Basically, I've had a fairly busy summer. Still haven't settled in from the move totally - but thankfully I now have a basement to store the leftover boxes in.
The summers up in PA are truly delightful; the hottest it gets still is way shy of the Texas heat. It's fun to hear people bitch about the weather even as I bask in it ;-)
My nights have been spent rp'ing or at least -playing- rpg games, mainly. So much so that I haven't even set up my main computer upstairs (though it doesn't help that Microsoft invalidated my copy of XP).
This weekend means back to New Haven for ANOTHER family gathering... then a week off (maybe?)... then my first time at Otakon in early August. After that, Manhattan for a weekend to see a friend's show.
My brain is still a bit too tired to go into details ... but that's me for now.
I've been getting a few of these a day, now, and all to my CELL phone. When I told the last lady that they weren't supposed to be calling mobile phones to solicit, she tried to tell me that there "weren't any rules against that."
WTF? I thought we were supposed to be protected from getting such calls on private paid lines.
- Mood:pissed
(For the record: I am aware of the "reaction" toward magic in most parts of Hyborea, and am being purposefully vague with names and geography in many places)
( Read more... )
Note: Whoo, lots of unwritten/edited stuff here. I ended on a lousy cliffhanger sentence, but I had to wrap things up at –some- point. Perhaps at some point I’ll add more, or at least explain Taueret’s “gimmick” and how she got it.
(my initial character bio for Keku)
( Read more... )
Note - Keku is probably too bugfuck nuts to really be the sort who'd get recruited into an organization. But I love him anyway ;-) Definitely my most creepy character.
Keku just isn't sociable -at all- except perhaps with other Heralds; so despite using him as a crazy test subject (he wouldn't object, and thinks creatures from beyond time and space are his best buddies), I can't see him being part of a secretive organization. His 'gimmick' is seeing everything around him in some sort of reverse polarity... and people who get close to him are subject to the same sort of horrible visages. It would take an -equally- hideous character to get a handle on the guy.
So now I've been up all damned night, and am sitting here at work tired as hell. I considered calling in sick, but that would've required getting up to write emails and call several people... by that time, I'm awake anyway and might as well come in and make some money.
On the plus side - the staff is light this week, boss is at the shore, and we're between build cycles. And I've gotten relaxed enough to feel somewhat creative again. It's a good time to write some character bios and finally get around to getting accepted into an RP guild, now that I know a lot more about the world setting.
- Music:We Are Scientists - What's the Word | Scrobbled by Last.fm
I had no idea this was even in-the-works until Kyle graciously sent me a link.
Fireworks? Since I'm no longer in Texas, and can't stand around in a field while in danger of getting hit by stray mortars, I'm kind of meh on them.
Now if I could just convince someone local to see this -and- the crazy Dylan flick, I'd be in heaven. Instead, I'm the only person in this burg who knows or cares about these people. Argh.
- Mood:excited
- Music:The Black Keys - Hurt Like Mine | Scrobbled by Last.fm
Seems even 3-day vacations are sort of counter-productive to me: you spend the first and last days mainly travelling, and get only one solid day of repose in between. In comparison, I get TWO solid days to veg with a normal weekend. Plus I get paid an extra day :-)
And people wonder why I don't take many days off.
Alright, maybe the lesson here is to stay in-town if I am only taking a day off at a time.
- Location:Back in Philly @ work
- Mood:cranky
- Music:Irving - Hard to Breathe
Guild Personality Test
Risque-Intense
The two attributes of your guild personality test indicate which players and guilds you would be most comfortable with, as well as what type of players you would prefer to recruit to your own groups. The two attributes of your result are:
- Risque indicates players and guilds who prefer a mostly uncensored environment.
- Intense players and guilds are organized, and expect a high level of attention to what's happening in the game.
Ye olde "Bartle" Test (goes back to the MUD days, predating even my online gaming days). This is the first time I've seen anyone try to "modernize" it, but the basic ideas are the still the same - we just have graphics now.
Bartle Test
Of interest to me though, is how many people gravitate more toward "exploring" based on the beauty of the visuals alone - but who might not give near as much of a crap in a text-based or blocky pixellated world. I think I've always been a heavy "explorer", but far more so now. In the MUD days, it would've depended on the descriptive writing skill of the programmers alone.
Still - socialization has always ruled for me. There's no other reason to play MMO's over a single-player game, really - the single-player games offer a superior experience, imo, in all facets.
SEAK
SEAK players are usually very interested in the the 'total experience' of a virtual world--meeting other people and finding the unique places within it. They don't care much for PVP or levelling, but meeting up with online friends to see new parts of the world is usually fun and exciting.
Breakdown: Achiever 20.00%, Explorer 80.00%, Killer 13.33%, Socializer 86.67%
The other popular gamer quiz I could find was this one, off some website called gamerDNA:
Online Gamer Playstyle Survey
Creator-Strategist
This combination is also referred to as the Toymaker playstyle.
You are the go-to person for cool stuff. You enjoy understanding all of the nuances of the game, and want to leave their own imprint on it. They like to create things for games.both in and out of the environment. Inside games, they are crafters and city-builders; they might also make mods and skins for games.
Sunday was largely spent getting another chunk of the house in order; but only a fraction, still. I wish I could hire some people to work on it with me daily until it was done, but that would be a bit costly, especially since I organize rather thoroughly.
But it's been affecting my mental state, just like last year. I -can't- really relax until it's all done, or think about anything creative. And I worry that it'll be like before, where we still had a bunch of shit unpacked until the NEXT move.
I used to "like" moving - but these last 2 have been so stressful that I will need a -really- good reason to go through this again.
This current place, despite all my measurements and pre-planning, still isn't big enough to fit everything without playing tetris. Ah, the north and its tiny apartments. I measured SO MUCH but forgot the computer desk ... which doesn't fit by 3 inches into the spot I had allotted for it (that looked HUGE but now is dwarfed in reality by the enormousness of my desk ... something about the high ceilings in the old place causing an optical illusion!).
It's been a month now, and I still don't have my computer hooked up, and can't hear my music... that's also taking a toll, I think.
Enough ellipses and whining for now!
Definitely gotta get me one of these...
http://www.amazon.com/Bottom-Buddy-Toile
Apparently there's an entire series of such "aids".
http://www.amazon.com/Bottom-Bather/dp/B
http://www.amazon.com/EasyWipe/dp/B000J5
... et cetera.
Do people reeeeallly need a tool for this? Or is it meant to be kinky?
I dunno, maaaybe I am mocking something that is actually useful to the disabled. But the marketing for it is ridiculous.
- Mood:confounded
-- The Hives
So with this current move, I've had to get rid of a number of bulky items I no longer have use for - either they won't fit, or the new place already has the functionality built in.
Rather than selling off stuff, I've usually opted to just give things away - this makes it MUCH easier for, say, old furniture that I'd otherwise have to figure out a way to get a truck to deliver it with. And movers to carry it to the buyer, etc. Not worth it when the items are already used and fairly cheap...
So Craigslist "FREE" section to the rescue. Within minutes of posting, I usually have a dozen responses... it really amazes me. There must be folks who do nothing but troll this section - but the ones I've met don't seem like resellers, they all claim to have some story (upon meeting them) such as being poor students or divorcees, or sometimes they work for a church thrift store.
Ergo, this is a bit of a depressing experience for me. I don't know exactly why, but I feel guilty ... I end up writing out politely apologetic emails explaining why I -won't- be giving them the free item, since I chose someone else already. With my old bed, for example - one guy offered me $100 to give it to him NOW, but I had already promised another lady earlier I would save it for her.
I suppose if money was an issue I would've been selling this stuff to begin with.
For my microwave, I think I'm going to just say $10 and avoid the guilt!
- Mood:uncomfortable
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/4/2
I still don't "get it", I guess. Maybe I am being an old fogey, but it all seems a bit too OCD and TMI for my tastes. I'll leave it to the huddled masses who actually have free time in their daily schedule. >_>
Hilariously though, I can foresee a near future where we all have these bidirectional GPS phones and tracking devices that post our coordinates at all times to our FaceBook/MySpace pages, along with relevant tweets passed through speech translators of our live conversations.
In a sense then, we are all voluntarily Big Brother-ing ourselves. And seemingly, having a hell of a time doing so.
I am reminded of the lady who was fired for slandering her company and fellow employees in her blog, and the paperwork we often sign on job acceptance that states we "represent the company" (or our University, for students) during our non-work public activities. Similarly, blog posts have been used as "evidence" of behavior in court cases (divorces and defamation). And more close-to-home, a coworker of mine turned down a potential roommate because she had too many trashy photos of herself on MySpace.
So when is the pendulum going to start swinging back the other way? We no longer talk to or know ANYTHING about our neighbors, but yet we post intimate minutiae of our daily lives on the internet for all to see.
Restaint has to set in SOMEWHERE, or this is all going to come crashing down on us.
However, there is still little need to move beyond having a "friends only" site, unless I merely mean to discuss mundanities such as gustatory delights.
If you know me somehow, feel free to ask for an invite.
If you've found this site in error, please disregard the above and redirect your browser to: http://www.asofterworld.com/
- Mood:thoughtful
Decoded Churchly Melodies
I think a better way to end the world would be to reunite the surviving members of KISS and Parliament, and have a real throw-down atop the rebuilt Temple.
And yes, I am still following the bee saga. I don't trust the fuckers.
Bee Attack!
I am not buying much of the following report, as they fail to accurately define what is considered "psychotic symptoms". If it was as severe as the normal perception of psychosis, we'd be seeing a lot of scary potheads. Rather, I think they are including hallucinatory affects and spatial distortion - normally benign reactions to most people, especially in a temporary setting. The entire article is chock full of inflammatory language and "leads" the reader far more than an unbiased, scientific article should.
Marijuana Psychosis?
A focused study on the truly "negative" and dangerous symptoms would be more telling, as well as long-effects on the liver and lungs.
What's most interesting here, then, is that it helps explain WHY some people turn paranoid. But is it a personal mental reaction to the same disconnection experienced by all smokers, or do different people have different levels of disconnect? I tend to believe the loss of control causes a panic reaction in certain individuals, whereas it actually feels pleasurable to others. We certainly have a gamut of possible reactions to alcohol intoxication, even though it toxifies the bloodstream the same way for everyone.
- Mood:Droll
I know I am more than a few days late...
In the last few years I am seeing more and more of the influences of my creative life pass on; and a few too many to suicide.
Spaulding Gray, Hunter S. Thompson, June and Johnny Cash, Kurt Vonnegut ....
Perhaps I need the words of younger, fresher minds to stimulate me now. But there just ain't much out there that isn't regurgitated anyway. We ran out of new ideas sometime around 1992.
So regards our latest loss, I will write not another elegy, but instead link to my favorite discourse so far on the man.
15 Things Vonnegut Said Better Than Anyone Else
~ cheerfully refrains from offering up yet another "So it goes" ~
hmmm....
So it went?
In the last few years I am seeing more and more of the influences of my creative life pass on; and a few too many to suicide.
Spaulding Gray, Hunter S. Thompson, June and Johnny Cash, Kurt Vonnegut ....
Perhaps I need the words of younger, fresher minds to stimulate me now. But there just ain't much out there that isn't regurgitated anyway. We ran out of new ideas sometime around 1992.
So regards our latest loss, I will write not another elegy, but instead link to my favorite discourse so far on the man.
15 Things Vonnegut Said Better Than Anyone Else
~ cheerfully refrains from offering up yet another "So it goes" ~
hmmm....
So it went?
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
~ T.S. Eliot
I am not going to discuss or even concern myself with absences. Life goes on, at the same tick-tock rate, regardless; and I do not know when I will post again.
I will fill in the gaps as time goes on and time permits.
"As time permits" ... now, there is an interesting turn of phrase. We are faced with an irrefutable deadline, set in stone, written into the Book of Fate; only, we are not allowed to know when the little hand reaches zero. We are truly trapped in a sticky web, only allowed to roll along one axis. Watching the others running parallel to our own lives, also struggling against the bonds of this constrained dimension. But it is the only one we know.
Set free, what would we do? How would we react if the spider released us from our mortal bonds? Would we use the time wisely? Make amends and friends, build new bridges and towers, or obsess over traumatic moments? Or would we merely revisit only the more salient portions of our life - over and over, as if they were some pornography for the soul?
Is forgetfulness - that inability to see clearly too far along the tracks behind us - merely another manifestation of the filtering our minds do to prevent overstimulation from the senses? We lack the deific ability to process that much information at once - that much TRUTH. We have moments of clarity and lucidity, extreme pinpoints that burn as bright as a trillion suns and scorch onto our memory. But they must remain painfully brief, or we truly would descend into madness.
And this is why we worship three-fold goddesses, scribe histories, hire soldiers to defend our homelands, and try not to bleed. Even science itself, with its discrete particles and absolutes of space, mirrors the necessity of border and definition. Separation is life. Without skin - without walls - we would flood the earth.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I look back over what I have written, and realize that it could just as well have been penned by Meris. Perhaps it shall.
The rest of these entries will continue to be private. Don't look for me.
- Location:Nowhere but everywhere
- Mood:contemplative
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I heard
Was a song outside my window, and the traffic wrote the words
It came a-reeling up like Christmas bells, and rapping up like pipes and drums
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll wear it till the night comes
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I saw
Was the sun through yellow curtains, and a rainbow on the wall
Blue, red, green and gold to welcome you, crimson crystal beads to beckon
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
There’s a sun show every second
Now the curtain opens on a portrait of today
And the streets are paved with passersby
And pigeons fly
And papers lie
Waiting to blow away
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I knew
There was milk and toast and honey and a bowl of oranges, too
And the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll talk in present tenses
When the curtain closes and the rainbow runs away
I will bring you incense owls by night
By candle light
By jewel light
If only you will stay
Pretty baby, won't you
Wake up, it's a Chelsea morning
~ Joni Mitchell
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duchessofkvetch- Montana Wildhack
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