Negatory Good Buddy

No posts today.

I'm tired, and burnt out. My brain hurts studying for my Intro CCNA final this week, and I really don't have much to say, other than go listen to music.

Lots of it...it's good for you I swear.

Things You Should Listen To

Yep. So here we go.

I can already tell this one is going to be a doozy.

First, a recap for those of you not paying attention. After TJ stopped by and commented on Dredg, I decided to call her bluff about the proverbial throw down. She answered with authority, and as such I really have no choice but to respond, with an equal amount of (insert your favorite choice of playful bantering words here).

So yeah, this post is definitely going to be a little chunky. For those of you who prefer to not read verbose ramblings of psychotic lunatics, may I direct you to the news(but most certinaly not their competition...everyone knows they're a bunch of right wing fascists).

I'm going to shamelessly jack something that TJ said, because it's appropriate.

Prepare to be excessively You Tubed. Those of you who can’t see videos at work, well… er, sorry? I don’t know how else to do this! And as for the You Tube links - a lot of the songs I will talk about have the actual videos up on You Tube, and some, instead, just have the songs used as background in other, people-made videos. I’ll embed videos only for the actual real ones, and provide links for listening only purposes to the others - I take no responsibility for the actual VISUAL parts of the videos that are just linked. Damn kids.

And away we go!

These songs are in absolutely no order, and they are pretty much coming up in whatever format pops into my head. I'm a huge fan of High Fidelity(John Cusack is my hero), and totally follow the philosophy that making a good compliation tape is an artform. But, for a situation like this, I'm excercising my right to throw the rules out the window and say "Screw you, you'll take it how I give it to you, and you'll like it."

Oh, and forgive the stream of consciousness explanations here. Again, you'll take it, and you'll like it. I'm also resisting the urge to post up my tried and true favorites, Coheed and Cambria, and 30 Seconds to Mars, & Tool because I'm sure I'll be whoring those bands out enough here as is.

First up? Easy peasey. I couldn't even tell you where I picked this guy up at. I've always been a huge fan of Seal. I'm a big fan of electronic music, techno, trance, drum and bass, whatever you want to call it, and I think this track plays into it a lot. Add to the fact that the man has an amazing voice.

My first induction into the Hall of Music? Seal - Crazy.






Next up on the list? Well, when I was in grade school, I was always in jazz band. Playing old school jazz & swing music gave me a huge appreciation for a time when music was a lot more simple and meaningful. There's something about music that is just...big...that moves me. Large orchestras, huge band sounds, stadium rock of the 80's, that whole vibe of an enormous sound always drove me crazy. In a good way of course. I'm already crazy in a bad way.

As such, this guy is like a modern incarnation of the Rat Pack of old age. He's a modern day Frank Sinatra, with just as much swagger.

Enter... Michael Bublé - Feeling Good






Moving on, a couple of years ago, I had heard about this band that did covers of Metallica tracks. Big shocker, whoopty do, who cares, right? Everyone does Metallica, AC/DC, Rush, blah blah blah, next! The twist with this one is the band was a quartet of cellos.

Stop. Go back. Read that last sentence again.

Yes, I said cellos. Those big stringed instruments that look like violins but could crush a large gnome. Again, this goes back to my thing about orchestral music. I'm a big fan of modernized retro. I guess. Hearing an instrument that was normally reserved for Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, so on, and hearing it being used in a metal environment was enormous. Yeah yeah, I know Metallica did the S&M thing a long time ago, but it's an entirely different bag of tricks when the orchestra is background emphasis, instead of this group where the music is up front and is the pure focus.

With that in mind, I present... Apocalyptica - Path






The next one is an easy jump. Check out that last video again. The thing about Apocalyptica, is the chick singing isn't part of the band. They're an instrumental group, and occasionally they have people step in to add a little something to the music. Sandra Nasic was the lead in that one. Through hearing that track, I found about her band. Another one of my quirks is I love hard rock and metal groups that have female leads. I hate black metal with a passion. Despise. I'm a singer, and I want to be able to actually hear someone singing, not gutteral brooding or whatever you want to call it. Having female leads keeps that rough hard rock vibe that I love, but gives me the vocals that I enjoy hearing. It's like the best of both worlds.

So anyways, I present to you... Guano Apes - You Can't Stop Me






Next? Well, TJ had to throw up some Get Up Kids, so I retort her Kids with some stuff from their keyboardist's side project. I mainly adore this song for the video, a sad story about Nessie's(yes, the same Nessie from Loch Ness) divorce aftermath. It's adorable, and the song itself is just fabulous.

I submit for the record... Reggie and the Full Effect - Get Well Soon





Hmmm...where to go from here. Ah yeah. I'm sure you guys know of a little band called Rage Against the Machine. I mean, not too many people know about them I think, but you guys might. Well, they've got this overzealous political activist message. That's awesome, but I've got this little band that does the same thing, but in my opinion, I think they do it a little better. The message may not be as clear as Rage, but for me, the music is a lot more intense, and a lot more meaningful.

The lead singer has an incredible voice, powerful, and never wavers. The only downfall to this band is that they broke up this year, which makes me very sad.

In memory... Boysetsfire - Requiem





So who here remembers a song back in the 90's called "Counting Blue Cars"? Well, the song itself was great, but sadly radio and MTV killed it, like most really good music falls victim to. For anyone who actually made it past that one track, and tried out the band, you'd find some very beautiful music spanning a long career. Yeah, they're still around, and still putting out music to this day.

Give it a try, listen to it, and stop letting pop culture tell you what's good.

For your pleasure... Dishwalla - 40 Stories





Yeah, I like my metal, and for anyone who says this band is a "safe bet"...bleh, music is pure opinion. I like what I like, regardless of whether it's "easy" or not..

So here's my easy choice.

Enjoy some heavy ear beatdowns... Avenged Sevenfold - Almost Easy





We're in the home stretch kiddies. The next group, I picked up on when I first started playing The Matrix Online. There was an online radio station that was roleplayed as in-game. They spread a lot of information as part of the Resistance, and also played some damned nice music. Also, this stuff is kind of anti-social and pisses off a lot of people, but it amuses the hell out of me.

Add to the fact that this video is directed by the same guy who made Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Invader Zim. That in itself is worth the price of admission.

All I can say is enjoy!... Mindless Self Indulgence - Shut Me Up





Wow. So, I posted this, and totally forgot to slip one more band in here. Sure it makes it 11, but deal with it.

This is odd, given most of the music I listen to, but on the other hand, it'll fit perfectly...given most of the music I listen to. Yes, it's 70's music, but it's classic, and I listen to a good amount of classic stuff, simply because it's stuff I picked up when I was a kid, and it stuck. This one came from an album that I listened to day in and day out when I was little. Even still, I pick it up now and again and wear the hell out of it.

So here you go. A small jaunt back to my childhood... Electric Light Orchestra - Last Train to London



Last, but certainly not least, we have a phenomenal band, probably in my top 5 all-time favorites. I find most of my music through friends or through compliations or soundtracks. This one was no exception. It came off the An American Werewolf in Paris soundtrack. A little ditty about a guy strangling his girlfriend because she asked him to. After hearing that, I tracked down the band's album, and have been listening to it ever since. At the time it came out, I was going through a lot of crud in my life, and something about the album just sang to all of my problems, and I related to every single facet of it. It's probably one fo the few albums that I've ever listened to that I can truly say I love every track.

To close.. Caroline's Spine - Nothing to Prove




So there you have it. My short, but diverse, list.

Maybe someday in the future I'll go more in depth and talk a little bit about the other bands I mentioned above.

Your turn.

What Wonders Do I See

Well, I've made it clear on numerous occasions that I get really bored at work. And at home. And at school.

Ok, fine I get bored pretty much anywhere that I breathe at.

So, with that in mind, I surf the internet a lot. One of the little distractions I've found is Machinima. Cartoons. Movies. Whatever you'd like to call them.

(For those of you who know what machinima is, please feel free to skip the next few lines...or not, whatever, it's no skin off my nose either way.)

What's machinima? Well, it's basically a video from a video game. I'm sure the definition is a lot more in depth than that, for you nitpickers, but that's the basic gist of it.

Next time you play a video game, get a copy of Fraps, run it, record. Blammo. You just made your first machimima. Congratulations.

Anyways, I catch a lot of stuff from WowInsider. They run semi-regular columns highlighting some of the good stuff that comes around. I found out about The Grind, and The Guild through there(the second isn't so much machinima as it is game-based movies, but still funny as hell).

Gah, stop rambling.

Point that I'm getting at, I came across this video tonight, through a few hops. This is absolutely amazing, and it is startling that people with this kind of talent aren't working in professional movie production houses somewhere.

Watch this movie. Love this movie. Crank it up loud and just bask in its glory.

The Dude Abides

Grah, I missed my post...mainly because of this movie.

If you haven't seen it, you are missing a phenomenal flick.

Even if you see it just for the profanity, it's worth taking the time to take in the marvel that is The Big Lebowski...

Go...

Watch...

Be entertained, as I have been all evening. :)

You owe it to yourself :)

The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown..

So yeah, I had a lovely visitor yesterday...or maybe it was today, I have no idea.

TJ decided to stop by and say hi, and let off a threat about my choice of music. Quite amusing, I might add. ;)

In accordance with said comments, I think I do wish to "take this outside".

So, dear faithful readers, all 3 of you, namely myself, and probably my multiple personalities, I am throwing the gauntlet
down. Oh yes, I even whipped out the retro arcade game pictures for this one.

I bring to you, The Challenge.

My challenge, to all of you, let's see the music taste. I've already started the mixup with "Bug Eyes" from Dredg.

You have seen the video, right?

You didn't?

But, you at least listened to the album, right?

Ok, what the hell? I bless your ears with sonic beauty, and you scoff at my choice? Oh that's it. I'm pulling out all the stops on this one. Just wait.

Beauty In Sound

I'm not feeling particularly wordy today. It's been a long, boring day at work. We've had the exact same workload today, that has been around since Friday.

Exactly nothing.

Overwhelming, huh?

So, aside from watching American Gangster, which was wonderful, by the way, I thought I'd throw up a song from one of my all-time favorite bands.

The band is Dredg. If you have any taste in music, at all, you will high-tail it to their show the next time they play in your area. If not, I'll send the badgers after you.

Welcome Home...

So yeah, I slacked in October. Nothing from yours truly. I am horrible I know. :(

But good things are afoot. At least in the blogoscopeworldthingimahjigger. Nablopomo. Yeah, that's a word, apparently. That or someone hacked up a lung during a cough, and decided to call it English.

Anyways, it's a dedication to write a blog a day in the month of Novembor. Something about "National Blogging Month" or some other twisted obsession with spewing mental jism all over a webpage.

Especially given my mental state as of late, it's probably a good thing that I do it, just to keep myself sane. I tend to let things get into my head too easily, and let it fester, boil, and rot. Suffice to say, my brain smells like rotting cabbage for the most part. Any time that it doesn't, it's usually saturated in a cranium filled with Guinness. Breakfast of champions right there, ladies and gentlemen, and don't you forget it.

So, what has been going on in the deviant's life? Stress. That's what. Lots of stress. On top of going to school nightly, working every weekend(remember? 40 hours? 3 days?), and studying for my networking certifications, I'm quite dead at the moment. I haven't had a real day off since April when I started working.

Last month I had two days off from class each week, but I can't really consider that "time off" since I was in the process of moving, and getting situated into some new digs. It was more of a "slight delay in rushing to the next tragedy". Either way, I'm one small step away from being completely burnt out.

I've pretty much stopped caring about my job, and my education, which is a big sign that I need a change in my life. The school has turned into a total joke. Not because of my actions, mind you, but because of the lack of ability to properly manage the joint by the administration. Half of the faculty can't teach, and those that can, are never around. So it's a lose-lose, either way.

And the job, oh god, that's just a nightmare in itself. I'm tired of working in an environment, where one tiny microscopic mistake can mean the end of my income. To put it into layman's terms, I can get a request from a propery to do something, and if I don't confirm with them twelve more times that I have permission to do the task...and I do the task...well, hello unemployment office.

Add to that, me trying to gain two certifications at the same time, one work-mandated, and one self-imposed. Yeah, life's pretty stressful.

And dear god, I hate Internet Explorer. You'd think that if Microsoft were such a brilliant company, they'd be able to write a web browser that wasn't a total piece of crap.

Day 1? Done.

Finish the Fight!

Wow, so two weeks and nothing from the lunatic. Bad monkey! No biscuit!! Sorry about that, I'll try to be better in the future.

It's been busy. Relatively. Work, unpacking, arranging finances. All kinds of fun stuff. Then this little thing over there popped up.

I'll proudly proclaim from any rooftop that I'm a geek. Geeking has earned me years of entertainment, and it's helping to supply me with an affordable lifestyle, so I will never bash it, and will openly admit that I am geek.

That being said, I am nowhere near as bad as some of the people in this world. I've never stood outside a movie theater waiting for the next installment of the Star Wars series(which one of these days I'll get around to blasting). I've never theorycrafted about the uber amounts of damage that a gnomish berzerker on steroids can do in the freezing rain outside of Ravenholm, or whatever the newest "flavor of the week" module D&D comes up with(although I have done it in the Camarilla...and believe you me, my "what if" cheese is infinitely better than anyone's!) And I've certainly never sat in line at a Gamestop or EB Games waiting for a midnight sale for a video game.

I love my video games, don't get me wrong, but that level of blind fanaticsm is just over the top. That level of...something or other, ceases to be geekiness and turns into sheer fanboi(yes..with an i, fanbois are the spawn of satan, fanboys are alright) obsession. While I can respect, to a certain extent, people being fanatical over something they enjoy, there comes to be a point where you have to step back and say "What the hell am I thinking?"

How many people, would you say, ditched work, family members, loved ones, and god knows how many other responsibilities, so they could camp out at a game store, and be the first one in line to get a silver shiny dvd with some computer code on it? I'd wager a lot. And when all is said and done, is that shiny little disc going to make you a better person? Is it going to solve all your life's problems? Probably not. It's just going to put a small dent in your wallet, and give you some entertainment. Granted, it's some good entertainment, but beyond that, it's not very important in the grand scheme of things.

So, if the end result is a smaller nest of money, and you won't gain any long-term benefits, why do it? I have yet to have anyone be able to give me a viable reason on this, other than something involving 1337-speak, and lots of excalamation points and typoed ones everywhere.

But, all fanboi-bashing aside, the game in question, for those of you who are totally in the dark, or in this case, just ignorant in general, is Halo 3. Master Chief is back for one last hurrah.

I've never been a huge Halo fanatic. I remember when it was first talked about. The game was going to be a PC franchise, and then Microsoft threw their hat into the console ring, and Halo suddenly became the flagship game for the upcoming Xbox. Cue Jason's sad tears.

While I'm not a huge Halo fanatic, I am a huge FPS fanatic. I love my shooters. It always amuses me to hear Playstation fanbois screaming that the Xbox360 is a FPS-one-trick-pony, when basic fact of the matter is, FPS-based games sell systems. Especially well made ones, like Gears of War, or in this case Halo 3. The old saying does apply, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Suffice to say, I've had quite a long history with FPS games. Doom, DoomII, the Quake franchise, ok basically any game put out by iD software, the Unreal franchise, Call of Duty 1 through 237235, Battlefield 2, and it's sequel "Battlefield: We're really Mechwarrior, but we won't tell anyone", etc etc etc. The list is pretty lengthy. In a nutshell, if it has explodey things, and it's first-person, I've probably played it.

Now, not to contradict myself, which I do from time to time, deal with it, I haven't had much experience with the Halo franchise. I dabbled with the first Halo a little bit, but never could get really engrossed in it. I never was a huge fan of campaign stories in FPS games, because the AI was typically too predictable, and the game itself was too repetitive for the most part. Most of my time was spent playing online. Playing against a human adversary is a much more painful beast than playing against a computer. While you can sometimes predict how players might react to something, it's not a given.

With that in mind, I picked up Halo 3 this week. No, I didn't sit in line waiting for a copy. I went to Best Buy the day after release, and was shocked to see a stack of Halo 3 copies on sale. The clerk said they got something like over a thousand copies shipped in. Color me surprised. So I picked up my Collector's Edition copy with the special little tin(I'm also a "special edition" freak...I love having something other than the generic standard release, especially if the case is metal...see my copies of Gears of War , Prey, heck, even my Appleseed movie is a metal tin), got a second controller to knock out some local co-op, and headed home. I think I heard the sounds of my bank account weeping as I left the store.

I got home, and myself and one of my buddies knocked out the first few chapters of the game, and I must say I'm impressed. The game is beautiful without being overbearing. You're thrown right into the thick of combat right at the getgo, and the pace is frantic. Combat is smooth, very fluid, and intelligent. Enemies actually have some resemblance to tactics. It's nice to play against a computer that thinks somewhat like a human.

We blew through a little bit of the game, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. After that, I broke out some of the Live gaming, and ran through some matches, and was blown away even more. Multiplayer is just silly. I didn't see any lag anywhere, and the game was visually stunning on a whole new level. Suffice to say, me likey.

The only thing that bugs me is probably attributed to my own lack of experience. I would unload an entire clip into someone, and yet I would be the one to die. It got a little frustrating on more than one occasion, but I'm sure a few nights of running through matches will fix that.

The multiplayer modes are pretty slick. I've only tackled the solo stuff so far, Slayer, Oddball, and Crazy King. Slayer is typical blow people up. Crazy King, king of the mountain, is definitely quality. Pain in the neck as it is, I like it a lot. Oddball, on the other hand, I'm not a big fan of.

It's a twist on king of the hill, whereas instead of the capture point being a static location, the capture point is a skull that you gain points for while in control of. When you kill the skull-runner, it drops, then you can pick it up and start running. The few games I've played with it, ends up being one person being really good at running their ass off, and it ends up being a 30 second match. Kinda boring in my opinion. But again, this is more likely attributed to lack of experience on my part.

All in all, it's a quality game. While I don't get all of the ridiculous hype the game gets, it's definitely one of the top 5 games fot he 360. Although, it still won't replace Bioshock for me. That game makes me feel funny on so many different levels. It's absurd.

A New Chapter...

So, it's done...

The move is finally finished, and now I'm stuck with an apartment filled with boxes, furniture, and me. Life seems to finally be picking up, I think.

Now, I get to spend the next few weeks unpacking, rearranging, cursing because I don't like the way things are, rearranging some more, kicking boxes because I can't remember where I packed something, and christening new toilets with drunken binges. Go team!

Through all of this, though, I am really having a hard time shaking this nagging feeling that I'm making a huge mistake. Common sense says "Dude, relax, you're on your own, you've got a solid income, you're getting an education, you'll be fine." Fear says "Omgwtfbbq!! What the hell were you thinking??"

I'm thinking that the alcohol is going to help squash some of those fears as they well up inside. Let's pray that my wrecked liver can continue persevering through the constant abuse that I put it through. Although, I do think that a few new choices in alcohol may be in order. I need to find some good bottles of wine to get attached to, and expand on my tequila collection.

Sadly, with every good thing that happens in life, bad things happen also. I had a huge falling out with my brother over a comment I made that he didn't take too well. Apparently, it's alright for him to make a mockery of my education and me trying to better myself, but when the tables are turned, everything goes to hell in a handbasket. Unfortunately, the victim in this scenario wasn't a person. My curio cabinet was the tragic target of abuse.

Everytime I would go to my grandparent's house, I would always admire the collection of model cars my grandfather had. The majority were of cars from the 40's and 50's. When he passed away, and the family was dividing up the possessions, the only thing I really wanted was my grandfather's car collection. My mom even went so far as to buy me a curio cabinet to keep the collection in. The thing is ridiculously massive, weighing in at god knows how many pounds, and it makes me look like a dwarf.

When "The Moving Debacle" happened, though, one of the back mirrors was damaged, and now I have to go through the task of replacing it, and making my cabinet whole again. It's funny, but in all the things I own, that cabinet and those cars are the only thing that can really hurt me. Seeing the cabinet damaged really hit me hard, even to the point of calling my father in the middle of the night ranting about the whole thing. Funny how that works out.

Either way, the mirror is on order, and it will be fixed soon, so the cars have their own personal garage to sit in and be all shiny and spiffy. The other rooms will be finished sooner or later, hopefully sooner than later. Going full tilt seven days a week really doesn't give me room to do a whole lot, either due to exhaustion, or not wanting to cause a ruckus at four o'clock in the morning. Damn me for being a nice neighbor.

I'm just anxious to finish this junk up, so I can quit writing about moving, and put something more interesting down on paper...or, um...whatever this thing is considered.

Free At Last!

I had originally intended to actually put something up here relatively often, but moving tends to put my mood into somewhere along the lines of the 6th circle of hell, so, unfortunately, this place was neglected. Such is life.

But, the move is done. Somewhat...

I still have a storage unit somewhere near the old place with more of my junk that needs to get unloaded in the next few days, but other than that, it's done. The new apartment is nice. Soft carpets, nice air conditioning unit, and if I go outside on the porch, I have a lovely view of Best Buy across the main drag.

That big yellow tag sign thingy mocks me day and night, teasing me with their easy to acquire electronics, and beautiful audio/video equipment for slightly above MSRP. I shall have my vengeance upon you some day...soon...probably in the form of me throwing more money at your shiny yellow goodness, and crying myself to sleep on a plasma HD tv, that I really can't afford in the first place.

The apartment is a wreck. I never put stuff away as I move. I always get everything to where I'm going, then I worry about unpacking, arranging, and all that fun stuff. So, since I don't have the rest of my gear around, I have bookshelf laying in the living room, boxes of books lying against the walls, unpacked books stacked on the kitchen counter(hey, I needed the boxes), electronics strewn everywhere, and my computer running quietly in the corner, because I'm a computer addict and I have to have my fix.

Dad was kind enough to set me up with a couch. He had bought one a few months ago that never saw any use, so they replaced it, and it sat in his basement collecting dust. It's a nice little sleeper sofa that's actually fairly comfortable. The downside is, as much as I love the couch, and yes it's quite comfortable as a couch or a bed, I can't deal with sleeping on it on a regular basis. The bars dig into my thigh and I have a tendency to not be able to walk the next morning. Suffice to say, I was very happy when I got my bed set up, four days later.

That first night, sleeping in my own place, in my own bed, was some of the best sleep I have had in years. It took forever to get out of bed, because I just wanted to curl back up and pass out again, and sleep all day long. For the first time in a long time, I woke up with a smile on my face, regardless of all the debacle that's been "Jason's Moving Fiasco."

All of that fear I had originally, is slowly easing, only to be replaced by insecurity. Then again, I think most everyone that struggles financially has that same sort of sensation. Since I realized I needed to exhibit a little bit more discretion in my spending habits, and since I've started to actually act upon it, I might actually be able to afford it.

#1 - Cut the drinking back. No more $200 weekly bar tabs. I set a limit, and I hold myself to it, no matter how much I love killing my liver with more Guinness goodness.

#2 - Stop eating so much fast food. I spend upwards of almost $150 a week on food. That's just ridiculous. Go to the grocery store, young man. Fix a damned sandwich for crying out loud.

#3 - Lastly, and the worst, stop buying so much crap. Fewer video games, and fewer electronics in general.

If I can follow these 3 easy tenents, then I think I have a good shot of succeeding in this place.

Of course, the pay raise that I finally got approved for, should help out a little bit.

Housewarming soon. If you're out there, bring liquor, or a bottle of wine. No, I don't mean for myself, I need to start making a nice bar for guests.

No, really.

My Addiction

As, I mentioned the other day, I play World of Warcraft. Probably way the hell too much. Then again, being on a graveyard schedule, doesn't lend me too much time to actually go out and have a social life. The real world tends to shut down at midnight, unless I want to invest in a new liver, which I'm already in the process of obliterating without my career and education throwing in their two cents every other day.

Sorry, rambling again. Like I said, I play WoW. I think I've been on it for going on 3 months now, and I'm just now getting to the fun part. Every time I've ever played this type of game, the fun isn't in getting to the end, the fun is the end itself. Well, it is for me anyways, and I'm paying the monthly fee, so screw what you think.

Thankfully, or unfortunately, as some people think, the endgame in WoW is huge. You can spend months exploring the entire endgame and just barely scratch the surface. 10-man raids, faction grinds, gear upgrades, daily quests, the list goes on and on. This is probably one of the issues I had with EQ, is once you hit the level cap, the only thing left to do was continuous raids to up your gear, which frankly gets boring after a while.

Currently, I'm rolling on a level 70 beastmaster specced hunter. In other words, more pew pew. That little guy up there, is my buddy, Chester. He's been with me since day 1. He reminds me of my cat Chester who passed away a few years ago. Chester was always the king of the house, and I always imagined him being a huge black panther out in the jungle somewhere, terrorizing everything he could get his vicious little paws on. The first night we had him, I was tormenting him while he was in the carrier. The little bugger sliced my finger open when I stuck it in the cage to play with him.

Chester always stuck with me, and was always my best friend, and it really hit me hard when we had to put him to sleep. While I have plenty of photographs around, this way I can remember him in a way that he would purr about.

Ugh, rambling again. Anyways, back to WoW.

Once I hit 70, I hit a huge wall. The amount of things you can do at level 70 is really daunting, and it kinda threw me for a loop what I can do. Each task seemed to be something that would take forever, and taking those first few steps on the path to such a long venture, was something I wasn't ready for yet.

Enter alt toon #1 & #2, a druid and a warlock. At least with this guys, I can also supply my soon to be huge bills incoming from gear repairs and feeding my profession addiction. Yes, I love professions also. I was part of the 2100 club on Everquest, and eventually will be able to add "I capped all WoW professions" onto my video game resume.

Anyways, here's the current list of things that I'm working towards...daunting as it may be.

• Leatherworking to 375 - currently at 348/375
• Karazhan key - DONE
• Justicar Title (Exalted with League of Arathor, Silverwing Sentinels, & Stormpike Guard)
• 1000 PvP kills - 130 kills
• All Heroic Keys
• Exalted with Cenarion Expedition - Honored @ 7874/12000
• Exalted with Honor Hold - Honored @ 1090/12000
• Exalted with Kurenai - Honored @ 4692/12000
• Exalted with Ogri'La - Neutral @ 25/3000
• Exalted with Netherwing
• Exalted with Sporeggar - Friendly @ 2825/6000
• Exalted with The Consortium - Honored @ 3295/12000
• Exalted with Lower City - Friendly @ 5818/6000
• Exalted with Sha'tari Skyguard - Neutral @ 1182/3000
• Exalted with The Aldor - Friendly @ 1785/6000
• Exalted with The Sha'tar - Friendly @ 709/6000
• Exalted with Keepers of Time - Friendly @ 3259/6000

Yeah...that's a lot of faction. Um. This should at least keep me busy for the next 7.328 years. You think?

Keep an eye out for updates. God knows, I'm psychotic enough to eventually do all of this.

Tin Roof! Rusted!

Once upon a time, back when I was irresponsible and immature(no, not yesterday, you twits), I lived in a shack. Well, not so much of a shack as a breadbox. Myself and 5 other people in a 3 bedroom house. Did I mention the bedrooms were about as big as a Honda Civic?

Anyways, a two story house on the outskirts of town, complete with carport that we couldn't park on because the concrete was faulty and could potentially collapse at any moment, deck that was splintered all to hell, and our own groundhog.

Yes, we had a pet groundhog. Funny story, we came out of the basement one day to go to a LARP(yes, I used to LARP...stop laughing), and lo and behold, we find George sitting on the back stairs. Mind you, he wasn't plopped down like you would expect a groundhog to be. No, he was hanging out, big fat ass sitting on the bottom stair, little paw resting on the next step, chilling like a villain. He became our little buddy after that, and whenever we went outside on smoke breaks, he'd come out and chill out with us. Odd little fella. I still wonder whatever happened to him after we moved. Probably running his little pimp show down on the corner.

Anyways, 3 of us lived upstairs, in the "real" part of the house, and the other 3 lived downstairs. The upstairs rooms were big enough for a bed, and maybe a small walkway if you were spotless. One shirt on the floor and you were trapped. There was also hardwood flooring that looked like it had not a single bit of maintenance done in its entire history. Many splinters were suffered on many drunken nights from that floor. Where said splinters went, I'll leave to your imagination.

The downstairs wasn't much better. At least we had carpet down there. My room was big enough for a futon. If I stretched I could touch both opposing walls. The tv had to go in the closet. Across from the closet? The boiler room.

Oh, did I mention this house had no air conditioning? Also, a tin roof? Yeah. You do the math. For those of you that have tried dieting and failed, I have the perfect diet method for you. Live in a breadbox, with a tin roof, in the dog days of summer. I guarantee you'll lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks. Patent pending.

Funny part about the bedrooms, they were like coffins. They were on the front side of the house, and the house was built into the side of a slope. So, the front side of the basement was buried in the ground. No windows, ergo no exit, except the door. Close the door, and the rooms were pitch black. It was way too easy to lose track of time in those days. Just huddle in your room with the lights off, and the doors closed, and you'll never know what day it is when you wake up. It's like Nocturnal Roulette!!

A few months after we moved out, we got some very interesting news. The house had been condemned by the city. Something about too many safety issues, no easement in the basement rooms, so on and so forth. It always amuses me to think back on living in that house, and realizing I was living in a deathtrap. One fire in the downstairs living room, and I wouldn't be here today. It's a little scary when you think about it.

What does this have to do with the price of tea in china(by the way, I like that phrase, you'll hear it alot...get used to it)?

I've been in the process of trying to move for the past 2 months. I finally signed the paperwork on the new apartment today, and completely emptied my bank account trying to pay for it all. 6 days and counting until I move, and every day that passes I get more and more terrified. I'm scared to be out on my own again. The responsibilities are easy to deal with, it's just the isolation, solitude, things I used to be able to cope with in the past, rear their ugly head from time to time, and make me realize where I am in life...nowhere near where I want to be. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and once it's all said and done, for me to realize I've made a huge mistake.

I just hope it's all worth it.

Hello World...

So there I am. Finally bit the bullet and decided to start writing again. What prompted this, I have no clue at all. Could be anything ranging from stress, to needing an outlet to abuse, to just sheer boredom. Such is life.

But I digress.

Hi, I'm Jason. I'll be your tour guide for this trip down insanity lane. My life is boring as fuck(oh yes, by the way, I curse a lot...deal with it). I'm on a graveyard schedule. I typically don't wake up until 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and I slack off for a little bit, then I head to class. Yep. Night class. See the little side bar, and how it says "student"? I'm a late bloomer. 29 and I'm a year away from graduating. At 30. How sad is that? Ok, it's probably not sad at all. It's probably a really good thing that I'm getting some sort of an education, and doing something good with my life. But to do it 10 years later than I should have, is just...well...tragic.

I'm in the networking/security major at my...building...that I go to every day to get an education. I wouldn't really call it a university, because well...frankly, it's not. It's a building. Plain and simple. People walk in and out of it. Drama happens. Education sometimes rears its ugly head, and we take it in stride. Accelerated courses, new classes every 5 weeks, I haven't had a break from class since January, and I won't see another one until next summer. Suffice to say, I'm a little burnt at this point...toasty if you will...bring the marshmallows, cuz I can make a mean s'more.

I'm also a network engineer. No, really? Yes, really. Genius, huh? Again, I get up at the butt crack of late afternoon, go to work until way the fuck too early in the morning, and then I go home, sleep, and do it all over again. Sad, isn't it?

So we have student and corporate drone. What else does this leave us? Oh yeah..

Hi, I'm a geek. Terrible geek, really. I play video games. Lots of them. I've got a stack of Xbox 360 games on my shelf that I cycle in pretty much daily. What's my current game? Bioshock. It's terribly creepy. Something about little gothic girls(not you spindly little pancake makeup, black latex wearing namby pambies...get the fuck out and get some fucking sun) sucking the essence out of people while being protected by the demonic diver from the depths of hell, really freaks me out. I guess it has nothing to do with the really creepy 30's music playing in the background, also.

I also play World of Warcraft. Religiously. You say "addiction" and I say "shut the fuck up and get me a glass of water". We're on the same wavelength, right? Ok good.

I migrated from WoW when I went back to school. I had played Everquest for a few years....5 or so, if memory recalls. Right since around the point of Planes of Power, whenever the hell that was.

Oh, for those of you who don't know, years of too much beer pong and tequila body shots have pretty much ravaged what crappy memory I already had, so bear with me whenever I start to ramble, or have shady recollections.

Where was I? Ah yeah. I was on Everquest for way the hell too long, actually. When I went back to school, I couldn't raid with my guild anymore. Night classes and night raiding don't mix very well together, so the latter had to go so I could go with the former. I had already just gotten to the point where I was caught up with my guild, and couldn't handle losing another year and having to play the catch-up game yet again, so I gave it up, and went elsewhere. A few months later, I picked up WoW on a whim, when a bunch of co-workers enlightened me to the fact that almost all of them play it. That pretty much sold me on it, I decided to quit resisting, bought it, and never looked back.

Now I pretty play every day. If only for a little while, since I can feel like I've made some sort of progress. That's what I love about the game. I can play for 15 minutes and feel like I've accomplished something. Tiny little ego strokes every day does wonders for your outlook on life.
So that covers three.

I'm a hustler, too. Or at least I like to think of myself as one. When I was in high school, I picked up a pool cue for the first time in my life. I've been playing ever since, going on what, 15 years now? I play in local leagues, even went to Las Vegas last year for a national tournament. Missed the money round by one round, but made up for it by puking my guts out after a tequila binge at Pure a few hours later(have you grasped the fact that I like to drink? Good, if not, I was going to be concerned).

That trip was probably one of my favorites of all-time. But definitely a story for another time. Can't completely blow my wad the first time, now can I?

Everything else is pretty self-explanatory, and some of those things you'll just pick up on in time. I'm not going to explain to you every tiny little intricate detail of my life, by any means. Nor would I think you'd be anywhere near interested.

It just occurred to me, that the Breakfast Club has absolutely *nothing* to do with this post...aside from the fact that it's in my top 3 Best Movies of All Time(post to come, methinks). Don't ask why I chose that picture. For some reason, it just seemed very appropriate. Neener neener.

So there you have it. Me in a semi-text-based-lifeform-with-odd-ramblings nutshell. Stay tuned. If my odd life is any sign, this place is going to get a lot more odd in time.