SkywardShadow

I was laid off yesterday. I'm filing for unemployment for the first time in my life. I thought my tech-support position was pretty secure, when suddenly two of our three largest clients left North America.

Back to eBay. My PSP and DS collection is available here. Again, seller name is "SkywardShadow" if the link doesn't work for you. These auctions expire tomorrow evening. (I meant to blog about them before today.)

A few games have already gone for their "buy-it-now" price. I plan to list more games tomorrow evening. I have my thorough PSX RPG collection ready to go... but I'm having a hard time parting with them.

Finally, Panzer Dragoon Saga and a bunch of other stuff is now available here. Again, seller name is "SkywardShadow" if the link doesn't work.

Started bidding low on PDS, but I fully expect it to get close to the $200 point.

If these go as well as my previous auctions, I'll be able to start catching up on debt. :)

I'm selling some of my game collection to help make money for rent.

I've started with a few Sega CD RPGs and Dragon Force for the Saturn. You can view my items here.

If the link stops working, my seller name is "skywardshadow".

These particular items end today, but I plan to sell my Saturn, N64, PSX and other RPG games that I simply never play anymore.

If you have a request for a rare game, let me know! I had a rather thorough RPG/Strategy collection for the above systems.

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated Final Fantasy XII or other games in the PlayStation 2 > Role-Playing category have also purchased Barbie Horse AdventuresTM: Riding Camp. For this reason, you might like to know that Barbie Horse AdventuresTM: Riding Camp will be released on October 21, 2008. You can pre-order yours by following the link below.

I haven't been online much since moving, and specifically avoided LJ due to the extreme backlog I knew was present. Today I sat down and found out that over half of it was lost - my friends list only goes back about halfway since I last checked. This prompted me to clean up my friends list, move RSS feeds to my google reader, and eliminate some people that I skipped over anyways.

Move went well, though it took Comcast a few trips to get everything working properly.

GenCon was incredibly awesome, though I spent far too much of my money. Monsterpocalypse was the game of the show, in my opinion, and I'll blog more about that later. FFG is now pushing LCGs instead of CCGS, and I greatly support their effort. Fun card games that everyone can actually afford to keep up with! FFG also has some awesome new miniature gaming lines, that are far easier on the wallet that the old Warhammer and Battletech miniature staples. I made a point to bring Mary home a unique gift each day, since she wasn't able to go (for those in the know).

I saw many friends, but didn't spend much time with them. I'll have to make special dinner/gaming plans with friends next year, as this is my only good chance to see some of these people each year.

Dragon Age was shown, and looks outstanding.

Once I feel adequately organized around here, I'm going to start hosting some boardgame Saturdays, especially since I work evenings and can't make our local monday night gaming.

I'm starting to ramble... so later!

Based on the quick but informative feedback given thus far, and some Google research:

Step one will be to purchase one of those tall tree-house posts for him to scratch and climb. I'm also going to get a leash to take him outside into the backyard, and let him have fun occasionally.

Step two is to use squirt guns to deter his bad behavior, from a distance, so he equates the punishment with the crime rather than with me.

Step three will will be laser declaw surgery, if and only if there are bad incidents with the claws. He should never be around the 1 year old without supervision anyways. Any thoughts of making him an outdoor kitty are abandoned.

I love my kitty. I took him in from the street a few years ago, got rid of his buggies, and had him fixed. He's always been wild, and violently attacked me twice not long after getting him. (I've never bled so much.) He's calmed down a lot since then, hasn't attacked anyone, and now curls up in my lap or next to me in bed for his naps. He still has problems getting along with other animals though, and sometimes he seems to get angry enough to attack someone again, but I'm able to calm him.

The main thing he does, that I would like to stop, is that he will get on a shelf, ANY shelf, and push everything off of it onto the floor. It's actually pretty cute, until things break, or I step on a sharp object. He treats the shelves as his trees, and insists on clearing off the space as his own. I've been unable to break him of this over the years, and have simply packed up all my figurines, oriental eggs, etc. I have at times used VERY high shelves, but they have to be so high that's it's inconvenient for me to use them.

He also occasionally scratches the furniture, but I have been fighting this with catnip on his scratching post, and a water bottle when I notice him scratching something he shouldn't. It's still hard to keep nice things out, though.

Finally, he vomits a lot (it seems to be mostly hair, mixed with whatever), but I don't get mad at this, as it's generally quick and easy to clean up. He has always used his litter box without fail, as well.

The shelf problem has to stop. We're moving in July, into a bigger home, and I'm determined to stop letting his actions dictate how I live. I see few options.

1) Try declawing him. For obvious reasons, I'm not comfortable with this, but it would ensure he doesn't tear up the new chairs and gaming table I'm setting up, and maybe he would stop being destructive in other ways as well. Also, he's going to be around a 1-year old child now, and he still has problems clawing people, often on accident.

2) Make him an outdoor kitty. He always wants out (as demonstrated by my destroyed mini-blinds), so I could give him what he wishes. We're going to have an incredibly large backyard, with an 8-foot privacy fence. I could keep food and water available for him. We'll be living in a cul-de-sac, so traffic will be minimal. I would still, however, be constantly worried about him.

He's standing on my computer tower right now. Looming over me like a gargoyle.

Robert Jordan was a hack.

Robert Asprin was a genius.

It's good to see all the Obama love on my friend's page today. Too many friends here in Indiana are posting to make individual comments on them all, but NPR's assertions that educated people are voting for Obama while the uneducated are voting for Hillary seems to ring true, from my perception. Not that there aren't exceptions.

Online mode is a blast so far!

If you get beaten by a Bowser named Starburst, it was me.

Edit: Separate friend codes! Ugh... 1161-0128-5371

Hilarious Pokemon version of the election.

1) New job. I've been working tech-support, and I've already been guaranteed a tier-3 position as soon as I hit 90 days. I've really found a good fit with this, in comparison to any other job that I've held.

2) New old girlfriend. My very first girlfriend whom I hadn't spoken with in 10 years, found me on Myspace. We've both grown up a lot since then, obviously, and now we're back together. She's the reason I haven't been online nearly as much.

3) Tax refund! I'm getting a decent refund, and I really need to upgrade my computer. I sat down with my best friend Dave and we scoured newegg.com, picking out parts and putting together an awesome machine for a good price. I'll probably be finalizing the order this weekend, and putting it together the weekend after. I'm going to have 3.75 TB of data storage space, set up on a raid-array, with a raptor root drive for my OS and installations. I'm going to be SLIing for the first time as well...

3) I beat Mass Effect a while back. I think it was truly incredible, and deserved all the RPG awards of the year it received. I beat Super Mario Galaxy as well, though there are still more worlds to play though. I've been dabbling in a lot of different PC strategy games since, though I'm about ready to jump into another console RPG. FFT has been a great play-on-the-go game, just taking my time and enjoying every battle.

4) Most of my socializing has been with my D&D group, playing every-other weekend. Not that you want to hear about my characters, but my summoning-tweaked druid kicks ass. I'm going to start dabbling with GMing again as well, more details on that may come later. Our group is a bit trepid regarding 4.0, but we're gonna try it out.

So I was browsing for some cool Transformers pictures to make a new background of, and this is what I settled on:


Someone posed some of the toys, and then used photoshop to add nifty effects. It looks more impressive at it's full size of 1680x1050. Let me know if you want it, at any resolution.

What I'm REALLY posting about though, is the fact that I was struck with the urge to look up "megatron optimus yaoi" and found many disturbing results on DeviantArt.

My new year's resolution is 1680 x 1050.

I graduated from ITT with an Associates of Applied Science in Computer Electronic Engineering Technology back in June. I'm currently considering returning to school for a bachelors degree. I think I'm more interested in an Information Systems Security degree, than an electronics one. If I return to ITT for this, I believe it will take 2-3 years of courses.

I'd love some opinions from my friends in the IT field, though don't let that stop anyone from commenting. What do you guys think of ITT? Do you think I'd be better off looking at other schools? Other careers/fields?

Since it may depend on what I want out of life, here is some other info that may be relevant:

-I'm passionate about games and gaming more than anything, but haven't pursued game design for various reasons, including the fact that everyone and their mom wants to design games, and I'm not interested in being a programmer.

-I'm not interested in being a programmer. It might have to due with the trauma of a poor instructor or two, but I don't enjoy working with code for long amounts of time.

-I obviously enjoy working with computers, be it related to hardware or software. Examples: Replacing parts, setting up networks, maintaining information, performing research online, and tinkering with tech stuff. I don't want to be a "field tech", or someone that does residential work, though travel is not out of the question. I would prefer an office environment.

-I have an analytical personality. I fall between INTJ and INTP.

-I've lead teams and projects in a retail environment, as well as enjoyed the leadership experience.

-I read quite a bit for pleasure, mostly fiction. I've toyed with the idea of pursuing some sort of editorial role for years, but have never researched it.

Let me know your thoughts!

I finished off Tad William's Otherland book series a couple of nights ago. It was four thick novels of epic near-future sci-fi. What mostly kept me going was how realistic of a future it portrayed. The advancement of virtual reality and our understanding of genetics are both going to change our society in big ways, but so much fiction ignores both rather heavily when depicting the future.

I enjoyed his characterizations and the plot/conspiracies certainly kept me wondering what was going to happen next, though at times he ran overly wordy. I mostly felt that way when he was describing how characters were reacting to events and information that I had figured out long ago.

Also finished is Comic Book Idol. Charles came in 2nd place with 581 votes, while the winner had 600. He's gained a lot of recognition, and some of his work from a couple of the rounds will be showing up in print. I really don't think it's going to be hard for him to fully break into the industry now. He and I both are very thankful for all of your votes, and wanted you to know that they definitely mattered.

We helped secure his victory in round 4, and now this is it: the final and most important vote for Comic Book Idol. Please visit the forum and vote Charles Paul Wilson III. This has been Charles' dream since before we were videogame-store clerks together many years ago, and we're so close to actually making it happen.

So far the final two contestants have around 200 votes each, neither pulling very far ahead of the other. The contest is just small enough that all of our votes will definitely matter. If you haven't voted yet, the registration process is simple, painless, and spamless. Voting ends Thursday November 15th at 3 PM EST.

Thank you to everyone that came to the party, as it was definitely a day to remember for me. So many of my friends came; some for the entire day, others just for a time, but you all definitely helped make it special.

I've felt sick the entire week, and the last three days have been worse, with a horrible sore throat. I went to the doctor today, and apparently I have an infection that can last 10-14 days. My throat feels horrible, and it gives me occasional headaches and body-aches. At least now I have meds.

Blah.