Did I Mention I HATE Moving?

That time is coming again. I moved into my sister’s apartment after splitting with my ex about a month an a half ago… really, it’s coming up on two months, and I’ll be here until the end of the month. Nothing is concrete, but I’m fairly certain I know where I’ll be going, and who I’ll be going with.

There are one of two options, but a decision has to be rapidly made. I’m either going to be moving in with a couple of my good friends, Ted and Tyler, into a 3 bedroom 2 bath duplex-like pad, which is my favored option. Or, I’ll be getting a one bedroom apartment by myself, that just so happens to be affordable for me. Either way, I’ll be living right in the same area. The apartments are off a main street, and if you turn off of that street, onto a street right next to the apartments, there’s a few streets with these duplexes on them. I happen to know a couple of guys from work that live in them with their families, and my buddies Howard and Shawn (who just might be working at the casino soon) live in one as well. So I’ve seen the inside already, and I know that I like them. The neighborhood happens to be pretty quiet as well, so I’m not concerned with drama. The places have garages too, so I can park my car inside and won’t have to stress about anything happening to it. So the major bases have been covered.

The 3 bedroom duplexes are going for $1100 a month, and split three ways it’s affordable, especially if the person who gets the master pays an extra hundred. I actually lied when I said there was only two options, the third option is getting a 2 bedroom duplex with just Ted. In that case, the rent is $975, and one of us would pay an extra hundred for the master. Otherwise, if shit doesn’t pan out, I’ll be moving into one of the apartments nearby for $560 a month. The latter option is the most expensive for me, but sometimes living on your own has its benefits.

The part I’m really hanging on is getting a portion of the deposit back from the house I lived in with my ex. She moved out on Friday/Saturday, as did her roommates. The walk-thru is supposed to happen tomorrow, and then the deposit should be granted soon enough. The owner of that house is being really cool, saying that he’d give us the full deposit back because he’s wanted us to move out of the house pretty much since we moved in. He realized his investment was a loss, and wanted to try to sell. Now that it’s been so long since we initially moved in, he’s probably lost a lot more. So he’s selling to a relative, and is still going to hook us up since we moved before the lease was up (which was in December). He also told her that she could have the fridge that was in the place when we moved in, but then said he’d give her more money if she left it, and she needs to buy a car so she left it. She’s the only one left on the lease, as the two of us were the only ones put on it originally, and after I left I was taken off. So I just have to hope she gives me a chunk of change when she gets the money.

I’m not worried though. We’ve become amicable again. We’ve hung out here and there, and I did help her move out. We’ve talked about our relationship, and we just might get back together, eventually. I’m the one holding that up to be honest, because she does want to get back with me now, I’m just not ready. If we do end up getting back together, we’ve agreed that we’ll stay living separately, and “start over”. When we got together way back, we jumped right in to living together. We actually were roommates before we were a couple, so we figured it wouldn’t be an issue. Now I’m beginning to think that it would have been a good idea to start off like a normal couple, dating, then maybe moving in, then working forward. But hindsight is 20/20, and I am looking at past events. Nonetheless, we’re working towards something, sort of. I’m not sure what will happen, it’s a work in progress. Some other chick may come sweep me off my feet in the meantime, or some dude with pick her up. I guess we’ll find out.

Aside from my preparations to move, I’ve been playing Final Fantasy Tactics A2 a lot. I really like the game, it reminds me of the original, though there’s some added features that are pretty cool. I’ve been reading up on the FF Wiki, and I’ve come to find out that I’ve screwed up royally, so I’m thinking I’m going to have to start over. I’ve got about 7 hours played and my clan members are all around level 10, and it’s unfortunate to have to start over, but I haven’t advanced my toons much. There’s initial skills each job can learn, and then other skill upgrades are learned through items. Other jobs can be opened by learning new skills on previously opened jobs, and still more jobs are opened through questing. I haven’t had a problem with the questing jobs, but I never really learned many skills, and I feel I’ve wasted a lot of time, and action points up until this point, and I should start over. Since the DS is portable I can play it away from home, and I did a bit of that over the weekend, so I wasn’t near my computer. Had I been sitting here in front of the computer with the wiki opened I would have figured this out sooner. Oh well.

I’ve decided not to activate my LOTRO account until after I move, as I don’t want to lose any time I could have been playing it. Had I activated it when I first bought the game, I probably could have cancelled before I moved, but that’s more of a hassle than it’s worth. There’s other things I’ll need to take care of after moving, like changing addresses and shit anyway, so I’ll just wait on it. I do enjoy the game, and I do plan to delve into it, but it can wait til next month. Hopefully everything goes smoothly with the move. I know that I need to buy a bed, and I no longer have a T.V., and I’m sure there’s other things I’ll need to pick up. Thankfully Ted has enough furniture to go around, so I shouldn’t be too bad off. Anyhow, wish me luck.

June In Review

Summer is back with a vengeance… June has been hot as hell! The year is officially over half gone, and though I don’t have a whole hell of a lot to show for it, time still marches on. I’m still living, still breathing, and still posting! Hopefully my readers are still enjoying what I have to say.

Basic Statistics:
1651 hits.
+31 over May (1620 hits).
-1656 under best month ever (3,307 hits, August ‘07).
435 total posts (including this one).
17,473 total hits to date.

Top Referrer:
A post I made on the EQ2 official forums, regarding Brigands.

New Linking Sites:
None this month There’s always next month.

Top Posts:
1. The Norrathian Newbie #4 - Which Race is Best for X Class? 
2. Race/Class Combinations
3. Over Two Years of Everquest 2
4. Neriak Newbie Guide
5. Neriak Crafter’s Guide (P.O.I.s) 
6. EQ2 Meme 
7. Dual Boxing
8. A Better Tank
9. The Norrathian Newbie - Control Effects 
10. The Norrathian Newbie #2 - Aggro Management 

No new posts even made the list this month, nearly all of the traffic to my blog is from EQ2 related posts, and almost all are pretty old. The order is different, but nearly all the pages are the same from last month.

Search Engine Terms:

Top: “lost souls“ (go figure the name of the blog would bring the most traffic)
Best: “scetches of arasai”  (spell check please?)

A Year in the Past:
In June of ‘07, I didn’t really do a whole lot, it was mostly work and then veg out on EQ2. I started getting into raiding a lot more, though a couple of posts made it seem as though I was missing out on some raids here and there. During the summer the Casino I work at has a lot of special events, so I ended up getting my days off changed quite a bit and that’s always a drag. I was driving the unit at work quite often though, and started really getting into talk radio, particularly the Tom Leykis show. I wrote this article in response to one of his topics.

The Present:
June of ‘08 was a strange month. I went back and forth between talking to and not talking to my ex wife. We’re friendly here and there, but then she’ll piss me off and I won’t talk to her for a while. But for whatever reason I always end up talking to her again. I’ve been going out with friends quite a bit and drinking far too much alcohol. I bought some movies, saw some movies, bought a Nintendo DS, and LOTRO. It’s been a good month overall, with spikes of irritation here and there. Hopefully July will bring more good things.

A Needed Expense

I got my brakes done today. I was fortunate enough to have the money to do so, because they were making a lot of noise, and it was quite irritating. I got a pretty good deal, because a friend from work told me about a place in town that had a special on brakes, so it didn’t cost me as much as I would have thought. So it was a needed expense, but I still wish I had the money in my pocket.

I did have a bit of fun with my money though, prior to the brake job. I ended up going to wally world the other day to look at a couple things, and ended up spending more than I had originally planned. But, I’m happy with the purchase, so no harm no foul I suppose. I ended up buying the Nintendo DS Lite, as I had mentioned thinking about purchasing previously. I wasn’t going to, but then I just said “fuck it” and did it. I wasn’t disappointed. I ended up picking up two games as well, the newly released Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 and Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. Both games are great, and I love the DS. I can see where the Nintendo has taken leaps and bounds as far as coming up with innovative hardware, because the Wii is interactive and a whole lot of fun, and the DS follows in it’s footsteps.

FFTA2 is very similar to the original FFT game I played on the PSOne, way back when I was in high school. The gameplay is nearly identical, though the info displays and other bits of the game are more stylized. Having two screens is nice too, because a lot of information is displayed on the static screen, while the action takes place on the touch screen. It keeps you from having to switch to different menus constantly, and allows for more fluid gameplay. I haven’t gotten too far with it, but I know that the game will keep me entertained for many hours, just as the original did. I’m a fan of the series.

I now see why so many people have raved about the Lego games. I was always of the opinion that they were meant strictly for kids, and wouldn’t provide a challenge for an adult. I was wrong. Granted, nothing has truly challenged me about the game, but there is a level of depth that adds to the replay, and I have only cleared Raiders of the Lost Ark thus far. I still have many adventures ahead of me. The part of the game that sucks you in is the fact that it’s just like playing with Legos (which I did a lot of as a kid), where you get to build things, and run around fighting and whatnot, but it also follows the story of the original Indiana Jones trilogy, movies which I’ve always enjoyed (and just recently purchased). There is a ton of hidden content, things to buy, things to find, it’s just a lot of fun. And for the first time in a long time, I was able to get into “the zone”, where I played a game for a long period of time without paying attention to the time, and hours passed in what seemed like minutes. The DS has been a worthy purchase.

I have yet to activate my LOTRO account, and I know that my trial has expired. I will be doing so soon, because I do want to continue to delve into that game. It’s another movie-related game that I can really get into, I just went about so casually during the trial. So things have been interesting on the gaming side of life.

In other news, I’ve been talking with Ted more seriously about getting a place. I’m not too thrilled sleeping on an air mattress at my sister’s house, so I want to be out of here by the 1st of August. That gives me a month to get my shit together and go. It’s still up in the air as far as who I’ll be moving with, or if I’ll be getting a place by myself. I did find out that there are some apartments in a pretty decent area of town that are quite affordable, so I just might end up going there to get a place by myself if that’s the path I choose. Otherwise, Ted and Tyler want to get a 3 bedroom house, but I don’t really see that happening. Pretty much at this point I either want to get a 2 bedroom house/duplex/apartment with Ted, or just an apartment by myself. I’m starting to lean towards the latter. I guess we’ll see what happens.

Where Does The Time Go?

June has nearly passed, along with half of 2008. Honestly, where the hell does all the time go? Before I know it I’m going to be 30, then 40, and so on. I remember when years used to seem like years, and now they seem like months… I assume the older you get the faster it goes, so soon enough the years will feel like days, and then only moments… and then I’ll be dead. Hopefully it doesn’t come too quickly… there’s still a lot of things I want to do.

I’ve spent a little bit of money on myself the past couple of days. Yesterday I called off because I didn’t feel much like working. When I got up I lounged around for a while, and then I decided that I was going to go buy a movie, grab some food, and come home to eat and watch. I went to Wal-mart and was unimpressed by any of the new releases. I looked through the cheap DVD racks, and was still unable to find anything I couldn’t live without. I continued to browse though, and eventually fell upon “The Adventure Collection”, which is the original Indiana Jones trilogy. This is something I’ve wanted to pick up for quite some time, and having recently watched The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I wanted to watch the originals. Out of the original three, the first was released before I was born, the second when I was a year old, and the third I got to see in the theater (plus I had watched the first two before then). So of course I’m a fan, and I will purchase the fourth when it’s released on DVD. All great movies, and I’m surprised how well the originals stood the test of time. I watched Raiders yesterday, and it was a real treat, despite being 27 years old.

In the interim I got some calls from friends and found out about a group of them going to someone’s house to go swimming, barbecue and all that. So after the movie I headed out. I had to stop and buy some board shorts since I haven’t had any in years, and then I bought some beer, and then headed over. It was a friend from work’s mom’s house. There were a few other friends from work there, along with more of her family, and a bunch of kids. Overall it was a good time, I ended up in the pool for a little while and then in the jacuzzi drinkin beers til around midnight when everyone decided it was time to call it a night.

Today I lounged around some more, until I decided I needed to buy a new pair of shoes. The ones I had been wearing were looking pretty shitty; falling apart. So I headed over to my favorite place to buy skate shoes, and took a gander at their selection. I ended up liking a couple different pairs, but decided on the pair of DVS I’m now wearing.

I got tattooed the other day. Amanda’s (my ex-girlfriend from way back) boyfriend Keith has a friend named Scottie who does tattoos, and I was invited to partake. He ended up hooking me up with the Tiger Army bat, then some fill on existing line work. For $60 it was fair-priced, and he did good work. I’ll be going back to him again some day. Today I had an appointment with my normal tattoo artist Mike, but he ended up pushing me back to Sunday, so I might be getting it done then. I don’t know yet, because I have some more pressing things to take care of and after I get my pay check today I will know what I’ll have left over. So that’s pretty much up in the air for now.

Later on tonight I’m supposed to go to a friend’s and then possibly to a club in Riverside. Not sure exactly what’s going to happen. I’ve talked to a few other people with other plans, and I’m not sure what I’ll choose to do, but nonetheless I’m going to try to have some fun tonight. That’s about all for now.

Cabal Sucks, Back to LOTRO

So as I mentioned I downloaded the free-to-play MMO Cabal Online. I played it for about 10 minutes after character creation, and just couldn’t get into it. I died more times than I can count just trying to get into the swing of moving and combat. Click-to-move is a dated system, that is for sure, and I disliked not having an auto attack. Graphically the game looked pretty nice, and I did like the effects in combat, but I wasn’t really feeling it otherwise. It has since been removed from my computer.

I finally got my stimulus check on Monday. It was 3 days late, but much needed. I had planned on buying a Nintendo DS with that money, but decided better of it, mainly because I’m trying to hold onto money and not blow quite so much of it now. So instead I went in search of a copy of LOTRO. I had previously looked at a couple stores in town without luck, so I decided to stop by Game Stop and see if I could get lucky. I did, as they had two copies. One was the regular version of the game, the second was a “collector’s” edition, but in an effort to save money I picked the regular version. Well, to my surprise, they were charging the same for both, and because the game is a year old I got the collector edition for $20. It came with some in-game bullshit and a DVD. I have yet to check any of that out. I actually haven’t even activated it yet because there’s a day or two left on my trial.

Otherwise, I’m waiting for my pay check next week to go get my brakes done on my car. They’re beginning to squeal and it’s getting pretty fuckin’ annoying. Aside from that I have a couple other bills to pay and then I’m golden. I ended up hanging out with some old friends the other day, and went to their apartment. The guy is a friend from way back, and his wife was one of my old friend’s ex-girlfriends, so I’ve known ‘em both for years. Anyway, we ended up bullshitting about their apartment, and they had a pretty decent sized 2 bedroom that was town-home style (two stories). He told me they only pay $600/month and that’s just awesome. I told Ted about it and he seems interested, so I’m gonna try to get some more info and maybe we’ll be moving soon. Time will tell. I’ll keep ya posted.