v45.1 :: Things My Kids Taught Me

Having children can be one of the most rewarding experience in a parent's life.  Know that person is made up of the same things that make up you can be exciting and frightening at the same time.  While we, as parents, have a duty and obligation to raise our children and teach them, there are moments where we are also taught by our children.

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I used to think I was "cool".  I used to look at my parents and see "old" and vowed that I would never be like that when I grow up.  Well here I sit several decades later and while I still think I'm that "hip" dad, my teenage children quickly remind me how "old" I really am.  But this old dog has learned a few new tricks over the years, thanks to those kids.

There is more to YouTube than cat and dog videos

It's true!  I used to think YouTube was good for posting videos of your cat or dog doing silly antics.  Often you would find how-to videos or do-it-yourself type clips, but little did I know there was a vast world of young entertainers out there spanning all sorts of different subjects.  Take gaming for example.  There are "kids" out there making decent money reviewing and playing video games.  Who would have thought that playing a video game would actually let someone make money?  This has spawned off sites like Twitch and more recently, Google's YouTube for game streaming.  Gaming and computer companies will pay these young people to play their game, give their reviews and in some cases, even provide them with the hardware to do it.  The more popular you are on YouTube, the more money you can make.  It's unreal!

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Video Games based on Lego are fun!

I'm not talking about the Lego genre of video games here, I'm talking about games like Minecraft or what is commonly referred to as the "Sandbox" genre where you build things.  While these games are "games" on the surface, deep down they teach a lot about designing and gathering.  My children taught me how to play Minecraft and showed me that chopping down a tree would give me wood, that would could be turned into planks and those planks could be used to make wooden sticks.  I could also dig into the ground and find ore like Iron or Gold which could be smelt into bars.  Then the wooden sticks could be combined with Iron or Gold to make hand tools or weapons.

I'm not foreign to the concept of crafting things in video games, but the way Minecraft does it takes time to learn and remember the layouts required to make the various items available.  In fact, everything in Minecraft can be made in one way or another, you just need to gather all the materials do it.  Now I run a Minecraft server for my kids and I to play one and we've built a decent sized Minecraft village we use as our base of operations as we go out and explore the world.  It really is quite amazing.

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There are songs about Sideburns and Space Unicorns

This one is for my daughter who introduced me to several songs that I had never head before.  A lot of these artists will take a well-known song and create a video game spoof from it.  A lot of the ones I've heard over the years have to deal with Minecraft or Warcraft, but there are so many of these out there I wouldn't be surprised if they spanned every game.

I must admit, a lot of these songs are played/sung by very talented young people.  Some have even gone on to become quite famous among the younger generation.  I had no idea half of these songs even existed and it if hadn't been for my children, I would have been saved from the scars they have given me.

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Whether I want to admit it or not, I am growing older; but like my mother always says, "I may get older but I'll never grow up.".  My kids will continue to teach me things I never knew existed and they will continue to define what is "cool"; just as I did when I was young.

Cheers,

Al

v45.0 :: Back to School

It's that time of year again folks, our children are heading back to school to learn all the things we, as parents, are incapable of teaching them.  Pretty soon we'll have a new generation of little people learning about the Pythagorean theorem and the events of World War II.  They'll be learning how to use the proper words like "Which witch is which?" and "They're there over there!".  Of course school isn't all about fun and games, there are also important social interactions and life lessons to be learned that most children wouldn't normally be exposed to at home.

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As parents we need to go through the hassle of figuring out the school supplies and fees.  I don't remember how much my parents spent on me when I was a wee lad, but school these days seems awfully expensive.  Take my eldest son for example, there is no published school supply list so I went out and bought the things I remember having when I went to school.  You remember, things like ink and quill and the good ol' slate board with chalk; life seemed so much simpler back then.  In addition to the supplies, my son also needs $55 to pay for his school fees and locker.  When you add it all up, you're looking at close to $100 to send him to school; that doesn't cover the additional costs of year books, pictures, field trips and any number of activities he may want to get involved in during the year.  To add to my situation, I have three other children entering the world of public schooling this year.  Thankfully the youngest only needed $40 which is supposed to cover the school supplies; the other two cost me close to $75 in supplies and that doesn't count the fees.  When did going to school get so expensive?

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At least I can write on my blog for virtually nothing.  All I need is something to write about, a few minutes of my time and Columbo streaming on my television.  Yes you read that correctly, I am streaming Columbo on my television.  For those of you who don't know what Columbo was, it was basically a crime drama show about a detective named Columbo played by Peter Falk.  One thing I really like about Columbo is he comes across as absent-minded and inattentive but never misses a detail.

As a child my father used to watch Columbo and back in those days I thought it was boring (as most kids would).  As I got "older" and more nostalgic, I like to revisit those old shows to see what all the fuss was about.  One thing I noticed about Columbo was how many well-known actors and actresses are in it.  People like Leonard Nimoy and Martin Sheen who are young and quite possibly just starting their acting careers.  A lot of the names and faces I see have gone on to be quite famous.

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Well folks, if you have kids I hope they have a great back-to-school.  Be careful out there on the roads and keep an eye out for the little Einsteins as make their way to and from their places of higher learning.

Until next time...

Cheers,

Al

v44.9 :: Two In A Row!?

Yes, I know it sounds crazy but this is my second post in two days.  I don't know what has come over me.

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I'm sitting at home with a cup of coffee watching streaming Poker on the TV.  My life is so exciting sometimes I don't know how I can contain it.  I'm sure you've all see the Dos Equis commercial about the most interesting man in the world.  Well I am also the most interesting man in the world.  Allow me to explain so you all understand how interesting I am:

1. I once cleaned my toilet... with a toothbrush!


2. I load my dishwashers... with clean dishes!


3. I play my Wii-U... without using my hands!


4. I watch TV... with my eyes closed!


5. When I go to bed... I brush my teeth (not with the same toothbrush)!

I'm sure my breakdown doesn't nearly do me justice, so here is one of the Dos Equis videos for you to enjoy.

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I was doing some reading on the new OnHub by Google.  I'm not sure how the internet works at your place, but when I have my children here for the weekend and all those little Wi-Fi devices start firing up, my router slows to a crawl and my internet/network traffic grinds to a halt.  I bought a decent router thinking it would be able to accommodate the barrage of Wi-Fi devices I would throw at it, but the poor thing cries every time my kids come over.

Based on what I've read so far, this little device is supposed to be the answer to those of us who experience network overload when we have so many devices connected at once.  When my children are here for the weekend, there is a minimum of 12 devices connected to my Wi-Fi every time.  Each one trying to get a piece of the internet to do its thing.  I also like to stream videos and music through my Chromecast but more often than not, that doesn't work very well on the weekends because the poor router is begging for me to pull out the hammer and smash it to pieces.

The router itself looks a lot different from your traditional router.  According to Google "OnHub’s innovative circular antenna design provides reliable Wi-Fi coverage in more directions in your home."  I'm not sure how well this works in the majority of homes, but it sure sounds like a good idea.  Google also boasts "OnHub gives you Wi-Fi at a speed of up to 1900 Mbps by supporting both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies, which means fast Wi-Fi for everyone.".  I'll admit that I really want one; not because it's made by Google, but because it sounds like it solves the exact problem I have at home.  Of course the price tag (currently $199 USD) on this thing is the only reason I haven't ordered one already.  Hell, if I had the money I would order one for my Kid's place and a couple more for my Parent's places.  Just imagine how many more Wi-Fi connections would be used when you got my entire family together for a weekend.  Just off the top of my head, I'm counting more than 25 devices that could potentially be connecting and accessing the internet through the router at my mother's house.  Most of the time the internet is unusable there because the router provided by the ISP is pure garbage (even admittedly so by their level 3 technical support team).

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Well folks, that's about all I have to write about tonight.  The coffee is now gone and the poker game is about to really take off.  I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow and if you're all very, very good, you may see me back tomorrow night.

Until next time...

Cheers,

Al

v44.8 :: The Old & The New

Long time no see!

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I relaunched this site back in February 2015 in hopes of getting to write more often.  Unfortunately that didn't last as long as I hoped so I started reading back through all of my Musings.  I noticed a definite trend to the frequency and content which was a little bit disturbing.  Not only did my post frequency start to dwindle, but the content of those posts was lacklustre and painful to read.

So what did I do?

I brought back all those old posts, I updated their titles to fall more in-line with the new format and I changed the "version" numbers of the posts since February to follow the old musings.  It took me the better part of two evenings to complete, but I now have all my old posts here for your reading enjoyment (or boredom :) ).  There is a lot of content here going as far back as March 2005 (that's over 10 years ago!) and I can't guarantee it will all be grand or glamorous, but it's all here; spelling, grammatical mistakes and all.

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So what's next?

I could sit here and tell you I want to write more and keep the site updated on a regular basis.  I could sit here and promise you I'll be providing at least one update a day/week/month/year, but the truth is, in order for me to write I need something to write about.  The days of old where I would sit at work and write over my morning coffee are gone.  While I have access to do that, work has changed so much over the years that taking that much time out of a morning will set me behind, resulting in working later or in the evening from home.  Reading back through these posts has made one thing very clear: my job didn't suck :)

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So what does a writer do when they have nothing to write about?  To throw a quote in here that seems fitting: "Writer's Write".

Writer's Write

I don't know who wrote it, but that's exactly what I plan on doing.  I may have nothing worthwhile to say or any deep thoughts to share, but if I write, something undoubtedly will happen.  After all, it was always my life-long dream to be a writer and have something published and I've written more unfinished partial stories than I can count.  These unfinished stories are all backed up on this site and may never see the light of day, but at least I did something and I have part of the groundwork done in the event I feel inspired to pick one of them up and finish.

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So here I sit, writing on my blog that I've grown to love and hate many times over the years.  Perhaps this time it will be different and I'll get off my lazy ass and do something; or perhaps not.  Either way, I'm here today writing for the whole world to see and hopefully soon (maybe even tomorrow) I will feel inspired to write something again.  Until next time, I thank those who took the time to read over the years and I'm grateful for the encouragement.

Cheers,

Al

44.7 :: Terror in Tera

** I realize my embedded images look like crap.  I'm trying to figure out why as they look fine in the edit screen, but somehow lose their "shape" when I publish.  I hope to have it corrected soon.**

I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted last.  Seems like it was just last week I put the last post up here and somehow 39 days went by without me noticing it.  Granted April is a busy month for me and work hasn't made it any less busier.

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Gaming wise I've been playing a little bit of Diablo 3 and Tera Online.  My son and I started up a couple of Season 3 characters in D3 and made it to level 70 in a 2 weekends of play.  Blizzard has really changed the game a lot since I leveled my first character and I must say the experience was a lot of fun.  Of course now that we're level 70, we are going through the painful grind of Paragon levels (800 in total if I want to max out everything), running Adventure mode on various torment difficulty settings and running through rifts.  It's not as much fun as we had while leveling to 70 but it's still a good time trying difficult difficulty ratings to see how well (or badly) we do.

In my free time (what little I have) I've also been delving into the world of Tera Online.  For a game that is free-to-play (f2p) it has really done well for itself.  The character creation is simple but offers a decent variety of choices.  There are 8 classes to choose from with an additional class if you have a character over level 40 on that server.  I've only been playing for a week or so and my highest level character is an Archer class at level 36.  I also decided to try my hand at a Warrior class which I'm pleased to say is quickly catching up to my Archer.

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Tera features some stunning graphics and the combat animations are very well done.  The targeting and movement controls are a bit different to get used you, but once you have it down you wonder how you ever managed to play click to target games (i.e. World of Warcraft) before.  Wildstar and Neverwinter have similar no-click targeting combat but Tera seems to outshine them both.

I'm uncertain what the future holds for me in the Tera universe.  So far I like what I see and I look forward to logging in when I have some free time.  Whether that will continue in the weeks to come we'll have to wait and see.

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As I mentioned earlier, April is usually a busy month for me.  Since my past post I celebrated a birthday, my oldest son's birthday as well as my sister's birthday.  April also concluded my large project at work; a project that I have been working on for the past 15 months.  As a result of that wrap-up, I spent a lot of time getting things finalized with my development team, individual development tasks properly sized and just plain old fun.

The 15 month project may have wrapped up but my next one has already begun.  This next project isn't nearly as aggressive as the last, but it will still be a challenge to wrap up by the end of 2015.  Overall work is OK.  I have a great team of developers who (for the most part) have their heads down and do their jobs and a great management team backing me up.  In a few short months I will be "celebrating" my 10 year anniversary with this company.  Hard to believe it has been 10 years.

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"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." -- Mark Twain

May the 4th be with you!

Cheers,

Al

44.6 :: The Beginning of WoW

World of Warcraft has been a part of my gaming arsenal for a very long time (over 10 years now).  I was checking out some of my old stuff over on http://web.archive.org and I stumbled upon a post I made back on November 10, 2014.  It describes my first foray into the World of Warcraft and my initial impression of the game.

Posted November 10, 2014 @ 09:36 MST

So I signed up yesterday for the new WoW Open Beta. For those who don’t know what WoW is, sheesh :) WoW stands for World of Warcraft. Any gamer should remember the Warcraft games and how popular they were. Blizzard has come out with their first Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) entitled World of Warcraft.

All I can say is “WOW” :)

I started up a Human Warlock last night on the Beta Server 13. I made it to level 6 while casually playing for about 3-4 hours (not bad). I was able to have enough cash on my to do all my necessary training and advancements. The questing system is simply amazing in this game. If you’re used to other MMOGs and they way they do their questing; WoW will blow your mind :)

I have my little Imp pet (just like in the Single/Multi-player Warcraft games) and him and I set out for some adventure :)

Within the span of that 3-4 hours I was reunited with some old gaming friends from Dark Age of Camelot. I also completed about 11 quests AND I had a tour of the Alliance capital city. In WoW, it is Alliance vs. Horde. Each side has equal races/classes they can choose from, and you fight :) Similar to how the RvR aspect works in DAoC, except it is only 2 sides and they are equal. There are only 2 classes that are special to each side, all the other classes are shared.

The graphical world is stunning, the music and sounds take you in unlike any other game. The emotes are hilarious :) When you type lol, your character bursts out in laughter holding her stomach (yes, my toon is a chick). You can flirt, dance, kiss, hug, cheer, etc, etc, etc.. You even have “vocal” commands. I can do a /cheer which does a simple animation of me cheering, or I can do a /v cheer which makes my character yell out a cheer :) /v silly will make my character tell a random joke (which can be heard). Character make hand gestures and express emotions while they interact with the world. Overall, the game has so many “little things” that make you laugh :)

I was walking around the start village when I came across this oddly familiar looking character walking around. I click on him to be greeted with that familiar nasal sounding “Hello".. I nearly fell out of my chair with laughter. I watched this NPC (non player character) for a few minutes as he walked. He headed to a tree where he proceeded to start chopping wood. I couldn't believe it, it was like being inside the old Warcraft games :) After chopping wood for 30 sec, the Peasant turned around with an arm full of wood and walked back to the village. As I said before, it's the little things ;) This toon had no purpose to the game other than to give us old Warcraft fans something to smile about.

You older players will remember how angry the characters in Warcraft would get if you kept clicking on them. Well, Blizzard has brought that over to WoW as well :) I had guards getting angry at me as I continued to interact with them over and over :) Just for laughs I fired up an Orc player on another server to test this over interaction :) What do you think I was greeted with?? You guessed it… the famous “STOP POKING ME!!!!” :)

I urge you guys to give the game a try. Last I heard they had closed down the open beta sign ups, but if you get a chance to get on and take a look, please do :) If not, you will want to pick this game up and enjoy a free month of play. As with almost every other MMOG, it is a pay to play on a monthly basis.

Blizzard has an excellent track record when it comes to making games. Their attention to detail is unmatched. You can’t go wrong with a game from Blizzard ;)

If I go back and look at all the posts I've made over the years about this game, I find it funny that this one the one that started them all.

Cheers,

Al

44.5 :: Gaming Weekend

Yes I know, almost every weekend is a gaming weekend for me.  This weekend was a little bit different as I finally accomplished a few things in WoW that I have been working on for quite some time.

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[wowhead achievement=4603]

If I had played the game properly, this achievement should have been completed YEARS ago.  Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to run this particular raid dungeon when it was current (level 70); now I'm level 100 and it is very easy.  My son and I have been running this dungeon once a week to get the achievements listed.  Yesterday we were finally able to pull off the last one we needed to get the overall achievement and the flying skeleton dragon mount that goes with it.

[wowhead id=51955]

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The second major achievement this weekend was the one I received for looting 25,000 gold.

[wowhead achievement=1181]

This may not sound like a lot, but when you consider this achievement only counts looted coin, it is much more difficult to obtain than expected.  The next goal in this line is the 50,000 gold looted achievement which is going to take some time.  After that there is the 100,000 gold and 200,000 gold achievements and then I've completed the entire set.

Other than those major achievements, I reached level 100 on yet another character (Orc Warrior).  This is my fifth level 100 character since the expansion launched and I've started on my sixth (Night Elf Priest).  I must admit, leveling 90 to 100 is a lot faster than 85 to 90 was in Mists of Pandaria.  Even though the quests are exactly the same as the past 5 times I've done them, I still find things along the way that I missed on previous characters; that makes the leveling experience a little more interesting.

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Well folks, that's all I have for updates.  Been playing a little bit of Eve Online; had one of my ships destroyed because I wasn't paying attention but other than that Eve has been fairly quiet.

Cheers,

Al

v44.4 :: Day Late & A Dollar Short

What a week this has been.  I had a couple of days off work and then was sick for a couple of days.  I'm having a difficult time shaking this cold/flu that has been lingering for weeks now.  Just when I thought I was starting to feel better, it comes back with a vengeance a couple of days ago.  Fevers, chills, coughing and just feeling horrible all around.  I was able to drag myself into work on Friday, but by the end of the day I was feeling so delirious I'm surprised I made it home safely.

But enough about that; nobody like hearing about someone else being sick.

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Since I've had quite a bit of free time this week, I was able to get in a little bit of gaming to help pass the time.  For the most part I was playing Eve since it requires less interaction than WoW.  When I was feeling up to it, I was playing a bit of WoW; mostly just working in my garrison and doing follower missions.  Overall it wasn't a very exciting gaming week for me, but I did catch up on some TV shows and re-watched Game of Thrones in anticipation for Season 5 starting in April.

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Anyway folks, just a quick one today.  Hopefully this cold/flu is starting to pass and I'll be back to my regular routine soon.

Cheers,

Al

v44.3 :: Eve Time

I bit the bullet and decided to reactivate my Eve Online account again.

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Over the past couple weeks I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos around Eve and how things have changed.  For those of you who have played Eve Online before you are very much aware of the steep learning curve associated with the game.  The game is vast and possibilities are seamlessly endless.

One big complaint I've seen over and over again is how impossible it would be for a new player to ever achieve what a seasoned player has.  Specifically they are referring to training points which you earn as you train in the various skills available.  As your character progresses through the training queue, they acquire training points.  The more "points" you have, the more skilled you are and thus must be better at the game.  Since training points are earned in real-time, it would be impossible for a player who started today to catch up to a player who has been playing for years.  That's not to say they can't be successful in Eve; with the right corporation and friends you could easily find yourself in low-sec space within a couple of weeks of play.

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I digress from my point a bit.  I've been doing a bit of research on the side to see how much the game has changed and how they've addressed the biggest complaint from new players.  It seems they are working toward it and new players to Eve will find the game enjoyable.  You may never get to the 50 million skill point level that some of the more seasoned players have, but you still stand a chance to go toe-to-toe with them.  Of course if you're looking to adventure out into low-sec space alone and you happen upon a patrol, don't expect much.  Even a seasoned player would find it difficult to survive that kind of encounter.

The morale of the story here is stay in hi-sec until you've amassed some skills.  I would also suggest heading into low-sec with a cheap ship initially to see what you're up against.  That way when your ship is destroyed you won't feel the loss as greatly as you would with your best.

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For those of you who have never played Eve before and are interested in giving it a shot, there is a link to the right of the site where you can sign up for 7 days free.  This link helps me as well since I get rewards for bringing in new players; up-to and including free game time.  Think of it as a way for you to help me with my online gaming addiction :)

Until next time,

Al

v44.2 :: Lok'tar Ogar

Those of you familiar with the game World of Warcraft will recognize the post title today.  For those of you who are not familiar, Lok'tar Ogar is something often heard in the game spoken by the Orcish race.  In the common (English) tongue it simply means "Victory or Death".

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I have officially been playing World of Warcraft for 10 years now (on and off of course).  It's amazing when you sit and think about it.  Most people rarely do something for that long whether it be a job, a marriage or even a hobby like gaming.  I recently took a trip down memory lane when I was contacted by an old friend who sent me some screen shots of a game we used to play together (Dark Age of Camelot).  You see, it was this same friend who got me hooked on World of Warcraft and was the person who gave me my first trial key to start my addiction first account.

My friend, who we'll call Fred for now, was one of my best friends when I was living out West.  We went for coffee on a daily basis and he was a huge inspiration and example in my life.  Fred and I also gamed quite a bit together and we always had each other's back.  There were many battles, many victories and of course, many deaths throughout our gaming adventures. Whether it was just standing around town chatting or going toe to toe with the biggest and baddest monsters we could find; we always had fun and always had a good laugh the next day when we chatted about it.

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So here I am, 10 years later, still hooked playing the same game I started back in February 2005.  A lot has changed over the years but the game still holds my attention (albeit a lot less these days) and every once in a while I stumble upon something I have never seen before.  I've leveled every class, profession and race to maximum level.  I won't say I've done it all, but I've definitely done my fair share of the content available, and continue to do so.

I've played various other games over the years as well.  Everything from fantasy based games like Lord of the Rings to sci-fi based games like Star Wars.  I liked them all, but none of them came close to Warcraft; all except one which came VERY close - Wildstar.

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That's a story for another day :)

v44.1 :: Beta

We often get so wrapped up in the day-to-day that we forget to take time for ourselves.

I've let this site get away from me over the past couple years and that is something I look back on with regret.  I recall when I would post here on a daily basis and infect you with my thoughts and words.  Like everyone, I've had my good and bad days and I've let small things get to me when I should have just shrugged them off.  That said...

I've decided to give this blog another shot.

I don't expect a lot of followers.  I will do my best to ensure I post something at least once a week; whether it is a story about something I've done at work, in a game or whatever I'm thinking.  In the past the words would just come to me and I would sit at my computer for hours just writing; barely thinking about the letters I was typing.  I hope to get back to that again.

If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Until next time...

- Al