(Holiday) Weekend Update

Eight Pounds of Awesome

My nephew is much cuter than you.  I may or may not have ever met you in person, but I’m still comfortable making that statement.  More important than being cute though, is the fact that he is perfectly healthy and doing well.  My sister is also recovering nicely, and she says that the baby is sleeping pretty well at night and eating well.  She can’t nurse him due to the synthetic thyroid hormones she has to take, but currently he is doing fine on formula.

My niece (age 7) is also doing a good job of adjusting to the new baby being around.  She gets a bit jealous of the attention he is getting sometimes, but she also loves being the big sister and getting to help take care of him.  I know it will be an big change for her since she has been an only child for so long, but really, things are going better than I expected so far.


A much needed Holiday

I’m really glad that we took an extra day off so we could spend more time with my family.  Too often we just arrive there on a Friday night and leave Sunday afternoon, and that is just too short of a visit.  This time we really got to relax and spend some quality time together.  We went bowling, swimming, played Settlers of Catan, and card games, and Rummikub, as well as some good ole Polish Horseshoes.  I packed my new Bocce set (which weighs about 35 hojillion pounds) and that turned out to be a hit too.  Thankfully we had a nice turn in the weather and it was very pleasant to be outside if you stayed in the shade.  Down from 105 degrees a week ago to about 85, which almost feels like air conditioning in comparison.

Traffic wasn’t too bad on the drive in either direction.  I think we missed the worst of it because we left pretty late on Friday night and didn’t come back until Tuesday afternoon.  Plus we were driving East-West and not headed to the beach North-South with everyone else on earth.  It was nice to get back to the house around 3:30pm and have plenty of time to unwind and relax before having to go to work the next day.  Sometimes I get back from a “vacation” feeling more tired than when I left, but this time I feel pretty refreshed.  And hey, I’ve only got to work 3 days (well, 2 now I guess) before I get a weekend so that is pretty cool.  I’m going to have another 4-day weekend soon, but I’ll get to that story in a minute.


New Job(s)

My wife landed a new job working at the Samford University Library in their Special Collections area. (Do not ask me what “Special Collections” means.  I haven’t a damned clue.)  I’m really excited about this because when we left Charleston she had to give up her job at the James Island Library and I know she really liked working there.  For the past year and a half she has done some data entry work for a company that doesn’t really appreciate her, (they didn’t appreciate me either actually, so I left there in May) and she’s been trying to find library work since we moved here, but it can be a difficult field to break into.  But once you get into the University system you are usually set, and since I have NO plans to move away from Birmingham, like EVER, she and I shouldn’t have to do any more job hunting for quite a while.

Speaking of new jobs, mine is going very well too.  I have neglected to publicly thank Sunburned Goose for the instrumental role that he played in helping me snag my new gig (to my everlasting shame), and it is a stone-cold fact that if I had not become a member of 2old2play that I would not have this great job.  I met Goose through this website, we became friends and talked shop about our respective jobs since we are both computer programmers.  (Well, he is like an “architect” or something, but come on, when you take away all the titles and BS we are both just “code monkeys”.)  Early on it became pretty clear to him that I wasn’t happy with the job I had (I had taken it only because it helped me get moved to Birmingham) and he told me he would keep an eye out for opportunities at his place of business.  Sure enough, after a few months a spot opened up that was a perfect fit for my skills and he was able to tip me off to it before it was even posted on the company web site.  I didn’t have to go through a recruiter or anything, and since Goose is a guy they are already impressed with, his endorsement of my “mad skilz” carried a lot of weight.  Long story short, I got the job.  I’ve been here for a little more than 3 months and it is quite simply the best job I have ever had.  I paid my dues for 7 years in an industry that will not hesitate to stomp you repeatedly in the nuts, and I finally feel like taking all of that abuse was worth it.  I’ve got a great boss, friendly co-workers who ACTUALLY DO SOME WORK, excellent pay and benefits, and most importantly the FREEDOM TO DO STUFF RIGHT.  If you have ever had a boss look you dead in the eye and basically say “Look, I know what I’m telling you to do is bad for us in the long run, but I need you to do it anyway so I can save face in front of my peers” then you know what I’m talking about.  I haven’t gotten any of that BS here, and it is nice to actually have someone listen to your informed opinion and take your advice.  My stress level is WAY down since coming here, and the only thing I worry about now is how to not F#CK it up.  I don’t want to try to find another job like this, because after 7 years and 6 other jobs, I’m not sure it even exists. 

BIG THANKS GOOSE!  I really owe you one for this.


Gearing up for the “Big Game”

No, not football, I’m talking about Halo 3.  I still haven’t bought a 360 and I’m probably going to wait until the last minute in the hopes of getting my hands on the new “falcon” hardware, but one way or another I do fully anticipate being online in Halo 3 on the 25th.  Raste and RatBastard are getting pretty amped up too.  RatBastard bought himself a 32 inch LCD HDTV this weekend as part of his preparations.  We cruised the stores while I was in town over the weekend and I think the set he got will serve him well for years to come.  But he is also waiting on the 360 purchase to see if he can get the new hardware.  We aren’t really sure it will be that much more reliable, but given the terrible track record of it’s predecessors, it is hard to imagine that it would be worse.

As for Raste getting a 360 and Halo 3, I don’t know.  He has gotten back into Guild Wars lately, so it may be that if you want to game with him you’ll have to fork over some dough to upgrade your computer and pick up a copy of the best MMORPG that I have ever played.  I actually sold my copy though, but only because I didn’t have enough time to dedicate to it.  The 2old2play folks on this site who are into Guild Wars are some of the finest you could hope to game with, and there is no monthly fee to play, so if you have a computer that will handle it (and really the requirements aren’t that high) I do strongly recommend it.  It’s good times.

I’m sure Raste will give in and get a 360 eventually  (He is eyeballing “Mass Effect” with the same lustful stare that I have been using) but I don’t know if it is a priority purchase.  He does miss getting to play Halo with everybody, and yes, Phreaks, I did pass along your message of “bow-chicka-wow-wow”.  If nothing else, I’m sure I can talk him into being a regular guest user on my system.  Split screen isn’t so bad when you are splitting a 75 inch diagonal projection.  (It still sucks, but it’s worth it to game with your friends … right?  Right?  Ok, so no, but I’ll do it anyway.)

I live only a mile from a Super Wal-Mart, so I might consider going to the midnight launch for Halo 3, but I also friggin’ HATE Wal-Mart, so maybe I won’t.  I might just wait till the morning of the 25th and go pick up the game from Costco on my way to work since that would save me about $7.  Even though the game is going to be really popular, I don’t anticipate any shortages of game discs or consoles, especially since every store (and even some gas stations) will be selling this thing.

It is still really hard for me to swallow the idea of paying so much money for hardware that I am pretty sure will fail on me at some point.  I’ve done a few impromptu surveys in the Halo 2 lobbies and in some rooms the percentage of people who have had to return their machine was 100%.  And many people have had to return more than one 360.  This does very little to help my confidence level, as you can well imagine.  I hate the hassle of dealing with product returns, even if Microsoft has been pretty good about fixing them for free.  I just don’t want to deal with that garbage PERIOD.  I would much rather pay another $50 to get hardware that is RELIABLE rather than a promise to replace the hardware that the retailer is pretty sure will crap out on me within a year.

But, I WILL be buying a 360 and it will have to be in less than 3 weeks.  I hate making that decision under pressure.  CURSE YOU MICROSOFT!!!  Why did you have to make such an awesome game and only make it available on such crappy hardware?!?!  It’s like if some uber-hot chick (or dude if you prefer) offered to bang you, in every unmentionable way possible (and some that wouldn’t normally BE possible, except that he/she is double-jointed, like, everywhere), but only if you did it while balancing on a tightrope wire stretched across the grand canyon.  Sure, you might decide that the benefits outweigh the risk, but would you really be able to enjoy all of that sweet, forbidden, humptacular action if you were constantly worried about falling into the abyss at any moment? 

I think not.


Working for the man

I have decided that I will not buy my 360 until I have started remodeling the guest bathroom in our house and have made significant progress.  Of course, that means that I have to get crack-a-lackin’ on that, because we are t-minus 20 days and counting to the Halo 3 launch.  I was really supposed to have already done this over the summer, but it was REALLY FRIGGIN’ HOT so I didn’t do it.  The unbearable weather is slacking off now somewhat, so I can get back at it.

I’ve already bought the new toilet and vanity, and we picked out the tile we want to use, so really I just need to order the tile and start ripping out the old stuff.  By the time I get the new backer-board up, the tile should be here and we will be ready to rock.  In theory.

I also still have some trim work to do in my home theater room.  I did all of the initial work a year and a half ago, but I never put up the baseboards to cover up the wires.  I was waiting to get a 50-foot HDMI cable and an extra Ethernet cable run, but I finally ordered those from monoprice.com, so now I have no excuses.  This is another project for which I already have all of the materials (beadboard, paint, trim, stair edging) but I’ve been waiting for the “right time” to start the project.  I think the “right time” would be just before I go out and buy myself a new toy, so the wife won’t kill me in my sleep.

This will also help me pass the time in waiting for the launch of Halo 3.  I don’t think I’ve ever really gotten into a “launch” before.  I usually wait and buy games after the fuss, and the price, have died down, but I just can’t do that this time.  This time I want to discover the in’s and out’s of the maps and weapons at the same time as my friends, not a year later when I get walked around the map by some kind soul who has a soft spot for helping pathetic n00bs.  I bet I’ll spend the first couple of weeks just setting up different game type, map and weapons combos just to see where everything spawns and where all the arming spots are.  Halo 3 may not reset the “skill” ladder, but we will all be in pretty much the same boat with regard to learning the new maps, and I think I can do a decent job with that.  I may not be very “twitchy” but I do have a good memory.  Hopefully that will give me an edge in the two weeks it takes for everyone to learn where everything is, and then I will wind up back at the bottom of the leaderboard, as usual.


Close Call

One last Halo 3 related story.  I had a close call the other day and nearly freaked out because I thought I was going to miss out on the launch.  My wife’s cousin is getting married in a couple of weeks and we are taking a long weekend to go to the wedding.  We decided to take off the Friday and Monday surrounding the wedding so we could have more time to visit with her family.  Well, we were talking about what days this was going to be and we both got very confused about what dates everything was happening.  Here is what I came to believe for about 5 terrible hours before we actually looked at a calendar and got it all straight:

For some reason I thought the Halo 3 launch was on THURSDAY September 25th (but the 25th is actually a Tuesday).  And my wife thought the wedding was on Saturday September 27th (but it is actually Saturday September 22nd).  So I thought that we would be leaving town on the day of the Halo 3 launch and that I wouldn’t get to play it for 5 days.  ARGH!  TOTAL FREAK OUT!

But, of course, when we figured it all out later I just laughed about it.  We will be back from the wedding on the 24th, so I won’t miss anything of the launch.  I won’t be taking time off from work to play, like some of the die-hards I know, but I should still be able to get my game on for several hours each evening throughout launch week and then really put in some marathon sessions on the weekend of the 29th and 30th.  Whew!  I almost had to murder my wife’s cousin to make sure I got to play Halo 3 on launch.  That would have been unpleasant.

What?

Oh, like you wouldn’t murder your wife’s cousin just so you could make sure you didn’t have to go out of town and miss the biggest video gaming event of the decade.  I’ll believe that when WallyBR turns down a rimjob from Richard Simmons.