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Play and Work
Jan. 18th, 2018 01:54 amI caved a week or two back and bought the Kingdom Hearts Final Mix pack. Save for 358/2 and possibly Recoded, it has all KH games made, and gussied up. I beat KH1 fairly quickly, tried Chain of Memories for maybe a half hour, watched through the entirety of 358/2 (they show all the text and cut-scenes, so you get the gist of the whole story), and just finished KH2. KH2 is such a fun game, every time I play it. Final Mix is interesting, as they add a bit of content, as well as tweak quite a bit. Some changes I like, some I don't, but overall it's quite fun. It has more collectables throughout, that's for sure. It adds a whole new drive form, and a few other neat changes. How can you get mad at a +30 AP ring? One thing it does is add an extra, more difficult area for late game playthrough, leading up to a room where you can refight every single one of Organization XIII (including the ones killed in previous games, but you can fight their shadow/memory or some such), but with their difficulty cranked up to 11. Even at max level 99 and with the best weapon and pretty much everything maxed, I still only was able to beat maybe three of them. And those I managed because I watched a youtube video for an hour explaining how to survive each one. I do find it frustrating when I max level, because there's rarely anywhere else to go, and it's not like you can go level and come back to fight on a better standing. Still, it's one of the few RPGs I've even bothered to try and 100% (though not quite as hard for this Final Mix version).
At least those data bosses have been good at making me better at the fighting. I still spam attack a lot, but there's actually more nuance to the game that I really didn't notice in previous plays. Like how useful block can be. Final Mix helped it be more useful somehow though, I think. I dunno. But anyway, I think I'm finished with it. Now to figure out what game to go on to next. I'm slightly full of KH, so I don't know if I'll immediately play Birth by Sleep or not, though the little I played of it before seemed fun enough. I played a few rounds of Titanfall 2 last night, which I haven't done in a few weeks, and was a pleasant, in-between aperitif, but one can only play so much multiplayer at a time, and I already played it a ton over Christmas. I'd contemplate coming back to play something on my laptop via Steam, but my fan on this thing has been ailing for a while now, and I really daren't put much stress on it, what with it only coming on intermittently. The fan/tablet thing I got to have it rest on and keep cool helps some, but not quite enough. I should probably get some canned air again, but it's only a stopgap for a fan that seems to be slightly askew internally, and will sometimes only work if I hold the laptop vertically, which is rather difficult to use thusly...
Anyway, I'm thinking maybe I'll buy Disgaea 5 after payday, though we'll see. If I can get anything decent from taxes this year, I might consider buying a Switch. My coworker has one and it is freaking awesome, particularly where you can pick it up and play like a gameboy, or plug it into the tv. Plus, Breath of the Wild has been a siren calling out to me for many moons.
On the work front, this week thus far has been really fun. Mostly because it hasn't been work as much as it has been learning. I just come alive when I have something new and interesting to explore, and boy does this new system have much to explore. Basically, our company bought this new, arguably more powerful and better software system/package, but didn't bother to actually train anyone on how it works. Each of our centers has slowly started rolling it out, but there's been a mixed bag of people not liking change, and not knowing how to use the damn thing. Part of the former is due to the latter, naturally. But my boss, who has many years experience, wanted us to be the center that shows not only the power of this new system, but that we are absolutely the best. So rather than just throw people on it and say, good luck, figure it out, he's gotten a few specific supervisors to take this week to take the time to learn the system inside and out, tinker, take it apart, break it, and pick the brains of those who have used it of every little scrap they have figured out.
I love learning new things, especially computer things. The hours have just flown by the past two days as I've spent searching through various help/knowledge bases for tidbits, reverse-engineering things other centers do to figure out how they did something, and just generally soaking up the input. INPUT!, as Number 5 would say. I know things will get back to normal humdrum soon enough, but dang, I haven't so much fun at work in a very long time. Even the frustrating bits are fun to investigate. I'm sadly not great at taking notes though. I tend to learn in order to internalize, and I can usually teach people fairly well, but just don't like technical type writing. I find it ironic, seeing how much I love language and words, and how much I enjoy finding an apt phrase or word, that I so thoroughly don't like writing so much of it. Give me a journal, or something creative to write about and I can talk/write your ear off, but I oddly don't like taking notes or writing reports/debriefs. Partly it's the repetition and banality of some of it, or how stupid it is after I've just written down the pertinent numbers to have to write a bunch of lines explaining that the bad numbers are, in fact, bad.
I walk a very odd line between creativity/whimsy and efficiency. For all my mathiness, I tend to more go with the flow and feel things out rather than plan. I used to have to plan everything, so I don't always know what to make of it. Honestly, part of it is that I often don't care enough to put more of my precious mental/physical energy toward doing more. But learning, now that's something else! I love figuring things out, finally getting something to work as it is supposed to. Programming was absolutely perfect for me in that regard. Hours spent pulling out your hair, asking why the hell it won't compile or work correctly, but it all pays off when that last bit clicks into place! Let's try this. Nope, maybe this? No, that's close, but not enough. Now it's completely wrong. Oh wait, I spelled that wrong, or forgot that semicolon! YES! Trying to learn this new system has given me a lot of that YES feeling. I get it, and I'm quick to get it, and I love it. Granted, as with many things, it definitely has its parts that leave you asking what the hell the creators were thinking when they made an option just so, or didn't put something simple our old system has in. I am having fun though, so yay. Makes me realize how little fun my job has been up until now, though.
I was seriously thinking of finding other work the past month or so, though the thought has definitely been pushed back by this week. But most likely this is just a temporary reprieve. I need a job that I care about, that feels like I'm actually doing something important, even if it's somehow stupid. The cry of the modern man, yeah? Give me something that matters. I've never once wanted to be a woodworker or handyman like my dad, but I absolutely see the satisfaction that comes from having tangible results for your efforts. I've enjoyed my work to some degree, but as with many things in the corporate world today, it's rather meaningless. Poorly written, heavy-handed, and overly obtuse surveys and push-polls do not ever strike me as important work; the opposite, in fact. I'm adding to the problem. Even some of the customer satisfaction stuff is like: are we slightly awesome, or really awesome? And so much of this business is immediate results and what have you done for me today. It doesn't matter that we have done well on this half dozen jobs, it's just this one thing that went wrong that we care about. Regardless of whether we were warned by you at the beginning... Bah. Anyway, yeah.
At least those data bosses have been good at making me better at the fighting. I still spam attack a lot, but there's actually more nuance to the game that I really didn't notice in previous plays. Like how useful block can be. Final Mix helped it be more useful somehow though, I think. I dunno. But anyway, I think I'm finished with it. Now to figure out what game to go on to next. I'm slightly full of KH, so I don't know if I'll immediately play Birth by Sleep or not, though the little I played of it before seemed fun enough. I played a few rounds of Titanfall 2 last night, which I haven't done in a few weeks, and was a pleasant, in-between aperitif, but one can only play so much multiplayer at a time, and I already played it a ton over Christmas. I'd contemplate coming back to play something on my laptop via Steam, but my fan on this thing has been ailing for a while now, and I really daren't put much stress on it, what with it only coming on intermittently. The fan/tablet thing I got to have it rest on and keep cool helps some, but not quite enough. I should probably get some canned air again, but it's only a stopgap for a fan that seems to be slightly askew internally, and will sometimes only work if I hold the laptop vertically, which is rather difficult to use thusly...
Anyway, I'm thinking maybe I'll buy Disgaea 5 after payday, though we'll see. If I can get anything decent from taxes this year, I might consider buying a Switch. My coworker has one and it is freaking awesome, particularly where you can pick it up and play like a gameboy, or plug it into the tv. Plus, Breath of the Wild has been a siren calling out to me for many moons.
On the work front, this week thus far has been really fun. Mostly because it hasn't been work as much as it has been learning. I just come alive when I have something new and interesting to explore, and boy does this new system have much to explore. Basically, our company bought this new, arguably more powerful and better software system/package, but didn't bother to actually train anyone on how it works. Each of our centers has slowly started rolling it out, but there's been a mixed bag of people not liking change, and not knowing how to use the damn thing. Part of the former is due to the latter, naturally. But my boss, who has many years experience, wanted us to be the center that shows not only the power of this new system, but that we are absolutely the best. So rather than just throw people on it and say, good luck, figure it out, he's gotten a few specific supervisors to take this week to take the time to learn the system inside and out, tinker, take it apart, break it, and pick the brains of those who have used it of every little scrap they have figured out.
I love learning new things, especially computer things. The hours have just flown by the past two days as I've spent searching through various help/knowledge bases for tidbits, reverse-engineering things other centers do to figure out how they did something, and just generally soaking up the input. INPUT!, as Number 5 would say. I know things will get back to normal humdrum soon enough, but dang, I haven't so much fun at work in a very long time. Even the frustrating bits are fun to investigate. I'm sadly not great at taking notes though. I tend to learn in order to internalize, and I can usually teach people fairly well, but just don't like technical type writing. I find it ironic, seeing how much I love language and words, and how much I enjoy finding an apt phrase or word, that I so thoroughly don't like writing so much of it. Give me a journal, or something creative to write about and I can talk/write your ear off, but I oddly don't like taking notes or writing reports/debriefs. Partly it's the repetition and banality of some of it, or how stupid it is after I've just written down the pertinent numbers to have to write a bunch of lines explaining that the bad numbers are, in fact, bad.
I walk a very odd line between creativity/whimsy and efficiency. For all my mathiness, I tend to more go with the flow and feel things out rather than plan. I used to have to plan everything, so I don't always know what to make of it. Honestly, part of it is that I often don't care enough to put more of my precious mental/physical energy toward doing more. But learning, now that's something else! I love figuring things out, finally getting something to work as it is supposed to. Programming was absolutely perfect for me in that regard. Hours spent pulling out your hair, asking why the hell it won't compile or work correctly, but it all pays off when that last bit clicks into place! Let's try this. Nope, maybe this? No, that's close, but not enough. Now it's completely wrong. Oh wait, I spelled that wrong, or forgot that semicolon! YES! Trying to learn this new system has given me a lot of that YES feeling. I get it, and I'm quick to get it, and I love it. Granted, as with many things, it definitely has its parts that leave you asking what the hell the creators were thinking when they made an option just so, or didn't put something simple our old system has in. I am having fun though, so yay. Makes me realize how little fun my job has been up until now, though.
I was seriously thinking of finding other work the past month or so, though the thought has definitely been pushed back by this week. But most likely this is just a temporary reprieve. I need a job that I care about, that feels like I'm actually doing something important, even if it's somehow stupid. The cry of the modern man, yeah? Give me something that matters. I've never once wanted to be a woodworker or handyman like my dad, but I absolutely see the satisfaction that comes from having tangible results for your efforts. I've enjoyed my work to some degree, but as with many things in the corporate world today, it's rather meaningless. Poorly written, heavy-handed, and overly obtuse surveys and push-polls do not ever strike me as important work; the opposite, in fact. I'm adding to the problem. Even some of the customer satisfaction stuff is like: are we slightly awesome, or really awesome? And so much of this business is immediate results and what have you done for me today. It doesn't matter that we have done well on this half dozen jobs, it's just this one thing that went wrong that we care about. Regardless of whether we were warned by you at the beginning... Bah. Anyway, yeah.
