Ramblings of the Lunatic Fringe

Salina, KS

2009-05-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

Just a little over 1k left. Today was a long time in the car for so few miles. Rane is doing our nails, while we sit in the hot humid day. Plenty of shade, so that is a blessing.

Day Two

2009-05-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

We had a great nights rest. We really enjoyed the little cabin. The KOA's on the far side of Kansas didn't havee any available, so we decided to just push it to Salina KS. That is about as far as we drove yesterday. So the girls are eating breakfast, all you can eat pancakes for $2.50. You can't beat that. We plan to be on the road by 10:ish. We will probably make a stop at the Wizard of OZ Museum, since we are not going as far.

Goodland, KS

2009-05-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

We got here about an hour ago. The KOA Campground is real nice. The cabins are clean. They are near the showers and pools. A nice, older Polish couple own it. They are delivering to our cabin tonight some homemade stuffed cabbage. We had a nice chat about Cleveland and Perogi's.

We had a setback with the camera, so we have to find a cheap digital Saturday for the rest of the trip. Thee truck had to be packed, unpacked. LOL. I just unpacked it for the night, seccond time today. I am sitting on the porch typing this. Priase God for technology. LOL

Nice site for doing flowcharts

2008-10-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

Draw Anywhere, has a nice online flow charting tool. The only issues to me is you only get three drawings for the free account. The oter accounts are a little pricey. The interface is nice. It was easy to use. I would like to see more symbol types, like Jacobson use cases..... Try it though.

Fun new website

2008-10-14T06:12:00.000-07:00

You have to try this site out. It is Artpad. It is a fun online painting program. It records your strokes, and then lets you share the painting and how you painted it with others.

Nice interface, lots of fun.

Cricket Wireless Broadband Review (Part 2)

2008-09-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

I have now used it in around 8 different areas in the city. Just in case, they claim that my location is the problem, not the network they connect to the internet through. I know it sounds crazy, but I have dealt with too many of these phone companies. They always try to make YOU the problem. Except for a few bursts here and there where it is almost acceptable for just surfing. It has not gotten any better. In some reviews I am seeing, people are reviewing it positively? I can't believe that. They must have been connecting to aol, through a tin can with a string. My plans for this week is to call and cancel my account this week. I also think it is funny. I got an SMS for a bill. It said they woudl bill me on the 10th. I didn't receive my usb modem until the 13th? I guess I get to pay while it was being delivered.

My wifes cell phone works great though. I purchased here a refab motorola. It was 29 bucks, and it has worked like a dream. It seems their phoen network in Colorado is decent. She has not had a single dropped call.

Cricket Wireless Broadband Review

2008-09-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

I just received my usb wireless modem from Cricket. I had used Verizon's in the past. I will tell you right now I am very disappointed. I will try it from a few different locations this week. From my home I am getting three bars on my mac and Vista machine. I am seeing pings of over 800ms. On a new server of WOW, I was in the red, even though the server was low volume. My max transmit rate is 21.1 kbps, my receive rate is 105 kbps. The MTU was not returning a value for me. It takes 72 seconds to return Yahoo mail. Facebook is over a minute. It seems slower to me than my dial up modem.

I was hoping it would become a decent replacement for DSL, but at least where in Colorado Springs it appears to be lacking. Here are some screen shots of trace routes.

For those who are not familiar asterisks are bad. LOL

It appears that level3 is where Cricket gets its bandwidth from. I will try it in a few days just in case it is a one day occurrence.

Apple Success

2008-08-02T08:33:00.001-07:00

Well, I traded a guy on Craigslist my old XP laptop for a iBook G4. I mainly did it so I could get iMovie again. I installed World of Warcraft on it, and that program runs so much better on the mac laptop than my XP box.
One suggestion I would have for Apple, is give up on the browser. The Safari browser BLOWS, and BLOWS big time. I knwo the company I work for has issues on their website with it. My bank Chase has issues. Just give it up Apple. Make Fiorefox the default browser, and invest those resources on another program.

Great Quote from Winston Churchil

2008-07-07T11:07:00.001-07:00

Broadly speaking,
human beings may be divided into three classes : those who
are toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and
those who are bored to death.

Just Finished last Class for my Bach. of Arts.

2008-06-05T07:35:00.000-07:00

I have been taking classes the last 1.5 years. I just finished my last class I needed to get my B.A. in Art. i am very excited about that. My next goal is to get my Master's Art History/Archeology. That is a goal I have had since the age of 7 is to be an archaeologist. I will not be changing careers, LOL.
It will not change my life much, but I feel it shows my daughter how important an education is. It could help in the future when I change jobs too.

New website for my art.

2008-03-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

Since I am no longer at the Tri-Lakes Center for the arts, I wanted to create a virtual studio to share with my friends and family what I have been doing with my art the last two years. That is why I set up the web-site http://www.davidallengraham.com.

I will try to post pictures of my current paintings. I plan to start doing shows again, so I will put information about them too.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter, here is Rane with her doggy in her Easter dress. I really like this picture. I may start a oil painting of this one. It may be good to use as a contrast for sad girl.

I have not done allot with animals, so the practice may be good.

Here is a pic of Toby

2008-03-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

Here is Rane's new baby brother.

Pic of Rane carving pumpkins

2008-03-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

Sorry it took so long. This is from Halloween.

What is going on!

2008-02-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed, I have not been updating this Blog much. Well you can thank my Xbox 360 for that. I have been addicted to playing Halo3 with my little brother. I have also been playing Rockband with my daughter. My GamerTag is wer2chosen, so if you are a friend or family member, invite me as a friend if you have are on Xbox live.

The online portions are what I love about the Xbox. i think Live really sells the system. It is great to be able to downloads demos for nearly ANY game you are thinking of buying. It is great to rent a movie without leaving the house. It is a little pricey around $3.60 it seems. You have two weeks to watch it, but as soon as you click start you have 24 hours to watch it. I can run to the RedBox for one dollar. I think they need to lower the rental cost to $2.50, I would probably rent a movie a few times a week now.
The price for TV shows is pretty good. Around 160-180 points for most shows. You get 2000 points for $25.00

They have allot of gamer videos that are free though. You can purchase online games, that are pretty decent and fun. They tend to run 400-800 points. Most around the 800 point region. I think they should implement a rental policy for these. Some are games you will play over and over. One in particular is PacMan CE.
If I want to play a game, and have only 5-10 minutes this is the game I play. I play it EVERY day at least a couple of times. It is fun, yet challenging.

So I am very Happy we got the Xbox at Xmas. I only wish I did it sooner.

More Sprint Madness

2007-11-24T17:49:00.000-08:00

After talking with their special cancellation team and they telling me I would NEVER get any communications from Sprint. They are now claiming I owe them 271 dollars! They are also claiming I still owe for my MONTHLY service. I had the phone and service less than 24 hours. Has anyone else had issues with cancellation and billing issues?

It appears they may have dinged my credit too. I am now researching any open class action suits against them. I am so ticked at Sprint, my whole goal in life now is to warn people about what a crappy, pitiful experience I have had. I personally do not care if I have to now get a lawyer and pay out of my pocket to sue them.

Currently my cost is one lost day, 12 hours dealing with their support. That number is growing. I called them as soon as I got the bill. The billing department claimed they could do nothing. They would have to forward me to their cancellation team. I jumped down that moron's throat. I told him, get me your manager. I waited 30 minutes, to go into that person's voice mail.

New Painting of Rane I am working on

2007-11-10T05:29:00.001-08:00

I have finished the charcoal under drawing. Put fixitive on that. I am now starting to build up the flesh tones.

Sprint Service Nightmare, wins worst ever service award!

2007-10-18T06:06:00.001-07:00

I do not know why someone would be with sprint from a plan service perspective. I have been a customer ONE day and listen to my story;

Purchased blackery, 300 minutes a month, 300 sms messages, and unlimited web and email. They said I would have a $125 spending limit. I pay $249 for the phone; happy as a clam I await my purchase.

Next day, I see the status online claims my phone was activated and shipped.

I get the phone the next day! WOW, that was fast. I open the box and a nice red letter tells me my phone was locked during shipping, here is your new number, here is your unlock key.

I put the battery in. I see the phone is actually NOT activated. No biggie, I will read the manual and do that.

I am told to dial*2, and all will be peachy. I dial the number, and I get a message asking if I am a new or existing customer. I say existing, I get a message, my phone number is not in their db, click I am gone.

So I call back again, a little concerned. I then state I am a new customer, and I get routed to a sales person. I tell them I ordered the phone, and the activation would not work. He then claimed he did not see me in one database, and he would have to take a few minutes to look in another.

After 5 minutes, he states, I must be in a database he does not have access to, and he will transfer me to another person.

I get transferred to the next person. A lady with a slight Indian accent. After one hour, she says she will have to program my phone. Could she call me at a different number than the phone. Sure, I give her my number, now very concerned.

She calls me, after I hang-up. Then she puts me on hold for over one hour while she says she is doing something.

One hour later she comes on, thanks me for the long wait. Says, she can do nothing, and will have to transfer me to her partner. I am a little hot. I bite my tongue. I then get transferred, this time the lady has an accent that is unintelligible, and the connection is like she is standing down the hall. I have to AGAIN remove my battery, find the ESN number (why would their system not transfer that). She then does the WORST job of trying to talk me through programming my OWN phone. In 20 years of IT, 3 of it in owning an ISP, so I know what phone support SHOULD be, we get my phone activated. She says though, that I have to wait three hours before using it, because I need to get updates.

I thought my pain was over. I thought I was in Nirvana.

Three hours later, I decide I will set up my email. What no browser link, no email link? Isn't that what the blackberry is for?

I decide to look on the web see if others have had this happen. I so did NOT want to call their support again.

After researching it showed I have no services programmed, and I would need to call their support, if after going to Sprints website and requesting them to resend them did not work. Guess what, it didn't LOL

I called them again. I told the new person (at least this one I could her and understand) my pain. So 45 minutes later we change the network info on my phone and get my services installed. She then notices that I do not have internet access on my phone. I said what, I bought the unlimited plan. She says it is not on my account. I told her I downloaded opera trying to resend the services myself. If I didn’t have internet access, how could I do that? She said without the service I can still use the web, I am just paying a premium rate? Shocked, I said I bought it on your website. It told me there would be these charges. She said she saw all except that. She said she would remove any previous web charges and set me up with the web and email unlimited plan.

I am asked how my experience was; laughing I say if I have no more problems it is fine.

So I set up my email, go to sleep. I wake up the next morning. I check my email on the phone. That is great. I then go to call my voicemail. I get a message my phone has been shut off for non-payment or I have exceeded my credit limit! What how could that be. I am transferred to finance. He claims he sees a 300 dollar charge. It appears like I did not pay for my phone. What I paid $249 for the phone; I saw the charge on my corporate Visa. I rant now for 20 minutes, making sure someone at Sprint feels my pain. He claims he is in Finance and can do NOTHING to help me. I ask him, if I take my phone back today to a Sprint store, what will I owe. He said just for any calls, maybe $30. I tell him my only calls were to his support people. He offers to transfer me to customer service. I tell him that has messed up in setting up my phone that has made mistakes in regards to my plans; they have now made billing mistakes. There is no way after one day of Sprint service would I stay a customer.

The only positive is that I did not cancel my Verizon, which I have had with ZERO issues for 7 years.

New Dog

2007-09-28T08:53:00.000-07:00

We got a dog a few weeks ago. he is a sweet beagle named Toby. He has really helped Rane get over her fear of dogs. I got him for free off of Craigslist. The vet said he is full-blooded. he has already won over the whole family.

I will say one thing, it seems like people LOVE beagles. Tina and myself get stopped every where. People want to pet him and play with him.

Back east for 3 days

2007-09-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

I will be bopping back in the Cleveland area for a few days in October. I have to go back for a conference at work. I will be pretty busy with work, but hopefully I can see a few of my friends while I am there.

Finally, I made the little time in the Colorado Art Scene

2007-07-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

I became one of the resident artists at the Tri-Lake center for the arts a few months back. This last week they finally put my info and a sample of one of my art works.

http://www.trilakesarts.org/residentArtists.html

So that is cool. I do nto get to my studio as much as I like to, but when I do it is nice. Rane went one day with me and she loved it. She did an awesome oil paining that I will post here as soon as I find the power cord to the camera. LOL

Painting Again

2007-05-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

I have been doing allot of painting lately. here are three of my family.

Bad Weather in Cleveland

2007-04-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

It looks like my old home town is having some bad weather this week. I am very sad for you all there. We in Colorado are going to have to struggle with sunny and 57 degrees this upcoming Easter Sunday! LOL. I will be placing some pictures up this week on the blog, so keep dropping by.

Traveling soon via train

2007-02-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

I will be coming back to Clevetown for a few days this month. I will be traveling via rails. It is my favorite way to travel. i love the fact you cannot be in a hurry. It really takes one back to a time when we were not in such a rush. I have picked out a few books to read. I also plan to bring my season 5 for Smallville to watch. It will be nice. I have to work, so I will not have a lot of time, but I do hope to see some friends and family while I am there.

Anniversary

2007-01-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

This month, the blog is TWO years old. This is one of my oldest running blogs. You can view my other blogs at http://cosart.blogspot.com and http://lockpickingtoday.blogspot.com. The COSArt blog is the blog I maintain for a group of artists in the Colorado Springs area. My Lock Picking Today blog is where I keep information on the up and coming sport of Lock Picking.

Happy New Years

2007-01-01T00:10:00.000-08:00

Happy, Happy new Year!

Rane opening her Aunty and Uncle in Medina's presents.

2006-12-31T20:10:00.000-08:00

Rane opening Grandma's presents.

2006-12-31T19:57:00.000-08:00

Rane's new pony

2006-12-31T19:55:00.000-08:00

Rane, enjoying her new pony from Santa!

Two days after the blizzard!

2006-10-28T14:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a scene in one of the complexes near my work. You can see the snow is all gone, except for the big mounds left over from the plows. Normally they do not plow, but this one they had to.

Video of Rane sledding

2006-10-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

Here is some more video for the Grandma's.

Found great website. It lets you see who a phone number that is unlisted or unavailable belongs to.

2006-10-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

The website is http://whocalled.us/. You can put a number in and it will tell you who the person is who owns the number. I found it when I got a call from a 703 area code that said it was unavailable. It also lets you to say what the people told you if you answered it. Share this link with your friends.
It turned out the caller was from some political survey company. Glad I missed it, LOL

Rane Playing in the Snow!

2006-10-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

Having Fun playing in the snow.

Rane Playing in the snow

2006-10-26T13:23:00.000-07:00

Video of the Colorado Springs Blizzard

2006-10-26T12:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to the video I shot of the little blizzard we had today in Colorado Springs. I did try to go out in it. The truck worked great, but you could only see 30-40 feet in front of you. They are saying it may get better at 2:00 PM MTN. I will post pics on Friday. they say it will be beautiful and sunny.

One More Picture

2006-10-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

The Scene in the Springs as of 10:33 AM today

2006-10-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

The snow is still blowing

Today in Sunny Colorado Springs

2006-10-26T08:40:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of the scene out my front door.

Google SketchUp

2006-10-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

My daughter wants me to have her room redone for Christmas. It will be an American Idol room. I am working on creating plans for the bed. It will be a stage that has a twin bed that rolls out of it like a trundle bed. I am starting on the plans right now. This brings up what I want to talk about. Google Sketchup. This program is so much fun. It is an easy to use 3D design package. It is free to download. Go to Google and search Sketchup and you will see the links to down load it. They have tons of videos and tutorials. I spent about 10 hours already just playing with designs and such. If you want to know what would be great though, is if someone did for Sketchup what has been done for SecondLife. Currently you can output SecondLife creations and get them turned into real items for around 100 bucks. If you could do this with items you have made in Sketchup that would be incredible. You would have to choose a scale for the finished product. So someone please work on this.

Train travel

2006-10-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a business trip across country. I decided to take the train. First off, I love trains. If you are willing to just kick back and allow someone else to be in control it is a great way to travel. The food is fair and reasonable. Most of the staff is very helpful and nice. The people you meet are great. Since you are on the train so long, shutting yourself off to others is very difficult to do. You can put your headphones on and ignore those around you on a plane. You will only be with them for a few hours. That is not true on a train. You will eat with these people, sleep with these people. With all this said I want to now list how Amtrak could become a better choice and maybe even see a profit.

1) They need their own tracks. If you miss your connecting train you are SOL. I was supposed to have 5 hours in Chicago before I took my train to Ohio. The train getting me to Chicago was 4 hours late when it picked me up in Denver. Instead of getting to Chicago before 2:00 PM. It was almost 10:00 PM. I missed my connection by many hours. Now Amtrak did put me up in a nice hotel. I had to wait on a bus for over any hour before they even started driving us to the hotel. I was told this was a daily issue on the California Zephyr. Once a train loses it's priority then it is at the mercy of those who own the tracks.

2) Entertainment. Amtrak is missing the mark big time on this one. This could be a very profitable revenue stream for them. You have alot of people, stuck on a train for a long time. They do have free movies at night, but this is crazy. Instead of the site seeing car they should have an entertainment car. It could have a small theatre in the lower section and video games and decent poker tables in the upper section. They could run poker tournaments. They could have video games people pay to play. They could show second run movies and charge for this. You see some young people and businessmen on the train, but if they made that 24 hours or more on a train an experience then more people would travel. Every seat needs to have plug for my laptop. They should all have TV screens that I can pay to watch. Add two more crewmembers that are there to make sure the train is kept clean and that customers are served properly.

3) Charge more and learn who you should compete with. The prices are crazy low. If they bumped up the accommodations some and made the trains cleaner and slightly increased service they could charge more for the ticket. Make the train an event again. Then you would be competing with cruise lines, not airplanes. They have to realize that profit would come from competing not with people who's job is to get you somewhere fast for the least amount of money. Compete with companies that are not about getting you there fast and cheap. That is a losing proposition. Get me there at a fair price, with great food and make sure every moment of my day is full of great service, fun and relaxations.

4) Make it special.
In the heyday of the train. It was class, it was an event, and it was special. You have lost your way. You have to redesign yourself and get back to what you once were. It cost me 266 dollars to get to Ohio from Denver round trip. If the trains were cleaner and service was just slightly better. If there were a few more things to do on the train and more choices for those items. I would have gladly paid $466-$500 dollars. I actually paid $466. $200 dollars was so I would have a private room on the trip to Chicago. Why did I pay that? Coach is actually roomier. I wanted to stay in the first class lounge at Chicago. If I want to take a cruise I have to fly to one of only a few cities with a port that has cruise ships. This is a huge market Amtrak could tap into. Think of all the people who want to go on a cruise. Why do they go one the cruise. Is it to get somewhere fast? Is it to get somewhere cheap? No they want to shop, eat, relax and experience the high life. They want to feel like big shots. Amtrak has a "PORT" in cities across the U.S.
5) Improve the gateway to your trains
Nearly every station whether big or small is nasty. LOL They let you stop at a station every couple of hours for people to get off the train for 10 minutes. These are basically platforms with no services. Why would Amtrak NOT have at least payphones at these stops? They should open them up to outside groups. They could then get a percentage of any profits. What type of groups? Well how about train clubs? Most of these platforms have little buildings and such. Give the train club free offices and a place to show their trains. They could then put phones on the platforms. That money would help their clubs. They could sell local souvenirs. They could sell local food products. I take a train because I want to see America. I do not want to see a nasty America, but an America that no longer exists. Bring that America back and let me smell it, taste it and buy it. They would paint and update the platforms. They would have information about trains and train related hobbies. This would again, make each stop different and special. Boy scout troops could take advantage of this too. Veterans groups.

Pictures of the truck

2006-10-13T08:53:00.000-07:00

I know you have requested it, so here is a picture of the new truck.

Crazy couple of months

2006-04-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

We gave been fighting for our survival as a family the last couple of months. Tina got adult onset Hydrsephelus on Feb. 13, 2006. She was in University Hospital at Denver Colorado. That has been a struggle for us. She was in ICU for many days. She is now home finally after two months. This has been a strain emotionally, financially and physically. She is getting therapy. She has come a long way in the last 2 weeks. It is great getting her home. We are still struggling paying the bills, but hopefully in the next couple months we can get caught up with the additional expenses.

Which hacker conference is better

2005-09-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

Next year I was planning on going to Defcon. I am more interested in physical security than IT security. Probably since in my past job I did allot of application hacks for banks and different corporations. My current hobby is lockpicking. After looking at the Fifth Hope Conference website. This conference looks like it may be the one to go to. Has anyone been to both of them? Which would you go to if you could only do one?

Six legged Steer At Prairy Town

2005-08-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

Up 16K

2005-07-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

2005-07-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

Capital building from the arch

2005-07-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

Top of the world

2005-07-16T07:38:00.000-07:00

2005-07-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

Dinner at Harrah's

2005-07-15T18:42:00.000-07:00

2005-07-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

Cruising down mississippi

2005-07-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

2005-07-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

St louis

2005-07-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

2005-07-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

2005-07-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

2005-07-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

Greenup Illinois. Lunch at the candy kitchen

2005-07-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

Indiana at noon

2005-07-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

2005-07-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

2005-07-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

Kit carson caresal

2005-06-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

Lunch stop in Colorado

2005-06-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

2005-06-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

Hiking the trails with the family.

Big Trip

2005-06-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

We will be starting on our big trip next Friday. I plan to post pictures and podcasts of our trip across the country. I have to head back to Ohio for work. We are planning to take 4 days each way and experience as much as we can of this great country.
I have an affinity for the bizarre, so no one has any idea what types of weird items I may find. LOL

Best Game Ever (so far)

2005-02-05T23:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I think World of Warcraft has won this distinction. If you have never played a MMORPG before, then play this one. If you have played them all, then get this one. If you can that is. Numerous cities have completely sold out it appears. I know in my hometown. I went to get the strategu guide, and not only was that sold out, but the game was too. Not one store, but Media Play, Game Stop, Comp USA and Circuit City. This is no one horse town, but a nice sized city in Colorado. Why do I like it?

One of the main reasons I love this game is it does not force you to group with others. It appears that most classes are suitable for Solo Play. So no more getting stuck with some group of 10 year old yahoo's or waiting for hours to get a group. Just go out on your own. So far in 4 weeks of playing I have only grouped a couple of times. I have created Hunter, Mage, Warlock, Rogue, Paladin and Druid. They all seem to be pretty easy to solo at least to the 16th level.

Second reason I love the game. The questing system just feels right. Now quests seem to make sense. It makes the lower level so much fun. Now instead of just aimlessly killing squirels and rats. You are pulled into the world through the quests. You have the quest log at your fingertips. It gives you plenty of info to find where to go and what to do. You can abando quests when you want. You can keep many going. It is not uncommon to get close to a level just in questing what is available in your area. You will still be killing 12 kobolds, but now you are killign them for a reason. You get the experience for killing, then the experience for the quest and some nice reward. There are so many quests, especially at the lower levels that you never have a problem finding one.

Warhammer Dawn of War - a review

2005-01-31T07:04:00.000-08:00

When I saw this game in White Dwarf magazine, let me tell you I was excited. I love Games Workshop miniature games. I have been a fan for years. I know longer play 40k, but that didn't matter. I have numerous Fantasy armies. I have a epic 40k army, orks. I use to have three warmaster armies, I was forced to sell them when I could never find opponents. This was mainly due to the fact none of the game stores in the Cleveland area, where I originally hailed would allow you to play them in their stores. This is another story though for another time. I also play their historical line. When I say I have fantasy armies, let me tell you that is not exception. I own or have owned every army except standard orcs and tomb kings at one time. I currently field a very competitive orc army. I also can field over 5k in skaven. This skaven army may be on sell at ebay soon, by the bye. So to my review. One, I was really blown away by the LACK of quality in the packaging. When you spend $49.95 on a program you expect the cd case not to fall apart when you open it. The packaging while on the box looked good, just seemed like it was done at a lesser quality than I could of done at home. One nice thing, is it did come with a manual. I hate games that do not have printed manuals. Installation went well. The game ran well o my laptop, which is far from the biggest, baddest dog on the block. Now one positive, the animations are unbelievable. They are beautiful for the most part. I could see GW using this company to create 15 - 20 minute movies that they could sell. The game, while showing lots of promise, seemed to be way to much a lightly updated version of Star Craft. The campaign mode, give you no real choices. Half the fun of the game is the building of armies. That was the deal breaker. I normally enjoy campaign modes much more than playing against others online. If I want to play online I normally play World of Warcraft or a first person shooter. I do play this type of game frequently at LAN parties.
So in short if you are a monster 40k fan. Then get this game, in fact I will be selling mine shortly on Ebay, LOL. If not, then this is pretty much a lightly updated version of Starcraft.

Welcome

2005-01-23T09:44:00.000-08:00

This is my first post. I finally have the time after moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado to start up my blog. This blog is inspired by my friend Corey Haines blog. I hope this blog to be the antidote to his LOL