Thoughts on Destiny: Perfect for a casual gamer

There was a time, namely my entire life, when I played video games A LOT. I was five when the NES came out, and vividly remember playing Zelda for hours at a time. Now fast forward that habit for the next 25 years or so.

After playing some heavy, heavy World of Warcraft post college with my former two roommates Q and Spencer, I randomly decided one day to just quit playing. I don't think it's any coincidence that I started dating, then married Caroline shortly afterwards.

While wrapping up my MBA program (a post on this to come soon, well soonish), I sold some of those textbooks on Amazon. We had a quick conversation about what to do with the Amazon credit and because our DVD player recently went silent - RIP ole buddy - I opted PS4 which Caroline gracefully agreed to.

The only game I was interested in playing, was Bungie's Destiny. After a solid three months in, I can say I'm thoroughly enjoying the game. I loved playing Halo, I loved playing WoW. Mix those two together, and you have this game.

The story mode stopped just short of becoming all-consuming which some people hated, but I appreciate. Looking back, one of my post gripes about WoW was that I could play for 10 hours a day, and still feel unsatisfied that I "had" more to do. With Destiny, it's no problem for me to play a quick 30-40 minutes and turn it off to go rake the yard or something else.

One of my three characters in Destiny

I'm also at a totally different stage in my life where I don't want a video game that needs to be played at least 3 hours a day, otherwise you feel behind when getting on the line. I'm sure Bungie realizes some of this, that they have a huge audience of guys with young kids, 30-somethings like me with jobs & mortgages, etc. etc. 

I'm quite happy playing just this one game for a while, with Destiny firmly implanted in the PS4. I did start off playing The Last of Us, and was again reminded of my addictive personality when it comes to games -- I played that game until it was light outside one day, which I just shouldn't be doing anymore.

Anywho, I'm probably going to ride Destiny for a while and am looking forward to their expansion next week. The only other game that's on my radar for future playing is Tom Clancy's The Division.

So you're coming to downtown Raleigh for Hopscotch...now what?

Lace up your tennis shoes, because Hopscotch is here!  (http://www.hopscotchmusicfest.com/)

One of the year's most fun weekends, every year in early September downtown Raleigh transforms from a fun and eclectic mix of nightlife activities, to one beating heart that pumps thousands of attendees in and out of venues, bars, restaurants, retail stores...you name it.

I was reading an article on WRAL and one quote/paragraph stuck out for me:

"Fests like Coachella, Electric Zoo, Lollapalooza, and Pitchfork essentially pen concertgoers in, effectively limiting their experience within strictly defined points. You eat and drink from approved vendors. The bands you see are forced on you at a single-stage fest, or you play roulette between a handful of side stages. Some are worse about that than others, of course. I came to Hopscotch last year having never been to Raleigh before, and I loved the multi-venue set-up. It allowed me to explore the city in ways I'd otherwise have been unable or dissuaded from doing at another fest," Suarez said.

With my Hopscotch-only blinders on, I was dumbfounded by just how lucky we are to have a festival that doesn't charge you $10 bottled water.

The quote also got me thinking, "What if this was my first time to Hopscotch, or even to Raleigh?"

So without further ado, here are my tips, places to stop at, etc. while at Hopscotch Music Festival:

1. Not joking about the tennis shoes thing. I know we all want to look cool with a twinge of hipster to it, but wear shoes that won't beat your feet up. You probably walk/run a good 2-3 miles a night at Hopscotch, as you "hop" from venue to venue. Running from the Warehouse District to Lincoln Theater to not miss a band you love, is not an uncommon site. Hopscotch newbies wear pretty shoes that leave blisters. No one wants to be newbie.
2. Eat well before hand. In between the afternoon day parties and the first wave of acts at 8/9 pm is when you want to load up on calories. Based on where you're at, here are some good places I'd recommend before a night of drinking (I mean, we all love Sitti, but do you really want that before pounding beers, running, jamming out to a kickass band, and sweating profusely? Yeah me neither.)
3. Raleigh Times is the ideal spot for a meal if your first set is at Slim's, the Hive, Tir na Nog, Pour House, or even Kings. Their fare is consistently ranked one the best by many a publication. They have the capacity that Capital 16 lacks, and honestly just great food.
4. The Pit if you're starting at CAM or Deep South. If it's good enough for frequent appearances on Food Network, it'll be just fine for you. 
5. Beasley's Chicken + Honey is the best spot for Lincoln Theater, City Plaza, or the two venues inside the Performing Arts Center (Kennedy and Fletcher). Fried green tomatoes, honey, mixed with Ashley Christensen's biscuits and chicken = wow. Throw in a glass of Fullsteam and you're set. People will argue for Chuck's (also a Christensen joint) next door, but I prefer the uniqueness that is Beasley's.
6. If you're tired of hoofing it, bike taxis are the way to go. Larry's Beans normally offers a free ride around downtown, but you probably just won't want to wait for it.
7. If the night starts turning against you and late night food is needed, Do Not Pass GO and head straight to the Mecca. As old as the Great Depression, the place has a quality late night menu, beers on the cheap, and normally a great crowd of late-night patrons.
8. Stick to the plan! Print out a schedule, mark the bands you have to see, the bands you want to see, and some acts that will broaden your horizon. I normally spend two days on Hopscotch's Website listening to every single band that's playing the event, then marking the ones I'm interested in on my schedule. Then compare with your buddies. Speaking of which.... 
9. Consider your Hopscotch group. Is there someone who always "has" to finish their beer, or takes 15 minutes "saying goodbye?" That person is dead to me during Hopscotch. Once the set is over you need to book it to the next one. Greatness awaits out there, so consider a calisthenics exam or something for your group of festival-goers.
10. Late, LATE night parties do exist at Hopscotch. Play it cool hombre...and listen to the buzz of the crowd. Someone will spill the beans and sometime around 2:30 am you'll enjoy even higher quality face melt time.

That's it kiddos! Get ready for an amazing weekend that will leave you following many a new band for years to come, and laughing with your friends on all the silly stuff you did for even longer.

I'll be working a shift or two over at CAM for Lenovo's set up. We have these charging stations that charge your phone no matter what type you have. Probably should have been tip #11, keep your phone charged to the max, but meh. Feel free to say hi!

Kitchen before/after

Sorry for the hiatus! School has turned me into an ice cold Terminator - huzzah for only 7 more weeks until graduation! - and work, well craziness continues.

I tend to try not to chat too much work, but I've been spending all summer doing my best to lead comms efforts should our proposed deals close with Motorola Mobility and IBM x 86 close. Kind of hard to do this, when you don't know the date...

Anyways, I was browsing through some pictures yesterday before class, and saw one of our old kitchen. Comparing this bad boy to recent renovations is night and day. Some tips if you embark on a kitchen redo:

• If you're doing granite, go to Lowe's for a price compare, but I wouldn't recommend doing the final buy there. They will send you to a granite warehouse to look at large slabs - so I would recommend after getting a sense of the price, to just go straight to a couple of granite warehouses.
• Remember that the granite guys are picking up, carrying, and laying down a very heavy piece of stone. Expect dings, scuffs, holes, etc. in walls, doorways, and perhaps even cabinets. Ours said this in the contract we signed, which I saw before signing. I talked with some friends who've gone through this and they all said that their contractor had similar clauses in there as well.
• Since the walls got dinged here and there, we tried matching some paint found under the house to the kitchen walls, but to no avail. In a span of 30 minutes or so, we decided to repaint the kitchen and were at Lowe's within the hour. Since I can be a cheapo some...well most of the time, I got the 3M painting tape which worked just fine and was at least half the cost of Frog or Gorilla tape.
• Over communicate with your granite guy on: 1) the sink you want, 2) the faucet you want, and 3) the space behind your sink to the wall. Just trust me here. Some faucets have three hole connections, some one, some two, etc. Definitely worth the extra, extra planning.
• I opted to not use a plumber for disconnecting the kitchen sink, the experience of which was...fun? Turn the water valves to the right under your sink, run the remaining water in your faucet out, and then get to work! Taking off the main drain and disposal wasn't too hard, I'd just recommend getting a tiny screw driver because using a normal-sized one in a tight space can be unwieldy.  The toughest part for me was getting the connections for water out. After a lot of various efforts, I ended up using a crescent adjustable wrench for this part which ended up working the best.

Ok, that's it. Hopefully will report in with how the yard is doing before and after a party we're hosting next month, and my adventures in renting / operating a lawn aerator!

Snowshoe

There are few trips I look forward to more than the ones where I get to go snowboarding. I love traveling, but if I was being interrogated for some strange reason (and even stranger, if said interrogator was interested in my traveling preferences) and asked, "Tahiti or snowboarding?!" I'd probably roll snowboarding.

One of my most favorite places to go for for ski/snowboarding, is Snowshoe. It's a six hour drive from Raleigh, and is arguably one of the best resorts on the East Coast. If you can't fly to Colorado, Utah, etc., it's the place to be for those of us in the South.

View from a run at Silver Creek

I learned to snow ski from my father when growing up in Arizona. I don't really remember learning, but sometime around the age of 10 I was having tons of fun on skis. However, nothing gold can stay and when I saw my first snowboard at the age of 13, I had to try it. 

I was hooked.

Putting bindings on the new board in 2012 

Even better is that I get more serious and have more fun riding with each trip. Caroline bought me a new snowboard for my 32 birthday a year and a half ago, and I'm even more amped for my next trip (which is TBD). I'm now riding a 2012 Never Summer Legacy, which is a full nine centimeters longer than my old board. Considering that one is from the 90's, the extra length really boosted my speed and turning abilities, since I'm now a bit taller and definitely heavier than high school Khaner.

After spending the first day on Snowshoe mountain and then some at Silver Creek, I spent most of the next two days at Western Territory. I'm told the two runs at Western (Cupp Run and Shay's Revenge) are some of the longest runs and have the biggest vertical drops on the East Coast, and it was truly exhilarating to dominate both.

Amazing time, made even more so by my amazing friends who went with. Hope to squeeze one more trip in this year, and maybe treat myself to a huge Japan or Europe snowboard trip when I graduate from MBA school next Fall!

** - If you're super interested in my setup, my bindings are 2011 Burton Missions. I set em to 15 and 13 degrees (left and right), raised the height of the backs, and set the back's angles more forward. I definitely notice the improved stability of the back end of the board at 13 degrees, and felt much more powerful on my heel with my backs angled forward.

Adventures in Water Heating

Aside from days spent as a marketing/comms guys, and evenings at school, I spend a fair amount of time doing/fixing things around the house.

I learned a lot from my Dad, who made me help him out around the many houses we lived in growing up. We did a lot of large projects together (several sprinkler systems, roofing, etc.), but I learned the most when we built our house in Charlotte, and I was at a ripe learning age of 15 or so.

But as any good Walker man, we learn a lot from trial and error. So it should come as no surprise when I took it upon myself this weekend to fix our water heater that general mayhem would ensue.

Element in question

For the past two weeks (ever since the weather has gone crazy) it's been shutting off, prompting me to get under the house and hitting the reset button. Well my better half suggested I try and follow my best friend's advice, and replace the heating elements. 

My immediate thoughts on heating elements for water heaters:

• They actually keep the water in the tank. DO NOT REMOVE as a first step
• DO NOT have your wife underneath the house when you remove the heating element, she will voice immediate concerns about having to reshampoo her hair
• Shut off the water to the tank before removing the element
• Drain the tank before removing the element

I'm sure if I took the time to read the manual, I would've known to follow these steps in the appropriate order - but hey, Walker men right???

After all of this, we still don't have hot water to the house, so a repairman has been called. But I did learn a ton from the process! 

Also another key lesson - do not have your wife pour hot water on your head to rinse out the shampoo. I had to watch the Superbowl with a bag of ice to my head because of the burn!!

Regardless, we looked back at the experience as kind of a funny one, and I'm sure when we have hot showers again, we'll laugh even harder. Cheers to being a homeowner!

Trouble in NC District 2

I retweeted The Hill's post this morning, about Clay Aiken considering a run for North Carolina's 2nd Congressional District. While the story is catchy on some 'pop' level (American Idol fame meets national politics), what's interesting to me is that N.C./national Democrats see the district as winnable, but only with star power/someone with already high name ID.

Let's just say the threat of Aiken running is real. I'll assume he has some real ability to raise money for the race - call it the liberal Hollywood elite pouring in funds if you'd like - and at the very least he can solidly deliver a TV soundbite.

So you now have a "serious" challenger for November. Great, and while this is interesting, it gets even more so when you have a tough primary you have to get out of.

WRAL reported in December she will have a primary challenger, someone who hosts a conservative Internet talk show and has run for office before. Let's just say he'll know the basics of putting together a campaign, and has some ability to pose a threat.

Coupled with the fact that you already have the Heritage Foundation pouring half a million into anti Ellmers ads in her district, and now we have something fun to watch.

Is the tough Democrats, beating up on primary-bruised Republicans becoming a trend? Will it translate into substantial pickups in Congress? We'll see soon enough.

Soooo....

Keeping with a personal New Year's resolution, I've finally started my own blog. I know, so mid 2000's right? Well apologies for the lateness, but here we are.

So, what to expect? Well as the name suggests, Story Boardin' is the art of developing a story - at its very essence, framing the conversation. In large part, this is what I have done every day for the past decade plus for work. Putting words to paper and engineering a conversation or two one way or the other.

My interests and passions range from politics to snowboarding and everything sideways and in between. So no vows of staying on topic, but I can promise you I'll do my best to craft a point of view that is hopefully unique, and at the least, thought out.

So fellow reader, I hope you enjoy! Here's to a new year, a clean slate, and at least one resolution...fulfilled.

The Mrs. & I on NYE