Blast from the past

Imbed

EDIT: Sweet, looks like you fixed a lot of the blog issues.

Testing multiple imbeds pt 2

Imbed:

Imbed:

Imbed:

Imbed:

Testing

Testing multiple imbeds:

Imbed:

Test test test

Random pic from google

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQzYBZcP7akYX9-yui5RFmHNkwEnhz-OY7jMTb0-Ybd--lJBQHDVQ

Imbed:

Imbed 2:

New test blog

Testing

5 lines

5 lines

Gratuitous Maiden video to check imbedding:

V3!

Testing testing testing.

Will there be options to customize our blog pages?

Thanks for rolling this out. I'm sure the mods are the happiest of us all if this eliminates the spam.

Random youtube video I have bookmarked to test new youtube imbedding:

Forza 4 = Disappointing

I am not really good at videogames in general anymore, but in particular I have never been good at driving games.  Oh sure, if a game like Burnout came along where you were actually supposed to wreck cars, or the old Demolition Derby games on the PSX for example, I could do well.  In spite of that I enjoyed the first couple GT games, with GT3 being particularly special in my book.  Everything after that was a waste, but up to that point I could make decent progress and still enjoy the game.  Then Forza came along with its driving line, simplifying things for people like me who can't judge brake points or distances or really can't even tell which way the road is about to turn.  I enjoyed that quite a bit, it allowed me accessibility to a genre that I really had to struggle to even play let alone enjoy.  The collecting aspect was pretty cool too.

Forza 2 came and again I had fun, I even got into the designing and made quite a bit of in-game money selling logos I made.  Forza 3 was even better, and once again because of the accessibility I could jump in like the rest of the hardcore racing peeps and have fun and succeed in the game.  I am by definition what is considered a casual gamer when it comes to this genre.

Now Forza 4 was out, and it was a no-brainer pickup for me.  I really thought this would be more of the same; dozens of hours of driving enjoyment along with collecting and painting.  I was even looking forward to grinding out 150 levels this time out.  And then I noticed something peculiar in the gameplay, something I had seen addressed in the reviews (as a positive no less) but didn't really wrap my head around the concept until I experienced it.

In the past if you set the difficulty lower, the effect was a reduction of power in the AI cars.  Now some people wouldn't want this and I can completely understand that.  But I suspect that the people who don't like the AI hampered are the same people who drive with no assists and can rattle off car stats for probably most models in the game.  But thats not me.  I don't have the skills to contend with a high speed car on a challenging track AND a competitive AI.  I really didn't mind the AI getting dusted behind me, I had no chance against them otherwise.  If it weren't for the AI power reduction in the earlier versions of the game I probably would've ended my Forza purchases after the first game.  I would complete the races alone if I could...of course they wouldn't be considered "races" then, would they?  And I know you can adjust the settings to force the AI to drive stock versions of their cars and eliminate class restrictions, but you take a massive cash hit every race for doing that.  Plus you can't make those adjustments in the World Tour mode, and thats where I'm running into my issues.

Another problem that occurs for me in this scenario is the rubberband AI.  I know, Turn 10 and many fans of the game deny the existance of such a thing.  But I'm here to tell you that it exists in the series, it always has.  Just a few moments ago I had an AI car make up almost 4 seconds on me in the last 5 turns of a final lap.  And that was with me nailing all 3 and 4 star turns in my run.  So yeah, rubberband.

Anyway I'm really disappointed in the way Turn 10 decided to implement the AI this time out.  I'm guessing they did it in response to the people who post on their forums.  I would suggest that the people who post on those forums are the same people I mentioned before, the people who casual AI settings wouldn't mean a thing to because they would never use them.  But what they've done in making this adjustment is they've alienated a casual racing gamer such as myself.  I'm guessing I'm not going to be the only one who doesn't get anywhere near the playability out of this title they were expecting.  And to be honest I don't see myself purchasing any future versions of Forza unless they revert the AI back to the way it used to be.

Trying too hard

So yesterday afternoon I got together with an old friend of mine, we'll call him Joe (cause thats his name), and we decided to grab dinner then meet at my place to watch the Bears game.  Joe and I have been friends for over 25 years and we get together every couple months usually.  He's a college professor and during school his schedule is pretty tight.  He's been wanting to check out Tilted Kilt for awhile now, and since he offered to pay I was all for it.  :)

Now I had never been to one of these places before.  I've been told its like a Scottish Hooters, but since I've never been to a Hooters either (true story!) that didn't really resonate with me.  So I go in there and am instantly bedazzled by the sight of half-naked gorgeous women everywhere. Seriously, the wonderbra budget for these places must be off the charts.  Joe was already there so I took a seat and we ordered a couple beers.  Now this is where the "trying too hard" thing comes in.

Our server was simply gorgeous.  Really great looks, young, incredible body, the whole thing.  Absolutely the kind of woman who would never talk to me in any other situation.  I'm used to going to sports bars and having attractive waitresses be friendly but this was a different level of friendliness.  We took awhile to decide on our order so we kept asking her to come back (because we kept wanting to ogle her...yes, we're sick like that) and when she would come back to the table she would lean over to us, giving us up close views of her cleavage, and say things to us like "So, do you see anything you like?".  Yeah, she was really saying that.

Then after we placed our order she actually came and sat down with us.  Ok, now I felt like I was in a strip joint.  And I quit going to strip joints long ago because there's really no point in going.  Spend a lot of money, go home alone.  I can stay home, be alone, and save lots of money.  So she sits down and proceeds to engage us in all kinds of conversation for the next 10 minutes.  Don't get me wrong, it was nice to talk to a woman who looked like this.  But to me it was obviously a ploy for tips (considering we saw her doing this at her other tables and most of the other girls doing it too) and a pretty cheap one at that.  I really doubted that she was interested in my background (so I made one up), although I do have to admit I kind of giggled inside when she told me she moved away from her home state because all the girls there were ho's.  Yep, you showed them by working in a place that has you parading around half-naked and serving men alcohol!  Anyway....

When she told me she hated the Cubs AND Nascar I did ask feel compelled to ask her to marry me.  I got a "probably" as a response, which was good enough for me to turn to Joe and introduce him to "my future ex-wife".  She got a good laugh out of that.  But the whole thing felt kind of cheap and I felt like it was demeaning to her.  I listened politely as she told me about her life story (all 19 years of it).  She seemed nice enough in all honesty, but it almost felt like these girls were being used as low-grade prostitutes.  And the really bad part was there was no potential for a lapdance or anything, so it was really pointless on my end and I felt kind of used as well.

Not really sure where I'm going with all of this.  I was feeling kind of bothered by the way this whole thing was set up.  It really did have a strip club atmosphere in the way the girls worked the customers.  She was actually a really good waitress overall so she was going to get a good tip even without working the cleavage.  The food was actually pretty good too, though the tap beer was pretty pricey.  I don't know if I'm getting old or what, but I actually felt uncomfortable enough by the whole thing to not go back.

Rant: Idiot Neighbors

I live in an apartment. There are 6 units in the building, including mine. Of the 6 units, 1 is empty and 2 are inhabited by backwoods, simple minded fucktards. The one thats currently empty had most recently been inhabited by 12 (yes, 12) illegals, but thats a whole other nightmare story.

In Conclusion

Ok, part 2 of my wall o'text.  If you haven't already, please go back and read my last blog entry.  It will allow this entry to make more sense.  Go ahead, no worries...I'll wait.

Finished?  Here we go.

So Bob's Logistics fully took over our facility at the end of July.  What that means is every other full time employee got launched by that point, aside from the few who turned on the rest of us and helped upper management perpetrate the illusion that this shit company was succeeding.  Thats one thing I need to mention; the reporting for Bob's showed great success.  The smoking rubble that was our business and our facility's reputation said otherwise.  But why let facts get in the way of a good witch hunt?  I took great joy at the end of my tenure in repeatedly pointing out the inaccuracies and contradictions in their reporting.

Flash forward to Tuesday.  I'm sitting in my living room enjoying a late morning siesta when I'm awakened by my cell phone ringing.  What follows is pretty much a verbatim recount of that conversation:

Me: Hello?

Woman: May I speak with Thomas please?

Me: This is, who am I speaking with?

Woman: Hi Thomas, I have your resume here and wanted to talk to you about a job with our company.

Me: Great!  Which company are you with?

Woman:  Bob's Logistics.

(brief pause)

Me: Wait...Bob's?  The 3PL?

Woman: Oh no sir, we're not a 3PL.

Me (slightly confused): Oh...ok.

Woman: I see you have a very extensive background in distribution.

Me: Yes I do.

Woman: I see you also recently worked for (shit company I worked for)

Me: Thats correct.

Woman: Well did you know we actually run their DC in Romeoville?

Me: Hoooooooold on there.  Gotta stop you right there.

Woman: What?

Me: You must be kidding me.  Of course I know you run that DC, because if you have my resume you should see that I worked there too.  I know of your company all too well, and let me tell you...I would live in an alley before I ever lowered myself to associate with a bunch of incompetent, lying thieves like Bob's.  Your company destroyed that business with its arrogance, incompetence, lies and general stupidity.  I could not possibly demean myself to the point where I would tarnish my reputation by working for you.  You guys couldn't find your ass with both hands and wouldn't know it if you did.

Woman: Woooooooow....

Me: Listen; I don't know you, I'm sure you're a lovely person.  But the company you work for is garbage.  Their work and their reputation is garbage.  The people you have running that DC have no idea what they're doing, they refuse to be accountable and they lie and they steal.  But thanks for the phone call, you have a great day.

And at that point I hung up.

Now, aside from the warm fuzzy I got from letting that out it got me to thinking...how did they get my resume?  Off career builder or monster?  Maybe.  Did they even have my resume?  But they know who I am.  Their corporate offices are half a mile away from the place I worked at, so its not like someone in New Mexico was calling me.  They knew who they were calling, it wasn't random.  

I mentioned briefly last time the go'rounds between me and them, but believe me when I tell you I glossed over the details.  It was daily, all day thing with them.  Their supervisor, their site manager, their tech guys...I'd been involved with them all in great detail and some very unpleasant memories remain.  There was the time their manager, who was a big whiny bitch, was going off about all the things I was doing to screw them (none of which were true or even made the least bit of sense) and I reached over my desk at one point to hand him a box of kleenex.  It was ugly.  They were that desperate to not be blamed for their failures that they lashed out however they could.  And I was not the only person they went after.  Once I presented the facts of the situation and proved every word of accusation they made towards me was a lie, they went after the inventory lead.  And then the facility manager.  And it was the same problems with their same people, every single day.  It was fucking horrible.

Oh, and we also found out that they had spent in a year in a competitor's DC and were summarily kicked out at the end of their contract after trashing their business as well.

Now I still have friends that work in our corporate office, and I've heard that since they got rid of all the regular employees there and gave Bob's complete control the business went straight down.  From what I hear there have been days when they struggled to get any loads out the door, and this was a facility that routinely did 70-100 trucks daily.  I've heard the condition of the facility is abysmal and its packed full of damaged, unsaleable product.

So obviously they are desperate.  Calling me was not random, not some happy accident.  I have no doubt that they knew exactly who it was they were calling.  And for them to break down and call me?  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!  If I had not been dozing off when the call came I might've been a little sharper and asked a few more questions before going off, but oh well.  I've shared this with several of my ex-coworkers and some folks that are still with the company and everyone has gotten a good laugh over this.

So thats my story.  No to be continueds this morning, gotta get breakfast going then hit the gym.  Laters.