CV National Park

Holly and I went to Cuyahoga Valley National Park yesterday.

We first packed up the cooler and headed off to the grocery store for a bag of ice at about 6:00 AM. Holly went in and I waited in the car by the door since nobody was around. The next thing I know I hear a loud crash and I see a young male burst out of the doors with a store clerk scrambling after him. The clerk was shouting and barely had a hand on the kid as they sprinted along the front of the store. The clerk chased the kid till he got to the alleyway next to the store and he decided it would be smarter to stop there. I quickly parked the car and ran inside. As I entered the store, I wasn't sure what I was about to see and I was afraid something happened to Holly.

When I entered the store I saw that Holly was ok and standing at one of the registers but the clerk was completely shook-up. After making sure Holly was ok, the clerk told us that the kid swiped a $2000.00 money bag out of his hands as he was walking towards the self check-out lines to fill them. My reaction of,"Oh damn, that sucks!" probably didn't impress or win me any points.

Next we fired off to Cuyahoga Valley. I have rarely ever visited this part of the state and couldn't wait to check out the nationally guarded landscape.

We first went to "the ledges" which are extremely old cliffs that are basically in the middle of the woods for what seems to me no reason. The rock here is completely different from different parts of the state. The cliffs and stone found in Hocking Hills, in the southern part of the state, are sandstone and look much newer and were also not part of the glacial shift. Most of the rock along the Cuyahoga Valley was pushed here when a huge glacier was heading south and later forming the great lakes. The cool thing about "the ledges" is that there are huge cracks to fit through and age-old shafts/passages you can find between the rocks ... if you are not squeamish. In one passage I found, it looks like someone was currently carving Caesar style heads into the limestone. The chisseling and carving did look like it was done by a professional which kinda told me how much people never realized that this passage even existed. The "Ice Box Cave" is the destination at "the ledges" and it seems to go into the ground for a while. With no light and improper shoes to keep my feet dry, it is hard to tell how far the cave goes.

After several hours of hiking we visited Bandywine Falls and ate lunch at a picnic area. We then ventured to Blue Hen Falls... then onto see "Deep Lock 28" and its surrounding quarries. "Deep Lock 28" is part of Ohio's old canal system that used to run from Lake Erie, down the Cuyahoga River and eventually into the canal system that had several "locks" to change the elevation of the cargo boats. The lock is the most preserved one I have ever seen because it is almost completely intact. I have seen other parts of the canal system sitting in the middle of corn fields as just a corner of an old lock which looks like a bunch of rocks. These canals and locks used to move cargo boats much farther south than they should have ever been. These days, this canal does not exist other than the huge locks that mark an outline of where it once ran.

After all that hiking and discovering the sky split and it started to pour so we headed home. It was an extremely fun day in which I wish Holly and I had more of.

:-)

White Trash Alert

Its been a silent feud since October 2002.

There are two sides of our street. Our side, where all the side-by-side duplexes are. Each tenant is in charge of their own yard-work and outside up-keep. The owners seem to be intelligent enough to understand that up-keep of their properties is key to keeping their investment healthy. The properties behind us are single family homes and the private properties of the inhabitants.

Then there is the other side. Four family townhome buildings all jammed together every which way. These properties run alongside a small commercial area on the next parallel street over. So these people have gas stations, auto repair and small office buildings in their backyards. Along with that are clusters of small parking lots that butt up to peoples back doors. Unfortunately, when you cross my street, the rent dumps out and so does the quality of the people. The worse part is that it seems that we have the lowest and dumbest people living across the street from us. At one point, they and their family members occupied up to 3 of the townhomes across from us. Out of all the people across the street... THEY have to live THERE.

And they hate me.

There is a good reason why an idiotic person would hate me. I basically will not and can not put up with their daily shit. Let me run through some of the things that burn me up about these people.

1) Their two kids never seem to goto school. The boy is always riding his bike in the middle of the street on school days blocking traffic.

2) Trash. We have color coded trash days. That does not mean leave your trash out all the time because you are too lazy to learn the trash system. When the wind blows, I end up picking up their trash all over my own yard.

3) Noise. Between the two younger kids being outside and screaming profanity all day, the four unemployed older adults blasting their car stereo all day from one of their three dodge vans while they are "working on it", the older kid/adult inviting all his thugs over at night to yell, fight and throw beer bottles.... well, there is a constant stream of noise coming from their location. Some times they would start the car stereo, turn it up as much as possible, then go inside leaving it on for hours on end.

4) Trespassing. Though resolved. The kids used to "accidentally" throw their balls or other toys into our yard, then run all the way to the front door/windows and start peeping for extended periods of time. I swear I saw them reporting what they saw to the adults across the street. It took several visits from the police in order for the idea of what they were doing was illegal. I never pressed charges and nor did the police. Also, before we put a large blind in the front window, if we were in the front room at night with the lights on, they would continually jeer and create a ruckus whenever they saw us in the room. I t was quite obvious.

5) Idiocy. Lack of knowledge.
a) They put a mobile basketball hoop in the street for a while for their kids. They put the sand-weighted hoop on the edge of the curb. Not only did they block traffic, but everytime the wind would pick up the whole thing would tip over into the street. It never did any property damage but it came close enough for me and others to complain. It now sits in their own parking area blocking parking spaces that other tenants should be able to use.

b) Distribution of alcohol to minors. For some stupid reason the older kid has given his younger "friends" alcohol in plain view. This was kinda funny because the kids couldn't handle it and began LOUDLY advertising to the whole neighborhood how cool they felt for having the specific alcohol that they got from the specific person. On another occasion, the older kid started shouting the crimes he has committed and how much "hard time" he has done. On another occasion, they all started fighting and some many people on my street called about it that the S.W.A.T. team and police chopper were called in to break it up. On another occasion, they were all drinking again and I called the police about the alcohol and noise. Somehow, they all knew the police were coming and ran inside except for one moron smoking a bowl in his truck. The police caught him red-handed. On another occasion.... nah, you get the point.

c) They proudly display their white fake christmas tree with red lights on it in their window. They backlight it with their whole-house fluorescent lighting. Is bad taste a crime?

6) Physical and verbal threats. Everytime I go outside, they immediately start blasting their stereos...when I go inside, it all turns off. There were other time when I go outside and the older kid is with his friends and they start loudly talking about how they are going to "kick my ass". That is yet to be seen. The younger boy has intentionally thrown stuff at my car while it was parked or while I was driving down the street. The younger boy has intentionally jumped in from of my car while I was driving down the street. One of the adults intentionally drove in the path of my car (he was on the on the wrong side of the street) in order to play "Chicken". I had to completely stop and pull over. In another instance, I was backing out of my driveway and one of the adults saw an opportunity to race down the street and try to hit me with his vehicle. Then jumped out of his car and tried to loudly blame me for the incident. I just drove away with a grin on my face, on the inside, I wanted to rip him to pieces. I could go on....

7) Littering. They like to clean out there cars onto our front lawn. Cigarette butts, cans, bottles and rotten food. They also like to park their junker cars in front of our home for weeks at a time. Not in their specified parking spots, not on their side of the street. To me, its an eyesore and littering.

The only thing I have done to these people is try to ignore them and occasionally call the police when they crossed the line. 9 times out of 10 the police never show up. Upon reading police reports, they have NO EXCUSE for not showing up because nothing happens on this side of town. When there are only 5 police reports per day for my area (so each report takes 2 hours approx.) what the hell are they doing the rest of the 14 hours of the day.

To me, its a matter of "pursuit of happiness". They obviously feel that they have that right...and they do. But they do not have any right to trample all over everyone else's "pursuit of happiness" in the process. That's what they call "being considerate of others". Obviously they don't understand that. Nor does the property management, property owners, police or the police community liaison. I am still waiting on a response from the "Mayors Action Center". I called upon this service because it seems that the tenants, owners, managers or city service workers don't seem to think they have to take any responsibilities of their own actions.

Any ideas?

Cautiously Busy

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FFXI - Addicted To Thrill

Final Fantasy XI by Square/Enix of Japan is probably the most complex and frustrating games I have ever played. I could write an entire book about the tactics of game play. I stopped playing the game in December of 2004 because it was eating my life and damaging my relationships with other people around me.

This is a fully online game. Approximately 6000 paid licenses per server and it runs about 100 servers since I last checked. Each license can have up to 16 characters. The population of characters runs well into the millions. The servers are mainly for North American and Japanese players which are both NTSC standard areas. All of the servers are mixed so there is a healthy helping of both societies on at all times. In order to get people of several languages to play together, they made an auto-translator with certain phrases so some communication can be done.

This is the first of Square's empire to go online, so it made the gameplay completely different. Two things that I really enjoyed was the fact that you only control 1 character. That one character you invest hundreds of hours perfecting. You have complete control of the character. You may also want to invest in buying more characters to store items that are overflowing from your first character and/or use that extra character to sell/bazaar off your items in cities while you are not there physically playing. The second part I really enjoyed was the battle system. For the first time in the Final Fantasy series you are NOT jolted into battle by random timing. You can actually see the beasts and sentient beings you may fight in the distance. They can either see, hear or smell you out. In some cases they attack depending on your health or sickness status. The mapping of the game is also laid out so that it is NOT worthwhile to stay in a really easy area and continually reap the same points/items/money because it all reduces as you get stronger. You must move on.


The nations,races, jobs and craft guilds put more complexity into the game. I myself made it as a San d'Orian Level 58 Paladin in the race of Hume (male) and I had leveled up my fishing, woodworking, blacksmithing and goldsmithing. Holly was a San d'Orian female Elvaan level 15 Monk and believe she leveled up her cooking. There are six races (Hume, Elvaan, Galka, Mythra...ect.), 4 Nations (San d'oria, Bastok, Windurst and Jeuno), 18 jobs (Warrior, White Mage, Black Mage, Thief, Dragoon, ...ect.) and numerous crafting guilds; some which are listed above. Mixing and matching all of the above attributes is a game unto itself.

Because it is online and you are a lone person, the game programmers made it completely impossible for you to go solo in this game. Soloing your character equals certain death. The higher the level, the more eccentric and picky are the other players. At level 58 the people get pretty ridiculous about details. But without those faceless people, you cannot move forward. Towards the end of my playing days, I was spending 8 hours just putting parties of people together and then another 8 to 16 hours of battling in some of the games trickiest areas. It would take almost 2 hours just to travel where your people were gathering. I remember a couple times, I would be playing when Holly left for work and I never even got up for a bathroom break, food or anything else after 9 hours and Holly coming home from work. The demand for the types of attributes I picked for my character were high. A paladin acts as the defense shield (aka "Tank") for the Curers (White Mages), Nukers (Black Mages, Red Mages and Summoners) and Damage Dealers (Warriors, Ninjas, Monks, Thieves, Dark Knights). The Paladins first and foremost job is to keep the attention of attacks onto himself and secondly to keep himself alive. Losing the attention of damage means you lost control of the battle and everyone dies. That is the most used tactic but its only one of the hundreds you can use depending on the jobs and races in your party. Not knowing the tactics means people will not want to play with you. This is the most addicting part of the game because when it is going well and you have a crack team together, there is no stopping you and the fun is endless. The downside of that is those same people will demand that you be online at the same exact time the next day.

That is just a part of the game.

You can get married to other players, it will cost you and you actually have to book time with the gamemasters at the servers. Depending on how much money you are willing to spend is dependent on where you want the ceremony and how many of your online buddies you want to invite.

You can join the conquest. The battle of power and land between San 'dOria, Bastok and Windurst which is governed by Jeuno can be done in a couple different ways.

1) Garrison - you battle sentient monsters with like nationalities at outpost to get conquest points and commerce control of the area around the outpost. These battles are timed and strictly watched and refereed by gamemasters.

2) Conquest - Gamemasters set up battles between two nations in select areas. In these areas a player must register and be a specific location and a specific time. You basically kill as many online players from the opposite nation as many times as possible during the specified time. When the battle is done the conquest points are tallied by gamemasters and control of the area tips towards who won the battle.

Every Sunday the conquest points are tallied completely and the borders and commerce lines of all the nations are shifted. This seriously changes the way you may have to play the game depending on how well your nation did.

Another type of gameplay would be to only work in craft guilds. Spend all your days fishing or making Meat Mythkabobs or building weapons or armor to sell on the online auction is an excellent way to make money.

If all of that is not enough, you also have to complete quests and there is a complex story line to follow. The more quests you complete, the better "fame" you get. More "fame" equals more access to better things in the game. Some of the harder quests will give you a rank. The higher your rank, the more opening of quests and stories, faster travel abilities and respect from your peers.


The thing that ruins this game is that the game is severely tainted by internet capitalists. Internet sites are selling game money or pre-leveled characters for real money. An example would be: you can buy 1 Million Gil (game money) for approximately $800. Some people inside the game have built in characters that are solely for collecting money by any means necessary. Its basically a full time job for those people who sell. The problem is that it offsets the balance of the highly complex game and slowly the prices for the gear rise to out of control on the auction house. This makes it impossible for the honest people to play the game. If there is a place in the game where you can "harvest" or "farm" for expensive items, it is usually staked out by several people solely there to make money; not for the joy of the game.

That basically sums up what I did for 7 straight months last year. Writing all this out is really getting it completely out of my system.

Final Fantasy XII was released in Japan in December 2004 and is set to be released here in the US in December 2005. This version will NOT be online but will contain some of the attributes I really enjoyed about the last version. That includes the extremely innovative and realtime battle system. By this version being cool and not online means I will be able to have more self-control and also control the pace of which I will want to play. I believe this will be the last Final Fantasy released on the PS2. It looks like a ton of titles are hitting the shelves in November and December to buffer the time it will take to release the PS3. I am a true gamer and I will always play them but I will never let another video game take over my life as bad as FFXI did. I hurt the people I love by not being there for them and I feel like there is a huge black void of time that I lost. I have definitely learned my lesson.

Content To Death

First I'm gonna have to define what content is in order to to get my idea out properly. According to "Riverside Webster's II Dictionary".

content - (ken' tent') n. - satisfaction : contentment.

My name and this word are not synonymous.
Actual, I am the complete opposite of the word. 180 out of phase with it. "Never give up, never surrender, nothing is perfect, never stop fighting, never back down, don't stop, challenge everything."

Though this could define some of my behavior throughout life, as I get older, it gets a little more toned down. I am learning to pick my battles better. Timing, seriousness of the matter and knowing your foe are some of the attributes I try to consider before I start a mess in order to get what I want. (I'm known for having an itchy trigger finger)

Life is messy. It is never perfect. You can either sit in your sludge and ignore the issues while everything falls apart around you OR start battling those issues one by one. Its hard to battle those issues. It takes persistence, perseverance, a little hard headedness, practice, persuasion and a tad of adrenaline. You can't give up, you can't lose and you must implement your process perfect everytime.

This all seems a bit heavy, too much, too hard, too impossible? If you want it bad enough, you will figure it out. I'm still trying to figure it all out.

This seems to be a very Americanized/Western vision. Being at the mercy of capitalism for my entire life it all seems natural to me. In fact, if you have lived in the United States or Western Europe and any other nation that doesn't have their head up their ass during my life-time it should start to make some type of sense to you as well.

So.... What happened?

I always viewed people who don't want more as corpses. What's the point of life without wanting to inspire change and self growth in your own life? Another word I have for it is : Droid. Without feeling or want you must be a machine... a droid.

Why do I feel like I'm surrounded by droids? What the hell happened?

Relying too much on your union? Inundated by poor credit? Inundated by poor credibility? Unwilling to change your poor everyday life? Is it too hard? Do the drugs take the life out of you? Can't find a job? Horrible childhood? Crappy school?

I personally don't understand all these excuses. Sure, I've seen my dark days. I wanted to do away with myself at some points of my life. Self worth down to zero. I blamed poor parenting and my current useless situation as to my demise. But after a little hard work and some painful purging of bad feelings and blame, I feel more in control of my life and future than ever before. Those self-destructive and suicidal thoughts seem so foreign to me now. I used to play chicken on my bike with oncoming cars on Highland Road as a confused child. Crazy huh? How did it make sense then? I'm guessing I felt trapped and couldn't fix the situation. That was my best fix at the time. The ultimate control.

So, how are people just content? Even "The American Way" does not leave room for contentment. American's are supposed to want and do the best in your own view... Forget the politics. Are you there? Are you even understanding this? Are you dead?






If you are getting angry now.... its a good sign.

Ground Zero

I'm not sure when most Satellite Photos I post are taken. This one seems to be pretty old. If I knew when the fly-over was, I would be posting messages on my roof. This particular image is zoomed out a bit so you can understand it, it gets much closer. Just kinda sparked my interest.

Wars of Stars

We got to see Star Wars on Sunday morning. Not only was it visually dazzling but it answered a ton of questions I've always had. It is worth seeing it in the theater no matter what and Jar Jar does not have any speaking roles, you only see him twice for no more than 10 seconds each. A lot of people I know went to see it opening night/morning. It was described to me as total Star Wars anarchy. Those master replica light sabers they have been pimping on G4 and at your local trading store are a total hit with the Geeks of the Empire and they displayed so at opening night. After looking at the pictures of the events on everyone's camera phones, Holly and I obeyed the force and saw the Lucas phenom. I especially enjoyed the quote that Lucas partially stole from good ole "George Dubya"..... "If you are not with us..... you are fighting us". Not an exact quote but you get the point (Dubya is a Sith Lord). I also saw the fabled millennium falcon at the beginning of the movie, after they "land" and as they are arriving at the city, look to your lower right...I promise, its there.... I don't believe Han would be flying it, because that would make him a 10 year old pilot I believe. Yup, I'm a dorkin over this flick...it blows away 1 and 2, I promise.

Sweeps is not "Breaking News"

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E-M@IL: Benners' World

Remember

Big Brother is always watching.

Maybe It's Not All About You

People never cease to amaze me with their selfish narrowminded behavior. Being selfish is ok, but mixing it with a spoonful of narrowmindedness is disastrous.

Imagine, if you will, some child out there thinking every idea they have is the best. The things that they think up are the only thing worth discussing or doing. Nevermind that a friend or a sibling might have a better or more thought out idea. But no, the singular idea must go on... so precious, so perfect and sometimes so wrong.

What these people never realize is that the more they push their ideas and what they think is correct, the more they push their friends and loved ones away. Either by offending them or even boring them. An exchange of ideas is what society thrives from but it must be a two way street and maybe even a six way intersection. Maybe a roundabout.

These selfish narrowminded mongers are the people who stomp around believing that they are always factually correct even when people are proving them wrong time and time again. So, I try to imagine what drives these individuals. Do they feel inferior and feel that pushing others around is way to make themselves look smarter. Are they just naive to their surroundings?

Another aspect of these people is that they believe that their wants and needs should always come first. Must be first in line. Must have the largest helping or less burnt helping of food. Make no sacrifices, others will pick up the pieces. Undergoing pain and hard work should be the hardship of others, not their own.

The worst aspect is how this type of person actually believes that their feelings should control the moods of others. If they are having a bad day, you must be having a bad day too. If you are not having a bad day, they can fix that. These people will call you, hound you and surround you with the status of their day. I have usually seen this when the person is yelling at everyone about nothing.

So, you see this child forcing their thoughts, wants, needs, facts, and feelings onto others. OK, so you call the kid a brat and move on. You think to yourself that the child will learn through hard experience how to value others that surround them.

Now imagine this person never getting the point as an adult. Better yet, as a parent? Pushing, prodding, forcing. Trying to look smart but can't pull it off. Their agenda being more important that the care for their own flesh and blood. You hear a lot about these people in the news. The drug addict. The alcoholic. The child abusing parent. Showing up on the local news with their ugly police mugshot plastered on your TV screen. These people lost complete sense of any or all reality and almost always never seem to grasp why they are in the position that they are in. These are the people who are too late to help and the ones that got caught.

What about the parents that think its ok to leave their children at home alone while they go out clubbing, drinking, dating or whatever else that drags them away from their main priorities in life? It seems to me that these selfish narrowminded people are the ones who are not caught yet or the ones who haven't hit bottom yet. They are just as guilty as the alcoholic, drug abuser or abuser. Because somewhere in their mind they are telling themselves that its ok to forget their kids for a moment because their priorities, thoughts, facts, feelings...whatever.... are more important than the safety, well-being, and growth of the ones that depend on them.

And to those selfish narrowminded individuals I say, "Maybe it's not all about you."

This just in.... an update on our team coverage!

Holly and I are now engaged. Last I heard, she is still willing to put up with me.

I was planning on a much more romantic way of asking her in Bar Harbor, ME, but stupid me left the darn reciept out one day and Holly saw the outside envelope of it.

Her assumptions were correct and I couldn't hold a straight face so I decided to move the time for asking instead of driving her completely nuts for the next two months.

Mall Rats Redux

Posted below is a complaint I sent to a local mall. I felt I needed to put in my 2 cents because others' complaints were being ignored. Names of places have been erased in order to preserve the free speech I use in my blog.


##################################

I have been reading a lot about (mall) a lot in a local media newsgroup for people in the local media outlet industry in (city).

What I have been reading is that your security is lacking and sometimes will not do its job at all. As being the premier shopping experience of (city), safety and the feeling of a safe environment to shop at should be one of your biggest concerns. Your shopping "area" is being used as an example of what (city) is about. In exchange your all your free publicity, it is expected that you uphold the vision and idea of (city); not only in just signs and words, but also in your actions.

Personally, after reading about the (local town) man that had a run-in with a teen with a gun and your security did nothing to help the situation means I will NEVER return to your shopping "area". Why? Because you actually have a posted code of conduct at the door that is obviously not being upheld and is sometimes even being taunted. Do you really think offending some gun-toting punks is going to erode future sales? Most of the kids I have ever seen at your mall will most likely only buy movie tickets.

Let me give you an example of my experiences at your shopping "area". I used to cross town to goto your movie theaters because it is extremely comfortable and you usually have a really good selection and you sell beer and other foods most other theaters won't get near. So, there was a pull for me to cross town to eat at one of your extremely nice restaurants and see a movie. But....

There is a loophole in your code of conduct that is quite laughable. "The Parental Escort Policy states that children age 15 and under must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian while in the public areas after 9:30 PM." The loophole is that (theater) is selling movie tickets to these minors before 9:30PM for shows AFTER 9:30PM. Its quite amazing to enter the theater area at around 10PM seeing kids running rampant with no adults in sight. Being in the theater and hearing knocking, laughing and cellphones from these kids. Then leaving the theater and seeing the same kids running freely with your security usually looking on. Most of the time I can tell that most of these minors are harmless. But I can also tell by the staring and the snickering and snide remarks made behind my back with sometimes confrontational behavior that its not all too innocent. These minors are obviously too young to see the movies they are seeing and obviously a parent is not escorting them to and from the theater area.

I have also stopped going to the (live acting) Theater because that bathroom hallway (which is across from your security hub) is a stomping grounds for punk kids.

I think its time you put your foot down and start being who you say you are. The main reason I felt I should speak up is because of the mountain of complaints about your lack of security in the newsgroup I read. Some of those complaints have already been forwarded to you by others and it seems from your responses that you do not take these complaints seriously enough. Your mall is being used as a babysitter and a dumping zone for irresponsible and/or naive parents. I will not support your venue until your policies are upheld.

An obvious fix would be to stop selling tickets to minors when the movie starts after 8:00 PM. Though you would be sacrificing some ticket sales, you would be boosting the safety, ambience and shopping experience for those who are will to pay upwards of $200.00 for steak for 2 and a nice evening.

I remember watching the apartment complex across from you being burned to the ground from a camera 10 MILES AWAY because other owners in the area didn't think your area of town did not need extra security from the onslaught of unsupervised kids roaming in your area. This should have served as an example to you.

Thank you for reading.

######################################

My 2 Days

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My First Blog

It's Holly's fault. I wouldn't be writing here if it wasn't for Holly. Blame her.

Just a quick schedule of my life. I work in a local media outlet as a Technical Director. I work Wednesday through Sunday 3:45 PM - 11:45 PM; therefore I don't have an exciting life. The biggest excitment in life is Holly, she makes it all worth it. We have been living together for almost 5 years now and I don't know why she puts up with me. This is where I'm gonna end my first blog today.... basically just a a lil teaser.