My "Final" Computer Upgrades :D

You may recall that I put together a new computer last year.  When I bought the parts for it, I figured it'd serve it's purpose for just basic, middle-of-the-road gaming.  It was very good in doing just that, being able to play games at a decent graphics level and at 144 FPS (frames per second).

I eventually got back into streaming and started to notice how much of a CPU/GPU hog my streaming encoding software was in order produce an average looking stream.  I was pretty happy with an average stream because I didn't have much of a following...maybe averaging 5-7 viewers on Twitch on a monthly basis.

One day in October, I got hosted by a professional Fortnite player on Twitch and saw my view count go from about 11 up to 9,000 and eventually level out at 2,000 viewers for the rest of the night.  I reflect back on that point as the day I realized, man people are going to see my stream and I don't want it to look terrible.  I saw a spike in followers that day, 250 right off the bat and up to 500 total followers after that host.  People actually liked me and my content and wanted to come back and watch.  And so began my path down the road of trying to be the best streamer I can be.  Of course, gameplay and personality is always going to be one of my caps, but certainly I could at least try to make the stream look better...that was something I could control.

The first thing I did was get a new camera.  While the C920 looks fine, I noticed all the big streamers were using a digital camera and not a webcam.  After much research, I decided the camera to get was the Sony Alpha 6000.  It's not Sony's highest end camera, but a very good one and still not cheap by any means.  Paired with an Elgato 4K Cam Link, the new camera setup would cost me $700.

After the camera was added, I felt like it looked good on stream, but could still look better.  My old computer setup was pretty low-to-mid range and I was unable to stream at 1080p or at a decent encoding level.  Ten days later, I figured it was time for another upgrade.  This time I chose to upgrade the CPU to the i9-9900K, one of Intel's flagship processors at the time.  I also decided since I was going into the computer anyway, I might as well pick up one of those fancy NVMe M.2 drives as well.  My SSD space was starting to get low having only 384GB worth, so I went for the 1TB Samsung 970 EVO.  Got the CPU for $485 and the new SSD for $170.

The new CPU was blazing fast compared to my old one. Makes sense, I was going from six cores to eight cores with multi-threading.  I was now able to get that 1080p stream with a decent x264 level using the "Fast" preset.  The camera looked good and I even saved the old C920 to use on my cats....basically enabling the ability to have two cameras on stream.  However, I would notice that my Fortnite game still wasn't holding 144 FPS consistently.  The frames would constantly drop below 100 during gameplay even though my CPU was far from bottlenecked.  I then decided it was time to get a big-boy GPU.  I ended up getting a RTX 2080 for $660 right before Thanksgiving, which was a very good price at the time.  I also picked up a HD60 Pro capture card for $160, because I wanted to start streaming other games including those on my PS4 and Switch.

With the new GPU in my computer, I never saw my FPS drop under 144 anymore during a game of Fortnite while on stream.  I was very satisfied with the new graphics card!  I then began to wonder, just how much FPS can I actually push out of this thing?  I did a test with Fortnite and was able to max out around 500 FPS and holding 240 FPS was absolutely no problem.  In addition, I switched over to the NVENC encoder on Streamlabs OBS after hearing it had comparable or better visual quality to that of the x264 "Medium" preset.  I was finally at a point where I was very happy with the way my stream looked and I have zero issues running any game anymore at high quality and FPS.  It was now a legit, high-end gaming PC.  However, there was still one thing missing...a monitor that could refresh those 240 frames fast enough.

I'm a loyal fan of ViewSonic monitors and it just so happened that they released a new 240Hz monitor out this year.  I expected all 240Hz monitors to be around $500, so when this one was priced at $430, I bought it pretty quickly.  When the new monitor arrived, I now had 3 monitors, but that was hardly a problem.  I installed the 3rd one on a desk mount and it now sits above my gaming monitor, so I now have a wonderful 3-monitor setup. :)

My setup is complete and I don't think I'll be needing anymore major upgrades anytime soon.  Although we'll see, I thought I said that months ago when all I got was the camera at first and well here we are some $2500 later.  My rig is now valued at over $4,400 and I'm very happy with the beast I've put together.  You can see the entire listing and cost in the spreadsheet below...

My goal now is to just be the best streamer I can be and I'm still shocked that I actually have a following and community...it's still kind of crazy to me.  But I'm having a lot of fun with this hobby and it's worth all the time and money I'm invested into it.

Here's to my future Twitch career wherever it may lead.  Happy Holidays and see ya next stream! :)

Dual 70" TV's!?!?

We live in an era where everyone is and should be running on dual monitors whenever they're on a computer.  But why don't we do the same with our TV watching experience?  I've had the vision of adding a second TV to my great room and last month I finally made it happen. :)

Below is the Before picture.  I have a 70" Sharp HDTV that I put on that side of the house because that's where the coaxial cable jack was located.

There were two choices when it came to adding a second 70" TV when it came to location.  Side-by-side or one on top of the other.  Side-by-side did not offer enough room for my house, so one on top of the other was the target.  However, the wall on the north side of the house is shorter because I have a slanted roof and there was no way I could mount a TV over there.  So I had to put the wall mount on the large wall where the picture is hung in the photo above.

Installing the mount was not as bad as I imagined it would be.  I used a studfinder to help me located the studs on that wall and easily drilled into it to place the mount.  The next step was getting the Sharp TV up there, so I definitely needed a friend's help on that part.

I then ordered my new 70" Sony 4KTV off Amazon for just $1,200 at the time.  When it arrived, it unfortunately wouldn't fit on that stand you see in the picture above...the legs were positioned too wide by just enough.  So I had to buy a new stand for the new TV.

I looked online for several stands and went with a Mainstays stand from Walmart that looked nice and got decent reviews

I quickly assembled it (with the help of my kitty Ember apparently) and finally my new dual TV setup was complete.  I got rid of cable, so having two TVs on that side of the house without a coax jack is no problem, since I stream everything now via Chromecast or the smart TV apps.

The After picture is above. It's all about improving the quality of life for me!  I love being able to watch sports on two big screens simultaneously, or I'll often play on my console on one and have a Twitch stream loaded on the other.  The only other person I know to have a multi-TV setup is my friend Jeff, who has 3 TV's!!! :O Life is good and I hope yours is as well!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

TC19 and San Diego

Last month, I attended my second Twitchcon, this time in San Diego.  You may recall that I went to my first Twitchcon in San Jose in 2018.  This year was interesting, as I had expected more people to be going, but several backed out as the event drew closer.  It was not a complete loss, as I still knew 4 other streamer friends that I wanted to see and hang out with out there.

I got in on a Thursday night and already the experience started out far better than last year.  It took me less than 5 minutes to get my badge the night before the first day, whereas it took me 4 hours of waiting in line in the hot San Jose sun last year.  After I got my badge, I met up with my friend Termi0099 for dinner and drinks.  We didn't really know where to go, but I was feeling like pasta at the time and found this gem of a chain called Old Spaghetti Factory.  They had some amazeballs garlic shrimp fettucini alfredo!  My friend Stapus (who I met last year at TC18 and who introduced me to Termi) also met up, and she brought her friend arritia, who I also now follow.  Termi had invited his friend Fivesisalive, which I now follow and occasionally play Fortnite with, so the first night at Twitchcon already created new friendships!

The first day of Twitchcon, I mostly hung out with Stapus and her friends.  I did get a chance to meet Pinghajen and Gotch, two other streamer friends I knew were going and had made plans to see, but those were pretty brief visits.  I did get recognized by another streamer CrankyKahn, which was pretty amazing because I wear glasses on stream and contacts when I'm out and about.  He basically knew it was me because he said he recognized those "guns", LOL.

That night, I met up with my friend Jenny and we had dinner at this restaurant called Rustic Root.  There was an item on the menu called "Table-Smoked Tomahawk".  I had heard of tomahawk steak before, so I really wanted to try it, even though it ran for $55.  It did not disappoint one bit!  An amazing steak that gets served under a glass cover and you can see all the smoke release when they unveil it.  It was absolutely delicious and cooked perfectly (you know I always ask for rare when it comes to steak).  Since Twitchcon will be in San Diego again next week, I will definitely be going back here.

I returned to Twitchcon on Saturday, not having any plans to attend on Sunday.  Since I was also visiting my friend Jenny that weekend, I wanted to make sure I had a day to hang out with her.  I returned to the convention but only for a few hours in the afternoon.  Honestly, this year's convention had far less to see and do in my opinion.  I was also out of friends to meet up with and when it comes to Twitchcon, it's more about the company than the exhibits.

Later that night, Jenny and I found a pool hall to play at since she used to play APA for one of my teams when she used to live in Tucson.  We played for hours and it was a lot of fun playing her friend, who provided some solid competition.

On Sunday, I spent a little time in the morning watching football and then Jenny and I headed to Mission Bay to do some kayaking.  I had always seen so many pictures of Jenny kayaking in San Diego and wanted to try it myself, since I had never been.  She goes like very other week and is very experienced.  It was funny because she called me out for not really paddling (since I didn't really know how), but once she taught me to dig into the water, we could travel quickly and really get a workout in. :D  It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I got to try it.

That night, I met up with my friend Sarah, who also used to live in Tucson.  I had not seen her in over 5 years, so it was refreshing to have a drink with her and catch up.  On Monday, my flight wasn't until a little later, so I hit up the local dispensary and purchased some gummies for Jenny to bring back to me the next time she came back to Tucson. :P

Overall, I would say Twitchcon was kind of a letdown this year, but I did meet some new people and established some new Twitch connections, so that was worth it.  However, next year I'd only go if I had more friends going.  As for San Diego, it was fun to visit Jenny and I don't think I had been since Kyle's bachelor party, which was over 7 years ago! :O Damn how the time flies...

Anyway, until next time and have a Happy Halloween!

PAX West 2019: Seattle, WA

I was invited to attend PAX West in Seattle this year.  I had always heard about attending one of the PAX conventions, so it was something I eventually wanted to see.  The friend who invited me was someone I met through an online Twitch community and I had friends who live in Seattle who were interested in going, so there were additional reasons to go check it out!

I arrived in Seattle on Saturday night with plans to attend the convention on Sunday and Monday.  The friend who invited me to go, nicknamed Corbz on Twitch, had been there since Friday and was staying until Sunday evening.  I had met him through Stapus, a Twitch streamer that I met at last year's Twitchcon.  Saturday night we met up and hit up the bars in Fremont, which was a chill time getting to know him in person since we had only gamed online before this. :)

Sunday morning got a bit interesting.  I walked to a local Starbucks, ordered a coffee, and called an Uber.  The car pulled over to the sidewalk and as I approached to open the door, the driver immediately sped off.  He drove off so fast as if he had just robbed a bank.  I didn't even have a chance to enter the vehicle or communicate with them.  This had never happened to me before and I began to wonder what set him off.  Was it because I had a cup of coffee that he didn't want spilled in the car?  Perhaps he was racist?  It would've been pretty funny if he was racist because he was also Asian, albeit and an older man, possibly racist against his own kind.  Regardless, I had to call for a Lyft instead to get to the convention.  I then reported the driver to Uber and they awarded me $3 in credits for his behavior and hopefully he will not be working for them much longer.  Still a pretty crazy start to the day.

I finally made it to PAX and I spent most of the day checking out the two main halls that feature all the big gaming companies.  It was a lot like being at E3, but a little more organized and less fancy of exhibits.  The highlight of the day was seeing the playable demo for Final Fantasy 7: Remake!  There were a limited amount of tickets per day for people to try the game, but I was able to watch everything from the side.  I am super excited again, as this has been a game I've been waiting for ever since E3 2017.

On Monday, I met up with my former roommate Ben and his fiance Mel who were attending PAX West just for Monday.  They spent a little time checking out the same two video game halls I saw the previous day, but then it was off to check out the board games!  This is a nice change of pace that comes with PAX and there were so many board games on display.  They even had ones you could check out and play if you had enough time.

Overall, I felt like PAX was a better experience than E3 and definitely more organized.  I can't really compare it to Twitchcon because that is more for the social-networking aspect.  Speaking of which, Twitchcon is coming up at the end of September and is my final out-of-state planned trip for the year for the time being.  I want to thank Corbz for inviting me to PAX West in Seattle and it was really good to see Ben, who I'll be seeing next year again when him and Mel get married. :)

Introducing Ember!

Back in April, I made my first step back into pet life by adopting a tuxedo cat named Benzi.  You may recall in that blog entry that I was planning to adopt a second cat later in the year.  On Saturday, July 27th, I had  finished a number of weekend trips and was back home in Tucson, so I decided it was about time to go take a look at more kittens.  I went back to the Hermitage first, where I got Benzi, because my application was already approved and good for 6 months.

When I got to the cat sanctuary, I didn't immediately fall in love with any of the kittens.  I had a preference to adopt a female cat, because I already had a male cat at home and had never owned a female cat before.  I wanted to give it a shot, but it did however reduce the options I had to choose from.  I spent some time in there before coming across a 4-month-old orange ginger cat named Ingrid.

She was extremely playful, but seemed more interested in her cat toy then myself.  She would let me pick her up and pet her, but after a few seconds it was back to being hyper and playing with toys.  I continued to play around with the other kittens, but again, none of them were really peaking my interest.  Eventually I picked Ingrid up again and put her next to the other kittens, seeing how she plays with others.  She started grooming one of the other cats, which I later learned was her brother, and that's when I decided she was the cat I wanted to adopt.  I figured it was a good sign to see her get along with another cat in hopes that she'd get along with Benzi at home.

I took her home with me that day and changed her name to Ember when I got to the house.  There's a reason I chose that name and it is connected to Benzi, but most people think I named her that because she is orange like burning ember on firewood.  Props to anyone who ever figures out the origin of the names Benzi and Ember.

This was the first time I had ever owned two cats at the same time, so learning how to get them to get along well was a lengthy process new to me.  I had Ember start out in the bathroom, just like Benzi had started.  I would then occasionally let her explore the house while swapping Benzi in her room, slowly letting the cats take turns sniffing out the new smells without introducing them to each other.  After a few hours, I'd crack open the door and let them see each other, but that was about the extent of any contact they'd get on Day 1.  Over the course of the week, I slowly let Benzi and Ember see each other until the point I felt comfortable letting them eat near one another.  It took about a few days before they were finally comfortable with one another and co-exist in the same area.

More weeks would pass and I'm happy to announce that they are the bestest of friends!  Haha, okay they are more like brother and sister but they certainly get along.  I'm quite happy with my new cat family and it's really nice to have an extra cat in the house.  Benzi is more aloof and Ember is very sweet and cuddly, so they have different personalities but I love them both!  Ember has now been at the house for a month and there have been no complications, she just gets really hyper and loves to play.  I get a little annoyed when the two of them horseplay too hard and get in the bathroom curtains or accidentally tear up the guest bed box springs, but they are kittens after all.

That pretty much does it for me in terms of cats for now.  I am still thinking of adopting a dog at some point, I'm just not sure if it will happen in 2019.  I want to let these two grow together a bit more before adding a 3rd party into the mix.  Hope everything is well with all of you and your families!  Thanks for stopping by and until next time!

Another East Coast Trip!

I typically try to visit my friends on the east coast every other year and you might recall, I did a tri-visit two years ago visiting Chris in New Jersey, Nate in Connecticut, and Mike in Washington D.C.

This year, I had a couple good reasons to make it out again this year (not that there's ever a bad reason to fly out there). 
1) My friend Jen had just moved from Tucson to Jersey City in February to look for a job and for a change of scenery.  Because nothing is guaranteed out there for her, I wanted to make sure to visit her before she moved back, if that were the case.
2) Mike, Nate, and Chris all planned to go to D.C. for a Washington Nationals game, so anytime this crew can all get together in one place at the same time is a great reason to join!  Especially since it's less likely that Mike and Nate will be flying back to Arizona as often.

Traveling Pains en route to the East Coast: July 1

I chose a flight on American Airlines that was to leave Tucson at 1pm on Monday and arrive in Newark at 11pm.  When I woke up Monday, there was an e-mail waiting in my inbox telling me I was rebooked to another flight because my 1pm departure out of Tucson would have made me miss my connecting flight in Phoenix.  The new flight would leave at 6:45pm and get me into Newark at 5am...yuck!  I decided to select a new route through Dallas-Forth Worth that would leave Tucson at 3pm and get into Newark at 1am...only a 2-hour delay. 

When I arrived at the airport, there was a 45 minute delay due to maintenance.  When we landed in DFW, we could not taxi to the gate because there was too much traffic caused by the rainy weather.  I ended up missing my connecting flight to Newark, which was the last flight out of DFW for the day.  American Airlines rebooked me on the first flight out the next morning and put me up in a hotel 20 minutes away from the airport.  I had to call an Uber because the Holiday Inn wasn't picking up the phone and thus there was no courtesy shuttle from the airport to the hotel.

I ended up getting to the hotel at 11pm, but I didn't have any of my things except my laptop because I had checked my bag.  I almost never check my bag, but I was feeling nice before the flight out of Tucson and wanted to save cabin space since I was boarding last group and it was a full flight.  UGH.  I ended up having to go to the gas station to buy contact lens solution and by the time I went to bed it was 1am.

I woke up the next morning at 5am to catch a shuttle to the airport for my morning flight.  Unfortunately, there were direct flights to Newark out of DFW all of Tuesday and they had me landing in LaGuardia, which is 90 minutes away from the house I'd be meeting Jen at.  When I landed, Jen was super nice to meet me there and had a Sapporo and BBQ pork buns waiting for me.  We took a bus and two trains to get back to Jersey City and I finally arrived at my destination some 14 hours behind schedule.  Funny thing is, our friend Matt left Tucson early Tuesday morning and arrived just a couple hours after I did.

I would eventually write to American Airlines about my frustrations and asked for a travel voucher for the inconveniences.  I was awarded $175, which is about the cost of one leg of a round-trip flight.  I guess that will have to do.

New Jersey / New York: July 2-4

The first night in Jersey, Chris and Priya met myself, Jen, and Matt and we all went out to New York to try North River Lobster Company, which is dinner on a boat that goes around the Hudson river.  The food was average, but you are going for the experience.

We would end the night on Grove Street where Chris and I usually hit the bars whenever I visit him, although we didn't make it out to our usual spot O'Hara's this time. :P Regardless it was a good first night, even though it was a pain to get to this city.

The next day we relaxed around Jersey City and found ourselves a pool hall to shoot at in Jen's neighborhood.  It was an interesting hall because it didn't serve alcohol and was a bit of a hole-in-the-wall sitting above a car mechanic's garage.  It was only $6 a person per hour though, you could BYOB, and there was even a pool hall cat roaming around...my kind of place!  We also ran into an APA league that was playing there and got to spectate how Jersey players shoot.  Free scouting for Nationals. ;)

That night we would end up in Hoboken, which is always an entertaining experience.  Lot of young people in Hoboken.  Jen and Matt proceeded to get very drunk and the night ended with a stop at Taco Bell before bedtime.

The last day would mostly be spent in New York.  We rented Citibikes via the Lyft app and biked around Battery park with plans to watch the fireworks near the Brooklyn Bridge for the 4th of July.  It was super crowded but they had several fireworks going off around the East River, so there was plenty to see.  I don't think I've actually ever been that close to a fireworks show before, so that was something different.

Washington D.C.: July 5-8

On Friday, Chris and Nate picked us up and the 5 of us all carpooled to D.C., where we would all hang out at Mike's house in Arlington.  We went out to Old Town Alexandria that night and had dinner at this amazing seafood restaurant called Fish Market.  They had clams, mussels, amazing shrimp, the works.  Even Herman came out and hung out with us, who Mike had not seen since the last time I had visited!

After dinner, we found a bar that had trivia cards and we actually had a lot of fun guessing the answers.  We made an impromptu game off of the Smart Ass cards, in which Jen won barely over Herman.  Good times with good friends was exactly what we were hoping for and I was especially lucky having so many of my close friends all in one place at the same time. :)

The next day, several us went to attend the Nationals game (Royals at Nats) for an all-inclusive package.  This ended up being a good decision because there was all-you-can-eat-and-drink, but it was also a bad decision because it was all-you-can-eat-and-drink. I ended up eating so much that I passed out for a couple innings in the hot summer heat.  We'd continue drinking throughout the night, but by the end of the day I was just exhausted and tired.  Ready to move onto tomorrow.

The next morning, I skipped watching the Womens soccer match to sleep in and get a quick workout in before venturing out for what is always drinking when I'm hanging out with Mike.  I eventually met up with them in downtown D.C. and we'd basically bar hop for most of the afternoon.  In the evening we had pho back in Old Town Alexandria, but it was funny to witness the power go out and find ourselves eating in the dark, haha.  It would end up being a chill night back at Mike's because everyone else had gone back home, so we watched Shazam and Skyscraper.  I enjoyed the former and found it funny, but the latter was a little ridiculous. :D

I flew home the next day and no trip would to D.C. would be complete without a stop at Theismann's. :) Here's to another fun east coast visit and I had no problems getting home!  Until next time!

My first Twitch paycheck

You may recall that I got back into streaming last year and reached Affiliate status.  I haven't intentionally tried to increase my viewership, but I seem to have grown naturally just by supporting other streamers and making friends on Twitch.

I was shocked to see that today I had received my first ever paycheck from Twitch!  The money must have come from the small amount of bits, subs, and ads viewed from people who visit my channel.

As you know, I'm not in it for the monies, so this was a fun little treat to see in my e-mail.  It's really amazing to see that I'm actually getting support from many people while just chilling and playing video games.  Thanks to all of you and looking forward to many more chill streams!

End of Golf League!

Today is the last day of IBM Golf League.  Coming into the season, I had zero expectations on how well we finished, knowing I was one of the worst golfers in the league.  Fortunately, there's a handicap and that really helped my chances.  I am happy to report that we ended up finishing in 7th place and just a couple spots out of the 4-team playoffs, which is way better than I could have imagined!

In terms of individual points, I found myself in the top half of the league, which also exceeded my expectations.  Of course, my teammate Bruce was in the hunt for Individual Points Leader, which is a big reason we did so well this year. :)

And so ends the 2019 season!  I finished with a handicap of 18 and averaged 54.6 across the 8 rounds (9-holes per round) that I played this year.  The last two weeks were playoffs, but for the rest of us, we are doing some "President's Cup" formats for fun.

Here's hoping I an improve in the offseason and get better at this game!

Introducing Benzi!

It had been several months since Duncan passed away, and while the freedom of not having to get home to take care of a pet was nice, it was only a matter of time until I wanted to adopt again.  Come March, I was finished with travels and ready to find a new kitty to adopt!  I started by going back to the Humane Society, which is where I got Duncan.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any kittens, which is important to me because I feel like a cat is easier to train and develop attachment to you at a younger age, plus I want to spend together as much of their life as possible!  With Humane Society being a disappointment, I did some googling for other adoption shelters in town and came across one called HOPE Animal Shelter.

HOPE had a small selection of kitties, so I was again disappointed from the choices.  They told me kitten season was coming and that there was hope for me in the near future.  They also referred me to another place called Hermitage.  It was about 3:30pm and Hermitage closes at 5pm, so I figured I'd drive all the way across town and take a look.  WOW was I happy I did!  Hermitage is simply amazeballs!  It's basically a cat sanctuary where none of the cats are in cages, but instead are in a huge room where they are free to roam around and mingle with other cats.  They even have a room just for kittens.  When I walked into the kitten room, I was immediately enamored with a kitten named Mackenzie.  I played with her for about 10 minutes before an employee walked in and took her away...apparently someone walked in just before me and was adopting her. :( I then proceeded to look at the rest of the kittens, but I was too sad from losing the one I probably would've adopted that day, so I left the shelter kittenless.

I would return a week later hoping to find another cat I liked, but nothing really captivated me that day.  I was close to adopting a kitten named Kolb, but I kept making comparisons between him and Duncan.  I eventually left kittenless again and when I got home, I started thinking that next time I just have to treat this new cat as a new individual with a new personality and not look for similarities between them and my old cat.

A trip to Las Vegas kept me from visiting Hermitage for a few weeks.  On Thursday, April 4th, I finally made it back out there and was determined to bring home a kitty.  I walked into the kitten room and not shortly after, a 6-month-old black and white tuxedo cat began to smell me out and request for pets.  I pet him for a while and then proceeded to look at other kittens.  While looking at the other kittens, I noticed the tuxedo cat kept following me around.  He made it very clear that he enjoyed my company and not much later I determined that he was the one!

While his name at Hermitage was Carova, on the ride home I knew I would be changing his name, like I did with Max Duncan Lin.  It took me the whole ride home to decide on a name, but eventually I came up with Benzi! There's a reason to why I chose that name, but it won't make sense until I adopt my second cat, which I'm planning to later this year.

Fortunately I owned all the cat stuff to prepare me for Benzi's first night at the house.  I started him in the guest bathroom, a small and enclosed space, which is where you should introduce a new cat to their new home.  He was very nervous at first and would barely eat anything on the first day.  I would eventually introduce him to a majority of the house with lots of supervision, but come bedtime I had him sleep in the bathroom.

The next day, I worked from home to make sure he would get all the attention he needed.  He was still very friendly and affectionate towards me, but I knew he was still nervous because he had a messy accident outside his litter box on the carpet in the hallway. Yikers!  Nonetheless, one day at a time!  He was starting to eat the food that I bought for him too, which was a good sign.

After the first weekend, he was no longer having accidents and was feeling more comfortable at his new home.  I too felt comfortable giving him free reign of the house since he is not a destructive kitty.  He doesn't chew on anything other than his food and he was getting better scratching the scratchpads instead of the carpet.  Benzi also likes hiding underneath the bed, but he's doing it less and I'm starting to not care too much if that's where he wants to hang out.  Although I still encourage him to come out and play as often as possible by luring him with a kitty treat. :)

It's been almost three weeks at the house and Benzi is fully assimilated into his new life!  One thing that amused me is that I bought him a new cat bed that he never used.  He then found Duncan's old bed, which was sitting on a table in the guest room with Duncan's ashes in a box and clay pawprint in it.  Benzi loves Duncan's old bed, so I figured I'd just let him have it.  He now sleeps there often whenever he's not cuddling up in my own bed.

The next big step will be traveling with Benzi, as I'm scheduled to head up to Scottsdale in May and I want to take him with me.  We'll see how he handles that, but so far Benzi has been a delight!  I'm very lucky to have found him and I already love this kitty a bunch!

IBM Bowling League Ends, IBM Golf League Begins!

IBM Bowling League Ends...

Last Thursday marked the final night of a 25-week season, approximately my 10th year bowling in this league (I can't actually remember how many years it's been now).  You may recall that I bought a new ball for this season and it actually started out really slow for me to get a hold of the new reaction.  I started out the season in the low 170's, but after sticking it out, I eventually got my average back over 180 by the end of the season!  I am coming off a championship in the 2017-18 season, but my team this year was completely different than the year before with 3 new teammates.

Nonetheless, another fun season in the books and I am happy to report another defense of my title, that's back-to-back for me!  Or is it three years in a row?  They stopped giving us patches for winning so it's easier to forget now. :( Credit to my friend Chris who came up huge with a 650 series.  Hooray for "I Hate Blue Bowls"! :P

IBM Golf League Begins!

Conveniently, the golf league started yesterday, which was the first week after bowling had completed and I don't have to add another night of league...just gets shifted to a different day.  I had actually missed the 2018 season because my clubs got stolen in 2017. :( Regardless, I am back at it this year and with a new partner named Bruce!  Yesterday didn't go so hot, I shot 5 over double-bogey golf...yikers!  But I'm happy to be out there and it's just a short 10-week season.  I've started using the phone app "The Grint" for its golf GPS and tracking my scores, so you can add me on there if you want to keep up with my play!

Short updates this month, but still a lot of exciting posts to look forward to the next few months.  I'll keep it a surprise for you.  Until next time!

Rest in Peace...

A forewarning for my readers today: this is a sad post upcoming.  If you're not in the mood to read about tragedy, then I ask that you come back another time, or later when I'm back to posting about positive content.

The end of 2018 was a little unreal.  As you know from my previous blog entry, my cat passed away ans that was really difficult for me.  Then in late December, I received some bad news from one of my best friends that his mom just wasn't recovering well and the end was near.

It's been an especially difficult time for my friend Mike.  You may recall late in 2017 that his father passed away from cancer.  His mother Mary was never really the same after that and eventually developed a cancer of her own, which is so heartbreaking.  It goes to show you the bond that his parents shared together.

Mrs. Band was a wonderful woman, so inviting and welcoming every time you saw her.  She loooved to talk and had so many interesting stories about her travels and being a flight attendant she was easily the most well-traveled person I have ever met.  Conversation was easily her specialty, she was so eager to know how you were doing and actually took an interest in your life.  I still remember this one day she asked how things were going with this girl I was dating.  I told her that it wasn't go swell anymore and she dropped whatever she was doing, told me "That's okay. It's going to be okay."  You could tell that I was more than just the neighbor's kid or Mike's friend.  She honestly made me feel like a part of a family, an adopted son over the course of some 20 years.  So you could just tell she truly cared about my happiness and well-being.

My last memories of Mrs. Band were all incredible ones.  Celebrating the marriage of her son in Pennsylvania, Thanksgiving dinner with her while Mr. Band was still around, and even when she was going through chemotherapy and recovering, she still had a smile on her face and was happy to see and talk to me.  She was very strong when times were tough and not much seemed to phase her.  People like Mrs. Band are inspiring, you just want to follow in their footsteps.

It never gets any easier when this stuff happens.  As we get older, it's gonna happen more.  With each passing day I grow more appreciative of the people in my life.  Just gotta keep in touch and continue to Make It Happen.  I know it isn't easy, but the best we can do is try to stay connected with one another because you just never know when that time will run out.

Rest in peace Mrs. Band, you will be forever remembered.