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Want to try out Aion before buying?
December 18, 2009 by Nicki
NCsoft has announced a new a “Refer-a-Friend” program which allows current players to invite friends to try out an Aion demo account.
YAY! 
So here’s what you need to know:
Aion demo accounts are good for 3 days, 5 hours, or level 7 — whichever is reached first. After that point, the Aion demo account expires. All of your character information and progress is retained so that if you decide to buy the game, you can continue from there. You can buy Aion from the NCsoft Store or any participating retailers.
Interested?
Contact me with your email address!
Did you get my Wave?
December 2, 2009 by Nicki
The “almighty Google” has blessed me with Google Wave invites, yay!
So … any of y’all who need or would like an invite, please let me know. 
Soaked and sunburned, and zombies, and Aion
Wow, what a weekend. Right now I’m sitting here waiting out the remaining two hours until the Aion Head Start event. I figured this would be a good time as any to post a few things. 
Jess, Teresa and I spent yesterday in T’town. We went down there to watch the Tide take on North Texas. Jim was originally supposed to go with us, but he was kind enough to stay home to get our house ready to show to some prospective buyers. (Which, funny enough, he neglected to tell me about until Friday night when I got home and was already mad as a hornet for having spent 2 hours in traffic!)
We picked Teresa up in McCalla and headed down I-59. It rained the entire time. Once we reached Tuscaloosa, finding a parking spot was pretty tricky. The university has taken over some parking lots that were once public to reserve for Tide Pride members. We got lucky and parked by some friends in nearby apartments.
Hooray for friends! 
It rained and rained and RAINED. Even though all three of us were wearing ponchos, we were still soaked to the bone. We walked all over the quad, visited various shop tents and after watching the Million Dollar Band do their usual pre-game routine, slowly made our way to Bryant-Denny stadium. It was at this point that it FINALLY quit raining. With the exception of a few drops here or there, the weather was pretty nice for the rest of the day! We made our way into the stadium and up to our seats and tried our best to dry out. About halfway into the game, the sun made its grand entrance.
Of course, the sunscreen I had put on yesterday morning before leaving the house had washed off … so I’m a little sunburned. This is the first game I’ve ever attended where I’ve been soaked and sunburned in the same day! LOL!
It was all a great day of fun though. The Tide looked really good. The halftime show was great. The MDB played a tribute to Motown. IMO the best part was the finale … they played ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson. All of the color guard and dance teams put on some raggedy clothes and danced as zombies like in the original video. It was awesome!!
The Tide won 53-7, so pretty early in the second half a lot of people were leaving. The traffic going home was light compared to every other Bama game I’ve ever attended. We made it home long before dinner time and I happily napped as soon as I could get my tired and weary bones through the door and into the bed. 
Today Jess left us to spend the next few days with her mother. She didn’t want to go (not that I blame her) but I tried to assure her that she wouldn’t miss much of the Aion head start and we’d see her again later this week. Our deal is that as long as her grades are up, she can play Aion. So far, that’s proving to be a GREAT motivator as far as school goes!
And speaking of Aion, I was able to get things sorted out with GoGamer. Our Aion packs arrived Friday afternoon. Jim and I ordered the Collector’s Edition, Jessie got the regular (and hers came in a very NICE tin!). Here’s a few pics I snapped that night after opening my box:
Incidentally, if you have also ordered the CE, you will want to read this article by The Aion Guy: How To Receive Your Aion Pre-Order Items!
What are your mood lifters?
September 10, 2009 by Nicki
On days where I bring my lunch to work, I usually sit at my desk and read my feeds. With all the things going on, I’ve found that most days I want stuff to keep me in good mood — or if I’m in a particularly bad one, to enhance my mood.
A couple days back, GeekSugar posted 10 Sites That Will Instantly Lift Your Mood. While the entries were pretty neat (I particularly enjoyed FML but it’s not really mood-lifting IMO), but honestly none of those I would visit when I was in need of a serious dose of smiles and gigglies.
These are my mood lifters, in no particular order:
- I Can Has Cheezburger? – LOLcats and LOLanimals own. ‘Nuff said.
- I Has a Hotdog! – Sister site to the ICHC, featuring LOLdogs of course. More awesomeness.
- Cute Overload – Introduced to this by my pal DocJeff, this never ceases to make me smile.
- ZooBorns – Announcements of baby zoo animals born all over the world. Entertaining and usually very educational. Dual-awesomeness.
- Cute Animals Channel on Today’s Big Thing – A daily feeding of furry funny video.
- Cukiság – A Hungarian cute animals site. Even though I usually don’t understand any of the text, the photos are cool.
- FurryTalk – A good site, with a mix of LOLpics, jokes, and inspirational animal stories.
I could name a few others, but these are the ones I hit every day. They’re good for a quick smile, and likely help keep me sane.
So what sites are your mood lifters?
When the music stopped
My mother-in-law sent me this lovely piece. I get so many military jokes and stories that often Snopes is one of the first places I hit after receiving these types of emails. Don’t get me wrong … it’s not that I don’t believe in tales of valor and honor from our men and women in uniform. On the contrary, I like to post sources to give credit where credit is due. I know that without a doubt, some of the finest men and women you’ll ever see are in the military, and I’m always happy to share stories illustrating this!
Anyways, back to the story. Snopes didn’t have anything on this, so I hit up Google and found another source that confirmed that this story is indeed TRUE!
For those who are unaware, at a military theater, the National Anthem is played before every movie.
From a Chaplain in Iraq:
I recently attended a showing of ‘Superman 3,’ here at LSA Anaconda. We have a large auditorium we use for movies, as well as memorial services and other large gatherings. As is the custom back in the States, we stood and snapped to attention when the National Anthem began before the main feature. All was going as planned until about three-quarters of the way through the National Anthem the music stopped.
Now, what would happen if this occurred with 1,000 18-22 year-olds back in the States? I imagine there would be hoots, catcalls, laughter, a few rude comments; and everyone would sit down and call for a movie. Of course, that is, if they had stood for the National Anthem in the first place. Here, the 1,000 soldiers continued to stand at attention, eyes fixed forward. The music started again. The soldiers continued to quietly stand at attention. And again, at the same point, the music stopped. What would you expect to happen?
Even here I would imagine laughter, as everyone finally sat down and expected the movie to start. But here, you could have heard a pin drop. Every soldier continued to stand at attention. Suddenly there was a lone voice , then a dozen, and quickly the room was filled with the voices of a thousand soldiers, finishing where the recording left off:
‘And the rockets red glare,
The bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free,
And the home of the brave.’It was the most inspiring moment I have had here in Iraq. I wanted you to know what kind of soldiers are serving you here. Remember them as they fight for you! Pass this along as a reminder to others to be ever in prayer for all our soldiers serving us here at home and abroad. For many have already paid the ultimate price.
Written by Chaplain Jim Higgins
LSA Anaconda is at the Ballad Airport in Iraq, north of Baghdad
According to TruthorFiction.com, this was indeed written by Army Reserve Chaplain Jim Higgins who, when he is not deployed, is Senior Pastor of McEachern Memorial United Methodist Church, in Powder Springs, GA. It goes on to say that this event took place in May of 2007 while he was stationed at Camp Anaconda — which is a US base near Balad, and one of the largest airbases in Iraq.
But I bet many of you already knew that about C.A.
God bless our troops!!
To-Do List helps me keep it together
August 30, 2009 by Nicki
I’m a “list person”. I like lists. Especially “To Do” lists. I like outlining my goals and enjoy the sense of accomplishment I feel when I get to cross those items off. So naturally, I’ve been looking for a “list” type app for my iPhone.
I had spent several weeks looking for just the right application. I wanted something simple with the ability to export lists, and to have the ability to set recurring tasks. Jim had run across one and emailed me a recommendation: Concrete Software’s To-Do List.
It has quickly become another iPhone app that I can’t live without. Not only can I use the recurring tasks feature to keep track of monthly, quarterly, and yearly bills and other recurring costs, I also use it for checklists for side projects, things I need to do at home, and more …
At the time of this post, To-Do List costs $2.99. If you’re a “list person” like me, you may find this a handy app to add to your GTD arsenal.
Just one more week ’til football!
August 28, 2009 by Nicki
It’s almost here. Are you ready Tide fans? 
ROLL TIDE ROLL!
A random act of kindness
July 31, 2009 by Nicki
When I pulled up to the drive-through window at Burger King this morning, the manager told me that my meal was already “taken care of”. Apparently the customer in line ahead of me had paid for my meal. The manager told me that the lady said, “This is from an Auburn fan.”
How sweet is that?
To the nice Auburn lady who paid for my meal this morning — THANK YOU!
And … Roll Tide!! 
Alabama Tea Party
July 2, 2009 by Nicki
It looks like the upcoming tea party will be much larger and accommodating those bringing their families. Nice! So, who all is going?
Goodbye, Helio
As of 3pm today, Jim and I are no longer Helio members. (yes, I know they are now Virgin Mobile, but apparently accounts are still separated in their system and for all intents and purposes, it’s still “Helio”) Wow, I can’t believe that two years have already passed!
My Ocean has been a really good device, but I can honestly say that now I’m glad that we upgraded. It was time to move forward and sadly, the Ocean 2 (or “O2″) isn’t near as nice as Apple’s iPhone aesthetically- (nor functionally-) speaking. So far, the AT&T service has been really good. Hopefully it’ll stay that way. (although I really DO wish they get their collective asses in gear on this MMS crap!)
So AT&T is not the devil?
Speaking specifically about their wireless service, I’ve got to admit that AT&T has made it a lot easier for me to do business with them. They’ve cleaned up the online billing process and I love their iPhone app — it’s great for paying on the spot, changing account info, checking usage stats, etc. They’ve even implemented a CSR chat function on their website. It has been great for letting me get small tasks taken care of without having to stay tied up on the phone. (which also allows me to work on other things at work while chatting with the CSR!)
I still won’t go back to them for internet or residential services, but hey I’m happy with the wireless service overall.
What about the extras?
Someone recently asked me what was to become of the fanlisting, blogroll, or other Helio-related goodies here. I think for now I’ll let them sit. If an interested party wants to take something over, I’ll gladly hand it off — or maybe I’ll kill ‘em all in a mad cleaning spree 6 months from now. You never know …
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