v41.0: December 5

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

It is Sunday, the Lord's day, the day of rest.  Why is it we tend to do more work on the day of rest than we do the rest of the week?

Today I was fortunate enough to get a visit from both of my sisters.  Normally my sisters never drop by but today I got a visit from both of them; thankfully not at the same time. :)  Of course I jest a little bit.  It was nice to see them again and spend a few moments conversing.  While my youngest sister was visiting, I may have inadvertantly got my future brother-in-law (Juggs) hooked back into Eve Online.  Sometimes I don't even think before I speak and I just start going on and on about a game.  Now he's all signed up and starting Eve again and even joined us in the Eve Poker room last night and hopefully made some ISK :)  I walked away from the table up about 25 million ISK, which made me feel good.

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Well folks, it's late and I'm very tired.  Hopefully I'll have some more for you tomorrow.

Cheers,

Al

v40.9: December 4

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

Let me start off by saying, Poker + Eve is a bad combination.

I'm a fan of Poker and I love playing Poker.  I miss our weekly Poker nights and and playing Poker with family and friends.  There are a lot of free online Poker sites out there but when they're free, you tend to not play the same when there is real money on the line.  Well, a certain Corporation in Eve has created an online Poker site where you buy chips with in-game Eve currency.  While in-game currency is still technically not real world money, it does have a certain value since it is required to buy things in-game.

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Basically, this site has a bunch of different tables you can play at.  They range from 20-40 chips to the thousands.  A single chip costs 100,000 ISK (Eve currency) so if you're looking to buy-in on the smallest table, you're looking at a minimum of 2,000,000 ISK for 20 chips.  Last night my friend Bim and I decided to check it out (we're both avid Poker fans) and  several hours later we were still sitting at a table playing the table, Rounders style.

I don't know how much I lost (or gained) but I think I ended the night down 20 chips (or 2 million ISK).  Not bad really, not as bad as Bim who ended the night (much later than I played) down over a 100 million ISK.  There was one game where I was up over 200 chips and then a bad run of cards saw me leaving the table with nothing.  It happens.

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We decorated our artificial Christmas tree last night.  It was a stressful, painful and annoying event (kids can find the oddest things to fight about), but we ended up finishing and the tree looks great, despite being fake.  I'm not a fan of the fake Christmas trees, but our apartment management doesn't allow for real ones so we had to fall back on our fake one.  Today we plan on finishing up the decorating and hopefully find a place for everything.  It didn't help that I slept until almost noon (gaming until after 3AM does that to you) and feel like I wasted half a day in bed.

Anyway folks, I hope everyone has a great Saturday and we'll see you again tomorrow.

Cheers,

Al

v40.8: December 3 - Eve Online

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

It is finally Friday!  Despite the fact I've been working from home since my son was born back on November 23rd, I was still looking forward to this day.  Tonight we plan on decorating our fake Christmas tree.  Typically, my wife has our place all decorated and ready for Christmas as soon as December 1 hits, but this year she hasn't been able to get up and move around much as she recovers from the c-section.  That won't stop her from getting the tree up and decorated though.  Or I should say, it won't stop her making me get the tree up.

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Tonight I plan on playing some Eve Online with friends.  Eve has been reborn for me lately and I've really been enjoying myself.

What is Eve Online?

Basically, Eve Online is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (or MMORPG) where thousands of people play simultaneously in an ever changing world.  The concept of MMORPGs is not new but the folks who developed Eve have done it a little bit differently than most of the other games out there.  Here are a few key points that make this game interesting for me:

1. It is in space.  The background story is interesting and basically there are 4 races of humans who have been scattered all over the universe and fighting for their own piece of space.


2. The entire game takes place on a single server.  Where WoW has multiple servers (hundreds) which are just copies of the same world, Eve only has one server where everyone plays.  That means if you play Eve, you can contact me and we have the ability to meet up in-game.  WoW doesn't have this.  In fact, if you meet someone who plays WoW there is a very good chance they play on a different server/faction than you and therefore, you cannot communicate or connect with them unless one of you pays for a transfer or one of you recreates a character on that server/faction.


3. Player run economy.  Economy in games can be very tricky and Eve does this beautifully.  People can make ships, weapons, etc. and sell them on the market.  People can view this market and choose to buy items or set themselves "looking to buy" a particular item for a particular price.  Basically, the players decide how the economy works and a single player can drastically change things if they wish.


4. Space travel.  I'm a huge fan of sci-fi and space related shows (Battlestar, Star Trek, etc.) so this game just fits the bill all the way around.  Also, the ability to travel at warp speed, sub light and regular thrusters makes the game interesting.  Players have the ability to "jump" between solar systems and the size of this world is unmeasurable.  I've been playing this game for a few years (off and on) and I haven't seen 1% of the universe.


5. Strategy vs. Twitching.  Twitching is a term used to describe a type of play style.  For example, most people who play first person shooters would be considered twitchers since it is the person who can react the fastest and the most accurately who wins the fight.  People who are relatively slow at reacting will be quickly slaughtered in games like those.  Eve does have a certain bit of "twitch" to it, but the majority of the game is strategy based.  You need to carefully plan your fights ensuring you have the right kinds of ammo on you and the right devices turned online for particular fights.  Space flight isn't very "fast".  Yes there are some ships that are faster than others, but the overall fights are not very fast paced.  You need to target an enemy and then decide whether you want to fire all armaments at them or target multiple enemies and spread things out a bit.  I won't go into all the different scenarios but there are a lot.


6. Corporations.  Corporations could be likened to guilds in other games but at the same time they are nothing like guilds.  Corporations are exactly what you would expect from the name, they are companies.  Recently a few friends and I decided to start our own Corp. and they decided to make me the CEO (big mistake lol).  I've been going through all the different options available to a CEO and I must admit, it is a bit overwhelming.  You can set people as directors, sell shares and there have even been situations in other Corps where CEOs have been "dethroned" because enough people with shares have voted the CEO out.  What you do with your Corp depends on you.  People have setup corporations to do just about anything.  There is a corp out there that is dedicated to running a Lottery, people send them money for tickets and every week (or bi-weekly) they do a draw and the winner(s) get in-game currency.  Some of these corporations are quite huge and very well organized; more organized than most of the corporations out there in the real world today.

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Eve Online is also a beautifully artistic game.  The graphic artists have done a great job building all the various solar systems and regions.  I'm very impressed with the game graphically and if you look up any official videos for Eve they pride themselves in the fact their videos are all shot in-game and are not done in CGI.

Well folks, that is about all I have for today.  Hopefully I'll have something interesting to write about tomorrow after gaming tonight.  Until next time.

Cheers,

Alan

v40.7: December 2

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

I appreciate the company I work for.

I can hear the gasps already.  I've spent so much time bashing my job(s) that it feels strange to actually praise it.  There have been so many times over the past year that I've wanted to quit and find something else but every time I even being to entertain the thought, I'm brought back to compare what I have today versus what I'll have tomorrow.  My bosses are very understanding and very flexible.  They are truly good managers.  I have a lot of perks at my job that I just wouldn't get at another company:

• Being able to take comp time whenever I need to


• Ability to work from home in the event I need to and don't want to take a vacation/sick day


• Being flexible with my schedule so I can drop off and pick up the kids from school so my wife can rest


• etc.

There are so many things I've taken for granted and I highly doubt I could find another company in the city that would offer me these same benefits for the same money.  In fact, I would be very surprised if I could find a better job anywhere in the Maritimes.

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Not much is new on the gaming front right now.  I'm debating on whether I want to create a new character in WoW to help pass the time but I just can't seem to bring myself to do it.  If you're an active WoW player and have logged in recently, you'll know that "The Shattering" has taken place and the entire world as we knew it has been changed forever.  For those who don't play WoW, there was a cataclysmic event which took place in the game and the entire landscape that has existed since WoW was released in 2004 was severely altered.  Most of the capital cities have been changed and almost all of the landscape has been altered and changed.  New lines have been drawn and places that were once occupied by the Horde are now controlled  by the Alliance and vice versa.  Blizzard has done an amazing job with this expansion and I'm really looking forward to experiencing what they have in store for us next week.  Of course I won't be able to experience the expansion when it comes out, but you can bet I'll be there the weekend after and loving every minute of it.

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Well folks, that about all I have time for today.  Tomorrow is Friday and I plan on writing a bit about Eve Online since that is probably what I'll be playing most of the night tomorrow.  If you're interested in learning more about Eve, tune in tomorrow for an overview of the game.  Until then.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

v40.5: Reason for Religion?

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

First off, let me start off by giving a quick update on my NaNoWriMo progress.  So far, I'm sucking pretty bad at keeping my word count up.  The month of November is half over and I'm nowhere near half way through the word count.  I should be over 25,000 words right now and I'm not even half way to that goal.  Of course I'm blaming WoW for my lack of progress.  The next expansion for World of Warcraft is coming (out December 7th) and there are a ton of things going on in the world right now that are leading up to that expansion.  I'm getting a bit excited about this expansion.

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I'm sure you've all heard the story of King Arthur and the knights of the round table.  There have been so many different variations of that story over the years it is hard to tell which (if any) is the right story.  The story talks about how Arthur became the King of Camelot and how he pulled the sword from the stone and all that fun stuff.  It has been retold and passed down over the generations.  Did it really happen or was it just a story?

I often wonder if some of the "stories" in the Bible are similar.  I mean, how many of these stories were written by the people who actually lived them?  Take the creation of the Earth for example.  Obviously this wasn't written by Adam or Eve; in fact, the book of Genesis was written primarily by Moses.  Moses tells the story of the creation of the earth and tells us all about the fall of mankind after the first sin.  Moses wasn't around when the earth was created and he definitely didn't witness the first sin or the first murder.  These are simply stories.  In fact, if we take the book of Genesis for truth, it would have occurred around 4000 B.C. and poor old Moses wasn't born until around 1550 B.C.  So you have approximately 2500 years worth of "stuff" going on that was put into a single book of the Bible.  Some believe the stories we read in the bible are nothing more than stories to convey a religious message; similar to the way some Pastors will tell stories today.  Of course people will believe what they will and everyone believes something slightly different from the person sitting next to them.  That is what makes us unique and special :)

This begs the question, if the creation of the earth was nothing more than a simple story told by a man thousands of years later, is it safe to assume that nobody has a sweet clue about how the earth was created and they simply created a story to make God look all powerful?  I was always told that there was nothing God could not do and he was all powerful.  Personally, if I was God, it wouldn't take me 6 days to build a plant.  I would build it in less than a day and I wouldn't need to rest afterwards; but I digress.

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Of course this also raises some other interesting questions about the Bible and its authenticity.  Think of all the times in the Bible where God "spoke" to people.  Now I haven't gone through the effort to find the original word for spoke to see if it means verbally spoke or "spoke" through other means but given the fact there is text as if God was speaking, I would have to assume it meant he literally spoke with a voice.  Why doesn't that happen today?  I find it hard to believe that God is shy or has issues with public speaking.  What made the people in ancient times so special that God actually spoke to them?

Don't get me wrong folks, I'm not trying to tear apart anyone's religion here.  I'm just trying to figure out (for my own benefit) what the point is.  If I've learned anything over the years of studying religion it is that they all believe in something bigger than themselves.  Who's right?  Are any of them right?  Is there even an all powerful being out there that listens to our needs and shelters and protects us?  Unfortunately that isn't a question I can answer and everyone believes something different so there's no help there.  Personally, I'm beginning to think people need to follow their own heart and their own beliefs.  Religion isn't all about worshiping something greater than you, it is about living our lives and making the best out of this short life we're given.  Think of it as a set of guidelines for people to follow and how to live good lives and respect others around them.  Think back on all the bible stories you've heard.  How many teach a lesson in one form or another about being kind to others or respecting others.  The bible is full of stories like this and they all teach us right from wrong.

Unfortunately religion has turned people against each other and has started more wars and fights than anything else in the world.  In fact, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if I received some hate mail or nasty comments here because of this topic.  Personally, I don't care.  If you feel you need to say something, then by all means, post a comment or send me an email.  I'm always up for a good debate.

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Anyway folks, WoW is calling to me and I must listen.  I hope you all have a great day and hopefully things will slow down enough that I can post again soon.

Cheers,

Al

v40.4: NaNoWriMo Begins!

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

The long awaited month of November is finally here and with it, NaNoWriMo!  I've been anxiously awaiting this to start and have been brainstorming ideas on what I want to write during the month of November.  For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, NaNoWriMo simply stands for "National Novel Writing Month" where every November, writers from all over the world take the time to write a novel of their own choosing and upload their progress to the NaNoWriMo site.  The goal this year is 50,000 words and I fully plan on making it this year.

Last year I was a bit disappointed in myself because I was only able to achieve approximately 20,000 words, but I was pleased with what I was able to accomplish and some of that novel I wrote has been posted here for others to read and enjoy.  It is still unfinished and perhaps some day I'll return to it and finish it off but this year I've decided to do a completely new novel.  I'm taking some advice from my sister and I'm writing about something I really know and enjoy, World of Warcraft.  I'm not going to write a strategy guide or anything crazy like that.  I'm simply taking a single adventure with my friends who play WoW and I'm writing about it.  I'm really excited about this year's NaNoWriMo project as it is something I really know a lot about and think it will be a  lot of fun writing about it.  I'm not going to bother changing the names or places, the goal here is to write as much as possible in 30 days and hopefully have something that vaguely resembles a novel by the end of it.  Proofreading and editing will come later.

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Speaking of gaming, the gang and I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Cataclysm, the newest expansion to the World of Warcraft collection.  To help bring in the new game and the new content we've all decided to start fresh on a new server.  As if that wasn't challenging enough, we've also decided to play the other faction to add even more "newness" to the game.  For those who are not into WoW or understand what I'm talking about: World of Warcraft is a massive game.  Approximately 11 million active subscribers spread across hundreds of servers.  A server is basically a copy of the same game which houses thousands of players.  Since each server is virtually identical, it doesn't really matter which server you play on to experience the game.  Having multiple servers is a way to help spread the population out to avoid latency so you can have hundreds of thousands of players playing at the exact same time.  You can't communicate with other players on other servers and if you were playing on a different server than I and standing in the same place I was, you wouldn't see me.  It's a tricky concept to explain to someone who has ever played.

This coming February will mark approximately 6 years of playing World of Warcraft for me.  I still find it hard to believe that I've been playing the same game for so long but WoW has "something" that keeps me hooked and as long as Blizzard keeps doing what they're doing, they'll most likely keep me for years to come.  I've met a lot of friends through WoW and made just as many enemies.  I've even met people in real life that I've played with which is strange and cool at the same time.  World of Warcraft isn't just another game, it is an experience and no, Blizzard isn't paying me for saying that.

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Anyway folks, just a quick post and quick update so you know I'm still here and alive.  I'm taking the two things I like to do the most and I'm combining them into a fun and awesome project; World of Warcraft and Writing.  Wish me luck and hopefully during the progress I can keep you all up-to-date on how things are going.  Maybe I'll create a little site widget and update my total word count each day so you can see how far I've progressed.  We'll see.

Until next time.

Cheers,

Al