Evil News

Welcome to Evil News, updates and information on what Christian's doing. I'll try to keep this at updated at least weekly.

Christa and I participated in the 10th Annual Providence Bridge Pedal on Sunday. We rode our bikes 14 miles over 6 bridges in downtown Portland. It was a blast! Our route took us over the Hawthorne bridge, then the Ross Island bridge where we encountered our first bike-traffic-jam of the day, then up and over the Marquam bridge and the biggest and slowest bike-traffic-jam of the day, then across the Burnside bridge, the Broadway bridge, and finally up the incredibly tall Fremont bridge, which was a blast to ride down!

Miki is a 3-year-old German Shepard/Pit Bull/Greyhound/??? Mix that we rescued from the SW WA Humane Society. He's a short-haired red brindle with a greyhound body and a fat german shepard-ish head. He's about 2/3 the size of Pazuzu and is very muscular, like a Pit Bull. He's a scrapper but he's just cute as a button and the most loving dog ever. He's a licker. He's also very smart and is adjusting quickly to life in our house. He already knows several tricks. He's also not afraid of jumping on the couch or the bed, so we have to be vigilant. He's probably asleep on the couch right now, which is why you can't see him on PazuzuCam LIVE.

We've been planning on getting Pazuzu a friend/companion for several months. When we first got Pazuzu, Christa said that he'll do better with a companion. I said we'll wait and see. Last summer, I said we'd get another dog once I get a truck. I got a truck in August. Then I said we'd get another dog once Christa got a new job. She got a new job in January. Then I said we don't want another dog after watching Zoe, who was a hand-full, but then we dog-sat Valley and Sandy and they were a dream and Pazuzu really did better with other dogs he liked (not Zoe). So at that point, I said we should start looking.

Saturday, Christa called me and asked me to come down to the Humane Society and to bring Pazuzu. She found the perfect dog for us. I came down. Pazuzu and Miki got along great. Miki loved me. I thought he was cute and friendly and nice, and I caved. We did the paperwork and picked him up Sunday morning.

So far I'm very happy with the new addition. No major problems, he's adjusting well, no sleepless nights from forlorn puppy wailing, just the usual strange new place adjustment. I'm thinking he'll do well with us.

In other news, Christa and I won the costume contest at her employee appreciation party Saturday night. We dressed as Shrek and Fiona.

I was born with a flat nose. Straight down, flat face, even with the cheeks and forehead, nose. When I was 15, way back in 1985, I had plastic surgery to fashion two of my ribs into a nose bridge. Make an "L" with your fore-finger and thumb. Those are two ribs connected by wire. The "forefinger" attaches to the nose ridge between the eyes with wires. The "thumb" attaches to my mandibula at the base with wires. Over the years, the bones healed and fused and have become really hard.

My dog, an adorable retired greyound named Pazuzu, got a little too excited when I came home from work on Friday. I was petting him when he jumped up, smacking the back of his rather hard pointy skull at the base of my nose, about where your thumb knuckle would be in the above example.

In the following days, my nose felt odd. Not painful, but wrong. No swelling or bruising or anything. A week later, I figured it out. The bone that formed the "thumb" in the example above was fractured.

Imagine the example above, the "thumb-tip" was still fused to my skull and immobile out to the "knuckle". However, from the "knuckle out" to the tip of my nose, the angle at the base of the "L", the bone was now movable. I can feel exactly where the bone is broken, like a snapped twig.

The top ridge, the "forefinger", was still fused. That was good. But the tip of my nose to the breakpoint now "popped" from time to time when it's accidentally touched.

I was kind of freaked. I didn't know what would happen! Would it heal? Would it grow gangrenous and need to be amputated? Will it get worse or better?

I scheduled an appointment with a plastic surgeon at the hospital that performed the original operation. He took a look at, inspected it, and told me at least some good news. It should heal. In a few years, the bone will re-fuse at the break. As long as I'm not in any pain, there's no infection, I shouldn't worry too much about it.

He did say that he's surprised my nose has lasted as long as it has. They stopped using ribs and wires for noses in the mid-eighties, and many of them had to be re-done.

Big PHEW! on my part! It's still bloody annoying with the occassional pops that make my skin crawl and shudder. I'm being very careful now. I also can't pick my nose very well, even in private, for fear of doing damage or causing that annoying "pop".

My parents, on the other hand, are encouraging me to take this opportunity to get it re-done again using the new methods and have insurance pay for it.

I don't know. I think one rhinoplasty per lifetime should be enough. Any more is vanity.

The Damned Door!
I've cleared out the broken glass from the door so that we can now use the door to let the dog out. The outer pane is still in place so it keeps the outside out and the inside in. We'll get a replacement soon. It'll cost us about $250. This, plus our new tires which cost us $400, have really set us back this month. :-(

I got the bracket installed and hooked up to the drive unit. I ran it once and the pin came out of the bracket. I fixed the problem and ran it again, and it killed the drive unit!!! The drive unit was not parallel enough with the door. This damned door opener was supposed to be quick and easy installation! So far, it's required some major engineering design, a new door, and hours and hours of frustration and anger. I'm considering sending it back.

RPGs
My latest e-Bay acquisition, the d20 Conan RPG for half-price, arrived in the mail yesterday. Now Woobee and I both have the ruleb.ook (a joke, they misspell spellbook spellb.ook several places in the text thanks to copying-and-pasting and poor editing). I want our next new D&D campaign to be Conan. Heck, I'd run it!

Movie Reviews
Saw Matchstick Men and Triplets of Belleville last week. Matchstick Men was a funny and well made movie about Nicholas Cage as a con-man (con-ARTIST) with psychological problems who meets his long-lost daughter, but Christa and I both saw the "surprise twist" ending a mile off, so it wasn't much of a surprise or a twist. Triplets is a French cartoon about a champion bicyclist kidnapped by the mafia and the attempt by his grandmother and the eponymous triplets to rescue him. Christa really liked the film. She thought it was quirky and hilarious. I thought it was boring and could have used some more kinetic staging, which it almost totally lacked despite catchy and kinetic music. For those that have seen the anime Metropolis: remember the fire-fighting scene? Remember the music and the active staging of that scene? Well, imagine the same kind of music, but with boring staging. That's what Triplets was like, and that scene in Metropolis is what it should have been more like. If you're going to make an entire movie with next to no dialogue, you've got to make up for it somehow to keep the viewer's interest.

The following links point to, in turn, my coolest creation and my most horrible mistake.

My coolest creation: I had a sheet metal shop custom manufacture me a bracket to connect my sliding glass door to my automatic sliding glass door opener.

And you've probably already guessed from the above photos what my most horrible mistake was:

Yep! Shattered the whole thing with one teensy screw in the bottom corner. Wow! I mean, WOW! I had no idea! I have learned a horrible terrible lesson!

Lightspeed just got a great review over at RPG.Net. Head over to RPG.Net to read the review and comment.

This good review has also been a great boost to my sales so far this month, which shows the power of a good review on RPG.Net and how much influence that site can have on gamer opinion of a product. So thanks, reviewer!

Pazuzu's finally all healed up. It's been a long 4 months. His cast came off about 2 months ago. He had a bandage on for about another month because he had sores from the cast. He's been cast and sore free and walking on all fours for about a month now. On May 23rd, we decided to take him to the fenced-in Skyview HS baseball field to let him run around off-leash at full speed in a literal trial-run. He did great. No whining, no limping. So, on May 30th, one week later, we took him to the weekly greyhound owner meet-n-run at the ball field to let him run with the other greyhounds. He did fantastic and had a great time. Pictures of his first day back at full speed can be seen on his Pazuzu photo page.

Well, the good news is that Poor Pazuzu doesn't have bone cancer. The vet is pretty sure it was an old injury that re-broke. He says Pazuzu will be able to run again someday without fear of re-breaking his leg once it heals. That's a major relief for us. The doggy, on the other hand, got a smaller cast and is adjusting well to life with a broken leg. We take him on walks now and he bravely and nimbly hops along tripod-style. He's a real hopper - I mean trooper. Since he can't go up and down the stairs, we've turned the living room into a temporary dog sanctuary where he can spread out and go into his kennel when he wants. He's gotten pretty used to it.

Poor Pazuzu broke his leg on Sunday morning. We're not sure what happened. When he woke up at 7am, he started limping and then not using his right-front paw. We took him to the emergency vet and had some X-Rays done. Sure enough, fractured! Calcification indicated that it was a previous injury that re-fractured, or possibly bone cancer (!!). They put a splint on him and now he's very pathetic. The poor puppy. Just when things were starting to get normal, something like this comes along and ruins his and our day. Here are some pictures of him trying to relax with the splint on.

We had known that Pazuzu wakes up and needs to potty at 5am sharp. Every morning. Without change. We would like him to wake up and potty at 6:30 to coincide when we wake up.

This morning, right on schedule, Pazuzu is up at 5am and nuzzling the bedroom door and whining. I say "Right on schedule" and start to get up. Christa says, "No, make him wait a few minutes. We want to slowly adjust his schedule a few minutes each day.", "Allright, I say, and pull the covers back up.

5 minutes later, Pazuzu informed us that FIVE A.M. SHALL BE THE TIME OF POTTY!! Whether we like it or not. He started piddling on the corner of our bed, as if to say "This'll show them!" We jumped up, scared the bejeezus out of him, and he scurried back to his pen with the look of "Oh Shit! What have I done? Sorry! Sorry!" (he's so cute when he gets that look).

Christa cleaned up the mess while I took him outside (which was now harder because he wouldn't come out of his pen "No, no. I can pee later. I can see you're upset. I'll just lie here and be quiet, how about that?").

We looked up Pazuzu (formerly known as Resort) at the Greyhound Data website using his ear mark (his registry number tattooed in his ear).

System Rs Resort
color BD
sex male
weight 29 kg ~ 64 lbs
date of birth 18 MAR 2001
land of birth US USA
land of standing US USA
ear mark -94284
owner Hermitage Kennels, Inc.
offspring none known
races 9 known

Here are his race results. Of the 9 races, all in Tampa, FL (???), he didn't win any and only came in 2nd twice. How he wound up in Portland, I have no idea.

Late last night we realized we have adopted an insomnaic dog. Our first night with him was fraught with peril as he was up all night freaking out about being out of the kennel, away from other greyhounds, and in a new house with strange people. He didn't sleep at all, and it kept us up all night trying to keep him out of trouble, whining, barking, pacing, digging in the carpet, etc. (We're told this is normal for the first 2 days). Christa's buying him a crate this morning so he'll feel more at home (they sleep in crates at the kennel) and we can keep him under better control at night.

Poor Christa decided to stay up with him all night and let me sleep in the other room, for the few precious spaces of 30 minutes each I could get.

He's the cutest dog. We love him and he is very affectionate. He just needs to grow accustomed to us and our house.

I am no longer an employee of PacifiCorp. My last day was last Friday. Starting June 16th, I will be the Program Coordinator at the Energy Trust of Oregon (http://www.energytrust.org). It's a WAY better job, much more suited to my experience and skills (some might say "MAD SKILLZ"). I literally doubled my salary. I'm not kidding. Although I'm still making only 84% of my salary in DC, this isn't DC. The cost of living in Portland is like half that of DC, so my new salary is really good considering the current job market and cost-of-living. It just goes to show how big of a cut I took to work at PacifiCorp just to have a job. My starting salary at PacifiCorp was a 75% pay cut.

The best part about the new job is that it's only two blocks away from Powell's City of Books, the largest book store on the west coast and the axis upon which my entire universe revolves around. And in the opposite direction it's also only two blocks from JB Toys, a Japanese import store and Asian film rental store. Plus, I get a normal 8:30-5:30 schedule again. No more weird bus un-friendly 10-7 shift.

I am a happy boy. I feel like I'm back in the saddle after a year and a half of being off my horse.

Christa and I are gearing up for full-steam-ahead house hunting. We really want out of this apartment and it's past time for us to get a house and settle down. The new job only helps that endeavor.

I was officially offered a permanent position at Pacific Power this afternoon and I officially accpeted. My employment still depends on my passing the drug test and background test, but no one is worried about either of those. And no, I'm not bribing anyone in order to pass those tests.

My first official day as a perm employee is March 31. They may start training me before then, or may wait, it all depends on our service level and how busy we are (we have to meet a certain service level measurement goal by the 31st).

It's been an eventful week at C+C Gaming Factory. Lightspeed: Psi Rangers was finally approved and made available. It's a free download so be sure to check it out.

Also, I got a job! Finally! It's a temporary contract position at Pacificorp, but it'll help pay the bills for a while. I start on Tuesday.

Well, I finally got Lightspeed, my first official Role-Playing Game, approved and out the door. It's for sale at RPGnet for $10, which is a steal for a 216 page full-color Role-Playing Game. It took me about 6 months to write it and another 3 months to lay it all out, then lay it out again, and again, then 3 more months to get it approved for legal selling as an official Fuzion game. But it's done. The only problem is, why is it now that I'm done it seems like it's just beginning? Like there's a LOT more work I still have to do on it?

Oh well, in other news, I'm working on the Cell Saga sourcebook for R.Tal. And my first sourcebook for them, the Androids Saga, is due out this week or next. I'm really looking forward to seeing it in print.

Still technically unemployed, and I'm real unhappy about that. 7 interviews in 7 months, and 4 were for 2 jobs. I'm not liking it, but I'm enduring. Christa, on the other hand, is a Goddess. She's working a temp job at a law office that might turn into permanent work. It's not especially high prestige work, but she enjoys the work immensely. The clerical work pleases her yearning to do technical work with little interaction with the public.

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest! We have moved back and all settled in. Both Christa and I had a bad bout with the Christmas Crud starting Christmas day. We felt like death. It was terrible. Now we've recovered and feeling great! We're in Vancouver, Washington, now. It's right across the river from Portland, Oregon. In fact, we're very close to the neighborhood I grew up in (Junior High and High School).

Our new apartment is pretty good. It's not as classy as our old one, of course, but it's SO BIG, and for half the rent! We've got two bedrooms and two baths now. The second bedroom is an office/game room/computer room, and it's even got an attached bathroom! Wow! We were pretty strapped for sitting space after we moved in. All we had for about 3 weeks was an inflatable mattress on the living room floor. We soon got some nice cheap chairs at Urban Outfitters, and we finally at least had some place to sit.

The big news of late is, of course, OUR COUCH! Yeah yeah, I know, big deal, it's a couch right? Well, we've never owned a couch. All we had before was that lousy futon. Well, not any more, sister! We've got a full-on living room complete with matching couch! The best thing? It's a recliner couch! Both sides!

Well, it's been 3 months since the LAST update! Christa and I flew up to Portland for our friends Cheney and Ariane's wedding in August. Christa went to London in October. I won a Halloween contest by dressing up as Shrek. The prize was two tickets to that Sunday's Redskins game, and we won that too!

The biggest news, of course, is that we're moving back to PDX! We leave the DC area on 12/8/01 to drive across country. We have an apartment lined up in Vancouver, WA. We don't have permanent jobs there yet, but we're looking. Luckily, I was able to set up an arrangement with NCQA to continue working after I move, at least temporarily.

Has it really been that long since my last Evil News Update? That's terrible! My sister Jennifer was married in April. Christa and I traveled to the Georgia Coast for that wedding. My friends Jeffy and Linda were married in Vancouver, WA in July. We went to that one too. That wedding was especially nice because they held the ceremony at the Marshall House where Christa and I were married and they even used the same wonderful caterer. We finally got to see our wedding from the other side.

I finished the Android Saga sourcebook for Dragonball Z, it should be printed soon. I've got another book in the works, we'll see what happens there.

Christa and I bought a new car !!! A brand new 2001 Volkswagen Jetta GLX (top of the line) with a 194 hp V6 engine, power steering, cruise control, power sun/moonroof, powered heated seats with
memory control, sports suspension, alloy wheels, monsoon sounds system with in-dash CD player (we got that thrown in for free), rain sensing wiper blades that auto-adjust for rain intensity, grey leather interior, and Galactic Blue exterior! It's SO KICK ASS! It's got Maximum Fahrfegneugen! A Nietzschian Supercar uber alles! Seig Heil! Uh, never mind.

We went in to get the GLS, the next model down. We wanted all this extra crap for our GLS that it was effectively a GLX. The only difference was the sports suspension, powered seats, lacquered wood trim interior, and rain sensing windshield wipers. We didn't really want them anyway. We were
prepared to spend 23,500 for the GLS. Well, they were OUT of GLS. They had an abundance of GLX, however, which normally sold for 25,500, but since they were trying to ditch them, they offered 24,500. We said, "Only if you either drop it to 24 or throw in the $500 CD player", at first they said no, and we said, "No problem, we'll order the GLS. We can wait". Well, we bargained for
about 45 minutes. Eventually, we got the CD player thrown in for free and got the better car with more crap than we wanted, but it's SO WORTH IT!

We picked it up last Friday and drove it all weekend. It's such a blast to drive. It's so nice to be able to go where we want to go.

In other news, I finally got the Frieza saga print-out from R.Tal, along with a check for the first part of my work. Now that I've got the print-out, I have to start really working and typing stuff out.

1/2/01: Thus Sprach Zarathustra

Happy New Year! The holidays went well. Our poor little Christmas tree, all two feet tall of it, was dwarfed by the presents piled around it. Christa's sister, Cheri, came and visited us. We opened gifts and wallowed about, succumbing to gravity and unable to move our own chocolate-bloated bulk. Kevin came over later for Christmas dinner that Christa and Cheri made. It was delicious!

We saw Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon with Cheri and her boyfriend Tereq, who happened to be in town as well visiting his family. What a great film!

For New Years, Christa and I just sat around playing Crash Bandicoot and eating pizza. Cheri had returned to Cali and all our friends were out of town, so we had to parties to go to and no one to invite over. Sigh. On New Year's Day we saw Unbreakable, another great film, and hung out some more. The holidays were nice, quiet, and restful.

Wow, another whole year has passed! In the most latest news, my grandfather, Lindell, passed away Thanksgiving night. It was sad, but we knew it was coming. It was a good time for the family to get together and see each other. I'll miss Lindell a lot. He was funny, intelligent, and a great guy, someone I want to emulate in my own life.

In other news, I released MektonZeta.com, a website devoted to the Mekton Zeta Role-Playing Game. I did it pro-bono as an exercise. I'm really pleased with the artwork I did for it.

I completed the StarForce supplement for Lightspeed. It's got rules for creating StarForce officers and stats for StarForce ships. In addition, I had to revise Lightspeed and Psi Rangers in the process. I've also added HTML versions of all the rules to the website.

I've also been signed on to write the next sourcebook for the Dragonball Z Adventure Game. I had to watch 10 tapes of Dragonball Z, taking over 30 pages of notes. I should be done writing it by March.

On September 29th, 2000, I was married to the most beautiful, and obviously most intelligent, woman on Earth: Christa Cloninger.

We went up to the Portland, OR, the week before to make sure everything was set, and to just relax. We stayed at the Heathman Lodge in Vancouver, Wa. What a great hotel!

The wedding itself was spectacular and perfect! We had good weather, and the Marshall House, where we were married, was resplendent! It was so weird to have family and friends from all over the country, people you thought would never ever meet, all in one place and having fun!

The reception was a blast! With dancing and partying and all the rest. The food was incredible! I've never been to a better wedding, and IT WAS MY OWN!! That's the best part.

We spent our honeymoon in Bermuda, where it was sunny and warm. We rented a scooter and tootled about the island exploring it's tourist traps. It was a blast! We saw almost everything, but there's still so much more. We want to go back someday. We went snorkeling in a cove and saw all kinds of tropical fish, just hanging around. What a trip!

Coming home was rough, of course. Having to go back to work was hard. But we tempered our despair by purchasing some new toys! We got a new TV and DVD player with our wedding gift money! We're set! Now it's back to the daily grind. I'm out of vacation days and there's lots of work to be done.

Well, my best friend, Woobee, got married last weekend, and I flew up to Vancouver, WA, to be his best man. I arrived in Portland Thursday night at 11pm. Travelling is always rough, but this time was particular because I had to take the MARC commuter train to BWI in Baltimore. Ugh. A nice suprise awaited me at the airport, however, when the economy car I reserved was upgraded to a nice red Chevy Blazer (my choice). What a sweet ride, and at economy car prices.

Friday morning began with the rehearsal, which went quickly. We used my rental car keys as a ring stand-in. The rest of Friday was spent blowing up balloons and hanging streamers and driving Woobee around in the Blazer. I got some book shopping in at Powell's in the afternoon, which was nice. (BTW- I picked up the new D&D 3E Dungeon Master's Guide and it rocks!). Friday night I spent with my friends, we went out to dinner and had some Magaritas.

Saturday morning saw more baloon inflation and decorating. The "Men" all went out for lunch prior to the wedding, and we all went back to Woobee's parents to get dressed in our tuxedoes. The tuxes all looked like something Doc Holiday would have worn, but they were cool. My pants were a little loose and I was very self-conscious of them falling down! At one point, the clasp even came undone! The lesson learned is that I have to get suspenders for MY tux. Woobee looked really good in his tux, and Dusty was very pretty in her dress.

The ceremony iteself was really short. Badda-bing badda-boom, you're married. We then got our pictures taken and stood in the receiving line. I didn't eat any of the food because we had lunch earlier and I wasn't hungry anyway due to my weird jetlag schedule. There was a lot of mingling and talking.

Pretty soon people were beginning to leave, so I tried to hurry up the "things", you know: wedding cake, boquet toss, that sort of stuff. They cut the cake and poured each other a glass of sparkling cider (there was no alcohol, probably the reason people were leaving so early) and I gave a short speech and a toast.

It took forever for Woobee and Dusty to leave. Didn't they know they weren't supposed to stay that late? But that's okay. After the wedding, my friends and I all went to McMenamin's for some Ruby Ale and some dinner. We sat on the patio over the Columbia River and watched the sun set. What a great conclusion to a beautiful day.

It took me forever to get home on Sunday, and I had to take Amtrak home from the airport (ugh). But it was nice to see Christa again when I got home, and she was excited to see me. I'm so glad she's marrying me. More to come about that in two weeks!

In other news, Christa and I went to Otakon in Baltimore last Saturday along with everyone from my game group. Otakon is an Anime convention, and it was pretty fun. There was an okay dealer room, but almost all the dealers were identical and carried the same stuff. I managed to snag about $130 in crap anyway. Mostly Usagi Yojimbo collections, a Gunsmith Cats graphic novel, an Neon Genesis Evangelion Art book, and the big score: about 30 25mm rubber Zeta Gundam figures perfect for Mekton gaming. They were $5 for a bag of 5-6 so I snagged 4 bags, sweet!

Christa bought a Princess Mononoke art book and a dagger she liked. My other friends all managed to spend lots of money on models and artbooks.

I created a new website for Lightspeed, my role-playing game of interstellar law enforcement. It replaces the old Rangers site and can be found at http://www.mecha.com/~conkle/lightspeed.

Well, it's been a long time since the last Evil News, but there really hasn't been anything much new to report. Let's see..

Christa has just returned from her business trip to Europe. She visited Paris, Germany, Switzerland, and London in 7 days. While in Paris, she met and shook hands with the Assistant Prime Minister of Slovakia. Wow, she's so cool! During her trip, she also managed to contract some gruesome Euro Bio-Plague! She returned home to much sickness and has missed the last two days of work. Poor Christa. I've been doing my best to take care of her during these coughing and wheezing times.

While she was gone I tried to keep myself busy with drawing and what-not. I never realized just how much TV we watched together until she was gone. The TV was off most of the week. I was at the drawing table in a dark house. I didn't even realize it was dark until I got up to go to bed, usually at 11:30pm (the time flew by!). Anyway, I'm just glad she's back. Of course, I had to re-learn all my proper behavior upon her return (toilet seat discipline, bedtime teeth-brushing, etc.).

Our pool opened this weekend! Whee! Unfortunately, it rained all weekend so swimming was right out. It should return to the upper 90's by Friday, so I expect to be dipping by then!

It's been very busy lately, so busy I completely forgot about Evil News! Bad Me!

Well, the news is that the wedding plans are coming along, albeit frustatingly. We're trying to find a reception site near the wedding site we want, but it's becoming increasingly difficult. We may have to move our wedding site (sigh). Work has been hectic hectic hectic. New firewalls, new security applications, new projects. It all adds up.

I started a new gaming group finally. The new group consists of Neil Baumgardner, Paul Fields, and Kevin Ianocca, and myself. We're gaming in my new apartment, and so far it's been great! Our first game is Star Wars, I'm setting up a page for it now.

Also new, Christa and I now have furniture! It's true! We finally got a nice chest of drawers, nightstand, computer desk, bookcase, and office table (for the game room)! The drawers and nightstand we found at a local furniture store, and on sale! What a stroke of luck! The rest we ordered from Staples.com, I highly reccomend their service, their prices are low and they deliver overnight! And just last Sunday, we finally got barstools! Now all we need is a desk chair and a wavey CD rack.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great New Years! I spent mine at the historic Landmark Inn in downtowm Marquette, Michigan, on the banks of Lake Superior. It was bloody bugger-ass cold there, of course, but New Years was fun and filled with drinking, swing dancing, fine dining (at $55 a plate!!!), and just plain fun.

The hotel elevator shut off at midnight due to Y2K with people inside. No foolin! Is that cool or what? Well, not to the people inside, who were quickly let out, but still, a little bit of Y2K to tell the grandkids.

Christa's grandparents' 50th anniversay was real cool, a lot cooler than I expected. There was more fine dining, and a professionally produced video showing a photo-history of their lives. That was pretty interesting.

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a good Christmas and gave and got lots of presents. Christa and I went to Missouri last week and had a pre-Christmas gathering with my Mom, Step-dad, and Step-Grandparents. It was cold in Farmington. We walked in the woods a lot, read a lot, and talked a lot. Yep, not very exciting. But it was nice to spend time with the fam. Christa got to show off her new engagmement ring, which arrived a few days before we left, and was able to talk wedding plans with my fam.

We were also able to show off our new apartment through photos. Here are a few photos of interest:

Outside
Our apartment building: The Meridian at Ballston Commons.

Christa in the courtyard outside out building.

view from roof
The view from our roof, showing the mall across the street.

The game room on our roof, it connects to the rooftop pool.

Our Rooftop Pool.

Our Apartment, looking towards the glassed-in balcony.

Kitchen
Our Kitchen.

Den
Our Den/Game/Work Room. It's mainly storage right now, but that will change as soon as we get a table, more bookshelves, and a filing cabinet.

bedroom
Our bedroom. Notice the lack of furniture. We're working on that.

Christa and I had Christmas together at home. It was nice, but a little boring. You never realize how much you do with your family during the holidays until they're not around and nothing's open. We played a lot of Playstation (we've gotten good at Crash Bandicoot and Gran Tourisimo).

We head off to Ishpeming, Michigan, for New Years in a few days. I hope everyone has a safe and grundig Neue Jahre!

Christa and I have moved into our new apartment in downtown Arlington, VA. It's a wonderful apartment building! The Meridian at Ballston Commons. It's a 21 story building, we're on the 4th floor. We've got a roof-top pool, a game/party room (with pool tables, TV, kitchen, and lots of great books), a drycleaners, a copy center, a store, a concierge, and a work-out gymnasium. The building is right across the street from the Ballston Commons Mall (home to a 10-screen stadium-seating theater), a Starbucks, several restaurants, and a block from the Metro subway and a Harris Teeter grocery store. It is also surrounded by nice parks and walking areas.

We have a 1-bedroom apartment with a den and a glassed-in balcony (with ceiling fan). It's so great! We finally have cabinet and storage space! Our apartment is right next door to the elevators and the trash chute, so taking out the trash is as easy as opening our front door. I can't rave enough about this place, can you tell? Originally, Christa and I were looking for much more modest dwellings, but when we actually looked at our budget, we discovered we could easily afford this place. Wow!

The move was, of course, a pain! We had planned on renting a truck and moving in one load between 10am and 2pm. The truck rental place told me a month ago that they didn't reserve trucks for local moves, and that I should come in that day and they'd have plenty of trucks to rent. I called on Friday to get their hours, and they said they didn't have any trucks at all for Saturday. WHAT!!?? So, after a frantic but fruitless search for a truck, I was able to borrow my brother-in-law's pickup, which he generously offered. Well, we didn't get back with the truck until 11am, but that's okay because our helpers got lost and weren't able to arrive until noon. Our helpers were magnificient! We can't thank them enough for the wonderful and constantly cheerful help they provided! They helped for two trips to the apartment, each trip of 4 miles taking 30 minutes thanks to traffic and signals (yes, that's an average of 8 miles an hour). They had to leave at 6pm, and we were sorry to see them go but very grateful. Christa and I managed the last two loads ourselves. We were moving until 11pm, much later than the 2pm we originally planned. We were exhausted! Our new place looked like a garbage dump with piles of boxes and trash bags full of clothes.

Sunday morning we got up at 6am to return the truck and have breakfast with my sisters (Jennifer was in town for the weekend from UGA). We saw her to the airport, then went home and slept. Our bodies were so exhausted and tired. We got up and unpacked and assembled and plugged in and installed. By Sunday night, our apartment had taken shape out of the formless void of chaos. Paintings were hung, books were shelved, dishes were put away and clothes were washed and hung. Ah. It's nice to be home. As of last night, my memory of the last 4 months has begun to quickly fade away. So happy...

12/1/99: Let the world tremble! For the Warrior Princess and the Alpha Geek shall be joined!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Christa and I had seafood at the Chart House in Alexandria, VA, on the Potomac. After dinner, on the waterfront, I got down on one knee and proposed to Christa, and she said "Of course!"

Christa and I are planning on getting married on the last weekend of September of 2000, in Portland, Oregon.

I went to look for myself in the latest ORG chart this morning, scanning the bottom of the page when, to my suprise, I wasn't there! I was at the top of the page! Directly under Jim Tierney, the VP of Information Technology/Products! I am no longer under Pete Frawley, I'm now at an equal level.

This, of course, doesn't mean I get a raise. It's primarily a political move to appease the other departments who all want a piece of me.

11/16/99: Saw the film, Dogma, Sunday. Great movie, I can't recommend it enough, unless you are sensitive about Catholicism or Christianity in general. Yesterday I added some new content to the Horde Invasion section of Star Wars: Dark Heritage, including a new Dispatch, stats for Alexar Feleman, and some artwork for Dispatch 5 and 6. Last week I added a rules upgrade for Dragonball Z called Dragonball ZX to Tranzfuzion.

11/8/99: I gave a presentation on my Chrysalis Project to of my company's Leadership Team this morning. It went well and I got lots of praise. I felt I was too nervous and talked too fast. But it got approved anyway. Christa's and my apartment application at the Meridian at Ballston was accepted last week, and we're planning on moving in December! I'm still recuperating from a cold from last week. I was up until 5am Saturday night finishing Lord of the Rings, but I'm done and now I'm moving on to Terry Pratchett's Moving Pictures.