An Indepth Look Into A Geek's Soul

That's right folks, the most awesome and splended of all features this website ever had to offer is back once again!  This time it will be a double treat for you guys, mostly because there will be two pictures for you.  We'll start with the character I made this time around.

As you can see, I have made myself a Human Warrior.  For those of you who remember the last WoWkly updates, I used to have a Tauren Warrior instead.  I decided to give a human a try mostly because we rock, and go with warrior again just because I like being able to take a huge amount of damage.  My tauren was a guy who was based more on the whole "smash your face; repeat" kind of character.  This guy is all board and sword (or in the current case, mace).  He pretty much wants to stay alive no matter what and I think he does a fairly decent job so far.

Here's what he looks like now.

As you can see, I have a horse.  That is pure awesome.  I always love getting mounts in this game.  It's just nice being able to travel to other places quickly.  Besides that, I'm a good deal stronger and a good deal more experienced.  I forgot how much I liked playing with the Alliance in this game.  I just think that there is a stronger unity (at least story wise) on this side.  The only down side?  Not really sure.  I think the next time that I get on when I have a good chunk of time left I'll have to try and complete my first ever dungeon.  This means having to rely on other people and having them rely on me.  I'll post how it goes.  Unitl next Friday guys.

Peace Out.

I've noticed lately that comics seem to slowly be creeping back into my life.  Part of this might have to do with a little bit more money in my pocket, but I think the majority of this has to do with finding someone who loves comics in a rather sane way.  Now, I'm not saying that Collin is insane about his comics (he totally is though) but Megan is just so much more chill about them.  She likes them for what they are:  fucking awesome pieces of work.  She reads them to both have some fun and to actually learn more about the history of the comics.  Plus, she doesn't even hold it against you when don't know anything.  It's rather refreshing.

You know what isn't refreshing though?  The comic store up here.  It's rather close minded in general.  The people there are all very into their comics and you get this silent judgment when you walk in like you don't really belong there because you are not one of them.  It's almost like you are looked down upon just because you have not devoted your entire life and existence to this heavenly art form.  It's kind of annoying, and though I've tried to defend them in the past, I think I might just slowly stop going there unless I'm forced to.

I've (and by I've I mean Megan) found this website where you can get all the comics you pretty much want and just have them shipped to your house, bagged and boarded.  I think I like that idea far more.  It's easier to browse the comics without someone being around, you can pick and choose freely, and they do have a larger selection of comics than what is available here in town, even if it's mostly newer stuff.  Overall, I'm happy with this new service, and I think that it might be something that I stick with for awhile.

Peace Out.

So there's this little game coming out that you may have heard of called Star Wars The Old Republic.  It's the newest game to come out of the same studio that brought you great games like Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age:  Origins, BioWare.  It's going to be the first fully voiced MMO out there on the market.  Not only that, but it will also have individually tailored gameplay for each and every character.  No longer could you roll up different charaters and play through in different ways and get the same quests.  Even answering a quesiton differently in this game can change how the game plays for you.

It takes play about three thousand years before the traditional Star Wars movies, at a time when the Sith Empire and the Republic have declared an uneasy truce.  This pretty much allows for a huge amount of players to be both Sith and Jedi, seeing as how both were in huge abundances back in those days.  The playable races for the Republic include a trooper, a smuggler, a Jedi knight, and a Jedi Counslar.  For the Sith, you have bounty hunters, Sith warriors, imperial agents, and Sith inquisitors.  It's not going to nearly as over the top look as WoW does, but it does give you a nice "stylized realism" that you've probably seen before in other BioWare games.

Personally, I'm torn between who I want my first main guy to be.  I've narrowed it down of course.  I'll play for the Republic, the good side, seeing as how I'm all about honor and valor and you know, following laws.  Secondly, I've widdled it down to either the Republic Trooper of the Jedi Knight.  Both have their pros and cons, and I think I know which one I want to be, but it's still a tough choice.  On one hand, you can play as the Trooper, who gets to wear heavy armor, weild the biggest gun someone can carry, and throw sticky grenades at people who then happen to blow up.  On the other hand though, you can play as a freaking Jedi and who hasn't wanted to do that since they were like five.?  I think I'll be going as a Trooper just for the simple fact that I think it's going to be a tank class, and I love classes that can absorb a lot of damage while also dishing some back out.  We'll see how it goes when the game gets closer to launch and they tell you more about it.

I'm hoping that by the time this game comes out, I'll have a small little group of friends who most definitely want to try it out.  Maybe we'll team up and just take on the Sith Empire and bring them down.  Or maybe we'll be on other sides and have to try to take each other down.  Either way, this is sure to be a lot of fun.  If you guys are interested in learning more, go ahead and click here to go to the website to learn more and look at the awesome photos and movies that are up.  And of course, may the Force be with you.

Peace Out.

I'm so fed up with where I am at with my job.  It all just seems like mindless automations where I just cannot ever do well enough for those that are above me.  I may get a small comment when I do a good job, but if I mess oh is there hell to pay.  Of course there is.  They never look at the good, only the bad.  They don't notice when I'm doing everything in my power to make a sale a successful one.  No one cares when I land a cheap computer sale with every attachment that the guys can put in a cart.  Instead, they notice when I'm not using my folder, when I'm not pounching on a customer if they are within ten feet of me, when I stop to talk to an employee for five seconds.  It is pointless and rather irritating.

What is really happening is that they are slowly devouring what little is left of my patience and values.  I feel like that I value what the customer wants and needs better than anyone else.  I'm the first to give them space if they need it or give them that extra push if they want something and just can't make up their minds.  I actually follow that TRUST training that the managers are always pushing on us, yet will so rarely follow.  No, instead they push push push a customer into something, hammering whatever drivel we are supposed to selling in force that day.  That's not what TRUST is all about people.  Not at all.

I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I'll be so damn happy when I'm out of there.  I'll be happy when I have a regular schedule and can actually get scheduled for mornings, when I'm doing something that is actually helpful to people, and when I can actually be happy and proud to go to work.  Hopefully it'll be sooner than later, but knowing my luck, it won't be. 

Sorry for the rantfest.

Peace Out.

Yeah, I know, I'm terrible at doing this.  And yeah, I realize Monday is a Top Ten day, and not just a random picture day.  Anyways, just look at these, enjoy them for the silliness, and just have a good time.

First off, a very real look at how most guys feel about flowers.

Next, what is perhaps the greatest thing ever thought of.  I think that we need to make a movie series, a television series, and a couple of comics about this.  All fear that Talibannosaurs Rex.

And finally, a cat wearing a Batman mask.  This is all awesome.

Peace Out.

Looking outside, I can hardly tell that I'm on my glorious summer vacation.  I think that the weather of Northern Michigan right now is pretending to be jolly old England, what with it's wet, clamy self.  It's really been all over the place to be completely honest.  There are days when it is nice as anything and days like this when you wouldn't want to take two steps outside.  But hey, weather is weather, and there's nothing one can do about it when you live up north.

The break has been a pretty sweet one so far.  I've had plenty of time to just relax and not worry about work or school or anything really.  I think that this is what I've been waiting for all school year.  It is supremely nice to just lay around the house, not doing a single thing.  I can lounge and read, play some Pokemon, ignore this blog, things like that.  Those are all things that you should be able to do all the time.

I think the greatest thing I like about this summer is the fact that I get to be with my girlfriend, Megan, almost constantly.  It's awesome.  This girl is simply amazing.  I may have fallen for other people in the past, but it is nothing at all like I feel for Megan.  I really do think that she's the love of my life.  Every time that I see her, my heart skips a beat.  I've never once had this happen in my life.  She makes me happier than anything else, even happier than playing some Dungeons and Dragons game.  With any luck, we will be together for a long, long time. 

Peace Out.

I didn't always want to be an accountant.  Few kids really do.  When was the last time that you saw a kid with a calculator and tax charts, hunched over a desk for hours, trying to get the facts and figures to come out right.  No. In fact, I rather wanted to be an astronomer, and it is something that I still enjoy.  The weather is getting nicer and nicer out and with that my wanderlust and joy of the outdoors is again on the rise.  I rather like the idea of laying on the dock at my grandpa's, looking up into the stars, just loosing myself in them.  It's something that I'll always enjoy, and I'm rather happy that I deided not to become an astronomer.  I think it would have taken the joy out of my love for space if I become all hardcore educated about it.

Accounting, however, has grabbed my attention ever since I started going to NMC.  I'm not sure what it was that really grabbed me about the whole field of study.  I think I just suddenly realized that it would be a lot easier to find a job and earn a better paying by doing taxes for other people than looking for new stars to name.  It also helps a lot that I'm doing pretty fantastic in my accounting class.  It really makes me feel like I'm going to be a great success in the field.  I hope that I am.  To excel in one thing, better than the majority of my friends, is also a huge ego booster.

That isn't to say that I'm totally okay with that yet.  There are times when I get really excited that I am able to solve a problem without lifting a finger, or struggling with one and then just totally destorying it later on.  Then about five seconds later I give a little sigh with disgust that I enjoy doing this kind of thing.  It's kind of crazy to be completely honest.  There is also the fact that I am slowly turning into a terrible homework doer.  This could negatively effect me and the cockiness that I've been builing up towards my career.  These are both issues that should probably be looked into.

Peace Out.

So, with all this crazy stuff going on in the world today, I have decided to start following the news more closely.  I'm hoping to look at the news fairly, which means going to more than just the usual Yahoo news site that I'm normally reading.  No, I'll actually go out and look at other things that the web has to offer.  For the moment I plan on reading foxnews.com as well as msnbc.com.  I figure that way I'll get the widest possible range of news.  Hopefully I'll be able to put together the most truthful version of events, though I know I'll be stuck sifting through all the bias each site has to offer.

I'm not sure why I've suddenly decided to get so interested in the news. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that there is a lot happening on the national arena and I'm not totally sure of the facts.  I would like to enter into conversations with people about these kinds of things and well, not knowing all the facts and figures is never a good thing when trying this kind of thing.  Just thought you all should know.

Peace Out.

There are many things in my past that make me wonder what I would have been like if I had never been involved in it.  The biggest thing right now would be Magic.  It's a simple card game at the core of it, yet at the same time it's wonderfully complex and I don't think that anyone could really ever be considered an expert at it, no matter how good of a deck they manage to build.  A game like this really only comes around once in a long while and I am glad that I was able to jump onto this bandwagon at the age that I did.

I think that I first started the game in fifth grade.  If I remember correctly, it was right before I got into the whole Pokemon card thing as well.  I could be wrong, but oh well.  I remember opening my first pack, Stronghold, and being sucked in by the one card in specific:  Flame Wave.  It was flashy, it was big, and it had a guy riding a surfboard on a wave of flames.  Tell me how that is not cool?  Plus, I think people just like red spells to start off with, and boy was Flame Wave red.

My first deck was a green one.  It was fueled by Llanowar Elves and was pretty much  just built around getting out the biggest creature possible and hoping for the best.  Back then, it really was the best too, as far as my group of friends was concerned.  The backbone of the deck came in the form of a 7/7 brute by the name of Thorn Elemental.  To this day, it is still a card that I look foundly upon, even if it's not the best card out there on the market.  It led me to such amazing victories that I could really care less if it wasn't the greatest out there and people would rather play Rhox instead.

It would take me until high school to get my friends addicted to the game however.  Joel was the first one to fall, becoming completely addicted to Magic during the time that Mirrodin came out.  I don't think I've ever collected so much of any one set before.  Between the two of us, I'm fairly certain we had the majority of that one set, if not the entire block.  It wasn't long before he became a better player than me either.  The kid has some insane skills when it comes to the game, skills I will never really have.  His Angel deck was something to be admired, while his Slivers completely dominated me.  The only way I ever stood a chance against those decks was when I played my Zombie deck.  Being pure black and already dead does have it's advantages.  I think it is still my best deck to this date.

I remember playing some crazy multiplayer games during free period in my senior year at high school.  There was a group of about five of us who would go to our physics room and just play at the table for a solid fifty five minutes.  We even kept a tally of who was the worse player there (turns out it was Ankit) and overall it was a lot of fun.  I was sad when I left, because my pool of players decreased by a good 80%.

However, it decreased to zero when I first moved up to Michigan.  No one up here wanted to play and the guys at the card shop all were those jerky, elitest kind of players that I rather dislike, so I wouldn't play with them either.  In fact, I hardly touched my cards for over a year.  It wasn't until I started working at the Writing Center that I really started playing again.  I had to teach the whole crew all the rules from scratch, and we don't play the current edition.  I figure that is just far too much work, especially because I don't know the new rules too terribly well.

I guess the real point of this story is just to see how my life has kind of changed around Magic, and how Magic has changed around my life.  I think no matter what happens, I will always been into Magic, even if there are a few sets I'm not terribly huge on.  While most of the other guys that I know of stopped playing Magic when they were in eigth grade, I don't plan on stopping until my grandkips are in their eigth grade.

Peace Out.

Man, a lot has been going on since I've last updated.  I'd say the biggest thing that has happened is that I've found this crazy new game on Facebook called Warstorm.  It's freaking sweet.  Think of Magic, but without all the skill involved.  Basically what you have for a deck is a leader and then 6 other cards.  These other cards can be anything ranging from foot soliders to mages, to spells and artifacts, and even some rather powerful dragons.  Instead of using mana, like inMagic, or energy, like in Pokemon, you actually use time itself!  Only that makes it sound a bit cooler than it actually is.  Every round the casting cost of the card goes down and when enough turns have passed, the card is automatically played.  If you guys are familiar with it, think of the whole Suspend mechanic from Magic during the Time Spiral block.

Anyways, beyond that it's been mostly work and school, or school and work, or schoo, work and work.  Some combination of that.  It's kind of a drag, but hey, it's fair and honest and something that I think the majority of people go through at one point in their lives.  Tonight is another bowling night of course, being Tuesday, and while my chances dont' look good, I look forward to some kick ass times with Collin.  The kid makes it easy to live up here at times.  Other times, I just want to hear about something other than the newest indie comic to hit the market.  And not indie in the good way either. 

Anyways, I think this might be all for now.  I'm trying to back into the groove of things.  Hopefully things will develop at a pretty good clip, though who the hell knows.  Sorry again about the huge three and a half week delay betwween any real writing.  With any luck, I won't screw this up again.  Also, look forward to a rather large announcement in the coming months.  You'll all be shocked at what is going to hit the fan.

Peace Out.