Happy New Year

About this time each year I often put together some sort of list in order to summarize my experience over the past 365 days. Thing is, this is the end of a decade, too. And not just any decade. This is my first decade as an adult. Perhaps a list is called for. Then again, it would probably just be a bunch of World of Warcraft highlights punctuated by things like marriage or births. Ja, a list is right out, hey.

The decade began with me in high school, living in Cape Town. In 2001 I moved to America and apart from a few months here and there, it has been my home ever since. In 2002 I quit computer games cold turkey. Didn't play a game again until 2004. In 2005 I earned my bachelor of arts in English. From 2004 through 2008 I held down a handful of jobs, selling books, gyros and chicken. In 2006 I asked 2nd Lieutenant Kristina Partrick to marry me. By May of 2008 she was Cpt. Kristina Burgers M.D. and mother to Edith Rose. Later that year we moved to Hawaii. The last year of the decade gave us a new home on Hickam Air Force base and another beautiful daughter, Frances Caroline.

It's already 2010 in Cape Town, but here the sun is in the middle of his lazy slide down the sky. This decade has been good. More than good, positively glowing. If the 2000s are anything to go by, well, the 2010s are going to be pretty darn good, too.

When is comes to resolutions, I must admit that I have been very lazy in this department of late. Here we go, my resolution for 2010:         write at least 500 words everyday

Good luck with your resolutions and Happy New Year, Happy New Decade!

Note: New holiday photos and videos coming soon!

                      

Three Years of Marriage

I'm not very good at giving gifts. I got Kristina an HP Personal Media Drive for our first anniversary and the collector's edition of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning for our second. This year I got her a jar of tobacco. I think that's a step up. I chose the jar myself and I got her favorite tobacco (an English stink-athon called Long John Silver). That may just seem like a gift choosing problem, but let me assure you that it extends to all facets of the gifting process. For example, this year I gave her the gift the night before our anniversary. I just kind of handed it to her and then sat down to watch videos on Hulu.


True, she hasn't got me anything yet (upon writing this post, on the night BEFORE our anniversary), but far be it for me to slander HER gifting abilities. I usually buy myself too many board games throughout the year and then declare loudly, "So, I guess I shouldn't get anything for Christmas or anything." It's the buyer's remorse talking, though, and by November I'll start telling Kristina what she should get me for Christmas. I get pretty particular: "I would like that one Heroscape booster with the Romans in it - it's out of print so check eBay," or "I want that Lego set with the dwarfs fighting the vikings on a pirate ship."

Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer are dating. Don't worry, this ties in. When I was in high school I had this picture in my head of a girl, my girl. She was a ball of contradictions because I was a geeky teenager who didn't really know what he wanted. One thing I did know, she was some wild thing that would drag me through manic adventures, my mind reeling, my heart pounding. I wanted someone who would challenge me to be something more. Now, Mr. Gaiman is a gent who can look after himself, which is good, because Ms. Palmer is whirlwind and together they will twist and twirl through wonders undreamed.

So what happened to my fantasy? Am I a Neil without his Amanda "F#@#ing" Palmer? My dreams came true, actually. You see, Kristina shares many interests with me, but we are very different when it comes to temperament. She isn't wild in the ways I am. I could hardly call her a bubbling ball of spontaneous impulsivity. That is good. We already have one of those in the family. Where she has challenged me has been surprising and awesome. Not once has she insisted that I try a weird hairstyle or some risky sport, but she has taught me to re-evaluate my opinions and to be truly open-minded while at the same time critical and discerning. She constantly challenges me to be better than who I am. Where many people would have given up, she has been my constant champion, my coach. As an editor she is brutal, but fair. As a wife she is supportive and caring. She has given me the most perfects gifts any man has ever received in our Edith and Frances. I am truly happy. I found my wild thing and she is all I wanted and more.

Happy Anniversary, Kristina (it's still a few hours away as I write this). Let's enjoy some stinky English on the lanai sometime!

Car seat, Chrome in Linux and Don't Rest Your Head

I went on Sunday to buy Edith a toddler bed after she jumped off her crib's changing table. In case you're not aware of this (and I guess I should have been) Toys R Us is NOT a nice place to shop this close to Christmas. In the confusion and chaos I left Frances's car seat in the parking lot (don't worry, the girls were home with Kristina. You need all the room you can get if you're hauling a bed in a Kia Rio). So, Kristina and I don't notice my epic fail until this morning and Frances has a check up (which the phone service thinks is with Family Planning Clinic for some ridiculous reason). So, Kristina is late for work and I'm calling everywhere to see if they have my car seat. Toys R Us has me on hold for almost 10 minutes, the swine! Anyway, I'm off to Target to buy a new one. Stupid car seats not being visible in my mirrors while I flee from the madness!

Chrome has a Linux beta now. I'm pretty happy. After Karmic Koala ate my Chromium Browser, I was using a highly modded Firefox. Forget that business now that Chrome is here. Seriously, if you're not using Chrome, get it now. It's a fantastic browser (oh, that you can't watch Netflix in, sadly) Stupid Netflix and Silverlight *shakes fist*

My Don't Rest Your Head rule book arrived today. Smallest. RPG. Ever. But I already knew that, I guess. It's just crazy to compare it to something like Pathfinder (don't own that one) which is probably the most colossal RPG rule book I've ever seen. Forget you, Pathfinder! I'm digging DRYH's streamlined feel. Any game where your character sheet can fit on an index card is ok in my book. Good job Evil Hat. Your game is tiny and fun. We need more of that in the RPG world.

A communist, a lamb shank and some tiny Roman legionnaires

We've been getting to the farmers' market late recently, so I've missed seeing the little Chinese lady who hands out communist tracks. We were late again today, but she was still there, waving her flyer at the passers-by, each one of them averting his gaze. I put out my hand and took the crumpled mini manifesto, its comrades a hefty ream in the crook of the lady's arm. They were all unblemished, unwanted. I folded my copy and pocketed it. "Don't get any ideas," Kristina said, "I'll get fired."

Our mushroom lady had tons of mushrooms this week. I regret only getting one bag of maitake mushrooms. They are my favourite and I can't get them at the commissary. Oh well.

Hawaii's Gourmet Fungal Jungle: best tag line ever.

Here's a curious thing: I know people don't mean any offence by it, but I always find the public display of this word shocking.

I think you mean "makrud lime"

We never eat at the market. Often Kristina is there alone and she wants to get home quickly. When we all go, we're wrangling beets and babies, so we can only manage some shave ice. Today I decided to get some dolmades. Unfortunately these folks were sold out of the mahshi (I'm assuming they meant dolmades, since mahshi is stuffed marrow, according to Wikipedia). Denied my rice-filled treat, I decided on the lamb shank. Here are some pictures.

Hawaiian Mediterranean/Middle Eastern Food: Awesome.

Thank you. I will.

 

I ate the shank like a chicken drumstick. It was delicious.

Been playing Heroscape. It really is a fun game. The rules are simple and easy to learn. Battles don't drag on too long and normally end with a dramatic last-man-standing face-off (last night it was a lady with a stick -versus- four red coats). My favorite pieces are my Romans. They are fantastic. Behold!

This is Marcus Decimus Gallus. He is hardcore!

These are my Roman Legionnaires.

Here are the Roman Archers.

If you can find another box of Romans, let me (or Kristina) know. That's pretty much what I want for Christmas this year.

Babies, pickled onions, dwarves and ghosts

Edie and Frankie are doing well. Today Frankie rolled over from her stomach to her back and from her back to her stomach. Edie drew on Frankie and ate a blue crayon. Edie IS 100% my daughter. I do wonder about that Frankie sometimes, what with the feats of physical exertion and all.

Frankie is coming to gum your shirt sleeves.

She enjoys her mobile hammock a little too much.

Who uses Google Wave? I've got an account (carlcburgers at googlewave dot com), I've spent my invites (most of them) and I've got a few friends. So far I haven't found anything to do or anyone to do it with. Oh well. At least I've got other projects to occupy me, like converting my HTPC from Vista to Ubuntu 9.10. Only 3 things in our house run on Windows now: Kristina's laptop, my phone and Kristina's PDA. I intend to upgrade to some kind of Android phone as soon as I can. One day our house will be Windows free (well, except for the VMs I need to use .Net programs and Netflix. Curse you, Silverlight!)


Haven't logged on to Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online in a long while. Derdriu is 80 and Jeli is 30 (so I guess he's the dwarf to start playing). Cataclysm only comes out next year and while I'm excited to see the rest of Azeroth from the air I'm not that keen to grind rep and gold forever and ever until it comes out. As for Lotro, I'm not super keen to delve into new content. I've not even finished the vanilla content. Part of me wishes I was playing Warhammer again, but there the fun seemed to dry up at 40. Poor old Gudwig Gildenstein!

I was overjoyed to find some pickled onions at the Hickam Commissary this weekend. They're not the super strong kind I remember from my childhood, but they sure hit the spot. If you're never had a pickled onion before, imagine a cucumber and how the wonder of pickling turns it into the tart and wondrous pickle (or gerkin, depending on your dialect). Now imagine that same flavour enhancement applied to onions. If you like onions, you like pickled onions. I'll fight anyone who disagrees (by fight, I mean challenge them to a game of Magic: The Gathering or possibly Heroscape).




Started playing a survival horror RPG called Don't Rest Your Head. Josh is running it. It's pretty free form. You have 3 stats (Discipline, Madness and Exhaustion) and 2 talents (one that channels exhaustion and one that channels madness). My character is the homeless, identical twin brother of a famous magician who is impersonating his brother after accidentally strangling him. His exhaustion talent is lying and his madness talent is REAL stage magic. We're having a great time with it so far. I'm also considering whipping up my character back story into a full short story. Will keep you posted here about that.

Christmas is coming up and I think I want Heroscape. Sure, it's a kid-friendly collectable miniature game, but it's really fun. It's WAY more fun than Heroclix (for reasons that I will gladly go into, if you're interested). So far a have a small box of minis. I told Kristina when the box is full, I'll not need anymore. It's half full (or possibly half empty), so it won't break the bank to top up a little. Also, Edith has been doing some D&D research for me. We're excited about Dark Sun being relaunched next year. She also wants to try the Forth Edition Tomb of Horrors module. It's for characters level 10-20. Who's with me?