Improving WoW's PvP

There are two kinds of people PvPing.

There are those for whom PvP is a means to an end, and there are those for whom PvP is a reward in itself. Don't believe the second kind exists? Just take a look at this screenshot from Saylah's blog.


For the second group of people, you don't need to do anything. As you can see from the above pic, and as the old Tarren Mill vs. Southshore grudge matches of yesteryear attested to, people who PvP for PvP's sake will always find a way to slake their thirst for combat. It goes without saying (you know, we say that, but then we still always say what we're going to say anyway) if you add PvP and provide rewards to people who participate, you'll be satisfying both types of PvPers in one hit. Economy of motion FTW.

WoW started off with a great PvE game that allowed for world PvP if you wanted to do that sort of thing, but the initial focus was more on PvE. Then Blizzard realized that people were PvPing all on their own, and doing so with some frequency, and the Battlegrounds were introduced. Way back when, Alterac Valley was a real knock 'em down, grind it out, slug fest. Battles could last for hours, or longer. There are some legendary AV battles that lasted for days where the only people that got rewarded were those playing at the very end when one of the Generals was killed.

Lately PvP has become all about the ZOMG! EPIX! what with Blizzard feeling compelled to provide some sort of reward for people who PvP, which is not necessarily a bad thing. If people are playing your game and over time they can earn a reward, but that reward is just one part of a 6-piece set, most people will keep playing and try to earn all 6 pieces. When people have to pay to play your game it makes sense to keep them happy while taking their money, because happy players stick around longer, which means more money for you. But enough about that, on with the "improving PvP" bit.

So how do we improve PvP? It's simple. We make PvP death mean something. Alterac Valley is taking a step in the right direction with its "reinforcements" system. You win by destroying the other team's towers and by killing the other players. Funny that. You win a PvP match by killing the other team more than they kill you. It makes sense that if getting killed brings your team one step closer to losing, that you should do everything you can to avoid dying, right? And yet...many players in AV fail to grasp this simple concept. They rush headlong into battle and get burned down by 5 or more players, then they Rez at the GY, rush straight back into battle and get killed straight away again. Their death means nothing to them, in fact they think they're helping, but in reality each death brings their team one step closer to losing. So how can we change this? How can we make their death mean something more? How can we get players to support each other? How can we get players to buff and heal each other and do their best to prevent each other getting killed?

Answer: Consecutively longer death penalties.

Die once and you spend 5 seconds waiting to Rez.
Die a second time, wait 10 seconds to Rez.
Die three times, wait 15 seconds, and so on.

I can see a few raised eyebrows and a few people going "Ok, he's lost it. I thought the Permadeath idea was crazy but now he's really lost it."

Stick with me on this. You've read this far; what do you have to lose?

Obviously this is not going to help you if you're the one that keeps on dying. That's not how we're improving PvP. The consecutively longer death penalty is going to hurt your team for letting you die. Ok, that's a bit harsh. Your death might have been because you were the idiot who single-handedly attacked 5 opponents, then again, you might have just got Ambushed by a very deadly little Rogue. Mwah hah ha! Um...where was I?

Unfortunately...my idea relies on the average PvPer being intelligent enough to learn from their mistakes. And if you've done much PvP (at least WoW PvP) I'm sure you're nodding your head here. I'm sure you've seen it all, just as I have. My Rogue has done a lot of AV, but one of the most memorable was actually an AV we lost.

When our Offense smashed themselves against a strong Horde defense, a small group of us held on at Iceblood Graveyard while everyone else was forced to Rez back at Stormpike. While they were unable to break through the Horde offense and join up with us, they made for a formidable Defense and the Horde were forced to win by attrition, slowly reducing our reinforcements one kill at a time.

Meanwhile, down at Iceblood GY, we were having a hell of a time, much like Saylah did in her 7-hour WSG. We were fighting real people in AV. We were actually PvPing! We had a couple of Healers, some CC, and massive quantities of DPS, both Ranged and Melee. We held IB GY for the entire Turtle, and it took a while for us to finally lose, but we had a blast!

We may not have got much Honor but we did rack up the HKs, but what made the battle so much fun was we stuck together and worked as a team. Our Healers kept healing us and we made sure we killed the Horde before they could kill our Healers. We didn't need consecutively longer death penalties, because in our case, we were PvPing properly. By that I mean we were playing as a team and supporting each other, which is what (I'd like to think) consecutively longer death penalties would force people to do. Because if they don't play as a team and support each other, the whole team will suffer as more and more people stay dead longer and longer, and I think everyone reading this understands what that means.

In case you don't, I'll spell it out for you. The longer you spend dead the less resistance your opponents face, so they kill more of your team mates, meaning even more of you are spending more time waiting to Rez, meaning your opponents are facing even less resistance, meaning they kill even more of you and have an even easier time getting to their objective. So the team that supports each other, stops each other from dying, and kills more of the other team faster, will get more of an advantage the longer they continue to play as a team and support each other.

Tanks will actually have a viable spot in PvP. Being in the front lines they're the ones most DPS will target, but as Tanks, and with Healers backing them up, they're going to prove surprisingly hard to kill. That's when your Ranged DPS, supported by your Melee DPS, starts laying into their Melee DPS who are blindly focused on trying to kill your hopefully indestructible Tanks. Your DPS kills their Melee DPS, your CC takes care of their Tank (assuming they even have one), then you all rush their back lines and destroy their Healers and Ranged DPS. And unless they regroup after Rezzing and come back as a Team, their failure to play as a Team will see them get picked off one-by-one and as has already been explained, at this stage defeat is inevitable.

Consecutively longer death penalties. It's a crazy idea, but just crazy enough to work. Then again, given the way the average PvPer behaves in AV, I sort of doubt it.

Going to the Dark Side

A few months ago the WoW Guild which I'd belonged to for over three years collapsed and I ended up rolling a Horde toon on the server where my sister and her family play. With me being in Los Angeles and them being in Australia, unless they log on before dinner I don't normally see them in-game except on weekends. But this isn't much different from my former Alliance Guild where most of my Guildmates reside in North Carolina or other east coast states. I'd log on at 9pm, being midnight their time, and I'd be just in time to say good night to most of them. My Horde Guild is pretty much the same as my former Alliance Guild, although perhaps reversed. Just as I'm getting ready to call it a night, my Horde Guildmates are getting home from work and logging in. Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same.

One thing which never seems to change is the infamous Barrens Chat. The Barrens is a central area in Kalimdor where almost every teen-level Horde players finds themselves, and when they encounter Barrens Chat which is comprised mostly of Chuck Norris and Your Mom jokes ("Who would win if Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee fought? YOUR MOM!") most players level up and get out as fast as they can. But I've noticed another constant about the Barrens, particularly the hub town known as The Crossroads; Alliance players seem to be constantly attacking it. Constantly, as in you cannot even fly through the Barrens without getting an Alert Message that "The Crossroads is under attack!"

The Alliance-equivalent of Barrens would be Westfall, and while the Horde did attack Westfall and Sentinel Hill many times that I experienced, it was not the almost constant badgering that occurs in the Barrens. Alliance seem to be there every single day.

I think part of the explanation for the reduced Horde activity in Westfall is that the only Instance there is the Deadmines and only Alliance get Deadmines quests, whereas the Barrens has three Instances (two of which cater to level 25+ players) and a Neutral Goblin-run town, so there is an abundance of quests available for both Horde and Alliance players, but this doesn't explain why lvl 60+ Alliance players feel compelled to attack The Crossroads on a daily basis. I have a couple of Alliance toons on this same server who have been through Westfall, and it's definitely a one-sided affair with Alliance being the aggressor and attacking Crossroads far more often than Horde hitting Westfall.

This weekend I rolled a Blood Elf Mage but I decided I didn't want my Mage to have an Ostrich mount at 40. I decided the Undead's Skeletal Horse would be a far more appropriate mount, but to get the Horse I need to do A LOT of Undead quests. While I had done the Undead's starting area of Brill before, I'd never worked through the entire Undead side of the map and done all their quests, so this was also a way for me to satisfy my ""Explorer" side and get a bit more out of WoW.

While doing the Undead quests this weekend I noticed that, just like in the Barrens, there is frequent Alliance activity in Tirisfal Glades. Again it seems like this area is under attack at least once a day. I can understand the Alliance presence in Tirisfal Glades because the Scarlet Monastery (a very popular lvl 30-40 Instance) is located here, but that doesn't explain why Brill and other lowbie areas get attacked. Bored Alliance players, perhaps?

When WoW first came out Blizzard were very careful to stay away from painting Alliance and Horde as good and evil, even thought it is a game of Humans & their allies versus Orcs & their allies. What I find interesting is that the people playing the traditionally "good" side seem far more inclined to attack the traditionally "evil" towns, than vice versa. I'm not saying Horde don't attack Alliance towns and high level Horde players don't grief lowbie Alliance players, because they do, but in my personal experience it is the Alliance, or the "good guys", who are the aggressors in this War.

This is only in my personal experience, and is based on observations from just a couple of servers. It's entirely possible that if you play Alliance on a Horde-dominated server that Westfall, Darkshire and Goldshire are constantly under attack, just as The Crossroads is on my server. I've seen Horde attack and kill the NPCs at Sentinel Hill, and I've seen them tear through Darkshire and kick back in the Inn, knowing nobody currently present could defeat them, but these occurrences were few and far between, but again, maybe that was just on my servers.

Many Horde players say they prefer Horde because there's far too many kids playing Alliance. While the infamous Barrens Chat may be a good counter to that, the rebuttal is the almost daily sight of Alliance players descending on Crossroads and the almost constant alert "The Crossroads is under attack!" It could be argued that many MMO griefers are not kids but are actually bored 30+ y/old guys with far too much time on their hands and not enough to do, but if we change "kids" to "immature people" then it might still be true to say that most of the immature people are playing Alliance, Barrens Chat being the exception, of course ;)

*Disclaimer - I'm not saying if you play Alliance that you're immature. I played Alliance for three years and will attest that there are fantastic people on both sides of the game, and Barrens Chat is certainly a classic example of the immaturity level of some of the Horde players. This is my Blog and these are a just few of my observations, and remember, there are exceptions to every rule.

Road Rage: Where's a cop when you need one?

Answer: Right behind you.

Liz & I met up with Xinh and Natey for Xinh's birthday dinner at Craft Restaurant in west Los Angeles, and the dinner was excellent. We ate some great food, had great conversation, basically had a great time, then we came home.

On the I-10 we got into the carpool lane, and a little bit before the Del Mar exit I saw the car behind us flash his headlights (in my side mirror) which prompted Liz to hit her breaks. Liz was doing about 75mph but this guy was still tailgating us and seemed in an awful hurry to get past.

Now we're in the carpool lane which is separated from the rest of the I-10 Freeway by a non-lane. The non-lane is blacktop but it's not really a lane; it's cracked and dirty and cluttered with highway rubbish. So on our left we have the 3-foot high concrete wall that separates our eastbound carpool lane from the westbound carpool lane, and on our right we have, to all intents and purposes, the side of the road. I don't know where the driver behind us expected us to go, but he clearly wanted us to get the &*$%!!! out of his way.

Now I don't know about you but when Liz (& I) are doing 75mph and some jerk pulls up right behind us and tailgates us, then flashes his highbeam lights at us, we're of a mind to slow down. So Liz hit her brakes and dropped from 75 to 65, which of course served to piss this guy off even more. But that's why we do it, right? Not only weren't we getting out of his way, but we were going even slower! He continued flashing his lights, but began swerving back & forth from one side of the lane to the other, as if he might pass us on our left. No, no room there. Maybe on the right? No, let's try the left again. Now let's flash our highbeam lights again. Let's just be a real prick, shall we?

I had my phone out and was considering dialing 911 to report what was clearly a case of road rage. We had one pissed off driver behind us and we didn't know what was going on. The good thing about calling 911 to report a case of Freeway road rage is that 911 from your cellphone (in California) goes straight to the local CHP dispatch, the people you need when you have an emergency on the Freeway.

But the Baldwin Ave. carpool exit was coming up in a few miles and so Liz talked me out of dialing 911. Suddenly I noticed there was a CHP car passing us on our right...in the no-mans lane between the carpool lane and the rest of the Freeway. Then I realized that this was no ordinary CHP car; this was the driver from behind us. The asshole who'd been flashing us with his highbeam lights and swerving back and forth like an arrogant prick WAS A HIGHWAY PATROL OFFICER!!!

Before you jump on me and go defending our law enforcement officers (Oh, they've got stressful jobs, dealing with the public, etc) I have a lot of respect for law enforcement. When I was a young lad, and even into my teenage years, I wanted to be a Police Officer when I grew up. What I have a problem with are assholes, and that's what this CHP Officer was.

So he pulled around in front us and sped on down the Freeway and at the Baldwin Ave. exit we saw him drive into the tunnel to the El Monte Bus Station. WTF? Seriously. What the FUCK? He's in a hurry to get to the Bus Station?

Let's run back over this, shall we?

We're doing 75mph when a car pull up behind us, tailgates us (sitting maybe 10 feet from our bumper) and flashes its highbeams, then swerves left & right as if trying to pass us. When it finally does pass us, it's revealed that the driver is an Officer of the Law.

Now if the officer was responding to an emergency call at the Bus Station, why not use his lights and siren? If he has to pass us, why not hit his lights & blip his siren and let us know that the asshole driver behind us is not really an asshole but a poh-lice officer responding to an emergency. But the asshole never did that. Not once did he make any attempt to identify himself as CHP; he just behaved like your typical asshole driver committing an act of road rage.

It's no wonder people hate the police, when the ones you encounter behave like immature, self-centered, egotistical assholes, as if they're not only the most important people in the world, but the only people in the world.

We were doing 75mph. He could have stopped us for speeding. He didn't do that because he was obviously in a hurry to get somewhere. But if he was in such a hurry and it was a bona fide emergency, why didn't he use his lights and siren? The answer: because he didn't need to. He's an egotistical prick who thinks that just because he's wearing a uniform and carrying a gun and driving a poh-lice car that he's more important than everyone else so everyone else should just get the fuck out of his way.

Some people make excellent police officers, others have no business being in law enforcement; tonight's CHP officer belongs in the second category.

Samurai Sudoku

I've been getting pretty good at Sudoku. I can do a lot of the hard/expert level Sudoku puzzles w/o a cheat sheet or penciling in "possible" numbers. Then I ran across a Samurai Sudoku puzzle. Five Sudoku grids with four of them each sharing one corner with the central square, making an X of interlocked Sudoku puzzles.


Well hey! I thought, that looks fun! And I'm getting pretty good at this game, how hard can it be?

So I printed out a puzzle and gave it a try, and it kicked my arse. I can usually tear through a Hard-level puzzle in 10-15 minutes, so a Hard Samurai Sudoku shouldn't take more than an hour, right? An hour later and I hadn't even completed one grid. I had a full 3x3 square here and there, but WOW! Is this thing tough!

If you're getting bored with regular old Sudoku, why not give Samurai Sudoku a try.

Where did the weekend go?

Something happened on Friday...or maybe nothing happened.

Got up, got the kids ready for school...got back home...made Liz breakfast. Complained about the heat. No baseball game...ahh. JE's after-school Golf Class finished up with a putting tournament. He shot a 22 over 8 holes, or was it 23? He was 1 shot behind 3 other kids who tied for 2nd place. When they announced the older kids' scores, being the kids 8 to 15 y/old, JE beat out most of them. The kid that won first place in JE's group shot a 15, and that was the lowest score of the day among all the kids.

There was a baseball game Friday but we told Coach that JE had his Golf Tournament, and because there was a game on Friday that meant Saturday's game was canceled which freed up our morning so we were able to attend my Bureau's Beach Party. The kids were excited to be going to the beach...so were we. It's been freakishly hot this past week, and the weekend was no exception, so it was good to hit the beach and cool off.

I did a bit of swimming and took the kids into the shallows where they messed around in the waves. The bunny spent half her time getting splashed and running back out to Liz, and half her time running back in to me. About 2pm we finally dragged them off to a birthday party where we had to bribe them with mention of a swimming pool, so that meant even more swimming. Despite a liberal application of sunscreen my shoulders and neck are pink. Not quite red, but definitely the beginning of a sun burn.

In the pool the bunny had on her vest so she was bobbing around and swimming/paddling and having a great time. She went under a couple of times and choked down some water and came up coughing and spluttering. She kept grabbing for me each time she went under, then she'd push away from me, bob around, go under and come right back to me. So the last time she ducked under she came up spluttering, grabbed for me, let out this big long burp, and then punctuated it with the remnants of her lunch. Lovely. Lucky most of it went down the front of her vest so I don't think anyone else saw what had happened and I decided discretion was the better part of valor. Irresponsible of me as a parent? Yeah, probably. But what's a little vomit compared to what else winds up in a swimming pool inhabited by a large number of young children? I'm sure that wasn't the only bodily fluid mixed in with the pool water. Eewww! Yup. That's swimming pools for you.

I dragged a crying bunny out of the pool, crying not because she'd thrown up but because she wanted to stay in and Dad was using the S-word, as in Shower. Inside the in-laws house we started up the stairs when we heard JE crying.

"Why's ge-ge crying?" asked the bunny (ge ge is Mandarin for older brother. Hard G, repeated, so probably G-G rather than Ge-Ge)

"I don't know why he's crying," I said.

"Daddy," wailed my son. "Help!"

"Where are you?" I called back.

"In the toilet," was his reply.

By this time the bunny and I were at the top of the stairs but I knew JE was in the downstairs toilet, so back down I went. I opened the toilet door and there was my son standing in a pool of water with his bathers around his knees, holding a tissue to his mouth, and blood in the toilet. He was standing in water, ok? Water. I know he was in the toilet but he'd just come from the pool and he was standing in a pool of clear water. Trying to do several things at once he'd been filling a water pistol while also relieving himself...he was filling the water pistol at the sink! Good Lord! What's wrong with you people? Oh yeah, I was thinking it too. Heh heh :)

He'd spilled water on the floor, slipped and fallen and smacked his face on the toilet bowl, cutting his lip with his teeth. Bloody lucky he never broke a tooth, especially as they're his adult teeth.

So I have one kid with a bloody lip, and one kid with vomit in her swimming vest. I yell for Liz, then run outside and call to her again. Back inside I help JE get his bathers back up and we come out of the bathroom where the in-laws are coming down the stairs to see what the yelling is about. The MIL has the bunny in her arms. I say she needs a shower but the bunny has convinced the MIL she wants to go back in the pool and that's where the MIL is planning to take her. I repeat that she needs a shower but I'm starting to raise my voice so I stop to let Liz take over. She convinces the MIL that the bunny needs a shower and the MIL and I end up switching kids. She takes JE to get some ice on his lip while I take a crying bunny back upstairs for a shower.

Once everyone is cleaned up the birthday girl's grandmother stops by to tell us to come and eat with them. They're Indian (Asian, not Native American) and they've prepared some yummy Indian food so with no dinner plans we end up sticking around for an hour or two longer than we'd planned.

One of the guys at the party was wearing a Green & Gold Australian Cricket polo, which is a very eye-catching shirt, but as I didn't know the fellow from Adam I decided to listen to him before introducing myself, and either he'd been Stateside a lot longer than I have, or he wasn't a True-Blue Aussie. Liz noticed his shirt as well and she caught my eye and gestured towards him. I put my hand to my ear but towards this fellow and I think Liz got the point because she made a definite attempt to listen to him talk as well. She agreed that he didn't sound like an Aussie. There wasn't even a hint of the Aussie drawl.

Then the FIL appeared to say goodbye (they had a Church function to go to) and I was waiting for him to notice this guy's shirt because I just knew he wouldn't be able to help himself. I knew that as soon as he saw the shirt he'd make a big deal out of me being Australian, then he'd try to push the two of us together despite that we have nothing in common other than (maybe) having come from the same country (and I wasn't sure we did). But the FIL never noticed this striking Green & Gold polo and he said his goodbyes and left without causing a scene. Thank heavens the FIL is color-blind and so an eye-catching Green & Gold polo became just another grey shirt.

After eating yummy Indian food and some delicious chocolate birthday cake we finally got away ourselves and returned home, to a very hot house. Although it was after 8pm the temperature (according to our A/C) was 82-degrees. It was close to midnight before the house was remotely cool enough to consider going to bed.

When I got up the next morning at 8am the A/C showed the inside temperature was still in the 80s. Insane!

And yet Xinh came by and the three of us headed out to the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Reserve to attend the local Renaissance Fair. We went to one out at Corona a year or two back and it wasn't too bad. It seems to have gone a lot more commercial this year, with a larger venue, a lot more vendors, and some more professionally put-on shows...and the Admission price has been jacked up now, too. It was $8 for parking just to get into the Recreation Reserve, then as we approached the parking area for the Ren Fair they advertised "Valet Parking" for an additional $10.

One of the cars in front of us stopped at the entrance to the Valet Parking area and appeared to be either asking the "attendant" about the Valet Parking, or perhaps people in the car were just debating whether or not to Valet Park. But they stayed there long enough that the driver behind him grew impatient and pulled out to drive down the Self Park road. We couldn't believe our eyes when the Attendant leaped in front of this car and stopped them. Seriously. When the driver of the first car is just sitting there and can't make up his mind if he wants to Valet Park or not, why not let the cars behind him go around?

Then in the very roughly marked parking area Liz started to pull in and park beside one car when another attendant tried to direct her in behind that same car. Uh no. We're driving an SUV. We're already committed to parking next to this car. To park behind that car we'd have to back up because our approach needs to be on an entirely different line. Liz just kept pulling forward and the attendant yielded. Smart lad. 200 lbs of flesh & bone stands no chance against 3,500 lbs of SUV.

But that wasn't the end of our parking attendant woes. On the way back out we exited the parking area right next to the Valet Parking entrance. We had a temporary Stop Sign in front of us, so Liz pulled up to a stop and was letting the oncoming traffic turn in front of us as they all headed for the Self-Parking entrance, but this wasn't good enough for the parking attendant. He literally ran out in front of us waving his flags, stopped in front of us then proceeded to wave every oncoming car through. The cars kept coming and the attendant just stood in front of us, blocking our way. Never mind that we were facing a Stop Sign; the attendant was determined to make sure we yielded the right of way. Finally he held his flags up and stopped the oncoming traffic then waved us through. I swear he was being sarcastic when he said "Thank you, Ma'am" to Liz as we drove passed. She was equally sarcastic when she replied "Whatever!"

So you may have noticed I didn't talk much about what happened between us parking, and leaving, and that's because not much happened. We got inside the Fair, walked around a bit and got very, very hot. We ate, drank, walked some more, decided we'd seen enough and were hot enough and it was time to leave. Poor Xinh had to pay full price to get in (and admission wasn't cheap) whereas before purchasing our tickets Liz and I were accosted by a woman trying to give us an internet ticket. For free. Was this for real? "Someone gave me several tickets in the parking lot," she said, "and this was an extra one." We looked at the ticket, it looked fair dinkum. What did we have to lose? Liz bought one ticket and we approached the gate. I noticed the buyer's name was on the internet ticket and quickly concocted a story about how I'd given my money to a coworker and he'd bought my tickets. This was also my backup story in case the ticket buyer had printed multiple copies and my ticket had already been used. Son of a bitch has ripped me off! Wait until I get to work on Monday! But none of that was necessary. Liz & Xinh showed their tickets, the lady scanned my e-ticket, and we were in.

We looked at some pendants but Liz wasn't too fussed over any of them. I saw quite a few men in kilts but no kilt vendors, and I was all ready to buy a kilt and fully prepared to strip down and don my newly acquired clothing, but nope, it didn't happen.

The Scottish Festival is next week, down in Orange County at the Costa Mesa Fairgrounds. It was supposed to be out at Pomona but the venue was changed at the last minute. I'm not sure if we'll go. It's cheaper than the Ren Fair, and Costa Mesa is going to be a lot cooler than Pomona would be. I don't know if the thought of me in a kilt is enough to convince Liz and Xinh to go...or perhaps it's more inclined to turn them off. We'll see ;)

Improv Everywhere's "Best Game Ever"

I think the Best Game Ever Mission was simply amazing.

Background: In 2007, NBC apparently worked with IE's Charlie Todd to shoot a few missions to create a Pilot episode for a television version of Improv Everywhere, which despite the popularity of Punk'd, Funniest Home Videos, and various other 'Reality TV' shows, was never picked up.

Best Game Ever illustrates how the ingenuity and spontaneity (if IE Missions could ever be said to be spontaneous) of IE's Agents, combined with the big budget of a network television station, turned an every-day Little League game into what is quite possibly the best game these Little Leaguers will ever attend in their entire lives.

Agents posing as fans arrived dressed in team colors, or went barechested with 'their' team's name written across their chests, and by the bottom of the first innings the normally empty stands of this Hermosa Beach, CA field were packed with Mudcat and Lugnut fans.

During the second innings 'vendors' appeared and began 'selling' Peanuts and Popcorn to fans and bewildered parents alike ('selling' as in giving away for free).

Hermosa Beach Little League's Commissioner was the only one in the know (other than NBC and IE of course) and he provided NBC with photos and stats of the kids which were used to make up Programs for that particular game. An IE Agent took the Programs and handed them out to the now very excited parents.

The third innings was when the game (& everyone) stopped and stared as the truck parked beyond the outfield wall opened up and a Jumbotron screen emerged. Yes, a Jumbotron at a Little League game. You think kids go nuts when they see themselves on the Jumbotron at a regular game? Imagine being a kid at a Little League game with a Jumbotron. Your turn at bat? There's you, at bat, on the Jumbotron! You just made a double-play? Quick! Watch the Jumbotron for the Instant Replay. Very cool.

NBC enlisted the help of their own sports commentator Jim Grey, and he and Agent Todd provided commentary for the game which was broadcast over the field's PA System.

There were team Mascots.

There was the Goodyear Blimp which flew over the field (on its way to another game) and displayed the message Go Lugnuts! Go Wildcats! on its LED screen.

And at the end of the it all there was a Press Conference run by two Agents posing as Journalists.

All of the Agents stayed in character which only helped to convince everyone that NBC really were doing live coverage of the game.

I'd just hate to see one of the kids come forward in 10 or 20 years time and sue NBC and IE claiming emotional distress, etc,. Yes, it was a prank, but unlike Punk'd and other hidden camera shows this one was not designed to piss people off but rather the opposite, to ensure that the kids and the parents really did have the Best Game Ever.

Tuesday's Ten Things...

that you're really good at. (Gacked from Xinher)

1. Procrastinating (also gacked from Xinher)
2. Archery
3. Navigation
4. Lasagna (both the making and the eating of)
5. Customer Service
6. Sudoku :D
7. Climbing
8. Editing & Proof-reading
9. Finding stuff on the Internet
10. Licking

Going once, going twice...

We had our daughter's Preschool's Open House tonight, which includes dinner and a Silent Auction/fund-raiser for the Preschool. Last year we bid on and won a pair of Two for One Admissions to Legoland, only to discover we'd actually bought "Two For One" coupons. I tried to console Liz by telling her the money we'd paid helped support the Preschool so it was for a good cause, but she was still pissed that someone would "donate" coupons that they probably got for free from a hotel lobby. The Two For One Coupons were back again this year, but I think people learned their lesson last year and there weren't many bidding on them.

I noticed a nice, silver pendant in the shape of the pink Breast Cancer ribbon, it was valued at $15 but the minimum bid was just $7. As I looked at it I noticed a young girl hovering around me. I think I was staring at the pendant for too long and she could sense I was intending to bid on it.

"Is that your bid?" I asked her, and she confirmed what I'd suspected. Her relief was obvious when I told her I wouldn't bid on it and went back to perusing the other auctions.

When I found Liz I mentioned the pendant to her and told her about the girl who I'd chosen not to outbid. Guess who had no such qualms about doing so? I returned to the pendant and looked at the bidding sheet, and there beneath the girl's name was my wife's name and a current winning bid of $9.

Apparently the girl's father had told her she could only spend $7 on the pendant (valued at $15). "Too bad for her," said Liz gleefully, clutching her new pendant. "It's mine now. Mwah hah ha!" Ok, my wife isn't that bad, but when she wants something she's not one to let doe-eyed little children stand in her way.

The big drawcard was the Live Auction where various keepsakes involving the children's art work were up for bid. There was a quilt made up of silk-screened squares of drawings from one class, an apron with handprints of all the kids from another class, a serving tray with several hand & footprints permanently printed on it. The apron was from our daughter's class but the handprints weren't labeled. To the casual viewer it could have passed for a simple apron upon which some children have wiped their paint-covered hands. We decided not to bid on the apron but it went for far more than we'd have been prepared to pay anyway. Almost all of the keepsake items went for $100 or more, except for the serving tray which still sold for at least $50. Also up for bid were Front Row seats to the Christmas Pageant, and Front Row seats to the Graduation Ceremony (where your child graduates from Preschool). The Christmas Pageant seats sold for $30 or so, but one parent (or grandparent) bid $100 for the Graduation Ceremony Seats. As a Fund Raiser it sure beats trying to sell chocolates, or low-quality gifts that you're embarrassed to deliver to your coworkers.

Vincent van Gogh

I like this song a lot better than "American Pie", and no, I don't mean the movie.



While not the original video clip (and I'm not sure if there ever was one) this is still as depressing as all hell but not only do you get to hear Don McLean sing one of his (IMHO) best songs, you also view a selection of paintings by one of the most misunderstood artists the world has ever known...or not known, I guess that should be.

A stuffed weekend

Liz and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary on Friday, April 25th. We went out for sushi at Maki & Sushi in Arcadia, the in-laws treated us. Why does the second cup of Sake taste soooo much better than the first? And the third tastes even better still?

The kids went home with the in-laws and Liz and I hit the Starbucks next door where Liz discovered that good things really can come in small packages when she ordered a Short White Chocolate Mocha. We then stopped at Target and picked up a few snacks and goodies, for Amber's school and in preparation for Saturday night.

At home we watched Night Watch. Don't take it too seriously and it's quite an enjoyable movie. Some very clever special effects, interesting storyline. The Night Watch are the alleged 'good guys', the Day Watch are the alleged 'bad guys', but we get the feeling that things are not that cut & dried when we see a Night Watch patrol first mock a Day Watch patrol, then threaten to drive over the DW patrol's car with their truck. Day Watch (the movie) should be arriving within a day or so, and with the way Night Watch ended Liz and I are both looking forward to seeing what happens in Day Watch.

Saturday arvo we picked up JE and took him to Baseball. The kids were pitching for the first time this game (instead of using the pitching machine) and they didn't do too bad. There were a few wild pitches but nobody got hit; the kids were pretty good at dodging :D They were also allowed to steal Second Base, but only Second; no stealing Third or Home. It was a bloody hot day and by the time the last kid was struck out it was 3pm and my shirt was almost wet through. I left Liz at the Snack Shack where she was working and dropped JE with the in-laws; Liz called me shortly after, she was done with Snack Shack duties and was already on her way home where Xinh was waiting for us.

I made it home by 3:30 or so, had a quick shower and off we went to the Sports Arena (near USC) for the filming of Gladiator. Our tickets said to arrive no later than 5pm, we were there a little after 4pm and were admitted shortly after 4:30, after signing the NDA. The funny thing with NDAs is while they restrict your right to talk about what you see, they don't say anything about not talking about what you didn't see, so let's talk about what we didn't see :D

We were at a taping of American Gladiator but we didn't see any Gladiators, because we didn't watch any of the events where the challengers go up against the Gladiators. Notice I have not told you what we did see, only what we didn't see, and that's not a breach of the NDA ;) Now in knowing what we didn't see, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out what we did see, but I can't tell you what we did see because that would be a violation of the NDA :D

After leaving the Sports Arena and heading home we decided to dine at the Denny's close by our house; it being one of the few dining establishments still open at 10pm where they don't ask you "Would you like Fries with that?"

We ordered a plate of Nachos to share (very, very good Nachos) I also ordered a Boca Burger and a Chocolate Shake. I finished the Shake, the Boca Burger, some of my fries, and between us we ate almost the entire plate of Nachos. I was stuffed! We sat there chatting and picking at the Nachos until Xinh wisely covered them with her napkin. We were stuffed full but with Nachos still on the plate we felt compelled to eat them, until Xinh covered them and declared them 'dead'. It was almost 11:30 by the time we got home. Liz stayed up, claiming she couldn't go to sleep on a full stomach. I don't have that problem and was asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow.

Sunday was my office's 'March of Dimes' Fund Raiser, in the form of a Bowling Tournament. We picked up JE from the in-laws and a-bowling we did go. JE came second among the kids. Among the adults we had a couple of guys who brought their own balls...and shoes. They were able to do clever things with the ball, like throw it towards the gutter but get it to spin back into the center of the lane and knock down all the pins, and they could do this almost all the time. Pretty clever. For being a kid JE got to pick a couple of books from the assortment brought by the organizers. It cost us $62.50 which was two games each and all the pizza & soda we could eat & drink, plus JE got himself two new books. Not bad for an afternoon of fun and fellowship with family and coworkers, and all for a good cause, too.

When we got home I showed JE Ninja Gaiden:Dragon Sword for the DS. He thought it was pretty cool. It's a video game with Ninjas, what more could a 7-year old ask for? I left him playing Ninja Gaiden and went upstairs, where I fired up the Wii and began playing the latest incarnation of Mario Kart. I got busted when JE came up for help with Ninja Gaiden. We played some two player and I was disappointed to see that the two-player Grand Prix option is not in the Wii version. In almost every other version of Mark Kart that I've played two people can play together and race in the cups and unlock extra content. In the Wii version you can still do a Grand Prix of sorts, but it's not the official Grand Prix so winning won't unlock any extra content.

For a two-day weekend we sure packed in a lot of fun.

Starbucks and the case of the missing Short

I did a spot of research on Starbucks' mysterious 'Short' drink and discovered some interesting information. Way back when Starbucks was nothing more than a little known coffee shop in Seattle, they had just two commonly recognized sizes of drinks. They had their current Tall size, being the larger of their two drinks, and they had their shorter drink being, quite naturally, the Short.

Short and Tall. It makes perfect sense, and it explains why Starbucks' smallest drink is called a Tall, because once upon a time it wasn't their smallest drink, in fact it still isn't, because right now, at this very moment (hang on...) ok, right now I'm sipping a Short Cafe Latte from Starbucks, and typing one-handed, and burning my lip. Ow!

So originally you had a choice of Short and Tall.

Actually, originally you didn't have a choice of Short or Tall, because Starbucks originally just sold coffee beans and brewing equipment, then Howard Schultz came along and everything changed. Actually everything stayed the same because Starbucks' original owners ignored Schultz and his recommendation that they sell coffee drinks, so Schultz quit his job with Starbucks and founded his own coffee shop chain, Il Giornale.

Now Starbucks was still a successful chain in its own right, and in 1984 the owners bought out their original supplier, Peet's Coffee & Tea.

Meanwhile Schultz was also successful, and Il Giornale was growing, so much so that in 1987 Schultz made his move, approached his former employers, and bought them out. He then rebranded his Il Giornale stores as Starbucks and the coffee shop world changed overnight.

Accurately predicting the American consumer's desire for more, Schultz introduced a larger sized drink. Starbucks already had a Short and a Tall, so the larger drink was given the name Grande, which means Large in Italian. But the American consumer still wanted MORE!!! and so the Venti was born; Venti being Italian for Twenty. Seriously. You can check for yourself if you don't believe me.

In those days the price boards were the old style, with letters on pegs that you could move around to customize their appearance and change the wording, and Starbucks staff, or Partners as they prefer to be called, began getting tired of the clutter caused by four different sizes and their accompanying prices. With the American consumers' penchant for more, More, MORE, and one of the sizes needing to go, Short lost out and disappeared from the board, but it still exists. You can still order it. And with Starbucks policy of "Just say yes" you should not be denied your Short-sized drink.

You might get Partners telling you the Short is the Kids' drink, and so they aren't available for anyone over 12. They may tell you they don't have any Short-sized cups. Like Xinh said in her post on my previous thread, you may even be asked if you mean a Tall. But stick to your guns and insist on getting your 'Short' drink.

It's possible if you order your Short in one of the chains located inside a Barnes & Noble, or in my case my local Toyota dealer, that the staff really may not be aware of the Short drink, but it exists. If they try the "We have no Short-sized cups," smile at them nicely! and reply, "That's ok, I'll take a Short in a Tall-sized cup," but don't let them charge you for a Tall.

The Short does exist, it's $2.45 for a Short Latte, and it's a pretty good drink at that. You get the same amount of Espresso as with a Tall Latte (so the same amount of caffeine), but less milk so less fat & less calories. And because you have less milk you have a higher Espresso to Milk ratio, which means your Short Latte has a bolder flavor than the Tall. It really does. In fact I'd even go so far as to say that the Short Latte is one of Starbucks' better tasting drinks.

I wonder if Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf do an 8oz Latte...

Fast Food in the U.S.

I recently stumbled across the Blog titled Working as Designed, by Joseph Hewitt, an American living in Australia. One of Joseph's threads, a rant on Fast Food & Cashiers, inspired me to write the following. Originally this was going to be a simple comment on his Blog, but I get carried away sometimes and a simple comment turned into a post of my own :)

With me being an Aussie living in the U.S., Joseph's experiences and mine are almost mirror images of each other. In Joseph's case he has trouble placing his Fast Food order because his Cashier keeps cutting him off and trying to finalize his sale, in my case I have a Cashier who keeps wanting to add to my order.

Having a background in Retail I can tell you that corporate-retail in the U.S. is all about the Up-Sell, whereas retail in Australia wasn't so big on it (at least 15 years ago it wasn't). My Aussie manager was a real laid back guy, whereas my U.S. managers would always push the Up-Sell. It wasn't enough to point the customer in the direction of the requested item, you had to accompany them to the shelves, find the item for them and put it in their hand THEN recommend something else based on what they're now looking at. Good Lord, man! At least tell them about this week's Sale Items!

When working the registers we were told to always recommend Add-On items from the counter. Giftcards, Bookmarks, gadgets designed for slicing open the plastic wrap on CDs. It didn't matter what you pushed, all that mattered was trying to sell the customer something extra.

The Fast Food sector in the U.S. is the same, hence the very well-known (and often mocked) phrase, "Would you like Fries with that?"

Would you like a desert today? Apple Pie? Sundae? Coffee? Shake? Can I somehow convince you to spend more money here today?

My local Jack in the Box sells Gift Cards. Gift Cards! For Fast Food! Incredible!

But do you know what is the sneakiest Up-Sell of them all? When you order a Combo Meal, and the Cashier asks if you want the Medium or Large size.

What do you reply?

"Medium is fine."

What did they just do to you? Quickly now!

That's right. They just increased your order from the Small Combo Meal to the Medium-sized Combo meal. They Up-Sold you a higher priced meal! Oh yes, they did!

My local Jack has the Medium prices on their Drive-Thru board, but my local Carl's Jr? They have the Small Combo price listed, or they have a sign in the window that advertizes a Super Star Combo for $2.99, but when you go in and order a Super Star Combo what happens? They ask if you want Medium or Large. There's no mention of Small, being the $2.99 price. You say Medium, they ask for $4.33, you hand over $5, get your change & your meal and go to your table unaware that you just fell for the stealthiest Up-Sell of them all, and what could possibly be considered a Bait & Switch tactic.

Next time you go to your local Fast Food establishment and order a Combo Meal, when they ask if you want a Regular/Medium or Large sized combo, say, "Small, thanks."

You don't need to eat all those Fries anyway. Lord knows I don't. Waaaay too much sodium. You'll pay for it later.

When they ask if you want Curly Fries tell them "No thanks, and actually...hold the Fries."

"Excuse me, sir? But the Combo Meal comes with Fries. You don't want them?"

"No, no I don't. And don't worry about the drink, either."

"You don't want the Fries or the drink? You...don't want the Combo then?"

"No, no I don't. I'll just have the sandwich, thanks."

"Um...ok. Would you...like a dessert then? Maybe an Apple Pie? Or a coffee?"

"No, it's ok. In fact, don't worry about the sandwich either. I've got some bread & meat at home, I can make myself a sandwich. I think I've got some beer, too, so thanks anyway. See ya later...or not."

Ok, so I'm kidding about that last part, but unless you're really keen to supersize yourself, the next time your Fast Food Cashier asks if you want a Medium or Large Combo, ask for Small.

You'll save yourself some money, some calories, and maybe even some heartache of the most serious kind a few years down the road.

A weekend at Mammoth

One of my coworkers has a cabin up in Mammoth Lakes and for years he'd offered me the use of it, but it wasn't until he retired that I finally took him up on his offer, so last Friday Liz, the kids and I set out on the 320 mile, 5 1/2 hour trip to Mammoth. All I can say is all hail the mighty DS, the in-car DVD player, and he who shall henceforth be known as Mr. Bean, for without whom a 5 1/2 hour car ride with a 3 y/old and 7 y/old would have otherwise been unbearable.

We left around 9am and ended up stopping at a McDonalds in Lone Pine for a late lunch, and this was the view from our window...

The trip was fairly uneventful, although the kids kept asking "Is that The Mountain?" every time a new mountain covered in snow came into view.

The trip was also made easier by the acquisition of the In-laws' GPS/navigator, which the kids thought was funny when I changed the voice from a tinny American woman to a rather cultured sounding English lady. Then I changed the car from a sedan to a monster truck but that was about the limit of the customizing I could do. The GPS did try to do some strange things, like take us via the Angeles Forest Hwy. Sure it's 20 miles shorter, but we don't save a heck of a lot of time going that way. In fact after we drove past the recommended turn off and the nice English lady realized we didn't want to take the high road and recalculated our route, our ETA was adjusted by just 5 minutes.

The GPS also made it easy finding our cabin when we arrived at Mammoth Lakes and we were pleasantly surprised to find we were about 5 minutes from both the center of town, and from the mountain's lower lodge where we were booked for our skiing lessons. The GPS also made it somewhat easy to find the upper lodge when we needed to drop off our daughter at daycare. Yup, we spent the day skiing while our youngest spent the day in daycare.

After a huge mix-up that's probably fairly typical of most family's first day at the snow, we dropped JE at his Skiing class then Liz & I found our instructor. About an hour or so later our small class was broken up into two smaller classes and Liz and I went our separate ways. Despite having been skiing just once before, 15 years ago, I'd retained enough skills to move up into the novice group, while Liz remained in the beginner's group with a white guy who fell over and cried a lot, and a black guy who also fell over a lot then quit.

When one of the guys in my group lost his poles our Instructor informed us we didn't really need them, and he made us all leave our poles at the chair lift. With no poles we had to concentrate more on the skis so we probably did get better, faster, and by the end of the day we were skiing Blue Square runs and dodging trees.

By the end of the day Liz's feet and my legs were killing me. Liz's feet because her boots were a shade too small, and my legs because I'd mistakenly tucked the inner lining of my ski pants into my boots, and the clips chewed the hell out of my shins and calves.

Expecting the worst Liz stopped by JE's class and was surprised to find him having a blast and skiing like he'd been doing it for years. When Liz saw some toddlers learning to ski, who were clearly younger than our daughter, she decided that next year we'd all go skiing; no more daycare.

Finally, I leave you with a picture of the view looking out the back door of our cabin.Somewhere under there is a pile of firewood.

What happens when...

you're going to be Out Of The Office so you set up an Autoreply on your Email Inbox to automatically email people who send you emails to let them know you're going to be Out Of The Office...then just to make sure it's working you send yourself a test email.

What happens is your email program receives your test email, then sends the sender an email to notify them that you're going to be out of the office, but you're the sender, so your email program sends you the notice. When that Out of Office Autoreply arrives in your Inbox, what happens? Oh yeah, your email program says "Hey! Another new Email! Send that Sender an Out of Office Autoreply!" So it does, and it sends itself another Out of Office Autoreply.

If the programmers who wrote your email program were smart they allowed for this eventuality, and your email program will realize what's happening after the 2nd or 3rd email it receives from itself and it will stop Autoreplying. If the programmers were not smart...well...I'd hate to see the results of the email bomb that you inadvertently sent yourself.

John Barrowman aka Capt. Jack

John Barrowman was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but moved to Aurora, Illinois with his family when he was 9-years old. When his new school mates made fun of the way he spoke Barrowman imitated their accent, but continued to speak with a Scottish accent when at home and with family.

Openly gay, Barrowman was considered for the role of Will in Will and Grace but was rejected because the producers felt he was "too straight".

"The sad thing is it's run by gay men and women," said Barrowman, expressing contempt at the idea that all gay men act the same way.

Barrowman owns two homes, one in London, and one in Cardiff, Wales (the setting for his series Torchwood) where he lives with his partner of 15 years, Scott Gill.

Barrowman told Scotland's The Herald newspaper that he had no plans to marry, saying, "Why would I want a 'marriage' from a belief system that hates me?" They did become Civil Partners on December 27, 2006, but the couple insist this is not a marriage.

Said Barrowman, "We're just going to sign the civil register. We're not going to have any ceremony because I'm not a supporter of the word marriage for a gay partnership." Forty family members and close friends attended their ceremony ;)

Barrowman's autobiography Anything Goes was written by his sister Carole, and is due to be published in the US later this month.

In February, 2008, Barrowman and Gill adopted a Jack Russell terrier, whom they named...Captain Jack :D

What the???

Well this just doesn't make sense...but then, that's the Irish for you.

St. Patrick's Day is this coming Monday, March 17th.

The 2008 Los Angeles Irish Fair & Music Festival...was last weekend, March 8th & 9th.

Wouldn't you think that with St. Patrick's Day falling on a Monday, the Irish Fair would be held the weekend immediately preceding it?

I guess we're not going to the Irish Fair this weekend, then.

If you thought Karma was a bitch

you were right. But Life, Life is even worse. Life loves nothing more than to give you a swift, hard kick to the happy sacks when you're already down.

On top of everything else, my grandfather (my Mum's father) also passed away this weekend.

We saw this coming when he was moved into the nursing home not too long ago, but it was still a surprise to my mum and her family that he went out so fast. And for it to happen right now, it's just one more thing my mum has to deal with on top of everything else she's currently going through.

Then again, it could also be argued that this is something to help take mum's mind off her own problems.

Crap

March 13th will be three years since my father passed away.

My Mum had a cancerous tumor removed last week. The tests done this week showed they got all the tumor, but the surrounding area contains precancerous cells so she needs to have another operation.

I sent my dog away on Friday and unlike other times when I tried to find a new home for him, this time he's not coming back. The house has been strangely quiet without him.

When you're feeling down like this, whatever you do, do not listen to Darryl Worley's song, "I Miss My Friend".

One fine day, on the way to work...

While crossing the road on my work today there was a small black object lying in the crosswalk, and my OCD said I just had to kick it, so I did. I gave it a good boot out into the middle of the crosswalk, leaving it in the perfect position to receive a second booting (and I have my Doc Marten's on today, so I was able to deliver a really good booting). But as I gave the object a second booting I realized it was a glasses case, and I also realized there was something inside.

After the second booting the glasses case wound up in the gutter and I scooped it up and attempted to open it. It was a little tricky because it had obviously been run over by at least one car (and probably more) so the dohickey (or is that doohickey?) on the zipper had broken off, but my OCD and persistence paid off and I got it open anyway. Inside was a purple BIC lighter which still worked, a white set of ear buds which had not survived their stay in the middle of the road (and would never work again), and a small silver squarish object, with the Apple logo on one side, and the words iPod written underneath.

The object claiming to be an iPod had a couple of scratches on it and it had obviously taken a direct hit from a car tire, but it was still intact and other than the dents it looks a lot like this...
I got to work and while booting up my PC I plugged my speakers into the 3.5mm jack on this so-called iPod and flicked the Off switch to the on position. A little green light came on next to the switch and the dulcet tones of some of the Inglewood and Compton's finest talent filled the air. "F**k you, Ni&&er! Mother f**king Ni&&er!"

Well, how about that? This little silver object that claims to be an iPod really is an iPod, and even though it's been run over by a car it still works. But...I better turn it off before other people get in to work and hear it. For some reason people get offended by words like "Mother f**king Ni&&er!"

Free iPod. Now those are much nicer words :)

Today's the day

During lunch today we were discussing the situations that could occur from being born on February 29th, like when would you celebrate your birthday? On March 1st, because you were born the day after February 28th? Or on February 28th because you were born the day before March 1st?

We also discussed people having twins, with one born on Feb. 29th, and one on March 1st. The consolation prize there is that the Feb. 29th twin gets to say he or she is the oldest (apparently that's important to twins).

What would really suck would be being born on the 29th, and your older twin being born on the 28th. Not only do you only get to celebrate your true birthday once every four years, but you're also the younger twin! I bet your older twin wouldn't let you forget that one.

What about twins being born on the cusp of a star sign. Imagine one twin being born on June 21st, and thus being a Gemini (rather appropriate for a twin), with their younger sibling being born a few minute later...on June 22nd, and being a Leo.

Or one twin being born on December 31st of one year, and the second twin born on January 1st of the next year.

The plus for these twins is at least they get their own birthday, right?

Or how about twins being born on each side of the cut-off date for school enrollment. So one twin starts school a year earlier. How fucked up would that be? You're twins, but you're in different grades at school. You're in grade 1 and your brother is in grade 2...but...but...but...you're twins?

What other bizarre situations could there be with twins being born on different days?

Sometimes I surprise (& scare) myself.

While driving home tonight (in separate cars), Liz and I entered the freeway and began merging with the traffic. There being a lot of traffic I figured I'd just get off at the next off-ramp so I pulled back out into what looked like the exit lane and drove down it for a bit. However the exit lane ended long before the off-ramp so I was forced to merged back into the lane I'd just left. I saw Liz's SUV a couple of cars in front of me, and right behind her was a Honda Accord, or some kind of low profile, Japanese wannabe-sports cars favored by street racing Ricers who think they know how to drive.

As I got set to once again merge with the traffic the guy in the Accord (or whatever it was) threw down the gauntlet, and in the way of arsehole drivers the world over (and I am definitely not excluding myself from this group) practically kissed my wife's rear bumper. I kid you not, the guy got his car so close to my wife's car that if they'd been parked, you'd have had a tough time walking between them. My wife would be the first person to tell you that normally I'm a fairly laid-back, easy going guy, and that too often I let people take advantage of me...but I also have a malicious streak and in the case of arsehole drivers, who are very much a weakness of mine, I sometime give in to my urges and just can't help pissing them off.

In the case of our Rice Burner friend I accepted his challenge, and I pulled up alongside his car in a manner that definitely said "Let me IN!!!" To his credit RB did not back down. Then again, why would he? I drive a Ford Focus, hardly an intimidating GET THE FUCK OUTTA MY WAY!!! kind of vehicle, and RB obviously fancied himself as a Topgun driver or he wouldn't have been an arsehole about not wanting to let me in in the first place.

Now if he hadn't been a prick and tried to shut the gate on me in such a glaringly obvious way I might have just pulled in behind him...I might not, but I might have too. It's a moot point now, anyway :D

For several seconds the traffic edged forward and stopped, forward and stopped, forward and stopped, and RB and I sat side-by-side, neither of us refusing to back down. But what RB didn't know was that we were right behind my wife...and she's even more evil than I am >:)

My wife braked and came to a complete stop for a couple of seconds, then she quickly accelerated, opening up a large gap between her and RB. My reactions were a lot quicker and despite having a pitiful 4-cylinder engine (no, it's not the Z-Tec) my Focus leaped forward and into the gap and despite his best (worst?) intentions and aggressive driving, RB found himself behind me, and BOY! Was he mad! His highbeams went on and he started tooting his horn. Not beep-beep-beep, but one, looooong continuous
toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot.

Now I've put a t on both the start and the finish of that toot, and that's not correct because RB never let off his horn. All the way down the freeway to the next exit lane he sat behind me with his high beams on and his horn blaring. It didn't bother me. I just flipped that tab on my rearview mirror, the one that changes the angle of your mirror and negates drivers behind you with really bright lights, then I turned my radio up. And I tapped my brakes a bit, even when it wasn't necessary, and I used my handbrake to come to an almost complete stop, which is really nasty because your handbrake doesn't engage your brake lights. I deliberately made RB's life hell. When a car in the lane next to me put on his indicator, I slowed down and let that guy in. Why wouldn't I? The guy was polite and used his indicator, and it's not like I needed to be behind my wife. I just wanted to get in front of RB because he didn't want me there.

Don't go getting on my case. RB deliberately tried to shut me out, then had a temper tantrum when I still got in. I agree, I deliberately escalated a case of Road Rage. You've got a problem with that? This is my Blog and the Internet's a big place; go find someone who cares.

Finally we got to the exit lane and I pulled into it and RB pulled out behind me. He probably thought I was going to do the same thing again, and he either wanted to get in behind me and flash me and tooooooooooooooot me some more, or he wanted to try and cut me off. But I just exited the Freeway like I'd planned to do all along and RB merged back into the traffic. While in the exit lane he passed the car that I'd let in before, which meant he cut in right behind my wife who'd been watching the whole thing in her rearview mirror.

My wife told me that as soon as RB got in behind her she promptly hit her brakes and RB, who'd been driving far too fast and aggressively, apparently almost ran up her arse.

Sometimes I surprise myself. I know I've got a mean streak but I didn't realize I could be such a complete bastard.

I've been in the other lane before. I've had people determined to muscle their way in front of me. Some people I let in, because I know they're coming in and there's no way I can stop them short of running them off the road. Other people think they're coming in but they're not aggressive enough and they back off and go behind. Other times people are very polite about wanting to come in. They make eye contact and use their indicators and I'm more than willing to let them in front of me.

It's like being a pedestrian in China. You make eye contact with the driver of the car and even though it's the norm in China for most pedestrians to yield to vehicles, yes, even in the crosswalk, many drivers would make eye contact with the big Kwai Lo and stop for me. But sometimes I'd make eye contact and it was me who stopped and let the car go through, because I could tell that this driver was quite willing to run me down if I crossed in front of him.

RB was a complete bastard. He saw my car coming down the merge lane and deliberately tried to shut me out. What he didn't realize was that this was one of those rare times where the other guy was not going to back down. RB threw down the gauntlet and I accepted the challenge, then he lost at his own game and had a temper tantrum. A classic case of Road Rage, yes, and a classic example of a sore loser, too.

Premades vs PUGs in the BGs

If you looked at that title and said "What???" you probably want to stop reading now :P

My Rogue is currently grinding Honor for two Gladiator swords and after two nights it's very obvious that by the time I have enough Honor to buy the Swords, I'm going to have Marks coming out of my ears. It seems to me it's a flaw in the system when I have enough Marks to make a purchase, but I'm still lacking in Honor. Part of the reason is the way Honor is awarded on the BGs, but it also comes down to the price of items being too high...or perhaps more correctly, the number of Marks needed is too low.

The Honor price of an item should be in proportion to the number of Marks required to buy it, which should be directly related to the Honor earned by the average losing player in a BG. Now before you fire up those Flamers, I am not advocating ZOMG! Welfare Epics! I'm prepared to work for my epic Blades, I just don't think I should have stacks of Marks by the time I have the Honor to buy my Epics, and I certainly shouldn't have stacks of them left over after buying my Epics, either.

Blizzard need to calculate the average amount of Honor earned by a player on the losing side of each battle, and use that to determine the Honor & Marks needed to purchase an item. So just for the sake of argument, let's say a player earns 100 Honor for losing one EOTS match, that means he has 100 Honor and 1 EOTS Mark. If he wants to buy a Sword that requires him to spend 10,000 Honor he should also be spending the equivalent in Marks, being 100, but that's never the case. In fact you rarely need more than 40 Marks to buy one item, and most can be bought for 20 Marks or less. Both of my desired swords cost 20 Marks each, but one requires 9,000 Honor and the other 18,000 Honor. I have 10 Marks but barely 2,000 Honor, so I have half the Marks but not even 1/4 of the Honor for the cheaper blade. A lot of that Honor came from doing several AVs in my 50s, so it's not like there's a slight discrepancy between Honor earned and Marks received; it's a huge difference.

As it currently stands it will probably take me close to a month of several BGs per night before I can buy one of my Blades, unless I get lucky and win a few BGs (and it happens, my PUG beat their PUG last night), or I join a Premade and increase my chances of winning. Considering how often our PUG loses to a Premade, I'm actually thinking of joining a Premade next time I see one being advertized. Then again, considering how geared up my Rogue is not, I might join a Premade only to get kicked out when someone better equipped comes along.

What I'll probably end up doing is running EOTS for the Marks and unless I get into a Premade, I'll then grind AV for both Honor and AV Marks, as I can turn AV Marks in for the quest and bonus Honor. And this is definitely a flaw in the system, when I have all the Marks I need but am forced to grind an unrelated BG to earn more Honor.

Part of the problem, as I said, is the price discrepancy between Honor & Marks, but part of the problem (despite my willingness to become part of the problem) is the Premades. Currently you enter a BG with several other people from various other servers and you inevitably face a Premade. Of course you don't know it's a Premade, at first, initially it's one or two players from the Premade who stick their heads in to determine if they're facing a PUG or another Premade. It's when they report back to their buddies and your opponents' roster suddenly fills up with players from the same realm that you know for sure it's a Premade...and there goes the neighborhood.

The simple solution to this, one which would be easy to implement and which would cause a lot of concern among the Premades, would be to change the way Premades enter the BG. If it's the Leader that Joins everyone as a Group, then when it's time for the Premade to enter the BG only the Leader should get the Enter prompt. Not one member of the Premade enters the BG until the Leader goes in, and then everyone enters all at once; no testing the waters before committing to the battle. This would not make a lot of people happy, because now they can't pick & choose their battles, but why should they be able to? This is PvP. This is WAR! You'll fight when you're told to, Soldier, and you'll fight whoever I tell you to! Now get out there and FIGHT!

Another solution, one that's already been implemented in the Arenas, is preventing players from seeing who their opponents are prior to the fight. If you bring up the Battle Chart it should show your own team mates and that's it. You should have no idea who's waiting for you on the other side of the battlefield...and doesn't everyone love surprises? This is supposed to be PvP! Why you should be able to pick and choose your battles?

The final solution would be to remove the Join as a Group option, but I don't hold with that. If a Guild wants to get together and do BGs as a team, they should be able to do that. What they shouldn't be able to do is handpick their opponents and the current BG system allows them to do just that, and that's a big problem.

A lunch date

According to Xinh's Rules of Dating, it was just lunch, coz there was no activity before or after the the meal :)

Normally lunchtimes find me in the lunchroom with my coworkers, but today almost everyone was out of the office. I had a coffee bill to pay so I seized the opportunity to go to the bank on my lunch break. I was amazed to discover the bank was practically empty, especially as it was high noon, and within minutes of walking in the door I was heading back outside, wondering where to go for lunch. I decided seeing as I was free, I'd give Natey a call and when he answered it sounded like I'd woken him up but he said he was in downtown and he was available for lunch. He also works a few block from my office so I recommended a South American place (actually El Salvadorean) on Olympic & Hill where I'd eaten a few times before. Natey said he knew of it but had never eaten there, but he was willing to give it a try.

For about $10 we each got a HUGE plate of food and two papusas, although after finishing our plates we were only just able to get down one papusa each, which we used to wipe clean our plates. Oh, $10 included Iced Tea as well.

I don't know the name of the place, but if you're ever in downtown Los Angeles and are looking for a feed that won't break the bank, and you're rather partial to semi-authentic El Salvadorean food (or Central/South American in general), look for the restaurant on the south-west corner of Olympic & Hill.

Not counting your chickens...

From Wolfgang's Blog I got a couple of ideas on how it might be possible to improve the electoral system in the U.S. and make it more fair for every voter.

As it currently exists the Primary Elections are a war of attrition. Candidates can be eliminated and resign when they lose crucial states, or stay in the game by winning the same. People in several states have already had their say, and regardless of how you look at it, their vote is more important than yours because their vote has caused some candidates to concede. Too bad for you if you liked Hunter, Thompson, Richardson, or Kucinich. For the Republicans the race is down to McCain and Romney, while the Democrats have no real choice other than Clinton and Obama. I like Ron Paul but he's pretty much out of the running (although he hasn't resigned, yet), and Romney, my second choice, needs to win a few big states if he's to challenge McCain, who leaped to the front after winning Florida.

You can argue until you're blue in the face, but letting some people cast their votes early, counting those votes, and making the results known, does not make for a fair election. So the first change I'd recommend is every Primary Election in every State be held on the same day, no exceptions.

The second change I'd make is not allowing the results to be released early. Count the ballots and tally them up, sure, but having a running tally as the day goes on only hurts one person...you, the voter.

Why?

Let's use the Democrats as an example, and let them choose between Clinton and Obama.

When the polls open all of Clinton's followers turn out and vote. The News people conduct exit polls and see that for every one person who voted for Obama, ten people have cast their vote for Clinton. By mid-afternoon close to 90% of Clinton's supporters (being your stereotypical Peggy Bundy, Bon Bon eating, stay-at-home Moms. Yes, I'm being facetious here.) have cast their vote. Around this time most of Obama's voters (all blue collar laborers or businessmen, yes, another facetious, tongue-in-cheek generalization) are getting off work and planning to vote for their hero, but turning on the radio in their car what do they hear? Clinton is beating Obama by a landslide! That's it, they think, my man has lost. And so they don't go to the polls but go straight home and sure enough, Clinton wins by a landslide, because all of Obama's voters heard the news and instead of voting they all went straight home.

So not only should everyone be voting on the same day, but nobody should have access to the results prior to the close of Polls. And this brings us to one final change.

When the polls close at 8pm along the east coast and the ballots are tallied and the results are known by 9pm, those results should not be released to the public, for the exact same reason as above. 9pm in Florida is only 6pm in California, so people in California still have 2 hours to get to the Polls. Many people in California are just coming home from work at 6pm, but they plan to stop and vote on their way. When they turn on their radio and hear the results of the east coast elections, how a certain candidate is winning by a landslide, that can have a demoralizing effect, of course it can also work both ways. "Oh, my guy's already won; I don't need to vote." Then the next morning they get up and find their guy lost.

I mention Florida specifically not just because of the Miami-Dade debacle of a few years ago, but because Florida didn't have to be the tight race that it became. Florida actually spans two time zones, so when the polls closed in eastern Florida, they were still open for another hour in western Florida. Allegedly many voters in Florida don't come out until the last hour or so because it's cooler in the evening, but throughout the afternoon the western Florida voters had been hearing the results of the east Florida elections, and apparently turn outs in western Florida were extremely low, unusually low. The people in western Florida figured their candidate was winning (or had already lost) so they didn't bother coming out to vote, which skewed the results.

Elections are important. Every person is supposed to be able to have their say, and every vote is supposed to carry equal weight, but when the people who vote first are able to affect the decision of later voters, the system becomes biased towards those first voters. Unfortunately the Me Generation is also the Now Generation, and that has affected the entire population. Why should I have to wait for tomorrow? I want the results NOW!

Imagine an election for Class President where 8 people like Joe and 9 like Ted, and it just so happens that Joe's people all sit on one side of the classroom. The teacher running the poll doesn't ask for a show of hands, but instead asks the first student who he's voting for, then the second, then the third, and so on. By the time she gets to the eighth student it seems support for Joe is unanimous so Ted, knowing Joe needs just one more vote to win, concedes...and Joe is elected Class President, even though Ted would have won if every vote had been counted.

This is the situation we have today, and it's not fair in the classroom or the real world. The electoral college system could remain, nothing would need to be changed about that, the only change would be everyone votes on the same day, and the results are not released until all the results, nationwide, have been officially tallied.

R.I.P. Heath

Just who the f**k discovered Heath was dead? News reports say his housekeeper was present at the time, but that it was Heath's Massage Therapist who realized he was going to need more than just a rub down.

TMZ.com (a self-proclaimed "Celebrity Gossip" site that my wife gives credence to, but which I've never heard of until two days ago) states that Heath was found by his maid, Theresa Solomon, and his masseuse, 'Diane Lee'.

Yahoo! News rehashing an Associated Press story (and when it comes to the news AP is a name I'm more familiar with) also states that Heath was found by his Massage Therapist HOWEVER!!! the AP story identifies the Massage Therapist as one Diana Wolozin.

In a further twist, AP reports that when Diane/Diana discovered Heath was unresponsive, she grabbed his cell phone and called 911. Wait! No she didn't! AP says Diane/Diana first called Mary Kate Olsen, whose number is programmed into Heath's phone and whom Lee/Wolozin knew was a friend of Heath's, and she asked Olsen what to do.

Allegedly it was Mary Kate, who was in California at the time, who sent over her bodyguard. Apparently Diane/Diana checked Heath again, realized things were really serious, as in deadly serious, and now she called 911. No. Wait. My bad. She called Mary Kate again. It was only after she'd made that second call to Olsen that Lee/Wolozin finally called 911.

So who is Diane Lee and who is Diana Wolozin? And why are both women credited as being Heath's masseuse/massage therapist? And when finding an unconscious client allegedly surrounded by bottles of pills, why would someone use their client's cell phone to call another celebrity, twice, before calling 911?

I think Ms. Diane Diana Lee-Wolozin, or whatever her name is, has a lot of explaining to do.

Virtual friends

Wolfgang has a post up about playing WoW (insert MMO of choice here) and how the friends we make online can bring us back to a game, or breath new life into it.

When I first began playing WoW I played it as a single-player game in a world populated by characters controlled by real people. I rarely grouped, and often attempted to complete quests beyond my level, on my own, simply because I didn't know any better. Eventually I responded to a Guild Recruitment message just because I liked the Guild's name, joined, and found the Guild consisted pretty much of four real life friend, and a few other players. Eventually the four friends moved on and all but one of them stopped playing WoW, although he still quit our guild and joined another.

The guy who received leadership of the Guild from the original leader recruited a few of his RL friends and it was these players who formed the basis of a fairly successful casual Guild which completed content normally conquerable only by hardcore guilds. Most of those people are still in the Guild today, meaning I've known most of them now for almost two & a half years. In my downtime, when I'm not spending time with my RL family, I'm spending time with my virtual friends.

When we went back to Australia for mum's wedding last year I actually stopped playing a week or so before we left, and when I got back I found other things to do than log in. When I finally logged back in I just sat there staring at the character selection screen...wondering what I was going to do. Finally I selected my "main" character and entered the game, and as soon as the game loaded I saw Guild Chat light up with people virtually screaming my name.

It's hard to explain to people who don't play MMOs exactly what the attraction is. What makes you log into a game, only to sit on a dock somewhere and catch fish for several hours, just to level up your fishing skill. Why would you steer your avatar around an area, killing & skinning hundreds of Mobs over the space of several hours? Does all that gold really mean anything? Do you really need a faster Gryphon? Why would you spend several hours with four (or more) other people, in a coordinated assault on a dungeon, just for the chance (not a guarantee, mind you) to score some virtual loot that will make your avatar just a little bit stronger?

And why do you keep logging back in, time and time and time again, only to do the same old thing, time and time and time again?

It's the people. It's your virtual friends. In most cases, they make logging in all worth while. You may never meet them IRL. You may only ever communicate with them in-game, or via a headset, but over time you've gotten to know these people as intimately as any other close friend. You've journeyed with them, put your faith in them to heal you and keep you alive (in-game of course), or trusted them to hold the attention of a virtual dragon while you fired arrow after arrow into it.

MMOs are all about the people.

Lightning

In 1942, a Park Ranger in a fire lookout tower is struck in the leg by a lightning bolt. He loses a nail on his big toe.

In 1969, a man driving his truck along a mountain road is struck by lightning and knocked unconscious. The lightning burns off his eyebrows.

1970: A man in his front yard is struck by lightning and suffers burns to his left shoulder.

1972: A man in a Ranger Station is struck by lightning and is forced to douse his head after his hair catches on fire.

1973: A man struck by lightning is thrown from his car with his hair ablaze.

1974: A camper is struck by lightning, suffering injuries to his ankle.

1977: A fisherman is hospitalized with burns on his chest and stomach after being struck by lightning.

How are these incidents related?

And...Survey says?

Out of curiousity I ran a Facebook Groups search on the major candidates for the 2008 U.S. Primary Elections, and discovered the following...

The top four Groups for Hillary Clinton are actually anti-Hillary:
Stop Hillary Clinton: (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary), with 681,000 members;
ANTI Hillary Clinton for president '08 with 64,600;
Hillary Clinton: Stop Running for President and Make Me a Sandwich with 28,600; and
Life's a bitch, why vote for one? Anti-Hillary '08 with 13,600.
The first pro-Hillary Clinton Group is the fifth most populated, being Hillary Clinton for President - One Million STRONG with 12,425 members.

By contrast, the most populated Facebook groups for the other candidates are all for those candidates, but don't let their numbers fool you. Many people opposed to a candidate will join that candidate's group in order to challenge, debate with, and just generally piss off that candidate's supporters.

Barack Obama's group Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack) is the clear front runner with 418,797 members.

Ron Paul's group Congressman Ron Paul for President 2008 at number two with 62,885 members still has a clear lead over the rest of the pack.

Mike Huckabee's group Mike Huckabee for President 2008! has 28,237 members.

Mitt Romney's group Mitt Romney (One Million Strong for Mitt) has 19,954 members.

Hillary's group would be here, with its 12,500 members.

Fred Thompson's group Fred Thompson '08 has 6,179 members.

Dennis Kucinich's group Dennis Kucinich for President in 2008 is close behind with 6,007 members.

John Edwards' group Edwards 2008 has 5,771 members

Mike Gravel 2008 has 3,578 members.

John McCain for President has 2,660 members.

Bill Richardson's group makes the hard-to-believe claim America for Bill Richardson, considering it has just 2,477 members.

Duncan Hunter for President in 2008 has 943 members.

Despite the real man's popularity Rudy Guiliani for President in 2008 has a pathetic Facebook representation with just 872 members.

And bringing up the rear (because someone has to) is Alan Keyes For President In 2008! with 311 members.

What does this tell us? Not a lot, really. It's not a real poll. People join Facebook groups for various reasons, not always because they believe in the group, but because, as I said, they want to troll the boards and piss off the real members. And although we're well and truly embracing the Internet age where someone like my Mum could marry a guy she met online, there's a large percentage of the population who are willing & able voters, but who will only show their support at the Polls, nowhere else. Not to a Telephone Pollster, or a Petitioner outside a market, and certainly not online.

Still, looking at Barack Obama's and Ron Paul's Facebook numbers, I would expect both of them to gather a lot of real support (not just online) as more people have their say in the coming months and upcoming Primaries.

What happens in Vegas...

is pretty darn good :)

Angela was asking how the shows were that we saw in Vegas, being Zumanity and La Reve, and they were pretty darn good. Liz ordered our tickets quite some time in advance, so we had pretty good seats, although the theaters are reasonably small so there's really no bad seats.

We entered the theatre for Zumanity about 20 minutes prior to the show starting, only to discover the pre-show well under way. Two rather large ladies in very very skimpy 'French Maid' outfits were serving strawberries to various members of the audience, and they always leaned over in such a way that one audience member or another had a face full of the ladies' more-than-ample bosom or maximized gluteus maximus. Meanwhile a casanova-type fellow & his girlfriend provided more comic relief by flirting with the audience. Singling one attractive young lady out, Casanova's GF asked her where she bought her tits, only to be told they were natural.

"You're a lucky mother fucker," Casanova's GF told her, only to have Casanova point to the girl's boyfriend and say "No, he's the lucky mother fucker."

As Casanova's GF walked away she said "I wish I had tits like that." Casanova sighed and responded, "I wish you did, too."

Very crass humor, but delivered with such aplomb that only the most prudish Utah-resident could hope to be offended.

Of the two shows, La Reve was the more confusing, but I preferred it over Zumanity which was more a series of raunchy skits interspersed with dance routines. Yes, there was a lot more naked female flesh on display in Zumanity (and by a lot I don't mean large amounts) than in La Reve but Zumanity lacked the story and sheer acrobatics of La Reve, which at times had you in awe of what you were witnessing. While Zumanity had a very witty host who styled herself...himself(?) after Rocky Horror's Dr. Frankenfurter, La Reve had its share of comedy relief in four angel-type characters, who at times behaved in very un-angel like fashion, flirting with female members of the cast, and so on.

See Zumanity if you're in the mood for some light-hearted, semi-nude debauchery with a bit of singing and dancing, and a lot of joking around. And go early. Take your seat at least half an hour before the show, and if you can try to get front row seats, not for the view, but for a chance to interact with the cast.

See La Reve if you want to leave the theatre going "Wow! That was amazing!" and be left discussing with your partner exactly what happened, or what you thought was happening. Was she dreaming? Did he die? Did she die? I know I enjoyed it, but exactly what was it? And yes, I'm aware that La Reve is French for The Dream, or something like that, but that still leaves a few questions unanswered :)

Also don't take your seat for La Reve until you have to, because the music they play at the start is very repetitive and quickly begins to bore a hole through your skull. There is no pre-show for La Reve, and our show did not start right on time due to last minute safety checks.

Despite that, both shows were very enjoyable, in very different ways.

All I want for Christmas...

It was obvious by our gifts that we're a 21st Century family.

Amber got the Happy Feet DVD (and some other gifts, including one pink and one purple "My Little Pwny".)
JE got Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Yoshi's Island for the DS, and Mario Party 8 for the Wii.
Liz got Puzzle Quest for the Wii, and My Sims for the DS (which I think she's forgotten about ;)
I got Ghost Squad for the Wii (I got it myself because I knew nobody else would, and no, I didn't buy everyone else's presents. I bought a few, but not all of them ;)

Liz and I also got each other some perfume/cologne.

I had to go in to work on Christmas Eve (the day, not the evening), I didn't have to go in (I could have used a Vacation Day), but I'd already said I'd be in and a few others had already requested the time off, so I went in knowing that I was missing the annual Christmas breakfast with Liz & the kids and the rest of her family. It used to be Christmas dinner (on Christmas Eve) but this year it was changed to breakfast. So I went in to work, thinking my wife and kids would be joining me for lunch. Instead, just before noon, Liz called to say the kids and their cousins were having a great time playing together, so they were staying at Uncle's for lunch as well.

One of my supervisors took off at noon. Before she left she told us our other supervisor was leaving at 2pm, so the three of us (in my section) would pretty much be on our own after that. Meanwhile our Bureau Chief was waiting for a call from the Commissioners' offices to see if we could go home early. I told our only Senior to call one of the girls in the Commissioners' offices (who used to work in our Bureau), rather than wait for 'them' to call us. So he called and discovered all of the Commissioners are on vacation this entire week. Hooray for them. Technically this meant our Chief could make his own decision as to whether or not to let us leave early, rather than wait for permission.

At 2pm my other supervisor left, telling us we could leave an hour early, "but do so quietly," she said, and so at 2:30 I was out the door and on my way to the bus stop to join my family, who were still playing happily at Uncle's house.

Back at work today I discovered our Chief pulled the same stunt as last year, going around at 3:30pm and telling everyone they could go home early. 3:30pm is the time I and a few others would normally leave anyway, so it's not exactly leaving early.

When they did this to us last year on Christmas Eve, a week later on New Year's Eve I deliberately kept asking our Program Manager if we were going to be let go an hour early. I even reminded her that I and several others come in at 6am and leave at 3:30, so it would be nice to know before that time if we could go home early. What happened? 3:30 arrived and our smiling Program Manager came around and told us we could all go home an hour early. Yeah, thanks for nothing. Then they go and do it again this year, and I expect they'll do the same again this New Year's Eve. Lovely. Just lovely. There are days where you don't feel appreciated and you wonder why you came in to work at all. Christmas Eve should not be one of those days.

Thank Orion for things like Ghost Squad where I can let off steam by blasting terrorists in the privacy of my own home :)

A weekend in Vegas

Friday, after watching (& video taping for the school) my son's Christmas program, Liz and I headed off to Vegas. This time the kids stayed behind so it was just the two of us in Sin City, and so this time around we were able to see a couple of shows: La Rêve, and Zumanity.

We also visited The Gun Store and fired an M-16 and an MP5, both full auto. I was seriously impressed at the almost complete lack of recoil on the MP5. No wonder SWAT and CTUs love them.

We also did a bit of gambling, but limited ourselves to the 1¢ machines. I ended up winning $30, but I think Liz spent that much herself, so we probably just about broke even :P

Hotelwise, the Monte Carlo is far superior to Circus Circus.

Do not go to The Wynn for their buffet dinner on a Saturday night. The food might be worth the $40 price tag, but it wasn't worth the 2-hour wait to get a table.

Not that far from the truth