Calax

Whelp, applied and took the exam for the US Post Office as a "Rural Mail carrier". Guess a lot of "old" companies are going "Oh crap, all the old farts are retiring, we need new people!" Also I'm working a 52ish hour work week right now.

that was an eventful night... had a customer flip out on me in my face because a clerical error had her being charged twice (mildly understandable), but then she takes the car I gave her, calls her bank on my phone, and disputes the charges to pull them off her account.

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/13035450/league-legends-prodigy-faker-carries-country-shoulders Sincerely ESPN. Currently there are several methods that are being tested to pay players. Dota's tournament system is one, but the game that I follow (League of Legends, the one featured in ESPN's article) has a league system that requires the teams to pay their players a salary (although the salary comes from Riot, the developer, and often teams are paying extra on top of that). The company views esports as a loss leader to get people to play the game and get the skins within the game.

Not really. You can make it more secure with a chunk of money that the US doesn't have right now. You'd need to hire more border patrol agents and provide more resources to that, but the current trend is to instead just slash funding all over the place (including to the IRS... where 1 dollar of funding usually cuts to about 5 in revenue). And it's not that we don't have jobs. Right now illegals are doing jobs that most americans throw up their hands and declare "beneath" them. My point was that not only is it incredibly hard to be legal, but it's also stupidly complicated. You have to fill out a book of paperwork, just to START the process and that process can take years to complete. If we had a simple method for people to become legal and removed the economic incentive to hire illegals you'd get a more secure border... Right now it's far to easy for McDonalds and others to just hire somebody and not ask questions and let the "oh he was illegal?" question be their defense... assuming that INS actually reviewed hiring records for places like that.

You're never going to make a 100% secure border... and right now people are willing to pay massive amounts of money to get into the country. But part of the problem of illegals is that we make it so incredibly hard to be Legal in the USA. Even the people who saved our troops from bombs by acting as translators and collaborators with the members of the Army and Marines, are being prevented from entering the United States even though they're under threat of death for preventing ied's going off and killing folks.

Been having internet.... battles with my provider. Started when I thought my neighbor (who mows the lawn) had run over my cable for the internet in the back yard. He didn't, he'd just disconnected me to get the cable out of his way (because it's literally just laying on the lawn). Called the support team and got somebody scheduled to come out and have a look. Turns out it's nothing so I call back, they reset it so that the tech support team will bury the cable or whatever. And I decide to go forth with my "So I need to move my account to another location". The rep who talked to me threatened to have me back billed for the fact that I've been getting a pile of free cable (basically everything above the local channels). Because of that I moved up so that I got those channels standard, and asked for the same internet. Well, the CSR gave me a package that included lower internet speeds. A few days later I call in because my internet at my current apartment (I move on the 21st) shut off, and got "Oh, that account was closed on the 10th so they should be disconnecting you!" But they hadn't physically disconnected me yet. As part of that I got told I'd get a call from a supervisor within 24 to 48 hours. Nobody put in a stop order so that night I got home from work and my internet was down and my tv was off because they'd physically disconnected me. Nobody put in a stop order or anything like that. Call the company and get a very nice guy who documents everything but says that he can't get me reconnected... This was on tuesday. Called yesterday, got another rep, who actually managed to put in an order for me for today. No supervisor had called within the 24-48 hour period. Got my 'net back today, the install job got called the "laziest I have ever seen" by the guy doing the reconnect, and finally got a call from a supervisor/senior rep this evening, but only after badgering their customer support team via twitter. But overall, I'm getting basically 2 months of free internet, no transfer fee, and a cheap speed upgrade out of the situation.

Got called a liar to my face because I said that there should be service guys out in the rental lot for an old lady to ask questions of (Ended up having to call the guys over to basically write her instructions how to drive the vehicle.... and they were at it almost a full hour trying to explain anything). They've got me opening the place on weekends, which is a bit wierd given it's my third overall week, but I think I did decent for money... especially after I closed out a contract of a kid who said "give me the fuel option" on a 11 day contract... which you can't do at the end of your contract. So he ends up paying 300 bucks for a half tank of gas (they charge either by how much gas is put in or how far you went... he drove from Colorado).

This is my day off this week (scheduling shenaningans abounds... where the first day of our pay period is friday, the last is thurs, so I get today and next thursday off... after a five day work week, then another four days before my two days off to move). Then I get mandatory overtime for two weeks, and I'm still seeking new opportunities just to get out of a situation where I don't get a 'weekend'.

Whelp, update. New job is terrible. I walked in on my first day, and only knew when I was supposed to come in on my second and third days when I walked out. Then I didn't know if I was getting a weekend until I walked out on friday. The entire management team is just disorganized and everyone (including those who still work there) have said "Yeah, you don't want to work here." Still the money is decent so it'll have to do until I get a new job... again v.v Worst part is I might have another opportunity back in ames, but I'm moving to Des Moines so I'd have an hour commute every day to do that.

If Vince ran it would be an entirely different race. Vince has 1000x the presence and Charisma that Trump has... I almost want to see that. I think Trump views the political world like the Business one, where you can do or say what you want, but as long as you're an earner you're not harmed much by it. He expects he can walk into the Oval Office and lay down decrees like "Build a wall" or "don't tax business" and they'll be followed as long as they're good for the nation (or percieved that way). Except that he's ignoring congress as being the ones to actually be able to write law, and enact policy. Either way, I think the reason the guy has any traction in the public opinion sphere is because he's the name that stands out the most, in comparison to the others in his race. He appeals heavily to the base because he's the type of guy who says what they're thinking and doesn't care about he consequences, but if he gets into a debate with anyone (like a legit political debate, not a shoutfest) he'll get demolished by those he's up against because, even if they're idiots and jerks, politicians are nothing if not able to argue.

I begin my first day at my new job tomorrow... a bit apprehensive.

So... uh... Kotaku's parent company might be dead if Hulk Hogan wins a law suit. Specifically because Gawker posted the Hogan sextape on their website, and Hogan is suing for 129 million dollars. http://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/hulk-hogans-129-million-sex-tape-battle-could-have-lasting-implications-for-privacy-attitudes/story-fno61i58-1227402778077

Sometimes they are, we have seen such devs in the past. Thats natural, they come up. In most cases i would say you are right, it is a creative industry. Sadly run by publishers and their respective shareholders. So we will still see more COD shooters being financed (which is fine, the sell well) rather than cRPG´s. Which is a niche, and is also fine. The real sad thing here is that publishers like EA or Activison think that this genres are exclusive. While, and i must say respect, Ubisoft went, "wait a moment..lets fund some small games and see what happens" and suddenly they had 2 of the most successfully games that year. This war of mine, child of light, were big success compared to cost and brought in money. That won´t change the current market, but it´s a good example on how the industry works. Blind would be the nicest thing i could say, especially if you factor in things like kickstarter, patreon etc. who found mostly games that would otherwise be dead because Publishers, not devs, Publishers decided it wouldn´t make enough money. Well, their loss really. Honestly we're seeing far more innovation on the side of the AA/budget titles than AAA. Call of Juarez was funner to me than any of the CoD's of recent years (ok Advanced Warfare was awesome), and it was a fairly low budget game that did some really interesting stuff with the narrative and design. But most people haven't even heard of it because A) the critical and fan backlash to the Cartels racist/mysoginist style and B) it had NO PR behind it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP769IdU_YE Relevant IMO.

I find the left's fellation of Sanders to be pretty annoying but what? The article states he hates "mainstream" media as its directly in the pocket of corporations and (to quote him) “insults the intelligence of American citizens daily, and is even further removed from the reality of everyday life than the average politician.” How you can interpret that as a negative thing is beyond me. Baro you are a bright guy and I'm really glad we haven't had many debates on opposite sides but this is one area we disagree on. The role and or importance of Capitalism and the West When he says " mainstream " does he mean like CNN and FOX or does he mean smaller local media ? I think it means the people and companies who have enough money to cover national level discussions. He hates the AP, and the other news networks are probably part of that group.

I will say, since 2013 at the Des Moines airport there's been a "We're ready for Hillary" billboard that only went down when she announced.

I'd not seen that, i've just looked up the clip on Youtube and must say I might purchase the Blu-Rays and starting watching the Next generation if they're of the same quality as shown there. Thank you. That is a very well regarded 2 part episode (unsurprisingly it's one of my favourites) so they definitely aren't all that quality- especially so in season 1, so be warned there. Overall though TNG is well worth a watch and has held up pretty well. Seasons 3 through five are the best reguarded. In season 1 they were trying to do TOS episodes without being in the 60's, in Season 2 they were run by a sexist jerk who almost killed the series. And season seven they just plumb ran out of ideas. Deep Space 9 also had some AMAZING episodes along with it. This. I'd guess that the local channels end up getting crib notes on national stories because if a person wants a national picture they generally flick to CNN. Local stations news is based mostly around the local stuff because that's what'll actually draw viewers (if they care about current events). Consider in those two medleys that each channel wasn't affiliated with the same larger corporation. It was spread across ABC CBS NBC and Fox.

And when one thing goes right, something else goes wrong. Looks like Octavian (my destructo cat) is peeing small amounts, and those small amounts are bloody.

Huh. From the article: Can hosting providers legally do that? I would have expected there to be procedures in place whereby the hosting provider would have to inform the customer which exact part of their content is violating which exact terms of the hosting agreement, give them an ultimatum for correcting things, etc. Just flipping the off switch on a whim, could cause significant financial damage to the hosting client. Don't they have contractual or legal protections? Depends on the contracts that were signed. And even then the only thing they'd be doing wrong would be "breach of contract". I think the absurdity of all of this is that, as the article about "Don't hate on trans people Fallout!" so neatly encaptures, is that if you find something absurd or silly because it's out of the societal norm, you're not allowed to have fun because there might be somebody who views that absurdity as their norm. It's like saying that you can't laugh at a guy running into a pole, because there are people who hit poles and got brain damage. I realize my generation (the Mellenials) is becoming known for being entitled **** who were raised to believe that "you're all very special and should be coddled". But the thing is, ultimately, you're not. There may be one or two things in your life that the systems of the world haven't been confronted by before. People get raped, murdered, harassed about gender identity and made fun of every day of our lives. The first 40 seconds of that are all that's relevant because of the stats. Even if they're exaggerated to suit Stallone's right wing narrative, still, that's a lot of people who go through the exact same bull**** that you do. And to go around declaring that everyone else should moderate themselves and treat each other like emotional and social babies means that it'll be harder for people to grow a thicker skin. Look, Men, Women, trans, lesbian, bull****ters, and animals get made fun of. Not because we necessarily hate on that person for this identity or that one, but because we enjoy poking fun at each other.

Hunting for apartments because the Hertz job is a go. I start weds at 10 am.

I am. He's the only one who's not a corporate sell-out. Interesting, so Trump will have his valid suporters The Republican nomination is going to be interesting. WOD you should work on convincing Hurlshot to vote Trump, if you can convince the Californian liberals to vote for him then the battle is basically won. Except Trump won't make it out of the Primary. One of the awkward things about the American system is that there's a rediculously long campaign cycle for the primaries (with Iowa's being first in just under 9 months or so) but the actual "main" election taking place in a short 2 month cycle (from the conventions in August to November). What we're seeing now with the declarations etc, is several people saying "I want free PR" and making the splash for their new product (This was Herman Cain last time too). The media, being the hype machine it is, considers each candidate the same way. If there is one not marred by scandal, a scandal shall be found and used against the candidate to get viewership. Thing is, right now, calling the election is flat out irresponsible. The few elections I've lived through have always had strong starters with lots of political background in the national level... but end up with a completely different group after the years long winnowing. Obama was not even on my radar in 2008 (admittedly my radar was kinda blinded by the whole "You're in the Navy for a month and a half" schtick) and yet he beat out Hillary at the end (Mostly because of John Edwards giving his support after that guy dropped out). I feel like a younger candidate without the Palin rock around his neck could have easily taken the White House. But even after the general election is on, parties make REALLY stupid moves (Apparently when Palin was announced, my grandfather, a diehard republican who was 82, declared that McCain had just lost). We'll probably see a few more people come out of the wood work to try for the Democratic ticket, but Hillary is SO big within the establishment that it'll be hard to unseat her. Although Sanders could do it given his mass appeal, but the guy seriously needs to convince people to believe in him winning, rather than him being a counterpoint. On the Republican ticket: Jeb's got the anchor of his brother around his neck. Ben Carson's only press has made him just unlikable. Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and Huckabee are seen as part of the establishment and possibly crazy people. George Pataki we haven't heard much about, but he was Governor of NY state and that place is more corrupt than Chicago Carly Fiorina relatively unknown politically, CEO of HP and managed to almost kill that company. Rand Paul has a chance because he actually seems to stand by his convictions Rick Perry is the "Oops" guy and may or may not be a Felon Marco Rubio has a chance because he's got the minority and relative junior status to him Santorum's still got that whole "I hate gays" thing that ruined his chances last time And the Donald. The only other people that might have a shot that I know of (and Wikipedia lists) is Chris Christie of New Jersey who's not in great shape politically after the Bridge issue and blatantly ignoring his voters in favor of another state as Governor. And Scott Walker who's only known for trying to murder Union's in the state of Wisconsin (figuratively speaking) Should point out that Joe Biden might still toss himself into the frey to take the Nomination from Hillary.

Squeenix is on in a few minutes right? My question is if anything we saw at Sony is this year or is it all for the next year.

That was an intersting game on the youtubes. Ancestors... a game from the leaders behind Sands of Time and Assassins Creed, about significant points in human history (the only game footage is monkey man standing up for the first time.)

Posting from NewYork at my grandparents house, but the EA conference felt like it couldn't properly compartmentalize. And Ubisoft feels like a pile of promise but knowing them they'll screw up spectacularly on delivery of half those titles. Honestly the one that I was mot interested in and hit me emotionally was Unravel. Just how nervous the lead developer was and how much emotion they put into a bundle of yarn grabbed me by the guts.