Whirly: good to go

I gave Borderlands another shot. The last time I installed it, my skype started to act up, the program I use to run two computers with one keyboard/mouse ‘Synergy’ stopped working, and Borderlands was very unstable, crashing after a few minutes play. I thought it was going to be my reason to switch to Windows 7 from XP, but I was able to recover by un-installing Borderlands and using System Restore.

This time I created a pre-borderlands restore point in System Restore, something I’ve never used before, and installed. I did not have Synergy running during install or while playing. This install’s results were the same as last time except I didn’t play long enough to know if the game was unstable.

I successfully removed Borderlands and used System Restore to return to my pre install state. First person shooters are not my favorite game style, so I’m not all that unhappy. I got sucked into the hype about the game knowing full well it probably wasn’t for me. I’m done.

I really like the crafting system in LotRO. I was able to created usable armor my very first try. I’ve been filling in the holes in our armor as we progress. It’s very rewarding to put in the effort. I can’t recall another game with a more usable crafting system.

We all dinged 16 last night. One thing I don’t like in LotRO is it seems to be a single player game at this level. We are able to kill mobs easily, or we are probably going to die. There is no middle ground. No sweet spot of fights that are challenging yet survivable. We get two or three good fights a night. Mark says things get better at 25, so we move forward.

I ran my class quest this morning. I received the Hunter’s Bear hat. Damn that’s an ugly hat. We’ve got an unwritten rule in games with ugly hats. No hiding your hat. Show what you wear. So I’m stuck till something better comes along.

I got sucked into Facebook. I’ve had an account for a long time, but I’ve ignored it completely. I think I signed up just to see what the buzz was about, or to look at a game. I was listening to the ‘This Week in Tech’ podcast and they mentioned ‘FarmVille’ on Facebook. I had to check it out.

FarmVille is simple, but I like the style enough to give it a day. Well, Facebook never leaves well enough alone. They are always trying to get you to hook up your friends – I’m not interested. In fact, I’ve ignored the few people who have found me till now. So they are flashing pictures of people I might want to add as friends. They keep showing people who went to my High School, and darn if I don’t know some of those people. I guess I was in a weakened state cause I invited a couple of them. Now I’m getting requests from people who know people I know and it looks like it will never end. I hate pick-up groups.

I purchased Borderlands yesterday. It’s not been a fun ride, but things seem better since I uninstalled it.

I found it to be very unstable. It would lock up while loading, or play for a while then lock. It also screwed up Synergy, which I use to control two computers with one keyboard/mouse. Of course I turned off Synergy while playing. Since install, when I use Synergy, it would connect/disconnect ever few seconds.

I was able to play a little after I found a note on the web about turning off display scaling, but it still locked up regularly.

I installed updated video drivers.

I installed updated Synergy on my Mac and PC.

I uninstalled Borderlands / rebooted = solved all problems.

$52 shot to hell.