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Rogue Santa Department [Video]

So Rachel and I are in the office playing about on the computer, when we hear the sound of fire truck sirens in the distance, then closer, then out front of the house. Rachel looks over to me and says "Please tell me the neighbors house isn't on fire again?". So we run downstairs to check. (This has happened a couple times this year.)

Was it a house fire? No
Was it an injured senior? No
Was it an emergency of any sort? Even a cat in a tree? No

It was some sort of Rogue Santa, the kind of Santa that doesn't mind busting by your house making all kinds of racket in the middle of the night.

Comp USA? Oh how I will miss you.

I'm off work today, which is good, since I'm absolutely miserable. I have a cold and I've lost my voice to boot. I'm saved only by the fact that I'm sure today will go by fast, as it's my day off from work.

I had bought a power supply (600 Watt Cooler Master) from Comp USA a short time ago, needing a new supply for my old box to try to salvage a decent media center machine out of it. The problem being that when I got it home it didn't work.

Rachel was kind enough to bring it back today, something normally I would have done, save for being sick as a dog and not wanting to move far. When she got up to Comp USA however they were unwilling to accept it back, as it had been on sale when I bought it. She was given the option to either pay an additional $25 or return it for cash, regardless of the fact that the unit was completely non-functional and the in stock units were the same.

She also let me know that the entire time she was dealing with the person at Comp USA they were on the phone bitching about how they were going to need to find a new job.

This is a shining example of WHY she is going to need a new job. Comp USA is a customer relations nightmare, always have been. Any time you need to return something they gave you nothing but problems, and basically seem to do everything in their power to make you regret spending your money there. Now as an end result they have been sold and are being liquidated at the end of the year from all reports.

The most entertaining thing in all this for me was that when they turned her away after saying they couldn't give her our money back because I wasn't present with my credit card, they offered her store credit... Store credit for a store that will be lucky to not be boarded up in another month. I've also noticed they are still selling gift cards on their website. Way to stick it to customers on your way out.

I've never been one for retribution, but I find myself almost thankful that this chain is closing its doors. I feel bad for the staff being layed off, but in all truth they are the same folks who joyfully stuck it to us every chance they got. I wish the employees luck in finding new employment, and I hope the people who decided the policies and procedures for this brand are losing it out the ass on this deal.

Random Good News: Rachel brought home jumbo potatoes and sour cream. Baked goodness!

3 Rings?

Just to add to the already fantastic news of losing my drive and the computer dying, I've just done the update for xbox live and it seems to have bricked my Xbox 360. I am now the proud owner of a bright white box with the three rings of death.

I guess I'll have to RMA that along with the memory for the new computer, and the old computers motherboard.

Random Good News: I rented Day Watch.

New Computer? Yes Sir!

So my old computer was having issues. Bad issues.

The power supply on it was apparently shady, and I was continuously losing hardware pieces one at a time. A few weeks ago my video card went out, then directly after the real disaster struck.

My media drive went bad. This drive holds all my mp3 files, movies, and such. Considering my mp3 collection had grown to somewhere in the 20k range this is quite a loss, but that's not what pisses me off. What really sets me off is it's also where I had my personal photos and such, not only of me, but of all my friends for the past few years.

So Rachel and I decided that enough is enough and went ahead and ordered me a new computer. Here I present you with the specs:

CPU :: Intel Core 2 Quad 6600 (Zalman 9700 CPU Cooler)
Mobo :: Asus Striker Extreme
Video :: XFX 8800GT 512MB DDR3
Memory :: [x4] 1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
HDD :: [x2] WD7500AAKS 750GB HDD
PCU :: Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W
Sound :: Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty

This, needless to say, is a considerable upgrade on my previous computer. In fact, it takes my old computer, bends it over, and has its way with it.

I've got it set up now, I took some pictures and will put them up on flickr soon. It runs Crysis and UT3 on Very High settings in 1650x1080 with no noticeable framerate dips. All in all I'm quite happy. Now to work out a good backup solution for the future.

Random Good News: The Patriots are 12-0. Go Pats!

Unreal

That's the word I used about 100 times today... if not more.

Unreal.

I had an early start this morning, and my first thought was on my newly adopted LSU Tigers spot in the BCS rankings. After the freaky Saturday I knew anything was possible and that the Tigers may well be playing for a national championship this year.

That was the first time I used it. They slid up to #2 in the standings and have secured a spot to play Ohio State for the National Championship this year. What college team gets three shots at being the best team in college ball?

The most recent time, of course, was tonight watching my Patriots play a game that had me pacing in front of the television like some freak of nature, much to the amusement of Rachel. It was an insane game that pretty much went down to the VERY end with Baltimore giving us all we could handle. The final play being a hail mary pass by Baltimore for the win that came so close to hitting the end zone I almost had to check my pants.

Unreal right? The Pats are 12-0 now, and the damn undefeated talk will continue for another week.

The interesting thing about todays unreal rampage? I went ahead and picked it up at Best Buy... Unreal Tournament 3 that is. The game looks absolutely fantastic, and is every bit the crazy twitch fest I remember, this time with beautiful cut scenes for the campaign.

What a day!

No Really

I'm very interested in attempting to return to posting on the site again, but I find myself constantly struggling with putting it off until I upgrade the site, or until something significant happens, or what have you. I have, however, decided that the easiest way to start blogging again would be to simply say "Hey, I've decided to start blogging again."

*Scratches line from To-Do List*

Sad =[

OMFGZ Fuckzor the Colts.

Rachel says I always find something positive in bad things so I guess...

Maybe Brian Urlacher will rip off Payton Mannings head during the Super Bowl.

The Romantic Locksmith

An amusing feature of Rachel's apartment that I'm sure she will be glad to have behind her is that her bathroom door can't be closed without trapping the person on the inside. The door handle is broken and just spins on the bathroom side.

I only mention this because tonight we decided to have a nice romantic candle lit bath together. The scented hot water, very relaxing. Great aroma from the burning candle, and me pushing the door closed to stop the breeze from coming in to the bathroom.

I mentioned you can't open it from the inside, no?

Nothing more romantic than your naked boyfriend having to use your tweezers to jimmy a door handle to get the two of you out of the now sauna like bathroom.

I have no idea how I'll top this on Valentines.

Patriots and Saints?

Yesterday brought me one step closer to my dream matchup for the Superbowl! With New England taking San Diego 24-21 (Go Pats!) and New Orleans beating Philly the day before, that leaves one more game for each of my hometown (new and old) teams to get to the big dance!

The road won't exactly be easy though, with the Patriots having to beat the Colts and the Saints having to make their way past the really tough Chicago Bears.

There is hope though!

I happened to be in Indy yesterday when Rachel and I decided to make a quick stop at the RCA Dome (the Colts home field and where the game will be played next week) to make a personal message of hope for the Pats.

I've never been good at inspirational messages.

More News

This time, believe it or not, I have a decent reason for not updating.
Things have been very busy with me. Very busy and... Fun.

Rachel and I have been having a fantastic time together, quite honestly I haven't been this happy in a long time... if ever. We've have, however, decided that the long distance relationship thing isn't viable and would never work.

So she's moving from Kentucky to Louisiana.

It's a somewhat scary thought for me after being single for the longest period in my life not counting childhood. Sharing things and having responsibilities to another person are things I've been avoiding for a while now. I think that I've found someone right for me to start again with though.

She also likes my blog, so everyone may actually hear more from me in the future.

Rachel will be here soon...

So it's been a while since my last entry eh? Yeah it has.

One event of note really, and the one I'm writing about. Rachel is coming here for Christmas... I am, of course, quite nervous, and very excited. We've been talking for a year or so now, and I've been looking forward to this for a long time.

We plan on spoiling each other and watching a ton of movies. She may even get me into church for Christmas, she has a dress she brought down for it that I'm aching to see her in. :)

She's leaving the New Orleans area right now, so with traffic she should be here in the next two hours. I may even have to blog a lot more. There will definitely be pictures. Hope you all have holidays as good as mine looks to be.

I'm good advice! THX

Scottie: Why do you still get pissed about shit he does?
Scottie: That's like getting upset a drunken mentally retarded 12 year old dropped a beer near you.
Scottie: You know it's gonna happen, why bother even paying attention?
Erin: i still love him, and first loves die hard
Scottie: Yeah I know. I had to reload twice when I killed mine.

The House Tour

A number of people have asked me to take some pictures of the house, and since I got my camcorder back a few days ago I thought I would do one better. A quick tour of the house, with commentary.

Music for July/August

When I was thinking of various things to blog about last night I thought that I really need to share the constants in my life with people... Well, the constants other than work.

Probably the only thing that has been a solid interest throughout my whole life has been music. I work to music, I relax to music, hell, on the off occasion when I make love it's usually accompanied by music. I am possibly the only person to threaten to quit his job if he wasn't allowed to wear his iPod. The interest is there, so why not talk about music?

My tastes, though not complex, are somewhat eclectic. From folk to pop, rap to metal, and everything in between, there is really very little I won't give a listen to. It seems like every few weeks I have a new favorite artist in my ear, so I thought every now and again I would share some music I am paying special attention to at the moment.

A word of caution. Listening to so many genres can have a downside. Sometimes I don't get to music until long after others are done with it. A fine example is me getting into Tool about 100 years after their last album was out (but conveniently a few short months before the release of their newest).

The month of July has found me listening to a few albums that I found quite good.

After being exposed to Ok Go's "Get Over It" on my copy of Madden 2003 they were promptly forgotten about until I was browsing around on YouTube and came across the unbelievably cool Treadmill video for Here It Goes Again and popped them on the iPod. Tracks like "A Million Ways" and "You're So Damn Hot" got lots of plays quickly.

Pharrell is on the other side of the spectrum as far as artists I'm familiar with. His work as a producer, writer, and part of the now defunct N*E*R*D have all made their way into my collection. His latest offering was pretty much going to make its way in regardless. Production on the album is obviously fantastic, and his singing actually is a lot of fun. His rapping is little more than average, but being a Kanye West fan as well, that's sort of par for the course. The Gwen Stefani collaboration "Can I Have It Like That?" is probably my favorite track on the album.

Thom Yorke was another destined for the iPod. Being a big Radiohead fan left me waiting for this album... and I'd have to say I wasn't disappointed at all. It's one of the few albums I've had that doesn't have a disparity in plays between tracks. I'm perfectly content to sit through it. If I absolutely had to pick favorites "Black Swan" and "The Eraser" would be the tracks I'd pick. Though the music on "Harrowdown Hill" is likely to become my ringtone soon.

Gone long, life goes on

It's been a while since I blogged, and this is where I usually say I'm sorry for how long I've been away, and say that hopefully it won't be so long till the next one.

Honestly I've just not had much to say. I work and sleep for the most part and it's quite unimpressive to say the least. At best it's a life that doesn't leave much to talk about.

I *would* like to blog. I'd love to sit down and share my thoughts with everyone, but as late all my thoughts are about work. My situation at work, problems with money, that sort of thing. As all consuming as those things are to me, they just aren't that interesting to anyone else I would think.

So while I have been away know it's not because I don't miss the lot of you, but because my life is unspectacular at the moment. Should there be any events you'll be the next to know!