Bloggity?
So what's been happening in the Adventures of Bill? Well, life has certainly been interesting. Here's some random snippets:
1. Been playing a lot of Fallout New Vegas. It is awesome and fun and worth it. Even better? There's replay value. I'm not one for replaying most games, but this one has it. There is a LOT of development put into making a web of choices where doing A to get B-C means that D-G is unavailable.
Not just "Here's the good and here's the evil." and more like "Yeah, we're not nice and scraping to survive, but so are they... we just have different ideologies."
Also, not just "Do this quest and we'll like you better." but "Do this quest and we'll like you better, but how you do it affects how much it will do so. Oh, and it will almost inevitably screw over someone else and they will like you less. So much so that they may just shoot on sight and you'll never be able to explore their city or do quests for them."
Do you want to favor the fascists, the chem junkies, the cynical realists, the angry downtrodden, the idealistic oppressors, the idealistic oppressors, the dirty capitalists or your own personal power and gain? (And that's just a small sampling of options.) Many of the "bad" guys are only so because of our own cultural perspective. But when you talk to them, they're just humans doing what they think is best. Worse? They often have some damned good reasons too... And the "good" guys are just human too.
There's at least 5 major differences in ending that I can foresee, plus a score of secondary effects. It's evil and I love it. Depth. This game has it.
2. Walking home a few days ago, I saw a girl hit by a car. The driver made an illegal left; she was jaywalking on a busy street. Both kinda stupid. She got lifted onto the hood, carried a bit, and then dropped into the street. I read the car's plate just in case, realized the driver wasn't taking off (points to him for getting out to check on her), advised he not move her while I got medical help (she was dazed and laying in the road) and ran the 1/2 block back to work. Got a nurse calling 911 and two others and a doc out to the girl. Then I went and directed traffic until the cops showed up and took over. After, I cooled my heels about 30 minutes until I could give witness. Whee.
As a note, she was bumped and bruised, but mostly okay. I suspect a bit of concussion and maybe whiplash, but nothing life threatening. Fun to see that my emergency response reflexes are still working fine. Sadly, the adrenaline cool-off and subsequent headache killed my interest in practice that evening. So I reverted to Item 1 above for the night.
It did remind me of a saying of my father's (a veteran ER doc): "It doesn't matter who had 'right of way'. When you end up in the ER, you still did something wrong." Cynical, but you wouldn't believe how many people end up there because they figure a driver sees them crossing or that a car is going to stop because the light is red. Many accidents could be avoided were the victim more aware too.
3. Got a line on something new. Got a Friday deadline and then 4-6 weeks of waiting. So I'm scrambling to get that ready for submission. More updates when/if anything comes of it, but I'd appreciate positive thoughts.
4. Visited Lorelei (or Laura Leigh or whatever) at the hospital and brought her some Halloween cheer. She had her bandage soak through and need replacing while I was there. I was advised that I might want to look away or leave if the sight of blood bothered me. Hah. Too many years of ER. A surgical cut and some blood is nothing...
5. Haven't made it out to fighter practice in a month. See items 1 and 2 above. It's been odd as this is the longest I've ever been without it. Missing it. Going to the St.Felix practice tomorrow, but don't know if I will have time to fight between a night update at work and some authorizations. We'll see.
6. Took Faydra out on Halloween with Ed, Asa and Holly. Little Holly was so excited that she started vibrating so much she couldn't walk. It was too damned cute. Had a great time wandering and hanging out.
7. I love my new monitor and computer. Per Item 1, there has been extensive testing. It makes me happy. To quote Sara, looking at Civ V on it: "Wait, those are PEOPLE?" Me: "Guess so. And it looks like they have proper belts and footwear." What a difference.
8. The cochineal project was fun. I think we need more cochineal and more heat for the silk. It came out a nice salmon red. We also did some wool and that came out a great crimson. I want to do this again. Though I'm thinking I'd rather gather from the non-thorny varietals.
9. Had a dye day with I&I. It was fun, though Faydra started getting ill towards the end of the day. I do enjoy hanging with those cats.
10. Today's Win. Lovely response to the PETA complaint.
11. The Rapier side of Estrella passed Treaty without a single revision. It's just that awesome. :-p
Eh. Hell. I know there were some other things I'd been thinking about mentioning. They seem to have slipped my mind, so they must not have been that interesting.
1. Been playing a lot of Fallout New Vegas. It is awesome and fun and worth it. Even better? There's replay value. I'm not one for replaying most games, but this one has it. There is a LOT of development put into making a web of choices where doing A to get B-C means that D-G is unavailable.
Not just "Here's the good and here's the evil." and more like "Yeah, we're not nice and scraping to survive, but so are they... we just have different ideologies."
Also, not just "Do this quest and we'll like you better." but "Do this quest and we'll like you better, but how you do it affects how much it will do so. Oh, and it will almost inevitably screw over someone else and they will like you less. So much so that they may just shoot on sight and you'll never be able to explore their city or do quests for them."
Do you want to favor the fascists, the chem junkies, the cynical realists, the angry downtrodden, the idealistic oppressors, the idealistic oppressors, the dirty capitalists or your own personal power and gain? (And that's just a small sampling of options.) Many of the "bad" guys are only so because of our own cultural perspective. But when you talk to them, they're just humans doing what they think is best. Worse? They often have some damned good reasons too... And the "good" guys are just human too.
There's at least 5 major differences in ending that I can foresee, plus a score of secondary effects. It's evil and I love it. Depth. This game has it.
2. Walking home a few days ago, I saw a girl hit by a car. The driver made an illegal left; she was jaywalking on a busy street. Both kinda stupid. She got lifted onto the hood, carried a bit, and then dropped into the street. I read the car's plate just in case, realized the driver wasn't taking off (points to him for getting out to check on her), advised he not move her while I got medical help (she was dazed and laying in the road) and ran the 1/2 block back to work. Got a nurse calling 911 and two others and a doc out to the girl. Then I went and directed traffic until the cops showed up and took over. After, I cooled my heels about 30 minutes until I could give witness. Whee.
As a note, she was bumped and bruised, but mostly okay. I suspect a bit of concussion and maybe whiplash, but nothing life threatening. Fun to see that my emergency response reflexes are still working fine. Sadly, the adrenaline cool-off and subsequent headache killed my interest in practice that evening. So I reverted to Item 1 above for the night.
It did remind me of a saying of my father's (a veteran ER doc): "It doesn't matter who had 'right of way'. When you end up in the ER, you still did something wrong." Cynical, but you wouldn't believe how many people end up there because they figure a driver sees them crossing or that a car is going to stop because the light is red. Many accidents could be avoided were the victim more aware too.
3. Got a line on something new. Got a Friday deadline and then 4-6 weeks of waiting. So I'm scrambling to get that ready for submission. More updates when/if anything comes of it, but I'd appreciate positive thoughts.
4. Visited Lorelei (or Laura Leigh or whatever) at the hospital and brought her some Halloween cheer. She had her bandage soak through and need replacing while I was there. I was advised that I might want to look away or leave if the sight of blood bothered me. Hah. Too many years of ER. A surgical cut and some blood is nothing...
5. Haven't made it out to fighter practice in a month. See items 1 and 2 above. It's been odd as this is the longest I've ever been without it. Missing it. Going to the St.Felix practice tomorrow, but don't know if I will have time to fight between a night update at work and some authorizations. We'll see.
6. Took Faydra out on Halloween with Ed, Asa and Holly. Little Holly was so excited that she started vibrating so much she couldn't walk. It was too damned cute. Had a great time wandering and hanging out.
7. I love my new monitor and computer. Per Item 1, there has been extensive testing. It makes me happy. To quote Sara, looking at Civ V on it: "Wait, those are PEOPLE?" Me: "Guess so. And it looks like they have proper belts and footwear." What a difference.
8. The cochineal project was fun. I think we need more cochineal and more heat for the silk. It came out a nice salmon red. We also did some wool and that came out a great crimson. I want to do this again. Though I'm thinking I'd rather gather from the non-thorny varietals.
9. Had a dye day with I&I. It was fun, though Faydra started getting ill towards the end of the day. I do enjoy hanging with those cats.
10. Today's Win. Lovely response to the PETA complaint.
11. The Rapier side of Estrella passed Treaty without a single revision. It's just that awesome. :-p
Eh. Hell. I know there were some other things I'd been thinking about mentioning. They seem to have slipped my mind, so they must not have been that interesting.