Whamolla's Blog - 2old2play

Got My Wrangler

Well, I had to pass in August when even with the employee pricing, I was worried I couldn't afford it. Glad I waited.

I called my dad on Monday to wish the old man a happy birthday and he told me Jeep was having 0% on the 06 models. Now that's not all that uncommon. However, if you wait until the end of the commercial you see a disclaimer that states that it doesn't apply to the Wrangler. Because they are so impractical, the Wrangler is one of those vehicles that you either want or you don't...sorta like a mini, a wrx, evo, etc...there usually isn't much of a need to provide a financial incentive to buy one. This time around, they were clearing house, and were including the 06 wranglers. Even more, they were giving you 0% for 60 months.

For the next two days, I didn't get much work done. I checked the inventory of every dealer in about 50 miles. I ran the numbers again and again. Finally, I just said screw it, and on Tuesday night I bought a 2006 Midnight Blue Wrangler X.

Hopefully, I can keep my wife from stealing in when the weather gets warmer.

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Battlefield 1942

Holy crap. I missed the boat on this one.

On The Office, last thursday they were playing Call of Duty at the Stamford branch. I came into my office last friday and thought it would be fun to download a 1942 demo and see if it would run on my office computer. The next step was to throw it on a memory chip and distribute it around the office. It spread like wildfire. Who knew I had so many closet gamers. The game is a blast and I'm 28 years old and I've just had my first LAN 'party' at my office. We've een playing for a couple of hours each day after work.

Yesterday, I spent my lunch hour running around to all the game stores buying up any and all copies of the complete collection that I could find. With BF2 out and BF2142 on it's way, these things have been pretty hard to find.

Does anyone else still play this?

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WOW and Oblivion

The other day I called my buddy upstate to make plans for Halloween and another friend's birthday party and he seemed pretty distant on the phone. I figured he was probably playing a video game while we were chatting. I asked if he was playing a game and he said yes. The two of us had stopped playing WOW almost nine months ago...or so I thought.

Then I asked him if he was back to playing WOW and he said maybe. 'Maybe'? It was like I was asking him if he had started doing crack again and he was trying to hide it, but couldn't get enough balls or creativity to lie to me. 'Maybe'. It was pretty funny. Hell, I guess that was a taste of what I used to put my wife through when she would try to talk to me while I was playing.

The South Park WOW was hilarious. It was great advertizing and we all get a good laugh at both ourselves and the game.

I've started to immerse myself back into Oblivion. It looks great on the new TV. My last character was a jack of all trades. So much so, that when I would log I never knew what to do with myself. I could use everything and I was good at everything so I would spend most of my time hoarding loot and trying to multitask through different quests at the same time. I beat the game with this guy but now I really don't have much of an interest in playing him.

I made monk. I figure I'll try and role play him a bit and ony use my fists and bow. Since I'm prety stealth based, I think I'll rob the world blind and even become a vampire. It will be a nice change from the Mr. Goodguy-magic-user-sword -and-bow-expert I ran with the first time around.

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Tom Waits

Just like the feeling you get when you find a great video game, I love when I stumble onto some new music. I especially enjoy it when I show up late to the party and realize that the artist I've only just discovered has a huge catalog of work. This brongs me to my latest 'find'...Tom Waits.

This guys is great. Back when Jane and I got engaged a buddy of mine gave me Closing Time. It's a real depressing album, but it's got a lot of heart and emotion in it. I was suprised to hear that he was the guy who wrote Goin' out West...as heard in Fight Club and covered by another one of my favorite bands, gomez. 9 months later, I was on a road trip with this same buddy and he gave me 3 live bootlegs. Now, for those of you who don't know who Tom Waits is, I'll try my best to describe him. His music is pretty eclectic. He'll go from slow and smooth, bringing a tear to a grown man's eye, and then another song will have his raspy throaty voice feel like it's drilling into your skull. Understandibly, it can be a somewhat unpleasant experience...at first. These live CDs fell into that catagory. When my buddy was playing them in the car I had to ask him to turn it off after a while. The quality was shit and the balance was all off, but when I began to listed to them on my own I started to hear his spirit come through. So, I would listen to them and skip through to the tracks I liked and skip the rest.

This past weekend I went out and bought the CDs where some of the gems were originally released. Goin' Out West on Bone Machine and 16 Shells from a Thirty-ought Six on Swordfishtrombone. Holy crap. First off, the studio quality really helped on these tracks. It made the good songs great. Second, I also found so many other great songs on the albums. Third, these albums are 14 and 23 years old. There is so much more of this guy to discover. It's great.

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The thing with EB trade-ins

I was reading about the Hawaii EB Wii and PS3 pre-order and it reminded me of my constant battle with going to video game stores to trade-in. I think it can be described as an insecurity. I think I may be a pussy. First, I don't use ebay because I am a spaz and, while I am sure it is simple and they've worked out all the kinks, it just seems like a pain in the ass. So, when I buy a crap game or am just looking to shed my collection for some extra 'cash', i head on down to EB or Gamestop.

I walk up to the counter with a game in my pants or a small ShopRite bag full of games and hope for the best. I always think the guy behind the counter is either laughing at me because I am selling for a percentage of what the games were once worth or because I am admitting that I bought a lemon. It's even worse if the guy is a damn video game elitest. Coincidently, tomorrow I am returning the two copies of Nintendogs I bought for my wife and myself (we both have DS Lites) because I can't get into it and she thinks it's too creepy. I'll bet the guy behind the counter tta get a kick out of the grown man who walks in and trades in two copies of Nintendogs.

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Our little boy is all grows up

After this weekend, I'll have to change my blog photo. My little brother is getting hitched. We leave for VA in a couple of hours. I'm the a-hole brother that misses most of the rehearsal dinner, but I'll be there just in time to take part in the rest of the 'night before' festivities. I can't believe my little brother is getting married. He is three years younger than me and I just had my two month anniversary last night. Crazy stuff.

I'm picking up my tux when I get there, so all I have packed for the trip are my wife's dresses (that's right, two), a change of street clothes, two DS's (with Mario and Magnetica for the flight), and my PSP (with Armored Core, for when she falls asleep), and a couple of extra games (just in case). I am bringing more game systems than clothes.

On the topic of Armored Core. This game is turning out to be well worth my journey to get it. I love when you stumble on a game that turns out to be a bunch of fun. The matches are quick and fun to watch and it's a blast tinkering with your mech parts and AI to help tailor it to defeat the opponent. I'll admit the load times make it a little frustrating. You can't modify the programming in between battles without popping through three or four load screens.

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A glimpse into my addiction

A week or so ago I posted on the boards abotu a PSP game I was interested in. The game was Armored Core Formula Front. I have been looking to revive the console and further justify the money I spent over a year ago. Also, my brother is getting married this weekend so I have some flying to do. I hadn't gotten much of a response from the community here, but my curiosity and OCD caused me read every review, visit some fan sites, search 5 stores, and order the game online.

You may say that after all that it had better be good, but I'm not even sure if that's necessary. Sometimes I obsess about a game or game theme. I usually don't rest until I get it and then after playing it for a couple of weeks I'm on to the next one.

Off the top of my head I've also done this with Phantom Dust, Neverwinter Nights, Front Mission, and Morrowind (which I bought and sold back twice). You could argue I've done it with most of my games. Hell I went on a crusade for Advance Wars games after I bought Field Commander. My point is, I have an addiction to buying new games. Sometimes I am able to keep it at bay by playing old games, but most of the time I would trade them in (hence the morrowind fiasco).

I really go through portable games since I never have anyone around me to play with. At least if I had a multiplayer buddy I could prolong the magic.

Anyway, on to Armored Core Formula Front. The game is pretty damn sweet. It's devoid of plot, which is fine. The controls are a bit cumbersome, but I always had a problem with the armored core controls on PS2. I tried the controls a couple of times, but I am going to stick with the AI. There are load times, but they don't seem to be too bad. The fun part is modifying and optimizing your mech and the AI. You have so much control over how they fight, it's crazy.

I can see how such a complex level of control could be a turnoff. I beat the first three opponents without really knowingwhat I was doing. It wasn't until I started losing that I started to grasp how my equipment and AI changes would affect my performance. I feel like the light is only starting to come on and the fights are fun to watch.

One of the coolest parts is that people at these fan sites post their mech construction and AI programming details so I can test them against my creations. It's like multiplayer without the other person. It's also not a test of reflexes or accuracy, but a competition to see who better understands the art of tuning.

If there are a few of you out there who are reading this, let me know and we can share designs.

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Or not...

Well, it looks like the grad school loan payments are going to be a bit more than we had thought. My dreams of a new car are disappearing before my eyes. We spent most of the weekend evaluating our financial mortality and we realized if I start making car payments, our margin for error would be way too thin. So, now we are trying to figure out how long a 1995 civic with 147,000 miles will last. Damn, I hate that car.

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Time to buy a new car

How exciting...yeah right.

So, my wife's 10 year old Honda is a miserable ride and is on it's way out. We've made a deal. Since she has a crap load of loans from grad school, I give her my car and I get a new ride. Yea me.

Now I get to deal with salesmen, and trying to figure out how I am going to come up with a downpayment. If anyone has any tips for dealing with these guys, like avoiding them altogether, let me know.

I think I've decided we are going to spend our newleywed years with a Wrangler. We've got no kids. We've been married a month. We've got plenty of time to be practical, for now let's have some fun. I am excited. Everytime I see one on the road I get excited and want to just go to the dealership. I am just scared as hell. I'm not a homeowner and I haven't bought anything that big since my last car, five years ago.

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What a ride

I just got back from my honeymoon.

The last 12 or so days have been crazy. We had our wedding on an incredibly beautiful day. All of my closest friends and family were there. And I am now married to the most amazing woman I have ever met. People were not kidding when they said it would go by fast. I can't believe it's over. Except for our cake getting into a car accident (it was promptly replaced) and the shuttle leaving a bridesmaid on the side of the road, everything seemed to go off without a hitch.

10 days in St. Lucia has made me unable to survive around a computer and I can no longer post a picture. I have a couple I would like to throw up here, so once I figure it out I can share the magic.

St. Lucia was dope. We split our stay between two places. One place was a villa right near the water (www.tikaye.com 4 days), and the second was supposed to be a villa in the mtns (www.ladera.com 6 days). When we got to the second one, they screwed up and our room wasn't ready. Instead of a plunge pool and a view of the pitons, we got a tiny room with a small deck that faced out over a road. The deck was so small that if you unfolded the folding chairs that were on it, your legs would be on the deck and you torso would be in the room. We were pretty bummed and had considered just scrapping it and going back to the first resort.

It was only for one night and of course they covered all of our expenses for that day. But then they took it to the next level...they upgraded us to a three bedroom villa with a fantastic view and a private pool where you could park two mini vans lengthwise. Not much reason for two newlyweds to hit the beach, when you have a private pool and an all inlcusive package. In short, the honeymoon was legit. I even found sum time to read the Da Vinci Code and The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy and beat the new mario game and the original advance wars on my DS (which I got for my birthday, two days before my wedding).

I know I will probably get slammed for this one, but the all inclusive package at the second place also included a free spa treatment, so I got my first pedicure...and I loved it.

Right now, life is pretty damn good.

Hopefully I can get some pictures up, but check out those weblinks to the resorts. I would say Ladera was probably better, and would have been even if we had gottne the room we booked, instead of being upgraded to the uber-villa.

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1 week to go

Im getting married in one week.

Janes family is flying in from Ireland starting tonight, so fun begins. Its going to be craziness until we punch out and head to St. Lucia next Sunday.

I picked up her gift and the gifts for my groomsmen. Im gettting the fellas engraved GameBoy Micros. Hell, I just needed to justify to Jane that I was going to get one for myself. They should be arriving in the mail today. I was going to get them all copies of Advance Wars, but I was only able to find one copy (and that one goes to the groom). I ended up getting a bunch of NES classics, so we can take a stroll down memory lane and remember those early games that were a blast (Ice Climber, Bomberman, Metroid, and Excitebike). I was considering an upgrade to the DS lites, but they dont have that retro feeling.

1 week to go...

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Countdown

I am getting married in about a week and a half.

The rest of the world marches on, and I am sitting here at work unable to think of anything else. I cant wait.

Things are really falling into place for us. In the past couple of weeks she secured a new teaching job and we spent last weekend moving to a new apartment, after our old landlords went nuts and we had to move out (I think one of my old entries explains that whole debacle). Now her family is slowly starting to arrive from Ireland for the big day, and we just spent this past weekend with my parents and my sister and her two kids (the cutest 4 and 2 years olds Ive ever seen), so the excitement is really starting to build. Its going to be one hell of a party and then we are off to St. Lucia for a couple of weeks.

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Alone

It sounds lame but Im pretty pumped to spend a night home alone tonight. My fiance is having her bachelorette party. Well, its really just a night with her friends, but who knows what those crazy girls have planned for her.

We have been planning our wedding, throwing money at our cars to keep them on the road in this heat, we found a new apartment, just got back from a wedding in Maryland, and spent most of this week at my grandmothers wakes and funeral. Its been a rollercoaster. We got the message that she passed away as soon as we walked in the door from the wedding. Hell, I wore the same suit.

So, she is out of town for the night and I cant decide what to play. I was thinking of getting back into Oblivion. Ive been so busy, I only have time for short spurts on BF2MC. Now that Doom3 is BC, I may spend the night alone in the dark and scare the crap out of myself...hmmm Condemned may be ready for another run through. Anything scary gets cranked up a notch in my apartment. You never know when a cricket or unidentifiable insect is going to hop on you. Last night I almost lost it during a game of BF2MC when I looked over to my left shoulder and a huge cricket was chillin there watching me c4 timmies in humvees.

I guess I could start packing...

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1 Month to go...so much to do

What a weekend.

Last week was the week from hell, but it ended with a trip upstate to my old stomping grounds for garbage plates and bachelor party fun. I went golfing for the first time in years and as expected, I was awful. But we had a hell of a fun time.

After that we boozed it up in our two hotel rooms and proceeded to hit the town. I dont remember much of all that, but I woke up back in the hotel room fully clothed, so it couldnt have been that bad.

Now Im back in town and back to the wedding planning and apartment hunting. Jane had the shower last weekend so we also got a ton of cool crap, which we of course will get to move in a couple of weeks.

Apartment hunting sucks and moving sucks even more. At least, my current landlord constantly reminds me why I am moving. I get my courtesy calls 2 minutes before he shows the apartment to someone. Yesterday we were eating a hurried dinner and getting ready to visit my grandmother in the hospital. I cant wait until this chucklehead calls me or stops bye when I am right in the middle of a movement or some afternoon delight.

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Breaking Point

Well that didnt take long.

A few posts ago I went on a rant about my new landlords. ;; Then I conceded that I wasnt going to complain about them anymore. ;; Well, youve got to hear this.

First, a little backstory...We rent a pretty large apartment with a deck. ;; Our landlords live above us ;;and have their own covered deck. ;; We live near a college so our landlords had mentioned early on that they were looking for a quiet couple and not some people who were going to be having loud parties. ;; My fiance, Jane and I are in our late 20s and those days are pretty much over. ;; Our landlords are also crazy. ;; Thats pretty much all the backstory you need.

On Saturday, we invited four of our friends over to use the new bbq my folks had gotten for us, as a houeswarming gift. ;; Its 5pm. ;; They arrive in two cars and park out front. ;; They park away from the house, so as not to block the driveway. ;; We sit outside on our deck and begin enjoying a couple of beers and some conversation. ;; No music or excessive noise. ;; At 5:30 I head inside with two of my friends to begin making our garbage plates (an upstate New York delicacy...Check it Out here ;;). ;; At about 6pm, my fiance Jane sees one of the two landlords (the wife) walk passed our kitchen door. ;; She heads outside to greet her and sees what she wants. ;; ;;The landlord ;;asks if we are having a party. ;; ;;Jane says that we are having four of our friends over for dinner. ;; Our landlord responds that we had talked about this, and that we were not aloud to have parties. ;; She says not to worry, but we will have to talk about this in the morning. ;; Jane agrees that we do need to discuss this, because by no stretch of the imagination ;;does four guests and garbage plates at 6pm constitute a party.

At 6:30 I get a call from our other landlord. ;; This guy is at work, and apparantly his wife must have called him and ;;given him an earful. ;; From the ;;moment I answer the phone he is yelling at me. ;; Saying that they had told us no parties. ;; His wife had told him that we had a bunch of cars out front and that the house was full of people. ;; I think I understand his issue. ;; Im thinking that we share a house. ;; By sharing the house, we should be ;;considerate of our neighbors. ;; ;;But, here it is 6:30 and we are not intruding on anyone. ;; I tell him that we have 4 guests who are outside getting ready for dinner and that we are not being loud, nor will we be outside once the sun goes down. ;; I also tell him that there two additional cars outside, and if that is the problem we can have the cars moved. ;; No good. ;; He is already convinced that we are having a ripper. ;; Instead, the six of us ate our garbage plates inside (as planned) and proceeded to play a 4 hour game of Risk. ;; Now that is one hell of a party. ;; I figured that the story would end there.

Yesterday the guy calls me up and asks me to come outside. ;; Once outside I am forced to once again maintain my composure as the two of them lay into me. ;; The wife says she saw a house full of people, not the four guests we say were there. ;; This time they drop some bombs about the deck and how we are not even supposed to be using it. ;; I ask them to please elaborate, as ;;there is a sliding glass door from our living room to this deck. ;; There was already a grill on this deck that he said we could use (we chose not to, because it was disgusting), but we arent allowed to use the deck. ;; Sounds pretty confusing to me. ;; I also ask if we are expected to never have friends or family over for dinner. ;; They actually said we could have our family over, but we would need to go out to dinner with our friends. ;; I try to explain that if we both have our parents over, it would have been no different than it was last night. ;;

They said that these are the rules and if we dont like them we can leave. ;; So we are one month into this lease and we are being told that we cant have guests, nor can we use the deck that is attached to our living room. ;; This was pretty much the only thing about the apartment we enjoyed. ;; Weve had mornings without hot water, a cricket infestation, and walls that sound like they are going to collapse when the heat is turned on. ;;

So, come July 1, we are out. ;; They have agreed to do ;;a walkthrough at that time and give us back our deposit after we leave. ;; This should be interesting, because that is a holiday weekend and it happens to be two weeks before our wedding. ;; This should be one hell of a ride.

Im writing this to vent. ;; I cant believe how crazy these conversations were. ;; I just couldnt get them to see where ;;we were coming from. ;; Maybe its hypocritical, since I am sure they probably felt the same way. ;; They rented the ;;apartment to two adults. ;; We were not going to ;;have parties. ;; However, we were going to have visitors. ;; It shouldnt matter who the visitors were, and as long as we dont ;;intrude on their privacy, there shouldnt be any issue. ;; I feel like they are nervous and are assuming the worste, which is why they are so charged with emotion everytime we talk. ;; The end result is they were ;;not ;;allowing us any freedom. ;; I havent lived with my parents in 6 years, but even that wasnt this bad. ;;

;;

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