theDogBoy

No Blogging for me.

2005-07-12T05:01:00.000-05:00

Sorry again for the past month or so. I just got my site report for last week and I realized that people are still looking at this page! I have been working a lot of hours at Fedex Kinko's lately. I must say that I love my job! It's really refreshing to not have to dread going to work every day. Everything else is pretty much the same. I played paintball last sunday, and I am still sore as a bastard. I saw the new batman movie a few weeks ago, and I must say it was by far the best of the bunch. I also have an opportunity to buy an original 1st edition of the Dark Knight Returns series by Frank Miller, which I am seriously contemplating. A guy at work has them and they're in pretty good shape.

On another review note, buy the new Transplants album, Haunted Cities. It kicks ass. I will try to keep up with the posts a little better, I promise!

Long time...no blog

2005-05-27T04:20:00.000-05:00

Sorry y'all. Things have been very topsy-turvy here for a while. Where did I leave off?

Oh, yes. The biggest thing has been, that I took the job at Fedex Kinko's (not just kinko's anymore! Fedex bought them a year ago). I started there this past Tuesday, and let me tell you, so far it has been awesome. Some of the technology they have at their fingertips is pretty sweet. It is like night and day from my old job. And at this job, I am actually managing people (17 to be exact). Three days in and I have already impressed the district manager! I'm going places with this company, woo hoo!

My health is pretty good. Since my doctor added the second medication for my blood pressure, I have been feeling much better. I still have to work on my cholesterol, though, so I 've really been trying to watch my diet.

We're off to North Carolina for a few days tomorrow, so I'll post again when I get back.

Some good things and then some bad things!

2005-05-12T16:10:00.000-05:00

Well things have been really upset around here the past day or so. Let me explain...

It started out on Sunday, I noticed that I was having some trouble seeing, which usually means that I'm getting a migraine. I prepared for the worst but it never manifested, which I thought was a little strange. Then after having vision problems for the past few days, I started freaking out a little bit thinking maybe I had a brain tumor or something weird like that.

My friend Jeff was in town on Tuesday and I spent the day with him which was fun. Vision problems off and on during the day, but nothing serious. Then yesterday I was back at work, and I got a phone call from a former boss of mine, who now is a store manager for Fedex-Kinkos. He asked to meet with me after I got off work yesterday, which I did. He wanted to offer me a job at his store, as a production manager, for about what I am making currently, but with fewer hours, better benefits, excellent bonus structure and much more opportunity for advancement. My current job I am at the top, there is no place to go, I will never make much more than I make now. Currently, I am salaried employee and I work a LOT. Weekends I end up working a couple times a month. At the new job, I would be paid hourly with overtime, which is something I haven't gotten in 6 years!

So, I got back from the meeting and had dinner with Kelly. After dinner, I started feeling VERY dizzy. I laid down for a few minutes, and it wasn't getting any better, so I asked Kelly to bring me to the ER. My blood pressure was 200/113 which is REALLY high. I spent the next 6 hours in the ER taking a battery of tests. Eventually they released me, and I went to my doctors today. I have a whole bunch more tests to take tomorrow and monday, as well as a formal interview with Fedex Kinkos tomorrow.

If I take the job which I probably will, I will have to tell my boss on monday, at which point he will probably ask me to leave immediately, which has been his style in the past. I'll keep you posted how everything goes...

Hitchhiker...

2005-05-01T18:08:00.000-05:00

Once again, kinda been a while since I last posted. More work...so much work...

We went to see the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I enjoyed but most of my friends didn't...big surprise. I thought it was a pretty good treatment of the book, which I haven't read since high school, which I fully intend on rereading now. The effects were great, and it was pretty well cast.

I also watched House of Flying Daggers this morning on my PSP. Excellent movie, way better than Hero, and I dare say better than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but not by much. Not so artsy, just very well shot.

Well, that's it. More of my media reviews, at some other point. Summer is here...

D'oh...its been a while!

2005-04-20T17:40:00.000-05:00

Sorry to anyone who cares. I have been super busy for the past couple weeks. Insert various excuses here. I haven't done too much other than work, and I have caught a couple movies. I will say that Sin City was better than I expected, it was awesome! I also took the wife to see Sahara, which was decent, for what it was. She didn't like it, but what are you going to do?

Hoping to start playing paintball again for the summer pretty soon. Its great exercise plus a whole lot of fun! I got a new marker before the winter, that I haven't even got to use yet. What other news? Going to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for my stepfather's 50th birthday on Memorial Day.

We just bought a new furniture set for the living room, which I moved in yesterday afternoon. It was a pain. Our apartment is in an old Victorian house, so the doorways are a little narrow. The sofa was about a 1/4" from not making it through the doorway to the living room, but it did.

Also picked up Jade Empire for the Xbox. Pretty good. That's all I'll say.

Time flies

2005-03-31T17:13:00.000-05:00

It's pretty crazy how the older you get, the faster time seems to go. It seems like I blinked and there goes 5 years. I turn thirty in a few months and I can't believe it. I have a lot of gray coming in my hair especially around the temples. Last time I went and got a haircut, they were trimming the sides of head around my ears, and I looked down at the clumps of hair that were falling on my lap, and a significant portion of the hairs (probably ten percent) were gray! It's friggin nuts!

Spring is in the air here in Maine, the past few days have been about 50 degrees, which is awesome. A good chunk of the snow has melted, leaving lots of mud. It's about time that I get my bike back out so I can finally get some exercise. It is also time to start playing paintball again. Paintball is incredibly fun, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has never played. I have a blast every time, and it is awesome exercise. You wouldn't believe how sore I am the day after a match! I'm hoping this year we can put together a tournament team and play in some of the local tournaments. I'll keep you posted!

GET IT! GET IT RIGHT NOW!

2005-03-28T06:19:00.000-05:00

By trading in a significant portion of my DVD collection, and some old games, and my Gameboy Advance, I was able to get my hands on the new Sony PSP and I have to tell you, that it has blown me away. The quality on it is remarkable. I picked up Untold Legends, a hack n slash game like Diablo, and Tiger Woods PGA Golf with it and I can't stop playing them. Tiger Woods rivals any game that I have ever played before. I had TW 2004 for my computer and the handheld version is parallels it graphically and in gameplay. Simply awesome! And as I was able to get one of the 1st million units, mine included Spiderman 2 the movie. I noticed no slow down or pixel blurring that was appreciable. I was even able to copy some video clips from my computer on to the PSP! How sweet is that!

If you have the opportunity, I recommend it. I haven't put it down since Thursday. Even my wife the technophobe was impressed by it. If that's not a sterling recommendation, then I don't know what is!

HL2

2005-03-21T20:10:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, things have been a little busy. I picked up Half Life 2 this weekend, and I have to say DAMN! That game is incredible. The graphics engine is incredible. I had read a few reviews giving it great ratings, but I am totally blown away. The facial expressions are astounding. I was at GameStop looking around and I saw that they had the Collector's Edition, which was $5 cheaper than the regular version, and it came with a free T-Shirt, the original Half-Life and Counter Strike. Unfortunately, when I got it home and tore open the package, it only had one disc in it, and I realized I had made a mistake. The collector's edition is a DVD, and I don't have a DVD drive on my computer. Which prompted me to turn around and head out to Circuit City to buy one! I picked up a DVD-RW at CC for $70 (after rebate). I couldn't believe how cheap it was. So now I am blissfully immersed in the role of Gordon Freeman, killing aliens left and right. I highly recommend picking up Half-Life 2 if you have the opportunity. You won't be disappointed.

Spin this!

2005-03-13T18:57:00.000-05:00

The latest of my whimsey's is learning to spin records. I have begun to teach myself via books and a couple websites. I don't really know any DJ's personally, so I don't have anyone to teach me personally. We'll just have to wait and see how that works. I am scouring ebay for equipment right now. It will probably take me a while to put everything together, but I'd rather not go and spend a pantload of money on the stuff, if I don't end up liking it or being okay at it.

I guess I want to do this mostly because I love music, I just can't PLAY music. Maybe this will be a good substitute.

More Frickin Snow!

2005-03-11T17:09:00.000-05:00

Friday night...after work. I'm just sitting here watching the news. Outside the snow is flying...again. This is the 19th significant storm this season. I love winter and all, but this is getting a little silly. I had plans both tonight and tomorrow, but now, I'm stuck at home. Normally, I don't mind sitting around, but usually that's when its by my choice, not because I HAVE to. I guess I'll just be sitting here, playing on the internet and watching a lot of TV. I'll probably end up playing some Gran Turismo 4 and maybe some Ratchet & Clank. It's good to do some smashing when you're bored.

SIN CITY MOVIE!

2005-03-09T20:50:00.000-05:00

Holy crap, two posts in one day! I was just so excited I could not resist! I was sitting here watching TV, not really paying attention, when I caught the trailer for the new Sin City movie. I had no idea they were even doing one! For those of you unaware of what Sin City is, it a series of gritty crime comics by Frank Miller, one of the great comic artist/writers of our time. Sin City is easily some of the best comic/graphic novels ever produced. I urge you to go buy one and read it! One good thing about the movie is that Frank Miller is directly involved, and he sounds like he's pleased with how it was done. If the original artist likes the work, that has to be a good thing. I guess we'll find out on April 1st. I will be there!

Another New Toy!

2005-03-09T17:37:00.000-05:00

I traded my blocky old Nokia cell phone in for a new Motorola V180 phone, which just arrived in Fedex last night. I say it arrived, but that really isn't what happened. Fedex tried to deliver it to my house, but I wasn't there to sign for it, so I had to go pick it up at the Fedex office or wait another couple days or something. Being the impatient bastard that I am (especially when new toys are involved) I braved the terrible weather (snow, sleet & freezing rain) and took a ride to Fedex. It took me approximately an hour and a half round trip to go about 20 miles. It wasn't so much the actual driving conditions as it was the idiots who slow down to 5 miles an hour no matter if it's slippery or not. I'm all for caution but come on people! Grow a pair and DRIVE. But I digress, back to the phone. It's pretty sweet, about half the size of my old phone, and a quarter of the weight, which is nice. The reception is good, and they even had a Less Than Jake ringtone for download! I am overall pretty impressed. We'll see how it holds up to my rough and tumble life.

New News is Good News

2005-03-08T04:49:00.000-05:00

Exciting things are happening in my world right now. I think Kelly and I have been pre-approved for a mortgage! This is an exciting thing, since we really, really want a house, and we didn't think we would be able to find someone to give us a mortgage, especially with my terrible credit. But we have 3 or 4 companies that seemed very interested, having already looked at our numbers. We already received a pre-approval letter from one company for $200,000, which is a little more than we can afford right now, but we're thinking in $150,000 and under range, that way we can take out the mortgage for more than the house is worth and pay off some of our credit card debt. Hard not to get very excited about the whole thing. We've already started looking around at houses on the net, and we have one we want to look at in Bridgton, which is where I grew up. Maybe we'll go look at it this weekend.

E.E.

2005-03-05T20:14:00.000-05:00

I had a pretty eventful day, at least for me. I actually went a bunch of places, and did a bunch of stuff that needed to be done. Oil change for the car, cleaning the car, brushing the dog, fixing my dad's computer, picking up some stuff at the Evil Empire (Wal-Mart not Starbucks). Normally I try to avoid E.E. like the plague, but unfortunately I couldn't find what I needed anywhere else. I can't even stand being in there. It smells like old ladies all the time, and I am annoyed at how slow everyone moves in there. When I go to a store, I go to what I want, I pick it up, I proceed quickly to the checkout area, and then I leave. None of this wandering around looking at every stupid thing that they're trying to unload. I think I would rather shop via the Internet any day, the only problem being that you have to wait for everything. If there was instant gratification, I would never go to another store again. In fact, usually when I have to go to a store, I do my research on the items I want beforehand on the Internet, that way I don't have to stand around and comparison shop with the thousand other people in the store, that I can't stand to be around for any longer than I have to.

Toys for the Geek Squad

2005-03-03T05:52:00.000-05:00

I won an ebay auction for a Palm Tungsten E PDA, and it arrived via UPS yesterday. It's always fun getting a new toy in the mail. I spent most of last night messing around with it, learning how to write in it, use the different functions, etc. It should be pretty handy, especially at work, where I end up writing a lot of little notes and then losing them. Hopefully, it will help me get a little more organized. We'll see.

On other things, I've changed the dogboyonline.com website to remove the annoying transitions and hopefully take care of the background issues. Let me know what you think.

Wow...someone is actually reading this!

2005-03-02T05:52:00.000-05:00

I was goading into posting again, after receiving an email from my friend Jeff, who lives in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is very very far from Maine, so I don't get to see Jeff all that much, which kinda sucks cause we always have fun when we're together. I've been trying to talk him into moving back to Maine, but I don't think it will happen(or will it?).

Life is just trudging along, day blending into day. I picked up Gran Turismo 4 over the weekend, which is taking up a lot of my time when I'm at home. The game is freaking sweet! I have been playing since Sunday, and I'm only 2.5% through the damn thing! I'm still on my first car, a pimped out Mazda RX-7. If you want a really, really, really good racing game, get GT4. The other game I've been spending a lot of time with is Ratchet & Clank:Up Your Arsenal. So much fun, lots of weapons, lots of destruction, and its funny!

Oh well, gotta go to work.

DogBoy Online

2005-03-01T05:13:00.000-05:00

I've been spending a large portion of my hours working on the website for DogBoy Online, which is what I've changed the name of my home business to instead of DogBoy Designs, because I plan on doing some other things, besides just design work. I'm partnering with my friend Jay, he runs a webhosting company called Mancine.net, so I migrated all my webpages to him. Always nice to be able to give some business to your friends. So go to www.dogboyonline.com to check out what I can do. Let me know what you think of the website. I spent a lot of time on it. Probably because I don't know quite what I'm doing yet, but hey, I learn!

Two thumbs up!

2005-02-21T19:57:00.000-05:00

I just got back from the movies. We went and saw Constantine, and I must say that I was pretty impressed. The whole movie was very well done, from the acting to the story to the special effects. Which is pretty surprising, giving that I think Keanu Reeves is a mediocre actor at best, but he really did well in playing John Constantine. Makes me want to go out and buy a bunch of Hellblazer comics! Damn these movies based on comic books, I have kicked the habit for a while, but these movies make me want to collect again.

Another Lazy Sunday

2005-02-20T15:26:00.000-05:00

I've been up since 3:30 a.m. this morning. Don't ask me why, because I don't have a good reason. Ever since I can remember, I have suffered from insomnia. Not the kind that gives you trouble falling to sleep, I have no problem with that at all. It's the staying asleep part that really gets to me. I go through stretches where I will wake up at 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. for like a week at a time. My wife really enjoys this, because I get a little cranky sometimes, and I end up falling asleep at like 8:00 p.m. on the couch.

So today I have been just trying to take it easy. We had to clean the house this morning, Kelly's brother and his wife are stopping by to say hi, which means cleaning. I don't really mind, the house needed it. Then Kelly and I went to Ruby Tuesday's had some lunch, went to the mall, and Border's, where I picked up a Japanese-English dictionary, and a Japanese workbook. I'm pretty impressed with myself, so far I've stuck with it pretty good. It comes along slowly, but I've got a couple words stuck in my head, which is a good start. I just have to keep at it.

DogBoy Designs!

2005-02-17T18:28:00.000-05:00

I have decided to start doing some design work on the side to make some extra cake. I'm calling it DogBoy Designs (surprise name, huh?) I already have a page up on my website, so stop by and give it a gander. And hey, if you need some design or typesetting done, give me a holler. I've printed up some business cards already and I'm working on all the other little details that go into trying to start up a business, even a small home based one. First thing I've got to is find out how much a damn mailbox will cost me in a month. I don't want to use my home address. I don't know why, but I just don't want too. Unless of course, a mailbox rental is really expensive...

P-neumonia

2005-02-15T21:41:00.000-05:00

So my wife has pneumonia, which is awesome (in a totally bitter and sarcastic way). She's contagious until this weekend, which means we're sleeping in separate beds, which totally sucks. I have a lot of problems falling to sleep without her being next to me, but I suppose I'll get over it.

So I think I'm going to try to add a new section to my webpage, called DogBoy Designs. I'm trying to bring in some extra money with some off hours desktop publishing/design work, maybe some basic webpages and tech support stuff. We'll see. I have to come up with some business cards, so I can get them circulating around the area. Maybe I'll work on that this weekend.

This Netflix thing is pretty awesome, I must say. So far I've watched about 9 DVD's, mostly television shows. I watched all of Alias Season 3 (mmmm...Jennifer Garner), and I'm half way through 24 Season 1 (which is a really, really good show).

Friday...it's Pub Night!

2005-02-11T17:41:00.000-05:00

My good friend Frank hosts a pub night every friday night at his house. He has built an authentic English pub in his basement. All us re-enactor types get together on a weekly basis. I usually can't make it every friday night, but it's really nice to know that if I don't have anything else to do, that I can hang out at the pub with the guys.

So that's where I am heading tonight. Off to blow off some steam, which will be nice. We usually watch a movie, hoist a brew or three, and in general just shoot the shit.

and a few days pass...

2005-02-09T18:12:00.000-05:00

And here I am, pretty much in the same state of affairs that I was a few days ago. I am in the midst of combing ebay for new kit as I am putting together a new impression. A few friends of mine, John and Tim, invited me to a timeline event in Portsmouth, NH, in May. They both have modern Black Watch kits, so I decided I would put one together as well.

Having a modern kit will help show people who and what the guys that fighting in Iraq are wearing and using currently. It will also help remind people that are boys aren't the only ones over there fighting and dying.

So far all I've got is an airsoft SA-80, and a pair of British desert boots, but I have a line on some more stuff like an S95 jacket and trousers, and a sling for the SA-80. We'll see how well ebay treats me this weekend!

Super Bowl...uuuhhhhhhhhhhh...

2005-02-07T06:17:00.000-05:00

So we went out last night to watch the Super Bowl, which was quite a good time actually. We went with my wife's sister and her husband, both of which are very cool and fun to hang out with. The only thing is, we went out at 4pm and started drinking. I think between Greg and myself we put down (at least) 6 pitchers of beer, 4 lbs. of hot wings, and assorted other appetizer type foods (nachos, potato skins, french fries, etc.) Needless to say I'm feeling a little slow this morning. We were out until about 11pm, and I get up for work at 5am, so not working with a lot of sleep under my belt today. It will be a long day.

As far as the game itself, it was a lot closer than I expected. I'm glad that the Pats won (they are the hometown team after all), but I was also kinda rooting for the Eagles, because they've worked really hard to get where they're at, and D Mac is a great QB, who deserves some props. I was also impressed with loudmouth TO, in spite of myself. He sure didn't look like he was hurting at all.

Sa-der-day

2005-02-05T13:09:00.000-05:00

Here I am at work watching my printing press spit out sheets of useless info for some insurance company. I've been putting off running the job for a week, so I suppose its kind of my own fault that I have to be here today. It's sunny and 40 degrees outside, and I'm stuck in here. Not that I'd be outside if I wasn't here. I usually stay inside as much as possible. Mostly because I'm lazy, and mostly because everything that I enjoy doing takes place inside.

I don't remember if I posted this yet or not, but my Japanese book arrived from Amazon.com last night, so I spent a few hours with that, no real progress thus far, but if I look at it every now and then, maybe I'll pick something up. I need to find a japanese dictionary now, for reference. I'm also looking for any workbooks or exercises that I can download from the web to work on at home. If anyone knows of any, drop me a line!

Finally Friday

2005-02-04T19:17:00.000-05:00

Okay so my week should be over. But it isn't. I have to work all day tomorrow, which kinda sucks. Most of it is cleanup stuff and housekeeping crap like organizing paperwork and getting some procedures in place.

I got my Japanese book in the mail today. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, as I have been cleaning about a hundred freaking viruses off my computer. I am running 2 different virus programs and still I get viruses. Pain in the ass. I haven't really noticed any significant changes in performance but hey what do I know?

Oh yeah, I also got my early valentines day present from my wife. It was an FM transmitter for my iPod. Now I can totally ditch all my CD's! I have about 3800 songs on it. It's like the world's biggest mix CD. Pretty sweet. I highly recommend it, if you can afford it. Or you have someone really nice to buy it for you (thanks Mom!)

theDogBoy.com

2005-02-03T06:21:00.000-05:00

Finally after about three days and 2 different web hosting companies, I have successfully launched theDogBoy.com. If you are interested and want to check it out please do! Send me any comments or critiques please!

Netflix and really good books

2005-02-02T21:10:00.000-05:00

So I signed up for this Netflix thing on Monday. Here it is Wednesday night and I already have my 1st three movies. Actually they're not movies, I got the first 3 DVDs of Alias Season 3. I like Alias, its got everything a good show needs: violence, intrigue, hot chicks, and good plot. Then when I get done with one of the disks, I drop it in the mail and they send me the next one on my list. Pretty sweet system really.

I'm right in the middle of reading Neuromancer by William Gibson, for about the 100th time. It is one of my favorite books ever. I highly recommend that you pick it up and read it sometime. If you liked the movie Bladerunner, this book will suit you well. BTW, the name of the other book I just read by William Gibson (mentioned in my first post) is called "Pattern Recognition". Also very good. Although, I must warn you sometimes Gibson is a tough read. I usually pick up more the second time through.

I spent all night waiting for the Windows XP SP2 to install on my laptop from work. It took forever cause the laptop is old and its a celeron. I hate celerons they are so slow.

Library & Learning Japanese...and finally farbs.

2005-02-01T19:09:00.000-05:00

Today was a pretty good day, overall. I guess. Well, maybe I'm not really convinced yet.

I went to the library today after work. First time I've been in a library probably for 7 or 8 years. It's kind of neat to be able to go someplace and get something for free. I picked up a couple books on web design, so I can make theDogBoy.com someplace really cool to visit. Hopefully that will happen. I brought my laptop home for work so that in an unprecedented fit of laziness, I can compute and watch TV simultaneously. I love TV.

I also ordered a book on Amazon.com so I can attempt to teach myself Japanese. I've always been pretty fascinated with their language and culture. We'll see how I do. I'll keep you posted.

Now, I'm going to revisit something I touched on the subject of Farbs. To the uninitiated in the re-enacting world, a farb is someone who doesn't portray history in an accurate manner, or just plain wrong. Here's an example of farb: imagine a civil war reenactor, standing there with a decent uniform, a period rifle, the right kit, but when you look down at his feet, he's wearing a bright white pair of Nike basketball shoes. It doesn't WORK!! There are greater and lesser variations of farbiness, some of which may not be noticed by the public at large, but is picked up on by those of us in the community. Another example to illustrate: In the British army around the period of WWI-WWII, beards were not allowed. A well trimmed mustache yes, but definitely no beards. This may seem like not a big deal, but how can you accurately portray a WWII era soldier from Britain with a big curly beard? Why waste all the time and money to get your kit just right, when you're going to ruin it by not shaving? Every time I put on my kit, I shave my goatee. Every single time. Guess what...IT GROWS BACK! So to all you Farbs out there, suck it up and shave! You give the rest of us a bad name!

Also check out my good friend John's new blog at http://brengunr.blogspot.com/. I guess I gave him the bug.

I'm cheesed off.

2005-01-31T18:14:00.000-05:00

So I was at FIG for 5 days. Right before I left, I set up this blog and also my website. I spent like 5 hours putting the website together using register.com's easy website B.S., mostly because I'm lazy. So I get it up and running, change my signature on my emails to let everyone know to come look at my site. I get back from my trip, and Register.com has sent me 2 emails. The first is dated for the day that I left. It informs me that my registration on the name thedogboy.com, has been flagged for security reasons, and they need to me send them a copy of my drivers license and credit card. I have 2 days to comply, otherwise the will cancel the registration. Naturally, since I am unable to access my email for days (the length of my trip), they cancel my registration and dump all the work that I did on my website (the 2nd email). That's just friggin peachy. So now I am working on my site AGAIN. I will let everyone know when its up and running again. Register.com will not be my webhost, ever, ever again.

2005-01-31T06:09:00.000-05:00

Reading Airshow June 2003

This is pretty typical of what we look like and do at re-enactments. This particular event is a large airshow out in Reading, PA. There are lots of re-enactors there, and we set up displays, and wear our kit, so that the public can look at our stuff, ask us questions, etc. I do it more to educate people than anything else, cause it scares me how ignorant people can be about our near past.

The Long Trip Home

2005-01-30T15:40:00.000-05:00

Well, I just got back from FIG (short for Fort Indiantown Gap), which hosts a huge WWII reenactment every January. It's a little outside of Harrisburg PA, which means its like 8.5 hours from where I live in Maine. We left this morning at 5am and here it is 3:30 and I just got out of the shower, and read the 30 emails that I had waiting for me.

I love the camaraderie of reenacting and I have been lucky enough to fall in with a bunch of guys that are now like brothers to me. I have known most of them only a short while, but I can't seem to remember what it was like before I found this hobby. Thanks John! I can't tell you how much better my life is now that I do stuff like this.

But there are a lot of tragic people at these events that do a half-assed job of things. When it comes to history I don't think that close enough should ever be good enough! I will extrapolate on this more in some future posts, but until then, Thank you Dave, Chris, John, Iain, (Black) Doug, Tim and Stephen. Every time that I get together with you all, you enrich my life that much more...

My first blog

2005-01-25T05:24:00.000-05:00

Here it is, my first blog. It won't be long, as I've got too much to do, to waste a lot of time typing stuff almost no one will read anyway. I'm getting ready for a WWII reenactment, I leave in one day and I'm still collecting my stuff. And there's a lot of stuff to collect. I spent all day on sunday rooting through boxed pulling together the appropriate bits of kit and trying to make sure that I didn't forget anything. Inevitably, I won't know until I get there. Sunday was a little disappointing overall. The Steelers lost to the Patriots, I was really hoping they'd go all the way this year. Maybe next year. It also means that football is almost over for the year. That makes me sad. I read a great book by William Gibson, one of my favorite authors a few weeks ago. It was very different but in a good way. I'll have to find the title again, but if you get a chance pick it up. That's it for know. I will update next week when I get back from my trip.