I will freely admit that most hotel restaurants aren’t the best in terms of a lot of things, with few exceptions at the higher-end hotels, but I’ll certainly give them points for effort. However, in this case, this seemed more like it was run by the Three Stooges.

So, this morning, I decided to head down to the restaurant of the hotel I’m staying at here in Indianapolis for breakfast prior to my friends waking up. There were two nice ladies waiting there, who from my estimation had already been waiting there for a few minutes by the time I had arrived. And the restaurant wouldn’t qualify as busy, not by a long shot. In fact, I’d guesstimate that the percentage of occupied tables was just barely above a third. They were finally seated after a couple more minutes, as was I. I waited for approximately 15 minutes before a gentleman even came to take my order. I ordered a standard breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, potatoes, and juice. Oh yes, and a cup of fruit. So I waited… and waited. I ended up drinking half of the water, which I’m convinced to this moment was unfiltered municipal tap water. I’m by no means knocking the great city of Indianapolis, I’m simply saying that a restaurant with the decor of this establishment would at least try to have something a half step above going to the sink for their water.

Finally, my breakfast came out after another 20 minutes, and still no juice. I had to specifically ask the waiter for it a 2nd time, and he did finally get it for me. I was rather unimpressed with the meal. The eggs were VERY dry, the toast, while burnt in spots, was actually only a couple degrees above room temperature, if that. The orange juice I ordered was chilled somewhat, so I’ll give them that. Having lived in Florida for 12 years however, I could never recall orange juice being quite that shade of dark orange. The fruit cup I had wouldn’t even qualify as a handful. It was all of two blackberries, 4 or 5 blueberries and a strawberry. As for the potatoes, they somehow mastered the art of seasoning them unevenly. Some pieces had no salt or pepper on them whatsoever, while others seemed to be seasoned beyond capacity. Perhaps the one saving grace of the meal was the fact that the bacon was quite good.

After I had finished and asked for the check, for only perhaps the 2nd time in my entire life, did I seriously entertain the idea of not leaving a tip. Being that I worked at a restaurant as well as a pizza delivery place, I understand and appreciate the gravity of not leaving a tip, because like service staff everywhere, I depended on tips, and so I feel some measure of comradery with them. So I ended up leaving 15%, but a part of me felt that was too much, and it still does, but at least I can’t be accused of stiffing someone.

That being said, however, I don’t think I’ll be going to this restaurant in the near future unless I had no alternative.

I’m also quite glad I’m here with good friends, none of which I’ve seen in the last three years, so it was good to catch up with them, have some fun, and also get in as much gaming as can possibly be had during our time here. If it were in my power to do so, I’d definitely make time to come next year. With things being as in-flux as they are, who knows whether I can make that happen.

However, I digress, and aim to have as much fun as I can possibly squeeze in during the next few days

First of all, I’m excited that the first week of August, I’ll be attending Gen Con. I took the whole week off because I didn’t want to miss a thing, as well as a few days the next week as well It should be tons of fun especially since it’ll be my first time going, and the first time I’ve seen the Madison crew since I left Madtown in the summer of ’07. We all ended up getting suites at the Conrad International, which is awesome. It cost us quite a bit, but then again, how often do you get to buy corner suites at a 5-star hotel?

I’m also stoked that later this year Cataclysm is coming out for World of Warcraft. For those who may not know, my best friend in the whole wide world, Marvin, got me hooked on World of Warcraft int he beginning of ’07, right when Burning Crusade came out, and I’ve been playing it ever since. I’ve gotten fairly high, high enough to do Icecrown Citadel content, which is effectively end-game stuff for the current expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. I’m hope that Cataclysm is half as good as Lich King was. We shall see

Besides that, things are alright.

That being said though, I come with a peace offering. It’s the official HD trailer for Final Fantasy XIII. I’ve been playing it a couple weeks now, and I’ve been hooked almost from the word go. The song playing in the background is “My Hands” by Leona Lewis from her CD Echo. Enjoy!

That being said though, there’s a number of things, new and improved in my life. To begin with, my parents saw fit to buy me a new laptop for my impending 30th birthday. But not just any laptop, a new Alienware laptop. It’s decked out with most of the bells and whistles you’d come to expect from a $2800 piece of beauty. There’s only one or two minor items I’d change on it, but given that my parents footed the bill on this one, I’m certainly not going to be one to complain.

As far as work is going, things are alright there. Two new guys started, which helps to alleviate some of the obvious lack-of-staff issues. Plus, they’re both smart as hell, and both hit the ground running, so that’s a real big help for us, since we’ve been hurting in terms of both staff and workload pretty much since I started there. I also got a new desk at work. It was smaller than my pervious one, but unlike most people who see the size of one’s desk as a status symbol, I’m not complaining. Why, you ask? Because my boss got the desk immediately adjoining mine, and he’s bar none, one of the coolest bosses I’ve ever worked with. He even plays World of Warcraft with me, which I heartily enjoy.

On the personal life front, I’m preparing for a trip to Gen Con this year. For the benefit of those asking “What in the name of all that is good and right in the Universe is Gen Con?”, it’s the largest gaming convention in the world. It’s been held annually in Indianapolis for several years now, and I’ve finally decided to attend. I got my badge squared away, and now just have to get the money together for a hotel room. Being that Gen Con is in August, that shouldn’t be a problem at all, especially since I’ll be getting my tax return in the very near future. That by itself, should put me halfway towards a nice suite there for the 4 days I’ll be there.

Movie-wise, I haven’t really heard or seen anything that peaked my interest, but this year does hold several promising movies. Among them are Iron Man 2, which in addition to having Robert Downey Jr. reprising his role, includes Scarlett Johannsen and Mickey Rourke. There’s also Alice In Wonderland, which opens in just a couple of weeks. I can’t wait to see what stuff Tim Burton dreamed up beyond what I’ve already seen in the trailers. Another one I’m anxious to see is the Clash of the Titans reboot. I remember seeing the original and was totally entranced by it. From what I’ve been gathering, this one’s a lot darker and grittier. Then of course, there’s the last Harry Potter book being released into a two part film. OK, I admit it, I like the series. Didn’t read the books, but I just liked the movies, since it seems to fit so darn well into World of Warcraft-esque stuff

Oh yes, and speaking of which, this November, the next expansion of World of Warcraft is coming out. It’s called Cataclysm, and it adds two playable races, the goblins and the worgen, to the mix. The general consensus right now is that the Worgen will have Thriller as their dance, and I sure hope so because one thing I’m really aiming to see is a mass of were wolves doing Thriller on YouTube.

The best one though by far was the 30″ widescreen monitor. My parents and I split the cost of it, and to say I love this thing is an epic understatement. I’ve been meaning to get a new one for myself anyway since my old one had several bruses on the screen, and in general it was showing it’s age.

Besides that, work has been crazy hectic as usual. In the last few weeks, I’ve had to contend with several dozen moves, along with training two new guys that started right around the new year. They’ve been a big help in the moves, as well as the guys who are actually pulling their weight in the department. I didn’t get much of a COLA raise, but that’s to be expected considering 2009 wasn’t an election year. Beyond that, I’ve got several more moves to do at work, laptops galore to fix, repair, or generally get to people who really don’t need them, but went “Ooooh shiny!” and decided they had to have one.

Well, that’s about it for now. I guess I’d better go back to playing WoW.

I’m finally done with converting all my CD’s into FLAC format, and got the remaining files transferred over to my new NAS server, which I’ve affectionately named R2D2. Between handing out candy for Halloween trick or treaters, I’ve stated in earnest on now converting the CD’s into MP3 format. On the CD’s I myself have purchased, I’ve gotten to the M’s, and still have about 85 CD’s to go just for my personal collection. Once I’m done with those, I’ve got my brother in law’s to do yet, which is more than twice the size of my own collection. Thankfully, he’s got a handful of repeat CD’s and ones I also have, so that should cut down a little bit on the time needed, but it’s still quite a task.

Anywho, back to handing out candy, watching the Ghost Hunter’s Live countdown, and ripping CD’s

And I now return you to your regularly scheduled boredom!