At the recommendation of a few people, I started reading The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman. The setting is your typical zombie apocalypse. The main character, Rick Grimes, awakens from a coma to a world that’s already overrun. Thankfully this series doesn’t use those popular new-age zombies that can run and jump and climb and such. These are the classic groaning, bumbling zombies, that overwhelm with numbers. The series focuses on how Rick and co. cope with their new world. I’ve read through the first ten trade paper back volumes so far and I’m itching for the next one.

Y: The Last Man is apocalypse series I just started reading. In this one, Yorick Brown is literally the last man on earth. He and his monkey are the last male animals. I’m reading this one at the recommendation of a few people too. I’m only two books in, but so far it’s pretty good, even though I find Yorick pretty annoying. This series has already wrapped up so I could potentially just buy the rest of the books, but I think I’ll try borrowing them from someone first, and buy if I like it.

I immediately thought of a scene from the movie The Devil Wears Prada, where Meryl Streep plays Miranda Priestly, a powerful fashion magazine editor, and Anne Hathaway plays Andy, a non-fashion oriented journalist trying to move up in the world:

Miranda Priestly: [Miranda and some assistants are deciding between two similar belts for an outfit. Andy sniggers because she thinks they look exactly the same] Something funny?
Andy Sachs: No, no, nothing. Y’know, it’s just that both those belts look exactly the same to me. Y’know, I’m still learning about all this stuff.
Miranda Priestly: This… ’stuff’? Oh… ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.

Courtesy of Tiffany & Co. Keys splashpage.

Plotting the Course

First on the list is a fancy GPS device. Jules did some research and came up with the Garmin Rino 530HCx GPS/Two-Way Radio. After last year’s trip to Snow Mountain where we lost the trail a few times, we thought it would be a good idea to have a backup plan. We were never really lost while in the Snow Mountain area, but a few times we didn’t know how to proceed. When I say we lost the trail, we could still go back, just not forward. So with this handy device we can plan our route ahead of time and bring it out every so often to make sure we’re on the right track.

Garmin Rino 530HCx

Disclaimer: A GPS device should not take the place of a map, compass and planning. Always let someone know what your plans are.

Setting the Sails

Right around when I graduated from college I decided to get a framepack for all of the backpacking I was sure to do. Unfortunately I didn’t put any research into it and didn’t even test the fit. Despite all that I’ve been on many trips with it and it’s all worked out just fine except for a little chafing and perhaps a little more strain than was necessary. So Jules thought it was a good time for an update.

Osprey Aether 70

Enter the Osprey Aether 70. This 70L pack should get me through the long trips with comfort. I’m planning on taking it on my honeymoon. For those shorter weekend trips she got me something lighter and more agile.

Osprey Kestrel 48

Aren’t they pretty? I’m pretty excited to get out on the trails and start breaking these guys in. I’m tempted to take them in to work and just go on walks for lunch. Maybe I’ll try that this week

Napoleon: Total War (Feb 23)

Despite its flaws, I loved Empire: Total War. It’s surprising to see a full sized release within a year of the previous game, but who am I to complain. I’m hoping they’ve cleared up some of the weird AI issues but I think I’d be pretty satisfied if was just an expansion.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (March 2)

I’ve purchased all of the Battlefield titles starting with Battlefield 2. The large maps, squad tactics and vehicle battles have improved with each iteration. And I think 2008’s Bad Company took everyone by surprise by adding a solid single player campaign to go along with the established multi-player experience that the Battlefield franchise is known for. From what I’ve played in the beta and demo, Bad Company 2 looks to be another great Battlefield title.

Supreme Commander 2 (March 2)

When I first played Supreme Commander in 2007 I thought it was going to change the genre. I remember seeing Company of Heroes at E3 that year and asking the attendant “Is that as far as you can zoom out?” The guy looked at me with contempt before his truncated “yes.” Three years later and it’s hard to believe that every RTS game has not adopted the ability to zoom out enough to see the entire map. I’m ready for more large scale warfare with looping factory queues, complicated patrol routes and synchronized, multi-faceted attacks.

Final Fantasy XIII (March 9)

The last final fantasy game that I played was Final Fantasy IX. The last one that I beat was Final Fantasy VI. This is the first time I’ve been interested in the Final Fantasy series in a long time. This isn’t a definite purchase for me yet but I’m feeling pretty optimistic about riding chocobos in the near future.

Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising (March 12)

I bought Dawn of War and all of its expansions and when I first played the second game I was disappointed to only play with four units instead of the army that I had previously commanded. But that disappointed quickly evaporated as I got deeper into the game. The RPG elements took over and I became engrossed enough to play through the campaign once on normal and again on the most difficult setting of primarch. I still harass snider and try to get him to play co-op with me. So I’m excited to play through another campaign and renew my co-op harassment.

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (March 16)

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed playing Command & Conquer 3. Previously I wasn’t much of a fan to the series, but the latest installment felt so polished that I quickly played through each of the campaigns. This is another game that I’m not positive I’ll buy, but I’m eager to find out how the addition of classes (offense, defense, support) changes the game. I’m more of a defensive RTS player myself.

God of War III (March 16)

Back in 2007, God of War II marked the end of the PlayStation 2 for me. It was the last game that I played on that console and even though I have a PS3 with backwards compatibility, I haven’t played a PS2 title since then. I was impressed with the GoW visuals in 2007 and from what I’ve seen of God of War III, I will not be disappointed.

So there it is, my next four weeks, all planned out.

Try #3 happened today, and it was the most successful yet. I only stalled once trying to reverse out of parked position over a period of an hour and a half. As the bored passenger, Mike decided to start playing a game with me to try to speed up how long it took me to shift gears and response time by yelling out, “Stop!” “Go!” “2nd gear!” “Park!” “Reverse!” and timing how long it took me to reverse out of a parking spot and move forward in first gear. I wanted to swat him like a fly at one point when he sped up his maniacal commands, but I must admit that my response time and shifting smoothness improved quite a lot as a result. Woohoo! I think it’s time move out of the parking lot to tackle driving in a neighborhood next. A flat one please.

Our pots and pans are fairly basic, and can be counted on one hand:

1. saute pan
2. sauce pan
3. stock pot
4. Non stick fry pan
5. cast iron fry pan
6. hot pot pan

Okay, I lied. I forgot about the hot pot pan. I would say that 99% of my cooking utilizes the first 4 items, while the last two are very specialized items. I would say the hot pot pan actually gets more usage then the cast iron fry pan, and comes out of it’s drawer every 1-2 months. The cast iron fry pan, on the other hand, only makes an appearance for bacon (twice a year at most) and pizza. I don’t know why I don’t use it more. While I lust after certain le creuset items and all-clad pots and pans, these relatively inexpensive pots and pans have lasted me a good number of years- and for the amount of use I get out of them, are an amazing deal.

Of kitchen knives: 1 chinese vegetable cleaver, 1 9-inch chef’s knife, 1 santoku paring knife. Necessary and sufficient for all my vegetably and meaty and otherwise-y needs.

Jules planted a ginger.

Flowers are blooming everywhere. I need to go on a hike.

These leaflets had a really nice texture to them. Really soft.

Lavenders are an excellent addition to any yard.

I can’t wait to grow my own fruit trees.