Well, today is my mom’s bday. As usual, I left the shopping to the last minute; I left work a half-hour early yesterday to get her presents. Well, that, and the fact that I had to run to Fry’s anyway to pick up a mass of network patch cables in order to get the new jacks in the engineering area and the CEO’s office operational. While at Fry’s, I picked up The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett (the definitive Holmes) on DVD for Mom. Then I made a run up to the Woodlands Mall, stopping in Spec’s to get her a bottle of Jack Daniels (she had run out). Then, while at the mall, I went into Williams-Sonoma and got her a gift card. My shopping done, I got some food at the Sonic in the food court, and then went across to the Cinemark to see Batman Begins.

Batman Begins was actually a pretty damn good movie. It made for a much better introduction to the Batman mythos than the 1989 Tim Burton movie did, in my opinion. Of course, it helped that the main villain of the movie was my personal favorite of the Batman villains… namely, Ra’s al Ghul. Scarecrow was a little bit of a disappointment, but then nothing’s perfect. Gary Oldman, on the other hand, was hands-down the best live action Gordon yet. I was impressed just by the fact that he looked like the comic book/cartoon character of Gordon… and he nailed the role to boot. I look forward to seeing more of him.

Now I just need to see War of the Worlds sometime. I might do so this weekend, but I haven’t QUITE decided yet. Oh, well… at least this weekend will be a three day weekend.

Anyway, need to do a bit of work involving the engineering switch area et al… fun fun…

So, I was reading AICN a little bit ago, and I happened to notice a report showing that the movie poster for Bloodrayne has been released. Of course, it’s being directed by Uwe Boll, who directed those other crapfests House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark. I suppose it was too much to expect quality, but still…

http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0383222/iid_915759.jpg

Is it me, or does Kristianna Loken have a look on her face that seems to be saying, “What the FUCK was I thinking being in this movie?!”

What a weekend.

Well, what a lot of people who go to Mortal Kombat Online might not know is that I do quite a bit of the behind-the-scenes stuff, and that I’m involved in bringing in a lot of site projects into conception or actually implementing them. Among the stuff I’ve been involved with bringing to MK Online are the MK Online IM Network (a private Jabber-based IM system), the #MortalKombat Online IRC Network (I didn’t start it, no, but I do run it now), Fight Night (the live chat with MK celebrities; again, I didn’t create it, but I did arrange and run the last two), the Fan Interview (where fans can send in their questions to Ed Boon and have them answered), Fan Fiction, and a few others. I also have other projects I work on, and finally one of them came to fruition today.

We had been discussing the idea of a blog-type thing for the MK development team with Midway for about a year now. It finally got crystallized within the past month or two, and we introduced it today. So, today, we introduced Developer Diaries, written by the members of the MK design team. The current Developer Diaries run will be in six parts, and is based on the design of the upcoming Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. I’m hoping that Developer Diaries is enough of a success that we can bring it back for future MK games as well.

Make no mistake, working for MK Online is sometimes a thankless job. Don’t let that mean we haven’t been treated well or are ungrateful for the opportunities. Midway has been WONDERFUL towards us and we’ve been very lucky to have such a great working relationship with them. It’s just that sometimes you plow on, get your work done, and wonder if the fans do appreciate the work you do. They’re the ones we do this stuff for. Then we get an opportunity like this, and it makes me thankful we CAN do stuff like this for the MK community.

Anyway… if you’re an MK fan, keep checking the Developer Diaries page. We expect updates every couple of weeks. :-)

We decided to do something different for lunch today. Normally Mom buys sandwiches from Wal-Mart for lunch, but because we had a repairman come in from Sears this morning to look at our upstairs freezer, she didn’t have a chance to go out shopping. So, I made a run to Burger King and brought in burgers. While we were talking at the table, having our Whoppers, the discussion turned to other fast food places, and Mom wondered what happened to a certain manager at the Jack in the Box at Cypresswood and I-45. Dad and I didn’t know what she meant, so she clarified for us.

Apparently a couple of months back, she was in there either picking up or eating lunch when a few people from Jack in the Box corporate came in and had a few words with the manager. Mom was in a position where she could hear the discussion; it turned out that a month or two back, the girl who was supposed to work the drive-thru for the late shift couldn’t make it in. He learned this just as the second-to-last shift girl was coming off-shift. The manager asked her if she could cover the additional shift, and she said yes, so long as she could arrange for someone to watch her baby. (The babysitter was expecting her to be home in 15 minutes.) She managed to make arrangements, and worked the shift.

… then afterwards, without discussing it with her, the manager rearranged the girl’s schedule to make sure she didn’t earn any overtime. The girl was understandably pissed off, and complained. The JitB corporate people were there to tell the manager off, basically saying the girl did the manager a HUGE favor at probable additional expense to herself, and at the very least the manager could have let her have the overtime pay as thanks. The manager, for the life of him, could not understand why the JitB had a problem with what he did.

Mom hasn’t seen him there since. I wonder if he was invited to seek employment elsewhere.

How do I look at situations where employers act like jerks to employees? Well… funny enough, my philosophy matches one I saw in the Disney animated series Tale Spin. (It’s the one with Jungle Book characters working in this 1940’s era seaside port city.) There was one episode where these employees of Shere Khan (a very wealthy and powerful tycoon in the series) were mistreated and overworked in one of his mining operations without his knowledge. When he was alerted to the problems, he arrived and made things right. Now, Shere Khan was as much as villain in the series as anything else; his plots and schemes were as likely to harm Baloo et al as help them. However, this exchange was telling:

The employee who called Khan in advertently: “Wait, you mean you DIDN’T tell the sheriff to mistreat the mineworkers?”
Shere Khan: “My dear, I only desire two things: money and power. Unpresentable employees give me neither.”

I always took that to heart. The employees are the basis of any business. Keep them happy and treat them well, and they’ll do right by you, and maybe even go the extra mile for you. I just wish more businesspeople would learn from that.

Hmm… this is interesting.

I was browsing through the webpages of the Doctor Who Restoration Team (those people who restore the old Doctor Who serials for VHS and DVD release), and they had a link to a site called Chameleon Circuit. What makes Chameleon Circuit unique is that it’s a site where you can download new cover art for your VHS and DVD Doctor Who releases, including the two 1960’s Doctor Who theatrical movies. If it wasn’t for the fact that all of my Who DVDs (save the TV movie) have uniform cover artwork and design, I’d seriously consider downloading and using these.

The address for Chameleon Circuit is http://www.chameleon-circuit.org.uk/. I’d also recommend reading the Restoration Team’s website if you’re a Who fan or someone interested in video work, as it goes over what was needed to be done to each serial they restored. Their site is at http://www.restoration-team.co.uk/.

Well, today’s shaping up to be something of a quiet day right now. I’m at the office now, but I did manage to get my car inspected before coming in. Fortunately, the dealership has free wireless internet access, so I was able to get some work done while waiting on my car. Of course, I would have been happier if they had supported pass-through VPN connections, but I was able to find a way around it anyway.

Well, last night was poker night. I had actually considered skipping it and going to the Skybar with Louie and Dave for some dancing, but in the end I went with poker. I had committed to poker long before Louie called and I would have felt like a tool had I broken that committment. It was a good night, all told. I walked away up $20. I felt bad for McManus, though, as he ended up down $80. We had three new guys to the game yesterday, and all three were out by 11:30 PM. Still, all went well, and I still had four bottles of Guinness and a box of chocolate chip cookies to bring home. Tomorrow should be fun, as McManus, possibly Anderson, and I are going to see Darrell Hammond at the Laff Stop.

Anyway, it’s time for me to run to lunch… might post a bit later.

Well, at least today I’ve gotten some stuff accomplished.

It didn’t bode well for me to begin with. I had actually intended to get my car’s state inspection done this morning, but after getting to the dealership and turning in my keys and all, they came over to tell me that the inspection machine had crashed and that they needed to get someone from the state to come over and take a look at it. Great. Then when I actually got to the office, they had to cut power to the building for an hour or so in order to get a fuse replaced. So, with no power, I had absolutely nothing to do.

Still, I ended up being productive. I got our cabling people scheduled to come out and finish hooking up the upstairs and downstairs extensions to the phone system either later this week or early next week. In addition, I got a network switch installed into a rack for the engineering people and our CEO (for when they move down here). I just need to get a quantity of patch cords to go from the patch panel to the switch, and they’ll be good to go. I’ll probably pick them up on Friday from Fry’s on the way in to work (after getting my car inspected).

As for tonight, I’ll probably end up making a few purchases I had been planning on for a while. I’ll probably end up getting “The Gallifrey Chronicles” (the last of the BBC’s Doctor Who Eighth Doctor series) and the soundtrack to The Lost Boys from Amazon. I’ll also probably pick up “The Least Worst of Type O Negative” and the soundtrack to Flash Gordon from the iTunes Music Store. The TON album is actually about $7.50 cheaper via iTMS than Amazon… ye gods. Oh, well. I might also pick up another DVD or two. I haven’t decided yet… heh.

Anyway, time for me to wind down what I’m doing, and possibly get ready to get home. Fun fun…

Missy and I were talking this afternoon, and part of the discussion turned to the music I was listening to… namely, a playlist of music from Overclocked Remix. For those not in the know, Overclocked Remix is a site dedicated to remixing video game music. Some of the stuff is ehh, but there is a lot of truly excellent work in there. I promised I’d send her an email with my favorites, but I decided to just go ahead and publish it here so others can get a peek. Keep in mind that these are not ALL my favorites, but just ones I picked off the top of my head from browsing the site. So, here goes…

• Chronos Trigger Spekkio the Brave by Spekkosaurus – Eh… not a real fave, but it has bagpipes, which Missy should like…
• Final Fantasy Stronghold of Chaos by DarkCecil13 – This is a beautiful orchestral version of the FF battle music.
• Final Fantasy 6 KefkaGoesWest by NoppZ
• Final Fantasy 6 Squaresoft Variation by Jeremy Soule – This is a beautiful orchestration of Terra’s theme submitted by the man who composed the music for Icewind Dale.
• Final Fantasy 6 Terra in Black by Ailsean – The guitar work alone makes this track worth it.
• Mega Man 3 IntroJazz by Zoltan Vegvari – Just as it sounds… a great jazz version of the intro music to Mega Man 3.
• Metal Gear Solid 2 Metal Gear May Cry (Remastered) by Jared Hudson – This is the theme to MGS2 with thematic material from Devil May Cry thrown in, resulting in a very heroic/blockbusterish theme. I like.
• Metroid To Brinstar by Avien – This is a beautiful orchestral arrangement of the main and Brinstar themes from Metroid. I understand Avien passed away nearly a year ago; based on the works I’ve heard, the world lost a great composer.
• Ninja Gaiden Death of a Legend by Russell Cox – I seem to have a thing for orchestral arrangements. Here, it works beautifully… very haunting.
• Panzer Dragoon Orta More Than a Weapon by MC and SuperGreenX – A nice mix of the original orchestral version and a dance/drum beat.
• River City Ransom RiverCityRammstein by Mazedude – My friend RivetSPOOn tells me this isn’t quite a Rammstein sound, but it still does really rock.
• Super Mario Bros. 2 SuperBuckJazz by Estradasphere – SMB2 outside stage music + professional jazz band = win.
• Super Mario World Super Mario’s Sleigh Ride by the OneUp Mushrooms – If I were to tell you Christmas music and Super Mario music blends flawlessly, you’d think I was nuts. I wouldn’t blame you. This track, however, proves that they DO blend flawlessly.
• Super Metroid All the World in One Girl and One Girl in All the World by the Wingless – Both of these are separate variations on the Brinstar red theme, and are very catchy and enjoyable.
• Super Metroid Brinstar (DreamsInRed) by Children of the Monkey Machine, K. Praslowicz, and Beatdrop – Another rendition of the Brinstar Red theme; however, this one is a bit more faithful to the original.
• Super Metroid MegaDance Mix 2002 by MIDIman – This is a nice dance version of the main Super Metroid theme.
• Super Metroid Zebesian Midnight by Vigilante – This name is actually something of a lie, as while the first half is the Brinstar red theme, the second half is the Kraid’s base theme from the original Metroid. Still, it’s a nice “night out” type piece.

… and that’s just a taste. I actually have something like 1200 OC Remixes downloaded, not including the three collaborative projects based on Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. (I downloaded them in bulk via BitTorrent.) If you’re interested, just head over to http://www.ocremix.org/ and check them out.

Well, I mentioned what kind of day I was having earlier.

I ended up having to leave to go to Cypress about an hour ago. Just after I left, the person I was going to meet there called and we agreed I should go tomorrow instead. So, I headed back to the office. I wanted a Coke, but the Coke machine by my office is busted. So, I pondered stopping and getting one. Then I remembered that there was another Coke machine in Pipeline’s shop area.

After arriving at the office, I went to the Pipeline shop area, walked up to the Coke machine, put my money in, and pressed the Coke button.

… it gave me a can of lemonade instead.

Ever get the feeling someone up there was trying to tell you something?

*sighing and going back to his work… and his lemonade*