August « 2005 « My Substitute Reality

Wednesday August 31, 2005

Kenosha?

Filed under: Life,Personal — don @ 9:06 pm

Ohhhh, Wisconsin. I’ve never really been but I’d sure like to go. Ohh, Wisconsin, I think I’m gonna go now. You can try to sing that to the tune of “Mexico” by James Taylor but it doesn’t flow very well. No matter, we’re leaving tomorrow.

My youngest daughter Jocelyn is getting married on Saturday and the wedding is in Kenosha. Kenosha, WI. For those of you who watch “That 70’s Show” it’s where the kids go when they need some big city stimulation. I’m not even sure how big it is. I’m guessing it’s smaller than Tucson. Maybe I should look it up……………… I looked it up. It’s a little shy of 100,000. About 7,000 shy. That said it’s also the 4th largest city in Wisconsin.

Betty and I are flying Northwest Airlines. I got the tickets before the strike. Who knew? We are coming back on Midwest into Las Vegas and then American into LA. We got married in Las Vegas on Sep 3rd, 1994. Checck your calender and you’ll see this Saturday is the 3rd. I don’t think Jocelyn knew that when she and Eric picked the date. I’m telling Betty her anniversary present is an all expense paid trip to a quaint little town on one of the Great Lakes. Lake Michigan is one of them, right?

I’ll take lots of pictures and put em in my gallery when we get back. I might even try some of their cheese. I hear it’s almost as good as California’s.

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Sunday August 21, 2005

Where has Don been?

Filed under: Geek,Life,Personal — don @ 9:59 pm

It’s been a long time since I updated this. Some may think I’ve been wasting the time watching TV but you would be wrong. I’ve been wasting time creating maps for Counter Strike:Source.

What’s Counter Strike? It’s a computer game that’s similar to Quake and Doom except you play on a team. You are either Terrorists or Counter Terrorists. The T’s and CT’s run around in a simulated world that looks extremely realistic compared to the old Castle Wolfenstein and Doom 1 and 2. The game runs on the same “engine” that runs Half Life 2 if you’re familiar with that one.

To create maps you use a CAD tool called Hamer(used to be called Worldcraft). It’s got 3 views, X, Y, and Z and a camera view to see what the textures and models look like. The tool actually comes with the game. You draw blocks and cylinders and stuff and put textures on them to create the world. It’s a lot of fun for me and has become quite addicting. I’ve got some pictures of my latest map in my gallery from last week. I’ve made a ton of changes since then and I’ll get some more screenshots soon.

On to other doings in our family.

Heather and Mark are expecting their second child in about 7 months. She wrote me last week but for some reason I didn’t get the email. I found out by reading a post by Dianna. Camden is getting old and needs to have a visit from his grandpa. I’ll try to do that soon but read the next paragraph to find out what I’m doing short term.

My other daughter, Jocelyn, is getting married in about 2 weeks. She’s marrying Eric Weiss up in Kenosha, WI. Betty and I are going to make the trip for the wedding. I haven’t seen her in a few years. It amazes me how fast time goes.

It’s about bedtime for me but I figured I better let everyone know I’m still alive and kicking.

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Tuesday August 9, 2005

Boom – boom!

Filed under: Life — don @ 9:37 am

The shuttle landed at Edwards today at 5:12 am. At 5:05 it broke the sound barrier over Southern California. The main reason I know this is because that’s what got me out of bed.