So recently I have been having trouble staying asleep. I am sleeping anywhere between 3-5 hours, then waking up out of the blue. I managed to sleep last night, but I think it's because I wore myself out partying and playing Rock Band.

On Friday, I had an appointment with my doctor. He took two vials of blood, but perscribed me some Lunesta to deal with the symptoms until we can figure out the root cause. The likely culprit, is of course, my thyroid. It runs in my family so I would not be the least bit surprised. Thankfully it is easily treatable if that is the case.

In more "fun" news, the weather was decent enough today that I went out for a ride on my motorcycle. I went all the way to Snoqualmie and back twice, in addition to doing a little exploring around the edges of Seattle and around the Snoqualmie area.

I ride pretty fast on the highway, and while the State Patrol still frowns upon it, they pull over motorcycles much less often that cars. Of course, motorcycles are more difficult to tag with radar, so that helps too! In any case, I was doing about 79 on my way home the second time, and I noticed a patrolman up ahead. He was cruising along with traffic, not staked out in a turnout. I slowed down a bit, but for the most part the patrolman was going quite fast himself, and forcing cars out of his way by tailgating until people moved out of the way.

Instead of freak out and go 60 like people normally do, I just hung back a bit letting him sort of push everyone out of my way as well, as attempting such things on a bike is beyond foolish for obvious reasons. In any case, so I worked my way up to 79 again, and the cop was quite a ways ahead. All of a sudden I see something large and white whizz by me two lanes over and slow down to pace me. I look over, and there is a second patrolman giving me a dirty look! Hahahaha... I had to try so hard not to laugh. I gently but noticeably throttled down until I was going about 70, and he sped off to join his comrade.

When I got to the end of the bridge I saw why they were in such a hurry. They had someone in a white Mustang pulled over, with four police cruisers as backup. Hmmm... the driver was not being arrested so I am not sure what was going on, but the second patrolman was going about 90 to get there. So, yeah, that dirty look was hilarious, but I'll need to be more careful.

I doubt I would have been pulled over anyway, as they either need to pace you, which I would immediately notice (as I did this time once he got near me) or get you with radar. It is extremely easy to spot patrol cars on a motorcycle. Still, I'll never forget that dirty look. Once he pulled off I started giggling inside my helmet.

So I finally got in to DarkFall.

The game itself is amazing. The few clan-members able to get in with me, have spent the last couple of days exploring. Even after over two solid days, we have only managed to explore a relatively small portion of the map. I am trying not to let my experiences with their terrible billing system sour my enjoyment of the game itself.

I already have some fond memories of the game. Last night I decided to mount a solo expedition. This is incredibly dangerous so I left most of my valuables in the town bank. I came across terrifying hill giants, fellow elves who were anything but friendly, and seemed to have fallen to worshipping a dragon; a disgusting swamp with a mysterious hole the diameter of a football field which drops down to a hidden lair, a portal which I did not enter but marked for later investigation, various treasure chests, an island full of undead amid crumbling ruins, and finally a volcanic cave which I could not enter due to undead giants guarding the entrance.

The world is huge, and there is so much to see, with so many hidden secrets. I have a feeling that by the time anyone manages to see most of the sights, the world will have expanded. There are nearly 100 cities and hamlets to be claimed by the players and I found a few of them in my travels. We are worried that "all the good ones" will be taken, but the more I explore, the more I see exceptional cities still lying unclaimed.

Hopefully my clanmates still trying to get in the game will be able to do so soon. I know those cities won't wait forever.

In any case, I am off to see where that portal leads!

Posted by Aventurine moments ago:

Update 5.49pm GMT

After addressing a couple of early issues the servers have been running very stable for several hours and we have a large number of players in-game right now.

It’s normal to expect more issues to surface in the next couple of days. We postponed our scheduled maintenance of 10am GMT for later until we can gather some more data and address anything that comes up in a patch later tonight.

We’re aware that some areas are experiencing sync issues for some players. This is a high priority issue that we are working to address as soon as possible. We know the cause for it so it shouldn’t take very long. We will keep the servers up while this is being fixed and we will bring them down for a patch later tonight. For now, players can move away from starting areas to improve their experience.

We have processed the problematic accounts that were never charged but received a successful pre-order notification. Only a small percentage of these were successful and we found out that this is because most of them contain incomplete or incorrect account information. We will try this one last time again tomorrow morning European time, and we’ll open up account management later tonight for these accounts to be able to correct their account data and credit information before we reprocess them. If anyone does not want the pre-order to be processed, they should remove their credit card information from their account. After this is concluded we should be able to open up sales for more Darkfall copies.

That’s all for now, we’ll keep you updated with anything new that comes up.

The Darkfall Team

FAIL.

Aventurine, I have been patient. I have been infinitely patient, in fact. Over the months and year, I have understood that you are a small company and that we can not expect the things from you that others expect of large companies. The long development cycle, the lack of updates: I accepted everything because there are literally only thirty people in the company.

I've managed to never, not once, become angry about anything you have done until now. Then why am I angry, now? Clearly, the one advantage small businesses should have over large, is their level of customer service. Yet, the above statement implies it is somehow my fault that my preorder failed?

Well, one advantage of having a nifty brain such as mine, is that I clearly remember the preorder process, and I clearly remember entering all of my information. I also clearly remember coming back at a later time to check on it, and noticing that some of it was missing after the fact. Furthermore, the fields that had missing data WERE NOT EDITABLE, strongly implicating issues with the preorder code. I was then unable to fix the erorrs. How is this my fault?

FAIL. FAIL. EPIC FAIL.

Two "free" days in-game is not going to cut it when everyone is a full day ahead of me in securing their clan city.

Here is how things SHOULD have gone down. Give those people with missing information the benefit of the doubt. Send emails to them notifying them, that they are geting their two free days up front. Within these two days, their billing information needs to be corrected or the account will be suspended until valid information is given.

Then, everyone with a valid preorder gets in. Everyone is happy. Most of everyone ---i.e. the non-idiots--- updates their billing information without a hitch, and there is no PR fiasco (aside from the usual).

Simple right? Not if you are Aventurine.

Excerpt from a previous post:

"I can tell you right now, it is a BAD idea for any bank to be getting skittish with lending for vehicles. Vehicles prices are not subject to wild market fluctuations like the housing market. Their value is expected to depreciate and is not viewed as an investment. Their value is not tightly tied to the market, but more derived from parts and labor. When the market crashes, your 2005 Honda Civic doesn't plummet in value along with it. Because of this people do not "flip" cars, or "sit" on cars waiting for the price to go up, or any of the other inane things that people do with assets that appreciate. They are a purchase, not an investment. Banks (and by line of effect, consumers) are burned by people using borrowed money to make investments. When all parties involved expect the asset to appreciate, and it's price plummets, that is a problem. When all parties involved expect the asset to depreciate, there are very few surprises, and loan terms never have to be speculative."


Lack of lending for cars, exacerbated the problem of no one wanting to buy a new cars lead to the current situation with the American car manufacturers. I practically called it with the above paragraph, months in advance. Well, that quote and this one:

"Our economy runs on lending, when lending stops, spending stops, when spending stops, paychecks stop, which leads to less spending and lending."

Darkfall comes out today!

I still don't know if my pre-order was successful. Too many people were ordering at he same time so they had a few problems with their pre-order server. I got a confirmation email but my card was not charged. It's been a while since I have been so eager to have someone take my money. I know, weird.

In other random news, I nabbed a new keyboard and mouse. My old friends Sticky and Clicky finally crapped out on me so I splurged on a Logitech G11 and Razer Lachesis. That brings me to a total 26 programmable keys into which I can put any series of keystrokes, mouseclicks, and built-in delays. Before I had zero, so it was pretty much a geek-gasm for a few hours while I just played with it.

Next weekend it is new monitor time. Blinky needs to go, as well. OK, it's not blinking, but I couldn't think of a good name for it. I've had it forever. It's big, ugly, has three bad pixels, and I am sure the backlight is not as bright as it used to be. There are a shit-ton of excellent, gorgeous 24" widescreen HDMI 2ms response time 1920x1200 resolution for under 400 bucks. It is the best time to get a new monitor that I have seen in a very long time.

I just have to make it through work tomorrow...

So, I'd like to explain for a moment why I sometimes act the way I do. The way I am choosing to do this, is to simply open a window to what goes on inside my head at any given time. Generally speaking, during normal day-to-day activies, a large portion of my brain is thinking about something else. Because of this, I am rarely 100% "present." I tend to be easily distracted because I have a hard time shutting down this side of me. A recent development from this "other half" can often consume the attention of my entire brain, causing me to seem highly distracted.

So, here is the most recent item that has this part of my brain continually busy:
( Click Here to expand the monster... )

I really want to go back to the gym now that I no longer have overtime every week, but I really do not want to deal with all the New Year's Resolutions.

New Year's Resolutions are just another reason to procrastinate, and I already have plenty of those. ;)

What the hell? So we've all heard of 'Darkfall'. They released that 17-minute video a while back. They have been swearing up and down beta was starting "soon" for a couple of years.

I have remained pretty neutral while everyone else and their epeen have taken extremely polar positions; shouting either "OMG MMO MESSIAH!" or "VAPORWARE!" I've taken the stance of, I'll just check in every 6 months or so... This is convenient, as it allows me to always see something new, rather than the same stuff every time I drool over the page. It also allows me to not die of anticipation, angst, boredom or a combination of the three. Finally, it is what has allowed me to stay neutral.

I get sick of people treating an indie developer as if they should behave with the same modus operandi as Ubisoft or EA (Both of whom kill my soul a little bit each time they release a game I end up buying...). What does everyone think; that five people get together, spend a few thousand dollars, and automagically shit out millions of lines of code and a warehouse full of servers to make the next big MMO? Yes I suppose I am defending them to a point, but within very reasonable --- and neutral --- limits.

We're talking about a small team creating a massive, seamless world. These relatively few people with meager resources are putting together a full scale MMO. Of course it is going to take them nearly a decade. Of course the graphics and animation will be a little dated. And, yes, I fully expect the game to feel a bit "rough" and "unpolished." Do I care? Fuck no. Sparkly graphics quickly lose their charm.

Some of my favorite games of all time were released with graphics years out of date, clunky interfaces, and a host of other issues not found in "polished" games. Yet, the gameplay was so amazing, I quickly forgot or adapted to the quirks and immersed myself eagerly. Will Darkfall be another one of these games. I cannot say. So, to those disparaging Darkfall on purely aesthetic grounds, I am nothing but pleased that I will not be interacting with you when I finally get to try Darkfall. Yes, try. I'm just going to give it an honest chance. No game deserves more or less.

Well, the "European" release date is January 22nd. Yes, that is in less than a month. This is a solid date and not some "soon" or "sometime next year" fluff, but a solid date. I think I might just have to tip a bit to the "OMG MMO MESSIAH!" side (not too far) and whisper, "Darkfall is coming..."

Also, I'm immediately wondering how to fool their servers into thinking that I am playing from a European IP Address without violating any local or international laws...

In any case, I imagine the European release can not far precede the North American. I could be wrong, but if history is any example, that is generally how things go. I am hoping it is sooner rather than later. Seeing the date officially posted with my own eyes, does have my anticipation and angst meters twitching with a little life.

While I can feel the excitement wash over me, it is more like the excitement one might feel exploring an unknown cave. It might be awesome and full of loot, it could be utterly boring, or worse yet, a bears den.

Time will tell.

Whoever this chick is, she is on my list of awesomeness.



I found it on fail blog, but honestly, this is an epic win for her.

I'm not one to preach monogamy, but I think that if two people enter a relationship under a certain agreement, and that agreement is monogamy, then it should be respected.

Good for her, for not taking any shit!

Ok, enough is enough. Yes, the snow is pretty, but I've had enough. I have already missed two days of work, and it looks like I am going to miss tomorrow as well. I get paid by the hour so I can NOT afford this shit!

I've lived in a desert, an arctic climate and the midwest. There is a reason I chose Seattle. Mostly it's because Seattle is an awesome city, but there is also a lot to be said for a temperate climate!

Let it rain.

Let it rain.

Let it rain.

Super Computer... I can has?

http://www.nvidia.com/object/personal_computing.html

I wonder how long before super computers are just computers?

The Black Hole

83% Knowledge, 37% Compassion, 59% Curiosity and 31% Passion!



The Black Hole
You are a black hole. Your curiosity is infinite but you give nothing back to the rest of the world. You absorb all knowledge that comes your way but you don't mind warping space and time to do it. The rest of the universe can go fend for itself, in your little corner, time has slowed to a halt.

*********************************

I'd say that's pretty accurate. I do have a tendency to become absorbed in pursuits of knowledge, and when so absorbed I paradoxically pay no mind to the real world. I used to relate my brain to a sponge, but black holes are so much cooler.

I have to admit. My excitement about Diablo 3 was luke warm at best... until now.

I just saw the Wizard trailer. Needless to say my salivary glands flowed uncontrollably and I am drooling like an idiot!

It looked amazing!

(Yes, I know, it has probably been out for a while now, but I had given up checking the website when it had not been updated in a while.)

So there was a massive gap between the amount for which I was financed --- $6,200 ---, and the bloated price the dealer initially asked for. This came as no surprise given my experience so far! What's a guy to do? Drive a fuckin' hard bargain, that's what.

I talked them down about $1,500.00 dollars on a bike who's MSRP is 7,299. After fees, taxes, and "freight" that price had soared to almost $10,000 dollars. Not one to be thwarted so close to my goal, I started by asking for way too much. I wanted them to slash the price, waive a few fees, and still throw in the 300 dollars of gear I wanted.

They looked at me like I was nuts. Maybe I am, but that is also the reaction I was going for. These guys really wanted to get rid of this bike. It's a 2008 model taking up room on the sales floor. The 2009's are rolling in, in barely a month. In January, they have to pay taxes on any unsold inventory. The list goes on, but you get the idea. They wanted it gone! It was kind of funny to see the poor sales guy a little bit speechless at first. They do still need to make money on the sale... (I am not 100% sure they did)

So my first offer was $8,400 total cost, including fees, freight, tax, you name it. Oh, and don't forget the gear. The sales guy had me sign a little statement stating my offer, and then hurried in to the Financial Services office. Twenty minutes later he comes out with the totally predictable counter offer. They wanted $9,000 total cost, but still were willing to throw in the gear.

I leaned back and said, forget the gear, $8,400 for the bike. I'll get the gear later. This would normally be a problem, as you need gear to ride a motorcycle. However, in full view, I already had all the gear I needed for the ride home; helmet, gloves, jacket, and boots. So they knew I was serious. By this time the agreement form was covered side to side in red and black, hasty scribbles. Things had been crossed out and rewritten all over. It was actually kind of funny.

So the poor sales guy had to write my new offer in the tiny amount of space left in the already small box where my previous offer had been written, and then scribbled out. Another twenty minutes later, I was handed the keys. Ding! That was fun.

To give you some idea, 7299 + tax is about 8030'ish. The freight was 800 dollars, and the fees were a few hundred. So I basically payed the sticker price, plus tax and some change. Not too bad!

I can't wait to use the motorcycle only parking at work! Squee!

If any of you read totorosc's recent post you may have seen this already. I made it for his caption contest. I shared it with a select few at work today, hilarity ensued.



This November, say, "No can has," to McCain, or ceiling cat will eat your face.

EDIT: Oh and by the way, I got pre-approved to basically pick out any bike I want. w00t! I am going shopping tomorrow! My interest rate was under 10% which is damn good for a motorcycle loan. Whee!

So I have been fighting with Wells Fargo now for almost a week. At last today, my fuse disappeared with a telling wisp of smoke, immediately proceeded by a large messy detonation of pure fury. In the middle of trying to figure out how my mother, my brother, my car, and I were all going to be at the same bank at the same time when my brother is on strike at Boeing and delivering pizzas, my mother manages a large team of engineers while also covering for a co-worker, and I am gone for over 12 hours a day, I just said... FUCK IT. I said, forget the whole thing, and they meekly tried to push a 2500 dollar line of credit that I could have "just in case."

Fuck you! I have MORE than enough credit. Three thousand in credit card debt, is a manageable, responsible amount for how much I make, and I plan to make it ZERO asap. I don't need MORE credit. Thank you.

It shouldn't be this hard. Something has to be wrong if getting a vehicle is this difficult. I will jump through a hoop, but not forty-seven flaming hoops over viper pits.

I did a little poking around, and found that more than just standard banks, dealers/manufacturers, and credit unions can finance a motorcycle. State Farm of all places, can finance and insure the motorcycle. They keep their rates competitive by a simple pass/fail application. So there are no jacked up interest rates or screwy payment schedules. Risky people just get turned away. My credit is pretty good --- about 685 --- my income is above 40k, and my debt to income ratio is low, about 25%; 9-10% if I get the car I am not paying for taken out of my name. So my chances are pretty good.

Better yet, not only is their "bank" private, but it is backed by their insurance business, not investment. So I don't have to worry about the roller coaster that is Wall Street taking my interest rate along with it. I should be able to get something under 10%, maybe as low as 8% or so, which is VERY low for a motorcycle loan.

I will hear back tomorrow. I truly hope --- and maybe believe just a tiny bit --- that the whimsical gods of finance are on my side for once...

I passed my Motorcycle Safety Class! Yay! Today, I went to the DMV to turn in my certificate and I am officially fully licensed and endorsed. Phew!

I applied for a motorcycle loan on Saturday. The amount I applied for was a paltry 7,000 dollars. It was a rather pleasant process. Near the end, I heard the guy on the other end exclaim, "Oh, that's a good sign!" when a certain web page came up, allowing him to continue the process after the point at which most people are sent off for "approval." He asked me a few more questions, and then sent me on my way.

So today, I get a call from Wells Fargo Financial, not to be confused with Wells Fargo. They are actually separate "companies." After speaking with the woman on the phone, and wasting my precious break-time, I come to find out that even though I have no late payments or other such black marks on my credit, and despite the fact that my current income makes the payments on such a loan nearly insignificant, I was not pre-approved for the 7,000 dollars by Wells Fargo. I had been referred to Wells Fargo Financial, which has looser standards, and I am guessing, much higher interest rates. Yes, great idea, we think this person is "risky" so we are going to make it "harder" for them to make their payments.

What. The. Fuck? Then she went on to inform me that they do not consider motorcycles collateral. What? Why the fuck not? If I can insure it's value, then it has value, and that value can be collateral. It doesn't depreciate any faster than a car, unless you wreck it, and that is what insurance is for.

I can tell you right now, it is a BAD idea for any bank to be getting skittish with lending for vehicles. Vehicles prices are not subject to wild market fluctuations like the housing market. Their value is expected to depreciate and is not viewed as an investment. Their value is not tightly tied to the market, but more derived from parts and labor. When the market crashes, your 2005 Honda Civic doesn't plummet in value along with it. Because of this people do not "flip" cars, or "sit" on cars waiting for the price to go up, or any of the other inane things that people do with assets that appreciate. They are a purchase, not an investment. Banks (and by line of effect, consumers) are burned by people using borrowed money to make investments. When all parties involved expect the asset to appreciate, and it's price plummets, that is a problem. When all parties involved expect the asset to depreciate, there are very few surprises, and loan terms never have to be speculative.

Furthermore, because I do not own a house I should be a safer bet. A year ago this logic would be backward, but with the current situation renters are safer. There is no chance of my mortgage skyrocketing, with rent control my rent can only increase by a certain percentage every year, no matter what! Home owners have no such protection, and because everyone pays their mortgage first, guess what happens? They default on all their other loans first.

Subsequently, the bank that offers me a reasonable interest rate on the 7,000 dollars I want, will also be the bank I bank with in the future. Why the fuck would I want to bank somewhere, when after ten years of history with them, they can not approve me for 7,000 dollars when I make about six times that a year? Also appalling, the BEST interest rate anyone could get, in other words, even if Bill Gates applied, the interest rate would be over 9% APR over a three year repayment schedule... AT BEST!

Clearly something is brewing at Wells Fargo, and while I am not one to yank money out of bank accounts because I am worried about a banks stability (don't even get me started on that), I am one to take my business elsewhere if I feel my business is not appreciated.

As instructed by chibi_masshuu, whom was instructed by someone else and so on and so forth, here is a picture of me. Right now. No editing, no posing, no nothing. No smiling, even. Just take a picture. I did it, so now it's your turn.



Thats me after working overtime, and in bad lighting. Yay!

I'll try to make this brief, as I need to hop in bed!

1. The new job is still going pretty well. Our systems have been on the fritz, and combined with the fact that I had to really fight to get admin access (like I should have had my first week), I feel like I have been getting nothing done. I did not get admin access until about three weeks in. Now I am three weeks behind on the learning curve for many of the systems I need to use on a daily basis.

2. Public transportation is so mind numbingly horrid that I sometimes think --- when I miss a transfer due to poor planning of bus routes and times --- that the whole mess could have only come from the mind of some demented proto-daemon. It is literally --- no joke --- so bad that posted times are a better indication of when not to expect the bus. I spend 15 hours a week commuting when things are running smoothly. They usually don't.

3. Because of #2, I am planning on getting a motorcycle for commuting and a bicycle for inner city rides. Motorcycles are cheap and fuel efficient, and well, so are bicycles. For about 500 a month, including gas, insurance and loan payment, I can have a nice mid-range motorcycle that gets over 40 miles to the gallon and gets me to work in 20 minutes (As opposed to the current hour and a half, not counting the 15-20 minute walk to the bus stop), to hell with busing.

4. I got approved for 5 hours of overtime this week. I said, "Fuck, yes!" Time and a half never looked so awesome.

Kthxbye!

So I bought a copy of Spore today! It is installing right now, but it is taking for fucking ever. I feel kind of like this guy. (As an aside, that video is a joke. People who think it is real are naive.)

Ooh, well it just got done installing so I guess I will cut this short.

Laters!