Thursday, February 6, 2014

Quarian Coding

 Been too long since I've written o.O Although I don't have a crazy amount of stuff going on. Been overly busy with work. There were a couple of weeks/weekends there that I was working 10-12 hours every day. Finally was given my first days off last week (Tues/Wed) and it was wonderful! I hadn't been playing games too much with all of the craziness going on, so it was super awesome to relax for a "weekend", even if it was mid-week.

One benefit of all the work I've been doing, is everything I've been learning. I never really understood some of the core concepts of OOP from the little I've read out of programming books. But now, putting what coding I do know to use, making myself figure it out, and asking Kevin a few questions, I feel like I have unlocked a whole world that never made sense to me before (and I thought it never would.) It's really amazing, and I'm excited to keep learning more! :D

I am a little disappointed because of work currently for a different reason, though (the long hours don't really bother me much.) When I was hired on, I was told I'd be sponsored for a security clearance (as a direct result of the first project I'd be assigned to) and given a raise 6 months post hire. The first project came and went (and is now back again for its next phase), and there was no discussion of my sponsorship. I figured that there was just too much going on, so I gave it until a few weeks ago before I brought it up to my boss. She said she would speak with the project manager regarding it, because as far as she knew I was supposed to be sponsored.

A week went by, no answer. Asked her again, and she told me to talk to the PM myself. I did, and she had no idea I was supposed to be on the list for sponsorship, and that she didn't think it was necessary. She resolved to speak with my boss. Tuesday this week I sat down with my boss and asked her about it. She told me that under the project contract everyone (including the primary developer- me) would be sponsored, and that it was the PM who apparently changed her mind. She said she'd sit down with her boss and the PM to get to the bottom of it.

I also asked her about my potential raise in (now) 3 months. I was concerned, because one month earlier my boss, Daniel, Chris, and I were having a meeting at which the yearly company raises were mentioned. It was mentioned I wouldn't be getting one since I had only been working here just under 2 months (which is totally understandable.) But it was also expressed that my boss doesn't really have control over when employees get raises, let alone how much. I didn't think much of it then, but I sat on it awhile and realized that she probably wouldn't have control of it in May either. She conceded and did say it wasn't really her decision, but that she was glad I brought it up now. It wasn't ultimately her decision, but she would do her best to make it happen in May, and that we can have a more formal discussion then.

The experience I've gotten thus far and will continue to get has definitely been a fantastic career booster for me, so that's absolutely an upside. But it just feels like 2 of the convincing reasons I took this job aren't going to actualize :/

Time to lighten the mood!

Been getting really into FTL, even though it can be rough just on easy o.O Randomness begets frustration! Was gifted a copy of The Ship by Max, but I still haven't given it a shot. (Shout out to him and his new fiancée, by the way!!) I'll get to playing it soon! :) Cook, Serve, Delicious! is still entertaining. Although I feel like the 20 day requirement for progression from a 1-star to a 2-star restaurant is kind of annoying :P Still playing a play-by-mail game of Civ V with Dwyer, and we just hit turn 50 today. Woo!

Kevin came to visit from Philly last Thursday night, and stayed until Tuesday morning. We definitely had a good time going out to different bars and eating a ton of awesome (mostly Asian) food! He was sick for all of Saturday though :/ We picked up a Civ game of our own, that I kept getting screwed in. While he was sick, he logged into his Steam account for me so I could play some Starbound :D It's pretty fun! Similar to Terraria, but still not like Terraria... I need to get it :o

Mike will be here next week!! :D Only for the weekend, but still!

/* Begin WoW talk */

Mike and I have been at "end game" WoW for several weeks now. It's different than it was before, but still not entirely palatable. At first, the "new" tool Looking For Raid was pretty handy. We didn't have to look for guilds or random PUGs to raid with, the game could do that for us. For the raids that have been around since MoP came out, and the first few patch ones, this was great. Everyone else was already fairly well-geared so the fact that we were just starting out wasn't much of a hindrance. But now that we're at the Siege of Orgrimmar level, it's gotten rather tiresome.

I've been on my Warrior, Mike on his Rogue. I go for the tank role whenever possible, but for high-item-level purposes I got a DPS gear/talent set. I figured I wouldn't have good enough gear to tank affectively, so I didn't want to drag the raid down. Instead, apparently my DPS isn't good enough, so I've since been booted by 2 different raids. The first was understandable, I didn't have DPS gear yet, but the most recent was because I was killing adds instead of the boss (General Nazgrim), and wasn't padding my DPS while he was in protection stance.

As a result, I've decided if I'm not tanking, I'm not raiding. I've never been a DPS fan anyway; I was always the healer or the tank. I've always been more interested in the non-raiding aspects of the game, too, but it's not the same without the Banned/No Life community I used to have :(

I'll just keep leveling up different characters with Mike and never raid! XD

Bah, Azeroth problems! XP

/* End WoW talk... phew */

So, if I'm not mistaken, the Ren Faire of Gainesville should be coming up soon (unless my memory is really that bad) and it's made me want to find one here to go to! Sadly, there's only one in Tennessee, and it's just South of Nashville in May. Not so far away, it could be like a little weekend trip! I'm definitely planning on going :D Maybe I'll have my motorcycle by then and I can ride out there...

I want to pick up a programming book and go through it now that I have a better idea of what everything is and how it all works together. Maybe I'll get back into building WoW mods XD Or maybe make an app! I really want to get into the Razer Nabu development (http://www.razerzone.com/nabu). I have a couple of ideas, but I don't know if I really have the coding know-how. We shall see!

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