A day off... finally

    Not a day off of work, just a day off. Last night, my mother-in-law called unexpectedly, and my 5 year old answered the phone. Not long into the call, he asked his grandmother if he could spend the night at her house. From his reaction, I could tell she had said yes. Then he asked if his baby brother could come, too. Again, I could tell she said yes. Already I felt like a 75 pound vest was being lifted off of my torso. He then gave the phone to my wife and they set it up for my mother-in-law to arrive within the hour to pick up the boys.
    I love my boys, with all of my heart, and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. Riley is getting so big, and so smart, I couldn't be more proud, and he's exceeded any expectations I've had for his development. Henry is still a baby, so I know to cherish these times with him. Already he's learned a lot. Just recently, he learned how to clap, after only a few times trying to teach him how. He can even give high-fives. And he's finally figured out how to get back down after pulling himself up to standing.
    My days get so long, though. My week goes like this;
    Sunday: Work all day.
    Monday: Sleep the day away, spend the evening with the family, stay up too late playing videogames
    Tuesday- Thursday: Spend all day with the boys, evenings with the family, stay up too late playing videogames
    Friday: Work all day.
    Saturday: Work all day.
There's never a lot of time in there where I can just relax in an empty house.
    Thanks to the best mother-in-law in the world, though, I have that day today. No one here telling me they're hungry, they're thirsty, they're bored, they banged their toe, they can't open something, they can't close something, etc. I can be loud. I can be lazy. I can sit at the computer for more than 5 minutes. I can play RockBand with 5.1 surround sound!
    The only honey-do list I have for the day is to clean the microwave, which I'm about to take care of in the next 5 minutes. Then, I don't know yet what I'm going to do, but I don't care.

Posted by jikado @ 2:14 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Hitting close to home. R.I.P. Kristine Larson

    I never know how to appropriately deal with these types of things, I'm always worried I'm going to say the wrong thing, or become too insensitive.
    Those of you in the Twin cities, or around the Minnesota area may have heard about the 19 year old woman who was found dead in her burning car Wednesday night. That "woman" was my wife's cousin. To me, she'll always be "the little drummer girl". When I first met my wife's family, she was 9 or 10, and was learning to play the drums, so that's the name I gave her. To me, she's not just some random 19 year old woman.
    It's a terrible tragedy, completely senseless. I don't have much more information than what's now on the local news. No one really does. While she had a difficult relationship with the father of her 2 year old son, he's not a suspect, and has verification of his whereabouts that night. It's not a suicide, and the police are investigating it as Minneapolis' 46th murder. She was dead before the car was set on fire, and the fire department that arrived on the scene was able to pull her body before it caught on fire. We've been told that she was strangled with a white rope. The police have no one held in custody as a suspect yet, and now the news programs are labeling it as a "baffling" murder case. We may never know who did this, or why.
    The entire family is very close-knit, and all are taking it very hard. Christmas has been canceled.
    It's hard to watch the news, and I realize more than ever why so many people choose to not watch it at all. It's hard to see someone you know, and will never again be able to see, being referred to so anonymously, so coldly.
    Kristine was very cheerful, very caring, very trusting. She leaves behind not only her infant son, but so many other family members that love her, and would give anything to have her back home.

Posted by jikado @ 12:28 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

Is it so difficult?

    Is it so difficult to like two things at one time? Is it so difficult to allow others to enjoy the things they do?
    The motivation behind this blog centers mostly on the Halo 3/ COD4 bickering I see sometimes (more specifically, the time I was booted form a COD4 lobby for mentioning the 'H' word), but it can be applied across the board to so many things.
    I'll just get this out of the way right now; I prefer to play Halo 3 over COD4. Does this mean I think COD4 is a crappy game? No. Does this mean I think Halo 3 is a better game? No. Does this mean that I will never play COD4? No.
    I'm going to avoid listing the reasons the two games are different, or why, exactly, I prefer Halo 3, for now, at least. The point I want to make is that it's okay to not like the same one as me, and it's okay with everyone if you like both of them. There's no point, really, in completely trashing someone over their preference, though. What purpose does that serve? Do you think that lambasting me over my choice will convince me to join you in COD4? Quite the opposite, really, and even if I did, what good does that do? I think the reason people, or let's just get it out there and call them 'fanboys,' do this sort of thing is because they're trying to make themselves feel better about their purchase. The only reason they would have to do that is because they have insecurities about it.   
    Can't we all just play to have fun, whatever the game is?

Posted by jikado @ 12:50 pm EDT | Permalink | 8 Comments

I'm back online! W00t!

    Well, ten days since I mailed it out, and I'm back online, with I what I believe to be a refurbed 360. I'm pretty sure it's not the one I sent out. It also came with a new faceplate, which is cool, because I scratched my original when I put a Halo 3 one on, then my oldest son accidentally broke the Halo 3 one when I took it off to ship out the 360.
    You're damn right I'll be online tonight.

Posted by jikado @ 5:08 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Day 8

    A call to 1-800-4myxbox today granted the best news I've heard all day; My work order has been completed and shipped. Good. Now, I hope against hope that at the very least I don't become one of these horror stories I'm reading about in the hardware forums. bigagp, who sent his box on the same day as me, has already received his back, but was unable to get it to power up. According to Tank and others, it seems like this happens fairly often, you get your console back, only to have to ship it back right away for some other problem. Or, perhaps the update will re-brick it. I wonder if they already updated it while it was there?
    Other stuff:
    My oldest son has been staying with Grandma since Monday night, and he'll be there until tomorrow night. She has the week off work, and wanted to spend some quality holiday time with him. It's been very weird not having him around, but it's good for him. My 6-month old baby has been sick all week with a heavy cold/teething/diarrhea thing, so he's needed twice as much attention as before, and I think had my oldest been home, he would have felt severely neglected by now. Without him here, though, it only makes me wish that much more that I had my 360 here, to take advantage of the extra free time during the day that I have.
    We got a light snow again yesterday, which makes me glad I only have to drive to work 3 days a week, sounded like traffic was brutal last night. I loaded up my iPod with some Christmas music and went out to shovel, after the wife got home, while she stayed in to wrap the presents we got for the oldest son. Again, I missed him, because he enjoys playing in the snow so much. He like for me to shovel all of the snow into one pile, his "mountain," and he's very particular that it's in the same exact location as last year. I think I did the best I could without him here.
    I realize I have very little to gripe about, and that for many on this site, the lack of a videogame system seems petty, considering so many are going through tough times at work, or being laid off or fired, some even have medical emergencies that have yet to be resolved. I never know what to say in these situations, that's why I hardly ever reply to those types of threads. I think it's because having been there so many times, having wanted so badly for someone to say just the right thing, I don't want to disappoint. Looking back, though, at some of those times in my life, I realize that I remember every single well-wish I received, and that those did help, knowing that there were people out there that cared enough to take the time to say so. So to everyone here who may be reading and feeling down, facing hard times; I wish you all the best this holiday season, and going forward through the next year, I hope you find the comfort and happiness you need.

Posted by jikado @ 5:23 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments