Problem solving

I have this problem. Its not too big of a deal right now, but eventually its gonna come to a head and its gonna have to be dealt with. It didn't start out as a problem. In fact it started out great and everything was going the way I wanted it too. I was happy with it.

Then things started to change, and hence the problem actually became a problem. I've made many attempts to solve this problem, but no matter what I do it lingers. I've tried being subtle and indirect, I've tried being blunt, I've even tried leaving it alone and hoping it would just go away.

None of it worked.

Now I don't know what to do about it. You see, the strange thing is that I actually WANT to have this problem. Its something I derive great pleasure from, something that makes me feel very happy. You may even go as far as to say that I love it.

So why, if its such a great thing, is there something wrong?

The problem is that I don't think its very healthy, and not just for me. Sometimes I think its just best to end it, and other times I feel there is a reason for it so I shouldn't throw it away. My gut tells me to hang on, that I'll regret it if I let go, but my head tells me that holding on will just hurt me more.

So this is the debate that continues to rage and I'm running out of time. I really don't know what I should do. I wish someone would give me a sign, or something.

Take me out to the Ballgame

So I finally made it out to the new Phillies stadium to catch a game there for the first time. I hadn't been to one since they played at the Vet, which was basically run down piece of shit stadium that was terrible for Baseball.

As you can see from the photo (I shamelessly stole from the Phillies website lol) it was me, my wife, and my parents that went. It was a cold and rainy day but we were lucky enough to have seats under an overhang so we didn't get wet. The stadium is absolutely gorgeous and there is a bunch of stuff to do there besides watching the game. They have a section that has a wall mural detailing the history of the team, games like fast pitch and virtual base stealing, and plenty of little places to catch a bite to eat.

As for the game, it turned out to be a pretty memorable one. Our back-up Centerfielder Jason Werth ended up hitting 3 home runs and getting 8 RBI's (both tying club records) as the Phils ended up beating the Toronto Blue Jays 10-3. Usually the games I go to are pretty boring and uneventful, and I was so happy I got to see something like that this time.

I have a ticket to the July 10th game against the St. Louis Cardinals, where I'll be going with a bunch of guys from work. It should be a good time, I can't wait.

Some changes

I felt that since the focus of this blog didn't exactly match the title that I would change it up a bit. I also changed the layout a tad to make it flow a little better. These are minor changes but I think it improves the blog as a whole.

Also for clarification, I did NOT have a baby yet, I merely found out the sex during the last ultrasound a few days ago. You already know that but figured I'd mention it anyway.

I still intend to write about FFXI but I'm taking it out of the title since I don't do it very often. I'll probably change the title again when I think of something more witty, but who knows if that will ever happen. My focus will probably still stay primarily on the Election until November, but I'm gonna mix in more real life stuff with it (since I should have plenty to write about in the coming months).

So stay tuned because things are going to start getting really exciting soon (.......no, not really lol)

Answer to my burning question

Yup, its a girl. I have somehow managed to defy my family genes (about 70% of Grear babies are boys) and produced a female offspring, much to the pleasure of my mother who always dreamed of having a daughter of her own.

I have to admit that I wanted a boy. I can relate better to a boy and feel like I would do a better job raising a son as opposed to a daughter. Nevertheless I am very happy to have a girl and am confident she won't hate me too much when she becomes a teenager lol. Who am I kidding, she'll have me wrapped around her little finger and I won't even realize it.

Daddy's little girl, it has a nice ring to it.

Math time

So Tuesdays Indiana and North Carolina primaries have come and gone and Obama won big time. Even though he narrowly lost in Indiana, his blowout win in NC actually ended up completely erasing Hillary's gains in Pennsylvania. In fact he is further ahead now in both delegate count and popular vote than he was the day before PA's primary. So where does this leave us now? Lets throw out some numbers here.

The total number of delegates needed to win the nomination as of right now are 2025. Right now Obama has 1846 and Hillary has 1685.

There are 6 more primaries left that will award 237 pledged delegates, and there are still 276 undecided Superdelegates. Superdelegates are senior party members that are allowed to vote for whoever they want, and their purpose is to vote for who they think has the best chance of winning the General Election in November.

So that means there are 513 delegates left to get, and in order for Obama to carry the nomination he only needs to get 179 of them, or roughly 35% of the remaining delegates. Hillary of course needs to get about 65% of the rest to carry the nomination.

Now consider than if current polling holds up the remaining pledged delegates will be split about 50-50. So that will then make it about 1964-1804 for Obama.

That means that Obama would only need 61 of the remaining 276 Superdelegates to clinch the nomination, or a mere 22% of the remaining undecided's.

So as you can see the race is pretty much over at this point, and I've already put myself in General Election mode. Oh Hillary will no doubt drag it all the way to the Convention in August, but I hope the Superdelegates are wise enough not to let that happen.

On to the Conference Finals!!!!!

For the second straight series the Flyers pull a huge upset by beating the Canadiens 6-4 in Game 5 tonight. R.J. Umberger scored 2 times, giving him 8 for the series, as the Flyers came back from a 2 goal deficit late in the 2nd period to finish them off 4 games to 1.

Up next for the Flyers will likely be the Pittsburgh Penguins with their pair of superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Of course we not only have to deal with these two great players, but being that Crosby is the NHL's Golden Boy we'll have to deal with the refs too. Thats no biggie, we've gotten the shit end of the calls all playoffs and it didn't stop us then.

Rogue Galaxy

Keeping with my current theme of "Stuff I do besides FFXI and web surfing" I'm gonna write about a PS2 game I've been playing the last month or so. Its called Rogue Galaxy and is a Space based adventure where a crew of Pirates are looking for some ancient artifacts to unlock the secret to finding a mythical planet that supposedly holds infinite wealth.


Its a real time action based RPG that has a battle system very similar to Kingdom Hearts. I've grown to like this type of system as opposed to the traditional turn-based system used in most RPG's. Character advancement is achieved by leveling up with experience points, and abilities are learned through a system called the Revelation Flow. In this system you place items acquired from battles or chests in slots on the board to unlock abilities and open up slots for even more abilities. This can be frustrating because some drops are very hard to get from enemies that have very low encounter rates (hi2u Star Earrings >_>).


Another aspect I like about this game is the weapon fusion process. Basically every battle your weapons "level up" in a sense until they eventually Max out. When you have two of the same type of weapon Maxed out you can combine them into a new and (hopefully) more powerful weapon. This saves you money (kinda pointless since money is so easy to get) and time buying new weapons from out of the way shops.


All in all this is a pretty fun game without too many frustrations, and I like most of the characters. The story isn't terribly deep but not every game has to have one like that. Here's a few screenies so you can see how it looks.