So yeah

Last month I quit my job at GameStop...it was fun for a while, but when I started being asked to do things that weren't exactly moral and probably illegal, patience started running thin. Combined with the issues with me not getting paid for hours I worked and really crap pay for a manager position, I figured it was time to move on. I'll miss the people I worked with...most of them anyways...and a couple of the perks that come with working in a video game store but...I would not suggest working at that place to anyone. I won't go into details unless you're considering it, just ask me and I'll pull out a 3 page rant.

So I was looking for a job for about 3 weeks when I heard from my old Cisco instructor that a place in Attica (dink-ass town about the size of the town I grew up in, go figure I didn't look there >.>) was looking for a full time IT guy. Applied right away, had an interview last Friday, and today I got the job :) So excited, going to be starting on the 19th, making $28,000 a year. It'll be so nice not living paycheck to paycheck. Need to just not blow it.

Which brings me to the only dilemma in all this - how to balance my new job with my vidja games borderline addiction. Granted I'm -much- better about it now than I was say...4 years ago when I was failing out of Purdue, but that whole situation still leaves a mark. Just need to have more self control I suppose. Obviously any late night crew MMO stuff is completely out the window, seeing as I need to be awake at 6 AM every weekday. That also means any late night partying (which I've been doing on average once during the week + Friday and/or Saturday) is going to have to stop too. Fridays I can probably still swing, and maybe Saturdays. But anything during the week is asking for trouble, and I would really rather not show up to my new job hungover.

As far as online shiz is concerned now, I've been cranking out WoW quite a bit. Got my druid to 51 now, by far my favorite class. I liked Rogue but when I hit 40 I was having to rest and eat too much, started getting monotonous. Plus my gear really blew. Druid is nice because I'm basically a rogue while I'm soloing, but I can switch to caster at any time and heal/buff myself up, so there's literally no downtime at all...it's so nice. I'd like to at least get 60 before I start my job, and the FFXI expansion comes out. I'll probably take a break from WoW once it does, I'm really intrigued by Scholar. I mostly want to get through all the storyline stuff, get Scholar to at least 40...I imagine I'll quit again by May and go back to WoW. The thing with WoW is with the level cap being raised to 80 next year and me trying to balance that + job + FFXI, I think I'd be best served to just hang out in the 60's and not mess with BC end game stuff. When I get in the swing of the job thing and burn out on FFXI for the...what..6th time now, then I'll go back to it, get to 80, and get into some end-game stuff then.

Also Guitar Hero 3 is amazing. Through the Fire and the Flames is the best song evar.

Moar updates v. job coming soon! Wheeeee

Current Mood: ecstatic

Amazing how when you actually attempt to get out and live life, you have a crapload more to talk about. Not that I've ever had a problem with talking about myself, but man, lately that's been seeming a lot less boring.

( To me anyways...you decide )

Current Mood: devious

Expect in the near future a pic of me as some color other than white/transparent. The sunburn I've got on my back and arms turned me roughly the shade of a not fully ripened strawberry...good times. We'll see if I ever actually tan or I just skin cancer myself to death. Placing bets on the latter.

Right now I'm actually on my way down to Indy to work down there for the week. Same kinda deal as I was doing before, running and terminating CAT6 cable. Should be a pretty short project - thank god, it's not something I really like doing, especially when it's so nice out, I'd rather not be working in an 80-degree postal service warehouse-like building on lifts all day. At least I'm actually making money, figure I should make about $250 this week, possibly more depending how long it takes us. Cmaaaan time and a half.

Lately I've been pretty much busy during the day, and usually on FF/watching Cubs games at night. Not really sure what to do with FF anymore...there's things I want to do, but between it being beautiful outside and working and such, there's really very little time to do those things. Still usually on for a few hours at night but I can't seem to find the motivation to merit or do much of anything. I did find a pretty sweet synth for my Alchemy though, I actually make about 1500 profit from NQ....by selling to NPC. Each HQ I get (which seems to be about 25%, I'm at the 31 HQ tier) makes me about 8k, and I've actually had 2 HQ2 synths which make me about 15k each. Pretty sweet deal, it's just a matter of competing for materials.

WTF seems to be going in spurts. One day we'll have a dozen people on and it's good times, other days I'll log on and there's 1-2 other people on. I really have no idea how the hell this recruitment thing works. To get your name out there you pretty much need to be having events where people know you do something - but to do said events, you need enough "core" people to actually accomplish something, which we don't have. I'm thinking it's probably a lost cause, and now it's basically just a social LS. I basically split up Unwanted for no reason now...well other than to get rid of some bad blood. Time restraints + lack of motivation = nothing gets done to fix it. And I'm really kind of apathetic about the whole thing. While I'd certainly love to be doing the kind of stuff we did in DF's heyday, I really don't see it happening soon like I used to, and I'm not hardheaded enough to do it on my own. I'm hoping that maybe we find some people as we start doing the higher ZM's and lead up to the Apoc Nigh fight here soon, but again, -I- need to actually do something in order to get people involved.

On top of all that, I've been seriously considering starting up WoW again. I miss my little Gnome dude. I probably will wait on that til after summer though. Plus after I solo on him for maybe a week I'll just get bored with it again.

Off to Indy, should be back Friday or Saturday. Maybe some time off FF is what I need to get motivated....though it didn't work 2 weeks ago >.>

After living in the same apartment since about October 2005, I'm finally moved out...and so ends one of the best times of my post-high school life. Probably -the- best. Technically that had ended as soon as Derek moved out in early May since very little happened at the apartment once he did, but even so it was the same period. Some of it I'll miss, some of it I won't, but either way I've taken a lot from it.

( Moar )

I'm not sure why I'm incapable of just getting along with everyone...but then again...I'm also not sure why some people are just impossible to tolerate for an extended period of time. There have been a number of people who, for one reason or another, just ever never quite "gotten" it. And rather than stir up the pot and be booting people from LS's, be it OTLS, PD, DF, Unwanted, whatever - we've just let these people kind of fester in our otherwise awesome group.

I think it probably has a lot to do with the fact that I want a "fresh start" after having been gone for 6+ months, but a couple weeks ago I finally broke down and started my own LS. It's not my way or the highway by any means but...I'm being a little more..."selective" when it comes to letting people in. And by selective, I'm talking more about are you an at least halfway intelligent and not incredibly annoying person - not so much just an amazing player, that's further down the priority list. Most people who read this know who said people are, so I won't rehash it.

( WTF is born! )

My entire life, I've been told by my family that I'm a younger clone of my uncle John, my mom's younger brother. We have the same mannerisms, same hair, similar height/weight/build, talk the same, act the same. He's better looking than me, but if I tanned, worked out, and wore contacts, I'd look just like him too. My grandma still calls me John on occasion (for those that don't know...my name's Brandon, lol). I've always looked up to him, and his brother (my uncle Jim) like my dads that I don't see often but actually like.

When I was a freshman in high school, I found out my uncle Jim was gay. Being, at the time, a conservative as hell brainwashed "Christian", I was devastated. I loved him still but wasn't approving/accepting of his lifestyle. Luckily that changed before my uncle John came out 3 years ago. I was slightly more accepting of it, but still thought it was wrong according to the Bible. Still, I was questioning that, and wanted to see a way out.

( Homophobics might want to skip the rest of this... )

Current Mood: rejuvenated

Sooooo anyways...figured I'd update people on random shiz.

Still done with FFXI - I still miss you guys who still play...recent events have made me realize that more than I knew. I'm also addicted to drama, which WoW seems to have far less of, so that part of my life as been empty, too. Well actually...not entirely true...that brings me to an interesting story...

( Wheeee )

Current Mood: contemplative

One of my strongest beliefs is that no movement is doomed if there are people behind it that never give up, and feel strongly about what they believe in. Screw the haters, nothing is impossible. Optimistic? Absolutely. Naive? I beg to differ. It's naive to think that people can't make a difference, not the other way around.

( Mas... )

Whether it's a mixture of being quite popular in my little 3163 division of drunken fools due to my age, or boredom with FFXI and my little mini online world, or both - it's time I took my leave from the addictive world of MMO's, at least temporarily - permanently in the case of FFXI (I may return to check out PSU if it's to my liking and I'm able to handle the balancing act)

For those that don't know, there was a very large fire at my apartment complex a month ago - 1 person was killed, nearly 50 people lost their homes, and 2 people were hospitalized (smoke inhalation in both cases, I believe). 2 of the guys who lost their homes - David and Drew - are 18 and 20 year-old guys respectively and had just moved in 2 days before the fire. They were reassigned to the apartment up one floor and across the hall from mine. Turns out the fire was a blessing in disguise for my personal life, though it spelled a quick end to my online "life", or lack thereof.

( Yadda yadda... )

Well, the beginning of the end probably started a couple weeks ago really, but I just now decided to put it up here.

There's way more reasons for me to leave FFXI right now than to stick with it:

( Read more... )

Current Mood: torn

These past couple weeks have been a trainwreck for DF. I don't even want to count the number of people we've lost, though it's probably not far from a dozen. In times like these I usually just take my pearl off and get away from it all, but this time I've been trying to heal some of the wounds...albeit I did my part to create some of them in the first place.

Losing Sol for the summer is going to have a massive effect on us. As far as leadership is concerned he was second to none, but he's got good reasons for taking a break, and I respect that. With him gone though I need to step up, and try to emulate is level-headedness, something that's always been my weakest aspect. It'll be a learning experience, that's for sure.

Still, these past few days have been good. We had a great O-hat run on Wednesday and got a little bit of new blood that I think is going to work out well. The people we lost will never be replaceable, but we've got to do all we can to compensate for their loss.

Lately I've been really burned out on farming...I know I'm not the only one, and I know it's a common gripe. With the pool at the apartment opening up, my cruise in less than 2 weeks, and my skin no more apt to be able to handle a cruise than it was 3 months ago, I really need to spend my work and class-free weekends outside. It figures that it's raining now and I can't, so of course rather than farming or doing my homework I'm sitting here typing up an LJ, and every ounce of me wants to go level BLU, though I know I can't. So much for leadership.

In a way I wish all this drama was rearing its head a couple months ago when I had more legitimate excuses to stay cooped up inside and deal with it. Then again bad timing has always been our forte when it comes to drama.

S-E just announced they'll be releasing a Linkshell function that allows you to see member profiles and access some forums. Mixed feelings about this really...in a way its great because it takes a load of my shoulders...and in a way its terrible because in a way I've wasted over a year and a half trying to get everyone's member profiles done. Lately I've been slacking something awful on the website and member list, mainly due to my work on the BLU SC chart I've been making, and leveling BLU of course. Probably better this is being released now than a couple months ago when I was really in the thick of getting everything working.

Really need to get some work done...gah. Must..not..level..BLU....

Current Mood: lethargic

A few weeks ago I made mention of my political/ethical beliefs. I thought I should likewise mention a change in heart I've had after actually doing thinking on my own, rather than letting others do it for me. locano should like this.

I've always been stubborn. Those who know me know this all too well, and it gets me in to trouble more often than not. Strange it seems, then, that I've allowed the beliefs of others to press on to me so deeply that they've become my own beliefs, and blindly defend those beliefs with the same stubbornness.

My father is a good man at heart, follows God as best he knows how, and is an excellent teacher (and a professional one at that - he teaches Physics, Environmental Science, and other integrated science courses at the High School level...I'd guess he's capable of being a Physics professor if he wanted to be). Regarding his family though, he's very control-freakish. I've gotten some of that from him, as much as I despised it when I was living with him for 18 years.

It's no wonder then that my belief in God (or more accurately, my father's belief in what belief in God is) was stressed upon me like no other. What my father believes in regards to religion, so I believe, and there has never been an issue that we disagreed on in this regard. Until now...well he doesn't know it yet, and I'd probably do well not to discuss it with him until I have a more firm grasp on my beliefs.

I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say that aside from outdated laws of the Old Testament, I can find no evidence of Jesus or God himself stating that homosexuality is wrong, when used in the consensual sense. There are instances where there gay rape is condemned (obviously), which is the case when people talk of "Sodomy", but as for mutual relationships where 2 men or 2 women whole-heartedly love each other, it simply did not exist and was not discussed. To say that a consensual homosexual relationship is banned by the Word of God is completely false, as far as I can tell. Obviously promiscuity is still wrong, but in regards to gay marriage, I see no reason why I should be against it.

I emailed one of my gay uncles immediately after coming to this realization, and needless to say he was relieved that his nephew no longer believes his ways to be grounds for damnation. I'm assured that he's not the only one.

In semi-related other news, my sister is currently at the Awakening. I don't know if anyone here is familiar with that, but essentially it's a Christian retreat that is fully dedicated to teaching high school-age young men and women to live rightly, and according to God's will. There are similar programs for college and older aged people, one of which I attended myself a little under 2 years ago, and I can say without hesitation that it was one of the single most influential and moving experiences of my life. As a former attendee of one of these before, and as the brother of one now, I need to be there and be willing to talk with her about anything she has questions about, especially the issue I just recently came to grips with. I hope she learns a lot there and, I know I did.

I had originally put this on my last entry, but seeing as geeking out on FFXI gear and discussing political views are like...not even remotely related...and lots of people would prefer skip my political ramblings entry, I thought better of it. Plus I could (and likely will...) right a novel on Red Mage gear alone, it makes more sense to give this its own entry. So anyways, my FFXI "goals" if you will:

RDM Gear - Overview
Red Mage has 10, count em, 10 entire sets of end-game mage-oriented gear that all have their own uses. Those sets being: AF1, AF1+1, AF2, AF2+1, Crimson, Zenith, Errant, Wise, Nashira, and Yigit. That's a lot. So accordingly, this is going to be long. Really long. I'll add formatting later to make it more readable.
( Read more... )

I'm a personality quiz whore. I like to find things out about myself, and I like to complain that these surveys are unfair and inaccurate. So naturally when I saw the political views survery on galkanach's LJ, I had no choice but to give in:

Current Mood: contemplative

I totally forgot I made an account here, haha. Went to make an account just now and was pretty surprised to find someone else had already taken my name, turns out it was me :o

I figure putting stuff here will keep my post-whore rate on DF down, plus I'll share some non-FF stuff about me here, too.

For those that don't know me as onyxium, I'm Araius on Valefor, 75 RDM and 20 (and rising!) BLU of DarknessFalls. Been around a long time, since PC release, with some bumps and breaks here and there but still lovin it, even moreso now with BLU, sooo much fun.

When I'm not geeking out on the internet I'm usually at class or work..though actually..I'm usually geeking out on the internet at work too, so I guess that just leaves class...My name's Brandon Storey, 21 year old sophomore at Ivy Tech Community College in Lafayette, IN, majoring in Computer Information Technology, with a specialty in Networking. Should be done with that by Spring of '07, at which point I'm hoping to return to Purdue, or just find a good job, and maybe get them to pay for more schooling later :P I work at the college as well as a Lab Monitor, and also as a Help Desk technician. I only earn my keep whenever the phone rings, I think, haha.

I guess having an LJ will mean I'll actually have to post some of the bazillion pics I take that never get further than my enormous Fraps folder. Wheeeeee

Later
-BTS

Current Mood: satisfied