Update Ramble.

Hello Everyone. Consider this an update and forgive me if I ramble on in random directions. It's been five months since I posted here, which makes me about as consistent as I always have been. I have been writing fast and furiously most of the summer, and most of it has been posted to a blog, just not here. It was almost all team writing, and I'm not excited about what the team produced, so I didn't link to it. If you know me well enough, and weren't bored stiff by the content, you've read it any way.

I'm officially half way through my masters coursework, and have been encouraged to speed up my plan of study, so I'm shooting for a spring graduation. It hasn't gotten any easier, and in fact, it's getting harder. I've given up all of my regular gaming groups and have forgone most things that aren't connected directly to school or survival. Maybe that's a bit over-dramatic, but sometimes it feels that way. Part of the reason I'm writing this is to get back in the swing.

This process has been made painfully more difficult by the untimely demise of my Macbook Pro. This whole episode should probably be a post by it's self, but long story short: AppleCare doesn't. I'm pretty certain they didn't even diagnose the problem. I think they looked at the woefully inaccurate level one tech support notes, opened the box, saw my dented case and made a decision. My plan is to take it to the Apple store in the next week or two and make a Mac Genius troubleshoot it. I'm totally unimpressed with the way this process has gone, and I'm disillusioned with Apple's customer service.

In the meantime I'm getting along with a department loaner that weighs about three tons, but is still a fairly capable machine despite its age. I do miss Mac OS though. I'd forgotten how frustrating XP can be. I would have loaded Linux but I don't have time to mess around with drivers and such. I have seen bits and pieces of Windows 7, and it looks promising, so I might have another go. Maybe if it's good enough I can load it on Criss' laptop, and she can get the full potential out of the hardware.

It's time to replace the Neon. It has too many problems that I've fought with for too long. I've been looking around at inexpensive cars, (getting harder to do, because the government is gobbling them up in an effort to encourage people to buy things they can't afford,) and I've found that I have an attraction to all things Jeep. It's become a bit of an obsession lately, as I scour the Internet for the perfect deal. I'm looking for a Cherokee or YJ, TJ, or maybe JK that is in decent shape and won't cost me a fortune. I figure I can use it as a daily driver for a year or two and slowly build it into a wheeler as I get time/money. Anyone want to buy the Neon for parts or a project?

Criss and I got a chance to canoe a couple weeks ago. We took a weekend trip and went down the Tippecanoe River at Tippecanoe State Park. It was a decent trip. We paid the local livery service to drop us at the boat launch and then drive Ruggy back to their place, and it didn't cost us much. The park was nice and quiet (and big) and the trip down the river was smooth. We went at a good time, and we're looking at going back soon.

We've also decided that we don't do that sort of thing often enough, so we're making plans. Next summer we're doing Yellowstone to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We're also looking at a small hike up into the Smokies for a night or two at a rustic cabin. Who knows where else we might go.

This sort of thing requires that we be in shape. We've fallen of the wagon a bit in the last month or so, but we have done a fairly good job of not eating out, (especially fast food,) Not drinking pop, and in general trying to make healthy food choices. Oddly, it's helped us save money. We've also started exercising mostly, on the Wii. It's easy to scoff at, but I've lost weight and gained a bit of strength, and I feel better in the morning.

I'm certain there are other things I could go on about, but I've probably bored most of you to tears anyway, so I'll leave off here. the whole point was to get my brain running again and get ramped up for writing anyway. I will try to post more often as things come to mind, but who knows when that will be.