oh yeah...

...finished The Lurking Horror last night too. Extremely vaguely Lovecraftian, but nowhere near enough to actually amuse anyone who'd actually read Lovecraft. The geek references (the hacker in the story actually says things like "chomp" and "losing") were much more satisfying, even though the closest I get to actual hackerdom is having read The Jargon File. And once again, incomplete hints. I kept reading stuff about a mummified hand and going to myself, WHAT hand?? I haven't found one! It turned out it was buried in the earth of a potted peach tree in the weather observation dome thingy. The dome itself was mentioned because a flying creature is trying to attack you in it, but there wasn't a question like "Is the peach tree important?" which would have been what I needed. It also took me forever to figure out that I could open the elevator doors by hand (or by crowbar) when the elevator was not present, and thus drop down into the elevator shaft, into a location which was right on the map and even had an important object listed as visible - and none of how to get there was even hinted at in the hints. I was left, again, going "what chain??? I haven't seen any chain!!" It just assumed you had figured it out, even though problems that in my estimation were far simpler had their own questions and were explicitly explained (like the hacker doesn't seem to want the cold Chinese food, well, why not use the prominent microwave that was right next to the refrigerator?). I was very annoyed. And I got none of the sense of accomplishment I had with Zork Zero - just irritation at whoever wrote the hints.

oh yeah...

...finished The Lurking Horror last night too. Extremely vaguely Lovecraftian, but nowhere near enough to actually amuse anyone who'd actually read Lovecraft. The geek references (the hacker in the story actually says things like "chomp" and "losing") were much more satisfying, even though the closest I get to actual hackerdom is having read The Jargon File. And once again, incomplete hints. I kept reading stuff about a mummified hand and going to myself, WHAT hand?? I haven't found one! It turned out it was buried in the earth of a potted peach tree in the weather observation dome thingy. The dome itself was mentioned because a flying creature is trying to attack you in it, but there wasn't a question like "Is the peach tree important?" which would have been what I needed. It also took me forever to figure out that I could open the elevator doors by hand (or by crowbar) when the elevator was not present, and thus drop down into the elevator shaft, into a location which was right on the map and even had an important object listed as visible - and none of how to get there was even hinted at in the hints. I was left, again, going "what chain??? I haven't seen any chain!!" It just assumed you had figured it out, even though problems that in my estimation were far simpler had their own questions and were explicitly explained (like the hacker doesn't seem to want the cold Chinese food, well, why not use the prominent microwave that was right next to the refrigerator?). I was very annoyed. And I got none of the sense of accomplishment I had with Zork Zero - just irritation at whoever wrote the hints.

(no subject)

I'm debating the relative merits of being consistently on my "public" AIM SN while at home. By "public" I mean the one I give out if someone specifically needs to talk to me that way, and then log off directly after the purpose was served, rather than the one I actually use (whose buddy list is comprised solely of various of enotsola's SN's).

I definitely don't want to be on it at work. The awful feeling of pressure to talk would be worse if I gave in to having more than one convo window, and given the fact that I really shouldn't have AIM at all while at work, I think one for enotsola is plenty. Plus then I'd feel bad for having to ignore everyone else.

But at home, obviously things are a bit different. I'm still not sure I'm actually up to such a social challenge, however. What if people actually expect me to talk to them? What then? How do I say "I don't feel like talking to you right now" without sounding like it's something actually personal? It's just an awful pressure to perform that I don't know if I can handle. I don't want to seem like I'm difficult to get a hold of, though.

(Actually, I'm easy to get a hold of - email me. I'm online 12 hours or more every day on weekdays, 6 or 8 on weekends. When I'm on, email takes mere minutes to get a response from me. I am just very nervous about the phone or IM with people I don't already know very well.)

(no subject)

I'm debating the relative merits of being consistently on my "public" AIM SN while at home. By "public" I mean the one I give out if someone specifically needs to talk to me that way, and then log off directly after the purpose was served, rather than the one I actually use (whose buddy list is comprised solely of various of enotsola's SN's).

I definitely don't want to be on it at work. The awful feeling of pressure to talk would be worse if I gave in to having more than one convo window, and given the fact that I really shouldn't have AIM at all while at work, I think one for enotsola is plenty. Plus then I'd feel bad for having to ignore everyone else.

But at home, obviously things are a bit different. I'm still not sure I'm actually up to such a social challenge, however. What if people actually expect me to talk to them? What then? How do I say "I don't feel like talking to you right now" without sounding like it's something actually personal? It's just an awful pressure to perform that I don't know if I can handle. I don't want to seem like I'm difficult to get a hold of, though.

(Actually, I'm easy to get a hold of - email me. I'm online 12 hours or more every day on weekdays, 6 or 8 on weekends. When I'm on, email takes mere minutes to get a response from me. I am just very nervous about the phone or IM with people I don't already know very well.)

(no subject)

Having a crisis of name again. I knew it wouldn't last. Longest they ever stick is about three months. Grrr. I just can't find a name that I both like, and is multipurpose.

(no subject)

Having a crisis of name again. I knew it wouldn't last. Longest they ever stick is about three months. Grrr. I just can't find a name that I both like, and is multipurpose.