What a week this has been. I had a couple of days off work and then was sick for a couple of days. I'm having a difficult time shaking this cold/flu that has been lingering for weeks now. Just when I thought I was starting to feel better, it comes back with a vengeance a couple of days ago. Fevers, chills, coughing and just feeling horrible all around. I was able to drag myself into work on Friday, but by the end of the day I was feeling so delirious I'm surprised I made it home safely.
But enough about that; nobody like hearing about someone else being sick.
-slurp-
Since I've had quite a bit of free time this week, I was able to get in a little bit of gaming to help pass the time. For the most part I was playing Eve since it requires less interaction than WoW. When I was feeling up to it, I was playing a bit of WoW; mostly just working in my garrison and doing follower missions. Overall it wasn't a very exciting gaming week for me, but I did catch up on some TV shows and re-watched Game of Thrones in anticipation for Season 5 starting in April.
-slurp-
Anyway folks, just a quick one today. Hopefully this cold/flu is starting to pass and I'll be back to my regular routine soon.
Cheers,
Al
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Friday, February 20, 2015
v44.3 :: Eve Time
I bit the bullet and decided to reactivate my Eve Online account again.
{slurp}
Over the past couple weeks I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos around Eve and how things have changed. For those of you who have played Eve Online before you are very much aware of the steep learning curve associated with the game. The game is vast and possibilities are seamlessly endless.
One big complaint I've seen over and over again is how impossible it would be for a new player to ever achieve what a seasoned player has. Specifically they are referring to training points which you earn as you train in the various skills available. As your character progresses through the training queue, they acquire training points. The more "points" you have, the more skilled you are and thus must be better at the game. Since training points are earned in real-time, it would be impossible for a player who started today to catch up to a player who has been playing for years. That's not to say they can't be successful in Eve; with the right corporation and friends you could easily find yourself in low-sec space within a couple of weeks of play.
{slurp}
I digress from my point a bit. I've been doing a bit of research on the side to see how much the game has changed and how they've addressed the biggest complaint from new players. It seems they are working toward it and new players to Eve will find the game enjoyable. You may never get to the 50 million skill point level that some of the more seasoned players have, but you still stand a chance to go toe-to-toe with them. Of course if you're looking to adventure out into low-sec space alone and you happen upon a patrol, don't expect much. Even a seasoned player would find it difficult to survive that kind of encounter.
The morale of the story here is stay in hi-sec until you've amassed some skills. I would also suggest heading into low-sec with a cheap ship initially to see what you're up against. That way when your ship is destroyed you won't feel the loss as greatly as you would with your best.
{slurp}
For those of you who have never played Eve before and are interested in giving it a shot, there is a link to the right of the site where you can sign up for 7 days free. This link helps me as well since I get rewards for bringing in new players; up-to and including free game time. Think of it as a way for you to help me with my online gaming addiction :)
Until next time,
Al
{slurp}
Over the past couple weeks I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos around Eve and how things have changed. For those of you who have played Eve Online before you are very much aware of the steep learning curve associated with the game. The game is vast and possibilities are seamlessly endless.
One big complaint I've seen over and over again is how impossible it would be for a new player to ever achieve what a seasoned player has. Specifically they are referring to training points which you earn as you train in the various skills available. As your character progresses through the training queue, they acquire training points. The more "points" you have, the more skilled you are and thus must be better at the game. Since training points are earned in real-time, it would be impossible for a player who started today to catch up to a player who has been playing for years. That's not to say they can't be successful in Eve; with the right corporation and friends you could easily find yourself in low-sec space within a couple of weeks of play.
{slurp}
I digress from my point a bit. I've been doing a bit of research on the side to see how much the game has changed and how they've addressed the biggest complaint from new players. It seems they are working toward it and new players to Eve will find the game enjoyable. You may never get to the 50 million skill point level that some of the more seasoned players have, but you still stand a chance to go toe-to-toe with them. Of course if you're looking to adventure out into low-sec space alone and you happen upon a patrol, don't expect much. Even a seasoned player would find it difficult to survive that kind of encounter.
The morale of the story here is stay in hi-sec until you've amassed some skills. I would also suggest heading into low-sec with a cheap ship initially to see what you're up against. That way when your ship is destroyed you won't feel the loss as greatly as you would with your best.
{slurp}
For those of you who have never played Eve before and are interested in giving it a shot, there is a link to the right of the site where you can sign up for 7 days free. This link helps me as well since I get rewards for bringing in new players; up-to and including free game time. Think of it as a way for you to help me with my online gaming addiction :)
Until next time,
Al
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
v44.2 :: Lok'tar Ogar
Those of you familiar with the game World of Warcraft will recognize the post title today. For those of you who are not familiar, Lok'tar Ogar is something often heard in the game spoken by the Orcish race. In the common (English) tongue it simply means "Victory or Death".
-slurp-
I have officially been playing World of Warcraft for 10 years now (on and off of course). It's amazing when you sit and think about it. Most people rarely do something for that long whether it be a job, a marriage or even a hobby like gaming. I recently took a trip down memory lane when I was contacted by an old friend who sent me some screen shots of a game we used to play together (Dark Age of Camelot). You see, it was this same friend who got me hooked on World of Warcraft and was the person who gave me my first trial key to start myaddiction first account.
My friend, who we'll call Fred for now, was one of my best friends when I was living out West. We went for coffee on a daily basis and he was a huge inspiration and example in my life. Fred and I also gamed quite a bit together and we always had each other's back. There were many battles, many victories and of course, many deaths throughout our gaming adventures. Whether it was just standing around town chatting or going toe to toe with the biggest and baddest monsters we could find; we always had fun and always had a good laugh the next day when we chatted about it.
-slurp-
So here I am, 10 years later, stillhooked playing the same game I started back in February 2005. A lot has changed over the years but the game still holds my attention (albeit a lot less these days) and every once in a while I stumble upon something I have never seen before. I've leveled every class, profession and race to maximum level. I won't say I've done it all, but I've definitely done my fair share of the content available, and continue to do so.
I've played various other games over the years as well. Everything from fantasy based games like Lord of the Rings to sci-fi based games like Star Wars. I liked them all, but none of them came close to Warcraft; all except one which came VERY close - Wildstar.
-slurp-
That's a story for another day :)
-slurp-
I have officially been playing World of Warcraft for 10 years now (on and off of course). It's amazing when you sit and think about it. Most people rarely do something for that long whether it be a job, a marriage or even a hobby like gaming. I recently took a trip down memory lane when I was contacted by an old friend who sent me some screen shots of a game we used to play together (Dark Age of Camelot). You see, it was this same friend who got me hooked on World of Warcraft and was the person who gave me my first trial key to start my
My friend, who we'll call Fred for now, was one of my best friends when I was living out West. We went for coffee on a daily basis and he was a huge inspiration and example in my life. Fred and I also gamed quite a bit together and we always had each other's back. There were many battles, many victories and of course, many deaths throughout our gaming adventures. Whether it was just standing around town chatting or going toe to toe with the biggest and baddest monsters we could find; we always had fun and always had a good laugh the next day when we chatted about it.
-slurp-
So here I am, 10 years later, still
I've played various other games over the years as well. Everything from fantasy based games like Lord of the Rings to sci-fi based games like Star Wars. I liked them all, but none of them came close to Warcraft; all except one which came VERY close - Wildstar.
-slurp-
That's a story for another day :)
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
v44.1 :: Beta
We often get so wrapped up in the day-to-day that we forget to take time for ourselves.
I've let this site get away from me over the past couple years and that is something I look back on with regret. I recall when I would post here on a daily basis and infect you with my thoughts and words. Like everyone, I've had my good and bad days and I've let small things get to me when I should have just shrugged them off. That said...
I've decided to give this blog another shot.
I don't expect a lot of followers. I will do my best to ensure I post something at least once a week; whether it is a story about something I've done at work, in a game or whatever I'm thinking. In the past the words would just come to me and I would sit at my computer for hours just writing; barely thinking about the letters I was typing. I hope to get back to that again.
If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Until next time...
- Al
I've let this site get away from me over the past couple years and that is something I look back on with regret. I recall when I would post here on a daily basis and infect you with my thoughts and words. Like everyone, I've had my good and bad days and I've let small things get to me when I should have just shrugged them off. That said...
I've decided to give this blog another shot.
I don't expect a lot of followers. I will do my best to ensure I post something at least once a week; whether it is a story about something I've done at work, in a game or whatever I'm thinking. In the past the words would just come to me and I would sit at my computer for hours just writing; barely thinking about the letters I was typing. I hope to get back to that again.
If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Until next time...
- Al
Friday, February 1, 2013
v44.0: Excogitating No Stress – Day 5
Afternoon Folks,
-slurp-
This afternoon's musing is brought you to by a medium-sized Tim Horton's coffee with a single cream, and the letter Q. It's 3PM and I'm just now able to sit and write. What a day this has been; stress free, but very very busy.
-slurp-
I woke this morning to a massive outage with one of our systems at work. Everyone was in a panic and things were hectic. I strolled into work, sat down at my desk and began plugging away. Emails, pouring over logs, checking code and all of the fun things we as developers live for. Of course there wasn't much to be done from my end since the bulk of the problem was a mis-executed procedure on the other end which resulted in the main ticket system going down HARD. I did notice a few issues on our side which were unrelated and promptly made a few fixes which I will need to deploy tonight. Of course things are calm and quiet now, but the thrill of the job is still pulsing through my body; or maybe that's the hunger of a missed lunch :)
-slurp-
It's day 5 and I'm still stress free. I haven't worried about work all week and it felt great. I've been relaxed, smiling, laughing and enjoying my time here while being quite productive. It's been a good week and definitely something I'm going to keep in mind in the days and weeks ahead. Speaking of "days and weeks ahead", I have decided to add a little plugin to the site which will allow me to track my stress levels. With each blog post, I will try to remember to add one of these so you, the reader, can see what my current stress level is at. Hopefully this will be relatively small with my new method of dealing with stress, but there may be days when I can't contain it and the stress levels may rise. It should look something like this:
[progpress title="Stress Level" goal="100" current="2" previous="1" label="stress"]
Hopefully that looks ok. I haven't used this plugin before but according to the documentation, it should work just fine for what I need.
-slurp-
Well folks, work beckons and I must answer it's cruel wicked call. I will be working well into the night tonight so wish me luck. Don't forget that the second full moon within a single calendar month is called the Blue Moon. More on that later.
-slurp-
Cheers,
Al
-slurp-
This afternoon's musing is brought you to by a medium-sized Tim Horton's coffee with a single cream, and the letter Q. It's 3PM and I'm just now able to sit and write. What a day this has been; stress free, but very very busy.
-slurp-
I woke this morning to a massive outage with one of our systems at work. Everyone was in a panic and things were hectic. I strolled into work, sat down at my desk and began plugging away. Emails, pouring over logs, checking code and all of the fun things we as developers live for. Of course there wasn't much to be done from my end since the bulk of the problem was a mis-executed procedure on the other end which resulted in the main ticket system going down HARD. I did notice a few issues on our side which were unrelated and promptly made a few fixes which I will need to deploy tonight. Of course things are calm and quiet now, but the thrill of the job is still pulsing through my body; or maybe that's the hunger of a missed lunch :)-slurp-
It's day 5 and I'm still stress free. I haven't worried about work all week and it felt great. I've been relaxed, smiling, laughing and enjoying my time here while being quite productive. It's been a good week and definitely something I'm going to keep in mind in the days and weeks ahead. Speaking of "days and weeks ahead", I have decided to add a little plugin to the site which will allow me to track my stress levels. With each blog post, I will try to remember to add one of these so you, the reader, can see what my current stress level is at. Hopefully this will be relatively small with my new method of dealing with stress, but there may be days when I can't contain it and the stress levels may rise. It should look something like this:
[progpress title="Stress Level" goal="100" current="2" previous="1" label="stress"]
Hopefully that looks ok. I haven't used this plugin before but according to the documentation, it should work just fine for what I need.
-slurp-
Well folks, work beckons and I must answer it's cruel wicked call. I will be working well into the night tonight so wish me luck. Don't forget that the second full moon within a single calendar month is called the Blue Moon. More on that later.
-slurp-
Cheers,
Al
Thursday, January 31, 2013
v43.9: Excogitating No Stress – Day 4
Good afternoon folks,
-slurp-
Yes, here I am sitting at my desk at 3PM drinking a coffee. You're probably all wondering what happened to "Excogitating No Stress - Day 3" and if you read Day 2 you would know that I was off yesterday. I had every intention to write but unfortunately I didn't find the time to sit and write anything at all. I did, however, have a great day off and of course there was no stress since there was no work. Today, again, I have had little to no stress in my work day. I've been busy (very busy) and going almost non-stop all day, but I haven't stressed over it. Even when one of the developers on my team resigned (yesterday while I was out), I still wasn't stressed about it. I think this whole "No Stress" thing is working.
-slurp-
Well since I had no work yesterday (and no stress), and today has been pretty much stress free, I guess you could almost say my experiment has been a success. Tomorrow will be a week and I will find some way to document my findings and publish them here. In fact, I just gave myself a great idea for a new section on my site to keep track of stress and stress levels; keep an eye out for that to show up soon. Tomorrow being Friday, I doubt there will be much in the way of stress happening. Although I do have to work Friday night for a few hours, I'm sure it will be stress free and relaxing. I will say, my frame of mind while at work has been different. I don't let things build up and bother me like they have been. I don't get down about the job and I greet each task with a smile. The key to keeping your shit together while at work is prioritizing and I will definitely write more on that at a later day. Let me just add that not everyone knows how to prioritize and those who say they do are usually doing it wrong. There is a right way and a wrong way to prioritize and hopefully I will be able to help someone out there with my experiences and suggestions.
-slurp-
Ok folks, a shorter musing today only because of the things I need to finish up before I leave for the day. If you are taking part in my stress free week experiment, I hope things are going just as well for you. I would really like to hear your experiences this week and how you've been able to ward off the evil that is stress. Until next time, remember to change your underwear every single day. Of course if you shit your pants, you can change them more than once a day; in fact, I highly recommend it.
Cheers,
Al
-slurp-
Yes, here I am sitting at my desk at 3PM drinking a coffee. You're probably all wondering what happened to "Excogitating No Stress - Day 3" and if you read Day 2 you would know that I was off yesterday. I had every intention to write but unfortunately I didn't find the time to sit and write anything at all. I did, however, have a great day off and of course there was no stress since there was no work. Today, again, I have had little to no stress in my work day. I've been busy (very busy) and going almost non-stop all day, but I haven't stressed over it. Even when one of the developers on my team resigned (yesterday while I was out), I still wasn't stressed about it. I think this whole "No Stress" thing is working.
-slurp-
Well since I had no work yesterday (and no stress), and today has been pretty much stress free, I guess you could almost say my experiment has been a success. Tomorrow will be a week and I will find some way to document my findings and publish them here. In fact, I just gave myself a great idea for a new section on my site to keep track of stress and stress levels; keep an eye out for that to show up soon. Tomorrow being Friday, I doubt there will be much in the way of stress happening. Although I do have to work Friday night for a few hours, I'm sure it will be stress free and relaxing. I will say, my frame of mind while at work has been different. I don't let things build up and bother me like they have been. I don't get down about the job and I greet each task with a smile. The key to keeping your shit together while at work is prioritizing and I will definitely write more on that at a later day. Let me just add that not everyone knows how to prioritize and those who say they do are usually doing it wrong. There is a right way and a wrong way to prioritize and hopefully I will be able to help someone out there with my experiences and suggestions.-slurp-
Ok folks, a shorter musing today only because of the things I need to finish up before I leave for the day. If you are taking part in my stress free week experiment, I hope things are going just as well for you. I would really like to hear your experiences this week and how you've been able to ward off the evil that is stress. Until next time, remember to change your underwear every single day. Of course if you shit your pants, you can change them more than once a day; in fact, I highly recommend it.
Cheers,
Al
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
v43.8: Excogitating No Stress – Day 2
Good morning folks,
-slurp-
Though technically it is morning, it is almost noon my time. I've had a busy stress free morning this morning and have been loving every minute of it. Yesterday turned out to be quite successful. It started off busy, but I made a conscious decision to not feel stress over it. I spent the majority of the morning pouring over email threads that kept me busy most of the weekend. I believe I mentioned yesterday that I ended up spending a good chuck of my weekend working and then I was working again last night. In fact, other than the drive from work to home, I worked from 9AM to 10:30PM straight. It sounds stressful, but when you have a no stress attitude, it was really a walk in the park. As a result of the extra hours over the weekend and last night, I now have no work tomorrow; nothing like a break in the middle of a no stress week to help alleviate any stress that may come.
-slurp-
Overall I'm quite happy about how things went yesterday. Despite being busy and having lots of work to do, it was really quite care free. I did my job, put my head down, had a few laughs with my coworkers and overall had a good day. I had a smile on my face which (as my coworkers can attest to), is not that common these days. You see folks, I take my job seriously and I do a god job in that. I spend a lot of extra hours working and ensuring things are running as smoothly as possible. I lead a team of developers and often I take on work that could otherwise be delegated in order to help alleviate some of the strain and stress on my team. I don't mind working the extra hours because at the end of the day if the customer is happy, work is good. We are working on a major development project right now which has a lot of eyes on it. The team has done an amazing job pulling together and getting the project finished up and we are getting close to a finished product. I'm happy with the way things have gone so far. We've had some bumps in the road along the way, but we have worked through them and things are moving along. While the team has been focused on this task, I have been trying to take care of the other things that go on in a development team such as this. I've found myself up many nights developing, debugging and doing code reviews to ensure my days can be focused on the things that are needed. It has been exhausting, but rewarding at the same time. I get things done and thanks to my team, we have been successful and are perceived a success.
-slurp-
Well folks, time to get back to it. Yesterday was a success and today is shaping up to be successful as well. I'm excited to see how things are when I'm back in the office Thursday. Obviously tomorrow will be "work" stress free, but I'll still do my best to write regardless.
-slurp-
I hope you are all having a nice stress free day today. Remember to always tip when going to a restaurant. Servers have amazing memories and if you ever plan on going back to eat at that restaurant, you may get something added to your meal you didn't order. :)
Cheers,
Al
-slurp-
Though technically it is morning, it is almost noon my time. I've had a busy stress free morning this morning and have been loving every minute of it. Yesterday turned out to be quite successful. It started off busy, but I made a conscious decision to not feel stress over it. I spent the majority of the morning pouring over email threads that kept me busy most of the weekend. I believe I mentioned yesterday that I ended up spending a good chuck of my weekend working and then I was working again last night. In fact, other than the drive from work to home, I worked from 9AM to 10:30PM straight. It sounds stressful, but when you have a no stress attitude, it was really a walk in the park. As a result of the extra hours over the weekend and last night, I now have no work tomorrow; nothing like a break in the middle of a no stress week to help alleviate any stress that may come.-slurp-
Overall I'm quite happy about how things went yesterday. Despite being busy and having lots of work to do, it was really quite care free. I did my job, put my head down, had a few laughs with my coworkers and overall had a good day. I had a smile on my face which (as my coworkers can attest to), is not that common these days. You see folks, I take my job seriously and I do a god job in that. I spend a lot of extra hours working and ensuring things are running as smoothly as possible. I lead a team of developers and often I take on work that could otherwise be delegated in order to help alleviate some of the strain and stress on my team. I don't mind working the extra hours because at the end of the day if the customer is happy, work is good. We are working on a major development project right now which has a lot of eyes on it. The team has done an amazing job pulling together and getting the project finished up and we are getting close to a finished product. I'm happy with the way things have gone so far. We've had some bumps in the road along the way, but we have worked through them and things are moving along. While the team has been focused on this task, I have been trying to take care of the other things that go on in a development team such as this. I've found myself up many nights developing, debugging and doing code reviews to ensure my days can be focused on the things that are needed. It has been exhausting, but rewarding at the same time. I get things done and thanks to my team, we have been successful and are perceived a success.-slurp-
Well folks, time to get back to it. Yesterday was a success and today is shaping up to be successful as well. I'm excited to see how things are when I'm back in the office Thursday. Obviously tomorrow will be "work" stress free, but I'll still do my best to write regardless.
-slurp-
I hope you are all having a nice stress free day today. Remember to always tip when going to a restaurant. Servers have amazing memories and if you ever plan on going back to eat at that restaurant, you may get something added to your meal you didn't order. :)
Cheers,
Al
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)