Happy Birthday to Me

So yesterday was my birthday… I’m now level 44. Still saving up for my epic mount though. 😉

Other than aches and pains (my knee still is bugging me) and having to diet to lose some weight (which at least IS happening, I’m down 35 points from where I was in late May), I feel pretty good. Working in computer software and being around computers most of my life has already made me feel like an old man many times over, so I’m never bothered that I have computer magazines older than my co-workers.

The funny thing is, computer software changes but it also comes back around. In the early 80’s there were “RAMdisks”, a peripheral that mimicked a floppy disk drive but used static RAM chips. They were expensive but fast, so a lot of users had them. But when CD-ROM technology finally got out into mainstream, they were largely forgotten.

And what do we have today? Solid state drives, which are incredibly fast, all RAM, with no moving parts which makes them ideal for laptops and tablets. It’s the RAMdisk of old, re-packaged! Things like that help me feel like I’m not so much old as I can see the cycles of things that just come around again. It’s no wonder time is often viewed as a wheel in many cultures.

On the CRPG front, I slowed down a bit while I did some research of sorts for my underwater dungeon by playing some Bioshock. I’d never played the second or third one, and it was a nice way to recharge the creative batteries. I found Bioshock Infinite to be very good, although the ending was a little anti-climactic. Bioshock 2 was good but mostly derivative of the first one; you could just skip playing it entirely and never have missed anything. I have two maps left to populate with encounters and transactions, then I can move on to the 2nd of the final three dungeons.

Also, during my birthday my dad and I rebuilt the back patio deck on my house. I’d noticed the boards were looking rather ratty in places, and then in one corner, I felt a distinct crunch when I stepped on it. My dad, being a super handy guy (roofs, decks, house extensions, he’s done it all) came over and honestly did most of the work with me as an assistant. The new deck is twice as thick, covered in weather stain/sealant for maximum protection, and the lower struts have even been reinforced for sturdiness. Thanks, dad!

My goal is to be done with all my maps and working on getting the engine changes done for full support of all graphics by end of this month.