Video demo of me using this guy to run some LED lighting in the house: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PquTrhd9JcM
Now, down to business. I mention in the description to the video above that as a battery for LED lighting in emergency scenarios, this isn't ideal. I figure you'll get an hour, maybe two or three, but I can't see much more than that from what I saw tonight. That being said, it's really not what this little guy is for, so, I take no points away for that.
No, what this device is for is to jump your dead battery (or someone else's, as was the case earlier today.) For this, it's perfect. A few ladies were stranded around the corner from me, their battery dead as a door nail, when my son came in to let me know. We hopped in the HHR and rode over to get an idea of what was going on. The way he described it (they turned the key and it just clicked,) it sounded to me like a dead battery.
Sure enough, once there, hood up, and clips on the terminals, I turned the box on and had her give it a shot. It was a little sluggish, as anyone who's ever jumped a car will know is usually the case, but it fired right up. It ran for a few seconds then died. Initially, I thought maybe the alternator was shot, so hooked the ReadyStart maxx back up and had her fire it up again. This time, it wouldn't start. It cranked, gave good effort, but just wouldn't fire up. We tried another three or four times with the same result.
I saw on the dash that the gas needle was at rock bottom, so asked if they might be out. They told me they'd just put a bit in. Turned out it wasn't enough (I think a dollar maybe,) so, I grabbed my can from home and gave them what was left (about half, in a one gallon gas can,) and ran around the corner to the little gas station there for another gallon to get them on their way. Once all the gas was added, we tried one more time and she fired up without pause and kept running just fine.
With the five (we'll say, to be safe,) jumps off this pack, the battery level still showed right around eighty percent (I don't recall the exact number, but it started with eight, so, there's that.) I brought it home and plugged it in before my LED light test and it was back up to one hundred percent in under an hour.
The moral of this story is, it does what it's supposed to. If you're battery's dead, this little guy should have no issues jumping you off. Now, if you drive some big, industrial vehicle, I can't vouch, but it definitely works on large SUVs.
As I mention in the video, I give this device a solid five out of five stars and it was only a $60 purchase at Wal-Mart.
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Cash for (mmorpg) Gold
So, in my daily internetting today, I stumbled upon this Reddit post questioning the safety and...morality?...of buying in-game gold for Elder Scrolls Online. The responses were incredible. Mindblowing, in fact. Just how sure people are about their opinions today frightens me, especially when they all share the same opinion and bring nothing new to the table.
So here's my opinion (you're welcome.) Do what you want, but be cautious and definitely do not use any website out here that you're going to find in a Google search. They might not all be genuine scams, but a significant portion of them are. And furthermore, those that aren't are rarely handled with any care for either the consumer or seller, which leads to scams at the user level when no safety nets are in place (like the buyer protection procedures Ebay utilizes).
No, if you're going to buy or sell any in-game content, gold or otherwise, in any MMORPG, get yourself into a guild, make some friends, build a level of trust, and still tread cautiously. I've both bought and sold gold in these games. The conversations leading up to these transactions were simple and effective. My first sale was the easiest.
I'd been in this guild for weeks, made some real connections with the more dedicated members, ran some dungeons, learned a bit about farming, etc. Then one day, while farming, I was in group chat with the guild leader (and just the guild leader, no one else was in chat.) I happened to check my inventory and realized I'd racked up several hundreds of thousands of in-game gold. I simply said "Man, I wish I could find one of those people that pay for gold," with a little chuckle and low and behold, my guild leader was one of those people.
Now before you judge either of us, I didn't need the gold but could sure use the money and he only 'needed' the gold to buy in-game materials and equipment for other members in the guild. He's one of those rare gems that actually plays the game to help others. He enjoys it.
Now at this point, we'd played several hours together and had built a certain level of trust. What made it easier was the fact that I sent the gold first, so there was no chance of him getting scammed here and if I got scammed, I was out of a bit of play-money that really didn't hurt me. A few minutes later, he messaged me with a code for a prepaid game card. It was nice and smooth.
No one got hurt, the game in question didn't go out of business (especially since they have no option to pay for in-game gold,) and both parties got something they wanted. I hear the argument all the time that this is unfair for those that just grind and put the work in but don't have the money to buy or the gold to sell. We are both end-game content users who only play the game for the social aspect of it all. Running dungeons and raids together, learning new tricks, researching new gear that comes out, and helping those just getting started.
Now mind you, I have given away far more gold than I have sold. In this particular game, there are plenty of things you can spend cash on (rides, costumes, experience 'potions', and such,) and I would never sell any of these things because this could potentially take away from the distributor's profits. But I'm rambling now, so will leave you with this: It's just a game, play it how you're best able to enjoy it and don't worry about what others have to say about your methods.
So here's my opinion (you're welcome.) Do what you want, but be cautious and definitely do not use any website out here that you're going to find in a Google search. They might not all be genuine scams, but a significant portion of them are. And furthermore, those that aren't are rarely handled with any care for either the consumer or seller, which leads to scams at the user level when no safety nets are in place (like the buyer protection procedures Ebay utilizes).
No, if you're going to buy or sell any in-game content, gold or otherwise, in any MMORPG, get yourself into a guild, make some friends, build a level of trust, and still tread cautiously. I've both bought and sold gold in these games. The conversations leading up to these transactions were simple and effective. My first sale was the easiest.
I'd been in this guild for weeks, made some real connections with the more dedicated members, ran some dungeons, learned a bit about farming, etc. Then one day, while farming, I was in group chat with the guild leader (and just the guild leader, no one else was in chat.) I happened to check my inventory and realized I'd racked up several hundreds of thousands of in-game gold. I simply said "Man, I wish I could find one of those people that pay for gold," with a little chuckle and low and behold, my guild leader was one of those people.
Now before you judge either of us, I didn't need the gold but could sure use the money and he only 'needed' the gold to buy in-game materials and equipment for other members in the guild. He's one of those rare gems that actually plays the game to help others. He enjoys it.
Now at this point, we'd played several hours together and had built a certain level of trust. What made it easier was the fact that I sent the gold first, so there was no chance of him getting scammed here and if I got scammed, I was out of a bit of play-money that really didn't hurt me. A few minutes later, he messaged me with a code for a prepaid game card. It was nice and smooth.
No one got hurt, the game in question didn't go out of business (especially since they have no option to pay for in-game gold,) and both parties got something they wanted. I hear the argument all the time that this is unfair for those that just grind and put the work in but don't have the money to buy or the gold to sell. We are both end-game content users who only play the game for the social aspect of it all. Running dungeons and raids together, learning new tricks, researching new gear that comes out, and helping those just getting started.
Now mind you, I have given away far more gold than I have sold. In this particular game, there are plenty of things you can spend cash on (rides, costumes, experience 'potions', and such,) and I would never sell any of these things because this could potentially take away from the distributor's profits. But I'm rambling now, so will leave you with this: It's just a game, play it how you're best able to enjoy it and don't worry about what others have to say about your methods.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Why I Cannot Stand Microsoft
Well, there are many reasons really, but I'll just rant about a few. So, to begin with, let's start with a complete lack of continuity between their many subsidiaries. I own an Xbox One. I found this guy on Craigslist mid-last-year offering his Xbox One with a number of games, a couple controllers, a headset, and some other nifty little accessories for $400 bucks. I had it and wanted a taste of that next-gen goodness before it was completely old and everyone had it. I hooked it up, grabbed CoD Advanced Warfare from Walmart, paid for my year subscription of Xbox Live/Gold and started the endless cycle of updating games.
After several hours on their slow servers, I was up and running. I was satisfied and little more. It wasn't the bells-and-whistles-loaded beast I thought it would be from reviews and hype, but it was nifty, and even beat out my PS3 for likability (barely.)
Well, the trouble began near the end of last month (June '16) when a friend grabbed me a $30 Xbox gift card from Game Stop (late birthday present.) I logged into my account on the laptop here and loaded it up. The intention was to get my Elder Scrolls Online account up to ESO Gold so I'd have the craft bag, all the DLC, etc. No dice. When I went to purchase, it would not allow me to change my payment method to the $30.00 balance showing clear as day below my linked credit card. I called customer support and was informed this was the wrong type of gift card (even though he, my friend, and I have both used these cards many times.) They told me it had to be a 16 digit numeric card number, not the 25 digit alpha-numeric code I had (even though when you try to enter a code on the Xbox One directly, which is what I should have done in hindsight, it's a 25 digit field?)
No way to refund the card or transfer the balance to the proper method of payment, I was told. I could barely understand the individual I was speaking to, so asked to speak to a native English speaker, a privilege I've been awarded when calling nearly EVERY customer service line I've ever had to sit on. To my dismay, the (pardon my 'french') wiseass son of a bitch transferred me to the 800 number for UPS (yes, that UPS, the one that ships packages and has NOTHING to do with Microsoft or Xbox in any way other than carrying their garbage around the country.) Needless to say, I was pissed, and still have this $30 credit on my account that I'll never use as I own NO Windows products nor will I ever.
So, come July, my yearly Xbox Gold subscription has come due. It was set to auto-renew but the card I had on file was for an account I had closed. Knowing this, I disabled the auto-renew feature online with the intent to just pay it with a new card come that time. So that time came and I did just that (after checking my account online to be sure that they hadn't tried with the old/inactive card.) Sure enough, there were no pending charges showing so I thought that for once in my life, Microsoft had done something right. I was wrong.
Even though my account showed no balance and a payment was required by July 15th to renew my annual Gold subscription, they managed to charge another card, my mother's, as she had signed in and purchased for me the $99.95 special edition of Fallout 4 with full DLC (badass game, btw, one Bethesda did right.)
This happened to be the same card that I used on the 15th to renew my subscription (it's a shared account between my mother and I so we can easily help one another out as needed.) And now, on the 18th, it has been overdrawn due to Microsoft/Xbox entirely lacking in competence or apathy. The wonderful customer service at Microsoft has so graciously began the process of cancelling my current two subscriptions and refunding the $59.95x2 to our account, though refuse to address the $32 overdraft fee this bullshit caused.
To try to get us back up and running until I've worked a little extra to cover that fee, my fiance has started a free one month trial of Xbox Gold. It's great, all but the fact it's worthless. When we try to play online or utilize any of the Gold features, it keeps sending us back to the "Try Gold Free!" page. We go through the steps again, but at the end, it says "Sorry, you can only use this once." Obviously not.
So to you, Microsoft, Xbox, Live, One, 360, Word, PowerPoint, your sad-ass attempt at 'smartphones', and any other lines of bullshit you keep feeding those willing to pay for it, I bid you a not-so-fond farewell and the absolute biggest FUCK YOU I can muster. May your sad ass attempt at shitty products and services one day soon finally fail and may folks everywhere finally be enlightened by the better choices of Linux, Libre, and OOO.
Don't worry, Sony, Daddy's coming home. Sure there's someone on Craigslist that'll swap out a PS4 for this pile of shit... somehow Microsoft manages to maintain a huge mass of fanboys.
After several hours on their slow servers, I was up and running. I was satisfied and little more. It wasn't the bells-and-whistles-loaded beast I thought it would be from reviews and hype, but it was nifty, and even beat out my PS3 for likability (barely.)
Well, the trouble began near the end of last month (June '16) when a friend grabbed me a $30 Xbox gift card from Game Stop (late birthday present.) I logged into my account on the laptop here and loaded it up. The intention was to get my Elder Scrolls Online account up to ESO Gold so I'd have the craft bag, all the DLC, etc. No dice. When I went to purchase, it would not allow me to change my payment method to the $30.00 balance showing clear as day below my linked credit card. I called customer support and was informed this was the wrong type of gift card (even though he, my friend, and I have both used these cards many times.) They told me it had to be a 16 digit numeric card number, not the 25 digit alpha-numeric code I had (even though when you try to enter a code on the Xbox One directly, which is what I should have done in hindsight, it's a 25 digit field?)
No way to refund the card or transfer the balance to the proper method of payment, I was told. I could barely understand the individual I was speaking to, so asked to speak to a native English speaker, a privilege I've been awarded when calling nearly EVERY customer service line I've ever had to sit on. To my dismay, the (pardon my 'french') wiseass son of a bitch transferred me to the 800 number for UPS (yes, that UPS, the one that ships packages and has NOTHING to do with Microsoft or Xbox in any way other than carrying their garbage around the country.) Needless to say, I was pissed, and still have this $30 credit on my account that I'll never use as I own NO Windows products nor will I ever.
So, come July, my yearly Xbox Gold subscription has come due. It was set to auto-renew but the card I had on file was for an account I had closed. Knowing this, I disabled the auto-renew feature online with the intent to just pay it with a new card come that time. So that time came and I did just that (after checking my account online to be sure that they hadn't tried with the old/inactive card.) Sure enough, there were no pending charges showing so I thought that for once in my life, Microsoft had done something right. I was wrong.
Even though my account showed no balance and a payment was required by July 15th to renew my annual Gold subscription, they managed to charge another card, my mother's, as she had signed in and purchased for me the $99.95 special edition of Fallout 4 with full DLC (badass game, btw, one Bethesda did right.)
This happened to be the same card that I used on the 15th to renew my subscription (it's a shared account between my mother and I so we can easily help one another out as needed.) And now, on the 18th, it has been overdrawn due to Microsoft/Xbox entirely lacking in competence or apathy. The wonderful customer service at Microsoft has so graciously began the process of cancelling my current two subscriptions and refunding the $59.95x2 to our account, though refuse to address the $32 overdraft fee this bullshit caused.
To try to get us back up and running until I've worked a little extra to cover that fee, my fiance has started a free one month trial of Xbox Gold. It's great, all but the fact it's worthless. When we try to play online or utilize any of the Gold features, it keeps sending us back to the "Try Gold Free!" page. We go through the steps again, but at the end, it says "Sorry, you can only use this once." Obviously not.
So to you, Microsoft, Xbox, Live, One, 360, Word, PowerPoint, your sad-ass attempt at 'smartphones', and any other lines of bullshit you keep feeding those willing to pay for it, I bid you a not-so-fond farewell and the absolute biggest FUCK YOU I can muster. May your sad ass attempt at shitty products and services one day soon finally fail and may folks everywhere finally be enlightened by the better choices of Linux, Libre, and OOO.
Don't worry, Sony, Daddy's coming home. Sure there's someone on Craigslist that'll swap out a PS4 for this pile of shit... somehow Microsoft manages to maintain a huge mass of fanboys.
Monday, May 2, 2016
For the love of CoD!
So, it's happened. Infinity Ward/Activision dropped the campaign trailer for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Don't get me wrong, it looks tight. It looks very well written, well programmed, well acted, an all around beautiful game... Just not a Call of Duty game.
When Advanced Warfare dropped, we all bitched (most of us anyway.) Over time, we got used to it and it was fun enough to play. It wasn't CoD, but it was alright. We still fired up Black Ops 2 far more frequently than we fired up Advanced Warfare - That's just the kind of game Black Ops 2 was - Amazing! The last great CoD, I dare say. Then enters Black Ops 3. Again, this is a wonderful game, and much closer to a true CoD than AW was, but still a bit hooky. I still play it, and far more than I play AW, but I still prefer BO2, MW3, hell, even Ghosts was decent enough to pass the time when I got sick of people jumping over me and running on walls.
Now this...
Again, it looks like a bad ass video game, it just doesn't look like CoD. The ONLY silver lining here would be one of the following:
Option 1: Rumors are true and we're getting Modern Warfare remastered - Now, this only counts if I can just buy MW Remastered without buying this Halo wanna-be garbage. I might pick a copy up and play the campaign in a few years when the price drops significantly, but don't make me buy Halo to play CoD.
Optionp 2: Multiplayer is not anything like we see in this Campaign trailer - it's all... forgive me for using this term I hate so much, but, 'Boots on the Ground' (yes, I know what BOTG means in the real world.) Put us on a space ship if you want, but make sure we're just running, sliding, jumping, shooting, and fragging. Good old CoD mechanics. Trim all this fat you all have been slathering all over our CoD plates.
Option 3: This is the biggest, latest April Fools prank ever.
So, there you have it. Let me know what you all think about this situation.
When Advanced Warfare dropped, we all bitched (most of us anyway.) Over time, we got used to it and it was fun enough to play. It wasn't CoD, but it was alright. We still fired up Black Ops 2 far more frequently than we fired up Advanced Warfare - That's just the kind of game Black Ops 2 was - Amazing! The last great CoD, I dare say. Then enters Black Ops 3. Again, this is a wonderful game, and much closer to a true CoD than AW was, but still a bit hooky. I still play it, and far more than I play AW, but I still prefer BO2, MW3, hell, even Ghosts was decent enough to pass the time when I got sick of people jumping over me and running on walls.
Now this...
Option 1: Rumors are true and we're getting Modern Warfare remastered - Now, this only counts if I can just buy MW Remastered without buying this Halo wanna-be garbage. I might pick a copy up and play the campaign in a few years when the price drops significantly, but don't make me buy Halo to play CoD.
Optionp 2: Multiplayer is not anything like we see in this Campaign trailer - it's all... forgive me for using this term I hate so much, but, 'Boots on the Ground' (yes, I know what BOTG means in the real world.) Put us on a space ship if you want, but make sure we're just running, sliding, jumping, shooting, and fragging. Good old CoD mechanics. Trim all this fat you all have been slathering all over our CoD plates.
Option 3: This is the biggest, latest April Fools prank ever.
So, there you have it. Let me know what you all think about this situation.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Free Webhosting
For the original post, just read past this bit. This is just a quick update on 000webhost - They're phenomenal - Not only have I had not so much as a second's reported downtime, I've had no timeouts, no issues updating and maintaining my pages, nor have I received any complaints from users of the sites - If you're into Bitcoin Faucets - check this one out for an idea of the quality (built from a Zyro template, free of charge,) BTCGrabber
But regardless, if you're looking for a free webhost that doesn't suck, check out 000webhost.com!
Original Post Below:
So I just tried out FreeHostingNoAds.net and boy was I disappointed.
I get that you get most of your revenue from paid subscribers, but does that mean that those of us just poking at the site to see if it's as worthless as others have told us it is should be completely ignored? You apparently feel it does.
So the question is why do you insist it should be so? So I can't do a damn thing with my site. The auto-install scripts work alright and I get the raw materials up there, but then I can't use them. I installed a phpbb system and I can't get to the control panel to moderate it without an error thrown from the server (bandwidth seems ridiculously throttled.) Installed jcow and after numerous attempts, managed to get signed in and to a spot where I could do a quick blog-post - then it crashed when I tried to submit. Not available at this time. Then I try to get slick and ftp in to moderate the site on my local system. Nope, no dice as Filezilla and my native linux FTP client are both denied access at every attempt. What's worse is that even the on-site "File Manager 2" doesn't work for me as it's just a web-based ftp client that yields the same error message for me.
Try to open a ticket to get this taken care of only to find out that since I don't pay for the service, I don't get any questions answered (have already tried a quick Google search and don't find this 'web host' worth anything more than just that.) I try out all the free web servers to get an idea what they're paid product is like. I've got the idea now for this one - It's worthless
So now I will be closing out my account there and taking it over to 000webhost - they're not perfect, but I can edit my site there (or FTP in, download it, edit it here, then pop it back up,) and when I enter my URL, I go to my page, not an error screen because of bandwidth throttling.
Avoid freehostingnoads.net - they are the most absolute worthless 'service' I have ever made the mistake of trying. Won't do it twice and hopefully now you won't even have to do it once.
I will be posting a review of 000webhost soon (in the next month or two, once I've had more time to get a real feel for it,) but so far, it's not bad (actually, for a completely free web hosting service, it's pretty damn good.)
But regardless, if you're looking for a free webhost that doesn't suck, check out 000webhost.com!
Original Post Below:
So I just tried out FreeHostingNoAds.net and boy was I disappointed.
I get that you get most of your revenue from paid subscribers, but does that mean that those of us just poking at the site to see if it's as worthless as others have told us it is should be completely ignored? You apparently feel it does.
So the question is why do you insist it should be so? So I can't do a damn thing with my site. The auto-install scripts work alright and I get the raw materials up there, but then I can't use them. I installed a phpbb system and I can't get to the control panel to moderate it without an error thrown from the server (bandwidth seems ridiculously throttled.) Installed jcow and after numerous attempts, managed to get signed in and to a spot where I could do a quick blog-post - then it crashed when I tried to submit. Not available at this time. Then I try to get slick and ftp in to moderate the site on my local system. Nope, no dice as Filezilla and my native linux FTP client are both denied access at every attempt. What's worse is that even the on-site "File Manager 2" doesn't work for me as it's just a web-based ftp client that yields the same error message for me.
Try to open a ticket to get this taken care of only to find out that since I don't pay for the service, I don't get any questions answered (have already tried a quick Google search and don't find this 'web host' worth anything more than just that.) I try out all the free web servers to get an idea what they're paid product is like. I've got the idea now for this one - It's worthless
So now I will be closing out my account there and taking it over to 000webhost - they're not perfect, but I can edit my site there (or FTP in, download it, edit it here, then pop it back up,) and when I enter my URL, I go to my page, not an error screen because of bandwidth throttling.
Avoid freehostingnoads.net - they are the most absolute worthless 'service' I have ever made the mistake of trying. Won't do it twice and hopefully now you won't even have to do it once.
I will be posting a review of 000webhost soon (in the next month or two, once I've had more time to get a real feel for it,) but so far, it's not bad (actually, for a completely free web hosting service, it's pretty damn good.)
Monday, March 7, 2016
Dear Americans
How many of you remember when these United States of America were the supreme icon of First-World culture throughout the whole of the planet? Me neither. But I remember reading about those times as a child. I was in awe at what my world was, a child in the U.S., even as a wee little ten-year-old. My parents both worked and my neighborhood, while not a perfect world, was as safe as anyone could ask. Neither of my parents worked prestigious jobs, raking in stacks of cash to hide away for a rainy day or a child's college tuition later on in life, but we had everything we ever needed and most often, everything we wanted too.
Daily, during the school year, I'd walk home with the same friend I walked home with every day, stop at Mrs. Liddy's house (a very kind old lady I had sold something from a fund-raiser to once who insisted that we stop by every now and then to say hi - this turned into a daily routine,) part ways with said friend at the corner to my street, then head home. After doing my homework (usually,) I'd run right back out. Whether I was meeting up with that same friend or just some of the ones right around my house, or just wandering the streets (and surrounding wooded areas,) myself, I was entertained.
I didn't have a smartphone, I didn't have a laptop, I didn't have a blog, website, or Facebook page. I did have a walkman and a Gameboy though, so I guess there's that. But I also had routine physicals, dental checkups, trips to family therapy sessions when Mom and Dad weren't seeing eye to eye, sleepovers at friends' houses, boy scout meetings, campouts, basketball practice, frequent trips to the park, summer vacations with the family, cookouts, fishing trips, a late curfew, trust from my parents and other adults in my life and God knows what else. What bothers me about America, this world in general now, it's all tot complex and I've been unable to supply a fraction of this to my own children.
We're not poor, mind you. We have a roof over our head and the neighborhood here isn't too bad. But after working for the same company for nine long and very dedicated years (a few months shy of ten if we're being honest,) I was forced out after a number of regime changes that led to a work environment that was just unfathomable. Since then, even with ten years dedicated service and rave reviews from colleagues and supervisors, finding a steady and remotely decent paying replacement job has proved arduous to say the least.
Now, this might be acceptable for some, at least for a run of the mill type position, but in those ten years, I was not your average employee. I started out in a simple position - they bring me papers with locations of product, I update said locations in our proprietary software. That lasted three days. Then I began billing out customer shipments, checking the work of other colleagues, billing out customer shipments for the other two departments, proofing, answering phones, working extra shifts, staying late hours, working extra days (to the point I had one single day off the first thirty days I was there and a grand total of three days off in the first ninety days I was there.) I then was tasked with PC repair and maintenance, light networking and network troubleshooting, toner refill, purchasing, inventory control, and even the random bout of forklift operation. Before my hire-on date with the company itself (this was still with the temp agency that got me this job,) I had even begun training other newcomers (and even some of those who had arrived before me.)
I saw no increase in pay for any of this, though it was explained that I would, and in fact had to fight for the $0.50 bump I finally managed when hired on as a permanent employee. This was after the first regime change, by the way. And so it would go for the next nine years or so until the unsafe work environment that had developed around me was too dangerous and the rules governing it and what my actions with it should be too convoluted. While not on the greatest terms with the invalids in charge of the company when I left, I was still on good terms with many colleagues still working there and past supervisors and employees that had left before I made it out. These have been my references since.
I am adept on any forklift or boom out there, know every office suite on the market inside and out (from Microsoft to the open source jobs like OOO and Libre,) do some coding, network infrastructure, proofreading, TOS/SOP design and wording, managerial, training, job-site first aid, and what I don't know on a computer I learn very quickly. So why is it that I can't get a job and pay worthy of these skills? Well, the biggie is I've done all this from the ground up with no degree. Today, very few serious organizations will even look at you without a four-year degree. I can run circles around most finishing up their sixth year of their four-year-degree, but they've got that paper.
America is broken. Unless you come from money or dedicate your life to education, you're damned to a life mundane. Mind you, I understand there are plenty of cases where folks like myself managed to get into a decent company at ground-level and work their way to as close to the top as they would like to, but I assure you there are more of me out there than there are of them.
Trade schools, paid internships/training (have any of you tried getting an electrical apprenticeship lately? It's about the only field I can think of any more that still has this option in some select areas,) and other such 'ways in' to a successful life have all but disappeared replaced by temp agencies that promise, and typically fail, to land you that job in your field anywhere at all. The cost of tuition and supplies for even local colleges have gone up exponentially (something to the tune of seven times what they were in the 1950's - though I can't recall the source, this was from an article my fiance was reading,) making it nearly impossible to pay off whatever education you do manage (save maybe an associates in the arts at your community college,) without landing a true dream-job.
We're now born into the debts of our fathers, tripling it, and leaving it for our own children to worry about. This in a time where now in Texas, at least one arrest has been made for an outstanding student loan. We arrest parents who aren't caught up with child support - because a parent sitting in a jail cell is really going to make a better effort to get those arrears paid up. On top of that, our taxes are docked if we don't have insurance on ourselves. I'm all for socialized medical insurance - a sick nation is a non-working nation - but if I chose to pay my own damn doctor bills, leave me the fuck alone. Now to top it all off, the elephant in the room, all of us have paid into Social Security for our entire working lives, but who among us are going to be able to collect?
It's broken. Putting a broken individual in charge of it isn't going to fix it. Letting Donald trump run this nation like Hitler with an abacus (look, I'm not the asshole insisting my constituents raise their hands and pledge allegiance to me - if you don't like being compared to Der Führer, stop acting like him,) or electing Hillary Clinton, who can't even maintain sensitive information (something I'm pretty sure someone explained to her at some point,) will be the greatest mistake we, this country's citizens, as a whole have ever made. Please open up your eyes and minds, Americans, and think before you arbitrarily check off the name of a would-be tyrant or national security destroyer. Think. I know wer're trained not to these days, but try.
Daily, during the school year, I'd walk home with the same friend I walked home with every day, stop at Mrs. Liddy's house (a very kind old lady I had sold something from a fund-raiser to once who insisted that we stop by every now and then to say hi - this turned into a daily routine,) part ways with said friend at the corner to my street, then head home. After doing my homework (usually,) I'd run right back out. Whether I was meeting up with that same friend or just some of the ones right around my house, or just wandering the streets (and surrounding wooded areas,) myself, I was entertained.
I didn't have a smartphone, I didn't have a laptop, I didn't have a blog, website, or Facebook page. I did have a walkman and a Gameboy though, so I guess there's that. But I also had routine physicals, dental checkups, trips to family therapy sessions when Mom and Dad weren't seeing eye to eye, sleepovers at friends' houses, boy scout meetings, campouts, basketball practice, frequent trips to the park, summer vacations with the family, cookouts, fishing trips, a late curfew, trust from my parents and other adults in my life and God knows what else. What bothers me about America, this world in general now, it's all tot complex and I've been unable to supply a fraction of this to my own children.
We're not poor, mind you. We have a roof over our head and the neighborhood here isn't too bad. But after working for the same company for nine long and very dedicated years (a few months shy of ten if we're being honest,) I was forced out after a number of regime changes that led to a work environment that was just unfathomable. Since then, even with ten years dedicated service and rave reviews from colleagues and supervisors, finding a steady and remotely decent paying replacement job has proved arduous to say the least.
Now, this might be acceptable for some, at least for a run of the mill type position, but in those ten years, I was not your average employee. I started out in a simple position - they bring me papers with locations of product, I update said locations in our proprietary software. That lasted three days. Then I began billing out customer shipments, checking the work of other colleagues, billing out customer shipments for the other two departments, proofing, answering phones, working extra shifts, staying late hours, working extra days (to the point I had one single day off the first thirty days I was there and a grand total of three days off in the first ninety days I was there.) I then was tasked with PC repair and maintenance, light networking and network troubleshooting, toner refill, purchasing, inventory control, and even the random bout of forklift operation. Before my hire-on date with the company itself (this was still with the temp agency that got me this job,) I had even begun training other newcomers (and even some of those who had arrived before me.)
I saw no increase in pay for any of this, though it was explained that I would, and in fact had to fight for the $0.50 bump I finally managed when hired on as a permanent employee. This was after the first regime change, by the way. And so it would go for the next nine years or so until the unsafe work environment that had developed around me was too dangerous and the rules governing it and what my actions with it should be too convoluted. While not on the greatest terms with the invalids in charge of the company when I left, I was still on good terms with many colleagues still working there and past supervisors and employees that had left before I made it out. These have been my references since.
I am adept on any forklift or boom out there, know every office suite on the market inside and out (from Microsoft to the open source jobs like OOO and Libre,) do some coding, network infrastructure, proofreading, TOS/SOP design and wording, managerial, training, job-site first aid, and what I don't know on a computer I learn very quickly. So why is it that I can't get a job and pay worthy of these skills? Well, the biggie is I've done all this from the ground up with no degree. Today, very few serious organizations will even look at you without a four-year degree. I can run circles around most finishing up their sixth year of their four-year-degree, but they've got that paper.
America is broken. Unless you come from money or dedicate your life to education, you're damned to a life mundane. Mind you, I understand there are plenty of cases where folks like myself managed to get into a decent company at ground-level and work their way to as close to the top as they would like to, but I assure you there are more of me out there than there are of them.
Trade schools, paid internships/training (have any of you tried getting an electrical apprenticeship lately? It's about the only field I can think of any more that still has this option in some select areas,) and other such 'ways in' to a successful life have all but disappeared replaced by temp agencies that promise, and typically fail, to land you that job in your field anywhere at all. The cost of tuition and supplies for even local colleges have gone up exponentially (something to the tune of seven times what they were in the 1950's - though I can't recall the source, this was from an article my fiance was reading,) making it nearly impossible to pay off whatever education you do manage (save maybe an associates in the arts at your community college,) without landing a true dream-job.
We're now born into the debts of our fathers, tripling it, and leaving it for our own children to worry about. This in a time where now in Texas, at least one arrest has been made for an outstanding student loan. We arrest parents who aren't caught up with child support - because a parent sitting in a jail cell is really going to make a better effort to get those arrears paid up. On top of that, our taxes are docked if we don't have insurance on ourselves. I'm all for socialized medical insurance - a sick nation is a non-working nation - but if I chose to pay my own damn doctor bills, leave me the fuck alone. Now to top it all off, the elephant in the room, all of us have paid into Social Security for our entire working lives, but who among us are going to be able to collect?
It's broken. Putting a broken individual in charge of it isn't going to fix it. Letting Donald trump run this nation like Hitler with an abacus (look, I'm not the asshole insisting my constituents raise their hands and pledge allegiance to me - if you don't like being compared to Der Führer, stop acting like him,) or electing Hillary Clinton, who can't even maintain sensitive information (something I'm pretty sure someone explained to her at some point,) will be the greatest mistake we, this country's citizens, as a whole have ever made. Please open up your eyes and minds, Americans, and think before you arbitrarily check off the name of a would-be tyrant or national security destroyer. Think. I know wer're trained not to these days, but try.
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Gamer Trolls
I just love the internet. What is it that possesses you? No, not you, that guy. Yeah, you, the troll. Why do you do the things you do? Look, I'm not innocent by any means. I have moments where I'll just go poking around the internet looking for some trivial, mundane comment on some nonsensical post and create just the perfect environment for an internet fight. It's cold, it's calculated, and most of all, it's in good fun (which I'm typically quick to point out in my initial comment.) But you! You rapscallion. What is your main malfunction?
I'll set the scene:
I shared this link on Google+ a month ago because I thought it was hilarious. The vocals in this thing... oh my god they're amazing. It sounds quite professional and high end in general, but for something this silly? It just blew me away, so I had to share it of course.
Here's the video from the post and the comment I posted with it when I sent it out:
So give that a watch and a read and then come on back down here for the rest of this rant.
So, just moments ago, this being a solid month after I shared that little gem, I get a notification that someone has commented. Now, like I said, I troll for fun but try to keep it all in good fun, you know? I'm not looking to illicit genuine arguments or controversy (unless that troll Trump or that slag Clinton make it into the White House, then I'm going to be trolling hard for the next four years, but that's another story for another day,) I'm just goofing off, genuinely hoping someone catches it and engages a decent retort. Then enter this guy. This was a public share, so, I feel no shame in sharing the screenshot below.
Okay, did I really upset you that much? I always pick on Battlefield players (and Medal of Honor players,) not because they are less of gamers than I but because I don't care for those games. I've played them, plenty really. They are enjoyable to a point, just not my preference. Maybe if I had started with a Battlefield game or a Medal game? But anyway, again, did I REALLY upset you that much?
I'll set the scene:
I shared this link on Google+ a month ago because I thought it was hilarious. The vocals in this thing... oh my god they're amazing. It sounds quite professional and high end in general, but for something this silly? It just blew me away, so I had to share it of course.
Here's the video from the post and the comment I posted with it when I sent it out:
Alright, hilarious song and montage... but come off the campers. There are various play styles and techniques in CoD. You all bitch so much about the guy in the corner. How about the guy jumping, spinning round, and one-shot-killing you? That's 'the right way'? These are war games. War is strategic. Sometimes strategic is campy. Frankly, the best tactic I've found in any of these games is a mixture of rushing and camping. Get to a choke point, find cover, clear it out, move to the next point, find cover, clear it out, etc. I just love hearing the guy that's head-glitching in an untouchable spot bitch about the 'camper' that got more kills. Stop bitching and play the fucking game... or don't, even better.
So give that a watch and a read and then come on back down here for the rest of this rant.
So, just moments ago, this being a solid month after I shared that little gem, I get a notification that someone has commented. Now, like I said, I troll for fun but try to keep it all in good fun, you know? I'm not looking to illicit genuine arguments or controversy (unless that troll Trump or that slag Clinton make it into the White House, then I'm going to be trolling hard for the next four years, but that's another story for another day,) I'm just goofing off, genuinely hoping someone catches it and engages a decent retort. Then enter this guy. This was a public share, so, I feel no shame in sharing the screenshot below.
 |
| "They see me trollin'" |
Now, for full disclosure, his is the first comment on this post. It's never seen so much as a +1 before tonight. A virgin post, if you will. Enter Mr. Gordon. Now, I don't know this gentleman in any way - he's not even in my circles and I have Christ knows how many people circled on G+. I don't know if he added me a while back or just happened to somehow sniff out this post about a game he doesn't care for (this stale, month old post, remember? That's been shown no love?) but regardless, here we are.
Let's break it down. His comment - CoD's an arcade game, not a wargame. Now Battlefield, that's a wargame - paraphrasing here. Okay? So what's your point? Did my post, that you worked awfully hard to find, upset you that much? Even it was one of those comments I mentioned earlier; a slight troll meant to be funny and thought provoking - not rage inducing. Anyway, I giggled a bit, wrote my response explaining just why CoD is indeed a wargame (and again, this was meant less as a troll and more of an explanation as to why it is indeed a wargame - note the childish vernacular at the end saying not to look 'silly' on the internet. If I was trolling, I would have simply called them an asshat or monkeynuts. You know, real "fightin' words'" . It's also why I made the (blah) comment before Battlefield - you poked fun at my past time so I poked fun at yours. We're even, right? Well, he didn't think so. Here's the next shot fired (and last so far, from the Battlefield camp, thankfully.)
 |
| "They hatin'" |
Okay, did I really upset you that much? I always pick on Battlefield players (and Medal of Honor players,) not because they are less of gamers than I but because I don't care for those games. I've played them, plenty really. They are enjoyable to a point, just not my preference. Maybe if I had started with a Battlefield game or a Medal game? But anyway, again, did I REALLY upset you that much?
So, I said:
And before anyone says it - yes, snip should be snipe. I was tired. I was cranky. I needed a Snickers myself but alas, didn't have one. I went to bed. Now I'm back up to polish this rant off and get it out to you all for your insight. But as you can see, if you really break down my response, even then I was still trying to be a bit lighthearted about it. Seriously people. Moral of my story is, if you're gonna troll, be funny, not an asshat. Eat a Snickers, take a nap, then come back and have something funny to add to a situation. Don't troll just for the sake of shitting in someone's Cheerios. And no, I am sponsored by neither Snickers or Cheerios - just in case there's a troll in the audience - You can't feed those fuckers.
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