marsden_online (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
marsden_online) wrote2009-04-10 11:38 am
marsden_online) wrote2009-04-10 11:38 am
Variegated post
Apropos of everything, instead of making 3+ separate posts
It's Easter Friday, and I invoiced yesterday. Thus, today's plan is to do nothing work-orientated unless I run out of other things to catch up on. This may fail, because there are actually two projects I want to get started on or even finished over the long weekend. Today, however, is forcibly designated for other stuff.
I have already caught up on a backlog of RSS, wasted some time playing with a 3D-desktop application (http://www.bumptop.com/) which while much of the pretty may be more useful for those strange people who keep everything on their Windows desktop. (I'm something of a minimalist. I like everything organised in folders which aren't stored on the Windows partition, with strategic shortcuts in folders on the desktop (accessed from the taskbar). The desktop itself holds miscellaneous files for only as long as it takes me to no longer need them or file them).
The task list includes vacumning and gardening and gaming paperwork.
~~~
The results of yesterday's vet visit were the best that could be expected.
- the rear lump is not associated with the bone, and while it's impossible to be 100% certain seems to be a benign tumour at this stage. There's no sign of it spreading and the xrays of his spine also showed up that his chest and lungs are perfectly clear.
- another sample was taken of the front lump.
- his walking problems are caused by discal spondylitis - inflammation of a disc at the base of the spine - which is quite common in older cats. There's not much we can do about it as anti-inflammatories would place further strain on his kidneys.
- and it cost less than expected.
So much relief.
~~~
Last nights session continued the theme of going well, if not exactly as I'd planned. I was impressed that the PCs managed to get all four runes through negotiation without having to fight any of the guardian elementals. I retrospect I should have placed better clues about proving their identity and written a few more notes on the elementals' motivations and perhaps not worried so much about the physical descriptions of the altars.
At the artifact itself I should also have triggered the 'guardian' as soon as anyone got within 5' because the PCs were (understandably) paranoid about touching it. Fortunately I had an NPC handy that no-one was paying much attention to, so he got to quietly buff and then grab it.The dynamic of the resulting 3-way fight was quite interesting, with the invisible NPC trying to stay away from the dragon and both the PCs and the dragon splitting their attention.
Got to dish out some massive breath weapon damage, the PCs got to kill their first dragon, and at the very end of the session a last-ditch effort got the NPC. I didn't get to play with some of his most potent spells but never mind.
~~~
I'm watching the shake up the SOEs are getting with a little bit of trepidation. This soundbite
I feel SOEs should return their 'dividend' first in reinvestment, research and customer care rather than directly in cash to the government.
It's Easter Friday, and I invoiced yesterday. Thus, today's plan is to do nothing work-orientated unless I run out of other things to catch up on. This may fail, because there are actually two projects I want to get started on or even finished over the long weekend. Today, however, is forcibly designated for other stuff.
I have already caught up on a backlog of RSS, wasted some time playing with a 3D-desktop application (http://www.bumptop.com/) which while much of the pretty may be more useful for those strange people who keep everything on their Windows desktop. (I'm something of a minimalist. I like everything organised in folders which aren't stored on the Windows partition, with strategic shortcuts in folders on the desktop (accessed from the taskbar). The desktop itself holds miscellaneous files for only as long as it takes me to no longer need them or file them).
The task list includes vacumning and gardening and gaming paperwork.
~~~
The results of yesterday's vet visit were the best that could be expected.
- the rear lump is not associated with the bone, and while it's impossible to be 100% certain seems to be a benign tumour at this stage. There's no sign of it spreading and the xrays of his spine also showed up that his chest and lungs are perfectly clear.
- another sample was taken of the front lump.
- his walking problems are caused by discal spondylitis - inflammation of a disc at the base of the spine - which is quite common in older cats. There's not much we can do about it as anti-inflammatories would place further strain on his kidneys.
- and it cost less than expected.
So much relief.
~~~
Last nights session continued the theme of going well, if not exactly as I'd planned. I was impressed that the PCs managed to get all four runes through negotiation without having to fight any of the guardian elementals. I retrospect I should have placed better clues about proving their identity and written a few more notes on the elementals' motivations and perhaps not worried so much about the physical descriptions of the altars.
At the artifact itself I should also have triggered the 'guardian' as soon as anyone got within 5' because the PCs were (understandably) paranoid about touching it. Fortunately I had an NPC handy that no-one was paying much attention to, so he got to quietly buff and then grab it.The dynamic of the resulting 3-way fight was quite interesting, with the invisible NPC trying to stay away from the dragon and both the PCs and the dragon splitting their attention.
Got to dish out some massive breath weapon damage, the PCs got to kill their first dragon, and at the very end of the session a last-ditch effort got the NPC. I didn't get to play with some of his most potent spells but never mind.
~~~
I'm watching the shake up the SOEs are getting with a little bit of trepidation. This soundbite
"A return on equity across the SOE portfolio of 1.5 per cent is not good enough."from today's Herald article makes me think that there might be room for improvement, however I'm not familiar with what is in the portfolio so that average return doesn't mean squat. The meme would have it that dividends from several have dropped because of both the economic climate and more importantly recent refocusing on investment in their respective infrastructures which has been neglected in favour of dividends for years. I would not like to see that swing back.
I feel SOEs should return their 'dividend' first in reinvestment, research and customer care rather than directly in cash to the government.
no subject