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I was just realizing my pal Foxzen kind of resembles the Gwen character from Mission Hill
.Oh, and she was voiced by Go-Go's member Jane Wieldin!
Feel free to correct me of course.
Well not only was today chock full of crappy, shitty badness such as getting to sit through a meeting about how my boss has to go a State away to go to a different meeting because my idiot coworkers are too lazy to show people where items are. Then I had the luxury of getting a zillion pallets of shipment (Both sarcasm AND mild exaggeration but still) while having only one other person to close with.
The bright spot in this was that it was slow. This allowed me to get through a large portion of tasks at hand. However this also meant that I couldn't get the extras they wanted me to get with orders because there were too few shoppers. The ones we did get essentially told me to get bent. Politely, and in much nicer terms mind you. But the fact remains I was told to get bent.
After we got everything set to go though I was given a white cardboard box from my Boss. I opened it to see I had received a placard made of glass signifying I've been with the company for several years. Not entirely by choice. The job market out here has been pretty abysmal even before things became worse but suffice it to say I have yet to be fired. Although I suppose if some big wig stumbles upon this, and ascertains my identity which probably won't prove difficult I may be banished.
Anyway where most people may say to themselves "Ah that was nice" upon winning such a trinket, my inner voice saw really a hollow victory. Immediately he began reminding me that if they had really cared they would give me a raise that wasn't terribly patronizing or insulting to my intelligence. That all this award really does is remind me how pathetic, and idiotic I am. It doesn't make me an object of anyone's affection. Not that would happen anyway.
I won't really go on with more examples because it would bore you, or make you say "Then die already".
Or not. Maybe. I don't know.
Honestly I don't know what's worse, that I feel bad when something worthwhile happens, or that the bad feeling brought out a good point in that a raise would have been a much better token of gratitude. And I now feel bad for feeling ungrateful. But I do appreciate the goodwill, that someone in the company thought enough to program in a list of people coming up on a certain number of years, that those folks would be ordered a token of thanks.
I suppose it's better than nothing. There are after all many workplaces that rarely utter a verbal "Thank you for not sucking for once"
I don't really know where I'm going with this other than to ask myself out loud why I can't enjoy something innocuous.
It's good to have a healthy level of skepticism as to avoid easily being duped, or hoodwinked. But sometimes I think I somehow veer into paranoia at inappropriate times.
After going to the bathroom for what seemed like an eternity, I met up with my Brother, Sister in law, and childhood friend. We started to watch a Brosnan era Bond flick that wasn't Goldeneye, but then rushed off for dinner. Also for some reason Jason was screwing around with the VCR even though he was the one wanting to see Bond. Also for some reason that makes no sense at all I had a 480i 4:3 VHS tape running at 1080p in 16:9.
Anyway, in another giant Plot hole, we drove to Westport to get to this restaurant that was on the shoreline.
We had to drive through an abandoned entertainment center to get there. The center resembled the Ancient ruins of Greece, but there were no cool monsters.
When we got to the restaurant, we were suddenly in expensive formal wear none of us could possibly afford, and we were seated on a VERY steep beachfront. During the meal I fell backwards into the Long Island Sound during high tide, and spent days in the Atlantic Ocean. For some reason the camera then cut to mass media coverage of my absence even though we all know such flukes would be a local news blip. I can't remember much except one of the people (I don't remember who) saying they had hoped I'd died at sea so I could be a part of a Space Opera. (I know, NO SENSE)
After the montage, I woke up at the same beach, except now it was a hotel. I checked back into a room that looked like something Bruce Wayne would own, changed my clothes, and drove home.
When I got home everyone just kind of laughed it all off. No "Thank God you're alive!", no tears, nothing of the sort.
When I actually woke up today it was simply to the sound of people yelling I was wasting a nice day by sleeping in.
Not much of an update. Bland day off. I spent a few minutes of it helping my folks order a replacement dryer, and a large portion of it sleeping. I did catch the block of Family Guy, and it's spinoffs. I won't really review them here, but I found it pretty enjoyable overall.
I was happy to find out that Comcast put back the HD channels they had taken away back in March. I can only guess a substantial amount of people in my boat complained until they put them back. So at least I get to watch Smackdown in 720p again.
Really not looking forward to tomorrow's closing shift. Eh, it's a living.
Yeah it's a crappy line from a crappy Randy Orton intro. Oh well.
I have a few more caws I'll put up eventually. Yes I know lately it seems I run away into escapism rather than feel.
I don't know that that is exactly whats going down. (Okay maybe a little) but it's a lot of fun, and in the case of one of the caws it's even therapeutic.
Speaking of which, today would knock even the most dedicated recoverer off of the wagon.
I spent over an hour in traffic for what should have been a fifteen minute trek to work. So I was 45 minutes late along with almost everyone else. Then I had a nice double whammy today because the traffic jams delayed our shipment, so that took forever. On top of this, I basically got to hear all day about how craptacular we apparently are, and how everyone is on the brink of unemployment. They didn't come out and SAY that of course. But if you read in between the lines as I've learned to do over the years that's pretty much what they mean. Now I don't dispute there is some level of merit to their complaints. After all in the course of a month we went from #1 in shilling attachments to the middle of the pack. That's like being the World Heavyweight Champion, and jobbing out to the Intercontinental Champion. Except in this business you're not trying to "Build" the stores of tomorrow by putting them over.
That said, one would think by now management in all facets of business would realize that threatening your henchme-- er I mean employees, does not MOTIVATE them to do well. It merely scares them enough to barely scrape by so they can still pay the bills as long as humanly possible. It never worked in any of my other jobs, and it isn't working here.
Compounding this low morale is the fact that it's a tumbleweed month. So without the foot traffic it's only oh, 1000 x harder to climb back to the top of the mountain. There's not a lot you can really add to the sparse order of highlighters.
After work I probably would have gone to a pub, but the traffic was almost as bad as when I went in, so I opted to go straight home instead. Tomorrow I get to close. Another even more tedious 8 hours of hearing about nothing ever being good enough for anyone. In the famous words of Ric Flair: "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" Now if only I could actually knife edge chop one of those nincompoops before saying that.
I recently nabbed the Wii version of Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010
I won't really gush about the pros, and cons this late night of insomnia but on the whole I'm really enjoying the game.
For those of you who bought it, and are in dire need of a DIY Hulk Hogan Here is one I made.
It's based off of a formula a gamer called thebudd-master discovered on the PS3 version. I like to give credit where it's due. However it didn't work 100% on the Wii version so I did have to change a few variables slightly.
I also figured seeing how it's supposed to be 2010, I opted to recreate Hogan's 2008 appearance instead of his 1980's scheme or late 90's early 2000's nWo gimmick.
Anyway I posted mine to a Create A Wrestler page seeing how no one seems to have Wii version formulas yet. Just in case they don't put it out, here you go. Enjoy.
Here's the formula:
Head tab
Template 1
Hair 43, option 2, Color custom X 81 Y 38 Shade 15
Shape Head 10, 16, 17
Shape Forehead -20, 32, 50, 0
Face Eyes Type 3, option 2, Color custom X-12 Y 0 Shade -11
Face Eyes Eyelashes Type 1 defaults
Face Eyes Eyebrows Type 1 Brown
Face Mouth Lips Type 13 defaults
Face Mouth Teeth Type 1 defaults
Face Skin Marks/Scars None
Face Skin Texture/Color Type 11, Color custom X 83 Y 6 Shade -25
Face Skin Age 60
Face Shape
Eyebrows -61, 100, 100, -65
Eyes 31, -35, -100, -59, -58, 100, -50
Nose 64, 100, -20, 51, -22, 6, 56, 55
Cheeks 0, 0, -100, -66
Mouth 22, -100, 10, 64, -40, 33, -73
Jaw 87, 100, 79, -25, 100, 100
Ears -15, -13, -61, 4
Facial Hair
Combinations 24 Color custom X 76 Y 31 Shade -13
Mustache 13 Color custom X 71 Y 55 Shade 100 Transparency 20
Makeup Default
Tattoos Default
Face Paint Default
Piercings Default
Body
Body Height 6'7"
Body Type Type 0
Body Type Shape
Neck -20, 20, 30
Chest 65, 40, 50
Shoulders 0, 60, 10
Abdomen -20, 40, 35
Waist 30, 30
Arms 5, 7, 15
Hands 13, 7, 6
Legs 31, 15, 30
Feet 0, 0, 0
Clothing
Headwear
None
Upper Body
None
Lower Body
Wrestling Tights Tights 1
Pattern 6 Color custom X 80 Y 25 Shade 100 Transparency 100 Length 99
Kneepads 5 Color red
Boots & Shoes 2 Option 2 Color custom X 70 Y 75 Shade 35
Belts 10 Color custom X 70 Y 75 Shade 100 Transparency 100
Crowd signs
1 nWo logo
2 I heart WWE logo
3 WWE logo
4 Bow Down
Be sure to remember to make both Ring, and Entrance attire identical before finalizing.
Have fun!
W.B.
Written, and Copyright (C)2009 Richard Hossan
No one's buying those alarmist speeches
Everyone sees the strings on your hands, and feet
It's pretty plain to see you've sold us down the river
You're looking more, and more like Wallace Breen
You speak as if the Bill of Rights was a bad thing
You tariff without representation at every turn
Everyone's entitled to the same opinion
You love those Combine bailouts Wallace Breen
Like the character
You think it's all a game
So long as you get your perks
Who cares who gets hurt?
But it will fall apart
If not in this life then the next
'Cause your biggest weakness
Are those who have nothing left to lose
To even your handlers your days are numbered
As your popularity wanes so shall their patience
And even if nefarious schemes succeed you still ought to heed
The tragedy that had befallen Wallace Breen
The more you take away the more defiance
The more you do their will the less reception
The day is coming soon, a century of grief
And your citadel will fall Wallace Breen
Seeing how I'm farting around this vacation, I stopped in Play N' Trade where I made an astonishing discovery.
They had an Atari 7800! With no power cord. Needless to say I obviously didn't buy it.
However I found something that piqued my interest:
The RetroMini. I guess it has a surname: -X. Anyway the idea is that since the Hardware patent has run out on the Nintendo Entertainment System, a bunch of small outfits have started making clones. Not to be confused with the piracy systems shown on QVC, and late night infomercials ( That guy went to prison ) the retromini is not designed with several hundred pirated games built in. Instead clones of this nature are designed to play the original cartridges that came out way back when. What struck me as interesting about this one is that it is actually a portable.
Much like Sega's Nomad
which was a portable Genesis, this is a portable NES. You can also hook it into a TV set through AV cables, and it does give you an AC adapter for such an occasion. The system works on four AA batteries when you want to use it as a portable. But there are other things in the box.
I can say it was disappointing. But let's move on
This means that while it can hold up to a small child banging on it, I can't recommend you chucking it in frustration if you lose at something. The Gameboys, and DS's are much sturdier playthings. Of course the retromini costs a lot less than those, but still it adds up.
This is especially impressive since most wireless gamepads for games of that era were often times decidedly "Meh"
Just like the console itself, as long as you're not going to be hard on these things they work great.
That said, the omission of controller ports on the clone is a big glaring flaw. If you plan on using this more on the TV than as a portable hand held, then you have to treat these controllers like fine China. If they ever get broken You have no way of playing two player games on your TV set. This is because while the face buttons will still work on the system, you would then have no way of a second player to join in.
I was just as able to play Duck Hunt as I was when I had first played it in the 80's.
Some of you may be wondering why you're not seeing this on my HD LCD TV as in previous photos I've posted.
Well, Light Gun games were designed around the CRT technology. These games don't work on most LCD, Plasma, LED, or whatever other new TV sets come out. I won't get into a whole CRT vs the world pissing tangent here, but lets just leave it at "Duck Hunt doesn't run on my better set"
In closing up this entry I'll say on the whole the Retromini is pretty cool. It's worth the price of admission for anybody who has ever wanted to legally play NES carts on the go, without having to re buy them in a new format.
It's pretty responsive, and it's even a great system for the curious video game collector. It's one of those spiffy things you can show a friend or coworker, and they'll have a total meltdown over how cool you are, wondering how you always seem to find this stuff. And it is cool. Very cool.
But the missing controller ports are a sticking point. Even more than the recycled plastics. If you'd prefer to have this as a set up on your TV I'd go for the Retro Duo instead. I picked one of those up for a friend who's home was broken into last year. He loves it, and has said it runs about as well as this does.
That system has Super Nintendo Controller ports on it, so if the pad goes south, a trip to a yard sale solves everything.
All of that said I am glad I picked it up. If I were some highfalutin games journalist I'd probably give this an 8 out of 10.
Now these sorts of things go through revisions so it's entirely possible a new version will address these quibbles.
But if you see one in a Play N' Trade or convention give it a look.
One question remains. Does it play DEATHBOTS?
Sadly....yes. Yes it does:
