ScottyATC's Blog - 2old2play

I am sooo behind the times!!!

I haven't posted in nearly a year...........guess I'm just too darn busy!

I finished Halo3 on legendary the other day. It was a lot of fun, but left me still wanting more. I just hope I don't have to wait another few years for the next Halo fix! Come on Bungie.......get with it!

I started working out at Gold's Gym......bought the wifey and me a membership, so I've been exercising with the ladies doing "Body Pump"......hopefully they don't think I'm weird, but I wanted to start out slow before I get into the hard core stuff. Oh......yes.......my body hurts..............it really sucks when the lady leading the class has bigger biceps than I do and lifts more weight during the workout. Oh, well..............hopefully I can get this soft body into a little firmer shape. Not much to say, except I've been riding my Hayabusa to work nearly every day..................and hoping the Colorado winter snow will wait just a few more weeks before it shows up! Had a guy in a hot foreign car take off from a stop sign next to me the other morning at about 5:30am on the way to work. He was going one way, and I was headed the other. After thinking about it for a moment, I pulled a u-turn and caught up to him in short order.......then I removed some of his testosterone by leaving him waaaay in the dust! Yes.......kids will be kids......and men will be kids. I'm not ready to grow up all the way yet!

I'll leave you with a pic from my backyard.......a brown Colorado view of the foothills in the fall.

[IMG]http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q250/scottyatc/PA120048.jpg[/IMG]

[2 Comments]

Yippeeee!!!!

Yep..................got my 360 just the other day. I'm probably going to wait until Christmas to unwrap it for real....................of course I'll probably have to check out GOW before that......just to be sure it works!!!!

With that said..............my mom and dad came up to Loveland for the week of Thanksgiving...............they were here for 5 days, and in that time I introduced my dad to the original Halo game. Now he's a big science fiction fan..............has thousands of pulp science fiction in his personal library...........so this really intrigued him. He arrived back home after playing just a couple levels in the game on co-op with me. Now guess who's getting a new xbox?

I just sent him the prequel novel by Eric Nylund on e-reader, so that he can really get into the game.

I'm psyched!!!!

..............and I assured him that age 65 is definitely 2 old 2 play!!!!!!

[3 Comments]

What month is it?

OK..............they say that a kitchen remodel takes about 7 months..................am I there yet?

The remodel project has gotten more intense. When my wife was painting the kitchen, she moved the refrigerator a couple of times and then we headed out of town for a week to visit family. Needless to say, I now know that homeowners insurance DOES cover water damage to hardwood floors due to a leaking connection to the icemaker! After a few weeks, we now have 200 square feet of new oak flooring and all 1000 square feet of floor refinished.

Oh well..................since we had to wait for the flooring project to be completed, the project moved beyond the first two rooms and now has headed into the dining, entry, and living rooms. I removed the flooring in the living room and raised it approximately 2 inches with the install of radiant floor heating......continued the removal of electric baseboard heaters throughout the other rooms and am replacing trim........and repainted.........and replaced the carpet in the living room.........................whew!!!!

I haven't gotten to play much HALO2 online with clanmates or friends lately, but hopefully I'll be on more consistently soon. This whole thing started out as just a room being painted. I should have kept my big mouth shut and just let her paint it..................instead, I've spent my entire summer working on the house.

On the bright side, she thinks I'm fabulous.

[1 Comments]

Whoops!

Wife says...........Im ready to paint..........can you remove those obsolete electric baseboard heaters?

I say.............sure!

Thus begins much drywall patching and hole patching that used to house wall controls.

I say..............boy, kitchen cabinets sure look crappy.

She says.................so! We cant afford to buy new ones.

I say...........no problem...........Ill just refinish them myself!

Thus begins approximately 6 weeks of labor for me.

Whoops!

[1 Comments]

My daughter graduates!!

Well, its almost time for my daughter to graduate from High School. ;; This past month has blazed by and we are busy getting the house ready for the usual "graduation open house". ;; Here is a picture of my daughter and her boyfriend that we took right before prom three weeks ago. ;; ;; Of course this was just one picture out of the 50 that I snapped off.........what can I say.........its my job!!! ;; They sure grow up fast!!! ;;

[3 Comments]

And yet another distraction to keep me from meaningful chores....

You would think that I spend enough time in front of computer screens without needing an excuse to spend more, but........

I decided I needed to spruce up my signature banner a bit, so I started doing some research on what program to use. ;; Now of course, I didnt want to spend any money on this, so that limited my options! ;; I could always hit the torrent sites and try to find a key for a pirated program, but that would be just that,.....piracy! ;; I came across a cool, free open source program, that I spent way too much time with yesterday. ;; Its called GIMP. ;; It stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. ;; You have to do some research to find help files and a runtime program to install first, but it was well worth the effort. ;; My new sig banner is the fruit of the effort yesterday. ;; Now you need to realize, that Ive never played with any kind of imaging software, so this was a lot of fun for me.

[4 Comments]

Not much happening but.......

As the title states, there just isnt much going on in my world, but Ill write just a little so that Im not considered a slacker! My daughter graduates from High School in just over a month. Any ideas on a graduation gift for her? She wants a simple get together with friends and family on the Saturday of her Graduation, so that saves us a bit of money. Hopefully the weather will be good(it usually is in Colorado). The bike is taking a breather for the time being. My jackets zipper came apart, so its being repaired and both tires are pretty smooth, so there are replacements on the way. Those biker leather jackets are pretty darn expensive, so repairing it was my only option.

My summer project of building a small barn is going.................well, NOT going is probably the best way to describe it! The holes are dug for the poles, but I still need to go lay out in the field and scoop out the dirt that dropped back in before I can get an inspection. My wife is eagerly anticipating the removal of the 14 6x6s from her side of the garage!!! (Theyve only been there for about 2 months already!)

My parents are moving to Colorado Springs this next week, so I will be helping them move things into storage until their home is ready to move into. For those of you with little ones running around the house, you know the value of having parents living close by for childcare issues...........I always hated the whole "babysitter" thing. Its hard enough to afford the date, without having to come home and shell out another 20 bucks for the sitter. With my youngest already 8 years old, we will soon not be needing babysitters!!! Yeah!!!

Work is work. We are in a transition from 5 areas of specialty to 6. I have to learn two new sectors and will start training in a few weeks. Leave in the summer will be pretty slim and hard to come by, so guess Ill get to save some for a change.

I guess thats enough to avoid "slacker" status. Have a great day/week!!!

[1 Comments]

A great Easter Ride!

Rode my bike down to Colorado Springs yesterday to enjoy an afternoon ride with my younger brother. He just bought an 06 version of my 04 Hayabusa. We had a great ride and I told him that I must look fantastic on my bike, cuz he looked pretty darn good on his!!! This pic was just in a gas station parking lot from my camera phone. I like the color of his.....mine is the blue/silver in the back.

[1 Comments]

Happy Easter Everyone!!!

He is risen!!!!!

And THAT my friend, is all that matters!!!!

[3 Comments]

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!

Ok...........you would not believe what a good father I am! Here I am, on a Tuesday night(one of only two nights that I usually spend playing halo2) and my daughter is downstairs playing Dance, Dance Revolution. Its killing me. But I must put aside my wants and desires so that I can achieve the status of "Good Dad."

This sucks!!!!!

[2 Comments]

More boarding....

Another fantastic day of snowboarding in the mountains of Colorado!!! Took off work today so I could take my 16 year old son up boarding at Breckenridge. It was raining all along the front range as we made our way up the mountain. The rain turned to snow only about two thousand feet up from the city and the roads became pretty dangerous. It took us an extra 45 minutes of drive time.....or should I call it "crawl" time. Saw at least one roll over and lots of off road crashes on the way up. Thats pretty typical for snowy weather up here. The mountain was great.........there were places on the back side of the ridges were I was over my knees in powder!! Met up with my daughters boyfriend and his father for a great time flying down the mountain. Unfortunately, the season is nearly over. The highs at the ski resort for tomorrow are predicted to be in the 50s.........at that temp, the snow just doesnt last long!!! Bummer!!!!

Scott out.

[0 Comments]

Visit Phreaks Blog

Visit Phreaks blog site to read about our problem with Harry Carays. It seems that this is a closed issue now, but its a shame that we have been judged by trial and jury without even making an appearance. My personal thanks to Phreaks and Doodi and others that are yanking their hair out trying to pull off this event. It is obvious that they have an uphill battle!!!

[0 Comments]

What I do.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER

http://www.natca.org

(National Air Traffic Controllers Association)

Ive been an Air Traffic Controller for 17 years at the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center in Longmont, Colorado. My area of specialty is "Ski Country". I work the airspace west of Denver that includes the northwest Denver arrival gate and the west departure gate. I also work the airports associated with the skiing industry.......................Aspen, Vail, Telluride, Montrose, Gunnison, Steamboat, Grand Junction, Hayden, Rifle, etc. It can be very exciting during the winter time!!! If anyone is interested in this career, visit the web site listed above......there are a lot of controllers in the process of retiring and the FAA will be hiring en mass within the next year or so. Unfortunately they wont hire you if you are over the age of 30, so get on board early! Pm me if you have questions that I can answer.

(edit)
ps................talked to "Lady is Red" last night and thought I would add a few links for those that are interested.

http://www.faa.gov is the governments site.
http://www.nw.faa.gov/ats/zdvartcc/ is my ARTCcenters site.
http://www.nw.faa.gov/ats/zdvartcc/high_mountain/index.htm is a site devoted to the area of specialty I work.

http://www.stuckmic.com is where I believe the best information for becoming a controller can be found. There are lots of new hire postings as well as controller postings. These are the people that are currently going through the hiring process and they know the ins and outs of becoming a controller. I can only tell you about bennys, pay, hours and such. As usual with government jobs, being a vet helps, so if youve been in the service and are still under 30 years old, then you have a better chance.

The following is a depiction from the ski country website of traffic into and out of 8 ski country airports between 9am and 5pm on January 2, 2005. It was just one of those days that was just too darn busy. I worked that day and was stuck on these sectors all day. It was fun, but tiring. Like playing Halo2 slayer but playing to 1000 with only 2 breaks of 20 minutes during an 8 hour shift.

[6 Comments]

Who I am.

Well, lets see.

My age is listed, but I will reiterate. Im a 44 year old, happily married man. I have a lovely wife who has put up with my computers and gaming for almost 22 years. Ive been an Air Traffic Contoller for over 17 years and live in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. I have 3 great kids. My daughter is 17 and graduates this year. I have 2 sons......my oldest is 16 and my youngest is 8. We used to like camping a lot, but the teens rebelled. That will start up again soon (hopefully this summer....we will leave them at home!). I have a project boat that will soon be put into my project barn so that it can be overhauled. I enjoy riding my motorcycle, snowboarding, hanging out, pina coladas (J/K), and tech stuff. I have been a Christian since I was 8 years old and attend Church regularly with my family. I am eligible to retire in 6 years, but will probably stick with the game for another 11 years.........(mandatory retirement at age 56). I Love Halo and Halo2. I am eagerly awaiting Halo3 (or whatever it will be called) and at that point...........or if a "must have" game appears......will purchase a 360 (without the bugs!!!!!). I really, really enjoy the community of the 2old2play site and love gaming with all of you old people!!!!! Thats enough.

[0 Comments]

I HATE COMPUTERS!!!

No, wait..............................I LOVE COMPUTERS!!!! (When theyre running right.) It never fails......I decide to add something....usually software, but sometimes hardware, update a few drivers and whammo! I start getting errors all over the place. Right now Im fighting with the recovery console and booting from my xp cd and blah, blah, blah!!!! Im using my laptop to vent right now and I try to keep it as simple as possible........I dont trust my laptop, so I usually dont keep important files there.......I trust my desktop, so that s where my important files are........and which one continually locks up or refuses to boot? You got it.......................damn desktop!!! Luckily I am cool headed and usually calm........otherwise I have recurring visions of my sledge hammer and the desktop having an "encounter". I really do love computers........but I just hate them too!

[0 Comments]