Redwolf's Journal (continued)

Have a "staff meeting" scheduled tomorrow, which includes me, so expecting to get some manner of managerial vision then. So far, I'm still getting only little bits and pieces and trying to make the best sense I can with them. As expected, our other-site tech is coming here. So the IT department will be Scott and Scott. Heh. No more regular night shifts, for better or worse. We'll need to work out who's on-call when, but before that really happens, we'll have to bring each other up to speed on things before we can really share duties. So I imagine I'll be called more than he will for a while...

What do you even say when someone you've worked closely alongside for nearly 20 years is being laid off? Most of what comes to mind feels lacking, and my mind has been a whirl of thoughts since I was told. David started as a classified entry clerk a couple months before I started in the mail room. In the production department, he taught me classified pagination. When I was offered the chance to join him in our little IT department, I readily accepted, and have been working with him since. I've learned a lot from him and a lot with him. I consider him a friend even though we've never really done anything together outside of work. I won't pitch him as perfect. There are some problems I grasp more readily than he does. I don't think he's bothered to install some of our major software packages for years, and may not remember the details of how. At times, he can procrastinate the hell out of things - to the point where I may delay some tasks for a week until I kn

Yeah, I didn't sleep well last night, but at some point, I did dream... I was in class. It was a college, with familiar elements, though I'm not sure I'd seen them before, even though the class was more high school-sized. The teacher was reading to us a short story. It was a sci-fi tale, written dense with double-meanings of a planetary colony and space travel. Then she asked if anyone understood what it meant, and I offered up a thorough examination of the deeper meanings within it. Seriously, I nailed that and the teacher was even notably proud of the assessment. Then she passed out a quiz to everyone and said anyone who aced it wouldn't even have to come to class for a week. Then she went ahead and made it two. This prize in mind, I looked to the quiz and found the first essay question was one that essentially asked what I had just answered. Score! And then I came to see how many of the other questions were straight-up detail-oriented. And while I understood the de

Just found out, somewhat less than officially, that my direct boss/partner/co-tech is being laid off. I don't even... Ugh...

Having finished the game once and started a second time, my early impressions stand pretty much unchanged. It's a good game. I find the tactical side fun, with each mission a puzzle to sink my teeth into. I find the strategic side more of a struggle to not screw up in some way, but it's reasonably engaging. There are some performance issues at this stage and I hit one save-corrupting bug (that I believe has been fixed now). I find the story arc of the game more interesting than the first one, as it lends to more of a pro-active feeling. Of course, it ends with hints of a "bigger" threat, which seems pretty standard. The timers on some missions are a little tight for my comfort - if I had about 2 more turns on those, I think I'd feel like I could advance quickly without totally throwing caution to the wind. And the game seriously changes after you've played it once. The first time you encounter any alien type or event, it's a surprise and potentially o

I came across Gravity Falls while looking for Star Wars: Rebels on Disney XD. It's one of those animated show that may not be immediately striking in one viewing. The animation is pretty standard, relying a bit more on style than detail. Some of the voices were familiar, though, and the teasing of a mystery were enough that I made some effort to watch more. From there, I was fairly impressed. Certainly some episodes come across as "monster/mystery of the week" for the 12-year-old siblings visiting their great-uncle (or "grunkle") in a rural town with weirdness just under the surface. There's a lot of attention to detail, however, and continuity that I appreciate in the storytelling. The show did build up some level of mystery and actually answered most, if not all, the questions is posed. I like that infinitely better than the shows that just keep throwing out more questions for the sake of stringing an audience along. This week, it ended. That's

I am so tired of being pissed off at people at work. Tired of the last-minute hires, decision changes, and general bullshit. Tired of coming in to work to have absolutely none of the IT requests of the day addressed without me and feeling like I'm the only one doing anything. Tired of thoughtlessness. Tired of not being listened to. Ugh. I spent most of the day simmering over what seems like it should be a minor detail and all the spiraling concerns it caused, but now the anger is passed and I'm just tired. And while I was hoping I wouldn't end up here, I feel as if there is a weight upon my chest. And I think... it's time to renew the prescription and start back up on the antidepressant. It was worth trying to see if I might get by without, but I recognize this feeling. It's already worse than the relatively-mild side effects... *sigh*

Good, not-so-clean fun. I think the mix of action and irreverent fourth-wall-breaking humor make it my favorite non-Marvel Marvel movie. I like to think it will prove that you can have a good and successful R-rated superhero movie to doubters and it will make Ryan Reynolds feel better about his career after Green Lantern. ;) I was never a big fan of the character (though probably have his first appearance still), but the movie works pretty well. I wonder if it would have been better or worse for the $7 million I believe I read they cut at the last minute in production. I'm a little unclear on whether that carrier in a scrap yard is meant to be a "normal" carrier or a helicarrier. I suspect that's somewhat deliberately ambiguous since this is a Fox movie and not-MCU, though one could easily picture such a wreck being dismantled after Winter Soldier or somesuch. If you don't mind (or enjoy) violence and crass humor, it's worth a watch.

Slept poorly, tossed and turned in bed. Finally got up, sorta craving pancakes. Noticed dishwasher full, started it. Noticed spatula suited to flipping pancakes was in the dishwasher, figured could manage without. Went to turn on the main burner on the stove and the knob makes an unusual noise and doesn't come on... so, yep, that's broken. Facepalmed and gave up on pancakes...

I definitely have some mixed feelings about XCOM 2 (and similar games in general). Technically, it's good. C'mon, it's a major title, there's not much doubt about that these days. But, it's all about the details. In general, I like the tactical game. The RNG element is the stuff stories are made of - awesome, terrible, or just wild. That alone can be incredibly uplifting or frustrating in itself. But, I can accept it, as it's at the core of the game. The things that bug me are 1) an element I'll come back to in a minute as it affects the entire game and 2) it's really easy to mis-click and completely blow an action, turn, or even a mission. I also wish the timed missions has maybe one or two more turns, which would make a huge difference in some of the examples I've seen so far. But the system works well and is engaging. To my mind, I find it fun to plot out and execute moves. I particularly like being able to start out missions in concealment mos

So, when last we left off we had a pretty good tactical game that involved going SINless and saving a chunk of Hong Kong from supernatural badness. And... I was waiting for this mini-campaign that was promised as a stretch goal of the Kickstarter campaign. It took longer than I was hoping to get here, but it's here. It is a mini- campaign, but it's nice to go back to a runner team and continue on some. I think I counted three primary story missions and two side missions. With the way it was paced, I sort of expected more side missions to be available, but didn't see them. So I can't give high marks for length of engagement. What it does well, though, is make the player feel like they're commanding an experienced team of shadowrunners. While money was tight in the main campaign - basically enough to get top-tier gear for a single specialization and second-tier for another - things open up a bit here. I was able to upgrade my decker's assault rifle and inves

AC: Rogue has been on my radar since is released - even though in the wider world, AC: Unity seemed to overshadow it, being released at about the same time. Rogue is... almost an expansion for AC IV: Black Flag. It works okay as a stand-alone game, but the same technology, appearance, and all is there. Free-running is functional, but not as good as the more recent Syndicate. Naval combat is still pretty good - not as revolutionary as Black Flag's, but just as good. It feels a little on the short side and there are a lot of collection activities I missed - perhaps because it was a complete/bundle edition that was purchased for me, and the bonuses that came with that meant I had to scrounge less in-game for upgrades. Story-wise, it's interesting because it focuses on a Templar rather than an Assassin (after the first part, anyway). The only major mechanical change that brings is having the occasional Assassin's leaping out of the bushes at you. ;) It drives home that the tw

So with renewed interest from our once-frequent GM who moved away, we've started up a game on Roll20. He had airships (a bit more magicpunk or aetherpunk than steampunk) in mind, and after some discussion, we settled on using the D&D 5E rules. Last night we really had our first interaction between characters as they, as a group, inherit a ship. Now, I'm seeing that running a game with voice (and some video) chat has ups and downs as much as any other format. Voice is kind of nice, as you get inflection you don't in text. But there are still some awkward moments. Pauses in text often mean typing. Pauses in voice... well... It gets to feeling very awkward when the GM describes a scene and then trails off, allowing players to do something. But if no one speaks up... uhh... yeah. Playing in person, there's body language at work, so it's clearer when a player is not paying attention versus when a character is indifferent/has nothing to contribute. The particular

I've sort of wanted to play this sequel since playing the previous game. The early release (on XBox One, I think it was?) was a little agonizing as I had to wait a few months for the PC release. Thankfully not a full year, anyway. All around, it's good. It's got most of the good points of the previous one and builds a little bit in some areas. For one, there's more tombs to raid. ;) While the "first" game had Lara becoming a survivor, this one works at establishing her as an explorer (perhaps a little too) obsessed with the supernatural. Having seen things clearly beyond the norm, she chases after her father's object of obsession, a "Divine Source" said to grant immortality. Her main motivation seems to be to validate her father's work, to prove he wasn't crazy. It's only mildly spoilerish to say by the end she realizes she doesn't need to prove that publicly to come to terms with her past with him. This game also sets up some

... another closely-monitored mood. My birthday yesterday felt pretty much "normal" for such, and looking back at journal entries for the last several years, that seems about right: - Start the day (after midnight) with some unpleasantness, be it drama between friends online or money woes of a friend or friend-of-friend (the latter in this case) - Go to bed in a slightly below-average mood - Wake up and get a few remote well-wishes for the day via email, but don't receive any such directly - Go to work, if applicable - Try to do something ever so slightly special, but by no means fancy for dinner/dessert - Have a friend or two take some interest in the evening in trying to wish me a happy birthday, which is the only thing that actually saves the day from being totally below average - Lament that this overall left the day feeling like... pretty much any other day Oh, I can't say it's not my own fault for maintaining a small circle of friends, several of