THE RETURN OF THE PODCAST IS HERE!

Episode 9 of the All Things From My Brain Podcast is here.

In this weeks massive, DOUBLE SIZED, MAXI-PODCAST, I am joined by a special guest on his very first podcast [...]]]> I said I’d do it, I warned you – you didn’t listen, did you? Well, now it’s TOO LATE!

THE RETURN OF THE PODCAST IS HERE!

Episode 9 of the All Things From My Brain Podcast is here.

In this weeks massive, DOUBLE SIZED, MAXI-PODCAST, I am joined by a special guest on his very first podcast appearance as we discuss the iPad, about Apple, Google, Blizzard, Doctor Who, Dollhouse, Torchwood – and the fact that his youngest son may be stalking me via iPhone.

With Episode 9 I am dumping Podbean and everything is going to be hosted here on atfmb.com. If you’ve subscribed to the podcast via iTunes, that link is in the process of being changed and you’ll have to resubscribe – I’ll let you know as soon as that’s ready and available.

In the meantime, click below and stream to your hearts content or you can download via this link by right clicking and choosing ’save as’.

~P

[podcast]http://www.atfmb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/AllThingsFromMyBrain009.mp3[/podcast]

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In the fourth episode of the All Things From My Brain podcast, I talk about the 1st anniversary of the Apple App store, a couple of public radio aggregators for the iPhone and iTouch, Dig Dug for the iPhone and iTouch, Google Earth’s plans to show us the moon, [...]]]> Episode #4: All Things from My Brain

In the fourth episode of the All Things From My Brain podcast, I talk about the 1st anniversary of the Apple App store, a couple of public radio aggregators for the iPhone and iTouch, Dig Dug for the iPhone and iTouch, Google Earth’s plans to show us the moon, Google losing the ‘beta’ tag from many of their projects, whether or not Facebook is still relevant and why I prefer Twitter, Starcraft 2 and the possibility it might not show up on store shelves this year after all, the death of the SciFi Channel and birth of the SyFy lunacy, warehouse 13, Doctor Who – in comics, Ernest Hemingway – KGB Spy, 5 tips for developing your writers voice, 5 tips for editing your writing and a bit about my own writing and how the novel is coming along.

[podcast]http://www.atfmb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/AllThingsFromMyBrain004.mp3[/podcast]

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In the third episode of the All Things From My Brain podcast, I talk about updates on the blog this week, updates on life in general, the trouble with last weeks podcast and Comcast, the launch of a new Flash Fiction piece available on the blog, how ASCAP things [...]]]> Episode #3: All Things from My Brain

In the third episode of the All Things From My Brain podcast, I talk about updates on the blog this week, updates on life in general, the trouble with last weeks podcast and Comcast, the launch of a new Flash Fiction piece available on the blog, how ASCAP things your ringtone is a public performance, Pandora Radio’s music submission policy changes, how MS Vista wants to change your default search engine settings without your knowledge, new iPhone apps that caught my eye, Blizzard’s dropping LAN support on Starcraft II, the SciFi Channel’s horrible decision to become ‘SyFy’, Tek War Chronicles coming to a comic book shop near you, Doctor Who and my own efforts at calling my new novel ‘complete’.

[podcast]http://www.atfmb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/AllThingsFromMyBrain003.mp3[/podcast]

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Let’s paint the picture for you: you’ve been working all day, maybe it was a crappy day.  You come home, [...]]]> I love Blizzard, I really do.  I think they do so much to keep their user base entertained, engaged and coming back for more.  The one area where I feel they fail utterly is: population control.

Let’s paint the picture for you: you’ve been working all day, maybe it was a crappy day.  You come home, do the dinner thing, don’t want to watch tv – so you decide to login to your favorite MMO: World of Warcraft.  You get yourself something to drink and maybe a snack, pull up a chair and enter in your login info.  Connecting, handshaking – all that sutff that flashes by and then you see it – your server is Full.  You’re going to have to wait.  How long?

Well, that depends on something I like to call ‘Big Magic, Much JooJoo…’

It starts off telling you that you’ve only got about ten minutes to wait, but then it starts changing – 30 minutes, five minutes, 40 minutes, 10 minutes, 35 minutes – it keeps pulsing back and forth.  Whatever, you’re in for a wait.  Just yesterday (saturday), I waited an hour to get onto my server only to find myself booted off again within a half hour while questing in Zangarmarsh.  It was very sudden – everything just sort of froze, and then I was kicked off.  I logged back in and was face to face with the freaking queue again, telling me it would be 30 minutes before I got back in, so I closed the program and played some Xbox instead.

Blizzard’s answer to this issue is two fold; on one hand, they offer ‘free transfers’ on ’select realms’ to ‘lower population servers’.  I don’t believe I’ve ever seen my server’s name, Earthen Ring, on any of these free transfer offers.  The second choice is a paid transfer to another server.

Both of these solutions have the same big problem: I don’t want to move my characters to another server.

Your server is a community, one that you’ve become a part of and that has become a part of you.  To leave it would be like moving from your town to another, leaving all your friends and family behind.  Who the hell wants to do that?

I don’t understand the logistics behind it, but I wonder why Bliizzard doesn’t simply increase capacity on high population servers?  I’ve been on Earthen Ring since the beginning, since I bought and installed the game.  I don’t want to leave it, but I’d sure like to be able to login and play.  The queue has been around, off and on, for a very long time.  Usually during ‘high peak’ times, late afternoon/early evening, but I’ve been noticing it later and later in the evenings and almost always on the weekends.  It’s getting ridiculous.

Is there some great wall that prevents Blizzard from increasing capacity on any given realm?  It can’t be a money issue – with 11.5 million subscribers at $15 a month – I think they have enough money.

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Some examples come from the Death Knight starting area and quests.  

The Eye.  The Eye quest lets you take a giant floating eye for a ride down to spy on the Scarlets.  Your [...]]]> I have been playing Wrath for a couple days now, and I have to admit – Blizzard has done some pretty nifty things.

Some examples come from the Death Knight starting area and quests.  

The Eye.  The Eye quest lets you take a giant floating eye for a ride down to spy on the Scarlets.  Your whole UI changes – it is really, really cool.

The next surprise for me was when you get to steal a horse.  Again, the UI changes – it surprised me and was a lot of fun.

Next, the cannons on the ship.  You get a quest to sneak behind enemy lines, board a ship and turn their own cannons against the Scarlets.  OMFG – the fun!  It reminded me of the first time I did the bombing quests in Outland.  SO FUN!

But none of that prepared me for the best surprise.  Normally, starting areas remain just that – starting areas.  You do your quests and move on, other people come on and do the same quests – the area remains the same.  Not so for Death Knights.  I completed the first quests and found that, for me, the starting area had changed!  Now, the Death Knights hold it – so I see a battered area, full of Ghouls and Plaguehounds.  Holy crap, it’s COOL!

This way of creating a logical progression – how the quests are about conquering the land and then you actually see it conquered instead of having to pretend – that is just simply amazing.

Well done, Blizzard.  Well done.

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My trip to Blizzcon rekindled my interest in the World of Warcraft, among other games.  I’ve been doing a good job of balancing my time playing video games with doing other, non sitting around on my ass stuff.  Not [...]]]> Well, to quote Michael Corleone: Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.

My trip to Blizzcon rekindled my interest in the World of Warcraft, among other games.  I’ve been doing a good job of balancing my time playing video games with doing other, non sitting around on my ass stuff.  Not enough, of course, but at least I’m trying.  Still, I find myself logging in more than I have in a very long time.

Still not playing much Horde, though.  I want to, I’m nearly there – seriously, I am.  Lots of drama happened there, lots of stupid people being petty and blaming everyone else for all sorts of crap.  Bleh.  It’s no wonder I stay away.  There are some truly fantastic people over there, though, and I am closer to going back and getting into the groove of things again than I was, say, a month ago.

In the meantime, I’ve been working on my Alliance side Paladin – arguably my first main character.  Pretty well developed RP-wise and when I played him every night, I had it down really well and as long as I had mana, I survived.  Playing him again after so long has been a challenge, but I’m getting the hang of it again.  I’m looking forward to the Lich King expansion, everything I saw at Blizzcon really looked interesting and the latest patch with all the new stuff has been a lot of fun.

Logging into him for the first time in a long time, I had to redo all his talents, spells, etc.  I also had to deal with the fact that he had no money – I’d sent it all to Morticai Horde side long ago.  So I set to work on getting him some money, working the Auction House (and doing a damned fine job of it), upgrading his armor and finally breaking level 60 after three years.

The funny came when I was going through my bank and found my tuxedo pants.  This reminded me of those early days, playing in a tight group and doing really well.  RP-wise, my Pally was engaged – hence the tuxedo pants.  When the call came to head to an instance, he was wearing said pants and I totally forgot to change them out for his plate.  So, I tanked Uldaman in tuxedo pants.  And I didn’t die.

If you know anything about the game, this should be amusing to you

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I have an alarm on my iPhone that’s set for daily – I forgot that doesn’t include Saturday – it’s just Monday through Friday, so it never actually went off this day.

D’oh.

I had people calling me early though, so I was able to [...]]]> Day four started just about the same as Day Three – I overslept.

I have an alarm on my iPhone that’s set for daily – I forgot that doesn’t include Saturday – it’s just Monday through Friday, so it never actually went off this day.

D’oh.

I had people calling me early though, so I was able to get up and get going, just not quickly.

I wanted food – people were busy doing stuff, so I went by myself.  Also, I had a mission.  It was at the end of this:

I’m talking about Downtown Disney.  See, Disney now has not only Disneyland and the California Adventure theme parks, they also have their own little downtown area complete with shops and restaurants.  I needed to hit the Disney store in that area to pick up something for my mom.  I’d asked her if there was anything I could bring her from Disney and she originally said ‘no’.  Then, -after- I’d visited the park and was well into the convention, she called and said she wouldn’t mind some ear rings if it wasn’t too much trouble.

Sigh.

So, being a good son, I walked to the Disney store and got her some ear rings.  While there, I also picked up a new hat for myself, which I wore for the rest of the convention.

I forgot to mention it but on the first day of the con, I met the cast of The Guild.  They were awesome people, very kind.  I got a special piece of art that had been done for them, and they each signed it.  Well, the second day, they were having their own panel at the con – I really wanted to see that.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to – there was a line like no other line to get into the room.  So I wandered some more, hooked up with Hukari and hit some of the other panels.  Eventually, we met up with the rest of The Monkeys and did a little gaming while the concert was going on.

It was the first time I’d ever played Diablo and I have to admit, I really liked it.  It was Diablo 3, the new game on the horizon in that franchise.  We played through twice – you got fifteen minutes and could be networked with 4 other players – it was really, really fun.

Here’s some photos from the day:

After dinner and a particularly fantastic rant on star wars by Brian (in the photo above, he’s in the back left, no hair), there was more hanging out and partying into the wee hours of the night, then everyone started to trickle out.  I was tired, sore and ready for bed, so I headed back to my hotel room and crashed for the night.

Blizzcon was over.

I was trying to figure out what it was all about, this Blizzcon thing.  I made a joke: “I figured out what Blizzcon is all about.  You spend close to $1,000 to take a trip to stand in line for 5 and 1/2 hours so you can buy a $20 shirt.”  It didn’t go over well.

But that’s not what it’s all about anyway.  I did figure it out.  It’s about people.  Good people, good friends, hanging out and talking about the stuff they all share and enjoy in common with each other.

What this meant for me was that I found myself energized for gaming again.  I was really interested in the panels for the World of Warcraft and the changes they’re making and plans for the future that they discussed.  I really enjoyed playing Diablo 3 and thought about picking up the first two (which I did when I got back – can’t play the first one though, it wants OS 9 and I don’t have that).  To top it off, I was itching to rp in WoW again, something I haven’t been interested in for about a year now.

The Drunken Monkey Brewery is filled with fantastic people.  All guilds should take a page out of their book.  When it comes to people getting along and surving for the long haul, they know what they’re doing.

The next day, I got up and flew back to Denver.

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Wow.  What an event – it was Huge.  And so many people!

I started my day later than I planned due to the night before.  I was to meet Hukari as I had his pass and he couldn’t get in without me.  Only, I couldn’t find him.

Candice found me almost immediately, and together we sought out [...]]]> Blizzcon.

Wow.  What an event – it was Huge.  And so many people!

I started my day later than I planned due to the night before.  I was to meet Hukari as I had his pass and he couldn’t get in without me.  Only, I couldn’t find him.

Candice found me almost immediately, and together we sought out Hukari and gave him his pass.  Here’s a shot of the elusive Hukari:

Once inside, I was blown away by the sheer size of the place – they had two major halls setup with areas for gaming, vendors, food, stores, art, more games, statues, a giant ice throne – you name it, they had it.

I went to a couple of panels with Hukari while Candice and Brent were inline for the store with some other people.  I didn’t understand why they were inline, but later found out that there was some fear that the Blizzcon store might sell out of certain things, which has apparently happened in the past (and did happen, I found out the next day as people tried to get stuff that was gone).  After I’d wandered around by myself for a bit, and got some lunch, I jumped into that line as I had my eyes on several things that I wanted to pick up.

I ended up being in that line for 5 and 1/2 hours! O.o!

Boy, I was wishing they had the Disney Fast Pass >.>

After that, well, more accurately -during- that, they started the contests up on the main stage area.  I watched from my spot in line as the one liners, movie and music contests went down.  Then they had the costume contest, which was just amazing.  Here’s a link to the photo galleries on blizzcon.com.  I got out of line and met up with The Monkey’s again, which was heaven because it meant I could sit down again.  We watched the rest of the show, including the dance contest, which Andy took part in – female Gnome dance ftw!

Here are some photos from the day – it was dark, and my camera wasn’t doing so well, but I tried:

In the sixth photo above, you can see a blurry banner – it reads, “Retro Arcade”.  Oh.  My.  God.  Blizzard went online and purchased a bunch of old game systems and had classic games running.  Like: The Lost Vikings!!!  I remember that game!  It was so much fun!  I picked up the controller and it was like I was a kid again.  Something similar to this comic from Penny Arcade.

Blizzcon Day One was long and followed with dinner at Dennys and more party fun, then back to the hotel room for foot soakings and sleep.

Tomorrow: Blizzcon Day Two

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Day one was all about traveling.

Woke up not so early – it was nice to sleep in.  I like [...]]]> Okay, now that I’ve settled in, I want to talk about my vacation.  It’s going to be in multiple parts as I think this is the only way to do it without an endless rant of paragraphs.

Day one was all about traveling.

Woke up not so early – it was nice to sleep in.  I like sleeping in.  Sleeping in is good.  Showered, shaved – all that bit, then finished up packing up my bag and headed off to get a little something to eat and then to the airport.  I was leaving my car in long term parking as there was no one to take me or pick me up when I got back – timing was just bad on that.

Oh well.

I’d already checked in the day before, so I didn’t have to worry about that – did want to check my bag though.  I admit, for a couple of years I was the power traveler.  I never checked my bags – everything was a carry on.  But with all the new security stuff, it just isn’t worth the hassle anymore, so I checked my suitcase and carried on my backpack.  Went smooth as silk and I was soon kicked back in the boarding area with good book and some tunes on my iPhone (those shoes ended up being my bane).

I flew Southwest.  You just can’t beat them for price and convenience – I mean, they fly everywhere (or so it seems) for $100 or less.  Luckily for me, I was in the first boarding group – this is ultra convenient as they are a ‘first come, first serve’ airline when it comes to seating.

Little did I know that the flight wasn’t full, so it really didn’t matter.  I ended up having the whole row to myself, which was comfy.

I snapped a few shots once they said I could:

I thought they were cool. 

Once I got to LAX, I went round and round the airport in the Super Shuttle while the driver tried to pick up more people – I have a post about that, so I won’t repeat myself here.

Here’s a picture though:

I -think- that’s the old terminal thingie and they’re restoring/renovating it or some such.  We passed it several times.

Got to the hotel around 5:45 and had fun with the trick door.  I couldn’t get it to work.  I had to go get someone to open it for me.  There was a trick to it.  I eventually learned the trick, but it was still a pain in the butt.

Once settled and, as I knew none of my friends would be arriving til much later, I ordered myself a pizza and a six-pack of Mt Dew (which covered me in the caffeine area for the rest of the week) and chilled out.  I tried to blog from my room, but the internet was unreliable at best, and my iPhone coverage was extremely disappointing (I had to stand in one spot, near the refrigerator, to get a signal – not even the balcony by the front door got service -.-).

Around 11, I heard from some friends and made plans for breakfast.  It was an hour later for me, so I made sure my alarm was set and went to sleep.

Day Two tomorrow.

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