Just putting this up where it'll stick around for a little while longer.

Allikat and I have set up shop on the Greybriar server (PvE) on Rift.  It's free-to-play, and honestly it's got one of the best set-ups for free-to-play I've seen as far as not forcing you to actually BUY anything.

Come hang out and kill some shit with us.  Find me as Shihli, Guardian, on Greybriar.

Mine is Drewbahr    .

Let's play sometime!

As the title suggests, I'm thinking about getting a PS3. Any must-have games?

So I was thinking today about something I was told during my employee review earlier this year.  I was told that I was good at communicating my thoughts clearly, and that I was good at talking to people of varying skill levels about technical details and such.  I was also told that I had a "calming" voice and was easy to approach, and that I had a tone that made me sound "more experienced than I may be" - which come to think of it, may not always be a positive.

The whole reason I bring that all up is because I learned it from interacting with members of <Downfall> and from my experience as a raid leader, raid member, recruiter, and pseudo-sit-in-guild-leader-for-a-time.

I know I'm not the most beloved of <Downfall> members.  Loads of you have an opinion of me as being an asshole, an uncaring unwavering jerk that took the game too seriously, and in some cases an intolerable person to be around.  Others formed a different opinion.  To each their own, and I can't really go out of my way to prove myself one way or another.  But I can say that communicating with people whose opinions of me ran the gamut of possibilities really expanded on my ability to actually communicate effectively.

Although my experience in WoW didn't end on a good note - and my last couple of years may have actually helped lead to me losing my previous job - the whole of the experience was positive.  My lead raidership actually helped land me a job out of college (in an indirect manner), and the communication skills I picked up from trying to organize so many people helped me to gain recognition in my current job.  In 6 months I've moved from an entry-level-ish intern position, to a full-benefits employee in a little bit of a supervisory position.  I've helped more than a handful of new engineers get on their feet.

So long story short, whether you remember me fondly or remember me as an overbearing asshole, I wanted to say thank you for helping me to learn how to talk to people in a professional setting.

So a few friends of mine have asked me why I don't start up a Twitter page or some such, in regards to what I know about the Energy industry - that is, oil refining, nuclear power, "green" power, that sort of thing.

Well, it got me to thinking - I don't have much to do nowadays apart from look for a job, work out, and play games.  So I say ... why not?

The reason I make this post is simple.  If I were to start up a Twitter feed or a blog of some kind, that would have facts, news stories, information, or anything pertaining to what's going on in the energy industry - be it from the VERY safe working history of nuclear power to the VERY bad business practices exercised by BP ...

Would any of you guys be interested in reading it?

Let me know your thoughts - I want to know that if I start something like this up, I'd actually have an audience.

For every reply I get to this little blog post, I'll edit my original post with a random movie quote tagged at the bottom.  Totally ripping the idea off from Mavandon.

And now, for movie quotes!  It's your job to find the movie it's from.

For Dragonspear:  I always say a kiss on the hand might feel very good, but a diamond tiara lasts forever.

For Derchlon:  No, it is not dangerous to confuse children with angels.

So I recently picked this little gem up on the XBL Arcade.  It'll only set you back $10, pretty cheapo considering the quality of the game you'll pick up.

At the moment there's 8 characters to play as - four "balanced" characters with good offense and defense, but slow movement (Spartan, Centurion, Samurai, and Knight), two "guerilla" characters with very good offense and movement speed but low defense (Ninja, Apache), and two "berserker" characters with very good offense and mediocre movement speed but mixed defenses (Viking, Pirate).

There's only five stages to play in, but each stage has semi-interactive elements (obstacles, things you can break, etc).

The gameplay itself is simple.  You enter each fight with essentially four weapons (short-range, medium-range, long-range, and "special" which is used in your unblockable attack), as well as whatever armor your character has available.  The combat system is fully 3-D and is relatively simple - you have a health bar but it's mostly a formality, as you'll only really be able to take 6-7 shots at most, with some fights ending in one blow.  You have three basic melee attacks (high, middle, low) and each has varying effects.  High attacks can decapitate an opponent (outright kill), middle attacks can damage or sever arms (disabling shields, medium-range weapons, and ranged weapons), and low attacks can damage or sever arms (slows down movement considerably).

Severed limbs do damage-over-time due to bleeding, as do two specific ranged weapons that are poisoned.

In short, if you liked the Bushido Blade game series, this game is a very, very natural step in the same direction.  Plays fast, it's fun if not occasionally frustrating, and online game is decently stable if a bit laggy.  Overall, it's definitely worth $10.

That said -

Who wants to play!