Planet Sillicon

Getting healthy after H1N1

By blog on Oct. 31, 2009.

Yep, I had that nasty bug… calling it a bug seems an understatement, it royally sucked to have that, worst bought of the flu in my life!

So, after nearly two weeks of nothing happening on my blog, it should start to come back to life over the coming weeks, and then things should be as they were. It’s been a horrid two weeks, the only saving grace has been the constant love and attention from my SO; she nursed me through the whole thing. It’s been grand to have her take care of me, and I really appreciate her for it.

I’ve never before felt so lethargic in my life, I was sleeping away most of the day, and when I was awake, it wasn’t a very nice experience. This virus really knocked the wind out of my sails, I still feel very weak and I know it’s going to be a few more weeks before I feel like my old self.

My work has been very understanding, which has been nice. I think everyone is just so concerned when they hear you’ve got this thing that’s been blaring on the news for the last three months, and I have to say, it does pull you up short when you realise you’ve got it… I knew it was out there, but really thought I was healthy enough that I wouldn’t get sick. I suppose you can’t tell with these things sometimes.

As I said, I’m on the mend now, and I’m hoping to keep my blog much more up to date with everything that I usually write on. I’ve missed my daily rant, you know. Well, it’s not always a rant, sometimes it’s a ramble, it’s what it is, and I don’t feel the need in my current state to delve too deeply into what exactly my blog is ‘about’, because in the harsh light of sickness, it seems altogether random, perhaps it’s like Seinfeld in it’s ‘about nothing’ but ‘about everything’ kind of approach… anyway, more later!

New office equipment

By blog on Oct. 11, 2009.

Yep, I’m getting more, for free!

Okay so yeah, I’ve been putting in mammoth hours for work in the last few weeks, leaving me with little time for anything but sleep and hanging out with my SO when I get the chance.

Because of this, my work emailed me with a huge list of new office equipment and told me to pick what I needed – within reason – to continue doing so well and what not. Well, I set to it and started in on what I would like to add to my home set up. Computers aren’t something I need, because I’ve got an amazing set up already, but I liked the idea of better quality fax machines and a new set of cordless phones for my home and office.

I sent off my request back to work to see what they say. Considering how giving they wanted to be, and what I actually asked for, I believe I’ll get my new fax and phone set in the not too distant future.

It’s certainly been gruelling of late, and I look forward to a few weeks at a more relaxed pace. I was in a taxi today and heard an ad on the radio for a company building websites, and I felt so like cringing as I sat there. To hear the way that people would say to promote the line of work I myself am in was sort of… well it was horrible. It’s like hearing how your mum talks about you to her friends, like you cured cancer and were the first man to step foot on Mars.

The company had rather exorbitant rates, which made me feel better, because anyone who looks into current prices on website building would find in short order that what this business was charging was on the far end and for not an altogether stellar package.

I should hire games…

By blog on Oct. 10, 2009.

… however I know I never will.

Basically, I won’t pay for a game that I don’t think I’m going to get a good amount of play time from or isn’t a very good game. I don’t like to have anything approaching chaff in my collection, and a game that’s overly short, overly easy – is actually aimed predominantly at children, but has same effect – and only got an 8.0 from IGN, unfortunately approaches chaff. I know it’s not a bad game, but to me, the comments lead me to believe it’s a so-so game.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with that, if you were going to hire it. But I won’t do that. Want to know why? In the past I’ve hired DVDs and games, and I’ve seen what they look like. The scratches, fingerprints, and general grime on these things is utterly revolting. I would rather stamp on my own foot that put one of those disgusting discs in my PS3, or any console or player in my home.

Because in the past, before I was like this, I would try it. I would hire games and DVDs and try them, only to find they didn’t work. That was infuriating, but then to go back and have them ask you stupid questions – “did you put the disc in with the shiny side down?” – and in any way attempt to blame you for their piece of crap disgusting disc not working is more than this irate gamer can take.

I’ve often found that it’s best to just avoid these sorts of situations, but it is frustrating, because it would be nice to be able to try a game that you wanted to play for a few hours, but didn’t want to all out buy, but ah well. I’d rather miss out on a little game than go through the ordeal that is the hiring process.

Zombies with moustaches

By blog on Oct. 10, 2009.

That’s right, I’m back to playing Plants Vs. Zombies again, and now they’ve got moustaches!

I’ve made my way through the entire game, once, and have also completed all the puzzles and all the mini games. They have all been rather fun, though some are more difficult than others, but I’m actually finding that I’m still enjoying the game just as much. There’s a little Zen garden that you get towards the end of the game, and I’m having a great time using it to get more in-game money to then buy either more stuff for the Zen garden, or grow my big Tree of Wisdom thing. Oh, and buy Stinky the Snail, who helps pick up all the in-game money you get in the Zen Garden. He also likes chocolate.

From this Tree of Wisdom I have learned a couple of things. Two of these pearls of wisdom have given me a laugh when I went back in to kill a horde of the undead. One thing the tree told me was that I could see Zombies from the future, if I simply typed the word ‘future’ in when I was playing. I did so, and sure enough, I’ve got zombies from the future. Funnily enough, the only differentiation is that Zombies from the future wear rather ugly, ’80s looking sunglasses. Apart from that, they are exactly the same. Now, the tree also told me to see an horrific transformation in the zombies, if I simply typed ‘moustache’ in when I was playing. I did so, and now my zombies have an array of moustachios. You can even get them to be zombies from the future with moustachios!

I’ve not completed growing the Tree of Wisdom, because quite frankly, that sucker bleeds you! But I’m still playing, still going through my second run through of the game and knocking down the Survival modes. I want the gold trophy, rather than the silver I’ve currently got. I don’t usually get like this about games, but something about this game is sort of addictive, I think.