Day 1

Justin and I are currently chilling at our hotel after visiting Penny Arcade Expo East.

Some highlights of the event thus far:

1. We failed to get into Wil Wheaton’s PAX keynote.  I was horribly depressed; however after we went and walked around for a bit we came back to the VIP signing area just as people were queuing up.  I got in line for Wil Wheaton, and while waiting Justin held onto my place in line and I went over and bought a CD from Jonathan Coulton and got it signed.  I was then able to run back to the Wil Wheaton line in time.  I’ve bought three of Wil’s books in audio form and as a result didn’t have anything physical for him to sign.  I brought my D&D 4th Edition Players handbook for Wil to sign and he was happy to, writing “Roll 20’s.”  I told Wil that I really enjoyed his writing, that I used to write a lot in high school and college and his writing wanted to make me get back into writing.  He responded in a very positive voice “You should!”
2. Qdoba food is absolutely delicious when you haven’t eaten for six hours.
3. I have to say it was great seeing so many different types/classes of geeks in their element.  I have to really hand it to Gabe and Tycho, they have created the perfect event for geeks of all kinds to mingle and be themselves.  I know that the internet has made it possible for geeks to understand that they aren’t alone in their school/town/workplace/whatever, but it’s another thing entirely to be in the same place as 15,000 geeks.
4. We enjoyed a great panel discussion on the nature of geek parenting, and one of the guys who asked a question was this guy:
5. Enjoyed dinner at Jerry Remy’s restaurant on Boylston St., where I was happy to discover that they serve Dogfish Head on tap and Justin ate a burger the size of his head.

So far it’s been an amazing event and it’s only the first evening.

Day 2

We got to the Hynes relatively early, enjoying the slightly-warmer-than-yesterday weather.  We arrived too late to get wristbands for that evening’s concert, which was disappointing but I was more accepting than yesterday about the fact that we weren’t destined to see everything.

Saturday was Friends Day for Justin and I.  We met up with Juan (future contributor here on LGOD), his kids, and Tom and Tracy Marston.  We then wandered around the Expo Hall for a while, checking out in more detail the stuff we had breezed by on Friday.  Some product highlights will be detailed in separate posts here, but some highlights for me:

1. Antec showed off some gorgeous cases, including a fully modular one that (gasp!) enables you to have the motherboard on the right OR left side of the case.  I feel embarrassed about the fact that I find this simple fact so utterly amazing.
2. Much like CES, 3D was the name of the game here with many vendors showing off 3D technology.  I was pleasantly surprised at how mature the technology appears to be.
3. GeekChic was there with their gaming tables (as mentioned in PvP).  Gorgeous furniture.
4. Skate3 had probably the best demo participation of the event: participate in a contest to get the high score on a bone-breaking competition and win a skate deck.
5. Wizards of the Coast had a fun demo area where you could walk through a simple D&D encounter with a basic character sheet.

We broke for lunch at which point I realized I hadn’t taken my pills for the day, so I walked back to the hotel and got back just in time to get in line for the Rooster Teeth panel.  Highlights of that panel

1. A live-action video short where the Rooster Teeth guys drive a truck third-person-perspective style (hopefully it will get released so I can link it up rather than try to explain it.
2. The debut of the new season of Red vs. Blue: Revelation.
3. Announcement that Monty Oum of Haloid fame was joining the Rooster Teeth team.

Wow, could we take any more?  But yes!

We had a delicious dinner at PF Changs, where Justin and I talked with the Marstons about getting a D&D campaign going.  Everyone seemed excited about the prospect, so I decided to head back to the con after dinner to see if I could buy a DM guide.  We passed the Main Hall where the concert was getting set up to find out it was wide open.  We guess that after the wristbands ran out in the morning everyone decided they wouldn’t bother trying to get into the show, and thus there was plenty of space.

Highlights of the evening concert:

1. Video Games Orchestra were very talented and had some great arrangements of classic video game themes.  I was surprised they didn’t feature the Halo theme, perhaps it’s copyrighted.  They were asked to play an encore and didn’t have anything prepared.
2. Paul and Storm were utterly hilarious.  I had heard plenty about them through Jonathan Coulton but had never heard any of their music before.
3. Jonathan Coulton wrapped up the evening with some fantastic music.  Highlight for me was his take on Mr. Fancypants using a Zen drum:

I am worried for Mom’s state of mind – she at one time stated to me that when she lost her leg her greatest fear was dying a piece at a time.  Towards the end of her hospital stay she developed a pressure sore on her stump and both her and Dad were paniced about the possibility of it turning necrotic.  I also feel a very familiar guilt that I have been feeling ever since Mom went into the hospital – that if I were living in Toronto I would be able to be a significant force in Mom and Dad’s life and make their lives easier.  I feel like they gave everything raising me to be the person that I am, and now that they need help I am unable to, or afraid of, giving equally.  I don’t want to confront the reality of their situation head-on; I’d much rather just band-aid the situation and go back to enjoying my own life instead of worrying about theirs.  Meredith tells me that I am doing what I can but I feel like I am too self-centered and could be doing a lot more.

I remember when my Mom was a little older than me and my grandmother was in nursing care my Mom would call my grandmother every day, take her to all her doctor’s appointments, and basically ensure that she got the best possible care in her life.  Is that because my grandmother didn’t have her husband (my grandfather) to look after her?  Was it because at that point my mom and dad had been married for quite some time and were focused more on the day-to-day of living their lives instead of doing the entertainment type of stuff that Meredith and I are doing now because we are newlyweds?  I contrast that with my Dad’s Dad, who basically lived alone and my Dad called him maybe once a month and my grandfather was on his own pretty much right up until the end of his life.

I am also struggling with what I can do.  Part of me wants to sweep in and wave a magic wand and “fix” everything, but I don’t have the money or time to do that.  I also am trying to be conscious of my Mom and Dad being adults and the fact that they don’t need their kid bossing them around.  I feel as well that my parents want me to live my own life and not worry about them, probably because were roles reversed that’s the way I would feel.  Part of me as well is lazy and wants to bury my head in the sand and hope it all goes away (for the better) without any intervention from me.  Most of all I am just sitting here on a Sunday night with the wheels spinning in my head when in reality there isn’t anything I can do right now anyway.

There are some direct actions I should probably take.  I need to figure out some way I can help Mom and Dad out without trying to swoop in on them.  I am wondering if some private nursing/care organization is necessary because Dad seems frustrated with the care that the hospital has provided up this point.  In the back of my mind I have the work that I feel needs to get done around their house too.  I think that I need to see about getting some kind of counseling as well, because I feel like my emotions around living in the United States and being far away from my parents are clouding my ability to make correct decisions about what is appropriate to do in this situation.
It’s at times like this when I feel at a complete loss that I am envious of people who seem to be able to roll with whatever life throws at them, and who have planned things out so that if they need to spend a significant amount of money, or take a significant amount of time off work, that they are able to do so at the drop of a hat.

I really wish I could be as good to my parents as they have been to me.

I am hoping to spend 2010 recapturing some of the creative activities that used to occupy a good portion of my life. I am not going to make any promises but my hope is to at least start making strides pretty soon in this area.

This is one of the times when I feel a little far from home – there are very few people I can talk with who will understand the impact of this.  My memories of Martin are of his comedic contributions to various shows and running various countdown shows.  He always struck me as a great guy that I would have loved spending time with.

Another CFNY legend, Alan Cross, pays tribute to Martin in the article below.

ExploreMusic – News – Martin Streek: This Charming Man.

7:03 a.m.:Getting ready for day 2. Feeling a little drained right now but will feel better after breakfast and stretching.

8:00 a.m.: Ready to hit the road.

10:02 a.m.: 22 miles so far. Feeling it, but I feel like I have enough in the tank. (Worst hill of the day and ride was at 10 miles.)

11:37 a.m.: 36 miles – lunch break. May need butt replacement surgery when this is done. (Curious as to why a tiny Verizon C.O. was the lunch area.  Bikes and people everywhere.  Local traffic must have hated us.)

1:12 p.m.: “Tell me where it doesn’t hurt!” “Here” (Raiders of the Lost Ark reference. 50 miles.  Everything is killing me at this point.)

2:19 p.m.: Nine miles to go and feeling strong! (Dropped into racing position and suddenly most of the pain was gone.)

3:14 p.m.:Ride complete – 150 miles over two days. Thank you everyone for your support!

5:53 a.m.: Wow it’s early. Need coffee.

8:00 a.m. Ride starts

11:18 a.m.: 38 miles complete so far. Still somewhat energetic.

1:28 p.m.: 52 miles down, 31 to go. (Lunch) Feeling my age.

2:31 p.m.: 62 miles down 21 to go.

3:49 p.m.: Current mood – surly. (76 miles in, following a leg-busting climb).

Approximately 4:30 p.m. Day 1 complete, 83.6 miles.

If you look at it one way, I do have a bunch of (partially) valid excuses:

• My mom has been hospitalized since March and I’ve had to take some time to travel to Toronto to help my Dad out
• Every weekend when I should have been out riding I had all these social plans
• Work has been crazy and I’ve had to cancel some of my mid-day rides
• On some of my longer rides, one of my knees was giving me some serious pain

And just when I was starting to get a nice head of progress going and do some good distance rides, I got a cold. A chest cold – meaning that walking up the stairs was an exertion, let alone getting on the bike.  I was so irritated this weekend because the weather was gorgeous and all I wanted to do was get out there in the warm June sunshine and put 40-60 miles under me.

Last night I got extremely frustrated at the amount of riding I’ve done during this training season.  My vision had been rides every day of the week, short distances during work days and nice long rides during the weekends.  The results have been less than stellar, however – I figure I am probably 300 miles shy of where I wanted to be.  I questioned whether I would actually be able to complete the MS150 based on the amount of training I could do between now and the event.  In talking with Meredith about it last night, she talked me through what I was feeling and thinking.

In spite of my lack of confidence, I have to say with all seriousness that quitting was not an option.  I feel like quitting would let down not only everyone who believed in me, but more importantly would be letting down people with MS, the reason why I am riding to begin with.

At the end of the day, as much as I enjoy the training, enjoy the kind words and the encouragement I get, I don’t do this because of me or because of any honors or accolades I could get.  To tell the honest truth, if it wasn’t for the MS150 and the people suffering from MS that I am raising money for, I doubt I would have ever travelled more than 20 miles on a bike at any time.

I was thinking that as crappy as the rides can get, as much as my joints and back may hurt, as much as my thighs may feel like two concrete posts after a 70 miler, that at the end of the day this is something I choose to do.  People with MS don’t get to choose what they have to endure.  They can’t walk away from it.  They can’t make up an excuse.  They can’t wake up and say “You know what?  I don’t think I’m going to have MS today.”  And it may be corny but that’s why I ride.

I did 22 miles on the bike today and I’m doing 150 miles June 27-28, no matter what.

Ranadivé was puzzled by the way Americans played basketball. He is from Mumbai. He grew up with cricket and soccer. He would never forget the first time he saw a basketball game. He thought it was mindless. Team A would score and then immediately retreat to its own end of the court. Team B would inbound the ball and dribble it into Team A’s end, where Team A was patiently waiting. Then the process would reverse itself. A basketball court was ninety-four feet long. But most of the time a team defended only about twenty-four feet of that, conceding the other seventy feet. Occasionally, teams would play a full-court press—that is, they would contest their opponent’s attempt to advance the ball up the court. But they would do it for only a few minutes at a time. It was as if there were a kind of conspiracy in the basketball world about the way the game ought to be played, and Ranadivé thought that that conspiracy had the effect of widening the gap between good teams and weak teams. Good teams, after all, had players who were tall and could dribble and shoot well; they could crisply execute their carefully prepared plays in their opponent’s end. Why, then, did weak teams play in a way that made it easy for good teams to do the very things that made them so good?

The story goes on to explore the classic David and Goliath story, as well as T.E. Lawrence’s strategies in Arabia, Rick Pitino’s coaching strategies, as well as a war games participant who frustrates his opponents by making his theoretical fleet out of thousands of little PT boats instead of battleships.

Annals of Innovation: How David Beats Goliath: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker.

I enjoy reading people like Gladwell because I enjoy how they challenge conventional thinking.  I regularly see people trying to solve problems by trying to pound square pegs into round holes because pounding square pegs is all they are experienced at doing.  I always try to take a step back from my situations and employ a more global approach to my work, even when the best solution involves admitting I was doing the wrong thing before.

2007 Domaine De La Garrigue Cotes Du Rhone Cuvee Romaine

2006 Keesha Pinot Noir

2006 Sierra Salinas Mo (Yecla, Spanish Table Wine)

2007 Green Groves Zinfandel

2006 Quiteria Loma Gorda (Almansa, Spanish Table Wine)

2007 Paso A Paso Tinto (Tempranillo)

2004 Mas De La Barben Les Calices (Languedoc)

2006 Bodegas Norton Reserve Malbec

2007 Bodegas Goulart Malbec Classic

Venturini Baldini Lambrusco

2004 Jt Cellars Syrah

2004 Thunder Napa Red