48 hours from now I'll be in the Marriott Southern Hills Hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma, putting the final touches on my table and waiting for OVGE to officially begin. Last night I officially began preparing for the trip. I have a couple of spare plastic 20 gallon tubs that I've begun sorting things into. One's upstairs in the gameroom, the other is out in the garage, and I've been filling the tubs with spare games, consoles, and other bits of electronica to sell this coming Saturday. It's not as muc
I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to the entire country for the heat wave we've been experiencing. It's my fault, and I should have fixed the problem earlier.
This summer I haven't been riding my motorcycle as much as I would have liked, but after putting over $80 in gas in my truck I decided that I could save some money by at least riding to and from work on the bike. Friday I had the oil changed, filled the bike with gas, and made plans to begin riding the bike to work this we
Mason begins pre-K this year. When I was a kid, kindergarten only lasted half a day and you didn't stay at school all day long until 1st grade. These days kids start a year earlier with pre-K, which is only half a day long, and then move to kindergarten which now lasts all day. By the time Mason's 17, he will have attended school 13 1/2 years.
Last night was Mason's enrollment/open house night. Mason's class is basically the first one you come to when you walk in the front door, so he should
I haven't been riding my motorcycle much this summer. For one thing it's been too hot -- riding a bike in 100+ degree heat isn't particularly fun, which is the only reason I ride one (for fun). The other reason is, I hadn't changed the oil on the bike, an oil change was due, and I didn't want to try and do it myself. To change the oil on my motorcycle you have to remove parts of the plastic fairing before you can even get to the engine. I'm sure I could remove it if I had to -- it's that whole "
Earlier today I landed a paying gig writing videogame reviews for an up and coming website. This comes on the heels of my other paying gig with Videogame Collector Magazine, who I am also writing reviews for. Issue #6 of VGC should be out this month -- I can't wait to see it in print!
On the way home I was pretty stoked about all the writing opportunities that have presented themselves to me over the past couple of years. It wasn't too long ago that I was spinning my wheels, wasting time wri
Saturday, August 19th is the fourth annual OVGE (Oklahoma Videogame Exhibition) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Even though I only attended the first show (in 2003) as a spectator, it looked like so much fun that I've been an exhibitor ever since. In 2004 I showed off my console copier collection with a pirate-themed table. It was very popular -- kids loved all the pirate decorations I used (blue table cloths, yellow netting, fake gold coins, and skull and crossbone suckers!) and the gamers liked seeing the
Our house has one upstairs room, a converted bonus room that I claimed as my "man cave" when we bought the house. The room has one air conditioner vent and one return vent as well as a ceiling fan. I figured the room might get hot due to all the computers and gaming equipment I have, but this summer it's been unbearable.
As your head begins to enter the room's air space while climbing the stairs you can feel yourself stepping into the heat, not unlike climbing into the attic. The air conditi
I remember the Great Northern Migration of 2002. As Mason went from crawling to standing, everything in the house migrated "north", or up. The center surround sound speaker went from under the television to on top of it, the fireplace was cleaned off, and so on.
Last night, the Great Northern Migration Part II took place after Morgan spend the evening turning the Xbox off and on and laughing her head off. After Morgan went to bed the entertainment center was scooted out from against the wall
Wednesday morning at exactly 5:47am I was awoken (?) by a sharp smack to the face. After feeling around to make sure my nose was still there, I rolled over and asked Susan what the hell that was about. Her reply? "I thought you were the alarm clock."
Thursday morning I awoke to some of the most painful stomach cramps I have ever experienced. Susan thinks it was from the cold chicken I had at lunch; I'm blaming the fajitas I had for dinner. Regardless, it sucked real bad. It was so bad I actu
After one final round of grammar checking and typo-correcting, I sent the final copy of my book off to the publisher last night. The first 30 copies should arrive in two weeks, in plenty of time for OVGE. The company warned me several times not to order multiple copies of the book until I had received at least one and okayed the final proof, but unfortunately time is of the essence -- I don't have enough days between now and OVGE for two separate book orders to be shipped. It's a gamble I had to
One of the many projects I'm currently working on is an electronic "Choose Your Own Adventure". It's kind of a cross between the old paperback CYOA books I used to read as a kid, combined with the old computer text adventures I grew up playing. The freeware software I'm using (Adventure Book) allows you to create different options for players depending on items you have in your inventory, so the adventure will be slightly more robust than the simple paperback ones.
After working on it for a
On May 1st my wife, myself, and two co-workers made a bet as to who could lose the most weight (measured by percentage) over a three month period. Each of us agreed to put $100 into the pot, winner take all. Today (one day early), we perfomed our final weigh-ins. The end result?
I WON!!!
From May 1st to August 1st I lost a total of 46lbs, which ended up being about 12% of my total body weight. Johnny was a close second with around 10% total loss. The two girls came in last, but have vowe
The problem with being an "early technology adopter" is inevitably you end up owning a lot of early (and outdated) technology. For example, I mentioned earlier that last month I got a new 5.1 megapixel camera to replace my 1.3 megapixel one that I've been using since 1998. I knew my old one was outdated when I saw it for sale at a Love's Truck Stop for $79, two years ago.
The punishment for being an early adopter is that if a gadget catches on, the next year improved, less expensive models w
The deadline is now set in stone. My book, tentatively titled Commodork: Sordid Tales of a BBS Junkie, will go on sale August 19th at this year's OVGE. I'm having 50 copies printed for that weekend, which should be enough copies for friends and family as well as anyone who wants to buy one at the show. After those are gone I'll be ordering more copies for press copies as well as for selling.
I will have more information about the book's length and such when I get the final layouts done. The
Wednesday during lunch, Johnny, Susan and I went to Staples. I've been needing another hard drive for a while now, and Staples has 300 gig drives on sale this week for $99 (no rebate!). To make a long story short I bought not one but two, plus an external USB enclosure for one, and an external 16x dvd burner. The grand total was just over $400. Credit cards are the devil (as is lubaj, which is a joke about 4 people on the planet would get. He's hollow, are you?)
Thursday after work Scott Cow
Those of you who remember Mad Magazine may remember a regular feature Al Jaffe used to write titled "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions." In each one there would be a stupid question ("Did you catch that fish?") and then several snappy answers (such as "No, I talked him into giving himself up" and "No, I was sitting here minding my own business when the crazy thing jumped into my pail").
Help me brainstorm snappy answers to the stupid question, "So, is it hot enough for ya?". I've heard thi
This weekend I noticed a couple of comments on my blog(s) from completely different demographics. It's weird to have your family, your online pals, former classmates and complete strangers all interacting together in the blogosphere.
To probably only my parents, I'm <b>Robert Patrick O'Hara</b>. But to many of more of you, I'm just <b>Rob O'Hara</b> -- husband, father, son, cousin, nephew, uncle, friend, and co-worker. To some of you I was <b>Jack Flack</b>
Happy bomb drill day, everybody!
Maybe I wasn't clear enough in my entry yesterday about the heat. It's hot. I mean, HOT. The thermometer on my truck yesterday on the way home read 113 degrees! That is not a typo -- 113 degrees!!! Last night at 10pm it was 90 degrees -- this morning at 6am, it was 85.
Today, someone at work decided it would be a good day for a bomb threat drill. Maybe they were delirious from the heat or something. Don't get me wrong -- I am certainly all for safety procedu
I think most of the time our brains operate on autopilot. We walk, we drive, we talk without ever really noticing many of the things around us. Sometimes when something out of the ordinary occurs, there's a moment where we're confused for a couple of seconds. I think that might be our brains shifting back from automatic to manual mode or something.
I decided to go for a walk this morning before work, so I began my normal routine. After getting dressed and getting my MP3 player ready I walked
Well, not me so much as the temperature. According to 9online.com's 7 day forecast the high for today is 104 degrees, followed by highs of 105 for Tuesday and 103 Wednesday. By Friday it's supposed to "get down" to 100. As Matthew Broderick once said, "it's like Africa hot." Yesterday while out driving the thermometer in my truck's rear view mirror read 103 degrees. I've been pushing back my walking times further and further. At 10pm it's still 85 degrees outside right now. I don't know if this
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