John Zeitler » rantings

Counting Blessings

John — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:21:32 +0000

Today I was on my way to breakfast when I saw a fairly bad car accident ahead. I didn’t see the actual impact, but I did happen to see the several police cars and the cars that were left. There was broken glass all over the lanes, and people pacing up and down the median break. One of them was a woman carrying a pink bundle close to her chest, comforting her infant daughter.

I realized that I can’t really complain all that much about my car troubles. It could have been much, much worse.

Fun and Games

John — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:04:01 +0000

The past few weeks have been rough, but today’s trip out to enjoy a little fun with some friends was greatly appreciated. Tomorrow, I have some grocery shopping to do and a bit of laundry, and I may yet go out again, but overall even if I stay home for the Super Bowl, that’ll be OK, too, as I’ll have accomplished what I need to.

I’m still writing up the saga of the whole mess so as to let you all in on what exactly I went through.

I Lived Here Before It Was In Video Games

John — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:33:41 +0000

Apparently, somewhere between 2007 and this past year, the city of Pittsburgh became the go-to locale on which to base your video game environs. Seriously, with Fallout 3′s The Pitt expansion and now The Last of Us, the Burgh is pretty much inescapable in my preferred method of escapism.

I could complain about the fact that they take some pretty generous liberties with the geography of the area– Last of Us in particular– but since they did such a great job representing the zombies, I can let i–

….wait, you’re telling me that in real life, they’re just homeless people?

…………….I’ll be back in a bit, folks. I need to go talk to the guy selling shotguns on the corner of Liberty and Seventh right the hell now and tell him to cut that shit out, yo.

Why Isn’t He Blue? Oh, You Said GROUNDhog Day

John — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:22:28 +0000

I remember my trip to Punxutawney, to see the pomp and circumstance that surrounds the events that today culminates in. It was bright and sunshiney, and I had an unobstructed view to anything I could have wanted to see, shadow or not.

Because we went in June, when nothing at all was going on.

I Sense A Recurring Theme

John — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:24:18 +0000

Guys, until I get more than about five consecutive seconds to think about composing my thoughts for an actual post, the Bailout will continue. Fortunately, that should be happening today– I’m getting a rental car for the next two days before the final purchase happens, meaning I can think and reflect a little bit while in traffic. It’s amazing, to me, that I find driving so relaxing, so long as I’m moving.

Rolling

John — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:59:12 +0000

I’ve gone over the details of the test drives pretty intensely over the last couple days on other services, so really there’s very little to cover here that hasn’t already filtered to the people who’d be interested in it. So, the bottom line is that I’m going to be the owner of a VW in a few weeks. I’m a little excited.

Namely because I really want to not be trapped in this apartment on the weekends anymore, and because quite frankly not having a car stopped me from actually doing something that would have been cool this weekend. I had my pick of cool things to do and everything. Some of them were even social.

Not like I’m bitter or anything.

Mopping Up

John — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:34:36 +0000

I have been dealing with the stress of the situation that I’m in at the moment by trying to keep myself busy enough that I feel like I’m being productive, even if I’m not actually being so. To that end, I’m probably making some pretty effective use of the weekend; I’m clearing out a few Xbox achievements I’ve been meaning to get to, including some Rock Band ones for vocals and guitar, and maybe actually getting to the end of Time Pilot. This is being done in between painting some miniatures I’ve been procrastinating on.

Even still, I’d love nothing more than to not have quite this much free time at home…

Misfiring On All Pistons

John — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:57:07 +0000

I’m exhausted, folks… Really, I’m shocked I managed to finish Mighty Switch Force. But with three games done for January I’m on track for the yearly goal, I think, as long as I keep up this pace. For now, I’m just going to go to bed and hope I have an easy trip home after work tomorrow.

Titled

John — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:01:20 +0000

I know that I am very easily frustrated by my own general incompetence. I am also aware that I come down harder on myself than anyone else ever could when I come across a situation that, through my own fault, causes me extended grief. I am further aware that complaining and angsting about it does little good in the long run compared to actively working to remedy the problem.

Today I forgot all those things for about an hour and a half.

But now, on the other side of it, all I’ll say is that I am going to run a game of Paranoia very soon and I am going to gleefully inflict the bureaucratic hell that I have just endured upon an unsuspecting world ten– no, a hundredfold.

I’m Going Slightly Mad

John — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:28:14 +0000

So it turns out that when I started being more social and doing stuff outside of my house, this set a dangerous precedent for the times when I couldn’t actually get out. It’s to the point, really, where I don’t honestly know what I did with myself all day long on the weekends back when I was a loner.

You have no idea how utterly terrifying this revelation is.