It’s so cool. He already knows that when his truck tips over he has to set it back on its wheels to get it to roll again. Andrea was office sitting in the embroidery shop in the basement of the radio station and Luke had plenty of space to roll around!
I hate to complain (never seems to change anything anway). But it’s been an exhausting last few weeks. So much work and travel. I think I went 3 or 4 days without seeing what my house looks like in the sunlight. Luckily I get to see Andrea once in a while when her and Luke stop by the radio station to hang out. Lately I’ve been so busy thought that even then it’s tough to spend any quality time.
Well yesterday my schedule was pretty clear, so I made huge strides in getting caught up! Felt good to not only be productive, but to be productive in the areas that I chose! I have a little checklist at work that I use to make sure I don’t forget anything, and I finally got back to where I need to be on that. Still some long term stuff that I need to get done, but I finally feel like I’m making progress again.
I actually left work a little early yesterday. It felt almost like a vacation day! I used my extra time to re-plant some peppers and corn in the garden, and start digging out the old pole that a satellite dish used to sit on. Eventually that will become my new fire pit! That’s gonna be a lot of work though for sure.
I actually sat down the other day and played some Guild Wars. The original. Actually had a lot of fun. Since all the main story is done, I now have to make sure I just pick a direction or goal I want to work on and go at it. Because it’s so easy now to sit in an outpost and just wonder what to do. So I decided I was going to go work on my Asura reputation so I can get another title and some Asura armor to add to my Hall of Monuments. When GW2 comes out, the more progress you’ve made in your HoM the better rewards you will get in GW2.
So there’s a little recap. Sorry I’ve been so absent. I really hope that it slows down soon because I don’t enjoy such a frantic pace to life. So from henceforth I’m dialing it back!
I wish I were talking about records…
Actually talking about Andrea’s Cutlass. The vinyl top on the back half of her roof has slowly been coming loose since we bought the car. It hasn’t been too bad, then all at once it really went to crappy. The glue just totally gave up.
She said she could hear it flapping in the wind as she was driving down the highway, so we stopped by the upholstery shop to get a quote. It’s actually pretty reasonable if I remove the old top. So that’s the plan. Infact, Andrea already got most of the vinyl off!
I wish I could stay up for the finalie, but that’s going to be at 1AM. I don’t think I can handle that.
I’ve had a ton of fun this weekend. This game is seriously as good as I would have hoped and more. It’s fun to play, and the sheer scale of it, from size to the number of things there are to do, it’s just amazing.
It wasn’t without its flaws. It was a little tough to play together with Biebs as we’d end up in different instances of the same world. Something the development team says they’re working.
I really want to keep playing, but sleep, work and the impending end of the Beta weekend keep that from happening. But there’s supposed to be one weekend per month until release… when I can then quit my job, ignore my family, and forego bathing to play this game without end.
At the very end, Andrea showed me how to enable hi-res screenshots. I wish I had this the entire time! The pictures it renders from the game are absolutely jaw dropping! The amount of detail in this game is ridiculous!
I’m posting scaled down versions here, but CLICK HERE for an example of one of the screenshots in its full 5656×3308 glory!
Dead bears. It was us or them. They started it.
This is my kind of monastery. They brew ale!
Divinity's Reach in the distance. It IS as epic as it looks.
That same city, from the inside.
More Divinity's Reach...
And more Divinity's Reach. Seriously this place is gigantic, so from here on out it's all the same city in these screenshots.
This is the picture in full res above. I recommend making it your desktop wallpaper!
The upper city. The palace and senate are located on this level of the city. Along with this incredible garden.
What's the one thing this city doesn't have? A huge aquarium? Actually.. no. It already has one.
Dwayna Highroad. Everywhere you go the city feels alive.
Highroad looking across the city.
Crafting stations.
Durmand Priory. A guild that focuses on researching and preserving history.
Just another part of the city I found pleasant.
Undertaker's cart near a cemetery. I just can't get over the detail put into this game!
Another highroad. Look at the man to the left of my character for scale. The banners you see hanging wave majestically in the breeze. The screenshots only do half justice. In motion it's even more gorgeous.
Steps to the Senate.
Inside the Senate. I'm surprised they let me bring this big ass sword in.
Probably an attendance book of some kind.
Beautiful stained glass. In most games you are left to imagine what is inside a building like this.
In Guild Wars 2 you can go in that building and see for yourself! Behind each of those stained glass windows is a statue of one of the six gods. Beautiful artwork!
More inside the same temple. Notice the water pouring down the wall on the left. Again, you've got to see it in motion!
There are six highroads in Divinity's Reach, each named after one of the gods. At the end of each road is a beautiful sculpture like the ones seen in the temple above. This is a statue of Lyssa.
And that’s just one small part of the small part of the game I was able to play.
Staying up late playing Guild Wars 2 these past couple nights has really made me realize how different my sleep schedule is now compared to how it used to be. I’m no stranger to late night, even all night gaming sessions. On more than one occasion the cue for me and my friends to go to bed was the pre-dawn light filtering through the window blinds.
The past couple nights I’ve been up until about 2 am playing and by this time, I am just beat and have to drag myself to bed. Then this morning I found my self awake 5 short hours later at about 7:30 like it was time to get up. In my past going to bed at 3am was the norm. Especially when I was working the night shift in Junction City. I’d get home at about 10pm, stay up until 3 am. Then sleep until 10am or 11am. That was normal for me.
Now if it’s 11pm, not only is it past my bedtime, but I’m beat. Of course I’ve been waking up 6:30am and “easing” into the day.
But regardless of how this messes up my sleep for the week to come, it’s worth it. Guild Wars 2 is an awesome game so far. I’ve played a lot of it, but there’s still a lot that they haven’t unlocked yet. I’m excited to play even more tomorrow. So I’d better actually get to sleep for tonight. I’ll post some feedback once the beta weekend is over.
The Guild Wars 2 servers were down for a couple hours, so I decided to go outside and be productive.
Man, I have cut a lot of limbs and trees around here over the past year. I really need to find someone with a truck to help me haul ‘em off.
I chopped down a tree that has been left to it’s own devices for many years. As you can see it has become one with the fence.
Makes for a lot of waste.
And all these…
Speaking of plants, the garden is still alive, though my potatoes got nipped by a cold night. I didn’t notice any frost, but apparently it got cold enough that the plants didn’t like it. Onions did OK, but the potatoes sure looked better a week or two ago. I think the might bounce back though.
And my pumpkins are just starting to sprout!
So onward we go!
I largely have no idea what I’m doing. But so far Guild Wars 2 is a blast!
Here’s a few pics before I go to bed. Haven’t stayed up until 2AM gaming in a LONG time!
There's dogs in Guild Wars 2.
The lighting and shadows were most impressive on this giant lizard.
I’ve gotta apologize to everyone who’s been either around me, or following me on Twitter the past few weeks. I’ve been under a lot of pressure and haven’t handled it as well as I’d like. Everyone at work seems to keep telling me otherwise, but I really feel like there’s been a few moments where I could have kept a little more composure. Nevertheless things are starting to quiet down and I’m able to get back to my “old” self.
I’m just way to laid back of a person. I don’t “care” about much. So being all business and cracking the whip just isn’t my style. I guess you can say I’m lazy if you want. Doesn’t hurt my feelings. I prefer to think that life is too short to worry about most things. That’s kind of how I approach each crossroad. “Will the decision I make here have any significance 5 years from now?” Most of the time the answer is “No” and if that’s the case, what’s the point stewing over this small stuff.
So now I’m kicking it. I have to work a little late today, but I decided that if that’s the case I’m going to go in a little late too. So I slept until 7:30am and I’ve just been relaxing with the family. It’s fun to see Luke when he wakes up. He’s always in such a great mood. Lots of smiles. And we haven’t been doing much, but we’re at least all hanging out together, something that hasn’t happened much.
I also love sleeping with the windows open. It’s awesome waking up to fresh air and the sounds of the birds chirping. Like they way an alarm clock should be. We have an east window in the bedroom so the sun this time of year starts shining through a little before 7AM. I woke up the first time at 6:30 and thought, I should get up and around. But then thought…. well heck, I don’t have anything to do so I laid back down until my phone rang at 7:30… from work. They just can’t live without me I guess.
So today is Thursday. And I’m super excited. Because tomorrow is Friday. Which means the Guild Wars 2 Beta begins tomorrow as soon as I get home. I’m going to be late getting home again tomorrow because of a baseball game… but once I am home… I am free all weekend. I have absolutely nothing planned. And unless something super important comes up… it’s going to stay that way.
So sorry I’ve been complaining a lot. I feel like I’m getting a little burnt out at work and just have to vent some of it. I’ve got a vacation scheduled though here in a few weeks. That makes a big difference because it gives me a finite date in the future to look forward to. Instead of never knowing when it will end. But I’ll try to keep the whining to a minimum. I’ve got it pretty darn good.
Man, what a month it’s been. I covered a lot of it in my last podcast, but if you missed it basically we had a murder trial to cover wall to wall the first week of April. Then our radio auction the second week of April. Then this past week was our Radiothon to raise money for kids with cancer. Three big events that took a lot of prepwork.
Finally this last week of April things will slow down. I’m still going to be busy though, because I’m now behind on all my regular stuff at work, but at least there’s no huge deadlines looming.
The garden is progressing nicely!
I took today to kick back and relax. Well… relax mentally at least. I slept in until 9am today, which was freakin awesome. I got up and made some coffee and headed out to finish up my planting in the garden at 10am. I got a hoe so I was able to really work the ground and get a lot of the old Bermuda grass roots out of there. Then got me some nice rows of soil and had Andrea and Luke help me decide where to plant everything. I already have my potatoes and onions doing nicely. And today I planted a row of jalepeno pepers, bell peppers, two rows of carrots, and four short rows of corn. With the ground I have left I’m going to get some tomato plants and drop them in.
I planted some flowers up front a couple weeks ago and they didn’t do well at all. That soil has a lot of old gravel in it from previous landscaping and I think that it just drained all the water out too fast and starved the plants. Instead of digging all that gravel out, I’d like to get just a load of white rock and put it down on top of that. It would look better than the weeds and dirt that’s there now.
I also sprayed all the dandelions in the front yard. They are seriously out of control. There was some stuff that was left here when we moved in that was supposed to kill them, but that had absolutely no effect. I got some other lawn safe herbicide that hooks up to your garden hose, and we’ll see if this fares better. It promises “overnight results”. I’m not getting my hopes up and really by this point, dandelion blooming season is just about over. You should have seen my yard yesterday though. It was a field of 8 to 12 inch high dandelion stems. It looked hideous. But I haven’t been home while the sun was up all week, so I haven’t been able to mow until yesterday.
So tomorrow it’s back to work. I’m not looking forward to it. I’m just so burnt out, but I’m powering through the next week or two then I’m going to take me a nice long 4 or 5 day weekend. It is going to kick ass, I can feel it.
Guild Wars 2 annouced the first Beta event next weekend, so I’m finally going to realize something out of the “pre-purchase” money that I spent. I have to work late on Friday, but Saturday and Sunday I have nothing at all going on… except Guild Wars 2!
So there ya go. I’m back to blogging and going to try to stick with it here. I should have almost all my evenings free. Finally.
