Time to Play Catch-up!

Healthy Day Everyone!

It’s been awhile, but it’s time for a BIG post so I can fill you in on what’s gone down in the months following my return to DC.  Man, it’s been awhile, and being that I just completed a 1hr10min bike ride – most of which in heavy rain – I hope I’m up to typing all that’s in my mind at the moment.

Over the past month, I’ve been very actively looking for work here in the DC area.  My goal: submit my resume to at least five businesses daily, which should be pretty good to set me up for interviews.  So far, I’ve gotten a few responses and two interviews (one of which is this coming Friday), so at least I know I’m getting through whatever filters these companies are using for resumes.  That, and I must look damned attractive as well!  But alas, the first interview (it went down a few days after I updated my info) didn’t pan out, but that’s ok.  Given the state of this economy, it’ll be tough to land something, but I know I’ll be able to make it happen.  Plus, I am financially sound at the moment; many people have asked me if I’ve become bankrupt yet!  Fortunately, my money skills didn’t stay behind when I got my last corporate paycheck, so I am good.

Speaking of finances, one of the drains on my finances has been frequent trips to and from NYC.  By frequent, I mean almost weekly since I’ve been back in DC.  And $40 really does add up when you tally it all.  <sigh> Starting this week, I’ll be staying in DC for the long haul, which may even include the 4th of July!  In all likelihood I’ll be staying in DC for that as well – I mean come on – it’s the nation’s capital – they BETTER have some sweet fireworks to celebrate America!

Although I am spending time to submit my resume to various businesses, I still have a significant portion of my day unplanned, so what have I been doing with my time?  Well, the first few weeks have been spent simply gaming – hard. Being unemployed definitely made me realize how “little” time I’ve invested in the many games I’ve picked up in the last year or so.  Once I got settled in DC (again), I went to work, starting with Galactic Civilizations II, finishing up my 400+ turn campaign that I’ve already invested many weeks and months into.  Jumped to Fallout 3, where I started a new game (with over 40 mods implemented this time around), completed the main storyline in about 60 hours, and then played another 20 just trying to find everything and complete all the sidequests.  Then Burnout Paradise… ahh, yes!  Got my Elite License, started to compete online, and started to discover all the hidden things they have in the game – and there’s a LOT.  I tried getting back into GTA4 early in my time here, but after patching it, the game CTD whenever I attempted to load my savegame – a save where I’m over 50% complete!!!  FUCK THAT.  I haven’t touched GTA4 since and will patiently wait for yet another patch.  I also got sucked into Left 4 Dead, which I’ve been playing almost daily w/ John and sometimes Wu – if he came online as frequently as the two of us, that is.  They really want me to pick up Portal, so we’ll see what happens with that!

And that’s just PC games.

Needless to say, my Wii has gotten a LOT of attention as well, along with my older consoles, all of which are plugged into my projector.  And with my attending the latest Too Many Games convention in PA in May, I got a chance to rekindle my childhood with Battletoads and Zombies Ate My Neighbors.  Of course Mario, Zelda, Samus, and many other famous characters got their time with me as well.

Once that giant tsunami of gaming passed I was left with, again, a big portion of time free during the day.  What to do, what to do?  Almost surprisingly, I’ve started to work out daily, making a 10-mile bike run (at minimum) either in the morning or late afternoon.  Although the first few runs were pretty painful (my body was a bit rusty) I’ve gotten a groove going on that I now don’t want to stop.  Although I have my iPhone, I’ve decided to not purchase one of those arm wraps that allow me to listen to music while I ride.  Personally, I’d rather listen to my breathing, everything that’s happening around me, my increasing heart beats, and in a sense, listen to everything else my body is telling me, whether it’s “You can push harder – do it foo!!” to “Man, I’m dying here – stop it!”  I’ve been trying different routes around the DC area, increasing the range that I travel or at least travel to areas I’ve yet to even visit.  I’ve also started to document my bike routes using Google Maps, so here’s a link to the map I’ve made of my “Adams Morgan Bike Route“.  UPDATE: Here’s another link to yet another bike route I took a couple of days ago: “East Quadrant Bike Route“.  I’ll be adding more as time goes on, so I’ll be sure to post them here for easy access!

I’ve been making many extended trips to Wikipedia, which although it isn’t the best source to learn new things, it is certainly a start.  I’ve spent a lot of time there as well diving deeper into subjects I already have a strong base in while using the randomizer to kind of pick up matter from all over the place, especially areas that I normally wouldn’t check out.

I know there is more to this, but I am starting to get pretty tired, so I’m gonna call it for the time being.  Hopefully I can set aside more time to make entries like this (granted, they won’t be as long as this, I assure you), so just hit the RSS button up top so you don’t need to visit my blog daily to see if I posted anything new!  You’re welcome to do so, though.

Have a great day everyone!