Crisis Management, Dave Style
Yes, yes, I know. Too long between entries, right? Well, what can I say? The one thing I probably should be writing about, I just can’t yet. It’s a constantly developing situation. Every single time I think it’s about time to make it a public thing, I get surprised and am given a slight shred of hope. So it’ll have to wait a bit longer. Suffice to say, though, that it will get written about sometime quite soon. I just fear the old jinx of writing about it, then being crucified for being wrong. If it hadn’t happened to me so many fucking times before, I wouldn’t be so skittish. But it has. And so I am. That’s all there is to it. I will admit, however, that it has become one of the root causes of this "crisis" I find myself in at the current time. How do I know it’s a crisis? Well that’s easy…
A week ago today, I started a little bit of a spending spree. This has included amounts of money dropped on all things both necessary and totally unnecessary that totals roughly $1100. Yes, you read that number correctly. It’s basically a 50/50 split on necessity. Rent and car insurance? Definitely need those two things. That was $670 of it. The rest? Well, that would be a new sword and an Xbox 360…..two things I definitely did not need. And yet, I have them anyway. I have no regrets over it (well, except for buying Perfect Dark Zero for the 360…..that game is just absolutely fucking awful). The sword I love even more than the first one I bought. But had I not gone to buy it, I would not have met my new friend Kim.
She calls it a matter of fate that we met, and I would be hard pressed to argue. Had last Thursday gone as planned, I would not have felt the want to go buy a sword, hence I would not have been at the mall, hence I would not have gone into Universal Imports, hence I would not have met Kim. So, as fucking pissed off as I got about the way the first part of that day had gone, meeting Kim made it better. Breaking all precedents, I initiated contact. Basically, she had bought about three tons worth of stuff, and since she’s like five feet tall and three pounds, there was no way she could carry it all to her car. So I offered to help her, purely out of the goodness of my heart. And yes, that was the only reason. I already knew she was married for cripe’s sake (as she’d mentioned she was buying all this stuff for her husband……who is a soldier currently in Iraq, I would find out later). So as we wandered to her car we started talking. Come to find out, this little black girl was a goth chick/tremendous nerd. And when I say nerd, I mean Nerd. She’s into anime, video games, and Magic the Gathering, okay? That’s a nerd no matter how you slice it. So we proceeded to wander around the mall and talk about nerdy things for about four hours that afternoon. Not to mention the various problems in our lives (well, that was mostly me talking, but that’s part of that larger story for another day). Since then, we’ve talked pretty much every other night. She’s hilarious and interesting, and that’s more than enough for me.
The Xbox 360 has been a mixed bag so far. I only got two games with it. The only one of those I’ve really played much is Dead or Alive 4. It’s just as good as DOA 2 and 3, which is what I all I could hope for. My only true gripe is with the final boss of the game, Alpha-512. She just straight out fucking cheats. I know it isn’t literally cheating since the things she can do are part of the programming, but to me, it’s fucking cheating. She can teleport right in the middle of your combo, appear behind you, and unleash a 10 hitter of her own that drains at least 3/4’s of your life bar. That’s just retarded. She teleports just whenever and to wherever she pleases. Her damage dealt is at least twice as much as anyone else’s. There are entire rounds where you’re lucky to even have a chance to throw a punch before she kills you in mere seconds. Utterly fucking ridiculous.
Anyway.
Of the game demos I’ve downloaded off Xbox Live and played, only Dead Rising and Saints Row seem like decent games. I know I need to play Gears of War. Other than that, I’m not sure what else there is. I’m not a huge fan of shooter games, nor of generic action games (I’m looking at you, Crackdown, Bullet Witch, and several others). I’ve already plopped some money down on reserving Blue Dragon, and I know I’ll be getting Mass Effect (BioWare rules!), but the stuff that’s out right now leaves something to be desired. I know, I know….patience, grasshopper. And I’ll have it. I just didn’t realize there was so little for the thing that would interest me in immedium.
I saw 300 today. It was very "eh." It was like a much cooler looking and more exciting version of Braveheart or Gladiator. It was better than those two movies, to me, but that doesn’t mean a ton because I’m not a ginormous fan of either of them. They’re easily two of the worst Best Picture Oscar winners ever. And I don’t mean to say 300 will follow in their footsteps. I just mean it was the same kind of movie, just with better style and flair. Same crappy acting, same stilted dialogue, same chiseled abs. Worth a watch, though, definitely.
Now Playing in Dave’s Mental Jukebox: "Breathe" by Kittie, "Epic" by Faith No More, and "Whiskey in the Jar" by Metallica
Work is still kind of a daily struggle. Somedays I love it, somedays I loathe it. And I never know which it’s going to be when I wake up in the morning. I know I’m not doing it the way my superiors would like because I don’t pitch products on every single phone call. God forbid I just do for people what they ask of me. And nevermind that it’s a horrible idea to try and pitch adding Digital Voice phone service to someone who is calling it to bitch about their bill being too high already. That doesn’t matter to these people. There are times when I have flashbacks to the Dell days……and that’s never, ever, ever a good thing. Worst time of my life, for the most part. But I’m trying to stick with this….if for no other reason than the money right now. At least until I can find something else.
And, finally, to further update the Dave’s Ridiculous Weight Loss tally……..
Today’s weight is 181 pounds. I’ve been hovering right around it for days now. It brings the total loss of poundage up to 54 pounds. Impressive? I guess. At least it would be if I was trying to lose it. But I never was. I know why it’s been happening, but, again, it all goes back to the very long story I’ll tell someday.
And with that, I go. I must consume some chocolate and Kool-Aid now.
Sayonara.