Longklaw.com

I remember thinking a while back that I was going to really get into and enjoy this holiday season. Reese’s diagnosis and the omicron variant put a damper on that. Reese has mostly good days, but he’s been very needy. If I go to take a shower I can hear him wining when I get out. I wasn’t getting a lot of sleep for a while. But it wasn’t all bad. I put a tree up for the first time in a while. At work we got gift cards for GrubHub so we could have a meal together on Zoom one day

I had my first Christmas dinner on the 23rd with my friends Aaron and Josh and some mutual friends. We ate a lot of food, played Bomberman and that Exploding Kittens like Star Wars card games, and did a secret elephant exchange.

I spent Christmas Day with my friend Nir doing the Chinese dinner on Christmas Day thing again, except this time we ordered takeout instead of dining in a restaurant.. My friends Robert, Alex, and Jer were there as well along with one of Nir’s friend who I didn’t know. We played Codenames and chatted and ate so much food. We never got around to watching a movie.

What did I get for Christmas and my birthday this year?

Nike shoes

plates

Sagrada (board game)

Mulholland Dr (Criterion Collection)

Wayfarer Series

protein pancakes with bourbon-aged maple syrups

Trailblazers calender

Captain America mug

chocolate candy

Star Trek pride shirt

I didn’t really treat myself to anything this year like I normally do. Over the summer I got a new TV and receiver, both of which support 120fps so my gaming consoles will be able to live their best lives. Maybe I can count that.

Overall I would say that this was a pretty good year. It was great getting out and being able to see people, go to events, and be social again. It’s hard to describe just how much that has meant, especially after 17 months of isolation.

There’s been a damper later in the year. Reese’s diagnosis, a friend passed away, Betty White died today.

Next year I have to make health a priority again. I was making so much progress, but the last few weeks my diet has gone to crap again and I haven’t been exercising at all. And of course I struggles getting around most of the year like when I went to Rose City Comic Con.

I also want to make getting a fulltime job with benefit and PTO a priority. It’ll make me feel a little more at ease and I’ll actually be able to have some real vacation time. I’ve had 2 contracting jobs this year. Hopefully, I’ll be an FTE someone by the end of next year.

Speaking of vacation time, I hope that my travel plans don’t get screwed up by one thing or another. I’m supposed to be going to Chicago in April. Let’s hope that happens.

As usual, I want to wish everyone a happy New Year. Take care of each other!

Thanksgiving weekend is ending. It was a good weekend.

I worked maybe an hour on Thanksgiving and 2 or 3 hours on Friday. Monday – Wednesday were pretty light at work as well. I’ll be glad when I’m working full-time again and don’t have to work on the last 2 days of that week at least.

I had Thanksgiving with my friends Aaron and Josh in Tigard, who I’ve been spending more and more time with lately. They ordered a pre-cooked dinner from New Seasons and all they had to do was warm it up. It was delicious. We played Xbox games and played a Star Wars themed card game that’s a lot like Exploding Kittens. I played games on my own at home before and after. The only thing I didn’t get around to doing was resurrecting my tradition of working out early on Thanksgiving day. At one point I thought I would work out at home after I got back from Aaron’s but I should have known that wouldn’t happen.

Friday – Sunday, I was at home pretty much the whole time playing video games, watching TV and movies, reading a book, and making sure Reese was okay. It was a nice, relaxing weekend for the most part.

I am fortunate.

Wow, time flies. It’s been a while since my last post, so I figured I’d pop in with an update like I do.

Life has been great. Between spending time with friends and PDX Gaymers events, I’ve been busy. October especially with all the Halloween things. My friend Aaron had a Disney-themed party this year. I dressed like a Sith Lord and everyone seemed to like it. PDX Gaymers had a Halloween game night again and my friend Jer also had a party. I’ve come to enjoy Halloween these past few years. I sympathize with those who don’t get into it but have to watch as everyone else is excited about it. It’s kinda how I’ve felt about Thanksgiving and Christmas most recent years.

Speaking of Thanksgiving and Christmas, it feels like a sprint from October until the end of the year. So much happening and work usually has end of the year deadlines. At least I have a few weeks to catch my breath though before things really pick up again.

Work at Nike is still great. I’m not sure that there’s any chance of being hired full time. Not on this team, at least. I received an offer from a team at Intel to return there. A generous offer. I didn’t even have to go through an interview process, probably because I was recommended by one of my old managers. I ended up turning it down, mostly because I didn’t think I would like the work and I would be unmotivated to come to to work every day. While this was going on, a team that includes some of the people I last worked with there also wanted to make an offer, but they couldn’t because of the other offer. It’s nice to feel wanted. I still feel the mental effects of that year of unemployment I had.

I got my covid booster on the 20th. Thank goodness for vaccines. So glad that I’m able to go out and have fun again this year.

I went to see the Trailblazers play the Clippers on the 29th. Aaron got tickets through his work. Floor seats! So weird being that close to all the action.

Oh, early in the month I went to see a Bianca Del Rio show. Wendy Ho opened for her. They were both so funny. I’ve never seen the early seasons of Drag Race, but I want to go back and watch them.

There’s more stuff coming up, but I’ll save it for another time. Happy Halloween!

This weekend was Rose City Comic Con. It was my first con since January 2020. Man if felt good to be at a con again.

There were times leading up to the con where I thought about not going because of the delta variant that’s been so devastating lately. I waited a while to buy my passes and I didn’t purchase tickets for photo ops until the night before. At one point I was thinking the con might be cancelled, but going into that final week I was pretty sure it would go on. PAX (which I decided to skip this year) and DragonCon weren’t cancelled, after all.

If was definitely different. Not as many people. Everyone in masks. It seems like there weren’t as many guests to begin with, but more than normal cancelled for various reasons leading up to it. By the time the con got here, there were only 3 people I was interested in meeting.

I had actually planned on being there for only a few hours each day instead of spending almost all day there like I would in a normal year. I figured there wouldn’t be as much to see and I would limit my possible exposure to covid.

I almost thought about skipping Friday, but I decided to get one of my photo ops this day, so I could squeeze in another photo op on Sunday. As I do sometimes, I drove on the first day and rode the train after that. I can’t remember how much I’ve talked about my health on here recently. I was pretty out of shape before than pandemic, but add on to that 18 months of not going anywhere and not eating badly. It was a struggle just getting around the con. I remember having to walk around pretty much the entire building at my last con and although I was tired, it wasn’t much of a struggle. This time, I had to take several breaks walking from the parking lot to the entrance. They were on opposite sides of the building. I only went to see one panel, Carl Weathers. I had to factor in a rest break when I decided when to head to the room it was in. And when I left for the Billy Boyd photo and when I left the con that day, I had to traverse the entire building 2 more times. My legs and back were killing me. I was so winded and sweaty. My heart felt like it was going to explode.

The next day I had planned to do my normal cosplay photography stuff. Luckily, the train dropped me off right next to the Premium Pass entrance. I wish I had known about that entrance the day before. I got a few cosplay photos, but I was too tired to do more. I didn’t even walk around the show floor like I normally do. I got a photo with George Takei, but decided to skip his panel because I was so tired.

Sometime Saturday night I decided to skip Sunday. I had a headache, my chest was hurting a little, and my body was sore. I ended up missing panels with Billy Boyd and members of The Boys cast. I also missed the photo op I had paid for with Jack Quaid. I hope he comes to Portland again soon.

Even though it was tough on me, it was great being at a con again. I’m looking forward to the next one. In the meantime, I really have to focus on my health. I’m sure I’ve said that before, but I mean it this time. I’ve already been working with a trainer. It’s mostly diet that’s dragging my down.

The Summer Olympics ended last weekend. They were delayed a year because of the coronavirus. As much as I thought they should have been cancelled this year because of the coronavirus situation in Japan, I was excited by the time they finally arrived. But once they started, I wasn’t all that into it. I hate to think my interest in the Olympics is slowly waning over time. I started this blog 17 years ago this month right before the summer Olympics and even mentioned them in one of my first entries. Ah, that was the year I watched every show NBC hyped up during the Olympics like Hawaii, LAX, and Medical Investigation. They were all cancelled. However, we also got LOST on ABC a few weeks later. But I digress.

Maybe part of the reason I wasn’t into the Olympics as much as I wanted to be was because I wasn’t watching primetime coverage. I usually had a stream on while I was working during the day and I watched whatever was playing at the time. I wasn’t going out of my way to watch anything in particular and I’m sure the most popular events were in primetime on NBC. I didn’t get to see any diving, gymnastics, track, or swimming that I usually enjoy other than brief recaps. I didn’t see any rugby at all, which I really enjoyed watching in 2016. I did get to see a lot of volleyball (indoor and beach), tennis, and water polo.

The time difference is usually issue. There were a couple of times at least when I was watching something and then realized I already had heard the outcome of the earlier in the day. The competitions did feel different. I think it may have been because spectators weren’t allowed in the stands. I didn’t get to hear the personal stories of many of the athletes, which makes the events more exciting. Maybe not having gamily members in the stands contributed to that or maybe all of that was in primetime on NBC

I’m glad there’s only 3 years until the next Summer Olympics and in 7 years they will be in L.A. I hope to attend the LA games. I’ve never been into the Winter Olympics as much, but maybe I’ll try to watch them in a February

There wasn’t a traditional Pride this year because of coronavirus. It’s better than what we had last year though.

Pride month is exciting and exhausting. I looked at my work and personal calendars early in the month and I was amazed at how much was going on.

I’m glad that things have opened up more and I’m glad to work for a company that values its LGBT employees. Most work Pride stuff throughout the month was virtual. We did a HIIT workout, had speakers, learned choreography to “Rain on Me”, and more.

Outside of work, I had a lot fun, though not all of it was directly Pride related. BBQs, a math-themed birthday party, a Timbers game in really great seats, kickball and picnic with my work team, PDX Gaymers’ first in-person event in well over a year, Portland virtual’s Pride parade, and more.

The end of the month has been a little bit of a bummer. The Pacific Northwest has been hit with a record heat wave. Today and the past 2 days have been the worst, with highs around 110 degrees or higher. Portland just isn’t built for this. I think somewhere around 60% of homes don’t have air conditioning. I heard yesterday that Washington and Oregon were hotter than 99.8% of the globe. My air conditioning was doing okay until yesterday. Some of my friends were also having trouble with their A/Cs keeping up with heat. The birthday party I went to 2 days ago was fine at first, but as the day went on and more people came, it started to get really warm. My biggest concern is keeping the dogs comfortable. They look at me like they’re expecting me to do something. I’m doing what I can to help them, but it’s mostly just waiting for things to cool down each day. Last night I don’t think it even went under 80 degrees. Max seems okay for the most part, but Reese (who celebrated his 13th birthday yesterday) has always gotten hot quickly and is having the most trouble. Even I’m starting to feel a lttle sick, like my heart is working harder. The hour I’m posting this is supposed to be the peak temp and temps should start dropping. They will drop almost 40 degrees tonight and tomorrow’s high should be around 90, which is better thought still about 15 degrees higher than it should be this time of the year. The rest of the week should be much better and next week even more so.

Happy Pride, everyone! It’s been a great month in spite of limping to the end. Our governor is lifting covid restrictions in 2 days, so hopefully more fun next month.

How about a photo dump? I need more light-colored clothing for summer.