Well I know it's been quite a while since I last updated.

I blame that on partly being bored with DA, partly being quite busy, partly being distracted by other interests, and partly on not really having anyone here to talk to anymore.

So just to cover what's happened over the past month of time:

1. In mid-October I went down to North Carolina with mom, stayed with my uncle and saw the mountains(when there wasn't rainy fog). The only really good day was the Tuesday when I went to Grandfather Mountain. I had a great time there; saw the animals, had fudge, braved the mile high bridge with 60 mph gusts, and went all the way to the edge out past the bridge, and of course took many photos.
This was admittedly the last hurrah of my D40...

2. I got my D90 now. I received it a bit early since my parents had to leave town on my b-day. It's pretty much everything I wanted function-wise. I'm so happy I can now AF with my 50mm and do bracketing. The video and depth of field preview functions have been neat to experiment with. Very happy with it. (although I will probably have to get a new camera bag since it only barely fits in mine with the 18-105 equipped)

3. My b-day was okay. As always it's usually nothing special.

4. As of now, I am not sure if I will be uploading anymore photos to DA. I'm trying to put more of them on flickr now so other photography people can pursue them better and keep it looking a bit more professional. I'm also starting to use watermarks now(which is something I probably should have been doing from the start).

5. My streak of avoiding sickness has finally come to an end. Last week I came down with a mild cold. I blame Modern Warfare 2 for it.

6. Speaking of MW2... If I had to rate this game, I'd give it a 6/10. It's still a good game... but as a PC gamer for FPS, this game rather blows. I'm not entirely alone on this either. Infinity Ward did nerf the game for PC and basically acted like douches when it came to developing it for PC. No console access(kind of my biggest gripe ATM. Can't adjust the game nor use cheats. IW basically wants you to only play the game, the way they want you to play it. Well I did that, and now I want to try doing the game the way I want, so F you IW), no dedicated servers (not as big a deal to me since i rarely do multi-player but I do understand why this is aggravating some), no lean (seriously, WTF. A staple move that been in every FPS for the the past decade and they just leave it out. WTF.)
So since I really only did the single-player, I'll give my brief review of it. It was alright. As a Call of Duty game, it kind of sucked. As Unreal Tournament, it was pretty good. Meaning, it's just almost constant balls to the wall gunfire and explosions. Almost to the point to where it doesn't feel realistic. I prefer to take a more lone gunman approach and carefully take out targets from afar and sneak around. That is very hard to impossible to do in Modern Warfare 2. You only get a couple missions like that I enjoyed those the best, obviously. Other missions are just you, battling a hail of gunfire and objectives that constantly force you into harms way.
There's this one mission early on where you have to find this South American bad guy. In the process you have to fight an endless army of druglord toadys ... and i mean endless. They just keep re-growing like clones and I spent a half-hour just killing these goons over and over, hoping I could clear a path to my objective... but NO, that's not the way IW wants to you play the game. You are supposed to run brazenly through he hail of gunfire and nearly get killed. No strategy allowed. And the other part that annoys me about that level, is my fucking AI team mates. Where the fuck do they go? I'm expecting them to help me get through this torrent of goons and move up as a team... but NO, IW forces them all way ahead so i have to fend for my myself. Cause that's how teamwork works folks according to IW. Fuckers.
No strategy allowed. Just go Rambo on everyone's ass. That's the only way to play this game. Usually it's the other way around in realistic shooters. At least the magical grenade spamming has been somewhat fixed. Although now, enemies seem to always know right where I am despite my best efforts at concealment and stealth. Again strategy is not allowed according to IW. Fuckers.

Oh, yeah, what's up with the strawberry jelly effect every time you get shot? It's like if someone just nicks you with a bullet, you automatically get shot in the face and can't see shit except for jelly.
Fuckers.

7. Other than that, cars.
More importantly, Forza 3. I've been playing the heck out of it and after three weeks now, I think I'm finally starting to get bored with it. I'm not sure why I'm still fascinated with the Ford GT, but in every racing game, it is MY car. It's MINE in Gran Turismo, and it's MINE in Forza as well. Anyways, in Forza, I super-tuned my Ford GT into a beast. Have to handle it just right to get the best out it, and once I have it under control, winning is easy. I have to have a spoiler and ... whatchamallcallit on the front bumper to keep it under reasonable control but it does keep it's top speed down to around 210 mph. Now if I take those off I can punch it right up to 250 mph, albeit at the cost of much handling. Well anyway...
Forza 3 is a great racing game. I might even like it better than Gran Turismo. The real time damage effects adds a new sense of realism with performance now dependent on your ability not to crash. Also the AI is just great... it will make mistakes from time to time and when it does, it's damn funny.

8. Other than that, finances have been really tight, and will continue to be so. I probably won't catch a break until January. Car insurance got me, property taxes have gotten me, my health insurance went up again(Fuckers) while I still have to save up for rent each month and have food and fuel. And of course Christmas gifts...
I feel like I'm living on the edge every week...

9. And on that note, I hate the holiday season. It forces me to spend money, tolerate bothersome Christmas music constantly, work more hours(which really isn't so bad, cept for closing at 10pm. Hard to get drive-thru when other places close at 10 as well), the smells... oh god the smells, glitter... why must there be glitter fucking everywhere?

But my biggest beef about the holidays ... is that I am still alone. The holidays mean a lot to others because they have loved ones to be with. I don't really have that. Yes, I have friends and my family... but it just isn't the same because they have their loved ones and I do not. Every year it's same.
I want to enjoy the holidays, but i just find it so hard to do so when this time of year just amplifies how lonely and miserable I am.