Wait, I have a blog?!?

Ok, so I started messing with blogging a few years ago, then started to move to a new site. That never really worked out so this blog got abandoned. Well, I'm gonna take another shot at this thing!! To my 2 or 3 loyal readers, rejoice! So, what is new with me these days?

First, I switched jobs and then switched back...sorta. I worked for a mid-size regional bank for about 4 years when some financial trouble started. That resulted in a ton of the IT staff getting layoffs, including me. I ended up working at a mega sized software company and was pretty miserable. It seemed everyone there hated the work environment and I was used to a more laid-back workplace. We had weekly meetings that were basically to belittle the employees for not getting enough done that week. Well, when my old boss called and said he needed a network engineer I jumped at the chance to return. It meant leaving the Information Security field which I wasn't originally happy about, but now thast I am back in pure technical work I didn't realize how much I missed it. I love solving problems rather then getting on people for doing things wrong.

The other huge event in my life, is my wife and I are fostering a 14-year old and plan on adopting him. My wife was managing an apartment complex and he was living there with his foster mom. He was very unhappy and always would come to her office and hang out with her. After awhile he started coming over to our house all of the time and eventually started staying with us on the weekends. We then made the decision to go through with the process of getting our foster care licenses, which is not a fun class to have to take by the way. Anyways, he is now living with us and everything is going ok so far. A few typical teenage issues, but so far nothing that is earth shattering. It's odd going from no kids to one that is only 2 years from asking to borrow the car.

So, I now return this blog to thoughts on crap that interests me.

Fable - Fairy Tale or Horror Story?

Well Sims 2 came out last week which means my computer will be temporarily taken over by my wife. When I went to pickup her copy I decided to snag Fable so I would have something to play to lessen the PC withdrawls I would be going through. So how does it measure up?

Sorry to say, not too well. It seems to be your basic hack and slash RPG with a bit of life simulation thrown in. The problem is none of the elements are really done right. Yes you can be good or evil, but this was already done in Knights of the Old Republic, so it is nothing groundbreaking. The NPCs react to your reputation and even your appearance which is cool to see at first, but you soon realize there really is no depth to them. The camera is horrible and there are many times in combat where you are swinging at things off camera. The game can be beat in 10-12 hours which begs the question, what took them 5 years? It is just an average game that is worth a rental, but not worth the $50 price tag. Very disappointing.

Microsoft, oh how we love you.

So there is a new spiffy security flaw in MS software that allows an attacker to run malicious code on your box if you just look at a JPEG with the exploit embedded. Sounds like fun. If you are still using IE you are constantly putting yourself at risk. There are plenty of 3rd party browsers these days that are BETTER then IE. I would recommend Firefox, it has served me very well and is very slick. Either way, you should head on over to the Microsoft sight and get patched.

Blogging, eh?

Well, I'm new to this whole blogging thing but thought I'd give it a shot. First a couple things about me.

The name Deaden comes from the band I play guitar in. We play pretty extreme death metal and at one point got fairly big for an underground band. Then our drummer ended up injuring his arm which pretty much grounded us for over a year. Eventually, he moved out of town and that effectively broke us up. That was pretty frustrating. We had just been offered a European and South American tour that I really wanted to go on.

After not playing for the past 4-5 years we are now starting to reform. We are all at different places in our lives and have "real" jobs now, so it will be interesting to see how this all plays out. The drummer still lives in Chicago and the band is based out of Champaign, IL which is about 2 hours away. We are trying to get together as a unit once a week and a second time a week a couple of us try and hook up to write new material for an album. It's working out pretty well so far since I have to work in Chicago a few days a week anyways.

I'm married but have no kids, which is the way I'd like to keep it for now. I work in IT security which in general is a pretty cool job. It can be thrilling when you catch a hacker trying to weasel his way into the network.

As far as interests go I'm a huge gamer. I'm one of those guys that owns all the consoles and has a gaming PC. I actually spend most of my time gaming on the PC and enjoy playing online. I just finished the Word of Warcraft Stress Test and will be anxiously awaiting when it releases. I plan on using this blog to post my thoughts and reviews on games and the industry in general.

I'm also into movies and music of course. As far as music goes, I may play in a death metal band but I enjoy a wide variety of stuff. Most of the music I'm passionate about leans in the direction of metal, but I actually don't listen to much death metal anymore. I'm a big fan of progressive metal and find most "radio music" tends to be boring. I pretty much have respect for everything but rap, which I cannot tolerate. I don't much enjoy country either, but at least they actually play instruments.

Well, that is a little bit about me to get you going. I'm going to mainly by doing this for myself and if a few people out there enjoy reading what I write that is cool too.