• Oh Yeah, That’s Why My TV Hasn’t Been On

    Posted on by suguay

    Oh yeah, that’s why my TV hasn’t been on much lately. That was my thought last night when I shut off my TV. Ok, it was late night TV but that’s about all I watch now days anyway. I’ve already given up on prime time for the most part. There’s nearly nothing on.

    This phenomenon of the TV mostly existing in an off state started about six weeks to a month before the elections. I used to turn on the TV, at least in the morning to catch the local news and weather. The problem was that to do that I had to suffer through myriad of political adds

    that told me nothing about the candidates or issues except how they wanted me to vote, or the ads were just the way for the candidates to bicker back and forth over who was a worse choice. I got really tired of it and decided I could just look up the expected temperatures from my phone and then I’d be fine. And so off my cable box goes and off my TV stays most of the time.

    To be fair there are a couple of programs I like. However, they are summer season programs and with the exception of a holiday special for one of them, well, they are done until next June. This leaves me with crime dramas, medical dramas, supposed reality TV, and silly games or contests. I’m not really into any of these. I occaisionally peruse the educational chanels and find something interesting to watch, or late night TV might have a Sci-Fi movie on that I like or have wanted to see. It really doesn’t happen that often. And it’s not like I’ve just got basic cable. Some of the chanels I do like to watch, even when there’sn noting on, are on the upper tier of service and so I pay the extra to get the extra chanels, only to have that much more to sift through before I turn off the TV and go find something else to do.

    Given the uproar from the networks and studios about things like Hulu, Google TV, Apple TV, and just general content on the internet, I am not the only one that’s doing this. I have a friend that just got rid of her TV and VCR (I think). She donated it to an animal shelter so the animals could watch videos of Lassy or something like that. I’m not ready to go that far. There are some other things I use the TV for, like watching DVD’s that I’ve purchased, or old videos that I’ve had for ages, or playing console games, and I have a TV that I can plug the video from my computer into and have the computer in HiDef. So I keep my TV. It just spends a lot of time off.

    So back to the networks and the studios. They are fighting the new media/mediums of entertainment because they are scared. They don’t have any new, good ideas for shows that appeal to the masses and more and more people are turning off the TV for viewing pleasure and turning on the console game or the computer to play or view their content there.

    Yep, that’s why my TV is usually off. There’s just nothing good on.

     

     

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    📂This entry was posted in The Blog!

  • It’s Not So Bad…Maybe

    Posted on by suguay

    I’ve been playing World of Warcraft a bit more since the big patch came out. It helps that I was on vacation. It turns out things are quite so bad as I was dreading and a few things maybe got better. I think I have even solved my Death Knight dilemma.

    I have re-spec’d my Rogue Y though I must confess to not having given much time to her. I haven’t seen a real difference here, but again, not much time spent with her to really offer an opinion other than it didn’t get worse.

    After talking with some friends I finally decided to take my Horde Death Knight G and spec her out as Unholy. She’s at 75 so this is a good test and it gets me all 31 points in my main spec. This has turned out to be fun.

    The ghoul that you get for a pet is kind of funny and a bit helpful, oh and ever so expendable. I forgot that I could now fly in Northrend until I realized my flying mount was no longer unavailable. I tried it and sure enough. Now it should be so much easier to do those things in Zul’Drak that you had to time your path just right or spend a lot of time killing trash to get to the quest you were trying to complete. Now, I haven’t done a dungeon on my Unholy Death Knight yet. I hope to get that done some time this week. If it all goes reasonably as planned then I will spec out my Alliance Death Knight M as Unholy and maybe go try one of the Heroic Dungeons that everyone is saying is so hard now. My luck, I’ll get Occulus which I already think is hard.

    I had intended to spend some time leveling my Alliance Rogue. Let’s face it, Gnome Rogues are fun. They are tiny, they move fairly quick, they stealth. What’s not to love? Oh and they are so funny when they run in stealth. Make one and try it just to see. You’ll get a chuckle. Oh, anyway, I intended to work on her. I got distracted and little on M is stuck at level 13 waiting for more action. What was my distraction? A Warlock.

    I started a Gnome Warlock W. I’ve gone with Demonology as my spec. I have to say that I am very pleased with it so far. I’ve gone from 1-23 in just a couple of days. I’ve even done a Dungeon with W. While it was a bit long, those early ones are, it was fun. And I got a run with a good group of people. I think they were going to do more but I didn’t have time. Sadly. It was great to realize that I could DOT things and send my Felguard off to help kill stuff and by the time I’d get to one of my longer spells most of the stuff was dead. Cool. Ok, I didn’t get a chance to look to see what level everyone else was at. For all I know they were 3 levels higher than me and doing all the work. Still, there were no complaints, no grumbling and I got 3 or 4 nice pieces that I was able to use and not just sell or auction. That’s always cool.

    And so for all my dread and concerns about the patch and the changes, it looks like things so far are turning out ok. I might feel a bit differently with my 80 DK when I really get back to playing her. Then again, maybe not. I think I’ll still be thinking the changes have turned out ok. It’s not so bad.

     

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    📂This entry was posted in Games Land

  • Patch 4.0.something.something Trepidation

    Posted on by suguay

    We all know patch 4.0.something.whatever is out. We’ve known it was coming. Some of us even decided to try it out on the PTR before it went live. Some of us meant to and didn’t get to it before it hit. It’s a big sucker. I’m downloading it now. Yes, I know, I’m a couple of days late but this is the first opportunity of any time I’ve had to address it.

    I have to admit that I have some ambivalence and trepidation regarding the changes. I know they are all in preparation for the expansion. I am excited to see the changes, especially to the land, in Cataclysm. And so we have to deal with the changes in the patch. I’ve heard lots of concerns from one of my friends. He’s not very happy about what was being done to his Paladin. That’s fine. I get that. And I will be honest, I’m not very happy with what they have done to the Death Knight.

    You may recall that my only level 80 character is a Death Knight. I have been playing DPS in the Blood spec. I like the Blood spec but I don’t want to tank. I tried to learn to play the Frost spec as I have another DK that I’ve been working on, on a different server. I just don’t care for it. It’s slow. There aren’t enough buttons to push fast enough.

    So now that I get a re-spec opportunity I’ve got to figure out what to do. I could go blood and I would have to learn to tank. I could got Frost and learn to deal, I could go Unholy and figure that one out. Now, if this isn’t bad enough, there is the little issue with the need to re-gem and to get new glyphs. I’m just not happy about this. Quite honestly it’s going to be expensive and I still haven’t recovered from my last major purchase which was the Epic Flying. Seriously, this is just annoying.

    Since I do have that other Death Knight that also got a re-spec, and I’m not sure I’m going to keep, for silly reasons but they will do, I suppose I could sped her as Unholy and see how that works out. But do I want to deal with the ghoul?

    I’m really having trouble getting interested, not to mention excited, about playing my Death Knight again. There’s just so much work that will be involved in getting back to a comfort level. Ugh.

    Then again there is my Rogue. Yep, this has potential. Yes, I still have to deal with the re-spec but…she’s only at 46. Not so many points to have to dither over. Also, I play combat for my Rogue and I read something that looks like the combat Rogue is going to get a little more ability to deal with multiple threats. WOOT! I like my Rogue but I’m more comfortable with it for single targets or two at the most so this could make it even more fun to play. Guess which toon I’ll be playing first? Yep. I also don’t have quite so much already invested in gear and glyphs and all so it won’t be as annoying to get her ready to go. I may still have to learn some new bits but that feels less a chore than my Death Knights.

    One of my friends who has several 80 level toons was telling me that he ran out of inks to make his new glyphs and so hasn’t been able to completely retool all his toons. Nor has his wife who is in the same boat. This is a big patch and it’s a big chore to get back to really being able to do some damage.

    I’ve heard that tanks are having trouble holding agro in the dungeons and that the dps are pulling it away. I’ve been told that that means dps will have to learn to play better. Ok, that’s fine if you play a class that has some spells that give it something special, like a Rogue with Sap and some of the casters. I usually play a Death Knight for this. Death Knights don’t have a lot of finesse type spells. They just beat the garbage out of stuff. That’s what they do. They don’t do subtle. As this is my reference point, while they are complaining about the situation and the crappy dps I’m feeling a little assaulted. On the other hand they are telling me that this is more like when Burning Crusade came out and when a Heroic Dungeon was a real challenge and getting through it meant something. Ok. I can see where this would be good and return a certain amount of challenge to the game for many more players.

    While I’m lacking in enthusiasm for the changes at the moment, I can see how some of the changes to the talents and such are a good thing. Lets face it, last week if you were a Blood Death Knight you pretty much had all the same stuff the next Blood Death Knight had as far as talents and gear and gems and glyphs. Everyone was pretty cookie cutter because things had been analyzed and tested to the point that there really was only one build per spec that did the most damage, held the most agro, or healed for the most amount at a time. I think, at least until they’ve analyzed and scrutinized all the changes in enough situations that there will be a time period where not all Blood Death Knights will look the same and not all Combat Rogues will look the same. There may be a little room for some variety and individualism to be had. I think this will add some challenge as well. I think it will now take more than a gear score and spec to determine if you want a particular person as part of your raid team.

    Change is usually a good thing. It keeps us from getting complacent and it keeps us learning and adapting. Sometimes though there is the desire or need to whine a bit about all the effort that is involved in that. I guess I better log in and get started.

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    📂This entry was posted in Games Land

  • I Got My Butt Kicked by a Bug.

    Posted on by suguay

    Yes, you read the title right. I got my butt kicked by a bug. A wasp to be more exact. Or I am assuming it’s a wasp. I have a hard time telling a wasp from a dirt dauber from a hornet. What I do know is they all have stingers, they all hurt, and I’m allergic. Fortunately, I am not life threateningly allergic. However, as the reaction to each successive sting has gotten worse…well…we’ll get to that.

    So I got stung at 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon on the heal of my hand. I was heading down my apartment stairs and the creep got me by the time I got to the bottom. It hurt, it stung, it burned. All I could think of was ‘crap!’.

    I ran back up the stairs, got inside and stuck my hand under cold water to try to cool the burning. This at least gave me time to think about what sort of first aid I had available for this and it turned out to be not much. I had some Benadryl cream for the pesky mosquito bites and an allergy pill with some Benadryl in it. That was going to have to do for the moment. So cream and pill later I’m headed back out the door. I’m supposed to be going to Mom’s Birthday party. There’s a pharmacy on the way and if I get into any trouble at least I’ll be with people. I stopped and got more Benadryl at the pharmacy and managed to pull up to my parent’s place just before my sister does. I’m in luck. Now I got Dr. Mom and Dr. Sister to look at this.

    Ok, disclaimer here, neither my mother or my sister are doctors. You know how it is though, when you don’t feel good or the kid is sick you call Mom because they probably had to deal with it when you were little and they might know what to do. My sister has an interest in medicine and has had plenty of experience looking things up and chasing things down between her husband’s quite serious ailments and her own that she might as well go into medicine. And she believes in better living through pharmaceuticals.

    So the look of things and the opinion is that it should be fine, it’s not too bad. Take another Benadryl. And so we go about our party. The swelling does go down by the time I go home and while it still hurts it’s not as bad as it was. I promise to take another dose of Benedryl and let Mom know how things are in the morning.

    This is where this bug starts kicking my behind. I wake up in the morning and it’s swollen, and red and itchy. This isn’t good. Ok. Well, go to work and call the Doctor as soon as they open. I’m thinking 9:00am. I could have called a little earlier it turns out. Oh well. I tell them I got stung, the welt is 1inch by 3 inches and does the Doctor want to see it or just keep taking Benedryl. He wants to see it. Probably a good thing. It was worse by the time I saw him.

    For those of you who might not know, they give an antibiotic with wasp stings and spider bites because they are unclean and carry bacteria. Ok. That explains the drugs the last time I got stung.

    So the Doctor prescribes and antibiotic and a steroid and I can keep taking the Benedryl for the itching. So I call my sister who has been on all kinds of antibiotics and is allergic to most and ask her about my drugs. The steroid, I might react like she does and lose weight. Ok. The antibiotic, well, she can’t take that one, she’s allergic to it. But, I can’t take the one that she can so she’s not sure. I ask the pharmacist about it and he just says, stay out of the sun and take it with a big glass of water.

    So we’re taking for our antibiotic something called Doxycycline Hyclate and I’m taking it twice a day for 7 days. I have to take it on an empty stomach. The steroid must be taken with food. This complicates things. Some of the side effects of the Doxycyline include, nausea, stomach upset, diarrhea, and vomiting. Great. Take on an empty stomach with a big glass of water. I did ok with the first dose. If it was messing with me I didn’t notice that much because I was doing something while sitting and I must have brushed it off. The second dose was another story. I took it and thought I was fine except I took a sublingual vitamin, you know, the kind you stick under your tongue and let it melt. I took it too close to when I took the Doxycyline and it sent me praying to the porcelain god. Ugh. This is not good. So the next several doses involved a lot of water and making sure to get past the 1 hour mark before putting anything else in my mouth.

    I’m doing ok with this, even though the Doxycyline makes my insides quiver. I don’t sleep well the first night, I was awaken by the itching and I had taken Benadryl before I went to bed. I got up and got an ice pack finally and that helped. I got another hour or so of sleep. I didn’t sleep well the next night either. I got up twice to get new ice packs for the itching. It seems that I didn’t sleep well the next night either, I can’t remember now. What I do remember is that by Friday, I hadn’t slept well all week and I felt like a basket case and I couldn’t stand the thought of drinking another glass or water.

    I talk to my sister about the drugs later in the day and find out that the Prednizone, the steroid is what’s been keeping me awake. Ok. Well I only have to take that until Saturday morning. Good, maybe I’ll get some sleep. But, the good news is that it did cause me to lose a couple of pounds. Ok. I can do that. I don’t think I can face another glass of water though. I don’t usually drink soft drinks. I quit many years ago. If I’m drinking a soft drink it’s because my stomach is upset. I had a soft drink at work. I have barely had coffee as it’s too bitter. I’ve had more soft drinks this weekend then I have had in years. It’s the only thing that seems to calm the quivers in the stomach.

    So last night I figured that since I was off the Prednizone that I should sleep pretty good and I’d feel better. Apparently my pet birds felt they should keep an eye on my because two hours after I went to bed they decided to throw a fit and thrash a bit until I got up to check on them. I usually sit with them when this happens so that they calm down. So I dozed and they calmed down. I went back to bed and they did the same thing about two hours later. Fine. I’ll just sleep out here until I have to take the pill, since it’s getting to that time and then I’ll wait for the nausea to go away and all. I finally got to go sleep in a horizontal position at 8:00 this morning. So much for things getting better.

    As I write this I am trying to drink some coffee though it’s not going very fast. It just tastes bitter, and I’ve given it milk and sweetener. I’ve had breakfast. I have two more doses of the Doxycycline to go. The thought of water still churns my stomach and it’s looking like I’ll need to pick up another soft drink to get through tomorrow.

    I did call the apartment complex office to have them come eradicate the wasp nests and they did so however, they missed the one that were hiding in the hole in the hand rail for the stairs. Those were discovered yesterday when they tried to swarm my mother. They have been eradicated as well now. I couldn’t take the chance of getting stung again so I got spray to kill them. There were three in there and they were big things.

    I don’t really want to get stung again anytime soon. Every time I get stung the reaction is worse and so are the medicines. I figure the next one may send me straight to the emergency room. Looks like I’ll be talking to my Doctor about an Epi Pen soon. Might be the best answer though I don’t think it’s going to eliminate the need for wicked nasty antibiotics and I don’t see me liking them any better.

    And that’s how I have had my butt kicked all week by a stupid little bug.

     

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    📂This entry was posted in The Blog!

  • You Know…Sometimes…

    Posted on by suguay

    You know, sometimes you get things all planned out for your day and your week and they just don’t go the way you had hoped and expected. Sometimes it’s something really big that throws things off. Sometimes it’s a lot of little things that you can’t really identify but that made things not happen as you expected. This was my week. I’m not really sure exactly how I expected my week to go I just know it didn’t.

    It probably started on Sunday when I was working along getting things in general done and I moved funny and my back went wonky. I did still manage to finish up the things that I really needed to do, like grocery shopping. However, I don’t think I got other things I had planned on doing, done. I know I didn’t during the week though I did still manage to get workouts in on Monday and Tuesday. But whatever else I planned to do those evenings after work and workout, well they just don’t seemed to have really happened. And I make lists of things I want to get done. There aren’t near enough items crossed off for the week.

    I know Wednesday didn’t go as planned. I usually take that day off from my weekly workout, it gives a break in between and so far has been very beneficial. I had planned, after work, to stop at the Optician to see about computer glasses, stop at the produce shop, get some milk at the health food store, then home to put things away so I could go to the bookstore as I was in dire need of some reading material, after that, home make dinner and work on a variety of things. That is not how it went. It went; after work, dash to the health food store for milk and bananas, dash way out to the boondocks to pickup my niece from practice and drop her at her home and then back home to put things away, back out to the bookstore because I really needed some challenging reading material, only to be disappointed in the offerings, something to be discussed in another posting, and then finally home for some food and not much else accomplished.

    Thursday, while not as off the mark really didn’t go much closer to plans though it did see a few things accomplished. I did make it to the Optician for computer glasses. I should have them in a bout 2 weeks (I hope, because I’m excited about them). I also managed my workout, that came with a little socializing that put my schedule off but, what the heck. I still didn’t get to all the things I wanted to.

    Friday started turning around though there was a moment that things threatened to go all upside down. We had a brief power outage in our building. It looked like there could be issues with the servers I’m responsible for. Fortunately, I only had one that required any real attention and that turned out to be much quicker than experience led me to expect. Hooray! The after work stuff went close enough to plan to consider it successful, I got to the hobby store, I got to the work out, stopped at the produce shop and the health food store, again. Even managed to get home in time to get an air filter from the apartment office just before she closed up. The rest of the evening, well, that was it for staying on track, but, hey, it was Friday and the end of my regular work week so why not.

    Now I sit here at the weekend with my major ‘to do’ once again shifted to next weekend and lots of stuff left over that I need to get to. Oh well. I haven’t decided if I’m over ambitious, get distracted to easily at times or just more tired than I realize. It’s probably some combination of all three. I’m in great hopes that these computer glasses make a difference in the tired part. Often times it’s my eyes that are tired and not my brain or my body and then that’s it for me. Now, if these glasses turn out to be the bomb they say they are, I expect to be getting a lot more done and you will definitely be reading about them.

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    📂This entry was posted in The Blog!