Am I exhausted or what?! Every time I seem to complete a task, it seems like I need to spend just as much time updating that task to keep it current. To top it off, I was working every day since Wednesday from morning till the evening. Even on Thanksgiving. I only have four class sessions left, and I have to do a 15 page research paper and a 15 page journal. Every day that I plan to use for my school work, I end up having to go to work. Definately not fun.

I managed to sucessfully convert the Wanderhomies website from PHP-Nuke to Invision Power Board with MK Portal. People seem to be liking the new site so far, only one or two people don’t. My only issue now is that IPB doesn’t have as large of a hacking community as PHP-Nuke, so mods and skins are limited.

On top of working, trying to do my school work, and slowly upgrading my websites, I’ve been trying to plan out some personal perks for myself. My main focus has been researching on my Christmas present to myself. I’ve saved up the money, and now I just need to find the right stuff. What I want to get is a new sound system for my car and an iPod to go with it. In the past week I’ve created about 5 CDs with random songs that have ended up as coasters. Hooking up an iPod to my car would be so much more convenient, clean, and money-saving. My cousin is a car audio guru, and he’s helping me out. I don’t have a fancy car, just a 2004 Honda Civic LX. Not fast, but I love it. Very durable and very convenient. Plus, it has awesome MPG. Anyway, it has four speakers total, all 6.5 inches. The bulk of my cash will go into the speakers. Speakers are the most important part of your car audio system. I’m gonna be heading to ABT Electronics today to test out all their speakers and see which ones sound the best. Get some killer speakers, throw in a basic 75×4 head unit with an iPod connector, put in a decent subwoofer and an amp, and I’ve got myself a system that will last a lifetime and sound amazing. We’ll see, might end up going with MB Quart for speakers, cause so far those are the best I’ve heard. Luckily, a friend of mine works at ABT, so he can cut me a deal on prices and installation. Regardless, I’ll be spending about $2000 on this project.

My second leasiure activity has been finding a new game. I’m done with SWG as if I’m done with a bad girlfriend. And I don’t even have to pay for child support. My WoW free trial ended. And I won’t be purchasing the full copy. World of Warcraft simply did not capture me. To me, it seemed like 95% of the content was an exact copy of Everquest 2. I got bored with EQ2 very quickly, and WoW seemed to parallel that. I just hope LotRO doesn’t parallel WoW and EQ2 contentwise. My friend Katherine sent me a 14 day trial to Eve Online. Being a SWG refugee herself, she just started Eve and is loving it. I must say that in the two days I’ve played it, I’m impressed at the content, graphics, and depth of the game. It has a little too much depth though. By the end of the tutorial, I was suffering from information overload. But I was assured by other community members that it would take a good two weeks of continuous play to get used to the interface and game. People who have been playing for two years say that they still learn new things. The craziest thing happened on my first day in Eve as well. Some guy sent me a PM asking me if I was Greek. Next thing I know, I was being invited in a Greek-only Eve chat channel in game, with Greek players from all over the world. Made me feel at home right away (and made me wish such a community had existed on Wanderhome). Turns out this community is called MAZA and it is a Greek online gaming clan, consisting of tons of online games, from CS to WoW. I have about 10 days left in the trial, but so far Eve has done a good job captivating me. I might end up sticking to it.

As you can see, I’m reorganizing my LJ. Gonna embed it in my upcoming site. Since I have limited control over LJ, I’m just gonna design my site around it. In the meantime, my 7 day workweek starts tomorrow. I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

If I actually wasn’t an idiot, I wouldn’t have so much stress. Why am I stressing? Because I’m a procrastinator. I have a five chapter psychology exam tomorrow that I know very little about. Now, the gameplan was that I’d cram yesterday and today and go to the exam well prepared. Unfortunately, things never go my way. I was working Friday through tonight, going to work at 11am every day and staying there until at least 11pm (except tonight where I got out at 8pm). Now, I should’ve gone straight home after work and studied as much as I could. But I went out….on all three nights except tonight. Friday night I went out and didn’t get home until 6:30am…Saturday night I went out until 3:00am, and last night I went out and got home at 2:00am. My buddy Gomi from SWG even called me on my cell phone for some help and was surprised to find me at a bar with some friends on a Sunday night. So now I got home, helped Gomi out with his problem (needed an animation done for his fiance’s website), and am planning on studying for the next few hours and learn all that I can. Even if the WoW trial seems sooooooo tempting….

On the brighter side, I managed to launch an official website for Wanderhome (my SWG server). Since tons of people are leaving the game, I figured I’d make a feeble attempt to keep the community going (Wanderhome has the best community, and I don’t care what anyone else says) so I bought a domain, bought a hosting plan, and launched Wanderhomies (http://www.wanderhomies.com). So far its not much, just PHP-Nuke, but I’m planning on adding some cool stuff on it as well. Lots of stuff on my plate.

Thanksgiving is this week and I haven’t realized it yet. In the past years, I’d spend Thanksgiving Eve helping out at the bar cause it is the busiest night of the year. This year, I’m going to be working Thanksgiving Eve at the restaurant instead of training. On Thanksgiving Day I probably will be working from 12pm-9pm. I guess as a kid i took holidays for granted. I mean, I cherished every moment I had with my family, but I now realize that I was living in such a sheltered world. Ever since last winter break where I worked nonstop from December 14 to January 20th with only Christmas Day off, I’ve worked every holiday. I’ve now entered the real world. And I’m probably never going to spend a real holiday with my family again for a good few years…maybe not until I start a family of me own. Its funny how life can be a nice straight road where you’re cruising at 50mph and suddenly the road begins to take jagged turns…and your brake lines get cut. You enter a dangerous path at full speed and there’s no way to slow down. But I’m not sad or disappointed. I had my fun. I now have learned to appreciate the greater meaning of family, a meaning that doesn’t factor in holidays, because it is greater than holidays. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I’ll be busy ensuring other people have a wonderful Thanksgiving at the restaurant

It turns out that I’m gonna be working on yet another website in addition to mine. For those who don’t know, I play on the Wanderhome server in SWG, and it is by far the server with the best community. I’ve played alts on almost all servers in my two years of playing and have met many people. Wanderhome can’t be topped. With the NGE, a LOT of veteran and wonderful players are leaving. This has been the largest migration of players the server has ever witnessed. Its so bad, that new players and names are starting to appear on the boards So I’ve decided to unite the community in a single place, no matter where they go. I purchased a domain and hosting service to launch a Wanderhome website, so no matter what game we go to, we will always keep in touch. Yah, I’m crazy. This month alone I renewed my personal site, Valinor’s site, and now this site. Thats about $80 worth of payments. But I don’t care, cause I want to do this for my friends and for my community.

On a brighter note, I heard from a very close friend of mine just now. My friend Sgt. James H. was deployed to Iraq about a month ago. He hasn’t had barely any internet access, so this is the first email I’ve gotten from him. Him and I go way back, way before SWG. He just happened to join the clan I was in and since then we’ve been best buds. I even brought him to Wanderhome where he’s been playing ever since. As of now he is safe, inside some big air base. I hope he stays there and they bring him back soon! My prayers are with you buddy!

I also tried out the XBox 360 two days ago at Best Buy. Now I’m not a big console gamer (last console I owned was the N64), but I’ll give credit where credit is due. The 360 is pretty sweet. Major props to the HD games. I guess graphics are cool as well. But aside from being a media center with gaming capabilities, I don’t see a reason to buy it. If HD gaming is really important to you, then go for it. As far as the multimedia aspect, you’re just better off using a TV and stereo or computer. Plus, there’s no Halo 3. I think the 360 is gonna be another Dreamcast. Its gonna be a kick ass system that flops due to lack of attractive game titles. Microsoft may have the first laugh this time, but Sony will have the last.

Tomorrow I go get my car back I never realized how much I love my car until now. My buddy Paul keeps saying that its cause I’m used to it, but it’s not that. My old car I was driving for 4 years, this one for only one. And I never got withdrawal symptoms from my beater like I have with my Civic. Sure, its slow as hell, but it just fits me perfectly and has awesome mileage. Plus it saved my life AND took a beating. And no, I’m not going to rice it up with airplane wing spoilers, huge exhausts, funky colors, and Alteza lights :p All I’m gonna do is spend about $700 on an iPod, a new car head unit, an iPod adapter for the car, and install my iPod in it and I’ll be set.

Oh yeah, here’s the colors I’ll most likely be using in my new personal site:

Well, I better get going and work on the Wanderhome website, before more people leave.

. : Peace : .

I guess my biggest fault in my website is that I create it and then leave it unfinished. So far no version of my site has made it to 100%. Thats not a good thing. Each time I design, I start entirely from scratch, using new techniques that I have learned since the last time I designed. But my site still doesn’t have an identity. Is it a personal site? A professional site? The trend of my designs hint more and more towards professional. Hmmm…

The hardest part about designing a website is deciding what the site is going to look like. Once you have a sketch of the idea in your head, it’s all downhill from there. So far I’ve made a final choice in my web site’s identity: i want it to be a personal site that focuses on my services and achievements. Just a place where people might check out and be like, “hey that was a cool mix he made” or “wow, maybe he can make me a layout like that.” I take great pride in my work (hell, I’m a Leo, I take great pride in anything I do). I want my next site template to be warm and welcoming, and not cold and professional. Something that you look at and feel like the site is smiling back at you. And in doing that, I’m most likely gonna boil down to the basics of web design. No fancy JavaScript. No elaborate Flash. I will probably use the bare minimum in order to achieve the max potential of my site.

And now for the big question I’ve been asking myself all day: how the hell am I going to make this thing?

OK, where to begin. It’s been about seven months, and a lot has happened. So I’ll try to give a brief rundown. The reason I stopped posting in may was primarily cause finals were going on and I started work. And work full time I did until the end of August. Now, working seven days a week isn’t as bad as you think. This summer I worked with an awesome crew at the restaurant. Little did I know I would meet two of my best friends there. James was 21 and Samantha (Sammi) was 19. James applied in early May and Sammi applied in early June. Not sure why, but we just bonded so well. Sammi was working to get some college spending money (she goes to Indiana University) and James works to survive. He doesn’t come from the best of families, but he has a heart of gold. Every week, James and I would go out to the bar after work and close it down…at least five times a week. Sammi wouldn’t come as often as she was spending time with her family and friends a lot, but there were plenty of bar nights and house parties with her. The two most memorable nights were first at Joanna’s going away party (one of our lower GMs). We had about 20 people with us at the bar, and we had the most fun I have had in months. Not to mention I got so plastered I had to be driven home The second memorable event was at Stathis’ annual BBQ…pictures are on my website gallery. And of course, in June I met my girlfriend…which lasted until the beginning of August where she moved to Europe permanently…

So summer wasn’t so bad. Raking in whatever cash I could, going out every other night, hanging out with friends. Got the feel of the life of a working man…sort of lol. Unfortunately, summer flies. Before I knew it we were throwing Sammi a going away party and James had left work cause he had fallen sick. And then school stated again. My schedule could not have been any better. Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8am-noon and then from 6:30pm-8:00pm. Of course, the rest of the five days I work, but still Now, the school season is a big blur to me, so I’ll just fast forward to recently. On November 1st i got into a car accident. Everyone was OK, i got the ticket cause i did the rear-ending, and now my car is in the shop and I’m driving some rental. Work has been very stressful lately, people are quitting left and right and I’m the one who has to cover for them. Been working full time Friday-Monday, and finals are coming up. I’m screwed either way. Last night after work I went out with my friend Abby to the bar, and we found James and Lauren with two of their friends there. So we had a great time drinking and eating and laughing. The good old stuff. I still can’t play darts for shit though, even when sober! I called up DePaul University today to check on my application. Its still “processing.” Hopefully I’ll get in for the winter trimester. I gotta get up at 6 in the morning for school, and I just got back from work. I’m beat after playing host/manager/expediter at once all day. There’s some more stuff that happened this weekend but…oh hell, I’ll just say it real quick.

One of the regulars at work is a single mom named Petra. She has three daughters, two of which are in a relationship and one which just broke up with some Russian dude. This girl is really smart (graduated high school at 15) but she’s a party animal. Go figure. Anyway, I met her on Sunday and she was beautiful. But she just seems like the type of girls that is very high maintenance. Oh, i got to spank her with the bull whip we had down in the office. That was fun, but it gave me that “I’m an expensive slut” impression of her. But my cousin and Petra want us to hook up badly. I dunno, I’m sort of torn. Sweet girl and all, but has all the naughty qualities.Maybe not for a serious relationship….Also, at work they’ve been training me to become a server. I guess they figured out I was burned out of doing the same stuff over and over for almost a year. I’m technically not legal to serve alcohol, but my bosses have the police department in their pockets, so I guess its ok for me lol. So far I’ve had two days of training, and it has been a blast. I LOVE being able to communicate with people and initiate conversation, instead of just going to the table, presenting their food. I’m a bit nervous too, that I’ll be dropping drink trays left and right cause of the weird center of balance drinks give them. OK, I gotta go to bed. There’s my very brief summary of what I’ve been up to. Oh, I also spent the best $25 in my life the other day by buying a friend a 12 month LJ account

Wow, haven’t posted here in ages. i guess i let this die :p Luckily, my xanga lasted one year of activity before i killed it

Anyway, I’m sort of torn on keeping this thing going or not. I mean, i have a personal site (which i haven’t updated since my birthday) that has a main page blog. And then there’s this. I dunno, gotta decide whether to revamp my site to not include a blog (strictly site update news) and use this, or abandon this and keep my site as my blog.

In the SWG world, everything has turned into one steaming pile of Sith. I feel bad for Tiggs cause I really liked her as a Dev. I got the chance to chat with Kevin “Q-3P0″ O’Hara via email the other day (the day before Tiggs was axed) and we were just chatting. He revealed to me many of the mysteries of the Community Manager world. And then Tiggs is gone. I dunno if it was karma or what, but I know i’m just one voice out of a million. Tiggs and Q-3P0 both served as role models to me cause thats the kind of job I aspire doing. Currently studying Marketing and PR, so I think I’m on the right track. But anyway, I gave a few thoughtful words on Tiggers’ blog, but like I said, I’m just a voice out of a million.

Was Tiggs put in a bad spot? Yes. Was it her fault? No. Everyone has so much hate that Tiggs lied to them, when in fact she was only doing her job. If anyone should be blamed, it is Amazon.com for listing that Starter Kit in the first place. The NGE was one of the best-kept secrets this game has ever known. When people started demanding about the starter kit, Tiggs had no choice. She HAD to say what she said. I know it must have pained her to lie to the community. When she pressed the “Submit Post” button shooing off any concerns about the Starter Kit, she probably had a knot in her stomach and a lump in her throat. And a few days later, the community crucified her.

People criticize me for having an open mind. I look at things from a third person view. Something 99% of the community might scream bloody murder at, I might say, “hey, its really not that bad” and get massive flak for saying that. Unfortunately, that is what human beings are like. Rather, that is what society is like. We as Americans FEAR change. We’ve feared it since day 1, the day we set foot on North American soil. Our fear of change has unjustly sparked panics and wars throughout our history. We naturally fear change. We develop such strong bonds with what we are used to that we refuse to accept anything else that may void what we have long held dear. Call me young and naive, but call me that after you step outside the box and ignore the fact that I’m only 20.

So, in conclusion, thank you Tiggs. Thank you for everything you ever did for the community. Thank you for bringing a smile upon our faces. Thank you for your humor, your informative posts, and your lighthearted atmosphere. We accepted you as one of us, not as one of them. And those who didn’t never will accept ANYONE of them as one of us, so don’t let it get to you. I understand the situation you were put into. I appreciate everything you have done for this community. Thank you Tiggs.