Adventure Games

Again, thank you for the five-thirty wake up call, cat! Well, at least I got an extra half hour. Food? You’re waking me up because you want food? How much food can you stuff into that tiny body of yours? Sheez! At six she’s eaten as much as she wanted and now she’s off outside.

Work is again busy – more people arriving, needing a ‘How to’ guide to South Africa, etc. I finally get to the deadline-task, though!

Oh, and I called the Agent and set the time for eleven on Saturday. And please return my spare keys. The latter resulted in a stream of empty-headed babble: ‘Oh? Do we have your spare key? Why would we ... well, we do have a box with keys in it, I’ll have a look if maybe your keys are in that box, and I’ll ask the manager ... etc. etc.’ I practice for Saturdays ordeal and manage to keep silent while this stream of babble washes over me ... or rather grates through me like nails down a chalk board! You keep keys to tenants homes somewhere in a box? So, basically, your cleaner could help herself to any set of keys at any time – if he/she were that way inclined? No, no, no – let go, switch off, blank your mind, do not go down that dark and hollow road!

Click.

I still don’t know who was behind the pastries on my desk yesterday. Our electrician adamantly denies responsibility – yet, neither myself, nor my lone female colleague can think of anyone else who would pull something like this off. Maybe I’ll never know! I can live with that. My colleague can’t ha ha! It’s kept her awake last night trying to figure out who it could be!

The online game I admin is gearing up for a new feature, called Adventures. Being a fairly typical strategy game, once you’ve reached a certain size, the game becomes mostly a waiting game – everything you need to unlock, build, etc takes longer and longer the further you’ve advanced in the game. And to alleviate the boredom, the devs have come up with these Adventures. The trick with Adventures, however, is going to be co-ordination within fellowships. Allocating tasks, setting targets, updating on progress, re-adjusting targets, communicating. And with our fellowship spread across all time-zones (Japan, Canada, UK, South Africa, etc) chat is fairly silent lately. So someone has to send fellowship messages (i.e. to all). I still don’t fully understand how Adventures will work – but I’m reading up on what the Beta Players publish. And, as a sort of trial, I’m co-ordinating Tournaments in a similar manner. The response is not overwhelming, but at least there is some, and we at least stand a chance at participation.

Yay! Our Archmage has taken organising Adventures upon himself! I AM glad of that! That’s a big load off my shoulders! He’s loaded a spreadsheet to google docs, where we can track out progress. Apparently they’re starting tomorrow and I sure ain’t ready! This means I can sit back, relax, and participate as just another fellow – no added admin!

Just as I ways reflecting how cute it was to have Silver’s pink nose poking through the fence, anticipating my arrival and how quickly I’m taken for granted, I hear her meowing along as she comes running up to me to insist I open up and fill her bowl. NOW. If you please! Once she’s full she curls up on the chair by the table. After I’ve eaten she wants to go out – but looks at me first, sitting in front of the open door as if asking if it’s ok. I suppose she didn’t like being locked out when she got back too late. I’m beginning to think she’s only here due to her pregnancy – not being quite as agile, and needing loads of food for her kittens, as this is the wrong time of year for cat pregnancy. I’m sort of the pregnancy-support – and once she’s given birth, I wouldn’t be surprised if she went back to her straying ways.

But tonight, I’d like an early night. Nice hot bath and then curling up with a purring cat, if she’s there, if not just with my audio book. I’m listening to A Caribbean Mystery again by Agatha Christie. Another lovely Miss Marple – unabridged.