FuzzyTummyRumblings

There is now a "Fuck That Guy" list.
Dude #1 some dickweed piece of shit was in the bathroom at the urinal. Wang in his right hand, cell phone in his left, sending a text message WHILE PISSING. What. The. Fuck.

I Need to replace my theme but I'm done waiting.
I'm adding a few new fun things here. Some re-curring themes and an adult content warning. No... No pr0n but plenty of foul language and divisive, political/religious/racial stuff. I'm going to offend people here. Maybe you.
Get over it.

So- without further hesitation: A game review and an angry rant about Ford.

I've been playing Warhammer 40k Dawn of War (DoW) lately. I'm almost done with my first campaign and I have to say I'm fairly impressed. There seems to be enough of a table game feel that you know it's not a linear system like most campaigns. You get to choose where to do the next move, etc. The coolest thing is that there is actual strategy. Let me explain:
Most strategy games would be more aptly labeled as tactics games. Tactics win a battle while strategy wins a war. In most RTS games, you are a tactical commander but the game is fairly (or completely) linear and thus real strategy isn't part of it. In DoW, you get to pick which battles to fight and where. You can choose to invest your forces in a fight for a territory that will give you X bonus or Y bonus. You can choose to fight anywhere that makes sense to you from a truly strategic standpoint.
The other standout feature is that it has a MUCH lower unit limit than most RTS games. You get unit cap and vehicle cap of about 20 each but some units are as high as 5 cap each. Again, this stems from the table game origin. Nobody wants to deal with moving 700 little plastic dudes. The coolest part is that one or two units can literally change the entire tide of a fight. Balance is important because of this aspect. In most games, a simple infantry unit can win a war just by having hundreds of them. Zerg rush anybody? But having a full group of a single unit can be a horrible waste of resources in DoW if they get wiped out by a couple units designed to counter them and because you can only have so few units, the balance of offense and defense becomes incredibly delicate.
Cliffs: This game is great, the graphics, gameplay and sound are top notch but it won't appeal to everybody. It's MUCH more difficult than most games in its class but I'd recommend it.

Now- onto my bitching about Ford.
Ford put out a Press Release today. Whoops!
Cliffs of the press release: We won't be turning a profit this year either. If things go well we'll be breaking even next year. Reason?
"North American car production increased and truck production reduced for remainder of 2008 to reflect the continuation of rapid changes in customer buying preferences."
see that? Rapid Changes. Now, in some industries, four to six years could be seen as rapid. In an industry where a model's design life is... 4-6 years, that's not really the case. Nuclear Power? Four years is an eyeblink. Computers? It's three generations. With cars, it doesn't really classify as rapid.
When I was a car salesman in Denver, the local Chevy and Ford dealerships had to rent out vacant parking lots to house the SUVs and trucks they couldn't get off their lot. This was in 2004. Four years ago the trend was dieing. Two years ago it was in a "rapid decline." Smart car companies adapted to that. Toyota put out hybrid versions of their vehicles and started revamping their sedans. Honda put out smaller SUVs and more cars. Hyundai spent millions on totally redesigning their line of sedans. Toyota launched Scion- which ONLY makes small cars... Chevy made a new suburban. Ford made a new Expedition...
Hello! McFly!

Seriously. no fucking sympathy. My sympathy goes to anybody who bought stock in Ford. And then only if you bought it at least 5 years ago. As soon as they started giving away cars, you shoulda known something was up.

It's coming, bitches! I'm working on new graphics, finding a layout I enjoy, and creating an FTR with two totally unrelated purposes!

1- I need to write more. Writing is my passion. It's who I am at heart. I haven't written enough lately to matter so I need to fix that. As my father says, it's an art and a craft. a skill and a talent. I need to hone that skill through exercising the talent I have.

2- Eve! Yes! Eve-online! It's my biggest time waster. It's a game I've grown to love and understand pretty well. So as I am no longer a total n00b, I'm going to espouse the adventures of my characters in the game.

Details? Sure! I can do details.

1- I've started writing half a dozen novels and not one has come to fruition. I've been a fan of Frank Herbert, Orson Scott Card, Max Barry, Wil Wheaton, my brother, my wife, and a great deal of other authors. I aspire to make a living off my writing some day and to this end, I need to actually put in the work. Here I will post samples, copyrighted chapters, and ramblings in addition to the poetry and short stories that are already posted.

2- I have two characters in Eve. Most of what I do will revolve around my main- Yamichi Wiggin. I've made it no secret that my alt is Julio Danglsak. I don't do the whole espionage thing so I have no interest in keeping these guys separate. Yams is a Caldari all-around guy. My goal is for him to fly ALL T1 and T2 sub-caps in the caldari fleet (then probably move on to Amarr ships). he also rocks it in a Hulk. Julio was born about 6 months after Yams. The original plan was for him to be an industrial nerd. To that end, he has a rigged out Iteron V and perfect production. But then I got bored and while he can fly a hulk, his mining skills are iffy. I'm pushing him towards PvP and gang leadership. The goal right now is for him to rock out an Astarte and whoop some small gang ass. So yeah. Have fun! More to come later :-)

So there are a lot of you out there who don't play computer games. In a few short weeks, this site will no longer interest you. All my "normal" stuff is going to be on Geoff and Carley from now on. If you want to read about how my life is going, what I'm doing at work, what positions Carley and I are trying... go there.

If you want to read about my fancy new stealth bomber or my up and coming mining barge, come here. For now- www.eve-online.com is the teaser. It's the single coolest MMORPG ever invented. This coming from the guy who couldn't stand WoW and doesn't even have an interest in most of the games in this vein. Tom- you'll love it. Andrew- Get it. Let me know if you want a free two week trial.

There is no update.  Now that I'm not coaching or teaching, life is kinda boring.  I've been working out a lot more and I've lost 7 or 8 pounds.  I told my trainer (free perk with my job.  woot woot woot) that I wanted to be at 225 by the wedding with "less belly and more chest" and he said "No problem."  Since then I have had exactly 3 days where my abs and chest haven't been sore.  RAWR!  FEAR ME, JORDAN.  ZOMG!

I really miss coaching/teaching.  I'm not sure which one I miss more.  MasterDrive was possibly the most rewarding job I've ever had.  I got to teach, I got to drive, I got to have fun, and I got to teach people things they needed and wanted to know.  I felt like I was doing something worth doing and I had an awesome time doing it.  Someday, maybe I'll start a franchise up here.  Or a driving range... I still like that idea.  Like a country club but without the ubersuck that is golf.  A large open area with some flats and some hills, build a nice long course with space for 15-20 cars at a time.  Charge an annual membership, admission to races, whatever makes it a solvent business.  I've got plans.

I just have nothing  worth saying right now :-)  Deal.