All major systems were upgraded last night and I had only one piece of code out of sync (5 minute fix today). Fingers crossed that our first bill run this weekend against all the new stuff continues to work so well.

My brother and I joined up to PUG a Naxx 25 run last weekend with surprisingly good results (until The Instructor and Patchwerk smashed us into oblivion). I got a fancy new hat out of the deal, too. The raid content is really very well designed. I'm really looking forward to being able to run it at 10 man with friends!

Dawn of War 2 comes out this week and I've got it on pre-order. I'm not great at RTS, but I really enjoy them. Based on the beta, I don't think it will push Company of Heroes (Relic's previous RTS) off our fun radar. But I am hopeful that the single player experience will be just as awesome as CoH's was. Company of Heroes is seriously badass, though, so I have high expectations.

"I wouldn't wave around a stick made of non-Euclidean plutonium cursed by 50 generations of emo snowman witch doctors either, unless I knew exactly was doing with it."
-Argyle

Best of luck to the new Commander-in-Chief. This is an exciting time!

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Went straight from Christmas vacations into billing system release time here. Hopefully the 2 months I spent analyzing tax variances will help this transition. I get to put my first code for the new system into production today, and the releases will continue through February. Talk about an extended schedule ...

Anyway, as stress has been at such a high I've been doing quite a bit to mitigate it.

1) Hanging out with Rachel! Totally helpful.
2) Animal entertainment! Our dog and cat are hilarious, so much so that we've stopped going out as much to instead be entertained by their antics.
3) Guitar! Still plugging along on this. I'm not where I want to be, but part of this stress makes me want to play instead of practice. Hopefully musicians know the difference there.
4) Biking to work! My new Trek Portland is completely awesome. Except for one week of sub-freezing temperatures, I've been biking to work every day since last February. Almost a year!
5) Video games! My new main Death Knight is, um, a little piece of overpowered awesomeness. I was looking around yesterday and realized that 5 of my gear pieces are the best pieces I can get for my build without raiding through Naxxramas. I don't think I did that intentionally, but it's nice to see my innate optimization abilities are still working.

Anyway, back to work here!

The rainy season is here and I love it. An interesting side effect is to make me want to stay in and avoid live human interaction.

Fortunately, I have World of Warcraft (and its soon to be released expansion), Fallout 3 (a highly worthy successor), Team Fortress 2, and the upcoming co-op zombie fest, Left4Dead.

It's a good time to be a shut in.

By the way, Obama won. Hope we see something awesome come from it.

So ... I never finished my discussion of our European trip from May/June and it's now the fall. Guess that one's only getting finished in my head.

I turn 30 here in a few days and I'm not finding anything different and exciting about it. Life's just going along, and is mostly going well! Work has gotten relatively stressful, as well as busy.

We did get a cat and a dog, waaaaaay back in June. They are awesometastic in many way. The dog, unfortunately, was probably abused while a stray or used as bait in dog fights. He basically can't get along with other dogs, but is perfect around us, our cat, and other people. The cat is a cat and does cat things. He's a bit of a biter, but is pretty amazing.

PAX was also fantastic. I now have Rock Band 2 as well.

This month starts the mega release season. Coming up over the next month alone are Fallout 3, Left4Dead, and Wrath of the Lich King. On top of that, I've gotten hooked on the Fall from Heaven 2 total conversion mod for Civ4. Dark fantasy conversion with all kinds of good things going on with it.

Life's pretty good, overall.

Our sixth day we had nothing planned. As we got back in late and got up early, Simon and I decided to hang out with his dad and read while the girls went into Surrey and saw the sights, history, and shopping!! For me, it was a pretty uneventful morning.

By the afternoon, we had hired a car to transport us all to the airport, Simon's parent's car being far too small for four adults and their luggage. Eventually, though, we made it to the airport and, as NI is part of the UK, made it to Belfast without any problems.

The Belfast airport is waaaaaaaaay out in the country and the taxi we hired to get into the city apparently knew the best possible way in to the city that also avoided major roads. It was an extremely picturesque drive in to Kate's friend's house.

We met up and managed to lug all our bags into her house and then were off to dinner! Along the way to dinner, however, we got our first sight of one of Belfast's famous murals - literally right outside Tracey's door. A bit disturbing to see, but a reminder of the local recent history. Fortunately, dinner was the best Indian food I have eaten anywhere. It was an amazing combination of flavors and atmosphere.

The day ended well, with us ready to take on the Irish sites and sounds!

No, I haven't forgotten the entire trip yet. The first picture from our fifth day is of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, newly remodeled and completely awesome. That picture, though, was taken in early evening (the 9 AM timestamp is Pacific time). So what happened that led up to an amazing experience with A Midsummer Night's Dream?

A knitting store for Kate, obviously! The rest of us sat around dutifully while Kate devoured an entire knitting store. There was nothing left but some shorn sheep. And the rest of the store.

From there, we made our way up to a hipster shopping area whose name again escapes me. Lunch consisted of interesting covered bazaar style food and a trip to Cyberdog for some shopping. I even found a shirt!

Unfortunately, we spent so long in the shopping mode that we were a bit late for our only appointment that day: tickets to the Globe Theatre with Simon's parents. The run from the tube station through the south bank of London pretty well destroyed my feet. We made it to the show about 15 minutes late, and proceeded to enjoy the hell out of it.

Simon's parents took us to dinner at an excellent Middle Eastern (mostly Lebanese) restaurant. We got the family course, which consisted of all kinds of tasty appetizers before the main course.

We wound the evening down with a trip on the London Eye, The 135 ft ferris wheel really gave an excellent view of a great many of London's sights. The location and view were really fantastic. We could see Westminster Cathedral, Abbey, Buckingham Palace, tons of river traffic, the Tower of London, and plenty of other interesting buildings that we couldn't identify!

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We ended the evening with some silliness and a bit of a pub crawl. Tasty strawberry beer.

That was our last full day in England, and the whole experience was wonderful. Great people, great times.

Coming soon - Northern Ireland!

Day four found us touring parts of London. Fortunately, there was a Starbucks along the way from the train station to the Tower of London. Unfortunately, we paid $12 for the privilege of two fancy coffee drinks. Along the way to the Tower Bridge was a pretty interesting site - the Telectroscope - which allows Londoners to see their counterparts in New York. It looked distinctly awesome, as if something had erupted out through the ground.

The tour through the Tower was, well, wet. We made a game of counting how many umbrellas London killed. We stopped after passing an entire dumpster filled with broken umbrellas. Obviously, London came out on top of the umbrella scourge. I didn't realize that many of the Crown Jewels were stored in the Tower - I don't think I went through there the last time I had been in London. Overall it was a fantastic, though wet, experience.

The rain began to lighten up after our British take on Japanese food. By the time we got to Buckingham Palace, it only looked mournful, not terrible. The Queen was in, as evidenced by her flag and the men with guns. This was actually the only place we saw armed police. It's really true that the culture of guns there just doesn't exist. Instead, they stab each other. An actor in the next Harry Potter movie was stabbed to death while we were in England.

In the evening, we tried to find fish and chips for Rachel. Unfortunately, the restaurant we wanted to stop at closed 20 minutes before we arrived. The one we actually ended up in had terrible food and service. C-c-c-combo!! We got back to Simon's parent's place relatively early and spent some time planning out the rest of the trip that needed planning. Lots of good relaxation and reading happened on this trip. And we weren't even halfway through yet!!

I'm still slowly working my way through the England trip. In current events, Rachel and I saw Avenue Q last night. It was probably the best Broadway musical I've seen in Portland to date. Highly recommended.

The thirdish morning started after noon with a very tasty English breakfast (and lots of tea). Simon's folks were up at their usual time, while we were awake by mid-day. While some of Simon's friends wanted us to come out to London early, we figured we only wanted to go there once instead of there and back again. Instead, we went on a lovely walk with Simon's parents and dog off in the park near there house. It had been an old quarry and was now a lake with forest around it.

By the early evening, we'd gotten put together in clubbing gear and headed out to the train. The ticket machine wouldn't allow us to buy the 4 for 2 fares into the city, so we just waited around on the platform, intent on purchasing tickets on the train. A group of teenager boys gave Rachel and Kate a good staring. Teenagers are the same everywhere, it seems. Simon and I conspired to have me ask for tickets, as he still thought he sounded too British. To our ears he did, but his friends seemed to think he had an American accent. Weird what different culture's ears will pick up on. Apparently Hugh Laurie's American accent on House sounds terrible to the Brits as well. Sounds great to me!

We spent the evening hanging out with more of Simon's friends at a pub in some famous district in London whose name completely escapes me at the moment. There were street performers and drunken football fans in the area as well. Finally, after staying so long that the grocery had closed, we stopped at a pasty shop. Mine was fantastic, though Rachel's was cold. No good at all.

The night started up for real when we made it to Slimelight, a three level goth/industrial night club in the Angel district in London. We spent time there from ~10 PM until 5 AM; talking, laughing, dancing, drinking. It was just such an amazing time, both for bonding and hanging out.

At 5 AM, we made our way to the bus station. Some hilarious (from my perspective) conversations at too early o'clock in the Victoria train station. Just good times. We boarded the train around 6:30 back to Simon's parents' place with a very tired group of people and a very drunk Simon.

Pictures from our trip are up . I'll probably go back and place images to fit the earlier posts later on.

We arrived in England's Heathrow airport around 8:30 PM local time. It seemed like we were the only international flight to come in at that time, which was nice for customs. As Simon is a British citizen, he got in their line. He was the only one in that line. After a short while, Kate, Rachel and I got up to the desk and got to watch Simon make faces at us from behind the customs lady.

We changed some money in the airport. $500 -> 229 pounds. Hmm, where's the pound symbol? That makes the conversion rate for cash $2.18 -> 1 pound. Keep this in mind as we go along; pounds spend about the same as dollars for many things.

Simon's parents had a car waiting for us (including a man with a sign!). We got to be introduced to the "estate car" (station wagon) and got to play luggage Tetris once again. Kate started for the driver's seat like I did when I went to Japan. Wacky right side drive cars!

I think we dozed in the car - it was a good hour drive or so out to Surrey. We got to meet Simon's parents, briefly, before piling back into their car for the start of traditional British homecomings - the pub!

We got to meet several of Simon's friends, and say hello to a couple of them who had been at Kate and Simon's wedding. We pubbed until midnight, when they closed the pub, then returned to Simon's parent's house and continued with "American style pizza" until 2 AM. A really fantastic way to start the trip.

I meant to try and write these up as we were going along. However, I decided it was more fun to hang out with folks than blog while on vacation.

The beginning and the end of this trip involved waking up at 4 AM, so I might as well start there. Rachel and I woke up to our alarms after some final packing and a solid 4 hours of sleep. Woo! Cab to the airport, flight to Harrisburg via Chicago (a la Wilco) and all day. We had some tasty Chili's in the airport in Chicago, though as it was an express Chili's they did not have curly fries. Sad.

We began our time in Pennsylvania with Kate saying that she'd be late and Rachel and I trying to decide if people there are fat because they eat too much or if they eat too much because they are fat. To be fair, it's probably because the middle of PA has nothing to do, people eat farmer's diets, and not very many people do the work that the 5k calorie meals require. The Harrisburg airport did have rocking chairs, however, which was pretty awesome.

Kate picked us up, we stopped by their house to grab Simon, and we all went out for a tasty meal. After that, the returned to the casa del Kate and Simon for a tour, introduction to cats, and hanging out while they finished packing. Around midnight, they had finished packing and we loaded 4 adult's luggage into a Prius. It's a good thing we were well versed in Tetris! As we needed to be at Reagan airport by 4 AM (a lie, as they don't open security until after 5 AM) we headed out around 1 AM for the 2 hours car trip to Reagan. Rachel slept against the luggage while Simon and I tried to keep Kate awake and alert for the drive.

While we all arrived in one piece physically, our minds had been shattered by the long day. At this point, we had all been up for 20+ hours without any real break. We wouldn't get one any time soon, either. We camped the not-yet-open American Airlines desk at Reagan, joking at the hilarious wacko who insisted on telling everyone that he was in front of us in a line that didn't exist. It turned out that one of the airline employees had been keeping track of the order in which everyone arrived in order to put us in a line to wait for self-check machines that weren't yet on.

When she finally activated the machines, Rachel and I zipped through check-in with no problems. Simon, unfortunately and because of the lethargy of the federal government, had to jump through all kinds of hoops to be allowed to check in. We collected ourselves and then had to go wait in yet another line as the security checkpoint had not yet been opened. Another hour and several breakfast sandwiches later, and we were on our first flight of that day (and third of our trip).

As the trip from Reagan to JFK was only an hour long, we mostly stayed awake - sitting in some kind of hilarious torpor. Eventually, we made it to JFK and our flight to London. By the time we took off, all 4 of us were crashed into unconsciousness, having been up and relatively alert for far too many hours.

There has been plenty of media coverage of Grand Theft Auto IV. For the most part I disregard the fear mongering "what about The Children" arguments and move on with my life, thinking that The Parents of The Children should be involved in The Children's lives.

Who knows the real statistics, but I have some anecdotal evidence. GTA IV is rated M for 17+ in the USA. If there was an Adults Only rating that would allow the game to be sold in the USA, I'm sure it would have gotten that. I was carded when I purchased my copy (because I obviously look like I'm under 18?) so I imagine most people who purchased the game were as well. We were waiting for some cell phone work and I was flipping through the manual when a girl, no more than 8 years old, comes up to me and says, "I have that game. It's great!" While I can't disagree with her sentiment, I certainly wouldn't let my hypothetical 8 year old watch, much less play, this game.

I guess the little girl's parents thought she could handle it. Or they didn't care enough to look into the content of the game or sit down and play a bit of it. Seriously, after the opening sequence it's at least a PG-13 movie. After any explorative game-play it is obviously on par with a gritty R movie like Usual Suspects or Reservoir Dogs. Stylistic violence, sex, and language.

By the way, it's also a hell of a lot of fun.

I really shouldn't take the time to write this, but whatever. My brain explodes enough today.

Rachel and I will be getting a kitten (young) and dog (1-3 years) soon. It's been a while since I've attended to animals, and I've never been solely responsible for them. Does anyone have any suggested reading? Also tips to make sure they don't eat each other would be appreciated.

In other news, lots of things. Stressful things, happy things, game things, life things. I must be in a series of awesome moods considering how little I post here!

(Hot Chip live are a lot of fun. They're pretty nerdy and British.)

I grabbed Audiosurf from Steam last week because it sounded fantastic and was $9. And it just became cooler than I had originally thought.

Audiosurf scoreboard alert - Dethroned!

You used to have the worldwide best score for: one world one sky by covenant

Now the Audiosurf player 'Sublett' has beaten you. Get back in the game and reclaim the top spot!
View High Scores for one world one sky by covenant

Granted, it was not a very difficult feat, but that sort of fan service was not something I expected.

Anyway, go grab Audiosurf if you like music and games!

From the incredible Bill Harris's Dubious Quality

Maybe ten years ago someone could have claimed that people who play games and people who don't represent two separate countries. Today, though, it would be more accurate to say that the people who don't play games live on an island, and that island is shrinking every day.

Add to that stat that 69% of heads of households play video and computer games as well as everything else that comes with it, and I'm a happy camper. No longer on the fringe.

There was a bit of flavor text in Assassin's Creed that was a news story lamenting the closing of the last Hollywood movie studio as more people turn to interactive media for entertainment. Probably not realistic (who doesn't love some passive entertainment?) but still fun.

This is something I've been thinking about doing for a while. Would probably be a good thing to try. Though of course, I'll have to schedule it on a week when I don't have my regular board gaming group ...

Gaming Abstinence