Tochi's Hut

All preparations are set.  Wow, planning this trip was not easy.  Lost a lot of sleep over this in the past 2 weeks. 

First, I should have done a lot more research beforehand.  Could not have picked a better or worst two weeks to go, depending on how you look at it.

Second, shouldn't leave things to the last minute.   Not that it would have really helped on this trip, but no need for that sense of mad scrambling.

Very ambitious schedule.  Crossing my fingers that things will go as planned.  Cannot wait.

It took me from Mar 3, 2007 until today to get this done.  Finally finished Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii.  I played it on and off for a few months after I got the Wii, but during the summer, it just fell off my radar.  I picked up the game again this January, with a resolution to finish the half a dozen games I collected over the years. 

At first, I thought I was close to completing the game after collecting the fused shadows, only to find that I needed to collect 4 more pieces of mirror shards.  Grr.

I managed to make it to last 49th stage of the Cave of Ordeals without realizing that I could use the magic armour (you're invincible until you run out of rupees).  I had 3.5 hearts left and no fairies in my bottles.  Amour saved me and I dispatched those knights soon enough.

Some parts of the game, I had to look up online for what to do.  Like the 3rd phase of the last boss fight.  Had no idea and just kept on losing hearts.  So frustrating.  I did like the Warp feature, cause I remember in Ocarina of Time, running around in Hyrule was such a pain!

At the end of the game, the screen flashed "Press (A) - Finish", where Link would apply the final blow on his nemesis.  The conscious thought of pressing the button is bittersweet: "Finish" in more ways than one.

Overall, a very good classic Zelda game.  One thing regarding the Wii version... long fights, like the final boss battles or Cave of Ordeals were tiring on the wrist.  Glad to have played and finished it.  Now, if I can get this Zelda theme song out of my head.

Erm....  today, as I was setting down to drop some logs, my work badge in my back pocket got crunched against the bending of my knee.  SNAP!   I was like.. Oh nooooes.   The badge was snapped in half horizontally.

I took the pieces down to security for a replacement.  On my way out of the secured area, I was curious whether the two separated halves will still work, so I tapped them against the scanner.  BEEP.  RFID still functional. 

The security dude had a good chuckle when he saw my badge.  I wonder how often this happens.

I had 9 Spades, 8 of Diamonds.

Flop:  Q of Spades, K of Spades, J of Diamonds

Turn: 10 of Spades

River: A of Spades

The pot was getting quite big.  After river, one guy raised 6k in chips.   Everyone else  folded.   I had about 8k remaining.  Only one card can beat my flush.  Should I go?

I lost.  First time I've seen a Royal Flush.

TW posted an update to his blog:

I'm surprised to see that I haven't updated my blog for months.  Although I have no obligation to commit writing something timely, I do feel bad myself.  Busy is not an excuse.  Perhaps I lack motivation ...

SHIAAT.  Talk about hitting the nail on the head.  Time for another heart pulse to show Tochi's alive.... although I wonder who still checks this blog.  :D

• YW brought his P&S along for our last ski runs of the season.  We've been practicing skiing techniques and watching skiing videos (courtesy of TL), so we wanted to see what we looked like.  Here is TochiSki.   I thought I was skiing a lot better than what you see in the video.  Watching it afterwards and doing the post mortem on what I was doing right and wrong is kind of unsettling.... but there's no better way to improve!
  
• ToastMasters.  PM invited me to the regional's.  All the speakers were pretty cool.  The most impressive was this retired businessman turned pastor.  His speech was entitled "Live and Don't Die".  A really inspiring speech about what it really means to live.  If all your life worries / concerns (i.e. family, money, work, etc.) were taken care of and you could do whatever you want, would you be doing right now?  Are you working towards those dreams?
  
• Got lured into a Cherry Blossoms viewing trip in Washington over Easter by my mom.  I didn't find out until I was heading down to Washington that the flowers were only 10% in bloom.  WTF!!!
  
• Poker Nights.  I went All-In with pocket A's and LOST.   I won a coffee at Timmy's tho. :D
  
• COG April Fool's secret "party" with a bunch of local cachers.  I found out about the party details through unofficial means, so I essentially crashed the party.  Felt a little guilty. :D
  
• TochiGPX is the 3rd web related development project I've incubated.  Finally GA'd to the world and received a warm reception.  Spent some time learning about XUL development, which really is quite cool.
  
• Some issues with my kitchen countertop required me to essentially gut and rebuild it.  Following DIY guides, I've been slowly fixing it.   I'm now less impressed with someone's bathroom cabinet, sink and counter.  I definitely won't need a year! :D
  
• Finally got nice weather this past weekend.  AR, KP, ML and I have been itching to get out biking for the past few weeks, so we finally did.  It was nice to feel the wind blow across your body again.
  
• After so many years, I FINALLY understand how curling scoring works.  It makes the game so much more exciting to watch.