A bit of a personal one ...

It's been a while.

I've avoided getting too personal on my blog for a variety of reasons. Part of it was to protect the privacy of my friends and family, partly to keep from boring those reading, and partly because I didn't want anyone that Googled me to come across anything overly personal. I'm tearing those walls down now, because I've learned that while walls can protect you, they also keep people from getting to you when you need them, and until recently, I didn't realize how much I needed other people in my life.

Anyone that has read this blog in the past has probably noticed that my post rate has plummeted in recent months. A bit of this was due to work and school pressures, but mostly, it was because of some major "life changes", which is the PC way of saying that I was going through a divorce. Andrea and I were high school sweethearts; we started dating my senior year of high school and got married in August of 2000.

I was absolutely devoted to her, but marriage is incredibly hard ... it never seemed like we were able to get our lives completely on track. Life was constantly throwing challenges in our way. I was laid off the same day we were supposed to close on our house back in 2002, and the marriage never fully recovered from that setback. In 2003, we made the decision together that I should go back to school and get my degree, and while it was the right decision at the time, the cost was far too high. I really wanted to have some sembalance of a real college experience, and that required making a lot of choices that took even more time away from my wife. Group projects, extra-curricular activities ... I did very well in school, as I felt I had to, but the sacrifices were more than I ever should have asked Andrea to make. We didn't get to spend nearly enough time together, and despite what others might say, absence does not make the heart grow fonder.

We grew apart in a lot of ways, and finally she decided that despite being nearly finished with my degree, we would never really get the marriage back on track. We separated in April of 2007, filed for divorce in August (just after our anniversary), and the divorce was finalized this week.

I blame myself in a lot of ways. I've never been very good at maintaining releationships with my friends and family, and while I know that I was put into an impossible position of trying to keep a marriage together on my schedule, I just let the marriage coast ... thinking that Andrea could keep us together on her own. She's a lot tougher than she'll ever admit to, but she underestimates herself, and in this case, she just didn't think she was going to be able to keep it together the additional few weeks until I graduated. I can't fault her for anything other than not realizing the light at the end of the tunnel was closer than she thought. Regardless, by the time I realized we were in trouble, it was far too late.

That brings us to today. I've realized that living my life for one person, while admirable in a lot of ways, was just unhealthy. Luckily, I met a lot of great friends at the UW, and they've been incredibly supportive during this tumultuous few months of my life. I can't believe it took me this long to allow others to get this close to me, but I'm glad that I finally did. I can honestly say that I wouldn't have made it this far if not for them. They're every bit an extended family to me, and I thank God every day that they're part of my life.

On December 3rd, I went to Slave to the Needle and got a tattoo on my back. I've never really identified with the Native American part of my heritage, but it's always been in there somewhere, and I knew I'd get one at some point once I figured out how to tell my story. I started planning my design a few months ago, something to not only reflect not only my identity, but serve as a reminder of where I'd been, where I was now, and where I am headed. The Superman shield is from "The Death and Life of Superman" novel by Roger Stern, and symbolizes the transition from my old life to my new one. The Kryptonian word at the top I'm keeping to myself, but is just a reminder to me that I'm never really alone. There's a lot more to this design than that, even the placement had meaning, but I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I had a little celebration last night, part birthday party and part rebirth. By the time all was said and done, I was dumbfounded by how many people came to hang out and offer their support. This is a major turning point in my life, and I'm determined to not make the same mistakes I've made in the past. These people have graciously allowed me to be a part of their life, and the absolute least I can do is offer mine in return.

So there it is. I get to have a second chance of sorts, starting over with the benefit of a great deal of experience to rely on. I don't know if I'm going to maintain this blog, I've actually got a social life that I never made time for in the past, but if I do, it's going to be far more than the ridiculous minutae and random crap I stumble across on the internet. I don't know if it will be worth reading, but it's going to be something.

Heroes is Back!

The second season premiere of Heroes aired last night, and it's great to have the show back. Flanked by Chuck and Journeyman, it was a great night of TV. And of course, there's a ton of speculation about what the new season has to offer.

One thing I noticed last night that seemed to stand out is that the symbol (the half-helix, or what Ando called "godsend") took a certain prevalence during the opening episode. But what bothered me is that it seemed different. When positioned vertically, the symbol normally has one line coming out of the top, and two on the bottom. Yet, several times last night, the symbol is shown inverted. Particularly coming from Molly's dreams about the man that can see her.

It reminded me of a typical convention of comic books, one that was the focus of the movie Unbreakable. Every hero has an opposite, a villian. It makes me wonder if the inverted symbol is a foreshadowing of sorts, preparing us for the introduction of anti-Heroes. In the first season, Sylar as Peter Petrelli's opposite was a primary focus, but I don't remember if the symbol was ever shown in conjunction with Sylar.

It's worth noting that on the pictures of Kaito Nakamura and Angela Petrelli, the symbol was in it's normal form ... perhaps Angela isn't as evil as Nathan wants to believe.

Journeyman

Journeyman is another one of those shows in NBC's Fall lineup that could have been awful if not executed perfectly, but again, NBC has another potential smash hit on their hands, and Monday nights are going to be hard for the other networks to beat.

The premise is similar to the old show Quantum Leap, but without the futuristic aspect to it, but it feels even more human, as they show the strain that the time travel takes on Dan and his family and friends. That makes the show even more engrossing that Quantum Leap ever was, and it's only the first episode.

After watching these three shows, Journeyman, Chuck, and Bionic Woman, I find myself incredibly thankful that these shows are on NBC and not Fox. Fox would have probably found a way to cancel them after just an episode or two, and the world would miss out on great drama (and in Chuck's case, comedy, too).

One funny thing I noticed ... when Dan jumps through time, his items go with him, including his Apple iPhone. It signals several times when he jumps because you can see that there's no digital cell signal back in the past. However, in once scene in particular, you can see that he's holding the phone upside down, but the text is right side up.

NBC Fall Season Rocks!

While I'm not a big fan of Comcast, when there's something on their On Demand service, I'm certainly grateful I have it. Sadly, the only network shows Comcast has had in HD for a while has been reruns of CSI.

I wanted to kill a little time today while something else was recording, and decided to check to see if the next CSI episode was ready yet, and there was a new listing for NBC. Imagine my surprise when the pilots of NBC's big fall season were there waiting for me. And from the looks of it, it's going to be a GREAT season.

Bionic Woman is a fresh take on the old series, and if it feels familiar, it should. It has the same tone as the remake of Battlestar Galactica, and even features a couple of those familiar faces as well. The last few minutes felt a little cheesy, and I don't want to spoil it for you, but when you see it, you'll know exactly the scene I'm talking about. That brief Velveeta moment aside, the show was really entertaining, and I can't wait to see where they go with it.

When I first saw the previews for Chuck, I thought that the show would either be really good, or really, atrociously bad. Lucky for us, it's great. To crib the phrase from his Steveness of Jobs, it's insanely great. Again, don't want to ruin the plot, but this show is going to pluck the strings of every geek out there as hard as Heroes did. So it's no surprise that it'll be airing right before Heroes in the lineup. That's going to be a hard one-two punch.

I still have to watch Journeyman and Life, so look for those impressions soon!

Oh, one small complaint ... Comcast didn't make the 5.1 soundtrack available on the HD feed, only the ProLogic sound. That's ok, it's just be even more reason to watch the shows again!

Problems with Heroes Disc 2 on HD-DVD? Read This!

If you've bought Season 1 of Heroes on HD-DVD recently, you might be running into probably getting the second disc to load. What's the solution?

Sadly, just patience.

The second disc is web-enabled, and when you first load the disc, it will attempt to download the web content to the hard drive built into your HD-DVD drive. Of course, this is a popular web series and the servers seem to be getting overloaded. This means that it might take up to an hour to download the content.

The disc should give you the option to cancel if it appears that it's going to take a prolonged amount of time. All I can recommend is that you load the disc before you want to watch it and let it download while you make dinner or something.

Just a reminder, Season 2 starts on September 25th!

The Best of Tina Fey, SNL Weekend Update

Super Mario Strikers Review

Rent It.

Universal Exceeds Expectation with HD DVD

HD DVD is having a rough time of it in the media, but a problem some consumers have run into is discs that just won't play. It seems to be mostly HD DVD/DVD combo discs, and appears to be a slight film that doesn't come off the disc in manufacturing.

A copy of Smokin' Aces that I bought recently had this problem, so I contacted Universal to get a replacement. They offered to send me a postage-paid envelope to send back the disc ... just the disc ... and they'd mail a replacement.

In six to eight weeks. How annoying.

In a couple of days, I had my envelope and mailed off the bad disc. In just two weeks, I had a replacement in a brand new case! Now I have an extra case should I ever need it, and they beat their shipping estimates.

This is how you delight your customers ... by handling problems promptly and by exceeding expectations. It would have been great to have the disc work right the first time, but this was the next best thing. Universal is clearly embracing the format.

As for the movie ... Buy It.

Comcast Can Bite Me ... If They Ever Show Up

I just moved into a new apartment over the weekend. I made sure to call well in advance (last Tuesday) to make sure they'd be able to install on the Saturday that I moved in. After getting a confirmation number, pricing, and a time and date, I showed up Saturday ready to get the new service up and running.

And I waited. And waited. Finally, I called Comcast to find out what was up. They scheduled me for Saturday the 11th, not the 4th. No where in the call record did it show that I needed it on the 4th, and the support rep was completely unsympathetic with the fact that I would be both TV and Internet-less for an entire week.

I'm super-pissed about it, which probably led to my getting a cold, which only made it worse when I'm stuck home Tuesday. Luckily, I have a fairly sizable DVD library, although I mostly ignored them while I slept off the cold.

Fortunately, it looks like Verizon is tearing the roads apart in Kenmore to roll out their FIOS fiber-optic service. I'm not sure when it'll be available, but it'll be nice to be able to play the two companies off of each other. Competition is almost always great for the consumer.

Official Xbox Magazine going to Xbox Live

I must be psychic or something, or at least, know a good idea when I come up with it. According to Kotaku (by way of the Xbox.com forums), the Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) is going to be made available through Xbox Live.

Of course, I was just lamenting what a great distribution medium Xbox Live would be for the mag after playing Eternal Sonata, and less than a week later, there you go.

Kotaku seems to think that this somehow equates to charging for demos, since it'll cost $2.50 to get the mag this way. They wouldn't be charging any more for demos than they are now, they'll actually be charging less than you'd pay buying at the newsstand. How do I figure? It cost me $6.00 to get the Eternal Sonata demo ... yes, like many others, I paid for the demo, not the magazine. If there is a demo exclusive to the magazine, this is a far more economical and convenient way to get it.

That said, what publisher in their right mind would bother with an exclusive demo now, unless there's some payoff from OXM?

GameFly Free Trial for One Month

GameFly normally only gives you a 10-day trial of their service before you have to start paying, but they just sent me a link that will give you an entire month for free. If you've been on the fence, you owe it to yourself to give GameFly a try. It's a better value than Netflix when you consider how expensive it can be to buy new games.

The offer expires on 7/31/2007, so get in while the getting is good!

Hallows of a Deathly Variety

I bought two copies of the final Harry Potter book early Saturday morning. I had waited in line for the previous two books, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it this time. I wasn't in a hurry to end my adventures with Harry. The second copy of the book went to my friend Sarah as a birthday present. She texted me Sunday to brag that she was over 400 pages into the book.

I'm on page 2. Seriously, a Harry Potter book hasn't started this excruciatingly slow since the first one. I hear the second chapter really takes off. Still, I haven't been able to start down the road to the end of the series. I'm probably projecting ... well, there's really no probably about it. I know exactly why I'm putting it off. Once I finish that book, a new chapter in my own life is starting in a lot of ways, and I'm not eager to head down that path either.

Yes, that's incredibly vague, but that's also how I'm feeling, so somehow, it's fitting.