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!

Say "Aaaargh!"

Moving on!

I still have a sore throat. Still! When I got back from vacation, I went back to the clinic and got another doctor. Because my first doctor had handwriting even other doctors couldn't read, I had to go through the entire scenario over the last two months.

So he gave me more anti-biotics, recommended I gargle with hydrogen peroxide (!!!) and stop complaining. And to think there's a movement to go with a two-tier medical system. I woldn't pay another bloody dime for this kind of treatment.

I almost never see doctors. I haven't had a check-up in (counts on fingers, then toes) 18 years. Before the whole strep thing, I only went to the doctor for "tests" after a relationship went south. These were always amusing....

Doctor: "So, what exactly did you want to test for?"
Me: "Everything."
Doctor: "What do you mean, everything? That's alot of tests."
Me: "Anything that could be contracted by sleeping with someone who has schtupped the entire staff of a large casino. Everything."
Doctor: "Oh...."

You get the idea.....

Tomorrow: Start Write Now. Time to actually put words on paper. I blame everything of Capa.

Where Was I?

Oh yes, vacation.

The second half of my trip to the southernmost tip of the Great White North was spent getting requainted with my family on my Mom's side. One of my (many) aunts has a cabin in Cottage Country, which she and her husband (which I guess would make him my uncle) have built up over the years.

Now remember that since I was 5 years old, I've been living on bald-ass prairie. A "lake" is actually a slough, the content of which is about 50% cow shit. Give or take. Cottage Country on the other wellie, is dotted with "kettle lakes", formed when the glaciers retreated, leaving behind chunks which melted and formed pleasantly small, natural lakes. The end result is that pretty much each lake is isolated from the rest and there are cottages everywhere.

Probably the most relaxing four days of my life: nothing to do but drink, eat, realize that my family is insane and get eaten by mosquitoes, horse flies and deer flies. Circle of life, right?

Of course the bestest part was being right on the lake. I'm an enthusiastic if not talented swimmer (bald-ass prairie, remember?) and going swimming three or four times a day is balm for the soul. Not quite the same as swimming in an ocean (less waves, but mind you, less jellyfish) but pretty top notch all the same.

Of course all good things must come to a crashing halt, so we made our way back to The Big Smoke. The last day was spent packing up my little brother in preparation for his move back to Calgary to learn how to use X-Rays and stuff. In 40+ degree Centigrade humidity. So I sweated off all the weight I gained at the cottage.

Which now means I have a brother that can get ahold of industrial grade lasers, one that will be harness cosmic rays and me, who can, er, normalize a database. World domination here we come!

The flight back to afore mentioned bald-ass prairie (what? I like saying "bald ass prairie") was uneventful (although we flew right by some thunderheads, very cool). The interesting part was when I went to claim my luggage....

Airports have a policy of cutting off those pathetic little locks some people put on their luggage to "secure" it from thieving hands. And of course since we are at terror level teal with burgundy highlights, they get promptly chopped off. The locks I mean. Although I've heard stories about what security does if they find a cuticle file in your carry on...

Now, my luggage (which my father have to my for my high-school graduation. Subtle, Dad) is "soft" like a gym bag. It has two zippers on the top, threaded together by a faux-leather strap so you can open and close it on one swift movement. When I picked up my bag off the spinning thingymadoodad, I never gave it a second thought. I just wanted to get home, crash, read my email and play a game or two (the game in this case was EvE online, but I'll get to that later).

So later that night when I was unpacking, I noticed the strap had been cut off. I was a little miffed, but what the heck, it's a twenty year old back and had started to develop a ... smell. Then I found the tapes.

Three Super 8 video tapes to be precise. The only labels were numbers: 2, 3 and 5. I don't own a video camera. And I have one of those nice laminated tags on my bag with my name, address and phone number.

This freaked me out. I had repacked my back just before we left for the airport and went straight from the van to the check in. At no point did I even let go of my bag, let alone leave it unattended. The chicanery must have happened after it was tagged and sent back to mysterious airport locales via the conveyer belt. I'm guessing luggage throwers or someone having access to the bowels of the airport must have put them in there.

The tapes were actually tapes: no drugs, no strange powders etc. Just tapes. But still it freaked me out; there was a bust of a huge child-porn ring recently (my uncle is on the T.O. Police S.W.A.T. team) and frankly I've heard stories of what they do to those guys in jail. My uncle was very specific. And graphic. What if someone wanted to deliver something like that by busting into a bag with a clearly labeled address and go for a "visit" to pick them up at a later date?

So I did what any upright, responsible citizen would do: I barred the doors and cowered in my bedroom, fake Samurai sword close to hand.

Er, so, yeah. Once the cold grip of paranoia relented a bit to go get a cigarette, I called the airline and explained what happened. They had never heard of anyone finding something extra in their bag, it's usually the other way around (and how much confidence did that give me that my stuff was in good hands?). They suggested I call the police.

But tell them what? "Yes officer, I'd like to report a crime. Someone opened up my luggage and gave me stuff... No, nothing was missing... No, nothing illegal, just some video tapes... hello?". Yeah right. I know, it's still suspicious, and more than likely the police would think it's a legitimate concern, but I know the local constabulary have better things to do than "investigate" something as innocuous as this. Like giving out tickets for littering or making a left-hand turn. Real crimes.

At work I asked around: did anyone have a Super 8 video camera? And of course I had to explain why I wanted a camera every time and hear "Why, you have a new girlfriend? Hur hur hur..." every time.

Eventually, someone had a camera and brought it in for me. As I anxiously placed the first tape in I wondered what it could possibly be: a redux of the cell phone camera incident (Not again!)? Weird, funky, kinky porno (Ew.... hey that's not bad. ) ? Bland home movies of a WASP family vacation (shudder!)? The lost missive of some zany terrorist organization (Profit!)?

They were blank!

What an anti-climactic moment. I was bummed for the rest of the day. I was at work so no big change there. But what I did get out of it was a story idea (although I'm changing the blank tape thing) which is pertinent at this time for reasons I will relate later this weekend.

Stay Tuned!!!

Salad

I need to eat some.

Anyhoo, just a notice that I will be in fact updating this blog this weekend, just have alot of stuff to do. Here's what's coming up:

Sore Throat: The Epic Series

Tapes on a Plane: or Why I'll Only Take Carry-on When Travelling

Blank Page: How I'll be Guilted Into a Writing Career

Cottage Country: It Ain't Italy but it's Still Nice (Or is that in France?)

TLAs: EVE and DVDs

Singularity: How I Came to Terms With Never Having Sex Again.

Wagons East: Heading into the Smog

But for now I gotta do laundry....

Hey Everyone, I'm back! Hello?

Last day off before I return to the bit mines. What with one thing and another today is going to be busy but I'll give a summary, with details forthcoming.

Day one was damn hectic: alarm went off at 4:30 AM to get my 7 AM flight. The flight into T.O. was packed but we actually managed to get there on time. Bro #1 met us at the airport and we got to experience public transportation. Toronto actually has a good bus and underground system. You almost wouldn't need a car.

So after drinks and dinner (and more drinks) we went to SPAMALOT! Pretty damn good. It's a musical and I don't like musicals. It was funny though, so I give it 4 out of 5 tophats. And I gotta get the t-shirt ("I'm not quite dead yet").

So after that, the brothers Moby went to the peelers. It was described as a dive by some, but frankly I think any "gentleman's club" is scuzzy by default.

The experiment with lap-dances was a resounding success but we expended the budget sooner than expected. Yeesh.

So, drunk and fondled, went back to the hotel at 3 AM. Not quite a 24 hour day but damn close.

The next day we met up with our Uncle and went to Healy's; Jeff Healy's little downtown club. He and his Jazz Wizards put on a free show in the afternoons and it was bloody great. One of the little brothers commented that Healy himself looked stoned out of his mind, so we had to tell him that Healy is actually blind. I thought I was the unobservant one.

Later that night, we met up with the cousins and went to a club. Very hoity-toity, we westerners were a tad underdressed. Good booze and a damn good view. Calgary has alot of gorgeous women, but they're pretty cookie cutter in looks. Toronto has an incredible variety of women it was like Rome all over again.

Oh, and I ran into someone I knew there. My ex's friend. Which was cool as I liked her (not snooty like most of her friends). But I'm sure the phones/emails were abuzz after that. Still expecting a little fallout from that encounter.

Later on some family from the other side of the tree showed up so more alcohol was consumed, cheeks inched, "my how you've grown" comments made etc. We closed the place up, then me and the brothers went to the peelers. Again.

The next day was recovery day, so the cousins and the brothers did Dim Sum for lunch, then a Gypsy restaurant for dinner (which featured belly dancers). No peelers this time.

After three days of eating, drinking and various entertainments, we went to the cottage for the reunion proper. I'll write that one up later when I get my photos off the camera.

Good to be back though. Now if I can just get the rest of the week off....

Case of Acute Melodrama

Er, sorry about my over-acting yesterday. But to be fair being told that a ailment children commonly get without any reprecussions could do some serious damage to the ol' ticker is a tad disconcerting.

Besides, I think my doctor is a quack. I have Thrush, which is basically a reaction to penicillin. This was diagnosed by my Mom. The doc had me go for blood, urine and EKG tests.

I'm a staunch supporter of state-sponsored medical care, but jeez.

Holidays! Yay! Tanning! Food! And, well, it's rumoured that the nudie bars in Ontario allow for, well ..... lap dances. I've never had one so fully intend to try it out.

Strictly for research you understand.

In other news, I think when I get back I'll try out EVE Online. Like Planetside, I tried the free trial a while back and didn't like it. Looks like they've improved the UI (user interface not unemployment insurance) and I've been doing some research on new player guides etc.

I have an inherent, nay genetic need to fly in three dimensions and blow shit up. 2D just ain't cuttin' it, man!

So in the meantime, I'm just house cleaning, shopping for iPod accessories and getting my slack on. I may do some updates while away (I understand that there's these things called "Internet Cafes".) because frankly I just can't go cold turkey. I needs me my Internets tubes.

Vacation Plot Twists

A couple of twists as I start my two-week vacation.

First off I'm going to SPAMALOT! Yup, extreme geekiness ensues.

Secondly, I'm still not over the whole strep-throat thing. Went to the doctor yesterday and he wants me to go get some tests done as there is a risk of Rheumatic fever, which is basically damaged heart valves. I won't get the test results until I get back from vacation. So I won't be spending the entire time worrying about that. Right.

I always thought it was the smoking that was gonna do me in.

Clothes, Booze and my Family

First off, hats off to Capa for getting myself and other delinquent writer wanna-bees off of our collective butts and forcing (inflicting?) deadlines on us in the near future. More details later.

So I started the replacement of my stolen clothing today. Normally, I am not a "shopping" person. I employ the time honored technique of "get in, grab stuff, get out". On a side note this methodology does not work well in relationship to, well, relationships.

Of course the tough part is replacing shirts. Pants aren't a problem: black slacks, no pleats. But I've worked hard on building a collection of the nerdiest hipster-doofus bowling style shirts in town. Those are hard to come by. The ol' standby, Winners, just didn't have anything. So after hitting 5 shops I managed to get four shirts nobody else on the planet would be seen dead in. Eight more to go.

I still haven't cracked all that beer. Vodka and lime is just too damn refreshing plus an order of magnitude less gas than beer. So I'm giving it away as presents before it goes sour.

People don't take kindly to random strangers handing them a case of beer and running away. They tend to call the police. You would think that Stampede would be the perfect time to give away booze....

Because my family is essential insane, the past two days has been booking and rebooking hotel rooms, flights and figuring out what the hell is going on next week. My little brother intended to stay with my other little brother, but since it's 40+ degrees in T.O., he wanted to share my hotel room. Because of the late date, changing my room would have doubled the price for an extra bed, so I told him to get his own room. They guy makes more money than me, sheesh. Cheap bastard. Er, sorry Mom.

Next week is just two days of work, a couple of days of prep and house-cleaning (nothing worse than coming home to, well, what it normally looks like when I'm here). Needs me a new bathing suit (or two), as the Mediterranean salt apparently rots nylon. Despite the lunacy that is known as my family, I'm actually going to have a good time at this reunion. After all, this is the side of the family that has rum for breakfast.

Addendum

Sweet! LightWave 9 finally came out! I know what I'm spending an outrageous amount of money on when I get back!

I May Have Been Hasty

Ummm, so I sent an email to the girl I was seeing and had thought was giving me a brush off. I wished her the best of luck and all that.

Turns out that she wasn't doing the brush off thing. She's still interested in seeing me. So I left it open to make contact again.

Going back to the whole narrative imperative thing, the usual plot line is like I imagined: boy meets girl, boy likes girl, girl likes boy at first then boy says/does something totally innocent and completely wrong. Girl makes boy nuts.

This on the other hand is a story I haven't been in yet.

We'll see.

Tell Me When It's Over

Truly Single again....

The past couple of weeks, the girl I was seeing kept breaking dates (with, at the time, seemed quite legitimate excuses). I attempted to make a date this Sunday, but she wanted to "play it by ear".

Apparently "play it by ear" produces a deafening silence.

Of course, it would be nice if she just told me she didn't want to continue. Not having the guts to tell me tells me either she's not quite ready to date again yet or she just doesn't have the guts to be honest.

Sure, feelings would be hurt, but I'm a grown up. Well, parts of me anyway. Dating is two people getting to know each other in order to determine if they want a future together. If one of them doesn't believe so, then it's over: wish each other well and part ways.

So I'm disappointed: not that she didn't want to see me anymore, but that she didn't respect myself or herself enough to just tell me. So no loss on my part.

In other news, the big family reunion is next week: should be fun (yet expensive) as I haven't seen many of the family out East more than once in 20 years. Plus, of course, it's 2 weeks off.

And apparently my cousins have single friends.....

Catch Your Bliss

A short report, but today I'm feeling quite blissful. All of my perceived troubles and woes just seem, well, inconsequential today. Maybe it's the nice day, the great workout I had, the drugs kicking in....

Anyways, just thought I'd record these thoughts as this is pretty much a "banner day" emotionally.

And also mark the point where it will inevitably just go straight down that creek...

Now, now, no need to be negative, Moby....

Today's Plot Twists

The Saga Continues!

The Clerks: Uncensored DVD is a bad print: keeps getting an "Unable to Read Disk" error. Mind you, I think my DVD player (aka Playstation 2) is dying a slow death, so I'll try it on my computer. So much for a bargain.

My date cancelled tonight. She has a sore throat so I can really empathise with that. Really hope it isn't strep. And no, we haven't done anything that would point to me as the carrier (darn it).

My current project may be cancelled or completely change again.

Maybe that's what I need to do with this blog: report my life as a series of convoluted plot twists and unlikely coincidences.

Narrative Imperative

There are some who think life has patterns. And everyday observations tend to substantiate this: things happen over and over again (almost) the same every time. There are many theories as to why this happens in life.

For example, there are those who firmly believe Murphy's Laws are an integral part of the universe: that when things can go wrong, they will. Spin me back to 1992, and I would whole-heartedly agree. Now, after observing a couple of things that have actually gone right, I don't believe that's how the universe works (most times anyways).

Then there are those who think - for whatever reason, from religion to physical causality - that everything that occurs is predestined. From the big-bang/six-day origin to the big-crunch/apocalypse, nothing is left to chance and that every occurrence can be predicted given enough divine/sub-atomic knowledge. I'm disinclined to believe this, but keep an open mind (from a science end, not a gospel end).

Still others believe in Karma: the idea that what good or evil you do in the universe, the universe delivers right back at ya. While this is a feel-good philosophy followed by some genuinely nice people, that theory does not, in the least, match my experiences.

For me, my causality viewpoint is Narrative Imperative. I actually couldn't find a link that describes it all that well, but basically it's like this: human behavior and experience follows common patterns (narrative) almost without fail (imperative). Ever hear someone say there are no new stories, that they all have been written and anything "new" is just rehashing old plots? That's the way the human mind works. Everyone knows that you don't go back into the house where the crazy, chainsaw wielding maniac is, but how many movies does this occur in? The human species seems programmed (genetically and by their society) to expect certain patterns of behavior.

So in my life, these patterns range from the mundane to the profound. For example, I know that when I park my car beside a truck with monster truck tires, I'm going to get a ding in my door. That's a pretty common one. A more obscure one is that when I start falling for a girl, there's a fifty-fifty chance that, over the course of a weekend, they'll meet someone, fall madly and passionately in love, and want to be with only with him. This is discovered when she tells me all about it. All about it. Every. Intimate. Detail. And then says it's great to have a friend she can tell this to.

No it hasn't happened lately, just saying.

So you get the idea.

The other part of the narrative imperative doesn't relate to patterns but rather is a way seeing how unexpected events occur. Human beings (well, some human beings) plan how things are supposed to go. Sometimes they go as planned, sometimes they... don't.

Which brings us back to me.

If you take a look at the "stories" in my life: my life from birth to today, my time with a person or at a job, or even the little events that make up the day, it seems like in many cases, there are "plot twists".

Some Examples:

I need to get alot of work done and I get strep throat. Once again, I must race against the clock to get things done, despite complications, to get to that happy ending.

I go to pick up my dry cleaning, which is basically all my work clothes, and the proprietor says they were stolen. He'll refund the money if I replace them (12 shirts, 3 pants) but in the meantime I'm down to tier 3 clothes.

I'm dressed in a ridiculous outfit to go to a party and get pulled over by the police not once, but twice.

When I applied to architecture school, I was first on the waiting list. While getting some courses to cover some bases, I got drunk for year and flunked out. While trying to get into Journalism school, I got my English degree. When I got a decent job out of school, I got laid off 3 months later. When my two businesses started to pick up, the cultural and political climates changed 180 degrees, leaving me homeless.

This kind of stuff happens to everyone (almost everyone). But to me, sometimes it seems I'm character in a story, and these things just come out of some cosmic author's word processor. Plot twists, then, in a what is normally a pretty straight life.

Not sure if it's good or bad (sometimes it's both). All I know is that when the last chapter ends, my name is in the Author's acknowledgements.

Some royalties would be nice too.

That Wacky Horseman!

So I've had a sore throat for a week. So I had problems swallowing carrots today at lunch.

So it turns out I have strep throat. Which means I'm quarantined for 24 hours. That's a pain in the ass, as last week's training means I have two weeks' worth of work to do in four days. Three now. And I can't go to the gym. I haven't been since Friday and my butt is widening to fit the chair as we speak.

Not sure where I got it though. My best guess was actually at training last week. The place where we were edjumacated was one of those offices in a mall. A mall that is petty much an informal homeless shelter. And handles on the doors to get in the mall gave me the heebie-jeebies. Yuck.

So it means I will be stuck at home tomorrow. And taking penicillin. Woo.

Yuck.

Long Weekend Rundown

Howdy y'all.

Oh dear gods it must be nearing Stampede...

Anyways Mom's B-day was good. Despite the fact that my little bro and I dragged our dear Mother to the pro shop to get her some new golf clubs, she insisted we don't (insisted meaning she said something along the lines of "Oh, don't waste your money on me!". And we learned long ago to just surrender) and get her a bike helmet instead. We tricked her into getting it at Costco, and paid for the major impulse buys she had.

The clubs would have been cheaper. But it's my Mom (awwwww). Capa, the obligatory "mama's boy" comment if you please....

Other than that, rummaged through the various discount bins and picked up this, one of these (Ach! Zombies!) and found this for $7. I've always tried to pick that last one up but it's always $60+.

Oh yeah and new rice cooker. Mmmm... ricey goodness.

So I have a slightly deeper farmer tan, a sore throat (hope it's a cold and not strep, which apparently is going around) and deep desire to win the lottery and live a life of debauchery. Okay, maybe one debauch then just be lazy. I can do that.

Alright a couch-potato/gaming slug. I know my limits.

Weekend Update!

Ummm, not alot actually.

A lot of plans fell through, I did manage to get some decent bike rides in. Other than the weekly chores, that's about it.

I did get some of my free beer. I haven't had any yet. Not sure why not.

Really, all I'm posting for is to just get something done this weekend.

The next week will be a tad more exciting. I'm off-site getting Java training all next week. Then after 8 hours of training I have to go back to the office (oi) each day.

Company BBQ on Wednesday, which should prove interesting. Hope the weather is nice.

Then on the long weekend (longer in that I am taking Friday off) I'm going to visit my Mom for her 60th B-day. As I want to give her new golf clubs, and know abslutly zilch about golf, I'm just going to take her shopping.

And sometime in there, I'm hoping another date.

News Update!

So yeah I was sick for the interview. But it was moved again so now it's not an interview as such, just checking out a new prospect. Which is okay. I can raise my 'Networking' skill a point at least. 299 more of those and I get my "Schmooze: Level 2".

Next week: actual training!!! Java, thank goodness. I was tad worried we would be spending two days on variables and control structures, but rumour has it that stuff will be covered in the first morning. The instructors have been told that people will have to keep up or be left behind. So it'll be like Survivor: Java.

And as previously stated, I would probably get voted off the island before the boat hit the dock. Which is good 'cuz then they ship you to a resort for the remainder of the show.

And for those of you asking for details on the woman I'm seeing....

Too bad.

I don't wanna jinx it.

Continueinueum

I finally got in contact with my beer guy.

And I need to get all 15 cases at once. Who wants a beer?

And my date went well, with only one screw up. I'm really hoping it's perceived as shy and sweet instead of clumsy and stupid. Which it was. Nothing that bad, just an attempt at a peck on a cheek.

I really need therapy. Or lessons. Or Prozac.

So, job interview tomorrow. It's always awkward going into work in a suit for an afternoon interview. I may have to feign sick. Although I was sick last night and not feeling so hot right now (which was a wonderful way to feel for a second date) so it may not be a lie.

Which means I'll be sick for a job interview. Go me.

Blonde Day

Oi.

Okay so I do have a follow up date! Yay me! And while arranging it, I realized later that I may have said some things that were either a) stupid or b) open to some very negative interpretation when I actually meant to give a compliment. I won't go into detail here.

Sometimes I think the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz and I should start our own bowling team....

On top of that: I got to the gym tonight, opened up my gym bag and realized that after doing laundry on Sunday I neglected to put any clean clothes back in the bag. So I rushed out into the mall, got the cheapest shorts (red) and t-shirt (blue) that I could find in the clearance rack and went back to the gym.

Now the shorts said "Medium" but I think that may have been a slight exaggeration. The t-shirt was the right size but was, in point of fact, a tank top.

All that was missing was the terry-cloth head and wrist bands. I could have passed for a taller, balder version of Richard Simmons.

Guess Who had a Date?

Yup. Me.

A coffee date with someone I met on the internet. Now, the reason I didn't tell anyone (here or in real life) as I tend to think it jinxes it. That, and I get over-excited, nervous and clumsy. Clumsier. I'm not known for sweeping women off of my feet, more like tripping them. But coffee was good, and we had a nice walk around the neighborhood: the weather finally cleared up.

She's a pretty cool girl: she's traveled, smart, has an English degree and is a total geek. I won't go into detail here, but lets just say there are a remarkable amount of similar interests.

I know, scary similarity there.

So I think it went well, no walk of shame. An exchange of phone numbers is happening (via email) and we're supposed to make arrangnments for drinks later on.

Just hope my shyness factor reduces itself a bit. She seemed to be pretty business-like (not uncommon though and to be expected) and there wasn't alot of tension. And I wasn't my usual goofy self. That's normal right?

Anyway, a good first date with no out-of-left-field surprises like unrevealed children, an Amway pitch or obvious psychosis. In her. Me, I'm never sure about.

And she's cute, never discount that. Of course, it takes a couple dates to determine a rapport (as opposed to the instant, not-a-chance date). Good feeling so far as we seem intellectually compatible.

We'll see. Here's hoping.

Up the Ziggurat

Congrats and kudos to the Lemming for getting a push up to management at the ol' evil empire.

Seems a lot of my mates are getting promoted there while I am firmly attached to the bottom rung. I am the master of the career limiting move!

Thank the gods.

And for linkage, the makers of Ask a Ninja now have a spin-off: Hope Is Emo.

No wonder I don't watch television anymore.

Rant, Manifesto or Position Paper

Alright, before I get to the meat of the matter of today, a couple of housekeeping things:

I shaved off the soul patch. As an experiment, it was a success. However one of the variables I didn't consider was the fact while many men have their hair grow at an angle close to the curve of the jaw, my facial hair has the organization of a gorse bush. Grooming is all well and good but the 'product' I was using (and didn't work that well) was giving me zits.

So while giving myself the month buzz (hair cut, not inebriation), I chopped the chin-hedge off.

My chin is cold.

The weather (rain, more rain, humidity) is getting me down. I haven't taken a good bike ride in a week and it's driving me buggy. On teh other hand, I've gone from a two-on, one-off work out schedule to a three-on, one-off rate. I'm sore. And suddenly I'm pressed for time! Not sure I can keep this up. Maybe 3-on, 1-off, 2-on, 1-off? Nah, too complicated.

I now have one foot back on the no-smoking wagon, although I keep sneakin' 'em. As stated previously on many occassions, this is hard. I need a new job.

And I still can't get a hold of the guy to arrange my free beer!

Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!!

Ahem.

So on to the main topic. Which I have entitled:

Ivory in Shadow: How IT has Failed Business, Business has Failed IT and the How the IT Business has Failed Everyone

Yeah it's a mouthful.

It's basically a commentary on how IT is still failing to deliver on promises to business, how business forces these failures in many cases, and how technology companies exacerbate the problem by offering more technology to solve what ails technology.

This came about from yet another marketecture presentation today. In essence, it was to add more software layers (and therefore more hardware, more network and more complexity) to make things all work together.

I'm going to have to research this a bit, but I'm thinking that the roots of the problem are a fundamental misunderstanding of what technology can and cannot do (and surprisingly, its the techs who don't seem to understand the most), business practices that are directly opposed to how software is developed (and vice versa) and a lack of will to address the fundamental issue of change.

So instead of a blog rant, it probably will be a paper. And surprisingly, I have a kernel of an idea on how to possibly fix some of the problems.

So I'm going to read a few things, talk to some people and who knows, look at maybe getting it published as an article. May take a while.

Oh yeah, the title refers to the "Ivory Tower" being overshadowed and threatened by an office building. Yep, English degree. I can see the cover of my ground-breaking, paradigm shifting (sorry) study on real software in real business now. Amazon, here I come!

Or Slashdot. Either is good.

Weak Week

Eesh. Work just keeps getting better and better. I had one application back in a normal state (ie broken but those responsible for fixing it can actually fix it) and another one, which has much more impact, is busted.

Not busts, was busted. Since February. And for the same reasons as the first app. The guys who were supposed to notice, didn't. And they were the guys that busted it.

On top of that one of my (let's see, 1, 2, 3, 4, .... 7) managers tries to get me pulled off of a comittee that I refuse to leave because he thinks it's impacting my time. I don't see how 4 hours a week does that. It's the one thing I think I actually get progress on (albeit slowly). On top of that I get yet another project from a manager who thinks I can build a data warehouse in one day.

So I asploded.

Needless to say, whenever I asplode, I risk my job. And I know that. The consideration is that I either quit (which leaves people I actually like in a heap of trouble) or I risk getting punted.

And once again, I actually get the resources I need to get the job done. Playing nice just don't work at times.

So with all that, I fell of the wagon. Hard. Then got run over. Then while I had a cigarette to recover, the wagon-driver got out and kicked me inna nads.

I did have a job interview. Or rather, I talked to the guy who was going to give me the job interview. He wanted to reschedule because he was trying to leave early on his vacation. Not the best first impression. Not as bad as the time as the guy giving me an interview was drunk though. At 11 AM.

Let's see, women. They still exist, right? Actually that's not correct. I didn't get some sort of superpower making me invisible to the fairer sex, did I.

Hmmm, maybe that's what I need. A female boss. No, no, no. Not for that....

Well, maybe. I could use a sugar momma.

Game wise, Planetside has lost it's luster. just too frustrating. And I found out there's a ton of cheats. And no, I don't cheat, I just stop paying. I picked up Dawn of War and Winter Assault (Warhammer 40K RTS). Not bad, but I've never been an RTS fan, it's just there's nothing else to play. At least new to play. And I have a short attention span.

When is Spore coming out?

'Nuff Said. Beer time. No not free yet, the guy I need to make the arrangements isn't picking up his phone.

Looks like my usual luck/Karma is back.

Hung. Over.

Oh dear gods....

No I didn't get my free beer yet. But I did consume quite a bit of vodka with my little brother last night. We went to the peelers and the little schmuck ended up with 2 phone numbers from the wait staff.

Then he tried to give me lessons on how to pick up women.

Suicide is still a mortal sin right? Not that it matters, as I'm in enough pain as it is....

Gah.

Free Beer

Finally, some return on my Karmic investment!

Some friends and myself buy season tickets to Alberta Theatre Projects every year. I like to make a donation as well.

Turns out this year they had a draw. I got a phone call from them this morning saying I had a choice between appearing on-stage as an extra for their Christmas performances of Peter Pan, or beer for the summer.

What do you think I picked?

So I get, home-delivered, a 12 pack of my choice of Big Rock Brewery's finest. For fifteen weeks.

Now I'm a cheap date, but that's not an issue. I've had three invites to weekend barbeques since I won...

Looks like I have friends after all!

Spring Cleaning

So the City is doing it's usual spring thing: cleaning the streets of all the crud and salt that was dumped on it in the winter. Of course in order to do so, they need the streets clear so they post signs the day before.

Last night, tow trucks started showing up on my street (at 2 AM) and started carting cars away.

Now this is loud enough. Add to that, the local residents making death threats etc. against the truck drivers.

You see, no notices were posted on my block that it was being cleaned. So there was a whole street of cars. And angry car owners.

The cops showed up about 3 AM to try and settle everyone down. Needless to say I'm a bit of a zombie today.

Fell Off and Run Over

Argh, went and bought a pack of smokes again today.

Why the hell is this so damn hard? So now in addition to smoking, I've been inhaling about 4000 calories an hour. So I'll be a fat bastard with cancer instead of a skinny geek.

May have to patch it....

Back Again

So I go into work this morning and the first thing I hear before I even turn on my computer is that my project got cancelled. Again.

I'm never sure if that's a good or a bad thing. It does mean I was bored though.

And I was past the livid rage stage in the non-smoking progression. It ,will be back though. I was in an almost Nirvanic (is that a word?) state: I would stop in the middle of a sentence, would forget what the heck I was doing in the middle of a task. All with a blissful grin on my face.

Of course, that may have been brought about due to lack of sleep last night. I was still on 'holiday time', where I don't go to bed before 1am.

It was tough not smoking, so tough that I had one after work (dammit!). Ah well, I'm glad it was just one. And that was due to an issue that I had resolved, passed along to those whose responsibility it was in the first place, and it wound up back at me. Louisville time.

And the internet dating thing. Well, lets just put it this way. There's a pattern that emerges, those that I contact ignore me, and the few who make first contact, I have no interest in.

Mind you, I wound up being geek-in-shining-armor yesterday for someone who wanted to know if their ex-bf got ahold of their password. After the crisis had passed, we had an email conversation over the course of 4 hours. Naturally, she lives on the other side of the country....

I swear to gods, there a screenplay, tentatively titled "Geek mating Rituals" in all of this.

Vacation: Terminated

So, back to work tomrrow.

Just in time time. I'm now in the "pick a fight" phase of quitting smoking. Which should prove interesting.

Hope the weather is nice at least, I haven't been on the bike in 3 days and miss it already. Not the ride, the view.

Anyway, for those of you who I work with are reading this, you may want to avoid the eleventh floor tomorrow. Or all week.

Review and Return

Well, just came back from X-Men 3 (and I only had to shut up one group of kids twice, but the crying infant wouldn't respond to threats).

I don't want to give it away, but a basic impression should do.

First, it's very obvious that this was not directed by the same person as the first two films: it's very action driven rather than character drive. Not that's necessarily a bad thing, but concerning the subject matter, I would have referred the original hand on the helm.

It really reminds me of the days when I read more comic books. I loved such series as The New Mutants, eXcalibur, Alpha Flight etc. At least for a while. Back in the day (and still now apparently) once Marvel had a best seller (usually after a year) they would move the creative team to a book that wasn't doing so well. What usually happened was the new team would take the story in a completely different direction, getting rid of characters and story ideas in the space of panel or two.

The movie was a lot like that. So not bad, decent actually but handled (jarringly) different than the two previous film. I give it 3 tophats (out of five).

Oh, and I reactivated my profiles on a couple of dating sites.

Sucker for punishment I tells ya....

Day .... er, 6?

Quitting smoking sucks. Hands down.

There are times when I am perfectly fine: I can functional as normal human being and not want to crawl into a dark corner, curl up into the foetal position, and whimper.

And so my week of "recharging" is almost done, now it's just another weekend. I got most of what I wanted to do, well, done. I do find that any actual creative endeavors (such as writing, drawing etc) are really unaccomplishable until I've had a full week off. It's at that point (today) that my left-hemisphere has had a chance to unclench and allow some right-brain activity. So I may try some stuff over the next 48 hours.

This week was also a time for reflection on the whole dating thing. Am I ready to date? Do I actually want to enter another relationship? If so, how do I go about actually meeting women?

So I think I am ready to meet someone. But no internet dating (urgh, not going through that again). That means I'll have to actually, you know, leave the house. So what activities should I try? There's the gym of course, but I see so many goombahs trying to chat up girls who look like they want to be anywhere but on the treadmill. I don't want to be one of those guys.

Classes are a possibility. There's yoga, which I really should get back into, for nothing else that getting stretchy again. Don't think I'll ever be actually limber. Then there's things like taking a cooking class, but I highly suspect that it would be a sausage fest (pun intended); a class full of guys trying to meet women.

There's also the whole professional development issues. Work is dragging a bit on the whole educational professional development thing, but it looks like I should be able to get some cash out of them for taking some tech courses. And those are notoriously gender-biased (and all the really cool geek-girls are taken, in my experience).

So what to do? While there's more than a couple lovelies at the office, I swore I would never date a co-worker again. There's always the introduction of singles by mutual friends, but I would have to actually have friends to do that.

Maybe I need to get a social life of some sort....

Ah well, being single isn't all that bad.

Tracking

So I finally got a tracking number for my book order. Looks like it's ben sitting in a sorting station for the past two days. So unless Canada Post has some new fangled teleportation device, I won't be seeing anything until Tuesday. One to three day shipping indeed....

Finally got all the cleaning done. Was going to go for a nice long bike ride, but the thunder and lightning is sort of putting me off. No idea what to do, man am I bored.

I actually attempted to write. After staring at my new Word document for twenty minutes without writing more than two words, I gave up. Just not inspired. Maybe tonight, the right-side of my brain only fires up in the evening. Too used to having the left side have complete and total control during working hours.

Also ran out of all the snacks I got (healthy stuff) on the weekend, I should probably go get some more.

Slippage

Damn, went out and bough cigarettes last night. The old "just one" excuse.
They're in the bin now, but a part of me still wants to go dumpster diving and have "just one more".

So why do I keep paying for "Priority Delivery"? You know, supposedly delivered the next day. I ordered some books Monday and the tracking says they are still out East. Just some light reading, but still I have the week off and would like to get them before I go back to work next week.

I guess there is one born every minute, and they are still around 37 years later....

Day 2

One of the key things in quitting smoking is to keep busy.

By 3pm today I have:

Cleaned out my closet and storage room

Cleaned the Bathroom

Repotted all of my house plants

Cleaned the bathroom

Cleaned and detailed my car exterior and interior

I'm gonna run outta things to do around here by Thursday at this rate.

Anyone need any housework done? French Maid's uniform will not be worn. Unless you pay me enough.

At least I'm getting a contact high from all the solvents. Wheeeee!

PC Gaming is Shelved

Oh yeah forgot to mention yesterday.

Dropped by EB games yesterday. Remember a while back I lamented the shrinking shelf space that PC games have at such establishments?

Well, it gets worse.

There were no PC games (except the top 10 releases) on the wall shelves. They were relegated to the floor shelves, along with the strategy guides and lame gadgets and accessories.

So my question is, how do they establish a "Top 10" when they only have 10 games to sell? Easy or hard, depending on your POV.

Sad, my friends; now is the winter of our discount bin.

D Day

Uhgh.

This may not work. The damn nicotine gum won't stay lit.

Conspiracy Theory

I've never been a conspiracy theory nut, but the whole 9/11 thing always seemed to be too convienient.
There may be some justification for that....

Withheld to Protect the Author

Somebody, who shall remain nameless but is my little brother, asked me if I ever hold anything back from this blog: it's pretty boring.

Since the bastard is in Mexico, I'll answer that question. Yes, there's some stuff that happens in my life, thoughts, actions and rich internal life that simply doesn't make it here.

Some stuff is just plain boring (yes, even more so that the little nuggets o' wisdom that makes these virtual pages) and I don't think anyone would be truly interested.

An example: I started shopping at Co-op instead of Safeway because the quality of their products is much higher. Oh wait, did I talk about that here? That and the Co-op I go to has alot more cute women. Yes that's my prime motivating factor in any life-shaking decision.

Other stuff is just way too personal for public consumption. There's stuff that I can joke about, but there are some topics and situations where I'm not comfortable in broadcasting them to the general public (okay the three people who read this site anyway). Some things are just private.

No, no examples forthcoming.

I realize of course that the last verboten topical genre is probably ,the most interesting, the meat on this digital bone if you will.

Maybe someday.

In other news, I have been taking on the long and arduous task of burning all my CDs. It's been a surprising enterprise. On one hand, I'm finding disks that I swore that I had and cherished missing from the collection, some others I never knew I had ever acquired and even a couple I had thought lost forever.

Another pleasant surprise is how much I am enjoying this little device. There was a time where music was the center of my life and existence: when I was a DJ and concert promoter. There was music everywhere, and everything was music.

Somewhere along the line, I lost that. Not just when the business fell over (although that is certainly related) but I think at some point I decided music just isn't important.

What a fool I was.

Certainly now there is the danger that I will spend far too much trying to recapture that time and the associated feeling. Not there is nothing inherently wrong with the exercise itself, it's just that I tend to hyper-focus on these sorts of things. Examples are my $3000 worth of Lego, about half as much on original comic-book sketch art on eBay, and an unknown amount on games (not video games, honest to goodness miniature and paper RPGs).

So I will continue to burn what I have before I even consider purchasing any more. However I am compiling a list of must haves for later.

Project: Stop Smoking

Yes, yes, cryin' wolf and all that. But the plan for this week is to stop smoking. The morning cough is getting a bit worrisome, not to mention I need to save money to cover my rent hikes.....

I did manage to cut down to just over half-a-pack a day. So Monday, I'm going to go smoke free. For those who have not quit smoking (or never started) this is tough. There's actually three addictions to quit.

Nicotine

This is the bio-chemical addition, and is actually the easiest to take care of (although it has the most obvious effects). For that, I have nicotine gum, 4mg of niccy goodness per piece. Take as needed.

I still also have the patches from new-years, although that will be a last resort. I get nasty reactions to then, not to mention the aches and pains. Mind you, the dreams you have on these things rock!

Oral and Digital Fixation

No, not speaking too much and playing video games. It's the habit of something to put in your month and fiddle with. Okay, this subject is leaving me vulnerable to many, many single-entendres.

Regardless, it's still an issue. So for that, I have licorice root and will be buying many, many lolipops. Besides, with the new 'do, I can be all Kojak. Who loves ya, baby? Only problem with the licorice root is the slivers in the lips. On the bright side, it is a mild stimulant.

Time-Based Habit

One of the keys to breaking the habit is to deal with the 'regular times' you smoke. For me, that's when I'm stressed, after I have a meal, play video games and driving.

So with the week off, my stress factor will be greatly reduced (although the boredom thing escalates a tad). Meals actually are easy: constant eating. So I'm getting plenty of snacks. And steak. And beef jerky, peanuts, carrots, crystallized ginger. Oh, and beer.

Video games will be difficult. But as long as I have all the other stuff around I should be okay. Driving on the other hand will be tough. Not sure how I'll handle that.

So I am going smoke-free on Monday. Looking forward to it. Really. If I can stay clean through to Wednesday, I should be good.

No Beach For You!

Nope, all full.

Kinda amazin' really. I called a couple of travel agents and they said there's more poeple in the waiting list to go to Mexico for next week than there are going.

So, looks like a week of doing chores. Slowly. That, and the writing thing, should at least get one chapter drafted.

Maybe a day or two in Banff when the weather is good.

In short a slow, meandering 9 days of slack.

Slide.

Undue Care and Attention

Uhhhhhh. Wow.

So because I'm bored and it's far too hot to consider sleeping, I started to go back to the beginning of this blog and review my life so far.

Now the actual events portrayed here were no surprise, however my elocution of those events seems to have suffered with time. If this trend progresses, I might as well be publishing this on MySpace.

And of course one of the purposes of this endeavor was to hone my writing skills. Instead, it seems to have been blunted.

And the bitterness... oh, the bitterness.

I really do need a vacation.

And yeah, Project:Rocket Surgeon has been shelved. Once again, my apathy wins the day! Or would, if it could be bothered. That's not to say that it won't be revived in some shape or form, but don't bet on it. I'm assembling various theories on why I was so gung-ho: most of them revolving about being single and focusing my energies on "other matters". Or that I go to the gym on a very regular basis and have no energy. Or just disillusioned with gaming in general.

So since it seems I will be beachless next week, maybe I'll give that fiction thing a shot. No promises.

Need a Beach

Gah.

I think the office saves all the emergencies for when I'm on call. Have been called every day since I got the damn thing.

Still can't find any last minutes deals. Except the one where I spend 28 hours on a plane/in an airport. And costs over $3000.

Still I do so love the heat. Summer rocks. So maybe I'll spend the week on the bike path. Or drunk. Maybe both?

Although knowing my luck my appendix will explode at 5:01 PM on Friday. Then the on call phone will ring becuase someone got a hang-nail.

Rent and Blood Pressure

So I got a notification that my rent is going up andother $50 starting in september. Add that to the raise in rent of $30 3 months ago, and Im looking at $960 more a year on rent.

Of course they mention the increase in the cost of housing in our fair city. And everyone else is as well: groceries in particular.

Add to that the huge increase in gas prices and everything is going up in price. Along with my blood pressure.

And work, well, let's just say that they don't take anything like "cost of living" into consideration for their salary increases.

One of the reasons I'm going to Toronto in July is to check out the town and the work situation. Now I'll also look at rent.

Come September, I may have absolutely no reason to stick around. Which is too bad, I like this town, and of course the friendships I have here.

But no girlfriend, a losing salary proposition, higher cost of living etc. means I have a very tenuous link here.

Not to mention I can't stand the drivers and roads in this burg....

"One of Us"

Yep, I am officially a Pod Person now. 4GB worth on a nano.

So I'm in the process of ripping some of my fave-rave CDs. I'm actually quite surprised how compact they are on the Nano. I'm not nearly done but what I have ripped only takes up about a quarter of the little slab o' tunes.

So I'm still playing with it, still trying to find music I would actually purchase on iTunes, and generally trying to get my $300+ worth in the space of 48 hours.

In other news, I have a question. Fratricide is still illegal right?

Thursday after midnight, my little brother calls me from a "gentlemen's club". He wanted to get my cousin's (so his cousin as well) email address. She's a travel agent type person, and he needed to book a flight to Moscow, because one of his Russian clients apparently couldn't enter Canada due to him being in the Russian mob. Go figure. My brother sells lasers BTW. Fricken' Lasers.

Anyway, that was the start. He called back after I went to bed, saying he couldn't send anything from his Blackberry. Could I send the request? So I did.

Then he called again to get me to forward the email I sent our cousin back to him so he could have a record of it.

Now all the while, there's music blaring in the background, girls squealing at him (he's one of those guys who can actually date exotic dancers, bastard) to get off the phone, not to mention he was a bit drunk. Meanwhile I had to go to work the next day.

Bastard. Oh wait, it's mother's day, I shouldn't say that.

Oh, crap it's Mother's Day! Gotta go!

eybard

That's it, I'm buying a new keyboard tomorrow!

I spent a good chunk of my day at work doing documentation, and rarely had a misspelled word or typo.

I've been sending emails and posting on boards all night and can't type a single word without hitting the fraggin' delete key.

For the world at large, the ViewSonic Viewmate keyboard sucks. Even though it's a shallow keyboard, you have to lean on the keys to get them to register, nail the shift key down if you want upper-case, and the keys are set too close together (and I have narrow fingers).

Rant Over.

Sunny Sunday

Another day another bike ride. I love spring and all the, uh, blooms it brings on the bike path.

So I also went to the local geek fest today. I always find those shows a tad boring. Kinda neat, but really it's just a bunch of booths hocking geek toys. Which is good but I have enough.

Some of the artists on hand were pretty good, especially some of the stuff by the guy who does The Oblongs. Stuff was pretty expensive though..

Man I wish I could draw.

So on to the movie review! Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Didn't like it too much. The animation and models were, of course, fantastic. However the character models looked like the came from deep within the Uncanny Valley. Big anime-style eyes, spikey hair etc.

No real "plot" to speak of, just incredibly complex, over-the-type fight scenes. Alot of them. Most of the movie actually.

So when I thought about it, it's exactly like the FF games. Technically (as in game code) brilliant, rich, lush graphics but combat after combat after combat. To the point of annoyance.

But still, technically absorbing, but not something that will make it to the "comfort movie" list.

Bored again, maybe I should go get an iPod after all...

Eeeeeeeee!

I squeeled like a little girl when I saw the link to this new Spore video.
You don't wanna know what I did when I actually watched it.

Pod People

First thing. While driving downtown today, I saw a group of about a dozen people or so, all carrying signs and banners calling for the legalization of marijuana. They crossed against a light and almost got plastered by a bus.

Says it all really.

Secondly, I almost became a pod person. But once again I balked. The price tag for a 4gig nano is not exactly outrageous (a might steep perhaps) but it's not the cost that put me off exactly. When I listen to music, it's in tha car (stereo), at home (computer or piped in through the cable box) or at work (again, on the computer). The only time I need something portable is at the gym. So it's not really worth it.

What I will do is start buying music online. Alot of the stuff I listen to tends to be expensive on CD (Odd Electronica for a start. So a buck a song is reasonable.....

The third thing I'll save for tomorrow. I picked up Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children yesterday and watched it last night. I have mixed feelings on this film....

In the meantime, it's a gorgeous day. I've already been to the gym today, but I think a ride is in order anyway. Besides, I need to work up some appetite for BBQ-ing!

'Tis the season for charred flesh chunks! With sauce!

Rent Rant

Yeah, still bored.

So I thought I would illuminate an going battle for me: my rent. Or rather, the method of payment of my rent.

Now when I first moved into my current place, we had a different management company running it. Granted, the maintenance of the building was less than adequate, but they were pleasant people to deal with, and had no problem if I dropped of my rent cheque the last day of the month with the super.

About 2 years ago, the owner decided to go with a bigger management company. They've been better with the maintenance (outside of the apartments anyway). New carpet in the hallways, better locks on the doors etc.

But when they took over, they insisted on either giving them 6 months worth of post-dated checks or allow them to do automatic withdrawals from the bank. So I gave them the cheques (I've had issues with various organizations continuing to make withdrawals even though I had quit, left or otherwise stopped doing what I was doing).

This was in October.

December rolled around and lo-and-behold, they somehow managed to deposit both December and January cheques. Since this was near Christmas, it put a serious cramp on my travel and gift-buying budget. After I talked to them, they refused to refund the money (despite it was both their and the bank's error) but said they would carry it over until January. Not great, but not worth the hassle of trying to convince the bank that their error cost me money.

The 10th of January, I get a notice that, since I had not paid my rent, they were levying a $100 penalty and if I didn't pay my rent by the 15th (plus the penalty) they would boot me out.

Another round of phone-calls and trips to the head office with the deposited checks, bank statements etc.

And, because I am a moron, I gave them 6 months' worth of cheques in April. September, it happened again. This time, just before I was about to pay for my trip to Italy.

Since then, I have been dropping of my cheque, month by month, at their office. On the last day of the month.

A month ago, we got a new building manager. I haven't actually met her, but have been getting a steady stream of notices under the door. They were polite at first of course: for my convenience could I give them my bank info for direct deposit? Or howzabout 6 months of cheques?

And of course they have become progressively more stern, telling me the only "alternative" they can offer is for me to drop off my cheque at the head office. Which I have no problems doing. Except they want it by the fifteenth of the previous month.

Eventually I may actually met a real live human. Should be an interesting conversation, especially when I tell them about the paint falling (not peeling) off the walls in my bathroom, the leaking faucets, and the non-functional air-conditioning.

I've talked about these with the last three supers. Maybe it's their way of getting me on cheque-free payment.

Bored

Yep that about sums it up.

Bored, bored, bored, bored, smoked too many cigarrettes, bored, bored, bored.

Blech.

Need a beach.

Don't wanna go to bed. I should but I'd just toss and turn.

Nothing on TV. Why was I considering a digital cable box with a PVR (TiVo like thing) again?

Game. No then I will stay up too late.

Nothing to eat. At least that doesn't require pots and pans.

Lalalalala.

La.

Hmmm, have that Triops kit. But i need filtered water. Nope.

Too burned out to read. I already surfed and found nothing of interest.

Maybe I could kick-start my mid-life crisis? Never too early...

Nah, all sports cars drive stick and I don't know how.

The apartment is clean. Too late to vacuum.

This is a long and boring post. Obviously.

Well since I'm this bored, it means I will live in interesting times tomorrow. Chinese curse interesting.

Maybe I should get 40 winks to deal with it.

G'night all. And if you are reading this tomorrow, hope you rested well.

So Much for Karma

I know I said I would not use this forum to complain about work. I know, I know, I know. But gods what a day.

It actually began thirty minutes past midnight. I'm carrying the on-call phone this week and at 12:30 AM this morning it went off. Now understand that I've been doing this for 2 years and the ring-tone on the phone has been the same all this time. So when I hear it, it sets off a Pavlovian reaction of pure fear.

Wrong Number. Calling from California. Didn't get back to sleep until 3 AM.

Now we've had problems with an application at work that reports sales-staff commissions. Last week it busted because of a change in our payroll system that I wasn't notified about. I have a fix ready, but I needed to get a tape-restore done on the database to start from clean data. So they say my request for a restore was completed. I look at the data and nothing has changed. I look at the ticket system again and my request was closed on a completely unrelated issue. It took me the rest of the morning to convince people that it still hadn't been restored, and to get the ticket re-opened so I don't have 1000 phone reps calling me to find out when they can get their commissions.

And because of all this, I didn't have time to prepare the presentation I was to give to the directors and CIO on our new intranet site. After numerous laptop issues (MS Auto update and reboot, never could get it back and running again), the directors unanimously decided that the site provided too much information. So what it was pared down to I could put in a fortune cookie.

As for the quitting smoking thing, I think I would have burned through a whole pack at work but it's very cold, extremely windy and frankly between one thing and the next, I couldn't get 10 minutes to take a break. But I still have managed to smoke 11 of my allotted 13 cigarettes today. I may go over the limit tonight. Or the next hour.

Mmmm, vodka coolers......

Lag!

Eeesh, what a day. Not exactly stressful, not exactly busy, but a series of small tasks and "can you do me a favour" stuff. Add to that my internal clock was out by half an hour: it felt like 2:30, but it was actually 2:00. That sort of thing. So I left half an hour early.

Smoke count (by end of the day anyway) will be 19. So that's down six on day 1. Not much I know, but in 4 days at that rate, I will have quit smoking and strangled my first executive! Bonus!

Planetside is still fun. There's a statistic that shows your kill/death ration (how many enemies you killed, and how many times they killed you). I finally breached the 1/1 ratio!

Er, look, I'm not a homicidal maniac. Really.

Quitting sucks!

Buzz

So a couple very dull things.

Finally got onto the old velocicycle (bicycle in modern parlaiance) this week. It was a good week for biking. Instead of doing 20 minutes at the gym, I went for a 40 to 60 minutes spin down the bike path. Quite nice!

Second thing is, I got my hair buzzed to the skull today. Note I had it chopped, I did not do the duty myself. A hair-salon by my gym was donating $120 to the kid's cancer foundation (or something) so I figured what the heck, I wasn't using it anyways. It did my the mutton-chops went, but I got the impression they weren't doing much for me anyway except catching the errant insect. Still have the soul patch though, otherwise my face my freeze like that. Not sure why I did that exactly, maybe building karma up for yet another attempt at quitting smoking. Karma for something anyway. As I told The Lemming when he said he needed to give away a lucky penny, I need to get lucky. Now, I didn't quite mean it like that, but that single-entendre did have an element of truth in it.

Anyhoo.

I managed to book off the week of the long-weekend in May. Now if I can grab a cheap (meaning $750 or so) all-inclusive somewhere with a beach, I'll be tanning (okay, burning) drinking (okay, nursing hangovers) and romancing (okay, being laughed at) somewhere sunny, warm and conducive to bathing suits.

Note to self: bring extra sun-screen for my head.

The Tolling Bell

(sigh)

Well, looks like yet another component of my computer (my friend, my teacher, my student, my secret lover) is almost out-of-date.

I had heard pretty good reviews on the new Tomb Raider is pretty good, hearkening back to the first two or so installments. After that of course, it just got cheesy (and her boobs got more and more impossible). So I got the demo online.

Now, my video card, once a paragon of polygons, is now a minimum requirement. This is of course the death knell of anything digital. Minimum of course computer-ese for laughable.

So, despite my slick-daddy CPU (dual core baby!), gigs and gigs (or 2 gigs) of memory and more disk-space than I could conceivably need (unless I start to download music and movies), my poor graphics card is about to be relegated to the backup computer.

I'll shed a tear of course, rendered in 3-space.

Now, what's available under $200? Make that $300. $500?

Hackin' It

Despite my varied attempts (some successful, some not) at quitting smoking, currently I am at a pack a day now. I'm noticing that the "morning cough" is now at a tuberculosis level and there's a slight wheeze now. Add to that I'm sucking wind at the gym and on the bike (although I did make it up the hill without hitting the granny gear).

So I think I gotta quit again. For real and permanently this time.

I've tried the patch before, and it has worked. My attempt this January with it resulted in some nasty skin-conditions though. I'm going to try the gum this time around.

Here's the plan. This weekend, I buy a pack of the gum and use it to reduce intake: chew during my habitual times. These are: my "good morning" smoke, my after meal smoke, and my "my gods I'm going to kill someone at the office!" time. Etcetera.

By the end of the first week, I'm hoping to be at half a pack a day, the next week it's all gum baby.

I may be grumpy. Or homicidal. But not suicidal, because that's what I'm trying to avoid here.

The worst of my habit is actually playing computer games. I don't even realize I've lit up until I attempt to use both the keyboard and mouse at the same time and can't because of the coughin' nail wedged between my knuckles.

It will make some interesting blogging at least. Maybe a daily count here? The north-American, male, on-line version of Bridget Jones' Diary. Or something.

Speeling

Wow. Okay i am not liking my new keyboard one bit. Looking at my last post, my gods the typos!

I'm not a spell checker kinda guy. I pride myself on my spelling skills, probably stemming from the trauma of failed spelling tests in grade school. As someone noted yesterday I'm a Bible-style typist (seek and ye shall find) but i can do it rather quickly.

So I may have to hot-swap this out with a keyboard in a drawer somewhere at wok. I mean work. Dammit!

Man, I have lean on the damn shift-key on this thing!

So I was up at 5:30 this morning with a bad stomach so now I have no excuse not to bike into work today.

So fair warning, I'm coming into the office wearing tights!

Ah

So I have a step-niece. So there ya go.

Weekend was thankfully short: no over-exposure to the paternal unit, but was exciting as a turnip.

Other than that, I lead a really dull existance as usual. Those who swing by the Lemming's place already know that we ae bleeding people at work, and alot from upper management. Something big is in the works I think. I'll have to visit the Cancer Committee (those of us who smoke downstairs) and see what the scuttlebutt is.

Back on the regular gym schedule. Makes spring (and warmwather) twice as nice.

That is all. Yes H, I know that's not exciting, but that's life.

Oh Boy. Family.

So I got a call this weekend from my dad. He and the wife are coming to town for my step-neice's (or is it nephew's, I probably should find out) baptism. Which means that for a 1 hour ceremony, I have to entertain him for 72 hours.

I love my Dad, I really do, but one of the reasons I moved to another province....

Let's put it this way: he makes me look like a chatterbox. We'll have the usually "how's work, how's life" conversation for 5 minutes then the rest of the time he'll tell me he's worried about me. About everything. I actually told him I quit smoking (it was true at the time) and he'll find out I started again. So that's about 8 hours worth right there.

then there's the "why don't you come visit me? routine. I'll explain again that it's an 8 hour trip one way if I drive, or a $600+ plane ticket I fly. For Christmas, I'll fly but I willnever drive there in the winter again. Last time, it was the most harrowing experience of my life. He's retired, and very bored, which can be annoying enough, but add to that my memories of growing up largely entail how much he wanted to retire...

So yeah, I have issues with my father. But don't we all?

Don't all answer at once now....

Long Weekend!

Yay! 4 days off! And the first time in about 4 years where I don't have to go into work!

So it's a spring cleaning weekend, kind of. Air out this place man, whooo. 5 months of being cooped up there's a certain pong in the air.

Planetside continues to entertain and frustrate me. Turning into a love-hate relationship, but at least it's a relationship.

Picked up a new keyboard, nothing special. My old one, the "WASD" keys didn't work anymore. Go figure. Also picked up a new joystick. Much fun for blasting things.

Hmmm, maybe gaming is replacing having a love life. But it is cheaper and less confusing.

Laundry, be right back....

So it's not been an exciting week by any stretch, although I have been slacking gym wise. The view hasn't been good lately so my prime motivation is fading away. However after going today, I do need to get back to my regular schedule. I'm in pain.

So Easter proper, I'm going to my Mum's place for dinner. Her husband is away in Mexico for a school thing so my brother is already there. I'm delayed because of the house cleaning thing, which I am avoiding by writing this.

Okay I think the keys on my new keyboard are slightly smaller. Many, many typos...

I'm Baaaaack...

So I'm back from Redmond and the home of the Borg aka Microsoft.

Was a pretty good trip. Seattle is green! Forget how much you miss that when winter sets in.

The conference itself was pretty informative, but it also reinforced my opinion that MS needs to get out more. Now they have some incredibly smart people working there. But you can tell that they are pretty isolated when it comes to coding in a business context: coding products to sell is much different that coding for to support a business (ie they don't sell software).

Can't say much about what was said due to NDA, but overall I'd say they are listening, just hope their marketing department doesn't put the kybosh on some of the things that were suggested.

As for the trip itself, going there was hassle free but the way back.... Our flight from Seattle-Tacoma was delayed because the pilot reported problems with the suspension system on the flight into SeaTac. I did notice passengers grumbling about the hard landing as they got off the plane. An hour goes by, the techs show up, inspect the plane. I actually saw them shrug their shoulders and report nothing wrong. Our landing in Van was smooth as silk. I'm pretty damn sure the pilot botched the landing and then reported mechanical problems to cover up.

So it made us late for our connecting flight home. My two compatriots managed to get a flight right after but it was the last two seats. Now the reason I was last is because my luggage was the last bag to unload, so I had to wait for it. Now as I was hurrying up to catch up with them, I had to pause at an intersection to see which way they went. As I was looking around, some rent-a-cop stops me with a "Hey You!". The best way to describe this guy is podunk white-trash: the mustache and side-burns, the bad teeth, you could see the NASCAR baseball cap and ratty tshirt on the guy. So he comes over and gives me attitude, really being condescending: "Now what does that sign say? And now that other one". I really wanted to say something but slugging a security guard at an airport is a whole universe of trouble. Even thinking about it makes me see red.

Anyway, when I managed to get to the ticket counter, I got put on standby for a flight leaving a couple hours later. Thank the gods I managed to get on. So the whole journey from hotel to front door took 9 hours, when it should have taken 5...

So that was my past week, so not much more to report. Tuned up the bike today (pedal not motor). Start riding into work again, which saves me $16 a day in parking. I know I should walk but I got lazy. Okay lazier.

Regardless off the week "off" (I am dreading my inbox tomorrow) really looking forward to the long weekend.

Away and Gone

So speaking of computer games....

Er, just noticed my computer clock is an hour ahead. Daylight Savings Time has snuck up on me again. I'm a "Fall Back" kinda guy, "Spring Forward" just ain't my scene, man.

Coffee.

So for the past week I've been playing Planetside. Now they started an interesting thing "promotion" of sorts which I think is kinda brilliant.

Planteside is Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter (MMOFPS). So it's like Doom, Unreal Tournament etc. I've never been huge into the genre, but it's a great time waster, is all twitch (which I suck at) but what the hey, sometimes my brain just ain't up to managing a civilization over the scale of millennia.

So I did try the 7-day trial of the game years ago. I think I lasted a couple of hours. Like most MMOs, the more experience you get, the better equipment etc you have access to. So for someone just starting, you get owned (or rather pw0ned). When I first tried it, I usually went to a battle, found an enemy tank, or giant robot, or some guy in powered armour and got pounded. Not fun.

But someone at Sony Online actually came up with a great idea. Give the game away for free, but you can only go so high in experience. They call it the 'Reserves' but really its just cannon fodder.

Of course the idea is that some people will want to move beyond the cannon-fodder stage and sign-up. But I can see alot of kids (and adults) just playing for free. Which means there's alot more people playing.

So now there's actual battles. Some of the vets of the game don't like all these newbs running around and killing them. I think it's great.

In The Real World

So I'm going to the Microsoft campus in Redmond this week. The geeks at work were invited for a one week sit-down with the SQL Server development team: the guys who actually code the thing. There will of course be some 'marketecture' but I'm hoping to get some questions answered, see what the real dilly-o is with 2005 and plunder the MS store.

And that's about it for the week then. Have fun!