I'm a bit bored, if the title didn't give it away. I've decided to use the extra time I have from being the only person in my house for the next four days to make some more gaming videos. Everyone's gone which means it's quiet, i.e. the perfect recording environment. Unfortunately most of the games I want to record need to be patched all of a sudden. This is why I am here, writing this post.
The patch for Firefall is about fifty percent complete at this point. Once inside I'll probably record a full game or two depending on how long they take. After that I'll either move on to another game or start rendering the footage.
Okay I lied, it's still less than fifty percent.
Being the only person in the house has also afforded me another benefit: using my computer's speakers. A novel concept, no? Alas, my brother's computer is stationed literally right next to my own and he refuses to use headphones for anything. It's as if his ears would fall off if he were to wear some. It's frustrating to say the least, but I shall enjoy the short reprieve while I still can (except to record, for which I need my headset).
...Still under fifty percent. Goddamn this patch is huge. This reminds me (don't ask why), but I need to play some more DotA 2 sometime over the next few days. It's a great game not unlike League of Legends and since I finally understand how to play LoL (to an extent, let's not get ahead of ourselves here) I should at least be somewhat better at DotA 2 than I was a few months ago (I've won 1 game out of 10 I believe).
I'd start converting my footage if I knew that it would finish before the patch did. I don't want to strain my CPU anymore that I have to when recording footage of some graphical fidelity. Once you start converting it's a hassle (and pointless) to stop it.
The same can be said for this post. It's completely pointless and it's only purpose is to keep me entertained until the game is finished patching. Which by the way, it's still not, but thank you for asking.
In lieu of that, I'm going to get some ice cream.
I'll be back.
(I won't)
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Diablo Videos
You guys no doubt heard about it, most of you are probably apart of it. Diablo 3 launched on Tuesday. It was insane. I decided to buy the game about 3 hours before it launched but I knew for a fact I'd never be able to play when the servers went live (the fact that it went live at 3AM EST didn't help).
Now that I've been in the game for awhile though, things have picked up. The MegaMidnightGaming YouTube channel has a ton of videos going love on it now. So far most of them are of the Demon Hunter class but we've got some Monk and Witch Doctor gameplay mixed in there. Eddie and I played some co-op as well. Tons of new videos will be going up as the days go on. Each day will focus on a specific class so that way, if you're only interested in a one particular class you won't have to wonder when you'll be seeing more of them.
As for what I think of the game, well I'll point you towards the latest episode of the MMG podcast. If you're reading this exactly when I've put it up (around 1:40 AM) then it won't be live yet. But by Monday night it should be online.
Summer is getting closer and closer. With summer unfortunately comes the end of regularly scheduled television seasons. Everything is wrapping up. Sure there are still a few shows that run into the summer, and a few good ones that actually air during the summer, but for the most part the TV season is over.
All we have to look forward to is the return of our favorite series in September alongside new pilots. This year there are fewer new shows worth checking out than ever. One has struck me as particularly odd though and that's Elementary, CBS' modern day Sherlock Holmes procedural. Now obviously CBS is known for their procedurals. There's no doubting that's why they're still the number one network.
Now obviously they want to capitalize on the success of the phenomenal BBC series Sherlock which is a modern telling of Sherlock Holmes in London.... not in NY where Elementary is set. The whole thing is a mixed bag. Sherlock is like some drug addict who'd just finished rehab. Watson is suddenly a woman... Not that that's a "big deal" or whatever, and I realize that in the books Sherlock was indeed a drug addict. I just feel like they're trying too hard to be really different than Sherlock so they don't get sued into oblivion. BBC has not licensed the show for reproduction in the US so if they deemed it necessary they could sue over copyright infringement. I'm sure no one wants to do that, but if they stray too close to Sherlock then I would expect things to get nasty.
Now that I've been in the game for awhile though, things have picked up. The MegaMidnightGaming YouTube channel has a ton of videos going love on it now. So far most of them are of the Demon Hunter class but we've got some Monk and Witch Doctor gameplay mixed in there. Eddie and I played some co-op as well. Tons of new videos will be going up as the days go on. Each day will focus on a specific class so that way, if you're only interested in a one particular class you won't have to wonder when you'll be seeing more of them.
As for what I think of the game, well I'll point you towards the latest episode of the MMG podcast. If you're reading this exactly when I've put it up (around 1:40 AM) then it won't be live yet. But by Monday night it should be online.
Summer is getting closer and closer. With summer unfortunately comes the end of regularly scheduled television seasons. Everything is wrapping up. Sure there are still a few shows that run into the summer, and a few good ones that actually air during the summer, but for the most part the TV season is over.
All we have to look forward to is the return of our favorite series in September alongside new pilots. This year there are fewer new shows worth checking out than ever. One has struck me as particularly odd though and that's Elementary, CBS' modern day Sherlock Holmes procedural. Now obviously CBS is known for their procedurals. There's no doubting that's why they're still the number one network.
Now obviously they want to capitalize on the success of the phenomenal BBC series Sherlock which is a modern telling of Sherlock Holmes in London.... not in NY where Elementary is set. The whole thing is a mixed bag. Sherlock is like some drug addict who'd just finished rehab. Watson is suddenly a woman... Not that that's a "big deal" or whatever, and I realize that in the books Sherlock was indeed a drug addict. I just feel like they're trying too hard to be really different than Sherlock so they don't get sued into oblivion. BBC has not licensed the show for reproduction in the US so if they deemed it necessary they could sue over copyright infringement. I'm sure no one wants to do that, but if they stray too close to Sherlock then I would expect things to get nasty.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
The End of My First Job
Originally this post was going to be about how I was planning to quit my job and why. Well things got pushed up a bit and now this post is just going to be about why I quit.
For those who don't know, I worked at a pizza joint. It was a part time hourly job that I worked in between school and other day to day things. It was a nice fit because the place was really close to where I lived and my boss was pretty flexible about letting you take days off when you really had to.
While that all sounds nice there were more cons and pros at this job. Some were ridiculous, like the cooks constantly being assholes or the fact that we weren't allowed to take tips. This is despite the fact that we actually serve the food to people at their tables and there are tip jars right near our registers. Customers think they're giving us a tip when in fact my bosses just empty the jar each night and pocket all the cash.
The real kicker though is that my boss skims money off checks. I'd heard about this a few months ago from coworker of mine who said she was out nearly $200 one check and had to call in her parents to fight Joe for the money. She got it in the end and after that I starting comparing my timestamps to my overall hours worked on my pay stub.
At first there were little discrepancies like ten minutes off here, fifteen there. Little amounts I wasn't going to bitch about. Then one of my checks came in missing nearly an hour. I decided to say something to my boss and he said he'd fix it. He didn't fight me on it, my guess is because he knew he was caught. And strangely enough when my next check came in, everything was in order.
And yet a new problem had arisen. My brother (who had only been at the place a month) was missing a little over five hours from his pay check. That's about $40 missing and for someone who'd just started making money, that's a big deal.
Too bad my boss didn't think so. When my brother went to confront him, he refused to give him the money, saying he was tired of "this shit" and how he thought everyone was accusing him of docking their pay (no one ever said it out loud but he all knew he was doing it). He refused to check my brother's time stamps against the times he had and said he'd taken the money out of his check for not charging a customer extra for something more they wanted. Let's remember here that my brother is missing $40. Nothing extra at a pizza place amounts to that.
I'd also heard that my boss wasn't too happy about having to give me my money back as well. So when I found out about this exchange my brother and my boss had, I decided that enough was enough. I talked to my parents about it (just to make sure I wasn't being hotheaded or anything) and they both said that quitting was the best choice for both my brother and I.
So I called my boss to tell him I wasn't coming in anymore. He was calm about it at first, asking why I was quitting and whatnot. I lied and said I'd found a better job (which is technically true, I've found several better jobs). This somehow set him off - I'm still not sure why - and he started ranting about how I wasn't a "real man" for telling him like this and how in the real world people thank their boss for the opportunity they gave them.
My boss seemed to have forgotten that it was his father who hired me. Anyways, he then continued to yell at me about he'd had enough of "our shit" and he was done having patience. I proceeded to ask him what the hell he was talking about because before today everything was smooth sailing at my job. My boss didn't seem to have an answer for that and just kept yelling nonsense into the phone. Eventually I just hung up and went on with the rest of my day.
TL,DR: My boss was taking money from both my checks and my brother's so we quit. He threw a tantrum and I went on with my day without a care in the world.
For those who don't know, I worked at a pizza joint. It was a part time hourly job that I worked in between school and other day to day things. It was a nice fit because the place was really close to where I lived and my boss was pretty flexible about letting you take days off when you really had to.
While that all sounds nice there were more cons and pros at this job. Some were ridiculous, like the cooks constantly being assholes or the fact that we weren't allowed to take tips. This is despite the fact that we actually serve the food to people at their tables and there are tip jars right near our registers. Customers think they're giving us a tip when in fact my bosses just empty the jar each night and pocket all the cash.
The real kicker though is that my boss skims money off checks. I'd heard about this a few months ago from coworker of mine who said she was out nearly $200 one check and had to call in her parents to fight Joe for the money. She got it in the end and after that I starting comparing my timestamps to my overall hours worked on my pay stub.
At first there were little discrepancies like ten minutes off here, fifteen there. Little amounts I wasn't going to bitch about. Then one of my checks came in missing nearly an hour. I decided to say something to my boss and he said he'd fix it. He didn't fight me on it, my guess is because he knew he was caught. And strangely enough when my next check came in, everything was in order.
And yet a new problem had arisen. My brother (who had only been at the place a month) was missing a little over five hours from his pay check. That's about $40 missing and for someone who'd just started making money, that's a big deal.
Too bad my boss didn't think so. When my brother went to confront him, he refused to give him the money, saying he was tired of "this shit" and how he thought everyone was accusing him of docking their pay (no one ever said it out loud but he all knew he was doing it). He refused to check my brother's time stamps against the times he had and said he'd taken the money out of his check for not charging a customer extra for something more they wanted. Let's remember here that my brother is missing $40. Nothing extra at a pizza place amounts to that.
I'd also heard that my boss wasn't too happy about having to give me my money back as well. So when I found out about this exchange my brother and my boss had, I decided that enough was enough. I talked to my parents about it (just to make sure I wasn't being hotheaded or anything) and they both said that quitting was the best choice for both my brother and I.
So I called my boss to tell him I wasn't coming in anymore. He was calm about it at first, asking why I was quitting and whatnot. I lied and said I'd found a better job (which is technically true, I've found several better jobs). This somehow set him off - I'm still not sure why - and he started ranting about how I wasn't a "real man" for telling him like this and how in the real world people thank their boss for the opportunity they gave them.
My boss seemed to have forgotten that it was his father who hired me. Anyways, he then continued to yell at me about he'd had enough of "our shit" and he was done having patience. I proceeded to ask him what the hell he was talking about because before today everything was smooth sailing at my job. My boss didn't seem to have an answer for that and just kept yelling nonsense into the phone. Eventually I just hung up and went on with the rest of my day.
TL,DR: My boss was taking money from both my checks and my brother's so we quit. He threw a tantrum and I went on with my day without a care in the world.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Avengers and Summer Movies!
Thursday night I saw The Avengers. I went to the midnight premiere with my sister and a few friends. Despite everything I hate about movie theaters, people seem to know the code for midnight premieres. They know to be quiet during the movie, cheering only lasts a few seconds, and all phones are turned off. It's great.
As for the movie itself, Avengers was amazing. I hope to write a full review of the film, but in short I couldn't recommend it more. Be sure to stay through the entire credits though! There are two scenes during the credits. One is about a quarter of the way through and one is at the very end. I only say this because everyone saw the first scene and then started getting up to leave the theater.
People seem to underplay the importance of this movie and what Marvel has accomplished by being successful at this. Marvel has successfully created a living universe that cross over several movies with several different main characters. Then they had them all come together in one movie. The Avenger is the ultimate crossover film, but more importantly it proves that if done correctly you can sustain a universe of characters. Now if only DC would get their heads out of their asses and do the same for their library of characters.
The Avengers also kicks off the summer of awesome movies as well. In a month Prometheus (June 8), the Alien prequel movie comes out. Very excited for that one because I'm a big fan of sci-fi horror movies (good ones are just hard to come by) and the trailers are really intense.
A month after Prometheus comes is the new Spider-Man movie (July 3). I'm not... super excited about this movie yet. The newest trailer is pretty awesome but something isn't clicking for me yet. I love Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and the villain looks cool but I'm not just there yet. I'll go see it and I'll probably enjoy it enough, I hope.
Of course after Spider-Man comes my most anticipated move of the year: The Dark Knight Rises (July 20). I won't lie, when the newest trailer came out a few days ago, I flipped out. I couldn't be more excited for this movie. Definitely counting down the days until the midnight premiere.
As for the movie itself, Avengers was amazing. I hope to write a full review of the film, but in short I couldn't recommend it more. Be sure to stay through the entire credits though! There are two scenes during the credits. One is about a quarter of the way through and one is at the very end. I only say this because everyone saw the first scene and then started getting up to leave the theater.
People seem to underplay the importance of this movie and what Marvel has accomplished by being successful at this. Marvel has successfully created a living universe that cross over several movies with several different main characters. Then they had them all come together in one movie. The Avenger is the ultimate crossover film, but more importantly it proves that if done correctly you can sustain a universe of characters. Now if only DC would get their heads out of their asses and do the same for their library of characters.
The Avengers also kicks off the summer of awesome movies as well. In a month Prometheus (June 8), the Alien prequel movie comes out. Very excited for that one because I'm a big fan of sci-fi horror movies (good ones are just hard to come by) and the trailers are really intense.
A month after Prometheus comes is the new Spider-Man movie (July 3). I'm not... super excited about this movie yet. The newest trailer is pretty awesome but something isn't clicking for me yet. I love Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and the villain looks cool but I'm not just there yet. I'll go see it and I'll probably enjoy it enough, I hope.
Of course after Spider-Man comes my most anticipated move of the year: The Dark Knight Rises (July 20). I won't lie, when the newest trailer came out a few days ago, I flipped out. I couldn't be more excited for this movie. Definitely counting down the days until the midnight premiere.
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