Raithe

Working on a headache re-reading through some chapters of my copy Pro C# 2010 and the .Net 4 Platform... Sometimes it would be really nice if examples were given that were more then a dozen lines of code and one or two functions.. Just to give you a feel for how something more extensive is set up. Its barely gone 3.30pm and it's already dim enough to need the lights switched on..

After my mom's first knee surgery.. the joint goes clickety-click with a faint, almost sucking noise which surprised the head resident with the sound,and apparently made him want to vomit. The doctors had decided to let that heal up and mom go through the physio before doing the surgery on her other knee.. but then it was discovered she'd picked up the MRSE bug... So for a few years after that, every 6 months or so we'd get a call saying "you're on the top of the list for the surgery.. but if you keep refusing to do it we'll take you off the list" and we'd have to explain "hang on, no surgeon is willing to do the surgery because of the mrse.. it's the doctors who keep postponing it". Ah well. That's one of the minor issues of the inches thick medical file there... The day's progressed, the craftomatic bed is finally in place..other furniture has been shifted, oaken doors have been taken from hinges and then put back, cupboards were moved out of the way..then back but now it seems to be over for the moment. ... and my sister is trying to sneakily persuade everyone to accept her first getting an alsatian puppy..and then a main coone kitten to add to the ****er spaniel and persian cat already stalking around the house... Other family politics as well.. yeesh. No cooking at least, sending out for an indian just to avoid all that bother... Going to be ultra-lazy and have it delivered.

Cold, tired, mayhaps a touch depressed... but with the absence of rain today, that should allow some furniture shifting and get the old bed out through the french windows and the craftmatic bed moved into its place.... After yesterdays rather torrential downpours, it's being one of those really bright, crisp and downright windchilly days... I really would have preferred to linger in bed today, but that wasn't really possible.. dang it.

I got my mother a kindle for last christmas, with her joint problems holding a book was being a problem, but she's able to use the kindle with ease. The kindle is fairly easy to use, the text is smooth to read, and it's simple to scroll through pages and books. Once you've bought a book Amazon keeps a library of all purchases and you can re-download it to your Kindle whenever you want, but you can keep around 1,500 books on the device itself.. although that might be a bit of a problem to easily run through. One point is that while Amazon.com does do quite a few cheap/free books as well... you don't get access to them if you happen to be outside the states... Oh, and the kindle text isn't backlit. Which can make it easier on the eyes to read, but it also means the kindle doesn't produce it's own light when the room your in gets dark.

And sometimes.. all you want is generic, fun, fantasy.... There's no need to make something.. different and other..purely for the purpose of being different...

Finished off the new Wheel of Time book... Made the mistake of trying to read a few chapters in bed before sleeping ..and ended up several hours later going "crikey, it's nearly dawn". Threads are tightening, loose background bits are brought back together, characters are evolving.... and then it ends on what (according to the story so far) is the day before everyone heads off for the Final Battle....

Now you just need the physio to respond in a positive manner to make your week?

It's more of a hold-over from the fact that the "hard-core" gamers who liked in-depth games were the ones that played on the pc.. the console market was geared towards the casual gamer, the "simple" platform jumping / button-mashing fight games type of thing that you could jump in, play 15 minutes or so, then leave without worrying about saving... That's evolving over the past few years.. but I'd say that's where the viewpoint comes from.... I mean, it's still a rarity for a game that was designed for the console takes more then 10 hours to play through once.. while it used to be a rarity for a pc game that fell under that time.. length of gameplay, levels of complexity.. that's what's been shifting of late. That, and precisely what makes up a "casual" gamer compared to a "hard-core" one...

I never seemed to find anything that kicked up from the Wild Wasteland trait for me.. And I never stumbled across a Gauss Rifle at any point.. Lasers, Plasma , and Miniguns oh my, but nary a sight of a Gauss Rifle. Although I did stumble on the Tesla lightning zapper thing...but I didn't really unlimber that until the final Hoover Dam battle.

It amazes me how the difficulty of learning a programming language can vary depending on how well written a book one has. I've always found the interesting point is learning from the examples in a book, and then making the jump to being able to adapt techniques to other situations. Some books can make that easier then others...

I was constantly running close to the carrying capacity. pick up a couple of things and then I was over the limit.. so was fairly constantly having to shuffle off and sell it or stash it.. and plenty of offloading onto companions. Generally tried to make sure I had weapons that used the same ammo type as well.. rather then have hordes of different ammo.

hm, I tended to split mine into 1: Pistol, 3: Shotgun, 4:Melee Weapon, 5:Laser Pistol, 6: Rifle type, 7:Laser/Plasma rifle, 8: Heavy Weapon I'll admit, Pew-Pew with the Meltdown Perk was kind of crazy... especially in enclosed spaces..

Handled post, some grocery shopping, and a few other odds and ends... tried to do a touch more C# revision to kick the plaque away..but my brain seems to have locked in the "mushy" role since this morning. Tried to help explain some basic, reallly basic computer matters to my mother. Okay, my mother is an intelligent woman, she's capable in so many areas.. but computer.. it doesn't register. No matter how simple you make it, how many times you explain it.. it just won't stick. She'll cheerfully admit to this. But trying to explain why saving 30+ silly games to the desktop, installing them from there and never uninstalling and deleting them when she's finished and having her blank stare when I try to show her how to save things to other places... I get many, many stabby pains erupt in my head. When I try to explain about backing up some files.. she gives me a blank look and a "so how do I move to a different folder?" It's.. bizzare. She took to ebay like a duck to water, taking photographs, uploading them, cropping them, using ebay features to organise items... But simple, basic computer matters..and aaargh! It can drive me nearly to the point of eating the keyboard in frustration.

There's using a Chekov's Gun.. There's using a Chekov's freaking Arsenal.. and then there's just widely beating the audience around the head with an obvious plot hook/item.. which happened an awful lot in those books.. What always bugged me with Harry Potter was just how similar the appearance and initial attitude was to the main character in Gaiman's Book of Magic.

Arg, well back from morning labours. Some physical workout is nice, but trying to maneuver beds and furniture around stairways and narrow doors is so much fun. It's not so much the weight as the general awkwardness and lack of a good handholds... Still, having that slight pause for lunch now. Don't know exactly why but having that mix of tired and depressed wave kicking in while my brain is feeling generally mushy rather then sharp and aware.. Get this sorted, then off to post a parcel to a cousin serving in Afghanistan and a few more chores to take care of...

I don't think Hardcore really added much to the general difficulty of the game.. it just added a higher level of annoyance over weight limits... One slightly random thought, does Ceasar's Legion react any differently if the main character is female?

Yeah, the whole.. wonder of the natural world tends to be more of a specific single feature rather then the sort of.. expansive area. I tend to think some place like Iguazu Falls which spreads out and consists of many features.. sort of falls into what I'm thinking of.. While Everest or the like are places within the area..

On a different level of news for those interested in mmo crafting related matters.. this came up in a gamespot news report..

Yeah, the Nile would be one. I was thinking more of the natural features/locations then man-made ones... Victoria Falls maybe.. And it was bugging me that I couldn't put a proper "classification" as to what I was thinking about Edit: Plus the man-made place like Machu Pichu, The Pyramids, Angkor Wat while grand in one sense don't have the same... sprawling, epic-ness . And yes, it really bugs me when I can't verbalise my thoughts properly

For a truly random thing... I was just pondering on those places that could be considered famous locations/areas but aren't actually something specific to a country.. Those places that you can say the name, and it immediately conjures up the image/idea of the place. ie: The Congo, The Amazon, The Black Forest, The Himalayas, The Sahari Desert... possibly the Golden Triangle (but that's an artificial one..) Which led me to trying to consider how many places like that there are in the world.. but my minds pulling a blank. So I thought I'd sit down and try some google-fu and wiki-fu to see what might be there..but then realised I didn't have an accurate way to describe that type of subject to search for. I'm curious as to how people would consider describing that collective group.. or suggestions as to other places that might fall in that type of list....

Hruff. Having that momentary crisis of confidence after going nowhere with some work today. Gives you that total feeling of being a fraud when you have one of those days where your mind just won't grapple with the work properly. Leaves you with the whole "Dang it, I can do this! Why aren't I getting it??!" mental cry. Mayhaps a good nights sleep will see my mind finding the right angle for it manana. I'd just like to be able to get in some work that actually produces something. Still, had some scampi for dinner, then got some reading of the new wheel of time book in tonight. So that was some to the good.

There are good points and not-so-good points about the House of Lords.. Technically, it should provide a certain buffer again knee-jerk, mob driven politics of the short-term variety based on winning popularity..... On the other hand..it can be a certain..heavy opponent of any change. And doesn't provide any real guarantee of competency. Then again, very few elected officials seem to have much competency beyond winning votes and backroom deals. Or maybe I've just become a bit too jaded and cynical about politicians and government buraucrats..

There's always the : "You've helped me work my body.. now how can I help work yours?" approach.... For the high note start to the day...some mysterious person (otherwise known as my sister) accidentally shut the dog in the front room all night.. so there are now two puddles that needed cleaning.... and said canine has reverted to extremely nervous and quiet behaviour...

It's to the south of the Vegas Strip.. the entrance is a manhole cover in the guard booth of a carpark up against a mountain.,..

Nah, I'd kept Westside safe and secure.. and supplied with water.. I had Helios One AND the Hoover Dam supplying power.. I'd basically gone with a lot of good karma, idolized by nearly every group.. but if I have a massive army of Mark 2 Securitons enforcing the peace..and ensuring chaos and loss of life is minimal in the New Vegas area.. even if you're not talking just the Strip.. It's not a huge thing, just ..seems a little jarring that it jumps from "time of chaos was short, loss of life was minimal" to the whole.."massive chaos and people needing treatment swamped.."