Hail to the Holidays

I always enjoy this time of year. Despite the increase in traffic everywhere I go, I have great fun around Christmas. Last week I attended two Christmas parties, and my thanks go to KS-1 & his wife, and Jersey & Jill for being such wonderful hosts. I would have liked to do more myself for Christmas, like send out Christmas cards to my out-of-town friends and buy some more personalized gifts for people instead of handing out gift cards. But regardless of that, I've had a great week.

Now, my family celebrates the entirety of Christmas on Christmas Eve. It's the way my Dad was raised, so it's been our tradition as well. I went to my parent's house yesterday afternoon and we had a nice, quiet dinner. My Dad had requested we have roast turkey, just like on Thanksgiving, which ended up tasting perfect. Round that out with some home made sides and it was the perfect meal. Afterwards we opened gifts. I didn't ask for much this year, but I received a nice set of martini glasses from my sister and her family, and from my parents I got some newer clothes. I also received many gifts from my friends, among them being some DVDs, shirts, games and books. But the best part for me now is hanging out with family and friends.

Being Christmas Day today, I find myself not doing too much. I've been catching up reading some magazines (Maxim, Play, Newtype) and I plan on watching some DVDs today. Also need to finish up Darkwatch and play some more of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness.

Well, we're fast approaching the new year. I have some great hopes for next year, which I will expound upon at a later date. I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or Happy whatever you celebrate!

Why?

Why do such horrible things happen to some of the greatest people? At such a joyous time of year, sad news like this should never occur. My thoughts and prayers are with the Dungy family.

Wow ...

That about sums up my feelings on this subject. Just ... wow ...

I could never be a spokesman for the beer industry ...

So, I was having a good week up until yesterday. This past Monday was my birthday, and from Sunday through Tuesday it was a pretty good week.

Sunday, my parents treated myself and X to brunch at The Oyster Catcher. Their brunch is absolutely exquisite. Plenty of food available, both hot and cold dishes, plus all the oysters one can eat. Now myself, I don't really care for oysters at all but X can only be described as the oyster's natural predator. The man usually has 5 dozen oysters plus about two plates full of the normal fare. I am waiting for the day when I see a Wanted poster up at the front door saying not to let X in for fear of him eating them out of business! Now, after brunch X and I went home and just chilled out watching the various NFL games that were on. Got a call from Badstar, and met up with him and some more friends who all wished me a Happy Birthday. We ended up going out to dinner and it was a pretty enjoyable evening.

Monday I pretty much did nothing. Received calls from my family, all wishing me well on my birthday. Also received calls and cards from my friends. Near the end of the day, my parents took me out to dinner and then I spent the evening with them.

I don't really ask for much on my birthday. As I have gotten older I have realized that all I really want to do on my birthday is spend some quality time with family and friends. My friends usually complain that they can never get me anything for my birthday, since I usually buy whatever I want for myself. The way I look at it, I tend to have eccentric (and sometimes expensive) tastes so if I see something I like I just go ahead and get it. All I want from my friends is to go out and have a good time with them, and maybe a gift card or something.

Now Tuesday was the start of my downfall for this week. I knew X was going to have a long day at work, so I figured it might be good to get as many people as I could out to a local bar here in Tampa, Bilmar Station. Bilmar Station has what they call "liter night", where all domestic and imported draft beer is sold by the liter at discounted prices. X, JerseyStrangler, Jill and myself all went out that evening and it was a fun night. We stayed out until about 23:00, then we all dispersed to get home and get some sleep. Now, I have a rather checkered history when it comes to beer. I can drink hard liquor as much as I want, but sometimes I can get sick off of one beer. It doesn't seem to matter how much I hydrate myself, and none of the normal hangover-prevention tricks seem to work for me either. Now, this problem doesn't happen all the time; it just seems like some days I just can't have beer. So, we went out to this bar for liter night, and I had about 1.5 liters of Spaten Oktoberfest. Thought I drank plenty of water to keep myself hydrated, and when I got home I took a multivitamin before going to bed. Wake up the next day, feeling nauseous and have a migraine. Called in to work, and tried to sleep it off (I had only gotten about 5 hours of sleep so far). Slept for a couple more hours, and now I'm feeling worse. I tried using the healing powers of the HD version of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, but even it's heavenly glow could do nothing to heal my body (but my soul was doing pretty good). Eventually, after about a full day of fitful rest and two prayers said to the porcelain god, I finally got whatever poison I had out of my system. The worst part about that day is I couldn't even work on some personal projects, since I couldn't do much more than read for short periods of time. I simply don't know what it is about beer that does this to me. I could have had only 1 pint, and I still would have gotten ill. But give me the same amount of liquor, and I'd probably only have had a slight headache the next day.

Well, I'm better now. Just wish this didn't make me feel like such a lightweight some times. Guess I'll stick to rum, whiskey and gin from now on.

Why Dracos shouldn't fix his PC at 03:00

Happy to say I had a great time during this past holiday weekend. I absolutely stuffed myself on Thanksgiving, and had a wonderful time visiting my parents. Then this past Sunday we celebrated birthdays for X and EvilBadstar (X's was on the 27th and Badstar's was on the 29th). Once again, we had plenty of food and friends around to help celebrate and everyone had a great time. And Badstar is our Guitar Hero.

So overall it has been a pretty good week, omitting the normal work complaints. Unfortunately, I did have one problem that has taken most of my free time. Last Friday I came home to find that my main PC had lost its harddrive. Being a computer geek, I do not enjoy coming home and finding my computer on a DOS screen informing me that I need to remove or replace a non-system disk. I lost everything on that PC. And despite my efforts, there was no way to recover the data. On top of this, I was already experiencing problems with my monitor as it would like go blank even though a video signal was still present. So, after about 3 days worth of work and almost $600 worth of new equipment, I'm back up and running. Sad thing is, I knew this was coming because my now useless harddrive had been making "clicking" noises lately which usually indicates that it is about to fail. I had always planned to have two harddrives in my machine and set them up as a RAID 1 array. But I never got around to it and now I payed the price. It is taking a very long time for me to reinstall all my applications and data on the new harddrives ...

... Bah, I don't like how this post is going and quite frankly, it's too damn boring. In summary:

1. Thanksgiving = good!
2. Birthdays = good!
3. PC blowing up = bad :(

Now, just some links I want to mention.

• Crazy Japanese game. With video!
• Here is an incredible cause to support. If you have any extra money, I would hope that you can donate it. I know I will.

Later.

News and Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, has it already been about a month since my last post?! I guess I have a lot of catching up to do (again), so let's get right to it.

• First, I would like to belatedly congratulate a friend of mine who I have known since high school on her marriage to a very lucky guy. Back on Saturday, October 22, Christina Green married John Rankin at St. Paul Catholic Church. I have had the privilege of knowing Christina throughout high school and college, and I got to meet and get to know John for probably a little over a year now. I can't think of too many people that are as lucky as these two to have found each other, and I wish them the best and more. Unfortunately, I could not attend the wedding but I just want to say that my thoughts and prayers were with them on probably the happiest day of their lives.
• I would also like to congratulate two other friends of mine, Vanessa Benchea and Christel Muñoz. During the weekend of November 4 - 6 they competed in the USTF Winter Nationals, a Tae Kwon Do tournament in Dallas, TX. Christel placed 3rd in her division in the Forms competition. Vanessa placed 2nd in her division in both Forms and Sparring. A belated "Congratulations!" to both of you on your accomplishments, especially since this was the first tournament that either of you competed in (if I remember correctly).
• This past weekend, both X and I were invited to join JerseyStrangler and his girlfriend "Jill" for a night out at Channelside to celebrate Jill's birthday (I will continue to protect the true identity of "Jill", as only those with the highest clearance can ever learn her name). Now, I have know JerseyStrangler for a long time and I have gotten to know Jill ever since Jersey started dating her. They are great people, and I am always extremely honored to be invited out with them (as well as invited out with any of my friends; you never know, they could all want some alone time with their significant other). So anyway, we went out to meet Jersey, Jill, and about 8 more of their friends outside of the Bennigan's in Channelside. Channelside was packed that evening, so when we finally parked we still had about an hour and a half wait to get a table at Bennigan's. We had a good time waiting for the rest of the group to get together, occupying our time with just some idle banter and alcohol (did I mention the numerous drink stations expertly arranged out in the courtyard?). Being Jill's birthday (ok, belated birthday), X and I decided that we would make sure Jill would not go thirsty that evening (of course, I made sure that Jersey was driving home that night). We got into Bennigan's, and continued the good times with more banter, food and drink. Once we were finished there, we moved over to Splitsville for some billiards. It took a little while to get a table, but everyone kept themselves occupied. Some of the girls went over to the dance floor at one end of the place, and X and I followed to make sure nothing happened. One thing did happen ... we laughed our asses off at some striped shirts who were fulfilling the stereotype. I had to go back to the billiards tables pretty quickly, otherwise I would have fallen over from laughing too hard. So we finally got a table around 12:30 or 1:00 AM, and we took turns showing how bad each of us is at billiards until about 2:30. At that point, everyone pretty much decided to head back to their cars and then home. X and I ended up walking Jersey and Jill back to their car, partly to give Jill her birthday gift (X forgot it in the car earlier in that evening) and also to make sure they got to their car alright. Now, X and I are each on either side of Jill supporting her as we go up the stairs to the fifth level of the parking garage. Jersey is leading the group, as he has the keys as well as all of Jill's gifts. Now once we reach their floor and start walking to their car, Jill suddenly exclaims in the middle of her rambling (sorry Jill, you were rambling on about things the entire time up the stairs; X still doesn't know what you were talking about), "... and someone has got a hold of my boob ...". Immediately X and I put our hands in the air as if this was a robbery. To this day, we both deny any charges of inappropriate conduct. And in fact, it may not have bothered Jill too much, since she grabbed hold of both of us and continued walking to the car. I don't think Jersey was too happy, but then he had no indisputable evidence that anything had happened. However, if we look at the hypothetical event where something like that did actually happen I would have no choice but to accept responsibility for it myself. You see, I am a master at ninjitsu (in my own mind, anyway). If it pleases the court, I would like to display Exhibit A. The woman in this picture didn't even realize I had cupped her breast until she saw the picture on her camera. So, in that parallel universe where Jill was groped then the only sensible explanation is that my ninjitsu has achieved a level so beyond that of our mortal senses that even I didn't know I was doing it! (Kakashi-sensei would be proud, I would think.) Upon further review, the play stands as called on the field. First down! ... I would like to once again thank Jersey and Jill for inviting me along that evening. They may not think too much of it, but I always consider it an honor to know my presence makes things more enjoyable.
• I really can't say it any better, so just look at this post on Badstar's blog.
• I don't play World of Warcraft, but about everyone in my circle of friends at least knows about the Leeroy Jenkins video from that game. Now, Leeroy and WoW have been immortalized on Jeopardy!
  

Lastly, I just want to wish everyone who may be reading this a safe and happy Thanksgiving! I know I will be spending time with my Mom and Dad, and I hope everyone will get the chance to spend the holidays with those that are special to them.

Until next time.

-Dracos

Happy Halloween!

Had a pretty good weekend. We hosted a Halloween party this past Saturday and I had a really good time. Had a pretty good turnout, both in amount of people and percentage of those who wore costumes. X made plenty of food (when doesn't he?), got some pictures, and everyone spent time talking. The following movies played on the big screen during the night: Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness and House of a 1000 Corpses. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and although it was a smaller turnout (4 couples, then two hosts) I think I wouldn't have wanted many more people showing up. It's been a while since I threw a party at my house, so this was a good gauge in case I want to throw some bashes before the year is up.

Just a couple of items to report. Was reading Slashdot earlier today, and they linked to a review of a book that I took an immediate liking to. In fact, when talking to Badstar earlier today and he suggested we meet up at Borders tonight before RAW, I decided I would purchase it. A few of us used to go to Borders often. We would all meet up and peruse the isles, then usually sit in the coffee shop and chat. Most of the time it would be idle banter, but when you're amongst friends you really don't have to talk about anything important. Lately, we all haven't been able to meet up like we used to. On those rare occasions that we do make the time, we usually chat while walking around the store, because once we're done someone usually has to be somewhere. I'm not complaining, I just wonder where all my free time has gone (obviously not that far if I can sit here at 12:08 AM typing this). Anyway, picked up the book I was looking for as well as another one titled The Modern Drunkard. Any book that lists it's first chapter as "Real Drunks Don't Drink Zima" is a book I need to own!

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween, and I'll be checking in later.

Rock the Vote!

I can only hope that the 2008 Presidential Election comes down to these two men.

blah ...

Luckily, where I live in Tampa we experienced minor effects from Hurricane Wilma as it travelled across the state this past Monday. However, there were plenty of homes and lives that were greatly affected by this storm. If you have a spare moment please take some time to pray for those who have lost so much, and take the time to be thankful for all that you have.




It's almost 9 0'clock on Wednesday morning and I feel like I could fall asleep right here in my chair. I've been up for almost 3.5 hours, so it's not like I just woke up. I should be used to this by now, but no matter how long I've been doing this (getting up early for school/work) it never seems to get any easier. I would say this is some sort of jet lag attributed to my vacation in Las Vegas, but I got back two weeks ago so that's not really an excuse. Just another sign I'm not as young as I used to be, I guess ...

Not much going on down here. Obviously, the state is in recovery mode due to the latest hurricane. Locally, Tampa seems to be as normal as ever. I know plenty of businesses were open on the Monday that the hurricane rolled through. Personally, I'm hosting a Halloween party this Saturday night. I hope to get a lot of good pictures that evening. Hopefully, all of you have plans for this weekend, although please be safe while you're out.

Pimpin' the Band -- Second Time

First, an update on the current hurricane situation.

Second, I just wanted to promote a couple of my friends' bands.

• Midnight Bowlers League -- rockabilly band based here in Florida that Badstar is a part of. You can check them out here or here.
• Ladies of Deathrow Swimsuit Calendar -- another band that Badstar belongs to. Words simply cannot express, so look here and here.
• Tampa has Crushed the Hopes of All of Us -- Badstar's solo effort. Get a taste by going here and here.
• Negative 8 -- a good friend of mine who lives in Connecticut plays drums with this group. Edit (17:01 EDT): might help if I actually link to their site.

Starting up again ...

Christ, it's October 20th already?! Has it really been that long? ... Well, it seems I've been slacking on the blogging front. I'll try to catch everyone up on some things as I have done quite a bit since last time I posted. Also, I have decided to open up my readership a little by informing all my friends about this little page. I'm hoping it may spur me to be more active in posting. And some of my old friends who I don't talk to much anymore might want to know what's going on.

So, I haven't looked at my last post (Ammy actually made the last post on the blog) but if I remember correctly I had mentioned that I had gone to the ISKA World Martial Arts Tournament in Orlando. So what's been going on since then ...?

1. Better to get this out of the way and just rub it in now. Got a new car. 2006 BMW 330i. Monocco Blue metallic paint. Manual transmission. Chrome trim and leather interior. Woohoo!
2. For all you guys out there, a very important public service announcement.
3. Been surfing the Internet recently and was pointed to these articles. I want you all to read and enjoy the following articles. Read, and know that you've met these people before. Please enjoy ...
• Look At My Striped Shirt!
• I'll Drink Starbucks If I Want, Hippies!
• TPP Undercover: Yuppies
4. I swear one day I will actually get my website up and running.

Other than that, things are decent down here in Tampa. We'll see how things are in a week.

Catching up, Part 3

(Amazing ... not only do I get spam via e-mail, but now it seems I get it through the comments section of my blog ... fan-fucking-tastic!)

2 points to make before I get to the next topic:

• Please take a moment to stop and give thanks for all that you have. I always believe that I am very blessed to have the family and friends that I do. I am also extremely lucky in that I live in Tampa, Florida and I was able to escape the wrath of 4 hurricanes last year. Seeing the images of the devastation and continuing hardships due to Hurricane Katrina puts things in perspective, especially on how lucky most of us really are.
• This is nowhere near as heavy a topic as the last point, but I forgot to mention this in my last post. While we were waiting for Lake Texarkana Gamera to start at Metrocon, X and I started talking to some of the other people in the room. One young lady asked us what I thought was a pretty interesting question. Interesting in that if I was asked the question again, I would answer totally differently. I think she asked us why we had gone to Metrocon, or more generally why we liked anime. I can't even remember what I said at the time, but to answer that now I would say that it's to keep myself young (as if I'm really that old ...). What I mean is, now that I have a home, job, various bills and payments due, etc., I find that my time is mainly being spent trying to be responsible and act like the adult I'm supposed to be. Watching anime (and to a lesser extent playing video games) lets me escape from all my worldly pressures and lets me simply be a kid enjoying life.

U.S. Open 2005

After attending Metrocon, I felt a great renewal in my interest towards martial arts. This was fortunate, since the very next weekend was the U.S Open of Karate/World Martial Arts Championships. X was the first one to ever tell me about this annually held event. He went to it once back when we were in college, and he always talks about some of the impressive demonstrations and matches he saw. So last year we decided to go check it out and we had such a great time that we pretty much plan on going every year now. So, this year it was held at the Coronado Springs Resort Hotel and Convention Center in Walt Disney World. The tournament happens over two days (in this case on July 1 & 2) with martial artists coming from all over to compete in numerous events. The tournament is spread around multiple ballrooms in the resort, so X and I spent the first day going all over watching various competitions. I remember watching the individual competition for men's and women's traditional weapons, musical/extreme weapons, musical/extreme forms, and ISKA/USBA breaking. On Saturday, we spent almost all day in one ballroom watching the ISKA World Breaking Competition which was taped and will be televised on ESPN2 (sometime ...). I have to admit that this may be the coolest event for me to watch. Shit, who doesn't want to watch people break things? I want to speak more on this, but I'm honestly losing track of everything that happened. Unfortunately, that's what happens when I wait too long to write about something (and it doesn't help that I have the worst memory of anyone I know).

Another update will come shortly.

Catching up, Part 2

(Sorry, meant to have this up a lot earlier than today.)

Metrocon 2005

So from June 24 - 26, X and I decided to go to Metrocon, an anime convention held annually here in Tampa. This was their third year of existence, but their first year holding the festivities at the Tampa Convention Center. I haven't gone to many conventions, but I've always had a lot of fun at the few I have attended. I usually treat it like a vacation, and it's always nice to surround yourself with people that share your interests. I probably won't go describing the convention too much, as I'm not really sure many of you are interested (but if you are, just post a comment; I can always write about the con in a later post). I will say that for being at an anime convention for two days, I didn't actually watch much anime while there. It's funny, but we mainly spent our time in the dealer's room, watching Lake Texarkana Gamera, and walking the Path of the Samurai.

The dealer's room was pretty cool. Besides there being plenty of vendors selling anime and anime-related merchandise, there was also a vendor selling replica weapons, a couple of costume shops (cosplayers ... mmm ... ), and various other stalls.

Lake Texarkana Gamera ... how to explain this? Well, best thing to say is that it was maybe one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. Mr. John Swasey, voice actor/director for ADV Films, was the director for the dub of Gamera: Attack of Legion. I don't honestly remember the whole story, but after dubbing the movie some of the people involved with the English dub got it in their heads that they should make another dub of the movie. But this time, they should dub almost all the parts (they left the main female lead alone) as if the characters are from rural East Texas. I do not know if words can do this justice. This may quite possibly be the funniest thing I've ever seen. If you ever get the chance, rent or check out the Gamera Limited Edition Boxed Set. You have to get the boxed set, as the stand-alone version of Gamera: Attack of Legion does not have the full dub of Lake Texarkana Gamera. But the you'll find it is well worth it to find this edition.

Path of the Samurai ... this was an awesome experience. Basically, a local dojo came to the convention to show people the ways of Japanese swordsmanship. Sensei Mike Femal came to explain the basic tenets of the samurai, and to demonstrate the style of swordmanship that he teaches here in the bay area, Toyama Ryu Batto Jutsu. I found this interesting for two reasons. First, because I have always been interested in the sword arts. Secondly, I studied Edo Yagyu Shinkage-ryu Heiho for some time last year (before multiple hurricanes, laziness, and some personal issues caused me to stop), and I was very interested in seeing where the two styles differed. The classes that were taught went extremely well. They had something like 70-80 people sign up to participate, and X and I lent a hand in their preparations and instructions. We spent a lot of time speaking to the instructors from the dojo. I think we ended up spending 4 hours in this one activity. I want to express my deepest thanks to Sensei Femal and his students for putting on such great demonstrations and classes. That helped to get me energized for my next outing ...

Catching up, Part 1

A lot of things have been going on for me these last 3 weeks, so my updates have been nonexistant. I feel like I finally have some time to play catch-up, so let's begin.

Father's Day Weekend

For Father's Day weekend, I traveled up to New Albany, OH with my parents to visit my sister and her family. Besides it being Father's Day that Sunday, it was also going to be my niece's birthday on Monday so we decided to celebrate her birthday that weekend. My niece, Amanda, was turning 4 years old and I have not seen her in quite a few months. I also had not seen my nephew, Miles, in a long while either so I was really looking forward to this trip.

I won't go into too much detail, but let me say I had a really great time visiting my relatives. Amanda is absolutely adorable, and she loves to talk and run around. She loves her Grandma and Grandpa, and she shows lots of affection for me too. That's incredible to me, because when she was younger she was very shy around me and did not come up to me or give me hugs much. But ever since she turned 3, it's been a different story. But it wasn't just her. Just a few years ago I would not have been comfortable around little kids. I really didn't know how to play with them or relate to them well. But I think I've gotten much better, and I feel more natural when I'm around young-ins. Maybe it just means I'm turning into an old man ... Anyway, I had a lot of fun playing with Amanda all weekend and Miles did not fuss and was generally a happy baby the entire time.

Seeing the way my Mom and Dad interacted with my sister and her family, especially Amanda and Miles, really made me appreciate them. I am very lucky to have two wonderful parents who love and support me no matter what. I remember all the times they have been there for me. Even now, when I am pretty much considered an adult they still support me with my finances and troubles. And they do this all because they want to give their children every opportunity to live a happy life. I can only hope that when I eventually marry and start my own family I can be the type of husband and father I see in my Dad. Unfortunately, I think my future as a father will look something more like this.

COBRA!!!!

Gonzo Studios producing the art for a new G.I. Joe series?! Please be good, please for the love of God be good! ...

Some more random items to share

I'm still working on a couple of posts that should be up shortly, most likely in the next couple of days. I'm in the middle of a busy month, but that is providing me with some material and ideas for new posts. Anyway, keep an eye out since I plan on updating often. For now, however ...

http://www.damnfunnypictures.com/html/Carolina-News-Owned.html

Grandfather kills leopard with his hands - I have to link to Fark.com, without which I would never have found this story (alright, Jason found this story but he wouldn't have seen it if it wasn't for Fark)

Edit (23:16 EST, 06/23/2005): The first link to the "Carolina News Owned" story will cause a couple of popups, so be warned. Also, I just attempted to view the story again and although it is still up I could not access any of the pictures, which were the real treats. I'll see if I can find them elsewhere. -Dracos

Edit (09:34 EST, 06/24/2005): And when I look at the Carolina story from work, the pictures come up fine. So give it a try anyway, if you haven't yet. -Dracos

Wait for it ...

Just wanted to write a quick note. I am working on a post for the end of this weekend. Might be a little bit different than what I usually say, but I hope people at least find it interesting. I'm heading out to the airport in a few minutes. I'm joining my family in going up to Ohio to visit my sister and her family. It is also my niece's birthday, so it should be a fun time. Have a good Father's Day this weekend, and I hope everyone is doing well.

Jesus has come, and he plays for Florida State University

Now, I hope this young man just went on a huge drinking binge and is not mentally unstable. I'd hate to be accused of poking fun at someone who is mentally unbalanced. But I do bleed Orange & Blue, so I use every opportunity I can to poke fun at FSU.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2084954

Pimpin' the band

I just thought I would pimp some of my friends' bands while I've got some space. I meant to do this at a much earlier time, but never got around to it.

Badstar - Badstar belongs in too many bands for me to count. However, here are some links to two of his group websites. And if I can find the link to his solo project, I'll post it later.

1. Midnight Bowlers League
2. Ladies of Deathrow Swimsuit Calendar
3. Tampa Has Crushed the Hopes of Us All

Garath - I have known Garath for a good part of my life, and although I've always known he has had a penchant for destruction by percussion instruments I have only recently discovered he is playing in a band of his own. I haven't gotten the chance to download and listen to any of their songs, but here's the site if you are interested.

1. Negative 8

Random thoughts ...

http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000270043583/ - I have always respected Mark Cuban. From everything I have ever read and/or heard about the man, he seems like a normal blue-collar guy despite his riches. And I admire his grasp of technolgy. So when I read stuff like this that he wrote, I only respect him more because it shows he still thinks like the common man.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8094398/ - Awesome. Just plain awesome.

http://www.daniellefisher.net/ - And on a related note, you can get more details about the above here.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8157849/ - Japan kicks ass! And soon, they will have robots that kick ass for them.


http://www.newturfers.com/mwf/attach/38/355838/BBCNEWSWorldLionMutilates42MidgetsinCambodianRing-Fight.htm - This may be the greatest faked news story I have ever read. And how do I know that it was faked ...

http://lionvs40midgets.uk-directory.com/ - ... because of this.

SCANDAL!

I had the boys from work over to my house this past Saturday for a little night of gaming. A couple of us all own EA Sports' Fight Night Round 2, and we had all been talking shit to each other about how so-and-so was going to beat so-and-so. Well, Saturday night came around and it was time to settle all the grudge matches. The main one that was brewing was between myself and my friend Jason. He and his wife (sorry Christy; I swear they'll be more girls here next time so you won't be bored) showed up about midway through the night and it was time to fight. Up until Jason had arrived, we had already had a pretty fun time fighting each other in Soulcalibur II and then we had decided to start Fight Night. I had already decimated most of my opponents in Fight Night until the time Jason arrived; in fact, so complete was the destruction of my opponents that they usually resorted to DQ'ing themselves in the fight to avoid any more public humiliation.

But now Jason was here. It was time to prove who is the best. At first, Jason was having trouble fighting me like all the rest. In his defense, he was using a pre-made character versus my created character who I had built up through the career mode. Translation: my character is stronger overall than the one he was using. Also, he was playing on the opposite side from what he is used to. For those of you who might not understand this, in Fight Night (and in some other games) the first player is always oriented on the left-side of the screen no matter how much you move the character around. So, some people get used to this and have trouble when they have to play the second-player side which would always be oriented on the right. So being the benevolent gaming god that I am, I offered Jason a chance at redemption by allowing him to choose a more even character and letting him play as the first-player. Now, you would think that my benevolence would be rewarded with a good, clean fight. Nay, good sir/madam. You would be wrong!

Somehow, Jason paid off the virtual referee! We were in the middle of a classic heavyweight fight, going 10 rounds strong! I will easily admit that Jason was hurting me with brutal haymakers, but I was landing a lot more shots on Jason each round. Though mine were weaker, the fact that I was hitting a larger percentage and amount of hits was winning me rounds with the judges. Then sometime in the middle of the 10th round, the ref stops the fight! WTF?!? What gives you the audacity to stop this match?! Bah, so what if I can't see out of one eye? I still have one good eye! And I was winning on two of the three judges cards, and was set to win by decision after the 12th round! This treasonous attempt to usurp my throne by Jason will not go unchallenged! I was never knocked out, and I will never acknowledge any win that Jason might claim he has! He paid off the ref to save him, because he knew he was never going to win this fight!

Rest in Peace, Red Dog ...

A couple of weeks ago, I was alerted to some horrible news. The Red Dog Bar & Grill had closed. A friend of mine from work, who also was the person to introduce me to this wonderful place, told me.

X, rotfiend and I have all gone there many times, and we got to know some of the people who had worked there. It was a fun place, with a rustic look and damn good music coming from the jukebox. Kinda small, but there was a deck out front that could accomadate quite a lot of people. Parking was shitty, but then we always parked next door in the shopping plaza anyway. The food was always great and they had a good selection of beer on tap and in bottles (who can go wrong with some Shinerbock). A lot of times, X and I would meet up there after a long day at work on a Thursday and just relax, roll some bones, and drink until we had to meet some friends later on in the evening. Oh, and did I mention that Thursday nights were Theme Nights. I don't really know how it started, and I don't really care. All I know is that I liked it! The women all seemed to enjoy it, and I'm sure their tips over the course of a Thursday evening got to be pretty nice. The bar also got a pretty good amount of people regularly coming in. It was located near Macdill Airforce base, so a lot of military came. I have personally seen players from the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Red Dog, including Vincent Lecavalier and Dave Andreychuk. When they won Lord Stanley's Cup, they even brought it there. Shit, we enjoyed going there so much that myself and two others were plotting to buy the place. Be much more fun than what we do now, that's for sure. Unfortunately, that's all over now.

I can't say it came as much of a surprise when I heard that the Red Dog was gone. Their website (luckily archived by the Wayback Machine) had been unreachable for quite a few months. From what I understand, near the end you could go there and ask for a certain beer only to be told that they didn't have any. How can a bar not have shit like Bud Light?

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Have to pick a new watering hole, I reckon. As X likes to say, I hate to watch you go, Red Dog, but I love to watch you leave.

*^@G$!

I am simply going to stop mentioning how I intend to finish this, or do that, and just fucking write.

OK, took two tests in the past week that were linked off this journal of sorts that I read now. A friend of mine from work showed this site to me after I got back from Japan, and quite frankly it is awesome. I cannot say I witnessed any of the things that Azrael mentions in his posts (except for the hidden trash can in Kyoto; wtf is up with that?), but reading about his experience kind of makes me want to go back. If you are interested in a little read, go to I am a Japanese School Teacher.

As for the tests, here were my results.

Pretty good You are 64% smarty pants!

Good work! There's more for you to learn, but you have a very good foundation to build on. You definitely have an above average level of knowledge. Also check out The Academically Hardcore Test.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 24% on Knowledge

Link: The Understand Stuff Around You Test written by backatcha on Ok Cupid

Softcore You scored 24 gunnerness!

You're a laid back student. This doesn't mean that you don't care about school, but you don't let yourself become consumed with a test or assignment, and a bad test score won't get you down. You wonder if those who work harder are actually happy with their lives or are just trying to please someone else in their lives. There are better ways to spend your time than stressing out over school. It's important to have a life outside of class. After all, that's where the real education is to be had. Also check out The Understand Stuff Around You Test.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 40% on gunnerness

Link: The Academically Hardcore Test written by backatcha on Ok Cupid

It's Updating Time!

Been a long time, hasn't it? Ok, time to fill everyone in on what's been going on the last few weeks.

1. Japan
First of all, my vacation in Japan was awesome. Despite the fact that I was sick throughout (and felt progressively worse each day), I still felt it was all well worth the effort. I met a lot of cool people that I still try to talk to when I can. I definitely plan on going again, maybe next year. I must also give props to Pop Japan Travel, the company I booked the vacation through. I felt the tour was run in a way that gave us a lot to do, but didn't compromise on our free time in the country. All of our tour guides were very helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. I definitely plan on going out to Japan with all of you again!

2. Health
On the way to Japan, it seems I caught a cold. Thai Airways did not have the air conditioner running on the plane when it was sitting in the LAX terminal, so it was hot when we got on. It stayed warm almost the entire flight (12 hours), and one thing I cannot stand is being stuck in a warm area with no place to go to cool down. Upon landing in Kansai International Airport, I already had a sore throat. As the trip proceeded, I progressively got worse and developed a cough, congestion, stuffy/runny nose and nightly fevers. Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with Japanese OTC medicine, and neither myself nor X had thought to bring more than a small amount of medicine (neither of us expected to get sick, but then who does ...). The worst part was still to come, however. The flights home were an absolute nightmare, as the changes in pressure that I experienced during all three flights (Kansai->LAX, LAX->Houston, Houston->Tampa) gave me a full-blown sinus infection. Finally home, I was able to go to my doctor and I got medicine for 10 days. After the 10 days were up, I felt pretty good and thought I had beaten it. I was wrong. I was well for maybe 2-3 days, and then I started feeling like I had a mild sore throat. It's never gotten any worse than that, just a mild sore throat and a cough. It's annoying, but it's much better than the sinus headaches I was having right after I got home. I plan on going to my doctor again on Monday to get another prescription for antibiotics and decongestants.

The other bad part about this infection is that it makes me lethargic and so I haven't gone to the gym since I got back from Japan. I was doing real good and going to the gym 3 times/week and really working hard at getting back into shape. I'm not really that overweight, in fact, I wouldn't mind weighing what I do if it was muscle and not fat. I just hate missing this time in the gym.

3. Gaming
I have four new items to review, but that will be in the next post. I will mention each one briefly, just so you know what's been occupying my time.

• God of War: Platform - PS2.
• Fight Night Round 2: Platform - PS2 & Xbox
• Jade Empire: Platform - Xbox
• Sony Playstation Portable (PSP)

That's it for now. I hope to have the full writeup for my Japan vacation up shortly, and then I will review the above games/system. Hope everyone's doing well, and I will be updating more frequently now that I have the energy.

Not quite finished, but almost there ...

OK, you've all been very patient with me and I appreciate that. I still haven't finished writing up my experiences in Japan, but I have gone ahead and made the pictures available to view online. If you go to my website I have created links to the folders that contain pictures for each day I was there. When the writeup is posted, I will be able to provide more context for the pictures so you have a better understanding of where I went and what I did each day of the trip. So I guess this could be considered a little teaser. Enjoy!

Aargh ...

Terribly sorry for the lack of updates lately. I do expect to be posting a major update tonight on both this blog and my webpage. I will have the pictures and summary for my trip to Japan up, as well as other thoughts since I have gotten back. No promises, but that's my only real goal for tonight after work.

I'm not dead yet ...

Cold is still kicking my ass, but now that I have American medicine and God of War in my hands I believe I will pull though. The pictures from the trip have been transferred over to my webserver, but I have not posted the link yet. Need to build up a nice page for them first. Also, I have some pictures that I got from one of the guys X and I met on the trip. He was rotfiend's roommate, and a really cool kid. I want to post some of his pictures too, but I will get his permission before I do anything. Any questions about my trip will automatically be referred to this one sentence.

PJT Spring Tour 2005 was XTREME!!!

Quick update ....

I know I said would be updating everyday while I was in Japan, but obviously that's not happening. Here's the quick update.

• Long and short of it is, the plane ride got me sick. After riding in that plane for 12 hours, I came out with a sore throat. This has now developed into absolute misery. Sore throat, fever, head cold, stuffy/runny nose ... yet I push on ...
• Despite my physical ailment, the trip has been absolutely wonderful. Have met some very cool people. Seen many cool things. And, hey, it's Japan!
• Pictures will not be posted until I get back. Sorry to those who were looking forward to them, but you'll have to wait a while longer.

OK, I'd like to say more but I can no longer breathe. I fear I may not be long for this world ...

Konbanwa!

As I write this, it is currently 9:36 PM in Kansai International Airport. All I have to report at this time is that 12 hours in economy class on a 747 would not I have been much of a problem if it hadn't been about 85 fucking degrees in the cabin. I have been flying on planes for about 20 years now, and I have never been in a plane that was that hot during the flight. Despite this, Thai Airways still gets a thumbs up for free alcohol (plenty of wine, cognac, and mixed drinks) and damn good food. No pictures yet.

Disjointed thoughts ...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

My Love for You is Like Usurper!

The Usurper You scored 52% Cardinal, 17% Monk, 29% Lady, and 78% Knight!

You have both the lust for war of the Knight and the wicked morals of the Cardinal. You are truly a dangerous one who likes power and will stop at nothing to get it. If the king dares stand in the way of your ambitions you will have no qualms about removing him from the throne and placing yourself there instead. You scored high as both the Knight and the Cardinal. You can try again to get a more precise description of either the Cardinal or the Knight, or you can be happy that you're an individual.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 77% on Cardinal You scored higher than 4% on Monk You scored higher than 8% on Lady You scored higher than 98% on Knight

Link: The Who Would You Be in 1400 AD Test written by KnightlyKnave on Ok Cupid

Well, Badstar, how does this work for you?

Back on 03/11/05 I posted a link to an MSNBC story touching on how far robotics has advanced in Japan. I had joked about picking up a robot when I'm there on vacation starting at the end of next week. Of course, Badstar had an excellent comment on my post.

Evil Badstar said...

Hold out for the Japanese Schoolgirl-bot. You can name it Mia. :D

I do believe this is a great idea. However, I think the fine folks who create the webcomic Penny Arcade may have thought this out to it's logical conclusion.



(Note: I have used this image without the original creator's consent. Please contact me if this is a problem, so that I can remove it.)

Real things, Egg?

I took something today.





I can see things no one else can see. Do things no one else can do.

SEC Tournament Champions

Florida 70 - Kentucky 53

Please note: I do not own the above image. I grabbed it through a Google Image Search.

Might need to purchase my own robot while I'm in Japan

Just saw this on MSNBC.com. When I'm in Japan, I'll try to at least get pictures. This is damn cool.

Japan embraced new generation of robots

But if there are girls there I want to DO them!

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Golfing Haiku

I hate this damn game.
Why does it frustrate me so?
I should have gone home.

T-minus 29 Days and counting ...

My first real vacation of this year will be starting in about a month and I absolutely cannot wait to go. For those of you who haven't been around me lately, myself and two friends (X and rotfiend) are going to be traveling to the Land of the Rising Sun at the end of March. I'll be gone for eight days and during the trip I will be visiting Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo (with possibilities for even more places to see).

Since this will be my first time traveling to Japan, I am going as part of a tour group. I would have liked to done this all on my own, but with the limited amount of Japanese I have learned so far and my unfamiliarity with that part of the world I feel it's better if I go as part of a bigger group. Also, I have always expected that this will not be my only trip to Japan. For all intents and purposes, this is more like a scouting mission. I see no reason why I won't be going back at another time, and when I do so I can explore the country more on my own.

For those who are interested to know exactly what I'll be doing in Japan, here's the itinerary.

I'll add more on this later, cause right now I need to get back to work.

God bless 'Robot Chicken'...

I'm George W. Bush, and I approve this message.


'Tacos rule!'

Jack of all trades, Master of none ...

I have waaaay too many interests. I've found myself trying to take on too many different activities at one time, but I have no desire to give up any one of them. Between work, video games, learning japanese/spanish/german, building a web site, studying for CCNA certification, seeing family, spending time with friends, exercise, Iaido, etc., I guess it shouldn't surprise me too much that I never feel like I have enough free time ...

... guess that might be why I am currently single. (Note to self: fix that)

But I digress. I find myself having many various interests. Some are due to a desire on my part to be more knowledgeable in a certain way, to enhance my career choices and path. Mainly this is evident in my trying to maintain a website (yes, trying being the operative word; haven't had the site up in two weeks at least now. Need to get that back on track.) and with my studying for CCNA certification. Other interests I have taken up are purely personal, to improve upon myself as a whole. I see this in my studying of different languages, as well as in my study of martial arts.

All in all, I aspire to achieve mastery in all the things that I have undertaken. The problem is that sometimes I feel that I'll never master any of them. Only be marginal in all of them. Don't know how I'd feel if that turned out to be the case. I can only do my best, and for now remain the jack of all trades and master of none ...




... well, I am master of one thing. The Ladder Match! And not a damn one of you can defeat me!

E-A-G-L-E-S!

Just a quick shout of support to the Philadelphia Eagles in tonight's Superbowl. I am not really an Eagles fan, but I hope they win tonight's game. I love football, and seeing the game tonight will be a great way to end a very exciting season. Wish my two teams did better this year, but there's always hope for 2005. Anyway, beat the Patriots tonight Eagles!

If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.

Badstar had a couple of interesting posts up on his blog recently, where he took two seperate tests from QuizFarm.com that were supposed to determine which religion he was "closest to". You can go to his blog to look at his results, but as for me, I figured why not try the tests out myself. I've never been even remotely religious, though that is not to say that I do not believe in religion. I was baptized Catholic, but I never really ever attended Church or any kind of services (excepting the few I've gone to with friends). Religion was never really that important in my family life. I have a loving family and as a child and currently as an adult, that's all I need. But anyway, what will I come out as after taking these two quizzes?

You scored as Wicca/Witchcraft. Wiccans are from a relatively new religion, dating only as far back as the early to mid 1900s. This is deceptive, Wicca is based off a religion that is very ancient and whose participants were hunted by the church in massive witch hunts. Although wiccan magic states that it "must harm no one". In the middle ages, a witch would have been hunted and killed if they were caught preforming any magical act, even healing. A sadder fact, though, is that most of the people killed for being witches in history were not in fact witches. Wicca/Witchcraft 63% Druidism 53% Confusion -ism 45% Atheist 33% Christianity 25% What religion are you closest to? created with QuizFarm.com

That was the first test. I honestly didn't like a lot of the 50 questions that were asked, and like Badstar I feel taking another test might give better results. So, how about this one?

You scored as Buddhist. Jewish 70% Buddhist 70% Christian 65% Catholic 60% Cult 55% Anarchist 30% Religion created with QuizFarm.com

The second test consisted of a shorter list of questions (30), but I feel like this one might be more accurate. In the previous test, I answered a lot of questions with what would be considered neutral answers, because I did not really feel all too strongly one way or another. At least with this second test, I was given more of an opportunity to take a clear position on each question.

Of course, all this has made me think back to other tests I have taken. Usually, these have all been fun little internet quizzes that determine stuff like Which Fantasy/SciFi character are you? (I ended up being Agent Smith from the Matrix on my first time taking the test), Which D&D Character are you? (played a lot of this when I was younger; the test said I was a Chaotic Good Human Ranger; funny, I've never played such a character...), and lastly one of my favorites is What Pre-1985 Video Game Character Am I?

I am a Gauntlet Adventurer. I strive to improve my living conditions by hoarding gold, food, and sometimes keys and potions. I love adventure, fighting, and particularly winning - especially when there's a prize at stake. I occasionally get lost inside buildings and can't find the exit. I need food badly. What Video Game Character Are You?

'With Cheese!'

Speaking of Zen Koans I have been pondering something.

Do you know that McDonald's commercial where the duder was supposed to go out and get snacks for a party and ends up getting about $50 worth of those new Double Quarter Pounders? The key point to that commercial is not his sticking skewers into the burgers as a solution for the party, but rather his rationale is that things will be all better because the burgers are 'With cheese!'

The cheese is catch-all, the reason that the difficult becomes the viable. This Boddhisatva is saying that the cheese melds us, spiritually as well as physically, presenting a solution to a problem. The cheese, metaphorically speaking, is the love of a Higher Being that binds us together; without the bond of the melted cheese, we are basically an anarchic pile of breads, meats, and veggies causing disharmony in the party. The simple solution ruling over the complex quandry, the unifying point that reigns in the rogue.

Oh, could it be that we in our daily lives were more 'With cheese!', then truly peace and harmony shall follow.

Namaste,

-Evil Badstar.
(Methodist)

I'm the best there is at what I do

I was working on a draft of something to post about 3 days ago, but it simply wasn't coming along like I had hoped. So I scrapped it, and plan to return to it another day. That leaves me with little to talk about, at least until i came up with this idea.

I am an avid video game player and movie watcher (less so with movies, but I have a pretty decent-sized DVD collection). I have a pretty good library of games, and my roommate and I tend to rent the latest games when they get released. So, why not review what I play?

Before I get into this, let me just say that I do not review games/movies for a living nor do I have any entity paying me for any support/endorsement I might give. I also can only speak for myself, and do not in any way guarantee that someone reading any of my reviews will get the same experience as I did. So don't come to me crying because I praised something that you hated, because I don't fucking care! Last, when it comes to games/movies I only ask for one thing: entertain me! I don't care if I'm watching something epic like The Lord of the Rings trilogy or something ridiculous like Gymkata. All I ask is that I be entertained for the amount of time I spend watching/playing so that I don't feel like i just wasted my money and time. Now, on to the reviews.

1. The Punisher: Platform - PS2. Expectations - All I am asking for is a high body count. Experience - So far (as this is our current rental), The Punisher has met my primary requirement: high body count. The game runs fairly smoothly on the PS2, and the load times are not bad in my estimation. Levels are fairly straight-forward, as most missions we have encountered seem to involve clearing out areas of local thugs and/or mafia-types. The game designers also instituted an interesting gameplay device where you can take an enemy hostage and then proceed to "interrogate" him/her. These "interrogations" basically consist of you choosing which way you will torture your victim to "break" them of their resistance, so they will give you clues for you continuing mission. There are also special zones in the surrounding environment which act as special interrogations, where the Punisher will use maybe a wood chipper or some other device to scare the victim into talking. Needless to say, this game is not for children. However, I wouldn't call it excessively gory, just that if you have ever read a Punisher comic than you can reasonably expect the same level of violence.
2. Mercenaries: Platform - PS2. Expectations - When your commercials are centered around the idea of "blowing the crap" out of everything in the game, I better damn well get exactly that. Experience - Mercenaries is exactly like they say in the commercials. You play as one of three mercs who work for a global corporation. In the game, it seems there is a new leader of North Korea, who has decided that he is going to reunify with South Korea. By force. Your job is to work for any or all of 4 factions within the game (South Korea, China, A.N.*, Russian Mafia) to stop North Korea, and to gain as much money as possible while doing so. Now, you start out being fairly neutral towards all the factions (except North Korea, who will always be your enemy), and depending on your actions your rating within each faction will raise/lower. Also, one faction may have you do a job that will be to the detriment of another faction so there is some complexity in solving missions without being branded an enemy by another group. But enough with all this talk of missions and complex faction-building. The question on everyone's mind is, "Can you really blow the crap out of everything?" With the exception of trees in the environment, the answer is a resounding "Yes, yes you can!"
3. Resident Evil 4: Platform - Gamecube. Expectations - Hmmm ... I really didn't have much in the way of expectations on this one. I had a fond memory of my experienced with the other Resident Evil games, so as long as I was given the same kind of atmosphere then I would probably be happy. Experience - Great fucking game! This may be the best Resident Evil yet, and I have played nearly all of them. My first complaint of any RE game has always been that they never give you enough ammo. I understand that I should be scared and that I need to run away from the nasty hordes of zombies that want to eat my brains, but sometimes a man wants to stand and fight. In RE4, they give you that opportunity. Ammo drops much more frequently, much to my liking. Another area that was fixed was in the orientation of the character in relation to the controls. I knew of many friends who could not play the older RE games because of the control scheme that was implemented. Simply put, in older RE games to move your character forward you have to press up on the controller, no matter which direction your character is facing on the screen. This would confound some people, because the character may be situated so he/she is looking towards the bottom of the screen, so naturally you would want to push down on the controller to move the character in that direction but you would still need to press up because that would make the character to move forward. In RE4 the viewpoint is situated just over the right-hand shoulder of the main character in the game at all times, so pressing upwards on the controller would seem natural when you want to move the character forward. Lastly, this game looks like it will take a good amount of time to play through as well as showing off incredible graphics and atmosphere. I highly recommend this to anyone with a Gamecube.

Ja matta!

Just like to offer a little welcome ...

A good friend of mine has to decided to grace my little blog with his wit and presence. I hope that everyone will give JerseyStrangler some time to develop here. I, for one, am greatly appreciative in that he has decided to take some time to impart his wisdom upon us mere mortals through my small sphere of influence here in the web.

Further Updates: Two more good friends of mine are going to be joining me in this little endeavor. That brings my currnet count of blog contributors up to 3. I probably won't get anymore people onboard, unless someone really wants to help out. Anyway, please keep an eye out for posts from Ammy and X. I have known JerseyStrangler, X and Ammy for over 10 years now, and I expect them to all contribute things of interest over the course of this blogs life.

Also, I would like to make a correction about my Lazy Saturday post. X has informed me that the pictures of deep sea fish are not those of creatures that washed onshore due to the tsunami. According to his sources, they were captured during a deep sea excursion that scientists made a few weeks before the tsunami occurred. It sucks to have your facts wrong, but the pictures themselves are cool so it is still worth a look.


Auf Wiedersehen!

Memorable Quotes

Neil Patrick Harris: [to Kumar] I know it's a dick move. That's why I'm paying for your meal.
[looks down to count money]
Neil Patrick Harris: [quietly] Prick.

Lazy Saturday ...

Not much to report today. Been a pretty lazy Saturday, even here at work. Raining outside to, so there's been less to do. Anyway, saw these two items earlier today. I originally saw these stories on the site, Slashdot, which is a great site for us techies.

The first one is a classic example of why I need to go take a vacation to Japan. Cause I know I need this product. Oh! Super Toaster!

Secondly, we have a bunch of posts on what looks to be a Russian diving message board. In a lot of the posts there are pictures of various fish that have washed ashore because of the terrible tsunami that hit SE Asia. Some of these fish look like they were pulled from the deeper parts of the ocean. This page takes a while to load, due to all the images but I think it is worth it just to see what kinds of creatures there are in our oceans.

Ja matta!

Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! Children of all ages! Welcome ...

I love the news. I try to keep up-to-date on what is happening in the world, if for nothing more than to use later in conversation. Sometimes you can find real gems when looking at stories across various sites. Here are two such stories I enjoyed reading today:

1. This first story was linked off the Drudge Report, which I don't go to often. So, I cannot verify the authenticity of this story.

2. I have seen this second story reported on many of the various major news sites (CNN, MSNBC, etc.).

I plan on adding some extra stuff to this blog soon. Mainly just a listing of links I frequent, so you'll have a better understanding of some of my interests. Those will probably be up in the next few days.

Adios.

... quick update on life ...

Well, just a quick update since my last post. At work, our NOC is complete and we have all moved up into the new area. It is not as bad as I feared, but we'll see as time develops how this all affects our group dynamic.

Gotta get back to work, but I may be posting some site links and stuff later for your amusement.

"Have you paid your dues, Jack?"

For a little over 4 years now, I have worked as a tech support rep for a non-profit organization here in St. Petersburg, FL. Coming out of college, my grades were OK (nothing spectacular, as I seemed to suffer from acute senioritis) but what I found out during many interviews was that to get a foot into the IT world one needs to have practical job experience. School work is nice to look at and it was nice that I had a degree, but it wouldn't get me a job. So, I figured that to get where I want to be in the industry I needed to "pay my dues" and work up the ladder. I was offered a job in the local Tampa Bay area, and to this day I am thankful to the man that hired me for believing in a young kid that was fresh out of college.

Honestly, I have been surprised that I have stayed at my job for as long as I have. If you've never done it or do not know people who have, technical support wears you down. And I feel like I've been ground down to the bone. The only reason I have stayed with it this long is two-fold. First, I work with a great group of people. We all get along, joke around with each other, and generally have a good comraderie. Secondly, it's simply been easier to stay with the familiar then venture into the unknown.

Now, my company has just about finished a "NOC", or Network Operations Center. A NOC is generally a command post, where techs like me monitor the various systems that the company is running so we can prevent or respond to any problems that might occur. When I first heard that they were building a NOC, I was excited because I thought it signalled that my company is trying to be more proactive in regards to preventing problems. I also looked towards this as an opportunity for advancement within the company becuase it seemed we would be working more closely with some of our upper-level engineers. But as the project has been finishing up, I have become less and less optimistic. The more I've watched, the more it seems that this whole setup is just a cosmetic change. It looks like we'll be doing our same job as always, just in a "nicer" area with some upgraded equipment (mainly new desks and monitors). We have a meeting today where the rumor is that we will be told how we are now supposed to conduct ourselves. Previously, we have been given a lot of leeway in how we act because we are generally out of the public's eye. This has helped because it allowed all of us techs to develop a great chemistry. Now I am worried that will all be changed. I honestly can't imagine coming to work and not joking around with some of the guys between calls, as that helps to take the edge and frustration out of the job.

As the time for this whole change draws nearer, I've thought more and more about the line Jack Burton gave to that 8-foot tall maniac. "Have you paid your dues, Jack? Yes sir, the check is in the mail."

On to the boring stuff ...

I was born in Sanford, NC back on December 5, 1977. Shortly thereafter, my family moved down to Tampa, FL where we have lived ever since. I attended K-12 public schools here, and after graduating from Chamberlain High School I went to the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. I attended that institution for 4 years, and I graduated in May of 2000 with a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science. From there, I moved back to Tampa where I was eventually hired by a local non-profit organization to join their technical support team. I have been working there ever since.

Real boring life, eh? I will say that I am blessed to have a great group of friends in this town, and that I also am working with probably the best group of people I could have hoped for. I will honestly say that I would have left Tampa long ago if it weren't for the friends I have here, as well as the coworkers at my job.

Regardless, I am beginning to wonder if it may be time to move on. I'm still young, and I'm starting to think that 3 years in one place may be a bit too long especially with opportunities that I might find elsewhere. I can't say I will be leaving anytime soon, as I have been planning for the last year to take a vacation this coming March or April (more on that later). But I think it's time for me to look into moving on to further my career ...