Well, I forgot about my blog for 7 months or so, but I have decided to add a blurb.
I don't have a specific topic I plan on talking about, so I will just ramble off random crap.

Last night I went to my friend Mike's new house. Keep in mind that this is his third house in 5 years, but it is by far (in my opinion) the best house they have had so far.
It makes me want to do the renovations on our house that we want to do, but can't afford.

Last week, I went to visit my buddy Isaac who just had twin boys to add to his current litter of 1 boy. Both of his boys were bigger than summer was when she was born, so I didn't feel like they were too frail to hold.
I don't know how they are going to function with 3 kids within 11 months of each other, but I guess they'll find a way. I would suggest to him that he hire a hot live-in Nanny from Europe.

That's it for now

Spring Projects To-Do List


01. Level out side yard as much as possible.
02. Determine how much topsoil I need for back yard.
03. Order topsoil ($150.00 budget, preferably less)
04. Dig up shit near chimney and side house and put down grass
05. Lay down grass seed in new spots
06. Spread Stage 1 across entire yard. (Need to complete by April 15)
07. Sharpen lawn mower blades and replace out sparkplug if necessary
08. Build Second wood rack
09. Split enough wood to fill up wood racks
10. Fix patio under deck
11. Spraypaint front railings
12. Powerwash entire house
13. Powerwash deck
14. Sand needed parts of deck
15. Stain and Seal deck
15a. Paint window borders on the deck
16. Powerwash Driveway
17. Seal driveway
18. Fill in cracks on front porch
19. Clean up back-left corner of yard
20. Redo outlet under the deck.

Will it ever really snow again?

That's the question in front of us here in CT. It's been quite apparent that the effects of Global warming are effecting us here in the Northest. Every storm that comes passing through now drops rain instead of snow. Iirc, we've only had about 12 inches of snow the entire season in Cromwell. We used to get 12 inches before Christmas.
I don't even remember the last time we had a really GOOD snowstorm. You know the kind that drop 12-30 inches. They usually come in the form of Nor'Easter's. We've had a couple of Nor'Easter's this year, but it was too warm both times and we got rain.

I operate with the theory, that if it's going to be cold out, it might as well snow. I like the snow, I just don't like driving in it, so when it snows, I just don't go to work. It's a win win for me.
The best part about snow is getting the wood stove going and having a nice warm house. That and the fact that Colby loves the snow.

So, can it just snow already?

Giants Win the Superbowl

So after the 2 weeks of repeated coverage and asking the same questions over and over and over, gameday was finally upon us. I woke up slightly fired up and ready to go.

I was planning on making wings from scratch and nacho dip. Larson was going to make chili, my mom was making stuffed clams and Stacy was bringing Swedish meatballs over. That sounds like a lot of food for just 6 people and you know what, it was a lot of food. We never even got around to bringing out the chili or the nacho dip. Guess what we'll be eating for dinner tonight?

So the game is getting ready to start, the wings are frying and the beer is cold. I assume my exact position on the couch with my beer covered in my Giants coozie. The Giants win the toss, I'm fired up. My dad is next to me on the couch enjoying some vodka. The Giants first drive was key as it set the tone for the game. They knocked 10 minutes off the clock and came away with 3 points.

The defensive line and the blitz schemes were perfect. I've never seen Brady on his back so much. I'm sure every Jet fan out there had a huge smile on thier face everytime Brady got buried.
OK, question time. Belichek went 18-0 wearing that ugly gray sweatshirt with half sleeves. Then he decides to switch to a red version of the ugly sweatshirt and he loses. Why the hell would you change your outfit on the last game of the season? Moron I say.

The game was going along, the beer was still cold and we were all stuffed, but then in the 4th quarter with about 4 min left, I was getting angry because the Pats were driving the ball down the field. At this point, I kicked my coffee table as hard as I could and scared the shit out of everyone in the room. At this point I was just hoping the Pats would hurry up and score so that the Giants had time to score themselves. When they scored with 2:40 left on the clock, I knew the Giants had a GREAT chance to pull this off. Manning has done it before and he was going to do it again.

Manning -> Tyree was an amazing play, but the next play was just as important. The 12 yard completion to Smith and he got out of bounds. And then Ellis Hobbs got completely owned by Plaxico. OWNED!!!!! The room went crazy, we were high fiving each other and I was just plain screaming. During this last drive, my mom tried getting up to put her shoes on and I yelled at her to sit back down. I didn't need to good mojo to be broken at this point. She tried this stunt again with 35 seconds left after the Giants took the lead. I told her to sit back down and that the game is not over yet.

I watched 3 hours of postgame and could have watched more, but I fell asleep.
Amazing, simply Amazing.

Well we went to Eli's last night to renew our mugs and I must say, it's been too long since we've last been there.
They had Brooklyn Chocolate on tap, yummmm. The wings, poppers and pickles were as good as ever.

I'm going to dig deep into my brain and try to remember all my favorites video games from years past. I will start with the one atari game I played and then work my way to Nintendo and go on from there.

Atari

Dig Dug - my Aunt Pam had the Atari system and my sister and I used to play this game whenever she babysat for us. My parents would not allow us to get an Atari.

Nintendo (NES) - warning, this list may be long

My neighbors across the street got Nintendo a few month's before me, so I played the first couple games with them.

Super Mario Bros - a staple Nintendo title
Legend of Zelda - I remember this game being so great. I couldn't wait to come home and play it. Absolute classic game.
Gradius - This was a space ship shooter game by Konami and yes the classic Konami code work (up up down down left right B A start). I loved this game. Lifeforce was pretty much the sequel to this game.
Metroid - Exciting game that had a lot of twists and turns. It took me a couple times over a period of time to finally beat this game.
Kid Icarus - I borrowed this game from a friend and loved it from the start. I beat it.
Castlevania - Simon was the character and the whip was his beat down weapon of choice.
Duck Hunt - My nintendo system came with this and SMB. This game good, but not great. It held me over until I got this next title.
Dragon Warrior - My second favorite series of games in my lifetime. This was my first until Final Fantasy came out. This was another one of those games that I craved to play. It was my first real RPG, but definitely not my last. I replayed this game with an emulator a couple years ago. It was just as good this time around.
Final Fantasy - Ah, the greatest series of RPG games ever created. This was the first. The funny thing is, the company that made this game was going bankrupt, so they created their last game and put the word Final in the title because it was supposed to be their last game, but this game sold so well, that that company soared and is huge today. I have played this game from start to finish many times over.
Contra - Another great Konami shooter. The code gave you 30 lives.
Mike Tyson Punchout - enough said
Dragon Warrior II - a great sequel to the first game. It took place on the same world as the first, but you had a lot more area to roam around on.
Dragon Warrior III - This game was good, but it didn't exactly take a step forward, so I would have to call it the worst of the series.
Dragon Warrior IV - Now this game was a complete classic. It was better than all 3 of the others combined. This was the first RPG I can remember that allowed you to switch people in and out of your party instead of just having the same 3 or 4 people throughout the game.

***I believe that's all the real classics. At one point I had over 1oo games for Nintendo. My dad sold them at his store and he would bring every new title home for me. I still have a lot of the games and the system. Guess what, it works too.

Sega Genesis
This was the first 16 bit system on the market. It still wasn't arcade graphics (32 bit), but it was way better than 8bit.

Altered Beast - this is the game that came with the system. It started out in the arcade and was then mage for Genesis. This was a cool game.
Phantasy Star II - This is probably the third best series of RPG games. I don't remember this one as much as III, but I do remember that is was really good.
Sonic the Hedgehog - Fun game. I just rebought a re-mastered version of the series for PS2, but the game doesn't have the same luster today as it did when I was younger.
Shining in the Darkness - This was a progressive RPG that took place in a Dungeon. It was quite original at the time. A really fun game which I have since downloaded to ROM for. I think I will start playing this again when I'm bored at work.
Phantasy Star III - The best RPG up to this point. It even beats out Dragon Warrior IV. The game is broken up into 3 chapters. You start out with one group of characters and after you finish the chapter, you decide which person you want your main character to marry, from that choice you start the second chapter with that couple's son. So it is actually like a "Choose your own Adventure" where you can have many path's within the same game.
Shining Force - This game was a move based RPG where you had lots of characters at your disposal. I played this game from start to finish quite a few times.
Phantasy Star IV - This one went back to it roots and was designed more like I and II and they did a good job with it. I got stuck at one point in the game and since I no longer have Genesis, I guess I'll have to finish it on emulation.
Might and Magic II Gates to Another World (Genesis version) - This was the last game I played on Genesis and it was probably the best one or at least tied with Phantasy Star III. This (to me) was a different kind of RPG. It was unlike any other RPG I had ever played. The world was huge. It consisted of at least a 10x10 grid and each square in the grid was at least 15x15. You had to walk over each square before you had the map to it. You trained each character in skills and trained them to level up. This was the first in many M+M games I played.

Super Nintendo (and it lived up to the "Super" name)
SN was also a 16 bit system and it was Nintendo's answer to Genesis. It started out with a bunch of classic titles but with the word "Super" in front.

Super Mario World - this was not your typical Mario game. They changed the layout to a huge world that you walked around. The world consisted of lots and lots of areas (like classic mario areas) that you needed to complete before you could move on. This game also consisted of a couple new marios. Frog and Racoon. This Mario game was, in every way, 1000x better than it's predecessors.
Zelda: A Link to the Past - If you thought the first Zelda was great, then you would fall off your chair at how awesome this game was. It had the same gameplay stayle as the first one. Good thing too, cause Zelda II for nintendo was not the greatest game. This is one game that I never beat. I could probably easily beat it nowadays.
Super Metroid - This game was designed just like the first one, but with better graphics, better gameplay and a much bigger world. Absolutely awesome game. I still own this and will play it again once I hook up my SNES.
Final Fantasy II (IV in Japan) - the American sequel to what will become the greatest line of RPG games. This game was much like the first one in design, but once again with better graphics, better gameplay and way more hours of playtime. You acually went to the moon later on in the game. Very cool.
Ogre Battle - of all the people to introduce this game to me, it came by the name of Chris Held (a crazy football player that talked about doing steroids all the time). This was a move based game much like Shining Force II. Lots of fun, but another game that I never finished due to the fact that I never owned it and only borrowed it. I do have to ROM for it though.
Dungeon Master - I'm having a hard time remembering specifics about this game, but I remember it being very addictive. This was a RPG of sorts.

Final Fantasy III (VI in Japan) - this game gets it's own little paragraph. Hand's down the greatest game I have ever played. It is even better than FFXI. I can't even tell you how many times I have played this game from start to finish and the countless number of times I started and never finished. A friend of mine in college gave me the soundtrack to this game and even the soundtrack is awesome. This was a revolutionary RPG much like Phantasy Star III was.
You had lots of characters to move in and out of your party and at times in the game, you controlled multiple parties at once. Each Character was customizeable in some ways.
I have this game for SNES, Emulation and the re-mastered copy for PS/PS2. Sabin kicked ass and took names. I think I will listen to the soundtrack now.

Nintendo 64
iirc, the first 64 bit system and it had a completely new controller with many more buttons.
A lot of the begining game titles had 64 after the name. I never owned this system until I met Larson, but I played it a lot in college with Bliska and Halden. I only ever played 2 games on the system that were good enough to put on this list.

Super Mario 64 - excellent, excellent game. It was completly different than any previous Mario game. I bought this once I met Larson, but she lost the game on me, so now I'm sad.
Mario Cart 64 - many hours were spent playing this game late night in college. Toadstool was my favorite character to use.

Playstation
This system was CD based and external memory card based. Another system that I did not own, but I almost always had one that I was borrowing.
First and Foremost:

Final Fantasy VII - I bought this game before I ever borrowed a playstation and it's a good thing I did, because the game is one of the best FF titles ever made. It had a lot of content and a great soundtrack. This is one of the FF's that I have never finished. I have a saved game that I will get back to someday soon.
Twisted Metal I + II - Another game that we spent many an hour playing in college. You basically pick your vehicle of choice, which is decked out in various weapons and you go and try to blow up the other players. Good stuff. Dr.Grimm was my guy of choice.
Final Fantasy VIII - I actually first bought this for the PC, but then bought it for Playstation.
Yet another great FF game and another great soundtrack.
Final Fantasy IX - another great title. This one went back to more of a classic style FF game, but with hints of the newer styles. I need to rebuy this game because disc 3 is scrathed.
Final Fantasy Tactics - I still have not bouoght this game, but I have to add it because everyone that has played this game has loved it. At least the people I've talked to.

I think I will stop there. My next video game blog will consost of current systems. PS2, Gamecube and PC.

Well I'm starving. It's almost lunch time, but each minute that passes takes longer than the previous minute. I looked for jobs again today and there is one out there that looks great from a description standpoint and it is with the same parent company I work for now, but it's another contract job for a government agency, so no thanks.

The main problem I have working for the government is my pathetic IT budget. How am I supposed to do my job with 9K per YEAR? Yes I said year. I don't have money to test out new technology or new software, I don't have money to replace old equipment. It's just really annoying. On top of that, HQ constantly takes away responsibility from us out in the field, so I have less and less stuff to do on a regular basis.

I think the best solution for me is to get laid off. I can still make some money while I search for a new job. But what kind of job do I really want? I'm losing interest in IT due to my current job, but what else can I do without having to go back to college (which I can't afford).

I've thought about Bartending school. Boston Bartending School is right in Wethersfield and only costs $500 and you can have your certification in 2 weeks. The main problem I have with bartending would be my schedule. I'd have to work weekends and at least a couple nights during the week. This would leave me time to watch Colby during the day, but it would cut into the time where I hang out with Larson. Another concern I have is the amount of money I could make. I know some places have a high potential, but what if I get a job at a place that doesn't quite have a huge potential. Can we get by with a reduced income from me?

I don't quite know, but I do know that I need to get out of my current job before I get too stupid in the IT field. I'll probably go with another network technician job for a private company with a good budget and maybe my IT side will get revitalized. I guess another option is to get a part time job doing IT and then bartend on the side.

Well we'll see. I'm heading out to lunch.