really its been 2 months... that's awful. but its not all my fault. you see a little bit of reality smacked me in my face after i decided to go on that trip to vegas. I usually plan pretty far ahead financially so i have a cushion. That trip to vegas was nothing special, a lot of fun, but its the fact that i let myself spend right to the cushion that got me. no, i didn't go too far out there. the problem was when i came back to north dakota.

The cushion is usually enough "in case of emergency". and thats what happened. nothing life threatening. a family member just needed some help to get through the month, and i decided to give my cushion to them. good karma i thought. except for after an exceptionally rough nuke alert, i got home to a phone call saying that the home owner for the house i was renting decided she wanted to move back in, before our lease was finished. she'd been a horrible land lady up to that point anyway, and i had made my intent to stay in the house for the next 4 years pretty clear, so this was just a wonderful slap in the face. So now without my cushion, without the money i would have had had i not gone on vacation, with literally 15 dollars to my name, i had to go house hunting (with no days off).

long story short, i had to take out a loan... and now i'm in an apartment, i didn't have enough time off to go house hunting before i would have had to move out of the house. i got promoted during this timeframe. so now i have a bit additional income to build my cushion back up. which means i should be livin happy again in a few months. The lesson from all of this, i'm sure there is something better than what i'm choosing to take away, but i'm going with North Dakota is like Bizarro world. things that make sense elsewhere, things that are right elsewhere, things that can happen elsewhere with no issue, do not work here. and they suck at driving as well. but so does everyone.

so now that i have internet, finished moving, can afford non generic food brands, and have a few minutes to myself while not dealing with work, inspections, etc... i thought i'd say hi to everyone.

to G- That supplies joke still makes me laugh, it pops in my head about once a month.

want to talk more, email me at crossmenjeff@gmail.com, catch me on xbox live with the gamertag of the same name, or call me.

well okay, thats an overstatement, but i'll update you all with what's going on.
1. Work: 35th Alert, thats roughly 1/10 of what i can expect to pull in my tour here. And I'm Smiling.
                35 days until i'm promoted. And who can use extra shiny and extra cash each month to do the same job?
2. Home: I'm going on Leave for a bit. Las Vegas here i come! Also, i'm starting to think about my plans for july on as far as where i'm going to live. I'd ideally like to stay here and pick up a new housemate. but that can wait, Las Vegas has priority,
3. Play: the Lag on the Call of Duty games has sort of put me off to those games, Lately i've been playing a lot of Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Everyone else has picked up Left 4 Dead's survival pack and Halo 3's Mythic Pack. I'll get to those eventually. I just traded in my Nintendo DS Lite for the new DSi. Also grabbed a few games while i was there. Some light travel distractions, along with some books i've picked up to read on the way there. a trip to vegas is a lot different when they fly you everywhere but Las Vegas in order to get there. I've always wondered how that is cheaper.

So Happy Birthday to me in 5 days. Now to get some stories to top my last Vegas Experience. I'm thinking marry a stripper who is to be my future ex wife. but that sounds rather complex and expensive. hard to top meeting Playboy bunnies, being on stage with David Copperfield, Two shoe expressing it across Vegas thanks to a cabbie that dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, "yellow fever", Warren Beatty, and about 100 other random things that were awesome. i'll figure something out.

So, I thought I'd be done playing FEAR 2 by now, but i have honestly not played since that first night. It is a fun game, and I enjoyed it, but I just haven't returned back to that. What I have been up to is a lot of work, not kidding my schedule has me 8/0 plus i finished all my training (3 days worth), plus additional training (1 day), plus I had a no-notice evaluation that took up another of my days off. I'm drained and the big inspection hits monday, which is pretty much guaranteed to be another loss of a day off for me. After that I only have to deal with M2, a P-Ride, and the remainder of my 8 alerts. So in order to not get sucked too much into any one thing, i'm taking a break and playing a rental game. That game is... HALO WARS. i'm almost done playing through it, i might buy it if i see it cheaper, or used, in a few weeks.

Out in the field I've been working through a book by Jim Cramer. I seriously got a good way into the book on a rather quiet night, but its never fully quiet, the amount of times i have to put the bookmark in and spend 20 minutes sorting out whatever random situation kind of slows the reading process down. I always thought that the guys doing my job didn't have much to do, but now that i think about how old the systems are, how crappy the weather is out here, and how often things choose to not work for whatever reason, i understand why i come home completely drained of energy. the odd sleeping situation doesn't help much. But that'll teach one of my freshmen high school teachers a lesson, i woke up at 5 back then, because now i do it all the frickin time. And I go to bed earlier than most people because I'm an old fogey... no thats not it, i'm just tired from work.

anyway, I'll get back to FEAR 2 next week. If you would like to play me on xbox 360 live, just send me an email, leave a comment, or find some way to say hi to me so i can get you my gamertag. Catch you later.

So I purchased FEAR 2 two days ago, i didn't start playing it until today because i was at work from saturday morning until a few hours ago today on sunday. So now that i've opened it up i thought i'd go ahead and chronicle my adventures. First, because I'm going to try and play the game on its hardest difficulty, a feat i have never done on the first go round, let alone most games. I usually choose normal, or easy if i want to earn the achievements i've missed. Second, because I have 0 achievement points, and i think it will be fun to sort of talk through all the fun i have trying to get to 500/1000 achievement points. What are achievement points, well they are useless points the average gamer doesn't care about but on the Xbox 360, there is a little counter on your sign in screen that shows how much you have and compares you to the rest of the world. so obviously i want to have as many as possible, yet most are hard to get. the main rule on achievements is that the game developers have to make them "achievable" by anyone.

So, I've started the game up, i'll add to the post as time goes on.
(15 Feb 2100)

1hour later: I finished the first level, no deaths. some thoughts: First off, the opening scene reminds me of these new tv drama opening like LOST or Heroes. It's actually pretty cool. But then the game started, and once again i get paired with "Sgt. AlwaysInMyWay", the recurring character that takes the fun out of most games, luckily he and i split up after a short stint of him blocking my path in a hallway and following a wee bit too close for comfort. The control scheme is a bit odd, i wish they would have gone with the Call of Duty 4 scheme, mainly cause that's what i was playing before this and the games look pretty similar graphically.  The first level was mainly an introductory level into the games mechanics. also it introduced me to intelligence items. in games like Call of Duty 4 you have to go out of your way to find them, so i'm used to checking every stupid room for leftover intel pieces. i got all of them, we'll see how easy they continue to be. Final thought on level 1 is that this game is awesome in surround sound, in the dark, cranked up so you get the full effect of the spontaneous ghost moments. also, the dude moves like he is drunk. its kinda funny. kinda.

(15 Feb 2300)
Alright i'm calling it a night, finished the second level, there's plenty of ammo, health, and shields, so "Hard" feels like normal Call of Duty, but that's okay, i'm having fun. 3 achievements down, 2 for the 2 levels and one called paparazzi referring to the awesome intel i've been collecting so far. Storywise it's lookin a bit like bioshock. Would you kindly ensure that FEAR 2 does not end similarly. (inside joke).

time to update once again. so let's do this.....

First, I'm starting to feel really settled in here in North Dakota. It's been about 5 or 6 months since i've moved here, and with all the cold and snow i've been trapped indoors when i'm not at work. The sun has been peeking its head out a bit more lately so i imagine i'll get to experience a social life here in the next few months. lately i've been coping with a little bit of cabin fever. which is odd because you'd think i'd be even worse while at work seeing as i'm 60 feet underground and usually have no one to talk to if my commander is sleeping. I attribute it to being tired after a 24 to 30 hour shift with only a little sleep. I've been thinking about what sort of activities i want to get into. Most of my friends enjoy going to the shooting range, but that seems like a rather hefty initial investment. perhaps i'll purchase a sidearm eventually, but for right now i'm looking for something that i can do often on the cheap. I was thinking ice skating/ hockey but once again thats a rather hefty initial investment. so right now i'm looking at cycling. when it gets warmer here, it'll be nice to just ride a bike off into the plains on some side road.

Speaking of exercising, i'm starting up again monday after a pretty big lull. i mean to go from running a 5k a week to barely running at all is a big deal. So my initial goals for february and march are 5 miles a week running and 2 miles a week swimming. not too bad. I also have to hit the gym again since the only real workout i've been doing was pullups in the capsule. which gives me a weird popeyeish look. so i gotta go even everything out and start working off the winter weight and putting on the right kind of weight to build muscle.

spring break is coming up and i have a new female friend who might be heading out here to visit, so thats additional motivation to get back in shape. I'm planning on visiting her in April for my birthday, it should be fun. But the biggest thing we have planned is a trip to san diego's comic con in july. i've never been, and i know its a huge deal. so i'll go be a fan boy for a couple days with a girl that'll enjoy it as much as me. plus its san diego, i'll go hit the beaches while i'm out there. we'll see what we end up planning.

On the subject of my professon: i had a couple evaluations last month that i did alright on, two highly qualified ratings, but i know that i still need a lot of work. on the flip side i'm still relatively new, but i don't like to use that as an excuse because its important that i'm just as competent as anyone else because when push comes to shove i'm out there with people i can only safely assume have the same experience as me. All of the testing that we're doing has sort of revealed itself as a source of tension within the group. i think everyone understands it is important to ensure we're capable of doing our job, however its becoming clear that most of us are noticing that we're more concerned about the next test than we are about doing the actual mission. combine that with a rather poor attitude from just about everyone and you can start to see the foundations for the stupid rebelliousness you'd expect from a teen with an overbearing parent. I've also noticed that the general attitude of the group has become more positive recently with the change of commanders. I suppose there wasn't a lot of love for the last commander, i had no particular gripes with him, the only thing i never understood was why he took away the crew member excellence award. For me, little things like that provide just enough motivation for me to try harder than the next guy. taking that away pulls a nice little morale tool away. And yeah i know the argument is that i should always be doing my best no matter what and should expect no reward for that, but thats an ideal scenario and humans are rarely that selfless. On the plus side, we saw the reintroduction of the issuing of a pin for pulling a 48. and a lot of people are smiling about that. more important to us would be the guarantee of days off.  a blank spot in our schedule is symbolic of a day off, but the way it is viewed by the office is that it is a day to schedule for side tasks or other needs. which can be very unpleasant if you only have one blank spot between two weeks worth of work. instantly you end up with 14 to 16 days of work straight.

we had some manning people come visit us recently, i hope they got a real picture of what is going on. doing more with less was hard when i was working in a hospital fixing computers, and its definitely harder in the missile field. one mistake somewhere, or someone getting sick can throw off an entire squadron for several days/weeks/etc...

so there you have it, i'm surviving, a little cabin fever but i'll be good. Also some things to look forward to.

here's a quick update from everything since Thanksgiving. First, I've been working on a tighter schedule than last month, a lot more opportunities have been presented to put me ahead of the pack, but i'm still getting used to what to expect on a "normal" day. I was given the chance to head up our holiday party, well one of them anyway. It turned out to be better than i expected, unfortunately thanks to a lack of creativity we had the same theme as a neighboring group. then again its a relatively small town, so its not surprising that several groups would buy the same decorations from the same store. no worries. it's all in good fun and nothing to stress about. I've finished my classes for the month and have a few training days left along with my normal work schedule. It's kind of weird working the days i do, i hadn't really noticed christmas is only a week away until today. i haven't even sent my presents back home. but they can wait, i figure a present is more surprising when you're not expecting one.

I bought some new clothes, seeing as my wardrobe hasn't changed much since i started college, save a few t shirts, but those don't do a whole lot of good in -50 degree weather. so i imagine i'll be on the lookout for more long sleeve shirts and the like. Also, given the vast amount of games and movies out now i've joined netflix, and started renting games more often from the video store. its the cheapest way to find out what i like so i can buy it without wasting too much money on the games i'll only play once. my xbox combined with my netflix account equals most tv shows i love accessible at any time, in pretty good resolution, with full seasons. same with movies to make the days go by quicker.

I've been thinking a bit more about studying programming again on the side. As far as a master's degree i think it's best career wise to check out an MBA. I've been leaning towards marketing and advertising, but that research will be done once i'm comfortable with my job.

Hey all, quick update:

I'm finished certifying to do my job, so tomorrow will end up being my first real day on the job. So far the move to North Dakota hasn't been as smooth as planned, but i'm kind of getting used to the fast pace of the firehose mentality around here. I'm about 95 percent unpacked, just getting my bills in order, and i'm getting used to the weird daily schedules. For instance, imagine a 5 to 6 day work week.... i bet you thought of a week where you have saturday or sunday off... around here it could easily turn into a monday or thursday off. I picked up an exercise routine that requires 6 days of working out a week, so i have to adapt that to what i can actually do and somehow incorporate swimming my 2 miles a week in as well. Thanksgiving is coming up, i luckily have that day off, but i don't imagine anyone will be around, so i'll probably make a meal for 4 people and eat it myself. You know what's funny though is that i have been able to eat entire family size portions, i suppose that means i'll be a fatty if i don't start checking my portion sizes or working out a ton more.

Alright before i go i thought i'd bring up the things that keep me busy in my off time currently: 1. TV- heroes, the office, south park, and it's always sunny in philadelphia. 2. World of Warcraft- the new expansion comes out in a bit, so i have no idea why i'm playing at all really. 3. swimming, 2 miles is 64 laps or 128 lengths if you want to join in on the swimming fun, i swim a mile at a time.

Starting to think about Christmas time frame... no real wish list at the moment, though i am starting to save up money on the side to buy some new clothes, i've noticed my wardrobe is circa freshman year of college, faded, holy, shrunk, and out of date.

I'm asking you which I should be... then again i may throw a few more of these up here since they are so fun. Also check out www.faceyourmanga.com for the fun app thats sweeping the tech community



Create your own FACEinHOLE

I'll admit faceinhole sounds like a dirty site. its not... but if you think having the power to convert average ol me into gandalf is wayyy too much power, then perhaps you should avoid the site.
That is all.

Hey all,

Finished my training near the top of my class. I suppose it was a close race considering they can't hand out first place trophies to more than two people. Normally that many people don't do as well but we were hurt by the rounded down rule, 10 percent of 29 people = 2 awards instead of 3 because one dude dropped out. lame, but alas i'm used to not really being recognized. so i will focus on the next few weeks. mainly moving.

so I'll be in Vegas Saturday... maybe friday and saturday depending on how my move goes. i'll be rolling through colorado for almost a week... i suppose i should make some plans now. then i'll head up to my next base. so before i go i'll share my pic from Santa Monica, or my last trip to LA.



hooray for random obstacle courses/gymnastics rigs on the beach. Those rings out there are rough but fun to try.

okies, i'm heading to lunch then packing some more... maybe i'll keep some sort of travel log of my adventures. who knows.

Alright folks i haven't updated in forever, and i apologize. Here's what's been keeping me busy:
1. Guess what, almost done with Initial Qualification Training, just one more test on Friday and about 5 more rides in the trainer and some evaluations of my job knowledge thus far.
2. With that comes the impending move on the horizon, ah yes, i'm heading for the plains of North Dakota, a state known for its proximity to Hawaii.
3. geeking it out on World of Warcraft. I know... shame shame, but its something to kill the time, something to unwind with at the end of the day, and there really isn't anything else you encounter in your day that can prepare you for a 12 year old calling you names... really WoW is it. I suppose I could play more Call of Duty 4 but I don't smoke weed, never say the N word, and heck I don't lay drunk as often as i would have to in order to be a good clan member.

So, With my last few weeks in California coming to an end i've had some time to think about what i want to get done. I was reminded of Dr. Pausch's speech and watched it again tonight, and aside from all of the wonderful things he taught the world, what i feel is applicable to me most in the next coming weeks is remembering my childhood dreams, what goals did i have, what did I want to accomplish, and most importantly what can I do right now.

At first I had a really hard time trying to remember what I really really wanted as a little kid. I remember that I eventually wanted to live in California and live the life of the people in the songs by bands coming out of the OC. Not the show mind you, I still haven't seen a single episode of that, I'm sticking to my guns that Skin was a better show. No, I'm talking about the bands that really made my childhood awesome like Green Day, No Doubt, and about 20 others. So now that I have lived in California I can say.... i have to be more specific when i dream about living in a state.

So what can I do now that I am here. Well I can think of one thing, I really want to meet my celebricrush from way way back Christine Lakin. Okay, maybe not meet her, but just go see what she's up to, like if she's in a play in LA i'll pay the 60 to 100 bucks to go see it, just to support her career. She's doing well from what IMDB tells me, so if I can't see her, it's not a huge deal, it's just one of those things where you put yourself in a position to be speechless in front of someone you admire. you have to do that once in a while.

Also, I have to try "Freebirds" cause Rich has been raving about it for like the last 6 months, and he does after all know California way better than me. So I have to hit Santa Barbara at least one more time. Hooray for Burritos.

Universal Studios... yeah i know my move is gonna cost a lot, but I think I deserve one big day in an amusement park just to have fun.

So I think these are all within reason, and if I can't meet them, who cares I'll have a good time trying. And if I absolutely can't i'll just put it on my to-do list on leave. I still wanna do the counter terrorism op training from amazing adventures. but thats 4000 dollars into the future.

If you have a suggestion, let me know... i'll keep trying to remember what I wanted from the world when i was young.