http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TrapperMarkelz/~3/370917114/who-am-i-as-a-g.html

http://www.trappermarkelz.com/2008/08/who-am-i-as-a-g.html

The vision of what we are trying to build at GamerDNA has always been to create a site where gamers could showcase who they are... what games they played... and what is important to them. This serves as a "gamer resume" of sorts... and with our new quizzing system... we are getting closer to one facet of that vision... the part that allows you to showcase who you are and what is important.

There are a few quizzes up there. Each quiz asks you a series of questions about gaming... you answer... each answer puts you in a general identity bucket, but also is measured on behavioral traits. At the end of all the quizzes, you get a dynamically generated image of who you are:

So that is me... I am an achiever... meaning I play games to progress through them... I prefer physical games... like Rock band... I am competitive in my achieving (which is why I prefer co-op to verses because I don't like losing to people)... I am reward driven... meaning I like the Xbox achievement system... I am less thoughtful... because I choose to brute-force the situation in games... and I am less specialized in that I try lots of different races/classes/weapons... I am also somewhat organized as I do prefer to play on teams and coordinate.

So there it is... Trapper Markelz as a gamer... thanks to GamerDNA. If you are a gamer, try out the quizzes and see what you uncover about yourself.

The teachers in Evan's class took the kids to visit the fire station, literally across the street, and posted photos. I love this one of Evan using the fire hose.

This coming Monday, Evan moves into the pre-school room, with his 8 classmates and 2 out of 4 teachers. Us parents rallied and pushed hard to not have the class split, since they are all good friends and get along so well. They will be joined by a bunch of older kids and a couple new teachers, but I think staying with the cohort will be good for Evan.

This evening, I was chatting with Todd while he was stuck on the runway in Portland and Evan was asking to play. I kept explaining to him that I had to find out when Daddy would be leaving (it was an unplanned stop) and Evan said, "Mommy, I hear your words, but you can't play on the computer all night". Hearing words is a big phrase at the daycare and it's pretty funny to have it used on me.

In case you haven't seen it - Shawn Johnson's beam routine in the Team Finals last night was SICK. Holy crap was this good.

I just got a call from my Dr and it seems that  after almost 2 years of battling HPV and cervical dysplasia my pap has finally come back normal. How weird is that? So, no threat of surgery again for the mean time since it seems to be normal. I think the HPV test is still postive though and that will most likley be that way indefinitley. Still it could come back on its own in a few years since it is never really completley gone from the body. 

I am counting my blessings though that for now my immune system is fighting it off and winning. I guess vitamins part of the time (when I can remember) and exercise part of the time (maybe once a week) are better than none. Not being exposed to it anymore is also probably a help. Anyway it has been the scariest health thing I have had happen yet and I am glad it is temporarilly over for a while. (I know those of you that have kids think this is nuts since delivery is so much more to deal with, but remember I haven't had the opportunity to do the kid thing yet)

I just wanted to post that it is the Chicago Air and Water (but no one really watches the water part) show time again and the F-18s in the Blue angels are gaving fun buzzing the buildings on the lakefront. They are starting things off early this year with a show at 3pm on Friday with Bill Murray parachuting out of a plane with a skydiving team. So I guess the amount of work done in our office will be low today. 

That is ok I am having an issue with focusing on stuff here anyway. Mainly it happens on days when I get to see Steve but then I feel bad that he is lacking focus at work too (and he owns his own business) and his work is more crucual than mine. That does tell you though that things are going well in the relationship department and we are very happy together although not happy about all the driving inbetween our places. Maybe one day we will get crazy and live together or something, but for now Steve spends a lot of time driving. 

It's my turn to go out there this weekend, so poor Zeus (my cat) will be alone for a few days. Other than that we have enjoyed Steve's family lake house in Indiana and are feasting on the 10 lbs of fresh picked blueberries we bought and froze for the year. I am not sure that with all I have given out to people and eaten they will last more than a month or 2. I am also always plugging along at the chicago blog when I get time or an idea to write about. It has taken off with some good traffic and numbers coming in. Bookmark or add it to your feeds if you want to read the updates.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TrapperMarkelz/~3/365811288/manga-markelz.html

http://www.trappermarkelz.com/2008/08/manga-markelz.html

Everyone is doing it!

Get your own face as Manga

My choices:

1. The green background to envoke GamerDNA.com
2. The blazer and shirt because that is what I wear at work most days
3. Brown hair, blue eyes.. because that is me.

If you are wondering what is this "Manga" thing, Wikipedia always saves.

More savings and debt data for thought.

Click through for comments and the original link.

Very interesting. Full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/business/20debt.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1#

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TrapperMarkelz/~3/361575447/a-weekend-of-fu.html

http://www.trappermarkelz.com/2008/08/a-weekend-of-fu.html

We did a ton of kid things this weekend... I guess you could say Maureen and I are doing kid things all the time... but this was extra kid-ish.

First off on Sat we went to the Boston Aquarium with Steve and Tammy. I keep forgetting that Steve and I live in the same city these days... sure we see each other at work every day... which is amazing enough... but we always forget that if we want, we can actually hang out while NOT working on GamerDNA or 360voice. :) So we gave that a try... and there were sharks involved.

On Sunday morning, we drove up to The Children's Discovery Museum in Acton, MA with Russell and Christina and their son Aaron. They have some photos of it over at their Flickr site too... so go check it. I was really impressed with the museum. It was tons of fun for the kids (and the adults) and at 9am on a Sunday morning, we had the place to ourselves for most of the time... which was just great. A definite repeat when Grandmas are in town.

All in all, a nice relaxing weekend. I even got some major coding in on 360voice... a big feature I have always been meaning to launch and armed with a Venti Starbucks Ice Coffee I built most of it in about 6 hours... a few more hours here and there this week and it should be ready for launch. The thing is, by now the site has so much code that launching something is as easy as taking all the pieces from other places... challenges... blogs... profile pages... and just recombining it... so it isn't a ton of coding, just re-architecting and re-factoring what is already there. It felt good to just drop some code though... with my busy schedule it is hard to find the dedicated time to do that these days.

Ahhh, late summer brings the harvest. A small sampling of what I grew this summer (minus the beans and peas that the bunnies ate.)

Broccoli, zucchini, 2 kinds of tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, lemon balm, sage, lavender, dill, and of course parsley.

There is no success quite like this success. Making a dinner mostly from your own backyard. That bunny we killed was delicious too.