Any similarity to reality is purely coincidental

Gah

2009-11-08T12:43:15Z

Nothing quite like a sudden bout of depression after a very long spell of non-depression.

So true...

2009-11-06T03:37:11Z

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/10/30/

New toys!

2009-10-31T13:08:23Z

I'm now the happy owner of a second-hand iPod touch (the latest gen 8gb model). It's a fun little toy, and does a decent job as a combination mp3 player/ebook reader.

I've also succumbed to temptation and installed Windows 7, which is proving to be quite a step up from Vista (apart from a lack of win7 drivers disabling my third monitor until I figured out I needed to use older Vista drivers to enable it) - I think another hardware upgrade is in order, though, as It's all too easy to peg both CPUs with WoW, iTunes and firefox/stickam running at the same time. (Looking at a triple-core phenom II and AM3 motherboard at this stage)

Not much else happening. WoW guild has stopped raiding, meaning I've had to leave my comfort zone and apply to a new one. My combined lack and excess of skill is somewhat disconcerting.

And my benefit is probably dropping $20 a week, so I've decided it's a good time to get back on my diet - after all, it's a lot easier to stick to a diet when there's nothing in the cupboard apart from what you're supposed to be eating.

Is this on?

2009-09-25T04:46:43Z

Still here, just in the doldrums a little.

Playing with itunes, and contemplating buying an ipod touch on the strength of Genius Playlists and Mixes (and games).

Enjoying UV treatment for my psoriasis that leaves me with an uncomfortably sunburnt face for two days, twice a week.

Still playing WoW, but it's getting old. No replacement on the horizon.

Saw my first 3d movie, Up. Good movie, the 3d worked better than I was expecting, but the fixed focus took some getting used to.

Whack! Bang! Kapow!

2009-06-24T08:42:03Z

Went and saw Transformers 2 earlier, and it was a blast. Probably the best popcorn movie I've seen in a while.

Bah.

2009-05-26T12:38:11Z

Had my first cup of coffee in almost six months, and spilt it on my keyboard. Needless to say, said keyboard is now playing up (two keys aren't working, and another one spits out three characters when i press it). The coffee wasn't bad, but I'm not sure it was worth a replacement keyboard (when I can afford it). While the old keyboard I'm currrently replacing it is a nice split-keyboard design, it sounds a lot like a manual typewriter as opposed to the nice quite sound of the old one. (I think if I'm unable to get the old one working again, I'll replace it with the same model but get a protective cover to prevent future issues)

I'm also looking at cutting down (or stopping, still undecided) my 25-man raiding in WoW, due to a combination of dissatisfaction (both with WoW in general, and the raiding in particular) and possibly seasonal depression. Time to catch up on all those interesting-looking other games I've missed out on.

Blah.

2009-05-11T23:10:27Z

Well, Star Trek was fun. Both times I saw it. And I might be going to see it again this week, so I guess that demonstrates pretty clearly just how much I enjoyed it. (The downside to the franchise being big-screen-only is the extended period between each installment - time to practice being patient, I guess)

Also, Plants vs. Zombies. It's not your average tower defense game.

Star Trek.

2009-05-07T01:30:35Z

Just home from going to see it. Wow. Now I have to go see it again, preferably with people to discuss it with afterwards.

Yawn

2009-04-22T20:33:52Z

Nothing quite like waking up painfully early, and being unable to get back to sleep.

Shiny = Good (sometimes)

2009-04-09T10:22:46Z

Picked up a new toy for myself - an 8GB media player (with sd-card slot capable of storing up to another 4gb). Very nice, and works well with bog-standard 350mb tv episodes saved as AVIs.

About to engage Malygos on WoW, so back to raiding.

Yum, celebratory confectionary

2009-04-02T08:29:24Z

Had a friend drop this afternoon by for a chat and to give me a belated birthday box of chocolates. One was nice, and the other is well on the way to being reduced to an empty box and a large pile of foil wrappers.

I can see clearly-er now.

2009-04-01T07:37:41Z

I picked up my reading glasses today, and now I get to: a) let my eyes adjust to when I'm wearing them, and b) work out exactly when I should and shouldn't be wearing them. The glasses are designed for use with things out to roughly arm's length (ie, from books to computer monitor range), so I have to decide whether I want to change back to my normal ones when I step up from the computer (going to the kitchen, for example) or not. (It's nice possibly telling that that is probably the hardest decision I've had to make for quite a while)

I've also been putting a little work into a new WoW-centric blog, but I'm going to give it a few more weeks of posting before I look at 'going public' all that much (and it probably isn't of much interest to most people).

Also, I had a look at the new DS (the DSi) at ebgames, but had to wince when I saw the price. Seriously, $400? (Their "Trade your current DS in and get a DSi for $260" offer would be more tempting if I didn't have to trade in my DS to get it) I could buy a 8GB Ipod Touch for that much, and get something quite a bit more functional for my money.

And I got caught out by the first April's Fool prank that's surprised me for quite a while - a chat addon in WoW played the dialup connection sound when I logged onto characters in the game.

I hate April first.

Aging quietly, if not gracefully

2009-03-23T12:32:14Z

Well, that's another birthday over and done with - only two more to go until forty. Not sure I'm looking forward to it.

Where did I put my warranty card?

2009-03-12T04:07:40Z

I went in today to get my eyes checked, and was caught off guard by something the optometrist said as he was explaining why I was having problems when my eyes were trying to change focus back to the computer screen after a session viewing TV from the other side of the room. "This kind of thing happens when you start getting close to 40." I've never really paid much attention to my age - it's just a number that stubbornly refuses to get smaller.

The realisation that I'm drawing so close to being middle-aged, for all that it shouldn't be surprising, surprised me.

When I do any kind of self-analysis, I perceive myself as a stubbornly solitary Peter Pan, refusing to grow up; my days revolve around reading, watching videos and playing computer games - hardly the life of a mature adult. But it's a way of life that works for me - doing the 9-to-5 thing (not including overtime) almost killed me when I tried it. I guess I feel a little guilty about living an unproductive life many teenagers would kill for, but I'm probably just catching up on the guilt I was too self-absorbed to experience while I was growing up (I've found I'm more conscientious about such things like that, as I age).

But time passes (regardless of my disinclination to notice it doing so), and as I age my component parts begin to lose the resilience of youth.

But what left me most bemused today, was the recognition of both my failing eyesight, and the changes that technology brings. A decade ago I would have been given reading glasses, to compensate for the extra effort my eyes are making when I try to focus on whatever book I was reading. Now, though, I'll be getting a new pair of glasses to wear when I'm at the computer.

Computer glasses, indeed. Well, at least I'll be able to see the kids I'm waving my mouse at when I yell at them to stay off my lawn.

Bleary-eyed and blurry visioned.

2009-03-10T00:36:41Z

After ending up with sore eyes (yet again) after an extended period watching some tv (The Mentalist, an excellent show), I realised that my current glasses are going on perhaps 8 years old. So I've arranged to go get my eyes checked, and see how much my wallet can suffer for a new pair (which I suspect will be needed).

Oh my...

2009-01-30T00:44:40Z

My shiny new 22" monitor arrived today. And shiny doesn't do the bezel justice - they weren't kidding when they refered to it as "Piano Finish". But it runs great, looks great (although I need to tweak some settings a little, as WoW looks a tad too dark), and makes the monitors sitting on either side look pale by comparison. (I have to decide what I want to do about my setup now, as three monitors makes for a slightly crowded desktop - might be time to retire the old 15")

Up/Down-grade

2009-01-19T06:58:24Z

After a brief (but mostly happy) dalliance with the Windows 7 beta, I'm back on Vista. Win7 broke itself when I booted the computer this morning, and I spent the next 8 hours installing Vista, only to realise it was the wrong disk (ie, pre-SP1). So I've had my nose rubbed in exactly just how bad Vista originally was. I managed to get a recent drive image of my pre-Win7 Vista install working, so I've escaped the horror that was vanilla Vista, but I'm oddly missing Win7 now. Might have to clean up my system a little, and do a clean install of it (and image it, this time).

Ah well, back to WoW - dailies wait for no dwarf.

It's a scary thing, to purchase content.

2009-01-14T03:05:18Z

Bought a copy of the 2-disc WALL-E dvd today. Some pretty nice extras on there, but my god they cut costs with the cardboard case. (I guess they decided at the last minute not to make the case out of paper for ease of recycling)

I <3 Cable

2009-01-03T05:10:12Z

Downloading the 720p trailer for City of Ember.

Admittedly my normal speeds are more like 150KB/s-250KB/s, but now and then...

Grey days aren't that bad.

2009-01-03T02:55:07Z

Playing through Inspector Parker again (it's one of my favourite time-wasters, along with Betrapped!), and listening to an old playlist. Haven't heard a number of these songs for quite a while. The Whole of the Moon, for example. Although I don't remember it being punctuated with quite as much thunder and lightning. (And hail - to think it was over 30C a couple of days earlier)

At least the Curious Case of the Poisonous Muffin is almost over - I'm back on real food (more or less), with a piece of beef roasting in the oven atm to (hopefully) make sandwiches for a couple of days. I'm in two minds about my recovery; while the stomach cramps and vomiting were unpleasant, the 5kg weight loss is a nice silver lining. Will I be able to keep it off? I guess time will tell.

The muffin did it.

2008-12-29T23:12:16Z

Well, I guess I can cross "experience food poisoning" off my list of things to do to celebrate the holiday season.

Familiarity vs prevention.

2008-12-04T07:04:28Z

After an issue with my primary mouse (the right button only worked most of the time, it must be faulty) turned into an issue with my backup mouse (the right button only worked most of the time, my hand may be faulty), I've invested in an ergonomic mouse, namely the Evoluent VerticalMouse 3. And early reports suggest that yes, it's indeed my hand at fault (but no longer).

I have to say, it really looks odd sitting next to the keyboard. And I'm currently going through a period of adjustment that's to be expected after over a decade of using a conventional mouse - I currently just have one habit to break (namely using my ring finger to go 'back' when browsing, and thumb to go 'forward), and I'm still finding what method of holding the mouse is more comfortable.

TelstraClear cable is getting closer to available; I've had a couple of early rises this week with contractors laying cable to the units here, but that part's done and I'm now waiting for the contractors who do the interior hookup (which hopefully leads directly to the "You're online; Congratulations!" part).

Warcraft time has started to come down a little as well, as I've leveled two characters to 80 so far, with a third getting close to 77 (and flight - with a crafted flying carpet waiting to be trialed), and my jewelcrafting rogue sitting pretty in Dalaran at level 72, doing the jewelcrafting dailies for more jc designs. But I'm starting to get burnt out with all this leveling, and I still haven't been able to decide what class I want to raid with - playing on my rogue just wasn't fun, and the tank I leveled is pretty much un-needed (the guild has a surplus for 25-mans), and the shadow priest I'm currently leveling is boring as heck to play.

Ah well, back to thinking about food (with some hogget roasting in the oven, making me hungry).

Yay for the Wrath launch!

2008-11-13T16:56:28Z

And now, after 5 hours of play, Yay for much-postponed sleep!

(I even made it first in line at EBGames, although all I got was my retail copy of Wrath)

The calm before...

2008-11-08T02:08:00Z

...well, before the continued addiction. Currently dabbling in Fallout 3 while I wait for the WoW expansion launch on Friday. (Fallout is a lot less painful than Oblivion was, and closer to the original two games than I was afraid it would be. Not perfect though, but still very playable)

WoW has slowed a great deal, and I'm desperately trying to build my gold balance back up after doing some last-minute gearing up of my Paladin.
I'll probably be attending the midnight release at ebgames at the mall nearby (well, I'd be awake then anyway so I thought it'd be something different to 'celebrate' the launch with), after which I get to start the 70-80 grind on my 6 70s (along with a Death Knight i'll be rolling once the rush in the DK starting zone cools down a little).

Current plan is to start with my raiding-rogue (Ringleprouse), then my alt-prot-warrior (Dinglemouse), maybe my bank-alt-rogue next (Pringlerouse), then spread my time between my hunter (Kringlelouse), paladin (Binglerouse) and priest (Mingledouse). Leveling won't be too much of a chore, but working through the new profession recipes will take a while - not to mention the time and gold to be invested in my miner/engineer (Dingle) in order to start gathering the mats required to make what will probably be the post-release status symbol mount (leather jacket not included):

Snap is proving better than Xnet was (which isn't really difficult), but it looks like I'll be moving (yet again) to cable with Telstraclear in about a month thanks to them finally getting permission to wire up the block of flats I live in. I've also been offered the first month free, which will cover the $100 charge for leaving Snap within 12 months of signing up so I won't be out of pocket on the deal, plus there's no contract with Telstra on the new connection. Just have to invest in a router to replace my adsl modem, as the cable modem only has one ethernet port and I'll need to connect both my pc and the VFX phone adapter to it.

I'm having more reason to shop with Ascent in future as well; my MX400 mouse has developed right-button issues, and when I contacted ascent about it, they can 'forward replace' it. Basically they send me a replacement (with no charge for shipping), and I send back the broken one I have after the replacement arrives (I pay for shipping it back). A very nice policy on their part.

Well, I'm feeling snack-ish, so time for another batch of roasted peanuts. (I'm not addicted; I can stop any time I want. Which would mean more if I actually wanted to stop ;)

Feeling snack-ish.

2008-10-14T04:08:23Z

Giving this recipe for "Dry Roasted" peanuts a try.