It is the evening of July 4th, a national holiday in the U.S. (“Independence Day), and just past the halfway point of 2018. There was good food and good times with the family. Also, a good amount of fireworks were set off by me and the siblings. Sue us!
After working nearly a year on 3rd shift weekends, and another year as a full-time, 3rd shift worker, my final scheduled night on 3rd shift is Thursday. I begin working on first shift (6:30 AM – 2:30 PM) next Tuesday, July 10th. I can’t wait: I can get back to a somewhat regular sleeping schedule and possibly back to a “normal” school homework/studying schedule!
I purchased an HP Omen Desktop PC a couple of weeks ago. It is sweet!! I can play the games in my library that weren’t loading or playing on my old PC and, when needed, can run programming homework and projects with no issues. I am currently:
- working my way through the Special Edition of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. I am level 14, a recently named “Nightingale” of the Thieves Guild, had my 2nd encounter with a Dragon, and have some pretty sweet armor and weapons
- playing through Prey, which I have written a couple of posts about it; the next post should be up by Friday
- sporadically playing World of Warcraft; I have finished the pre-“Battle For Azeroth” quests on 2 of my level 110 characters
Atlas Reactor and a soon-to-be-purchased Okami are next in line for play. Darkest Dungeon will also sneak in there, somewhere.
Speaking of games: the Electronic Entertainment Expo (“E3”) happened a few weeks ago. Some of the games I’m looking forward to include the expansion to Prey, “Mooncrash”, “NieR: Automata”, and the mobile game, “The Elder Scrolls: Blades”. Members of the podcast “Podicus Wrecks”, including myself, recap E3 and talk about which other games we are excited about at this link. In perfect hindsight, I wish that I had followed E3 closer, in the past. It was interesting, watching most of the panels this year!
I hope to take a few days off in August to go travel somewhere outside of Louisville. If I have to stay home, it won’t be the worst thing, but I’d rather not stay home all of that time. My brothers and sister are going to Kings Inland near the end of July but I can’t ride anything in that park, except for Bumper Cars and maybe the Ferris Wheel. 😦
I got to attend my first ever soccer match! Louisville has a team – “Louisville City FC” – that plays for the United Soccer League, a minor league for soccer. They are the defending USL Champions. On Saturday, I got a free ticket to the Louisville FC – New York Red Bulls II match. Louisville scored with less than a minute in stoppage time to force a 3-3 draw, in Coach James O’Connor’s last match; he was named coach of Louisville’s parent club, Orlando City FC. It was a fun match!
I like to look back at any resolutions or “wish lists” that I made in January, at the end of June or the beginning of Jury. From this post, here’s how the resolutions stand:
- Get down to 230 pounds, by April 1st; get to 215 pounds, by Halloween. I hit the first mark a few days early; I have a few months to drop 11-15 more pounds.
Resolution: check (1st part), in progress (2nd progress) - Get a vehicle. This has the potential to happen by September 1st… but I’m not gonna jinx myself by declaring that it’s a certainty.
Resolution: in progress - Find an Internship and/or a job in Programming, Web Development, or Game Design. I actually put this on hold for a few months, while I survived the dumpster fire of a Spring semester. Now that it’s July, it might be time to crank this search up again.
Resolution: in progress - Make the Dean’s List for the Spring Semester. This was a failure of epic proportions. If there was a silver lining about the Spring, it’s that I know what went wrong and things to correct them (see: going to 1st shift).
Resolution: failed - Take much more time for myself. This has been a surprising success! I haven’t been able to hang out with many friends this year (hopefully, that changes this weekend…) but I have managed to read 5 books this year so far, get some good family time, get some great gaming time, and get the opportunity to get out of the house, on occasion!
Resolution: in progress but passed
I have a yearly check up on Monday. As of Wednesday, before the check up:
- I am at 226.2 lbs. That’s about 22 pounds down for the year, 25 pounds down since Christmas 2017, and about 36 or 37 pounds down from my heaviest. I haven’t done many walks in the last few weeks (Louisville’s Heat Indices have been in the Dangerous category for me), so I’ve been stuck in the 226-230 pound range. I’ve counteracted that with even more reduced pop-drinking and more water drinking.
- My INR was 2.5, at my check up a few weeks ago. It’s been within the accepted range for most of the year, but my INR has bounced around a lot, over the last 2 or 3 months. It’s a never-ending, exhausting balancing act.
- Pink Eye sucks. Middle Ear Infections suck more. Thankfully, neither have plagued me since early May.
- The feet, minus a minor flare-up or 2, have been quiet for the last few months. Very grateful!
My 40th birthday is in 24 days, my brother’s birthday is in 10 days; football preseason starts in about a month; school might start for me in about 5 1/2 weeks, if I can win an appeal for more Financial Aid. Hopefully, I can enjoy the rest of summer between now and then!
The Nexus 