The Screaming Viking

Life takes some interesting turns sometimes….

I got laid off last week, thursday to be exact. I’ve never been without a job before so this is a pretty new experience. Well, I take that back…some of the hours I was working at Sykes I could have just as well been unemployed. I’ve never had to wonder about a source of income though. When I moved to fargo I didn’t technically have a job but before I came down I was pretty damn sure I’d get the spot at SEI. With sara and the monster around I don’t really want to go back there, to make the max possible you have to work the grave yard shift for shift differential. That would really suck trying to do again. Don’t get me wrong, if that’s what needs to be done then that’s what needs to be done….I just don’t wanna do it.

Anyhow, I got canned out of the fucking blue. No notice, no two weeks to find a new job…no nothing, just stone cold fired. I can’t imagine the mentality it take to do that to someone or to a group of people. Someone in management knows it’s coming, watching the financials you have to be well aware that it’s coming. How remiss is it to not warn the employees? Infact we were told here not a couple of months ago that the company was in the best finanacial position they have ever been in…then I get canned? Talk about blind siding. From a purely business stand point, I understand where a layoff might be necessary….from a human stand point though I can’t imagine going about it without a couple of weeks notice. I’ve been on a couple of interviews when I was there and I always said “they’ve been good to me, I have to give them two weeks atleast”. Such loyalty was paid back fully it seems.

I’ve gone through and filled out the unemployment stuff I need to fill out. My problem is the uncertainty that comes with that as well. I have no idea if I will qualify. I was -told- point blank by the woman that canned me “sales are slow, we have to let you go.” She didn’t say I sucked….I asked the lady I work with closely if it was a performance issue and she stated that she was told the same thing “sales are slow.” I would think that if I’m canned through no fault of my own….I should get unemployment. I asked for a letter stating that I was laid off, it’s hard to say if I’ll get that or not though. It’s more for potential employers to see though then for any unemployment. I want someone to be able to see that I was laid off instead of my performance sucking ass.

I want whomever is responsible for blindsiding me with this to suffer the same uncertainty that I now face. If there is any justice the company will go up in flames and that individual will suffer greatly. As I said before, I’m not pissed about the lay off so much as I am not receiving sufficient notice to find another job. It’s kind of the shitter though, the few people there I talked with on a daily basis are decent folks. Oh well, time to find another place I guess.

I’ve got an interview on Monday with a bank. It’s work in any case. We’ll have to see how this one plays out, it’s not the most stressful thing I’ve delt with in the past couple of years, but it’s definitly the most immediate problem that’s had to be fixed.

- decided to go with the category approach to seperating the weblogs.
- new entries will all be on the main page, historical entries can be seen by clicking the categories on the right.

- added gothotmail plugin to squirrel, retrieve mail from hotmail accounts to squirrelmail
- increases folder load time to when enabled, went from 2 seconds to 10 seconds on tests

“Hi, my name is kody…and I’m an addict”

They are currently running a week of “the best of lex and terry” on Q98 here, and one of the calls they replayed was a wife calling in about her husband’s video game addiction. He was playing Final Fantasy Online, every waking moment he wasn’t at work he spent in front of that game….she said sometimes till two in the morning. He get’s up and goes to work every day, then comes home and plays video games. The lady was asking if there was such a thing as a “video game addiction”. People by nature are addicted to anything they find pleasurable, from picking the lint out of our belly buttons to hardcore drug addictions people are naturally addicted to anything that brings them pleasure. There is nothing inherently wrong with addiction itself, but when the addiction takes over your life and becomes your only focus…then it’s an issue. It really doesn’t matter what the source of the addiction is, when it rules your life it becomes a severe problem.

I was addicted to EQ pretty hard core for several years. I’d cut work, blow off friends and family just to get the video game fix. It sounds pretty lame, but never the less the problem was there. I still remember times in that game that were just a blast, sometimes I still desire that kind of fun…but it comes from a place and time we can’t go back to. I don’t really want to break my arm patting myself on the back here….but I was good, real good. Of the guys I knew IRL, there were a few that were tops as well….not all of them, but a few that really understood what was going on and that being good at the game was more then just pressing a button. You had to master the in-game “physics”, understand how the coded environment could be used to your advantage, understand your character inside and out…beyond the “button mashing”, know the guy(s) you were playing with, think outside the box, and most importantly…never ever never ever never panic…ever. If I had a quarter for every time someone looked at what we were doing and had to ask “why”…it would have more then paid for my subscription. Howjan tanks, pulls, heals. At the pinnacle of the “fun” era of that game, there was absolutely nothing we wouldn’t try and almost nothing we couldn’t do. At the end, all of the fun stuff was too easy and the challenging stuff wasn’t fun…the game design took a shit; dev stopped listening to the testers and started listening to the masses. The decline of EQ definitely proves that the masses will not be happy getting what they ask for.

What brought all this on you ask? Well, I got a hold of NCAA Football 2k7 last nite. For the last few years, there really hasn’t been a game that grabs a hold of me. I liked Ninja Gaiden a lot, played it a bit but it didn’t just suck me in. I liked Burnout, but again…just didn’t suck me in for days on end. This football game for whatever reason is kinda sucking me in. The hits “feel” hard, the game play is really simple to pick up and get going but there are a lot of options to continually try to master. The playbooks are freekin huge, you’ll have to take time outside of the game to look them over. The action is fast paced, the commentary actually doesn’t suck. Overall I think it’s a pretty well put together football game. I’m not sure if it was an option in other football games, but after you throw the pass….you can take control of the receiver and try to time the catch, make a diving catch…whatever. There are options you can run, hit (blah) to hand off to the 1/2 back, hit (blah) to pitch the ball, or keep the ball…fake an option and hit (blah) to bring up your receivers….all kinds of shit, hell you can fake the pitch from the QB to the Tail to try and suck a defender over.

It’s a fun fun game, and I recommend picking it up, conditionally. I don’t think it’s necessary to pick up a new football game every year, so if you have 2k6…it’s probably not entirely necessary to pick up 2k7.