map of DC called Freedom plaza. Thinking quickly I whipped out my cell phone and brought up the MP3 of a specific song. We danced slowly in the middle of DC (figuratively and literally). This was a very special moment, well, at least it would have been if we weren’t rudely interrupted by some jack hole who wanted to sell me a flower. Seriously, if you see two people dancing in each others arms, enjoying a moment, WHY ON EARTH would you interrupt them?? [sigh]. After we told him to go away and finished our dance (thankfully I think we managed to salvage the moment) we walked across into the Regan building complex. It’s really quite beautiful right now with the leaves in the trees changing to a stunning yellow shade. All of the trees were already decorated with Christmas lights so it appeared as if the stars were coming down to meet us. We sat beneath them for a long while and talked, staring into each others eyes.

After what seemed like only seconds but was actually quite a while, We continued along the walk. We crossed over to the main mall area to catch the breathtaking view of the capitol building and the Washington Monument. Although, they really couldn’t compare with the stunning view of a beautiful woman in a black and white dress (with a lovely furry coat, btw, thanks Shasta!). We started to head towards the Washington Monument, taking a slight detour in the leaves. Wait, did I say detour? No, no detour here. Straight on to the Monument! Needing a little bit of a rest, we sat on the railing in front of the monument and enjoyed the un-lit view of the front of the White House. Now, not saying that the rest is bad, but, had someone brought shoes for walking (like I had mentioned quite a few times) someone wouldn’t had gotten a blister on her foot now would she? We decided that it would be a good time to head back to the truck so we took a fairly direct route back. 2.61 miles later we arrive back at the truck. On the trip back we listened to soft music and I could tell that she was already very very exhausted. We arrived back to her door by 2:30am where I kissed her good night and she went in to (hopefully) have sweet dreams. I made it home just before 3am where I did the same. Thank you Emily, the date was indeed magical.

That, was Friday. The rest of the weekend was spent with me walking around with a huge smile on my face. I was in an incredible mood! Andrew and I had a great lunch a Fat Tuesdays (really cool New Orleans food down by the comic shop). Emily and I argued the finer points of who is the better Gomez Adams (I still say Raul Julia!), Doc and Diz came over and we had a great visit where we all watched Battlestar Galactica and got to chat it up. Oh, and before I forget, I got to spend the evening with Emily and her Sisters family watching the new Bollywood classic, “Bride and Prejudice”. (Ok really, how can you have a new classic, who would even say that, if it’s new, how can it be a classic! If it’s a classic, it’s NOT new!) It’s awesome to have a movie suddenly burst out into song and dance! (Screw in the light bulb, pat the dog.) Thanks again to Beth and Rene for a hosting a fun movie night. It really added to the weekend.

So now she is on a flight back to Florida and will be landing shortly. We said our “see ya laters” at the airport and I already miss her. Thankfully, she is coming back soon! Wow, what a weekend!

One of the things I have learned in my many travels is that it is extremely easy to look back on life and say “Why did I do that?” and “What if I had done this?”. What makes life challenging and interesting is how hard it is to move forward with life and discover all of the incredible things that are waiting for us just around the bend. The adventure lies in that we don’t know what is there and every day is a new discovery!

Those of you who are avid readers know that the last few months have been tough with what life deals out. Those of you who know me close (and get the whole story) know this with my depth. All that said, it’s time for me to embark on the path that life has for me and to stop sitting at the crossroad looking down where I have been. Memories will always be there (until I get old and start forgetting things, but that’s why I have this blog right?) experiences are there for me to cherish and learn from, but if I spend to much time thinking about the past experiences and memories, I may miss out on the ones yet to happen.

What is all this leading up to? Well, it’s kind of hard to say, but, I believe I have a date this weekend. The funny part about it is that I haven’t really gone on a “first date” in years. While I am nervous, a little, it’s someone that I have known for a long time. She herself is at a crossroad in life and is getting ready to make some decisions. Outside of the whole date aspect, she is a really good friend as well, and I care for her a great deal. As a matter of fact, she was the muse behind my latest video that I edited together.

I know the timing on this may come as a shock to some people, but I don’t deal the cards, I just play the hand I have been dealt. Sometimes you get good cards, sometimes you just have to fold. (every now and then you get pocket aces and some bastard gets a flop of 7 8 9 while holding the 10 and J and your betting big because of your aces and he is just laughing and laughing and laughing while taking your money……bastard)…..Anyways, I feel my hand is good, time for me to raise the blinds.