Mai Me Arai
It means 'nothing'
How to Make a Day Interesting
Feb 2nd
You’re working on the company website and suddenly everything is screwed up with the design. What do you do? WHAT – DO – YOU – DO?? If you’re like me you initially blame yourself and eventually discover that a particular directory on your webserver has inexplicably become in accessible via the web.
The problem was exacerbated by the fact that I had CSS and Javascript compression turned on in Drupal, which stores said compressed files in the offending folder, and all of my site images bar those relating to the overall theme were also stored there.
Turning off css and javascript compression made the design return to normal, but all non-theme images were still MIA as well as various other files.
I’ve so far found two other people who are experiencing the same problem and one of them is with the same webhost whil the other is still locally hosted. I conacted my webhost anyway and it seems that was where the problem lay as they have fixed it.
Phew!
It’s Here!
Jan 28th
I awoke to find Mass Effect 2 is ready to go this morning (and then spent the next 45 minutes decrypting). My first impressions after seeing the introduction:
- The game not only looks a lot better, but also runs considerably better on PC than it’s predecessor ever did too.
- If you don’t already have an EA Online account creating a new one will confuse you because there is an email verification process they don’t mention which you will need to do before having access to the Cerberus Network (it will tell you your email is wrong if you try to log in after creating an account). I didn’t receive the email and had to visit ea.com to get another one.
- Downloading additional content on PC is done manually via the web. They should have done it the same way they did with Dragon Age, from within the game.
- The process of importing your save from the original game requires you to manually tell it where the save file is via the configuration tool. You would think they would know where the original save games were and that it would be automatic, but oh well.
- They’ve gone and changed all the controls from what they were in the original game which is extremely confusing having recently played it.
- I’m not sure how I feel about the whole thermal clip change yet. I can see it will become problematic since it indirectly makes ammunition a finite resource, whereas the original had unlimited ammunition.
I have a WoW raid tonight so it’s going to be a big night!
Temptation
Jan 26th
Now that Mass Effect 2 is out in the US the internet is being bombarded with reviews and other things that will more than likely spoil the game for me so I’m going into Mass Effect 2 blackout mode. The other part of me wants to read the reviews and be vindicated in my purchase, but I just know reviewers can’t help themselves.
Just three more days and I’ll be playing but in the meantime I’m powering on through the original game. This time I’m doing all the sidequests that I can find so it’s taking me slightly longer than my first play through. I really like that the side quests add a lot to the world rather than nothing as I’d read.
Anyway, 3 days!
Something You Probably Don’t Know
Jan 22nd
I’ve always wanted the ability to track information about my character in WoW and the Armory has mostly served this purpose in a limited fashion. The reason is because despite the significant strides Blizzard go to to expose data it is still housed in its own little silo. The fact that the Armory is there is great, but what if information about your character could come to you instead of you needing to go to it?
If there is one thing that I usually want to know it is events on my calendar and little did I know that it is indeed possible to pull your calendar data out of the armory into calendar software such as Outlook or Google Calendar. This was such a huge revelation to me that I absolutely had to write about it here.
After logging into the armory and loading up the desired character, visit the calendar and you will see the following:
Clicking on it will display the screen where you can select the types of events you want to appear on the calendar feed and it is also possible to add the events of your other characters (a maximum of 5).
After selecting the options you desire and copying the feed address to your clipboard, you can then follow the instructions on the Calendar Feed FAQ for how to add to either Outlook or Google Calendar.
The beauty of it is that because it’s a feed it will be automatically updated, so once added it will always be as up-to-date as the armory calendar (which I assume is very up-to-date since it is possible to accept or decline invitations through it).
Unfortunately this probably won’t work for anyone thinking of setting this up on their office PC if they already can’t access the armory, but I’d be happy to hear if it does.
Is there convenient, time-saving thing you know about that you’d like to share? Let me know!
Oh No…
Jan 20th
Steam has a special running where preordering Bioshock 2 will mean you get the original Bioshock for free.
Must – resist! If I do my usual, buy it first and then work backwards to getting the ok I suspect I will get myself into trouble. I sort of am supposed to be saving, but it’s not my fault that so many great games are coming out!
Email Newsletters are FUN!
Jan 18th
Ever tried to set up an email subscription service in Drupal? Until recently I hadn’t and now that I’m in the midst of it I wish email newsletters would all rot in hell. The setup is the easy part. The newsletter is the hard part.
A little thing I never knew is that email clients don’t use the same regular html/css that modern or even semi-modern websites use, they are only barely compliant with ancient html specifications which I can barely recall the details of being all modernified as I am. Even worse is that different email clients render html differently!
Would you believe that the current release of Outlook 2007 has worse html support than its predecessor?
Why does the internet hate me?
A Serious Moment
Jan 13th
There isn’t much in life that I take seriously unless absolutely necessary. I’ve always felt that only things that need to be taken seriously should and that has served me well for a very long time. The way I normally deal with problems is that I try to either ignore them or become emotionally detached, but it’s never meant that I don’t care.
When I laughed upon hearing that my mum has cancer it wasn’t due to a lack of empathy, it was that I’d thought I was about to hear she was dead. Anything else was an improvement. The truth is that I have no idea how to deal with such a thing myself, let alone deal with other peoples feelings.
She hadn’t been eating much recently yet went to Queensland over the new year anyway and was submitted to hospital while there, during which time a test showed that the cancer has spread to her lungs and spine. When talking to her yesterday, now that she was back at home, she mentioned her fear in between wracking sobs that she might lose the ability to walk and it was this moment that finality of her death turned into a reality for me.
Sure I knew all along that there was a chance she could die, but I guess I’d always hoped that my mum would be one of the lucky ones and she’d make it through to live many a year more. I know now that isn’t going to happen and I try not to dwell on the thoughts of the details to help me keep it together.
I’ve warned Oui that, should she survive long enough for us to see her when we move back, he should prepare himself for how dramatically different she will look and in saying so I know that no matter how prepared I try to be, I’m not going to be able to control my emotions when faced with how the cancer will have destroyed my memory of her.
Phew, that was hard to write.
Send in the Penguins
Jan 10th
When succesive raids have failed, the only remaining option is penguins.
Things You May Have Missed
Jan 7th
Thanks to the suggestion of Kim and a drought of other television to download I’ve been watching The Wire and what a pleasant surprise. The first thing that occured to me was “How the hell did I miss this?” because the quality is so high. I’ve finished watching Season 3 and am really curious where they’re going to take it in the future because it feels like the story has run its course, but so far I’ve loved every moment of it.
I was also handed a copy of Wicked, a book detailing The Wizard of Oz story from the Wicked Witch of the West’s perspective, which basically calls heresay on the entirety of Dorothy’s story. I loved it so much that I bought the second book, Son of a Witch, and have already devoured that one only to discover that there is yet another book in the series: A Lion Amongst Men.
I love discovering things like these once they’re complete and ready to be consumed without any need to wait for episodes/books. I find it makes the entire experience much more enjoyable because it’s all fresh in my mind without the decaying force of time to do its work.
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