Wow...long time
Wow..been a long time since I updated in here. Two years it looks like. Craziness. Lots has happened. Still working at the same job, not really loving it but it's a job, right?
Worked on two certifications for my job, Comptia A+ as well as Comptia Network+, both of which I passed though I was concerned about the Network+ one. I'm not very good at acronyms and that is ALL that certification was really based around. It was rough. Right now I'm working on Linux+, not looking forward to this one either, but I need to learn Linux better for my job so I can be a little more comfortable within Linux when doing some troubleshooting.
Over the last holiday Steph and I did a couple trips to France and Italy. While we did all the touristy things in Paris neither of us was overly charmed by the city. For most romantic city in the world we just didn't see it. The people were BEYOND rude, the city felt almost dilapidated. Not to mention the smell was horrible. While we did enjoy the food, the city in and of itself just was...meh. There are a couple reasons we want to go back, but it's definitely not a city calling our name.
Now Rome on the other hand, we want to go back. The city was beautiful (even though it poured down rain) and the Vatican is...well there just aren't words to describe it. We could have spent so many more hours wandering around the Vatican, looking at the church and all the art. The people while being in a hurry weren't assholes about it (unlike Paris). We walked everywhere and were utterly charmed by the city, though we had a regret of trying a restaurant stated on travel sites as being amazing and we were less than thrilled with it.
Right now I'm working on getting all my visa information together so that I can go over to the UK and finally marry Steph. It is definitely the most adult and life changing decision I have made to this point, and while I have butterflies about going through this process I am 100 percent ready to keep moving forward with it. I am completely ready to be married to Steph and have us begin moving forward on our life together (which we will then be at the mercy of another visa that could be approved anywhere between 6 and 14 months...needless to say we are leaning towards 6, hopefully life sees it our way).
For a gaming update, well I'm going through and replaying all my PS3 games due to a snafu that occurred a few months back with my PSN account. My account got hacked, and I had a credit card stored on file. Well once I saw 250 dollars worth of charges my first instinct was to call the bank and make a fraud claim on those charges and have them stopped. I thought nothing of it after that and then about a week later I could no longer log in or use any of my games associated to my PSN ID. I called PlayStation Network to find out why my account was in a suspended state and found out that it was due to the fraudulent charges I had put a stop payment on. I was told that in order to get my account back to a state I could use it, even though someone had hacked my account, I would need to pay the 250 in charges first. Needless to say I told them to go fuck themselves and I created a new ID. Now I'm just going through and replaying old games to get my trophies back. I am a little bummed that some of my early purchase and collectors edition DLC codes are gone forever, but there was no way I was going to pay for someone elses charges against my account which were NOT on my machine (and I know damn well purchases can be tied to an IP address, so saying I couldn't prove they weren't on my machine was a load of shit).
On to movies, I've seen several good ones recently, the latest one I saw was Mad Max Fury Road, and I was greatly impressed with it. It was the Mad Max movie I have been waiting most of my adult life for. While Beyond Thunderdome was entertaining, it was NOT a Mad Max movie. I expect a lot of car chases, a bit of brutality and less dialogue than what was delivered within Beyond Thunderdome. Fury Road however? It was everything. It reestablishes who Max is without really rehashing everything before (yet introducing him to new viewers). The stunts and car chases were SO worth the wait. And I think Tom Hardy did an amazing job as Max. I know a lot of people are all up in arms about the feminism in this, but it was just a means to some form of a plot and character motivation. Max didn't really give two shits about the girls, his goal was to survive by any means necessary, he just happened into their situation and was forced into helping due to needing a ride.
I also enjoyed Charlize Theron as Furiosa, a character who could have VERY easily been a one dimensional character, yet there was a lot going on underneath what was shown. We didn't need an entire backstory on who Furiosa was and why she hated Joe so much, two lines and actual acting is all it took. At one point Furiosa looses all hope in the situation (after being the absolutely driving force of hope up to that point) and the scene itself could have been very hammy, could have turned into a "Look at me, I'm ACK-TING" scene, however Theron played it very well to the point you were almost devastated with Furiosa.
All in all I would recommend seeing Mad Max, even if you aren't a fan. No there isn't much plot (I personally didn't expect much of one as I've actually watched the first two movies), the explosions and car scenes are fun and different and intense, and it was a good kicking off point for the next movies as a follow up.
Well, that's pretty much it for right now. I know I missed a lot, as it's been two years, however this is the best yer gettin'!
Worked on two certifications for my job, Comptia A+ as well as Comptia Network+, both of which I passed though I was concerned about the Network+ one. I'm not very good at acronyms and that is ALL that certification was really based around. It was rough. Right now I'm working on Linux+, not looking forward to this one either, but I need to learn Linux better for my job so I can be a little more comfortable within Linux when doing some troubleshooting.
Over the last holiday Steph and I did a couple trips to France and Italy. While we did all the touristy things in Paris neither of us was overly charmed by the city. For most romantic city in the world we just didn't see it. The people were BEYOND rude, the city felt almost dilapidated. Not to mention the smell was horrible. While we did enjoy the food, the city in and of itself just was...meh. There are a couple reasons we want to go back, but it's definitely not a city calling our name.
Now Rome on the other hand, we want to go back. The city was beautiful (even though it poured down rain) and the Vatican is...well there just aren't words to describe it. We could have spent so many more hours wandering around the Vatican, looking at the church and all the art. The people while being in a hurry weren't assholes about it (unlike Paris). We walked everywhere and were utterly charmed by the city, though we had a regret of trying a restaurant stated on travel sites as being amazing and we were less than thrilled with it.
Right now I'm working on getting all my visa information together so that I can go over to the UK and finally marry Steph. It is definitely the most adult and life changing decision I have made to this point, and while I have butterflies about going through this process I am 100 percent ready to keep moving forward with it. I am completely ready to be married to Steph and have us begin moving forward on our life together (which we will then be at the mercy of another visa that could be approved anywhere between 6 and 14 months...needless to say we are leaning towards 6, hopefully life sees it our way).
For a gaming update, well I'm going through and replaying all my PS3 games due to a snafu that occurred a few months back with my PSN account. My account got hacked, and I had a credit card stored on file. Well once I saw 250 dollars worth of charges my first instinct was to call the bank and make a fraud claim on those charges and have them stopped. I thought nothing of it after that and then about a week later I could no longer log in or use any of my games associated to my PSN ID. I called PlayStation Network to find out why my account was in a suspended state and found out that it was due to the fraudulent charges I had put a stop payment on. I was told that in order to get my account back to a state I could use it, even though someone had hacked my account, I would need to pay the 250 in charges first. Needless to say I told them to go fuck themselves and I created a new ID. Now I'm just going through and replaying old games to get my trophies back. I am a little bummed that some of my early purchase and collectors edition DLC codes are gone forever, but there was no way I was going to pay for someone elses charges against my account which were NOT on my machine (and I know damn well purchases can be tied to an IP address, so saying I couldn't prove they weren't on my machine was a load of shit).
On to movies, I've seen several good ones recently, the latest one I saw was Mad Max Fury Road, and I was greatly impressed with it. It was the Mad Max movie I have been waiting most of my adult life for. While Beyond Thunderdome was entertaining, it was NOT a Mad Max movie. I expect a lot of car chases, a bit of brutality and less dialogue than what was delivered within Beyond Thunderdome. Fury Road however? It was everything. It reestablishes who Max is without really rehashing everything before (yet introducing him to new viewers). The stunts and car chases were SO worth the wait. And I think Tom Hardy did an amazing job as Max. I know a lot of people are all up in arms about the feminism in this, but it was just a means to some form of a plot and character motivation. Max didn't really give two shits about the girls, his goal was to survive by any means necessary, he just happened into their situation and was forced into helping due to needing a ride.
I also enjoyed Charlize Theron as Furiosa, a character who could have VERY easily been a one dimensional character, yet there was a lot going on underneath what was shown. We didn't need an entire backstory on who Furiosa was and why she hated Joe so much, two lines and actual acting is all it took. At one point Furiosa looses all hope in the situation (after being the absolutely driving force of hope up to that point) and the scene itself could have been very hammy, could have turned into a "Look at me, I'm ACK-TING" scene, however Theron played it very well to the point you were almost devastated with Furiosa.
All in all I would recommend seeing Mad Max, even if you aren't a fan. No there isn't much plot (I personally didn't expect much of one as I've actually watched the first two movies), the explosions and car scenes are fun and different and intense, and it was a good kicking off point for the next movies as a follow up.
Well, that's pretty much it for right now. I know I missed a lot, as it's been two years, however this is the best yer gettin'!