This Doesn't Bode Well

Well, first day on the new team (officially) and I'm already worried. Not as much planning as strategy as I had thought (ie none). It's happening in a very haphazard way that stinks of management by decalration: managers declare "this is so" and expect it to be so without anyone actually doing anything about it.

I'm not pinning this on my new boss, but he is new to management and is very eager to please so is probably not pushing back when he should.

We'll see what happens over the next few days, but I feel like I just blasted a hole in a grate, jumped blindly through the opening and suddenly the walls are inching closer to each other.

Some escape this is.....

Oh, that's right...

I have a blog!

Well, the 'rents have all gone to their respective corners - I mean residences - and so ends another nutso weekend. Yeesh. I think I need a vacation. I know I need a vacation, who am I kidding.

Unfortunately that may prove to be a tad difficult. In addition to being a weekend of constant clock-chasing, it was also a drain on the wallet.

Plane ticket to Regina for Christmas: $480

Finally paying off my line of credit: $2014

Lightwave software (apparently Visa rejected the payment the first time around, for some odd reason) $1114

Renewal of security software: $66

Add to that my eyeball piercing later this year (~$2000) and we have a flaccid bank roll. And to think I was going to set some non-student, non-Ikea furniture later this month. Or a new video card. May have to settle with just a jumbo Toblerone.

This week should be a tad more sedate: with the past couple weeks running around, I haven't been to the gym more than twice, which means something like "I will pay for a workout Tuesday for a hamburger today" style of thing. But I do need to go, I have this body of a 25 year old to maintain. Okay, maybe 30. 37?

Okay, okay, shut up.

So. Tired.

Man I don't know why I'm so zapped. Can barely keep my eyes open, my back has been killing for days and I have no energy whatsoever. And now that I think about it, no appetite as well. I've been busy every night for over the past week (and the end results aren't much) and really need to get to the gym.

Just too damn tired.

It's perfect opportunity to write ... but I just can't keep my eyes open. Speaking of which, I need to watch an "informational DVD" on my impending eye surgery. Something tells me it would knock me right out.

So I went from mental torpidness to physical tiredness. Woo.

On the geek front, I highly recommend Wapsi Square. It's a Web Comic that started out as a bit of a soap opera, but the author has written in some very good characters and is dealing with some good psychological topics in mystical ways. Oh yeah, it's funny and the girls he draws are hot. That never hurts. Ever.

Lessee, what else. Parental invasion starts tomorrow, I have a play to go to, my brother is now 1/3 owner of the company he was laid off from and will be making 6 figures a year, my apartment sucks aaaaaand I already killed a plant.

Yup, excitement abounds. I hear my couch calling my name.

Oh yeah before I forget, I've been playing with trying to draw again (I was never any good) and stumbled on Drawspace. It's pretty good; I was doodling at lunch using some of the first lessons and already saw an improvement. Mind you that ain't hard for me. After reading some of the examples and lessons, my reaction was pretty much "Well duh!" but sometimes you need someone to point out the obvious.

Sleepy time now go noogie-blinkums. Yawn.

huh?

What the...

I Fear for my Brother's Life

My brother's girlfriend loaned my the DVDs for these.

Wow.

So this weekend, despite me trying to do nothing, has been busy from the get go: the family IT guy, shopping for stuff, buying plants (3 hours later they still live, generally a good sign). Also bought a toy: DVD/VHS combo. Principaly because my PS2 no longer recognizes movies plus I want to start recording some TV (namely the Daily Show and the Colbert Report). I did manage to help my brother buy a pretty top-of-the-line video card. Now I want one.

Lessee, what else. Probably the last nice weekend weather-wise, so I've been enjoying it. Mainly looking at girls. Hey, what didja expect me to do, get actual exercise.

Update: Well, from the smell in here Id say that the potting soil I got has a high pig-shit content. At least I hope its the potting soil.

Pssht. Right.

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining, Probably Acid Rain

Okay, okay, okay.

I can feel the deep blue funk turning into a sky-coloured, slightly shallower funk. Gotta getcher funk on, no matter what you feel.

I'm guessing the weather change may have had something to do with it. Weather affects me like that. I have a whole winter of chinooks and the accompanying migraines to look forward to. Woo.

Okay, okay, sorry. I'm thinking happy thought. You want plural, send me cash.

I am thoroughly enjoying Lego Star Wars: The Original Trilogy although I'm a tad disappointed that the "millions of combinations" you can put together to make your own Lego Star Wars Minifig doesn't use all the bricks of the characters, maybe a dozen or so. The rest are just the standard 16 colors. Other than that the only really bad thing I have to say is it's too damn short.

Hey Sony Online: make an MMO like this and you may actually beat World of Grindcraft in the market. Or at least get back some subscribers. What are the subscriptions up to now, 26, 28 accounts? Ya blew it, man...

Happy thought, happy thought....

So work is back to being just work instead of death in a cubicle, although I will sorely miss Big M as he is seconded to another group in a different office. It's gonna be damn quiet M. Your unique brand of seething rage will be missed.

Other than that, once again both of my parental units decided to come into town the same weekend, which is always full of fun, guilt, panic, fights over paying the bill etc. You know, the usual family get-together.

Once I get my eyes lasered I'm going to a beach dammit. I need a break. Hey that's a good thing, anger is better than depression. At least it's the Dark Side, not the Dreary Side.

I've also determined that if I ever get anyone into my bed again, they are going to realize that I pretty much a Wookie before I have my first cup of coffee: a lot of grunting noises, and the occasional ripping off of arms.

Maybe I need to lay off the Star Wars game for a bit....

Discombobulated

Another late update. Although I really don't have a schedule for these things, so late may be the wrong word. How does later than usual sound?

And yes folks, I forgot to post at Starting Write Now last week. Or rather I didn't have anything to post. I didn't write last week, so I didn't have anything to write about writing.

The reason behind that? Discombobulation. Combine 2 oz. of angst, 1 oz. of boredom, add a dash of self-pity and leave sitting on a counter for a while. Maybe I've been watching too much Tiki Bar lately. Obviously I haven't been drinking enough.

As happens when this, er, happens, my introspection has gone external. On one hand, I've been getting a particular statement from co-workers: I'm a natural-born troubleshooter. This is in relation to some (even more) changes at work, although this time my move is voluntary so hopefully something good comes out of it. Add to that the little bro saying that, in addition for we siblings to be all-or-nothing, we also thrive on pressure.

I'm undecided if that's a good or bad thing yet.

The other downer is, thanks to Capa and his wily ways, I came to the realization that I really don't have anything to look forward to for the first time in about 5 years. No trips planned, no classes etc. Laser eye surgery apparently doesn't count. So I need to get something planned for the near future to look forward to; what is a bit of a mystery, and how much does it cost a bit of a worry. The other other downer is I am officially pushing 40 as of this coming weekend, which is also the one-year anniversary of when I last, er, combobulated.

So there's that to look forward to....

Please note all, this is just a case of the doldrums, and thanks for your concern, I'll get over it. Buying me drinks may help though.

4 Out of 5 Dentists Agree: Couches Are Heavy

Yup, it's been a week. Up until yesterday, a boring week. Moving furniture is one of those mundane things until you actually drop a love seat on your feet. Then it's interesting until the swelling goes down.

The other interesting thing that happened in the past seven days is my coffee-maker spontaneously combusting yesterday morning. A pop, a sizzle then smoke. This is hard to deal with when you haven't had your first cup of coffee yet.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Coffee. You served nobly and well over the past 4 years. You were good 'til the last drop.

Other than that, it's been boring. Every little bit of it. Well, except for Sword of the Stars: I've been playing a tad too much of that.

Work: dull. Gym: dull. Moving brothers: painful and dull. Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull.

I may have shut my brain off as I am officially pushing forty in a couple of weeks. A mid-life crisis would be just what I need to get things interesting again.

Anyone know where I can pick up a sports-car penis replacement cheap?

Extreme Measures

Bonjour and all that. Yes it's been a while.

Some updates then. I went and bought Sword of the Stars which has been consuming all my time. Just finished a 25 hour game. Woo! Ow, my mouse hand hurts.

Also both brothers have officially moved and so I no longer have things to lift except my laundry. While not heavy, it is still hazerdous. I'll leave out the details.

In other news, I will not be moving to Toronto in the near future. Talking with my other brothers, we have a tendency to go all or nothing. While this has it's hazards, in this particular case I feel it isn't all that warranted. I do still need some big changes in my life, particularily getting a new job. So that's priority one. Resume is updated and distributed online this weekend, as well as some better filters on the job sites.

Other things I will be doing in the next while: laser eye surgery (obligatory fricken' lasers), purchase of 3D software and some non-ikea furniture. Although after the surgery and software I probably couldn't afford anything but Ikea.

So what about girls? I won't say I have given up because whenever I do people (Capa) that it sounds like I haven't. But I have, more out of frustration than anything. The internet is for porn, not dating. Never forget the fundamentals.

Oh yeah, I cancelled my land-line phone because of the half-dozen telemarketing calls a night. It's up for a month but won't be answering it at all. Man, that's annoying. However the girl I talked to at my phone provider said it's happening more and more lately. Maybe the phone-companies will wise up and try to stem the turgid flow of insipid advertising.

Nah.

Demos in Spaaaaaace!

Time once again for one of my sporadic game reviews. Today, we take a look at the demos of Sword of the Stars and Lego Star Wars: The Original Trilogy.

Sword of the Stars is yet another entry in the 4X space genre, the mother of all 4X games being Masters of Orion (but it wasn't the first by any means). For the purposes of this review, I will do alot of comparison of SoTS and Galactic Civilizations 2 (GalCiv2). Both games are steeped in the classic 4X idioms, but each takes a different direction with each element of gameplay.

The basic idea of course is you chose one of four races in your "galaxy" and start with a homeworld. The idea is to expand your race's influence by exploring neighboring stars and if a suitable planet is found, establishing a colony on that world (more is not always better though). While you are doing this, you can research various technologies which can help in all kinds of things; faster ships, more powerful weapons, better colonies etc. Eventually of course your society will meet up with other races. In some cases, you can establish friendly (or at least non-aggressive) relationships with them, but in most cases fleets clash, ships bleed and fate is tossed like dice in the merciless vacuum of space....

So those are the basics, but the two games handle each aspect very differently. The most pronounced difference of course is that SotS uses a 3D star map (so it's more like real spaaaaaaace!) with GalCiv2's star map is always two dimensional. For those not used to working in 3D, this can be a bit daunting (and confusing) but overall it leads to some interesting strategic play.

Another big difference is the way the two games handle colonies. GalCiv2 has some very detailed colony and financial management: you need to build up each colony with different types of building to give you particular advantages and abilities. SotS uses a very simple colony strategy: planets will have a "compatibility rating" for each race (and it can be different for each race for the same planet). Building a colony is pretty simple: once it's established, it terraforms (makes the world a nicer place for your colonists) builds a generic "infrastructure" which determines income and how much ship-building you can do.

Research is pretty similar for both: there are various "paths" of research that give you bonuses, special abilities etc. While GalCiv2 has a much larger tree (almost redundant in alot of places) SotS has a narrower range, but a technology can have multiple dependencies where GalCiv2 just has simple branching for the most part. Additionally, SotS generates some randomness into the tree: some techs will not be available in some games while others appear only rarely. This adds to the replayability quite a bit. There's also the fact that you never know what technologies will "open" which gives research a certain unpredictability. Of course the demo is pretty limited, so there is more than likely a bigger technology tree to research.

Ships and ship design are very distinct as well. GalCiv2 has a very flexible ship design system which features alot of jewelry that allows you to customize the look of each ship according to taste. Functional design is pretty free-form as well. However the end results are pretty much the same in terms of the game itself: more and better is the name of the game. SotS doesn't have the same flexibility, but in this case it works out to be much cleaner: there are three hull sizes (only on in the demo though). Each hull size has three sections that can be swapped out with pieces that do different jobs. So the end result almost forces a player to play with mixed armaments, while GalCiv2 fleets are usually just multitudes of the same ship.

Combat in GalCiv2 is strictly hands-off (but pretty) as battles resolve without any interference from the player. SotS allows auto resolution, but the player can group and move fleets, assign targets etc. It's in a 2D plane (which is odd considering the star systems are in 3D) which adds a certain edge for a competent player.

Overall the UI is okay, although I think in the attempt to simplify what is on screen, the developers cut out too much. Navigating the statistics and data screens can be a bit difficult to navigate through and the actual universe (your stars and fleets) could use a bit more detail as well. If I have one serious complaint, it's the lack of information on how to play the game, but it's a demo, not a full release.

So in a side-by-side taste test, both games are good but for different reasons: SotS can be played a bit more 'quick and dirty' as opposed to GalCiv2's long, drawn out (but still fun) games. The UI could use alot more polish, but an upcoming patch (to the full game) is being released almost at the same time as the actual game release. Perusing the boards it is available for purchase online (although they are having some problems with the DRM offered by the North American digital distribution). Retail purchase is technically available but most people who have contacted the retails report that they have not shown up in most cases, and in many cases the stores didn't know they actually are selling the game. We'll see how that pans out for them


Next Up: Lego Star Wars: The Original Trilogy

C'mon, Star Wars presented in an all-Lego format and playable on your console and PC? I'm totally geeking out over it!

The original Lego Star Wars covered the the 'prequel' movies, and actually got higher ratings than the movies themselves. Lots of puzzles, action, secret characters and levels, the game has a very high replay value, is slick in presentation, and offers co-op play!

The Original Trilogy demo covered "Chapter 3": Luke and Ben arrive at Mos Eisley and need to sell a speeder while avoiding Storm Troopers, speeder stealing Jawas and the various scum and villains residing in that hive (you know the line). All presented in Brick form.

So if you played the original game, The Original Series seems to be more of the same, but it's a good same, so that's good.

For the record though the controls on a PC are horrid, and there still seems to be no game-controller support. This seems ridiculous as the game is essentially a console game: I don't see how they could not do a port and lose the basic control structures. But hey, I'm not a programmer, so... waitaminute!

I'm hoping that they bundle this with the first Lego Star Wars as I never actually picked that up. The co-op play has me intrigued in particular: finding someone to play co-op is another matter entirely.

I'm Drunk

Woo!

Woo!

Um, yeah. So I am pissed, but I think I decided I'm moving to T.O.in November. Because decisions after you have had four pints always turn out for the best.

And I also have a date with a 24 year-old tomorrow for lunch. Woooo! Yes, female. Shut up you.... thing you!

I wonder if she knows it's a date....

Probably not.

Wooo!

Taco Hell

Ew.

Okay, not feeling well at all today. Now normally my stomach is finicky at best, although I have figured out that onions are a no-no and eating after 8 pm is a bad idea.

After the gym last night I went to a fast-food franchise that shall remain nameless. While I was waiting to get my food, I noticed the crew at this place screwed up the orders of the three people ahead of me. They basically had to remake almost everything. Watching them working was like watching a ballet comprised of retarded monkeys on Prozac. One would say something and the person being addressed took up to thirty seconds to respond as the glacial movement of sparsely spaced synapses coalesced into mis-understanding.

They had forgotten to put one of the two tacos in my order, so I had to wait around to get my second one.

When I got home and dove into these things, I noticed the mayo seemed kind of "off" but I attributed that to the fact that it was now cold from waiting for my second taco.

Big. Mistake. So I'm at home now, losing weight...

Wagons East?

This is getting silly. The cost of living in Cowtown is going up, up and more up as time goes on. It's getting impossible to afford the basics and still maintain my swingin' bachelor lifestyle. Okay geekin' nerdling lifestyle.

Seriously: rent up 15% (and more than likely 50%+ next bump); parking up 25%; gas up 20%; utilities up 15%; and everything else going up due to the price of gas, utilities and skyrocketing rents/property values.

This time last year I gave up on being able to squirrel away enough for a down-payment on a condo. Now I'm worried I may have to move to an even smaller place for more money. No hope of getting something at my current rent range. Both of my brothers have moved to new places in town this month and are paying $1000+ for one-bedrooms.

What with the reunion in July, one of the goals was to "check out" Toronto as a viable place to work and live in. Rent is about on par, but I noticed everything else was cheaper, even with the provincial sales tax. My bro's girlfriend owns a condo that she is renting out in T.O. and it's coming available soon. May be a perfect opportunity to move (I hate apartment hunting). Only thing I hate worse than moving is job hunting, but there's a plethora of opportunities out there and it wouldn't take me long to find something to at least pay the bills. Add to that, it turns out that I like my family and it may be time to get reacquainted.

So the only thing really holding me back is my lack of project experience with the latest and greatest in programming technologies (.NET and Java) which I should be able to get where I am. The caveat is that I've been in this situation before and have been pulled because they needed someone with my experience with the legacy systems. The other factor is that salary reviews occur in September. Basically, if they have a 5% cap again, it's time to go.

And no, it has nothing to do with the lap dances. Okay not alot to do with the lap dances. Those are bloody expensive.

Additionally, I will no longer be answering my land-line phone. The number of telemarketing calls is getting stupendously annoying: sometimes six times a night. So I left a message on my machine saying I simply will not answer the phone anymore. I'll be disconnecting it soon. This is what you get for actually making a charitable donation: no good deed goes unpunished.

Dude, We Totally Have to Make These!

Hehe, Capa pointed me at The Tiki Bar. I'm wondering if I should attempt to make a pitcher of each featured concoction to lubricate my muse. Who I really, really hope looks like LaLa.

Actually, my muse being a drunken female engineer would explain alot.

Bad Movie! Bad Movie!

Alrighty then. Capa had loaned me this piece of, well, cinematic excellence and has been bugging me for a week to actually watch it.

Capa, you owe me 4 hours of my life back.

It was horrible. What I should have done is just watch it with the commentary on first run. Then I wouldn't have wasted my time. It's bad, oh dear gods it's bad. Even Bruce Campbell, gods love him, may his chin jut forever, couldn't save this stinker.

But I love the commentary.

Now on the other hand some actual good viewing can be had with this. $90, well worth the money. I've always had a fascination with ancient Rome and this just blew me away. I am now adding it to the required viewing list. Watch it!

Now I'm going to bed, and with any luck, will not have nightmares about horribly acted, terribly directed, and just plain wrong sci-fi. Unless of course it's more along the lines of this. Or this.

All Praise Bruce Campbell!

...

Ow.

10.5 hours drinking with Capa. Sort of a mini bar-hopping night.

Oh the pain, oh the pain of it all! No gym today. Just housework I guess. Nothing like a few harsh chemicals to burn through the fumes of a binge.

I realized that next week is the first week in about 2 months that I will be at work for a full five days. Man summer is slack.

Gonna go dry-heave now. Have fun!

Quick Note

Quickly then...

Training all this week. C#, which I am categorizing under "About Bloody Time". Correction, all week except for Friday, which I have off to go eat pizza and drink with Capa and others.

Secondly, I met most (if not all) of the crew of Starting Write Now! which Capa is leading up. It was pretty good with a healthy mix of shop (we all have to submit something once a week, we will do monthly reviews etc) and witty banter. Okay banter. Okay, okay! Jeez! Lame pop culture references.

Technically I quit smoking today. I started smoking again at lunch....

Pros and Cons

Well, as you may know by reading Capa's posts, he and I went to Con-Version 22 this weekend. It was his first and my first in fifteen years convention, and we had a pretty good time of it.

This is one of a few conventions in Western Canada that has a more "literary" bent: they focus more on writing and text rather than the "media" sci-fi out there. The programming was about half-and-half, but there was good coverage (there weren't two seminars at the same time I wanted to go to) and the guests were for the most part well spoken and had some quite interesting things to say.

Capa had a good time and didn't go crazy in the vendor area as he feared he would. That's a tough thing to do when presented with so many toys...

For myself, the whole weekend struck a very strange note... correction, it struck a very strange chord with me. It triggered off some old feelings, some new ideas and something I'll have to do at a later point here. The latter I'll explain later the former and preceding and I'll get into now.

As stated, I hadn't been to a con in fifteen years or so. Going back to one was a ... bit of shock for me. There of course the knee-jerk cry of "Neeeeeeeeeeerds!!!!" a la Homer at the back of the mind as folks paraded by in Jedi, Ghostbusters, Everquest, Farscape, generic fantasy and even Firefly outfits (note: Star Trek costuming was distinctly absent, I wonder why...). There was also the jarring realization that a good many of these people I saw at conventions fifteen years ago.

Immediatly after, another realization shamedly rose in my mind: I am the intruder here. A lost son who comes back and sees that his home is no different, but he himself has changed dramatically and sometimes not for the better.

Which in turn triggered yet another emotion: sadness.

Back in my hey-day I would attend three or four conferences a year with my friends. They provided a fantastic counter-point to my rock 'n' roll lifestyle as a radio DJ and concert promoter; a chance to have excellent conversations with intelligent people about topics that were mutually loved and respected. Some of the best, strangest and eye-opening things and people attend at every opportunity.

And I had willingly disconnected myself from that community, that spirit and that drive.

It relates directly to my last point which I will need to write-up (With great care and attention) and present at some later date. But I will say this: there was a time in my life where I had to change myself almost completely to survive both mentally and physically in what was a "hostile economic environment". That change forever altered who I am, what I am, and what I am capable of. It makes me a better writer (potentially at least) as a consequence, but in doing so it has made me less of a "fan".

And I cannot fully return to that, at least not with the same passion I had when it was a central piece of my life: community, love, respect, laughter, wonder and joy. But I still can visit once in a while, and if I'm willing (as I know I am capable) to make another change in myself, I can return through the other side as a writer. A new role in a old, and lamented, part of my life.

I'm Quitting

Wow, last night I quit nearly everything!

Online dating sites: profiles deleted. Online MMOs: accounts suspended. So I'm left with my single-player games and my, er, single-player game.

Lemme explain: after I posted last night, I decided to check out the dating sites. The one where they make you answer all those questions eventually got me a few matches. Now the way it works there, you pick some multiple-choice questions (pre-written) from a list and "ask" your potential match the questions (they fill out a form). This has to happen a few times before the site lets you contact them with your own words. Any time during these exchanges, either party can suspend or out-right kill the ongoing 'dialogue'.

Imagine my lack of surprise when the women I sent these questions to halted all further contact. Every single one! And it's not like I even had a chance to make my usual bumbling advances. I sent them a short questionnaire for gods' sake: they put the kybosh on from that?

I threw up my hands, deleted my profiles on the sites I was on, cancelled the accounts and removed the bookmarks. Burn the land and sow the soil with salt. That's it.

I then fired up Planetside. I was killed about thirty seconds into the game by a guy with a pistol in a single shot (when it should take at least ten) while he was far out of range of my rifle. An obvious hack. Reported! Account de-activated, software uninstalled.

That left me with EvE online, which I am trying on a 14-day trial. Not bad, but frankly I don't have the time to devote twelve hour days to the game, which apparently is required. So I just uninstalled the software.

Which leaves me with GalCiv, Fate and Space Hack for games and, well, I have cable for that other stuff.

On the bright side it means I'll have time to actually write.

The other thing I am trying to quit, yet again, is the smoking habit. Last time at the Doc's I asked for a Zyban prescription, which I started Monday. The Doc said to take one a day, and quit smoking on the third day. Every piece of research I did said the dosage is two a day and you keep smoking for the first week. I swear to the gods....

Well considering I am trying to quit smoking, I'll be swearing alot.

Start Write Now! Er....

Okay Capa, thanks very much for the "kick in the junk". By the way: Nice Hair!

So the reason I didn't post yesterday (and the reason why Capa got all Reservoir Dogs on my ass) was because I received a panicked plea from my Auntie L about her wireless router not working (Help me Moby-Wan Kenobi!). So after I fixed the router, was fed my second supper of the night (so much for not eating after seven), had a few drinks with her "Cougar Posse" I came home and discovered my computer had a Trojan Horse installed (Thanks Dad!).

I was supposed to tell you about Start Write Now. It's a site that features myself, Capa and a few other wanna-be writers discussing the vagaries of newbie scriveners. As the principle reason I started this whole blog thing 2 years ago was to get my write on, it's about time to move on to things that aren't about my life. That's pretty much played out anyways, and the reviewers weren't kind at all (Thanks Dad!).
So with that, I am actually going to set aside some time each week to write something besides this thing.

As a secondary aside: of course now that I've linked to it, finding out my "secret identity" won't be much of a problem. Not that it worries me that much. I've never been that thrilled with the whole anonymity thing anyways: I say what I say and damn the consequences. Which reminds me, I bought this the other day. I wonder what it's about?

There was a time when I went to sci-fi cons about four times a year. That went by the wayside around the time I was homeless (did I ever discuss that particular event in my life?). So with trying to get back on the writing gig, I'm attending Conversion this year. Pretty decent line-up of writers: I always like to hear what they have to say, even if I don't agree with it.

Oh yeah, and girls in sci-fi costumes, which is hot. I miss that.

Oh yeah, guys in Sailor Moon outfits. I do not miss that!