So, I have been playing EQ2 now for a little over a month. It’s a very pretty game. But it wears thin very quickly. When you start a new character, you can do a lot by yourself, quests, fights, etc.. But once you hit around level 18-20 you’re screwed. It’s near impossible to advance yourself because, either the things you’re fighting won’t give you XP because you’re too high of a level or the things are just too freaking hard and you need a group. Sony has come up with the Crappiest “Con” interface. Most games will color code the “Consider” feature. Very simple like green is easy, blue is tougher, white is equal, yellow is tough, orange is tougher, red is instant death. Pretty simple right? Sony’s idea is to promote grouping is an up arrow down arrow system on top of the colors. If a creature has an up arrow above their name it’s like there are 2 of them there. If there is a down arrow it’s like there is ½ of him there. So lets say you see a Gnoll (it’s a dog like creature) and he cons white. You think, “ok, he is white so that should be a good fight.” Well that would be true if he didn’t have 2 up arrows. Now he is like 3 white gnolls, so he is tougher and hits harder. Now, silly me, why wouldn’t they just color him orange or red? Why is there the illusion of simple-ness when in reality this thing is going to whomp on me? So I decided to create an evil character and made him a Cleric.

Meanwhile, in other news, I accomplished what I set out to do this weekend. I cleaned out my bedroom closet and even managed to clean up the bedroom as well. I took about 1 full truckload of crap to the trash. I did the same to my Bookshelf and video shelf. Isn’t it funny how I realize that I don’t need a VHS copy of the The Matrix as well as my DVD one? Maybe I could start putting the VHS tapes on E-bay. Think anyone would by them? Next weekend will be the Bathroom and Living room, Then the Kitchen and Den, then probably the outside storage things. I have to say it’s Refreshing to clean out this much stuff. I mean, I haven’t touched or even looked at most of this stuff in a year. I know deep down that I probably will never use it again, so why keep it?

I think after the cleaning it will be time to re-decorate. I want to actually decorate my house like a normal Person. Ok, well make that a Normal person who happens to like Sci-Fi and makes it well known. I have some great ideas for the front room and it shouldn’t be that pricey to do. Then of course it will be time to re-do the wardrobe. One of the things I noticed while cleaning out the closet was the extraordinary amount of T-shirts I own. While I have some button down shirts, I don’t have enough to make a difference. I want to change that. Last year saw the Transformation from Married Steve to Single Steve. This year will be Single Steve to Stylin Steve. I feel good about myself now, But I think I can feel a little bit better. And if Paul would ever stop being sick, we could hit the Gym again and that will help.

Ok, so the title was a little less harsh then it could have been. You may notice that I copied the paypal button from the front page of http://www.wizzer.org to the blog page. Why would I do this? Well frankly because there is nothing much on the main page and most people tend to come here to the blog and bypass the front page. Now keep in mind. I am not begging. I am not so broke that I am not eating. (well there was that one time a few months ago, but that was strictly on purpose and I looked good afterwards.) But running things like the Website and such does indeed cost me money. So, if you find it in your heart and pocketbook that you want to donate to the cause, feel free to click away. If not, then ah well, enjoy the show and try not to spill popcorn in the new truck.

The weekend is finally here! Time to go out and….. Oh wait, still broke. Ok so maybe it’s time to just stay in and enjoy some time in front of the boob toob. I know one thing that’s planned for this weekend and that’s cleaning out the bedroom closet. Most of the junk in there is going to get trashed. (Unless it’s worth something, then it’s off to e-bay I go!)

I just got word that there is some nasty stomach virus spreading its way around work. Supposedly you get nauseous and vomit a lot and it’s very contagious and very icky, but hey, it only lasts 2-3 days. Thankfully I don’t feel ill and I tend to stay away from most of the people here. (My Job would be great if it weren’t for all the damn customers) Actually I love my job, even with the customers.

I Hope you Guys have a great weekend. I will be sitting at home watching re-runs of Sanford and Son Or poking my eyes out. Whichever is better.

Well, you talk about nothing really. Or about the fact that you’re pissed off with yourself because you spent too much money and are now worried about the rent check. [Sigh] I hate it when I feel this way. More over I hate it when I am broke. The only Solace I have is that I went through the ENTIRE Christmas time without putting anything on my Credit cards. For me, that’s huge! Trying desperately to get rid of all the past debt so I am trying hard not to use them at all, and Christmas was the big test. I passed, but at the cost of high stress when it comes to rent time and I look at my bank account with sweat pouring down my brow. I also realize the downfall of keeping all my banking online. See, I have cash, so Money is not an issue if I need emergency bread or such. The problem lies in that, if I bank online, the only way to deposit money is Direct Deposit, or Mail Deposit. Now, I am not going to be mailing any cash through the postal service. So how do I get the money I have to where I need it? [Sigh]

In Other news, I am starting to get into a funk. I have a bunch of things that I want to get accomplished, and I am lacking the motivation to do them. I have a new Idea for a video project, the desire to exercise, massive amounts of cleaning, I would like to redecorate but that involves money, of which I have none. (Anyone want to call TLC and book me on one of their shows?)

Speaking of News, I have noticed something about myself and current world events. I really don’t care much for them. I mean, I care when something bad happens, but I can’t really bring myself to sit and watch the news to find out what’s going on. If it’s that important, I am sure I will find out about it one way or another. Besides, the media really pisses me off. Honestly, how much video footage needs to be shown about a tsunami causing damage? Yes, it’s horrible, yes people lost their lives. But the actual tsunami lasted for how long? Maybe a few hours. Is there nothing else going on in the world? Oh, wait, I forgot.

There is always Scott Peterson, because that story hasn’t been beaten to death.

And if I get tired of that, I can always find a Bush Bashing channel.

So why bother? I love my TIVO now because I don’t have to watch any of it anymore. But the question is, which is better, Living in Denial or Living in Fear?

[Sigh]

Anyone need any G-Mail accounts? I have 9 invites and no one to give them to. Leave a comment or e-mail me if you want one.

Meet little Stevie, Hello Stevie! Stevie likes to read, yes he does. One of Stevie’s Favorite things to read is the Internet. You see the Internet is filled with all sorts of fun and interesting things to read. There are news articles, stories, entertainment reviews, and Blogs. Can you say Blog? I knew that you could. A Blog is something like an online journal, and thousands of thousands of people have them all over the internet. That’s a lot of reading, isn’t it Stevie. There is only one problem with the internet, no it’s not Porn Stevie, that’s just silly talk. The problem with the internet is Glamour Advertising. Do you know what that is? That’s when you go to a web site and over on the side, or top, or middle of the site there is a big advertisement that is just staring at you, screaming “LOOK AT ME AND BUY MY STUFF NOW YOU F%$# PIECE OF S&^%!!!!!” taking all the attention away from what your trying to look at. This makes little Stevie sad, poor Stevie.

But there is something that can solve this problem. Do you know what that is? No, not throwing your PC through an advertising executives head causing severe bleeding and concussion, even though that would be fun. The answer is RSS. RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites. If it can be broken down into an XML format, and what can’t, then it can be put into RSS. Using a program such as Sharpreader, little Stevie can read all of his Favorite News Sites and Blogs without all the Advertising and Banners. This makes little Stevie happy. Not to mention that the program can be set to check these sites automatically, so when there is a new article, Stevie knows about it instantly. So how do you know if a site has an RSS feed? EASY! Look for the logo, or even an logo. Most sites will have a special link on the side to show that they are “Syndicated”.

You may ask yourself, “Self, what sort of sites does little Stevie read?” Go ahead, ask yourself that. I’ll wait. Hmmmm Hmmmm Hmmmm. That’s a good Question! Here is a big List of all of the Sites that Stevie reads, and all of them have RSS feeds.

That’s a pretty big list isn’t it? Let’s let Stevie get back to his reading, Good bye Stevie!

Ok, I just found a very cool gem on the net. Sad thing is, it’s not just the net, its MTV’s Video Mods. Some of you know I took a little dip into the Video Game Video genre with my stuff from Galaxies. I have even been thinking about making a new one in EQ2 (just because they are that fun). These guys have taken it to the next level though. MTV has contracted with some of the Major video game companies to script out videos using the famous game characters. Trippy to the Max.

Here it comes, the ever popular New Years Post. I got into work this morning and sat down to my normal morning routine. (Felt weird to start the usual again after being off for so long) This routine starts with running Sharpreader, my RSS news feed program, and reading through the various Blogs and News sites. The Common theme for blogs today was “Happy New Year, this Year I promise to….” And the “Here’s what I did on my Vacation.” Mostly because there have been no updates since before Christmas. Well, I have updated since Christmas and before then so there will be none of that type here. Although I guess I should do the New Years thing, but we will get to that in a moment.

The weekend went rather well, like most Govt. workers I got Friday off and spent it loafing around the house. We slept in and then Picked up on watching some Buffy season 7 episodes. By around 3ish it was time to head down to CC’s place for his New Years Bash! A grand time was had by all, and it was great to Hang out with Doc and Diz, Shipley and Brook (hope your feeling better Brook), CC and Cathy, Not to mention meeting all sorts of new people. I had every intention of Drinking heavily, but apparently I had something to eat earlier that disagreed with me and my stomach felt that large doses of alcohol was not the cure (no matter how hard I tried). But, None the less, I still had a great time. After the party we drove back to Docs place and crashed there for the evening.

New Year’s Day felt remarkably like an old year’s day. We got to spend most of the day with Doc and Diz. We headed out to the Norfolk Mall and had lunch at Johnny Rockets. After that we perused the mall for a while waiting for the movie we wanted to see to start. I really hate going to Malls when I have no money. What did we see, you ask? Why, none other than……

Phantom of the Opera.

This was an awesome adaptation of the musical. I was flashing back to the two times that I had seen Phantom on stage and the movie represented it very well. I got goose bumps at all the right scenes. On a down note, they changed some of the lines a tad, some of the normally sung lines, were spoken. Some of the Tempo for the music was sped up. The worst of the worst was that I was not fond of the singing voice for the Phantom. There were some songs that he got spot on, but other times had me close to cringing. The Good, though, defiantly outweighs the bad. The Effects were awesome, the scenery and costumes were amazing, The Acting Superb. It was almost like watching it again on stage. I wanted to stand a clap after songs and duck when the chandelier comes crashing down. All in all, go see this movie!

After the movie we got stuck in the Infamous Norfolk mall garage for about 45 min waiting for cars to clear out. It was getting late so Amy and I decided to head home and made fairly good time, even with stopping at Sonic for a Coney Island. Once home, I played a little EQ2 and then Headed to bed.

Sunday was a totally lazy day. We finished Season 7 of Buffy and that’s it! It’s all over, I started in July of 04 and on 02 Jan 05 I finished the entire Series! The downside is that all of the laying around on Sunday made me very lethargic and listless. I ended up gong to bed early and it was all downhill from there. Sleeping in then laying around, then going to bed early meant WAY too much rest, so much so, that I didn’t sleep well last night. That and my Cat decided to scream and yell at another cat this morning outside the window. Nothing like a huge rush of adrenaline at 5am eh?

So here it is, The New Year, 2005. I suppose I should lay out my resolutions. See, that’s the problem, 1: Resolutions usually end up being broken and 2: The things I want to do are not so much resolutions, but planned events. So, without further ado, the list: (and these are in no particular order)

• Clean and Minimalize the house. (I have way too much crap that I am not using and never even look at, so it’s time to go room by room and get rid of stuff)
• Prepare the house for Andrews Arrival (that’s an obvious one)
• Education (time to start looking into a better edumacation)
• Buying a House (Roots?)
• Exercise (when I was working out for dragon-con I felt better everyday, then I stopped, must pick that up again)
• Along with the Exercise, I need to get out more. (all of DC at my disposal, and I end up running around Antonica)
• And my Silly one: I am going to start using Firefox more. Too many people have advised me to switch from IE so I am going to give it a try.

So there you have it, Comment if you wish, Leave your resolutions!

It’s either that or the one who can tolerate the most. Yes, I survived. I made it home on Tuesday night around 9pm and was so glad to have made it. Don’t get me wrong, I Love my family, but I started to realize why I had moved to the other side of the Continent. Good things were accomplished though. I got my parents set up on Broadband and Video Conferencing. I got to spend a lot of time with my Sister. And I got to spend a lot of time and Christmas with my Son Andrew. (Of course the latter being the most important.)

The Flight home was very Un-eventful, we got to Crescent City around 9ish and checked in. Flight took off at 10:50am and I waved to everyone from the plane. (It’s a small airport) Landed in SFO at 11:50 and had enough time to hit the restroom, Buy me an 8 dollar Sandwich with Bottle of water, and get a Magazine (which I promptly forgot in the terminal when I boarded, damnit.) I then boarded and threw on the Headphones for a nice relaxing 5 hours. No Screaming kids this time, I even got a little nap in there. When I landed, Amy was waiting there to pick me up and we went home.

Yesterday was spent relaxing and doing the Financial Discovery. (Realizing how much I had spent on vacation) Looks like its Top Raman for a while. (Thankfully no Shrimp Flavored)

Friday is the Garrison New Years Party (need a new year’s resolution to not spend any more money, hehe like that one will hold) So look for some great Debauchery stories come Mondayish.

Yub Yub! Andrew and I took some time to visit the Forest Moon of Endor this week. Actually it’s not the Moon of Endor, but actually the Redwood Forest of Northern Cali. I had heard that the movie Return of the Jedi had been filmed in the area so I thought it would be a fun outing for the two of us. Turns out that the actual filming location was on Private Property, and that area has since been logged. (Poor little ewoks, they fought off an entire storm trooper legion, but couldn’t evade the Lumberjacks) So we found a beautiful little area called Stout Grove which looked exactly like the home of the Little Bears. Andrew and I had a great Time despite the fact that it was raining and overcast.