Time is a luxury I just don't have these days :P

For those that may not know, a while back I took on a part time job with a company called TenTonHammer.com. They're a gaming website company. The site I work on is for a game called Vanguard - think of it as an updated version of Everquest.

Recently though, I was promoted to the site lead, and for that, I'm very grateful. It's a lot more work, but I love to do it, so it all works out.

There are certainly times though, especially with the new responsibilities (why does that look wrong to me tonight - spelling?) comes a lot more work, but no more available time. This has been a rough couple of weeks, but the site is looking good and I'm finally getting a handle on all the extra "behind the scenes" reports and what not I need to send out throughout the week.

In any case, the site is http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com

The more links (and don't mean the ads) you click, the better my numbers look folks, so do me a favor and go over there once in a while and click through a few of our news stories and features. If nothing else, we have some nice pictures for those of you that don't like to read :P

Haha. Take care everyone and have fun :)

Global Warming

I've been a believer for a number of years now, but like he says - don't listen to me. Do the excercise yourself. Discuss it, debate, think. Personally, I don't think we can decide to do nothing. I don't give two flying fucks about your politicians or your corporations. This is about being a responsible human being, not a total fucktard obsessed with money.

Come on... did you really think I could mention this topic without getting pissed off? LOL.

Click on the link to see the video. Argue with it if you can -
VIDEO LINK

America Gets It Wrong... Again.

For those that think it's silly, I don't really care :P

My favorite (Gina) got booted from American Idol tonight. She is by far not the worst singer in the panel. She has a good voice, was fun, funny, and a good role model for young girls. Laugh all you want, but she is educated, strong, independent, and VERY sexy - all this and she is by no means a "skinny minnie" as my mother would say. She's the image of a healthy girl that I know a lot of guys would normally call "a bit thick". It didn't apply with her though because she looked great and obviously liked to eat like a normal human being. In this age of constant pressure on people (especially girls) to be as skinny as a twig, I think it's important for there to be other role models. She was a good one to choose.

As for the rest of my rant here, it's Sanjaya. For the love of fucking god people, it's a SINGING competition. He should have never made the top 12. He absolutely should not be here now. WTF?! Is it the "Vote for the Worst" site? Has it finally become popular enough to actually start affecting the vote? What does that say about us as a culture? That just because you don't like a show you try and destroy it by getting the worst person through as far as possible? What does that prove? I'll tell you what it proves - that you're a fucking cockbite, that's what. If you take time out of your day to vote for a person on a show that you don't like because you think it would be"funny", you are a cockbite. PS - Go fuck yourself.

The fact that he's still on the show is a disgrace in itself, but the fact that Gina went before him is simply bullshit.

Grow up America!

Vanguard - An MMO for those that like a challenge.

Vanguard, to me at least, is the real successor of Everquest. Since one of the original creators of EQ, Brad McQuaid, is at the helm of this game, that's really not surprising. Also of no surprise is that this is actually a good thing. Before I go into much, let me start off by saying that if you are a true fan of World of Warcraft, Vanguard is most likely not for you. If, on the other hand, WoW simply bores you to tears, pay attention.

The game has been live for a little over 2 weeks now and I'm currently level 13. I also have the advantage of having been in the last 3 weeks of beta as well. I can already hear the cries from the masses. "Two weeks and you're only at 13?!” That's far too slow a pace for any game. Not true, I say. I'm taking my time and also not devoting every waking moment to it. While the game is interesting enough to do so, over the years many of us have learned to balance life and gaming. Not only have we learned to balance play time, but the game wouldn't be enjoyable to just rush through.

Why, you may ask? I think part of it has to do with its Art Director before he passed away. Some of you may recognize the name of a little fantasy artist named Keith Parkinson. Before he left this world, Keith graced us with some of the most amazing pieces of fantasy art to ever reach the canvas. Along with Larry Elmore, Clyde Cauldwell, and Jeff Easley, Keith revolutionized the fantasy art world during the majority of the 80's and early 90's. My favorite piece (my copy of which was signed years ago) is "Soth's Charge". The image of an undead knight and his group of skeletal warriors charging across a plain is simply astounding. He also did all the cover art for the Everquest expansions throughout the years. Keith's vision is clearly seen throughout the art direction of the game. Everything flows together beautifully and creates an epic world.

As most will state, there are still a lot of problems with the game and bugs that get annoying at times to say the least. This isn't some game that your neighbor created while sitting in a dimly lit basement, hunched over a keyboard on a Commodore 64 either though. The game has more complex systems than any other MMO on the market today. With that of course, there are prices to pay as it gets bombarded by the masses. It's very clear though that the developers are working hard to get the biggest issues resolved as fast as possible. With frequent patching and nightly server restarts, they are getting there. The frame rate issues alone have been drastically improved within the last 2 weeks. If you really want to know everything that's "wrong" with the game right now, go hunt the web. There are plenty of sources to scour through so have fun. I'm here to state what I really like about the game though.

First off, even though I'm "only" level 13, I'd match-up my dark elf necromancer from Vanguard against any other level 25-30 level necromancer from a different game any day of the week. With actual spell damage numbers (from level differences), I'm sure I'd get wiped, but in the ability to control the battle and run circles around them with "master of disease and death" skills from the game? I'd smoke them. This is coming from a person that LOVED playing his EQ1 necromancer for years. Trust me, my old necro is nowhere near as cool as this one.

This brings up an important fact within the game. Don't get too wrapped up on what level you are. After the first few levels in the game, you really do begin to feel like a hero (or villain). At level 10, I felt like an evil god. They really did a good job with giving you the feeling that your character really is larger than life. That's important in any game to me, but especially so in an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online).

The other big item of appeal for me is the exploration within the game. Within Vanguard, you can, quite literally, see for miles. That simple little fact doesn't really seem like such a big deal, but it's huge. How many times have you been wandering along in a game and seen something a little off in the distance and said, "Damn... wish I could actually go there to check it out, but I can't." And the reason you couldn't in those other games? They were simply little pieces of pixilated artwork used to spice up the environment. Now let me tell you something very important about Vanguard. Not only can you see for MUCH farther distances than you can in any other game to date, you can also get there. You heard me right - if you can see it, there IS a way to get there and actually explore it!

I have a number of quests within my log that I still haven’t gotten to just because I am continually getting side tracked exploring things that looked interesting while I was on my way to a quest location. There is so much to explore, it's amazing. There was a particular path that I'd traversed a number of times, but until I did it at night (yes, the game has night and day), I never realized I had only made the trip during daylight. Well when I finally did it at night, I noticed off in the distance, tucked within a group of hills, hazy smoke rising from a campfire. It took some doing, but I got to go explore it and the feeling was awesome! I LOVE that about this game!

Believe it or not, another thing I actually like about this game is the thrill of having to keep your head in combat, or you're really going to pay the price. If you can't get to your corpse after you die and end up using the altar to summon it, you will suffer a large experience penalty. Even getting your corpse after a death still incurs a bit of an xp penalty, but no where near as much as using an altar. This actually creates a real sense of thrill and adventure. It also creates a very real thrill of victory when you (or you and your party) get through a particularly challenging ordeal by the skin of your teeth. It's been a very long time since I've really had to pay that much attention to what's going on around me - to have to hunt for a safe spot to rest while you go rush to take a restroom break or get something to drink. Even though you think you've found a safe spot, there's still a chance that some baddie is going to come wandering by to catch you unawares. It's a great feeling and one of the things I'm really enjoying about the game. While the penalties can be harsh, the sweet taste of victory is that much richer for it.

I've rambled on enough for now. Thanks for suffering through, hehe.

As a quick note, things in life are going well. Love my new job, Heather's doing great, and as far as I know, my family is currently in good health.

If anyone wants to play, I'm on the Floryndel server. Just send a message to Malyss. Safe travels and happy hunting!

Who Says I Never Post?

Ok, so maybe it has been just a little while. Lots going on, so I have my excuses.

I've gotta get some sleep, so this will be fairly quick :)

1) After 5+ years of working on various freaking helpdesks, I finally have a new job where I'm not chained to my desk and a phone. I'm currently working in a network operations center (NOC) and do a lot of remote monitoring, setting up cabinets and servers in our datacenter, and running cables. That's the majority of my day and I love it. I'd seriously forgotten what it was like to have a job you don't absolutely despise. It's awesome!

2) Gods & Heroes! Still going strong, working on the site and other stuff with it. My hopes are still high for this title. If you're interested in getting into a future phase of beta, let me know here and we'll see what we can do. The Dev team over there is awesome.

3) Marriage! Yep - still together with no changes there. Yes, that's a good thing :P

4) Guitar Hero II - Hopefully, I'll be able to pick up the game sometime this week and live the dream of a rock star again. I love the first one and have heard great things about the second!

5) Neverwinter Nights 2 - Speaking of seconds, this game is simply awesome. If you liked the first one, you owe it to yourself to grab this one!

Ok - that's enough rambling for now. So yes, I'm still alive and things are pretty good overall.

Take care and I'll post again later.

Time For Some News

Woot!

Yeah - had to do it. Lot's of exciting things going on, so let's get to it...

We got approved for the apartment we wanted, so we move in there on the 18th of July. My friends are happy as well, because we're getting movers again instead of trying to get everyone over to the house during a weekday. Woohoo.

Things with the Gods & Heroes website are going to start getting interesting. We've got a couple contests coming soon where we'll be giving away beta slots for the game and even a few T-Shirts. I sooooo want one of the shirts, but I'm not sure whether we'll be able to or not. I'll pester Cherry about it sometime.

Speaking of Cherry, what an interesting character. Yes, I said character, because she definitely is one. I believe "Spunky" is the phrase I would use. She's a good cat. She's also my Content Manager. So for those that see the friend's on MySpace, that's why there is a crazy person on the list, haha. She's on a trip to Chicago with Hubby and family for a long vacation (yes, I'm jealous) and won't be back until sometime arounf the 19th of July. Wow. I'd love to take that much time off, but I'm not sure I'd spend it with family LOL.

Speaking of family, things have been a bit of a rollercoaster lately. Things with Heather and I are still great, so that's awesome. Actually, they're going better than they have for a long time. Things were never bad with us, but the amount of stress we were under for so many years definitely took its toll. Since finally coming to a decision on how to move forward in our life/finances, the amount of stress has dropped to far below what it was for a long ass time. That's not to say we're not stressed about everything going on now, but it's not consuming our every waking moment like it had for the last 2 years or so. It's a nice feeling.

I got news about 2 weeks ago that my father was in the hospital and had been for a number of days. His pancreas had swollen/flared with a bout of pancreatitis - essentially, it was digesting itself. He seems to be doing better now (still certainly not comfortable or happy), but we had quite a scare for awhile. He was pretty comatosed for a number of days and completely delusional for a couple more. Apparently, he's aware of what's happening now and is back to his grumpy self, so that was news we received with a big sigh of relief.

My little sister left me a voicemail stating she had scratched at her tattoo I did and now it's scabbed up pretty good. I'm really hoping that's an exageration. She'd also damn well better still be putting lotion on it anyway (hint, hint!). I'll try not to hurt her too badly - all depends on the amount of damage =P

Work is still work, but with so many other things going on these days, most of the time it's simply an irritant in the back of my head that interferes with the rest of my life. I think that's for the best, because now I pretty much leave and forget about the place until I have to go back.

Ok - gotta run, but sooner or later I'll post some more stuff.

Next Year's E3, Here I Come!

That's right folks. Although it's too late this year (since it starts this morning), I'll be at E3 next year. Well why did you just book tickets earier this year you may ask? Because only media/staff members within the gaming community can go. Since I wasn't either of these, I had no chance.

That has changed though! The news is pretty exciting and I've been busting my ass for the last 2 weeks to get the site done in time for the E3 launch. I'm the new Portal Manager for Gods & Heroes over at the Stratics Gaming Network. To those of you not familiar with Stratics, it doesn't sound like a big deal. For those that are familiar with the gaming indsutry, this is a huge opportunity for me and I'm ecstatic over it.

Gods & Heroes is an upcoming MMORPG set in ancient Rome (circa 300BC) with the mythology being considered as fact, rather than fiction. You will be the scion of a chosen god and the game will have squad combat. It's pretty exciting stuff.

Here's a link for the site - warning though - Until I get the code corrected to deal with smaller display resolutions, it is best viewed at 1280x1024 or 1280x960. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Gods & Heroes Stratics Portal

The official site has some awesome screens and movies as well. Check out the intro movie that plays when you hit the main page:

Gods & Heroes Official Site

I'm excited because it finally gives me a possible "in" to the gaming industry. I've been a gamer for longer than some of you have been alive, LOL. I've always kept up on the industry in general and love being involved now. I'm the exclusive contact point between the games development team and the Stratics Network. I love it. The guys over there are great as well and have been very friendly.

Soooo... you can bet your ass I'm spending my vacation next year in L.A at the E3 convention!

Rule Number One To Listening...

Clean the shit out of your fucking ears!!!

That's the number one thing most of my freaking callers need to do. To state that I really dislike 95% people that call me at work, would be a severe understatement. I don't go as far as hating them, because that truly is a bit too harsh. They are just so freaking stupid that it kills me a little everyday.

I don't remember where or who I first heard it from, but everytime I talk to them, I always think, "I just threw up a little bit in my mouth." That just about sums it up.

These days, the biggest reason I want to win the lottery is to have just one more night at work. I would completely go off on these people. It'd be a blast, haha :)

Ah well. Aside from work being a real pain in my ass, life is going along fairly well. Nothing super great has happened for quite some time, but nothing really bad has happened for awhile as well. That'll have to be good enough for now.

Here's a question for the antelope - an ex of yours wants some tattoos touched up and I'm currently in debate. It's a toss up for me. The practice again wouldn't be half bad, but I'm not particularly fond of inking any of your ex's. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

A Sample Platter of Life Updates

Where to begin, where to begin? Hmm?

We'll start with the obvious - Work still sucks and supporting these people drives me insane. I personally think it's a secret plan of the government to get the homeless off the streets. Seriously, they are dumpster-diving for employees. They should be commended for the effort to get the homeless people in this nation some assistance, to help get them on their feet, and to get them back into roles useful for society. The problem I have with all of this is that they are dumping these poor bastards on me! If you do not know what a computer is, go back to your cave and be a happy squatter- Don't get pissed at me because you're a moron.

Next!

DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online)...

I played during the second phase of beta for this game. At the time, it had some good points, but had some really bad points as well. I kept my mouth shut over it though because I wanted the game to do well and knew it would appeal to some people.

I picked up the game this week and played most of the weekend, so here are some thoughts on it...

One of my biggest issues with the game is an inability to solo. Since the game has been released, it is technically possible to do a decent amount of soloing, but you'll be repeating quests a lot doing it, simply because there are a LOT of quests you can't complete by yourself. Also, you need to be sure to build a character that has a hope in hell of doing it. A sorceror/wizard, rogue, or bard for example have (in my opinion) no chance in hell of soloing squat.

Right now, I'm playing a Warforged Barbarian which I've gotten to level 4. Since the game maxes out at 10 levels (4 ranks in each level for an equivalent of 40 levels), it's about the equivalent of being level 16 in most games. I've had a decent amount of fun in the game, and some of the quests are really cool. Some are seriously creepy as well, which always makes for a good game. Yes, I know, I know - how the hell can I like creepy games, but don't watch horror flicks? My world, my rules - deal with them if you can't figure it out :)

I'm not sure how long I'll really stick with the game. Like most games, once you get out of the low level areas, the interest level definitely picks up, but the beginning game is so difficult to get through at times, that I'm not sure it's worth it. Plus the fact that you HAVE to be grouped for most of the content is a real turn-off for me.

I'll leave my thoughts on the game at this for now - if you had a group of RL friends that you could get together with online at a regular time at least once or twice a week to play, this game would be an absolute blast and captures a good deal of the D&D essence. If you only have broken amounts of time you can hop on and have to change the times you're on pretty often, then unless you don't mind grabbing pickup groups, this game isn't for you.

I'll keep you posted as progress goes along.

Next!

Poker Night...

I really wish I could get a weekly poker night going. I don't want anything too big, just a night where everyone can get together and have something like a $5 buy-in with a "winner take all" format. I think it'd be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, most of my friends couldn't care less about poker, let alone Texas Hold 'Em. Yeah - that's my favorite.

A few weeks ago, I played in my first poker tournament. It was at the Gilpin Hotel in Central City. The game had 32 players with a $24 buy-in. We got $1500 in chips and started with 3 tables. For it being my first time playing, I think I did fairly well. I ended up in 12th place out of the 32 players - not too bad of a showing and I had a lot of fun. I should have done better, as I had a couple of good hands/pots early in the game. Unfortunately, being a graveyard shift person, I was really tired by the time 1pm rolled around and I stayed in on a few hands that I really had no hope on. Stupid mistakes, but I've learned. I really had good time and am hoping to go up there once a month or so to play.

Next!

Actually, that's probably about it for now. I'm sure I'll yammer on about something else later in the week.

Oblivion

The latest game in the Elder Scrolls series is absolutely stunning, especially when compared to Morrowind.

The graphics alone are so absolutely mind boggling, I can't even really describe it. There are areas of scenery when you just have to stop and gawk. Shorelines on lakes, sunsets over mountains, or just standing on top of a hill and looking around. Absolutely freaking stunning. No RPG has ever had anything close to this amount of graphical detail - ever. Not even close. I'm still drooling. And my system isn't even able to max out all the settings either. Amazing.

The storyline and extremely open-ended gameplay is awesome as well. Truly epic.

I'd write more, but it'll have to wait until I get further in. Got to see if I can find a priest when I get home to cure my vampirism before I have to start killing folks. I'll go back and get bit again further down the line, hehe.

Songs of the day:
Glycerine - Bush
Stupid Girl - Pink
Hell's Bells - AC/DC
Clean My Wounds - Corrosion of Conformity
Blue on Black - Kenny Wayne Shepherd

The Pain of Tech Support

Yep - time for another rant about the pain and horror of providing tech support for the country.

You knew I was overdue :P

Scream all you want, but I blame most of today's rant on Affirmative Action. It's an absolute piece of political bullshit. Fuck the political correctness today too. Everyday, I talk with government employees that have absolutely NO fucking business having the jobs they do. Thanks to affirmative action though, every site/facility has to have a certain number of minorities, females, and disabled individuals working at it. They at least have to match numbers for specific regions.

It's all fucking bullshit. The last two nights, I've had to deal with the biggest noneducated inbred fucking hillbillie. He's of a minority race (not saying which) and is un-fucking-beleivably stupid. He doesn't know the difference between capital and lower case letters. He doesn't know what a dollar sign is. Oh yeah - I forgot to mention that english is his first language. He's not from some other country, he's just fucking stupid.

Through it all, I'm unable to say anything remotely derogatory, despite the fact that he's a fucktard. If there was ever a better definition of that particular phrase, I'd shudder to think of it. Did I mention that he has a government job in a high security facility?

FUCK!!!

These are the times I need to find a way to get citizenship in Australia, hehe :)

Tech support in general just kills me, but dealing with people like this will simply drive anyone over the edge.

Ok - I'm done ranting for the moment. :P

The Emerald Dragon

Perhaps someday, but probably not. A couple of years ago, I was actually in the process of opening my own tattoo shop. Nyx and I spent almost a year researching and planning. It was an exciting time, but terrifying as well.

Rather than The Emerald Dragon, it was going to be Incarnations In Ink and cater to the pagan crowd in general. It was great. We wrote a ton of business plans until we had a finalized copy we could bring to the bank in search of a loan. We had our top three site choices picked out and had spoken with the companies renting them. We were in the process of getting a Body Modification license for working within Denver.

The list goes on and on. Through all of it, I have to thank Heather for being so unconditionally supportive and happy for me. Nyx and I threw ourselves into it completely, and it certainly consumed every waking moment I had. So much so, to the point of pretty much exiling everyone else around me. And the planning was just the beginning. The amount of constant hours that would be spent in the shop began to concern me. Not because I wouldn't love to be there, but because I know that's the only place I would be.

As much as I love/loved tattooing, it might actually be a bit unhealthy to my mental stability. There are a lot of things that I truly love about it and that's where the worry begins at times. When I'm working, nothing else in the world exists. It's a great escape, to completely lose yourself within a piece of art - to pour the essence of your soul into a piece of art that someone will carry for the rest of their days. The joy of escaping the world is impossible for me to explain. It's a rush and I loved it... maybe a little too much.

Maybe it was a fortunate turn of events in a truly twisted Karmic sort of way when we ran into funding problems. Karma has a weird way of helping things work out the way I think they should in the end (although sometimes I hate the trip, hehe). Companies we were dealing with would either be willing to give me the money, but only for the sole purpose of paying off my car (yes - they can have a condition like that in a refinance), or not give me enough money to make the tattoo venture worthwhile.

At times, the dream is still alive. I hadn't been that excited about anything since I was tattooing in Yuma. Thinking about those times though, there are some definite disadvantages in opening a shop as well though. Mainly, they include having to do virtually every dumb and boring tattoo that came into the store, and having to deal with some of the people in general. I think the stress of knowing my house was also riding on everything would have given me an early heart attack as well.

There are still days I dream of it though. The truth of the matter is that I simply can't afford to. We have too many bills, and not enough cash. As much as I’d like to, I can't drop everything to start an apprenticeship again - too many responsibilities and not enough time. I still hope to find a group of guinea pigs someday though, haha :)

My Conglomeration of Thoughts...

Today will be a gathering random thoughts. You have been warned :)

What happened to the days of youth? And why can we not appreciate the advantages of youth when we have it? I imagine the main reason for that is simply this - we haven't had the time necessary to garner the grains of individual wisdom that we do as we have to process more and more experiences as we get older. I'm not sure there's really a perfect medium either. Like many before me, I could say that I wish I knew then what I know now, but if you really think about it, that's a completely incorrect statement. Some of the greatest memories I have are some of the insanely stupid and dangerous things my friends and I did in our teenage years. Then there are the times I was continually far too drunk with my friends in my early 20's. I would say well over 50% of the things we did were just absolutely asinine, but they were fun and fortunately, no one really got hurt. If I went back to those years with the knowledge I have now, I'd be a very boring person. Sure, I may have made a lot of changes, ending up richer and better educated, but I don't think I'd have the memories of being a fun loving wild child.

This isn't to say that I don't truly appreciate and enjoy the age I'm at now. I think your early 30's are actually a great point in a person's life. You're old enough that people take you seriously, you generally have a decent career path, you have a large amount of life experience to reference for new situations, you've been around the block a bit and tend to have a better understanding of life. Things are far more stable in my life now than they were in the past, so that's a good thing. In your 30's, you're still young enough to do whatever you want, but old enough to know better, haha.

I do miss the days of having a 200lb frame of bone and muscle. I've still got it, but it's covered by about 85 pounds of fat too. I can lose the weight, but the amount of effort involved in losing it is a gazillion times more than the energy it took to gain it, hehe. I still debate about losing the weight. I know I need to and should simply for health reasons if nothing else. I think it's the food I'm not ready to give up. I live for starches - bread, potatoes, pasta. I could continue to eat all of those things, but that would need a large amount of exercise to balance out. Yeah - I'm a bit lazy at times :)

Next!

With the general glut of new MMORPG's coming out, there really hasn't been one since EQ2 came out over a year ago that I've been really interested in. I was interested in the Dungeons and Dragons online game, but after getting in during phase I beta and testing it off and on throughout the test, it's simply not for me. It has some great concepts, and great ideas. On top of that, I understand why they're going the route they are and applaud them for it. Unfortunately, it is NOT a solo friendly game - at all. I simply don't have the time to invest in being on the game at regular intervals and depending on a group all the time.

A new game in the works is Gods & Heroes (godsandheroes.com). It's steeped in Roman/Greek mythology and simply looks amazing. Later on, I'll toss up a picture of a medusa from the game. When I first saw the picture, I thought it was a painting, piece of concept art, etc. It's actually a screen shot and has to be the absolute coolest image of a medusa I have EVER seen. Yes, it really is that impressive. So impressive in fact, that I've been seriously going over in my head whether or not it's actually possible to do as a tattoo. Not by me, because I simply do not have that kind of skill. I've been trying to figure out whether it's actually possible to recreate that image as a tattoo by ANY artist in the world. It's stirred the ol' creative juices again and has me debating to dig out my sketch pad and start drawing again. If I start drawing again though, that means I'll start tattooing again and I'm not sure if I'm ready to do that again.

There are days I seriously miss tattooing. Sooner or later, I always find a piece I agree to do and have a good time while working on it. The problem though is there are much better artists out there. There are too many gaps in my tattooing education. Bill did a great job of teaching me, but he came from a fine arts background, so there are a ton of ground rules that I simply don't have. The biggest issue is lack of practice. I've probably only done 3-4 pieces in the last couple years. I need too many pieces of meat to practice on, but I'm not willing to just let anyone in my house that wants some work done. That means I only let friends in and I don't want to use them as guinea pigs. Yes, I can do the safe tribal tattoos since they're fairly mindless to work on, but there are a number of techniques I want to experiment with. There are some seriously cool pieces of art I'd like to do, but there simply isn't anyone to do them on, especially since most of them are not pieces that I would recommend as a tattoo. It's just that some of these pieces have some pretty cool effects and I want to see if they can be duplicated on skin.

Ah well. See - now I've got myself thinking about tats again. We'll see...

It's cheap entertainment...

Ok ya little rat bastards :P

Getting out of the house more often requires something that we simply don't have - money.

And no, I'm not willing to go hang out at free stuff like the park and freeze my ass off, so that's not happening.

$15 a month is insanely cheap for an entertainment bill. It's the cost of 2 movie tickets, yet provides a hell of a lot more hours of fun.

Toss on top of all this the fact that my wife and I have nearly completely opposite schedules. If she is home and awake, I'm not on the game, so no one can claim it's taking away from family life as well.

So there :P

BTW - Hit 51 and am halfway to 52, so HA!

Everyone loves EQ2... you know it!

Finally hit level 50! Woot!

Went on my first raid yesterday against an old foe, Lockjaw. Rather than still being the oversized crocodile a level 22 warrior could beat the hell out of in Oasis during the old EQ1 days, he is now a 4 group epic croc the size of a damn train station.

He's freaking huge - Lockjaw the Ancient.

It was pretty cool.

Still excited I hit level 50. :)

EQ2 Server Maintenance and the Olympics

Odd title, but I think I'll cover part fo both, hehe.

So I'm half-way through level 49 in EQ2 - my necro is finally coming into her own. Woot! Of course, as I now begin to close in on the current level cap, the new expansion gets released sometime this week or next I think, and with it, the level cap will be bumped to 70. That's ok though - I'm kind of in a groove right now and things are flowing along at a good pace.

As a sign that I'm enjoying the game again, I don't have a single alt above level 11. That's pretty impressive for me, as I tend to always have a few mid level alts in games simply because I get bored. Have I mentioned that my necro rocks? LOL.

Here at work, we're watching the winter olympics. Currently, the Women's Curling match is on - USA vs Canada. We're getting our asses handed to us. It's kind of an odd sport, but interesting once you get into the rules a bit. Seems to be a bit like shuffle board, but oddly enough, I keep relating it to pool. Mainly carom shots in pool - getting your ball off of another. Kinda like that. Like said - a bit weird for a sport, but entertaining to watch.

I heard this morning that there was an accident during the men's luge. Let me tell you - it will be an unbelievably cold day in hell before you would ever put me in a spandex suit, strap what is essentially a pair of ice skates to my butt, and push me down a ice covered slide. That's simply insane. Cool as hell to watch though - damn psychos.

That's it for now. Time to get back to work and get ready to work on the house in the morning while the EQ2 servers are down for extended maintenance. Yee-haw.

Sins of the Past...

There are days when that small statement seems to sum up the majority of my life.

I try not to think about them, but most of the time they consume my thoughts. People say not to dwell on the past, but everything always comes back to it. Most (but certainly not all) of my sins revolve around bad monetary decisions in the past. I've done well in not making any more in the last couple years, but the decisions before then are still screwing me left and right these days.

How can you look your wife in the eyes and tell her yet again that the tax refund you were expecting to get is no longer there? Last year, we had to pay over $1300 to the IRS because I had to pull my 401K after getting layed off the year before. This year, we should have had a return of almost $1800, yet this afternoon I discover that the Veterans Dept took over $1600 of it claiming they had overpaid my GI Bill from when I was in school. It's nice to see how much Uncle Sam appreciates my years of service and sacrifice.

Everything always connects too - like when I went back to school. By not doing enough research into the tech school I went to, I had no idea how badly I was getting ripped off. So now I owe $40K in school loans for an unfinished degree since I ran out of financial aid before I could finish. Fucking yay.

Buying my new car is another thing that continually haunts me, yet I can't get rid of it if I tried. Even if I let them reposssess it, I still owe the balance at the current monthly payment I can barely scrape up as it is. The car at least is one of the few mistakes that at the time, I could easily afford. I simply didn't see the layoff I had coming down the road a few months later.

Since the layoff way back when, I can't afford my car (or my motorcycle), we can't afford this house anymore, and with the constant rate hikes by the electric/gas company, I can't afford our continually growing electric and heating bills.

Now we're in a catch 22 situation - we can't afford our house anymore, but at the same time, we can't afford to get it fixed up to put it on the market for sale. We'll end up doing that somehow whether we can afford it or not, because otherwise we'll eventually lose everything.

The worst part in all of this is that my wife did absolutely nothing to deserve any of it. Her only crime was falling for me and that's the part that's slowly destroying my soul day by day.

Everything that haunts me in the present is all due from sins of the past. I suppose that's kind of a rhetorical statement, but it's still true. Even those mistakes that were made with the best intentions, or as someone put them - diabolical sins. I know they meant that in a joking manner, but truth be told, it's yet another thing that continues to bother me. No matter how honest the feelings or intentions, it shouldn't have been done and it's a regret I live with every day. They might argue over it, but it's something that shouldn't have happened at the time, and for that, I truly am sorry.

Everquest 2 - Tae Ew Prophet Robe

I finally got it!!!! This robe is awesome, especially for a necromancer!

The High Priest in the Temple of Cazic Thule (Everquest 2) finally dropped the damn thing and I got it! The robe has pretty good stats, but the real powers come from its added abilities:
Flowing Thought II
Regeneration II

Oh yeah baby - 2 mana and 2 health per tick during combat. That's the key... during combat.

Oh yeah - I got another level, but was so excited about the robe that I really didn't care, haha.

More Ramblings From Work

It's interesting to ponder at times the way your body responds to it's surroundings. A key example would be going to work. While I'm here at work, I feel like I'm completely drained. I'm exhausted, I yawn all the time, and my patience level is virtually nonexistant. Yet I know for a veritable fact that when I get home, I'll be fine.

I'll hop on the computer and play some EQ2. Or maybe I'll watch a bit of tv that I've recorded the previous nights. Or maybe... just maybe... I'll invite a certain little hooligan over to get in some Halo 2 time.

In any case, I'm much more awake at home than I am here at work. Everything around here seems to just kill your body and soul. The idiocy of the calls saps the will to carry on. These people are so inanely stupid that I don't even have the words available to describe them. Trust me - if you will get paid the same amount of money by choosing to work at the helpdesk, or having a hot poker shoved up your ass - take the damn poker... it'll hurt less.

The lights in this place are kind of crazy too. Typical cubical shining flourescent lights that drain the will of your soul. Ok - maybe it's not the lights so much as it is the atmosphere of this place. I've seen higher troop morale on death row documentaries :P

On to other things...

There's a possibility I may get a job with Qwest again. I'm not entirely thrilled to be going back there, but if your going to do the same job, in basically the same work environment, then you may as well go where you get paid the most. It would be a pretty decent increase in income and would help us out a lot. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

And of course, (especially after the geek comment in the previous post notes) I have to mention EQ2. I hit an awesome xp streak this weekend and went from the very inklings of level 43 to over half way through level 46. Woot!

I've also had a little bit of time to try out some of the other character classes since they made the new changes. It's a lot of fun. Newbie island is a much different experience now than it was before. It's pretty cool. The quests make a LOT more sense and you get a very quick sense of purpose. I'm proud of them - they did well.

That's it for now folks. Be sure to check out the comic strip links I have on the page here each day - they're worth the laugh.

One last thing - Only 1 more day until the new Illwillpress.com cartoon - Woot!

Foamy Rules!

The Necromancer wins!

Now that I've been playing for a little while again, let's just say that my little debate on whether to play a necromancer or a shadowknight in Everquest II has been settled.

It took a little while to figure out all the spell changes they had made since I've been gone. It also took some time to adjust my hunting tactics. Once I did though, I went out into the world... and continued to get my ass kicked for a while.

Fortunately for me, I ran into a helpful individual in Riverdale that asked me to help him with some heroic mobs. After the first two wipes, a couple pet changes, and we were off and running. Being forced to step up to the top of your game in a hurry is a great way to get back into a game. I went from getting my ass handed to me on a regular basis to simply destroying the mobs I had been previously hunting.

So what would any necromancer worth their powdered blood do with their new found skills? Why go on and try to take on a named wasp that had troubled you in the past!

In the Enchanted Lands, there is an overgrown wasp named Burnspear. That little bastard had killed me repeatedly in the past, so it was time to get a little revenge. I went wandering up to his general hunting grounds and started scouting around. Sure enough, there he was on the top of the hill. Targetting the bugger (no pun intended), I send in my zombie pet, then follow him up with 3 rats, and a poisonous zombie and snake combination. Toss on my biggest DoTs (damage over time spells), and get ready to watch him croak.

That was the plan at least... it worked right up until you get to the "watch him croak" part. That freaking bastard apparently has a huge AoE (Area of Effect) spell that I hadn't known about at that point. So there I am, casting away, my pets are wailing away on him, and "Wham!", just like the ring of fire/energy Diablo uses in Diablo II, I see this ring go out. No more zombie tank pet, no more rats, no more zombie/snake poison combo.

Even though I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm the ruler of life and death in the EQII world, there is a downside to having all that magical might. The same thing that has haunted spell-slingers from the ages... I may as well be wearing toilet paper when my target decides to take a personal interest in me and proceed to carve me up faster than an Alabama pig roast.

One of these days, even if I don't get a damn thing from him, I'm going back to kill that bastard.

Chalk another up on the Revenge List, hehe.

I'll still go ahead and horse around with the shadowknight, but at least for now, I am SO sticking with my necro!

General Ramblings

Yep - no particular topic tonight, just some rambling because I'm irritated, stressed, and generally just fed up with almost everything around me at the moment.

As for a tiny tech support note - quit being fucking morons!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you are incapable of being walked through a simple password reset in under 20 fucking minutes, I have some instructions for you:
1) Pack up your office and quit your job
2) Find the nearest street with heavy traffic
3) Lay in the road and count mufflers

The fact that there are even humans walking around like this terrifies me. Quit being so fucking stupid people. Shut the fuck up, clean the shit out of your ears, and LISTEN to what you're told. FUCK!

Next, I want to go see the new Underworld. So far, general life issues and cash have combined at different times to keep me from it so far. I'm hoping I'll be able to catch it sometime next week. I've heard it was pretty awesome, except for a couple parts that were a bit odd. I'll have to wait and see for myself. One thing is for sure though - Kate Beckinsale as Selena is seriously freaking hot!!! Love the outfit :P

Here's a good topic - the evilness of younger sisters, haha. My little ray of sweet sunshine, aka my little hooligan (haha), pointed me towards a site called illwillpress.com which features the adventures of Germaine and Foamy, a crazy squirrel bent on bringing the will of the Lord and Master (him) to the rest of the world in the form of... "The Church of Foamy"! Now just by this little description, I would think that the whole thing sounds pretty stupid. The exact opposite is true though - the short cartoons on the site are absolutely fucking hilarious. You know you're in trouble when you tell your wife she has to behave because otherwise you'll unleash your "Squirrely Wrath" on her. Yes, I did say that. Let me just say she didn't believe me. He also has some songs, one of which is so perfect for me, it's just scary. Let me give you the first line, which says it all - "I am your Lord and Master. You are all bastards." Don't blame me - it's all her fault :)

Ok - I'm done for now. I think I'll go watch the "Tech Support" cartoon on there. It always makes me laugh.

I need a vacation

Just like everyone else, I'm in serious need for a vacation. Perhaps a more accurate comment would be that I'm in need for a lottery win, haha.

Seriously, I'm sick of working. Period. As insane as it may sound, I want a life of relaxation and luxury. I want to be able to see more of Australia. I want killer computer rigs and the time to work on them as much as I want.

I don't necessarily think this makes me lazy, just in need of a different focus. I'd keep myself busy, but it would be with the things that I want to do. The headaches that come with any job do not factor into my list of things I want to do.

Perhaps by the standards of some people, I've already done a lot. I've been to Japan, Bali, Korea, and Australia. I've worked with military aircraft and their weapon systems. I've worked in classified computer systems. I've got pieces of my artwork on display throughout the country in the form of tattoos.

All of this though is simply not enough. At different points in time, I've been asked why men in particular tend to talk about the past, or their "glory days". The real answer to this is simple. In the past, we had no one depending on us. We could do whatever we chose and live with the consequences (or rewards) of those actions because they did not affect anyone else. As we go further in life though, we discover that others depend on us. It is at this point in a man's life that it becomes more difficult to take chances in life, whether it be with money or career, because others depend on us. How can we risk everything knowing that if we happen to lose our loved ones will be forced to share the price of that failure.

To me, this is why men talk about their glory days. It reminds us of a time when we were free to take all the risks we wished.

FUCK the electric company

For the love of anything holy, can someone possibly explain how this is legal?

I wasn't exactly the shiniest apple in the barrel, but I do seem to remember a big section in Civics talking about monopolies. Isn't that what Microsoft just got nailed with last year?

So how in the ever-living FUCK can the electric company continually hike up our rates? Where the fuck is my voice in any of this? Last year, they put up a vote to increase rates. Do you have any idea who the voters for that particular action were, while being perfectly legal? THE GODDAMNED MOTHERFUCKING ELECTRIC COMPANY BOARD MEMBERS!!!!! Of COURSE they're going to approve a rate increase!

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I am so fucking pissed off right now I want to scream. I just had to pay a $400 electric bill. That's right - $400 fucking dollars!!! For one motherfucking month!

Even better news - next month, the price per thermal (heat) goes up another 30 cents each. I know that doesn't initially sound like a lot, but in a winter month, do you know how many thermals an average house uses? Over 120. Using that math, that's another $36. How long before our bill hits $500?

Let me tell you another little secret to add to all this - we're already living penny by motherfucking penny!!! FUCK!

Yet what are you going to do? I've turned down our thermostat to 62, so it's gonna be nice and fucking cold in here now. Fucking yay!

Do you not pay the bill? Great - now you have no electricity and no motherfucking heat.

"So go and use some other company then," you say? We can't. Know why? BECAUSE THERE IS NO OTHER MOTHERFUCKING ELECTRIC COMPANY THAT SUPPORTS THIS AREA.

Yeah - that's right. The electric comany (Xcel you fucking cum guzzling gutter sluts!!!!!) is the only fucking company here. They can keep hiking their rates up every fucking month and there's not a god damn fucking thing we can do about it!

Where the fuck is the justince in all of this? Where? I sacrificed years of my life serving this country besides thousands of others, and what did it get us? An equal chance to be bent over and fucked like everyone else.

So enjoy it while you can Xcel. My only wish at this point is that I manage to eventually get off the grid using solar panels and wind. If that happens, I hope it becomes a movement across the entire country. I hope at that point, that you fucking keel over and die a slow horrible death, drowning in the bile of your own fruits!

FUCK YOU!!!!! Fuck every last one of you money sucking fucking crack whores. I hope you all fucking rot in whatever semblance of hell your particular gods have in store for you. You spent your life raping the poor so you could live a life of extravagance.

GO FUCK OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Necromancer vs Shadowknight

First off, let me state that I'm talking about Everquest 2, rather than anything in real life. Anyone that thinks otherwise needs to have their head examined long before I do. :P

For years, I've played a necromancer. First in EQ1, now in EQ2. The combination of having a tanking pet and DoTs (Damage over time spells) were the perfect combination for me. When I went to World of Warcraft for awhile, I played a hunter simply for the fact that the play-style was that of an EQ necro.

Having come back to EQ2 again with a temporary free "Come back to us" trial, I've noticed that they have completely revamped the combat abilities and spells of all classes. So far, this is proving to be a good thing.

The classes now begin to feel like themselves much sooner than before. For example, my old 38th level necro in EQ2 didn't begin to feel like a necromancer (as I had played one in EQ1 for years), until I hit level 35. At that point, I finally had a couple of DoTs and undead spells. That's 35 levels to go through before you can even begin to judge whether you like any particular class. Far too excessive in my opinion.

They have done a much better job this time around. As soon as you hit level 10 (not hard), you begin to branch from the archetype of your choice (fighter, mage, priest, scout) and get closer to your chosen class. My level 10 mage chose to go the Summoner route (which leads to necro at 20) and actually gets some summoning based spells early on. Same thing with my fighter that chose Crusader on the path to Shadowknight.

You can't imagine how happy this makes me. Well... maybe you can if you're as big a geek as my wife tells me I am all the time, haha. :)

Anyway...

This now brings me to a bit of a conundrum. The Shadowknight now gets disease, hate, and despair based spells much earlier than they did before. They also make good fighters as well, so now I'm having a bit of a complex.

I've played necromancers for years because of their roleplaying capabilties and diversity of spells/roles within the game they can fill. They are very self sufficient, but fit well within groups as well. We can be emergency mezzer, DPS, minor healing, etc. And of course, we have the power of Death itself... pretty impressive :)

The Shadowknight also has some good things going for it as well. To those of us that are old-school DnD'ers, it's essentially the anti-paladin. A very fun class to play. I get to be holy knight that rules with an iron glove. Holy? Did I say holy? Yes. Unholy, if you want to pick at it, but you are a warrior for your chosen deity, sent to uphold the word of your god. The roleplaying possiblities for this character also abound. Plus you get the abiltity of Harm Touch - essentially the reverse of the Paladin's "Lay On Hands". Rather than healing a player for a large amount of health once every day (in game time - believe the timer is 45 minutes in RL), you get to have an instant attack that causes mass amounts of damage. Gives new meaning to the old telephone ads, "Reach out and touch someone", haha.

In EQ1, I tried playing an SK a few times, but they were too boring back then. They weren't good fighters, and their spell casting ability sucked. In EQ2, they still aren't the best at either one, but they are much more effective than they were. Now with the combination of each set of abilities, the shadowknight is a power unto himself.

For now, I'm still playing around with both. My 38th level necromancer is still there, but I'm not bringing her out until I learn how to play the class with these new abilities. It's lot easier to learn with a low level character than trying with her - the mobs don't hit anywhere near as hard. :)

Google is taking over the world :)

So maybe they are, maybe they aren't. Personally, I don't think they are. I also happen to think that searching the internet has become a gazillion times easier since they arrived. Anyone remember Gopher? Yeah - just shoot me now if I had to go back to that.

I finally went ahead and joined their AdSense program. What it does is put some ads at the bottom of the page - that way if you don't want to see ads, you won't - yay! After some time, it will begin to post "content related" ads on the page. Basically, it looks around to see what I'm talking about on the site and puts ads relating to those topics. I actually think it's an insanely cool tool, but I'm a geek at heart :)

So if you find something interesting, feel free to click on the ad. And even if you're a personal friend of mine, please do NOT keep clicking the ads in an attempt to get me money. That sends off a red flag, and then I don't get credit for any of the "real" clicks I did get. So, please just click an ad once if you're interested. If not, don't worry about it. I'll always keep the ads at the bottom of the page so they don't pester anyone. I'm not trying to get rich off of them, but I figured, eh... what the hell, and decided to give it a shot.

On to other topics...

For those of you that care, yes, I'm still sick. My voice is almost gone and I feel like I'm ready to die. Ok... maybe not really ready to die, but you get the point. See the previous post - being sick still sucks. It really sucks because I do tech support over the phone for a government agency and the calls rarely stop. Those of you in tech support, or those that have done so in the past, can all feel my pain. Not only are you being driven insane with the single celled organisms that shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a computer, but now you have to repeat yourself over and over with a throat that is on fire.

Speaking of having to repeat one's self over and over, let me give everyone out there that ever plans on calling into Tech Support a few hints.

1) Do not be an ass! I know that your computer, file, email, etc just died on you and you are very frustrated, but do NOT take it out on the person that you're calling for help.

2) Be polite and friendly - it'll get you much further!

3) Follow instructions!!! I don't care if you've already rebooted your computer 10 times before calling me. All our calls are recorded and gone over for Quality Assurance. It is a required step for virtually any problem you are having that is running a Windows based operating system. Deal with it.

Now to go into a little more detail for each of the bullets above.

Number one absolutely kills me everyday. I don't care how old I end up becoming, I will never understand it. How can people think this way? "I'm absolutely screwed if I don't get blah working right now, yet I'm going to be a total ass with an attitude to the person I'm calling in hopes that they can help me." Un-fucking-believable, yet I deal with it every single day I'm at work.

Let me give you a hint folks - with these callers, I give them ONE chance to follow my instructions to troubleshoot or fix the problem. Just one! If it doesn't work, or they won't follow instructions, I send a ticket to either their local technicians or the team that deals specifically with that particular application. I guarantee that they have just added at least an hour to getting their problem resolved... most of the time it's actually closer to 3 hours.

Yet if someone is polite and follows instructions, I'll stay on the phone with you for an hour if I think we can get it fixed. I don't care how long it takes - I'll do whatever it takes to get you back up and running as fast as possilble because I can work with you.

This doesn't mean that you can't be irritated. That's simply stupid, because as a tech I know how frustrating these systems can be at times. Hell, I'll even sympathize with you. Just don't direct that irritation at me, and under no circumstances do you ever want to give me a condesending attitude. You've instantly bought yourself a ticket number at that point.

Ok - guess I kind of rambled into number 2 as well. Good enough. This brings us to number 3.

I know everyone out there has varying degrees of expertise with computers. I've been doing tech support for over 6 years at this point (kill me now), so I have a pretty good idea of your basic knowledge level within just a few minutes of talking with you. If I'm fairly confident you know your way around a computer and you don't give me any attitude, I'll give you some leeway and listen to what you've done already. If I think you barely know how to tie your shoes without drowning in your own drool first, I'm more than willing to help you, just please follow instructions.

If I tell you to reboot your computer, just do it. Don't argue, don't bitch, and don't whine about it. It's an insanely common first step in troubleshooting. Know why? Because over 85% of the time, no matter what your problem is, that will fix it. Argue with Microsoft, not me - I'm not the one that programmed it. After that, the troubleshooting steps we take will be much more specific to your problem, so please just bare with the reboot. We have to do it, so suck it up and do it - you'll save us both a lot of hassle and headaches.

Wow - think I've rambled quite enough for today.

One last note to any of the folks that left SWG after the first big combat change and got your invites to reactivate your account for two weeks - go give it a try. I might actually go back to it - the game is much more fun now. Hell, I might even drop my WoW account and go back to it after my trial period runs out. :)

Getting sick sucks...

I don't imagine anyone in the world actually enjoys getting sick, but it truly does suck. Especially when your job requires for you to be on the phone all the time. That sore throat might have gone away in a couple of days, but now you're stuck dealing with it for at least a week. Ugh!

Ok - on to other things to try and help me avoid thinking about yakking...

Before I go ranting and raving about no particualr stuff in general (as I imagine I will in the near future), I'd like to talk about something I truly enjoy and thus need to spread the message - Firefly!

This was absolutely one of the greatest shows of all time, yet like many others, I never actually watched it until it had been taken off the air and put in DVD form. The BDM, Serenity, came out on DVD last week and is an awesome way to end the story. I absolutely hope that it will be continued in some way, but if that has to be the end of it, it was nice to be able to tie up a number of loose ends.

Joss and the cast, along with a ton of Browncoats around the world, deserve a round of applause. It was a great series and a wonderful movie. There were so many great things said in the movie, all related to the movie itself, and the fate of the show. I loved it.

"Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall... tells you she's hurt 'fore she keens... makes her a home." - Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion)

It's a beautiful quote and is fitting to both. The movie never should have been made. The show should have died and gone away into the night, but love is what kept the dream alive. Hopefully love can bring it back again.

And so it begins...

Over the last few weeks, as things in life have been taking a temporary turn for the worse, I've begun to think I need a place that I can simply ramble to my heart's content. Too many things in life get bottled up, and in the view of the world, we should keep them that way.

Admittedly, there are many things that we could do, and in my younger days, I probably would have resorted to quite a few of them. As I begin to get older though, I realize that there are a large number of consequences that must be dealt with. Don't believe me? Tell your boss to piss off because they don't know squat about the technical aspects of your job. See what happens. No matter what (at least in my life), the Piper always gets paid.

Now before I continue a blog of things that are currently on my mind, many of which tend to be negative in source, I should state a few things first:

1) This is simply a tool for me to get things out of my head.

2) 90% of these things would be bottled up inside until I took the time to either:
a) Deal with them internally
b) Shove them to the far corners of mind and ignore them
c) Find a much more polite way of externalizing them

3) If you happen to be the topic of one of my posts (and you are unable to keep yourself from reading the rest of it), BE WARNED!!!! This is my venting tool, so there are things I'll say in the heat of the moment! Don't worry about it - skip the post and go along.

Basically, this means that the things I state here may not be nice, polite, and at times may even be downright cruel. I'll apologize in advance for anyone reading this, but these are all things I might "say without thinking". If I go on about work, friends, spouse, etc... Deal with it. This is simply me getting things off my chest, and like most of us in this life, there are times I'll rant and rave about something that in reality is so insignificant that it doesn't warrant the emotion I attach to it. Again, deal with it. This blog is for me to get things out and nothing more.