I don't know if, back when I actually POSTED to my LJ (which was rare), I ever mentioned Dungeons & Dragons Online. Great game. Fun gameplay, interesting quests, all-around good time. I was in the beta, and got the game at launch.

Eventually, I stopped playing the game, mainly because as the "power-levelers" ran out of content and left, server populations dropped, and getting a group became a hassle. Considering that back then, solo was pretty much non-existent, that was a deal-breaker.

I've gone back to the game every once in a while, because I really do like the game. They've slowly made it more solo-able, and supposedly you can now solo all the way to cap, but to me that ignores the whole point of the game. They've also added hirelings, NPCs you can hire to come with you on adventures, which makes it easier to short-man quests. Hirelings aren't perfect, but I LOVE the system.

Anyways, Turbine (the company that owns the game) made a rather surprising announcement yesterday: DDO is going free-to-play.

Basically, they're taking the game, gating off sections of it so that you have to either pay a one-time fee to access those adventures, or be a subscriber. They're also restricting two races and two classes this way. Of course, these unlocks are account-wide, so once you pay for a quest-series or race, they're available for ALL of your characters, permanently.

Obviously, this is a ploy to attract more players. Advertising for the game is non-existent; the common theory is that Turbine isn't legally allowed to handle advertising, and that those rights belong to Atari, who apparently doesn't think the game is worth it. The only time DDO makes any news is when they release a new Module, and not always then.

This announcement, however, has caused a LARGE amount of attention, drawing a HUGE amount of interest. This means more players, which means more money, which means better financing, which means better game.

I LIKE this news.

Tags: ddo
Current Mood: geeky

Waffles.

That is all.

Current Location: Still the middle of nowhere...
Current Mood: blah
Current Music: Disturbed - Just Stop

That is all.

Tags: quiz
Current Location: Middle of effin' nowhere.
Current Mood: meh
Current Music: The sound of loud-but-life-giving AC.

Well, it occurs to me that it's been exactly... way too long since I've updated this, and I've had a lot change since my last update, so here goes.

SF augmentee duty wasn't that bad. Mainly because I literally got as many days off as days on (but 12 hour days when I DID work), but doing night shift really helped out with that, too. I not exactly sure why, but I've always preferred working at night. Probably has something to do with the retards I normally work with requiring sunlight to operate. Anyways, those 12 hours of pure torture usually consisted of either watching movies while sitting in a van on the flightline, or watching movies while sitting at a booth by the main gate, so I guess I really don't have any room to complain about it.

Of course, there are exceptions. For example, they decided it was time to give me my fitness exam just as I was starting this stuff. Of course, I was put on a profile because of some back pains I've been having, so I did the bike test instead of running. What sucked was the timing.

See, as some of you out there know, it sucks having to do things in the daytime while working nights. Now, here's how it went down: I had worked all Sunday night, getting off duty around 6AM. I had a couple of appointments Monday, so I didn't get to go to sleep immediately after. Instead, I got to stay up and do things until around 2PM. After that, I was planning on being part of the group that went to greet one of my friends returning from Iraq at 5PM. Which, of course, got screwed up by means of a flight change - meaning he wasn't arriving until 10 - and I didn't find THAT out until around 4. At this point, I COULD have taken a nap... but I wrote that off as pointless, as I would still need to eat, shower, and all that, and be ready by 9. So I stayed up, took care of things, and at 9PM we left for the airport. At which point we found out that his flight had been delayed until midnight. After all that, I got to bed around 3AM.

My bike test was 2PM the next day, so needless to say, I was still exhausted by then. And I failed. Barely, I might add. Which meant I had mandatory work-out sessions five times a week, right before I went to work. Not fun.

And that, of course, brings me to the major point of this update. It was during one of those sessions that I was given notification of something rather important. Namely, the fact that I was getting deployed to Kuwait for four months, starting in May. In fact, as I type this, I'm sitting in a Internet Cafe located on base in Kuwait, paying $5 an hour for 'net access and silently thanking whatever deity that can hear me for air conditioning.

So, yeah, a lot's changed with me. I've been here since, oh, the 14th, and I'm not going home until mid-September. Of course, all my income is tax-free, so I'll be banking some money in exchange... Money that'll be going towards furniture shortly after I get back, 'cause I'll finally be able to move out of the dorms. And I will... right after I get that damn driver's license...

Then again, I've been entertaining ideas of a new laptop... a GAMING laptop... If I have enough money to get the essential furniture I need, I'll probably use the left-overs to fund that one...

And in other news, I'm already planning my next trip back to Oregon. Particularly, I'm planning on taking around 30 days in November. I would have chosen December, but apparently my folks are going on vacation with my aunt & uncle in Mexico in that time frame, so, yeah, November it is. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some good tabletop gaming going on then. Yes, Lyle, that means I'm hoping you can plan for a short adventure or something... or, at the very least, see if you can throw me in for a few sessions, please?

Please?

Tags: bitchy, trip home
Current Location: middle of effin' nowhere
Current Mood: bored
Current Music: the sounds of AC units

Well, got some interesting news on Thursday...

You see, I am what's called a "Security Forces augmentee", meaning when the cops are shorthanded, I gets to fill in. Not exactly what I'd call fun. I reserve that word for my usual job of tearing apart servers.

Anyways, I get the word on Thursday that the SF auggies could be called up on a real world tasking, as early as Saturday, but there's nothing definite at the moment. Whoopie.

So I spend all of Friday firing guns, because as a SF auggie, my certification only lasts a year, instead of the thirty months it'd last otherwise. Since the last time I had fired was LAST January, I was just about due. Of course, when I get there, I get the surprise that THIS time, not only do I have to qualify with an M-16, but with the 9mm as well. Despite the fact that this doubled the time I spent at the range (from HALF the day to ALL of it), I was actually happy with this. Now that I'm qualified with a 9mm, I won't be lugging a big ol' rifle around unless I get posted on the flight line.

We end up getting released around 4:30ish, so I spend the next hour or so returning my gas mask (they make us fire 10 out of the 50 rounds on the M-16 with it on, yeesh...) and trying to figure out if I'm getting activated or not. Since no one has heard anything, I gets to assume I haven't been... yet.

Until about 7:30. That's the time I got a phone call to tell me that I had to be in the SF build the next day (Saturday) at 9:00 AM for training. Joy of joys. So after I take care of laundry and watch some TV, I set my alarms (yes, plural) and go to sleep.

The training wasn't actually bad. Basically, we sat around and listened while they gave us a quick refresher, and we got our gear. We where out before noon. We got some good info, like the reason we were getting called up (they had gotten a short notice tasker and had to deploy a bunch of people all at once, and they already have two or three teams in the field), and for how long (up to sixty days, but they'll start releasing us as they get the other teams back).

We also got our flight assignments. I'm on Delta flight, which means
A: My first shift is Monday.

and

B: I work mids, aka 6PM-6AM. I requested this, because for some reason I prefer to be awake when no one else is. Means I have to deal with stupid people less often.

So I have to report in at 5PM tomorrow so we can do guard mount and get posted.

Now here's the real kicker: Friday afternoon I started developing something of a cough. Saturday morning it was a running nose. By Saturday evening this developed into a full-blown cold, I was absolutely miserable, so I took some Motrin and went to bed.

Today, I still felt a bit sick, but I'm confident that I'll be ready tomorrow (or, judging from the clock, today...) so I'm not to worried. But it does mean that these last few days has SUCKED.

And as a final note, one of the things we were told on Saturday is that those of us on meal cards (READ: ME) will more than likely be taken off because of the amount of meals we'll miss. Of course, to understand this, you need to know what a meal card actually IS.

Here's how it goes: in an effort to save money, every Air Force base has dormitories, where single Airman can live. And by single, I mean not married, because the military doesn't give a damn about your significant other of three years, let alone your goddamn fiance. Unless you married, it don't mean shit. They save money this way because if you live in the dorms, instead of getting regular "Base Allowance for Housing", which is varied based upon the area you live in (somewhere around $700 here), they give you around $7, so you can by cleaning supplies. Because surprise, surprise, they inspect. Once a quarter the First Sergeants are required to inspect their dorm resident's homes. We're talking walking in when you're not home and making sure your mirrors are spotless, the toilet's been scrubbed, and you've dusted in every conceivable location. It's not nearly that bad, but hey, I'm venting here. I'm venting because, unlike a lot of OTHER bases, you can't move out of the dorms until you're a Senior Airman with three years time in service. The only other means out is to get married, which leads a lot of Airmen to get hitched with other Airmen (yes, of the opposite gender) just to get out.

Anyways, in another attempt to save money, instead of giving dorm resident's "Base Allowance for Sustinence", aka food money, they put them on "meal card". This means we get our food for free at the chow hall. Which seems pretty sweet, until you realize that means you're supposed to eat EVERY SINGLE MEAL, EVERY SINGLE DAY at the chow hall. While the food there is decent, once you eat there every day for so long, it gets old REAL fast.

However, the chow hall's not open 24-7, so you'd kinda get screwed if you worked nights. Which is why certain jobs mean you don't get put on meal card. That, and if you fill out so many "missed meal" forms a month (and they have to be work-related), then they take that as reason to take you off meal card.

Basically, what it boils down to is this: I'm more than likely going to be getting about $230 more a month, with which I'll be free to eat anywhere I want. I'll still be able to eat at the chow hall (it IS convenient, when you don't HAVE to eat there every day), but I have to pay cash. But that's okay, because I'll HAVE the extra money to spend ^.^

Tags: bitchy
Current Mood: sick

Well, I've put this off for quiet some time, so I figure now's the time to FINALLY update my journal. It's a a few... months... so there's a bit that's happened.

UeberMuchachos, my prized gaming rig, is no more. The fan on the motherboard's chipset fan began to die while I was at Kumoricon, and the week the system was left powered on while the fan went through it's death throes didn't help. Once I got back, I kept it powered down until I could replace it a week later. Two weeks after that, however, the motherboard gave up the ghost.

But from the ashes arose Muchachos-MK3. I ended up replacing the motherboard (formerly an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe) with an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium. The difference? There are a couple I don't really care about, but the main reason I went with the Premium this time round was the fact that, unlike the Deluxe, it used a passive heatpipe to cool the chipset. No fans to die on me, this way.

Mark 3 also saw one other change: I've moved all of the DVR hardware and software over to my server. That way, IT records all my TV shows, and if Muhachos needs to reboot, nothing gets interrupted. I had to buy a bigger hard drive for the server, and a copy of SageTV Client to watch things from my main system, as well as a new remote. Of course, I'm absolutely in love with the remote, since it's RF instead of IR, so it doesn't rely upon a little sensor pod being in line of sight. Damn, I hated that thing...

Damn, I can't believe I just spent three paragraphs ranting about three month old repairs on my computer... Actually, this is me we're talking about here. I'm surprised I didn't use five.

I ended up having to jump back into work once I got back, which left me pretty tired, but things eventually eased up on me. Hell, right now we're in the part of the year when we have pretty much NOTHING to do. Users tend to not send in trouble tickets for us to fix during the holidays and all. Mostly because so few of our users are actually HERE.

What's really being eating up my time lately (besides sheer laziness) has been a certain game coming out in a few months... for a while, I was watching the forums pretty closely, trying to get as much info as I could, seeing as it'd already looked to be a freaking sweet game. I'd tell you what it is, but as of about three weeks ago, I was accepted into the beta, so I'm strictly under NDA, so there's no WAY I'm going to risk my opportunity to play it early by mentioning it's name here. What I WILL say, however, is that it's an up-coming MMORPG, and it is like no other MMO out there. Some people don't like that, but I absolutely LOVE every moment I've spent playing this game.

Well, that's pretty much all I've got for now. I make no guarantees as to when I'll be posting next, as I have no way of know just when the next bout of laziness will backhand me from behind. Sneaky bastard, that laziness...

Rant tomorrow. For now, this one's for you, PezCat.

Current Mood: tired

It's Saturday. My flight doesn't leave until Sunday. 15 minutes into it, actually.

Well, here I am, waiting at the airport for my flight back... It's sad that my leave is ending, cause it's always a bitch to go back to work. From what I understand, we've had a couple of Airmen from my shop go to Keesler to pull switchboard augmentee duty, so we'll be down at least two people when I go back to work; that's about par for the course, though. We've constantly got people TDY for different reasons, or just have a crapload of people out on leave; it's only occaisonly that we're at full strength, but since we're overmanned as it is, that's okay.

Kumoricon was a blast. I got some manga and a Tonberry plushy as swag, as well as a nice Katana (which I had to leave behind for the moment; I'll get my parents to ship it to me later...) It was nice to see some old friends again, even if it was a bit stressful...

Seeing as its gonna be a long day for me, I'm gonna crash when I get back to Florida. This time around, I was smart enough to continue my leave through Monday, so I won't be so tired when I do go back to work, so I'll be able to crash all night.

Anyways, I think I'll just waste another hour surfing the net till my plane starts boarding... blarg...

Tags: kumoricon
Current Mood: sleepy

Lyle. We need to speak, specifically on account of Kumoricon stuff. However, since you've moved, I don't know either your phone number or where you live, so I'm gonna have to call you at work on Monday. Just thought I'd give you a heads up.

Current Mood: awake