Sorry about all the bad news lately, vibes about your Mom and hopefully Michelle is on the upswing.

Re: Monaco, yup it's all yours. We'll have to jump on with Rude sometime. They've since added another sweet game to the mix that I already have (Fez) -- once I remember what my password was, I'll post that up here for grabs too. That's a fun, interesting solo puzzle game.

I can't remember who all has Diablo III besides Aaron, but they just did a MAMMOTH patch and it's well worth trying the game again. It's like they patched in the fun. Everything plays way better, and the loot is WAY better now. They're getting rid of the shitty, economy-destroying Auction Houses too, which is nice.

| Good news, bad news, red gnus, blue gnus

Sorry I haven't been posting. Lurking here and there. Dealing with mom being in the hospital and Michelle being home sick the last 4-5 months has been challenging.

Good news: Made it through the insanely intense screening and hiring process for a new job. With Michelle being out of work, I need to switch gears from "building a business for the future" mode to... make money to eat now and have benefits mode. Got hired on with South Sound 911 in their comms center. I tested well and will be starting the training program for the dispatch department the end of March. Once I make it through training and probation, the chief said he wants me on the short list for the supervisory / management training program. So that's nice. Man, the screening process was nuts though. It went a little like this:

1. Group presentation on the basics of the jobs being hired for and expectations (September).
2. Complete 28 page personal history and background information packet (October)
3. Skills testing on computers, multitasking hell, lol. Favorite test: listening to a recording of 6 different people call out strings of letters, numbers and colors and having to write down as many complete strings as you could. Man, that was brutal. (November)
4. Panel interview (December)
5. Polygraph Examination - almost flunked this. Not because I'm hiding dead hookers in the basement (I promise). But my worst nightmare almost came true. Just as he was asking me one final question, something stupid about "is there anything else you haven't told us about that would cause you to be disqualified?" ... my idiot brain decided to flash an image of my basement filled with stolen shit. FOR NO FUCKING REASON. Augh.. so of course that millisecond of WTF BRAIN WHY? cause me to panic slightly and as you can probably imagine it snowballed from there, we spent another 30 minutes straight of him drilling me on that one question. Augh.
6. Background check (January) - no idea how many of you got a call. It's amazing how far they went to find people I've had contact with. I mean, I guess I'm glad they're that thorough. It's a pretty sensitive position.. but man, it's not like I'm getting launch codes for the nukes.
7. Psychological Eval. 600 multiple choice, 3 pages of written and a 30 minute oral examination. This was brutal, just because it was like 5 hours straight of mental gymnastics. (February)
8. Final Interview with Chief - guess by this point it was a formality. We talked for about 2 minutes about the actual job and then bullshitted for the next 28 to satisfy the minimum 30 min requirement? lol
9. Wait, but we're not done! FULL PHYSICAL, including hearing test, blood, piss, and range of motion. Weird.

Bad News: Mom passed this last Thursday. That was not fun to watch. Part of me is glad she's not in pain or suffering anymore. Weird feeling to not have parents anymore. Not a great feeling, no.

Red Gnus: Michelle is finally starting to feel a little better after her third drug trial treatment. Two "good" days in a row. That's the first time in the last 4-5 months she has left the house on consecutive days when we weren't going into the hospital or to see a doctor. If we can string together 4-5 days in a row, we might even begin hoping against hope she can return to work again.

Blue Gnus: I grabbed the Monaco key. Been really wanting to try that out, but completely broke as all shit. I hope that's not a dick move to snipe that after lurking for many months. :/

Anyone playing it as a group? Would LOVE to blow off some steam with you guys in game / teamspeak, etc.

That's hard to stop watching.

I just need to put this out there:
tayne