Quote for 12/04/2010

'Tis not every question that deserves an answer.

Thomas Fuller, M.D.

Quote for 11/21/2010

It is only the ignorant who despise education.

Publilius Syrus

Quote for 11/16/2010

You may not know it, but at the far end of despair, there is a white clearing where one is almost happy.

Jean Anouilh

Class action law suit

Today I got an email informing me that I could be part of a class action law suit against Hewlett Packard because I got a printer from them a couple of years ago. Cool, I thought, till I read through all the legal mumbo jumbo. Under the suit, I would be eligible for $7 in "e-credits" good at the HP website. In order to get that $7, though, I would have to sign an affidavit saying that I got a message telling me that my printer was out of ink, and that I was silly enough to rely on that message and install new ink cartridges without checking to see whether what I was printing was printing right. I just don't feel like a $7 off coupon is enough for me to publicly proclaim that "I am an idiot." After all, then I would be pretty much forfeiting any possibility in the future to sue anyone for slander or libel in the event someone else called me an idiot if I am perfectly willing to call myself the same. Now, I'm just going to wait for the smart people that read this to tell me what an idiot I am.

In all fairness...

I have to say that in the end, Comcast came through for me. I called, and they sent a tech out the same day. He looked at stuff... put new connectors on stuff... and told me some jokes. At least, I think they were jokes. The biggest one was that they were going to have to dig up my yard, lay a new cable, and rewire the house. In the end, he told me that the problem was in the line feed before the box that sends stuff to the house, and that they would be out to work on it "within 24 hours." I didn't believe him, but since then, the disconnects have virtually stopped. So, thank you, Comcast. Now, if you would just explain to me how to get on the "A" list so that my service gets upgraded at no additional cost to me, I'll be more than happy to give you a "5" on the next customer satisfaction survey.

Email

I love email. It makes it really easy to tell people stuff that you don't really want to tell them, and forget to tell them what you really should tell them. So, I got an email from my ISP informing me that my download speed had been increased by 50%! The email had instructions for how to enable this, which I actually read and followed. Afterwards, I really didn't think I was noticing much difference, but as time went on, I was getting disconnected from the internet more and more frequently. To be fair, I had great service up until this time... disconnects were rare. Well, a few days later, I got another email informing me that I wasn't supposed to have gotten that email - my speeds have not been increased. And all the while, my disconnects are becoming even more frequent, until now, when it seems as if I am disconnected once an hour, or perhaps more. Which makes me wonder... where is the email apologizing for all the disconnects, or even explaining them? AND... HOW DO I GET ON THE "A" LIST TO GET MY SERVICE UPGRADED LIKE WHOMEVER IT WAS THAT WAS ACTUALLY SUPPOSED TO GET THAT FIRST EMAIL???

WoW experiment (Fillaz)

I ran out of time on my last post, but, being level 12, I have so far spent 3 talents in the combat tree on dual wield specialization. I noticed he misses an awful lot, so I figured I needed to make the actual hits really count, and this talent increases his damage dealt. I definitely need to get his hit rating raised still, though.

On a positive note, while I was at work, most, if not all of the stuff I had on the auction house sold; consequently, his total gold is now 101g 27s 35c! I may need to go shopping again.

WoW experiment (Fillaz)

Since I finally leveled a toon to 80 in World of Warcraft, and experienced a lot of problems and annoyances while doing it, I wanted to try leveling a toon to see if I could overcome the issues I had and wind up with a well-geared, experienced level 80.

Now, I could have overcome some of the problems by using my 80 to get BoA gear, but I really wanted to see if it could even be done without that kind of help. I'm also not planning to join a guild, although my experience with guilds hasn't really helped me anyway. I usually put more into the guild than I get out of it.

So, with that in mind, I started (actually restarted) a troll rogue named Fillaz on the Tortheldrin realm. Yes, I deleted the toon, then recreated another with the same name. I don't have much experience with rogues or melee dps in general, so I thought it would make a nice change from what I was used to.

The plan is to avoid learning any manufacturing professions, which mostly cost gold while leveling, and instead just have two collecting professions. Of course, I also plan to keep the secondary skills up, and so far, it's worked fairly well. I chose skinning and mining as my primary professions, mostly because I think the buffs from those are going to be the most useful.

As I'm writing this, it is my second day of playing this toon, and here is where I stand in terms of gold and inventory space:

· 46 gold, 43silver, 59 copper

· 48 total bag slots

· My bank may be about one quarter full, but I can't check for sure right now

· I actually have about 20 gold more worth of stuff on the auction house

In terms of gear, I'm not great at this point. Mostly white quest items, and a couple of greens. In fact, according to WTF is my Gear Score, his score is a fail at only 4, 9 below average for his level. I did purchase a level 15 dagger from the auction house (I figured I wasn't likely to get 2 really good daggers before then) in preparation for the next part of the plan, which is to start doing battlegrounds and random dungeons on a regular basis. I leveled my 80 mostly doing battlegrounds, which made leveling fast, but left him broke and without enough high level gear when he got to 80. It also left me sadly inexperienced in doing dungeons, since I stopped doing them around level 30 in favor of battlegrounds.

Another website that I found, MaxDPS reports his total dps as 252. I actually think it's more like 20, and that the calculations may be incorrect at low levels. And of course, it's really dependent on who he is fighting. Still, I think it will give me some idea of how much damage I should be able to generate, and hopefully will help make sure I'm heading in the right direction.

Okay, I'm off to work!

WoW gear score is a joke

After finally making level 80 with Wilburpost, I was disappointed, to say the least, in other players reactions to my "gear score." I couldn't do a battleground without someone commenting on my low gear score. FYI, my gear score was 2502 according to this website. Also, according to the same website, my gear score does indeed suck, as the average gear score for level 80s on Shattered Halls is around 5200, give or take. But... how does one get a better gear score? Well, for PvP gear, you have to do PvP. It appears that there are plenty of people around who just can't remember what it was like trying to get better gear when they had just made level 80... or maybe they were lucky enough to be doing that when there weren't an abundance of people who had already gotten better gear.

Regardless of the feeling that they need to comment, the real reason for this post is that I have also discovered just how meaningless gear score can be. I also have a level 65 druid on the Tortheldrin realm, and while I don't remember what his gear score is, I do remember that his gear was rated a "win" by the same website. But, I can honestly say that his gear is terrible because I originally specced his talents for feral combat, but recently changed that to a hybrid of balance and restoration. Clearly specs that require totally different gear.

Finally, to make the whole gear score thing totally pointless, I just upgraded one piece of gear on Wilburpost so that his stats were MARGINALLY better... and actually raised his gear score by MORE THAN 100! I really didn't think it would make much difference as I actually traded down some stats for the increase in some stats that I thought were more important for that toon.

At any rate, I had an idea that gear score was just an elitist joke before all this... but there are plenty of knuckleheads that are so engrossed by this single stat that they actually check everyone's gear score... and feel the need to insult people on that basis. Disappointing.

Incidentally, it's not like Wilburpost is a noob in battlegrounds, with just over 12,000 honorable kills.

Olives

So, I was making dinner (cheese enchiladas, spanish rice, and refried beans), when I got to thinking about whether olives were a fruit or vegetable. I did some looking around the internet, and here's what I found:

• From a purely scientific perspective, olives are technically a fruit because they are ripened ovaries and seeds of plants.
• From a culinary perspective, olives are more like a vegetable; they probably wouldn't go well in a fruit salad, but fine in a tossed salad.
• From a nutritional perspective, olives are more like meat, at least that's the gist of what I read in a very short time; they are high in fat, salt, and protein.

It appears, then, that the answer really depends on why you want to know, much like most everything else in the world.

Utah "Education" (Part One)

Okay. It's been a year, or close enough to it. I have, for the most part, maintained silence regarding my disappointment in the educational system we have here in Utah. But I'm done. What we have in Utah is not an educational system, it is an outrage. The schools are teaching our children to grow up to be immature, test-taking, button-pushers who can't judge whether what they have done is good or bad and require constant reassurance that everything they do is, in fact, good. I feel sorry for the children, and for the educators that are producing this generation.

The most recent event involves our boy Tony, who has been, yet again, suspended from school. Is he perfect? Hardly. But on the other hand, is he really such a problem that he needs to be kicked-out of school for about half the year? (Clarification: Tony was not suspended for half a year for this particular incident. The half-year refers to the total time he has been suspended over the course of this school year. This particular incident has, so far, resulted in about three weeks suspension, and will likely end up being four or five weeks, since he has already been marked absent for the rest of the year. A "hearing" is scheduled for tomorrow to determine his fate.) Not even close, in my opinion; but, you be the judge.

As parents, we have always tried to instill in our kids the virtue of finishing work ahead of time, rather than throwing something together at the last minute. We try to show them how to do quality work - work that gives them a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment because they know that what they have done is good, besides allowing them to have some extra free time later when everyone else is hurrying to finish their work. Apparently, the school, or at least one teacher, doesn't think that's a worthy lesson to be taught because, after spending an hour-and-a-half working on an assignment on his own time over the weekend, the teacher would not accept Tony's assignment, but instead, required him to redo the assignment in class, with the rest of the class. Understandably, Tony was frustrated by this and the situation escalated, ending in Tony's suspension.

Admittedly, Tony's actions in the end were probably enough to warrant suspension. I've seen first-hand how a situation like that with Tony can escalate far beyond what the original issue would seem to call for. But, I fail to see how these educated people can't, or won't, contain a situation so that it doesn't escalate to that point. It is as if they know that they have the final recourse, suspension, and because of that, they don't even attempt to contain it. I wonder if these situations would ever be allowed to escalate as far as they do if suspension were not a so easily implemented option. I wonder just how out-of-control this teacher might have gotten if (s)he had no choice but to actually deal with the problem. Instead, the teacher just has to send him away to the office... and then the office just has to send him home. Problem solved!

The point that I'm getting at here is that for Tony, there were no options available. The teacher basically said, "Oh, so sorry. You just wasted over an hour of your own time, and now that core testing is over, I don't have anything planned." It certainly wouldn't have been fair to the other students if Tony didn't have to do the assignment in class, now would it? I can tell you right now that Tony would have happily sat in the back reading a book if that option had been offered. But the teacher showed, in my opinion, that (s)he is nothing more than an immature dictator. "Just do what I say." "I don't have time to think about something different for you to do." "Don't bother trying to get ahead on your work; I won't accept it."

Feel free to leave your comments, but please try to refrain from name-calling. Most of this post is my opinion, and if there is anything constructive to be said in response, I would love to hear it. But, sadly, the most response I have ever gotten from any educators is to be called "ignorant," "stupid," and the like. Furthermore, the person who made those comments never wanted to even hear my response to what they said. In short, if you can't participate in a meaningful discussion, then don't bother posting.

WoW

As some of you may have noticed, I haven't been complaining so much about the education system here in Utah. It's not so much that I can't think of anything to complain about; it's more that I have come to realize that all my complaining just falls on deaf ears with the educators and to everyone else it probably just sounds like whining. So, I've been spending my time on a new past-time: World of Warcraft.

For anyone interested, here is a list of my current toons:

On the Shattered Halls realm:

• Altennad, a level 20 human warrior
• Galfuris, a level 55 night elf death knight

On the Tortheldrin realm:

• Wolikitark, a level 71 tauren hunter
• Nkoko, a level 64 tauren druid
• Quelice, a level 32 blood elf priest
• Kirkhere, a level 29 undead warrior
• Fillaz, a level 22 troll rogue
• Ugruugg, a level 20 orc warrior
• Motgulin, a level 23 undead mage
• Tylorth, a level 24 blood elf paladin
• Gamagar, a level 22 orc warlock
• Nakzak, a level 12 troll shaman

That's all of them for now. As for you elementary and secondary educators out there, I'm having a hard time believing that you're actually preparing my kids for much of anything... certainly not college or real life.