Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Shelfish.



And, finally, Moving Day to our new apartment - a qualified disaster if I've ever experienced one.  

The moving company double-booked for our morning time slot, and decided to go with the people they'd booked after us instead - apparently first come is not first served. We spent the morning sitting impatiently in the middle of our packed possessions, receiving revised ETA after revised ETA, until a truck finally pulled up in our alley a full five and a half hours after the original arrival time that Ty, the owner, had promised us, and the moving process began to lurch painfully and slowly forward. 

We had one experienced mover, and two new hires - one who had been brought into the company a couple of months back, and one who had three whole days of experience.  Astonishingly, the other two found it necessary to repeatedly explain the most fundamental aspect of moving to this 17-year old neophyte: CARRY THINGS TO THE TRUCK - which you would think that almost anyone in the North American continent would already know.  

They ignored our request to have our furniture disassembled, but were kind enough to give me the tools to do their job for them, and decided that they didn't need to use the mattress bag that we'd also requested, cheerfully informing me that they wouldn't charge for it if they didn't use it (after dragging our mattress across the dirty floor of the truck).

As if to put icing on the cake, one of the movers - the 17-year old - quit his job between our old place and the new apartment, leading me to pitch in for the final stages of the move.  (What is the point of hiring movers if you have to carry boxes yourself?)

Since Karli had gone back to the old place to reassure a frightened Jaq the Cat, who had spent the first half of the move apprehensively locked in the bathroom, there was no one to direct the movers as to appropriate destinations for a lot of the items, leading to an incoherent mess of boxes and furniture.

The circus and its clown act finally left town, cash in hand, leaving me to assemble the bed so that we would at least have a place to sleep that night.  (The good news was that, since I'd taken the bed apart myself,  at least I knew where all the hardware was and how to put it back together.)

We spent the next few days feverishly emptying boxes, assembling furniture, and otherwise trying to get things sorted out before we had to go back to work.  Because we've both been working from home during the pandemic, it was more important than usual to get desks assembled and computers connected, which meant organizing the study sooner rather than later.

The good news is that, generally, shelving books is a quick unpacking activity, although I was operating under a bit of a handicap based on the complete chaos of the moving process.  I'm a methodical person, and I'd labelled the boxes alphabetically in order to make the process as seamless as possible.  In that scenario, I'd start with A for Abercrombie  and work my way through to Zelazny (or perhaps Zetlow, but you get the idea.)

In the real world, I had no idea when the A box was, and as such was forced to start with whatever letter of the alphabet came first to hand, which turned out to be H. We'd changed the configuration of the study from the old apartment, so I took my best guess, hoped for the best, and started dumping books onto shelves.

That being said, it was actually not too bad.  I did end up having to move a lot of books from shelf to shelf, but years of handing books has given me the ability to pick up an 18 or 24 inch spread of books and slide them onto a shelf, rather like someone playing an accordion made out of science fiction paperbacks.  It's fast and effective, but I have to say, don't try this at home unless you have a reasonable amount of forearm strength, it makes a bit of a mess if you can't maintain your grip.

Sad to say, I couldn't help but think that this would be the last time that I would move some of these books.  I can see retirement somewhere in the next decade, and unless circumstances change before then, we could easily stay in our new location that long.  But, when the time comes, we'll be downsizing to accommodate a reduced income, and a room full of books just won't be practical any more.

Although, I'm sure I'll keep a few, right?

Just a few...you know, the good ones, the ones I like.

- Sid

* The Infinite Revolution does NOT recommend Home Run Moving.  NOT.  NOT NOT NOT.  Zero stars.  No thumbs up.  0/10, would not use again.  And Ty?  You should be ashamed of yourself for how you handled things.

Sunday, July 12, 2020

"I find myself alone on a strange world..."


There probably isn't a worse time to buy an complex open-world computer game set in near-infinite space than the middle of moving to a new apartment.  Nonetheless, Steam had one on sale, an ex-coworker had raved about the game in question, and after all, it's not like it was going to disappear if I didn't play it right away.

All that taken into account, I decided to go ahead, and invested $33.24 CAD in No Man's Sky, a combination survival simulation/space exploration game first released by indie developer Hello Games in 2016.

No Man's Sky relies upon an elaborate procedural generation algorithm that has the capability to create over 28 quintillion unique planets, each with its own unique ecosystem and environment.  (Presumably the algorithm also has the capacity to name them all.)  Apparently players operate in a shared universe, although with that many planets available, it's difficult to imagine that you would ever stumble across another explorer. Through the course of the game, players survive, explore, trade, and, when necessary, fight for their lives.


In some ways, the initial portion of the game is reminiscent of The Long Dark in that your character, the Traveller, is introduced into a hostile environment where they must locate the resources necessary to stay alive as their oxygen supply creeps downward and their exosuit's armour and shielding degrades under the assault of corrosive gases, radiation, storms, and predatory wildlife.  Robotic Sentinels, large or small, may also assault the Traveller in order to protect the planet's resources from their depredations.


However, the initial survival-oriented gameplay is just a gateway into a larger experience.  Once the Traveller has located and repaired their damaged starship using local resources and salvaged technology, they can leave the planet and begin to explore the universe.

Each solar system has a space station, where the Traveller can upgrade their equipment by trading for additional technology and blueprints, and interact with the three main alien races that share the universe:  the Vy'Keen, the Gex, and the Korvax.  Unfortunately, the Traveller must first learn to communicate with the aliens in order to avoid misunderstandings and possible attacks in transit by aliens fleets. 

In addition to trade, credits can be earned by exploring planets and uploading the results to the Atlas, an enigmatic cosmic entity with interfaces scattered through the universe.

Alien bases, either occupied or abandoned, may also be discovered on planetary surfaces, and players can build their own base, giving them a secure location from which to operate.

After downloading the game, I took a break from packing boxes in order to quickly try it out, and quite liked the look and feel of the game, although it took me some time and experimentation to determine how to make use of the interface.  I also realized immediately that the complexity of the game would require more of an investment of time than a quick visit - there are a lot of options and capabilities available to the player. 

To be honest, I actually feel more than a little overwhelmed by the possibilities presented by No Man's Sky. Faced with infinity, where do you begin?

- Sid


Thursday, July 9, 2020

Legendary Face Mask - ADDED TO INVENTORY.

As it turned out, following my previous posting I broke under the pressure and placed an online order for the Storm Crow Legendary Face Mask.  I also decided to buy a Storm Crow Alliance t-shirt - for a long time, they weren't available online, but when I saw that they were now in stock on their site, I jumped at the chance to add one to my wardrobe.


I received my shipment today, and I have mixed reviews for the mask.  On the plus side, I like the adjustable earpieces - on the minus side, it's not a perfect fit for my face (Not to mention that nagging typo, which I hope they fix in future print runs.) However, I may try it out with a clip connecting the two earpieces rather than looping them over my ears, they're quite long and that may work out more efficiently.

The t-shirt is excellent quality and and a perfect fit, I'm pleased that I decided to get one when I had the chance. (I'd also like to think that hopefully I'll be wearing that t-shirt long after the mask has become an odd collectable rather than a daily necessity.)

Regarding packaging for the t-shirt, full points to the Storm Crow for their strong awareness of what it's like right now to receive a delivery.


- Sid