Last week's eye appointment went... I won't say well. It went. My eyes haven't changed much, but I got new glasses (just picked them up 5 minutes ago). They've got bigger lenses, a very subtle blue tint, no AR coating. They're maybe not as stylish and cyberpunk as the old ones, but not too nerdy either -- Steph says I look more like a doctor now. :)

I can wear soft toric contacts, and actually enjoyed the experience of seeing clearly without wearing any crap on my face. What was not so pleasant was removing them. It set off the whole unreasonable frustration/anger thing which only made it worse. I may try again in a couple of weeks, because it's not unusual for people to have trouble with it at first and it seems worth the effort. But these new glasses are a fantastic improvement so I'm in no hurry.

It was priest conference weekend at Tawy House, and so we rented a nice Grand Am and drove on up. The place is quite nice... unlike any other conference center and priest's apartment we've used, it belongs to our church and that makes a big difference.

The difference between a Kemetic Orthodox lay priest (Wab) and a minister (Imakhu) is like the difference between a National Guard volunteer and a career Army officer. These meetings always make me realize the full extent of the work and dedication, beyond what I'm already doing, required of an Imakhu... and make me question and challenge myself. Could I remain as I am -- Wab and assistant scribe -- and avoid a lot of work and hassle?

The answer is yes... but only in the short term. Eventually it would come to a point where not giving all I can would be more trouble to me than giving it.

God is conspiring, not against me, but for me. Sneaky God! Heh. :) The type of priesthood I'm being pointed at, It-Netjer, just happens to be the physically demanding one that requires a clean bill of health. I almost feel like Netjer pointed me at that just to induce me to take care of myself.

I've got an appointment with "the English guy" (as Jeff calls him) next week to get tested for diabetes. It was something of a struggle to make myself do that, after telling myself I would for the past 7 months, and pretending it wasn't a problem before that. But I already feel better just having made the appointment.

Either DAoC was not kind to me this weekend, or I was just grouchy and impatient. Or both.

Rannveig, the Troll Skald I'd started, was kinda fun at first. Except I got into a good group and levelled really quickly for a while... far outstripping the equipment I had on me. My armor and weapons were so poor that things of my level killed me, and things slightly below my level were a tough fight. Fighting things too far below your level results in no experience and no loot. And so it would have been a long, tedious process to get my gear up to speed, and that wasn't what I wanted.

So I brought Eiteag, my Mentalist and main character, back in. I found that fishing bears are a good thing to hunt but there aren't many of them around... not enough to support 3 people. So I went after irewood saplings instead -- a bit tougher, but I could still consistently take them down in about 20 seconds, with about 20 seconds of rest in between. Perfect. Except that the game, every once in a while, makes an extra-tough version of a normal monster, and at certain levels you can't tell the difference until it's already resisting your spells and beating you to a pulp.

So I reinstalled Diablo II. :P

People are doing all kinds of neat things with their D2X characters, according to diabloii.net. My favorite types previously have been the Jabazon and the Martial Cuisinartist (dual-claw Assassin using Dragon Claw and Burst of Speed). This weekend I started a Sparkler (but didn't take it far) and a Shifter (made some training mistakes but still pretty effective). I want to try a Barbazon/Tankazon, a Frogarian, a Melee Sorc...

It occurs to me that I like creating characters and trying out different things more than I like just picking a character and playing the game, sometimes. That's certainly been the case in DAoC. :)

This has been the first week of actual programming on the project that we've been doing XP planning on for the past few weeks. Monday was pretty frustrating, as I was hoping to just go back to trying to learn programming stuff on my own, not get drawn into the project. It's not client/server type stuff that interests me, or so I thought. Then again I'm intimidated by 3D now, and wondering what it is I really want to do.

But as time goes on it gets better, and I enjoyed most of Tuesday's work. Something about the unit test process in XP is satisfying -- it gives you feedback and gratification that something works, even if it's code that would not normally be "visible" in that sense. Hmm.

In last night's D&D session, Marabi got level-drained by a wight. We didn't have access to any magic that could fix it, and I blew the next-day saving throw that made it permanent. As it turns out, the Restoration spell does recover the lost level but puts you back at the beginning of it -- and we were just about to reach 7th level. Potentially worse than dying and being resurrected.

But I lucked out. The fight earned us just enough experience to push us up to 7th level, before the permanent drain kicked in. Which meant I got drained back to 6th level, and then restored to the beginning of 7th level... only a couple of hundred exp behind the rest of the party. Whew! After that bit of luck I was not as disappointed at being unable to afford the enchantments I wanted.

Got an appointment at the optometrist today. Finally going to replace the old scratched-up lenses, maybe go for contacts, and if not maybe go for frames with bigger lenses again -- the smaller ones may look cooler, but my "clean" field of view is a lot narrower.

Happy Valentines' Day!

Big developments on the spiritual front, which I'm not ready to write about here. Another one of those surprises that, in retrospect, makes more sense than I first thought.

Been messing with Java at work -- we've decided to use it for at least one of our projects until we find something that just doesn't run fast enough. It doesn't seem likely Java will hold up to a realtime 3D graphics client, but we may be surprised... and at any rate, native compiled Java should be fine for anything less absolutely time-critical.

So to refamiliarize myself with the language and learn a bit about refactoring and design patterns, I'm revisiting Splunge. The current version has one type of power-up you can pick up, a larger (and more easily changeable) window size, smarter missiles (easier on framerate too), explosive charges, and a starfield background. Instead of moving your ship around the window, it remains centered while everything else moves relative to it. The starfield has near, middle and distant stars that scroll in parrallax. I'm currently working on a new abstract Weapon class, which will handle the firing/timing of different types of weapons, which will allow for some more improvements. Pretty soon I'll upload the new version and you can mess with it. :)

Experimentation in DAoC continues. I started a Sorcerer, which seemed cool until I actually levelled up as a Sorcerer. They can charm humanoids to fight for them... but the problem is finding humanoids of the appropriate level. All those fairy creatures, undead, etc. don't count. You've got to find bandits, druids, or the like. And then you can't heal them, so they're pretty much disposable -- use them up, let them go and find a new victim. It gets tedious and limits where you can hunt. I should have tried a Cabalist instead, since they summon minions instead of charming them... ah well, maybe next time.

I also rolled up a Friar because I've heard they're fun, even if there's only one valid way to train them and they're no good in realm warfare. Except I messed up -- the order in which you train them matters a lot. If they don't have any neat combat styles, there's no use for the chant that lets them keep using combat styles without tiring. Oops. I might try again or just not mess with it, since melee classes don't interest me as much as casters anyway.

The fun part of that character was the name, Thecla. I realized that, if you look at it through the eyes of a bitter jaded GM or a snooty roleplayer, "Thecla" looks like "The cla..." Which made me ponder punny last names. Thecla Wisborn, Thecla Shrocks, Thecla M'shell, Thecla Rinet, something of that ilk. It's probably good that the character didn't turn out... :)

• "Deepwood Sniper" which has no "wood" related requirements or abilities... perfect for sneaky rogue archers. This is basically what Livia originally wanted to be, until the whole magic thing happened.
  
• "Exotic Weapon Master" who can wield practically anything. It does require the ability to rage as a Barbarian, but the ideal character to qualify for this would be Barbarian 1 / Fighter 5.
  
• "Forsaker," the anti-magic type, more like a DragonRealms barbarian than a D&D one.
  
• "Geomancer," combining divine and arcane magic in funky ways (with a side dish of mutation). It seems best suited for a Cleric/Wizard, like Steph's character Ivy.
  
• "Tempest," a specialist in quick and deadly two-weapon combat. Best suited to a Fighter. It matches Marabi quite well, and rather than continuing Fan Dancer I'll take this road instead. (Though the qualifications and first level of FD does set a certain tone for the character that I wanted.)
  
• "Watch Detective," a solver of urban crime mysteries. Ties in with the "Urban Ranger" concept introduced in this book, not a bad thing but not "the wild" either.
  
• "Windrider," a character trained in breaking and riding exotic beasts. Could be a Paladin, could be a Ranger, could be a Rogue, could be a Cleric, could be a Bard... doesn't much matter.

Don't get me wrong, it's a neat book and will be a great help to at least two of my characters... but you'd think the Barbarian/Druid would get more out of a book for Barbarians, Druids and Rangers than my Fighter will. Heh.

I see three possible options for Gengh. The first is a good middle-of-the road course: stay Druid all the way. The animal and elemental changes, along with spells, allow for a lot of flexibility. The lycanthropy he "accidentally" (heh) contracted adds an extra twist.

The second is to stay Druid for a while and then become a Shifter -- one who learns alternate means of shapeshifting and can take forms no Druid can, but gives up a lot of magic potential. (Who needs to cast spells when you can change from dragon to vampire to angel to tree to pixie to slime to hawk to troll as often as you like?)

The third is to learn some wizardry and become a Geomancer, giving up a lot of shapechanging abilities and some spell power in exchange for a tiny bit more spell variety and some very unusual traits. (He's already going to be a half-Orc wererat... why not a half-Orc wererat with zebra stripes, leaves, antlers, gills, a stinger, a unicorn's horn and elephant feet?)

While other people were watching the Super Bowl, I was marching off to war with my fellow Hibernians. The plan was grand: seize both of Midgard's holy relics, and then turn to Albion and take those too.

But the best laid plans of lurikeens and firbolgs gang aft fubar.

Just as the St. Louis Rams failed to batter down the Patriots, our own mighty ram could not scratch the gates of Sjnarlbjargelnwulf Faste (or whatever it's really called). It was a bug actually, and the CSRs online at the time said there was not really anything they could do for us. Feh. And so we marched onward through the frozen waste to Nottmoor Faste and proceeded to trash the defenders, smash the gates, overthrow the lord of the keep, and raise our own banner.

When I say "we," I of course mean "our war band." My major contribution was to take screenshots and stand in the path of enemy arrows, and judging by the number of times I found myself face-down in the snow, I'd say I did pretty good. At one point I even managed to use up the poison that was on an enemy assassin's blade, thus possibly sparing someone else from death. I don't think anyone ever caught the sneak though.

I was way too low a level to have any business there, as was my computer. In 1024x768, I couldn't actually look at the gates we were breaking down or my whole display would go wiggy. 800x600 worked better, but regardless, my spells didn't have the oomph to affect our foes. I did see a target I could have taken out, but he got whacked by a Champion before I had finished prepping the first spell. Overall, I got three realm points because somebody in my group managed to score a kill. ;)

It was still exciting, and I managed to help out in the aftermath of destruction, giving Druids and Bards power boosts and healing the recently resurrected. Only fair since they had to do the same for me about a dozen times. :) I'm really looking forward to reaching a level where I can kick some troll butt, and earn more realm points than the enemy gets for killing me.

On the other hand, I do like exploring and checking things out. Aside from the raid and finishing Eiteag's level 23, I started up a Ranger, a Warden and an Enchanter this weekend.

The Ranger, I still don't like. While there are certain cool things about bow hunting, good arrows are prohibitively expensive for a newbie and fletching is a nasty skill to learn -- it requires a bunch of tools and has a bunch of dependencies. And if you miss your first shot against an equal level creature, you will die. So poor Turlough has been retired early, and I won't get to give him the last name O'Carolan. :)

The first four levels of my Warden character were dull dull dull. Thankfully they were also short. Wardens are basically a sort of fighter with healing and group enhancement capabilities. A jack of all trades, versatile and with low downtime -- exactly what I like about the Mentalist. I might consider Carraig (Gaelic for "rock" (heh)) an alternate character when I don't want to play Eiteag.

The Enchanter is pretty neat too. This one is Gwinnasa, nod bad for the random name generator I thought. :) You can summon an "underhill" minion, soup it up with spells, and command it to follow, defend, attack, and so on. This pet isn't very powerful, but can keep a creature off you while you fry it with attack spells. If I do stick with this character, I'm not entirely sure what to specialize in -- each of the three lines has useful things that complement each other, so training is not as clear-cut as some other classes. I'll probably go a few levels with this character and if downtime seems to become a big problem, drop it like a hot potato.

Of course last night I dreamed that a bunch of us from the office were invading Norway and setting an ambush for Vikings. We had winter camo outfits and radios (over which we complained about the cold), but there were neither airsoft guns nor swords to be seen.

Two two two! It'll be another year, month and day before we see that pattern again. Or depending on how you look at it, another 1001 years, a month and a day. :)

Why do warning signs always advise people to use EXTREME CAUTION? Aren't there any situations which merely call for MODERATE CAUTION?

Why not signs that say "Construction Ends, Please Drive Recklessly" or "Dry Floor, Feel Free to Run Around Like A Caffeinated Five-Year-Old?"

I didn't like the idea of Extreme Programming when the boss first thrust it upon us. I felt I'd have spent my time better getting cozy with C++. But I have to admit, the farther we get into the Planning Game (yup, that's what they call it) and the more I read about XP, the more it seems like a good idea.

I think the name turned me off -- made me think of Mountain Dew and ESPN2. The idea that "if X is good, then lots of X is better!" just seemed hopelessly naive. But behind that there's a pretty clever system for avoiding or mitigating some of the fundamental problems of writing software. I can't help but wonder how much better some of my old code would have been if I'd done things at least partially this way.

Mike has decided to let us do some limited "reallocation" (as we call it at Simu) of our Saturday D&D campaign characters -- since those were our first before we really understood things, some of the rules have changed, and new material has been released that changes what we want to plan for. They'll still be the same characters in the same situation, but we have a chance to streamline their skills and that sort of thing.

After some pondering, I think I'm no longer going to take Livia toward Dragon Disciple after all. Right now, she's an archer and spellcaster -- to make her into a melee fighter at this point would dilute things a bit too much. And I regret the level of Fighter she took; though it had its uses, it really hampers her progression as a spellcaster. An Elf or Human could have pulled it off, but a race that favors thievery needs to either stick with that or one other thing... not two other things. :)

So, with DM approval of course, she'll be remade not as a Rogue/Sorcerer/Fighter, but as a Rogue/Wizard. The plan is to go for the Arcane Trickster prestige class, which combines sneak attacks with spellcasting and slight-of-hand at a distance. The requirements for the class don't make a lot of sense (Decipher Script 7, which wizards/sorcs can't even train in, and is a skill that a trickster would have little need for if any), so Mike will probably change them. At any rate, I look forward to being able to move around invisibly, at superhuman speed, every attack a nasty surprise to the creature I've targetted. Of course there will be situations where that won't work, but it'll be fun when it does. ;)

In that other gaming world, I've found myself another guild, Daoine Sidhe. (Gaelic for "people of the hill," a euphemism for the race in the legend of the Invasions of Ireland that occupied Eire before the Sons of Mil (Celts from Iberia/Spain) took over and drove them underground... told ya I used to be into Celtic mythology.) It's not as cozy as Shelgeyr Deiney was, due to its larger size... but then there are more active members, always something going on and frequently groups of guildmates raiding dungeons or the frontier.

Eiteag is level 22, getting close to 23 and I'm sure I'll hit it this weekend (if not 24). The latest patch, while speeding up casting time just a little bit, also seems to increase the amount of things that will interrupt spellcasting, and introduced a bug that makes the game think you're moving sometimes when you're not... so it hasn't gotten easier. :)

Meanwhile, Steph seems to be prepared to cook through the weekend again... lucky me! Jeff is away for his grandma's 90th (!) birthday but will be back in time for Thai Steak.