It’s Thanksgiving week. So we are not too hopeful that anything much is going to happen with the job situation. Any aspect of it. On Friday we were informed that today there was going to be a major conversation and that things were expected to be resolved. We got pretty suspicious of that when I was then told that the recruiters did not “expect to hear the results today but would expect to hear something in the morning.” That made no sense at all. If there was anything close to a resolution today the new job would be seriously anxious to let me know. Right now they have to be pretty nervous that I am looking at other options and would want to lock me in with a start date as soon as they possibly can. Especially as they have stated repeatedly just how important me starting before this Friday is. If they want me to start before Friday, and considering that Thursday is a holiday and that I will be traveling most of the week, the window to arrange that really closes, more or less, today. So the story that I have does not add up in any way.
Today was mostly a planning day. Dominica has been watching the weather and it looks like we have a big snow storm coming into our area on Wednesday so we are talking about leaving tomorrow instead to get ahead of the storm rather than getting stuck in it. So our week at home is going to be very short. I am sure that dad will be happy to find out that he will get the grandkids for several days, now, though. Although we have to be ready to run back down in case something changes with the job situation. But at this point we are assuming that getting started there this week, no matter how important that claimed that that was, isn’t in the cards. They have not been communicating with me for about two weeks now, so the chances that they are actually thinking that I am going to be starting this week has to be pretty low. That I am starting there ever is rapidly seeming to be less and less of a possibility. I really wrote them off a while ago, but I keep getting what appear to be fake updates stringing me along on this. I’m giving up even on that news after this. It’s just getting to be worthless.
We played some video games today. Dominica has her new collection of Rollercoaster Tycoon games to play and she is loving those. I played Tropico 3 today and did the initial level (Hippie Island) again and managed to beat it this time. That was fun. I tried it before and failed at it so had to do it again. This time I understood what was going on and had to problem crushing it. I like that game, it is a lot of fun. It is the perfect thing for a relaxing afternoon and keeping me occupied but is always very easy to pause when emails or calls come in so that I can shift gears quickly. I like that it is such a fun, while still casual, game. Dominica is enjoying playing Tropico 4 a little too.
This evening the girls were begging for me to play a game and Dominica has been wanting to watch me play Bioware’s Jade Empire. So tonight we set up in the bedroom, Dominica camped out on the bed and the girls gathered around me and we played an hour or two of Jade Empire which already I am liking a lot. The autumn in China graphics are just amazing to look at. Yes the technology is old and there is no denying that the game shows its age, but the artistry is excellent and you want to just wander around looking at the luscious locale.
So far, in the first two hours, the story of Jade Empire is looking like it is going to be good. Lots of back story, intrigue and character development happening already. Bioware never disappoints in story. This is the game that Bioware made after Knights of the Old Republic and before Mass Effect. So if that doesn’t give it some serious street cred, I don’t know what does. Sitting directly between two of the best story telling titles in video game history (or in all of literature for that matter) puts it in some good company. It has a lot to live up to. And being set in a Chinese-inspired medieval setting makes it unique and exciting too. This is the first original intellectual property for BioWare ever, as far as I know. Prior to this their RPGs were always D&D or Star Wars based. This is the game that really put them on the road to being their own company. So we are all very excited to get to play it. It is action-oriented so Dominica tends to not want to play those herself but she doesn’t want to miss the game so is planning on watching me play the entire thing. So this is a family event for us.
We played for a while then got the girls off to bed. Then Dominica and I watched a few episodes of Brooklyn Nine Nine before we were heading off to bed ourselves. This is, as far as we know, our last night at home for a week. We will not likely be coming home until next Monday (a week from today.) This is the longest that I will have been away from home in quite a while, probably all year. Dominica has been traveling a lot so it is nothing new for her and the girls.
The word from everyone upstate is that the huge snow that accumulated over the weekend has already melted and there is almost no sign of it left at this point. So our drive up should be just fine. We will be managing to avoid all of the bad snow from November, if we are lucky.