Jehoshaphat

…4 hours later, I finally got home.

I recently commented on getting a raise…well I finally found out how much of a raise I got, around 21% increase in pay. WOW. Basically here is the run down on what went down. I was hired at slightly low level on the pay scale. I have gotten 3 small raises to bring up to my current level which I thought put me right where a person with my experience should be at. So you remember how I mentioned I won that golf tournament a couple weeks back, well apparently I had a few too many laughs with one of our competitors, and one of my managers thought I was unhappy here. So the general feeling in management was I was going to bolt for higher pay…they decided that they didn’t want that to happen, they saw me as unpaid for the skills I bring to the table and got me this raise.

Two things though, first I wasn’t planning on leaving, but apparently jumping ship for another contractor is a very popular thing in consulting. Especially when you don’t have a non-compete clause like me. Second, since the raise was of such a large amount, almost everyone in the company up the chain had to sign off on it. So a lot of people got to see my name in a positive light, which doesn’t suck.

So, I told my Dad on Monday, and for the people who have met my Dad you will understand this better, he almost immediately told me what I should do with my new found wealth. I started by blowing him off for awhile until I realized that he was making sense for once and this could be my opportunity to get moving on buying a house. So I had him set up a meeting with one of his financial advisors up here in Jacksonville. So, I called her on Monday and she said I could meet her after work in her office and we could talk about my options going forward. (Side note, the chick was fucking hot, and I know why she got my Dad’s business…) What she said would take about an hour, ended up being 4 hours long and I didn’t get home until around 9:30…she did take me and Valerie at to dinner, so that didn’t suck.

In the end, things are looking good…this really opens up a lot of opportunities for us in the future and I’m excited about it all.

How times have we killed the “number two” terrorist in Iraq? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4285394.stm. I mean come on, just kill the “number one” fucker so we can get our troops out of that hell hole and let them tear themselves apart. If Wilson, the great International Liberalism champion, couldn’t change the world by pushing our brand of personal freedoms and thoughts on liberty after World War 1, why should we expect George W. Bush Jr to succeed. I can only hope we figure out a way to get our troops out of there before they get caught up in a bloody civil war between Shias and Sunnis, because we would only lose more in the muslim world by picking sides in that 1500 year old fight.

Today’s topic, is Brett Farve done? I have to admit, as a Bucs fan, my hatred for Brett Farve is pretty high. The Bucs havent won in Green Bay since 1989 and Farve has torched the Bucs when everyone was still in the Central, but last weekend the Bucs escaped with a 17-16 win over the Pack, and put Green Bay in a 0-3 hole. The reason I saw for that defeat was Farve’s poor passes and mistakes. Now 6 years ago, Farve could make those throws and will his teams to wins, but now time has taken its toll on Farve and he looks human now.

Basically, if Farve doesnt retire after this year, and continues to throw 3 picks a game, do you sit him down and bring in the draft pick?!? Can you tell a Hall of Famer to sit on the bench? Even better, can a coach in a Green Bay tell Farve to sit on the bench? Can a second year quaterback handle the expectations of being Farve’s replacement even if Farve retires at the end of the year?

Got a raise today! Fuck you, man! That’s right fuck the man.

If you listened to the Sunday Night game with the TV off you would have thought the Giants won that game by 45 points and Eli Manning threw for 500 yards, 9 touchdowns, and run for another 200 yards. Joe Theisman was sucking that guy’s dick for 4 quaters. Now I know Cris Collinsworth is a chicken fucker, but Joe Theisman is a goat fucker. Joe, you were a great QB during your playing days, too bad no remembers that. All anybody remembers of you, is you getting your leg snapped like a twig in four places. So never, ever, never, say the following…”That was just a great throw even if it was intercepted”. I fucking hate you Joe.

Good weekend of gaming and cleaning. Got alot of stuff done over the weekend, which is a giant plus, cause it makes the weeknights easier. I have to say though, I installed alot of old games over the weekend. I installed Farcry, Doom 3 and Rome: Total War. Now Farcry didnt fucking fuck cause it’s a piece of shit game. Doom 3 did and with the flashlight mod, it fucking rocks. The atmosphere in that game is incredible and the addition of a flashlight on all the weapons really clears the one big fault of the game.

Now Rome: Total War has always been a love of mine. I have beaten it a couple times, but now I’m trying out some of the mods. But before I did that, I want to start a new Vanilla game and try out the patch. I picked up the Julii and started conquering north Italy, I loved the Julii because they are in conflict with the Gauls and barbarian tribes of Northern Europe. The cool thing about that game is the campaign map and its importance on the battlefield. My main army in the north had been cut off, but I had a plan.

There was a river just north of the main Gaul city in North Italy. I moved my army toward the river, now I didnt make it to the river but I did make it the hills just south of it. I was attacked on both sides by the Gauls, they outnumbered me 2.5 to 1. I setup my defenses on the hills and decided the best plan of attack would to hold the line against the main attack, but to sally out and attack their second force. If I could rout the second force, I could turn their flank and take the day. Two things needed to happen though, first the defensive line on the hill needed to hold and their second line need to attack me so I could move on them and be close enough to turn around and flank them.

He attacked my flanks of my main line and so I had to use my rearguards, who were going to attack his second force, to secure my flanks, but that of course left my rear open. I turned two units from the middle at the last moment possible, and they defend the rear. I lost a ton of man, but so did he, and I was able to get a heavy cavalry unit out of the melee and attacked his right flank. I rolled open his main army and his rear force retreated. The result was I crushed the Gauls in North Italy, the next turn my other armies captured their main cities, senate was pleased, and so were the people and my main general won a seat in the government, which means extra gold per turn.

I think I’m going to finish the vanilla patch before I move toward the mods. Plus Day of Defeat comes out today…

I went to Best Buy yesterday to pick up some DVDs for the burner and some stuff for the digital camera. While I was there I picked up the Lost Season 1 DVDs cause they were on sale. For the most part I hate normal primetime TV. The shows I usually watch are really goofy, ala the Simpsons and Family Guy, or really well written dramas that tell a story. Some dramas like CSI and Law and Order are well written but they dont tell a story, sure Law and Order gives hints into the background of the main characters but usually they are very lacking.

Well, about 5 or 6 years ago, holy fuck its been that long, a show come on HBO that changed all of that. The Soprano’s was a fucking bombshell for me. I haven’t missed a single espisode since it started. I own all of the seasons on DVD and have made my wife watch them twice. Once about 1 year ago and we started rewatching them again last month. The Sopranos rivals Seinfeld as the greatest TV show of all time, of course I might be biased because I love Mob-related movies and shows. But really, the writing and David Chase’s ideas have created a story and a drama that totally engrossing, a story and characters you want to follow.

Well, I had the same hopes for Lost. We popped in the first disc of the season last night, expecting just to watch the first episode and then watch Valerie’s shows, Joey and goofy Dancing with the Stars. But instead we watched the first 3 episodes and were totally engrossed in the story. It’s really really good, and it makes you think. It makes you create theories and ideas in your head, this morning while I was getting ready to go to work, I was thinking about the polar bear, the monster, the plane crash, Locke explaining Black and White game pieces in terms of Light and Dark. Then I realized the power of a well written story. For all of the crap that is put on TV, there’s still good stuff out there…

Yes, I listen to Jim Rome. I find normal radio to be a parade of what’s hot right now, ok let’s play it over and over and over until people actually hate the artist. Or let’s play that one song from 10 years that was really popular, yeah, lets keep playing it until we can dig the singer out of the shallow grave he was in and he can try and reclaim some of his lost glory. Only to find out he is strung out on dope and that he couldn’t sing in the first place. So, yes, I listen to talk radio, mainly sports talk.

I’ve listened to Rome for about 6 years now. And I fucking love his show, which not everyone does. Most people will remember him from this … http://joezizzo.com/video/ESPNAttack.mpg, but for me, Jim Rome is more of a radio host. His TV shows are watchable, but not really that good and they dont capture his radio show at all. He basically calls out anyone that needs to be called out and usually has pretty good interviews.

The really reason I like his show so much is that he doesnt have any stupid gimicks or pointless segments that completely miss the fun dartborad. He doesnt have an stupid sidekick…basically he’s exact opposite of the rest of the ESPN TV Columists.

Basically the complete reference guide for his show … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jim_Rome_Show

Oh yeah, good times were had by all. We unfortunately challenged the number 1 team in the new 4 on 4 HQ ladder. Of course that was a good idea and gave us an opportunity to practice our dying skills. And man alive, my dying skills are up there with the best. But really only positive things should be taken from the match and I will attempt to highlight them.

First off, we had Andy transmitting from the far side of the moon. Something about his mic wire cut open or aliens in his attic, either way it was Justin’s and my job to make relentless fun of him. Of course, Andy being the clear level-head person he is, lost control a couple times and yelled at us, which was immediately followed by the static noise, basically making his outburst much funnier.

Second, Billko was at the bowling alley earlier in the night. He of course raced home to make the match, which I’m sure he didn’t endanger anyone on the road. I think they should post the times he’ll be on the road, coming home from the bowling alley, trying to make a CoD match. But then again, a drunk Billko is better than me any day of the week, so he of course led the team straight into the abyss that was our match.

(Andy if you read this you might get upset, please don’t, it’s just in jest) Third, of course they were cheating their ASSES off. Not any ordinary cheats or hacks, no they were using the Czechoslovakian secret method of shooting their guns faster than us. That’s right, their guns shot faster…Now, this reminds me of a comic, back when Gamespy hadn’t sold their soul to the devil…and of course their site is ass and I can’t find it anymore. But basically it was about a gamer who took all of these pills to increase his eyesight, his hand-eye coordination, his reflexes and so on. I thought for sure that we were going to ask them for urine samples at the end of the match. Some day, I find that Czechoslovakian scientist who allows people to shoot faster than is possible and force him teach me this ability. Also, they used the matrix somehow to throw grenades thru space and time and have them appear in front of us.

Finally, the team we played against was better than us in almost every category. After the first couple of radio timers, I realized they had their shit together. They moved to the choke points and cut them off with grenades and satchel charges. They knew exactly where to sit to defend all the points they needed. As a team it was impressive. They didn’t defend, they attacked, but they attacked with an almost perfect precision. They had their shit together.

In the end, I didn’t fully enjoy the experience but I did stay with it and try to fight through it. I admit that I fully understand the situation going in…

Oh side note, I asked my company HR rep what would their policy be on me volunteering for the Red Cross in the Gulf Coast. The stupid bitch looked at me and asked me “Will you still come to work?”. To which I wanted to punch her in the face and leave but instead I said “I think it would involve me traveling to the region and helping.” Now I think some companies would like to see that kinda compassion from their employees and maybe gentle say no, but of course I work for a heart-less consulting company so her answer was “You would like to do that, without all those comforts of home…well, I guess you could, but we would probably let you go and hire someone else because we need people charging to your projects.” Remind me again why I make these people 105 dollars an hour?

So, no updates in a while means I must be busy or lazy…I think the problem is alittle from column A, and alittle from column. I have been busy, pretty fair amount of work to do and its not stuff I’m really familiar with so its really time consuming. Also, I’ve been getting these really weird, painful headaches. I dont know what they are and I really dont know the cause. Then of course, I’ve been lazy as a fuck lately. I havent really had the drive to do anything important in a while…so I’m caught in this loop.

But yesterday was a good day. I played in a S.A.M.E. (Society of American Military Engineers) golf charity event for work, which was a best ball format. HDR was a gold sponsor and they wanted to put a good team out there. So I played with one of my bosses and 2 CORPS guys. At first I was playing like shit. But about the 4th hole, I finally started hitting the ball perfectly. We got closet to the pin and longest drive and finish with a net score of 51. We won first place, which is always a good feeling. What was an even better feeling was when I went up to get my prizes for winning, everyone was yelling “ringer”. Good times…

Hopefully I can play some WoW this weekend. I havent really had a chance to grind out some crap in the EPL like I wanted and I would like to do a Strathome run this weekend as well. But I think with Firethorn being busy this weekend, like every other weekend, I’m going to help out Smitty as much as I can. His warrior is coming along almost perfectly, and now just needs to get into those higher level instances to get the really good stuff. I currently have 3 of 8 on my beaststalkers set, with the reminding piece in LBRS, Strat, and UBRS. The two places I really wouldnt mind hitting with Smitty would be LBRS, but I know he’s far from that…

This week has really been busy. I think the fact that it is a short week makes alot of stuff pile up on my desk really quickly. Plus we hired a new developer, which is always a weird process. I basically didnt know about it until I walked by his desk, which is normally empty, and there he was…really strange actually. So I meant to write about the FSU v UM game yesterday but I was too busy to actually to think straight so heres my thoughts.

Florida State and Miami are two of the biggest powerhouses in College Football. Both teams have won several National Championships, both of them have incredibly recruiting power, but for some reason decided not to recruit a fucking Quaterback. Man alive, that was an ugly, ugly game. And of course, like any other FSU/UM game, it came down to kicking field goals. And of course, like usual it wasnt who made the most field goals, it was who missed the least amount of field goals. Look, I think Miami joining the ACC was great, I think the two division setup is awesome, I like the fact that the ACC championship game is played in Jacksonville, but please reschedule this game for later in the year. Theres no reason you should play your rival as the first game of the season…

But that’s exactly what TV has done to college football. No longer can you get away by playing your conference and a couple weak teams outside your conference. Now you see alot of teams taking risks, playing bigtime out of conference schedules and getting rewarded with TV coverage. This coming week you have Texas going into Ohio St., usually Texas doesnt play anyone of any value until the Red River Shootout. I have to say though, rivalry games are still the main reason I watch College Football. We got some good ones coming up…UT v UF, Georgia v Florida, Texas v OU…I just love it…

On the gaming front, nothing of real value to talk about. I’m really enjoying Dungeon Siege 2 though, I havent made it out of the second act yet, but theres alot to the game, alot of quests that I’m really enjoying taking my time for. Looks like I’m not going to play anything until this weekend, maybe some NCAA football on the xbox tonight or tomorrow.

Tropical Depression 16, soon to be Tropical Storm 16, has formed off the east coast of Florida, track puts it over Jacksonville, FL on Sunday. Jacksonville hasnt been hit by a storm since 1954…yee-haw!