Paradigm Shift is briefly on hold, until a bit more of TF rolls out the door. I’m assuming you don’t want to know that interesting things happen in the time between them that I’m not going to tell you just yet, and that you’d be upset if I pulled the curtain early. It’s likely everything everyone expects, anyway, but you never know.

I won’t have weekly updates for a while, like I was doing before, but I’ll get things up as I get them done. Enjoy.

I had an opportunity to poke at the Star Trek Online beta for a couple of days before they closed down the beta server on Tuesday. While it’s not nearly as polished as Warcraft (which isn’t surprising, since it’s 5 years of development time behind) it does seem like it could be a fun distraction once in a while. I don’t know how much replay value or lasting power it’ll have.

I like the way they’ve built space combat. You have to pay attention to not only your ship’s integrity (health) but also its shields - which are divided into four sections: fore, aft, left, and right. The goal is to keep changing which shield side of your own is facing the enemy, while at the same time trying to stay focused on dropping a single face of the enemy’s shields so you can rip through their unprotected hull with a timely placed torpedo.

Mmm. Quantum torpedoes. Delicious. They’ve advanced further into the prime universe (not the alternate reality created by the last movie), approximately 20 years after Picard and the Enterprise-D. Spoilers! Spock’s missing (because he’s now in the alternate universe), Romulus is gone, the Klingons and the Federation are at war again, the Borg are back, and someone, somewhere, is having a good time on Risa without you. QQ. Also, Data’s alive and in command of the Enterprise-E. (Blame the android ‘B-4.’)

Ground combat (away missions) also makes partial use of the shield mechanic. I’m told this mode is almost a direct copy of Conan Online, but I never actually played that so I don’t know. When you’re not running missions with other players, your bridge officer NPCs can beam down with you to flush out the party slots. Unfortunately, they really like to stand there and pet their tribbles all day long.

After a lot of back and forth I’ve gone with my original idea. The alternative route wasn’t really panning out as I got further into it, but it did help me to find a better flow for this particular path.

In other news, I’m still not happy with where the next bit of TF is sitting, and I haven’t even looked at New Year’s Eve Part 2. It’s going to be a busy week next week, and I doubt I’ll have much time to work on anything again. The next deadline I’m setting for myself is February 5th, two weeks from today.

TF’s been delayed for a couple of weeks now, mainly since I can’t seem to get Temporal Soup for the Soul to flow as entirely well as I’d like. I’ve been struggling to improve it but it’s just not getting any better (and, admittedly, I’ve posted far worse). So! There it is. Love it, hate it, do what you will.

I had the next portion of PS queued up and ready to go along side of Temporal Soup. Then, as happens, I saw something completely random on TV (which I have since forgotten, but I think it was an advert) and it gave me an idea which I have been exploring. Now I have to decide whether to stick with my original plan, or go with the new route.

Gaaah, choices.

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a nice holiday. Mine was spent making nearly 4 gallons of wonderful soup, then only having half of the expected level of attendance. Anyone want a quart or eight of knephla soup? I daresay it’s almost better than Kroll’s.

This is why it’s a bad idea to give your kids pellet guns for gifts. They’ll want to try them out.

For those of you not… Here’s a present, anyway. TF: Fission has arrived.

Yes, I realize it’s not the expected next bit of Christmas Party. Soooooon.

I’ve really been enjoying my new camera. I picked up a Canon Digital Rebel XSi a couple of weeks ago - and while the name’s a little weird compared to what they slapped on the sticker in Europe (EOS 450D sounds more pro, in my opinion) it takes some great pictures and I’m having a lot of fun with it. I should probably pick up a couple of lenses in the coming year, if I find a bag of money on the side of the road… The kit lens that came with it (18-55mm) isn’t bad, though. I’d like a little more telephoto range, and a wide-angle macro lens would be awesome.

Most of the pictures currently on Metigoshe.US were taken with my old Kodak Z812 IS, but a few up there now are from the new camera.

Christmas Party: Day 1 (12/22). Day 2 (12/23). Day 3 (12/24). Day 4 (12/25). Day 5 (12/25 and 26).

The end!