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 On 03/12/2013 at 07:43 PM by Ranger1 See More From This User » |
I seem to be in what I refer to as a gaming lull. The games that I've been playing just aren't interesting me, and I just don't feel like going and finding one that does. So here's what I've been doing instead.
Reading: I got $55 worth of gift certificates to my favorite independant bookstore for Christmas. I finally got around to spending them last week. I ended up with four books: Kaufmans Field Guide to Nature of New England (I collect field guides) and some fiction. I've started one of them, a steampunk novel set in Seattle in 1879 called Boneshaker by Cherie Preston. It has airships and zombies and interesting characters, how could I not love that? I'm about half-way done and wishing I'd bought a couple of the other books in the series, too.
Listening: I just got the Journey Soundtrack in the mail. Well, it was the replacement of the Journey Soundtrack that UPS misdelivered and broke in half last Thursday. Amazon immediately shipped out a replacement and I'm thankful they sent it in the mail, it arrived in my mailbox and in one piece yesterday.
Volunteering: I volunteered in the Children's Discovery Garden at the Portland Flower Show last Thursday. I was with the Dept. of Agriculture volunteers teaching about invasive forest insects. We had some activities (make your own invasive beetle, a scavenger hunt, coloring pages, etc) and some hands-on exhibits. There weren't many kids on a Thursday morning, so I got bored and put on the Asian Long-horn Beetle costume.
Iditarod Obsession: The end is in sight for the front runners. The two mushers in the lead (Mitch Seavey and Aliy Zirkle) are within 65 miles of the finish, and Jeff King is about ten miles behind. They've all recently left the White Mountain checkpoint, where there's an eight-hour mandatory rest break for everyone. The next three mushers are three hours behind Jeff King. I think King may still have a shot at it, but I think this may be Aliy's year to win, she came in second last year. Mitch is a mile ahead, down from two, and she and her dogs appear to be less trail-worn than Mitch and his dogs. King stopped and rested his dogs three times between the Elim checkpoint and White Mountain. Apparently, snow conditions were terrible. I'm hoping to wake up early enough tomorrow AM to watch the winner arrive in Nome.
Outdoor stuff: We've had two decent days in the last week, and I took Bandit for some great walks. We live on a back road with lots of woods all around us. There are tons of trails in the woods on both sides of the road, and we did some exploring. I lived here 15 years ago, and I never knew there was a water tower on the south end of the road before!
"Little Brother" Michael and Steve, the next door neighbor, tapped a bunch of the sugar maple trees (Acer saccharum) on the two properties and have been hauling and boiling sap to make syrup. They've collected about 220 gallons so far, which will boil down to about 5.5 gallons of syrup, give or take. The actual amount depends on the sugar content of the sap. The average ratio of sap to syrup is about 40:1, but depending on sugar content it can range from 20:1 to 100:1. It's pretty labor intensive. First the trees need to be tapped, then the buckets have to be check and emptied and hauled to the sugar shack, where it's stored in bigger buckets before being dumped into the evaporator, where it's boiled down to make the syrup. Because of the extended period of warmer days and cold nights, it's been an excellent sugaring season. I think Michael and Steve have been collecting sap for at least two weeks, and it's still running pretty good. They drew off the first gallon or so of syrup yesterday, which is always exciting.
There ya have it, another random update of my random life. Tomorrow, I'll post pics of the sugaring operation, and Rangergirl dressed up as an Asian Long-horn Beetle.
I'm looking forward to pics of the Asian Long-Horn Beetle costume!
Mmmm home made syrup. 5 gallons of it.
I know what u mean about being bored with games. But I'm trying to really make a dent in my backlog and not give in to my attention deficit disorder so easily. Sometimes I game doesn't seem fun until I'm playing it and I'm like "Yeah, this is pretty cool!"
I go through phases where I just do other stuff for a while. I usually have a gaming lull about this time every year, I'm thinking about spring and spending more time outside.
Holy crap! It takes 220 gallons of sap to make 5 gallons of syrup? I guess I'll look at syrup differently forever from now on. I get bored with games sometimes too, and tend to waste a lot of time doing nothing lol. At least GH gave me a goal though. 
Yep, 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Explains why it goes for about $65 a gallon, doesn't it?
220 gallons! wow...that is sweet tooth heaven!
That's just the sap. It'll only be 5.5 gallons of actual syrup.
Mmmmmm homemade syrup!
I love me some waffles with lots of syrup! And I didn't even know that the Asian Long-Horned Beetle was an animal, so I'll be excited for that.
ALB is a horrible, nasty invasive beetle with an appetite for maple trees. Not a good thing if you like syrup.
Yeah I wanna see this beetle costume.
Blech, I don't like syrup. Too sweet.
Cary, it's not that spectacular of a costume. I thought there was going to be more to it.
Have you ever had honest to goodness real maple syrup and not that crap most people think is syrup? Big difference! But if you're not really into sweet stuff, I can see where you might not be all that into it.
I've had about a year long of a gaming lull, which is more or less still going, so no complaints here. lol
Reading: I think I'd love that book, especially since I've always wanted to live in Seattle, and I like steampunk aesthetic. What is your favorite independent book store? I think mine is Half Price Books ... at least, I think they're independent.
Listening: Saw your facebook posts on this. I guess I've been luck with Fed Ex/UPS, but glad it got to you in one piece :) I don't know how many game soundtracks I'd buy. The only OST I own of anything is Star Wars Episode I
Volunteering: I need to do this while I'm not working, I need a reason to get out other than working out; it's Spring Break and I was lucky just to get my friend to agree to dinner tomorrow, what is my life?! lol That's really cool that you're volunteering, though. It's been a while since I helped out at the old folks homes. That Asian beetle costume sounds cool, can't wait for the pics. lol
Itidarod: Let us know who wins!
Outdoor: It's been gorgeous outside here as well, so I've been doing my walks regularly again, and Clinger seems to have promptly become an outdoor cat. I woulsn't try to walk him like you do with Bandit, though. I think we tried a long time ago, and let's just say it isn't worth the trouble. lol
I had no idea the ratio was that unbalanced for sugar to syrup! Sounds like a real job! Look forward to the pictures.
My favorite independant book store is a little place in South Portland, ME called Nonesuch Books. Second favorite is a tie between Longfellow Books in Portland and Sherman's Books in Freeport. My absolute favorite bookstore in all the world is unfortunately no more, a victim of rental price gouging by their landlord and big box bookstores like Borders.
As for Boneshaker, very well-written. I read the first half in practically one sitting. And Seattle is so very cool in real life, not so much in the book. Full of zombies and killer gas.
sounds like a good time to do the very things you've just mentioned. It's time to live a little, if not a little bit more given the lull
I feel the same way right now myself. Spending more time augmenting my game rigs than I am trying to buy/play games. Only 1 game actually holds my interests, where the rest are just games I could have just to collect than play. Not a good enough reason to buy a game at the moment for me, unless it's dirt cheap ;)
Yeah, sometimes I just don't feel like gaming. And after a long winter, I start wanting to spend more time outdoors. My park job starts in a little under three weeks, and I'm looking forward to be getting back there.
Well considering i work 10 to 6:30 mon through friday and have a family of six i dont get to play enough but going outdoors is a good thing to many kids today never leave the house my kids play outside everyday and watch tv and play games an hour a day no more and i beleive to have a healthy lifestyle outdoors is a must and readings a good thing to.
Good for you for setting good limits on the electronic stuff for the kids. Not enough kids get to spend unstructured free time outdoors these days.
Boredom in games is something I'm trying to remedy. I've been rediscovering RPGs as of late, thanks to my lack of money and increase in time. I've been playing a decent little GBA adventure called Summon Night: Swordcraft story. #2 is supposed to have mech battles, so I'm trying to get through the first one to get to the good stuff!
Boredom's not the issue. Just have no desire to game at the moment. Always happens this time of year.
Games never bore me but unless I have a friend to play with (and I mean in the room with me, not online), I don't play during daylight hours. I got to be out and about and not sitting at home in front of a TV or portable system.
Reading is great. I'm always reading several books at a time. One audio book for the car and one in my backpack to read at lunch. I'm a book worm and a game owl. Ha!
It's not really boredom, just a shift in interests.
Boneshaker....
I must look into this book, NOW! lol
It's on Amazon, Chris.
I recently picked up a book by that author. It's called Dreadnought. I am very into steampunk stories and artwork. But only started a few months ago. Went to a gaming convention and saw girls dressed up in elaborate steampunk outfits. Did a little talking and investigating and learned of those books. I know how you feel on the dry spell. I've been there before. Right now it's the opposite for me. Too many good games I am trying to finish. I try to alternate between COD:BO2 carnage and moving through some campaigns. Not a bad problem to have at the moment. That is very cool that you do volunteer work with kids. They need to learn about the world around them. And I am looking forward to seeing your costume,too!
When I signed up to volunteer at the Flower Show, I didn't realize it was in the kid's section. I thought I was going to be manning an info booth.
I think Dreadnaught takes place after Boneshaker, but I'm not sure.
Volunteering, that's pretty darn cool. Props to you! It's always nice to see folks giving back by spending some time teaching kids. When I was younger it was always fun doing the hands on learning, and I'm sure the kids at the Discovery Garden had fun!
I do a lot of informal volunteering by helping out friends who need help and don't have the good health or skill set that I have. I've done a bit of chainsaw work for some friends in NH where the husband is going blind and is recovering from an ankle injury. I also used to do minor home maintenance and snow removal for my former neighbor, also going blind. This was one of the rare times I've done something a little more formal. Unfortunately, I really wasn't prepared to work with really little kids and the station I was at was really geared more for middle school and up. I still had fun, though. I do a lot of work with kids in my park job, we do a lot of nature programs for schools and summer rec camps, plus programs for the general public. My favorite is the tide pool program I do, it's a drop in and explore kind of thing. What's more cool than poking through tide pools with kids of all ages and getting paid for it?
I'm feeling a gaming lull, as well. I'm still picking at the new Fire Emblem here and there, but I've been doing more reading and stuff, which is nice.
I think mine's related to the imminent change in seasons, part of me wants to spend more time outdoors.
I'm currently unable to decide what I'm playing. Yes I'm playing Fire Emblem and I like it a lot but each battle requires careful prep and strategy which is taking a lot out of me.
I picked up Persona 2: Eternal Punishment last night, then decided to load up Innocent Sin and try to play some of that. I'd love to finish this game but the random battles are so frequent it's ridiculous. Sometimes I'd only take 3 steps after one battle before I was in another.
Then I tried to play some of Eternal Punishment to compare but it was late and I couldn't figure out how to leave the office. Every time I'd go to the elevator I'd get told that my friend hadn't called yet. Then I'd run around and talk to everyone in the office and try again only to be told the same thing. 10 minutes of that I I quit and went to bed.
I'm just not feeling like gaming at the moment, other than puzzle games and pinball, and even pinball isn't interesting me so much at the moment. And I do have four new books...
That happens to me all the time. It happens with music too. Sometimes I look at everything that I have and can't find anything I want to play (in both cases). I refer to it as losing my religion. LOL
Yeah,I did notice you online playing Pinball FX. Remember you telling me about that game. Next time I get a Microsoft points card I think I'll get that one. I think you're right about Boneshaker. Perhaps I should read that one first. Been so busy I haven't had a whole lot of reading time. I'm not familiar with the music on the Journey soundtrack. What sort of music is it? I've heard so many good things about the game that I want to get the collection[the one that includes Flower] at some point.
Hard to describe, so here:
I like that! I can see how that would add to the game in a big way. I was just looking at the image while I listened to it. But it made me feel like wandering the wilderness.
There weren't many kids on a Thursday morning, so I got bored and put on the Asian Long-horn Beetle costume.
INTENSE. Ha!
A friend of mine's parents owned some random land up in Maine. Apparently the neighbor taps the trees on his property and theirs, in exchange he sends them a case of maple syrup for use of his trees. He gifted me some once, it was fantastic.
It's best not to let park rangers get bored...
There is nothing like real maple syrup. My grandmother would make a fresh batch of yeast rolls and we'd split them in half and pour maple syrup over them when they were fresh out of the oven. I think it's an old Maine thing, because I've talked to some other old-timers, and they remember doing the same thing, but no one outside of the state seems to do it.
I love real maple syrup. It is insanely expensive here. But I do get it sometimes because there is nothing like it on my waffles. Oh,I was wondering who won the Iditarod? Have not seen the news on that yet.
I'll do a complete Iditarod update when the last musher crosses under the burled arch and they extinguish the lantern. But to answer your question: Mitch Seavey came in first, after he and Aliy Zirkle battled it out all the way from White Mountain. I got to see Aliy's finish live, thanks to the dog deciding he needed to pee at 3AM. I'm glad I turned on the laptop to check on things.
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