B. Hudson

Okay well my lab yesterday basically killed my confidence level.

I pounded on it for a LONG time last night (maybe 2, or 3 hours) and got something that works, but doesn’t do everything it should yet.  Babysteps..

Midterm and Assignment#1 are coming in fast, so I have to get this down and under control, or I am a goner.

Still considering going to IU instead of UofL.. They offer online courses for the whole major there, where here I have to fiddle with work/scheduling to get to class.  Which sucks, of course.

I am planning on doing my Fafsa this weekend, and then hammering on my application to IUS, if for nothing else just to get a look/see.  My biggest pause now is that I have 20 hours left in my degree at UofL.  20.  2 fulltime semesters and I have a UofL degree.  Where at IU, I will not transfer 1:1.  So no matter what it will be MORE than 20.  Plus its different there, what if I have MORE problems there?   Then I have to come BACK to UofL, and deal with this crap all over again.

Oh well.  at 1 class a semester this will take a LONG friggin time to finish up that few credit hours.  My GPA is looking good still though.  Well not good.. but its not abysmal either.  So many situations to account for and at the same time, my family is eagerly awaiting me to gain the knowledge/job that will provide for them the way I should be..

yeah.. no pressure..

Finally got to play WoW last night..

And.. and..

Well it got boring quick.  I found a bunch of stuff with + shadow damage, and bought it all.  I have heard things like “focus on stats not damage”.. but really, I just want to hurt things.  I noticed a difference already though, so I’m not really sure what the heck is up with those “stats” focus ppl.  Anyway..

So Now as a newly dubbed (and now halfway to 17) 16 lock, I was hammering lvl 20 critters/orcs in Redridge Mountains.  This is another example of how fast I level when grinding with this guy.. Not saying it will always be the case, but I spent less than an hour on and lvl’ed and got halfway to the next one before my rested bonus went bye-bye.  Plus I seem to be collecting “black whelp scales”.  I am pretty sure I have SOMETHING with my main (that does leatherworking) that can use these things, but I haven’t bothered to check yet.  Cash is getting low, so I am thinking it’ll be time to run stockades a couple times a week again.. (sigh)..  lately I have been sending stuff that doesn’t sell at first try to my enchanter to DE.. This has been going relatively well, but I miss that money.. that 30-40s I get for that green crap that drops in stockades.  Why do I miss it?  Well I am almost always the poorest guy playing at any given time.. why.. Probably because on my main.. I only get warrior drops.  And he is the farm guy right now.. crap mail, and an occassional crap plate, that nobody really wants.  My pally can/will use this kind of stuff.. but right now he’s standing at goldshire doing.. nothing.   Can’t help but think that eventually the lock will be a better “farmer” since as a 16 he kills 20’s and 21’s.  Stands to reason that as you go on enemies get harder, but my skills should increase.

With turning 16, I got.. dut dut dut DAAAA.. Instant cast corruption.  Which means, I am now going to dump some points in destruction for the shadowbolt increases.  I have been trying to do the “drain tanking” thing.. and its okay, but I like the kerboom life drop of htting someone with a shadowbolt.  plus if I read the talent description right, it increases shadow damage for x amt of seconds after a crit or something like that.  I am just PILING on the shadow damage.. if I find a warrior who is like a bigillion in shadow resist, I’m a dead gnome.. period.

Next milestone is 18, when I get the soulstone and stop caring about getting killed.  Well it will be cool to see anyway, I’ve never been rez’ed or anything like that outside of a BG, so this will definately be a cool thing.  I also get another fire based spell that is good.. well it seems good anyway.  30 yard range, and I think 1.5 cast time.. so really fast.. and can burn mages at a distance..

Mcgoo, out.

(I hate ryan seacrest)

Okay, so I am not really trying to kick the WoW habit.. But I can’t seem to stay awake anymore.  Used to be that from 9-whenever I would just wander back and play WoW.  Now I find myself falling asleep at 8pm.

8… pm…

I must either be exhausted or just getting really old, really fast.

Either way I keep hearing my wallet saying that if I am paying for this I should get on and play more than a few hours a week.. (remembering $15 a month or something like that.. not a big fee, but also not free).

So I will endeavor to get somethings done on WoW in the next few days.  #1 is to get my lock to 20.  My buddy I group with all the time is already to 19 with his squishy and I need to catch up so that I don’t have to solo (solo=sucky time playing).  I should have a GOOD rested bonus to push up a level and a half at a shot, but that puts me at 17.5..  Will have to find a way to grind high enough to level the rest of the way.. at 18 it will be fun.. all my lvl 18 skills.. and 19 I can do PvP for some fun ( I hate odd levels ). 20 I get a ton of crap to goof around with, and I am really looking forward to it.  Mostly soulstone. I don’t see much in the use of succubus outside of PvP, but I will give the chicky a try, I mean what could it hurt to have a winged bikini clad demon with a wip around?  LOL!!  I am looking most forward to the felhunter, but we’ll see thats a long way off at this point.  I am feeling the itch to resume leveling my main.. its a strong urge too.  I have TBC installed so getting to lvl 70 or above 60 would be an awesome thing to do.  I keep thinking leveling to 70, as a hunter maybe I could solo some of the better <50 instances without any problems, but I could be wrong..

Again, that title is so heavily invested in abbreviations people use in Warcarft, no one outside the game would EVER get it.

My first BG experience without my good friend dwarfenstuff… Well it was pretty good.  I held the record for dieing the fastest, and most frequent.. but I was also in the top 3-4 for total damage done in the BG.

It sucked in the sense that I got no (zero, zip, zilch) killing blows.. but I did get over 5k damage dealt out over the course of the BG.  I was only severely put to shame by a undead guy who got 16k in one BG.  The rest of the time I was hundreds off the leader.

How did I play?  Poorly.  I was the biggest dip-stick in action (even if I was a gnome).. I am so used to “knowing my roll” as a hunter that getting in there with a lock is so different.  It was like I knew what I wanted to do, but it wasn’t “right”.  Now I think I only get 1 more ability that will help in PvP as I progress through to lvl 19.. So not a whole lot will change ability wise with the toon.  I need to get better.  I am no twink, but doing as poorly as I thought I did, and being towards the top was a good feeling.  I can’t help but think I would have owned these people if I had more feel for the class.  I did 2 BG’s and the first one was all about damage, I topped out at about 6k.  The second time I started playing more like a “team” player.  I saw 3 orc warriors running up on 2 of ours.. they all got curse of weakness, and then corruption.  Not that I don’t like curse of weakness, I just don’t see it as a big deal.  I prefer curse of agony.  And I LOVE curse of recklessness on casters.. I dunno if any rogue/warrior got to smack one with the curse on em.. But if you remove some armor on someone who already has almost none.. and have a big warrior/rogue run up on you.. its a bad day for you.

If any people out there roll locks, and know WTH they are doing in a PVP environment, I’d love to hear it..

Gnome lock -15

Mcgoo, on Medivh

Holy Smokes Batman.. I seem to be getting it.

How?  dunno.. Why?  dunno..

Are my tactics different?  Not really, as a matter of fact my tactics are pretty much relaxed vs last semester.  While “relaxed” sounds good, it doesn’t convey a “structured, tactical assault on the material”.   Which I’m not doing.  I’m not pounding the book, I’m not really sweating the class now.  I am going to do my best and if I don’t cut it by Midterm, its a drop.  The backup plans have already been made, so nothing going on here is definitive.  I WANT to do this, and I took it off my “need” to do this list.

Am I just goofing around?  No.  I’m seriously doing well.  I have done everything asked of me and am carrying a 100-ish average so far.  looking forward to getting that first real assignment instead of the “labs” and seeing what I can get done with it.  That is a biggie for me.  Last time around.. I couldn’t do the labs.  Something just didn’t fit in my head, and now it does.  Why?  Heck I don’t know.. But at this point last semester I had.. lets say.. less than 100-sh average..

So.. nothing terrible has happened yet.. Now to square away that other class for the semester.. I hope.

As if being monday isn’t a crappy enough reason to be a wreck today..

My wife just called me not but a few hours ago to tell me my 3 year old son needs his tonsils removed. Appointment is on 5/18. Before anyone maligns my good name.. I know. I know, I know, I know..

1. That having your tonsils removed is not quite the same as heart surgery/brain surgery.. etc.
2. That this is not the worst thing that could happen to the little guy
3. That I am over-reacting
4. That a numbered list is really over the top for 4 topics
5. That if the little guy could recover from an appendectomy he could handle tonsils.. No problems

Knowing all that doesn’t help. If you are a parent, you probably know already. If you aren’t, you cannot understand. (I know non-parents hate hearing that but in this case its true) Some people are just very noble when it comes to their children.. And then there’s me. As mentioned before on this blog, I always wanted to be a dad. Since 10, that was the goal. Be a good dad. For a long time I thought that just would not happen for me, and then being the kooky kind of God he is, he gave me my little guy. (funny as it is, it was just after I resigned myself and totally accepted I would never have a child of my own, but that seems to be the timing he was looking for) To say I would rather take the pain than him, is an understatement. I would rather everyone was given pain instead of him. The goofy comic book situations where its “save the (fill in the blank), or save the world”.. screw the world. He is precious on a level that I cannot convey in words (although I sound like a crazed killer guy here, I’m not). I value his well being far over everyone else’s, mine included.

I remember pacing the floor for the entire time until I could see him after he got tubes in his ears.

I remember nervously pacing and shaking constantly until I knew he was ok from his appendectomy.

I remember holding him at 3 months old as they X-ray’ed his chest for verification of his Pneumonia in the emergency room. (After he had been given breathing treatments to get his Oxygen level in his blood up to normal)

I remember every second. Of every problem. He has ever had. I still jump when I hear him cough. I still get nervous when he runs any fever. My son is the toughest person I know. He took more crap these first 3 years than most people take in the first 10. I want him to be superman. I want him to be the best (whatever he wants to be) in the history of (whatever he wants to do).

Everyone has dark times in their life when things seem almost hopeless. Like there is really no reason to go on. The ones that DO go on, adjust and move forward.. Adjusting to the darkness and schlepping on with the day-to-day crap. My wife and her 2 wonderful kids brought me from that darkness into a life that was so good, it was almost fairy-tale. My son took me from that to a euphoric high that would make drug users envious. So wonderful that i could never get it out in words. He looks at me and smiles, and I forget any problems I had. He is still pretty young, so I’m sure eventually he’ll be giving me the same kind of problems his older brother/sister do. But until then.. He is the gift God gave me. People want “tangible” proof God loves them, I never really asked for it.. But he gave it to me anyway. He could have given me some really aloof kid. I’ve seen/met them.. Just kinda there, no spark.

My son is a spark.

Well just as in real life, I’m a poor so-and-so in WoW. Almost none of my guys even have 1g on them. I decided that I had a 49 sitting in stormwind.. not 1 minute’s ride (remember… mounted) from an instance I can farm.

Let it be known, again.. I hate the stockades. Hate. I am getting MUCH better at farming there though. I managed to clear 2/3 of it in less than 30 minutes, which I considered good. Most of the time I am managing runners.. (which is why I hate stockades). In a perfect world the dingle-berry Defias prisoners would stand perfectly still while my wolf was biting them so I can shoot them in the head with my gun. But at some point or another they turn and run to get help. Sometimes the tards run into the wall, sometimes they actually make it to the hall. This is where I get spooked.

Being lvl 49, I can take 2-3 of these guys no problem at a time, with really minimal life lost. But if 4 more guys run in while I finish off one of the 2 on me.. Well you can figure that out. Hunters suck at melee, and I am no exception. I use Blight on them to get my skill up for when I do go over the 49 wall.. and get Ice Barb Spear. Which is a weapon I liked from day 1 of warcraft. I have envisioned getting a ice enchant on it, and then thats just my 2hand’er for a LONG time. I don’t do melee much, so my weps are usually for the added buffs they give. Well mostly. And the big AGI buff that comes with Ice Barb Spear is going to ROCK steady. Anyway, back to hating the stockade.. I have a buddy that is a 49 warrior who can just roll on through.. his record of survival is 6 guys I think. Mine is closer to 5, and it was a “barely” survived thing. I have long held that if possible I should be farming Scarlet Monastary, but now I am a little bit chicken I can’t do it without getting some XP, and I am VERY close to lvl 50.

Well mostly this weekend was spent with my family, but I managed to get in about 1 hour of Warcraft.. Almost nothing to show for it besides the 3g I made in a stocks run. OH and I got the PvP cape which is a huge armor booster, and a silverwing sentinels necklace that ups my agi pretty good. Next is rune of duty.. I have enough honor to go get the alliance thingy that dispels stun and such.. but.. I don’t really get stunned a lot in PvP.. I get KILLED a lot.. but Its going around when I’m in PvP.. LOL!

If you are lvl 49′n it and need some gear I’d say spend a week or 2 getting all the blue gear from the WSG guy in ashenvale, and the AB guy in refugee point. Its typically the best possible gear, that I’ve found. I mean there are some better at some points.. but the buffs on this stuff is really good.

Well if hurricanes/tsunami’s/earthquake’s/tornadoes weren’t an indication of terrible things coming.. The presidential race has apparently begun.

We’ve got a guy whose name sounds funny.. like it belongs in “the Name Game” song

A chick who is only famous for not being good enough to boink (by her husband)

A former mayor whose kids are not terribly happy with his wife (version3)

And probably countless other ridiculous ppl without even the slightest humor in them. If I were a betting man, I’d bet on the mayor guy.  The chick seems good on paper, but I just keep coming back to her being not good enough.. HA!  It may not be on a commercial from the other 2 front runners yet, but I hope it will.    I tell everyone I know that I don’t see a need to vote.  I don’t feel any of the candidates ever come remotely close to what I think a leader should be.  The problem is that everyone is rich.  Well thats problem 1, problem 2 is that everything is corrupt.

Why is rich a bad thing?  I am going to quote what little I remember from grade school.. “..Of the people, by the people, For the people..”  That line marks out all of our candidates.. pretty much ever.  I think a government SHOULD be those 3 things.  We tend to settle for 1.. BY the people.  Most voters contend that they are voting for the guy the think is best.  But ask them some issues that are normal, not red flag material like “is he for abortion”, and nobody ever knows.  People do a relatively ignorant thing when it comes to voting.  We consume whatever media is thrown at us..believe what we want (cause really, it could all just be BS).. and vote for the guy we “like”.  No government job should be a prom king/queen race.    Thats pretty much the heart of my argument there.  I want an excel spreadsheet with everything this person stands for on it.. yes/no.  I want it MANDATORY for everyone who is running to put this on www.presidential-race.info free for downloads.  But none of this really detracts from them being stinky rich.  Oh mostly not Bill Gates rich, but still.  I doubt they had to weigh out on say getting steak vs sharing a hamburger at Denny’s.  I’ve been there, and looking at the figures most ppl have been too given that most of us don’t have a savings of $1 million.  How could someone who has $1000 shoes know what its like to not be able to get my kid some shoes?  (not sayin I’m there now, just sayin.. I have been)  The answer is obvious.  They can’t.  Due to THAT specific criterion he cannot be “of the people”.  ergo, not worthy of a vote.

Problem 2, everything is corrupt.  This mostly stems from problem 1 putting rich people in control of everything.  That leaves an ENORMOUS burden on them to be responsible for not going for the bucks, and going for what is needed.  Need an example?  How bout oil?  The combustion engine is so out-dated, and many “prototype’s” have been developed around hybrids, and other fuels for combustion.  My wife not too terribly long ago told me.. “so and so oil company is dumping $4million into R/D for alternative fuels.  Isn’t that great?!”  As usual, I rained on her parade with the smirk that $4 million was probably less than 1/2 of a percent of their total working capital they COULD invest in this.  (And by the way, this company was an AMERICAN company.  Arab company’s should WANT us to stick with oil at any cost since that is the only thing that makes that patch of earth they live on worth anything.)  Who do you think owns stock in this American company?  Well, I honestly haven’t looked.  Have you?  I would contend that most of the politicians are deeply invested in things like this.. Why?  because it makes money, der.  Now consider for a second, if you made windshields.  For Ford, okay?  Now is it at all right that you should get a vote on who Ford uses to BUY windshields?  I think legally thats called a bias, or vested interest.  Given that we live in 2007, and hybrids are the answer we have been given to “Gas is frickin expensive, is there an alternative?”.. I’d say our “of/for/by the people” people have been not too terribly just.  They seem to get richer.. but that doesn’t seem to help 98% of the rest of us.  Oh to be born into a rich family..

Now am I for/against anyone?  Not especially.  I don’t like Hillary Clinton.  I don’t have a problem saying that I know zip about her politics, or about her beyond her issues during her famous husbands’ presidency.  But akin to Paris Hilton, she seems to be famous for being famous.  Elected to a congressional position, with most of her voters wonder how that happened.  She consistently irritates women, who would normally be her saving grace in votes.  I just don’t see her making it.  The name game guy.. Well I honestly love hearing his name by stuffy media types on the news.. so.. I hope he sticks around.  If I were to vote, I’d go with what information I can find from Ipac.  If you don’t know what Ipac is and you are a technology savvy individual, you need to go there.  First probably read up from the EFF.  The problem this attempts to solve is, most of the rich people that make decisions about what I can do and how I can do it on my technology I have/use do not use that technology nor do they know what the crap it does.  Much like a tribal guy from a deserted island voting on guns… If he doesn’t know what it is/what it does, he has no business voting on it.

So I’ve ranted.. there.  Go learn something..

WOO HOO!!

When?  oh..  Well I forgot when exactly, but it’s coming up pretty soon.

Since I was a kid I have always been really excited to see my dad.  My Mom and Dad divorced when I was too little to know what the heck that meant.  Dad moved to Hawaii, which means I almost never got to see him.  (Kentucky being exactly 1 buttload of miles from Hawaii)  When I did see him it was always a big deal to me.  Still is.

He isn’t coming into town to see JUST me, which seems to always be the case.  He has other business that brought him, I’m just a perk.  Honestly though, I don’t think it matters.  I just like to see the old guy… (and he is… really really old)

wonder when he’s coming?

Well round 2 of my battle against the beast that is C# is going well.  Then it occurred to me, that it was THIS class in particular last semester that my brain disconnected and I couldn’t follow this any further.

By THIS one, I mean today.. The lab today is where I locked up mentally and couldn’t catch up.  I eventually got like half credit for the lab and moved on last semester, but it befuddled me to the point that I couldn’t get my head around the next concepts.  My problem, I think is that I am constantly wanting things to be more efficient.. but never being able to get what I want to work.

Like last lab.  I KNOW the best way to have done it would be to pass an array to another class, and then have that class interpret the members of the array through a loop.  I know this.  The ONLY way I got the darn thing to work is line by line, passing the variables and having the class evaluate it then.

If you have any idea WTH I am talking about, and work for cheap.. Let me know

(if you are my instructor and have found this page to see if I am cheating, trust me.. if I was cheating C’s would not keep that programmer employed.. LOL!)

Honestly I think IU has a better program.  It is more “adult friendly” than UofL, without a doubt.  I could walk from IU in proabably a year with a Bachelors in computer science.. where I will be struggling here to get a bachelors of business (in CIS).  Why do I bother?  I never wanted to go to IU, I always wanted to go to UofL.  It seems pride is keeping me here, pride.. and free tuition (don’t ask).  My employer won’t cover me if I go to IU.  So I’d be on my own.  On my own dime, as it were.  Which is scary..  I haven’t been out of pocket for school since.. well since I started.  (thus the loans..   )  Now I do believe that I am destitute enough that the great state of Indiana would offer me sufficient grants to cover this.  So that leaves me with what..

Pride.