So the spouse has had the new CoD WaW since Friday and has been playing it pretty much non stop during the waking hours.

Unlike CoD4, where I watched him play for a year because there’s no such thing as co-op play, I could call out “1:00 high”, “bad guy left stairs” etc., this newest version DOES have co-op play. And I tried it. I didn’t do very well because I HAVEN’T been playing the other one to know enough about the controls.

I was shooting like a freakin’ girl, up and all over the place…couldn’t see who was good vs. bad with my crosshairs (they are rather small and red) because they tend to disappear into the body of the target. I forgot how clunky an M1 Garand was to shoot (because yes, I HAVE fired one in real life), and in this game they fire exactly the same. I dropped mine and went for the SP100 as often as possible – why not grab a machine gun if you have the option?

The other annoyance in co-op play is that if your buddy gets killed, you have to go back and find him to revive him before he dies!!! If he dies, (or you die as was the case with me more than once), the mission fails and you either restart the mission or go back to a checkpoint and start the madness all over again. Don’t think I want to try that in online play, call me a wuss.

With less than 100,000 users online for this game yet, it’s going to be hairy getting rank…especially now that they have also increased the rank to 65. Gaining rank against morons who live in their folks’ basements with nothing but time on their hands is gonna be a challenge, but I know my spouse is up to it, because we know I’m not and he doesn’t want to be the first one in online play killed by a 9 year old with a flame thrower. Not that that EVER happens with games rated M for mature.

Needless to say, I think I’m going to go back to my armchair help if at all – “dogs are out”, “Jap at 4:00″, “Freakin’ camper behind you”.

Oh yeah, and I found a death card too my first run through so there!

This project that has been monopolizing my time lately has been interesting to say the least. In my quest to educate clients I have yet another beef.

Like the title says – if someone you hire to ENGINEER a wood display that is going to have to accommodate ALL your PRODUCTS, asks you to send enough to fill this display along with YOUR LONGEST ITEMS to be included for this purpose, please think about why they might need them.

Case in point – we had samples made and shipped to the client for intial review because they had a photo shoot scheduled. Well, they discovered that there is not enough room between the necklace bars, as some of them hang down and knock into the next ones. In the picture they took and sent back to us for revision, they show 2-3 LONG NECKS with PENDANTS that I NEVER SAW on them. I have asked on numerous occasions “What is the length of your longest necklace?” only to be told time and again “Oh, no one cares, they are all the same length”.

Oh really? If that was the case then WHY IS THERE NOT ENOUGH ROOM BETWEEN THE BARS ON THE DISPLAY? If that was the case, then the measurements I had before would have been able to accommodate what they had and not need so much revision…..Hmmmm… I guess I’m the silly one for even asking.

When you see a person taping, measuring and applying what looks to be professionally cut logos to a directional what would you assume? Would you say to yourself, “Hmm looks like this person is destroying our signs.”?

A man in a hard hat with a camera named “Mr. E” (his name has been changed to protect his identity) came over, took my picture and walked me to the rest of the uncompleted directionals asking time and again if I was supposed to be doing this. Apparently, to Mr. E, my new buddy at the VA Campus… I “tagged” their directionals.

My understanding of a “tagger” is this:

tagger
tag”ger (?), n.
1. one who, or that which, appends or joins one thing to another.
2. that which is pointed like a tag. hedgehogs’ or procupines’ small taggers. otton.
3. pl. sheets of tin or other plate which run below the gauge.
4. a device for removing taglocks from sheep.
5. A graffiti artist, particularly one who works alone using canned spray paint.

So, if you go by the first definition, yes I did append their existing signage only after submittal and approval from the VA and our client. If one goes by the last definition, I did not in any way use spray paint. I used pre-cut, first surface 3M Opaque Vinyl – the same product that is used to make pin striping and details on most major manufactured vehicles and signage one encounters on a daily basis – and the same product that is currently on their directionals.

I walked with him, smiled with him, introduced myself to him, gave him my business card and asked him if I would do something totally random and stupid on the 233rd birthday of the US Marines Corps.(which is today for those who are not in the know)? He said well maybe, just because you could, although he did say that it almost looked professional.

All in all, I hope that he was just a hard person to read and his humor quotient sucked, or he really has limited people skills and did not know what was up. No clue… I let my client contact know and left it at that! I am done until Dec 1st when I have to go back and install the updated hours for the branch.

How do I know this? Well, it wasn’t here last week when the yard guys came and mowed, and today they are back mowing but this is in the yard. Thought I’d capture it before it was no more… now if someone can tell me what type it is…?

..so Jay Leno’s stand up is pretty darn funny! Some parts he needs to update just a tad, but I’d say most of it’s pretty up to date.

One of the things he was talking about had to do with why guys like dogs versus cats. A dog will always look at you when you talk to it like it’s totally enthralled with what you are saying to it, whereas a cat will more often than not walk away in the middle of you trying to speak to it.

When a guy starts dating a gal with a cat or cat(s), he says “Why yes, I’d love to meet your cats.” After a few months, she will give the “cat talk”, which usually consists of things like “Cats are independent. They think for themselves. They eat when they want to, sleep when they want to, bathe themselves and give you affection when they want to. Sometimes, if you let them outside, they will disappear for 2-3 days t a time. They are very free willed.” He also noted that when a woman’s cat has been gone for a few days, their reaction upon the cats return is jubilant and filled with things like “Oh kitty! Mommy was so worried about you… silly kitty staying away so long.”

Now, if a man was like any of the above or tried to stay out for 2-3 days at a time, the woman’s reaction would be more akin to “You sorry SOB! Who the *&%$ do you think you are?….” etc. etc.

His observation is that all the things a woman loves about her cat(s), are all the thing she HATES in a man. Thus, I’d have to say that … I concur!

This is of course coming from a happily married woman that owns a DOG!

Oh, that’s right, because I worked through all last weekend and all this week. Going to do something completely out of character for me – traveling in an RV to some casino with my mother and her pal, two small dogs and a box of wine, to see Jay Leno do his stand up routine tomorrow night.

Now, what’s even funnier for me is that one of my best pals works for NBC and sees Jay every day, as his office is just down the hall from Jay’s in the studio. Many times, he’s outside when Jay arrives and discusses the different vehicle he arrives in daily. Should be fun.

Hope I get some pix and I hope it stops raining so that the leak will not be an issue in the overhead area where I will be sleeping.

In the neverending back and forth battles with clients and keeping them on track and on the same page, I think this cartoon sums it all up and is fairly self-explanatory.

Both the spouse and I have to agree that, even though I am usually an Uma Thurman fan (I loved her look in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) looks-wise, the Lego version of Poison Ivy is hotter.

Lego Batman video game version:

Batman Returns movie version:

What do you think?

That’s what my hubby keeps asking after this election. He’s concerned because of how things really work, what kind of a set up this truly is. He wants to know how may folks will have committed suicide and how many will retire from the army tomorrow…

What it represents in D.C. and the rest of the government – the folks that really run it all from behind the scenes – is what scares him the most. Not that he wanted McCain any more, but what are the folks in that town really up to that they would allow this vote to go this direction? He’s waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I hope for his sake he never has to see it…but that’s the difference between us…I will be cynical and suspicious of any politician just as he, but I’ll at least try it on for a few more minutes than he will.

Now, if everyone else can learn to step out of their own little boxes for a while and look at themselves and their parts in the big picture in an objective way, there might be some progress we can all look forward to!

I had blogged before about my niece crying because she wasn’t old enough to vote this year – she has another 14 to go. I told her I would vote for her and she was very happy.

Today, I did my part and went to the polls, took a picture of the vote she wanted cast in her name and then submitted my completed ballot. After that, I was handed a little “I voted” sticker, which I modified and then took a picture onmy camera phone of and sent it to my sister to show her.

This is the picture I sent:

This is the picture I got back with the message “Thank you Auntie Whitney!”

Like I have mentioned before, you have to take into consideration the requests of our future generation because in the end, they are going to have to deal with/ clean up what we leave for them later on!