Tiny little meatloaf

Today we have tiny little meatloaf, and hard-boiled eggs.

The meatloaf is tiny because there was only half as much ground chuck as needed for a full meatloaf but, my Dad has these ridiculous little loaf pans, and I thought it’d be worth a try. Added a bit of jalapeño this time, because I had it on hand. Should be lovely.

The eggs are for deviled eggs, tomorrow. I’m experimenting with this James Beard recipe…

In other news, I’ve picked up a copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It’s not the latest version, but the price was right. What to say… well, the controls seem to have been designed by someone who’s never played a computer game before or, perhaps, has never used a computer. Space to accept? Return to quit? Fascinating.

There’s a great deal of obscenity and gratuitous violence. The missions are pretty much garbage… but you can ignore them, pretty much.

It’s fun! Knocking someone off a motorcycle, stealing it, and going screaming down the highway at a billion miles per hour, with cops in hot pursuit– if that doesn’t plaster a great big smile across your face, why, you’re almost certainly already dead.

Oblivion bugs: when is a poison not a poison?

…when it’s a poison of Silence, apparently. I’ve long noticed that such poisons often don’t tend to have the anticipated effect. I didn’t know why until just recently, when I stabbed a mage with a poisoned blade that included Silence… and was promptly Silenced, myself.

Oblivion jumpstart: new notions

The starter stage in Oblivion turns out to translate to the rest of the game. Your practice session actually matters. You can take advantage of this to greatly improve some of your skills, right at the start.

At the very beginning, dump your shoes and go into stealth mode. Walk around in circles. You’re near enough to dear old Valen Dreth for this to give you a good five levels of stealth. You’ll be able to pick up more, later, just by going back and forth while you’re at a moderate distance from others.

You can pick up ludicrously good skills in armor and block in a similar way. The early rats and goblins are not going to be able to damage you seriously if you’re wearing armor. Put on an outfit and just let them whack at you, healing yourself with the cheap healing spell that you start with. This will also work to improve your restoration skills, which are hideously difficult to level later in the game.

The scoring systems: MoO2 and Civ3

If you’re not a mad fan of one or the other of these games, you can cheerfully skip this post.

The latest WoW, because.

The guild goes on. Of course? Perhaps not of course, but I’m not one to give up. Some good people have gone. That was sad. But new good people come in. People come, people go. That’s pretty much how it is in life.

Today’s adventures found me spending most of my day helping guild members, which is not my usual priority. Oh, I help, to be sure, but I have my own things to do. Call it karma, perhaps, that a few guild members who have been absent for some months chose to reappear today. They are very welcome, and I hope they stay a while. They’re friends. I don’t know what they look like, but I know who they are.

It’s been a day for drama. What dreams may come… it’s going to be a weird night.

I’m responsible for these people. I make their home away from home, the place they can comfortably live online. It’s not quite a particular burden, it’s just a thing I do because I think I can do it right, and it ought to be done right. I’m still hoping for a new adjutant, if she’s in the mood for it… just in case. You always want a back-up plan.

Saturday in the park, think it was the fourth of July

…and if you’re searching on that, you’re looking for the band Chicago. Second version, after they went all mellow. The original incarnation was somewhat startlingly different.

Pleasant day, it really was, subsidized by funds I shouldn’t have borrowed, but there’s been a glitch in my bank transfers. That glitch was me, it’s my fault. Regardless… there will be money in the future and, there was money today for the little luxuries that make life worth playing. I’m not extravagant. Food, beer, cigarettes, World of Warcraft: for me, that’s a terrific Saturday.

S’pose I need to add air conditioning to that list. January, still, and it’s gotten to be 84F in here. That’s a bit much, even for me. I’m not really comfortable over 83F. It starts making me sluggish and stupid.

Lunar Festival has started, in WoW. It’s a sort of analog of the Chinese New Year. Fireworks and visiting elders, and things. I get a kick out of the festivals. Could be, even, a few people will learn a few things despite themselves.

The daily randoms

Another guild loss, quite likely due to other recent leavings. Having officers leave does tend to garble guild functions for a bit. New people coming in, new promotions. Life goes on. But I’ll miss me boyos. And girlos.

Garnered seeds or nuts, or store-bought flour? Storing it in the freezer for three days will kill any bugs and their eggs. Simple way to purify before it goes into the pantry.

Dad’s complaining that I’m out of touch. A bit odd, considering that we’ve never really been that much in touch, but he may have a point. S’pose I’ve been with him once last year, and wrote a few times? Perhaps not appropriate for a man his age, even if we don’t really have anything to say to each other. He may not be there next week. Or I may not, for that matter, you never know.

Minor explosions in the guild

Two officers and the second in command left today. A bit shocking. The officers won’t be missed terribly, though they were decent people and handy to have around. My right-hand man, now, that’s a bit harsh. He helped found the guild, and he’s been a friend.

The proffered reason was, they wanted to do a lot more raiding. That’s… about where the game stops being fun, and starts being an obsession, as I see it. Not that the guild couldn’t raid but, if you want to be a serious raider, you’re demanding that a lot of people show up on a regular schedule, for several hours, two or three times a week at the least. It requires serious money in potions and elixirs and foods, to keep up. So, that’s pretty much the only thing you’ll be doing: raiding or preparing for raids.

Dunno, sounds fairly dismal to me. Perhaps the idea excites them, though. Or perhaps they just didn’t want to talk about the real problem. But, that’s the first major division the guild’s seen, so far… not a disaster, by any means, but it’s a loss. And I’ll miss those guys.

Oblivion: hyper leveling tip

When you start a new character in Oblivion, you get a fair basic tour. The early dungeon lets you attack, cast spells, sneak, pick locks, set off traps, create potions, and so on.

The thing is, it’s not just a tour, it contributes towards your skills. And the starting monsters are incredibly feeble. So, you have a chance to start yourself off with some serious advantages.

The early critters aren’t going to be able to hurt you, very much. So, perhaps you could outfit yourself with the heavy armor that you find, and give them plenty of time to beat on you. Cast “heal” on yourself as needed. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your armor skills start leveling up…

The replay option

I’ve been having fun with World of Warcraft… as usual, to be sure. It’s good to have a good guild. Having played the game a fair bit, and with a good memory for many of the kinds of things that WoW involves, I’m also able to be a great help to other players.

I can’t help but ponder, sometimes, about how it would be nice to have the replay option on life. The first character is always such a clueless mess, a baffled idiot. How might I shine if I started again from scratch?

Life, of course, is still an antique form of serial media. It goes only sequentially forward, no pause, no rewind.