Cleaning up my life.

Dude, I am STOKED!!

All this dealing with hard times and suffering is starting to pay off. My life is finally starting to get back into check. I just payed off 2 credit cards, along with most of my bills, and there's still a good chunk of change left in my bank account. My yearly raise kicked in this month (which was better than I thought it would be). It's been close to 6 weeks since I've seen a paycheck, so it's nice to have money, again. I went to lunch yesterday not realizing I didn't get paid 'till midnight. Checking my balance enlightned me that I wouldn't be pulling anything out of the atm with my $1.31 balance. Good thing I had $4 in my pocket and generous friends with me. ;) What's even better is I filled out my tax return, and I'm getting a phat check from the IRS. Since I'm horrible with finances, I tend to let them keep my money throughout the year so I can buy cool toys after each filing. With the return, I should be able to pay off a 3rd card. That leaves me with one card (the home entertainment upgrade from last fall) and my Jeep loan (which is paid off in June). After that, I'll be pretty much debt free! Yes, folks, all those tv talkers are right: you too can be debt free! LOL! My way was probably harder than what any of them had in mind, but I don't believe in easy money. ;)

So part 2 of my stoke-ed-ness is midnight tonite marks the beginning of phase 2 for the Halo 3 beta eligibility. I have to play Halo 2 on Xbox Live! for 3 hours, then sign up. They're taking the first 13000 (it's open till midnight Sat, but I'm pretty sure it will fill up before then). What's even cooler is I cornered my boss yesterday to ask him if I could show up late because of the marathon... and he said YES! How many ppl working full-time "real world" jobs have a cool-ass boss that would let you do that. Admittedly, he was cracking jokes to my co-workers at my expense for the next hour, but it's still so frikin' cool!

Part 3: I'm finally "officially" calling it quits with smoking. I'm slowly weening my way off the habit. I've found I can go without the nicotine for extremely long periods; it's just the act of smoking I'm having issues with. Of course, I just finished one (my second for the day), and it made me sick to my stomach. bleauck. ... uh, brainfart. Hmmm... it's hard to type and try to carry a conversation on the phone at the same time. ;)

Well, on that note, I'm gonna go be more stoked (LOL) for the next hour before I start gaming. :D Oh, and my sleeping is starting to get better; sort of. I'm making myself start packing up for bed around 11p, so I'm usually laying there by 11:30p. In this, I'm usually out by midnight. Wow. Who woulda thought it coulda been that easy? ;) I'm still not showing up to work on time, but I'm working on making myself get up earlier. That's always been a problem with me (even when I was a kid). It's just a matter of programming. Ok, I'm outtie.



l8rs.

"This is no job for a spork."

Oh, boy. The delerium is kicking in.... LOL! Those goofy late night commercials. Hahahah...

I haven't slept right since I got back from Christmas break. I've spent the last 3 weeks working from home at least 2 days a week because I can't seem to make myself go to bed before 3am. Then I end up fighting with or sleeping through the alarm clock until somewhere around 10:30a. By that point I wake up in a panic. Cuervo needs to go out. I'm extremely late for work. What phone calls have I missed? What important emails have gone out? I need coffee!! Heheh. It's funny in a sense if you look at it. See? Delerium. ;)

And this is why I don't make resolutions every year. If I had said I wanted to start working more like a normal person, I'd have already blown that resolution waaaaay out of the water. Hehe... and now those match.com commercials... you know the ones... the crazy first dates. Woo hoo! LOL. Damn, and I haven't even been drinking much lately, either. Maybe that's the problem. Of course, I have been smoking a whole lot more. Well, more for me, anyway. I'm still under half a pack a day on Ultra Lights. But, smoking is still bad for you. :p~

So, long story short, I'm watching really, really, old X-Files re-runs on Sci-Fi instead of playing video games. Of course, if I don't pass out soon, I'm gonna start Final Fantasy XII. No, I haven't bought it, yet. I lucked out; it was at Blockbuster tonight.

This blows. I'm exhausted, and have been all day. Awite, since I can't go to sleep, I'm going to get more smokes.



l8rs.

Ever rampant insomnia.

I guess I'm just destined to never sleep normal. I passed out around 8ish, but I only slept about 2 hours. I've been struggling to go back to sleep ever since. So, I'm catching up on my anime. I've found a couple of new series on On-Demand. Ikki Tousen (total fan-service, chick kicking-ass type), Samurai Girl Real Bout High School (same thing), and Boys Be... (drama, chick anime).

So, about the Monster Truck Jam.... ;) I have never felt like such a redneck... rooting on giant trucks with over-sized tires. IT WAS A BLAST! LOL! If you've never been, you must go. It was hilarious. Grave Digger pulled off one of the most radical freestyle crushes I've ever seen. And he never even flipped the thing over. I was actually a big fan of it when I was a kid. Big Foot was the greatest thing ever. But between the multitude of whooping and hollering fans (amazingly, there were people of all genres) and the roaring of thousands of alcohol-induced horsepower, it was a total testosterone-fest. I'll, more than likely, never go to another one, but I did have fun.

Well, back to anime (Great Teacher Onizuki); and, maybe, I'll make it to work on time tomorrow.



l8rs.

Still awake...

as usual. I need a 28 hour day. I'm usually awake for 18-20 hours, but I like to sleep for about 8-10. Actually, what I really need to do is start making myself slow down about 2 hours before I need to go to bed. I just go balls to the wall all day and all night. Nights usually consist of long gaming hours, but I've gotten better at making myself quit by midnight during the week. I need to shoot for 10p or 11p, I guess. So here I am trying to kill time, hoping maybe I can just stay awake the whole night. I need to stop off at the MARTA headquarters tomorrow AM and get my pass replaced anyway. I just haven't had the best of luck with magnetized cards lately. I somehow managed to de-magnetize my Disney Park Hopper (Christmas vacation) before the first day. It only took about 2 min to get it replaced, so not that big of a deal. Now, I've managed to do the same with my MARTA pass this month. I'll be glad when work finally switches us over to the new rifid system MARTA's using.

I'm going to come out and say it, finally. I am so done with Windows. Having access to a Microsoft MSDN subscription, I've been lucky enough to play with the Betas and have an advanced RTM (release to manufacturers) copy. It's designed for my laptop, but I've put so much effort into getting Fedora Core 6 running, I'm not ready to part with it, yet. Good thing, too. I dropped Vista on my home PC (I just keep Windows around so I can stream music and videos to the 360) this weekend. I've had nothing but issues trying to access my NAS. This new TCP stack (in non-geek speak: networking features) is ridiculous. Of course, I wanted to install the Home Premium edition (with the Media Center integrated), but the only licenses we have access to are for the Business version. Our tests at work have gone very well. Vista Business and Ultimate run beautifully in an Active Directory environment. However, now that I'm trying to use it at home, oh, it's a whole different ballpark. Luckily, `robocopy` is now a standard application (advanced replacment command-line application for `xcopy` previously only available through resource kits). Every time I try to access the NAS, Explorer locks up and never comes back from la-la land. I have liked the new Sidebar and Aero interface since I first saw it, tho. And, Vista now includes a Photo Gallery, Calendar, and Contacts application, which are really easy to use. I never was able to get my iPAQ running Pocket PC 2003 to sync as of RC2, but that's about the time Core 6 was released, so I didn't really spend that much time with it. Vista is now in the hands of our Windows admin at work. I'm trying to get out of as much Windows support as possible and move more towards Linux. Getting back to the original problem: at least I'm now able to get my files off the NAS (I only use it as a back up, anyway); although, it is taking forever. In a nutshell, if you're thinking of upgrading, think twice. All you'll get over XP is a new Start Menu, prettier windows, and 3 new applications. And if you're lucky, like me, a major headache trying to access network shares on your home network. Half of the important stuff built-in to Vista can be downloaded and installed onto XP (like IE 7, Media Player 11, and Windows Defender). And XP is going to be supported for another 3-5 years. Wait and let the companies that create your favorite applications (like PhotoShop, et. al.) catch up. Besides, I think there will be another major hardware boom to challenge the Core Duo's either this summer or next fall. Me? I'm sticking to Red Hat, Fedora, and possibly Ubuntu.

Wow, that gripe wasn't supposed to last that long. Game-wise, since I've, for the most part, completed Ninety-Nine Nights, I've gone back to playing Final Fantasy X-2. I'm going to see if I can't get it finished by the end of the month. Lost Planet for the 360 comes out Friday, and I'm either going to get it or Final Fantasy XII next month. BTW, I'm looking for a copy of Soul Calibur II for the PS2 if anyone knows where I can find one for cheap (new or used, I don't care). After this last episode with GameStop, and with their continually increasing prices lately, I'm not too happy with them anymore. Speaking of new games, I'm dying to get .hack // G.U. Vol. 2. Vol. 3 (final of the trilogy) is set for release in Japan next week, but there's still no release date, yet, for Vol. 2 Stateside. However, in my searching tonight, I've noticed that there's a DVD for this storyline that goes along with the game, .hack // Roots, that's scheduled for release Mar 20. W00+! Birthday present!

Ok, I think I've managed to kill enough time here. I can go catch up on my On-Demand Anime for the rest of the morning till I have to leave for work, now that my Comcast box is working, again. You know, I would think that this is common knowledge, at least with those dumbass contractors they hire for installs and repairs. There's this thing call modulation degredation that happens once you split out your signal. It was one of the basics I learned in my early Electrical Engineering courses in college. But then again, cable companies have been dealing with this problem for years. This was fairly common knowledge when I was a kid: "Don't use more than one 2-way splitter on the tv cable or the picture gets all fuzzy." Of course, you can split it more these days since they're pumping a much higher frequency through the lines with HD and internet and all. But, my point in all this, my box stopped working just before I left for vacation. I didn't have time to worry about why until actually this past weekend. I figured the box just finally died (I've had it a good 4-5 years). No, one of those dipshit contractors came out and moved my primary line to an overloaded 5-way splitter. Now I have to call them to come out and fix it because they don't have the damn things labled. I could probably do it during one of my 4am late nights, but I'm not going to go unplugging everyone in the complex's cable just to figure out which line is mine. I'll just deal with the cable running from the spare bedroom for now (it's out of the way for the most part). Ok, enuff bitching.



l8rs.

Just an NPC. Dammit.

It's been awhile. Sorry about the lack of posts. I've been holed up playing video games all week. Yes, I said week, not weekend (my work and sleep schedule went to shiot last week). I guess I just had to catch up on all the game time I missed around Christmas. Blockbuster is now allowing you one coupon every couple of weeks for a free in-store movie or game rental. Schweet, but I'm still gonna have to end up subscribing to Gamefly, soon. Blockbuster's available titles (at least the one I go to) either suck, or I've played all the good ones. Newayz, I picked up Chrome Hounds on Tues. The graphics were nice, the environment was massive, but the soundtrack sounded like something from a mililary funeral procession. I felt so depressed every time I wasn't blowing up the nearest target. So my take on this is it's Microsoft's replacement for the MechWarrior series... which the origianl Xbox titles still haven't been "ported" to play on the 360 emulator (those fsckers). This was a different publisher, however, so the Mechs are now called HOUNDS and have what are called AT classes instead of individual names (but the "Mad Cat" was such an awesome Mech!). The storylines are kinda... well, blah to put it best. I think it's just there to gain parts as you complete quests so you can build your own badass HOUND for some butt-kicking on Xbox Live!. I got to goofing around and created a "Soldier AT" I dubbed "Buttmunch". This thing was frikin wicked! Then I created a "Sniper AT" named "The Almighty" (reference to the sniper code-named "God" in the movie Navy Seals with Charlie Sheen). Ok, I was wrong, you can name them, but in the stories, they don't have names. Either way, an alright game. This is not one I'll be dropping more than 15-20 bucks for; I'll just wait till it goes Platinum status. Maybe I've been spoiled by Tomb Raider Legend and the Halo 3 previews, but I expect more than this game offered in my next-gen titles (the original Xbox hardware could probably handle this game). My overall play time was about 2 nights, so I've still got quite a few quests to finish when I finally do buy it. :)

Originally, I was searching for was Ninety-Nine Nights (N3). Unfortunately, Blockbuster's copy was no longer in stock (guess someone decided to not return it), so that's why I got Chrome Hounds, instead. The next day, however, I was at GameStop searching for my own copy of N3. With the demo, I fell in love with the massivly emersive envrionment and the fact that there were 500+ some-odd enemies and allies on the screen at the same time (with little to no lag)! Now that is how you take advantage of next-gen hardware! :D So my usual GameStop had one on the shelf (I had to search like hell for it), but not behind the counter. I should have taken this as an omen. But they guy called the store at the mall, and they had plenty. They were even $10 bucks cheaper than what I was about to pay for this one. This turned out to be yet another reminder as to why I hate (with an ugly passion) malls. You circle the lot looking for a parking spot. BTW, who the hell pays $6 for valet parking at a mall!? Then, once you finally find a spot, you traverse to the opposite side of the damn thing ('cause you didn't know which side the store was on to begin with) while avioding post-pubescent, vally-girl wannabe's, talking about the color of some sweater they have and the high-school junior/senior boy trying oh so hard to hook up with the two girls that only asked him along to carry all their packages. You spend all of 45 seconds to a minute and a half in the store (since you know what you're there for), only to have to traverse thru "Oh, do I wanna go in this store? Nah.", not paying attention, cell phone alley, again, just to get back to the parking lot you're in. This leads way to yet another reminder: I shouldn't be living where I live. My crusty dingy Jeep (keep in mind, it's had a non-rainstorm bath about twice in its life - it's a 2000) was surrounded by an Altima, an Acura, and a Lexus, all freshly washed and shined. If only online ordering were quicker with their deliveries (without having to spend as much in shipping as you payed for the item). An hour later from what I originally planned, I finally got home.

Great game; however, it has its downsides, also. The creators pushed the engine so hard (tons of enemies and allies, massive environmental damage, and graphical "ooo's" and "ahhhh's" with the cool move you just executed), that there is eventually a point at which the lag gets so bad you have to wait on the processor to catch up. That only happened one, tho. The basic concept is you feed thru the storyline. But, depending on which of the 7 characters you choose (you start with one choice, but more "unlock" as the game progresses), there's a different ending based on that character's, shall we say, influence, for lack of a better word, on the battles. The 7th character is supposed to be a "bonus" that becomes available once all the other storylines are complete. *** SPOILER WARNING!! *** Of all the crapass choices for a bonus character they could choose from all the cools NPC's from the other storylines, you get VigkVagk the troll!? His ending is pretty cool, tho. :) He just goes beserk and kills everyone (both light and dark sides) to end the war. You'll have to play the game to understand why he goes beserk. In Myifee's scenario there's this really hot chick in scanty lether and fur called Epharr. Dude, she was a badass. I wanted her to be the bonus. But, she only showed up in Asphar's story and briefly, at that. SPOILER END. There's not an Xbox Live! tie-in, so once you finish all the stories, all that's left is keep replaying to get a higher "ranking" for each mission and collecting points to view all the stuff in the "Library" menu section (pictures and character profiles). Speaking of, come to think of it, I don't think I've even competed on Live! since I purchased the 360 (other than a couple of Halo 2 matches). You can tell this was originally a Japanese game cause the voice-overs sooo don't match the character's mouths. But, I think I recognize two of the male character voices. One sounded like that guy from General Hospital that voiced "Cloud" in the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children movie. The other I don't know specifically, but it sounded famalier; like I had heard it in one of my anime series, or something. Overall? Pretty frikin cool! But, their marketing's "Rich story and unparalleled depth" comment I'll have to argue with. Even Final Fantasy X-2 (as cheezy as it has been) is more "rich" and "unparalleled". That part's pretty average if you ask me. But, I don't do, nor do I like game reviews. "Try it out and find out for yourself" is my motto.

So where does the title fit into all this? Dunno; just thought it sounded cool. Maybe because I was a little peeved that I didn't get to play N3 as Epharr. ;)



l8rs.

HAPPY (?) New Year

I feel like I should say something inspirational or reflect on the past year or something. In all honesty, I've haven't felt like being much more than a bump on a log today. I wish I could blame it on a hangover or the cold bug that's going around. Hey, don't get me wrong. It's been a great year, and Disney was a blast!

So, why do I feel so lethargic today? I guess it's the sinking feeling that my vacation is over, and I must return to the 9-5 of reality tomorrow, that's bumming me out.

I've been home long enuff to realize that the one apartment I share a wall with has decided to drop their newly upgraded HD Dish outside my living room window... I'm not sure if I'm OK with this, yet.... Also, in the midst of watching Tech loose in the last few minutes of the Gator Bowl, I've discoved that my cable box has finally bitten the dust (it was giving me fits before I left but I was able to get it to come back). I'll have to give Taylor Bennett some serious credit, tho. Since Reggie Ball screwed up and was academically ineligible to play (I was actually kinda happy to hear this), Bennett came off the bench and performed beautifully. It all came down to inexperience, tho. You can tell he buckled under the pressure at the end throwing his only interception in the last 4 minutes.

At least I've been a bit productive and paid almost all my bills for the month (and still have cash left over, for once). Other than that, I've been lying in bed watching my Full Metal Panic! FUMOFFU fansubs for the rest of the afternoon. The title didn't make sense untill about the 5th episode. What the hell is "bunta-kun", anyway? I think "-kun" translates as "Mr." AnimeNfo.Com calls this tard-of-a-teddy-bear-kinda-thing (seems to have a "Barney"-esk type of roll) Bonta-kun. So, I guess my question should go more like: Is Bonta its name or is the literal translation of "bunta-kun" something like "Mr. Bear"? Don't ponder on that one too hard. ;)

Awite, lemme get back in the swing of things, and, maybe, I'll carry on about my Disney trip later this week. First I need to call Comcast and get my box replaced (and upgrade to HD and DVR in the process).



l8rs.

Merry Christmas from Disney!

Hey all. Since I didn't send out any cards this year, Merry Christmas everyone. I'm still at Disney until the end of the week. We've already done 3 parks in 2 days, and I'm beat. I'll try to get some pics up and a summary once I get back home. In the meantime, everyone enjoy your Christmas (or, whatever you celebrate).



l8rs.

Halo 3 news!

I'm watching Attack of the Show earlier this evening and I hear, "... plus more on the new Halo trailer released last night...". WHAT DID YOU SAY?! Yeah, that's what I get for enthralling myself in FFX-2 for the last couple of weeks. I immediately power up the Xbox and start searching. 5 minutes later, W00+! Download finished! It's a 7 minute behind-the-scenes on the new Brutes you'll be fighting. Ergh... I'm drooling again.... Damn marketing. They're always good for wetting your appetite some more. And I was just finally starting to sleep at night without suffering from withdrawal fits, too. You guys suck! I guess I now know where all the drug pushers go to work after they finish their jail sentences. ;)

While I'm in the Video Marketplace, I see there's another video for DOAX2. Heheh... I'm sad. I guess I'll be picking this game up, too, even tho it's nothing more than an interactive video with just shy of a XXX rating. "It's all just smut!", as my grandmother would have pronounced. I'm must say, however, that I'm curious to see just HOW much jiggle is possible with the next-gen hardware. From the promos I've seen so far, it looks like Team Ninja spent a hell of a lot of time perfecting the antigravity principals of "jello physics". Also, something I'm sure everyone asks, but refuses to admit it: These chicks are bad-ass fighters, right? Then why are they prancing around like London proper prisses on their first vacation away from home? There, I said it. Now I can go back to watching my pr0n'd promos. ;)

BTW, Amber: you suck. I'm now hooked on the Doctor. I don't NEED any more TV shows to watch! Maybe I should call Santa and tell him to change my Christmas present from paying my bills to a Tivo instead.



l8rs.

Stuck at work.

Yes, on a Sunday. Orignally it was supposed to be a quick in, check the chillers (A/C is out in one of the buildings for the weekend), re-install a server, and quick out. Hour and a half, max. Well, of course with my luck, the server happens to need a driver for the RAID card that's not included with the RHEL 4 Update 4 install, and the partitions are 2TB each (4 of them) which takes a good 20-30 minutes each to format. So I've been sitting in this frigid-ass server room waiting on the damn thing to finish, for the last 3 hours. Normally, I'd start the install and finish it up from home; but, I don't know if it's gonna reboot correctly since it needs a non-included driver. It didn't work the first time around (which is why I'm still here).

Oh. Sounds like I just heard the reboot beep. Need to go check on it. Hopefully, it'll work this time.

I'll have another post when I get home. I've got something hilarious about FFX-2 that I just HAVE to post. ;)



l8rs.

old post... delayed due to site issues

(NOTE: this was originally supposed to be posted 12/12/06)

Dammit, I hate that the freakin MySpace site is not friendly to us non-M$ browser users. I keep trying to delete an email and * BAM! *, it crashes. And, of course be it my luck, Blogger is having shitfits. What a way to close out an even more frustrating and headache-filled day at work. I hate bringing a new building online. No one ever thinks to include the computer support team in their planning, so everything ends up last minute. Then they wonder why crap don't work. Duh! Give us more of a heads up and time to plan, dickweeds.

There... I feel better now. Well, no... not really.

I was going over my "Christmas presents to me" list over the weekend. You know, the ones you end up buying yourself either for the fact that those who do get you presents have no idea why you obsess over that sort of crap, or for the fact that you just feel like treating yourself. Final Fantasy XII is at the top of that list. To get myself hyped up for it, I started playing FFX-2 this weekend. Even tho, I've yet to finish FFX (don't feel like wandering around to build up my characters to be strong enuff to take on Sin), I figured it was about time to start considering I bought it around a year ago. I'm a big fan of RPGs, and the Final Fantasy series in general, but I now understand why it was titled "X-2". Frankly, I'm a bit dissappointed. It's basically a re-hash of the previous game (same environments and world), with half the storyline. You play 2 of chicks from X (Yuna and Rikku) plus a new character, Paine. No adding of party members as the game progresses (at least being 16% done, this is what I've noticed). Ur hunting spheres, and you happen across this one that looks like Titus might still be around.
*** SPOILER WARNING *** Don't read the next line if you don't wanna know how FFX ends.
(In case you haven't figured it out, Titus doesn't come out squeaky clean from the previous game. I'm not quite sure how, but I've seen enuff of the FMV's from the game and on the net plus read enuff about the series to realize.)
*** END SPOILER ***
But, that's it. For such an over-marketed series, this seems like kind of a lame attempt at something like Dead or Alive Extreme Vollyball (even tho this came out first). Well, they did remove all references to mana and the mana-sphere system for this version. Oh, it's totally fscked up. This whole "dressphere" thing, and the un-cancelable FMV of this magical girl type wardrobe change everytime you switch "roles", is just wrong... and annoying... especially since I've been changing roles 2-3 times PER BATTLE. I guess it's all about the otaku "fan service", which I've never understood, really. That could be good; it means I'm not a true otaku (<-- See the "English/Internationally" section). :D

Well, time to prep for the Season Finale of Nip Tuck, and my battery is dying.



l8rs.

(I finished Gears on "Casual", BTW. Can't remember if I've posted that or not.)

In the news.

I'm not one to regularly watch or read the news, but I happened be be trolling thru my feed reader (yes, I finally started using one) and ran across some interesting/funny articles in Slashdot:

Best Buy Institutes Flex Time

Looks like the rest of the world is following Google's example in work hours. Hey, maybe my lack of ability to stick to my work schedule won't be such a bad thing in the near future. ;)

MySpace, U.S. Address Sex Offenders Online

Looks like it's becoming more and more difficult to be a registered sex offender. Well, in the south, especially. I have an acquaintance in this situation. Don't get me wrong, this is a good idea, but, now all they need to do is re-evaluate the conviction laws that define a true "sex offender". All I'm gonna say is: sucks to be convicted; so much for integrating back into society. Let's hope that these sorts of additional restrictions don't cause more released offenders to not register (if I understand correctly, the judicial system's way of tracking registrations is a bit lax).

Sony, Nintendo Announce 'Fixes' For Their Consoles

HA! I knew there was a good reason to avoid getting a PS3 for a couple of years. Sony is definately targeting the financially elite with the 3rd revision of its ever-popular console line. I'll give Nintendo some major props with their Wii, however (other than the name, that is). They've targeted a whole new generation of possible game players. Once the console wars are over this Christmas, and I'm no longer suffering from spastic fits waiting on the release of Halo 3, I'll probably look into getting one. Especially if they are sticking to their original marketing from E3 '05 of being able to download the ENTIRE Nintendo library (for a price, I'm sure). I can see it now... Super Mario Bros. on the big-screen. W00+!! :)


Speaking of games, I finished up the last of the "Casual" storyline in Gears last night. Funny thing is, I was trying to detail my last battle with General Ramm to my co-worker over lunch, and he just kept giving me that, "uh, huh" deer in the headlights look. LOL.

I'm almost fully on my way to migrating to using nothing but Fedora Core 6. Tasks left to do:

• Get Evolution to sync with work's calendaring/email server and my iPAQ (Pocket PC 2003). It's not cooperating, so far.
• Manage my phone numbers, pictures, and ringtones thru the laptop (I found 'moto4lin' that might do this)
• Wait on Adobe Flash to stabilize.

Then there's the soon to be released Red Hat Enterprise 5 to test. This is getting crazy. Otherwise, I'll have to break down and go back to Vista (oh, the drama). I'm hoping I can get all this to work just to prove to my co-worker (the one from lunch) that Linux CAN do anything Windows can. Yeah, he's one of THOSE admins. :)

Awite, Smallville is over and Gray's is about to start. Aw, crap.... It's a re-run. Guess I'll play some games, cause I'll be scripting all weekend.



l8rs.

Cents and sensbility... and mutilations.

Of course, my original intention of getting online was to pay bills and balance my checkbook. But, as we all know, I hate doing that as all it does is remind me of how much I overspend my balance each month. I just hate dealing with money... period. Don't get me wrong; it would be awesome if I actually had enough where I didn't have to worry.

So, what am I doing instead? I just couldn't pass on this:

Death by Destuffing

I get the spoiled one a new toy while I was at the grocery store earlier tonight, and what does she do? It only took her 10 minutes to get the squeaker this time. Good thing it just cost $3 instead of the usual $5. Kids.... :p~

Ok. Gonna go do the bills. OH! Damm! Almost forgot.... One Tree Hill, did you see it!? Like, OMFG!! What a cliffhanger! LOL. Good thing there's another one next week. Awite, gonna go now.



l8rs.

Back to reality... er... virtuality.

Woah, it's good to be back. You guys probably thought I dropped off the face of the earth over the last couple of weeks. No, a dial-up internet access will do that to you. I love my parents, but I wish they'd quit complaining about the price and just go ahead and get high-speed internet.

Wow. There's a lot to catch up on. I haven't left you all with anything to ponder for a couple of weeks.

This is overdue. It just wasn't worth the hassle of waiting for everything to load over a dial-up connection. Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for a loving, forgiving, and supportive close family. I'm also thankful for good friends, both virtual and non. You guys rock! As you can guess, I went back "home" for the holidays. It's funny. I've been living in Atl for, what, around 10 years, now? And I still call the island "home"; even though I won't move back there to save my life. The warm weather was a very welcome change from the frigid days I've been dealing with here. It's been unnaturally cold for this early in the year. And I don't mean cold as in I'm used to 80 degree Christmases, cool chill. I mean butt ass freaking bone chilling "is it going to snow this year?" cold! It's not supposed to drop down close to freezing until Jan around here. It's been doing it for almost 3-4 weeks, now. Well, I have a new space heater, so maybe that'll help me cut back on my natural gas bill (since I don't get to choose my provider).

I've gotten the hang of Gears of War, finally. That game freakin r0x0rs!!!!! I haven't had any game time in almost a week, so I'm going to try to sit down tonight after work, and between Heroes and bed, to get some play time in. I've almost finished the game in puss mode. I want to get that out of the way so I can start on the harder settings (unlocking all the gamer points requires me to play on all settings).

In football, Tech has really suprised me this year. They've managed to land the by spot for the ACC Championship game this Sat; but, if they play anywhere near as bad as they did against UGA this past weekend (I still can't believe they lost), Wake Forest is going to stomp their butts all up and down the field. Normally, I could care less about football by this time of year, but with the GT vs. Wake Forest game, and the #4 BCS ranked Fla (and whoever they're playing) SEC Championship game this Sat, I'm hooked. Now as far as my other TV shows, I'm getting a little irritated. Nip Tuck keeps throwing in these lame episodes every other week, so you can't decide if you want to keep watching, or just scrap it and play video games instead. I'm totally hooked on Heroes, tho. There's been a few slow moving episodes, but the storyline is awesome. Not quite sure it has the material to last any longer than one season, however. I do hope it goes to DVD; I'd like to own that one. I've decided to forego The OC this season since it rivals the Grey's Anatomay time slot, which I've really gotten into (it's all your fault, Clue!). Besides, since Marissa is dead, there's not much of anyone left on the show worth oogling, newayz. I am still keeping up with Smallville and One Tree Hill, tho. Smallville has tremendously impressed me with its plots to introduce all of Superman's allies he's interacted with over the years in the comics. Hardcore fanboys will probably hate me for saying this, but I feel like they've done a pretty good job at working with DC to keep the base pre-storyline intact.

So, I guess that's my catch up for now. I need to actually get to doing some work, instead of playing here, newayz.



l8rs.

It's here!

Quick bump then I need to get back to work.

The last two weekends have been long hour days (and nights) to finish .hack//GU Vol 1., which I've completed. The story line finally picked up once I got into it. You'd think that in the real world if a game programmer drops some funky code that puts it's users into comas in not one, but both versions of a game world, there'd be some serious hell to pay. ;) Basically, the story line is similar to the first .hack series. Ur a player (dude) in the newly released version 2 of the MMORPG "The World" (called "The World R:2") who's lost a close friend (chick - potential love interest, I guess) to this "virus" that's put them in a coma. You're out to defeat the "virus", called A.I.D.A. (based on "Anna"), in this version. Fans will recognize Anna from the Legend of the Twilight DVD series. This time, certain game characters have been encoded by C.C., Corp. to utilize Avatars, which are the 7 waves from the previous game, to battle AIDA. Your character's Avatar is Skeith. Skeith is the first badass you battle with Data Drain in .hack//Infection. Anywayz, I'm not going to throw out any sploitz if you haven't finished it, yet. Graphics have been upped a little since the first installment, but nothing to give you mahagony over. Most of the effort was put into massively expansive and beautiful background environments. The FMVs aren't Final Fantasy quality, but they are still phonmonally done.

Just in time finishing .hack as Gears of War showed up in my mailbox yesterday. :D W00+!! I got all hyped up again after watching the release party coverage on MTV Monday night. Got to play it a little last night, and let me tell you: TH1Z G4M3 FR34K1N R0X0RZ!!!!11!!ONE!! Mwuhahahah!!! Ever since watching the demo at E3, I've been wanting to plant that chainsaw on the bottom of the auto rifle into the face of a Grub! Violent... gorey... fully revolving environment... impressively intelligent AI.... Everything to quench my fix until Halo 3 comes out next spring. The only way I can think to describe it is a mix between Doom, Quake, and Halo wrapped in a third person shooter. I haven't quite mastered the using cover maneuvers (I'm too used to the "run-and-gun" scenarios of most FPS's), so I've been getting my butt kicked something fierce (and I'm just playing on the "Casual" mode). I can't wait to get the guys together for a little Versus mode. :) As you can guess, my postings will continue to be quite sparse until I get so frustrated I'll have to take a break. This should keep me entertained until Christmas. ;)



Well, back to work. l8rs.

Need to change my hours.

That's it! I'm calling it right here and now. Until I can get my sleep schedule back on track and get my ass up in the morning like a normal person, I will be plopping my butt in bed before midnight. Whether I fall asleep or not is a diff story, but I'm still going to bed. This means no more G.U. until 5 am. Don't make me open up a can of "Ren Geki". ;) (That's my new "line".)

This weather sucks, btw. I feel like I should be in Seattle or something. It's cold and rainy. Makes you want to brew up a pot of coffee, crash on the couch in ur pj's, and play video games all day. Too bad I actually have a job. Well, at the rate I've been going the last couple of weeks, I may not....

Who am I kidding. My boss will just threaten me to get back on track, or he'll write me up (which he has yet to do). But, let's avoid the threat; I hate wasting his time and mine.



l8rs.

Is it just me, or do these posts seem to be getting shorter and shorter?

Wah hoo!

I'm sweaty, I stink, and I'm cold. Yet another fun night at Cowboys. No, no run-ins with the scary chicks. I was actually the dance instructor tonight. I even met a friend of a bride-to-be. I felt like such an idiot. I'm trying to point out the dances to these chicks, and I haven't been in, how long? I think it's been a month, at least. I'm out of practice. Eh, well, they were impressed and grateful. I guess I did OK. Even got a name from one of them (even tho I can't remember it to save my life). W00+! LOL. Whatever. Oh, Cowboys is going no cover before midnight. Figures since I finally managed to snag some free passes from my sister. Looks I might be making more than just my once a month trip now.

Well, I'm gonna get some more .hack//GU time in before I crash for the evening (morning).



l8rs.

Financial stupidities and a new OS (again).

I really should get an accountant that will only allot me so much a week for allowance to play with. It never fails. Every month, just after payday, I go an spend money on crap before I start paying my bills. Some of the things I've bought are a necessity. The Jeep needs some maintenance, so I've picked up most of the supplies for that, already. But, I made a detour to GameStop after work today and picked up 2 games. After last night, I've decided to start migrating the Xbox games that I can to the PS2 versions. So, I took a couple with me to sell that won't play on the 360 that I didn't really like when I bought them. Man, talk about a money making racket. I got all of $12 out of 3 relatively "new" games (I take care of my games, unlike other things). That's just sad. I probably paid a total of $100+ for those. Well, sorta. One of the replacements was the latest Tomb Raider. Yes, I'm madly in love with Laura Croft and own the entire series; even the crappy Angel of Darkness. My sister's probably gonna be a little peeved since she's the one who got me the Xbox version for my b-day last year. But, I have valid reasoning: it wouldn't play on the 360. I had no intention of getting a 360 when she asked me which platform I wanted it on. Duh, Xbox has better graphics than PS2. Course, now that I've been playing it all evening, the only difference I see is some minor rougher edges in the polys and a pain in the ass trying to calibrate the brightness and contrast. But, it supports widescreen (don't remember if the other version did or not since my old projector didn't support it). :D Enough; I could go on for days about Lady Croft. The other game I picked up, that I couldn't resist, is the newly released .Hack//GU. Generally, my GameStop trips are for used games, but I couldn't resist. I really got into the .hack series between the previous game, the anime, and a couple of the manga's. I forgot that FF XII came out this week. I'll have to put that one on my Christmas list. I still need to rent Dirge of Cerebus, even tho it's gotten a lot of bad reviews. I've been a fan of the FF series since the Nintendo. Yes, as in 8-bit. I know... I'm old. FF VII was the one that fully hooked me into the series, tho. But, now can you see why I need to have someone else pay my bills and get my staples? All I need is an allowance. I suck at finances.

Yes the wedding went well. No one passed out or didn't show. I was just happy for it to finally be over. Now maybe they'll let everyone continue on with their lives while the bride and groom start theirs. ... What? ... You want me to describe it? It was a wedding. You've all been to one. You should know what it looked like. ... It was big; too big. I'm all for the whole bride, groom, officiant, and small crowd (close family and friends) kinda wedding. This was too much of a dog and pony show for me. If I'm lucky, this is the last one I'll have to worry about until I get married (assuming I get married, that is). Small will be a big stipulation on it, that's for sure. Marriage is over-rated. No, no, no. I will not be bitter.

So, I'm back to Linux, again. Specially as my primary system. Some ppl probably think I change operating systems about a frequently as other ppl change their underwear. That's not too far off. I'm constantly installing and re-installing. It's what I do for a living. If I haven't re-installed my system at least twice in a 3 month period, something's wrong. With a little (and I mean _VERY_ little) convincing, I now have Core 6 in the laptop. I'm digging the power for virtualization, but Xen still isn't all that friendly. I'm back to running XP in VMware Server (for support purposes). My only complaints are: the Dell (Broadcom) wireless doesn't work out of the box, there's no CPU scaling support for the Core Duo, yet, and the power management still isn't totally there for the Duo (only about 1 1/2 - 2 hr runtime compared to between 3 and 4 under Windows). I think the Bluetooth works (haven't tested it); it supports the On/Off switch (recognizes when it's turned on or off via the switch on the side). There were, also, some much needed updates to a lot of the programs I like to use. I must say, I'm impressed. Which means I should be very happy with Red Hat Enterprise 5 when it finally comes out (slated for some time early next year). I've played with the beta, but it's not ready for my full-time attention, yet. Now don't get me wrong. Vista runs quite well on the Duo.. by itself. Once you start tacking on "legacy" programs (i.e., current versions/builds), it's still a little too unstable and grouchy for me to deal with right now. I'm going to take some time this weekend to try and get the wireless working (there should be some "Google"-able documentation somewhere out there). If I can't, then it's back to Vista, I guess.

l8rs.

No more galavanting about (for a while).

If it's not late nites on IM, tv schedules to keep, or work, I'm pretty much sleeping these days.  The crispness in the air has once again returned for another season.  Time once again to forego the hoppy frosty beers for a bottle of Cab, various cheeses, and seasoned steaks (altho, I need to head back down to Panama City and get some more seasoning).  I really don't care much for winter.  Unless there's packed powder on the ground and a board on my feet, I don't want any temp less than 70 degrees.  I couldn't hold back any more after the nipply freezing +10 temps this past weekend.  I had to turn the heater on.  I'm sitting here in my leather jacket and sweats at the moment just because I'm so damned cheap that I won't turn the temp up above 70 just yet.

K, nuff of the frigid talk, it's making me cold.  I'm going to have to go make a cup of coffee.  Point being in all this complaining, I don't like the cold, and rarely do I leave the apartment short of trips to the grocery store and work.  My summer is gone.  No more trips out to bartown; no more evening strolls in the humid night.  Just me, my laptop, my 360, and Blockbuster Online.  After this weekend that is.

Speaking of, I am sooo freakin frustrated.  Halloween weekend, Tech Homecoming, my old habitual Ga vs. Fla., and this freakin wedding.  My weekend is shot.  Can't relax Fri cause of all the rehearsal craziness, which starts almost immediately after I get off work.  Sat afternoon, I can't go to the Tech game cause of pictures.  Sat nite, can't watch the Ga game cause of the wedding and reception.  But I'll be dammed if I'm missing out on my friend's Halloween party, tho.  Once the cake cutting and toast is done, I'm slipping out.  I'll be conviently over-sleeping on Sun so I miss the brunch, too.  I don't care if it is "their" weekend.  It should not have this much to do with me.  Has anyone else ever recieived 6 different invitations to various parts of a wedding?  See?  Ridiculous....  And this is why I dread getting married.  All the over-hyped hoopla.  Stick to the basic principal: K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stuipd, for those of you who haven't heard that one yet).

Now that I have 3 or 4 veins popping out of my forehead and an annoying twitch in my right eye, I'm going to watch some TV and relax.  Worse case scenario, Master Chief and I may be popping a cap in some soon to be married couples.  ...It's all about therapy.  ;)

 

l8rs.

Being single.

At my age, most people have someone they want to spend the rest of their life with.  Whether it be socialtal influence or just raw human nature, we all want to find the perfect mate to fill what seems to be a void in our lives.  That Jerry McGuire line, "You complete me", is so cheezy, yet, there's an awful lot of truth behind it.  Some of us drop that fake smile and say, "I'm fine.  I don't need anyone in my life."  Deep down, we know we're lying to ourselves, but we don't want it to show.  We keep convincing ourselves that we're strong and can make it through life alone....  Alone....  Loneliness.  In all honesty, no one wants to be alone.  No one wants to come home day after day to an empty house filled with "toys" to keep us temporarily entertained hoping to fill that void of loneliness.  Most days, it can be subdued or temporarily contained.  Some of us have kids; others, pets.  We think the love to and from them can fill that gaping hole that resides in our heart.  On those "most days", the hole is plugged or forgotten about.  But ocassionaly, there's a day where nothing seems to satiate the seemingly endless void.  You try and try but nothing compares to that small moment of true happiness that comes from the gentle affection and loving care from another.

Today is one of those days.  It didn't catch my attention until I finally sobered up a bit this morning, but I was the only guy last night that didn't have someone to go home to.  Jokingly, I was proud of the fact that I could do anything and not have to answer to anyone for my actions.  However, it's not like we're a crazy bunch to begin with so, doing anything lude or seriously wrong wasn't going to happen.

Publicly, I've only jokingly admited to the comment that my last girlfriend screwed me up.  Honestly, it's more and more seeming true.  My social interation skills are laking, but I catch myself not even trying to make them better.  I'm eyeing the hot chick that walks by wondering what she's like, but I never build up the nerve to go talk to her and find out.  Subconciously, I think I've decided that lonliness is less painful than the emotional destruction of a relationship gone wrong.  There's something just wrong about that.  Life is nothing but chances and decisions.  We're not going to know if a choice we made is a bad one until we take the chance to make that choice.  Question is, do we take the chance or just avoid it and miss out all together?  There's this poster on my wall I've had since I was a kid.  It says, "We take these risks not to escape life, but to prevent life from escaping us."  It's been sort of a philosophy of mine ever since.  Sad thing is, I haven't applied it to my "love" life in quite a while.  I've just been avoiding taking the chance because I don't want to ever hurt like that again.  Physical pain is easy to deal with.  The wounds heal, sometimes with a scar, but most times there's no reminder you were ever even pained.  Emotional hurt is another story.  Sometimes the lacerations can never be repaired.  All you can do is slap a band-aid on it and hope for the best.  Maybe one day this incomplete void of mine will be filled by someone who will complete me.  Maybe there is no completion (I'm a little complicated like that), and I'm destined to never meet that perfect someone.  Or maybe I already have and missed my chance.  Either way, life goes on.  We should enjoy each day for what it is and not worry about what we have and don't have.

What a sappy blog.  K, I'm done being a puss.  However, I still feel like ass (be it emotional or just the remainder of the hangover).  Also, I can't seem to get rid of this feeling that a cat shit in my mouth, so I'm going to brush my teeth... again.

 

l8rs.

I think I'm still drunk.

No, really; I probably am.  I don't know why I keep doing this to myself.  Party went well.  As everybody knows, what goes on at a Bachelor Party stays with the guys that went.  ;)  Not like we did anything really crazy that could get the bride-to-be all pissed off, but that's besides the point.

Either, way.  I'm going to try to function and make some coffee, then probably go back to bed.  With the rain earlier this AM, today's a good day to recover.

 

l8rs.