Kitkowskiland!

Sorry to be all mysterious...

So my last post was all filled with metaphor. There is no Game Publishing Contract, etc, it was all a metaphor for the stress of applying for, interviewing for and getting word on a new job.

I got word on the new job. I got an offer on Wednesday afternoon, and the offer was Good. I'm leaving Cisco in just under two weeks, and joining up over at Network Appliance in three. That middle week will be for unwinding, study, home fixups and preparations for the upcoming work year. Maybe I'll hit La Therapie again and do the massage thing. I'll undoubtedly be spending that week coming up with a new living plan, making exercise a bigger part of my day.

New house, new job... Lots of changes, and fast.

Rafi, one of my best friends from Japan, came to visit last Monday (President's Day). Great time- I love seeing Rafi, he really knows a lot about... well... pretty much anything. But thanks to him I scored some decent wine, picked up some Mild Habanero sauce (yeah, seems like a contradiction in terms, but it's actually not) that doesn't set me on fire while it tastes great, and we got ot talk about all sorts of cool stuff. Come to think of it, there was something I wanted to write about the experience, but I can't for the life of me remember it.

Turns out that my garage and attic ceilings are not optimal for hanging my punching bags. So it comes back to buying a punching bag stand. I'll be doing that hopefully this week, calling around all the local Dick's Sporting Goods and seeing if, this time, the equipment they display on the floor is actually stuff that they have in stock. Last time I went to the one in Durham, it wasn't- On two counts. Great experience, it was like the Cheese Shop sketch from Monty Python but instead of cheese it was fitness equipment at Dick's. Add to the fact that they have this "Oh, no, we DO NOT sell our display equipment" policy, it's practically hilarious. It'd be more funny if I didn't want to pound their heads in after I borrowed a friend's car to buy stuff from Dick's at moderate trouble for both of us.

More waiting

Today is a Butsumetsu, tomorrow is a Taian. Take that for what you will.

On the issue of the Game Publishing Contract that I've been working on hard for the past two weeks or so (with the assistance of a friend, Jamie L), things sound really good. In fact, I just got a call today from my contact in the group that researches and interviews people for the Game Publishing Contracts, and she said:
1) She is new, so is getting used to the process of doing these Game Publishing Contracts.
2) That they passed my background info to the people who do research on those sorts of things.
3) And that when they are cleared, I will certainly hear back from them with an offer for my Game.

Hearing the stories from Jamie's side of things, it sounds like the manager at this particular branch at the Game Licensing Company is expecting my Game to arrive,a nd have already begun making preparations. Apparently my Game was one of a group of 8 out of several dozen chosen. Unfortunately, there is now a Freeze on Game Publishing Contracts, after which they plan on bringing in more Games.

I only hope that this background check stuff gets cleared asap, because I really want to Publish this Game. My only fear at this point is that there was some sort of hangup with the Freeze and the background check and all, which means that they won't be able to accept my Game for another month or two. We'll see, I guess. But knowing that they want my Game Publishing Contract is... well, i feel good. We'll see what happens.

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In other news, I'm being lazy. This weekend I work on Sunday (10 hours), but I plan on finally updating the Mugen no Jyuunin website (HERE), and getting some game writing done. Maybe clean up a website or two.

Lazy Week...

Couple of thoughts going around:

3 of a huge set of dining chairs that I've had since I was a kid have broken in the past year. Time to get some New Chairs. Ikea fits into the big overall plan somehow, dunno how yet but we will see.

Orie and I have set our sights on getting a new mattress. Like how everyone swears to Firefly (the DVD set) after watching it once through, so does everyone swear to the Tempurpedic 10-inch mattress. 20 year warrantee and fitfull sleep, promises of never needing another mattress ever... sounds almost worth the near 3K it would cost to pick one up. If they have a monthly payment plan, we'll probably pick one up. If they require a one-time payment... well, we'll see how big my raise is this year at Cisco/STS.

There were also thoughts regarding perhaps a new or used Toyota Echo. I love this car. I wish the Toyota Echo was blueberry syrup, because I would rub it all over my body.

This week, Orie and I began watching the 7th and crappiest season of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer on DVD. Only 2 episodes left. Nathon Filton(sp?) from Firefly makes a convincing psychopathic serial-killer priest.

This Thursday I run my first game of The Shadow of Yesterday. Which, incidentally, is entirely free and available online. I made up the characters, now gotta come up with the adventure.

Down to 115/116 these days. 7 pounds in about 5 weeks. Thing is, I'm hardly trying. I really need to do more. Wake up early and go jogging, do some DDR, etc.

The Wait is killing me. I am told that I will hear about Certain Things this week. I should receive something in the mail. I'm hoping this particular thing surfaces soon.

Been enjoying the workplace a lot more recently. I've got some heavy personal work goals to meet in the next 2 weeks, and a complete process change that I'm starting myself for the tool that I support. If things don't fall in line they're gonna get... well, REALLY MESSY in the next two weeks.

In lighter news, I reversed my ping-pong paddle grip again, going back to Chinese-style. Turns out that on sucky paddles, I'm far better with the regular grip, on the better paddles I have far more success Chinese style.

I am such a geek. But it makes the work day so much more fun, playing pickup games against Mike, Bryan, Leo, Arial, and the crazy Indian bald guy on the floor below me that seems to be able to create ping pong balls out of thin air, which then get slammed all over my side of the table.

Funky News

Good stuff happening. If you're in the know, then yeah. If you're not in the know, feel free to ask.

Should have more info here in approx 3-5 business days.

Unfortunately, this Good News means that other personal projects (RPGs, Translation of everything other than Tenra Bansho) will totally take a hit in the next few months. We'll see what happens.

-Andy

A Week Off...

Sigh. Sounds like lots of things changed at work, and not really for the better. Like, at all. Almost. But hey, after taking my first week off in like two years, doing nothing but... well, getting my house together (which is admittedly a lot), play games on the PS2, and read some books... and especially having the time to sit back and take in what it all means... well, it's weird. I'm not afriad. Maybe a little disappointed with changes at work, and perhaps a little pissed at the way it was handled... but I'm not afraid. I think having a Game Plan makes the fear go away. Stress, sure, a little- but all change is stress. More on that as it unfolds.

Getting the house together, will have more on that later including pics. It's been so cold out that I haven't had a chance to sit on the porch and look at the stars, or even see if stars can even be seen from my place (it's kinda bright nearby, and much of the light pollution takes away from the night sky, I think.

Last Wednesday, I went into La Therapie for my once-in-a-long-while "Relaxation Massage" for 90 minutes. I see Elizabeth, because she's homely (just had a kid too), down to earth, and not "perky" like some of the other staff. Very skilled with all sorts of stuff. Anyway, I knew that I was having a little bit of shoulder and upper back stiffness, but the instant she put her hands on my back she was like, "WOAH, your upper back is STIFF!!!" So she worked out some kinks, taught me some techniques to stop that, etc. I didn't realize it, but all the time, especially when I type, I raise my shoulders up a little. All the time. Turns out it's unnatural, and it's probably one of the factors that is whirling around this whol shoulder/neck/jaw/TMJ/jaw problem issue that I'm going through now. No big deal though, now that I'm conscious of it I can deal.

Got a picture of my nephew Rikku who is now one year old:

Never met him myself, but still it's a little weird being an "uncle". I hope he doesn't cry too much the first time that he sees his Gaijin uncle...

Anyway, just went to and came back from DC. Had a great time visiting Nikolai and all. Heard lots of good music, including some new Laibach which I sucked onto the firewire drive I brougth down to his place. His band has exploded and reformed, stronger than before. The Dionysus Project is dead for now, and he and the drummer have started Sextus V, an experimental music group: www.sixtusv.com I heard some of the digs, VERY cool. I just realized I didn't take any pictures. Oh well.

Had a very relaxed, light weekend, went to the Smithsonian Art Museum to see the Rembrant exhibit (me) and some French impressionism (Orie). Had a blast, bought a print of one of the four "journeys of life" series paintings by Cole, Adulthood. It pretty much summarizes how I've been feeling lately. It's going up in my cube, where I can stare at it every day.

Got another email from my buddy Mike Stanislowsky from back in NJ, from way back in the days of Scouts. Lately we've been emailing, keeping in touch, seeing what each other have been up to, etc. Mike was in the peace corps for a few years in Eastern Europe, he went to Seattle for a little to finish up a degree (Masters? I forget), and now he just arrived in Afghanistan with the CARE group:

(Mike is the one on the far Right side)

"so as you can all imagine, life here is bit strange. there is a very large military presence and there are many private guards with lots of AK 47's (thanks Bulgaria).....intimidating a'bit. with that said, all the afghans i have met are very friendly and helpful. they are of course curious as to why i am here and who i am and are full of invasive questions about my sisters and my "wives", but all in good faith."

Also, on the way back from Nikolai's, we stopped at IKEA after getting lost in that area about 10 times (asking for directions three times. All of them were foreigners, the Russian guy's directions were barely intelligible, the Thai lady didn't know where it was, but finally the Pakistani dude hooked me up). We bought a TV stand and some pots, and found some incredibly excellent couches which we will one day maybe get. We also resolved ourselves, after resting on Nikolai's guest bed (which was actually my childhood bed, by a twist of fate too long to get into here) and having a relaxing, fitful sleep we've decided we definitely need a new mattress. So many things to buy... Well, not so many, more like A Few. But those few are expensive, pivotal items...

On the way back home, I dove into the Project Management/PMP books that he lent me. I've been interested in going for PMP certification for a while now (not just to have the cert, but to actually get the skillz to allocate for the billz), but recently I've been actually pushing forward with that. As I was reading these books over the bumpy ride on I-85 back, I just could not stop reading. This stuff is incredible, it's like being granted a vocabulary to express everything you see going on around you at work. I'm loving it, I haven't been this excited to study (anything other than Japanese) since Sociology back in college (which, too, gave me another vocabulary). I'm currently figuring out The Plan, how I will Exercise every day, Study Japanese every day, study for CCNA every day, and then following CCNA with learning Project Management. I'll have to sleep later and wake up earlier (which can be done easier if we nail a good mattress), and cut out some more extraneous crap, but I'm pretty confident at this point that I can manage it all. I'm really excited to begin applying some of this PM stuff I've started to pick up to my Tenra RPG Project. We'll see.

We'll see. Bed in two hours, up at 7:00, and exercise!!! Maybe. :-)