So, it's been a week on the new job...

And so far, it's been pretty awesome. I'm really starting to get to know the folks over there, and they're all pretty nice and fun to work with. Obviously, the 2 guys I work most directly with are the ones I know the best so far. From what I can tell, while they are very smart and know a ton about the infrastructure of the company, they are also very personable and easy to learn from. They don't put me down for not knowing something they know, provide guidance when I need it, etc. An environment like that just makes you want to work harder to get up to speed faster. I can't wait to learn all this stuff and really feel like I'm contributing in this new team.

Anyways, it's going to be a lonely weekend. Autumn is going to the beach with her mom for a family thing and I'm going to work a little on Saturday to do some database refreshes. Then I'll get to come home and do some work around the house, not my ideal weekend! I'm sure I'll get some gaming time in there somewhere.

Well, that's it for now, I'm off to work and another day of cramming as much as I can into my brain in 8 hours :)

First day was great...

Met a lot of really nice people, got settled into my desk, ate some lunch on the company dime, and got to leave at 3pm to get drug screened. All in all, a pretty nice first day. I'm less anxious today than I was yesterday, though I'm still a little nervous. I think I'll stay that way until I start getting "real" work to do and feel like I'm contributing to the team on a regular basis. Here's to just as successful day #2!

First day!

So, it's 6:20am and my alarm won't go off for another 25 minutes, but I can't sleep. I'm nervous/anxious for my first day at the new job and thinking about it was keeping me from sleeping. So, I decided to get up at 5:45am and read the handbook.... again. Once I get there and get settled, I know all this anxious behavior will go away, but this feels like the first day of high school where I didn't know anyone all over again. Can't wait to post tonight on how everything went today!

Last day at AllPoints!

I'm moving on after today, but we're going to drink beers at Foothills in about an hour, so my time here is officially done! I'll miss a lot of the people and what not! The time is just right for a change.

We know what we're having!

Autumn and I went to see the OB/GYN yesterday and do the 20 week ultrasound. This is where we find out the gender of the baby. We're having..............

A girl!

We were very excited to find this out, but we're also having a really hard time coming up with girl names. So to the few of you that actually read this blog, I need your help! We're looking for something that's not TOO common, but I don't want anything that is too weird. Autumn will pass her maiden name along (per her family's tradition) to the girl, so the middle and last name are taken care of ___________ Tedder Hayes. Help me fill in the blank!

Moving on...

Well, after five and half years at my current place of employment, the time has come for me to move on. I officially turned in my two weeks notice on Monday. My last day will be October 31st, 2008. I've been here through good and bad times and it was a good experience overall. I got to meet some really awesome people and have made what I hope will be lifelong friends during this process.

A medium sized network and telecommunications company in Welcome offered me a position last week and it's an opportunity too great to pass up. I'll be learning Linux system administration and Oracle development. Both are highly marketable skills and are more along the lines of where I saw myself at this point in my career. I've super excited they took a chance on a guy like me. I plan on working extremely hard to get up to speed as quickly as possible and become as valuable a member to their team as I feel like I was to my current job.

On a related note, one of my good friends that lost his job in the layoff process here a month and a half ago, will be returning to takeover my duties here. I'm excited that he'll have a job, but I also hope that he continues to look for opportunities to better himself while he's here.

Anyway, it's time to move on to something new, challenging, and exciting. I'll definitely be posting my information about my misadventures here. We'll see how it goes! Wish me luck!

TV shows are finally back!

I forgot to mention this in my post from yesterday. Some of my favorite TV shows are finally back on the air for their new seasons. Heroes is back! There's a lot of strange stuff going on so far this season. I don't know if it'll ever be as good as the first season, but it's certainly better than last season already. House is back on, Bones, The Ultimate Fighter.... all the stuff I really look forward to seeing during the main TV seasons. Always fun!

Man I've been lazy this past month...

So, I've been just about as lazy and any one human could be in regards to blogging for the past month. It's not that I haven't had anything of note happen, it's just that I got out of the habit somehow. So here's a quick update post, to discuss everything that's been going on, both good and bad for the past month...

First off, Autumn and I have finally announced to friends and family that we're going to be parents for the first time in March of 2009. We'll find out the sex of the baby at the end of October, so I'll be sure to update everyone then. We've been trying to have a kid for about 3 years now and we had come to the conclusion after a lot of fertility treatments that it just was not meant to happen for us. So upon giving up, we were extremely surprised to find out that Autumn was pregnant. Needless to say, we're elated and can't wait.

Next, I've been spending my free time playing Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning with some friends. This game is pretty awesome. It's not without it's short comings, but overall it has been a really enjoyable experience. If Mythic continues to develop new content, manage the game well, and fixes the existing bugs promptly, it should have a lot of longevity as a game. So if I'm not blogging on the regular, blame WAR.

Next, and on a seriously sad note, things at work took a huge turn for the bad. On Friday, September 12, things around here changed forever. 5 of the 13 employees here were let go due to poor economic conditions and lack of revenue coming in over the past couple years. 5 really good people, that I know on a personal level, now have to find a new place to work in an extremely poor economy. It's sad not to have them in the office to laugh and joke with. Hopefully our relationships can still exist outside of this office setting once they are all recovered from this terrible tragedy.

Finally, this past weekend, I got to take part in my best friend's wedding. I've known Jeff since I was 5 years old (almost 25 years now) and it was truly a great experience to be part of his marriage to Lashawn. She's a great person for him and I know they'll be as happy as Autumn and I are for the rest of their lives together. Marriage is hard work, there's no doubt about that, but anyone who says it isn't worth it, isn't with the right person. Having someone to come home to, share your ups and downs with, and do special things for makes all the compromise, arguments, and rough times worth it. Not that the negative is prevelant, but it will be present. Work hard at keeping each other happy and things will be great.

So that's been my whirlwind of a month... I'm glad October is on it's way in. Hopefully I'll be more active posting this month.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning - Preview Weekend Review

Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to be a part of the preview weekend for the soon to be released PC game, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Below is my write up of the experience, with a brief background on games of this sort.

About the genre:
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (we'll shorten that to "WAR") is a fantasy MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game). The basic concept for all these games is as follows. You create a character. You choose a class/career for that character. You complete tasks in the game world to advance your character through several levels, ultimately ending at some maximum level where you repeatedly do "end-game" content. This "end-game" content varies from game to game, but it can range from crawling through dungeons with a group of friends to kill "boss" monsters, fighting other players in the field of combat, or some combination of both.

About the game:
The Warhammer lore and franchise is more than 2 decades old. Its roots are from a tabletop game. It shares a lot of the standard fantasy races (Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, etc.) that franchises like Everquest, World of Warcraft, and Lord of the Rings have previously made famous. What sets WAR apart from similar games, is the focus of the game's content.

Their slogan "WAR is everywhere" is certainly true. From the beginning of your characters life, you are involved directly in the struggles between your race and the oppsoing race. Races are organized into two large factions as follows:

• Order - Made up of Dwarves, Empire ("Good" humans), and High Elves
• Destruction - Made up of Orcs, Chaos ("Bad" humans), and Dark Elves

As part of this struggle, you go about accomplishing various tasks from slaughtering monsters to recoving missing items. The ultimate goal, is to control territory, capture the enemy's capital city and lay waste to it, looting it for money and rewards.

How do you accomplish this end goal you might ask? Well that is done through a slightly complicated system of territory control. Basically, there are 4 "tiers" of zones. The controlling the lower tiers, helps gain control of the subsoquent tiers. After you control enough of the objectives, you gain access to the oppositions capital city and can attempt to take control of it as well. If you are succesful, then there are great rewards. If you fail, then control is reset after a period of time, and you can attempt the fun over again.

Capturing objectives and controlling territories occurs through 2 mechanics.

1. "Open RVR" takes place in contested areas between two opposing sides. You battle other players to gain control of towers, keeps, and other things. If you're not trying to capture those items, then you're defending them from the oppostion.
2. "Scenarios" are instanced RVR games that occur in a controlled environment. An even number of players engage in battle to control flags, slaughter a certain number of opponents, or various other objectives. These are both time limited and resource controlled to ensure a definite end within a reasonable amount of time. Typically games seemed to last 10-15 minutes each.

About my experience:
Now that we've covered the basic concepts of the game, let's talk about my experience in the preview weekend...

In general, I was very pleased with the game. It ran smoothly, was easy to grasp, and generally very enjoyable. The graphics took a little getting used to, but after a couple of days, I really started to enjoy them. The red "clouds" that quests place on your map, really helped me find my way around and limited my frustration levels in completing each quest.

One of the big features I wanted to comment on specifically, was Public Quests. This is a new concept to me and one that I greatly enjoyed. The idea is, that there are continuous, scripted quests that are occuring in various parts of the zone you are in. You can join them at any time and they reset after completion so you can participate repeatedly. The more you participate, the more "influence" you gain in that region, allowing you access to items and potions for free. Public quests are broken up into 3 stages of progressive difficulty. They begin with little need for a group in stage 1. In stage 2, small groups are able to complete the tasks. In stage 3, a more standard grouping of tank(s), healer(s), and dps careers is typically necessary. A lot of the quests I particpated in were similar in general concept, but their implementation and purpose was different and enjoyable.

I was able to test out the following careers in various amounts of detail over the ~3 day preview.

• Engineer
• Bright Wizard
• Witch Hunter
• Warrior Priest
• White Lion
• Shadow Warrior

All of these careers were on the Order side, as that is the faction I plan on joining upon the game's release. I wanted to get a better idea of what I might want to persue ahead of time. Here's a little more detail on each career.

• Engineer - This Dwarf career was enjoyable, particularly in the PVE questing tasks. Having to setup turrets got old pretty quickly, however. I did enjoy them in RvR as well, but ranged DPS typically is harder to play, particularly when you are in melee range of other characters.
• Bright Wizard - This Empire career was also very enjoyable. The damage output was VERY significant with the trade off being survivability. In quests, this wasn't a problem, however in RvR it's a little more challenging to stay alive. Having a good healer nearby is a must to be productive in this career. From some videos I've seen, they have some awesome abilities later in the game, which make them intriguiging.
• Witch Hunter - I only spent time playing this to rank 5. I didn't get into any RvR situations with him either. The mechanics of this class are very similar to the Rogue class in World of Warcraft. You build up "accusations" and then finish oppoents off via "executions". Single target damage is this career's specialty and it really can pump that out. Survivability is a major issue, due to the necessity of being in the "danger zone" to deal your damage.
• Warrior Priest - I played this career the most, and it was very enjoyable. They are a hybrid healer/melee DPS class for the Empire. My healing was not as substantial as an Archmage or a Rune Priest, however, my survivability was high (through HoTs mostly) and the mechanics of this class were very fun and unique. In order to keep your healing points refreshed, you needed to do damage through melee. This kept you VERY busy, especially when trying to keep others and yourself alive. A great class for self survivability especially in 1 versus 1 or 1 versus 2 situations. However as a main healer, you're better off with a Rune Priest or Archmage.
• White Lion - I was most disappointed by this High Elf career. The idea of a melee class with a pet was neat, however it's still really buggy. So much so, that I ended by testing of this class after only a couple of ranks.
  
• Shadow Warrior - This ranged DPS class for the High Elves was fun to play. It suffers from the same short comings as other ranged DPS classes. Your damage is solid. What I liked least about this class, was the animation of your main attack. It appeared as though you were arching the arrows you were shooting almost straight into the sky, regardless of where your target was. Kind of lame.

I'll elaborate on this post more down the road, but I wanted to get it out here before I forgot everything from last weekend. The open beta for this game runs from September 7th through September 13th, and I'm very excited to get back in there and try out a few more careers. Also, I may give the Destruction careers a try as well, just to see how they look.

Traitor Review

This weekend, Autumn and I checked out the new Don Cheedle film, Traitor. It wasn't the easiest film to understand the plot of from the previews, but after giving it a chance, I was pleased.

Acting: Don Cheedle (Ocean's Eleven series, Hotel Rowanda, Crash) is one of my favorite actors. Most everything I see with him in it, turns out to be worth my time. This particular role was interesting. He played the son of a Sudanese father and American mother. He did a great job of conveying his inner conflicts with "right" vs. "wrong", fundamentalist Islam vs. traditional Islam, and his American heritage vs. his Sudanese heritage. There were other familar faces in this one, but generally, Don Cheedle was the reason I was interested.

Storyline: The basic jist is Cheedle, a former US Special Forces soldier, has gone rogue and become a part of an Islamic terrorist regime called Nathir. He's brought into the regime through a friendship with a person he meets in a Sudanese prison named Omar. Their relationship and belief structures are the main thing that keeps the story going. There's a lot of twists and turns in this one, and though it's fairly predictable, it still had a lot of good content.

Special Effects: This really isn't a special effects film. Aside from some explosions, special effects aren't a huge deal. The effects that were used were good.

Overall Experience: Leaving the theatre, Autumn and I enjoyed the film. You definitely have to think during it. It also is one of those films that makes you look at yourself and this country to think about who is right/wrong in a lot of the different international conflicts that we are involved in from time to time. I've you've seen movies like "The Kingdom" (Foxx, Garner, Bateman) and enjoyed them, then you'll likely enjoy this film as well.

On a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the highest:
Acting: 3.5
Storyline: 3.5
Special Effects: 3.5
Overall Experience: 3.5

In conclusion, I give this film a solid rating of 3.5 stars out of a possible 5. However, it's perfectly fine to wait for this one on DVD. If you enjoy movies about the Middle East, then you'll probably enjoy this one!

Death Race Review

Last weekend, Autumn and I went to check out Death Race, the new Jason Statham (Transporter, The Italian Job, Crank) movie. Despite what others might think, seeing this one was more on Autumn's "To see" list than mine. From the previews it looked pretty shallow. I assumed that the storyline would be weak but the action would be fast paced and frantic. After seeing the movie though, I was pleasantly surprised .


Acting: There were a few more "name brand" actors in this movie than I expected there to be. Jason Statham headlines, but Tyrese Gibson (Transformers, Four Brothers, 2 Fast 2 Furious), Joan Allen (The Bourne Trilogy), and Ian McShane (We Are Marshall) were other familiar faces. Natalie Martinez was the eye-candy and pretty decent eye-candy at that. In general, considering the story the acting was good, but not mind blowing.

Storyline: Here's where this movie surprised me. I fully expected this to be extremely shallow and without many merits. Turns out, the writers put some thought into this one. For an action movie, it had a nice little plot and good character development.

Special Effects: Believable for the most part. Obviously, a lot of this is a bit ridiculous, but they accomplished suspension of disbelief for me. There was lots of fast driving and explosions, so if you're an adrenaline junky, you'll probably enjoy the action/race sequences.

Overall Experience: Overall, it was a pleasant surprise of a movie. I'd recommend it mainly as a rental. If you're a big Jason Statham fan, like my wife, then you may want to see it in the theatre instead. Otherwise, wait for the DVD.

On a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the highest:
Acting: 3
Storyline: 3
Special Effects: 4.5
Overall Experience: 4

In conclusion, Death Race receives 3.75 stars out of 5 and my recommendation for a rental, if you enjoy action films.

Batman: The Dark Knight Review

Autumn and I were able to see Batman: The Dark Knight this weekend. Here's my review:

Acting: Overall, it was great. Heath Ledger (RIP) was the best Joker to date. Aaron Eckhart was very good as Harvey "Two-Face" Dent as well. As much as I despise Katie Holmes as an actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal was a pretty big downgrade for the character of Rachel Dawes. Christian Bale was good again, but I did like him in Batman Begins a little better. I think that's more of a product of his character being developed more in Batman Begins than in the Dark Knight.

Storyline: Solid, cohesive, deep, and enjoyable. The movie ran a little long, but I wasn't staring at my watch waiting to get out. It kept me interested throughout and overall it was a really solid story.

Special Effects: Believable for the most part. The great thing about Batman is that he uses gadgets and what not instead of super human powers. So it's pretty easy to make his stunts and action sequences believeable. There were a couple of times where things weren't really perfect for me, but all in all high quality.

Overall Experience: I left the theatre pleased. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone else who enjoys the comic book genre movies. It's one of the best. I'd put it just behind Iron Man in terms of best action movies of 2008.

On a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the highest:
Acting: 4
Storyline: 5
Special Effects: 4
Overall Experience: 5

In conclusion, Batman: The Dark Knight receives 4.5 stars out of 5 and my recommendation for a movie to watch.

New PC is all built!

So I've had the past 2 days off of work because I'll be working this weekend instead. It came at a great time though, because my computer parts all came yesterday. I got everything pieced together and installed yesterday. For the first time ever, Windows Vista is responsive and bearable.

There's everything before I really got going on the install. Install took about 1.5 hours, then a couple hours to get Vista installed and, more importantly, World of Warcraft. My friend Jeremy is going to help me get Fedora installed on there tonight, so I have a Linux option for web browsing and development. I'll write tomororw with details on how that went.

Hellboy 2 Review

Autumn and I saw Hellboy 2: The Golden Army yesterday. Here's my breakdown of the movie.

Acting: The acting was good. I was disappointed that the voice of Abe Sapien was changed, but the new person did very well. All the rest of the returning cast was great. I particularly enjoyed Selma Blair in the role of Liz Sherman. Ron Pearlman was also really great as Hellboy.
Storyline: This is a really quirky film. I liked the subject matter and there were plenty of laughs throughout. There wasn't a TON of depth in the story, but enough to carry the movie.
Special Effects: Good quality and interesting style. Really similar to the first movie. There were a lot more non-human characters in this one, but all the people/things they created were pretty believable.
Overall Experience: I left the theater pleased. Overall a really nice movie, which was very similar to the first one, but with more strange characters.

Acting: 4 out of 5
Storyline: 3 out of 5
Special Effects: 4 out of 5
Overall Experience: 4 out of 5

I give Hellboy II 3.5 out of 5 stars.

If you were a fan of the first movie, you'll like the second one. If you're not into quirky action movies, then I'd recommend skipping this one.

Time for a new PC...

This rolls around once every 3 years or so... but it's that time again! I always feel bad because now I realize how out of touch I am with the PC building community when I start on this road. But there is tons of excitement that goes along with building a new computer.

This time, I'm getting enough hard drive space to have plenty of room to FRAPS Warcraft movies and still have plenty of room to dual boot some flavor of Linux, probably Ubuntu.

Fortunately, I've already suckered a friend into helping me get Linux up & running on the PC whenever I get it ordered, shipped, delivered, and built.

This should be really awesome, I can't wait.

What month is it?

Freaking July... I've been writing 6/7/08 on everything today. What an idiot I am. Who forgot to tell me it was July?

Hibachi for the win...

A few friends, Autumn, and myself visited this Japanese Steakhouse last night. The food was good and the banter was witty. Thanks everyone for coming out. Next time hopefully we don't have to eat and run, if you know what I mean Michelle.

Indiana Jones was ridiculous...

Autumn & I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull yesterday. Here's my breakdown of the movie:

Acting: The acting was decent in this movie. Shia LeBouff was good. The "feel" of the acting was very much in line with previous Indiana Jones movies.

Storyline: Easy to follow but a little too much science fiction. It differed from my expectations. Most of the "twist" elements were pretty easy to see coming (not that they were intended to be disguised). Nothing too complicated here, similar to the previous installments.

Special effects: Not that the quality wasn't good, but they were WAY over the top in terms of believability. There has to be a reason that someone can do something or survive something that isn't humanly possible. I buy into Neo dodging bullets in The Matrix because he's doing it with his mind. Superman can fly (even though he was a stalker in the previous film) and that is OK with me b/c he's from another planet. There's just something not quite right to me about a guy surviving a nuclear blast by hiding in a unlatched fridge that is lead lined. Landing (due to the blast) miles outside the city and walking away. Too much for me to really buy into it.

Overall experience: Leaving the theatre I was satisfied with the experience. There wasn't anything that would make me recommend against seeing the movie if you're a fan of the Indiana Jones series.

On a scale of 1-5:
Acting: 4
Story: 3
Special Effects: 2.5
Overall Experience: 4

Final rating:

Not a must see, but worthwhile to see for sure.

Family Fun on the 4th.... or the 5th

Lots of family fun on the 5th at my Aunt's house. First of all, my parents were about 3 hours late after they locked their keys in their car down at Oak Island. Then we had a nice thunderstorm while we were cooking out, followed by a 2 hour long power outage. We had a great time nonetheless. Visiting with family is always a good thing. Once everyone got there and settled it was really enjoyable. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Hancock...

Saw Hancock Friday morning and I really liked it. Here's the breakdown:

Acting: Jason Bateman was the star of this film in my opinion. He was likable and funny. Will Smith was also excellent, but he's usually good in these types of roles.

Storyline: I wish it had a little more depth than it did. More details would have helped, but in general, it told you what you needed to know. Pretty predictable "twist" in the plot, but that doesn't take away from the story.

Special Effects: Realistic considering we're in a world where a super hero exists. I can excuse over the top action sequences in that scenario. Otherwise, high quality.

Overall Experience: Leaving the theater I felt satisfied and really enjoyed the money I spent that day. My wife and I both really enjoyed the laughs.

On a scale of 1-5:
Acting: 4
Storyline: 4
Special Effects: 4
Overall Experience: 4

Final rating:

See this one, it's worth the trip.

It's Friday on a Thursday!

You have to love a Thursday that is actually your Friday for the week. No matter how crappy my week may have been, knowing that it's over with today makes it all the more tolerable.

On a side note, I'm feeling kind of low. One of my friends has been going through some tough family times lately and just thinking about the situation gets me down. I know one thing is for sure, I don't forgive very easily, especially if you actively participate in something that wrecks a friend's life. For that, I can't ever respect or trust you again, even if my friend finds the compassion to do so.

On to happier notes... a friend from Georgia is going to move to Tennessee soon and he's going to find that place to live this weekend. It's pretty cool because he'll only be about 2.5-3 hours away now, so maybe we could actually hang out some time. Having cool friends in your life certainly does make the days better.

Speaking of good friends, a group of us are getting together this Sunday to have dinner at Kanpai in Winston-Salem. I love that place. You can't beat Japanese steakhouses. I'm sure we'll all have a blast!

OK, I don't know that I'll remember to post this weekend, so everyone have a happy and safe 4th of July. Hopefully I'll have some antics to report on early next week.

It's basketball day...

As the minutes tick away here at work, I look forward to getting some basketball time in this afternoon. It's really helping keep the weight off (which I've been pretty poor about the last couple of weeks). It's really time to get re-motivated and working towards my goal of losing another 15-20 lbs before my friend's wedding in late September. Bring on the WiiFit!

An odd juxtaposition of viewpoints on people...

I got to eat lunch with my old boss yesterday. I haven't seen him in ages. It was great to get caught up and what not. He appears to be doing well (remarried, has a granddaughter, and is the size of the Incredible Hulk [in theaters now]). He's considering a position here in North Carolina again, which is great news for me. I've always looked up to this guy and hope that I can be as good of a manager to other people as he was to me when I started my career. Meeting with him helps me get focused again and make sure I'm doing the right things to advance myself professionally. No more slacking!

On a completely different note, I hate it when in an attempt to enjoy something, someone refuses to keep their mouth shut. My tolerance level with people hit another low last night, but hey, I didn't go crazy and yell at anyone, so I have to count that as a victory. Today is a new day and hopefully things will be a lot better.

So all in all, yesterday was pretty weird. I started the day appreciating people and getting my focus back. I ended the day by being annoyed by people. So I guess people went 1 for 2 yesterday. Not bad.

OMFG Candice has a blog...

So seriously, for the first time today, I felt like I was way behind in web geekdom. I found out my friend's wife has a blog (and a pretty awesome one at that) and I don't even remember the login information to mine. So I've started this new one and hopefully I'll be keeping it up from time to time. I seriously doubt it'll be as good as Candice's, but hey, I'll give it a shot.