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A belated happy Halloween to everyone \o/ I dressed up as a zombie hunter (read: wore two-thirds of Leon), and went out to Rosie/Julie/Justin's Halloween party and got rather drunk and had a wonderful time. Also went to see Video Games Live on Wednesday, which was great fun - we went out for some excellent Italian before hand, and the music was amazing, although I felt it needed more Chrono Trigger and less random blathering from the host. The music was a nice mix of genres and ages - there was the typical Zelda/Mario/Squeenix properties, but also Halo, MGC, an oldschool arcade medley, Warcraft and Starcraft, Metroid, Castlvania, and a surprisingly beautiful piece from Civ IV.
In Warcraft news, my guild is now 3/5 in Mt Hyjal (which is hella fun as a mage, although it makes my graphics card cry), and we're heading into SSC tomorrow. I've also started playing Warcraft III, which is surprisingly fun, even if Arthas is basically the ultimate retnub, and all of the humans other than Uther and Jaina are total idiots. Lordaeron deserves a kingdom-wide Darwin Award, because their fall really is their fault.
Also, I've started digging around in Warcraft fanfic, because apparently I hate myself. Illidan/Kael is really deeply fucked up, but also interesting and pretty hot >.> I'm ashamed to admit that yes, I ship it. And kind of Thrall/Jaina, because it's sweet and a little silly, and they're both made of epic win, even if Thrall likes leeroying, as Olv so eloquently put it XD
...Although I'm remembering now why I don't go to FF.net any more - I just found these little gems:
...And, of course, assorted other self-inserts, as they are very, very easy in an MMO-verse.
In Warcraft news, my guild is now 3/5 in Mt Hyjal (which is hella fun as a mage, although it makes my graphics card cry), and we're heading into SSC tomorrow. I've also started playing Warcraft III, which is surprisingly fun, even if Arthas is basically the ultimate retnub, and all of the humans other than Uther and Jaina are total idiots. Lordaeron deserves a kingdom-wide Darwin Award, because their fall really is their fault.
Also, I've started digging around in Warcraft fanfic, because apparently I hate myself. Illidan/Kael is really deeply fucked up, but also interesting and pretty hot >.> I'm ashamed to admit that yes, I ship it. And kind of Thrall/Jaina, because it's sweet and a little silly, and they're both made of epic win, even if Thrall likes leeroying, as Olv so eloquently put it XD
...Although I'm remembering now why I don't go to FF.net any more - I just found these little gems:
Arthas and Thrall: Homosexual Lovers by
After years of having a loving relationship with Thrall, Arthas feels he needs to end it.
Tamed
A young Blood Elf male Hunter goes to Ashenvale to catch himself one of the elusive Elder Ashenvale Bears, but when he finds a rare, purplish bear, the young Blood Elf gets much more than he bargained for. Yaoi, MM, Slash, PwP.
...And, of course, assorted other self-inserts, as they are very, very easy in an MMO-verse.
4. Itchy. Tasty
Oct. 23rd, 2008 01:31 amSo the pre-WotLK world event got released today, and it's a zombie plague which players can contract and spread. It's lots of fun, although in some cases a little buggy (Shattrath City is a sanctuary, so nobody can fight back against zombies there).
So, in honor of this, have some awesome music.
So, in honor of this, have some awesome music.
Posting this here, as I don't want to actually get involved in the wankfest, but aaaaargh must say something somewhere *froth* Basically, WoWInsider posted a short interview with a GBLT-positive guild on US-Proudmoore. There were a surprisingly large number of positive comments, but of course the inevitable internet wankfest occured (complete with Godwin!), and in among the back and forth, there was a special little comment that got looked over in the general melee, and made me seethe with rage.
( internet stupidity and my unposted reply to it )
....There, that feels a little better now. I almost want to go roll and alt on Proudmoore, because that guild sounds full of win and awesome, but I have too many alts, and I don't think I could leave my awesome DotA gals ♥
( internet stupidity and my unposted reply to it )
....There, that feels a little better now. I almost want to go roll and alt on Proudmoore, because that guild sounds full of win and awesome, but I have too many alts, and I don't think I could leave my awesome DotA gals ♥
So, just a quick gem from my stats homework - someone, in a test of Murphy's Law, dropped almost ten thousand pieces of buttered toast and recorded which side it landed on. Statistics say that Murphy was right, and toast does land buttered side down more often (62.11% of the time)
Useful Discoveries of the Evening
Sep. 27th, 2008 01:39 am1) The PS3 can play AVIs off of data DVDs. No more hunching over my little laptop screen!
2) My tv remote works on both televisions (likely because they're the same brand)
This makes up for dealing with arguably the club's biggest asshole - not J (surprisingly!) but George. He doesn't come by much, but he came for the icebreaker tonight, and Christ, I don't have the words to describe how much of an asshole he is. He gets his kicks fucking over as many people as possible.
2) My tv remote works on both televisions (likely because they're the same brand)
This makes up for dealing with arguably the club's biggest asshole - not J (surprisingly!) but George. He doesn't come by much, but he came for the icebreaker tonight, and Christ, I don't have the words to describe how much of an asshole he is. He gets his kicks fucking over as many people as possible.
Webhost Stupidity
Sep. 16th, 2008 03:02 pmMan, I kinda want to punch whoever set up the club's hosting plan (I think I know who it was, and I won't _actually_ punch him, but it's tempting). I know my host for T-T.org here can be problematic sometimes (usually about billing - never had tech problems), but seriously, I'm getting roughly ten times the features for the same price the club pays. I was trying to install Gallery, so we can have some online photo albums of events, and discovered that I couldn't install Gallery2, because trying to add a second MySQL database (the first is used for the forums) failed because "The total cost of the resources you are trying to purchase exceeds your credit". So I went back to Gallery1 (less awesome than 2, but still awesome), and then discovered I had to install an image processing library myself, because the host has no image processing libraries installed - I don't think it has any Perl modules installed at all.
I did finally get it all working, though, and it has reminded me of two things - 1) I have gotten really rusty at webstuff and 2) despite that, I still enjoy working on webstuff, and the satisfaction that comes from fixing all the problems with something.
I did finally get it all working, though, and it has reminded me of two things - 1) I have gotten really rusty at webstuff and 2) despite that, I still enjoy working on webstuff, and the satisfaction that comes from fixing all the problems with something.
Concentration
Sep. 14th, 2008 02:55 amA late-night post because while I'm tired, I can't sleep. A little bit of QQ here, although I feel entitled as 1) this is my blog and 2) I haven't done all that much whining here recently, except about how much I hate my job. I was reading through some of my old entries, looking for something, and I started thinking about how it seems like my creativity has become all but non-existent lately. I know I was never one of those people who posted tons of fic or whatever, but I do have a sizable collection of fragments of things, almost none of which have been written in the last two and a half years. And part of my problem, I think, is that along with feeling increasingly zombie-like, all the time, I've also been losing my ability to focus on things. One of the reasons I haven't been blogging much is that while I have things I'd like to talk about, I can't string the ideas together in a way that's coherent (heh, even this post is getting a little garbled). It's frustrating, because it makes me feel useless, and so far, there's no medical reason for me to feel this way - I've had a ton of tests done, and everything has come up totally normal. The next step is trying out a few possible meds to deal with the tiredness, one of which is used off-label to treat ADHD, so I'm hoping that works out.
...I'm not even entirely sure why I'm posting this. While frustrating, I'm not actually massively upset about this (particularly as it will change nothing, other than making me feel more like crap) - guess I just feel like talking.
...I'm not even entirely sure why I'm posting this. While frustrating, I'm not actually massively upset about this (particularly as it will change nothing, other than making me feel more like crap) - guess I just feel like talking.
State of Gaming
Sep. 13th, 2008 03:23 pmBecause the only other thing I have to blog about is school, and there's not much to say about that - genetics is win, biostats is easy, everything else is alright. So, gaming it is!
Earthdawn: Managed to escape almost certain death with only a Horror mark and an ancient ritual written on metahuman skin >.> The ritual may help us accomplish our goal of sealing away one of the nastiest Named Horrors in the world, but it may be all lies. We haven't killed J's warrior yet, but only because we need the meatshield.
Shadowrun I: has been canceled in a fit of fanboy rage over the newest book, to be replaced by...
Mage: We haven't actually started playing yet, but I'm excited. We've got a pretty cohesive group going, aside from perhaps the mixed martial artist (J, again).
Shadowrun II: We finally got through the first adventure! And also witnessed the opposite ends of the fixer spectrum - Predator's gang contact, Jorge, and Harlequin's high-class fixer, Byron (yes, he looks somewhat like the Byron. And hangs around gentlemen's clubs).
World of Darkness: Soon to be a Hunter: The Vigil campaign! My character's lab has been infested with evil rats who are stealing lab equipment and brewing things in the fume hoods at night :<
World of Warcraft: Hit 70, started raiding. It's fun! Not much else to say than that XD
Earthdawn: Managed to escape almost certain death with only a Horror mark and an ancient ritual written on metahuman skin >.> The ritual may help us accomplish our goal of sealing away one of the nastiest Named Horrors in the world, but it may be all lies. We haven't killed J's warrior yet, but only because we need the meatshield.
Shadowrun I: has been canceled in a fit of fanboy rage over the newest book, to be replaced by...
Mage: We haven't actually started playing yet, but I'm excited. We've got a pretty cohesive group going, aside from perhaps the mixed martial artist (J, again).
Shadowrun II: We finally got through the first adventure! And also witnessed the opposite ends of the fixer spectrum - Predator's gang contact, Jorge, and Harlequin's high-class fixer, Byron (yes, he looks somewhat like the Byron. And hangs around gentlemen's clubs).
World of Darkness: Soon to be a Hunter: The Vigil campaign! My character's lab has been infested with evil rats who are stealing lab equipment and brewing things in the fume hoods at night :<
World of Warcraft: Hit 70, started raiding. It's fun! Not much else to say than that XD
I meant to post this about two weeks ago, but I finally finished crafting and gemming Alixia's Frozen Shadoweave Set - I wanted to thank everyone who helped me out with it <3<3<3<3
Also, I finally finished the Cipher of Damnation questline, which means next on the list for the Champion of the Naaru title is heroics. However, I've never tried any of the really hard heroics, and I have nooo idea if my gear is up to spec - any knowledgeable mages who can help me out :)? Amory page is here
Also, I finally finished the Cipher of Damnation questline, which means next on the list for the Champion of the Naaru title is heroics. However, I've never tried any of the really hard heroics, and I have nooo idea if my gear is up to spec - any knowledgeable mages who can help me out :)? Amory page is here
Anime Evolution '08
Aug. 29th, 2008 10:51 pmMostly just an excuse to post the photos, which are here, as I am way too unfocused (and have been for most of the year x.x) to do a nice blow-by-blow recap, and it would probably boring as all hell anyway. I ended up going to barely any events because all the ones that looked like they might be interesting were at times where I was getting really tired, really hungry, or both. So I spent a lot wandering around looking at the costumes and having photos snapped of me (everybody digs Leon!). The cosplay was pretty average - nothing really terrible, not too much really great - there were a few gems there, which I tried to get photos of. The one 'con' event I did go to were the two Academie Duello workshops, longsword and rapier, which were both really fun - I'm really tempted to sign up for lessons there, but it's pretty expensive :<
Dealer's Room swag:
-Tokyo Babylon 1 & 7 in English
- Fruits Basket 12-15 in English (slowly catching up!)
- CCS doujin "Honey" - a Tomoyo-Sakura friendship story, and a shorter Touya/Yuki romance story. The art is super-cute, although it's pretty short.
...Yeah, not a lot. The dealer's room was actually pretty well-appointed, but I've seriously cut back on my merch-buying, and all the series I want stuff for are super-old in terms of anime and nobody carries stuff for them any more (hence why I snatched up the CCS doujin)
Dealer's Room swag:
-Tokyo Babylon 1 & 7 in English
- Fruits Basket 12-15 in English (slowly catching up!)
- CCS doujin "Honey" - a Tomoyo-Sakura friendship story, and a shorter Touya/Yuki romance story. The art is super-cute, although it's pretty short.
...Yeah, not a lot. The dealer's room was actually pretty well-appointed, but I've seriously cut back on my merch-buying, and all the series I want stuff for are super-old in terms of anime and nobody carries stuff for them any more (hence why I snatched up the CCS doujin)
A Garden Tale
Aug. 10th, 2008 11:12 pmSo I haven't talked about my garden recently - time to change that!
At the beginning of summer, I had my doubts anything was actually going to grow. We had a really long, cold, wet spring, and a lot of the stuff I planted looked all sad and wilted in June. However, we've had some really nice days in the last few weeks, and it's exploded with growth - the downside to this is that it has also exploded with weeds, because I am a lazy slacker :< This year was sort of an experiment, too, as it's the first time I've ever done a garden entirely by myself. I've learned a few things for next summer - more compost in the soil, plant tomatoes farther apart, figure out some way to keep the strawberries off the ground so the ants don't eat them all.
The last two weeks have marked the first major harvests from my garden - I had a few strawberries in July, but less than a handful total. My tomatoes are starting to ripen (and nothing beats home-grown tomatoes picked ripe off the vine), and my zucchini have gotten massive.
Jon and I cooked the one above up today, along with some steak I had in the freezer. We did half of it fried (egg/milk dip then cornmeal/flour/salt and pepper dip), which was tasty, but a little too greasy when paired with the steak. The rest we turned into a sort of baked parmesan zucchini-thing. The topping is breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, oregano, chopped basil (also fresh from the garden!), fresh crushed garlic, and some salt and pepper. They turned out really tasty, even though I added a little too much salt - all the seasoning was a nice complement to the less seasoned steak. Unfortunately the topping is really crumb-y - I was hoping when I baked it the cheese would melt and make it all stick together, but no such luck. I think next time I'm going to add either a more melty cheese, like some mozzarella, or some beaten egg to the mixture to get it to stick better.
At the beginning of summer, I had my doubts anything was actually going to grow. We had a really long, cold, wet spring, and a lot of the stuff I planted looked all sad and wilted in June. However, we've had some really nice days in the last few weeks, and it's exploded with growth - the downside to this is that it has also exploded with weeds, because I am a lazy slacker :< This year was sort of an experiment, too, as it's the first time I've ever done a garden entirely by myself. I've learned a few things for next summer - more compost in the soil, plant tomatoes farther apart, figure out some way to keep the strawberries off the ground so the ants don't eat them all.
The last two weeks have marked the first major harvests from my garden - I had a few strawberries in July, but less than a handful total. My tomatoes are starting to ripen (and nothing beats home-grown tomatoes picked ripe off the vine), and my zucchini have gotten massive.
Jon and I cooked the one above up today, along with some steak I had in the freezer. We did half of it fried (egg/milk dip then cornmeal/flour/salt and pepper dip), which was tasty, but a little too greasy when paired with the steak. The rest we turned into a sort of baked parmesan zucchini-thing. The topping is breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, oregano, chopped basil (also fresh from the garden!), fresh crushed garlic, and some salt and pepper. They turned out really tasty, even though I added a little too much salt - all the seasoning was a nice complement to the less seasoned steak. Unfortunately the topping is really crumb-y - I was hoping when I baked it the cheese would melt and make it all stick together, but no such luck. I think next time I'm going to add either a more melty cheese, like some mozzarella, or some beaten egg to the mixture to get it to stick better.
I love brownies so much, but I still can't seem to get the hang of making them nice and moist - my latest batch went really crumbly (still tasty, though). Maybe next time I'll just make batch of batter and eat it uncooked >.>
I also stumbled across this really awesome website about bento lunches, which makes me want to go to Daiso and get a cool lunch box and make myself interesting lunches. I'm not sure I really have the patience for it - I rarely have the patience to cook 'real' dinners as I don't have a microwave to make things fast or a dishwasher to clean lots of cookware in - but I know I should, as I end up eating at 7-11 way too often (most of the pre-made food from our deli is kinda crap)
I also stumbled across this really awesome website about bento lunches, which makes me want to go to Daiso and get a cool lunch box and make myself interesting lunches. I'm not sure I really have the patience for it - I rarely have the patience to cook 'real' dinners as I don't have a microwave to make things fast or a dishwasher to clean lots of cookware in - but I know I should, as I end up eating at 7-11 way too often (most of the pre-made food from our deli is kinda crap)
Meet the Team
Jul. 9th, 2008 03:16 pmSo I finally ran my very first game ever last week - the first (hopefully of many) Shadowrun session with this particular group. So by way of introduction, here's a quick run-down of the team members:
Harlequin: Human social adept, and the team's face. Cultured, handsome, and above all, better than you. Team member most likely to get killed by a pyschotic immortal elf for stealing his name.
Life Goal: Tobe loved get filthy rich and retire.
Ace: Human elf-poser rigger and mechanic. Has long blond hair and a gold lamé bomber jacket. Can drive almost anything (or so he'd have you believe).
Life Goal: To own his own airport.
Predator: Troll cybersam. Obsessed with late 20th and early 21st century science fiction. Spends much of his time running around with an optical camo suit on, and a monofilament sword. Team member most likely to get the rest of the team killed doing something silly.
Life Goal: To become the Predator (or at least as close as plastic surgery can get him).
Jenkins: Human technomancer. Arrogant know-it-all, and the team's matrix wiz kid. Team member most likely to get killed by the rest of the team for being too irritating.
Life Goal: ???? (Profit?)
iPhansi: Seattle-born South African elf (in SR, there are black people in Johannesburg), and a Zulu shaman. Could make a fortune sitting around enchanting all day, but has dedicated herself to iradicating the nasties of the spirit world - in Earthdawn terms, she'd be a 1st circle Nethermancer/Horror Stalker, and questor of Death.
Life Goal: To stop the next Scourge.
For the first session, I ran one of the pre-built into adventures, which worked out okay, except the troll is a killing machine, and I didn't do enough prep and kept having to look things up in the book >.> It's an encounter with some gangers in a Stuffer Shack (basically a 7-11 on steroids), and ended with the troll forcing one of the gangers to buy him a new Slurpee after his first one got shot in the fight (the team's only casualty).
Harlequin: Human social adept, and the team's face. Cultured, handsome, and above all, better than you. Team member most likely to get killed by a pyschotic immortal elf for stealing his name.
Life Goal: To
Ace: Human elf-poser rigger and mechanic. Has long blond hair and a gold lamé bomber jacket. Can drive almost anything (or so he'd have you believe).
Life Goal: To own his own airport.
Predator: Troll cybersam. Obsessed with late 20th and early 21st century science fiction. Spends much of his time running around with an optical camo suit on, and a monofilament sword. Team member most likely to get the rest of the team killed doing something silly.
Life Goal: To become the Predator (or at least as close as plastic surgery can get him).
Jenkins: Human technomancer. Arrogant know-it-all, and the team's matrix wiz kid. Team member most likely to get killed by the rest of the team for being too irritating.
Life Goal: ???? (Profit?)
iPhansi: Seattle-born South African elf (in SR, there are black people in Johannesburg), and a Zulu shaman. Could make a fortune sitting around enchanting all day, but has dedicated herself to iradicating the nasties of the spirit world - in Earthdawn terms, she'd be a 1st circle Nethermancer/Horror Stalker, and questor of Death.
Life Goal: To stop the next Scourge.
For the first session, I ran one of the pre-built into adventures, which worked out okay, except the troll is a killing machine, and I didn't do enough prep and kept having to look things up in the book >.> It's an encounter with some gangers in a Stuffer Shack (basically a 7-11 on steroids), and ended with the troll forcing one of the gangers to buy him a new Slurpee after his first one got shot in the fight (the team's only casualty).
A Strange Life
Jun. 26th, 2008 02:19 amSo I'm pretty sure I got drunk-dialed by my mother earlier this afternoon. She called from NC, and rambled somewhat incoherently at me for about ten minutes, largely about how much she missed me and how I should come to a family reunion again one of these years (I avoid them whenever possible), and I was left with the distinct impression that she was well into a bottle of wine or something.
Anyway! I keep meaning to update, but apparently I have the attention span of a goldfish on speed, which is to say about two seconds. Unwired is finally out, and it's freaking awesome, but I will keep my nerding to myself, as I don't think there are any other SR players reading this XD; Played some D&D 4th Ed, and had more fun than I thought I would. It's become a bit MMO-like, but I think generally in good ways.
In the real world, the weather is finally summer-like, and I've got the first few strawberries from my garden, which have been delicious. Work is still crazy and people are getting stressed out and cranky, but we're hiring new people right now, which should help. Started doing fall course selection today, and wound up wanting to beat my head against a wall in frustration, because apparently the UBC Biology department is full of stupid (although I realized this when they didn't blind-copy the recipients on the major acceptance email - the list of e-mails was longer than the body text). I have a week before I register still, though, so I'll get it all sorted out. I'm trying to go for an English Lit minor, which means of course lots of classes with only one offering time, which complicates things. Ah well.
Anyway! I keep meaning to update, but apparently I have the attention span of a goldfish on speed, which is to say about two seconds. Unwired is finally out, and it's freaking awesome, but I will keep my nerding to myself, as I don't think there are any other SR players reading this XD; Played some D&D 4th Ed, and had more fun than I thought I would. It's become a bit MMO-like, but I think generally in good ways.
In the real world, the weather is finally summer-like, and I've got the first few strawberries from my garden, which have been delicious. Work is still crazy and people are getting stressed out and cranky, but we're hiring new people right now, which should help. Started doing fall course selection today, and wound up wanting to beat my head against a wall in frustration, because apparently the UBC Biology department is full of stupid (although I realized this when they didn't blind-copy the recipients on the major acceptance email - the list of e-mails was longer than the body text). I have a week before I register still, though, so I'll get it all sorted out. I'm trying to go for an English Lit minor, which means of course lots of classes with only one offering time, which complicates things. Ah well.
So apparently J doesn't understand the concept of 'no', and showed up to game tonight anyway. Almighty GM apparently doesn't care enough to actively drive him away, but I'm pretty pissed. J is a disgusting excuse for a human being, and dealing with him is starting to take the fun out of gaming for me.
Dear Catalyst Games Lab, please stop taunting me with Unwired previews. It looks sexy and awesome, and you guys said it as going to be released in the second quarter of '08. And, well, it's the middle of June now.
Also, while many of the posts on Dumpshock make me wish I had a machine to punch people through the internet with (typical fanboy attitudes of 'because I like it, it must be right, and anyone who disagrees with me is an idiot), I am occasionally reminded of how awesome it, when I come across things like geneticists debating the method of expression of metatypes.
Also, while many of the posts on Dumpshock make me wish I had a machine to punch people through the internet with (typical fanboy attitudes of 'because I like it, it must be right, and anyone who disagrees with me is an idiot), I am occasionally reminded of how awesome it, when I come across things like geneticists debating the method of expression of metatypes.
