Hello again!

[James]

You know how sometimes you think "Hmm, haven't been to that website in aaaages!", well I had that today so thought I'd pop in and say hello.

How's life treating you Nick? Good I hope.

Can't complain myself. Got 2 weeks off work (working at a school has it's advantages) Though just typically, I have developed a cold just 2 days in.

Gaming wise I've just got back into Day of Defeat: Source (after stints of Counterstrike: Source and Team Fortress 2), MMO wise I play EVE on and off still, and the same with WoW, just every few months.

Life wise, doing a degree through the Open University (hope to become a teacher one day soon) and expecting a baby this november (fingers crossed, wife had a miscarriage in January fairly early on).

Again, hope you are doing well!

[eyelleye]

You know, I say that all the time... no really. just usually about different websites. Typically it occurs to me at different times of the year and which interest is phasing in or phasing out. '-)

Life is treating me like... well life really. Under paid, over worked (well maybe not over-worked exactly... they pretend to pay me so I pretend to work is how the saying goes). I still like programming 98.99% of the time, so thats a bonus. Wish I had more formal training in the subject, or at least I wish I had someone I worked with to ask questions... and they had the answers. Won't say I'm the smartest one where I work, but... I come up with questions that nobody else has either encountered or has the answer to, which is maddening sometimes. Work is good otherwise... well, no... I'm working on our implementation of an international format that I swear was thought up by monkees or something. I could randomly throw darts at a dart board and come up with something better I think. I'm being paid to make our version work and... good god, they wonder why we're behind with 2 previous false starts. Granted, I could be more productive some days... but its a nightmare spec that leads to confusion and boredom.

Gaming-wise I've been playing Lord of the Rings Online again. Played Tabula Rasa for a couple months plus beta and enjoyed it, but haven't felt the interest there lately. Playing a bit of Sins of a Solar Empire and digging that... but really only have the focus of one game anymore. Guess its a time thing (or lack there of)... give my left (and probably right) nut to be 18-19 again in college with time to kill to play games. Haven't tried EvE again lately, though I see they've got a new client out... cool game but I need to be able to solo a bit more in my games. Its odd but, I like to solo quests but still interact with the "community." EvE always felt empty to me. WoW... we wont talk about that fucking game here... other than to say that after my account being hacked and Blizzard being dicks about it, I wont be playing another one of their MMOs any time soon. Blizzard could be the last person on earth (figuratively speaking) and dying of thirst and I still wouldn't give them the sweat off my nuts.

Hope your baby bit works out... it's a life changing experience they all say. My ex had a kid when we were married and it was really cool... probably the only thing about that relationship I miss. I guess I figure its got to be like that, only x10, you know? Hope it works out for you... as much grief as children are over the years (I know I've been)... gots to be worth it in the end.

Anyway, good to hear from you again my friend. Had my college best friend just move to London recently, so now I got 2 reasons to make a trip but I doubt I'll make it... really hate traveling the older I get... plus I don't really like traveling alone and I'm an aging, fat bastard, divorced, computer nerd... so my chances are like none... but, what the hell... stranger things have happened (like landing on the moon).

Speaking of LOTRO... time to go log an hour before I nod off. Take care my friend.

~ El Duderino
(nick)

[James]

I had to give up on LOTRO as it would crash often in Vista. I hear they've fixed that now (well, Microsoft have a patch for the memory leak issue with GFX cards with loads of memory)

I have to say I did enjoy it very much in the short time I played it, but I don't think I'll go back to it.

EVE isn't too bad soloing. You go at a MUCH slower pace I think than the rest of the game, but I don't care. I like to sail amongst the stars at my own pace and enjoy it. The Trinity client is very good looking.

The next MMO I've got my sights on is Champions Online, from the guys that did City Of Heroes. I hope they make it fun, the character customisation in CoH is beyond brilliant, but the actual game isn't all that exciting I found. The customisation for CO looks to be even better, you can even pick the colours of your claws/forcefields/beams from your eyes, and you actually create your own NPC arch-nemesis. It should scratch my super-hero itch, this past 6 months I've become addicted to graphic novels/comics/TPBs and am rather partial to Marvel stuff.