Jehoshaphat

Ahhhhh…the Christmas spirit is starting to fall on me. We got all of the Christmas decoration down from the attic and put up the tree over the weekend. Hopefully tonight the weather will hold up and I can get all of the outside stuff up. The wife and I are looking forward to a nice, slow, calm Christmas this year. Last year at this time I was in some stuff, my job was to go get help and get better. I remember those days…hopefully they will continue to be just a memory.

The wife and I enjoyed a good night last night, working off some great BBQ sandwiches by playing a session of Rock Band. She is also enjoying Live Arcade with Braid and Feeding Frenzy 2. I found some discounts on Gamefly for used games, so hopefully the Xbox is going to get a workout this coming year. Add that to the fact that a couple of friends are or have gotten a Xbox for Christmas should mean that the fun might move from the computer to the Xbox. I actually found someone who is going to play Civ Rev and Catan with me…my pants are happy.

I wanted to talk about the attacks in India and there impacts on the region but it looks like the true impacts are still to be felt. If India is going to move it’s troops into a war footing, like it did after the terror attack on it’s Parliament, then Pakistan is going to remove it’s troops from the Tribal Regions, which could mean more U.S. strikes on those areas. Really not a good situation, with both them having Nuclear Weapons, and Pakistan so close to becoming a failed State. I wonder sometimes if we don’t have Special Forces waiting to recover all of the Pakistani nuclear weapons if something were to happen to their Government.

Oh well, it’s hump day, I can feel the weekend already. Peace out…

But I need another holiday from my Thanksgiving Holiday. Man alive, I’m exhausted…

We really enjoyed our Thanksgiving this year, we got to see a lot of family, we got to see nieces (one for the first time). We ate some good food, three different Thanksgivings and a quasi-Christmas dinner. But then there’s the downside, we did lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of driving. I seriously don’t want to be in a car at all this weekend, I just want to relax and enjoy sitting around and doing nothing.

Like I said, we got to meet my brother’s first born for the first time. She was doing great, very calm and excited to see everyone. She would only really cry when she was hungry, which is understandable. It was great to see everyone just enjoy having her around, especially cool to see my Grandparents interacting with her. Also, my wife’s brother came down to spend Thanksgiving with their parents and they brought their 1+ year old daughter with them. It’s a fun age to for kids, they aren’t really talking but they are roaming around the house causing mayhem. She was again, a joy to be around. The only real downside of the trip was that we had to drive so much, and the amount of turkey I had to eat. (No more turkey…no more………please, no more)

The other downside was that I had to come back to work. The atmosphere around here is really bad, something I’m beginning to really dread. I understand when the low-level are coming in dishearten and down, but it sucks to see your bosses and management looking like crap and talking like the world is going to end. I felt like at the time this was the right place for me. It was a low-key, laid-back, low stress environment, something that I need desperately at the time. And while I don’t think my recovery is complete, I’m beginning to sense that it is time to move on. But to what and where is main question now…

It’s good to be home, it’s good to get back to my normal routine. I only wish this economy would get back on it’s feet…can we swear in Obama yet?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone…

I’m leaving to visit the family today, safe travels everyone.

Some good news just came across my desk, err internets…Kotaku is saying that Bethesda is releasing a Creation Kit for the PC version of Fallout 3. (This is only reason I bought it for the PC).

“The Garden of Eden Creation Kit will let users create, modify, and edit any data for use with Fallout 3, from building landscapes, towns, and locations to writing dialogue, creating characters, weapons and creatures.”

I love Bethesda…not only do they release awesome games, but they release quality tool-kits for the community to make their games better. Oblivion was a completely different game with the community-made mods, and Bethesda was ok with that. I also like the fact that the name of the editor is keeping with the theme of the game, that the G.E.C.K. is something in the game.

Also they announced some DLC content and it’s not horse armor! Here are the details…

• Operation: Anchorage. Enter a military simulation and fight in one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe – the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders. An action-packed battle scheduled for release in January.
• The Pitt. Journey to the industrial raider town called The Pitt, located in the remains of Pittsburgh. Choose your side. Scheduled for release in February.
• Broken Steel. Join the ranks of the Brotherhood of Steel and rid the Capital Wasteland of the Enclave remnants once and for all. Continues the adventure past the main quest. Scheduled for release in March.

The only bad thing so far is that I’ll have to wait to finish the main quest until March.

If this was MyBook or FaceSpace or whatever the heck those two evil incarnations of the net are called my status would be depressed. A combination of three things is spiraling out of control. First, I’m sick. Nothing serious, but the first cold of the season is never fun. Second, the economy is really squeezing my job. People have been let go and measures have been taken to control the bleeding but I just don’t think the wound can be healed. The bottom line is, no-one is buying, so inventories are at record levels, which is a giant problem for our industry. Finally, it’s the beginning of the holiday season. I’ve never liked the holidays much, especially since getting married. Too many people to visit, not enough time to see them, too many people expecting a perfect family environment when we don’t have what would be called a perfect family. I remember back to college, when I had a month off for the winter break…that was perfect, I could visit with people at my own speed, and then head back home and RELAX. Of the 4 days I have off for thanksgiving, 3 will be spent in a stressful environment. Not fun…

Speaking of a stressful environment…let’s talk about the economy and the world. Firethorn sent me an article last night which describe what a depression might look like in 2008 compared to the depression in 1932. It was a stark contrast to the times we enjoyed doing the boom of the last couple of years. I think the best changes will come on the Global stage and so does our Government. The NIC, National Intelligence Council, released a report called 2020: Mapping the Global Future. The report, which never got any run on network news, paints a picture where this country is no longer the single world power. In fact, the report states that global influence will shift from the United States to the East, with countries like India, China, Japan, and the nations of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim taking a lead in Global policies.

It’s a great read and I recommend it to anyone who finds stuff like this fascinating. It can be found here. I really enjoyed thinking about the future, just 12 years from now, and wondering what will be. I also like the different scenarios they have developed to show the changes that coming. With any luck and some free time, I’m going to do some writing about how I see the future unfolding.

Firethorn says he has Civilization 4 and it’s expansion packs installed and patched. I want to give this game a go after Thanksgiving and see if I can understand it better. I mastered Civ 3 and handle pretty much anything they would throw at me. But for whatever reason, I’m always lagging behind in Civ 4. I’m always the last to found a religion, I’ve never grasped the changing technology tree, and I’ve never grasped the idea of creating specialist cities. It should be fun, I’ve heard good things about the Beyond the Sword expansion.

It’s more of a Fallout 3 question but it applies to life in general. I was playing Fallout 3 last night, leaving DC and the main quest to explore a couple different areas. I headed to TenPenny Towers and did the quest that associated with the location. The guards wanted me to head into a nearby train station and kill the leaders of the ghouls that made the station their base. A couple new things happened, first I was actually able to use my speech ability to increase the quest reward (heck, he even gave me a gun and ammo) and second, I was ability to sneak up on someone, pickpocket them, and leave a LIVE grenade in their pocket…they went BOOM! I freaking really, really, really enjoy that game. It’s an absolute blast to play and I’m really gunning to finish all of the Live achievements. I hope I get a chance to play some more before I leave for Thanksgiving.

I’m really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. My brother, his wife, and my niece are flying over from England. I haven’t seen them in a while and I’ve never met my niece before, so I’m actually looking forward to spending time with the family. Of course that will all change when we have to drive from 3 different house, driving more miles in St. Pete/Tampa then the trip down there. Plus I have to do some work stuff…boo-urns.

The fellas were playing CoD 5 last night, and while I haven’t picked up the game, I did miss the feeling of playing a game with them. Unfortunately, the economy has really forced my hand on this. The wife and I designed a good budget, that is going to save us a lot of money and really get us in a better place financial, basically were one of us could lose our job and we could be just fine. I have what I would describe as a “hobby budget”. That budget is bone dry right now, hopefully after a couple paychecks I can get it back into place, so I can blow it all on Empire: Total War. Maybe I’ll get CoD 5 for Christmas…if anyone is still playing it…

Sorry for the lack of updates, seems like this month has kicked my ass more than any so far this year. The combination of work entering a pretty serious phases with the roll out of our new product and the economy going into the tank (close to a 40 % drop on the stock market this year, layoffs all over the place, including at my company) has really exhausted me. I’ll post later on my feelings about the election and the transition from Bush to Obama (should call him Clinton-lite, everyone he’s picked so far has a tie-in with the Clinton administration) and I’ll post later about the renewed efforts in Warhammer Online. But right now, I want to talk about the dangers of Canadian Air…

We all know the extreme hazards that Russian Snow can bring, even though I don’t experience it, it’s something I dread. Well…the last couple of nights we here in North Florida have experienced what the news likes to hype as “Canadian Air”. Sweet mother of mary…you would have thought this “Canadian Air” is killing people left and right by how they talk about it on the news. I agree that the temperatures have been cold, record lows the last 3 days, ice on my car and in my yard, and temperatures that are dropping to near freezing as soon as the sun goes down (unheard of here). But seriously, can we back off the graphics and updates on the “Canadian Air”. “Well Bob, it looks like the Canadian Air is moving south of us and could make it’s way back into our area in the evening.” Ok weatherman…we understand that you suck at your job, but let’s calm down a little bit. Local news is a combination of panic and really bad melodrama…gotta love it.

So, yeah, we can add Canadian Air to list of things to be weary of. I haven’t played much this week, work and the cold have really sapped my strength. I continue to really freaking enjoy Warhammer, especially when playing with Jah and CB. We have a couple different characters now, and with the server move, we are getting into RvR more and more. The only disappoint with that game is that the 3 people that WoW (Bunny, Mitch, and Don) that I think would really enjoy playing this game continue to deny it’s exist. I understand that expansion pack will keep them in WoW for the foreseeable future, but I miss playing a MMO other than WoW with them. (While Conan was flaming pile of shit-poo, I enjoyed the ride with everyone else who played that game).

I spent the little free-time I had last night downloading the NEW XBOX EXPERIENCE! Yeah, whatever…NXE is cool and adds a lot, but it didn’t fundamental change anything in my opinion. The big thing for me was to try out the Netflix stuff, which worked really well. Firethorn mentioned that we wanted to play his Xbox more, so hopefully I can get in some Co-op or multiple player going with him. (I haven’t played anything multiple player wise since RB6: Vegas). Other than that, there is a indie game called Hinterland that is on Greenhouse which I want to check out (love the fact that they have demos). And I need to get back into Fallout 3 before I forget where I was and what I was doing…(Great Fallout 3 resource)

For the most part, this week as been uneventful. I’m trying my best to just make it through the holidays with a smile on my face, thankful to be alive, healthy, secure, with a job, and with friends and family. It’s tough not to remember the events of a year ago, even though they seem so much out of place and so long ago today. More than anything, this economy might be a good thing…it’s forcing me to focus on the now, to do my job as best as I can and to not worry about tomorrow. And in the end, when the housing market rebounds and when the job market rebounds, I’ll have a tight resume, with no holes, and we’ll have the option to move and find the jobs we both desire.

This will be a quick update…but the world is spinning out of control and we need a change of leadership in this country. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat or something in the middle, you need to VOTE. I don’t care who you vote for, just be please VOTE.

When we wake up tomorrow there is a chance that the political landscape of this country could be changed, we really could see the death of the Republican party. If the Democrats sweep this election, you could see the Republicans only holding Senate seats in the south, which would be a huge shift in this country. We could see racial boundaries broken down…we also could see gender boundaries shifted. Either way, this country needs to get more politically active. We need hold our representatives responsible to us, not to special interests. We need to make our voices heard to special interest groups, that our Government is ours, and it’s not for sell. But we can only do that if we VOTE. That’s step one in this process…after that we need to create a great debate in this country, over the rules of government, over the rules of liberty and freedom, or the rights and responsibilities of a citizen, no matter their gender, race, sexually preference, religion, or other beliefs. We need to take back this discussion from the far right and far left, who for too long have split this country down ideological beliefs that are on the edges of society.

The middle class of this country now stands at a crossroads. The rich are getting richer and owning more the wealth, and it’s getting easier and easier to slip into poverty. Jobs are disappearing and never coming back. Health insurance is becoming a luxury. And retirement savings has become an after-thought or dream for most. I’m not going to tell you that one candidate has a better plan to save the middle class of this country. I’m not going to tell you that one party is better for you than the other. But I do believe that for the first time in a long time, the country stands ready for a change. We have the ability to create a government that works for us. We have a chance now to restore our place in the world. We have a chance to define what our role is going to be in the post-Cold War world, something that Bush Sr, Clinton, or Bush Jr never did. Make no mistake, the world needs us.

World does need us. Just look to Africa, where genocide continues in Sudan, the African World War is still being waged in the Congo, skyrocketing food prices are leading to riots, unchecked poverty and disease growth throughout the continent, and the lack of hope spreads to a new generation. The Global Financial Crisis is slowly taxing our ability to help with disaster recovery. Governments that use violence and military force to keep their populations under control still exist in plain sight. I think about the generations before us, that fought and won the great ideological war of the 20th Century. They defeated Fascism, they liberated a continent, they had hoped they created a better world. And after the Berlin Wall fell, we had a chance to recreate the world as Woodrow Wilson saw it, we people were free to decide their own fate. But we missed that chance, now the world sees us as a bully, a stumbling giant who uses it’s power and might to get it’s way in the world.

I really see this country at a crossroads. And no matter what you think of either candidate, you need to VOTE, plain and simple. You need to tell those people who would divides down ideological lines that enough is enough. We will hold a great debate about our future, we will listen to each other, we will disagree with each other, but in the end we will compromise with each other. We will build on the common ground we share, that this country is the greatest place in the world to live because our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are the days we should have faith in our system, not bemoan it’s short comings. We should use these days to remind our Government that they should be fearful of our voice and power. We should use these days to take back what is ours, our political system, our media, our economy, our station in the world, our freedoms, our voice, our faith, our beliefs, our government, our country.

I leave you with these words from our Founding Fathers, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness”.

So, there are many joys in the South this time of year. The weather has broken and has become absolutely beatufil, maybe some of the best weather in the world. Thanksgiving and Christmas are near, the NFL is in full swing, baseball is over. And of course, the most important to everyone down here, its SEC football season. That’s right, college football is king in the South. And of course it’s Florida v Georgia this weekend.

I’ve talked about it in the past, it’s the time of year when the great unwashed masses from the University of Florida meets the great unwashed masses from the University of Georgia in Jacksonville, FL. The game really brings at the best in everyone, over the last couple years there’s only been average of 3 murders/deaths following the game. I think the over/under line this year is 5. The game is more of an appetizer for the massive of amounts of booze that everyone will drink after the game, so the fun is always alcohol-induced.

This year, the Florida fans have been sniping at the Georgia fans after the beatdown they suffered last year. This is a prime example of the war of words that is occurring this year. It’s really ironic for someone from Gainesville to call someone from Athens, Ga a redneck…but that’s only if the Gator fan knows what irony is.

They both suck…

I made a character that has a bunch of perception, intelligence, and ability. I took a couple of points out of luck and strength, decided that I really didn’t miss the ability to fight with Melee weapons, and the critical increase with luck just wasn’t enough for me to miss that one point. I took Repair, Science, and Barter as my skills, and found a Bobble-head doll that increase my medicine ability by 10 points.

I made my way into Megaton and did a couple of quests in there before calling it a night. I disarmed the bomb, instead of blowing the whole town up (really need to make a bad character next time around and set that thing off). I explored around the city a little, fighting a couple giant ants, and trading a bunch of stuff I took from the Vault. I made a decent amount of caps, which is nice because it seems like stuff is rather expense out there. The bar tender said he knew where my father was and gave me a quest to collect some money, so I’m sure I’m going to kill this person. While I’m out I’m going to visit a couple other towns that I have side quests for.

The world is pure sex…it’s awesome. I love the setting, post nuclear war games…just plain dupe. Love it.

(So these are going to be a way for me to take my progress through Fallout 3, a problem I had in Oblivion. In Oblivion, I would get so far, stop for a couple days, and completely forget where I was.)