This is the year the world’s supposed to end, right? =p

In usual planeteers fashion (we have a mailing list called planeteers, so that’s the name “the group” has inherited), we rang in the new year by playing Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield and at midnight we mass suicided by shooting each other and throwing frag grenades at our feet. Good times. Back in the day, we used to play Raven Shield a lot of the max difficulty which is really hard and you almost always die in one hit from “the terrorists.” Whenever only a few of us were left and we weren’t near completing the map, someone would yell “all hope is lost!” which would usually prompt some/all of the remaining players to turn on each other and then suicide themselves so a new round would start. Sometimes, though, “all hope is lost!” would be called prematurely by someone who just didn’t want to wait around that long for the next round… you’d immediately hear “NO NO NO!” but it’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy as we don’t need a lot of reason to kill each other. =p

Here are some instagram photos of Mozilla from my phone. I need to try to take more “real” photos of him while he’s still a puppy…

On the way back from Arkansas:
[instapress url=http://instagr.am/p/bL98k/ size=400]

Chewing, with pink crate in the background:
[instapress url=http://instagr.am/p/bVD9i/ size=400]

Tired out after playing with pink ball:
[instapress url=http://instagr.am/p/b9nKo/ size=400]

Mozilla snuggled up against my leg and passed out:
[instapress url=http://instagr.am/p/cQ5My/ size=400]

Mozilla’s raccoon tail:
[instapress url=http://instagr.am/p/dVtqc/ size=400]

Also, I decided to get a new car (Accord Coupe V6):

[instapress url=http://instagr.am/p/dWO7f/ size=400]

2011 was kind of an off year for blogging for me. I’ll try to pick it back up this year. That’s my resolution.

ALL HOPE IS LOST!

Well December was certainly a rough one, but I’ll try to stick to the positives on the blog. Despite the plethora of suck, there was actually a lot of silver lining too. I just wanted to say thanks to all my friends and family for being awesome. I’ll also throw a shout out to Bazaarvoice too for being so incredibly understanding and making things as easy as possible for me.

Now, on to the positives!

I’m sure it was a combination of things, but I finally broke down and got a puppy. Nancy says it’s about time and I’m two years late. Well, better late than never? =p I feel a little ashamed at not rescuing a dog, but my little shiba inu pup, Mozilla, is so awesome, I honestly can’t say I have any regrets. Sorry? =p

On Christmas Eve, Andrew, Nancy, Sam, Viraj and I hit the road. Here’s a short video of our trip to Arkansas to get the little guy:

And now, some photos. I made sure to wear my Mozilla Firefox shirt given the planned name I had for him.

On another topic, here’s a video of Oriana opening the Christmas gift I got her:

Bye for now!

I’ve only been to a handful of concerts in my life and most of them I just go to tag along. Despite living in Austin, I’m not much of a live music guy. That said, there has only been one band to make me do something like drive to snowy Denver in November with a group of friends and then immediately back in order to be at their last show. That band was Five Iron Frenzy back in 2003. Unfortunately, I only remember a little bit of the trip. Being really cold outside the Fillmore waiting to get in, not feeling well once in and going up to a second floor area to rest a bit during the actual concert, and then coming back down to ensure I enjoyed their last song:

I certainly wouldn’t say I’m a ska type of guy, but there’s just that right something about FIF that gets to me. I remember being hit by a ton of emotion during their last song and joining in with the crowd saying “THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU…” when it ended.

Well, FIF IS BACK (!!) and I’m having a good time listening to their preview song.

That is all. =)

It’s done! Viraj provided assistance in interviewing and some creative juices, if you know what I mean. Erhm…

When we played this to Sam, he sent me a multitude of cuss words. <3 Sam. ;)

Viraj made me censor a scene, but if you know me and want to see it, friend me on YouTube (owiber) and I may give you access to the uncensored version. =)

I wish I had gotten more footage, but not feeling well for part of the trip took a toll on my willingness to film much. Wish I had more footage of others on the trip. Next time! Enjoy!

Last night, Sam, Mark and I scoured YouTube and watched old 80’s/90’s cartoon themes. I brought up the fact that all of the following were cartoons I used to watch.

• Poochie
• Rainbow Brite
• Popples
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Jem

Sam and Mark didn’t seem very surprised at this reveal. Granted, I also watched a lot of others (TMNT, Transformers, Voltron, etc.). After watching all of those intros, there’s an awful lot of pink going on… =D

All of this reminded me of a memory I have of when I was kid. My dad presented two packages of cartoon-branded candy to me. I don’t remember what one of them was, but the other was Jem branded. Guess which one I took? When my dad asked me if I was sure and shouldn’t I want the other one, I just shook my head and walked off with the Jem pack. That’s where my memory ends, but I’m sure Olivia was left with some MASK candy or something like that…

For my birthday, I gave myself a few days off of work (Friday, Monday and Tuesday). Chad also had Friday off, so we went on a man-date and saw:

A few minutes before the movie started, we were the only guys there. Some others showed up as the movie was starting, but we were the only ones without accompanying females. That said, I enjoyed the movie, so take away what you will from that. =p

On Saturday, I watched UT lose (good try though, guys) and just did some misc hanging out. Sunday, I had a birthday lunch with the family and then hung out with peeps again. Viraj and I finally got around to recording some post-Asia trip interviews for our trip documentary. I cut a few of the clips together last night and it’s turning out well. I still need quite a few snippets, but it’s a good start.

BYE

…or what’s left of it, anyways.

Viraj being a creeper:

Mikey successfully wooing Viraj:

Mikey whispering sweet nothings to Viraj:

What Nancy feels for Sam after Viraj’s apparent fling with Mikey:

So I enabled Timeline on my account since I’m one of those developer types and it’s actually pretty cool.

The timeline gets more general the further back you go (and probably because I used FB less when I first started), but here are some things it thought to highlight back in the day:

shrug =)

Hey there, blog. Sorry I haven’t been giving you much attention. I promise I’ll come back someday.

Poor blog, so neglected. After the new year started, I stopped trying to keep up with the at least one blog post per week… I now see that without that target, I apparently don’t post very much at all. =)

Alrighty, so it feels like it’s been a busy month.

BV All-Hands:

As usual, the rest on flickr.

Melissa graduated:

Flickr set.

Shot the Midgetmen & Blistering Speeds:

Flickr set.