Well I got to say City of Heroes is pretty fun to play. Of course I only played maybe 2 hours max today before I took my nap for work. I made level 3 already, but the chat in game says leveling is slow. But so far I’ve been having to much fun just playing the game.

Character creation is quite involved, if you spend the time on it. You can just about make any kind of super hero you can imagine. You can only tweak the costume. There no stats to adjust. But you do get to pick your primary and secondary powers. At level 6 you also get to choose from a power pool of additional powers. You gain powers every other level.

Now there are no items in this game like in your standard mmorpg. But three things do drop from mobs. Every mob you kill gives you xp (of course) and what they call influence points. You use these points to buy from the two item types from npc’s. The two item types are power enhancers and inspirationals. Power enhancers of course enhance your powers in a many different possible ways. Inspirationals are one shot items. They can do all kinds of things, buff, heal, damage add, etc.

You start in training zone which looked to me gave no exp for mobs you killed while not on a mission. But that’s only in this training zone. Missions are the games bread and butter in the same way I imagine WoW’s quests are (got to pimp WoW). You get missions from npc’s called contacts. Missions can vary from fedex type quests to patrolling an area to going into a instanced “dungeon” to kill all the mobs inside. You will find clues inside these missions that can add to the flavor of the whole super hero thing going on in the game. My three levels I’ve made are form doing missions only. You can run into mobs on the street either committing a crime or just standing around talking shit.

And the powers are kinda like Camelot’s styles/magic really. Each time you use one it costs endurance and has a short re-timer on it. You can que up two powers in advance and even set one power to auto attack.

That’s pretty much all I can think of for now. Any questions you guys got I’ll try to answer them. Uh and I may have been overly harsh in my news post. I don’t miss not having a secret identity or an arch villian at all. The game is fun as it is.

Not much has been going on here in the real world and here on the net. I can’t believe it’s May already. May is a good month if your into computer games, as E3 starts tomorrow. It’s always fun to see all the new games that are announced during E3.

One game of note is Guild Wars, a sorta mmorpg that has no monthly fee has gone live as a E3 demo that anyone can download and play. The 61 kb client is available to download at a number of sites that do that kind of thing.

After what seemed like a long wait (and it was) Marvel finally released the Essential Tomb of Dracula trade paperback. A whomping 500 plus pages of classic Marvel horror comics. This is the comic book series where Blade first appeared. You can pick up both Essential Tomb of Dracula Volume 1 and Essential Tomb of Dracula Volume 2, and they collect over 50 issues of this comic. And for 14.99 a pop it’s not a bad deal.

So it appears the hotel has plans to fire me again. I’m surprised and at the same time I have been waiting for this to happen. Here is the im log from my “source” that warns me of my impending firing:

[01:38] Ex Hotel Guy: wanna hear something fucked up?
[01:38] Turk: sure
[01:39] Ex Hotel Guy: i was told by <Name Removed> that they wanted to fire you
[01:39] Turk: I’m sure they do
[01:39] Ex Hotel Guy: they are going to
[01:40] Turk: let them
[01:40] Ex Hotel Guy: you haven’t written anything on your website lately
[01:40] Turk: nothing to say
[01:41] Turk: did my boss say why they want to fire me?
[01:42] Ex Hotel Guy: no, but she was really excited about it?
[01:42] Turk: was she?
[01:43] Ex Hotel Guy: yeah she said she can’t wait to fire you
[01:43] Turk: heh
[01:43] Turk: I’m sure she can’t
[01:45] Turk: personally I’ve been waiting for this
[01:45] Turk: and have prepared
[01:45] Ex Hotel Guy: did you hear why they fired me?
[01:46] Turk: no
[01:46] Turk: don’t care either
[01:46] Turk: got my own problems to worry about man
[01:46] Turk: plan of attack and all that
[01:46] Ex Hotel Guy: what problems do have
[01:46] Turk: getting fired?
[01:47] Turk: that’s a problem
[01:47] Turk: they better have a good reason
[01:47] Ex Hotel Guy: how are they going to fire you if there is nobody to replace you?
[01:47] Turk: little different this time
[01:47] Turk: well see that’s going to be <Name Removed>s problem
[01:47] Turk: here in a few weeks
[01:48] Ex Hotel Guy: why
[01:48] Turk: it’s a surprise
[01:48] Ex Hotel Guy: damn

It seems my appointment to see the lawyer in June has come at a good time. If this is true it’s good to know in advance. I can plan ahead. I can get ready to start emailing all the press type people that like to cover this kind of story. And there are lot’s of things I can say to the press that would be interesting reading to anyone who has stayed or thinks about staying at this hotel. Practices that most people have no idea go on. Things a lot of local business would love to hear because it would convince them to take their money elsewhere.

Of course this is all hearsay. My “source” and his motives for telling me this are suspect. It’s not like me and the guy are good buddies. In fact he has no reason to warn me of anything. I’m the reason his hours got cut after all that x-mas bullshit. Which of course could be the perfect motive to tell me bad news. It don’t matter why he told me. I’ll find out tomorrow night when I ask my boss if she plans on firing me.

Well I got a little time in with the game Guild Wars and I got to admit it’s kind of fun. But this is a pre alpha/beta kind of deal and there are bugs. Lots of bugs. Problems like joining a group and sending messages to people online that the game thinks is offline.

Gameplay is that of a mmorpg mixed with a Diablo hack and slash feel. Which isn’t a bad thing. All kinds of neat stuff I’m sure. But the documentation is non existent. One interesting thing is the way loot is handled. Any time your in a group and something drops the game assigns a player to pick it up. If you don’t pick it up in the designated time anyone can.

The graphics are pretty nice as the screen shots above show. It’s interface almost reminds me of World of Warcraft’s. Which probably is because some ex Blizzard guys are a part of the team developing this game.

If your going to try this one make sure to do so before the end of E3. This demo only is running for E3 and then after that who knows. It should be mentioned that guild support is not in the game yet, which is funny seeing how that is a selling point and part of the games name. It’s worth grabbing this demo just for the fact it’s such a small download. The content is downloaded as you go from area to area. Worth a shot for a free game if you like this kind of thing.

I have to wait to change my slogan to “the website that got a man fired twice and can do the same for you”, perhaps one of these days. So apparently the firing was bullshit concocted by a guy who had been recently fired from the hotel as well. Which to a certain degree I can understand having been fired once myself from the place.

The question is why would the dude lie to me. I did nothing to him. Everything that happened was the result of events or action on his part. And yeah I feel sorry for the guy that he got fired. But having been there myself I know that when you get fired it’s usually because you did something wrong. Maybe you run and write things in a website or you keep a journal calling your boss Hitler at the workplace, either way when it comes down to it it’s your own damn fault for getting fired.

Of course there is another possibility. That the dude wasn’t lying to me and that my boss was. I don’t know this front desk manager well enough to determine if she was telling the truth or not. Which it doesn’t matter to me. The idea of getting fired just doesn’t hold the same amount of terror it used to. Life goes on. My only gripe is that if your going to fire a guy make sure you have a valid reason for doing so. And for Christ sake tell the person that their doing something wrong. One can’t fix something if they don’t know the shit is broken.

And getting back to the possibility of the guy dicking with me. You would think that the guy would show me a little respect. I still have over 292 kb’s of very nasty material that I’m sure he wouldn’t want floating out on the net. Think before you try to fuck with someone next time man when they got shit on you.

I’m to tired of the subject to honestly keep the drama mode going. The Ex Hotel Guy still says what he told me is true and I believe him. But again it comes down to the fact I just don’t give a fuck anymore. Fire me if you want. Jesus I think it’s even funnier just that this person is excited to shit can me. Must give this person great pleasure in the thought of firing me. I wonder if they fantasize about showing me the hatch?

I guess this all just baffles me really. I happen to think I do my job well. Granted I admit I fucking hate the job (well the people really, not the job) and the whole hospitality industry. But I can handle the guests and I don’t crack under pressure. Sure I’m not the most friendly guy (to my fellow employees) in the world. In fact I’m sure a lot of people think I’m an asshole or a sonofabitch. And maybe I am. I don’t know really.

So if I get fired what then? Well I’m sure I’ll have a nice long paid vacation like last time. I’ll probably play Dark Age of Camelot 24/7 or whatever mmorpg is out at the time if not Camelot. When unemployment runs out I’ll get a job. And I highly doubt it will be in the hotel business. I will most likely end up in the hard world of the working man. No more of this desk job for me after this I think. I have a good friend that would try to get me into his workplace.

I’ll of course miss the hotel. I’ve always had a love hate relationship with the place. It was a lot of fun to work there six or seven years ago. But that really was a different time and place. Which is one of the reasons I really don’t get all shook up by this getting fired talk. I’ve been fired by better people than this current management. I’m past my prime there anyway.

I’m actually toying with the idea of quitting on them. None of this pussy two weeks notice shit either. If I quit it will be at a time when it’s a greatest inconvenience to these people that want to fire me. I’ll come in (because calling on the phone is gay) for my normal shift and tell the person that I’m all done. And that will be it.

So I bought a Samurai Sword. I’ve wanted one for many years now as I am a fan of Samurai movies. I did some research into the whole Samurai Sword thing and found out I don’t know dick about this stuff. The sword I bought is what real collectors call a wall-hanger and even worse it’s a cheap Highlander knockoff. I just like the look of a carved ivory handle and knew only of the Highlander movie sword.

As I said I don’t know dick about this stuff. Check out this page that gives an illustrated example of all the terms for the parts and features of a Samurai Sword. I really didn’t realize it was that complicated. I’ve also found that this stainless steel sword I’ve bought is not something you even want to take the chance on swinging around, let alone try to use it to cut something.

Well at least I now have a little knowledge on this subject matter. One of these days I will pick up a good sword. If you happen to be interested in any kind of swords be sure to check out the Sword Forum International, it is the place I have quickly learned about my junk knockoff sword I had bought. Also interesting is the Care & Handling of Japanese Swords as it explains how to take apart a real Samurai Sword and how to clean it.