Hi, folks. Still working on the next post, but everything has been a bit off-kilter this weekend. Doesn’t help that we lost water for a few days thanks to below-freezing temperatures, but it was still an accident. There were things that *may* have helped, but we had a pretty extreme situation. Some plumbing repair took care of the biggest problem, but we still have a tiny leak (that will become bigger…they always do) and some electrical re-location that needs to be done. We’re waiting for a time period of good temperatures, which should be coming up. A little bit more to look at after the fold.
Hey, you guys remember the adventures of Rix’larril’an? Once Rix reached Dromund Kaas we talked about “The Unfinished Colossus,” a giant metal statue Lord Qet was using to honor his master Darth Vowrawn? I remember somebody predicting that one or both would be a cat. Vowrawn is close, sort of; he’s a Pureblood Sith of indeterminate (meaning I didn’t look it up; it’s probably out there) age. He’s a major player in the Sith Warrior story on Corellia; comes off as a bit of a goofball. In reality he’s old, super-powerful, probably is in no real danger at any point, and is just having a bit of fun with the self-important “kids.” He ends up running the Sith Empire before too long. Anyways, here he is with Lord Qet (Vowrawn is in the middle, Qet is the bald guy on the right listening to him.

Here’s the statue, so you don’t have to go back and look:

Yeah.
Vowrawn is actually pretty cool, really. Qet isn’t the brightest, but he’s loyal. Super-loyal. We actually reach a point before long where the Sith Empire starts installing new Emperors instead of assuming the Emperor is just “preoccupied at the moment,” and Vowrawn is one of those. While he is “officially” a weak warrior but a master of strategy, I prefer to think of Vowrawn as one of the more capable Sith Lords whom gets his kicks from letting people think they have won…and if push comes to shove Vowrawn will just throw everyone against the wall with lethal force while he walks out of the room lamenting the lack of entertainment for a while.
I will be back with you shortly. The Final Fantasy playthrough is, if you haven’t guessed, about to move into a “larger world.” (drink) Allegedly we will gain access (already) to level 3 and 4 spells which are *very* expensive. Thus the recommendation that I engage in much grinding, so that I can afford the spells, so that I can accomplish the content necessary to beat in order to defeat the next story quest. We’ll see. The information presented thus far has maybe been too much? Maybe? I’m trying to make the play-through smooth, and the last time I played all the way through Final Fantasy 1 was *on* the NES years ago…I have played every other game, in some cases to 100% completion and more than once, since playing this game.
That’s it for this week, see you soon!
The Dumbest Cutscene

This is it. This is the dumbest cutscene ever created for a AAA game. It's so bad it's simultaneously hilarious and painful. This is "The Room" of video game cutscenes.
id Software Coding Style

When the source code for Doom 3 was released, we got a look at some of the style conventions used by the developers. Here I analyze this style and explain what it all means.
What Does a Robot Want?

No, self-aware robots aren't going to turn on us, Skynet-style. Not unless we designed them to.
Are Lootboxes Gambling?

Obviously they are. Right? Actually, is this another one of those sneaky hard-to-define things?
If Star Wars Was Made in 2006?

Imagine if the original Star Wars hadn't appeared in the 1970's, but instead was pitched to studios in 2006. How would that turn out?
Good luck getting water and power issues sorted out!