OC Fair: Cooler, cheaper, even more fun.

Funnest? What the **** kind of word is that? It's as bad as ****!!!

We've been to the LA County Fair and the OC Fair several times over the past few years, and while it may be treason for us to admit it, Liz and I greatly prefer the OC Fair.

The LA County Fair. Kinder? Simpler? Funner? I don't think so.

Hotter. More expensive. Dustier. Yeah, that's more like it.

We rocked up to the OC Fair a little after noon on Friday, shortly after the gates opened. Liz asked the Attendant for Preferred Parking and he said we didn't need it. So we paid $5 for General Parking and parked right next to the Preferred Parking section, which would have cost us $5 more if we'd insisted on paying for it. Parking at the LA County Fair? $10 for General, and $15 for Preferred.

Admission was $24 for all four of us (+$5 for the Bunny if she'd been 5 y/old). For the LA County Fair it would have cost us $36 just to walk in the gate, and $48 if we'd had to pay for the Bunny, plus $15 for Preferred, which we would have paid for.
OC Fair vs LA Fair = $29 vs $51
Round One to OC Fair (2 parents + 2 kids = $34 vs $63 = Ouch!)

Temperature in Costa Mesa in late July? Mid to high 70s. Pleasantly warm.
Temperature in Pomona in early September? High 80s to low 90s. Hot and sticky.
Round Two to OC Fair

The assortment of rides are the same, as it's the same crew at each Fair, but at $1 per ride (for Friday when we went, I have a clever wife who plans these things) versus the $2 or more at LA County Fair. Fuhgeddaboudit!

Round 3 and a unanimous decision to the Orange County Fair!!!
Now in its last week for 2008.

* * *

Saturday after in-laws picked up the kids we just bummed around the house. Liz thought about rearranging the upstairs to accommodate a fourth PC (the Bunny is frequently kicking me off mine so she can visit Noggin.com) and finally realized what a logistical nightmare it was. Despite the fact that I was going to get a big screen TV out of it (as in 45" big) I made Liz see just how much rearranging would need to happen to accomplish what she had in mind. Finally she settled for clearing off the desk in JE's room then went online to pick out a new PC for him.

I was complimenting Fry's but after visiting their own and Best Buy's websites Liz found a good price on a full system at Best Buy, which included a printer and a 17" wide-sceen LCD. Not just your run of the mill LCD but a wide-screen. Oooh! The sale ended midnight Saturday so Liz bought it online as an in-store pickup item, the plan being for me to pick it up the next morning.

Sunday morning I was browsing Best Buy's website when I saw my video card was on sale. Newegg have them cheaper, but there's shipping to factor in, compared to the No Interest plan (for using BB Credit Card) and the points from their Reward Zone, so it wasn't hard to convince Liz to let me Buy It Now! So when I picked up the boy's new PC I also got my new video card. Then I spent an hour or so getting everything set up in his room, including making sure Vista was working okay. We wanted the boy to be able to just sit down and turn on his PC and start doing his thing.

Liz attempted to install Age of Empires:Asian Dynasty (one of his favorite games) but she kept getting an error that aborted the install procedure, and she was getting a little pissed off with Vista (ok, even more pissed off than usual. She's not a fan of Vista). She went back to her PC to research AoE & Vista Installation Errors and thought she found the problem. Meanwhile I played with Vista for a few minutes and worked out how to turn off the annoying permissions thing that Vista has turned on by default.

"Hi, it's me, Vista. I know you double-clicked the Install icon on the CD that you just inserted, but I wanted to let you know that the program you're trying run is trying to run, and I just had to ask, do you want me to Allow it to run?"

Yes, if you don't turn that Alert off in the User Settings (I can't remember exactly where I found it, but it wasn't hard to find or turn off) Vista will quite literally ask you every single time you try to run a program if you want to allow that program to run.

With Age of Empires being a Microsoft game I called the MS Games helpline, only to find out they're closed on Sundays, then I looked at the box and discovered the problem.

"Dear!" I called out. "This is the Asian Dynasty expansion! Where's the actual Age of Empires game?"

(It's a good thing MS Games is closed on Sundays :P)

We started to install AoE and Liz started to get a little hot under the collar (again) when AoE informed her it wasn't compatible with Vista. Fortunately AoE lets you continue with the Install (as it bloody well should) so I told Liz to click Continue. I didn't care if AoE wouldn't run under Vista, I just needed it on JE's PC so Asian Dynasty would detect it and complete its own install procedure, which it did. And it looks really sweet at 1440x900 on a widesceen.
*Insert Homer Simpson drooling sound here*

Then I spent another half hour trying to get the Wireless Network card set up, to no avail. So the boy's PC is not on the network and doesn't yet have internet access. I gave up on his PC and settled down to installing my new video card and after a couple of teething problems had it up and running and damn! It looks good! Well, that card itself looks good, but I'd forgotten how good WoW could look with the graphics cranked up. And with 80+ FPS running around Org, no less. Very, very nice.

Afterwards we all got together for dinner to celebrate one of Liz's aunty's 80th birthday. By the time the festivities were over it was past 10pm by the time we got home, and very late by the time the kids were in bed.

* * *

After the kids were in bed I got in a couple more hours of WoW. (Yes, I'm running on less than 4 hours of sleep, but that's somewhat normal for me.) WoW looks so much better with the graphics maxed out like the designers intended :)

I've been leveling a Blood Elf Priest lately (I got my Mage to 61 and figured I'd park him and accrue some rested XP) and I've been having a lot of fun with the Priest, even in a Healer capacity. Healing is usually a very stressful "ZOMG! We wiped! Stupid Priest! L2Healz!" experience but I've got a bit more experience under my belt now than when I last played a Priest. I've also written a couple of Macros to help me out and found one or two tricks that make Healing (at least at a lower level) somewhat easier.

Earlier Sunday I ran Ragefire Chasm with a Rogue and a Warrior. The Rogue was 15, I was 22, and the Warrior was 29. This was actually a good break back into Healing because it reduced the number of Health Bars I needed to watch to three (inc. my own). We cleared almost the entire Instance, and had just one Boss to kill (with a few Mobs between him and us) when the Warrior said "Got to go" and began Hearthing.

I watched incredulous and sure enough, he finished the Hearth and bailed on us. I looked at the Mobs between us and Bazza, the final boss. At most we had a three pull. The Rogue had Sap, I figured we had a decent chance of doing this. So did the Rogue, so we did. It helped that even though the Mobs were Elites, they were 6 levels lower than me. PW:Shield helped, too, as well the wicked Gravestone Scepter Wand for mucho DPS. I ended up Tanking (& Healing :) because I did so much more initial damage than the Rogue that it was impossible for him to pull Aggro off me, or hold it if he had it. We took down Bazza then parted ways.

Later in a cave in Ashenvale I hooked up with a Warlock for an Escort Quest. Right at the end of the quest we got ambushed by several Furbolg, and amazingly we pulled through. I was OOM, down to double-digit HP, and had to quaff a potion just to stay alive, but stay alive we did. Those are the best times, where you're challenged far beyond your normal safe zone, but you still pull through. Those are the moments that really make this game fun.

If I keep playing a Healer I need to steel myself though, it's going to get even tougher until I hit 70...unless I solo all the way. But apparently End-Game Healing is actually easy. We'll see :)

Pet peeves

Oh! Where to start?! Blogs are really for ranting, we all know that ;)

The problem is if we rant too much nobody actually wants to read our Blog, unless we go so over the top and lose our head that it becomes funny to read but only because now you're laughing at the Blogger, not with him/her. And then those Blogs get kind of sad. Then depressing. And then you stop visiting because it becomes painfully obvious the Blogger is a sad, lonely person with an axe to grind but nobody to grind it upon.

Where was I?

Oh yeah! Wolfgang is keen to know what pisses you off, so head on over to his Blog and have a vent. It's very stress relieving :)

Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible"

I've not been here yet, but knowing the genius that is Joss Whedon I'm not sure how he can go wrong.

"Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog" is only available online for a limited time.

ACT ONE went up on Tuesday July 15th.

ACT TWO goes up today, Thursday July 17th.

ACT THREE (the finale) will go up Saturday July 19th.

All acts will stay up until midnight (PST? GMT -10?) Sunday July 20th.

After that you may only be able to see them if you're prepared to pay for them. But for now, they're free to view.

I'm not saying Dr. Horrible is the best thing since sliced bread or the next Rocky Horror Picture Show. This is just a PSA for those who might have otherwise missed it, like Liz and I did with Firefly and Serenity.

Andy Dick

He's a strange lad. I've watched his performances and always thought they were a little off, sometimes it seemed like he wasn't really acting.

Then he was on an episode of Trading Spaces and he was a little zany but not overly so. He was obviously having fun but he wasn't getting carried away like "Andy Dick the Comedian".

Now he's gotten himself arrested and booked on suspicion of felony possession of a controlled substance (Xanax aka Alprazolam), misdemeanor sexual battery (he allegedly pulled down the front of a 17-year old girl's tanktop) and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

Xanax is a drug commonly prescribed to treat acute anxiety and panic attacks.

Common side-effects of Xanax are:
* decreased inhibitions, no fear of danger (increased risk taking behavior)
* depressed mood (with thoughts of suicide or self harm)
* hallucinations, agitation and hostility
* hyperactivity
* speech problems
* unsteadiness and clumsiness, impaired coordination and balance

I don't know about you, but I think those side effects describe "Andy Dick the Comedian" almost to a tee.

Difference in lifestyles

Some people have a house in the Hamptons.

We have a Hamster in our house.

The reason for the expression on JE's face is because there's no "lid" on the upside-down exercise ball, so as Tiny the Hamster runs around like the speed demon her breed is famous for, she's running right across JE's palm. He thought it tickled.

We figured this was a good way for Tiny to get to know JE's scent, without him actually having to cup her in his hands. This way the two of them can get to know each other in relative safety, without the risk of having a Hamster loose in our house.

A new way of questing

The current questing system in most MMOs goes a little like this:

You walk into town and look around and there's usually a visual clue or a sign, perhaps a golden exclamation mark over certain NPC's heads, which says, "Talk to me! I've got a quest!"

So you talk to these specially marked people, click through the page of dialog, then note the objective. "Kill 10 Rats. Ok. Got it." Then you hit Accept and off you go to kill your 10 Rats.

While this system can be very helpful in reducing your downtime, it's not very immersive.

I'd actually like to see a game where not one person has a sign over their head. I want to mouse over everyone and see a Dialog balloon for every, single NPC. I want to be able to talk to every single person in town, if I choose, and they'll all have something to say to me. Sure, not all of them will have a quest, that's asking a bit too much. Some of them might even just say, "Hi, Cap'n. How's it going? Sorry I can't stop to talk. Got to get these cows milked."

But other NPCs might lead into more detailed dialog, as Gordo mentions on his Blog. And these conversations could allude to a potential quest, or even have the quest giver flat out say he needs your help.

Instead of a "Quest Log", I'd like to see a Notes Log, or Journal, where every conversation you have with someone of note would be summarized and recorded. A farmer milking cows is not important to warrant a Note, but a drunk whose son was killed by Bandits certainly would be, and this may result in a Note in your Journal along these lines:
"Spoke to Jenkins in Goldshire. He says his son was recently killed by bandits."

There's no blatantly obvious Objective with this Note. No sign of an "Avenge Jenkins' son by killing 10 Bandits" sort of thing. Just a note that you spoke to Jenkins and discovered his son was killed by bandits.

What you do with the information you get from Jenkins is entirely up to you. But now that you have that Note in your Journal, speaking to Farmer Jed might elicit more than just "Can't stop. Cows to milk."

Farmer Jed now says, "I saw you talkin' to Jenkins earlier. Damn shame about his boy, damn shame. He was a good lad. Blast those bandits, and blast them good fer nothin' Stormwind soldiers. We told 'em them bandits was gettin' bolder. Even told 'em they was camped out by the Fargodeep Mine. They didn't do nothin'. They just hang out at the Northshire Abbey, drinkin' the wine. Bah! Look at the time! These cows won't milk themselves! Excuse me, Cap'n."

Again, no blatant quest objective. No Accept or Decline button. Just an option to say Goodbye and end the conversation.

But if you look in your Journal you'll see the Note for Jenkins has been updated:
"Spoke to Jenkins, in Goldshire, whose son was killed by bandits.
Farmer Jed says the Bandit camp is near the Fargodeep Mine."

Still no objective. Still no "Kill 10 Bandits" quest. But just a little bit of reading comprehension tells you that maybe you should check out the Fargodeep Mine, so you do. If you're not sure where the Fargodeep Mine is, now that Jed's mentioned it, if you talked to him again or to one of the other townsfolk you'll have the option to ask about the Mine and get directions.

So you make your way to the Mine and there are the Bandits and they're naturally not too happy to see you. Several of them attack you but you successfully defend yourself and dispatch all but one of them. As the last Bandit's health gets to 10% (just as an example, it could be when the second-to-last Bandit is killed) your Auto-Attack turns off and the Bandit becomes immune to your attacks. He also stops attacking you (phew!) and instead of an "Attack" icon when you mouse over him you get a Dialog box.

A Dialog box?

So you click and Talk to the Bandit.

"I'm sorry," he says. "Please don't kill me!"

Had you been out here just grinding on the Bandits and not spoken to Jenkins, this wouldn't have happened, instead the Bandits would have all fought to the death. But you've got a Note in your Journal that you spoke to Jenkins, so this scene plays out instead. If you were grouped with someone doing this quest, and you'd spoken to Jenkins but they had not, this scene would have still played out.

"Please don't kill me!" says the Bandit, and the Dialog box provides you with two choices: Interrogate the Bandit, or Finish him!

Clicking "Finish him" puts you back into Combat where the Bandit is quickly dispatched. Searching his body you find An Interesting Dagger, which if you examine will discover it has the letter J carved into the hilt. Checking your Journal you see the reference to Jenkins and the Bandits has again been updated. Now it states that you encountered and slew several Bandits at the Fargodeep Mine, and you found an interesting dagger with a J on the hilt. If you return to old man Jenkins and talk to him you'll have the option to show him the Interesting Dagger. Doing so will "complete" the quest you didn't realize you were on, rewarding you with some XP and the Dagger, which Jenkins returns to you. Spoils of war and all that.

"Now if you'll excuse me," old man Jenkins says, "I'd like to be left alone. Goodbye."

And your Journal gets updated in a manner which shows that this particular story has been completed.

That's if you go the blood thirsty "Show No Mercy!" route.

Clicking "Interrogate the Bandit", however, opens up more dialog (which I can't be bothered creating) but you basically reveal that you're there because of Jenkins and his dead son. The Bandit confesses that he killed Jenkins' son and says if you spare him, he'll turn himself in. Now you have the choice of killing him, or letting him go. Killing him results in the above situation occurring with you finding the Interesting Dagger, blah blah blah. Sparing his life will result in the Bandit running off towards Town. The next time you're in Town the Stormwind Guard stationed there will tell you that Jenkins' son's killer has turned himself in. He'll offer you a reward, which in the interest of fairness will be a monetary amount equivalent to the vendor value of The Interesting Dagger that you didn't get because you didn't kill the Bandit. This will complete the Interrogation side of the quest you didn't know you were on, or maybe you did ;)

Whenever possible, this is how I'd like quests to be done. No looking around for golden exclamation marks. Just talk to everyone. And if a quest appears vague or lacks information, talk to other people. Some NPCs will have quests, of sorts, and some NPCs will offer additional information to help you complete those quests.

If you're a Skinner or Miner (for example), talking to an Armorer or Weaponsmith might result in a response like "Sorry, Cap'n. I'm a little flustered right now. I've got a big order from the Guard and I'm running low on supplies."

Looking in your Journal you see a note stating the local Armorer (or Weaponsmith) is running low on supplies, and perhaps you can be of assistance.

If you hit the forest now and kill some critters and skin them, or go Mining for Ore, your Journal will get updated to reflect this.
"The Goldshire Armorer is having trouble filling a big order. I've got some animal skins he could use, but I think he'll need more."
So you gather more mats and your Journal updates itself, until it reads:
"The Goldshire Armorer is having trouble filling a big order. I think I've got enough animal skins to help him out."
When you return to him you get the same message, "Big order, low on supplies." but now there's an option to offer him the Skins, and doing so naturally completes the quest.

Sure, some people would still just click through every NPC's Dialog then look in their Journal to see what's there, what needs to be done, etc, but with this system the objectives will not always be clearly spelled out for you. It requires reading comprehension.

A quest system like this would help to promote immersion within your gaming world, and really make you feel a part of what's going on. Unfortunately it may not be that popular, because most of today's Instant Gratification Gamers just want to know what to kill, and how many.

Rats? Okay. 10 of them? Consider it done.

Really. How much fun is that?

Amazing feats

I've done what I consider some pretty amazing stuff in my life.

While chasing down an errant basketball I once hurdled a 4-foot high fence. This is 6" higher than an Olympic Hurdle. The rules of our playground game were who ever got to an out-of-bounds ball first kept it for the throw in. Two other kids beat me to the fence but they stopped and put their hands on top to vault over. Realizing that would slow me down I just leaped. I have no idea how I managed to clear it, but I did, and I got to the ball first.

While walking through a park one spring day I heard the beating of wings and felt movement in the air behind my head. Without even thinking about it I dropped to my knees and the furious magpie passed through the space just recently occupied by my head.

Both of these feats are nothing compared to an event that occurred during one of my karate classes. As a warm-up we used to play a very physical version of basketball, but we weren't allowed to use our hands, not to tackle nor to handle the ball, any other body part was fair game though, which is how I scored one of the few goals ever scored, with a head butt. That impressed everyone in the Dojo and several other people attempted head butt goals but nobody else was ever successful.

That's not the amazing bit though.

During one such game the ball flew so high into the air that it hit the ceiling of the Dojo, which was actually an industrial warehouse leased by our Sensei. I was underneath it at the time and with everyone yelling and Senpai Robbie rushing towards me I quickly headed the ball away to a team mate...but Senpai Robbie kept coming at me, very, very quickly, which confused the hell out of me because I didn't have the ball any more.

I yelled "I don't have the ball!" but Senpai Robbie kept coming.

Then he leaped into the air, straight for me.

I dropped to my knees and ducked my head and with a very graceful leap that can usually only be performed by highly trained ballet dancers or martial artists Senpai Robbie leaped over my head...and caught the fluorescent light that had been knocked loose by the basketball.

He leaped over me and while in mid-air caught a fluorescent light.

Then he landed on the other side of me, still running, and unable to check his momentum in time he literally ran into and up the side of the Dojo wall. Just like they do in the movies he took a couple of steps along the wall before dropping back down onto the floor, all the while holding the fluorescent light in one hand. You don't see them do that in the movies.

I've seen Martial Artists do some amazing things, but it's always something they've practiced many, many times in order to perfect it. I'm not saying what they do is not impressive, it's just it's all rehearsed. Senpai Robbie catching a falling fluorescent light in midair, then running up, across, and down a wall, still holding the fluorescent light; that was amazing.

The Case of the Silent Cell Phone

Xinh's post about the problems her parents (her father in particular) are having with their new cell phones reminded me of an incident at work last week.

One of the ladies was having a problem not hearing her cell phone ring. Her and another coworker had been calling it all morning but it hadn't rung once, so the coworker brought it to me to figure it out.

I went into the Settings and turned up the ring volume, then my coworker tried calling the Silent Cell Phone from her own cell phone.

It didn't ring.

I went back into the Settings. Yes, Ringer Volume was on loud.

I turned on Vibrate.

My coworker called the Silent Cell Phone again, but it remained silent, and it didn't vibrate.

I asked my coworker if the call went through, or if it just went straight into voicemail.

She informed me that she'd hung up as soon as she saw the Silent Cell Phone wasn't ringing.

I took the piece of paper on which the owner of the Silent Cell Phone had written down her number, and I called it from my work phone.

I put the call on speaker so we sat there listening to the phone on the other end ring...but the Silent Cell Phone remained silent.

Then the ringing on my phone stopped, and a voice came out of the speaker.

A little old lady's voice.

"Hello?"

I grabbed my phone's receiver. "Hi. Is this 555-1234?"

"Yes," said the little old lady.

"It is? Then I must have been given the wrong number. I'm terribly sorry to have bothered you."

I hung up and looked at my coworker.

She looked at me.

Then we both looked at the slip of paper in my hand with the wrong phone number written on it.

All morning my coworkers had been calling the little old lady at 555-1234, then hanging up on her.

We used the Silent Cell Phone to call my desk phone. My Caller ID showed the number to be 555-1243. I called that number. The Silent Cell Phone was no longer silent.

We then proceeded to call my first coworker all sorts of names.
I think Doofus was one of the nicer ones ;)

Do you know how fast you were going?

Fast enough that it took you 10 years to catch me.

No, I never said that. I'm a smart arse, but I'm not stupid...ok, that's debatable, too ;)

I've been in the U.S. for over 10 years, and in that entire time the only ticket I got was one, single parking ticket...until today :P

The cop cited me under CVC 22350 which I think was a big mistake on his behalf. I've spent most of the day reading up on how to fight my ticket, and from what I've found a 22350 is one of the easier tickets to beat.

I thought I'd heard that the posted speed limit is not a hard & fast limit, and from what I can tell, that's absolutely correct. (*note - This is purely my opinion. I am not a Lawyer and this does not constitute professional legal advice) So just because the officer nabbed you for allegedly doing 51mph in a 35mph zone does not necessarily mean you are guilty of violating CVC 22350. Hell yeah, I'm gonna fight this :D

Of course I may lose...but I'm still gonna fight it!

Bartle, WoW, and immersiveness

Richard Bartle (read more on him at Wiki) has drawn a lot of ire lately for comments he made re: the current state of MMOs, specifically one grossly misinterpreted statement that WoW = WHO, or vice versa. I'm not jumping on that bandwagon because so many people already have.

Now either Richard, or someone doing a darn good job of posing as him, is also responding to these threads, and reading what he had to say has opened my eyes a little more to the current state of WoW.

If you recall the screen caps on my earlier post where my video card died, WoW can look amazing if you turn on/up all the graphical options.

But that's just the frosting on the cake. How does it taste?

For a game where I've determined you do little more than a variant of 5 common tasks (Kill 10 Rats; Collect 10 Rat Skulls; Escort someone passed the Rats; Kill the Rat King; or deliver a letter/run an errand) WoW can really suck you in.

As a player, you and I you look around the World of Warcraft and we're blown away by the visuals, by how good the game looks.

As a designer, Richard Bartle can also appreciate the work that went into making the game look as good as it does, but, as a designer, he can also spot the shortcomings.

It's like if we went to a magic show with David Copperfield. I don't mean we went to watch DC perform, I mean we went with him; he sat in the audience with us. Now while we're mesmerized by the on-stage magician's tricks and left wondering how he did what he did, DC is watching and enjoying (or not) the magician's performance for how well he did his job. DC will notice the sleight-of-hand tricks that misdirect the rest of us. He'll see the magician palm the object that to us magically disappeared. If the magician does his job well, DC might even enjoy the show. But if the magician performs poorly, well, I'm not even a professionally trained singer, but I can carry a tune and when someone sings a little off key or misses a note or they do something that's a little off, I can tell, and it interferes with my enjoyment of their performance. So imagine DC watching an alleged professional magician totally balls up his performance. I'm not saying Blizzard screwed up WoW, what I am saying is that they did a fantastic job, but they could have done even better.

When RB and I both did the same thing in-game, that being swim around the entire Eastern Kingdoms continent, we noticed different things. While I was blown away by the coral reefs, the ship wrecks, etc. RB noticed other things, like the absence of fish in some areas. If you swim along a desolate coastline in WoW, such as around the Eastern Kingdoms, in some areas there are absolutely no fish at all. This is because the designers didn't see the need to develop that particular stretch of coastline so they didn't put any fish there, but real fish would have swam there anyway. That they didn't swim there tells RB that every single fish in WoW is placed by hand. Ok, by computer, but their placement is not a random occurrence. The program has spots where fish are meant to be, and if you go outside those areas you won't see any fish because the program was not told to put any there. And RB notices that.

His mention of this has opened my eyes to other, similar, immersion-breaking inconsistencies within WoW.

WoW's local fauna consists of predators and critters. Critters are level 1 passive Mobs such as rats, rabbits, sheep, cows, deer, etc. Predators are your more aggressive Mobs, and are the ones you usually get asked to kill for quests. In WoW, a casual observer will notice a predator leave its path to kill a small critter, such as a rabbit, then return to its path. RB and other designers see this, and see something more. What reason does the predator have to kill the critter? It doesn't eat the critter and it shouldn't feel threatened by it, so why attack it and kill it? The reason is WoW's designers put that particular sequence in there in order to increase the feeling of playing in a real world. But they left out the consumption of the critter and there are very few non-human predators on this planet which kill for reasons other than food.

There are many, similar inconsistencies to this in other areas, such as the Horde's Warsong Lumber Camp in Ashenvale. When you enter the camp you will see armed guards protecting the workers, but from what? It's surely not the Wolves and Spiders wandering around, because in some cases a wolf will wander right past a guard or a worker, and everyone just continues on with their business. Then you enter the scene. The guards and workers ignore you, for as a member of the Horde you're just like them, but as you walk through the camp you get attacked by a Wolf, the very same wolf that just brushed up against a worker! This makes absolutely no sense from an immersion point of view. This is supposed to be a wild animal, it was walking right passed a worker that it had no interest in, but it was more than willing to attack you. If it's going to attack you it should attack the workers and guards. You could argue that when the Horde moved in the guards beat the wolves into submission, but in that case they should either be tame beasts and not attack a member of the same faction, or they should be wild but timid animals afraid to go near the Lumber Mill and its aggressive guards. And why when the Wolf attacks you do the guards not rush to your defense?

In Stranglethorn Vale a Troll Mob can safely walk alongside the crocolisk-filled river, but when you try the same thing the crocs attack. This is the exact same situation as in the Warsong Lumber Mill. Two completely unrelated Mobs ignoring each other but either, or both, is more than willing to attack the player. If the Crocolisk is feeling threatened by the player, or is supposed to be protecting its territory, it should likewise feel threatened by the Troll Mob, but it does not. If it's supposed to be hungry (the primary reason predators attack) then why didn't it attack the Troll Mob, who at a lower level should appear much easier prey to the Croc than yourself.

This is certainly not game breaking for me, in fact for me these things now add even more to the game. Now I'm paying more attention and trying to spot these inconsistencies. Sort of like Easter Eggs in your DVDs, or goofs or glitches, like seeing an actor take a big swig from his beer just before the shot changes, and when the camera returns to him his beer glass is still full. We all find our fun somewhere.

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.