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Got my new computer yesterday – a kick ass Dell. It came with Vista, which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Had a little trouble with the internet connection until I finally found the right tool to convince it to go fix the problem. Turns out I needed to set it to “public” – and Hello, firewall.

Step 2 will be to install the old hard-drive and get the information off there that we need. Maybe I’ll work on that this evening.

My attempts at mask-making have failed again. I tried much hotter water for a much longer time – still no luck. I think the piece of leather that I have is just too think. Gotta come up with a Plan B for that one.

Finally, I fired up Final Fantasy again and tried to take on the the “attack-limiting” monster. Here’s how it went down.

1. I cast berserk on one character to see if he would mindlessly attack – and then I cast decoy on him to draw the monster’s fire and reverse so it would heal him. Well, he just stood there until the reverse wore off and then died in a few moments.

2. I brought him back and tried some area effect spells to hit the monster and his minions. It was working, but slowly. And the bad dudes kept casting Silence on my group so that we couldn’t do magic. I’d just barely get them talking again and another silence wave would hit.

3. Finally killed all the minions, but the main one wasn’t going down quickly enough. So, I took a look at the Techniques – other options that aren’t attacks or magic, sorta “something else”. One of those was “throw Gil”, with Gil being the coin money in this game. And I’ve got a pile of it from selling loot. So, I had one of the silenced characters use the “throw Gil” technique and got this message:

“A pile of gil flies through the air. 9999 damage”

And the big monster’s health takes a huge hit. So, for the next couple of minutes, I used that skill over and over until he was defeated.

So, let’s sum this up:

1. Gil = money
2. Throw Gil is a skill that throws money
3. The monster was a problem
4. I used the Throw Gil technique to defeat the monster

5. I threw money at a problem until it went away.

HA!

later…

Did a little running around on Saturday, brought some used games.

1. Shifters – a strange little game that lets the main character shapeshift. Which should be fun, only there are some problems with it. a) No map – well, there’s a simplified map, but it’s worthless. b) Long load times – especially when going from one unmarked area to another. c) Poor camera controls – i.e. The vomit Cam d) No checkpoints – which I discovered after playing for a couple hours and then dieing – and having to start over from the beginning.

I really wanted to like the game – but it’s just so bad.

2. Dragon Quarter – a turn based game. A little odd, but not too bad except – no way to heal. Other than spending “zennys” to buy healing potions. No healing spells, no healing fountains, no little old wise women. “Sure, it’s great that you’re trying to save all of us from the monsters, but you really need to cough up some zennys if you get hurt,” Frustrating – and hard to learn the game when mistakes are so costly.

3. Soul Caliber 2 – or is that Soul Caliber 3? The box was labeled 2, but the disk inside was 3. I think they grabbed the wrong one. In any case, I got my ass kicked. From full life to an 1/8 of a bar in one cheap, unblockable kick. Nice.

Overall, disappointing -but I didn’t spend much money on any of them and I got what I paid for.

I also went to a toy store – not to buy anything, but just for the experience. It was pretty crazy in there, but people were not as rude as I expected. They were deeply clueless, but that just meant they got in – and stayed in – each others way. But they weren’t mad about it.

Not long ago, I found a website that teaches how to build or create things. Kinda random, but one of the items is a leather mardi-gras mask. Which sounded pretty cool to me. So, I bought a square of leather, followed the directions – and got nothing. It didn’t work. I’m guessing the leather I got was too thick and the water wasn’t hot enough. I’m going to try again this evening and see how it goes.

That’s about it for now – later….

The locker room at the pool has some new signs posted.

1. Sharing is not caring. This one talks about the dangers of sharing towels, brushes, tweezers, razors, etc.

Wait, what? Are you kidding? We have to have signs up to explain this to people? I can’t come up with any situation where I would share anything in the locker-room.

“Hey, buddy, can I borrow your razor? I forgot mine,”
“No problem,”
“Hey, is this rust on the blade?”
“Nah, it’s just dried blood,”
“Cool, I wouldn’t want to get tetanus or something?”
“Ha ha,”

2. Don’t spread infections – with a picture of a guys hand wrapped up in gauze. This one is about keeping wounds covered.

“Why is the water around you red?”
“Oh, I accidentally cut my face when I borrowed my buddy’s razor,”
“You should cover that up – here, I found this band-aid on the bottom of the pool – that should work,”
“Great! Thanks, I feel better already,”

In other news… I used the elliptical trainer again last night for 15 minutes. Not bad, but kinda boring. I think I need a new CD in the player or maybe figure out how to tie it into the playstation.

Finally, played a little more Final Fantasy 12 last night – trying to level up a bit before I head to the last area of the game again. I had tried some side quests before and one of those was to track down a monster – except no one knew where it was. Well, last night I found it – it’s a big freaking dinosaur. And it hits really hard. And it’s got something like 30 billion hit points or something. I was getting close to killing it when it wiped out all my characters. I brought in the reserves and they died too. I think there’s a way to destroy it, but I need a new plan. Something with Decoy and Reverse maybe. Anyway, I may try again this evening.

That’s it for now… it’s been a really busy week and I’m glad it’s almost done…

I worked through my lunch yesterday, so I left work early and headed to the pool. Sort of a weird compulsion to go – which I guess is good. The pool in the afternoon was busy – some kind of swim meet or something. The lifeguard was talking to someone and it took me a few minutes to get his attention to find out which lane I could use. He indicated the one at the far end, a sort of not-quite-double lane at the shallow end.

So, I hopped in the pool and got started. At about 5 laps in, a woman sits down on the edge of the pool in “my” lane. When I got to where she was, I asked if she wanted to split the lane or do a rotation. Neither of which I’d done before and I was sort of hoping she’d choose rotation since I’d read about it and sounded “advanced”. She picked split and we swam parallel to each other for a while. And since she was much faster than me – it worked out okay, except that I keep overcompensating and bumping into the wall on my side.

And then a guy showed up, sat down at the edge of the pool in “our” lane, and proceeded to swim with us. And that was awkward. I don’t think anyone got kicked in the head, but it was a near thing a few times. After a few laps of this, the lane next to ours opened up and he moved over. I did my 30 laps and got out – tired and somewhat glad it was over.

It’s funny how I think we come to rely on those floating lane dividers. We get some space defined and it creates a comfort zone. Even with three people we should have had more than enough room, but without those dividers, we were all over the place. Good fences make good neighbors and all that.

After my swim, I got in my car headed home – later than I usually would so traffic was a bit worse. And of course there was a stalled car in the middle lane, not too far away from the entrance ramp. In the lane was the car, a tow truck in front of it and 2 police cars behind it. Seemed like a waste to me. I did a lot of swearing as I tried to get around it and finally got on my way.

Did some reading last night and did a little planning on a scupley project I’d like to try. It was a busy day and I expect today will be more of the same.

later…

Well, I put in an order for a new Dell yesterday. Should be pretty kick ass – hoping to get it in soon and fire it up. I’m going to try and add the memory and hard-drive from the old computer to boost performance and get the old data off of there.

Got some more packages in the mail – and got everything wrapped. I’ve even been wrapping the presents my room-mate is getting for his family since I’m way better at that than he is. It’s an origami thing.

I’ve got a total of 11 meetings this week – I think that may be a new record for me. And that’s not a good thing. Having trouble finding time to actually get work done.

Worked out on the elliptical again last night – another 15 minutes. Not quite as far as on monday, but I’m trying. I may use it again tonight, we’ll see how the knee is doing after the swim today.

Guess that’s about it for now… time to get back to work…

Bought an elliptical trainer over the weekend – a sort of an early gift. The sales guy at Dick’s was sorta crazy – he suggested the extended warranty in case I was working out and a piece “just flies off” – and suggesting that with the warranty, I wouldn’t have to pay for repairs. I politely declined.

The assembly went fairly smoothly – though there was one tricky step. No parts left over and the only thing missing was one of the screws to hold the water bottle in place. I’m going to have to position it carefully in the basement – the ceiling is a little low.

The home computer bought the farm again – this time, I think it’s history. So much for the free and somewhat suspicious repairs. Ah, well, maybe I can get a good deal with a christmas sale.

Had a bit of a vain moment this weekend. I cleaned out my closets and drawers to donate some clothes to goodwill and in the organizing and re-arranging, I found an old tank top. I put that on after my shower and noticed that it no longer fit me well. I had, somehow, developed a chest. I actually checked myself out in the mirror for a few minutes until I felt silly. Still, the swimming is paying off. And that’s cool.

The drive into work… (sigh). I live in Northeast Ohio. It snows here. If it snowed in July – no one should be surprised since we get all the weather types that exist. And it changes every 20 minutes or so. There were flurries in the air this morning as I pulled onto the highway – and immediately had to slam on my brakes since the cars in front of me were going – no lie – less than 25 miles per hour. Everyone else went past us at 60+ and it took a while to find a safe opening to switch lanes – since I had to not only change lanes but double my speed. When I got past those three cars I saw that the lead one was poking along for no good reason. They’ll have a cold ride into work today since I blew their doors off- by going the speed limit for the highway!

So, a somewhat cranky start to the morning – but I made it here safely and it’s time to get back to it. later…

Well, I got the speakers working on the home computer. After running through the diagnostics and opening up the box, I finally gave up and tried plugging in the headphones. Those worked fine. I unplugged them and suddenly, the speakers were working. Good, but also annoying.

Day two of the in-house training. Went pretty well, though it was a little too simplistic and at the same time, a little beyond the scope of what it was supposed to cover. I learned some new things and was also a little “pre-daunted” at what is facing the team as far as work-load goes.

Finally, I’ve been putting out fires for the past two days with work issues. I thought I had them all put out – and then I checked my email this evening. Mistake. There was another fire and I can almost smell the gasoline. Makes me cranky. I’ve got a couple of solutions – neither of them good – but at least I’m trying. We’ll see how it goes.

Time for dinner… later…

I’m in training all day today – and I had a pile of work this morning to rush through. Fun, in a non-fun sense of the term.

I picked up the computer yesterday and it booted up normally last evening. Only thing not working is the soundcard – so, gotta dig it in tonight and fix it.

Did a lot of Christmas shopping last night made progress and didn’t kill anyone – so, that was good.

Well, gotta run…

Well, today marked my 1 year in the pool – I did a mile. Which is quite an improvement from my 1/8 of a mile last year. So, that was kinda cool.

I got the word that the home computer is fixed. The tech explained that the memory was in the wrong slots – although how it spontaneously failed is still a mystery. Sorting out the slots made it magically all better. I’m picking it up today after work, but I’m still thinking about getting a new machine.

Two days of training coming up – which would be fine if the web pixies did my work for me while I’m gone. Alas, I suspect they won’t show and I’ll have a pile waiting for me. At least I’ll have a computer at home again so I can log in and try and get caught up.

That’s it for now – later…

I’m not a big fan of the holidays anymore. Christmas gets stressful with the present buying and travel and New Year’s seems arbitrary and wildly anti-climatic. I dunno, maybe I’m just getting old and cynical. And Christmas music? Ugh. Most of what I’ve heard recently is either ancient and dated – or it’s more modern but cloying.

I used to enjoy it. Used to be the “bees knees”. Now, it just makes me tired. Or it could be that I’ve got some kind of SAD or something.

In other news… my room-mate was trying to hang up Christmas lights yesterday evening – in the dark and in the rain. Suddenly, all the outlets in the garage where he had these plugged in went out. Lights, radio, etc. We checked the breakers and didn’t see any correctly marked or blown. I suggested it might be related to the fact that he was standing a puddle of water and the cords were wet -but my suggestions were dismissed.

Note to self – you should get current on your CPR training again.

Not sure why that comes to mind. Maybe seeing someone standing in a puddle of water trying to hang up very fragile lights – with an extension cord in the water as well. Eh, guess I’m just being silly.

I called about the broken computer yesterday. This is the 5th working day that they’ve had it – I’m hoping to get a real answer today. It also irks me just a wee little bit that I didn’t get bumped up in the workflow. We are in the same division and I would have done the same for them.
Eh, not really fair I guess. Student computer issues should rightly come first over staff. Still, I’d really like to get moving toward some kind of solution.

Label this post as Cranky… guess that’s all I’ve got for now…