Monday, June 27, 2005

@-D---- The white dragon dodges your Magic Missile

After months of play, I'm finally getting better at Nethack!


----------
/ \
/ REST \
/ IN \
/ PEACE \
| Hiroyuki |
| 10451 Au |
| petrified by a |
| cockatrice |
| corpse |
| |
| 2005 |
*| * * * | *
_________)/\\_//(\/(/\)/\//\/|_)_______

Sayonara Hiroyuki the Samurai...

You turned to stone in The Dungeons of Doom on dungeon level 20 with 86483
points,
and 10451 pieces of gold, after 13279 moves.
You were level 12 with a maximum of 110 hit points when you turned to stone.
--More--


I got off to a great start, and proceeded to kick some serious ass! Along the way, I picked up the much sought amulet of life-saving (after your die, you get resurrected!) and I nearly used it on three occasions, including my fight with the white dragon, as depicted in the title of this post. As you can see from my tombstone, I made it to level 20, and was petrefied by a cocatrice corpse. You may be wondering... why were you petrefied by a cocatrice CORPSE?! Well, to those patrons of Nethack, the answer would be obvious... I was blindfolded. Why was I blindfolded? Because when you are telepathic, you can "see" any living monster on the level, but only when you are blind. I used the blindfold to see what monsters I were on the level.

Which begs the question: "why would being blindfolded cause you to die at the hands of a dead cocatrice???"

When you are blind you cannot see (I'm glad that's clear) and therefore, to find items, and other inanimate objects around you, you must feel for them. SOOOOO, if I were to walk over some items, I would feel on the ground, and find out what they are. If I feel on the ground, and find a cocatrice corpse, I would have to touch the cocatrice, and those who know their mythical beasts, know that a cocatrice is a dragon which rooster-like features who can turn you to stone with a simple touch!


Yikes... better keep some dead lizards handy!

My first death (and use of my amulet of life-saving) was after a huge fight (which included my slaying the white dragon :) I defeated a cocatrice sometime during the fight. While I was navigating the dungeon blindfolded to make sure nothing could sneak up on me, I happened upon a cocatrice corpse, which turned me to stone and forced the use of my amulet of life-saving. Once on level 20, I fought off some elf lords, and apes, and (with the help of my telepathy and blindfold) avoided the invisable cocatrice for as long as I could. When it came time to fight it, I killed it, and then (not learning from my previous mistake) walked over the body, felt what was on the ground, and...
Sayonara Hiroyuki the Samurai...

Though I wonder, if I walk up to a cocatrice corpse with my blindfold off, I can see the cocatrice corpse, and don't have to touch it. But what if I walked up to an invisable cocatrice corpse? Would I have to feel for it anyways? I hope not, because the DEV team thinks of EVERYTHING!!

On a side note, one can avoid such a fate by simply wearing some form of gloves. I had only run across one pair of gloves on my adventures into the Mazes of Menace and they were cursed anyways... Though wearing those cursed gloves would have saved me from those two deaths... and it IS possible to remove curses by dipping the item in water... aw crap... I could have survived... Oh well. Now I have to get to thinking up a new Japanese name for my new samurai character. Nethack, why must I love you so?

Those who wish to learn more about Nethack, can head over to www.Nethack.org and get some more information. Those who want to play, follow this link:
telnet://nethack.alt.org

Critics call nethack "ASCIIcking"

If you laughed at that, you are a geek, I know because I did!

And for those of you who are interested, here's an artist's rendition of Hiroyuki snowboarding...

Saturday, June 18, 2005

I'm back baby!

Ok, I'm over it. I suppose the choice to deliver an incomplete thingy is just another one of those command decisions that has to be made in some situations. Aaaaaaaaaanyways.

I promised to post more, so here I am, back to post on what? why, paintball of course! :>

I've played once in the past two months. And that time was five weeks ago. Heh... I had a pretty negative experience (which has never been enough to deter me from playing) But, for some reason, I just didn't have the drive to go out and play. So I got rusty... Ahem...

So I went out today because I REALLY wanted to go. My girlfriend was at a family thing, so it was just me. It was the Friendly Fire event I mentioned a few posts ago, so I was ready to have a good time. Before we get started, I take a swig of mountain dew livewire (the BEST dew EVER!) and head out to the field.

Once I get out there I test fire a few times, and see that I'm not getting any air. great, the screwy valve on my 4oz is acting up again. figures. So I unscrew the tank, and change to 12 grams (they always work =)) It was still firing weird, so I gave up and walked back to the car. On the way, I realized that I must have put it together wrong, because phantoms don't just *stop working* I mean... They're not Shockers! (burn!) So I start opening it up in the trunk when it hits me, I haven't oiled my baby in months! I quickly drop some oil in the ASA, charge it, and dry fire a few times. *whew* I head to the range and fire off a few, and discover that I'm shooting real low. I check out the TCP and it looks like it's all the way down... With my new light springs, the velocity needs to be set as high as it can be to make it to 280. Now I start to wonder if my springs are acting funny from the heat. (very remote...) I head back to the car and start searching for the spring set. Only to find that I left them at home. Could this be the end for our hero?! In desperation I decide that I should try to get a few more turns out of my velocity adjuster, so I start turning it, and it turns about 7 times... Ok, I must have turned it out while cleaning it ^_^;; I take a few shots, and my phantom is back in action!

Now that I've de-rustified my phantom... I've just got to de-rust myself.

We play a few uneventful games and I start feeling queasy. normal. you just haven't played in so long that the stress and strain of playing is making your stomach upset. this happened the first time you played. no big. I continue to feel worse, and decide it might we wise to sit down. I then proceeded to throw up the entirety of the small swig of mountain dew I took before playing. Wow, ok, THAT was making my stomach upset?! Whatever. I start to feel better but not yet play better! and resume one of the games in progress.

We play about three more games inwhich I play a very small part. it sure it taking some time for me to get back into the swing of things! We have lunch, and I head to the 3 man speedball field to wait for the start of the "1 on 1"s. There's a small group of what one could only describe as agg hk kids with an apparent JT sponsorship... riiiiight... I count them and see that they're even, so I don't ask if I can play on like I usually do. (I'm always eager at the opportunity to take a willing pupil to pump school) They turn to me, and ask if I want to play. I [insert evil grin here] accept. I take out 3 or 4 of them, and pretty much end the game. Afterwards they're all standing around and I tell them that a private group is coming and if they want to play again, they'll need to play quickly. The resounding reply is "err, we need more paint... yeah... more paint..." One of the players is upset that they're not playing again. I offer to play him, to which he replies, "... can you DO that?" "err, what?" "play me with a pump?" 0_0 "yes. I can." "You know that I've got a semi right?" "yeah, don't worry about me. I'll be fine." I fire one shot at him, and after seeing him play, decide to take it easy on him. I toy with him for a bit, and then when he tries to flank me I hit him in the leg. Two shots fired After the round, the group insists that they still need to leave to get paint, then hang out to watch the 1 on 1s for 15 minutes. Despite my preparedness I step onto my first round of 1 on 1s with a near-empty 12 gram... Intelligent! So it takes me all of ONE shot to realize that I need to change 12 grams. So, I very carefully divide attention between changing the 12 gram, and not looking like I'm trying to change a 12 gram. =) I get it changed and it takes me all of two shots (the first bounced) to get him. On my next 1 on 1 round I get gogged for playing sloppy. a little pissed at myself, but I didn't really care. I'd rather have someone else win and come back again I like the time after the 1 on 1s because everyone is just standing around, and it usually turns into a few pretty good games on the 3 man speedball field. We play a 5 on 5 game where I do alright, but by the time the next game starts I'm at 100% of my game. I run a pattern to the center 50 off the break, and take out the back right who was playing his bunker so loose that I could see more than half his body when I looked out. After he went out, I saw a 6"x3" area between the spool and the standup that was dark. I shot at it and heard the tell-tail sound of pants being hit I called the player out and he reluctantly left the field. I then moved my attention to the back center player, and after a bit of a fight he went out. There were two in the back left spool/standup I was in the center 50 and keeping an eye on them. After a bit of battle, I started to hear some shots where they shouldn't have been. I suspected one of the players moved to the left 40 spool. So I posted just to the left of it to make sure I caught him in case he decided to make a bunker move to the 50. I was just about to check on the guy in the back left, when I saw a blue vforce profiler pop into my sites, which was soon obscured by a splat of white paint over the mouth. I checked on the back left player quickly to find him moving to bunker up the left tape, I took a shot at him, and ran back to the right side of the 50 bunker as he hit the left side running and firing. He kept running past the 50, and curved around another bunker still firing, it took me two shots to get him. When he started walking off the field, I heard from the side-lines: "The pump wins!" Oh yeah. I'm back.

Afterwards, I caught up with some of my friends who are on a pump team. They are also quite good. I can only consistently eliminate one member of their team. I've hit another member once, and I've never hit the last. They ask me to join them on speedzone and by the time I get there they're about to play some poor souls. The two pump teammates against a pump and two semis, until I walk on to "even" the teams [insert another evil grin here]. We make short work of them, and one of the semis on the opposing team leaves, so I go on their team. After a long battle, I finally shoot out the guy I've never shot out before. twice... oops... He was stepping out, and I took the shot at him, and got back in, when I came back out, I saw him there still and shot him again. When I took the first shot, he was just standing there, so I wondered what was wrong, so I asked him, and before he could respond, his teammate bunkered me, and made short work of the my teammate. I'd like to think that if I knew for sure that the first player was out, I would have turned my attention to his teammate, and nailed him mid-bunker. But that's just speculation... The next round we all broke to our positions, and after some battling I moved up a couple bunkers to a better position (just to keep them from taking them), and we lose our semi teammate. After some more battling, the first guy I shot out the last time popped up out of a bunker 10 feet from me much to my surprise I then battled with him for about 10 more rounds before I needed to change 12grams... fuck. if he hears even the SLIGHTEST hiss from me changing 12 grams, I'm fucked with no lube. I stifle the sound with one glove, and twist with the other, fortunately, there was only a very small hiss as I unscrewed the empty powerlet. After I was back in action I battled a bit more with him, knowing too well how close I was to being bunkered, until it ended abruptly, I shot him out in one of our exchanges of fire. Wow. A few long balls is one thing, but to nail him in an evenly matched close range snap shooting contest? Awesome. by the way, when I play these guys, I have to get in so quickly, I rarely see whether or not my shots hit so when he got up to leave, I asked him what was wrong again. still not fully believing my skill. I was a little perplexed at how to get a better angle on the remaining player. I battled with him a bit and finally decided that my best move would be to a bunker in the middle (he was in a bunker to the center-left) The only problem was that the bunker was parallel to his, and about 10 feet ahead of his. So I would have a good angle on him, but very little cover (because I'd be sitting in the corner farthest from him), and very little chance of not getting spotting running there, or being heard either running there and sliding in. (still remembering that I could hear his approach before his bunker the last game) Just then I hear the train passing... I'm such a dick. I use the sound of the train to mask my approach to the bunker, and catch him totally by surprise, but still his reflexes save him from getting hit. He moves back and I sit at my bunker properly happy to use it for its fullest abilities. My teammate moves up and gets shot out just as I take out the last guy. My second shot on this player. Great fucking day.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Forgiveness Please

Sorry for the lack of updates. That's it.


I suppose you think you deserve an update... Well... whatever.


Ok, so I wound up getting an iPod for my girlfriend. She enjoyed it so much I wound up getting one of my own. I'm listening to it right now, but yeah I forgot what I was going to say.
I'm just a little preoccupied with work recently. RECENTLY?! Ok, so work's great, but it's just really taking a lot out of me. (Like this web log) Most recently, I've been stressing this report/project thing for the past four days. Yeah, about 5 hours a day on average Which, coupled with the urgency associated with it for some reason They wanted us to hurry up, and then took forever sending the check... a week and a half later they're all about hurrying up! go fig. Oh, yeah, and they're doing some kind of monkey business to keep me from getting a solid bead on their network. I'm convinced they're screwing with me. What's worse, is that the lead engineer, and the CTO are just letting it slide. What the fuck ever happened to integrity??? When I told the CTO about the initial bit of strangeness, and what I suspected was happening (they were trying to get a gold star on their security test by cheating)

He was really upset by it, and was not going to sign his name on an incomplete report. So then, more wierdness happens, and I just kind of blow it off, THEN even MORE unexplainable crap starts happening, and when I send the e-mail saying that I'm almost sure they're fucking around on this report to get a better score, noone give a shit. "eh, well, it really needs to be done by tomorrow... But it would be incomplete then. Well... it really needs to be done by tomorrow...


I mean, I'm not really a dick, but that's fucked. And on TOP of that, the engineer that's going to be presenting the report, wants a day or two to change the format that is (agreeably) old, to something more user-friendly. Cool! But then she gets on my tits about turning it in "late" I really needed more time to reformat it, because the director of IT isn't going to understand what you gave me. If I was to give it to you in another format, I missed the e-mail. Well I know it's the same format that has always been used, but I just wanted to change it all around. I just rescheduled the meeting for Monday. That's fine. I understand. But when it gets down to the wire, and the customer (or one of their IT staff) is fucking up the results, you have to make the decision between complete, or now. And for all we know, the IT guy is fucking us up, so he can make us look bad. not that turning in an incomplete report doesn't make us look bad all by itself...


And what really gets me, is that the customer won't even know it's incomplete! They'll glance at it, and toss it into the pile of SEC filings! And what gets me EVEN MORE, is that the head engineer, and the CTO know this, and they're getting away with the incomplete report because they want it on Friday. I'm the only one saying "yeah, I COULD send it over, but it would be incomplete!" "Yeah... well... friday..." Well excuse me for taking some pride in my work damnit. I'm the only one upset by the fact that the customer isn't getting what they're paying for. Oh, by the way the customer doesn't even WANT it, they HAVE to do it because they're a publicly traded company!


So, to recap, the customer HAS to get a security audit done, they contract us to do it, they don't pay us for a week and a half, they demand we hurry after we finally get the check, they procede to disturb my ability to do the work we were contracted for, they want the report ASAP, I keep seeing wierd shit, so I have to backtrack, and do things over, I share this fact with everyone concerned, and they reply with a resounding; "Well... just finish it up, the customer is clapping his hands impatiently!" Way to go guys. Show some fucking backbone. At least pretend not to roll over so easily. It's not like we don't make bank. What's another 5 grand if we earned it by cutting corners and letting our customer tamper with the results and let them get away with it.


I can understand wanting to make the customer happy, but letting the customer dictate what happens when, how, and why is not (in my experience) our company style. ESPECIALLY when the the customer is paying for it against their will.


frustration


I'm just really starting to feel work catching up with me. Physically I mean. There aren't many mental things that can make me physically ill, because there are very few things that I take so seriously. But, like it or not, it seems work has become one of those things. Greaaaaaaat...


I guess there's two ways you can take work... You can either keep work and not-work completely seperate, in mind and practice, or you can mesh the two together, and hope the reaction of the two doesn't tie your intestines into a sheep's shank knot. it's not pretty... I guess you could call me idealistic, but I actually believe in "riding the brand". It's so rare that you find a company that you'd even be willing to put 75% of yourself into, that if you do, I figgure go for it. Everyone wants to belong to something bigger than themselves (it's what religion is about). Maybe business is religion to some people.


The only problem, is that lately, the brand has been riding you. You've got hoof-prints up your back, but you're still trying not to wince. maybe I'm not doing things the way I should be. Well, this is just an isolated incident. is it? is it possible you've been so blinded by your devotion the brand, that things have been getting worse and you haven't even noticed? if I haven't noticed, then how am I supposed to answer that? do you feel you're being taken advantage of? what's your real value to the company? i think this is the hole people find themselves in when they overthink things. I don't want to be in that hole. Were they overthinking things or just seeing clearly? there's no way to know that because you leave the company and either made a huge mistake or made the best most you could have. There's no way of knowing after it's done. Fair enough, continue to bust your but for a company that doesn't pay you what you're worth

better to make less working for a company you like with people you can believe in, than making more working at a job you hate with people you hate. is it? is work your life? I don't know. do you want it to be? I'm not sure. I don't think so. then why let work get to you when it can be vestigial to your life's experiences? i think it would be hard to not let work get to you at all, it takes up so much of your life, how could it not? it's been done. rethink your allegance. dont forget that at the end of the day, you are the one living your life. yeah, but at the end of the day, I also have to look at myself in the mirror. there's no shame is being selfish. and your friends and coworkers would WANT you to go some place better. it's not really so selfish if others would want the same for you. If I think bob is a nice guy and I wish him success, and he screws over jim to obtain success, am I happy for him? but you're not screwing over anyone.
youre just trying to be happy be happy by letting down my friends/coworkers? don't be so dramatic they want what's best for you. if what's best for you lies elsewhere, they'd be remiss to keep you from your opportunity.