We are -still- doing testing at work. We’ve been doing it since last Thursday, so I, and everyone else here, have been able to get hardly anything of our own done at all. We keep having to constantly reboot our computers and reinstall the program they’re testing. Then we do the test, which takes about 20 minutes. Then we wait while they hurry back and make some minor modifications. We can’t start anything, because they say they’ll be back “in 5 or 10 minutes” and to get started and find our concentration would be pointless… but yesterday, that “5 or 10 minutes” at one point stretched to an hour and a half. I seriously considered calling in today, just because I am so sick of this. But I wasn’t positive they weren’t finished so I came in. But they’re not done and so here I am, wasting time and blogging when I could be doing something useful — except as soon as I open my work up again, they’ll reappear and make me reboot my computer.

Have been playing off and on the HHGG Infocom game which I found the other day. Thus far I think I’ve managed to get the max points for getting off of the Earth and into the Vogon ship, but while I’ve managed to survive the Vogon ship and get to the Heart of Gold, I think I’m still missing a few things on the ship.

See, the ship bit you only get a certain number of turns — first you’re in the hold where you must manage to get a babel fish before the Vogon Captain finds you and hauls you off to listen to his poetry. Then you’re brought back to the hold for 5-10 turns, and at that point, I think you’re supposed to get another item, but I haven’t managed to get it yet. They always shove me into the Airlock before I manage it.

And I’m still not clear on what to do on the HoG either, but I have an idea about it.

I’m thinking I may download the actual gamefile and try to find an interpreter. Unfortunately, the java version on the douglasadams.com site doesn’t allow you to save, and I’m really getting sick of dealing with the bulldozer over and over again. ^_^

For anyone interested, A Salmon of Doubt and Diplomatic Immunity are both up for pre-order on amazon now.

Mmhmm.

And this is a wonderful example of our ‘century and a half long’ alliance. But I’m sure it’s not Dubya’s fault. He probably thought Japan was a state until someone told him otherwise. You know. One of those square ones in the middle.

Apparently he’s also going to send his prostitu–welfare bill to Congress as is. Here’s the kicker. Not only is he pushing for single mothers on welfare to get married, but he’s not going to do it by offering the money to -them-. Instead, he’s going to fund programs to pressure women into marriage! Huzzah! Welcome to the new millennium.

In case anyone was interested: HHGG Infocom

And in other, more frightening news, from CNN:

Programmers at U.S. games maker THQ Inc. say “Britney’s Dance Beat” offers adoring fans the chance to perform with their idol, if only in a virtual world.

“Audition to Britney’s most popular songs to see if you can keep up with the other dancers,” the company says on its website (www.thg.com). “If you’re really good, you’ll get access to exclusive video and concert footage.”

Designed with the help of Spears, the game will be available for PlayStation 2 in May. Versions for Game Boy and Xbox will follow later in the year, the company said.

They’ll be coming back shortly to make us do more testing, so I’m not even going to try to get anything useful done. Hence, bloggage.

Last week a conversation that Kenpi, Jen and I were having led me to mention The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Imagine my shock when neither of them had even heard of it, much less read it. It’s a freaking Newbury medal winner! We’re not talking obscure kid-lit, which I can excuse people for not knowing. *ahem* Then again, Kenpi is the one who had never read Matilda until 6 years ago.

In any case, the mention of it made me dig out my own copy and read through it. I admit, the Newbury winners have a tendency to skew towards the sort of books I dislike — books with random character deaths, pointless angst and pretentious, “deep” themes. But there are some which do not and they’re very worthwhile to read.

The Westing Game takes place in the late 70s (when it was written), in the eastern part of Wisconsin. Essentially, Samuel Westing, a rich, bitter eccentric, wants to figure out who he should leave his fortune to. So he arranges a little ‘game’ by subtly inducing all the people he considers his potential heirs to move into an apartment building near his mansion. Then he dies and the game begins, starting with the reading of his will. There’s a pretty large cast of characters who then have to solve the puzzle of how to get chosen as the heir, and their activities are amusing and interesting. The female characters especially are strong, which is probably why I’d liked the book in the first place — the dutiful daughter who really wants to be a doctor and is executing a quiet rebellion, the loud, neglected daughter who plays the stock market, the meek little child bride who’s a lot more canny than anyone thinks… and it goes on.

Being a children’s book, it’s relatively short — under 150 pages, I’d say. But that’s okay, because it actually does what a lot of books completely fail to do: it ties up the plot ends and tells you what happens to the characters! That alone would get it a recommendation from me. Go and read it if you haven’t!

The other book I’ve been reading is one I picked up at Boskone: The Official Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion by Neil Gaiman. It’s really quite interesting and contains a lot of information which I hadn’t really put together before. It’s also made me want to find a copy of the Infocom Hitchhiker’s game, which I believe I will look around for as soon as I’ve finished this blog entry. I believe the 6th and final (*sigh*) Hitchhiker book should be coming out relatively soon. It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a year since Adams died. I should see if it’s pre-orderable. That and the new Miles book. And I’ve been thinking of picking up the Sandman comics, but I think I better hold off. KOR is going to kill my wallet, and AnimEigo will eventually get done with it, just when I least expect it.

I’m getting more used to the layout now. I had really liked the way the last one turned out, so this one was a bit of a shock to the senses. But I think I’ll just leave it for a while. It’s bound to grow on me.

Today was rather a waste of time. I didn’t get much of anything done, nor did I even try to. I’m no longer positive of what needs to be done first now, and so it’s hard to get motivated to do anything in particular.

I think I’m going to try and play a game. I haven’t played anything in such a long time — not since December, really, back before I got all busy with HPOP and procrastinating my applications. I technically should write out my Japanese homework, but no, I won’t.

Ok.. new layout. Kenpi has already registered his complaint about the name, but then he called me a half-breed Slytherin so his vote is disqualified! (As a Slytherin, I can do that.) The colors are kind of washed out. I may try to pep them up.

And since everyone else is doing it, here we go:

I Am A: Neutral Evil Half-Elf Mage Ranger
Alignment:
Neutral Evil characters believe in Number One. Their personal gain takes precedance over all else, and they will work with whomever necessary and whatever institutions necessary to further their own goals.

K: Hrm. Yeah, maybe. I guess it depends on the situation… and the institution.

Race:
Half-Elves are a cross between a human and an elf. They are smaller, like their elven ancestors, but have a much shorter lifespan. They are sometimes looked down upon as half-breeds, but this is rare. They have both the curious drive of humans and the patience of elves.

Primary Class:
Mages harness the magical energies for their own use. Spells, spell books, and long hours in the library are their loves. While often not physically strong, their mental talents can make up for this.

K: Yeah, ok, this isn’t really very surprising. Definitely mage and not cleric — I might use magic for others, but I don’t think it would be my primary goal. Selfish!

Secondary Class:
Rangers are the defenders of nature and the elements. They are in tune with the Earth, and work to keep it safe and healthy.

K: Err. I dunno. I don’t like the out of doors. Mage-Ranger is a pretty weird combination. Anyway, if ‘keep it safe and healthy’ could be interpreted to include by political or economic means, I’d be all over it. Because, of course, if I were a half-elf mage, I would be fabulously wealthy and have lots of free time for social and environmental causes.

Find out What D&D Character Are You?, courtesy of NeppyMan (e-mail)

With all the blithering NBC has done througout the whole Olympics, going on and on explaining things that were obvious, it was interesting that they didn’t even bother to attempt to explain how the scoring worked for the women’s skating last night. I’m sure the idiot guy didn’t know what the heck was going on, but Scott Hamilton and the woman should have. Anyway, if anyone’s curious, take a look.

To further make up for the lack of posts…

Went to Boskone this weekend on Sunday with Okina and E. Really the only reason we went was because Neil Gaiman and Tamora Pierce were there. I got him to sign my Princess Mononoke DVD and her to sign one of her books. Unfortunately the only copies I have of her books are paperback — actually, this was a choice. They’re nice reads, but hardly worth $20 a pop. I can wait until the paperbacks come out. But it was cool that she was there. The line to get her signature was pretty much all girls.

After that we ate and then I came home and ran a quidditch game on HPOP. It turned out a heck of a lot better than I anticipated, though I still feel like killing a couple of people.

The madness of the other game continues unabated. Basically, the situation is this: A thought B was insidiously trying to get control of the game, so made a mad rush to move the game somewhere else. B and C were understandably ticked off by this, and the rest of us were rather cheesed at the way it happened, so made A apologize and then resign. But then as we tried to put things back together and reorganize, B and C have continued to behave like children and whine and try to grab as much power as they can (the worst part is they really can’t see this). D has told me a couple things which really makes me wonder about them. So it’s all still up in the air. Wasn’t that nice and vague?

The chatter at the bitter Pernie board seems to have tapered off a bit after the initial rush. It’s too bad, because it was generally good for a laugh. I can’t say as I’ve made much of an impact on the Pernie world for 3-4 years now, and definitely not for the past 2, but it doesn’t matter. They lave long memories and continue to rehash events of which they know nothing.

The topic is not amusing, but this bit was:

It’s unclear what a tenant�particularly an elderly tenant with a shifting roster of house guests�can purport to “control.” But according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the various public housing authorities in question, the rules mean that whether or not the tenants in question knew about the drug use, once it happens, they’re out. Raising the question: Does Florida Gov. Jeb Bush live in government-subsidized housing?