Ramblings

I created an account for this 'blog' last fall and sitting here on a slow Sunday afternoon the thought crossed my mind that, perhaps, I should actually start using it. So after requesting a small reminder as to what my account name I originally registered under, here goes. . . .

Spent an energetic 45 minutes on a cross country machine this morning at the base gym, so I'm feeling pretty good right now. A nice change from yesterday's Roman-style orgy of pizza, wings, and chocolate chip cookie dough. My body weight has been slowly creeping ever-upwards on me since the waning of my fitness craze in late '04; this despite repeated efforts to re-energize or -commit myself to physical health. The thought of not only looking like my deceased father but also suffering his ailments in latter years is not a pleasant mindset. At times I feel that my worst enemies in life are genetic: the inherited fat gene that's apparently never dormant on my father's side of the family chief among them.

Work has been as abysmal as usual, with even more office games and their resulting stress as the current contract nears its first 5-month milestone. It's amazing how much stress a negative and/or hostile work environment had generate outside of the standard office hours, though in the grand scheme of things I know this is just a temporary situation that will eventually resolve itself.

Decided to rename this blog from its first title, Ecce Homo, lest it attract people for the wrong reasons. Latin isn't widely taught in most Western curriculums and my old AOL handle from the 90s, Ahriman6, comes to mind. I'll never forget receiving an IM in the middle of a weekend night from a local Asian gay man who thought my handle wasn't the Persian god of darkness but rather a fellow gay man who liked either giving or receiving mouth-on-ass interactions. Conjuring up rarely used mythological references for online handles in an effort to manifest wit has probably not gone so awry too often.

So it's Digital Avatars, a title that reflects several of my hobbies, all of which revolve around my consciousness' desire to escape its confines. Between my love of reading fantasy fiction and playing computer games, particularly fantasy roleplaying adventures, I've long been aware of the need these activities fulfill in my life. Which is, as mentioned above, is primarily escape. I discovered Tolkien's Middle-earth in the late '70s and have probably left one foot firmly planted in its fictional soil ever since, while the other has searched about for equally rich ground. My house's master bedroom has been used as my personal study since Melissa and I had the house built in 1998; this mainly because of the sheer amount of 'stuff' I've managed to hoard over the years, a growing cache of books, magazines, game boxes, computer parts, etc.

I managed to complete my review of AMD's X2 6000+ processor early, sending off the test results and text to SimHQ.com's owner yesterday morning. Which has left me with lots of free time this weekend, since we've been somewhat snowed in this week. Melissa wanted to eat out for lunch yesterday, but I talked her out of it with the current weather conditions. So I've been surfing the web, listening to music, and playing through a few games I bought last year. Melissa and Megan are both taking their typical afternoon naps as I type this, the wife because she's now 22 weeks pregnant with our son, Ian. Who is due, we just learned, on June 13th, a Wednesday. Scheduled C-sections are a godsend for those who like to plan ahead like my wife.

Speaking of Ian, we've yet to settle on a middle name for the lad. I've always fancied Andrew because of a close childhood friend of that name, but we haven't been 'friendly' for over twenty years and I haven't spoken with my old friend in well over a decade. So I feel like using that name contributes toward my habit of dwelling too much over past mistakes and bad memories, yet Melissa likes the phonetics of Ian Andrew. And I must admit it rolls off the tongue rather nicely, so we'll see.