I'm back, baby!

...and I don't just mean back in the country.

Winnings: $1167

I landed 9:30 Friday night, it was after 11 when I got home, unpacked, destressed etc. Finally got to bed, and was asleep around 1am, only to get up at 6:30 and head off to work. Thats 3:30am Malaysian time, so you can guess I was pretty knackered all day yesterday, especially since on Friday my flight left Penang Airport at 7:15am, so I was up at about 4:50 to check out of the hotel and go down and check in at the airport the mandatory 2 hours before flying international (or hour & a half in this case - 2 hours before a 7:15am flight? Get real). Then a 50 minute hop down to KLIA, a stopover of an hour (bought a litre of Scotch duty free for c. AU$14, woohoooo!!!) and off on the 8 hour haul to Sydney. I expected the plane to be crowded, it usually is fairly full (there's only maybe 2 flights max a day to Sydney and it includes people who flew Malaysian Airlines from Europe) and on top of that, the Commonwealth Games is powering up in a few days and I thought there might be some locals heading down to see their team, travelling via Sydney because if you were heading out to Melbourne, you'd wanna see Sydney as well (much nicer place. Melbourne is worth a visit though, so I dare say is NZ if you are out this way, or vice versa). However it was a smaller plane (777 I believe) and not that crowdy, though I did have a woman sitting next to me, no lazing across many seats. She slept the whole flight - I got her lunch. 8-D

You know there is that thing, "only one piece of carry-on luggage", and you have room above you in the overhead compartment for one (albeit decent-sized) case? I mean sure, people also have duty-free bags, handbags, laptops etc with them, stuff you aren't going to put in the baggage area. But it always fascinates me how much trouble some people have counting to one. There was a guy in front of me getting on, had a case he was dragging, a big bag he was carrying, what looked like a sleeping roll (though he was in a suit), and about 4 boxes. Reminds me now of something one of my teachers (an Anglican priest) said back in my Masters days: "If you weren't a Christian, I bet you'd be a real asshole". Well probably if I didn't have the morals and values of the Holy Roman Catholic Church keeping me in line, I would, because I had an urge to beat the shit out of that guy. "YOU'RE ALLOWED ONE BAG, DICKHEAD!" [SMACK!] "CAN YOU COUNT TO ONE, MOTHERF%$KER!?!" [BIFF!] "HERE'S HEADBUTTS TOTALLING A SUM OF ONE!" [THWACK!] Not healthy [sigh] but selfishness and inconsideration really annoy me. Its what's wrong with the world, people just live there lives without even thinking of the impact their actions are going to have on others. This guy would probably need an entire overhead compartment to himself, and tough luck for anyone else who was sitting near him. Actually when I got on, there was this old couple (looked sub-contintental) and the old guy was carrying on about how he couldn't put his case in his own compartment (because it was full) and the stewardess was saying to him over and over, "just put it in the next one". Then he starts carrying on about his seat, he's not sitting next to his wife (maybe she cunningly arranged it - wouldn't blame her - maybe they checked in seperately; hey, screw everyone behind us, we'll use two checkin counters cause we're selfish assholes and this way is slightly easier for us, everyone else can wait! [That actually happened to Yvy and I on the way down to KL (by accident, I hasten to add) and we were damn lucky that the next 2 seats that came up were, naturally, adjoining, so we still got to sit together]. Anyway, maybe there was some innocent reason this couple were not sitting together, I dunno). So then the stewardess says they can change once they are in the air, but for now he has to sit down (so they could tick off who was on the plane and if anyone was late / missing). She was getting frustrated and frankly in this era of heightened airline security I reckon the guy long overstepped the mark where he shoulda been thrown off. If I was a steward I would rule with an iron fist - two bags? Not on my flight. Causing trouble? Let me introduce you to my friend the air marshall - FIRE!! Failing to obey my every directive? Tazer time! Mind you, I wouldn't be a steward - mustaches don't suit me. I later looked over at this couple (reunited once we were airborne) and despite the seatbelt sign being on due to turbulence, they were happily up wandering around. Grrrr... O well, I am being unhealthy again, lets hope they were nice old grandparents just having a bad day, and God bless them. Lets not get started on people who jump up and start getting their bags down the moment the plane hits the tarmac, even as the pilot is saying, "stay in your seats til we reach the terminal". Grrr...

Now, work yesterday... not a bad day at all. After I went home, washed my car despite being exhausted, then off to the club to watch the Eels opening game of the season (it was taking place a few hours away in Newcastle and my efforts to get a mate up there to come with me had fallen through. Got a text message from another friend who lives 2 streets away, she was there with her b/f, but I doubt I would have had the energy to drive that far safely under the circumstances anyway). So I started playing roulette at the club - planning on running the system once, then sitting down to weatch the game - and found there was a little TV up on the wall right behind the machine, or I should say, right behind where I was sitting at the machine. So I laid my bets then spun to watch the game and basically imitated a metronome for the duration. The Eels were very flat (lot of injuries in pre-season) and we got well beat: bugger. But I spent the night at the roulette machine (between heading out for dinner, beers etc) and won over $300. I woulda kept going but about 11, I just got bored. A few close calls that almost lost had me a bit shaken up too, and I decided to just head on home.

So - why wasn't I modding? Well, I was too tired to think straight, no other reason than that (since I gamble by a system, there is not much thought involved. Plus they give me complimentary coffee). Which brings us to KotB.

Tomorrow, I will be back into KotB. Now what has to be done?

The main thing is, the changes to the World Map mean the maps I have done will have to be renumbered, reassigned etc to get them to coincide with the appropriate game areas. Thats simple enough, though the jumppoint.tab will be a pita to redo (so that when you go through a door, you come out at the right place on the other side). There will also be other fiddly little things, like some of the mobs have their map number internally: very few at this point, any I miss will come out in testing. This is all part of the process of learning the way to create a module: since we are learning as we go, there are inevitably going to be times we have to go back and redo stuff. In future, of course, when we do other modules, we will benefit from this learning process now and things will work more smoothly. But for the moment you will have to be patient with me while I redo some stuff.

Once that is done (hopefully tomorrow, as I will get it fixed before I add any more maps) I will sector in the remaining Keep South maps (jeweller's residence, priest's residence, the other tower maps etc) that Screeg has long since supplied (with .svbs!) and the other wilderness maps that there are (2 atm, never u mind where). Then I want to finish the swamp map for Allanon to sector (assuming he hasn't gotten bored waiting and wandered off) then I can fix up the dlg files that have been sitting around, and mob in a bunch of characters so anyone wanting to get involved will have it all ready for them. And tidy up new elements like the new stuff from Cuchulainn and Ace and Sheriff.

Sounds like a lot of work, but I seriously can't see it taking much more than a week. Sectoring new maps is second nature, mobbing doesn't take long and the dlg files are largely done. So lets say week and a half.

For now, off to church!