So Ambra got fired from her job about a week ago. Came home in tears Friday afternoon, was really frustrated, and understandably so. I'm not really certain on the specifics, but the main that stood out is she felt she had been very wrongfully terminated. Nothing like discrimination, just that the reason they gave her was bullshit.
I don't know.
But she needed a new job pretty much right away, being in a similar financial situation as myself. I found out Saturday she was leaving Sunday to go home for a week, to work for her dad at his shop; she had worked there a lot when she was younger and lived at home. She called yesterday (?) or the day before and told me she was staying another week or so, I think she's coming back a week from tomorrow.
Scrap all that. I just got her voice mail, and I was kind of tired when I listened to it, but I think it said she's coming in tomorrow. I guess I misunderstood her second phone call, which I originally thought was her saying that she was going to be coming in the Friday after this Sunday, but maybe she was saying this Friday? I don't know. I just have trouble believing I misunderstood her that completely. Well, I guess that absolves me of the need to make a post about how I feel about her being gone for another week.
Aqua -- Dr. Jones
2007-02-22
2007-02-21
Gonna make you, make you, make you, make you notice
Questing on Brooms still healing spec'ed, which, while slow, boring, and annoying, is good for blogging due to the constant water breaks.
So, Irving.
David and I drove up there in Mom's car, with all our gear stashed away in the trunk and back seat. I was driving first, and because I was really tired and knew I would fall asleep if I wasn't driving, planned on driving the whole way there. We ended up trading off in Waco, and I promptly fell asleep soon thereafter, awakening much later, once we entered Dallas. It was dark and rainy, so we had fun getting there. Traffic was pretty heavy, but not quite stop-and-go. We ended up taking a wrong turn - well, not really - the highway split, and we weren't ready for it, and ended up on the wrong side. Took about an extra hour or so to get there, but we finally did. Andy met us in the parking lot. He looks like a little kid. Kinda like a slightly older version of the Man Show Boy. Kyle's big and red-haired; Will has the porn star mustache, Ricky wears the trench coat. We had just about every nerd stereotype represented between the group of us. My throat was hurting slightly after I woke up, which would blossom into a weird throat thing over the coarse of the weekend - my voice ended up being an octave or two higher than normal, would crack occasionally, and had a lot of trouble getting it loud. It lasted after I got back, and I ended up calling into work that Tuesday as well. Overall, the weekend was a lot of fun. I speced full prot, which wasn't as bad as I thought. Even soloed as it for a bit - spam Devastate, not so bad. We were all on different schedules, so the mass instances didn't happen quite as well as we had anticipated; though, by the end of the third day, we were all more or less in sync, and were ripping stuff apart.
Overall, I love BC. I hate the new LFG system, and would much rather have the old system back. Some people say it's great, once you learn how to use it and don't mind putting in a little extra work; those people are idiots. I have 3 high level characters, a mid-high level characters, two mid-low level characters, and two very low-level characters. I can't look for groups for all of them at the same time, since the list you can access is based of your current character's level. That, and because it's now active on your part, you can't watch groups forming and jump in. And you can't really see a group forming and think "Hey, I'd like to do that!". You have to actively mark yourself as looking for a group. Also, it's now apparently okay to just invite someone with that instance marked. I mean, it kind of makes sense, but that's a major pet peeve for me, and I don't like it. Oh, and people who say "Just /join lookingforgroup" are also idiots. Since a tiny portion of the server is now going to be in the channel, it's worthless.
Been playing racquetball with Matt for a while now; finally beat him a little while ago. The game was like 15-8. I jumped at to a huge early lead, 11-2, but he fought his way back to prevent a slaughter. That's the only win I have in forty-something games, though I almost had another one yesterday (getting to that.) It's definitely helping my fitness, though the weight loss has been slower than I would hope, most likely because my atrocious eating habits haven't changed yet - working on that. I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago, that really hurt. The ball was coming back to me, I started to lean to the right to get it, then it did a weird bounce, and I had to shift to my left - this is completely lateral movement, no forward or back. I don't know why, but I fell. Hard. I fell directly on my left arm, since I fell straight to the left, and couldn't roll or use my hands or anything to brace myself. So my ankle hurt, and I didn't have a very good range of motion on my left arm, either. That was on Wednesday, went back to work Friday night. Nolan was, of course, completely unsympathetic to my injuries - "I don't want to hear about it. I don't have time for this." Annoying, but whatever. I've had it wrapped up since, and we finally started playing again recently. Yesterday, I was playing my heart out, and was up 14-6, his serve. Another good volley, then his shot rebounds off the wall, then hits the side, right in the corner. I was running hard to get it, but because of the weird bounce, wasn't able to. I ended up hitting the wall, which isn't anything bad, it happens all the time in a game. But as I rebounded off the wall, I fell over my ankle. It HURT. I mean, much, much worse than the first time did, probably since I was re-injuring it. Also, it's the same ankle I ripped up that time with Mindy. I was rolling around on the ground, screaming, for a bit. Like I said, it hurt. I finally managed to crawl off the court, people came running. Some old guy was like "There's a guy down on the courts", they weren't sure what was going on. Hell, the lifeguard, with her little first aid kit, even came. But there wasn't much they could do, though they did end up getting me an ice pack. It became apparent I wasn't going to get out of there under my own power, so Mom went home to get me some crutches. Gave me some painkillers, taken one so far, about to take another. And yeah, it started to swell something fierce - it was HUGE. I've slept, and twenty-four hours later, it's a little swollen, but not very bad. Very, very, very stiff - can barely move it, and can't put any pressure on it whatsoever. I can stand, but I'm standing on my right leg entirely, and my left foot is just kind of resting on the ground, not offering any help, besides a little balance. So that's fun.
Things I still want to write about:
The Pretenders -- Brass in Pocket
So, Irving.
David and I drove up there in Mom's car, with all our gear stashed away in the trunk and back seat. I was driving first, and because I was really tired and knew I would fall asleep if I wasn't driving, planned on driving the whole way there. We ended up trading off in Waco, and I promptly fell asleep soon thereafter, awakening much later, once we entered Dallas. It was dark and rainy, so we had fun getting there. Traffic was pretty heavy, but not quite stop-and-go. We ended up taking a wrong turn - well, not really - the highway split, and we weren't ready for it, and ended up on the wrong side. Took about an extra hour or so to get there, but we finally did. Andy met us in the parking lot. He looks like a little kid. Kinda like a slightly older version of the Man Show Boy. Kyle's big and red-haired; Will has the porn star mustache, Ricky wears the trench coat. We had just about every nerd stereotype represented between the group of us. My throat was hurting slightly after I woke up, which would blossom into a weird throat thing over the coarse of the weekend - my voice ended up being an octave or two higher than normal, would crack occasionally, and had a lot of trouble getting it loud. It lasted after I got back, and I ended up calling into work that Tuesday as well. Overall, the weekend was a lot of fun. I speced full prot, which wasn't as bad as I thought. Even soloed as it for a bit - spam Devastate, not so bad. We were all on different schedules, so the mass instances didn't happen quite as well as we had anticipated; though, by the end of the third day, we were all more or less in sync, and were ripping stuff apart.
Overall, I love BC. I hate the new LFG system, and would much rather have the old system back. Some people say it's great, once you learn how to use it and don't mind putting in a little extra work; those people are idiots. I have 3 high level characters, a mid-high level characters, two mid-low level characters, and two very low-level characters. I can't look for groups for all of them at the same time, since the list you can access is based of your current character's level. That, and because it's now active on your part, you can't watch groups forming and jump in. And you can't really see a group forming and think "Hey, I'd like to do that!". You have to actively mark yourself as looking for a group. Also, it's now apparently okay to just invite someone with that instance marked. I mean, it kind of makes sense, but that's a major pet peeve for me, and I don't like it. Oh, and people who say "Just /join lookingforgroup" are also idiots. Since a tiny portion of the server is now going to be in the channel, it's worthless.
Been playing racquetball with Matt for a while now; finally beat him a little while ago. The game was like 15-8. I jumped at to a huge early lead, 11-2, but he fought his way back to prevent a slaughter. That's the only win I have in forty-something games, though I almost had another one yesterday (getting to that.) It's definitely helping my fitness, though the weight loss has been slower than I would hope, most likely because my atrocious eating habits haven't changed yet - working on that. I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago, that really hurt. The ball was coming back to me, I started to lean to the right to get it, then it did a weird bounce, and I had to shift to my left - this is completely lateral movement, no forward or back. I don't know why, but I fell. Hard. I fell directly on my left arm, since I fell straight to the left, and couldn't roll or use my hands or anything to brace myself. So my ankle hurt, and I didn't have a very good range of motion on my left arm, either. That was on Wednesday, went back to work Friday night. Nolan was, of course, completely unsympathetic to my injuries - "I don't want to hear about it. I don't have time for this." Annoying, but whatever. I've had it wrapped up since, and we finally started playing again recently. Yesterday, I was playing my heart out, and was up 14-6, his serve. Another good volley, then his shot rebounds off the wall, then hits the side, right in the corner. I was running hard to get it, but because of the weird bounce, wasn't able to. I ended up hitting the wall, which isn't anything bad, it happens all the time in a game. But as I rebounded off the wall, I fell over my ankle. It HURT. I mean, much, much worse than the first time did, probably since I was re-injuring it. Also, it's the same ankle I ripped up that time with Mindy. I was rolling around on the ground, screaming, for a bit. Like I said, it hurt. I finally managed to crawl off the court, people came running. Some old guy was like "There's a guy down on the courts", they weren't sure what was going on. Hell, the lifeguard, with her little first aid kit, even came. But there wasn't much they could do, though they did end up getting me an ice pack. It became apparent I wasn't going to get out of there under my own power, so Mom went home to get me some crutches. Gave me some painkillers, taken one so far, about to take another. And yeah, it started to swell something fierce - it was HUGE. I've slept, and twenty-four hours later, it's a little swollen, but not very bad. Very, very, very stiff - can barely move it, and can't put any pressure on it whatsoever. I can stand, but I'm standing on my right leg entirely, and my left foot is just kind of resting on the ground, not offering any help, besides a little balance. So that's fun.
Things I still want to write about:
- Mindy
- Lilie
- I fail at life
The Pretenders -- Brass in Pocket
2007-02-09
Right before my eyes
So, it's been a while since I've had a substantial update, especially now that I've moved my blog and no one knows its new location - I told Lilie I deleted it. As I've previously stated, work's not nearly as interesting, so there's another thing to not blog about. That, and the spare time gives me a lot of opportunities to work out issues I usually just purge by placing them here.
That being said...
First topic: New Year's.
Yeah, almost a month and a half late on this one. Whatever. Nothing special about this New Year's - spent it working, as usual. Of course, with my new hours, I was in at 10 pm, and didn't leave until early morning - 7ish? I don't recall anything being noteworthy about the shift in and of itself. I think the worst New Year's in recent memory was the year I was working at Sonic and hadn't had any sleep for like the two day before New Year's, so I told Mom I was going to sleep, and NOT to wake me up. Of course, she did. I remember being in tears, I just wanted to sleep so bad. So yeah.
Burning Crusade recently launched (another reason I haven't been updating very often). Frankly, I love it. Outlands is AWESOME, and the first batch of quests make sure your gear is sufficient to handle the new challenges being thrown at you. You get new ranks of abilities every level, instead of only on even levels, and most classes get new abilities every even level - those that don't received a new ability at a lower level. Warriors, for example, don't get a new ability at 66, because they receive a passive ability much earlier now that allows them to retain 10 rage while switching stances (Stance Mastery is now a 3 point 1st tier Prot talent that lets you retain 5/10/15 rage, giving you the same benefit with 3 talent points). I've got Femaledwarf to 66, Gnometastic to 62, and rolled a draenei shaman, Serialcrushr, that's 12, and a draenei huntress that's 10 - Simplecomplx (in both cases, I have to omit the final 'e' for space). Actually had like five days off in a row immediately after the launch, which was awesome - was able to keep pace, and at times, get ahead of, everyone else.
The actual launch was kinda funny. It was at the beginning of the ice storm. We were releasing it at midnight, just like everyone else. I had been saying that there was going to be a big crowd, but nobody believed me - Matt was like "Yeah, Billy thinks the entire world is going to be here." I was right. Kinda. They were originally just going to roll the pdq out and let us have at it, but the size of the crowd and the decision to go 1 per customer led to them setting up a register - manned by Manuel, no less - to sell them. I got to leave for break a few minutes early, got over there to get in line. I was... something like fortieth in line. It was kind of scary. I knew they had 55 copies, but there was a huge clump, so it was hard to get an accurate count. Conner walked by a few times and yelled "NERD!". I thought it was pretty funny, given that he HAS THE AUTOBOT LOGO TATOOED ON HIS NECK. That, and he's desperate for a Wii. At one point, I was just downstacking a palette, and he was all "So what? You got your game now, and now you're all happy?" I was like, "Um... yeah?" Later, it was "So, what's the first thing you're going to do when you get home?" "Um, install BC?" "Haha, yeah, that's what I thought. Nerd!" As though I had waited in line for it, then wasn't going to install it? I countered by asking him what he was going to do when he got home with the Wii - get it working? "No, because I have to get an RCA converter first." Nice evasion.
More later.
Southside Hunters - Right Before My Eyes
That being said...
First topic: New Year's.
Yeah, almost a month and a half late on this one. Whatever. Nothing special about this New Year's - spent it working, as usual. Of course, with my new hours, I was in at 10 pm, and didn't leave until early morning - 7ish? I don't recall anything being noteworthy about the shift in and of itself. I think the worst New Year's in recent memory was the year I was working at Sonic and hadn't had any sleep for like the two day before New Year's, so I told Mom I was going to sleep, and NOT to wake me up. Of course, she did. I remember being in tears, I just wanted to sleep so bad. So yeah.
Burning Crusade recently launched (another reason I haven't been updating very often). Frankly, I love it. Outlands is AWESOME, and the first batch of quests make sure your gear is sufficient to handle the new challenges being thrown at you. You get new ranks of abilities every level, instead of only on even levels, and most classes get new abilities every even level - those that don't received a new ability at a lower level. Warriors, for example, don't get a new ability at 66, because they receive a passive ability much earlier now that allows them to retain 10 rage while switching stances (Stance Mastery is now a 3 point 1st tier Prot talent that lets you retain 5/10/15 rage, giving you the same benefit with 3 talent points). I've got Femaledwarf to 66, Gnometastic to 62, and rolled a draenei shaman, Serialcrushr, that's 12, and a draenei huntress that's 10 - Simplecomplx (in both cases, I have to omit the final 'e' for space). Actually had like five days off in a row immediately after the launch, which was awesome - was able to keep pace, and at times, get ahead of, everyone else.
The actual launch was kinda funny. It was at the beginning of the ice storm. We were releasing it at midnight, just like everyone else. I had been saying that there was going to be a big crowd, but nobody believed me - Matt was like "Yeah, Billy thinks the entire world is going to be here." I was right. Kinda. They were originally just going to roll the pdq out and let us have at it, but the size of the crowd and the decision to go 1 per customer led to them setting up a register - manned by Manuel, no less - to sell them. I got to leave for break a few minutes early, got over there to get in line. I was... something like fortieth in line. It was kind of scary. I knew they had 55 copies, but there was a huge clump, so it was hard to get an accurate count. Conner walked by a few times and yelled "NERD!". I thought it was pretty funny, given that he HAS THE AUTOBOT LOGO TATOOED ON HIS NECK. That, and he's desperate for a Wii. At one point, I was just downstacking a palette, and he was all "So what? You got your game now, and now you're all happy?" I was like, "Um... yeah?" Later, it was "So, what's the first thing you're going to do when you get home?" "Um, install BC?" "Haha, yeah, that's what I thought. Nerd!" As though I had waited in line for it, then wasn't going to install it? I countered by asking him what he was going to do when he got home with the Wii - get it working? "No, because I have to get an RCA converter first." Nice evasion.
More later.
Southside Hunters - Right Before My Eyes
