To give you a sense of scale, since I applied to the beta, I’ve:
Lived in 2 cities
Met, then proposed to, my Mishka
Had 4 different jobs in 3 cities
Been published in 4 magazines and 2 newspapers
So yeah, you can say I’ve been waiting.
And sadly, I’ll need to wait a little longer, too:
Only 25% done downloading after 3 hours.
But that’s A-OK with me because I FINALLY HAVE BETA ACCESS! HOT DAMN!
I mean, look what I’ll be playing soon, so very soon.
And I’d love for you to join me too - if you pre-order the collectors edition (I’ve ordered 3) then you get an automatic invite into the open beta which will be coming up in a few months - AND you’ll be able to play with ME! So do it!
Yesterday I bought Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare . Billed “The most photo-realistic game yet”, it actually delivers it. I played it, it uses modern weapons, and has several missions where you lead an assault on an unnamed country where the signs are in Arabic and the rogue leaders last name is Al-Asad.
It’s very realistic. So much so, that I actually feel guilty playing. There’s a mission where you’re a gunner in an AC-130 Gunship, guarding a squad on the ground as they approach a landing zone. Your view is only in the enhanced black and white of nightvision. It literally looks like I’m watching CNN footage as I fire my 105mm cannon at troops and watch them tumble like rag dolls. Watching building explode from the impact if incendiary loads.
I like my war sims as much as the next guy - but there’s a difference between fighting WW2, which happened a long time ago and I never witnessed first hand, to fighting a very realistic looking Iraq war. With scenes I’ve seen in the news.
I don’t know how long I can continue. But the physics do look damn good.
Ha ha! I won it! I won the auction for a 1979 Gottlieb Buck Rogers pinball playfield! He gives it a 9.5 out of a 10 in regards to shape, just a few things missing but other then that it’s almost brand new - just needs a couple parts, some polish, and then it’s coffee table time! I’m hoping to do it a bit cleaner then the person who wrote the HOW-TO; my woodworking skills aren’t great at all, but I think I can pull off a few things to make this table more refined and include things like miter joints. I’ll also need to work on a proper circuit to supply power to it - I’m thinking of using one of the rechargeable 18 volt batteries used in my Ryobi system + an additional charger. I figure I can use a DC-DC step down to convert from 18V to the ~6.3V the lights need, plus what ever additional power is needed to compensate for resistance. I can gut the charger, connecting inline to the battery and that way it can just charge the battery, or charge the battery while powering the lights, or just power the lights. Not bad for a $40 investment, $20 for the charger, $20 for the battery. Plus, this battery is a standard Ryobi uses so I can count on them being available for quite some time. Anyway, I’m stoked! I’m also hoping (Though not real sure I will) that I also win this auction, which is for another pinball playfield - this time for a 1978 Bally Playboy machine. It’s not in perfect shape, but it’ll clean up real well. If I get good enough at this, maybe I’ll try to sell them. I figure at most $250 for the parts, and it should easily sell for $500+, call it art and I can go as high as $800 no sweat. And $250 would be the max, a lot of the playfields go for only $50 or so, it’s just a tight market suddenly.
Anyway, pics of the new Buck Rogers playfield after the jump.
So, sorry but there are no loft pictures today. I left my backpack with my camera at the new place last night, I’ll try to remember to grab it when I leave there tonight.
I’m so utterly sore it’s not even funny. I was looking forward to coming to work, nothing better then a nice relaxing 8 hour stint sitting down. Ah to do nothing! Well, no physical labor at least.
From Saturday at 10am until 9pm yesterday, if I wasn’t sleeping I was on my feet. Mishka painted the kitchen this delicious shade of orange - but I did the primer work, so I did help a tad bit. I attempted to install on vanity light in the bathroom, then returned it and picked up a better one that actually fit. I tried to hang a coat rack next to the door, where I learned a valuable lesson about modern construction techniques. Apparently the new place was built by using metal 2×4’s, then sheet metal, then drywall. Thusly, the holly wall anchors I tried to use, and promptly snapped in half when they hit the metal, don’t work. We need some special self-tapping sheetmetal screws, which we should have tonight. Using those screws, things went in great - without them, well, there’s a lot of spackle now being used. It’s all good, lesson learned, and all those things will be properly hung tonight.
I came home last night to an email telling me I was outbid on my playfield. Yes, the one I wanted really badly to create into a coffee table. No, I wasn’t around to counter-bid on it, as I was laboriously working on my dream. I emailed him, he had a bunch of playfields he placed on auction all at the same time, and I doubt all of them sold, so perhaps I can still get lucky.
Oh, and on Friday, the same day I said I was going to stop gaming and actually work on some projects, karma came up and bitch slapped me in the form of an email letting me know that I won a spot in the beta for Warhammer Online. I was pretty pleased at that, being it’s probably one of the most sought-after MMORPGs coming out soon, and everyone wants to get a slot in the beta. But who did? Me, that’s who!
Till next time, which is later this hour, or later this week.
Pre-Order Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Collector’s Edition