Trip's Life (Recent episodes)
13 March 2010 - Saturday
Connectivity: On my way down to ask the weekend
manager if he knew anything about the phones being out, I encountered a
gentleman working at the phone box. It took a few hours, but he did get
service restored!
Textual Entertainments: The Life of the World to
Come (Kage Baker) is even more OMGTWFBBQ! With, as a special bonus,
the most gormless evil masterminds ever seen! Also a plot twist not seen
since Emily Devenport!
Make a comment!
12 March 2010 - Friday
Work: Last day in the department for half of the people
who know what the heck they're doing around here! Anything we haven't
already extracted from his brain, we're not going to get!
Also interviewed more people. Sheesh.
Connectivity: Well, at least this time it's not
Aeriodisconnect's fault I have no internet: the phone is out, which
means my DSL is also out. Bah!
Cats:
Finally finished the fourth disc of Karin. The character
from the light novels who showed up early on has been relegated to a
minor role, and the plot seems to mostly be following the manga again.
Make a comment!
11 March 2010 - Thursday
Work: Phone-screened two people (one not bad, one
not so good), and then tried to phone-screen another from home but only
got his voicemail.
Visual Entertainments: I have so many DVDs to watch!
But only enough brain to watch about ¼ of a DVD per night.
Cats:
So fuzzy! And sometimes pointy!
Make a comment!
10 March 2010 - Wednesday
Work: I really would rather have been sleeping than
participating in a conference call.
Textual Entertainments: Finished The Graveyard
Game (Kage Baker). OMGWTFBBQ? Also: poor Lewis! Also also: fugue
or no fugue, that can't possibly turn out well, and Joseph
should know it, but as previously stated he's good at not knowing things
that would upset him.
If the pattern holds, the next book will be Mendoza again.
Visual Entertainments: I creep so slowly through disc
4 of Karin.
Cats:
Twelve paws with associated miaus!
Make a comment!
9 March 2010 - Tuesday
Work: Learned more stuff, told customers things they
probably didn't want to hear, interviewed somebody who claimed to have
been a DBA for ten years but didn't know what an index on a table was.
Apparently I must dress like a corporate drone
grownup for the rest of the week.
Visual Entertainments:
- Oh! Edo Rocket 25-26: BOOM! The end. <rot13>Fnqyl,
gur raq znqr zhpu bs gur erfg bs gur frevrf frrz cbvagyrff. V zrna, vs
gur Ergverq Erfvqrag unq n fcnprfuvc cnexrq va gur onfrzrag, zbfg bs
gur cybg pbhyq unir orra pvephziragrq, juvpu jbhyq unir orra yrff sha
sbe uvz gb jngpu ohg jbhyq unir tbggra n ybg srjre crbcyr xvyyrq. Naq
vs gur nyvraf unq gung zhpu va gur jnl bs erfbheprf ba gur zbba, jul
qvqa'g Fben whfg unir fbzrbar ohvyq n enqvb genafzvggre?
Onu.</rot13>
- Spice and Wolf 2.7: Aww! They're so cute!
- Soul Eater 5: Now I want to make an indie RPG in which
a major element of the character sheet is a faint circle which you use
as a guide to draw a picture of YOUR CHARACTER'S SOUL.
- Darker Than Black 21-22: Hey, look, it's a plot!
Cats:
Apparently Marmalade kept playing after I went to bed, because in the
morning I found the toy drowned in the water dish, as is the custom of
Turkish Angoras!
Make a comment!
8 March 2010 - Monday
Work: Today I went to some meetings and learned some
things and sent messages to a couple of customers.
Visual Entertainments: I finally called Netflix
customer service to mention that I really had sent back Tenchi
Muyo Ryo-Ohki disc 2 on like the 26th of last month, even though
they hadn't received it. The alarmingly perky lady who answered (after
just about the three minutes predicted by their web site) seemed to
think it was completely unacceptable that the vagaries of the postal
system had prevented me from fully enjoying the service for which I had
paid and not only marked that disc as lost in the mail so my queue could
move forward, but sent me three extra discs to make up for the lost
time. Wow.
Also started watching the disc that arrived in my working slot, disc 4
of Karin. The opening credits still contain far more
fanservice than has appeared in the actual episodes. Also, Karin is still a
doof, but one really can't blame her for being angstful and self-conscious
about being not just a vampire, but a mutant vampire.
Cats:
Marmalade tussles so fiercely with the little ball of fluzz! (Or maybe
it's fuff.) I guess it sat around so long it became a New Toy again, or
maybe he's just feeling extra-playful.
I'm sure all you other people have very cute cats, but my
cats are cutest!
Make a comment!
7 March 2010 - Sunday
Work: I meant to run errands and stuff, but instead
a customer exploded and I had to try to push some of the pieces back
toward the center until someone competent arrived. Bah.
You know, after Netcom, no tech support should be hard. On the other
hand, although Netcom customers often swore up and down they would sue
for every penny any of us would ever see, they couldn't actually do
it.
Gaming: Tonight's Thrace session was combat! Having
found a library or study or something left by Resi's ancestor, we had to
defeat the horrible librarian monsters. Some of them were undead, which
was okay since we have both a cleric and a paladin
lamashta, but some were something else (demon? construct? spirit?) and gave
us more trouble. Lycoris used one of her new 5th-level dailies, which
didn't do any damage but did drag a bunch of the enemy to the middle of the
room where Aesculpius could go wild on them, and also got to use both of
her defensive powers in one combat. Toward the end it started to drag out
and then Ayse had to go to bed, but Aesculpius' life was saved (possibly
not by who he thought saved it) and all the monsters were defeated, with
only one monster-round of damage done to the library!
Textual Entertainments: Ayse had a copy of the next
Company book, The Graveyard Game, to lend!
Cats:
Ghirardelli and Marmalade think that when I'm trying to do work is the
best time to try to play with me. This is because they are cats.
wow, that's a thorough strike by marith (Sun Mar 7 23:09:17 2010)
Even my comment is stricken out as I write it! The bowling score of your entry must be tremendous! :)
Lycoris' player is not allowed to claim she is not useful or cool in combat, neener neener. The GM even said she prevented him from his strategy of Demonic Hopping Skulls on Bookcases!
Re: wow, that's a thorough strike by Trip (Mon Mar 8 08:21:06 2010)
I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about.
(Foiling the GM's planned glee is almost certainly its own punishment.)
Make a comment!
6 March 2010 - Saturday
Work: One customer exploded while I was on my way in
to the office, but while I was trying
to get the VPN to their site working, someone with skillz showed up and
fixed everything.
After that, we more or less accomplished our goal of
converting a pile of draft knowledge base entries into real entries,
where by "we" I pretty much mean everyone else. I can compulsively
rewrite text to be more grammaricious, but that's not really a major
contribution.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Double check, but I'm still a month behind.
More, if you adjust for quality.
Make a comment!
5 March 2010 - Friday
Work: The doom of on-call! But's not as doomed as it
could be, since there is someone twelve hours offset to cover while I am
sleeping and sleep while I am covering.
Cats:
Aargh, stupid dropped pill hiding under the fridge! Oh well, it got me
to clean up the kitchen floor enough to be sure it wasn't hiding there
waiting for a cat to eat it. (I still worry that's what happened to poor
Benny, although I don't really know and at this point probably never
will.)
Writing: Met a cow orker who's been doing NaNoWriMo for three
years straight. I'm such a slacker.
for three YEARS?! by kit (Wed Mar 10 08:47:06 2010)
...only after I was clicking through to leave a comment did it occur to me that perhaps "doing NNWM for 3 years straight" meant "had succeeded in writing 50K in November 3 years in a row" rather than "has written 50K a month every month for 3 years", which, as my initial interpretation, caused me to squack. SQUACK!
Re: three YEARS by Trip (Wed Mar 10 09:06:51 2010)
I am pretty sure he meant 50k for each of three successive Novembers. :)
whew by kit (Thu Mar 11 13:17:14 2010)
Thank goodness. o.O
But really... by Trip (Fri Mar 12 09:31:45 2010)
...that would be only 600 000 words a year! Hardly anything!
only 600K... by kit (Sat Mar 13 13:34:41 2010)
*whimpers like a whimpering thing*
Make a comment!
4 March 2010 - Thursday
Work: Still no training. Tickets instead. But I
successfully supported my position despite a customer being certain that
something, somewhere, was dreadfully wrong.
I don't have to be at work until 11:00 on Saturday. Yay.
Textual Entertainments: Mendoza in
Hollywood, by Kage Baker. For a while I thought Mendoza was going
to be revealed as a n00b at being doomed with humans, but she rallied to
regain her title in the last chapters. Also, mysteries and more
mysteries!
Note to self: The order of the series seems to be
- In the Garden of Iden
- Sky Coyote
- Mendoza in Hollywood
- The Graveyard Game
- The Life of the World to Come
- The Children of the Company
- The Machine's Child
- The Sons of Heaven
- Not Less than Gods
Visual Entertainments: The live-action special and
radio drama on the last Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki DVD were quite
meh. Meh.
Cats:
Being purrbucketed is not like getting anything done, but that's okay!
Make a comment!
3 March 2010 - Wednesday
Work: I have no idea what I could possibly do when Big
Customer M calls at three in the morning and says they'll stop doing
business with Aster if all their problems aren't fixed within ten minutes,
but apparently I will be on-call this weekend anyway. Also, I will be
working on Saturday.
Cats:
Someday I will successfully give Aspen a kittytreat! No, really!
Make a comment!
2 March 2010 - Tuesday
Work: Oh, look, it's a severity 0 customer case. I
should probably do something with it.
In theory I now know more about what the hell I'm doing. In practice,
maybe not so much.
Visual Entertainments: HUGE FAIL. I don't think
17:30 to 18:30 is the best time to schedule a demo of new product
features, but apparently I am in the minority.
Cats:
Still very fuzzy!
Writing: Splah FAIL.
Make a comment!
1 March 2010 - Monday
Work: Wum. Blargh. Monday.
Today I learned some things, although my cow orkers despair of us new
guys learning enough before we have to take over.
Cats:
So fuzzy!
Writing: Extravagant FAIL.
Make a comment!
28 February 2010 - Sunday
Gaming: Of course I didn't use even half the
material I prepared, but that's okay. The PCs considered a moral
dilemma, fought off earth elementals, made it most of the way to their
destination, and killed some surprised but unexpectedly tough rampaging
gnolls. Next session: more fighting! Also perhaps 9th level!
Visual Entertainments: Why is there only one episode
on the last disc of Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki? Oh, there's some
sort of live action special thing. Meh. Maybe I'll watch it later.
Cats:
Suddenly, Marmalade is super-purry-snuggle-cat!
Writing: Unending FAIL.
Make a comment!
27 February 2010 - Saturday
Gaming: Oh, those monsters would work much better! I
should scan them instead!
Then Ken lured Marith and I to play Dominion, and crushed us like
insects with his Chapel-based strategy. I bought a Smithy right off, but
then when it got me eight money in one round, I bought a Province
instead of buying a Gold like a sensible person, so I came in last by a
huge margin (Marith second, Ayse third). Bah. I am fail.
Textual Entertainments: Skin Hunger, by
Kathleen Duey, is the first book in her YA "Resurrection of Magic" series,
which follows the parallel plotlines of a teenage boy learning magic from a
mysterious and sadistic cabal of mages and a teenage girl who falls in with
the researchers into lost magic who will someday become the horrible mages
of the academy. It ends without resolving much of anything, so I'll have to
pick up the second one.
Cats:
Super-purry Marmasnuggles FTW!
Writing: Even more FAIL.
Make a comment!
26 February 2010 - Friday
Work: All-hands meeting, about future directions in
marketing. Okay, that all seems reasonable. Everyone should give Aster
Data money, so they can give it to me.
Lamed on the TGIF party. Bleah, beer. Beer scent is not like fluffy
kitties.
But, I got paid! Yay!
Gaming: Scanningu scanningu la la la.
Cats:
Ghirardelli attacks the shoelace, but he is not Mighty vs String like
Marmalade!
Writing: Additional FAIL.
Make a comment!
25 February 2010 - Thursday
Work: Someday perhaps someone will have time to
train me!
Textual Entertainments: Sky Coyote is
the second book in the late Kage Baker's "Company" series. It's told
from the PoV of a character who was secondary in the first book, who
seems able to watch the plot
thicken without feeling the need to do anything about it. I suspect he
will not be able to hold off for five more books, though!
Bonus points for the anti-othering of the Chumash.
Visual Entertainments: Finished the second disc of
Tenchy Myuo Rho-Ohki. That episode did not follow from the
previous one, but I guess the ending makes it okay.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: FAIL.
Make a comment!
24 February 2010 - Wednesday
Work: Gack, another interview!
Interviewing is hard, let's build an army of robot minions.
Also, team meeting at 21:30 at night, bleah. I'm sure the people in
India are swell, and I can certainly see the advantage of having part of
the team offset 12 hours, but still bleah.
Perfidy of Life: Stupid economy, making busses run
less often when they were already marginal!
Cats:
So fuzzy! And also helpful during conference calls!
Writing: FAIL.
Make a comment!
23 February 2010 - Tuesday
Work: A new Support guy started today, so I'm no
longer the biggest n00b! (I'm stilly pretty n00bish and suitable for
r0xx0ring, though.)
Textual Entertainments: Hespira, the
latest Hengis Hapthorn book by Matthew Hughes. That's a lot of doom
Hengis is facing. (My theory: <rot13>Gur juvzfvrf ner tbvat gb rkcnaq gb svyy gur havirefr, cbffvoyl yrnivat cbpxrgf bs jung Uratvf guvaxf bs nf abeznyvgl.</rot13>)
Visual Entertainments:
- Soul Eater 3-4: Yay, Dave found slightly better
subtitles! (He also ordered what's been commercially released so far,
but it hasn't arrived yet.) Kid Death is such a freak. Also, the
cheesecake/bishonen ratio is rather skewed.
- Oh! Edo Rocket 24: More explosions! Next week, the
final explosions!
- Spice and Wolf 2.5-2.6: Go Horo! (But how did people
ever get any arithmetic done before positional notation?)
- Darker Than Black 20: Yep, that was pretty doomed.
Cats:
Twelve paws, several of which like playing with string!
Writing: FAIL, part 347960976.
Make a comment!
22 February 2010 - Monday
Work: Ack, it's Monday again! Fortunately, there
were hardly any tickets opened over the weekend. Unfortunately, there
are still tickets left over from the people who left. Fortunately,
someone is applying to help fill in that gap. Unfortunately, I have no
idea how to interview someone (consultants don't generally get asked to
do a lot of interviewing).
Cats:
Twelve scampery paws!
Writing: I meant to be virtuous, but I am full of
FAIL.
Make a comment!
21 February 2010 - Sunday
Gaming: We can only do about one thing per Thrace
session (at least for the next few years), but this session we did
something that got us XP, and also potentially information about our
secret enemies, in the form of a fey-goblin slave. Next session, we do
something else!
Textual Entertainments: Ayse and Marit have used
their special book-recommending powers to get me to read the "Company"
books by Kage Baker. Today I finished the first (and allegedly least),
In the Garden of Iden. It was pretty good, although oh so
very doomed. Mendoza is an idiot, but she's nineteen and has
superpowers, so one can't expect too much. In further news, stupid ape
is stupid (an expected side-effect of thinking about the Big Ape Who Makes
Thunder.)
Cats:
Ghirardelli remains extra-plush. Marmalade remains extra-stripy. Aspen
remains dubious of looming monsters with graspy paws.
Writing: FAIL.
Make a comment!
20 February 2010 - Saturday
Work: I actually answered work email on a weekend.
Dooooooom.
Food: I was officially celebrated in my new job with
mushroom-sherry chicken, butternut squash, roasted root vegetables,
courtesy of Ken; coffee-beer-somethingelse bread from Earl (no pie for me,
sniff), and friends! Er, friends are not like food. But they go well with
food!
Visual Entertainments: After playing hard-to-get for
like two years, we finally let Ken show us
The Sting. None of us
expected the final twist!
Cats:
Despite yesterday's oppression, Aspen willingly sat within arm's reach
of me and didn't flee even when I put my horrible monstrout paws on her!
Writing: Check, astoundingly! But not the what,
trideskuple? check I'd need to catch up.
Make a comment!
19 February 2010 - Friday
Work: My team (what's left of it) took me out to
lunch to celebrate my arrival, or maybe as apology for issuing me a
Blackberry. (I'm not on call yet, but will be in a couple of weeks.)
Food: The Siamese Kitchen in San
Carlos. Yum, pumpkin curry!
Cats:
I oppressed Aspen so much with the seizing and the snuzzling!
Writing: FAIL.
Make a comment!
18 February 2010 - Thursday
Work: Apparently we are about to have the Best
Benefits Ever, since the company will be paying all our health insurance
premiums (premia?). I guess the economy is recovering, or else we're
getting more than our share of the dwindling pie.
My, the Internet really is full of things:
The Devil's Dictionary, now
with exciting JavaScript!
Textual Entertainments: The Good, The Bad, and
the Uncanny, Simon R Green's Nth "Nightside" book. If you liked
the others, you'll probably like this one too. I wonder if that last bit
was supposed to be a Sherlock Holmes homage?
Visual Entertainments: Started the second disc of
Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki. I'm not sure I remember this part.
Maybe I only saw the first disc before.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: FAIL.
Make a comment!
17 February 2010 - Wednesday
Work: Everybody loves tickets! Tickets go ping!
Especially tickets at 8am!
Textual Entertainments: Host, the
third "Rogue Mage" book by Faith Hunter, definitely wraps up the
immediate plot arc, but it doesn't feel like a series conclusion. Maybe
I just have an unnatural desire for things to be explained.
Cats:
After Choco-Cat Chase comes Choco-Cat Capture! Belly-rubbins may be
involved.
Writing: No brain.
Make a comment!
16 February 2010 - Tuesday
Work: Argh, it's virtual Monday. Also, two people
are leaving the group I just joined, which can't possibly be a bad sign
or anything. But it does mean no non-ticket-taking phase for me!
Visual Entertainments:
- Oh! Edo Rocket 22-23: Awwww!
- Spice and Wolf 2.4: Yay! It's a cunning plan!
- Soul Eater 1-2: The art style is just as silly as the
anime! I don't know about the dialog or plot because modern fansubbers
use the smallest, lowest-contrast font they can find, and this group
has outdone all the rest!
- Darker Than Black 19: Dooooooooooom!
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Guess.
Make a comment!
15 February 2010 - Monday
Work: HOLIDAY.
Cats:
Miau! Also, miau miau!
Writing: FAIL.
Make a comment!
14 February 2010 - Sunday
Gaming: The rocket troopers were a decent hit, but
despite the encounter being level+2½, it was still pretty easy
for the PCs to crush all the warforged and their mechanical griffin too.
Visual Entertainments: Finished first disc of
Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki. It's only taken me like a week.
Apparently having a job reduces anime consumption.
My, the Internet really is full of things: Mi-Go
invade Britain!
Cats:
Shoelaces are still fun!
Writing: Continued FAIL.
a change of approach? by Graydon (Tue Feb 16 16:57:39 2010)
If you're having the PCs mop the floor (walls, culverts, high clerestory windows...) with the encounter despite technical stiff odds, it's very likely that what's happening is that the encounter entities aren't trying hard enough.
This is a really, really tough thing to avoid; many scheming players, one DM.
I'd suggest some encounters where there is one (1) sneaky, _mean_ individual, who can try really hard. They don't have to be level-equivalent; probably shouldn't be. It should be out of the usual context ("sandbagged in the men's", "Jonah's lift",...), the antagonist should want something very specific, and should be determined to survive if at all possible.
A two-levels-down NPC sniper -- heavy crossbow, magical quarrels, cloak of skulking, the lot -- can be a good first example of this sort of thing. Really obsessive romantically smitten druids, determined to release LG characters like paladins from their confining inhibitions, can be a lot of fun, too; the antagonist doesn't have to be going for hit points. Reputation, alignment, and professional relationships also make good targets.
Re: a change of approach? by Trip (Wed Feb 17 20:31:38 2010)
D&D4 actually makes that kind of thing quite hard. Preparation, even with magic items, doesn't get you nearly as many plusses as in previous editions.
Of course the GM can always change the rules to make Jeremy lose, but I think he feels quite oppressed enough after I decided his character didn't spot the robots hiding motionless under the sand.
Or maybe I'm just saying all this to lull them into a false sense of security...
it doesn't have to be hit points... by Graydon (Thu Feb 18 16:17:19 2010)
So go for reputation, alignment, and professional relationships.
The paladin gets a paternity suit; if there are truth-detecting spells, there are probably "mystic paternity assignment" spells somewhere, too.
The rogue gets taken out for dinner by a highly-placed member of the city law enforcement mechanism, and there's a rumour they're an agent.
Any magic user is always vulnerable to accusations of necromancy.
It could just be some obnoxious kid with a pie, really, and the many-witnesses, no-good-response problem.
Re: it doesn't have to be hit points... by Trip (Thu Feb 18 19:27:24 2010)
I knew I should have required the PCs to be functioning members of society (or at least good-aligned)!
I refuse to believe in player characters lacking reputations. by Graydon (Fri Feb 19 16:18:36 2010)
It can be a reputation as that guy who chewed down a balsam fir because he didn't want to get his ax sticky, but they've got one.
Reputation is much more important if you don't have society to fall back on, too. It almost doesn't matter for game purposes what you do with the orphan, someone will disapprove. The trick is to make the PC interact with the disapproval.
Reputation by Trip (Sun Feb 21 13:37:40 2010)
That does sound like the sort of reputation these characters would get. Hm, maybe if it were an orphaned balsam fir...
I need to, in no particular order,
- Get them to stay in one place long enough to interact with NPCs more than once
- Decide what can and can't be done with a godawful Intimidate roll
- Learn to play NPCs
Make a comment!
13 February 2010 - Saturday
My, the Internet really is full of things: I recall
something like this from Brin's Earth.
Gaming: Ah, TextEdit does have the power to
include images and even put them in tables to position them. Yay!
Textual Entertainments: Finished the second book in
Faith Hunter's "Rogue Mage" series, Seraphs. I thought
there might be some genre shift based on stuff at the end of the first
book, but apparently not.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Well, so much for that idea. FAIL.
Make a comment!
12 February 2010 - Friday
Work: I wrote a 30-line SQL query. Eventually, it
worked. Muahahahaha.
Then I properly (maybe) labelled a bunch of tickets. nCluster
customers seem to, broadly, have much the same problems as users of any
other software package. This is kind of reassuring.
Visual Entertainments: A little more Tenchi
Muyo Ryo-Ohki. Indeed, I have definitely seen this before. But
maybe I'll watch it again anyway.
Cats:
Twelve fuzzy paws!
Writing: FAIL.
Make a comment!
11 February 2010 - Thursday
Work: Today I learned a thing. Maybe even two
things!
Gaming: I think I figured out which monsters to
reskin for an encounter on Sunday, but I probably need more than one
encounter. Bah!
Cats:
Yay purry Marma-snuggles!
Writing: FAIL.
Make a comment!
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