Two Hundred and Eight, Progress

I know I'm a geek. My time goes into studying for school and Warcraft! On that note, I did want to say what a difference I see in myself ingame from when I used to play to the past few months. As part of a guild working together to beat all the challenges the game throws at us, I have really come to appreciate the bonds you form with your fellow players. Tonight I stayed up 2 hours past my bedtime because were were slowly making progress. We had reached a point our guild members had never reached before by downing the next to last boss in the current end-game content AND began working on our strategy for the final boss. Included below are before and after pictures of General Vezax! I realize you can't really see anything but dangit, I got the pictures on here! I'll see if I can't get on to expand later on.

Before

After

Two Hundred and One, Time's Endless Progression

My world is static to me.  I wake up, go to school, come home, hang out with the same peeps, sleep.  Rinse.  Repeat.  Ever since high school, my life has consisted of this same pattern.  There were some derangements such as weddings or the birth of some new kids or the passing away of some folks but my immediate life has had no change.  At home people still argue a lot and do things the way they want instead of compromising.  At my friend's place, we still get together and play games.  In my college town, I still go out to dinner with people to have a good evening.  I still play computer games like crazy.  I still make mini road trips to see other friends in nearby towns.  

The doc I worked with on my away rotation went through medical school not expecting children since his wife had had extensive radiation for an early cancer and was deemed infertile.  To his surprise, a few years into his established family practice, he had a couple little girls.  He told me how before the girls, time for him was at a standstill.  Now with the little ones, he sees old mannerisms disappearing while new ones begin all the time.  To him time is running rampant and he cannot get it under control again.  He loves his daughters very much but still admits he misses things they used to do when they were younger.  

I don't cuddle up with my dad anymore.  I also don't fall asleep on my grandmother's lap while we watch an evening movie.  I also don't cutely offer to help with cleanup after dinner and instead make sure I do the heavier cleanup so no one else must.  I do still run over to my friends' home but stay much later than I used to.

Tomorrow I go to take another test in a multitude of tests I have taken and that I have yet to take.  After it is over, I will celebrate by either running around outside a bit, paying bills, or playing Warcraft.  Then Saturday I'll drive home for a night.  All of it has happened before and will happen again.

But one day it won't!

One Hundred and Ninety-two, Death of 'Ole Blue

Around eight years ago the four of them came into our lives as brothers of the same factory.  The gentle blue with a glowing insignia were soothing to our sense, the ergonomic shape eased into our palms.  We four had found our mice.  Lord Chaos, the Beatnik, the Engineer, and myself revelled in our gameplay for many years with these mice.  Switching to each other's computers was simple with the same peripherals.  Orcs, dwarves, trolls, gnomes, terrorists, scientists, Gordon Freemans, robots, Soviets, Allies, GDI, NOD, pyros, engineers, Psilons, Silicoids, roller coasters, trains, Civilization(s), Tribes vehicles, mutalisks, carriers, seige tanks, Jedi, Sith, smugglers, bounty hunters, augmented UNATCO operatives, Ylloj - my frost sorceress, a red Boba Fett-lokalike named Silencer, fantasy warriors, X-COM operatives, cities, evil minions and mistresses who you could slap, Kabuto, and Meccs are but a few of the creatures and races under the sway of our mice at one time or another.  

'Ole Blue has travelled a lot too between three different cities and almost 10 houses/apartments.  He provided my thumb a gentle gel-filled pad on which to rest.  He outlived two of his three brothers in regular usage.  One got lost to the annals of "old equipment" while another hemorrhaged out gel fluid.  One sibling remains who still feels the love of a human daily.  The Beatnik has just built himself a new computer and his mouse will hopefully get to experience it for many years to come.  Mine decided six months was what it could last on my new PC.  Today the years of rough use and the cord's weight to the ground finally pulled some connection loose inside the mouse.  I tried a splint with tape but it can't hold with the pressure needed.

Today I went out and found the great-great-great-great grandson of my Mouseman Wheel, the G5 Laser Mouse.  

It's been hard with it because it is unruly and different.  My thumb sits slightly differently, there are a few extra buttons, and the slide is smoother than I'm used to.  I'm sure I'll get used to it though.  Already today I've gotten to like the slide and messed around with the extra buttons.

But I'll still miss that blue glowing symbol on my first real mouse.

One Hundred and Ninety-one, The Lich King

Wrath of the Couch Potato

One Hundred and Ninety, Epic Fail

I won't say a game is sucking my life away because that would imply that I am miserable playing it both with people I know and with people I've never met.  That, however, is not the case.  I felt a thrill of joy in the weeks leading up to the release of the expansion and now I have some goals on what I want to accomplish with it.  I've taken my first steps into Northrend and they are thrilling and sturdy ones.

One Hundred and Eighty-eight, Dalaran

The search begins in two days for the city that used to fill this crater.

One Hundred and Seventy-three, Day 3

Today was Lecture Day. I sat through eight hours of lecture while my phone charged in a corner of the room. I took my milk over to a friend's home who has a powered fridge. I also picked up a couple sandalwood scented candles and lithium 123 batteries. I'm thankful I have a powerful flashlight that doesn't use C or D batteries and, having grown up Hindu, that I love the smell of sandalwood.
In 2004 I went for a week without power. They're saying the same again this time around. I'm ok with it although a little frustrated. Maybe it's karma. Saturday I played Warcraft with the Beatnik and had a good time and picked up useful loot and now I can't play. Of all the weeks to lose power, this one is the best since I have a midterm coming up. At least this time the weather is cooler than during the previous outage. Back then my housemates and I stayed at school ALL day and returned to sleep at night. In the mornings, we'd shower and head back to school. It was miserable. This one is much better!

One Hundred and Fourty-eight, Fifty-eight Songs and Five Hours

It's done. The lousy "10 Gamer Points" matter nothing in the face of our personal sense of fulfillment of this essentially useless achievement. We played the Endless Setlist (a lie I tell you, a LIE!) which consisted of all original 58 songs from Rock Band. We played the songs when our hands began to hurt; we played the songs when our legs hurt; we played the songs while our shoulders and backs ached; we played the songs while our feet were giving out.

We...just...kept...playing...

It said we finished at some point. We only knew this when we received no more notes, no more cues, no more movement from the television screen in front of us.

Never again. I can tell my grandkids, "Yes, I did play Rock Band straight for five hours and fifty-eight songs. Never be so stupid in your life."

One Hundred and Fourty-six, A Reprieve

The month of studying has begun! It's odd how I can get myself working hard but on the other hand, I also have to play hard. As many of my friend can attest to, I've been studying my requisite hours a day but I've also been playing games like a madman outside those times (I tried mixing the two and I realized it was a no-go). Hence anything that comes in the middle (like the news, this blog, sleep) suffers. It shall not always be so! But for now I will still be sparse.

One Hundred and Twenty, Giggly

We think a little sip* of the EtOH took over and enforced giggliness upon the young one. She still maintains that it was the goofy evening of playing Swap and Egyptian Rat Screw that brought it on, but the Engineer and I know better [sagely nods all around]. After consulting with the Engineer's All-knowing oracular Spirit, we found the opportune time to go to bed. Good thing I never asked it when I had to go to bed! Here I be away from it all and having a great time with these folks. Others are missed, but I'm taking it all in down here while I can. All too soon, the great sojourn back home will begin. Until then, adieu!

*mixed into a smoothie forsooth

One Hundred and Three, Mythical Creature

Say Hi to BoB!

One Hundred and Two, Begin: Endgame

Looking back, luck had a lot to do with it. I imagined having to work really hard at a couple of places before accomplishing my objective, but instead Fortune smiled upon me and gave me the people I needed. We blazed forward through difficulties others quailed before. Rarely had a group this efficient been seen thrown together by the random LFG channels. Yes, Shattered Halls became my peon. During the glorious fight with Kargath, I reached the peak, the pinnacle of the low man in the game: Level 70.

I did it with my friend the Engineer beside me shooting fire from his fingertips and next to the Beatnik who was on the phone with him during the process. Earlier Lord Chaos had given me The Talk about reaching this state of being and how not to take it lightly but I scoffed.

"It's just another goal, what of it?!"

The second it dawned upon me, as one of my groupmates typed, "Congrats!" that it wouldn't happen again, I was floored. This was it for me. I glanced down at the experience bar and it was gone, a figment of my imagination perhaps except for the 480+ hours (over 20 days) where I slogged through, hour after hour, keeping close tabs on that bar. Excitement imminent when the bar was reaching the end and satisfaction when I *dinged* to the new level. The simple reward system was quite gratifying. What began with a level 1 dwarf paladin named Valin in January 2005 has followed a long and bumpy road to this point. In one sense, he even died for 2 years only to be resurrected by the enticement of spending time together with my friends.

My character reached level 70 during a furious battle with Kargath Bladefist at 12:45 AM February 11th, 2008. No one is exactly sure when the event happened during the battle. But the victory was unforgettable as well as the extremely smooth run through that dungeon.

Oddly enough, I was more proud when my friend complimented me on how well I accomplished my role of Main Tank.

Seventy-eight, Estrogen

I have some great friends, there's no denying that. But I realize that over the years I've slowly had an increase in the number of friends who are women in my life. This is all good and fun until one weekend when you realize that two of your guy friends are out of town and two of your girl friends are coming into town (one of them bringing another friend--also a female).

[pause]

I have come to realize that talk of dresses, hairstyles, shoes, & make-up interest me none-at-all. Maybe if somehow they changed who I was or what I was capable of accomplishing, I might take heed, but since to me they are all cosmetic, outer changes, they don't add up to much for me. I'm glad that they were able to bond and that they felt special that I was there to enjoy the evening with them. But a part of me wishes that I'd gracefully stepped out and gone off to shoot or hack things.

On the plus side, I met someone new and got to see "I Am Legend."

Fifty-five, Pain in Video Gaming

I'm a sucker when it comes to physical pain. Dish out all the mental pain you want and I can take it but try to pinch me and I'll squeal like a pig. So it comes as no great surprise that a video game that causes me physical anguish will not long be a favorite of mine. I know that unless I suffer through said physical anguish, I will not rise up in my experience level and so I will hold back others that I am playing with. But this is the sad truth.

The previous weekend of Rock Band has made my left wrist sore. And I don't particularly like having a sore wrist over a video game. I guess that means I'm just not a gamer? Ok, I guess my 2+ hours of Bioshock the other night means that I am still a gamer, just not a gamer who loves the music-playing games. I won't say I get no enjoyment out of them, but the enjoyment comes from playing and participating in something with my friends. Not from being able to beat a video game song on Hard difficulty while hurting myself.

I offered my roommate a deal: Every time Mario died during his game of Super Mario Galaxy, I would hit him in the head with a baseball bat. He turned me down. So at least I'm not the only one who has a limit when correlating physical discomfort and video game satisfaction (after all, it would provide extra incentive to keep Mario alive!). I'm ok having a different level to my discomfort/game relationship. Everyone is different.

To anyone who disagrees, Place it up thy butter churn!

Fifty-three, Got 'im!

I spent a couple hours yesterday and finally beat Bioshock. HUZZAH! It is a really cool game. I think what did it for me is the ambiance it creates. The constant background noises from nearby machines, the blood-spattered tapes here and there, the excellent voice quality on all the tapes and the couple spots of dialogue. Everything had its personality, even the machine turrets and cameras.

And now, back to the real world where the ground is being covered in dihydrogen monoxide as I prepare to get together with my "band" and "rock out" for a few hours. And then, weather staying warm enough, it'll be SHOWDOWN TIME! Between The Bowlinator and The Amish Girl!

Life is good when I have such goofy friends.

Fourty-six, Cake

For those unaware, approximately three months ago, a game came out which I was really excited about. It was just a small little game but in my mind, it epitomized the hundreds of flash puzzle games I've played in my years. Except this was visualized on-screen in full three dimensions. Just like those puzzle games, it consisted of a certain number of levels increasing in mental difficulty as you went through.

During the end credits, they play a song. Here is one artist's view of the song.

Thirty-eight, Question to Ponder

Why do some of the enemies in Super Mario games look so innocently happy as their mere touch kills Mario?

Twenty-five, Rice

3500 Grains of Rice. Highest score: 45 ~3300 Grains. Huzzah!

Twenty-four, Rock Band

Very neat multiplayer idea. I tried it out and have to say it was enjoyable although my left metacarpals are in some pain. Unfortunately, posting major stuff will wait yet again!

Twenty-three, Late

It's been a long day, but Clinic was definitely something I'll write about more; Bioshock will also squirm its way into my entries as I'm currently slogging through it on a friend's PC.