One of the great spiritual truths I've gleaned from my Pagan path is that the Wheel of the Year offers a good model for timing some of life's bigger tasks that are not directly tied to religious liturgy or agrarian life. One of the things I have been doing annually between the Autumn Equinox and Samhain is taking stock of my life, cataloguing the wins and losses over the course of the year, celebrating goals achieved and identifying new opportunities for spiritual growth.
OK, New Years' Resolutions are somewhat universal, and in a way, this is exactly that.
(continued)
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Friday, October 28, 2011
Friday, June 18, 2010
FNO Pot Pourri
1. Jameece came home early last night, so she did dinner: marinated flank steak stir-fry.
2. I used my mighty Google-Fu powers yesterday on some random things that Jameece has made for me and stumbled upon Cooks.com's recipe database. I showed Jameece a couple of the recipes there and she said "Good! Let's try them!"
/loves his 'Meece.
3. A bit of general Wow stuff: Nartyros is level 78 and about 74% of the way to 79. Tyrantos went on a continuation of his Ice Crown Citadel 10 man raid from Monday. We managed to get a new boss down -- Valithria Dreamwalker -- and got some very good attempts in on Professor Putricide. The guild has downed seven of the 12 bosses there. No personal upgrades, but some of our guild allies are getting some nice stuff. Will be in 25 man ICC Sunday night. One of the in-game holidays -- Midsummer Fire Festival -- starts Monday. Sacred fires to honor, a frosty holiday boss to pwn, cool tabards, etc.
4. First full week of summer vacation has been light on personal stress. The kids are finding other things to do and by and large are not turning into total vidiots. Yes, they still play videogames and watch TV, but not as much as I feared they might. NOT having SpongeBob on all the time helps.
5. Dad's Day plans include springing Jameece's ailing dad (poor guy's recovering from knee replacement surgery) from his convalescent hospital for Chinese buffet at our favorite Chinese buffet place. Next weekend, Jameece's Esteemed Younger Daughter turns 14, just in time for the Fourth of July.
2. I used my mighty Google-Fu powers yesterday on some random things that Jameece has made for me and stumbled upon Cooks.com's recipe database. I showed Jameece a couple of the recipes there and she said "Good! Let's try them!"
/loves his 'Meece.
3. A bit of general Wow stuff: Nartyros is level 78 and about 74% of the way to 79. Tyrantos went on a continuation of his Ice Crown Citadel 10 man raid from Monday. We managed to get a new boss down -- Valithria Dreamwalker -- and got some very good attempts in on Professor Putricide. The guild has downed seven of the 12 bosses there. No personal upgrades, but some of our guild allies are getting some nice stuff. Will be in 25 man ICC Sunday night. One of the in-game holidays -- Midsummer Fire Festival -- starts Monday. Sacred fires to honor, a frosty holiday boss to pwn, cool tabards, etc.
4. First full week of summer vacation has been light on personal stress. The kids are finding other things to do and by and large are not turning into total vidiots. Yes, they still play videogames and watch TV, but not as much as I feared they might. NOT having SpongeBob on all the time helps.
5. Dad's Day plans include springing Jameece's ailing dad (poor guy's recovering from knee replacement surgery) from his convalescent hospital for Chinese buffet at our favorite Chinese buffet place. Next weekend, Jameece's Esteemed Younger Daughter turns 14, just in time for the Fourth of July.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Bloggery 2009-10-22
1. Pics of Parker from his visit last weekend, as well as Photographic Proof™ of the literary awesomeness of one Seanan Mcguire -- her book, featured on the new paperback rack in the front of the Arden Faire Barnes and Noble.
Oh, and the book itself, Rosemary and Rue, is a terrific read. Rosemary and Rue is to urban fantasy as Lois McMaster Bujold's Shards of Honor (another great book, by the way) is to military space opera: a sharp, witty, very well written first novel with great plotting, crisp dialog, intelligent world-building that will gain a vast following. I think that, like Lois, Seanan's work is award-worthy. I foresee Hugos and / or Nebulas joining the Pegasus awards on her mantle.
2. Weekend WoW: Another weekend, another FAIL Naxx-25, aka, the Floating 1d4 of FAILBOTTERY. Fresh run, started in Construct Quarter. Patchwerk, Grobbulus and Gluth were all one-shotted. I got my hopes up . . . then we hit Thaddius, aka the "White Death Knights Can't Jump" boss. This time I made the jump (about a quarter of the raid didn't) because I tried a couple of tricks to boost my Run speed. but the raid's damage output was far too low to take Thadd down before he enraged and hard wipes the raid. About 1/3 of the raid was not even geared for Naxx-10. One guy had mostly green (low level) gear from the lower end zones of Northrend.
Consensus on being geared enough for Naxx-10 is to have all or almost all Rare ("blue") gear at Item Level 187 - 200. This gear can be obtained through quests rewards, through faction reputation rewards, from crafters and from dungeon loot drops in heroic-mode dungeons. New level 80 toons have little business in Naxx unless they have the gear to survive.
I still managed to get enough heroic dungeon runs in to score my second piece of T8 with badges. The loot from heroic dungeons -- with one exception, namely Heroic Trial of the Champion -- no longer provides me with gear upgrades. The badges, on the other hand, can still buy some upgrades. However, the Emblems of Conquest that drop in heroics and pre-3.2 raids no longer buy me gear upgrades. The higher-level Emblems of Triumph are what buys the Tier 9+ and associated upgrades. I can trade the EoC's down in level, save them to buy other things, just no gear upgrades. I'm five Emblems away from my third pirce of Tier 9.
Oh, and the book itself, Rosemary and Rue, is a terrific read. Rosemary and Rue is to urban fantasy as Lois McMaster Bujold's Shards of Honor (another great book, by the way) is to military space opera: a sharp, witty, very well written first novel with great plotting, crisp dialog, intelligent world-building that will gain a vast following. I think that, like Lois, Seanan's work is award-worthy. I foresee Hugos and / or Nebulas joining the Pegasus awards on her mantle.
2. Weekend WoW: Another weekend, another FAIL Naxx-25, aka, the Floating 1d4 of FAILBOTTERY. Fresh run, started in Construct Quarter. Patchwerk, Grobbulus and Gluth were all one-shotted. I got my hopes up . . . then we hit Thaddius, aka the "White Death Knights Can't Jump" boss. This time I made the jump (about a quarter of the raid didn't) because I tried a couple of tricks to boost my Run speed. but the raid's damage output was far too low to take Thadd down before he enraged and hard wipes the raid. About 1/3 of the raid was not even geared for Naxx-10. One guy had mostly green (low level) gear from the lower end zones of Northrend.
Consensus on being geared enough for Naxx-10 is to have all or almost all Rare ("blue") gear at Item Level 187 - 200. This gear can be obtained through quests rewards, through faction reputation rewards, from crafters and from dungeon loot drops in heroic-mode dungeons. New level 80 toons have little business in Naxx unless they have the gear to survive.
I still managed to get enough heroic dungeon runs in to score my second piece of T8 with badges. The loot from heroic dungeons -- with one exception, namely Heroic Trial of the Champion -- no longer provides me with gear upgrades. The badges, on the other hand, can still buy some upgrades. However, the Emblems of Conquest that drop in heroics and pre-3.2 raids no longer buy me gear upgrades. The higher-level Emblems of Triumph are what buys the Tier 9+ and associated upgrades. I can trade the EoC's down in level, save them to buy other things, just no gear upgrades. I'm five Emblems away from my third pirce of Tier 9.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Bloggery 2009-10-15: Journal of the Plague (years)
With NO APOLOGIES whatsoever to Norman Spinrad's awesome novella from the 80s about AIDS.
I'm finally (two weeks later) feeling almost back to normal.
I've been passing the time -- when up to it -- playing WoW. Getting out of Clothing Discouraged and into Eclipsed was a blessing in disguise. Three *scheduled* raids a week, and this week we had a couple of Good Ones: Trial of the Crusader-10 and -25. I've tried TotC-10 once with CD and we wiped like a 12-pack of Charmin rolls on the first boss.
Not this time, bunky! While we were only able to down the first 3 bosses in 25-man (Beasts, Lord Jaraxxus, Faction Champs), we were able to finish 10-man (Twin Val'kyrs, Anub'arak). Then we did 10-man Ulduar and managed to buzzsaw our way through Flame Leviathan, XT-2000 Deconstructor, Ignis, Razorscale, Kologarm, Auriaya, and the Assembly of Iron. We went bounce off Thorim. Left are Hodir, Freya, Thorim, General Vezax, Mirimon, Yogg-Saron and Algalon. As dessert I managed to get into a no-fail Naxx-10 PuG, and dropped Gluth and Thaddius to finish Constuct Quarter (and this time I made the jump!), Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad. I am missing one boss -- Instructor Razuvious, in Military Quarter -- from my personal Full Naxx Clear.
New additions to my gear include a ring and boots from Ulduar-10. With the emblems from here (3 per boss dropped) I got my Tier 9 gloves. Now I have 2-piece set bonii for Tier 8 and 9 -- nice because the bonii do not overwrite one another. My "gear score" is in the mid-2400s, good enough to pug Ulduar once I know all the fights.
That's the problem: reading about the fight strategies is not enough for me. I need to actually fight the boss in my assigned role, to really understand the strategy . . . and for many groups, this does not work because they do not want to take the time to teach you the fights (and I had a very bitter experience with this on Marty in Naxx back in April . . .).
Now I'd like to get the guild to run Onyxia's Lair. This is a raid from Original WoW that has been owered up for Level 80. Ony's another draconic loot piñata, or so I am told.
On Sunday I get to see my grandson. Camera in hand, of course. :)
I'm finally (two weeks later) feeling almost back to normal.
I've been passing the time -- when up to it -- playing WoW. Getting out of Clothing Discouraged and into Eclipsed was a blessing in disguise. Three *scheduled* raids a week, and this week we had a couple of Good Ones: Trial of the Crusader-10 and -25. I've tried TotC-10 once with CD and we wiped like a 12-pack of Charmin rolls on the first boss.
Not this time, bunky! While we were only able to down the first 3 bosses in 25-man (Beasts, Lord Jaraxxus, Faction Champs), we were able to finish 10-man (Twin Val'kyrs, Anub'arak). Then we did 10-man Ulduar and managed to buzzsaw our way through Flame Leviathan, XT-2000 Deconstructor, Ignis, Razorscale, Kologarm, Auriaya, and the Assembly of Iron. We went bounce off Thorim. Left are Hodir, Freya, Thorim, General Vezax, Mirimon, Yogg-Saron and Algalon. As dessert I managed to get into a no-fail Naxx-10 PuG, and dropped Gluth and Thaddius to finish Constuct Quarter (and this time I made the jump!), Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad. I am missing one boss -- Instructor Razuvious, in Military Quarter -- from my personal Full Naxx Clear.
New additions to my gear include a ring and boots from Ulduar-10. With the emblems from here (3 per boss dropped) I got my Tier 9 gloves. Now I have 2-piece set bonii for Tier 8 and 9 -- nice because the bonii do not overwrite one another. My "gear score" is in the mid-2400s, good enough to pug Ulduar once I know all the fights.
That's the problem: reading about the fight strategies is not enough for me. I need to actually fight the boss in my assigned role, to really understand the strategy . . . and for many groups, this does not work because they do not want to take the time to teach you the fights (and I had a very bitter experience with this on Marty in Naxx back in April . . .).
Now I'd like to get the guild to run Onyxia's Lair. This is a raid from Original WoW that has been owered up for Level 80. Ony's another draconic loot piñata, or so I am told.
On Sunday I get to see my grandson. Camera in hand, of course. :)
Friday, August 28, 2009
Crazy Sophia / Mac OS X Coincindences . . .
Mac OS X 10.4 was released the same day Sophia graduated from the University of Minnesota back in 2005. Her son Parker was born just hours before 10.6 was released.
I do not believe in coincidences.
I do not believe in coincidences.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Assorted, various and sundry.
Political: "Bipartisanship, my ass!" To the Rethuglicans, the term means "getting my way, no matter what." I think it's time for the 'thugs to learn a life lesson: that Karma, aka Blessed Momma K, is the most pitiless bitch in the whole universe. How well we remember getting W's agenda shoved down our throats until we choked on it. Now the show is on the other foot! In the House, the Democrats don't need 'thug votes to pass the Obama agenda; With the Senate Dems just shy of a filibuster-proof majority, teh Prez still needs to trade horses with teh 'thugs. The problem is that you just don't trade with thieves.
Health: Serum glucose has been under good control, with only one spike over 200 in the last month and readings averaging right around 110. I'm battling a bit of a winter cold at the moment, feeling not so good.
Family: I'M GONNA BE A GRANDPA in August. My daughter's gonna be a mom. She will be a good one.
WoW: Doing the reputation grind thing and gearing for a 80 repec to Resto for raiding.
----------------
Now playing: Jon Bon Jovi - Dead or Alive
via FoxyTunes
Health: Serum glucose has been under good control, with only one spike over 200 in the last month and readings averaging right around 110. I'm battling a bit of a winter cold at the moment, feeling not so good.
Family: I'M GONNA BE A GRANDPA in August. My daughter's gonna be a mom. She will be a good one.
WoW: Doing the reputation grind thing and gearing for a 80 repec to Resto for raiding.
----------------
Now playing: Jon Bon Jovi - Dead or Alive
via FoxyTunes
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tis a very good day . . .
1. I found out yesterday that I'm gonna be a grampa in August. My daughter tells me that her pregnancy has been easy so far. Looks like I'll be taking time for a real vacation this summer . . . she'll be a good mom; of course their apartment may be a bit small for "baby makes three," Dertails, details.
2. Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th POTUS tomorrow.
----------------
Listening to: R.E.M. - Walk Unafraid (Live)
via FoxyTunes
2. Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th POTUS tomorrow.
----------------
Listening to: R.E.M. - Walk Unafraid (Live)
via FoxyTunes
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Berzerkeley was fun...
I went to visit my daughter and son in law in Berkeley today. Had a blast despite a sore throat that almost kept me home.
Highlights included a fine lunch at a very nice Chinese place (huzzah for Moo Shoo beef), a visit to Sam's school (Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary), some geeking about on Sam's PC, MacBook and network and good coffee as Sophia showed me how to home roast with an air popper. I even saw a home movie showing Sam giving his first sermon. W00t! Then there was that tactical nuclear oatmeal cookie Sophia made . . .
They got a new car, a Volvo, to replace Soph's Kia. The Kia was named "Inga" and she wanted a name for the new car. Given that Volvo is Swedish, I suggested a male name: Gustav Aldolph. Yes, I was thinking of everyone's favorite 17th-century Swedish King, that most Lutheran champion, general, the Lion of the North. I also suggested his formidable daughter Christina as well.
I counted Presidential campaign signs and stickers while in Berkeley, starting with an Obama postcard Sophia had. The final count was 10 for BO, 3 for HRC, and ZERO for ANY Republican.
I'm starting my Earth Day / Beltane iTunes playlist; the song in the FoxyTunes sig is headlining that playlist. Not only is the song a good green / eco tune, it's easy on the ears as I grind in WoW.
----------------
Listening to: R.E.M. - Cuyahoga (Live)
via FoxyTunes
Highlights included a fine lunch at a very nice Chinese place (huzzah for Moo Shoo beef), a visit to Sam's school (Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary), some geeking about on Sam's PC, MacBook and network and good coffee as Sophia showed me how to home roast with an air popper. I even saw a home movie showing Sam giving his first sermon. W00t! Then there was that tactical nuclear oatmeal cookie Sophia made . . .
They got a new car, a Volvo, to replace Soph's Kia. The Kia was named "Inga" and she wanted a name for the new car. Given that Volvo is Swedish, I suggested a male name: Gustav Aldolph. Yes, I was thinking of everyone's favorite 17th-century Swedish King, that most Lutheran champion, general, the Lion of the North. I also suggested his formidable daughter Christina as well.
I counted Presidential campaign signs and stickers while in Berkeley, starting with an Obama postcard Sophia had. The final count was 10 for BO, 3 for HRC, and ZERO for ANY Republican.
I'm starting my Earth Day / Beltane iTunes playlist; the song in the FoxyTunes sig is headlining that playlist. Not only is the song a good green / eco tune, it's easy on the ears as I grind in WoW.
----------------
Listening to: R.E.M. - Cuyahoga (Live)
via FoxyTunes
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