For all none of you that read this...

I need Christmas ideas for my wife. Submit suggestions ASAP.

Thanks!

-'Mad

Been a while...

It's been a busy month since I posted last. Trying to find insulin that I could afford kept me occupied, plus work has gotten a little more involved. Last month at this time, we had my manager, myself, and four other people working at the place I work at. As of right now, we have my manger, myself, 1 person that only works weekends, and 1 person that put in her 2 weeks notice a week and a half ago. That is going to make things a little rough for me, and a lot rough for my manager. My manger IS trying to hire new people though... she has interviewed at least five people that I know of. Hopefully the skeleton crew thing will go be fixed soon... I hope so, it would be hell during the Holidays.

Otherwise, I have been distracted by Fallout 3. For those of you interested in the game but don't have it, I will repost some stuff I have written elsewhere. It's all spoiler free:

While it is very good, with superb graphics and gameplay, it doesn't quite match up to Fallout 1 and 2 in a couple of areas: First the humor isn't as present in Fallout 3 as it was in it's predecessors. They do try for humor, but it isn't as good, memorable, or dry as F1&2.

Second, the dialog isn't as memorable. There were lines in F2 that I have memorized, and still smile at. Not so with Fallout 3.

Third, the random special encounters either aren't there anymore, or I just haven't found any. I loved some of the special encounters you found in Fallout 2: The Cafe of Dreams, The Star Trek tribute Guardian of Forever, the Bridgekeeper from Monty Python's Holy Grail, and encounters like that. These encounters seem to be gone from Fallout 3.

Don't get me wrong, the game is still awesome, but it doesn't have the heart and soul of the first 2. Bethesda did try very hard, though, and I welcome F3 to the Fallout family.



Also, something else I wrote in response to another post:


You should really play Fallout 1&2 to understand the "heart" of where F3 came from. Fallout 1&2 are set in California, Nevada, and Oregon, but a lot of the groups you meet in F3 are in F1&2, 2 especially. The groups I am talking about the most are The Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave.

The other highly recommended game to give you perspective on where Fallout 3 came from is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, since Fallout 3 is using the same engine and is done by the same people that did Oblivion. You will see where a lot of F3 came from there, too.

All three of these games (F1&2, Oblivion) are very good, and highly recommended. F1&2 may be a little difficult to find, since they are over 10 years old, but they are well worth it. Just keep in mind that they are old games, and set your expectations that the graphics aren't going to compare with the modern games. Never the less, they are very high quality, and very entertaining.

That's it for now. Hopefully I won't wait so long to post next time. But with the holidays coming, who knows?

-'Mad

Christmas list

This post serves as more of a reminder of what I want for Christmas when I am asked instead of a subtle hint for the 0 people that read this blog...

• Windows Vista- I know that people say it sucks, but it's what I need to get full function out of my 'puter, and it's compatible with the stuff I use. No other OS is.
  
• A new monitor. I should provide details, as soon as I know what those details are. Hopefully one that is better than the one I have now. This one should have lasted longer than it did.
• RAM for the 'puter. It really needs more, especially if I put Vista on here. Vista eats RAM like it's nothing.
• Tires for the car. They are bald now.

Nothing cheap on there, unfortunately...

-'Mad

Just checking in...

You know, I really don't have anything interesting to write about tonight... It's pretty much status quo around here. I am tired because I am getting up at 7am in the morning now, and I have spent years and years on swing shift at my previous job. Sometimes I would work until 2am back then, so as a result I am not used to the morning thing now. If I ever become a teacher then I will have to get used to the morning thing, so I might as well just learn to like it.

My monitor is freaking out. I have a bad feeling it's going to die soon. Maybe I can con my mom or someone into buying me a new monitor for Christmas.

If it's not one thing it's another.

-'Mad

That time of the year...

September/October is my favorite time of the year. Don't need the heater, don't need the AC. Fall colors. Cool but not cold. Rain. What's not to like?

-'Mad

Just stuff...

I am a little worried about this job. I could work my butt off and still not make enough to get ahead. I need to find something better methinks, but on the other hand, I have only been here for 3 weeks. I hate to give up so soon.

The Christmas season is coming soon, I suspect that will help me make more money. Not only in increased commission, but in increased hours. We'll see. I will give it until January to redeem itself, and if it is determined that I am just not going to make enough money to get anywhere, I will start looking for another job.

In other news, I really really am feeling the need to game. I have a big DnD Jones right now, but nobody to play it with, except online. I like play by post, but it isn't the same as tabletop. I need to find a group here locally.

Hmm... I think my monitor is dying. The bottom of the screen keeps flickering. It has flickered about 12 or 13 times in the time I have written this post. That isn't good. Maybe I will make a new monitor a Christmas wish. That, and Windows Vista. I have heard tons of bad things about vista, but it is a 64 bit OS that handles my high end games, so what else can I do?

-'Mad

Remembering...

As of 9 minutes ago, it is September 11th. I wonder what the world's reaction will be today. I don't doubt that the American news media will at least mention it, but I wonder what the rest of the world will do since most other countries have moved on and seemingly mostly forgotten.

I believe we should remember and honor those that died that day, but at the same time I can't help but remember all the stuff that happened in the aftermath. Many things the government has done to "protect our security" (such as the Patriot act) I strongly disagree with. The wars and freedom-sacrificing laws that have been passed since then have tainted September 11th for me to the point that I now don't always remember and reflect about September 11th 2001 as I should, but instead get angry about what has transpired since.

I shall try to remember and reflect on the right things.

Lost

I have a dead end job. I want to be in school but can't afford it. I know this is old news to the people that know me, but I seem to be stuck in that rut. I am really unhappy, with the exception of my marriage. Steph does more for me than I could ever possibly express. I wish I could do more for her. I wish I could be better, be in school, be doing the things I want to do. I feel lost.

-'Mad

worky worky and music!

I have now been working "on the floor" for a few days (4 I think) and I have to say that there is the potential for me to really like the job. The problem is I can see the handwriting on the wall, and I know that this job isn't going to ever get me through school. It pays very poorly. I get about 37-39 hours per week, which is good, but at these ridiculously low wages, I will have a hard time making enough to live, much less save any money. I do earn “commission,” but they have it rigged so that you never make very much unless you are just an absolute FIEND at selling. The store that I work at is very slow, (the mall it’s in is very dead… hardly anyone there…) so that makes it very hard to ever make any money on commission.

I need some new bands to listen to, or for my current favorites to come out with some new stuff. I got into Viikate and Kotiteollisuus, both of which are bands from Finland, but my Finnish teachers are too busy right now to help me understand the songs. I have three people that I talk to over MSN messenger and Facebook that are from Finland, but they are all mostly unavailable. Oh, well, the music is good.

...oh, and Finnish to English online dictionaries suck. PERIOD. They rarely get it right.

As far as German music, I am still into Eisbrecher and Rammstein of course, but I need more. KMFDM and Megaherz are good, but I need more options. I'd love to hear suggestions. Maybe I need to get back into Nine Inch Nails. I loved his older stuff...

-'Mad

On the floor

Today wasn't as bad as I expected, but it's not an experience I care to repeat anytime soon. My manager is very knowledgeable, so as long as she was around for me to ask questions, I did OK. As soon as she left, things went down hill, as the guy that replaced her wasn't interested in helping much.

Tomorrow is inventory at the other store, which I have already done at the store that I am currently at, so at least I will have some idea of what I am doing.

I ache from work today. I thought that my experience as a dealer would help me survive standing all day long, but I guess I am too out of practice now. I am sure that I could do this job, and do it well a few months down the road, but what worries me is that this job pays very poorly. The commission that the store pays is really poor. I know it's only my first day, but I only made about an extra dollar an hour in commission. Maybe.

-'Mad

Update

Well, tomorrow is my first official day on the floor at my new job. I actually started on the 23rd instead of the 25th, but so far I have either been training or doing inventory. The training was COMPLETELY worthless, and inventory was just tedious. At least inventory helped to teach me where things were...

I am going out to sell products tomorrow that I have NO clue about. NONE. I don't even know how to operate the cash register yet. I am going to be a sales associate, and I couldn't tell you thing one about what I am going to be selling. How good of a salesman will I be when I don't know anything?

Needless to say, I am nervous as hell.

-'Mad

Support the Chinese Olympic Team! Shop at Wal-Mart!

The trade deficit irritates me. The huge budget deficit really irritates me. The lack of interest by the federal government in improving the quality of Education and the infrastructure of the US irritates me. Our reliance on foreign oil and the willingness people have to drill for more in otherwise pristine land here in the US irritates me. Wal-Mart irritates me.

I'm really irritated right now.

-'Mad

August 25th

Well, I have a new job. I will be working at Radio Shack starting the 25th, which ironically is the day I should have started school. I like the idea that I will be making money again, but I will really be hating the fact that I have to give up on my goals for money reasons. AGAIN.

-'Mad

School's out.

Well, I tried. I couldn't make it to school again this fall. I still have one option left, but it's a rather extreme option to take. I could cash out my 401Ks to use for school, but I won't be doing that for this fall. I don't know how much I would get out of cashing them, I know you get penalized a lot if you do that. It's an incredibly stupid short-sighted option, but I don't have any other ideas right now. School will cost approximately $6,0000+ per year, and there really isn't a cheaper option out there that I know of or have found.

I suspect that I could pay for one semester if I sacrificed my 401K, which is one big reason I hesitate. Only one semester isn't going to accomplish anything. I need to get at least a full year in with good grades in order to qualify for other financial aid. It's a long story that I am not really interested in telling here as to how that works.

In the meantime, I guess I continue looking for a job, only now I am not limited to part-time afternoons and evenings. I can go for about anything. I can find another dead-end full-time job to spin my wheels in and go nowhere with.

yay.

Maybe next year.

-'Mad

Books!

I stole this from my sister-in-law's blog:

1. Copy the list on your blog.
2. Read through the list and mark the books you've read in bold.
3. Italicize any you started, but didn't finish.
4. Color the ones you loved in a color. (whatever color, really.)

1. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
2. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams ----Superb!
3. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
5. Life of PI - Yann Martel
6. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
8. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
10. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
11. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
12. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
13. His Dark Materials (trilogy) - Philip Pullman
14. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
15. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller ----I need to read that one again.
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
18. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
19. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
20. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
21. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
22. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
23. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
24. Animal Farm - George Orwell
25. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley -----I need to finish this one.
26. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
27. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
28. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
29. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
30. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
31. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
32. Complete Works of Shakespeare ----I have read a lot of his plays, but not all of his poems.
33. Ulysses - James Joyce
34. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
35. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
36. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
37. The Bible ----I skipped some things like Numbers.
38. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
39. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
40. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
41. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
42. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
45. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
46. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
47. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
48. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
49. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
50. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
51. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
52. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
53. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
54. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
55. Middlemarch - George Eliot
56. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
57. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
58. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
59. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
60. Emma - Jane Austen
61. Persuasion - Jane Austen
62. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
63. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
64. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown ----I wanted to finish this, but had to return the book.
65. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
66. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
67. Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
68. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
69. Atonement - Ian McEwan
70. Dune - Frank Herbert
71. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
72. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
73. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
74. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
75. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
76. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
77. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
78. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
79. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
80. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
81. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
82. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
83. Dracula - Bram Stoker
84. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
85. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
86. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
87. Germinal - Emile Zola
88. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
89. Possession - A.S. Byatt
90. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
91. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
92. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
93. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
94. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
95. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
96. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
97. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
98. Watership Down – Richard Adams
99. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
100. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas



Hmmm... Unless I counted wrong, I have read 27 on this list, and started but didn't finish 12. A rather depressingly small percentage of this book list, really.

More linking goodness! Statler and Waldorf

I have always loved Statler and Waldorf...

Statler and Waldorf commentary.

Last Laugh for Tonight.

Statler and Waldorf vs. Milton Berle.

Enjoy!

-'Mad

It's not the 4th of July, but...

...I still had to post this.

I find the muppets to always be entertaining.


I haven't figured out how to embed a video on the blog yet, so you will have to go to the effort of clicking a link. I am sure you will survive.

-'Mad

This just in...

It's raining outside. I have to go outside now and enjoy this... I love the rain. :-) It's too rare here. Yeah, yeah, I have no sense, whatever. Go away. :-P

-'Mad

Trying again...

After almost exactly 3 years, I am going to try this again. My original blog is here. I stopped blogging on that website for one simple reason: I lost the password. I tried recovering it, but the site emails you the password, and I never got an email on any of my known accounts when I tried. Thus new blog!

Tons of things have happened since I last wrote on that blog, but if you know me, you already know about it. Pretty much the usual life stuff: Marriage, moving, and drive-by shootings. Nothing you don't already see every day. :-P

Steph is 9 flavors of wonderful. I am glad I waited so long to get married, otherwise I wouldn't have found her. We don't have any kids, but we might someday. We aren't hurrying. We are more worried about trying to get into and through school more than anything.

Trying to get into school is the same old story for me, I have been trying to get into (and stay in) school for years. I haven't been successful yet, but I am enrolled in school for this fall, starting on August 25th. I don't know how I will be able to pay for it, so it may be a very short enrollment. It's about $3000 when I don't even know how I am going to pay for insulin right now.

They have changed some stuff about this website since my last blog. It will probably take me a while to customize the place to my taste. I will have to see what I can do later.

In the meantime, everyone should watch Dr. Horrible. It's about 42ish minutes long. Starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day. Joss Whedon directed, and several of his family members co-wrote and had bit parts in the show. Very funny, very entertaining. The link above is the show on Hulu (unfortunately with commercials) This link is the original site with some additional content. It's better to watch it on Hulu, which is why I linked to it first. Enjoy!

With any luck and a little self-discipline, I might actually update this once a week. Yeah, right. :-P

-'Mad