Feh?

Jeannine and Emily, this is for you.

sovht — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:54:06 GMT

I was doing some stuff the other day, idly watching TV and "The Dog Whisperer" came on. If you don't know, this show is like a nanny show but for people who don't know how to handle their dog.

So the dog owner is this cute but kind of flat-chested girl ... whose name is Nelson. It was actually a guy. When I say this guy looks like a girl, I mean even Matt was couldn't believe it. Even after you know it's a guy, it's hard to believe.

Nelson Chang is the most androgenous person I have ever seen. Down to his voice. In fact, I dont know that androgenous is enough. lol

I would provide you with pictures but I have to figure out how to capture them off our TiVo.

I wish I could show you a clip.

The Episode is Pesky Paris (Paris is Nelson's dog's name).

Gaming Weekend Unconfirmed

sovht — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 17:47:18 GMT

Hello everyone,

It's easy to reach multiple people from here, so here goes. =P

There is interest in teh gaming weekend *but* most people can't commit due to July being a busy time. I'll try to work something flexible out with my parents for the weekend of the 17th (Friday would be the 21st). And the rest of you can try to figure out your crazy schedules.

ITHACA in my future

sovht — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 22:29:18 GMT

I'm going to be in Ithaca from July 13th through the 24th.

I need a couple things in this time:
1) I have a place to stay for my time, but if Jim and Nina or Judd and Janaki wouldn't mind, it would be cool to stay with one of you for some of the time as well.
2) I need someone to give me a lift to the Syracuse airport on Monday the 24th for a flight at about 5pm.

To the Gaming crew, you know who you are:
I worked it out so that I have 2 weekends to spend in Ithaca and if everyone is not too busy I would LOVE to get my game on with all of you.

I also had an idea in passing: my parents have a country house about 1.5 hours (I think) from Ithaca, and it's *beautiful* out there. I easily have room for 6-7 people and, if people were flexible, I'm sure we could get more. So, check your calanders and see if one of those weekends might make a good get-away weekend for you all, and maybe we could have a gaming retreat. If everyone is too busy I understand but I thought it could be a lot of fun.

I'm probably going to email the lot of you about my idea as well, but gimme some response (email/phone/post a reply) so I can gauge the interest in this. I'm already thinking about what gluten-free goodies we could prepare. There are 3 queen size beds, one single, and a couch in the house already, so if we're creative we could probably fit more people.

Please get back to me! =)

PS Mirrormask was excellent.

Obfuscated English (Post! Ye Bastards!)

sovht — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 23:53:52 GMT

Intro:
I'm sure most of you are familiar with "Obfuscated Perl". It's the idea that the syntax of the Perl code can be so obscure that what the program does is essentially unintelligible.

Well, what I want to do is amass a collection of English phrases and sentences whose meaning(s) are so obscure or ambiguous as to be nearly unintelligible. I think if I can come up with a list of phrases that is sufficiently long, it will be a rather amusing testament to the absurdity of the English language.

Rules:
1) Archeaic words and grammatical structures are fair game.
2) Olde/Middle English is *not*.
3) Obfuscation through specialization is off limits, it's too easy. This means to net-speak or medical terminologies etc.
4) Verbosity should be avoided. The idea is to boggle, not to bore.
6) Ambiguity is (also) encouraged.

What I want from you (please!):
As many bizzarre phrases/sentences as you can come up with. Post them here please! Link me to anyone you think would have fun coming up with stuff. I may also accept phrases that are just so bizzarre (yet correct) that they are worth posting.

Lies and the dreaded Personal Statement (unrelated)

sovht — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 21:53:56 GMT

Firstly, I know I said I would post Japan pics, but, well, I just haven't gotten around to it. It will happen eventually but currently I'm too busy with other stuff to stop and try to resize all teh images and sort through them. so there is the Lies part of this post. No pictures for you! (yet).

The second part fo the this post is more important and I'm making an appeal to those of you who know me. I need to write a personal statement for my application to the Univ. of Washingtoon's Computing and Software Systems program. Think of it as a undergrad application essay because that is pretty much what it is.

So where's the problem? -- I have no idea what to write about. When I was an undergrad I wrote about how growing up with an interracial brother gave me a unique perspective on race in highschool and in general and how it affected my personal views. I can't write about that again, it comes with too much baggage of what has happened with my brother over the past 10 years, plus it would be good to get a new topic anyway. =P

Additionally, I don't want to talk about things that happened to me, things that defined me in occuring. I want to talk about things I did, I need to sell myself as active and productive in facing challenges and whatnot. I'm sure you all understand how hard this is for me to write considering we all know the brutal truth: I'm horridly lazy. =P Of course, I may be biased.

So what am I asking for? Does anyone have any memories of things I've done that are memorable and show me to seek challanges and overcome them and to be an all-around spiffy cool person? Sadly, I am at a loss. Everything I think of is full of unfortunate circumstances and mistakes.

I was thinking of, perhaps, running MRave at Ris for two-years. But what else have I done? Damnit!

I need to brainstorm ideas, so suggestions are welcome and appreciated. Anything to ge the wheels turning -- currently they are covred in rust. =P

Thanks!

JAPAN!

sovht — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 01:05:13 GMT

I just got off the plane a couple hours ago and I'm damn fucking tired. I'm gonna make a few other posts with various pictures from Japan. But for now, I'll say I had an excellent time, saw some beautiful temples/shrines and ate some great food.

On my way home I met a really cute Asian-American (Japanese?) guy and we talked for a while. Once we got on the plane we exchanged emails so maybe I'll get to make a new friend. My flight was full of oddly social people, but it made the time go a bit faster so it was cool. It was horrible once I got to San Fransico though - delays, amd addditional, useless security checks.

So very tired. I will post more interestingly once I've had some time to reast and go through the pictures.

School and RP Experimentation

sovht — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 10:26:40 GMT

I almost feel like this should be two different entries, but whatever.

Firstly, I've been getting a little nervous about my plans for the future but it looks like maybe everything is coming together. I found out that I can pay in-state tution this quarter, which is excellent, so I can take more courses which means it may be easier for me to get into the program I want at University of Washington next fall. Right now the only thing I'm really worried about is that I'm not going to get into the other class I want, which is a low-ish level ("intermediate") programming class.

The problem is that the class has like 2 or three pre-requesites, which I really don t want to have to take. oddly, on of the pre-reqs is *not* the intro programming class, but a class on Javascrupt scripting. Yuck. Good thing I have already spent some time with both Java and Javascript. I'm just really really hoping the professor sees it my way and lets me in. From looking at the sites for his classes i'm pretty damn sure I would do well in the one I'm requesting -- but all that matters is whether or not he sees it that way too. I'm sure I'll keep compulsively checking my email until I hear back from him one way or the other.

It's kinda funny, so far everytime I tell someone what I'm gonig to be doing at school this time around they say something to the effect of they think it will be good for me or think think I'll like it. Maybe I should have tried this before. Haha

Now, on to gaming stuff. I have a lot of people, but especially Judd, that I talk to online about gaming, but I have a much harder time talking to the people I play with in Washington. I think it's becaus eI tend to go for the crazy indy-rpgs and they all tend toward the familiar more traditional stuff like D&D. I'm having fun in our game, but in general, D&D and other d20 games bore me; they just don'tg et me pumped up and excited, before or during.

I'm hoping that as I start amassing a small indy-rpg collection I'll be able to GM a few games for these friends and maybe turn them on to some of the systems I enjoy more. But I think I made a mistake. I got really excited about conflict-resolution VS task-resolution and I started talking about it with a couple of my firend out here, and I'm afriad they have now prematurely decided that they are not gonig to like the games I run because they don't automatically think that conflict-resolution will work in a game. I feel like if I had just gotten them excited about a game and threw it at them they would be more open to it.

So, now I don't really know what to do. I know I'm still going to try running my wacky little independent games, but I have a feeling it's not gonig to work because only one of my players is gonig to even be open to having it work. There is a part of me that wants to reach out into the Seattle community and try to find other gamers that are more my style, but that's a pretty big undertaking. It is a very intimidating idea and I wouldn't even know where to start. At the same time I really would like to find some gamers that are more my speed. Dilemmas.

I suppose I'll just let all of that brew a bit and see what happens... suggestions or insights are welcome (especially of the how-to-introduce-people-to-new-systems and how-to-meet-like-minded-gamers variety).

Character motivated one-shots

sovht — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 09:28:38 GMT

Here I am listening to Judd's Sons of Kryos Podcasts, and I know that running one-shots is in my future. I've been thinking a lot about how to make an interesting one-shot, although I'm keeping in mind that I want to keep it relastively simple to start.

However, Jeff and Judd are talking about this one guy's method of running one shots which was much more character oriented, as in a lot of his prep went into defining charqacters in wa y that allowed them to jump off a page to players creating an atmosphere wher ethe game almost plays itself. This idea is extremely appealing to me, especially since I think it challenges the typical approach given to one-shots.

But I also had a few questions:
+ Do you use pre-gen characters?
+ How much or what kind of background allows your players to really connect with their characters?
+ And how do you address the problem of creating pre-gen characters while having your players not feel trust into certain roles. How do you ensure your players still have their creative freedom?

Right now, I'm a lot of talk, I admit it, but I tend to like to think things out and mull them around a bit before I act -- and running a game, even a one-shot isn't going to be any different. So if anyone wants to talk about this -- character motivated one-shots -- I would be happy to hear any opinions on how you would go about making this successful.

Strange dreams

sovht — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 01:41:49 GMT

A few nights ago I had a sex dream -- about Steve Colbert (an old and amazing Daily Show 'reporter' who now has his own show). How weird is that? No more watching The Colbert Report right before bed... The strangest thing, though, is that I didn't even realize I was attracted to him. I mean sure, he not a bad looking guy, but he acts so insane on his show it makes it difficult to imagine what he would really be like and therefore almost impossible for me to be attracted to him.

In my dream though, he was a great guy. Haha. And he was irresistable when he got a calm-but-serious look in his eyes. It's so weird but the dream wasn't just a sex dream, it was kind of a dating dream, so there were a bunch of details and a real, consistent story. In the end, I suppose the oddest thing about this dream is it was almost entirely innerly consistent. Dreams are supposed to be wacky and never make sense when you wake up, aren't they?

I will never look at Steve Colbert the same way again! I'm going to have to keep telling myself that he's not really the guy from my dream, haha.

If anyone else has had any odd dreams, lately or a while ago or ever, I'd like to hear them. Dreams are fun.

Burning Wheel info request

sovht — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 05:22:53 GMT

Hey Judd and Jim (and potentially anyone else reading this who knows) I want to buy the Burning Wheel RPG, but as I'm looking around the net I'm having trouble figuring out what book or books I need for the core rule set, and/or to successfully run a game. While my grp is largely into D&D they also liek to try new things, and I have been curious/interested in BW for a while now.

Anyway, if you can tell me the title or ISBNs of the books I need, or even where to order them, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

RPGnet whatnot

sovht — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 08:01:25 GMT

I was reading this thread on RPGnet today about randomness and death in RP, "letting the dice fall where they may", scanning for a contribution from Paka. I read a lot before I foun d it and I read a lot after but it was a pretty frustrating read. it seeemed like very few people were listening to each other, or in some cases it didn't seem like they were even talking about the same thing:

For example: Merely because you believe in sometimes fudging dice rolls for dramatic effect does NOT mean you don't ever allow players to fail, or die. It means that sometimes you don't mind letting the heroes be *heroic*. This doesn't mean everytime something is at stake you lie to keep danger out of the campgein -- you're not playing Carebears.

In some games, players who rolled poorly at a critical time would decide that it was a botch, an advantage to the villian just because they had done poorly at a critical time -- we call this good roleplaying, even though it's something out of bounds of the game system (when the game system does not have a botch mechanism). So why do we have to say that enforcing a positive result in particular instances is unacceptable? It just doesn't make sense to me.

We are playing in a *fantasy* world, the closer you make things to real life the less fun it is. Of course, some people love gritty realism, in fact, I really enjoy it from time to time, but the whole point of roleplaying is doing things you couldn't or wouldn't do in real life. If all the same risks and rules apply that defeats the purpose.

Furthermore, many times your effectiveness as a character has a lot to do with how well you can work the system and I think strict no-fudging rules favors players who excell at breaking the system. Which brings up another important point for me: Paka pointed out in support of another contributor (to paraphrase) if you are fudging dice rolls, your game system isn't working. I thought this was a great point, but no system is perfect therefore no system will always work when you need or want it to. We change rules and fudge dice rolls because no matter what system we use there will always be holes and imperfections.

I think it's important to have real risk to player characters in a game but I think it's also important to allow flexibility -- sometimes it's more dramatic and/or meaningful for a character to be saved by a friend then to have them die because they failed their leaping-over-chasm roll while running from an imposing villian.

The indescribable high...

sovht — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 10:03:24 GMT

... of having an amazing role playing session!

The whole session was really intense. At one point the shepard book/simon character was hiding something from me (Mal) and trying to go around behind my back. I didn't appreciate this much and it almost came to throwing his character off the boat before Gwen (Inara's remake) stepped in to smooth things over. She managed to convince me that Garret was not going to betray my crew to the interpol of Eberron for carrying a cargo of drugs. I, of course, never asked what the cargo was, but some other curious minds just had to put it together.

After that spiritus encounter, Arc (Zoe), Salli (Jayne) and I went to drop off the cargo and get out with our 6000 gold for the delivery. It was going well when the money changed hands but the unsavory fellow we were delivering to had the unfortunate desire to press us into further service for him. When I refused, he called out more men to deal with us; we were now facing five opponents. Within seconds, four Kalishtar (psionic fighters who use mind blades as their weapons) dropped from the ceiling and delclared that they would no longer allow us to defile their home. -- At this point I decided we needed to just ge the hell out of there. I signaled to my two cohorts that we were making a break for it. Salli (artificer class) cast haste and we ran to the door as the Kalishtar and drug-gang began to clash behind us. Mal got slashed and shot at as he ran to the door which we found chained shut. I yelled to my warforged friend Arc to splinter the door to pieces, after all, chains are useless if there is no door. In a round we broke the wooden planks of the door, but just before we could leave, a drug merc made it over to me and sliced a hole in the bag of money at my waist. As the some gold spilled to the floor, with our hopes of being paid and making it out with the money in time, Salli decided to end the fight.

He cast a maximized Ice Storm over the center of the room, causing 30 damage, killing three drug mercs, and knocking the three Kalishtar and and the drug lord unconscious. As they all fell to the floor, I whispered a barely audible "Oh shit." and got moving picking up our coin and throwing it in Salli's bag. Arc finished off the merc who had slashed the bag before I could stop him, and we agreed that sending the drug lord into the after life was the best way tot get him off our backs. We rolled him for magic items (hey this is D&D) stabilized the Kalishtar and BOOKED it the hell out of there. With haste and full run we made it to the ship in five minutes. I got the ship in the air as Salli was closing the bay doors.

So much good roleplaying by everyone involved. It was excellent. Hard to say who my vote for the XP reward is gonna go to. It was sweet. I loved that my plan was to just get the hell out of dodge and I love that Salli machine-gun style leveled the room when he didn't see it as possible without losing the money. But I also liked the play earlier on, it was pretty tense, but I had to go out of character to explain to the guy playing Garret that I had to feel that my crew was not in danger or Mall would throw him off the boat. Role play is good, of course, and it was great, but I didn't want it to get to the point where Mal didn't feel like he had any other options.

ABurritoC

sovht — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 04:31:33 GMT

I miss ABC burritos. I keep wanting to take Matt to have his first one since he never had one while he was at Cornell. Even though mexican food is very popular here I still haven't had a burrito that measures up to those ANC masterpieces.

... But then, I know it's the company I miss more than the food, as awesome as those burritos are. I don't know when I'll have enough money to head out there for a visit, but I hope it's soon and I hope we can all chow down on some ABC goodness again.

Today I watched Million Dollar Baby, a movie about a female boxer. I think it was pretty good but I have to say I couldn't get that into it; I view boxing much the same way as I view war: unnecissary pain. Not just physical but emotional as well. I know what other people see in it but I can't see past the pain we give ourselves. Ah well.

I'd like to cancel my subscription to your issues...

sovht — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 21:19:33 GMT

I was talking to one of my friends recently who was telling me about a wonderful therapist that a friend of his was seeing up in Ithaca. I chuckled to myself and said, "Is the therapists name Riley Sisson?" It was, and needless to say my friend was shocked that I knew who it was.

But then, Riley is the best. He helped me through a lot of my problems and sometimes I wish I could still see him. So if you're in the Ithaca area looking for some professional help, he's probably your man. He's just unbelievably excellent.

So that was funny.

Geek-out

sovht — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 01:54:31 GMT

So, my GM asked me to tell him, as grp leader, what my plans are for teh grp over the next few days of in-game play. so, rather than right an out of character blurb, I decided to write it in character. Also, rather than have it be a monologue cause that wouldnt be realistic, I tried to include interjectrions by the other characters. I think it turned out pretty well, so I'm posting it. =D

Gwen is a version of Inara.

Mal is Mal, of course, and that is me.

Garret is a blend of Shepard Book, and Simon Tam.

Arc is our innovative take on Zoe.

And Salli is, obviously, Jayne.

I hope it doesn't put too many people off that we're using Firefly as such inspiration but it's a lot of fun.

Here we go:

We break our meeting for the night, but Mal calls everyone together the next day.

"All right. I been thinking on this some time, and I've made up my mind: We're flyin' this boat all the way to goblin country, we're taking Drevduul and hid friend all the way home. Salli, I want you to study those damn books, copy the notes. I wanna know whats what and I want to know it before we touch down. --"

"Come on Mal, Doin' all that's gonna take time I can only comprehend languages so many times in day..."

"I don't care what you have to do, get Arc to help you, sleep every four hours or whatever it is you do, but get it done. I know you're keen on funding us to investigate this, Gwen, but this ain't no small little mess we're talking about. This is gonna put us all in a tight space of danger. You weren't in a war; so I suggest you use the time we're flying to reflect on that a little and see what you're really willing to get involved in. --"

"There's no need to be condescending Mal, I may not have experience in the war but my imagination can serve me very well. Whatever trouble we'll face, I'll learn and we will be ready."

"Nice to hear you so sure of yourself, but we're talking about a whole 'nother world of trouble to be called down on us and I don't fancy you getting yourself mixed up in it."

"I'm a big girl, Mal."

"True 'nough, even so you'll have this boat ride to think it through like it or not.--"

"Mal, you also told the Cardinal you would head back soon and he could help us dicipher what we found, if he can help us I don't think we should be leaving him hanging like this."

"Yeah well, that's the question: if he can help us. I have no doubt he could help us decipher these books. But it comes to I don't trust him."

"Mal I was sitting right next to you, you know he seems an honest man."

"I have to agree with Gwen, Mal, you made a deal with the man and he seemed genuinely concerned, we can't just abandon him." affirmed Garret

"True, he does seem it, but there's something not sitting right with me and I've lived too long to go doubting that. There's something wrong with him. I could be mistaken, but worse if we trust him and I'm right. What we need's a little distance from this whole thing, take some time, lie low, mull over what we got. We're going to Darguun to get space 'tween us and the problem, to care for our friend, and to get paid. Salli and Arc make sure this stuff is locked up nice and tight but don't make it too obvious or it will make him inquire after it more. If any curious little goblins make off with our findings I'm gonna be mighty put-out. Once we suss this out and get a good meal in our bellies, we'll figure our next step. Though you sould know I'm leaning toward making ourselves scarce for a spell."

"Mal, how could you just let this sit?"

"This is not a discussion, Gwen. You got a problem with the way I do things you can hire out someone else, but I dont think that's like to happen just now." Mal, softening her words, continues, "Give it some time, we may come up with a better option than what we got in front of us. Cause I have to say, that ones none too shiney. Salli, Arc, get to work. The rest of you, do whatever needs doing. Isn't there a one of us can cook? I can't make heads or tails of that woman's recipes..."

I know it may be hard to understand not knowing exactly what i'm writing about but I'm still pretty proud of it so I wanted to share. =P

This must be what going mad feels like.

sovht — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 04:53:41 GMT

How the hell does this happen!?

He nominated someone for a seat on the SUPREME COURT who has never been a judge.

Seriously, what the fuck. Do I even have to explain why this is a terrible idea.

::shakes fist::

sovht — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 01:38:11 GMT

Hello hello. Good news. My dog is actually recovering. I'm really really happy.

Also, I'm quitting my job. did I say that already? I can't take it anymore. Haha I'm going to go back to school. Maybe actually get the Computer and Information degree I wanted all along. Plus I won't be goin g to Cornell, so amusingly, I'll probably do a lot better with a lot less effort. Of course, it will help that I really want to be studying what I'm studying.

This is relevant because I'm going to go home for Thanksgiving so I can see my dog. I mean my parents -- who am I kidding it really is to see my dog.

I'm having a little trouble getting all my classes set up, partly because my job doesn't end till after they start. I think I may just delay a bit and suck up putting off what I want for a few more months. That will give me more time to sort out what credits I will need and funding. I want to get Financial Aid and take out Loans myself. My parents may offer to help but I would ratehr they did not. I think in order to focus I need to feel like I'm doing this myself.

Strangers

sovht — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 22:27:03 GMT

So, I'm in Massachusettes now, however you spell it, at Matt's family's party. I'm surrounded mostly by people I dont know at all and will probably never see again. I'm only here for 3 days so unfortunately I'm not going to have time to see anyone that I want to see.

I don't really want to cling to Matt because, well, I guess I would feel too pathetic. I was told there would be a few of us would go ff on our own after a while, but that's not really enough since I don't know those people who would be going off with us either. Right now i'm holed up in a room "checking my email". I guess I could be more social if I tried but I would ratehr not pretend.

My parents also left me another message about my dog. They are taking her out of the hospital and bringing her to our country house for a few days. They have some anti-biotics with them but she's not doing very well. We all want her to get better but at least if she dies she'll be with her family instead of in a cold animal hospital.

Blissfully, I think it will be a while before anyone starts to look for me, but it's also kind of weird to be around at least 50 people I don't know when I'm upset about my dog and want to go see her. My parents country house is only a few hours from here.

sovht — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 22:23:45 GMT

Why can't all the people I love live in one place?

Sadness.

sovht — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 20:52:12 GMT

My dog is dying. She has pnuemonia and is in the hospital. However you spell it. She's 9 years old, quite old for a great dane, so they dont think she's going to make it.

I think it's my parents fault cause they left her by herself in a kennel for a total of at least 3 weeks this summer -- she's *9 years old*. I can't tell them that though because they love her as much as I do. She is the best dog anyone could ever have. It doesn't matter that everyone thinks that, it doesn't make it less true for anyone who feels that way.

I'm really really sad, I love my dog. I dont don't want her to die alone and away from her family the way she got sick.

On the less imediate side of awful: my grandmother is sick as well. Starting the very slow and painful death of a sickly old age due to smoking since she was 15. Sometimes I think maybe she keeps smoking because it's the only thing she has left of her first husband who died in WWII, the love of her life.

Sometimes life is too cruel and I think it's doing it on purpose.

sovht — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 09:53:38 GMT

The Eberron campeign begins!

We spent a lot of this session fleshing out out characters with each other, getting our histories down and getting equipmnet. It's all working out pretty well, especially since we gained a new person who is taking over the role of Shepard Book/Simon for some over-educated healing action.

Our GM, Sampy, also set out some rules and practices that are being introduced for this game that we have not used before, and i'm pretty excited about them since they will help make the d20 system tolerable for me. He's adding a bonus to good descriptions on rolls. For example, if you say "Ok, I'm going to attack that guy with a 21," you wont get much in the way of GM encouragement, but if you say "Ok, I grab the tapestry on the wall and pull it down on top of him," you will get a +2 to your roll. This is especially good when we're talking about rolling for diplomacy checks and the like, where if you just say you're doing it you will actually suffer a penalty, but if you make an effort to role-play it you can get the bonus.

There's more than just that though, we're gonig to have a vote as well for who we think role-played the best and they will get a small xp bonus for the session. A nice little plus. I'm really excited because our group out here seem smuch less predisposed to roleplay and I'm really hoping this will encourage people to get into their characters and shine. I think that some of these changes may have something to with me talking about my old 7th Sea game and some of the rules we used for that, as well as the fact that Sampy and his wife both know I haven't been very into our other, mor enumber-crunchy games. Anyway, for whatever reason it's happened, I'm just extremely excited; I think this is gonig to work out well.

Our first mini-adventure was completely awesome. We escourted Gwen (a courtisan-for-hire) to her appointment and then went in search of work. We made a contact in a seedy inn and after securing the job, I decided to talk to some of the local color, other adventurers, and see what the town was like and what the word on the street was. As I made my way around the room I struck up a conversation with a few locals who were feeling a bit too self-satisfied. While I tried to hold my own with them as their leader insulted my country, Cryre, now destroyed and my people left homesless he made one too many comments and snickered just one too many times. As I set to walk away from the table, I instead turned full-around and punched him square in the face -- at which point we had our first bar-fight of the game, within about 20 minutes of playing, maybe less.

Needless to say, Salli Husk and Arc my trusty warforged companion had my back, and several tossed tables and chairs later, two of the 3 were out cold and the third gave up the fight. It was glorious, and the barkeep added the damages to the other guys tab. IT WAS GLORIOUS. Hahaha Anyway, I had fun and I think we all did a good job of staying in character.

A few things I took from this are, learn the unarmed and grapple rules and try to figure out what the hell this character will doo if someone tries to hit on her -- short of laying him out. Hmm.

sovht — Sun, 14 Aug 2005 12:06:18 GMT

I just got an email from a friend who was in my old 7th Sea campeign. Well, timed to turn a sour mood into warm and fuzzy feelings. What a great game. I miss you all. I really think the hugs made it even better.

I'm going to be playing the Mal character. I'm in charge and this is my goram boat. But it's pretty scary to think I'm going to be in charge of a grp of role-players like this, sure it's not a huge deal but I could havea greaster impact on how people experience the game -- no pressure. If I can do a good job, maybe this game will go very well, if I do poorly maybe it will stop before it really starts.

The technical stuff I'm doing with the character: We are third level, and I'm multi-classing her with two levels of rogue, one of fighter. Her stats make her not not the best, or the brightest, but shes damn-well likable. She's a charisma melee charater. I'm debating her feats still. I have four to play with, and although I wanted Diehard, I didnt want to spend one of those feats on Endurance right away. Right now, I'm looking at Action Boost, which makes my action dice d8s instead of d6s (allowing me to boost a roll by up to 8 instead of up to 6), Heroic Spirit which gives me more action dice (allowing me to do more crazy shit per level), Improved Unarmed Attack which is really flavor text, Improved Initiave and Combat Expertise and Improved Fient for faking people out a sucker-punching them-- more flavor.

My plan so far is to get her another level of fighter and then go full Extreme Explorer prestige class. Which is a class that focueses heavily on action points.

Did I mention she is going to have two hand crossbows slung to her belt? Muahaha.

I decided that she is gonig to be from teh country in Eb that was completely and mysteriously destroyed. When the destructive cloud started taking over the country side, she tried to evacutate villagers and townfolk into a nearby elven kingdom. The elves slaughtered everyone fleeing Cyre and she could do essentially nothing to protect the civilians from the slaugher.

Also, my managers told me today that they were going to kick this guy out of the store because he is constantly finding me and another woman who works there and talking to us for like 20 minutes... or more. I think this is partly to have us not be distracted and also partly gleeful enforcement of their desire to protect us from creepies.

sovht — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 12:01:44 GMT

Hah, I think I just discovered how to make LJ cuts so I dont have to swamp people with absurdly large posts.

Today was completely insane. I've really never had a problem with retail customers until now but this guy, he was special.

He didnt have any titles, only a few authors and he kept slurring his words so I couldnt understand what he was saying. I found one book for him and then he told me to pick out 3 cookbooks for him. Any cookbooks, one on thai cooking, one on grilling and one famous one. I grab three books and take them over to him and he rejects them out of hand calling the famous guy a tool. Someone else tries to find some cookbooks for him and I go back to work elsewhere. Finally when he decides to checkout, he calls me over to HELP HIM to the register. Oh yes, nothing quite like steadying an inebriated ex-marine on his way to purchase crap. Especially when you're not exactly sure if he's trying to hit on you or not. He and I we're from different worlds, and he wants to be my friend, oh yes.

Suffice it to say he didn't check out at that time and I had to escourt him all over the store because he didnt want me to leave his side. I spent almost an hour with this man. Holy crap. Why would you go book shopping when you are completely pissed?

Later a co-worker and I worried that he might have been driving home. A little late. But no news is good news on that front, I guess.

I just gave Anna and Niku (the kittens) baths cause they were all dusty. Niku just watched curiously as Anna struggled in the water. It's a good thing he's so dim, if I had washed him first I wouldnt have been able to find Anna for hours. Now they are both cuddling in my lap as thogh seeking comfort for their conditon, completely forgetful of the fact that I caused it. Lack of short-term memory == Victory.

New leaves.

sovht — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 21:34:25 GMT

I've been thinking recently that I'm pretty terrible at staying in touch on a regular basis with a lot of the people I care about, and that this sad fact should change since I miss all of you very much. I hope you know who you are. (I'm looking pointedly in the direction of Ithaca and Philly because they have the highest concetrations of people I adore.)

I'm also thinking maybe LJ is the best way to do this since all of you seem to do fine at keeping in touch and you all use LJ. Maybe it's a coincedence. We'll see!

Firstly, congratulations Josh on your new job, damn that's completely awesome even if it's not your dream job -- hey it's not service or retail. Eventually I will get a handle on the posting in other people's LJ but one step at a time for now.

*I have news*!

I have two cute, cuddly, awesome kittens who need to get their rabbies shots... soon as I can schedule it.

Josh mentioned the Hasrry Potter release a week or so ago, and believe me, I know, I took polariods of kids, parents and random creepy dudes with the HP cardboard standee at Barnes and Nobles HP event. I had a good time with the picture taking thing and convincing parents to get into it and make fools of themselves. Plus I got to hide from the real crowds which was optimal.

I helped this one guy and then talked and joked around with him and his wife for a while over the course of the night. Yesterday he came into the store again and found me and I helped him find some books on technical writing for a book he is trying to write. We got to talking and he was asking all kinds of questions about my life and why I was in Seattle etc. We came around to why I was working at B&N and I said "Well, I was looking for a job as a Tech Editor or Writer for a few months and couldn't find anything so I decided it was better to have A job than no job." And he says, "I'll tell you what, I'll make a call."

He's not promising anything, of course. But he really is giving it a shot. I have his card. He called me today and asked me to send him my resume because he said he had someone that wanted to see it.

I know this may not work out, and I feel like maybe I'm jinxing it by talking about it so much, but I dont have any expectations yet. I'm hoping maybe he can get someone to meet me, and then hopefully I can shine on my own from there. That would be very very neat.

Of course, if this DOES work out, I'm wondering how big the flowers I send him in thanks should be.

Funny that my New Yorker mind is still wondering if this is scam to get my personal information. I guess what they say about us is true, we're all assholes after all. Maybe I just hide it better than others. ;)

Yet another quiz

sovht — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 03:56:54 GMT

I share this because the result amused me:

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

It's about half right. I dont think I can really get away with classifying myself as shy, which is says in the more detailed description.