Ottawa was one of our all-time favorite overnights, we all really miss it.

Yeah, the Market is pretty sweet. I don’t know if you’ve ever been near Preston, but that’s our version of Little Italy. One of my favorite places is on that street, Pub Italia – mix of Irish and Italian, home of the Beer Bible.

Speaking of cold, I’ll have to remember to take pictures of my front lawn snowbank.

I miss Ottawa though, we don’t fly there anymore. Not that I care to be up there when it’s this cold (I moved to Florida for a reason!) although it was neat seeing the people ice skate on the frozen canal to and from work. And the coolest thing? The hotel the crews stayed at had heated bathroom floors! We’d run up to our rooms, strip and jump onto those floors and sigh in relief! But in the summer, holy crap, I loved walking downtown to the shops, the pubs, that outdoor shopping area near the capitol… very nice city.

1) why is there an American flag next to my name? I’m Canadian.
2) I actually enjoyed my recent travel, flying from Ottawa to Calgary then to San Francisco and then grabbing a shuttle to San Jose. Then the trip back, shuttling to San Fran (where I closed the hotel bar), from SFO to Chicago, then back to Ottawa. The trip back involved a lot more anxiousness, but overall it wasn’t painful. I actually had a wildlife conservationist seated neat to me most of the way and he was pointing out the various sites from a bird’s eye view.

Travel can be valuable.

I’m with you. In MMOs and P&P games, I always will and always have referred to the alter ego as a ‘character’. I think the only exception to this might be Second Life, but then I’d never bother subscribing to that so there goes that exception.

I am who I am. My characters are who I’ve created in games. Easy distinction.

Why do I go by “SmakenDahed”? It was a character, but it’s also an aspect of how I view myself sometimes (large, lumbering and clumsy.. sometimes having idiotic moments). The real intent was simply to have a form an anonymity because I wanted to vent, dump ideas or thoughts and not have to worry about repercussions.

Would I call it a ‘character’? No, probably not. I’m not playing at anything.
Would I call it an ‘avatar’? No, it doesn’t represent who I am in full (though I have been getting a little more into areas of my life I didn’t expect to go).

I think a better name for it might be ‘persona’.