Life of Wade

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2010-03-10T11:11:00.001-07:00

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How lucky can one guy be?

2010-02-18T01:51:00.002-07:00

Several years ago, I had the privilege, along with 999 other gamers, to test out Blizzards 'Battle.net' as one of 1000 Beta testers... what an Awesomely fun experience that was... it was in conjunction with the release of 'Diablo' and I had a freaking blast!

Now, along time past, and I get the chance to Beta Test the new StarCraft II and the Battle.net 'revised' they are going to release with it. Oh what fun!

how lucky can one guy be?

here is the message I just read... I'm about to click play for the first time, but figured I'd make a post just before this momentous occasion. :-P

The quote:

"Welcome to the StarCraft II Beta Test!
You are among the first in the world to try out the next generation of Battle.net and participate in the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty beta test. Your feedback is an important part of this beta. Please let us know what you think by pressing the “Feedback” button within Battle.net to send us any comments, feedback, or suggestions on StarCraft II or the new Battle.net service."

and now... I press Play. :-P

McCall Idaho - Winterfest 2010 pictures

2010-02-16T18:24:00.002-07:00

I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with my Brother n Sister and their respective families, I had a blast and had fun takin snap shot's and some short videos of the kids and the event. I posted them to Flickr, and will embed the slide show here on my blog... anyone catching this on Face Book will have to follow this link to Flickr it'self, as for some reason, the embedded HTML slide show doesn't work on face book.

Thanks n Enjoy - it sure was fun!!

Here is the direct link for the facebookers:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wadehone/sets/72157623317351257/show/with/4360782680/

Some Christmas 2009 Photos and Vids

2010-01-17T13:39:00.002-07:00

if your reading this on face book... you can go to:
Wade's Blog
to see the photo slides on the blog - or head to flickr from the link below.

I just got done uploading to youtube another video of Lance and Blaine performing a song that lance had written and I was going to send out an e-mail to family that might be interested in watching it, when I got to thinking about some of the other videos I had and how they might like to see them...

I figured that a blog post with all the stuff gathered up in one place, and an e-mail with a link to the blog would be a better way to go. so... here ya go, these are some links to YouTube Videos, and the Flicker Slide show that has our Christmas pictures on it for 2009.

Here are the pictures:

Christmas at the Hones 2009

Next are the Videos on You Tube... I added the links first in case the embedded video doesn't work for you - you can just click the links then.

Enjoy --

Here is Lance and Blaine doing a song that Lance wrote a while back called "Good Advice" :

Good advice, from Christmas 2009"

and here is Kamber playing a Medley that she prepared for Grandma Eva:

Kaber Bishop - Christmas Medley 2009

Last but not least, is another Guitar piece that Lance and Blaine did for the Christmas program that we have on Christmas Eve: "Christmas at Home"

Christmas at Home - 2009

Campout Aug 1 2009, - 'best of' pics.

2009-08-17T19:10:00.026-06:00

I changed my Blog format, to this layout, so I can display pictures a bit larger... .

I think I posted a link to the slide show of these pictures in a former post... but there are like 140 pictures, many of them of various weeds I thought looked 'interesting' at the moment... and with a digital camera, there's no need to be frugal snap snap snapping away.

These 25, are some of the better shots that I liked. There are a few more in the bunch that were pretty good and they'll be up on Flickr still, but I figured I'd distill the bunch down to a 'consumable' size heh. Feel free to click these to make them bigger.

----- the pictures -----

interesting close up... from far away.

2009-08-14T09:39:00.001-06:00

DSC_1341, originally uploaded by Zachary Wolf.

I just thought this was a cool shot, of a thistle from up in the mountains. The thing is, I didn't take my 'normal' lens that does a much better job of shots like this, so all I had was my 55-200.

I was surprised that it turned out as good as it did, seeing as how I took it from about 6 feet away heh. The background is all blurred out, but what ever bush / light patch that was behind it did a nice job of highlighting the flower I thought.

anyway, I just wanted to post this one up here, there is one or two more shots I thought turned out pretty nice from that trip... oh, in addition to the 70 billion I took of my nephew and niece who are adorable.

here's a link to the slide show - I know I need to 'cull' through a bunch of the boring 'bushes' and such, that were interesting at the time, but lose some of their appeal when placed in a slide show with several similar shots heh.

anyway, this is the link to the flickr set:

Sceens from my 'commute' - heh.

2009-08-12T22:47:00.005-06:00

I like a lot of things about my "job" I work for a family owned Business, and sell asphalt maintenance products. heh, I know it seems quite a ways off from the Tech Industry which I have a natural affinity for, but I get to work with Family - talk to them most every day, and it's fun to feel like your building something that is a benefit to some people that you love.

In addition to those things, I get to take some amazing drives through some great country. I headed out to McCammon Idaho earlier this week, to measure up a drive way for an estimate. (here's the drive way heh,)

You find little roads like these:

Patriotism is alive and strong in South Eastern Idaho.

The Farm Sceens are great:

Here is a Panoramic shot from right off the road I was on: (click on it to get the larger effect.)

Anyway, the great views as I drive along sure make the time fly, and really make that part of the job enjoyable and stress free, gotta love that. heh, no Virus Confrence calls at 2 AM is kind of nice for a change of pace. :-P

WAde -out.

Getting to know each other:

2009-07-30T23:48:00.002-06:00

Since my Blog auto posts to Face Book Notes, I figured I'd do this 'Face Book' activity here... (I may not be able to do the 'tagging' thing, so just consider yourself invited to share if you so desire, leave a comment here (or tag me if you can,) and I'll go read yours.

thanks,

(original post is found on the 'life of Wade' Blog: ( http://life.wadehone.com )

---- Here is the activity ---

keep in mind that when posting to the internet, your giving your demographics away for free folks! I'm not discouraging this, but we certainly do give Face Book an awe full lot of good marketing data don't we? just something to think on.

----- ------
Getting to know each other!

If you've been tagged or you are reading this, you have the honor of copying all these goofy questions, writing your own response, and tagging 25 other victims. You have to tag me so really you just need 24 more people. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you - but not in a creepy stalker kind of way.

To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your title as "Getting to know each other!", tag 25 people including me (tagging is done in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.

---- Start ----

What time did you get up this morning? slightly before 8 am.

How do you like your steak? medium rare.

What was the last film you saw at the cinema? That Dillinger Flick with Johny Depp - 'public enemy' I think was the name.

What is your favorite TV show? Star Trek Next Gen. FTW.

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? heh, there aren't many places 'forbidden' to me and those that may be, aren't places in my 'top ten'. I pretty much am living where I would like it to be (Idaho - closer to Family.) At some point in life, I'd like to have a place in Salmon ID where I can go to chill - write - and be by the river. That said... I certainly wouldn't mind a return trip to Seattle, or LA, - and an out of country adventure would definitely be considered... (I was going to list places I'd consider, but the list really started to get to long to put down here.)

What did you have for breakfast? One Swallow of Mnt. Dew (cleanses that 'I just woke up taste'.) a good swig of Cran-Raspberry juice, and a couple of Chips Ahoy soft batch oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

What is your favorite cuisine? I like a lot of different foods, but I think the standard steak and potatoes is probably my personal favorite.

What foods do you dislike? I hate to say it... but there aren't a whole bunch of 'green things' that I'm jumping up and down at the thought of eating...

Favorite Place to Eat? hmm, that's a tough one, probably Apple Bees (I ate there just today, and am reminded of what good Raspberry Kiwi lemonade they have.) Red Robin is a fun place to eat too.

Favorite dressing? Italian.

What kind of vehicle do you drive? regular car. (Chevy Cavalier. I know it's crazy, but I have wanted one of those since 1995 when I went on a test drive in one. Last year, after I lost my Saturn to a Wreck - this Blue Chevy Cavalier was for sale just a few short blocks from my house... I hate car shopping, so that was a no-brain-er. It gets the job done. )

What are your favorite clothes? 100% Cotton (really thick, like they used to make them in the 80's,) long sleeve button up shirt and Docker Pants, or Levi's Jeans.

Where would you visit if you had the chance? Australia or New Zeland.

Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? I see a glass that has something already in it and a lot of potential for more!!

Where would you want to retire? Salmon Idaho - near the river. (and by retire I mean 'write'.)

Favorite time of day? Late late at night - and when there are no interruptions. That my friend is called 'Game Time.'

Where were you born? Mesa Arizona

What is your favorite sport to watch? Basket Ball all the time, Foot Ball if it's with family or friends and they are really into it.

Who do you think will not tag you back? Don’t know

Person you expect to tag you back first? Don’t know

Who are you most curious about their responses to this? I'd be interested to see the answers of ANYONE that would care to take the time to fill it out.

Bird watcher? Um... I saw some birds one time... does that count? I did take a pic of a black Bird with a bright yellow chest... am I closer now?

Are you a morning person or a night person? Night

Do you have any pets? no

Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Looking forward to watching Blizcon, and going to the Penny Arcade Convention in Seattle (PAX) in Sept.

What did you want to be when you were little? A missionary, a Veterinarian, A buyer and Seller of Businesses, The owner of a high tech school, a Traveler of the World, a Writer, a reader, a RiverGuider, a Computer Programer... there's more - but I'll just stop here. The main thing I wanted though was to enjoy what ever it was that I was doing... and In that, I have succeeded.

What is your best childhood memory? I loved Camping with my Family. I loved my summers as a River Guide too.

Are you a cat or dog person? I'd much rather have a Dog than a Cat... we did have a decent Cat when I Was growing up... but I think those are Rare... and mostly roam the wilds in Africa...

Are you married? Nope.

Always wear your seat belt? Yes

Been in a car accident? Yes

Any pet peeves? I just can't understand why some people choose to look at life and the stuff that happens in it through such negative filters... some flatter themselves thinking they are 'realists' or some such nonsense. I can't think of anything that we as individuals have more control over, than the reactions that we choose. Though influenced by our cultural upbringing, this is one thing that we actually have total control over. So many people waste the opportunity to react positively to their journey's through life spending their time focusing on the 'bad' or 'negative' things when they could choose to focus on the good positive stuff that is there too.

Also irritating are the many folks that feel in their hearts that they are Christians and profess to follow the Teachings of Christ, yet seem to have forgotten one of the most important teaching - that of loving one's neighbor as oneself... of course, I can't say that I'm supper hooty good at doing that myself - but be that as it may, It's still a pet pevee of mine... (wasn't anything in the rules that said I couldn't be 'peeved' at myself now was there.)

Favorite Pizza Toppings? Pepperoni and Olives - n sometimes Bacon... every thing tastes better with Bacon.

Favorite Flower? Hmmmm, a Dasi or a Rose... and there is some Blue weed that sometimes grows wild - it looks darn cool in a mountain meadow... I don't know if I've seen it myself,(I think I have,) or if the memory is from a picture somewhere... stranger things have happened.

Favorite ice cream? Tillamook - Chocolate... ohhhh so good.

Favorite fast food restaurant? Arctic Circle... maybe Carls Jr's... but there's not one near anymore so... fooy on them anyway.

From whom did you get your last email? um... (checks real fast,)this was the last one I got when I started this: from: war@warhammeronline.com re: Warhammer Online Newsletter - July 2009 Issue‏ and this was from 'right now'... from: notification+o=i1vere@facebookmail.com re: "Dutch Van Dyme Friday July 31--Last Chance in C'bus!" sent you a message on Facebook..

Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Fry's Electronics.

Do anything spontaneous lately? Hah! the better question for me would be, 'did you do anything that WASN'T spontaneous lately.'

Like your job? Aye - that I do.

Broccoli? It's growing on me... which is pretty big, considering how much I thought I'd hate it...

What was your favorite vacation? Oregon Coast, no plans, a Beach House, with a view, good books, good eats, an Internet connection some Video Games and Family all over the place. I also like going to Video Game / Electronics Conventions and consider them 'working/vacations'.

Last person you went out to dinner with? Mark Baker - Works with me, we had lunch at Apple Bees.

What are you listening to right now? Metallica's latest offering to the music pool... right before that it was John Williams Symphony music... I have a broad musical pallet.

What is your favorite color? Blue - it's fun, but the color of my Current car, is my EXACT Favorite color of blue... it's the same Color that I painted my first Pine Wood Derby Car that my Dad helped me with... well ok, that 'I' helped him with heh.

How many tattoos do you have? 5 ... ok, I'm totally kidding but I do know this... to add to my 'pet peeves' list is the stereo typing that goes on regarding people 'with tattoos' I met a long haired heavy metal loving rocker when I was 16, his name was Dave - my first impression of him was SO OFF, I learned then about not judging a book by it's cover... I think that holds true even if the 'cover' has been placed there with needles.

How many are you tagging for this quiz? 0 - but anyone that want's to do this is more than welcome, and I'd love to read what you wrote.

What time did you finish this quiz? Thurs at 1:06 am (less than an hour from when I got tagged, I'll add.)

Coffee Drinker? Nope, but I did have a Mountain Dew around 5 today heh, and I loves me the Bull that is Red too - but my Kidneys have been begging me to 'stop' lovin' it quite so much, so these day's it's a rare treat not oft' imbibed.

---- end ----

FAthers Day Slide shows

2009-06-25T10:04:00.002-06:00

here are a ton of pictures that I took on Fathers day 2009.

It looks like a few videos got uploaded on accident (Actually I didn't know that Flickr let you do video...) anyway, those may 'delay' the picture part of the slide show, they are cute, but if you have a slow internet connection you can just hit 'next' on the slide show to skip them.

Also remember to hit the button on the bottom right corner that looks like four arrows going away from each other to get the full screen effect.

oh... I was kinda playing with the camera a bit, so you'll see a bunch of shots of the same thing... that said, I DID leave quite a few behind on my computer instead of uploading them.

The Camp out was fun, (I just went up one afternoon, but every one seemed to have had fun.) the Dinner was delicious, and it was sure great to get to see the family.

here is the slide show.

Slide shows of some photo ops the past few months

2009-06-12T08:59:00.004-06:00

I have been getting behind on posting photos as I take them. I decided to start at least with what was on the memory card in the camera. I'll try to catch up on the rest soon, but for now, take a gander at these fun pics:

(you can click the four out facing arrows in the bottom right of the slide show to go full screen, they look much better that way:)

Easter Dinner 2009 at Karen and Dennis Hones house:

Memorial Day Picnic at the River Bottoms near Dennis and Karen Hones house:

Visiting Trent at the Hospital: (he's doing pretty good and should be back home today.)

Visiting with Blaine, Lisa, Brandon, Brittany, B.J., and Bryson at Wendys:

A pic of my Nephew eatin a cookie --->

2009-06-10T23:34:00.002-06:00

I just uploaded a Gazillion (ok a couple hundred then,) pictures of some family get together, and various photos.

I'll work on getting them posted to Flickr soon, but I did pop one into photo shop and fixed it up. (took a guy from out behind the cookie, and cropped it a bit for better composition plus the standard tweaks. (though I Was happy that I had to tweak less than usual- perhaps that means I'm learning my camera better... I hope.)

anyway here's Ryan preparing to eat a cookie!

Top Score - (well ok a personal best anyway :- p )

2009-04-15T08:28:00.003-06:00

I'm getting a later start than I wanted to Sun Valley, but I wanted to drop in my 'top score' (well 212 of... a bunch) for the game Demigod.

It's a fun little game, that if you have ever played WarCraft III - DOTA then you'll be familiar with. the WC3 DOTA mod was a fun little modification to WarCraft 3 that let you play as only the Hero character. the troops were generated automatically and advanced towards the enemy base with the AI controlling them. You assisted as you could advancing in level and aquiring new powers and equipment as you helped to defend or attack.

in this game they use that same idea, but they have started from scratch (no Blizzard Elements to be seen heh,) It's pretty fun. and I Was surprised to see that after the 4 games that I had played I was ranked 212 th. That's note worthy and I doubt that I'll get a higher ranking, sooo, I figured I'd post a screen shot heh.

oh what fun eh?

ok, I'm headed off to Sun Valley now, wish me luck!

Wade -out.

Virtual Game Tables – the beginning

2009-04-14T10:22:00.003-06:00

I really don't think that most anyone will be interested in this post except gamers who might have wondered about playing via virtual tables, so… you've been warned this ones probably boring… well more so than the rest heh, feel free to skip it.

It all began a few short weeks ago when I thought to myself;

"Wouldn't it be great if I could play a role playing game with some of my friends that live far away?"

So I sent out an e-mail to 8 of my friends that I thought might be interested in such an endeavor... guess what? They were!

So, I set a date for playing about 4 weeks out, and got serious about determining what kind of game that the majority would like to play, when they'd like to do it, and what tools that we would need to do it with.

I had seen something about D20Pro from when I was hanging out at the wizards forums whining about the late release of their vapor ware virtual table, so I started by looking at their software. I was quite impressed! I'm not sure if I heard about Fantasy Grounds there, or if it was because it's true what they say about, "Google is your friend."

Either via Google, or from hearing about it on the D20Pro site, I quickly came across the fantasy grounds website. From there, I heard about battlegrounds. On battlegrounds, I saw the ad for the FUMCon that was coming up in a week at a community site called "the four ugly monsters". So I spent the week bouncing around posting on message boards and getting to know the available tools. I looked at D20Pro, Fantasy Grounds, Battlegrounds, RPTools, and one or two more before FUMCon weekend (Easter 2009) started up.

The comparative web site that Heruca has put together over at Battlegrounds was most helpful at this stage! (Here's the link: http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/links.html )

Between my research, a personal demo given by Valarian while I was at FUMCon, and the video demos at Fantasy Ground web site, I decided to drop my cash on Fantasy Grounds II virtual table and I bought 7 light licenses, and 1 GM license. RPtools and Battlegrounds RPG were in the running but I decided on FG II, because:

Though RPTools is free, and that's a HUGE draw, Fantasy Grounds II seemed more user friendly than RPtools, and ease of use will is very important to my 'new to role playing' friends.
I loved the map system of Heruca's, Battlegrounds software, especially how he handles line of sight, but the Character Sheet usage seemed more robust in Fantasy Grounds II.
D20pro looked like it had good map tools, and I think that it's character sheet management was adequate, (they partner up with hero builder to do it I think,) but - the community support at Fantasy Grounds, and the content that has been developed for it seemed quite a bit stronger.
From talking to various users of VTT's it seemed that for my needs that Fantasy Grounds would fit the bill the best.
The Video Tutorials were AWESOME, and really went a long way; along with the personal demo that Valarian put on for me at FUMCon in helping me to decide that FG II would be the software of choice.
Lastly though the current licensing of FG II isn't what I would prefer, (Battlegrounds has it nailed in that department.) there were promises of 'floating license subscriptions' in the works that will hopefully provide a solution for new users that may want to play in my games.

Those are the main points that I went through when deciding what to get. I'm really looking forward to getting Battlegrounds for miniature war gaming on a VTT, and I have had doubts about FG being better than the other available products. They all seem to have something to offer. But the volume of users using Fantasy Grounds II goes a long way too.

One other Table that I looked at by following an add link from fouruglymonsters.com was iTabletop. It provides a game table with video support. When I visited they were running a deal where you could buy a GM license and 10 user licenses for a life time subscription - all upgrades and future products developed from the base code included for a killer deal.

I didn't do as much 'looking around' at iTabletop, and it seems like it is very weak on a lot of the basic tools that other VTT's offer, but it was a pretty easy buy just for the online video meeting capabilities that it afforded whether I use it for my gamer group, or just business meetings remains to be seen, but I was thrilled to get such a package for such a price. Thanks for the Add FUM!

Concerns I have are that my group wants to play DnD 4th ed, but the resources available to me to run games in that system are not as polished as other systems. There will be allot of work using parsers and such to get content from the material I own into the Fantasy Grounds Software, but I have a few weeks to prep. So, I hope that it all works out.

This was a long Blog, but I wanted to get down in writing exactly how I started my journey down the Virtual Table Top road. I will conclude by saying that FUMCon was HUGE in increasing my excitement for the tool... to see so many active users having fun and doing games was thrilling. I wish there was a way to have that kind of user interaction and participation every week. Heh.

Since then I have had visions of starting a part time company that does something that generates income from this burgeoning industry. Heh who knows, maybe someday I'll look back with fondness on the days I started dabbling in the world of virtual table top gaming.

zWolf -out.

By:

Wade Hone.

US BANK - New Online Banking Security... Grrrr....

2009-03-15T06:29:00.003-06:00

Ok, folks, US Bank is extremely Frustrating... I guarantee I'll start looking around for something new.

The people are great! that's why I'm still there - but their Policies are a big fat bag of putrescence.

Frustration numero uno is the fact that they charge 2 bucks if you use an ATM machine that is not their own... I'm not talking about the buck fifty that is charged at the machine, oh no, I speak of an ADDITIONAL charge that US Bank makes to my account because it's computer had to talk to a computer that wasn't owned by US Bank... what a rip off eh?

So, I already have a bad taste in my mouth over it all.

(here's a little something to break up the monotony of this 'Rant Post' note -this is not a 'real' error:

ok, so anyway - the 'new' thing that they are doing is making you answer 3 to 5 questions like;

'who was your favorite grade school teacher?'
'what was your Mothers Grandfathers first pet's second offspring's name and sex?'

you know... standard stuff like that.

Anyway, I have a handy little 'non secure' trick I use for all those 'secret question' lazy security measures that some mom n pop web sites like to use, (mostly it's only used for password retrieval.) I know this isn't perhaps the 'best way' to stay secure online, so I'm not recommending it to be used in general practice. What I do, is I have a phrase that I use to answer all of those questions. It is the same phrase no matter what the question is. Pretty handy isn't it? Anyway it keeps me from having to remember a Ba-jillion diffrent answers to all the silly questions.

Well US Bank, unable to provide normal security for it's users, wants to use the equivalent of "lets play 20 questions" BEFORE you can get to the place where you enter your password in!

They want me to fill out at least 3 questions that they can ask me each time I want to log into their online banking system to check my balance. I think to myself;

"ok, fine, a pain, but what ever."

I attempt to do my little a fore mentioned 'trick' of entering in my same answer to the various questions they present to me, but it's having none of that!

"Answers can not be identical" it spews back in my face.

Well, it's late, I'm irritable anyway, so I go to there Customer service and write them this little rant. Which is the purpose of this post, I wanted to share it with you - but Alas, it's late, and when it's late, I Ramble, sooo, my intro, has ended up longer than the actual Rant!

I'm sure your bored, and I should stick another picture in here, but - I'm not going to do it - lets just power through this together and we can move on with our days ok?

I'll post the Rant below, you can enjoy, and we can all go back about our lives... I'll keep anyone that's interested filled in on the situation here in this thread. :-P

The Rant to their Customer service team... apparently I'll get a response back whiten 24 hours! yay!

---- My e-mail to their cust. service dept. -----

I would like to opt out of your additional security to enter online banking. three security questions is too much hassle, please notify me if I can opt out, or if I need to shop for an online banking provider that can provide a secure online banking experience that is also convenient. (they are out there, heck you used to even be one of them, last week.)

My primary irritation is that your using three security questions, and the fact that the answers can not be the same for all questions. I know it's not 'as' secure as three different answers but C'mon! one secure question would already be enough of an inconvenience, (but tolerable,) but THREE...??... And why in the heck would I want to provide my BANK with all of that personal information about me anyway?

To prevent sharing my personal information with your online databases, it means I'd have to 'make up' the info (in order to keep it secret from you,) and then Remember my lies! (I assume your Data Base gets hacked regularly now that I know you can't provide 'normal' security, 'normally' web sites use the 'secret question' for password retrieval - not as a password to get to the part where you put in your password!!)

At LEAST let me pick one response that works for all three questions! if your un-able to hire an IT department that can keep up with security, and has to rely on the end user doing the brunt of the security for you with this smoke signal method for authentication... oh bother, I'm just ranting now.

anyway, please let me know if I can opt out. (I'm betting not.)

color me frustrated and shopping for a new online-bank, thank you very much!

Wade -out.

--- End of Rant - I admit I made a few small edits on this read through, but that was the gist of it. ---

To sleep I go, I'm sure a few hours of shut eye will cure my ill temperament.

Wade -out.

Facebook | Wade Hone

2009-03-06T14:49:00.001-07:00

Well this is interesting... I saw a little button in my internet explorer browser that is called 'live writer' apperantly it allows you to blog by clicking that little button... I clicked it, entered my credentials, and now I'm typing away like a mad man.

I guess we will just consider this a little test of their system, see how it works, and if it's something that I think I'll use regularly.

ok, that's enough blathering on, I'll post now.

Wade -Out.

Facebook | Wade Hone

Review of Star Ocean: the Last Hope

2009-02-28T11:39:00.003-07:00

Here is a Review of a game that I'm in the middle of playing I posted on GameSpot, enjoy:

Star Ocean: The Last Hope

So, I'm giving this game a 9.5 but to qualify that, I need to say it's 9.5 as long as you are a fan of the Japanese Role Playing Game Genre' if your not, if your a main stream FPS or regular RPG playing gamer then the score would have to be 7.5 ish - something worth checking out ya know? But don't sell your pet pug so you can afford it or anything.

First things first, lets all sit back and have a good laugh at the choice of the our Hero's name... "Edge Maverick" I can see it now...

cut away to - the writer in charge of naming the Star Ocean Hero:

"we need something Edgy - a real Maverick for our space opera... wait a minute... I think I have something! ..."

fade back in.

ok, I have a good 20 hours worth of play time invested in this game, and I really do enjoy it. you have to be prepared for the Long long traditional Enix cut scenes, (which are stunning and brilliant of course,) that are generously sprinkled through out the game. By the time that your done with the 3 disks of content, You'll have seen a good full length Movies worth of cut scenes. Feel free to pop some corn, because there will be plenty of time to just sit back and eat it as the story develops.

The videos are done with excellent voice work and amazing visuals. As for the actual quality of the story, I'm only half way through so, take what I say with a grain of salt, but ... perhaps I'm jaded, but there are some very 'cringe worthy' elements to the story, our Hero (Edge Maveric - yup... seriously, they named him that...) is such a whiny baby sometimes you just want to reach into your computer monitor and Slap the guy and say :

"Edge! Stop being such a wus! Man up a little bit! Mavrick's don't cry!"

I'm hoping that at some point the kid will just embrace the fact that he's the main star of a Square Enix game and stop apologizing and acting all surprised that he's the heroic type... I imagine it's supposed to be endearing, but honestly, it starts to get annoying.

The voice acting is great, and if this game was translated from anything, you certainly can't tell! There is one character Lymle in the game that talks like a baby all the time, (The BradyGames Strategy guide says she is 15, but she looks and talks like a 6 year old, kay?) and - ok, I'll admit it - I kinda just wish she'd shut her yapper and keep casting spells. in other words, she's slightly irritating.

Graphics are incredible, they really shine, the environments are diverse and amazing. The maps are really fun to travel through and discover.

The music is spot on, it's high quality and really sets the mood like in game music is supposed to do. you hear certain themes a lot, but so far, (20 hours in,) it hasn't driven me crazy yet!

Combat, now here is a thing that really makes a guy nervous, I mean many people got 'into' this kind of game from playing Final Fantasy 7 (or something similar to it with turn based play.) Anytime one of these traditionally 'Turn Based' games wants to toss in 'real time' elements, I get real skiddish. If I want some 'real time' combat, I'll play Oblivion - or forget that, toss in the Gears of War. If I'm sitting down to play a JRPG, then I'm hoping for some old school strategy making turn based game time. That said, I am happy to say they somehow got this right!

It starts with the camera controls and controller set up, praise be that they included lots of options on how you want to handle these elements. It didn't take long before I had every thing inverted, and locked up just the way I liked it... not having these features would have honestly prevented me from enjoying the game, so - I'm supper happy that they took the time to make the options to set it up the way I want it.

Camera angles and controller configuration, check.

Switching between characters is smooth, and the fighting style between characters is diverse, the AI can be set up and tweaked before and during battle. If you heavily use the "y" button which pauses the action and allows you to simply and effectively set up strategies, you can see the elements of the old school 'turn based' aspects come through. That said, even the most jaded "real time combat hating" gamers will find themselves actually enjoying the thrill of this real time combat.

... ok, that's not true... but still, for the rest of us, rest easy, it's actually fun!

The 'pause the action' menus are used far less than expected... It's just a good thing that they are there for boss fights! There is some slight agitation (frustration seems too harsh an adjective,) that occurs, with the fact that when your in the middle of an action, lets say coming out of a special attack, that you have to wait for the action to complete before your able to use items or queue up another action from the pause menu. The flow seems choppy when the action is stopped so that you can say, eat some health restoring berries, only to find that you keyed the button a few milliseconds to quickly, thus requiring a restart for the action to finish then a re-pause to eat the darn berries.

(I take a tangent here... but I'm leaving it in.)

Speaking of 'darn' our hero seems awfully fond of the word 'Damn'. You'll get to hear him say Damn, Dammit, and even the, try not to bust a gut laughing out loud, "DAMN THEM ALL TO HELL!" the line is delivered with the full force of passion that only the president of your high School Drama club could muster. Maverick was so emotional about the whole affair though... I was just glad that the monitor was one way, and he couldn't see me snickering... (if only that could have been the case in high school...)

Ok ok, I continue to raz on some of the over dramatics of the story and actors in the game, with the whines of the heroes who don't seem to want to BE heroes yet, and the ever blooming romances that cause flash backs to the star wars prequel shows, "but, I love you Padme..." the annoying 15 year old spell caster who talks like she is 6. <-- that chick needs to wake-y wake-y up-y and stop with the cute-sy woot-sy BS. No wonder Lymle didn't have any friends on her planet except for her sick grandfather who probably just tolerated her so she'd keep bringing him his morning meals... so ya, I poke a bit of fun at the game, but heck, maybe you need all that crap in there to make it a good story, because over all, I feel invested in characters. I actually care about them and am looking forward to 'what happens next'. And isn't that what developing a story arc is all about?

in Conclusion, when taken as a full experience, this is a wonderful game. Looking at the production quality, the art, the depth of the item creation, the collection quests, the stories, the rich NPC filled locations - three DvD's full of content, makes you wonder how on earth you pay the same for a game like this and those crappy 'game based on movie' games.

This game is a winner - by Wade Hone. (Zachary Wolf.)

Frosty January Day in Idaho

2009-01-27T02:01:00.003-07:00

Here are some winter photos after a frost in Wapello Idaho

I woke up and saw that the fog from the night before had frozen and made everything white. It was a great day for pictures in south Eastern Idaho, so I snagged my camera, a Tripod and took an extra battery.

That said, (and this is why I'll never take wedding photos,) - after all was said and done, I didn't take the time to check it, and my camera was taking low res shots the whole morning! Oh well, it's great for computers, but terrible for printing.

Enjoy, I had fun taking them, it was a beautiful day.

Here is a photo stream slide show from my Flickr page (after you Click the first picture to start the slide show, you can make it full screen by clicking the button that looks like four arrows pointing out, in the bottom right corner, Enjoy:

And just in case that doesn't work right, here are a few of my favorites:

Thanks for dropping by.

Wade -out.

Blizzcon 2008 - and California Friends

2009-01-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

The tickets for Blizzcon sold out within 15 minutes of their website getting fixed this year, I was lucky enough to have a friend who snagged me a ticket while the snagging was good. (thanks Tom.)

Blizzcon is basically a convention for Video game enthusiasts - specifically games made by Blizzard. (world of warcraft / Starcraft / Diablo)

I had a blast, and Blizzcon was only part of the reason. I got to spend time with some great friends that I hadn't seen for a long time.

Here are some photographs to highlight the trip:

Since so much of our first day was spent waiting in line, here are a couple of pictures to really get the feel of it:

They dubbled the line back on itself several times in the Parking lot - it was amazing, but there weren't people hopping lines and crowding. Even though there were no dividers to keep the lines separate.

At least there were some cool costumes to look at:

Here's a couple that came as Cows - Er Tauren's:

And then a Priest and Warlock Couple: (I removed three people from background of this photo - and if your looking close you can tell - but over all, it turned out pretty good I think!)

Some folks put a touch more effort into their costumes than others did, though, if I ever "cos-Played" (which I won't,) this is more along the lines of how I'd roll:

This was my favorite Costume that I saw - the guy she was with must have been a saint - so many people stopping them to take her picture! :

( I tried to erase the back ground here, I didn't chop off too much... part of the robe I think got lost in the transition.. woops heh.

Anyway I really though this one was the best on there, I guess the girl on the turtle won 1st place... I think it was because of the huge turtle - which was cool, but this looked like a much better costume in my opinion anyway.

Ok, Next we have a guy holding a sign up for his guild to meet him at... This was a great Idea if your trying to meet a group. I mostly pasted this because I ran into an almost exact photo, on the MTV coverage of the event. it was like 'proof' that a 'real' photographer thought something that 'I' thought was an interesting shot 'WAS' an interesting shot too." anyway - here it is:

Once we got inside we got to see lots of cool stuff, like:

Big Screen TV's where they broad cast the main events / announcements etc. There were moer than 10 of these monster monitors, it was great that no matter where you sat, you could see what was going on:

Here is Sarah Louise Kerrigan from StarCraft - (she's in the process of turning into the queen of Blades in this poster:

And here is a cool Statue that they had of the afore mentioned 'Queen of Blades" (with my noggin in the shot as proof that I was there I guess...)

Here are a couple of the rows of computers that they had set up where we could demo the upcoming games - (A real highlight of the Convention.)

Me (Wade), Andy, and Tom playing a little World of WarCraft - Wrath of the Lich King, before it was released.

Here is a Screen shot taken with my Digital Camera of World of WarCraft:
(that poor toon only lasted for the 15 mins that I was able to play, however, I was pretty proud of him for beating down a Rogue who challenged me to a duel right as I logged in.

Here is a Screen of Diablo III: (I'm really looking forward to this game, I think it's going to rock!

And Finaly the last 'Screen Shot' that I took a picture of, for shortly after snapping this one, I was informed that we weren't supposed to be taking pictures of it! woops - who knew! :

Here is a pick of me, getting ready to play - I set the camera on the monitor in front of me and snapped this pic of me and my Blizzcon Badge. Don't I look happy!??!

I also got into a WoW Mini's Turney so I could buy some of the figures before they were officially released. that was fun, here's how the game looks:

and now for the booth babes... C'mon they make interesting pictures don't cha think? :-P

Here is the costume that won the over all prize, she is on the back of a big turtle, and I think it was the turtle that put her over the top.

Here was a group that dressed up, on the left is a Defias Bandit (or pirate maybe,) a Draenei, and I think that guy is a Night Elf...

The Night Elf on the left was really into her role, the one on the right... not so much. I don't blame them, there were allot of people that were takeing pics, and I mean you can only pose so long before you want to get in line and play one of the games too right?

I guess just in case no one interesting decided to dress up, Blizzard hired a few professionals: These two were paid for sure. (I asked, though I stopped just shy of asking how much :-P.)

This was another group of hired models... I Was trying to come up with some funny comment about what the girls do when they aren't trying out for 'Americas Next Top Model..." but nothing ever really solidified.. so, create your own caption, I guess:

I was on the phone with my Brother right before I took this picture so I guess I'll dedicate this shot to Blaine, this ones for you Bro! (sorry it's so blurry, it was dark and I had nothing to brace the camera on.) :

and the Coolest Booth Babe of all award, has to go to Felicia Day! yay, she was both at PAX and Blizzcon and so was I - (I guess she really knows her fans heh.) This time she had the whole cast of 'The Guild' with her signing autographs and such. I bought the DvD and really should have had them sign my copy, but the line was really long. I got one of the 'guards' to take a pic, and she smiled at the camera real nice, even though I was cutting, but - Alas, I didn't have it set very good so Flash is all washed out, and with out Flash is all blurry, we'll go with the 'blur' and have to ask forgiveness for the fuzziness.

Blizzcon was great, but some of the best times were spent after the convention hanging out at Tom's house, where I was staying for the duration. Here is a picture of when we met Marcel, he was attending a Microsoft Convention across the street and was wishing that he could be with us the whole time it was going on... it was just such a pain to get tickets, maybe next time we can all make it!

Here is a pic of Tom, Marcel, Andy, and Me Wade - I really hate these pictures that prove that I really am as Fat as the Scales say I am... but I digress....

Here we are getting preped to play a little Rock Band - Andy, Tom, Wade, Marcel and Cammie. (note that it appears as if Andy is practicing his big solo finish...)

Here is Cammie, and Pearl - Pearl and Tom were such Great Hosts! Thanks so much for letting me stay at your place, not only did I save on Hotel bills, but I had a blast the whole time I was there too! you guys are Awesome!!

This is what I got back home to, I took this picture as I got out of my car, before even going inside - A yard full of SNOW! it was like Idaho was just mocking me, saying "hope you had fun in the sun, Becuase now it's G'onna Get Cold!" It's what I get for living in Idaho - (I jest, I love the state, and it's great being close to family.... but it is terribly Cold in the winters! That's no Joke!)

and I'll end this Blog entry with one of my favorite shots of the trip, Andy on the Rock Band Guitar - He's an Animal!

Wade -out.

First Atempts at some Green Screen photography

2008-11-18T01:39:00.000-07:00

So... I know I have a bunch of Updates to do, (Blizzcon, and the California Trip for one,) but, I have been working on getting set up with a little desk top studio for taking pics... I have a ways to go, but figured I'd post my 'first' attempt then look at how I improve... I already see that I need to eliminate a 'green reflection' and decrease my aperture to get a better depth of field... (you can click on it for a larger shot,) but anyway - here's the first stab:

I'll get to cracking on some 'better' quality Blog updates here soon.

Wade -out.

Tagged - 6 Quirky Things...

2008-10-16T11:25:00.000-06:00

I have been tagged. I'm supposed to list six quirks about myself and then tag six people, leaving a message on their blog to let them know. So here it goes. (I'll probably just tag a couple.)

1. I don't sleep much, never have. Even now, my 'perfect amount' ends up being 6 hours for 6 days then 8 hours 1 day a week. it's nice because:

2. I love the night. I like staying up late, I like being up in the night, I like driving around town at night, and I really hate it when I have to go to bed. since I only need 6 hours sleep at night, I'm able to stay up fairly late and still be up by 7:30.

3. Personally I don't think this is 'quirky', and as the years go by I'm betting that less and less people will consider it so, however, since several of my social groups DO consider this 'quirky' I'll List it: I like to play Video games. yup, I'm 37 and still spend a goodly amount of time each week playing video games.

4. Here's something we can all agree on that's 'quirky' I'm not married yet! Whoa! a 37 year old mormon male that's not married!!! Yes I DO like girls, Guess I figure that with two engagements if you consider being engaged half way to being married, and then considering that two halves equal a whole, and so... um... ya, the logic was falling apart even for me on that one. anyway, not married, and not really doing much about getting that way, I figure that I ought to 'want' it first right? perhaps then the engagement thing will stick better. :-P

5. I was both the Soccer Club, and Computer Club President in High School... I like to think that indicated a 'well rounded' character - I'd say I drifted towards the 'computer club' side of things quite a bit since then, heh.

6. I used to Kayak and Repel down cliffs... looking at me now, (nigh on to 300 pounds,) T'would be hard to imagine me as the river guiding rock climbing, soccer playin kid that I was.

I'm done, and if your reading this consider yourself tagged. (there I did it the lazy way.)

Wade -out.

Booth Babes and Costumes of PAX 2008

2008-09-12T08:40:00.000-06:00

I missed my camera the first two days and missed some great shots, it seemed like people came more on the third day to enjoy pax, and some of the convention favorites (Privateer Press) were sadly absent when I went to take pictures.

that said here are the few that I did get:

Here is Violet, I'm not sure what game she was representing... but count me in! it looked Fantastic! ;-P

Here is Pat with Violet... I'm not sure what he did, but it looks like the sentence was death.

Here is Storm Trooper guy:

Here is me, paying proper respect to the Empire... :

Here is a candid shot of 'Darth Vader' letting his hair down.. er.. Helmet off, at least. Even Darth has to take time out to replinish those vital fluids...

Ok, this wasn't really a 'costume' per say, but still - Privateer press really went all out this year. My friend pat is the guy NOT on the pedestal.

Here is some uniformed guy showing off for his Girl Friend, hes next to a statue that was in the Fallout 3 area.

I think I saw this guy in Splinter Cell... correct me if I'm wrong.

Probably the only time that I could say "Hey princess, can I take your picture?" and not get slapped... yes, I really said that.

Here are a couple of Bandaged Babes from 'Alone in the Dark' (I think.)

Here are the same two 'zombie girls' as before... only this time with a new victim.

Here is another Army dude looking Bad-A.

Here is an Alien from Sins of a Solar Empire... you can tell she is an Alien due to her EyE's.

Ok, so when Pat rode to PAX with me, he probably didn't know I was going to make him stand in all the pictures heh. Here is Pat and the 'SotSE' girl.

Here is a random person that I thought looked cool...

There were of course, the 'obligatory' smattering of scantily clad babes at the booths...

Of course, much like pokemon... I had to 'catch them all' Pat obligingly stood next to some for me.

and another...

I know it's hard work, but somebody had to do it! Thanks for taking one for the team Pat.

Magic man!

Here's a creepy big headed alien dude... and some blue alien guy saying hello. (I kid, I kid! heheh)

Here's our blue friend, and as you can see, in this shot the girl is smiling... had I waited just a few seconds, I could have got the shot of her asking for a restraining order... apparently some Aliens are 'Extra Friendly'...

Here is some fan that dressed up like Jerry Holikins, I was shocked by the authenticity of the replication...

hehe ok ok, actualy crept up on Jerry Holkins, one of the founders of PAX and writer extraordinaire of the Penny Arcade, and had Pat take the stealth shot. I would have liked to say a few words to him and thank him for putting the whole show together, but, he was deep in conversation with people already... so I let the opportunity pass.

This Shot is of the PAX Enforcers getting down to a Rock Band Concert:

So this last one I include with a bit of a story to go with it... I had been asking folks that were dressed up if I could take their pictures for some time now, and as I walked up behind this girl, I saw bright red hair and figured she would make a good picture too... well, as I got close to her, I realized that perhaps she wasn't 'dressed up' as anyone at all, I quickly did a rework of my approach and asked instead, motioning with my arms to what looked like a group of her friends, "could I get a picture of you guys, there's a great background I want to get a shot of with people in it." Good cover eh? anyway, here's the picture:

And that's the Booth Babe / Costume Tour of PAX 2008, like I said, I missed a ton of good pictures from the first two days... I'll try to do better next time.

Wade -out.

Review of the WoW miniatures Preview at PAX.

2008-09-03T11:20:00.000-06:00

Hey all,

I got the chance to play test the mini's game at PAX. I figured I'd post my thoughts and toss up some pics.

My first impression of the game is that it is AWESOME! I'm really excited about rolling it out for my friends to play. I play Warmachine and Hordes (Circle of Orboros,) but many of my friends in my play circle don't want to get into mini's to the toon of hundreds of dollars spent, and all that time putting models to gether and painting them. After Playing the World of WarCraft Miniatures Game, I'm really stoked about the possibility of getting some of my 'lesser hard core' friends into finally throwing down on some miniature warfare!

I may have had a lucky shake, in that the fellow running the demo game that I played in was Justin Gary lead designer / brand - Product manager for the WoW Miniatures Game. His enthusiasm for the game was contagious, it seemed that he was really enjoying showing us the demo... with four of us standing around rapid firing machine gun like questions about everything we saw; "what are these numbers on the side for?" - "What does that marking around that hex mean? Is it rough Terrain? How do we move into it?" - "What is the VP spot on the map for?" All of which he would have gotten to, if we'd have let him just do his presentation heh, he was a good sport and answered our questions patiently, jumping back into the planned demo whenever possible.

I really liked the approach taken with movement, by simplifying movement, you don't have to break out a measuring tape for each model, and basing 'turns' on a clock mechanic, you alleviate about a billion things that discourage me when playing other mini's games. For one, there's no debate over whether something is 'in range' or not... no 'slips' of the measuring tape that seem to give your opponent an extra half an inch on every move. heh. Perhaps you've never had that experience, but trust me; it's nice not to have to even worry about it! By doing movement based on a grid map, and basing powers and attacks on a clock mechanic, many of the rules are simplified without removing the 'tactical' portions of a miniatures game.

----------------------| A couple of the Miniatures |---------------------

Here is a picture of the play area and you can see the figure scale... as compared to a 288 pound man...

Plastic pre painted: Well, I can tell you, there just isn't anything cooler than an army of metal figures painstakingly painted with tender loving care all spread out on a battle field, and that's just how it is.

That said, there are plenty of draw backs which pre painted plastic fig's fix. I'll just list em here: (ya sure, I'm doing this as sort of a personal exercise attempting to complete my conversion to the medium... but stick with me for a sec.)

Here goes:

Price: Plastics are just less expensive. That's a given.

Time: And this one is HUGE! Seriously, if I can get a fig put together and painted in less than 2.5 hours, I'm doing pretty dang good. That’s allot of time I coulda been playing.

Transportability: sure Metal is stronger - but I'll be honest, I don't feel like I have to be as protective about my plastic figs as I don metal ones. No special army transport case for plastic... unless a cardboard box is special...

ok, those are the best arguments - so, I guess I have to place those against the fact that I really like the feel of Metal figures, and the look of Painted metal Figs. and put that up against the above arguments, as well as consider the fact that these plastic minis look FANTASTIC! I counted 6 individual colors on one model alone while I was at the preview game. That's great! The sculpts were fantastic! So, at least if they can't be metal painted figs, they do still look just about as good as a person could get.
I suppose if someone was real ambitious, they could paint over the pre-paint... call it a sort of a primer coat. But, honestly I don't think that people will need to do that, the figs looked great!

Some other features that I really liked were the universal removable game bases. Very cool. When I have these on a shelf, they can look like a great collectible. When I want to play, snap on a game base, and I have some great info. For use in my games! It’s like they took the thing that wasn't fun with Hero Clicks (that all the models had that clunky base on them,) and the thing that wasn't so cool with DnD minis. (That all the models don't have anything that helps use them in a game on them,) and came up with a solution that works for collectors and players alike. I love that idea! I just hope that the bases or figs don't were out so that it’s difficult to get the figure to stay attached to the base... we shall see.

Well, I'd like to write a bit more about my experience, but I'm all out of time. I had a Blast, and really appreciated Justin taking time to run me through a game!

I'm really looking forward to Bliz Con where I'll be able to play in a turny it sounds like, where I can keep the models that I play with.

oh.. Dang, I didn't mention the 'powers' cards - What a cool concept! By making powers on cards that you can mix and match, it really ups the re-playability of the game! Seriously, using cards that can change to 'enhance' the powers of your min is such a cool idea! I loved it absolutely and can't wait to learn all the 'powers' and put together an unstoppable force!

Thanks again!

zWolf -out.

(Wade Hone.)

A Brief Re-cap of the weekends activities...

2008-08-18T13:38:00.000-06:00

I'll see if I can't post some about last weekend, here is a 'short list':

Drinking a mana potion: I didn't know that such foulness would be legal to sell... and I thought cough medicine was bad!!! it did indeed keep me awake though... (went to Sleep at 7:30 am got up at 11:30 for a wedding.)

Fable II

My friend Tom's wife was out for the evening, so he logged in and we played Fable II pub games... getting our characters for Fable II deep in debt... the game isn't even out yet and already I've put my toon in the poor house!

We then played some Soul Calibur IV - and I, having been trained (more like 'schooled',) by the masters, Ryan, and Brandon Hone, (my cousins, ages 6 and 8...) - was able to hold my own pretty good. (Keep in mind I've played the game for several hours and this was Tom's first time with it... he was still able to beat me down far more often than I'd have liked... but, I don't think he got any 'perfects' off at least. :-P

We then loaded up Civilization - that is one fun and addictive game! it's what I played most this weekend (even more than Warhammer online! can you believe!)

Civilization Revolutions for the Xbox 360 (I have 700 of 1000 achievement points so far! that's pretty many for those of you unfamiliar in the art of collecting achievement points on the Xbox 360.)

We played this until late... but at least it wasn't 7 something in the morning... I save that for weekends. heh.

It was great though, we played against the computer, and honestly... I don't remember if we won or lost... I think we lost actually - but that is what is so cool about it, even while losing the game, it's still fun just trying to hang in there for another round.

Anyway, it was all good fun. If Marcel's xBox hadn't have had the red ring of death happen on it recently, we would have played Rock Band with him I'm sure.

Warhammer Online

I did get in the Beta test, and it's awesome! They are doing the PvP exactly like I had hoped they would... which is to say 'GOOD!' and enjoyable. Pat from Boise, is in this test also, so when he's off work, we'll be able to play. It comes out 'for real' on September 19th, so, I'm kind of holding off playing too much since all the progress that my character makes will get erased when the game goes live.

one 'less trivial' thing that I did was go to Don and Carol's Wedding on Saturday. (it was great! I even skipped sleeping in on a Saturday to go to it!!! -I'm so proud of me. :-P )

Also I spent some time visiting with the folks. I spent a couple of hours at their home, I was going to take a nap, but enjoyed visiting with them so much I skipped it.

On Saturday Nights I have been playing an RPG Game @ Gamopolis it's Warhammer Fantasy it's a Pen and paper adventure where you roll multi sided dice (like 20 sides...)

-is it geeky? ya.

is it fun? - you bet!!

I have a blast spending time with the guys at the game shop. eating snacks, laughing at the antics our characters pull off, and pretty much pulling off a rather cool inter active story while we are at it.

On Sunday - woops, I slept in a bit - but then,... There was more Civilization goodness!

and there you have my 'mostly frivolous' list of things I did this weekend - It was awesome! I am recharged and ready to sell a million bucks worth of work this week!

yes, mr. Covey, the saw, has indeed been sharpened!

Wade -out.

a very lazy Sealion....

2008-08-18T12:42:00.000-06:00

I just had to post about one of the funniest things I saw while vacationing in Oregon a couple of weeks ago...

there was this Sea lion trying to sleep on the Newport Docks. the problem was that he was laying on the dock in such a way that his head extended out past the edge of the dock. As the Sea Lion drifted off to sleep, his neck muscles would start to relax and his head would slowly lower towards the ocean waters...

Soon his entire head would be below the surface of the sea... you could see little bubles coming up out of the watter near his head. it wouldn't take long before the big guy would jerk his head out of the watter, eyes wide, stareing around as if trying to catch one of his buddies playing a joke on him... then slowly his eyes would close and the process would repeat it'self.

I watched this for 5 minutes, laughing the whole time.

I finaly wandered off and took some pictures of the dock and Brian and Kamber and their kids. it wasn't until just today that I noticed that I had a picture of 'sparky' the lion seal with his head fully submerged... blissfully un-aware that soon he'd be in haling sea watter in stead of oxygen.

here's a closer look at the pic:

Sweet! I made it to Kambers Blog!

2008-08-18T12:05:00.001-06:00

a momentous occasion has occurred! I have my own link on Kamber's Blog! yahoo!!! I took a screen shot of the event to mark it's occurrence.

Hopefully this will motivate me to put up some quality posts eh?

heh, anyway thanks Kamber!

here's the screen shot:

Here is a little instant message chat I had with a friend of mine... it relates to this post so I'm going to paste it in here - keep in mind that I'm 'adding' this too what you saw above...

[13:07] tcorcoran977: HALE!
[13:24] wadehone: and to you sir! Hail!
[13:25] wadehone: I updated my blog - o.
[13:25] tcorcoran977: which blog
[13:25] wadehone: http://life.wadehone.com
[13:26] tcorcoran977: wow
[13:26] tcorcoran977: you're really excited that your sister has acknowledged your existance
[13:26] tcorcoran977: lol
[13:27] wadehone: hehe.
[13:27] wadehone: yes, yes quite.
[13:28] wadehone: well... it's more to 'shame her' for not linking to me for the past two years... I havn't said anything to her about it... (one shouldn't 'ask' to be linked right? it's not the 'cool' thing to do.) but I have languished... non linked for years whilst barely known friends get links on her blog... it's been quite traumatic....
[13:28] wadehone: I can now go about my life, a whole person.
[13:28] tcorcoran977: yeah I agree
[13:28] tcorcoran977: I can see how that would be damaging
[13:28] wadehone: hehe.
[13:29] tcorcoran977: she actually put zwolf on there eh
[13:29] wadehone: well... I will admit, my blogs about all night LAN parties don't really fit in with the ' how my potty training session is going for sara' posts that the rest of them make....
[13:30] tcorcoran977: hahaha
[13:30] tcorcoran977: and you're at the bottom of the list
[13:30] tcorcoran977: I see it's alphabetical
[13:31] tcorcoran977: but both listed under Wade or zWolf will put it at the bottom
[13:31] wadehone: :-P ya, I just got on... I'll work my way through the quilifiers and try to get at the top of the list.
[13:31] tcorcoran977: hahaha
[13:31] wadehone: lol, I'm going to post this chat on the blog... I think it's funny.
[13:32] tcorcoran977: lol

All in fun, sis, all in fun. :-P