This Weekend
Very little got done this weekend. Christy and I didn’t really go anywhere and we didn’t complete the list of tasks we assigned ourselves. Instead, we spent the weekend recuperating; hoarding the energy we’d so carefully gathered to ourselves. I spent my capital on walking over to Christy’s parents’ house and straightening up the house a little bit, and Christy spent hers on ironing. The rest of the time we rested- me playing my video games and Christy surfing the internet.
FF XI crashed again Saturday, this time due to the Xbox 360 controller disconnecting due to a low battery. The game didn’t freeze, but the controller disconnected right in the middle of a chat with another player, and it completely blew up the chat, menus, and macros. I was forced to shut down, reformat, and start over. That took most of Saturday. In the mean time, Christy and I watched terrible movies on television.
That also prompted me to do something else for a little while, so I decided to build something with my loose Lego. I wanted to build something like the Victorian house in posted a couple of months ago, something that would be modular and fit in with the Hotel and City Market and Green Grocer. I know I have the parts- the question is whether or not I have enough of the same color or the same shape. So I pulled all of my containers out into the middle of the living room floor and began sorting.
This was no simple task. I had several big plastic containers full of loose bricks, not to mention all of the elements in my pick-a-brick cups from the Lego store. I began sorting into distinct piles: blocks (2x2 studs or more), beams (1x2 studs or more), plates (any plate starting at 2x2 studs and moving up to base plates), awkward piece (to include doors, windows, pylons, barrels, alligators, rocket components, etc.), translucent elements of any shape, gears and tiny parts, wheels, and mini-figures. The entire process took the better part of Saturday afternoon, evening, and night at full concentration, then a few hours Sunday while absent-mindedly watching Footloose on CMT.
The reason it took so long is because I decided I might as well consolidate everything not attached to a set. That meant dragging out the childhood box from under my bed and sorting that pile, as well. A lot of the Lego from my youth were still in pretty good shape. Only a handful needed to be tossed that were bent, chewed up, or broken. Christy was kind enough to clean all of my old base plates in the sink. I did have a windshield that a childhood friend had tinted with magic marker. Lesson learned-acetate will remove marker but eat Lego. So now every loose brick is organized, itemized, tagged and bagged, and I am ready to begin building an MOC for my Lego city block. During the movie I did begin separating out colors I wanted to use, but I lost the drive when I realized I was starting this project at ten thirty last night.
I spent the better part of Sunday just playing FF XI, level grinding with some really awesome players. I’ve never played a game where there was such a spirit of cooperation and fellowship. It’s as if this game is the social gaming utopia I never knew existed. It’s like a gaming Shangri-La, tucked away behind crushing system problems and the release of more recent games; hard to get to and often forgotten about, but totally worth it if you are willing to make the trip.
Aside from all that, Christy and I just enjoyed being with each other the entire weekend, even if we were both snotty and coughing.
FF XI crashed again Saturday, this time due to the Xbox 360 controller disconnecting due to a low battery. The game didn’t freeze, but the controller disconnected right in the middle of a chat with another player, and it completely blew up the chat, menus, and macros. I was forced to shut down, reformat, and start over. That took most of Saturday. In the mean time, Christy and I watched terrible movies on television.
That also prompted me to do something else for a little while, so I decided to build something with my loose Lego. I wanted to build something like the Victorian house in posted a couple of months ago, something that would be modular and fit in with the Hotel and City Market and Green Grocer. I know I have the parts- the question is whether or not I have enough of the same color or the same shape. So I pulled all of my containers out into the middle of the living room floor and began sorting.
This was no simple task. I had several big plastic containers full of loose bricks, not to mention all of the elements in my pick-a-brick cups from the Lego store. I began sorting into distinct piles: blocks (2x2 studs or more), beams (1x2 studs or more), plates (any plate starting at 2x2 studs and moving up to base plates), awkward piece (to include doors, windows, pylons, barrels, alligators, rocket components, etc.), translucent elements of any shape, gears and tiny parts, wheels, and mini-figures. The entire process took the better part of Saturday afternoon, evening, and night at full concentration, then a few hours Sunday while absent-mindedly watching Footloose on CMT.
The reason it took so long is because I decided I might as well consolidate everything not attached to a set. That meant dragging out the childhood box from under my bed and sorting that pile, as well. A lot of the Lego from my youth were still in pretty good shape. Only a handful needed to be tossed that were bent, chewed up, or broken. Christy was kind enough to clean all of my old base plates in the sink. I did have a windshield that a childhood friend had tinted with magic marker. Lesson learned-acetate will remove marker but eat Lego. So now every loose brick is organized, itemized, tagged and bagged, and I am ready to begin building an MOC for my Lego city block. During the movie I did begin separating out colors I wanted to use, but I lost the drive when I realized I was starting this project at ten thirty last night.
I spent the better part of Sunday just playing FF XI, level grinding with some really awesome players. I’ve never played a game where there was such a spirit of cooperation and fellowship. It’s as if this game is the social gaming utopia I never knew existed. It’s like a gaming Shangri-La, tucked away behind crushing system problems and the release of more recent games; hard to get to and often forgotten about, but totally worth it if you are willing to make the trip.
Aside from all that, Christy and I just enjoyed being with each other the entire weekend, even if we were both snotty and coughing.