beyond_the_blue's Journal: Life, or Something Like It

Once more I've managed to squeak past some rather difficult events with nary a scratch on me. This instance hinges on the fact that Rhiannon's 21st birthday took place the day before yesterday. As usual, I slacked off and put everything off until the last second. I ended up planning out the secret party last Friday, and inviting everyone on Sunday afternoon. I am a slacker of titanic proportions.

I'm also the luckiest fucker alive.

Starting at the beginning: Before the surprise party, she opened her gifts. She absolutely loved both the ring and the Ansel Adams photograph that I got for her, despite my rather 'creative' wrapping job. I will post pics as soon as I am able to. In addition to that, Jim got her a book that identifies all of the reptiles and amphibians in the continent. The gift that I was, admittedly, a bit surprised by was the copy of Shadowbane that Jason got her. I didn't think that she was going to enjoy it that much...but she played it for 4 hours after she got it installed, and played at least 6 hours yesterday. I'm pretty jazzed about that, seeing as I will now no longer have to worry about Rhiannon getting bored when I want to do something de solo. She asked me if I minded her playing it. I told her that I not only didn't mind, but that I was probably the happiest geek alive. I'm not in Shadowbane myself, but that matters little. We can now share gaming stories.

I managed to get about 10 people showing up for the party, which was held at FatBoys Sports Bar, where we then proceeded to drink ourselves goofy. Not only did Rhiannon get to drink some pretty wonky drinks, she had a great time and didn't even get sick (of course, 5 shots isn't exactly barf-fodder.) After that we shot some pool, and called it a night.

Rhiannon was pretty far gone by the end of the night, so, as one might imagine, she got herself a good supply of birthday-sex too.

Anyways, moving on...

Everyone in our apartment got sick last weekend. At first I was kinda scared that it might have been SARS (we had just recieved a few packages from overseas,) but it turned out to just be some kind of stupid cold. Rhiannon and Jason got over it pretty quickly, but I've been stuck with laryngitis for the past 3 days. I missed work on Monday, partially because of Rhi's party, but also because I wasn't able to talk correctly. Now, with 1 day already absent from my pyacheck, I've no other choice but to come to work and just work around my condition. Needless to say, it bites.

The bank has been doing some weird shit with the account that I share with Rhiannon. Checks have been clearing late causing havoc with our book-keeping, the ATMs have been fucked up thanks to the mainframe computers being replaced in the bank, and our account has been reporting various nonsensical levels of balance over the past few days. I've been scared out of my mind; with visions of overdraft fees dancing through my head. As it is, I managed to get it mostly cleared up with the bank today. All that remains is to check with the bank tomorrow on a few straggling withdrawls that seem a bit suspect to me. Rhiannon's checks should clear soon, and both she and I will have another check to deposit this Friday. I may have to tighten my belt and dump all of my cash into bills, though. Rhiannon swears that we've got the money to take care of the DSL / Electricity / Gas bills with a bit to spare, but I'm not entirely sure. Just to be safe I'm going to go over the account again tomorrow, and calulate out our expendiatures and bills to see if we're going to need help or not.

And if any of you doubted that I'm still at Stream, I just had a customer read the word "initializing" as "iznitializilizing." You just CAN'T make shit like that up.

I got started on Maya 5 last night (demo version, of course) and I've got to say that I'm impressed with what it has to offer. All last night while Jason and Rhi played SB, I meddled around in Maya. It was quite a bit of fun, and now that I've started to get a grasp on how some of the tools are suposed to work, I think that I just might kick gaming altogether and get back in my graphics groove.

Jason has started getting back into coding a little bit, though he's still playing SB quite a bit. He wants to charge ahead and start making an MMORPG. I wasn't so thrilled with the idea before, but now that I see how much fun Priston Tale is, I have a greater appreciation for the MMOG genre. We've got some pretty damn cool ideas for it. I really shouldn't say too much about it, but there's going to be at least 3 playable character races which will all constantly be at odds with each other based upon a set of PvP rules and goals. We've got it balanced out to the point where we think that PvP won't get out of control, yet will still be a big part of the game. There will also be more to the game than just the leveling treadmill, if players choose to take part in that.

Before we can do much of anything with the game, though, we're going to have to experiment a little more with the CrystalSpace graphics libraries. Jason is researching more about C++, and I'm continuing my tirade of graphics, eventually to be working on character models and landscape. I think that I can probably get up to the level that I need to be without to much trouble. Only time will tell, but my hopes are as high as a hobo with a can of turpentine.

I still do game, though. I've sometimes just gotta do something to free up my frustrations, and sinking balttle-cruisers does the job.

Battlefield: Desert Combat is WAAAAYY more fun with a flight stick. I dug my old flightstick out of the closet yesterday and hooked it up...dayyaammmnn. The throttle controls actually work the way that they're supposed to (sometimes a little TOO well) and I can now strafe and bomb targets with the greatest of ease.

I'm still in Priston Tale, despite my frustration with leveling a few days ago. I figured out that I was jumping WAAYY too far ahead in my attempt to level faster. You can gain exp pretty quick if you're with a bunch of guys your own level and taking on the hardest beasts that you can find, but you canalso level up quite well fighting creatures all on your own if you pick the location well. I'll probably keep playing until I either hit lvl 70 (the cap) or they start charging for it.

I went to circle again this past weekend. I was really nervous going there, not unlike a second date, but once I was there I felt great. Some pretty cool stuff happened that night as well. What kind of stuff? Well, just stuff-like stuff. Stuff and things, ya know? (if Rhiannon ever reads this; no, it was not an orgy. calm down =)

And last, and most cetaily not least, is my progress with the webmaster of LeftOfTheMiddle.com, Butters. He likes my idea, and has given me the go-ahead to whip something up for LeftOfTheMiddle.com. I'll probably start work on it next year, if my currect record is any indication of my work ethic.