Redwolf's Journal (continued)

I have to preface this by saying a couple things: 1) The timing is absolutely uncanny. I knew (and even said to myself) as soon as I committed a large chunk of money to buying a new computer, something would happen to make me wish I hadn't taken that leap. 2) I feel I have to vent. But... I'm reluctant to post this because it largely involves probably the person most likely to read in on LJ. Rawrgle. But... I have to vent... So, yeah, last night I got updated on the situation with a friend that has gone unmentioned for a month or more. Now, I didn't think no mention meant everything was worked out and fine, but... still... He's in an unpleasant situation, having been out of work for a few years now, with wife and child, and having a roommate that made current accomodations feasible moving out. Any possible work has to permit time for taking care of a kid and has to make enough to offset the loss of current government assistance funds. To maintain his current re...

So, two things of remark happened last night: One, I ordered a new desktop computer. It felt about time, and I'd been shopping around a bit. A little more pricy than ideal, but tolerable, and it may be a few weeks before delivery. Two, my current desktop overheated and shut down playing Guild Wars 2 again. It seems this is just intensive enough to do that. This time, though, when I restarted, I opened up the case and had a look. The power supply fan was not moving, and even after some tinkering to get it going, it doesn't seem up to proper speed. So there's the likely physical reason. Connection? Yeah, just a bit. So now I need to see if I can keep this one running cool enough to be stable while I wait for a replacement.

... that the bill I get from allergy tests conducted a while back comes in an envelope stamped "Urgent" along with a payment agreement form layout out monthly payment options? I'm going to write a check now, out of my HSA no less, but the thought that an allergist's office deals with people unable to pay so often that this is standard procedure is something I find troubling. Not... really surprising, but troubling.

WoW on Saturday went even more "nowhere" than usual, it felt like. We had... what? Six people show up? Something like that, and not much motivation between us. I'm tempted "officially" take next weekend off and not worry about it, though I'm not sure I have anything better to do with Saturday evening. It looks like 5.2 should probably be out on the 5th, barring catastrophe. I know that will give me more things to work on and reason to be more active - new valor gear, new LFR (well, starting a week later), new rep and zone, new Wrathion quests. But I don't know if others will be energized by it or not, so I can't say if it'll get more people showing up to "raid." Sunday night in GW2 we were reasonable productive in pursuing yon guild leader's personal story, getting through a few missions. It just took a long time to get to it between waiting on people to get ready and then running across zones to get to where we needed to be -...

So, I've been pondering a new computer, and this has led me to think some about the old ones I've had over the years... My first... well, my first computer was a Commodore 64. Not much to say there, other than it was one of the best Christmas presents ever. Mostly, I used it for games, but still. Around the time I went off to college, I was given a laptop (Winbook, I think). It was pretty spiffy for its time, though the LCD screen was not color and showed heavy ghosting in games like Wing Commander Academy. It was good for MUCKing and typing as well. Then I picked up a Dell desktop. It worked fine, so far as I recall, for games and work. After that, I wanted a gaming computer. I heard lots of spiffy things about water cooling. So, I built one. This taught me a lot. Building a computer is an awesome experience, but not without its possible pitfalls. I reused a number of things out of the Dell. And one of the biggest lessons I took away from this: water cooling really is...

Well, Saturday was sort of a lackluster "raid night" in WoW . Some people not present, one person not healthy, and a roster that's usually tight. And with where I'm at personally, I wasn't particularly eager to push for VP-generating activities. We did group up and take down a quest boss for one person. That was nice because we could do it as a group of between 5 and 10 people, though one player had issues with no seeing the "stop yourself from bleeding to death" extra action button. The guild's still in an uncomfortable place. We've never quite hit our stride with raiding in MoP, as attrition has outpaced recruitment. Our guild leader stresses out about this entirely too much, in my opinion. While forward progress is great and all, those who are motivated can at least see the raid encounters via LFR these days and I think it's rare that people enjoy spending a night wiping on one or two bosses. As long as we've got a raid group of basi...

Overall, the game feels like a fun throwback. Sucker Punch seemed to have given up the series when they took on Infamous. The cell-shading style seems to have mostly come and gone in the industry. I'm not sure that stealth-adventure-platformers were ever that common, but I can't point to many examples there. By and large, it was good. Sanzaru Games did a good job of maintaing the voice (and not just voice actors) of the characters and the look at feel of the world. The drawbacks? Primarily the loading screens - they feel like a long wait starting out any new level/mission. Otherwise... well, there are a couple choices of story direction that I'm not altogether pleased with. Things start to feel a little rushed at the end, making the overall experience feel a bit on the short side even though it's probably not really shorter than this sort of game usually is. And for all the nifty abilities unlocked, there isn't much chance/reason to go back and use them save for t...