Insert Title Here

I quit WoW (again) almost a year ago but have since been playing the somewhat misleading Free-to-Play Lord of the Rings. While it is possible to play casually for free, if you want to gain access to some of the higher level areas (or just not be nerfed when you get there) you're almost compelled to shell out a few bucks. Which I already did by picking up two copies of the Collector's Edition of the expansion Mines of Moria (on Amazon for $10 each) which granted me & my son VIP-status (& all the associated perks) for one month, then downgraded us to Premium status when I didn't continue our 'subscription'. But the perks of being a Premium member are still slightly better than for Free Player. (The perks listed on the linked page are out-of-date. Premium players actually get a better deal than what's listed, for example, I can have 5 active characters per Server, not 3.)

When I first tried LOTRO (shortly after release) I was not overly impressed, but at the time WoW had just got its hooks into me so even though I liked the mythos of Lord of the Rings, I was not enamored with its translation to MMO. But times change, games improve, and with it now being a mostly F2P game vs. WoW's $15/month that's a hard price to beat for the quality you get. In fact there are several, quite decent F2P MMOs out there.

Like Blizzard, Turbine know how to keep you hooked, and the makers of LOTRO have greatly embraced the concept of Titles & Achievements. Start killing a few critters for a quest and suddenly you "discover" a deed, where if you kill 30 or 50 of these critters you earn an Achievement and a Title to go along with it (Wolf Slayer, Spider Foe, etc.) Continue killing those same critters and you may unlock achievements which in addition to the snazzy Title, can also result in permanent Buffs to your character.

Another Title you can 'earn' is achieved by making it to level 5 without dying, which is not a difficult task by any stretch of the imagination. In fact it's so easy to survive to level 5 that I would even argue that dying before then should be a Title-worthy achievement, especially given that your lvl 5 Title is "...the Wary." Seriously now? I followed a couple of characters through the Tutorial (which you can skip, by the way, and thus probably start playing the game proper at level 4), killed a few bandits, a couple of spiders or other critters, and bam! There I was at level 5, titled Cap'n John the Wary (well I would have been if my in-game name was Cap'n John.)

If you can make it to level 10 without dying you get the more awe-inspiring Title "...the Undefeated." which in my opinion is the wrong way around. Making it from level 5 to 10 without dying, unassisted (as in playing on your own, unaccompanied by a high level friend) is a more daunting task than hitting level 5. In fact I'd hedge my bets that the average player who makes it to level 10 without dying probably played a little more cautiously, and thus "...the Wary" or even "...the Cautious" is a far more appropriate title than "...the Undefeated." Sure, they didn't die, but you know they also didn't take a lot of unnecessary risks. Then there's the lvl 14 Title "...the Indomitable" which I actually rather like, a lot more so than the level 17 Title "...the Unscathed". I've been fighting critters for 17 levels now. No, I didn't die, but I'm not exactly unscathed, either. The final Title for not dying is awarded at level 20 and is, appropriately, "...the Undying". Now that's a Title worthy of making it to level 20. Although I still like "...the Indomitable" and will probably wear it until something better comes along.

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." - Inigo Montoya

Things that piss me off

aka Come to the Dark Side.

We all have a dark side (well, most of us) and it's our ability to not give into the dark side which separates us from the Serial Killers (I think). It's the part of us we repress when we encounter displays of sheer arrogance or stupidity which make us want to scream out loud and beat someone to death, preferably with their own bloody arm which we've just torn off at the shoulder.

Like the woman at the check-out ahead of you, who stands there, purse on her shoulder, watching as the clerk rings up all her items, one by one. And it's only when she's finally told the total that she takes her purse off her shoulder and start digging around in it for her wallet. Wait. No. She's taking out...her checkbook?! You're freaking kidding me!!! AAarrghh! Have fun writing out your check...with NO ARM!!!! BITCH!!!

* EDIT - Just to clarify, in case it's not abundantly clear, it's not that she's paying by check which pisses me off. She could be using a credit card, cash, etc. What pisses me off is that she waits to hear the total before she even starts to rummage through her purse looking for her checkbook/wallet.

Then there's the old people who come up to a pedestrian crossing just as it changes from Walk to Don't Walk, and what do they do? Do they walk up to the curb then patiently wait a minute or so for the light to cycle so they can cross? Hell NO!. They run (okay, they're old; it's running to them) those last few metres to the curb, hop down into the road, and then? They resume walking at their doddering old pace across the road, in front of all those cars which are now facing a green light but can't go because there's a fricken' old person crossing in front of them!

I had an old woman do this just last week. I could see the lights from where I was sitting in my car and just as this old woman stepped down into the street the Don't Walk light stopped blinking and went a solid red DON'T WALK. And the traffic light changed to yellow. And what did she do? Did she take two steps back up onto the curb behind her? Yeah right! With 6 lanes of traffic ahead of her she started running. Just as the left-turn lane got their green turn arrow and the first car hit the gas she darted out in front of him, and he slammed on the brakes so hard they locked up and this old woman freaked out at the sudden screeching of tires right beside her, which fortunately caused her to run even faster. And we laughed and yelled (to ourselves) Run! Run, you old bitch! Run! Fall! Break a hip or two! RUN! RUUUUUUNNN!!!

I see teenagers do this sometimes, too, except the arrogant shits don't run, they slowly saunter across in an arrogant "I've got aaaaall day to cross this road." kind of way, and they walk so slowly that even though they started to cross when the light first changed, it changes again on them when they're only halfway through. Do they hurry up when they see the light changing? HELL NO!!! They know nobody is going to willingly hit them, and they continue to stroll across at a snail's pace, but now they're wearing this arrogant, shit-eating grin that makes you clench your steering wheel in a white knuckle death grip and grit your teeth because the Dark Side desperately wants to wipe that grin off their face with your front bumper! Please let us do it! Pleeease!!!

But we don't. We don't tear people's arms off and beat them to death with the wet end (and it has nothing to do with how physically hard that would be to do), and we don't run down old ladies or teenagers crossing against the light, no matter how much they deserve it.

But we do give into the Dark Side and kick the car which didn't stop for us even though we were already in the crosswalk.

We also punch the rear window of the van whose driver waved at us as he almost ran us down in the crosswalk. As if a wave made it okay to risk committing vehicular manslaughter.

And we also stared down the guy in Cheesecake Factory who not only didn't step aside for the wife despite being asked twice, he then got up in her face when she said he was rude. That's when we let the Dark Side come out (but only a little bit) and we stepped up and stared him down. And as he stared back and his eyes twitched from one side of our face to the other, betraying his nervousness, the Dark Side smiled (on the inside, where it couldn't be seen), until finally his teenage son grabbed his arm and dragged him away from an arse-beating. Okay, because the arse-beating never actually happened, to be honest we're not sure whose arse would have ended up being beaten and/or arrested. Which is why we should avoid yielding to the dark side, even if they have cookies.

So, what really pisses you off? What makes you want to give into the Dark Side, tear someone's head off, and shit down their neck?

Coffee House loitering

What's the protocol for loitering at your local coffee house?

Is it acceptable to set up shop as soon as the doors open, snaring a table next to a valuable power outlet, then sit there all day, typing away on your laptop? Or are you just being a jerk?

"But I'm a customer! See my cup? So what if it was a $1.50 cup of coffee and I've been getting free refills every hour since then. HELLO?! CUSTOMER?! We're always right, remember?"

What if you buy a sandwich at lunchtime, and a pastry or three throughout the day when your blood sugar drops? Is that okay, then?

So the wife & I stopped by one of our local Starbucks last week. There's a couple in the neighborhood but this particular one is close to home, and it's on a fairly major road which gets very little foot traffic so for some reason I don't think of it as being very busy, yet it is. It's also kind of small, as far as Starbucks go, with about half a dozen tables w/ chairs, so it doesn't need to be busy to look busy. When we walked in and looked around for a table we quickly realized we'd be getting our coffees 'to go'. Every table was occupied and almost all of them had a laptop sitting on them. Even the obligatory table w/ two armchairs had a laptop on it.

It reminded me an Improv Everywhere stunt at a New York Starbucks where they had several agents each bring in and set up a desktop PC. The thing about IE's stunt which I found most intriguing was despite Starbucks never having provided PCs for their customers (at least not to my knowledge) some customers assumed the PCs were there for their use.

We naturally assume an unattended laptop is someone's private machine, but an unattended desktop PC? That's fair game, right?

Push that button!

People who continually push crosswalk buttons amuse me. Why do they do it? Is it a form of OCD? They stand there repeatedly pushing the button as if it will make the light change sooner. But that's not going to happen, is it?

I walked up to this one crosswalk, hit the button once, and about 10 seconds later a woman walked up and hit it several times. Then she stood there for a few seconds, and when the light didn't immediately change she began pressing that button as if her life depended on it, until finally it changed. I don't know how many times she pressed it though; I lost count.

Hello?! It doesn't change any sooner because you're impatient, and it doesn't keep count. There's no Imp inside saying to himself, "Jeepers! Dat's 28 of 'em! I better change da light!" They don't work that way.

Or do they?

The Perfect MMO?

I wonder how much fun an MMO would be where you skipped the time-consuming-and-apparently-boring-but-necessary-to-recoup-our-development-costs level grind, and went straight to the "end game" with its gear-grind?

With no zones, no exploring, and no leveling up to do, players would not have the opportunity to gradually learn how to play their class, so the classes would be limited to the bare minimum required, being three, with each of the three classes reduced to their simplest form. Players would also be able to switch classes at will , and to facilitate this and preserve valuable bag space the character's "paper doll" would be able to hold up to three different outfits, one for each of the three classes, being:

DeePeeNes: Named in accordance with current MMO class stereotypes, DeePeeNes have 3 Damaging abilities or attacks.

• Take this! - An Instant Cast attack with a 1-second CD (Global CD) which severely damages a single target.
• And this! - An instant Cast, high-damage attack with no CD, but which can only be cast on the recipient of a Take this! Critical Hit.
• And that! - An Instant Cast moderate damage attack with the 1-second GCD which affects all opponents within 10' of the Target.

For simplicity's sake the effective range on all DeePeeNes attacks is 0' to 65-yards, allowing players to play melee or ranged DeePeeNess based on personal preference.

The Tank: Like DeePeeNes, The Tank also has 3 attacks or Aggro-generating abilities, also with o' to 65-yard range.

• Hit Me! - An Instant cast attack with the 1-second Global CD. This ability targets one Mob and greatly encourages it to hit the Tank;
• Everyone! Hit me! - An Instant cast attack with 5-second CD which encourages all Mobs to hit the Tank. Does not encourage Mobs to hit the Tank quite as much as Hit Me!, and;
• HIT ME! NOW! - An Instant cast ability with a 25-second CD which forces one target to attack the Tank for 10 seconds. Works even better than Hit Me! but only works on Mobs not currently attacking the Tank.

The Healer: In keeping with the perception that Healers are a hard class to play, Healers get a couple more abilities than DeePeeNes and The Tank.

• Little Heal - Does what it says. Heals the target for a small amount but makes up for it by being instant cast with the 1-second Global CD.
• Big Heal - Heals the target for a larger amount than Little Heal but has a 1.5-second cast with a 5-second CD.
• Lotta Heals - Heals everyone in the Healer's party within a 30-yard radius of the Healer for H/X, where H is the Maximum Heal (modified by +Healing gear) and X is the number of characters being healed. Has a 10-second CD but also has a small chance to apply an additional 5-second HOT.
• HOT - Single-target, instant cast heal with a 10-second CD which applies a 5-second HOT (modified by +Healing gear).
• GET OVAH HEAH!!! - Immediately teleports the targeted character to a spot 6-feet in front of the Healer. No Saving Throws, no Resists, no chance of failure. In combat or out, it doesn't matter. It works all the time, every time. Can be used to save the Healer by dragging The Tank to their location, or to save stupid DeePeeNes by yanking them out of the fire. Through strategic use of terrain can also be used with hilarious effect to drag & drop annoying players off cliffs, into lava, etc. Works especially well on characters with giant mounts standing on top of important NPCs.

With no levels there are no zones to explore, only the starting City where you'll spend your downtime & gold, and the game's Dungeons where you'll fight Mobs and find new, better gear. In keeping it simple you don't get to choose the Dungeon, instead the Dungeon Runner tool will automatically assign you to a group and a dungeon based on your character's gear or iLevel. Characters can also form parties of their own and enter Dungeons via the DR tool, but the Dungeon will still be chosen at random based on the lowest iLevel character.

As you conquer each Dungeons' denizens and find & equip better gear, you'll gain access to new Dungeons, with tougher foes and even greater rewards. Play long enough, conquer enough Dungeons, and you just might acquire enough gear to gain access to the Most Uber Dungeon of them all.

New cartoons

Daddy! We wanna watch the new cartoons!

Ok, what channel are they on?

Boomerang, daddy!

Boomerang, huh? Okay, here we go.

Yay!

Is that...Top Cat???

Yeah! Ooh, the Jetsons are next!

New cartoons? These cartoons are older than me.

*giggling*

The Jetsons come on and I start preemptively singing the theme song.

Daddy! How do you know this?!

I told you. These cartoons are older than me.

You're funny, daddy!

Incredible!

By which I mean, incredibly incompetent.

Today my office is having their March of Dimes fund raising bake sale.

After being off both Monday and Tuesday I got into work this morning, logged into my email, and the first email that catches my eye has the subject "Quarters and other coins".

No, it's not spam. It's from one of the girls organizing today's Bake Sale. It was sent at 4pm yesterday afternoon and it says: "Can I give you some dollars bills for coins? I did not have time to get change today - need it for tomorrow's bake sale."

What am I, a bank?

I've mentioned before that as I manage the office coffee fund my coworkers are often hitting me up for change, and in some cases it's not a simple request like "Can you break a twenty?" (which usually I can) but a more demanding "I need two tens." and usually it's the same woman who makes requests like this.

"I need a ten, a five, and five ones."

That's not a question because she doesn't ask if I can make change. She just hands out a twenty and demands change, in specific quantities of specific denominations.

How about twenty ones?

My response is met with the incredulous look that her own demand should have received.

"Can I give you some dollars bills for coins? I did not have time to get change today - need it for tomorrow's bake sale."

I give my response more effort than it deserved but long answer short, No, you can't. I have no change.

Now we get to the fun part, which is actually short for inFUriatiNg,

With my daughter's Girl Scout cookie orders arriving this weekend I actually came into work on Monday (even though we were closed for the President's Day holiday.) because my greedy generous coworkers bought 45 boxes of cookies from me, and I'd be damned if was bringing that many boxes of cookies with me on the bus.

Now while most of my coworkers paid in advance for their cookies, nine coworkers did not. Knowing most of them would probably not pay $4 or $8 but would have $5 or $20 bills and so expect change, I came into work this morning with a wallet full of one and five-dollar bills so I could make change. Because I'm a former Boy Scout so I'm Prepared.

So you can imagine how irked I was to see the email from my coworker requesting I make change for her because she didn't have time to get to the bank herself. Hell-fucking-O??? Isn't there a bank right across the road from our office? Why yes, I believe there is. And yes, I know Monday was a President's Day and thus a Bank Holiday, but hell-fucking-O??? Have you not heard of delegation? If you, personally, are so busy that you can't take 10 minutes to walk across the road to the bank to get change...send someone else! Geez, Louise! Good golly, Miss Molly! Etc.

So here I am, at my desk this morning, and one of the girls comes up to me and asks for change. She has a twenty and she wants change. No, not for her cookie order. She wants change for the Bake Sale. I pull out the coffee fund tin but I already know there's no change in there (I looked earlier) so she asks if I can make change. As in me, personally.

Actually yes, I can, I reply, but I need this change for my cookie orders ("Because I'm fucking Prepared! I scream. Silently. In my mind.)

We go back & forth and I'm very reluctant to hand over all my change (all $20 of it) but in the end this woman out passive-aggressives me and I reluctantly hand over my change. Reluctantly, because I already know what's going to happen. The first couple of customers at the Bake Sale are going to pay with $20 bills, because today is payday, and there's an ATM in the building's lobby. So those first two customers will pay with $20 bills straight out of the ATM and take all of the Bake Sale's change (by which I mean my change) and the next 20 customers in line behind them? If you think they've come straight from the ATM and all have $20 bills too, then you'd be right.

And naturally, as I type this, I just had the second person come by asking if I had change for the Bake Sale.

No! I fucking don't! You already took all my change! Get the fuck out of here!

By which I mean I politely replied, No, I don't have any more change. Now fuck off. Oops. Did I say that out loud? Of course I didn't, because I'm a professional, at least I am at work. This Blog doesn't count.

Toyota cleared by NASA scientists...

"Armchair Physicists" know better; still blame Toyota.

20 years ago I was a young, inexperienced driver and I was backing out of my parents' driveway one evening with my sister riding shotgun, and rather than using the mirror to see, I was looking back over my shoulder. In doing so my head was turned away from our neighbor's house and so I didn't see that he had parked his car at a slight angle across our shared driveway. We lived in a rounded cul de sac and the bottom of our driveways at the curb were positioned at a slight angle to the actual driveway...hard to describe, so here's a crappy, ascii-art picture:P
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\x\ \
Our drive is on the right, our neighbor's was on the left, and his car was parked at the bottom of his driveway (x), which meant his car sort of blocked our driveway, or at least it prevented me from being able to back straight out into the road.

As I was backing up and looking back over my right shoulder (Australian, remember? Steering wheels & drivers are on the left.) my head was turned away from the neighbor's drive, and so I didn't see his car was blocking my exit.

But my sister did.

She yelled at me to STOP! and in such an urgent voice that I panicked and jammed the pedal to the floor. Except I floored the gas pedal, not the brake. As the engine rev'd and the car leaped backward I immediately realized what I'd done, and despite being a new driver I reacted with the typical lightning-fast reflexes of a teenaged video gamer, switching pedals I jammed the brake pedal to the floor. The wheels actually locked up and left skidmarks in our driveway, but we stopped in time.

This was not in a Toyota. This was in a Ford, but that's irrelevant because it was ALL driver error. All mine. That's the difference between me and all those other Toyota drivers who fell "victim" to "stuck" accelerator pedals. I'm willing to admit that I was at fault.

Floor mats getting bunched up and stuck under pedals? That's driver error, too. Why do I say that? Because part of driving is being aware of your surroundings, including noting the condition of your car. If your floor mat is loose, sliding up, and bunching up under your gas or brake pedals, whose fault is that? The car's? The manufacturer's? Riiiiight. It's your fault! It's your car, you're responsible for maintaining it, and keeping it in a safe, drivable condition.

Unfortunately for Toyota the damage was done and their reputation took a dive, which is what makes me wonder if this was not so much a case of our sue-happy nation jumping on the anti-Toyota class-action lawsuit bandwagon, or something a little more sinister. Corporate espionage, perhaps? Who knows. From here on out, it's all speculation, regardless of what NASA has to say.

*Apparently there were a few cases where accelerator pedals actually did get stuck leading to uncontrollable acceleration, but those were few & far between.

Mongolian BBQ & Tips

Over on Tesh's Blog a culinary discovery led to him making a comparison between Mongolian BBQ and MMOs, which I promptly rerailed into a rant on Tipping.

If you're not aware, Mongolian BBQ is where you start out by grabbing a bowl (that's you, personally, who grabs the bowl) and filling it (usually to overflowing) with your choice of ingredients. You pay the cashier who takes the bowl and hands it off to the cook (sometimes they're the same person) who empties the bowl onto a large (very large) hotplate, stirs the mixture with over-sized chopsticks until the food is hot and any meat ingredients are cooked, before scraping it off into a second bowl which he hands over to you.

At some point I guess you're supposed to drop a dollar into the Tips jar, conspicuously placed on the counter next to where you're standing waiting for your food.

But why?

What service have you been provided that warrants a Tip?

Not only have the cashier and cook done nothing more than some other fast food places, they've actually done less.

You yourself "took" your own order by gathering together the desired ingredients. And while the staff had to put the food items out for you to be able to do that, but they did no more than the servers at Quiznos or Baja Fresh, who keep the salsa & condiment bar stocked with fixings.

All the cashier did was ring up your transaction, just like the cashiers at every other Fast Food establishment.

All the cook did was cook/heat up your food, and while he did so right there in front of you, he did nothing more than the guy at The Steak Escape who cooks your cheesesteak sandwich right in front of you.

Do you leave a Tip at Quiznos, Baja Fresh, or The Steak Escape? I don't. Why should I?

Now don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't believe in Tipping, because I do IF the service warrants it.

The waitress at Leroys? She takes my order, brings me coffee, refills my cup, brings me more creamer if I run out, and checks if I need anything, homemade salsa or marmalade, napkins, etc. She takes care of me. She works for, earns, and deserves her tip.

But the guys at Mongolian BBQ? What did they do to earn a Tip? What did they do above and beyond every other Fast Food place that makes them so special that they deserve a Tip? Merely working in the service industry does not warrant being Tipped. Just because you made my lunch does not warrant being Tipped. In my opinion if you want a Tip, you have to earn it.

Now maybe I'm wrong here, but if so, explain how.

Explain to me why I should leave a Tip at Mongolian BBQ, but not at Quiznos, The Steak Escape, and Baja Fresh?

What about McDonalds? Shouldn't I Tip them? Because let's be honest here, the staff at McDonalds do more to enhance my dining experience than the staff at my local Mongolian BBQ.
McDonalds provide me with a clean restroom, Mongolian BBQ doesn't.
McDonalds prepare my food for me. I have to do that myself at Mongolian BBQ.
McDonalds provide me with tables & chairs, which they keep clean; Mongolian BBQ don't.
McDonalds provide my kids with a place to play so I can relax and begin slipping into a food coma. Mongolian BBQ don't do that.

What does Mongolian BBQ do that their staff deserve to be Tipped?

Registered Sex Offender list

I saw a news article last night on some people getting upset about discovering a Registered Sex Offender was living in their neighborhood, and it made me stop and think as to whether or not the Registered Sex Offender List constitutes cruel & unusual punishment by facilitating discrimination against those offenders who have done their time and are now, to all intents and purposes, just trying to get on with their life.

"But wouldn't you like to know if there's a Registered Sex Offender living in your neighborhood?"

To be honest, as a father of two young children, yes, I would. But if we put emotion aside, why do I need to? Wouldn't you like to know if there's a convicted Murderer living in your neighborhood? Why do we only have a Registered Sex Offender List? Why not a Murderer List? Or a Mugger List?

Is it because unlike convicted Murderers, Sex Offenders cannot be rehabilitated and will always pose a permanent threat to society? That then leads to the question of why release them at all?

The only positive purpose I can see that The List serves is it gives the police a place to start looking in the event that a Sex Crime is committed within that neighborhood. Note that this means it doesn't prevent those crimes from happening, it only facilitates them being solved.

So that's a good reason for the police to have access to The List, but why do we, the public, need access to it? If the Registered Sex Offenders have been rehabilitated by their time in prison and no longer pose a threat to us, why do we need to know where they live?

And if they still do pose a threat to society, why have they been released?

Finally, if they cannot be rehabilitated and do pose a permanent threat to society, why should we waste valuable resources locking them up for Life? Why not remove them from the Game of Life altogether?

It's an interesting jump to go from not liking how The List facilitates discrimination against Registered Sex Offenders and may constitute Cruel & Unusual Punishment, to advocating use of the Death Penalty.

Immersion in Single-Player games

Although your character may play an integral part in the game world, and while the game itself may revolve around your character, the game world cannot, and for the purpose of immersion, should not.

MBP has been playing Mafia II lately, and is a little disappointed that unlike in the first Mafia game he cannot hail a cab or catch the train.

I remember being able to catch trains in both the very first GTA and GTA3, and unlike in some games featuring public transportation the GTA trains were not always waiting for you at the station. Sometimes it was you who had to wait for the next train, but this only helped to add immersion. It made the city seem more alive if things were happening when you weren't there. Clearly the trains weren't just sitting around all day waiting for you; they actually had a schedule to keep. And that's how a game world should be. NPCs need to have lives of their own. Even if it's little more than driving or walking to the store, talking to the NPC store owner, then going back home. It's little things like that which make the world feel alive, rather than random people, standing around in random spots, doing nothing.

How often do you see people in the real world standing on a street corner all day staring off into space? Except for homeless people, hookers, and the occasional alien invasion, probably never.

One immersion-breaking part of Mafia II was being unable to enter all but the most game-crucial buildings, such as Gun Stores and Diners. Fortunately this meant I was able to take refuge from the police (just a big misunderstanding, really) by hiding in a Gun Store. Unfortunately a roving officer found me, and he too entered the store. Unfortunately, for him that is, he came in with his gun drawn, and the Gun Store Owner responded to this apparent threat by shooting him. Amusing. Unrealistic and immersion-breaking, but amusing in a random kind of way.

Also unrealistic but not quite so amusing was the very strong bias of the Police to ignore any crimes (misdemeanors, etc.) where you were not the perpetrator. If you struck a pedestrian with your car the police would chase you relentlessly, but if you were the pedestrian victim of a Hit & Run, even if it occurred right in front of the police (yes, I deliberately set one up as a test), they would turn a blind eye and go on their merry way. Unrealistic, immersion-breaking, and not quite so amusing.

Single Player games which try to immerse you within their game world, such as the GTA and Mafia series, need to ensure that world feels as real as possible, but when your character is the only person in the world whose actions seem to matter, the only thing that does for immersion is break it.

18:25

Tonight I ran the 2 miles in 18m25s. I finished my first 400m lap in 2:12, while the second & subsequent laps were ran at a slightly slower (& saner) pace of ~2:20 each. Amazingly I ran my final lap faster (just) than I ran the first, in 2:08. Yes, after running almost 2 miles at 6mph I actually had enough left in me to finish strong. Tomorrow? I am wisely choosing to rest & recover.

Despite having preexisting injuries of a dislocated ankle, two torn ACLs, and one slightly torn hamstring (injuries which never heal 100% & leave life-long impressions) I'm actually not that sore.

Bring on that 10K Mud Run!

(But not too soon ;)

1 mile in 11 minutes, 2 in 20

This time last year I weighed approx. 210 lbs with 25% body fat. Now I weigh 180 lbs (my High School weight), with approx. 20% body fat (which is definitely not my High School BF% ;)

When I found out my son was running a mile on Fridays in Gym at school, and was finishing it in around 14 minutes, I was not happy with him. That's 4 miles per hour and I practically walk that fast, so there's no way my 10-year old son was running a 14-minute mile unless he was walking most of it, too.

My local park has a walking track around it, and using Google Maps I measured it to be approx. 1/3 mile around, so I headed out and ran three laps, finishing in approx. 9 minutes. The next night I went out with the boy and together we ran the mile in a little over 10 minutes.

"I never knew I could run that fast!" he exclaimed, excitedly.

That Friday while running his mile he slipped over rounding the baseball diamond and skinned his knee on the gravel. Apparently he finished his mile in 10:30 with blood running down his leg. I was pretty proud of him when I heard this, although he was mad at himself because recovering from the spill slowed him down so he didn't break 10 minutes (his goal). Hearing that made me even more proud of him :)

Over this Christmas break the boy has been taking it easy but when I discovered the track at my local High School is open to the public after 6pm I took him out to run an accurate mile. Not having had much exercise in 2 weeks other than a class or two of Tae Kwon Do I practically had to drag him across the line. Time? A shade under 11 minutes.

Knowing I could run it faster, and having jumped at the chance to take part in a 10K Mud Run with 4 coworkers this June, with the boy spending this New Year's Eve with his grandparents I headed out to see what I could do without a 10-year old anchor holding me back.

Bravely (or foolishly, depending on your point of view) I decided to see if I had it in me to run TWO miles.

I did.

Mile 1 = 2:15 + 2:26 + 2:28 + 2:29 = 9:38

Discounting that first faster lap I was surprised to see how consistently I ran the 2nd, 3rd & 4th laps. But then Mile 2 happened.

Mile 2 = 2:29 + 2:29 + 2:29 = WOW!

And yes, I know I'm missing a 4th (or 8th) Lap there. Unfortunately I was using my cell phone's Stopwatch App to time myself, and I hit "Stop" when I finished rather than "Lap", which resulted in my final Lap time not being recorded. And when I hit Stop all I saw was that the first couple of digits was a 1 and a 9, i.e., 19 minutes-something, and as I was pretty happy to run two miles in less than 20 minutes (my goal) I never looked at the seconds.

I am pretty sure I ran that final lap a little faster than 2:29 though. I definitely stepped up my pace during the last 100 meters. Not quite to a full sprint but definitely faster than the 6mph jog I'd been maintaining for the past 20 minutes. I might have done that final lap in 2:25 ;)

All up I was pretty happy with myself. But if I'm going to do a 10K Mud Run in 6 months time I need to be able to run more than 2 miles. I need to be able to run 7 miles in less than 2 hours, but that's 7 miles of running through mud, climbing over walls, crossing streams, & crawling through tunnels. In other words, I need to step my shit up, fo'shizzle!

Or something like that :P

More Plumbing woes

The hot water tap in the master bathroom would sometimes not turn off completely, like it did (or...didn't do???) Tuesday morning.

After trying for 5 minutes to get it to stop running I attempted to turn the water off beneath the sink. I say "attempted" because not only did that not work but turning the tap beneath beneath the sink resulted in it starting to drip. I turned it back and I thought this new leak stopped dripping, although the water from the top faucet continued to run(dribble, really) so still not having had breakfast and now looking like being late for work I closed the bathroom door (so the running water wouldn't disturb Liz) and finished getting ready.

Midway through the morning I got a call from Liz. A rather frantic call. Apparently there was water coming out from beneath the master bathroom sink. It would appear that the leak from beneath the sink had not stopped when I'd turned the tap back on. Oops. I could tell she had me on Speaker and figured she was heading outside to turn the water off at the Main and sure enough, after giving her instructions on what to do, I heard the explosion of water gushing from the tap immediately above the Main, followed by Liz freaking out that there was all this water!

"Quite normal," I reassured her, "that's just the water draining from the pipes in the house. It will stop shortly," and it did. "I'll be home within an hour," I added, and I was.

And that's when I discovered that the shorter two hoses I still had - left over from my previous plumbing repair jobs - had a 3/4" fitting on one end and a 7/16" fitting on the other,. And the one remaining faucet I had in my work cupboard? It had a 7/16" fitting, too! I actually had the parts I needed to fix the leak without going to Home Depot! Amazing!

*Note* I needed two faucets to finish the Sink installation, and that hose with the 7/16" fitting was too short for that job anyway, but for an under-the-bathroom-sink repair it was just right.

After a generous bead of Plumber's Putty was applied to the flange on the copper pipe, and strips of Teflon tape had been wrapped around every thread, I had everything back together and it was time to test my handiwork. After opening the bedroom window so Liz and I could communicate without yelling (too loudly) I crawled under the sink and sent Liz outside to turn on the water Main.

I heard the water entering the pipes a second before Liz called out that she'd turned it on. No leak. Excellent. But, just to be on the safe side, I decided to stay under the sink for a few minutes. And it's a good thing I did. After a minute or two I caught the movement of a drop of water falling down.

"Where did you come from?" I asked the now, non-existent drip.

A minute or two later I identified its source, but Being Prepared (like a good Boy Scout), and suspecting that this particular joint was the weaker joint (Goodbye!) I also had the correct sized spanner handy and I tightened the nut a tad. Then I waited.

Drip.

Tighten.

Wait.

Wait.

Drip.

Tighten.

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

Waaaaaait.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait.

You know, I can probably come out now.

But just to be on the safe side I slipped a plastic container under the hoses, which checked an hour or so later. But there was no water in the tub, not even a splash mark or two.

Excellent.

When I was growing up my Dad used to do all sorts of repairs around the house like this, and regardless of what I was doing at the time Dad always made sure I was there helping him, whether I wanted to or not.

Thank you, Dad.

Plumbing over Thanksgiving

After moving into the new house the wife missed the pull-out faucet I'd installed for her in the old kitchen, so Thanksgiving morning found me underneath the kitchen sink, can of WD-40 in one hand, spanner in the other, trying to remove an old, rusted out faucet so I could install the shiny new one we'd bought at Lowe's earlier that week. Eventually it came free (as all things must in the face of WD-40, for it is truly the Irresistible Force), showering me with rusty debris in the process.

After carefully following the instructions (and too bad if that means I'm meant to hand in my Man Card, because this is one guy who (sometimes) reads instructions and stops to ask for directions) I had the new faucet installed and just needed to hook up the water pipes.

Except the existing water pipes are these horrible, semi-flexible metal hoses that Contractors apparently love (probably because they're the cheapest on the market) and which appear designed to be attached to one faucet, and one faucet only. Meaning when you bend these semi-flexible metal hoses to one side in order to remove said faucet, then bend them back to hook them up to the new faucet, they protest by cracking, and leaking, and spraying water all over the place.

Unfortunately you cannot just replace the hose, you need to replace the faucets beneath the sink as well because they're all part of the same unit.

Fortunately I had several hoses with me from similar plumbing jobs at the old house (I replaced pretty much all the faucets in not just the kitchen, but the 3 bathrooms and 1/4 bathroom, to boot).

Unfortunately, I had just one replacement faucet and the top attachment was the wrong size (7/16" and I needed 3/4").

Fortunately Home Depot is just a few minutes away.

Unfortunately it's the morning of Thanksgiving...so they're closed. All day. Until 5am the next morning when they open for Black Friday.

Liz tells me she told me they were closed. I claim I didn't hear her or I wouldn't have started the job because I knew I would have to make a trip to Home Depot. We now have a new pull-out faucet in the kitchen sink but it has no water. I turn the water back on to the house and discover the faucet beneath the sink is leaking....slo-o-o-o-wly. Drip. By. Drip. I throw the bucket underneath it. The bucket I've got on hand just for catching leaks like this one. Because I'm a former Boy Scout and I'm Prepared. (Except when it comes to Home Depot being closed on Thanksgiving Day. I mean really, what are the odds?)

Then Liz begins preparing the Thanksgiving meal which we'll (fortunately) be eating at her parents' house.

This leaves me with some spare time. Time I use productively. Meaning I dig out Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles ;) And yes, it does look as good as I remember, if not even better.

After dinner with the in-laws, during which Liz gives the MIL detailed instructions on what to do at our house (feed the cat) and what she cannot do (use/flush the toilet) while we're in Vegas for the weekend, we head back home where dishes are piling up in the sink. Mostly pots & pans.

We get up early'ish the next morning for breakfast at Leroy's where I regretted experimentally ordering the Cottage Fries instead of my usual Tater Tots, then returned home for a pitstop where the water was briefly turned on, then back off again, then off we went to Vegas.

VEGAS
The MacShack. For a fast food pasta place, it actually wasn't too bad.
The Luxor. Decor is very interesting, but the angled elevators are something else.
Peter Lik photography. You have to see it to really appreciate it, and it needs to be displayed properly. The MacShack had a few of his pieces on their wall but those on display in his studio at the Mandalay Bay were simply amazing.
Excalibur buffet. Nothing to write home about. Only plus was the All-Day All-You-Can-Eat pass.
The Hoover Dam. Very impressive, especially considering when it was built and the resources available at the time. It's the Pyramids of the 20th Century.
The Hoover Dam Bypass. Even more impressive (IMO) is this 2000-foot long bridge, 900-feet above the river, supported by a handful of columns and a 1,000-foot wide arch. Like Peter Lik's photography, much more impressive in person.
Not leaving Las Vegas until lunchtime on Sunday on Thanksgiving weekend? Not one of our best ideas.

Monday morning was my RDO so after taking the kids to school I came home, turned the water back off (again), unscrewed the beneath-the-sink faucet from beneath the sink, then headed off to Home Depot. I found a clerk and together we found the faucets I needed then it was back home to finish the job I'd started several days ago. The hoses I had hooked up to the sink faucet were just fine, and when I turned the water back on they showed no sign of leaking, nor did the cold water "beneath-the-sink" faucet. But the hot water "beneath-the-sink" faucet was leaking, and not slowly this time, either.

Back under the sink I went (and fortunately this one gave me plenty of room to work, once I was under there) where I discovered tightening the faucet's nut not only didn't stop the leak but exasperated the problem.

Crap.

Slide out from under the sink, rush outside, turn off the water to the house, then back in under the sink again (after mopping up the water), where I managed to jab myself in the forehead with the bottom of one of the bolts holding the sink faucet to the counter. I stared up at this 4" long, brass rod protruding downward from beneath the sink, and I wondered how it was that I hadn't stabbed myself in the head with it before this. Then I thought of how lucky I was that the bolt wasn't longer, or it might have been my eye that got poked and not my forehead. Chalk up another close call to the Cap'n retaining his 20-20 vision and not having to wear an eye patch. Ya-har!

Aside: About 20 years ago I worked in a factory that made Flue Kits (for stoves & heaters) and one morning I was cleaning up the shop floor of trash & debris. This included the 1/2" metal packing straps used to secure the pallets of sheet metal during transit. The end of one strap had jammed itself under a pallet and rather than lift up the pallet I simply pulled on the strap until it came free, at which point it tried to return to its original, rectangular shape (as a result of being tightly wrapped around pallets of sheet metal). This meant the loose end flew up and tried to rejoin the end being held in my hand but it found my forehead instead, which is how I suddenly found myself with a cut about 1/2" above my eyebrow, or to put it another way, 3/4" above my eye. No, I was not wearing safety glasses, and no, the seriousness of the moment was not lost upon me, either.

Meanwhile. Back under the sink. After rubbing my forehead for several seconds I took off the hot water "beneath-the-sink" faucet, wrapped some Teflon tape around the thread, rolled a bead of Plumber's Putty around the pipe (why I didn't do this the first time I don't know, especially as I'd done it for the cold water faucet), put everything back together again, slid back out, turned the water back on, stuck my head back under the sink and...no leak! Excellent!

I lifted up the lever to turn on the kitchen faucet and...no water.

Well, that's odd.

I turned the lever left, I turned it right. I lifted it to the top, I pulled out the head so its extension hose came out. I pushed the button on the end of the faucet to switch between spray & stream. No water.

I pushed the faucet's lever back down then turned to the instructions (and no, I'm still not turning in my Man Card). Please don't tell me I did all that, missed a step, and now I have to disassemble everything because there's a plastic grommet in there somewhere that I didn't remove. Nope. Nothing remotely like that in the instructions. So what could be wrong?

I stuck my head back under the sink and looked at the new 1/4-turn "beneath-the-sink" hot & cold faucets that I'd just bought at Home Depot, then I reached in and gave the cold faucet a quarter turn. The hose attached to the cold water faucet gave a slight shake, as if it had been empty but was now filled with water-under-pressure. I reached over and gave the hot water faucet a quarter turn, and the hose attached to the hot water faucet also gave a slight shake, as if it too was now filled with water-under-pressure.

Emerging from beneath the sink I stood up, stared at the sink faucet's lever for several seconds, then slowly, cautiously, lifted it up. Water began flowing. From the end of the nozzle. Like it should. I am so much happier when my achievements can measure up to my ego. The wife is happier, too, especially as she once again has a pull-out faucet in her kitchen sink.

At least she was happy, until she discovered our washing machine wasn't pumping water at the start of the cycle.

I was curious if it had been because I'd repetitively turned the house's water on & off that morning, and yet I'd done plumbing repairs prior to this which hadn't affected the washer. A quick Google revealed that Microsoft apparently make Washing Machines now, so unplugging them for a while (rebooting them, one might say) can sometimes cause the machine's computer to "reset", thus fixing some problems.

After unplugging the machine I stared at it and thought, "Isn't it a little lopsided?" My spirit level showed that it was. It had a decided lean to the left. I got down on my hands & knees and looked under the front of the machine. Although both front legs were resting on the floor, the left leg was almost level with the base of the machine, whereas the right leg was screwed almost all the way out. That would explain the lean to the left (and it was nothing to do with it being a Californian washing machine).

I lifted the front of the machine up (so I could get to the left leg to unscrew it) and was surprised when its weight shifted ever so slightly. I sat the machine back down and looked at the spirit level still sitting on top of the machine. The bubble was now in the middle. The left lean was gone. How odd. I looked back under the machine and saw the left leg was now sitting an inch or so off the floor. And then I remembered reading how many newer model washing machines (although at 8 years old it's not like our machine is new) have self-leveling back legs which are "activated" by lifting the machine. I screwed the front left leg out until it met the floor, plugged the power cord back in, turned the Cycle-select knob to the start of the cycle, and heard running water. Lifting the lid I saw water was now flowing into the tub like it should be. Cool. I'd "fixed" the washing machine without even trying. Although I wasn't sure if the wife was too happy to have it working again. She'd already been online looking at new machines, and had even picked out a front-loading job for just $400.

I'm not claiming to be the next Bob Vila, but I do like being able to perform small repairs around the house, even if by accident ;)

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles

After reading the fun Anton is having with this old Gamecube game, I'm actually tempted to drag my copy out as well. Especially as I can now play it on the Wii (good ol' backwards compatibility) over my 50" Plasma where it will hopefully still look as good as I remember, if not better.

Unfortunately I'm not sure where both our GBAs are, so I don't know if the boy and I can multiplay like we used to do (back when he was 4), although if I can find them I'm pretty sure I can lay my hands on the GBA-GC connector cables.

I seem to recall that "leveling up" the craftsmen in your village needed to be done a certain way, at least if you wanted access to the best weapons & armor in the game. The completionist in me is turned off by this.

Why can't we just play games anymore?

Why do so many games have us do so much outside the game when we're not playing (online research, etc.) in order to maximize our enjoyment of the game when we are playing?

Sure, we don't have to do that, but if you don't then there's a good chance you won't experience everything the game has to offer. It's almost enough to put you off playing. Almost. If we didn't already have plans for this Thanksgiving weekend, I'm pretty sure I know what I'd be doing over the holiday weekend ;)

Canceling DISH TV

A couple of weeks ago we moved and canceled our cable TV service (Dish TV), which we had originally subscribed to as part of a package deal through our phone company ( AT&T).

When I called Dish earlier this month and told the rep we were moving he was quite persistent about getting the service transferred to our new location, but I was equally persistent about canceling. Finally he said he would mail some boxes for us to pack our Dish equipment into, boxes that we would use to mail the Dish equipment back to them. The Rep took down our new address, a couple of weeks went by, but no boxes arrived.

Today I called Dish back to find out where the boxes were, and right from the start it was obvious there would be problems.

"Thank you for calling Dish Network. If you are an existing customer or have technical issues, press 1. For all other inquiries, press 2. To repeat this Menu Press * ."

Yep, that was all the options I had.

So...2...I guess.

"Please wait while we direct your call to the agent who can best assist you."

Tum te tum te tum.

"Thank you for calling AT&T. Is the number you're calling about xxx-xxx-xxxx (my new home phone number)?" asked the automated system.

AT&T? WTF? Er..."No!"

"Please enter or say your 10-digit phone number associated with your account."

Rather than confuse the voice recognition program with my Aussie accent I keyed in our old phone number.

"Thank you. I'll just look that up."

Queue in little, clicking, typing-type sounds meant to make us think the computer is actually typing on a keyboard.

"Okay. Now in a few words, please tell me the reason why you're calling. For example, to add Caller ID service to your account, you could say 'Add service'."

I spoke into my phone as clearly as I could - DISH TV

"Thank you. Please wait while we direct your call to the agent who can best assist you."

Tum te tum te tum.

"Thank you for calling Dish Network. If you are an existing customer or have technical issues, press 1. For all other inquiries, press 2. To repeat this Menu Press * ."

o_O

I guess it's 1 then.

"Please wait while we direct your call to the agent who can best assist you."

Tum te tum te tum.

"Thank you for calling AT&T. Is the number you're calling about xxx-xxx-xxxx (my new home phone number)."

What? Again??? "NO!"

"Please enter or say your 10-digit phone number associated with your account."

Grr.

I keyed in our old number, again, queue in more clicking, typing sounds, and finally a woman answered...just as my In-laws chose to call. So as the Rep was trying to talk to me my Call Waiting was beeping and obliterating her every other word. Eventually we confirmed that she couldn't help me because she was with Sales and I needed Equipment Returns. She offered to transfer me and I explained that I'd been back & forth a couple of times so could she please make sure I got to the correct department.

I guess that was the wrong thing to say.

"Thank you for calling Dish Network. If you are an existing customer or have technical issues, press 1. For all other inquiries, press 2. To repeat this Menu Press * ."

I think I pressed 1 again, I forget now. My brain is trying to repress this period of my life. Finally I managed to speak to another Rep, this one a man with an Indian accent, who began every sentence with "I apologize...".

(If your Rep has a foreign accent, constantly apologizes, and uses phrases like "Let me access my resources" chances are you're dealing with someone who probably cannot help you, but will merely "refer your issue to the research department".)

I gave this fellow the benefit of the doubt, and my old phone number, at which point he accessed his resources to find my account, then told me I needed to wait 7-10 business days for the Return boxes to arrive.

I told him it had already been 7-10 business days and we still hadn't received the boxes. He apologized (yet again) then said he would have new Return boxes mailed "to your address..." at which point he began to recite my old address.

"No! That's my old address." He ignored me and continued to recite my old address. "That's my old address!" I said, shouting him down. "We moved. We're not there any more."

He apologized, again, and that was it. "Just transfer me to your supervisor," I told him. "All you can do is apologize! You can't help me so transfer me to your supervisor."

"I apologize..."

"Supervisor!"

Hold music came on the line. Hold music, with a Hindi influence. I was pretty sure I could hear a sitar strumming away. Interesting. I was on hold for several minutes and Liz said, "they're not picking up. They want you to hang up."

"I'm not hanging up," I told her, and that's when my phone beeped. I looked at the screen and saw 'Call Ended'. They had hung up on me.

Bastiches.

I guess it's time to take a trip to the old place to see if there are a couple of Return boxes waiting for me there, because apparently if you don't return their equipment they like to charge you for it, and that stuff ain't cheap.

Weird emails

I'm trying to find a home for my dog so I post fliers on each floor of my building, email the folks on my floor pics of the dog, including a description about her, and even get a couple of former coworkers to send out an email blast to their contacts.

A few people respond but in most cases they need to check with a spouse, etc., and when they next get back to me it's to say, "Sorry. No can do."

Someone else emails me and says, "Can you please send me the pics of the dog. I'll call around."

So I forward him the email I sent to my coworkers.

Unlike most of the other folks who emailed or called me, I cannot find this guy in our internal directory. I punch his name into the To: field in my email client but it can't find him, either. Which is odd. I wonder if he's one of the Security Guards, because they're not in our office directory, but using his email address I find him in Facebook and his face doesn't look familiar, and I know almost all our Guards by sight (if not by name).

Several hours later I get an email back from the guy. Subject Line: My address.
And indeed it contains nothing but his address, but it's just a street address & unit number. No city; just the street address & unit number.

I Google his address and because of the unique street name it turns out he's not only not in L.A., but he's almost 50 miles away. The unit number is #45 which is also pretty high. Does he live in an apartment? Because my dog is not exactly suited to apartment living.

Google Satellite shows me it's not an apartment but a densely packed group of condos, aka PUDs (by those in the Biz). I zoom in and see the condos are practically on top of each other with no sign of any private backyards. Does the guy intend to keep my dog in his condo? Does his HOA allow dogs? I have a crate for her to sleep in at night but she gets to go outside during the day. You leave her inside, home alone, and "house broken" will take on a whole new meaning.

I email him back and ask what's going on. I tell him I can see he lives in a PUD with no backyard so does he have someone that will be home with my dog during the day? Or does he plan to crate her during the day then let her out when he gets home?

He emails me back, "This is my address to clean carpets."

o_O = WTF?

If you're saying you clean carpets, WTF does that have to do with finding my dog a home? And if you think I'm offering to clean your carpets, that isn't happening, either. I decide communication with this one must cease.

Then I get an email from one of my contacts, who posted my dog's picture & description on her Facebook, and who had a cousin of a friend show interest in my dog. Not only is she interested, but she wants her. She really, really wants her. How much does she want her? She lives in England, and she wants my dog, sight unseen.

Get her to me! she practically screams at her cousin (via email). Make it happen!

o_O

I email the two cousins and say if they really want my dog I'll bring her to them, at least I'll bring her to the local cousin, the Angeleno, and they can make arrangements to get my dog to England, but that's on their time and their dime.

It cannot be cheap to transport a dog from the US to England, yet this crazy woman seems intent on doing just that. Don't they have animal shelters of their own in England?

Flabbergasted, is what I am.

*edit* A few of my coworkers had expressed interest in taking my dog but in the end it was one chap who was interested in her for his parents who finally stepped up and said he would take her, for himself rather than his parents (who are getting on in years). He lives in an apartment but it's close to Griffith Park (the huge park surrounding the Los Angeles Zoo) and he runs in both the morning & the afternoon so my...his dog :) will get plenty of exercise. It's not an ideal situation, but it beats spending the remainder of her life in a Shelter (life expectancy, two-to-four weeks).

Shots in the night

This morning I woke around 2am and while lying there, from somewhere outside I heard...

Pop!

Pop-Pop-Pop-Pop-Pop-Pop!

And I thought to myself, and rather casually I might add, "semi-auto, probably a 9mm."

For a little while I contemplated calling 911, but what would I tell them?

"Shots fired. 9mm pistol. Somewhere within a block of 123 Main St." Not exactly helpful.

If anything it would bring squad cars with wailing sirens waking up the neighborhood, and maybe we'd even get a helicopter flying around overhead for half-an-hour. I'm sure the neighbors would appreciate that at 2:30 in the morning.

Nope, I thought to myself, if anyone is calling in the local PD it will have to be someone who heard gunfire right outside their window, and as that wasn't me I rolled over, snuggled back up under the blankets, and went back to sleep.

Early this morning I heard gunfire in my neighborhood, and I rolled over and went back to sleep. I don't think there's much 'country' left in this Country Boy.

Computer down! Computer down!

The wife's PC finally died on her. Her LCD said it wasn't getting a signal so my first (hopeful) thought was the video card. Alas a quick switch from the video card to the onboard GPU did not work. So I crack the case, pull the card, reboot and...nothing.

Bugger.

That didn't narrow the problem down, it just eliminated one possibility. With Liz's PC being quite a few years old, the cost of trouble-shooting and getting it up & running would probably be more than the cost of a new PC. So I went the cheap route: I pulled her hard drive and dropped it into my PC.

Unfortunately they're making cases smaller & smaller these days (or so it seems) and with my BFG of a video card (an 8800GT or something cutting edge a few years ago) tucked in I had a hell of a job sliding her HDD into my drive bay. After unplugging a few cables I finally got it in, hooked everything back up, then hit the power button.

Nothing.

Oh, shit.

I/O Power switch on the PSU? Flipped it. Nothing. Flipped it back.Still nothing.

Oh yeah. One of the cables I unplugged was the power to Mother Board, and yes, after getting the IDE ribbon cable plugged in I forgot to plug in the MoBo's power cable. With that plugged back in my computer booted up, then rebooted itself. That's odd.

Windows failed to start properly on the last attempt.
Safe mode?
Safe mode with Networking?
Normal?

Huh? Oh, okay. Let's push our luck and shoot for Normal.

No dice. Reboot, and...Windows failed to start properly on the last attempt.
Ok, ok. Safe Mode?

Reboot.

I hit F1 went into BIOS and reconfigured the Boot order. Save & Exit.

Reboot, but this time I meant to do that.

And the familiar XP loading screen came up. Cool.

Windows loaded. Opened My Computer, and there was a bunch of drives (I have a built-in flash drive reader that will accept pretty much any standard flash card), followed by a new drive. A J: drive. Opening it up revealed it was the wife's hard drive, so I had access to her files. Cool. (Fezzes are cool, too.)

I shut my PC down then switched her non-working case with mine, because the printer/fax/scanner is on her desk and it refuses to network with the LAN. Stubborn piece of tech.

When I booted up my PC, or Liz's new PC rather, it detected the Printer and after a minute or two it had installed the drivers. Then it detected the Printer again. And wanted to install the drivers, again. Wha??? Oh, I see. It's a Printer/Fax/Scanner so it needs to install it three times. Fine. And so it did.

Today Liz called me up in tears because she'd opened up Firefox and it was my Firefox. With my bookmarks, logins & passwords. Then she opened up Thunderbird and it was empty. No emails. No addresses. Nothing. Nada. Zip. She was a little distraught that everything was gone and it took a while to calm her down. It's not gone, it's on the J drive, I told her. But I might as well have been speaking Kobold, or COBOL (which sound the same), for all the good it did.

Fortunately a few minutes searching found a website where, hopefully, I'll be able to restore her profile, including emails & email addresses, from the Thunderbird folder on her old hard drive.

So now I currently have no computer, but oddly enough, I don't really care. After quitting WoW, again, and playing LOTRO for a bit, I've discovered I've lost a lot of my desire to play games on my PC. Or maybe it's that Dragon Quest IX has sucked me in ;)

*edit* Mozilla Profiles restored, and now Liz has her Firefox and Thunderbird back. Hooray!