Monday, January 31, 2011
-Hey yo! Well, quite a lot has went down since my last update. I will start off with the news that my main supervisor of the team I worked with at Target the past two and a half years just stopped showing up to work. Even crazier is she has been with Target for over 10 years, and she did not bother calling in or putting in any kind of notice. I know she was not that well liked, and there was some other drama brewing for a few weeks preceding her abrupt walk-off, but this caught everyone in the store by surprise, and I am guessing there must have been a lot more going on behind the scenes to get her to leave like this. I lost track of the amount of people who asked me about it too, everyone was as surprised about it as me.
As bewildered as I am at her leaving like that, I will admit I am relieved as she was the most particular and strict boss I ever had. Long time readers of this blog will recall how she frustrated me like no other supervisor before. I hate to see any longtime coworker leave like that, but suffice it to say, she will not be missed.
-If you remembered on my last blog I mentioned the Gamestop I was working at announced it was closing its doors. Since that blog I worked my final days there, and shortly after my last day working there was a get together at the store with the staff and a bunch of former mainstay employees also and we shared many classic stories and all grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant in town afterwords. I thought that was the last I would see of that place, but I got a call a day later saying I actually had a severance check waiting for all my loyal 3-5 hour work weeks I put in over the years which amounted to a $95 severance check. Maybe I will put it towards an iPhone since the town I reside in is finally getting them for sale here within a work or two, but I fear my phone bill climbing an extra $30-$40 a month.
-Speaking of extra charges, the serpentine belt went out on my vehicle a couple weeks ago. It happened while I had my vehicle running on break during a vintage subzero winter day in town. I still was able to drive it to a local autobody shop in town I went to for previous repairs (albeit without power steering). Also needed a new pulley, and I waited at the autobody shop for four hours before they told me they received the wrong part and it would be two more days before they got the new part and my vehicle would be ready. So that was a great way to spend a weekend. Needless to say, I think it may be time to look for a new vehicle since that was the second major repair in two months with the alternator going out in November.
-For the first time in a two or three years I had New Year's Eve off. Ended up going out and partying with a bunch of coworkers. There was a nasty blizzard that happened to coincide with the holiday, but that did not prevent a bunch of intoxicated North Dakotans from participating the festivities. Had a great time too at a coworker's for a house party for a couple of hours, and then hit the downtown scene and joined in with a bunch of coworkers doing our horrible attempt at drunken dancing until closing time.
-I just want to give a shoutout to my Cheap Pop podcast cohost and good buddy Dave. He has a had a very rough past couple of weeks. The apartment building he resided in suffered a terrible fire on the top floor, and the firemen dumping thousands upon thousands of gallons of water all went right down into his basement level apartment. No one got hurt in the fire, but it did result in him losing nearly all his personal belongings, minus a few personal affects firemen were able to salvage out of the mess for him. Then a few days later Dave and Dick were at my place recording a Cheap Pop when Dave a got a call from his insurance notifying that his vehicle was hit by a passing car that lost control off a patch of ice. Talk about a shitty week, here's hoping things get better for you soon Dave!
-Speaking of the podcast we did do an ambitious "Games of the Decade" episode, which will be the first of a two-part series. We have quite a list of categories to run through, and coincidentally enough, the second part will land on On Tap's five year anniversary. click here to download the best of the decade show, which should hopefully be online within several hours of this blog going up. If it is not up, then click here to check out our previous episode, which was our 2nd annual games beaten of the year episode where Matt and I recap and give brief micro reviews for all the games we have beaten throughout the year.
-On the wrestling scene I just got back home a few hours ago from watching the 23rd annual Royal Rumble PPV at Matt's with Dave also. If memory serves right, I believe I have caught every single Royal Rumble live on PPV since 2003. Decent, but not great show. It opened strong with two extremely good championship matches, and other than Nash/Diesel and Booker T being fun nostalgia mystery entrants, it was a pretty lackluster Rumble, especially with the John Cena/Hornswoggle hijinx nearly ruining it.
I also dug out my old ECW Bloodsport DVD and finished watching the two disc set after only getting about four matches in and never picking it up again shortly after bought five years ago. Oddly enough, it turned out for the better that I waited until now to finish it because the WWE has gotten so tame these last few years that it made the hardcore action ECW was famous for new again with all kinds of insane spots and bloodbaths rarely seen on WWE TV today. I was quite fond of the Mike Awesome vs. Spike Dudley match that saw six, count 'em six table spots and the exquisite hardcore brawl between The Dudley Boys and Ball Mahoney & Spike Dudley. If you manage to spot this in the DVD bargain bin make sure to pick it up!
-I have been watching a ton of television shows lately via DVD and Netflix streaming. Since my last blog I have finally finished Veronica Mars season one. It had a great payoff to the season-spanning story arc of who killed Veronica's friend, Lilly. Cannot wait to start season two, but I got other shows I want to make headway in first. A few weeks ago I finished season three of Psych and all told it took me about four to five months to finish the three DVD sets my brother borrowed me. I am glad it took me that long though because around the time I finished season three of Psych, season four went up on Netflix streaming and I am already halfway through it. I am absolutely digging Psych, it has the perfect combination of a detective work and comedy, and manages not to overdo it like Scrubs is kind of notorious for.
I also finished disc one of six of the ESPN 30:30 box set I picked up not too long ago. In case you have not heard, it is a 30 episode mini-series to celebrate ESPN's 30th anniversary with 30 documentaries on some of sports greatest stories. Disc one covered the rise and fall of the USFL, the Wayne Gretzky trade to the Kings and when the Colts moved to Indianapolis. All episodes are crafted by Hollywood directors and have been an absolute joy to watch so far. Also have been really enjoying the Year 4 DVD of the Angry Videogame Nerd. Even though you can watch them all for free online at screwattack.com, I just really dig his material and want to help support his incredibly entertaining hobby so I usually shell out the bones for his annual DVD release.
-Finally it would not be a way to wrap up a blog entry without what I have been playing lately. I actually got around to finishing a few games recently that went into my backlog around halfway completed. First of those was Risk Factions, I only had a mission and a half left in that campaign, which I had a blast finishing off and I used that confidence and proceeded to win a rare match of Risk online! Next up was Lego Rock Band with Matt. We played this regularly until May last year. Turned out we were close to finishing it back then because a week ago Matt brought it over and we picked up where we left off, and it only took a half hour or so of playing before we unlocked the final gig. Finally, I powered through the five remaining Road to Wrestlemania story modes I had left in Smackdown vs. RAW 2010. It took me about a week to play through them all, but it was worth it as I had a blast enjoying all the hokey storylines.
In other gaming news, the next game I picked up from my backlog is Yakuza 3. I have been making quite a bit of progress in it and am now in Chapter 7. I plowed through the 360 shmup Deathsmiles that came out last year, I want to play through it at least another time or two since there are quite a few ways to play it. I helped Matt finish the last couple of levels of Halo 3 online, and then him, a coworker of his and I plowed through the first four levels of Reach's campaign online in Legendary difficulty. I then convinced Matt to try out Halo's online multiplayer for the first time ever and we ended up playing it for three hours straight, with Team Slayer and Multi-Team being the matchmaking modes we played the most. Headhunter and Rocket-Race were a big hit with both of us.
I had a few good gaming sessions with Scott too since the last blog. We continue to pick away at our co-op career in Need for Speed Undercover. We also had a couple of entertaining match-ups in NBA Jam and played a ton of Madden NFL 2010 against each other. We exchanged a few wins back and fourth. I somehow managed to beat Scott 35-0, and cannot remember the last time I had that good of a win. I felt a little sympathy for Scott though because he had a good drive going towards the end of the game and he was well into the redzone and I felt good that he was close to getting some points to put on the board for pride's sake to avoid a shutout. Well, that did not happen because he threw an interception in the endzone which I proceeded to run back for a touchdown. After that crazy win, we had a real shootout the next game which finished with a baseball score of 7-3. Our latest game was even more bizarre, which resulted in the first tie I can ever remember having in a game of videogame football. None of us scored in overtime and we tied 14-14.
Of course I have been playing the usual Pinball FX2/Marvel Pinball a lot lately, and have been doing well at topping friends leaderboards on Pinball FX2 at least, which I currently top 5 of as of this writing. Still playing little spurt of Phoenix Wright: Trials & Tribulations also, I finally finished the second case last week and am now a little ways into the third case. I will finish this blog though raving about Starcraft II. I have yet to play the campaign, but have been playing a ton online, tearing up computer opponents with two old Gamestop coworkers, Alex & Chris. I am not a Starcraft pro by any means, but I was able to hop online without any tutorial help and was easily able to get into the swing of things again. I guess playing a few rounds of regular Starcraft last year helped me stay familiar with its formula too. I miss some of the original Starcraft units that did not make their way into SCII, but we did find some special custom user created maps to play that featured some old favorite original Terran units like Vultures, Firebats and Medics.
-And with that Starcraft II love out of the way, that wraps up yet another vintage-long blog from me. Thanks for staying with me everyone....well all two you still reading this anyways!
As bewildered as I am at her leaving like that, I will admit I am relieved as she was the most particular and strict boss I ever had. Long time readers of this blog will recall how she frustrated me like no other supervisor before. I hate to see any longtime coworker leave like that, but suffice it to say, she will not be missed.
-If you remembered on my last blog I mentioned the Gamestop I was working at announced it was closing its doors. Since that blog I worked my final days there, and shortly after my last day working there was a get together at the store with the staff and a bunch of former mainstay employees also and we shared many classic stories and all grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant in town afterwords. I thought that was the last I would see of that place, but I got a call a day later saying I actually had a severance check waiting for all my loyal 3-5 hour work weeks I put in over the years which amounted to a $95 severance check. Maybe I will put it towards an iPhone since the town I reside in is finally getting them for sale here within a work or two, but I fear my phone bill climbing an extra $30-$40 a month.
-Speaking of extra charges, the serpentine belt went out on my vehicle a couple weeks ago. It happened while I had my vehicle running on break during a vintage subzero winter day in town. I still was able to drive it to a local autobody shop in town I went to for previous repairs (albeit without power steering). Also needed a new pulley, and I waited at the autobody shop for four hours before they told me they received the wrong part and it would be two more days before they got the new part and my vehicle would be ready. So that was a great way to spend a weekend. Needless to say, I think it may be time to look for a new vehicle since that was the second major repair in two months with the alternator going out in November.
-For the first time in a two or three years I had New Year's Eve off. Ended up going out and partying with a bunch of coworkers. There was a nasty blizzard that happened to coincide with the holiday, but that did not prevent a bunch of intoxicated North Dakotans from participating the festivities. Had a great time too at a coworker's for a house party for a couple of hours, and then hit the downtown scene and joined in with a bunch of coworkers doing our horrible attempt at drunken dancing until closing time.
-I just want to give a shoutout to my Cheap Pop podcast cohost and good buddy Dave. He has a had a very rough past couple of weeks. The apartment building he resided in suffered a terrible fire on the top floor, and the firemen dumping thousands upon thousands of gallons of water all went right down into his basement level apartment. No one got hurt in the fire, but it did result in him losing nearly all his personal belongings, minus a few personal affects firemen were able to salvage out of the mess for him. Then a few days later Dave and Dick were at my place recording a Cheap Pop when Dave a got a call from his insurance notifying that his vehicle was hit by a passing car that lost control off a patch of ice. Talk about a shitty week, here's hoping things get better for you soon Dave!
-Speaking of the podcast we did do an ambitious "Games of the Decade" episode, which will be the first of a two-part series. We have quite a list of categories to run through, and coincidentally enough, the second part will land on On Tap's five year anniversary. click here to download the best of the decade show, which should hopefully be online within several hours of this blog going up. If it is not up, then click here to check out our previous episode, which was our 2nd annual games beaten of the year episode where Matt and I recap and give brief micro reviews for all the games we have beaten throughout the year.
-On the wrestling scene I just got back home a few hours ago from watching the 23rd annual Royal Rumble PPV at Matt's with Dave also. If memory serves right, I believe I have caught every single Royal Rumble live on PPV since 2003. Decent, but not great show. It opened strong with two extremely good championship matches, and other than Nash/Diesel and Booker T being fun nostalgia mystery entrants, it was a pretty lackluster Rumble, especially with the John Cena/Hornswoggle hijinx nearly ruining it.
I also dug out my old ECW Bloodsport DVD and finished watching the two disc set after only getting about four matches in and never picking it up again shortly after bought five years ago. Oddly enough, it turned out for the better that I waited until now to finish it because the WWE has gotten so tame these last few years that it made the hardcore action ECW was famous for new again with all kinds of insane spots and bloodbaths rarely seen on WWE TV today. I was quite fond of the Mike Awesome vs. Spike Dudley match that saw six, count 'em six table spots and the exquisite hardcore brawl between The Dudley Boys and Ball Mahoney & Spike Dudley. If you manage to spot this in the DVD bargain bin make sure to pick it up!
-I have been watching a ton of television shows lately via DVD and Netflix streaming. Since my last blog I have finally finished Veronica Mars season one. It had a great payoff to the season-spanning story arc of who killed Veronica's friend, Lilly. Cannot wait to start season two, but I got other shows I want to make headway in first. A few weeks ago I finished season three of Psych and all told it took me about four to five months to finish the three DVD sets my brother borrowed me. I am glad it took me that long though because around the time I finished season three of Psych, season four went up on Netflix streaming and I am already halfway through it. I am absolutely digging Psych, it has the perfect combination of a detective work and comedy, and manages not to overdo it like Scrubs is kind of notorious for.
I also finished disc one of six of the ESPN 30:30 box set I picked up not too long ago. In case you have not heard, it is a 30 episode mini-series to celebrate ESPN's 30th anniversary with 30 documentaries on some of sports greatest stories. Disc one covered the rise and fall of the USFL, the Wayne Gretzky trade to the Kings and when the Colts moved to Indianapolis. All episodes are crafted by Hollywood directors and have been an absolute joy to watch so far. Also have been really enjoying the Year 4 DVD of the Angry Videogame Nerd. Even though you can watch them all for free online at screwattack.com, I just really dig his material and want to help support his incredibly entertaining hobby so I usually shell out the bones for his annual DVD release.
-Finally it would not be a way to wrap up a blog entry without what I have been playing lately. I actually got around to finishing a few games recently that went into my backlog around halfway completed. First of those was Risk Factions, I only had a mission and a half left in that campaign, which I had a blast finishing off and I used that confidence and proceeded to win a rare match of Risk online! Next up was Lego Rock Band with Matt. We played this regularly until May last year. Turned out we were close to finishing it back then because a week ago Matt brought it over and we picked up where we left off, and it only took a half hour or so of playing before we unlocked the final gig. Finally, I powered through the five remaining Road to Wrestlemania story modes I had left in Smackdown vs. RAW 2010. It took me about a week to play through them all, but it was worth it as I had a blast enjoying all the hokey storylines.
In other gaming news, the next game I picked up from my backlog is Yakuza 3. I have been making quite a bit of progress in it and am now in Chapter 7. I plowed through the 360 shmup Deathsmiles that came out last year, I want to play through it at least another time or two since there are quite a few ways to play it. I helped Matt finish the last couple of levels of Halo 3 online, and then him, a coworker of his and I plowed through the first four levels of Reach's campaign online in Legendary difficulty. I then convinced Matt to try out Halo's online multiplayer for the first time ever and we ended up playing it for three hours straight, with Team Slayer and Multi-Team being the matchmaking modes we played the most. Headhunter and Rocket-Race were a big hit with both of us.
I had a few good gaming sessions with Scott too since the last blog. We continue to pick away at our co-op career in Need for Speed Undercover. We also had a couple of entertaining match-ups in NBA Jam and played a ton of Madden NFL 2010 against each other. We exchanged a few wins back and fourth. I somehow managed to beat Scott 35-0, and cannot remember the last time I had that good of a win. I felt a little sympathy for Scott though because he had a good drive going towards the end of the game and he was well into the redzone and I felt good that he was close to getting some points to put on the board for pride's sake to avoid a shutout. Well, that did not happen because he threw an interception in the endzone which I proceeded to run back for a touchdown. After that crazy win, we had a real shootout the next game which finished with a baseball score of 7-3. Our latest game was even more bizarre, which resulted in the first tie I can ever remember having in a game of videogame football. None of us scored in overtime and we tied 14-14.
Of course I have been playing the usual Pinball FX2/Marvel Pinball a lot lately, and have been doing well at topping friends leaderboards on Pinball FX2 at least, which I currently top 5 of as of this writing. Still playing little spurt of Phoenix Wright: Trials & Tribulations also, I finally finished the second case last week and am now a little ways into the third case. I will finish this blog though raving about Starcraft II. I have yet to play the campaign, but have been playing a ton online, tearing up computer opponents with two old Gamestop coworkers, Alex & Chris. I am not a Starcraft pro by any means, but I was able to hop online without any tutorial help and was easily able to get into the swing of things again. I guess playing a few rounds of regular Starcraft last year helped me stay familiar with its formula too. I miss some of the original Starcraft units that did not make their way into SCII, but we did find some special custom user created maps to play that featured some old favorite original Terran units like Vultures, Firebats and Medics.
-And with that Starcraft II love out of the way, that wraps up yet another vintage-long blog from me. Thanks for staying with me everyone....well all two you still reading this anyways!
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