In the meantime, let's eat.

As I may have hinted earlier I don't have a lot of money, but I have found out something cool, it made me a great cook. So the question of the day is, what do you have in your freezer or fridge, include spices and stuff and we will see what we can have you make for dinner tonight.

About Minecraft

Well It's already late in the day on Sunday and I have discovered that I can not post a let's play for Minecrft as the video upload system on blogger sucks. So I am going to have to post it on youtube but I will link each video to the minecraft page here on my blog.

House M.D. Is over...or is it.

As I'm sure most of you know House has aired it's final episode and is now over. I am going to get my praise for the episode out of the way very quickly and say it was a good one. I can't really qualify that statement as House does let Foreman know he is alive and there is no closure for the final episode of the series. I would have liked to see House and Wilson die, or at least House so that I can know that Fox, Global or some other big conglomerate will not try a haphazard effort to resurrect the series. On that note where the hell was Cuddy at the funeral, you can get the other doctor back in and House's ex in there too but not Cuddy?

Those points aside House was great and the series ended on a note that I was not really expecting, so I guess I should be grateful that it has run as long as it has. Now my only question is what the hell am I going to watch now?

Video games and violence

To begin with I am going to state that I am very well adjusted and have never thought of killing someone ever. Well sure once or twice I have thought about it, but I would never actually do it. That being said let's jump into the story of the day.

I have been playing video games for most of my life and for the most of my adult life I have been curious about serial killers, and children who are killers as well .The one thing I have seen over and over is it all gets traced back to violent games and television. I don't agree with this synopsis, there has to be another factor in there somewhere, if all it took was a violent game to make someone a killer then I would be 76 kills into an unstoppable kill streak that would make Ted Bundy jealous. Perhaps the missing element is how I was raised, I lived with my dad and he always taught me that all life is equal, he didn't teach me to hate blacks, jews, gays or anything like that. I learned to hate people for who they are on a personal level without judging them by their outward appearance.

So why are games targeted; Because someone can turn on almost any game released between October to December every year and (in the even of the 2011 Christmas release) they would have seen Saints row the third, Gears of War 3, battlefield 3, and Modern warfare 3. All of these games have one thing in common, they are all violent and they are all visceral in the application of it. The thing is that the most realistic game in the world is still distinguishable from reality very much so. This makes a good point for someone trying to say that games are violent, so the people who play them must be as well. But I can also say that corporal punishment (E.G. spanking) has also been kicked off the table and most other forms of discipline have been as well.   C.A.S. (or C.P.S for my american readers) have stated that should you wish to punish your children and opt to give them a time out in the corner, a child should be placed in the corner for one minute for every year of their age. I don't know about all of you but that would have been like giving a murderer 10 hours of comunity service so far as I was concerned as a child.

I guess what I am trying to say is that parents need to spend more time raising their children and teaching them how the world works.

Why Battlefield?

Why play battlefield, or any other game, for it's multiplayer function for that matter.

I am going to run you through my typical battlefield spawn in multiplayer

1. I spawn in after being sniped
2. I run about 45 feet in any direction before realizing that I am nowhere near a foe and I decided to spawn in with a shotgun
3. I find a corner to sit in with a motion detector and my shotgun (It's not camping, it's tactical waiting)
4. Someone uses the noob-tube (or pro-pipe) and now suddenly I have no wall left to hide behind.
5. I run out and start firing my shotgun and finally kill someone. 
6. A second for just managed to spawn on the person I was fighting, usually I get to kill them too
7. The sniper from earlier has found me again and lays my brains out on the battlefield
8. 8 go to 1

Now this is me in single player 

1. I load the game and watch a cut scene
2. The game picked my weapons for me for the most part so I can be assured they are going to be ok for the coming encounter.
3. I kill hundreds of people for some reason I don't understand
4. I die because I didn't see the neon orange grenade warning light. 
5. But I hit a checkpoint just a second ago, so I guess lesson learned.
6. I beat the mission
7. 7 go to 1 until the credits roll.

That being said how can example 1 be more fun than example 2? The answer is very simple, if in my spawn I used the noob-tube to kill three assholes on top of a crane and killed their spawner too. I ruined the match for them, because now they know I know they got up there, and I know that they -don't- know that I am going to wait for them to go back. You fall into a pattern, throw on the headset and try and interact with the smarter of your squad, kill the people who are on the parts of the map that should be inaccessible, hop into the AA gun and kill the chopper that's killing all of your vehicles before you can use them. Get into your liberated vehicles and go and do it to them while four or five smarter players in the match fight for the control points (If it a C.Q. Match) win or lose, look at your accolades and wait 30 seconds to do it again. 

I am not in any way saying that I am good at Battlefield 3, or halo or mass effect, but I enjoy them, and sometimes that is so much better. 

Nuclear Dawn and excellent customer service from interwave stuido.

Hello, it has been a while since I have posted anything on here but I wanted to share a story with you, that opened my eyes to the big wide world of understanding.Also a text review of a game I have not gotten to fully experience yet.

Game - Nuclear Dawn
Company - Interweave stuido
Genre - FPS + RTS
Bought on Steam Get it here

Graphics - 9.8 of 10
Gameplay - 8 of 10 (Speculated)
Concept - 10 of 10
Music and SFX - 9 of 10
Overall - 9.2

Very pretty game, simple controls for the FPS aspect, it gets right what command and conquer renegade failed to do, which is marry the FPS and RTS genre with wholesome love. I plan to do a video review once I get back into it in a few days.

The one true downfall of this game is that it is multiplayer only and once the servers die (As I thought they had) there will be nothing to do aside from play the training missions over and over (And that's almost worth it). But that's not what I want to talk about today, what I want to tell you about is the EPIC level of customer service held by the company itself and the Awesomeness of the CEO Michiel Beenen.

I am kind of an ass in this e-mail I send but I am going to show the whole thing, as it is only fair to show what people have to deal with from me when I am upset about something. I removed all the sensitive information from the e-mail however, this includes his e-mail address and the phone number ect ect, which can all be found under the 'contact us' section of the website. As I am sure I don't have to tell you read the flow of conversation from the bottom (Which is my initial e-mail) to the top (Which is the last one in the chain.)

On a related note I have three limited free passes to the game, I don'y know how long the trial is, but anyone who reads this and can correctly answer one of these questions in the comments will get one.

(To qualify you can only answer 1 question, and you must have a steam account)

Question 1 - In "My life in Skyrim" What is the main characters name?
Question 2 - What company (In my opinion) Has epic customer service?
Question 3 - What is the main design difference between my old keyboard and my new one?

All of the answers can be found elsewhere in this blog.


No problem :)

Michiel Beenen
Managing Director

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 1:19 PM, Devon wrote

Oh, one last thing, please accept my apology. I am not a stranger to admitting when I am truly wrong, and in this I was truly wrong.

-----Original Message-----
From: Michiel Beenen <>

Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 11:07:58
To: <>
Subject: Re: Nuclear Dawn is useless to me.

Im the owner of InterWave so no i dont have superiors ;)

 Michiel Beenen
 Managing Director

 
 InterWaveStudios.com | InterWaveGames.com <http://www.interwavestudios.com/>

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 1:05 PM, I wrote
 Oh. I was looking in the forums and found nothing that pointed me in that direction at all, and independent blogs and MP game forums said that it had become a dead game. I am very happy to hear that this is a technical issue and not a lack of player base as the game looks very stunning and the game play seems streamlined.

 Thank you for a very quick reply to my initial e-mail. Good customer service, even to bad customers, is a trademark trait that many companies are losing nowadays. I would like to commend you on a very polite and efficient customer service attitude and would thereby like to know if there is any way to get into contact with your superiors (that is, assuming you have some).



 -----Original Message-----

 From: Michiel Beenen < <> >
 Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 10:56:45

 To: <> >
 Subject: Re: Nuclear Dawn is useless to me.

 Hello,

 We are trully sorry to hear this it is a problem with Steam atm and Valve is aware of this, there are servers but they do not show up because they made a bug with the version number.
 This should hopefully be fixed today.
  Michiel Beenen
  Managing Director
  <http://www.interwavestudios.com/>

> >
  
  InterWaveStudios.com | InterWaveGames.com <http://www.interwavestudios.com/>

 On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 12:54 PM, Devon wrote:
  GENERAL CONTACT FORM
  Submitted on Monday, April 2, 2012 - 12:54
  Submitted by user:
  Submitted values are:

  Name: Devon

 

 Subject: Nuclear Dawn is useless to me.
  Category: Product Information
  Message:
  I recently bought Nuclear dawn off of steam and was thrilled at the prospect of playing a game like this. However my dreams were crushed when I found out that there was literally not a single other person than me who thought the same thing, and to be frank I'm more than a little pissed off. There was no warning when I bought the game that the servers were dead, and not a soul lurked to play the game with, if I had of been warned I would never have bought the game.

  I'm sure you can check my player history and see that I have never even played a match other than one I started to get a feel for the game. I was wondering in which direction I would have to look in for a refund of the money I spent to buy it. Well I am well aware that you are not obligated to provide me one in any way shape or form I will not stop until i have exploited every single option at my disposal.

  On a side note your game is very pretty to look at and is smoother than a lot of game on the market at the moment, and I am sad that I am not going to have a chance to play it.

  Please respond to me at your earliest convince 

He responded very quickly as you can see from time stamps.

Sorry I have been neglectful

I have not been able to post anything in this blog for a while, and I am sorry for that. I went to make a new game review, and windows movie maker keeps crashing my PC I'm looking for a fix for that but in the meantime my PC is toast for video reviews. I have also had some medical issues that have been keeping me occupied, I hope to have something for you soon, in the meantime please keep your chin up and your spirits cold ;)

I've got the new keyboard blues.

I had to get a new keyboard, and the first thing I have learned about me is that I do not adapt to various forms of change well.

This was my old keyboard.

And this is my new one.

I had a replacement guarantee for the old one, at The Source, but they were out of stock at the time, so they replaced them for me. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that they do that, but I miss my old keyboard. I keep having to look down at this one because the keys are smaller and I am a large fingered gentleman. Ya know the keys may not even be smaller but without the curve in the keyboard they are closer and i find myself pressing two at the same time. but in the end what the hell, I'll figure it out sooner or later. 

The problem with kittens

I have three cats, I do enjoy their company even if they couldn't be bothered to give me the time of day most of the time. While cleaning the apartment earlier today i found a small piece of blue paper on the floor. Any Canadian citizen will know that it is part of a birth certificate, I have been hunting this object down for a few weeks now, and with the discovery of the shard of blue paper I don't think I am going to find it. It has been filed under 'C' for cat, or perhaps 'N' for Nova (the kitten in question) either way I'm pretty sure it's gone and there is nothing I can do except for order a new one.

The moral of the story is; Kittens will destroy your stuff, but they are fluffy and cute and we love them anyways.

Working to live...yeah I understand that.

So, it's payday and upon seeing my pay i realized one thing, I'm already broke. The cool part is that I have money for cat litter and cat food, the sad part is that the cats (I have three) will have more food in the house then I will. But that's fine by me, other people would tell you how to save your money and be responcable, I however am going to make you a detailed list on how to live when you get paid less a month then your current cost of living.

Tip one - Understand that using this system you will never get ahead, that's why your using the system, when you had extra money you weren't in this problem in the first place. You will eventually fall behind on everything sooner or later, but this system will help you at least keep afloat.

Tip two - Pay the right bills at the right time, your priorities should be, in this order; Rent > hydro > food > internet. You don't have to pay them all of the bill, just shoot them money so they know you care. They will call you over and over if you don't answer and tell them that you intend to pay so...answer the phone and make an arrangement, you will probably have to break it but that's ok, so long as you give them some money when they want is you will keep your services that much longer

Tip three - .If you get paid bi-monthly like I do, twice a year you will have a three pay month, use the middle pay to pay your bills as close as you can to $0 and use this pay to buy food, anything canned is good. all the other months use this tip to stay on top. Split your bills on the first pay of them month, it probably won't pay all of them but if each bill gets an equal amount any extra windfall you receive can go to them too. The bottom pay of the month can go straight to rent and anything leftover to food and something tiny for yourself. You always want to get yourself a little something every now and again, it will help you not do that when you have extra windfall to throw at the bills.

Tip four - Always keep an eye out for a provider offering the services you already have for a cheaper price, and when you call them to ask about it always ask them how much your bill is going to be -AFTER- the promotional period. Then once you find out all that information, if your bill with your current provider is near the 0$ ammount call them and tell them that you have found a provider willing to charge you less, and they will sometimes offer you a deal to stay. 

Tip Five - When you go grocery shopping, never take a trolley! Always use a hand-basket, it will stop you from spending more then you have to while you shop. Never use a list, shop by memory because you will always remember the 100% necessary things as you shop. Think taxes while you shop, some things are taxed and some things are not, but as you shop keep a tally of what you have spent assuming everything is going to be taxed at the register. This will allow you some breathing room at the register and let you have a few dollars left over so you can buy a bottle of pop or whatever pleases you. 

Tip six - Brand matters not, always go for the cheapest brand you can find, they may not taste the same as a name brand, but they are cheap and allow you to stretch you budget that much further. As for us smokers, the cheaper the better, sure low end smokes taste like goat piss (Because there is probably some in there anyways) but a smoke is a smoke at the end of the day. 

Tip Seven - Always file your taxes, you will typically always get money back, and you can get more back by asking your job to tax you more. That's right, ask your employer to take an extra $10 off of your pay into taxes it will increase your take back at the end of the year. Plus, if you file you become eligible for any government checks that come in, which is always nice.

Tip Eight - NEVER use money mart or similar services...EVER. If you are close with your employer, ask them for an advance of your pay if you really need it, and offer to pay it back over several pays. Most employers will do that for their employees because they remember what it is like to be in your shoes, if you work for a big company, talk to your HR department, and they can answer your questions. 

These simple things have kept me alive and well for years, sure I don't have a lot of money but I have three well fed and healthy cats, and a wife going to college, hydro, food, and internet and I can honestly say I'm happy with that.