Wrapping up!

Haven't posted in a while; so. 

The wedding went off without a hitch. It was one of those things where I can't really look back and say "man, I wish I would've..."; everything really went extremely well. The only thing I'd change would be to make it all not go by so fast... if you go to a wedding, it's 3 hours that seem like 3 days. If you're part of the wedding part, it's 3 hours that seem like.... 3 hours. If your the Groom (and bride, so I hear)... 3 hours seems like about 25 minutes. It was really awesome. Marriage is awesome too... and it really does change whenever you go from engaged to Married. Which I think is kind of odd, because aside from a certificate, Jillian and I were already doing all the "married" things anyways; but my thought process did change... In a good way. There's definitely a greater sense of devotion there; don't get me wrong, it was there before... but the feeling is different. I really don't know how to describe it in words really, but it's just awesome. Being married to Jill makes me a better man, and whole.

Chateu Elan was extremely nice.... props to the people who put on the great show there. Nice Suite, nice spa, nice golf course, nice ambiance and restraunts. If you haven't been there, go... Try the wine, just... not 2 bottles of it in one night. 

Work has been improving... we're on the backside of the budget year, on the backside of some major projects and generally (for some reason) November - Mid January tends to be a slow time for us. Maybe the cold weather causes people brains to slow down, so they think about what they're doing and don't mess up... or, maybe they just don't do as much work. Either way, it's spectacular... and don't take that as me complaining about my day-to-day. Tech Services is very much like firefighters... we don't get invited to the party until it's a 3-alarm issue; we're always knee-jerk, constantly responsive. Whenever it slows down is whenever you get to be **proactive**... This is usually whenever I write my best code; maybe its just the weather tho, <3>

School... school sucks like normal. I had a test tonight... that was a disaster. My Group consist of 7 other guys, 6 of which I don't think have real jobs and they're sophmores and are more concerned with chasing tail in the class than working... so me and one other guy are doing all the work. I really don't care tho, I just want to pass and be done with School. 

Church... Church is awesome. Between Jill and Church (and.. come on... WAR too, WAAAAAAAAAAAGH!) I don't see how I could really feel "down". I *love* being involved with church, it really enriches my life daily. Whether it's the spiritual changes, life changes, the sense of connection to a community, a deep motivation to try and be a better person... whatever it is, it makes getting up and going about your business ever day a wonderful experience. Every morning now for a couple of months, I've been having my daily "devotional" in the shower (it's warm ;) ) before work, and it makes a world of difference.... Jill has noticed a difference, friends have noticed a difference, family and coworkers.. how could it not be contagious? I've very very protective of my personal time; lets face it, with everyday stuff, work, school, house chores... I don't have a lot of spare/free time... but on sunday's, there's really no place I'd rather be than with Jill at Church on Sunday morning(attending service or Teaching Sunday School) and at Newly Weds, our small group, on Sunday nights. Teaching sunday school is awesome, and its really cool to see kids looking up to you as a mentor (spiritually and socially)... theres one kid, Jordan, who always sits at my table and can't wait to tell me how his week was, what his baseball team did, ask if I'm still married (he still thinks girls have cooties..); and Its really awesome to just sit down, have a conversation with him, and try and teach him and the rest of the class some stuff while they're there, along with having a good time.  I'd love to go to ECHO every week if I could, but Jill has class on Thursday nights (I've got it in the afternooon)... and I wouldn't want to go without her. Maybe next semester tho. Oh, ECHO is the group that meets for college-aged people...it'd be another small group (or big.. really really big) in addition to N-Weds. 

WAR - War is going good too. Still love the game, very adicted to the PVP. We're all lvl 21-22 right now, so we've hit the roadblock that is T3.... and I'm loosing a lot of motivation at this point, but for a very good WAAAAAGH reason.  The Blackguard is being introduced in december... the mirror of the PREMIER tank of MMO's; the Ironbreaker. This is like, the most awesome tank ever... with a healthy mix of CC, Damage and Absorbtion.. the IB is one of the most feared classes in the game. I originally wanted to play the Blackguard, but they were cut due to design reasons just prior to launch. So its very hard for me to want to play the Chosen (which needs some healthy-love btw... damage is really terrible, and Aura's really are kind of pointless) whenever I know that I'll 100000% be rerolling an alt in 1 month... we've been messing around with Order for a week or so, which has been a nice change. I think I'm going to start writing UI mods... in my spare time ;)

Anyways... so that sums up, in way toooo few words, the past like 2 weeks. Stay tuned for more breaking news! hehe. 

EDIT: for anyone interested in looking into our Church:  http://northmetro.org/  and on the front banner, that crazy little kid on the left is Jordan! 

Gearing up

Yeah, so, 11 days to the wedding.. thats some crazy stuff. Whenever I proposed over a year ago, we all thought it was so far away. I mean, an october wedding with an August proposal.. it seemed like that'd never come. But it's like... I blinked, then it was february, next blink, July, next blink today. Were starting to quadruple check everything; making sure we've got the rings, that the hotel stuff is arranged, all the tuxes are done, the dress is fitted.... its exciting!

It's really weird, and almost sureal, to take a look at what all has exactly happened over the past year, let alone the past like... three. I mean, in just the past year (and like, 3 months)... I've gotten engaged, I've shopped for and bought a house, I've found a church, I've taken my personal faith and did a complete 180, Not only have I found a church but I've also started to become intimately involved with it, I've helped plan a wedding,  I've gotten roughly 2 promotions, I've seen my best friend move out of state, I've seen two tiny editions to my family, I've been involved with State-wide Credit Union IT projects... and I'm sure there's items I'm leaving out. It's been a crazy year... with some massive low points, and some unbelivable highs; but it certainly has been an amazing year. I guess whenever something big like this happens (I mean, I guess a marriage is a big thing, right? ;P  ) you like step back and see how it all transpired... but still.

I was just thinking about all of this while we went out to eat with Carlton and Trisha last night... which was a really great time. We got there at like 6:45 and ended up leaving about 10ish, it was really really nice to see them, instead of talking over a Mic ;P I hope that they eventually do move back to GA, cause it's cool to randomly be able to go out with them and catch up with'em. There was a buncha talk over the economy, racism, WAR and da' WAAAAAAGH, moving, AZ vs. GA, Jodi & Jason, the Wedding, work, T2K.... it was a really fun time. 

New branch opens in 9 minutes (finishing this post at 8:51)... here goes nothin!

14 Days Straight

So yeah, we're opening a new branch. 

That means crunch time for Tech Services.... there's so much involved in a new branch that most people (even people at the CU) don't even think about or know about. There's ATM's... which have to have dedicated tie-lines, support and specific programming. There's PC's, which have to be loaded from scratch with about 16 different applications and have to have a horde of settings changed, there's printers which have to be deployed. There's the T1 and the MPLS Frame which have to be ordered and scheduled..

Once you get all this stuff arranged; then you've gotta _depoly_ it all.. which means you've gotta drive there... pull cable under desks, behind teller lines, under carpet. Set all these PC's out, run thru all the Apps and make sure they work. Set the printers out and make sure they work and they print to the right trays... not to mention all the Symitar-side stuff that you have to do; with Adding the instituion, modifying reports, creating GL's, creating consoles and printers and their queues. 

So basically; opening a branch is a MASSIVE undertaking that should be appropriately planned; with not only branch people, HR and the employees going there being intimately involved... but Tech Services too. We got basically a weeks notice on the final date... we found out the final date the same time the membership did. But in *true* CU tech services fashion... we came thru in a clinch. Despite having a TON of system issues this week (omg was up at 1am every night babysitting the host).. we made it all happen. Tech Services was at the branch for 10 hours Saturday **&** Sunday making sure the branch is ready to roll... we'll tie up loose ends on Monday, and be at the ready for Tuesday whenever everyone starts using all the systems for real. Then if something goes wrong, we'll be the first ones to hear it from every side. 

Tech Services; such is the life... whenever we do our job best, is whenever no one knows were there. Cause we're there... making sure your Home Banking is up at 3am in the morning; Making sure your deposits actually DO post at the right time, making sure every time you log into your computer, that your email comes up, Office works and all your files are there... People don't think about that every time they sit in front of their office / home computer, or log into their email account or home banking.. whenever it's broke tho, everyone knows right where to point the finger. 

Don't take this as a rant on Tech Services or about how people suck and are thankless; this is just the way it is... it's just someone from a Tech Services perspective explaining it. It may be different in various organizations too.. thats just kinda how it is here. Tech Services is a pretty thankless job...but whenever we do good; we know it. And we take pride in the fact that really, most of the time... our stuff works like it's supposed to. 

(oh; the 14-straight is the number of days we're having to work to make this happen... from last monday straight thru for two weeks.)

One last, sad realization

Talked to Carlton yesterday.. .

With WAR out now; we'll (more than likely) never play our Original Duo ever again. I'll never log onto the armsman and be like "wtf did I level him for". 

In all reality, I hadn't logged him in but like 4 times the last year I played DAoC... but still. 

Myrddral has what... I think 58 days /played. It might be closer to 70 tho. He's like, RR 3L9? My rank 20 chosen has more realm points than my 6 year old Armsman does. 

But still its kinda sad. A lot of time and investment was dumped into him; and I met a lot of really cool people through him (and a lot of people, either in chat, guild, alliance or vent kenw me as 'myrd') over 6 years...People from Africa, a bunch of damn Canadians, some Atlantians, fought some Cartersvillians (heh)... and did some pretty crazy stuff with him (I was high-dex, MoB3+ before it was cool).

I may see if I can get any RAW footage from FRAPS with him and Darminthas (Carlton's over 100 day's played Scout... and the other half of our original duo) and just toss something together. It may have to be all screenshots tho, because FRAPs wasn't around in 2002 =).. I think I've got about 1400 Screenshots total from Dark Age..a bunch of them 2002-2004 when I played Myrd the most. 

lol Darkmoore raids (pre-dragon), Running between keeps in OF chasing Svendap &... whats-his-face.  Getting jumped at Alb-MG in emain by like, 9 archers... and had like 31 blocks in a row (still died.. poor gimp thing)... anyways...

Good Times. 

2 Week hiatus

So yeah, CJ and TJ won't be on for like two weeks... which kinda sucks; but it's still OK cause me and Jill have got a lot to do in order to gear up for the wedding. Still though, I'll miss playing in a foursome... once you have a pocket healer or two that can cover your mistakes; PUG healing really isn't what its cracked up to be. 

Think me and Jill are rolling Witch Hunter / Witch Hunter... to keep us busy during any 'off' time or whatever you wanna call it. It's not the most ideal duo by any means; because you've got zero healing and zero buffing.... but, by God, whatever target we latch on to is going down before we do. After that tho; we're kind of at the mercy of our PUG healer; which if we're in Nordenwatch is most likely going to be a WP who is going to only heal themselves because they think either: 1) "LOLWTFOMG-RETADIN" or 2) "WTFHEALMYSELFBBQ".... those are typically the WP mentalities. 

I mean, sure the WP doesn't have the best 'keep the group up' heal mechanic, since it's not AP based.. and their Bigheal is mitigated by armor and can be blocked/parried/dodged... but still, learn to play the class. Most scenarios... you'll see a WP healing only themselves; you can be in a train, and he/she won't defensive target you to heal or buff... they're just out there to keep themselves alive as long as possible. To heck with everyone else... anyways, I'll save my "I can play your class better than you can" rant for another post. 

Another Duo I want to hit again... is the tank/melee healer combo. Me and CJ played a IB / WP the first couple days after release... simply *AMAZING* survivability with that duo. We've got a BO / DoK that's like... level 5 now; the same type of suvivability just isn't there though. BO's just don't have the same mechanic and feel as a IB (which are insane imo.. 'the' premier tank of any MMO I've played) and DoK's are geared a lot more towards offense rather than defense. I think the BO / DoK will come into their own; but I think it'll be 20/21 instead of 10/11 like the WP was (Tier 2 instead of Tier 1).  Supposedly a SM / AM is a decent combo... and I'm weird, but I don't think the SM's look that bad... the thing is tho, I always ignore them on my Chosen... so I don't want to dedicate the time to something thats gonna suck. 

Been there (pre-NF Armsman), done that, got the T-shirt.  

Normally I get really bad alt-idus.  I'll start a 'main' with Carlton... then by the time they're 50 or whatever, i've already got 2 or 3 other toons who are like, mid thirties.. and will argue that, despite being subpar, they could work in the duo... I dunno; I like options I guess. I'm not having that problem too much in WAR though; I really do love my chosen... I'm having to keep myself from playing him too much, cause I don't want to outlevel everyone. I'm already halfway thru 20, and everyone else is 18-ish... sooooo. It's cool tho, Rank 20, Realm Rank 18... it's the most involved / dedicated I've ever really been with a class... and carlton is the one with like a 13 Witch elf... lawlz ;P

I've gotta get back to work =(   New Branch opening on tuesday (holy crap Tech Services gets TWO days notice for it), Walking thru the building with an Electrician and trying to negotiate terms on a generator install today, I've got to work on the two committees stuff that I'm involved in, we've got 13 tickets open.. and I'm fresh outa creamer for my coffee. 

I'll probably post up some more WAR stuff or something today. I haven't been play testing working on theory-crafting or anything lately; just been enjoying the game!

Dinner!

So really it's nothing special... but, I really enjoyed cooking dinner last night. 

Jill had a *really* bad headache... I think it's cause its fall, and ragweed is really kicking right now, and everyone is just allergy-misserable. So I got home yesterday, did the dishes (unloaded and loaded, thank you. Even cleaned the drain thing... and I really have this thing with food in there and water... and; yeah, it's just gross) and picked up a lil. She was supposed to get home about 8pm, so I started getting the burgers ready about 7:30 (scenario'd it up before, w00t). Cause I'd gone grocery shopping this past saturday, I'd bought some really good meat to cook so I was kinda excited ;P

Mixed everything with the meat (little salt, pepper, touch of beer (lol), worchestishire (wtf hate spelling), onion powder and a little hot sauce) then started preheating the oven. Jill ended up getting home a little early, so I was still getting everything ready.. but thats all good. But it was such a NICE night last night... it was like the perfect weather. 68 outside, a little breezy and no clouds... So, even if I don't have the biggest backyard in the world; it was just a really nice moment to be outside, cooking burgers, sipping a beer looking out at my backyard at my house. There may just be three trees in the backyard, it may be unlandscaped and need cutting; but it's the best damn backyard ever! ....It's just really cool to see how things have turned out, and then whats ahead... it was like one of those crazy Zen moments or whatever. It was really nice. 

So the burgers finished, the tater-tots (w00t) got done.. finnally. Then Jill and I sat down and ate everything while watching this past weeks episode of the office.... it was just a really great night.