sigtrent's Journal

My company, and I are looking for a strong software tester. If you think you might be interested or know someone who is, the details of the job are behind the cut... (assuming I figure out how to do that...)

( Details here! )

I just got done with almost a full week off of work (I popped in the office for a few hours to pack things for a building move). It sure was nice to chill a week, although really mostly what I did was catch up on video gaming and hanging about with my lovely wife. Good times. I had thought to do more project work but I really didn’t feel motivated for much more than a few hours of it.

Anyhow, I’m in my new office for the first time. Actually it’s a cubical now, but for me it’s pretty much the same difference. I’m not a deeply private person and I provide my own distractions if others don’t do it for me. Anyhow the new building is much more corporate but also much nicer all around. It feels very professional and a little exciting.

I’m actually very fond of new and unfamiliar surroundings. I think it’s one of the things that drives my love of games as I like exploring spaces and learning the way things work there. It was fun exploring the new space, a little bit like having a new job.

Wizards of the Coast made their new license for publishing 4^th Edition material available this week along with the accompanying system reference document. I like 4E and I was looking forward to the license release but having seen it I am sorely disappointed.

When WOTC made the third edition they took the revolutionary step of publishing the rules under an open license called the OGL , and they licensed a logo for it under the d20 license. It let anyone publish their own D&D supplements and adventures so long as you followed a few basic rules. By using the license you similarly gave permission to others to use and build on your work. WOTC kept all their most of their supplemental material off limits, but the core game was there for everyone to play with.

Well this time they have drop kicked the whole “open” aspect and gone with a more traditional kind of license allowing people to publish 4E supplements. While that is still more than what most game publishers offer, there are a number of devils lurking in the details of the license. For starters it essentially punts any obligation on wizards part and proclaims its subject to change at any time without any notification and gives WOTC broad digression in determining what is or isn’t allowed under the license.

A troubling clause for many publishers is that any “conversion” of a project published under the OGL must be discontinued to publish a version of it under the GSL (game system license). Again WOTC reserves the right to judge what is a conversion and what is part of the same product line making this a potential danger for any company that has been successful with 3E products but would like to make 4E ones.

But the big killer for me is the SRD (system reference document) which has gone from a nearly complete set of core rules to a mere list of terms and game components. Instead of being able to incorporate the game rules into your publications you are merely allowed to make reference to them. Compared to the SRD of old, the new one is a useless pile of shit. Even in comparison to no SRD at all in has almost no value of any kind other than to name the things you cannot describe. What was once a fantastic gift to fans is now a barbed wire fence for publishers.

I can see how the license will still allow certain kinds of publications to be made, and I don’t think it is utterly worthless or believe that WOTC is eager to shut down independent publishers, but it is a big step backwards and extremely unattractive to fan projects. It is attractive to me as a non-profit content maker to simply give them the big metaphorical middle finger. It’s especially disappointing because I really like the rules system they have put together this time.

I’m delighted to see Obama get the tentative nod as democratic nominee. Politics rarely seem to choose the kinds of candidates I support, but this year both parties picked my favorites among their contenders. I’m solidly behind Obama but I’m very much looking forward to debates between the two. No doubt there will be plenty of BS but there will be some jewels of thought and debate in there under the spin. I think that in the end, Obama will win and if that happens it will be a pretty amazing moment.

I’m trying to plow through the 4E rules between all the other stuff I’m up to. It’s very interesting and I think I quite like it. I’m unsure how flexible the new class and powers systems are as they are currently presented. I’ll need to actually play to find out. But many of the other new mechanics seem very smart to me. Many have complained that the rules are too cold and without flavor. But for me the flavor has always been separate from the rules. My experience is that the art and context is what sets the stage for imagination, and not the mechanics which serve two rolls: a framework for the story telling, and simply a mechanical game to play. I think as a game, the new rules are pretty good.

I now have a mac and an ipod touch on my desk at work. We are looking at doing some iphone development and those are the tools of the trade. I’m excited as I got my start on macs and it’s been a long time since I played with one. The only down side is its one more “hazards unknown” kind of project that lately has made work kind of unproductive and frustrating as I fumble around in territory that isn’t my usual domain.

Well, I’ve been busy so I haven’t dipped deep into any game but I try to go to game after 10pm for at least an hour and I’ve squeezed in a bit of gaming elsewhere so I’ve tried out some new stuff.

NeverWinterNights 2: Finished main story with Anne and just started sequel. Great game, playing solo with evil character as well and about 1/3 the way through.

Starcraft the Board game: Got to play this at a friends. Really well designed IMO and lots of fun. Manages intense combat and strategy in a game under 4 hours (with 3 players) by getting you right into the action from turn 1 and having a decisive game mechanic for winning.

I’m planning on trying out my Sunday Sabbath 2.0 for the summer. If you missed the original post the idea is to pick a day and to make sure you get a good bit of relaxation on that day of the week. I’m not sure if I’m doing it every week, but possibly every other week or every week there arn't special sunday plans.

I was feeling pretty zippy thanks to recovering from a cold and getting lots of bed rest for a day. I have that lots to do so little time feeling, instead of the lots to, would rather play a game feeling I usually have J.

So I had a though that perhaps the whole Sabbath day concept is a pretty good idea from a purely humanist perspective and that it came up out of some common wisdom (as with many religious ideas). Pick a day (Sunday seems the best in M-F work life). Do nothing you feel obligated to do, only things you would find fun and relaxing. Sleep in and go to bed early or at least take a mid day nap (whatever works best for your natural cycle but definitely get at least 3-4 hours more sleep than you normally do.

Depending on who you are rules could vary. For me it would also be a space of time for casual socializing. No long trips or parties, just having friends round or visiting nearby friends in the middle of the day. You can do chores but only if you think it’s fun and relaxing to do them.

I’m thinking it would be hard to arrange at first but you could settle into it and it might just make life more pleasurable and help you be more productive the rest of the week. If you have a family you would have to get everyone on board for it of course.

I’m not sure I can do it myself these days but perhaps… At any rate I thought it was worth sharing and wondered what others thought.

Not a lot. I've got a nasty little cold at the moment, trying to sleep this bad boy off with small bouts of wakefullness to cram food and take care of nessesities.

Life has been somewhat chalenging but none the less generaly good as of late. There never seems to be a shortage of obsticles and obligations but I always manage to pick my way through them and find some time for love and recreation, two of my favorite things in life!

I've been utterly defeated at work this last week. I'm trying to get a DLL to run from java script in a simple web page plugin and despite doing everything I'm apparently supposed to do, none of it is working. Thats the worst thing about working with "tech" there are just a million possiblilities of what might not be working and until you find it you can just get totaly shut down. I keep getting this kind of work at my job as of late as we try to get our product to work wtih other software but its always diggin around in things I just don't have any expereince with so its a lot of shooting in the dark and mostly missing the target.

Been mostly playing Neverwinter Nights 2 with Anne and am really enjoying it. A superb RPG. Its like TV, there are just too many good games these days to really enjoy them all and not be a hermit of some kind.

This one wrapped up the current story although the group vows to start up a new story once we can get a workable version of 4E. It was a great game with great folks.

My Dwarven battle mage, Malkus, turned out to be quite the hero as he and his companions managed to lift the siege of Zobeck after many adventures and trials. He by persistence to get the powers to be accept that he was a Gryphon Knight and not a mere Gryphon Scout thus ensuring his legacy as the founding member of that soon to be glorious order.

My portly and un-pious but otherwise very knightly knight, Sir Havenor and his companions succeeded in their quest to save king authors kingdom by recovering the mystic whetstone so that sir Gwain could defeat the grey knight. Now we are riding to the tournament of dreams for a little jousting and intrigue.

My evil monk was reincarnated as an elf and decided that he was no longer feeling quite as evil. (He had lots of issues with his past and parents and he now feels like he’s got a chance for a new and different life.)

We are in the midst of a gladiatorial tournament while trying to investigate the nefarious deeds of the arena master. And yet over all this hangs a prophesy that when we win the tournament a great cataclysm will take place.

I went to our legislative district caucus as an Obama delegate and Anne went as an alternate and was sworn in when a spot was available. It was quite interesting and ultimately a lot of fun. People were very excited and it was a crowd of folks that have strong opinions and like to speak their minds. The Obama camp had lots of political fist timers and populist types. The Clinton camp were more the experienced pragmatist, women with strong stands on women’s issues, and a smattering or folks with strong views on health care. I ended up sitting in what was unofficially the Clinton side of the auditorium so I got a nice sample of the folks there to support her.

The number one game for me at the moment is Neverwinter Nights 2. I couldn’t play it on my old machine without great frustration, but it is quite fun on my new system and it’s a game Anne and I can play together.

I’m rolling out to a Linux fest this weekend with Brett and Sarah. It should be fun although I’m not any kind of Linux enthusiast. I like the ethos but I don’t generally like to tinker around with my computer these days.

I’ve been busy lately, that’s not especially new. I’ve always struggled between a desire to have some ambition, a deep seeded love of being lazy and relaxed, and a sense of commitment to others and to things I enjoy. So there is always a tug of war between “Wouldn’t it be great to do X!” “I need to make sure I get Y done.” and “I’d like to just spend a whole day playing video games once in a while.”

The wife: Ann got some awesome grades this quarter after a metric ton of work by her and a fair bit of support from me. I’m quite proud considering how brutal her classes were.

The Computer: So we splurge and get new computers, build it yourself action. Very cool but I’m a newb so things don’t go so smooth for me. It starts with a struggle to get the CPU fan in place and cooling the CPU properly. I get it built, start installing and odd errors start happening. Seemingly at random the thing blue screens with various issues.

So I got a sweet new computer (make it yourself style) but it isn’t behaving so well for me and ate up a lot of sleep and chill time trying to whip it into shape. (Note that whips are not especially effective, must try candy next time.) With help from my able wife who got her computer working after only two tries, I think I am on the cusp of computer functionality. It’s a sweet ride but not a gentle one.

A friend organized a 5pm to 2am night on the town as a kind of grown up prom event and kindly invited Anne and I. We got dressed up and partied all night long, Dinner, Pool, Dancing, and the inevitable crash at Beth’s Cafe. Lots of fun and good company but Anne fell ill the next day. Still, worth the price paid in cash and health.

Diet time is here again. The last one ended rather early and extravagantly as finals loomed and life became a blur. I’m going hard core, no excuses, no deviation, Atkins for a while and probably with some honest to goodness exercise thrown in. (Oh ya and trying not to dehydrate myself :P) I shall be a tower of iron will and bastion of good judgment!

You can’t really say enough good things about Gary Gygax in terms of geekdom. I never met him but he never felt very far away. I was the icon and the spirit behind a game that has shaped a good deal of my life and who I am. There were of course many others who put their soul into it, including myself, but we all walked a path that in many ways he walked first.

I don’t believe in life after death or resurrection or the like. But I do think that everyone and everything has a soul of sorts. It isn’t a ghost or spirit but the force of their life felt by everyone and everything around them. As you live your life it touches everything and ripples out entwining and changing the souls of others in an endless wave. So for me, Gary Gygax’s soul has been a companion of mine for some time. His spirit and imagination has shaped so many parts of my life it would be impossible to separate and identify them. It will go on that way long past his death, and I’ll be passing it on to everyone I know as well.

I’m rarely sad when someone dies after a life well lived. I don’t think there is anything more you can ask for in this world. I feel good that every time I roll some dice and play with my friends that I’m keeping his spirit alive in the world.

I went to the Democratic Caucus this weekend. I was excited to have the vote here mean something and also to be able to support a candidate I’m actually quite excited about. Our caucus was very crowded as were many others and my precinct was mostly folks who had turned out for the first time ever. We started with a near even split of Clinton/Obama with a small lean to Obama. I spoke on behalf of Obama as did a few others and two spoke for Clinton. In the end two Clinton and two Undecideds moved to Obama which was enough to shift the delegate count from 3/3 to 2/4 in favor of Obama. So I really felt like I had an impact there. I signed up to be one of the Obama delegates. I really enjoyed the process.

On the gaming front I picked up Armageddon Empires which is an independently produced turn based strategy game. It’s like a weird mix of settlers of Catan, magic the gathering, and an old school war game all set in a post apocalyptic wasteland of humans, aliens, mutants, and robots. It’s a wonderful game but it suffers from a bad user interface, no multiplayer, and an inadequate AI. None the less the core mechanics and ideas are strategy gold and hits all my major gaming pleasure centers.

The new DDO expansion is also out and I like it very much even if I haven’t had the time to fully plumb it yet. I do like to take my MMOs kind of slow though.

I haven’t had a ton of gaming time as of late, bits here and there but I did get in a nice little chunk this weekend and though I’d share my thoughts.

Mass Effect: I finished the main story and it definitely left me wanting more. The side missions involving combat felt very perfunctory and while the dialog and acting was great, the interactivity didn’t feel revolutionary, just a quality version of the same old song and dance. The game mechanics were good but not amazing, a mix of shooter mmo and traditional rpg. Good but not a lot of strategic decisions to make. None the less the acting was amazing and the story compelling and there were moments where you felt like you had real choices you could make in the course of events.

Setlers of Catan: We grabbed this on x-box live and it is a good implementation of the board game and fun to play on the console. Sadly it didn’t allow two players on the same console (no idea why since it has on line multiplayer). None the less the AI is good and the game is a fun one hour diversion.

Carcasone: Another x-box live title and in some ways better than Settlers in implementation but not quite as fun a game overall. The best part is multi player on the same console so it’s a game Anne and I can play together. We each won a game and it was well done with many different rules options.

Sam and Max Episode 1: We have the season one collection and we hooked it up with the laptop to play on the big screen tv using a remote mouse. I have to say it’s a great way to play these kinds of games. It was funny and clever and quite nicely short (about 2 hours to play). We never got stumped for longer than a minute or two yet some of the puzzles felt pretty clever. It was a little dull at times but then the comedy and cleverness would pick up.

I’d love to see a campaign between Obama and McCain. The former for the hope that we can make things better with idealism and good will, the latter for a person that puts their human values and principles above greed and hollow ideology.

I’d hate to see a campaign of Clinton and Romney. The former for her nanny state offers to protect us all from ourselves and the latter for his, to me, transparent pandering to business and religion simply for the sake of power and money interests.

So I’m watching and hoping there are enough folks out there like me (which is a pretty bad bet I think) and less folks that just want to be coddled or pandered to (sadly where the safe money is). My suggestion is folks vote not for the person that promises you the most, but the one that you think would act as you would if given the presidency.

Working, 2 D&D games, D&D online, Rockband, Mass Effect, Weekly 10 minute DDO podcast “Crunchy bits”, Pokemon, Household chores, weekly Toastmasters, writing for Kobold Quarterly, Dieting seriously again, helping Anne with school stuff, Visiting family, following politics, netbook of feats.

I’m a bit of a political junkie as you likely know. I listen to lots of talk radio (mostly via public radio channels via the internet) and I follow things in a somewhat passive manner.
I’ve been struck the last two weeks by the somewhat misleading coverage I hear about who’s winning what etc… It’s not so much that anyone is saying something wrong, more that they don’t seem to be looking at the big picture much.

CNN’s website has a nice election coverage page that is tracking the delegate counts from the state primaries. If you are interested in who is really winning and by how much, this is a good information source.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/

Sig’s Democratic Analysis

You can see on the Democratic side that Obama is ahead by a tiny margin. Clinton is just behind and Edwards is trailing a bit behind. I think they both Obama and Hillary have a shot at it.

While Edwards is not far behind either of the others.. he has a big gap between the two of them, and that is what he would have to make up to win. I don’t think he has a shot at it and I’m glad for that. He’s not a bad guy, but I listen to him and I hear what sounds like a tape recording of the “bleeding heart liberal” speech. Sick people, homeless people etc… It’s good to help the downtrodden but ultimately that can’t be the entire focus of a nation. You have to aspire at all levels of society. I think he will stick it out for a while though, he has enough support to at least taste victory. By the time he’s out I don’t think it will matter where his supporters gravitate.
I’m thrilled that Obama won Iowa and has the lead. I’d much rather see him as the democratic candidate in the general election. I respect technocratic skill but I think presidents don’t need to be technocrats to be effective in office. The ability to motivate the voters directly is ultimately more powerful in shaping the political and cultural landscape. I like what he represents, I like his policy positions, and I love the idea America could finally elect a non-white person to office and put some of our shameful past to bed.

Sig’s Republican Analysis

Despite the talk of huckabee and McCain as winning Iowa and Newhamshire, you can see that Romney has a big delegate lead thanks to his win in Wyoming (which strangely I have not heard one mention of on Public Broadcasting shows). Mostly they talk about him as the “morman” candidate or a “conservative values” candidate but watching him, and listening to him I think he’s the “Corporate shill” candidate. He has money and the suited moneyed interests behind him and on the republican side those folks are quite powerful in a quiet but inevitable sort of way.

McCain may have won Newhamshire but he’s quite a bit behind and will need some sizeable victories to put him in front runner status. Of all the GOP he is by far the candidate I would prefer. I think he’s tough for the right reasons, smart, independent and trustworthy. Something tells me he will get crushed once again by big money or big religion.

Huckabee is an interesting guy. Totally opposite political views that myself, yet I at least trust him to say what he means and do what he says. I like him, just don’t agree with him much. Ultimately I get the feeling he just won’t be able to get his party behind him. He can get a lot of votes, but the establishment that really makes the call won’t get on his bandwagon.

Democrats for the win

Ultimately, I don’t see any way the republicans can win the presidency this time around. McCain could possibly pull something out, but it seems unlikely. The turnout in Iowa for the democratic caucuses (2.5 to one) in a state that voted Bush last time around, shows that there is a groundswell for the democrats of fairly epic proportions. Not due to an especial love for their ethos, but because folks are disgusted with the GOP and its governing philosophy. None the less I'd like to see Obahma vs McCain. Finaly an election where I could be pretty happy that either of the candidates won, instead of mildly disapointed that eiither of them won.

Unlike some years, this time around I really feel more like I am in the middle of something than at the end or beginning of anything in particular. The #1 thing I am doing, have been doing, and will be doing is seeing Anne through college and we still have at least a year to go on that endeavor.

I will say that 2007 was a stellar year for all things gaming. Lots of great games, lots of fun working on game projects and all around a gaming pleasure. Since I haven’t really finished much of those yet, the trend is likely to continue in 2008 so again, not much transition.

I have started, once again, dieting seriously for 2008. The end of the holidays is just a good time to start that up having fattened up over successive parties and dinners. I tend to feel it’s pretty normal to chunk up over the winter and then try to take some of that off in spring and summer.

So my resolution for 2008: Keep on trucking!