Pink Flamingo on Toast

Well...what a weekend that was. Lots of caffeine was consumed. Also many, many hours of playing Vanguard occured. I know at one time Jerry said that we had been playing for six hour straight. hehe...Vanguard is like crack. So fun..and we played with our friends from all over the country. One of them is in Tampa the other is Missouri...Have I mentioned how much I love technology. Bringing people from all over together. Today I have to get my homework done before Jerry gets home from work. Just taking a short break before I dive into that. Then we head over to his parents house to work on their Taxes for their Barbershop. After we finish all of that and consume some nutrients the game play will continue. I'm actually excite. Hey..if I finish my homework quickly maybe I can get in game a little before Jerry gets home. Gotta go!

Today is the release of the MMO, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. What does that mean? Well....It means for the entire weekend we will be glued to our computers. Questing and trying to level our characters quickly so that we can form our guild. So far we have friends who are coming from both Everquest 2 and Star Wars Galaxies to join us in our newest online adventures. We've even set up a voice chat program so that we can all communicate to each other. Gosh technology rocks. Did I just say gosh?!? Jerry took half a day off so that we could both get on right at the beginning of launch. Maybe we have silly priorities..but we are doing it together so there is that. A family that games together, stays together

Probably the toughest thing for a geek is to wait for the release of a game. Jerry and I have been beta testing an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) called Vanguard: Saga of Heroes . Very good game. Beautiful graphics, they are so good we had to upgrade our video cards to get the full effects. The beta ends tomorrow and then releases on Saturday. What will we do for those 3 days of no game? Probably read the game forums. Yes..I know...we are dorks.

So far so good. A lot more signing which is wonderful. I can definitely use the practice. "Voices off" used to scare me in my classes but now I welcome the opportunities to practice my signing. We do voice though. Right now we are working on Auditory Memory. The exercises to help us with this are kind of fun. Someone reads a list of words and we have to repeat the words immediately after hearing them. Sure it gets very loud in the classroom with 10 people all talking the same time but that is part of the process. The other exercise is the same idea but using phrases instead of just a list of words. So far so good. I think my work at the Relay center is helping with this process. I think in a few weeks we start throwing Sign Language into the mix. Fun!

Never has a show moved me to find out more about how the government works. Each season I wonder if the things that happen on the show could actually happen. Last year on 24 was the season of "This president is psycho" and this year seems so far to be a theme of "let's just disregard the constitution in the name of security". Sounds familiar doesn't it. Recently I read that the CIA was looking into bank records . I shrugged it off and thought "so what". I was talking to Jerry and he told me "Look..the CIA can not act domestically". So after reading more I'm finding out that what they are doing is illegal....but it's for "the security of the nation". Hmm ...funny how art imitates life. Scary enough that more Americans should be upset with what is going on. I voted for change, change is trying to happen and being tossed aside with this air of "Imperial attitude" . Democracy..that's what we signed up...

Wow...Another semester started today for me. I just have one class. "Interactive Interpreting I" . Today was good...we signed a bunch today and I'm a little rusty from the holiday break. I need to practice lots. My fingerspelling was really slow, and by the end of class my poor little hands were so tired. Should be an interesting class. No big tests just lots of performance quizzes throughout the semester. Bring it on...(feign courage) I just finished "Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut. Wow...very interesting book. I really like the concepts that he visits in this book. Death seems so..well...it just is what it is. "so it goes". I can't believe I fought reading all these years. I'm so behind on all the books I want to read.

Were made for Michalob...well..not quite how we are enjoying our weekend. I hope everyone is having a good one. Nothing really new here. Tuesday I start school again. Long class, 2:00pm until 4:45pm twice a week. I'm hoping there are breaks during those 2 hours and 45 minutes because the professor can be a bit dry at times. So back to the weekend...again, I hope you have a good one!

Every year we go out to dinner with our friends Jay and Sabrina. This year was no different except that we didn't stick around to count down to 2007. I had to work on Monday morning and didn't want to be out. We had an early dinner with them and then Jerry and I headed home. This year was a first for me on January 1st. I went to the Gator Bowl . Every year Jerry's Grandfather buys him and his dad tickets to the game, and each year I'm home alone watching the game on tv hoping to see my sweetie in the stands. This year we decided to see if there was a ticket near Jerry's. I called and lo and behold the seat RIGHT next to his was open. So I went! West Virginia vs Georgia Tech . It was odd going to a game that I didn't really have any loyalty to though. Good game...was fun to see the bands. I miss Marching Band so this was a treat to see both College bands plus the 200 High School bands that joined together for half time. I was dead tired last night. Getting up a...