Word Choices - Supervisor VS Boss

I thought it might be fun to compare some words this evening. You know, for my writer friends out there. Hope you enjoy these musings.

Did you know there's a difference between a supervisor and a boss? If you have a supervisor, you have someone up your ass 24/7 trying to make sure you don't screw up.

When you have a boss, they are happy to leave you alone to work autonomously, in your realm of expertise. So when you hit one out of the park, they be like, "Awesome!" But when you strike out? They be like, "Dude, what the hell?"

So, do you have a supervisor or  a boss?  Did you hit one out of the park lately, or have you screwed up?

:)



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Strategic Gaming - Learning and Advancing

Okay, like...WHAT?? It's mine!

I know getting killed in a game can be somewhat painful depending on how far you've made it to the next check point, but the development of gaming expertise comes with some pretty specific criteria, namely knowing how to build your skill set.

With the game controller being the only input device utilized during game play (besides the inner workings of your brain), it is important to master all of the additional features packed into the already complex mechanism.

Once you've mastered the controls, the next important concept to wrap your brain around is strategy. If you're going to die (and you are), you must die in a manner which will produce the most efficient and effective ratio of learning to advancement. I'll explain.

Learning = how much knowledge and skill you develop while utilizing the controller through the duration of game scenarios

Advancement = the swiftness and accuracy with which you utilize the controller while advancing through game scenarios

I'm providing two examples below, and if you or anybody you know is in the tech field, you already know this. It's okay to die often if your method is to collect data in order to advance your knowledge.

Example #1

You've recently acquired a Longbow and 10 arrows and wish to try out your new weapon, so when a zombie appears in the distance, oh say about 70 yards away, you immediately mount an arrow, aim, and fire off that pointy stick. You miss and quickly try again. By the time the zombie is 10 feet in front of you, you've used up all but one arrow and BLAM! You finally sink one deep into its chest.

Now you'll spend your time advancing forward, searching for more arrows to replenish your stock. But you won't find any before you pass the next check point and another zombie latches onto your jugular and you die. When your life is restored, you still have no arrows. Learning=1, Advancement=1

Example #2

Same scenario, but when you spot the zombie 70 yards away, you mount an arrow, aim, and wait for the zombie to get within 10 feet before firing. You miss because you hadn't quite had enough time to learn the controls, it was your first shot! The zombie devours your jugular and you die.

When your life is restored, you have all your 10 arrows and you try it again, over and over until you succeed in killing it with one arrow before advancing through the game, passing through two more checkpoints and expertly killing another zombie or two along the way. Learning=1, Advancement=2

The moral here? Maybe it's not really a moral, more of a preference in game play for me. I'd rather learn first than to go in like a blind mouse in search of cheese. You'll get further in the long run, but that's just my opinion.



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Wounded Pride and Ryan Gosling

This kind of sucks because it has to do with my growing older and my poor eyesight.

Having a thread of hair latch onto your sock is natural, shit happens. Time for a good vacuum. But when the thread is trailed by a knot of hair, which to a semi blind person looks like a hairy spider, and every step to get away invites that spider to essentially jump after you? Not so good!

Yeah, I toppled over before seeing it was actually a clump of hair. It took getting that close up to realize how bad my eyes have deteriorated. Then I just couldn't get the picture of Ryan Gosling out of my mind.

Here's to making progress. Not!

Making Change Instead of Accepting Change

You don't need me to tell you that I make progress in life because of my writing. I write to survive. My mental notes need a way to make it onto paper, but why?

I need to know that I'm still the good person I've always been, though I've had this tendency to be an asshole lately. I think it's because I've lost my rock, the person in my life who always made sure that folks didn't take advantage of my good nature.

He whispers in my ear every day, "Take charge, don't let the idiots direct how things turn out." Even from heaven he still guides me! And I still write.

Don't let change happen to you, let it happen because of you.

God bless our Guardian Angels! :)




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Blast From The Past - The Anti-Social Teenager

I knew one day my baby girl would turn into an intelligent and demure young lady. I had no doubt. So, when she found some old photos, documents, and other such treasures a few days ago, I felt it would be great to share them on my blog.

The first little gold nugget is a weekly progress worksheet from middle school. Little doubt here that Chelsey got her sense of worthiness from her mama. She and I have certainly outgrown our anti-social perspectives, but just so you know, our intentions have always been good ones.

I love this girl's bold sense of humor. I can say this now, but I think I was horrified back then.  :)

All great advice. From the teacher, too!

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There Was A Spider In My Car

I'm not certain how many of you are aware of my fear of spiders. This fear is plenty greater than my fear of death, and from what happened today, I've come to realize that phobias cannot be defeated with rational calm logic. I know this. It's a fact. Don't lecture me either. Not after I'd tried to put on a brave front. I really did!

Driving in your car doing 60 miles per hour is not the place to encounter things which freak you out, but there it was. It emerged from the bottom shadow of the speedometer. Though it wasn't a huge spider, it was large enough its sudden movement caught my eye. First instinct was to release the stirring wheel because my hands were the closest to it. I couldn't do it. I knew the minute I moved, that sucker would jump on me and I'd have a heart attack, taking out the two cars beside me and the one in back.

I remained calm though. I knew I could handle this situation like an adult. I just needed to find something I could use to kill it. As messy as my car had been, I couldn't even find one napkin. But I did find a plastic straw sticking out of a Styrofoam cup. Perfect!

I reached over and pulled the straw out of the plastic lid. The spider had crouched up against the casing of the speedometer, but I could see his entire brown body against the black panel of my dashboard. I darted my eyes back to my windshield to monitor the traffic. More as a gauge to determine the most opportune moment to stab at and impale the spider. At least that was my intention. But I overestimated the size of the thing.

I have to give myself credit though. I was a great aim! I managed to encase the entire spider safely within the opening of the clear plastic tube just long enough to register it was darting up and skittering quickly toward the other end, the end I was still holding on to! I managed to fling the straw away but not before blaring horns and screeching tires told me I'd completely lost control of my car.

I pulled over to the side of the road and sprung from my car, wiping my arms really hard, trying to brush away the creepy feeling that had washed over me. Another honk. Fuck off! People are so insensitive.

I'm telling you. You cannot cure phobias! You cannot suppress these fears. They live in your genes. Can you even comprehend this?

GAH! I'm getting the creeps just writing about it!

Do you have a phobia? Please share so I don't feel like such a basket-case.


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The Last of Us - Newbie ALERT!

At the end of my first semester at Purdue, I decided to reward myself with the new PS4 500GB The Last of Us Remastered Bundle. For all you non-gamers out there, it's the latest in a series of competing console gaming systems feeding the zombie craze.

What did I do with my last weekend of the semester? I wasted 4 hours of my life mastering the demise of the newbie zombie slayer. One can't just simply go to school, make good grades, and never achieve anything more of significant value, right?

After attaining my newest checkpoint: this is the point in the game where you will return when you die or become disconnected during game play. In newbie terms, this is where you will spend a lot of your time.

You can sit here and ponder what will kill you next, or you can move forward in the game, get killed, and ponder what happened after the fact. Either way, the goal is to get to the next checkpoint without dying so much that the game play isn't any fun. But don't delude yourself. You WILL die.

One of the many things you will learn as a newbie zombie slayer is how to be a forward thinker. This is a skill which we all need to master and it comes with experience, some pretty painful ones. It's why we don't make the same mistakes twice (most of the time). It's a shame I have to relearn this while playing a game which takes place in a zombie infested world of non-thinkers on a mindless quest for brains. Wait, that sounds too much like reality. Where have I seen this before?

One thing to keep in mind is not to shoot at everything you think might be out to get you. My big mistake was popping off the only 6 rounds I had into an NPC needing my help. I should have realized shooting him was a moot point when the first round did not achieve any significant change in my environment, and the man maintained this cool steady gaze while pleading for help, "Please, help me..."

How ironic I kept hearing those same words screaming in my head, realizing there were zombies close by and I was out of ammunition. Time to learn some new combat skills! It takes a sick mind to develop these games.

Sneaking up on a zombie can be a lot of fun. Your adrenaline is pumping and they can't see you. I found one standing in a room, completely unaware of my presence because I had stealth mode activated. It thrilled me to strangle it with my bare hands and loot ammo from its decaying body! My ego was severely deflated however, when shortly afterward, I attempted to sneak up on two more zombies as they fed hungrily on human flesh. Stealth mode suddenly deactivated and I realized, as they began feeding upon me, I had not reloaded my weapon with the ammunition I had acquired from my latest kill. Hell, I wasn't even holding a gun.

Why would I be holding a gun anyway? I was gonna surprise attack and strangle the mother fuckers, so my hands had to be free, right? And remember this, when you're strangling one zombie, the others aren't going to stand around and wait for you to finish. Bon appétit!

Moral of story?

1. Just because you successfully strangled one zombie, does not mean every attempt at killing a zombie should be with your bare hands. 
2. When you acquire ammunition, coincidentally when you really needed it, use it, because you probably really need it.
3. The stealthy sneak attack is pretty cool, but it's totally uncool when you are doing it wrong.

Coming soon! More zombie gaming tips for newbies.

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