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!

New Year's Eve with the IT Department

Last night, I went to one of my co-worker's homes for New Year's Eve, where I experienced Raclette, sort of a Swiss take on Fondue. Instead of dipping stuff into melted cheese, you toss pieces of cheese with various meats/veggies/potatoes and slide it under a kind of tabletop broiler. Also featured another guest and his wife (coffee fiends, the both of them) preparing specialty coffee drinks to order.
The highlight of the evening (for me) was playing The Settlers of Catan for the the first time since I left home. It was fun, but one thing wasn't quite the same. Between the Mormon couple and our Baptist host, we got through the entire game without one "wood for sheep" wisecrack. But, I won, and in the end isn't that what really matters? (Bonus Settlers of Catan Tip: I earnestly believe that being the first person to build a city will instantly increase your odds of winning to 75%)
The whole night was full of the background noise of everyone's children playing, fighting, or tring to get their hands on things things they shouldn't. Ah, to be young and single! Anyway, the evening included a few phone calls from friends back east, including one of my enlisted friends who's back in town for a few weeks. One of the first things he tells me is ,"so, I hear you took a job in Wisconsin?" He is not the first person to have gotten those two confused.
You see, the word "Wyoming" comes from an old Native American word that subconsiously deflects your thoughts away from it, and onto another location, one that usually beings with the same letter or syllable. Everytime I tell someone that I've moved to Wyoming, A few minutes later they ask, "So, what made you decide on Wisconsin?"

"No, not Wisconsin." I say. "Look, do you know that big empty state above Colorado and below Montana?"
"Um.... West Dakota?"
"Nevermind."

This is why no one lives up here. Everytime someone decides to move out West to cowboy country, they fall into a transe, and BANG! They find themselves unloading a truck at their new home in Oshkosh or something.