The weekend

Saturday arvo I had a dentist appointment so I dropped Liz at Target then went to see my Dentist. After the regular cleaning and a check-up he informed me that everything looked great and that while I didn't require any new work, he was recommending a *shudder* deep cleaning. He did two quadrants a couple of years ago but then we did more work, a root canal, some fillings, etc., and he never got around to the other two quadrants, which I was sort of glad about because even with the local/topical anesthesia a deep cleaning is a rather painful affair. I consider it penance for not taking good care of my teeth.

After the dentist I headed back to Target and found Liz in the cafeteria with a bowl of nacho cheese in front of her. There were nacho chips in the bowl, too, they were just hard to see because there was soooo much yellow, gooey, delicious nacho cheese. MmmmmMmMmm. It was good. Liz had a cup of Root Beer too and OMG! After eating reasonably healthy for most of the week that saturated fat & sugar tasted sooooo good. I know some people might view this as my Cheat Day so it was okay but I don't believe in 'Cheat Days'. Then again I also don't believe in Diets.

A Cheat Day is not a "reward" for eating healthy & working out for 6 days. A Cheat Day is exactly what it says it is: a day in which you cheat yourself out of the real reward, being a healthier you. And did you notice I didn't say 'dieting' and working out? That's because the word diet is commonly preceded by the phrase "I'm starting a..." or "I'm going on a..." If you look at a 'Diet' as something you "start" or "go on", then you'll also think of it as something you "finish" or "go off". I don't go "on a diet", I adjust my eating habits. I try to be conscious of what I'm eating and make healthier choices when possible. I may not always succeed, as happened Saturday, and then again on Sunday when we lunched at Top's Burgers on Colorado in Pasadena. One Reuben on toasted Rye, thank you very much. That said, I washed my Reuben down with a lot of water (no soda this time) and we split a small Fries between us, but trust me, a "small" Fries at Top's is bigger than a large at most other Burger joints. But in no way did I consider these 'rewards' for eating healthier throughout the week.

Sunday afternoon we hooked up with some friends and played Badminton for a few hours. And I do mean a few hours. We started around 4pm and it was 7pm by the time we were done. Conscious of what I'd eaten during the past couple of days I played as many games as I could. It helps that I love Badminton and am pretty good at it. Not as good as my friend Jimmy who managed to beat me in every game we played, including the doubles matches, but I still manage to give him a good run for his money. Not that the cunning sod runs that much. Jimmy is good enough to know what he can get to and what he can't, and he won't go for the shots he knows he can't reach. Me? I'm pretty sure I can get them all so I'll try for them all. Jimmy is aware of this, and good enough with his shot placement to have me running all over the court.

And for that, I thank him.

Monday morning I weighed myself and IIRC was approx. 195 lbs. I ate my usual 4 Weetabix for breakfast accompanied by approx. 2 cups of Soy Milk, then took the Highlander to the dealer for a service which took 2 hours. There I would drink two cups of coffee and eat a slice of Starbuck's Banana Walnut Loaf, take a Mustang GT for spin (through the parking lot, because I'd managed to leave my Driver's License at home) and become enamored with the Scion cT. Later at home I would have two Styrofoam Cakes (aka Rice Cakes) with Blueberry Cream Cheese and drink several glasses of water. After we picked up the kids from school we stopped for some frozen yoghurt where I had my usual small'ish portion loaded with fruit, while dinner would be half-a-dozen boiled Pork & Veg Dumplings followed by a Pomegranate w/ some vanilla yoghurt. And yet more water. It was bloody hot yesterday.

This morning after getting up I weighed myself and almost couldn't believe the scales. 189.6 lbs w/ 23% Body Fat. Under 190 lbs (barely) and Body Fat down 1% I know your morning weight can be lower due to body water lost during the night through respiration and perspiration but I actually felt good this morning and (TMI?) my output looked good, too. Not clear, but also not the yellow of someone a little dehydrated.

I found one of my Blog entries from several years ago where I mentioned I was at 22% so I'm getting back there, but I also recall that when I first came here I was approx. 14%. Of course that was 20 pounds and 12 years ago. I suspect that to get back down to 14-15% I'm going to need to go past the 180 I weighed then, when I was much more active, and shoot for a weight around 170 lbs. Before that can happen I need to hit 180 and before that I need to get down to 185. And before I get to 185 I need to keep off the weight I appear to have lost during the past couple of days.

Small steps. Because a significant amount of weight lost gradually in small steps is easier to keep off than a large amount lost abruptly, such as by someone "going on" a "crash diet".

*edit*

4 Weetabix for breakfast and a Sunshine Breakfast Muffin (from Subway) for second breakfast. English muffin with a few pieces of Ham & 1 slice of cheese, plus 2 Styrofoam Cakes with a smear of Blueberry Cream Cheese for lunch. One English Muffin, toasted, w/ BCC for a snack when I got home. To drink I had 1 16oz cup of coffee which I never finished, and several 16oz bottles of water. Afternoon pre-dinner weight? 192.2 Not too shabby :)

Weighing in

I'm 41-years old, 5'11", 195-200lbs, with 24% Body Fat. The archaic BMI rates me at 27.6 which is halfway into Overweight, and I'd agree with that. I am over weight, I do have a "spare tyre", and could definitely stand to lose a few pounds. However, based on the archaic BMI the medical recommended weight for my height is 135-180 pounds. This is why I'm not a huge fan of the BMI, because it puts that upper limit of my 'normal' weight at 180 pounds. That's what I weighed in High School when I was very active & fit (marathon fit), and when I look at some of those photos from that time I didn't look trim & athletic, I looked thin.

If I get down to the middle-of-the-road BMI 'Normal' weight for my height, being 155-160 lbs, people would be talking behind my back and asking Liz "Is John okay?".

If I got down to ~170 I'd be a lot healthier, and a lot happier, but people would probably still be wondering if I was okay.

According to this rather excellent site (although I say that without any knowledge of how accurate it is) based on a desired goal to go from 24% Body Fat to 15% Body Fat (see what I did there? I'm not concentrating on weight loss, but a reduction in my body fat %) I need to lose ~25 pounds.

If I start working out I will shed fat, but I'll also add muscle, so I might hit my target of 15% Body Fat but will still weigh in at ~180 pounds. According to the BMI that's borderline overweight, and yet I'd actually have a very healthy Body Fat %

So, what can I do to accomplish my goal of lowering my body fat percentage by 10 points?

My daily commute (being a bus ride) sees me walking approximately a total of 1 mile to & from Home to Bus Stop to work, & back. Hardly strenuous.

At Liz's urging I've recently taken to doing Sit-Ups and while the first night was a fight to get my torso up off the floor the second night was easier, the third night I did 2 sets of 10, and last night I cranked out 20 Sit-Ups in one hit. Sit-Ups alone won't do much more than strengthen and tone up my abs & lower back (I'm doing the twisting, elbow-to-opposite-knee crunches) but it's a start.

If I throw Push-Ups into the mix that will help but I'll still need to do more than that.

I need to start doing the Wii-Fit's Expert Boxing Routine again - at least two 10-minute Reps each night - plus run a mile or two at least 3-4 nights a week. Unfortunately I picked a bad time to start running again as within a matter of weeks Daylight Saving Time will end and it will be dark by the time I get home. However, a quick check at Google Maps has revealed that one lap around our home block is ~1 mile. This is useful to know because it means I can run/walk/jog/hobble one mile without crossing any roads, and if I want to do two miles I just do two laps, and so on.

What about 3 miles? When I take the dog for her walk down by the river that's usually at least a 3-mile trip. I'm not saying I'm going to run 3 miles straight off the cuff, but the option to do that is there, and I did do that a couple of times a month or two back when I went out with my daughter. She rode her scooter and I ran, and walked, and she got ahead of me and I needed to run again. It took us a little over 30 minutes for the trip and she was starting to complain that her leg was sore (from all the scooting), but we got there in the end.

That's what I need to start doing again if I want to get rid of this spare tyre. And if I notice people are starting to give me concerned looks or are talking about me behind my back...that will be a good thing ;)

Impressive!

Last week Mike called me up and said his wife had told him I was home (I had the day off work) and asked if I wanted to go shooting with him. We already had an IDPA-style shooting event planned for today and Mike wanted to get in some practice before then, so we met up at the La Puente Firing Range. Mike had warned me that the owner was pretty chatty, but that he really knew his stuff, was a very competent gunsmith, and also helped train LAPD.

After a few minutes chatting with the owner we hit the range and proceeded to murder some paper targets at 21' For someone who doesn't shoot often enough I was still shooting pretty well, although there were quite a few times where I'd drill the center with my first shot but the follow up shots would go several inches low. My groups were good but off target. By contrast Mike was shooting the center out of his targets, and I mean that quite literally.

After we were done Mike suggested we talk to the owner about getting a holster for me (I'd need one for the event) and maybe get some advice about why I'd drill the target dead center with my first shot but had a tendency to shoot low with my subsequent shots.

The owner asked me to show him how I shoot, so I did, and he told me that I was pretty much doing everything wrong. Everything. Right down to how I was holding my Beretta. He had me do a simple exercise where I stood, relaxed, gun by my side, and with eyes closed raised the gun up and pointed it ahead of me, then he asked me to open my eyes and look where the gun was pointing. It was not pointing straight ahead. It was pointing downward.

He had me change my grip then repeat the exercise. Eyes closed, relax, raise the gun up and out and open my eyes and...my Beretta was pointing straight ahead. Talk about opening your eyes. My eyes were opened! (As were my ears) and for the next 30 minutes I listened and watched and learned how to shoot a firearm all over again.

Then I went home, and each night I took out my Beretta and practiced with it. No shooting, just bringing it up, using my 'new' grip, and pointing it straight ahead. Back down, breathe, relax, and do it again.

Friday we met up with Mike and his family for dinner but before we could eat the women sent us out to run some errands. As one of our stops took us close by Turners of Pasadena we stopped in to see if they had a suitable holster for me. I checked my Beretta with the young man (I'm 40 years old now, anyone 30 & under looks young) and told him I needed a suitable holster for an IDPA-style event. We hit the holster section but none of the molded, hard holsters would fit my 96G. Finally we settled on a nylon holster with a magazine pouch attached to the front. That was a bonus because it meant I didn't need to shell out another $10 for a magazine holder.

Then we completed our errands.

The next day I strapped on my holster, loaded up both 10-round clips, and for the whole day was armed (except when I left the house) and let me tell you, two 10-round clips loaded with .40S&W and a Beretta 96G makes for a pretty heavy weight to be hanging off your hip, at least until you get used to it. I figured I'd spend most of the next day at the range carrying that weight so I wanted to get used to it.

Sunday morning we were up reasonably early and JE and I joined our friends at Burro Canyon above Azusa where we'd rented one of the private ranges for the day. After a lengthy practice session where the newbies learned how to shoot, and some were shooting for the very first time, my son and his friend went head-to-head.

JE was shooting his H&K USP CO2-powered BB gun which, at a distance of 12 feet, was more than capable of sending a BB straight through the Clay Pigeons we were using for targets. With California restricting civilians to 10-round magazines and with Mike's son using his .22LR 1911, and because we didn't want the boys doing magazine changes, we limited them to three stations with one Clay Pigeon target at each. So they had to shoot the first Clay, move to the second Station & shoot the second Clay, then move to the third Station and shoot the last Clay.

Mike's son was pretty accurate, but like all 10-year old boys he had a tendency to get a little too excited and shoot a little too quickly for his own good. JE, by contrast, was slow, steady, and didn't waste a shot. Mike's son went rapid fire, used most of his 10 rounds, and broke his third Clay just as JE broke his second with his second shot. I gestured to JE to finish and he moved on to the third Station where he broke his third Clay with one more shot, but Mike's son still won Round 1.

In the next Round Mike's son went fast again, but this time his 1911 jammed and before he could clear it JE broke his third Clay and won Round 2. Round 3 would be a repeat of Round 2 with yet another jam and more accurate shooting from JE.

The ladies stepped up and had their turns, then the newbie guys who did pretty good despite (allegedly) never having fired a handgun before today.

Finally it was our turn but first, the targets were moved out to approx. 21-feet. Like everyone who had shot before us we would be competing head-to-head but we had a few more targets. Our first man-sized target had two Clays, one at chest height, one at head height. Both would need to be broken before moving on to the second Station where we had to knock over a Bowling Pin (yes, by shooting it) before moving on to Stations 3, 4, & 5, each with a single Clay. Station 6 was three Bowling Pins which could all be knocked over with one well-placed shot, but all three pins needed to be knocked down to win the Round so you needed to finish off the 'Spare' if you didn't shoot a Strike.

After acquiring my new Holster I'd practiced drawing, but I'd also practiced magazine changes. If you were counting along as you read the previous paragraph you'd know we had 6 Stations but a combined maximum of 9 targets: 5 Clays, and 4 Bowling Pins. Miss too many times and a Tactical Reload would be need to be performed mid-Round.

In the first Round, thinking "IDPA" I did a Reload with Retention, meaning I drew my spare magazine, ejected the empty, slammed home the fresh magazine, then stored my empty magazine before resuming shooting. It didn't take as long to do as to read that, but it wasn't lightning fast, either. So you can imagine my surprise when I moved onto Station 6, knocked over all three pins with one shot, and was declared the winner. How...? What...? I am? How did that happen??? I asked, incredulously.

Mike won his first round as well and so we found ourselves facing each other. Mike, who'd been shooting out the center of his targets just a week before, was my next opponent.

"Shooters, are you ready?" I heard Paul say behind me. I nodded, as I stared at the target ahead of me.

"3...2...1...Go!" Mike and I drew our pistols as we stepped up to the rope barrier and Station 1. Pow! I shot the first chest-high Clay. Pow! I shot the second, head-high Clay. 2 rounds, 2 hits. I stepped sideways to Station 2 and the single Bowling Pin. Pow! One shot, and it went down. Step sideways to Station 3. Somewhere in there between Stations 3 and 5 I missed a target or two, but I remember calmly telling myself to concentrate on the front sight. The Clay at Station 5 burst and I stepped sideways to Station 6 and its Three Bowling Pins where I took careful aim at the lead pin. Pow! It fell and knocked the back two Pins down and I held up my pistol. The slide was locked back and as I withdrew my spare magazine from my Holster, which was still full, everyone realized what I'd just done. I'd shot all 7 targets (Station 6's 3 pins together counting as one) with just 10 rounds.

Paul was the only other Shooter to have won 2 Rounds so we faced each other to determine the overall winner. Paul is among the handful of non-sworn Californians to hold a Concealed Carry Permit, and because both his business and his life depend on it, he shoots a lot. He was the most experienced shooter, and the one who had organized today's event, and I was now going up against him.

"Shooters, ready! 3...2...1...GO!" We stepped up to line, drawing, aiming, & firing. Clays burst apart and I stepped sideways, taking aim again. Firing, moving down the line, and then I was taking aim at the lead pin at Station 6. One shot and the pins fell and my Beretta's slide locked back. I stepped back from the line holding my empty Beretta high and, with a grin from ear to ear that I just couldn't suppress, drew my still-full spare magazine from its pouch in front of my holster. 7 targets with 10 rounds. Yes, I'd done it again. No, I couldn't believe it either.

Clay Pigeons are approx. 4" in diameter. Last week, at 21 feet, I'd been barely able to keep my shots within a 12" group. Today, I'd been hitting 4" targets at the same distance with practically every shot. Finally, my Beretta and I were shooting like I knew we could. Okay, I'd always known my Beretta was accurate, but now we were able to shoot well together. Finally I was a shooter worthy of my pistol and I'd just proved it three times in succession. Of course all that means is I'll have to prove it all over again at our next shoot.

*edit* Photo from Paul of my FHuge "I did it again!" grin.

Paul reloading. I'm still shooting.


Mike and me. My single Bowling Pin is down, Mike's is still standing.


What happens when you shoot a watermelon?

Can "Piracy" be justified?

Obviously I'm not talking Piracy as in Yar, Maties! or the more modern-day Somalian Pirates, but rather software piracy.

As a long-time video gamer with a preference for Nintendo's games, I have at various points in my lifetime owned:
2 of the original-style Gameboys;
2 of the remodeled Gameboys, (in the U.S. known as Gameboy Pocket)
1 Gameboy Advance
2 Gameboy Advance SPs
4 Gameboy DSs
1 NES
1 SNES
1 Nintendo 64
1 Gamecube
1 Wii
Plus numerous games for each system, anywhere from at least 10 titles (per system) to...24 carts for the N64, 27 Gamecube games, ~30 DS carts, & 22 Wii games.

Does this large support for the games industry justify me owning an Acekard (actually three of) and downloading DS Roms for which I do not own the actual game?

If you said, No, No!, Hell No! (or any variant thereof) I actually agree with you. No amount of purchases and past support for a games company justifies a current practice of pirating software.

But let's take a look at Dragon Quest IX.

In the vein of one of Nintendo's other largest selling franchises, Dragon Quest IX is a single-player game. Yes, I know it allows for multi-play using the DS's Wi-Fi capabilities, what I mean is once someone such as my son starts playing his copy of Dragon Quest IX nobody else can use his cartridge to play the game unless they delete his saved game file, or play his saved game.

But what if I don't want to play my son's game, and I don't want to delete his game? What if I want to create my own character and start from the start of the game?

Then I can wait for my son to grow bored with his copy of the game so I can delete his file and start my own. And hope that in a week or two he doesn't ask for it back.

Or I can buy a second copy of the game. Either a brand new copy which directly supports the developers, or a second-hand copy which doesn't directly support the developers but still lets me play the game myself.

Or I can download a ROM of DQ IX, which not only doesn't directly support the developers with a second purchase of their awesome game, but is like throwing them the bird for (IMO) being greedy pricks and not allowing multiple save files per cart, which was a common industry practice up until a few years ago.

In this particular case I went with Option No. 3. I downloaded a ROM for which I own a first-hand purchased, legitimate copy of that particular game.

Now for the sake of the argument we shall limit this discussion to this particular situation, and not include those situations where I may (or may not have) downloaded ROMs for which I do not own an actual copy of the game.

So, when the developers of a game deliberately limit the functionality of their game in a deliberate attempt to force a family to purchase multiple copies of said game...IF the family purchases at least one legitimate copy of the game, is it now justifiable for them to download a ROM of the game so the rest of the family can each play their own copy of the game?

What if, in the case of DQ IX, the game includes a feature whereby the family can multiplay with each other, and they do so using 1 legitimate copy of the game and 3 ROM versions? (I'm not actually sure it's possible, but I don't see why not. I'll let you all know later.) Is it still justifiable because they own 1 legitimate copy of the game? Or should anyone who wants to multiplay purchase a legitimate copy of the game?

In this case I would agree that anyone who wants to multiplay DQ IX with their family should buy a legitimate copy of the game. But if everyone is quite content to play the game on their own, why should we have to buy multiple copies of the game when it's a very common industry practice to have 3 Save Files per Cart?

So if we own a legitimate copy of the game, I consider downloading a ROM of said game for immediate family members to use to be an acceptable practice, even if the law disagrees with me. Because while Section 117 of the Copyright Act makes it acceptable to make & use back-up copies of legitimately purchased & owned software, it's not acceptable to download copies of said software; apparently you must make the back-up copy yourself. Too bad that making a back-up copy of a DS cartridge is beyond the means of the average consumer.

I guess I'll just have to continue to be a Pirate. Yar, Maties!

Anyone got any match sticks?

This morning my alarm went off at 3:30am and it wasn't that my clock was confused and thought Daylight Saving Time was over. Today was when reservations open for the Park where my son's Cub Scout Pack has their annual camp, and according to the former Pack Master and the Ranger assigned to the Park people started lining up at 4am to make sure they got the date they wanted.

After performing my morning ablutions I staggered downstairs and outside to where the father-in-law's car waited for me, sans FIL of course (I'd borrowed the car, not him as well). I made good time getting to the Park entrance and inadvertently blinded the drivers of the few cars already waiting as I blew past with my lights on High (so I could see any coyotes, not that I did, but I might have). Dipping the lights I turned around and drove back to the entrance, pulled another U-turn and got into line.

It was only 4am and there were already 4 cars ahead of me, but either I'd miscounted in the dark or one of the cars was carpooling because when the Ranger turned up at 5:15am and started handing out the tickets I received ticket #6, not #5.

I heard her say she hoped to start processing folks at 7am, and I thought about heading back home, fixing myself some breakfast, and relaxing for a little while, but while we live close to the Park, we don't live so close that it was a no brainer, and after a few minutes I decided to drop my seat back down and try to catch up on some more sleep. I'd dozed off a couple of times earlier and woken myself up snoring. How I did it, I don't know, but twice I woke up to a rattling sound that stopped when I evened out my breathing so it was obviously coming from me.

A little before 6am the Ranger opened the gate and the convoy started up and drove down into the Park. Again I tried to catch some zZzZzZ's but now folks were walking around and talking and dawn was starting to break so I got out of the car, grabbed my bag, and followed some stragglers into the Ranger's office. Well, not quite her office. First there's a small room featuring some of the local fauna, stuffed and alive, plus a living reproduction of the wilderness outside, including a small pond surrounded by local flora. Off this room is the Ranger's office. I sat down, took out my current read, and settled in.

At 6:50 the Ranger emerged and called out "Number One? Who's lucky number one? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?" (Okay, so she didn't do the Bueller bit). She went outside and found number one, probably asleep in his truck (Of the first 10 vehicles in line mine was the only sedan; everyone else was driving an SUV or a truck.) Meanwhile, back inside, I overheard one woman talking on her cell phone. "Yeah, I've got number 11," she told the person on the other end of the line. "I was here at 4:30 and I'm number 11," she said incredulously.

Lucky Number One emerged from the Ranger's office and Almost Lucky Number Two went in, to emerge five minutes later, according to one fellow who felt inclined to time the reservation meetings. When Number Three emerged and Number Four slipped into the Ranger's office I packed up my book, picked up my bag, and took my place near the door behind the young lady I thought was probably Number Five, but wasn't.

Finally it was my turn in the Ranger's office. I headed in armed with three dates, one early June, just before school lets out, and two in May. The June date was preference number 1, and the later May date preference number two. Both were already spoken for but preference number three was still available. The Ranger handed me the card to fill in with the contact information of the person in charge of our camp. That would be our camp I'd just scheduled for May, 2011, being after my son takes part in his Arrow of Light ceremony and moves on to Boy Scouts, which is when I will step down as Pack Master. I'd just lined up at 4am to reserve the campground for my son's Cub Scout Pack's annual camp which we won't be attending. I knew that going in, but I couldn't put my own Contact info down as they'd send the reservation packet to me and I'd prefer it to go to my current Assistant Pack Master who will take over from me at the Arrow of Light ceremony.

I grabbed my phone, ran through the directory and found my APM's name. Hit Dial, and my phone said, "I'm sorry, John; I can't do that."

No signal.

"You can use my phone," offered the helpful Ranger, pointing to her desk phone.

Fortunately it was now 7:20am which is early, but not so early that you can't get away with calling someone at home. My APM answered and I quickly got his address and cell phone number, filled out the card, and bid him a good day. Handing over the registration card I thanked the Ranger, who replied, "That's it. Thank you. Number 7?!" and away I went.

Next year my APM will do the same thing, also for a Camp which he, too, will not be attending. Of course that's all part of the Scouting Movement; doing good turns for others.

Is Penny Arcade redefining Piracy ?

"If I am purchasing games in order to reward their creators, and to ensure that more of these ingenious contraptions are produced, I honestly can't figure out how buying a used game was any better than piracy." - Tycho, Penny Arcade

Wow! Those are strong words.

They're also true.

Now before you start ranting make sure you understand what Tycho is saying, or rather, what he's not saying, because he's not saying buying a used game equals piracy, even if that's what you think he's saying.

Tycho is saying that if your intention is to reward a designer for making an awesome game, buying a used copy of the game has the exact same effect as pirating the game, because if you buy a used game the developer will never see a dime of your money. (Click here for currency conversion rates)

If your intention is to reward the designer then buying a used copy of the game sends the exact same message as if you pirated the game. That's all Tycho is saying.

Mafia II - Demo review

I like it, but then that's to be expected. I like the GTA series and Mafia II is essentially GTA Mafia.

The Demo offers you 10 minutes of play (or you can hack the Timer for...er...a more thorough review? Yeah, that works. Nothing like a good rationalization.) within a small portion of the game world, and if you go outside the boundary you "lose" the Demo's linear mission. Fortunately the 10 minutes is the only timer in the Demo so once it's no longer counting down you pretty much have free reign within the Demo, or at least within the Demo's playable area.

One of the things I didn't like was the biased, heavy-handedness of the police. Rounding one corner I had a minor fender bender with another car. The police were perhaps 100 yards ahead of us and both myself and the other car came to a complete stop, but as I looked on the police car's lights came on and the built-in police scanner announced a Hit & Run. The cop car's doors opened and the police began running back towards us, guns drawn.

A Hit & Run? What Hit & Run??? We'd both stopped our cars. There was no Hit & Run!

Then I was being pulled from my car and arrested at gun point, for a non-existent Hit & Run.

Later I would deliberately run in front of a car traveling in front of a police car, and despite being struck & injured and the offending car continuing to drive on in a classic case of Hit & Run...the police did nothing.

Another thing I didn't like was being forced to install Steam along with the Demo. I don't really have any rational reason for not liking Steam, but I object to having to install & run a third party program to play the Demo when that program has absolutely nothing to do with the game (yes, yes. I know Mafia II can be multiplayed via Steam, but that's Mafia II the GAME, not Mafia II the DEMO). That's actually almost enough to turn me off buying the Game, if I'm forced to play it via Steam. And yes, I know I can tweak Steam to run it in Offline Mode but why should I have to? If I only want to play Mafia II as a Single Player game, and only as a Single Player Game, why do I need to install & run a Third-party peer-to-peer client?

But the game is good, or at least the Demo is, and by inference the Game must be, too. After all, it's GTA Mafia. What's not to like?

I liked how 'Cover' worked in combat, with the ability to use Mouse Look to scope out the situation prior to Right-Click/Leaning out to shoot. I also liked that cover wasn't always bullet proof, and that you could still be shot while 'taking cover' if you weren't careful.

If you don't care one way or another about Steam, and if you liked the GTA series, particularly those from III onward, you'll probably like Mafia II. I like it too; I'm just not sure I like it enough to overlook the forced bundling of Steam along with it, even if I do understand why it's been included. Personally, I think the User should have the option of not installing Steam, and being able to play Mafia II as a Single Player-only game.

The Demo isn't enough to convince me to pay full price for Mafia II, but it has reminded me that I never bought GTA IV, and with it being available now for just $20 I might finally add it to my library.

*edit* I did find this amusing. I was experimenting with the hand-to-hand combat system, which is fun, even if it's not Tekken. In fact it's just left-clicking or right-clicking for a light hit or heavy hit, but your avatar does throw combos as you gain the upper hand, or your opponent if you're losing the fight, which is a nice touch. After beating up on a few guys I drew the attention of the police, managed to resist arrest (by beating up the arresting officer), then successfully fled the scene of the crime. However, I was still a Wanted Man and thus prone to attracting attention if a cop saw me, which one did.

While playing you come across the odd tip, and one Tip said to be careful brandishing weapons in Gun Stores because Gun Store owners are armed themselves.

Now it just so happened that I attracted the attention of the local constabulary while outside a Gun Store, and with it being one of the few building you can enter I quickly ducked inside and hid behind the counter. When the cop chased me inside he drew his gun and shot at me...and was promptly blown away by the Gun Store owner.

I doubt the Gun Store owner has become a Wanted Man now himself, but I did find it an amusing touch that he was willing to defend himself against a perceived attack by shooting a police officer.

W101: 60,000 Crowns for US$60

For the next 10 days you can buy 60,000 W101 Crowns for just $60.

According to Tesh that's enough Crowns to buy every zone currently in the game. In other words, for the same price as a 12-month Sub you can get permanent access to every zone currently in the game (I say 'currently' because a new zone is already in the works). But don't take Tesh's and my word for it, check for yourself.

Wizard City = 3,000 Crowns
Krokotopia = 11,895 Crowns
Grizzleheim = 9,975 Crowns
Marleybone = 12,000 Crowns
Moo Shu = 10,800 Crowns
& Dragonspyre = 10,800 Crowns

That's a Grand Total of 57,470 Crowns.

Two years ago I quit playing World of Warcraft, and for less than the price of two 6-month WoW Subs I bought my son and I each a 12-month W101 sub. I find it amusing that I just quit WoW for the second time, and once again am considering replacing it with a Wizard 101 subscription, but this time with what is essentially a life-time sub.

Greed and Dishonesty

One of our favorite places to visit, especially during the hotter weather, are the self-serve, Soft-Serve Yogurt Houses, where you get to create your own Soft-Serve Yogurt Sundae with as much or as little Yogurt and as many toppings as you'd like, within reason of course.

The way these places work is you grab yourself a tub, fill it with the yogurt (or don't, as in don't fill it) of your choice, or yogurts if you want to mix flavors. You add some toppings - or not; it's your choice - then the clerk weighs your sundae because you pay per ounce, so the more you cram into your tub, the heavier it is, and the more you pay. Quite fair, in my opinion. Just want a little? Pay a little. Want to pig out? Then you'll pay for it, now and later.

We always get the smaller of the two tubs which might hold a pint of yogurt if you filled it, but we never do. (The bigger tub is probably around 50% larger than the smaller one.). Sometimes I've filled my tub a little over halfway but for the most part we'll put a couple of coils of yogurt in the bottom then throw a few toppings on, and between the four of us we'll usually pay around $6-$8.

We frequently see other patrons also taking the smaller tub, but unlike us they'll fill it almost to the top with yogurt then hit the toppings bar and by the time they've finished you'd think there had been an earthquake. They've left so little room for toppings, but are so determined to get toppings on and, I guess, "get their moneys worth" that they'll scoop on the toppings only to have them fall off every which way (but loose. Great movie, by the way; one of my favorites). So they fill their small tub up with yogurt until it's almost overflowing, then add toppings until it is...and why are we always surprised when their single tub of yogurt rings up for as much as the four of ours?

You look at their concoction and wonder why they don't just take a big tub and half fill it instead. They'd still pay the same price for the same amount of yogurt and toppings but it wouldn't be spilling out all over the place. Except you also know that if they did take the bigger tub they'd still do exactly the same thing. So they either have no self-control - which is doubtful or they would use the bigger tub - or their greed has them convinced that by overloading their smaller tub they're "sticking it to the man"

"You're not ripping me off, Mr. Yogurt-Man! I'm filling my tub to the top. You hear me, Mr. Yogurt-Man? To. The. Top! Yeah!"

The cafeteria at my work has a salad bar. It's the kind where you get your own box and make your own salad, and like the Yogurt Houses you used to have to pay for however much you took.

But then Management made a change and suddenly a small carton of salad was just $4 while a larger carton was $6, for as much salad as you can cram into it, within reason of course. But 'reason' is overrated because just as greedy people overload their yogurt tubs, my greedy coworkers would likewise fill their salad carton so full that the cashier couldn't close the tabs on top. It was understood that the tabs needed to close or you'd pay extra but I guess some of coworkers still filled their carton To. The. Top! By which I mean over-filled it so the tabs couldn't close.

So Management replaced the cartons with clear plastic boxes. The kind with a hinge, with equal sized top & bottom (or is it bottom & top?) It doesn't matter because whichever way you flip it your box still looks the same, with the same sized bottom and the same sized top. The price is also the same but if you figure you now get less salad for the same price because the 'top' is now just halfway up the container, you'd be right.

I mentioned that to my cashier when I got my salad today, that the box is smaller now.

"No, it's the same size," she said.

I explained to her that we couldn't fill it like we could with the old cartons and that's when I learned of my greedy & dishonest coworkers who tried to "stick it to the man" and deliberately over-filled their cartons. And when those greedy, dishonest people came in and saw their cartons had been replaced by plastic containers, and they realized they couldn't get as much salad as before, that "the man was ripping them off!" do you think they still got a salad? Probably not; they probably went somewhere else.

In the short term they might have "won". They got a few extra pieces of lettuce or tomato at no additional cost, but in the long term they will never see deals like that $4 salad. Their own greed has made sure of that. They still lose, just like we all do.

He who dies with the most toys...still dies. - Random T. Shirt

How much time, part II

Continuing from last week's post.

On Sunday, July 11th, I played for three sessions of 130 minutes, 184 minutes, and 177 minutes, or for the mathematically-challenged 8 hours and 11 minutes. With the next day being a work day I logged out at 10:35pm.

I didn't play at all on Monday and on Tuesday put in just 70 minutes, logging out at 8:30pm when my attempt at Tanking Utgarde Keep on my properly spec'd, def-capped Death Knight crashed & burned. That was also the end of my week's WoW time.

So this past week I played for a shade under 9 1/2 hours, with almost all of that time being on Sunday. Compared to last week's 41 hours this is also not really an example of my regular playing habits, rather an average of the two is more realistic, or it would be if I hadn't canceled my subscription.

Walking out

No, it's not another "I'm quitting WoW" post :P

Today the Bunny had a playdate at a friend's house so Liz gave JE a choice of tagging along to a playdate with three 5-year olds, or coming in to work with me for the day. He chose work and so he was up bright & early, catching the bus and riding into downtown to spend a day at the office with me.

I set him up in the empty cubicle next to mine where he started on his homework. Around 8:30 we took a break and walked over to the Subway where he got a 'free' Oatmeal & Raisin cookie. (Free because I'd eaten lunch there earlier this week, and if you take a brief online survey about the experience then write down the code proving you took the survey you can get a free cookie on your next visit.)

I let him play his DS for a little while as he ate his cookie but after half-an-hour or so it was back to homework. When he'd finished his run-on sentence exercises we took a second break before returning to his homework. He wasn't too happy because he now had to rewrite a 5-paragraph essay, but double-spaced with 1" margins on each side so his teacher had room to correct any mistakes.

"It's so much!" he protested.

So I asked him, how do you eat an elephant?

With that he started writing, one sentence at a time, one word at a time, and I returned to my desk. When I checked on him a little while later he was talking on the phone to Liz, who wanted to join us for lunch around 12:30. When she hung up I showed the boy that I had another coupon for another free cookie, and said if he had 3 paragraphs of his essay done before Mom got in he could get another cookie.

When Liz called to say she was almost here he was starting on the fourth paragraph, so we quickly packed up and made our way to the Subway for another cookie. It took a couple of minutes so Liz was waiting for us by the time we got out.

We decided to eat lunch at Panini Cafe, on 9th & Hope, found parking one block away, and despite it being 12:30pm were seated right away. Unfortunately the table at which we were seated was immediately beneath a slowly rotating fan beneath a rather bright track light, which resulted in a very unpleasant strobe effect bouncing off our table.

At our request a Waiter stood on Liz's chair and turned up the fan. This sped up the strobe effect so it wasn't as obvious but after a minute or so of being subject to a now high-speed strobe we decided it was still unbearable. Fortunately a table in the corner was not beneath a fan (there were numerous fans throughout the restaurant) and the four gentleman seated there had just paid their bill, so we grabbed our Waiter and told her we'd like to switch to their table when they were done; she said that would be fine.

Then I heard a Waiter behind me telling another customer they would be seated there when the foursome left. I turned and told this Waiter we'd already asked to be moved to that table.

"I'm sorry," she replied, "but they've been waiting longer than you."

"That's fine," I said, putting my menu down, "we'll leave then." I'm fairly easy going and laid back and so have never done anything like this before, but Liz was right there with me as I stood up and to his credit the boy didn't protest or complain; he immediately stood up and followed us out.

"Let's just go across the road to the Ralph's," I said, "they have a pretty decent Deli section there." And so we did.

Later I said to Liz, almost in disbelief, "I can't believe we just walked out of the restaurant!"

She said she'd been about to suggest doing that herself.

Had we stayed Liz would probably have suffered a severe vertigo attack, and I do mean severe; if she watches me play Super Mario Galaxy even for just a few seconds she'll start to get motion sickness. I'm the gamer so I'm more tolerant to these things but as we'd walked out of Panini the relief I'd felt made me realize the strobe had been affecting me too, and I'm sure it had made the boy uncomfortable as well.

The food at Panini cafe is quite good. It's a little pricey but it's still good food. That said, if one has advance knowledge that their meal is not going to be enjoyable, for whatever reason that may be, and attempts have been made to correct the situation but to no avail, one should never be too embarrassed to just walk away.

Very few meals on this planet are worth suffering for.

Thursday

Roadworks at my normal stop meant I had to walk up to 7th Street so I missed the 2:40pm bus, and the 2:50pm bus never came. The 3pm bus was running a few minutes late which didn't make Liz happy when I called and told her, and she already wasn't happy that I'd missed my usual bus because it meant plans had to be changed. Grr.

So instead of picking me up Liz dropped JE at basketball practice and then picked me up at the Bus Station at 3:35 (normally I'd be there between 3:10 & 3:15pm). We drove back to the park where JE had basketball, Liz jumped out to stay with the boy and I took over and took the Bunny to her Gymnastics class. As Gym started half an hour later and finished quarter of an hour later than Basketball, I left the Bunny at Gym and returned to Basketball in time to get Liz and the boy, then back to Gym to get the Bunny, then it was on to the Mall for a very late lunch/early dinner (the kids got frozen yoghurt).

After shopping for a while we returned home and the kids played outside on their bikes, scooters, and skateboards. Rain clouds were blowing over and it did rain, briefly (typical for Los Angeles); the ground was so hot that the drops dried up almost as soon as they'd touched down.

Random Fun of the Day: Quake Cottage was set up at my office this morning so I took a spin to see what an 8.0 earthquake feels like. Apparently Quake Cottage still doesn't accurately simulate what a real 8.0 would feel like. We only rode for 30-seconds whereas a real 8.0 is predicted to last for up to 2 minutes, if not more. (That was a loooong 30 seconds though). A real 8.0 would also set off other Fault Lines so you'd be getting hit from all sides; Quake Cottage is a linear, front-to-back rolling wave. It still tosses you around, but not like what a real 8.0 would be like.

I went on it twice :)

It's now 9:40pm and I'm contemplating logging into WoW but on my Hunter, not my DK. There's a couple of old friends whom I'd like to say goodbye (again) to, if they're on. Re: leveling another Paladin to 70. My Mum will actually be here in a shade over 2 weeks. It would take me most of those 2 weeks to hit 70 and I'd probably need to play for a couple of hours every night. I'd rather not do that. Instead, if I do log in, I'll just putter around for a bit, relax, and have fun. I mean that is why we play games, right? To relax, unwind, and have fun? That's probably even more important after a day where I rode out an 8.0 earthquake, even if it was simulated ;)

Rant against MyPoints

followed by vindication.

MyPoints, for those who may not be aware, is an online spam program where you sign up to get spammed and you click the links in the emails for points and after clicking a bazillion links you finally earn enough points to get a $5 Toys 'r' Us gift card. (Actually it's not that many emails, and the rewards are pretty decent, but unless you shop online at their affiliate's sites don't expect to be getting a gift card every week, or every other week, for that matter.)

I've been a MyPoints Member for quite a few years now (maybe 8-10?) and I've happily clicked through their emails and slowly accrued my MyPoints...which the wife cashes in for Gift Cards and spends, all without my knowledge. Meanwhile I continue to happily click through their emails and accrue more MyPoints, and so on. The wife also has a MyPoints account and she probably signed our son up, too. Nothing wrong with that, except there's probably an age requirement to be a MyPoints Member. Meh.

Last this week I clicked one of the MyPoints emails in my Inbox and as the page loaded I returned to the MyPoints folder, deleted the first email then clicked the link in the second. When the 'offer' pages loaded, instead of seeing their 'offer' I was presented with a message that said "Account closed due to violation of Terms of Service".

Huh?

Ok, I knew what that meant, but still. Huh? What violation? What did I do that violated their Terms of Service?

So I emailed them asking "What did I do?", and the response I got back appeared to be a simple Copy & Paste from the company manual, listed several possible ways to violate their Terms of Service, and didn't really tell me what I did wrong.

So I emailed them again and said, "Dude! Skip the copy & paste and just tell me what I did wrong."

This time they replied and said, "Dude! Are you fucking stupid or what? You got multiple accounts, and that's some bogus shit, dude!"

Ok, so they didn't say that exactly, but that was the gist of what they said.

So I emailed them back, again, and said, "Dude! WTF? Multiple accounts, dude? What multiple accounts?"

Ok, so I didn't say that either, but I did mention that HowManyOfMe.com can find almost 100 people with my name, 20 in California alone, and that when I tried to become a member at the downtown L.A. Library I had to use my full name because there were two people with my name already in the system. And I had to use my full middle name - not just middle initial - because the 'me' who had used his middle initial (to differentiate from the first 'me' ) also had the same middle initial as me! (Bizarre or what?)

I added that not only did I know of at least 5 people with my name in the Greater Los Angeles area, but that my son and I also share the same name (as we do with my father, his father, my great grandfather, and so on, for at least 10 generations as far as I know) and my son still lives at home (he's still a bit young to think of moving out) and that he probably has a MyPoints account just as my wife and I do. So if you're claiming I have multiple accounts because you're seeing two MyPoints accounts with the same name at the same address, I concluded, that would be me and my son.

I never heard back from them, but this morning I had a couple of MyPoints emails in my InBox. They were the same as all the other MyPoints offers I've received over the years. When I clicked them the page with the offer came up, rather than an Alert message that my account had been closed due to violation of Terms of Service.

Mondo radical, dude! Score one for the little guy!

Wednesday

Rode the bus all the way home, made myself an Iced Coffee when I got there, then settled down to play a bit of Super Mario Galaxy 2. I realize with the Mario games that it's tradition that each 'chapter' be called a World, and that each World is then broken up into 8-10 levels, but it makes no sense to maintain that naming policy with SMG, especially when each World contains multiple Planets, and in some cases a Galaxy or two.

The boy joined me on the second controller and SMG multiplay proved remarkably more cooperative than the new Super Mario Bros. game, except for a couple of occasions where he would freeze a moving critter just as I was leaping into the air, and instead of coming down on top of its head I'd find myself landing in front of it and losing some health. Still, together, we managed to beat World 3, including Baby Bowser. The bunny read his dialog before he does battle with Mario, and the haughty tone she gave him as she read cracked the boy and I up.

After dinner I took out the trash and the bunny wanted to come with me, then she wanted to play frisbee, then she wanted to ride her bike, so on went the helmet and up and down the drive she rode. After several laps she started showing off by standing up while pedaling. She's 5 1/2 years old, never had training wheels, and she's now standing up pedaling. I freaked out at first but after she showed no sign of wiping out I calmed down then called out to Liz to come and watch (so she could freak out too, which she did ;).

Liz went back inside but the Bunny and I stayed outside until the sun had set and it got too dark to ride. Tonight's bedtime story was a Christmas gift from my older sister, "Josephine Wants to Dance", and near the end when Josephine was being applauded for a successful perfomance, I noticed several familiar faces in the crowd. I asked the bunny if she recognized anyone but she didn't, at least not until I pulled out her copy of Pete the Sheep-Sheep. Then she noticed the wombat sitting next to the dogs, pointed to him and excitedly exclaimed, "And there's him! From the book with Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday!" (aka Diary of a Wombat.)

Now it's 10:30 and I have no desire to play WoW. Although I have been contemplating whether or not I can level another Paladin to 70 within the few weeks I have left, because I'd like to see if I can Tank UK with a properly Def-geared Tankadin, or if my Tanking efforts will once again end in frustration.

What I really want to do right now though is find my copy of Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island. I'm a little over half-way through it and it's the perfect size to read on the bus, but I've gone and set it down somewhere and now I can't find it. Grr.

I bet as soon as I post this and the wife reads it she'll say, "Why didn't you tell me you were looking for your book. Here it is."

* Edit - Yep, she did.

Tuesday

Liz picked me up from the Bus Station, I dropped her and the boy at basketball practice, took the Bunny to the MIL's (who would take her to piano practice then keep her for the night), then returned to Liz and the boy with time to spare to watch him run a few drills and even sink a few baskets. Not bad for a kid who has only played a handful of games. After practice we went to the market and got a few things for dinner (and the next couple of days' dinners) before returning home.

After dinner I logged into WoW and decided to try Tanking Utgarde Keep on my Death Knight. Like my Paladin I'd Tanked my way through the Burning Crusade's Instances on my Frost-spec'd DK, but unlike with my Paladin (who bombed in UK) I'd picked up my DK a complete set of lvl 70 Cobalt Armor, so with a few +Defense enchants I was now Def Capped for UK (490@70) with a shade over 500 Defense. After party Buffs I also had over 14,000HP, which should have been more than enough to successfully Tank UK.

On the first Pull we managed to grab both the left and right packs at the same time. I didn't intend to do that (and I'm not sure I did) but I quickly picked up all the Mobs and held Aggro. My Health went down a spot, then back up to full, Mobs were dying and I thought we were doing alright, then I died. One second I had a full Health bar, the next second I was dead on the floor. Followed seconds later by the rest of the Group.

WTF??? was the general sentiment expressed as we ran back in.

The Healer was copping some flack from the DPS but as they were a Druid Healer (my favorite) I stuck up for him. To their credit everyone laughed it off as we ran back in, rebuffed and continued on.

"Pull more," someone said. (There's always one Go! Go! Go! More! More! More! Faster! Faster! Faster! person in every group)

"Like that first Pull?" I asked.

"More than that :D" was the reply

Other than the two almost side-by-side packs, for the most part the first few packs in UK are spread out, so I decided to pull one group deeper into the Instance in search of the next Pack.

"Stop moving them!" came the indignant cry, probably from DPS channeling an AoE spell on the spot we'd just vacated.

"I was looking for another group," I said.

"Finish off the ones you have first," was the response. Some people are never happy.

We got to the first Boss who is preceded by 4 linked Mobs. No problem. I ran in, picked up Aggro, and as I saw someone say, "Pull them back!"...I died.

Naturally we wiped again.

As we ran back in it was stated that this pack Bombs, a lot, so with only one ranged DPS I needed to pull them back to the doorway and Tank them there, away from the Boss.

We got back to the pack, rebuffed, and I pulled and began moving towards the doorway. I didn't make it. Somehow I died yet again. Even though I'd come in more prepared than I had with my Paladin this was still turning into a repeat of my first attempt at Tanking UK. Seriously. WTF?!

Before we could regroup and try again the Druid dropped group, as did two of the DPS. The Hunter took his chances and stuck with me. Wise man. The Instance queue is shorter for Tanks. We requeued but it would still be several minutes before we would get another group.

I took the time to look through the DPS meter, which includes Damage taken as well as that dished out. As expected, being a Tank I'd taken the brunt of the damage. The Paladin and Warrior DPS had each taken around 15,000 which really isn't much (and could be explained away by damage taken during the Wipes), while the Hunter had barely been scratched. IMO that meant I'd done a pretty good job of holding Aggro, which meant maybe, just maybe, the Healer had not done his job properly.

It's not that I was looking for someone else to blame; I was trying to work out why we had wiped, if it was something I'd done (or not done), and if so, how could I prevent it from happening again.

So with the available evidence appearing to point to the Healer (and thus out of my control) I was somewhat mollified, although I still didn't like having Wiped three times before we even got to the first Boss.

After waiting for several minutes we finally got a new Healer (another Druid! Hooray!), and two more DPS, including a 72 Warrior who had signed up to be Tank or DPS, and expressed surprise to find himself assigned to DPS rather than Tank.

"I'll Tank," I said, "I'm spec'd Frost so my DPS sucks."

Back in we went, up to the first Boss's room where 3 of the 4 Mobs still remained. We rebuffed, went in, I pulled the group back towards the door, and died. Again.

You have got to be fucking JOKING!!!

I wasn't pissed off; I was just very, very confused. I had more than enough Health. I was Def Capped, and although DK's can't wield Shields my combined avoidance, dodge, parry, etc., is pushing 40%. I'd been backed up by Druid Healers (my favorite flavor), and in spite of all this we'd just wiped for the fourth time.

Fail once, shame on the Healer. Fail twice (well, four times), shame on me.

I just didn't understand what I'd done wrong. I wasn't a Noob. I'd successfully Tanked my way through BC's Instances so I knew what I was doing. I'd picked up a full set of Tank Armor and was Crit Immune. I had plenty of Health, or thought I did. And yet I'd still bombed in a spectacularly horrible way.

As we went back in, without saying a word, the 72 Warrior switched to Sword & Board, made the pull on the 3 Mobs and began Tanking them. In his Tank gear he had 15K Health, which not that much more than my own, and yet he did fine. He not only did fine but before the 3 Mobs were down he'd also pulled the Boss and was Tanking him, too! And with that I was relegated to DPS for the rest of the Run.

It was very demoralizing. I wanted to Tank not just because Tanks have shorter queues, but because there is a shortage of Tanks and I've always played DPS. Not wanting a repeat of my Paladin's first foray into UK I'd taken all the steps I thought necessary to successfully Tank the Run, and yet I'd still not been able to do it.

With the Run over I was not in the mood to play so I logged out and actually turned off my PC. Before 8:30 even! Incredible! With the boy almost finished his homework (from summer school) I decided to watch Shaun of the Dead. Sure it's Rated R, but he's seen Zombieland and Ninja Assassin, and by now he's probably heard all the curse words at school (although it is an English movie so there were probably a couple of new ones ;)

After the opening scene I kept trying to place Kate Ashfield, who plays Shaun's girlfriend Liz. It wasn't because I've watched Shaun of the Dead a few times before. I knew I'd seen Kate in something else, but what?

It wasn't until after the Zombie outbreak, when Shaun has gathered together his Mum, his Step-dad, and Liz and her two friends, that I finally realized where I'd seen Kate before. Kate plays Mzzz Hardy (as Richie Twat, aka Rik Mayall, refers to her) in Guest House Paradiso. When I finally realized this I was even more amused to recall that Bill Nighy, who plays Philip, Shaun's Step-dad - but you probably know him better as Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, or Viktor from Underworld - is also in Guest House Paradiso where he plays Mr. Johnson, aka, Mz. Hardy's boyfriend.

In other words the actors who play Shaun's girlfriend and Shaun's Step-dad are a couple in Guest House Paradiso. Small world :)

Monday

Got home a little before 4pm, caught up on some Blogs, watched some Youtube videos that don't stream at work (so I can't watch them on my lunch break), then got sucked into an episode of The Closer where Brenda had to 'close' a case against a female Detective who had accused her husband of beating her, a husband who was later shot & killed by a police officer who responded to a 911 distress call the Detective placed.

After Brenda got her man (or in this case her woman) we went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory (had some Gift Cards burning a hole in Liz's pocket), got a free book at Borders for the Bunny (for reading 10 books since the start of summer break), then bummed around the Mall until closing time.

Came home, got the kids ready for bed, read some more Blogs, and now it's Bedtime for Bonzo...or something like that ;)

Once more unto the breach

Or...here we go again.

The reason given?

WoW's Terms of Use, S10 "Security of Login Information" makes me "responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the Login Information". I stated that as RealID was an Opt-Out program and not Opt-In, I felt this amounted to unauthorized disclosure of the Login Information for which Blizzard had made me responsible, and so I no longer wished to continue my subscription.

I now have a few more weeks to play, until August 7th, and then my WoW subscription will once more lapse.

How much time???

Part of becoming my own parent through WoW's parental controls was being able to request a copy of the amount of time played/signed in to my WoW account.

I know I play a lot, especially when I have days off/weekends and I don't need to do any Dailies (Weeklies?) to grind Spousal Rep. Today I got confirmation of how much I play, being a record of the amount of time I'd played on my account last week, the number of minutes logged in, and what time I'd logged out.

On the 4th of July (the first day of my report) we joined friends for barbecue dinner and fireworks so I logged off at 3:50pm after playing for just 85 minutes. After we got home I logged in again and played for 160 minutes before calling it a night/morning at 1:50am. Because the 4th was a Sunday and I get all the Federal Holidays I was off on Monday the 5th, so logging off at ten-to-two on this particular Sunday night/Monday morning is not that big of a deal.

What's funny about my play time on Monday is I had 3 session that each lasted almost exactly 100 minutes. Two at 99 and one at 98. Combined with the evening's play session I racked up a little over 7 hours for the day.

Tuesday I played a much more moderate 2 hours (literally. The report says 121 minutes. Ok, 2 hours and 1 minute. Happy now?), logging out at 11:25pm. Wednesday I played just 1 hour (or 61 minutes for you nit-pickers) and logged off at 10:43pm.

But Thursday?

The wife called me on my way home and said the boy had basketball practice, the bunny had gymnastics, and afterward she was going to the Gym and wouldn't be home until after 6pm. She confirmed that the kids would be staying with her parents (no need to make dinner) so I rode the bus all the way home (instead of her picking me up at the Bus Station) where I emptied the dish washer then reloaded it, picked up dog poop (from the backyard!), took out the trash, vacuumed the stairs, then sat down to play at approx. 4:30, logging out 110 mins later at 6:20 (probably when the wife got home). I wouldn't log in again for another 3 hours, but when I did I racked up another 200 minutes between 9:30pm and 1am when I called it a night (or the wife called me to bed ;) So between 4:30pm and 1am, a period of 8 1/2 hours, I played for 310 minutes, being 5 hours, 10 minutes (for the mathematically challenged).

Friday was another day off (yes, I worked just 3 days last week, flanked by two 3-day weekends) but the kids stayed with their grandparents while Liz and I spent a lazy day at home. I actually only played twice this day. I logged off at 7:07pm after playing for just 572 minutes, (a little over 9 1/2 hours :P), but it was clearly an idle-out while grabbing something to eat because I logged in again just minutes later and would stay logged in until quarter-to-one, Saturday morning. Two sessions, one at 572 minutes, one at 333 minutes, for fifteen fucking hours.

I got up Saturday and despite attending my son's basketball game, among other activities (such as shopping with the wife), racked up another 7 hours in-game.

Total time played for the week (thanks in no small part to Friday's 15-hour marathon session)? 2,498 minutes, or 41 hours, 38 minutes.

With the extra days off and the kids spending much of their time with their grandparents this was not a typical week, but I'd still expect to play for at least 20 hours in any given week. Let's see what this week brings. Will I let this inordinate amount of in-game time affect this week's play time? Or will I still play for 20 hours, if not more?

Facebook, WoW, and RealID

"Facebook is the only (big) place where people interact, play games and spend time by their real name, not behind some avatar..." - Okrane S. commenter on Spink's Blog

Except for many of those 'games', Zynga's games in particular, you need at least 501 friends WHO ALSO PLAY if you want to be 'successful' in them.

In Mafia Wars, if you don't have 501+ people in your Gang, you're guaranteed to get attacked by other players. Having 501 (or more) doesn't mean you won't be attacked either, but having less than 501 means you certainly will.

So you have two choices:
You can spam the message boards asking hundreds of people to add you as a Friend while you also add as many new 'Friends' as you can;
Or you create a second Games-only account where you don't use your real name or picture;

I did the first but slowly grew frustrated at having my wall filled with countless messages from all the games all these Friends-I-hadn't-met were playing. The final straw came when my brother-in-law posted a status update commenting on his broken foot, I asked what had happened, he said he'd crashed his car a week ago...and hadn't I seen his status update?

No. I hadn't. Because my FB Wall had been filled with the random crap of countless strangers. (In my defense I do live in another country, 8,000 miles away.)

So I pruned my Friends List and went the second route, creating a Games-only FB account using a fake name and picture, and started over.

With the speed at which you can level to Cap in WoW these days then Epic-out your character via the LFD Tool, starting over is not the set back many might think. Sure, there's the $100+ to purchase WoW, BC, & LK all over again, but by starting over and using prepaid Game Cards you can give yourself a brand new name, which seems to be the concern of many. So that's one way to bypass RealID.

While creating a fake FB account (and likewise a fake WoW account) may be against their Terms of Use (if they even have one, and I can't be stuffed looking), there are thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of people with Game-only accounts, accounts created by people who didn't use their real name and/or picture. For the most part it's easy to tell if it's a Games-only account, especially if their profile pic is a centerfold, or a graphic from Mafia Wars, Farmville, etc. In my case, I trawled a random guy's pic off the 'net, gave him a name, and even created a fake profile/history for him. What's really funny (not 'Ha Ha' funny) is he gets well wishers posting on his Wall on his 'birthday'. But he doesn't exist. He's just an avatar. My avatar. My avatar which I use to play Facebook games.

That's what Facebook and Blizzard need to understand: Many, many, MANY people do NOT want to use their real name when playing computer games, and their reasons for doing so are numerous, varied, and quite often valid.

RealID has set the 'net ablaze. Many are angry about it, some blasé, and some creative types have produced humorous responses (dryly ironic, but amusing nonetheless).

I liken this to those who say, "If you have nothing to hide, why can't the police come in and search your house? I'd let them search my house if they wanted to."

Fine. Let them search your house then, because even though I have nothing to hide, that doesn't mean I'm prepared to let the police poke around in my private belongings. I value my privacy, thank you very much, so I'll share what I choose to share and when given the choice, I'll keep private what I'd prefer remain private.

This is why I enabled Parental Controls on my account last night and deactivated RealID, or I would have, if it wasn't already unchecked once I got in.

By coincidence my 6-month sub expired yesterday and my Mum is coming to visit for several weeks next month so when I renewed WoW last night, rather than buying another 6-month block at $12.99/month, I just bought 1 month at $14.99. I don't intend to play during August so why pay for it? Sure, July cost me $2 more but I'll save $13 in August so by that reasoning I'm $11 ahead. I need to cancel that 1-month recurring Sub before August because I don't want to continue paying $15/month so when I cancel it, in protest against RealID, I intend to state it as the reason why I'm doing so. Who knows, with LOTRO apparently going free-to-play in a couple of months, maybe I won't even renew WoW after Mum leaves.

And in the meantime? I still have both Mario Galaxy games to complete, along with Zelda: Twilight Princess, Muramasa, Sky Crawlers, Zack & Wiki...the list goes on. So many unbeaten Nintendo games. I'm getting slack in my old age ;)

AFK Fun in the Blood Furnace

I've been leveling up a Death Knight Tank (just for something to do) and this weekend I did numerous Ramparts and Blood Furnace Runs trying to get either Hellreaver or the Warsong Howling Axe, but neither of them would drop. (Which is a blessing in disguise, because it also meant I didn't have to lose them to a Ninja Hunter). There are a couple of other low 60s weapons which are more easily obtainable, but none that could really be considered an upgrade as far as Tanking goes.

For the most part the PUGs have gone reasonably smoothly. There have been few (if any) cases of Go! Go! Go! and while I'm still getting the hang of DK Tanking, learning what I can (and cannot) safely Pull, the Runs are also going reasonably quickly. While I'm not doubtful of my Healer's ability to keep my alive, I do want to keep the Pulls to a size with which I'm comfortable holding Aggro. Which would you rather: The Tank play it safe & take 20-25 minutes for a Wipe-free Run? Or you drop out because they're going too slow, then have to endure the 30-minute debuff? (Sure, you could hang in there for 15 minutes to avoid the Deserter Debuff, but in just 5-10 more minutes the Run will be over so why not stick it out? DPS are easily replaced anyway. It's no skin off our nose if you bail on us, first 15-minutes or not.)

On this one particular Blood Furnace Run we lost one of our DPS on the wave of Orcs preceding Broggok (or perhaps between Wave #4 and Broggok). No problem, DPS are easily replaced. A Hunter zoned in as I grabbed Aggro on WoW's equivalent of a Beholder and 20 seconds later he went down, dropping the Legion Blunderbuss. Everyone Greed rolled except the Hunter...who didn't roll at all.

I was in the middle of typing "Hunter, Need roll on the Gun if it's an upgrade" when our Priest said, "WTF Why is the Hunter following me?"

I stopped typing and brought up Recount. The Hunter's name was conspicuously absent. He'd zoned in (something you can't do without clicking 'Accept' and immediately AFK-Followed the Priest). I deleted what I'd just typed and replaced it with "No sign of Hunter in Recount". Someone else threw up their Recount showing it wasn't just me; the Hunter was AFK-Following the Priest, and had been AFK throughout that entire Boss fight. (With all due respect, he was a NElf Hunter)

Right-Click Hunter. Vote to Kick. And? This player cannot be kicked for 12 more minutes.

I announced this to the group.

"Just keeping going and we'll kick before the Boss," someone said. That appeared to be the general consensus so off we went, 4-manning Blood Furnace. Fortunately Death Knights are OP so it's not like we were wanting for DPS.

In the room immediately before Keli'dan we decided to try and get the still-AFK Hunter killed. It should have been easy as the Felguard Annihilators in this room often ignore the Aggro table and attack party members at random. It was working too, and I was silently cheering as the Hunter's lifebar started dropping, and then...he Potted. Or Feigned to drop Aggro then Bandaged, or something. But his Health shot back up and just like that he was running all over the place and no longer AFK-Following the Priest, who in an ironic turn of events was the only casualty of the fight.

WTF? Did the Hunter Heal? someone asked.

He's pulling the Boss!!! someone else yelled.

And indeed he was.

The Hunter had run into Keli'dan's room and aggroed the Warlocks, starting the encounter.

Well sure, you can do that, I said to myself, as I watched the Hunter run back out of Keli'dan's room, Warlocks in tow, but good luck taking the Boss down with no Healer or Tank. (I'd moved back to the far wall and was having no part of this fight.)

The Hunter was also not stopping to finish what he'd started and was running back the way we'd come. With no additional incoming damage the Warlocks eventually reset and ran back into Keli'dan's room.

Idea!

"Running back to the start to pick up our Healer," I announced in Party chat. "Don't want to risk stray Pats or respawns."

Also need 5 more minutes until we can kick this bastard Hunter, I whispered the Priest.

The Timer was ticking down but the Priest hadn't zoned back in. I wondered if he was delaying, hanging around outside. I decided to give him a valid excuse for 'wasting time'.

"We're in the top Instance," I typed. "The one up the ramp and along the wall."

"Oh. Never mind," I added, as the Priest laughed and zoned in beside me.

As we passed through Broggok's room the Hunter's 15-minute Immunity Timer finally expired and within seconds he was Kicked and almost as quickly replaced...by another Hunter! No!

This one was a Dwarf though, so that was alright ;) He also responded when I mentioned we were on the final Boss, thus confirming he wasn't AFK-Following us. I did a quick Inspection of his gear and he had my Axe! :( Actually that was a good thing, if it would just drop already! (Side note. An earlier Inspection of the AFK-Leech had revealed he was wielding the Heirloom Bow Feel free to interpret that how you will.)

Into Keli'dan's room we went. The Warlocks went down. Keli'dan went down. And...still no Axe :( That made five Blood Furnace Runs, and Orion only knows how many Ramparts Runs, and still no weapon upgrade.

But after all that (& questing to boot) I'm now also 65 and thus able to attempt the Ring of Blood chain in Nagrand, completion of which will reward me with the Honed Voidaxe. Finally! A(nother) weapon fit for a Death Knight! I just need a group, or a couple of über friends, and the Honed Voidaxe will be mine. Oh yes! It will.