Craig's Blog of Destiny

Today I’m recognizing the 25th Anniversary of my favorite hand held electronic game: Tetris.  I haven’t been playing Tetris 25 years, but I sure hope to still be playing 25 years from now.  Some people have books in their bathroom – (“say, that would make a great bathroom book”), or even The Readers Digest.  Not me, I have a GameBoy with Tetris in it.  And have had it in there for many, many years.  There are other games in there for my GameBoy, but none are played as much as my Tetris is.  On my current version of the game (for the GameBoy Color) I’ve eliminated a little over 500,000 lines.  Literally.  I should exceed a million lines sometime in the year 2015.  Don’t laugh, that’s only about 225 lines a day, and I easily do 200 lines during my daily morning trip to the bathroom.  My current high score for a Marathon game is 4,869,808.  My goal is to have a 5,000,000 point game.  Of course, it will take a game paused and continued over several trips to the bathroom.  I’ve done the 40 Lines game (at level 9 and the 5 high setting) in one minute and thirty-four seconds.  Twice.  My third quickest time is 1:35. 

I do need to mention the familiar music that comes along with the Tetris game.  Some time ago Ashley posted on her Tetris experience and the theme music.  I was a little confused by that, as I realized that I never play the game with the music on.  I always play “Tetris Muted.”  I believe that’s what helps to keep me sane – to the degree that I’ve stayed sane.

I’m a big Tetris fan.  I really don’t see a need for any other hand held game.

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In honor of the Tetris 25th Anniversary I’d like everyone to enjoy one of my favorite YouTube videos:

When I was about six years old my dad and I would get up early (like 4:30 am early) to go fishing.  I distinctly remember two things about those trips:  Mom’s brownies and Dad listening to KSL radio.  It seems to me that he was an avid KSL listener.  So, at that age, I got my news from driving in the dark hours of the morning with my dad listening to KSL radio.  There was also a time in my thirties that I listened most regularly to KSL radio for my news.
Newspapers are struggling these days, but there was a time that I got my news from newspapers.  As a kid I never missed doing the word puzzles from the paper.  And up until about five years ago, I was somewhat religious about reading the comics in the paper every day.  I didn’t read a whole lot of the rest of the paper, but I never missed the comics.  Now, about the only exposure to newspaper I have is that when I open my web browser it opens to the San Francisco Chronicle home page.  I don’t know why I selected that as my home page, but one time I did and have never felt the need to change it.  I particularly like the “Day in Pictures” feature – in fact many of the random images to your left came from there.
I remember well the days when we watched the evening news and there were only three news programs to choose from.  I think a lot of people still get their news from television, though from a wide variety of television options.  I just saw one source that sited 32% of Americans under 40 have The Daily Show and The Colbert report as their primary news source.
This brings me to the observation I made this week that has prompted this post:  my primary source of news these days.  I have two.  The first is ESPN radio.  I’m pretty current on what’s going on in the world of sports because I listen to ESPN almost exclusively in my car.  Recently we canceled our satellite radio subscription and as part of their attempt to get me to stay with them they asked what I listened to when I had it.  I had no answer: I didn’t listen to anything on the satellite; I was always listening to my local ESPN affiliate.
My other primary source for news is the Bob and Tom radio program.  As you would imagine, there are some down sides to having Bob and Tom as my source for news, the obvious being that the news stories I get to hear about aren’t always the most relevant stories of the day.  They tend to the absurd, easily mocked stuff about idiots.  The other problem is that I listen to Bob and Tom after downloading it to my mp3 player and I’m often a couple of days behind.  This can be confusing.
So, where do you get your news?  What’s your primary source for learning about what’s going on in the world?

I’m just not sure what to make of this one…  I know “gospel” means “good news” and perhaps for some people having a Pepsi would indeed be good news, particularly those of this congregation, who we all know is food obsessed.  Is Pepsi something other than the soft drink I used to drink in my younger years?  I just don’t know.  The only encouraging thing for me is that question mark at the end, possibly indicating that even Jim Hughes doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Just in case you missed some of the earlier food related posts regarding my favorite church sign:

Give us What?  Pastor Fred, Saved by…, Eating Disorders, Food Fixation…Again… 

Today is Jamie’s birthday!

Have a great one Jamie!

Mom:  the one that brought me into this life!  Mom is great, always supportive of what I’ve done and very practical.  When I started my business, she’s the one that got right to the heart of the matter:  “How do you get your clients?” she asked.  She has that pioneer attitude about things, always coping with whatever comes her way, good, bad, or anything in-between.  She taught me lots about staying on task, and just getting the job done.  Her influence on me regarding reactions to life’s quirks is very strong: from her I learned that what happens to us isn’t nearly as important as how we react to what happens to us.  She taught me to cook – by telling me when I was quite young that if I wanted cookies I could make them myself.  And at the same time, her unselfishness is manifest in all the treats she’ll make for the family while not being able to enjoy them herself (because of her diabetes).  Mom’s faith in prayer, commitment to her family and church, and practicality has been true constants in my life.

Grandma Ravsten:  my mother’s mother.  We used to spend time summers at Grandma’s place, jumping in the hay out in the barn or getting dirty in the old chicken coop.  She had a scary basement we sometimes hung out in.  She taught me to enjoy rhubarb picked right from her garden, and apples even if you noticed a small hole in them. When I was a very young lad, she got sick and was bedridden a period of time, it was at that time she taught me to play checkers and I so enjoyed her company!  Grandma stayed close, writing me letters all the while I was in High School, and during my mission.  After my mission we often visited her for dinner and could never get away without her insisting on us taking way more food than we could have eaten in the weeks between visits.

Grandma Renee:  my mother in law.  You can’t help but feel good whenever Irene is around or she reaches out to you with the traditional phone call, note, or more recently electronically. Her interest in you is always very genuine and sincere.  She epitomizes the “if you can’t say anything nice…” sentiment:  I’ve never heard her speak ill of anyone.  She always seems to know what to say and when to say it, the notes in her cards are always uplifting, probably because you know she means what she says.  Although she doesn’t let it out too often, she can be very silly and entertaining:  I’ll never forget her birthday song to me one year, sung as a dirge:  “happy birthday, happy birthday… there is sadness in the air, there is death everywhere… happy birthday…”

Nanny:  my wife’s grandmother.  I don’t want to say too much about Nanny – I believe I’m in the periphery of her influence on the world, but I must mention her and her strong commitment to her family, especially the little ones, and her work ethic.  Even in her advanced years she could clean circles around any of the rest of us.  And her relationship with her daughter Irene truly was special.  Nanny’s legacy remains with me and my family and her spirit will be with us forever.

Kristin:  my wife!  What a great mom Kristin is, even to me when I need it.  I’m always so proud of her and her ability to take care of all us kids in the house.  She makes sure we learn what we need to learn (sometimes the hard way because that’s best), but will never let us fall to actual injury.  Her sense of fair play is legendary and she’s done such a great job of instilling that in our kids.  She teaches us, by being such a powerful example, that honesty really is the best policy.  Really.  She arranges her life to accommodate the needs of those of us she’s raising, making sure Sam has a great place to storm castles and fight dragons with his group of buddies and J’Neil has access to anything musical.  If you mention you are having some type of problem, Kristin will do everything she can, and even will do some things that she can’t, to fix the problem.  She will fix the problem.  In reference to some of the preparation Kristin is putting in for the kids annual summer mystery party someone posted on Kristin’s blog: “Can you be my mother? Please? Pretty Please?”  Those of us to whom she is mother, and those of us who get to be mothered by her, are very, very blessed.

Marilynn:  the mother to my four oldest kids.  While we haven’t always seen eye to eye, Marilynn’s commitment to her kids has always been impressive.  She always puts their needs and their happiness at the top of the priority list and will do all that she can to give them good times.

Jamie:  my daughter.  It may seem a little odd to be recognizing little Jamie in my mom post, but not if you know Jamie.  Jamie has been a little mom since before she started school – before she started kindergarten!  She was always looking out for the kids in the neighborhood as well as her younger siblings.  She “took care” of everyone.  I’ve often commented as she grew up that she is “just a good little mom.”  And now, she has grown up into a great little mom, having four great kids of her own.  Jamie’s commitment to and love of her family is evident in all that she does.  She really is, and always has been, a career mother.

Heather: my daughter. It is a little odd to think of Heather as a mom, but I have to say, she’s a wonderful mom! Heather makes sure that her son Dillon has a great environment to live and grow in. She encourages his interest in all things trucks, and makes sure his world is filled with the things he loves. The other day my father commented to me on how well behaved Dillon was during a recent visit they had with Heather’s family and I pointed out that I couldn’t see Heather having it any other way. Heather is a great mom now, and we’re proud she’ll continue to be so to her second child due this fall.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms out there!

Pastor Fred is planning a trip!  I’m not sure where he’s going, but once again, the most important thing is sustenance.  It’s sure a good thing that I’m not attending his services while trying to diet, that would just be too much.

Just in case you missed some of the earlier food related posts regarding my favorite church sign:

Eating Disorders,  Saved by…,  Pastor Fred,  Give us What?

My name is Craig, and I’m a cheesecake snob.

Last week, after putting Sam and J’Neil on a train back to Kennewick from Portland, and picking up Allison from the train down from Seattle, we decided on dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  Dinner was very good.  I had an excellent Cuban sandwich, one of the best I’ve had.  Then, we had to have the obligatory cheesecake.  Since we were pretty full, we had it to go, and took it back to the hotel to enjoy as a late night snack.

I’ve been told that I make a pretty good cheesecake.  It’s one of those things that get requested often, even J’Neil likes it.  I make it from scratch, and will top it with a number of things: chocolate sauce, fresh berries, caramel or my favorite: a raspberry sauce.  So, I’ll grant it’s little enough, but on that basis I’ll assume the role of expert.  And in my expert opinion, The Cheesecake Factory should come up with another name for their establishment.

I had the Lemon Raspberry Cream Cheesecake, described as “Raspberry Vanilla Cake, Creamy Lemon Cheesecake, Raspberry Lady Fingers and Lemon Mousse.”  Now, I guess I can’t speak for other varieties, but at best this was only a third cheesecake.  It’s mostly crust and whipped cream.  If you look closely at the picture (which came from The Cheesecake Factory website), you can see that the bottom third is crust, the middle is cheesecake, and then the whole thing is topped with a layer of whipped cream. And the piece I had came with even more whipped cream.  Very, very sweet whipped cream.  So, to be clear, what I had was a vanilla cake, topped with a little bit of cheesecake and a lot of whipped cream.  In my lexicon, I’ll now refer to this establishment as the Cake Factory.

To be fair, the raspberry sauce they used, which is not on the piece in the picture, was absolutely wonderful.

I just listened to a brief segment of Bob and Tom during which they talked with Geddy Lee.  They asked him about future plans for Rush and Geddy said that right now they’re taking some time off, but that they’re thinking they’ll get together late this year to start writing some new things.  And possibly just as exciting, he’s considering some solo work.  If you’d like, you can hear the segment here (it’s nine minutes long):

Foreshadowing comment:  We’ve survived the first crisis…

This week I’ve had the pleasure of spending a great deal of time with Samwise.  He’s such a pleasant guy to be around, and I really enjoy his company.  And we’ve done some cool things.  We’ve made two trips between Seattle and Kennewick this week, both trips Sam kept me involved in dialogue most of the way.  During last Sunday’s trip we talked a lot about music (mostly Rush music), Dungeons and Dragons (comparative values of the newer versions to the older versions and even the original that I used to play), and Pokémon.   In Sam’s life, those are probably his three passions these days.  I always feel proud of Sam and what he does, but after last Sunday’s discussions I felt proud of myself:  after Sam’s excellent tutorial on the topic, I believe I could actually follow along a game of Pokémon, and perhaps even play a little myself.

Yesterday’s drive we talked a lot about schooling and such.  Sam’s making some of those decisions a soon to be eighteen year old has to make and one of those activities is visiting colleges.  He’s pretty comfortable with the traditional college choices, like Washington State, but he’s also considering some more specialized education venues, which we talked about a great deal on the drive.  When we got to Redmond we were then able to visit one of those specialized schools: DigiPen.  DigPen offers several different Bachelors degrees and a Masters program in Gaming, specifically video gaming.   What a pleasure it was to see Sam light up while we were there.  He kept turning to me, and with a huge grin say: “They’re making video games here…”  He was so excited about seeing students in the hallways talking about programming a game or the art of a game or basic game design and there were plenty of students around doing just that.  He really seemed to be in his element.  I’m sure there will be more to say about DigiPen in the future.

This morning we got up early enough to make the drive from Mill Creek and be in Federal Way before 8:00 am.  Once again, Sam is in his element.  We’re here so that he can participate in the State Pokémon Championships.  He’s pretty excited, and he’s quite optimistic about how he’ll do.  He plays at least once or twice a week and hadn’t lost a battle in over a month.  But now, the crisis: 

You play Pokémon with a deck of 60 cards that you create from all your Pokémon cards.  Sam has been working on creating his deck for this tournament for quite some time, but this morning, after we arrived, he announced he was missing a card.  Fortunately, it wasn’t a very important card; unfortunately he had no extra sleeves of the set he was using.  So, though he could put another card in his deck, he didn’t have the right sleeve, so having the card would do him no good.  So I suggested that he use different sleeves, but he didn’t have enough of the other kind of sleeves he brought with him.  I assured him that somewhere here there would be someone selling sleeves, and sure enough, there was someone selling cards and accessories and Sam was a little surprised to learn that they not only had sleeves he could get, but that they came in the full set of 60.  So, he was able to get enough of one kind of sleeve, a few extra cards, one of which he added to his deck to replace the missing one, and feel like he was complete.  Crisis averted.

Now if only they’d start playing…