I Will Return

It’s been quite a while. My posting schedule is definitely relative to the amount of free time I have. It’s also quite relative to the amount of content I can cram into a post, and if it’s lackluster I usually just avoid posting. I don’t want to re-iterate what I wrote in my last post, so let’s just say I have enough to say to finally post something.

I quit working at AutoZone. You may recall that I used to work at Soboba Casino, but that I was let go late in 2008, after an almost 4 year span. Because of having been let go, I was forced to take what I could get, and AZ was the answer. Because the person who helped me out with the job could only get me into a store in Riverside (despite having 3 in my hometown) I had to commute every day. And for nearly a year, I did so. I was supposed to be working towards a promotion, but apparently it was going to “take some time”. I began to feel a little passed over (as I have many times in the past) and I started putting feelers out for new work, preferably closer to home, or for more pay. I ended up reapplying at the casino, and I got a bite. I didn’t reapply for security though, this time I applied to be a Slot Technician. Once I told my boss that I was going through the hiring process, he magically got off his ass and started trying to promote me. Insulting as that was, I declined and moved on to the new position at the casino.

It’s been almost a month now, and boy what a difference. Not only did I get a raise going back to the casino (although I’m still shy of what I used to make there), but there’s no more commute, and I get to work with all of my friends who are still employed there. It’s been great thus far. I started out on day shift, working 8-4 with weekends off. Of course, this is only a training period, somewhere around the 15th of February I’m supposed to be going to graveyard. But I’m ok with that. I’ll still be able to do the things I need/want to do because I’ll have the days to myself. I feel that it was a wise change, and a needed one. No more random schedules, no more b.s.

Aside from the change in jobs, there’s been a few more changes in my personal life, along with a few to come. I had posted before that I was really focusing on the band situation, and the hard work has finally paid off. We were having trouble getting things together after Steve left for Northern California. My roommate Ted took over on guitar and we practiced here and there. Morale was low. Things were finally starting to pick up, and we made some new songs; played a couple low-key parties. One day Keith called me and said he found us a new guitar player. He mentioned this guitar player already knew our songs, and I had some suspicions. He eventually let on that it was Steve, and he was coming back home. So, we kept Ted and welcomed back Steve. We now have two guitar players and boy do we sound beefy. We have since finished two new songs, picked back up some covers, and fleshed out our set list. Last night we played our first show with the current lineup at The Corner Pocket in Murrietta. The show went off without a hitch and I think we did well only having a couple practices under our belts. Were set to play another show this Sunday in Santa Ana, and another the following Friday at a different venue in Murrietta. Things are going great, and it’s only going to get better.

My gaming time has been spent off of the computer mostly. I have avoided MMOs for probably the longest period ever, and I have no intentions on going back. I have re-discovered my love for console games, and there really aren’t any exclusive PC titles that are drawing my attention. I played through Torchlight, and after that was through I’ve been away from the computer. I got back into console gaming on my Wii, picking up where I left off on titles previously purchased (some virtual console titles, along with a couple Wii games), and picking up a few new titles. I bought The House of The Dead: Overkill and played through it. Got a copy of the Metroid Prime Trilogy for christmas, and am still playing through the first game. Ted got some new games for christmas for his 360, and we played through Left 4 Dead 2, touched on Assassin’s Creed 2, and just started on Army of Two: 40th Day. Ted’s girlfriend (who is now a roommate as well) ended up borrowing some games from a relative, one of which was the new Dragon Age: Origins, which I played fervishly while it was here. Plays just like the old Baldur’s Gate PC titles, except in 3D.

Then I got my tax return. Then I decided it was time to purchase a PS3. The system ran me $300, but I had to grab a game and a HDMI cable so it would look real pretty on my 40″ LCD (not sure if I mentioned that, it was a black friday purchase). The game I chose was Borderlands, which is a first person shooter with RPG elements (think Diablo in first person with guns). It’s awesome thus far, and my soldier is level 15 after only having the game for a couple days. I get paid this friday, and I have relatively no bills to pay so I will be picking up a second controller and 1-2 more games. Maybe I’ll pick up a blue-ray movie as well, so I can see what that hype is about.

Speaking of movies, my collection has grown. Most recently I picked up a copy of Saw VI, but in the past couple months I also picked up Inglorious Basterds, District 9, 9, and the two family guy star wars episodes. I got a couple more of the Harry Potter movies for christmas as well, so I have all of them aside from the latest that came out on DVD. Then the other day a friend from work gave me a shitload of bootleg DVDs, including Sherlock Holmes (another awesome Guy Ritchie flick), The 3rd Kind, Pandorum, and a few others. I’ve been on a movie kick for the past couple months.

All this aside, I’m planning to be moving again here at the beginning of March. Hollee’s old roommate moved out and she’s been struggling to keep her apartment by herself, and my lease at this dump is over at the end of the month. So I’m hoping to be gone as soon as the lease is up so that I can move forward with that relationship, and so I can have all my shit in one place again! I will attempt a more regular posting schedule, but again, that is not likely until I have enough content to fill a post. Until next time…

20-Something, What a Waste…

The past few times I’ve sat at the computer I’ve opened a new post in WordPress, and then stared at it blankly. This is the first time I’ve even attempted to put words on the screen. It feels like a crossroads. It feels like I have to make a decision, but I really don’t. I know this, yet I can’t bring myself to accept that what I write here doesn’t mean a thing. That I’ve just been pouring thoughts out for the world to see, but that no one sees anyway. I know there are a few people out there who have admirably read every word I’ve ever written. Others still have at least popped in from time to time. But for the most part, does it really matter what you write if you don’t have an audience? And doesn’t it seem pointless to write for that small audience if what you have to say isn’t really all that interesting or important? I ask myself these things every time I sit down with the intention on writing a post.

I’ve been part of the blog-o-sphere for over ten years now. My history is only recorded here for the last four, but there were many incarnations of this website over the previous years, since I was still in high school. I’ve been out of high school for almost ten years already. Read through my archives, or just take my word for it now; I have done almost nothing worthwhile with my life. I still struggle to pay bills, I still work a shitty job. I never furthered my education, nor do I think that would have helped a person like me. I’ve been told I am wasting or have wasted my potential. I don’t deny the existence of this “potential”, but I don’t think I was meant to do anything with it. I find the simple pleasures in life more important than the brag-worthy ones. I don’t care about the money needed to buy faux happiness.

I feel like the most important thing I’ve done with my life (thus far) is being involved in this band. It feels like what I could do for the rest of my life, what I should have been doing since day one. Fuck college, unless it’s to learn how to produce. I want to be involved in this for the rest of my life. Music has been my life for so long, but not something I focused on. I’m focused now. I am determined to make something great.

However, with a focal point on one thing, other aspects of life will have to sacrifice time. For instance, hours I used to spend playing video games or writing blogs/surfing the internet are now used to focus on a game plan for the band, or something musically oriented. So I don’t intend to post here as often. I cancelled my EQ2 subscription again. I’m playing single player games, only in my spare time, which is only a portion of any given day, and has been cut down. Work to live, create to live, relax to live. The main focal point of my life is to live.

27, Officially.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I think I made out pretty well. I had decided a couple weeks ago that it would be a good idea to have a party at my house and for my band to play. So that’s what we did. But let me start at Friday, since I had myself a 3 day weekend.

Friday I lazily got out of bed around 11. Me and Ted needed to prepare (clean) the house for the party. When I awoke Ted was already dutifully cleaning the yard, so I helped him finish up. Then we tackled the interior of the house. It was the first time we had really deep cleaned this place, so it was pretty gross. But now that it’s done, the place looked really nice. After all of the cleaning, I hung out and waited for Hollee to get here, and then we headed to my Mom’s house for dinner. My Mom made me wontons at my request, and got me a cheesecake to boot. Afterwards I got a couple gifts and then we headed home. I ended up getting a copy of The Spirit and Step Brothers. I had also purchased a copy of Quarantine a couple of days prior. So the movie collection has grown ever so slightly. My dad also sent me an email with links to download Torchlight, and another game called Overlord. Both are very fun and interesting games, and I’m content to say that I won’t be bored for a while.

Yesterday was the big day, and after sleeping in a little, me and Hollee headed out to do a couple things. Aside from having purchased a PA speaker cabinet (I purchased a second) Hollee also got me a couple pairs of converse. We stopped and had lunch after errands, and then came back home to wait for the guests to arrive. Keith called me around 5:30 and needed me to pick him up. I grabbed him and came back and we set up the drums and PA equipment. We had a decent turnout, some of my friend that I thought wouldn’t show up did, and some that I thought would show for sure didn’t. But it was a good time. We played songs, Keith Sr. played a couple more, and then we proceeded to get sloshed. All in all it was a great night.

Today I slept until almost 1. Apparently I was up until almost 5 a.m. so I guess that’s a good reason. I got to watch my Packers humiliate the Cowboys, and that was a refreshing start to my day. Afterwards we watched the amazing comeback effort by the Colts, who remain undefeated. And that’s about all for my weekend. I go back to work tomorrow at 11, so until next friday I’ll be workin’. Then I’ll have another 3 day weekend, and man are they nice.

All Hallows ‘09

Halloween weekend turned out to be a huge success, and a lot of fun.

Friday afternoon after I got off of work I proceeded to cash my check and run some errands. I had to gather some after-thought accessories for my costume. From comments made, I looked a lot like Brett Michaels, and not from his VH1 reality show days. I wore the tightest leopard print pants I could find… yes, they were spandex and from the women’s department.

There was a party that night were many of my still-employed-at-the-casino ex-coworkers were throwing. Ted drove me Hollee and Traci, and there were a few other people there that I knew. I’d say about 50% of the people there were casino employees, the rest were friend’s of somebody… still a good turn out, there was plenty of alcohol to go around, and it was a good time. Gonzalo was the DJ on duty, and he’s always good at mixing things up. We ended up leaving relatively early because Ted had to work in the morning, but it was long enough for me to get a good buzz and want to pass out as well.

Saturday me and Hollee were up pretty early, and we ended up going to breakfast. There’s a little cafe in town I had never been to and she raved about. It wasn’t too expensive and the food was great, so I was happy with the choice. We hung out for a while after until it was time to head out. Her band had a gig, and I had to be at Amanda and Keith’s wedding by 5. So I got all dressed up again and drove out to the wedding. I was one of the first people there aside from family, so I hung out with those I did know and had a couple beers. The ceremony commenced, and after it was over The Adey’s were married and we ate some (horrible) catered food. I didn’t think much of it, but there was plenty of liquor to wash it down. After dinner Keith’s Dad’s band played a couple songs, and by then most of the older family and little kids had left, so we decided FOS would finally play. We did our best, and I think we sounded good aside from a couple minor errors. Keith did mention that he’s met another guitar player and we just might have a 2nd one for our band. After our show Hollee finally showed up and we all partied it up. Me and Hollee spent the night but relatively no one else did, it was rather empty in the morning.

Sunday after noon was spent on the couch. Me and Hollee watched football all day, and no I don’t want to talk about my Packers loss. In all fairness, we should get Petersen since Minnesota has our QB. Wonder how the game would have ended then? San Diego won so Hollee was happy, and I drowned my sorrows in Pizza we ordered for dinner. Not wanting to let the fun end there, I decided we should go see a movie, so we went and watched Saw VI. It was just as entertaining as the previous five, and I will definitely be picking up a copy of it when it’s released on DVD.

Yesterday I had the day from hell at work, and as a result I played hooky today. I decided I didn’t want to go in, and I decided to be productive with the time off. I went and made a payment on my fine, and then went and picked up some cleaning supplies because this place has gotten filthy! While I was at Wally World, I decided to grab a Wii points card, as they didn’t have the DVD I wanted to pick up that came out today. With the card, I ended up downloading another old Sega Genesis game, “Landstalker”, an RPG I owned as a kid. I also downloaded one of the Wii Ware titles, “Contra: Rebirth”. It plays identically to the games I remember playing as a kid, but the graphics are at least updated a bit, so it’s not quite as retro. I also checked out what I could download through Guitar Hero 5, and found that there are a bunch of songs that can be downloaded for free. Only problem is, by the time I figured this out my Wii’s internal memory is almost maxed out. So I downloaded a couple (only one for points, the last that I had) and will have to wait on the others. Time to buy a microSD card.

For the rest of the night I don’t really have any plans, but I know that I don’t have to work until 12 tomorrow, so I have all night literally, and my girl will be here sometime around 6. Life has been great lately. I haven’t gotten to play EQ2 all that much because of the busy weekend, but I’ll be back to it, as my first month sub is gone, but I decided to continue to pay for it.

Similarity on a Different Day

My EQ2 play time has been somewhat limited, but I’ve still managed to log on every couple of days. Because of my noted Alt-itus, I have been unable to pull away from the Wizard I had mentioned creating. He’s now over level 20, has quite a few AAs (I actually decided to use the AA slider on him, set at 25%), and is pretty much finished with the TD questlines. From here, it’s time to run through other lowbie zones and gather up disco and the like, and then head to BB to continue the leveling path. Avoiding quests in Antonica and the Commonlands is definitely a good leveling path, as cities such as Neriak and Timerous Deep have shown. They both encourage you to go straight to Butcherblock after the starting areas, and the leveling seems to go a lot faster than I remember in the past.

I still need work done on my mains, but I’ve found some fun with this new character, so I pretty much play what I feel like when I feel like it. I’m enjoying the game again, so I feel using this “I do what I want” plan is working for me. Maybe some day I’ll have the time and motivation to be in a guild again, and raid again, but I think getting my toons to max level is a priority before even thinking about it, and with another level cap increase coming sooner than later, I’m sure I’ll stay behind for a while. But I’m ok with that. I was never one of the elite raiders on my server, so it’s not like I have a reputation to uphold.

Some of my gaming time has been spent on consoles. As I mentioned previously, I purchased Guitar Hero 5. I have since beaten the career mode, though I still have some work to do as far as stars go. Ted also picked up a new (old) game, Soul Caliber IV, and we’ve been playing that quite a bit. The survival mode is quite challenging, and we’ve been working towards beating it, slowly but surely. There are a few other console games I wouldn’t mind trying, but I haven’t gotten around to making any other purchases.

The big event is coming up on Saturday. I’m ready. It’s going to be a blast. I will definitely have an account of the night here this weekend. I have the weekend off, and it’s going to be a good one. Don’t expect much life here on the site until the aftermath.