Well, I didn’t stay up late as planned last night. I wanted to get into work early so I was in bed once again before ten. It kind of worked out, because the Geezer clan night with Profanity was rescheduled. Besides, I only got one invite and when I accepted, the party had already moved into matchmaking. I’m kind of surprised I even got one invite since I’ve become something of a Halo hermit over the past year. I need to get better about sending out and accepting invites. I’m not real sure what the hesitation is, because I used to be all about gaming with people from the site. Somewhere along the line, I moved away from it. There are a couple of people I just don’t like gaming with (covered more below), but for the most part it’s not like I’ve had a bad experience with a group or anything like that. Part of it may be the times I play. When I first got into Halo I worked second shift and would often play late at night. Now, I work a regular shift and I tend to be done playing when most people are just getting warmed up. Oh well, I’ll work it out. Besides, I’m sure my fellow Geezers would hit me up with an invite if I asked for one. They’re a great group of people.*

 

Speaking of people, I think I’ve been lucky when it comes to the people I’ve gamed with the past couple of years. I’m definitely not the most active gamer on the site (not even close), but I’ve gamed with quite a few people the last 2+ years. There’s only two people that I just don’t like gaming with.** I haven’t had any kind of incident with either one of these people; I just don’t like their personalities and the way they act. One of them is conceited, obnoxious, and a whiner. Sometimes I can stomach gaming with him/her for a little bit. I’ve known people like this in real life and can tolerate them in small doses. However, I try to avoid the second person as much as I can. He/she just seems to look for conflict, which by itself isn’t a bad thing. I surf the message boards once in awhile looking for a flame war just because it’s entertaining. The difference is, I don’t jump into the middle of it. This person jumps into the middle of the conflict and tries to make it about them. It’s like they need to have as much attention as they can get. In many of the conflicts I’ve seen on the message boards, this person thrusts themselves into the thick of things. I try not to read the message posts he/she puts on the site, but it’s like trying to avoid looking at an accident. Your eyes are just kind of drawn to the carnage. Being in a game lobby with this person is even worse. They have a tendency to try and take control of the party, boss people around, and not follow the rules of custom games. The best thing about this person is that if they are ignored long enough, they leave to go and get attention elsewhere. Admittedly (and oddly enough) this person seems to be fairly popular on the site, so maybe its just me.***

 

Okay, I was going to complain about a few other things, but in the middle of it my coworkers sprung a surprise birthday party on me. We just had cheesecake, chocolate cake, and ice cream. I even got presents! Pretty cool. Now I’m in to good of a mood to keep complaining. I hope everybody has a great weekend!****

 

 

This Thursday, the Geezers are having some friendly games against Profanity. I always sign up for these things then drop out because the start time ends up being the oh-so-late hour of 9:30pm. I’m usually in bed before ten because I want to make sure I get plenty of sleep so I can be alert for work the next day. I was about to drop out of this one as well when suddenly I asked myself, “When did I become such a wuss?” For the life of me, I can’t pinpoint when getting a full nights sleep became such a high priority. What happened to the days of going out on a Thursday until 4am, sleeping two hours, and heading into work bleary eyed, “slightly hung-over”, and smelling faintly of beer and some skank’s cheap perfume?*

 

Every time I back out on a clan activity, the next day I read about all the fun I missed. And for what? Seven hours of sleep instead of five? I sit at a desk all day and do paperwork. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to function without a full nights sleep every once in awhile. 

 

*Disclaimer:  I don’t really miss those days and prefer the stability I have now with my wife (love ya Rendara). Also, I’d like to apologize to any skanks I may have offended. I’m sure some of you have very nice perfume.

I gotta admit H3 is growing on me. It’s nice to be able to go into matchmaking with some friends without having to worry about the cussing and racial slurs that come from “Timmy.” Over the weekend, Rendara managed to attain a higher ranking then me even though we pretty much played the same number of games. I think what did it is when we got separated due to lag and she was put into a team slayer match by herself against four other people. She managed to win by getting the lead and then hiding out, using guerilla tactics.

 

Our movie poster came in this weekend for the home theater room. We bought the frames and the art lights and started mounting them on the wall. I also managed to get most of the floor lighting installed over the weekend.  As soon as the last chair arrives I'll post some pictures. There were some reservations about how it would look, but it turned out great! This week, Rendara and I are going to watch our first movie in the new room.   I think we’re going to watch “Freddy vs. Jason” since that was the first movie we ever saw together.

 

This next weekend I’ll be celebrating my 36th birthday. October 8th is my actual birthday, but Rendara and I have a deal where we get either the whole weekend before or the whole weekend after our birthdays to celebrate. Basically, the birthday person gets to do whatever they want the whole weekend. It’s a chance to be completely selfish with no feelings of guilt!   Friday after work, I’ll probably be playing H3 all evening and maybe some Oblivion. Saturday I’m getting up relatively early and going fishing out at my parent’s house all day. For lunch, were making beef, chicken, and fish tacos and of course there will probably be cake. I’m hoping for a cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. Sunday, I’m going to watch the Star Wars trilogy and get drunk (King Cobra malt liquor), which has been a birthday ritual of mine for fifteen years. Monday, I have the day off work and Rendara is going to take me to a Japanese restaurant I really like for lunch. After that, I’ll probably be gaming it up the rest of the day or maybe rent a movie or two. Oddly enough, since Rendara and I have been together, it has rained on my birthday. This has led to me smoking one cigarette, with Rendara, in the rain (even though I’m not a smoker). I figure if it doesn’t rain this time I’ll get the garden hose and make some artificial rain. As for gifts, I haven’t really asked for much other then the LE H3 headset. Rendara is going to get me a belated gift and buy me Mass Effect when it comes out. Well, time to get back to work and count down the days until my birthday weekend.

Thankfully, the home theater room is almost done. Last week I went and picked up the carpet. A couple days later I went back for the movie risers. Funny story about the movie risers. When I built them, I made sure to take careful measurements so they would fit the width of the room exactly when they were side by side. After I got them carpeted, I was proud to see that they looked like a professional had built them. However, when I got them home, it became apparent they wouldn’t fit down the stairs! I felt like such a bonehead. We ended up peeling some of the carpet back, partially disassembling the risers, moving them downstairs, putting them back together, and tacking the carpet back down.

 

Over the weekend Rendara worked on the curtains and got them all done. Almost all our furniture we ordered came in yesterday. We have two rows of seating. The first row is made up of three chase lounges that sit side by side and the second row is home theater seating. One of the pieces didn’t come in for the home theater seating and it will be at least another week before it comes in. All in all, the room looks pretty sweet. We ordered most of our movie posters over the weekend, but we still need to do the floor lighting. Probably take care of that this weekend.

 

Also last night, like most of the known world, I played some Halo 3. Rendara and I just played some of the campaign. Haven’t tried the multiplayer yet. I’m reserving any strong opinions about the game until I’ve played it more. So far, I don’t think it’s any better or worse then Halo 2 was when it came out, which isn’t a bad thing. The graphics are certainly better. 

 

The “diet” is still going pretty well. I’ve been on it for three weeks and have lost 22lbs, which brings me down to 278. I still have a long way to go before I see 225, but I’m getting there.