Scatter Shot Post - 04/09/2008

Let's jump right in shall we?

• Within three weeks of review day, we lost two employees. I'll not post the circumstances of each on the Intarwebs, but now we're looking for one entry level and one experienced programmer position in the IT department at our company, so those of you who know me, contact me for details if you're interested.
• On weekends, I often visit a co-workers home and play board games with his family. His wife is a gentle soul, that doesn't have a competitive bone in her body, and she's made alternate rules to Settlers of Catan. The short of it is, the robber is out of the game, and anyone who rolls a 7 gets a free resource of his/her choice. Sounds fun on the surface, until you realize that it nullifies the ONLY way a person can directly affect the game. Way to destroy a game dynamic, there.
• In the IT department, we have two or three chocoholics, the majority of whom are Mormons. I guess when your religion forbids alcohol and caffine, chocolate is the closest thing to a vice that you're allowed to have.
• In other game news, Magic Online has shut down its 2.5 servers, and will go up as the new and improved Magic Online 3.0 server. As someone who has dealt with a server crash in the middle of a draft several times, I'll be looking forward to something that has a bit more stability.
• It's April. It snowed here (lightly) for three of the last five days. I'm not pleased.

That's it for now. Good day!

Sparky Celebrates Easter One Week Late

Sparky Celebrates Easter One Week Late, originally uploaded by Jack Black's Stunt Double.

Hooray for Easter candy at firesale prices!! BTW, those are Cadbury Orange Cream Eggs, in the background, and Butterfinger eggs in the forground.

And the Horde grows...

Nobody Better Lay a Finger on Sparky's Butterfinger

Alas, Sparky does not live in a Vacuum; He must contend with the other cubicle denizens. Click the picture to observe the actions of the other toys with a sweet tooth, and keep clicking forward in the set.

Check out my Cubicle Buddy

So, my friend Pearce bought me a Gargantuan Blue Dragon before I left Pittsburgh. Sort of a going away present. The idea was that I can use it in Miniatures games, or Dungeons & Dragons RPGs. Pretty cool, but I'm still looking for players, and I'm probably going to look outside the Valley. There's just no one around here who plays, and as I mentioned on this blog before, the closest group I know is in Salt Lake. So for a while he just sat in his box, bored. You can't keep something this sweet looking tucked away in a box, so I brought him into the office as a 'pet'. His name is Sparky; simple, common, probably obvious, but suitable (he breathes lightning at those who displease him or take his candy). As I don't own cats, I decided to make a loldragon:



As to where all that candy came from, here's the explaination. The local gas stations and convieneince stores often do a promotion where they put their overstock of candy bars on sale. These candy bars will all be of a particular brand (nestle, M&M/Mars, Hershey, etc). So when I drop in for some other item, I make an impulse purchase and drop a buck on 3 candy bars. snatching up M&Ms, Butterfingers (a favorite of mine), Butterfinger Crisps (my favorite with an improved texture!), and the Take 5, a wonderful little bar from Hershey that my sister has already talked about.
My problem is that within the last year or so, I think my sweet tooth has faded into retirement. So I'll buy three, eat one, and before the last two are gone, I'll buy 3 more for a buck, resulting in a candy glut. So, I deicided that Sparky needed a horde, and seeing has I had no gold handy, I brought him my neglected chocolate. I explained to him that at least in the office, this is considered more precious than gold, so he's satisfied.