But the title of this blog post doesn’t really mean anything. I was listening to iTunes and had it on Random and Octopuses Garden came up on iTunes. For some reason it inspired me to open up MarsEdit and write a click little blurb.

I have been working on converting all of my families home video tapes to a digital format. I must say it has been a rather intensive process. A bit more expensive then I imagined.

The first expense was the Elgato Video Capture device. Scored that for $84 off Amazon with the free 2 day shipping ala Amazon Prime. Another expense was actually getting a VCR. My girlfriends mom had one to lend me. It works pretty well. It has some tracking issues so I ordered another VCR off ebay and now have two VCR’s on my desk.

I remember being a kid and thinking VCR’s could possibly be the coolest thing ever. Now they are just large annoying black boxes on my desk. I picked up the other VCR for $30 from eBay. The lady that was selling lied to me on its condition. But it works as expected.

Also I needed a place to save all of this video as most videos come up after compression to be 2-3GB of data. Then a DVD version ends up being another 4GB or so. Then I make 2 different formats m4v and Divx AVI. Not really sure how my family is taking this. But oh well I am happy to have digital copies of all the tapes. But this all takes up space so I now have 2 1TB Firewire 800 HDD. I have 2.5TB of data hooked up to my laptop for all of these home movies.

Good times. Well I better get back to work. Just thought I would blog some random thoughts.

I slept in until 11am or so just as she was getting home from her errands. She had some doughnuts. We chilled out for a bit and then she went to take a nap. I watched the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. I had it on the TiVo. It was kinda crazy that it took up 22.7GB for 4hrs and 30 minutes. But overall it was okay. Not my cup of tea for an ultimate TV viewing experience.

But anyways that night was going to go meet up with my friend Preston and his lovely lady Mindee. We went to the Cheesecake factory in Southcenter. That place was a total hell hole. Driving around the parking lot with all of those idiots is rather nutty. Manners go out the window. Tempers rise. Good times.

So we get to the cheesecake factory and the wait on the Sunday was about 90 minutes. This seemed to shock and surprise people. But people are idiots and it made me laugh at their stupidity. One group came in wanting a table for 17. I think the hostess told them to piss off. But after much waiting we got a table and ordered some drinks and had a good time shooting the breeze and catching up.

I got a little drunkard and had a good time. They did make me the wrong entree. But that was quickly fixed and they ended up comping my dinner. I felt kinda bad about it and the manager asked if I wanted anything else. I said some mashed spuds sound pretty good instead of soup or salad. He was more then happy to hook that up.  So a few minutes later I had a bowl of mashed potatoes. My girlfriend then asked me “Can I have some” not to be one to say no to a simple request I said “sure” or probably more like “sbhure” in the drunken state. She dips her fork into the hot potato mash. Part of my arm happens to be on the table. Some hot potato falls off and this is what happened.

Tristan: “Ouch, That is really hot. It’s burning”
Girlfriend Laughs
Tristan: “It’s Burning! It’s Hot”
Girlfriend Laughs

At this point I was like she isn’t going to take it off so I grabbed my napkin and took care of business. Typing it out makes it seem like it was incredibly rude sounding. But it was rather comical after all was said and done. Everyone at the table had a good laugh.  Here is a badly painted diagram to show how it went down.

But the meal was delicious. Cheesecake was awesome. I hadn’t had cheesecake at the cheesecake factory in a very long while. That night went home and passed out from exhaustion and began Monday and then got incredibly busy and now we are here over a week later finally getting this post out.

Thanks again to Preston and Mindee for a fun evening out. Double dates have been incredibly enjoyable with old friends.

But I am still I am never sure what I can talk about or mention. People say “How have you been since I have seen you last” I could talk about my trip to Maui which was awesome. Or the video I made with my sister that at last check was almost up to 400 hits on YouTube. But all I can ever seem to find myself talking about is work. Nobody really cares about work. It’s something we all do. We all have different jobs but it just seems easier to talk about.

I could talk someones ear off about all things tech. But I always assume people would find that boring. I think I need to quit thinking of myself as boring. I need to just assume that if someone asks what I have been up to that I should just tell them. I will also do a better job of telling the readers that still come to TristanPipo.com and now that these get imported in Facebook those readers as well.

But as January winds down to a close. I hope everyone is ready for February and the lovely marketing holiday of Valentines Day where single people feel guilty about not having a mate and people in relationships worry about not making their partner as happy as they could be.

I would love to hear what’s been going on with you since our last chat.

We have arrived at October. It has been a rather interesting month so far. My schedule changed at work which has been nice. I got moved to 10-7 last October and was told I would only be on that work schedule for 3 months. Here it is next October and finally getting it changed back. Which is awesome on my end.

Coming up this weekend the girlfriend and I have a fall party to attend. With one of my girlfriends coworkers which should be a good time. I always dig carving pumpkins getting drunk and making scarecrows. I will be posting pictures to Facebook most likely or perhaps my tumblelog. Which if you care to find it’s located at tristan.tumblr.com it’s also a nice aggregation of everything I do online.

But anyways it’s getting a bit late. I think I will hit up a little Beatles Rock Band before I go to bed.

Hopefully everyone has a great week. Send me an e-mail or text message let me know what you are up too.

Just thought I would take the time to stop by to let you know that I have not died. Life has just been chugging along. Had a pretty good weekend last weekend.

Friday my coworker Jon and I went to check out the Seattle Lingerie Football team. The Seattle Mist Women in Lingerie playing football can’t go wrong. Seattle won 21 to 6 against San Diego. I must say San Diego had the more attractive team. But this one girl on the Seattle team. #15 she wasn’t in the program was totally the MVP of the game. She was like 5’11′ and totally just dominated.

Check out some of the Swag we scored. I got some more pictures up on my Facebook profile if you care to know more.

Saturday bought a new computer chair and went to a Lighthouse Festival up in Mukilteo saw some Fireworks. Good time overall went with the girlfriend and her coworkers. It was a bit of a triple date kinda thing. We were chiling on the beach in front of a firepit. We all ended up smelling like smoke by the end of the show. I got this awesome picture of the sunset.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day which was nice before the workday began. But thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone is doing well. It’s almost fall and I am a bit excited. I can’t wait for the weather to finally cool down again. I enjoy the cold more then the heat of the summer. We had some 100F+ days that I did not enjoy. But thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your week.

I purchased a new MacBook Pro and have found myself undertaking other projects mostly cutting together videos for mostly personal use. Things I have captured for my family etc and been publishing those internally. I miss the blogging realm when I felt like I had a bunch of people reading. But lately I feel like my blog has become a lost cause in some ways. They say that a place with people in it attracts more customers. I tend to think a blog is like that as well. The more people read it the more people want to read it. Currently my RSS feed has 26 subscribers by my count and my Podcast still has 16. It was recently removed from the Apple Store since it hasn’t been updated in two years. But I like the thought that 26 people still subscribe to the blog.

I feel like since I finished school and got an internship that turned into my full time career I have been shoved into what the American Adult should be. I have a career and I get up at the same time every day and go to work and find myself learning and pushing myself constantly. Working in the IT world is always interesting I must say. It never stops evolving. I love my job and happy to be employed but sometimes a bit more variety would be nice you know. But work is work and you can’t really expect things to be different all the time. But it’s like I never expected being an adult to be the same all the time. I was never warned of this and none of my previous jobs gave me any clue since they were always rather free form. You are doing Job A today and Job B tomorrow under the same roof. But who knows maybe this is a bit of a slump.

I have been in a relationship for two years now. She is a wonderful and amazing girl. But we have our moments like everyone does. I remember being single and going on all these dates with women that didn’t really fit me. I think it was more about finding some female attention then a real companion. A great deal of women I found to be rather insane. But I was also a great deal younger then and it seems like as I age women also begin to make a bit more sense. I had a few do a bunch of mean stuff to me and I got to do that to one woman. I felt like a dick about it afterwards then she did that typical thing that women do say some mean things about me and life went on. I still have yet to figure out why women always need to have the last word in every argument. But I am happy now and I try to make my girlfriend happy.

Friends seems to be an odd topic as well I think that goes along with the adult thing. Most of my friends all live at different distances and it makes it hard to go and see them. I still chat with them online or via SMS or phone but face to face contact it all has to be scheduled with everyone now. It’s not like the days of old where I could call a few people and say lets hang out. I kinda miss those days but kinda don’t. Like it used to be “Hey I’m Bored Fix It” sent off to a bunch of people in my phone. Group used to get together and just hang out and it was great. I just don’t find myself doing that lately. Most of the people I hang out with and call my friends are coworkers. Which is great but at times I miss my other friends. There are internet friends as well they can be cool the people that follow me on Twitter and my Facebook friends they are cool and all. But again the whole internet thing can be scary for some people. I send out a twitter update “Anyone wanna go see a movie” I don’t get many responses and if I do they are things like “I would but I am in Spokane” the thought it nice but I also don’t see the point in responding if you can’t go. That is a bit of a mixed bag and would love to dive into the social networking trend of quizzes later.

But as with all things this post must come to an end. Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope everyone will continue to do so.

I hope everyone has been well. There has a been an evil battle happening in the Pipo Pad. I was sick for 5 days but it wasn’t anything bad. The Raleigh has been sick for almost 2 weeks now. So it’s been a little tense in the Tristan Terrace.

I would also like to Promote Raleigh and the Junniper to head testers of things. Anytime I have an issue with the site or spelling or anything really they get on me to fix it. So I present you with the Seal of Awesomeness.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. Welcome to April and catch you on the flip side.

Thanks for taking the time to read this amazingly awesome blog post. I have been getting reports that if you come to tristanpipo.com and then refresh the page that you get an error. But if you just visit the page this doesn’t happen. So my advice is don’t click refresh. This is due to the nature of calls that the website makes if a few people do it at the same time it can push me over the amount of connections I am limited to at any given second and clicking refresh will resolve the issue. With that said On with my life.

So since my last post was in the beginning of March. So you need to be caught up. Two Thursday’s ago my foot started to hurt. It was just a slight pain not a big deal. But the pain started to get more intense. Like to the point where I had to throw up the pain was so intense. I could hardly walk and this was annoying me so I was cursing a great deal and keeping Raleigh up.  So on Friday I was late for work because I had to go to the doctor. They told me it was some tendentious action and take some Aleve and my foot would be all good. It took almost 24hrs for the pain to go away but it did.

That weekend I really don’t recall what happened. I don’t remember it being very exciting. I have noticed that as I grow older it seems that most of life gets over run with sameness. I get up same time. Walk out the door at the same time. Catch the same bus. Sit in the same seat. Get off at the same stop. Go to the same job. Fix different things. Come home and do the same thing but with slight variations.

I guess this is the human condition since we don’t need to be constantly hunting or finding drinking water. I can see why some people go nuts. But I also see that we have the methods to keep people that are nuts still around. For example you have some guy who isn’t all that bright. Chances were higher that a Puma would find his stupid ass in the woods and idiot wouldn’t be around to breed anymore. Most idiots don’t get attacked by Puma’s anymore. Since they can get all their resources for living without having to deal with Puma’s. Seems like a good idea to me is to have a city surivial force of Puma’s and other various vicious animals around just to get that fear going. If moron A can’t make it to the bus stop without a Tiger attacking him odds are he won’t be breeding.

But I always have ideas like that. I mostly get told “Why do you waste time thinking of such things” or “You are such a dork” or “You are so weird” most of the people that get past this initial shock value of being around the Tristan of the Pipo find me to be an overall good guy. Took my current girlfriend a long time to realize this and pretty much everyone I have ever known.

So anyways week went on and I felt very productive. Friday came around and I didn’t really do a whole heap on Friday. Went home and chilled. Saturday was an interesting day. The Nick and J-Monster came over from Kitsap. I got to meet Justin’s new girlfriend. I will not butcher her name by typing it but she was cool in my book. She is very social and that is the type of person I dig because you don’t have to say much and you can be interested and make their day. So went and hitup SushiLand on Queen Anne Hill. I have seen one of these in Portland, OR as well. I am sure the Junniper will chime in and have many awesome things to say about me.

What has been interesting about Junniper and her blog and my interaction with her.  We exchange the occasional e-mail. Most of the time it’s like “Hey look how Portland messed up” or something I find about garfield. I have spoken to her on the phone once. Caught me off guard when I was hanging out with the KGB Mafia Man. She was at the SeaTac airport. I think she was trying to stalk me. What is also rather funny is how the times I am in Portland she is out of town. I can picture being 89 one day and getting on my floating wheelchair disc and going down to Portland and being like “Ah Ha! We finally meet!” Then that being it I go back to my Evil Mountian of Power in Seattle.

But that was a random tangent. I really have nothing to say just kinda doing a brain dump so there are probably tons of spelling and grammar errors. It’s never been my style to really fix them either. If you would like to make an attempt at being me in a funny manner. You could shoot me an e-mail and your parody post. I would be happy to give it a post.

So Saturday some friends and I went to Sushiland and then went and saw Watchmen in IMAX. What is awesome is that a standard movie ticket at a theater costs $10. The IMAX films cost $11. Plus you don’t have to deal with stupid public fuckers and them using cell phones. The most annoying movie theater people that need to be locked in portable toilets filled with bottle rockets and kicked off a building are the ones that keep their Bluetooth Headsets on. So you get that blinking blue light. They look like annoying ass cyborgs that ruin the movie. I wish someone would kick them in the skull when they walk in with those things.

After that we went to some bar called Pesos for like 15 minutes and then left and went home and passed out.

Sunday I went to my Grandpa’s birthday brunch came home and was tired.

I have no ending for this post so I place a few random periods…   .. ..

On a bit of a side note I wanted to send out my thoughts to the friends and family of Troy Thoman who died in a car wreck on December 30th. He worked with my Mom and he was a good guy. Always helpful when I needed something at the hardware store. He will be missed. News Article

So I figured I would take the time to tell a story about an experience I had last night. It involved Me, Nick, My Car, A Bird and a Cat. It begins now.

So yesterday happened to be Monday. I am not usually a fan of Monday but what can you do on such a day. Your weekend is over. You are not allowed to sleep in any more. You are forced to wake up at 6:30am. I usually take the time and hit the snooze button for an extra 7 minutes of sleep since I have 7 minutes of leisure time in the morning. I would prefer to use it while sleeping.

But I was not fully rested for my day. So that is why we have this thing called Boys night. Now we haven’t really had time for Boys night lately. Which seems to bother the woman because I am sure she would like me to disappear more often then she lets on. So we actually had the time and resources to have a Boys Night.

As many of you know I really cannot stand to drive. I like my car and it’s fun to drive but it has a few issues that drive me up the wall and just all around prevent me from driving. My turn signals are very flaky all of a sudden. They work when they want to. I have replaced all the bulbs on my car. Replaced all the fuses that have to deal with lights. They work sometimes and other times they don’t. I have yet to figure it out. So I generally try to avoid turning or changing lanes out of the fear of annoying someone. Plus the general stress I have had to deal with caused by all the long driving I had to do when I was in school. 85 miles each way for 3 years was not really a happy time in my life. During rush hour. I just have very little patience while driving and would prefer not to do so when available.

So my car spends a great deal of time just parked in a spot. I carpool with the Raleigh to her work in the morning and then I hop a bus. Coming back I either take the bus and walk 1/2 a mile or sometimes get a ride. Or I somehow manage to catch an earlier bus and get to my girlfriends work when she is getting off and we shuttle off together.

But lets get out of that rathole. Raleigh was the last one to drive my car and she backed it into the parking spot. I pretty much have the worst parking spot in this lot. It has this annoying Cherry Blossom tree that likes to shed all this crap all over my car. I have a black car and the other day it was totally white from all these Cherry Blossoms. So when those all dried up and blew away the tree shed all this brown crap all over my car. Today the tree decided to get further revenge upon me but I was unaware of this event.

So I pull out of the parking area and begin the epic drive down to Renton, WA. Hey turn signals were working so I took the easier route instead of the road less traveled. Get down to Renton without a hitch or any traffic. When I grabbing my bags out of my car I happen to look at the trunk of my car. I see what appears to be a dead creature. Upon first examination it looked like a hairless mouse. But then I saw it had a beak so that theory evolved quickly to bird. But odd part was it was rather small and had no feathers. I pointed this out to my buddy Nick and he was like that is gross. I had to agree with that statement.

So I wanted it off my car and needed to devise a way not to touch it. So to complete this step I opened up the trunk and found some armor all wipes and a towel. So I put an armor all wipe into the towel and picked up the bird. Carried it over across the street and just dropped the dead bird in the grass. Turn around and look at Nick. “It’s taken care of mate”  “Good. That was fucking disgusting” “Totally” so I turn around to make sure it cannot be seen. All of a sudden a cat comes out and must have seen what I had done and wanted to check out what I felt unworthy to keep around.

The cat looks up at me reminding me of those photos if I had thought about it I would have taken a picture and put “BIRD I CAN HAZ?” as the caption. The cat just went to town on the dead bird.

Hope everyone is well. I am sorry I haven’t been a more potent blogger just been busy with life and things like blogs get put on the back burner for things like Grand Theft Auto IV. Find me on XBOX live sometime if you desire. I am TristanP.

Leave a comment let me know what’s up or pop off an e-mail. Cheers!

I haven’t had much time nor desire to bust out my laptop and login and update the world on my life. Once I get life into a balance I will be back to updating and my normal self. I hope everyone has been well. My contact information has not changed.

But been kinda odd going from a 2 bedroom with a roommate to a 2 bedroom 2 bath with a girlfriend. Odd having rules and things being expected of me. Mostly things that were not a problem before are now a problem. Like WTF it wasn’t a problem before and now it is. Oh well there is always a learning experience.

Cheers!

I go have dinner with my mom every Wednesday night. I try to be a good son and I am told I do a damn fine job. But the people that tell me that are always a little biased in my favor. But hell it’s an ego boost that I am doing something good. Everyone knows I am a little lacking in the ego department. But if you ask Raleigh well she will tell you a different story.

But my mom canceled dinner last night because she wasn’t feeling so well. Which has been the story of the women in my life the past week.  So I had this evening that I usually don’t have so I did my normal geek thing grabbed the laptop. Cooked some Salmon Patties. I tried using Olive Oil this time. It worked out pretty well. I couldn’t really taste anything different. Figured I would try to be healthier in this day in age. Plus this is Washington and everyone is nuts about that kinda crap. For some reason I have never understood most of that gourmet food and it just doesn’t taste that good.

So I had the XBOX going playing some Assassins Creed. I finally accomplished something in that game. So far it’s been a rather fun game but my attitude towards video games has changed since I was a child. I remember playing my Apple II or my Atari back in the day and the games were a challenge to get working let alone to a playable state. But you could play an hour and be done since they were rather simple. But now a game requires like 40hrs of your time and I just can’t sit down to play a game for more then an hour. Other then social games like Guitar Hero or SceneIT. I miss board games but getting people together to play them seems harder then ever.

Okay that was another tangent back on track. So I pause the game to just use the restroom, clean some windows, vacuum the ex roommates room.  I grab the laptop and I have an Instant Message from a girl I went on one date with back in 2005. Which I found to be a little odd. Saying all the guys she dates are losers and full of drama. I replied with “Water Seeks It’s Own Level” and I quickly got prompted with a Fuck You.

This quickly prompted me to laugh and laugh. In all reality it was probably a very asshole comment for me to say. But it was fitting and quick and got to the point. But it made for a good night of Assassin’s Creed and some Halo. The guys playing Halo with me thought the story was hilarious and asked me for her IM Screen Name. Ahh the realm of Halo Voice chat. Some of the most racist hateful 13 year olds. Sometimes I am shocked when I cross a path with someone that speaks english without any accents.

But anyways thought I would share a few stories. Since lately I haven’t shared my life with the blog. Which seems kinda odd to have the blog if I am not telling my life story. February will be a busy house hunting month.

Cheers! -Tristan

Note: I have multiple wishlists setup for different groups. So it’s not empty on the right hand side of the page you will find the multiple lists.

Okay so lets kick off the list for this site in no particular order. If you are a reader from the intertubes shoot me an e-mail and can exchange mailing information.

• Ocean’s HD-DVD Box Set (Oceans 11, 12 and 13) Buy.com $55 Link
  • My favorite set of movies makes the jump to HD DVD what is not to want. I think my Ocean’s 11 Disc has been watched more then anything time to upgrade and replace.
• Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass for Nintendo DS $33 Link
  • I can always use a new game to entertain me while on the ferry. Currently have conquered all my DS games at the moment.
• Kitchenaid Gourmet Essentials Hard Anodized 12 Piece Cookware Set $199 Link
  • Note: Now this was the best reviewed set on Amazon.com Feel free to change the brand up if you desire. Could not find on Buy.com.
• Fiestaware 4 Piece Table Setting $20 Link
  • I will admit it I need some more plates. Raleigh recommended Fiestaware and I made mention to my mom and she was like that is what you should get. Now a multiple of 4+ would be nice. You can also get get different colors which is the appeal of Fiestaware I suppose. Link from Amazon.com Wishlist
• The Orange Box for XBOX 360 $59.99 Link
  • I waited 8 years for Team Fortress 2. I can wait a little longer.
• LED Enabled Faucet$12.99-$19.99 Link via ThinkGeek
  • I ran this idea past Raleigh and she seemed cool with the idea. But it was one of those things “That’s nice Tristan, Here is something to distract you and hope you don’t remember this later” Well that didn’t work. So here it is now on the list.
• Guitar Hero 2 Game Only $39 Link
  • Can always use more songs for this long winter indoors. Me and Raleigh have already gotten down the mastering of Guitar Hero 3.
• Edit: Old School on HD DVD $22.95 Link
  • I was recalling a conversation I had with Raleigh over the weekend that she has not seen Old School. The copy I have on DVD is scratched to Hell. Figured it would be a time to upgrade. I loved this movie it was totally hilarious. I was told to cross this out. Not sure why.
• A Mountain of Happiness.
  • Not sure anyone I know can afford this one.

So that is a quick little rundown of a list. I am not exactly sure what I want since this year has been rather fulfilling. A great deal of things happened but without a doubt it has been Raleigh.

I have felt incredibly lucky to find a Woman that I can connect with and be myself with and just accept each other for who we are. It’s odd to finally be understood by someone and understand them back. I will be writing a year in review coming up when the year is done and ready to be reviewed and we get to add another month and year to the blog archives.

I won’t be breaking 1000 posts in 2007 but it has been a fun one. Much love to you and your family this Holiday Season. I say Happy Holidays if this bothers you. Well you can…. It’s the Holidays I will keep it clean.

Oh and as the reindeer fly.

Hi Marcia. =)

P.S. Raleigh made me do it.

Well Halo 3 came out on September 25th and I find myself playing a great deal of that during the week. If you want to hop on and say WTF?! You Suck. Well come find me on XBOX live.

So I guess I haven’t done a weekend update in a while so lets kick one off for no particular reason.

Friday – So Friday was a rather nice Seattle day. A few weekends ago I had given Raleigh a key to my place and she wanted to head over there when I was at work. That evening we were supposed to go have dinner with my Great Aunt and Uncle who were in town from Chicago so I got off work an hour early. But the ferry was delayed nearly an hour and that wasn’t exactly a smart plan since I only saved approx 10 mins going home. I left a card of sweet nothings on my coffee table with my car keys and Raleigh met me at the ferry.  Then we went back to my place to pick up a new shirt and head out to dinner. Nothing real exciting to report on that front.

Saturday – Slept in a while and then went and had Break-unch. Then we went and did some shopping and picked up some things and then we hit up a corn maze. The crew that arrived were Nick, Audrey, Gerene, Justin, Abbey, Jon, Sean, Sean’s Friend, Raleigh and the coolest guy ever( Tristan). It took us about an hour to get through the Maze. Then we went to dinner at Red Robin. It seems like most restaurants in this area blow. But I had a Banzai Burger and life was good.  We had to ditch out of dinner fairly early to go catch a movie at the old movie theater on Bainbridge called the Lynnwood Theater. They play Indie Films and Documentaries. We caught the 9:30 showing of In the Shadow of the Moon. I am a total Nasa and Apollo fan and dig this kinda thing.

So the movie overall was great I was slightly tired and had a few nod offs that resulted in getting elbowed in the stomach from Raleigh. I ponder if it was a “You took me to this film you are going to stay awake for it” But I would recommend it if you are interested in this kinda thing. I would recommend a rental. Since I doubt it’s playing in many theaters in your vicinity.

After that we just went home and passed out.

Sunday -  Well Sunday was an interesting day. Walked around downtown Winslow for a bit found some breakfast and came home. Hung up some pictures and cleaned a bit. Raleigh cooked an early dinner that was awesome. For some reason sitting in my computer chair watching her cook is just a blast. I wish I could have helped more but spending time with Raleigh is one of those things I enjoy more then anything. It is always hard to drop her off at the ferry even though I know I will be seeing her again soon. After I dropped her off I went to my parents house for dinner #2 and watched Field of Dreams. Came home played Halo 3 a bit and then passed out.

Monday begins and here I am saying thanks for reading. Heroes tonight. Boys Night. Hugs to everyone and I need some coffee to wake up. It’s 12:30 and I am still beat for some reason.

I figured that would be a good way to start off a blog post. So what are we talking about that could possibly relate to that picture. Well on a side note Raleigh has a magnetic bumper sticker on her vehicle that says “WTF?” with a picture of George Bush. We were driving off the ferry and some woman in her car thought it was brilliant.

So lets kick off the 3 day weekend description fun time of awesome. So Friday I took a half day at work because I had a doctors appointment to get my ankle looked at again which seems to be totally fine but the doctor wanted to schedule a follow up. So Raleigh picked me up at work and we went and had some Kidd Valley Action.

The thing that always cracks me up about Kidd Valley are the to go bags. It says “13 Nationwide Locations” it has a map of the USA on the bag and all the locations are in Washington. I have no idea why such a stupid thing amuses me but hey what can you do.

So let me turbo through the rest of Friday with some short summary words.

Ferry, Apartment, Packing, Driving, Wal-Mart, Cruising, Bridge, Woods, Mountains, Arrival.

So we arrive at the Hotel and we make ourselves at home. My only major gripe about this place was no elevator. Because we were on the top floor I had to carry all the bags which was 4 bags. Which anything I throw over my shoulder I like to call a Satchel. If I were to ever make a movie I would be sure to include a fight scene.

Thug 1: Looks like you won’t be serving up your goods on this side of town anymore.
Me: Well is that so. Well you can tell your boss to send a body bag.
[Flips around laptop satchel 17'' Powerbook in the satchel dents the thugs face]
Me: Looks like this satchel fucked you up. Mac’s is there anything they can’t do?

Man that would be so freaking awesome. But anyways got into the room and me and Raleigh were just kinda relaxing and the hotel had free WiFi so I busted out the laptop and she did her thing of checking e-mail and all that jazz. I just whip out my phone and email is checked. Usually my phone says “e-mail 154 SMS 10-60 and Voicemails 0″

So usually when I connect to an open wifi I usually see what is open or if I can hop on other peoples laptops. But nobody was really using anything on the wifi network so I tried to connect to their router and amazingly the router still had the default password. So I hopped on there changed the password and started to work some magic. The first thing to do was block myspace. I put up a lovely message saying something like “Hey Loser Kids, Myspace sucks get Facebook” but then Raleigh wanted to check myspace and I had to take that down. So I figured I would probably want to track what these people are doing and I setup the router to use OpenDNS which you can do as well if you go to opendns.com. So after monitoring what this hotel has been doing the top 3 domains that they hit are.

1. ad.doubleclick.net
2. www.vongo.com
3. www.update.microsoft.com

Facebook did seem to be getting some more hits then myspace. But anyways because I am tracking this hotel wasn’t the point of the vacation but Raleigh seemed to be impressed by this idea. Or maybe she was just working me over. Either way she was smiling and I was happy that I was impressing her.

So after we enjoyed some time seeing what the Hotel had to offer. On a side note after spending all that time sleeping in a King Size bed I feel some regret about buying this Queen Bed last March. But I must say live and learn.

So we decided to see what Sequim had to offer two 24 year olds. Driving up and down the strip we found an Applebees your neighborhood bar and grill. We walk in and I have never seen an Applebees this packed. Full of these old people and families. Normally where I live I walk into an Applebees and there is usually people my age having a gay old time. So they find us a seat and I must say that this place fell way below par because they were out of any decent beer. After we get done there Me and Raleigh went to the local Wal-Mart. For some reason we always seem to go explore Wal-Mart late at night.

I ended up purchasing a new pair of pants, a new shirt and Brain Age 2 for my Nintendo DS. I must say that this game had a bit of a learning curve. I suck at the Piano game but some how ended up with a Brain Age of 29 at the moment. My first was like 70 or 80. Me and Raleigh really enjoy playing Brain Age for some reason.

So after Wal-Mart I was craving a Dairy Queen Dipped Cone. These things are freaking awesome. McDonalds has them as well but I usually try to boycott that place. But a dipped cone is always awesome. So after that lovely cone seeking adventure we head back to the Hotel and then Friday ends and Saturday Begins.

Okay Saturday wake up and all that is involved. And we drive up to Hurricane Ridge. I will post the pictures of that on my Flickr Account. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tristanpipo/ Since it’s easier for them to manage all that then me to go around and add all the links and comments all over again.

Me and Raleigh spent a good two hours up there. The deer seemed to be like we are here. Take our picture. I hope animals are constantly mocking how stupid humans are. Sometimes I hope if there is a next life I come back as a bear. I would camp out near a trail and just eat hikers.

After Hurricane Ridge I took Raleigh out to lake crescent. Lake Crescent was pretty cool. It was interesting seeing Raleigh have a good time taking pictures of her SUV in all kinds of wooded locations. A few weekends ago we might remember that I tripped and screwed up my ankle. My normal act is to just hope down rock faces and that kinda 9 year old boy thing. But I was getting told not to do such things because well I am rather clumsy and don’t want to screw and fuck up any body parts again so I just tried to be careful. Nothing happened so life is good.

{it doesn’t matter where we are, Tristan will trip, bang, knock and tumble.  Im thrilled to have met someone clumsier than me!}

We just kinda explored the different spots along 101 that all the tourists do since it was all new Raleigh and anything to take off the shrink wrapping of Washington for people. So after we spent all day out we went back to Sequim and had a late lunch and then went to the Hotel.

At the Hotel we decided to venture down to the pool and acted like 11 year olds. (Hey I can’t help that throwing a ball across the pool and dunking each other is a good time =) )

We then decided to go check out the Casino see if they had anything exciting going on down there. When we were driving down to the Casino there was this billboard that said they had a Steak Dinner for $6.95 which had me excited because well what Red Blooded American Male doesn’t like a good steak. When we get into the Casino we were going to do some dancing but it turns out the wanted $25 to go dancing. Every other Casino they usually have a free club and scene and charge you for drinks. But that wasn’t the case here since Sequim isn’t really much of a young persons town. It’s more of an area for camping. But the thought never occurred to me to go find a campfire to go chill at. So it rolls around to 11pm and I am starving and so is the beautiful Raleigh. So we go check out the restaurant at the Casino and we get the dinner menu but since 11pm ticket over they snatch the Dinner menu away from us and give us the lunch menu. Man I wanted that chicken cordon blue so instead I get the chicken friend chicken which was good but not really what I wanted. Raleigh had some Asian Chicken Salad thing that I really thought was pretty tasty. That Wasabi dressing was awesome. So after that we pretty much ninja sneak out of there.

Sunday morning we lazily get out of bed and decide to check out the local costco.  On a Sunday morning, not to mention the day before a holiday, a Seattle costco is insane.  However in Sequim, Costco is almost like a business you hope can survive because there were so few people there.  After a delicious costco lunch, we headed to dungeness spit.  A few quick photos and we were on our way back to Tristan’s.  We ended up taking a nap and basking in the warm afternoon sun.  Nick and Audrey called to see what we were up to, so we headed on over to The Olive Garden for a fabulous meal with friends.  Now Olive Garden you can’t go wrong with the Chicken Scampi. Raleigh had some noodle thing but for me you can’t beat the Chicken Scampi I never order anything else. It’s heaven. It’s amazing. After the Olive Garden showdown of wits with Nick and Audrey.  We went to a late night showing of Hairspray which we both enjoyed.  Now Hairspray is a musical and being of male origin I ponder why I like this film. It’s enjoyable in pretty much every fashion.  John Travolta gave Raleigh the creeps as a woman, but overall he really pulled it off.

Overall weekend rating A+. Next Mini Vacation is in the Works.

This is a Raleigh and Tristan Blog Post. =)

Details of the event can be found here: Halo 3 Preview IMAX Event

So last Tuesday I went to the Halo 3 Preview Event at the Seattle IMAX Theater located at the Pacific Science Center which is just up the hill from my work. It was a hell of a hike up the hill especially with my ankle still in pain but hey I managed.

The girlfriend wanted to come and I got my buddy Greg from work and his girlfriend to go as well. I didn’t figure there would be a huge line for this so when I got up to Seattle Center I just sat at the fountain. But after about an hour or so I walked over to check out the happenings and noticed there was already a line. So being there solo I got in line and found myself standing next to some folks that were a great deal geekier then I. But we all found a common bond over Nintendo DS Wireless and I played some dancing game with some girl while standing in line. It was all in Japanese and made no sense to me. But I figured I better stop before her older brother of 15 tried to start something with me.

Shortly afterwards Greg and his new girlfriend decided to arrive and I finally have some company. So pretty much from this point on until 9pm is just witty banter about anything and everything. I did get to brag a bit about how I scored George Carlin tickets. =)

So 9pm rolls around and I am pondering where Raleigh is since she hasn’t arrived. So I give her a ring and she is at the store getting drinks. I must give her some props on the amazingly awesome factor of coolness. I really like her.

So she comes walking up as we just start going in. She gets the bonus of being 50th or so in line with us and not having to wait. I wish I could be so lucky .

So we pretty much go from waiting outside to going to wait inside where it is hot. I must say anything over 70F is just to hot. I guess it was from that working in the freezer and walking to work in the cold before that got me spoiled with the coldness.

So it was rather amusing that Me and Raleigh and Greg and his Woman were the only dudes in line with what appeared to be girlfriends. Most of the other females were mothers of kids that wanted to go.

So Halo 3 looks amazing. XBOX 360 action on September 25th. If you want to be my XBOX friend my GamerTag is TristanP I thought it was pretty creative.

We got to see the COOP functions which was awesome. The level modification system and the replay theater. That was amazing with what you can do with that functionality. I give the game a definite buy. I have mine preorded so I can go pick it up after work on the 25th. Then we get George Carlin a few days later.

This weekend I am going to a wedding with the girlfriend. Next weekend we are kidnapping each other to go to a secret location. Last weekend she got to meet the family that went well. I will get to meet hers tomorrow as it seems. Good Times Indeed.

Leave me some Love in the Comments. I am working on the next podcast I need some calls. Voicemail Line is located below.

Comments and E-mail are always appreciated. Have a wonderful weekend everybody. Especially you that read this far.

Personally I haven’t really spoken much with Ollie or hung out with him since he told me I was making the worst decision of my life to work at a job I love and enjoy and that I don’t know how to do research and telling me to “Fuck Off” because I was telling people that the bullshit of Quixtar wasn’t going anywhere.

So from my understanding is Ally called Ollie and Ollie called me at 11:47pm on a Sunday night and left this voicemail that had me going WTF since he clearly has no idea what he is trying to say and presents it in a poor fashion. So Ally and Preston are upset at me and they don’t have the respect to discuss it with me they choose to tell everyone else about it?

Also $100 is not a lot of money. I can see where it would be to Ollie since what has been passed along to me was that he had to leave his mom’s house that he was living with to move in with some women in his “business” with a kid to live with and he is having trouble finding landscaping jobs because amazing quixtar is not getting him rich quick enough. Gotta love pyramid schemes.  Best of luck to him in that regard.

But feedback is appreciated on this one.

Fact of the matter is offering money isn’t a favor. I felt that I deserved a phone call in the least. The Ally seems to be upset with me so she goes talking to people that were not involved because she doesn’t seem to be mature enough to speak with me directly about it.

I have made my peace with it all. Though posting the voicemail that was left on my cell phone would be rather embarrassing to Ollie since he is so into his “business” and having a little google swing power would be rather fun to give some negative vibe out there. But maybe another day.

If you can’t deal with who I am and how I go about life well that really seems to be your issue. I don’t sugarcoat anything really. I am rather blunt about everything and my honesty has moved me further then anything. So to Ollie, Preston and Ally when you are ready to be adults and speak to me directly I am all for it. Until then best of luck growing up.

“Hey buddy. What are you doing this sunday? Allys dad needs some help moving some books and a TV from her moms house in suquamish and he will pay you. Shouldnt take more than two hours”

I get this text message out of nowhere. This is from the groom in wedding I was a groomsmen in. I have tried to contact him a few times after the wedding and have not heard anything back from my text messages or voicemails. So with that in mind I started to ponder my response.

Natural thought process has taken me down a few routes.  I first thought of the wonderful quote from Jay Leno.

“Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren’t bad people; they’re just acquaintances.” -Jay Leno

So I got to pondering would Preston drive me to the airport if I needed such a favor. Well the fact he doesn’t have a drivers license or a car was pretty much a “No”

Which got me thinking if I sent him a text message out of nowhere asking him to help my girlfriends mom move some stuff would he do it? I highly doubt it.

Usually when someone asks a favor of me I generally require a bit of small talk. A Hey how are you. How’s the  whatever. But I got no such small talk which automatically moves it down to lower on the scale that I care about. So I consulted my coworkers for their wisdom and presented situation. They all said “Don’t do It”

So I pretty much had 3 strikes against the whole idea. The further thought began to cross my mind is that Ollie my “friend” that called me a fucking moron and I was throwing my life away for not joining him on his Quixtar Pyramid scheme had his cell phone shut off again and Preston could not get a hold of him because Ollie needs the money more then I do so I got hit up because I am still in the area.

Sunday is usually my chill day usually go hang with the guys after I drop the lovely girlfriend off at the ferry dock. Or I go have dinner with my parents. I try to see them once a week.

I am not really big on expecting a favor in return from people I never get to see except when it’s best for them. Which seems to be hardly these days.

So blogging world what are your thoughts on the matter? How should I respond? Would you do this favor?

For those that care.

Air Hockey Score: Tristan – 95 / Greg – 81

So I thought I would publish the raw uncut results for you to get a bit of feedback from the listeners and readers of the blog. I truly miss podcasting and wish I could do it more. But I think the dynamic is much better with another person.

If you subscribe to my podcast feed at http://www.tristanpipo.com/podcast/Podcast.xml you should be getting the update next time you update your feed readers.

If you would like to leave a voice comment: +1 206 973 7886

This runs 18 mins and has some music and some other things. Thoughts are appreciated. I tried to bang this out in about an hour.