The Drunken Monk's Sermon

Well today is my birthday. And I woke up to SNOW!!!!! The moon was still out when I got up to scrape my Jeep and get rolling for the day. I really wish I could have taken a snow day off, but in reality it wasn't enough to keep me from heading into work. My brother runs the local snow plow anyway, and I'm sure the first thing he'd do is make sure I could make it to work to suffer through the day with him.....LMAO

Every year I take a bit of my birthday to reflect on what my life has become, what it could have been, and of course what it was like in the past. One of the hardest things about my birthday is that I don't get quite as many people phoning me to tell me 'Happy Birthday'. It's ok that they don't, as I'm not all that great about calling people either.

But four years ago I lost my Mom on February 5th to breast cancer. She NEVER missed calling on my birthday.....it's just a Mo
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Hey all, I wrote my first installment of my Fallout 3 Fan Biography/fiction.....Fictionography? LMAO It follows my character's pursuits through the Wasteland as I attempt to hunt down the last 10 bobbleheads. It is based on true events that take place in the game.

WARNING- This story contains many spoilers. It is also graphic, dirty, and gritty. It took place in the Fallout universe, and if you're not allowed to play in it.....you probably shouldn't read about it either. Read at your own risk.

I hope you all enjoy and any feedback is greatly appreciated. Look for nine more installments in the coming weeks.


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Soooooo, I got my PS3 back today. It came through UPS and required a signature from me or someone 21 or older. I missed the delivery of course because I was at work, but I was able to pick it up at 8:00 this evening. While it was a frickin' pain in the ass, I definitely appreciate Sony taking the extra pains to make sure my system got to me and no one else.

I nervously unpacked the box when I got home, and after verifying the serial number with my records quickly realized I got MY system back!!! YAY!!! I'm so frickin' happy about that!! Also, the speedy repair.....holy shit was that FAST!!!! They must have worked hard on it.

There is still a little mystery though. On the service repair receipt there was no description of the failure or what they did to repair my unit. I have e-mailed them and hope to clear it up....just in case it was something that can be avoided in the future,
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Well, I'm not too sure what is going on with my PS3. I shipped it on Friday, and today late this afternoon I get a confirmation from UPS that a package is being shipped to me from Sony Service Center. The odd part is that A)The PS3 I sent weighed 16 lbs, this package states 13. B)It states that it is a "Trade Direct Cross Border" package, meaning it's coming from out of country. C) I called the service reps today to get the run around about WTF is coming my way.

I'm slightly concerned that my PS3 shed 3 lbs in 4 days. I'm slightly concerned that I'm not getting MY machine back.....I mean Sony didn't work through the weekend and holiday did they?! I'm slightly concerned no one gives a shit but me. And I'm a little more than paranoid that Sony has no frickin' clue as to WTF they're doing as proven by their service reps who are dumb as a bag of rocks.

The rep told me he THINKS that they
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Friday was a treat for me. I had to take the day off to watch my daughters, and it was just us 3.....a Daddy Daughter(s) Day. No other kids, no other adults just each other to entertain ourselves, and it was entertaining to say the least. The girls have been really good this week, which is a bit surprising since they have been going through the 'terrible twos' something fierce. But Friday they were on their absolute best behavior.

It was a little scary actually, and I kind of kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. We all went to the post office to get my passport applied for and take care of all that mess. The worker commented that the girls were little angels......normally they're devils in disguise though.

By noon I had to accept that they were going to continue the angel routine and perhaps they were enjoying their time with me just as much. We danced in the kitchen....we ha
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It's day 5 without my PS3, and I am jonesin' somethin' FIERCE!!!! It's kinda funny actually, the first half of '08 all I bitched about was how much dust my PS3 was collecting because there weren't any decent games to play. Then BAM!! out of nowhere comes title after title of pretty hot hits. I nearly tripled my game collection in 6 short months and still have quite a few games to hop on.

Now I'm sitting here trying to take back all of the bad things I said, and just wish my PS3 would work again. Maybe it's slightly pathetic on my part to be so damn attached to the stupid thing, but man it really was my main source of entertainment. We don't have cable, and the kids dominate the television with their damn cartoons and shit....the PS3 was mine.....ALL mine!!!!!

Then there was this little game I picked up during Christmas vacation known as Fallout 3. I was instantly hooked. I'm still n
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Well, it's unfortunate that I have to say this.....but today my PS3 bit the dust. In the middle of playing Fallout 3 it just froze. Unfortunately that's actually kind of typical for Fallout 3, so I just restarted my PS3. When I went to go back into the game, it wasn't being recognized. I tried a few more discs including a PS2 game to no avail. My Blu-Ray drive is dead.

It's out of warranty so that's $149 down the drain I wasn't planning on spending. However, if I get MY PS3 back then it may be worth it since mine has backwards compatibility. It will still play games that are downloaded to my HDD, but can't say that there are any that excite me at this minute. Fallout 3 owned me. So much for finishing those quests this weekend. I didn't even get a chance to try out Mirror's Edge.

Guess now is my chance to catch up on some DS, PS2, and Wii games while I wait a month to get my shi
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Well we had our Christmas with my in-laws over the weekend. It was actually a great time. The kids all received very nice things and I got Mirror's Edge (a very pleasant surprise!!). I accidentally bought a 6 ft sub thinking it was only going to be the 3 ft one which is what we ordered last year. The thing was ginormous and even after giving away 2 feet of it, it's all we've been eating for the last few days!!!

Our friend Theresa came over with her family and we all enjoyed the evening together. Once again the kids all got nice things and I received one of my favorite movies Mr. Brooks. We checked out the local Christmas light display and then I proceeded to get smashed off of eggnog and beer. 'Tis the season to be drunk......don't judge me!!

Last week I was checking Amazon's lightening deals and they had Brother's in Arms: Hell's Highway for only $10!!!! Yeah that's right, $10!!!
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Well it's that time of year again, a time for joy, peace and prosperity. Unfortunately for those caught up in the recession none of those apply this year. Many people are losing their jobs and can't afford any type of Christmas. I know a lot of friends and family going through some very rough times this year, and I'm just thankful as hell that my wife and I still have a job.

We both work at an aviation company that manufactures avionics equipment such as comm and navigation radios. The aviation industry goes up and down like a roller coaster, so believe me we're counting our blessings. Our company is owned by Cobham for those of you in the UK who may know of the name.

So needless to say after reading stories about companies laying people off by the hundreds we feel extremely grateful that we can afford to give the kids a Christmas at all this year. Even though our budget has defini
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We've all seen the articles about gaming on a budget, but in my opinion they all seem to fall short because their main focus is on buying used games. Buying used is definitely a good way to save a buck or two, but here's some more tips for the gamer who is on a strict budget.

My wife and I have 4 kids between us and keeping the household up has definitely forced me to be a bit more frugal in my spending. I have learned how to juggle my household budget with my gaming needs mostly through trial and error and I hope that you all can take some of these points and use them for your own benefit:

SAVE!!- This is probably one of the most difficult things to achieve, but definitely worth it. It took me a few raises and paying down some bills to achieve this. When you get to this point, stash away the money in an account that is your own and separate from the bill pile. You'd be amazed at how
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