You are currently browsing the Shawnogram blog archives for July, 2010.
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shawn (at) phantompower.org
July 29th, 2010
We went to a show last night here in San Luis. Our friend Erk gave us a tip that Australian band Tamarama would be in town. So, once again we found ourselves drawn to a concert based on the bill’s opening act. Which is too bad for us, as openers always have the shortest sets. Read the rest of this page »
July 26th, 2010
We’ve been asked (and by asked, I mean told) by new owners here at the park to make some minor improvements to our home. One of the things we were asked (told) to do was to give the place a good cleaning around the outside. We did have a power washing done a couple years ago, but we hired someone to do that. This time, the management here loaned us their power washer. We hadn’t ever used a power washer before, so it was a learning experience.
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The power washer, wrapped in its attached hose and power cord.
July 25th, 2010
Last night, while I was playing World of Warcraft, I wanted something to listen to other than the game’s built-in music. I was pretty much caught up on podcasts, and just wasn’t all that interested in anything else in my iTunes music library. I clicked over to the Radio tab in iTunes, opened the Hard Rock/Metal directory and clicked on Big R Radio 80′s Metal FM. I’ve been a fan of this type of music since I was a kid. I don’t hear ir that often these days, so it was nice to get a refresher course via this Internet stream. I was able to identify pretty much every artist straight away. A couple dozen songs went by before 80′s Metal FM stumped me (was never much of a Kingdome Come fan, anyway). It’s likely that, if a band’s video aired on “Headbangers Ball” between 1988 and 1993, I owned that band’s album(s). While listening to 80′s Metal FM last night, three tracks really jumped out at me. Read the rest of this page »
July 21st, 2010
Over the last few years, I’ve gone through several desk chairs. The first one came with me from Illinois. I think it got damaged while in storage, as it didn’t last long after we moved in to our current place. (The main post in the chair’s base actually bent itself into an angle. I took some photos and blogged about it on my old blog at the time. Unfortunately, none of that is still online.) When I replaced it, I bought a relatively cheap chair from Staples, and that chair was a pre-assembled floor model. That was good, because I didn’t have to put it together. But I think it had experienced its fair share of ware at the store before I brought it home. It too didn’t last long, as a couple of the wheel housings broke and couldn’t be repaired. Read the rest of this page »
July 19th, 2010
Yesterday, Jen and I went to the Central Coast Renaissance Faire. Here’s some pictures (and a short video).
Spotted horse, with handler.
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Deluxe knight gear.
July 15th, 2010
Today is mine and Jen’s sixth wedding anniversary. We had originally planned to celebrate by spending the night at the famous Madonna Inn. But we canceled those plans because Jen’s still recovering from sinusitis. Instead, we kept it simple. We ordered out for some dinner from California Pizza Kitchen and enjoyed that dinner while watching the movie Crazy Heart, which is actually a pretty good movie.
And the day’s not even over yet. I suspect that we’ll also spend some time later playing World of Warcraft. Yep, exciting stuff.
It dawns on me now that, in its own way, this is actually a pretty good way to honor the memory of the day we got married. Replace California Pizza Kitchen with Olive Garden and switch out watching a movie with playing a round of mini-golf, and you’ve pretty much got it.
We have made plans to take a trip down to Solvang and Santa Ynez next month, since we didn’t make it to Madonna Inn today. I’ll post more about that later.
Anyway, it’s been a good, fun day. Now, on to Azeroth!
July 12th, 2010
Yesterday was my 34th birthday. It wasn’t really an exciting day, I guess. But it was still a good one.
I went for a walk in the morning. Made it out before the marine layer burned away. Managed to enjoy some of that clean ocean air before it was gone for the day.
In the afternoon, I ordered a pizza (and a salad!) from Woodstocks Pizza. Woodstocks is probably my favorite pizza place here in San Luis Obispo. It was a fine birthday lunch.
A little later on, Jen and I produced one of the funnest (and funniest, at least to me) podcasts we’ve ever done. Immediately after that, we split a piece of German chocolate birthday cake (my favorite!). The cake was actually baked for me by my employer. Here’s a picture of the whole cake before it was sliced up:
The cake was amazing. (We brought home one piece from the office and shared it. The rest was left at the office for my coworkers to enjoy.)
Jen’s been sick with sinusitis (she went to the doctor today and got some antibiotics) so she wasn’t up for doing much. Too bad, ’cause we had planned on going out for karaoke. Instead, we just finished out the evening playing World of Warcraft. Which is just fine by me.
A birthday balloon, also provided by my employer.
July 10th, 2010
Haven’t done one of these posts in a long time. Anyway, here’s some fairly random recent photos/images.
We saw this lizard on the sidewalk as we walked home from Utopia Bakery earlier this week.
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I guest produced All Things Azeroth 201. Here’s the production sheet I made for that episode.
July 8th, 2010
I got a call not too long ago that my uncle Jerry passed away today. My mom left earlier this week to be with him in North Carolina. She knew he wasn’t doing well. I can’t say the news is surprising. But it’s still sad.
I didn’t know him very well. It’s been years since I’ve spoken to him, and decades since I’ve seen him.
From what I could gather from my mom, my uncle Jerry lead a somewhat tragic life. He never got over the loss of a brother that happened when he and my mom were children. Like many men of his generation, he served his country in Vietnam. He never quite got over that, either.
He stayed with my family for awhile when I was younger. I remember him as being soft spoken and, even then, I recognized something intense about his personality. I had a pretty big collection of Legos when I was a kid. I can remember coming home from school sometimes to find elaborate constructions that my uncle had built out of those small Lego pieces. I was always impressed with how he engineered some of his creations. These are fond memories, and they’ll be the focus of how I’ll remember him.
I’m not going to end this entry with a bunch of cliched platitudes. Well, maybe a couple. Death is a constant of life. It serves as humanity’s strongest reminder to cherish our own lives and the people in them. I’m going to spend the next few days trying my best to do just that.
July 5th, 2010
I’ve been playing World of Warcraft now for a few days. I’m having a lot of fun. Last night, I took a couple screenshots of the game while I was playing.
Here’s one for Macintosh nerds. I’m being attacked by my operating system!
The last quest I accepted involved a lot of killin’. Specifically, I was supposed to take down some big bears, leopards and boars. My character is only level 6, and these creatures are all higher levels than that. Thankfully, Jen helped me out in hunting these beasts.
And by “helped,” I mean she pretty much did everything for me. (That’s her character on the other side of this bear that “we” took care of.)