The Bakers Homepage

Wow have I ever made myself busy!

I have now committed to more stuff then I ever thought possible.  I thought it would be fun to layout all of the items I have committed to over the past few months.

Spore - I received the game Spore (and it's expansion pack Creepy Creatures) as a Christmas gift from Santa and Dana.  It is a very deep and cool game, there is so much to do.  However I find myself overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data within the game.  I can see a person getting addicted very quickly.  However it is a blast to play, explore, and design new creatures.  I will likely be on there again tonight.

Nintendo DS - I have a back log of games going on with the DS right now.  So much so that I have not had a chance to get to my Wii games.  I have a few good games to finish before closing my DS for a break.  Sonic The Dark Brotherhood is currently in my DS and while it is a cool game it has some lengthy periods where things are just not as much fun as one of the Mario RPG games.  But I will finish.  Following this game I need to start and complete Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings, and Chrono Trigger.  Wow that should take me a long time.  Oh and I entered a contest online last weekend and just found out that I won!!  I won Blue Dragon Plus for the Nintendo DS.  Sounds like a cool game but wow I am going to be busy.  Maybe I need to call in sick for a day or two and just game. lol

Research - As many of you know I am working towards a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering.  This process is a long and drawn out exercise.  After many failures and struggles to get the test circuit to work properly, things are finally progressing.  I now have to just sit down and collect all of the data from the tests and then I can begin the report.  This is a long journey but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

FredNet - I have joined a team that is competing in the Google Lunar X Prize competition.  This is a competition to launch a robot to the moon and then control all systems from the ground.  My job on this team is on two different fronts.  I am in charge of a marketing and fundraising campaign (just in design phase) and I am part of the team that is developing the communication system to transmit data from Earth to the Moon.  This is a cool adventure and I want to see this through.  

Arcade Cabinet - I got it in my head that I wanted to relive my youth.  A big part of growing up for me was playing games in the Arcade next to my fathers plumbing shop.  At first the arcade was owned/operated by my friends step-dad and then later my father and his friends assumed that role.  It was great because I could play any game for free whenever I wanted!  I loved spending hours there.  Now that I am older I am building my own arcade cabinet to fulfill the childhood dream of an arcade in my home.  This is a lot of work for someone who is not good with tools and is not very artistic.

GDs Dynamics - This is my company on the side.  Really a hobby at this point but we have finally started bringing in some money (although very little) and we are very close to finishing our first project design.  The prototype hardware and software is finished, we just need to complete a power design and then we can start testing and demonstrating to clients.  I see big things from this product and would love to make a little cash on the side but it requires a lot of work.

Oldcoots.net - Why do I volunteer myself for these things.  At some point this year we were joking that we should have a web-site to show off the sorriest team in rec hockey.  Well I volunteered my services to create the wed-site and since I am not artistic (wish I was) it takes a lot out of me.  I am not a web designer (which is why my own web-site is the default Drupal install) but here I am yet again assuming the role.

Books - When I was very young I read every book that came my way.  Then sometime around high school I stopped reading altogether.  My wife on the other hand is an avid reader and has pushed me to get back into the book world.  This has lead me to read for educational benefits (Guerilla Warfare, The Art of War, Great Canadian Battles) and for the benefit of entertainment (My Boring Ass Life, Battlestar Galactica).  Books take a long time when you only read a few pages every few days but I will get through them all sooner or later.  Oh man I forgot to even mention the magazines that I read.  Wow I will be busy for a long time (which is actually not a bad thing).

Life - Sometimes general life obstacles can make your life busy and I am no exception.  Dana and I always seem to have hurdles in our lives that we either cannot seem to clear or take far longer then we would like.  We are stuck in this state with a few things right now and hopefully with the help of our family and friends we will make it through but until then it is hard to concentrate on these smaller (almost mundane) tasks.  

Anyways that is my crazy life right now.  I am busy, happy, and cold (at least until Summer finally comes).  Thanks for reading and leave some feedback so I know I am not alone out here.