things
So in Feb we put in an offer on a house that we found and Meg had fell in love with. Time after time we would get false info from the ASSet manager, stringing us along.
Then a few weeks ago, I get a call from my sister telling me that my dad, who had just been put on the heart transplant list a few weeks before, is getting a new heart. So I head out to Virginia to be there.
That Saturday, I get a call from our agent, Nalani Young of Northwest Prudential, who has been absolutely wonderful, telling us Wells Fargo finally approved our offer. That news, along with the transplant being a success, made for a great feeling.
So our closing is set for Sept 6th. Which makes for a VERY busy two weeks. We have PAX, then spend a week with my brother Brett in Cali, then back here to sign the papers.
I need that vacation. But the stress taken off our back waiting, is a relief. And knowing my dad is getting a second chance, is a blessing.
Thanks to everyone who has been supportive.
hurry up and wait!
That’s what it seems like with the house hunting. When we have something to do with paperwork or what not, we’re under time constraints. But when it comes to the bank, its a waiting game. I had heard it would be stressful, but never realized how much as well as being mentally draining. Hope its over with soon.
One thing I don’t have to work about anymore are my brothers. Both John and Brett are back. John is the one who had been injured by the IED during his deployment and just recently received a Purple Heart for that. He is still dealing with his injuries but his holding the faith that all will get better.
Otherwise, not much else is going on. Maybe I’ll get back into posting here more often when things sort themselves out. Until then, be excellent to each other.
counting the hours
As the day approaches, i’m getting much more anxious.
I can feel myself starting to twitch, my feet crying out for me to stop already, even though I haven’t started.
Depriving myself of sleep, day after day, just to put on that shirt.
Being with like-minded friends and cohorts, who I get to see once, maybe twice a year.
What do I speak of? PAX of course!
If you’re going, see you there! But this time in Boston! New England baby!
Seriously, i’m excited. And I get to see a cousin of mine who lives out there. But I also feel like i’m going home. I haven’t been back to New England in years, and can’t wait.
-j
yeah yeah
I haven’t posted in awhile, been sort of in a funk. If you follow me on Facebook, you saw what happened in Dec.
If you don’t, I had to put my beagle, Mabel, down. She had developed cancer some time ago and it finally got the better of her. We had her cremated and buried her at my parents house with one of their other beagles.
Christmas was good. Was helpful spending it with my parents, seeing my sister and two of my nieces and nephew. The trip coming back though was rather rough.
The storms wreaked havoc on many people’s travel plans. Including ours. Flights coming back home were cancelled, delayed, causing us to sleep in airports and take two days to get home. We were rather upset with Southwest’s policies. They do not give meal voucher’s, refunds, or hotel accommodations. The return trip tickets were put onto our accounts for use at a later date and they made a token apology by giving us both a $200 voucher, so that pays for our trip to Arizona for spring training and my trip to PAX:East.
And now we have a cat that has renal failure. Not looking forward to the that end.
/whine off
wow…
Its been a very busy month for me, not with just work, but with other things as well. Having two brothers in Afghanistan is a mindful, but more on that in another post.
This post was more to just vent and show how pathetically stupid customer support for the gaming industry really is (there are some exceptions).
So as I had previously posted, Brett is wanting to play Mafia II, but is unable to get it installed since he doesn’t have internet access except for email. Steam was absolutely of no help saying over and over ‘He will need to connect to the internet at a cafe or such to do it then.’ HELLO?!?! HE’S IN A GODDAMN WAR ZONE!!
And then there’s 2k Games.
Here’s my original email to them:
From: thejaxx@gmail.com
Date: 20/10/2010 02:50:37
To: usa@take2support.com
Subject: Hello, My brother who is currently serving in Afghanistan just received Mafia IName: David Wyble
Email: thejaxx@gmail.com
Platform: PC
Game: Mafia IIQuestion: Hello, My brother who is currently serving in Afghanistan just received Mafia II and emailed me with a problem. He can’t install it on his laptop due to no internet connectivity. Unfortunately they do not have internet access over there except for email through the Dept of Defense system and therefore cannot install the game. He still has approx 7 months left and asked me to help him out. If you want to email him directly with some suggestions or a way to help him out, his contact info is as follows: GySgt Brett Wyble – ************** Or please reply to me with something that may help. Thank you much.
Pretty clear I would think.
Well, three weeks later… Yes, three weeks, I get this response:
Dear David,
Before we look into your problem we require more information on the system you are running the game on. The best way to gives us this information is to attach your Direct X information to an email.
To do this – Start menu > Run > type DXDIAG > click Ok, this will then load the Direct X diagnostic tool. Once this has been done click on Save information and save the Text file on your PC.
Now reply to this email with the file attached and we will look into the problem and be back in touch as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
MattTechnical Support
I have no words to describe my utter astonishment.
needing help
One of my brothers, Brett, is currently in Afghanistan with a bit of an issue. That being him unable to install Mafia II on his laptop since it needs to have a full internet connection to install. That of course is through Steam. Well, being in a combat theatre, he only has access to email through the DoD’s system, which won’t work.
So if anyone know’s anyone at Valve or 2K or know’s how to help, please let me know.
1 year later
Summer’s over and the fall weather is just as strange as the rest of the year has been.
Not sure why I said that. But who cares.
So, I had so much I wanted to do this summer, but only got some of it done. It was rather frustrating. Wanting to get some games played through, or watch shows, go camping, see movies, go to the zoo, etc. But something always came up. So only got a few of the things done. I think alot of it had to do with my back, meaning doctor appts, therapy, and resting it up.
Then there’s Ernie.
Ernie the Cat had taken ill, really badly, where she was urinating a lot of blood, running a high fever, couldn’t stand, and wouldn’t drink or eat. I ended up having to take her to the vet with the certainty that we were going to have to say goodbye. The vet asked us to give her 24 hours and gave her a pretty good dose of anti-biotics, fluids, appetite enhancer, and something else. Its now 3 days later and she’s doing better. I’m just not sure how much longer she’ll be with us.
And finally, been married now one year. And as much of an ass I am, she still puts up with me. :p
Lastly, as many of you know, I promote Child’s Play, which is ramping up shortly. I also ask you to take a look at this: Extra Life. Esmerelda from Sarcastic Gamer is trying to raise money for the Miami Children’s Hospital by playing games for 24 hours straight on Oct 16th. She’s not asking for much, just $1/hour. I’ve pitched in and ask you do the same.
pax is dead … long live pax
So it was that time again this year. And god am I sore. PAX:Prime has come and gone.
Not much I can say about it that hasn’t already been published somewhere else, except to reiterate just how damn awesome this convention is. Getting see people I only talk with online, play games with, and occasionally speak with, is well worth the vacation time, the pain endured, and the bittersweetness of parting ways for another year.
But this time, it won’t be a year. Least for me it won’t, because I will be going to PAX:East. Yay!
So this year I was a Silver Assistant (Thanks PRD for giving me this chance <3). This entails me working closely with several exhibitors and helping out others and attendee's in the expo hall. All of my exhibitors were just friggin fantastic and I would like to thank each one:
Rooster Teeth: Gus, Geoff, Bernie, and the rest of you, thanks for gifts and not killing me for checking on you guys occasionally to make sure you were alright. You’ve been a barrel of laughs ever since I found you folks at my original PAX and look forward to the future.
Mega64: Rocco, Derrick, Shawn and Eric. You guys just plain out rock. And no, I didn’t forget Garrett, you sir, are just one crazy mofo. Thanks for being gentle with a first year SA and for the DVD’s. Look forward to the video you shot on the floor. And my wife loves you guys for helping her win one of the DSi’s.
Sweet Kitty: Thank you for the Yan Yan, the cookies, and the laughs. Meg thanks you for the Totoro pin, she gets the biggest grin on her face when I mention it. See you in the store soon!
Open Chord LLC: You’ve made me want to actually learn to play guitar now. The product you have developed is great and I would LOVE to get one. I had a blast the two times I actually had the time to play and know I will again soon. Good luck and hope to see you next PAX!
Fugazo: Frobots looks like its going to do well, I know we will be getting it as soon as it shows up on WiiWare. Hope to see more from you folks going forwards!
Art Institute of Seattle: Your video blew my mind. You have some very talented students and I just know I will see some of their work in future games.
A few things I am looking forward to from the show: The Old Republic, Kinect, Windows 7 Phone, Portal 2 (OMFG, hurry it up!!! :p ), Duke Nukem Forever (no joke, its coming, though it would of been classic if they would of said ‘psych!’ heh), Halo: Reach, TRON, and a few other items i’m missing.
I would also like to thank the folks that manned the Plantronics booth for their appreciation and understanding while I helped get their setup issue’s taken care of. It was a pleasure talking with you! And Lars, if you happen to somehow find this, if you guys get a headset that cups the ears, you’ve got a customer right here! Fell in love with my Voyager Pro the moment I bought it and have no doubt your headset would do the same.
And to Chinny Chuang of Zalman, pleasure helping you out and thanks for the smiles, they helped relieve the stress of the crowds.
And lastly, to my fellow Enforcers, we did it again. ELand kept us all alive! Love the hell out of you guys and see you all in the trenches again at PAX:East. And if I forgot anyone, my apologies, tired and it wasn’t intentional.
*UPDATE* I just realized that I owe a big thanks to SpyderZ, Zalvinar, and Ailadinya for their input and support for my first time in this position. Thank you so much.
gah
To visitors of Ahazi, pls be patient as I deal with this issue.
Something went wrong and two domains are now reversed with the websites.
free time?
Nope.
Well, not totally true. I’ve been busy but also just been lazy. Getting out has been more of a priority when the days have sun. And also another obligation i’ve taken on recently.
The beer has turned out rather well. Gave it out to a few people to try and everyone has liked it so far, even a few asking for another bottle or two or two of it. Its got a smooth taste with a slight citrus and banana undertone. Turned out a bit darker then I had expected with the amber malt I mixed in with it. But its so nice.
Yesterday was Meg’s surprise Bday party. She was a little upset ( :p) with me because she doesn’t like surprises, and she had said ‘I’ve never been tricked before!’ Guess it was a success then.
Have really been to any movies or such lately since Meg and I are trying to save up for a house. And I am still working on finishing Borderlands.
Book:
This isn’t out just yet, but I have a copy of the first self-published version and I would recommend this book. Comes out June 22nd and will be coming to a city near you. He also has many other audiobooks you can download for free.
“The ancestors are out there … you have to believe me.”
Acclaimed author Scott Sigler, New York Times bestselling creator of INFECTED and CONTAGIOUS, offers a chilling tale of what can happen when hubris, greed, and madness drive scientific experimentation past the brink of reason.
Every five minutes, a transplant candidate dies while waiting for a compatible heart, a liver, a kidney. Imagine a technology that could provide those life-saving transplant organs for a nominal fee … and imagine what a company would do to monopolize that technology.
On a remote island in the Canadian Arctic, PJ Colding leads a group of geneticists who have discovered this holy grail of medicine. By reverse-engineering thousands of animal genomes, Colding’s team has dialed back the evolutionary clock and re-created the progenitor of all mammals. The method? Illegal. The result? A computer-engineered living creature, an animal whose organs can be implanted in any person, with no chance of transplant rejection.
There’s just one problem: these ancestors are not the docile herd animals that Colding’s team envisioned. Instead, Colding’s work has given birth to something big, something evil…something very, very hungry.
As creators become prey in an ultimate battle for survival, Colding and the woman he loves must fight to survive — even as government agents close in to shut the project down, and the deep-pocketed company backing this research reveals its own cold-blooded agenda.
