Systemdown Chronicles

So I am starting to diet again. This time around I am going to use a few different techniques. First I am doing portion control, less food each meal. Second I have replaced all forms of liquid with water. Third I am exercising every day. And last I am trying Alli fat blocker. This stuff is FDA approved. So I M hoping for some good results soon.

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My site has just been overhauled to Wordpress. Wordpress is much faster than the dated copy of MovableType that was on site before.  The customization of plugins and widgets is a lot smoother with the built in plugin search tool. The whole dashboard is a lot quicker and more intuitive to use.

Around this time every year I start to feel the call of the wild urging me to go camping. Time to drag out all the camping gear from the past year and see what condition its in. Between the different members of my family we have enough equipment for a small army to survive for weeks in a forest. So this weekend I need to travel down to where it is all stored and pick up the things i need to start the season. This means I have to setup all my tents and see if they need to be cleaned again. This is always a pain to do on your own, as my big tent is on its last leg, or poles in this case. It has been put up so many times by just one person when it really is a three person job, and this has caused the poles to start to crack from the stress. I will be using my big tent as the community tent during events this year as I have done at past events. This makes it very easy for people to bring new comers to pirate events that are not equipped for camping. So it looks like we will be inheriting a new tent this year, a ten by ten tent from my girlfriend’s parents. Now we will have a total of 4 tents that I will be bringing to events this year.

With spring in full force, I am inclined to get out and do things outside of my basement home. Its time to explore the options outside, such as going to the drive in. I have not been to the drive in in a few years. Ever since they tore down the drive in that was in Lebanon to put in the Super Walmart a few years ago I have not been to another one. So this weekend we will try to make the drive up to Dallas to the Motor Vu and see Monsters vs Aliens and Knowing. I am excited to get out of the house and do something, so this should be fun.

The boring winter has ended and the events of the summer are
beginning. The first event of the year was Sakuracon. This would have been the forth or fifth time that I have gone to Sakuracon, can’t quite remember how many times. I will have to dig out my badges and count them up. I truly forgot how long it takes to get through the registration line. Last year I was given my badge by the convention chair since I was there as an exhibitor for Kumoricon. We had a great weekend this year, very laid back and relaxed compared to other years. We were all at different stages of the same cold though, my girlfriend ended up hitting the worst part of the cold during the second day. I felt bad about leaving her up in the room all day but she was ok with it since all she was doing all day was sleeping. This has to be one of the nastiest colds we have had in a while, a constant cough and a stuffed up nose that lasts for more than a week.

There were some great cosplays, but I unfortunately can’t seem to find the bag with my camera in it. So I lack pictures from our trip, minus the one that my girlfriend snapped of us under the cherry blossom. Next on the agenda is to get prepared for pirate season. I need to make some new garb for myself and my girlfriend before the season starts. She needs an entire outfit made and I just need some better outfits, mine are kind of generic and bland. I would like a more vibrant looking outfit and one that matches my girlfriends.

This last weekend was quite the adventure. It started out with the normal drive of 60+ miles that I do almost every weekend. But then the next day we spent 6 hours in the car driving 333 miles down to northern California. We were there to celebrate my girlfriends birthday all be it a week late. I have to admit i started this trip feeling weary to meet her family but after finally meeting them I don’t know what I was so worried about. Everyone was very nice and fun to be around. I felt right at home after a few minutes. After spending one night there we headed to the beach in the morning and then got on the road around noon to head back north. So another 333 miles and 6 hours later we were back in our stomping grounds. We spent a quiet evening at home and crashed out a little early. Over all this was a nice weekend even if it was spent mostly in the car. 

Oh the fun I have had this week. Lets start with the good points. I had a wonderful week and weekend with my new girlfriend. We spent the entire weekend at home alone with each other. I will leave it at that. As for the rest of the week, I was not so lucky. I had to return to Portland on Monday afternoon in the snow, rain and ice. I got into Portland around 7:00 pm but ended up feeling sick from the sudden cold weather. So I decided to turn in early for the evening so i could get over the sickness as fast as possible. When I awoke in the morning on Tuesday I was not feeling my best at all and decided that I should call in to work that day and get over this as soon as possible. This momentary retreat from work was later shatter by a phone call from my boss asking me if i could make it in for the night shift. At this point I was feeling up to making the trip to work and got dressed and took off for work. Everything was going fine at work up until lunch. I took off from work to head to Uncle Vinne’s for some pizza, as I was heading back I turned left from sandy onto the 122nd on ramp and I was struck on the passenger side behind the rear door. I spun almost 180 degrees around. Everyone was alright at the time of the crash but I do know now that I am a little sore from the whole ordeal. My insurance is covering everything other than the first $500.00. So now i have to scrape together the money needed to get my car fixed. My girlfriend has been staying with me since Tuesday night after I got home from work at nine o’clock and letting me barrow her car for the rest of the week to get to work. I appreciate all the help she is giving me and I wish she was not stuck in my house all day with nothing but video games to hold her over. But now its Friday and we can get out and do somethings together tomorrow. So thats my fun filled week.