One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall

On my last post I briefly talked about how I was waiting on most of my stuff from Florida to arrive. My car did end up getting here last Sunday, and I was happy to note that it got here in exactly the same condition as when it was picked up. I have already gotten it checked out by the local BMW dealer here, as well as gotten it a mini detail. On Tuesday I get to go to the DMV office to apply for my California driver's license and register my car here so I can get new tags.

My furniture arrived last Tuesday. The movers did a great job of transporting everything here with little to no damage on any of my things. I am pretty much set up in my room, and it is nice having all my clothes here (especially since I had packed all my cold-weather gear). I also have all my game systems, so at least I won't be bored during my job search. Right now, only my PS3 has network access. I have some work to do fixing the networking in the house so that I can get my Xbox360 connected.

So, I saw Transformers yesterday and I will just say that I really enjoyed it. I loved watching the Transformers cartoon when I was young, so when I first heard about a live-action movie I was really skeptical that it could be good. But I made sure to disassociate the movie from my memories of the cartoon and then I went in to the movie with an open mind. I ended up loving it, and it helps that they had the original voice of Optimus Prime reprising his role. I hope the movie does well enough to warrant a sequel.

Well, this coming week will just be me searching for a job. I have already applied to 3 positions at a company called Network Appliance, where my friend and roommate Kal works. I have also applied to 4 positions at Cisco, 1 position at Sony, and I have been contacted by a recruiter from a staffing agency about a 3-month contract position at Google. Hopefully one of these will pan out. I'll get an update out in at least a week.

Waiting ...

So, I have been here (San Jose, CA) going on five days now and I feel like I really haven't accomplished much. Unfortunately, there is only so much I can do right now since none of my things are here from Florida yet. My car is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow sometime and my furniture and clothes are scheduled to be delivered sometime around the middle of next week. A lot of the things I was planning on doing are dependent on my having a car, so at least I will be getting that taken care of tomorrow.

I am still adjusting to life out here. The weather is making things easier, as it usually is about in the mid-80's during the day and gets down to the 60's during the evenings. Once my car comes in, I can then start learning where everything is.

I hope to have more exciting things to report in the near future. Might also have some pictures up soon, too.

Part of this was written on Monday, June 25.

So, I am currently half-way to San Jose, CA, on a plane probably somewhere between 35,000 - 40,000 feet above the ground. The flight out of Tampa to Houston was pretty good. It was raining in Houston which caused some turbulence during landing but nothing that bad in my opinion. The flight to San Jose has gone pretty smooth as well.

Over the last five days or so, I have been trying to spend time with my family and many of my close friends. I know I will be seeing them again, but still I am moving away so it won't be as easy as calling them up and meeting them out for dinner. Last Thursday I met JerseyStrangler and his gf Jill at Samurai Blue, a local sushi restaurant. We had a nice dinner there for an hour and just talked and had a good time. The next evening, my parents treated me to dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. My dad loves the food there, so it was partially a night for him as well. The food was exquisite as always, and my parents and I enjoyed the evening. Saturday was relatively quiet. I saw Rotfiend, who is joining X as a new tenant in my house in Tampa. He moved his furniture in to the house while I had been doing some last minute cleaning. The real story happened on Sunday.

Yesterday, I gathered with many of my close friends as they threw me a going-away party. In total, I think there were eleven of us there plus three children. So fourteen total, and we spent the afternoon and early evening hanging out, catching up, cooking out (mmmmm … hamburgers … ); just really enjoying the company of friends. I tried my best to split my time amongst everyone, but I am not sure how well I did. I also tried my best to keep my emotions in check. No one there would have said anything (well, I'm sure I would have gotten some good ribbing from KS-1 and Badstar), but it was a really emotional decision for me to leave my home and friends. I may not see any of them for months, and that really shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I am going to miss each and every one of them. So it was hard to keep myself in check last night. Some people might wonder why I bothered, but I come from the old-school, "Men don't cry", way of thinking. In fact the last time I admit to crying was on 09/11/2001. Now, if I say it was hard to keep everything in check at the party, it was tenfold worse last night and this morning when I left my parents. I love my parents dearly, and hope to make them proud with all that I do. It was very difficult for me to leave them. Even now, at times when I think about them and all they have done for me it chokes me up a bit. They have and continue to give me such wonderful support.

Wow ... I think I need to move on to a happier topic for myself. At the party Sunday night, I got a wonderful gift that all my friends contributed in. It was a photo album containing pictures of us all at various times ranging from high school to a couple of weeks ago. It was wonderfully done, and I am very proud to have been given it as a gift. My parents also gave me something right before I left. It is a family heirloom in my eyes. A little bag that was given to him by his mother (my grandmother) that is supposed to bring you good luck and fortune. I will definitely make sure to keep both of these presents with me, always.

Birthday Celebration and Father's Day

Two weekends ago, I traveled up to Columbus, OH, with my parents to visit my sister and her family. My niece was turning six years old so we traveled up to celebrate her birthday and Father's Day. Despite being the home base for Ohio State University, Columbus is a gorgeous place and around this time of year the temperature is wonderful, especially for those of us used to the heat and humidity in Florida. The trip was short but sweet. The entire family spent three, good-quality days together and both my niece and nephew really enjoyed seeing their uncle and grandparents. Their uncle and grandparents enjoyed seeing them as well. I always look forward to these trips because it is rare for all of us to be together, especially now that I am moving out.

One unrelated note regarding the trip though. Parked out in front of the hotel we were staying at was a Ford GT. I am not that knowledgeable about cars, but I do admire performance machines when I see them and the Ford GT is no slouch in my eyes. I wasn't too keen with the way it was painted, but in talking to people with more knowledge than I it seems that the car was painted to look like the GTs of old. That's all well and good, but I just didn't like the paint job at all. Even if it was orange & blue (being a UF grad I bleed those colors, but not in these tints)!

California knows how to party

... or at least that is what I am told. But in a few days I am going to find out if that is true or not. On Monday, June 25th, I will be flying out of Tampa and relocating to San Jose, California.

Kinda big news for me, actually. I have spoken to close friends about my desire to work out in Silicon Valley for a long time now, but I always thought I would have to assure myself of a job before moving out to that area of the country. Everyone likes to scare you about how expensive California is, and how difficult it can be to get IT work out there. I had been applying to jobs from home in Tampa, but never really got any solid leads other than the ones that a friend of mine could set up for me. But then I would just screw it up in the interview by being honest. Anyway, although I was doing well in my current job about a year ago I began to feel like my skills and my very being had grown stagnant. And to be honest, I just was not interested in opportunities here in Florida. I had almost gotten a job out in California back about seven years ago, right when I was fresh out of college, but I ended up staying and working for a company in Florida. I think that all this time I have had a little voice in the back of my mind whispering about what could have been. So, I guess you could say wanderlust hit me.

So, I decided I wanted to move out to California, job or no job. But then I needed to make sure I had a place to live. I'll be damned if I make a move like this and still have to worry about finding a job and a residence when I get there. So, I started talking to an old friend of mine who has been living out in San Jose the last eight years. He has tried to convince me to move out there a few times, so I figured I would call him up and see if he knew of anyone who was looking for a roommate around summertime. Our conversation ended with him offering me a place to live in his house at an incredible rate. I took him up on his offer and basically told him to hold the room for me, I am on my way.

That was about 8 months ago. Things went slower than I anticipated, and quite frankly slower than I wanted. But a move like this takes time, and I also decided that I was not going to sell my house and instead I would rent it out. I already had one tenant, X, who has lived here for the last four years. So I figured I would get one more renter. To make a long story short, the older brother of the person I know out in San Jose lives here in Tampa and needed a place to stay. So, I offered to rent out my bedroom to him (I actually have been friends with the entire family for quite some time, so this worked out real well.) and he accepted. I gave two weeks notice to my employer back about three weeks ago and my last day at work was last Thursday. I will miss everyone there, and although I intend to keep in touch I doubt I'll have any days at work that I had with the group of people I just left.

This week is moving week. My car was picked up by auto transport yesterday and the estimated time it will be delivered to me in San Jose is around June 28. The furniture I am taking from my house is being picked up today. That will leave me with some cleaning to do towards the end of this week, a bunch of good-byes, and then a plane ride out to San Jose next Monday.

For those few friends of mine who actually read this little blog, I will try my best to update it a lot more than I ever did in the past. My goal is to let it become your window into my world out there in California. Anyone still reading this, if you notice me slacking send me a swift kick in the ass to write an update.

No reward is worth this ... oh, wait ... after seeing those pictures, hell yes it is!

So I totally missed all the festivities happening on G4 yesterday regarding the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. I am a fan of the movies, might even be a geek for them, but wasn't too caught up in the whole hoopla. However, after seeing the pictures of Attack of the Show's Olivia Munn dressed up as Princess Leia I am now going to have to find a way to DVR the replay. Christ! She is damn fine! Link to the pictures on Attack of the Show's site is following now:

Attack of the Blog: Olivia Munn as Princess Leia

I've only recently started watching Attack of the Show regularly. I had watched its precursor, The Screen Savers, back before G4 bought TechTV. After G4 purchased it and then changed the format of the show I stopped watching as I wasn't too interested in where it was going. I don't know why, but about a month ago I decided to give Attack of the Show another shot and now I am really liking it.

In other news, I have started putting some of my pictures back online from some of my past vacations. If you go to the following site:

http://picasaweb.google.com/dracos3442

you will see pictures from my trip to California in 2003. I will be adding pictures from my trip to Japan in 2005, and then pictures from my last two trips to Las Vegas. So keep an eye on that site as I will be updating it with more and more content.

Hope everyone is doing well. As always, I am working on some personal projects that I hope to reveal very soon. My best to you all.

Dwarf Cage Fighting follow-up

Now, some may not have believed me when I mentioned that I was going to an Irish bar here in town to see dwarf cage-fighting. But here is the pictured advertisement, right off the bar's website (image used without permission; if contacted, I will remove it without question).

I made it to the James Joyce about 19:30 that evening. The bar was still getting patrons as it had just opened. Met X, who had arrived a few minutes before me. A friend and coworker of mine, Ed, made it a little while later but well before the events started. I could go on about how it was, but I figure I'll let pictures speak for me. I apologize if the quality is not too good, but this is the best I can do with my cellphone.

The cage.

The combatants.

He seems pretty happy oil-wrestling Ms. Ireland.

Updates

I hope to have some updates real soon. I have some personal projects I am finishing up, and I want to make sure everything is working the way I want before I post anything about them. Hopefully, I will have some fun stories to tell about my excursion later tonight. Myself and some of my friends from work are going out to the James Joyce Irish Pub in Ybor City. Evidently, tonight they are having a cage-fighting match ...






... a Dwarf Cage Fighting Match!

Whoa ... time to write something, I guess

Well, I guess I haven't been around in a while. That wasn't done on purpose. Just haven't thought of what I could post here. I know I have said in the past I would update my blog regularly to keep my friends (because, really, those are the only people who look at this space) informed on what I have been doing or how life is going. Guess I am not doing too good a job at that. Well, time to try to fix that bit of laziness ...

So, it's February 17th and I haven't posted anything since briefly noting that the University of Florida won the BCS National Championship. I can't really say anything has changed too much. I have been keeping up with my exercise routine, even getting challenged to diet for 6 weeks and doing well with that. I haven't lost much weight, only going down from 176 lbs. to 171 lbs. at last check up. But body fat % is down again. Over Christmas I had put some fat back on (I mean, who wouldn't with all the great food and parties) so I was up to about 20.2%. But at last check up I was down to 17.8% and I have been increasing my cardio workouts to try and lose more.

Life at home has been well, too. My parents are doing well, already planning their vacations for the entire year. I am already booked on one vacation, set to join them out in Las Vegas around October 18th of this year. My sister and her family are doing well where they live out in Columbus, OH. I need to call her to see how everyone is, and also to say "Hi" to my niece and nephew.

Everyone of my friends are doing well, also. There was a new edition to one family, as KS-1 and his wife had their second child. The baby is eating and pooping, as babies are want to do. Of course, he isn't sleeping longer than 2 hours at any one time so the parents are having a great time not getting any rest.

I'll try to have another update shortly. I really want to get my web server back up so I can repost all my pictures from various vacations. If I can get that done soon, I will post the link to it. Hope y'all are doing well!

YES!!!

University of Florida Gators
2006 BCS National Champions

18:15 - My predictions for the BCS National Championship

Real quick, I just want to post my prediction for th BCS National Championship. The Ohio State Buckeyes are an incredible team, full of power, speed and playmakers on both sides of the football. But there is no way I can go against my alma mater, The University of Florida Gators.

UF 28 - OSU 24

Happy Holidays!

I would like to start out by just thanking everyone who sent me their well wishes on my birthday a couple of weeks ago. Whether they posted to this blog, to MySpace, or spoke to me in person or on the phone, I would just like to thank everyone for their wishes. It always makes my birthday special.

I would just like to say that I hope everyone out there is having a wonderful holiday! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Yule, etc. I wish you all the very best!

A light in the darkness

This has been a bad couple of weeks. I won't elaborate on this, just know it as fact. But today I found some small rays of light in the dark.

First off, I now want to get a Nissan Pathfinder. Or at the very least I understand the concept of front independent suspension.
http://www.toxicjunction.com/get.asp?i=V1364

Secondly, I just liked this. I guess this means I have no redeeming qualities as I'm sure some people would be offended that I post this. I don't know yet who those people are, but I'm sure they are out there. Oh well ...
http://www.toxicjunction.com/get.asp?i=V1317

Not only is it my birthday, but ...

... it's the Annual Day of the Ninja! Yes!

Date: January 8, 2007

Site: University of Phoenix Stadium (73,000)

Kick-Off: 6:30 p.m. MST (8:30 p.m. EST)

Television: Fox (Thom Brenneman, Barry Alvarez, Charles Davis and Chris Myers)

Radio: ESPN Radio
Ohio State Sports Radio Network (Paul Keels, Jim Lachey and Jim Karsatos)
Gator Football Radio Network (Mick Hubert, Lee McGriff and Steve Babik)

Image and text taken from this story.
Now, I only wish I could get tickets!

Go Gators!

To paraphrase Steve Spurrier: "God smiled upon the Gators!"

Florida Gators SEC Champions!

Arkansas 28 - Florida 38
It's great to be a Florida Gator!

Images taken from http://www.gatorzone.com/.

To quote Stephen Colbert: "I gots me one!" - the PS3 post

Following below is an e-mail conversation I have been having with a friend of mine regarding the PS3. He got his earlier this week, and I got mine last night. I will be posting pictures at the bottom and I hope to have more impressions of the system and its games soon. I will also have some impressions of some new Xbox360 games I have (like Gears of War and DOA Xtreme 2).

On 11/30/06, wrote:

Well.. I got one!

And now, so do I!

Gamestop did not come through but a friend of a friend got a couple from Costco's online ordering with the intent to flip but decided the hassle of Ebay wasn't worth a couple hundred dollars. He sold it to me at cost and voila.

The costco bundle came with a controller and Genji. Controller = great. Genji = meh.. I am leaving that unopened on the off chance I can return it for credit to walmart or something. Failing that I'll throw it in for a few minutes to see if its good or bad myself and trade it into Gamestop for credit.. its worth $30 to me to have the system now. Gamestop still has 3 (including me) preorders to fill. Its been like that for a week.

Well, as you said in a later e-mail Gamestop did get more stock yesterday so I have my 60GB model. I can't blame Gamestop for this whole mess, as Sony really screwed up with not having the stock they promised. But I gots me one!

I took the $110 I put down on Resistance, Madden and the PS3 and used it all to get Madden and Resistance.

I'll just repaste my impressions to you that I've been sharing. One thing I'll say is my online ID is *******. Add me when you get the system :)

My online ID is "Dracos3442". I already sent you a friend request, so look for it.

System is solid. Very heavy. I have it on the ps3 box since I don't have room for it on my tv stand yet (was not prepared to get it last night) and its denting the box haha. Very very sleek looking. I love the touch sensitive buttons.

I have mine in my TV stand, and I will post pictures on my blog (which will be posted at the end of this post). I also love the sleek look of the PS3, but I don't like the fact they used the same material that the PSP uses. I don't want to see my fingerprints and dust on my PS3. So I'll just have to keep it extra clean or get a Decal Girl cover (like my PS2 and Xbox360).

Controllers charged quick, I am so happy they are wireless. I have always been a fan of sony's controllers and this one is no exception. I did miss the rumble but not as much as I thought I would.

First thing I did was set up the video and audio settings. I started the system with my PS2 component cables since they were already plugged in and plugged in the HDMI after the system started up. I have optical out into my receiver and HDMI into my 720p native TV. Optical out was perfect. I set that my receiver can handle DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 (and linear PCM 2ch but that's default checked). HDMI was successful. One blink and it was using the HDMI instead of the component. I set it to 720p and it was flawless from there. I had no issues whatsoever with the HDMI. No flickering, no blacking out, system turned on and off a few times with no difficulties.

I also set my PS3 up using my PS2 component and digital audio cables. Just like you I went into settings and set it up for 720p, DTS 5.1 and Dobly Digital 5.1. There was an option for AAC in the audio that I checked, but I'm not really sure what that is. I will look online for some information on that one.

Set up my userid and updated. Update off the Madden disc was quick. Played a game of madden and decided to get it on the internet. Set up my wireless (need to get a USB keyboard.. a 128bit WEP key with the controller is a PITA). Downloaded the update very quickly. They must be improving their network. It took less than a minute to download. Took longer to actually install the update.

I set up a userID for myself and X on the PS3. I am the master account and it will auto login to the Playstation Network with my ID. I have my PS3 plugged in to a switch by cable so I am not using the wireless just yet. But I want to see if I can connect my PSP and PS3 through the wireless. I updated mine just by downloading from the PSNetwork. Took only a few minutes for download, install and reboot. I am going to buy a Bluetooth headset to link with my PS3 for chatting. That way I can justify it in my mind since it will be usable with my PS3 and my cellphone.

I added a single friend and while I was playing Madden, I saw the notification that he signed on and saw a notification that he sent me a message. I couldn't reply without quitting out of the game though.

Sony store was nice. Easy to use, little sluggish. Downloaded the motorstorm demo. That took about 10 minutes. Pretty slow for 500mb. The demo itself was worlds better than the kiosk version. Faster gameplay and no framerate issues.

I agree that the PSStore looks nice, but they need to start getting some content on there. Xbox360 had the same problem when they started too, so I know it will take time. But I have heard rumor of Neo Geo games going to appear on the PSStore for download and I would love me some Fatal Fury, King of Fighters and Samurai Showdown. Other than that I tried downloading the Motorstorm demo last night but it crapped out at 73%. I will try again tonight.

I set my online profile to autologin and that worked perfect. Also each time I restarted the system it auto logged me into my primary userid. I haven't added any additional ones yet so no idea how that will work after I have multiple. But I LOVE the fact that it logs in and I don't have to do it manually.

The games were good. Madden was very much like the 360 version. The menus were more sluggish and occassionally I noticed some jaggies but for the most part the graphics were great and the gameplay was smooth. I'm overall not a big fan of the new menus and I can't believe they didn't include a fantasy draft. Big disappointment EA.

Resistance was great. Had an initial install that took less than a minute. Load times during the game were quick.. ~30 seconds. The first thing we did was split screen co-op. I love the vertical split. GoW was a fantastic game but I hated the horizontal split for the same system co-op. The game was fast paced and the weapons were awsome. I also liked how you could actually headshot things for faster kills. Big plus in my book. The AI was pretty dumb for the average enemy. I'll have to see what Hard is like. I popped in a quick Ranked game. Not a lot of people playing out there. Ended up in a server with 6 people. The round score was set way too high for 6 people and I ended up playing that single round for almost an hour. I didn't want to quit as I heard that affects your ranking. A lot of fun though even with just 6 people. I love the pace of the game. Nice and quick.

Popped in the bluray movie Talledega nights. People are talking about it being a single layer and not as pretty as it could be. We'll see the comparison when I get superman returns. Its being shipped to me Monday from Amazon. Overall it looked just as good if not better than the better high def channels. It looked a little more crisp to me in 1080i over 720p. Makes me wish I had a 1080p TV to get the most out of it. I am disappointed that there is no auto setting to use the maximum resolution though. I had to switch it back and forth manually outside of the movie. I'll live with it but I'll be switching back and forth too much and I hate having to look up what a game is. I'll probably just end up leaving it on 720 because I'm lazy. Load time on the bluray movie was faster than my DVD player by a significant margin. I do have an older DVD player (really good for its time though) but I was impressed nonetheless.

I have only tested the system browser (went to Google; that was nice and it helps having the keyboard) and played some Resistance. I like Resistance and it plays smoothly and the graphics look great for a launch title. Tonight, X and I will try some Marvel Ultimate Alliance and I will most likely pop in Talledega Nights for a spot check. I heard another rumor that Sony will be implementing DVD upconversion in a future firmware update. I already have an upconverting DVD player hooked into my DVI port on my TV, but that is a nice gesture if Sony goes through with it. I leave most of my HD devices (upconverting DVD, HDTivo, Xbox360, PS3) at 720p because my TV manual says that is the best and most natural resolution that my TV displays. I have put things up to 1080i before but I don't really notice a difference and I think fast-moving action (like sports) show better in 720p on my TV. So I will most likely keep the PS3 at that resolution as well. I also plan on plugging in my WD 500GB external harddrive to the PS3 USB port to test if it will recognize the device and let me copy pictures and music off the external drive to the PS3. And if I can afford to and there is a title I want, I would love to import a PS3 game from Japan and see if it works. Supposedly, the games are no longer region coded on the PS3 so it would be worth the test.

Also, as a closing observation, I had the system on for over 5 hours and the vents were warm but not super hot. Its pretty close to what I would expect from a computer. I don't see the PS3 overheating unless you cover up the vents or put it on carpet.

Here's hoping for some quick future updates:

- Background downloading
- auto switching to maximum TV resolution
- controllers charging while system is off
- (really wishful here) ability to background a game or movie and bring up the crossbar for messaging and the like.

I agree with you on every point made, but I would also like to add that I want to place a background like I can on my PSP.

I hope you get your system soon. Over xmas I'll bring my controllers if you don't have 4 yet so we can play some 4 player games.

Do it!

-Dracos

So, those are some of our impressions. Here is a picture of my entertainment area before the PS3 was added.

Now, the obligatory picture of the PS3 box.

And now, pictures of the PS3 installed in the entertainment unit and a closeup of the PS3, respectively.

News from the South

So, it has been a long while since I last posted. Sorry about that. Hope everyone is doing well. I see Ammy had a good Thanksgiving. I had a very nice one as well. I spent the day with my parents and enjoyed a very good dinner prepared by Mom. I always enjoy spending time with Mom and Dad, so it was a wonderful day.

I did take a vacation back in October. I went with my family to Las Vegas, and some of my friends joined me as well. JerseyStrangler and his girlfriend, X, Ammy, myself and others all met up and I have to say we had an excellent time. I spent most of my time taking everyone all over the strip, kind of being the tour guide. I actually did not gamble much at all, only $100 at a blackjack table in the Las Vegas Hilton. I stayed at the Wynn Las Vegas, which is an absolutely beautiful hotel. Tried to take some pictured of my time there, which I hope to post sometime soon.

Otherwise, things are about the same here in Tampa. I'm just trying to start my Christmas shopping early this year so I am not scrambling later on. My sister and her family will be coming down here for the holidays this year, so it will be nice to see them.

Hmmm ... I have more to talk about, but that will probably make a seperate post. Talk to everyone again soon!

Hey look! I'm back! And I am THE CHOSEN ONE!!!

You scored as Anakin Skywalker. Passionate and impulsive, you are most like Anakin Skywalker. You embody many traits not generally found within the Jedi order yet your undeniable will and connection with The Force are awe inspiring. You train the lightsaber form Shien/Djem So which was originally derived from the defensive form Soresu. It maintains that while defense is critical - chanelling it into overwhelming offense is paramount. You are heralded as The Chosen One and while you have mastery over The Force, your inability to control your own emotions makes you your own worst enemy. In every action you are enigmatic and never subtle. Anakin Skywalker 89% Darth Vader 79% Exar Kun 79% Obi-Wan Kenobi (Pre Death of Qui-Gon Jinn) 71% Qui-Gon Jinn 68% Darth Maul 68% Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus 64% Darth Revan 64% Mace Windu 61% Luke Skywalker 61% Bastila Shan 61% Obi-Wan Kenobi (Post Death of Qui-Gon Jinn) 57% Darth Sidious 50% Yoda 39% What Star Wars Jedi or Sith character is most like your personality? created with QuizFarm.com

A little recap of life since last time

God, I hate coming up with titles but I do what I can ... anyway, on to my talking points.

As I mentioned last time, X and I went to the U.S. Open and ISKA World Martial Arts Championships up in Orlando, FL. It was held at the Coronado Springs Resort in Walt Disney World. This was the third consecutive year that I went. Once, I would have liked to have gone as a competitor. I still can, but that desire has waned in recent times and I have been content to go as a spectator. We arrived at the resort early Friday and set ourselves up in the front rows outside the 18-29 year-old men/women's black belt ring. Or what we thought was the black belt ring. Turns out, X misread the schedule slightly and we sat ourselves at the advances under-black belt ring. We came to realize this, but before we could move to the ring we wanted a woman came up to us and asked if we were interested in volunteering. At first, we didn't really understand what she was talking about. But then she explained that she was asking if we would like to volunteer to work in the competition as a scorekeeper and timekeeper. Of course, we jumped at the chance to help out as well as get ourselves involved more with everything since neither of us were competitors. For that first day, X and I worked that ring we were sitting at for the entire day. We saw:

• 18 yrs. & Over Advanced (men & women) Creative Weapons.
• 18-29 yrs. Advanced Men Traditional Weapons.
• 18-29 yrs. Advanced Women Traditional Weapons
• 18 yrs. & Over Advanced (men & women) Musical Forms.
• 18-29 yrs. Advanced Men (under 165 lbs.) Continuous Fighting.
• 18-29 yrs. Advanced Men (over 165 lbs.) Continuous Fighting.

On the second and final day of competition, we worked a different ring and saw:

• 10 year Advanced (boys & girls) Traditional Forms.
• 11 year Advanced (boys & girls) Traditional Forms.
• 10 year Advanced (boys & girls) Creative Forms.
• 11 year Advanced (boys & girls) Creative Forms.
• 10-11 yrs. Advanced Small Boys Point Fighting.
• 10-11 yrs. Advanced Tall Boys Point Fighting.

On the first day, the competitions try to start at 15:00 and go until all the groups have had their turn at their ring. On the second day, the competitions try to start at 08:30 and everything is supposed to wrap up at 16:00. I am using a lot of conditional statements here because this rarely if ever actually happens. The first day, we started about an hour late because they were running Team Demonstrations on the main stage and a lot of the individual competitors were also competing in various team competitions. So we had to wait until those were done before we could start. The second day, we arrived early and got everything ready to go but the organizers could not find judges for our ring for two hours so we couldn't start until 10:00. That particularly annoyed me, and for anyone who knows me I think you'll understand what an annoyed Dracos means. For those who don't, just know I was letting loose many curses (hopefully) under my breath while we were waiting. I'm sure the f-bomb was dropped many times as well. But once we got our judges everything ran smoothly. Everyone we worked with complemented us on how we ran things. We kept the competitors in line, had the competitions running like a machine, had all the scores tallied and winners chosen promptly, and traded stories with the judges during breaks. If I had any complaints about anything, it would be my introduction to the soccer moms/dads. We didn't see them the first day, since all our competitors were older but on Saturday they were out in force. I could say a lot of things about this, but I am censoring myself right now and that's all I'll say. We finished our work at about 15:00 on Saturday, so we had a chance to go over to another ballroom where they were holding the ISKA/USBA Breaking Competition. The previous World Champion in Breaking, Chip Townsend, was not competing this year but we still saw some pretty impressive displays. Once everything was done, we had a few hours to kill until Saturday evening when they held the Night of Champions. The Night of Champions is just like it sounds, it's mainly where they determine the last group of champions in some of the more popular competitions. I was able to get some decent pictures there, which is my only proof that I was even at the competition (can't really take pictures and keep score).

That's probably my best picture from Saturday night.

This post is getting a little longer than I intended. I have a few other things to discuss, but I'll continue with those next time.