Category: Random Thoughts

The general category for posts on this blog.

And the world will be a better place…

Random Thoughts

Its 2003. A new year, and an excuse to start over.

Sure, new year’s resolutions are a cop out, and a person should be strong enough to change at any time… however, how many people truely are? In my experience, people are better at keeping a change that started with an excuse than from within. More people quit smoking because of their wife, husband, or kids than have quit just because they wanted to be healthier. Of course, in the end it only stays if they truely want it, but it has to start somewhere.

So what shall I resolve to do in the new year?

To work. And by this I mean my job and all the things related to it. There are some skills I need to pick up, and some tools I need to learn.

To work out. Cause if I don’t I’ll turn into a fat bastard. The butterball is already growing underneath my shirt. No more fattening up the turkey for dinner.

To read. I miss reading, even though lots of books aren’t worth it. I need to get back into reading the occasional book. I’ve got shelves of unread ones anyway.

To write. Here, and elsewhere. And not just silly drivel about my life, but creative things, wild things, that stuff that swirls around in my skull whether dreaming or awake needs to find its way to paper.

There’s more, but I’ll probably put those off until next year. Don’t want to overload my excuse.

Missed it by that much.

Random Thoughts

So, yesterday was my birthday. (send cash) And I did the usual dinner with my family. (money orders) We went to Chili’s. (checks) And it was good.

Then home for cake. (gold bars) Oh, and the presents! (loose change) I got a haul of loot. (pound notes) I got some clothes, which I actually was asking for. (yen) And I scored a couple of good DVDs: Brotherhood of the Wolf, and Near Dark. (monopoly money)

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed my day.

Because it is MY day.

Its MINE.

The Two Most Frustrating Things…

Random Thoughts

… while working your job…

The second most frustrating thing to run into is someone else doing a job that you think you can do better.

Seeing someone fumble and stumble when you believe you could do it faster, easier, and more effieciently is one of those heartbreaking, knuckle-whitening things that can drive you up the wall and over the edge.

The MOST frustrating thing to run into is someone else doing a job that you KNOW you can do better.

Seeing someone fumble and stumble when you are secure in the knowledge that you can do it faster, easier, and more efficiently, and more to the point HAVE done it in the past faster, easier and more efficiently, is one of those things that drive people to killing sprees.

I want to do my job well, but sitting here day after day, unable to do my job because someone less qualified than me can’t seem to get it together takes me from 0 to 60 on the frustration-o-meter in under 3 seconds of walking in the door.

As The World Turns…

Random Thoughts

Ahh… the busy life.

I’m preparing myself for Jodi’s return to England. And with that, trying to prepare myself for sole ownership and care of Dr. Jones.

And then I decided, “I’m not going to be busy enough, I think I should get a second job.”

So now 2 days or so a week I’ll be putting in hours with another job. Its contract/consulting type stuff… and it gets me work that is NOT on a help desk. YAY!!

Anyway, just as I was getting ready to start updating more (notice the new background and logo – or don’t notice if you’ve never been here before) I go and give myself LESS time to do it.

Oh well.

From Idea to Execution…

Random Thoughts

A couple of patches ago, Verant introduced for EverQuest a customizable User Interface. This new UI uses XML and a SIDL engine to basically allow someone to do anything they want with it.

Of course, the first people to slam out new designs were those people who play the game way too much. Every mod was aimed at less lag, more visible space. Slim, compact, no frills interfaces.

Jodi says to me, “I want to have a body to put my stuff on.” Or something close to that. My first reaction was to think it would be too big, bulky and cumbersome. It would take way too much space to put in a drawing of a person and to put all the items for the inventory on it.

After letting it sit in my head for a day, I started to try to come up with a layout for inventory boxes in the shape of a person, but without the actual person. The problem of course is that in the game you have boots, leggings, and a belt, then about 15 items from the waist up. Too much to get it to lay out well while keeping it compact.

Then, while sitting at work fighting sleep between calls on a sunday afternoon, my brain was electrified with inspiration.

The Vitruvian Man.

From there, my mind raced, placing parts from the Inventory all over and around the image. I made three or four mock-ups, then I headed home for the day.

Once home, I started fiddling with numbers. I sized the image that I wanted for the background, then began pixel placing the inventory.

A few hours of work placing pieces and fiddling with the contrast and gamma correction on the image, and I was finished.

So here are some screen shots of the final product in 2 resolutions: 1024×768 and 1280×1024. And if you read this page and want to download the mod itself, its here.

Enjoy.

And then.

Random Thoughts

The IT market sucks in Atlanta.

I can’t afford to leave, and at the same time I can’t afford to stay.

3 years ago, I was gold. I was better than gold. I was a fast learner with a little experience in everything. I was a general practitioner of the Science and Medicine of Technology. The offers on the table were fifty-thousand a year. Minimum.

Today’s IT market is looking for the person I’ve never been, and without money cannot afford to become: The Specialist. Check the job pages. They want people with 3 or more years working on a single, likely non-widespread software package. They want someone with 10 years working in a particular single function who have mastered all skills required.

The General Practitioner is dead.

So… I am left with this. What am I supposed to do?

I can’t get a good job because I can’t even get interviews due to my lack of specific knowledge. I can’t afford to take classes, or buy books to attempt to learn those things on my own. I can’t afford the certification tests, without which no amount of knowledge I teach myself is valid in the eyes of recruiters.

Its the Catch-22 of the IT industry: To get the job, you need training, and to afford the training, you need the job.

I’m overqualified for the job I have, and underqualified to get another.

And we won’t even get into the whole “But the experience on your resume isn’t current” crap.

I’m angry.

I’m pissed.

I’m mad as hell.

And there’s damn little I see that I can do about it.

Thinking Back…

Random Thoughts

I don’t have alot of friends.

In the 6th Grade I knew every kid. We all talked and played at recess, we all invited each other to each other’s birthdays and pool parties, we all played little league ball. That summer, the one after 6th Grade, was great. We all would meet down by the creek, or in my yard, or over at Charlie’s house. G.I. Joe, Ghost in the Graveyard, tag, bikes, skateboards, Army, House (yes, there were a few girls in the neighborhood), exploring, it didn’t matter what, we just played.

The last day of summer it rained. And it rained bad enough to keep everyone at home.

The next day was the 7th Grade, junior high, and I went to school with a G.I. Joe figure in my pocket, just as I had done for as long as I could sneak it past my mother in the morning.

My friends came to school in jean jackets and styled hair, and some time during the day, around lunch I suppose (when all the tables seemed full), I realized that all my friends were gone. In a day, they had outgrown action figures, cartoons, games of tag, and riding bikes. In a day, they had outgrown me.

I spent the next 7 months mostly alone, trying to make new friends. I had some success, and by the end of the school year even some of my old friends had come back to me. 7 months of alot of pain and heartache, but it had paid off. I had friends again and I didn’t have to change who I was to get them.

And then my father got transferred to another branch of his company.

Since then, I’ve always had, at most, a half dozen close friends, and everyone else is always at arm’s length, or further. After the 7th Grade, spending time to have lots of friends just didn’t seem worth the effort if we were just going to move and blow it all. The irony here is that my father never got transferred again. 17 years later and I’m still in the same town.

17 years, and in some ways I’m still in the 7th Grade.

And the Time Flies By…

Random Thoughts

And the page doesn’t get updated.

Some things have changed.

You’ll notice the Sages of the Primordium link is gone – the guild is dead. I don’t want it to be dead, but in the end it was a failed experiment. The experiment was: Can all my friends in EverQuest come together under a single name and play for fun? The result: No. Some people don’t want to co-operate. Some people get on other people’s nerves. Some people seek loot, fame, and fortune. Some people want to “win” EverQuest (The popular theory is that you win simply by going to all the high level zones and killing everything at least once). And all of these people cannot co-exist as a single unit. They can be friends for sure, but they must have two circles: one of friends, and one of like-minded achievers. They can actually hate all the like-minded achievers, but since those people are getting them what they desire outside of friendship they continue to associate with them. With the experiment failed, I headed back home to the Guardians of Order. We may not be uber in the world of Norrath, but we enjoy being there (Yes, there are people who are uber and also hate playing the game, why they still play baffles me).

There is another raid guide up – City of Mist. It will soon be joined by more guides once Jodi and I get around to gathering all the data and writing them up. All the raid guides are part of a little in-game project we are working on called nobody’s heroes. Another experiment, one that can’t fail because simply by my posting raid guides that we have created it has succeeded.

And as always… I’m looking for a new job and… buy my comics!

To debate a point…

Random Thoughts

It’s one of those things that just annoys me. Sadly, I hear it almost every single day.

“The point is mute.” “It’s a mute point.”

Listen people… its moot, not mute. MOOT.

Moot is what these people intend to say. They want to tell you that your point is not worth arguing, or unwinnable. Instead, they tell you that your point doesn’t speak or make sound.

Telling these people this, however, is a MOOT point.