Tag: life the universe and everything

Fun-Day Friday – Happenings

I thought I’d fill today’s post with a bunch of updates on what’s been going on in my life, lately.

The two “bonus children” as we like to call them are pretty well settled into the household at this point. They’ve mostly learned our routines, and everyone gets along pretty well. This, of course, has led to a higher level of necessity for obtaining a vehicle with more seating. We were sad to let “The Tank” go, but the Ford Excursion has been traded in, and we now have a Ford E-350 15 passenger van to replace it. The van is in the shop getting running board steps installed. Everyone in our family is short. It’s more comical than practical when we try to climb in without those.

My quest for a Nintendo NES Classic is ongoing. We’ve called several stores to ask if there has been any new stock. Of course, GameStop lied and said Nintendo has stopped making them already, and there won’t be any further shipments. I considered tagging Nintendo and GameStop on Twitter about that, but clearly I will just have to look at the other three options in town. We’ve made an attempt at the Amazon and Walmart online sprints that have been available, but none have shown any success in obtaining the treasured compact box-o-nostalgia. I may never get one, but I’ll continue to try, at least.

I’ve recently purchased and received a Nexus 10 32G tablet. I’m in the process of setting it up for a Kali Nethunter installation. I’ll share the details in my Wednesday post. A case with keyboard and stand are on their way, and I’ll probably treat this like a not-quite laptop for some situations.

ArenaNet will release the next installment of Living Story Season 3 on Monday. I’m looking forward to trying it out. So far, I’ve been happy with this season of Living Story, and don’t foresee any major issues they could cause with it to change that.

My NaNoWriMo progress is pretty steady. I’m ahead of where I should be, and feel confident that I’ll hit the goal before November 30. I’m almost certain I won’t share this story with many people. It’s mediocre at best, but it’s keeping my creative writing juices flowing, and I might be able to start churning out a better story after I feel less pressure for a deadline. Maybe. I still need to edit NaNoWriMo 2015’s book, so maybe not.

The next door neighbors cut down a tree a while back, and some of the larger logs are still in their yard. If I don’t forget, I’m thinking about asking them if they mind if I cut a few log ends off of the wood that’s left. They make some of the best targets for throwing knives, and I’d like to get a decent target stood up in the back yard before the end of the year. I might need to hit up someone in the Amateur Radio club to borrow a chainsaw if they agree to let me do that.

Speaking of radio… if time permits, I need to do up a post on how our local DMR repeater works, programming the MD-380 handheld, and go over our local talk groups a bit. It might have to wait until after November, since my time is in a serious crunch this month with NaNoWriMo. We’ll see.

I got to help a friend with a scripting issue the other night. It was good catching up with him. Remember folks, it’s important to take a breather every now and then to catch up with old friends. Seriously. Go hug a friend right now, even. Even if it’s just an imaginary one.

If you’ve got anything on your mind you want to share, post in the comments. I’d love to read them.

Thanks for reading!

Fun-Day Friday – Children Are Sweet

So one of the things that defines who I am is my family. I started out life as an only child, but had cousins who sometimes felt more like brothers and sisters than cousins. When my mom re-married, I suddenly had lots of siblings, most of whom were already grown and gone with kids of their own, but I had one brother younger than me. Experiencing both “only child” and “brothers and sisters,” I knew I wanted to be a dad. I knew I wanted kids of my own. I also knew I wanted lots of them, and I was lucky enough to find a soul mate who feels the same way, and we have had seven beautiful children together. A friend in need who can not be there for her children for a while asked us recently to take on two more. This last weekend, we did just that, and they have been here for a full “business” week so far. We feel blessed and honored to take on this responsibility, and the kids are all doing pretty well. They already behave like siblings, with all of the ups and downs that entails, but they “click” more than they “collide.”

Children aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but for me, there is nothing more important that family. I don’t have anything “fun” to share today, because I’m exhausted from the trip to pick them up, and the oncall phone from work being noisy this week, but I felt compelled to share a little piece of my life with you. I hope everyone finds happiness in all you do. Thanks for reading.