Opera has been slowing down BIGTIME lately.  It's weird.

List of topics so I can remember what to write about:

1. Julie got fired??
2. Work Party: The Beginning
3. People I hung out with early on
4. NICK LIKES KELLI
5. Survey
6. Volleyball
7. Olivia
8. People I hung out with for the rest of the day/night
9. KELLI THINKS NICK IS GROSS
10. Eating contests
11. Random yelling (screaming is a more appropriate term) at everyone by everyone
12. Zois' arrival
13. Volleyball: der Zweiter
14. Zois' departure
15. Shootin' the shit 'neath the pavilion
16. Work Party: The End

I'm pretty sure I broke this up a bit too much, but we'll see.
It's all after behind the cut.

(HOLY SHIT TEXT)

tl;dr AMC DRAMA + FUN TIMES @ PICNIC + RANTING = NOT LULZ SO NOT LULZ

I should add a new category: Novels.

I got sun-burned at work yesterday.  Sun-burned.  At a movie theatre.
Larry: Yeah, Zois wants you to go out and sweep the gravel around the trashcans and then go sweep-up by the wetlands preserve.
1) I was just outside sweeping.
2) We have a wetland preserve?
3) I just walked by Zois while sweeping up shit.  Can't he tell me himself?  He's the general manager.  He can tell everyone what to do.  But won't.  Why?  This is for another rant.

I spent a total of an hour and a half outside yesterday.  My face was red the rest of the day, seems to be slightly better today.  The back of my neck (as always) is a nice red.  My arms surprisingly didn't get burned and actually have a nice tinge of color to them.  We'll see how long that lasts.

Bill in booth needs to get seriously yelled at.  There was an employee+immediate family showing of the new Harry Potter in IMAX 3D (misleading, the last twenty minutes are in 3D).  The little semi-circle shadow thing went across the screen indicating that the 3D was supposed to start (if you've ever watched or sat in on a showing of IMAX Superman, you'll know quite well what I'm talking about).  Twenty minutes later another semi-circle shadow thing goes across the screen.  Waaaaiiit.  There was no 3D.  When the first shadow went across, there was supposed to be a green glasses icon on the bottom of the screen, indicating the audience to put on their 3D glasses.  There was no such thing.  Also, there should have been a seriously fucked up picture as the second film reel is being displayed on the same screen (slightly offset depending on the desired depth of the picture as well as at a different angle, even) as the first film reel (IMAX 3D is done with two film reels.  IMAX projecters really are interesting beasts).  We had a normal picture the entire time.  I was upset.  That was seriously the only reason I watched Harry Potter, for the 3D.  I will be getting a ton of questions about it.  The movie was blah, so I just wasted my time.  What garbage.  David and I saw Transformers again afterwards.  God I love that movie.

Larry and workJason got promoted to OC understudy last week.  Larry?  What?  Jason, ok.  He's awesome.  He totally deserves it.  Larry?  Not in hell.  Larry has been here maybe four years or so?  Five?  Jason has been here a year.  Larry got promoted to Usher Superviser at the same time I did.  Jason was hired when we got promoted.  May of two-thousand six.  Jason was promoted to Usher Superviser three months later with Christian, who will have been here three years in September (he was the first group of new-hires that I had seniority over).  Kevin, who got hired two months before I did, was pissed when Christian and Jason got the promotion and he didn't.  Sorry dude.  Seniority means jackshit.  They were both well qualified for the position.  Kevin finally got promoted last month.  Christian applied for the OC understudy.  He didn't get it yet.  He was livid that Jason got it.  I will say again, Jason is well qualified for the position.  Just because you've been here for almost three years and he's been here barely a year does not mean you will get promoted before him.  It IS very odd to see someone get promoted once three months after being hired and again a year after being hired.  Two promotions in one year.  To which I say, con-fucking-gratulations dude! Of all the applicants, he was the strongest candidate.  Larry was easily the weakest.  Why did Zois choose Larry? 

Why didn't you apply Tony?
I would have.  Trust me.  I totally would have.  Let me break it down, though:
1) I will be in school starting August 19th.
2) I have to quit at the end of the summer because I will be in Chicago for nine months and cannot come back every month.  Jessi can (she goes to Alma) and does come back every month, therefore she does not have to quit.  I cannot.  I will probably not come back for the October break.  The fact that Ford's homecoming and my October break lined up and that I was invited was sheer coincidence.  I worked one day that weekend.  I doubt I will come back for Thanksgiving, which I worked three days last year.  Christmas break, OK.  Perhaps.  Spring break?  Blah.  I can stay on campus, I think.  Easter?  Did not even work it last year.  The fact that I have to quit because of school does not make me look good for a promotion. 
3) I do not want to have to work directly under John Zois or Patrick Casey or Dan Van Deusen.  I cannot stand them.  I do not give this as a reason.
4) I will be quitting shortly.  Not because of school.  Because I cannot stand it there anymore.  No point in even trying anymore.  I do not give this as a reason.  Yet.

Previously, I would have jumped at the oppourtunity for promotion.  I would have loved to be an OC.  There's something to be said about not having to sell tickets or food or sweep up shit.  About actually managing people.  The "managing" we do as usher leads is a joke.  All the regular red shirts can do everything we do, most of them just don't give a shit.  But whatever.  Too late now.

Speaking of not giving a shit...  I had the two worst ushers Friday morning...  Corey and Emilio.  I never did get around to: yelling at Emilio for making out with his concessionist girlfriend in Transformers for half an hour while her friends waited for her so they could go home (she was their ride?); yelling at Corey for being a dumbshit and staring wide-eyed at theatre sixteen as people our opening the doors and pouring out just as he was to hed behind concession stand for something; yelling at Emilio for putting his broom down all the way at that end of the lobby and standing directly in the middle of the main lobby like a manager just staring at his performance schedule while it was clear that sixteen had indeed let out and Corey did indeed need help; letting Zois have a piece of my mind.

I think there will soon come a time when I do not care about ending relations with the theatre on bad terms.  Christian and I will have ALL night to talk about this, though.  Kevin actually came up to the two of us while we were raving about things and said "Do you guys want to walk out?  I'm thinking about it..."  Wow.  He just got promoted too.  I did not expect him to bring it up.  He won't do it alone, though.  None of us will.  Well, I will if nothing happens before I leave.  I have to.  There is some cowardice there, but mostly it's because it's going to be lame if it's only one or two people that go.  We need a few people.  We need lots of people.  We need it to be awesome.

Got sent home early today at about nine...  Jason FINALLY arrived (with Cat) at around ten-thirty, so the three of us and Paul went to Denny's for dinner and to hang out.  Afterwards we came back to my house and kind of hung out for a bit before everyone left due to boredom. 

At the moment...  I am so freaking bored.  EEERRRRRRFFFFF I am thinking of going to sleep just to curb the boredom (and because it is three-thirty).  But what would I do tomorrow?  Oh!  Greg's grad party is tomorrow.  I wonder if I will get up early enough to hang out for a bit before I go to work.

I really do not like the changes going on at work...  Freaking new management.  Just...  Ugh.  Dan said to workJason and I today that he does not think he will have any trouble with the two of us but that workAndrew and Larry might cause some trouble...  I am more of the silent type.  When Dan says that Zois now wants us to take our time and make sure the theatres are absolutely spotless, I am going to take my time, damnit.  He now wants quality over quantity.  Understandable, but when we had quality before...  It is kind of pointless to make us work extra hard for the same results.  Seriously... is there really a difference if the theatre is absolutely spotless or just merely appears spotless?  With how I have done things for the past three years, you would have to be looking really hard to find anything indicating laziness.  Perhaps I have just perfected being lazy while still getting the job done... but I got the job done.  The customers will not be checking everything to see if we are doing our job.  They just care if things are reasonably presentable, if the food tastes okay, and if there is anyway to squeeze free movie/popcorn/pop passes out of us.  Jason had made up his mind, separately from me, to do the same thing...  We are just going to take our sweet time cleaning these theatres.  Apparently Zois went up to Christian while he was on his phone in the break room (not yet clocked on) and called him "a failed lead."  Andrew has already been yelled at.  I wonder how Larry and Christian handled things tonight..  I wonder how the five of us will handle things down the line...  (I do not count Adam as a real lead...) I forsee demotions, firings...  It is going to be fuuun!  I have yet to decide where I draw the line...  when enough is enough.  I have already gone through various situations and outcomes in my head (something I do...  about everything; usually results in lack of action on my part...  I was once told it is nearly as satisfying (and a lot less troublesome) to punch someone in your imagination than it is in real life...  I have extended this idea to my social life too), but I just get angry thinking about it, so... 

Apparently it's cheaper to pay one of our nightly janitor crew two dollars an hour to come in and take care of the women's restrooms than it is to have the already on the clock male ushers take care of them... as they've been doing for the past eight years. There are five fucking restrooms available to the patrons, it is not that hard to walk for a minute, maybe two if you're slow, to get to another restroom.  It takes maybe a minute or two for us to finish in there, so you might as well just wait it out.  You'll miss less of your movie that way.  "Why do you have men cleaning the women's restrooms?"

...

Just a little off track there...  Either way... having a dude clean the women's restrooms is NOT THAT BIG A DEAL ZOIS.  It is inferiorating to have this mexican chick garbed in street clothes DOING OUR JOBS WHEN WE ARE PERFECTLY CAPALBE OF DOING IT.  It leaves us with less to do.  Which leads to management seeing that there's nothing for us to do... which leads to people being sent home and hours being cut.  And money is saved!  Profit!  Jackass.

And all that is just from today.  Like I said...  It will be interesting to see how us usher leads (and everyone else, too) deals with Zois and his backwards way of doing things.  The dude is AMC, too.  It's not like he came from a Star or a Loews...  I thought Mom was joking when she said the Livonia 20 theatre (where he's been working since it opened (like Sandy at ours), save for the first year the Forum was open) was going to have a going away party for Zois... the kind he would not be invited to.  I can totally see them doing that, though.

I wonder how Sandy is faring at the Great Lakes...  Apparently they still do things the old Star way and her goal is to make them AMC in all aspects. 

It is amazing how completely different the two highest ranked managers in the Detroit market (and probably lower Michigan market) can be.

Most of you guys probably just skipped right over that.  Don't lie.  I don't blame ya.

Jason took pictures of my car, though!  I wonder if he uploaded them yet.  Now it can rain... It hasn't rained in forever.  Weather.com predicts "isolated t-storms" for Wednesday night...  That's crappy.  I want some good rain, damnit!  All over.  None of this isolated shit... 

Today is Friday (despite being four-ten in the morning on Saturday), but it felt like Saturday the entire day...  I am becoming disoriented.  I remember completely losing track of what day it was last summer.  That was neat.  Sleep work sleep work sleep work sleep work sleep work.  Houses and buildings and roads and cars and fences and street lights.  Come on.  Someone wanna go ride the Dodge Park trails with me?  We can start at Farmstead Park, go to Clinton River Park (I am definitely going down there when we get the torrential rains that we need..  I love it when the Clinton River overflows into the apartment complex on Riverland), and finally go to Dodge Park.  I need to see some green.  Granted, what I see in the sub and all around is way more than what I ever saw in Chicago, but it is nice to just lay by the Clinton River and look at the sky through the trees.  Anyone?  No one?  God I hate you all.

Actually..  Every bit of both Illinois and Indiana that I have seen has had far less trees per square area than the single subdivision that Dad's house resides in.  Mom's sub has more trees.  But then traversing through Michigan on my way home from Chicago is verry nice.  Indiana is very... flat.  Flat and empty.  Bad combination.  Michigan is pretty flat, but it's at least got shit.  I remember Linda saying something along the lines of "Oh my god you guys have trees!."  Yeah, we do.  I think that will be one thing that will be hard to give up.  I don't know if I can live anywhere too grey and full of cement for too long.  I need my nature.  Thankfully there's a freaking lake near campus. 

I think I need sleep. 

I don't think I will get it.

I need to fix this cough.

I seriously wonder how many people think "tl;dr" when they read my journal...  I know I would.

Rock on.

Took the car for a drive today, psych was canceled.  Lots of traffic.  Hate busses.  Saw gas prices ranging from $3.07 to $3.29.  What's it like in the D-Town?

Went to humanities... fell asleep.  Generally I try to be inconspicuous about my sleeping (though I'm sure the professors know damn well when a student is sleeping), but when I saw a kid sleeping in the front row, I gave up on trying to look awake and just passed out.

Registered for classes at Linda's urging.

CS331 (Databases and Algorithms or something?)
CS350 (Assembly!  WHOO!)
MATH148 (precalc... stupid retakes...)
ITM460 (Some computer multimedia class.  Or more web oriented.  I was looking at this one and 461, but 461 interfered with one of my classes)
SOC200 (sociology something or other)

16 credit hours.

Doing my schedule for next semester kinda makes ya think about this semester, ya know?  I could have done sooo much better...  I got a 62.5% on the bio exam I took a week or two back.  The average was a 69%, but I totally could have done better if I studied sooner...  The final is gonna be a bitch.  Gotta know all twenty-four chapters.  And do damn well.  It's worth 60% of the final grade.  For everyone else.  75% for me.  I missed the very first exam, but the professor was nice enough to help me out on that.  Awesomes...  Gotta do well...

I was trying to look at Macomb's class schedule for the summer (to find a class that might take the place of Math148 and 149, so that I could go straight into 151 next semester), but I could barely navigate their website...  I could totally take summer classes here at IIT.  Work at the River East 21, maybe.  Where would I live?  Wouldn't get a cheap CTA Card, either (I'd actually have to, gasp, PAY for each and every train ride).  Summer housing on campus is ridiculously expensive...  Doubt I have the money for an apartment.  Plus classes here are also ridiculously expensive.  A class at Macomb would be cheap.

And the Forum 30 knows me.  They'll give me hours.

Also, friends.  Those people at home who like to hang out with me.  Weirdos. 

There's my little bit of emo for the day.  Valid reason for it, too.

Played some Halo with Jason, Phil, Toro, Kevin.

Played some TMNT (I BEAT THE WATER LEVEL, ON ONE GO).

Played some Prey.  I seriously hope I'm not on the final boss already.  That would be way too quick (I'll have to install Doom 3, next.  Never did get past the first level of hell.).

Hung out with Linda for a bit (crap, still gotta buy my formal ticket... table 33, I believe?  I seriously hope we don't have to dress up like we did for Ford's homecoming...  I don't have a coat/jacket thingy, and I think Pete may actually be going, so I may not be able to borrow his again..).  She had an... explosive episode...  (I declare innocent bystander status!)

Alles gut.

Jeremy has had his computer copying Windows settings and shit from one harddrive to another (through Windows' Transfer Files and Settings application thingy) for over a day and a half now.  Probably two.  I think he's got three harddrives in there now, or something.  Just stick everything you think you'll ever need on a separate harddrive, and wipe the other(s).  Start fresh with whatever operating system you want, and never move those files from that drive.  Store everything that matters to that drive.  Applications?  No.  Music and movies?  Yes.  School stuff?  Yes.  Other personal documents?  Yes.

NEVER use the Documents and Settings folder (or the My Documents folder, for those of you running older versions of Windows), unless you are mounting another harddrive or partition over that folder (which is a pain in the ass to do in WinNT/XP).

Example: I had a T (guess what it stood for) drive in Windows.  I stored everything important there.  Never had to reinstall Windows in the two and a half years I had it, but if I ever had to, there would be VERY little backing up to do.  When I migrated to Linux, I just installed over the Windows partition (which \was on a separate harddrive from my personal stuff), and all my stuff was still on the other drive.  Untouched, perfectly usable still.  Mount that drive as my /home directory in Linux, and ALL of my personal settings are stored there.  For every application.  Automatically. 

If I need to reinstall openSUSE or wanna try out Ubuntu or anything else, all my stuff is intact.  Opera will still have all my bookmarks, Gnome will still look EXACTLY the same (which is totally fucking awesome, so much time has been spent customizing it), and there'd generally be very little to do in regards to making the computer mine again.

Same idea if you mount a drive as "c:\documents and settings" in Windows (though you'll have to worry about the registry, which is another pain in the ass on its own).

...

Um...  end rant... <_<

Yeah..  I'm totally a CS major...  what tipped you off?

(The "My Documents"/"Documents and Settings Folder" is such a retarded idea.
Besides, what's easier to work with:
"c:\my documents and settings\satoshi\local settings\my music\evanescence"
or
"t:\music\evanescene")

Linda lent me The Atrocity Archives a week or two ago, and I just finished it a day or two ago.  Very cool book.  Very nerdy.  I enjoyed it :-D (When magic and the occult meet technology, which then meets interdimensional travel, which then meets Nazis and Hitler's face carved into the moon, you know you've got a good book.)

Ending this now.  Need to.  Class at ten.

Greg!  Update us on stuff!  You still being emo?  'Cause you've been damn emo lately.  Worse than I!

Andrew!  Post stuff!  How's school?  MST?  Robotics?

Jacki too!  I never talk to you.  And from what I hear, no one else does either.  We want to know what's going on!

And Alyssa!  You still have a bloggy thing on there!  Post to it!

Come on people!  I need shit to read!  The only people I've really talked to a lot (almost every day, thanks guys :-P) since I left have been Jason (over both AIM and Skype), and Alyssa (just AIM).  And Heather here or there.

Tim's usually on late at night and, while I am too, he's usually damn tired and incoherent...  and playing FFXI...  Not a good combination.

I talk to Paul every now and then too, but not much.  Good luck with that Asian chick by the way.  :-P

I've talked to Catherine more than I've talked to most of you.  And I haven't seen her in two years now.

Get Skype bitches.
Conference calling.
What more should I say?

I want to know what's going on so I'm not out of the loop when I come back to visit.  You guys are my friends, I care about you!

Hell!  I've even talked to Ryan!  AND HE'S IN SEATTLE.  You guys can surely do better than Ryan!  I mean, he's Ryan!  Come on!

If I don't see a new post on NewTF within a few days, a REAL POST from someone other than Heather and Lacy, I will stop writing stuff on here.  How is it that a site with eight contributers is being beaten in post frequency by a single lame ass guy who's always playing video games or watching anime with guys from down the hall?

We went to the student fair yesterday..  I signed up for the FIRST Robotics Team, the Anime Club, and the Medieval Club.  How lame are those clubs, eh?  Doesn't help my geek image much, eh?

It almost seems as if my website has a more interesting life than you guys.

Nintendo, just today, announced the Revolution's real name.  The Wii.  When I first saw that, I asked myself what they were thinking.  The Wii?  How is that pronounced?  "Wee"?  Will I be holding a Wii-Wand then?  Am I going to be Wii'ing infront of the TV (or at my computer if rumored VGA/DVI support comes true)?  It sounds like another name for urine or penis for crying out loud!  What were they thinking??

But then I thought about it.

And saw the video.

Sure, the "philosophy" behind the name is very sensationalist, seeming almost as if it's trying to sell the name a bit too much (one person commented asking if they got a hold of Sony's marketing department), but I can see what they're trying to do.  It's kind of an odd name that grabs one's attention and won't let go.  Similar to the iPod.  What kind of name is "iPod"?  The name is also pronounced exactly like the English word "we;" as in, us, my friends and I, my family.  Coincidence?  Not at all.  The DS is a very social system.  People love to play it with other people.  At the LAN Party on Thursday, Alyssa brought her DS with Tetris.  Tetris has a multiplayer mode that only requires one game card that allows up to either eight or ten people to play.  I played quite a few three person games, and one or two five person games.  I think it's safe to say that we played for almost two hours on and off.  It was easy to set up, and most importantly, it was fun.

Nintendo's goal with the Revolution, excuse me, the Wii and the DS has been to get non-gamers interested in gaming while also providing for the traditional gamer.  I'm not quite sure on their stance regarding the hardcore gamer, but I think they're moving in the right direction with Metroid Prime: Hunters on the DS and many gamers that I've talked to that would consider themselves "hardcore" have a major interest in the Wii.  Well, they had an interest in the Revolution; hopefully a name change won't chage their minds.  Most non-gamers may not see the point in playing Final Fantasy VII.  It's long and can be quite boring at times.  Most people (emphasis on most) like to do things with other people.  Games that break the stereotypical "go here, jump on these platforms, press this button, shoot these zombies, steal this car, do this trick on your skateboard" seem to work quite well with non-gamers.  I've seen over and over people that wouldn't even play Super Mario World pick up a PS2 controller and roll around in Katamari Damacy, or dance a bit in DDR, or even wail on the ol' axe in Guitar Hero.  These games are easy to pick up, and that's what Nintendo is trying to do with the Wii.  Ask yourself, however, how many times you've seen a non-gamer jump on a DDR mat or grab a Guitar Hero controller on their own.  Very few (zero for me).  Now, how many times have you seen them try the game when one of their friends agrees to try as well.  I've seen a large amount of co-workers try Guitar Hero because their friend would be right by their side, doing just as bad as they.  Quite a few of my close friends started playing because either one of my other friends or I have convinced another Guitar Hero neophyte into playing.  The first time I tried Guitar Hero was at a work party where a few of my friends had just seen the game for the first time and wanted to try it out.  People are very social creatures, and the Wii will play right into that.  In traditional Nintendo style, the system is bound to populated with a multitude of multiplayer games.  People are also very lazy.  Did you know that one needs only to buy a single wand from his or her favorite store (or bring one from home) and they are able to play on a friend's Wii right away?  There's no need to plug anything into the Wii in order to use another wand.  Just turn on the remote in the vicinity of the Wii in question and you're in the game in no time!  How easy is that?

Now, I have to admit, I think a lot, so when I think about something I usually cover a lot of ground in very little time.  All of this seriously passed through my head within the first instant I saw the article on Eurogamer.  Within a few minutes, I warmed up to the name.  Sure, I still think Revolution has a better ring to it than Wii, but Wii has strength (or should that be have?).

If everyone would take it seriously.  This post was not meant to be about the name change or Nintendo's philosophy on gaming, but about the response to the name change.  Information of the new name has traveled quickly.  Maybe that was Nintendo's goal, maybe not.  Either way, however, I'm kind of disappointed in the overall response.  Eurogamer is a European site, obviously, with a lot of British visitors.  The British use the term "wee" to refer to one's penis or urine.  One Brit commented that the name was being taken a little better over in the States because he didn't see as many penis jokes.  I submit a one 88NoSoup4U88's comment from Slashdot:

Off record: If the Wii's can connect to eachother, would it be a 'wiiwii' ? And would I be in trouble if I told people I'm off playing with my friends and our WiiWii's ?

And JonTurner over here thinks he's hilarious:

Something tells me this is going to get ugly. Just off the top of my head:

1) Shopper: "Hi. I see these are on sale. I would like to take a Wii."
2) Son, you've been playing with your Wii all day on that tiny monitor -- give it a rest or you'll go blind.
3) Headline: Wii usage linked to possible repetitive stress injury?

BTW, Is a cluster of these called a Wii-Wii?

Sure, if you check out the Eurogamer comments and the Slashdot comments you can find a few that try to defend the name (more so on Slashdot than Eurogamers), or at least the logic behind it, but the majority of comments are making fun of the name.  Now, I have no problem with making fun of things, especially something that just begs to be made fun of, but some people are just taking it too far.  But is Nintendo asking for it with a name like this?  As I said, news of the name change has spread quickly.  The name is out there, everyone knows what it is.  Has Nintendo just shot themselves in the foot?  Or is it true that no publicity is bad publicity?

By clicking the link below, you will be treated to a few comments I found on the Eurogamer article.  They were originally gonna be tied into the post in some way, but that just didn't work out.  Instead of scrapping them, I decided to let y'all in on the mass stupidity and close-mindedness of the online gaming community.  Most of these are horrible.  These are the kinds of gamers that claim to be "hardcore" but in reality are just sheep that follow the trends.  So what if it's called the Wii?  Would you really sell ALL your Nintendo stock, Krun?  And Pho-Zoon, it's appropriate how you put quotes around the world 'loyal.'  If a simple name change like this is making you dump Nintendo, you must not have been that loyal, eh?  Yiannis here is apparently extremely skilled at predicting the market.  Nintendo's name change will really cause more Xbox360s to be sold next week?  I better grab one while I can!  And Smelly...  good ol' Smelly..  He has been trolling the comments on Eurogamers since the news broke.  Nothing positive to say.  Just general overreacting.  Like most everyone else.

(Click for more)

I tried to grab a few (truely) funny ones as well, but the majority of them were just bad...  There were a few comments, can't find them now, about people who had warmed up to the name.  One of them said something to the effect of "I now associate the name 'Wii' more with Nintendo after just a few hours than I do 'Gamecube' after four years." Another said that the name will be unforgettable.  And it will be.  It's no Playstation 3 or Xbox360.  It's the Wii.  It's not just a sequal to a previous console (as the other two seem to be), it's brand new.  People will know what you mean when you talk about the Wii.

E3 is only a few weeks away.  Nintendo has yet to reveal the "most secret" aspect about the Wii.  If the controller, virtual console system, and name change were received as such, I'm both excited and worried to see how people will react to this last secret.

Off-topic: When I first saw the name, another thought ran through my head: It's missing an 'f'.."

It's perfect, really: With the Wii you may not connect to NintendoWifi, but rather Wiifi.

Or maybe it's just me.

Dear Technolojik,

Firstly, it is my request that this e-mail is sent to someone that at least has the same ability to comprehend English as an American sixth grade student.

Recently our website was moved to a different server due to the old server having "issues."  From what I've experienced since the server move, however, I'd rather stick with the old server. 

Our new server has given us nothing but headaches.  It goes down at the most unexpected times, without warning, and without explanation.  Sometimes it's simply that Apache fails.  Other times, I can't even log into cPanel to see what is going on.  Earlier today, infact, Apache, FTPd, cppop, and a few other services failed.  This new server seems to be having more issues that the old one did.  Why is that?  I thought this server was "better."  These problems have been nothing short of constant.  I have not seen a day where the server was up for more than half the day. 

We were, and are, guaranteed 99.9% uptime with you as our host.  What we have experienced, however, is anything but 99.9% uptime. 

According to your user agreement (http://www.technolojik.net/user_agreement.htm), we are allowed credit if our uptime is not 99.9%.  We are not, however, guaranteed credit if the outage is caused by " circumstances beyond Technolojik's reasonable control," "failure of access circuits to the Technolojik Network," "scheduled maintenance...," "DNS issues outside the direct control of Technolojik," "issues with FTP. POP, IMAP, or SMTP customer access," "false SLA breaches reported as a result of outages or errors of
any Technolojik measurement system," "customer's acts or omissions," "e-mail or webmail delivery and transmission," "DNS (Domain Name Server) Propagation," or "outages elsewhere on the Internet."

What we have experienced does NOT fall under any of those categories.  When Apache and other services fail, it IS under Technolojik's reasonable control and CAN be FIXED in a relatively short period of time.  There are times where Technolojik, including Technolojik's own site, are inaccessable.  But most of the problem lies with the fact that often times Technolojik's site IS accessable and I can STILL log into cPanel and SEE that Apache and other services have FAILED.

That is unacceptable.  As a hosting company you are obligated to keep these servers running reliably, otherwise you are supposed to fix the problem.  We've been experiencing these problems for OVER a WEEK.  What have you done to remedy this?  Has there been any attempt at repair?  Why is this happening?

Because of these consistant outages we have seriously considered changing to another, RELIABLE host.  Many will hear about these problems, and hopefully many will NOT choose Technolojik as their hosting service.  Technolojik has given us nothing but problems and headaches.

-An Extremely Upset Customer

Proofread the hell out of this, I felt kinda detached and not here while writing this, and I caught myself making some serious errors ("What we have experienced does NOT follow under any of those categories."  Follow?  WTF?)

Because I've been thinking of breaking away from TF, I've been looking around at various hosts and their packages.  I found a great company by the name of A Small Orange.  Their hosting packages are really nice, pretty cheap too.  Despite the fact that they have one, single, solitary review, I feel that they would make a great host.  They have everything I'm looking for: unlimited MySQL Databases, cPanel, FTP access, phpMyAdmin, PHP, and Daily and weekly offsite backups.  (full list of features)

Taking a look through their user-to-user support forums has given me a very good feeling about A Small Orange.  Their customer support is SUPERB.  They respond in a timely manner and are actually HELPFUL!  Technolojik has been anything but helpful *reminder: dig up some e-mails from them*

Right now, I am typing this in Notepad due to the fact that TF is TOTALLY and UTTERLY INACCESSIBLE.  Know what else?  So is Technolojik's main page!!  Well, at least the English site is down.  The Turkish one is up.  Oh, did I mention?  Technolojik is a TURKISH company!  They are based in TURKEY!  Know what else?  Our domain, trashfolder.org, is registered under THEIR NAME.  The registrant address, if you do a whois on trashfolder.org, is Istanbul, Turkey.  Ahem.  I thought it was our domain?

Oh, we also had an issue where we paid for SSH and shell access, but got NOTHING.  Why?  No clue, they never responded!  Check this out, though.  Whoa!  First post at 7:57 PM on the 22 of this month.  Last post at 8:42 PM, on the SAME DAY.  Less than an HOUR and he got shell access enabled on his account!  Amazing!

What's even more amazing is that if I sign up Reselling, I can actually make money on my site!  It's only an extra $5 per month if I want to be a reseller.  That's not bad!  I could easily make that money back if people were interested.  Hell, I could practically pay for the hosting if I got enough people!  Of course, however, reselling won't be something I jump into right away, if ever.  But it's nice to dream, eh?

If it's somehow possible to pry trashfolder.org out of Techonolojik's hands when the domain expires, maybe all of TF could be moved over to A Small Orange?  Just a thought.  Though it would be nice to have my own server and such, I would be leaving Andrew and Jason high and dry when it comes to TF's payments...  (though I have already paid my dues for this year) We'll see.  Not only do I have to work it out with Andrew and Jason, should I even decide to go through with this, but I'll also have to work it out with Mom, for I do not own a credit card.

In other news, the snow last night was pretty cool, but not cool enough to cancel school.  The roads were... meh, at best, but that didn't stop UCS from being the bastards that they are.  There were two to three brown-outs during second hour.  Two during fourth hour.  And two during fifth hour, with the second one actually becoming a black-out for at least half a minute.  It was awesome.

To quote Paul: "Power outage for the win!"

[b]1. Halo 2[/b]

Alright, if you haven't already figured it out, the title refers to the big three FPSs that came out recently.  The first being Doom 3, second being Halo 2, and the last being Half-Life 2.  I think I may have already covered Doom 3 a bit before, but even if I haven't I don't have any beef with the game, nor the developers, so there's not really much for me to say about it.  As for Halo 2, however, I have something I want to say.  Now, before you go saying "You should play the game before bashing it!", I HAVE played the game.  I played a lot of coop with Paul, DM with Paul, and LAN DM at one of the Science Olympiad party things last year.  DM is a BLAST.  Which brings me to my first point.  What's so great about the multiplayer?  System link?  That's been done, Dad used to play Doom (the original) at work with his buddies many years ago.  And the PlayStation 1 even had system link games.  Heck, the Genesis could play games with people over a dial-up connection!!  16 player LAN support?  Quake 2 could have 32 players, LAN or Online.  Halo 2 has Xbox Live! support?  Quake 1 could go online.  Vehicles?  Battlefield 1942.  Fun multiplayer?  Goldeneye, Nintendo 64.  The multiplayer in Halo (the first anyway, I haven't even so much as laid eyes upon the Halo 2 box) is pretty much Goldeneye with a few additions, all of which have been done before.  [i]But it has awesome weapons to choose from![/i] I'm sure it does, as did Perfect Dark, over 50 separate weapons.  All of which had a second function too.

The graphics.  So freaking what?  The graphics look amazing.  How does that make the game [i]revolutionary[/i]??  To be revolutionary, a game must bring something to the table that has never been done before, and they must do it right.  Goldeneye was a revolutionary game because it was an FPS that [i]worked[/i] extremely well on a console, and it had an addictive multiplayer mode.  But things can only be revolutionary once.  Get over it fanboys, graphics do not make a game wonderful.  Graphics are the icing on the cake.  If there was a recipe to making a good game, it'd go like this:

[u]First layer[/u]: Gameplay.  Just like a house, a game needs a solid foundation, and that foundation is gameplay.  Not graphics, not multiplayer.  Multiplayer is nothing if it doesn't play well.  (Yea, yea.  I know a house analogy doesn't fit to well inside of a cooking analogy, but what can you do?)

[u]Second layer[/u]: Controls.  The game has to feel [i]natural[/i] when you play it.  The devs should also allow one to fully customize the controls to one's liking.  If the game doesn't control well, it'll detract from the overall experience, making the game less fun to play.

[u]Third layer[/u]: Story.  If there isn't a good story (applies to single player only, obviously), then the game will feel lifeless.  There needs to be something that compels the gamer to finish the game.

[u]Fourth layer[/u]: Replayability.  Whether this comes as unlockable missions or multiplayer (which every FPS game should now include), it should be replayable to an extent.  This makes the gamer want to come back for more.

[u]Fifth layer[/u]: Sound and graphics.  Good sound and graphics come last.  Yes, with today's technology there's no excuse to have a game with poor graphics or sound, but it does happen (though that all depends on your definition of ('poor').  But, if a game that has 'poor' graphics has a WONDERFUL single player campaign and the best multiplayer this side of PC gaming, wouldn't you rather play that game than the game that has the 'best' graphics available on a home console system, but totally lacks in the other departments?

Alright, I'll give Halo one thing.  The story.  I'm sure it has a great story, why else (besides multiplayer) would it be so popular?  I challenge all Xbox/Halo fanboys that read my site to give me some explanations as to why Halo/Halo 2 is so popular.  Is it just the Microsoft hype machine, or is there more?  Graphics, multiplayer, and story aside, what makes this game truly [i]revolutionary[/i]?

[b]2. Half-Life 2[/b]

Now, my gripes with HL2 do NOT come from the game itself, I haven't even touched it yet.  My gripes come with Valve's anti-piracy scheme.  Double-you tee eff, Valve?  You're selling a defective game!  If I've never had an internet connection, but I bought the original Half-Life and absolutely loved it, then I go to my local EBGames and buy HL2, how the hell am I supposed to play?  I install it, then it requires me to connect to Steam to decrypt the game.  But wait, I don't have an internet connection!  How am I supposed to play???  Valve is alienating their customers and making them feel like criminals because of this anti-piracy attempt.  Pirated versions that DON'T require steam are already available on the web!  Valve's just ENCOURAGING piracy!!  That's all devs do when they put in harsher anti-piracy mechanisms.  Joe Sixpack buy's Half-Life 2, finds out how much shit he has to go through just to play the freaking single-player game, returns the game, goes to suprnova.org, downloads the cracked version, and plays the game.  Valve got no money because Joe Sixpack was fed up with their crap and decided that they didn't deserve their money.  I was actually thinking about getting HL2, but I am no longer even considering it (if you remember, I was actually considering getting Halo 2 for a while there) because of the shit Valve is pulling. 

Now, to bring up Doom 3.  Sure, HL2 may have a much better story than Doom 3, may have better graphics/physics/audio, but which game doesn't require you to jump through a million hoops before playing?  Yea, that's what I thought.  Doom 3 requires a simple CD-Key during installation.  That key, if invalid, will only prevent you from playing multiplayer, single player will work fine.  Doom 3 doesn't require you to be connected to the internet to play single player either, it's not monitoring your every move, and it doesn't install spyware on your machine (if Steam isn't spyware, I don't know what is.  Hell, it probably searches for porn on your machine and sends it to the devs at Valve!).

::deep breath::

I think I've covered just about everything I wanted to.

[/rant]

Here's a comic that may explain what happened.  Or not...  But it's still funny to read, and panel's 6,7, and 8 are just hillarious.

Oh, speaking of G4TechTV, ANDREW!!!  Besides the link he used to have on his page, HE PUT A LINK ON THE BOTTOM OF MY PAGE!  ::sharpens killing knife::