Awesome vs. Awesome

When your trivia team of four splits into two teams of two and still manages to take first and second place, there's something going on. That something is awesomeness.

Last night, there was nobody there for trivia. Almost literally. It was our group and that was it. Eventually, our quizmaster talked several other folks into playing, but none of them finished. It turned out later on that one of the regulars was there too, and he did end up finishing. In any case, we decided to split up just to make some kind of game out of it. AJ and Nate were on one team and Jenna and I were the other. The game was pretty fun, with some interesting rounds and all, but we got totally hosed on the two Audi rounds. Nate and AJ know way more of that stuff than us, and that's where they pulled ahead. They ended up beating us by 15 points, which, with their joker, equates to about 7 answers of either song title or artist on round two. I think they easily got us by that many, if not quite a few more. I did get a few answers, but not very many.

Even though we had to turn on ourselves this week, there was a silver lining. By taking first and second, we ended up $10 ahead of where we would normally be, so that's good. We also proved that even separately, we're still awesome. Third place came in 21 points behind me and Jenna. If we had remained a combined team, we would've scored in the mid-eighties, most likely. That would've put us well above any other team that played last night, as near as I can tell. So, if we hadn't had to split just to have someone to play against, we'd have had a truly impressive score. There's something to be said for that, I suppose.

Anyhow, last night was okay, but certainly not as fun as when we all get to hang out and talk and work together. That's mostly what the evening is about for me anyway, to be honest. Hopefully next week will be better.

A couple days of awesome nestled in the middle of the still pretty awesome

Friday, we went to see Star Trek. If you haven't seen it, your life is dark and hollow. Just so you know.

We've been setting up sort of a pattern the past few weeks, and I'm for it. Tuesday, Jenna and I hang with AJ at trivia as a rule. The past few weeks, we've hung with AJ and Nate. This past week, we hung with AJ, Nate (we call him Super Nate because we have too many Nates) and Charlie. This is a good pattern. Tomorrow, I'm told we'll get to hang with Becky and Nate (different Nate, we call him Doyle) and hopefully AJ, (Super) Nate and Charlie as well. That would put our team at 7, but I don't know that anyone will give us trouble about it. It's not like we haven't been winning without all these extra folks. We'll see, I guess.

Saturday was really fun, too. My dad and I went to our first official IDPA match. We'd been before, but only to look around, not to shoot. It was pretty incredible. They set up 4 scenarios, often very realistic, and you have to complete them quickly, accurately and above all, safely. If you make any kind of mistake in gun handling or anything that could potentially be dangerous to yourself or others, you get sent home. It's very comforting to have guys there who are dedicated 100% to ensuring that the environment is as safe as humanly possible. The scenarios are also really well thought-out and very well-designed. You've got 4 unique and interesting stages every month of every year, all within the rules set up to make sure it's something you can complete safely and effectively. I'm just incredibly impressed with the level of planning, work and dedication these folks have to this sport. I was also amazed at how many people were there this weekend. Close to 70, not counting people just watching. I didn't do terribly well, but my primary goal this weekend was not to be sent home covered in shame. I was successful in that, so I'm not going to let my dismal times get me down too badly.

Later that evening, Jenna and I went out to a nice dinner at a new restaurant. The food was very good, but the environment was a bit too rowdy for our liking. You know when you go into a restaurant and everyone's like talking and laughing and having a good time? That's what was going on here. *Shudders* We had a good meal, but we had to leave fairly quickly. Neither of us is emotionally or physically equipped to deal with that many humans while we're trying to eat.

Sunday was Mother's day, as you ought to know. We went to Johnstown with the intention of helping my sister with her garden, but ended up just sort of hanging out and grilling instead. Not at all bad.

My wife is wonderful and burned a bunch of Good Eats DVDs for me, so I've been watching them all. I love that show so hard. I'm going to attempt something tonight most likely, and I'll let you all know how it goes.

I'm also going to check out the Jiu-Jitsu school tonight. I'm planning on heading over just to take a look, and maybe try to see about taking a class. They offer a week of free classes to new students and next week would be a much better week for me to take more than one class. I was also thinking about krav maga but the only schools in my area seem a bit too oriented on kids and middle-aged women. As much as I like winning, I don't get much satisfaction from beating women and children. Some, just not much. We'll see. If the jiu-jitsu school is lame, I may have to expand my options a bit more. We'll see.

Activity Exploration

Tonight, Jenna and I are going to look into some activities we think we might like to try. She's looking at dance and I'm looking at martial arts. Brazilian jiu-jitsu, specifically. There's a school for BJJ pretty close to where we live and they have classes at times that would work for us pretty well, too. Jenna found a dance school she likes and we're going to go check out that one, too.

I'll keep you all informed.

What's more dominant than dominant? The Gentlemen Beekeepers, that's what.

We won trivia again last night. Not just a win, but a complete and total victory on all levels. We once again won all bonus questions, the internet question and the quiz as a whole, but we also beat our personal best score by a fair margin. The fact that we beat the second place teams (tied again, same team won the dance-off) by something like 30 points is really like gravy. More like chocolate syrup really, because it's so sweet.

Am I gloating? I think I am.

I don't mean to, honestly. I even feel slightly guilty for being on a team that (almost entirely without my input, mind you) continues to win week after week by embarrassing margins. This week we brought in two new players, Charlie and Nate and their addition made the game even more fun, if such a thing is possible. We also helped to expand our knowledge base rather significantly by adding them to the mix.

In any case, thanks to all who participated, and please forgive me my gloating. If we are defeated, I promise to be as humble as my psychology allows.

Awesome weekend!

I have determined that doing thins on Friday night makes me feel like I have an extra day of weekend. Having come to this conclusion, I'm going to try to do something on Fridays as much as possible. I really relish that Sunday morning feeling where it seems like it's Monday but it really isn't.

Speaking of doing things on Friday, we saw Wolverine. I really liked it a lot. Very few complaints from me overall, and a lot of stuff I really enjoyed. Hugh Jackman was great, Ryan Reynolds was great and Liev Schreiber brought a lot of humanity to the Sabertooth character. The only guy I think was cast poorly was Gambit. After everyone begging for him to be in the movies since the first once was announced, I was expecting them to make a really awesome Gambit and they just didn't. He's passable, sure. He just isn't as cool as he could've been. The guy didn't even have a Louisiana accent, for one. I personally find that accent annoying, but it's sort of necessary for Gambit. It's a large part of who he is to me, anyway. In any case, the company was excellent, with Nate, AJ, Derek and Jenny joining Jenna and I for the excursion. We had dinner at the Village Inn before going in as the showtimes we planned on seeing were all sold out.

Saturday was also good. I'm still cranking along on Fallout 3, getting extremely close to having all of the achievements. They're releasing a new expansion that should be really awesome. I finished the Alaskan expansion and am ready to try the Pittsburgh version soon. The newest one actually continues beyond the end of the current game instead of presenting a new adventure before you finish like the other two. It also allows you to progress to level 30 instead of stopping at 20 like you do in the original game. Pretty cool, if you're a great big geek like me.

Saturday afternoon/evening was our supers game, which is always a blast. We're also starting a new campaign with the same group but a different system, so we're all working on characters for that right now. Still very cool. The main story does still seem to be focusing on my character's plot right now, though we're getting much more info on it than I was expecting so soon. Seems like I still have a heck of a lot to know.

Sunday was a lazy day. We slept in, played racquetball, watched some shows, ran some errands and generally just had a grand ol' time. A very nice way to end an otherwise busy weekend.

We did decide that we're going to begin looking for houses in earnest again, for the good it seems to be doing. We're also going to be looking into getting a puppy, which should be very fun. We had a breed in mind for when we have a house, but I think Jenna's sick of waiting for the house to get the puppy. I don't blame her. We've put off a lot of stuff until we get the house and it just isn't happening for us. I'm sort of sick of waiting to really do stuff until we have a house, but I would also feel silly if I started putting a bunch of holes in the wall of the apartment only to turn around and have to take everything down again when we do get a place. Anyhow. I'm also thinking about looking around for a martial arts school near here that I could try out. It really hit me this weekend how much I miss the fighting sports I used to do, and I think getting back into martial arts would be a great way to get myself into shape and back into a more physically active mindset. I don't know. Maybe it won't work at all, but I'm at least going to try it out.

Sushi Tuesday!

A few days late, but here it goes. Trivia was canceled on Tuesday, which was lame. Some private party or something at the bar. Anyhow, since our Tuesday nights are reserved for such activities, we decided it would be fun to go out and get some dinner anyway. Nate and Adj came over and we all went to Samurai Sushi on Arapahoe and Dayton. We'd gone there once before with Derek and Jenny and it was really good. Even though I'm not huge on sushi myself, I found something there that I really enjoy, and I can at least recognize that the food is something people who do like sushi could really get into. I've been wanting to take some friends there for a while and Tuesday offered the perfect opportunity.

Next time I go, I'll be getting the "all you can eat" for $20 meal, for sure. Most of the entrees are available in smaller format so you can try them all out, and if you get a regular entree and any sushi at all, you'll already be spending that much. The AYCE really is fantastic, I have to say. $20 is pretty standard for most meals at a decent restaurant and for sushi, it's incredibly reasonable. I actually ordered a dish called "chicken katsu" which was two panko-breaded and fried chicken breasts. Very tasty. Jenna got her peppered beef again, and Nate got beef yakisoba, I believe. AJ took the route I did on my first trip and got the AYCE as a means of trying a lot of different sushi to see what he liked. He ended up really enjoying the teriyaki salmon. Makes me want to try it next time we go. And there will be a next time, for sure. Anyone who enjoys sushi and would like to go sometime should let me know and we can set up a time to head over there. It's very close to my house and I'm always up for a good meal.

After dinner, we went back to our house and played "Wise and Otherwise" for a few hours. Very cool game. I'm pretty sure I've described it on here before, so I won't go into it again. In any case, it was a very fun evening, and it was good to hang with Nate and Adj, as always.

I also tested my sling last night, the results of which are posted at my new blog, Geek Kraft.

Geek-Kraft

Last night, I made a sling from stuff i just had lying around the house. I was talking with my friend Adj and he suggested I write a blog called "making geeky stuff with Jared" and I thought it wasn't a half bad idea. I found an available blog title that fits my theme and posted a simple intro. I haven't gotten much on there yet as far as style changes or anything, but I figured I'd let folks know it's there. With 1,000 hits on this blog, I thought I might try my hand at a themed blog. Since I'm something of a crafty dude, that was the obvious choice.

So anyhow, if you're interested in my random ramblings about what's going on in my life, my cooking, my shooting, my video games, my family, etc. this is still the right place to be. If you're more interested in how to make a sling, or to etch glass, or to vacuum-form thermoplastics, then you're better off over here.

Enjoy!

Slacking!

Seriously, one post last week? What the heck? Well, we'll do better this week, for sure. Especially since I am rapidly approaching 1000 hits on this blog. Sweet!

Well, this past week was very fun. We won at trivia again, and have enough of a reputation now that people mutter under their breath when we show up to play. That's sort of cool in a way. We give away most of our free drinks though, so that helps keep us from seeming like total jerks. I hope. Our quizmaster informed us that there's no quiz this week, which is a bit lame. We enjoy our weekly trivia night very much, so missing out even for just a week, will feel odd. On a positive note, the bar did get back on track with the "extra goodies" theme last week, giving each of us a t-shirt.

Thursday I went shooting with my dad, which is always a good time. I did well on both handguns and shotguns. We're consistently getting 19/25 or higher on the auto-trap which isn't too bad at all. I haven't gotten more than 21/25 yet, unfortunately. I think we'll keep getting better though, especially if we can start going more consistently.

Unfortunately, I also started feeling a bit wonky starting Tuesday night, extending through Wednesday and Thursday. Not terrible, just a bit of a head cold. I stayed home from work on Friday to recuperate. it did help, I think, though I still felt like crap all of Friday and all of Saturday. Jenna was also sick pretty much the same time I was, but it didn't seem to hit her as hard as it did me. She's a tough little wife. Thankfully, we both felt much better on Sunday morning, so we still go to play our Rifts game. I made Chicken Parmesan, which seemed to go over quite well. Below, find my recipe, as it stands.

Chicken Parmesan: Chicken, with some stuff on it.

Take some chicken breasts and clean them up. Get any weird dangly bits and obvious fat deposits removed, then dredge with flour. I'm told this step helps the actual breading from flaking off. Next, dip into thoroughly-beaten egg. Then, dip into a mixture of bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Put into a covered skillet, cook until...cooked. Place in a dish, top with a slice of provolone cheese, then cover with foil and let sit for 10 minutes or so.

Pretty basic, eh? Here are some notes I have and questions that came up with this most recent attempt: First off, how do I keep the breading from sloughing off of my chicken? Even with the flour, it still happened. I cooked these on the stovetop instead of in the oven like I normally do, which may be part of the problem. Maybe cooking in the oven is a better bet? Maybe I need to cook them in a non-stick pan? I sprayed some olive oil in there, but that didn't seem to help much, especially after the first flip. Also, I noticed that the chicken breasts I used were very thick and bulky. This isn't bad if you're into a heck of a lot of chicken, but it means you're getting a lot less surface area for your good crusty stuff to hang onto. I'm thinking maybe I should pound these flat a bit so they're thinner, will cook faster, and will have more crust per unit of chicken.

I'm really hoping Kristie will read this and have some suggestions, since I like making this and even with the specified issues it turns out pretty well. I'd like to fix what problems I have with it so that it will be a consistent product worthy of serving to my friends and family without me having to worry about the chicken being cooked through or all the good crustiness flaking off and ending in a soggy pile on the plate somewhere, or worse yet in the cooking pan.

Bit of a break

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been a while since I last posted. Stuff has been going on, but I've been too busy at work to spend much time writing. I caught up a week's worth of work on Friday, though, so I've got all the time in the world now!

Let's start at the beginning. Or rather, the middle. Of last week. Well, Thursday, anyway. it was the first meeting of our new book club where we had actually read the book, so that was cool. I never quite understood the point of a book club before, as I didn't think there would be much to discuss with the books I tend to read. That still mostly holds true for Red Planet by Robert Heinlein, since it's very short and there isn't much worthy of debate. There are definitely strong libertarian themes in the book, but the opposition is presented as being completely lame and not even the most authoritarian reader can't really sympathize with them. It was a good book, but it wasn't something that will really raise a lot of questions about the nature of governance and whatnot. Now, we're reading Weaveworld by Clive Barker. I'm not very far into it yet, but I'm having mixed feelings. Some of it is really good and interesting and some is odd and strangely written. We'll see how it pans out.

Friday we got to leave early from work, which was awesome. I went home and Jenna and I played video games all night. Saturday, there were more video games, though this time I got to play a bit of Left 4 Dead with Steve, so that was really fun. Poor kid's stuck up in the frozen wasteland of the north (Big Piney, WY), so any time I get to talk with him or whatever, I do try to take advantage of it. We were a bit worried about getting to our game on Saturday afternoon, but the roads really weren't that bad. Our game was really fun. The whole thing actually focused on my character, which is sort of a first. I'm extremely curious about what Adj has come up with for me, now. There's some really interesting stuff happening that I'll need to think on rather al ot to figure out how best to proceed.

Something interesting that Adj came up with that I really like, is the association of Maslow's hierarchy of needs (Details) with role-playing games. It really fits well. When your character is dealing solely with staying alive on a day-to-day basis, there's no time to develop him or her as a person with a history and a future. Unfortunately, when you're stuck at the second level (Safety) you also can't really form bonds of friendship with those around you. That means your character may not really know much of anything about the other characters around him. It makes for a very simplistic game. It can still be fun, but you don't form the same connection to characters, and I think it actually makes the players feel less involved. Adj, having realized this, does an exceptional job of getting us opportunities to have our characters realize their place in a larger world, recognize and achieve goals, solve problems in a creative way and to grow and change in meaningful ways. This is only one of the many reasons I have told him on multiple occasions that he is the greatest GM of ever.

Sunday was another day of video games. This may sound very boring, but we're both playing games we absolutely love. I'm off Fable 2 for the moment and back onto Fallout 3. I'm working on achieving all there is to achieve, finishing all sidequests, discovering all possible areas, etc. It's a ridiculously huge game, which is awesome. I'm making full use of my strategy guide, too. I'm really enjoying it, and when I'm done, there are already two expansions! So you don't think that we're total lazy freaks, we did go and play racquetball for about an hour and a half on Sunday and I did spend a few hours in the garage, working on my joinery. I'm not having any luck at all with my finger joints with any method I've tried so far. I think I need to make myself a jog of some kind. The way I tried yesterday was closer than I've gotten before, but there's still way too much chance for slight variation, and the whole process takes for freaking ever. I'll keep thinking about it and trying things until something works.

Thanks for reading!

Sunglasses

Yesterday, I got my sunglasses. You guys really don't know how happy I am about it. I never wore sunglasses until my mom-in-law bought the original pair for me and then I never went without them. After I lost them, I was still used to wearing sunglasses, so I kept wearing my various crappy backup pairs until my new set came in. I hadn't realized the difference a good quality pair of sunglasses makes until I had them and had to go back to crappy ones and then got awesome ones again. Everything is so clear! Colors aren't distorted nearly as much, there's much less glare and everything is distinct. They are, in fact, the greatest sunglasses ever devised by man.

In case you're wondering about the specifics, here's the lowdown: Rayban 3025 001/58. They are the classic aviator style, in a polarized green-gray lens that is 58 mm wide. If I have a chance, I may see if I can find the slightly larger size at a sunglass store sometime just to see if that would work better for my excessively large head. For now, though, I'm happy as a clam.