Expressing doubts...

about Christianity. This might make a few people very angry, but I don't think what I'm going through is wrong. And if you do consider yourself a Christian, and it does make you angry, you might want to do some soul searching of your own. A Christian should eagerly and quite happily jump at the chance to debate their religion with someone having doubts. As someone with a decent amount of teaching experience, I can tell you that as we teach others we also educate ourselves.

I believe my God wants us to question him, his works, his word. He does not want us to blindly accept his teachings, he wants us to question him and find the answers for ourselves, and in doing so realize that his teachings stand up to our close scrutiny. That way we come to him in spite of our doubts because we have established that it's the right thing to do, that his way is the one, true way. This is what I believe.

What I also believe, and you may find this hard to swallow, is that Judas Iscariot was nothing more than a patsy. Judas did not betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, or whatever reward he was given; Judas betrayed Jesus because that's what was meant to happen, it was his destiny to betray Jesus. Read the Bible. Jesus knew he was going to be betrayed not because he knew what Judas was going to do, but because he knew that's what was meant to happen. Judas betrayed Jesus because that's what was meant to happen.

I have a problem with the whole "Free Will" thing, and the Bible's contradiction of this, and the case of the Holy Kingdom of God vs Judas Iscariot is just one of these.

In the beginning God made man, and he created him in his own image, and that's another contradiction. If God is an all-knowing, all-powerful, omnipotent deity, how could he create a flesh & blood entity "in his own image"? And if he is all-knowing, why would he give man 'free will', slap him down in the Garden of Eden along with the Tree of Knowledge, then tell him not to eat from it? He's all-knowing, so he had to have known what was going to happen when he put Adam and The Tree in an enclosed area, and yet God still punishes Adam when he does what God knew he'd do all along.

A man bought an expensive, antique vase, which he took home and showed to his wife and 7-year old daughter. Then he said to his daughter, "this is a very expensive vase. You must never, ever touch it, lest you break it."

And the child said to her father, "then you must never, ever put it where I can touch it."

I ask you, when the father places the vase on a pedestal in the middle of the living room, and the daughter breaks it, who is truly at fault?

Yes, I dare to suggest that it was God who was at fault for putting Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden with the Tree of Knowledge, then telling them not to eat from it. God knew exactly what would happen, but not only did he know what would happen, he facilitated it, then he punished Adam & Eve when they did what he knew they'd do all along.

Then there's the Great Flood.

God is all-knowing yet he still gave man Free Will. And because he is all-knowing he had to know exactly what man would do with his Free Will, and yet when man does what God knew he'd do, God is angry and floods the Earth and wipes out everyone bar Noah & Co.

After the flood Noah & Co. find themselves in Shinar (Genesis 11:1-9). When I was told the story of the Tower of Babel in Sunday School I was taught that the Babylonians were arrogant, hence their desire to build a tower that would reach to the heavens, but now I know that the Babylonians were comprised of Noah and his immediate family. They've just got off the Ark where they witnessed first hand the might of God as he destroyed almost the entire world. Why on earth would they be arrogant? I don't think they were.

Genesis 11:4 says, "Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

I've been thinking about this passage, and I don't like it. No sir, not one bit. This is immediately following the Great Flood. These are the only people on the planet and they know it. So...who are they trying to impress? There's nobody there but themselves, and God. And why are they concerned about being scattered over the face of the earth? They want to build a Tower that reaches to the heavens so they can make a name for themselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. They're not building the tower out of arrogance, they're building it out of fear. Fear of losing their identity as a people.

But whose people are they?

Quite clearly they're God's people, because it was he who saved them. God commanded them to build the Ark and he saved them while drowning everyone else. Damn straight they were afraid, they were afraid of God. They feared his wrath, they were afraid God would scatter them over the face of the earth so they built the legendary Tower of Babel to impress him, and impress him it did. It impressed God so much that it led him to do exactly what the people feared would happen if they didn't build the tower. How ironic is that?

How do we know God was impressed?

Genesis 11:5-6 says, "But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them."

Nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

The Lord sees what the people are doing, and says, "Holy Crap! Working together, these guys can do anything!"

This is the Lord God speaking. He knows 'Impossible'. When he says, "nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them" he means it!

Now who's afraid? Both parties are. The people are afraid of God, and God is afraid of them. How on earth can I say God, the all-knowing, all-powerful, omnipotent being...is afraid?

Because of what he does next. Immediately following the Lord's observation that his people can accomplish the "impossible", he separates them and scatters them across the face of the earth. Why would he do this? The most obvious answer is so they won't accomplish the impossible.

God gave us Free Will, but when Adam & Eve ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, as the all-knowing God must have known would happen, he punished them.

When Adam & Even were cast out of Eden they made babies, and their babies grew up and had babies of their own, lots and lots of babies, and God had to have known that would happen. And they multiplied and spread out over the Earth and did wicked things, and when God saw what they were doing he wiped the slate clean and started over with Noah & Co.

Then when Noah & Co. settled down after the Flood and built the Tower of Babel, God took one look and said "Oh no, you don't!" and he scattered them across the face of the Earth.

I really want to understand why God would do this, but I cannot, because these actions do not speak of an all-knowing, all-powerful, omnipotent deity. They speak of a spoiled child, upset with how his science experiment has turned out and throwing a temper tantrum because things haven't gone his way.

I would really appreciate someone explaining this to me. I'm quite amenable in the face of a persuasive argument, but you need to do better than just say "Dude! Read the Bible!" As should be quite apparent I have read the Bible, and that is why I have questions.

Amazing

JE's Cub Scout Pack's Campfire Ceremony and Camp was last night at Wilderness Park. My night wasn't as bad as last year where I almost couldn't walk for two days with dead hips. Just my right hip copped it last night, and it's not even sore now. If you ever sleep on those of those 1/2"-thick high-density foam pads, make sure there's a depression for your hips, or at least one of them.

There was a bear sighting so we didn't set up the telescope like I'd planned to do, but we still didn't crawl into our tent until well after 10pm. Then we were woken at 6am when the first kids awake felt compelled to go outside and talk and play ball. JE usually is in bed by 8:30 and up around 7am. He said he didn't need a nap (we have his birthday party in 3 hours) but I told him he really did.

I got my nap in early and my internal alarm woke me up at 11:30 just like I'd ordered it to. Liz went to bed for her nap (apparently our neighbors had a party until 2am last night) while I made the kids lunch. Amber finished first and I put her to bed, then went down to check on JE. He was taking his time so I made a cup of coffee and told him when he was finished it was his nap time. Then I came up to my computer and read a few blogs and was thinking "It's awfully quiet. JE should have finished lunch by now. I better go check on him."

I went downstairs, no sign of him. His lunch bowl was rinsed out and sitting in the sink. I came upstairs and looked in his room, and there he is...asleep in his bed.

When you're a parent your kids will frequently do things that amaze you. For me, this was one of those times.

Dead video card

A couple of nights ago my PC decided to shut itself down without my say so. I rebooted it, and it promptly shut itself down again. I figured it was probably my video card overheating as I'd played a full game of Warcraft III with JE then put in a couple of hours in WoW. So I left it alone and went to bed.

The next day I booted it up, or tried to, but again it would shut itself down within seconds. I cracked the case, pulled the video card, and immediately noticed that the card's fan was stuck and would not turn. Yep, that'll cause excess heat and kill a card real quick.

Fortunately my motherboard has an on-board GPU so I can still use my computer until I get a new video card. Liz has also ok'd the purchase of an NVidia 8800GT which would have smoked my 7300GT, if it hadn't already cooked itself. ATI are releasing a new video card in a few weeks time, and that should rattle prices a little bit so I'm holding off on the 8800 for now. I can wait a few weeks if it means saving $20 or more. And I can still play WoW, so I'm good there.

The one downer is the on-board GPU is the equivalent of a 6150 LE, and in order to play WoW I had to turn all the graphics down, and even then the FPS rate still sucks, or at least it sucks considering what I'm used to.

Here's a picture of how WoW used to look. It's big, 1024x768 big, so it might take a few seconds to load if you click it and blow it up, but it really shows the detail.
Then there's this screenshot. This is about what I'm looking at now with the graphics turned down. Just a little bit different.
Don't believe the 109.5 FPS figure on the second pic; those are both screen caps using the 7300GT. I'm lucky to get 30FPS with the 6150 with everything turned down.

Come on, ATI. Push that 4150 out the door and let's see some prices drop! The Cap'n wants a new card!

Trash Talk = Poor Sportsmanship

I don't get the BGs sometimes. People will /spit /rude /lol you when they kill you, as if there was some personal vendetta between the two of you.

Or you kill someone so they come back for revenge and you kill them again, so they grab 3 friends, come back & destroy you, then /spit /lol on you as you get crushed into the dirt.

If I have a really good fight with another player and it's obvious I've been outclassed and am about to die, I will try to get off a /bow or /salute before I take a dirt nap, unless I see them /lol at me first, then forget it. Respect is a two-way street.

In Hellfire Peninsula while working on the PvP quests I once died to a Tauren Druid, several times. But I kept coming back and trying again. The final fight between us went on for quite some time as I kited him around the Tower, Freeze Trapping him (when it was up) to get some distance, Bandaging when I could, and it was a long, drawn out affair that still eventually resulted in my death. After that final death I let my PvP Flag wear off, Rez'd, and /saluted the Druid and he /saluted me right back. Through the limited communication offered by simple emotes we gave each other the respect we felt the other deserved. Then he did a /scare emote, and I'm not sure if it was meant to imply that I was scared of him (for waiting out my PvP flag while dead), but the emote came out that he was scared of me. I laughed and returned the /scared emote right back at him. Hell yeah, you scare me. You're a damn good player who knows his class! Well played, sir!

/spit? /rude?

Hell NO! This was a more-than-worthy opponent who'd earned my respect.

I recall one of the FPS games (either Unreal Tournament or Quake Arena) allowed you to taunt a fallen foe. When killing another player's avatar isn't enough, there's always post-mortem ridicule; it's Trash Talking to the extreme.

At my former place of employment we used to have a Foosball Table. I was pretty good at it and was one of the top players in the office. There was only one guy who was better than me, and it wasn't that he was a better player because we were about evenly matched. What he was better at, in fact what he did that gave him the edge, as did most of the other Foosball Players (with the exception of yours truly) was Trash Talked during the game. I hate Trash Talk, and it probably showed, and it did what my opponent intended; It got in my head, threw me off my game, and helped my opponent win.

I've posted before on what I consider poor sportsmanship: Pitchers deliberately walking a known power hitter; Quarterbacks taking a knee to run down the clock; Deliberately fouling a player because he can't shoot Free Throws. It's all within the rules, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's fair. Outplay the other team, yes, but to use the rules to deny your opponent any chance of winning? How can that be fair? And if it's not fair, it's poor sportsmanship.

JE has finally finished his second season of baseball. The difference between T-Ball and Prep Baseball is amazing, and horrific. T-Ball was all about having fun. Prep Baseball was supposed to be, too, and for the most part it was. The kids would cheer each other on, some teams would cheer louder, our kids were less enthusiastic than most. The kids on one team in particular would cheer loudly for their batters, right from the start of the innings, and they wouldn't let up until the 3rd Out. It was then, when they took to the field, that it got ugly; that's when they'd stop cheering for each other and start heckling our batters.

These were 7 and 8-year old kids, ridiculing each other; behavior which seemed not only tolerated by their coach, but encouraged. When the ugliness starts that early it gets deep inside and takes root, and the chances of dislodging it later are very slim.

I spoke to our Head Coach about it, saying I understood it was part of the game, but how I didn't agree with it. I said that as Assistant Coach I didn't think it was my part to say anything to the other team's Coach, but perhaps if he, as our Head Coach, could speak to them...

Coach looked at me and smiled sadly, and informed me that the other team's Coach was the man in charge of our League.

I see. Kind of nothing we can do then, is there. We continued with the game, and the other team continued heckling our kids. Very sad.

You can argue that the kids are only going to encounter this later anyway, so why not get them used to it at an early age, but I ask why should they have to encounter it later. Why does there need to be Trash Talk? Your argument is it's a skill/technique that lets you get inside your opponent's head and throw him off his game. I'd argue that insulting someone (or their mom) is not skillful, it's just rude and disrespectful. It takes no skill and shows a distinct lack of class.

If we stopped our little ones from trash talking and moved on up the ranks, cutting it out where ever we encountered it, then eventually there would be no trash talking, and we'd just have two teams relying on their skills and teamwork to defeat the other. We do everything we can to encourage our youngsters to participate in sports. We tell them it's not if they win or lose, we just want them to have fun. Meanwhile there are other parents who think "Cheat to win" is a perfectly good slogan. But this is not war, or a matter of life & death, where I wouldn't hesitate to shoot you in the back or run over you with a Tank; this is Baseball. It's a sport, and the natural compliment to sport is good sportsmanship. Unfortunately it looks like that baby got thrown out with the bath water.

Most ridiculous quest...ever!

There are some ridiculous quests in WoW but I think I've got the winner here with: The Kurken is Lurkin'.

On Azuremyst Isle, the Dranei starting area, Furbolg High Chief Stillpine sends you into Stillpine Hold to search for clues as to why the Wildkin have turned on the Furbolg, their former allies, and driven them from their home.

Deep within the hold you find a large, blood red crystal guarded by the Kurkin, a two-headed Cerberus-like beast. Slaying the Kurkin you examine the Blood Crystal, completing the Chief's quest and getting a second quest to report back to him.

When you get back outside the hold and give your report to High Chief Stillpine you notice that one of the Chief's Lieutenants, Kurz the Revelator, now has a quest for you, so you head over to Kurz to find out what he wants you to do.

And what he wants you to do is what you've just done. Kill the Kurkin and bring him its hide.

* * * * *

You: You do realize that in order to complete the Chief's quest I had to kill the Kurkin, right?

Kurz: Yes, but I need you to kill it again.

You: But, I just killed it.

Kurz: But I need you to kill it and bring back its hide!

You: I see. So, why didn't you ask me to kill the Kurkin and bring back its hide before I went into the cave for the Chief?

Kurz: Because you had to explore the cave for the Chief and examine the crystal before I could send you into the cave to kill the Kurkin.

You: But the Kurkin was guarding the crystal! There was no way to examine the crystal without slaying the beast! And now, you want me to go back into the cave, and kill the Kurkin, again?

Kurz: Yes.

You: Son of a bitch!

Kurz: . . .

You (sighing): I'll be right back.

* * * * *

The quest line really is that ridiculous. You get a quest to enter a cave and examine a crystal hidden deep inside, but to examine the crystal you have to kill the Mob guarding it. There is a quest to kill the Mob, but you can't get that quest without doing the prerequisite quest, which is to examine the crystal. So before you can get the quest to kill the Kurkin, you have to kill the Kurkin.

I think it might have been one of WAR's podcasts where the designer was talking about intuitive quests. The opposite of an intuitive quest would be one where you fight your way through a dozen wolves to get to a besieged quest giver, who tells you "The wolves are a real problem around here. Could you kill 10 of them for me?"

You: Did you not notice that I killed a dozen wolves just to get to you?

Him: Yes, but they didn't count; I hadn't given you the quest. I need you to kill 10 more.

You (sighing): I'll be right back.

In Elwynn Forest there are Kobolds which drop Candles and Gold Dust, but the only time they drop those Candles and Gold Dust are when you're on the quests to gather them. Of course it could be argued that they do drop them but you don't collect them, and I say, "Why the hell not???" We pick up all their other useless crap. Why can't they drop the quest items when you're not on the quest? You're out killing Kobolds filling your packs with crap, and when you head back into town a villager says, "Ha-hey! I see you've got a bunch of Kobold candles there! I'll give you 50 silver pieces for all those candles."

And you go, "Wha? Huh? I mean, sure. Here's your 10 candles. Thanks a lot."

Or you're out killing wolves, and with wolves being wolves, you've gone and filled your packs with wolf tails, or pelts, or whatever. You head into town and one of the locals says "Ha-hey! I'll give you 25 silver for those wolf tails!"

You quickly check the vendor price...10 wolf tails, 50-copper each, he's offering 25 silver, five times market value. "Sure! Here's your wolf parts!" Ka-ching. Silver, and XP to boot! Bonus!

Apparently this is how quests used to be (pre-WoW), and what tended to happen was people would go out, kill a ton of Mobs and collect their sticky bits, then do some research on Teh Interwebz and see if any NPCs were willing to reward players for collecting Goblin scrotums. Ha-hey! Here's a guy who'll pay a shiny gold piece for a dozen scrotums! Awesome!

So instead of players seeking out quests to do then going out and slaying a bunch of Mobs, they'd do all their killing first, fill their packs with monster bits, then see if anyone would be willing to reward them. In both cases players would get rewarded for doing the same thing; Killing goblins and collecting their scrotums. But in one scenario we can't collect goblin scrotums until Ima Pervert tells us he wants them and then we collect just enough for Ima and no more, while in the other more logical scenario we collect goblin scrotums (don't ask me why. I don't know. I don't want to know!) until we have scrotums coming out our ears and our packs are full of them then we head into the nearest town where we find every man and his dog wants a goblin scrotum or two. Perhaps to make a handy coin purse or some other kitschy souvenir for the visiting tourists. Who knows? I already said I didn't.

What I do know is that it doesn't make sense for Mobs to only drop Quest items when you're on the quest to collect those items.

And it really doesn't make sense to send me into a cave to kill a Mob when I've just come out of that very same cave covered in that exact mob's blood. That makes no sense at all.

Blinky Bill

Tonight I read JE Blinky Bill & the Pelicans, and I was shocked to see Dorothy Wall refer to Blinky and Nutsy and their mother as bears. I realize most people in the world can't help but refer to koalas as bears (when they're really marsupials), but it doesn't matter what they look like, or even if you're 4th-grade teacher used the phrase; Koalas are not bears.

I asked JE to tell me what was wrong with the first sentence and straight away he noticed Dorothy Wall had called Blinky & Nutsy's mother Mrs. Bear. Good eye, lad. Good eye.

A couple of pages later Blinky & Nutsy helped a field mouse's sick friend who turned out to be a porcupine. I guess she must have got sick on the migration, because porcupines are not native to Australia; echidnas are, but not porcupines.

Dorothy Wall had only one valid defense, and my suspicions proved correct, but not enough to let her off the hook (good thing she's been dead for over 60 years or I'd give her a piece of my mind). Dorothy was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia when she was 20 years old. That means she darn well should have known better than to refer to koalas as bears and echidna as porcupines.

We're reading the second half of the book tomorrow night. I wonder what other faux pas Ms. Wall can make.

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.