There we have it. According to an IGN rep in Korea…. Starcraft 2 is the next official game from Blizzard.
More news as it develops. I’m still eager to see whether it will be RTS or MMORPG
Update: source here http://pc.ign.com/articles/788/788627p1.html
Update: It’s an RTS…schweet!
Last Thursday night, I came into work after-hours and started moving all my shit into an office.
Since I started here at __, I worked in a simple cubicle; fairly typical of one’s first “real” job. I didn’t mind it all that much at the time, as they were paying me to sit next to modo and pretend to work. Don’t get me wrong, I did do actual work there, but it wasn’t exactly on par with the busyness of the New York Stock Exchange. I accepted the position while I was still attending Drexel (actually, I still am). My employer and I had agreed upon a decent salary that took into account the fact that I was able to leave for an hour a day to attend class, so that I can finish my degree. This agreement worked well for a while until recently.
A couple of months ago, modo quit. He had taken a job at ___, doing network administration. Titles for IT personnel are so deceiving…they never describe any actual job function.
“What do you do at ___?”
Well, I’m a network engineer.
“So, you basically work with switches and routers to create and optimize networks?”
Yea….about that: I do that, then I take care of users, I administer servers, I write procedures, I am responsible for the backup systems and offsite storage of said backups, as well as the administrator of the Nortel PBX, Blackberry….. (I could go on and on here).
Truthfully, the larger and more organized the company, the more your title begins to make sense. In a company of ___’s size, my title of network engineer fits that deceiving label. At modo’s new company, the job functions are more specialized. If you are a network engineer, you deal with the network….and let the call center take care of troublesome users that forget their network passwords. At my previous job at [a national ISP, cable and voice provider], I worked as a system administrator for the Microsoft group. There, I did not have to worry about the *nix systems, nor did I have to look at a router terminal screen. I worked with the Microsoft servers and applications. Then again, that company had 64,000 employees at the time, so there was more than enough people to take care of other specialized functions.
When modo quit, I was about 4 months away from receiving my degree. This would mean: no more taking time out from work to attend classes, and hopefully a modification to my salary. At the same time, I was also going to be semi-transferred to another department at the company (I say semi-transferred because I would basically be working both departments. I would be responsible for the corporate network/servers as well as the customer side of things). I had hoped that with modo’s quitting and the fact that my responsibilities tripled, I had some bargaining room…especially since I was about to have a college degree. I was wrong.
I thought about all that as I moved into my new office. The fact is, however, that I was never GIVEN an office. Instead…I just kind of took it. I had hinted to my direct boss and the VP that I was just going to move into one of the empty offices down the hall, but neither of them took it seriously; they just shrugged it off and said “sure”. To me, it seemed as if I did my due diligence. I expressed my intentions, so I was not springing a random surprise on them. Fuck em…they didn’t want to give me a worthwhile raise, I was going to make myself happy.
I now have a sweet setup. I have my laptop screen out of the view of passers by, and I have my desktop in a dual monitor configuration that allows me to actually get work done more efficiently. I no longer have to put up with my boss yelling over my cube “Yo Luke, can you come here” over some trivial thing that could have just as easily been done over Sametime or AIM. I have chairs so people can actually come talk to me and not have to stand and look over my shoulder. My boss comes to me now when he needs something…it’s a completely different world.
I compare it to the relationship changes one notices when he moves out of his parents’ house for the first time. While he is living there, he has to put up with over protective and smothering parents. A day in day out fight for independence; a struggle to not go insane from their constant barrage of questioning. “What time are you coming home, who are you going with, where are you going to be?” Who gives a fuck, I’m 24 years old and I’m leaving the fucking house to go have a good time…stop treating me like I’m 13 years old. Being an only child only intensifies this since they don’t have anyone else to worry about. Moving out changes that entire situation. Your parents are no longer just parents…they are your friends. The conversations you have are completely different. It is no longer them talking down to you…but as an equal. You are now on your own and able to take care of yourself, feed yourself, etc. Trivial things…but as parents they are used to you being their little one….the one they were used to taking care of. Proving (however easily it is) that you can survive on your own changes their entire perspective. It’s a magical feeling almost, and necessary for their own good.
Taking an office is for their own good too, they just don’t see it yet. I can now get shit done without having 30 people walk by my cube, looking over my shoulder, listening to who I’m talking to, and overall being a detrimental nuisance.
I’m still under appreciated, but at least I can take my mind off it.