Finale

The concert is over and I must say I am impressed! Amazing show, the original composer was there and jammed with the rest of the symphany. The only problem is the in game footage from the other games haven't really stood the test of time. Especially on such a huge screen. Overall I am so impressed that I hope to see them again. Now if only there were a concert series for Blizzard games.

Good night all, time for me to get my drink on. :)

Sent from Android

Intermission

We just hit intermission and wow what a show its been so far. They have played a lot of music from my favorite final fantasy games. Vii, viii and x.

Oddly though I'm dressed better than most, I feel under dressed at a symphany.  anyway, after the last half we'll be heading back to the hotel to probably do some drinking and munching :)

Sent from Android

Distant World

So we're in Chicago this weekend for Distant Worlds the Music of Final Fantasy. Sadly not lot of people are dressed up as Final Fantasy Characters. With the weather being so cold its not suprising.

The hotel we're staying as is down right amazing, hd tv, free internet, hdmi/vga hooking your laptop up to a 42 inch tv, kick ass view from the windows, and amazing glass showers. I know major run on but I'm excited to to be here. ;)

I'll post more as the night goes on. The show is about to start.
Wish you all could be here.

-grex
Sent from Android

Taking Christ out of Christmas

I'll admit, I'm a pretty jaded kind of guy. Nothing bothers me the most than Christmas. I have absolutely nothing against Christmas really, it's the way everyone goes about celebrating it. What bothers me about it, is it's only a celebration of SHOPPING, and BUYING, and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. Political correctness?  Shopping and buying? I'm sure some of you are thinking I've gone mad. Honestly I've been nuts for a long time. Just hear me out. 

Christmas and it's sole purpose was to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It's not the literal birth date of Jesus, but is the designated date that we all celebrate. In history, it has also become a time of gift giving and family gatherings. Nonetheless it is a Christian based holiday. 

Sadly, Christmas has lost it's meaning to the masses. It now spending spending spending. Money, money, money. Christmas sales everywhere, Christmas in July sales, Christmas summer sales, it's all enough to make a person sick! In my town, Christmas started to be celebrated commercially the day after Halloween!! Not even Thanksgiving yet and Christmas trees, and decorations are being put up. Not to celebrate Christmas but to remind people YOU NEED TO SHOP. Subconsciously they tell you Christmas has arrived and you need to SHOP NOW! Never mind the fact that in the pre-holiday season, prices jump so when the holiday season does arrive they lower the prices back to normal so they can say CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY SALE! People fall for it every year. "look at this great deal!, I remember when this was $20 more back in August!" failing to remember that the same items was really cheaper this past May, June or July. We're all suckers, we fall for it every time and not even realize it.

On the religious side of things, we have now become so "politically correct" that the Christian faiths are discouraged from celebrating the birth of Jesus publicly. All due to fear of offending other faiths, religions or those with lack there of. I just heard on the news this morning that somewhere someone tried to read a passage out of the Christian Bible in public, in celebration of a Christian holiday, and was stopped from doing so because it was ILLEGAL and NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT. This is a Christian holiday for crying out loud! Let the man celebrate his faith with others who share the same things. I'm not a Christian, I am atheist, though I may not agree or believe like others do, they should have the right to their religious beliefs, and to celebrate it how they see fit. For me if I don't like it, I can go home , not participate or change the channel. It is CHRISTmas after all, a Christian holiday, let them celebrate it and their faith.

The last thing that bothers me most about Christmas is it's used as an excuse to spend time with family and friends. This makes me sick most of all. Why do we need an excuse to spend time with family and friends and to give gifts. Shouldn't we do this anyway all year round? Our time on this Earth is short, and we need one day a year to make sure we show appreciation and love to our friends and family? Screw political correctness, shopping sales, and what not. Love and appreciate your friends and family all year round, don't just wait until Christmas or any other holiday to do it. Put some thought in your gifts and really make it count all the time. It will mean something, it will mean more when you do. 

EPIC FAIL

I had an interesting lunch today and today another asshole got his EPIC FAIL award. I was on my way to Computer Deli to pick up some stuff, and pulled onto I-72 toward Veterans. I'm not even doing the speed limit yet, and I'm passing some cars to get in preparation to merge into the left lane. The right lane is closed ahead due to construction. The last car I pass, a really nice Jaguar, decides to gun it in and cut me off preventing me from getting into the lane ahead of him. Now, I'm in no way shape or form racing anyone in my little 4 banger Hyundai, let alone a nice Jaguar like this. Maybe if I was in my old Camero, I'd be eating the road with him as a snack but I digress. Unlike him, I actually pay attention to the road. As he is passing me, he is point at me and laughing through his passenger side window. Little did he notice that the suv/mini van in front of him was slowing down. As he is laughing at me, he plows right in to the vehicle in front of him! As they pull over to the left side median, I wave at the guy as I pass by him in my little Elantra.

Good game jackass!

The Coming Cataclysm and Advent Knights

My fellow Knights,

It's been a while since our unloved and neglected blog has been used. So I wanted to show some love, and communicate with everyone about the next WoW expansion. The consensus among most of us, is new. New adventure, new experience, out with the old, in with the new kind of stuff. What better time to do that, is with WoW: Cataclysm. In the next expansion as most of you already know, Azeroth is getting changed.... DRASTICALLY. Though fan favorite quests will still be there, the rest is getting replaced by new quests and story lines.

This time around we will be starting over. Hello level 1 noob. Granted not everyone HAS to do this, but those that want to are more than welcome to join those of us who do. Not everyone is going to have the ability to create a new character on Doomhammer. Luckily, my reason's to stay on Doomhammer was removed with the advent of Battle.net friends lists. We will be able to chat with those who are on our friends list across faction and server. So the idea is to start on a new/low pop server. Which will be chosen a few weeks before launch. Probably during the events leading up to the launch.

The point of all of this is to get back to our roots. Why we play the game, and to have fun. let me tell you, it was great raiding with you all, but I want to enjoy the game. Hang with my friends, level and experience the game instead of making it a job or chore. We won't be rushing from level 1, to max level what ever this time around. We won't be working to raid as soon as possible. We're going to take our time, and experience the game. From the beginning to possible end. Every instance, every raid in order. Though we won't have 40 players to do Blackwing Lair, or AQ 40. We can go back at higher levels and get them done with fewer players.

Advent Knights, the guild is probably going to be going through something new as well. This time around, I want to try and cultivate a solid guild from the ground up. It may work it may not. Since we are starting out new, I'm taking a new approach to building this guild. We will have some headaches, but it's something I'm willing to try. At the start, we can build our guild. With simple rules, no complicated guild charter, or requirements. At least not until the guild has grown to a certain unset number or age. Anyone can join as long as they aren't jerks, respectful to others in and out of the guild, be helpful to the guild, and don't start drama. Anyone that agrees to that, gets an instant invite. No pressure to raid, no pressure to do anything but have fun and socialize. I am talking to a few people from work about joining us, and will be talking to a few of my friends on Doomhammer into joining us too. If possible, I may transfer one of my characters from Doomhammer to the new server to give us startup funds for the guild creation, bank slots, etc.

Faction, I truly am torn between doing Alliance or Horde. For horde, it can be a truly new experience as I haven't been through most of Azeroth on horde since the original launch. The other half of me wants to play Worgen. After seeing video of what they have done with the Worgen, I really want to play that race more than anything. Most of us feel the same way. So I'm fairly certain we'll be sticking with Alliance.

For me, I'll be playing differently this time around. Before, I always groomed my characters for tanking, or healing. This time around I'm grooming for DPS. As I have never really focused on being that kind of player. So I may go Worgen Rogue. Another part of me is wanting to go for the pinnacle of transformation, and playing a Worgen Druid for the first time....ever. It's funny thinking that not only would be character change into a Worgen, but can also change into a cat, bear, tree, and moonkin. lol I know at this moment that I say this, I could play a Worgen Shadow Priest but could get pigeon holed into being healer again.

Here are the roles that have been mentioned to be playing.
Tanks: Nykk, Kirathis
DPS: Grexis ? I assume Geeon will be this as per usual. :)
Healer: ?

So far here is the roster of those who have mentioned interest in taking part in this endeavor. Please let me know if you know of anyone who wishes to join.
Grexis
Xanthelle
Nykk
Kirathis
Devandra
Goroxx? (if he returns for the expansion?)
Squeanet

Possible inclusion
Sean (co-worker)
Chez
Lost
Mastro
Darchon? (I think he mentioned interest a while back)

Massively Interview with SWTOR

I just got done reading an interview that Massively did with a couple of SWTOR developers and a couple interesting facts came out. First off they say that if you play the game in single player mode it will likely feel like you're playing a traditional BioWare game. However, they say that the game will cater to group play very well as well. Unfortunately they're still only talking about groups of 2-3 people it seems so I'm still wondering how this is going to play out.

On another note they have revealed that there will be playable alien races. Not sure how all the voice acting and things are going to affect that however. They did allude to NPC aliens speaking in their native tongue and you get a subtitled translation, however I somewhat doubt they would do the same thing for PC aliens though it would be a more authentic experience if they did.

They also briefly talked about player housing and the differing viewpoints on such a thing. Currently it is not in the plan at the moment. They understand why people like it, but it isn't considered essential to their core gameplay. It might be something added in the future, but definitely won't be in for release.

My First Few Hours in Aion Online Beta

I got around to playing Aion Online tonight, and I have to say I'm quite impressed. So far I have Grexis up to 4th level, and it's clear NCSoft has borrowed HEAVILY from World of Warcraft. Though the artwork and themes in the game have the eastern asian fantasy themes, it should prove to be pretty acceptable to our western ideal styles.

The graphics in the game are nothing but superb, using the Cryengine. For those of you who don't know the Cryengine. It's an amazing graphics engine that was built for the machine busting Crysis. This is a graphics heavy game, that can bring medium level machines to it's knees. Aion isn't on that level of detail, an above average computer would be minimum to run this game. NCSoft has done a great job of utilizing this newer technology, while being able to use Blizzard's Wow design idiology. If this game lasts longer than 5 years, it will definitely hold up on graphics the way World of Warcraft has.

Gameplay so far has been straightforward, and easy to pick up. Anyone who has played WoW will be able to jump right in without a problem. Combat animation, effects and sound are equally impressive. Hitting mobs has that visceral feel to it that seems missing in most mmo fantasy games.

As I get more into the game, I'll post more. So in the mean time check out the online gallery I have started. Please be aware that the full image size is large and in HD.

http://www.adventknights.com/Galleries/Aionbetagallery/index.htm

Weekend Fun (Kind of)

So it's now Saturday night of my 3 day weekend and it's already been an interesting one. I was up until about 1am this morning after hanging out with some of the guys that I play softball with. My dad then showed up about 9am to redo my kitchen floor. About an hour and a half later my sister shows up and I'm supposed to cook steaks for dinner. Unfortunately the charcoal never really got started right so the grill never got hot. Ended up cooking the steaks on the Foreman grill which just isn't right imo.

After dinner we went to do some shopping and get food for the rest of the weekend. When I went to pull out my debit card at the grocery store I discovered that it was no longer in my wallet. I know I had the card yesterday afternoon, but I now have absolutely no idea where it is. I thought it was on my computer desk from when I went to register Champions, but unless the cats have moved it, it's definitely not there. So after changing all of my auto bill pays earlier this week, I now have to go back and change them again because I was forced to cancel the card.

So now I'm without my debit card for the next week or so. Guess all puchases get to go on credit for a while.

I'm Out of Champions Online Until They Fix It.

Ok, I'm officially done with Champions Online until they effectivily fix this game. I'm not being whiney or anything like that, and those that say the game isn't broken for them. Good, continue playing. Though it may not be broken for every powerset, it IS broken for the powersets that I want to play. I know how to block, I know how to defend myself in that game. When I cannot survive a same level group of 1 villan, and 2 henchmen, something is seriously wrong. Even after I have buffed up my defenses, of which I shouldn't have to do unless I want to tank, I still can't solo.

I started a new character, a fire based character, from scratch, going all defensive, and ran into a brick wall on quests. I can't complete them without help. The best I can do is kill one henchmen, run away, rest up, come back kill another, run away, rest up, kill the villian and hope I survive. Some times that doesn't even work, because now my travel power is so slow they take me out as I'm flying away. Fuck that, that is not fun in anyway shape or form.

So flat out, if they don't fix the game, I won't be back to play it.

Another Day, Another Mysterious Patch.

It seems like all some of us have been doing is complaining about Champions Online. I will admit after some hefty tweaking, and staying in protector build, I have been having a much more enjoyable time playing. I woke up early this morning not able to go back to sleep so I got in some play time this morning. What do I see when I login this morning? Yep another mysterious patch. No patch notes, no nothing. What was fixed? Does it even affect me? I don't have a damn clue.

You would have thought, they would have fixed their communication issue after the nuclear bomb of a patch they let loose on opening day. They even admit they screwed up with their communication. Still communication isn't fixed! Why? Is it too much to ask for the patch notes when a new patch comes out?

In any mmo, it's important to communicate with the community your trying to build. Most other companies do this from the start. It's pretty much standard practice now and if they don't start communicating better, they will alienate further their own community and drive players away. I would love to see this game a success, and with the lackluster mmo's that have been coming out over the years. It's going to continue to drive people away from people trying new things and prevent the industry from taking risks and doing a truly innovative online games.

Champions Online, Cataclysm and The Sound of Madness

The past few weeks have been interesting. We been jumping into Champion's Online and kicking ass. The open beta, and the early start program has been surprisingly stable. Granted it's not without it's problems, but hasn't had the severe problems most MMO's face at launch. The game has been quite fun and a much welcome change from the fantasy genre that has me quite burnt out. After playing CoH/V I was initially hesitant about jumping into this game. My money was well spent on this gain and avoided another AoC debacle.

The gunslinger has been my favorite hero so far, added in a few force powers to boot. It's a great feeling to mow down bad guys with a machine gun, then turn around launch up into the air to take on the next baddies. Oselot will be my main for the remainder of the game, though Grexis may make an appearance sooner or later.

More than likely, I'll be sticking with Champion's Online until Cataclysm is released. As good as Champion's Online is, I feel I will get bored with this game in the long run. World of Warcraft will always hold an important part of me. I have made many friends there, best of all you all here, the lore of Azeroth is very dear to me, and just the amount of time I have devoted to mastering that game. It's just not something I can easily walk away from. Though I have been taking a break from the game, for the most part. I know I'll be back to playing for Cataclysm when it's released.

This time around when I start playing WoW regularly again. I won't be rushing things like I have in the past. WoW 1.0 was a lot of fun, and I really just took in all the sights and lore. I cared about the npc's I was interacting with, picking up quests and learning more of the story of the world. After getting into raiding in Molten Core, I sort of lost that sense of wonder, and excitement. It was about raiding, being the best I could be, and taking on the challenges of the raids that lay before me. Though, the best part of raiding was the comraderie, and hanging out with you all. To this day I remember why VanCleef was a renegade, his betrayal by the city of Stormwind, how he helped rebuild the city only to get a "Thank you" as his payment for his services. What do I remember of BC? Illidan is in Black Temple. I don't even remember why, lore wise, why we even went into Karazhan. I leveled two toons from 60 to 70 within two weeks and focused on leveling, and getting the gear I needed to try to be the best paladin in the guild. When Wrath came out, it was leveling as fast as possible, get my gear for raiding, and dailies to pay for it all.

When I first heard about the worgen being the next race in WoW, I was kind of blah about it. I felt Blizzard was starting to be lazy, and not coming up with anything fresh. Little did I know that there is a rich lore behind them, and their history in Gilneas. Not to mention the fact that they are not always worgen looking. They actually go through transformations like a werewolf does. Loving the werewolf stories and movies when I was a kid. The kid in me is now excited to play such a race and learn the story behind them. Along with all the cataclysmic changes to the world of Azeroth. I plan on taking my time, leveling from level 1 to 85. I want to do something that I haven't even done with Grexis. Complete every quest, complete every 5, 10, 25 man instance starting from the beginning. I want to learn the new stories of the world, and why we fight the big baddies in the group/raid instances.

So this time around, I'll be starting out at level 1. Starting over from scratch. A new main, carrying the Advent Knights banner, making a name for himself in the world (of warcraft).

The sound of madness seems to be pretty fitting for me lately. Not only have I been battling my own demons, but have been dealing with others as well. So today I dedicate the following video to my sister and others who won't listen to reason, and only think the world is out to get them. Enjoy :)

Bothered and Annoyed

So over the weekend, I had a lot of annoyances. It has kept me in a perpetual state of aggravation, which is not the way I like to feel. Between ISP issues, and annoyance with my general boredom. I decided to reactivate my wow account and got in some play time on various toons while talking to old friends I hadn't spoken to in a while. Even got in some play time on the new instances, helped finish a 10-man nax run that went flawless. I was genuinely starting to have fun again. Things were starting to look up until I see GK log in.

GK is back to playing wow, and I was actually happy to see him back. So my joy was short lived the moment I said "Wow your back playing! How you been?". My gut told me not to, but my heart urged me to say "Hi" to my old friend. I do genuinely care about my friends, and I never liked having to kick GK from the raid. I considered him a friend after all, and the decision that I made was very hard on me not to mention those involved at the time.

Before I continue, I want to point out that this is not an attack on GK. Due to his comments, and misconceptions, I have decided to vent my frustration publicly. I'm hoping what I say will clarify things a bit, and hopefully in the off chance that he actually cares, or reads this, GK will come back into reality sometime. I know I should probably just let it all go, and take the high road, but this bothers me more than I like. So I need to get this all off my chest. I always wanted to keep GK's issues private, I did not want to cast him in a bad light, but with what he has said and discussions with others. I am bringing this out in the open. Based on what I have heard from others, some of us are still confused as to what transpired, so against my better judgement here it is.

So anyway, I said "Wow your back playing! How you been?". The first response I got was "The same as back when you kicked me from the raid". So I quickly find out that GK has some animosity regarding my removing him from the raid. His further comments makes things clear that no matter what I told him before, or even now, he believes only what his low self esteem tells him. He proceeds to tell me, that I lied to you all regarding him, why he left and that I told you all that he didn't want to talk to you. Flabbergasted, I stopped the conversation there. I was in the middle of a 10-man raid after all, and had enough of my own frustrations with other things, to continue what would inevitably be an argument that wouldn't change a thing anyway.

The more and more I have thought about it, the worse it's bothered me. I hate that part of me that does this. I spent the whole weekend thinking about it, and how annoying it is that he just won't see the truth. I lets start this from the beginning so there are no questions as to what has transpired over the last month or so of our Naxx.

A while back, behind the scenes, I had a discussion with Kira, Nykk, and GK regarding our attitudes. It seemed like for a while, we were getting really annoyed with each other, tempers were starting to flair, and we seemed to be flying off the handle about the dumbest shit. Myself included. The one being the most vocal was GK, though he wasn't at all the only one. So I sent out an email, asking all of us to cool off, and get our collective shit together. We did, we worked out our issues and things have since been great since. With the exception of GK. GK toned down but never really stopped. He complained, "I don't get drops", "you left me out of a run", "I never get to go", "kira gets all the drops", "I suck as a tank", "I'm not main tank anymore". blah blah blah. Things started to get worse with him, after we learned the fights in Nax, and switch things up for more dps and progression speed.

We all knew prot paladins sucked at dps, and because GK was a druid, he could switch to dps without a change in gear and do much better than I could. This was only to be a temporary thing as the new patch that was coming was introducing duel specs. So until then, we would learn the fights with GK as main tank, then once we learned it, I switched to tank on some fights, and we used his kitty for the extra boost in dps to burn the boss down faster. Once the patch came out, GK would tank everything, and I would switch to DPS when off-tank was not needed. Simple, easy, and teamwork oriented right? Not to GK, to him, he thought it was a way to move me to main tank, and prove he sucked at the job. It was always about him and us not wanting him, all in his mind.

As you all know there were public outbursts from him, snide comments about drops, and it got especially bad behind the scenes when GK and Nykk would try to work out strategies. I would try to help, but Nykk and GK read strategies like I read network engineering and software development manuals. They learn the stuff inside and out and can work our strengths to the best we can be, but to GK it kept grating on him that I was in the picture more and more as main tank. Never mind the fact that I never wanted to be main tank and never considered myself main tank over GK. If I did main tank it was because we already had the strats down, the bosses down and wanted to streamline things based on our strengths and weaknesses.

After weeks of dealing with it, and the last outburst on the Kel'thuzad fight, I decided it was time to have a serious talk to GK and try to get his low selfesteem or what ever his problem was in check. We were all struggling on Kel'thuzad, and we all needed a break from severe burnout anyway. We could come back from a week off refreshed and ready to go. Tuesday, I talked with Kira and Nykk, about telling GK to take an extended break, like a month or so to get himself straightened out. They advised not to and to see how things go during our weak long break. I agreed, we'll see how things go when we all get back into the swing of things.

The next day, Wednesday I believe, come to find out from Nykk, they are fighting again, this time more so than usual. All stemming from GK's problem the previous run and Nykk's seat of his pants idea to have GK try healing. Even Nykk admits it was a bad call that stemmed from frustration. As you all recall, I jumped in and offered to do the healing part, not my chosen job, but I do what I can to succeed as a team. I had officially had enough it was time for GK to take a break whether he liked it or not. So I proceed to right the following email.

"Gk, man we got to talk. We can either do this in email or vent it doesn’t matter. You probably know why. I was planning on telling you to take a month or so break yesterday, but was asked by Nykk and Kira to wait to see how things go after this weeks break. That doesn’t mean I won’t exercise my right as raid leader to do what’s best for the raid. I have talked and listened to the others and I’m going with their recommendation. We’re all friends, and I owe them and you that respect. You are my friend and if it was anyone else, I would have kicked them out for far less.

I don’t know if it’s your lack of sleep or what; but your negativity and this self serving martyr complex you’ve got going has to end as of now. I know as I type this, you’re going to react as if it’s yet another attack on you. It’s not. Because you’re my friend, I have been cutting you lots of slack and been asking you to stop with the negativity and now the nagging me, me, me, I, I, I crap, but you keep it up. Monday’s comment about leaving the raid was the last straw with me.

I know you have been fighting with Nykk, and it’s also got to stop. Don’t be pissed with him, because it’s my job to know about drama in our team. If Nykk is ever out of line, I talk to him about it. Just like I do with you. You keep bringing up baseless, claiming “logical”, facts in your arguments, and in fact they aren’t based reality as the rest of us. You’re not listening to what I’m saying and I’m sick of trying to drill it into your head. We are supposed to be a “team”, and some how you’ve got this notion there is an “I” in the word. Nykk made a mistake; I jumped up for the team, even if I didn’t have my gear with me, and healed. Because I am a team player it’s what we are supposed to do. Of course there is another problem, YOUR STILL SULKING ABOUT IT. Any time you are asked to do something else other than main tank, you make snide remarks; try to play them off as joking, when you’re true feelings about it are completely transparent. Not to mention the joke wore off the point you started sulking about it, to begin with. You made it quite clear to Nykk yesterday that what you and I have discussed made no impact on you what so ever.

I’m sounding quite harsh, unfortunately it’s needed. I’m your friend, and I want the GK back that I used to love hanging out with. Until that day comes, I’m going to be calling you on your actions. As I hope anyone else would do with me. If I’m screwing up, I want to know about it. Even if I am yourfriend, I still have to lead a raid. That raid is a team, and I expect everyone on that team to play as such. We all make sacrifices for the team, and your sacrifice has been doing dps where needed.

Now, with how you have been acting the past few months, you’re just not happy at all. I can’t help but wonder why you even play at all? You seem dead set on making everyone else feel miserable along with you and it’s not fair. The comments regarding your offset gear to Kira isn’t fair. It’s yourdamned offset gear; why do you have to throw guilt trips on Kira when after 3.1 lands you don’t have to worry about dps? I’ve personally told you that after 3.1 lands, you’ll be back to main tanking 90% of the bosses. I know you hate doing dps, which is why after 3.1 I’ll be doing that job. Obviously it’s still an issue; you have to bitch moan and complain about and remind us about it every chance you get. Get over it already! Take advantage of our week long break, spank your inner child, and get back to your old self.

The last thing I’m going to talk about here is your need to be at the top of everything you do in regards to everyone else. You may disagree but it’s there and you throw it in our faces every chance you get. When you aren’t at the top, you sulk, are pissy and take it out on others. When you’re not top dog main tank, you’re bitching, then, when you’re not tanking, your not top dps, your bitching. This isn’t a competition. You’re not competing with me for top tank spot, I’M NOT MAIN TANK. You’re certainly not competing for top dps spot as a tank. I’ve said from the beginning that main tank spot is yours. I don’t care if my gear is better or not. I want to be off tank/dps. I always have, unfortunately Blizzard seen to it that I couldn't do that. Luckily they fixed it in 3.1. Same goes for the dps spots in the raid, and I can’t help but think that’s the only reason you want to bring your DK so you can do both! Nevermind the fact that we all decided in the beginning to NOT TO BRING OTHER TOONS. Whether you like it or not, we ARE going to play with our strengths and put our weaknesses on the sidelines where possible. It’s called being a team, and from here on out if you want to keep running with us, you better start acting like a team player. Put your ego aside and let’s destroy these instances. Even if that means being asked to do something you don’t like. I have to do it, I accept it and so should you if we are to make this raid a success.

So please, I’m begging you, please take advantage of this week to get your head clear. Get yourpriorities worked out. I don’t want all this continuing when you get back. This email was extremely painful for me to write, and having to tell you to take an extended break after we all get back is not something I want to do. If when you get back, and your still unhappy, please tell me about it, stop playing the game, what ever it takes to get a happy GK again.

Grex"

So there, I laid it all out for him. I didn't like being that shitty with my friend but I had to.

Here was his response..

"You wanna know Why I've been pissy lately?

More than likely it's a sleep thing, it's been getting a lot worse lately, but I can't change that unless you kick me from the raid, and if you wanna do that, go right ahead, It's not my raid, it'syour and nykks and kira's. Other than that, I've been feeling more and more useless which each passing night. No one listens to a d@mn thing I ever say. NOONE ever apologizes and I get spoken over every single time I try to speak.

Quite honestly the MT spot should be yours whether you want it or not. You've proven to be a better tank and better for raid progression. I may not like it, but right now I could care less.

You're e-mail that you sent me is quite clear that nykk and you have been "Talking" about me for the last few days. Ok. His, feelings and your feelings are quite clear, and if this is how the rest of the group feels, make your decision as you see fit. I am not going to say one word either way.

Nykk made it clear to me yesterday that I should simply be quiet and do what I'm told. I will do that. you want me to be happy. So be it. If you would rather I be kicked from the raid, all the better for you guys. At least you guys can get progression without me Holding you back.

Do as you feel necessary grex.

Timothy MacKeen

CIT Service Desk"

So in other words, he can't fix things unless I kicked him out. He lays it all on me as to the reason he can't fix himself. He can't make a simple decision to take care of himself and his friendships on his own.

My final response to him

"I'm not kicking you from the raid, I will if it's necessary, but all I'm asking you to do is take a break, especially this week. If all the crap continues, I need you to take an extended break, maybe a month or two. Doesn't mean your out permanently, just long enough for you to get your head straight. Once that happens, then you have your spot back.

Again, your still not getting what I'm saying. Your not useless, and if you feel that way, it's you telling yourself that. We do need you and asking you to step out to get your head clear is a huge blow to our raid team. We do listen to you, and you don't make sense half the time. There is nothing for us to apologize for because we have done nothing wrong. Your also wrong about it being me, Kira, and Nykk's raid. It all of our raid. Right now, the only reason it's just the four of us talking about this is because the raid's moralle is on shaky ground right now. Squea has been stressed with the kids, Geeon's been sick, so I don't want to bother them right now. Only reason any of this is going on in the first place is because of your attitude and negativity all the time. If that wasn't the case, we wouldn't even be having these conversations.

If this is due to your lack or trouble sleeping, don't throw it on my shoulders to make a decision of what you need to get better. Only you can figure that out for yourself. I'm here to listen if you want to talk about it, and I'll give you my opinion but your decisions are yours and I'll stand by them. If yourthat addicted to the game and need me to kick you out so you can fix yourself, so be it, your out. I don't want to do it, but if it's going to make you healthy physically and mentally, so be it. I care to much for you to destroy our friendships, and your health over a d@mned game. It's not worth it. So as of right now, your out. Take the time you need to get yourself better. If you need to talk, I'm always here for ya, and I'll help any way I can. So please take care of yourself, get better, and come back when you feel your ready. The spots always yours and who ever fills in will know this. "

Since then, I have maintained that GK's leaving the raid was a personal matter, and that it was for him to focus on his health. Nothing seriously wrong, just taking a break to regain focus. Contrary to what others may have been told, I did not permanently kick GK out. I didn't want everyone to know why, and or make GK look bad in anyway.

After that I never told anyone that he didn't want to talk to or having anything do with them. I don't speak for other people and I certainly don't tell anyone who they can or can't talk to or be friends with. The most I got from him was a passed on message from Geeon, requesting that he be removed from all wow/raid related emails. The following was sent to us on Apr 15th.

"I received an email from GK this morning, he is getting over being sick this past weekend and wishes us well with our raids. he would like us to remove him from raid related emails. Below is a direct quote from him.

I would like to request that I not be forwarded on any matters relating

to wow, or the raid. I have no need to see this information."

So in order to keep from sending those automated emails to him. I had to remove him from the mailing list for this blog. Otherwise he would continue to get them.

Contrary to what others "may" have been told, we did not kick out GK just so we could bring in Goroxx. Goroxx knew going in to this that his position was temporary until GK got back.

So if there is anything out there, that any of you feel or have been told that I have been dishonest or lied about anything, for any reason. Please by all means please come and ask me. I will clear up any questions there may be. As for GK, I hate what happened with him, but from now on, I'm not going to be quiet regarding this any longer when someone is calling me a liar.

Insomnia Sucks

So last night I thought about going to bed about 10:30pm. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't stop thinking about all of the stuff I needed to get done at work and how far behind I was. Unfortunately when I get in a mood like this, there's not much I can do, so I figured I might as well attempt to solve the problem and came to work. It's now approximately 1:30am and I finally finished what I set out to do about three hours ago. I think when I get home I might actually be able to sleep. (for about 4 hours before I have to be up to come back to work)

Not my week for sports

This has definitely not been my week when it comes to sports and sportslike activities. It all started Tuesday when our softball game got rained out. Myself and a coworker decided that we would take the opportunity to play some disc (frisbee) golf on the campus course. We had both just gotten new discs and wanted to try them out. We start playing and my new disc is working out pretty well. Then about halfway through the course I decide to go for it all on my tee shot and watch in horror as my disc curves off the fairway and heads towards a building.

We heard something that sounded like glass breaking, but it had an odd sound and we couldn't immediately seen any broken windows so we thought that maybe I had gotten lucky and hit an air conditioner or just the window frame. However when I located my disc and looked behind me I could definitely see the hole in the window. The disc had pushed the screen back into the window and broke it before bouncing my disc back out. Since I know the campus police phone number from work, I called them up and told them what happened. An officer showed up and took down my name and everything for the report. He made it sound like it wasn't that big of a deal since we reported it, but I haven't heard anything else officially yet.

Fast forward to tonight and we're playing a makeup softball game from last week. My first 3 at bats weren't terrible with a good single and a couple other good hits that the fielders made better plays on. Then in the top of the last inning with the bases loaded and two outs, I come up to bat again and go into a full count. The last pitch comes in and winds up about 6 inches outside the plate. I let it go thinking I'll take the easy run and let the top of the lineup come up to bat again. Out of nowhere the umpire calls it a strike and that's the end of that. One of my teamates who was on second base definitely agreed that the pitch was way outside and said that the ump had done the exact same thing to him on one of them. The worst part was, I was playing catcher and saw closer pitches than that called balls.

*sigh*

Champions Online

Hey all,

Just an FYI that I will be giving Champions Online a go when it releases in September. Nykk has advised he will probably be checking it out as well. No idea on how long we will be playing and I have no specifics on server, etc at this time.

The pre-order just opened for the game this week. If you decide to pre-order, Gamestop has the best bonus items in my opinion, but you can check them all out on the champions website and decide for yourself. Best part is the pre-order includes an early start and beta key. Gamestop is supposed to have the cards for it all in-store by the first week in August. Not sure if that means 8/1 or the first Monday...

More info to come on servers, superteam (guild), etc

Starting Over

I'm essentially starting over in my health program. I'm back up to 219 and totally out of shape. I've been really a slacker about going to the gym. Since I was on vacation I didn't really worry about what I was eating either.

This is the 1st week of my going back to the gym full time and pumping up my workout routine. I'm hoping to get my schedule to look like:
Monday: Crunches, Treadmill, Aqua-aerobics
Tuesday: Body Pump, Cardio
Wednesday: Crunches, Treadmill, Aqua-aerobics
Thursday: Body Pump, Zumba (Latin aerobics)

Body Pump (weight lifting to music) kicked my ass (showed me that I had really let myself slide again). Body Pump has lots of squats and lunges. This schedule should get me 8 hours of workout a week and leave my weekends free. It'll mix some weight lifting in with the fat burning aerobics and doesn't leave me too much to my own devices. I seem to do better in classes that on my own.

It won't leave me much time in the evenings during the week for WoW, but I'm having a hard time being sad about that.

The Latest Weigh In

So far I've been doing pretty good on my weight loss. After the past week, I had stepped up my training a bit, but had fallen on my diet some. So Lets see the numbers. 

When I started

5/19/2009

357.4 lbs Total Weight 

157.6 lbs of Fat weight 

199.8 lbs of FFM (Fat Free Mass)

Yesterday

7/16/2009

343.2 lbs Total Weight 

123.2 Fat Weight

220.0 FFM (Fat Free Mass)

So far I have lost 14.2 lbs over all, I have lost 34.4 lbs of Fat and have gained 20.2 lbs of Muscle.

Goal #1 Achieved

Today when I weighed in I discovered that I have officially broken the 300lb barrier. This is 18lbs down from where I started back before RenFaire. I've still got a long way to go, but reaching this first milestone definitely gives hope for the future.

How much time I spend on backups

If this photo is any indication I spend a lot of time on backups. Each of the tapes in the big stack is 400 gbs of data. I spent the day cataloging the tapes for reissue.

Sent from Android

Of furry things and cheap build quality

So I'm relaxing in my recliner tonight only to hear my cats hiss behind me. Not an uncommon occurance, but the fact that they were both staring at my washer made me get out of my chair. A couple of weeks ago I found a opposum in that exact spot when one of my cats did the same thing. Luckily it's right by my back door so I managed to chase him out. $150 vet bill later making sure my cats were up to date on their rabies shots and replacing an access panel behind the washer I thought the problem was solved.

So I get out of my chair and go look, pretty well knowing what I'm going to find and I once again find a opposum behind my washer. I kick the cats into my bedroom and shut the door behind them to keep them out of the way. Open the back door again and try to sweep him out with a broom, but this time he takes off through my house! Cursing rather loudly I chase him into my office to watch him disappear into the hole I had ripped in my sheetrock in there a few months back when I had some plumbing problems. About that time I was wishing for a small caliber fire arm to take care of the problem once and for all, but sadly my .22 is at my dad's place and I decide the 20-guage is probably going to do far too much damage to my house. (Not to mention it's somewhat illegal to discharge a firearm in the city limits.)

Upon further examination I find that there is a giant hole in the floor of my house below the bathtub. Apparently instead of cutting a proper sized hole for the drain pipe, they just made it 2-3 times as big as needed so they didn't have to work very hard. Damned cheap bastards. (I'm going to pause right here to premptively tell Geeon and Kira to refrain from the trailer jokes and jabs, I should have known something like this would happen.) So I found some bookcase shelves I had laying around that I haven't gotten around to putting together and plugged the hole in the wall for the time being. Looks like this weekend involves a trip to the Home Depot to grab some plywood and construction adhesive to fix the hole in the floor. I need to get the wall fixed permanently too, but the lack of a truck to haul a 4'x8' piece of sheetrock means I'm stuck with the temp solution for a while. I'd borrow one, but sadly I don't know anyone around that has one so I have to wait on my dad to come visit.

D&D

So are we going to get an online D&D game going? I know Grex has been very busy and everyone else has had stuff going on so this is just a general inquiry.

(((HUGS))) to all.

Update Run Through

With my induction into Google Voice, Google has officially assimilated my world.

YAY Dev's back!! Let us know how your trip went!

I promise I'll get to each and every one of you guy's emails. I've had no time to get to personal stuff this past week!

Holy shit do I have heartburn after eating Popeyes chicken!

So not looking forword to weight training tonight!

LucasArts Back Catalog now on Steam

Apparently LucasArts has fixed a lot of their old games to now be compatible with XP/Vista and have released the updated versions through Steam. I haven't yet had a chance to browse through them and see exactly which ones are up there and which aren't, but I'm personally liking this. As a huge Star Wars nut I owned a large collection of LucasArts games back in the day and have been disappointed that they don't run on XP and trying to run them in DosBox has been a nightmare as well. TIE Fighter was the best space combat sim ever in my opinion.

Hell on Earth

Well to say that these past few weeks have been trying would be an understatement. Three weeks ago I went down to visit family and ended up helping my grandfather mulch his garden. He got tired more quickly than usual, but my grandmother told me that his diabetes had been acting up a lot more as of recently so I put it all down to a combination of that and simply the fact that he's getting older. When I talked to him on the phone on the following Monday he sounded absolutely exhausted, but said he'd had a hard, hot day. A week later I got a call from my grandmother asking me to come down for lunch on Sunday because my mom was going to be up there visiting. Her voice sounded a little strained on the phone, but since I hadn't heard anything, I figured she was just tired.

When I showed up for lunch, I was told that my grandfather had been diagnosed with cancer that Tuesday and he was rapidly deteriorating. This all happened less than a week after we had been happily working on his garden which is absolute favorite hobby. Yesterday I was informed that the cancer is terminal and inoperable. He is going to start chemo on Tuesday. If successful the doctors give him 6 months to 2 years. If it is not they give him 3 to 6 months.

It probably goes without saying that I am going to be even more scarce for a while than I have been. Most of my weekends are going to be spent helping out with maintenance on my grandparents' property. Maintaining the garden, mowing the lawn, and just generally doing whatever needs to be done to help out. This whole thing is taking a major toll on my grandmother as well. She's not sleeping and hardly eating herself, so she's going to need all the help she can get to get through it. This is doubly hard on me after having lost my grandmother on the other side of the family to cancer barely a year ago.

I just wanted to let you guys know why I'm not around much and why I might seem a little distracted if you do see me online.

Nykk

Reason to Stay

As some, if not all, of you know, the game has taken a turn for the not-so-interesting. I have had offers to join other guilds and am struggling with whether or not I want to go.

Let me start by saying that this is not a reflection in any way, shape, or form on this group and I am asking for a reason to stay, if there is one. For the past few weeks, there has been a lack of any activity on the game, that is, nothing that I have been invited to partake in, and suffice it to say I am getting bored with the politics and changing of the rules that I see happening, even if it hasn't been said openly.

There is more ppl showing up from Imaginary Friends that have been invited into the Geri's and most of them are out of Frazz's 25 man run. One of these individuals has 13 and 16 yr old sons who have been brought into the Geri's. I know that the mission statement says that family members are automatically invited, but lets be real. I do not see a 13 and 16 yr old behaving as adults, I have 13 yr olds on my buses, they don't know how to act accordingly.

This is in no way disregarding me from the 10 man that we run or any other run/runs that we do, I am simply looking for a reason to stay in Geri's and frankly, as I rack my brain, am not finding much to work with(the reasons...not my brain). The politics change so often that the reasons that I joined this guild are drifting out of my reach and are being reinforced by ppl doing nothing but what is in their best interests.

All I am asking is that I be provided with something, besides, "Well I/ We are here", for reason to stay. I understand that real life gets in the way and there are activities that must be done b4 game time can be considered and in that fact I completely understand if this mail goes unheard for a bit, but don't take too long. I hope that I haven't hurt anyone with this posting, but everyone needs to know what they are worth, in this game its a question of how much you are needed, and so far I am not impressed with the Geri's, not one bit.

Even if I do go to another guild, know that I will keep to the same schedule and any other that is posted for the group. Know that this group of friends means more than most other things in this game. I/we have made great friends here and I wouldn't want something as small as a guild tag to change that.

Vacation !!!!

Geeon will be in Costa Rica--Yes I finally got approval to go. I will be gone July 3 through July 12th. You may see me online, I bought a new Laptop to bring traveling. If not it means I am actually having supreme fun.

Like a Horseshoe to the Brain!

The past few weeks have been crazy! I've begun the much needed remodeling of my house. It's been a lot of hard work and is going to continue that way for some time. Kat and my sister-in-law had some fun in Florida before bring everything up from our storage unit. My dad for the very first time came up for the past week to help oversee the remodeling. Since I'm a relative noob to remodeling, I made some mistakes. My dad was able to rescue my projects and get them back on track. I couldn't have done it with out him.

An added bonus is having my nephew here with me. He's grown up so fast and the amount of help he has provided has been priceless. He has worked his ass off since getting here and I appreciate all the help he's given me. He'll be pretty suprised at the pay day I'm about to give him.

On a final note I've been jamming to the new Alice In Chains song "A Looking In View" all morning. This song rocks so hard like a horseshoe to the brain!!!

Sent from Android

Cheap & Legal Windows 7

Microsoft is offering pre-orders for Windows 7 at more than half off right now through authorized resellers. I just picked up a a copy of the new Home Premium edition for $49 at Newegg., limited to 1 per person though :(

The Pro version is selling for $99 with the same limit.

Anyone interested can visit this link.

Thoughts on the Jamie Thomas Retrial

For those of you that don't keep up with things like this the RIAA had sued a woman for sharing 24 songs on Kazaa. The original trial took place about a year ago with a guilty verdict and an award of $222,000. A couple of weeks later the judge decided that he had messed up in his jury instructions and threw out the whole trial and they started again.

The new trial just ended yesterday and unsurprisingly a guilty verdict was again rendered. However, the damages awarded this time around were $1.92 million. This is just ludicrous. I'm not going to argue over whether or not she was guilty as the evidence mostly seems to point that way, but isn't completely solid as in theory someone else could have used her computer, but it seems unlikely. What is ridiculous is the amount awarded to the RIAA. Based on the standard industry price of around $1.00 a song, the amount should be around $24 multiplied by the number of times the song was downloaded. Even if you figure it was downloaded 50 times, which seems to be a rather high estimate based on the number of other users probably sharing the same thing, the loss comes out to be $1200. Even 3-5 times that amount might be reasonable, but to award an organization with the resources of the RIAA $1.92 million from a single mom with two kids is simply retarded.

There are currently plans to appeal the case. Given any luck it will make it up to the Supreme Court and these kinds of damages will be ruled unconstitutional and we'll finally see the end of ludicrous damage awards in these kind of cases.

Update

Well since Grexis posted an update on his fitness program, I figured I'd post one for myself as well. I'm on the third week of the program and already seeing pretty good results from it. I started out at 305 and I'm now down to about 302. However, I'm already noticing significant differences especially in energy levels. My trainer has been very pleased with my progress in both cardiovascular and strength gains and he isn't really paying attention to the weight right now since he said it wouldn't change much in the first month anyway as fat is replaced with muscle.

Some of the changes are outwardly noticeable however. This morning while I was shaving I noticed that my face looked a lot thinner than I remember it being. Also, while I was home visiting family over the weekend whom I haven't seen since April one of them asked me if I had lost some weight. This was very encouraging to me as the people I'm around all the time can't really notice the changes and give me that kind of feedback. I'm hoping that by the time that Grexis, Kira, Xan, and I get back together for GenCon in mid-August the changes will be very noticeable to them as well, depending on their memories.

Unfortunately for me, I apparently threw my back out at work today. It wasn't too bad until I started trying to go through my workout routine tonight. Even though none of the workout really concentrated on the lower back at all, I found that by the end of the second exercise that I could barely get up off of the bench and the pain was excruciating. Because I was barely able to walk, I was unable to finish my workout which I'm really disappointed in. Hopefully when I go see my chiropractor tomorrow everything will get fixed and I can go back to finishing everything else planned for this week, but if past history is any indication, I'll probably have to take it easy at least through the weekend.

Beware the Nine Ball

A nice little gem this Nine Ball is. According to Websense there have been over 40k web sites hit by a mass-compromise attacked called, none other than, Nine Ball. This compromise hits web servers that will redirect it's victims to a site that will then attempt to download trojans, viri, keyloggers oh my. 

The kicker with this new threat is the server hosting the malware (www.nine2rack.in) will scan the victim for vulnerabilities in their web browser, Adobe or Quicktime software. It finds a whole it will download a trojan along with a keylogger that most anti-virus software won't find. These trojan's are especially nasty because they are hard to detect because they are created and compiled on the fly. 

Now on the server side, people who have been lax on security, and their secure coding practices will allow their server to be compromised. Nine Ball will use SQL-Injection attacks and brute force  intrusion with stolen user names and passwords of the administrators of the website. 

So while your out surfing the intertubes be careful what your surfing.

*MP* Woot! Got accepted into the DDO: Eberron Unlimited Closed Beta!

The Weigh-in

So today my trainer wanted to go ahead and do a weigh-in. I suddenly got nervous. I wasn't expecting it so soon, as a matter of fact I was thinking it would happen Thursday. I didn't have time to prepare myself mentally for any bad news that may crop up. We did the deed and as I said in a previous post, here is the update on my quest. 

First Weigh-in 05/22/09

Weight: 357lbs

Body Fat%: 44.1%

Lean Body Mass: 199.56 lbs

Last Weigh-in 

06/04/09

Weight: 354 lbs

Body Fat%: 42.4%

Lean Body Mass: 196.43 lbs

Todays Weigh-in

06/16/09

Weight: 350 lbs

Body Fat% 39%

Lean Body Mass: 213.5 lbs

I'm kicking ass! A loss of 7lbs altogether, even after gaining muscle! My trainer couldn't be happier with those numbers. Even while I'm still struggling with my diet and keeping my schedule, my daily calorie intake % is getting better. According to my trainer I need to get my carbs and protein up. Which I have been working on but so far only gradually. 

Due to my eating so little, which is normal for me, I have supplemented my caloric intake with Ensure. This has given me a better spread between carbs, protein and fat. This week I have started a core protein supplement to increase my protein to help boost my muscle repair after workouts and nights of sleep. I purchased two supplements at GNC. First is CytoSport Muscle Milk, which I drink when I wake up in the morning, and before I go to bed on cardio nights, and then an hour before my weight training. The second is GNC Amplified Wheybolic Extreme 60 that I drink post workout.

Yesterday was the first day I have started on the new supplements I purchased at GNC and it's already made a difference in my weight training workout I had today. I had a lot more stamina that I had the last few weeks. I felt stronger, which is probably due to the fact that I gained muscle anyway. So I'm pretty happy with the results I have seen so far. Now I just need to keep it up. That's going to be the real challenge for me.  

Going Strong

So far the big life style change is starting to sink in. I'm getting a grasp of my new daily routines and I have noticed some pretty significant changes in my moods and mental alertness

I have't been as moody or brooding, and it's taking a lot less motivation to get me moving. It used to be that when I woke up in the morning it took an act of god to bet my fat ass up to get ready for work. Without the sleep study yet I'm already feeling rested when I wake up in the morning.

I'm still having issues with my diet. Missing my snacks here or there and some times just not having any time to remember to log what I ate. I need to start focusing on that.

All in all the experience has been going much better. I feel better physically and mentally. I don't spend a lot of time on scales but rather listening to my body. Just this week I noticed my clothes feeling loose on me. The shorts I bought before the St Louis Ren Faire fit perfectly then. Yesterday they are starting to feel baggy. Pants that used to be tight around the legs when I crossed them feel loose. This is obviously working now if I can just fit my food documentation and snacks into my routine I should be doing even better.

In my last weigh in I noted that I had lost muscle mass from the weight lifting. This was very discouraging. Because I'm not getting enough protein in my diet. It caused me to lose muscle.  To combat this problem I've starting some high protein suppliments from GNC. I'm hoping this will help curb the muscle loss.

This Thursday is my weigh in. I'll be posting the results as soon as I get them.

Sent from Android

Advent Knights Is Now On Steam.

Since my Xbox was stolen and returned broken. I have been getting my gaming fix on Steam lately. Playing around with the community features I created our gaming group there if any one is interested in joining let me know. This weekend if we can get the time Goroxx and myself will be attempting a co-op run through thecampaign mode in Unreal Tournament 3.

On a side note, Dungeons and Dragons Online is going free to play. The game was pretty lacking when it first came out but since then the media (ie massively) have been reporting the game has been much improved since. Soon it will be a good time to try it out.

-Grexis out

Sent from Android

Semi-conclusions

The past couple of weeks have been a very bad roller-coaster ride to say the least. Our house bring broken into not once but twice, my wife scared and on edge, the loss of property, a new puppy. It’s all enough to drive a person insane.

 

Yesterday at around 3:00pm David Wagonblast was arrested. Let me tell you about this piece of shit. This is the father of my step-daughters two boys. Doesn’t pay child support, and certainly isn’t doing anything to be apart of his son’s lives. During a time when Kat and I were separated, he impregnated my step-daughter, and they moved into our house against my objections. I knew this guys of shit, but my wife being as kind as she is, took them in and tried to help them get on their feet. After a few months of seeing how much of a lazy piece of shit he was, she kicked him out, and if my memory serves me correctly, Brittany and David ended up moving in with her dad. Where he was given another chance and STILL wouldn’t do anything. Around this time he got himself addicted to drug, chance after chance to do the right thing, another son later and Brittany finally getting some brains and threw him out permanently.

 

On a side note, Brittany has since found herself a nice guy, and is now happily married. He has even taken to caring for those boys as if they were his own. I really applaud the guy for that and have great respect for him doing so.

 

Since being thrown out, he hasn’t paid any child support, and has made no effort what so ever to be in those kids lives. He has since continued down the road of drugs, losing all of his friends and family by stealing and ripping them off. Now he has violated those who had tried to help them the most, My wife and her ex-husband both. First it started last month when David shows up to Brittany’s fathers house, who is also named David. Brittany’s father will be named DB for the sake of this post. Asking for help and what not, DB goes into another room in the house, David snatch and grabs some things out of the living room and takes off. Strike one

 

Shortly after, based on what the police have told me, he has proceeded to rip and thieve off gas stations, stores. He even managed to get himself a girlfriend, and began ripping her family off! I’ll learn more about what he has been doing when I see his ass in court. Oh yes, I will be in court taunting him the whole way. For some reason the judge released him from jail on some promise to appear in court on a felony charge. Strike two.

 

Two weeks ago, he walks right into my house and steals my wife’s favorite camera, and my debit card. Proceeds to go to Wal-mart and with my money buys, a nice Visio HD TV. He also breaks into my house a second time a week later, this time stealing my TV, all of my video games, movies, tablet pc, etc. I’m not so much upset about the loss of property, though it sucks, it’s just stuff. It’s the fact that this piece of shit violated the safety my wife felt about our home. In my opinion it’s no different that rape. Strike Three.

 

Now that he has been arrested, and confessed to everything he has done to me and my wife. My wife feels a bit easier now. Though she doesn’t have the sense of safety she once had. For me the fun begins. Now I know exactly where he is, when he gets out, and what he’s doing. Just because he’s been arrested, doesn’t mean I have closure, just because he is going to be doing time in prison, doesn’t mean his punishment is over. For the violation he set upon my wife and my house he now gets to deal with a life time of misery and pain. I will see to it his son’s will grow up knowing exactly what kind of piece of shit this guy really is, and they will spit and despise this man for just being alive. If I ever get my hands physically on him, I will carve a pound of flesh from is body for what he has done. He will know every time he looks in the mirror that you don’t fuck with me, my wife or my friends. Real life or virtual.

 

 

Memory Upgrade?

No all you old farts, this won't help with your altheimers. BUT, if you need a memory upgrade for your pc, newegg's running a sale through 6/9/09 with 15% off all memory.

And just because I'm so nice, linkage provided :-P

http://promotions.newegg.com/Memory/060409/index.html?cm_sp=DailyDeals1-_-Memory060409-_-http%3a%2f%2fpromotions.newegg.com%2fMemory%2f060409%2f478x88.jpg

*MP* They got him!!

The piece of shit that broke into my house and robbed us has been arrested! More news to follow….

Raid Hiatus

Well, I am sure that title was not something some of you want to see, but at the present moment, I am left with very little alternative.

With the recent departure of 3 of our raid members, we are left in a very awkward position. Couple that with other summer obligations and vacations and we are looking at a constant summer of pugging positions and banging our heads on content we long ago destroyed. Tat will unfortunately not be able to take a spot as we had hoped due to a new job which hurts our potential dps replacements. Nykk's hiatus drops us down by one healer and with Dev's upcoming trip that takes out our second healer for at least 2 weeks. Others have planned vacations over the June-August block which would mean filling in spots every week. Many of those key positions. That leads to little progress.

With the constant flux of team members in and out for the summer it just is not viable to continue right now. I am sorry guys but I do not have it in me to train replacements and continually wipe to bosses we usually destroy. I have been in a similar situation before and it led to nothing but frustration on the part of everyone involved.

It is my hope that we may be able to resume raiding activities toward the end of August or early September when the summer vacation block starts to close and everyone has more time for raiding. I will continue to discuss these options with everyone over the summer so that we can hopefully decide on a course of action by the time-frame above.

I thank all of you for your hard work during our run and again I am sorry that it has come to this point. Please feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section.

-Kira

*MP* My house is broken into again!!

Can things get any fucking worse!?

Sent from Android

Last Week

To say last week was stressful, would be an understatement. I had hoped to have gotten everything ready for Dungeons and Dragons on Sunday but things didn't pan out the way I had hoped. Everything is pretty much ready with the help of Goroxx, you rock man!, I need to get my situation at home worked out.

With all the changes in my life, the fitness and nutrition changes, greatly reduced gaming time, I have changed A LOT in my life. Little did I know that my life would be changing even more drastically. Pretty much flipping my life completely upside down. Last week after my weekly D&D sessions, I went home, had a late snack, and passed out on the couch. Next thing I know, I'm being aroused from my deep sleep by Kat (My wife). She frantically tells me someone was in her room. I looked around, and everything was clear. Let me point out that I have a long history of light sleeping, and anyone who's ever been in our house knows our floors are noisy to walk on. Old hardwood floors do that. So that sort of thing has always woke me up in the past so Kat and I wrote it off as a freakish vivid dream on her part. Kat was thoroughly freaked by the whole thing, and rightly so. It was an overly realistic dream right?

Thursday morning, I noticed my bank check card, and my FitClub membership card missing. With my change in schedule, working out, etc I have been exhausted and thoughts of Kat's dream and my missing card was just coincidence. When I'm exhausted, I tend to lose things. Later that day I decided to just cancel the card, and get a new one. I couldn't shake the thought that someone may have actually came into our house and snagged those items.

Friday rolls around and Kat is still freaked about the "dream" and so am I to be honest. That afternoon I do my usually checks of my bank accounts, and find a fairly large charge on my account. Someone actually bought a $500+ item at Walmart WITH MY CARD. What Kat and I had written off as a very vivid dream could have been real. We still wasn't officially sure.

So on Saturday, we decide it's time to get another dog. Our last dog Allie, was a huge part of our family and always woke us up when someone was near the house. I guess we got used to that luxury and didn't let go of it when we should have. It hit us hard when we had to put her down last year. Our new boxer pup has already made his way into our lives and is now entrenched quite well. I also stopped off at the bank to discuss the rogue transaction on my account and come to find out the guy charged close to $800 in total. Then back at home while Kat and I are enjoying the company of our new family member, Kat goes to look for her camera. The one I bought her for her birthday and her most valued possession is now missing. Gone. No where to be found, and then the realization that someone was actually in the house officially sets in.

I haven't had much sleep due to Kat's worrying and her wigging out every time I get up to use the restroom or grabbing a drink in the middle of the night. Which is my usual routine as I don't sleep well anyway. I don't blame her a bit. I failed in my responsibility to protect her, and our home. I reassure Kat that if someone is in the house, and especially while I'm awake, god better save them, because I'll put the bastard in the morgue.

-- Grexis Out

Results from my Fitness Assessment

I met with my personal trainer for the first time today to conduct the fitness assessment that they do before we start. If anyone is interested the details and my thoughts can be found over on the blog that I just set up for myself at http://dragonsandtech.blogspot.com/

I'll be using that site to document my progress as well as any other random thoughts that I feel like sharing.

Even More Priorities

Tonight was a huge eye opener for me. I'll fully admit that I was late due to playing disc golf with a friend tonight. I apologize for this and I feel bad that I wasted your guys' time tonight, but I honestly can't say that I'm disappointed that I didn't get to raid tonight. With it being summer now I find myself not wanting to be indoors nearly as much. Coupled with the fact that I'm seriously trying to lose weight and playing WoW is not really conducive to that. On top of that I've found that I am really burnt out on WoW to the point that since the last time we raided I haven't logged on until tonight.

I really enjoy playing with you guys and want to continue, but I need a break from WoW to both enjoy life in a different way for a while and to try to keep my priorities in line. So for now I have to drop my commitment to raiding for at least the next two or three months. I hate to do this to you guys, but it's something that I need to do. I'll still be hanging out in Vent when I'm home and I'll definitely be staying in touch and playing DnD if we ever get it going, but I'm not going to firmly commit to doing anything online for the remainder of the summer.

Crazy Schedule or Lack of Routine

I have heard of people who get addicted to their routine. Some actually become borderline obsessive compulsive about it and freak out when they fall off. I’m pretty sure if I had continued a few more years on the schedule that I have had for, say the last 10 years or so. I would be that bad as well. With all the changes in my life this past two weeks, I have drastically changed my routine and I am finding it very difficult to stay focused and keep track of time because of it. My attention deficit disorder is getting unreasonable, and so I’m going to have to do something about it sooner than later. I am seeing in my daily work that I am having a very hard time focusing on the task at hand, and my mind wanders something awful. This is going to start impacting my job performance.

I will say that my change in diet has actually been helping me. I don’t feel as tired all the time, I seem to have a bit more of a hop in my step and I can actually walk up the stairs to my 4^th floor office without puking up a lung now. I did change my diet drastically and really it isn’t that bad. I’m now eating four times a day, maybe a fifth depending on how many calories I had throughout the day. The food is good, and it’s giving me plenty of carbs for energy without massively overdoing it like I have in the past. The cool thing is I’m not going through ANY hunger pains.

I may have mentioned this before, but it’s clear that my calorie intake was not where it was supposed to be before I started this quest. I was in major starvation mode, not eating enough calories throughout the day, then binging during lunch and dinner. So everything that I was eating was going straight to my stomach and ass. Worse of all, is I have burned through so much muscle that everything I had gained with I was in my early twenties, is now gone. At that time I had spent an enormous amount of time sculpting my body and I blew it. Now not only do I get to start over, I have to loose all this fat too.

I’ll be weighing myself this Friday, let’s hope the math that I have learned reflects in my actual weight loss.

Photo of the Body Bugg

I meant to send this with the blog post.

Sent from Android

I've Been Bugged!

Today I got set up with my body bugg. This thing is wicked cool! Check this out..This thing monitors heart flux, accelerometer, galvanic skin response, and skin temperature. All of this data is stored in the device until I connect it to a usb port on my computer. The data gets uploaded to a website and is annalyzed to display lots of data about my physical well being. If your interested in reading more about this item check out www.bodybugg.com.

Next week I start my training classes. Just as I thought the two nights I would get stuck with are Tuesdays and Thursdays. Not that I'm complaining, I knew that it would effect my raid nights if I were still playing wow. I was right lol.

It doesn't appear that my diet is going to be too tough. I'm still getting to eat the foods I like just not as much and spread out to 6 meals a day. When I first heard that my jaw dropped to the floor. "Six meals a day!? Are they on crack!?" Actually no they aren't. I'll be eating less and small portions throughout the day. I do however have to cut out the fastfood and high sodium foods. I'm eating way too much of it as it is.

Here are my current stats
Current Weight: 357 lbs
Current Body Fat: 44.1%
Current Lean Body Mass: 199.56 lbs

I'll post my goals as I work them out with the trainer. All I know right now is that I need to get below 19% body fat which I assume is around 156 lbs. I don't want to be THAT small so if I can bulk up some decent muscle mass I should look pretty good at around 180 but we'll see how things go.

Sent from Android

More Priorities

I would like to thank everyone for the opportunity you all gave me in allowing me to raid with you, but before I become a detriment to the raid, I must resign. I know this isn't good timing, what with Grexis' post below, but it would be unfair to the raid to just suddenly drop out without warning.

Unfortunately, the time commitment is too much for me to meet, and the pressures of family coupled with my wife going back to work teaching this year just don't afford me the amount of free time to devote to raiding three days a week. I thought I could make it work, but I found out that I couldn't. As much as I love WoW and really enjoyed playing with everyone in this raid, my first priority must be to my wife and daughters (Miriam, Hannah & Rebekah here in this pic). Someday the kids will be grown and there will be plenty of time to game. Having a friend almost lose his job, kids, and marriage to Everquest showed me what happens when a guy fails to keep his priorities straight. I don't want to be that guy, no matter how much I love the game and friends I've made there.

I was honored to be accepted by you and was proud to be there when we took down Kel Thuzad. You all are phenomenal WoW players, but above that, everyone in this raid are just plain great people. I am glad Grexis introduced us, and hope to keep in contact with you in and out of game.

Priorities

To say the last two days were eye openers is an understatement. In light of the news I have received from my fitness evaluation and my doctor, I am stepping down as raid leader and going on an indefinte raid hiatus to focus on my mental and physical health. This isn't something I am doing by choice. Its something I have to do not just for my family and friends but most importantly for myself.

This doesn't mean you guys aren't going to see me around. I will still be popping into vent, playing D&D or even hanging out here and in emails. I love all my friends and do not wish to give you up for anything.

I'll be post regularly here but most importantly on my other blog regarding my new adventure and how its all working out. I want to chronicle yhe quest quest for my goals and will share everything I learn on it. To get to my blog go to http:ipsandd20s.blogspot.com

- grexis out

Sent from Android