Vail Life

And Slacker Was His Name

So yeah, no update here since my birthday. But hey, I have given you comics each Friday and a new photoblog under Misc. Go check it out if you have not seen it yet.

So the life update: Umm ... (cough) ... ok not much has happened since my birthday.

Shortly after I posted my last blog my backup machine I use went down for about two days before I got it restarted. This is on top of my "super" machine that I dumped $3,000 and 6 months in to that I never got working. The second day I could not get my backup PC back up I jumped on my laptop and ordered a new machine. That was on the 8th. Tiger Direct has at least one of the components backordered and so my order for my new machine is in "building" status. When I ordered it the site said it would be 3-5 days build time and I did one-day shipping on it. So my machine that should have reached me by the end of the week is now approaching one month of waiting for it.

Thankfully my backup PC started working again but it will not run World of Warcraft anymore. The machine just reboots each time I connect. So I have been playing a lot of Dungeon Siege II. I am about 3/4 of the way done with the game. Hopefully my new box will get here before 2/28/06 which is when Dungeons and Dragons: Online is supposed to be released. It is for that game that I have really wanted this new box.

Adding to my computer woes my laptop's power cord is shorting out. At least I hope it is the cord and not the power connector on the actual machine. So I have spent another $65 dollars to order a new power cord.

I finally got my bonus from work this month. My bonus was a little smaller then I was expecting but still nice. I promised almost all of it to my parents to pay off part of my down payment loan from them. I am holding on to it until I see what my taxes or tax return are so I don't get hit with some big bill or something strange I wasn't suspecting.

Other then that home life has been pretty tame. Since Vegas I have just been doing a lot of sleeping and being lazy.

Posted by Coign at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments

Main Entry: im·mor·tal·i·ty
Pronunciation: "i-"mor-'ta-l&-tE
Function: noun
: the quality or state of being immortal : a : unending existence b : lasting fame


I am not one to celebrate birthdays. And the fact that I am turning 30 today makes me less inclined to want to promote that day. But it makes others happy to make fun of me getting old so I let them.

Kat is sad that I made plans without her tonight. It is not that I am planning to go out or anything. My plans are to play D&D tonight. And is not that I am trying to exclude her, I have been trying to get her to play D&D with us since we started gaming again.

I just really don't like to celebrate birthdays. Every year during the holidays all I can think about is where I had planned to be with my life and realize that I have achieved about 1/3 of my goals.

Ever since I was a little tyke I have wanted to make a difference in this world. If I can not live forever I at least wanted to be remembered forever. Or at least I want to be remembered longer then one generation. It was my original intention to be the first person to create true, feeling, thinking, artificial intelligence. The person who does that will be as famous as Edison and the light bulb.

Well I did not have the scholastic aptitude to stay in college and get my degree in Computer Programming/Sciences. As far as I made it was to Network Admin. And as us network admin's know, it does not take much schooling to do our job. What you have to be good at is research and creative problem solving. I do not know a lot, but I am really good at finding answers. And my job is so varied and covers so many issues that is where a network admin excels at.

So I am not going to be famous for my work. My next idea of gaining immortality would be power, either financial or political.

The financial method would be to do so via my job. I would like to grow this job into a management position and work my way through the corporate ladder to be the CTO of some large company. I am on a path that might possibly lead that direction. I have added 'Senior' to my job title and our company structure puts me in a department branch all by myself. But it is tough to prove your manager ability when you work for a company that is too small to have more then one IT guy. So I don't know if I will reach my financial dream with this company or ever.

As for the political path, this is a thought I have toyed around with for some time since moving to Vail. I have thought about the possibility of moving into politics. My thought is to start small. I am most likely going to become a board member of my HOA and have already started discussions with the current board about joining their ranks. This will start getting me involved more with the community.

From there I jump to the city council. Being on the city council here in Avon or Vail is different then being on the council of other small towns in Colorado. The local paper, Vail Daily, is read in Denver. The money that lives and owns second homes in Vail is quite a bit and so people around the state take notice of who is running the place. Hell, we have former president and first lady Gerald and Betty Ford living here.

From city council that can get me into political hob-knobbing to make a path to state or congressional government.

Again this is all pipe dreams and although I look at taking the first baby-steps of joining my HOA board, the realist in me says that is as far as I will go.

My final path of immortality would be to have children. It may not grant me everlasting fame but at least I would be remembered for a couple of generations. In my experience past the third generation you are forgotten. I could not tell you any of my great-grandparents names. I do know that they were all immigrants except one of the 8 so I am only a 3rd generation American. But beyond that they are forgotten to history.

These are the thoughts that run through my head starting with the first Christmas decorations each year. And those show up earlier every season. So when you see me not as shiny every Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and past my birthday of January 6th, it is because I am pondering how soon will my life be forgotten.

Posted by Coign at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments

Wow, it has been almost a month since I have posted here. I better dropped some notes on what I have been up to.

First off, I have been keeping up with the comic pretty well so I am proud of myself for that. So please excuse me while I give myself a pat on the back.

OK, now to what has happened in the past month.

The week of the 12th through the 16th I was back in Minnesota. The flight was uneventful, really empty plane even. Got there and the weather was pretty good. Temperatures were about 20 degrees and it snowed a lot. That was better then Vail as it was dropping to the below zero mark a couple of times while I was gone.

But the trip was almost completely during the week and that meant all my friends were working most of the time I was there. I spent a lot of time on my parents couch sleeping and waiting for updates to download across their dial-up while I was there.

After doing Christmas and birthday there I flew home. Nothing special.

Then began the Christmas and News Years parties back in Vail. It was the same as last year. Lots of friends and fun and pretty laid back. My girlfriend returned from her Christmas with her family in Denver early enough to join me for the big Christmas dinner at the James and so that was nice.

For New Years my girlfriend had some friends come up from Denver and I held a party at my house. The day after we all woke up and went snowboarding all hung over. It was again pretty good but I will most likely forget all the details in about 3 months. Nothing really memorable happened.

I bought my tickets to Vegas yesterday and it will be Me, Watcher, IdFungus, Kat and Id's wife all going. We leave the 14th and come back the 17th this month. I am looking forward to that.

It is my birthday in 2 days. I turn 30. That sucks.

Kat wanted me to spend my birthday with her and is a little sad that I am going to be spending it playing D&D with my friends instead. I am just not one for celebrating birthdays and having a 30th birthday is not making it any easier. I told her that I can spend some time this weekend with her but I am just not looking forward to it.

But I just got a server error in my e-mail alerts, I better get back to work.

Posted by Coign at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments