Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Category: General Cogitation Page 10 of 40

RTotD: Gaming In Your Late 30s

By

On September 27, 2018

In General Cogitation, Random Cogitations

Hi. My name is Matt. I’m in my late 30s; and I still play video games.

Video games are something I grew up playing. I was born after the Atari was introduce but just before the Nintendo era began. I was about 10 when I got the NES, Super Mario Brothers and Blades of Steel then became my world. I’ve had every iteration of the Nintendo since then, until the Wii U. I’ve also had a Sega Genesis and an XBox 360, however PC is where I spend the majority of my hobby.

Kids today will never appreciate the artistry and craftsmanship of video games. They did not endure 8-bit Pitfall and side-scrolling Super Mario Brothers. Legends of Zelda was the closest we came to an immersive world. Be that as it may, it doesn’t matter if you’re 16, 25, or 38, video games have no age barriers. In a world plagued by stress, bullying and butt-hurt social media trolls, video games provide a cathartic escape for all ages. As far as I’m concerned, I’ll keep going until my hands are so arthritic I can no longer hold a controller or click a mouse.

The things that go through my mind when I’m alone with nothing but my thoughts for entertainment is dangerous. Some might even say eccentric. Consider this your warning about today’s Random Thought of the Day

 

In Loving Memory: Ode to Gromit

By

On June 16, 2018

In General Cogitation, Reminiscence

Gromit
2005-2018

Last week was a rough week. I was sick about half the week and on the day when I was vomiting and running a temperature of 102, we lost Gromit. He had a mild seizure in the kitchen, we rushed him to the vet and they found a weak pulse. They then instructed us to take him to the emergency vet where he went into cardiac arrest upon arrival. They revived him but explained that there is fluid around his heart and he is likely to experience repeated issues. The most humane thing to do, for him, was to let him go. It was really hard for me not to be there. Tuesday, June 5th 2018 is one of the worst days of my life.

Just Don’t Laugh Too Hard

Gromit came from a pet store in the UP Mall in South Bend; he was about three months old. However, he was still younger, by about three months, than our other dog Gus. They are also completely different breeds where Gus is about half the size. Despite the difference in genetics, they were brothers at heart. I may even be so bold as to say they were figuratively and literally akin to Lenny and George from Of Mice and Men. While he was trainable, Gromit wasn’t the smartest dog I’ve had (although he was house trained sooner than Gus). However his vapid demeanor was part of his charm. You knew when he was a happy dog, although behind that smile you can tell it was a thoughtless void.

The dog loved to give kisses. If he sets his mind to licking you, he will find any exposed skin to complete his mission. If you found yourself in a vulnerable position (ex: on the bed or the couch) and laughing hysterically, you may soon find him in your face. I was the common victim of Gromit’s tongue bathing. He was maniacal about it; literally pinning me down thus making me laugh harder. The experience was never too awful, aside from the fact that his breath smelled awful! I don’t know if gingivitis is or halitosis was part of the breed but there were other health related issues common to Wheaten’s.

Life with a Soft Coated Wheaten

He was afraid of everything, even Sphero BB-8

Gromit was a pure bred Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier. Unlike Gus, whom we researched before we bought him, Gromit was on a whim. We didn’t know anything about Wheaten’s prior to bringing him home. One thing is certain, he was afraid of everything. My little Sphero BB-8, dish towels, anything that made a noise (so just about every toddler toy we own).

An ailment common to Wheaten’s was a sensitive stomach. It’s highly recommended not to suddenly change their dog food. He did seem to suffer from stomach issues; acid reflux seemed to be a something we dealt with regularly. Unfortunately his solution seemed to be swallow anything he could find lying around on the floor, including our toddler’s socks.

Wheaten’s are hypoallergenic but he had allergies, which may have been something that contributed to his stomach issues. He had a mild allergy to yeast, which is often found in dogs skin. Yes, he was literally allergic to his own skin.

The older he got he did become a bit more aggressive, especially toward other dogs. He was not aggressive toward our other dog until starting about a year ago. Apparently this behavior is common in the breed. We had to be careful if he was around any other dogs; unfortunately he was in his kennel often during visits. Despite his bizarre allergies and his weird temperament when he was older, he was a good dog. We miss him and the house does feel emptier.

minions_icon

I could accomplish so much more if I only had minions!

 

RTotD: Turn Social Media Against Itself

By

On April 12, 2018

In General Cogitation

Let’s face it (no pun intended), social media is the source of the dissemination of hate. Perhaps not the only source, but in the modern era it has to be the largest source. People are not afraid to say or share what ever comes into their wicked mind because they feel protected by ambiguity and distance. I believe I have ranted about this before. Perhaps its time we try something different on social media.

Just “Hide All”

I am now selecting to “Hide all from …” on everything that is clearly an attempt to elicit as response (regardless of political affiliation). I think everyone should start doing this. Instead of sharing, commenting and liking posts that disparage people of opposing viewpoints; let’s start blocking, “unfollowing”, and muting all of them. Facebook makes this really easy; Twitter does not. The only way you can avoid political vitriol is to unfollow a person, or simply stop using Twitter.

Obviously this will not eliminate hate altogether. Humans were finding ways to do this long before social media, it was just significantly less prolific. However, if we reduce the antagonizing posts, we can reduce the hate.

The things that go through my mind when I’m alone with nothing but my thoughts for entertainment is dangerous. Some might even say eccentric. Consider this your warning about today’s Random Thought of the Day

 

Bad Idea Birthday Challenge 2018

By

On March 26, 2018

In Fitness, General Cogitation

bad idea birthday challenge

Although the date does not appear, this is from my iPhone on my birthday

The “Bad Idea Birthday Challenge” is not something I came up with. A guy that is also a former employee of my previous company is a marathon runner and the concept belongs to him (but he calls it Bad Idea Birthday Run). He and I were part of the Wellness Committee for our former company so we always came up with different fitness challenges. His version is that on, or around, his birthday he runs his age in miles. As I said previously, he is a marathon runner so that is something that I will NEVER accomplish. However that doesn’t mean I didn’t find inspiration in it.

Bad Idea Birthday Challenge Accepted!

A couple of weeks ago I fully ran 3.3 miles (meaning I never slowed down to walk). So today, on my birthday, I divided my age by 10 and made that my birthday challenge. I thought that since I can go 3.3 for no reason at all, and in the spirit of “bad ideas”, I just need to go an extra half mile. As you can see from the screenshot from my iPhone Fitbit app, challenge completed.

The good news. I am less than 6 weeks away from the Flying Pig 5K race and I am already running more than 3.1 miles. The bad news. If my right knee could speak right now I would just be a constant, reoccurring line of expletives. “Icing my knees” (inside joke there) and a Tylenol and Advil cocktail will probably be in my immediate future.

Why Is It A “Bad Idea”?

The dichotomy is where the “bad idea” exists. You see the older you get the farther the distance. On the other hand, the older you get the harder it is to maintain your endurance. It truly is a mind-over-matter (but-don’t-kill-yourself) exercise goal. My friends on trying to convince me to try running a 10K next year. I guess working my way up to 4 miles is one way to work toward that goal.

Granted I do wish I would have started something like this 20 years ago but I didn’t know Wes back then. He’s my inspiration for doing this, “bad idea” or not.

/cheers

minions_icon

I could accomplish so much more if I only had minions!

 

TBT: The Day I Met Dierks

By

On February 8, 2018

In General Cogitation, Reminiscence, TBT

Me and friends with Dierks Bentley (circa 2003)

It’s not very often that you get to meet a celebrity. I have had very few celebrity encounters but the time I got to meet Dierks Bentley was pretty cool. The picture you see above is from several years ago, circa 2003 (as is evident by my skinny stature). There is a country bar in Lafayette called Riehle Brothers. I frequented it a couple of times while I was attending Purdue. I don’t even remember what we paid to see Dierks Bentley and Brian McComas, who were performing in front of a meager bar crowd. It was a fantastic concert. I even danced (which is rare and I’m sure I was coaxed into doing it by one of my friends, also in the picture above).

Before He Was Famous

Dierks’ only hit at the time was “What Was I Thinking“, now he has an amazing career. Sadly Brian McComas wasn’t quite as fortunate, although many songs on his album were still pretty good. It was one of the best nights I spent with my friends in that picture, Beth and Alan. I became a quite a big Dierks Bentley fan after that concert, and I still enjoy all his music. I haven’t had the opportunity to see him in concert again since Riehle Brothers but that’s not saying I wouldn’t.

TBT is one of those crazy Facebook trends. It stands for “ThrowBack Thursday” and often times people post pictures. I know the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words” but most of the time the pictures I want to post have a great story behind them. In my traditional nerdy fashion, instead of just a picture I want to provide a blog post for my TBT moments to share those great stories. I will not share stories in which the context will embarrass or incriminate myself or my friends and family.

Biggs 2018 New Years Intentions

By

On January 12, 2018

In General Cogitation

A new year means new goals (remember, I don’t make “New Years resolutions”). As we look forward to my 2018 New Years intentions, I am also going to review my 2017 intentions. I focused on four areas for 2017; Home Automation projects, Reading Challenge, Fitness and Health and Professional Skills Development. In the spirit of full disclosure and accountability, I was about 50% successful. Therefore, I guess as the first goal for the new year I plan to be more successful accomplishing the goals I set.

Biggs Labs – Smart Home

I completed nothing for my home automation project! I was hoping to have installed the dimmer switches and the Siri integration and none of that happened. If I can get my wife on board to help encourage me to work on it this year I think I should get this done in 2018. A potential roadblock is a broken SD card and lack of access to an SD card reader. I really want to get Siri working with our home automation. As I said last time, I just need to sit down and really focus on this task.

 2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge

I already went into more detail about my reading challenge results from last year; suffice it to say I was 14/15 despite what Goodreads said. The reading challenge goals for this year will be a legitimate 15 books, starting with reading Ready Player One again (in anticipation for the movie). I also have quite the list of Star Wars books to read (which begins with Thrawn), the Extracted trilogy and, of course, more Dresden Files.

As I complete books I will often post a book review. All my book reviews will be posts here but I will also post them on Goodreads and Amazon

 Fitness and Health

I was marginally successful with my wellness goals last year. The biggest accomplishment was actually running in my first 5K; last year I said if I miss all my other goals, completing a 5K would not be one of them. Mission accomplished! I will be running the Flying Pig 5K again this year and my goal this time will be to finish it faster.

As I have done every year since 2013, I completed the Walk to Mordor Nerd Fitness challenge. This year I’m sure to complete it again but I do need to start working my way through the second half of the challenge. If my math is correct I would need to start reaching an average daily step goal of 16,000 step. It is quite a lofty step goal considering I only average about 11-12k now.

Professional Skills Development

If it wasn’t my home automation projects where I dropped the ball in 2017 then it was in this category. I will admit that with all the changes that happened last year, job wise, I didn’t have many opportunities to focus on new skills. Last year I chose Swift and Angular 2 as potential new skills to pursue. This year my focus will more closely match what is needed for my career at my new job. The fact that time for innovation is supposed to be part of our weekly work routine will be wonderful help!

My 2018 goals do not seem as ambitious as they were in 2017 but perhaps its better that way. Maybe I wasn’t successful because I tried to accomplish too much. This year I am going to keep my goals a bit more reasonable. Also, I think I’ve said enough about the New Year, time to return to your regularly scheduled programming.

/MTFBWY

minions_icon

I could accomplish so much more if I only had minions!

 

Page 10 of 40

Previous

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén