My holiday isn’t even officially over yet and I could already use more time off. This upcoming week I have two quizzes, two homeworks due, a project due, and two “optional” assignments that we don’t have to do but would probably make my life easier if I did. There’s all that plus working with Mr. McDonald, going to HP on Friday morning, and doing more stuff for the game conference that is still trying to be organized. I think I can, I think I can… I very likely can’t, but I think I can…
I’m not sure how my mind is going to process days this week. Yesterday I was thinking it was Saturday (even though we went to church), today hasn’t felt like Monday, but as long as I get to all my classes at the right times, my mind can be as confused as it wants. I’ll only be spending tomorrow and Wednesday night at UTD this week, so that’ll throw my mind for even more of a loop.
Personal - Dallas
That remote desktop software I put on my grandparents’ computer? It’s already come in helpful. It turns out that I had misconfigured one part of their email, but rather than having to talk them through what to do, I was able to make all the changes myself and with surprisingly virtually no lag. I’ll probably be putting this on the computers of the other people I do tech help for on a regular basis just to make my life that much easier (and cut down on traveling to HP also).
I started working on my OS project today, and I’ve only really run into one issue so far (which is primarily due to a lack of examples on how to use the thing). I’ll probably aim to finish most of it up tomorrow just to get it over with, but I also have a couple of things due before it would be, so I may put more of it off until Wednesday or Thursday. Of course, if it was still due tomorrow I’d have it done by now, but why get stuff done that early?
Personal - Dallas
I Am Legend is a strange movie. I’m not really sure what I thought it was going to be beforehand, and I still don’t think I could tell you what it is. Different, interesting, and thought provoking could all describe it; I don’t want to use the word “good” but not because I didn’t enjoy it. Probably not a purchase, and I’m not even going to give it a score since it just doesn’t fall anywhere close to my rating spectrum.
After seeing that (obviously), I went and store my grandparents’ computer so that I could reinstall Windows on a larger hard drive. This meant tracking down CDs for the programs they needed to use and then putting them back on one by one. I’m almost done now though, and I even put some software on here that will allow either me or my other grandparents to go in and remote control their computer whenever troubleshooting needs to be done.
Personal - Dallas
I thought that this weekend I was going to be busy working on a project for OS as well as a HW for Automata. Well, I probably still should do both, but I only really need to do the latter anymore. I went to the site for my OS class and discovered that she pushed the due date back until a week from today. This means that instead of doing Unix programming all weekend, I can use that time to play some WoW! Actually, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for a significant portion of the evening, and I’m writing this post in a small break that I’m taking (but only because I’m waiting for a group). I’m back in Outland but having a much better overall experience than I was before. Granted, I’ve still died a ton today, but the vast majority of that has been instance related which is much more forgivable.
The first game I played on my 360 today is a game that was originally destined for the Gamecube: Kameo: Elements of Power. I went ahead and set it up in my room rather than out by our HDTV primarily so I could hook it up to our network and recover my Gamertag. It might be moving in the near future though since my mom didn’t even hesitate to agree to the Wireless-N stuff if it meant not having to drop the cable. My dad wants to try out some games on my Wii, so I have to decide if I want to temporarily move that back out to the HDTV just for space purposes.
Personal - Dallas
I was minding my own business in WoW, picking up a leatherworking recipe, fishing to get my cooking skill up, and then all of a sudden I see “Refuge Pointe is under attack!”. Being the concerned Alliance character that I am, I decided to go investigate. What I found was a ?? (so a 70) Orc shaman running into Refuge Pointe, attacking the guards, then running away and leaving a totem for them to all attack as he escaped. Well, he of course saw me as an easy target, and I was dead pretty quickly. I respawned, died, respawned, stealthed, died (because I didn’t stealth fast enough), respawned, stealthed (this time fast enough), and asked if my guild wanted to come kill a shaman. A 70 shaman decided to come, but abut a minute before he arrived, the Orc ran off.
Not to let a trip to Refuge Point go to waste, the 70 and I decided to go raid the Horde town in the area. Long story short, there were more 70s and we both got owned over and over again. Next time, Horde; next time we’ll get you!!
Oh yeah, and I also found out that my calculator was broken about 30 seconds before I took my Linear Algebra quiz today, so that was even more fun since I had to do all the basic math by hand. Needless to say, I have a new calculator now and, hopefully there won’t be any more fun surprises like that for at least the rest of this year.
Personal - Dallas
Either tomorrow or Friday (likely the latter), I’ll finally be buying a 360. Enough games are out or are coming out soon that I’m willing to drop $350 on one, and I feel relatively safe that the RROD issues have been taken care of now. Realize, the $350 isn’t the price point where it ends though. I also am going to pick up another wireless controller and a Play & Charge Kit which brings the total up to $420. After that, as long as I’m going to be at Gamestop I might as well buy Mass Effect and preorder No More Heroes and Devil May Cry 4. That brings the total to $610, before taxes of course. Now, I have plenty of money, but I just find it slightly humorous that by going to buy a $350 console, I’m going to end up spending close to an additional $300.
The shopping doesn’t end there though! Almost right across from the Gamestop in the mall is a RadioShack; I’m going to pick up an indoor HDTV antenna so that the ATSC card in our HTPC might actually be of use soon. Then, either there or at Fry’s I need to pick up another component cable to go from the switcher I bought to the back of the TV. Finally, not an immediate purchase but on the list for a possible future buy is a Wireless-N router and a corresponding bridge so that we can solve the dilemma of dropping the ethernet cable behind the TV and just get internet access there finally. At current prices that’s about $200, so it becomes a game of at what price is it worth it to either of my parents (my dad for the functionality, my mom for not having to drop the cable).
Personal - Dallas
Due Thursday, a journal entry for Educational Psychology (although admittedly optional) and a Linear Algebra quiz. Due Monday (yes, a holiday), my OS project. Due next Wednesday, my first Automata HW. Slowly things are starting to pick up steam, so that means that more and more of my precious free time is going to be gobbled up by the nasty homework monster. Nom nom nom!!
Now that’s I’ve done my best homework monster impression, I would once again like to say why I loathe cable internet. The instance Andrew and I were running last night was almost unbearable for me because of my ping being all over the place from 300-800 (i.e. everything but fast). David has been experiencing this for much longer than I have, so he actually called AT&T this weekend and ordered DSL from them. The modem arrived today, but the connection date isn’t until next Monday. I guess I’ll just be WoW-free out here until then, because part of playing an online game is, you know, being able to play it.
Personal - Dallas
I ran my first Outland instance in WoW today, but I didn’t actually get anything out of it except for a belt. Sure, I got XP and rep, but no levels or rare drops. Andrew is going to run me though a lower level one where I have a few quests between me making this post and going to sleep tonight, so technically that’ll be two instances down today (or at least 1 and 3/4 of another).
My three TV shows on Mondays for the next few weeks should work out just fine. I watched Prison Break and The Sarah Connor Chronicles live and then watched Kyle XY on our HTPC. Prison Break only has I think 4 more episodes before the “end” of the season, and since that’s the time slot Kyle XY conflicts with, this issue shouldn’t last for too much longer.
Personal - Dallas
Needing to make plans for our Australia trip soon, my parents voiced the concern that they were unsure if there was going to be enough to do during our stay there. A definite valid concern, so I did some research on various sites in order to see what activities were part of travel packages, etc. My mom now seems convinced that there would be enough stuff for us to do, so it doesn’t seem like that plan will be derailed any. If for whatever reason we don’t end up going to Australia, the alternative mentioned was a Mediterranean cruise around the Greek Isles. Both very appealing options, and I’d bet that if we do Australia this summer, the latter isn’t more than a few years off in the future.
A week from today, I won’t be complaining that I have school tomorrow! Unlike last year, I’m not letting MLK Day sneak up on me. Unfortunately that means no fun surprise when I learn that I have a day off, but that’s fine as long as I still get the holiday. Alas, I do have school tomorrow though, so here’s the complaint, and now it’s time for shower and sleep.
Personal - Dallas
In my defense, I did make progress today. I got my Ubuntu VM working, I set up an IDE, and I figured out how to write, compile, and test a short sample of code that is the basis of my project. The rest of my day was spent in WoW farming materials and working on getting my professions closer to 300. Why? Well, I hate Outland at the moment, and in order to be able to continue really leveling anything there, I need my skills as close to 300 as possible so that I can train to the next higher rank.
This may start to be the down slope of this cycle of my WoW playing. I’m not loving Outland, I would like to avoid making/working on an alt until I hit 70, and there are other games that I could be paying more attention to. We’ll see if this small questing break makes me enjoy Outland more when I go back there, but for the present time, I’m going to keep my options open. My unopened copy of Tabula Rasa and a 14-day trial of EVE Online both are calling out to me should I decide to go on another WoW break.
Personal - Dallas