- May 3rd, 2009
    Did a lot of yard work this weekend, before my allergies get too bad. Had a shit ton of leaves to take care of. About 1.5 acres of grass surrounded by oaks and locusts. You do the math. There wasn't much time to rake before the first snows fell, so pretty much a whole fall worth of leaves to take care of. I was out there with my rake for about an hour, looked back and didn't even see a dent. My neighbour saw me and took pity on me, letting me use his mulcher. He's a really nice old timer, and I've gone over to fix his computer a few times, so we're chummy.

    Anyway the mulcher was a BLAST! Especially after impotently raking leaves for an hour. I was imagining myself herding cattle the whole time. Took just about half an hour to get it everything into manageable "wind rolls" as the guy called 'em.

    Also had a chance to till up a little patch of dirt and start a vegetable garden. It's still pretty chilly so I just started with root veggies - potatoes, carrots, onions, and beets. I'll put tomatoes and corn out there when it gets a little warmer. Can't wait for harvest! Hope the rabbits and deer aren't too much of a nuisance though, cause then I'll have to get all fancy and put up a fence.

- April 26th, 2009
    So apparently spring doesn't come to Minnesota. It's the end of April and I'm still wearing sweatshirts and long pants. Weather be damned though, cause for a few freak days in early April I rode my bike to work finally for the first time since, jeez, October. Felt great. So despite the cold I've been at it every day since. It's a mile to work, and I come home for lunch to play with Nola outside for a bit, so that's 4 miles a day. After being lazy all winter I'm really starting to feel physically better. Worked off a little winter pudge too, so I'm lean and mean again.

    Somehow allergies started for me a few weeks ago despite there being absolutely nothing alive yet. It's strange, I never really had serious springtime allergies until my first spring in Poland, and then that was a nightmare. Almost really serious because sometimes my windpipe would swell up and I couldn't breathe...just due to pollen and shit. Constant bloody nose, eyes all puffy, exhausted all the time, completely dried out because my nose was a faucet that leaked any time I ingested any kind of liquid. For one whole month every year I looked like a boxer who just got his ass kicked. So when I came back to America for my first spring in 3 years, I was looking forward to being able to go outside, but I guess Poland desensitized me or something.

    I'm just so friggin busy lately. Working on a personal Flash game, got so many wood projects to do, including now a few "comissions" for other people, that it's making my head hurt, there's Nola who needs constant playtime, going to start making some iPhone games on the side with some guys from work. Cooking and cleaning have basically gone out the window. Over the winter I was pretty good about making 3 square meals a day myself, but those days are over. I just eat ready made crap now cause I don't have time. And the house is a wreck. It's probably the first time in my life where I wish I required less sleep. As it is I only get 6 a day and I know that will start taking its toll.

- April 4th, 2009
    It's been a long time, here are some highlights...

- Leather jacket and mall of america...

    Aga and I went to Mall of America in October I think. It was pretty impressive, indoor amusement park, ice rink and all that. The shops were mostly what you get in normal malls, just a ton more of them. Although there were a few really cool stores I can't liken to anything. Anyway I went down there for two things: a promise of an amazing knife store, and a leather jacket for my Terminator costume and the oncoming winter in general. The first sucked horribly; just a bunch of cheap imported chinese crap. For the leather jacket we must've gone into 10 different clothing stores and everything was too small for me (surprise). We were about to leave when we came across this leather store ran by an Indian family. The very first jacket the guy brought out for me was perfect; had a removable hood, a little tight in the shoulders but would stretch out. The only thing was that it cost $400. I was like uh thanks but I wanna look in other stores and I might be back...yea, right. He instantly brought the price down to $300, but it was still way too much for me. He finally ended up bringing the price down to $225, which was a little above the most I said I would spend. At this point the guy musta thought I was one hardcore haggler, cause I still left. Aga and I walked around for about 20 minutes and she convinced me that it was a good price, so we went back and got it. The guy was none too happy. He said, "We agreed on $275 right?", you know like he innocently forgot. I was like uh no $225. To his credit he just sucked it up. Great purchase.

- Nola...

    My dog Nola has been quite a project. She's so hyperactive it makes you tired just watching her bounce off the walls. She's gotten ripped too. When you see her running in the sunlight it's like damn. She's so wired that training is pretty tough, which I guess is pretty common in the breed (Jack Russell Terrier). So far she's got sit, lay, shake, and beg pretty much down, and she fetches pretty consistently, but it's a constant battle against her A.D.D. superpowers. It's funny that "come!" still just gets me a blank stare, but if I say "time for a lesson!" she bolts to me like the fires of hell are nipping her ass. I train and talk to her in Polish as my kind of pathetic way of keeping the language in my mind. I try to set up small mental challenges for her whenever possible, like putting a toy in a place where she has to do something special to get at it, or making it impossible so she realizes that. It's hilarious watching the little gears turn in her head. I think she'll turn into a smart little dog with time.

- Watching dogs...

    I watch dogs for two of my friends from time to time. I actually beg them for the opportunity just so Nola has some socialization. One friend has two giant Golden Retrievers, Luther who is a few years old and Gus who I think is about 10. In this small house 250 extra pounds of dog meat makes quite a difference. The younger one really throws his weight around and wants to play while the older acts like a grumpy old man cause he misses his owner. Recently Nola rose to second in the pack. When the food bowl goes down the old man gets first dibs, then Nola, then Luther. She'll actually growl him away if he tries to go for it. A 15lb dog pushing around another dog I could almost ride like a horse, haha. She does the same thing now to the other dog I watch from time to time, a more normal sized black lab. The lab's a softy though.

- Cold...

    So yea Minnesota is pretty cold. I went so far as to put on some extra weight, but it's a bone deep cold that seems to be with you always. I spent a weekend completely insulating my house and cutting off the bedroom and laundry room to bring down the cubic footage, but the heating bills were still outrageous. But I'm really thankful I got to experience it overall. Somehow cold weather intrigues and appeals to me while at the same time it's annoying cause I can't do any work outside or in my garage. My kitchen slowly became my de facto workshop, but there's no replacement for being able to be messy in the garage. It just recently started to warm up, like someone flicked a light switch. Imagine about 3 feet of packed snow completely melting in 3 days...my property was a marshland. The river which is normally about 75 meters from my house rose to within 5 meters. But spring is back now and I'll finally be able to get outside on my bike and foray into the big forests around here with Nola.

- Warcraft...

    Aga and I played World of Warcraft pretty much every day when she was here, but only occasionally since she left. We're more bent on killing other players than doing the xp thing. We got to level 39 on Boulderfist and pretty much haven't moved from there. She's a troll hunter and I'm a troll rogue, which is a pretty good PvP combo. Stranglethorn Vale is our favourite haunt, and we can take any one class up to level 45 unless it's a Paladin, in which case even level 35's give us the treatment. The battlegrounds are a good distraction from time to time, but there's nothing like griefing a poor soul who's just trying to xp. A coworker of mine Mike came down from on high and helped us out a lot. He's basically a WoW god...his character is one step away from the one on South Park. Gave us a ton of gold, so we're pretty pimped out.

- Lumber mill...

    I've been back to the local lumber mill two more times since the first time when I got some red oak staves fresh off the tree. The guy who helped me the first time was actually nice enough to set aside a *huge* load of different hardwoods. I felt bad cause I only had my Outback and there was only so much that could fit in. I also felt bad cause pretty much none of the pieces he set aside for me were usable for making a bow (the main reason I went up). But I took a bunch anyway, cause I figure it can be used for something. White ash, maple, red oak, and another one I'm not sure about were in the lot. There's something so nice about having a garage full of raw wood. Still smells great when I walk in there.

- Fantastic Contraption...

    Fantastic Contraption is just a amazing physics flash game where you build machines and such in order to get a ball from one place to another. I got really hooked on this game and bought the full version where you can play levels other people have made. Here are some of the machines I built that I'm most proud of...

What Goes Down
Drone
Pro-catapult
Like a Railgun
Trial and Error
Wild Arms
FAST
Bola
Scooper
Spider
Moving Conveyor
Treadmill

- Car insurance...

    Connecticut car insurance = $955 / 6 months...Minnesota car insurance = $300 / 6 months...really crazy...even the representative who handled the state switch was stunned.

- Strop...

    Finally bought a good strop and some chromium oxide polishing compound for my convex knives and gouges. It's a good russian leather beast, with a tight woven linen on the other side for really getting a polished edge. It's so easy to keep an edge shaving sharp compared to using household stuff like cardboard and sandpaper. Just a few swipes and you can pop the hair right off your arm.

- Plumbing...

    Ever had your pipes back up? Not a good time. On 3 seperate weekends the main line to the city sewer in my house got clogged up. I mean it was always slow, but these times everything just stopped completely. We ran the washing machine once and a horrible, disturbing mosaic of things I won't even mention flooded into the bathroom by way of the shower, toilet, and sink. It happened cause the sewer line wasn't supported so it bowed down about 5 inches and all the crap got stuck right at the lowest point. And each weekend it happened my landlady was conveniently off at her weekend cabin or something with no way to contact her to get a plumber (couldn't call one directly). I finally convinced her that the pipes needed replacing and she grudgingly got someone out to do it. Took him all day and I'm sure it cost her an arm and a leg, but now everything gets sucked down right proper. The house was basically unlivinable for those 7 or so days so I asked her for a per diem rent rebate. She said "I'll think about it", meaning no, but I didn't push it cause her husband is a lawyer and I want my deposit back.

- Health...

    It's been like 6 years since I've had any kind of health or dental check-up, so with the good insurance from my job I really went to town getting everything checked out and tuned up. It's really mentally exhausting but when it's all over you have good peace of mind that everything's working as it should (well, if it is). I even went down to Minneapolis to finally get my TMJ jaw problem checked out, which has been my steadfast companion since high school. I thought they would tell me I needed surgery right off the bat, but instead they gave me a bunch of dos and don'ts to try over the next few months that should really improve the condition, and maybe I won't need surgery at all.

- Aga leaving...

    Aga and Toto sadly left for Poland at the end of December. Our little family of four had a really great time while they were here. She was kind of bummed cause she couldn't find any work under the table, just some translations here and there from a former client in Poland. We've started the fiance visa process and so far it's quite the gauntlet. The first application I sent in was about half an inch thick of birth records, evidence of meeting, forms, blah blah blah. Not sure when she'll eventually be able to come back, but hopefully sometime before summer, in which case she should be able to apply for a social security number, get a job, etc. Well, we hope. Then we get married! Still a lot of rigmarole to go through though.

- Job offers...

    I've gotten 3 job offers over the past few months based on my ObjectARX experience. The weird part was that they were 3 completely different recruiting companies all offering the same job in Kansas City. That fact and the kind of vague job description they all gave made it sound like the next Manhattan Project or something.

- Work...

    I've been really lucky to get a job where my creativity can be challenged and at the same time I learn a ton of new technologies, programming languages, APIs, IDEs, and other three-letter programming acronyms. Recently two of our nine guys got layed off, one of our artists and our producer. They were both hired before me so I'm kinda lucky to have dodged the bullet. The company is pretty recession-proof for now cause all our stuff is grant-funded. But if we don't get new ones we're going to have to move into more commercial projects. We're looking into developing for the iPhone/iPod and xBox. The iPod is tough cause you can only develop on macs, and of course we're all microsofted out the ass. But the xbox is also tough cause at the moment you can't make the kind of money you can by making a bunch of cheesey $2 apps on the iPhone.

- September 24th, 2008
     Ah life is good. Aga and Toto made it here surprisingly easily, and Aga didn't kill anyone either. The weather is fantastic here, I guess to balance the brutal winters. Aga and I've been playing tennis almost every day and I ride my bike a few miles back and forth to work. I've got a lot of side projects going on. I have a red oak bow in the works, the wood of which is so perfect I'm scared to work on it. Completely straight grain, beautiful white sapwood layer offset by the pinkish heartwood, NO knots. I mean with all my other bows I was always using these crap maple saplings, so if the bow broke or wasn't that good I had an excuse. If I mess up this one I'll stab myself with the splintered remains. For now I'm *slowly* planing it down with a draw knife and cheesegrater-looking thing, but I haven't been able to find string strong enough to hold the bow's tension without stretching or breaking. Right now it's easily over 60 lbs.

    I'm also in the process of pimping out my new bike. So far I've added two cup holders, a compass, side view mirrors, an electrical push button beeper horn, little compartments everywhere, a back rack for my laptop or whatever, and speedometer/odometer/clock. The latter is the only thing pre-made and meant for a bike. Everything else is custom-made/installed, mostly from scratch. About 10 different people have commented on how nice it is, where I got it, how much. Walmart, $90, ha! They don't realize it's all custom made and I don't dissuade them. Still got a lot of stuff I want to add, so I'm busy with that.

    I have a nice spacious garage and I'm in the process of workshopifying it...the local hardware store guys know me well. Gonna probably install a woodburning stove so I can be out there in the winter. It's seperate from the house and just has electricity.

    Aga and I recently bought a Jack Russell Terrier puppy. A clumsy little thing that somehow shits her body weight every day but is so forgivably cute. Her and Toto play and play, and every day when I come home I'm greeted by two little hyper fur balls of love.

    Aga's adjusting to the very different life here. She tried to get some informal work but gave up and is just doing Polish-English translations, which she did as a side job in Poland. The clients are obviously in Poland but it's all over e-mail anyway.

    Work is still great. I'm focusing mostly on the Department of Defense rust game, cause they're the government and I guess they take priority. Me and the art lead have decided to go with 3d Flash, which you don't see too often, but is really cool. I sometimes wish I could take a break from the programming and do some of the art, but the art guys are so far ahead of me with knowing the graphics technology. I may be able to draw pictures and sculpt, but they can create really amazing stuff with the computer that would take me months to learn.

    Been trying to get World of Warcraft started again cause one of the guys at work and Aga have been bugging me to play it. So much to download though. Still have my character from more than 2 years ago. Aga is fascinated with the game, really funny to watch her play. Ok tired bed.

- August 21st, 2008
     It's been a rough last month, but I'm finally kind of settled in Pine City. The trip out was of course awful. 20 hours my ass GoogleMaps, you never led me astray until now. I was on the road for about 35 hours, 30 of which was smooth 65 mph driving, so I really don't know how they got the estimate so messed up. I did it in one shot though, round about Chicago my eyes were so swollen I could barely see. My house wasn't immediately available so my landlady set me up at the Minnesota equivalent of Del Boca Vista when I got there. Cookie cutter retirement homes. That place made me glad to be young.

    I had to stay there for 2 weeks before moving into the house cause the prior tenants were real slow to move out. Meanwhile the Man just punished my bank and credit accounts, and actually is still kinda flailing at them, although his arms must be getting tired by now. It'll be a while before I break anywhere close to even.

    The job at JSC is amazing. I don't know how I lucked out so much. (a) There's the location, right smack in the middle of nowhere, which is how I like it and (b) there's the work, which is right up my alley (pay ain't too bad either). I have 3 projects assigned to me at the moment. One is creating a game for the Department of Defense teaching the basics of metal corrosion (or rust...the government likes fancy words) and cathodic protection, which is a newfangled way to fight rust on large structures and boats and stuff. It's actually really fascinating stuff, you'd never think rust was such a rich subject. The game will be in Flash/ActionScript 3.0, but for now it's in the pre-production phase so I'm just writing a lot of specs and reading a lot of corrosion theory. It can be fun, but I'm itching to start in on the meat and potatoes.

    Another thing I'm working on is a logging system for the company. When I joined up the de facto system was everybody e-mailing each other at the beginning and end of the day saying what they're working on. It seemed a pretty inefficient way to do things, so I suggested I could make a better system to my boss. I'm basically automizing the whole e-mail process by creating a web-based logging system with PHP and MySQL. There's not a more tedious form of IT development than working with server-side languages and databases, but the project as a whole has proved a good challenge. I'm almost done with it, at which point I'll put the package up on my website for other development teams to install on their own servers and use if they want to.

    The third project is by far the coolest...using haptics devices to train people in assembling catheter parts. If you've never heard of haptics, I'm basically using two $3000 dollar "pens" that translate every move you make with them to virtual 3d models in a program. Not only that, but when the models collide with something in the virtual world, that exact directional collision force gets sent back to the real world pen. Think Wiimote on every mind and body altering drug known to man. Haptics devices are really starting to gain popularity in surgical and dental training, and those devices can run up to $100,000. They so realistically simulate the actual motions and forces involved in working on live patients that it's all but eliminated the need for them. For now I'm writing a simulation where one device is a glue gun, and the other the catheter parts and you have to virtually glue them together correctly. These catheters are really expensive, so the company wants training where as few parts are botched up as possible. I went down to their headquarters and got to see the whole process. Everything is done in a clean room cause the scales they work at are so small, so I got all suited up so no contaminates would shed off me. They keep their whole assembly floor down to about 500 particles less than a micron in diameter per cubic foot, compared to a normal room which has tens of thousands of all kinds of particle crap floating around. Cool stuff. I felt like a host on one of those cheesey How It's Made type shows, asking questions and stuff.

    Besides work, I've been mostly internetless until now, which is good. I've been doing a lot of woodworking, like whittling out cool kitchen utensils from some extra white oak I had laying around. I also tracked down a REALLY good supply of red oak, ash, and birch that I'll use to make some killer bows. I went and visited a local lumber mill and told them I'd take the pieces they don't really use off their hands for $20. They get the fresh cut trees transported to the mill and when they square them off the four resulting D-sections are either discarded or chipped, and those are gold to a bowyer. You have the really straight grain, the nice even layer of sapwood to keep the heartwood from splintering on tension, no knots, just great.

    Anyway, I got to just stand there and pick and choose the D-sections I wanted off these gigantic fresh cut red oaks. I was salivating. The wood is just so beautiful and fresh and fragrant...there's nothing like it. They're gonna call me when they start doing ash and birch. I can't wait. On my rental property a nice ~2' thick locust tree fell from a storm, probably about a month before I got there. It was kind of hinged about 6' from the ground, so I took a hack saw and went to work on the remaining cantered part. Took about 2 hours to cut free, but it was a real nice workout. I'll cut it into 6' chunks and split and start curing them probably this weekend.

    And the best part, Aga and Toto are comin tomorrow! She's gonna have a horrible time getting here, 20 hours of travelling with a dog. I'm worried, just want her here already.

- July 17th, 2008
     Got me a lease on a Subaru Outback and finally headin out Minnesota way come tomorrow. It's a 20 hour drive. I'm gonna be renting a one bedroom house with 3 some-odd acres right against the Snake River. Check it out on Google Maps. All this for the grand price of $600/month. Gotta love that. The landlady said that in the spit bouncing winter cold people take walks down the river.

- June 20th, 2008
     The job market is safe again...for now. I started a very cool job at Johnson Simulation Center a few days ago. Working remotely from the parents' home for now but will be moving out to Minnessota at the beginning of July. I'll be doing a little bit of everything in IT I suppose, but mainly programming educational games in ActionScript 3.0 and Flash.

- April 23rd, 2008
     I've been helping my parents' friends move out of their house for the past few days. Helping people move is always a great opportunity to score free stuff, but boy did I hit pay dirt this time. So far they've given me a hand-carved alabaster chess set, a scanner/printer/fax combo, a kitchen table with 5 chairs, and a crossbow, yes a crossbow.

- April 17th, 2008
     I am become unto the job market as a hunter.

- April 15th, 2008
     First journal entry. I came back to America for good two days ago after a memorable 3 years in Poland. People always ask me why Poland. Well that's a good question.