Well I have more or less recovered from a case of stomach flu. Not the most fun thing to go through. And that’s the most interesting thing to happen to me since the last post. Jeez what a pathetic life I live huh?

Man I love conflict. I really do. I hope work understands that I’m not a pain in the ass to just them. Case in point, check this thread out over at the unofficial Coranto Forums. I also should say that I’m not giving this kid trouble just for the hell of it. I really am against a move to PHP. Of course if you don’t know what Coranto is this little post doesn’t really matter. Just move along, there’s nothing to see here.

Well I just beat Halo on the easy setting. I admit it’s not really that much of an achievement. Not much of an achievement on easy, on the higher difficulty it’s a different story. And again I say Halo is a great game. It is one of the better fps on any system. The PC version won’t be out for a while. At least thats the way it sounds. I was amazed how much better the graphics were when I moved the xbox to a 27 inch tv. The old tv was an ancient little thing, compared to the 27 inch.

I also picked up the Xbox game Mechassault. This another game I picked up because of the guys at Penny Arcade. Mechassault is one of those Xbox Live enabled games, which me not having Xbox Live doesn’t do much for me. But it does have a really decent single player campaign. I’m having some difficulty picking this one up. I’m getting there, but I would get my ass handed to me playing online. So I’m no Mech King, but I’m trying.

I need to pick up a good RPG for my Xbox. I have three choices. Two of them are games I already own. The third game isn’t out yet.

First choice would be Baldur’s Gate:Dark Alliance a great game I played the hell out of on the PS2. I’m not sure I want to buy it again. There really isn’t much re-playability left on that one.

Second choice is Morrowind. Morrowind a game I have had for the PC for a while now. A game I still have yet to explore fully. I haven’t even scratched the surface of what Morrowind can offer. I most likely will pick this one up because it’s out now.

The third game isn’t out yet and there really isn’t a solid release date as of yet. But who can pass up a honest to god Star Wars single player RPG? Man not me. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic like Halo is one of the reasons I bought the Xbox. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic is another Xbox title that is supposed to be coming to the PC. SW:KOTOR is developed by Bioware. Bioware are the guys who did the classic Baldur’s Gate games. Again a must buy.

Ramada’s new owners put hotel in landmark shape is a Rockford Register Star article that talks about the hotel’s new years eve party. This was a very informative news item. As the usual with this kind of thing here are the good bits:

“We were hoping to get 500 people,” said Kimberly Thompson, Ramada Inn sales director, “but we just didn’t get them.”

And here is one more quote from this article:

“This is my own personal project,” said owner Noor Tejany, who is in South Beloit for the New Year’s Eve event. “This hotel was here for 35 or 36 years. It’s a landmark to the city. We definitely want to keep it alive and bring it to the next level.”

Lets examine these quotes for a deeper meaning.

The first one “We were hoping to get 500 people but we just didn’t get them” what does that say to you? This is a quote from the sales director according to the paper. Now what is a sales director supposed to do? To me a sales director is supposed to get business to the hotel. The Rockford Register Star hits it on the head when it says:

For weeks, the hotel planned but failed to advertise its “Rockin’ New Year’s Eve Mardi Gras” party.

I would have to say that this sales director is to blame, wouldn’t you? Again this is just my opinion and I am no sales director. But who else can you blame this on? No one else except for the person who approved this half assed “Rockin’ New Year’s Eve Mardi Gras” . Can you guess who approved this fiasco?

Who do you think a sales director answers to? First would be the general manager. Why would the gm allow this mess to go on? Maybe the gm was under orders himself. So who gives the gm orders? Well look no further than the second quote taken from the paper. The owner must have let this failed party come in to creation. Why would he do this? The paper’s quote says:

“We definitely want to keep it alive and bring it to the next level.?

According to the paper this is what the owner said. Well I guess this failed “Rockin’ New Year’s Eve Mardi Gras” is his mistake. He wants to “keep it alive and bring it to the next level”, doesn’t sound like he’s doing that yet does it? In fact if you look at his quote from the paper again you may see that even the owner doesn’t have high hopes for the hotel:

“This hotel was here for 35 or 36 years”

Was here? That sentence is in the past tense. Was here? Where has it gone? Apparently even the owner of the hotel himself doesn’t have that high of hopes for his “personal project”? This isn’t a very supportive thing to say when he plans to keep it alive and bring it to the next level is it? It’s shame that a landmark of the city has to be run by the obviously incompetent. Maybe the next bunch of owners that come in when these people finally give up will do something with a landmark of the city. This statement can be the new year resolution of the hotel.

This was so funny I had to pass it on:

A plane with George Bush, Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, the Pope, and a very young reporter aboard was experiencing engine problems (‘W’ was piloting…go figure). Dubya orders everyone to search for parachutes, and they find 4 parachutes.

‘One of us will not make it, we have one chute too few’ Bill exclaims. So they decide that as the president and former president, that Dubya and Slick should get two of the chutes, and Henry Kissinger, the Pope, and the young reporter will draw straws for the last two.

Dubya and Slick bail out, leaving the three behind with two chutes. As the pope prepares the straws to be drawn, Henry Kissinger says “I’m sorry, but my knowledge of the world powers is too great to lose, and besides, I’M THE SMARTEST MAN IN THE WORLD!’ whereupon he grabs the last chute and jumps from the plane.

The pope says ‘I am an old man, here, take the last chute and save yourself child’. The reporter replies ‘No problem, we have two chutes left, the smartest man in the world just stole my backpack!’

All most made me cry I laughed so hard.

I went in to work yesterday to pick up my check and was told I had to sign a Standards Of Conduct form before I got my check. I’m always very suspicious of any actions like this by my so called superiors. Can I consider people that are stupid assholes my superiors? Anyway here are the highlights:

THESE GUIDELINES ARE PLACED IN WRITTEN FORM FOR THE BENEFIT OF YOU AND YOUR FELLOW EMPLOYEES SO THAT ALL EMPLOYEES WILL RECEIVE THE SAME FAIR TREATMENT.

A.COMMISSION OF ANY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING ACTS MAY BE CONSIDERED JUST CAUSE FOR IMMEDIATE DISMISSAL.

12. Revealing confidential information to unauthorized persons.

B.COMMISSION OF ANY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING ACTS MAY BE CONSIDERED JUST CAUSE FOR REMEDIAL ACTION WHICH COULD RANGE FROM ORAL OR WRITTEN REPRIMAND TO SUSPENSION FROM WORK WITHOUT PAY TO DISMISSAL.

15. Parking motor vehicle in other than areas designated by management.

18. Dining or snacking at any time other than during designated breaks, meal periods, or in areas other than those designated by management.

24. Making or publishing false, viscous or malicious statements concerning an employee, supervisor, the company or its food, beverages or services within hearing distance of customers.

27. Soliciting for immoral purposes or the aiding and/or abetting of such.

Whenever a possible paper trail is started I’m always wondering if “they” are out to get me. I’m one of those that looks for conspiracy everywhere. Now I picked out the ones I figure these pinheads (hiya pinhead!) would use to fire me. Again I may be reading into this more than I need to, but better safe than sorry.

Number 12. I guess if they wanted to, my telling the internet that a hotel (which I never name nor reveal its geographic location) I work at is run by morons could just be “Revealing confidential information to unauthorized persons”. I wouldn’t want the whole internet knowing I was an incompetent boss/owner. Number 12 here is grounds for IMMEDIATE DISMISSAL, oh no. Does having these warnings in caps make them followed more?

On to the lesser offenses.

Number 15. Parking motor vehicle in other than areas designated by management. Tough shit. I park out front under the overhang. I’m the “manager on duty” at night and I say it’s ok. Or you can just come out and remove my beloved “manager on duty” status.

Number 18. Dining or snacking at any time other than during designated breaks, meal periods, or in areas other than those designated by management. This one I can use the same argument as above, I’m the “manager on duty” so tough shit. The other argument on this on is just as fun. The Illinois Department of Labor ONE DAY REST IN SEVEN ACT details how employees must be given a meal period of at least 20 minutes for every 7 1/2 continuous hours or more of work. So if they even try to enforce this I’ll file a complaint. Pretty simple.

Number 24 is the big one. “Making or publishing false, viscous or malicious statements concerning an employee, supervisor, the company or its food, beverages or services within hearing distance of customers” could be my sites motto. Oops except I don’t claim any of this shit I write is the gods honest absolute truth. This shit is my opinion. And besides not to repeat myself I never even mention the specific hotel chain, names of employees or managers, or even the location of the hotel. How can you prove I’m talking about a specific hotel. For all you know I could be talking about a hotel in your town. Has expressing your opinion become an illegal act in this country? Not the last time I checked. Freedom Of Speech. Does that ring a bell? Stupid fucking muppets from foreign countries. “Within hearing distance of customers” ok the last time I checked running this site doesn’t cause any noise at all. Lucky me.

Number 27 is worded strange enough to get a mention here. Soliciting for immoral purposes or the aiding and/or abetting of such. Soliciting is a word that has a lot of meaning. Enough to kind of be the fire you for whatever we want kind of rule. Which brings us to immoral. To me this is another one that is kind of shifty. Who’s morals are we using as a baseline to judge if I’m being immoral?

Well this has gone on long enough and I do have to do some work (work=play Dark Age of Camelot) at this job of mine. If you have a thought ot opinion hit the comment link and express yourself in the forum.

I did some realm versus realm yesterday. I figured out why I don’t really care for RvR. I’m dead more than I like. Anyway here are some shots (1024×768) from a few of the engagements from yesterday.

The last three are oddball shots I found to fill out the rest. Two graphical glitches and a Shrouded Isles monster.