I don’t usually talk about stuff regarding Mac goings on. But this just floored me. At MacWorld Tokyo during a presentation by Steve Jobs, John Carmack (co-creator of Doom and Quake) showed off the first shots of Doom 3 in action. It was part of Apple showing off the GeForce 3. The GeForce 3 will be out for Macs first. The GeForce 3 combined with a powerful processor equals some amazing visuals. Just look at these shots of Doom 3:

It looks like Toy Story quality graphics. And these shots are of the game engine, not some pre rendered cut scenes. Just amazing. Blue’s News has more shots of Doom 3 and also a video of the actual footage.

I also had some action in the GuestBook again. This time Joey signed in with this to say:

Are you being paid to do this site? It’s really cool. Anyway, when did you start this thing? Do you have website anniversaries? If so where’s the f—ing party, man!

No I’m not being paid to do this site. I’m glad you like it. This site first saw the light of day back on January 31, 1998. As far as anniversaries no nothing big. I just chuckle to myself that it’s lasted this long. The fucking party? I don’t know, maybe for the five year. That could be the name of the event. The Hotelblues.com Fucking Party! What a night that would be. Thanks for stopping by Joey.

Here is a few things that slightly irritate me. I say “slightly irritate” because I firmly believe it’s a waste of energy to hate. An emotion just not worth it.

First up we have hotel guests. Not all of them, but more than a few. The ones that buy microwave popcorn and then have me make it for them. Yeah I know I work at a full service hotel. And I don’t mind once or twice. But come on, ten times in a row? MOD/Audit/Popcorn Gourmet Cook? Not the last time I checked. Tonight must be popcorn night.

On the 28th of December I wrote a bit called Banditos telling about how the hotel had gotten robbed. Well they finally caught those little assholes. One of the hotel security guys let me know. Nineteen year olds. The gun was a BB gun. I just knew that gun didn’t look real. The worst that little shit could have done was shot my eye out. Stupid bastard.

If you pay attention to the quick link thingie over on the right you will see I added a link to a place called Penny Arcade. Penny Arcade is an on-line comic strip. It follows a group of friends as they play games. Penny Arcade has a nice style and is in color. One of many that have been keeping me from updating. I just love the idea of the on-line comic strip. There are lots as I said, but only a few that are worth a damn. And Penny Arcade is my favorite. The guys that do it have a sense of humor like mine. Twisted? Maybe. They do a game oriented comic strip. They make fun of PC, MAC, and Console games. Really funny shit if you get into that kind of thing. I of course highly recommend it if you do get into that kind of stuff.

Here are some other on-line comics worth checking out.

My second favorite on-line comic is Angst Technology. Angst Technology is about a game development group. Angst Technology is like Penny Arcade in many ways. They both have a darker comic flair. They both are not afraid to make fun of the whole game industry and themselves. With Angst Technology I even have a favorite character. Dante, Lead Programmer of the company. This is how the Angst Technology site describes Dante:

The linchpin of the company. He’s the kind of guy that if he were hit by a bus, everyone might as well just go home. He is a hard worker, a chain smoker, and has strained his eyes to near nonexistence from staring at millions of lines of code. Some say he now has “binary” vision.

Just funny shit. Go and check it out. Here’s one of my favorites.

Another good one is PVP. PVP follows a group who works at a game magazine. PVP has a nice look, and is funny. PVP is a black and white strip with color Sundays. Yet it doesn’t get me as much as Penny Arcade. Still worth a look.

You see the pattern here right? I play way to many computer games.

Let me tell you about my average night. This is no bullshit, this is how my night at work goes. I roll out of bed at nine pm. Very grumpy of course, and curse and swear for five minutes just because I have to get up to go to work. Then I walk over to my grandma’s to take a shower. Yeah I have to walk next door to shower. If I wake up my oldman there will be hell to pay! So use the hot scolding water to wake me from my waking sleep. More swearing. Still half asleep I some how manage to get dressed. Elapsed time for all of this: about thirty minutes. Depending on my mood I may walk back to my dad’s to check my e-mail and see if any weirdo’s have signed the GuestBook. Then I get in the car and drive to work.

Depending on how long I stay on the computer at home relates to if I make it to work on time. I have the laptop still so I make it in on time. Depending on how early I get to work relates to how early I punch in. The sign by the time clock states:

No Employee Is Allowed To Punch In Until 5 Minutes Prior To Scheduled Time. In Order To Punch In Before your scheduled shift you must have approval from your department head or m.o.d.

thank you for your cooperation management

Really that’s what it says. So I am of course M.O.D. on the third shift and I always approve me punching in early. Convenient huh? So I usually punch in at 9:50 or earlier depending how my hours look. Now just because I punch in doesn’t exactly mean I’m going to start working. Most times I head down to the restaurant to get my supply of Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew is what keeps me going. It’s my life’s blood. If I could I would get the syrup and hook it to a vein. Also depending on who is working in the restaurant I may chat a while. We don’t have to many interesting people at night any more so that doesn’t happen often. By now it’s around ten thirty.

No I’m not working yet. Next I set up the laptop. The thing has to be plugged in to work so I waste another ten minutes doing this. Then I of course connect to the internet. The laptop only connects at 28.8 for some reason and it sucks really bad. But it gets me on the net. So now it’s around ten forty and I do a little work. I print up my reservation listing and rooms available report. Then a room rate variance. And a final balance report. I fake looking these over so I don’t have to do any real work. I do look them over later. The desk clerk by now is ready to leave so it’s just about eleven o’clock. This is when the real fun begins.

On the third shift I usually don’t have to many check ins so dealing with guests is limited to the phone. I try to start the audit as soon as the bar closes. Midnight or earlier on the weekday, around one o’clock on the weekend. So from eleven to one I do the “hard” work. Which is making sure all the departments balance. Now this takes just about ten minute, so the rest of the time I’m surfing the net. this is a good place to stop and I will continue tomorrow.

So March is like a slow month for me, at least if last year is any indication. Last year there was not any posts for the month of March. The Archive jumps from February 27th to April 7th. March is of course the month of Me and Izer’s birthdays. Looking back on last March I can not figure why I did not write anything. Last March was a lot of fun. The birthday outing was really good. Me and the Izer’s had fun that night. And thanks to the Harem Scarem Escort Service I had company that night. No not that kind of company. We went and saw the Julia Roberts movie Erin Brochivich. Which turned out to be a really good movie. This year is going to be a little different. The thought of turning 29 is kind of scary. That of course means the big three O is next year.

I left of around midnight or one, depending on if it is a weekday or a weekend. Really balancing everything takes just about ten minutes. This is under optimum conditions. That is if the Front Desk crew did everything the way they are supposed to do things. A lot of times they screw the pooch on credit cards and balancing direct bills. Now this may take some time it depends on how bad the Front Desk screwed up. But even this will take no more than a hour. So for a time frame point of view I always start the audit at either 12:35 (last bus) or as soon as the bar closes (one or two).

The actual Audit process is done by the computer. The most interaction I deal with is switching the back up tapes. Really hard. The Audit takes just about two hours start to finish. And those two hours I am of course surfing the net. Generally during this time of night I have no customer interaction. Once the Audit is done I print two sets of reports. One set is all of the essential reports I need to fill out my simple little audit report. The other set of reports are for lazy managers (who despite having computer access to the actual function of printing these report) that are just to lazy or incompetent to print the reports themselves.

The reports take about an hour or less. The time now is about three in the morning. The Audit usually finishes around two and another hour for the reports. Now from three until eight when I leave all I have to do is fill out the daily. A simple worksheet that takes five minutes tops. Once again I’m surfing the web. How do you think I got my redesign done? At work. Most of all of my posts are done at work. I can’t remember the last time I did an update from home. Doing this at work is just more convenient for me.

And that’s just about it. I do put all of the paperwork and reports into a big envelope and put over by the accountants door. In the morning I do have to deal with guests. But again its not a big deal. I punch out at eight or later if I’m milking the clock and then I get the hell out of the hotel. And that’s my average night.

Have you looked at the USA Today yet this morning? All I can say is what the fuck is wrong with kids these days? Sorry for swearing, but this is getting crazy. Charles “Andy” Williams is now to be almost as infamous as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The only difference between Williams and the Columbine duo is that Williams didn’t kill himself. I think it’s a shame Williams didn’t snuff out his own life. Is that harsh? I don’t think so.

So what is it? Is this teen killing spree phenomenon the result of these kids being bullied? Is it games such as Doom and Quake? About being bullied, isn’t that a fact of life? Isn’t that part of our culture? I just can’t buy into the “being bullied” excuse. Nor do I buy into the blame that’s put on video games and movies. I’m 28 and I never remember any of this kind of thing happening when I was in high school. And what about our parents generation? Never happened when they went to school. And our parents generation had killings all over TV. From the various assassinations to the classic cartoons of the day. And our parents got to see a guy killed live on TV.

Well none of us before this recent generation of youngsters have gone whacko. And I played Doom, so I should have went on a killing spree if games like Doom are really to blame. So is it just these kids that are all fucked up? I mean that has to be it right? It’s got to be the kids these days. But what exactly is the culprit behind them? Is it that guns are easier to get a hold of? That most be it. Or are kids these days just mentally unbalanced?

It’s got to the point that I don’t want to go down to my old high school to visit Mr. Peterson (Social commentary? I’m trying Jeff) because I’m afraid of those kids man. Kids today just scare the shit out of me. The only way you will see me down at the high school is if I know the kids are out of school. Or someone get me a flak jacket.

Now in defense of “kids these days” I do know a couple of nice kids. One of them is Adrian (a frequent reader) who to the eye seems like a nice kid. I’m kidding. Adrian is a good kid. Then there’s Brad (another reader). Both of them are smart. And I would be really disappointed if these guys ever did this kind of thing. Because they now better. I have had the chance to talk to both of them a number of times and I don’t see this behavior in them. So why are these kids that do this kind of thing different from Adrian and Brad? Answer? I don’t know.

Can it be the upbringing? I think if anyone is to blame it’s the parents of these whack job kids. We are what we are because of are upbringing and our surroundings. So if these kids home life are shit maybe that’s the reason? I mean the Columbine kids filmed videos showing their explosives and weaponry. How is it my parents knew I had Playboys under my bed yet these parents of these kids can’t seem to find these weapons? So that’s it right? Blame the parents. Well I’m not even so sure of that. Maybe someone smarter than me can explain this to me.

And what about the teachers? Can they be blamed? I learned a lot from my teachers. Or I should say “I learned a lot from the teachers I paid attention to.” I of course don’t buy this either. Don’t you think these teachers should be scared? And what about when the teachers start bitching about their pay? Don’t you think they deserve a raise because of recent events. I would at least expect hazard pay for them.

So in the end I don’t have answers. I just have more questions. So how about Adrian or Brad sounding off on kids your age? And could I get any Teachers to give me their say? Or anyone give me a reasonable explanation to this whole thing. Send your response to @hotelblues.com.