General

Rumors have the next EQ2 expansion as “The Rise of Kunark”. That’s a small surprise; I was expecting them to follow up “Echoes of Faydwer” with another adventure pack, not something as grand as a whole ’nother expansion, especially one that opens the lands that really launched the original EverQuest into MMO history. The job SOE does here is so critical to EQ2’s future… so many people from EQ1 and EQ2 are off trying Vanguard. Guilds all over EQ1 are imploding; I expect the same from EQ2 soon. Vanguard doesn’t cost anything extra for people already on the Station Access plan, so it’s never been easier to leave EQ. ...

I’m getting a little tired of job spammers. It’s time to fight back. Letter to someone who has spammed me three times with the same spam… Well, to be honest, I didn’t fill it out because you didn’t mention a specific job you thought I might fit. Instead, it looks like you want me to do all the work here to put myself into your resume database so that you can potentially place it where I might be applying through another avenue, since I don’t know specifically where it would go. ...

The Slavering Azid finally let go of his bard legs tonight. I told Taps, the other bard (a dirge, poor guy) on the raid, that when he went AFK to get his kid that bard gear would be sure to drop, and it did… but I doubt he was unhappy with the Nightchord wrists and boots he got. Anyway, my combination of Vhalen’s and Nightchord armor just happens to match, so now I look fine in bard blue. After the raid, a couple of us finished the Rain Caller heritage quest, so I got a shot of my new armor and new bow picking off some vampires that were trying to pick us off. ...

There be further foul denizens cluttering the shores and deeps of Norrath, and it’s my intention to carry on in the grand tradition of halflings everywhere and watch them die. Except Tarinax, of course… he’s already dead… Darathar… tricky guy. Lures people into Maiden’s Gulch to “save him” in his mortal guise as the Sage of Ages. But it’s Nagafen who is the villain, and the Sage wonders if we could have some words with him – of course, he’ll teach us the dragon language so we can. Naggy won’t tell us anything until we resurrect his ancient love, the gracious Lady Vox. And once we do, he tells us that Darathar has stolen the prismatic egg, his last remembrance of his fated, forbidden romance with a white dragon. If we avenge him and her memory by killing Darathar, he will reward us with weapons recovered from the tomb of the great Kerafrym. ...

Commissioner Dorah Tanglewood, Vindicator of the Coin. Her full name now is twice as long as she is tall, she dinged 60, completed her third tradeskill title and the final quest for the Court of the Coin. But there’s a lot yet left to do. It takes 67 tradeskill writs – over four hundred combines using between 1200 and 1600 of each of four common harvests (adamantine, azurite, topaz and hanging roots for jewelers) – to gain a faction level with the Coalition of Tradesfolk. Sunday, Dorah gained the third faction with them, “warmly” – over twelve hundred combines using over ten thousand harvests – to gain the title of “Commissioner”. ...

I’ve cut down on my blog writing (and reading), cut down on my game playing, cut down on nearly everything. I’m extremely uncomfortable, it seems, with doing anything but looking for work. My days are spent working on job skills (I have tried out some new development environments and today am looking at the Lua scripting language), posting my resume places, following up on anyone who shows interest. It’s really hard to send a resume to a specific company. Or to even know when you are sending your resume to a real company. Jobs these days are like… real estate listings, passed along from one headhunter to another, from a website to another… Are these real jobs? Or are they fake jobs, nothing more than profiles of a potential job-seeker who might fit a potential contract? ...

Yes, precisely, to the minute, one day after part 1, the second part of quick catch-ups for the shows I’ve been watching - Robin Hood, Heroes, Lost and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Serial dramas have taken over television in a big way. Serial dramas are like… umm… soap operas… but soap operas aren’t cool. Serial dramas are. Robin Hood has never made any pretense that its plots don’t largely revolve around events in the modern world. The Sheriff of Nottingham spent the first couple of episodes quoting George W. Bush, when he wasn’t hanging innocents and kicking puppies. ...

Yoyo Ma? YO MAMA! Yeah you, the guy who loses it to largo. Schizo for scherzo. Tantrums for tarantellas. Sawing away at the air cello through the entire winter concert season. Take the symphony home with you! Cello Hero brings the symphony to your living room! Greatest hits from four centuries of cello’s finest! Bach! Bann! Bantock! Bax! Solo play or gather a dozen friends for multiplayer ensemble action! Or tab a friend for cello duels a la Dutilleux! ...

MrrX tagged me for this (and also Amber… OOPS)… so here it goes… Five things about me you probably don’t know… I’m not a New Englander. It’s a big point with me that I grew up in Massachusetts and went to high school and college in New Hampshire. But I was born outside of Seattle while my dad was working at Boeing. Where the hospital I was born once stood, a K-Mart stands now. ...

It’s been a long, a very long year. Here are some of the things for which I am thankful. My kids. My daughter just gave the family the first of its next generation, and everyone moves up a notch :) Me to grandmum, her to mother, my son to uncle, and my dad to great-grandfather. My son moved back in with me last spring, and it’s been a joy to daily share in his life once again. ...