Home, Messy Home

Been a busy last couple of weeks, but not entirely work-related for once. Two weekends ago was Simucon 2005, of course. Nothing like having 500+ of your closest friends stopping by for a drink. Between the luge shots, 7:30am bedtimes, and multitudes of old and new friends, suffice to say I had a good time. It was more lively than last year, but still low key enough that I didn't really need any recovery time (Saturday afternoon notwithstanding). I'd go on more about it, but if you've been, you know, and if you haven't, you wouldn't understand.

The Wednesday following that, Denise hopped a plane to Florida to hang for a few days with her mom and various other relations. I drove down Friday and picked her up in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon, after which we proceeded to meet up with Chris Bertelsen of Revolution Block fame. I hadn't seen Chris in about eight years, and he obviously spent the time becoming even more awesome than he already was. He and his wife - who I'm fairly certain is merely on loan from heaven, she's just that fantastic - took us out drinking where we met up with another old friend, and full-on merriment ensued, including a new-to-me beer, Harp's Lager. I may weep tears of pure joy right now, just thinking about how much fun I had...talk amongst yourselves.

Okay, I'm done, so shut it. The only bad points were that we only had one evening to spend down there, and that the Phenomenauts and Aquabats were playing together at the Masquerade and we missed it. I am greatly mollified on that point, as I've just noticed that they'll be playing here in August. Fun!

I spent the next couple of days with my parents, mostly lounging about the house, watching TV, drinking wine, eating things, and such. I took my laptop with me, intending to at least check my email, but they don't have a wireless setup there, and it seemed like too much trouble to hook the thing up to their network. It would actually have been quite easy, I'm just lazy like that; it kept me from working on vacation, though, so that's good. Rewatched the entire Firefly series, which I'm pleased to report is still brilliant, and a few episodes of West Wing, which I had never seen and which led to me borrowing the first three seasons from Mom and Dad.

Also, I have a new web development project to keep me entertained for a little while, one which I may translate into a commercial site if it turns out interesting enough. Further bulletins as events warrant, as Calvin used to say.

In unrelated news, we heard rumor that the Boddington's brewery in Manchester was scheduled to close soon. While the article linked there is written before the closing, it actually did close on schedule in February of this year, and brewing has been moved to other locations around England. So if you've had one lately and still liked it, you're probably okay (and not from Manchester). Bad form of InterBrew to just cast aside two centuries of tradition like that, though.

Anyway, in the past four or five days, I've spent almost exactly double the time driving as I have sleeping, so it's time for bed, yo. Back to work tomorrow.

100 Useless Facts About Aaron

1.		I am the only person I know who has been drunk for 25 hours in a single calendar day: October 29th, 1995.
2.		I drive a black 2003 Subaru WRX, and I love it almost as much as the '89 Jeep I had for ten years.
3.		I graduated high school with honors, but only because I opened my books and made straight A's my last semester.
4.		I have never published anything, but I would like to.
5.		Obnoxious people irritate the hell out of me. So do pretentious people.
6.		I tend to be biased against right-wing people, but I don't really consider myself a Democrat or a liberal.
7.		I once got hit in the eye with a helicopter - a real one - at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It wasn't running at the time.
8.		Overall, I am a poor housekeeper, but I find washing the dishes to be relaxing.
9.		I own about two dozen musical instruments, but I never practice with any of them...
10.		I've been playing guitar since I was 14 or 15, but I lack the dedication to be really good.
11.		I'm not afraid of dying, but I am afraid of living pointlessly.
12.		Based on what I know about various religious tenets (which isn't all that much), I identify most strongly with Buddhism, Taoism, and Unitarian; least strongly with Roman Catholic.
13.		I have played miniature golf, but never "real" golf.
14.		When I was about eight, I set my grandmother's neighbor's kitchen table on fire, and was too scared to tell anyone. Luckily they discovered it in time to keep it from spreading to the rest of the house.
15.		I've been to Shakespeare's home in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
16.		The saddest memory I have is the moment it sunk in that my grandmother was dying...15 or so years later, thinking about it can still make me cry.
17.		I do my own income taxes.
18.		I've participated in and won a Dungeons & Dragons tournament.
19.		I own way too many shirts. Especially black t-shirts and khaki/tan short sleeve linen button-ups.
20.		I've studied Isshinryu and Shaolin, but remember almost nothing of either and dislike fighting unless forced.
21.		I haven't lost a fight since the fourth grade. I haven't been in one since I was 22.
22.		I make video games for a living. I like my job.
23.		I don't have a best friend, and that's just fine.
24.		I can stand on one foot, tilt my head back, and say the alphabet backwards while drunk.
25.		I've had a crush on at least one person at every place I've ever worked, except Dino's Pizza, which was an all-male staff.
26.		I can burp at will. Hot, eh?
27.		Star Wars, yes. Star Trek, no.
28.		I've dropped out of four different colleges. My last major was astrophysics, which I chose more for the coolness factor than any strong desire for a related career. I lack three semesters for my bachelor's.
29.		My left ear is pierced twice, my right ear once. They all grew over years ago.
30.		I've never had sex in a vehicle of any kind, moving or otherwise...
31.		...however, I have had sex on a pool table that had a security camera aimed at it, which I didn't know about until later. To this day, I don't know whether anyone saw the activities in question.
32.		I have no interest whatsoever in most "extreme sports", such as skydiving, bungee jumping, etc.
33.		For as long as I can remember, I've occasionally contemplated giving up everything and joining a monastery in Tibet.
34.		I scored about 1400 on the SAT and 33 on the ACT, but I have to look up the spelling of the words "weird" and "ridiculous" every time.
35.		If I could choose my own accent, it would be Irish. I'm 37.5% Irish.
36.		I once told a girl I was gay because she was drunk and hitting on me, and I wanted her to go away and let me and a friend talk uninterrupted. We ended up playing "Please go out with me" tag for the next few months, but never managed to be interested in each other at the same time.
37.		Given a $5 glass of wine and a $50 glass of wine, I could probably not tell you which was which.
38.		I've never driven a motorcycle.
39.		I've sang on stage with the LA punk band Goldfinger.
40.		I had spinal meningitis when I was 11 months old. The only lasting effect is that my left eye will not look to the left.
41.		I still like some 80's hair metal, especially Poison.
42.		I modeled for Goodwill once for a charity benefit. One of the outfits I wore was the most mismatched set of clothes I could find, and I think it annoyed them. I kept it and gave part of it to our singer.
43.		There are very few songs that I can play on the guitar and sing at the same time. One of them is Peaceful Easy Feeling by the Eagles.
44.		The only program I've ever cracked myself is the one I'm currently creating this webpage with, but I paid for it as soon as I could afford it.
45.		I have eaten the worm from a bottle of tequila.
46.		I sometimes wear my contact lenses for months without taking them out, even though they are the two-week disposable kind. This annoys my optometrists to no end.
47.		I have a CD by at least two artists for each letter of the alphabet. At least three for Q.
48.		I resent the fact that I have to sleep, except during thunderstorms, when I enjoy it.
49.		My favorite book is probably Watership Down by Richard Adams.
50.		I have never dyed my hair, although I did let our drummer shave my head once. It looked stupid.
51.		I had been involved in over a dozen automobile accidents by the time I turned 18.
52.		I love cover songs, particularly punk and bluegrass. I know that pretentious indie snobs think they're trite, and I don't care.
53.		My top three dream jobs would be actor, rock star, and spy, in that order. Of those three clichés, I think I'd do best with acting.
54.		I switched seats with a friend at 60 mph, so I could take the speeding ticket and keep him out of jail. I don't remember whether the officer actually issued a ticket or not, now.
55.		I like the TV show Friends, and am not ashamed of it.
56.		Boxers, not briefs.
57.		I have forgotten a girlfriend's birthday, as well as my own.
58.		I am licensed to carry a concealed firearm.
59.		I'm allergic to pecans and walnuts.
60.		I share a birthday with John Schneider, who played Bo Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard and Jonathon Kent on Smallville.
61.		I've played guitar on three albums that have been released to the public.
62.		I don't know how to grill out, but I make pretty good lasagna.
63.		I have never used a pick-up line, except in jest.
64.		There are skeletons in my closet which no one will ever know about.
65.		My favorite soft drink is Mountain Dew. My favorite liquor is Stolichnaya vodka. My favorite beer is Shiner Bock.
66.		I hated beer until June of 2004, when a girl named Kelly turned me on to Guinness.
67.		I get lost easily when going somewhere relatively unfamiliar, unless I have a map.
68.		I love to sing, but I'm not particularly good at it. I don't like to sing around other people unless I'm on stage.
69.		I think pirating music is illegal, as well as morally wrong, but I sometimes do it anyway.
70.		I know one fairly unusual sentence in French, which I learned from a Bloom County comic strip. I say it every couple of weeks.
71.		I have one tattoo. It's on my right shoulder blade. I passed out when I got it...but not from the pain - I just held my breath and forgot to start breathing again.
72.		I say "Fantabulous" far too often for a straight guy.
73.		I have skateboarded in an empty swimming pool.
74.		I have lived in nine different cities in five different states.
75.		The only horror movie that has ever made me cover my eyes was Alligator. Fuck off, I was six years old.
76.		I spent my 21st birthday in a bar in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We were on tour at the time. The bass player Adam bought me a shot of Absolut.
77.		I used to get cluster headaches, which I drove away with Verapamil™. I would much rather be shot in the leg (not counting the kneecap!) than have them come back.
78.		I opened my first checking account in fifth grade with $50 from my grandmother, but haven't balanced my checkbook since high school.
79.		I wore one pair of shorts for the entire summer of 1994 without washing them...
80.		...but I've probably worn shorts less than a dozen times in the past five years.
81.		I like the word "absolution". Partly because of its meaning and significance...but mostly I just like the sound.
82.		Sometimes I wish I had joined the military.
83.		I can't remember the last time I shaved more than twice in one week.
84.		Roughly half of the girls I've dated were 5'4".
85.		I have gone several days without food on more than one occasion, but not recently.
86.		I think most rock stars who still try to rock out when they're old are embarrassing. That doesn't mean I wouldn't do it myself, given the chance.
87.		I love cats. Not that fond of most dogs, except pugs.
88.		I have never, to my knowledge, eaten escargot or caviar.
89.		I kick ass at Gran Turismo 2 and Street Fighter II Turbo. At least, I used to.
90.		I was a telemarketer for 15 minutes before walking out.
91.		I have mild to moderate arachnophobia.
92.		I got in a knife fight when I was 17. I have a scar on my arm that only shows up when I have a tan.
93.		I hate to throw things away if they still have any possible use whatsoever. See #19.
94.		I would be willing to try surviving solely on mocha lattes.
95.		Although I mostly listen to punk and alternative, I like almost every kind of music to some extent, except R&B and "smooth jazz".
96.		I enjoy racquetball a lot, but haven't played in several years.
97.		I'm a rocker. I rock out.
98.		My first and middle names are both Biblical, but I've never read the Bible.
99.		I have been interviewed on the radio twice, once in high school for an academic contest, and once in college in regards to the band I was in.
100.		Sometimes I take the easy way out. Hey, I had to think really hard to come up with 99 items.

Still Alive...

...less distracted. A few people have poked me about updating, so I guess it's time I did.

Work was crazy for a long time leading up to E3. As you may know if you know me, I'm a developer for a game company, currently working on Hero's Journey. E3 was, as Simutronics CEO David Whatley put it, a flawless victory. We went in as a "Who?" company with what was assumed to be a vaporware title, and walked out with three (and counting) Best of Show awards. Not too shabby. The two months leading up to it had me working basically 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. It was a hell of an undertaking, and I'm pretty proud of the results. It burnt me out a little; for a week or two after it wound down, I had trouble going home or doing much of anything else...I just couldn't relate to the free time. It's all good now, though.

I've often had little passing thoughts which were blog-worthy (worthy of this one, anyway), but once you let it go for long enough, it feels like the post that breaks the silence needs to be something epic in nature. I finally decided that, frosty Shiner Bock in hand, I was going to just update the damn thing and get it out of the way, so I could return to my regularly scheduled incoherence.

The past week or two, I've been on a recording spree, trying to finish a song by Father's Day. I've occasionally wanted to do this song, and it just makes sense to do it by then, since it reminds me of my dad - a fact which may or may not please him, once he knows what song I'm talking about. Anyway, that should be up in a few days.

Speaking of BLF, we are apparently huge in Japan. :p Not really, but the punk cover of House of Pain's Jump Around got indexed by some Japanese search engine, and gets downloaded a couple of dozen times a day on average. Awesome. Unfortunately, no one's ever written me to give feedback on it, so I am forced to suspect that there are a few thousand annoyed Japanese people out there wondering when House of Pain learned to play the guitar.

Finally, just before we moved here, a Krav Maga school opened up just down the street from our apartment in Knoxville. I had never heard of it, and so studied up a little, and it sounded right up my alley. So we moved cross-country. Anyway, I've been waiting for a school to open up in the STL area, and as soon as I quit looking, one did (last October, actually). I haven't been in particularly impressive shape in a while this lifetime, but I've been exercising a bit more regularly, and it's starting to pay off, plus I've missed martial arts since I quit taking Shaolin, the first time I left Knoxvegas. So I think in a month or two, I'll go check out that school. Besides, it sounds like Adam is getting buff, and I'd hate for him to beat me up one day.

From the enough-about-me department, there has been an exciting development in D's life, but I can't pass it on because I'm not really sure who reads this. No, she's not pregnant...if you know her, though, you might want to ask her about it.

Currently listening to: "Teardrops", Massive Attack