The best thing I have ever seen...

I cannot say how much this made me smile.

.ungawa

-Spyke

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My Grandpa...

After a short bout of what was onset dementia my Grandpa died this morning at 4am while in hospice care (due to pneumonia from the other day).

I'll be flying up to Ohio on Tuesday for the viewing and flying back after the funeral on Wednesday.  My Mom luckily was able to be up there this weekend to spend time with her father before he passed.  Although due to the dementia, the man that we knew as Lloyd Spring has been gone for quite a while.

I wrote about my Grandma passing a few years ago... That was his wife.  While she was the head of the family he was the one that filled the role of the "man of the house" as long as I knew them up until her death.  He was in the Navy during World War II and owned many different businesses (ranging from a gas station to finally an insurance company) there in the small town of Crooksville, Ohio.

While Grandma spoiled me Grandpa was the one that always taught me the ways of the world... and what it was to be a man (from his point of view, of course).  He also was heavily involved with one of the main Protestant churches there in town.  I forget what his "title" was, but he was heavily involved in the donation plates as well as sometimes going up to read a bit of the Scripture.  One of the things he was most proud of was teaching Sunday School to the middle-school kids.  When Mom and I lived in Crooksville for the year my father was stationed in South Korea I would go to his Sunday School classes.  Not by choice, mind you... but in the end I found them to be very educational and hardly ever "preachy".  I think those Sunday School classes is what sparked my interest in researching all religions and let me make the choices that I have as far as my faith goes.

He also was a consummate fisherman.  He and some of his buddies would go up into Canada every year to fish.  They would share this small and dingy cabin on the edge of a lake for a couple weeks.  He'd always come back and we'd have a fish roast with the fish that he'd bring back.  He kept doing this well into his late 60's to early 70's.  He was also the first one that taught me how to fish.  

I remember one of the few times that I'd ever hear him curse was due to me.  We were at the small lake there near Crooksville during a vacation.  I was no more then 9 or 10 at the time.  He was baiting my hook and I accidentally jerked the pole causing the hook to go into his finger.  "Well shit, John!"  Needless to say that hearing him actually cursed made me REALLY scared for my life that day.  Looking back at it I brought it up later and we would laugh at it some.

With his passing a chapter in the book of the Springs closes for good.  Mom is now the defacto head of the Family for various reasons that are too complicated and too damning of some of her family members.  This is going to be a tough Holiday season for her... but in some ways now... things are done.  I am hoping that she will be able to heal up from this and finally get some relaxation into her life.  At least she'll be up in Crooksville for T-day with Dad and the rest of her extended family.  Grandma's sisters (Joyce and Mary-Jo... her are more like sister to Mom now) will be there as will their families.  So she will be in good hands.

I write this to let y'all know what kind of a man my Grandpa was.  And to say that he will be missed... dearly.

--
.ungawa

-Spyke

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NXE - New Xbox Experience

So as widely covered pretty much everywhere Microsoft has rolled out the NXE or New Xbox Experience.

I updated my 360 this morning and I must say that so far I'm digging things. Sure I've got the whole "wow this is new and different" going on... But I can see how in another month or so I'll be completely comfortable with the new interface.

If nothing else I'm all for the Avatars. I can't wait to see what they do to expand the clothes... Mostly from the standpoint that who wouldn't want to have a suit of armor from Mass Effect, Halo, or Gears of War to be able to wear on their Avatar?

Speaking of which, it looks like there's a service where you can use your Avatar on the web/in emails by this simple URL:

http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/[gamertag]/avatar-body.png

Just change out where it says [gamertag] to be your GamerTag (use %20 if you have a space in your Tag) and you get your Avatar.

This is what mine looks like:



I'm pretty happy with how I turned out. =)

.ungawa

-Spyke

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