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The Value of QA

Civilization has been one of the best computer game franchises around. I started playing the games with the original CIV games (running on 486) and have bought every version since. So, when a release date for CIV IV was announced, I preordered the game from Amazon. What I didn’t do was select quick shipping, I selected the free option. Well it took about a week for the game to arrive. I was annoyed at first, but it truns out that I’m really glad I waited.

Why, cause well, Firaxis shipped the game with, lets call it a compatibility problem. Turns out if you are running an ATI video card (about ½ the people out there) and not using the absolute latest drives the game won’t start. Well, my drivers weren’t up to date, and even after upgrading them I still cound not start the game. Fortunatly, the week between the game’s release and me getting it enabled Firaxis to find a fix. I was looking around Firaxis’s site and found this work around. I finally got the game running and I’m happy with it now. Unfortunately for Firaxis, a lot of their fans are really pissed. All I can say is they should have put a little more into QA. Continue reading “The Value of QA”

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Jess's Holiday Gift Giving Guide Part 1

Well the holiday season is upon us. Hobby Lobby made it official last night by playing the first bit of Christmas music I'd heard so far this year. To help all you folks out, I thought I'd do a multiple part series on gift-giving. Today kicks that off with my first installment, Gifts $25 and Under.

Tickle Me Freud, available at Uncommon Goods would make a lovely gift for your shrink, your little brother who's a psych major, or your loopy aunt. An excellent converstaion piece and always good for a (manical) laugh. Freudian slippers are also available.

The new parents, and their sprout, too, would love one of these cool bibs from MyRetroBaby. They velcro for ease, have a soak-proof lining and come in a wide array of patterns. $18.

Continue reading “Jess's Holiday Gift Giving Guide Part 1”

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Seeing Orange

I think I have my dad to thank for my savings nerd gene. He loves putting money away in neat little piles and watching it grow. The older I get, the more I appreciate this gene. It makes things easy when savings is a really fun game to me. A while back, I blogged about Money Matters and soonafter, I started my love affair with ING Direct.

Their company philosophy is that “saving money should be as easy as getting a cup of coffee” and my experience thus far has been just that. Easy. Simple. Hassle-free. This is paticularly amazing since my browser CRASHED while I was setting up my account. A quick (and I do mean quick – less than 3 minutes) phone call assured me that my account info that I'd carefully entered was in tact and gave me access to my account.

Now I've got my accounts all set up, and I can put money in or take it out at the touch of a button and it gets to earn a tidy 3.4%. Continue reading “Seeing Orange”

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Ghouls and Ghosties


Well, we carved pumpkins, decked out the dog, made baked rigaboney (which was a bit disappointing), and watched Halloween. For the number of kids in our neighborhood, the trick-or-treater turnout was a bit on the slow side, but people appreciated the pumpkins, especially the two that Matt did (the house and the Snow White witch).

Hope your Halloween was just as fun as ours was … and you don't have a candy hang-over.

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Frosty Morning

Well the ground was all frosty this morning as I drove to work. I could see my breath when I got out of the car to drop Loki off at Doggy Daycare. And now I'm sitting at my desk, still wearing my jacket, with my space-heater going full-blast. Everytime I have to move away from it, I get very very cold. Brrrrr…

If the calendar, the beautiful fall colors, and the new skin for Jesser weren't enough clues, FALL IS HERE!

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Bird Flu

Don't get me wrong. I'm not in a Bird Flu panic. I'm sure there's the possibility for danger (there's always the possibility for danger), but until the thing mutates and start spreading between humans, I won't panic.

They say the thing's responding to Tamiflu, which reduces the symptoms and lengths of the disease. So demand for Tamiflu has sky-rocketed. Roche, the pharmaceutical company who manufactures the drug has thus far been unwilling to release their patent on the drug to allow companies to make a generic version and up until recently, hadn't been allowing licensing of the drug to other manufacturers to keep up withthe demand. I laughed hard when I learned the CEO of Roche is named (William) M. Burns.

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Shattered

Well my morning has gotten off to an interesting start. I got to my desk this morning and I noticed that I hadn't put my water glass in the dishwasher before I left yesterday. So I filled my bowl with my oatmeal packet and took it and the glass into the kitchen. I set the bowl on the counter and went to put the glass in the dishwasher. I turned it upside down and started to set it in the rack. Before it had touched anything (I think) it SHATTERED in my hand. Not 5 pieces. Not 20 pieces. Hundreds of pieces. In the dishwasher, all over the floor …. Luckily though, nothing really hurt my hand. A guy I work with showed up just after it happened and helped me get it all cleaned up … and now I'm left with a good story and a bandaid.

I told one of my co-workers … I'm not trying sky-diving today, but I might buy a lottery ticket.