Good to be home.

Kind of a late update, but I’ve been tired and lazy the last few days.

Last wednesday I went to the Sci-Fi Museum and Experience Music Project in Seattle.  It is located right next to the Space Needle, so I managed to see that, which was cool.  The SFM/EMP is a really neat place.  The SFM has a bunch of cool stuff, like the original Enterprise captain’s chair from Star Trek, the Borg headgear worn by Locutus, and weapons from all kind of different shows.  The exhibits were broken into themes, so there would be a section on cyborgs with blurbs about the role they played in science fiction and then a bunch of examples of books and movies that conatined those themes.  It was a lot of fun to see all the different displays and I definitely learned a lot.  I also added a bunch of books and authors to my ever increasing reading list.

The Experience Music Project was even more fun.  While I already knew a lot of the things from the SFM, the EMP held a lot of information on things I was less familiar with.  I spent some time in the wing dedicated to local Seattle artists, but the highlights were the Guitar Gallery and the Effects Lab.  The guitar gallery contained a history of the guitar from early accoustic models up through to the electric guitars and basses of today.  It also had a few guitars of some more famous artists, including the guitar Eric Clapton used when he recorded Layla.  Then there was the effects lab.  It had a bunch of little booths with instruments hooked up to computer screens that basically acted like the Rock Band games.  For example, the guitar had lights along the fret board that would show where to press to play a song.  Then using the computer, it would instruct you on how to play.  It was a lot of fun and I ended up learning how to play  “Louis, Louis” on the guitar.

After that I headed over to find the Pike Street Market.  It took a while to find parking, but eventually I made my way over there.  That was quite the place.  Open air fish and produce stands, craft stalls, and musicians littered the place.  One of the fish stands had the notable fish throwers out and tossing fish around.  I wandered around there and ended up picking up some toys at a little wind-up toy shop and then a Jawa bobble head for myself at the comic store there.

As I was about to head over to Boeing for work, I ended up receiving word that the generator was down, so I wouldn’t be able to work there.  I ended up heading back to my hotel for a bit before going over to the mall nearby for dinner and just ended up wandering around there for a while before calling it a night.  Thursday and Friday were spent working for the most part, and then I made it home safely on Saturday to a very happy family.  My son loved the new toys and my wife has already started on a new sweater with the new yarn.

All in all it was a fun and productive trip.  I wouldn’t mind going out again, but preferably not anytime soon.

Short Update

Today I spent the morning exploring around.  I found the Wizards of the Coast (the makers of Magic The Gathering) HQ.   I found a Games Workshop store that was pretty neat.  I then went the the Air and Space museum that is right by the Boeing field.  It was pretty cool.  They have an SR-71 Blackbird and a Concorde there.  The also have all kind of other airplanes, so that was a lot of fun.

After that I spent most of the afternoon at Boeing doing some work on the 777F airplane.  Then I managed to find a yarn store and get my wife some yarn.  I then had some really good sushi for dinner.  The weird thing there was they did not give a spoon with the miso soup, so I had to drink it out of the bowl.

Tomorrow I plan on going to the Sci-Fi museum here and then I will be spending the late afternoon and evening on the airplane for work.

Green Leaf

Man that was good.

http://greenleaftaste.com/

I went to a little Vietnamese restaraunt at the recomendation of one of the Boeing folks.  After looking at the menu, I asked the waiter for a recomendation, and the one I settled on was an anchovey soup.  It was great.  It had anchovies, squid, eggplant, shrimp, and noodles.  It was great.  It was also huge.  The weird thing was that before the soup arrived, they brought a plate of what looked like salad.  It had sprouts and some leafy things that turned out to be basil.  After poking at them trying to figure out if I should eat them or not, I was informed by the waiter that these were supposed to be put into the soup.  I felt kind of silly about that.

I tried to snag some pictures, but the lighting wasn’t very good.

Soup:

Greens:

Seattle Day One

So I arrived today at about noon Seattle time.  After a getting my luggage and my rental car, and having a bit of difficulty getting out of the parking garage (the signs were not obvious at first), I made it to my hotel.  From there it was pretty much straight up the road to the Boeing facility.  The work there went pretty smoothly, and didn’t take long at all.  We were hoping to get some time on the plane for troubleshooting, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

On my way back, I decided to try out the GPS unit that was provided with my car.  It told me to take the freeway (I did not take the highway getting to Boeing), and boy was that a mistake.  Just another reminder why I don’t want to live in a big town.  Six lane highways suck.

By the way, here’s a picture of my rental.  It’s a Pontiac Grand Prix.  All leather interior, sunroof, and some real power (at least compared to what I’m used to driving).  Not something I’d probably want to own, but it’ll be fun for the week.

But anyways, I’m off to try and find some food.  I haven’t eaten anything since about 9 this morning.

On my way

Well I’m on my way. I’m currently sitting in the Minneapolis airport waiting for my flight to Seattle. Hopefully I remembered everything.

Seattle Bound

So I get to go to Seattle on a business trip next week.  That should be interesting.  I probably won’t have much time for site seeing, but I’ll be doing my best.

Iron Breaker at 14

Looking forward at my skills for the next few levels, it’s apparent that 14 is when things start to really look good for Iron Breakers in RvR.  I just got my knockback ability, which is simply a blast.  Knocking healers into my group for quick destruction or knocking that Witch Elf away from my healer is a wonderful thing.  Then I get some nice tactics, my anti-snare ability at 18, and at 20 I get an AoE taunt.

Things are looking up for Knob (at least more than normal for a 3′ tall tank).

Iron Breaker at 13

Knob, my mighty dwarf Iron Breaker, is about to hit 14, so I figured I’d git a recap of what I’ve been up to lately.  My wife is playing a Bright Wizard and acts as a companion to Knob most of the time.  We’ve been journeying through the dwarf pairing, and I have to say that I am enjoying it a bit more than the elf pairing.  It’s not that it’s strictly better, but the feeling of the quests are just more my style.  They all revolve around vengeance against the orders of destruction, finding lost artifacts and gold, or getting someone more ale.  It’s much nicer than the stuffy elf quests.

As far as powers go, in PvE I basically spam Grudging Blow and the occasional Taunt to keep the baddies off my wife.  She does all the damage, so I just need to tank.  Vengeful Strike and Shield of Reprisal get some use when fighting bigger mobs, but usually it’s a pretty basic chain.  RvR adds a few more in at this point.  I get my snare in Binding Grudge, and I get to unleash a few of my higher damage powers, but still I pretty much rely on Taunt and getting in the enemies’ way long enough for my team to take them down.

My biggest issue at this point in RvR, is that I have few good ways of potecting my team.  I have Guard, which is awesome and of course Taunt, which can be quite useful, but that’s it.  Hold the Line seems ok, but doesn’t get a lot of use.  Shield of Reprisal could be awesome, but it requires me to block an attack first, which doesn’t happen nearly often enough, especially when they are attacking my team instead of me.  Eventually I’ll be getting some knockbacks and better defensive things, but for now I’m just a speedbump.

Beyond that, I’m really enjoying the Iron Breaker.  He’s short and ornery and carries a big axe.

Eventful Weekend

We were originally planning on visiting my grandparents this weekend, but due to the weather and my parents not wanting to drive we had a change of plans.  Instead Gina and I drove the other way and visited my parents, since my sister and aunt were also in town.  We only stayed one night, though, because we had other things we wanted to do this weekend.  Like play WAR!

My wife is now playing and having a blast.  Literally.  She’s playing a Bright Wizard, which for those who don’t know, is the class that throws fires around.  I’m playing a dwarf Ironbreaker to protect her.  It’s been a lot of fun so far and we made it into Tier 2 tonight.  I’ve even managed to get her into some of the RvR stuff.  Here is a screenshot of my dwarf.

As for Tinius, things have been going well.  They’ve increased the amount of experience for the high levels, so I’m progressing a bit quicker now.  Here he is in his latest outfit.

And here he is at the last fight of a public quest.  We’re fighting a sorceror that has just summoned a giant demon to attack us.

New Computer Pics!

Here are the promised pictures of my new computer.

The inside:

The front and inside:

GREEN!