From one Extreme to Another

People who drive responsibly and safely tend to get annoyed at the reckless idiocy of others on the road. They're not alone; people who don't drive period tend to get annoyed, too. In my case, while I was on my way to work, it almost led to an unneeded stay in the hospital.

I was a block from my destination this morning, crossing the street at a green light. You know how those intersections have these white lines painted on the road to show where vehicles should stop at the lights? There was this truck that approached from my right, slowed down and stopped at that white line. As I was walking just to the left of that line, I thought that the driver was letting me get past first (sometimes those cars will come to a stop partway across the line, forcing pedestrians to go around), so I hurried up and started to go in front of the truck. In retrospect, I should've walked behind it instead; when I was about two, maybe three feet away from actually being in front of the truck, it abruptly sped back up and cut in front of me in order to make a turn.

Is it any wonder why I don't drive? Stuff like that bothers me something fierce. I've griped in a prior post about pedestrians who cross the street at red lights, but this is a whole other kettle of meat loaf (I don't like fish). People, your destination isn't going anywhere. It doesn't matter if you're five minutes late or five minutes early: taking a few extra seconds to look around and make sure you're not going to hit something or someone is not going to kill you; just as importantly, it's not going to kill us. Not all of us are intelligent people who can cross the street intelligibly; some of us can be complete morons who forget things at the worst of times, like I very nearly demonstrated.

You want to prove that you earned your driver's license? Then for our sake and yours, MAKE SURE THE AREA'S CLEAR BEFORE YOU PROCEED. It does not take a genius to figure this out, people. It's called "common sense"; exercise it!

*sigh*

Alright, I'm sorry. I'm through venting now. Since we started on a low note, why we don't continue on a higher note--- preferably a few octaves higher with a 4/4 signature?

Pictures of my family's cats, ladies and gentlemen. The one up top is Sabrina, the resident old lady of the house (around 16 years old, if my memory is accurate). While her health isn't as great as it was when she was younger, it hasn't effected her mobility; when she's not asleep, she demonstrates more grace than any other pet I can recall us having. Jumping from the counter over a person's shoulder onto the kitchen table, jumping from the table clear over a large baby gate, stealing our computer chair while our backs our turned... she does it all so quietly, with not even a 'thump' to mark where she landed. If it wasn't for the bell on her collar, we'd never know where she was.

Next is Callista, right around 3-4 years old (closer to the 3 than the 4). She was originally a feral cat with a group of kittens, but my mom took a shine to them and started feeding them outdoors. Eventually the cat and her surviving kitten (three of them disappeared without our knowledge, leaving just the one) took a shine to her in exchange, and my mom was able to catch them and take them to the vet to take care of the neccessary health issues. She lives indoors now, and for those that she's used to she's probably the friendliest cat I've known. And she's very protective of her last kitten, despite it being nearly as large as she is now.

Speaking of that last kitten, Clover's the resident tomboy. When we first brought in her and her mom, we couldn't give them the standard cat toys to play with (fake mice, feather toys and the like), so we had to give them dog toys instead. Both of them play very strong and rough, but Clover moreso than her mom. She still exhibits traces of kitten behavior, and while she's friendly with us she still gets the urge to swat at us while we're petting her. And she's a bit of a bully, too.

Our most recent fuzzball, the tortoiseshell and scaredy-cat, is Gianna. She's rather distrustful of humans as a whole. She'll let my mom pet her, but only on her terms. My dad and I she avoids like the plague; she'll usually lay around quietly or play with the others, but the second I reach down to pet her, she's gone. We've only had her since this past winter, so time will tell how she turns out.

That'll be it for now, folks. Maybe next time I won't be quite as mad when I decide to write something. >^_^<

In a word: Arrrrgghh

There's this one old computer game I've been taken with the last few years: Redhook's Revenge, originally published by ImagiSOFT, Inc. in 1996 or thereabouts and now available as freeware on their website. The goal of the game is to collect the most gold doubloons---oh, right. Forgot to mention that the characters are the very images of 17th-18th century pirates.

On first glance, it's hard to determine why I keep playing this game. I already know the answers to all the trivia questions. I know where almost every Treasure space and Disaster space is located. The pirates' faces scare me when they get angry, and the music unnerves me when something bad happens. It ought to get dull after a little while, wouldn't you say?

Well, here's a few reasons why I do. #1: Winning the game is not a foregone conclusion. You can answer all the trivia questions right, get all four cannons and thus have a higher chance of gaining treasure when faced with other players or cities, and still lose. Something will end up happening: you could lose half of your treasure by landing on a certain space near the end of the board, or your opponents could win in a fight and gain a large chunk of your funds, or they could have more success in defeating their foes, or... anything could happen. Knowing the game inside and out gives me an advantage, but my win-loss percentage is not as overwhelmingly high as you would think.

#2: The variety. It happens, but it's not often that a game board shows up the same way twice. There are two different start points and two different end points that the computer is allowed to choose from, and at least 6-7...hmmm... let's call them "middle map pieces" that can show up in virtually any arrangement (with 3 of them actually being used). Depending on the layout of the board and the number of player- or AI-controlled opponents, each game could take anywhere from 15-45 minutes to finish.

#3: The bugs. Yes, the bugs. This is probably due to a coding error, but from time to time something bad will happen to one of the players: losing a turn, losing money or showing up too late to a razed city... and the pirate will be happy about it or at least remain neutral. The reverse can be true: treasure will be gained or what have you, and the pirate will be angry, as if gaining riches beyond his/her dreams was not how he wanted to spend his vacation. It's fun watching when this happens, although a few of the other bugs---such as certain messages disappearing too quickly for anyone to read the first word, let alone the whole message---is a bit annoying.

Anyway, that's part of why I like to play it. Another part is because I like to see how high the final scores can go; this might have happened only once in the 14-15 years I've been playing this game, but I've seen doubloon counts go as high as 90,000. Like I said earlier, though, it's not a given; don't be surprised if you finish a game and find out that your score is a straight flat zero.

Feel like you want to give the game a go? Visit the website above. Download. Play, whether using DosBOX or otherwise. And, if you're half my age, tremble in fear as Bastian Blood sneers at you.