Out of school (for now) ... on to the next step

My brother, Thomas, has another benefit concert happening on December 16th at the Oregon Express in Dayton. This is helping raise funds to help him pay his medical bills he incurred after his stroke.

There have been a few and this should be the first one that I would be able to attend, as I was just too busy with school projects previously. It should be fun. Here's the banner ad he supplied me, but it's impossible to even read what's going on in the ad (too fast). Go to the website if you want info.

The right way (or the highway)

I'm so sick of I-75 that I've sworn off using it in the foresee-able future (especially going to/from school).

Going down to class the past couple of weeks, the traffic has been pretty heavy, and sometimes I've had to watch out for very slow or stopped traffic, but last Thursday, going down to college, I was stuck for over an hour making me late for class by about an hour. Then, yesterday, I just happened to be up in the morning (well, actually I stayed up night, but that's another issue). I saw a news story about a 7-car accident on I-75 causing delays, so I took that into account when I was finally ready to go down to campus and found alternate routes off of the highway if there was any sign of traffic. Well, there was none, so I kept on right through, though there was no shortage of asshole drivers.

Well, after being up (and having done a rigorous exercise routine earlier in the day), I barely made it through my professor's boring lecture, so I was absolutely ready to go home as quick as possible and I've never had any problem going I-75 North from Dayton, so I thought I'd be fine. Boy, was I wrong!

At about the Needmore exit, traffic began piling up and came to a complete stop. This was somewhat understandable as they have been doing construction work on the I-70/I-75 Interchange, and the left-most lane has been closed for a while (though none of the asshole drivers know how to read the sign and expected us to let them in or suffer an accident; I have a guideline: if you don't have your turn-signal on, then you don't get in front of me). This would have made for some sketchy situations as per usual, but tonight both left lanes were closed and they didn't tell us beforehand. So, the lane that I was in was closed as well and, even using my turn-signal, I barely made it over before I absolutely had to change lanes (people don't seem to follow my rule of being courteous to drivers who signal when they change lanes).

I was stuck in traffic for about an hour and it was down to one lane at the I-70/I-75 Interchange, with people merging in making it even more dangerous. Then, when the whole merging over business was done with, traffic seemed to pick the pace, though we couldn't really go that fast, as the lanes were bordered closely with cones and the lanes were moving past construction workers.

Finally, the construction ended right before the exit I was going to take. I was so frustrated by this inconvenience, but I was glad to past the trouble spot and was dreaming of my couch & bed. Well, the route I was taking was closed due to construction at the railroad tracks, so I had to take a detour north for quite a ways and the next route I could take was at another road with a railroad crossing, which unfortunately had a train crossing it when I finally got up to it. Just one delay after another.

At this time, I had to take a leak really badly, so I put it in reverse and kept on Hyatt and decided to drop in on where my brother's staying, though when it looked like nobody was there, I decided to head to Burger King to use the facilities and get some food. Then, while I was waiting for my food, I must have been standing there for about 15 min., though there there was nobody else in line.

Not all was bad yesterday, though: I saw Dan's friend, Enrique at the Sinclair library (with his Asian classmate he has a crush on). I was able to get my paper done, make copies, though I left my Tartan card in the copy machine and nearly forgot it because I was in such a hurry to finish my paper and make it to class. I noticed it wasn't in my wallet when I was buying Starbucks. Somebody had taken it out of the machine and set it on top. Then, on the way to class, I saw a friend I used to work with at Menlo. I hadn't seen him in months, but I couldn't really stop to talk. I made it to class, and the professor surprising let all us study the terms before our quiz for a few minutes. Without doing so, I would have bombed it worse than I had the previous one.

No Hobart for you!

The job-nazi spat this in my face as I got a call from Rachel (a very nice-looking woman) whom I met with Wednesday.

She told me that I might be able to get into the other location of Honda, but that they were 2nd-shift and I wouldn't be able to do that because of my class schedule.

Then, she told me of her friend who works at Honda and told me to call her about possibly getting a job there.

I might get a job at Hobart

Well, I just got a call on Tue. and went in for a tour today, so if I get picked, I should hear by this Friday if I got the job. If I do, I should be starting by next Tue. or Wed.

If I don't get that job (which would be great, other than it's further away from home than my last job), there's still a possibility that I could get in at a job where an acquaintance works.

I'm not too worried about getting a job (at least not this week). I like the free-time, but I need a steady income to get me out of debt.

Oh, that reminds me; getting out of debt was one of the goals I had for this year (or was it last year?). Well, I've got most of my credit (which was at ~$4,000 before I started work at my last job) onto a 0% APR credit card so I'm not getting hit with compound interest while I pay off my debt. That has helped a little, but the real thing that has helped me cut my debt in half in about 5 months was to come up with a simple ratio for my money and get Quicken to help me keep tabs on where I put my money. Also, to get a debit card and use that instead of credit. I've also tried not to eat out much and curb my spending habits.

I've got a little over $1, 000 in savings and about the same in a checking account I use for all my bills and spending. If I was to pay off my credit with my money I have saved in both accounts, I would be almost in the black (that might have changed to black with my last paycheck I will receive from my last job). I like the control I feel I have over my expenses and using Quicken to visually see where my money goes and what I spend the most on has been really fun, actually.

School, sleep, (look for work?)

Well, yesterday was my last day of work and to celebrate, some of the people from work went bowling at a local bowling alley. For some of the people working there, it was the end of an era, but for me, it was just a short (but very long) 5 months.

While I don't get along with everybody (in fact, there were a few people I had a hard time with, or they had a hard time with me), it was nice that I could go and have a fun time with a few of the people I'd worked with nearly every day for almost half a year. I didn't really get to make friends with anybody there, but I wouldn't mind getting together in the future.

Anyway, I'll have a LOT of free-time on my hands now and it'd be a good chance to get some of the homework I have to do for my classes next week, but I don't want to get sedentary again and lazy.

GET A JOB!!

School, work, sleep(?)

Well, I haven't posted in a while, but that's isn't because I haven't had anything to say. Currently, I'm in my second week of college (first time back in about 5 years), and still working, though my job I've been at for nearly 5 months will be over next week (they're moving operations to Columbus, OH).

There's been hard things to deal with at this job, but there isn't much stress involved and it's close to home. After I get out of work, I have an hour to drive down to Sinclair Community College in Dayton. This quarter is my first time at Sinclair (I'm a transfer student) and it was a little scary trying to find my way around campus and finding the best parking spot, but my classes meet only once a week, so I can leave my homework for the weekends if I don't have any energy left after work on the weekdays.

I just got fitted for a tuxedo I'm going to be renting for my brother's wedding in about a month. This will be the first wedding I've not got to sit in the audience for (I'm one of the groomsman).

Okay, I'm tired and I'll end it now before I spend all night on this entry. Later!

Addition: I almost forgot to say something about my birthday which is September 14th. I'm writing this on the 23rd and I still haven't gotten to do really anything for my birthday, or received any presents. : ( I'll change that though in the near future.

"are you receiving me?"

"Can you hear me now?"

Just a post to get some response in my comments. While I mainly post on my blog for myself (as a way to write down my thoughts, a record of the events going on in my life), I also try to write things from a perspective that others may read it. The thing is, since noone write comments on my blog, I'm not even sure if anyone even reads it.

I don't need to be an internet personality or want 'fame' from my efforts here, as the only people I think would even benefit from my musings or ramblings is people I know personally. I just would like an echo back once in a while from people I know to let me know they care. :D

[I'm pretty sure you don't need a Blogger account to post, but in order to curb my comments from being spammed by robots with useless junk, you have to be able to confirm that you see a picture with words and letters to comment on my blog.]

See you in a couple months...

My sister just went back home to Fairbanks, Alaska early this morning, but she will (hopefully) come back to Ohio for our brother's wedding in October. She'd been down here visiting friends and family for about 2 weeks. She brought her trusty dog, Molly, down with her to keep her company (and to keep an eye on her).

Sunday, June 9th, we tried to get over to Fairfield Commons to watch Pirates 2 with some of her friends, but I-675 was completedly shut down. I've never seen this before and I never heard the reason it was closed. We took another route and it took a lot longer than we thought, but everything worked out when we got to the theater because her friends got there late, too and we all sat together. Oh, the CGI in Pirates was great, but there was just too much going on. It was still decent, though.

Monday, June 10th: Marty, my sister, invited me to go eat with our older brother and his fiancee at a nice sushi restaurant down near the Dayton Mall (Kai Sushi Cafe). This was actually my second time here and it was the first place I had "real" sushi.

I had the Sushi Cafe Combo and when it arrived, I was greeted by a some rolls with fish eggs (one with a quail egg on top and another with sea urchin on top) and a scary-looking shrimp head. I decided I wouldn't eat the shrimp head (but my brother did) and I saved the quail egg roll for the very last (when I was almost through my bottle of cold sake). I really liked the "dancing shrimp roll" my sister had and some of the other stuff on my plate, but I think next time I go there, I'll just get the 'regular' sushi combo and save some money (as well as not having to suppress my gag reflex). Tip included, I spent almost $50.

Sunday, June 16th: During the local heat-wave, my sister and I took our dogs for a short hike with some of her friends from Dayton and their dogs around Yellow Springs (too bad we didn't bump into Dave Chappelle). They were pretty nice people and we had a nice time, despite the intense heat and humidity. Afterwards, we went for ice cream cones.

Monday, June 17th:For the second week in a row, I got to eat out with my sister and older brother, this time at an Indian buffet place that my brother and his fiance like. It was my first time having Indian food, so I got the buffet like everyone else. It wasn't appetizing to look at and I was confused with all the sauces and vegetables, but once I tried some stuff out, I began to find stuff I liked: the 'nan' bread, lamb curry with rice. I might try it again sometime, but it's not my favorite ethnic food.

I had a good time and even though I was gone most of the day at work (and tired afterwards), I'm glad we got to hang out as much as we did, Marty. See you in a couple months...

The Competitive Underground of Gamerscore Whores

At first, I let the gamerscore addiction get to me. I used to be super-competitive with people on my friends list. After a while, I became more and more aware that it really is petty. It's just a silly number after all, but the main thing I loved about it, was the act of achieving something in a game (I wrote a previous post about how I love it, btw).

Before, I had a lot more time, and could afford to spend it playing games. Recently, in the last four months, I've had a lot less time and even less desire to play games (for gamerscore, or not). Even when I did have time on my hands, I be waiting for a game to come from Gamefly (REALLY upset at their delivery time and game availability as of late). Most of the time, the game that I really wanted to play was not available (ex: Oblivion), so I ended up playing some stupid game that I'd rather not waste my time on.

Now, when I happened upon DEVIL JIN27, I was playing Dead or Alive 4 online (read earlier blog post) and I thought: 'Now this is a cool guy. I'd like to become friends with him.' So, I sent him a friend request while playing online with him and we've been friends ever since. For a while, our gamerscore was so close, there was a little competition and it came out one day while playing online how competitive we both were. I had comprised an oath that I didn't want our "friendship" to be spoiled by petty gamescore jealousy and bickering. We'd form a pact that we'd never compete with each other like that and not to get mad at the other. I said that if it ever came to that, we'd stop being friends, because I like to play to have fun and I want to play with people that aren't immature and childish. I'd been like that and realized that it's just stupid to stress over gamerscore that much, that you begin to really resent your 'friends' if they have more than you.

DEVIL JIN27 eventually got far past me in gamerscore and I was okay with it, happy for him to get so many points and playing lots of fun new games (that I wished I could be playing, as well). He got so far ahead of me, that there was no chance for me to catch up with him (he's currently around 10, 000 more than me). I didn't really care that he was ahead of me, but I really wished that Gamefly would actually send me a game that I wanted to play. He's far enough ahead of me in raw gamerscore, that there definitely shouldn't be any competition between us.

I calmed down a lot about the gamerscore, and with my new job, I have much less time and energy to afford to gaming. So, I really enjoy the rare times I get to play games and I like to have enough time to really get into them (this almost always happens on the weekends, if at all). Out of the blue, I get this message last week on my Xbox 360-

From: DEVIL JIN27
6/29/2006 6:38 PM

(Voice Message): "Damn you and your 740 in PGR...Now you make me want to go play that game, and I don't want to play that game. Ahh! It's so hard; I don't know how you did that. I don't know if you did platinums. It's so crazy!"

[DEVIL JIN27 must have been looking at my achievements and comparing mine to his in Project Gotham Racing 3 specifically and felt that I couldn't be 'better' than him at any game and it just 'irked' him that I was better than him at PGR3]

I thought to myself, "Okay." Well, I did play PGR3 and I got all of those legitimately, and they were hard and very time consuming to get and I'm proud that I was able to do it. There were times I was about to give up on getting all gold medals in the single player, but I kept on determined to get them. Now, I'm not going to lie and say that every achievement that I've gotten in every other game has been received legit, but most of them have been legit (there are websites, like achieve360points.com dedicated to helping people get them, sometimes using less honorable methods).

Then, I start playing Top Spin 2 yesterday to play with Sovereign Phil online as we had agreed before I left for the holiday weekend. While I waited (a few hours actually), I saw that DEVIL JIN27 came online and I was bored, so I checked out to see what games he'd been playing recently. I noticed that he'd been playing PGR3 and I was shocked to see that he somehow had more points/achievements than me in that game (the game he was just complaining about was too hard and that he wasn't very good at). I investigated to see which points he had in that game and I went online to Xbox.com to compare scores. I was shocked to see that amazingly, he'd gotten not only the achievement/score for "Gold", but also "Platinum" medals (which I gave up on/see earlier post) and "Online Professional" (which until recently had been un-glitched so more people could get it). The mysterious thing is he'd gotten all of these achievements in one day, or VERY quickly (much faster than when I got them legitimately and he could have if he'd played legit himself). The telling thing is: all of these achievements, he received while not connected to Xbox Live (including the "Online Professional" which isn't really possible to get if you are offline).

When I first got his voice message, I thought he was silly for 'competing' with me and complaining that I had more points in PGR3 than him and that it made him want to play a game he wasn't very good at. I didn't seriously think he would cheat (which I had a serious suspicion of) just to get them. That made me a little mad that he would stoop so low just to 'compete' with me (especially when I never wanted us to "compete" with each other in the first place). He can do whatever he wants with his console and it doesn't affect me personally, but it felt more like a slap in the face and it made me feel betrayed and like all the time I spent getting those achievements legitimately were all for nothing. [personal note: I was still extremely tired from not getting enough sleep after coming home 1:30AM the previous night and having to wake up at 7AM for work the next day, so I was a little grumpy and probably over-reacted. Anyone that knows me personally, knows this fact: when I'm tired, I'm VERY grumpy.]

So, I sent him this text message yesterday-

To: DEVIL JIN27
7/5/2006 7:-- PM

"Oh, in response to your last voice message: 'Damn your legitimate PGR3 score, makes me want to cheat just to get more points than you'. : p If you did got those achievements for real, then good for you, otherwise: >: /"

He replied with this message a few minutes later-

From: DEVIL JIN27
7/5/2006 7:15 PM

"boo hahaha... think what u will... im the best racer"

Now, I had a sneaking suspicion, but I left it open if I really was wrong about him cheating. Now, I was willing to let my anger subside depending on if he was honest if he cheated or not and depending on the tone of the message. I didn't like the tone (which was rude and haughty and without having an emoticon or being a voice message to guage if he was being silly or not, I took it at face value). This didn't sit right with me, and I decided that if that's how petty he is with gamerscore (to cheat just to 'better' me in a game), then I didn't need that kind of stress and 'competition', so there was no reason for him to be on my friends list anymore if he was just going to try to 'show me up' like that. I took him off my list and forgot about it.

I was going to go to sleep because it was around 9PM (which is about the time I usually 'should' go to sleep), but I got a message from Sovereign Phil that he had fallen asleep and wanted to know if I could play with him online right then. I decided to stay up and help each other get some online achievements. While playing, I asked Phil if he had talked to DEVIL JIN27 recently and told him about what happened between us.

When I got home today after work and checked my Xbox Live messages, I found these four text message from DEVIL JIN27-

From: DEVIL JIN27
7/6/2006 1:34 AM

"wow thanx 4 the goodbye there wat! u sure have a funny way of being a friend.. maybe if u had something 2 ask me u could have talked 2 me not phil.. its sad that u act this way."

[I assume that Sovereign Phil must have talked to DEVIL JIN27 after I signed off last night. I did tell DEVIL JIN27 what I had to say in my own text message to him before I took him off my friends list and I wasn't talking about him to Phil without talking to him first.]

From: DEVIL JIN27
7/6/2006 1:40 AM

"you think im a cheater or i used a friends save 2 get points? and what if i did? how does that effect u? so when i help u in a game or give u hints that will make the game easy, your the cheater? i mean really.. u get mad and spy on me?"

[I did and still do think he cheated on PGR3 (he pretty much confirmed my suspicion that he cheated and his method of doing so by this: "i used a friends save 2 get points... and what if i did?". I don't care if he cheats or not in a game, but I don't like that he cheated just to get more points than me and to a lesser extent that he's competing with me in the first place, but the fact that he knows that I'm better than him at PGR3 and he had to cheat just to 'one-up' me. If he had gotten the achievements legit like me, then he would have gotten my respect and I gladly would have given it (like I did in my text message to him). I have rarely asked him for tips or explanations of how he got certain achievements, but that is public knowledge that I could have gotten elsewhere had I been so inclined (most likely his original source for these 'secrets', as well). While some of these methods might not be completely what the developers intended to achieve points, this is most likely the same way most people have gotten them. I have never stooped so low that I have someone else get achievements/points for me or used someone else's save game to get them.]

From: DEVIL JIN27
7/6/2006 1:46 AM

"i have 2 say you have alot of growing up 2 do man. u act like a untrusting little kid. i dont know what your problem is and why u over react 2 not.. but go on your way. i have no time 4 u anymore! get a life and stop worrying what others are doing.."

[I can't say that the fact that it hurts him so much that I have more "points" than him in PGR3 that he has to cheat to 'achieve' them is very mature behavior. If I have a reason to be suspicious, and he's never denied that he didn't cheat and almost admitted he did, then I was right to be "untrusting". Yeah, sure. I know how I reacted wasn't mature either (taking him off my list without warning), but I was tired and over-reacted. I figured he would have gotten the message that I wasn't pleased with this type of behavior directed towards me (I've done it before, btw). Oh, I know I have a life (that's what keeping me from gaming constantly and I sure don't "spy on what others are doing" (in fact, it seems the reverse is true of him). I don't think it's very mature to imply that others don't "have a life", either.]

From: DEVIL JIN27
7/6/2006 1:51 AM

"i will not be your friend again.. you lost that along with my respect.. im blocking u so dont bother writting back.. ~The Greatness that is... ME!!! DEVIL JIN"

[I told him before that if he would be compete with me and become petty like that, then I wouldn't want him as a friend and would be off my friends list. Well, I thought I had his respect for getting PGR3 achievements he couldn't get and was going to take his weird voice message as just his way of giving me a compliment. After the way that he cheated just to get those points to 'better' me in a game that I slaved over for months and his slanderous text messages, I have lost all respect for him, so I don't value his opinion anymore. I only took him off my friends list; he could still send me messages (which he did). If he had been mature, admitted that he cheated and sent me another friend request, I would have accepted it, too. If he didn't cheat, then I would have apologized. Now, he's blocked me from even replying, hence one of the reasons I felt to post this on my blog. Finally, his 'signature' is also a reference to Sovereign Phil favorite personal title, but it also shows how highly he thinks of himself. ;) ]

Now, the best place to put this would be in an email to him, but this is a good example for me (and others) not to become petty about gamerscore and ruin your friendship, so I thought I'd put this up on my blog. I let myself get my feelings hurt when he cheated. He's right: his cheating didn't directly affect me. It got me angry because it made all the time and skill I used to get my achievements legitimatly seem wasted. It also seemed he got those points for no other reason than just to make me look inferior (I also know he's VERY obsessed about his gamerscore and having "incomplete" scores on games). I would like to apologize to DEVIL JIN27 (Pete) for over-reacting and getting my feelings hurt. I'm writing this here to document how a good internet 'relationship' can go downhill because of something so petty. This to remind myself (and possibly others) what not to do when comparing yourself with others and how jealousy can become infectuous. If anything, this experience has turned me off playing my Xbox and video games in general and has shown how pointless the time that you put into getting gamerscore/achievements are if someone can cheat their way through it.

Edit (July 28, 2006):
What is with this guy? It's been weeks since he told me to get a life and quit spying on people and today I received this message from him:

From: DEVIL JIN27
7/26/2006 9:49 PM

"Hiding your achievements? Wat Wat Wat"

What is his problem? I've gotten over it, and he still wants to antogonize me. In fact, I've only hidden my achievements from people who aren't my friends (and I'm glad I've done so). Now, I'm even considering hiding them altogether. I just want to remove this whole competitive element of gamerscore anyway (comparing yourself to others). I'd recommend removing the score/points and instead having separate "percentage complete" for each game you've played.

This is just ridiculous! Why does he need to see my achievements? The reason: he's still trying to compete with me, for some reason. Anyway, he's got his achievements hidden, as well. : P

Fourth of July Weekend '06

Well, I had a really fun weekend up in the Cleveland area of Ohio. I had four days off.

On Saturday (July 1st, 2006), I waited till my brother came back from his class, and we left around 6PM driving all the way up to the small village of Burton. The drive took about 4 hours and we didn't get there until about 11PM.

We met friends (Kevin and Luke) who were house-sitting for a couple who were doing missionary work in Africa for a year. It was a nice place, hidden away in the woods right off a hilly road. It had a nice backyard and a deck and I was really glad that Dan invited me to go up there with him to spend time with him and his friends. After working so much and being tired all the time, it was a nice setting to just kick back and relax.

July 02, 2006: The next morning, we went with them to their church and soon after, Dan and I had to leave to go to a family gathering that our aunt was throwing for her son, who was just back in the States from Africa doing medical work. He was only going to be home for a little bit, and they thought it'd be nice to throw a party for him. We drove over to Medina County from Geauga County and got there about 2PM just in time to eat some food. We stayed for a few hours and had the family picture pose for pictures (my aunt lives for this stuff). No doubt we'll see them projected up on a wall come turkey-time.

After everybody got tired of the heat, people started leaving and going their separate ways. I got a little face-time with my cousins and then, Dan and I headed back over to Burton where we would be staying for the rest of the long weekend.

Once we got at the house, Kevin suggested going to see a jet car/demolition show. We decided not to go, as we didn't think it was worth $15 to see. We instead went to see the local fireworks display for free, which was really well done and it was the first time in a long time I remember seeing fireworks this close (at home, I can see about 5 different cities' fireworks displays).

July 03, 2006: The next day, while we waited for Kevin to get back from work Luke took us to a nice small coffee shop that was set up like a mom-and-pop Starbucks. They even had a frozen cappucino which I bought and it was pretty good. When Kevin got back, we went to the Ox Roast, in Mesopotamia, where one of Kevin and Luke's friends was playing. It was quite interesting to see SO many Amish people and buggies everywhere (Geauga County is home to the fourth largest Amish population in the US). We got some BBQ sandwiches and went into a great historical corner store that had many varieties of soda in bottles, penny candy and lots of odds and ends.

Later, we drove around thinking about going to the beach on Lake Erie (Mentor on the Lake, I think), that Luke had told me about earlier. The only problem was it kept raining off and on. We instead stopped in Chardon, where we got some videos and ate at a nice Mexican restaurant (El Patron). After eating all that, we played some sand volleyball with Luke's brother and his wife.

After that, we came home and started a camp fire out back and I rode the quad for a bit, riding around through the woods and in the yard. I was really starting to get the hang of it. Dan got ahold of it and stalled it in the woods and I had to help him try to get it stared again, to no avail. After we pushed it back to the small barn, we talked around the fire for a bit, then watched one of the videos, Munich, we rented, though most of us fell asleep before it was over.

July 04, 2006: During the night, the rain just wouldn't let up its barrage and I woke up a few times. I was worried that the rain would affect our plans of going to Snowflake Lake, a private lake that was owned by a family friend of Kevin's. It did finally let up, but it was too wet to get a little quad riding in.

We drove over to the lake later in the day, after helping Kevin clean up some branchs that had fallen over at his parent's house. They gave me a tour of the surrouding area of the lake, driving by Don King's house and stopping for pictures of a covered bridge. The lake was pretty small but it was nice to have it all to ourselves. There was a small lodge with a fireplace next to it and some ropes to swing on. We swam around for a bit, used the small paddle-boat and swung on the ropes. Afterwards, we got a fire going in the lodge fireplace and cooked some hot dogs and had lunch. We played a few hands of euchre, then threw the frisbee around some. I had everyone pose for some shot on the ropes and we left.

We watched the other movie, Hoodwinked, we rented when we got back to their house and once that was over, it really was time to leave to go back home. I really would have liked to stay longer (Dan did as well), but I had to work the next morning at 8AM, so I really wanted to leave around 8 or 9PM and it was already 9:30.

We finally got out the door and said goodbye. I got a last picture and we were on our way. I was very close to falling asleep in the car, but I really don't like sleeping anywhere but in my bed. We got some food on the way back and we saw all of the nice fireworks from the highway while driving (kinda dangerous). We didn't get back until about 1:30AM, but I stuck it out and went to work the next day, tired, but getting paid. :D

Superman Returns IMAX

Well, after talking about it with my friend, Randall, we went down to Springdale, Ohio to see Supermans Returns in IMAX 3D. We couldn't buy the tickets online and we had to go down to get the tickets before they sold out, so soon after we got off work, we left from my house and headed down there. I grabbed some Johnsonville brats on the way out the door.

There was some traffic on the way down; being that it was the start of the 4th of July weekend, it was expected. The route was pretty straightforward and I had no problem finding the way. We got there around 7:45 (or 2 hours before the movie started) and there wasn't many seats left (they were reserved seating) and we took 2 seats in the back row. While we waited, we had some drinks in the bar, including some cool movie-themed house creations (like the Kryptonite which changed colors and make a big splash).

Also, in the bar were an older couple who were big Superman fans (both of them had t-shirts with the big "S" on them). They enjoyed the Kryptonite and watching Randy and I drink them (in a friendly race).

Once it was around 30 minutes to the movie start, we took our seats. We received our 3D glasses and waited. Once the trailers came on, we slipped our glasses on and marvelled at the convincing 3D effects. There were only scenes of the movie that were in 3D, but when it came on, there was a small icon on the screen letting us know when to put them on or take them off. The effects were very cool and some of the actions scenes were pretty intense. When there was an object in the foreground that wasn't clipping off the edge of the frame, it appeared to float over the audience in front of me. Now, this wasn't some cheesy red and blue glasses, these involved 2 projectors showing offset pictures and the glasses were polarized to allow only the left and right eye to see one picture for each eye. Aside from the limited 3D, the movie itself was very good, especially the flying scenes.

What was unexpected (and awefully annoying) was the wife of the older man that sat next to Randall and I in the bar earlier, had sat down right in front of us in the theater. She was extremely emotional during the movie, clapping and shouting loudly (like a little child) when Superman saved the day. What was even stranger was when Superman was being pummelled with Kryptonite shards, she was weeping with full-on tears and crying like she had lost her son! Either she was a big fan, or had emotional problems. Either way, it was pretty funny how much she was over-reacting to a work of fiction (besides, Superman NEVER dies in movies!). I couldn't help but laugh to myself as well as others around us.

On the way home, I kept my speed close to the legal limit, wary of the many cops out on the proul. There were many cars passing me on either side, but when I passed a cop in the middle facing my direction of traffic, he decided to follow me. I had my cruise control set to around 70, and I knew he wouldn't pull me over, so I decided not to freak out and brake (like the minivan that was in the fast lane, but was going slower than me anyway). At first the cop hung back waiting to see if I would go faster, but after a while, I think he realized that I had cruise on and he flew up right behind me (most likely to study my control of the car and make sure I wasn't swerving). He got off the interstate after a while watching me like a hawk and not finding anything to pull me over for.

There were MANY more people deserving of being pulled over, either for going much faster than me or being blatantly drunk and dangerously reckless. Case in point: a white (or cream) late-model lumina or monte carlo that sped past me on the right veering into my lane and just barely correcting himself. Then, he veering over to the fast lane almost slamming into the car in front of me and the car already in the fast lane. That scared the crap outta me and I kept an eye on him as he raced and swerved all over the place, tailing a semi for a while, then passing him and almost pulling into the cab of the truck. He was reckless through downtown Dayton and I had Randall call 9-1-1 to alert the law of this dangerous individual. We lost him after a while, but Randy seemed to have spotted him at a gas station for the exit I took to take him home.

Before that car, there also a yellow Honda CRX "boy racer" literally racing on the highway and was being following by, what I almost know, was an un-marked policecar. All in all, a pretty exciting night.

Now, I'm off to the Cleveland area of Ohio to visit some of Dan's friends and then visit with family and be gone all weekend for the holiday, being back in time for work on Wednesday.

Later.

The weekend

I still haven't recovered from it yet. On Saturday, I helped a friend move 3 couches and a loveseat and transport them between three homes. We didn't even get to do the armchair either.

After that, we went to see The Crystal Method play in Downtown Dayton. The show was good (though much too short for my taste).

Not much to say

... but I thought I should let my blog know that I'm still here and haven't commited suicide (yet). [that's a joke, btw] Just working, working, looking for work, very little biking, not much gaming, not even as much sleeping as I need (I going to have to work on that). It's money (to get out of debt), it's helping me lose weight (or at least burn calories), so there's positives. I just need to make extra time to get my life going again (go back to school).

It's looks like I'll have a nice house to live at in the coming year, so that's some more sunshine. I'm tired. Gotta go to bed, to wake up tomorrow and not hate myself for not sleeping enough like last week.

Oh, and to show you how much I've been neglected my Xbox 360, you can read its blog. It whines and complains that I don't give it enough attention. Well, sorry, but sometimes I don't even have energy to do that.

Gradiations

The changes of students to graduates happens every year, but it only seems important when someone you know gets this honor. My older brother, Thomas, just got his Bachelor's earlier today and it was amazing that there he was standing and receiving his degree only a year after he had a major stroke. It was very inspiring for me.

I still am in the process of school and will have to do some research in order to see what (or if) the credit hours I took at a small (un-named) community college will be carried over when I further my education possibly later this year. I'm holding off, because of my debt situation, but I'm going to look into what options I have in the way of assistance for school.

On a personal note: I'd like to check out Sinclair with you sometime and have you introduce me to the staff there. Congratulations on becoming a graduate (again) and I hope that your motivation rubs off on me a little. Take care! :D

It's been a while...

Lots of things happening lately...

First off, some of Dan's friends from Ashtabula County, Ohio came down to run with Dan in a 5K Run that he participated in on this past Saturday. They showed up on Friday night late and we didn't get to hang out that night because we had to get up early the next day and needed our sleep.

They invited me to come along, but I just walked the whole distance (I haven't been training like Dan has). One of Dan's friends from Peru was running, too (in fact, he's the one that got Dan, who got everyone else to do it, as well). He came in 3rd place in his age bracket. Dan got done in about 34 minutes, where I got it done in 55 minutes (all without a single hint of running).

Dan wanted to go see a Cincinnati Reds game as an activity to do while his friends were visiting, so we had to quickly come home and shower. We didn't make it in time to check out the new Reds Hall of Fame that was built next to the new Great American Ballpark (I really like the new stadium). There was a lot of people and there was a special on bleacher seats, so we got "nose-bleed" seats (which weren't that bad, actually).

We didn't get seated until the top of the second inning. The Reds were hosting the Houston Astros, which, according to Dan, went to the World Series last year (he follows all sports). The Astros got two runs in the top of the second and the Reds were still score-less until the bottom of the fourth inning, where they had an excellent series of runs (4). Then, in the fifth, the scored two more. The Reds won the game rather easily and I was worried that they wouldn't score any. :) The Reds are doing pretty damn good this year and they've got the best record in baseball currently (okay they did, but Dan told me "No"; I always get on his case that he's glued to ESPN). :D

I hope they do good this year. I really miss the Reds circa '89 and '90. I'm too old for the "Big Red Machine" era Reds, but they won the World Series in 1990. The Reds are the first professional baseball team, played in the first official game, played the first night game, etc...

Then, after coming home, Dan and I ate at the only Sonic in southwest Ohio. It was Dan's first time and my second. Pretty good, again. Then, the others ate at Skyline Chili, as it's something that's not in their area and it's a local tradition (it originated from Cincy).

I stayed home while they went out for a few hours and I was nodding off by the time they came home, but I decided to stay up and watch them play Project Gotham Racing 3 and Halo 2 on my Xbox 360.

Then, on Sunday, I was going to try and wake up to go to church with my brother, but he just wanted to be lazy and sleep in. My friend, Randy, called and we went for a bike ride around Vandalia and it started pouring and the wind picked up, which by the time we wound our way around town, past the airport and went home, we were soaking wet (including my shorts which got the spray from the rear tire). I don't know how far we went or how long we were gone, but the horrid weather made it less enjoyable.

I've been so busy this week that I haven't even been able to play my Xbox 360 all week (and I wanted to tonight before bed, but I got on the computer). It feels good to know that I'm not 'addicted', but I miss it. Tomorrow after work, I've going to go to the gym with Randy, so I probably won't be playing it then. I haven't even gotten to play Oblivion that I rented from Blockbluster for the week. Oh well, guess I'll give it my utmost attention when GameFly actually gets it in stock and ships it out to me. I think I'm done with Rumble Roses (what a piece of crap!).

Till next time...

Night Rider

This past Sunday around 6PM, my friend, Randy, showed up unexpectedly and he told me his plan to do a trip. He'd rode over to my house in about 45 minutes and I loaded his bike in my car and headed over to pick up the other bike and get started on this spontaneous bike trip.

I dropped the car off and we started out. We hopped onto the Taylorsville MetroPark bike path and headed north until the end and then kept going north along Old Canal Rd. through Tipp City and found out where the bike path started up again near the Old Roller Mill. We stopped and looked at a complete canal lock that was part of the Ohio-Erie Canal and, according to a small sign on a nearby post, was built in the 1830s. They also had an old canal boat behind the mill that we looked at for a little bit before getting on our bikes again.

The bike path went north through the Tipp City park and went past the baseball field where my little brother had played a couple of times before. The path ended along 3rd Street and we had to bike on the road over some railroad tracks and got back on the bike path when it started up at N. Hyatt St. next to the new Tipp High School. We followed it out to 25A and stopped at the gas station at the corner to refill our water bottles.

We then went north along 25A past Waco Field and turned right onto CR-227 and found where the bike path started up again. There was two routes (one continuing east/north and one going south) and by this time, it was already pretty dark outside, so we decided to make that part of our return trip (which ended up to be a mistake) to see where it lead to and if it could be a shortcut.

We kept going east along the bike path and past some factories which stunk really badly. We followed the path east along an old train bridge and crossed the Great Miami River. Here, the path split up again. Randy had said his step-father had told him the path continuing east met up with State Route 202. I'll have to check that out later, then.

We kept going north along the river and went under the bridge for 41 and here, the bike path opened up and it was really pretty with the cool trees on the right arching over the path. It must be a lot better during daylight, and should be a great spot for some photos. I decided that we'd turn around at the next bridge.

By this time, our legs were extremely sore and we had just gotten to the half-way mark. We followed the path back to where it started up again along CR-227 and I voted that we take the split south to see where it went. We followed it in almost pitch black and a black cat jumped out in front of me scaring the crap outta me. The path became increasing more wooded and therefore, even darker. I could barely make out Randy on his bike in front of me. After a good ways, he stopped hard and warned me that there was a dead end. I had to brake hard so I didn't hit him.

I was really disappointed that the path didn't lead anywhere, but it seemed like a nice path through the woods and I'm sure, in the future, they will extend it to connect with the paths down south. We flew back the way we came and went west along CR-227 and then south along 25-A. Randy had suggested that we just take 25-A south, but I opted for the bike path as the terrain would be more level and we could make better time. We continued along our previous route until we got to 40, which we took west and then, followed Brown School Rd. north and finally, taking East National Rd. west over I-75.

By this time, my legs were so sore that it hurt just to move my legs to switch between the brake and accelerator in the car on the way back home. It was tough, but it was extremely fun and it seemed more enjoyable at night. It was uncharacteristically spontaneous on my part (though, not at all on Randy's part) and it reminded me of how much fun I had when I was a kid exploring my neighborhood on a bike.

We started around 6 and didn't get back until about 12 midnight. The route was almost exactly 40 miles (I measured it in a mapping program). There's still so much more that can be done to this route, but I'm surprised how little will actually have to be done to connect all of the separate paths together to make an uber bike trail. I can't wait! :D

Even more fotos!

I put up even more photos a little bit ago. You can view my latest photos as a slideshow here.

There's really not any order to them, so I'd look at them by date taken instead of date uploaded. There's some from when I went to my cousin's wedding, at Cedar Point, in Detroit, at home, at the DC Skate Plaza, and even one odd one from Victoria, Canada.

Hope you like. More to come.

Flickr fotos

I've uploaded a bunch of old photos to my Flickr site and added a Flickr Flash "badge" to this blog's sidebar (just below my Last.fm music tracks list).

I only had a couple images up there, so I really didn't know too much about the interface, but the more I use Flickr, the more I learn about it and like it. I like the photo sets, tagging photos, and the interface. People can also leave comments and notes on your photos. There's also a lot that you can customize in the privacy section in your profile: I can specify who I want to be able to see my photos, order prints, leave comments, etc... You can also specify a license on your photos (for the pros out there). There's also a great community/exploration aspect to it that I haven't really delved into yet.

Previously, I'd been just using the form to upload photos, but I'd strongly recommend downloading "Uploadr", a small program that resides on your machine (for XP and Mac) that does the job a hundred times faster and gives you more information.

If you look at your photos in the archive and/or calendar, you can look at when the photos were taken and it shows a nice calendar view. I've gone back and looked up every old photo's metadata (if there is any) to get the exact date and time correctly, so it's cool to see that on the calendar view.

I'm going to try to write descriptive titles and/or descriptions and tags, so I can remember the context of the photo. I will be putting more up soon, but since I have a free account, I can only upload 20MB of photos a month (I'm also limited to only 3 photo sets, which are very cool, too).

I used to have a decent point-and-shoot digital camera, but it got stolen from the luggage on a flight, so I'm sans-camera at the moment. There are some great photos at Flickr, and using it more, it makes me want a Digital SLR camera even more (the Nikon D70 is the one I wanted a while back).

Adventures in Bicycling!

Earlier today, it was time for two-wheeled treking, this time from Vandalia to Xenia, Ohio, a distance of about 30 miles. I spent the night at Randy's place on the couch so we could leave as early as possible, but his wife woke up at 4 AM, which woke me up. Since I have a hard time going back to sleep, I only got about 4-5 hours.

The night earlier was pouring rain from some thunderstorms, leaving it a little damp, but rather humid. The day wasn't supposed to rain and we didn't see a drop, so we picked the right day to go. We travelled along the road to where we could access the long uninterrupted bike path at Sinclair Park, but accidentally found it before we got to the park. We first passed through Wegerzyn Gardens and took a bathroom break and picked up some maps. We happened along a group of cyclists-in-training and followed them for a bit.

The path ran right by the Great Miami River through Triangle Park, Island Park in Downtown Dayton and went right through Deeds Point. I'd never been here before, so I was surprised to see there was a historic aviation timeline with kiosks for Wright-Patt AFB, John Glenn, and other local historic people and places. There was also a monument commemorating the Dayton Peace Accords and a brass statue of Orville and Wilbur Wright.

We crossed a cool bike bridge and turned left and made our way north-east along Mad River and ended up in Eastwood Park. This park had some cool foot bridges and I wish I had my camera to take some shots there. After a short break, where we ate a protein bar and used the restroom, we went south out to Springfield St. and joined back up on the bike path along N. Smithville Rd. This area was heavily wooded and cool.

The path wound its way south until it turned and ran parallel with US-35 and was flat and relatively level. This made it somewhat boring, though until we crossed a huge pedestrian bridge that crossed I-675. The straight continued for a long time going past Kilkare Raceway, which had a lot of activity and loud cars. Not long after, we came upon Xenia Station, which was the designated end of our journey.

It only took us 4 hours total and we didn't really take any breaks, but my friend wanted to make the return trip, which I politely dismissed. I needed a shower and could have fallen asleep right there. It was a long trip, but it didn't seem to take very long. Up until the long straight, there was lots of interesting things to see (especially throught Downtown Dayton).

We ate at a local Wendy's and were already discussing plans for our next bike outing. :D

Thrills, Chills, & (No) Spills

This past Sunday, I got to eat at my favorite sushi bar/hibachi grill restaurant again. I had the "Sushi Deluxe" and this time, I got octopus (or squid) tentacle in the selection. I could see the suckers covering it and the color was deep red. I saved it for last because I wasn't sure I would be willing to eat it. When I got up the courage, I popped it into my mouth and chewed the extremely rubbery meat and swallowed. I didn't think it was as hard to go down as the sashimi I had last time. No sake this time, either as it was still mid-day.

Later, I met up with my friend, Randy, and he and I went cycling again. He'd picked up a map of trails in the area and there are quite a lot of them around here. I'd never even known there was so much to do around here. Well, now that I'm interested in cycling more, it's like a new world has opened up for me and I have a new way to view my surroundings. We are going to try to check out most of the trails around here and it looks like we'll be visiting a new one every weekend.

While, the previous Sunday was quite a bit warmer, the deceptive sunshine was just too tempting, so we ventured over to the Englewood Dam, biking all the way there along the main road. I was a little worried that we'd have to be careful of the cars driving by, but there was quite a large shoulder and we didn't have to ready make any real detours to avoid the traffic.

Once we got to the Englewood Dam Reserve, we passed by the horse stables and explored some of the dirt paths a little, but quickly found them too rugged for our bikes (and bodies). We decided to keep on the main paved pike/car path. We picked up some maps and planned a route that snaked through the woods and later, went right by the road and the falls. I'd never realized there was something that pretty over there (you can't see it as the road is high above on a steep slope).

There was a long level straight, so we got some nice speed up before we took on the insanely steep hill that went under the bridge for the road. Past the bridge (on the other side of the road), the path weaved through some nice wooded areas and quiet residential areas. The path went by a nice fishing pond and we eventually ended up in a park with some soccer fields. That was the official end of the path, so we decided to turn around because the sunlight was starting to fade.

After the grueling hill climb where the path goes under the road, we stopped and watched two white-tailed deer (does) below us near the path. They were alerted by our presence and ran towards the more wooded area of the path with their tails straight up, exposing their brillantly white hindquarters.

As the path sloped downward, we passed really close to them and I stopped to admire their presence. My friend was worried that they would jump in front of us and "gore" us, but I knew better than to be afraid of these beautiful, gentle creatures. They were frightened by us and went further into the woods, but I knew we would pass by them on the return of the switchback in the path. I couldn't help but appreciate the intense stare of those dark eyes tracking us as we passed by on our bicycles.

As the sun went further down, it got colder and colder, so by the time we actually got close to home, I was sore (I need to either get used to the seat, or get a better one), tired and cold enough, that I declined my friends suggestion to travel further to Chipotle and instead, just return the bikes.

I'm thinking more and more about purchasing a bike, but I want to make sure I'll get enough use out of it and that cycling won't be a fad on my part spurred on my zealous friend (who has a tendency to fizzle out). I think it's an activity that I'd enjoy without friends, but it's a lot more fun with company (as it is with snowboarding).

Oh, my brother got back on Monday, so I'm going to have to get used to that again. He got current with 24 and Prison Break, so everything's good. :D

Happy Birthday, big bro!

Today is the birthday of my eldest brother, Thomas. He is pretty old! ;) I'll just leave it at that.

Last year was a big year and I'm glad that you can celebrate another birthday, plus this year, you've got a wedding, I think, as well to look forward to. :D

Happy Birthday, bro! Keep on walking and getting them legs some exercise!

(Lazy?) Sunday Afternoon Bike-ride

This past Sunday, a friend and I rode bikes from his parents-in-law's place to the Taylorsville Dam and hopped onto part of the Buckeye Trail (this part being a bike path). On the way there, I took a spill on the side of the road as I was hoping to avoid being run over by the cars going 50 mph, but instead found myself flying over the bike and rolling on the erosion-ridden slope by the side of the road.

Once we got to the bike path, it was much more relaxing (and accident-free), though where the path goes over the dam (but under the road), there's a really steep winding path that was a lot of fun to ride down very fast. We decided to head north from the dam, and quickly made our way on the freshly-paved bike path. The setting was pretty invigorating: there's the concrete path that we were on, which was surrounded by trees (which still had not started blooming), the train tracks up the slope a little bit to the left, and the old Miami and Erie Canal track (with crumbling locks) and the Great Miami River running parallel to it on the right, and several roads beyond the river. All of this, with the warm air and the birds happily chirping away made for a very relaxing bike ride and it felt great that spring weather was finally here. I wish I had my camera there so I could have taken a few shots.

On the way north, we passed by a sign, which said "Welcome to Tadmor". My friend had told me of an old town that used to be there and it piqued my interest as there was no houses or any sign of there being one, other than the "sign" stating that it had. Later, after getting home (much, much later), I talked to my mother about it and she told me that her ancestors had been one of the founding families of Tadmor. She also told me that all of the houses and the rest of the town had been washed away in the "Great Dayton Flood of 1913" (alt. link), which had also taken out the bridge spanning the Great Miami River on West Charleston Road in Miami County.

Continuing on the bike path north of Tadmor, which the construction for that section was completed in September of 2005, we rode until the path ended at Ross Road (supposedly it's going to be extended north possibly through Tipp City and Troy, all the way to Piqua). I drive by Ross Road all the time and had wondering why so many people had started parking on land in what used to be, from what I could tell, a small electric power or telephone building by the side of the road.

Then, we decided to head south the way we came, past where we started, and keep going till the bike path ended on the south end almost to Needmore Rd. (by 2007, it should extend all the way to Dayton). Along the way, we passed by the old Rip Rap Road Bridge, of which I have fond childhood memories and couldn't stop myself from taking a slight detour to check out the newly (green) painted and restored bridge. Sadly, as soon as you cross it, there's a high chain-link fence stopping you from passing. I remember, when I was younger, my older sister driving me down there late at night sometimes for a fun drive near the stinky Cargil factory. I had always wondered why on either side of the road, there were high fences with barbed wire that was just protecting empty fields (I guess they are "well fields"). The road, Old Rip Rap Road, used to jog off the main road over the bridge, but has been closed for years, supposedly due to the unsafe state of the bridge, but I think also to curb the deviant behavior that the road seemed to attract and to further secure the "well fields" from being contaminated. There was also a building, Brookwood Hall, which was shut down, further down the road, that local and touring punk bands would play at and there was, sometimes, rampant drug use going on there and I can't help to think that had something to do with the decision to block access to Old Rip Rap Road. My sister would remember more about that than me.

Further south, at the end of the bike path (where Old Rip Rap Road meets Rip Rap Road once again), there's another bridge going across a river that has a gate across the single lane bridge with "No Trespassing" signs posted all over. It's a shame that foot and bike traffic, at least, aren't allowed past, because I wouldn't mind just checking it out to jog my memory a little bit.

Well, since we couldn't go any further south, we decided to head back north, and exit the path onto Little York Rd. and head back to his parents-in-law's house to return the bikes. Since the bike path alone is seven miles, and we rode the entire length of it nearly twice, plus the distance both ways to get to the path, I can safely say we rode about 20-25 miles. For someone who needs all the exercise he can get, I did very well and my bad knees (which I had messed up years earlier falling while skateboarding and rollerblading) didn't hurt at all. It was so fun, I didn't even notice all of the work I was doing.

I'm glad that I found out about this bike path and am happy to see that the tax payers' money is going to something so fun and constructive. I'm also glad that it's close to my home and now that I know about it, I will be sure to go back. It would be a fun goal to be able to ride the length of it when it is further extended. Now, I just need a bike. :D

RR6 has left the building!

Well, after racing mindlessly for hours on end, trying to distract my mind from thinking about how many miles I needed to go till I got my achievement, it finally happened. I was chatting with friends all day while doing it and it definitely helped to keep my mind occupied. I had it timed pretty accurately and found that while I could do almost exactly 100 miles per half-hour.

Just before the big event:


After:


My Gamerpic is a happy little bugger with pom-poms in his celebratory dance of RR6 pwnage, and an FU to you. ;)

In other news...

Last Thursday, March 23, my brother, Tom, participated in an art show showcasing University of Dayton's art students. Just to be able to get included was quite an honor, even though it still had an entree fee.

The art was very inspiring and it urged me to get back into my art. There were some very good pieces and I was impressed with the originality of some of them. I would be hard-pressed to rise to the level needed to in that exhibit, sadly. I really haven't done much with my art, lately (too much video gaming, perhaps?). ;)

The picture above was taken my Tom's fiancee, Liz, and shows the last remaining Watson brothers standing next to Tom's entree.

Dan, my younger brother, is away right now on a two week trip with friends he's met traveling the world. He's going to be in Washington state, Vancouver, Portland, and Arizona. I wish I could go back to Vancouver, at least (maybe when the 2010 Olympics?).

It'd be great if he could update his blog with photos or details about what he's doing while he's gone, but I don't know if he'd want to sit at a computer when there's snowboarding to do. :D

RR6 10,000 Miles

I've updated my motto and Gamerpic to represent my frustration & boredom while trying to achieve 10,000 miles in Ridge Racer 6. I've been also been actively updating my miles tally so people on my friends list can see my close-to-real-time progress. I'm seriously surprised there's been so much interest and that much attention on my motto/progress reports.

RR6=Done! (Well, not quite)

Well, I just got 100% completion on Ridge Racer 6's World Xplorer (the single player 'career' mode). 235 races all without Nitrous Support. I'm glad it's over. My arms are shaky right now because of the adrenaline rush playing the last race.

I've got 2 achievements left for the game: 10,000 Miles Driven & No-Crash Victory. I've got ~7,000 miles driven so far and I'm not seriously going to go for the No-Crash Victory, though it would be a good method to get my remaining 3,000 miles in. My playtime is ~71 hours right now. Good thing this game tells you how close you are to an achievement, like how many miles you've driven, unlike other games which just leave you guessing.

Oh, I've also changed my Gamercard to reflect the euphoric state I'm in after beating RR6:


A happy face to go with my jubilation over beating it. The background of the smiley face is also purple to go with the purple color of the Xploration Complete achievement icon (and I didn't even plan it that way!). :D

Gamercard Update, RR6=HELL

Well, I'm currently in the gaming hell that is Ridge Racer 6, one of the worst, most painstakingly-boring and frustrating games I've ever played. Therefore, I've changed my Gamercard pic and motto to reflect the current pain I'm in:


The main reason I hate the game is because it really isn't a racing game:

• You start at the end of the 14-car pack every race


• You have to weave in and out of the surprising slower pack (in the easier races)


• The insanely stupid 'bumper-car' collisions of walls and cars


• The stupid "drifting" which is horribly done; the cars are like "slot cars" going around the track and when drifting the opponents cars are almost sideways making them incredibly hard to get around


• After hitting walls or cars, your speed is dramatically reduced (that's why you have to weave in and out of the pack)


• The enemy cars' rubberband AI which, in the harder levels, always has to be in front of you and has unlimited nitrous to do so


• The enemy cars' reliance on their unlimited nitrous reserve, yet they only start using it if you are in front of them, or have already used your own very limited supply


• The only way to beat the cars in the later stages is to get in front of them, watch both ahead of you and behind you, and block them from getting around you when they inevitably blast off with their nitrous


• Each race HAS to be 3 laps each and makes for a unneccersarily long game

These make the game not racing, but a game of dodgeball with bumper cars. There's no skill in negotiating turns, only when to start "drifting". In the easier levels, the enemy cars are too easy and there's no satisfaction in winning them, then when it gets to the later part of the game, the AI, with its unlimited nitrous, persistance, and unnatural 'driving' skill, the game is too hard. It's so frustrating when you've been working 3 long laps to fend off the cars behind you while paying attention to what's in front of you, to lose at the last second by the cheap AI (that's the only way that you can yourself most of the time). When you do win, it's not satisfying that you've won due to your racing skill, just mostly luck and intense concentration. The only reason I've kept going with this game is I'm so close to completing the game to give up now, so I've pushed myself to continue. Honestly, when a game is a chore, then, it's not a game anymore. :/

The game also has a really bad achievement system. There's a LOT of setup work and you have to play a LONG time before you can get any achievements, the points they award you for don't merit the amount of time and dedication allotted to them. There's also long droughts between each achievement. Just to give you an idea of the insanity behind these achievements, I'll give you an example: there's an achievement for driving 10,000 miles.

Other less annoying points, the default "DJ" voices is one of the most annoying people things to hear (the other unlockable DJs aren't much better, but are tolerable). Most of the game's music is also pretty bad as well, though the ending movie's theme song is pretty catchy (good thing I can replace it with my own). ;)

I've also removed HyperBomberman because I've never played with him (or have ever sent him a message and vice versa). He has Ridge Racer 6, but hadn't played it in a while, but after seeing that I was much further than him, he has started to try and catch up with me (most recently doing the 50 Online Victories). I guess he's trying to compete with me. Well, since I'd never heard from him and the only reason I had him on my list was that he was from the UK and sent me a friend request Aafter only seeing him for a second in a Gaunlet lobby, I decided to remove him. He most likely only sent me a friend request just because I had a higher Gamerscore. I can tell that after having him on my list for months now and have never played with him yet or had any contact, I almost definitely never will, so I don't need him on my list.

Shout-outs to my Xbox Live homies!

A while back I wrote a post called "Strange Live-fellows; well, since then I've gotten a few new acquaintances/friends on Live:

BarebackRex : 14-year-old from Northern Scotland I met while playing Perfect Dark Zero co-op online/ nice kid, though I have a hard time understanding what he's saying because of his strong accent/ What's up, mate! :D

Sovereign Phil : quirky guy from North Carolina I met while playing Dead or Alive 4 about a month ago/ helped me out with getting some achievements/ "Maniacal laugh!" ;)

YummyBooger : nice guy from Detroit I met while playing DOA4 through Sovereign Phil/ now that I think about it, he seems to have dropped off my friends list for some reason; what's up with that?! :-/

Devil Jin27 : Cool guy I met playing DOA4 through Sovereign Phil from Philadelphia, PA/ we have a friendly competition with our Gamerscore (when I first met him, his score was slightly higher than mine, then mine was higher, etc...)/ loves Burnout Revenge! ;)

MarineSaunders : nice guy from Tennessee whom I met while playing Ridge Racer 6 last week/

Sadly, there really isn't many females playing on Live (though I have a few on my friends list), but you really can't be sure about who you meet online (I was talking about this with Devil Jin27 last night). I've met some a lot of cool people online that I will probably never meet in person, but I would probably be good friends with them if we ever did.

Take care, guys and I'll see you online again soon!

Devil Jin27

Welcome to my blog! :D

Because of you I stayed up way too late playing DOA4 and chatted for way too long, but I had fun, so I don't find. I need to put up some art here for you (and everyone) to check out, as well as more of my photographs (I like landscapes).

Hopefully, you won't find anything embarrassing and I won't regret being so flippant with my personal info. ;)

Have fun here and I will try to update more often.

My Gamercard motto favorites

Well, when I was into Dead or Alive 4 playing mode (just got back into it again recently), I changed my Gamerpic to one of the free Helena (from DOA4) pics, because they only had female characters and Helena is my favorite of the ones that were offered. I also changed my motto to "AllNudeClonesMustDie!" to display my hatred for the Dead or Alive 4 final boss, who is quasi-nude and a clone of one of the playable characters (players will know why I dislike her so much). :)

Previously, I've had my motto advertising this very blog (might not be such a good idea since anyone , even people who are not on my friends list, though if I wanted to, I can change the options in the Xbox 360's privacy settings to not anyone, or only friends view my profile, motto, etc...). I've also had it proclaim my 'need' for acquiring Gamerscore points in a joking way (along with a reference to a Ministry song ): "Just 1 (G) fix!"; (G) = Gamerscore.

I can't remember any of the other mottos I've had, but currently I've changed my Gamerpic to one of the new (?) free Amped 3 pics I've found offered (J-Dawg) and my favorite quote from the game (which I've blogged about previously): "Colonotronics Arts".

Well, now that I'm playing Perfect Dark Zero (yeah, I thought the game was horrid the first time I played it) and trying for all of the achievements, or at least all of the achieveable achievements, I've decided to change my motto and gamerpic to something more current. Motto: "KILLharmonicOrchestra" (a phrase from PDZ that I just love; the game announces this when you have tallied 25 kills without being done in yourself), Gamerpic: Ms. Dark.

March 02, 2006- Just changed it. Now, it's another picture from Amped 3 and the motto is a referrence to one of my favorite shows, MXC: "Don't Get Eliminated!"

Yeah, real exciting, right? ;p

Death of a pet

Well, yesterday my rat, 3B (or Big-Balled Bastard for long) died. He hadn't been doing too good the last month or more. He lost all use of his back legs and hips and all of his muscles were atrophied and he was losing a lot of body mass everywhere. He was losing hair in places and he had a bad cataract in his left eye (and a lesser one, I think, in his right one).

He was my first rat and several friends were perplexed why I would actually want one as a pet. Well, it really wasn't my idea. Someone at my mother's job had some babies and was asking around the office for anybody who would want one. My mother was interested and I had never had a rat, but have had hamsters and a few guinea pigs when I was younger. I'd heard they were intelligent and you could teach them tricks. I never taught him anything, but sometimes I'd let him sit on my shoulder or run back and forth on the back of the couch. When people were sitting on the couch, he'd check them out and sometimes try to eat their hair. :)

He was cute and I was glad to have had the experience of caring for him. He lived from about September 2003 to January 2006. I will miss him, but I'm glad he doesn't have to suffer anymore.

R.I.P. 3B

Amped 3 is fun...and weird / SLC2002

After receiving Amped 3 in the mail Friday, I finished it tonight (minus the Supreme Snow God achievement , which requires me to a get a gold medal on all challenges and is not something I'm planning on doing ;). I got a gold on the majority of challenges, but just like getting all platinum medals on Project Gotham Racing 3 is something which I might be able to accomplish given the time/practice and patience, but it's not worth it to me. I'm not as good as J. Allard, but I also don't get all the games for free. ;p Yeah, that just my way to say I'm jealous and I 'suck'. :)

I only rented this game and will probably only keep it a couple of days more (long enough to check out the co-op sled crashing games with my brother), but I'm ready to send it back now. I've played all of the Amped series so far and the first game was one of the games I was anticipating before the launch of the original Xbox. Back then, Indie Built/Access Software was a part of Microsoft Games Studios and it was quite a surprise when they were sold (along with several other sports properties) by Microsoft to Take 2. I was a little anxious about what would happen to my favorite "action sports" game series.

While it has changed, mainly in the controls and the fact that there is a 'story' now (which is actually quite funny in a kind of Adult Swim way and is full of old school game references). It's still Amped and is still fun and I enjoy it for everything that I did with the first 2 games, though I wish they could have improved the graphics a little more and kept (and even improved) the online mode.

The mountian resorts are huge (bigger seemingly than the others in the game, though there is a smaller selection). Snowbird is HUGE and really nice but, having been there in real-life, it feels great to actually "ride" it since I didn't get to ride while I was there. I was there enjoying the Red Bull Huck Fest one day in early 2002 during my month-long stay with my brother during the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. I never realized how big Snowbird was, but it seemed pretty cool what little I saw of it. I bought some stickers for my friends and I and had to leave shortly after the competition.

Brighton, a resort that was featured in the first Amped video game, has sadly not made a return to the sequels, and is definitely my favorite winter resort that I've been to. I don't know why I like it so much. I guess because I like the layout of the trails and how private some of the areas are and all the trees. Maybe, also because I became so familiar with it, as I got to spend every Saturday there while I was in Utah. I'm not an excellent snowboarder, by any means, and, living in Ohio, sadly there are not many chances to ride 'real' mountains (there is Mad River Mountain, but that's barely a hill ;).

When I was out in Utah, it was the first time I had ever really been on a real mountain, and before then, I'd never even learned how to carve (I could go down facing one side but, couldn't turn and go the other way, similar to Zoolander's fear of walking down the runway). Before having some friends, who worked at The Canyons, teach some basics, I went from not being able to go down a run without falling every single time to riding down double-blues (and even some single black) trails with confidence. Having been a proficient skateboarder, it definitely helped with my balance. It took me a couple of hours in a single day and from then on, I've been hooked and have taken every opportunity to get some slope time. I love it more than skateboarding now, since it doesn't hurt as much when you fall. :)

I guess I can't really tell you about me being in Utah for the Olympics and not give you a little bit of context as to my purpose for being there (and it wasn't just to snowboard :) as well as share a little tale relating to my time at Brighton and Amped. My little brother (his blog is in my links) had just gotten back from doing his DTS (see my earlier post for a link explaning what these are) in New Zealand (wish I could have gone :( ). Some of his instructors were also doing a related outreach through SFC, a related Christian organization, during the 2002 Winter Olympics and had invited him to come and help out. I went along, as well as one of Dan's (my little brother) friends from church.

I just had gotten my Xbox a few months before and was started to go into withdrawals after a couple of days and my kind mother, sent my Xbox, some games, and some Official Xbox Magazines in the mail. We rented Amped (I had played it before) and I shared it with the rest of the snowboarders there and they just loved it. It really was cool riding Brighton virtually while we were there.

On Saturdays, we went to Brighton to ride and hand out hot chocolate to people waiting in lift lines. On one of these visits, there was a competition at the terrain park and I met one of the developers of Amped (proudly proclaimed on the back of his jacket). I talked to him for a while and even got his autograph (he signed my lift ticket! :). He was there to watch the competition with his wife and kids and seemed amused that I was acting so star-struck. My brother got to talk to another of the Amped developers, who had previously worked at the famed AM2 development team at Sega, while sitting on a lift ride with him.

We had the pleasure of staying most of our time in Park City & Salt Lake City with ~30 people from all around the world. I helped out in the office making security passports/lanyards for people and making flyers/advertisements for competitions we were running in the Park City area. It was such a great experience and I met some great people there. I also took part in an event in Salt Lake City's history (other than the Olympics): the first time the local (Mormon) government had allowed Christian musicians performing on the streets downtown. There was a stipulation which we followed even if the crowd wanted to hear it: we couldn't "witness". That night, the last day of the Olympics, the crowd was overly rowdy and after the Budweiser Garden, which was right next to where we were set up, got shut down, the rowdiness turned into a full-blown riot. I honestly didn't even know there was one until hearing about it the next day.

I leave you with a joke name from Amped 3 for one of Indie Built's competitors, which is the evil mega-corporation in the game: "Colonitronics Arts, Inc." Let's see if you can figure that out. ;) I personally think it should have been "Colonictronic Arts, Inc." (would have been funnier).

Strange "Live"-fellows

In a relational entry to my last post, playing Gauntlet and Dead or Alive 4 last night, I made 4 new friends (2 being far apart geographically from each other and me, though maybe not so much, culturally, 2 very close to me geographically) on Xbox Live.

One from Mexico (this just being one small piece of info gleaned from his Gamercard). He didn't talk much (or at all) when playing and I wasn't sure if he had his mic on and could hear me, but after playing, I got a friend request and through a few voice messages between himself and I, I got to know him (just slightly) better. After, Gauntlet, we played some Smash TV, but he got disconnected. I'm looking forward to finishing the whole game online soon.

Another of my new friends I made last night, while playing Gauntlet, made an impression on me with his sense of humour and him stating that he had played Gauntlet when he was younger. I'd never played Gauntlet until downloading it in the Xbox 360 Live Arcade and was about to write off the game, but after playing online with some fun people, I've started to see a little of the appeal of it.

During the game, there was some unexplainable lag and the three of us made it through without much complaining and just enjoyed our game. Afterwards, I reviewed my recent players list and sent him a friend invite and noticed he resides in Canada (specifically British Columbia) and added a voice message in the invite stating that I had the pleasure of visting there about 2 years ago. He initiated a private chat soon after granting my request (on the Xbox 360, you can chat in up to 4 seperate "private chat" channels, though only 1 at a time, but you can being doing completely unrelated tasks while chatting).

For the next couple of hours (and probably longer than we should have), we chatted about miscellaneous topics and exchanged IM addresses (upon his request). I don't know if it was just me being tired, or my tendency to sometimes be unguarded online (though anyone who knows me personally knows that I am completely opposite in person), but our chat extended beyond just small talk and I directed him to my blog here. I felt a little vulnerable being that I was being this open to a complete stranger whom I had never known before that night and had never seen in person, but I think we got along pretty well and look forward to more gaming sessions with him.

Earlier in the night, also in Gauntlet, one of the persons I was gaming with and I started conversing about ourselves and it came up that he lived in Cincinnati which is very close to where I am. After a bit, he had to leave but not before sending me a friend request.

Even before the Gauntlet and SmashTV, I was hosting some Dead or Alive matches and one of the players I was fighting with (and having a good time losing to) asked where I happened to live and I mentioned Ohio. He then revealed that he lived in Middletown and I asked him if he'd heard of Huber Heights. It was pretty funny on that we lived so close, but what made it fun to play with him was his sense of humor and fighting skill despite the major lag preventing a "real" display of our abilites.

I had a lot of fun just in one night on Xbox Live and it makes me wonder why I sometimes shy away from playing online. I already have quite a large friends list, so I usually just play by myself unless I get an game invite, though with the improvements made to Xbox Live (in particular the "Zones"), it makes finding compatible people even easier.