Jehoshaphat

So, last week, I got laid off.  It wasn’t pleasant, it’s something I wouldn’t wish on anyone, but it is what it is.  It’s really been a kick in the pants, really destroying my ideas of self confidence and self worth.  I know you are expected to experience these feelings after losing a job but man alive it’s really hit me.  I expect a long search in these tough economic times, I ask any of you out there to keep me and my wife in your prayers.  I have faith that we will reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m a combination of pissed, unhappy, bored, irrated, and depressed…so I really don’t have much to talk about right now.  I’ll be back here in a couple of days.

So last night was filled with Empire: Total War.  I completely ignored everything else and just sat down played, and I can tell you that if the days continue like this I’m going to need as much de-stressing as possible.  As many of you know, I’m a complete history junkie, so it was really fun to just talk history and play Empire with Mike and Firethorn.

But about the game…its buggy but it’s really fun.  First about the bugs, the forums are filled with comments on bugs that I’m experiencing and it seems that many are explaining some crazy things.  It’s not surprising because it’s a Total War game, which are known to be EXTERMELY buggy at release.  But I feel good about because CA is talking about the bugs in their forums and have stated that because of the Steam platform, they will be releasing frequent patches with the first one dropping next week to fix the major problems.  This is really good news and combined with the work arounds mentioned on the forums “makes my eyes happy”.

The game in itself is a blast.  I’m playing the Road to Independence right now, where you can learn the ropes and get comfortable with the underlying campaign mechanics.  While the RtI starts slow, it really opens up with the battle of Bunker Hill.  Its funny how streamlined everything is, I had to restart last night because I forgot you could just contact other nations without sending a gentleman.  Poor Paul Revere died at sea…I can’t wait for the weekend, that’s the sign you have a good game on your hands.

Make sure to jump on Vent and we can talk about history.  Maybe alittle War of Spanish Succession or we can get back into more loopsided military victories.  Mike…the Battle of New Orleans, the second day…British dead = 385 (including several commanders) Total Casualties = 2055, American dead = 13 Total Casualties = 101.  And that’s with a combined army of pure militia, pirates and indians versus the core of the British Expeditionary Force.  It might not beat your battle during the Texas Revolution but it’s impressive.

So let me start off with some drama…work has decided, I should say upper management has decided to go back to UNIX and ditch the Windows-based application we have been developing and using for 2 months.  This is bad, I mean really bad.  I really don’t know what is what right now, work is kinda on edge, several people have either quit or been asked to take some time off.  I don’t know my long-term position, so yeah, anxiety levels are high right now.  But keeping with the theme of the title let me skip ahead to the good.

My home life and social life is going great.  Everything seems to be settling in nicely this year, the wife and I are doing great, we are killing our budget which is helping us save a ton of money and gaming hasn’t been better in a while.  Firethorn, Mike, and I have been playing a game called Defense Grid which is a freaking blast.   I got a chance to talk with Mike about how he keeps making incredible high scores, and I think I’ve got a better understanding of how to play the game.  My strategy was to build tons of high-powered towers and just blow the aliens out of the water.  But Mike pointed out the effects of interest and resources, which dictates a different strategy.  The idea is build a small number of towers, in the right place, create a kill zone and keep your resources on hand high to earn more off the interest.  The other great news is that Empire: Total War is downloading off Steam as we speak and barring any internet troubles at the house, it should be finished by the time I get home.  And there is a silver lining to the problems at work.  I’ve never saw this as a long term solution, now it’s become clear that I need to get off my butt and find a company I want to work for, something I build on, something I can grow in, something for the long-term.  On to the bad…

This crazy UNIX guy who they have hired to get the UNIX system running again is a liar.  He lied to me in a meeting, he’s lied to several other people.  I know a couple of the people that work in the main building through outside friends, and they have told me straight up that they have never said the things he says they have said.  Also, I can look at the logs of the application and see that some of the things he is claiming happen…DONT HAPPEN.  I don’t mind a shift in direction, I don’t mind a new boss, I don’t have control over those things, but I don’t like being lied to.   Also, during the meeting yesterday, I felt like he was trying to get me to quit and that seems to be his attitude going forward.  Ok, so the ugly…

He has hinted in re-writing the new system in Visual FoxPro because that’s what he knows.  He doesn’t know SourceSafe, he says he never needed to use a source control program.  He thinks it’s a bad idea to use integer ID fields as primary keys in a database table.  I have no freaking clue what I’m doing, right now I’m just sitting here, chilling out, figuring out what the fuck I’m doing.  The economy is just plain bad, so finding a great job is going to be tough…right now I feel like I’m walking on egg shells.  And a giant part of my life, my work like is just come crashing down.  A place where I spend most of my time is completely in ruins.  That’s the ugly.

Hopefully I can get an evening piece going that will cover my adventures in Empire.  I really am torn on what country I should start with first.  I would love to try out the Austrian or the French…but the 13 Colonies are just calling my name.

So this past weekend was pretty good.  It can always be hit and miss when we travel south to visit family.  Normally, we are pulled in too many directions to enjoy the two days we are there.  But this time, like last visit, we both took off Friday to give us an extra day to see everyone.  It really seems to make the trip easier, as we can leave on Sunday early enough to get home and spend a relaxing afternoon before we have to get back to work.

My grandfather seems to be improving, which is very positive.  Both of my grandparents are getting up there in years and it’s difficult to see them in pain or slowing down.  He had to have his pacemaker replaced, not a minor surgery but nothing major.  The good thing about the replacement is that his heartbeat is back to normal.  I was glad that I could get over there and see both of them.

Other than that, this week brings us the greatness that is Empire: Total War.  The reviews are starting to come in and the fears for me are being calmed.  They seem to indicate that the loading times are improved and the political system of the campaign map sounds simply amazing.  It sounds just fantastic…and I’m really looking forward to it. A developer has been talking about his experiences in a campaign report, and he was playing as Prussia. Well his king died, and the Dutch declared their king to be the rightful heir to the throne, starting a “War of Succession”. I’ll tell you the truth, even if that works only partially, what a freaking COOL feature.

I installed Call of Duty: World at War on Sunday and played through a couple levels of the campaign.  Oh my…I guess I’m losing it, but I find that game to be pure shit, it is absolutely horrible.  I can’t tell you how many times I got stuck INSIDE my teammates.  I would be using cover and all of sudden my teammate would decide to use the same spot and he would a. push me out of the way right into the open and the enemies fire or b. clip inside me and we would be both stuck until he moved.  I wonder sometimes if reviewers are playing the same game I am.  This is why I listen more and more to the shack chat threads to see what people are saying about new games.  Speaking of which, everyone seems to be really enjoying Dawn of War 2 and because Firethorn is against playing the best game of all time and expanding his historical and cultural knowledge, I might talk him into getting DoW 2 so we can play the campaign in co-op mode.