Still Kickin'

So despite all the gloom and doom of my last post, my birthday came and went and three weeks later I'm still alive and kickin'. Another 340 days and I'll be sitting pretty!

I don't feel particularly motivated to shovel into the shitheap of my past tonight though, so let's just look at what I'm up to lately.

Dexter I've heard a lot of good things about this show, but it took CBS airing a watered down version of it to actually get me watching. It was good enough there for me to start renting the DVDs and so this past weekend Jen and I started watching it together. About 25 minutes into the first episode, Jen turned to me and asked in all seriousness if I was a serial killer! Something about the way the character on the show thought and behaved apparently reminded her of me. At least she readily agreed that I'm not a sociopath.

Ratchet and Clank I bought a Playstation 2 a couple of years ago, and the Ratchet and Clank series of games are by far my favorites. A R&C game that was originally released on the PSP was just ported over to the PS2, and I bought it with some birthday money but haven't started playing it yet because I'm working on playing through the other 4 again to warm up for it. Even though these games involve a lot of shooting and weapons, they're kind of considered kid's games. I just find them to be fun stress relievers. Maybe after I beat the new game I'll play Resident Evil 4 again. There's something gratifying about blowing a zombie's head off with a shotgun.

Podcasts I used to listen to NPR on my way to and from work until the pledge drives drove me away. I hated feeling guilty about not giving my monetary support at the same time that I was filled with rage by some of the worst broadcasting I've ever heard in my life. What makes them think that spending 10 minutes with some intern and some local "celebrity" droning on incessantly about the coffee mug I can get if I cough up some dough is actually going to make me want to cough up some dough? Finally I realized that the only show I listened to regularly, Fresh Air, was available as a podcast. Even though I don't have high speed internet at home, I do have it at work, and so I started downloading a week's worth of shows onto a thumb drive and taking it home to burn to a CD to listen to in the car. Then I started looking into other podcasts. Kevin Smith of Clerks fame does one with his producer Scott Mosier called SModcast, and it's just a couple of guys sitting around and bullshitting about whatever crosses their mind and it's hilarious. Since then I've started listening to several technology and videogame related podcasts. The only downside to all of this is I rarely listen to music anymore.

CVS I work with some guys who make a little money on the side by selling stuff on Ebay. They find really good deals on electronics and video games at local retailers and resell them to people on Ebay who apparently don't want to leave their homes and wouldn't know a good price if it bit them on the ass. My co-workers were finding these deals on a website called Slickdeals.net. Initially thinking that I was going to get in on all this Ebay profiteering, I started checking out the Slickdeals site. Soon I realized I was unwilling and unable to put up money for stuff that might not sell and abandoned my ebay plans, but found out on slickdeals about CVS extrabucks. CVS will have certain items in their ads that when you buy them, you'll have a certain number of extrabucks print out on your receipt. These extrabucks are like gift certificates that you can use to pay for your next CVS purchase. Sometimes the extrabucks are equal to the price of the item purchased, and if you use manufacturer and store coupons, it is possible to pay less for an item than the extrabucks you get back. Then you can use the extrabucks to buy more items that get you more extrabucks. On top of that, CVS often has coupons for $25 dollar gift cards when you transfer a prescription there. So I transfered over some prescriptions and started buying all kinds of crap at CVS using very little of my own money. People generally glaze over when I explain the whole process, but in the past year I've gotten dozens of free tubes of toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, candy, razors, etc. Far more than we can use. We donated a bunch of stuff to a local shelter at Christmastime. Just this past weekend I went to CVS, got a couple boxes of fancy chocolates, a couple of toothbrushes, a couple sticks of deodorant, some lipcolor, and some ice cream. When the cashier rang it up, it was about 49 dollars. I forked over a bunch of manufacturer and store coupons and got that total down to 25 dollars. I paid that with extrabucks from previous purchases and 72 cents. So I got all that stuff for 72 cents, and had 27 bucks worth of extrabucks print out on my receipt that I'll use next time.

Blasto Of course the biggest thing going on in my life right now is my 6 month old son. If you're not already a parent, there's no way I can explain to you how amazing it is to see the product of your genes eat, sleep, laugh, fart, piss, and shit. Everything he does amazes me. I just look at the kid, and it's like my heart has a deep pit with butterflies inside it. I know that sounds stupid, but there's just no way I can describe the depth of emotion that the little bugger makes me feel. I'm especially lucky to have a super happy, smiling child. I get up in the morning and he sees me and gets a huge smile on his face and I feel like a king. A nutty, coo-coo, super king. At the same time, this makes me feel like I can never possibly be a good enough father to provide everything that beautiful boy deserves. I don't know how to explain it all, it just a trip. A kid is super hard work, and the concept of a personal life evaporates into thin air, but it is all so worthwhile. He's the best thing I've ever done, and I barely did anything! Just in case you don't check out Blasto Blog (linked on the right) here's a video of Blasto giggling:



So that's my here and now. Next post I'll get back to the there and then.