Nekocon was this weekend.

Not a bad anime con but the Embassy Suites that they have near the Coliseum just does not seem to be up to it.

Three elevators seem limited but not too bad. Wait times this year were not excessive.
Last year during the con they had a elevator breakdown, This year at least they did not have that problem but there were still some wait lines.
Not sure how many rooms they had set aside as reserved for the convention but as usual they never seem to have enough.
They also charge a lot for the room, then charge for the internet connection.

I traveled over quite a bit of TX in October and stayed in several Hilton owned hotels. All month none of them charged for internet. Yet here was a hotel doing so. $229 PER NIGHT for a 'suite' sitting room in the front, bathroom  and a bedroom in the back. and $9.99 for 24 hours connection. 34k up/ less than a meg down. 

It is just enough that I may be turning my back on Neko-con. Kinda depends on my daughter as walking around the cons buying things for her is my chief task. Taking photos like these are just my hobby :-)

I guess we will have to see what Katsu-con (feburary), Animazement (May) Otakon (July-Aug) bring.

Well NaNoWriMo has started.

Ideas kinda bubbling but nothing really fit the plot I had in mind.
Stopping every few minutest to write down a plot bunny is .... different.

( Space saver and sanity saver for the rest of you )

Most of the PDA and handhelds that I have bought over the years have been purchased for two reasons.

Writing and reading. Due to the fact that I can read and do some other tasks at the same time they were mostly used for reading.

Some were better and some were worse but the biggest issue was that each would only read a few types of things well.

( Spacesaver )
this lead to http://theezreader.com/

An eBook reader that does almost every ebook format with a 16GB SD card reader and a user replaceable battery. For $199 til Sep 30th.

I got mine last week. So far only a couple of the ebooks from the Usenet have caused any issues.
seems really well constructed


</p>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urNyg1ftMIU

Personal boycotts only. Overstock.com because they sold me a add-on part that was more than 3 years out of date.

Pumping gas on a boat dock, Lake of the Ozarks. Missouri. $1 an hour + Hamburger and fries + soda for lunch.
Somehow the tags got messed up. What was your first job?

You know that feeling you get when you are about to do something stupid and decide to do it anyways?




That's me when I wake up

Well on July 12th I got my City of Heroes 54 month Veterans Reward.

Yep 4.5 years.

On July 16th I finally got my first character to the cap 50th level.

This opened up the Kheldians Arch-Type for me. True I could have power leveled and gotten here a lot earlier but I just never could get behind that. Besides, by doing most of it solo there is a sense of accomplishment.

There are problems with soloing though. I had started a SuperGroup with three others. One dropped almost immediately when he got married and no time to play. The second played quite a bit and leveled to 50 almost 3 years ago. The Third played more than I did but less than the other. She got 50 and was playing with her husband on another server more.

Playing the game is fun but just not as interesting as it once was. Right now I am enjoying the Beta of Aion. How the real full time game will play out, I am not sure. I have never been much for PvP and it is a big part of the higher levels with Aion. In CoH there are multiple contacts and many different enemies even if it gets a bit repetitive. Different types (Tank, scrapper, defender. etc) get different missions. Different origins, (Natural, Science, Magic) seem to get different enemies and therefore different missions and rewards.
Aion is pretty linear. Lots of different tasks but after you run a mage through, going back to the beginning and running a warrior or ranger through has very little different so I am unsure how this will play out.

I have also been looking at EVE Online.
It reminds me quite a bit of Elite a game I played for hours on the Commodore 64.

After looking on line for Elite, I found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_(computer_game)
In interviews, the senior producers of CCP Games have cited Elite as one of the inspirations for their acclaimed Eve Online MMORPG. Thorolfur Beck in particular said that Elite was the game that impacted him most on the Commodore 64, and that it was the prime motivator behind Eve Online.

Eve appears to have mostly PvP but that can be pretty much avoided if you want to stick to the "safe" worlds. Kinda like what you would really expect out there.

So the question is $15 a month for Eve or for Aion? Do I keep CoH or am I done with it? and how different will the Champions MMO be?

( NCsoft's response )
My response to them and probably the end of it on that forum.

Well, I have been getting more and more annoyed with my current workplace so I put out some resumes and did a few applications and telephone interviews and I got some job offers.  :-)

Whee. Two have been kinda reluctant to talk salary or benefits but now that they are making the offer, we shall see.

Third one out of the responses today, i think is just looking. Trying to get a line on people as they really lowballed the salary with minimal benefits.

I may have a video interview coming up. guess it is a good thing i got my netbook with the webcam option.

This may even get me to cut my hair.
Last time was Grandma's funeral.

Not sure if I am really interested in a couple of jobs that responded as it would mean moving and i have 6 months on a rental contract.
Anyone want to move to NC and sub-let? :-)

( Response from NCsoft Help desk below the Cut. )

I really like Aion and will be buying it It is not a reaplacement for TR and is quite a bit more linar than CoH/V but so far I have had a lot of fun learning it.

If anyone would like to see screenshots Photos.Whyy.Net

Played Aion again this weekend. Closed Beta as they are still trying to "region-alize" the game for the US, Europe and possibly other areas.

The game has been out in Korea and China for a bit and they are now bringing it to the rest of the world.

( space saving cut. Read if you want ;-)  )
Overall Aion is a very nice polished game with few flaws. Most of the issues I have hit were caused by Players and this is true of any on-line game. Having an ignore on chat is a good thing.

Second Beta weekend of Aion.

( Continued behind the cut for those that are interested. :-) )

Ok time for the first entry of the new year.

Oh wait.

Well I just did not have anything else to say until now. After TR closed I did not play City of Heroes. Actually thinking of closing the account.
Problem there is I spent so much time getting those characters to where they are and each is so different. I feel like I am killing them off in some universe (ficton) somewhere.


So.

Just finished the "closed Beta" of Aion. NCSoft gave it out as an prize to the people that played Tabula Rasa when it was shut down. Aion is an interesting game. As the Beta just ran this weekend and it took most of Saturday to download the 5Gig game at 332k I got up about 10am and started playing. They shut it down about 30 minutes ago. :-)

I have not played Warcraft but I don't think this is a WoW beater. but then I really liked Tabula Rasa and it tanked.

Just a few songs that brighten up my day.

• 07_-_Ray_Stevens_BoxSet(Disc3)ThePirateSong.mp3



• 10_-_Ironman_-_Clatterbone_-_With_A_Twisted_Grin.mp3



• J Geils Band Piss_on_the_Wall.mp3



• Rogue_Traders_vs_Lipps_Inc_-_Funky_Child.mp3



• Arlo Gutherie Alice's Restaurant.mp3

One of the vast collections that will post this link I am sure.

Go Watch.

http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=1

This is SAFE FOR WORK.

Been attempting to write and almost every time I set down to do some I get interrupted.

So this is NOT a red letter year for NaNo.
Will leave it at that.

Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage you've been in a heterosexual marriage, are likely to get in one again, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

I went to a concert last night :-)

The Steve Miller Band