Category: Personal

T-Rex Wants to Hunt

On By Dan MelnickIn PersonalLeave a comment

My wife is away on an overnight field trip which leaves me with the run of the house. Well, me and the dog. So with the cat away, the pressure for this mouse to find the right things to “play” is almost overwhelming. It’s not that I can’t usually indulge in my nerdisms, but when it’s just me, there’s this added pressure that I must. Every minute must be accounted for to gain the maximum amount of fun. That I need to really drill down and get as much as I can out of the experience. There were plenty of things I could have done, but last night boiled down to simply two. Hearthstone and Jurassic Park.

I’m a pretty big fan of Hearthstone. It’s on the simpler side mechanics-wise as far as collectible card games go, but there’s just something about it. It’s got claws in me. Big, razor sharp ones with barbs that won’t come out without gutting me. Maybe it’s because it scratches BOTH my Magic the Gathering and World of Warcraft itches simultaneous. Maybe it’s just a fun card game. Who knows?

Anyway, I had knocked out the last of my dailies that morning and needed something to that evening. You know, getting back to the whole indulging myself thing here. So I did a couple of arena runs. Let me make something clear here before we begin. I love the arena and I also hate it. I am not good at arena play.  For those of you who don’t play Hearthstone, it’s essentially a draft so it doesn’t matter how many cards you’ve collected. The game provides them for you. The drafting part is fun. I always feel like I make good choices, but then implementing this ramshackle deck usually shows me how wrong I am. The most wins I’d ever had in the arena was 4. To put this in perspective, you can get a total of 12 before the game lavishes you in riches for “winning” the arena and kicks you out.

In the spirit of indulgence, I bought in and went for a run. I had high hopes in the beginning. Grabbed rogue which is my class of choice and thought I made a pretty solid deck. Boy was I wrong. Finished the run with only 2 wins and 3 losses.

Dismayed, but not defeated I went back in. Grabbed hunter this time and built what I think is a pretty ridiculous deck. So much so, that I shattered my old win total of 4 and by 6-0 I was undefeated. 7 wins is the magic number in that this is when the game rewards you with more gold than it cost to buy in originally and you actually come out ahead. If I could win just one more time, they’d make a movie about my experience.

Nope. Nadda. Nah-ah.

The next three games was a crushing series of defeats. After that first loss, something broke inside of me and all of a sudden my sub conscious realized that it could lose. That’s all did from then on. I swear, though, that my deck played a completely different way in the loser’s bracket than it did with the winners. For 6 games it was nothing but traps and kick ass durability-regenerating bow then I entered a complete drought of traps. A Desert if you will.

Still, it made for an eventful evening. Next up was Jurassic Park to take me right into bedtime.

Let me drive home a second point here. I really like Hearthstone, but I freaking LOVE Jurassic Park. It is one of my all time favorite movies – holding the number 2 slot on the list just in case you were wondering – but more than that, it completely holds up. That film came out in 1993 and totally nailed it. I honestly compare any move that has come out since to see if it has the same level of Jurassic Park quality. The CGI is a little dated, but it still looks great thanks to the animatronics and actual costumed stunt guys. The shortcomings of one style is more than made up with the strengths of another kind of special effect. They figured this shit out in 1993. What’s Transformers’ excuse?Featured image

Seriously, how great is that scene? The T-Rex … the rain … it’s freaking amazing! So what if the goat’s leg is weird or that I don’t understand the geography of the Rex’s paddock … I don’t care. That roar is one of the coolest things I have ever heard. Followed by a close second … “Ian! Freeze!”

I know I’m looking at things with some rose colored glasses too. I love the book, I love these characters, I love the plot, hell, I love everything I’m looking at when I watch that movie. There’s something magical in that film, that awe of nature, that was so perfectly captured. I even love the soundtrack. It gets me every time. That song. You know the one I’m talking about. I tear up every freaking time I hear that song. 20 Years later and I’m still getting chills.

Add a little scotch to savor with one of the best movies ever made on top of a personal best in Hearthstone and I gotta say that it was a pretty epic night. Eventful? Maybe not. But my inner nerd is quite indulged and happily satisfied.

Makes me wonder what I’ll be getting up to tonight?

Who’s There?

On By Dan MelnickIn PersonalLeave a comment

Last night the most amazing thing happened. I felt one of the babies kick for the first time!

At least I think it was a kick. Who knows? Maybe the little tyke is a future boxer … We think it was the girl based on the tummy placement.

For the past couple of weeks, my wife has been talking about the occasional flutter from within. So we knew they’ve been moving around. Even in the ultrasound last week, we watched them squirm. The boy never seems to sit still. And then over the weekend it was like they decided to start a dance party. Every thirty minutes or so, my wife would grab my hand and put on her belly. I was always a second too late of course. DOUBLE Of course, the moment I took it away, they started up the dance party again. Even in utero they’re already disobeying their father. Off to a great start here, kids … 🙂

At least that was until last night. No mistaking. No squinting and cocking my head with an “I THINK I feel something …” reaction. No. It was legit. Boom boom. Two quick little hits from within.

It was awesome!

That John Lennon Quote

On By Dan MelnickIn PersonalLeave a comment

Yesterday I had every intention of writing a post about time management but wouldn’t you know it, I caught up with other things and totally missed the boat. I was going to rectify that today. That was until my wife and I went to the doctor’s this morning for the ultrasound.

We’ve been waiting for this moment for months. Well, years really. Ever since we found out she was pregnant we couldn’t wait to discover who was in there. After the last physical, we’ve had this anatomy check appointment hanging over our heads for so long it felt like it would never arrive. We’ve gone over every contingency and while it feels like there are an abundant amount of scenarios here, in actuality it looks more like something Mendel could chart with peas.

Two boys. Two girls. Or one of each.

Naturally, me with only brothers and her with an only sister, the thought of something outside of our comfort zone was pretty intimidating. We’ve both been hoping for one of each. A best of both worlds scenario. Something we know – at least theoretically – how to handle and it gives us an excuse to straddle both worlds. She loves Disney. I love comic books. Nothing is too-boy or too-girl.

The ultrasound tech asked us if we wanted to know the genders before we began. Of course we did! But for whatever reason in the heat of the moment, saying we’re just too damn excited didn’t sound like a legitimate excuse. I think I said something along the lines of, “Well, we want to know for planning purposes, you know. Can they share stuff? Do we buy just one of each item or can they double up?” or something equally bland along those lines.

It was an anatomy check so the tech went through piece by piece making sure our babies’ spines, kidney and hearts were all in the right sizes and places. It was an enormous relief knowing that it was in fact two humans in there and not a puppy and a dinosaur as I like to answer whenever people ask me “What do you think it’ll be?”. But as the limbs got counted, I was getting more and more anxious to find out who these little critters are.

Baby A?

Boy. I’m having a son.

Then the tech started the process all over again. By the time I had feebly wrapped my mind around what the news of Baby A meant it was on to B.

Four limbs … accurately-sized organs … and the tech stops right at Baby B and says, “Well, it looks like you’re gonna have to buy one of everything.”

I may not remember the tech’s name, but that’s a line my kids are going to be sick of hearing me say.

Balloons and Babies

On By Dan MelnickIn DIY, Food, Personal2 Comments

We celebrated my birthday over the weekend. Thirty-one. We made a big deal of it last year as I was officially thirty, but now I’m officially in my thirties. This whole age thing has always felt skewed for me. I know people always say age is just a number and you’re only as old as you feel. What gets me is that I meet other people who are around thirty and I’m like, “Yeah, that dude is totally thirty. Makes sense to me.” But then I look in the mirror and I don’t think that I look even remotely like Mr. Otherguy Thirty. I definitely don’t look like I’m twenty. I look, I don’t know, Dan-age, I guess.

Aside from some philosophical quandaries, my birthday also  meant an excuse to eat some delicious food I’d otherwise wouldn’t have much of an excuse for. White chocolate and peanut butter chip cookies! Who said that chocolate-chocolate and peanut butter are married?  The big day also gave us a reason to go out for a meal too. It’s not that we don’t typically eat out, but Rachel and I pride ourselves on our cooking and with future beings to save for, the discussion of whether or not we should go to a restaurant usually boils down to: Can we make food of similar or even better quality ourselves and is the price point worth getting out of the house for? We stay in quite a bit.

We’re also pretty good cooks.

Last weekend I discovered the joy of seared ahi tuna. And Rachel proved once again that she is the Birthday Queen.

IMG_1218

We like Up. A lot.

Our Hawaii plans have been put on hold indefinitely as there are new critters to care for, but not only did I receive some great sentimental gifts from my wife, but a promise of adventures yet to come. See what I mean? We really like that movie.

She came down with a cold and Easter plans were also put on hold this weekend. That left me with a lot of time indoors and time on my hands, so I put it to good use and worked on the future nursery. We had to get rid of the guest room, but we didn’t have that many guests anyway. Two babies means two of everything, except for rooms as we try and save space.

Here’s me working while under the supervision of their older sister.

IMG_1231

IMG_1233

Even with cramming two cribs in there, the room is going to be pretty small, but it took me a solid 5+ hours to prime and paint the darned thing. There’s still a second coat to go, but I’m a little painted out. On top of that, I’m still doing the jobs of two people at work, ran four miles before even going into work this morning, and I may or may not be coming down with what Rachel’s picked up. So we’ll see how motivated I feel tonight.

Birthing Pains

On By Dan MelnickIn Personal, Writing ProcessLeave a comment

Welcome to my first official blog post!

I’ve been toying with the idea of running my “official” writer’s site for a while now and letting a few ideas roll around before I actually landed on anything. With three novels under my belt – arguably, I think that only one of them is any good – and being a quarter of the way through number four, I decided it was finally time (maybe past time) to pull this proverbial trigger. And on my actual birthday no less!

Part of what had been tripping me up for so long is that I couldn’t land on a single idea for a blog. I don’t feel confident giving other people writing advice on a continual basis as I’m just as likely to abuse the comma (used to use it like a Band-Aid) than anyone else. I also over think my tweets and have never been good at Facebook posts, so the thought of a published journal of my day to day life didn’t sound compelling to me either. So that left some of my other interests: Comic books, book books and video games. I like all of them, but I’m rarely an authority anymore as most of my time has been spent getting our lives ready for the birth of our first children: Twins! Wait, that’s ANOTHER thing I could write about! See where I’m going with this?

So instead of focusing on just one thing, you’re going to get it all. One day it might be a plot issue I’m tackling, the next it’ll be about a half marathon I ran. Oh, and I’m putting new tile in my kitchen floor in a couple weeks. You’ll definitely be hearing about that one. Whether you’re here with me at the beginning – which might only be my mom and my wife. Hi guys! – or if you’re reading from the future, consider this a manifesto of sorts.

For years I’d always – still do, actually – wanted to be a comic book writer. I spent a long time wrangling other people into drawing my dreams. It finally hit me that I didn’t always need another person to translate the images in my head. I love telling stories and I love crafting them. Why can’t I do both? Thus, I wrote my first novel, A Binder’s Oath. Needless to say it’s sitting safely in a digital trunk right now. I’ll probably pick its corpse like a carrion bird for a few good ideas later, but I’m not thrilled with it enough to fix it into a real boy. Working full time at Indiana University only leaves me with so much extra time to write, so time management is incredibly important. And once those babies are born you better believe that it’s going to become even more so. Anyway, I say all of this to illustrate a point. I’m so happy I wrote that book because it taught me so much about the novel writing process, but more than anything it showed me that I’m a novelist at heart. Even if nothing I write ever gets published, I’m not going to stop. I’ll crank these suckers out. My pace is about one a year right now. I hear that’s not too shabby.

At this point, you might be thinking, “What does this have to do with a blog?” That’s a good question. I’m glad you asked.

Stories. I come from a family of born story tellers and I’ve been fascinated with the concept of stories for as long as I can remember. I’m becoming more confident thinking of myself as a writer, but I’m definitely new to the writing community. I’ve done a lot of lurking and not so much posting and I don’t meet with a writer’s group. Although, I would definitely like to. Anyone in Indiana? So I have some tips and advice, sure, but more than that, I have stories that I want to share. I think they’re interesting, hopefully you will too.