Sat - August 23, 2003
Blog Has a New Location
LiveJournal now the choice
My increasing frustration with iBlog has prompted me
to switch blog schemes.
From here on out, please visit the Mystical Forest here.
It's significantly easier for me to update the blog on LiveJournal and I can do it from wherever I happen to be, as opposed to being tied down to this specific computer.
Anyhoo—see you at the new place!
From here on out, please visit the Mystical Forest here.
It's significantly easier for me to update the blog on LiveJournal and I can do it from wherever I happen to be, as opposed to being tied down to this specific computer.
Anyhoo—see you at the new place!
Posted at 12:05 PM Me Read More Email Comments
Mon - August 18, 2003
No pictures?
I don't know why
You will note that there are many pictures missing
from my recap of GwenCon (see below).
I don't know what's causing it. Other users of the software have reported similar behavior. Later on tomorrow night I will attempt to diagnose and repair the problem.
Until then, enjoy the text, I guess.
I don't know what's causing it. Other users of the software have reported similar behavior. Later on tomorrow night I will attempt to diagnose and repair the problem.
Until then, enjoy the text, I guess.
Posted at 10:40 PM Technical issues Read More Email Comments
Sun - August 17, 2003
GwenCon 3.5
The games, the recap, the
pictures!
So, why no posts lately in this blog? Because I was at
GwenCon 3.5, iz why! It's a micro-convention held by some friends of ours, Gwen and Andy, at
their house. Every year they invite 30 or so friends and we get together and
play games Friday to Sunday. Great
fun!
I'm going to post the recap here in the blog instead of as a separate page. If this causes you grief, email me 'bout it so I won't do something like this again.
Right, on to the recap:
Friday
The first game I played was Descent into the Depths of Springfield, run by Andy. It was a roleplaying game played with nothing but Simpsons toys. We all played characters and had to go to various locations within Springfield and retrieve objects for other characters in the Simpsons universe.
This photo shows the climax of the night, a big battle with Fat Tony! I played Duff Man, who you can see is on the street, along with Fink, Max Scorpio, and Snake after Max Scorpio's flame thrower was accidentally exploded on purpose. Note Willie has gone into greased Scottish Bezerker Rage to fight Fat Tony, and the Sea Captain is still up, the only among us tough enough to take the blast. I think Jimbo came from around the corner after the blast. You can also barely see my character sheet at the bottom of the photo. I got a stein of beer (from Stonecutter Homer), a mug of beer (from Dancing Homer), and Reverend Lovejoy's own bible.
The photo was taken on a glass table, so that's how Duff Man can be on a flat surface and have a cup underneath him at the same time.
That was on Friday.
On Saturday, the day began with me oversleeping and missing the start of my next event, Orient Expedition: The Scorpion Palace run by James Wyatt. Fortunately, there was a good stopping point and I was allowed in.
This was a brilliant game. James took Oriental LEGO sets and took the characters associated with them, wrote up stats, and made a game based on the flash comics from the LEGO site. He even made custom character sheets based on the illustrations. Beauty!
I played Miss Pippin Reed, a reporter for World Magazine. Also with us was Johnny Thunder, Dr. Kilroy, and Babloo.
Our goal was to recover the lost treasure of Marco Polo!
Of course I took lots of pics!
Here, the gang is assaulted by two crocs. Note the shrine in the upper right. The croc nearly savaged me to death and nearly swallowed Johnny Thunder whole, but we made it out. I tried to pin open one of the croc's jaws with a shovel, but it ate the shovel instead.
Here, a magic upright tiger attacked us in a jungle temple! That's Johnny Thunder and Babloo on top, Dr. Kilroy climbing the ladder, and me, Miss Pippin Reed rushing up to help. Note my pith helmet and Babloo's turban.
Later, we mounted up on an elephant! Note the monkey on top. That's Babloo's monkey, Pampa. He was a very good monkey who helped us grab jewels and use dynamite.
Ah, the grand palace! That's our elephant marching toward it, ready to sweep puny mortals from the Earth. Inside was Babloo's arch nemesis, the Maharaja, a greedy and ruthless Indian tyrant who had to go! He was also sitting on top of Marco Polo's shield, which we needed.
The first thing Babloo had the elephant do was try to bring the palace down with his mighty trunk—by grabbing one of the main support pillars! It almost worked! Instead, the elephant had to be content with crushing the life out of the palace guards while the rest of us shot at the Maharaja with our guns.
Then, suddenly, Johnny Thunder's arch nemesis peeked from around the corner! It was Lord Sam Sinister! He had a hook for a hand—and a gun in the other!
In this pic, Johnny Thunder and the Maharaja are going at it. There's me just below them, running up to help. I had Miss Pippen Reed shoot left handed, but I'm not sure what happened to her gun in this picture. Still had the pith helmet on though.
Eventually, we were victorious! The Maharaja was killed, Maro Polo's shield was recovered—but Sam Sinister got away, the varlot! He had smoke pellets concealed in his top hat and threw them down, allowing him just enough time to get away in the confusion. So ended part one of the adventure.
Later that night, I played a German board game called Alahandra. It was quite fun! I went from last, to first, to second-to-last in place during the three scoring rounds. Good game!
Also later that night, I played a Random Dungeon event. I took pictures but then realized that we were playing with prototypes of the new Wizards miniatures, so I thought I shouldn't post them here. By the by, I like the new miniatures. Everyone's seen the picture of the umber hulk. What's neat is that you can fit miniatures between its mandibles! I did that when one of our number was grappled by the umber hulk. The miniature representing the player was a large-sized metal miniature and the umber hulk remained upright very easily. Good stuff.
The last thing for the night was a game of Who's the Werewolf. It's quickly becoming a favorite game of mine. I was all excited when I found out I was going to be a seer, but I didn't look at my card all the way. All I saw was that it was a face card (a seer) but didn't see that it was a black face card, indicating that I was one of the werewolves. D'oh! I realized later that I would have been confused anyway, because I thought all face cards were seers.
One day, some day, I'll be something other than a townsfolk. . . .
Anyway, we played three or four games, about 20 people per game. They went surprisingly quick—and the villagers won each game! Amazing! Really remarkable.
Sunday began with me getting up on time for Part Two: Orient Expedition: Temple of Everest. It was me, Johnny Thunder, and a new guy, sherpa Sangye Dorje. Our goal: recover the sword of Marco Polo (to go with the shield, you see). Dr. Kilroy came along for the ride.
We started out in this hot air balloon. That's me by the winch for the anchor. We weren't in the air for but a few minutes when Sam Sinister overflew us then strafed us in a biplane! The varlot! No one was injured though but Sinister crashed his plane! Johnny Thunder dropped a stick of dynamite down to the wreck to finish Sinister off.
During this game, the Mithral Chef competition took place.
That's Gwen, the Official, biting the pepper. The judges were Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes, Jessica, Stan!, and Warren Wyman. Charles Ryan and Mike Selinker did the narration and reporting.
Meanwhile, we found this tiny shrine in the middle of the Himalayan wastes. I noticed that it seemed to have a hinge and could be easily opened. . . .
Augh! Undead! That's me right in the zombie/mummy/skeleton's face! Note my winter hat and show shoes.
After that terrible encounter, we made it to an Everest shrine that was indicated on our secret treasure map. That's me in the rear with a giant red jewel I got from the last adventure to the Scorpion Palace.
Augh! Yeti attack! That's Johnny Thunder rushing over to bring the pain on the snow monster. It turned out that the Yeti was such a significant foe that it nearly killed every one of us! I was clawed to within an inch of my life and poor Sangye was almost pulled apart! But, I snapped some choice photos for World Magazine and we won the day—and secured the treasure the yeti was guarding.
Finally, after all that, we arrived at our destination: The Everest Temple.
That rope bridge looked pretty shaky. . . .
No time for that—sniper! An evil hunter pinned us down behind a snow drift with his high-powered rifle. I only got shot once—but that was enough! This picture shows all of us lying prone, hoping to keep the hunter from shooting us dead. Eventually, we were able to get up to him and deal him a little Himalayan frontier justice.
The big battle!
Who should show up but Sam Sinister! How did he survive that terrible crash and dynamite? He wasn't making with the answers—he was making with the running away with the Sword of Marco Polo!
This picture shows the climax of the battle. Johnny Thunder was on the second level and swung down, lighting a stick of dynamite in a torch as he swung, then he kicked Sam Sinister in the chest and let go of the stick of dynamite at the same time all in one fluid motion (fluid enough for an Australian bloke, anyway). It was a bold thing to do but it didn't quite work out as well as everyone hoped. However, Sinister, seeing that he was out numbered, ran away. We all shot and chased after him—and dropped him! He fell bleeding into the snow on the edge of a fantastic mountainous slope. Then started to roll downhill . . . rolling into a giant snowball as he tumbled out of sight.
Surely he couldn't have survived that!
Upon inspection of the sword, Dr. Kilroy discovered that it had an inscription that led to yet another treasure!
But that is another story (and another event next year).
So brilliant was James' idea that I'm going to steal it. When the house is built and my own LEGO stuff unpacked, expect some high adventure!
There were lots of other things going on. I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Big Trouble in Little China and bits and pieces of many other fine films, ate way too much food, talked a lot, met new people, tried out some other board games, and more.
Julia played board games, visited, worked on the con jigsaw puzzle, watched movies, and had a good time as well.
Quite fun, as always! Can't wait for next year.
I'm going to post the recap here in the blog instead of as a separate page. If this causes you grief, email me 'bout it so I won't do something like this again.
Right, on to the recap:
Friday
The first game I played was Descent into the Depths of Springfield, run by Andy. It was a roleplaying game played with nothing but Simpsons toys. We all played characters and had to go to various locations within Springfield and retrieve objects for other characters in the Simpsons universe.
This photo shows the climax of the night, a big battle with Fat Tony! I played Duff Man, who you can see is on the street, along with Fink, Max Scorpio, and Snake after Max Scorpio's flame thrower was accidentally exploded on purpose. Note Willie has gone into greased Scottish Bezerker Rage to fight Fat Tony, and the Sea Captain is still up, the only among us tough enough to take the blast. I think Jimbo came from around the corner after the blast. You can also barely see my character sheet at the bottom of the photo. I got a stein of beer (from Stonecutter Homer), a mug of beer (from Dancing Homer), and Reverend Lovejoy's own bible.
The photo was taken on a glass table, so that's how Duff Man can be on a flat surface and have a cup underneath him at the same time.
That was on Friday.
On Saturday, the day began with me oversleeping and missing the start of my next event, Orient Expedition: The Scorpion Palace run by James Wyatt. Fortunately, there was a good stopping point and I was allowed in.
This was a brilliant game. James took Oriental LEGO sets and took the characters associated with them, wrote up stats, and made a game based on the flash comics from the LEGO site. He even made custom character sheets based on the illustrations. Beauty!
I played Miss Pippin Reed, a reporter for World Magazine. Also with us was Johnny Thunder, Dr. Kilroy, and Babloo.
Our goal was to recover the lost treasure of Marco Polo!
Of course I took lots of pics!
Here, the gang is assaulted by two crocs. Note the shrine in the upper right. The croc nearly savaged me to death and nearly swallowed Johnny Thunder whole, but we made it out. I tried to pin open one of the croc's jaws with a shovel, but it ate the shovel instead.
Here, a magic upright tiger attacked us in a jungle temple! That's Johnny Thunder and Babloo on top, Dr. Kilroy climbing the ladder, and me, Miss Pippin Reed rushing up to help. Note my pith helmet and Babloo's turban.
Later, we mounted up on an elephant! Note the monkey on top. That's Babloo's monkey, Pampa. He was a very good monkey who helped us grab jewels and use dynamite.
Ah, the grand palace! That's our elephant marching toward it, ready to sweep puny mortals from the Earth. Inside was Babloo's arch nemesis, the Maharaja, a greedy and ruthless Indian tyrant who had to go! He was also sitting on top of Marco Polo's shield, which we needed.
The first thing Babloo had the elephant do was try to bring the palace down with his mighty trunk—by grabbing one of the main support pillars! It almost worked! Instead, the elephant had to be content with crushing the life out of the palace guards while the rest of us shot at the Maharaja with our guns.
Then, suddenly, Johnny Thunder's arch nemesis peeked from around the corner! It was Lord Sam Sinister! He had a hook for a hand—and a gun in the other!
In this pic, Johnny Thunder and the Maharaja are going at it. There's me just below them, running up to help. I had Miss Pippen Reed shoot left handed, but I'm not sure what happened to her gun in this picture. Still had the pith helmet on though.
Eventually, we were victorious! The Maharaja was killed, Maro Polo's shield was recovered—but Sam Sinister got away, the varlot! He had smoke pellets concealed in his top hat and threw them down, allowing him just enough time to get away in the confusion. So ended part one of the adventure.
Later that night, I played a German board game called Alahandra. It was quite fun! I went from last, to first, to second-to-last in place during the three scoring rounds. Good game!
Also later that night, I played a Random Dungeon event. I took pictures but then realized that we were playing with prototypes of the new Wizards miniatures, so I thought I shouldn't post them here. By the by, I like the new miniatures. Everyone's seen the picture of the umber hulk. What's neat is that you can fit miniatures between its mandibles! I did that when one of our number was grappled by the umber hulk. The miniature representing the player was a large-sized metal miniature and the umber hulk remained upright very easily. Good stuff.
The last thing for the night was a game of Who's the Werewolf. It's quickly becoming a favorite game of mine. I was all excited when I found out I was going to be a seer, but I didn't look at my card all the way. All I saw was that it was a face card (a seer) but didn't see that it was a black face card, indicating that I was one of the werewolves. D'oh! I realized later that I would have been confused anyway, because I thought all face cards were seers.
One day, some day, I'll be something other than a townsfolk. . . .
Anyway, we played three or four games, about 20 people per game. They went surprisingly quick—and the villagers won each game! Amazing! Really remarkable.
Sunday began with me getting up on time for Part Two: Orient Expedition: Temple of Everest. It was me, Johnny Thunder, and a new guy, sherpa Sangye Dorje. Our goal: recover the sword of Marco Polo (to go with the shield, you see). Dr. Kilroy came along for the ride.
We started out in this hot air balloon. That's me by the winch for the anchor. We weren't in the air for but a few minutes when Sam Sinister overflew us then strafed us in a biplane! The varlot! No one was injured though but Sinister crashed his plane! Johnny Thunder dropped a stick of dynamite down to the wreck to finish Sinister off.
During this game, the Mithral Chef competition took place.
That's Gwen, the Official, biting the pepper. The judges were Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes, Jessica, Stan!, and Warren Wyman. Charles Ryan and Mike Selinker did the narration and reporting.
Meanwhile, we found this tiny shrine in the middle of the Himalayan wastes. I noticed that it seemed to have a hinge and could be easily opened. . . .
Augh! Undead! That's me right in the zombie/mummy/skeleton's face! Note my winter hat and show shoes.
After that terrible encounter, we made it to an Everest shrine that was indicated on our secret treasure map. That's me in the rear with a giant red jewel I got from the last adventure to the Scorpion Palace.
Augh! Yeti attack! That's Johnny Thunder rushing over to bring the pain on the snow monster. It turned out that the Yeti was such a significant foe that it nearly killed every one of us! I was clawed to within an inch of my life and poor Sangye was almost pulled apart! But, I snapped some choice photos for World Magazine and we won the day—and secured the treasure the yeti was guarding.
Finally, after all that, we arrived at our destination: The Everest Temple.
That rope bridge looked pretty shaky. . . .
No time for that—sniper! An evil hunter pinned us down behind a snow drift with his high-powered rifle. I only got shot once—but that was enough! This picture shows all of us lying prone, hoping to keep the hunter from shooting us dead. Eventually, we were able to get up to him and deal him a little Himalayan frontier justice.
The big battle!
Who should show up but Sam Sinister! How did he survive that terrible crash and dynamite? He wasn't making with the answers—he was making with the running away with the Sword of Marco Polo!
This picture shows the climax of the battle. Johnny Thunder was on the second level and swung down, lighting a stick of dynamite in a torch as he swung, then he kicked Sam Sinister in the chest and let go of the stick of dynamite at the same time all in one fluid motion (fluid enough for an Australian bloke, anyway). It was a bold thing to do but it didn't quite work out as well as everyone hoped. However, Sinister, seeing that he was out numbered, ran away. We all shot and chased after him—and dropped him! He fell bleeding into the snow on the edge of a fantastic mountainous slope. Then started to roll downhill . . . rolling into a giant snowball as he tumbled out of sight.
Surely he couldn't have survived that!
Upon inspection of the sword, Dr. Kilroy discovered that it had an inscription that led to yet another treasure!
But that is another story (and another event next year).
So brilliant was James' idea that I'm going to steal it. When the house is built and my own LEGO stuff unpacked, expect some high adventure!
There were lots of other things going on. I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Big Trouble in Little China and bits and pieces of many other fine films, ate way too much food, talked a lot, met new people, tried out some other board games, and more.
Julia played board games, visited, worked on the con jigsaw puzzle, watched movies, and had a good time as well.
Quite fun, as always! Can't wait for next year.
Posted at 10:52 PM Me Read More Email Comments
Thu - August 14, 2003
Industrialized Nation?
3,000 dead? From what?
So, I was reading this article that says 3,000 French people have
died from a heat wave striking that
country.
But that's not the worst. Check out this excerpt:
At Hopital Avicenne near Paris, a nurse complained that she was not able to care properly for the sick because the hospital has no air conditioning and no ice.
What? How can you have no air conditiong in a hospital? How is that even theoretically possible in an industrialized nation? What. The. Hell.
French officials blame the high death toll in part on the length of the heat wave and the fact that Parisian buildings typically lack air conditioning.
Why? Why do Parisian buildings typically lack air conditioning? It's not a mystery technology. Is France poor? Do they not have money in France? Is there no French word for "air conditioning?" Is it taboo? Do they have a discomfort fetish?
Here's another thing: This lends yet more credence to my theory that with Sci-Fi films and books, one should never assume that just because a technology exists that it's actually used.
Air conditioning is not Sci-Fi technology. Yet, France isn't using it and, literally, thousands of people are dying as a result. It's really happening right now in real life. People are dying from not having something as simple as Air Conditioning. I can't believe it.
And that's a "first world" country.
Or so they would have us believe. . . .
But that's not the worst. Check out this excerpt:
At Hopital Avicenne near Paris, a nurse complained that she was not able to care properly for the sick because the hospital has no air conditioning and no ice.
What? How can you have no air conditiong in a hospital? How is that even theoretically possible in an industrialized nation? What. The. Hell.
French officials blame the high death toll in part on the length of the heat wave and the fact that Parisian buildings typically lack air conditioning.
Why? Why do Parisian buildings typically lack air conditioning? It's not a mystery technology. Is France poor? Do they not have money in France? Is there no French word for "air conditioning?" Is it taboo? Do they have a discomfort fetish?
Here's another thing: This lends yet more credence to my theory that with Sci-Fi films and books, one should never assume that just because a technology exists that it's actually used.
Air conditioning is not Sci-Fi technology. Yet, France isn't using it and, literally, thousands of people are dying as a result. It's really happening right now in real life. People are dying from not having something as simple as Air Conditioning. I can't believe it.
And that's a "first world" country.
Or so they would have us believe. . . .
Posted at 11:07 PM Me Read More Email Comments
Wed - August 13, 2003
More thoughts
From the Person on the Street
These folks have a thing or two to say about the
gay bishop business.
Posted at 10:44 AM Me Read More Email Comments
Overseas people have all the fun
Left! Right! Fire!
Ah, the Japanese are schooling us on how to do things.
Posted at 10:41 AM Me Read More Email Comments
Go, Sarat!
The [expletive] did you just say?
Blindingly stupid
My dad just sent me
this:
A tobacco company which is being sued by a Scots widow following the death of her husband will claim in a landmark case at the Court of Session that smoking does not cause lung cancer.
Full article: http://www.news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=884532003
Wow.
A tobacco company which is being sued by a Scots widow following the death of her husband will claim in a landmark case at the Court of Session that smoking does not cause lung cancer.
Full article: http://www.news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=884532003
Wow.
Posted at 10:19 AM Me Read More Email Comments
Delayed
I am not blogging from work
Instead, I'm blogging from home (which is the only
place I can blog, due to technical limitations of the blog
software).
The start day for my temp job at Wizards has been delayed until Monday because of little things like, lack of a place to sit, no computer, and the question as to who my boss will be. Stuff like that.
However, my Thursday night players should note that the room will still be available since Julia has to stay late anyway. So, good news there.
The start day for my temp job at Wizards has been delayed until Monday because of little things like, lack of a place to sit, no computer, and the question as to who my boss will be. Stuff like that.
However, my Thursday night players should note that the room will still be available since Julia has to stay late anyway. So, good news there.
Posted at 10:15 AM Me Read More Email Comments
Tue - August 12, 2003
A La Turca
Before I forget...
Julia and I went to A La Turca
Cafe, a nearby restaurant the other day. It was great!
Although they feature a dancer every Friday and Saturday, we popped in for lunch. The food is very Turkish and the people are quite nice. There are Turkey travel brochures in German and English scattered about.
It's a small place, clearly a family establishment, but the food was fantastic and we're sure to go there again.
The aforementioned dancer. You can find more about her and the restaurant via their restaurant's website.
Although they feature a dancer every Friday and Saturday, we popped in for lunch. The food is very Turkish and the people are quite nice. There are Turkey travel brochures in German and English scattered about.
It's a small place, clearly a family establishment, but the food was fantastic and we're sure to go there again.
The aforementioned dancer. You can find more about her and the restaurant via their restaurant's website.
Posted at 02:33 PM Me Read More Email Comments
From the Daily Show
The BDI
"In June, the jobless rate hit a 9-year high of 6.4%.
While it dipped down to 6.2% in July, analysts ascribe that to the fact that
many unemployed workers have simply given up on finding jobs, a phenomenon
measured by the so-called Broken Dream Index, which is calculated by dividing
the number of Ramen noodle packets purchased by total ounces of blood plasma
sold."
Posted at 10:11 AM Me Read More Email Comments
08/12/03
"Whispy Bow"
Julia took this photo from inside my car, as we were headed south on Highway 167. You can barely make out a rainbow effect going on amongst the clouds. It was quite pretty!
Posted at 08:53 AM Pictures of the Day Read More Email Comments
Mon - August 11, 2003
Why I Don't Hang Myself
Even after reading this....
So, in case you haven't heard, I'm a no-money bum
without employment. As embarrassing as it is to say, I've been that way since
September of last year. My most recent job was at the Microsoft Games Studio, as
a technical writer, where I wrote manuals for Xbox and PC games like Asheron's
Call, Zoo Tycoon, Combat Flight Simulator 3, Fuzion Frenzy, and more. I have a
ton of gaming experience as well as non-gaming technical writing, plus I do web
stuff, technical illustration, and a bunch of other things. I'm quite the
multi-talent if you sit down and look at it all
carefully.
Meaningless.
When Julia and I first moved here in '96, people like me could pluck jobs off the trees. A friend of mine who's into database administration talked about how he and people in his profession would count their time between jobs in hours. They could quit on a whim and find something else before dinner. Contractors used to come to me. They asked me what my rate was, they didn't say how much the employers were willing to pay. Times were good. Great, actually.
Those days are gone.
Now, there's the current situation in the northwest, where if you have a job, any job, you're lucky.
Just glance at this article.
I've been reading articles here and there about the bleak outlook in this area and have been meaning to post them here because they're actually a source of inspiration. See, what keeps me from hanging myself is that I'm not alone. There are thousands upon thousands of other people just like me, quality hard-working people who were laid off through no fault of their own and haven't been able to get the same kind of work because of the bad economy—complicated by the special horrible nature of things in this area in particular. I could be doing everything right and still not catch a break.
Of course, the downside is that there is much much more competition for every single job that exists, reducing everyone's chance at finding a job.
That's just the way it is, really.
Unemployment here is almost 8%. That's a lot. Also, this does not count the people who stop looking for jobs. Month after month, there are more people who've given up hope altogether and have dropped out of the system.
The other day, someone sent me the name of a contractor who might be able to get me a job. It seemed that I would be a good person for the job, what with my experience and qualifications and all. That was almost a week ago and I haven't heard anything from that person. Nothing at all. Typical. What's likely the case is that she has 10,000 other resumes and a stable of regular contractors that she's worked with regularly that she's trying very hard to find a job for. She doesn't need someone she's never heard of before, regardless of qualifications or who referred me to her.
I used to get quite discouraged at all the rejection emails I'd get every week. Now I'm happy to get anything that lets me know I'm not alone in the universe.
Day after tomorrow, I start a part time job at Wizards. Yes, the job is a backslide when it comes to what I normally do, both in terms of duties and pay (crazy as it sounds, the money I get from this job is low enough that I can still draw unemployment benefits). I'll be a temp—and not even a permatemp, the job is that tenuous.
But, I'm actually quite happy to have it, knowing what other people are doing—not doing to be more accurate. Not only do I get to work at a game company, at least in some capacity, but I can carpool with Julia.
I would say that I get to work with all my friends, but all but two or three have been laid off, just like me.
The best part though is that it will allow me to write.
See, one time I made $125 from writing while I was on unemployment. I dutifully reported the income and thought, as the rules state, that that amount would be deducted from my next unemployment check.
Instead, they threatened to cut me off from the benefits altogether and have me pay back everything I'd gotten up until that point.
See, by doing freelance writing, I was suddenly self employed, not needing any benefits. I had a chance to appeal and so I did. After it all, on the other end of the phone, I heard these words which I'll never forget:
"Do not do it again."
And I haven't. I've kept myself from writing for pay ever since.
But, this job opens that door for me. I can write because I'm not self employed, I'm working at a part time job whose pay is low enough to keep the benefits coming. The writing will fall under a special category.
I will exist again.
And really, that makes almost any job worth its weight in gold.
Meaningless.
When Julia and I first moved here in '96, people like me could pluck jobs off the trees. A friend of mine who's into database administration talked about how he and people in his profession would count their time between jobs in hours. They could quit on a whim and find something else before dinner. Contractors used to come to me. They asked me what my rate was, they didn't say how much the employers were willing to pay. Times were good. Great, actually.
Those days are gone.
Now, there's the current situation in the northwest, where if you have a job, any job, you're lucky.
Just glance at this article.
I've been reading articles here and there about the bleak outlook in this area and have been meaning to post them here because they're actually a source of inspiration. See, what keeps me from hanging myself is that I'm not alone. There are thousands upon thousands of other people just like me, quality hard-working people who were laid off through no fault of their own and haven't been able to get the same kind of work because of the bad economy—complicated by the special horrible nature of things in this area in particular. I could be doing everything right and still not catch a break.
Of course, the downside is that there is much much more competition for every single job that exists, reducing everyone's chance at finding a job.
That's just the way it is, really.
Unemployment here is almost 8%. That's a lot. Also, this does not count the people who stop looking for jobs. Month after month, there are more people who've given up hope altogether and have dropped out of the system.
The other day, someone sent me the name of a contractor who might be able to get me a job. It seemed that I would be a good person for the job, what with my experience and qualifications and all. That was almost a week ago and I haven't heard anything from that person. Nothing at all. Typical. What's likely the case is that she has 10,000 other resumes and a stable of regular contractors that she's worked with regularly that she's trying very hard to find a job for. She doesn't need someone she's never heard of before, regardless of qualifications or who referred me to her.
I used to get quite discouraged at all the rejection emails I'd get every week. Now I'm happy to get anything that lets me know I'm not alone in the universe.
Day after tomorrow, I start a part time job at Wizards. Yes, the job is a backslide when it comes to what I normally do, both in terms of duties and pay (crazy as it sounds, the money I get from this job is low enough that I can still draw unemployment benefits). I'll be a temp—and not even a permatemp, the job is that tenuous.
But, I'm actually quite happy to have it, knowing what other people are doing—not doing to be more accurate. Not only do I get to work at a game company, at least in some capacity, but I can carpool with Julia.
I would say that I get to work with all my friends, but all but two or three have been laid off, just like me.
The best part though is that it will allow me to write.
See, one time I made $125 from writing while I was on unemployment. I dutifully reported the income and thought, as the rules state, that that amount would be deducted from my next unemployment check.
Instead, they threatened to cut me off from the benefits altogether and have me pay back everything I'd gotten up until that point.
See, by doing freelance writing, I was suddenly self employed, not needing any benefits. I had a chance to appeal and so I did. After it all, on the other end of the phone, I heard these words which I'll never forget:
"Do not do it again."
And I haven't. I've kept myself from writing for pay ever since.
But, this job opens that door for me. I can write because I'm not self employed, I'm working at a part time job whose pay is low enough to keep the benefits coming. The writing will fall under a special category.
I will exist again.
And really, that makes almost any job worth its weight in gold.
Posted at 12:13 PM Me Read More Email Comments
Sun - August 10, 2003
Good news. Bad news.
So frustrating I could cry
Good news: I
pretty much spent the entire day today playing my brand new copy of Neverwinter
Nights.
Bad news: At some point, something became corrupted in the game, virtually completely wasting every minute I spent today playing. See, I save my game into a new file all the time—but whatever happened happened early, so I have 22 corrupted save games.
I feel so sad. I'll have to go through all that all over again just to get back to where I was.
I hate wasting time like that.
My hope is that there are not hidden bugs that're causing this to happen to other people.
Bad news: At some point, something became corrupted in the game, virtually completely wasting every minute I spent today playing. See, I save my game into a new file all the time—but whatever happened happened early, so I have 22 corrupted save games.
I feel so sad. I'll have to go through all that all over again just to get back to where I was.
I hate wasting time like that.
My hope is that there are not hidden bugs that're causing this to happen to other people.
Posted at 11:32 PM Me Read More Email Comments
Sat - August 9, 2003
Hospital ER Visit Today
Julia the subject
Julia visited the hospital this morning.
I took her in because of some severe abdominal pain she's been having over the past few days and at 4:45 this morning we left for the hospital because of its severity. After some X-rays and some meds, we're both back home with instructions to return later tonight if her condition doesn't improve.
As of this writing, she's better than she was at 4 a.m.
We went to Valley Medical Center and let me tell you: Avoid that place. The people were nice, service was prompt, and the bedside computer was quite neat—the facility sucked.
• The sign pointing where to drive for the emergency station pointed the wrong way. I can't imagine the panic this would instill if I or my passenger was bleeding. Jesus, what a thought. I'm glad I know where it is now, I tell you what.
• Parking for emergency has a 30 minute limit. Sensible, that. I re-parked in the main parking lot—and there were no signs directing me back to emergency. Nor was there anyone in the unlabeled "main lobby" which, I swear to you, looked nothing like a "main lobby" from the door. I got lost inside then wandered around in the rain looking for an open door and/or someone to ask until I somehow ended up on the other side of the complex—where I found a wall-mounted map that led me to a sign that led me to an area where I hoped to find a sign to emergency. Madness.
• Once you're inside, the buildings are not laid out in any sensible manner so actually you're probably better off walking around in the rain outside. My mistake was coming in out of the rain.
• It's a chore to get to an elevator no matter where you start.
• When you're lost in a vast complex of connected buildings that make no sense, really the last thing you want to see when you're looking for the emergency room is, I kid you not, a "Detour" sign in an interior corridor intended for people walking.
• In the end, I found out that all I had to do after I tried my first door after parking was to merely go downstairs. And down a long corridor. And do a couple lefts. But, really, I was right there. Practically. Sort of.
Simply crazy making.
By the time I got back to Julia's bed in the ER after parking, her new cybernetics had already healed over.
After I got back though, it was a pleasant time of Julia sleeping and enjoying her pain medication and my playing Advance Wars on my Game Boy Advance SP while I sat beside her. I was sure having a better time of it than the person next to us, who was apparently bleeding out from near her breast (gone through a bunch of bandages, they said) from a fortnight old surgery and had to have something removed right then, necessitating the need for the doctor to drive in to the hospital from home. Bad news all around in Bed 1 except that the patient was in high spirits.
On the way back, we went to a drive through pharmacy then got bad food for us at McDonald's.
At home, I let Ororo out of the closet because she'd gotten shut in accidentally.
Right now, Julia is asleep and Ororo is on my lap, freshly brushed and calm and G4 is on in the background. I'm not sure whether to stick it out and stay awake or take a nap.
What a day.
I took her in because of some severe abdominal pain she's been having over the past few days and at 4:45 this morning we left for the hospital because of its severity. After some X-rays and some meds, we're both back home with instructions to return later tonight if her condition doesn't improve.
As of this writing, she's better than she was at 4 a.m.
We went to Valley Medical Center and let me tell you: Avoid that place. The people were nice, service was prompt, and the bedside computer was quite neat—the facility sucked.
• The sign pointing where to drive for the emergency station pointed the wrong way. I can't imagine the panic this would instill if I or my passenger was bleeding. Jesus, what a thought. I'm glad I know where it is now, I tell you what.
• Parking for emergency has a 30 minute limit. Sensible, that. I re-parked in the main parking lot—and there were no signs directing me back to emergency. Nor was there anyone in the unlabeled "main lobby" which, I swear to you, looked nothing like a "main lobby" from the door. I got lost inside then wandered around in the rain looking for an open door and/or someone to ask until I somehow ended up on the other side of the complex—where I found a wall-mounted map that led me to a sign that led me to an area where I hoped to find a sign to emergency. Madness.
• Once you're inside, the buildings are not laid out in any sensible manner so actually you're probably better off walking around in the rain outside. My mistake was coming in out of the rain.
• It's a chore to get to an elevator no matter where you start.
• When you're lost in a vast complex of connected buildings that make no sense, really the last thing you want to see when you're looking for the emergency room is, I kid you not, a "Detour" sign in an interior corridor intended for people walking.
• In the end, I found out that all I had to do after I tried my first door after parking was to merely go downstairs. And down a long corridor. And do a couple lefts. But, really, I was right there. Practically. Sort of.
Simply crazy making.
By the time I got back to Julia's bed in the ER after parking, her new cybernetics had already healed over.
After I got back though, it was a pleasant time of Julia sleeping and enjoying her pain medication and my playing Advance Wars on my Game Boy Advance SP while I sat beside her. I was sure having a better time of it than the person next to us, who was apparently bleeding out from near her breast (gone through a bunch of bandages, they said) from a fortnight old surgery and had to have something removed right then, necessitating the need for the doctor to drive in to the hospital from home. Bad news all around in Bed 1 except that the patient was in high spirits.
On the way back, we went to a drive through pharmacy then got bad food for us at McDonald's.
At home, I let Ororo out of the closet because she'd gotten shut in accidentally.
Right now, Julia is asleep and Ororo is on my lap, freshly brushed and calm and G4 is on in the background. I'm not sure whether to stick it out and stay awake or take a nap.
What a day.
Posted at 09:52 AM Me Read More Email Comments
Part Time for a Short Time
G4!
Best QuickTime movie ever?
Baria recap up
Unity?
Exchange? Exchange!
ATF Fixed
Frequent Medical Miles
Baria, After the Fall recaps up
The Right and Proper Gen Con Recap
This Man is Clearly an Idiot
07/30/03 (x2)
My most hearty endorsement
At Last it is Done!
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Total entries in this blog: 241
Corporate Wisdom: 5
Gaming : 36
Macintosh: 10
Me: 92
Movies: 17
Pictures of the Day: 37
Politics: 12
Technical issues: 11
The House: 16
Video Games-GameBoy: 2
Video Games-PlayStation 2: 1
Video Games-Xbox: 2
Published On: Aug 23, 2003 12:08 PM
Corporate Wisdom: 5
Gaming : 36
Macintosh: 10
Me: 92
Movies: 17
Pictures of the Day: 37
Politics: 12
Technical issues: 11
The House: 16
Video Games-GameBoy: 2
Video Games-PlayStation 2: 1
Video Games-Xbox: 2
Published On: Aug 23, 2003 12:08 PM