We’re on vacation for a few days, at Wrightsville Beach. I’m writing this post actually before we get there, so it will be interesting to see how much my imaginings will match our actual days.

We’ll be leaving home in the morning, and so we’ll get to the area probably before our hotel room is ready. (It’s just a 2.5-hour drive to the beach.) While waiting for check-in time, we’ll go to the university campus, (University of North Carolina, Wilmington), where Cowgrit and I went to school. We’ll walk around, let the boys run around, and just see what’s new since our college days. From what I’ve heard, it’s very different.

Then we’ll probably get lunch at one of our [read: my] old favorite restaurants: the Oceanic. I love seafood, but no one else in my family does. So I rarely get any fish or shrimp, or the hushpuppies and cocktail sausce that goes with them. Not only does the Oceanic have great seafood, it’s perched right on the sand dunes overlooking the beach.

Then we’ll head on to our hotel, check in, take all our stuff up to our room, change into our bathing suits, slather on sunscreen, and head on out to the broad sandy beach. I love the smell of ocean air. The sound of waves crashing. The occasional cry of a seagull. My mom and step-dad took my brother and me to the beach over the weekend many times each summer when I was growing up. So when it was time for me to choose a college, the one within 10 minutes of the beach drew me like a bro to a beer.

After a long afternoon on the beach, we’ll retire back to our room for dinner. We’ll probably just order in something, or make something ourselves. Then we’ll watch a movie or some TV, maybe explore the hotel a bit, and then hit the beds, very tired.

The next day will have us doing whatever we feel like doing, whenever we feel like doing it. Breakfast in our room, then back to the beach, or maybe to the pool. Lunch may be a picnic outside. Then a swap of location — from beach to pool, or pool to beach. Mid-afternoon, we’ll head back to the room for an extended rest/nap before getting washed and dressed for a dinner out somewhere. Where, I don’t know, but not Moe’s, or Golden Corral, or CiCi’s pizza — this will not be a choice for the boys, this time.

The next day, we’ll get out to the beach or pool early for a few hours play before we have to check out of the hotel. After checkout, we’ll cruise around the beach town, walk out on a pier or two, look at the marina, grab lunch somewhere on the move, maybe check out a local store for some silly souvenir. We’ll head back into Wilmington, and maybe head down to the riverfront. I’d like to take the boys on the USS North Carolina battleship, but it will depend on our timing of everything before getting there. With or without the battleship tour, eventually we’ll hit the road for back to home.

I’m sure everyone will be tired, (the good kind of tired), and we’ll probably just relax at home until bed time. Then Real Life takes over again, and although the boys are starting their track out from school, I’ve got to go back to work.

Bullgrit

This design is for the upcoming Fourth of July celebration of our country’s Declaration of Independence — done up Star Wars geek style!

Declaration of Independence Star Wars scroll

Since it isn’t clear in the small jpeg, (it’s large enough and clear on an actual shirt) — the text says:

USA
WAR

Episode 1776

A DECLARATION

When in the Course of human events, it becomes
necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands
which have connected them with another, and to assume
among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure
these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,

Note: This is the verbatim text from the Declaration of Independence, including exact capitalization and punctuation.

Star Wars and the American Revolution were all about rebels versus an empire. Get one to show your love of country and your love of your country’s great pop culture icon.

Bullgrit

I’ve put a couple new t-shirt designs in the store. The first is printed on baby clothes and kids’ shirts:

CAUTION BIOHAZARD

If you have kids, you know what kind of nasty stuff comes out of them and gets on them. If they were not human beings, the EPA would run yellow tape around them and evacuate everyone within 100 yards.

Bullgrit

Over the months I’ve had my iPhone, I’ve picked up only a few games. I never intended to bother with games, or any apps, really, but it’s kind of easy to slowly collect them, just kind of impulse buys, (for free or 99 cents).

The first game I got was Pocket Frogs. One of Calfgrit10’s friends mentioned his dad had it on their iPad, and his dad lets him play it. I sort of took that as a personal challenge to my manhood, (actually more a challenge to my game geekitude). So I had to get it for my boys to play on my iPhone. I first just got the free version, but soon updated to the 99 cent full app.

There really isn’t all that much “game” to this app. You collect frogs, tapping them around a pond to eat flies, and then breed them to create more frogs. It’s an okay time waster, and the some of the many various frog breeds, (designs), are interesting, but there’s not really any kind of challenge or strategy to it. I really wouldn’t even call it a game.

A couple months later, I read a good reference to Angry Birds.

I downloaded the free version, and within a couple days, I beat those levels. I immediately downloaded the 99 cent levels. This is a true game. A truly challenging and maddeningly addictive game. I was so impressed with it, I gifted it to brogrit. I’ve long since beat all the levels, and now I’m going back through trying to get at least 2 stars (out of 3) on each level. Just when I think it’s impossible to do better than my highscore on a level, suddenly tactics and luck come together for a higher score with more stars.

Then a couple days ago, brogrit asked me if I had the Words app. I hadn’t even heard of it at that time, but I looked into it and downloaded the free version.

Brogrit challenged me to a first game, and within a couple turns, I’ve come to love this game.

It’s basically Scrabble, but strangely for a reader, writer, and editor, I’ve never actually played Scrabble. Now that I’m playing Words, (still on my first game with brogrit), I’m saddened to learn what I’ve been missing.

I must admit, too, that I felt like I had to do really good at this game versus my brother. A word game battle between a writer and a musician? Yeah, there’s some professional ego on the line, here.

To be honest, though, I really don’t use a lot of long words in my normal vocabulary. As you can see by reading this blog, hell, I don’t even use many long sentences. And surprising to me, playing Words doesn’t really lend itself well to playing long words, anyway. I’m surprised by how just 2- to 4-letter words are really the main tools.

And I’m not used to looking at words scrambled. I’m especially not used to figuring out words scrambled and mixed between letters in my hand and letters on a board. I can usually figure out a few words from the letters in my hand, but trying to figure how to fit them on the clustered board is crazy boggling.

And to make it even harder and more frustrating, every time I’ve figured out where I’m going to play my next word on the board, brogrit puts his word there and sets me back to figuring everything out all over again.

But I do love this game. I like playing a game with my brother, and with the way this lets you take turns as you get the time in your day, this is a perfect fit for playing with him. Even separated across different states, I almost feel like I’m just sitting across the kitchen table from him. This is a great way to stay connected.

Bullgrit