2019-04-01 12:28:04

Wow is it April already or is someone playing a trick on me.
I admit this year's been a bit of a pain thus far post my phd, since i'm still not sure what to do now.

My lady and I have started an acting workshop which is fun as far as it goes though whether it'll lead to anything we don't know at this point, in general I'm still feeling a bit at loose ends, though on the plus side my writing is going well.

Next weekend we've got a vocal studies course which should be good, albeit I'm not sure about the hotel we're staying at since they weren't exactly %100 friendly about guide dogs, first told us we couldn't take dogs, then when I pointed out that they were in the wrong tried to charge us extra for a large style room, still we'll see.

I'm watching through the final series of Angel which is pretty good, I've then got stargate sg1 to start, which I've heard a lot about but not seen as yet, and as I said in last months topic am reading a collection of  by sf writer frederik pohl, whose really quite awesome, actually his Heechee novels could make a great setup for a game.

anyway, hope everyone else is having a nice year so far.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-04-01 12:44:58

I don't like how Angel ends.

I heard they wrapped it up with comics, not sure how I feel about them doing stuff like that.

I mean it's sort of like using a deus ex machina, which the stargate franchise does.

That's the problem with making a series for television, you have to follow their silly little rules.

Netflix on the other hand, have different lengths for each episode.

Buffy on the other hand, wrapped up nicely, I don't know why they had to ruin it by continuing it in comic books.

Anything to make money I suppose.

I think I'll stop before I start ranting about series that have perfectly good endings being revived.

2019-04-01 13:01:07 (edited by flackers 2019-04-01 13:01:55)

Gateway would definitely make my top ten sci-fi books. Have you read Pohl's short story Shaffery Among the Immortals? That'd make my top ten shorts too. The ironic humour just tickled me.

2019-04-01 18:53:39

I am on a real gaming jag as the month begins.
I discovered Kingdom of Loathing, and I'm really enjoying the humor of it.
Also playing Popmundo, Truckingsim, Animal Acres, and The Grail Lords.
I'm feeling so much better now that I've got back the only medication that ever helped me in twenty plus years, which I believed had been discontinued.
Happy April, everyone!

2019-04-02 18:46:05

@cooltirk, I agree about series that end, whether books or films or whatever there is a point that enough is enough and you just want a definitive end point, since the longer something goes on, the greater the chance of it going wrong. Though at least I'd rather have an end point than a remake or a soft reboot or whatever the hell other trick Hollywood are using to squeeze every property or series into the ground for as much cash as possible, artistic and story crafting merit be damned!

Ooooh  methinks I showed some bias there big_smile.

Beware! buffy spoilers ahoy!

One problem I'm having with Angel at the moment is Spike's arc. I really liked how Buffy ended with Spike's redemption and him coming to terms with the fact  his thing  ?Buffy wouldn't work, yet suddenly in Angel he's back.
Now, spike rocks and is all sorts of awesome, but I can't help thinking he'd have been better going out in literally a blaze of glory than hanging on as a sort of semi ghost.
of course, there are some potentially interesting plots going one, particularly  the  of the prophecy of "the vampire with a soul" but really.

Okay, end spoilers.

@Flacus, gateway rocks, and I think that story about the immortals is in this collection, though I've not got to it thus far. I do like Frederik pohl's stuff though, one of the few old school sf writers with a genuine sense of humour, not to mention being that rare thing, a 20th century hard sf writer who could actually write characters, even when those characters happen to be female! big_smile.

@Mirage, Kingdom of loathing is fun, I loved a lot of the jokes. The two things that put me off were firstly the game could be bloody obscure, and I got a little sick of constantly being at the mercy of the wiki to solve so many puzzles, secondly I didn't like the fact that basically they  monthly items that were a one shot only deal.  never mind paying to support a game, but to miss a bunch of game content because i happened to not spend 10 dollars in January of 2003 seemed rather unfair to me.

Also I confess the daily turn limit got a bit much too, though of course that might change now. Grail lords and animal acres I need to check out properly, though as you might gather I'm loving trimps big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-04-04 00:34:49

Yeah, I paid for a fair bit of content in Kingdom of Loathing, and I still burned out on it after awhile. After the quest system changed, for the worse in my opinion, I never felt the same about it again. The turn limit never bothered me that much, I always kind of saw it as, "hey, you've played enough for the day, go do something else!" I still have a Ko-l coffee mug my friend bought me when we were both in the height of our obsession with the game, and I'd definitely be sad if something happened to it because the physical merchandise is no longer being sold.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2019-04-04 05:21:57

So, I hope everyone is having a good April, considering we start this month with paranoia.

My exams did start at the very first date of the month, and so far I have given two of them. I must really say, after giving exams of hundred marks, and question papers which usually have at least six to eight pages, so far I have only 35 marks. and the question paper is only one page long.

Though I think this was the case only with language papers. I am sure that other subjects like accounting or business law would be at least long.

But seriously, the at current moment, I really dislike my university. because you have to get the approval of the local area exam controller. but the guy refused to aprove my original writer.

I have to scram to find a new one, and even then, I have to make sure that the people would at least agree. it really is not fun.

It is interesting to know about different thoughts about the online games. personally, I stopped playing them, because just to advance, you have to play them so much. after a while, I just got fed up with it. at least in the offline games, I can play with my own pace. there is a reason I intensely dislike online modes of the games, and online games in general.

I really can't wait to get back to programming.

2019-04-04 12:09:04 (edited by Dark 2019-04-04 12:09:39)

@turtlepower, I don't know about changes to the quest system, but I did get rather tired of constantly having to look at the wiki for stuff, that and as I said the rather unfair content policy. I never mind supporting a game financially, but the amount of stuff in KoL which basically is a one time only thing and impossible to get otherwise?

That's actually one where Puppet nightmares had the advantage, since though they had unique soul puppets for sale each month, you could still get them later in various ways, heck they usualy offered past month's soul puppets as current rewards, which meant they were always available if you wanted to donate to the game, or indeed for trade or sale if you wanted to pay with cash instead.

in general though I prefer games that have a straight out payment system    for virtual items, you buy it, you get it, and anyone can get it later.

@Dark eagle, funnily enough I was having bad dreams about doing exams last night big_smile. wow I don't miss it.
We did have a fun actor's workshop though, and right now my lady and I are just trying to sort out a trip to London since we have a singing weekend to go to, so I'll be off the forum for a few days from tomorrow to Monday.

it should be fun, its specifically a music theatre weekend and I'm taking reviewing the situation from Oliver as well as a bit of earth from secret garden, which is just beautiful. My lady and I also have a little preist from sweeny tod, though that is very low for me range wise.

Last night the coach at our acting workshop seemed to like what we were doing, and was talking about putting us forward to the more advanced group, which would be fun, though hoepfully there will be some opportunities to perform out of it.

In other news, I'm enjoying trimps, albeit I will have to take a break this weekend, since while the game is theratircally playable on my Iphone it wouldn't be easy, and I've never been a fan of Ios browsing anyway.
I also had NvdA playing silly beggers today, switching the language to Nepali, which was craaaazy! it has happened before, but goodness knows what happened today.
Still, at least it was a comparatively easy fix, even if it required me having to guess the keys to bring up nvdA settings.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-04-04 15:58:49

my new session of school started
on first of April, new class, new club, new subjects, new teachers and new confidence of doing something big.
also, I am trying to grab python, it's dam hard, but, I will use my new confidence and desire of learning.
also, annual day will be taking place this month, I guess I'll be the anchor of the show? I did this before but only on schools stage. I'll be doing this on auditoriums stage? oh, my.
I am trying hard to avoid Skype and other social platforms in order to focus on my goals,
lets see.

allow me to speak more,
catch me on Twitter
or, Mastodon

2019-04-04 16:21:58

@Dark:
Funny you should mention a dream, after I was done with the final exam of my school, and was well within my college year, I had a dream where I was inexplicably ended up giving those same exams again.

@Pool:
Strange, I never thought that Python particularly hard, specially compare to c.

2019-04-08 17:36:09

@@Pool, I used to be on skype back in 2009 or so. I did buy  stand mike since I hate the sound quality on those headsets, but couldn't manage to get windows 10 to work with it, let alone skype, but it probably is something I should look at setting up at some stage or other.

@Dark eagle, that's quite normal, I used to start reciting revision  in my sleep when taking exams, again, just another reason why I'm glad to be rid of them.

Well the music theatre weekend was bloody hard work, but worth it I think. I got to do all three songs,  mostly worked on the one from Oliver, which isn't so hard singing wise but is fun with the acting. Mrs. Dark did a hilarious song called "I'm breaking down" from a more modern musical, the falsettos which was absolutely brilliant, all about a woman whose having a breakdown because her husband is leaving her to go off with a man (the song is funnier than the explanation).

its just a shame my lady and I don't get to perform as often as either my lady or I would like.

The only miner irritation this time was the hotel. Usually we stay in a theological  colege on tower bridge. Its mostly used for theological retreats and people training for the priesthood, but its also a lovely place to stay so long as you don't mind them having no TV in the rooms (up until recently they didn't have wifi either).

On a more practical level it also is one of the few places  london that has some grass for guide dogs.
Less helpfully, its a taxi ride away from where we need to be in hackney for the performance weekends, so one of the tutors found us this hotel which was supposedly in walking distance.

Unfortunately the "walking distance" turned out to be a good 40 minutes up and down winding London streets and under the train tracks, indeed if we hadn't been lucky enough to find someone on the same course staying in the same hotel we would've been %100 stuck.

The staff were nicer than I expected (given how much fuss they kicked up over guide dogs when I booked),  but the rooms themselves were not nice, ultra modern minimalist with no storage space, wardrobe or any usual things you'd expect in a hotel room. heck,we ended up eating pizza two nights in a row since there was literally no where to put anything else like an Indian takeaway or similar.

So, while the music theatre bit was awesome, the hotel was less good, still we did have a good  over all, albeit we're both a bit shattered this afternoon, so at the moment I@M just casually playing trimps and will likely spend most of the rest of the day reading Frederik pohl and maybe watching the last of Angel.

Hope everyone else is having a April thus far, exams aside.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-04-09 18:27:32

@Dark:
it is so nice to hear about your musical adventures.

as for me, I recently saw a show on TV, (I have exams, why am I watching TV?) so there is this guy who gave his girlfriend his e mail ID and the password, the ID he used on his phone.

so, once his girlfriend asks him to bye a purse, and he refuses. so she in return, plays havoc on his phone. causing it to reset remotely, and changing the password of his ID.

all this because of a purse. anyway, the general jist which I got from this story is that never give that kind of information to your girlfriend, or really, any other friend.

anyway, two of my exams got postponed, so instead of finishing at the date of 24, they will stretch up to the 30 april.

2019-04-10 13:53:49 (edited by Dark 2019-04-12 18:51:20)

Sorry to hear about the exams. That show does sound a bit crazy, particularly to me. Since the point that Mrs. Dark bought an Iphone she had no idea how to use Voiceover, I setup her account for her so that I could download her the looktell tutorial. I also setup her gmail address as well, since at the time she wasn't as good with Window eyes as she has since got with NVDA, so for all practical purposes I already know all her passwords anyway big_smile.

Well primarily, yesterday I did exactly what I said I'd do, finished the Frederik pohl collection, play some more trimps and finish angel.
beware! angel ending spoilers ahoy!

I actually didn't mind the big last battle ending, though of course moving plot to comics is always irritating. What I did mind a bit more was the way that so many recurring series plots were just tossed off.
Fred is one of the nicest characters, and to basically go the same route with her as with Cordelia, having her possessed by yet another ancient evil and written out of the series was just plane disappointing, especially with the implication that her soul had been destroyed (nice end for a character I don't think).

I also was disappointed that conner, after the massive buildup in series 2 and 3 basically just cknocked off the demon in one go, and then, oh look he has  memories sort of back, but is okay. It felt too pat  especially after all the prophecies etc.

The same goes for the Shanshu prophecy and the implication that Angel could become human. not that I mind him giving up the chance to be human to take down the bad guys, but given that we didn't even hear of these bad guys until one episode before the finale, it seemed a convenient getout, especially  Angel's love for Buffy treated as essentially a joke an episode before, indeed I sort of got  the impression that Weden didn't want to come down on any resolution so he could keep things open  for the commic writers and shippers and fanfic authors as to who buffy ended up with, if anyone. Same goes for spike's plot. Buffy ended with him finding peace, resolving his issues, giving his life and moving on. Angel ends with him just sort of stuck in an antagonistic relationship with Angel after being brought back. Really, Awesome as spike is, couldn't we have  at least some resolution here? Indeed, I sort of liked the ending to Buffy a lot more, and the idea that Spike redeemed himself and was finally able to move on.

That being said there were still things I liked. i loved Spike reading his poetry to a bunch of bikers in a bar, and I did think Wesley's death  was justified, although would it really have been so terrible  to say that Wesley would end up with Fred in the Afterlife?Rather than leaving the status of Fred's soul as entirely ambiguous.

I also did like the message, that powerful evil forces push people around, but people do sometimes have a choice.

So, while I actually didn't mind the dirty great last stand cliffhanger, I do  wish things had been wound up a little better.
then again, of course this might not all be Joss Weden's fault, since I don't know how quickly in the writing process the series was cancelled, and its entirely possible if he only found out later on, that he had to rush plot resolution to give any resolution at all.

Okay, end spoilers!

I'm now writing a review for Magic's price by Mercedes lackey. I've reviewed the first two in the series, (you can find reviews over on www.fantasybookreview.co.uk), but there too I was rather disappointed with the last volume.

I've also started a new series by Alison Sinclair, whose an author I haven't tried before.
They're quite a unique fantasy world, with light born and dark born, light born who melt if  they're ever in darkness, and darkborn (who navigate by echo location), who are burned by light.

I'll be interested to see where they go.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-04-10 16:36:48

I have the mstep tests that we have to do tomorro and the next day.
There horrible!
Speaking of witch: American school is horrible.
No wonder why we're 70th in educational levels. Mwahahahhaa.

----------
“Yes, sir. I am attempting to fill a silent moment with non-relevant conversation.”
“You don’t tell me how to behave; you’re not my mother!”
“Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.” – Data (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

2019-04-11 16:10:54 (edited by Shin_Goenitz 2019-04-11 16:17:07)

Hello!

First of all I realized today that I've been a member of this forum for about half of my life, which is interesting in itself. That just dawned on me as of now. I was a relatively prevalent poster during my very early teens and was a bit of a moron to be fair, but it is interesting to see this place is still thriving. I don't see any old screen names anymore either apart from @Dark who went by Dark empathy back in those glory days.

Anyway I'm looking forward to the easter holidays and I'm looking forward to see the Gods of rap tour live this May.

Oh one more thing, I haven't played Audiogames for a long while and I'm guessing the games I used to play back in the day are no longer functioning on either a Windows or Mac? Hence, do any of you guys have any tips for some good ones for a former pro turned total noob?

Edit: Buffy and Angel sure brings back memories, mostly because my mom watched the crap out of those back when they came out. anyone like Black Mirror around here? It's mostly a visual series but Netflix have audio descriptions for it, as with all their self produced material. Possibly the best series I've watched along with The shield!

V

2019-04-12 19:15:15

@Redfox I can't speak for the american educational system now, though comparing educational experiences with my lady is sort of interesting.

@Shin_Goenitz Hi and welcome back.
Some of the old guard are still around, Aaron, Bryan P, Assault freak etc though of course we've got a lot of new players too.

As regards games, well surprisingly enough, most of the old classics will either work on windows 10 or have been modified to do so. Indeed, the only games that %100 won't run on modern windows are most of the BSc titles, anything written under dos, and the VIP Gameszone games (and that not because they won't run, but because with VIP Gameszone having disappeared they are unregisterable).

As to new games, well yee gods there is a lot of stuff on both Windows and Ios, and it all depends upon what you fancy.
If you like full scale audio rpgs there is a hero's call and manamon, not to mention bokerano Daibuken 3, if you fancy a flight sim there is eurofly, while for huge massive arcade fun crazy party is the place to go,  and that really is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. For more recommendations etc,  could always post a topic in the general game discussion area since there are a hell of a lot of games and obviously lots of opinions too.

I took over management of the site database in 2008, and there were 142 games in the database, there are now close to 700, and still many that need to be added, though I shan't be doing any writing on the db tonight big_smile.

I am afraid I'm completely shattered, since this morning we had to go and see the solicitor who is helping with Mrs. Dark's application to extend her spousal visa to stay in the UK.
Having to pay for someone to do this is expensive, like about 400 quid expensive, not to mention the thousand or so for the visa itself, however at least the solicitor was a really nice chap and very helpful, so hopefully the application will go okay.

I must admit,t his is one time when online application is a bloody stupid thing, since some bits need to be signed and scanned in, others need a visit for biometric data, yet we still need to submit the bloody form online. I think its  so the government can do less work and get paid, particularly because this visa extention basically doesn't give Mrs. Dark any increased status or privilege in the country other than ability to stay here for another two and a half years.

Its actually bloody annoying! when we first applied for the spousal visa for her to stay in the Uk we expected to apply for a settlement visa at this point, which would let her do things like open a bank account here, use the NHS and apply for disability bennifits. Sadly however some numbskull decided that was too useful, so now you can't actually apply to settle until five years, and must apply for a spousal visa extention after 2.5 years, which does bugger all accept extend the status quo, take a lot of time and trouble and of course cost a stupid amount of money!

And there was me thinking Brexit might actually help relations with other friendly countries outside the EU! Indeed, it gives one quite a different perspective on the hole brexit considering that despite being from a friendly country with whom we share a common language we have all this rigmarole, where as someone from Europe under the current system could just come into the country with no expense or checks at all!

Then again, god knows where things will be in another two and a half years, the stupid government will still not have made up their mind about brexit big_smile.

Anyway, enough of the B word since everyone over here is bloody sick of things!
I've not been spending as much times on my trimps as I would like, since between finishing  London, doing a crazy acting workshop on Wednesday, a rather successful if tiring singing lesson on Wednesday (where my Mozart went particularly well), and having to deal with the very nice and helpful but quite exacting solicitor today I'm feeling bloody shattered!
ironically, this means my trimps are probably further along than they would be, since instead of bowing out and portalling I'm just sort of carrrying on anyway, though I should be trying a new challenge tomorrow.

I've also still got reviews to write and my sf novella to work on, so busy things to do, at least when I'm sort of feeing in a slightly more energetic mood, and god knows where that is.

On the plus side, Alison Sinclair rocks! the darkboorn book was pretty awesome, even if she didn't quite explore a sightless society as much as she could've done. Still, honestly for those who like really nasty magical politics, this is like the game of thrones before game of thrones!

I'll also be banging out a review for this one when I have finished it, so tomorrow I should be very busy with review writing methinks.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-04-14 06:57:06 (edited by Shin_Goenitz 2019-04-14 07:56:05)

hi and thanks for the reply and the recommendations!
I'll create a separate topic. I just asked here to be sure if it would pass since I was unsure if you guys got 10 of those a week! a damn shame about the BSC games though, Troopanum 2 was one of my favorites! Insanely fun all around!


Ah, the Brexit thingy is as humorous as it's utterly depressing. Maybe you guys will join some sort of companionship with us since Norway never have been a part of the EU? We have a sweet deal though, and the EU have implied that you guys are not going to get that same privilege if you actually go through with it. That's unfortunately what we get when old white men scared of those "brown people" are dictating how society aught to work, and I haven't mentioned the fact that their worldview mostly are based on kneejerk reactions and outdated thinking to begin with.

Anyways, sorry to hear about your situation man, that's bureaucracy at its worst right there! I'm assuming she's American based on your earlier writings? I've heard of Americans that have faced similar stuff around here as well when finding a Norwegian boyfriend/girlfriend. I hope you'll sort it out!

Haha, after my previous post I read through my post history and it's astounding to see how much my English has improved since then. I knew it was worse, but some of it was textbook Engrish and it was really apparent that I was a kid and not an adult. Brought back some memories though!

Other than that I've been on a reading binge lately and read Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting in English (I read it in Norwegian back in 2015) but wanted to read the real deal, so to say. It was challenging in a positive way to read it narrated in Scots for the most part since I had to concentrate to understand it. It turned out fine though since I generally have a knack for understanding accents and dialects, if I should say so myself :d

Other than that I plowed through Hunter S. Thompson's The rum diary and am going for some of his other work next. Don't know why I haven't checked him out earlier since it sure was right up my alley!

As with musical ventures I've decided to start actually making music, probably hip hop with some influences from reggae/dancehall and possibly some drum and bass under a different pseudonym. I've studied music myself back in the day, but I had much more doubts about my musical talent to actually go into it full time but after 5 years of studying both sociology and political science I've decided that normal academia is not for me. I'm an artist at heart and want to exploit that to the fullest from now on! I've also been a music nerd my entire life and listen to a lot of stuff, I'm  a pretty good singer and got perfect pitch so the only thing I need now is equipment to bring out all of my ideas for people to hear and I'm really looking forward to that! I'm applying for a bachelors degree in journalism and are there by moving to Oslo this summer just to have something to fall back on but maybe my initial reluctance to actually make something have made me better music wise? I think so, since my voice has improved a lot as well as my ability to structure songs and such.

Anyways, sorry for the stream of consciousness rambling, I got a bit carried away, haha!

V

2019-04-15 16:55:33

@Shin_Goenitz, I'm not sure if the brexit thing is more about racism, over here its more the usual problem in British politics,  people are more concerned for the advancement of their own side in the parliamentary cricket match than whether its actually doing good for the country. The same virtually goes for the idiots in Brussels too.

There was actually a lot of talk about the Uk having a similar deal to Norway, which was what I think a lot of people wanted, but that doesn't seem likely, not with parliament showing absolutely no sign of making up its very tiny mind about anything any time soon, mean while everything goes to hell as usual!

Anyway the world situation is depressing!

On the plus side, lots of good games, and also I got my reviews done. Its been nice to finally have something of a weekend off since we've been really busy recently, although "off" here is a relative term being as I've banged out a couple more book reviews which should hopefully be appearing on fantasybookreview.co.uk soon.

I also had to make an incredibly sad phone call today, and have myself put on the guide dog list. Reever my dog has been with me since 2011, and is now nine so will need to retire in the next couple of years. With dog availability being what it is I suspect there is a long wait hence I need to go on the list now, especially since Reever, despite still being really good at what she does definitely isn't a young dog anymore.
This really doesn't feel right, even though I know its the right thing to do over all.

On the plus side, I just heard the title of the new starwars film, The rise of skywalker, my lady and I suspect this is a synonym for "the retcon of the last film" given how much a massive train wreck last jedi is between plot holes you could fly a star destroyer through and being virtually a character assassination of Luke Skywalker.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-04-19 06:02:00

Have been in the process of relocating from Canada's east coast to US's west coast. I spent one week in a cheap hotel, then another week in a cheaper motel, actively searching for houses to rent. I found a huge house in the end I'm really happy with, although it's pretty empty now. Even with all the move, hotel, motel, moving in the house, I played trimps very daily, this game is really addictive.

I started my software engineer role at Microsoft and man it feels good to be back! A guy basically dropped a monster pile of work on me just before baling out for two weeks to the other side of the world. But it's all new stuff, super cool challenges and I prefer to have too much work than no work. No seriously the work-life balance is really great at Microsoft, probably one of the best in the big tech companies.

If someone wants to work there, find a role you want on Microsoft's career website and send me an e-mail with the role through the website and I'll make sure the right people look at it.

I also plan to recruit at my University later this year, so I get to have a paid trip back to Quebec where it's a win-win forme and the company so that's great.

Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another. ― Lemony Snicket

2019-04-22 17:29:23

Holy crap! Yesterday I returned from a trip to Oslo to visit some friends. This trip ended up  more amazing than I ever could have imagined since I ended up at this huge rave that lasted well into the morning hours. Funny things were consumed and I bonded with this girl I partially knew from beforehand to the point where I found motivation to try making something serious out of it. It culminated in the fact that she was an equally huge fan of The Prodigy as I am and we got sentimental and at the same time found solace  over our shared sadness over Keith Flint, their vocalists recent death. Considering that 2019 in itself have been a bit mediocre and the only thing I want is to move from the  place I live in at the moment (which fortunately will happen soon) this was an experience that I really needed! I'm extremely warn out today but I have found new appreciation for life, even as cheesy as that might sound! Now I'll play some more cyclepath I think!

V

2019-04-23 05:02:35

So the month of April is coming to an end, and I can't say that I am happy at this moment.

Usually, this month implies the end of final exams of a school year, but since now I am out of school I did expected some differences. but entire exams took this month away.

I would just laze around, since it is hard to do anything demanding when the month of summer is starting, and I am sure you guise would know what I am talking about if I said infamous Indian temproture.

But then I find out that two of my exams have been extended, finally ending up at the 30 April. fine, I can even take that. what is frustrating me however, is that I have to study a program, (Page maker, to be more presice.) which has been discontinued for more than 15 years.

And not just study as in it's historical impact, study in how would you do this or that in this program, complete with instructions.

A prime example of the stagnant curriculum.

Then, I fined out in the news that some builders want to buy the entire range of forests, so they can build more buildings, and get the profit out of it. why can't these people realize what sort of distructive trend they are continuing?

Then another thing about how some people in government decided to supply the water by using the underground water supply. I suspect in few years, the only thing which would be left is the baked clay. despite my criticisms, I like my country. why can't these people who call themselves in charge, take efficient decisions?

Anyway, on to the more relaxing topics: haven't played any game for a while, and my hands are starting to itch for completing something. maybe mortal kombat x, since I completed the 2011. after that, BlazBlue chronophantasma... after that, we'll see.

Also, I am thinking that once I am proficient in programming, I would try my hand in developing some games. that reminds me, my teacher for some reason hates python language. my theory is because it is easy to learn in comparason to the languages like c.

2019-04-24 18:45:54 (edited by redfox 2019-04-24 18:46:54)

Do you ever just wanta... kill somebody?
Ok not really, but still.
My coding teacher is teaching kids to fail horendously.
He uses a site called code.org, and it's basically scratch.
We're learning javascript at this moment, and code.org has blocks of code that you can drag in. Ok, a little bad and anoying but that's nothing.
There are blocks for sprite manipulation that do not exist in the real world. spriteIsTouching isn't real, sprite.collide does not exist. And even worse?
The code that collide does is only a few lines, seriously! Instead of dragging a block in, in real life you would just do something like this,

if(sprite.x=sprite2.x and sprite.y=sprite2.y)
{
sprite1.x-10;
}

And just repeat that for the different directions the sprite might be facing.
Ug!

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“Yes, sir. I am attempting to fill a silent moment with non-relevant conversation.”
“You don’t tell me how to behave; you’re not my mother!”
“Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.” – Data (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

2019-04-27 09:03:03

Well interesting stuff from various people.

@Origine, glad things are working out, and I'll try and suppress my natural misstrust at any stupidly large corporation, especially one whose drm system on office (even though I only really need ms word from office), keeps going wonky on my lady's computer.

@Dark eagle, funnily enough the phrase "Indian summer" over here in Britain is a synonym for a spell of  unusually hot and sunny weather (anything that isn't rain is unusual in Britain), so its rather amusing to here a real Indian summer referenced, though sorry about the exams.

that is one of the few advantages of studying philosophy though you studdy a lot of old stuff, none is obsolete, well not unless the hole bloody subject is obsolete anyway big_smile.

Thins have been horribly busy over here, which is one reason I've not been around much, or doing much gaming wise other than trimping. Moving to a small town in 2017 wasn't something Mrs. Dark and I were sure about, and now unfortunately its confirmed there is absolutely no tabletop rp or anything vaguely musical around here. We have found a vaguely nice actor's workshop in Nottingham, but A, this means going into Nottingham, which is a crime ridden, dirty stinking hole full of drunks, and B, this means my parents basically are persisting in imposing their presence on us at every opportunityt, or insisting we go over there to things they! think we should be doingwhich is a bit difficult to refute since we don't really have much else going on where we are.

This morning for example, my mum "without asking" signed us up to what I think is going to prove to be a rather low key musical workshop intended for first time singers. Of course it might! be fun, but given the selection of music they're apparently doing I'm not exactly sure here.

It also doesn't help that Mrs. Dark has been quite unwell over the past few days too, so things are a bit stressful right now.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)