Information Technology Specialist

So… Apparently that's what I am now :-)… I do wonder if I'll actually get my "Notification of Appointment" updated or if it will just be my next one… Wonder if I'll be transitioned from AP to "Civil Service", and how if at all this changes my situation… We're still seeing what our wonderful Governor has in store for us WRT our health care… Apparently, the State House and Senate have passed a bill rolling his changes back, but of course it all waits on him. The bill passed with "veto proof" majorities, and it does make one wonder who actually gains from the Governor's changes… So, the State will go to court to defend the Governor's changes, with everyone knowing full well they will likely lose the case and in any case it will all get rolled back by the legislature… A colossal waste of time and money with no clear winner really… I suppose the Republicans, assuming they can find someone to run against Quinn that doesn't shoot themselves in the foot since the last election was close and this should piss off a LOT of Dems down here…

 

Bike? Going quite well now… Turns out that the bike parking is NOT prorated, and it would be paying for a full year if I start now… But the 16^th of June is when next years go on sale and I can start then… So it looks like a few more weeks of riding to gain more familiarity and get used to the machine before I ride to work. It seems to be evening out and I think the gumout is clearing up the engine a bit… The gearing is a bit different than I would have assumed, and the top gear (5^th) started out at ~4000 RPM at ~40 MPH… Now it is hitting 45-50 MPH at 4000 RPM and getting better daily… Maybe it's just me getting more used to it, but I think it is clearing up nicely… So, just a bit longer I think… Still, it is a lot of fun taking it out and zipping about every night at least… Looking at MP3 players for the bike, and a lot of them come with remotes… Where in the fuck are you sitting on the bike that you'd need a remote to control the stereo on the vehicle? But then I'm just an Engineer, what would I know of these things…

 

Gaming… Looking like I'll be playing my Fleshtearers next… I'll be getting my Scout squad painted up since that was one of the things I never actually had back in 3^rd edition… Liking all the "Troops" selections that they have available, and I'll definitely be fielding my traditional Death Company, my new DC Dread I've converted and a few Assault squads… My random Rhino hulls all being fast, etc… Pretty sure the "linebacker" that is the Grey Knight trump would be an Assault Terminator squad… And I'll probably bring a Land Raider (Redeemer or Crusader) and maybe Gabriel Seth for the "Let's go forth and kill something" unit… Something "fun" at least…

May Ends…

So, May is coming to an end… New job, new bike, maybe I'll get to ride it to work soon… The 40K league ended, I have a few weeks to figure out what I'm playing next… Got a bit of painting done tonight, but it was just a few parts of random pieces like a Techmarine and Tech Priest Engineers… I might be able to throw together a weird IG list to field, but I definitely want the army to fit into the cargo rack/luggage of the bike, so that is a bit of a limit… Deathwing seems an obvious one since no matter what I have a very small force, but there are certain armies I simply cannot deal with… And it does get a bit boring playing the same thing all the time, so I guess I'll see where my painting takes me… Sad, but recently I have been painting some of my Rackham "Wolfen" figures… Ancient figures from a dead game, but still among my favorite armies I played. Sadly, the first one I could actually say was "fully painted" since I left the GT "circuit" back in 3^rd edition 40K… My Fleshtearers were really only "technically" painted to the 3 color minimum to get me into the tournament, so pretty basic stuff, nothing at all to get excited about. I'm getting better with some of the fur and shadow effects on the Wolfen, and since I used them as stand-in "Wolf Cavalry" when I tested that unit to conclude that they were every bit as broken and silly as they appeared to be on paper…

 

All in all, 40K is getting back to a somewhat frustrating point for me, and I think that a few weeks off will be a good thing for me. Not frustrating WRT the partners, they were great, the opponents by and large are fun to play against… There are a few minor exceptions, and my game does tend to get a LOT "sharper" against them to the point of simply destroying their armies with no regard for how fun the game is for either side. That does make it a less fun experience for me, but this is not the major factor I think… Really, I think the game itself is getting a bit stagnant for me. There are a small number of really good builds for most armies, and there are a small number of really powerful armies, or at least builds within those armies. IG might be a small exception to this as their book offers SO MANY cheap and powerful things that you can tweak some of the really powerful stuff a bit and still have a very much overpowered army hitting the table… Vets with BS 4, cheap melta and transports that can allow your whole squad (or at least the important ones) to move and shoot from inside the AV 12 box which itself has 2 decent heavy weapons? And the best skimmers in the game, probably… But even taking into consideration the really powerful builds like: IG Mech, DE Mech (Mike's stuff is REALLY powerful, to the point of I'm happy to just get a draw with my stuff… Usually he and I fight to a very bloody and close one, but his current list is really a good one) there is a very real limit on what gets played… Degenerating to almost a rock-paper-scissors sort of feel for me, making it fairly pointless to play and difficult to get excited about the prospect of a game… Maybe I'll break down and get some Malifaux stuff, but I am leery there… I don't want yet another dead game's miniatures haunting my basement shelves since I already have more than a few armies there… Chronopia, Confrontation, WFB, Battletech/Mechwarrior, the list goes on and on…

 

On the work silliness front, the State decided to drop our HMO… Should be fun, since it came out that the bidding was done without considering costs either to the State or to the people… Hint, both go up with the "winning bid", but somehow that was not considered in the bid process… Yes, makes my head hurt, usually corruption is not quite so obvious and public… And the winning bid won without those other legal requirements like actual coverage for all of the areas. So, as of now, we go from Health Alliance for the HMO to… Well, looks like we get our choice of crappy expensive coverage or… Well, that about sums it up at this point. Raises are at least a slight possibility, and with my move over to an actual IT department far more likely in the long term… But still, the work environment is getting worse all the time it seems, and I am not sure things are going to get better for a long time… On the plus side, I have a job, got promoted and things could be so much worse… :-) Remembering jobs where I lived in say, a desert, got shot at and stung by scorpions… But still it does seem like we as a University are sliding backwards a bit from year to year…

 

Motorcycle? Well, I fixed the tire, and have gotten one short ride in before the weather went to crap… That and RT 45 is pretty well torn up North of Tolono, and the "rough" pavement is really not fun to ride the bike on… Maybe I'm simply out of practice, but I'd prefer to avoid that if I can, thanks… So, some alternate routes will be researched and tested when I get back to being able to ride the Silverwing again…

Getting earlier all the time...

:-)  Came in for the 8:30 interview this morning, followed by a second one (different person)...  Weird, being on this side of the table, I've never seriously interviewed anyone for a job...  Usually, it was just a friend of a friend thing, or we needed "grunt labor" so literally anybody willing would do just fine...  But this is far different, and of course I cannot actually say much of anything until it's over, but it has been an excellent learning experience for me and I expect to be able to use these little tips for my next job searches (if any)...  Looks like I am scheduled for early mornings all week, might be able to escape for lunch with my wife Friday if things work out...

On the bike front, I tried refilling the tire yesterday, and the stem broke off...  So, confirms my suspicion that it was in fact the stem that was the source of the slow leak...  And the dry rotting made it weak enough to simply come off...  Looks like I'll be replacing that myself if I can...  Hopefully, since removing the rear tire is looking like a MAJOR pain...  But if it works, I should be good for quite a while...  And it will be another thing I've fixed (after breaking it admittedly) myself...  Still not seeing the whole Zen thing, but being able to fix the bike is nice...  Not nearly so nice as riding the bloody thing, but still...

Gaming, looking like 2 games for the Deathwing/Wolves tonight...  Maybe we'll even win one this time :-)  I'll have to stay on target, my partner did well last time, thinking he'll be fine again...

Wow, this is early...

:-)  Not used to the 8:30 meetings...  Small group today as well, this Friday seems especially deserted here on Campus...  And next week I have at least 3 more early meetings next week...  All important stuff, but guessing I'll be stocking up on energy drinks next week...

Motorcycle is running well, need to get the back tire fixed as the leak seems to be getting a bit worse...  Whatever, I have the little 12v air compressor and the bike itself actually has a "lighter" style 12v connection...  I'll have to clean it up a bit more, but she's looking pretty good... And it really feels good to get back on the road, probably getting back to highway travel by next week...

Gaming, we'll have the tournament again Monday, and my Deathwing will have to play it a bit more cautiously e games this week, the Wolves are more suited to the aggressive "assault" element.  2/3 of the games are objective games, so my lads sitting on objectives are really hard to remove...  We'll see how it works out...

Bike working again!

Pulled the plug and cleaned them like Pat, Dave and Kevin all mentioned as a "good idea"… She fired right up and I got to take the bike out for a brief ride around the neighborhood a bit… Only killed it a few times :-)… It's really been a long time since I've ridden a bike outside of a parking lot, but it felt great… Rear tire has a bit of a leak and I'll want to put a radio/MP3 player on the bike… Speakers are there, and I'm guessing that even the 10 miles or so to campus will be a bit more interesting with music and the like… I'll have to figure out the whole Campus parking thing, but looking forward to riding directly to my office this summer…

:-) Tired...

Yeah, not a lot to post at the moment...  Or rather not a lot of energy to post at the moment.  New job has me running around a LOT...   Lifted tonight, worked a bit on the bike and some ancient rifles (1916 Lee-Enfield, my first rifle in my collection...)....  But overall, just exhausted I think...

 Did get in the first game of our tournament last evening against a Grey Knight/Wolf team with our Deathwing/Wolf Terminator force...  Went 7 turns and we drew...  I think I screwed up forgetting just HOW much firepower GK termis throw downrange...  Should have cost us the game, but we ended up doing OK...  The Paladins were impressive and I will definitely be fielding a unit of them I think...  The Deathwing held out a LOT longer than expected on the one objective, and I think it illustrates just how much trouble GK termis will end up having against the TH/SS Terminator squads out there.  One area the vanilla Marines come out WAY ahead in the codex I think.  And our Rune Priest was able to block a LOT of the GK powers over the course of the game...  Points out the glaring weakness some forces that lack a psychic defense of any kind will have to overcome...  I think it hurts my Deathwing more than most, though clearly not nearly so much as Chaos/IG/BT armies that have NO defense option really...

:-)  Yeah, kind of brain dead here...  More later...

New job…

Well, I've finally moved into the new job I was trying to get over the last few years… It was kind of rushed at the end after a LONG drawn out procedure of silliness to get there. I've been promoted to a "zone manager", and I have people working for me again. Of course, no raise, so it's another "Lateral promotion" like when I made Corporal back when I played Army. More stuff to do than I've had to do in recent years, and I've spent a LOT of this week running around between buildings… More tired now than I've been in a while too. Kind of odd, I wasn't really counting on the manager title, I really just wanted to move jobs, but this sort of fits my longer term goals… Not sure where I'm going to land, but having left the aircraft, only one way to go now :-) … Looks like I give up the "Tardis" office eventually, but that's ok I guess…

 

Still trying to figure out what will get the bike back to running correctly… Got the title, license and insurance all taken care of, just need to get it started again…, The gumout I dumped in the gas tank apparently broke free a LOT of stuff that clogged up the fuel line apparently… So, valuable lesson there somewhere… Probably the lesson should be "If it is currently working, don't fuck with it"… Really looking forward to getting back on the road with the "new" bike…

 

On the gaming front, the tournament will be run over the next two Mondays, and I still haven't figured out which army I'll be using… Dark Angels with Terminator Overload is the more straightforward and competitive one… Not really a whole lot of thought, really optimized ultra-elite force that wins a LOT of games… The Grey Knights are more of a "fun" choice… I'll throw together some lists and see what looks right…