Me, lawful? Curses! My secret is out
pulled from Thalionar...
I Am A: Lawful Neutral Elf Druid/Rogue (2nd/2nd Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-10

Dexterity-13

Constitution-12

Intelligence-14

Wisdom-15

Charisma-15


Alignment:
Lawful Neutral A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs him. Order and organization are paramount to him. He may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or he may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government. Lawful neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot. However, lawful neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it seeks to eliminate all freedom, choice, and diversity in society.


Race:
Elves are known for their poetry, song, and magical arts, but when danger threatens they show great skill with weapons and strategy. Elves can live to be over 700 years old and, by human standards, are slow to make friends and enemies, and even slower to forget them. Elves are slim and stand 4.5 to 5.5 feet tall. They have no facial or body hair, prefer comfortable clothes, and possess unearthly grace. Many others races find them hauntingly beautiful.


Primary Class:
Druids gain power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. They hate the unnatural, including aberrations or undead, and destroy them where possible. Druids receive divine spells from nature, not the gods, and can gain an array of powers as they gain experience, including the ability to take the shapes of animals. The weapons and armor of a druid are restricted by their traditional oaths, not simply training. A druid's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast.


Secondary Class:
Rogues have little in common with each other. While some - maybe even the majority - are stealthy thieves, many serve as scouts, spies, investigators, diplomats, and simple thugs. Rogues are versatile, adaptable, and skilled at getting what others don't want them to get. While not equal to a fighter in combat, a rogue knows how to hit where it hurts, and a sneak attack can dish out a lot of damage. Rogues also seem to have a sixth sense when it comes to avoiding danger. Experienced rogues develop nearly magical powers and skills as they master the arts of stealth, evasion, and sneak attacks. In addition, while not capable of casting spells on their own, a rogue can sometimes 'fake it' well enough to cast spells from scrolls, activate wands, and use just about any other magic item.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

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I'm a big girl now!
I was interviewed today for a segment on NPR on energy companies and climate change! If you go to npr.org and listen to the evening's edition of Marketplace, my story starts at 6:50 into the show. Its just a brief soundbite, but its still pretty cool! Plus, knightvln, who didn't know I would be on the show, heard me driving home from work, which i thought was pretty cool.

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Dr. Tal
Well, that's it. Dissertation successfully defended, somehow. It wasn't too painful either--very conversational, not a grill session at all. Got lots of good ideas out of it and new directions to take my research in.

And the result is that I have now successfully completed my phd requirements and have earned the title of 'doctor'. It seems rather surreal. For now, i think i'm going to go and get some food at a favorite restaurant, and wait until tonight when i celebrate with copious amounts of alcohol, including a bottle of very expensive champagne.

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*gulp*
In fifteen minutes my dissertation defense begins. I asked my advisor if i should be freaking out, and he said not at all, so that gives me hope. Also, very few people fail their defenses, so rationally i know that my chances are good. But i'm still a pile of nerves.

On the other hand, holy crap! I'm defending my dissertation! I didn't even think i'd ever be able to WRITE the thing and now i'm defending it and there's a good chance that in two hours i'll have my phd and be "Ms." Tal no longer!

Wowsers!!

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BLITEOTW 2009, cont.
My neighbor, Tom, said that he had stumbled while standing in the river and that he thinks he must have scraped his leg against something sharp beneath the water. I offered to help him clean the wound, but he said that he'd already called his wife, who is a nurse at the local hospital, and that she would come home and help him. Bit relieved actually. I can barely apply a bandaid properly. Okay, that's not entirely true--i did have CPR/first aid training a couple of times, but i'm still not the person to call on to deal with an injury. Plus, the blood on his pants looked all thick and sludgy brown, which is just gross.

I just got back from running some errands around town. Took longer than I anticipated--I needed gas, but the station near my house was full of cars with some waiting, so I headed to another one a ways away. Stopped at the library to pick up books about faeries--what can I say, i know that faeries and vampires aren't real, but i love reading about creatures of the dark. High Steet seemed really busy--lots of construction crews, fire engines, and police.

Kitties seem a bit anxious for some reason. Ah well. Time to get some more work done! This dissertation won't write itself.

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BLITEOTW 2009
Yesterday's storms were apparently pretty bad, huh? I was chatting with a friend on world of warcraft last night, who told me that other wow friends got hit pretty bad--tornadoes I guess. They had damage to their house but were otherwise okay. My friend was worried that I or cheerybeggar might also have been hit (odd question, as the first set of friends lives in Texas and we live in Ohio and DC). She said she might not be playing for the next few days, and I wondered why a normal summer storm had her spooked so bad.

My neighbor just passed by my window--the same one who had to clear up whether it was 930am or pm the other day. He was carrying fishing equipment--the river is really close by, and sometimes people go fishing there. I don't know why--the thing is filled with sewage and who knows what else?

There's a hole in his pants leg though and he seems to be limping, so I suppose it would be the neighborly thing to do to make sure he's okay.

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Everyone loves a good dose of schaudenfreude
At 923 on my alarm clock, I awoke with a jerk, and immediately freaked out. My student's final exam is at 930! I blinked my eyes several times--I must have been exhausted not to take out my contacts before going to bed. I could tell it was very overcast outside as I raced around, finding pants and shoes. The living room was rather dark, even though the curtains were open, and I hoped that the bad weather that clearly must be outside wouldn't prevent me from getting to campus. In my head I was panicking, trying to figure out how I could get to my office to grab the exams and then make it to their classroom in approximately ten minutes (my alarm clock, i recalled is set 10 minutes fast). Who could I call to go to my classroom and tell the students that I would be there? What question could I knock off the exam to accommodate the shortened amount of time?

Suddenly, my other senses started intruding on this frantic internal conversation. Why was there no rain to accompany these very dark clouds outside? Why weren't the cats in bed with me like they always are in the morning? And why couldn't I remember anything since I laid down on my bed to read around 6pm the previous evening? Suspicious, I started looking at the various clocks in my room. None of the ones I found told me what I needed to know. A door opened nearby; my next door neighbor crosses by my window. I leap over to the couch and call out, "hey...I know this is going to sound wierd, but could you tell me if its 930 AM or PM?" "PM" he tells me as I see a firefly flash near his head, and I immediately relax as we start talking about how easy it can be to completely lose your sense of time.

So yeah. I apparently took an accidental three hour nap and since sunset is at 9pm here, I mistook twilight for stormy morning and almost drove to campus. *commence laughter at my expense*

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Knitting on Monday
I know not everyone can make it on Monday which means that Ill just have to schedule more of these in the future!

But for all who want to and can make it:

Knitting and other yarn crafts!
--if you don't yet know how to knit and want to learn, i can bring materials and teach!

Monday evening, 730 to whenever
Global Gallery Cafe in Clintonville
3535 N High St, Columbus

See you then!

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knitting!
this is mostly aimed at lizard goddess, but if anyone else wants to join (or learn!) knock yourself out.

I've reclaimed my knitting mojo and would like to knit sometime soon. This week is slightly full, but would anyone be interested in venturing forth to a cafe for coffee and knitting (or other portable yarn crafts) on Monday evening after dinner?

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Web designers, listen up!
My brother is looking to hire a web designer for his fantasy baseball website. He's looking for something professional, and the pay will be good. Anyone out there got experience with web design and interested?

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Can you imagine what the various democratic candidates for VP would say to each other over instant messenger? If only it were actually this funny! http://www.236.com/news/2008/08/20/if_they_imd_obamas_vp_prospect_1_8389.php

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Breaking news!!!!! Obama's VP announced!
In a move that stunned the entire political world, Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama has chosen the Flying Spaghetti Monster as his running mate.

According to unnamed sources inside the Obama campaign, Senator Obama chose the FSM as his running mate after Saturday's Faith-Based Forum, hosted by Rick Warren. "Throughout the entire Forum, the Flying Spaghetti Monster was never mentioned. Not once! Considering that he was the Creator of us all, or at least the Creator of Ragu, we found this to be something of a slight," said a spokesnoodle for the FSM. "After all, didn't Reverend Rick Warren recognize that we have all been touched by His Noodly Appendage?"

Asked about his political stances, a representative of the Obama campaign said that the FSM is quite concerned about global warming and other environmental issues. Obama plans to look at the FSM's platform to increase the number of pirates worldwide as a method of combating global warming, according to a spokesman.

Washington insiders and political commentators expressed surprise at the choice. "We can't believe Obama chose the Flying Spaghetti Monster over Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, Tom Kaine, Hillary Clinton, Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin, Paris Hilton, Angelina Jolie, or Winnie the Pooh," said Keister Ubermann. "We are... intrigued by his choice."

Spokesbeings for the Cthulhu for President 2008 campaign expressed disappointment at the choice. They had been courting the FSM as their vice-presidential pick for the past six months. "We feel quite betrayed that the FSM has chosen Obama over Cthulhu. We had hoped to consume his followers for ourselves."

Ah, if only. Snark courtesy of dailykos.com :)

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Cyrano de Bergerac
Had fun on Friday hanging out briefly with lizard and columbushacker. Good to see you guys again!!

I LOVED the play that night. If you live in cbus, definitely get out to Schiller park and catch the Cyrano de Bergerac production. It's fantastic!! I was only mildly familiar with the play (as in, i knew it existed and that it was French) beforehand, but I loved it. The acting (particularly by the title character) was great, the costumes rather nice (except for the typical but always tragic brown pants-black boots combo), and the sets gorgeous. As noted in an earlier entry, I WAS distracted by the age of the female lead, but that was mostly because i couldn't determine if she was actually as old as I thought she was (she was).

A note on the play ( spoiler alert!! And also, extreme length.Collapse )

Sorry about the lengthy discussion there. I just found the play so very powerful and needed to get all of that out. If anyone has read/seen it or has thoughts on any of the above i'd love to hear it, and i'm sorry if i'm not very coherent.

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Ganked from good kitty

Your result for The Harry Potter Husband Test...

Mrs. Bill Weasley

Your perfect HP man is Bill Weasley.

Take The Harry Potter Husband Test at HelloQuizzy

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Dr. Horrible!!!!
If you haven't seen it, go to http://www.drhorrible.com/ immediately and watch Act 1 of Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible and the Sing-Along Blog. It stars Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion and is utterly hilarious. Act II will be up on the 17th and III on the 19th and if you don't watch the clips now you'll have to wait until they come out on DVD.

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Friday the 13th, what?
I was on my bike earlier, heading up to the library to drop off some books and pick up my reserves. My luggage had gotten wet thanks to stoopid airport attendants in Orlando and two of my library books had water damage. That's a nice $28 down the drain. Anyway, I stopped at one point to grab a drink of water from the bottle i keep in my backpack (HOT today) and saw something you don't see every day. There was a couple in the river, making out. At least that's what i assume they were doing--they were fully clothed but all entangled, and the guy looked like he was trying to practically bite into her neck. They were moaning a lot. I yelled out that they should get a room, and the guy looked up at me and made motions like he was going to head in my direction, but i was back on the bike and heading toward the library. They were gone on the way back, thankfully. I get that people want to do odd things (like public exhibitionism) on Friday the 13th, but that doesn't mean i need to witness it.

Campus was deserted today. Not even any ducks in Mirror Lake, just a few random white feathers. Some of those had some brownish goo on them which was pretty disgusting. I can understand why they'd be shedding though--its pretty hot out. Some of the people i've seen have just been kinda shambling about in the heat, wandering aimlessly. I think if i was forced to walk outside i'd be doing the same thing, though i'd probably just wear fewer clothes rather than rip mine up the way they have.

Ah well. I'd better head home--lots to do!

Current Mood: mischievous

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gakked from yrmencyn
Yay accuracy! New Jerseyan without the full accent? Sounds about right!

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Tal's issues with her phone, take 36.8
Guess who's phone is dead again? That's right, mine. Three guesses why?

If you guess anything other than 'it got wet, somehow' you don't know me well enough.

I've been putting off a relatively simple errand--fetch my new contact from my eye doctor, located not that far away. I decided for whatever reason it had to be done today, despite the light rain outside. I also decided that i had to bike there as its very close and the temperature is quite nice. I like summer rain, so i put on my rain jacket and headed out.

The only problem is that the light rain became very not-light rather quickly.

So now i'm home, sitting at my computer in a towel with my hair dripping on me. All my clothes--jacket, shirt, jeans, bra, long socks, sneakers, underwear--are sopping wet in the bathtub. And my phone which for some reason i decided to bring with me, which was in my jacket pocket...yeah, soaked and most definitely in the 'off' position. So if you were going to call me...email or get on Skype.

*Sigh*

The only good thing is that, knowing my nature, i demanded water insurance on the thing. So it won't cost me too much to replace it.

If anyone wants to buy me one of those waterproof phones for my birthday, i wouldn't object :)

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BSG fans!
Some galactica LOL cats. Hilarious if you know the show, not so much otherwise. Stolen from Puntabulous via Galactica News: http://puntabulous.com/2008/04/11/battlestar-galactica-lol-cats/


Enjoy! I think my favorite is the one about Billy :)

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What are YOU doing next Saturday?
If you are in the cbus area then you should be at the 2008 OSU Medieval and Renaissance Faire! Sword-fighting! Dancing! Singing! Juggling! Turkey Legs! Music! Leather goods! Human Combat Chess! What's not to love?

This year's theme is King Arthur, focusing on the 'Sword in the Stone' part of the story. Plus, don't miss Minstrelry, performing at the Grove stage at 12, 2, and 330! I promise the show will provide you with some serious blackmail material...

The faire will be held rain or shine on Saturday, May 3rd from 11-6 on the South Oval of Ohio State's campus (that's at 12th and college). Admission is free!

Hope to see many of you there!

Current Mood: ecstatic

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