Gaming in (some kind) of style

Posted on May 30, 2015 by sumi

My bud’s been a bit distracted lately. Too many projects going on.

Obviously, this meant the quantity of quality gaming time has been left wanting. Preposterous!

To combat this, I started sending my bear bud appointment reminders.

My bud didn’t accept.

But at least he replied. Close enough. It’s a date!

So in preparation for gaming date weekend with my bud, I decided to put on a gaming outfit. If a bear’s gonna game, a bear’s gotta game in style.

I was admiring my outfit when Peep came by.

“Peep.” He said.

Sorry pal, gaming outfits are for spirit bears only. Don’t have anything for you.

He left.

I gamed.

“Peep.” Said Peep.

Alright, I guess we’re both gaming in style.

Operation honeycomb

Posted on May 16, 2015 by sumi

Despite being a bear, I consider myself more of a cocoa bear than a honey bear.

So I was somewhat disappointed that our garden was invaded with honeybees, not cocoa bees.

After calling around, my bud found someone willing to take care of the situation and relocate the bees to their new home on a ranch, far far away from here.

Goodbye bees! Good riddance! You may visit to fertilize the plants but then you leave!

Anyway when the bee guy was done he left us with some honeycomb.

Turns out the bees that DIDN’T get sucked into a transport box really liked to keep guard of their honeycomb, so we were too afraid to touch the pile for a few days. Live bees on a mission to protect their honey are probably prepared to sting the infiltrators. I wasn’t going to test that theory, I tell you that! Eventually though, we had to deal with the pile of honeycomb sitting in the garage. After all, we had to act before any army of ants did. You know what I like less than bees? Bees and ants in a sticky messy huddle.

Here is Nicholas draining the bag of honeycomb honey into a pot.

Ewww. Bees are gross. And honey is sticky and messy.

Get me far far away from that sticky icky mess.

That’s about as close as I need to get to this operation.

Ok I’m done with this. No honey needed for this bear. Honey is overrated.

I made my bud sneak out and silicon shut the water valve box in the dead of the night while the remaining bees were sleeping with even more silicon for a good measure.

These bees better not come back. And take your honey with you!

Commander Sumi takes to the skies again

Posted on May 10, 2015 by sumi

It’s been a while since I saved the universe as Commander Sumi Shepherd. As a dutiful guardian of the universe, I deemed it time to head to the skies to protect its denizens.

So I took up Elite : Dangerous. Now this is my kind of space game. I get to explore the universe and take down pirates. Sweet.

Well an awesome captain needs an awesome flight experience. The mouse and keyboard were not cutting it, so I busted out my bud’s wallet and ordered myself a Saitek X-55 Rhino. What I really wanted was a Warthog, but my bud said I’d have to use my bearbox money for that, which wasn’t happening. Saitek Rhino it is.

Delivery day came. I wanted to rest up for my upcoming battles so I told Peep to watch for the FedEx guy. It’s nice to have a minion.

I was in deep slumber when I heard Peep.

“Peep” said Peep.

My flightstick! We went out together, and there WAS a box at the doorstep.

sumi bear gets a flight stick-5

Except that it was the size of Peep. Clearly not the flightstick. Weak. No more false alarms Peep! Wake me up only if there’s a big ass box.

“Peep.”

My flightstick! For real!

This is what we’re talking about.

Commander Sumi can now take to the skies in style!

Well.

It seems there’s been a conspiracy to conceal information about the level of force necessary to move and navigate a spring-loaded flight stick. Saving the universe is hard work! I’m exhausted manning the ship. Bud take over!

“Sumi, you were only on the stick for like 2 seconds,” said Nicholas.

As I was saying, extreme levels of effort and dedication are required to man my ships.

Oh the sacrifices I make.

Mayday!

Posted on May 1, 2015 by sumi

This morning my bud went out and got flowers and some patterned paper.

“Aww for me? You shouldn’t have.” I said. No really you shouldn’t have. I’d rather have cocoa, I thought.

“It’s not for you” said my bud.

As I tried to grasp the concept of gifts that weren’t for me, my bud started to explain the May Day Basket tradition.

Apparently it’s something my bud grew up with. They would hang paper cones of flowers on their neighbours’ door. It is, as my bud explains, a chance to give gifts anonymously without the expectation of reciprocation.

That’s a terrible idea. If I’m going to be a giving bear, I expect it to be known so I can reap the benefits.

Still, Nicholas was intent on building some baskets for our neighbours so that’s what we did. He cut out paper into cones.

I stuck Peep in one of them.

“Are you trying to give your bunny away?” Nicholas asked.

“I thought I’d just hang him on our door” I answered.

“Get Peep out of the basket” was all I got in response. We went over to admire the flowers instead.

And then the cones were made.

And it was time to deliver them to the neighbours.

I can’t believe all this effort and we don’t get any credit for it. Not sure how I feel about May Day, but Happy May Day I guess!

My new sidekick

Posted on April 18, 2015 by sumi

Peep bunny and I do everything together.

We eat easter goodies.

Play games.

Chill out.

Take naps.

He’s turning into a well trained bunny. I’m developing a whole cadre of obedient pets. It’s great.

Thank GOODNESS that bathroom’s finally done

Posted on April 13, 2015 by sumi

My bud finally finished that bathroom. That was far far too long of an undertaking, and my gaming quality of life was severely impacted during the construction. FOR THE WORSE. But at least it’s done, and we can move on and put the past behind us. I’m a forgiving kind of bear. Especially when the new bathroom’s kind of badass.

So one more time, here’s the bathroom that was just fine the way it is:

And my blinged out new bathroom.

The only thing that could have made it better was if it had lasers. It should have had lasers! Nicholas!!!!!

I got an Easter bunny

Posted on April 5, 2015 by sumi

That’s right. I got a Peep Bunny for Easter.

I’d actually forgotten it was Easter until I overheard Nicholas asking Pokin if she’d gotten me any candy for Easter and I was aghast to hear they hadn’t.

?!?!? What!! This is absolutely an Enormous-Easter-Disaster in the making.

As I was feeling all upset about everything and trying to figure out how to sufficiently express my displeasure, I noticed the USPS truck pull up with a package. A package! With my name on it!

Forgetting about my Absolutely-Enormous-Easter-Disaster-In-The-Making for the moment, I went to make my bud open the package right away. And inside, I was excited to find out that my best bear bud’s mom is actually way more thoughtful than my bear bud and she’d sent me a package!

My very own Peep Bunny! And Easter candy! Easter-disaster averted!

That said, my bud is still on notice to pick me up some Cadbury chocolate eggs. And stat. My Peep bunny and I are in need of more easter goodies.

Bathroom renovations and a song dedication to my bud

Posted on March 12, 2015 by sumi

A couple weeks ago, my bud mentioned that he was planning to demolish the downstairs bathroom.

Good. I thought. Good riddance. Who needs bathrooms anyway? They’re overrated. This bear especially, has no need for bathrooms.

So I watched it get torn up. Then Erik come to visit and help tear it apart some more.

And a week later they still continued to tear this bathroom apart.

Just how long does it take to get rid of a bathroom anyway?

Then it dawned on me that they weren’t just removing the bathroom. They were actually trying to fix it up. And it was taking a long time. And during this whole time, my gaming routine was getting severely disrupted.

I tried to stage an intervention. I sat down to talk to my bud.

sumi bear hates bathrooms-7

No avail. He still worked on that blasted bathroom.

So right now days into this “project” I’m still sitting here left to my own devices. So I decided to vent my frustrations by writing a song. This song’s for you bear bud.

Les Miserables – I dreamed a dream

– adapted by Sumi Bear, video for your singalong purposes

There was a time when my bud was kind
And the cocoa was flowing
And his words were inviting

There was a time I felt top of mind
When the world was a game
And the game was exciting
There was a time
It all went wrong

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When scores were high
And life worth living
I dreamed I fought; yelled battle cries
I dreamed that odds would be forgiving
Then I was young and too naive
And worlds were conquered, new skills added
There were no days I had to wait
No takedowns untaken
No time was wasted

But some people come one day
With their tools sprawled all asunder
As they tore my hopes apart
And they turned my dreams to dust

He left me sitting at my chair
He filled my days with endless waiting
He took the patience of this bear
And he was still gone when nightfall came

And still I dream he’ll come to me
That we will start our gaming sessions
This dream had really better be
Or there will be storms he cannot weather!

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I’m living
So different now from what it seemed
This bathroom has killed the dream I dreamed

My impressions of CES

Posted on January 8, 2015 by sumi

This year, I got to go to CES for the first time. The opportunity to be surrounded by tech and gaming gadgets? Two words : bear heaven.

Except it was about as crowded as my last year’s Chinese New Year experience. Should have known.

Still, I happily wandered the isles checking out weird fitness gadgets and trackers. And then we were at the 3D printer section.

3D printers!

Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted a 3D printer. See, being a bear my size is tough. Things aren’t usually sized for spirit bears. I’ve gotten by this whole time because my bear bud occasionally throws me a bone and makes me things my size (like my sweet commander jacket and commander chair), but really we all know life would be more bear-able with more bear sized things.

So with much excitement I came across a contest! The New Matter guys were releasing an affordable <$400 3D printer and they were going to give away one every day! My chance to win one! (Too bad I missed it when they were $149 earlybird)

I followed the rules and tweeted my selfie to them:

Didn’t win yesterday but fingers crossed since today’s my last chance!

Wandering on, we ended up at the car section. I don’t care much for cars but I’d heard that they were previewing hydrogen cars and I wanted to see one for myself. We didn’t end up finding it but I did come across an orange car.

And then one my size!! Woah!

Maybe I can 3D print my own car in the future???

We continued to check out more cars, including checking out the Ford driving simulator

And then finally onto the gaming section. Check this out! A VirtuixOmni!

Next I got an autographed T-Shirt from Jordan Gilbert at the Intel booth. Just wish it was my size. See what I mean?

Finally I wrapping up the day by cheering on my bud when he got the high score of the hour playing some Benq game on their gaming monitor.

Glad I got to check out CES. Now back home to do some of my own gaming!

My developer conference bounty

Posted on January 3, 2015 by sumi

It’s a new year, and my bud decided there was no better way to celebrate it than by going to a developer conference. So we signed up for the AT&T annual developer conference. They were giving away tonnes of prizes, but unfortunately my bud was too exhausted to compete.

Still, just for showing up, you got some pretty cool stuff. For example, I got a nerf gun that I promptly shot off the balcony.

And I got to try my paws on a Phillips Hue developer kit. We didn’t get to keep that though. Too bad.

All attendees got to visit the swag room and pick out two goodies of their choice. My bud got a Samsung Fit and Myo, while Pokin got a Jawbone and a phone she gave away to someone else. I wanted to sell that phone but I allowed it this time.

BEST part of the whole thing though? Check out the new drone we won on the last day of the event. We were the last number they called!

Time to hook this up and go terrorize some other bears.

Hi, I'm Sumi

Category Archives: Daily life