No, this year it wasn’t me. For the most part I am having a hard time even realizing that Christmas was here. It snuck up on me kind of fast and bam here it is the day after and I am still like “Wait what?” With all of the school and events and everything that popped up prior, this Christmas just seemed kind of meh. I hope that next year will be better. And now it’s time for the overview wrapup….

Andrew has a new interest that is Civil Air Patrol (CAP). For those that don’t know it’s kind of like the Air Forces version of the Boy Scouts. They wear uniforms and do a lot of military like things. They are very active in the community and even help the military with local search and rescue. He seems very excited about it and is looking forward to some of the bigger events.

Christmas was interesting. For the house we got a Playstation 3. (my work bonus was good, more on the PS3 when I do the big review). Andrew got a new Pool Cue as well as some clothes and other things. I got the new Wil Wheaton book and will be tearing through that soon. We took a trio down to Richmond to spend the holiday with Sarah’s family. First we had a traditional Christmas dinner of Chinese food with her Dad and Sister. Then Christmas day with her Mom and Sister and Step sisters and Step Dad. Andrew stayed down with them for the week to help out with some projects. Over all it was a lot of fun, and very exhausting.

On to future news. We are moving soon! Well, after 4 years in my apartment it’s time to move. They are doing renovations and have slated mine for the beginning of Feb. so I have to be out by the end of January. This is a good thing because the apartment was getting far too small. We have already been looking around and, while I think it’s still too expensive to buy, there are a lot of town houses that are up for rent. More space would be grand as we are starting to burst at the seams of this place.

Sarah and I are doing wonderfully well. With the upcoming move we have decided to take another baby step in relationship terms and move in together. She was living with her Grandparents while attending Grad school and I need some help with the rent. She spends most of her free time at my place to begin with so it all made sense. I also figure that she managed to survive Meeting my sister, a natural disaster, my suffering, my fashion trends, a major convention, meeting all my close friends, my gaming obsession, my graduation, and at least two to three major holidays. I have tried everything I could to scare her off and she tolerated all of it. I guess that means she is a keeper. An important note here to all that are reading. Please please please stop making jokes/comments about marriage and wedding dates. We are not there right now and you making the comments and jokes make us not want to be there ever. If we go that route it should be our choice, not everyone else’s pushing.

I even had a picture taken as I did my walk!

Ok so I am not going to start this post with the usual (as of late) “wow, I haven’t posted in a while” post. Plain and simple, it’s been tough to get a little extra time to post things, and for the most part, there have only been a few things that are really big that I would want to post about. This post is one of those things. A few things to cover here would be the release of a metric crapton of games that I have been waiting for, my impending graduation and of course the annual Thanksgiving trip down to Lee’s place.

Games games games. As anyone who plays the 360 and has a pulse knows, October/November was a HUGE release time. Thankfully I had been saving up and also turned in a bunch of used games, sold some blood, plasma, kidney, had medical experiments performed on me, and spent a few nights in vegas doing things that I still weep in the corner of the shower about to be able to pick them up.

Now we know Halo 3 came out in late September. That was able to hold my attention for a while, we finished it up and had a blast doing so. It’s always nice to find a game that we can get 4 people in to Co-Op on. I love the Halo games but the hype was just a tad much over the game. It’s good, but it’s just Halo 2 with better graphics. I will probably play it off and on over the next few months.

One big Title I was waiting for is the Orange Box. This is Valves little present to me with 5 more presents waiting inside it! It has all three Half Life 2 games (I beat the main, and EP1, will work on EP2 while I sleep because that’s the only time I will have). It also had Team Fortress 2 which is a great Team based FPS which had be flashing back to the good old Tribes days! Lastly it had Portal. Portal will make your head explode with shards of Confetti bursting out while children scream “YAY!!” It’s a puzzle game that bottles your mind and honestly was some of the most fun I have had with a puzzle game. Orange Box is certainly worth the money since its 5 games in one!

One of the many many many things I love about Sarah is that she is a gamer as well. While she tends to lean towards more of the RPG and puzzle type of games I look at more action ones. We have come to enjoy playing some of the games together. The first one we started on was a while back I had picked up a used copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Since we are both Comic nuts we loved playing through it and were bummed out when we finished. Well, the latest Lego Star Wars came out and that is out new game of “Couple Play” choice. We usually wait till Andrew heads to bed and play through a few levels laughing at all of the jokes etc. Along the same lines, over the “Xbox Live is Five” holiday they had on the 360, we picked up Carcassone for free and have been loving that as well.

You have probably seen some of the screen shots I have posted from Guitar Hero III. I loved GHII when it came out so I had to pick up III. I didn’t bother with the bundled wireless controller as we already had two wired. I have to say that, While I like the GH games, this was just more songs that they could have ported to GHII. The online stuff is a nice add on but it seems like this whole game is just that, an add on. It’s more of the same. A lot of the songs are made even more difficult of course which makes it that much harder to try on any higher difficultly.

Next up, Assassin’s Creed. I did not buy this game. Andrew did. He saved up allowance and turned in a bunch of older games for credit so he could buy it and with his well earned booty (huh huh….booty) he played through quite a bit. I tried it out as well and it seems pretty fun. The voice acting for the main character throws it off a bit, and the twist is….well….twisty. The story seems solid from what I can see and it looks like it will be a fun play. The graphics are amazing and the animations stunning.

Two more to go! This one should be quick. Mass Effect! It came out, I have it, I haven’t played it at all yet! Lee and Doc and I all took a pact that while we may have picked it up on release day, we wouldn’t touch it until after thanksgiving since we would be out of town. So….ummm….the videos look great….and the box is nice and shiny…..more on this later.

Saving the best for last, I picked up Rock Band. I love this game. A tad bit of background here, I love drums. I have been playing hand drums like the doumbek for a while now and have always wanted to try and full drum set but lack the room to really make use of it. I also loved the GH games. When I heard that a new game would be coming out that included drumming, I instantly started salivating. This only increased when I learned how they were doing it. You see, with GH you know going in that the controller is nothing like a real guitar. There are buttons instead of strings and playing on it can in no way translate to playing a real guitar. For the record, I actually had Sarah, who plays guitar, try and show me how to play a few chords and discovered that I have stupid fingers (thanks for that phrase Wil). I couldn’t manage to hold down one string without touching another. I may have better luck on a bass guitar we’ll see.

The drum set that it came with is 4 pads, each color marked, and a kick peddle. It works much the same as GH with color bars scrolling down the screen and hitting the right pad at the right time, but it’s the rhythm of the game and the music that everything comes together in a drummers dream. I was marginally interested in learning a full drum kit before, now I am really interested. This was a very nice intro into the full kit realm and I like what I heard/felt/saw/drooled over.

Off the subject of games, that time came again when I make the annual pilgrimage to TN for thanksgiving. We have been doing this every year for the last 5 years. This year was special as not only me and Sarah and Andrew, but Doc and Diz made the trek as well! It was a very full house for the weekend but some of the most fun I had ever had. We got there on Wed. night, just in time for bed, and Doc showed up on Friday afternoon. Over all, the whole weekend was great. We went out to some great Nashville sights (and Franklin) and even Took Sarah by Vanderbilt, where she is looking at a PHD program. I took Rock Band with me and we all got the chance to play. Everyone had a blast and we even learned a new drinking game out of it! Important note, when playing a 5 song set, do NOT unplug the controller! (DOC!!!!) After all the great fun, it was good to come home on Monday and crash out.

Lastly, I am now, officially, a College Graduate! My status has changed on the AIU site, I got my official letter of congratulations, and I should be getting my Diploma shortly. As I posted before, the Ceremony (if you can call it that) will be able to be seen online on the 1st of December (that’s this coming Saturday) Check the post below for the info. Yes Mom, I see it’s on the first and not the second. I am just happy to be done!

Well, that’s enough updates for now, I will try and get better about this through the Holidays.

Yes it is
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801

Think about it

Graduates, Friends and Family…

Please join American InterContinental University Online in its celebration of our upcoming graduates.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Your Graduation Ceremony will be available ANYTIME AFTER 8:00 AM CDT and viewable for 30 days from this date. Please note that this does not mean you must attend at 8:00 AM CDT, only that this time will be your earliest opportunity to view your Graduation Ceremony.

Please forward this email to guests which you would like to include in your great day.

Guests will go to the web address below and type in their first and last name; then the guest password: bit1220075

http://graduation.aiuonline.edu?Q3EMo10TgII1
(Or copy and paste the URL into the address bar.)

For all Attendees:
If not already installed, upon entering the ceremony you will be asked to
install a Flash program that is required to successfully view the graduation.

This is an open letter to all who are attending parties this season as well as those in the future. I do this because it has becoming apparent that there are those among us who don’t quite realize how they should behave at a party. This should help.

1: Parties are given at a specific location. This means that there is usually a host that is in charge of said location. This also means the host is RESPONSIBLE for that location. What this really means for you, the partier, is that whatever the host says…goes. He/She is the boss and will most likely have to clean up after the party is over. Got that? The Host is the Boss and Sets the Rules. Keep this in mind as this rule may be referred back to at any time.

2: There may or may not be drinking at the party. The legal drinking age in the state of Virginia is 21. If you are not 21…DON’T DRINK!!! This should not even be remotely open to question. 9 times out of 8 the Host will set the rule into effect early on that no Minors will be allowed to drink (see rule number 1). This is because, as per rule 1, the host can be held liable if something were to go wrong (say for example, a drunken minor falling into a fire). Not to mention that if you will be posting about your adventures ONLINE, you should not include the location of where you were doing this illegal activity.

3: If you are invited to a party and you decide to bring a guest, especially a guest that the host does not know or has ever met, you will be solely responsible for that guest. Anything that guest does at said party will fall squarely on your shoulders. This is much like if you were to bring your child. You, as a parent, would be responsible for everything that child did. If that guest is having problems, it is YOUR responsibility to take care of them, no one else’s.

The reason I write this is because of an incident at an un-specified party involving un-specified people/person who may or may not have been drinking while underage. These un-specified people/person may or may not have brought an un-specified guest to said un-specified party. This un-specified guest may or may not have gotten sick all over the home of the un-specified host of the un-specified party. Said un-specified guest then may or may not have gotten banished from said un-specified house and proceeded to go into the woods and he/she may or may not have relieved him/herself all over his/her clothes. The people/person who brought said un-specified guest may or may not then started whining about not wanting to deal with said un-specified guest leaving the cleaning up and taking care of this un-specified guest to fall on either the un-specified host or other un-specified party attendees.

This was extremely un-nerving and was very immature behavior. I personally lost a lot of respect for said unspecified people/person.

A while back I had to write up a persona for the “Who Wants to be a Super Hero” show that I was trying out for. Well in my current English class they wanted me to write up a story for a character. What better way then to combine the two ideas. In a fit of creative juices, I wrote out this. The downside is that I didn’t finish until 3am. The character took a bit of a darker turn then I had originally envisioned him, but I like the direction it took. It makes it a little harder on the character and a little more of a mystery.

——————————————————————————————

It was only a year ago that it happened. I thought it would be simple. Ha! Everyone always thinks that don’t they. It’s a standard procedure, nothing could go wrong, they told me, you will wake up and feel normal. But I didn’t feel normal. For a long while, I didn’t even wake up. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like I ever woke up, like I am in some sort of endless nightmare.

The fog reeks. I can taste it. The mix of smoke factories and the fried food from the pub down the street makes my nostrils feel like they are on fire. Thankfully they have an unlocked wireless connection. I love the 21^st century, it seems like every building is on the internet now. This back alley only adds to the offensive smells but it allows me to access what I need without too many stares. I have heard it’s not pretty. Thankfully I have never had to watch the process. Here we are, the witness protection files show the doctor’s new address as two blocks down. I guess he didn’t like the good ol US of A any more and had them hide him out here in Ireland. That’s fine by me, travel is nothing for me now, after what he did. Heh, what he did, the nightmare flows back in waves.

A new government project, Cybernetics, the wave of the future. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of something like that! Here I was, a lowly computer technician fixing stuck keyboards for the Colonels secretaries and installing PowerPoint for different briefers that would come through the Pentagon. When I heard about the program, I did everything I could to ensure I was involved. They needed someone with a strong computer background and a body frame that would show significant improvement. Well, any improvement would be significant to me! To them, I was a perfect candidate, which was fine with me because I was ready for something new.

Snapping out of the haze of memories, I locate the address and start the search for the other information I need. They gave me only 1 gigabyte of storage so I have to be selective. Thankfully, you would be surprised what can fit in the span of 1000 megabytes. The Tao of Jeet Kun Do is only 22 megs. I like to keep that on hand as a “just in case” but I don’t need fighting style right now, I need stealth. A few old texts, transcribed to electronic format of course, discussing ancient ninja techniques on remaining unseen will do nicely. Oh, and there is a new single from Fall Out Boy, might as well grab that while I am here. And now the fun part. I feel the information surge through every one of the wires. My skin turns a little more red and I can feel the heat radiate out. My arms were still wet from the rain so I know there is steam rising from them. I wish I knew what it looked like but I haven’t ever seen it since my eyes are rolled back so far I think I can see the hair on the back of my neck. I don’t think it even hurt this much when this blasted equipment went in. Aww crap, I think I just threw up.

The wires will be run along my arms and legs to “stimulate” the muscles. The memory will be used for basic storage and shouldn’t be noticeable unless directly accessed by the terminal in the back of my neck. The diagrams they were showing me were amazing! As I sat in the office going over the files and pictures I really got tingles in all the places I was seeing on the screen. A series of small wires to be used as antennae would run through the outer part of my ear to access wireless computer systems. The processor was state of the art and would sit at the base of my skull to run this whole intricate system. Simple fiber optics would run to the visual centers of the brain to interpret what I was accessing into what I could see, no, not just see, know. This was every computer geek’s dream. I wouldn’t just be accessing the computer in me, I would be the computer.

The streets are empty now. I am thankful for that. It means that there wasn’t anyone around to hear me if I screamed. I have heard that I do that sometimes when the information gets processed. It’s not all the time of course. If I just need to store something for transit it’s easy. Only when I need to use the info and push it to the rest of me, that’s when it hurts. Now I just need to find this blasted doctor to find out how to get rid of this. I can still taste the vomit as I leave the alley. I think I improved the smell back there. The noise from the pub gets louder as I was down the street. His apartment is above the pub. That will be both a blessing and a curse. I guess it depends on how he reacts to seeing his abomination come back from the dead.

The table is cold. That could have something to do with the serious lack of clothing. They let me keep a towel across my nethers but I am convinced that as soon as I am out that will be gone too. The doc says the procedure should only take a few hours. I think he was joking when he said that, I could swear I saw a smirk. When I think about all of the wires that are going in, I know that the process would take a very, very long time. I wonder what sort of weird dreams I am going to have. Heh.. a weird thought keeps crossing my mind….hope I don’t die.

I decide to check out the pub for a few reasons. First and foremost, my mouth tastes like crap and I need something to help with that. Second being that I should know how many people may interfere with what needs doing. The doc may not react kindly and I surely don’t need a bunch of drunks wandering upstairs to find out what’s going on. Just before walking in, a thought strikes me and I download a few pages on Irish dialect. I wince as it gets pushed to the language center. Knowledge is a little less painful than muscle, but it still stings. I open the door and let the new smells and noise wash over me. I head towards the bar scanning the room as I walk through. “A pint of yer finest cidar lass.” Indistinguishable from the other patrons, she probably thinks I am from around the corner. I turn back towards the room and listen to the sounds of the fiddle player in the corner. I have a new fondness for noise. It’s probably why I keep music in storage. Silence tends to raise my hackles as of late.

Oh dear god, it’s quiet. And why is it so dark. Where am I and Holy crap is it cold! I try and talk but I am so dry. I should try to sit up……OW! Crap that hurt my head. Where the hell am I??… It’s quiet, deathly quiet. Why can’t I talk. Think man think, The last thing I remember was going under the gas. Is this recovery? What happened? Ok, lets just calm down and think about…

SSID BROADCAST: WALTER REED MILITARY MEDICAL CENTER, SIGNAL STRENGTH 87%

What the hell was that…Access that SSID.

WIRELESS CONNECTED, IP ASSIGNED.

Walter Reed? That’s a hospital. Did they take me there..er here? I wonder if there is any record of me.

SEARCHING RECORDS: DAVID GARRIS…….SUBJECT FOUND…..DECEASED…LOCATION: MORGUE LEVEL 2 BAY 37

Pardon? Did that say dead? No, David, that said Deceased, but it’s a hell of a lot LIKE dead. Ok, think think think…. This place is pretty up there with tech, let’s try something. I need to open that bay.

RELEASING LOCK ON BAY 37

Was that a click? A little shove of the feet and the door swings open and a bright white light floods into the small space I am laying in. I look down and, of course, I am naked.

The Cider does the trick of cleaning the palate. The fiddle player finishes up his last tune and walks around to collect donations. I drop in a few euros and flash a smile. He wasn’t that great to be honest but I realize that this is the mans living. The pub starts to empty by the time I pull the last two drops from my glass. With only a few horribly drunk individuals left, and most of them too far gone to even move under their own free will, I slip out the back door to find the staircase to the upper rooms. Wonderful, another back alley. At least this one doesn’t have the remains of the airline food I wolfed down on the flight over. The stairs leading up creak enough to give pause. I can’t alert him to my presence, not yet at least. That means the stairs are out. Thankfully there is a drainage pipe running down from the roof. As I access the information on ninja climbing skills, I feel the electrical shocks run through my muscles. It’s not as bad as the initial push, but enough that it’s not something I want on all the time. I jump a good 4-5 feet and grasp the pipe. Using my arms I start to pull myself up the side of the pub. A year down the road and I am still not used to the idea of this.

First order of business….get out of the box. I slide my way out of the cold storage of bay 37 to find myself in the bright examining room of the morgue. What time is it? Hell, what day is it?

ACCESSING TIME SERVER…..CURRENT DATE: JANURARY 18^th 2001

The 18^th? I have been out for 3 weeks! I have to get out of here. Next order of business…clothes. It must not be a busy day for the dead folk, no one has come in for a while now. I find some spare clothes in a back office. It looks like our local mortician likes to leave workout sweats here just in case. Ugh, and I thought the morgue area smelled bad. I need a second to think here. What happened to the project? Where is Doctor Richards?

ACCESSING PERSONAL RECORDS: COL. JAMES RICHARDS, MD,

ASSIGNMENT: PENTAGON SPECIAL MEDICAL RESEARCH FACILITY

DURATION: JANURARY 1 1999 TO JANUARY 1 2001

CURRENT LOCATION: CLASSIFIED

Well, I guess that answers that…in a way that it doesn’t answer anything!! Why am I here? Where is the Doc now? Why am I seeing words on my freaking eyeballs transmitted from the computer system? Does this mean the experiment worked? Why does it feel like my skin is burning?? I have to get out of here and find some answers and there is only one person I can think of to give them to me.

Look at him sitting there on his couch watching the tele without a care in the world. It was easy to get into his bedroom. The skylight slipped open with ease. Thanks to the newly downloaded info I was able to drop the fifteen feet and flex the different muscles in my legs on impact so that there was no more sound than the close of the pub door downstairs. Through the crack in the door I can see all the way to the living room. As he wraps up his viewing, I slip back to the chair in the corner. The tele goes off and it’s dead quiet. I hate the quiet. I bring up the new single I download and let it drone in the back of my head. Anything to kill the silence. The door opens and he walks in. He sits on the bed without even seeing me.

“Hi Doc, Miss me?”

So a little while ago a site called Major Spoilers announced they were doing a costume contest. The prize is a copy of Absolute Batman: The Long Halloween. To quote Sarah: “Long Halloween is a badass Batman story, and the Absolute editions are amazing (and really expensive!).” So we got some ideas and posed a few pictures for the contest. You can find the whole “ photo shoot” in my gallery. Well, she made it to the final 5 with a picture that I was very excited to take. I really liked the off mirror shot.

So PLEASE go and vote for Catwoman at Major Spoilers. On the right side of the page you can see where to vote. You can see all of the entries here: Full Post

And here is the picture that is in the finals: