An Sionnach

To often have I seen complaints about where are the Admins in games, as well as anywhere else.  The fact is probably with their families or at their jobs.  On an average a gaming server (for a new game) will run the Admin about $1.29 or so (based on Gameservers); and most likely more, per slot for the server, so for a 32 slot server this is about $41.55 per month, for a 64 slot server this would be about $83.15 for the month.  Ultimately the best choice for this would be to get one or two friends together and split the difference.  But, even so, one still needs to sleep, eat, spend time with the fam, AND work.  This means, guess what, we may not be around.  And trust me, I/WE want you to have a good experience, hack free with some good if not excellent game play, but ultimately we do have other responsibilities that also need tending to.  So, I was wondering, what is a fair balance for the players, what is acceptable?

Yes, you have it right, it’s been 42 years and I am still single, never been married, and have no children.  It’s not to say that I haven’t had my opportunities.  I have met some wonderful and amazing women over the years.  But, time, circumstances, dynamics, and choices have all prevented the norm from happening.  And while most men who have remained single have spent that time furthering their careers, I on the other hand have spent much of my days experiencing life.  I can’t say that it doesn’t come with a cost, as it most certainly does.

The fact of the matter is, that while there are many beautiful women out there, there are a select few that you connect with, they make you feel complete in one way or another.  But the truth is this doesn’t always go both ways, for many reasons: age, interests, you work together, education, psychology, body type, this list goes on and on.  It seems these are the ones I seem to find myself drawn to.  I sometimes wish that God, whoever or whatever that omnipotent power is, would give us some way to identify and cause ones paths to cross.  And although I am quite content at being single, there is that one person I run across that makes me wish I wasn’t.  ‘Sometimes’ the feelings are not necessarily mutual.

I have heard a lot of ranting amongst the OFP community how CM (CodeMasters) has deviated there most recent edition of MilSim shooters to the gaming world.  I have yet to purchase it yet, but it has had me thinking.  Most of us love Operation Flashpoint/ARMA/ARMA 2 because it has a much more realistic approach to Military based FPS than Call of Duty, Medal of Honor as well as Battlefield. But the facts are apparent; OFP:RR has taken a more acceptable (amongst the gaming world) approach to FPS.

Games like OFP and ARMA are a hard concept for most to accept, they want action, they want something that what they perceive to be real, actually IS.  Many of us old OFP and ARMA fans no that most games don’t even as close to this as we would like.  But would it be nice if those who played COD, MOF and BF had a closer attachment to a more RL sim.  Sure we know a lot of this is about money, especially during these times where companies are trying to keep there head above water, especially when so many dollars are spent in development.  The fact of the matter is CM needs to make some form of acceptable approach to the gaming community.  Personally, I think they should have never done this under the OFP name.  But I think, that if they can keep ARMA as a more realistic approach to MilSim and use OFP to help those trigger happy shooters over to something a bit more realistic, it’s acceptable.

CM if your listening.  Keep ARMA for us hardcore MilSim fans, and use OFP to show those trigger happy FPSrs that there is something better out there.  JMHO

You know I am proud to be an American.  I love the fact that we are a strong people and that within such a short time we have come so far.  But when I see Greed as one of our main pillars I have to admit it’s appalling. No wonder why so many countries despise us.

So your probably wondering what brings this up.

Well the other day I was ordering a Celtic FC Football (Soccer) Jersey for this season.  With shipping, for an official kit jersey, I spent $68 (with the shipping).  It’s still a bit much, particularly since I am such an anti Nike fan, and knowing that the jersey was probably made in some place like Honduras, China, Brazil or some outsourced country for 10% of that if not less.  But when I was looking through the MLS (Major League Soccer) stores wanting to purchase a jersey for the Rapids upcoming first game, I have to say I was appalled by the fact that they were charging $110 for a SHIRT.  Soccer isn’t even big in the US.  Yes, the Rapids won the Cup last year, but ALL the clubs are charging the same amount.  So I am wondering, why would I want to pay $110 for a jersey that advertises for a club, shouldn’t you be paying me.  Afterall, marketing is a companies largest expense, well that is unless the fan is willing to pay the expense for you, at the same time driving a huge profit.  Chances are these jerseys probably cost any where from $5-$20 to produce, if that, which means a $90-105 profit.  INSANE!!  I am all for promoting the world sport, and would love to see it continue to grow in the US, but honestly… your heading down the same road as MLB, NFL, and the NHL  Along with this I find that the largest fans of these clubs are on the end of the field instead of the middle where corporate organizations buy seats yet hardly ever fill them and are as boring as hell during the game, and probably don’t even understand it.  I left going to baseball games, just because of this, and chances are the same will probably happen with soccer.  But HEY, you have your money, that’s all that counts, RIGHT?. I had high hopes in the MLS, but I find myself greatly disappointed.

So let me start off with the fact that EA (Electronic Arts) will probably never read this, nor will they probably care, just like they do for most of their customers. And even if they did, that statement would probably tick off most off them that they would have probably left by now. Yeah I know I don’t play politics well.

But lets get to my first impressions of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam.

I love the idea that we have some new maps to play with, but honestly, Map pack 7 gave us something more to work with.  If your not sure what I am talking about, you are probably confused.  The most recent Map pack 7 pulled some of the older maps, which gave players a much broader(literary) terrain to work with.  They actually felt as if there was more going on then there was.  The reason is, because it gave players more terrain to work with.  BFBC2:Vietnam seems very narrow (a tunnel effect if you will).  But in my idea of Jungle style combat is the fact of , where the hell are the enemy.  I don’t get this feeling.  Sure the terrain is extremely ‘OBSTRUCTIVE’ but it does not provide much camouflage.  Just in the first day of it’s release it really didn’t take much for one to find a target once they were on the front line. And honestly this dragged me more into playing the Hardcore Mode (usually less players) than playing the more mainstream modes. But honestly!!, the idea of using obstructions over creating a level of suspense of deep foliage really pulled me back to just wanting the play the original game over the expansion pack.

And I have to ask, where are the Hueys as shown in the videos, I have yet to see one like was seen in the trailer for the game, which looked to be a great map.  Overall, it’s an ok mod, but I think it can be better, much better.

The problem with illegal immigration is that eventually it leads to big government, particularly when the people decide they don’t want them here for whatever reason, particularly that they are in fact illegal.  So how do we catch them, easy, get every State to embrace a Federalized Immigration Fingerprinting program.  Does this mean that only immigrants are fingerprinted, no this will mean that we are all fingerprinted, and this fingerprinting may in fact may be needed in requirement for work.

Now I am not against fingerprinting as a whole, I have had it done numerous times on the State level for work, particularly considering the work that I do.  But I am against the Federalization of it, thereby requiring both, instead of inter-State cooperation, like many States do with Drivers License records.

This goes back to a previous post of mine in which State in cooperation with Federal TSA are now patting down customers in bus stations.  Security is slowly replacing Freedom, the Socialism we fought so hard against is slowly taking hold.  In so many ways, the terrorists have won already, they don’t need another 9/11, they already have us running scared.

http://www.ice.gov/about/offices/enforcement-removal-operations/secure-communities/index.htm

http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-fingerprint-txt,0,4742737.story

I did a quick link to a post of the Cheyenne telling a story of a great flood that covered the earth over on Facebook.  This has led to nice little discussion that I thought would do well as a continued discussion in the blog. Feel free to jump in.

Read the rest of this entry »

OK so I contacted the folks about the hillside land available, and they were cool enough to recommend another bit of land a bit closer to Denver, with a larger property, open rolling terrain, and further away from neighbors. Came to find it was also on the other side of town where my brother in laws camp is as well. Based on his feedback it’s a pretty sweet area. The land has been assessed to $12K and selling for a sweet $6K for 6.65 Acres. Thats a little over 4 football fields with goal zones. Judging from their site, they already have a sale pending in this remote area. Judging from the maps and description access is super easy. Pictures show some great views (photos taken in October). I could attempt to finance this, but honestly to finance 6k for real estate seems a bit ridiculous, the interest alone could at least get a well in for water. I’ll be setting up a time to visit this and the other plot, but honestly this looks like a better deal. Land is easier to build on, wide open views of rolling terrain, 11 mile reservoir right nearby for fishing, nearest neighbors are on the other side of the ridge, antelope roam through the area. What a great spot to just get away.

More info here

Many years ago the family had access to two camps, one located in Mass, and the other in Maine. Unfortunately the way things panned out after both of my grandfathers passed we no longer had access to them anymore. For years I have always wished we had a getaway spot to go to, unfortunately land, especially in New England is a premium. After moving to the Midwest I learned that land is quite inexpensive, the hard part is that it’s just land, there are not many lakes or streams, you need to tap in a well, and build a place.

So after seeing a posting from my friend Huw linking to a site called Lands of America I figured I would check it out.

Read the rest of this entry »

Through dreary skies and torch soil,

I walk aimlessly through this night.