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Old - Home, News, and Stuff...
Bus Stops | 2007-06-19 |
How exactly does one rid him or herself of a bus stop? Before last night's little homeowner's association meeting, I knew there was one elementary school bus stop right in my driveway. Maurice and I would walk out to go to work in the morning and see about 5-6 kids out front. One day we were running late and saw about 20-25 kids. That's a bit much, especially when we can't even move our car out of the driveway without worrying about hitting a kid.
Last night's meeting revealed that not only is there the elementary bus stop, but also a middle and high school stop. I'm obviously not awake when they make those poor souls hop onto a bus, so I never noticed it before... though I was reassured that it's only a few kids and they don't do much of anything in the mornings. The elementary school kids are a different story, because they're full of energy and love to use my car as a jungle gym (no scratches though -- amazing).
The other revelation was that the parents are huddling by my doorstep, on my small porch-like area with the doorbell, wreath, etc. to hide from the sun, rain, or other mishap weather effects NOVA decides to greet us with for the day. That angers me. It angers me, because these parents should know better than to disrespect someone else's property. These INGRATES are huddling next to MY door every morning with their brats. Absurd!
That may sound harsh, but after four years of living in Northern Virginia, I'm about sick of it. People up here have little to no respect for their neighbors. They're loud, obnoxious, and rude to boot. I just don't understand it. If they stood under my doorstep in North Carolina, you better believe I'd come out with a shotgun and shoo them off (and yes, that happened to me as a kid a few times!!!). Of course, you can't do that now. Nowadays parents NEGOTIATE with their kids, not discipline them. I see it all of the time, "Please calm down [Insert Brat Name Here] so that we can discuss this." HELL NO. There's no discussion. There is only spanking and time-out.
Anyhow, I think that as long as the HOA can call the school board, it will be dealt with. If the school board won't change the bus stop's location, I'll simply call the police every morning and report trespassers. If the police don't come, I'll take matters into my own hands and make my doorstep a very uncomfortable place to stay by buying myself a vial of Liquid Ass and spraying down the place. That'll learn the damned yanks! |
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Beta is Fun! | 2007-06-11 |
So one of the earlier beta stages started late last week for Warhammer. I've kept myself pretty distant from the PVE content up until this past week, because I didn't want to burn myself out. It's very easy to do that when you see the game every day. I have to say, it makes it so much more fun to have people to play the game with now that we have more testing. I logged in this weekend and had a rough time trying to log out and do my graduate work this weekend!
The best part about beta is hearing people's feedback. Sometimes at the office, you get so jaded and bogged down from the work. Don't get me wrong! It's great work, but it is still "work." Hearing people's reactions, especially friends and family, is just precious to me. It's also really boosting Maurice's morale to hear people say nice things about the hard work his team has been producing for the past year.
I wish I could write more on my experiences testing with the other participants, but I think someone would shave my head and boot me to the curb for NDA violations :P |
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New New Role | 2007-05-24 |
Yeah so it's kind of a running joke amongst friends that I last about 90 days before there's some sort of focus shift leaving me in the lap of a new manager. It's just a byproduct of what is needed when and where, no biggy. It also offers up a slew of new opportunities with each change.
During the last milestone I got to wear the UI Engineer Hat. It was fun, and I got a lot done. I also learned a lot of new things and found a bit of my old confidence again. It's always nice to hear people tell you they think you're doing a nice job, especially when you were unsure of how you would do in the first place.
Yesterday I was informed that I'm needed to wear the Server Engineer Hat. It's a shiny hat, and I've only worn it in a temporary measure for the past four years when changes were needed for the tools. As far as I know, I'll be working on the community systems team, which really fits right up my alley considering my past experience with the Drunken Friar and other various community exploits.
The short of it is we need more server engineers and don't have enough to go around. I'm just glad I can fit in many places and haven't really painted my career into a corner by specializing into anything in particular. |
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Research Paper Done | 2007-04-30 |
This probably isn't very interesting for anyone who reads this blog, but I did complete my research paper for one of my courses this semester. I received an A, so I'm very happy :)
A PDF of the paper can be found here: MSWE603_RP_Nelson_Georgia.pdf
In other news, my work on reskinning the UI is going nicely. I am learning a *lot* about our UI system and how it all works, which is great. I didn't expect to pick it up so quickly. |
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Development Blunders #1 | 2007-04-20 |
Not everyone is perfect, and people do put things into the game from time to time that make you go "WTF WERE YOU THINKING?!?!?!" The "thrusting frenzy," a long purple dagger that dropped in Camelot comes to mind... so does the ability "Web Wad" from Imperator that couldn't be used until you fired the "Pump Shot" ability at least two times. But yesterday I got cries of laughter from my coworkers on AIM, email, and to my face over an accidental ambient sound blunder that made it into one of the early Empire zones under development.
Apparently this area was supposed to have dying people moaning and calling for help. The sounds were in place; however, the bodies were not. Jen sent me a jump point to GM-hop my character to... I put on my headphones... and listened. Oh-My-God. You'd hear moaning men, grunting men, moaning women, and then another grunting male with a moaning woman. Oh yes, those were dying sounds, but they way they meshed together made it sound like two brits were getting it on in the bushes.
The hilariously embarassing part came into play when I realized it was my placeholder voice over I had done for the Empire Female. Needless to say, Maurice got a lot of jovial shit from his team. I wasn't angry, more embarassed than anything really... but I let it sink in for what it was, a "woopsie" that would be immediately stripped out and left in the back of developer minds when we get drunk at company parties and talk about "back when."
In other news, I finished my first UI task this week, and a bit earlier than I expected. The scenario summary window will display stats on the scenario (damage done, healing done, kills, etc.). I didn't make this from scratch; rather, it was already built by Kristen before shiny graphics were provided to the UI staff. I simply applied the new skin and added some new functionality. Still, it was a good and FUN introductory task to get to know how the UI all connects. I don't think anyone would expect me to hop in head-first and create a new UI window all alone my first week in :) Regardless, I still feel proud of myself for doing it -- even if it was somewhat minor -- it's a step in the right direction for me and the future of my career at Mythic. |
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New Role | 2007-04-16 |
For four years I've been at Mythic. Three and a half years of that time has been dedicated to internal tools development... the stuff players will never see. I enjoyed working on tools; however, the work was only appreciated by those that used the tools. Why on Earth would management care about a tool? It doesn't affect the bottom line, nor the marketing reaction to the game. Sometimes it's hard for people to see why tools are so important. Namely, that without them, it would take twice as long to build Warhammer. I can't imagine how some of Maurice's guys would react if they were told to try to build the game off of Excel spreadsheets alone. I think some heads would explode. Nevertheless, somehow making characters move around is more "important" and more "advanced" than developing internal applications that increase developer productivity. This thought process is something, which I will never understand.
I've never felt like I was doing anything terribly important or that I was part of a team. I'm thrown in a cube and I work alone. That's what I've done for four years... work alone. I recently took a risk by telling my manager that I wanted to move into client work -- specifically the user interface. I felt my work with graphical UI development on the tools would fit in best there. Technically, I think I could do a good job on the server too, but it seemed like the interface team needed more people.
I was shocked to find out that my requests were pulling through, and though this happened a week ago, I still felt like I would jinx it if I posted anything. Believe me... I've gotten excited about role changes in the past and have had my heart crushed two days later. Sometimes it's best to keep things to yourself until you know it's for sure. I've seen the next milestone schedule, and I'm clearly labeled on it... I figured it was safe enough to brag about :)
So with that, I am on the client staff now. I've been tasked with some really small things to let me have that learning curve. This week and part of the next I will be working on restructuring the scenarios UI that shows all of the data on the scenario (kills, damage done, etc.). So far everything is going smoothly, and I only try to ask questions when necessary -- still, I do have to ask ;) |
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I am weak | 2007-03-26 |
I'm weak. That's right, I said it. I'm w-e-a-k. I resubbed to EVE online this past weekend after buckling under the pressure of seeing GDC media slowly leak to the new sites. I always liked the game, but I could never find anything to do without risking open war by joining a half-assed player corp. Now I have a chance to join one, so I'm looking forward to the chance to actually be a part of something in the game.
Hrm, so about WOW... I'm playing. I'm 70, so there's nothing else left for me to do except sit around waiting for a raid... and even then, I don't want to raid. My guild seems hell-bent on putting certain specs in the wrong positions. We have a balance druid that thinks she can main heal. That's fine and dandy, and sure she can heal a good bit, but she runs out of mana halfway through most fights and can barely keep up with the damage being dealt to these people. Does she respec? No. She continues to insist on getting in on those raids in a main healer slot, which belittles the efforts of those who did spec for healing. She nudges someone like me out of a spot, a Disc/Holy priest with over 700 +healing and an 11k mana pool. That's insane. That's just... wrong.
So it's not the game that frustrates me really, it's the people. Every once in a while they act like brats and it drives me crazy. I can put up with it only so much before my head explodes and I have to take a break. Now is one of those times. I log in to check mail and log out. If she thinks she can heal so damn well, she might as well do the job... because myself and the other priest simply aren't going to raid anymore. They aren't willing to listen to reason. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you simply can't play the offspec in another manner. I could never main heal on my shadowpriest in this expansion. No way in hell. |
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