Speaking of Patterns...

There is one pattern I've not been too fond of this past week. That's been my inability to post any blog entries. No, I haven't died, nor have I given up DDO. Unfortunately, my favorite time to blog, early in the morning before I start work, has been consumed by the nefarious waste of my time... work.

I generally arrive at the office at least thirty minutes before I'm scheduled to begin working. During that time is when I try to bang out a blog entry and check up on game-related happenings. If I can't complete the entry during that time, I try to take advantage of my so-called break time. Between the two, I generally have enough time to put *something* together.

However, the pattern lately has been that as soon as I arrive, there's something waiting for me on my desk with at big "HELP!!!" scrawled across the top. Of course, the line that follows the imperative is "I have a deadline!"

Yeah, well, poor planning on your part does *NOT* constitute an emergency on mine.

But, then there's an email in my inbox *and* a voice message on my phone, all from the same person, as well. Of course, the voice of the user in the voice message is replete with panic and imploring me to drop everything to come to their rescue.

I have to wonder... why do architectural firms insist on hiring incompetent staff?

Oh, no, this isn't something unique to the firm I currently work for. Sadly, it's a trend I've noticed in all of the firms I've ever worked for.

Let's just say that these folks are the real-life equivalent of in-game n00bz!

No, I'm not talking about newbies. There's an immense difference between a newbie and a n00b. After all, the n00b is the one who just doesn't get it, regardless of how hard they try, or anyone else tries to help them. Sadly, the real problem with a n00b is that they either don't have the ability to recognize their n00bness, or they refuse to recognize their n00bness. As a result, they never learn anything new. Instead, they bully around insisting they know everything, and that no one else knows anything.

You know, before the vernacular of the MMO became popular, these people were commonly referred to as tools.

I have a serious problem with this reference, though.

Particularly because a tool is an implement used to accomplish some task. Especially a task that the user of the tool might not otherwise be able to complete without the tool. So, tools are useful. N00bz, though, are not.

It's somewhat similar to the way in which U.S. Marines used to be referred to as jarheads. The reference was due to the shape of the headgear (hat) they wear with their duty uniforms. Sadly, it's inappropriate to call a Marine a jarhead, because you can store things in a jar.

(Nothing like a little inter-service rivalry, eh!?!)

Actually, as much as I make fun of Marines, I wouldn't trade them for anything. I've had quite a few friends who were Marines, and both my step-dad and step-brother were once Marines. Except that I thought I'd have a better chance to fly helicopters with the Army, I might have become a Marine myself.

At any rate, Marines are useful, n00bz are not.

And the pattern with my place of employment is that the majority of my co-workers are real-life n00bz.

And, in a strange form of parallelism, you might say that my job as BIM/CAD manager is very much like my role as a Cleric in DDO; I spend an awful lot of time trying to keep people on their feet, to keep the group moving through the quest, and I even spend quite a bit of time and resources trying to raise drawing files from the dead.

And they wonder why I insist on taking my breaks and lunches.

Or that I insist on leaving on time, and not working over my weekends.

Mind you, I'm not saying that I'm any sort of über player in DDO, or that I even qualify as a "competent" Cleric.

But, I do recognize when things aren't working very well for me and I stop to evaluate what's going on and attempt to learn something about how to rectify the situation. I make the attempt to become better than I am, and to confer the benefits of what I've learned upon the people I'm responsible for helping.

Sadly, real-life right now, at least at work, is like running in the worst PUG (Pick-Up Group) you could conceive of.

Actually, consider it like this... I'm the sole Cleric (Level 9) in an elite PUG Dragon raid where the other eleven characters are zerging Level 8 Monks, where none are centered, none have any kamas or quarterstaves or handwraps to help them out, and none are carrying their own healing.

That's the kind of environment I work in.

If only I could re-roll myself into a career path that's less stressful...

Hmm...

In any event, I missed a couple of days of play, thanks to the Summer Olympics in Beijing. I really enjoy watching all of the athletes going out and putting forth their best effort in a competition amongst the very best competetors in their individual sports. It's inspiring, really.

But, I have a Titan raid to organize for this coming Friday. And Obsydiian still needs to complete Bring Me the Head of Ghola-Fan! and Slavers of the Shrieking Mines. Here's hoping I can find some groups to help get Syd ready for the raid.

Keep it fun!