The Rant. The Rave. The Errrrvvvything.

MyCorporateMedia

2010-10-26T08:36:00.003-05:00

New Job!

www.MyCorporateMedia.com

MyCorporateMedia is a social media strategy & solutions firm based in St. Louis, Missouri. We work in the areas of business communications & engagement for sales, customer service, business development, PR, and more. Offering online services using social media tools and methods to connect you to your prospects, clients, and customers. Our services are on the cutting edge of developing inbound marketing opportunities that find and draw in your prospective customers or targets.

Companies hire MyCorporateMedia to enhance one or more of these areas :

-How to leverage Social Media for increased Sales, Business Development, Recruiting, Consistent Marketing and PR.

- Identify & define measurable ROI on Social Media for your business.

- Provide "Done for You" Social Media services for your business

-steve

WOW

2009-05-22T11:45:00.002-05:00

Ok.

So alot has happened sence October and unfortunantly I was not allowed to continue posting about it while I was gone. Lets just say the Military had some issues with me and posting. That being said, let me try and get as much of this out as I can.

Deployment was great and I had an awesome time. I never want to do it again. :)

I'm still engaged to be married on the 27th of June to the most amazing woman in the world.

I recently got my business license and will be starting a business soon.

I'm going back to school in August hopefully while I continue to work on my business and start a family!

Well, that about sums up whats going on in my life. Other then that, life is awesome and crazy and I'm having a great time.

-steve

Ladies and Gents, I give you...

2008-10-08T14:51:00.003-05:00

My Trip To central Europe:

We will start in This Post Paris.

Above we have the Eiffel Tower. Man does it look cool at night.

Down below we have the famous La Pyramide Inversée, which literally translated means "Upside Down Pyramid".

This Shot below was taken Inside the Louvre where we saw this lounge seat and decided to do a little acting!

I present to you, The Venis De Milo. A Sculpture of the Greek Goddess Aphrodite (Also called Venus by the Romans) Goddess of Love and Beauty.

Comming Soon: The Arc De Triumph and The Eiffel Tower With Sparkling Lights.

-steve

it hurts so good.

2008-09-25T14:18:00.002-05:00

Wow! So I am finally home from my Military leave and let me tell you something. Visiting 4 Countries in 10 days is A LOT of work.

However, I did get about 800 pictures and as soon as the 2 days of uploading Shutterfly has quoted me have passed I will post the best of them.

All in all it was a wonderful time and everything was perfect. The worst part about the whole trip was that it took me about 3 hours to find my dad at the airport coz we got mixed up about which terminal to meet at.

Also, It helps having a wonderful Fiance for when you are missing home really bad. Thanks Hun for all the support and love.

Also, Thank you to my Dad. I know I ran you ragged, but I appreciate you doing your best to keep up and for not kicking the bucket on me. Love ya Pops.

-steve

the thing

2008-09-07T07:45:00.003-05:00

wIth brunet hair and Lips that tease;

eyes that bring me tO my knees.

i can't escape that piercing gaze,

nor would i want to leaVe this hazE.

i miss Your face as it rests against my chest,

and hOw i would never want to wake from my rest.

your love has broUght me pride;

i wish to always be at your side.

tHough this poEm is AmaTurisH at bEst,

it is still a Reflection of my heart put to the test.

with you by my side i have nothing to fear,

for i know that my life is becoming complete.

it is good to know that you will always be near,

my beloved darling i like to call heat.

what i miss most about home...

-SW

one shot. one kill.

2008-08-24T15:10:00.004-05:00

Boom. Head Shot.

(click the images to make it larger)

This. This is why I love the army.

-steve

more than words..

2008-08-19T14:37:00.003-05:00

The song is to show you my mood.

Sometimes people do things that make you cry. You cry because of happiness, pain, joy, fear and a whole host of other things mixing together.

Let me just say that this has happened to me just recently. Someone has shown me great Love and it makes me so Joyful and fearful all at the same time.

I. Love. You.

-sw

The NCO

2008-08-11T15:00:00.003-05:00

Tonight, as I listen to TAPS at this very moment, I want to share with you my induction into the corps of the NCO.

No one is more professional than I. I am a Noncommissioned Officer, a leader of soldiers. As a Noncommissioned Officer, I realize that I am a member of a time honored corps, which is known as "The Backbone of the Army". I am proud of the Corps of Noncommissioned Officers and will at all times conduct myself so as to bring credit upon the Corps, the Military Service and my country regardless of the situation in which I find myself. I will not use my grade or position to attain pleasure, profit, or personal safety.

Competence is my watchword. My two basic responsibilities will always be uppermost in my mind -- accomplishment of my mission and the welfare of my soldiers. I will strive to remain tactically and technically proficient. I am aware of my role as a Noncommissioned Officer. I will fulfill my responsibilities inherent in that role. All soldiers are entitled to outstanding leadership; I will provide that leadership. I know my soldiers and I will always place their needs above my own. I will communicate consistently with my soldiers and never leave them uninformed. I will be fair and impartial when recommending both rewards and punishment.

Officers of my unit will have maximum time to accomplish their duties; they will not have to accomplish mine. I will earn their respect and confidence as well as that of my soldiers. I will be loyal to those with whom I serve; seniors, peers, and subordinates alike. I will exercise initiative by taking appropriate action in the absence of orders. I will not compromise my integrity, nor my moral courage. I will not forget, nor will I allow my comrades to forget that we are professionals, Noncommissioned Officers, leaders!

*happy sigh*

Tonight was a good night. I'm sure I will sleep happy.

-steve

Pic update.

2008-08-05T15:14:00.010-05:00

So, lets start things off right. First and foremost, we fly Black Hawks! (Me, I'm just the Comm's Guy)

Here is my Best Man and I playing Ping Pong At Camp Atterbury. *sigh* I miss him, and I'm looking forward to him standing next to me at my wedding.

*Setting it up for the slam!

Ready. Set. Go!
Getting ready to run home while playing Softball!

Most Important of all. My Number.

Here I stand, with my Love and my devotion protecting me. June 27th 2009 is the day I become Complete.

I Love You Heather.

-steve

the fallen

2008-07-26T09:58:00.003-05:00

..or rather, me.

This is a story of a guy who tries to hard to help out his friends.

It's also a story of how much I hate European work ethic. Their Idea of hard work is, "I worked 4 hours today without a break. Let's call it a day".

Well, when people with that kind of an attitude build things like "houses", or the army lets them build "Barracks" because outsourcing the job is cheaper then having the Army Engineers come and do it. You get terrible craftsmanship and the potential for things to break.

This is what happens when you are trying to work on networking in the ceiling and the support beam you are standing on, decides it want's to stop support things. (BTW, I was 700lbs under the maximum weight limit for the beam. Someone just decided it was faster to use one bracket to mount then the four you are supposed to have.)
The End.

-steve

Wild At Heart

2008-07-21T06:43:00.002-05:00

So, there is a book called "Wild at Heart" and I've seen it a few times in my life just sitting on a shelf or at the church. Supposedly its a story about being a Man and why God has made us to have the desires we do.

Well, Here in Kosovo, I'm in charge of the MWR room and the Library that I'm trying to get built and this book has come across me 2 times now. The first time I saw it was in a package another friend had gotten. I neatly put it on my shelf and logged it away in my brain and forgot about it. The second time, was yesterday while I was organizing some books in the library, when it again appeared in a stack of books.

The third time was today when I went into the library to grab a book to read while I went to the bathroom. (A habit I picked up from my father which usually leads me to taking long bathroom breaks)

Well, upon not seeing the book I desired, I turned to leave and had this nagging feeling like I should grab "Wild at heart" and read it. So, I walked out of the room, leaving the book behind and went back to my desk. Only to realise I had a copy on the top shelf of my desk stacked neatly with a few other books. So, I grabbed the book and went to the bathroom.

Three pages into the book, I wanted to hit myself.

Let me tell you what I read, "it is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end of the triumph oh high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat"
-Teddy Roosevelt

That's the opening first page.

It may not seem like alot to you, but it instantly became everything I have been trying for in my life and I almost cried on the toilet. I know, lame huh?

One of those sick moments when a wave of realization hits and you want to scream with how stupid you have been; or just as easily blind.

All my life, I have wanted and screamed for the chance to be a warrior. To fight those great fights and to come against odds insurmountable enough to make any sane man run. To know if I have the will within me to stand to a challenge like that.

To be a warrior of God and David, to have charged toward my foe, sword and shield in hand. Screaming out the last ounces of breath as I try to steady myself for either my death or a victory.

I read Fantasy books to escape my reality. I play fantasy games, and wish I was my character. I play dungeons and dragons now and wish that I was the character I was playing.

My life is a whirling storm of me trying desperately to fulfill that desire to be a warrior, and even though I'm in the army. I feel cheated..

*sigh* Today, is prolly going to be severely disappointing.

-steve

My Room

2008-07-12T16:29:00.000-05:00

Thats all there is, there is no more.

-steve

would you like to talk about it.

2008-07-03T14:22:00.002-05:00

The title of this post is something that I have always been able to do. It's something I've always wanted to do.

It's crazy how those few words can convey so much and yet come across as nothing at all.

Recently, a friend and I kinda got into a small little scuffle. Yet, it was strange that I found myself telling that friend that its true friends who confront each other.

Then I realized as I was saying it that it's completely true.

Friends, real friends, actually can get in your face and tell you your wrong, or right, or stupid, or good looking, or any number of things that you would normally be upset about.

People, myself included, spend so much time always trying to be right. Yet, most often we are wrong in some way.

Today, was incredibly boring. Work was the same old. I work with phone systems and am In charge of managing our telecommunications. I've always thought of myself as a good communicator and yet I find myself realizing that everyone communicates differently.

Man that's annoying. My Fiance is going to school for communication, and at fist I thought it was funny and teased her a little. Yet, now I see how important the art of effective communication can be when you take away all the rules you have learned.

In my job I work with people from all over the world, and trying to have conversations with them is someone difficult because of the nature of language. Some things are universal, like tone of voice.

Raised voice often means negativity. However, most of the people I work with have no real concept of personal space. They will reach into your pocket and grab something for you, or they will stand right next to you, or hold your arm in a way that would by American standards be inapropriate.

If all your life you grew up and thought that the word "apple" meant "F*** Off." Then how would you view a sign that said "Apples 50 cents" or what would you think in a grocery store.

Then, we come full circle back to the point. Being able to communicate on a level of understanding is so incredibly hard when the people you communicate with don't speak the same language.

I spent a better portion of today trying to understand how I had upset someone and offended them. After I learned, I felt terrible.

Lets just say that in Albanian, "Help Me Push My Car." Does not mean the same thing in English as it does in Albanian.

For those of you who don't understand. Apple.

-steve

dear brain, you can stop now.

2008-06-30T16:47:00.002-05:00

Most nights, I lay in bed and think. Random things. It's weird how ones brain comes to conclusions, Idea's, or just random thought.

My good buddy and soon to be best man recently made a post that most people will probubly not read. Mostly because It's a long post filled with lots of really good information and people now-a-days seem to not want to sit down and soak in things being given to them.

One of the Issues I constantly fight with is realizing that I don't know everything. In fact, I know quite little about anything. I'm what you call a "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" and quite frankly that pisses me off.

I really want to own my own computer repair/build/game shop. Yet, I don't know nearly enough about computers or business. I bet you a dollar I think I do.

Yet at night, when I sit in bed. All the lies I tell myself come flooding out and I realize how much I don't know or understand. It's Like God is trying to talk to me at night and it's the only time I can hear him.

I dunno. Right now, I'm feeling very lost. One of those day's and places where you sit and wonder why. About almost everything. I mean, I'm secure in my Love for my Fiance. I'm secure in where I am and what I'm doing right now.

But man...I'm 23 years old, a compulsive exaggerator, terrible with money (if its shiny i buy it), and have issues keeping my mouth shut and controlling my worrying.

So what do I do next? Day's Like today. Suck.

dear brain, please stop thinking like this.

....yeah. well you should see the other guy.

2008-06-11T03:16:00.003-05:00

Last night I had a walk into my Jr. High past. I played Quarters. Wow, I havn't played that game in so long. Which kinda made me feel good to know that I'm still good at it!

For those of you not familiar with Quarters, here is how you play.

*disclaimer: this game is not the most intelligent of things to do with your time. Pain and Blood are always involved.

First You need a quarter (or similar sized coin) and a flat surface.

Next you decided the "rebound" order (The Order In which the players will go).

Now you are ready to play.

Play begins with player 1 taking a quarter, putting it on its edge. Then the player flicks the quarter in such a way as to make it spin. Play has now started.

The next player then has to contact the quarter without causing it to stop spinning. This can be done in a few ways. One is to flick the quarter while it is still spinning, in order to make it spin faster. The other way is to tap the quarter in an effort to slow its spinning but without making it stop spinning.

If the player succedes in flicking the quarter, that is called a "rebound". Once the player has rebounded, the turn is passed to the next player. Play continues untill someone contacts the quarter in such a way as to make it stop spinning.

This is where it gets interesting.

Now that the Quarter has stopped spinning, the person that last touched it correctly has possesion of the quarter.

The person who touched it and made it stop spinning must now make a fist and place it on the table, knuckles facing down as if punching the table.

The person who has possesion of the quarter now places his pointer finger and middle finger on either side of the other players hand, and places his thumb down on the quarter. He then launches the quarter as hard and as fast as possible into the knuckles of the other player.

Yes, you read that correctly. Object of the game. Bleed last.

So, now that you know what the game is, let me show you what it looks like after about an hour of play.

As you can see from these two pictures. Its a ton of fun. ;)

Try and guess who the winner was.

-steve

no internet, now worries?

2008-06-09T04:55:00.003-05:00

Wow! So Its been a good while sence my last post. I finally have access to the internet (though, it is extremely restricted) so I figured I would update a little.

First off, things are going ok here. Little bit of Office tension as my boss is not the easiest person to get along with, but hopefully that will resolve itself when we get to our final destination. (I'm not going to hold my breath though.)

Baracks life is ok, if you don't mind rooming with 60 other people. However, It will get better once I get to Kosovo. I've only got 1 roomate to deal with there.

Once I have an Internet Connection that doesn't restrict almost every site I go to and limit the amount of information I can download/upload I will post more.

As for now. Gotta jet!

P.S. Hiya ETHAN! I hope you are enjoying your Summer. Tell your mom I said hello!

the town, the bridge, the church and the beer.

2008-05-26T14:59:00.010-05:00

This is the story of when I went to beerfest in Regensburg, Germany.

First, this is a shot of the Danub river. A very famous river in Germany. Many a painter/artist has had famous paintings done of this very river.

Also, One with me in it just for some proof of purchase ;)

In the back, you can see the church that was once the home of our current POPE! How cool is that?

Next is the Danub River Bridge. (Not the one I was on when taking the pictures) The bridge is supposedly like 700 years old (Was told this by a local) and is also super famous.

This is the previously mentioned Church. Wasn't able to get the name of the church, but I'm sure its online somehwere. (It's late, I'm lazy) However, It did take me 3 shots to get the whole church. It's roughly 25 stories tall, and took like 200 years to build! Is also very very cool.

Again, a little proof of purchase of me in front of the church. If you look behind me you can see some wooden scaffolding. Becaouse the New Pope is from that church. They are fixing it up a bit in honor of him. Coolbeans!

As for the beer. As I was writing this. I was informed that to many of the pictures where incriminating. So Without further Adue, I give you the only beerfest picture I am allowed to post. Sorry folks.

Hope you enjoyed my walk through Regensburg as much as I did. It was a blast.

-steve

i have arrived.

2008-05-18T12:30:00.002-05:00

1st Flight - Hmm, don't remember. Must have slept.

2nd Flight - Sleep, Movie, Read, Sleep, Movie. Way to long.

Bus Ride - Restless sleep and blinking in and out while looking at green covered hills.

Arrival @ Base In Germany.

Hohenfels. My Home away from Home. Laters.

-steve

deutschland here i come..

2008-05-17T06:40:00.001-05:00

20 more hours, and I will be in Germany. Take care, have fun. Laters all.

-Steve

thinkthinkthinkshutthinkupthinkbrainthink

2008-05-12T18:38:00.002-05:00

You ever have one of those days, where you wake up and your brain has already contemplated the world without asking you too? You realise that your dreams weren't really dreams, but you thinking about your life while you slept. Today was like that. I woke, and realised I had been thinking about life. Lots of stuff that I hadn't thought about over the past few months came into my head and I just spent some time thinking about it.

The first thing I thought about was that it will be my brother John's anniversary of his death soon. It's weird, because I think about him a lot. If he would be proud to have me as his brother, given everything that I am. Then I wonder what my other brothers think about me and I get a little saddened. I hope someday that all of my brothers and I will have the kind of relationship I wanted to have with them and John. *sigh* I Love You John. Say hi to Papa, and great Grandpa.

The next thing that I found myself thinking about while taking a shower, was what it means to be a man. I mean, where is the check sheet for man-hood. As I began to dry off and think about that more. I realised my situation in life. I had set my standard of manhood based on what I believed my Father to be. Which was a little weird because as I thought more and more about it, and I started to wonder why I didn't consider myself a man. I mean, most of the things I considered him to be, I was seeing in myself. The only things I didn't have where the Wife and Kids.

Yet, as those thoughts flooded my head, and I spent considerable effort to shove them out of the way while I shaved. I had to stop midway through applying cold water to my thousands of mini cuts and think, "Am I A Man?". Weird. Hmm. I....I guess I am a man. I'm an adult. With his own idea's, morals and plans for life. After that, I just started to wonder what the rest of my life is going to be like now that I have realised this.

Then, something popped into my head that I had to stop and think about. Someone recently called me an "Intellectual" and my first reaction was, "Nah. I'm not that smart." Which, after I thought about. I had no idea what the word Intellectual really means. So I Looked it up and this is what I came up.

"An intellectual is one who tries to use his or her intellect to work, study, reflect, speculate, or ask and answer questions about a wide variety of different ideas."

*looks at up at text and realizes*

I Think to much.

-steve

Isis Adventure

2008-05-09T07:55:00.002-05:00

Wahoo! Im a little proud. I solved my Isis. I will post more about it later mabye!

-steve

"..nuff said."

2008-05-07T16:44:00.002-05:00

It makes me laugh when the other's joke around about how much they hate putting this stuff on and doing things.

Personally, I get psyched! Think about it.

You are wearing a helmet, body armour and wielding a weapon.

I am a warrior. A weapon to be used to slay my enemies and those of my country.

I am a defender. A mighty wall of deadly force to be reckoned with should someone come to me in anger and hate.

It may sound silly to you. But I thank God for ever day that I get to wake up and put on my uniform.

-steve

click the pic to see it larger.

every vote counts....

2008-05-05T21:18:00.002-05:00

Well, It would appear that my Fiance has entered us in a picture contest. So I would appreciate it if you all went and voted. http://www.sugarloot.com/entry/704494557

The winners get travel money for thier honeymoon/wedding so every little bit will help.

-thanx

scratch that last post!

2008-05-03T18:24:00.003-05:00

So, last night I got informed that we are going on 24 hours operations and guess who has the night shift. That's right, yours truly.

Oh well, 8pm to 8am's not so bad. When you've had sleep that is.

Tonight, I start night 2. Mmm. Not looking forward to it.

peace,

-steve

the drone that i am...

2008-05-01T07:31:00.001-05:00

Mmm, 7am to 9pm errrvyy day.

I recently got back from my 3 day pass and I seriously need like a week more. It was good to see friends and family, but there was just way to much to have to do. So, now I am back, training away like the slave that I am.

Have I mentioned yet that I hate Indiana with a passion? I've never really had allergies before in my life. That is until this horrid horrid state called and my nose answered. So, here I sit, sneezing and drooling from the nose all day while trying to complete my missions. This seriously sucks. Itchy eye's, sneezing all day and runny nose. ARG!

Oh well. As a good note, I got to spend some time with the woman I Love before I had to come back to this pit.

At least I've got a good book to keep me company.

10 days later...

2008-04-16T12:01:00.003-05:00

train train train train train work work work work work sleep train train work work train work eat train work sleep train eat work work train eat sleep work.

That pretty much sums it up. Apparently the surgery I had before I left caused some complications in my arm and so now its all infected. (I will spare you the gory details)

So I had to spend 5 days in the nearby hospital. not fun. Other then getting to hang out with ma good buddy Sisco, (and someone to be left un-named) it was pretty much boring. I am really thankful though that (deleted) was able to (deleted -- -- -- -- -- -- deleted). Oops, sorry for that. Army dictates that I'm not allowed to finish that sentance. Oh well.

gotta jet.

-steve

GET SOME!

2008-04-06T21:30:00.003-05:00

So today was qulification day for our weapons and thankfully I am a 50 cal. gunner! So of course I got to don my gear and shoot stuff. Thats pretty much the best part of being in the army. Big guns! (and no ladies I don't mean my arms.)

Click each picture to see the full Image.

56k'ers beware!

The ol' Thumbs up, always a classic.

If you look close you can see the smoke from the round leaving the chamber and a link from the chain of rounds flying through the air.

Ahh, sweet sweet fully automatic action.

Aight. Time to sleep, tomorrow is our regular weapons qualification, so I will be out untill its dark so we can do night fire as well. *sigh* Silly shooting in the dark.

Note to Ethan: The weapon that I'm shooting in those pictures can shoot over 15 football fields accurately and is so powerful, it is illegal to shoot them at people. Scary! They can destroy tanks. You can tell your classmates that, I bet they will be impressed!

-steve

the days are long, the nights are longer.

2008-04-04T17:00:00.003-05:00

So it's been a bit sense I was able to post last, so hopefully I have enough time at the moment to make this post worth reading. :)

To start, last week I was at home and had a great deployment ceremony. Then went out to eat with my family and friends. It was a good time.

I would like to say hello to a very special young man named Ethan. Hiya Ethan. Folks, Ethan is my new good buddy. Tell your class I said hello.

As of right now I'm at Camp Atterbury, IN. I'm working and training on an 18 hour a day shift. I get up at 0500 and get to bed around 2300(11PM). Training is going good so far, lots of briefings and going over our tasks and setting up our individual sections. (Sorry, can't give greater detail then that ATM)

A wonderful piece of news though. For those of you who know me, you know I had to get some surgery done on my back and arms and legs to remove some fatty deposits before I deployed. Well, I had all the stitches pulled last night only to discover that the ones on my back split open and are greatly infected. (Hmm, maybe that's what all the back pain has been about)

So, because of that I've been gimping around the base trying not to make things worse and yet do my job at the same time. Not a fun endeavor by the way. However, I'm doing all right.

Soon we will be working on our weapons qualification and training, so that should be a lot of fun. This time around I'm going to be qualifying on a 50CAL. (Big Gun for those of you not in the know)

As another wonderful piece of news, the chow hall is roughly 2 miles from where we work and live. So my gimpy butt has to huff it 3 times a day to the chow hall.

So, other than not being able to sleep at night coz of being in pain, and not being able to walk right or lift stuff. Life is pretty good. I've got a good group of guys working under me. I'm really thankful for them.

Well, I gotta go.

-steve

update! ... .. .. and pain.

2008-04-02T23:13:00.002-05:00

Well, Things are going OK so far. I wake up at 4am and get off work at 10:45pm and to bed around 12ish am. Hopefully this trend wont continue for long, because I'm not really sure how long I can keep that up.

Also, as a wonderful side note. The surgery I had done right before I left has become infected. So today, instead of sitting. I stood. All day.

Soon we will begin our riot training and start doing things that don't seem so pointless. It is however unfortunate that most of the cool things I will be doing I'm not really supposed to post about. Oh well, such is the nature of the beast that is the Army.

Its past my bedtime and this update is over. Peace.

-steve

4 days and counting

2008-03-27T17:43:00.002-05:00

*sigh*

Stress, comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Right now, my stress is a 4' x 2' x 2' bag known as a "Duffel".

How to pack for a year in 3 bags or less. This really should be the title of a book simply because of the amount of stress involved in answering a question like that.

I've got to pack everything I need for a year in 3 bags. That's rough. Worse is, they gave us a packing list for the first bag and lets just say someone who has never actually packed a duffel bag made that list. Needless to say, I got about half of what they wanted in it before I realized it wasn't happening. So, after 2 hours of working at I'm. I'm a little pissed and decided I will go and get some food before I come back and try again.

In some other news. I had my surgery on Friday and Monday and I'm feeling really good despite that fact that I have eighteen, two inch holes in my body.

Yes, yes. I suffer from a wonderful illness where my body decides it likes to grow fatty deposits in random places all over my arms and legs. Don't worry folks, you cant even see them unless I tell you where they are, and they don't do anything but become annoying when they get large. Thankfully there is no cure and the doctors don't know what causes it. :( However, they do have a solution for the ones that start to be a problem. A little bit of a local anesthetic and some cut and squeeze action, and Viola! Insta-gone.

So I've got 36 stitches in me right now. Mmm Mmmm Hydrocodine!

Well, time to go and get some food and get ready for round 2.

This time duffel. I wont go easy.

-steve

my lady and gary gygax

2008-03-09T23:03:00.003-05:00

First off, I want to say that I freaking Love my fiance. Without her, my life would be a lot less organized. Thank You darlin, for all the help.

With that said, I am now counting down the days until I am deployed to Kosovo. 3 Weeks left and I'm out for a year ladies and gents. So, my wonderful lady decided to come over and pack up all my clothes and organize it all into tubs and I didn't even ask her too.

How sweet is that? All I had to do is let her play Patapon (Which, If you own a PSP or know someone who owns one. Buy the friggin game and play it) for a few hours afterwords!

Lastly, I must express my deep remorse and sorrow for the death of Gary Gygax. Ladies and Gentlemen, one of the most influential people in my life has died at the good age of 69.

For those of you who don't know. Gary Gygax was the Co-Creator of the game Dungeons and Dragons.

If you, sitting in your chair did not just feel a moment of sadness after hearing this news. Then I hope a maximized, empowered fireball hits you in the face right now.

This man, this amazing man. Help create something that has meant so much for me in my life. You as well, though you might not even know it. The hours a sitting around a table making life-long friends and enemies. The sheer excitement you get while you wait all week for your chance to slaughter the hordes of enemies.

Gary Gygax. I never had the privilege to meet you in your lifetime, but I thank you for what you have given so many people throughout it.

-On my desk, will sit a naturally rolled D20 until I leave for Kosovo.

Thank you Gary.

at this my body

2008-03-02T20:21:00.002-06:00

Isaiah 21:3
"At this my body is racked with pain, pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor; I am staggered by what I hear, I am bewildered by what I see."

Wow, why is my life like 99.9% boredom fallowed by 0.01% shear terror?

Let me just recap the last two weeks in a short paragraph.

As of the 15Th February - 1st of March, I was attending a military school called "Warrior Leader Course". It's a course you have to go through in order to get promoted to Sergeant, or at least in my unit it is. Well, I was under the impression that it was a gentleman's course. Boy was I dead wrong.

Let me describe a gentleman's course. You get up at 7ish, have your first formation at 8, then class until 5 and then you go to bed. Your standard Army day. Maybe some out in the field training, where you sleep on a cot and things of that nature.

Hell to the "F" no.

Let me give you a rundown of the first 11 days. Wake up, 3:30am. PT (physical training) from 4-5:30, then shower, shave and clean the barracks for inspection by 6:15. Then we march all over and have formations and chow (eat breakfast). Then, we have class from 8 until 9:30pm! Yes, that rights, I said 9-FREAKING-30pm! Every hour we got a 6 minute break (basically the amount of time it took one to smoke a cigarette), and we had chow (lunch and dinner) at noon and 5.

Then, at 9:30 you had to go back to the barracks and clean and study for the next day. Because you had tests and inspections and all manner of inhuman treatment. Not to mention the constant yelling and getting into trouble that you had back in basic training. Always standing at attention in line, no talking in class, marching everywhere you go. *sigh*

Needless to say, the first 11 days sucked.

The next 4 days however, got slightly better and worse at the same time. The better parts were the fact that you supposedly got more sleep, and that it was a little less structured. Other then that. It was still sucky.

Those 4 days where FTX (field training exercise) days. We had to pack all of our gear into a ruck sack (roughly 80 lbs) and walk all over kingdom come with it. Then load into a big Army truck and make sure everything is, what the Army likes to call, dress right dress. Which means it needs to look EXACTLY the same as the one next to it. By exactly, I mean you get yelled at if someones strap on their pack is longer then someone Else's.

Then you get to the field base and setup tents that don't have floors. Its just 4 canvas walls big enough for 8 people. Which of course meant it had to rain, and when I say rain. I mean someone was floating by the end of the night, and everyone's everything got wet. Then, it also happened to be winter, so it needed to be pretty much freezing all morning and scorching hot in the afternoon. It also doesn't help that the ground is terribly lumpy and littered with red ants and chiggers. So you spent a pretty miserable few nights in the field. The days aren't much better as you spend them stomping through the woods doing land navigation courses that were designed by Satan, and make you pass through the gauntlet of thorny fire. The thorns that state has, I will swear were designed by God to really test your want to pass land nav.

Then, you spend the rest of the time running missions and such, in which the whole time you are being graded. When your not being graded on something, your playing the bad guys for someone else and running around pretending to be terrorists. Which is a lot of fun. Until someone gets a little to into it and puts an assault rifle to your head and starts popping off blank rounds. You get a little uneasy about that seeing as how dozens of people have died from someone accidentally having a live round in one.

Then you go back to base, have 1 day of graduation and the next day get dropped off at the airport at 5:30am regardless of what time your flight is. Mine just happened to get me back home at 11:30pm. So I put on my best sweet talking face and asked the nice lady at the counter to get me a better itinerary. To my wonderful enjoyment she got me home at 8:30pm. So, I only had a 6 hours lay over at DFW (Dallas fort worth).

Then, Home.

*sigh* Its been a long day.

On a brighter note. Heather and I went and registered at Bed, Bath and Beyond today for our wedding. (We still don't have a date yet sence I don't have any orders and therefore do not know when I come home)

So yeah, thats my update and I'm stickin too it.

-steve

OMG

2008-02-06T11:05:00.000-06:00

So I just spent like 45 min typing this post about how everything else has been going in my life and how most things have kinda been falling apart.

And blogger errors out! RAWR! I hate you Murphy, I really truely do.

Here is the condensed 5 minute version coz im really pissed right now.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Camera is having issues, so it will be a text post. I had to drive back in the freezing cold from our training because my friends partied a little to hard on the last day of training. I was originally going to be working the first two weeks in Feb, but someone screwed up and didnt tell me. So i worked half a day only find out I wasnt supposed to be there. Also, they have decided that everyone needs to drill this weekend. So i will not be able to join the 10th of Feb. Wow, how pissed off am I. While having all these days off, i met a guy named Wang from Shanghai, China. He is cool, so this morning we celebrated Chinese New Year, over the internet. That was pretty awesome, and waking up to something like that i can deffinantly enjoy.

Ok, 5 minutes over. Im gonna go be grumpy about this for a while and mabye post more.

9 More days till I leave for WLC.

-steve

The Un-funny Truth

2008-01-29T00:05:00.000-06:00

Support Anonymous

2008-01-28T21:50:00.000-06:00

Folks. The tyranny that is "The church Of scientology" needs to end. It's time now for us to stop it.

This is the call of many voices. Crying out to you scientology. We will no longer sit by and let you charge people and then destroy them for it.

http://www.calloftheday.com/Message.html
http://calloftheday.com/

Be Wary the 10th of February.

Jan 22nd - 25th

2008-01-28T17:26:00.000-06:00

I wasn't able to film the last two days becuase of the mass amounts of things we had to do right before we left. I will record a closing sometime in the next few days.

See you later.

-steve

"Day 2, Packing and Cloverfield"

2008-01-21T23:18:00.000-06:00

"Off and Running"

2008-01-20T23:40:00.000-06:00

Welp, first post. GLHFMB.

"The Fix"

2008-01-18T14:16:00.000-06:00

Well, some people have been telling me that they were unable to post comments because they couldn't figure it out.

TADA! Problem solved. If you still cannot figure out how to post a comment I will be severely worried about your future offspring and suggest you forgo producing offspring.

Also, I have decided that I want to Video Blog my day while I am away and in training. So hopefully sometime soon I will be either getting my own website. Or just you will start seeing Vblogs instead of me actually typing them out.

Welp, last day at my Civilian job before the army takes my body.

Samaritan Ministries, I Love You.

-steve

"...Incredible"

2008-01-17T14:35:00.001-06:00

RE! ... ..lease?

2008-01-11T16:17:00.000-06:00

It's always a scary thing when you re-sign your lease on your house. It may be a shack, but its my home!

In other news.

Skip The Wedding

Dec 26th - Jan 8th... whew, I made it.

2008-01-08T10:00:00.000-06:00

I made it. A new year.

As time draws closer to a close on this chapter of my life, I realized that most people define those chapters by the year or possibly by their birthday.

Being in the military, I tend to define those turning points as deployments. So, here I sit, waiting for March 28th when I am sent away in support of K410 (pronounced K-Four-Ten).

My holiday was a good one I think. I spent the time with my Fiancee and her family. Saw a bit of my Family and generally had a good time. Until we all got violently Ill and came down with the Flu. Let me tell you something. Georgia is a beautiful state in certain places and i was fortunate enough to be in one of them. However, It was not so pretty looking at it over the edge of a toilet bowl. But, by the next day we all felt better and it was time to head back home.

A few days of relaxing when we got home and all was well. Until I went back to work.

*sigh*

There can be nothing more annoying then coming back to work expecting to get paid only to find that you have been demoted. Let me explain.

Apparently someone who was feeling quite more deserving then me decided that I had not worked enough hours in the past weeks to be considered "Full time". Therefore without telling
me they also decided I shouldn't be paid full time. My, how considerate of this person. I came home to the wonderful discovery of being shorted about 200 bucks from my paycheck.

A part of me wants to scream injustice and tell this person that what they have done was in fact illegal. (According to our own company policy they are required to notify me, and to redo my status from full time to part time before they can change my pay.) Then, another part of me says forget it and drive on.

These are the kinds of things that make me want to give in to that part of my brain that says, "Do it. Just snap, go nuts for once in your life. You know you have always wanted to, and this time nobody could stop you." Then the crazy juices stop flowing and the murderous rage that had been filling my head stops and I settle down. (God, forgive me if I ever witness someone do something awful to my family.)

In a slightly less talked about portion of my there is this urge to want to destroy. To take all of that training I have gotten and use it. What good is it to take extra combat courses when the civilian world says you cant use them without being charge with "Deadly force?".

Oh well, such is life.

In a much happier portion of me, I have come across a rather enjoying game called : "Call of Duty 4". Which, if your immediate reaction was, "OH NO! Its call of duty 1, 2 & 3 with better graphic."

Tut tut! Don't be so quick to judge like I was. This game is not indeed either of the aforementioned games.

Its a modern warfare game, which has tried to be done before but only seems to fail at miserably. Yet "Call of Duty 4" has hit the nail on the head. I'm not going to give you a full rundown just yet as I am still making up my complete mind on it. I'd rather give a fair assessment then just blurt out, "Its awesome" while all the hype is still pumping through me. Lets just say for now, I've already beat the game and am working on the Online play and am really enjoying it.

I will leave you with this passing thought.

What would you do if you knew for 1 year, everything you did changed. Only that one.

Its a thought I have been dealing with as my deployment comes.

-steve

How Many Five Year Olds Could You Take In A Fight?

2007-12-26T10:34:00.000-06:00

$6475.00

62%

322 WATTS

142,503 People

86% Geek

2,022,300

Some Quizzes are fun. These just rock.

-steve

Holidays

2007-12-24T09:16:00.000-06:00

Went to go and get one of my best friends from the airport in Chi-town. Apparently there are no signs on 55 that lead you to O'Hare. So I didn't take the turn I needed and we ended up in downtown Chicagoland. *shrug* It was worth it. We met a guy named, "PaPa Moe" and I kid you not. Thats what it said on his name tag. I walked into his 7-11 and asked if he had a map, which of course he did not. So I simply said I was lost, (Yeah guys. There is no shame in asking for directions) and asked if he knew how to get to O'Hare. To which he said, "Air-a-porta?" In a thick Italian accent. I noded and he quickly replied, "No..No no, but I make phone call and get you directions."

The guy made 6 calls and im fairly certain he was just calling his friends and asking directions. Well, unfortuantly none of them knew how, so we set out to go back to the car. Then, his phone rings and Papa Moe says, "Oh hey! Yeah, I call to get directions to airport. You know from my store?" 5 minutes later, we had directions.

Papa Moe. You rock my socks off, and though you are probably an Italian mobster, I still wish you a happy Christmas.

Which brings me to another topic. My Fiancee recently told me that public places are calling Christmas Tree's, "Holiday Tree's" now.

What. The. ....

Folks, Its a Christian holiday. Not an excuse for you to buy, wrap and give gifts. Its nationally recognized because at one time this was a proclaimed Christian nation.

Here is a thought for you folks sitting at home, not recognizing Jesus as the reason for the season.

Would you participate in Qunza? Hanukkah? Aww, why not? Would you make up some man in a funny suit so that you could celebrate them without feeling guilty for molesting a religious holiday?

I have no problem with you joining in. Please, don't feel that I don't want you to be with me for Christmas. But, literally, For Jesus's sake. Acknowledge that you are participating in a Religious practice.

For some of us, taking away our Religious right and making fun of it is really offensive. "Santa" Is an effort by the mass media to abuse the Holiday that was laid down for this nation as a "Christian Holiday".

For those of you still confused. Santa Clause can be found here. Not in the North Pole.

Thats all I've got time for now.

Thank you Jesus, for the day of your Birth. Thank you Joseph, for enduring the social pains of having a pregnant Fiancee in that day and age. Thank you Mary, for your faith and strength.

Though this won't win me brownie blogging points, and I'm not the best Christian in the world. I hold dear to my heart my beliefs in God and his son Jesus.

*deep breath* Ok, im done bible thumping. (joke) Feel free to flame me all you want, if you have a legitimate argument I will leave your comment.

Otherwise, for those of you who feel like spouting something random and blasphemous, come wednesday It will be deleted. :)

-steve

Meh.

2007-12-20T09:09:00.000-06:00

You ever have a day where alot of stuff goes really wrong? Then one thing goes right, and its enough to overshadow the events of before.

Yeah, that was yesterday. I realized that two people I call "Friend", where just that. They where friends. The kind Everyone wishes they had.

Today isn't the best day every. But I have two more people who make it better.

-steve

"..snow sucks."

2007-12-16T21:11:00.000-06:00

So do cars. Recently, my 1993 Mazda 626LX has decided that it wanted to go to car heaven on me. The reason I believe that my car is deserving of heaven, is that i only paid 2 grand for it and it has lasted me 3 years. Thats a tough little car. 3 years, and almost no money put into it other then gas.

So, if it is indeed time for my car to die. I wish to say adue and give my car an E-kiss for all the wonderful times we have had. Now, please just get me home?!?

I went to see my Fiancee for her schools Banquet and had quite a wonderful time. I also got to spend time with one of my best friends. It was good to see him. He recently got married and pretty much fell off the face of the planet for about 3 or 4 months..mabye more. So yeah, that was super good times had by all.

Also, I went to see the movie "I Am Legend" which I must say was damn good. First off, and most importantly, before the movie starts there was a trailer for "The Dark Knight" which is the new batman movie. That in of itself was enough for me to want to see the movie. Personally, the rest of it could have sucked (which is most assuredly did not) and I still would have paid to see the trailer.

"I Am Legend" was one of those movies that when it ends, you almost cry. Which has nothing to do with the movie. You are just so overwhelmingly sad that the movie has ended that you sit for a moment in a daze and wish that there where 3 or 4 more hours of movie to watch. That my friends, is what a movie is supposed to be like.

After all of this amazing fun, and hangin with my woman and my bud. Thing of course had to come crashing down on me. God apparently has an amazing way of reminding me that its only by his permission that I even get through a single week.

As I started to drive home, my car began to overheat. Then the engine light came on, and then it started to vent steam and a little smoke. So I made it as far as my Fiancee's mom's house and here I sit monologuing the events of my past weekend inside my head while typing them out for the world to see.

Interesting weekend it has been.

On another note, I have desperately been trying to pick up reading again (Yes, it is indeed something you must strive to do) and I am really enjoying a book series I have been reading called "The Dresden Files". It's about a Wizard who works as a private eye in Chicagoland, and all the unfortunant things that befall a man who claims to be a Wizard. :) It's rather good in that "Dime store novel" kinda way. I have been enjoying it, although im sure it prolly is not for everyone.

Well, with that recount of my weekend and the impending doom that is sleep creeping up on my eyelids. I do believe it is time for me to go to bed and try and forget my problems untill the morning.

As always,

-steve

"..bad double post, bad!"

2007-12-10T22:48:00.000-06:00

I couldn't help it. Ten minutes of laughing later and I still think this is easily the funniest thing I have seen all week!

"..9 days later, i'm still alive."

2007-12-10T21:12:00.000-06:00

Wow, alot can happen in 9 days. People are born and die, whole groups of people have their country suddenly change and reform. Then, the world as we saw it takes a spin and we come out with something completely new.

So, for those of you who read "Live Science" you will have found out that apparently an underwater ocean has been discovered under asia (Of course) and that its rougly the size of the Arctic Ocean. Yep, thats right ladies and gent's, "The Arctic Ocean!"

Which of course means that now someone is going to need to fish in it to discover all the ancient types of fish and stuff that live down there. Then someone is going to get mad about that fishing and say that we are killing the endangered fish. Then someone entirely not related to the fish, is going to make a law about them that ends up killing them all off and everyone will blame the original scientist for it.

In other me related news, I'm really starting to get excited and a little frustrated about getting deployed. It seems the more and more I spend working for my boss (who will stay unnamed) the less I am liking the idea of spending 13 months with him/her. So, we will have to see how that pans out.

So, im going to tell you the story of a "friend of mine", because legally I don't think this "friend of mine" can post what im about to say about himself.

Two nights ago, we had a large ice storm where I live and there was alot of accidents and people who don't know anything about driving in ice decided it would be a good time to show off thier lack of driving skills. Well one such person, we will call her "Fingers", decided it would be a really smart idea to come to a complete stop at the bottom of a large hill before tryng to go up it. Now, I don't claim to be the smartest person in the world, (I really do, but thats beside the point) but something inside me told me I should deffinantly take the hard choice and not fallow right after her. So, that thought in mind, I silently watched and ignored all the honks and shouts of all the people behind me as I watched and waited for Fingers' attempt at making it up the hill.

Well, needless to say, Fingers came sliding back down the hill not to long after her ill-thought plan to "slow play" the hill drive. Which coincidentally stopped all the honking and yelling as realization set in. The fact that I just saved most of them the trouble of small claims court and a damaged amount of pride was quite a sweet thought for a while. One which was quickly ruined thanx to Fingers and replaced with an ever sweeter one. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the story of "my friend".

So, this time Fingers decides she is going to get a head start and actually use her accelerator and make it up the hill. I fallow suit and so does the rest of the gang and we make it up the hill. Only to see Fingers sliding down again twards us. This time however, I don't have the option of just letting her slide. So, instead I start to swirve and go around so she doesn't slide into me.

After words, Fingers begins to pick up speed and quickly overtakes me. So I let the car go by, and as i do Fingers feels it neccesary to earn her the name "Fingers". I quickly pull my ebrake and pull a U-ie and begin to fallow Fingers, in order to thank her for the kind gesture.

A few blocks down the road, Fingers stops and begins to get out and starts walking twards the house she parked in front of. "My Friend" Then gets out and proceeds to question the motives of Fingers and why she was such a retard and felt it was required of her to secure said fact by displaying her badge out the window with pride.

After a few moments of heated debate and a well put out boyfriend. My friend the turns and walks back to the car and gets in.

I drive around the corner a ways and park my car. My friend then gets out and walks over to Fingers' car and proceeds to make sure she can do no harm. Two flat tires on the side opposite the house later, the job is done. My friend gets back in the car, and we go home.

*sigh* Sometimes, life is sweet and you don't even need freaking lemonaid.

Thats all for now. Goodnight.

-steve

....what to do about monsters.

2007-12-01T20:38:00.001-06:00

Wow.

"...double your fun"

2007-11-28T16:28:00.000-06:00

Double Post Today.

This is totally worth it.

The 9 Most Bad Ass Bible Verses.

*disclaimer: Site have profanity (If you can't already tell by the title)

after action review

2007-11-28T14:56:00.000-06:00

First off, I will start with a Happy Anniversary HT. Love Ya.
(If love notes offend you, stick your head in a jar of maggots. It's my site)

Wow, crazy weeks always drain me of life. This last week, my friends from Canada came to see me and we hung out, played cards and generally had a good time.

I introduced a friend to Munchkin which ended up being a riotous amount of good times had by all.

I finished reading a book in a series. Which oddly enough, I ended up with the 9th book in the series and read about half of it, liked it so much. That I actually stopped reading it and went out and bought the first book in the series so I could catch up with the 9th one. I am currently reading book 2.

I also did the dreaded black Friday sale rush. I got up at 4am and went and stood outside WorstRipoff. Sometimes, I swear people are nuts. I was there at 4:15 am, and it was Packed! The line was from the door, all the way around the building and to the corner about 250 degrees around the building! AT 4 AM!

Needless to say, I thought I was being nuts getting up at 4am but apparently the joke was on me. So yeah, it was a little interesting and crazy.

When I finally made it to the checkout counter the lady started to beep my merchandise and I asked if they gave military discounts. When at some point she looked in my basket and said, "Oh, I can only sell you 2 of those." She was speaking about some DvD's that I had 4 of. So, its 5:03am and I'm really tired, and I looked her straight in the eyes and said, "I'll Kill You." with this nice little smile on my face. She didn't even miss a step. She just grabbed the next two, beeped 'em and said, "That will be one hundred and eighty dollars and 53 cents please." So I handed her the money and she reached over to hand me the receipt and I walked out the door.

I wonder if they will let me back into WorstRipoff anymore? I dunno, doesn't matter anymore. After the whole WorstRipoff scandal I really could care less.

-steve

holidays

2007-11-26T12:17:00.000-06:00

Family, Friends and lots and lots of food. Sometimes holidays are like work more then they are like holiday's. *shrugs* Oh well, I will give an actualy account of my week soon.

Have fun, eat responsibly.

-steve

mike huckabee, you get my vote.

2007-11-20T12:14:00.000-06:00

Irregardless of the fact that i was already planning on voting Huckabee, he just gave me the ultimate reason to promote him.

alot going on.

2007-11-19T12:55:00.000-06:00

First off. http://www.tokyoplastic.com/chase.html -wow

Second. Assassins Creed: After many hours of gaming and way to much time being judgmental i have finally made my decision on Assassins creed.

9/10. That's right fan boy's, it get's a 9/10. Here is why.

Graphics 10/10 : The graphics are wonderful, and sometimes I forgot that i was looking at a game and not a real picture of 11th century Jerusalem. There are a few things that bothered me, mouths not matching talk and things like that. But hey, I'm being really picky. Although, I still believe it deserves a 10/10

Music 9/10 : I'm not going to do like most others and lump in music and sound effects because i really don't believe they belong together. The music in this game however was wonderful. Well composed, and fit the scene almost to a T. However, I felt it was quite lacking in that there just simply where not enough. I kept hearing the same scores being used over and over. Which started to get a little tedious.

Sound Effects 10/10 : Now, when I jump of a large building into a crowd of people, and they don't scream because I startled them, it disappoints me. No disappointment here though. The thud's, screams, swoooshes, slashes, blood spurts and generally getting stabbed was impressive. Every time you had an action, it had an appropriate sound, which is something that you just don't see all to often.

Button Configuration 10/10 : All to often do people lump this in with gameplay and personally I don't think it should. You could have a game with awesome gameplay and then turn around and have the button options so confusing that it makes things way more difficult then they should be. For Assassins Creed though, no such problem. High and Low profile, sheer genius! Combo and Counter-Attack options are easy to learn and skill required to master. Now, I showed this game to a few people in an effort to make sure it wasn't just me being an uber gamer and to my surprise I wasn't the only one who found the system easy yet gratifying. The more skill you gain with the configuration, the better your experience, but not being an expert still gives you a level of intense play that you really don't see to often.

Here it comes, the last two. *SPOILERS*

Story 5/10 : Why oh why! I feel like I just watched "AI" The movie! The movie was awesome until Spielberg got ahold of the end and added aliens. That's how i feel about Assassins Creed. Sure, the interlacing story of the future and the past and all the players therein was good. SERIOUSLY though, why take such an amazing idea as being an 11th century Assassin and stupefy it with it all being memories and being from the future! I can think of nothing that could have ruined this game for me more, then doing what they just did. If the gameplay wasn't so amazing and the graphics so detailed. This game would have flopped in my book simply because of the lack of creativity that it takes to say "Oh! I'm from the future!" It's like "God-Mode" in video games, there is no point in playing anymore once you can't die.

...and finally,

Gameplay 10/10 : Nothing, and I mean nothing beats running over roof tops, landing in a courtyard and quickly rushing up to a guard and stabbing them in the chest or face with a really sharp railroad spike the ejects from your wrist! All, without having to spend hours memorizing elaborate button combinations and hours of practice. I've played the game for hours on end, and still find something new. It's like the designers sat down and said, "Ok guys, we have 15 different ways you can land, 22 different ways to catch, 13 different ways to assassinate and 35 different ways to climb/run/jump. Now. Lets add 100 more to each."...and for the first time in gaming history the designers said, "Sure".

The level of fluid motion the game has created is just intense and with the ability to really climb any surface you come into contact with just opens up a whole new realm of cool. The fact that when you climb something, there has to be a handhold for your character to climb just tickles me in places that i didn't know i had! No longer are you stuck with Zelda : Ocarina of Time style climbing. See wall, see vines, climb vines without actually touching anything that looks climbable. Not in Assassins Creed, if there is no handhold, then I'm sorry, you just don't go up any higher.

Combat is simply wonderful with the button layout of "modes" and fluidly you can switch between combat styles is simply sweet. Remember in that mortal kombat game that sucked where you could switch stances? How there was that second of delay between them and if you didnt time it right the game didn't know you where switching? This, is exactly the opposite. This time, when i hold the "parry" buttons, I'm parrying, but when I go back to wanting to attack. There is no few moments where i have to wait. If I'm in parry mode, and the guy attacks and i want to counter immediately after I parry. Then i just time it right, and when i parry his sword away i hit the attack button. Low and behold, he attacks. No waiting to get out of the stance, no time delay to make the game fair. If the guy turns around, you juke him in the back. Simple as that. In addition, not only did they make facing matter, they made not facing even cooler! For example, you are flanked and the person behind you attacks. If you are ready for the parry and nimbly waiting for your opponent in front to attack, that's fine. Time the attack right with the person from behind you, and your character will deftly dodge and counter the attack from behind as well. Best of all, IT WONT LOOK STUPID AND IMPOSSIBLE! The character will perform a counter that actually dodges and parries the attack from behind. No more having to worry about always staying in front of your enemy. In fact, if your like me and just enjoy making your assailants look like elephants in ballet , then you will get a kick out of letting them sneak up behind you and try and attack.

Bottom Line for Assassins Creed : Buy it. Straight up, pay 60 bucks and walk away happy. You get a game that is worth 60 bucks. If only if you play it through once.

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I will possibly post more tonight. Dunno, depends on how tired I am. l8r.

-steve

How days change.

2007-11-16T09:38:00.000-06:00

Yesterday started out rather annoying. Morning headache (I'm still recovering from a rather nasty cold) and I woke up rather frustrated.

There are some things in life that don't bother me, and then there are those that erk me so bad I want to scream. One of those things, is when people half-ass something. I'm talking that, "Well, I will sweep this dirt under the rug and say I'm done".

I like to think of myself as a somewhat clean person. I enjoy things being tidy, and usually it doesn't bother me when they aren't but sometimes I just get so angry about it.

Here is a perfect example, my waitress last night took our order and then walked away. Well, that's fine, it's what she should do. However, when she comes out and starts to auction our food. That bothers me. Why would you do that? You have a piece of paper right in your hand, that says exactly where your food belongs and to where it goes.

Now believe me, I worked food service. So I know what i'm talking about, and that bothers me.

*sigh*

Some brighter news though, and something I thought was really cool.

On Tuesday this week, the Governor of Georgia actually held a prayer meeting outside the state Capitol to pray for rain for the drought in his state.

http//www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2007-11-13-perdue-prayer_N.htm

Then the next day. It rained.

http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive2007/11-15-07.asp

Ok. That's really cool.

Well, that made my day a little better.
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Also, I promise to have a review of Assassins Creed done by Monday at the latest. Currently though, I will let you know that I'm very happy with the way it seems to be going.

-steve

Disclaimer

2007-11-14T14:33:00.000-06:00

So, I feel it necessary to let everyone know that my posts on this website are going to be my literal thoughts.

I'm not going to censor myself for anyone or anything. So sometimes my posts will contain language or idea's that are not always the most socially acceptable. To bad. I can think of no good reason to restrain myself from posting my true thoughts on a subject.

However (comma) for those of you who know me. You know that what I post here, is exactly what I'm thinking in my head. I'm a huge fan of people saying what they really believe, not what they think they should believe.

For those of you offended. Please, know that you have the utmost power of rebuttal on your side. Unfortunately for you, I also have the ability to take away your freedom of speech on my site.

PLEASE! By all means feel free to flame me to your hearts content on this site. If what you said was sound logic, or a legitimate issue then your comment will stay and I will respond.

Now, with all of that in mind. Today's post.

It's been a good day. Thank You for asking.

-steve

"...and away we go."

2007-11-13T12:37:00.000-06:00

Well, its complete. As of right now, stage one of testing the code and making it all work is done. So, if any of you have troubles or problems. Let me know, otherwise I'm going to begin posting soon.

The Test

2007-11-13T12:21:00.000-06:00

This is a test of the new steve post system. Had this been a real post, there would have actually been something.