Atlanta needs help....

While traffic troubles in the Atlanta metro area are not a new thing; the fiasco of Tuesday's hell really drives home (no pun) the point that this city has grown beyond the ability of the local authorities to cope.

The wreck (caused by one of thousands of doucebags around here) resulted in then entire northbound section of I-75 to shut down. Right at rush hour no less. My 30 mile commute home became a 3.5 hour endurance test. Other cities seem to have at least some coordinated plan when something like this happens. Not here. No, have a major wreck here and the entire city comes to a screeching halt.

The root cause to the problem is that the metro is comprised of some 27 different local jurisdictions. No one jurisdiction has been able to step up and get them all working together. Under normal circumstances, I would oppose federal intervention in any local matter. In this case, it may be acceptable if the state is unable (or unwilling) to take this in hand. And judging from the recent 'opus stupidis' of our current state level government I dont foresee this happening.

I need to move.

Time for another monthly update

When I started this, it was with the intention of marking my little piece of the web. My own little pissing spot where I could voice my opinions on things. Politics, games, life in general... And suddenly I find myself (well, not suddenly as it has been building over time) totally losing interest in those things. It is a serious malaise that has hit me. I've had a belly full of things.

I never really expected to see things improve. I just hoped they would. This world is on the express train to hell, and nobody seems to notice or care. At least not those that can do something about it. And now I think I am one of the legions of apathy. I'm not fighting it anymore. I just want to be left to my own devices at this point.

Meh.

Mexican Prez Upset??!?

So fucking what?

He's pissed because the US is taking a firmer stance against illegal immigrants. I have only two words in mind for him: Bite me.

#1 This still IS a sovereign nation, entitled to all the privileges that entails.
#2 We have a right to monitor, protect, and seal our borders.
#3 President Fox can blow my white challupa if he don't like it.

I am so sick and tired of hearing how "other countries" feel about how we run our own damn country. My opinion, for what it's worth... The next time "President" Fox opens his bean-hole, I think we should show him a little love courtesy of the USMC. Drop a frag on the mexican (the lower case is on purpose) "Casa del Presidente" the next time this 3rd-world wanna-be opens his callupa-suck. See how fast he learns the meaning of "secure border".

Fuck it. Seal all our borders. You want in... Apply like everyone else.

Druid owns my soul....

Well, I rolled a Night Elf Druid...Just to give it a try.

OMFG!!!

Had I known about this toon 6 months ago... My Rogue would never have been.

Complete and utter fun.

Druid is the class that I always dreamed of. They are the "kitchen sink" of all classes. Caster, Healer, Tank, and Rogue. You want it, the got it. Mind you, they don't do it as well as the classes that specialize in the respective skills... But if you want to solo, or be the adjustable wrench in the toolbox of any party... Druid is the way. This Class is just too fun.

I think, in all honesty... Had I not rolled a druid, I would be canceling my WoW account soon. Now,... I dunno. I'm seeing me putting another 300+hrs into leveling a toon.

Damn...time flys

Well, seems it's been over 1.5 months since my last post.

Sue me. You bastards would clikc the ads, maybe make me some cash... I might do it more often.

Anyway....

Well, I finally did it. I got a toon to max level. My rogue hit level 60 in WoW. That is the first (since UO) toonin any MMO I have maxxed. I felt proud when I did it.

And now... that toon sits in eager readiness to farm for me.

Yep, you heard me... It's a farmer. I've been on the top-end raids, and I have to say I am .... unimpressed. Soooooo.... what's to do?

Well, I rolled a few other toons... notmuch excitement there. That is... until I discovered the joy that is Druid.

Someone Giving You Shit?

Return the favor at Fecalgram.com©. For all your fecal needs...


(My God! The world is about to end.)

Been busy

Well, managed to finally fend of that damned sinus infection. I'm now partially deaf as a result, but shit happens.

Also, I've been working like a dog in WoW. I managed to hit level 58 tonight. I'd be 60 by Friday, but work has me on call. And being on call make Baby Jesus cry.

As everyone knows... The Pope died. Major bummer here. He was one of the truly good people in a position of power to walk the earth. We're going to miss him.

Well, that's about it for now. Short post, but I need to shower and hit the rack. Work comes at early O'clock tomorrow and I am not looking forward to it.

TTFN

As Much As I Bag On Them...

Blizzard did do me right on one thing tonight. A couple nights ago I did a quest that showed complete, and for all intents and purposes it was complete, except I got no reward at all. Nor did I see the yellow "Quest completed" message on the screen.

So I petitioned about it, and the first response was something like "That is not broken, and we can't give you hints on how to complete a quest."

So I repetitioned, explaining that situation more clearly. Today, I get an email with *gasp*... An actual list of things to try to correct the issue, and was told that if those failed to repetition and they would do something.

I dont need them to give me a reward, or fix something out of the ordinary... However, giving me a list of possible work-arounds was very welcomed. If I can ever get this patch done, and eventually log in, I plan to try them first thing.

Patching Interface Designer Wanted: Only Crackheads Need Apply

My gawd! The patch utility (as I have said in the past) for WoW is the WORST! A 60.5 MB file to download... Which, on my connection should take no more than 15-20 minutes, tops. But nooooo Blizzard, in their wisdom thought it would be really snazzy if they had a patch server with a dial-up connection.

How the hell does a game that is near the 1 million subscriber mark get away with such a shitty method of patching? I'd rather they just have a simple FTP server set up, and grab it that way. Manual patching I would take in a heartbeat over this.

And the fact my bits uploaded is almost 2x my downloaded does not soothe the pain in any way. Shit... I hate patch days.

WoW (Working on What?!?)

Well, I went to the WoW website tonight, checking the patch notes and the forums to see if there is any mention of a fix for the issue that drove me to quit. Nope. Not a peep. Not even a recognition of this issue. They were fairly quick to respond when this issue hit the Alliance side. However, since this issue is more of a Horde problem they are in no hurry.

It seems the latentcy issues are even worse now. I am sure they are running around like mad trying to fix that. And I just the 'work around' they've put in place. Instead of looking at optimizing code, or possible hardware issues, they deiced to decrease the number of players allowed on a server at a given time. Yeah, I see the logic in that...

"Hey, I know! If we keep them in the login queue long enough, they'll be so happy to get in that they won't even complain about the lag. "

But hey, 16 slot bags are now marked "uncommon".

Meh...

Just Not Fun

I logged into CoH today several times, but just could'nt seem to "get into" it. I think I managed to collect a few badges, and read a few plaques putting me closer to more badges. I also managed to run two missions tonight. The first was against "The Family" (the mafia, basicly) and the other was against what used to be the 5th column. I still say they were much cooler when they were nazis. Kicking the snot out of nazis is more fun for some reason.

Anyway... I ran those two, did a very small amount of street hunting, and decided I had enough for one night. I'm not sure if it's the massive pain in my ears, or the fact the game is just boring... But I just could not get into playing at all.

Ok, Enough Already

This sinus infection has decided to put up a fight. For the last two days I have only been able to swallow liquids, and only with extreme pain. And both eardrums feel as if they have had a blunt pencil driven into them. The ironic part is that I really don't feel much pressure in my sinuses per se. It's the post nasal drip that's honing the irritation blade being twisted behind my tongue.

I tell the doctor I'm having trouble swallowing, and what does she do? Prescribes an antibiotic pill that (and I swear to Christ this is no exaggeration) is about the size of a .45 APC round, case and all. I wonder what the hell I am expected to do with this... Swallow it, or load it in my Colt 1911-A and pull the trigger?

Thank the maker for Thera-Flu©! I don't think I would have survived this long without that nectar of the gods.

Cape For Sale...

Well, I'm seriously not having fun in CoH. I had been away from the game for close to five months, and thought I would never return. Ethic managed to talk me into coming back. So, as you all know I did. It was nice to see they've made some really nice changes, added plenty of content, and even put in some incentives to explore. Had this been the game they had released last year, I would've had to have called it one of the best of all time.

However, a combination of past history with this company, it's in-game CS department, and the openly repetitive game play I just see myself extending my subscription another month. The game is just not fun anymore.

Last week I managed to find a shitload of my old Sega Genisis games. Now talk about gameplay! They just dont make games like they did in the old(er) days. I may just forsake MMOs for good, and just stick to the console.

City of Huh?

I tried logging in a few times this weekend. Most of those sessions would end with me suddenly realizing I am standing in the middle of the street, just standing there... Or I would be sitting just inside the door to a mission. Not knowing how long I had been there.

My head is a little clearer today, so I may giver it another go. I certainly wont be up late tonight playing, as I am finding the more I sleep, the less this crud I have abuses me.

The Sickness Returns

Sometime about Thursday afternoon, I noticed a small tickle in my sinuses. I wrote it off to allergies, as I had just gotten over that sinus infection, and the antibiotics should still be in my system. Boy was I wrong.

Friday morning I woke up, and could barely move. It felt as though I had been beaten with an axe handle. And part of that beating included ramming that handle up both nostrils. I was so plugged up, I absolutely could do nothing but fight the gag reflex being kicked off by the post nasal torrent that was assaulting my throat and lungs.

So, I exercised an option my employer allows me, and worked from home. And spent the entire day in misery, jugging down decongestants, Thera-Flu©, and hot spiced cider. By the end of the work day I was beat, and retired to the couch. I faded in and out of sleep all weekend. It's now Sunday, and the symptoms seem to be easing, but the sinus/sore throat thing is still there. I seriously hope I am operating on at least three cylinders by tomorrow morning. I have a couple meetings that -must- attend.

Day 8 (or is it 9)

Well, the static group met yet again tonight. I am amazed things are going as well as they are. All three of us got a level tonight.

While I am pleased to see us holding together as well as we are, I am not so pleased with the speed of your progress. We should be in our mid teens by now, and I am not sure why that is not happening. Personally...I want my toon to lvl 14 asap.... then lvl 18. I have absolutely no ability to solo, as I made this guy strictly for the team. I suppose I could LFT, but damn I hate teaming with strangers, so I wont. But I seriously want to kick it up a notch on the levelling front. Level 11 in 8 (or 9) days is too slow for my tastes. I've gotten toons to 15-20 at least in that amount of time.

Maybe we need to just do a street grind one night instead of the missions.

*shrug*

I have to say though, this trio is solid as hell. We've yet to take a death within a mission. The only deaths (usually mine) are the result of mobs encountered enroute to a mission. 3 more levels, and that's no longer an issue.... C'mon level 14!

Times Are Hard....

Something I have noticed is the difficulty in getting enough cash (in CoH, it's called 'influence') to make it through the lower levels. My lvl 33 Ar/Dev makes it like it's raining money. And thus, the static team I have going atm is not wanting for money in the least as he helps them on that.

However, my 'side projects' are hurting. To get ahead in this game, you have to be constantly upgrading your enhancements (items that add %bonus to your powers). And pre-30, it seems the cash-flow is to slow to allow that to happen. One would think the problem would scale with level, as the higher you are, the more powers/enhancement slots you have to keep upgraded. But this does not seem to be the issue. Somewhere around level 30, the frequency of new powers learned decreases, thus giving you a chance to keep the learned ones up-to-date. Also, mobs drop more cash, as well as having to earn more xp per level tends to give you even more time.

Just wish the paradigm were a tad easier on the little guys.

Old Friends Revisted...

Well, I was really close to deleting a lvl 16 Spines/Regen Scapper I had from my first round of CoH months back. I had tried playing him since my return, and the experience was 'meh' at best. It seriously had me considering swearing off that build.

Then an odd thing happened.

Just out of curiosity, I scoured the forums for this build. I had -heard- it was the hottest build in game, but I just was not seeing it from personal experience. Then I found a template. With a respec (from either Issue 2 or 3) I figured what the heck... I'm deleting this guy anyway, so I'll give it ago.

All I can say is WOW! The difference is night and day. I -really- like this guy now. He kicks total ass. And the odd part is that I really was not so far off on the template, but I had a couple powers I didn't need, slotting was off... etc. with a minor tweaking from the respec, this guy went from sleeper to keeper. Very strong now, and very fun to play.

The path is laid out for this guy until lvl 35, then I'll need to research some more. But damn... he's built strong now.

Why CoH Pisses Me Off....

One of the things in this game I have noticed is that people love to send you team invites. They love to send them, and resend them, and re-resend them. I think I must've recieved (not making this up here...) at least 100 invites in an hour when I was playing my healer. And not a single whisper, saying something like "Hey, team of 6 needing a healer, are you game?" or something... I mean, not a single /tell. And what REALLY got me was the asshats that would spam the invites... there are at least 3 people on my "go-to-hell" list just from that.

Here's a tip... if you send an invite that is refused, and then your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th invites are refused as well... odd are, that person is not interested. But then, since you never bothered to send a whisper asking if that person was wanting to team... I guess you really dont care.

It would seem CoH has a high population of assmonkies. Just stand around the Atlas statue in AP long enough, and that becomes obvious... However, I have to say at least one person in this game has some class....

Kaagoon De'Kian actually sent me a whisper in conjunction with the team invite. I almost fell out of my chair. I made a point of talking to this person, and thanking them for the invite, as well as the communication. Sadly, I had to be getting out of the game, but asked him to please consider me in the future, as I liked his style.

Why cant more people be like that?

Day 7...Slow Day

It's amazing how much having a DPS toon in the party helps. Ethic and I decided we would give things a go, as his brother was not going to be on much this weeked. We made an excellet duo, no deaths (while in missions or fighting... 1 death to me, due to lag while travelling). But we noticed the XP was not flowing as expected. I attribute this to the fact we had no serious DPS with us.

Without that, it takes longer to kill stuff, thus dropping the xp/min numbers.

Still... we had fun.

6 Nights in a Row...

Well, I'm shocked. Recently Ethic, his brother, and myself had agreed to run a static team in CoH. And the shocking part is that we have met for 6 consecutive nights, and nobody has broken the static-party covenent and levelled w/o the party. After 6 nights, we are -all- lvl 8. Very suprising. Every other MMO I have ever played, there has always been attempts at a static party, but invariably someone gets impatient and levels their toon beyond the group. So far, that has not happened. The ironic part is that this is the only game that has the ability to side-kick/exemplar someone up or down so they can play with others of a significant difference in level.

Why is this group holding together in a game (the only one I know of) that does not really require it. *shrug*

I''m having fun with it, and hope it continues. =)

Save a Monkey, Eat Chicken

Apparently the practice of eating monkey meat has become an increasing health risk to humans. Link goes to the New Scientist website.

And you were worried about pork being bad for you....

Yous Guys Gots Da Goods

Well, something I have been doing of late is playing a game called GangsterHood. It's not a flashy game by any means. It's turn based (Like, a turn is 6 hours) and it's not very pretty, but it's oddly addictive.

The gist of it is that you are a ganster, and you try to build your wealth and reputation buy building things like casinos and restaurants. You can produce liquor for sale as well as weapons/explosives.

Also, you can try to steal money/items from other players. Or, if you are just bloodthirsty you can try to destroy another player completely by destroying their buildings.

The game is interesting, but it can be a pain sometimes in that if you dont log in every 6 hours for the updates, someone might come along and snatch the cash you earned from your "businesses".

Still... it's a diversion.

City of Heeeyyyy

Well, just when I thought I might be done with CoH, something odd happens. Ethic somehow convinced his brother to get the game. The three of us met up and formed a static team. I have to say, that is the fastest levelling I have done in a while on a fresh toon. I decided to go Epmathy/Dark and be the team healer. Being a healer is a bit of a departure from my normal role of whack-it-until-you-crack-it damage dealer. Still, I'm having good fun. And, having a higher lvl toon on this server, I'm able to shower cash on the group to get us moving even faster.

It's funny how this game is only truely fun when you team. I think this is the first game I have ever played where I can say that; as most of my online gaming (estimated 99.998%) has been in a solo fashion. And every other game, going it alone was more fun.

Let's see how this turns out...

City of Meh...

Well, after the bad taste WoW has left in my mouth, I decided I would give City of Heroes a second go. I figured, hey, it's been five months so maybe the game has improved. It has'nt, really. I logged into my AR/Dev blaster today, just to see if the bruises from the nerf bat had healed. They haven't. That was still in my mind the most fun combo of powers the game has to offer. And it would seem that I can not survive even a simple task. Instead of armor, this guy is now wearing tissue paper. Pisses me off. It seems the -only- hope he has of surviving a fight with more than 2 -equall- level mobs is if he manages to kill them all with an alpha strike. As soon as the enemy returns fire it's tile floors and white sheets time.

I rolled an Energy/Energy blaster, just to see. It's a fun build as well, but has it's limitations. I especially like how the build has powers that can send foes flying. However, it's not even level 10 and I can see it being a weak solo choice.

So far, the only build I can see that holds much hope in solo-play is the scrapper. I've played a spines/regen scrapper, as well as a Martial Arts/Regen. I have to say, the moves on the MA/Regen are alot prettier than they were 5 months ago. And man, can they hit hard! The downside to the being that groups of enemies really give them fits. The build is more of a single target build. Great for working over a mission boss... bad for trying to get through all of said boss' minions. The Spines/Regen scrapper is probably the top build as far as being able to solo goes. With enough inspirations, this build can easily wade through waves of advancing enemies. They produce a fair amount of DPS, but due to what seems a rather frequent miss rate, they dont perform so well against the really tough meanies.

I've avoided the other builds as they pretty much lock you into a play style that ensures you have to have a team, or you go nowhere. Don't get me wrong; I think it is right that people that choose to play in a team should advance faster/easier. Teamwork does that, it's a natural dynamic. That being said, I dont feel anyone should be penalized for going it alone.

Reduce my monthly subscription cost, and maybe I would not see it that way.

*sigh*

Maybe I'll go back to console games. The magic is wearing thin.

Unreal Technologies Unviels Latest

Unreal Technologies has just unvieled it's news game engine. And the visuals are breath-taking to say the least.

Go check out the screen shots over at their website.

Lets Hear It For Mega-Antibiotics!

I've been trying to fight off this nagging sinus infection/bronchitis for over two weeks, using only "natural" means. I finally broke down and went to the doctor on Wednesday. She gave me some "one-a-day" meds. And they really kicked my ass. Very good thing I took them at night. One of the items prescribed was a 5-day antibiotic. One pill a day, for 5 days. By pill #3, I felt like a new person. Let's hear it for modern medicine.

All you tea-sipping long-hair sandal jockeys can kiss it! Gimme me good ole American pharmaceutical company product. Hell, I feel so good, I may go cut down a tree... or maybe even club a baby seal or two. Woohoo!

Bless you Glaxxo, Ortho-McNeil, Ivax, and the rest of you pharmo-chem pushers. Better living through chemistry I say.

Spandex, Villians, and Robots. Oh My!

Well, tonight I spent the better part of my evening playing my Spines/Regen Scrapper build in CoH. I had my good friend Ethic with me and I have to say it was rather fun. It seems this game is only really fun when you group with someone.

Of course, this goes against my basic online instincts; However I have to say tonight was one of the better online gaming nights I have had in a while.

And, loathe as I am to do so I have to give Cryptic Studios their props. The game runs for me smoother than any online game I can recall. Considering the high level of gfx in the game, and all the pretty particle effects, I am very suprised the game runs so well. Why can't other MMO's *cough*WoW*cough*AC2*cough* run this smoothly?

Ah well.

Bloody Brilliant Idea!

The fine folks in MA have hit upon a stroke of genius...

Crash Curtain to Reduce Rubber-necking

Now if only the blockheads running this state would pay attention...

WoW Finally Managed To Piss Me Off

Looks like I may be cancelling the ole account. After 3 drops from the Zeplin while trying to get to Orgrimmar, I lost it and sent a nasty gram to the GM queue. Hell, I may even have a ban on me now as I was not exactly nice. I had been drinking, so I dont recall the details of my missive.

Either way, not going to be playing much. I have reinstalled (against all sane arguments for not doing this) CoH. I'm giving Cryptic one billing cycle to impress me. We'll see how that goes.

And Ethic... Infinity, name: The Crimson Imp.

My Heart Goes Out to You

My bro over at KillTenRats (Ethic) seems to have been hit with a Flu nerf. Hope all returns to normal soon for ya, and the kids avoid this one.

I sent a petition, complaining about this stealth flu nerf... no response yet....

Did you just drop acid?

Then head on over the fat-pie. Salad Fingers awaits...


WARNING: View at your own risk.

Odd Thoughts....

I've often wondered why I divert so much time, effort, and money into a game. I mean, what compels a man (or woman) to spend 6-8 hours a day, every day to playing a game?

At first, I suspected it was some form of OCD, but that does not quite explain it.

Perhaps, it's a cheap escape mechanism?

Booze works as well, but playing a game has less of a hangover.

Maybe it's an effort/reward effect? (Put in the time/effort, you are rewarded by leveling/becoming more powerful in the game) Maybe that's the key. As it seems most of life is not so fair. Some (in life) bust their ass day-to-day, and never get anywhere or receive any thanks. That's sad.

Is it possible to find happiness for $15 a month?

*shrug*

I can not explain why I do it... But I do it. And a part of me refuses to let me focus on the why. Perhaps it's a self-protective instinct. That if I seriously dwelled upon the question of why I play MMOs, it would be a domino effect leading to me facing real life short-comings in my life?

I need a drink.....

WoW is now the Un-Wow?

A good friend of mine Ethic has been having a conflict that all of us MMO players have... He's basically seen the treadmill in all it's glorious horror. Most of us try not to think about this beast, as we all know that once you give it a name... It owns you. The trick to any successful MMO is in hiding the treadmill. WoW took a different approach I think. They put it out in plain sight for all to see, and thus, many miss it. Sadly, those few highly perceptive types like my bud picked up on this one pretty quick.

The trick to WoW is ignoring leveling I believe. Unless you are in a guild, and -everyone- is over you, there really is no reason to focus on grinding up in WoW. There are so many quests and side quests and crafting crap to do, that you can easily forgo leveling for weeks and still have fun. And the odd part is, if you totally ignore the XP grind, it tends to force you to level through the quests. By that, I mean you find yourself making a level and not even realizing you had made the XP required to level.

What can I say... WoW is weird like that.

Tonight, I intended to forgo the treadmill and just fish a new spot that I had discovered, and maybe finish off an easy quest nearby. After my first kill (3 required to complete) I suddenly thought I had to go back to grinding at least one level to do this supposedly easy quest. So, I resigned myself to that, and headed out of the zone. And the weird part: on my way out, I spotted two easy kills and completed my quest. Go figure....

I'm still 43 on my rogue, but it's coming along. I'm seriously looking to devote grind time this weekend, and with that the goal is level 46 by logout Sunday night. I don't advise betting money on me getting there, but I'm going to give it one hell of a try.

Hotmail.... Yahoo....WTF?

Well for about the last 2 weeks at least, I have been totally unable to access email from either account. It's not a password, "Sorry, that username/password is incorrect" issue... it's been more of a "Sorry, our fucking servers have maxed on us, and we never saw it coming-page not found" issue.

I guess you get what you pay for. I refer you to my previous post.

Yes, I know..Long time, no posts

Deal with it... it's not like you are paying me for this...

Arrrr! There be pirates

For those of you that dig pirates, Florida is about to open a new museum.

Check it out.

For all you Taurens

Here's a couple inspirational for my Tauren friends in WoW.

Mooovie #1

Mooovie #2

Enjoy.

Both links go to www.albinoblacksheep.com and any credit goes to their site, or the owners of the content therein.

Happy New Year

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Hopefully not too many of are you are wishing for death from a massive, God-induced hangover.

Hair of the dog that bit you should help.