Thursday, December 30, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Cataclysm, and Why I Like It
I'm a geek. I admit it, and I'm okay with that. And for those of you who aren't quite so far gone as I, you may not have heard that in the recent past, the newest expansion for World of Warcraft was released - Cataclysm. There's been plenty of discussion by fans and haters and everything in between, but this is my take.
...And if you don't care about WoW, or at least my views on it, you may as well stop now. You'll be bored out of your mind within two paragraphs. :)
First, a little summary. World of Warcraft currently consists of two worlds - Azeroth and the Outlands (formerly Draenor). Blah blah, stuff happened, blah blah, and then the great black dragon Deathwing awoke and broke from his lair on the elemental plane. When he burst into Azeroth, he weakened the walls between Azeroth and the elemental planes, releasing a plague of spirits and elementals; and the shock of his arrival caused massive destruction. Earthquakes, tidal waves, floods... Whirlpools, mountains falling and rising, etcetera. Deathwing himself damaged or destroyed numerous locations on two of the three continents (the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, but not Northrend, which was generally unaffected). On top of that, his allies and dupes - mortal and otherwise - are assaulting both the Horde and the Alliance in a wide-spread offensive on countless fronts... And chaos is everywhere.
Yay marketing-speak and advertising. :) But anyway... When it comes down to it, they took a huge amount of what people were used to about the game and turned it on its head. Enormous changes were done on many - if not most - aspects of the game, and people are still getting used to everything being so different. Some people hate it; some people left specifically because of the changes; and some people were on the fence, at least when it came out. I hadn't heard anyone actually happy about the changes... Until they were done. Now? A lot of people are loving it.
There are some really quite valid complaints. The most common one is that healers got the short, mucky end of this stick. Mana regeneration got nerfed all to hell, meaning they run out and stop being fully effective much more often - I've had instance runs where the healer runs out of mana on every single pull. Even worse, while hit-point and damage numbers are shooting up (at level 80, I had about 50,000 hit points and a 40k single attack was both cripplingly strong and almost unheard of; at 85 with my gear as of last night, I have 120k hit points and 40k single strikes are commonplace from even normal monster pulls in instances), their healing spells did not get significantly stronger. This means it can take several times as many spells to heal the same percentage of a character's health, just making the mana problem that much worse.
There are other complaints, too. Several characteristics were removed entirely; gear was simplified; Jewelcrafters and Enchanters who had large numbers of old patterns got screwed when they suddenly became duplicates, with no compensation; the talent trees were completely re-done, with talent numbers being cut in half, in some cases reducing variety severely; and even some favorite features (Druid tree form, anyone?) are now just gone. Levelling, too, is slanted more towards speed - several classes had key abilities shunted to much lower levels (druid Cat form from 20 to 8 is the example I keep hearing, but there are others), experience bonuses are rampant, and power-levelling is faster than most would believe if done right. And on top of everything else, all the old quests were simply removed - all the level 1-60 quests were replaced with new lore for the new state of the land, as Azeroth was brought up to the current time. Even that the level cap only went up 5 - from 80 to 85 - instead of 10 like the first two expansions is a common complaint.
On the other hand... The crew at Blizzard put an incredible amount of work into this, and it shows. First, the effort put into revising Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms just blows me away. The zones are all just flat-out better. They're better-designed, more interesting, and just fun to go around and explore. Little nooks and crannies with interesting things are everywhere - made better by flying mounts now being usable in the "old world".
To expand on the revised zones, most of the quest lines are different too - re-written from scratch in most cases. The writers obviously had fun with this, and it shows. The quest lines range from tragic to comedic to epic, and I'm repeatedly impressed with the quality of them. I hit the level cap after doing one and a half zones (Mount Hyjal and part of the Twilight Highlands), but even if I didn't have other reasons I'd want to do all the quests in the other zones (Vashj'ir, Deepholme, and Uldum) just to see all the storylines. The Harrison Jones storyline is something I would have been incredibly sad to miss, for example.
Another thing I'll throw out there, though, is that the boss fights in instances are *fun* again. In Wrath, they got too simple - crowd control became quickly useless, and tactics were mostly unnecessary. The boss fights are downright hard again, and heroics take effort and work. They'll still get easier with better gear - they always do - but to me right now it looks like they'll still be harder even when gear maxes out... And better yet, they're just *interesting* again.
My favorite boss fight so far has to be the very very end of Deadmines Heroic. There's an extra boss in Heroic - Vanessa VanCleef, the daughter of the (now deceased) former head of a band of thieves. When you meet her, she has a little monologue where she talks about how she isn't as good in combat as her father, but she's *much* better with poisons... As she then uses mind-affecting drugs to throw you into a Nightmare. You run through a gauntlet of stylized, nightmarish versions of all the earlier bosses in the instance - dodging fire and ice to fight the Ogre mage in an inferno hell, holding off massive and strengthening waves of spiders to fight the Goblin engineer, dodging rotating walls of lightning to fight the Foe Reaper, and saving the Worgen Admiral's family from rampaging Worgen only to fight the Admiral himself as he murders his wife in a berserker rage. Then you actually fight Vanessa after descending through the personal hells of all the bosses, fighting wave after wave of foot-soldiers as she runs around and causes havoc in the group - and periodically needing to swing on ropes away from the deck of the ship to escape the huge explosions she sets off in an effort to trap and kill you. It's frenetic; it's difficult; and it's fun and interesting to go through. I'm truly impressed by whoever scripted that whole sequence.
As a last note... Possibly the best quest line I've done so far, by the way, isn't even in one of the new zones - it's in an old zone, with three guys who weren't there before the expansion. A gnome, an orc, and a dwarf are sitting on a little hill in The Barrens, drunk off their asses, next to the enormous scar Deathwing left in the land; and if you go talk to them they talk about the day Deathwing came. You talk to them one at a time as they tell you the story of how they drove Deathwing away, and the quests are carried out from the point of view of the one currently telling the story. First, the Dwarf talks about how he went down the scar, punching things and breaking through rock walls, until he got to Deathwing and punched him in the face - throwing him to Kalimdor. Then the Gnome corrects the Dwarf as he talks about how he used his world-shrinking device (...Yeah, gnomes have a lot of jokes associated with them) to make himself huge, then hunted through the clouds for Deathwing... Only to realize Deathwing was hiding in the sun! O.O So he, of course, grabbed Deathwing by the throat and threw him to Kalimdor. Then the Orc tells the *real* story, about how he hopped on his motorcycle - rescueing one of three girls or a Blood Elf guy in the process - and drove up the scar, dodging rocks, until he gets to the far end... Where he remembers his motorcycle can fly, and he flies up onto the mountain to fight Deathwing in a knife fight. The fight is interrupted, however, by a dwarf running up and punching Deathwing and a giant Gnome stalking past...
Trust me, it's funnier to walk through. :-P If you play and haven't done it, do it. It's worth it.
...And if you don't care about WoW, or at least my views on it, you may as well stop now. You'll be bored out of your mind within two paragraphs. :)
First, a little summary. World of Warcraft currently consists of two worlds - Azeroth and the Outlands (formerly Draenor). Blah blah, stuff happened, blah blah, and then the great black dragon Deathwing awoke and broke from his lair on the elemental plane. When he burst into Azeroth, he weakened the walls between Azeroth and the elemental planes, releasing a plague of spirits and elementals; and the shock of his arrival caused massive destruction. Earthquakes, tidal waves, floods... Whirlpools, mountains falling and rising, etcetera. Deathwing himself damaged or destroyed numerous locations on two of the three continents (the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, but not Northrend, which was generally unaffected). On top of that, his allies and dupes - mortal and otherwise - are assaulting both the Horde and the Alliance in a wide-spread offensive on countless fronts... And chaos is everywhere.
Yay marketing-speak and advertising. :) But anyway... When it comes down to it, they took a huge amount of what people were used to about the game and turned it on its head. Enormous changes were done on many - if not most - aspects of the game, and people are still getting used to everything being so different. Some people hate it; some people left specifically because of the changes; and some people were on the fence, at least when it came out. I hadn't heard anyone actually happy about the changes... Until they were done. Now? A lot of people are loving it.
There are some really quite valid complaints. The most common one is that healers got the short, mucky end of this stick. Mana regeneration got nerfed all to hell, meaning they run out and stop being fully effective much more often - I've had instance runs where the healer runs out of mana on every single pull. Even worse, while hit-point and damage numbers are shooting up (at level 80, I had about 50,000 hit points and a 40k single attack was both cripplingly strong and almost unheard of; at 85 with my gear as of last night, I have 120k hit points and 40k single strikes are commonplace from even normal monster pulls in instances), their healing spells did not get significantly stronger. This means it can take several times as many spells to heal the same percentage of a character's health, just making the mana problem that much worse.
There are other complaints, too. Several characteristics were removed entirely; gear was simplified; Jewelcrafters and Enchanters who had large numbers of old patterns got screwed when they suddenly became duplicates, with no compensation; the talent trees were completely re-done, with talent numbers being cut in half, in some cases reducing variety severely; and even some favorite features (Druid tree form, anyone?) are now just gone. Levelling, too, is slanted more towards speed - several classes had key abilities shunted to much lower levels (druid Cat form from 20 to 8 is the example I keep hearing, but there are others), experience bonuses are rampant, and power-levelling is faster than most would believe if done right. And on top of everything else, all the old quests were simply removed - all the level 1-60 quests were replaced with new lore for the new state of the land, as Azeroth was brought up to the current time. Even that the level cap only went up 5 - from 80 to 85 - instead of 10 like the first two expansions is a common complaint.
On the other hand... The crew at Blizzard put an incredible amount of work into this, and it shows. First, the effort put into revising Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms just blows me away. The zones are all just flat-out better. They're better-designed, more interesting, and just fun to go around and explore. Little nooks and crannies with interesting things are everywhere - made better by flying mounts now being usable in the "old world".
To expand on the revised zones, most of the quest lines are different too - re-written from scratch in most cases. The writers obviously had fun with this, and it shows. The quest lines range from tragic to comedic to epic, and I'm repeatedly impressed with the quality of them. I hit the level cap after doing one and a half zones (Mount Hyjal and part of the Twilight Highlands), but even if I didn't have other reasons I'd want to do all the quests in the other zones (Vashj'ir, Deepholme, and Uldum) just to see all the storylines. The Harrison Jones storyline is something I would have been incredibly sad to miss, for example.
Another thing I'll throw out there, though, is that the boss fights in instances are *fun* again. In Wrath, they got too simple - crowd control became quickly useless, and tactics were mostly unnecessary. The boss fights are downright hard again, and heroics take effort and work. They'll still get easier with better gear - they always do - but to me right now it looks like they'll still be harder even when gear maxes out... And better yet, they're just *interesting* again.
My favorite boss fight so far has to be the very very end of Deadmines Heroic. There's an extra boss in Heroic - Vanessa VanCleef, the daughter of the (now deceased) former head of a band of thieves. When you meet her, she has a little monologue where she talks about how she isn't as good in combat as her father, but she's *much* better with poisons... As she then uses mind-affecting drugs to throw you into a Nightmare. You run through a gauntlet of stylized, nightmarish versions of all the earlier bosses in the instance - dodging fire and ice to fight the Ogre mage in an inferno hell, holding off massive and strengthening waves of spiders to fight the Goblin engineer, dodging rotating walls of lightning to fight the Foe Reaper, and saving the Worgen Admiral's family from rampaging Worgen only to fight the Admiral himself as he murders his wife in a berserker rage. Then you actually fight Vanessa after descending through the personal hells of all the bosses, fighting wave after wave of foot-soldiers as she runs around and causes havoc in the group - and periodically needing to swing on ropes away from the deck of the ship to escape the huge explosions she sets off in an effort to trap and kill you. It's frenetic; it's difficult; and it's fun and interesting to go through. I'm truly impressed by whoever scripted that whole sequence.
As a last note... Possibly the best quest line I've done so far, by the way, isn't even in one of the new zones - it's in an old zone, with three guys who weren't there before the expansion. A gnome, an orc, and a dwarf are sitting on a little hill in The Barrens, drunk off their asses, next to the enormous scar Deathwing left in the land; and if you go talk to them they talk about the day Deathwing came. You talk to them one at a time as they tell you the story of how they drove Deathwing away, and the quests are carried out from the point of view of the one currently telling the story. First, the Dwarf talks about how he went down the scar, punching things and breaking through rock walls, until he got to Deathwing and punched him in the face - throwing him to Kalimdor. Then the Gnome corrects the Dwarf as he talks about how he used his world-shrinking device (...Yeah, gnomes have a lot of jokes associated with them) to make himself huge, then hunted through the clouds for Deathwing... Only to realize Deathwing was hiding in the sun! O.O So he, of course, grabbed Deathwing by the throat and threw him to Kalimdor. Then the Orc tells the *real* story, about how he hopped on his motorcycle - rescueing one of three girls or a Blood Elf guy in the process - and drove up the scar, dodging rocks, until he gets to the far end... Where he remembers his motorcycle can fly, and he flies up onto the mountain to fight Deathwing in a knife fight. The fight is interrupted, however, by a dwarf running up and punching Deathwing and a giant Gnome stalking past...
Trust me, it's funnier to walk through. :-P If you play and haven't done it, do it. It's worth it.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Getting into my car this morning, I opened the passenger door to what struck me as an immensely strange sight - what distinctly appeared to be a large pile of shaved carrots. I just stared a moment - my not-yet-quite-awake mind couldn't imagine why someone would break into my car, leave a pile of carrots, and then close it up again. It took me a moment of thinking to realize that it wasn't carrot, but frozen orange soda - I'd left an unopened can of diet Fanta in the car the day before and it had exploded.
I don't recommend it. It's far messier when melted, and the melting is fairly inevitable.
I don't recommend it. It's far messier when melted, and the melting is fairly inevitable.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Tonight's game? Ticket To Ride Europe (I got totally robbed by my brother-in-law... Picking up tickets on the second-to-last turn and having two of them already completed, indeed...), and then LCR.
With LCR, of course, the discussion changed it from "Left, Right, Center" to "Left, Right, Chug" - the new drinking game my sister and brother-in-law are going to have at their new-years-eve games party.
It was an immense amount of fun, and I even came out $7 ahead on the dice!
With LCR, of course, the discussion changed it from "Left, Right, Center" to "Left, Right, Chug" - the new drinking game my sister and brother-in-law are going to have at their new-years-eve games party.
It was an immense amount of fun, and I even came out $7 ahead on the dice!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Old & New
The following appeared in today's "Dear Abby". I copy it here because, to a number of people who knew me beforehand and now, it expressed better than I've ever been able to how I feel sometimes. Obviously the situation isn't the same, but the sentiment applies.
-----
Dear Abby,
My beautiful 20-year-old daughter was killed in a car accident. I am writing this not only for myself, but for all parents who have lost a child, and to all of the wonderful people who asked, "What can I do for you?"
At the time there wasn't much anyone could do to help, but after two years I have an answer: Accept me for who I am *now*.
When Rachel came into my life, it changed me profoundly. Losing her did the same. Her father and I work hard to honor her memory, but we will never "get over it" to the degree of being who we were before. I am different now in some ways - I think - better. I am kinder, more patient, more appreciative of small things, but I am not as outgoing nor as quick to laugh.
I know people mean well when they encourage me to get on with my life, but this *is* my life. My priorities have changed. My expectations of what my future will hold have changed. Please extend to me again the offer of "anything I can do" and, please, accept me as I am now.
-Different Now in Riverview, Fla.
-----
I didn't lose a child. I gained and lost a wife, and gained a child. I'm... Different, and recently I have been realizing I'm never going to be the Robin that people knew back in undergrad, back in grad school. My ambitions are different. My motivations are different. My fears are different. I think differently, and I react differently. Some changes are negative, and some are positive - I can see that clearly. But they're there.
The funny thing is, I have had people say that to me - that it's okay, that I'll get over it, that everything will be back the way it was. It won't. My life is different, irretrievably so. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, or a good thing; it's just a fact. Things will be okay. Things will get better. But I *won't* be over it. It's not something to be removed from my life; it's something that's part of my life, and always will be. I can run away from my past, or I can include it in my future, but I can't get rid of it either way.
It's been a year since my divorce, three and a quarter years since my separation, and longer than that since things fell apart. You may not like who I am now, but...
This *is* who I am, now. And I'll keep on changing, just like everyone else... But I'll never be the person I was ten years ago.
-----
Dear Abby,
My beautiful 20-year-old daughter was killed in a car accident. I am writing this not only for myself, but for all parents who have lost a child, and to all of the wonderful people who asked, "What can I do for you?"
At the time there wasn't much anyone could do to help, but after two years I have an answer: Accept me for who I am *now*.
When Rachel came into my life, it changed me profoundly. Losing her did the same. Her father and I work hard to honor her memory, but we will never "get over it" to the degree of being who we were before. I am different now in some ways - I think - better. I am kinder, more patient, more appreciative of small things, but I am not as outgoing nor as quick to laugh.
I know people mean well when they encourage me to get on with my life, but this *is* my life. My priorities have changed. My expectations of what my future will hold have changed. Please extend to me again the offer of "anything I can do" and, please, accept me as I am now.
-Different Now in Riverview, Fla.
-----
I didn't lose a child. I gained and lost a wife, and gained a child. I'm... Different, and recently I have been realizing I'm never going to be the Robin that people knew back in undergrad, back in grad school. My ambitions are different. My motivations are different. My fears are different. I think differently, and I react differently. Some changes are negative, and some are positive - I can see that clearly. But they're there.
The funny thing is, I have had people say that to me - that it's okay, that I'll get over it, that everything will be back the way it was. It won't. My life is different, irretrievably so. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, or a good thing; it's just a fact. Things will be okay. Things will get better. But I *won't* be over it. It's not something to be removed from my life; it's something that's part of my life, and always will be. I can run away from my past, or I can include it in my future, but I can't get rid of it either way.
It's been a year since my divorce, three and a quarter years since my separation, and longer than that since things fell apart. You may not like who I am now, but...
This *is* who I am, now. And I'll keep on changing, just like everyone else... But I'll never be the person I was ten years ago.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Christmas Cracker jokes are *always* the highest quality...
Q. What is a minimum?
A. A very small mother.
-----
Q. What award is given to door knocker designers?
A. The No-Bell Prize.
A. A very small mother.
-----
Q. What award is given to door knocker designers?
A. The No-Bell Prize.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Jingle Bells...
According to my son (who was singing it loudly, and repeatedly, while I was trying to get him into PJs) the lyrics are:
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to run
And don't forget the sleigh, HEY!
It was way too cute for me to correct him. :-P
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to run
And don't forget the sleigh, HEY!
It was way too cute for me to correct him. :-P
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
So. Slashdot put this up today:
http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/12/14/1350206/Jeopardy-To-Pit-Humans-Against-IBM-Machine
(and the yahoo news article it links to: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101214/ap_en_tv/us_tv_man_vs_machine)
It was quickly pointed out in the comments that this has come up before, but this is actually the first time I've seen it, and it's very interesting to me. Of course, in some ways the most interesting thing is the discussion of exactly what's going to be tested. The humans and computers have radically different limitations, after all. Humans tend to have limited databases of information (so to speak), but zero problem interpreting the question; computers tend to have vastly larger databases of available information, but problems with translating a question into a meaningful (and correct) query to retrieve the answer. So you could argue that, for a properly constructed set of questions on the part of the Jeopardy writers, it would be testing both the algorithm-writers down in IBM Research and the data absorption/recall of Jennings and Rutter at the same time.
Nifty stuff.
http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/12/14/1350206/Jeopardy-To-Pit-Humans-Against-IBM-Machine
(and the yahoo news article it links to: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101214/ap_en_tv/us_tv_man_vs_machine)
It was quickly pointed out in the comments that this has come up before, but this is actually the first time I've seen it, and it's very interesting to me. Of course, in some ways the most interesting thing is the discussion of exactly what's going to be tested. The humans and computers have radically different limitations, after all. Humans tend to have limited databases of information (so to speak), but zero problem interpreting the question; computers tend to have vastly larger databases of available information, but problems with translating a question into a meaningful (and correct) query to retrieve the answer. So you could argue that, for a properly constructed set of questions on the part of the Jeopardy writers, it would be testing both the algorithm-writers down in IBM Research and the data absorption/recall of Jennings and Rutter at the same time.
Nifty stuff.
Monday, December 13, 2010
If a moth flaps its wings in Princeton...
"Computers don't make mistakes, but they carefully execute every mistake *you* make."
Cute, isn't it? It does, however, parallel something I've repeatedly said to a number of people (including, to what I believe is her eternal frustration, my mother) - "Computers don't make mistakes. They do *exactly* what you've told them to do, whether you meant it or not." I was reading Slashdot this morning, of course, and one of the articles was "the top ten worst catastrophes caused by computers" or some such. The comments, in a lot of ways, were more interesting than the article; but I did pick up a few worthwhile links.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/363580/when-computers-go-wrong
http://www.wired.com/software/coolapps/news/2005/11/69355
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/25/2038217
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_5_Flight_501
Interesting, funny, and just downright scary stories about the things computers do - because noone told them not to. This entire thing, of course, is inspired by both the Stuxnet worm and the Wikileaks DDOS attacks (more the former, but the latter has come up in most of the discussions about it that I've seen or been part of).
Anyway. Video and Audio entries put up on the other blog, some time soon. Tonight if we're all lucky.
Cute, isn't it? It does, however, parallel something I've repeatedly said to a number of people (including, to what I believe is her eternal frustration, my mother) - "Computers don't make mistakes. They do *exactly* what you've told them to do, whether you meant it or not." I was reading Slashdot this morning, of course, and one of the articles was "the top ten worst catastrophes caused by computers" or some such. The comments, in a lot of ways, were more interesting than the article; but I did pick up a few worthwhile links.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/363580/when-computers-go-wrong
http://www.wired.com/software/coolapps/news/2005/11/69355
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/25/2038217
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_5_Flight_501
Interesting, funny, and just downright scary stories about the things computers do - because noone told them not to. This entire thing, of course, is inspired by both the Stuxnet worm and the Wikileaks DDOS attacks (more the former, but the latter has come up in most of the discussions about it that I've seen or been part of).
Anyway. Video and Audio entries put up on the other blog, some time soon. Tonight if we're all lucky.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Name Hijinx
Random aside - one of the things that makes this type of thing so much fun. So while I was at the store yesterday dealing with getting a new phone, the saleswoman (salesperson? salespeon?) helping me asked the obvious question at one point - Do I have an existing account with them? "Why yes!" I said, and gave them my phone number. She typed it in, looked at the screen, looked at me, looked back at the screen, and then said "She doesn't have anyone else authorized to make changes to this account. Do you mind if we call her up?"
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Salivating at the thought...
So my co-worker at the next desk over wasn't in the office yesterday. We (the other people in our cube aisle) were actually fairly worried; we'd gotten a group-wide e-mail in the morning saying he was taking his wife to the doctor, but the e-mail at 11:30 saying he'd just work from home (it's a fairly long commute for him) only went to our manager, so from our point of view he went to the doctor's at like 8:45 and never came home. But it turned out everything was fine, just a communications hiccup. But I'm bringing it up, because the story's interesting.
Apparently, two nights ago, his wife was eating dinner, and her throat started swelling. Both sides, almost like swollen lymph nodes. They called the doctor's overnight emergency line, and he said it sounded like a mild allergic reaction. "Is she having trouble swallowing?" "Not really." "Is she having trouble breathing?" "No." "Then take a couple of Ibuprofen to take down the swelling, and go to the ER if she picks up any new symptoms or it gets worse. Schedule an allergy test for some time to look into it." So she takes a couple of ibuprofen, the swelling goes down, they go to bed, everything's fine.
Next morning, she's eating her cereal, and her neck starts swelling again. So they call the doctor, say "We're coming in now", he sends a quick e-mail to the group, and off they go. She gets looked at... And the doctor tells her to go out, buy some lemon drops, start sucking on them, and go home.
Apparently, what was wrong - and I've never heard of this before, though I suppose it makes some level of sense - was that the channels leading out of her salivary glands got blocked somehow. When she started eating, she started salivating, but the channels were blocked so the glands started swelling up - like a balloon being filled with water. And the doctor's advice was "Well, make yourself salivate more. Eventually it'll work itself out."
That's... Kinda freaky. :-P
Ahhh, well. Back to work and all that jazz.
Apparently, two nights ago, his wife was eating dinner, and her throat started swelling. Both sides, almost like swollen lymph nodes. They called the doctor's overnight emergency line, and he said it sounded like a mild allergic reaction. "Is she having trouble swallowing?" "Not really." "Is she having trouble breathing?" "No." "Then take a couple of Ibuprofen to take down the swelling, and go to the ER if she picks up any new symptoms or it gets worse. Schedule an allergy test for some time to look into it." So she takes a couple of ibuprofen, the swelling goes down, they go to bed, everything's fine.
Next morning, she's eating her cereal, and her neck starts swelling again. So they call the doctor, say "We're coming in now", he sends a quick e-mail to the group, and off they go. She gets looked at... And the doctor tells her to go out, buy some lemon drops, start sucking on them, and go home.
Apparently, what was wrong - and I've never heard of this before, though I suppose it makes some level of sense - was that the channels leading out of her salivary glands got blocked somehow. When she started eating, she started salivating, but the channels were blocked so the glands started swelling up - like a balloon being filled with water. And the doctor's advice was "Well, make yourself salivate more. Eventually it'll work itself out."
That's... Kinda freaky. :-P
Ahhh, well. Back to work and all that jazz.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Medical Bills
So I got the revised version of the hospital bill from my son's surgery, yesterday. I got it, that is; I have no idea how long it was sitting un-opened at my ex's house, but never mind that. It was the revised version, missing all the items that my health insurance negotiated out of existence based on obscure contract terms.
The single largest line item was 20 minutes of operating room time at $1,907. Really? It's not even that I object to the idea that an OR, with all the equipment amortized over some number of years, costs $6,000 per hour to use. It's a lot, but then an X-Ray machine for a couple million is a lot, too. But $5,721 per hour? Somehow that offends my delicate sensibilities. They couldn't have rounded up to $5,750 per hour?
The line item which actually seriously annoys me, though, is "Tissues - $0.83". Are you serious? Are you dead freaking serious? You can't include tissues in the recovery room hourly cost? You have to charge us like 20 cents per tissue for the patient?
Some days it's hard to dredge up faith in humanity out of the depths of illogic.
The single largest line item was 20 minutes of operating room time at $1,907. Really? It's not even that I object to the idea that an OR, with all the equipment amortized over some number of years, costs $6,000 per hour to use. It's a lot, but then an X-Ray machine for a couple million is a lot, too. But $5,721 per hour? Somehow that offends my delicate sensibilities. They couldn't have rounded up to $5,750 per hour?
The line item which actually seriously annoys me, though, is "Tissues - $0.83". Are you serious? Are you dead freaking serious? You can't include tissues in the recovery room hourly cost? You have to charge us like 20 cents per tissue for the patient?
Some days it's hard to dredge up faith in humanity out of the depths of illogic.
Monday, July 12, 2010
But in the Latin, super-user begins with an "I"!
It's always interesting to see how things are named technical areas. Back in undergrad, one of my friends who'd been given the responsibility for setting up (including naming) the new group of servers asked around the office and our circle of friends how he should name them, and from something like 20 people he literally got 30-something answers (two people kept on coming back to him with new ideas).
It's a widely varying and rather personal choice, with the added complexity administrative intervention. Servers here used to be named after astronomical objects; planets, moons, comets, stars, etcetera. As the number of servers increased, the names broadened to mythological figures (Greek and Roman gods, etcetera). And then a manager handed down "All servers will be named based on environment, OS, and function!" so now servers have boring names like "WSPROD01" and "FAQUAL04". Bah humbug. I guess it's easier when you're up to a couple hundred servers, but it's still immensely boring.
I've seen servers at places named after super-heroes ("Go grab those files off of Green Lanturn and copy them to Superman, will you?"); I've seen them named after countries and cities ("Uh oh, London's down and Rwanda's throwing exceptions because it can't reach its database!"); I've seen them named after presidents ("Make sure to expose Washington's port 80 outside the firewall, and close off FTP on Jefferson."); I've seen them named after wild animals ("We're going to re-configure Grizzly Bear, Fruit Bat, and White Tiger as a cluster."). It's always fun to see what they pick, given free reign.
The last time I had to name computers (or re-name, really), I had 7 machines I was naming. I obviously named them after the seven deadly sins. The only one of those 7 which is currently still alive is Sloth, my laptop; the rest have all been retired and gotten rid of. It's sad, really... I miss them. I do still have a second machine (my iMac!) but it doesn't have a name; it's just whatever the default is, which I honestly don't know for MacOS. I've only ever set up an iMac twice in my life, and one of the two times were long enough ago that I don't remember it clearly. Besides, my iMac doesn't get used terribly often.
This came up in my team meeting Monday morning, peripherally. At the end, my manager asked if anyone had any issues, and one of my co-workers mentioned that his super-user account didn't work. This transitioned to other super-users being set up in production, and then naming conventions. All "S" accounts are "sample" accounts (S-STPETERS); all "I" accounts are "internal" (I-BJONES). Someone asked how they'd picked "i", and the Indiana Jones joke came up.
This is the kind of thing that happens at work when you work with geeks. >.<
As a final note, I'll leave you with my favorite quote from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Indiana Jones: It's disgraceful, you're old enough to be her... her grandfather.
Professor Henry Jones: Well, I'm as human as the next man.
Indiana Jones: Dad, I *was* the next man.
It's a widely varying and rather personal choice, with the added complexity administrative intervention. Servers here used to be named after astronomical objects; planets, moons, comets, stars, etcetera. As the number of servers increased, the names broadened to mythological figures (Greek and Roman gods, etcetera). And then a manager handed down "All servers will be named based on environment, OS, and function!" so now servers have boring names like "WSPROD01" and "FAQUAL04". Bah humbug. I guess it's easier when you're up to a couple hundred servers, but it's still immensely boring.
I've seen servers at places named after super-heroes ("Go grab those files off of Green Lanturn and copy them to Superman, will you?"); I've seen them named after countries and cities ("Uh oh, London's down and Rwanda's throwing exceptions because it can't reach its database!"); I've seen them named after presidents ("Make sure to expose Washington's port 80 outside the firewall, and close off FTP on Jefferson."); I've seen them named after wild animals ("We're going to re-configure Grizzly Bear, Fruit Bat, and White Tiger as a cluster."). It's always fun to see what they pick, given free reign.
The last time I had to name computers (or re-name, really), I had 7 machines I was naming. I obviously named them after the seven deadly sins. The only one of those 7 which is currently still alive is Sloth, my laptop; the rest have all been retired and gotten rid of. It's sad, really... I miss them. I do still have a second machine (my iMac!) but it doesn't have a name; it's just whatever the default is, which I honestly don't know for MacOS. I've only ever set up an iMac twice in my life, and one of the two times were long enough ago that I don't remember it clearly. Besides, my iMac doesn't get used terribly often.
This came up in my team meeting Monday morning, peripherally. At the end, my manager asked if anyone had any issues, and one of my co-workers mentioned that his super-user account didn't work. This transitioned to other super-users being set up in production, and then naming conventions. All "S" accounts are "sample" accounts (S-STPETERS); all "I" accounts are "internal" (I-BJONES). Someone asked how they'd picked "i", and the Indiana Jones joke came up.
This is the kind of thing that happens at work when you work with geeks. >.<
As a final note, I'll leave you with my favorite quote from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Indiana Jones: It's disgraceful, you're old enough to be her... her grandfather.
Professor Henry Jones: Well, I'm as human as the next man.
Indiana Jones: Dad, I *was* the next man.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Oh, the things we could do...
One of my oldest friends (an ex-girlfriend, funnily enough) contacted me over the weekend, Saturday. Said she wanted to send me a song. So she mailed me a demo file she'd made, and I listened to it, and damn did it amaze me. It was a really bright point in an otherwise difficult weekend. So thank you, Steph.
Oh, the things we could do with our hearts partially open...
Anyway. If you haven't (and I've mentioned her enough times in the past, but not recently, so it's obviously time for another plug...), check her out:
http://www.stephaniedelk.com/
She's good. Really good. Go listen, dammit. Hell, at least four of you following my buzz are from Texas (I think?), so you'd even be able to go listen to her perform. :) And yes, I know there's quite a hike between Houston and Austin, but it's a lot shorter drive than Albany to Austin.
Funnily enough, she's one of the very few ex-girlfriends I have that I still speak to, however bad both of us are at keeping in touch. Most of them - especially more recently - I don't talk to. Does that mean I've become a bad person in my old age? Or at least an ass hole? Probably. I was a very different person before under-grad. Then again, Steph and I broke up mostly because she was in Texas and I was in New York; most of my break-ups have been for simple incompatibility or severe disagreement. I'm sure that weighs into it.
Anyway. Post on the other blog later today.
Oh, the things we could do with our hearts partially open...
Anyway. If you haven't (and I've mentioned her enough times in the past, but not recently, so it's obviously time for another plug...), check her out:
http://www.stephaniedelk.com/
She's good. Really good. Go listen, dammit. Hell, at least four of you following my buzz are from Texas (I think?), so you'd even be able to go listen to her perform. :) And yes, I know there's quite a hike between Houston and Austin, but it's a lot shorter drive than Albany to Austin.
Funnily enough, she's one of the very few ex-girlfriends I have that I still speak to, however bad both of us are at keeping in touch. Most of them - especially more recently - I don't talk to. Does that mean I've become a bad person in my old age? Or at least an ass hole? Probably. I was a very different person before under-grad. Then again, Steph and I broke up mostly because she was in Texas and I was in New York; most of my break-ups have been for simple incompatibility or severe disagreement. I'm sure that weighs into it.
Anyway. Post on the other blog later today.
A test... A test...
Okay. So I've had repeated problems, recently, with line breaks not translating properly when posting things on Blogger.
Copying-and-pasting seems to include no line breaks at all, while composition seems to convert a new line into a div break, which at least some browsers remove as white-space to a new-line with no spacing.
So I dug around, and found the formatting option for replacing line breaks with break tags.
I'm testing it. Don't mind me.
Almost, yet not quite...
I tried to write up a post for today, but it ended up not quite working out. And what I mean by that is that, I had things I wanted to write about, but I got so distracted by an argument with someone that I lost my ability to concentrate on it.
Ah, well. At least I can do it tomorrow instead, or something.
Ah, well. At least I can do it tomorrow instead, or something.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Possibly my favorite all-time comment from Slashdot:
Millennium. Two Ns. From Latin "mille", thousand, and "annus", year. A thousand years.
If you write it with only one N, it would be derived from mille and anus, which would be "a thousand assholes".
Thursday, July 1, 2010
CPIP?
This must be one of the strangest things I've ever seen...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers
http://www.blug.linux.no/rfc1149/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers
http://www.blug.linux.no/rfc1149/
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Ow!
http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/60598/title/When_intuition_and_math_probably_look_wrong
Makes my head hurt. Took me two reads to really understand it.
Makes my head hurt. Took me two reads to really understand it.
D&D 4E: A quick intro to my character and some basic mechanics.
Okay, lets see. My thoughts on D&D 4E. I guess, to make kindof a vague summary, I'll agree with something I heard someone else (I can't remember who) say once; it's oddly almost like Wizards took World of Warcraft and merged it with 3.5 to create 4E.
To start, you still have the normal array of six attributes; except instead of rolling, they really seem to prefer purchasing in a point-based system. They even give a bunch of examples of different attribute arrays you could pick. You still pick a race (though the "basic" races included in the PHB include half-dragons), and still pick a class (though the PHB selection is reduced to not include Bards, barbarians, druids, sorcerers, paladins, or several others...). You still have feats, you still have skills, you still buy equipment - but then there's an awfully large number of things different.
Weapon proficiencies; you no longer get penalties for not being proficient with a weapon, but rather get a bonus for being proficient. For example, daggers have a proficiency bonus of +3; so someone who's proficient in them gets a +3 bonus to their attack rolls with them.
Bonuses in general have an interesting twist; instead of having a to-hit progression, you get a flat bonus of 1/2 your level (rounded down) on almost all checks. This includes, amongst other things, to-hit rolls and skill rolls, though not saving throws.
Mentioning saving throws, now instead of "save vs. fortitude" or "save vs. reflexes", you have four defenses: AC, Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower. So if a mage hits me with an AoE spell, I don't save vs. reflex; he attacks vs. my reflex. A fine point, perhaps, but a relevant one. Saving throws now are generally very simple - 1-10 you fail, 11-20 you succeed, and success means whatever effect you're saving against fades. Bonuses from race, class, feats, and powers apply, of course; but there's not a target, as a rule. Just a 50/50 check.
Hit points are no longer random at all; they're purely based on level, class, and Constitution. Well, possibly also based on feats and race and such, but still constant given your character setup.
Healing is done... Oddly. They introduced something called Healing Surges, which is a combination of your ability to recover and your endurance. A healing surge is essentially defined as the ability to heal 25% of your hit points, which is pretty constant; but the number of healing surges you get varies wildly - though again it's constant based on other things. For example, my Halfling Rogue Garrett (with an, admittedly, fairly crappy Con of 11) has 58 max HP, and 6 surges/day for 14 HP per shot. Dak the Githzerai Battlemind, however, has 14 or 16 surges/day (I can't remember which) for something like 26 HP per. Healing is based off of this. So, for example, all characters get "Second Wind" as an encounter power (see below) that lets them use one healing surge for its face value. A healing potion uses a healing surge, but the Minor healing Potions I have are a flat 10 HP, not the full surge value. Priest healing spells will tend to heal someone by using one of their surges and then giving them their surge value + some bonus. Healing Surges can also be used instead of damage for things like failure; while travelling overland, when we managed to seriously flub our Endurance check while pushing ourselves, most of us (not including the Rogue, because of a bit of good luck) got penalized one healing surge.
Skills, now, are not done through skill points; rather, you're trained or un-trained. So rogues are automatically trained in... I want to say Stealth and Thievery? And every class has a list of trainable skills (which can be modified, of course, by feats, race, and background). So I start trained in Stealth and Thievery, but also pick 4 more off my list. And you can take a feat called "Skill Training" to pick up another trained skill; so my Rogue is currently unusually skilled, with training in Acrobatics, Athletics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight, Perception, Stealth, Streetwise and Thievery. The bonus, however, as a rule is stat bonus + 1/2 level + 5 if trained + other miscellaneous bonuses. So, my Endurance check is +4 (+0 for con, +0 for miscellaneous, +0 for being untrained, and +4 for being level 8). My Acrobatics, on the other hand, is +18 (+6 for Dexterity 22, +5 for being trained, +4 for being level 8, +2 for being a Halfling, and +1 for having Heroic Gloves of Agility).
The full list of skills is Acrobatics, Arcana, Athletics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Dungeoneering, Endurance, Heal, History, Insight, Intimidate, Nature, perception, Religion, Stealth, Streetwise, and Thievery. This is greatly reduced from previous editions; most importantly, things like Perform, Profession, and individual Knowledge skills are either combined (Arcana, Dungeoneering, History, Streetwise for knowledge skills) or just gone (now, *anyone* can be a rock musician on the weekend!) and assumed to be an RP tool.
Okay, classes and races and various inherent abilities. Everyone gets them, and they change for different classes. In addition, though, every class choice includes a "path". From the base PHB, as a rogue I can choose to be a Thug or an Artful Dodger; while a ranger can pick to be two-weapon or archer.
For example, as a Rogue, I get First Strike (gain combat advantage against anything which hasn't acted yet in the encounter); Rogue Weapon talent (thrown shurikens count as 1 damage die larger, and I'm +1 to hit with daggers); and Sneak Attack (once per round, I can add my sneak attack damage bonus to one opponent I have combat advantage against). As a Halfling, I get Bold (+5 to saving throws against fear), and Nimble Reactions (+2 bonus against attacks of opportunity). Then for my path, I chose Artful Dodger, which lets me add my Charisma mod to AC against attacks of opportunity.
But I mentioned above "Second Wind" being an "encounter power", and this is really getting into the meat of it. Powers are the heart and soul of the 4E system, and understanding them will really let you decide if you like the system or not. They're categorized in various ways. For example, any given power's source can be Racial, Class, Default, Magic Item, or something else; its type can be At-Will, Encounter, Daily, or Immediate. Every class has a set of base powers and abilities; every race does; and then you gain more off of a fairly large list as you advance. An At-Will power can be used any time it's allowed (if it's a standard action, for example, it's more limited and complicated than a minor action or a move-equivalent). An Encounter power can be used once until you perform a short rest (2-5 minutes just to catch your breath, which incidentally also lets you use one healing surge if you want). A Daily Power can be used once before a long rest (generally 8 hours of little/no activity - camping, pretty much). The thing is, Powers dominate all the classes. Most people use powers instead of basic attacks except in extreme circumstances; spellcasters use Powers to represent their spells as well as their built-in abilities. It all revolves around these.
Okay, lets give you some examples - my level 1 base powers. First, being a PC, I get Second Wind, which I describe above. Next, as a Halfling, I get Second Chance: this is an encounter power that, when an attack hits, I can force the attacker to re-roll. The second roll stands whether it's better or worse. Then, as a first-level Rogue, I get two at-wills, an encounter, and a daily. The ones I ended up with are Deft Strike (At Will, dex attack vs. AC, melee or ranged, special: you can move 2 squares before the attack, hit: 1W + dex bonus damage); Sly Flourish (At Will, dex attack vs. AC, melee or ranged, hit: 1W + dex bonus + cha bonus damage); Positioning Strike (Encounter, dex attack vs. Willpower, Melee only, hit: 1W + dex damage, plus - since I'm an Artful Dodger - I get to move them a number of squares equal to my cha bonus); and Confounding Attack (daily, dex attack vs. AC, melee or ranged, hit: 2W + dex damage + they are forced to make an attack against an adjacent ally and - if I have combat advantage against either them or their ally - I can add my sneak attack damage to their attack). At 2nd level, he picked up Fleeting Ghost (Utility, at-will: I can move my full movement and make a stealth check without taking the normal penalty). At 3rd, I got Bait and Switch (Encounter, dex attack vs. Willpower, melee only, hit: 2W + dex damage, and can then switch place with the target and then move a number of squares equal to my cha mod). 5th was Walking Wounded (Daily, dex attack vs. Fortitude, melee or ranged, miss: half damage and no secondary effect, hit: 2W + dex damage, and the target is knocked prone. If they use more than half their movement in an action until the end of the encounter, they fall prone after moving). 6th was Quick Fingers (Encounter Power, I can use any Thievery skill effect as a Minor action even if it would normally be a Standard action - most importantly, including Sleight-of-Hand and Pick Pockets). At 7th was Sand in the Eyes (Encounter, dex attack vs. Reflex, melee only, hit: 1W + dex damage and the target is blinded until the end of my next turn). And then, I get an encounter power to let me re-roll damage, off of my magical lucky dagger. And I get powers off the potions I'm carrying ("consumable" ones, as opposed to at-will or encounter). And I get a daily power to resist 5 damage off my Cloak of Resistance. And I could get powers off of Feats, if I hadn't spent them all on skill training. :)
That was all a lot to take in, but it gives you an idea of how my Rogue works. I have a bunch of "Power Cards", each with one of these powers on it. I can print them out, cut them up, and carry them like a "hand" or "deck". Or, the character sheet has a list with check-boxes for when they're used. Then, when I use one, I can put down the card, and simply pick up the appropriate ones after combat or after resting; or when I use them, I can check them off on my list and erase the checks when they refresh.
And yeah, everything centers around powers.
Anyway. For those of you who actually made it through this, hope you have a better idea how it all works now. :)
To start, you still have the normal array of six attributes; except instead of rolling, they really seem to prefer purchasing in a point-based system. They even give a bunch of examples of different attribute arrays you could pick. You still pick a race (though the "basic" races included in the PHB include half-dragons), and still pick a class (though the PHB selection is reduced to not include Bards, barbarians, druids, sorcerers, paladins, or several others...). You still have feats, you still have skills, you still buy equipment - but then there's an awfully large number of things different.
Weapon proficiencies; you no longer get penalties for not being proficient with a weapon, but rather get a bonus for being proficient. For example, daggers have a proficiency bonus of +3; so someone who's proficient in them gets a +3 bonus to their attack rolls with them.
Bonuses in general have an interesting twist; instead of having a to-hit progression, you get a flat bonus of 1/2 your level (rounded down) on almost all checks. This includes, amongst other things, to-hit rolls and skill rolls, though not saving throws.
Mentioning saving throws, now instead of "save vs. fortitude" or "save vs. reflexes", you have four defenses: AC, Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower. So if a mage hits me with an AoE spell, I don't save vs. reflex; he attacks vs. my reflex. A fine point, perhaps, but a relevant one. Saving throws now are generally very simple - 1-10 you fail, 11-20 you succeed, and success means whatever effect you're saving against fades. Bonuses from race, class, feats, and powers apply, of course; but there's not a target, as a rule. Just a 50/50 check.
Hit points are no longer random at all; they're purely based on level, class, and Constitution. Well, possibly also based on feats and race and such, but still constant given your character setup.
Healing is done... Oddly. They introduced something called Healing Surges, which is a combination of your ability to recover and your endurance. A healing surge is essentially defined as the ability to heal 25% of your hit points, which is pretty constant; but the number of healing surges you get varies wildly - though again it's constant based on other things. For example, my Halfling Rogue Garrett (with an, admittedly, fairly crappy Con of 11) has 58 max HP, and 6 surges/day for 14 HP per shot. Dak the Githzerai Battlemind, however, has 14 or 16 surges/day (I can't remember which) for something like 26 HP per. Healing is based off of this. So, for example, all characters get "Second Wind" as an encounter power (see below) that lets them use one healing surge for its face value. A healing potion uses a healing surge, but the Minor healing Potions I have are a flat 10 HP, not the full surge value. Priest healing spells will tend to heal someone by using one of their surges and then giving them their surge value + some bonus. Healing Surges can also be used instead of damage for things like failure; while travelling overland, when we managed to seriously flub our Endurance check while pushing ourselves, most of us (not including the Rogue, because of a bit of good luck) got penalized one healing surge.
Skills, now, are not done through skill points; rather, you're trained or un-trained. So rogues are automatically trained in... I want to say Stealth and Thievery? And every class has a list of trainable skills (which can be modified, of course, by feats, race, and background). So I start trained in Stealth and Thievery, but also pick 4 more off my list. And you can take a feat called "Skill Training" to pick up another trained skill; so my Rogue is currently unusually skilled, with training in Acrobatics, Athletics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight, Perception, Stealth, Streetwise and Thievery. The bonus, however, as a rule is stat bonus + 1/2 level + 5 if trained + other miscellaneous bonuses. So, my Endurance check is +4 (+0 for con, +0 for miscellaneous, +0 for being untrained, and +4 for being level 8). My Acrobatics, on the other hand, is +18 (+6 for Dexterity 22, +5 for being trained, +4 for being level 8, +2 for being a Halfling, and +1 for having Heroic Gloves of Agility).
The full list of skills is Acrobatics, Arcana, Athletics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Dungeoneering, Endurance, Heal, History, Insight, Intimidate, Nature, perception, Religion, Stealth, Streetwise, and Thievery. This is greatly reduced from previous editions; most importantly, things like Perform, Profession, and individual Knowledge skills are either combined (Arcana, Dungeoneering, History, Streetwise for knowledge skills) or just gone (now, *anyone* can be a rock musician on the weekend!) and assumed to be an RP tool.
Okay, classes and races and various inherent abilities. Everyone gets them, and they change for different classes. In addition, though, every class choice includes a "path". From the base PHB, as a rogue I can choose to be a Thug or an Artful Dodger; while a ranger can pick to be two-weapon or archer.
For example, as a Rogue, I get First Strike (gain combat advantage against anything which hasn't acted yet in the encounter); Rogue Weapon talent (thrown shurikens count as 1 damage die larger, and I'm +1 to hit with daggers); and Sneak Attack (once per round, I can add my sneak attack damage bonus to one opponent I have combat advantage against). As a Halfling, I get Bold (+5 to saving throws against fear), and Nimble Reactions (+2 bonus against attacks of opportunity). Then for my path, I chose Artful Dodger, which lets me add my Charisma mod to AC against attacks of opportunity.
But I mentioned above "Second Wind" being an "encounter power", and this is really getting into the meat of it. Powers are the heart and soul of the 4E system, and understanding them will really let you decide if you like the system or not. They're categorized in various ways. For example, any given power's source can be Racial, Class, Default, Magic Item, or something else; its type can be At-Will, Encounter, Daily, or Immediate. Every class has a set of base powers and abilities; every race does; and then you gain more off of a fairly large list as you advance. An At-Will power can be used any time it's allowed (if it's a standard action, for example, it's more limited and complicated than a minor action or a move-equivalent). An Encounter power can be used once until you perform a short rest (2-5 minutes just to catch your breath, which incidentally also lets you use one healing surge if you want). A Daily Power can be used once before a long rest (generally 8 hours of little/no activity - camping, pretty much). The thing is, Powers dominate all the classes. Most people use powers instead of basic attacks except in extreme circumstances; spellcasters use Powers to represent their spells as well as their built-in abilities. It all revolves around these.
Okay, lets give you some examples - my level 1 base powers. First, being a PC, I get Second Wind, which I describe above. Next, as a Halfling, I get Second Chance: this is an encounter power that, when an attack hits, I can force the attacker to re-roll. The second roll stands whether it's better or worse. Then, as a first-level Rogue, I get two at-wills, an encounter, and a daily. The ones I ended up with are Deft Strike (At Will, dex attack vs. AC, melee or ranged, special: you can move 2 squares before the attack, hit: 1W + dex bonus damage); Sly Flourish (At Will, dex attack vs. AC, melee or ranged, hit: 1W + dex bonus + cha bonus damage); Positioning Strike (Encounter, dex attack vs. Willpower, Melee only, hit: 1W + dex damage, plus - since I'm an Artful Dodger - I get to move them a number of squares equal to my cha bonus); and Confounding Attack (daily, dex attack vs. AC, melee or ranged, hit: 2W + dex damage + they are forced to make an attack against an adjacent ally and - if I have combat advantage against either them or their ally - I can add my sneak attack damage to their attack). At 2nd level, he picked up Fleeting Ghost (Utility, at-will: I can move my full movement and make a stealth check without taking the normal penalty). At 3rd, I got Bait and Switch (Encounter, dex attack vs. Willpower, melee only, hit: 2W + dex damage, and can then switch place with the target and then move a number of squares equal to my cha mod). 5th was Walking Wounded (Daily, dex attack vs. Fortitude, melee or ranged, miss: half damage and no secondary effect, hit: 2W + dex damage, and the target is knocked prone. If they use more than half their movement in an action until the end of the encounter, they fall prone after moving). 6th was Quick Fingers (Encounter Power, I can use any Thievery skill effect as a Minor action even if it would normally be a Standard action - most importantly, including Sleight-of-Hand and Pick Pockets). At 7th was Sand in the Eyes (Encounter, dex attack vs. Reflex, melee only, hit: 1W + dex damage and the target is blinded until the end of my next turn). And then, I get an encounter power to let me re-roll damage, off of my magical lucky dagger. And I get powers off the potions I'm carrying ("consumable" ones, as opposed to at-will or encounter). And I get a daily power to resist 5 damage off my Cloak of Resistance. And I could get powers off of Feats, if I hadn't spent them all on skill training. :)
That was all a lot to take in, but it gives you an idea of how my Rogue works. I have a bunch of "Power Cards", each with one of these powers on it. I can print them out, cut them up, and carry them like a "hand" or "deck". Or, the character sheet has a list with check-boxes for when they're used. Then, when I use one, I can put down the card, and simply pick up the appropriate ones after combat or after resting; or when I use them, I can check them off on my list and erase the checks when they refresh.
And yeah, everything centers around powers.
Anyway. For those of you who actually made it through this, hope you have a better idea how it all works now. :)
Electoral Cuteness
My personal problem with the electoral college system, at least on a theoretical level:
Lets have a hypothetical country with 50 states, where instead of a direct election of executives for the federal government, there's an electoral college in a kindof indirect or representative democracy. In each state, the popular vote decides what electorates are selected, but the full electorate from that state goes to the candidate. Each state has... Oh, lets say 10 electors average. Whatever. 500's a nice round number.
And yes, I realize that some states are that way while some are not required to do so. Let me just illustrate my point.
Okay. In states 1 through 49 (Aland, Bland, Cland, Dland, all the way through WWland), candidate A (the Awesome one? The Asshat? Whatever...) wins with 50.5% of the popular vote, while candidate B (the Better one? The Bastard?) loses with 49.5%. In state 50 (XXland, I suppose? Look, it's just the way the counting fell, I swear!), candidate B wins with 99.5% of the popular vote.
At this point, candidate A has 49.5% of the overall popular vote, candidate B having 50.5%, and candidate B won the popular opinion; but candidate A has 490 electors, and candidate B has only 10... So the less popular candidate, with a minority of the population (however slight a minority), has won the election in a landslide.
I don't like that. I don't know what a better answer is... But I feel like there should be one. :(
And anyway. Poor Alaska, with only 3 electors! They're the biggest state in the country, with Texas a far second around 1/3 its area! So what if it's the 4th-lowest population, beating out only Vermont, North Dakota, and Wyoming? Think of all the moose! Don't they get a vote?!?
How did this come up? ...I honestly don't remember. I was listening to a video game podcast this morning, and it came to mind. No clue why. Ah, well.
Lets have a hypothetical country with 50 states, where instead of a direct election of executives for the federal government, there's an electoral college in a kindof indirect or representative democracy. In each state, the popular vote decides what electorates are selected, but the full electorate from that state goes to the candidate. Each state has... Oh, lets say 10 electors average. Whatever. 500's a nice round number.
And yes, I realize that some states are that way while some are not required to do so. Let me just illustrate my point.
Okay. In states 1 through 49 (Aland, Bland, Cland, Dland, all the way through WWland), candidate A (the Awesome one? The Asshat? Whatever...) wins with 50.5% of the popular vote, while candidate B (the Better one? The Bastard?) loses with 49.5%. In state 50 (XXland, I suppose? Look, it's just the way the counting fell, I swear!), candidate B wins with 99.5% of the popular vote.
At this point, candidate A has 49.5% of the overall popular vote, candidate B having 50.5%, and candidate B won the popular opinion; but candidate A has 490 electors, and candidate B has only 10... So the less popular candidate, with a minority of the population (however slight a minority), has won the election in a landslide.
I don't like that. I don't know what a better answer is... But I feel like there should be one. :(
And anyway. Poor Alaska, with only 3 electors! They're the biggest state in the country, with Texas a far second around 1/3 its area! So what if it's the 4th-lowest population, beating out only Vermont, North Dakota, and Wyoming? Think of all the moose! Don't they get a vote?!?
How did this come up? ...I honestly don't remember. I was listening to a video game podcast this morning, and it came to mind. No clue why. Ah, well.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Today on Slashdot, emotionally charged story sparks firestorm...
So on Slashdot today, I found this article:
http://cbs13.com/local/marine.widow.verizon.2.1772409.html
The whole thing depresses me greatly. And at the risk of getting people mad at me, I have to admit I feel more sympathy (on the issue of the fee) for Verizon than I do for the widow involved. A number of people - including the media - seem to be crucifying them for this... But I really don't understand why.
Don't get me wrong. I think it's an incredible tragedy that her husband died. I'm glad she's going to be with people who care for her. What I don't completely understand is why this relieves her from contractual obligations. I don't think it's about the money; frankly, in that situation, I don't think I'd be completely lucid if it were me. But after some digging, as far as I can tell, she received a $100,000 death benefit from the armed services, in addition to any life insurance policy; and her husband was not on this contract - only she was. They weren't attempting to charge the fee because her husband died and thus couldn't use his phone; it was because, after he died, she decided to move, and the location wanted to move to did not have full coverage.
I just don't get the mindset where the company is crucified over this. I never have, and I suspect I never will. Big evil corporation, blah blah, but it's not like they maliciously went out of their way to cause trouble. In fact, they did eventually waive the fee - but I'll bet you if it actually went in front of a judge, they'd have won. Oh, they'd have gotten even more bad press, but it wasn't their obligation. So why are they wrong in the first place? Because it's "cruel and heartless to impose this kind of trouble on a grieving widow"? But that is - by the definition of them - exactly the purpose of the armed forces death benefits and life insurance payments; to handle fees like this, costs which are directly and indirectly caused by the poor woman's bereavement and otherwise wouldn't have occured. Why isn't the media pointing out that unless they opted out of the general serviceman's life insurance (at a premium of something like $0.065 per $1,000 coverage, based on what I could find online from the Navy), she received between $150,000 and $500,000? And if there was private coverage, even more?
Where exactly should the line be drawn? And this isn't meant as a snarky, nasty comment, however much some of you may take it that way anyway. It's a serious question. Where exactly are the bounds for this type of thing? Does it only apply to active duty military servicemen abroad? Coast Guard on duty in the US? What about firemen, policemen? How about embedded media in Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan - after all, however much individuals may disagree with what they perceive as unfair slant from a given news agency, they're risking their lives to bring important information and perspective back to us here. How about the victims of terrorist attacks? Thousands of deaths on 9/11. How about victims of general peace-keeping? I know third-hand (a friend's friend) someone who was killed during a high speed chase; idiot robbed a store and took off, side-swiped a police car who hit her where she'd pulled over... Slammed her into a pole and killed her.
And what should be covered? What should be under this blanket forgiveness? If someone dies, they're obviously not going to be driving their car any more. If it's still under loan, should the loan be forgiven? If it's under lease, should the early-termination clause be forgiven? What if it's the survivor who leased a mini-van, anticipatory to having kids; and now they need something more economic and smaller. Should that be forgiven?
And who? Only spouses? What about fiances? Maybe they already bought a house together. Parents? Maybe they were counting on the kid's income to help support them after retirement. Children? Maybe the kids just started college, and already have $100,000 in college loans the parent was going to pay; or maybe they didn't qualify for good loans, and the parent was just planning on paying it outright before whatever tragedy happened. Should those be forgiven?
When did this type of thing become an entitlement, a right, and not just a kind gesture?
The answer, by the way, to almost all of the above examples, falls into three categories (frequently a combination of them): insurance, administrative benefits, and charity. For 9/11, there were millions and millions of dollars given to affected families - probably billions, when all the insurance policies came into effect. Life insurance payed a huge amount, to every covered victim. The city, state, and federal governments raised and allocated funds for assistance. And numerous organizations - from the Fraternal Order of Police, to the Red Cross, to organizations that sprouted up specifically for the purpose - collected and disbursed millions more.
Look at the letter from the President of the NYSFOP here, relative to the relief fund they set up: http://www.nysfop.org/wtc-relief-fund.htm. Look at the top two bullet points. To assist both injured officers and the families of fallen officers with direct financial assistance; and to assist with education for officers' families. This, this is exactly how - in my opinion - it should be handled. The people who feel responsibility or sympathy for their situation can band together and help defray the costs they have - their unexpected inability to proceed with their lives, through no fault of their own. And that is what happened.
When I die, however nobly or ignobly, I don't expect the world around me to take care of my expenses. I'm not a hero. I'm not fighting to make the world safer by stopping terrorism on the front lines; I'm fighting to make capital area NY health insurance a little bit better, one line of code and one database row at a time. No survivor of mine is going to receive a death benefit beyond what I'm paying for paycheck-to-paycheck. I have life insurance, to cover my child support, to cover my funeral. It's not as much as I'd like - poor general health and poor financials make it difficult, or at least expensive - but it should be enough. And it just irks me that someone else assumes other people should take care of it for them... And then crucifies the company that is in the right, by their contract, when that company doesn't. And for such a paltry amount, too. To me, it's not right for them to complain; it's a mockery of the soldier, that his death should be used as a bludgeon for something like this.
Anyway. I hope I didn't offend anyone with this. Just my $0.02.
http://cbs13.com/local/marine.widow.verizon.2.1772409.html
The whole thing depresses me greatly. And at the risk of getting people mad at me, I have to admit I feel more sympathy (on the issue of the fee) for Verizon than I do for the widow involved. A number of people - including the media - seem to be crucifying them for this... But I really don't understand why.
Don't get me wrong. I think it's an incredible tragedy that her husband died. I'm glad she's going to be with people who care for her. What I don't completely understand is why this relieves her from contractual obligations. I don't think it's about the money; frankly, in that situation, I don't think I'd be completely lucid if it were me. But after some digging, as far as I can tell, she received a $100,000 death benefit from the armed services, in addition to any life insurance policy; and her husband was not on this contract - only she was. They weren't attempting to charge the fee because her husband died and thus couldn't use his phone; it was because, after he died, she decided to move, and the location wanted to move to did not have full coverage.
I just don't get the mindset where the company is crucified over this. I never have, and I suspect I never will. Big evil corporation, blah blah, but it's not like they maliciously went out of their way to cause trouble. In fact, they did eventually waive the fee - but I'll bet you if it actually went in front of a judge, they'd have won. Oh, they'd have gotten even more bad press, but it wasn't their obligation. So why are they wrong in the first place? Because it's "cruel and heartless to impose this kind of trouble on a grieving widow"? But that is - by the definition of them - exactly the purpose of the armed forces death benefits and life insurance payments; to handle fees like this, costs which are directly and indirectly caused by the poor woman's bereavement and otherwise wouldn't have occured. Why isn't the media pointing out that unless they opted out of the general serviceman's life insurance (at a premium of something like $0.065 per $1,000 coverage, based on what I could find online from the Navy), she received between $150,000 and $500,000? And if there was private coverage, even more?
Where exactly should the line be drawn? And this isn't meant as a snarky, nasty comment, however much some of you may take it that way anyway. It's a serious question. Where exactly are the bounds for this type of thing? Does it only apply to active duty military servicemen abroad? Coast Guard on duty in the US? What about firemen, policemen? How about embedded media in Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan - after all, however much individuals may disagree with what they perceive as unfair slant from a given news agency, they're risking their lives to bring important information and perspective back to us here. How about the victims of terrorist attacks? Thousands of deaths on 9/11. How about victims of general peace-keeping? I know third-hand (a friend's friend) someone who was killed during a high speed chase; idiot robbed a store and took off, side-swiped a police car who hit her where she'd pulled over... Slammed her into a pole and killed her.
And what should be covered? What should be under this blanket forgiveness? If someone dies, they're obviously not going to be driving their car any more. If it's still under loan, should the loan be forgiven? If it's under lease, should the early-termination clause be forgiven? What if it's the survivor who leased a mini-van, anticipatory to having kids; and now they need something more economic and smaller. Should that be forgiven?
And who? Only spouses? What about fiances? Maybe they already bought a house together. Parents? Maybe they were counting on the kid's income to help support them after retirement. Children? Maybe the kids just started college, and already have $100,000 in college loans the parent was going to pay; or maybe they didn't qualify for good loans, and the parent was just planning on paying it outright before whatever tragedy happened. Should those be forgiven?
When did this type of thing become an entitlement, a right, and not just a kind gesture?
The answer, by the way, to almost all of the above examples, falls into three categories (frequently a combination of them): insurance, administrative benefits, and charity. For 9/11, there were millions and millions of dollars given to affected families - probably billions, when all the insurance policies came into effect. Life insurance payed a huge amount, to every covered victim. The city, state, and federal governments raised and allocated funds for assistance. And numerous organizations - from the Fraternal Order of Police, to the Red Cross, to organizations that sprouted up specifically for the purpose - collected and disbursed millions more.
Look at the letter from the President of the NYSFOP here, relative to the relief fund they set up: http://www.nysfop.org/wtc-relief-fund.htm. Look at the top two bullet points. To assist both injured officers and the families of fallen officers with direct financial assistance; and to assist with education for officers' families. This, this is exactly how - in my opinion - it should be handled. The people who feel responsibility or sympathy for their situation can band together and help defray the costs they have - their unexpected inability to proceed with their lives, through no fault of their own. And that is what happened.
When I die, however nobly or ignobly, I don't expect the world around me to take care of my expenses. I'm not a hero. I'm not fighting to make the world safer by stopping terrorism on the front lines; I'm fighting to make capital area NY health insurance a little bit better, one line of code and one database row at a time. No survivor of mine is going to receive a death benefit beyond what I'm paying for paycheck-to-paycheck. I have life insurance, to cover my child support, to cover my funeral. It's not as much as I'd like - poor general health and poor financials make it difficult, or at least expensive - but it should be enough. And it just irks me that someone else assumes other people should take care of it for them... And then crucifies the company that is in the right, by their contract, when that company doesn't. And for such a paltry amount, too. To me, it's not right for them to complain; it's a mockery of the soldier, that his death should be used as a bludgeon for something like this.
Anyway. I hope I didn't offend anyone with this. Just my $0.02.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Canada's Fake Lake
They're getting a lot of flak over this one:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9lvVdaEPd6bT5EY3WAN5YC-vrNgD9G7LVC80
I think my favorite quote about this is from a Canadian comedian Martha Oneal, who said "What are they making it with, diamonds and homeless peoples' tears? $2 million can buy a lot of Boy Scouts to walk them across the road to the real lake.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9lvVdaEPd6bT5EY3WAN5YC-vrNgD9G7LVC80
I think my favorite quote about this is from a Canadian comedian Martha Oneal, who said "What are they making it with, diamonds and homeless peoples' tears? $2 million can buy a lot of Boy Scouts to walk them across the road to the real lake.
Monday, June 7, 2010
The Post Hunt, it is done!
So okay, the Post Hunt was awesome. I enjoyed myself *so* much. The rain was annoying, and it was humid and I must have lost gallons of water via sweat... But I was grinning the whole day, dammit. :)
Check out the Washington Post's coverage here.
Oh, and when you go there... Click "Full Coverage"; click "The Credentials"; and when you get to 0:34 on the clock, pause it. The big scary one on the left is ME! The red shirt on the right is my sister; the dark hair with the dark blue Nationals shirt is my brother-in-law; the hat and the light-colored shirt/skirt on the right is Janet; the light shirt with the grey hair behind me, the blue shirt with the red hat next to Matt, and the green shirt with the visor between those two are Colin, David, and Kevin, Sarah and Matt's friends.
I can't recommend it enough. It was *so* much fun. :) Y'all should come do it next year!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Post hunt ho!
So I'm down in DC now, visiting my sister and brother-in-law for the Washington Post 3rd Annual Scavenger Hunt. It's the DC version of the Tropic Hunt, which Dave Barry started with a couple of his co-workers back in... 1984, I think? Now that both the others work at the Washington Post, they run it separately in both places. It's... Pretty zany. As in, I think they're all crazy people.
Check it out - go to http://www.vwtech.com/tropichunt/ to look at the archives for both the Tropic and Post hunts. Funny stuff.
Tomorrow, it's looking like touristy crap. In the morning, it's looking like the Native American Museum out on the mall - where they also happen to be having a guitar festival - http://www.dciberoamericanguitarfestival.org/2010/. In the afternoon, it's looking like the Portrait Gallery before dinner... And then dinner at http://www.zaytinya.com/. So Sunday's looking like the most exciting, but Saturday isn't slacking behind very far.
I'm very, very excited.
Check it out - go to http://www.vwtech.com/tropichunt/ to look at the archives for both the Tropic and Post hunts. Funny stuff.
Tomorrow, it's looking like touristy crap. In the morning, it's looking like the Native American Museum out on the mall - where they also happen to be having a guitar festival - http://www.dciberoamericanguitarfestival.org/2010/. In the afternoon, it's looking like the Portrait Gallery before dinner... And then dinner at http://www.zaytinya.com/. So Sunday's looking like the most exciting, but Saturday isn't slacking behind very far.
I'm very, very excited.
Holy crap, what happened?!?!?
What happened is that I took all my previous blog entries, and pushed them over to my older, "closed", private blog - and then opened this one up to be public. Why? Because I'm experimenting. Because I can? Because... Oh, hell, I just did.
If you had access to this and don't have access to http://madminer.blogspot.com/, please let me know. I'll fix it. Or, for that matter, if you want access to my closed blog anddidn't have access to this one, let me know anyway. Odds are I'll give you access.
If you had access to this and don't have access to http://madminer.blogspot.com/, please let me know. I'll fix it. Or, for that matter, if you want access to my closed blog anddidn't have access to this one, let me know anyway. Odds are I'll give you access.
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