So Many Things to Talk About...

There are so many things that have gone down in the last few weeks. I'll try to summarize as much as possible:

Adam's Wedding
It was great to see Adam and Natalie again. It made me jealous that yet another one of my friends is married and I'm no closer to that stage than I was 8 years ago. Was good to see everyone in town and while it went quickly, it was just a good week!

Pictures from that weekend.

Vegas
Vegas was lots of fun again. I lose $60 to gambling... we stayed at Treasure Island. Saw most of the major casinos again, had lots of good food and drinks. Want to do it again.

Pictures from my trip.

PAX
The Penny Arcade Expo was incredibly fun. Since E3 has basically toned down from a huge conference to something smaller, PAX seemed to take more of that space this year. There were over 40,000 attendees, lots of speaker sessions, concerts, exhibition floor demoing cool stuff, DS playing, console playing, and PC gaming. It was incredibly and for the most part just lots of fun. Wil Wheaton was the keynote speaker and he was awesome. Even got a picture with him! Overall, lots of fun.

Pictures from PAX.

My New PC
I basically bought a brand new computer (nothing from my old computer is going in my new computer). I bought all the pieces from Newegg (except for the CPU which I bought from Intel directly since I get half-off). I barely got it running last night after fighting out the issues with the hardware (found out I had a bad memory stick that I picked up from Fry's). Since it's a Quad-core machine with one of the top-line video cards... this machine will be a monster.

Camping Trip
I'm excited about the camping trip with Peter's dad this weekend. It'll be the first time I get to actually wake-board and have fun with it. Since I can actually stay up on the wake-board now... it should prove to be lots of fun!

Personal Trainer Time
I have been seeing a personal trainer for the last two and a 1/2 weeks and it has proven to be very good. I'm already 7 pounds heavier and working towards my 25 pound goal! I'm also starting to tone a little bit (although not hugely yet). My eating habits have changed too (I eat a lot more)... and I feel better overall. I am working right now 3 times a week with some exercise at home. The personal trainer I will see for a total of 16 sessions and then after that I will continue on my own. It's great so far.

Whistler
We have a trip to Whistler again scheduled for Dec 14-18. I am incredibly excited. I have been dying to go snowboarding again. My trainer is actually helping me train for that too (working on my balance, etc). It will be loads of fun... Peter is coming too! Woo!!

iPod Craziness
So I just kept on the iPod craziness that happened today. Christ, they have a good line-up. First they dropped the 8 gig iPhone by $200!! It's now in a reasonable price-range of $400. Too bad though it doesn't work for my work email, which is the reason I wouldn't get it right now. Then they announced TWO update iPods. One an update to their HardDrive iPods (now in 80 and 160 gig flavors). Then they announced the Flash Based iPod Touches which are basically the iPhone without the phone part. Those things are sexy and I will be very tempted to get one. The new iPod Nanos are looking pretty damn cool too (can even play video!). Overall, Apple will definitely be kicking some major ass in the winter months.

Overall, things are pretty good and August and so far September have been good months. Work wise, things have been good as I have good projects but also bad as the impending doom of layoffs are out and about. We will know more at the end of October. It is going to be a fairly significant cut and I have a feeling that I am going to see a lot of good people go. Morale isn't very high right now.

Alright... that's my spiel!