Time to Make a Pressing Change To The Blog

For the last several years, I’ve written a blog just for fun; said blog, which I entitled Carlisle’s Chaotic Commentary, was hosted by Blogger (owned by Google). Over the last few months, I’ve become increasingly displeased with Blogger’s Dashboard. It hangs, freezes and also has gotten to the point where I have to manually edit the HTML code to get the page to display correctly. This became increasingly irritating for me since I switch between using my laptop and my Surface 2 tablet and trying to edit code on the tablet’s smaller screen (and without a mouse) can be a pain in the ass.

Also, since I’m now a subscriber to Microsoft’s Office 365, I wanted to find something that worked well with Word 2013’s built in Share feature specifically the “Post to blog” option. My attempts at doing this with Blogger proved to be less than exciting.

So, this past Friday, since I had the day off from work and had the spare time, I decided to register for a free Word Press account. I spent a couple of hours posting test blogs both manually and using the Post to blog feature in Word and I’m pretty happy with the results. Going forward, I’ll be blogging using Word and posting to Word Press instead of Blogger.

Granted, Blogger is 100% free, while certain features in Word Press only work if you subscribe to a paid account¹, but even so, Word Press (so far) has been more user friendly than Blogger has been lately.

For that matter, I’m also planning on researching the possibility of migrating data from Google to Microsoft Live. It’s odd to think it, but lately I’ve gotten to where I’d rather trust and use Microsoft’s cloud features than Google’s; perhaps it’s because I own both a laptop and a tablet running Windows 8.1. *wink*

If you are reading this on the Blogger site, thanks, but this will be the last post on http://jecarlisle.blogspot.com. If you’re reading this on the new Word Press version (http://jecarlisle13.wordpress.com), thanks for stopping by and I’ll work on getting more stuff posted here soon.

~ JC

-----

1.    For example, I can’t do much in the way of customizing the layout in Word Press using only a free account and the choice of templates is rather limited as well.

52!

Fifty-two weeks, fifty-two blogs. I have never had a calendar year in which I have actually posted a blog every single Sunday, until now. This is blog number 52 for 2012 (unless I counted wrong, which is highly probable). Whether or not my count is correct, I have managed, for the first time ever in a single calendar year, to post something every week. Sometimes it’s been a rant, or something about nothing, or sometimes just a photo, but at least I can say I’ve posted something every week.

I’ve discovered a few things while engaging in this little project. First of all, I enjoy writing - or at least the act of writing; it’s cathartic. Secondly, how the fuck professional writers come up with material on a regular basis escapes me; there have been plenty of weeks where a topic worth writing about, or for which I had more than a sentence or two worth of commentary has alluded me.

I’ve also discovered, based on the analytics for the blog, that more people actually read this thing than just my friends who are kind enough to click on the links I post on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Interestingly, some of my older posts comparing To Do list services seem to be my most popular (or at least most viewed) posts.

Going into 2013 I can’t say that I’ll make another run at 52 straight weeks of blogging. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ll allow myself the occasional break from blogging. I’ve always called the blog “Chaotic Commentary” because I’ve never locked the blog into a single topic; that won’t change, although don’t be surprised if you see more World of Warcraft themed blogs in the near future.

~JC

Carlisle’s Chaotic Commentary 2012 Posts

First Blog of 2012	January 1, 2012
Damn it Feels Good to Be a Lannister	January 8, 2012
Ben Was Right... Mostly	January 15, 2012
What Possesses People?	January 22, 2012
Let The Hunt Begin	January 29, 2012
The Hunt is Over	February 5, 2012
Some Chaotic Commentary	February 12, 2012
Nook Tablet – First Impressions	February 19, 2012
Boxes, Boxes Everywhere	February 26, 2012
Movin' On Up	March 4, 2012
Channels, Channels Everywhere	March 11, 2012
Hungry for the Games	March 18, 2012
The Great Furniture Hunt	March 25, 2012
Put It Together Your Damn Self	April 1, 2012
Laptops, WiFi & Family	April 7, 2012
Sunday Evening Bloggin’	April 15, 2012
U-verse vs Xfinity - Just My Humble Opinion	April 22, 2012
Tiptoeing Through ‘The Cloud’	April 29, 2012
LG Tone Bluetooth Review	May 6, 2012
Shaking My Head	May 13, 2012
The Sarah J Show	May 20, 2012
Remember More Than Just Your Grill	May 27, 2012
Sorry Ben, But Beer Doesn’t Love Me	June 3, 2012
RIP Ray Bradbury	June 10, 2012
Happy Dad’s Day	June 17, 2012
Can’t Stop The Music	June 24, 2012
Burnt Offerings	July 1, 2012
The Game Is Afoot	July 8, 2012
The Great Book Debate	July 15, 2012
Is This The Real Life?	July 22, 2012
Making a Splash	July 29, 2012
Rethinking My Tablet Choice	August 5, 2012
Vacation 2012	August 12, 2012
Round IS a Shape, Right?	August 19, 2012
Lock It Down	August 26, 2012
Sunday Ramblings	September 2, 2012
Bachelor Pad	September 9, 2012
Time to Become a Little More Antisocial	September 16, 2012
I’d Rather Be Writing	September 23, 2012
Rethinking the Layout	September 30, 2012
Save the Tatas	October 7, 2012
The Last (?) Temptation of Uhnk	October 14, 2012
What the Puck!?	October 21, 2012
Return to Azeroth	October 28, 2012
Heads or Tails - Election 2012	November 4, 2012
Salute to our Veterans	November 11, 2012
WoW, It’s Been A Month Already	November 18, 2012
Tis The Season	November 25, 2012
Raiding, Achievements, and Gold, WoW	December 2, 2012
What Ifs	December 9, 2012
Fifty Down, Two To Go	December 16, 2012
We’re Still Here	December 23, 2012
52	December 30, 2012

Fifty Down, Two To Go

At the beginning of this calendar year I imposed upon myself a goal. That goal was to actually post a blog every Sunday through the end of the year. Writing, for me, has always been a cathartic undertaking. I don’t really care if anyone actually reads it or not. Sundays became the day of blogging from almost the start because it was always the one day of the week when I had time in the morning to post. A few years ago my friend Jimmy starting trying to do a daily blog, which inspired me to at least do a weekly one. Like most hobbies I undertake, I tend to go at it pretty hardcore at first then my interest starts to wane, so there are some pretty large gaps in the dates of my blog posts. Writing, though, is one of those enjoyments that I really like to do, so even though I didn’t write something every week, I still wrote fairly often. Strange as it sounds, it’s the act of typing that I enjoy - I’m not sure why. And yes, I’m the weirdo that will say that the thing I miss most about college is writing papers.

So far I’ve managed to post something every Sunday during 2012. Today’s post is number 50 with two more Sundays left in the calendar year. So, I’ll see you here next Sunday for another blog post (that is, of course, if the Mayan calendar was wrong).

~ JC

P.S. - I was going to write another World of Warcraft post this morning, but figured I’d take a break from that topic for a bit ;-)

Bachelor Pad

As of around an hour ago, I’m a bachelor again... well, for a week anyway. Roxanne has headed to North Carolina to visit her Mom and go with her to a couple of doctor appointments for which she needs someone to be with her to drive her home afterwards. Nothing horribly major, but the meds will make Mom kind of loopy for a few days, and with Roxanne’s brother being away at college and her Dad being a truck driver and out on the road right now, Roxanne was really the only one available to help.

So, that leaves me home alone for a week. I get the whole bed to myself. I can make whatever I want for supper (including pizza rolls). I can hang out in my underwear (or less) if I want. Then again, I could kind of already do all that even if Roxanne was here.

Truth is, I miss her already. It’s funny how one starts to think how cool it will be to have the house to one’s self for an entire week, but in rather short order one realizes that it actually kind of sucks.

At any rate, it’s only around 9:15 AM and I’m already thinking about having pizza rolls for breakfast while watching last night’s episode of “Doctor Who” on the DVR. Why? Because I can. :-P

~ JC

Sunday Ramblings

Ah, Sunday. That day of the week when I have no errands since I’ve done them all on Saturday and the only chore I really have to do is laundry, which isn’t really a chore considering that a pair of machines do all the actual work. Granted, I hate the folding and putting away part, but mostly doing laundry involves loading the washer, starting it, and waiting 30 or 40 minutes followed by transference of the the clothes to the dryer, starting it and waiting about an hour. But I digress as I’m not blogging about laundry. In fact, I’m not blogging about anything in particular today. It’s a random, run-by, blogging sort of day.

Since I began this quest back in January to actually post something every Sunday, there have been weeks that I’ve struggled to think of anything to write about. Today is one of those days. It’s also the Sunday before Labor Day here in the United States, so tomorrow is a paid day off for me and many others. That actually makes it a bit more difficult to think of anything to write because I think my brain thinks it’s still Saturday and tomorrow is Sunday so it doesn’t believe it’s supposed to be coming up with a blog topic.

Speaking of Labor Day, haven't you ever found it odd that folks take the day off on a day called “Labor” day? So, I Googled Labor Day, because, let’s be honest, most Americans happily celebrate holidays without knowing exactly what the fuck they are for. Wikipedia has this to say about Labor Day:

Labor Day is an American federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September (September 3 in 2012) that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers. It also symbolizes the end of summer for many Americans, and is celebrated with parties, parades and athletic events 1

So, we celebrate the contributions of workers by not working. Ok. Well, banks and various professional offices don’t work. The people who actual labor probably still have to work, ironically enough. I know when I worked retail, holidays like Labor Day meant jack shit in terms of time off because retail stores only (begrudgingly) close two days a year (Christmas and Thanksgiving).

My “plans” for Labor Day weekend involve the aforementioned laundry (already in progress), grocery shopping (completed on Saturday), trying to finish reading Catching Fire and working on building/painting Warhammer 40k models. Sound exciting, eh? Oh, and sleeping. Sleeping is always a fun activity on any weekend, especially after a week of going into the office at 6:00 AM everyday when I normally don’t go in until 7:30 AM.

Roxanne also DVR'd the entire BBC America replay of the last Doctor Who season yesterday. There’s a book festival in Decatur today. We missed (are missing) Dragon*Con this year due to budgetary reasons (and lack of prior planning on my part).

For now, though, I’m just going to go pour another cup of coffee and wait for the dryer to buzz.

~ JC

----
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day - accessed September 1, 2012

Sunday Evening Bloggin’

Normally I enjoy blogging on Sunday mornings. You know, grab a cup of coffee, put on some music, sit down at ye old PC to do my weekly cathartic activity. Today was, obviously, different as I’m blogging from my laptop and it’s after 6:00pm.

I’m almost always the first one up. Having to be at work at 7:30 am five days out of the week, my internal clock just tends to wake me early, even on weekends with no alarm set. Today, though, my fianceé was the first to rise because she was heading out of town to visit her brother in college and watch his choral performance. I got up a few minutes after, but my routine was still thrown a tiny bit off. Instead of starting the blog, I started my laundry (naturally, a pot of coffee was put on to brew prior to even the laundry being attempted).

After that, and after my fianceé left for her road trip, I have to admit, I was a bit unsure of what to do next. I ended up flipping channels on the TV for an hour or so. I even attempted to go back to bed for a late morning nap, but couldn’t fall asleep. So, I decided to take a shower while my last load of laundry was in the dryer.

Prior to the shower, though, my best friend called to ask me if I wanted to meet him and his girlfriend for a late lunch - to which I agreed. So, clean and shaven, I headed to the grocery store for a few things and then headed out to meet them for a wonderful lunch at the sushi buffet.

So, now that the aforementioned laundry has been folded and put away and the dishwasher has been emptied, I can relax in front of the TV or perhaps getting a little reading done. But, most importantly, I can post this blog and keep on track for my goal of actually posting every Sunday for 52 straight weeks for the first time since I started this project.

~ JC

Some Chaotic Commentary

I started this blog on September 24, 2006. Until I went back and looked, I didn't realize I had been posting here for that long. Prior to this blog, I had one on LiveJournal (I don't remember when I started that one, only that it was deleted in May 2008). I've never written a blog for anyone other than myself, honestly. I've always enjoyed the act of writing and found it to be cathartic. I named it “... Chaotic Commentary” because I didn't want to be limited to a particular topic. As I've mentioned in the past, my friend Jimmy once commented that he could tell when everything was going well, because I hadn't updated the blog in awhile. I had always used this public forum to vent frustration or rant about things. Since then I've endeavored to try to write more often about a variety of topics from gaming to observations about life to reviews of books, movies, music, etc. to, well, whatever was on my mind at the time good or ill.

Over the years I've had large gaps in posting from time to time. For 2012 I decided (even though I didn't announce it, or make a “New Year's Resolution” to do so) that I wanted to try to actually end up with 52 posts – writing a blog once a week on Sundays. A lofty goal, perhaps, but it does give me something to do on Sunday mornings while I'm having my coffee.

In a lot of ways, Jimmy was right. It easier to find something to inspire my writing when I'm pissed off, and lately, I've not been all that pissed off. My more recent posts have been about moving from NC to GA, job hunting, apartment hunting, friends I've made since moving to Atlanta, beginning a new career, friends lost, games played, shitty traffic, and all sorts of other nonsense. I'll admit that the rise of Facebook caused my blogging to slow down a bit, as I've been able to share things there without having to hammer out an entire blog post. But sharing things on social media outlets just isn't the same as sitting down with a head full of thoughts and ideas and actually writing.

So, this morning, even though I have no specific topic in mind (I've written enough, for now, about house hunting I think) I write. For no other reason than because I freakin' felt like it.

~ JC

First Blog of 2012

I don't really have a topic for today's blog. But then again, that's why I call the thing “Carlisle's Chaotic Commentary”. It's been a pretty awesome ride over the last twelve months. 2012, for me, sparked a career path into Information Technology (finally). I found a good job, then found an even better job. At the beginning of 2011, I was still working a crappy, minimum wage, retail job. Now I make enough that I can afford an apartment without the assistance of a roommate (not that having someone to split the bills with hasn't been pretty awesome). To that end, I've finally moved my fiancee to Atlanta. We've started making our home look like a home with real furniture, and we've started looking at other places due to the lease expiring at the end of February and the fact that I can afford better now, than I could when I moved into where I'm at.

Everyone always hopes for the new year to be more awesome than the one prior. For me, my awesome 2012 began in the Fall of 2011 when I got hired at my current job and Roxanne moved down from North Carolina. The only thing left is for her to catch that same big break that I did, which I'm confident will happen soon.

And, maybe I'll start blogging more again in 2012. But like my friend Jimmy once pointed out, I tend to blog more when I'm pissed or upset, and I really haven't had much to rant about lately. Maybe I just need to start writing happy blogs? Nah... ;-)

~ JC

I Just Felt Like Writing

Ever seen 'Forest Gump'? Of course you have... almost everyone has, and extended cable plays it every other weekend. Anyway, there's a segment in the film where Forest decides to go for a run and he runs and runs and runs, so much so that people think he's on some sort of quest, or protest or trying to make a statement of some kind. But all he ever says is, “I just felt like running.” Well, that's pretty much this blog for me. I just felt like writing. No agenda. No political statement. No real point. Just felt like writing, like I used to do every Sunday morning.

Funny thing about feeling like writing though is, thinking of something to write about. I mean, a blog should have a point right? A topic, a theme, a thesis... something. But, not today really. The only point is I wanted to write. The act of writing is rather cathartic for me, so I write, even when I have nothing to say.

The new job goes well. Still learning the ropes, a bit slower than I'd personally like to, but management seems to be cool with what I've accomplished so far. My fiancée is making plans to move down to Atlanta within the next few weeks and continues her job search in the area. The hunt for a house, or better apartment, is underway with a few decent leads. Bills are paid and I still have enough money in the bank to last me until the next pay day. In short, for the first time in a very long time, I'm feeling pretty confident about the future.

~ JC

All is Well

My friend, Jimmy was right, I think. He once commented, several years ago, that he knew that everything was going well for me because I hadn't updated my blog in awhile. He observed that I only tended to write when I had something that I needed to vent about. Over the years I've used this blog as my soapbox, my sounding board, my creative outlet. Even when I wasn't necessarily ranting about something but writing about hobbies and interests, the blog as still very cathartic. It has now been exactly one month to the day since I last wrote anything. Some of that is because I was working retail again and didn't have my usual Sunday morning solitude in which to write and drink my coffee. But mostly it has been because I just didn't have anything much to write about. Yep, Jimmy was right – unless I'm stressed, I can't really seem to come up with blog topics, at least not good ones, which is why this one is a bit disjointed and has no real topic. In short, I don't have anything to bitch about anymore since landing a real job making a decent wage (by decent, I mean one I can actually live on). I've got a great group of friends. I have several places to hang out at and play games, shoot pool, throw darts, etc. I really have nothing to complain about. I just hope that doesn't mean that I'm tapped for blog ideas, because frankly, I really love to write.

~ JC

A Long Awaited Blog

It's been three months or so since my last actual blog post. Not the longest hiatus I've taken from writing, but still, I've missed the Sunday morning routine of sipping my coffee while typing away with whatever chaotic thoughts are running through my brain. Speaking of chaotic commentary, this one proves to be anything but topical since I'm probably going to end up cramming three month's worth of observation, ranting and bullshit into a single post – it's even going to have subsections with their own heading, which is something I don't usually do. So, without further adieu, on with the show.

Welcome to the Tribe

As I mentioned in a previous blog, the first night I arrived in Atlanta, I was introduced to several people as it was gaming night. The game we played that night is called Tribe 8. It's interesting, as I think about it now, how life imitated the game a bit. As my newly rolled character for Tribe 8 had to be introduced to the other player's characters and be accepted, so to was I being introduced and accepted into a new tribe of friends. I've only known these folks for about three months, but it seems like we've been friends for much longer, like I was meant to have this group of friends. Since that night, I've spent a lot of time hanging out with all of them, and not just on gaming night. We've celebrated everything from Thanksgiving, to the return of another person from Officer Candidacy School (who likewise has become a good friend in a very short time), to New Year's Eve together. They've all met my fiancee when she came to visit, and I've come to know that I can call on them for just about anything, as they can call on me as well. I'd hate to ever have to leave Atlanta and these friends behind, which just motivates me even more to move beyond the part time, minimum wage job I have now into a job or career that would allow me remain here beyond just a few months.

In that same vein, not only have I been introduced to Tribe 8, but also a few other rather obscure role playing game systems that I had never heard of (e.g. Unknown Armies and Burning Empires). Now, I've blogged in the past about role playing games and offered my comparison of Dungeons & Dragons vs Palladium Fantasy and Rifts, so I won't go into a long diatribe here trying to compare all these systems. Suffice it to say that, so far, I like these systems much better than the D20 System used by D&D and leave it at that.

They're Just Little Plastic Army Men, right?

I've also mentioned previously, that I have, after several years of saying I'd never do it, started playing Warhammer 40,000. For those that aren't familiar, it involves collecting, building and painting models of little plastic futuristic army guys and then pitting them against another person's little plastic futuristic army guys on a big-ass table that's been adorned with various models of terrain, buildings, ruins, etc. The first time I ever saw Warhammer 40k, or it's older brother Warhammer Fantasy Battles, played, I thought “There's no fuckin' way I'll ever play that. It's to complex, and the pieces cost to much.” I've really got to learn to stop saying “never” when it comes to games I'm willing to try. Years ago I was given a starter set for Warhammer Fantasy, which I was originally going to use the models out of as miniatures for Dungeons & Dragons. When I decided, after overcoming my addiction to World of Warcraft last year, that I wanted to get back into building models to have a hobby to take the place of WoW, I figured I might as well look into both versions of Warhammer, but I still wasn't sure I wanted to play the games themselves. Now I've got a decent, if smallish by comparison to other players, collection of Warhammer 40k models that I'm working on painting and that are built enough to be playable. So far I've played five games of 40k with a record of 0-2-3. I suppose that's a decent battle record for a newbie considering that I'm playing against guys that have played for years and not only know their army's abilities, but mine as well. So, I've made some mistakes tactically because of lack of knowledge of what my enemy can do to counter my plans, but hey, you live your learn right? At any rate, the modeling part of the hobby is a nice way to relax in the evening while listen to music or watching a movie/TV and the game itself is a pretty cool way to kill a few hours at the gaming store on my days off. It's also another motivational factor for wanting to stay in Atlanta, since I know that back home there isn't anyone who plays that I'd actually want to play against (I've seen the guys who play back home, and frankly, they're all kind of douche bags).

Show Me The Money!

All the social interaction aside, what I really came to Atlanta to do was try to find a job that would allow my fiancee of eight years and I to be able to really have a life together without having to live with family. Don't get me wrong, I love my fiancee's family, but really, it makes it really difficult for us to be a couple when having to live under her mom and dad's roof. So far, what I have found is a part time, minimum wage job at an office supply store. I could have stayed in Fayetteville, NC and done that, and had the pleasure of seeing my beloved everyday. I've had two other interviews for “real” jobs since October, one of which flatly told me that they didn't think I'd work out, the other (which was very recently) should lead to a $10 per hour fulltime temp-to-perm posisition. Now, that job is supposedly slated to begin on February 14, which is a week from tomorrow (at the time of this writing) and I still haven't heard one way or the other. Couple that with the fact that I have just about reached a point with my current store manager where I'm ready to tell him to go fuck himself and don't really care that he won't get the traditional two weeks notice, it's all becoming a little frustrating.

I now have a definite time frame that I have to move out of my friend's house by (May). It's not a money thing or a we're not getting along thing. It just simply that by the middle to end of May, there simply won't be a viable place for me to stay. So, while $10 per hour isn't super rich, it is enough, believe it or not, to afford a pretty decent apartment here in the Decatur area of Atlanta (I found one for $650 a month for two bedrooms/two bathrooms or $599 per month for two bedrooms/one bathroom). I really don't want to have to pack up and move back to North Carolina. As hard as it was to leave my fiancee and family to move down here, I think it would be harder to have to leave the friends I have here to go back home. In NC, there just aren't any jobs that are worth a damn, and I really don't have anyone to hang out with or activities I can do. I honestly feel like going back to NC would be like a wounded animal finding a place to lay down and die. Sorry if that sound morose, but honestly, here in GA I feel alive, while in NC I merely existed.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

As I mentioned before, I used to write a blog every Sunday morning. I miss that. There was something really therapeutic and cathartic about being up on a Sunday morning, enjoying a cup of coffee and some music and venting my frustrations or sharing my observations or newly acquired knowledge via the written word while the rest of the household was still asleep. I need to start doing that again. Who knows? Hopefully, I'll get to stay in Atlanta, which will make these blogs more informative and entertaining and less ranting and raving. Either way, I like to write. It's actually one of the things I miss about college. Yeah, I know; weird right? I actually liked writing papers for my classes. I even had one of my uncles, who is a professional journalist, tell me that I should have considered making writing an integral part of my ministry (back when I was actually planning on going into the ministry). That's a good thing right? When a professional writer tells you that you're writing is good enough to do that, it makes you feel pretty good. And so, I write this blog, just to make sure I don't forget how to write.

Until next time (which will hopefully be sooner this time),

~ JC

I Haven't Abandoned The Commentary

Just realized that it's been a couple of months since I've written anything. I haven't given up on the blog, I just haven't had much time to do any writing. So, soon... very soon, I'll start writing again. Atlanta has plenty of things to spark the creative process. I just need to gather all my ideas into something coherent.

~ JC

First Week in the ATL

Just so no one thinks I've abandoned Carlisle's Chaotic Corner, I figured I'd bestow on you my adventures thus far since my move from Fayetteville, NC to Atlanta, GA. First of all, I headed out of NC on October 3, arriving in Atlanta around 2pm. Not a bad drive, just long and boring as I-20 West has nothing much to look at but trees for miles and miles.

Upon arriving at my buddy's house where I'll be living for the next several weeks as I procure employment and my own apartment, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Sunday is one of two gaming nights. Thus, that evening I found myself immersed in rolling a new character in the role playing game known as Tribe 8, and being introduced a great bunch of fellow gamers with which I've become fast friends. Now, I had never even heard of Tribe 8 prior to that night, but so far I really enjoy it (I'm sure I'll be blogging more in depth in next couple of weeks).

The remainder of the first week was taken up with unpacking and setting up my computer (Monday), finding a Wachovia to deposit my final paycheck from the job I left in NC (Tuesday) and getting my bearings. Tuesday's trip to the bank also lead to discovering an OfficeDepot which was hiring, so I picked up an application and had interviews on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (they use a three interview process). Monday (October 11) I headed over to a place called Labcorp to do a pre-employment drug screening test, the results of which should be available by Wednesday (October 13). So, just like that, in less than two weeks, I've found a job down here – a process that was meeting with absolutely no headway back home (as in, not even so much as getting an interview from applications submitted). So far it looks like my decision to head into the dirty south was a wise one.

Since being down here I've also had the opportunity to play my first game of Warhammer 40k, start walking one to two miles a day to get my fat ass in shape, and generally just see a lot more opportunity for personal and career growth down here than where I was. All that's left is to find a good coffee shop near by, and I'll be set. The only downside is, I miss my fiancée terribly and wish she was here with me, but all in due time.

So, now that I've started getting a routine established, I'll get back to writing a weekly blog. As usual, it'll remain eclectic and chaotic in its very broad span of topics that never really seem to go together, but hey, I like writing and sometimes the process helps keep me sane.

Until next time,

~ JC

Flu Bugs, Painting Models, eBay, Smoke Juice, and General Mayhem

This week's blog is a pretty mixed up pile of commentary. It fits well the overall title of the blog actually. I've spent this entire past work week (Monday – Friday) at home with a lovely case of the Flu. Of course, this went over like a big lead balloon at work I'm sure. Not that there was a ton of stuff going on at work this week, what with the Independence Day weekend coming up and no shows going out, but there is/was a very large dealer order to be filled and I wasn't there to help with it. I spent the bulk of the week taking TheraFlu or NyQuil and sleeping. In between naps, I tried to keep folks abreast of my illness via Facebook and Twitter.

Prior to the week of sickness, I had attempted to start painting again in the form of Warhammer models. Being as that I could feel the sickness coming on even as early as Friday (6/26) and my nose kept running, it made painting rather challenging. I mean, try painting a 28mm detailed miniature while having to stop every few seconds to grab a Kleenex. To the left is an unpainted model next to the one I painted (a task that took me several days to complete because I didn't feel well enough until late Wednesday (6/30) to finish some of the details, hence the reason only one out of a few dozen has been painted). As you can see, I suck at painting. To give myself some credit, it's the first time I've painted anything like that in over ten years, so I actually did pretty good. Now I just have to nut up the gumption to try things like washes and dry brushing to bring out the minute details in the model. I never was all that good at either of those techniques, probably because when I was a thirteen year old D&D geek, I didn't even know those techniques existed. I always liked to look at pictures of completed models and miniatures and always wondered how they got them to look so vibrant. Well, now I know, I just need to learn how to do it myself. So, the one model I've painted is technically incomplete from a certain point of view – but I had fun painting it and I've got plenty more models in the one Warhammer boxed set I own to keep practicing on (it's not like I can't strip it and repaint it later after I get good at it).

Speaking of Warhammer, I'm afraid to admit that it's causing me to become somewhat of an eBay junkie. I'm not going overboard buying and bidding, but I do have about a dozen or more things that I'm watching at any given time. I've logged into my eBay account more in the last two weeks than in the last two years I think. Previously I was looking to rebuild my collection of role playing game books. Now I'm searching for deals on Warhammer 40,000 models. It's a good thing too, because I have to admit, the prices on eBay are tons less expensive than actually going through Games Workshop itself. Case in point, the “Space Wolves Battleforce” retails for $90 on GW's website, but I've found it for as little as $64 (or less) on eBay! Of course, I have to keep an eye on how much folks are charging for shipping else I'm right back to paying as much as I would from GW.

In other online ordering news, I finally decided to order some Johnson Creek Smoke Juice to try to refill my spent e-cigarette cartridges myself. Being as how most of my empties are menthol, and I really didn't want to find out what it would be like to mix flavors, I ordered a half ounce bottle of their Arctic Menthol smoke juice. At only about $10 (plus shipping) for a half ounce bottle, it's actually way cheaper than ordering the actual cartridges from Red Dragon which would run around $12 for four cartridges. The trick now is to figure out just how much to drip into the cartridges. To much, and it'll leak (and I'm sure that would taste just nasty) and to little would be like I never put anything in them at all. Of course, everyone else's opinion is that I should just quit smoking altogether. Naturally, that would be ideal, but until I can work on overcoming the nicotine addiction completely, I'll keep using the e-cigarettes as a way to reduce my actual smoking. Incidentally, for those of you who smoke – who do you find to be more obnoxious, those who have never smoked, and therefore have no idea how hard it is to quit, or those who have managed to quit and act all superior because they were able to and you haven't yet? Just curious.

In the general mayhem department, well, the flu causes just that. Being sick always sucks, but when it causes you to miss work when you get paid by the hour, it really sucks. When sickness means not even being able to read or write or paint or whatever else you enjoy doing, then it just makes the days you are sick seem that much longer because all you can do to pass the day is either sleep, or watch TV in a cold-medicine haze. Eating isn't enjoyable because you can't taste anything, and you feel like if you see another can of chicken noodle soup you're going to scream (which, of course, would hurt like hell because of the sore throat).

The other thing being sick slows me down on is job searching. I like my job – there's something about taking a shoulder of bull-hide and turning it into a bunch of quality belts or seeing it become a batch of gun holsters that's pretty cool. But it's not a career. With my fiancee actively searching for work in her field, now that she has her Master's degree, I also sort of need to have a job that would allow me to easily transfer. I've hesitated about filling out applications with places, like BestBuy for example, because of a slight sense of loyalty to my current employer (who's also my uncle by marriage) and also because of things coming up like Jury Duty that could interfere with things. Not to mention, I'm not really sure I want to go back into working retail again, but hey, that's what I know and what I'm good at; plus someplace like BestBuy could lead to experience in actual computer technician work while working on a degree and/or certifications in the Information Technology (IT) field at the same time. Anyway, I need to sort that out soon... very soon.

~ JC

Simply Simple

Ah, Sunday mornings. My blogging day. Roxanne's still asleep. The house is quiet. I've got my music going (softly-ish so it doesn't wake Roxanne). I am on my second cup of coffee. I have my e-cigarette so I can smoke at my desk instead of going outside. In the words of Ron White, “It's gonna be a good day, Tater.” Lately I have been thinking about all the technology we have access to, and more importantly the technology that I personally own. In fact, I was originally going to write a bit this morning about things like extensions for Google Chrome and apps for my Droid. But I think today is a better day to sit back and ponder the simpler things in life. I am definitely a techno-geek; I own gadgets, I read about gadgets I want to own and things that can make the ones I do run even better. The interesting thing is, sometimes I would rather put all that crap aside and just listen to some good music and read a book – a real book not an e-book. It just seems these days that everywhere you look something has an “e” or an “i” in front of its name. As much as I love my gadgets and having access to video games and digital music, sometimes you have to wonder if we've become to dependent upon it. I used to know how to spell, until spell checker. I used to be able to memorize phone numbers, until we had cellphones that could store hundreds of them for us. I actually have an e-book reader app on my MotoDroid, but I still can't bring myself to read a book using it – I guess I just love the feel and smell of the real thing to much. I keep saying that I need to spend more time at my favorite coffee-shop. That's an activity that used to occur a few times a week. Now, it's weeks between trips. I keep saying I want to start reading again like I used to (maybe a book a week but now it's more like a book a month or longer). It's technology's fault I say! The shiny, sparkly lights, the allure of the 3D images on the screen, the having to know what everyone is Facebooking or Twittering all the time lest I miss something [not really] important. We all just need to slow down. Enjoy simpler things, like a glass of sweet iced-tea, a cold beer, a good book, or sometimes just sitting in silence without all the beeping and blinking and flashing distracting us. So, today, I think that's what I'll do. A good book and a lovely beverage, maybe some music (ok, so music will mean I have to use a gadget, but in moderation) and make my Sunday the day of rest it is supposed to be.

~ JC

PS. In way of a disclaimer, I already know I have to potentially go do some errands/shopping later which will totally mess up my whole “day of rest” motif for the day. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do ;-)

Nothing Much To Say – Plenty to Think About

I don't know what I want to write about today. I have two topics all picked out, but I can't decide which one to write about first, plus both topics require a tidbit more research on my part before I start commenting all willy-nilly and looking foolish. So, this morning I'm just typing. Yep, just typing away until the writing gods strike me with a topic or topics to rant about, or comment on, or poke fun at or what have you.

This whole writing a blog a week thing is tougher than some of you might think, by the way. Especially for someone who's brain never seems to shut off. I think all the time; I can be working on one thing while having ideas for several other projects going on in my head. My fiancee tells me I need to stop “thinking so hard”, but it's not that easy really. I've had friends think I was upset or angry about something when in fact I was in a great mood; I was just thinking about something else that may have pissed me off in the past, and so my expression ends up showing it even if I'm not really feeling it. My fiancee also tells me that my lips move when I'm “thinking to hard”. I don't even notice it, but she can see it. All this is probably why I have two topics on hold for this blog and can't pick one – both of them are swimming in my head to the point that they're bumping into each other rather than making it to my fingers and therefore the computer screen.

The real problem with the thinking about several things at once issue is at night. I don't think I have sleep apnea, I have “sleep thinkea” - the inability to shut off all the ideas in my head so I can sleep. Interestingly, I never remember my dreams, probably because I thought about all of it while I was awake. In fact, I'll bet I don't dream when I'm asleep, because I've thought it all out already. You know, it just dawned on me that my teachers used to tell me to stop day dreaming when I was in grade school.

So, anyway, those blogs on role playing games and Windows 7 will have to wait until next week and the week after. My copy of Windows 7 has been ordered so once I get that installed and have experience with it, I'll shoot you guys a review. The gaming group is about to convert our D&D characters to Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game characters, so I'll be writing a blog about that process and my feelings on the “D20 System” versus the “Palladium System”. Until then, have fun, be young and drink Pepsi!

~ JC

This Blog is going to Suck

This one's going to suck. Yep, I'll admit it. Today I'm writing for “shits & giggles” with no topic, no direction, no plan. Just typing away for really no good reason. I started blogging a few years ago, eventually moving into a weekly format, then back to sporadic, and now trying to get back into a weekly format. The problem with trying to do a weekly format, especially when your blog has no central theme (it is called Chaotic Commentary after all), is picking a subject every week. There are thousands of blogs on the Internet. There are gaming blogs, technical blogs, political blogs, religious blogs, etc. I never wanted mine to become that specific. Ergo, I have tried to write about different things every week. Now, though, it seems like I am at a point where I may have to start repeating topics. I really did not want to end up doing that, but I suppose there are only so many topics out there that I am familiar enough with to be able to write about. I guess repeating subjects is not really a bad thing, I just do not want this to become stale. So for today, this blog sucks because it's about absolutely nothing. But I figure, if I do not write something, even something that sucks, I could lose the rhythm of writing and that would be worse than the risk of repeating myself. See you next week.

~ JC

A Note of Thanks

I started this blog in September of 2006. Alas, I didn't discover Google Analytics with which to track visits to the site until almost exactly two years later, in September 2008. However, from September 27, 2008 to December 31, 2009, Carlisle's Chaotic Commentary has had 964 visits from 885 people in 56 countries and territories. Sure, based on the bounce rate, a lot of those visits were very brief and probably accidental, but still, I never in my wildest dreams thought that my little blog would attract that many readers (or potential readers). I only started a blog to have a creative outlet to vent frustrations or to write about ideas. In fact, it wasn't until March 2008 that I attempted to write a blog at least once a week (a feat that lasted almost a year before I took a break for a few months as I was running out of ideas). Recently, I've tried to start writing more often, hopefully moving back into the weekly format of posting every Sunday (but I make no guarantees – I'm not going to write for writing's sake if I know I don't really have anything to say).

I would like to take a moment, now, however to thank everyone who has ever read Carlisle's Chaotic Commentary, and to especially thank those who have actually taken the time to leave their own comments. I suppose that's why writers write; so that someone will read it. Even though I never set out to have a blog that anyone other than myself and few friends might occasionally glance at, I've somehow manged to attract almost 1,000 readers from all around the world. So, I'll keep writing (when the mood hits or the topic really grinds my gears), you keep reading (if it's interesting enough) and we'll all be able to enjoy our Sunday morning coffee together.

~ JC

My Appologies

I realize I had promised a detailed review of the Motorola Droid for this week's blog. Alas, I was quite overcome by an extreme feeling of fatigue and spent the entire day in bed. In fact, I'm still feeling pretty icky. So, I will try to either have that for you next week, or I'll work on it throughout the week and get it posted asap.

~ JC

Your Hobby Sucks... but then again, so does mine

Everyone has a hobby, or at least something they enjoy doing when they are not working or sleeping. What is a hobby or pastime if not just a big time sink? I mean, let's think about this for a moment. There are twenty-four hours in day. Most of us work six to eight of those hours and sleep six-to-eight as well (for the sake of argument, we will go with the “normal” eight hour work day and eight hours of sleep per day). That leaves an extra eight hours to kill everyday. You have to fill that time with something (hopefully, bathing and eating are amongst those activities). So, the question remains, what to do with all that free time? Housework? Yardwork? Sure, those are things that need to be done, and on days that one doesn't have to be at work, there are even eight extra hours to be filled beyond the normal eight the other five days. So, people find ways to keep themselves busy or entertained to fill the void, right? The point is, no one really has the correct answer to this equation, but I would be willing to bet they think they do. Why? Because so many of us love to put down or criticize others who fill their free time with activities that we would not or do not enjoy, so therefore, their hobby must suck.

As a lifelong gaming geek who has enjoyed playing role playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons and the like for over twenty years, I have always had to catch hell from others who do not understand why I play/played such games. Now that we have moved into the age of the Internet and World Wide Web, those interests in RPGs has moved to into the realm of playing MMORGPs such as World of Warcraft and D&D Online. Now, I freely admit that I am a bit OCD at times and when I take up a hobby, be it a game or other activity, I tend to become immersed in it to the point of being almost evangelistic when speaking of it. So, I can kind of see where I would get on someone's nerves who is not interested in those activities. However, that does not mean that I am wrong for enjoying them does it? I ask because sometimes I find people that seem to think I am. I hear questions all the time like, “Why do you play [insert name of game here]? That game is stupid!” or “That is such a waste of time.” To the first statement I'll say, it is a free country and your are entitled to you opinion. To the second statement, yes, it is a waste of time; that's the point! I have eight extra hours to fill everyday, and anything I do outside of work or sleep can be categorized as a waste of time (you know, except for household chores and the aforementioned bathing and eating). I want to be clear on this so I'll use all caps, ALL HOBBIES ARE A WASTE OF TIME! Yep, I said it. I don't care what you choose as a hobby, it is nothing but a waste of time. That's the point. If we aren't working, sleeping or doing chores, we want, (dare I say, need) our other time to be wasted doing something other than staring at a wall being bored.

I guess what I'm getting at is this. In the gaming world, geeks can become quite vicious when talking about or defending their particular game. People who play WoW think that people who play other MMORPGs are stupid. People who used to play WoW and quit talk trash to and put down those who still play, and it goes on and on an on; just find any message board on gaming if you don't believe me. But even outside of the gaming community people can become quite petty about things. Persons A and B both like to read, for example. Person A likes to read trashy romance novels, while Person B prefers Science-Fiction. Now, neither of these genres serve any purpose other than to be entertaining. They aren't scholarly books that might teach the reader something about history or politics or science or any of hundreds of other topics. So they both want to know why the other one reads “that crap.” And of course, Person C comes along and wants to know why either of them waste their time reading “that crap” since he “doesn't waste my time reading fiction.” Then there are the people who do not even enjoy reading at all and wonder why all the “nerds” are reading when they could just be watching TV or going to a movie instead.

Maybe I'm just over sensitive because it seems that gaming geeks like me seem to catch the most shit from people who don't get why we play games. But the real point to this whole diatribe is, no one truly has the right to question anyone else's hobby or pastime. Just because you don't enjoy, doesn't make it invalid and just because you do enjoy it doesn't make it “better” than mine or anyone else's. So, STFU and go play your games, read your trashy romance novel, watch you reality TV shows, pimp your rides, or whatever else cremes your Twinkie. Just remember to eat and bathe (especially bathe; that one is a non-negotiable).

~ JC