Maybe It's The Bloodwine Talking

This past week my wife and I watched Die Hard while we worked on Christmas stuff. As a nerd and action movie fan, Die Hard is a must watch during Christmas. The more I thought about it though, I knew it took place on Christmas Eve, but beyond that I didn’t remember it having too much Christmas theme to it. So this time as I watched it I paid more attention to check for Christmas themes all throughout the movie. I was actually quite impressed with just how much Christmas they managed to shove into an action movie without it being an A-typical Christmas movie. To give you some examples: Almost every time that someone is humming or singing to themselves during the movie, it is a direct Christmas song or a song usually played at Christmas time. A lot of the background orchestral music really sounds like Christmas carols that were just slowed way down to fit the mood. There are Christmas decorations every where you look, in Nakotomi plaza, in the conveinance store, at the airp...

I had such an amazing night on Saturday. Finally got to join my cousins for the annual Halo Night, and got to bring my wife and stepson along as well. We all met at the same place, used a router to link up 3 Xbox 360’s, and had 12 people from ages 6 on up playing at the same time on 3 teams. We had two projectors and an HD TV to play on. We also had bosco sticks and ordered pizza from Vitales Pizza. If any of you ever get the chance to do this, DO IT!!!!! It is an amazing bonding time for a family, especially when you don’t get to see each other as often as when you were kids. Plus it gave our kids a chance to run and play and get to know each other better as well. Thank you to everyone who was there, we had a blast.

So I have been doing a whole lot more writing lately and when I write I need to have sound in the background. The problem is that when I listen to anything with words, or have the TV on, I get very easily distracted away from the writing. I found that the soundtrack for the movie Tron Legacy worked very well, and started building a Spotify playlist from that. I started adding music from other soundtracks and using the view similar artist’s page to find other instrumental music. I found whole groups dedicated to making soundtrack style music and it is amazing. Big epic scores that build emotions as you listen to them. I also added a bunch of dubstep and house music for variety. The only singing in them is operatic background singing in some of the scores where you can’t tell if they are singing words or just notes. I highly recommend the playlist to anyone needing great background music while doing anything. I am attaching a link to the bottom of this post for mine. I love l...

Watched the new HBO show Westworld. It Was Amazing. Oh, and very intense, and trippy, and twisting, and enthralling, and slightly confusing, and………………. I can’t wait for the next episode.

So I have become a huge fan of Panic! At The Disco as of late thanks to my wife and late night YouTube watching. Their latest two albums after Brendon Urie became the only actual member of the group left have been incredible. The man is a musical genius in my opinion, that and he’s not too bad to look at either. He is one of those artists where you love them for their music, and then when you find out about their personal life it solidifies your adoration of them. He is genuinely a good guy, living his life, enjoying his life. He has fun, is married, enjoys his life, and just all around great person to watch how they live. I highly recommend every one listen to their two newest albums soon.

How many adults occasionally just need to put on music from when they where a teenager and just zone out and let your mind slide back to that point in time? Do you ever just need to let yourself drift away to a simpler time in your life and forget about all the current stresses and hardships? Do you put on headphones, turn the volume up, and just bob your head in silence and forget about the world? Would you rather turn on some speakers and blare the music while dancing around the house? How many of you just can't handle life sometimes and need a short mental vacation? You're Not Alone! I promise you that, and this isn't the bloodwine talking.

Since Byron was gracious enough to extend an authorship to me, I figured I should at least introduce myself.   I'm a 30-something dude that's married with a few children (though not all of them live with me).  I live with Bipolar disorder (type 2), and all of the challenges that it presents to me. Additionally, I also live with a great deal of anxiety. I geek out about a wide variety of things: music, Diablo 3, some TV shows, David Gemmell novels, I'm sure if I thought hard enough about it, I could write several paragraphs of 'topics' that I geek out about... but I'm not going to do that.   I've got to save some mystery for later! I look forward to writing here in the future!

As I listen to Ready Player One for the third time, I got to thinking about what kinds of things I would buy if I had the money to build my own study/game room. I was trying to figure out a list of things that I could use and/or display that would make someone who walks into the room know a lot about me just by looking around. I would start with the usual: Big old wooden desk with twin moniters for a desktop PC on one side and a dock for my laptop on the other. It would one of those desks with ornate wood working all over it and a big desk chair. I would want a desk chair that is big and comfy enough to sit in for hours, but not so comfy that I get tired sitting in it. Across the room from the desk would be a large 4K 3D TV mounted above a fireplace mantle. It would be connected to a Chromecast, and to my desktop computer. Computer would have a remote for it as well, and would have a DVD/Bluray drive built in. A fire place, real or fake doesnt matter as long as, if it is fake, that...

It's amazing how anxiety can latch onto the strangest things and make them absolutely terrifying. I can't remember when it started, and I can't figure out WHY it scares me so much, but I am absolutely terrified of being messy. Not so much little messes mind you, tho I really don't care for little messes either. But I mean like, bucket of gross dumped over my head messy. Hell, even just the idea of a bucket of water being dumped over me doesn't make me happy, tho as long as I was certain it was water I would probably be ok. And I can manage to walk in the rain, because, um... little mess? I don't know. I'm still trying to figure it out. I used to be fine with handling raw meat.... now I have to wear gloves. If we don't have gloves, I can still handle the meat, but I make this lovely face of Ew Gross the whole time. Why did that change? When did this become a thing? Do you know that commercial for the Delta faucets, where its a bunch of hands covered in mu...

I am on my third time through the audiobook for "Ready Player One" by Earnest Cline, and I just cannot get enough of this book. The way it works, the way it's written, the flow, just so well done. The amount of back story he had to create to even bring this world of his to life is insane. Either he really is as big of a trivia guy as his characters, or he is amazing at doing research and coming up with ideas on how to tie it all together. The book is narrated by Will Wheaton, and he has one of those voices that just doesn't sit right at first, but the more you listen, the more intoxicating it becomes. He doesn't do too many different voices when reading, mainly just to show age or gender, but he still finds a way to give each charater their own personality through his inflections. It might also be my minds pre-existing attachment to him as a nerd icon that makes the fact that he is reading the book so much more believable for the story. They are working on a mov...

So. This is blogging. Nifty. Not sure how often I will post, or what I will talk about, but here I am. I think, as far as introductions go, there are a few things you should know about me. I am a giant nerd. I have a huge love of books, mostly sci-fi, fantasy, and anything related to psychology. I have an even bigger love of cats, with my current herd totaling 10 spoiled rotten furbabies. I have an amazing husband who puts up with way more than most sane people probably would from me, but he has the patience of a saint, which is one of the many maddening things I love about him. I am a psychotherapist. I have spent 20 years studying psychology in an effort to better understand myself, my friends, and my fellow humans. I still haven't got it all figured out. I have been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, with a dose of Anxiety on the side. I want to say I am currently in remission, but if I am honest with myself, I am probably mildly - very mildly - depressed at this time. I ...

So Corinne and Myself love this blog, but with both of us having hectic personal lives as of late, updating was becoming more and more difficult. So, we have decided to branch out, and invite others to contribute to this blog as well. It will still be a blog about nerdom, family, life, parenting, and all things geeky. It will still be unfiltered and no holds barred. It will still be what we wanted it to be, just with a few more voices thrown into the mix. I am not going to name any names at the moment, I want to give them a chance to introduce themselves and have you get to know them in whatever way they see fit. Just know that we hope this becomes a haven for all things nerd/geek/family, and hope that we can get a follower base to match our passion for all of this. I plan to update once a week myself now that my life has calmed down. I have a bunch to say, course, that could just be the bloodwine talking. Bert

Creating this blog was a fantastic idea originally when we talked about it. We discussed making it a full time thing, even branching out into making youtube videos and a facebook page for it. We had big plans and then per usual, real life got in the way. Well, I got myself a full sized bluetooth keyboard with christmas money so now updating should be much much easier to do on a regular basis. I can now update via my phone while at work since the work computers stop me from accessing all except maybe like 4 non news websites. I hate nanny net systems as jobs but thats another rant for another day. So, hopefully I can get more content on here on a regular basis, and hopefully can convince the other to do that same as well. Since I gave her a bluetooth keyboard as well so she could update from her phone wherever she happens to be. Also, I am aware at this point that her and I are pretty much the only ones who read this blog, and that by the time we actually get an audience they will pro...