Well, another night of MW2 gaming was cut short due to power problems. While Reibo and I were in the pre-game lobby with JKDJose, Big Bad Wolfe, Koala Lama, and BG Johnny, the power went out on us for a minute or so. After it came back on, we messaged everybody that we were thru for the night. A while later, the power went out again momentarily, reinforcing our decision. It was a mercy killing for me. I got annihilated on Highrise by a team using FMJ attachments to spam through all the walls. I did manage to get a Rival challenge by shooting one guy 5 times in the same match, but it was cold comfort considering I went double-negative in the match. There was no way to hold down any area at all since the bullets came flying through multiple walls like they weren't even there... And, of course, graciousness was in short supply on the winning team, also. Douchebags.
The details of the Model Warfare 2 DLC have been released. In this Xbox Live Marketplace link, the DLC shows a release date of 01/01/0001, so it's possible that the offering was not meant to be visible yet. "The Stimulus Package delivers 5 additional action-packed multiplayer maps featuring a variety of locations: "Storm," an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery; "Salvage," a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars. Two legendary fan-favorites from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare return, including "Crash," a war-torn urban environment; and "Overgrown," which features a massive dry creek bed." Today, the new is out that the map pack will cost you $15 US on Xbox Live, which is sure to piss a lot of people off. On to the links:
Featured MW2 YouTube Video
Modern Warfare 2: Team DeathMatch #42 by DubbleJord
I have received an official offer from my employer, offering me a good settlement and a severance date of the 31st of March. That's two weeks on Wednesday.
I always had planned on going to Uni, regardless, but this will make things so much easier for us. Having now been discharged from Bankruptcy, the offer comes at the perfect time.
My girlfriend and I are now in the process of drawing up 'wish lists' of stuff to treat ourselves to, in an effort to make up for spending the past three years getting by on the bare minimum and no more.
So, it's a PS3, more games than I can shake a stick at, and a metric ton of RPG-related paraphernalia ahoy!!
Taking a two week break from the blog / news etc. A few blogs ago I talked about a possible lead on a job ending my 16 month unemployment run, longest i've ever been unemployed. Anyway it's not a permanent gig, they're bringing me on for two weeks as a contractor and will renew for two weeks at the end of each two week period until they decide to make a permanent offer or fill the position with recruiting someone else. So basically I need to be totally focused , no screwing around at work And we'll see what happens from there. I'll probably adjust to doing the blog in the evenings for the next little while instead of the morning.
Anyway off to 'work' tomorrow, i have to get up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am... who the hell gets up at 5:30? It's inhumane !
So I went out ths past Thursday with a very nice woman. She was smart, educated, well spoken, funny... I thought this was going to be the one but I was wrong. I think I may have misread some signals when we first met. That night she was definitely giving off some let's be friends vibes. Ah well. She was nice and I did like hanging out with her so that was cool. I don't mind being friends. I just wish it was going to be something else.
Occassionally I get asked about the name Habu (Hah-boo) and if it has any meaning. It really doesn't have a specific meaning, but here's where the name came from.
Once upon a time, (the late 1980's to be exact) courtesy of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children I was happened to be on the island paradise of Okinawa for some fun in the sun. The island is home to a poisonous snake called a Habu. I always liked the name. It sounded cool.
The Habu is a viper about 4 feet long, green and black. Incidentally, I learned later that the SR-71 blackbirds stationed at Kadena AFB were also called Habus.
Fast foward twenty years later and I'm getting my xbox live account started. I was playing the "H" game at the time and went online to try multiplayer. I needed a gamertag and I couldn't really think of anything that I liked and I didn't want anything identifying my personal life. Habu just popped up and because I still thought it was a cool name, I put it in as my gamer tag and wouldn't you know, someone else had already claimed that name. I added the 06 just for the year and there you go; Habu06. I kept the name even though I wasn't playing multiplayer. I didn't get back into playing online until COD 4 and MW2.
I don't use the 06 so just stick with "Habu" unless for some bizzarre reason the other habu is in the same game then I guess use the 6 part.
Its easy to pronounce and every once in a while, someone will see it and I'll hear "HAAAAAAABOOOOOOOO" so apparently to some people, its also fun to say.
I'm not going to say that lawyers are the cause of all the problems in this world, but they come pretty damn close. And let me clarify. Divorce lawyers suck. All other lawyers are ok in my book.
I've been fighting for my kids for almost 4 years now. The lawyers involved do not care one wit about the kids and the pain they cause. All they want is their blood money.
I've hired another attorney who thought i have a pretty good chance at getting the kids back because their mother is so damn crazy. But he too is showing that he just wants the money and not do a damn thing to earn it. I could do a better job - but judges hate it when you go pro se and they are prejudiced against you. so you are forced to use a damn stupid divorce attorney who has zero capacity for details.
sigh...
some day in the future i just pray that i can explain to my kids that i NEVER ONCE gave up trying to fight for them and their sanity. I've drained all my resources and yet i still am going at it. My kids deserve to have a normal life despite what their mother and the court system thinks.
Their mother has borderline personality disorder. Is an alcoholic (has gotten two DUI's), has been reported to child services numerous times, has no job, is tens of thousands of dollars in debt, has no friends and makes it her number one job to keep the kids from ever talking to me or seeing me. I have a great job, friends, close all my family (and hers), can provide a great stable environment for the kids and for their future. Yet, none of this seems to make a difference to the court.
Some day the balances of justice will prevail. Maybe not tomorrow or the next or even within my lifetime, but they will prevail.
and back to my reason for the post. If lawyers for divorces were actual human beings instead of scum sucking bottom feeders, they would have one thing and one thing only as their goal. make sure the kids have the best environment to grow up in.
Gaming Budgets... Do you have one? Do you stick with it?
Both this gaming season and last gaming season, I created a gmaing budget and, for hte most part I stuck with it. I found that I was wasting lots of money on games I didn't *love*. What I found worse than losing money was losing time. I don't game as much as some (most?) of the folks on this site. If i can get 3 hours a night in I am SO lucky... but that doesn't happen too often. I'm looking at 2 hours usually. I never game Fridays, and rarely Saturday nights (unless I'm sick) and usually during the week I get somewhere between 2-4 nights in. Sometimes it's none. Considering I swear some of you are on all night, every night: my gaming time is tight. So all this translates into something from 4-12 hours in a week. Again, unless I'm sick and it's just what I want to do instead of feeling miserable with a cup of tea and a book.
So, in light of my tight time budget, I decided to not purchase games that I wouldn't have time for in order to make time for the genres and game that I would love. This means FPS games have all but gone from my library. Last year, if I remember correctly, I budgeted for Fallout 3, and Batman Arkham Asylum. I know there was one more, but I can't remember it. But after all was said and done, my man said to me... "Hun, Fable 2 has a dog... you KNOW you want it..." And since I had the time... I went against my buget. Lo and behold, I did love Fable 2. So it wasn't a waste of my time.
This year on my budget I have Mass Effect 2, Dragon's Age: Origins, Final Fantasy XIII and Spliinter Cell: Conviction as well as their respective DLC. So that means I have eaten up my budget my mid-April... and next "season" doesn't start until fall. That is it for moi.
So... how do you guys (and gals) set a gaming budget? Or do you? Is it $ that is the driver, or time? When do you create this budget? Is it like me, where I know at the start of the year what games I will purchase, or do you day "I get one game a month." and wait and see what tickles your fancy at that time?
EdIT: Dammit... I wanted to change my avatar... but my pic is too small... gotta go crop it. In the meantime, ya'll get pixelated moi
And we'll see what happens from there. I'll probably adjust to doing the blog in the evenings for the next little while instead of the morning.
