Back from the Shadows Again

I've decided to start blogging again.

I am embarking on some new work projects that I need to collect my thoughts on.

I am also participating (NDA in place) in a (mumble) for a new version of (mumble).
I was disappointed with my efforts the last time - wanted to do more and help more, and i think/hope that blogging about it, with sufficient mumbling so that I am not violating an agreement, will keep me focused.

I am also hopeful that the NHL lockout will soon be history, and that I will have lots to say.

I am spending off time playing Guild Wars 2 and having a blast, but sometimes I let the GW2 forum annoy me.

Thankfully the 2012 election is over, but there are still plenty of political and historical stuff to whine about.

Since last I blogged, I have considerably increased my reading of other blogs, mostly political. I peruse the Atlantic and Andrew Sullivan and Charlie Pierce daily if I can. That probably says all it needs to about my political leanings.

We are also coming up on the Holidays, so I am sure I will have things to say and more time to say them.

I won't make any promises or threats about frequency.  I write a comment or two daily on various blogs and other places, but that is a disconnected experience, and the comments scatter to the wind. Every once in a while I like to reflect on my thoughts and re-examine, and that is harder to do if I have to recall them from the Phantom Zone. I think that growth and progress will be easier if I have a stupidity collection at hand.

(obscurity - the blog title is from a Firesign Theatre parody of a Gene Autry song "Back in the Saddle Again", which probably has different implications than it did in 1939.)

Reviving Oblivion

This blog has so far suffered from all work no play. That is hardly reflective of my real life. So let's talk about about Oblivion. This game is Bethesda Softworks to a T - monumental, beautiful, engaging, virtually limitless in depth, and a crash king. It is so Bethesda that even the console versions crash with regularity. The last official patch was ages ago (well, 4/30/07, ancient history for a PC game).

Fortunately some dedicated folks (Quarn & Kivan) have put together the UOP - the Unofficial Oblivion Patch. If you have played Oblivion on the PC, you will be more than amazed at the way crashes are minimized. I have now played days without crashing during the game. Admittedly, the game crashes to desktop on exit on my PC almost every time, but it never freezes the whole system like it used to. What amazes me most is that you can open and play games that were saved on pre-UOP versions of Oblivion - lots of times big patches are not backward compatible.

If you have played Oblivion before and took it out of your rotation because of the crashes, you should download this patch and give it another try. You can get the patch at (among other places) PlanetElderScrolls.

Have fun. Meanwhile, I'm heading back to my house on the waterfront to soultrap conjured creatures and recharge my Shadowhunt bow.