Redwolf's Journal (continued)

A week off is just about enough time to get into the routine of not working, but apparently not enough time for me to get much productive done at home, at least in this case. One thing I really told myself I "should" do, but didn't, was spend time sitting down and working on RPG compain setting/mechanics. That remains on hold. Still, it was nice to be able to sleep without worrying about an alarm. I was able to finally get the right control board to repair my dishwasher, too. That's a plus. And the time did let me do some things in games, like see victory against Tequatl a couple times and play some GTA V. I managed to get out for a couple hikes, too, though the weather is cooling off and that just isn't as appealing as it was a month or two ago. It also offered plenty of time for introspection, which... often isn't a particularly good thing. I mean, it's great to be able to see issues in one's own life. But not being able to find, or enact, soluti

So, I've had some more experience with the encounter and feel like... well... ranting. What can I say? Tashiro seems to keep trying to make the argument to me that design flaws are forgivable as long as people aren't forced to do certain content. I just don't/can't buy that. Just because you don't have to do something doesn't make it good. There's very little forced content in MMORPGs anyway. Honestly, I'm surprised that the community seems to be as positive about the Tequatl encounter as it is. That said, it isn't all bad. The Good By and large, I like the changes made by the patch, including to the other world boss encounters. The Svanir Shaman at the end of Frozen Maw might be a little tough for a low-level zone, but I like that he isn't dying in seconds anymore. In Tequatl's case, I love the increased complexity. It's gone from a simple tank-and-spank without tanking to a multi-phase encounter with lots of movement, turret empl

Well... The plan was to have my parents over Thursday night so I could drop them off at the airport to begin the two-week guided tour-trip in Italy. Then Friday night would be a game night. This plan sorta stopped being viable after dinner, when my dad checked email to find their flight to Denver was cancelled. A phone call to the airline eventually got to a person who wasn't finding any workable alternatives. The desperate idea, then, was to drive to Denver in time to catch the connecting flight, but that would leave their car there when they returned. So... I offered to go up with them and come back solo. A little crazy, and very last minute. Canceled game for me, a day off work, and some poor sleep while doing a 7.5-hour overnight drive later, and I've just seen them off at the shuttle to the terminals. Now... To nap a bit and see if I feel good enough to head back today...

So, Blizzard has announced they're going to pull the auction houses from Diablo 3 . Heh. The cynic in me would point out that their cut from the real money version has probably tapered off, so it's not much of a loss. Whatever the case, I'm with most commenters that I've read: it's just too late. Mind you, the overall experience of the game just wasn't enough for me to begin with, but the auction house(s) really did change the game from going out and finding cool gear drops to buying those drops, whether by gold or cash. I... don't really think the expansion is likely to bring me back in either. Most likely, I'll watch some cut scenes. I've not logged into WoW in quite a while now. I miss it. I don't miss it. I don't know what to say, really. I miss the community experience - that hasn't really been replaced. I watched the end cinematic for the Siege and I'm not particularly excited by it. They handled the Horde/Alliance perspectiv

This repeatedly-postponed upgrade at work is stressing me out by looming constantly. I mean, I've reached a point where it's something of a joke, and I'm not quite as tense about it as I have been at times, but it just hasn't gone away and I'm sick of waiting until the last minute to find out if I get a weekend. It already fouled up half of this last Saturday for me without going through. I was hoping yesterday might be a bit restful at work, but then things got busy instead. Work's definitely been occupying more of my headspace these days. And with parents over Thursday night to be taken to the airport Friday morning, and the a probably RP night Friday night, I feel like I'm juggling with no time to myself. I'm sure it doesn't help that next week would have been time off if our almost-vacation to Binghamton hadn't fallen through. I feel like I need some time off, but I'm not getting any - at least until this blasted upgrade is not looming w

I often say weekends don't feel long enough, but... ugh... I spent the first half of Saturday trying to get some basic errands done and waiting to hear if an upgrade at work was happening only to have that postpone for the second week in a row. Sunday, I felt like I was constantly scrambling between trying to be online, a lengthy dinner prep, trying to do some house cleaning, and getting called repeatedly by someone having issues at work. Oh, and the dishwasher still isn't working right, after my attempts to procure a new control board apparently acquired the wrong model, which I didn't figure out until taking the thing apart, of course. Feels like utter fail. I did, at least manage to get a little "extra" (ie. in excess of six hours) sleep last night. Dreamed of going on a roadtrip vacation with my dad and a few other people. Our first stop was Burning Man for a day. Heh. I'm sure this has nothing to do with my having looked forward to a potential vacat

I just don't get it. Last week, our software vendor fouled up a weekend upgrade by changing settings on a Windows Server 2012 machine midday Friday. By Friday night, the issues were resolved, but it was too late to go ahead. So Monday, they return to working on the credit card component they were dealing with before. Tuesday, I hear, "There was progress. We had success with a declined fake card ... it went through just fine. We're still working on further testing." Sounds positive. So we're on for this weekend. Then, this afternoon, we hear about a remote communication issue with the server. It takes an hour or two to get it worked out, and it looks like it was caused by a change in port settings that had to have happened when things were adjusted last Friday. So why this didn't come up until today is beyond me. And with that fixed, we're told (at 5 pm) they're still having problems with one part of the processing. This just boggles my mind. And

My dad and stepmom are about to be taking a trip to Italy - little impact on me other than them staying over the night and me taking them to the airport, then picking them up when they return. But they're also sort of planning a trip to Ireland next May/June, and have asked if I'd be interested in going. A chance to go see the old family homestead, and other sights. Preparation and the trip would be rolled in as sort of a delayed Christmas/birthday gift, making it more or less "free" to me. It's hard to say no to that. I do have some hesitancy, but it seems like a possible trip...

Caught a link to a short article here that links to a more detailed discussion in which some established fantasy authors talk about income earned by writing. It's another "behind the curtain" sort of thing that I like to see.

I've known a couple people playing it for a while, but finally picked up the quirky cell-shaded shooter a little while a couple weeks back, and played through it with one friend. What to say? Reasonably good, overall. I'm not an fan of cell-shading in general, but the style isn't overly offensive in this case. It's odd to be playing a game where there isn't falling damage. On the down side, we saw some latency issues in the connection either way - not always, but on and off. It also commits a cardinal game sin in my book - respawns in cleared areas. But most of the time, it all works well. I tend to stand off at range and shoot, which almost feels like it's missing the point sometimes, but I didn't feel it was a problem. The story is fair. Quirky humor is a definite high point. Handsome Jack is certainly fun to hate, though I feel a little odd calling him a "villain" when he's just so distant - a voice over the comm channels - until the ver

Work's been increasingly crazy this week, and not just for having Monday off. We're moving/upgrading a major database this weekend - well, one of our software vendors is doing that part, we're just trying to make sure everything is working for it and after it. This means I'll definitely be in this weekend some amount, though I don't expect a lot. And I'll be in Monday morning to help smooth over whatever problems arise, even though I'm technically on night shifts next week. More schedule disruption. Whee. There are so many little tiny things to keep in mind, shortcuts to redirect, files to edit with new paths, and... probably stuff I haven't even figured out yet. It doesn't help, in my book, that we're moving to a Windows Server 2012 server, and that OS is based on Windows 8 as far as interface. Again, Win 8 isn't bad per se, but the interface itself is worse than Win 7 unless you have a touch screen. And when you also layer on people conne

Bah. Been scrambling today at work, but I have a few minutes, and still remember a dream from this morning, so... Scifi-military. I was part of some team that was dug in, outnumbered and outgunned, with wounded, but trying to hold out for extraction. Repeatedly, the enemy forces had stage an assault and set a smaller team in an attempt to flank us. As it was getting dark, I prepared for the latest round of this tactic, getting out my pistol and taking a solo position to watch for the flankers. I had been injured at some point - nothing too serious, but enough that I was limping notably. Sure enough, a group of five came skulking around, and I popped three of them in quick succession... ... which led to a vaguely LARP-like debate with the "deceased" over whether I could have possibly made those shots in poor lighting with (as I smugly explained) my handgun. I proved my point, though, and the two "survivors" retreated while the other three went off wherever the de

... that's what a good lazy day can feel like. I'd pretty much forgotten. I've somehow gotten into a mindset that says going through a day without doing anything but blowing some time in a game is dissatisfying and wasteful. But yesterday I managed to sleep in a little and nap for a few hours, and it felt glorious. The weekend still felt too short, though, and traffic this morning reminds me that school is back in session. What else? My dad insisted on lending me the Wool Omnibus via Kindle, and I finished that up quickly enough after starting. The writing all the way through didn't strike me quite as much as the initial outing, though I wonder if that was because I was more drawn into the story. It is an interesting tale, still reminding me of the Fallout vaults. The story serves to highlight how even the most ruthless and evil of people (from an outside perspective) are often so because they believe it is good and/or necessary, and leaves question of whether doi