Decided to play Kotor2 on my laptop instead of my netbook (since it doesn't work) and also decided to take another look at the SWTOR forums. I'm really looking forward to SWTOR and i'm always interested in new information about the game.
I stumbled onto a forum post about Solo vs Group play, and about rewards for Casual vs Hardcore.
One thing that's always annoyed me about World of Warcraft, was the point to get all the good stuff you had to raid, you can't get any of it solo. If a PC game comes out without a single player mode, there will be people that complain, but it's just accepted in WoW. Hell, I play Team Fortress 2 a fair bit, but I don't have to organise a group of 25 people together to start at 7:30pm, I can just jump in, even considering Pick Up Groups in WoW, it's alot easier to play Team Fortress 2.
But why should you be forced to Raid to get the best rewards, and maybe "rewards" is gear, titles, achievements, whatever. In the forum post I was reading it was taken as a given, no one seemed to argue it, which annoyed me. At what point does doing something as a group mean you should be awared more than doing it solo?
You can go with a couple of arguements, which don't make sense to me, like "An MMO is about playing in a group, if you don't want to play in a group go play a single player game", you mean, a single player game that doesn't cost me £9 a month? Which I can play whenever I want instead of the preset times made by the guild? While I never got to top level, I played Tabula Rasa for a while, and I loved the fact I could Solo instances, or I could get people to come for a laugh and group play, it was great, what was wrong with that?
"It's harder to organise a group of people than it is to just do something yourself" so, if I played with 10 friends on a game (and I'd imagine 10 is a high number for real friends) I can't do 25 man raids, unless I get other people involved, once other people are involved raids might very well happen when i'm busy doing something else. So I then either have to accept I can't raid Ulduar or whatever each week, or join another guild, leaving my 10 friends behind... Yes it's harder to organise something with a group than to play solo, so what? A reward system shouldn't be based on how easy it is to get people together for something.
One of the main problems I think (not played many other MMO games) is that WoW is raid based. There isn't a Solo option, which means that people see what you can do like dailies, which are easy, then they seem to assume that any solo content would be easy. Why would it be impossible to tune encounters so they work for solo players? Then tune it so it scales somewhat with the number of people? Even if you have preset: 1, 5, 10, 15, 20.
Which opens up the further problem. In WoW currently you can do content 10 man or 25 man, and you get better rewards in 25 man. Why is this? When there are 3 healers and 2 tanks, it can be a push and errors made can screw you, if there are 8 healers and 3 tanks, there is a greater margin of error, and with a better reward why not?
I'd be interested to hear an arguement on why 25 man raiding should give better rewards than 10 man, unless that arguement is "Because the 25 man content is tuned to be harder" at which point you could just tune them so they're just as difficult and offer the same rewards surely? The main reason you wouldn't do that is to stop people doing the content twice a week, which is hardly a huge thing I think... but currently you're just rewarding people for being in a bigger guild.
I'm hoping SWTOR has a good end game, i'm still unsure how they're pushing story and the story will be better than WoW end game, which has been good since Burning Crusade I think. Fair enough leveling might be alot more story driven, but anyone who's spent alot of time on an MMO will be mostly looking at the end game. Either way, I'm hoping there are lots of options for Solo End Game, which won't leave me behind gear wise, why should I have worse gear because I would quite fancy playing Wednesday instead of Thursday this week?
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Sunday, 26 July 2009
D&D I'm playing a Rogue!
I'll be leaving the house soon to go play D&D, i'm slightly annoyed it won't let me use "&" in a tag, so i've stuck with the DD tag.
I usually end up playing a rogue, this is because I like stealing stuff, and I like being a sneaky bastard. The party i'm in includes 2 rangers and a warlord, the warlord is the only one who can't stealth, which kinda sucks. I'm a human as well, so when we hit the first dungeon and it was an actual dungeon I was a bit disappointed. As the only human, i'm the only one who needs light which kinda sucks for a character I envisioned living on the streets, not running through a crypt.
I'm multiclassed as a Ranger, but I think i'll change that when I hit level 2 to a Warlock, get some ranged power behind me.
I'm loving 4th Edition, and it seems alot better than 3rd, especially since I get some cards to play with. And being a CCG player, I like cards to play with :p
My party doesn't tend to like it when I run away. Hell, if I can't backstab something, I run away, whats wrong with that?
I usually end up playing a rogue, this is because I like stealing stuff, and I like being a sneaky bastard. The party i'm in includes 2 rangers and a warlord, the warlord is the only one who can't stealth, which kinda sucks. I'm a human as well, so when we hit the first dungeon and it was an actual dungeon I was a bit disappointed. As the only human, i'm the only one who needs light which kinda sucks for a character I envisioned living on the streets, not running through a crypt.
I'm multiclassed as a Ranger, but I think i'll change that when I hit level 2 to a Warlock, get some ranged power behind me.
I'm loving 4th Edition, and it seems alot better than 3rd, especially since I get some cards to play with. And being a CCG player, I like cards to play with :p
My party doesn't tend to like it when I run away. Hell, if I can't backstab something, I run away, whats wrong with that?
Farmtown
So, Farmtown is a little flash game on Facebook. You believe it or not have a farm, and need to plant crops, and harvest them. If you get someone else to harvest them, you make more money, if you harvest someone elses crops, you get cash.
As far as games go, it's hardly brilliant, but it's a nice simple little thing and I'm having an ok time playing it, although there are certain things that annoy me.
The crops take a set amount of real life time to grow, in most cases this falls into 1 day, 2 days or 3 days. There is 1 crop that takes 2 hours, and another that takes 4 hours. You get experience by plowing, and by planting crops, this means it's in your best interests to plant and grow as much as possible as quickly as possible. To give an example, if you plant something that takes 1 day to grow, you'll get 1 xp for plowing that square, and 2 xp for growing something in that square, meaning that square has given you 3 xp for a days. If you were available every 2 hours for that 24 hour period, you'd plow 12 times, and plant 12 times, so you'd get 36 xp instead.
Last night before I went to bed, I planeted something that takes 4 hours. I slept for longer than 4 hours, and therefore the stuff was wasted. In half an hour i'm going out, and won't be back for another 6 hours or so, will the crops be wasted in that time? Probably... But there isn't something I can grow for 6 hours, it's either 4 hours or a day.
If I leave something for 1 day, it'll mean I can't get any more experience today... which I don't really want to miss out on.
The game could really do with a 6 hour, 8 hour, 10 hour and 12 hour option for growing, so it's easier to fit around my normal time. The game could also do with an option to set up someone perminantly as a "worker" on your farm, so they can harvest your crops whenever they come on, so in this case I could get say my girlfriend to come on in 4 hours and harvest my stuff so it's not wasted.
Anyway, it's a nice little game which can kill a bit of time each day, and as such I'd recommend giving it a go.
As far as games go, it's hardly brilliant, but it's a nice simple little thing and I'm having an ok time playing it, although there are certain things that annoy me.
The crops take a set amount of real life time to grow, in most cases this falls into 1 day, 2 days or 3 days. There is 1 crop that takes 2 hours, and another that takes 4 hours. You get experience by plowing, and by planting crops, this means it's in your best interests to plant and grow as much as possible as quickly as possible. To give an example, if you plant something that takes 1 day to grow, you'll get 1 xp for plowing that square, and 2 xp for growing something in that square, meaning that square has given you 3 xp for a days. If you were available every 2 hours for that 24 hour period, you'd plow 12 times, and plant 12 times, so you'd get 36 xp instead.
Last night before I went to bed, I planeted something that takes 4 hours. I slept for longer than 4 hours, and therefore the stuff was wasted. In half an hour i'm going out, and won't be back for another 6 hours or so, will the crops be wasted in that time? Probably... But there isn't something I can grow for 6 hours, it's either 4 hours or a day.
If I leave something for 1 day, it'll mean I can't get any more experience today... which I don't really want to miss out on.
The game could really do with a 6 hour, 8 hour, 10 hour and 12 hour option for growing, so it's easier to fit around my normal time. The game could also do with an option to set up someone perminantly as a "worker" on your farm, so they can harvest your crops whenever they come on, so in this case I could get say my girlfriend to come on in 4 hours and harvest my stuff so it's not wasted.
Anyway, it's a nice little game which can kill a bit of time each day, and as such I'd recommend giving it a go.
Knights of the Old Republic 2
I've quite disappointed. I've played through most of Knights of the Old Republic on my netbook (Samsung NC10), I think I might have posted regarding Malic at the end being too hard to kill with some of the bad choices I made through the game (alignment, gear, specs) so decided to give it up and throw on number 2 to work through.
But I dunno if it's the "NO CD" crack I downloaded (The netbook doesn't have a CD Drive, so it won't let me play my Legal Bought copy, I'm not trying to circumvent the law) or if it's just the fact the netbook can't play the game. But it loads fine, but when I try and load a game it throws up a critical error and breaks.
As such, I have lacking a playable version on my netbook, and am half tempted to play on my Laptop (I don't have a desktop), that is, the proper laptop I'm using at the moment, with a 17" display and more importantly a CD Drive. Although I need to replace this laptop with a desktop since this thing is just over 3 years old (so doesn't even have a dual core!) and I'm not forking out another £1600 for another laptop with a life of 3 years, especially considering the number of times this one has broke (fair enough, twice, both under warrenty).
If I want to play Kotor2 I'll either have to see if I can sort it on the netbook (which I prefer to play it on since I can take that anywhere, like playing on the train or at lunch) or just play it on the Laptop. The main trouble I have is that when i'm on the laptop why don't I play TF2 or L4D (or even WoW) instead? I'm mostly playing the Kotor series to remind me of the entire thing while i'm still psyched up about the new MMO Bioware are making for the series.
But I dunno if it's the "NO CD" crack I downloaded (The netbook doesn't have a CD Drive, so it won't let me play my Legal Bought copy, I'm not trying to circumvent the law) or if it's just the fact the netbook can't play the game. But it loads fine, but when I try and load a game it throws up a critical error and breaks.
As such, I have lacking a playable version on my netbook, and am half tempted to play on my Laptop (I don't have a desktop), that is, the proper laptop I'm using at the moment, with a 17" display and more importantly a CD Drive. Although I need to replace this laptop with a desktop since this thing is just over 3 years old (so doesn't even have a dual core!) and I'm not forking out another £1600 for another laptop with a life of 3 years, especially considering the number of times this one has broke (fair enough, twice, both under warrenty).
If I want to play Kotor2 I'll either have to see if I can sort it on the netbook (which I prefer to play it on since I can take that anywhere, like playing on the train or at lunch) or just play it on the Laptop. The main trouble I have is that when i'm on the laptop why don't I play TF2 or L4D (or even WoW) instead? I'm mostly playing the Kotor series to remind me of the entire thing while i'm still psyched up about the new MMO Bioware are making for the series.
Scout Review
While I had planned to post here more, I hardly ever get round to it for some reason. I'll keep trying to post as often as I can, but more often than not I'll be playing a computer game as soon as I hit the computer. My last post from work didn't post, and wasn't saved, so I won't be doing that any time soon again.
With the thought in mind that I play an awful lot of Team Fortress 2, and that I have most of the unlockable weapons (since I play on the PC) I thought I'd post some of my thoughts, in this case, how I find the classes, and what I think of their upgrades. This means I won't post about classes like the Demoman until i've played their upgrades a bit, so after their released. I also at this time don't have all the medic upgrades, so won't post about that.
Scout, currently the second on my "Most Played" which is still well behind the Engineer, but I love playing a scout even though I particularly suck at it.
The fast moving and double jumping is amazing, and it kinda feels like playing an entirely different game to the slow Heavy, or the tricky Spy.
FaN - Scatter Gun
The Force a Nature is great, the push back is really why I like this gun, while it fires twice quickly before needing reloading, it doesn't do as much damage as the normal scatter gun. The fact you need to reload the thing so quickly, is the main reason I'm starting to move towards the idea of not using it, and going back to the scatter.
The pushback is really useful in maps like Nucleus, but not great in other places I find, pushing someone back is hardly the most useful thing. True with the quick shots and extra bullets its possible to kill someone before they can fire back, but it's not very likely. With the normal scatter gun you could get the third shot in before the FaN would be reloaded, maybe even a fourth shot.
Bonk! - Pistol
I sometimes have great fun with the Bonk! drink, unfortunatly it's not as useful as the Pistol is. At medium to long range the Pistol is much better than the Scattergun, but when you've got Bonk! equiped that option is gone.
Since I mostly play Arena games, the idea of getting past a sentry gun isn't brilliant, and Bonk! lets me down more often than not in other situations, since people can simply follow you.
In area control, or payload it can be great to distract sentries for someone else to take out, for moving past heavies, or any other number of things. But in arena i'd go for the Pistol every time.
Sandman - Bat
The sandman is great, and infact the most fun i've had with the game was shortly after getting my first sandman (I think I have about 6 now...) even if you're not close to people, the fact you can say stun a heavy then a friendly solider can blow them up. If you're quite close to someone, stunning them can lead to a kill alot of the time which is brilliant.
The obvious bad thing about the Sandman is the lack of double jump. While the FaN helps slightly in that aspect, I especially missed the double jump since I got the FaN well before the Sandman, and was tripple jumping some things.
But the question is, is the stun a good enough reason to lose the double jump? I'm undecided at the moment, and have no idea how long it'll take me to decide. Stunning an uber is great fun, but so is running up to someone and killing them with your bat without needing to wait for a ball to swing first. You do half damage to stunned opponants, so running up to a sniper who can't see you you actually want the ball to *miss*.
Summary
The scout's selection are I think the best example of the alternate weapons showing that they are infact alternate. Alot of time I'd easily be able to pick which is best, but for the Scout it's very touch and go and I may very much end up going back to the original selection soon. But the alternates are so useful and helpful it's hard to make that decision.
With the thought in mind that I play an awful lot of Team Fortress 2, and that I have most of the unlockable weapons (since I play on the PC) I thought I'd post some of my thoughts, in this case, how I find the classes, and what I think of their upgrades. This means I won't post about classes like the Demoman until i've played their upgrades a bit, so after their released. I also at this time don't have all the medic upgrades, so won't post about that.
Scout, currently the second on my "Most Played" which is still well behind the Engineer, but I love playing a scout even though I particularly suck at it.
The fast moving and double jumping is amazing, and it kinda feels like playing an entirely different game to the slow Heavy, or the tricky Spy.
FaN - Scatter Gun
The Force a Nature is great, the push back is really why I like this gun, while it fires twice quickly before needing reloading, it doesn't do as much damage as the normal scatter gun. The fact you need to reload the thing so quickly, is the main reason I'm starting to move towards the idea of not using it, and going back to the scatter.
The pushback is really useful in maps like Nucleus, but not great in other places I find, pushing someone back is hardly the most useful thing. True with the quick shots and extra bullets its possible to kill someone before they can fire back, but it's not very likely. With the normal scatter gun you could get the third shot in before the FaN would be reloaded, maybe even a fourth shot.
Bonk! - Pistol
I sometimes have great fun with the Bonk! drink, unfortunatly it's not as useful as the Pistol is. At medium to long range the Pistol is much better than the Scattergun, but when you've got Bonk! equiped that option is gone.
Since I mostly play Arena games, the idea of getting past a sentry gun isn't brilliant, and Bonk! lets me down more often than not in other situations, since people can simply follow you.
In area control, or payload it can be great to distract sentries for someone else to take out, for moving past heavies, or any other number of things. But in arena i'd go for the Pistol every time.
Sandman - Bat
The sandman is great, and infact the most fun i've had with the game was shortly after getting my first sandman (I think I have about 6 now...) even if you're not close to people, the fact you can say stun a heavy then a friendly solider can blow them up. If you're quite close to someone, stunning them can lead to a kill alot of the time which is brilliant.
The obvious bad thing about the Sandman is the lack of double jump. While the FaN helps slightly in that aspect, I especially missed the double jump since I got the FaN well before the Sandman, and was tripple jumping some things.
But the question is, is the stun a good enough reason to lose the double jump? I'm undecided at the moment, and have no idea how long it'll take me to decide. Stunning an uber is great fun, but so is running up to someone and killing them with your bat without needing to wait for a ball to swing first. You do half damage to stunned opponants, so running up to a sniper who can't see you you actually want the ball to *miss*.
Summary
The scout's selection are I think the best example of the alternate weapons showing that they are infact alternate. Alot of time I'd easily be able to pick which is best, but for the Scout it's very touch and go and I may very much end up going back to the original selection soon. But the alternates are so useful and helpful it's hard to make that decision.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Managers and Work
Another post about work... It's seeming this blog is more an outlet for my work related frustration than anything else.
Today I was 30 minutes late, I couldn't be bothered to get out of bed, slept another hour, and got a Taxi. This post is not about that.
After a meeting of over an hour with a "Supervisor" from downstairs in regards to a client specific report i've made, Suzanne the person in charge of me (She's a data analyist, I'm just a pleb) couldn't follow what was going on, so fun times there.
The director interested with this report called us into the office.
During this meeting, this Supervisor had stated that visits done to customers over the phone rather than in person should count as Visits, the Director disagreed since we never actually physically visited them, I'm with him on this one, we could potentionally do whatever over the phone and claim it's a visit, and we do charge for visits.
Looking over some specific figures, on why we're doing this, and why not, the Supervisor said a few things starting with "What I think they're doing..." which I nearly laughed at. You're the supervisor, "they're" only doing what "they're" told, why arn't you telling them the right thing? Maybe you think it's the team leader who's at fault, but what the hell are you Supervising? Comments like "I'm with you, they're doing it wrong." just suggest to me you haven't got a clue what your team is up to, and you should Supervise it a bit.
Questions towards me often end up with answers like "Because you told me to" although the followup "No I didn't" often leaves me speechless.
I'm generally of the opinion that middle management is mostly a waste of space, clueless over whats going on under them, and not understanding of whats going on over them. If I even actually get to be middle management (I'm blogging at work, so probably never) I'll probably change my mind, but I'll hopefully not be saying "They're doing it wrong" and saying something like "They're not doing what I told them to" instead.
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The above post I tried to make the other day from work. I noticed it did save the info, so yay here it is!
Today I was 30 minutes late, I couldn't be bothered to get out of bed, slept another hour, and got a Taxi. This post is not about that.
After a meeting of over an hour with a "Supervisor" from downstairs in regards to a client specific report i've made, Suzanne the person in charge of me (She's a data analyist, I'm just a pleb) couldn't follow what was going on, so fun times there.
The director interested with this report called us into the office.
During this meeting, this Supervisor had stated that visits done to customers over the phone rather than in person should count as Visits, the Director disagreed since we never actually physically visited them, I'm with him on this one, we could potentionally do whatever over the phone and claim it's a visit, and we do charge for visits.
Looking over some specific figures, on why we're doing this, and why not, the Supervisor said a few things starting with "What I think they're doing..." which I nearly laughed at. You're the supervisor, "they're" only doing what "they're" told, why arn't you telling them the right thing? Maybe you think it's the team leader who's at fault, but what the hell are you Supervising? Comments like "I'm with you, they're doing it wrong." just suggest to me you haven't got a clue what your team is up to, and you should Supervise it a bit.
Questions towards me often end up with answers like "Because you told me to" although the followup "No I didn't" often leaves me speechless.
I'm generally of the opinion that middle management is mostly a waste of space, clueless over whats going on under them, and not understanding of whats going on over them. If I even actually get to be middle management (I'm blogging at work, so probably never) I'll probably change my mind, but I'll hopefully not be saying "They're doing it wrong" and saying something like "They're not doing what I told them to" instead.
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The above post I tried to make the other day from work. I noticed it did save the info, so yay here it is!
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Catch Up
I did plan on posting more frequently to this blog, but the last couple of weeks have been hectic (by Hectic read i've been watching TV) but today i'm at work half an hour early, so I'm posting about a couple of things to catch up!
First off, sat for a week now in my new "team", and while the work is still extremely boring, it's not hard, and not as much trouble as I thought it would be, it still remains to be seen if it'll be "good" at any point though.
At the weekend I went to the Magic 2010 prerelease, where I played Black and White, and had a decent deck including 2 black removal spells, 2 serra angels and a white knight. Unfortunatly I just lost every game until the final round, where I won easily. All the loses were close, but usually to do with him having some 4/4 creatures, and me having little 2/1 and 2/2s a couple of games I lost due to them top decking the only card in their deck to win. I did get a bye (buy?) so went 2-2, but only played a total of 7 games, hardly worth £20 and the entire day.
Also, they were having the Huntik Regional Qualifiers at the shop at the same time, and with 15 people taking part, and the top 16 qualifying for the nationals, I put my name down and handed over my £5, got a promo card for taking part that I sold for £5. So Now i've qualified for the Nationals, and I might go, it seems like a simple enough game, I just need someone to teach me how to play, and to get some cards together.
Also played some "Dominion" which as a card game player, it appealed to me alot. I loved it, and couldn't get enough of playing game after game. I'm half tempted to buy it, even though we can play in the shop with whoever's copy that was, so I dunno who i'd play with with my copy...
On the Sunday went and played D&D, and my rogue performed well, doing more damage than anyone else. A slight misunderstanding of the rules on the GM's part ment I wasn't screwed as much as I should be when the Melee Ranger decided to run out of melee to let me deal with some dog thing by myself. The GM thought I had combat advantage, so I could Sneak Attack, but I didn't, so I did a good 15 damage instead of about 4.
We only cleared 3 rooms, since the group always plays slowly (smoke break, toilet break, another smoke break) but it was alright, and aparantly we've already got enough xp to be half way to level 2, so I'll need to ponder what level 2 power thing to take at some point.
So my continuing plan is to price up my WoW Cards to sell (while they're still worth something) while still pondering going to the Nationals. Learn to play Huntik, grab some cards, and think about going to the Nationals. Possibly make a Magic deck for fun, dig out Munchkin to play at the roleplay group since we're only roleplaying alternate weeks, the other weeks need filling.
I also need to get some more WoW Raiding and dailies done, but I can never be bothered.
First off, sat for a week now in my new "team", and while the work is still extremely boring, it's not hard, and not as much trouble as I thought it would be, it still remains to be seen if it'll be "good" at any point though.
At the weekend I went to the Magic 2010 prerelease, where I played Black and White, and had a decent deck including 2 black removal spells, 2 serra angels and a white knight. Unfortunatly I just lost every game until the final round, where I won easily. All the loses were close, but usually to do with him having some 4/4 creatures, and me having little 2/1 and 2/2s a couple of games I lost due to them top decking the only card in their deck to win. I did get a bye (buy?) so went 2-2, but only played a total of 7 games, hardly worth £20 and the entire day.
Also, they were having the Huntik Regional Qualifiers at the shop at the same time, and with 15 people taking part, and the top 16 qualifying for the nationals, I put my name down and handed over my £5, got a promo card for taking part that I sold for £5. So Now i've qualified for the Nationals, and I might go, it seems like a simple enough game, I just need someone to teach me how to play, and to get some cards together.
Also played some "Dominion" which as a card game player, it appealed to me alot. I loved it, and couldn't get enough of playing game after game. I'm half tempted to buy it, even though we can play in the shop with whoever's copy that was, so I dunno who i'd play with with my copy...
On the Sunday went and played D&D, and my rogue performed well, doing more damage than anyone else. A slight misunderstanding of the rules on the GM's part ment I wasn't screwed as much as I should be when the Melee Ranger decided to run out of melee to let me deal with some dog thing by myself. The GM thought I had combat advantage, so I could Sneak Attack, but I didn't, so I did a good 15 damage instead of about 4.
We only cleared 3 rooms, since the group always plays slowly (smoke break, toilet break, another smoke break) but it was alright, and aparantly we've already got enough xp to be half way to level 2, so I'll need to ponder what level 2 power thing to take at some point.
So my continuing plan is to price up my WoW Cards to sell (while they're still worth something) while still pondering going to the Nationals. Learn to play Huntik, grab some cards, and think about going to the Nationals. Possibly make a Magic deck for fun, dig out Munchkin to play at the roleplay group since we're only roleplaying alternate weeks, the other weeks need filling.
I also need to get some more WoW Raiding and dailies done, but I can never be bothered.
Friday, 3 July 2009
The Team i'm not yet in Sucks
I''ve mentioned this before, but the "change" in team for my position is already sucking, badly.
I like a bit of a challenge, and to do something a bit complex. So when someone gives me a list of accounts, and tells me to check them against 100 spreadsheets, i'm hardly over joyed. They only want to know which of the 100 spreadsheets these accounts are on (there is 1 each day, so when did these accounts appear and disappear?).
Quite quickly I send a spreadsheet, dates along the top, the accounts down the left. Each cell is either blank or has "Match" in there, you can now see what days each account was on the sheet.
I then get an email the next day (today). Could I give a total for each day, and how many didn't match. So, my new "boss" who aparantly is a fully qualified statisicion (I can't even spell it, and no, I won't check the spelling, why start now?) needs me to add up some columns of "Match"es. Yet again i'm passed the retarded job a 4 year old could manage, either because Suzanne is being lazy, stupid, or just wanting to impress on me she's incharge of me.
Yesterday there was also a meeting. In true fashion for the company, I was told to attend this meeting, without being told what it was about. After sitting there for an hour and a half, I was asked some questions, so time well spent there. After the first hour of the meeting, most of it was resolved (before I was involved, but I was still sat there). At which point, most people left, IT and me stayed, the idea being that Suzanne would come back in in half an hour, after IT was finished and it came to reporting. I however was based in the other building, and it would be a waste going back and forth.
The half an hour was up, Suzanne never came back, and she wasn't even needed, since it was all about some reports I do. I gave them the information they needed. Job Done.
And just now i've got an email from Suzanne, saying she was waiting to be called back in, when she wasn't (They said she should come back at 12), shes asking for the minutes of the meeting (someone was taking minutes? I didn't notice) and
"and agree on who is the best person to provide me with an update on what was decided regarding data and reporting requirements in my absence"
How is that supposed to be anyone but me?
How can a department I've not even moved to yet already be such a ball ache? I was planning at some point in doing an Access course, then looking for a new job, I think it might be time to crank that up a notch.
I like a bit of a challenge, and to do something a bit complex. So when someone gives me a list of accounts, and tells me to check them against 100 spreadsheets, i'm hardly over joyed. They only want to know which of the 100 spreadsheets these accounts are on (there is 1 each day, so when did these accounts appear and disappear?).
Quite quickly I send a spreadsheet, dates along the top, the accounts down the left. Each cell is either blank or has "Match" in there, you can now see what days each account was on the sheet.
I then get an email the next day (today). Could I give a total for each day, and how many didn't match. So, my new "boss" who aparantly is a fully qualified statisicion (I can't even spell it, and no, I won't check the spelling, why start now?) needs me to add up some columns of "Match"es. Yet again i'm passed the retarded job a 4 year old could manage, either because Suzanne is being lazy, stupid, or just wanting to impress on me she's incharge of me.
Yesterday there was also a meeting. In true fashion for the company, I was told to attend this meeting, without being told what it was about. After sitting there for an hour and a half, I was asked some questions, so time well spent there. After the first hour of the meeting, most of it was resolved (before I was involved, but I was still sat there). At which point, most people left, IT and me stayed, the idea being that Suzanne would come back in in half an hour, after IT was finished and it came to reporting. I however was based in the other building, and it would be a waste going back and forth.
The half an hour was up, Suzanne never came back, and she wasn't even needed, since it was all about some reports I do. I gave them the information they needed. Job Done.
And just now i've got an email from Suzanne, saying she was waiting to be called back in, when she wasn't (They said she should come back at 12), shes asking for the minutes of the meeting (someone was taking minutes? I didn't notice) and
"and agree on who is the best person to provide me with an update on what was decided regarding data and reporting requirements in my absence"
How is that supposed to be anyone but me?
How can a department I've not even moved to yet already be such a ball ache? I was planning at some point in doing an Access course, then looking for a new job, I think it might be time to crank that up a notch.
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Phones, and Apple
What to explain first? Well, the purpose of the post might help...
My phone contract is running out next month, and what I usually end up doing is when my contract runs out, ditching the phone and getting another. I like new phones, I like having a phone that's better than my current one, a bigger screen, a bigger camera, more space for music.
My current phone is a Nokia N95 8gig. And i'm having trouble figuring out what I'd like a phone to do that this one doesn't. The most obvious answer that springs to my mind is the application things you can get on the iPhone (according to the ads!) some of that stuff looks extremely useful, although I can split a bill into 5 in my head, some of the other stuff just screams as being brilliantly useful.
Last I checked, an iPhone didn't have a great camera though, and I like having a good camera. There is also the slight issue that i'm put off by Apple. It's very little to do with them doing a bad job, and more to do with gaming. I've never owned an Apple computer, but I tend to laugh at people who do, because games get made for PC's, then ported to Macs, it doesn't tend to be the other way round.
Apple has tended to offer better media though, and well before iPods, if you were doing any serious graphical work, you'd want an Apple over a PC. When iPods came out, I was listening to music from my phone, and I was damned if you thought I was going to pay £100 or more to carry around another device.
The Nokia I have now is the 3rd in a row, I had an LG before that, and another Nokia before that, so i'm kind of comfortable with Nokia phones. But it seems to me that the latest offerings from Nokia are lagging behind other people. The iPhone seems to offer much better music and application options, and if they've sorted the camera out on later models, it might be better all round. But the next trouble I have, is that iPhones seem so "Trendy" which has always slightly put me off anything.
I'm also quite confused that the company that offers the best in graphical media brought out a phone with such a poor camera.
I do realise this post is very disjointed, but I'm confused over the issue really. I'm half tempted to get a contract on the most expensive phone I can find, then sell it, and stick to using the N95. 8gig is enough space for me, the Camera is nice, and the leap from 5 megapixils to 8 isn't huge, and I'm in no rush, and i'm not sold that Touch Screen is a good idea, I try and avoid getting natural oils all over my screen, and I like texting while watching something else.
If I want to change the music on it, I tend to carry around my entire music collection on a portable 320gig harddrive, and I have my netbook usually since it's so light.
My phone contract is running out next month, and what I usually end up doing is when my contract runs out, ditching the phone and getting another. I like new phones, I like having a phone that's better than my current one, a bigger screen, a bigger camera, more space for music.
My current phone is a Nokia N95 8gig. And i'm having trouble figuring out what I'd like a phone to do that this one doesn't. The most obvious answer that springs to my mind is the application things you can get on the iPhone (according to the ads!) some of that stuff looks extremely useful, although I can split a bill into 5 in my head, some of the other stuff just screams as being brilliantly useful.
Last I checked, an iPhone didn't have a great camera though, and I like having a good camera. There is also the slight issue that i'm put off by Apple. It's very little to do with them doing a bad job, and more to do with gaming. I've never owned an Apple computer, but I tend to laugh at people who do, because games get made for PC's, then ported to Macs, it doesn't tend to be the other way round.
Apple has tended to offer better media though, and well before iPods, if you were doing any serious graphical work, you'd want an Apple over a PC. When iPods came out, I was listening to music from my phone, and I was damned if you thought I was going to pay £100 or more to carry around another device.
The Nokia I have now is the 3rd in a row, I had an LG before that, and another Nokia before that, so i'm kind of comfortable with Nokia phones. But it seems to me that the latest offerings from Nokia are lagging behind other people. The iPhone seems to offer much better music and application options, and if they've sorted the camera out on later models, it might be better all round. But the next trouble I have, is that iPhones seem so "Trendy" which has always slightly put me off anything.
I'm also quite confused that the company that offers the best in graphical media brought out a phone with such a poor camera.
I do realise this post is very disjointed, but I'm confused over the issue really. I'm half tempted to get a contract on the most expensive phone I can find, then sell it, and stick to using the N95. 8gig is enough space for me, the Camera is nice, and the leap from 5 megapixils to 8 isn't huge, and I'm in no rush, and i'm not sold that Touch Screen is a good idea, I try and avoid getting natural oils all over my screen, and I like texting while watching something else.
If I want to change the music on it, I tend to carry around my entire music collection on a portable 320gig harddrive, and I have my netbook usually since it's so light.
Tanking, falling away from goals...
After my Paladins' first trip to Naxx, I spent around 400g on the Auction House, upgrading his much needed Tanking gear. Every quest reward where there was a choice I took a Healing item, so generally my healing gear is a bit better. While it's true a fair bit of my Tanking gear is still level 70 stuff, i've also got a few more epics from Naxx on my Healer.
Naxx on tuesday I had Tanking as my main role for rolling (although I was still healing) and picked up 3/4 items, pity it wasn't more, and I hated losing on items, but still 3/4 tanking items is a nice number from 1 run, especially since I remember on my hunter doing run after run without getting a single item.
But defense is becoming a problem. After the Auction House trip, my Defense lept from 490 to 530, still 10 from the Cap. Then I got a couple of epics from Naxx, and my defense is getting lower... I'd have a blue with 80 Defense on it, and then an epic drops, with 50 more Stamina, a bunch of Dodge, maybe some block rating, and only 66 Defense. While the item is vastly superior, I need defense.
A possible solution is gemming defense. But none of these tanking epics have sockets on them.
This means it'll be a while before i'm in a raid shouting "Let me tank this boss!" especially since i've seen around 7 peices of T7 drop for me, and not won a single peice, even when i'm rolling on healing gear first, at least then I could complain it's not for the spec I need it for the most.
Tonight it's Ulduar, and I won't be allowed to take my paladin, it'll be Tomas the Hunter all the way, which I don't mind much, since my Paladin would have a fair bit of competition for loot, and the chances are other people there have earned it more, although I will be extremely cheeky and ask, if there are few or no paladin healers, the worst that can happen is Ian says no.
I do need some heroics, but i'm not in a rush until 3.2 when I can get great badges, but I want to be great by 3.2 so I can tank the new stuff... But who knows how long that will be away? I might easly get there, I might have no chance, I should do heroics anyway for rep and more items.
Naxx on tuesday I had Tanking as my main role for rolling (although I was still healing) and picked up 3/4 items, pity it wasn't more, and I hated losing on items, but still 3/4 tanking items is a nice number from 1 run, especially since I remember on my hunter doing run after run without getting a single item.
But defense is becoming a problem. After the Auction House trip, my Defense lept from 490 to 530, still 10 from the Cap. Then I got a couple of epics from Naxx, and my defense is getting lower... I'd have a blue with 80 Defense on it, and then an epic drops, with 50 more Stamina, a bunch of Dodge, maybe some block rating, and only 66 Defense. While the item is vastly superior, I need defense.
A possible solution is gemming defense. But none of these tanking epics have sockets on them.
This means it'll be a while before i'm in a raid shouting "Let me tank this boss!" especially since i've seen around 7 peices of T7 drop for me, and not won a single peice, even when i'm rolling on healing gear first, at least then I could complain it's not for the spec I need it for the most.
Tonight it's Ulduar, and I won't be allowed to take my paladin, it'll be Tomas the Hunter all the way, which I don't mind much, since my Paladin would have a fair bit of competition for loot, and the chances are other people there have earned it more, although I will be extremely cheeky and ask, if there are few or no paladin healers, the worst that can happen is Ian says no.
I do need some heroics, but i'm not in a rush until 3.2 when I can get great badges, but I want to be great by 3.2 so I can tank the new stuff... But who knows how long that will be away? I might easly get there, I might have no chance, I should do heroics anyway for rep and more items.
To Music or not to Music?
So, tomorrow night my girlfriend and some of her friends are going to watch GU Medicine, i've never heard them.
Seeing my girlfriend at the weekend is a carefully weighed process, do I see her Friday night or Saturday night? And involves some of these:
1) If I sleep for 12+ hours on Friday night, I feel great the rest of the weekend, Trying this on Saturday doesn't have the same effect. I can't sleep with Catherine that long, because, well, I don't know why, I just wake up earlier.
2) If I go out on the same night as Catherine, then it avoids the "What do you want to do?" question, since we're out. We've been going out for nearly 5 years and still don't live together mostly due to money (we like spending it too much, rather than not having it).
3) If she's going out on Saturday, Win win for points 1 and 2, otherwise, what to do...
4) Where is she going out? To see a band i've never heard of rates low.
5) Is she wearing something specific? She looks great, if she's going out, I can be swayed to come out as well if she's wearing something really nice.
They're just some examples.
A weekend or two ago she was going out and I didn't want to come, but she was wearing something specific and it swayed me. We watched a band i'm not particularly bothered about, in a pub I hate (and this was only the second time i've been in it). After the band finished, we stayed in the pub until 4am or something.
I personally like Metal, some stuff that you might call Dance, and some Classic Rock. Indie music has always bored, annoyed, whatever me, and I really can't do with it, whether it's something like Oasis, or something more moden like Kaiser Chiefs. And it's Indie that this pub played.
I had a crap night, listening to crap music, in a pub where the prices were high for bad drinks.
So, this weekend, Friday night, Catherine is going to see a band in this same crap pub, do I want to go? Looking at the evidance, no. But, this time Tom is going, and he said if the music was bad we could go somewhere else, will he follow that up? He can be a let down in situations like that, due to changing his mind and wanting to stay with "The Girls", Catherine and her attractive stick thin single best friend, who Tom swears he's over and couldn't care less about.
But having a Sunday free would be nice, not sure what for though. And we could do with going to the Travel Agent on Saturday. And I'm unsure if another Saturday night watching crappy TV will be overly exciting, although it's nice to spend the time with Catherine. Unfortunatly, the question "What do you want to do?" leads to me responding "Play on the Computer?"...
Seeing my girlfriend at the weekend is a carefully weighed process, do I see her Friday night or Saturday night? And involves some of these:
1) If I sleep for 12+ hours on Friday night, I feel great the rest of the weekend, Trying this on Saturday doesn't have the same effect. I can't sleep with Catherine that long, because, well, I don't know why, I just wake up earlier.
2) If I go out on the same night as Catherine, then it avoids the "What do you want to do?" question, since we're out. We've been going out for nearly 5 years and still don't live together mostly due to money (we like spending it too much, rather than not having it).
3) If she's going out on Saturday, Win win for points 1 and 2, otherwise, what to do...
4) Where is she going out? To see a band i've never heard of rates low.
5) Is she wearing something specific? She looks great, if she's going out, I can be swayed to come out as well if she's wearing something really nice.
They're just some examples.
A weekend or two ago she was going out and I didn't want to come, but she was wearing something specific and it swayed me. We watched a band i'm not particularly bothered about, in a pub I hate (and this was only the second time i've been in it). After the band finished, we stayed in the pub until 4am or something.
I personally like Metal, some stuff that you might call Dance, and some Classic Rock. Indie music has always bored, annoyed, whatever me, and I really can't do with it, whether it's something like Oasis, or something more moden like Kaiser Chiefs. And it's Indie that this pub played.
I had a crap night, listening to crap music, in a pub where the prices were high for bad drinks.
So, this weekend, Friday night, Catherine is going to see a band in this same crap pub, do I want to go? Looking at the evidance, no. But, this time Tom is going, and he said if the music was bad we could go somewhere else, will he follow that up? He can be a let down in situations like that, due to changing his mind and wanting to stay with "The Girls", Catherine and her attractive stick thin single best friend, who Tom swears he's over and couldn't care less about.
But having a Sunday free would be nice, not sure what for though. And we could do with going to the Travel Agent on Saturday. And I'm unsure if another Saturday night watching crappy TV will be overly exciting, although it's nice to spend the time with Catherine. Unfortunatly, the question "What do you want to do?" leads to me responding "Play on the Computer?"...
Work, sleep and Magic related Issues.
9th post, and my second "sleeping" tag... probably not good.
Anyway, last night I went into the Local card shop, to play some Magic the Gathering. Now, playing card games has always been one of my favorite things to do, and after having 2 years of not playing any really, I *really* miss it.
One of the main reasons I stopped was the having to spend vast amounts of money to play and have a chance of winning. So the first question asked to me when I mentioned playing Magic involved why that game since it's one of the most money hungry ones. The answer, Sealed Deck and Draft.
So last night was a Draft, £10, get 3 boosters, take a card, pass, etc until all the card are gone, then make your deck with what you've got! Quite a good way to get some playing done, without borrowing a deck I have to figure out, or spending lots of cash.
I went 2-1, which shows I'm still ok, but 1 of the wins was a buy(bye?) so I only won 1 match, each match however is best of three, and the one I lossed I still won a game, so out of 5 matches, I won 3, not a bad record.
The main problem is that I now finish work at 4:15, which ment even with working late at work (10 minutes! I know, not alot) that I got there at 5pm, and because of the first round by, I didn't get my first game till around 9pm, so 4 hours of little to do. Also, By the time everything had finished at half 10, I'd played 5 games in total. With 5 games played, I didn't get home till 11:15, and I had something to eat then totally failed to get much sleep.
Today i've been horribly tired, I grabbed a book this morning (American Gods) just incase a 4 hour lull happens again I've got something to occupy my time. And get told i've got a meeting at 10am, not told what it's about, i'm told who it's with, but i've never heard of them. In the meeting (2 hours worth of sitting around) I'm mostly bored, and get asked some awkward questions which need diagrams to answer...
I'm wondering if the weekend's 2 hour sleep is catching up with me, thursday morning is quite nice for it to have lasted this long. Work on the other hand is a bit of a bitch, Suzanne is starting to replace Dan in the "So, you two have worked on this" in regards to a bunch of jobs i've done alone, and it got a bit awkward in the meeting when the question "Do we need Suzanne in here? Does she have anything to do with these stats?" arised, and I don't have a clue of the answer.
Since Friday, she's bombarded me with reports to do, i'm trying to decide how this fits with my change to working under her.
Anyway, last night I went into the Local card shop, to play some Magic the Gathering. Now, playing card games has always been one of my favorite things to do, and after having 2 years of not playing any really, I *really* miss it.
One of the main reasons I stopped was the having to spend vast amounts of money to play and have a chance of winning. So the first question asked to me when I mentioned playing Magic involved why that game since it's one of the most money hungry ones. The answer, Sealed Deck and Draft.
So last night was a Draft, £10, get 3 boosters, take a card, pass, etc until all the card are gone, then make your deck with what you've got! Quite a good way to get some playing done, without borrowing a deck I have to figure out, or spending lots of cash.
I went 2-1, which shows I'm still ok, but 1 of the wins was a buy(bye?) so I only won 1 match, each match however is best of three, and the one I lossed I still won a game, so out of 5 matches, I won 3, not a bad record.
The main problem is that I now finish work at 4:15, which ment even with working late at work (10 minutes! I know, not alot) that I got there at 5pm, and because of the first round by, I didn't get my first game till around 9pm, so 4 hours of little to do. Also, By the time everything had finished at half 10, I'd played 5 games in total. With 5 games played, I didn't get home till 11:15, and I had something to eat then totally failed to get much sleep.
Today i've been horribly tired, I grabbed a book this morning (American Gods) just incase a 4 hour lull happens again I've got something to occupy my time. And get told i've got a meeting at 10am, not told what it's about, i'm told who it's with, but i've never heard of them. In the meeting (2 hours worth of sitting around) I'm mostly bored, and get asked some awkward questions which need diagrams to answer...
I'm wondering if the weekend's 2 hour sleep is catching up with me, thursday morning is quite nice for it to have lasted this long. Work on the other hand is a bit of a bitch, Suzanne is starting to replace Dan in the "So, you two have worked on this" in regards to a bunch of jobs i've done alone, and it got a bit awkward in the meeting when the question "Do we need Suzanne in here? Does she have anything to do with these stats?" arised, and I don't have a clue of the answer.
Since Friday, she's bombarded me with reports to do, i'm trying to decide how this fits with my change to working under her.
- She's just been loaded with alot of work, I'm needed to help. Result: I'm her lacky
- She's always had this work, but now she doesn't have to do it, I can. Result: I'm her lacky
- I'm trying to think of a result where i'm not a lacky.
Anyway, dispite the huge "Month End Report" disrupting jobs she's giving me, I'll have to see how it pans out. It does seem like with the IT team, anything I get is boring cross referencing, and has no interest to me whats so ever.
That's another reason I want to get back into card games, I feel like it's been ages since I engaged much thought into anything. Maybe I'd just being big headed, but I like a challenge and i'm not getting anything challenging...
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