It’s a little weird that Diablo III is online-only now…  The first two games had a single-player component that could be played completely offline.  No internet required.  But D3 requires you to sign in to Battle.net every time you fire up the game, and everything winds up being hosted by Blizzard.

I’m actually pretty OK with this…  I played most of my Diablo II games on-line anyway.  It was nice to have my characters stored on-line, so I didn’t have to worry about backing them up or anything like that.  And it got you access to some nice extras, like some of the special rune combinations.

But it’s still a little weird not to have any off-line option available…

And I’ve now run into some on-line issues.

I killed the Skeleton King a couple days ago…  Got an achievement for that.  And I went to the trouble of getting the “Instant Karma” achievement during that fight.  And, when I logged off that night, I saw both those achievements lit up correctly.

But, last night, those achievements were no longer lit up.  The servers apparently forgot about those achievements.  Which isn’t a big deal, since they’re relatively easy to earn…  But it’s a bit annoying.

And then, while I was playing last night, the servers started lagging.  My character started bouncing around the screen a bit.  Tried to pick up the same piece of loot about 5 times before it actually showed up in my inventory.  Then I got disconnected entirely.

Obviously some growing pains are expected with a new game like this…  But it’s still annoying.  And doubly-so since I’m basically playing single-player, but I’m being forced to deal with server issues anyway.

Well, I don’t know that I really missed out on much by going to bed last night and in to work today.  Looks like there were some server troubles today.  Can’t say I’m terribly surprised…

Granted, it is Blizzard…  If anyone has experience running massively popular games, it’s Blizzard.  But this is still a new launch, and it’s still an insanely huge launch.  So I’m not too surprised that there were some bumps along the way.

I got home around 5:00, and the game servers were down.  Played some SWTOR until they came up around 6:30 or so.

I got my assassin up to level 49 in SWTOR.  So close to 50 (and the end of Act III) that I can taste it.  But, of course, Diablo III is new…

So, I hopped into Diablo III…  Rolled up a monk.  Bashed my way through the first 10 levels of the game.  Played for about four hours or so.  Had a great time.  Punched lots of bad guys in the face, kicked some demons, killed undeads, etc.

Amazingly enough, somebody has already beaten the game.  I guess it took about 13 hours.  And I suppose that doesn’t surprise me much…  But I have to wonder if they had any fun.  Sure, that’s some nice bragging rights…  But now what?

So, I bashed my way through the first 10 levels.  Rescued Deckard Cain again.  Killed the Skeleton King.  Found some guy in a pit.  And now I’m off killing goatmen.

The gameplay is undeniably Diablo.  The same kind of mindless, addictive, repetitive button-mashing that made the first couple of games so much fun.  The same kind of loot system.  The same kind of pseudo-randomly built dungeons.  It’s all very familiar – but in a good way.

There are also some very nice tweaks…  Don’t have to carry around scrolls of identify or town portal.  Much easier to compare gear.  Quest guidance is a little more helpful.

So far, I’m definitely enjoying myself.  Can’t wait to see what else is in-store.

So…  Diablo III launches tonight.  In just a matter of hours.  But I don’t think I’ll see it.

I’d kind of vaguely planned on staying up at least long enough to log in and roll up a character…  But, realistically, that isn’t going to happen.  I have to be up at about 5:00 tomorrow morning to go in to work, which doesn’t leave a whole lot of wiggle room as far as late night gaming is concerned.

It’s a bit disappointing, too…  That last big launch I anticipated this eagerly was WoW, and I was there right at 3:00 AM when it launched.  Had one of the first characters on that server.  It’s always been a small point of pride for me, that I was there within minutes of the servers going live…

Ah well.

I’m going to be especially torn tomorrow night.

I spent the evening playing SWTOR, and things are really coming to a head.  I’m very nearly level 49, and I’m working on the last few missions on Corellia.  I should soon be facing Darth Thanaton again…  And wrapping up the third act of the game…  And hopefully hitting level 50…

That is, of course, if I actually log in and play SWTOR.  I think I’m going to have a hard time passing up Diablo III - at least for a little while, until the novelty wears off.

Monday again, back at work.

Gloomy weather again.  Normally I enjoy a grey, cloudy, stormy day…  But it’s been like this for for a few weeks now and the monotony is starting to get to me.  It’d be nice to break this up with some sun now and again.

Mother’s Day went relatively well, I think.  Terri and I went to see Dark Shadows, which was surprisingly decent.  Then we grabbed dinner, and spent the evening at home.  Nothing terribly amazing, but enjoyable none the less.

Diablo III launches tomorrow.  I have to say that I’m tempted to call in sick.  I won’t…  But I’m tempted.  I kind of wonder how many people will call in sick tomorrow.  This company is full of geeks and techies, I’d be amazed if none of them play hookey to play Diablo.

Played some more SWTOR over the weekend.  I’ve got my assassin up to 46 now.  I’d certainly have a character to 50 by now if I hadn’t re-rolled so many times…  The storyline is really coming to a head, and I’m quite curious to see how things resolve themselves.  And I’m eager to start over again on a new character and follow a new storyline through to completion.  Maybe a bounty hunter next…

The impending conflict between SWTOR and D3 has me a little miffed…  I really wish I’d started playing SWTOR sooner, or that I hadn’t re-rolled so many times, or something…  Once D3 launches I’m going to have to balance my time between two games.  Talk about first world problems.

There’s been some discoloration in our shower almost from the day we moved in.  I kind of always figured it was just mildew and if we were to really scrub things it’d go away.  I never really gave it much thought.  I mean – it isn’t like our tub was black and furry.  Just some greyish discoloration here and there.

But, over the years, it got more noticeable.  Darker.  A little bolder.  And no amount of scrubbing got rid of it.

Eventually I realized that it was time to re-grout the tub.  Maybe that should have been obvious a hell of a lot sooner…  But I’m new to the whole home-ownership thing.  It didn’t really occur to me that there was something I ought to be doing about this.

So, I bought a tube of caulk…  And a scraper…  And some kind of grout beading tool thing…  And, Friday night, gave it a go.

The first thing I noticed, much to my horror, is that there wasn’t actually any caulk there in the first place.  I’m not sure what they used to seal the tub…  But it had absolutely none of the rubbery texture that silicone caulk has – even after years of weathering.  It was very stiff, dry, brittle, crumbly.  More like some kind of glue than caulk.

It had also failed almost completely on every seam there was.  Which really doesn’t surprise me…  With absolutely no flexibility, it pretty much had to fail as the tub heated and cooled.

So, it turns out there’s be an awful lot of moisture seeping into those cracks and crevices, and I’m now quite concerned that we’ve got some real water damage back there.  But I can’t stop now, because what little protection that old crap offered is now gone, and I have to caulk up the seams as I’d planned to…

So, silicone caulk is pretty goopy.  Pretty sticky.  Made a horrible mess with it.  Had a hell of a time getting a nice bead on stuff.  Seems like it wanted to stick to me more than the bathtub, which was very annoying.

And then my caulk gun started to malfunction.  I don’t know if the gun itself broke, or if the tube of caulk did, or what.  But the was more caulk coming out the back with the plunger, than was coming out the front with the tip.  Which made everything even messier.  And then the plunger started slipping…

So I wound up having to shove the plunger down manually, instead of using the trigger/grip thing – which is much harder than it sounds.  And then I was basically scooping the caulk out of the back, and applying it with my fingers, and then trying to smooth it out with the tool…  Which quickly got absolutely covered in caulk.  Which made everything both slippery and sticky simultaneously.

It was an absolute mess, in more ways than one.  The seams look horrible, but they’re probably more waterproof than they’ve ever been.  I ruined a shirt.  I bashed up my knees.  I had to throw away my caulk gun.  And, when all is said and done, I’ll probably have to call in a plumber or something to do it right.

Ugh.

I’ve got my Sith Assassin up to level 43 now.  I think that makes her my highest-level character in SWTOR now.  I probably could have had a couple characters up to 50 by now if I hadn’t re-rolled multiple times.

So…  I’ve defeated Zash, and wound up in Thanaton’s crosshairs.  He tried to kill me, but I bound some ghosts and was able to withstand his assault.  And then I went looking for more ghosts so that I could actually defeat him.

Made my way through Taris, and picked up a new apprentice along the way…  I’ve started using Ashara as my go-to companion now.  She does terrific damage, and there’s a refreshing innocence to her.  A nice change from all the scheming and backstabbing that goes along with being a Sith.  But I always feel a little guilty seeing her slowly slip to the Dark Side.  Becoming a little less peaceful and serene, a little more angry and impulsive…  All while insisting that she’s a Jedi, not a Sith.

On Hoth, I picked up another new companion…  And I’m sorely tempted to use him instead of Ashara.  He’s a healer, which compliments my tank-y playstyle very well.  But he’s kind of annoying, and doesn’t have as appealing a personality as Ashara.

After binding another ghost on Hoth, I traveled back to Dromund Kaas to take on Darth Thanaton.  He threw another apprentice at me…  Which makes me wonder where he’s getting all of them.  I must’ve killed at least three or four of his apprentices by now.

So, I killed his apprentice…  Then went after Thanaton himself…  And that’s when things went all pear-shaped.

Channeling all those ghosts mid-fight turned out to be more than I could handle, and I pretty much exploded.  Force lightning everywhere.  Thanaton went flying.  I passed out.

Woke up a little while later to find out that I was falling apart…  Looks like my body can’t handle that much power and it’s ripping me apart.

So I wound up on Belsavis, looking for a piece of ancient Rakata technology.  Some machine to rebuild me so that I stop falling apart.

Once that was taken care of, I headed off to Voss to find out how to silence the now-insistent ghosts I’ve bound.  They keep popping up, telling me what to do, trying to wrest control of my body away from me.  Very annoying.

So I’m now working my way through the Voss storyline…  Which, so far, has been relatively peaceful – which is a refreshing change.  Lots more emphasis on diplomacy and scheming, less killing everything that moves.  And there’s some kind of interesting history/mystery between the Voss and the Gormak.