Go West Young Man

So... It's been a month.

My workplace's move is beginning next week.. Moving westward.. twice as far. Anyhow, it's been busy. Hopefully it goes smoothly.

We've been kinda buried in schoolwork, work and whatever time is left for whatever else. We've been able to check out Fable some. It's pretty fun, with a few new ideas, mainly that your fame has a lot to do with the game. It's not the deepest game, but it's certainly fun.

The big news is that Everquest II comes out next Tuesday. I didn't think I was as interested in it as I am now. Free time is a big problem right now, so there's no guarantees. One thing to keep in mind is that playing EQ2 won't be like our last few months of EQ classic. EQ was all about the raids because that's what was left to do in the game.... all the levelling up and exploring had been done over and over again since 1999. Meaning, we won't have to spend 5 hours a night in high-end encounters, hopefully it's a couple hours here and there, as we can. EQ2 is totally new.. In fact, there is so little info about the game outside the major cities (Qeynos and Freeport) that it will be exciting to relearn it all again. It takes place 500 years after the original game and apparently a lot has changed.. The gods have left, which is one reason you can choose any class for any race! That's right.. dark elf druids! There has been no mention of dragons or other continents.. So it's almost as if you have to re-discover the entire game, which can be good. I am sure some old school places still exist (I've seen shots of Befallen, etc).. so it'll be fun.

Those who are able, from our little group of friends, will hopefully be building a guild (resurrecting Dalharen d'Oloth). Check us out - www.dalharen.com

That's all for now..

Par For the Course

So.. I figured since I had been a "good boy" and done most of my homework for the week, that I would sit down to play some PlayStation last night, since Julie had to work. I had some ferret maintenance to do and basically figured on a good 90 minute gaming session with some Xenosaga (no, I didn't sneeze).

So, there I was sitting on my side of the bed with the PS controller in my hand and the cord extended nearly to its capacity, when I remembered that I wanted to let the ferrets out to play. I had just beat a boss battle (took me a while to figure out where I was, I hadn't played the game in many months) and was watching one of the 50,000 cinematics (yeah, the game has too many, but at least the voice acting and dialog isn't horribly cheesy).. Anyhow, I got up, hopped over the cord to get to the ferret cage, then returned to my spot. The only difference between my trek to the cage and back was the inevitable trip over the controller cord.

So, there's this horrible "smack"ing noise, accompanied by a thud (no ferrets were injured; they were still stretching and yawning their way out of the cage). The game cinematic starts to skip and the sound goes all funky. I got up to see what had happened and saw the PS2 face down on the floor and my controller plug had gotten ripped out from its socket. After making sure no ferrets were about, I observed the situation. I rebooted the machine but the DVD wouldn't load. I tried to eject it and the tray was stuck. I tried to jimmy it out but it was frozen and I was afraid I'd break it. Well, after a few more minutes of inspection, I knew it was time for surgery.
I was very concerned that I'd find damage to the laser or DVD mechanism, but I had to find out if I could fix it. I wanted to cry.. my beloved PS2 was injured, possibly dead. Of all the material purchases over the last few years, the PS2 was probably one of the most cherished.

So, I collected the fuzzies, popped them back into their lair and promised them I'd be back. I went downstairs to located a "fix it" guide, which I found here. Thank you Mr. Rowley. His guide covered fixing problems with the laser eye reading DVDs, but it pertained to my problem as well since it involved taking apart the DVD assembly.

So.. the process took about 30 minutes, but I was able to disassemble the PS2, re-align the DVD drawer and remove my poor Xenosaga disc (which was undamaged) and test the drawer motors. I brought it back upstairs for the moment of truth. I booted the machine with the XS disc inside and at first the PS2 seemed to hesistate.. or maybe I just never noticed the length of boot time.. Regardless, the game loaded just fine!!

So.. I let the fuzzies back out, snuggled a few of them to ease their tempers, and reloaded my last save. I basically got to re-do the boss battle, watch the ill-fated cinematic from before, take care of the fuzzies (they got extra treats for being good sports) and head to bed.

It's just funny how things are so par for me.. This is one reason why I never try to plan certain things.. They never go as you think they will. I'd rather be spontaneous.

Have a good day.

Welcome to My Demsion

Look out.. the "Budman" has a blog. Too bad he changed the topic for his first post, it was rather humorous ("Welcome to my Demsion"). We're still trying to figure out what a "demsion" is.

Anyhow.. Days are starting to fly by again. With Julie working, me working normal hours, and the kids in school, there is so little time for much else. Oh yeah, we're in school too. I can already feel that this Christmas will be a WELL deserved break.

My new job is really cool. I get to actually DO something now. I don't need to look for "busy work" or answer 50 damnable CPU tickets every day. Things I do here actually mean something. Everyone told me after I lost my former job that I'd come to a point where I could thumb my nose at it and feel good that I've moved onto something better. Well, that time has come. I feel needed here and that I am actually providing a needed service. So, I've been giving the Old Corp my middle finger salute when passing by on the freeway and it feels good. I am much happier being out of UberCorp's grip. I am learning some cool shit here, too. Things are actually set up smartly here.. and because it's a smaller company, they don't use these bloated applications to provide simple tasks. Hey, get this, we actually use group policy to roll out applications and Windows updates. Imagine that. And it works ;)

Anyhow.. games.. Man, I'd like to play some. Sly Cooper 2 is out, Ratchet 3 is out, Prince of Persia 2 is out, and I wouldn't mind finishing games I already have. EQ? It's dead. There's just no way we can continue. I miss it dearly though; I can't stand reading about it and not being there. It was such a fun time. At least we accomplished some milestones during our stay. Oh, Elder Scrolls 4 ("Oblivion") was just announced. Cool!! I think one of my first blog entries was for Morrowind, two years ago. Fable is also out for the XBox. With Julie working at BB, we end up using her free rentals a bunch, since you can get games as well as movies. I've rented Drakengard and Jak II (both look cool) and the kids are drooling over Pikmin 2 right now. It's fun..

Julie is getting used to her new job, but not used to working I think ;) I'm proud of her, though, and no matter what happens, it's a positive thing. Family life is back to "normal" now after a few strange summer, but I think we're all on track again. Lance has become Mr. Football and Sarah is about to become Miss Bowler (yeah, we actually got her excited about something athletic). We'll see how that works out.

The Fall of Summer

Ugh. Summer's over and it's back to school, back to work, back to business. I rather enjoyed slacking around the house this summer. It's funny how things worked out.. I left my last job on June 7th, the first week of my kids' summer vacation, and started my new job on August 30th, basically the beginning of the 04/05 school year.

Yeah, so I get to drive in rush hour traffic now. I don't mind it too much; it only really bothers me when it takes me more than twice as long as it should. A half hour I can deal with, but 45 minutes to go 20 miles? C'mon! There's construction going on, so hopefully when it's all finished things will be better.

Julie's workng, I'm working, the kids are in school and we're all coming and going at different times. It's nuts, for sure.

Oh, hey.. just announced today.. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Wow!! What's funny is, they have it listed for the PS3 and XBox2.. which basically means 2006, but I'll take it! I guess I should finish Morrowind. Oh yeah, and I got an official invite for the WoW stress test. Yeah, thanks.. Why couldn't I get it when I had the time to check it out? Doesn't matter, I can't sign on to an online game, I don't want that kind of addiction again. Yeah, EQ is dead. I think we're done, for good. We'll see.. I just can't keep up with it, even if I wanted to play it. The last few months we were always playing catch up.. "gotta get 200 AAs, gotta get better gear.... more mana.. more HP". Blah.. I just want to kill stuff, and you can't kill the good stuff without all the above. Forget it.. I'll stick to Morrowind where I can truly be a god, and it's free..

Welp, I'm at work and now I'm gone.. so.. bye!

New Job

I accepted a job yesterday. It's a new direction for me, mainly because I will be the "one" instead of "one of many". It'll be nice to have control over what's going on, instead of working with 25 other people to get a job done. It's a smaller company (comparing the two really isn't fair, due to completely different markets), but they are growing. I am hoping I can excel and flex some brain muscles now. I start on the 30th and I'm pretty excited about it.

Oh, and I know some areas of the site look funny without templates and such, but I'll get around to fixing things up. I had to remove the old comments system and use Blogger's, and the comments pages look silly now, and I'm not sure they even work ;) But, since maybe 2 or 3 people visit my page, I'm not really concerned about it right now.

Two Months

Today is officially (ok, yesterday) two months to the day I began looking for new work. So far, 53 resumes sent, about 10 rejections ("position already filled", "thank you, but no thanks", etc..), a few staffing agency rounds, five serious interviews, one second interview and zero actual job offers. Those aren't great statistics. Sure, none of the serious interviews are 'closed' positions yet (and most are recent), but still... two months.

Things are looking a little better.. The kids return to school in two weeks and since Julie and I are off school for three weeks, it's time to enjoy the rest of the summer. Even with a job offer, I wouldn't begin work until the end of the month anyhow, so we finally have some family time. It's funny, even though I'd rather be working (i.e. making money), I'm going to miss being home so much.

There's a lot of cool stuff happening with games, music and so forth, but I am too lazy to talk about them now. Maybe later..

Like sands through the hourglass...

I won't bother to post a long, dreary entry right now.  Suffice it to say, things have changed a lot around here in the last six weeks.  My life has gone from riding the crest of the wave, to being sucked into its undertow, and is just now beginning to level off again.
 
Three days after my last entry, I lost the job I had for almost eight years.  Without going into dreadful details, the event has changed my life.  I am a different, but better person now and I think I may have a clearer focus on life and what's really important.  It's not money, it's not a big house or a huge television (things that were all on my mind two months ago).  What is important, is family and faith.  If you have those, you'll be all right.  If you're missing one of those, seek out the other if you can, and hold onto the one you have because it'll save you.
 
Have I gone crazy?  No.  I've gone through a transformation and come out a better man.  I'll explain over time, because it's important.  Stay tuned.
 

Diligence

Another milestone of sorts last night.. Ladene and I were accepted into Diligence as full members. I think we've found our final home in EQ. It's been a rocky road of what some might consider guild hopping, but I like to think of it as finding our rightful place. We tried 4 guilds within a year's time and none had the same focus we did (or rather, the power to do it). Within 2 weeks, we finished our Time flagging, got up to speed with the new expansion and got accepted. Everything before this took the entire last year spent in other guilds. All of them were respectable guilds with respectable people, but it hasn't been until recently that we've been so excited about playing again (in a guild.. mind you that playing with our friends is always the main draw). Thank you, Diligence! I hope we earn our place in this legendary guild in the times to come. Speaking of.. provided Sony patched the servers properly, we'll be doing our first run through Plane of Time on Wednesday and Thursday!

Time

After a roughly 4 hour, very grueling ordeal, one of the most interesting and nervewracking events I have been a part of during my stay in EQ, was conquered last night. Combined forces of Forged Souls, Fires Within and just a few Diligence (the rest of the guild was in Time for their rotation), helped to defeat the Rathe Council and Avatar of Earth encounter to flag roughly 50 people across all 3 guilds. With so many people in zone (about 115) it was an amazing feat of leadership that allowed this to be conquered so smoothly. My only regret is that 95% of this round of recruits have been flagged and it may be a while before this stuff is done again, but I hope it continues. It was a total blast, like a huge server party and I would be glad to help out in any way. Thanks again to the fine guilds mentioned. Within an hour of the end of the event, Julie and I stepped into the Plane of Time. Five years of dedication and time spent in a alternate world have finally come full circle. Yeah, I know Time isn't new and I'm probably one of may thousands to zone into it now, but it's a personal triumph and goal achieved. Now we can join our new friends in Time and beyond. No more "backflagging". Unfortunately, by the time we caught up to the raid force in Time, the recent "changes" to the game made progress through the phases impossible. I did, however, get to train Vallon Zek a few times and watch him snap back on his leash ;) I took a lot of screenshots, hopefully I can toss a few up.

Thanks again Seventh Hammer.. Hopefully I can pass the generosity of time and effort down to those that come after me. To Infinity and Beyond!

Kinder, Gentler Hammer

Something rather unprecidented has happened on the Hammer. Three of the top guilds have joined up to get their latest recruits / new members flagged for Time (and Kod'Taz). On Tuesday, FS, FW and Diligence amassed 150+ people to massacre both Coirnav and Xegony. It was nice to see a lot of old acquaintances again and the events were high-spirited and friendly. On Wednesday night, FS sponsored the quick take-down of Earth rings and the Mystical Arbiter, keying a lot of people for Plane of Earth B aka Stronghold of Ragrax, the lair of the Rathe Council. Rathe is now the final flag needed for us to be Time enabled. This is something that's been a long time in coming and I can't stress enough how excited we are and thankful that this alliance has happened. Hopefully tonight the Rathe Council will face their doom, allowing everyone to join their respective guilds in Time as intended. Kudos to the guild and raid leaders from Forged Souls (of which we are old alumni), Fires Within and of course, Diligence all of the Seventh Hammer.

Kod'Taz

Woohoo.. Kod'Taz flagged. Thanks to Diligence and Fires Within people for making this happen. We did a marathon last week and finished Tipt & Vxed trials (pretty challenging) and FW helped a lot of people get the sewer trials flag via a Smith Rondo raid. Yay! Also, we managed to snag a Fennin Ro flag compliments once again to Fires. It's nice to see the big guilds working together and I hope it continues.. no one really _enjoys_ backflagging.

The Tides Turn Once Again

The tides turn once again. Another chapter has come and gone, and as the story goes, new history is written.

Three weeks left and the kids are out of school for the summer. For one, it's his last year before the dreaded teens. For the other, her last year of single-digit age. For us, it's a time to look back and embrace the memories and look forward to their futures.

We've decided to stay in our humble home for some time longer. There are many factors, most of which have to do with money, the kids and our current lifestyle. We're living comfortably and we'd like to keep it that way. Our little house on the prairie will have to wait a bit longer. Instead, we'll focus on smaller upgrades to our home to keep it happy.

In geek news.. guild hopping isn't seen as a positive thing for any EQ player, but the state of the server is at an all time low, and judging from the horizon of new games, it's not going to get much better, if not worse. We joined an excellent group of people, because at the time, they were right where we were.. Elementals, on a rampage to Time. Well, as all guilds short of the hardcore face, an exodus occurred. I fear some things stirred up a bit before our applications that had a large domino effect. Within a few weeks, many long-timers left the guild or game in general. We had to make the hard choice of looking, once again, for a guild with the numbers and appetite for progression. We're in trial mode now, 28 days to go. We'll see if we have the stuff of uberness. If not? Well.. that remains to be seen. Planes of Power is old, now, in EQ terms. It may be time to put aside Time (once again, skipping past content...) to see Gates of Discord. With the Tipt trial done, we're well on our way to finally seeing what the CURRENT expansion has to offer, and we want to be ready for Omens of War as well, come July. I'm tired of seeing the new stuff a year or more later than everyone else.. i'm old and grumpy.

In school news.. the light at the end of the tunnel has appeared. After years of part-time classes, lost credits due program changes and expiring classes, my four-year degree (yes, only four) is in sight. It's still a ways off, but I am about to take my very last class at the 2-year college and move onward. I ended up taking a Psych class I didn't need (maybe it'll count later.. anyhow, it was worth taking, I highly recommend it), so I am set back but this last science class. Julie has applied and should be joining me in the Fall as well. This is another reason to stay in our current house - school. It's going to be expensive, even with work footing some of the bills for me. Now is the time to get this done, though, so we're determined. It'll all pay off someday, I know it. We took the work route, went part-time for years. It worked for us; it doesn't work for everyone. We managed to build a decent living without degrees (this is something I try not to preach to the kids too often, school IS important), but in the end, school is king. Stay in school!

Music.. Good stuff out recently. Ayreon's new opus should just about be out now. I've had the MP3s for a while (I know, bad.. bad.. bad) but there's nothing that would stop me from buying the official product, ever. I wholeheartedly support Arjen's work (and Devin's), and buy all their stuff, in any form. I just couldn't wait! I had to hear it. Anyhow.. the assortment of singers on the current project is just astounding. New After Forever is also excellent, and hey.. Fear Factory ended up with SYL's guitarist. It's a good year for music (metal) so far. You know.. Metal is big again, and so few outside the scene know it. It's a shame what you see on HBB is such crap.. there's so much better music out there. "Oh look! New Mudvayne CD". Ugh, that's crap music, people. Get yourself a Voivod CD and really listen to it. Go snag an Ayreon or Devin Townsend CD and really listen, read the words. These guys/bands aren't new, they are veterans. Linkin Park? What the hell IS that anyhow? You still like Metallica? Next they'll be singing duets with Faith Hill.. it's country music people! Metal too rough for you? Get a "The Gathering" CD and really listen to it.. Bah, enough of my soapbox chatter. Support the real artists.. buy the CDs from the ones that count, pass around that Linkin Park to anyone you want.. they'll be gone in a few years anyhow, just like all the other cash cows. Whoa.. since when did I get morals?

Two More Months Have Passed

Two more months have passed.

Julie and I finally bought our new wedding rings as a 10th anniversary celebration of sorts. Her ring is a double band that allows her original solitaire to fit snuggly in the middle (and it is soldered that way), and mine is a spiffy yellow/white gold twist with 3 small gems inlaid across the center. Julie's double band has a total of 22 little diamonds in it.. It's quite sparkly in the light! The only problem is, I don't know what to do with my $99 original band.. It doesn't really fit on any of my other fingers. It'll probably end up as something I can wear when I'm afraid to wear the new one.

Sarah turned 9 on St Patty's Day. She was ecstatic. This weekend is her official party. I still can't believe she's 9 already... and then there's the boy that will be 12! Ugh.. I am starting to feel old.. Especially when friends have kids that are just now learning how to walk and talk! Well, the good thing is, I'll be around to see them grow up and their kids and maybe even their kids...

We started, very briefly, to look at new houses again. We once again came to the conclusion that unless we want to move a good distance away, we're fairly content with our little home on the lake. Most of the houses we saw were quite beautiful, but sitting on a half acre of land, which really isn't our style. We want a decent sized piece of land (1 acre or better) and a medium sized home. No mansions, no shacks, something comfortable. Well, we can afford to be selective, so... Every so often we'll drive around to get ideas.

In geek news.. We spent 5+ excellent months with a fine crew of EQ players called Kabald. They are probably one of the oldest guilds around and one that carries a good deal of respect among older players. We left just last week, somewhat regretfully. With family life, work, school, etc.. it was becoming increasingly difficult to be online at the start of events and some nights, we couldn't be there at all. We felt, that after a pretty decent track record of high attendance, our spotty and unpredictable attendance wasn't in line with the focus of the guild. Days were starting to blur into weeks and go by too quickly. We're kinda solo for a while to enjoy time with old friends that have recently returned to the game (again! hehe) but may join up with another group of fine people where raiding isn't a strong requirement, so attendance isn't something that will hurt us, or the guild's progression. I wish KB the best of luck and was glad I could be a part of a legend, even if only for a short while. We made some new friends, learned new encounters and helped a lot of people get flagged for elemental planes, thus it was a positive thing for everyone.

As for the future.. There's a bunch of excellent MMORPGs coming out this year. One of them may spell damnation for EQ once and for all, although I'm not in a beta for any of them, so I can say too much about them. Ultima X looks decent, Lineage II is supposed to be excellent, and there's always EQ2 or WoW, both most likely surfacing in the summer.

Update

Well it's been a very long time since an update was posted. As with many things, I lost interest in blogging in general. But, as this is mostly for myself and for fun, that's not really a big deal.

So, an update:

Spring '04 semester has started and I'm taking the final two classes (it's been a long road) at the 2-year college. Despite changes in degree programs, professional focus and the availability of a new transfer program to a 4-year accredited college, we have endured and are finally on what should be the "right and final track". I've taken enough credits to be a junior, but not all of them apply, especially with the transfer to the 4-yr school, so.. in the end I will end up smarter than I had anticipated.. right? Sure.

The kids are growing like weeds again. Sarah is no longer the little muppet girl and tackling new skills such as math division and book reports. /Cheer third grade! Lance has finally stabilized (we think) himself in 6th grade. He had a very rocky start, but we think he's ready to buckle down and do the work that he is supposed to and earn the grades he deserves.

We have a new edition to the farm - Elmo. Elmo can be seen on Julie's blog. He's a fuzzy, orange monster that has scored a confortable slacker life with 7 ferrets, 2 cats and a dog, plus 4 random humans mulling about. More animals. More poop. More doctor visits. I couldn't be happier. Really.

Work is the same.. Bonus was good for 2003 and this will probably be one of the first years in a while that we won't do a major upgrade to the house (last year was a yard overhaul in the front). That said, the focus will be on proper budgetting and putting some money away this year (hopefully) to fund future projects, whether it be for this home or the next.

For our online friends: Julie and I joined a raiding guild in EverQuest in hopes that we could finally "finish" the game before the "next big thing" is launched (EQ2 or WoW). Currently we're one god away from being flagged for 3 elemental planes (Rallos Zek) and one Sol Ro miniboss away after that for Plane of Fire. After that, it's a couple months of farming until we can take on the elemental bosses and head into Plane of Time itself. The hope is, that by then the current Time guilds will have moved on to make room. It's going to be crowded in the Elementals, with the possibility of 5-6 guilds fully flagged, including the Time ones. What guild? Here's a hint: Grrrr. Bark. Bark. Grrrr. It's a blast and they're excellent people.

That's all for now..