I've decided to hold off on the computer replacement until hire. That ~$1500 might give me another month to get that job to save my house. That I figure is the important thing, and the wife's computer is fine for job hunting. That though means no semi-modern games, no MSVS, and nothing but J-pop...

And that's not the worst thing. The only job replies I've gotten in the past week are for low paying, low responsibility, contract, manual QA work. Even high paying, medium responsibilty, full time, semi-automated QA work was enough to drive me batty, erode my skills, and sink me into over a year of unemployment. Still, a paycheck is a paycheck.

I still can't get over all the advice given (by sites such as Sloper's) that advocate QA as a stepping stone. Such a total crock. Such advice might've been true one or two decades ago when test automation was done quite similarly to the actual product (assuming automation was done at all...) . With the advent and maturity of scripting languages (and subsiquent domination by wysiwyg automation tools at least in the non-game world) this isn't the case any more. The skills and knowledge don't really translate practically, and even if they did, there is no avenue to prove such skill exists. All QA work does for advancement is get you some social networking (assuming you're not at one of the many places that treat QA people worse than even tech support people), and networking you can get from the bar or an igda meeting... anything but such horrific work. I know that was a terrible argument, but a slightly satisfying rant at least.


Anyways, no MSVS means no Moe updates for some time. I know the updates didn't exactly enjoy a Skirmish-esque following, but sorry to anyone who did seem to enjoy them.


And no, my wife doesn't only have J-pop; it's just funnier that way.