Redwolf's Journal (continued)

Okay, let's just start this by saying I felt Tomb Raider was a good, solid game. Not perfect, but good and better than expected. I think I might have played an earlier game. TR2 maybe? Not sure. Platform-and-shoot games weren't really my thing at the time, and while I was aware of them, they just never seemed something I'd be interested in. When I heard of a prequel/reboot, I didn't look real closely. When people screamed "OMG! Brutality toward women!" about some released footage, I... well, sorta rubbed my head and went on with life. But... I saw enough to be interested. Comparisons have been made to Uncharted, and that's probably fair. The action-platforming-QTE mix is similar, the main character goes through all sorts of hell, things are discovered... all that jazz. It also reminds me of the Metal Gear Solid games in that there's a story that I want to follow (though MGS gets a little crazy at times) and there's gameplay that I enjoy and wa

Work's been distracting from non-work. We've had some shadowing from a board member who's in college - good guy, though it's a minorly awkward interruption to the normal. We've had some abrupt turnover and switching of duties. And this week, my co-tech is out skiing. So, some odd hours and lots on my plate this week. Back on the weekend... well... WoW was disappointing to me, though we primarily had success stomping through Icecrown Citadel for old achievements. With waning interest and shifting schedules, it seems like a "good" night caps us at 7-8 people, which isn't enough to do MoP raids even if everyone were up to it. Could this be the end of TKP raiding? I don't know, we've bounced back miraculously from low points before. Overall, I'm just trying not to stress about it either way, but I find myself not very motivated to hang around for most of the evening without doing anything that feels like "progress" to me. In GW2

Well, on the up side, it looks like my job isn't in immediate danger or anything. Our manager asked us into his office this afternoon and explained he'd lobbied successfully with the general manager and HR to have myself and my co-tech made "professional salaried" employees, rather than paid hourly as we had been. There are some ups and downs with that. We gain more "official" fluidity over specific hours worked - the bottom line is the job needs to be done, whether that's light on hours of heavy. There's probably a raise involved (though how much, given the other financial concerns, remains to be seen). It's more professional and looks better on a resume, though I'm not exactly planning to make use of that anytime soon. On the down side, we sorta lose "bitching rights" to long hours and we probably become exempt to overtime rules. Whether it's a net gain or loss really depends on details that haven't been fully worked o

A whole week off work, and I really didn't do that much with it. Oh, okay, I did do some picking up in my room (which ended up involving a shredder when I look at the pile of financial stuff I didn't need anymore) and I did clean the bathroom. That's good, but really it was mostly me being at home. Well, it's still good. I also checked my work email from time to time. Thursday, there was a meeting announcing some changes, all stemming from the fact that the company isn't really making money right now. Our "sister" publication in Cortez is going from three issues a week to two. The advertising layout responsibility is coming over here for all the papers. It sounds like a few people over there are being laid off and two unspecified people here are, plus a handful of open positions won't be filled. All a little dizzying and frightening, though none of it gave me reason to think my job was in jeopardy. No, the part that bothered me was - and, mind you,

Not really much to report, even with having had a week off work. WoW is up and running version 5.2. The new dailies aren't bad, but the area is a bit dense and daily quests do get repetitive after a while. Guild turnout has been below raidable levels on Saturdays, so there's no real signs of progress there. The Isle of Giants doesn't much interest me at this point. Aside from the world boss(es), it seems designed for hunters and obsessive pet/mount collectors. I capped Kirin Tor Offensive reputation to no particular fanfare. The Black Prince quests will take a while, having to plug away through LFR. And the first LFR wing of Throne of Thunder opened. There's some difficulty there, and more trash than I might like, but gear level required helps limit the player base (at this point) to those with at least previous LFR experience, so I saw success even on this first week. On the other hand, I ran a couple 5.0 LFR instances that were as bad as I've seen in a long tim

Well, I think last night was officially my worst sleep in a long time. I spent what felt like a very large portion of the night tossing and turning to zombie apocalypse dreams. I remember seeing my clock in the 2-3 am range, but it felt like this stretched beyond that on both sides. And it wasn't even the "oh, the horde of zombies is coming" sort of thing. No, this was the tense, anxious, weary "I've met other survivors, but don't know if I can trust them or should shoot them" and "if we go to sleep in this abandoned building, will we wake up to zombies busting in the doors" type of deeply disturbing survival where nothing is safe or taken for granted. And I don't have any idea where this came from. I haven't even been watching the Walking Dead in months At some point, I did manage to slip into a more restful sleep, dreaming instead about being some sort of co-host on Restaurant Impossible. Heh. At least that's something I'v

Well, let's see... Wednesday already of a week taken off from work and I haven't accomplished much. But then, I didn't have any major goals or plans. Going anywhere is too expensive and/or serves no purpose. Mostly, I just needed to spend some vacation time because I have been at the cap and losing some over the last couple months. It'll probably be another week, maybe week-and-a-half before I get my new computer, so I'm watching me old one closely and keeping the case open to keep it cooled. The PSU fan is not working well, and that cuts down on ventilation, which gets to be a bit of problem in some circumstances. I'm not sure what to say about Saturday's WoW in general. It takes an alignment of stars these days to even get 10 people on and even with the slight nerf to 5.0 raids, 8 (one of which is a healer) isn't gonna be enough. I'm not even sure that's a solid group for Ulduar. This past weekend, we did manage to join in on an assault on

These posts seem more and more for my own benefit these days, but at least they're useful for that. Time to catch up on book commentary, though these aren't really fresh in my mind at the moment. Magnificent Devices This is the third (after Lady of Devices and Her Own Devices ) in what I thought was going to be a trilogy, but just seems to go on and on. Honestly, it doesn't feel like the story is long so much as the installments feel short. This time, the action moves to the Americas, there are airships, there are pirates, there are trains, and a few death-defying escapes. Overall, though, I just don't know. There wasn't any real closure, with one thing rolling right into the next and cutting off sort of in the middle. The books are relatively inexpensive, but there isn't much payoff either. I feel sort of invested in the story, but I also feel like continuing to follow the series isn't really getting anywhere. The characters are just interesting e

Feh. So much distraction lately, and not in any good/planned way. I've one friend in a very difficult time. The financial crunch is bad enough, but I'm more worried about the relationship side of things, as I feel like I may be watching a marriage disintegrate. Part of me boggles over the suggestions being tossed around, involving trying to get their footing again several states apart, and part of me says this was, perhaps, inevitable. Through it all, I only have a partial picture of everything, but what I see makes me... frustrated, shall we say. And I'm torn between offering what help I can or... well... not. I do have a room and better financial grounding than most friends I know. But... I cannot see offering housing could work out well . Worst case, it's financially ruinous to me (I do okay, but supporting someone would require serious belt-tightening), I get fed up between the responsibility and loss of privacy, and we're both in worse shape. Best case, I fi

This is why, as much as I like Star Wars, I'm reluctant to really let myself enjoy it as much as I could. I've been watching the current Clone Wars series enough to keep up with it. I find the portayal of Anakin far and away better than the movies. I like Ahsoka, even if her mere presence makes the series mesh poorly with the movie continuity. Of course, sometimes there are episodes that just make me wince and ask "who actually authorized this idea?" Sadly, the answer has usually been "George Lucas himself." Today's episode reveals the figure behind a Jedi Temple bombing who framed Ahsoka to be her friend Padawan Bariss Offee. So Bariss confesses. Based on what Ahsoka was put through, it makes sense for her to be expelled from the Jedi Order, tried by the Republic, and quite likely executed. Which would be fine and well, except a comic has already depicted her death in Order 66, and novels had detailed her trials and ascension to knighthood as a Jedi