It's been a couple months since my last posting.  I haven't had much to write about really.  First some bad news and then some good news.  I found out yesterday that an old friend of ours was murdered by her boyfriend and then subsequently he killed himself.  I knew this person very well, and she did not deserve what happened to her.  It makes me so sad there is so much hate in the world.  I am not talking about a global hate either, just a general feeling of anxiety, hatred and rage all aimed at the wrong people.

We could all live in a better world than the one we live in now.  It has nothing to do with environments, governments or laws and regulations.  If we can stop hating our neighbor, hating each other, our spouses, children, teachers, if we can find a certain amount of peace within ourselves...then there would be no hate.  Global peace begins with each and every individual.  There are so many things that can go wrong on any given day without having to worry about being murdered by someone...it is with great sadness that I say goodbye to my friend.  I only hope that she has somehow found a more peaceful place.

Ok, so now a little bit of good news though I don't want to jinx anything.  I could be going back to work very soon.  Finally!

It's been so long since I actually worked in a corporate environment that I wore the wrong shirt to my interview and had to go buy another one before I met with them...at least Old Navy was close by.  I won't mention who I will be working for because it's top secret!
I'm kidding.  I still am a little wary, I know how things can change at the last minute.  As excited as I am though, its going to be a 3 hour one way commute for me but at least I will be paid well.

Now, if you haven't seen this trailer yet it's because it's not on any of the American sites and I doubt it was even released here, though it was supposed to come out in february. http://www.rp2-lefilm.com/

It stars one of my favorite actors, Jean Reno and it looks like a good thriller.  I don't speak french but from what I could gather from the title, its about the angels of the apocolypse.
Anyway, I'll let you all know when I start my new job. 

Ciao.

I lost a good friend yesterday.

I don't know if any of you have lost anyone close to you, but yesterday I found out that a good friend of mine who has been in a coma in the hospital for the past two weeks passed away. He was a really nice guy, and it's a tragedy to lose someone so young. At only 35 years of age you only expect to just be getting on with your life.

I met John Burnette about 10 years ago when I first met my wife. He was my brother-in-law's friend and was kinda like the party guy you like to hang out with. I played Disc Golf with him, always was working on his computer (deleting viruses, installing golf games and helping him download homer simpsons sounds). I can't recall ever having a bad memory with him, or ever arguing. He was a good person and easily liked. Even now I remember the way he laughed, and his quirks and manerisms.

I have never lost anyone close to me before so I am just an emotional wreck. I realize everyone has a different way of dealing with loss. Tonight we went to a blues club to see one of my favorite bands, and during one song I just burst into tears...simply from feeling the music and it connecting to me emotionally. I know John would tell me to shut the f*** up and move on, cause he was that kind of guy...I just want him to know that he is in my heart and memories, and will never be forgotten.

If you are up there listening and/or reading John, we love you and we will miss you forever.

-James

OK...so its been a while.

Things are beginning to stabilize as of late...the search for full time work still continues, but little things seem to be popping up which is nice. Star Wars Galaxies is still in my regular routine, as it doesn't take a lot of time to have a little bit of fun. Between scouring the job boards for work and trying to get word of mouth business, I find time to login and work on my professions.

So I am on my way to finding the Jedi Padawan within me. The way Galaxies works is this. When you start a character, 5 random professions are chosen for you to master should you choose to follow the ways of the Jedi. Like i'm not going to want to play a Jedi...yeah right. That's like an archeologist not wanting to find the Holy Grail. So anyway...you find out what your professions are by getting "Holocrons". 4 holocrons will tell you what to master...the 5th one is always a mystery, forcing you to (according to the game's designers) explore all the game has to offer. Really this "system" is to keep us playing. Why they didn't make a jedi a playable class is simple...they figure that everyone would then just create a jedi and the whole game would be a bunch of jedi's running around. I have to disagree with this strongly because of one simple fact. There are a lot of people that have no desire to be a jedi. Plenty of people are happy with other professions, and still further, a lot of people are going to want to kill thos jedi so they would need other more powerful classes...after all if we all want to play jedi there are plenty of games that do it better.

At any rate, the professions I needed to master are these:
1) Squad Leader
2) Teras Kasi Master
3) Tailor
4) Combat Medic

The 5th is anybody's guess. I am hoping that the professions I have mastered already (Scout and Merchant) will be one of the magic professions needed.

Mother's day is coming up soon, and I am thinking of getting tickets to see Lion King in San Francisco. I have heard really good things about it, and one of my good friends said he and his kids just loved it.

I saw a couple movies this weekend, Mean Girls and Envy. They were both funny. Mean Girls is written by Tina Fey of SNL fame. It's a throwback to Heathers only its not as dark and nobody dies. All of the crew from SNL that are in it do a good job and I think the script is well written...it gets a little sappy at the end but who cares, its funny. Envy was pretty good, Jack Black and Ben Stiller both do a good job and it has that Ben Stiller zaniness that he is so good at. If you have a chance and you like comedies go see them...if you are expecting something deep and fulfilling and maybe even life changing, then stay at home and read Noam Chomsky.

That's all for now.
end of line.

The job hunt continues...

You know for all the talk about the economy picking up, and how the job oultook is better and yada yada yada...I am wondering why I still can't find full time work. I have to believe its because the competition is extremely fierce these days. I am a college graduate with a degree in computer arts, I have been building computers and networks for over 10 years...but I know for a fact there are people out there that have been doing the same thing as me for over 20 years, and who have just been laid off or downsized or whatever you want to call it. That's who I am up against. I am also not willing to work for minimum wage anymore. I live in a city where the cost of living is at least 3 times that of minimum wage. The funny thing is 10 years ago minimum wage was $4.25 an hour...and you could rent a one bedroom apartment for about $750 a month...lets do some quick math here and compare the cost of living now to ten years ago.

$4.25 x 40 (hours in a week full time) = $170.00 - tax = $130 net per week.
4 weeks = $520.00

now this was 10 years ago and you still end up being short $200+, so supplement that with your spouse/girlfriend/wife whatever...ok then say you are pulling in $1000 take home a month...that leaves you with just about $100 for leisure spending, movies, dinners etc. The part where you actually have a life.

Fast Forward to today, 10 years later.

minimum wage = $6.25 an hour.
$6.25 x 40 = $250 - taxes = $200 net take home.

Now, unfortunately that one bedroom apartment has ballooned from $750 a month to $1150 a month...that's an increase of $400 over 10 years, or $40 a year more each year. Now, at $200 a month you are making $800 a month take home, supplement that with your significant other's income, and now we have $1600 (still talking minimum wage here). Subtract the cost of rent = $450 left over, with bills etc, the average cost is somewhere around $350 for those expenses...which leaves you with VIOLA $100 left over for saving, spending whatever...

As you can see, in the case of minimum wage, it's designed to just be the bottom most level of poverty. A single person educated with a college degree working minimum wage is only earning $7200 a year...that's seriously fucked up. At best you can hope to just barely survive, and that means living with other people or being married. The truth of the matter is most of the jobs here are either min. wage, or around $9 an hour. It's a vacation town, lots of restaurants, bars, coffee houses, and an amusement park. The tech industry that used to be big here got swallowed up by the 2000 "dot bomb". A lot of companies were absorbed by other companies or simply left town. TI one of the biggest employers here laid off their entire staff of about 2000 people in 2001 and closed up shop. Thus an influx of people that had good jobs are suddenly competing for the very job you figured you would easily get out of college...it's still a dog eat dog world out there, and unfortunately its not only the strong that survive, it's those that are willing to accept a lower pay for a job you know is worth a lot more...just to work.

What all this means to me, is yeah, the competition is tough but I know that I can do quality work, and I can learn to do anything. I am modest about what I need t live on. $40-50k a year is fine, and leaves me with plenty of money to pay all my bills and even pay back my student loans which are a bitch at $254 a month, top that off with $538 each month for my wife's built up debt. What I am saying is I need some help. What if everyone that read this page helped by donating $1 to my cause of repaying all this accrued debt? I would be eternally grateful, and I can guarantee would never go into debt again. Won't you help? Click on the paypal button below in my previous post and help me out.

Peace.

I had a bowling tournament on Sunday the 4th. It went ok, except the lanes had no oil to speak of, which makes it difficult to control your ball. I through a very slight hook on my ball, and without oil there's just no telling if my ball is going to do what it's designed to do. Last year they greased up the lanes so good all the balls came back practically dripping. I guess they made up for it by drying the hell out of the lanes...maybe next year they get it right and we have some nice medium oil.
The difficult thing about the tournament is you basically bowl 3 games in singles, then 3 games in doubles, and just wait to see where you end up.

I guess the point is its supposed to be fun, I don't even know if there are prizes or anything. Last year I placed 9th in doubles and 20th in singles. My average is up 30 pins this year so i was bowling right around that...168. I had 2 games over 200, a 201 and a 202. Not bad given the conditions. I will definitely bowl it again next year. My league is wrapping up in the next two weeks, and I am hoping I'm up for most improved bowler...checking the records, it looks like I might be...but who knows.

I also just started playing Chaser again. It's a cool game, if you haven't seen it check it out. What I really like about it is that you are dropped into the game and you learn what's happened and is happening to your character at the same time he does...so you don't feel like you really know what you are supposed to be doing. It's a typical FPS, but the animation is good, the AI is really good, and the weapons are a lot of fun to shoot.

Today I helped install DSL at my in-laws which was fun because I remember the first time I got DSL...I was checking out everything that was too slow to download on a normal 56k connection. Trailers, games, you name it. They wanted a wireless connection so I hooked up a 128 bit encrypted 802.1-G for them. Putting all that network training to good use.

I am planning on having an Easter online golf tournament with Links Championship Edition. It's a classic I have been playing since Links386 came out ages ago. I'm still upset about the swing meter, as I mentioned before, but I am getting used to it now...though I still think some of the distances are off, but that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Anyway, the tourney should be fun, I might even have some kind of prize purse...

Ok so, today I have been playing Links 2001 by ugh...Microsoft, yes they bought Access a long time ago and proceeded to ruin the fine game that used to be Links 386. There was a time when I could read the swing meter and play online with the best...that time has passed folks.

Two reasons really, one...I am obviously out of practice, but Two, there is no indication how far the current swing meter hits a ball, and it is very inconsistent...to the point of being downright unreliable...I am used to the classic 3 click swing, where you click to start, click to set power and click for snap...

So far it seems that with putting there is just no telling how far the ball is going to go...I wish they left the old swing meter. The new meter is oval shaped and is very fast, making it so you have to have Quake like reactions for GOLF!! it's golf people, not a twitch fest frag em or lag em game like quake arena or america's army...needless to say, the graphics are still good, but damn that meter. I am trying to do better than bogey golf on a course I have never played in a tournament I have never entered with software that is completely foreign to me! Where is the love???

L8r

Ok, so my rollovers haven't been working on this site, so I took them off. I added some new content in the form of Amazon.com books and such. If you are looking for something in particular, you can search for it from Amazon.com on the home page. Your purchases from my site help me out, so I appreciate if you tell everyone you know! Remember to save the amazon link to your favorites after you get there. 3DS Max 6 is out now, and it's an amazing product.

My foray into the world of America's Army is progressing, my honor has reached 13, and some of the missions have been quite exciting. So far my favorites have been with the 82nd Airborne, Mountain Passes and the Ranger Missions. It's a cool game, check it out.

Star Wars Galaxies is also coming along...I have been spending most of my time on Yavin 4 because the klikniks are awesome hunting. I also hate travelling by shuttle and only do so when I need to train a new skill. I am hoping the space expansion is awesome otherwise yet another game is going in the trashcan. I still have all my original everquest cds collecting dust...if anyone wants to buy them, send me an email. I will let them go cheap.

If you haven't played Need For Speed by EA yet...get your hands on it. It's a bling bling thrillride to rival some of the best racers on the market. You get to completely tune your car, and it's a blast. Here are a couple shots of my VW Golf GTi. View 1 from the front, and View 2 from the back.

Today I had the thrill of applying for a menial job with the county. Should I be so lucky and get the glorious job of Parking Attendant, I will at least be able to pay our rent which is a good thing. The job is also only 24 hours a week which leaves me time to work on other projects and eek maybe even another job. Ultimately I would like to have my businesses growing steadily so I can just go live in Hawaii, sit in the sun and frag people from the comfort of a nice beach. Hey, that's my dream, to each his own.

Signing off for now.

So last night, I saw the new movie the Ladykillers. I thought it was really good, a classic Coen Brothers movie. Tom Hanks puts in an amazing performance, as well as the supporting cast. I really liked the art direction, and the cinematography was in classic style. I was reminded of Fargo in a lot of the shots, that slow camera move on a long shot down the river.

I also just finished watching Intolerable Cruetly, another Coen movie, though this one is also co-writen by Matt Stone (of South Park). Although I didn't want to see it to begin with because I really don't care for Catherine Zeta...she was actually good in this one and I didn't find her annoying as usual.

If you haven't had a chance to yet, you need to check out the Japanese Anime Naruto. Ive gotten totally hooked on it. So far it doesn't have US distribution, so you have to find episodes on the net. If you use Bit-Torrent you can find episodes here.

This weekend I worked out a really good solution for a problem I have been having on this flash project, so I feel good about that, and hopefully the project will wrap up soon. I never thought it would drag on this long...next time I will have to negotiate for more money.

Today is looking like a beautiful day and I just may have to go riding. I meant to mention in my last posting that if you want to donate anything to help me with my bills during my time of unemployment, you may do so here:

I know it seems silly, but I am trying to pay off $75,000 in debt accrued from School and Credit Cards, and anything you can donate would really help. In return, I promise to never be in debt again, seriously. I have two businesses that I am currently running to make ends meet, and it's a lot of work. If you are interested in hearing about my e-commerce venture, please feel free to email me at info@wilcox-studios.com. I am always on the lookout for teachable and motivated people looking to start their own business.

That's it for now...

So I downloaded the newest version of America's Army last night. If you haven't played it, check it out, it's pretty well done. The weapons are really well designed and accurate (it's the army after all that made this game). Obviously a recruitment tool, it's still fun to play. I like being able to experience the training without the dirt, sweat and yelling.

Last night I also watched a funny movie (those that know me, know I love cheeseball films of all kinds). Sorority Boys, starring Harland Williams, Mellissa Sagemiller, and the guy that plays Lex Luthor on Smallville. It's really quite funny, and completely stupid, which makes it my perfect film. I am looking forward to seeing a few new movies coming out, Ladykillers and The Reckoning. Both look excellent.

My friend tells me that Home Movies on Adult Swim is heading for the chopping block. It seems that everytime I start to really like a new show, it gets cancelled. Except for 24. That show has been good until lately, where its just starting to get ridiculous and silly. Unfortunately I won't be sad to see that show fall by the wayside with the likes of Alf and Cop Rock, though it was never as bad as the latter. It was nice to hear that the Family Guy is coming back on the air though...that show is genius.

The job hunt goes ever on, I applied at a few more places yesterday and I'm still waiting for any kind of communication from them. Hopefully things will pick up. We got our car back from the mechanic today to the tune of $1200.00 So then a couple hours later the thing dies on the freeway, completely dead. We have it towed back to the mechanic, and he calls me about an hour later saying essentially the same thing just happened that we had fixed...turns out the guys at the machine shop where the new head was fabricated, didn't tighten one of the torque bolts and the whole assembly failed, stripping the timing belt and ruining the cam shafts...so now he has to have the whole job completely rebuilt. Luckily we don't have to pay for it, but I feel bad for the mechanic, I hope it doesn't come out of his own pocket.

And people keep saying I should get a car and a license...yeah right.

that's all for now...later!

The new website is up, after much deliberation and design changes, color selection, etc.

I am still in the market for a full time job, though I have enjoyed being home each day, playing with my cat,
furthering my characters on Star Wars Galaxies. The flash project I have been working on since November is starting to wrap up finally. I didn't think it would actually happen, but I have a good feeling its close to being finished. With money being tight these days, It was nice to be able to see a couple movies. Triplets of Belleville was amazing, and Hidalgo was also very good. One of my favorite things to do of late has been watching "Naruto", a Japanese anime which is gaining notice over here lately. All the episodes are in Japanese and a couple groups out there are releasing the episodes for us Gaijin to enjoy.

Tonight my wife and I were able to enjoy a very nice dinner at a local restaurant and it was virtually free (we had a gift certificate from Christmas).

Well, its getting late here, and I'm just about pooped. Tomorrow is a bit more grinding away on the flash project. I will post the URL when It's all said and done.