v43.2: Fracking Friday

Howdy folks,

It's Friday!  Thankfully the gods have deemed us worthy and have allowed us to see another Friday.  If you are one of the fortunate ones to have their work week end today, I bid you a happy weekend.  If not, you can join the club with me.

Unfortunately for me, I will be working most of this weekend.  There have been a lot of things going on at work this week and as a result, I will be spending most of my weekend tied to my BlackBerry and laptop while I perform changes and monitor progress/emails.  I'm sure things will go well and come Monday all of the things I hoped to accomplish will be completed and running well.  I don't foresee any complications, but like anything in the IT industry, it can go bad real fast and end up spoiling your entire weekend.

This weekend also marks the season premier of Dexter.  I started watching Dexter after season 5 had ended.  I downloaded all of the episodes and watched them back-to-back all the way up to the end of Season 6.  If you're a Dexter fan, you're probably anticipating the season 7 premier as much as I am.  If you've never seen Dexter, I won't spoil it for you but suffice to say, it's going to be very interesting to see how this season is going to start.

-slurp-

As some of you know, Blizzard released the latest expansion to the World of Warcraft franchise this past week.  The expansion is called Mists of Pandaria and it introduces a whole new race (Pandas) to the world of Azeroth.  I wasn't really that hyped about this expansion as I was in the past ones, but I was still excited to check out some new content and see what new things were added to the game.  In typical pre-release fashion, Blizzard rolled out a bunch of the changes that were expansion independent a few weeks prior to the release date.  I was able to play around a bit with these new changes and I must say, they've done a great job.  The expansion came out Tuesday and I hadn't had a chance to login and check it out until last night (Thursday).  This marks the first time I have ever missed an expansion release; in fact, I didn't even think about it at all on Tuesday until after I got home from work and realized I couldn't login and play because I had a bunch of work to do and wasn't able to.

Last night I decided to take a bit of a break from work and ended up logging in and spending a couple of hours playing.  Blizzard introduced this new system called "Pet Battles" which is basically Pokemon using the non-combat pets you've collected over the last 7 years.  At first I was a bit sceptical about the system and how it was going to work, but after spending a few minutes learning the new interface and reading up on the FAQ, I found myself in-game going around and finding pets to kill and capture.  Basically it starts off with a quest (after you've learned how to do pet battles) which sends you away to defeat a pet.  A "pet" is simply a critter and you see them all over the place.  Some of these pets are flagged for pet battles and when you click on them, it starts the pet battle interface.  You can specify your "active" pet out of all of the pets you have and the turn-based fight will begin.  The fight ends when either your pet(s) or the other pet(s) are defeated/captured.  Yes, you can capture pets in this system and add them to your pet list.  If you come across a pet you don't already have, you can challenge it and fight it.  Once it's health is below 35%, you have an option to capture it.  In the beginning you will almost capture it every time on the first try, but later on it gets more difficult and it may take more tries to successfully capture the pet.  Pets are also of different quality (like gear); you have your common, uncommon, rare and epic type pets that are placed all over WoW.  Sometimes you may even go up against multiple pets which makes it a bit more challenging.  So far I've only ever had to fight 1 pet at a time, but I'm assuming that will change later on as my pets get higher level.

It's a fun system and very well deployed.  I can see wasting many hours of my game time playing with this feature in the near future.  If you're a World of Warcraft player, some of this will make sense to you; if not, I apologize :)

Well folks, it's time to get back to work and prepare for my work filled evening and weekend.  Remember to always ensure you look both ways before crossing the street and abide by the rules of pedestrianism (ooo, big word).  Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice.

Cheers,

Al

v41.1: Cataclysm

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

Yesterday Blizzard released their 3rd expansion to their award winning game, World of Warcraft.  The expansion is titled Cataclysm and it truly is a cataclysmic event which has taken hold of the gaming world.  Basically, the entire world as we have known it for the past 6 years has been forever changed.  Old borders have been redrawn and old enemies have been reborn.  Where there was once lush greenery there is now destruction and barren landscape; barren landscape has brought on new life.

Initially I wasn't going to pick up Cataclysm being so close to Christmas and all, but a friend who I have been gaming with for the past 5ish years wanted to buy it for me as an early Christmas present.  I'm most gracious that he did and I've been exploring all the new zones and experiencing the new races available in this expansion.  Tonight we decided to take a trip into one of the new instance to check it out.  For those who don't know what an "instance" is, it is basically a dungeon that you can go into that only contains you and your party.  Other groups can run the same instance at the same time, but they experience their own instance with their party.  Think of it as a mirror image of the same place for every group that wishes to enter it.

So far the new zones have been underwater.  I must admit I was a bit worried about underwater combat.  I used to play Dark Age of Camelot and their 3rd expansion was an underwater expansion which was done fairly nicely.  Blizzard has taken it a step above and has provided us a beautiful underwater realm to explore; I'm quite impressed.  I have only scratched the surface of this new area, but so far I'm really enjoying it.

-slurp-

Work has been fairly slow this week, of which I'm very thankful.  Work from home has given me the flexibility and time I need to assist my wife with her recovery.  I've been making the meals, changing most of the diapers and ensuring the other kiddies are taken care of and keeping out of my wife's hair.  For the most part things are going well, but I can already feel the strain of taking all these things on in addition to my regular day-to-day job.  Thankfully work has been very accommodating and understanding.

Well folks, it is getting late and I have a few things I need to do tonight before going to bed.  Saturday is the annual Christmas tree cutting event, my youngest daughter's 2nd birthday party and poker night with my sisters and their significant others.  It's going to be a very long day, but should be fun and good times.  See you all tomorrow.

Cheers,

Al

v40.6: December 1

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

We are officially on the last month of 2010.  It's hard to believe another year is almost behind us, again.  A lot has been going on in our lives these past few months and while my mind has been on my musings, I haven't written anything.  That is about to change.

-slurp-

This month I've decided to write every single day.  The musings will take on a little bit of a different flow than most of you are used to, but I will definitely do my best to offer quality content while keeping you up to date on what I'm doing.

As most of you already know, we have a new addition to the family.  On November 23rd my wife gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.  We have named him Mattius Graham and he weighed in at 7lbs 2oz.  This was probably the most difficult pregnancy my wife has gone through out of the 4 children and we are both very glad it is finally over.  The birth itself was an adventure.  Initially we took her to the hospital for other reasons and while she was in there we found out she was in labor.  The baby wasn't cooperating and we needed to have an emergency c-section.  I was home with the kids while this was happening and I got the call from my wife to let me know we were having this baby.  I contacted my youngest sister who came over to watch the kids so I could rush down to the hospital to be with my wife.  While on-route to the hospital I received a call from the nurse telling me that the baby was facing the wrong way and they were going to need to operate.  At first I didn't realize what she was talking about, but when I was half way to the hospital the reality of the situation finally hit me and I "quickened" my pace.

Baby and mom are fine and at home recovering now so everything went well.  Mattius got to meet his Auties, Nanny and Papa this past weekend and everyone is fine.

-slurp-

Gaming has also been slow this past couple months.  I started a brand new Blood Elf Paladin in WoW (yes, I'm playing Horde now) on the Medivh server.  I leveled him from 1 to 80 in a couple weeks with a total play time of 4 days, 7 hours and 32 minutes (103.5 hrs).  Up until around level 70 I was averaging 1 level per hour played.  After it was all said and done I averaged 1 level for every 1.2hrs played so I'm pleased with my progress.  I didn't use a "Refer-a-Friend" account, but I did have heirlooms which provided me a +20% bonus to experience gained.  My goal was to get to level 80 before the baby came but because the baby was early, I missed it by 1 day; at least he's level 80 before the next expansion hits on December 7th.

Since I hit level 80 I've been taking it easy on the gaming front.  I've been spending most of my "free" time playing Eve Online which is a much "slower" game and doesn't require 100% of my attention while playing.  I started playing Eve a few years ago but never really got into it.  Now that I've started to get into it and spent some time reading up on all the various things in the game, I've developed a new love for the game and spend as much time as I can playing it.  Perhaps I'll post more on Eve in another musing for those who may be interesting in learning more about it.

-slurp-

Well folks, it is time to bid you farewell for now.  Keep checking back every day this month for a new musing.  As stated earlier, I plan on posting every day this month leading us into the New Year.  Until next time.

Cheers,

Al

v37.6: Gaming Update

Good morning folks,

-slurp-

I haven't posted any gaming updates lately so I thought I'd make a quick post about what I've been up to with regards to gaming lately.  After all, this site is supposed to be senseless ramblings from a UNIX administrator and gamer.

-slurp-

v35.6: Friday WoW

Good morning folks,

-slurp-

What a week this has been.  I wish I could say it is over but I still need to make it through this day before I can finally say my work week is over.  I won't say it hasn't been stressful but it has definitely been busy.  Between things going on in the office and things going on in our personal life, I've barely had time to sit and relax or even play any games.

-slurp-

v34.9: Hello Mr. Theclaw

Good morning folks,

-slurp-

It has been a few days since I posted last so I must apologize for not being more on the ball.  Sunday I started coming down with a nice little cold and flu which resulted in me extending my time off by a day as I called in sick Monday.  I spent most of the day laying down and resting and didn't get an opportunity to post.  That means yesterday was officially my first day back in the office and before I realized I hadn't posted a musing, it was already the end of the day.

-slurp-

v34.6: Time Flies

Good Morning folks,

-slurp-

I'm finding it difficult to believe it is already Monday.  This past weekend is a bit of a blur but at the same time, made up with good memories.  I've hosted a lot of LAN parties in the past but this was the first LAN party I hosted that nearly spanned a day and a half.

-slurp-

v32.3: Happy New Year!

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

Yeah, here I am on the 8th of January wishing everyone a Happy New Year.  I've been quite busy lately and to be honest I don't even think of writing here until I'm doing something else.  This is something I hope to correct as a New Years resolution.

-slurp-