Daily LoWdown for 29-30 March 2005

[Yuglooc]

Camped

[Yuglooc]

Tuesday: Zyzzyva joined several LoWs for some action in CoB. He managed to finish off one writ. Several others made progress towards AQ4.

He also soloed a bit, making some progress on Sir Morgan's quests.

Wednesday: It was back to CoB for some writ action. Unfortunately, Zyzzyva couldn't finish off any writs, as the zone was too crowded (lots of competition for the MOBs needed). The group wound up wandering about, killing everything in sight (including some named MOBs). The dungeon crawl had one hiccup (a TPW that happened when the group was overwhelmed by about 8 MOBs), but otherwise went well. Some people finished off other quests (such as the one to talk to the three ghosts). The group eventually got to the other side (undead entrance). By that time, it was 10pm EST (Earth time) - the group then broke up.

Afterwards, Zyzzyva joined the 30s folks for some Zek and RoV action. While there, he DINGed level 29.

[Greebo]

OMGOMGOMG We didn't have our board fix for TWO DAYS!

CURSE YOU DAN! NEVER LEAVE YOUR HOUSE AGAIN!

Lots of Planetside - and some EQ too. :) Tried to get some writs done last night but didn't get a whole lot done on ours, but helped others with theres. Will try to continue working them thru the week. :)

[leng]

First post since before the easter weekend! Anyway, to cut things short Tab & Tant are both at 26 now and are working on the AQ5 quests in TS. Tant just needs some corpse feeders - which are not a major problem - but Tab needs Fey Rock Piles which are a pain to find and dangerous to attempt to kill on the river bed.

The clocks here went forward on saturday - an event which I completely missed. I turned up at my parents place for an easter lunch an hour late. Luckily, they had missed the clocks going forwards as well so it came as a shock to all of us midafternoon when we discovered that all the TV shows were running an hour early.

I've wasted most of the last two days at work trying to get a fairly simple bit of code to run. Finally I discovered that I had fallen foul of not one but two inter-unix incompatibilities in a single call (select).

Grrrrr.

[Sagar]

Finally I discovered that I had fallen foul of not one but two inter-unix incompatibilities



I hear they have a vaccine for that. :lowrazz:

Finally got to play after a 10 day hiatus. Tuesday, I knocked off a writ in CoB while generally adventuring and helping others with quests.

Wednesday, went back to CoB to work on writs. Managed to get 3/4's of the way through one but none completed :~ I did pick up 4 quests which filled my journal *sigh*

So I need to go back to CoB tonight and clear some of these things out!

[Aananla]

F5

/wait 10 minutes

F5

/wait 10 minutes

F5

Oh, wait! The boards are working?! Woohoo! OK, here's what happened in the downtime...

Played some GT4 again. That's, ah, about it.

I've been waiting two days to say that.

[Asharad]

Yesterday was such a nice day I spent the afternoon sitting on my porch swing, reading comics and sipping vodka. I didn't realize that I was a bit drunk till I sat down to play a little EQ and could hardly type.

So I watched Lost and the Shield instead.

[DinbinFanfoom]

Yesterday was such a nice day I spent the afternoon sitting on my porch swing, reading comics and sipping vodka. I didn't realize that I was a bit drunk till I sat down to play a little EQ and could hardly type.
Had a similar problem on Sunday. Was invited to a friend's house for lunch and he offered me a tall rum and Coke. I think, in hindsight, it was basically rum slightly flavoured/coloured with vanilla Coke. Of course, I am a really cheap drunk to start with.

I had Monday off (go civil servant me) so I cleaned up around the house, did some laundry and ironing.

Tuesday was a bit stressful at work because I had to do some 'splaining to management why fixing a "general network slowdown" affecting remote sites had been so hard for me to track down. Basically errors were on our ISP's fiber line/media converters, which we can't even see. When I opened the ticket, I told our ISP I saw no errors on our router interfaces (at either end of their link) but they assured me their counters were clean. So I spent literally weeks running around in circles trying to track down a problem on our network that didn't exist. Finally the ISP is called again and they notice the problems on the level 2 equipment (fiber/ethernet converters) and replace them. Problem solved. Management wants to know why I didn't realize the problem sooner. Bah. So now I have to document network troubleshooting protocols to give them the "warm fuzzies". Frankly, the only thing I could have done different in hind-sight was to ask the ISP: "Are you sure? Check again. Check everything!" which you should NOT have to do.

Tuesday night was leg workout night (2 x 20lb dumbells + Squats and Lunges and other stuff) and I'm STILL sore today.

Last night watched LOST at my bro's house, good episode. Nabbed a few things at the mall that were on sale (CK undies half price at Sears and a nice ribbed T-shirt) and a Lexan water bottle. Played a bit of Homeworld when I got home (my previous install got all wonky and kept crashing, so I reinstalled but forgot to back up my save games soooo... back to the beginning, grrrr...)

[leng]

Frankly, the only thing I could have done different in hind-sight was to ask the ISP: "Are you sure? Check again. Check everything!" which you should NOT have to do.

Having recently escaped from a support role where we were dealing with mixed environments and other companies' support staff, I realised that the most basic and fundamental rule is "assume the bast*rds are lying!" They will basically tell you whatever they think will cost them the least effort and the only way that you will get the job done properly is to make so much fuss that it is easier for them to fix the problem than to fob you off. Of course, you better be really sure first that the problem is NOT at your end:D

[Raveneye]

Vodka and comics on the porch? Only Ash and only in Kentucky... :smile:

DNP Tuesday, was QT night with the wife and I was dead tired as well.

Last night was such a great evening here (75 degrees and sunny) the the family and I decided to hell with dinner and we went for a nice long walk when I got home from work. The kids played outside while we sat on the porch (alas, no vodka or comics as I live north of the border :wink:) and we finally went inside when it started to get dark. Had leftover Easter dinner at about 8:00pm while watching LOST.

Hoped on for about an hour, but the CoB group was full so I simply soloed some things I needed and finished off some VS access quests including killing the Rat Queen.

I should be on tonight and LFG. I have a lot of TS stuff including AQ5 that needs attention.

[DinbinFanfoom]

Of course, you better be really sure first that the problem is NOT at your end:D
That's the kicker. Since our network is about 100x more complex than their 2 hops or so, it takes a lot longer to eliminate EVERYTHING on ours. You'd THINK they could check the half dozen places they should normally look. Regardless, I won't repeat that mistake.

[BobHamfist]

More project work. Couldn't even participate in Neph's buffy night.

Logged on briefly for a few minutes to check the broker. Looking for predatory salve adept 1. If anyone sees it on the broker for under 1.5 gold, I'll pay you for it. It's my current quick heal and I need an upgrade badly (bloom is adept III but really grey).

More project work tonight. Probably won't be on much.

[EricStratton]

OH thank you thank you thank you thank you! I missed you, forums. Don't leave me again, please. I promise I'll treat you better.

Work is kicking my tail w/ the end of the quarter coming up and we've got a release coming out soon too. I'd like to personally thank whoever scheduled that bit of magic. I'll let my fists do the talking.

Did a lot of crafting w/ Patyric and he made 20 Provisioner last night.

My lil brother's letting me borrow X-Men Legends for the Xbox. First of all, it looks beautiful on an HD TV. So pretty. Plus, it's just a great game so far. It's a bit tough and too fast for my tastes but the lore and art and everything is top notch. Just about everything can be destroyed which is fun as all heck. There's a fight against Juggernaut in which everything pretty much does get destroyed. If you're an X-Men fan and have an Xbox I'd pick this puppy up.

Didn't get to watch Lost last night cuz we were trying to do Joy's '03 amended taxes. Such a pain. Dunno if I'll be on tonight either.

[GravenStone]

My lil brother's letting me borrow X-Men Legends for the Xbox. First of all, it looks beautiful on an HD TV. So pretty. Plus, it's just a great game so far. It's a bit tough and too fast for my tastes but the lore and art and everything is top notch. Just about everything can be destroyed which is fun as all heck. There's a fight against Juggernaut in which everything pretty much does get destroyed. If you're an X-Men fan and have an Xbox I'd pick this puppy up.

Played some of the Gamecube version of this with my nephew over Christmas (and scored some serious points for being an old bastard who can talk comics and play video games :biggrin: ). Fun little game, very cool cooperative mode. Debated nabbing the PS2 version for myself, but I almost never play consoles anymore so why bother.

[Shiz]

Tuesday, damn you Greebo, I actually re-installed PS and turned on Station All Access, but my intent to play was foiled by a cranky Victoria. Last night I played some EQ2, not really intending to do much. I was harvesting for DWBs (done, finally) and got a tell from RoV looking for a tank. My jaw dropped. This NEVER EVER NEVER happened to Ranger Shiz in EQ1. So I headed to RoV (actually got 3 other tells for "need a tank in RoV. you want in?) and introduced a bunch of strangers to the most furious Shiz-pulling I could manage (it was a very well-balanced group - bard, monk, warden, templar, necro, Nitz.) Ended up losing a few (including myself) to some Varsoom Guards near the goblin area and decided to call it an early night.

[Drax]

Wow, amazing how much time I spend here. Didn't realize it until I saw how often I checked the boards when they weren't available... Yikes! :lowlol:

Monday evening, spent time playing around on computer, loading up some programs I've been needing to.

Tues, went with Becky to worker's comp doctor (required by her employment). Everything went fine, and the doc told her to continue taking Advil. Put a couple restrictions on her work, but nothing she cannot circumvent anyway. Then we went to Quest to get her bloodwork done. It was nothing related to the accident. It was instead related to her procrastination. She was requested by her doctor to get her bloodwork done in August. She waited... until she had to get a new requisition sheet in Feb (b/c her previous one expired! I didn't even know requisition sheets had expiration dates! :lowlol: ). She waited again ... until I made her go, since I was driving. :mrgreen: (Her father has a history of cholesterol issues, so it's kinda important...) Ate lunch with Becky and her mother (Quiznos, yum; ate the Honey Bourbon chicken... Mmmm...), then went to work. Finally made it here by 1:30pm. :roll:

COMPUTER ISSUE - HELP PLEASE!!
Tues night, I had a computer issue. Was trying to load my Studio 9 program onto my secondary drive, and saw it was completely empty. Not o/s, no other programs. Nothing. So I thought it was necessary to install windows xp onto that as well. Well, that was a headache I wish I had avoided. I started the program, then rebooted, and saw it was starting to install on my C drive (primary), which I didn't want. So I exitted the program, but the time or two I started up my computer, it defaults to Microsoft XP Setup, instead of Home. How do I fix the startup issue? And do I need to have an operating system on my D (secondary) drive, or can I run programs on it without any other programs or operating system installed?
Thanks! :mrgreen:

Wed, spent some time cleaning and weeding through papers. Also got to read New Avengers #4 (kickass story), Ultimate Secret #1 (kinda confused as to the direction, but still very cool; also, presumably (since I don't really read many Ultimate books), the first appearance of Ultimate Captain Marvel (Mar-vell)), Astonishing X-Men (very cool story; next ish should be a blast!), and a little of Amazing Spidey (would have dropped the series before the current run, but I'm waiting to see what, if any, effect the New Avengers will have in the book; have read that MJ and Aunt May will be moving into the new headquarters, which would be a fairly dramatic change for the main supporting characters of a major book :lowlol:).

Plan to clean my portion of the house tonight (my office, primarily, along with some random scatterrings of papers throughout).

[attriel]

OMGOMGOMG We didn't have our board fix for TWO DAYS!


Oh, wah. It was only 36 hours.

[EricStratton]

So I exitted the program, but the time or two I started up my computer, it defaults to Microsoft XP Setup, instead of Home. How do I fix the startup issue?
I'm not sure how far you got into the install but you may have to reinstall Windows on your primary drive. :~

And do I need to have an operating system on my D (secondary) drive, or can I run programs on it without any other programs or operating system installed?
No, not an OS. You do need to format it to a file system type that Windows can recognize (either Fat32 or NTFS). I think the Windows installer program can do that. Partition Magic can. Windows itself (once you're actually back into Windows) may be able to do it but I don't remember off the top of my head.

[Greebo]

Drax:

During startup, right after the CMOS boot screen comes up, start hitting F8 1 time a second until you get a menu of OS choices.

Pick XP - not the install program.

That will get you back into XP on your C Drive.

Then go into the System Control Panel - to the Advanced Tab - to Startup and Recovery and change the default OS back to what it SHOULD be, and set the time to list operating systems to 3 seconds.

Then hit "Edit" and copy and paste the file here, and I'll reply with corrections to remove the new installer's existance.
Then you can format your d drive and pretend this never happened.

[shadowgate]

YEAH THE BOARDS ARE UP! :)

Played with Zoldan, Kullen, Zyz, Draeken, Deepfred last night and tried to do writs in Zek but was WAY over camped so we headed to RoV to work on CoI access but had to wait for a couple people to run to VS to get up to point in Varsoon search to get the quest to get access. Once there the game crashed on my and it took 5 reboots to get my connectivity to web working so I could relog in. Came back, 20 minutes later, to find they had alread gotten one! :( The to make matters worse just after getting invited to group and trying to get to where they where they got wiped and I no longer had any rez stones! :( Revived and went back in but RoV was fairly camped too! Zyz need to leave so we picked Val up and got him through Zek Boat trip and access. By that time Zek wasn't so camped so we knocked out some writs. I got three done before having to log and I think others ended up finishing two or three as well. Got to 13% until 32 from 27%. Once 32 then need to get Freerot access!

[Kiir]

I'll just start with Friday and work my way forward.

Friday: Day before Bday no class/start of spring break yay! Didn't do much but veg for awhile, in the evening we went out to melting pot because we had D&D on Saturday and so weren't going out to dinner then. Was yummy as always.

Saturday: D&D dan kill us all in new and interesting ways he almost suceeded as well, but in the end only our NPC wizard and Trey's monk died. We were able to get Trey a reserection thanks to his donation of a couple (like 30,000+) gold to the local shrine of Elhona.

Sunday: Drove down to Richmond, the drive down wasn't bad, K played with my grandparents dogs (well one is their's one is my cousin's that they have been watching for the last year and a half). Hung out with my aunts/uncles/cousins left around 6pm and headed home took way longer to get home yay traffic or something.

Monday: Got packed, dropped K off at the Petsmart Hotel and caught our train to New York City. It was pouring and the train was leaking which was fun... really...okay not. Got into the city and our hotel was right in the theatre district on 8th and 44th, next to Phantom of the Opera and on the same street as Spamalot, The Producers and a couple of other shows. It was really icky out so hung out in the hotel most of the night which kind of sucked but was relaxing.

Tuesday: It was still dreary and looking like it was going to rain, we decided since we are going to go back for our aniversery and see Spamalot then that we would visit the zoo then. Headed out shopping since we were in the Fashion District. We then headed down towards Soho and Little Italy, unfortunately we missed both of them by about 1 block, but we did see China Town shops and it was nice to explore. Headed back to the hotel and vegged out again.

Wednesday: Got up got ready to go put our bags in the hotel's hold area, and went wandering Time Square again, visited the giant Toys'R'us, got a Darth Spud, and looked at the cool Ferris Wheel, it was really neat, then went out to lunch before the show. Headed to Lion King, it was amazing even in the balcony, great show, bought a shirt for both of us from it plus a few other minor things. Then headed back for our backs and to the Amtrak station. Hung around it for about an hour and a half till our train, and then headed home. Got home around 11pm saw the boards had gone down, rebooted them (well Dan did) then headed up to bed, since our internet company was doing matience till 3am.

Might try to get on EQ2 today after catching up on all my missed stuff from the past few days of no internet.

[Caranthir]

Completely forgot that I actually played on Tuesday. Logged on in the evening as Typpin and went to Stormhold with Xuthia. Many skeletons and leeches died, and by the end of the evening Xuthia was officially a warden and Typpin Lesvaches reentered the brotherhood of rangers.

Oh, and on Wednesday afternoon I received my preliminary acceptance e-mail from Marshall University, so that's 2 of the 4 (in this case I was one of 20 accepted from a pool of over 100 applicants, not to toot my own horn :lowrazz:)

[Xaxor]

Had interesting time a couple of nights ago with wife's PC. Her surfing over the past few months had riddled it with spyware. The default web page had been hijacked. After cleaning off an unmentionable number of files using Ad-aware, spybot, MS Antispyware and a clean run of AVG to boot; the Page hijacker remained. I found a running process called svcnut.exe which I didn't recognise, I googled it and found out that none of the current spyware packages detected it. (duh) Basically ended task and removed the file. Went to bed at 1:30am.

Continuing to level druid who is now 36 and will probably do that thru weekend.

[Sagar]

... Typpin Lesvaches reentered the brotherhood of rangers.

... not to toot my own horn :lowrazz:)

Wise move.. tooting your own horn would make you a bard.

Or a contortionist.

:eek1:

[Shiz]

Or a male dog.

[Biaxin]

Hey,

...and homebound.

[Lycos]

DNP. I've been researching some stuff and doing work at home for a number of projects.

[Winduforce]

Shadowgate already spoke of my adventure of Wednesday and I was able to complete 2 of the 4 writs since I had to delete 2 of them to make room for some quests while we were in ToV. I plan on playing tonight so if there is time to form a group later I hope we can work on some of my Hertiage quests. I still have 6 to finish.

[Aananla]

Go ahead and toot Car. Thats great!

[Drax]

Go ahead and toot Car. Thats great!
*breaks out the clothespins*
*hands Car some Phazyme*

[Charinida]

Crazy spring break/easter week at the airport... Then lots of rain...

Haven't been playing EQ2 lately... Been hiding out in SWG again... Finally can land at the Emperor's Retreat... Found out that I was chasing after a T3 A-Wing in my T1 TIE ship (whoa) which I defeated... suprisingly! At least I think it's a Tier 1 ship since the mass is pretty low...

Not sure when I'll be back in EQ2 (lack of quests completions) ...

Seems I need to blow things up (PS) or fly to get some stress out... Or something...

Watching various movies lately, mostly Japanese... but a few American shows too (Pretender, NYPD, Law & Order...) and a couple of spanish ...