Disjointed Tuesday… Part 2

Today is Tuesday, right?  It’s hard for me to keep track when I don’t have work deadlines hanging over me.

I didn’t write… well, anything yesterday, so today will do a little bouncing around.

Weekend:

I had a decent weekend.  Saturday was pretty boring, but Sunday, I drove home for a short visit.  I hadn’t planned on it and I definately couldn’t afford it, but the oldest friend I have in the world was home visiting his parents, so I made a quick trip.  I drove from my home to the gas station, filled up the truck, went inside and handed the clerk my testicles to pay for that gas, and he looked at me like it wasn’t enough.  So, after a quick kidney operation, I was on my way.

We didn’t do much of anything… just drove around, talked and caught up.  I never had a brother growing up, but the friendship he and I have is what I imagine it would have been like to have a brother.  Well, one that I got along with anyway.  We just kind of spoke about life, talked about how he and his wife were doing, and sometimes acted like we were 16 again and just got stupid.  As happens though, the five hour window I had closed very quickly and it was time for me to leave again.  Those rare visits are far too short and it drives me crazy when they are done.

I have had friends throughout my life that I thought would be life-long friends.  But, you separate from that person for a little while and when you get back together again, you realize that you just have absolutely nothing left to talk about.  That isn’t the case with this friend.  It could be months or years… we get back together and it is like no time has passed.  He is one of the few people in this world that I would honestly trust with my life… and he is the only one of those few who I know for a fact would throw his own life down protecting mine.

Football:

I haven’t been much of a football fan for years… basically ever since I got just overwhelmingly sick of television.  I think the last time I watched football with any regularity was the last time that the Packers won the Super Bowl.  It isn’t that I don’t like football… I love it.  I just hate television.  More specifically, I hate the completely idiotic commercials and I hate how freaking commercial everything has become.  “It’s going to be a great match-up between these two great teams, and for my fantasy football pick…”  Blech.  “And if you would like to participate in our online pole, you can text *I-can’t-live-without-a-stupid-cell-phone now.”  Double blech.  I had the commercialism of everything nearly as much as I hate cell phones, but that is another story.

Still, I couldn’t help but watch bits and pieces of the game last night.  When I generally do when football is on is I turn it on in the other room (only TV I have is in a different room from the computers) and turn one of the speakers so it is pointing towards this room.  When something happens that sounds exciting, I’ll go in and watch the replay.

Now, I was born and raised in Texas.  Not being a father myself, I’m not privy to all of the tricks of the trade, but I think I have figured one thing out.

When a Texas man has a son, he waits until his son is about 3 weeks old.  Then, anytime the wife isn’t watching, he snakes his son out of the crib and whisks him away to his secret underground lair.  This underground lair is a lab with 1 sole purpose… to ingrain a love of the Dallas Cowboys into the son’s psyche.

I always talk to friends and co-workers about how much I hate the Cowboys, but that is mostly just because I love watching their reaction.  Few things can drive the English language out of a person around here faster than to say you hate the Cowboys.  Their eyes just get wide and their mouth starts working, but the only sounds you get are kind of like, “Wuh… bluh… pfuh…”

To be honest, I guess I would have to say that I don’t love the Cowboys, but I do have a little of that ingrained “like” left.  I grew up a Cowboys fan and I liked them back in the Emmitt Smith years, but I haven’t loved them since the days of Roger Staughbach.

Still, I absolutely LOVE watching the Cowboys lose.  Why?

I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Jerry Jones.  I think the man is a moron.  He might be a brilliant businessman for all I know, but he is an idiotic coach.  Put whoever you want on the sidelines carrying the clipboard… Jerry Jones is the coach… and he sucks at it.

Even if he weren’t trying his best to steamroll the team and coaching staff, I would still hate the man because of the way he fired Tom Landry. 

As a result, nothing makes me laugh louder or smile harder than watching the camera pan to Jerry Jones when the Cowboys get their asses whipped by someone they should have steamrolled. 

Of course, last night, the Cowboys churned out several last minute miracles.  There is absolutely no reason in hell why they should have won that game.  But, for roughly 4 (game) minutes last night, I sat glued to my televisions laughing until my sides hurt as the camera seemed more fixated on Jerry Jones seething in the press box than the actual game.

EQ2:

Been playing it.  Been playing the hell out of it actually.  Still, I don’t have much to say about the game itself really except…

Thundering Steppes can kiss my freaking ass.  That zones sucks and if I ever have need to go there again, I’m taking some pain killers first.

The quests in this zone are endless… and they are horrible.  They are a countless exercise in “kill 500 snakes,” but the snakes just happen to be rare spawns.  Then, when they do spawn, the quest journal only updates about 1 in every 30 kills.  When you finally get your 500, the quest doesn’t complete… it updates to “kill 500 more snakes.”

AND EVERY PIECE OF SHIT QUEST IN THE ZONE IS LIKE THAT!!!!!

The last straw came yesterday.  I decided to try to wrap up the few quests I had in that zone.  I didn’t care if I saw more NPC’s with quests or if I completed a quest and was offered another.  I wasn’t taking any more quests in this zone.

The first quest I decided to work on was an extention of the first quest I had ever taken in this zone… basically a mail delivery quest.

I take the letter to the NPC and I’m supposed to take a letter back to the quest giver… only she won’t give me a letter to take back until I run a quest for her.  She wants me to take scrying stones, look for the little glowing areas on the ground, and scrye for ancient silver coins.  She gives me 5 stones and sends me on my way.

When you aren’t looking for them, those glowing areas are every-freaking-where.  When you are looking for them?  None.

I spent HOURS roaming around looking.  From time to time, I would find one, scrye, and come back with nothing.  I very quickly used up the 5 stones she gave me and I had come up with 5 nothings.  I went and bought a stack of 10.  Used up those 10 having gotten 9 nothings and 1 undead attack.

After spending nearly 10 gold (the scrying stones are 10 silver each) and more than 18 hours (off and on) roaming that misbegotten zone looking for glowing spots and scrying with no results, I finally had her 5 silver coins.  The quest updates and tells me to go talk to her.

I get there… and the bitch was bugged.  All she would say to me is, “Good luck with your search.  I hope you find those coins before the clockworks come for me.”  She wouldn’t take the damn coins and she wouldn’t acknowledge that I had them.

After trying everything I could think of, I deleted the damn quest, opened my quest journal and deleted every other craptastical quest that I had for that asstacular zone as well and gated out.  If I ever step foot in TS again, it is because someone has a gun to my head and has already shot me twice in the leg to prove that they are serious.

On a side note, since the day EQ2 was released, my account has been active.  I was paying for the All Access package.  So, even though I wasn’t actually playing, my account was accruing time.  As a result, when I started playing, I got all of the various rewards and such that the game gave.  Then, when I bought the EoF box, I got a lot of the in-game items that came with the various expansions.

One of the items I got (no clue if it was a reward or an expansion item) was a bottle to decorate my inn room with.  I got it, placed it, and never really paid it any mind again.  Last night, I right clicked it for some reason…

And noticed an option that said, “Rub bottle.”  I selected it and started to zone.

I sat here waiting for the zone to complete wondering what big nasty baddie was going to be on the other side waiting to eat me.

Turns out, I was inside the freaking bottle.

I found that to be exceedingly cool.