Pith and Vinegar

So, I’ve applied for college, been offered a spot, and accepted. I’m doing “Computer Systems Technician: Software Support,” which is fancy talk for “programming.”

Yesterday I went up to do my assessment at Mohawk College. It’s a mandatory thing, but, they point out, is only for assessing my current level of ability and won’t affect my entry into the course.

There were two general sections: Communications and Technology Math. Communications was broken down into a 500-word essay (timed for one hour) and a multiple-choice reading-comprehension section. Technology Math was also multiple-choice and timed, and featured ten different sections.

No spellcheck, no calculators, nothing.

So how’d I do? Considering I haven’t done any of this stuff in over a decade, quite well, I thought.

My essay was graded 5/6, which my invigilator called “very good.” Reading comprehension was 120/120, which had her excited. She was late showing me my marks because she had to show that part around to the other invigilators. Apparently they don’t see it very often.

Math? Well…. I blew through the first five sections (“Business Math”) with no difficulty. Easy as pie. Then I got to algebra. What is (3x²2y³)/4x³? Damned if I know. Went downhill from there. There were some where I guessed, and some which I left blank because I had no clue whatsoever.

So I got 69% on Math. They’re looking for at least 80%.

They did, however, give me a URL which should help brush up on my skills, and also offered a free tutoring service for the summer.

So things are looking pretty good so far.

So earlier this year (mid-January), some friends of mine gifted me two months’ worth of time on World of Warcraft. Thus, this time expired on March 14th. On March 10th or so, I got a reminder that my time was due to expire. After this point, I didn’t look at my account, because I knew what its status was. Or so I thought.

Last week I got a notice from Blizzard that my WoW account was being closed due to a violation of the Terms of Service. Specifically, my account had been involved in the exchange of in-game materials (items and currency) for real-world money.

So I did what most people would do. I tried logging in to my account on the Battle.net site so I could check my account status. Username seemed to work. My old password seemed to work. I was asked to type in the six-digit code on my Battle.net Authenticator.

I don’t own a Battle.net Authenticator.

Uh-oh.

Presumably, whoever currently controls my account owns one.

So I sent a response to Blizzard about my situation, being as helpful as possible; I included my current IP address so they could do their best to compare it to their records. Yesterday they responded, saying they were forwarding all their relevant data to a “specialist” to go over, but in the meantime they’ve changed my account’s password so that, if it has been appropriated, the other party can’t do anything with it either.

The longest period they could have had my account is about five weeks. Hopefully they haven’t done too much damage to my existing characters in that time. If they have, and even if I never get access to that account ever again, it’s not a huge deal. It’s more an annoyance than anything else, one which I would rather avoid if possible. What really bugs me, I think, is the character assassination. I don’t want Blizzard to think I’m a guy who runs around buying and selling in-game commodities, even if it’s only a notation somewhere in a computer. I like to think I’m a pretty decent, honourable guy.

None of my characters were very high-level. I think the highest was around 45, and that one didn’t often get played. Most were around the mid-20s. None of them had any particularly rare gear. I didn’t keep much in the bank except for a few items I’d be able to use once I’d gained a level or two, and Seasonal items which weren’t any good outside their respective holidays.

I did make a killing on the auction house with a couple of them, so they had several hundred gold. That’s the only thing I could consider a major loss, but I could recoup that given enough time with my mining pick.

Oh, well. I should hear back from the specialist in a few days. Wish me luck.