I Pwn...

Which OS are You?


But on a more serious note I think I'm done mourning the lost election. I mean there's only so long I can bitch...wait...no there isn't. I've got more in me i'm sure. But I've decided to do a little blame shifting. I can't necessarily blame bush, or the republicans, or the conservative democrats. I'm full out blaming the american people...or at least 51% of them. Yes Bush pulls some of the most screwball antics the world has ever seen for is and his cohorts personal gain. But how did he get there? What act of god put him in power? Wasn't himself...it was the american people. So when things go helter skelter I'm not writing my congressman...I'm writing you...those who voted for the man-chimp...and I can be very angry...

You all may fear me now...

You Are a Snarky Blogger!

You've got a razor sharp wit that bloggers are secretly scared of. And that's why they read your posts as often as they can!

What kind of blogger are you?

You Know You're From Portland, ME When...

You're at Dunkin Donuts, drunk, at midnight on friday and saturday nights You attend EVERY porltand-deering sporting event...regardless of what it is. You know that there is a football game on Thanksgiving morning between the two rival schools. It takes at least 12 inches of snow for school to be cancelled. You drink in parking lots all winter long You know what Bill's Pizza is You think that Univ. of Maine - Orono is another 4 years of high school. You know what the Old Port is You understand the theory behind Dimillo's floating restaurant. You've skipped school or work to start drinking early Vacation means a trip to Montreal You know what an Italian Sandwich is You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Portland, ME.

Get Your Own "You Know You're From" Meme Here



More cool things for your blog at
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I Wish 51% of you would move somewhere else...

I hear France s nice this time of year...

Did You? 

I'll see your Kerry Clayson and raise you a...

Which Presidential Candidate Are You?
Rung from Rum and Monkey's very own liberty bell.

El Presidente '04 I don't need a fucking running mate...i'm that good...

Top that one...

My Pimp Name is Master Brotherman.
Take Pimp Generator today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

Where were you when...

What were you doing last week about midnight? What were you doing when the unthinkabnle happened and the Red Sox won the world series? The Sox are finally world champs and the curse is no more. IF nothing else happens this year you can say that you were here for a truly historic event. Red Sox fans, collectively known as the Red Sox Nation, for their lifelong devotion to seeing them finally win it, everywhere rejoiced, broke stuff, and generall y had a good time of it. How many people watched teh last out of the last inning and the little toss to first base and had flashbacks to '86 with Bill Buckner letting the ball dribble between his legs to lose it for them? I know I did. I've always loved the sox, and the other new england underdog teams that everybody seems to write off each year, yet for some reason have started to dominate in teh last few seasons. I would have to say that it's good to be back in new england. nowhere else in this country will you find such a large, and rabidly devoted group of sports fans. We love our teams and hope they do well each season. Congrats guys on finally breaking the curse....now I can die in peace...

Why the hell not...everybody else is...

1. WHAT IS YOUR FULL NAME? Michael Ellison Vance

2. WHAT COLOR PANTS ARE YOU WEARING? khaki shorts

3. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Audioslave "show me how to live"
4. WHAT'S THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Turkey Sandwich...mmm, turkey

5. DO YOU WISH ON STARS? not in years

6. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Brown

7. HOW IS THE WEATHER RIGHT NOW? Overcast and about 45

8. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My dad

9. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT YOU THIS? Clayson...yeah i guess he's aight ;)

10. HOW OLD ARE YOU TODAY? 27

11. FAVORITE DRINK? normal: Vanilla Coke. Alcoholic: Four Horsemen
12. FAVORITE SPORT? Hockey

13. HAIR COLOR? Strawberry Blonde...or blonde depending on how much I've been out in the sun.

14. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Nope

15. SIBLINGS? 1 brother

16. FAVORITE MONTH? March, my birthday. yay presents.

17. FAVORITE FOOD? Buffalo Wings

18. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Farenheight 9/11

19. FAVORITE DAY OF THE YEAR? XMAS@ Any day of the week starting with "S"

20. WHAT DO YOU DO TO VENT ANGER? I don't, I internalise everything so I'm a ball of boundless rage.

21. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A CHILD? my nintendo

22. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Lucky Charms.

23. HUGS OR KISSES? Kisses...final answer

24. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? Chocolate

25. DO YOU WANT YOUR FRIENDS TO WRITE/ I-MAIL BACK? considering I'm probably the last one to respond...i think i'll let em slide on this one ;)

26. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? no one...they'll all already done it

27. WHO IS LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? see above

28. LIVING ARRANGEMENTS? baby x1, grandmother x1, wife x1, house x1
29. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? can't remember

30. WHAT IS UNDER YOUR BED? puzzles...lots of em

31. WHO IS THE FRIEND YOU HAVE HAD THE LONGEST? Have to be Chad

32. WHAT DID YOU DO LAST NIGHT? Played Diablo 2
33. FAVORITE SMELL? Village Candle's Summer Slices

34. WHAT INSPIRES YOU? Pressure....i'm a "Combat Medic" type personality

35. WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? not being funny.

36. PLAIN, BUTTERED OR SALTED POPCORN? butter. enough so that my arteries harden while i'm still watching the movie

37. FAVORITE CAR? I dig the hell out of the Tiburons.

38. FAVORITE FLOWER? day lilly

39. NUMBER OF KEYS ON YOUR KEY RING? 5...and only 1 of them goes to my house
40. CAN YOU JUGGLE? my bills? certainly

41. FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK? any day beginning with "S"

42. WHAT DID YOU DO ON YOUR LAST BIRTHDAY? I don't remember
43. HOW MANY STATES HAVE YOU LIVED IN? 2

44. HOW MANY CITIES HAVE YOU LIVED IN? 2

45. HOW MANY COUNTRIES HAVE YOU LIVED IN? 1

46. HOW MANY CARS HAVE YOU HAD & WHAT WAS THE FIRST? 6, the first was an 85 chevy citation
47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Portland, ME

48. HOW MANY TIMES WERE YOU MARRIED? 1

49. HOW MANY OFFSPRING? One

50. HOW MANY DIVORCES? 0

51. WHAT IS YOUR 1ST CHOICE...MONEY, HEALTH, POWER? Power most assuredly. and then, THE WORLD WILL BE MINE!!!

His first cake :) 

I Think You get the Idea...

This is just a quick and simple graphic I did for Yvonne's aptly named "Vote or Die" campaign she seems to be advertising in Clayson's LJ...btw feel free to link to the URL i uploaded this to if you want to add this to your site. it's not my bandwidth :)

I Fucking Knew It...

:: how jedi are you? ::

Goodbye to the Man of Steel

Goodbye to the Man of Steel 

I've been waiting to see the general consensus on this tragedy and it seems to be an overwhelming ratio. Everyone will miss Christopher Reeve. He did not want to be known as Superman but that was the role that inspired thousands of people, even gnereations later he still makes people believe that a man can fly. What it was that brought Superman to our lives was his personability and charity. He may be known as the Man of Steel but it was his support of the arts and later medical research for victims of paralysis that truly made him a hero.

How many people out there wrapped a blanket around your neck and pretended you could fly after seeing Superman? For how many of you after seeing him as Superman believe that there might actually be superheroes in the world? I know I did. He did so much with what he was given that it's truly astounding. DO the research and get back to me, you'll find there were causes for which weren't listed by the media short of the stem cell research that could have helped him so much. It truly is a tragedy and I hope everybody realises that we have just lost an actual superhero in this world. Godspeed Superman.

Interesting...

Well I got paid yesterday and bought a copy of Fahrenheit 9/11. I must say that it had effects similar to those sited from viewers of The Passion. I have to say that it kinda renewed my hatred of Dubya for me in a new way. Through the entirety of the fil you saw footage and connections that have been edited out by the "So Called Liberal Media". for any budding poltical, I'd highly recommend this movie. It's a good view certainly.

On another note I stuck it to the man again yesterday in what came to be my closest coming to vandalism in my efforts. While I was walking home I "liberated" a Bush/Cheney sign from someone's yard. I then wrote "I stuck it to the Man" on it in blue permanent marker and promptly headed to a close store. Once there (after cashing my check of course) I headed to the restroom, dropped the offending sign into the toilet and pissed on it.

In a related note I flipped off a guy walking down the street with a Bush/Cheney sign. I'm all about sticking it to the man this week...so where's your stories?

I've got mine...

I Stuck it to the Man Graphic 

I'll bet he gets respect now...

There's a lot to catch everybody up on, but as I'm sure you can tell from the title I'm going to start with something a little depressing. Rodney Dangerfield died yesterday afternoon. He was a great comedian and I enjoyed his routines and his movies immensely. I'm sure that I'm not the only ne that will sorely miss him.

On a lighter note however this week is shaping up nicely. I'm sure some of you (hopefully) will have the honored October 1st holiday. While not as well known as what will be abbreviated as S & BJ day in March, equally important to a well balanced year is National "Stick it to the Man" Day. I decided several years ago that October First would be a great day for it since my Octobers always seem to suck for some reason...why not just throw it back in teh face of "The Man". SO for the last several years I've been engaging in small acts of civil disobedience on October 1st. Last year I told the chick at McDonalds that I would in fact not be having an apple pie with my burger because I was "sticking it to the man". This year I didn't wear a uniform shirt to work, and when asked why I didn't wear the shirt, I promptly, and proudly, told my service manager that I was "sticking it to the man". So, since I'm sure the vast majority of you have forgotten about this holiday I'm gonna go one further in my quest to "Stick it to the Man". FOr this year, I'm gonna claim this whole week as "Stick it to the Man" week. So until Sunday night, I urge you all to stick it to the man in any way that you can find and please PLEASE leave me comments on here for how you've "Stuck it to the Man"

Here's the thing though...don't get arrested, and don't do anything stupid like skipping school or quitting your job to become a non-productive consumer in order to "Stick it to the Man." Those of you who leave me stories of your exploits, I will send you a graphic in honor of your perseverence in the face of "The Man"

In light of these last few paragraphs, work is going well, though there's a load of bullshit involving me not having a van and being expected to use my personal vehicle to get to jobs...I'm not too pleased about that one, and I did indeed "Stick it to the Man" on that one and let them know pretty outright that I would not in fact begoing mre than 3 miles in my vehicle to get to jobs as it was the end of my obligation to get to the shop.

You Learn Something New Everyday...

Enneagram Test Results Type 1 Perfectionism |||||||||||||||||| 75% Type 2 Helpfulness |||||||||||||||||| 80% Type 3 Image Focus |||||||||||||| 60% Type 4 Hypersensitivity |||||||||||| 41% Type 5 Detachment |||||||||||||||| 67% Type 6 Anxiety |||||||||||||||||| 74% Type 7 Adventurousness |||||||||||||||||| 74% Type 8 Aggressiveness |||||||||||| 47% Type 9 Calmness |||||||||||||||||| 72% Your Conscious-Surface type is 2w1 Your Unconscious-Overall type is 9w1

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

Conscious self	Overall self

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

Again with the didn't see it coming...

Congratulations, you make it until the end! You
are the strong, modestly good looking man or
woman who doesn't take it from anybody.

How fast would you die in a cheesy zombie flick?
brought to you by

Just because I have to now...

If any of you read Yvonne's LiveJournal you'll see that I indeed did get a new job, am making more money than at that "other" place and indeed sent a letter to the owner upon seeing a rather interesting Want Ad in the Press Herald. Anyway, for everybody's enjoyment, i'm going to post the letter that I sent to them.


Hello My name is Michael Vance.
Undoubtedly whoever reads this e-mail knows that I was a service tech up until about month ago. I was Laid off for lack of business and the fact that I had not gotten my licenses yet. However I had just moved back to Maine from Florida only 3 months before so had no way of having them. Time Simpson knew this when I was hired and said that I could do "refigeration while I learned boilers" direct quote. However I as laid off for not having them.
Another point is that I was paid less than the helpers were and when I was to get a little more it was decided that I shoud be laid off. So let me tell you what a surprise it was when I read in teh employment section that Pine State Sudden Service needed a new Service tech. And not just a service tech, but one who possesses all the requirements that seem to be taken directly off of my resume. If I was simply "laid off", why was I not contacted. Also if business is so slow why are you looking for someone who has all the qualifications of someone you had just laid off. I was the lowest paid employee in the HVAC or plumbing department and those who I was told were to be fired when I was hired are still there. To my knowledge I had never had a call back and in fact had saved quite a few of your service contracts including, but not limited to, Yale Cordage & Rosewood at Rye. I had also brought business such as TGI Fridays. I'm skilled at HVAC installation as well, but no one offered to move me to another department. I posess more Air Conditioning knowledge than a good deal of your techs there and yet I was the one to feel the axe.

In conlusion I feel I was taken advantage of with the promise of helping someone who had just moved to the state, and was obviously qualified enough to work for a pittance with promise of "substantial wages". I hope that someone actually reads this instead of just deleting it since this is a direct reflection upon the quality of work there.

Sincerely,
Michael Vance.

Now I received a response to this letter, rather surprisingly, from one of the office girls, who then handed it to the owner. There's a moral to this story, and those of you in this position will respect this, those who aren't...well you better heed my advise....Be NICE to the office girls. Even after you're gone they'll do nice things for you if you need them to. Thanks Ann for taking one for the team :)

I never saw this one coming...

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Third Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Moderate
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's" Inferno Test

Though I'd like to give a shout out...

To Robo-killer, like always ditching me in the middle of MY FUCKING CAPE MISSION, then coming back later and asking if i can help with his. Also for leaving in the middle of the invasion, WHEN WE WERE FUCKING SURROUNDED BY LVL 28 FUCKING RULARUU. thanks for the assist there big guy....Fuck you and fuck your cape. I'll wipe my ass with it if you ever get one...

The Rularuu Attack...

The Rularuu Invasion

For those of you who were unfortunately at work, or worse...play that other game, you missed out on an awesome event in Paragon City. The Rularuu invaded paragon at about noon yesterday and I am proud to say that E-Branch was there to help the embattled heroes defend their metropolis. With the aid of several other members of E-Branch including Talchazzar and Maxxis we helped keep paragon city safe from the enormous tide of alien invaders. It truly was a great battle and I think it would suffice to say that In-Between paid the ultimate price to the tune of about 14K in debt. And through his long hours of sacrifice and battle he earned his cape somewhere in the process. It truly was a good day to die...

It works with everything...

Dick Cheney insists on link between Al Qaeda and Kevin Bacon. Al Qaeda was trained by the CIA which was created by Harry Truman who dropped the bomb which was conceived by the Manhattan Project which was a movie starring John Lithgow who was in Footloose with Kevin Bacon.

The Hunter Speaketh...

Deep into the election year and there has been no word from my favorite journalist, Hunter S. Thompson. Surely I'd have thought he'd have something to say on this election. Well, after a little searching I found something, on the ESPN page 2 site of all places. here's the article that i have found. BEHOLD for the doctor speaketh:

Sean Penn called me last night and said he was quitting the movie business until after the football season.
"I am going on the road with Brett Favre and the boys," he said. "The Packers will kick ass this year, and I want to be part of it. I love Brett Favre."
His voice sounded strange, so I goaded him.
"The football season has been cancelled this year. The White House just announced it."
"No!" he shouted. "That's impossible! Football season will never be canceled in America -- not in an election year. There would be riots."
"Exactly," I replied. "Horrible riots every Sunday afternoon, in cities all over the country. Football fans will go crazy. I already feel the Fear."
It's true, but not because of our football season being canceled. No. We must have football. What would this country be without football in October?
That is a dangerous question, so I try not to worry. Only an imbecile would alienate every football freak in the country at a time like this.
It would be political suicide.
Would the President do a thing like that?
Who knows for sure? He is already muttering about "postponing" the whole election, and that is almost as ugly as canceling a football season.
These rumors are dark and disturbing, especially for a football addict in July. Take my word for it, because I am a certified addict. It makes me feel crazy on some days, and this is one of them.
I am a football addict, and I am not alone in this country. We are legion, and we must have football ... Yes. It is righteous, and only a jackass would cancel it.
Election years are always weird in America, and they always happen in football season. That is a fact of life. The President will always be elected on the first Tuesday in November, for good or ill, and not even Richard Nixon could change it. He hated anything that stood between him and a Green Bay Packers game, especially on Monday nights.
Nixon was a bad loser. He hated losing worse than death, and that is why I enjoyed him. We were both football fans, both addicts; and on some days, nothing else mattered.
But that was yesterday, and George Bush is now.
Where is Richard Nixon, now that we need him? He was crooked in every way and his hands were covered with blood -- but he was a rabid, high-rolling football fan with a sly taste for gin; and on some nights, he could be good company.
Ah, but we live in a new century now, and the president is not a football fan. The first real game of the season will be a huge event for most of us; but for young George Bush, it will mean nothing. He will feel no relief, no escape from the same sense of doom that fell on his father, only 12 years ago. The old man failed when he tried to get re-elected, and so will his son. They both peaked too soon, about six months before football season; and after that, they sank like punctured fish.
So the time has come to get busy on what we call "the summer book" in the business of gambling on presidential elections. And right now the London/Vegas numbers are about 51-49 percent for Bush, if only because he is the filthy-rich incumbent and the son of a global oil-industry magnate.
That is big in the politics business; but this year, it will not be enough to make up for all the wretched, disastrous failures of the Bush administration. Betting on George Bush to win this coming election would be like betting the Denver Broncos to win the Super Bowl.
My own whim at the moment says that John Kerry will win big in November, and that the Colts will finally win the Super Bowl. Why not? This is the year of the monkey, and George Bush will be lucky to get out of Washington without being put on trial for treason.
Yes sir, we are coming around to some bold visions now, but my time is running out. Next week, I will tell you what happens in America if Kerry loses this election, along with the current odds on whether there will be an election this year. Okay. Mahalo.

New IB...Now with Cape Action... 

More Breaking News: From the Maw of Hell...

I'm just not blending...am I?

We returned later to the scene of the protest where apparently they still hadn't received their coveted "issue 2". But this begs the question does Issue 2 really exist? Aside from hints and allegations amongst the liberal media about the existance of this critical issue there has been no real evidence to sggest that there is even an issue 2 out there.

I reurned to the scene to attempt to blend in and gain the trust of the protestors in an attempt to gain more insight into their beliefs and causes. We brought a cameraman in with us this time to capture the chilling event in all of its gritty reality. Footage will become available as soon as a souce is found to broadcast it (ie i need somewhere to put it)

But possibly the greatest shock of these events was the political debate that raged between george W. Bush and John Kerry. Possibly the only debate of this election, it was also captured on tape. In a surprising turn of events the WMD's that Bush had searched for for so long, turned up at the events. When asked about their sudden appearance all they had to say was "Here I am. You still can't find me...bitch." Gripping.

I joined the protest but was soon spotted as the above picture displays. But what was I doing wrong? I was dressed "street" like the heroes assembled. I held a sign bearing a number much like th others. What set me apart? Did they instinctively know that I was not like them. The truth may never be told. But the riveting video footage will be made available shortly I assure you. Reporting for BNN this is Mikey V...I'm out...yo

Breaking News. This Just In...

The lamest protest ever

Paragon City Hall was the scene of what would have to be the lamest, and worst organised protest in history. Tens of "superheroes" gathered around the city representative in a horrible attempt to get the devs to upload the test version of the Issue 2 update for City of Heroes. When asked about the disturbance City Representative Norman Kozlowski said "I don't fucking know...something stupid like "give us our fucking capes" or something." Chilling.

As the photo depicts these heroes attempted to bog down the server so badly that, well, I don't frigging know what they were hoping for. In a strange bit of irony, these same protestors that wanted the issue update so badly, failed to realise that it would only download as they were closing out their session thereby rendering their protest an even bigger waste of time than it initially would have been.

We questioned of of the heroes who had only this to say, "I just want my eyes sparkly...is that so much to ask?" As the masses, if you can call 30 heroes in a room that, started to thin the protestors broke down into an argument over what could be considered "early in the week." One group said that today was the last day that could be considered early, since wednesday was halfway through the week. Others said that thursday would be. Heroes at each others throats like rabid fanboys. Disturbing.

Also amongst the discussion was the threat of the protestors being "banned". At the merest mention of the highest curse they could conceive of the group started to disperse quickly and all powers were shut off for several minutes. Even a random Gravity Singularity was quoted as saying "fuck that...i'm not getting banned for this." and quickly left this plane of existence. Sheer mayhem. This reporter was lucky to get out of this protest alive. For the Bullshit News Network, this is Mikey V returning to my quiet home away from these fucktards.

Oh, and for the record...the lunchbox in the front of the shot is my wife's character...

I have been many places and seen many things...

But never in my life have i seen something so assanine as last wednesday. For starters I got laid off, which in my humble opinion is a total screwball antic to begin with. Being laid off is when you're fired but they have no reason to fire you except for the fact that either a) you make too much money, or b) there's no work. Well I certainly didn't make too much money, as I'm the lowest paid employee there. Apparently there wasn't enough work and I was the only one without the licenses to they said adios.

Now my problem with this scenario is that I was hired at a pittance under the stipulation that after 3 months we'd sit down and make sure I was worth what thye were gonna pay me. Well instead of getting a raise they just up and let me go....damn the man and his whitey oppressing ways. There's more I have to speak on but I've gotta go for now...post more later...

An Another Thing...

Just thought I'd add. I know everybody's heard this before, but I'm gonna start playtesting my RPG within the next few weeks. You know, the one I wrote. The one I started back LAST august. Well, I guess in celebration of the anniversary I might as well playtest the thing. If you're interested in doing a little group-based rpg, leave a comment in here and I'll get you the info if you don't have it. It promises to be fun.

The Last 2 Weeks...an Introspective...

Sorry yet again it's been so long, but you know how my fixations go. There's been so much going on in my life at the moment it's been hard to form the thoughts, let alone the words, to actually rant about them here. But here it goes anyway.

My Friday the 13th was an utter disaster. I have no other way to describe it. I can't even go into details about it without getting pissed off. So here's the short short politically correct version of that day. Got suckered into installing a hot Water Heater for the plumbing guy at work. Dunno how he thought I was gonna do this, but he had it in his head that I was a plumber. trust me, he found out for the rest of the day that I wasn't. Job went horribly horribly wrong. got zero support except for short, sarcastic, comment from the plumbers when I asked for help. The customer was a total wacko and the plumbing guy was screaming for my job after everything was said and done. Now those of you who have heard the sordid tale know more of this and why the guy almost got his head thrust into the back of my truck, but the whole situation still just pisses me off. But still I persevere.

Saturday however rocked hard. yvonne and I went to a local concert on the back patio of a local radio station. There will be pictures of said event posted later once I pull them off of the camera, along with a picture of the worlds largest afro. Anywho the concert kicked obscene amounts of ass. It was all local bands...once which if you can order them...do it. Vacationland was the first band. They put on a pretty decent show. They play to the crowd well and they music rocks. The second band was called As Fast As, and they as well kicked ass, though they put on a much better show and I am heavily inclined to pick up their new CD. Those who know me know how frequently I buy CD's. They're just that good. The third band however was the band we went to see and have become my favorite band of late. They're called Paranoid Social Club. For those of you who might have the memory span of more than a few years might remember them as Rustic Overtones. They opened for David friggin Bowie for a while. But they rock hard. The music kicked ass, and I already have all of their cd's. you can't beat it either. Their new albums "Axis 1 & 3" was 11.49. a double album for under 12 bucks...you can't beat that anywhere. And they're full cd's which you will listen to all of....trust me you'll listen to all of them. get the albums...you won't be disappointed. And Chad....order them from Elvis over at the East Hill Music Exchange...i know he can get them.

This week at work was more of the usual actually. I spent the week making the company look good. Apparently after the friday the thirteenth incident, i've still managed to come out smelling like a rose. I may suck at plumbing, but I rock at AC...which if I'm not mistaken was WHAT I WAS HIRED TO DO. I've been visiting customers doing a good job to get them to renew their service contracts, because the guy before me was such a mouthpiece that he just screwed off and didn't do anything. So I've sent the last week chasing his mistakes...which always pisses me off...especially when I know I'm making less than anybody there and having to do twice the work. My review is supposed to be coming up at the end of august, and I have a feeling if they don't give me what I want I'm gonna be leaving and finding new gainful employment. I don't think I've talked about this issue here, but lemme sum it up. I'm being paid less than the helper. take a moment, breathe, focus your chi, and think about that last statement. got it? good. now you see how insulted I was when I found out that bit of information. So if they don't pay me at least what everybody else is making I'm out of there. I'm doing three times the work they are. i'm not getting any call backs on my work, and I'm handing the salesmen good solid leads...why shouldn't I?

Chad....brace yourself. i'm thinking of picking up Counter-strike. I dunno, something about it has been calling me lately. Though I hadn't played it beyond those games down at the cafe it kinda got into my blood. It's been a yearning I've been putting off for a long time now, but I think it's time.

I'm on call this weekend as well. I'm helping one of the guys out who's building a house. he's got the plumbers and a bunch of other guys coming over there this weekend to help put in the boiler system and such and couldn't really keep leaving so he asked if I would help. And since I just can't say no to work I thought why the hell not. Well about 630 tonight...just as I'd gotten comfy I get a phone call that there's a cooler down at a Mobil station. So of course it couldn't be anything simple like a thermostat...had to be the damn compressor. And of course supply houses are closed, and I have a cook-out to go to sunday, so this could potentially kill my whole weekend. But hey...it could be worse.

Brian Lumley has my SOUL....

I picked up the Necroscope series of books again. I don't know what it is about Brian Lumley's writing, but I just can't put them down. The way he writes is just phenomenal. He has you so engrossed in the characters and the locations that it's just so hard not to love the characters, so that when one dies you almost want to cry because it's like you lost someone you know. The books are phenomenal and I highly recommend them. It's not just the Necroscope series either, but pretty much all of his books. The useless bit of info on the back of the book says he lives in England, but a good deal of the setting (that occurs in this world at least) takes place in eastern europe around the romania area, and is incredibly detailed and almost alive, so that it would seem that he either spent a lot of time there or was born somewhere around there. Anyway...just read the damn books :)

Jesus is Fucking Metal...

Just because it's frigging funny...

Penny arcade is copyright Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik....but I had to post it because it's just too damn funny...perhaps I can bring a little culture to some ininitiated people's lives :)

Back by Popular Demand...

Well it seems as if I've been slacking on my blog. Well, to be honest I've either been in City of Heroes, or working, or sleeping. I was On-Call last week, which essencially is the same as being work's bitch. If someone calls after hours or on the weekend, I'm the one that got to respond. So that ate away at a deal of my time. I've also been spending more time with Patrick and less time with my MSN open...mainly because everytime I sign on, people are always set to away and never end up messaging or e-mailing back, so I don't even bother anymore.

I suppose a CoH update should be in order. My character, In-Betweener is now level 18 and my main character, for any of you reading who play the game. He's turned into a los bad ass controller. I've also got an upstart little scrapper that's coming along...but didn't i say this about IB a few posts ago? scary isn't it.

It's all Biblical and shit...

I'm in Moses' Address Book. 

You really have to enlarge the picture to fully understand the humour here. I was innocently going through my junk mail in my hotmail account, mainly because if you're not in my address book that's where it goes, and found this e-mail sitting there. I found it far too good to pass up so I had to put it up here for everybody to see.

My main hero: The In-Betweener 

This is my new main hero. Isn't he awesome?

Patrick in his native enviornment...messy 

Gotta keep these things current as they happen. And why not post the embarassing baby pics for the world to see so future girlfriends can see them and laugh as, if he's anything like his father as a child, he's gonna hate to clean up anywho.

Told ya I was awesome.

This just cinches it. Chad, you oughta get a kick out of this.



just a little postscript to this little exercise in fun. the above picture, i had to close the tag on the font face. even webpublishers aren't perfect :)

He emerges...

hey everybody. Lord Legion is officially a thing of the past. My main character has become the In-Betweener. I just got him up to level 14 and he's got his killer teleport ability that makes things so much easier...except when you miss the teleport to the top of a building...then it sucks. I've been running with this incredibly cool supergroup in CoH called The Round Table. Killer group of Heroes. We work incredibly well together, and running with them has taken up a lot of my time. I'm sure I'll put up a nifty screenshot or two from the top of the tallest building I can find shortly. But for now I must take my cape off and rejoin the real world. TO THE JUSTICE VAN, erm I mean my service truck.

The Apocalypso is upon us...

It must be, for a strange turn of events has occured. Somehow I talked Chad into playing a MMOG instead of the other way around. Normally he's trying to talk me into playing one, which up until Star Wars: Galaxies I had no real desire to be a part of. I thought my logic was sound...Why should I pay every month for a game that I've already paid for? Well, City of Heroes had me sucked in a full year before it even hit the shelves. And when I got my cable modem turned on up here in sunny Maine, I had to have it. And as you can tell, I've been playing it pretty non-stop ever since. Chad called me the other night to ask what server I play on and I was kinda shocked...though not really...i knew someone would cave. We met up online and played for a little bit. But it kinda dawned on me yesterday that the roles had switched...so yes I believe the Apocalypso is upon us. And yes I do keep ending Apocalypse with an "o", but ya know, if it's the end anyway, why not have some fun in the process and Apocalypso just sounds so much more, festive.

Lord Legion 

Meet Lord Legion. He's my main character in City of Heroes. Spiffy, aint he. Right now he's level 11 and leader of the infamous Legion Inc. There's another character that I'm playing around with but right now he's only level 3. He's turning into a real bad ass too though. gained all three of those levels this morning. Just thought I'd give you a brief look into my hero.

On another note, my first day was yesterday at my new job and to be honest, I don't think i should be getting paid to do this. It went so well I don't know what to do with myself.

Eerie...isn't it.

Whats does your personality rate from 1-10? by morning_prayer
Your first full name
Your personality rates a	ten!
your best quality is	youre hilarious
your worst quality is	you have a huge.....ego
this is because	its genetic
Created with the ORIGINAL MemeGen!

For them I will be...A HERO!!

as you can tell, like just about everyone else on the planet, I've been addicted to City of Heroes. There's a couple of characters I'm playing with, but primary among them is my alter ego, Lord Legion. Right now he's just a budding little level 7 Tanker, but he'll be big and strong someday, cuz he's drinking plutonium :) anywho, just wanted to explain my absence and let everyone know that I am still alive.

Better?

Well I had my interview this morning. It went incredibly well actually. I've discovered that most of what this company believes in is the same as it was with Stacy, which is a good thing. I think I was rather spoiled with Stacy's work ethic and the way he did things. The company is very "family oriented" and offers a great incentive package...20 plus dollars an hour doesn't hurt either ;) Just wanted to keep everybody updated.

It Begins...

Tomorrow morning is the big interview. For those of you not entirely keeping up with my life here's what it's all about. I have an interview at 10am tomorrow morning with a local HVAC company. This is a HUGE, did I stress the word HUGE, opportunity for me. The pay is around 25 bucks an hour and training in boilers and such, so i'm hoping that it works out like I hope it will. Either way I look at it, it's better than lugging bricks and asphalt all day like I'm currently doing working for the city of Portland. After that I get to cash my paycheck, the first full one that I've gotten since I started working up here. For one reason or another I've missed days or hours and haven't amassed over 35 hours up until this last week, so a full paycheck will be nice.

On lighter news, yvonne and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie at the 2240 showing, so you can imagine how late we were there. (for those of you not familiar with military time, I'm sure there's a book out there to help you) It was pretty good I thought though I'm not a big harry potter fan like yvonne. I'm sure I'll talk to anybody actually reading this thing afterwards to let you know how it goes.

An interesting day...

The more I work at my present job, the more I realise how much things are done in half-measures. We laid some asphalt down today and just seemed that everytime we got halfway through something, we were being moved onto some other project. On an upnote, I found my old poetry corner. while it doesn't have all of the updated stuff, at least it has the vast majority of it. for anyone who's interested here's the LINK. That's about all that's going on at the moment. I have an interview with an air conditioning company friday so here's hoping that goes well.

I surrender...

I tried to go to sleep earlier tonight but everytime i lay down I start hacking up a lung so I think I'll just stay up for a while. I think it's in everybody's better interests if I do. There's been a whole lot going on this weekend, but most of it not in my life surprisingly. On a sad note some one in the web comic community committed suicide friday. Mike Buonauro from Wrench Farm killed himself. Which brings up some thoughts in my mind as I read through his LiveJournal. Reading through the last week of entries it was glaringly obvious that he was in some sort of downward spiral. His posts got darker and darker beginning with his girlfriend breaking up. But that's not the thing that made me think. What made me think were the comments in his entries after the fact. Everyone that claimed to be his friend came out of the woodwork and said almost the exact same thing. "I was Michaels best friend back in . though we lost contact over the years and we haven't really talked to each other in he was one of my best friends." Most of them went on and on about how much they looked up to him and how much of a great person he was and so on and so forth. but here's the thing...why could they not have said all of this stuff beforehand? Why now, after he felt like he had nothing left in the world, do you praise this man? He needed this praise last week and sooner than that most likely. Now I'm gonna say my peace on the subject and be done with it. He was in fact a talented writer and probably a great guy, and I feel that the web comic community, and the world at large is going to miss him. He had a lot to offer the world in his writing and from what I've read of his LiveJournal, in his thoughts as well. I'm sure everybody that counted themselves amongst his friends will wish that they had said the things that they say now, sooner.

That being said, we had a fun night last night. We kinda just stayed home and got quietly drunk off of Allen's Coffee Brandy (shameless plug). It's good stuff and will put you in a world of hurt if you do not respect the bottle. Yvonne found that out this morning as it took her three glasses of water just to get out of bed. Anywho I'm gonna try and lay back down so maybe at least one night in the last week I can get more than a couple of hours sleep in a night.

Our other little girl  She's not ours, but I feel like she might as well be. If nothing else, I miss her as much as anything else from Pensacola.

Denied...Mostly

As I stated a few nights ago, I've been feeling kind of nostalgic lately. So, at about 2 this morning I decided to install Vampire: Redemption again. Just on e of those shits and giggles things. I pop the cd into my cd rom and it loads to the first screen. However past that there wasn't much that it felt like doing. It would just kinda crash after I selected Install. My night of vampire nostalgia wasn't to be. However I did pop in a game that I bought a long time ago and haven't really played in forever. It's this darling little rpg by the name of Septerra Core. Most of you out there probably haven't heard of it, but it's a fun little rpg with a great story.

The world of Septerra consists of seven "shells" that orbit each other all connected by this bio-mechanical "spine". Every hundred years the shells line up just right to allow a ray of light to hit the core, activating it, allowing those who possess the keys to access the power of the creator. Most of you have probably looked over this little title or never heard of it, but if you're looking for something in the lines of a good rpg on the PC, then I suggest you hit the bargain bins at your local software store and check it out.

Well isn't that special...

Florida has managed to do it to me again. Since I know you're all clamoring to know what I'm talking about, here's the kinda longish-short version. Florida cancelled my license. I got as notice from the Florida DMV that if i didn't get insurance in 30 days they were gonna suspend my license. Well, I turned in my tag instead. Before I moved I checked with the DMV to make sure that my license was all right and they said sure. U-Haul checked my license and they said it was good. So I went on with my life and moved.

I got pulled over by Falmouth police last week for speeding. I was kinda driving my grandmother's car and kinda wasn't paying attention to how ffast I was going (53 in a 30 just for reference) So she tells me that my license isn't valid; it's not suspended or revoked, just isn't valid. So thank god that she just lets me go back home with a warning. But it's kind of started a little union war at work. See, my supervisor (that word still leaves a bad taste in my mouth) Gordy said not to come abck to work until my license situation is cleared up. Well, that set off my dad (who is also the president of the union) and he called the higher up supervisor and all i know is that I'm going back to work yesterday. It's odd really. Everytime I'm honest with someone at work they seem to evolve into a minor civil war. You may perhaps remember the little war I mentioned over my paycheck last year. Just being honest and it started all that.

Anywho, I've got to call one guy back today on a job, and I'm waiting to hear from the city for the interview for the job I want down there. Wish me luck...

So, do you come here often?

Patrick  I know it's been a while since I've blogged and even longer still since I've had internet but I'm now back up and running. If you haven't noticed, I've figured out that Blogger now wil let me put up pictures, which makes my day because I don't have to put most of them up in the msn group. But I'll give you a brief rundown of how things went from the time we left up until now.

We left Pensacola on the 26th. I'll run right through the trip because it was incredibly long and about put me down for the count. Anyhow, I'm now forking for the city of Portland as a temp waiting on an interviewq from a great job in Air Conditioning that pays almost 3 times what they pay in Florida. So that's working on for us definitely. Things have been weird though. It's just not the same as it was in Florida, which is the main reason we moved. But to be honest I'm sure that I can speak for both of us in that we miss everybody terribly and pose to you the question "So, when are ya moving up here?"

But leaving Pensacola was sad for me because I thought of it as a day of lasts on several counts. It would probably be the last time I stepped foot in Pensacola (for a while) without needing a funeral or a wedding. It would be the last time I walked out of Hazel's house. And, despite what everybody says and means to do, I knoew it would probably be the last time I would see a lot of my friends down there. I know how these things go. get busy, get out of touch, and soon you don't even really talk anymore. It's sad but I know the people who are truly our "friends" will keep in touch and not be strangers. That would be great. I'm rambling now but I think I needed to Blog for a long time and never got the chance. But those of you who read this, don't be a stranger. Keep in touch even if it is just a short note a week or something. I am interested in all that's going on down in Pensacola.

we're coming up on the zero hour

The day is quickly approaching where it'll be time to leave the state of florida. things are all packed and it's all over but the crying. we leave out of pensacola the 26th and head on up to maine straight from there. not much else to say at the moment cuz i'm kinda rushed for time at the second, but i'll let you all know what else is going on when i get a minute.

damn it's been forever...

Yeah, i guess this could be considered one of those stranger things that happen...I'm actually blogging. I know it's been forever and I'm sure that all six of you have missed it....riiight. anywho, i'm at a friends little internet cafe downtown and enjoying myself. i'm teaching my son to be a computer geek early in life :) just wanted to keep people in the know that, regrettably, i'm still alive lol. i'm about to jump into some jedi academy and whip some little kids ass :)

Well well well...

I know it's been a while since I've even thought of posting in this thing, but hey, I've got the free time and might as well while I have the access. I just got back from my vacation to maine to show off the new baby to the grandparents. Everything went as well as can be expected. I know that didn't come out how it was intended but let me explain...The visit itself was great, and I'm pretty well considering moving back up there when I get the chance. The problem came in the form of Delta losing our luggage. Then, when we got the luggage back we discovered that they had lost our carseat. That was a lot of fun, lemme tell ya. Anywho, just wanted to let everyone who matters know that everything went great.

From the Frozen North...

I know it's been forever since I've blogged, but I just thought I'd go ahead and do it while i'm on vacation. I came home for christmas and it's been a lot of fun since I got here. I got a camcorder for Christmas so I'm gonna be taking a lot of video I see. It's been an absolute riot.

It Lives....

Just wanted to write a quick little something to say that I'm still alive. Unfortunately, I'm without internet at the moment. The funniest thing about being a new parent is, I've found, that there is a few things that you seem to re-prioritize as things go along. So, instead of the cable bill, I've bought diapers and such and supplies to remodel parts of the house. I have little weekend projects that I've been enthralled with so the internet will have to wait until I get things caught up. I've been practicing with my CSS in my "spare" time as well, and am getting to the point where I have it pretty much memorised...the important parts anyway. That's about all for now. I've gotta get things together and get ready for work in the morning....I'll return eventually.

Now That I Have Your Attention

I haven't really had much time to write in this thing since last weekend, but there is a very good excuse. Even better than "My dog ate my homework." I'm am the new owner of a 2003 model baby boy. His name is Patrick Everett Vance. He weighed 5lbs 12oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. Personally he's a little angel. I stayed up at the hospital until both him and yvonne came home, which should win some sort of award in itself. The little cot they brought me was engineered for maximum uncomfortability. Yvonne hasn't seen much of him since every opportunity I've been home he's been with me.

Someone should have published a handbook or something though. I was expecting the emotional from Yvonne afterwards, but no one prepared me for the emotional rollercoaster I've been on since Monday night. I look down at him while he's lying there and can't help but smile. It breaks my heart everytime he cries. I went through a good crying spell with him at the hospital. I'm sure there's no doubt in anyone's mind how much I love the little guy. I also see where the term "overprotective parent" comes from as well. I never want to see any harm or heartache come to him, and again it breaks my heart thinking about it, even though I know it's bound to happen sometime. I find myself wanting to get home just so I can see him. I also see where the term "Proud Daddy" comes from as well.

Which takes me to another topic, of which I'll be vague, but I'm sure the people who read this will know what, and/or whom, I mention when they read this. I don't see how anyone could leave their child, or claim that they don't love them. I don't care if it was conceived at a time when you weren't wanting/expecting/needing a child. My boss Stacy said it best I believe. He said "You don't plan for children. They happen and you just incorporate them into your life." Anyone who hates their child, or feels they don't love them, or just wants nothing to do with them, has no heart in their chest at all.

Another Sleepless Night. Another Boring Day

Well, as has become my trend over the last few weeks, my sleep has wittled down to nil. I was up until about 6am this morning chatting with friends and playing Gunbound. I've been a sucker for these online games lately, and for some reason this one has become all out addictive. It's uber cute but, if you liked the game Worms then you'll dig it. I was going through some old websites last night and I figured it was about time that I come up with another one. After the loss of the Hyperswitch server all of my pages have been in limbo. So, when that happens I'll put it up here for all you guys...all five of you.

On other breaking news, the Department of Highway Safety saw fit to send me a letter saying that my insurance company had reported me to them saying that I didn't have insurance. I have until the 22nd to bring them the insurance card from my insurance company...not just the agent, to them or i lose my license. Now I know everybody's saying "Bad Mike" but here's the way it actually happened. My policy was up with my current agent and since they'd hiked my premium up but at least ten dollars a month since I started the policy, I saw to it to find another insurance company. This was, um, Friday before last. I got a new policy and this week this letter arrives. Anyone who has car insurance knows that it takes somewhere around two weeks to a month to get the card from the company so I don't know quite how this is gonna work out. I'll figure it out I'm sure.

Well, I'm sure I'm about to pop back in to either Gunbound or Star Wars Galaxies so have a good day or something like that.

Weirdness..

I was thumbing through a few files i have backed up on cd from god knows how long ago, and I got a little melancholy. I dunno, but it's just kind of a longing for the way things used to be. Granted I haven't had an uber exciting life, but there's things i've been looking through that I realise that I miss a lot. We started talking about stuff in an online group I'm in, and the conversation swung towards the old Vampire: Redemption community, since a couple of the other members of the group were in teh clan I keep ranting and raving about through all of my psycho babblings on this thing. Some of the screenshots I've taken and some of the memories that were dredged up teh other night got me to thinking about everything else that I miss that's just gone by me. I live life pretty happy-go-lucky, and I guess this leaves me to take things for granted, that they're always gonna be there. And they're not, not like they used to be.

I think back on when I started this strange Internet trip that I've partaken in, of my own accord since probably around '96, though I'd been online over at chad's a while before that...closer to about 93 there. And I think back on when I was first learning HTML, and the excitement and awe I had over creating my own web page and sharing myself with the rest of the world. I put up the Poetry Corner, which to this point, has seen several incarnations. Then followed the Domain, which had all of my poetry on it, along with a few other things. The site was frankly ginormous. I think it weighed in at a grand total of about 84 separate pages on it. back in the infancy of my web designing, that was incredibly exciting. I could go on for hours about my web pages, frankly because there've been too many to count. But I think the first time I truly had FUN on the internet was when i started Vampire. This is probably why I keep ranting about it through all these months. It was the first time that I'd actually enjoyed my self, not only online, but in a game as well. I met some incredible people, formed some incredible bonds. Several, if not most, of these had deteriorated considerably in the meantime. And I think that's where the melancholy comes from. Much when I realised that the arcade was dead, I missed the experiences I had with those people, for good or bad. It seems like we get on now in a more-or-less friendly manner now, but not like it used to be.

So, I guess the moral of this story is to keep your friends and loved ones close, and your enemies closer, but keep all of them where you want them, because they can disappear just like that.

A pretty damn good time.

Last night we all ended up going out to dinner. A damn good friend of mine (one of the few i have left) from high school came into town. We started out at dinner at Appleby's, but we migrated after that and stayed up well past my bedtime. We had, or at least I had, a blast. We talked about all sorts of stuff, and even though it had been almost seven years, it almost seemed like it was just the next day. I wish the Starbucks had been open because I was sooo in the mood for a four shot mocha. Anywho, Jackie leaves thursday night, or afternoon and i'm sure i'll run into her at least once before she goes.

Wow...

I've been playing Star Wars Galaxies now for a few days....NON STOP. I promised chad I'd check it out when I got my new computer built. And I made good on that promise last weekend, in spades. I have a budding Pistoleer that's almost ready to progress. I'm sure I'm gonan play with it a little bit more when I come home. I don'thave too many complaints about the game really. I just wish they'd make with the vehicles....oh yeah, AND THE FUCKING JEDI!!!! But my Marksman/Medic/Artisan is coming nicely. matter of fact I'm thinking of scratching the medic field and picking up scout so I can go the way of the Bounty Hunter. Woot.

Hey There Everybody

I've taken a small break in Disgaea and thought it would be nice of me to come out here and post a bit. The next few posts are probably going to be a little unusual. The next couple of posts aren't going to be me bitching about something. I unearthed my old web page on the Vampire game I used to run and found that the narrative journals are still in place. So I'm probably going to be sprucing them up a little bit and posting them up here, kind of like a really crappy serial story. So keep reading as I go through them.

Things are going pretty good all around. I've been brainstorming amongst myself today about some comic ideas and concepts. So all things being equal I should at least have some rough sketches sometime soon.

Can I retract that last statement?

That last statement that I made has been rendered false. Disgaea now officially has my soul. The game is incredible...tactical RPG elements with an incredibly deep item and class system that lets you do pretty much whatever the hell that you want. Yvonne's playing it right now while we wait for the impending child to drop from her womb. Enough of that...back to my games...

Jedi Academy PwNz my soul

Sorry it's been so long between blogs, but I've been engrossed entirely in Jedi Academy. The same thing happened when Jedi Outcast came out, but this has been far far worse. It's pretty well been every available moment I get I've been playing in the multiplayer saber duels. I've been re-learning CSS in order to get this web comic into some sort of pre-production. It'd be nice to actually get it going this time around.

The Day that No One Updated.

My morning routine is quite simple. I get up and go out to the computer to check my e-mail and the web comics. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are great mornings because that's the schedule under which most web comics update. But not this morning. Not a single one updated. Usually if nothing else, Penny Arcade will have the comic up if not the newspost. Or hell at least one of them will have updated. That ws not to be this dark morning. I'm positive that they'll have updated this afternoon, but until then the day will be without mirth.

Stranger Things HAVE Happened

I was thinking today, and I seem to suffer from a strange affliction. Unlike the others the doctor says this one isn't immediately curable. I seem to work best under pressure. Though I believe it goes a step beyond that, I don't seem to work at ALL until the pressure is on. I can always find a reason to put something off until the deadline is straing me dead in the face, and then I can work magnificently. I don't quite understand it, but it comes in handy quite a bit. This webcomic is a brilliant example. I've been putting it off for a while now. I pretty well stopped drawing and things screeched to a halt. now that chad has the inkling to do it again the wheels have started turning and things are kicking into overdrive in my mind. I have it all worked out...the "master" plan if you will. And i know all i need is a date and I'll have everything done at the last conceivabl second. For some reason it's just the way that I prosper...

And Tonight....

Tonight's musical slection is The Cult. In my opinion they're one of the most underrated bands of all time. I think Ian Astbury has one of the best rock voices I've ever heard. As it says on their website. "Too Hard for Goth, too metal-edged for alternative." This would keep them pretty well out of the mainstream. But I really don't know anyone who doesn't know Fire Woman or She Sells Sanctuary nearly by heart. If you're ever bummin' around a cd store, check out their selection. Check out their compilation "Rare Cult" It would have to be the greatest compilation set I've ever seen, with over 90 tracks, and a bunch of unreleased stuff. The 80 page book that comes with it doesn't hurt either.

Finally coming back around.

Well everything was up and running..until Intel struck an unforeseen blow. In the process of getting everything back online I installed the Intel PRONet drivers, and it assimilated my USB network. This took me offline entirely. Though it was a minor setback, it does kinda leave me on schedule for my final act of vengeance to the Vampire community. Most of you know about my incredibly favorable view of the Vampire: Redemption community. The friends I made, along with the enemies were possibly the best I've had in an online experience. But tonight I'm going back in after nearly a year hiatus to wreak my last and final act of retribution opon said enemies. I believe Redemption will be a good term for what is about to happen. So if any of you reading this play, and are either a member of the Society of Elders, or know members...tell them to run. Run for the pathetic little online undead lives because tonight is payback for the Network Card, payback for the crashers and the hackers and the raids. Tonight there won't be an Elder Cainite who won't feel my fangs sink deep into their neck. And Renee...Hide in your locked room as you always do, it'll make it just that much more fun to find you.

The Battle is over...but there were casualties...

Well I'm posting this from my house tonight, so that can only mean one thing...HAL is up and running. It was a grueling battle but I came out on top...for the most part. My 13.6 gig Hard Drive; affectionately named Vinnie, was the first casualty. He bit it hard and will be greatly missed. Another casualty was EVERYTHING on my 80 gig hard drive. There were 7 years worth of music web pages, and various things that I had written...all gone. *sigh* Let the rebuilding commence i guess.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is King

Well, the computer didn't go quite to plan. After I got it assembled I found that the motherboard (more than likely) was screwed so I've gotta take it to where I bought the parts (Unfortunately, Tech Advanced Computers) so they can "assemble" it, just in case I'm a fucking moron and can't build a computer on my own. So with any luck I'll be back online this weekend.

From an Undisclosed Location...

With my computer completely out of operation now, the next two days can't get here fast enough. If all goes well, HAL 3.0 will be online and completely operational by saturday afternoon. I can operate on the web in safe mode...very carefully. so far the only thing I can't access is my mail. For some reason HAL 2.0a doesn't like my mail. Oh well. I haven't been on it much anyway since it died. I've been playing my PS2, waiting for the next .Hack game to come out. Maybe write a longer one Saturday when I rejoin the world of the living.

Soon...

Well next Saturday will be the official birthday of HAL 3.0. I'm stripping down the current HAL next week and rebuilding him in a new case, processor and other assorted hardware. Next week I move up to 2.4 GHz. WoOt. I will have full functionality back instead of having to operate my computer in safe mode. It will be a thing of beauty that just can't be missed. For on that fateful day, I WILL RULE!! anywho, just letting everybody know that I'm still alive around here.

One Bong to Rule them All...

Sorry for the usage of Bong in the title, but I felt Water Pipe to be a little unwieldy in the title. Jon got this killer Hookah for his birthday. It's pretty damn slick. last night it was sitting on his dining table like some sort of centerpiece. Thursday was Yvonne's birthday and friday was Jon's, so we had a little celebration friday night to cover everything. Then we ate the mescaline and went swimming. Just kidding. I've been watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas lately, not to mention just finished the book again for what is probably the hundredth time. So I've been spouting quiotes from the books every now and then, as I'm sure you can tell by the title from a few days ago.

So we're in the mall playing DDR yesterday and chad is bemoaning his single-dom and I offer him sage advice, as I'm often paid to do. "Just point a girl out and go do your thing" is along the jist of what i tell him. And we're playing DDR and this chick is up there and chad decides to go for it there. what's truly sad is the first thing that came to mind was "Wow, someone actually listened". We played a fair bit of DDR yesterday. I was pretty damn stiff for the first couple of songs, so I looked truly rediculous on songs that I normally can ace no sweat. I think the chick is bad juju because as soon as she went to the bathroom I got my groove back. Well I guess as much groove as a 26 year old white guy can have. I'll have to hunt chad down to find out how the movie date went last night.

I'm probably gonna head up to the mall in a little bit to play some DDR. I'm thinking of being saucy and strating my conquest of Heavy, though I might wait until I'm a little better at Max 300 and Orion .78 on Standard first. I'm pretty decent, but not as decent as I'd like to be at them. I can whip through them on Light with no problem now, so if I can ace them on standard I think i'll feel like I've gotten my grasp of Standard.

HAL is reborn...kinda

After 2 straight days of struggling with this damn computer I finally have it back to some semblance of working. I tried to reinstall Windows no less than 7 times. My little Hard Drive is on the fast track to being fried I believe. Even after the reformat and installation its almost got more problems than it started with. So I'm gonna pick up a new Hard Drive Friday and hope that works. And now onto weather.

It's hotter than fuck. It was at least 95 yesterday and after the rain slacks up this morning I'm sure it'll get to somewhere around the same temperature. Thankfully I can't remember the last time that it went a full day without raining so it been pretty decent for the temperature. As long as it's raining that is. And now onto sports.

I picked up a few new games this weekend. From the same aforementioned Buy 2, Get 1 free sale at Gamestop. I picked up Super Bust-A-Move 2 for Yvonne. She loves those games so I have no problems picking one up every now and then. I used to play it back in the day, but I haven't since they felt the need to incorporate some sick idea of a story to it. I also picked up Robotech: Battlecry and Defender. Defender was really for the collection value. I'm a huge, what they would call now, retro-gamer. I love all of the old arcade games and games on teh Atari, which is where Defender comes in. It's a remake of the old Arcade/Atari Golden Age. In the original you flew this little ship and had to pick up colonists before the aliens killed them. It was pretty neat for the time. Well the new Defender ownz it entirely. In true Midway fashion they remade a classic into another classic. You get to pick from 6 ships, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. It's a fuckton of fun. Robotech: Battlecry on the other hand satisfies my Anime/transforming plane fixation. It's a nice looking, cel-shaded game that does incredible justice to the Robotech series. As you progress you can unlock new Veritech to pilot and color schemes and intervies and all sorts of neat stuff. The game relies heavily on you being able to effectively use your Veritechs transformation abilities. Trust me it's a mother fucker if you don't.

Well I think that's about all I have to rant about today.

We were somewhere around Barstow when the drugs began to take hold...

Today turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable day. We picked up Yvonn'es little sister Nikki and went to the movies. We had to g to University mall since Nikki had never played the 8th mix machine. She did well I must admit. We all went to see Pirates of the Carribean. I loved the movie personally. It was a lot of fun to be sure. It had a kind of light hearted tone to it despite the overall action of the movie. Johnny Depp played an incredible pirate and really made the movie. I definitely reccomend it to anyone looking for a decent movie to check out.

I've been playing more and more of Legaia 2, and I think I figured out why. If you look at it in a different light, it kinda resembles the PnP game Exalted. The types of "Mystics" resemble the castes ad types of Exalted in the game, and the storyline kinda runs along the lines of how an Exalted game might run. If you're wanting to get into Exalted, and you have a PS2, I highly reccomend this game for some loose reference material.

My migraine the other night prompted me to take a jungle juice concotion of Lortab 7.5 and Demmoral. It made for an interesting night. It didn't have quite the expected effects however. I pretty well expected to be a pile of goo as everybody else was on just the demorral alone. I got a little fuzzy and things were slightly more humrous, but that was pretty much the extent of it. It certainly made the pain go away though.

My video card is going bad...really bad. I just had to go back to onboard video. ack. i miss it already. I know i'm not gonna be able to play my games, but i'm sure i can hold out until friday when i get paid. I'm gonna start work on a new computer as well. it's gonna be pretty slick, and will hopefully keep me ahead of the curve for a year or two at least.

Coronary? Yes, I'll take two please...

It's hard for people who are set in their ways to admit that they're wrong. This is an ongoing struggle I'm having with my interim boss, Smitty. He seems rather reluctant to admit that I am right on a good deal of the stuff that we deal with. He's been out of action for about a year now, and I have to admit that I didn't know a quarter of the things that I do now. For some reason he still feels the need to treat me like I just started working there and don't know my ass from a hole in the ground. He refuses to admit that I may actually know more than he does about air conditioning and duct work. I can be minding my own businees doing something right and he feels the need to cme up and completely tear it apart saying it's wrong. something as simple as making a piece of duct he drug out into a 2 hour ordeal in which i just took the kerfing tools from him and cut it myself while he stood over me saying it woulfn't come out right...and it did. So all of my accomlishments are nothing more than "luck" and they would have turned out better if i'd done them his way. I think i'm gonna crack if he keeps it up.

Buy 2, Get 1 Free....Sign me up.

Well i went to gamestop last weekend and picked up a few games for my PS2. Here are my thoughts on what I picked up:

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Killer game. I also own GTA3, but for some reason this game is just so much more fun. The killer 80's soundtrack doesn't hurt a bit either. There's nothing like runing a drive-by while listening to "I Wear My sunglasses at Night". There was one mission in the beginning where I had to go all Scarface on this one guy with a chainsaw. Good stuff. For what a lot of people seem to think is a rehash of GTA3, I find that the soundtrack and the gameplay are a worthy investment. I love it personally.

Legaia 2: Duel Saga

This would probably be on of the most underrated RPG's I've ever run across. Legend of Legaia for the PS was an OK game, but lacked a lot of graphic detail. Legaia 2 makes up for it. It's unique combat system make for an interesting play experience. You fight by entering where your strike hits on your opponent. If you enter the right combination you learn Arts, which are super powered combos. As you level up you gain more Art Blocks, so you can enter more strikes per turn. It really is worth the experience. While the storyline is still kinda so-so, the gameplay itself is pretty fun

Enter the Matrix

Everybody and their brother has mixed opinions of this game. And on some counts I have to agree with a few of them. There is a certain "unfinished" quality to it. There have been several instances where the game will just go spastic for no apparent reason. The music in certain areas gets quirky and goes into an infinite repeat of the game 6 notes. Those are my only down notes for this game however. The action is top notch, and the Focus moves are awesome. The movie scenes between some scenarios are great, featuring the actual actors. I personally enjoy the hell out of the game. But I swear, if agent smith throws me off of one more skyscraper I'm gonna throw the game.

All in all, I think they were worthy purchases, though the game I'm really waiting for comes out at the end of next month.

The Job that never ends (reprise)

Just when youthought it was safe to answer your radio another laundry list of crap to do has sprung up for harbourview. So we've gotta do that sometime tomorrow. Today was a day of impossibilities. Things that are not really possible in refrigeration popped up all at once today. In addition to these the alternator in the worktruck died on us on the way back from the dump. So we got to change that on out. I'm starting to think that karma is nailing me for somethign that I might think about doing in the future. I have what I've always called pre-emptive karma. i get nailed for all the bad stuff before i do it. It's rather irritating really. nothing much to write about, just wanted to sign in and say hi to everybody.

:)

Dread Zeppelin always makes me smile.

Apologies

You're gonna have to excuse my rapid-fire depression and self pity posts of the last, oh, about 20 minutes. I've got a lot going on in my head at the moment. There's a lot of heavy things going on right now and I guess I need some sort of affirmation that something's going right. Though I really do feel like destroying something beautiful, my desrtuctive streak goes much deeper than that. I want to crush, maim and kill for no good reason at all. No one is on to talk to, and I have no urge to do anything. I've started no less than 3 projects in the last 20 minutes and I've made it no further than selecting a background color and text color. I have no desire to write, to create, to share, or to continue doing much of anything. There's no real reason to. All of my efforts end up in a Dead Projects folder. Trust me, there is such a folder, right on my desktop next to the shit can. Only one step away. I even set out to draw a little and got as far as bringing my case in from the car. Stacy is a prime example of why even try. here's someone who did it all by the book. perfect credit, perfect lifestyle. owns his own business. now it's all going to shit in less than one month I'm sure that ACS mechanical will be no more. It seems to be the end of a lot of things lately.

Dear Universe,
I'm sure that i've been a part of your personal Gag Reel lately. Why do you feel the need to bring everything to bear against me all at the same time? Have I not believed in your power and pull all this time? Have I not helped others to open their minds to possibilities that established organisations would rather we not think? Why do you sit up late at night and conspire against me? I would like answers. It's the least you could do at the moment. I think the game started when I was fourteen and you thought it would be funny to see how I persevere. Well I'll tell you. i've played by my own rules. I've lived my life how I see fit and kept true to every single one of my morals and beliefs. I haven't languished in self pity or angst like some would. Don't you think that was a pretty heavy load to thrust upon a teenager? I did everything right up until I turned 18. In the end you realise that it's all a waste and you've gone out of your way to prove it to me lately. If you could see clear to clear your schedule for a few minutes and tell me why it's so funny I'd appreciate it.

I'm done for the moment. I needed to get this off of my chest. There's nothing overtly wrong with my life, but everything just seems to be falling apart around me for everybody else. I want to destroy something beautiful...

I feel like destroying something beautiful

Welcome to the Gulag of intellectual stagnation

I'm always one to jump the gun. I'm impatient and very seldom late for much of anything. I fear my little rpg isn't going to go anywhere. I'd had such hopes for it before. Which is where I always fall short. I always envision grand things when in fact no noticible response is ever commited. I'm waiting on quite a few people to return emails for the playtest and despite my best efforts nothing is happening in the group I created for it. So I think i'll send it to the dead projects folder with several other of my industrious, but apparently ill-timed projects. I've been in something of this sort of mood all day. I feel grim things and grim news is on its way soon. perhaps grim is too harsh of a word...but perhaps unwanted might be a little better descriptor. it never fails that when I feel like i have a grasp on teh universe, something comes out of left field, something unpleasant. I think I'm looking for something to guide my pent up anger at. Unfortunately that something never fails to show up not long after I make the realisation. It's time for me to build another web page. I need something to vent all of my creative energies into. Something to use up this energy I have, perhaps for good...for I feel that evil isn't too far behind. My quest for acceptance continues...

The end of an era...

I was quite hung over from the hours of drinking and debauchery last night when I awakened at 10am this morning to a radio call from Smitty wanting to know if i wanted to go on a service call with him. Since I can't say no to work of course I agreed to go. Thank the gods that it wasn't a bad call. I returned home to the news that Barry White had died. This men was a sexual legend. His music and voice has helped thousands of men get laid over the years. He died of kidney failure at 58 years old. It saddened me immensely. As I stated before, he was a god. He never personally helped me get laid, but I'm sure that there are thousands, if not more, men that have had sex while Barry was singing in the background. If you're one of those people I think you should drop to your knees and thank god that he created such a man for without him you'd robably still be virgins.

ummm....OK

So, here's how I spend my fourth of july. I was playing Tetris Worlds on my PS2 and decided to give a go at some of the other play modes available. I'm a tetris purist. I don't believe any other game mode besides making lines out of blocks classifies as Tetris. So i try this mode called Hot Line Tetris. I'm doing my thing when I hear this voice on the TV "Try a Hot Line" I had to pause it because I couldn't believe what I'd heard. Madam Tetris wishes me to try a line...and a hot one at that. I mean really, I think they could have chosen better wordage for that particular mode. Now we're gonna get lawsuits because little timmy went out looking for his local Coke dealer so he could try a hot line. Tis a sad day when something as simple as Tetris endorses rampant drug use...and hot drugs at that. That is all.

Happy Usurpation of British Rule...

Well I just had to hop on and say happy fourth of july to all three of my readers. I haven't done much of anything lately. Working and kinda in a slump as to actually doing anything else. I've figured that I would pass the time by writing up some history on the twons in my RPG. I figured that I would write it as kind of a second book, seeing as how just the rules weighed in at over a meg in PDF form. Which is something I've been meaning to talk about. I'm not entirely happy with adobe acrobat. Yeah it makes for some nifty looking documents after you're done with it, but you can't "make" PDF's with it per se. You need to first make it in some other word procesing program and use the adobe distiller to turn it into a pdf, so you don't really make them, you just kind of convert them. And what you can actually do with it once it is a PDF is quite limited. It makes for a handy format since just about everybody has the Acrobat Reader on their computer. I might convert some of my other books to PDF for ease of use. I'm gonna start up the playtest on my rpg here soon, even though I'm waiting on emails from about 6 other people. I have myself and two other people in the group thus far so I could get a story started I guess. Stay tuned, I'll probably post updates as to how it's going periodically.

mmhmmm....

Well, Chad got ahold of Shadows of Undrentide for me. It's the Neverwinter Nights expansion pack. It's all right I guess. Though I'm only still in Chapter one, it seems like a rehash of the original. I mean in the beginning your mentor is poisoned by kobolds and four artifacts are stolen from him. of course it's your job to find them. Let's compare this to the original. A plague hits Neverwinter and teh only source of the cure is stolen. Four mythical creatures are the only means to cure neverwinter, and of course it's your job to find them, along with taking up shitgobs of sidequests. The same holds true for SoU. It was great the first time, but it just seems like a rehash in a ifferent town. The graphics aren't upgraded and thew action is about the same. They added a few Prestige classes which are pretty cool, but it's just not enough to make it all that much of an incredible expansion. The Diablo 2 expansion only had two new classes, but it had an entirely new act that was pretty damn cool. It made it entirely worth picking up, especially with the pllay upgrades. Shadows of Undrentide just seems to fall short. Any of the modules you can download can give you the same experience. As a matter of fact, i've been playing through a pretty cool one called The Shadowlords. I think it rocks and it was free. That's just my two cents on the matter. It just seems like i could have downloaded a module and gotten the same experience as the company created "Expansion"