Redwolf's Journal (continued)

So the meeting was still a "special" one with a "normal annual meeting" set for January. We got to discuss the mess we're in and... well, get people to understand where we sit. I think that might be good. But it didn't really solve anything in and of itself. We proceed cautiously from here and try to keep track of things. And our current president is stepping down - I can't really blame him as he's probably received a lot of calls lately. New elections should happen in January. Tomorrow night, dinner with my parents for my father's birthday. Then the WoD game online. Wednesday night, gaming offline, probably Aeranos. Thursday, I might get to breathe. @.@ Friday is, I believe gabefinder 's company Christmas party/dinner, which I'll be going to.

And this evening, I have a 6:00 pm meeting with the other condo homeowners. I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to that or not. On one hand, I very much want the chance for everyone to see one another, talk, and voice concerns. On the other hand, the HOA as a whole is in a serious mess of finances and I can't imagine there will be much to be said that's good. I have a feeling I'll come out of it feeling just as helpless about the whole mess as before.

Champions Online did another free weekend over the "four day" weekend. I updated early and popped on a few times. And... it just didn't grab me. Last time, I just got a character to level 14. I'd finished the intro, done most of the desert (all that was available, anyway), some of the Canadian wilderness (which seemed to have a lot fewer quests) and has just really set foot in the main city. I played some solo, and some with friends. Progress was steady and even quick. Once I found out about builds, I set up a DPS build and was defeating small groups of enemies that much faster. This time, I didn't get to it while anyone I knew was on, so it was just solo. I found my DPS build generally getting crushed by the last one or two enemies in a pack, so had to switch back to a balanced build while survived, but was slower. I only saw a couple things I hadn't finished in Canada, so flew around the city, but the missions there started feeling dull. In the end, I ga

2:00 am and I can't sleep. My brain doesn't want to shut up, going in circles. It doesn't help, I'm sure, that I curled up and napped for about three hours in the afternoon to avoid such thoughts. Ugh. Raveena made an appearance on Faire today, and looks to be settling in to show up "regularly" again. That shouldn't bother me, but it does. I'm genuinely jealous of the way I see people going "hey, it's Raveena, she's so cool!" This is tangled up in my head with the in-character aspects of how Raveena is, in some ways, Mika's only real "rival" via her involvement with Arion. And I still haven't really let go of how she interceded with Ebony's children. But y'know, even when I'm jealous, I'm usually horribly aware of it. And I'm disgusted with it. So not only am I irrationally upset at someone else, but I'm upset with myself because there's really no grounds for it all. Friends of mine

So I managed to cram in a session of the Star Wars game Wednesday night. @.@ Started a little late, as expected, and got into combat toward the end with what might be considered a "boss" encounter. That led to things running a lot later than usual. I'm still a little uneasy about the Saga Edition combat mechanics. The fight was meant to be challenging, and it was, but it felt a little inconsistent. Several PCs took some lumps. One was looking at a potentially big (though could have been low, too) crit, but Deflected. The "boss" had some pretty high defenses, and was looking like he could really drag the fight out. Using his Second Wind helped to that end. But then one PC suddenly scored a crit and he went from around 75% health to dead in oneshot. I'm amazed, and maybe disturbed, at how quickly one solid hit can alter things. I'm not even sure why I have this reaction, as it's not uncommon, except at higher levels of hp-based systems where damage d

I think most of the "slow" part here was due primarily to trouble getting a full ten level 80 guildmates together Saturday night. A couple people no longer actively gaming. A couple people distracted by a birthday-gift Dragon Age: Origins. One player with serious computer OS issues. One player sick. Yeesh. When we did finally get a group together and clear certain heads of frustration, we tromped through Obsidian Sanctum again. We tried leaving Shadron up for the fight with Sartharion, but that didn't go so well. Two tanks and more than two things to tank make it interesting. I may need to research that further if only for my own curiosity. Then back into Ulduar. We dipped to the side to take down Razorscale without much problem. I worry sometimes when taunt-trading is necessary, but I found I could set Elly as my focus and easily track debuff stacks on her, which makes it immensely simpler. We continued to skip Ingis and pressed ahead to Kologarn . This one was a

So... I once again have a free parking spot at home. I had wanted to get the truck's speedometer fixed before passing it on, but the friend I was giving it to had a desire for expediency and was willing to take it as-is. This largely because he managed to roll one of their cars on an icy road recently. >.> He's kinda rough on cars. Still, it can do him more good than I at this point, and he's fond of the old diesel fuel efficiency even if he sounds like he may not go with his earlier plan to run it off used grease. Whatever the case, it was kind of sad to see it go. T'was my first vehicle and in the family since it was new. But no longer am I the driver of a 1983 Isuzu P'up diesel.

Okay, so now I've seen an ending for the game, anyway. It wasn't terrible, though it wasn't terribly satisfying either. Part of the latter is likely dependent on the specifics of how things played out during the endgame, and different choices could likely have changed the outcome. Whereas my last post was pretty general in nature, this one goes into specifics. This contains spoilers. Seriously. So some of your conversational choices matter. They just don't always matter in ways that are apparent, or predictable. That's probably the source of my biggest annoyance. There are a lot of places through the game where there is no "good for everyone" answer, and even if you try to be the neutral peacekeeper between opposing groups, you will almost always end up supporting one side or the other, whether you intend to or not. Setup: I played this first time through with a female human noble warrior. My active party almost always included Alistair, Leliana,

I haven't finished the game yet, but I think I've been through the bulk of it. There are things I want to say about it, though I suppose I'll tuck it all behind a cut. I'll try to avoid any specific spoilers, but there may still be some details that people playing it may not want to see yet. I think saying that I'm just entering the Alienage at the Landsmeet places my progress without actually spoiling anything. So, where to start? The gameplay is decent, with ups and downs. The NPC AI is pretty good most of the time, and the settable tactics are useful. It can be a hassle sometimes, though. Setting characters to 'use the lowest rank health poultice' when 'at 50% or less health' is often good. 25% is often a little late, and that helps keep people on their. Unfortuntely, I've been through a series of painful fights lately and my supply of poultices has dropped to nothing without my even noticing it. And while the AI is functional, I found

Cut for space and interest. My departure Saturday morning went of smoothly. I flew in to Denver without a hitch and made sure I was checked in for the next legs of my flight. As my three-hour layover dwindled, though, I started to wonder. The Denver-Charlotte flight was reassigned to a different gate. And it still wasn't there half an hour from the departure time. They can turn those things around fast, but not that fast. The plane got to the gate about half an hour later than it was scheduled to leave. Over the hard-to-understand PA system, they said it was having some mechanical issues and it would be at least half an hour again before it was ready to leave. When I only had an hour in Charlotte to begin with, I knew about this time I'd miss my connection there. They announced those of us missing flighting there would be rebooked on the next available ones, but you never know how that's going to turn out. The plane left almost two hours later than originally planned

Hopefully more to say later - some comments on the travel and some on the thoughts. For now, though, I'm home safe and sound, and getting settled in. With Veterens Day going on, I figure I'll wait until tomorrow to go by the county clerk registration office for the car.

So yesterday I made Mesquite, TX - on the eastern side of the Dallas area. I was pushing for Dallas. It was getting fairly dark, the traffic was getting somewhat hectic, so I ended up at a Comfort Inn that looked to have seen better days. The staff was nice enough, and there was a BBQ place within sight and walking distance, so it worked out well enough. No stable internet connection for my laptop, though (not sure if that was more their network, or my laptop - it has issues sometimes). And another looong day of driving today sees me in Albuquerque, NM. Technically, I could be home tonight, if I wanted to, but I'm not keen on night driving and I've been on the road for around ten hours already today. The four-hour drive home will wait until tomorrow and seem easy by comparison. So I'm ending my day's travel a little earlier than the last couple - partly due to early starting, and partly due to gaining another hour. That's fine. It gives me some time to relax and

So that's what a day of solo driving is like. So I had breakfast with my aunt and uncle at a local place, the Loggerhead Cafe I believe it was. Ginger French Toast, encrusted with slivered almonds? Tasty! We signed some papers, and I ended up leaving town around 10 am, after a trick to a grocery store. That's later than I would have chosen on my own, perhaps, but it was worth it to visit a little and all. Then... lots of driving. I took some breaks to stretch and have a little snacky lunch, but I wasn't real hungry for most of the day. I watched the sun go down, and got to try out solo night driving. @whee! I wasn't planning to keep driving past dark, but I wanted to make Pensacola. After a stop for dinner in Crestview, I finished out the remaining distance and I'm settled into a hotel room making this post. Heh. The storm coming up the gulf has made Category 1 Hurricane, as I understand, and is due to make landfall in this area Tuesday morning at last check.

Safely in Florida, after a delayed flight in Denver and getting bumped to the next flight from Charlotte, NC. But I'm here. It's humid. The car drives... sweet. White - I hadn't heard the color. And that's about it for now. It's been a long day. I'll probably sleep soon and head out tomorrow after sharing breakfast with kin. TTFN.

Ugh. Been very tired this week. I blame a combination of time change, deepening winter, and constant underlying tension home and upcoming travel issues. This week can't go fast enough. I think everything is about as prepared as it can be, save actual packing. So tonight is free. I'll likely do some laundry and preliminary packing. I'll probably peek on WoW, though multiple people have computer issues right now so the odds of running a dungeon are slim. I don't have much patience for people calling out "let's do a heroic" right before bouncing between arenas. If we actually had a full group, I'd go, but I don't want to hear the constant, near-rabid urging for it from people who are doing other things anyway. I'll probably hop onto Faire and "hang out" for a while. There are no real plots in progress, though, and I've had a lot of trouble finding scenes that appeal and/or getting them done so I don't expect much. I guess

So, I'm accumulating things to say on a few different games in progress... GW I'm reminded of why I generally feel Nightfall was the best of the three campaigns. It feels more fleshed out. The party limit juggling at the beginning is annoying, but it feels better upon reaching the mainland where that isn't an issue. Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Whee. Long names. I picked this up recently, though it was from fairly early in the PS3 cycle. It was recommended to me back before I had said console. And yeah, it's fun. It's a 3D platformer with lots of shooty action. It looks good - cartoony, but smooth. Play reminds me a little of Sly Cooper, which I greatly enjoyed, though with more weapons and gadgets. And I find the tone and sense of humor just about right for me. "In the unlikely event the Dimensionator creates a time-space singularity and tears the fabric of the Universe asunder, please log an "A" bug and notify a programmer

- A cool little Halloween-ish WoW machinima choose your own adventure video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuRyv8Z7VyQ - A couple weeks ago, I purchased a jump starter, basically an easy-to-carry backup car battery. Normally, I have to jump my truck several times over the course of the winter. And with no roommate's truck to jump from, it seemed wise. Well, even with the "new" car stuff going on, I've now used it once at least. It worked great. - SGU has covered dire shortages of air, power, and water. I guess the next episode deals with food? And in these first six episodes, one person has been near death on a foreign world rescued at the last minute twice. The series is looking dangerously formulaic from where I sit. - The original V was a surprisingly good miniseries(es?). I caught some episodes over the weekend, and it holds up far better than most things. Granted, it's very 80's, but the minimal special effects don't actually look bad and the t

So, Champions Online is doing a free trial weekend. It's a lot earlier than I would have expected it, I admit. Still, I suppose if the release date was early September, this puts them outside their initial 30-day rush, at least. I've seen some technical issues. It's a big download, but that's understandable. I was set back by not having done a step Saturday morning - no big deal. But for a stretch Saturday, there seemed to be authentication and server problems. I presume it was due to sheer volume, but whatever the case, there was a frustratingly long window of time (I should have timed I guess) when I couldn't get into the game. Clearly things are set up perfectly, but even established games have problems from time to time. The game let me choose a 'fantasy' control scheme that mapped most commands like WoW. That was nice and easy. Strangely, having autorun set to the number lock key didn't seem to work (I remapped it to R) and some of the tutorial

So... final details are being hammered out, but it seems a pretty sure thing now. I have plane reservations to head down to Florida on next Saturday, leaving early and getting in during the evening. I'll be picked up by an uncle/aunt, stay the night there (because I am not starting a major trip after half a day on airplanes), take possession of the Fusion, and head back Sunday. All by my lonesome. There to here is about 32 hours of driving. I'm not sure what my driving stamina is like these days, I don't recall doing a trip by myself longer than about eight hours round-trip. But I'll schedule the week off work and see how things go. Probably four days of driving, with motels along the way, but it could work out to be a little more or less depending on how I feel (and potentially weather). Heh. One more thing that seems out-of-order in my life. Solo guy roadtrips are supposed to be for recent high school graduates or college students, or something. Ah well. I have