Name: Automan21k Joined On: Jun 22, 2008 Maintag: Automan21k Age: 26 Occupation: Accountant Location: Harrisburg PA Currently: Offline Last seen: 1/5/09
After spending some time on what I will call Project #1 (for the time being). And with some help from Pearly and J-Cat, I hope to unleash it at some point this month. But overall the weekend was relatively uneventful. We wrapped up Viva Pinata; TIP on Saturday, around the same time as ATC’s lovely wife finished hers. Then we went on to play a TON of Dead Space, a bit of Co-op Castle Crashers, a fair amount of Dark Sector, and finally watched a pile of DVR that we have been neglecting over the past 2 weeks.Sunday I spent a portion of the day making a big batch of pea soup(I love the fresh radioactive green that it gets when it’s fresh). I even managed to break 57,000 gamer score, with the JRX breaking 15,000 it was a rather productive weekend.
But this morning was the big surprise….on our way into work (we carpool together since she works across the street from me) JRX tells me she would be interested in going to the LAN…. THIS IS AWESOME!!...we have both wanted to see Chicago...get a REAL deep dish pizza...see the sights....it's just a matter of timing now, will we be at a point where we can get away from work? or will we both be trapped under an avalanche of work. EDIT; we will be able to make it (or will atleast be available for it) so long as it is NOT the weekend of August 16th (hell week for us).
On another note, we have been looking for an effective stress reliever, so first thing after work today we are hitting the gym, and not for the sissy treadmill, we are going straight for the free weights, then after that, if we still need it, we’ll be blowing up some poor unsuspecting Timmy….or whoever else may happen to join the other team…but since the first thought was to play Gears online…but who knows what we might end up playing.
I konw I have tried to avoid politics and government in my posts, but this has more to do with the trends of society, so I will post it anyway.
Yes, I’m annoyed with society as a whole. Why? Because individuals claim that due to their personal freedoms, no one else should have personal freedoms. The only person who is truly free is the one who can afford to hire enough lawyers to make sure that they can sue everyone else before they get a chance to sue you…but if you have enough money to do that, the government is harassing you and limiting your freedoms.
So in the end does freedom truly exist? Yes I have the freedom to think what I want (as long as I don’t’ say it) I have the freedom to go where I want (provided someone else doesn’t want me to go there) I have the freedom to buy what I want (provided I have the proper licenses, permits, training and certification to be allowed to buy it), and I have the freedom to read what I want (provided it hasn’t been banned by the government(Roth vs. US), however this was luckily overturned in 1973(?) as a violation of constitutional rights(Miller vs. California)(Ayn Rand was actually banned prior to this ruling)) If you view freedoms as a whole, we are given the small, simple choices as a freedom, those freedoms are used as a distraction while our remaining freedoms are stripped away.
Now the event that brought this up…My office has recently banned personal radios unless they are hooked up to headphones because one person complained….just one. However, you are also not permitted to spray perfumes, smoke with-in 50ft of a building entrance, and several people have even started counting how many times you go to the bathroom during the day to see if that needs to be regulated. While I understand much of this is directly related to legitimate logical reasons, I’m not saying it’s good, I’m not saying it’s bad, just that our freedoms are being challenged every day and most people don’t know, or care enough to speak up.
Did you know that there are people pushing to have all large SUVs and cars that get below a specified MPG level banned? Or that there is still a (weak) push to get Alcohol banned, or that there are several groups pushing to have videogames with any violence banned? (MAVAV) Not to mention the Banned Books List…at what point did we have to create a list? Shouldn’t people know that you shouldn’t put these books in a school library? Do we really need a list to specify it? What’s the point of librarians if they don’t keep an eye on what books are in their own library?
Regulations, Pointless Laws, religion dictating policy (where it should be ethics and morals), even the simple act of taking an idea, or a point of commonsense and putting it in writing so it's completly black and white without any leaway, freedom is under attack, and it’s those we hire to defend it who are standing initiating it.
Yes, I know I am a very conservative individual, but I also feel that it should not fall to the government to save us from ourselves.
The day the government tells me that I can’t eat bacon, or steak, or steak wrapped in bacon with a triple of Johnny Walker Blue, because it’s not good for me is the day I will personally lead the rebellion.
We picked up Dead Space…once we had my Father-in-law come jump our battery…I’m still not sure why it went dead…
While I have not had much time in the game so far(someone got scared, and was worried about having nightmares) here are my opinions.
Let me start off by giving the one down side to the game…Save points...why did they use save points!?!?!?
Now, to the game. We love Survival Horror games since our first experience with Resident Evil. The third person controls with a semi-floating camera give a strangely effective view of the action. And the HUD, actually the lack of a HUD is a beautiful inclusion. All info, pop ups, markers are created by the main characters suit, beamed from a small panel in the front as a hologram when maps, waypoints, or objective updates are needed. I do enjoy the immersive feel presented by an interactive environment that presents you with a challenge without having large blinking lights over every health pack or switch, or locker. In this game you actually have to pay attention to your surroundings.
The game play(what limited exposure I have had so far) is fantastic, providing an immersive horror experience that is reminiscent of movies like Event Horizon. The action has been broken up so far, with more of a creep factor, where the enemies are poised to scare and set you at unease, than an endurance test, like being hounded by a never ending stream of creatures. So far I’d give it a 9.5 (only because I am appalled by save points).
the next step is getting her a gold account….but I guess that will wait till her elite (yes you heard me right) comes back from repairs.
In other news…I’m bored, I don’t get any kind of mental stimulation here at work. I’ve actually started debating as to whether I should go back to school part-time for my masters degree, if not go for the whole pile of shiny coins and try for a Doctorate. The only issue is that I don’t want to spend the money…take out another student loan, or any of that…and I’d love it if the wife would do it with me too, but she is a lot more busy at work than I am.
So, I guess, I will (just out of curiosity) take a look at what kind of scholarships a middle class, white, currently working, non military, married, non-super genius can get. (and no my employer is very devoted to not providing continuing education for their employees....I don't think I have a prayer.
Yes, I have a brand new pet peeve....people who prepare reports and separate every section (3 pages long each) and use one of those industrial grade electric staplers to stape each of the 55 sections individually, knowing very well that I will have to Fax this report several times, make atleast 5 copies and scan it(all with in the next hour....so here I sit, using a pair of pliers to pull these GIANT staples out of every 3 page long section....I know I will miss one so there will be a massive jam in the Fax Machine....grrrr....I'd just have them re print it but this report has to have origional signtures on the file copy, and I'm not about to run to the top dogs and bug them to sign something again and make the report late because I dont' want to deal with a few staples...I know why they are doing this...because I was almost having a good day....almost...I need to blow something up tonight...anyone for a co-op game of halo 3?
My Bookmarks 
