Transformers?

Who needs special effects when you have good old fashioned human imagination!

Tales of the Abyss

While waiting for people to come back from vacation and between sending out resumes, I was able to finish Tales of the Abyss for PS2. Some interesting points:

1. Although there was no Japanese language option, the voice acting for the characters were done quite well. After hearing some of the Japanese voices, I think that some of the English voices were a lot less annoying than the high pitched Japanese voices. The jokes the characters make are genuinely funny and often times I was LOLing.

2. The fighting system is awesome and improves upon the already fun Tales system. Tales of the Abyss uses the new Flex-Range Linear Motion Battle System (FR-LMBS). Aside from sounding like a BF2 assault rifle, the system allows the player to move around a fully 3D arena with ease and makes comboing enemies all the more amusing.

3. The story was superb. It never really slows down and it alternates between seriousness and comic relief. It all plays out in the end and every loose end is tied up.

4. The character development is also done very nicely. The main character is soooo annoying at the beginning of the game that you really don't feel bad for him when everyone (except 2 people) ditch him halfway through the game. But then after a while, he becomes more likable and eventually, you see his progression from teenage angst to something a bit more mature. Of course all the other characters have mysterious pasts and they are all revealed as the game passes.

5. The game was very challenging. Especially the boss fights. I decided to play it through on the "Hard" difficulty the first time through (Beating it once unlocks "Very Hard" and Unknown" difficulties) and many of bosses were pretty rough, taking quite a few tries to beat.

All in all, Tales of the Abyss was a great game, and I look forward to the next Tales game.

Waiting finally over

After 2 and 1/2 years, Accenture's HR department finally had enough people return from vacation to process my paperwork. I will be starting this coming Monday. Ironically, my manager, Bru Three is going on vacation today and won't be back until Tuesday. I look forward to taking lots of vacations once I start working if the hiring process is any indication...

The waiting game

This must be a particular hobby for companies as this is the 4th time I have been told to wait for the "final decision." While the recruiter keeps telling me to hang in there, I am pretty fed up with this crap. I think I will just schedule my tickets and if it happens to be in conflict with anything, too bad. Luckily, there are some other interviews on the horizon just in case Accenture is playing the dog on the leash game with me.

So...I guess they DO look at it

Got a phone call this morning from a background checking service for Accenture saying that they could not verify my employment at Shell Technology and Service Center. I let them know that it was a contracted position through BluWare and gave them their number. Hopefully it will get resolved. Now, I used to think that companies didn't really verify this information and just took it for granted. I am glad I didn't put something like First Sergeant in the USMC!! While this wouldn't have been entirely "untrue", I think forcing them to look through the military ranks for a certain "Cucumbernator" probably would have pissed them off further. Hmmm.....I hope they don't find out about that harem I used to run...

Goodbye to WoW

After more than a year of playing World of Warcraft. I decided to step away from this game for an extended period of time. While the social aspect of the game was still very awesome and I enjoyed the company, the game itself was getting rather repetitive and boring to some degree. Here's to exploring new challenges and to my friends still visiting Azeroth on a daily basis: Pleasant Journeys and may all your loot by phat!

Bird rescue

The BlupnutMM couple were walking their dog, when all of a sudden, they found a baby chick that had fallen from it's nest. After a bit of convincing, I was swindled into simply picking up this baby chick and putting it into the nest. Sounds simple? Not really, since after I had picked up this bird, BlupnutMM informed me that she had no idea where the nest was.... So okay, after wandering around a bit looking for a nest, a decision was made: Let the bird die, or attempt to save this bird by taking it to an animal hospital. After little deliberation, it was decided to take the bird to the animal hospital. When we got there, I was informed that they did not accept birds, and that the local wildlife shelter did. So after another 30 minute drive, we managed to get the bird to the right people. The bird turned out to be a dove, and apparently was only a couple of weeks old. Consider it my little contribution to world peace.

MisBehavior

Just finished up the Behavioral Interview. It went very well and I think that's the last step in the process. I called the recruiter afterwards and she told me an offer should be made on Thursday if all goes well. I would really like to thank Moonfleck for the excellent links to the behavioral interview questions as all of the questions asked were listed on the page, some even word for word. Almost makes up for her C4ing my LAV last night!!

Misconduct

Accenture has scheduled a "Behavioral" interview for me tomorrow. I am not sure exactly what kind of interview this is gonna be, but the recruiter told me that it's going to be scenario based. So something like, angry customer calls regarding something, how do you react. I am pretty sure that "Convince them to give Lans all their gold" isn't the best answer.

Dog Days of Summer

The BlupnutMM couple are crashing over at my place for this weekend. Of course, they had to bring their lovable dog, Teddy. Being a pretty laid back lazy person, I have never really wanted a pet. There was a brief brush with insanity where I almost got 2 kittens at once, but thankfully I recovered just in time.

I try to ignore this dog as much as I can, as I just really don't want to play with it, get slobbered on, etc etc, but he seems to have some kind of power with those eyes of his. Must... resist.....gah, have to go walk it...or something, randomly barking at door.....

Okay, so this dog seems to want to go out, it goes out, sits on the grass for 2 min, then immediately wants to go back in....what the heck...isn't it supposed to pee or something???

Judgement Day

Went for the Accenture interview today. I believe the interview went very well. Met the members of the team and they were all pretty enthusiastic about having me on board. The project lead was also quite happy with how the entire thing went. I also had lunch with the team and it felt like I was a member of the team. There are still 2 more candidates after me and since I don't know who they are, I cannot send my ninjas.

Update: Apparently, just the mere thought of sending ninjas has discouraged my other competitors and the Accenture recruiter has informed me that they will be extending an offer next week! yay!

Sweet...

Which Programming Language are You?

Completely unrelated note, ahh fond memories.

Basketball at it's Best

Awesome article about flopping in the NBA. Big Shot Brob takes one for the team, but the BEST flop evah has to be this one....he wasn't EVEN touched.

2nd Interview

The recruiter told me that I have an on-site interview with Accenture this coming Friday. Time to prepare for this interview!

BasketCrawl

Ran full court basketball for the first time tonight in about 4 months. All I can say is that man, I need to do more cardio instead of just weight training. I was so winded at 5-5, I am not sure how I managed to survive to the end. Also, the things I used to be able to do, I couldn't pull off. The shooting...well let's just say if I hit the rim, I counted it as a moral victory. Luckily, this has given me new perspective and I look forward to doing a lot more cardio and playing a lot more ball this summer.

On the non-outdoory note, Papaya's brother recently picked up BF2 and is having a blast. This stirred some very fond memories of =VGI= turning many a tide of battle. The thrill of parachuting out of the Blackhawk on Wake 2007, and our awesome moments of domination. Who can forget Ender's famous "Go get that tank".... Soo, anyone interested in picking this thing up again?