Photos Online

Big update of my Flickr page today. All shots can be found here.

An Interlude

The Revel

Goodbye, Azeroth

After over a year and a half (yes, I've been playing it since it was first released, and the beta before that), I've cancelled my World of Warcraft account and erased it from my PC. There are several reasons for this, both philosophical and practical. From a practical standpoint, it was just too much of a time sink. It took time away from other, better, things I could be doing (like, you know, actually interacting with friends and family). I shudder to think exactly how much time was spent playing it, for no lasting benefit.

Philosophically, I've started to wonder if the addictive nature of MMOs in general is that you get the thrill of achievement, in constant small doses, for relatively little effort. But it's hollow. When you shut it down after six hours of running Scholomance to get those armor pieces, what good is it to you?

This is not to say that leisure has no place; my weekly Game Night with CJ, Ben, Lindsay, et al, is a long-running institution that I have no wish to discontinue. But we do much more than play games (more like keep each other sane), and nothing beats it for sheer fun. It's a real social outlet, rather than just words on a screen.

Nor does it mean that I'm giving up computer games. But no longer playing WoW is likely to free up an awful lot of time.

I took all of my character's (substantial) in-game cash and mailed it to one of my contacts with the instructions "Do something awesome." That's good enough.

I May Have Been Born Yesterday...

But I spent the night in town.

The later in the week it gets, the weirder this area gets at night. More homeless folk on the corners. One man in particular with long grey hair, and beard, that could be Spanish moss for all I know, talking about something very important.

I don't know what he was talking about; it wasn't really directed toward anyone. But it was important. This idea was in his head and it was so important that it had to get out, right then. Didn't matter that people were wandering by with the obligatory lack of eye contact, faces set and straight ahead, or slightly downward at the engrossing sidewalk. Didn't matter. This idea was important, by damn, and it was going to be said. After all, surely there was someone listening.

It's been a rough day, and tomorrow will be worse. I don't know when I'll be leaving for home; at the very least, my flight will be pushed back to make time for me to visit the customer site in the morning, as I must. Problem's not fixed; must fix it. Worse, I could be staying another day and coming home on Saturday. Worst case, I could visiting the customer site again on Monday. It's the uncertainty that kills you. Will I even be staying in the same hotel? Should I pack and load my bags in the rental card just in case? God...the rental car. How long will I be keeping it?

Bed time now, though. Must sleep. A sandwich from the surprisingly opulent Grand Lux Cafe, and a nice big glass of Oban that was almost as expensive as the sandwich should see me to sleep. Maybe. Rest has largely been denied me on this run.

No Sunset

I drove out to Santa Monica this evening and walked along the beach. It's been unusually overcast lately, and it was too cloudy to see the sun set, which is what I had hoped to see. Still, I wouldn't have wanted to come all the way out here and not see the ocean. The beach is far less rocky here than it is down around Laguna Beach, where I scraped my leg pretty bad a couple of trips ago.

It's quieter at night, of course, though there were still plenty of joggers, bicyclists, skaters, and volleyball players. It's easy to imagine the crowds that must descend during the day, on the weekends. I'm glad I went at night, though; it's easier to think when your attention isn't being pulled in a dozen different directions.

I saw the Hotel California. I don't know what the big deal is, as there were several exits clearly marked.

I amused myself by imagining the beach populated with villages and creatures from World of Warcraft, which was good for a chuckle. It would be better with trolls, mon. Then I imagined the beach devoid of any human presence whatsoever, untouched and unpopulated, and it's a hell of a thought, that beach just extending on forever. And then I thought, "Damn, man. Spend a few days out here and I turn into a hippie."

As I was getting ready to leave the beach, I heard someone playing blues guitar, so I had to turn around. I met Bo J and Lawrence and hung out with them for a bit, listening to Bo play the guitar and sing. The old man could play, too, that's for certain.


So that's my night.

Another peeve

This doesn't bother me quite as much as the previous peeve I mentioned, but it's still irritating. I cringe every time I see a piece of art in a museum, go to look at the card with it, and see the word "Untitled". This is even more annoying when it's a piece of modern art, the theme of which may not be...let's be generous and say that the underlying theme of great weight and depth may not be obvious.

It seems to me that the title of a piece is just as much a part of it as the rest of the medium. It gives me an insight into the artist's mind, which can be useful when I'm trying to make sense of a piece that might be nothing more than Very Straight Pencil Lines. What was the artist thinking? I've certainly got no context in which to interpret the aforementioned Lines. And when I look as the card and see (wince!) "Untitled", I begin to wonder if there is a point, or whether the artist is trying to take the piss out of me with a piece of artwork with no more depth than one I might make by drawing Very Straight Lines. On paper. With a pencil.

Yes, it's a small thing. It's a peeve, remember? But it's a small thing that bugs me when I attempt to contrast it with what I feel when I see art with a cool name that makes me think.

Whose fault? Asphalt.

And yes, that title is the best I could do for this post on short notice.

While a lot of my time has been occupied with work, I have had time to do a little sightseeing. Today, I visited the La Brea Tar Pits. I don't know anyone that's actually seen them (that I know of, at least), so figured I'd check it out.

Yep, there's tar. Or, technically, asphalt. They used to quarry it there, and it just keeps bubbling up. I saw a small patch that was a few years old, as well as a quarter-sized spot that had just appeared. So asphalt and methane bubble up through these fissures, and the entire area smells like road construction; while it is petroleum, apparently it's far too full of contaminants to be refined without great effort.


Can you imagine the intestinal fortitude required by the paleontologists that have excavated this site? The smell was tolerable on a mild day, highs in the 70s, windy. In high summer, though? And actually have to get in there with the asphalt (not at the site shown, mind you, which is now a lake)? Hard core.

The LACMA, next door to the tar pits, is closed on Wednesdays, more's the pity. They have a great Japanese exhibit hall that I hope to check out tomorrow.

Time to go lapse into a food coma. Berri's Pizza Cafe. Mmmm.

On Location: Los Angeles, CA

I'm staying at a hotel that's too expensive (the Orlando), doing too little to justify my presence here. If you've guessed that I'm chasing bugs, you're right. My job in this case is to wait and watch and hope something breaks so I can figure out why.

For some reason, I feel more jet-lagged than usual.

I'm on foot most of the time; one reason this hotel was selected is because of its proximity to the customer site. That's all relative, really, but it still beats driving, and for all that I flinch at how much the valet parking costs, I'd rather not have more parking bills to add to that. Walking isn't a big deal, but I'm toting a heavy-ass laptop bag with me, which only emphasises the fact that I should really visit a chiropractor.

Breakfast and lunch at two restaurants nearby: Who's On Third, and Mika Sushi. The former is an artsy little cafe, which I recommend. The latter is a generic sushi place that was...enh, adequate.

Not much to report yet, though I hope to fix that. With good luck, I should be able to make it up to the observatory at Mt. Wilson.