I hate snow. I hate cold. it's like 10 degrees here, and there is like 6 inches of snow on the ground. I hate that. so what do I do to cheer myself up? (aside from sleep until 2pm) Easy, good music, lots of junk food, and EQ! yay! Downoald what I'm listening to right now, for free and LEGALLY! Here! The link is to Guillermo Lombardi's personal web site. He often goes by the DJ name of Broken Toy. Under DJ Sets, you'll find his work. Currently I'm listening to Eternal Fall, and the playlist he is using is awesome.

Another few busy days. Cold weather makes me bored, because I dont like to risk freezing to go out to the bars, and It's way to cold to just drive around. So I sit around and read (Reading Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure at the moment. Absolutely amazing book, especially if your into Bushido philosophy), and occasionally do some commision work for various EQ peoples. This week I added 2 more character portraits, one of an Enchanter names Dephes, and a pally named Yeta. Both of them I know from a ways back in my playing career.

hmmmm what else is new around here...aside from the single digit temperatures...Nightwish, Dream Theater AND Iced Earth are all touring through here this year...Drunken Elephants are causing problems in India again (re: BBC news, search for elephants)...damn Rice Beer :)

you dont want to know x_X

So I got accepted into the beta test for EQ's new expansion Gates of discord. Spent the better part of the evening trying to get everything setup the way I like it. It should prove to be an interesting experience. Upon creating some of the betabuff (creates an instant lvl insert level here) monks (supposedly the stats/gear status of these monks is pulled from an 'average' monk on a live sever) I find myself longing for my gear and AA abilities. Hopefully, Trox in all his glory will arrive on betaserver in the next few days after the beta character copy programs are run. Aside from that (which has been a part of every beta thus far) I really can't say much. Pesky non-disclosure agreements...

It started snowing here around noon yesterday afternoon. overnight, we got somewhere around 3-4 inches of snow, with alot of ice underneath it. as of now, the city where I live has yet to plow any of the roads, making it downright nasty to drive. they didn't even bother to salt/sand the roads near the local high school, and those kids are dangerous drivers to begin with in good weather. I'm thinking it's time for a nice scathing phone call to the city dept. asking them to explain to me why it is I pay taxes so they can sit on thier ass all day...

You know, every day I drive to work I find something new to rant about. First things first, A car is nothing more than a machine. Proper use and respect for said machine involves knowing the limitations of it. When you drive a car, drive like you mean it. People like Myself, Neal, Joe, Timmy, we know the limitations of our machines, and we drive to get the most out of the cars.

Now, having said that, what the hell is the point of buying a 2 ton, mega-deuce, double wide, himalayan edition, 4 wheel drive, sherpa transporting SUV if your going to drive 30MPH out of fear of the 1 inch of snow on the ground. FOR THE LOVE OF LARRY, YOUR SUV CAN CLIMB MT. EVEREST! DRIVE THE SPEED LIMIT! It's getting to the point where I want to jot down these people's license plate numbers and post them here as a warning to all the competent drivers...or better yet, get legislation enacted so that they have to get bright pink "pansy" plates, like the drunks have on their cars.

There is a theory that somewhere in the ductwork above the tech bench there is a strange fungal growth, or a patch of weird spores. When the vent system kicks on, these spores are blown down onto the working techs, making them very, very hungry >_<.

>I woke up this morning, had a nice cup of soup on the way to work (I'm not a morning eater usually)

>I get to work, and become hungry. I consume a whole bag of chex mix, a hefty amount of M&M's (peanut), and a bottle of Vanilla Pepsi.

>Coworkers arrive with more food. I eat some cake stuff, a bunch of taffy, some Whoppers candy. I have someone that's going to lunch pick me up some Chik-fil-A, and eat that with another bottle of Pepsi.

>I leave work at like 3pm. On the way home, I contemplate stopping through BK for some fries, but I resist. I go home and eat the last of the beef soup, 2 boxes of Micro-pasta, and some chips.

>Play some EQ, get hungry again (8pm) eat half a bag of beef jerky, 2 bowls of cereal, 3 boxes of raisins, half a box of Twizzlers....and now it's midnight and I'm still kinda hungry. I could go for some Chinese takeout right about now.

This is not a rare occurrence. This happens like every day to me. So basically, I've narrowed it down to 2 possibilities.
1) Space Spores at the tech bench are similar to weed, making anyone who inhales them a bottomless pit of all things edible. This could very well be the case, because the other techs frequently experience munchies, and there is ALWAYS food at the bench during a workday.

2) I have a very large and hungry tapeworm. Mr. O says that's unlikely because I indulge in the wonders of tapeworm-killing alcohol. However, I'm convinced that if it's not the spores, I'm host to an Alcoholic parasite named Larry, who is feasting like it's nobody's business.


Go Larry, go.

Been a busy few days. lets see, where to start...

Work: Got some kinda disturbing news regarding the vacancy at the tech bench. It got filled by someone whom I never thought I'd have to work with again (that not working with part was a good thing). Did anyone from the tech bench have a say in this? Nope. The individual's technical expertise? Nil. His attitude in the past towards just about everyone? Horrid, to say the least. So the Mgmt says to "be positive about this happening". Lemme tell you, I'm positive it will be an exercise in restraint to co-exist with someone who's goal in life used to be to make us tech's miserable.

EQ: Guild has been on a hell of a roll. we went from holiday crappiness to hitting anywhere from 3 large to 6 or so small raid type targets a night. tonight it was something like 3 PoEarth rings, a few mini-named in Sol Ro's tower, and some assorted odds and ends. 20 or so spell runes, like 8 major item drops tonight, and it's been similar every night this week.

Misc: KAA has .Hack//Sign episodes 11-14 up now, and after seeing The Last Samurai (amazing movie, I thought it was even better than Gladiator, hell it was almost on par with Last of the Mohicans!) I snagged the OST from suprnova. gooooood stuff.

Alvin hooked me up with like 5 Jazz CD's today, plus some new crystal method. Winamp's got a new playlist baby! Yea! transfering a ton of it to the ol' nomad player, because tomorrow's work shift is looooooong and nasty

Got a haircut, chilled at home, played some EQ. Guild did well tonight, dropping Sol ro and I think Mithanial Marr and possibly agnarr the storm lord as well, but I had to go out.

Reason? Well, On my server, there is one guild, one group that is the largest collection of trash, stupidity and useless matter in the universe. That guild passed one of the bigger benchmarks in EQ tonight and is slowly catching up to my guild, so I had to go drink :) Went down to the B&O with Johnny and Mr. O, had a few beers, hung out and BS'd with the folks for a few hours.

We'll be going back Thursday night (tonight) for the unveiling of their "sweet Leaf" ale, which I am told is basically the MVPAle recipe with the addition of a type of hemp seed for a bit of a flavor change. We shall see.

Digitally Imported.com jazz channel. Nuff said.

Guild killed Solusek Ro tonight (EQ). First time for us, so that was some fun. Hopped on BT and found episodes 6-10 of .Hack//Sign finally! Wooooo! only 97.3% left to go! should be finished up by tomorrow night. man, what a good series that was. There's just something creepy about being trapped in a video game, where all your friends can log out, but you can't. hits a little to close to home sometimes heh ;). I think I should try to sleep, that way I can avoid the alarm clock/noisy bird hallucinations that screwed me up time wise sunday morning (dont ask).

So I went to see Return of the King tonight. Amazing, it was pretty much everything I could have hoped. except for the whole burning of the shire thing (which I was looking forward to....damn trixy hobbitsess) go go DVD Extended Edition!

So up goes the weblog as Insomnia stikes again. I swear I do more work from 12am-4am than any other time of the day. Shouts out to Juan, who is probably not having any fun over in the gulf at the moment, and poor Blaise and Ang, who came down with Ebola or something after new years >_<