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| Tuesday, January 27, 2009 |
There are a few potential titles for this post:
1. Because I would walk 8 miles, just to be the man that....
2. These shoes were made for walkin....and walkin's what they'll do....
3. Having no car sucks...
4. My left hip hurts...
I have been without a car since November of last year. Nicki and I have been sharing the 4Runner during that time. It's been a headache to put it mildly. During my 5 week break from school, she would take the car to work, leaving me here all day with the girls. Now look, I'm not complaining about spending time with my girls, at all. What was hard, was the fact that it was winter, not allowing for us to leave the house (to go on walks to the park)on most days because of the weather. So, it was me, a 2 and a half year old and a 15 month old. Every day. Every. Day. There's only so much you can do. There's only so many times you can play Disney Princess Memory. There's only so many times you can read "Bubbles Bubbles Bubbles". There's only so many times you can watch Shrek and Tinkerbell. There's only so many days you can wake up, give the girls bananas and cereal for breakfast before all of your days start to run together in your head, making you feel like you're living the movie Groundhog Day. I have a point here people. Without the luxury of a car, you're stuck.
Now, what did come out of those 5 weeks with the girls was a total appreciation for single mothers/fathers. I'm telling you, when Nicki got home from work it was like a shift change at a blackjack table. I was OUT. I can't imagine what it's like to have children, and not have any time to pass them off to your spouse. Single parents have ALL of my respect and appreciation. What also happened is the fact that I promise I will NEVER complain about having a crappy car. Because you know what? A crappy car is better than NO CAR. I would GLADLY drive my 1998 Ford Taurus to pick up Jessica Biel Nicki for a date, rather than walking up to her door and then walking to our destination. I miss my tore-up-from-the-floor-up 1998 Ford Taurus. February 15th (the date we'll have the funds to fix it) can't come fast enough. I know later in life, I'll look back and see not having a car during this time in my life, especially while the girls were this young, as a blessing because I got to spend so much quality time with them. It's just right now that's tough.
I have the same schedule this semester as I did last semester. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I have the luxury of driving the 4runner to school, while Tuesdays and Thursdays I have to find a ride home, if possible. Here's how I feel on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You've seen Dumb and Dumber. The scene where Jim Carrey walks out of that mini-mart, up to those guys he doesn't know and says "Big gulps huh?" (They stare at him, and don't say anything) then Jim Carrey says "GREAT! See ya later!". That's how I feel on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I have to ask for a ride. Example. Say I go up to a friend of mine, who's engaged in a conversation with someone else, or perhaps studying in the library.
Me: "So, Luke, whatcha readin/doin?"
Luke: "Well, I was just reading this chapter for CF2 and then I was going to"
Me (cutting him off): Sweet, can you give me a ride home?
I feel like a jackass. I know it's not that big of an inconvenience to drive me home, just one exit up from school, but it is an inconvenience. I hate having to ask, partly because I'm prideful I guess, partly because I'm 31 and don't have a car, but mainly because it's just awkward. I only see the people I'm asking at school. It's not like it's a job we're at from 9 to 5, 5 days a week. I feel bad. I just don't want it to get to the point where people start walking the other way from me after 1pm because they know I'll be asking for a ride.
So today. I couldn't find anyone to give me a ride home. Thankfully it wasn't raining. It was cold, yes, but the sun was out. What makes walking those 4.6 miles hard, is the 23 pound backpack I have on, and the 13 pound laptop I carry. That's not exactly the best situation. I know it could be worse, like people in third world countries, I get that. But what sucks is that the backpack and laptop aren't strapped tight to my body, they sway and bounce. By the time I've walked about halfway, my shoulders start aching, and I start crying. (One of those is true). Today was funny though. I turned my laptop on, opened my MP3 player, and set it to play my entire "Alternative Rock" folder on random. That's about 6000 songs. Can you guess what song it played FIRST? "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day. Are you familiar with the lyrics? Here they are:
I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of broken dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone
Seriously. Either God has a sense of humor, or my laptop is a living breathing organism that was aware of my situation, and decided to have a little fun with me. I laughed as if to say "Welp, that fits". It was a funny moment. To make it even funnier/worse, when I got home, guess what Kayla wanted to do IMMEDIATELY? That's right, she wanted to walk to park that's another 1.5 miles from the house. So we did. I'm Superdad.
I'm complaining about not having a car. But as I was walking today I was reminded (by that little voice in my head) that I do in fact have the legs and feet to walk. I was reminded that I'm healthy enough to walk. I was reminded that I live in a country where I can walk safely. I was reminded that I was walking home to two beautiful baby girls that were waiting just to see me. I was reminded that I at least have one working car that I get to drive to school the other 3 days of the week. I was reminded that I was getting some exercise in the process. I was reminded that there are parts of this country where it's 20 below zero right now, not the bareable 52 degrees I had the luxury of walking in. So yes, I get it. I'm a lucky/blessed guy.
It does suck not having a car though. |
| posted by
Ricky
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6:00 PM
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| Thursday, January 15, 2009 |
One of the most significant accomplishments of my life took place today.
 I beat Fallout 3. After over 80 hours of playtime, I finally beat it. I'll go on a limb and say that this game is probably the single most involved game I've ever played. The genre of this game is called a "Role Playing Game". Meaning, you decide every course of action and method of accomplishing tasks. For example, if one of the quests is to rescue someone, you could do the quest as is, go and rescue them. Or, you could go to rescue them, run into the person holding them captive and then decide to take a payoff instead of rescuing them.
It's incredible. You gain and lose karma all throughout the game. Every discussion you have has ramifications on this karma system. Every person you kill or don't kill affects it. If you decide to steal some food, you get negative karma. If you decide to donate money to one of the two churches in the game, you gain karma. You can decide to go through the entire game as a positive karma'd person (as I did) or you could go through the game as a neutral or negative karma'd person. I'm satisfied with how I chose to play, as a nice guy, but I think it would be way more fun to be the jerk, and say things to make kids cry, blow up the huge nuclear bomb in a town populated by innocent people and killing and stealing from whomever I run into.
 This game introduced me to the RPG genre, as I'd never played a game like it before. So now, I want to go get a few other games like it and play those. It's really fun being in control of my own destiny, and choosing how I want to solve problems and quests. One of the reasons it took so long for me to beat it though, was because of these quests. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything, so I played the game while simultaneously glued to the Fallout 3 website on my laptop. I feel like doing that really made the game more fun, as I knew how to gain certain things and not miss anything during the game.
So now that I've invested 80+ hours into the game with the goal of beating it, I'm going to go back to one of my old save files and start doing some things I avoided during my first run through. Things like building grenades made out of radioactive coca cola and throwing them at people. I'd also like to sneak up to people and place live grenades and mines in their pants, them watch them walk away and explode. I'd also like to walk into a town where I'm known for being a good guy, and start blowing people away with my shotgun. I'd also like to do a couple of the bad karma quests that I avoided too.
 Now, I know what you're thinking. 80 hours already?! When did you have time to play that while you were taking care of the girls and stuff? The majority of my playing time came between the hours of 10pm and 2am. Since I've been on Christmas Break, I didn't have to get up early and pay attention to a lecture, I only had to get up early to pay attention to my two kids. ;) |
| posted by
Ricky
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11:19 AM
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| Friday, January 09, 2009 |
So here's the deal. For the past day I've been trying to get wordpress working as my template for borbafett.net. The sad reality is, that I don't know how to fix it. I need to spend some more time tweaking it before I set it live. I thought I'd be okay with the fact that I had my new layout up, despite there being quite a few problems. But the more I thought about it, the more it disgusted me to the point of violently beating my dogs while singing the theme song to The Jeffersons.
I'll continue to tweak things and get this website cut over to wordpress, as I really can't stand the sight of my site right now. I wish blogger had some more options and bells and whistles, but it doesn't. Matt Smith was right everyone, he tried getting me to go to wordpress about a year and a half ago, right after my sex change.
Anyway, if you need me I'll be playing and finishing Fallout 3. I'm probably about 40 hours into that game, and only halfway done with it. I've never done drugs in my life, but I imagine this is what addiction feels like. |
| posted by
Ricky
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5:50 PM
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| Sunday, January 04, 2009 |
Don't hold me to it....
But I think I'm going to go with this design as my new website: http://www.wordpress.borbafett.net
I'm still working out the kinks and stuff, but I think this is my favorite design. |
| posted by
Ricky
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5:35 PM
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| Saturday, January 03, 2009 |
| i think i fixed it. |
| posted by
Ricky
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4:44 PM
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| now i'm confused. |
| posted by
Ricky
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4:10 PM
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| things are going to look a lot different soon... |
| posted by
Ricky
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3:51 PM
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| Thursday, January 01, 2009 |
My (first) Annual Top/Favorite/Least Favorite Things of 2008 List
I was driving home from Monterey today. It's a 3 and a half hour drive. Point being, it's a really long drive. So, I listened to a lot of radio today. And wouldn't you know, just about every radio station was having a top songs of 2008 countdown. Radio stations are SO clever. If your radio station is 92.5, then you have the top 92 songs. If you're station is 106.5, then you have the top 106 songs. Anyway, those countdowns inspired me to blog about my own favorites this year. Enjoy.
Favorite Movies I watched for the first time in 2008:
JVCD
The Dark Knight
Wanted
Step Brothers
Wall-E
Tropic Thunder
Least favorite movies I watched for the first time in 2008:
The Happening
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Seven Pounds
Prom Night
The Darjeeling Limited
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
Transporter 3
Be Kind Rewind
Best movies I saw in 2008 that don't even come out until 2009:
Gran Torino
The Wrestler
Best Movie I'm going to see tonight that came out in 2008:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Movies that disappointed me but didn't necessarily suck of 2008:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Semi-Pro
Righteous Kill
Cloverfield
Burn After Reading
Quantum of Solace
Movie I'm still trying to figure out why I didn't like it:
Leatherheads
Movie I agree with and want people to see, but didn't like that much:
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Movie I don't agree with and want people to see:
Religulous
Movies I didn't like or dislike:
Iron Man
You Don't Mess With The Zohan
The Incredible Hulk
The X Files: I Want to Believe
First ever "scary movie" that truly creeped me out a little:
The Strangers
Favorite Songs of 2008:
Underworld - Best Mamgu Ever
Muse - Map of the Problematique
Kevin Rudolf - Let It Rock
Ne-Yo - Miss Independent
One Day as a Lion - Wild International
Brandon Heath - Give Me Your Eyes
Kings Of Leon - Sex On Fire
Silversun Pickups - Three Seed and also Rusted Wheel
Quiet Village - Desperate Hours
Snow Patrol - Lightning Strike
Sigur Ros - Inní mér syngur vitleysingur
50 Cent - Get Up
Nelly Furtado - Say It Right
Coldplay - The Entire Viva La Vida Album
Song that I hate that I like:
Kanye West - Love Lockdown
Favorite TV Series that came out in 2003 that I started watching in 2008:
Arrested Development
Favorite thing Kayla says:
"Stop talking mommy"
Favorite thing Brielle says:
"Thank You!"
Favorite video games of 2008:
The Force Unleashed
Fallout 3
Gears of War 2
Pain
Video game I REALLY wished blew me away but ended up leaving me utterly disappointed:
Metal Gear Solid 4
Game that got overly repetitive and eventually boring:
GTA IV
Biggest thing I learned in 2008:
Total surrender AND the meaning of true friendship.
Least favorite class I took at WJU:
Spiritual Dimensions of Leadership
Favorite class I took at WJU:
Christian Foundations 1 and The Gospel of John
Favorite picture of 2008:
Favorite Purchase of 2008:
61' Samsung DLP HDTV
Favorite gift of 2008:
This laptop
And that's about it. If I think of anything else, I'll come back and add stuff. |
| posted by
Ricky
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8:24 PM
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Name: Ricky Borba
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