120 Stars!

It still bums me out that you don't get to ride Yoshi at the end.

My main motivation in writing this post is to brag that I beat Mario 64 for the first time with all 120 stars. Even the first time I played through it in 1996 my brother Seth and I traded off on the same save--each getting different ones.

Thankfully games today have better cameras and controls. Allison can attest to the fact that I threw the controller more than once. I can't count how many times the camera decided do an up close zoom of a wall instead of my jump or how many times Mario decided to run off the edge for whatever reason.

Luckily more has happened in my life besides twenty-year-old games.

I don't have any pictures from Halloween but it was the same costume. I fulfilled my usual role of handing out candy while the kids are out with their parents. I always try to play up some character for the task and this year was no different. I spooked up my outfit a little by closing my cloak, and popping up the hood. Furthermore I started walking with a limp and used my best psychotic villain voice. As the kids walked up I would either be standing at the open door with my back turned or I would jump out at them just as they were about to knock on the glass storm door.

There were several times I had to break character as small children's eyes went wide with fear but for the most part the kids played along. The best time by far was when a young teenager came to the door and as I came out at him he visibly jumped. This caused even the stoic father of my cousin to laugh.

Some other things:

Old Bones had a fantastic makeup job by Ariel Stardust.

My family, Sarah, and I attended the Salt Lake showing of Deep Love. It was a fantastic folk/rock opera written by some of Allison's friends in Rexburg. It was full of passion, betrayal, and superb singing; if you're in the area next Halloween I highly recommend you go see it.

Sarah gifted me several swatches of fabric of which I was able to make a few more bow-ties. The picture above only has them partially finished but I have since completed all of them (making more than one sewing mistakes in the process). Sewing is a lot of fun and hopefully I'll be able to branch out into other patterns soon.

At the planetarium. Space is so cool!

Octoberfest

It's not quite Halloween yet but I attended my first Halloween party and received high praise for my costume. I couldn't find the associated props for Frodo or Sam so I ended up being Ryan Gosling as a hobbit; this had the perk of allowing me to do my same hair and not shave my beard.

Gosling Hobbit and Tim Burton Clown

I figured no one would guess what I actually was beyond a hobbit but my friend Megan did actually guess the Gosling connection proving that I am just as handsome as People's sexiest man alive. The costume was 100% made of things I already had--as you remember I previously used this costume in 2003. Even the hair was free though I don't know if I'll do it again; there is still adhesive on my feet.

In other news I finally bought my tickets to go to the East Coast for Christmas and New Years. I'll be spending two weeks in Pittsburgh and New York City visiting some friends in what will be my first Christmas away from family.

I also got a small promotion at work. Now when you call Mocavo support/sale you have a small chance of talking to me. It's purely a raise in responsibilities but it does include more hours than I was getting.

Shamless Selfies

Provo city was having another give away but I didn't make it to the news this time. They did ask that everyone dress up in red carpet attire though so Allison, Sarah and I did our best.

I was going for Indie-Director

The grand prize was four tickets and hotel stay to Los Angeles but all we walked away with was two movie tickets that Allison won by knowing how many kids the Mayor had. I feel like I disappointed everyone by not being the one who knew.

Here are some other pictures:

New haircut. It's still growing on me. (HA)

Wandering the woods with Sarah.

My current plans for Halloween is to dress up as a Hobbit. I was one in high school and it turned out decent minus looking like a teenager. I have all the parts still and I should still fit fine in it; my feet will be so cold though. Next year I'll do something cool.

I will regret posting this.

Beautiful Butterfly

I have been severely neglecting this blog--as far as actual events this blog is over two weeks out of date. It is in fact so out of date that I am having to consult my journal to figure out what interesting things I have actually done.

My parents have officially moved into their Provo house. It's a cute little 1953 ranch home right in the middle of a historic neighborhood. They are mostly moved in but as luck would have it the week after they closed on the house Provo had one of the worst storms it's had in fifty years and now we're looking at a pretty bleak Winter. Welcome to Provo I guess.

I posted previously about my bow tie crafting and I still had the fabric for two more ties so I used my mother's newly accessible sewing machine to finish them off. The above ties were wholly cut and sewn by me making them the first sewing project I have ever completed without assistance. I'm going to get fabric for a few more (my mother might have some antique Japanese silk) and then eventually move into full neck ties. I will never have to buy a gift for a male again.

I've done a few other things as well, the above picture is from a chalk festival in which the winner actually made the front page of Reddit. I also attended a couple weddings and started dating someone. It's starting to get colder and so I'm desperately trying to do everything outdoors I can do.

Salt Lake Comic Con 2013

Last week I attended Salt Lake's inagural Comic-Con with my sister and some friends. There were so many people; four fold the expected registration.

One of the best moments of the Con was the Henry Winkler Q&A. A young lady went up to ask her question but Mr. Winkler interrupted her with general praise about how attractive Utah women are and specifically how pretty she was. The lady then told him she was 23 and had never been kissed and asked him to do the honors. Winkler agreed and the girl got one of the best first kiss stories I have ever known.

We tried to go look at the booths but there mass of people made it too much to bare so instead we said hi to some cosplayers.

I'm excited about next year, there was some planning problems with the con that I hope they sort out next year. They had so many people there that when we left for lunch we were told we couldn't come back in so we missed a lot of stuff. Next year!

Justin and Jen's Wedding Weekend

Mirielle, the wedding photographer, posted some pictures from the wedding on her photography blog located here. It pays to know the photographer--I made the blog cut!

It was a small party and a lot of fun. I ended up harassing all the guests to sign the guestbook because I didn't know what else to do. The prospect of sitting and talking with no other activity is unbearable to me. Everyone did love my bow-tie though and I once I get my parents settled into their new home in Provo I'll continue making some more.

The following day we met up with my Aunt Mary and Cousin Heidi and wandered over to the Denver Art Museum which was stellar. One artist, Nick Cave, had a special exhibit which was fascinating. He had built these suits and covered them in buttons which he called "soundsuits." There was no photography allowed but I had to spite them.

The black is covered in buttons, not camera noise.

It was all very reminiscent of the video game Journey which, if you haven't played, is probably one of the best arguments for video games as a medium of art.

Suzi getting stabbed by giant knives.

Riding a turtle in the kids section.

Much of the rest of the vacation involved playing games with my cousins and siblings. An enjoyable weekend for sure, would go again.

Patchwork Cables

We ran some new fiber cable in the office at work and while pulling it through the conduit--the fish tape got caught on some CAT-5 cable and ripped it in two.  This was not our cable but we did some quick thinking and fixed it.

Unfortunately the call center who uses this line for all their data and voice was not satisfied so we had to run a brand new cable the following day.

I just got back from a trip to Colorado for my brother's wedding but I'm going to hold off on a write up until I get some of the pictures from the wedding photographer.