Winter Break

So I'm currently just past the midpoint of winter break.
So far this winter break I have:

Learned how to play League of Legends (level 8 Summoner)

Built a EDH deck (angels, angels, angels)

Made cinnamon rolls

Made cheese rolls (that got all moldy due to not being eaten fast enough)

Got 91 Slayer in Runescape.

Cleaned the cabinet that has the towels and stuff in it

Cleaned the living room

Vacuumed the couch

Cleaned the fridge (oh my God...should really clean more than once a year...)

Gone for the fire cape repeatedly (no luck yet)

Completely reversed my schedule...I now get up around sunset and go to bed after sunrise

Completely failed to main or murder people in my vicinity

So far...a successful winter break.
What have the rest of you been up to?

RS: Elf Sphinx and the Big Scary World

If I was to come up with a proper title/subtitle for this, or, as in some older books where they manage to cram the entire chapter into several phrases, it would be:

The Adventures of Two Runescape Characters

Elf Sphinx gets 30 Dungeoneering -- Elf Sphinx Leaves Daemonheim -- Elf Sphinx Dies in New Ways -- Elf Sphinx Goes Back to Daemonheim -- Rebel Dragon Get 121 Combat -- Rebel Dragon gets 88 Herblore --Rebel Dragon Completes Seer's Diary

Now with pictures:

I don't actually roleplay a lot with my RS characters, but with Elf Sphinx it's kind of hard not to. She's probably the daughter of two adventurers who got lost in Daemonheim and as such doesn't really know a world outside the confines of Daemonheim (which she herself is not totally acquainted with). Upon hearing rumors of curious other dungeons in the land, she set out in the Big Scary World to hunt them down and learn from them. First, she uncovered the one close to Daemonheim, that took her to an island of trees. She then used the one ritual spell she knew to take herself to Lumbridge, and from there she ran through some dark woods full of spiders and found a trapdoor in a place known as Edgeville. She did not stop to talk to the people there, as she was questing for this peculiar dungeon. She had no armor or food, since Daemonheim does not allow such items to leave its tainted halls. She encountered some skeletons that were like none she had ever met, of a great size and ferocity. She also encountered hill giants, curious monstrous humanoids she had not seen before. But she found the dungeon. On her way out of this horrid place, she thought she got murdered by a skeleton but found herself laying on the steps of Lumbridge castle, instead. No matter; she ran all the way to Ice Mountain, to investigate the Dwarven mines for a dungeon there. There were some scorpions but she managed to evade them.

She then reached Port Sarim, to catch a boat to Karamja, but discovered the ten gold in her possession did not allow her to sail to that island. Being unacquainted with the standard niceties of civilization, after killing some goblins and getting naught more than a sling, she took to murdering a man and wife in their house until she had enough gold to make passage. She then made her way to the volcano on Karamja, and found an entrance into the belly of the mountain. Here, she saw Lesser Demons, although if these were the Lesser she would dread to meet  Greaters. Upon discovering the special dungeon hidden here, she was promptly murdered by one of these Lessers, and found herself on the steps of Lumbridge Castle again.

Having seen enough of the world and having discovered the dungeons she had set out to discover, she returned to Daemonheim, with the determination to not leave until she was better able to face the frightening world outside its confines.

Now for Rebel Dragon:

Seer's diary is something I've been wanting to complete for awhile, but luck and Evil Dave's stews have not let me. Once I figured I had the herbs for 88 herblore, I decided to take another stab at it. I ended up spending the last half of the level chugging Greenman's Ale and making Extreme Attack potions, but no worries. I then hauled out the cat (Sivir) and popped into Evil Dave's basement. I discovered a wiley cat is so much better than a normal cat for rat-catching purposes. Then it was over to Seers Village to buy 10 stews and then I stomped off to the ranging guild to have a go at it.

Three bowls in and success! However, apparently the diary was not finished. I stared at my screen, and then opened the Tasks tab. Apparently I also must drinks a dose. So I did. Then it was off to Sir Kay to claim my reward, which, the most excited part for me is that my Enhanced Excalibur heals 400lp instead of 200lp! W00t!

So that's what I've been doing in Runescape lately.

Holiday vs. Christmas.

So what is the proper name for this thing?

Some would say "Christmas tree," while others would argue it's a "Holiday Tree." I am hoping to explain, in a few short sentences, which one of these I feel is a more correct terminology.

While "Holiday tree" is supposedly multicultural in appear and covers a wide variety of belief systems, it is a bit of a misnomer. There is only one holiday at this time of year that normally involves a tree, and that is Christmas. To call the tree you erect in your home, decorate, and put presents under, anything other than a Christmas tree, you must be celebrating some holiday other than Christmas. And if that's the case I'd dearly love to know what this holiday is called, because Christmas is the only holiday I know of at this time of year that traditionally has a tree associated with it.

On the other hand, it's perfectly okay to say "Happy Holidays" as there's multiple holidays this time of year and it's shorter than saying, "Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, etc etc etc" to cover all of them.

Happy holidays, everybody!

OMG Wildy and Free Trading!

Runescape has put up a 'poll' to see if people want the old wilderness and free trading back.

Lots of people have talked about this:

Helm Larder

The World Portal

Runescape Reader's Digest

Xelronia

...to mention a few.

Just a few thoughts:

WTH is up with the poll?! You can only vote 'no' by not voting?!! You don't need to enter your password?!!! You can enter other people's names?!!!! You can vote multiple times?!!!!!

Bull patties, I tell you, putrid runny bull patties!!!!

Bacon Turtle

So I learned about bacon turtles from a link a friend sent me when he read the name of my blog. I've been plotting to make one for months.

Well, here it is.

Before oven:

 After oven:

Nom nom nom nom...

Stop looking at mine and make your own!

The Evil of Deliberate Inequality

So, in a perfect world, everyone would be valued for who they are as a person, rather than for who their ancestors were, or the color of their skin, or gender, or sexual orientation, or disability. Right? A person should make their own value rather than it depending on arbitrary and harmful ways of thinking.

When I was a child, my mom (who is a long story in and of herself) got into a legalistic/religious fanatic phase that, among other things, let to a very isolated childhood for me and my siblings and a series of what now seems increasingly bizarre things.

Dress and toy and playmate issues aside, the most horrifying (to me) concept that I had forced into my sensitive little brain was that girls are doomed destined for a life as housewives, spawning children as if
they (women) were brood mares and this idea that a girl could not be a guy's equal in, well, the interesting stuff. Like science, math, having a career, that sort of thing. That they were easily 'led astray' and must be protected from everything.

Strangely, however, these fragile, must-be-protected females apparently could wield massive power over men by dressing in an immodest fashion. And immodest meant single-layer clothing, uncovered ankles, skirts shorter than mid-calf (even that was pushing it), sleeves above the elbow...you get the drift. It was the whole emphasis on this while letting guys essentially wear what they wanted as long as it fell into the shirt + pants category that made me wonder if males, for all their posturing, weren't mentally weaker at the expense of being physically stronger.

This is only one of the many contradictions in this school of thought, which, for lack of a better word I'm going to call 'patriarchy' as other people have taken to calling it. Whether or not you believe that the Holy Bible is God's word to man or not, the fact remains that this whole cultish, oppressive way of thinking is based on cherry-picking a few verses while deliberately ignoring those that speak of "all are one in Christ" irregardless of race or gender (Gal. 3:28 if you want to look it up). It's selecting who gets to go one-on-one with God. According to this theology, females need a male to talk to God for them. As if God wasn't capable of talking to certain parts of His own creation. Face it, either He can talk to all of it or none of it. Trying to restrict access of people to God is simply a recipe for abuse.

These people try to hide their destructive theology by trying to make it sound 'Biblical' and that a person's salvation depends on a strict following of their made-up laws, all the while talking about "freedom in Christ" while imposing their chains on people, many of them young and impressionable children who are growing up.

How many great and wonderful things and discoveries have not happened/are being kept from happening because of these horrible people squishing the bright young minds of their girls (and boys) and forcing them into a life of servitude and reproduction and calling it a 'salvation' thing? And they think God wants them to! How ironic is that? Christ came to set people free and these people would see everyone subjected to the legalistic standards that they uphold and they would kill the spirits of their young with the misguided notion that they are saving their souls.

Some people (like my mom) get tangled up in this way of thinking because they're trying to do the right thing. But it doesn't mean it's not wrong.

Some realize that their souls are being crushed under this system and try to escape. Some successfully, Razing Ruth being one example of this. Another website that's good for finding out what this horrible way of thinking does to people is No Longer Qivering. This site is full of examples of how degrading and ultimately corrupt patriarchy is.

For the love of all things sacred. For humanity. For equality. For the future. Let your girls play with guns and let your boys play with dolls.The allowance to be the best you can be, without artificial cultural impositions, should start from the moment you first open your eyes.

On the Subject of Currency

I discovered that I tend to not think of things in terms of dollars and cents.

I tend to think of them in units of what's important to me at the time.

For example:

Pack of Magic cards: ~$3
Month of Runescape subscription: $5
Box of 36 Magic packs: ~$90

Everything else tends to get thought of in terms of these.

For example (all figures are approximate):

No-frills dinner for two at favorite place(s): 10 Magic packs or 6 months of RS
Dinner for two with alcoholic beverage and dessert: 15 Magic packs or 9 months of RS
Rent/month: 3 Magic boxes
Car payment: 1 Magic box
Fable III Collector's edition: 1 Magic box
Coffeemaker of the gods: 2 Magic boxes
Trip to Costco: arm, leg, body, soul

It's really simple when you think about it.

Does anyone else do this?

2200 Total Level

Well, Rebel Dragon got 2200 overall yesterday. Back when I started playing (2005) that would have been more than enough to get a person maxed in everything.

But I still feel like a big gurl all of a sudden.

A little later I got 90 def and 120 cb:

 So, with winter break literally just around the corner I intend to slay like it's going out of style. And who knows, maybe I'll get that firecape.

Runescape December BTS

Well, I realize that there's already been an update so this will be more of a 3/4 BTS and 1/4 in-front-of-the-scene, haha.

The first update, Dragon Defenders, seems to have lived up to expectations of the various people who have been wanting it. I find it nice that they 'finished' that line of weaponry. From what I understand they drop fairly regularly, but I haven't spent much time trying to get one on account of the Warrior's Guild being crowded every time I go.

Supposedly coming this week are damage-soaking and differently-colored hitsplats. This is supposedly the first of a series of updates trying to increase the players' damage capacity to better withstand the amount of damage being dealt. I rather like the idea of Defense counting for more than it currently does. Damage soaking is being added to most armor, but since the bar is set at 200 life points I'm not sure if it's going to make enough difference to really matter to me, since I hardly ever fight bosses and seldom PVP. The 'max hit splat' idea is a good one, I think.

The Christmas update should be fun. Having it in Daemonheim should be interesting, but since we've had a werewolf involved in Christmas before I guess it's not too much out of the ordinary.

This month is rather low on my list of things-to-be excited about, but that is certainly subject to change. For those of you working through finals before Christmas break: we're almost there!

The Saga of Stupid Freaking Metal Bits, Part III

...continued...

There are certain negative side effects of being a student on financial aid.

I'm not referring to the extra pressure one feels to ensure one stays on financial aid. Or the filling out of applications entreating the government or other entities to please continue funding my education. Or the ever-impending specter of what student loans might do to me once I stop getting educated.

There's this whole matter of what counts as income. Especially when it comes to things like getting credit for a car.

LOML and I found this out at the first car dealer we stopped at. After talking to the super-friendly salespeople, surrounded by big shiny worth-my-financial-aid-packet cars and finding out that I have a decent credit score, we discovered that the vast majority of lenders do not consider financial aid or grants to be a "steady source of income," so for all practical purposes my income is solely what I get from working in the library.

Which would not be enough to pay for my rent each month, by itself. The salespeople regretfully ushered us out the door with business cards and the recommendation to see this other place that would accept funky sources of income.

After going to this other place that packed 976 billion cars to the square foot and partially filling out the application, we were shown three different cars. Two of them looked a little scruffy around the entire body but I was immediately attracted to the third car. It was shiny. Gold. We look it for a spin. I decided I liked it.

Spent the rest of the afternoon calling friends and relatives to get their addresses for the application. Signing papers. Paid a down payment (that was less than it would take to repair the old car)

Drove away with this:

What can I say? 11 days later it's still working, but that Service Engine Soon light hasn't turned off in spite of changing the battery and the oil. I've been reading online you can reset it by disconnecting the battery but that would require me actually tampering under the hood of my car, which I'd rather not do.

Incidentally, the other car was sold for $100. Just enough for my first car payment.

The Saga of Stupid Freaking Metal Bits, Part II

The saga continues....

The tow truck shows up before I can finish eating my nachos. It manages to alternatively dump rain and not rain repeatedly during the whole interaction with the tow truck driver. The driver brings over a portable jumper cable thingy with it's own battery so we can roll up the window, get the shite out of park, and back it into a parking space across the row so the tow truck can actually hook up to it. LOML gets out an umbrella to keep us from getting soaked. Good thing, because I wouldn't have thought of it. When your car is on its way to a career as a scrap heap, what's a little chilling rain to a stressed little soul?


Originally, I planned to take the scrap heap to our place and dump it in our front yard, but the tow truck driver mentioned his shop and I thought, why the hell not? Would save me having to tow it again. So it was towed to a shop tucked behind a 76 station and a local drive-in and I tenuously abandoned it for the night, leaving it all alone in that dark place....

I did briefly think about finding a cliff to push the car off of, but the towing company didn't offer that service.

What this meant was that my next day started hellishly early--I got up at 6 am after about 4 hours of sleep. I called the shop at 8am only to be told that they hadn't looked at it yet. I then called AAA to secure my complimentary 2-day rental--which was some big black Dodge tank of a car. I checked for missile launchers but there didn't seem to be any. I then went to a doctor's appoint at the health center at college, splurging a whole $3 for a park-anywhere pass so I wouldn't have to trot the entire way from the Far Wilderness lot to make it on time.

After the kind doc suggested I turn into a grazing animal start eating 3 servings of fruits and veggies a day (which is like 21 more pieces than I do in a normal week) I dragged myself home to catch a nap before heading to classes.

Except the repair shop called and told me the bad news....

1. Alternator was completely shot
2. Radiator had big crack
3. Serpentine belt needed replacing.

Total repairs = $800.

After the world faded back in to reality, I asked the repair shop lady if I could call back. LOML was stirring and I felt a need to consult him on the topic of 800 buckaroos.

LOML started talking about options and before I knew it I was calling the teachers of the classes I had that day to let them know I was going to be absent on account of my car being a POS. LOML then hijacked the wheel of the black rental tank from me and we set out for the afternoon...

to be continued....

The Saga of Stupid Freaking Metal Bits, Part I

So this past week has been longer and more tiring than usual.

Monday night LOML limps into the house after his class and falls on the bed in a nigh-catatonic state due to his knee being super messed up and him falling on his way to class. After devoted a lot of time to knee-rubbing so he could actually speak coherently, he looked at me with sad pathetic puppy-dog eyes and asked if I could go for Taco Bell. Being not completely hard-hearted, I headed out the door and to my Ford Escort '94, drove to Taco Bell, placed an order, and waited patiently behind the car that was currently at the window.

Then I realized that my radio wasn't playing. I didn't think that I had turned it off, but whatever. I went to turn it on and it stayed cold and dark. Oh well, just another stupid thing to break down on my car. The car in front of me went to pull away and I went to pull forward.

Sput, sput, sputter, silent, went the car.

"What the hell!" I said. Turning the key did not get the car to start again; however it had enough power to beep annoyingly at me as I opened the door to inform the lovely Taco Bell denizens that their drive thru was blocked. They took it better than I probably would have. They even got all helpful and started climbing through the window to attempt to push it out of the way.

Except it was in park and couldn't be gotten out of park with the engine off. Which meant my erstwhile POS wasn't going anywhere. One of the TB employees brought his car the wrong way in through the drive thru and we hooked up jumper cables, enabling the car to get out of park. Upon removing the cables, however, the engine died faster than a canary in a bad coal mine. However two TB employees were able to at least push it out of the drive through. I did collect my order first and called LOML to tell him that if he wanted num-nums in the next several hours he was going to have to come get them. I then called AAA (I knew I was paying for their membership for some reason) and summoned a tow truck.

This is exactly what tow trucks look like.

Meanwhile, my driver window was down and it started to rain like the wrath of Poseidon. I ended up sitting in the middle where there's no real seat and waited patiently for LOML and tow truck to show up. I got a call from AAA in the meantime to inform me that it was going to be about 40 minutes before the tow truck showed up.

LOML showed up and, instead of taking the food and running away, stayed and helped me while away the minutes while we ate our TB food.

To Be Continued....

Runescape November Review

Well, November was a rather successful month, with several much-anticipated updates and a decent quest.

The warped floors in Daemonheim I can't really comment on as I don't have the level to do them, but I'm glad they finished skill all the way out to level 120, as that means I won't get the cape before they complete it, hehe. I do think the Mercenary Leader may be too difficult in general, as I've heard the boss and minions are the same level all the time and not based on your level. I could be wrong about this. There were no awards that made me want to get them immediately, so this was sort of a no-update week from my perspective, but I look forward to trying it out.

The BOAESU (Bank Op And Equip Screen Update) was next, surprisingly, as I was expecting Herblore Habitat. It still has made life quite a bit easier, with the whole switching-of-armor-and-gear between slayer tasks. Or outfits.

I only briefly visited Herblore Habitat when it came out. Other people seem to like it, but I didn't really get the hang of it and all I could think of was how many bank spaces this was going to take. Bankspace is rather precious to me at the moment, so I didn't really do this game.

Do No Evil was fairly challenging without being too frustrating--except for the bit where the pharaoh queen sent me off to Sophanem to learn about Apmeken -- I hate useless running around. The choc ice thing was a bit annoying until I figured how to chill it. But helping the monkeys set up a colony was rather nifty.

All in all, a good month for Runescape.

Random Book Reviews

So I work in a library.
So sometimes I pick up books.
Randomly.

Here are two of those. On the same topic, i.e. the propensity of people to believe in fake stuff.

Here they are:

Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction : Where Real Science Ends...and Pseudoscience Begins

Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology

Both books pretty much cover the same ground, including a brief look at what science is as well as some examples of very nonscientific stuff (i.e. aliens) as well as instances when science worked really well at decipher the truth (the Cardiff giant) as well as when it took a bit longer for scientists to catch on (the Piltdown man) -- although catch on they did -- eventually.

It seems that the major difference between science and pseudosciences is where you begin. If you begin with an hypothesis and then explain away evidence that shows your hypothesis to be full of hocus-pocus, it's not science. If other people can't duplicate your results, it's not science. If your hypothesis can't be falsified, it's not science.

I recommend these books for anyone wanting to indulge in a bit of light reading on the subject of The Silly Stuff People Believe and Why They Believe it.

I Want One of These

I just watched "How to Train Your Dragon."

Now I want one.

Anyone? Christmas present?

A Limerick

A ditty I wrote for my Geography class:

I'm a mud volcano from Indonesia,
I bubble toxic sludge, if that please ya;
     An oil rig drilled,
     So out came the swill,
'Cause East Javan village--who needs ya?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just want to wish a Happy Turkey Day to all my readers! May your Thanksgiving be full of stuff to be thankful for, and may you all go comatose from eating too much turkey and ham and stuffing and other stuff!

Clumsiness, Or, How the World Keeps Getting in My Way

I've been told I'm clumsy. I've thought I was clumsy. I would even go so far as to call myself positionally and spatially challenged.

But after over twenty six years in the same body, I've come to the conclusion that it's not my fault. It's the environment. Really.

I live in a world full of malicious, anthropomorphic inanimate objects who plot and scheme and move when I'm not looking so they can put their marks on me--lovely bruises of various sizes and shapes. I find myself with bruises I have no memories of getting, which leaves me to conclude my bed is involved somehow.  It really is impossible for so many things to move into my way when I'm not paying attention unless they're deliberately setting out to do so.

I've tripped on a wire that was attached from an outlet to a camera that cost about twelve of my cars (haha now you don't know the cost of this camera or my car) that caused this camera to crash onto a linoleum floor. I've managed to trip on perfectly flat surfaces and walk into chairs that I just set down.

But you know who's behind this all? The doors are. Yes, the doors. You know, those things that guard the portals in and out of buildings. And cars. And microwaves.

It always comes down to the bloody doors.

Dungeoneering. Crafting. Milestones

Well, I've been a bit busy this weekend, but on Friday, on both sides of a six-hour sleep period, my RS chars got some milestones in.

First, Rebel Dragon and 85 crafting:

Then Elf Sphinx got Total level 200 and Dungeoneering level 20, respectively.

Okay, so actually level 21.

I feel that medium dungeons take too long and are not much fun to do if you're skilling on the available resources. Plus, they take well over an hour and a half sometimes while a small dungeon can be thoroughly mined, logged, and fished out in 20 minutes.

Just the way of things, I guess.

Rebel Dragon finally did a skeletal wyvern task. The only reason I'm doing them is I want to make those Super Prayer restores at lvl 94 herblore someday if I ever get there.

Incidently, here is Elf Sphinx battling a mighty planar-freeze thingy. Or, as I think of it, the tentacly thing in the ice room.

It's More than a Coffee Maker...

[insert angelic 'AAAAHHH" here]

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present:

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Super Brewer of the Gods, sent down from a consortium of pantheons to enrich the lives of ordinary mortals. With the mere push of a button, your cup will be running over full in less than a minute of lovely, sweet, awesome coffee. You can use the handy little cups in assorted flavors in the spinny thing carousal to the left, or you can use your ordinary dime-store coffee if that's all you can afford after acquiring this thing. It's sleek, it's shiny, and made out of pure Awesonium.

I don't even feel bad for all the pennies that died to buy this thing.

Runescape Meme

I found this cool questionaire on Kieyanar the Mighty Crafter 's blog. It's quite fun, really. Some of the questions are hard for me, though.

Skilling Idol: Nesgamepro
Person you look up to most: Flaiva
Favourite famous player: Season, i.e. used to be #1 in Farming, she commented on a forum post I had a looong time ago.
Person you like going on random excursions with: Almonzor
Person you like chatting with most: ...hard one...right now it's Ram136.
Your favourite persons on Runescape: My demon butler

Your clan's name: Cairdeas
What kind of clan it is: Friendly
Favourite memory from clan: Sitting around yammering
Favourite quote from the clan chat: none yet

Your favourite item: Quest cape
Your weapon of choice: zammy spear
Your favourite costume: don't have any really
Your skillcapes: construction, woodcutting, fletching, magic, range, acquired in that order
What skillcape(s) you're working on: slayer, defense, hitpoints, fishing, and cooking. Think that's all
Your total level: 2182

Your favourite skill: Slayer
Your favourite activity within that skill: Treasure trails
Your favourite minigame/distraction: trouble brewing, but as a rule I don't do minigames
Your favourite random event: Giles. It's quick.
Your favourite quest: You want me to pick?
Your quest points: 309


And now you know more about me as a Runescape player than you ever cared to know.

Stalling

What is it with bloggers not blogging and web comics not updating?

I mean, I already did a fair pile of Earth Structure homework. Now I've just got to do the lab that's due tomorrow and I should be completely caught up.

But it's been over 16 hours since any of the blogs I follow have updated. I feel like a kid waiting for the grandparents to show up, running to the window every five minutes to see if they're here yet. I'm fishing on Runescape, but all my friends are off for the night and I may have to throw in a movie to stave off impending boredom of not doing thirty things at once.

So...

I need help procrastinating. Are there good blogs that I'm missing? Any websites I should be frequenting? A magic wand to make my lab do itself?

I'd like the last one the most, but I'll settle for any one of the three.

Dungeoneering Pure Update 1

If you recall a previous post of mine, I started Elf Sphinx on Runescape to be a dungeoneering pure. She hit a few milestones today -- total level 100 and Dungeoneering 10:

On a slightly different note, for Rebel Dragon, she got this today:

That's an H2 helm and platebody in one clue. Pretty cool, I thought.

On the Morality of Doors

Doors are not good.

Possibly even evil.

Let me explain:

While there is no denying the usefulness of doors for keeping the outdoors out of the indoors, and have the advantage of being able to put a lock on to double ensure the outdoors do not get in, if it wasn't for this usefulness we wouldn't have doors at all.

Because doors do not like us.

Ever have a door slam on you while you are trying to go through it with arms full of groceries/kittens/dark ritual implements? You may have thought it was due to the wind, but the truth is that the door only used the wind as a cover. Did you know 300,000 "accidents" a year are caused by doors? This is not a trivial amount. This many accidents are evidence of the malevolence of the door kind and of their undying hatred for humanity. That's just too many "accidents" to be accidental. By my highly secretive and complicated calculations, if these "accidents" were truly accidental, there should only be 12,342 a year.

You read that right. 12,342. That is a far cry from 300,000. And those are only the ones that have been reported. Who knows how many attacks by doorkind have been launched against humans that no one knows about? How many of them were successful? How many of the people on the Missing Persons list have fallen to the doors?

I have written to the governments and the bureaucrats and the President. Do they reply? NO! They are in cahoots with this force of evil, the League of Doors. We should stand and fight! Take your doors and burn them! Do not permit them to bruise you, slam in your face, or lock you out of your abode any longer! Do not let your loved ones and friends be imperiled by these another day!

I hereby announce today as Door-Burning Day! Take back your eyes and your toes! Let the Revolution begin!

Fable 3: Review

Warning: Possible Spoilers.

So LOML picked up the Collector's Edition of Fable 3 on October 26th and brought it home. It was the hardest thing in the world to stumble home after a day of school and work and to only rip off the packaging and not shove the disc into the Xbox and spend the next eight hours playing it. Instead, I only ripped off the packaging and studied for a test I was having the following afternoon. And messed around with the Villager Maker, but apparently due to never getting the code from GameStop I wasn't able to put it into my game.

It wasn't for several days until I was able to start Fable 3 in earnest. First was the sultry voice of Theresa, asking me what I would be. The options were either a Prince or Princess. I chose Princess ('X' button). I then watched the opening story involving a chicken on a quest for freedom, only for the chicken to be shot and hauled into the castle kitchen while the camera pans up to the window of the Princess, where she is getting prodded out of bed by Jasper, the faithful and helpful butler every secretly aspiring Hero wishes they had.

I shan't reiterate the entire story, but I would like to say I found Fable 3 pleasantly different from Fable 2. There was less control over the emotes, but at least it was more intuitive to use them ('A' for good, "X' for evil, 'Y' for silly), and there is no more holding down the left trigger to collect little glowy balls of experience, which I always found annoying, as they like evaporating before I killed everything.

Due to my allergy to grinding, I was unable to do any of the jobs (blacksmithing, piemaking, barding) for any length of time (Yes, I play Runescape. Shut up). I slowly made money via renting out houses and owning shops but as it turned out I didn't accumulate enough money before embarking on the year of reign and then the year of reigning advanced rather faster than I expected, making me lose 2/3rds of the population of Albion. But at least they still liked me afterward.

I set up two families and adopted about eight runts from the orphanage before calling it a weekend on Sunday night. I started another character (a prince) with the intent of making him evil but sometimes even the greatest obsessions necessitate a break from them.

Fable 3: Two thumbs up!

Dungeoneering Pure

Apparently I don't have enough to do. I know this to be incorrect, but considering what I'll randomly do...

This is Elf Sphinx, my new Runescape character. No, I'm not going to stop playing Rebel Dragon.

Elf Sphinx exists because I want to see what a Dungeoneering pure would look like...a character who spends the entire time of its Runescape existence inside the dungeons of Daemonheim. So far, the bosses have been Astea Frostweb (level 3) with the exception of this thing:

At my pitiful combat level of 3, there didn't seem to be enough heim crabs in the world for me to kill this thing, although it came close.

At the end of the night, I had reached complexity 3, doing three complete dungeons while skipping out on the behemoth, with the following stats:

All in all, not bad for a first night.

Daddy's Shirt

Daddy’s Shirt

Little girl wrapped up in Daddy’s shirt,
Waiting for Daddy to come home.

Today is your birthday, Dad, and I really wish you were here;
You broke my heart when you left, dear Dad; I haven’t got any more tears.
I lie, I lie, but they’re all inside, all stoppered up in a fractured bottle;
I have some words, but they are scarred, all shattered and twisted and mottled.


Little girl wrapped up in Daddy’s shirt,
Wondering when Daddy’s coming home.

The world died the day you did, the rocks shattered under my silent screams;
I think of you under bright-sun days, I meet with you in my dreams,
Always happy, so happy, and you can’t understand why I’m sad;
With you gone, the world is worse, and some days, it’s just plain bad.

Little girl wrapped up in Daddy’s shirt,
Wondering if Daddy’s coming home.

I’m going forward ‘cause I can’t go back; I go, for I cannot stay;
But on days like today, when you should be here, is when the saltwaters come out to play.
I gotta believe that you’re alive somewhere, and that you’re still here with me;
It hurts too much, for you to be gone, my heart stranded on the saltwater sea.

Little girl in Daddy’s shirt,
Crying for Daddy.

4:16pm 11-3-07 © Jamie S.

Dear Dad

Dear Dad,

I nearly forgot your birthday.

I might have forgotten it if Sister hadn't texted me asking what day it was--today or tomorrow? It's November 3rd, I told her.

You would be 52 years old today...exactly twice my age. I would be calling you to wish you Happy Birthday, and tease you about how ancient you were getting. Which would remind me how old I am getting. Time has a way of shuffling on, doesn't it? I'm thoroughly engaged in a life of perpetual studenthood and you...what would you being doing? Would the fertilizer business have taken off? Would the vending machine business have expanded to the point where you didn't have to do yard service and hauling (I know those were getting harder for you as you got older)?

It's hard to know.

How different would life be if you were still here? Would Mom be retaining some semblance of sanity? Would you still live in that place we built, that place we built as a family, with our hands? Would you even still be with Mom? All I can say is that you were a stronger person than I would have been, staying with someone who wouldn't let you make her happy for years and years. Would Grandpa and Grandma seem as old as they do now? What would you think of your first grandchild, Brother's son? What would you think of LOML? Would you two get along as fantastically as I think you would?

If there was anything I could have done to make you stay, I would have. I'm sure if your own pain wasn't so great you might have stayed longer, given tomorrow another go.

The nightmares seared on the underside of my eyelids don't return as much as they used to, and I don't see you in my dreams so much anymore, with you not understanding why I'm so sad when I see you, or trying to convince me that the whole thing isn't real and you're just a phone call away.

You want to know the ironic thing? For years I struggled with depression. I'm sure you didn't know. I took pains to not let anyone else know.  It was five years. Five years of feeling the world collapse in on me and pushing the walls back. Finding a reason for tomorrow.

Then those feelings started fading. It felt as though I was coming out of a cave. Tomorrow was worth living for, but today is also.

Three months later, you succumbed to the depression and to the physical sickness the doctors couldn't name, and you shuffled off this mortal coil.

I don't blame you for what happened. I don't blame God for what you did. I might blame Mom a little, frankly. I'm sure it wasn't easy for you, either. Maybe there's no one to blame, and what happened, happened, and that's the way of things.

Just want you to know I love and miss you and I plan to see you again someday.

Love,
Jamie

Runescape Behind the Scenes November

Well, this appears to be a promising month for Runescape, on several levels.

The Warped Dungeoneering floors are being released. I won't be able to use this update when they come out due to them starting at 95 Dungeoneering, but it's nice to see a skill being finished. There are eight new challenge rooms being released that will be available on all floors, and I'm more excited about those. The rest of the tier-11 equipment is also being released, and some of the new rewards (scroll of cleansing, anyone?) look like they could be useful.

The Herblore Habitat I'm not so sure about. Is it a minigame, or Distraction and Diversion? I like the promise of a new Construction area, but as a rule I don't do minigames unless I need something out of them. I hope it proves worthwhile, and isn't just another place in RS  that is forgotten after the first month.

Another master quest! I hope any combat isn't mind-numbingly difficult, like Nomad, because Nomad took me forever (like 6 months) to finally beat. I like a good epic boss fight but I prefer to not fail twenty times before beating it. It will be interesting to see how they tie the desert quests to Ape Atoll. I hope it doesn't come off as a cop-out just to finish up the Monkey Madness series because that storyline has the potential to be truly epic. IMHO.

Bank Op and Equip Screen Update (BOAESU) looks like it will be a possibly gameplay-changing update--being able to equip weapons or fill pouches while having your bank tab open will make certain things, such as Runecrafting, faster because there will be less clicks. Also, eating food and drinking potions while having your bank tab open? Someone's going to complain about eating a pumpkin or half wine, guaranteed, but it also seems like a promising aspect.

Looks to be an exciting month!

Weekends, Or, When the World Starts Turning

I've discovered a curious side effect of leading a life full of the responsibility of work and school and relationships.

I go through the entire week of class-to-class and class-to-work and work-to-school routine and it's all very Tab A into Slot B, really. I get some variations in what I do in the times around Tab-A-into-Slot-B but inevitably I go to bed and then start Tabbing A into Slot B all over again.

But around 3pm on Friday afternoon, as I walk to the most distant school parking lot where I park my car and meet up with Roommate, there's this little feeling. And sometimes I don't even notice it.

We make the ten minute drive home and I hurriedly start packing stuff into my backpack--dice,  Magic deck, playmat, Monster, water bottle. We then all pile in LOML's car and head away to the gaming hall.

And there's the feeling.

And then I realize: it's like the world has started turning.

Sunday night I'll hear the squeaking of the world slowly winding down to a standstill and it'll be back to Tab-A-into-Slot-B again, as I run around doing homework and other things that must be got into line for the tabbing of A into slot B. But until then, the world is full of magic. And evil vampire lords. And death-defying acts of heroism.

 And dragons.

Antarctica

Something I wrote for my geography class. I got 10 out of 10 possible points for it.

Antarctica, A Tale

Let me tell you a tale of a world, a world that’s carved in ice,
I will tell you the fate, this fate we hold, and of this future’s price;
I speak to you of Antarctica, the land of the southern sea,
The place it was, and the place it is, and the place it might yet be.

So about one upteen bajillion years ago (or forty mil, if you prefer)
Everywhere was all one great big place we call Gondwana land,
Back then it was all tropical and a bit balmy ‘round the gills,
Until Everywhere left it there, this place the name “Antarctica” commands.

Now, here, in the present day, it’s the coldest place on Earth;
A daytime temp to freeze your blood, a nighttime temp to freeze your soul;
The whistling of the frozen plains, the bubbling of Erebus’ pool,
The click and clatter of ice-chilled matter as you approach the Southern pole.

It took us awhile to find this place, like till 1820 A.D. or so,
But what with it being a land a mite inhospitable, a land of frozen chill,
People didn’t want to come and stay until after World War 2,
When suddenly it appeared to be the hotspot of scientific thrill.

But we’ve gone and left our mark on this place; that’s what people do,
With trash lying in gulches and gullies and dumped out on the shore,
“More than just footprints [are] left and more than photos have been taken”
And if we don’t take care what we leave there will taint the future evermore.

The future can be starry bright but it’s haunted by our past,
It’s a stunning brand new day, but there is the taint that is mankind,
Us, the creature that creates and can destroy,
Our hopes and dreams, our future schemes, best done with eyes not blind.

10:37 pm, 10/13/10

Mimic My Infection

Roommate was kind enough to put together an Infect deck for me to play in Friday's Standard Magic tournament. Here is what the decklist turned out to be after I borrowed a Hand of the Praetors and two Skithiryx from another player:

Creatures:
4 Blight Mamba
4 Hand of the Praetors
4 Ichor Rats
4 Plague Stinger
4 Putrefax
2 Skithiryx

Other Spells
4 Doom Blade
4 Mimic Vat
3 Untamed Might
4 Vines of the Vastwood

Land
13 Forest
10 Swamp

Sideboard
3 Acidic Slime
2 Mold Shambler
3 Naturalize
3 Pelakka Wurm
2 Windstorm
2 Wurmcoil Engine


Round 1 I was paired against a black/red deck that heavily utilized Act of Treason, Mark of Mutiny, and Fling, as well as several sac outlets. I lost Game 1 due to my infect creatures being stolen, used to attack me, and then chucked at my face. Game 2 I was able to put Putrefax on Mimic Vat and relentlessly whale on him. Game 3 was the same with Putrefax-onna-stick with the variation that he got Sarkhan the Mad out and staved off the end for a few turns by sacrificing his small creatures to get dragon tokens to block with.


Round 2 was against a Darksteel Lich deck. I got manascrewed on game 1 with two Forests, but that didn't stop me from doing a Turn 3 Vines of the Vastwood pumped Blight Mamba, doing five poison counters. If I had another Vines at that time the game would have been over by turn 4. I didn't however, but I eventually did draw more land for the eventually winning of. Game 2 the first two creatures (Blight Mamba and Plague Stinger) got Mana leaked, but I eventually played more creatures than he had  had counterspells and Vines saved my creatures long enough to rabble in for the win.

Round 3 was against blue-white-black control. Game 1 I kept a hand with no early creatures and ended up paying dearly for it, getting pummeled to death by a Grave Titan. Game 2 I drew 3 Swamps, 1 Plague Stinger, 1 Hand of the Praetor, 1 Skithiryx, and 1 Mimic Vat. I got Hand of the Praetor on the Mimic Vat and won by casting Blight Mamba with a Hand token in play. Game 3 all my early creatures were manaleaked and I didn't draw a Mimic Vat.  Got beat to death by Baneslayer and Grave Titan.

Round 4 was against another infect deck, which played with Duress, Sword of Vengeance, Grasp of Darkness, Tumble Magnet, and Ichorclaw Myr, and did not have Putrefax or Skithiryx.I won both both games.


The sideboard definitely needs some work. I'm going to try putting in some Memoricides, Marsh Casualities, and Tectonic Edges. I'll let you know how it pans out.

Kitten

Kitten

I float

like an amoeba

in a place

where there’s no up

or down

I crouch

in the darkness

afraid

I’ll be seen

I puff

with my spines

like a porcupine

afraid

to be touched.

I swim

toward a glow

a gentle face

an hand outstretched

time to

come out

into the light

10.22.10 10:18pm

The Time I won a Magic Tournament

So last Friday (10/15/10) I plaed in a MTG draft of 19 people.

This is what I drafted:

Creatures:
1 Tel-Jilad Fallen
1 Alpha Tyrranax
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
1 Skinrender
2 Blight Mamba
1 Ezuri's Brigade
2 Vector Asp
1 Cystbearer
1 Memnite
1 Blackcleave Goblin
1 Plague Stinger
1 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Necropede
1 Sylvok Replica


Other Spells
1 Asceticism
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Instill Infection
1 Flesh Allergy
2 Untamed Might
2 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Carrion Call

Land:
9 Forest
7 Swamp

Sideboard:
1 Untamed Might
1 Relic Putrescence
1 Blistergrub
1 Instill Infection
1 Withstand Death
1 Razorfield Thresher
1 Blunt the Assault
1 Viridian Revel
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Psychic Miasma
1 Oxidda Daredevil
1 Ferrovore
2 Wing Puncture
2 Ezuri's Archers

First pack I opened I pulled this card:

So I thought, "Cool. Let's try for green, possibly green/black, because I like infect."

The first pack that was passed to me had this in it:

I spent a good several tens of seconds staring at it while surrepstitiously eying the guy sitting on my right, thinking, "I hope whatever you picked over this was worth it."

(It was. He pulled a foil one of these).

I don't remember the order I pulled most of my cards in but I do remember what I opened in my next two packs:

I felt a little bad passing the phoenix, but I was rather strongly into green/black at the time and I'm trying to break my habit of indiscriminately drafting rares, irregardless of their actual value (But it's okay to draft rares that are worth money). A sudden outbreak of laughter from LOML two or three seats down from me told me what color he was in, and that made me nervous.

Match one I was paired against a green/white deck that had some of the same cards I did but was heavy on the metalcraft. It also had fliers and a Sunblast Angel, which completely ruined my life in game 1. Game two I sideboarded in some Ezuri's Archers and Wing Punctures, which made life slightly easier. Game 3 I won due to Untamed Might on an unblocked Wurmcoil Engine, but it was a close thing--one more turn and I would have been dead due to poison counters.

Match two was against a red/green deck that I pretty much overran due to the opponent getting manascrewed. I felt kind of bad about it since the guy looked quite unhappy once I was done with him but there was nothing for it unless I wanted to make bad plays--and those have a way of turning on a person.

Match 3 was against LOML, who had a nasty red deck that burninated the shite out of me on game 1--well, that and his Steel Hellkite. The second game I managed to Flesh Allergy his Precursor Golem, netting him a major loss of life.  I won the third game after doing a Sylvok Replica number to his Hellkite.

Match 4 was against a blue/white deck where I won mainly due to the dint of having infect creatures shrinking his oversized defenders down to killable levels. I lost game 2 due to not being able to get rid of his flyer and things pretty much being stalemated on the ground. Game 3 went to time but was won by the dint of a great deal of creatures, not all that could be blocked.

So I won 8 packs for being first, and LOML won 6 packs for being second. It made for a good night.

P.S. And if anyone knows of a good way to make nice little Magic decklists that don't require me to indivually link every single card, they would earn my eternal love and gratitude.

Turtle Shark

A few weekends ago LOML and I went down to the bay to get our feet wet. There was an overabundance of people, as there tends to be on a Sunday afternoon, but since we had driven all of ten minutes to get there it seemed reasonable to stay. At least for a little bit. Have I mentioned I tend to not like large crowds of people?

Anyway, so LOML and I are standing up to our waists in mildly tepid water a good twenty feet or so from the next nearest knot of humanity, talking about God-knows-what, probably games, when LOML says, "Look out! You're about to be hit by a --"

CRASH!

Something banged into the back of my knees.

It was this huge turtle. Probably a good yard or so in diameter. We watched it drift past us with no regard for us whatsoever. It was as if we were merely fog in the turtle's world and he figured we'd either move out of the way or not, it didn't matter.

He drifted on towards a group of children. LOML and I watched in anticipation.

Suddenly, little kids started jumping around and flailing on the water. Cries of "What's that?" and "Wow" broke out after the initial flailing.

The turtle just went out his business, eating algae, ignoring the flock of human spawn that had gathered around to touch it. He also had slime on his shell. Not something you'd normally think of being ON a turtle, but there you go.

Then he swam out to sea and lived happily ever after. Maybe.

Airports and Sleep 2

So apparently I don't sleep in airports. Or planes. I was reaching a point on Monday night where I was wondering if I would ever sleep.

So, while the SACNAS conference was fun, it was strained a little for me because I didn't get enough sleep and my ability to mimic human behavior decreases sharply with the amount of sleep I'm not getting.

After the conference I went to see some people I haven't seen in over two years. This list includes my grandparents, brother, cousin, and friends (mostly people I used to play Magic with), and some people I haven't met at all (my brother's boy and my cousin's daughter). 

For the trip back I was requested by LOML if I could please collect his Rifts books that he had left at a friend's place and bring them back. I said I would.

All 70,000 70 pounds of them.

Between this picture and the airport, however, two of my brain cells randomly banged together and made me realize that hauling 70 pounds of books in as my carry-on luggage was a recipe for my arms being two feet longer by the end of the day. Or my shoulders being torn from their sockets. Or me being rendered a paralyzed mass of goo in the middle of the airport. Or someone getting fatally concussed as the duffel bag tumbled from the overhead compartment.

Plus, I can't lift that much weight over my head anyways.

So I checked the duffel bag into the checked-in luggage while stuffing 20 pounds of books into a random cloth bag I looted from the SACNAS conference. I discovered that 20 pounds of books was sufficient to make me pledge to only carry a lightly-packed bag next time I felt the urge to travel.

But I've got LOML's eternal gratitude and a status of a favor permanently owed. That's worth it, right?

And now I want to play a Crazy. From Rifts.

P.S. The duffel bag was a casualty of this trip. May it rest-in-peace-in-the-closet-because-it-has-too-much-sentimental-value-for-me-to-throw-away.

Airports and Sleep

Ahh, the lovely feeling of floating in air while simultaneously feeling the incredibly strong pull of gravity.

Strange things seem to happen when there is massive sleep deprivation, i.e. I happened to not sleep at all while traveling on an 6 hr (more or less) flight across the Pacific and am now sitting in an airport for three hours waiting to catch another flight. Somebody's spawn is working it's way up to a full scale bawl and big words are starting to get difficult to write. Oh, and my verbal English comprehension is slithering down the drain but no worries, right?

The pizza I had for breakfast (at 5:30am) was slightly burned around the edges, but still tasted pretty good.

The "free" wifi here only lasts for 45 minutes, which I consider sucky seeing as I'm here for 3 hrs. At least it means probably not moving to plug in my laptop because there's only so much I want to do on my computer at 6:30am that doesn't involve the internet.

At least I've stopped twanging like a high-pitched amateur violinist's violin.

Scars of Mirrodin: I'm a Woman In Love

Check out these hotties:

So I indiscriminately like angels. Bite me.

I should warn you, though: Not many things that bite me live for very long.

Of Blonds

I had an encounter with a blond today. It was definitely one of those encounters-of-the-blond kind that you normally only get in blond jokes. Insert standard blather here I have nothing against blonds and some of my best friends are blonds, but blather blather blah you can't make this up. Really.

So I'm working at the circulation desk in the library, doing my cheery best to cater to the needs and wishes of the mortal souls that come up to my desk, at least when it comes to library services:

When this girl chick female human comes up to the desk to return a set of headphones and asks for her driver's license back.

Quick review of library policy:

• You need to be a registered student.
• You must have your picture ID (either student card or driver's license) to check out books, headphones, study rooms, etc.).
• We do not keep IDs at the desk while you are using said headphones, study rooms, books, etc.. We haven't as long as I've been there, and I do not anticipate this policy changing. We do, however, charge books and headphones, etc. to your account so that if you're late returning them, we can hang you upside down and shake change out of your pockets.

But we do not take IDs hostage to ensure the safe return of borrowed items.

So, I was puzzled. A search of the lost and found drawer yielded no licenses,and no other possible places yielded the missing license. The blond in question named the person who had been on desk at the time and insinuated that said person had kept the license for nefarious purposes. All this right before finding said license in her wallet.

So I spent five minutes telling this person that the person had asked for her license so she could look up her name in the computer so that she could charge the headphones out. We do it to everyone who wishes to borrow headphones. Then we give said IDs back.

It's people like this than make me certain my supervisors will authorize me setting up a pit trap in front of the circulation desk.

So I haven't mentioned the spikes yet. Shhh.

Runescape firsts

I've had a couple of firsts in the past day.

First, a level 4 clue. My weeks of killing the Skeletal Horror have finally paid off. Here is what I got:

And then I reached occult floors in Dungeoneering for the first time. I've had the level to do them, just haven't started training Dungeoneering until recently:

In other news, Dungeoneering is my last skill I need to get to lvl 80 and I'm about 115k xp away from it. W00t. My first occult boss was the Skeletal Trio, but I neglected to take a pic because I was too busy getting my ass whipped. However, after teleporting out several times I got a better hang of the system and shattered their little undead noses not only on this floor, but the one after it.

I'm looking forward to getting back to Slayer, though.

The Balls to Unball...

...or, My Monsters are Other People. (With Pictures)

Asking for help is hard to do.

Tonight when leaving my job at the library, I asked the security guard there for an escort. Now, I've never asked for an escort to my car before, but I had parked in the farthest parking lot of the school, and going back to it would involve passing a lot of creepy foliage that could be hiding a bad guy in it.

Now, I've passed lots of creepy foliage before without a bad guy jumping out at me, but that just increases the chances of it happening, right? So, while I'd like to think I would do this:

....chances are more likely this would happen....

OR:

Plus I know LOML generally dislikes me getting into these situations. And it would be a pain to replace everything in my backpack. So I asked for an escort.

But admitting I didn't have the balls to walk across campus in the dark bothers me. I mean, shouldn't I be self-confident in my ability to discourage predatory members of my own species?

That could be the problem. I'd be perfectly happy in the middle of a howling wilderness as long as I knew for sure that there were no other people around. Come lions, tigers, bears, oh my, they generally don't have the stock of evil that is so uniquely human. Plus they don't have a cash society and they aren't going to go pawn my textbooks off on Ebay or spend my five dollars on some worthless pursuit I would no doubt spend my money on if I actually still had it.

That is barely scratching the surface of why I don't like asking for help, but I'm currently dabbling in a worthless pursuit and I feel this topic is too heavy for one post. Plus it's almost so late that if I stay up another five hours the sun will be rising. And I haven't had my dose of Runescape for the evening yet.