So here it is, almost midnight Thursday night, and I am no where near tired. It donned on me that I hadn’t posted all day. That’s what happens when I am not at work and have a PC in front of me through out the day. Actually, today I didn’t play hooky at all, we got the day off for the Presidential Inauguration. I suppose it would have been cool to go down to DC and see all the hoopla, but to be honest, the thought of crowding around thousands of people and stand out in the cold to see the President from about 10,000 meters away didn’t sound appealing. Yes, it’s one of those once in a lifetime things, (assuming your lifespan is about 3.9 years) but I found that there were better things to spend my time on. Like spending time with Amy.

Now, tomorrow is a different story. I figured, I had Monday off. I went to work Tuesday and Wednesday. I get Thursday off, why not make it a four day weekend and enjoy it. So I took Friday off as well. Sadly, Amy is going into work so it’s just me here all alone, but that will give me the chance to finish up my “Minimalizing” process. I think I will attack the outside shed and back patio tomorrow. This way I have more storage space to clean out the den with.

Things in Oregon are going as expected. My Mother is getting stressed out dealing with all of the preparations for my grandfather’s memorial. I heard that they read the post that I wrote about the rock and have decided to read it at the service. From what I understand, I have a tendency to make people cry when they read this blog. Who knew! (: and here I am just trying to write out what I am feeling and experiencing in my life.

One thing I have noticed is that the 24th is creeping up. What is the 24th you ask? Why, one year ago on the 24th is would be the first day that I actually posted a “Blog” type post to the net. I know this is going to sound silly, but when I did it, I had no real idea about what a blog was and how many people were using them. I just wanted to start an online journal because I knew I was going to be facing a lot of challenges. Since that day I have, Gotten Divorced, Exited the Military, Moved to a new apartment by myself, Joined the 501st, Got a new job that I love, Traveled to Vegas, established a net domain, Started dating, Experienced numerous hardships, experienced just as many joys, and brought it all to you via this medium. I am like my own HBO Mini-series!

One of the whole reasons I started up the Blog was so that I wouldn’t have to constantly explain what was going on in my life to so many different people. You know how, when something big happens, you have this great story that goes with it and you enjoy telling it. That is, until you end up telling it for the 5th time to someone. Now, when something happens, I post about it and when people ask me, I just say “Check out my Blog!” As a matter of fact, most people have stopped asking me and just start talking about what happened. It always makes me happy when someone contacts me and quotes something from the site.

Well it’s getting late and I am just starting to ramble now. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Who knows what I may write about when I get tired and just start running on. Whoops, it’s after midnight now, guess this just became the first post for Friday.

Happy Friday All!

In the hopes of getting beyond all that is going on I present to you the “Where did Wizzer come from?” Post. I figure that once I post all of these questions and answer posts, I may actually compile them all into a FAQ and post it. Either that or I will write a book. You know that CafePress will actually publish books? You can send them a document and cover design and they will publish and sell as needed books. How cool is that? But anyways, I digress.

I have heard just about every joke known to man about the name Wizzer. From piss jokes, to wiener jokes I hear them all. The real story goes back to when I was about 15 years old and my brother introduced me to a game called Shadowrun. Shadowrun is a role playing game based in a futuristic world of post apocalyptic goodness. It’s a very cool game and I really got into it at the time. Well, in Shadowrun there is a type of character called a “Decker.” A Decker is a hacker of sorts, he plugs the computer into his head and maneuvers around the “Matrix” to manipulate data. (Shadowrun came out long before the movie “Matrix”) Another aspect of the game is a surplus of cybernetics. So here I thought that it would be fun to take a Decker and pump him full of speed enhancing cybernetics. His mind would be tweaked out to run as fast as possible and so would his body. But what to call him? “Speedster?” “Fastman?” Well, being an avid comic reader I turn to my pulp hero’s to see what names I can dredge from their colorful world. There is always The Flash, Superman, and Capt. Marvel. Those are all overdone and don’t have near the right sound. Then I came across a golden age wonder called Whizzer. He could run really fast, and was not very well known. Not wanting to directly copy, I dropped the “H” and Wizzer was born. I played avidly for quite a few years, and I still have some of the books.

Around the age of 17 I received my first real computer. It was a true POS, with a 286 processor and an internal 1200 baud modem. This was just enough to get me online into some of the local BBS’s. Most of you know that in order to establish an online presence you need a handle. Since I had been playing the character Wizzer for so long, I adopted that as my online Identity. I was a BBS addict logging into boards by the name of Phosphor and Inferno. I made many friends while on these systems. I attended live gatherings and a number of parties. I even survived some of the jokes that spawned from the “Dress as your Handle” Parties. (a 6 pack of Jolt cola as well as about 3 No-Doze at the same time solved that conundrum) Well, BBS’s grew into my first internet account with a company called Netcom (I think they were eventually bought out by EarthLink). This was a UNIX shell account and was entirely text based. I had access to the web via a server side program called lynx. I started logging into IRC Channels on Undernet, and posting to Newsgroups. (I am sorry to admit that I was once a poster to Alt.ensign.wesley.die.die.die, Sorry Wil!)

When I joined the Military I took sort of a Hiatus from computing until I arrived in Okinawa and bought me a Super fast Pentium (not Pentium II or III just the regular old P1) Of course I had to continue with the only online nomenclature I knew. And that would carry me into the here and now. It used to be when I would sign up for a new website or ISP that I could use Wizzer as a name and it would not be taken, but alas the times have caught up with me and there are a number of Impostors out there, and I am sure they came up with the name on their own, much like I did. I guess it’s just hard when you have used a handle for so long not to be bitter when you find it’s taken by someone else.

So now you know, and knowing is Half the battle.

When I was very young, I used to visit my grandparents house in Oregon. They would take me fishing, I would play in the forest across the street, and we would go down to the beach. My Grandfather loved to fish. He had his own boat, (named after my sister) and would go out on the ocean and salmon fish. Sometimes he would take me out with him. He loved to spend time with me but I know he must have hated taking me out on that boat. You see, it was a very small boat, with no Restroom. If you had to “go” then he had a small milk jug that you went in and then committed your “donation” to the sea. Well see, at 12 years of age, I wasn’t too fond of peeing in front of other people, much less into a jug. So I would hold it. The problem with holding it is that, at 12 years old, I didn’t have a very large bladder, and the boat trips were often very very long. So I would end up in pain, and he would inevitably end up turning around and taking us in. When he did this I would often hit the bathroom and be fine.

Being a young boy I also loved to dig around and find rocks. Looking back, I am not even sure why, I just did. I would always bring tons of rocks back to my grandparents’ house and leave them in various places. One time, My Grandfather told me that I had better not leave any of those rocks in his workshop area. Well, for those that know me you would know that I am a smart ass, and that telling me something like that is more then likely going to Elicit a response. The night before I was supposed to leave to go back to my parents house I specifically left a Rock sitting in the middle of his workbench. To me, this was very funny. To him, it became even funnier when he wrote “I’m Back” on it and wrapped it up as a Christmas present. In return, he got a rather heavy birthday present. So began the great Rock Tradition. For well over 15 years, this rock had traded hands between my grandfather and I on birthdays, Christmas, fathers day, etc. I even sought my chance to deliver it back to him this last Christmas and took it with me. I gave it to him on Christmas Eve as his present. In return, he snuck it into my luggage on the 29th of Dec.

Tonight at around 11ish PM my time, my grandfather passed away. He had suffered through many ailments and this was his time to go. I am happy that I had the chance to see him in a decent state before it happened. I am glad we were able to exchange the rock one last time. He will be missed, but I know that he is not suffering any more, and he is in a better place. Now, I just need to figure out how to send the rock there.

Rest in Peace Papa.

.

I have to say, I am wiped out. This last week has been pretty rough for me. The emotional roller coaster that is my family’s medical problems has strapped me in and won’t stop at the gate. I am going to start trying to limit the amount I talk about it simply because it’s depressing and I am sure that not everyone wants to hear details. Needless to say, My Dad is getting better. He should be there for about 1 more week and then head home. My Papa is getting worse. He may be there for about another week. My mom is a basket case bouncing between the two.

On the home front, Half Life Two rocks. (yes I know that I am playing games and talking about games when so much other stuff is going on, but if I don’t then I will end up just as much a basket case as everyone else, besides, at my end there is not much for me to do.) Indeed, it roxors my soxors. The engine is phenomenal. I spent the first 20 minutes of the game just walking around and admiring the graphics. I could pick up damn near anything, and throw it at people. The overall game play is outstanding, I can’t wait to get home and play some more!

This being Friday, that means the weekend is upon us. That means it’s Time for weekend goals. Sat. night is a party for a few of the guys I work with. They apparently have this safe in their house that no one knows the combo for. The last few people that live there don’t know it either. So we are going all Geraldo on it and try and crack it to see what’s inside. Should be tons of fun!

After that, I think will continue the cleaning effort on Sunday and Monday (Monday is a holiday, Thanks MLK! Fight the Power!) This weekend’s goals are the Living room and the Bathroom. If I have time I might attack the kitchen as well. That will bring us back to the den. The dreaded den. Many of you might remember my plights with the den way back when I first moved into the apartment. Well the den has been cleaned, then filled again, then cleaned again. Now it’s filled. It’s not near as bad as it has been, but it’s time for a serious “I don’t need this, I haven’t looked at it in 4 years, why am I keeping it?” cleaning. I might even see if I can head down to IKEA to check out some new Furniture. Things on my wishlist are:

• New Queen Sized Bedframe with head and footboards
• Twin Sized Loft for Andrews Room
• Shelving System for Andrews room
• New Coffee Table
• New Entertainment Unit
• Living room Rug
• Drawer Unit for computer desk

That should bee a good Start. I know I am not going to be able to get all of this right away, but those are the main things I want for the apartment. Well with any luck I will be able to post again this afternoon. I really do feel a good rant coming on, just not sure about what yet.

Ok, I made the mandatory nightly call to the mom to check on the dads status. She says he is doing ok, they have him up and moving and almost ready to be moved to his own room soon. He will still be in the hospital for a while but in a stable condition. That’s good. She will have to leave and go back to work soon. Except she got a call yesterday my Mom got a call about HER dad, (my Papa) and turns out that, while in his old person care giving place (once again proving I am not a Dr.), he has contracted Pneumonia and is in the hospital with that. (He is like 86 years old, so I am thinking this could be bad.)

So she is in Medford because my Dad needs her there. Her dad is in Crescent city. (That’s about 3 hours away.) So back to my Original question, WTF???

In Other, and completely un-related news (and in the hopes of getting my mind off all of this crapyness), I picked up Half Life 2 today at lunch and will be playing around with it tonight. We shall see if it’s as good as everyone on the planet says it is. Ok, so I don’t feel like writing too much more than this, maybe some later. (like we haven’t all heard that before)

So I am convinced that I will never make it to the Gym in the morning. Well ok, maybe not completely convinced. I tried to call Paul again this morning and he couldn’t hear his phone so I thought about going by myself. Problem is, Amy is using my MP3 player for her commute, so I needed another one. I have my trusty PDA that happens to play MP3’s but doesn’t have any on it right now. So here I think “let’s fire that bad boy up and start copying!” I them spent the next hour trying to figure out why it won’t sync when it dons on me to trace the cable back to the PC. Turns out I had mixed up the cables and was plugging in the wrong USB plug. [DOH!]

Yeah, I felt like an idiot. BUT…. I learned something rather interesting. I can get the PDA to Sync up using the Wi-Fi card. (I know this is probably nothing new to some people.) I started thinking then, If I can sync using the wi-fi, then I can use a shared folder that syncs between the PC and Device, and if I can do that, then I can hook it up in my Truck and use the MP3 player there, and if I can do then, then I can continually update the MP3’s dynamically.

So I am thinking that I need to pick up a few accessories for the PDA. I know I will need some sort of Cradle so it’s not just lying around in there, I need a larger compact flash card, something a GIG or more. Also I want to get a Good GPS with software.

Further update on the dad: Another phone call last night from my mom, she said that he woke up and wise cracked a “Wow, I’m still here!” This would probably be the first thing that would lead me to believe that he is, indeed, my father. This would have probably been my first words coming out of such a surgery. He also claimed that he might have to start listening to people when they tell him he shouldn’t be eating certain things. Congrats dad, that would fall into the “DUH” category.

Just got off the Phone with my Mom and she says that the operation was a success, difficult due to the complications, but success none the less.

They are holding him in Critical care to keep an eye on him but he should pull through ok.

Thanks to everyone for their positive support. When I have more updates I will let you know.

I got a Call a few nights ago that my Dad had had another heart attack. (This makes about 5) He was in the Dr.’s office when it happened (what are the odds) and they rushed him down to Crescent city to the hospital there. They then realized that the heart expert was in Medford so they airlifted him there. That was about a week ago. Well I guess after running a few tests they found that his heart was blocked at about 90%. So he went in for a Triple By-Pass this morning at 8am Pacific Time, Theoretically. See, he also has potential Kidney failure, and for the tests they injected him with all this ink type stuff (what do I look like, a Dr.?) So that has to leave his system before the operation, then there is the medication he was on that thinned his blood, that has to be almost out of his system. [Sigh]

So all this is going on over on the West Coast, and here I am on the east coast. My son is staying over at my grandmothers while my parents are gone. I got the call about the surgery last night, which of course elevated my stress level to the point that the Gamers Tourettes came out in full force. I can’t do anything now except sit and wait.

Now I know that there are about 1000 things that my dad and I disagree on, and maybe 5 that we agree on. But he is still my Dad and it bugs me when this happens to him. Half of me wants to say “you know, It’s his fault, I told him not to eat that stuff he wasn’t supposed to.” The other Half wants to say “What sort of cruel creator would cause this much pain on the planet” then there is the other half that says “you dolt, your only supposed to have two half’s” All I can do is think positive thoughts, Send positive energy westward and hope that it comes out ok.

[Sigh]

A simple day, an ordinary night. The warm glow of the PC monitor permeates the dark room. Sounds of ancient Qeynos echo off the eggshell white walls as an average guy sits down to enjoy an escape into the world of Everquest 2. All was fine until the unspeakable happened. A group of Gnolls, while under attack, call for Re-enforcements. Before he knew it, our hapless hero was swamped. Over-run and over Stressed, that’s when it happened…..

Roric: There’s Too Many of them!

Shippero: This is it, Game over Game Over!

Opiee: We can take it, Hold the Line HOLD THE LINE!!!

***Gnoll Battler has killed Shippero***

Roric: they Got Ship, I canna hold it Together, Were breaking apart worse than Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt!

Opiee: Stay on target, Stay on Target!

***Gnoll Tormentor has killed Roric***

Opiee Sprints

***Gnoll Elder has pwned Opiee***

Meanwhile back in real life, the unspeakable happens:

Steve: GAWD D%@&^ YOU ^@(@! (&%(#, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, I SWEAR TO *#(& GAWD I WILL ^%#* KILL YOU!

Gamer’s Tourettes takes over. It can strike when you least expect it. When this happens, the victim becomes lost in a myriad of obscenities that would make even a seasoned sailor blush.

Sadly there is no known cure for gamer’s tourettes. Treatment has included; stepping away from the game, venturing out into the large blue celinged room with poor temperature control, socializing with people without having to use smilies to express oneself.

With Treatment, hopefully, one day, we might be able to control gamer’s tourettes. If you or someone you know suffers from gamer’s tourettes, please, do the right thing.

So I have spent a great deal of time helping to build Kensai’s own webspace. Kensai (or Lee) used to post on this blog for a while but I decided to go with a more personal focus, so I kicked him off (: But no worries, he now has his own site (hosted by me still) at http://kensai.wizzer.org . Took me a while, but once he nailed down what general theme and color scheme he was looking for, I think I built him a halfway decent site. Maybe I should do this for a side job?

Side note, the season premiere of 24 started last night. I am not sure how many of you out there watch this, but I have been hooked since season 1. Of course I think they are starting to stray from the reality line of thought. I mean, I had to suspend my disbelief last season when a chopper ride from Mexico to LA could be done (take off, flying, landing) within 15 min, but now to imagine the Secretary of Defense not running like a madman when shots are fired, not to mention secret service standing with no cover during a fire fight. I know for a fact that these guys would dive for cover and pick off shooters like geese. The show continues tonight, so we will see what happens.