Me: Umm...I have something I need to tell you.
Girlfriend: ...
Me: I, uh, I've...fallen in love with my Mage again.
Girlfriend: ...
Me: You don't understand, cross-realm battlegrounds. Instant PvP!
Girlfriend: Okay.
Well, she's interested in playing World of Warcraft with me, but nowhere near as 'into it' as I am(yet). It's probably better that way.
On that note, my Mage has been calling down blizzards and slaughtering Alliance again; as a result Corpritslave has slowed down a bit in his advancement, although Labor Day weekend helped; he's 25 now, has a few new items, and can take three additional forms. The diversity of the Druid is very entertaining and allows you to fill just about any wildcard position in a group.
Caster
Tank
Predator
Swimmer(UGLY Seal)
I look forward to seeing what the expansion has to offer for druids. By level 21 druids are capable of moving at 130 percent movement speed in cat form, and later they gain the ability to turn into a cheetah to move even faster. They get both of these forms long before anyone has access to mounts. To follow this trend I expect that by somewhere around level 65 Druids may have the ability to turn into a flying animal of some sort, considering at level 70 players will be able to get flying mounts.
With about three cups of tea a day I'm getting used to this early morning thing without too much trouble. For now I'm writing some programs unrelated to GeeksWithBlogs to get used to the programming standards here while learning a few things. In the mean time I've drawn up some sketches for a few new skins.
My girlfriend and I have been approved for our apartment; I wasn't really worried but it's nice to know for sure. Amongst other things, I'm looking forward to having affectionate pets again. The pet I live with is fun, but he doesn't really like to be pet or held much. I'll get some pictures of him later.
This is Corpritslave, just turned 15 Druid on Duskwood. Yes, he tried to Frostbolt the first Night Elf Hunter he saw, to no avail. I've still got at least 10 levels before I catch up with Darthnode and Allexprime, they are currently sitting at 23.
I haven't posted in a long time, and a lot has happened. This post will be all over the place as a result.
I got laid off last Friday. Jeff, John, and I are still on good terms; I enjoyed working for them and was disappointed to go, but it is time for me to move on. Maybe I should consider a career change (see title).
I am finally moved into the new apartment, and we are done painting. There are still a few minor things at the old apartment that I have to get rid of. The new place is home now, especially since I FINALLY have the Internet at home!
I'm at the Heartland Developers Conference right now, which was a lot of fun. The speakers were good and the social events were as entertaining as the company, excellent. We are almost finished packing up now and about to head back to Kansas City.
Today is my 22nd birthday, and I've got a Ninja Turtles cake waiting for me at home.
I've been jumping through all the hoops, signing away my soul, setting up utilities, signing lease papers, and searching for Internet. The beast that is living expenses has once again reared it's ugly head; to top it off, a low-life ex-roommate has run from responsibility like the worthless coward he is. I've come to the conclusion that utility companies, being location based and usually without competitors don't care about customer satisfaction in the slightest.
I had never experienced this before, but the electric company wants a deposit? The amount seems pretty ridiculous too. The apartment complex wanted us to complete and turn in the damage report within a matter of hours; that's enough time to observe every detail of the apartment while moving furniture, right? No, not really, not at all. My old Internet provider, who I was very satisfied with, doesn't service the new area so I had two options: 1)Pay twice as much for the same Internet 2)Pay about the same amount as I used to, (or so I thought) for DSL.
Incase you didn't know, DSL is a high-speed Internet service that runs through your phone line. I don't want a land line, I don't need a land line, but they 'need' me to have (pay for) phone service (even though I told them I don't want it and won't use it) to give me an Internet connection. Strictly concerning technical requirements, I don't buy it. Well I did buy it but...anyway; so instead of Internet pricing matching the listed pricing it's the listed pricing (plus their recent price increase) on top of a basic phone service. "Lets make a deal, oh yeah, you might bleed a little."
So, as I count change and wonder how I'm even typing considering I just traded in each of my arms to cover utilities a worthless 26 year old child is hiding away three states north of me. He's not answering his phone not to mention paying the overdue rent and utilities he owes our old roommates and myself; which totals to well over $500.
I guess I'm done ranting. Maybe when I have home access to the Internet tubes I can overload on the massive amounts of information I will once again be reunited with. Then I can forget about the little red man on my shoulder telling me to head north for a vacation, to become closer to an acquaintance known as 'baseball bat.'
This weekend was a very busy one. Last Thursday, the 5th, my girlfriend and I started moving into our new apartment. It becomes apparent just how much stuff people really have when you have to move it all. Anyway, we were moving stuff Thursday through Sunday, and we did a little bit of painting. I would say we are about 70% moved in and 10% painted.
I take martial arts, and on Saturday morning there was a tournament. I competed in forms and sparring and got gold medals in both! It was my first tournament and hopefully not the last, it was a lot of fun.
On Sunday a friend, and old roommate, of mine helped me move some of the bigger furniture with his truck. We were worried for a little while, we thought the cats might have snuck out while the door was open and unattended as we moved dressers and whatnot. Fortunately the cats were just hiding. Does that, does that microwave...have ears? For a while my friend was joking about a portal behind the microwave. One cat was hiding behind the microwave and we couldn't find the other until later, when the one that was previously missing was hiding behind the microwave, and the other was nowhere to be found. Eventually we found out there is a gap in a section of one of our cabinets (right behind the microwave) and the cats can get into the cabinets. As I prepared breakfast this morning I reached for a bowl for cereal and found a cat.
Overall it was a very busy and exhausting weekend, and the trend will probably continue for at least another week; but I had a lot of fun, and the new apartment is great.
Fall is my favorite season and October, my favorite month. I realized last Saturday that I forgot something; the weather change, or something associated with it, gives me a cold, or makes my allergies act up, or something, for about a week. *snifflecough* What a damper on the eve of my most manic season.
I've recently noticed that relatively few acknowledge Halloween as a holiday, which is lame, because it's my favorite holiday. Corporations could easily pick up the holiday, which is currently luffing. For political reasons I will leave out one of the reasons this holiday is losing it's luster, but another is the probably unintentional combined actions of chemical companies and cheap candy givers. 'Candy companies' that try to pass of nearly toxic waste as an edible treat, and the people that buy it for pennies a pound to try and pawn off as a gift for costumed children on a quest for tasty riches. If you were going to give them poorly wrapped mystery tar, please just punch the young adventurers in the mouth instead. Seriously, it will save them the time, and good candy necessary to cope with these candylike abominations. They will just loose a tooth or two up front instead of pulling their own teeth out a handful at a time by trying to open their jaw, after locking their teeth together with with the fun-banishing compound who's lingering taste requires a dozen good candies to counter. I guess I went off on a tangent there; Halloween needs the help of good candy.
More importantly, if Halloween were more widely perceived as a holiday certain companies may try to market for it. In a parallel universe, where Halloween is an official holiday, the Wii released mid October. I mentioned I'm excited about the Wii right?
The US Wii release date is November 19, and the retail price is $250 according to this source. It's not quite as soon as I had hoped, (I was expecting mid October) but I don't have any option but waiting. If anyone knows a secret to waiting faster, please let me know.
HOME SWEET HOME! I won't lie, I'm glad to be back. The work was refreshing, the beds were comfortable, the van was nice, and the company was stimulating; but home is obviously where I am most comfortable.
Dealing with the sound equipment wasn't nearly as stressful or threatening as I had anticipated, although podcasting does invoke a little discomfort. I'm not shy, but the thought of a few hundred people listening to a recording with my voice is a little unnerving.
The Man, also known as Chris Williams hosted South Carolina Code Camp 2.0. He also runs a place called Reality Check. I had fun geeking out with Chris and Dru, talking about tabletop RPGs and the like. Reality Check has a wireless internet connection so I was able to WoW it up a little bit and drink some good coffee. I'm eternally grateful that our hotel also had a wireless internet connection. Any hotel with a quality wireless internet connection gets a pat on the back from me. I was enamored by the ability to get my WoW fix in South Carolina.
I'm not from the South, I haven't spent a lot of time there, I don't know much about the differences, but they have certainly done something right - sweet tea. Every dining facility has it, and I loved it. While I'm talking about the South, the accents were fun.
While conversing with the person at the front desk of the hotel I learned something that I find socially curious; while most of the people that lived in the area had easily noticeable Southern accents, they didn't perceive my lack of an accent as an accent even though they didn't notice their own accents...accent, accent, accent.
The drive was probably the worst part of the trip. The van could technically seat eight. Four-five geeks with sound equipment and geek hands (laptops, PDAs, etc) fit just fine, but after only a couple of hours it felt kind of cramped. I would have probably gone crazy if it weren't for the company. Dru, Jeff, John, and Tim - I can only think of a few people I would have rather shared that space with, it was great getting to know you guys. I hope you had as much fun as I did.
Jeff, John's looking out my window again!
Other people have already mentioned this, so you may already know, but Code Camp 2.0 in South Carolina is next weekend. The listed tracks seem very appealing and look forward to seeing what this is all about.
We (A&J) will be doing podcasts while on the trip. I'm a little nervous, as I've never used recording equipment before; it should be fun. Podcasting and Code Camp aren't the only firsts of the experience though. Starting on Thursday night, I will be on my first 'business trip.'
ooOOoo
I was using the tablet function, of the computer I work on, for the first time yesterday. It's much easier to edit images and the handwriting recognition is a lot of fun. I would go as far as saying the 'pencil and paper' feel doubles productivity for editing images. On the other end, I prefer typing to writing and find it faster.
A few weeks ago John got a one handed keyboard called a Frog Pad and I've recently become very curious about using one. If it weren't for the high price I would think of buying one. Reviews seem to indicate that a normal QWERTY keyboard is much faster for typing, even with one hand; but the mini keyboard screams, "GAME WITH ME!" With all keyboard buttons (save the F-keys) accessible to a single hand with minimal movement, one could keep their hand centered on the keyboard, have access to all of the keys and have the other hand entirely free for the mouse.
...And it's round three.
A membership provider is a part of ASP.NET 2.0 that has the ability to do anything you want with member interface and manipulation of member information. The provider allows you to use predefined web controls for functions such as login, add member, and password retrieval; it even allows you to specify a database to interact with.
I only became aware of the membership provider this week but it's very useful if you learn to use it. Of the resources I've looked through there are two books I would recommend, Introducing ASP.NET 2.0 and Expert ASP.NET 2.0 Advanced Application Design have both been very helpful.
Enjoy the Labor Day weekend!
As some of you may know, with the World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusdade, there are some pretty shifty changes and additions. There are two new playable races, and two previously side specific classes are having their side restrictions removed.
For starters, I'm excited about having new playable races; but I have a lingering resentment for Blizzards choices on the two. While Blood Elves seem cool conceptually, they look a lot like Night Elves with thinner eyebrows, and they fit the 'pretty' category and look much closer to what you would expect to see in the Alliance. The Draenei essentially look like blue demons, and somehow mutated from what look more like swamp monsters.
They don't really fit the 'pretty' category and really look like they should be part of the Horde, punting gnomes instead of hugging them.
Golden armor aside, which looks like a monster?
In general, there are far more Alliance players than there are Horde, by at least a 2 to 1 ratio on most servers; and there are more Night Elves than any other race. It's mostly accepted that the player balance is this way because of the character model appearance and/or a storyline that's a little easier to relate to or sympathize with.
Paladins, initially an Alliance only 'holy knight' (Wuss-Bubble) will be playable by the new Horde race, the Blood Elves. Shamans, initially a Horde only class with an 'intense connection to nature' (...FROSTSHOCK!) will be playable by the new Alliance race, the Draenei.
I was talking with someone a couple of nights ago about the purpose behind removing the barrier between the only two side specific classes and found there was something I wasn't taking into account. Apparently there are more Alliance guilds that frequently visit the deeper parts of the high end instances; I can't say I know this to be fact, but they were saying the reason for this is Paladins. Since Shaman buffs are based in their totems, which can be easily destroyed, they provide less benefit overall thus requiring better teamwork and skill to perform similar tasks by the Horde. The cross alignment allowance of the Shaman and Paladin may have been intended to benefit Horde in high end instancing.
This, coming from an avid Horde fan is disappointing. I know people that have vowed to never play WoW again because of this change. One of the main parts of playing the Horde is knowing that you're outnumbered, fighting uphill, against a group that has a pansy-invincibility shield and more people. I don't want it to be easier on us, especially when the 'fix' goes against a good storyline; the struggle is the entertainment. Although for PvP, fighting along side some twelve year old Alliance kid that decided to make a Blood Elf (Legolas5531) will probably make things more difficult.
With that being said, I will still buy the expansion and play the crap out of it.
There's a plugin for Windows Live Writer that lets you embed YouTube and Google videos in your blog posts. Courtesy of WindowsWriterPlugins version 1.0 is available for download at the aforementioned link. The file is a DLL so you will need to manually put it into your Windows Live Writer/Plugins folder.
1) Download the video plugin by visiting WindowsWriterPlugins:
2) Find your Windows Live Writer install location:
3) Extract the downloaded EmbedVideo.dll into the Plugins folder:
4) Restart Windows Live Writer and there should be a button to allow you to add a video to your blog post:
5) Get the ID for the video you want to embed:
YouTube - 
Google Video - 
*note: Some google video IDs have a '-' in front of them; if that is the case you will need to take two extra steps.
6) Add the video using the ID:
You only need to do this if you are embedding a google video that has a dash before the ID, you may not need to do this in later versions. After steps 5 and 6 do the following.
(Sorry for the pointless video here, I got sick of looking for something that might actually be worth watching that also has a dash before the ID.)
*7) View the post as HTML Code:
*8) Add a dash in the appropriate place:
Enjoy!
I've started working with a budget; I know it will be absolutely necessary a month from now, so I figured I would start practicing with it. Jeff convinced me to use a method made by Dave Ramsey, and hopefully I will be able to pay off my student loans within a couple of years.
In the mean time, I may need to restrain from a certain leisure expense, creating a painful distance between myself and an expectant lover. I may just need to wait long past the release date to pick up the Wii. Maybe a carefully placed advertisement, before the December that's approaching, can avert the dilemma. "Mommy, can I have a Nintendo?"
On to other entertainment spending; World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is going to be released. Water Elemental, Invisibility, Spellsteal, Ice Lance, I am definitely going to need to play my mage again when the expansion is released. I've been busy lately, and haven't been able to play as much as I should, but Corpritslave is 22 now. I was going to add a screenshot of his cat form here, but the servers are down for maintenance.
Work is going good. I'm constantly learning and I think that's important for a job to hold interest. I'm not usually a cover to cover reader, and if the sixteen books on my desk weren't coding reference material I would either be, smashing my face into my desk repeatedly, or nodding off every few sentences and waking up surprised that the book in my lap isn't a high school history text book.