English_C6H6's Blog - 2old2play

Random Annoyances

1. Online achievement points. I think they promote boosting/cheating and that pisses me off. Also, some of them (Skate Celebrity for skate - "Reach 20 reviews on a single uploaded photo or piece of footage.") just seem stupid.

2. Fog lamps. If you use them when there is no fog, you should lose your license. Or your kneecaps.

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Important Information

Sorry for the double blog, but just got some important info from Comcast's new customer support staff.

"The 8 megabyte line is twice as fast as the 6 megabyte line."

"Speedboost makes your computer faster when downloading and uploading."

and, best of all:

Her: "The 8 megabyte line is $53 per month if you do not subscribe to any other services"

Me: "What's the upload speed?"

Her: "8 megabytes."

Me: "Hm, probably not. That's the download speed, do you see anything about upload speed."

*multiple clicking sounds*

New Girl: "Tier two technical service, this is -------, how can I help you?"

Me: "Could you tell me what the upload speed is on the 8 mb service tier?"

New Girl: "512K, but Speedboost makes it faster when you're uploading data or files."

Me, trying not to laugh: "So it's 512k when I'm not using it and faster when I am?"

New Girl: "Yes sir"

Me: "How much faster."

New Girl: "I dunno, just faster."

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Papers signed whew

All the papers are signed to sell the old house. Because of the way the 3rd party relocation works, even though closing isn't until the end of the month, we are guaranteed to close on the house, even if the buyer backs out.

Inspection on the new house on Monday.

Should be in the house with our stuff by first weekend of October. I've been living in hotels for the last 8 weeks.

I miss home cooked food, washers and dryers with no coin slots, eating with people I love, and especially my family.

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Weird Dream

Had a strange dream last night.

I was in the Church from Rainbow 6:Vegas.

I had a pistol and was wearing a white shirt and a tie.

I ran out of the church and was shot at by Teletubbies with paintball guns. They cornered me behind the church and then threw a grenade in. It landed at my feet.

Then I woke up.

I think this means I need to see my family and my 360 soon.

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Sour Cream and Onion

Had sour cream and onion chips for the first time in about 10 years today.

They were good.

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Xbox 180 Support

I got a 180 to bide me over until I get my 360 back when the family moves up. I tried to recover my live account so that I could try out Halo2 MP.

Not working.

I call 1-800-4My-Xbox. "Patrick" takes all my info and puts me on hold while he researches my problem.

He comes back on and says "You can only migrate an account from the Original Xbox to the 360. Accounts created on the 360 cannot be recovered to the Original Xbox. If you wanted to do this, you would have had to created your gold account on the Original Xbox and then migrating it to the 360, then you could recover your account to the Original Xbox. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Me: "Uhh, no. I guess not."

So, thank you, Microsoft, for supporting legacy hardware. You just stopped supporting Windows 98, and you stopped supporting the Xbox the same time? Thanks guys.

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Don't be a bad sports fan

From the AP story:

"What touched off a bloody skirmish that left a Texas-shirt-wearing fan nearly castrated and an Oklahoma fan facing aggravated assault charges that could put him in prison for up to five years?

According to police, 32-year-old Texas fan Brian Christopher Thomas walked into Henry Hudson's Pub on June 17 wearing a Longhorns T-shirt and quickly became the focus of football "trash talk" from another regular, 53-year-old Oklahoma fan Allen Michael Beckett.

Thomas told police that when he decided to leave and went to the bar to pay his tab, Beckett grabbed him in the crotch, pulled him to the ground and wouldn't let go, even as bar patrons tried to break it up. When the two men were separated, Thomas looked down and realized the extent of his injuries.

It took more than 60 stitches to close the wound, and police interviewed Thomas at a nearby hospital emergency room. "

Full Article

Seriously, I am a huge sports fan. And I talk trash to rival fans. But it should never go to the level where you are putting your hands on another fan. Much less putting your hands... umm... there.

(Edit: made it more clear what was from the article vs. my comments.)

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Halo 3

So Halo 3 comes out on September 25th. A lot of people will be on vacation or "sick." I will also not be at work. I will be on my second day of packing up the house, and then the moving company will load the moving truck on the 26th. Obviously no H3 for me for a while. I love my new job, but I never want to move again. EVER. I should be thankful that my house is under contract in the current market, but honestly, I've seen my family for 10 days out of the last 2+ months. I'm just going to be so glad to be done with the this and see my kids and my wife again.

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Joys of Management

Fun things about being a manager:

Your department has a cost center that went up 61% over last year, with no increase in budget funding.
You have a list of incomplete audit items from 2004 that you will audited on in 2 months. None of them have been completed.
You start getting letters from HR to "Counsel your employee John Q. Moron about (a) Attendance (b) Attitude (c) Discipline Involoving ___________ (d) All of the above."
If you thought your "Pay by the hour" sucked as a white collar/professional, try management, it's a whole 'nother level.

All in all, I love the new job, but managing people and budgets is a new and unfriendly beast.

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Old Timey Gaming

(In a dry British whisper) "Lacking a non-work PC and a current generation console, our intrepid game carnivore finds gaming where ever he can. Recently he found a stash of games left by higher predators at the watering hole known as "GameStop." Lacking the most basic of XBox 360 necessities, he is not ashamed to scavenge in this bargain bin of gaming goodies. Have pulled out three tasty bits from the carrion of the $10 and less bin, he approaches the counter. The vulture behind the counter informs him that while they do have Max Paine and Whiplash, Psi-Ops has been lost, picked clean by another scavenger. The carnivore leaves with Max Payne and Whiplash somewhat sated but still hungry.

Coming up next week: Will the stash of Bioshock the game carnivore left back at his cave with his pack still be good? Or will it's savor have faded in the weeks he's been away?"

_______________________________

BTW - Whiplash is a great concept that looks like it just needed some more time in the oven, the concept and writing and voice work are great, but sloppy controls and camera work limit it's appeal. It's funny but frustrating.

Max Payne was much better for the PC. Several of the nooks and crannies that made the game so interesting are just gone in the PS2 version. Those doors just won't open. Also, it's easy to tell which FPS games were developed for PC and ported and which are developed right for the console, while the way that they did the controls overall was good, it just doesn't work as well as FPS games that are console from their birth

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Bob Saget HBO Special

If you haven't seen this and you have access to HBO, I'd highly recommend it. It is a bit disconcerting to find out that the dad from Full House and the host of America's Funniest Home Videos is apparently a hyperactive pervert with Tourette's. But that is also part of what makes it so funny. He's going a mile a minute during the whole show and keeps his audience on their toes by saying stuff like "Now why the hell would you clap for that, it wasn't funny at all." At the end he gets out a guitar and does a few songs, including a great one called "Danny Tanner was not gay."

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Lotus Notes

I found a software program that I hate more than Microsoft Word. Lotus Notes. I've used Notes before about 5 years ago and had no problems with it, but what I am using now seems like it is even older than the version I used in 2002 (this is version 6.5, no idea what the other one was). The interface is slow and cluttered and formatting gets trashed any time I want to move something from an email to a document or vice versa. And by the way, NO, I don't want to use my email/scheduling client as a crappy webbrowser. It also refuses to learn my most common email addresses, despite my best efforts working with the address book and various options. I'm not some newb who can't set up rules or auto-fill options, I just find the program much less easy to use than Outlook, and Outlook wasn't perfect by any means. Anyone know of any resources for those switching from Outlook to Notes?

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New House and TV

New TV in the new house. Also has 7.1 speakers in the wall. Can't wait to get Halo3 and Bioshock on this.

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Looking for suggestions

I'm getting burnt out on the PS2 games I have (Mercs, God of War, Madden, R&C: Up your arsenal, Kingdom Hearts) and it looks like I won't have my 360 for another few weeks. Any suggestions on PS2 games I may have missed that I can now pick up cheap used? Thanks in advance.

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Labor Day Weekend

Finally got to play Bioshock this weekend. I bought it when it came out, but didn't get home until Labor day weekend. Played in Saturday night and promptly lost about 3 hours of time and got in a wee bit of trouble with the wife because of it. Somehow she expects me to spend time with FAMILY when I come home once every 2-3 weeks. My bad. I think the thing that people aren't realizing about Bioshock is that it is just an absolute great use of the fundamentals of gaming.

The Force Powers, ahem, sorry plasmids
Weapons
Diaries
Factions
Skill trees
Moral choices and the rewards that come with them

None of these things are new. They are just executed wonderfully in this game. Attention game developers, you already have the blueprints for great games, just execute them well.

Also got to play the skate demo with my son. We had a great time with it and promptly added it to the GameFly Queue.

Got what looks like a good offer on the house and working out the details between the prospective buyer, his agent, our agent, us, the relocation company, the corporate relocation specialist, his bank, our banks (for new and old houses), the agents for the new house and their people and the moving company. That's a lot of people to get moving, but hopefully we'll be in the new house by the end of the month.

Ah, and with the new house comes a plasma screen and 7.1 speakers built in to the walls. NICE. Will try to post pictures later.

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