tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27399953242557678392024-03-12T15:21:58.467-10:00Bacon & BetelgeuseIt's about bacon. And life. And science. And gaming. And stuff. But mostly about bacon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger167125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-16688608988414709982015-09-03T12:54:00.002-10:002015-09-03T12:54:41.633-10:00On Paths, and the Niceness of Them<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Where I work is a big place. And since being moved to the far end of the campus (it's big enough to merit being called a campus, if that is any indication), a certain amount of my time is devoted to calculating the quickest distance between my office and wherever it is I'm supposed to be in ten minutes.<br />
<br />
I am apparently not the only person who has spent time considering this, as I often encounter unofficial paths trodden into bits of tall grass and weeds that happens to be everywhere where it's not mowed.<br />
<br />
This lengthy preamble is all so I can set you up for this conversation I had last week.<br />
<br />
I'm doing my full-barreled meander up a small hill, on a ragged bit of pseudo-trail that happens to connect the main campus road with a dirt access road, and as I pop up over onto the top of it I encounter an older lady heading my way. We exchange smiles, as humans are wont to do, and then she says:<br />
<br />
"I assume there's a nice little path down there?"<br />
<br />
My mind balks a bit.<br />
<br />
"Well, there's a path. I don't know about <i>nice</i>, but it's a path."<br />
<br />
And then my mind promptly spirals into how this seems a metaphor for my life, and I managed to get in quite a few thoughts on the subject before reaching my office.<br />
<br />
I am finding myself continually surprised at the amount of people who grew up, went to school, got a four-year degree in four years, talk to their parents, and never worked a minimum-wage service job of any type. Not that there's anything wrong with that.<br />
<br />
It's just not like anything I've ever experienced.<br />
<br />
My path through higher education, for example, is peppered with some shaky foundations (never took trig or geometry before calculus, for example), juggling schedules for multiple majors, and then having to make some decisions on which major when I discovered that financial aid credit limits are a thing. I got my major in geology, but most of my internships were in astronomy. This is probably more like randomly wandering around in the underbrush and coincidentally falling onto a paved street.<br />
<br />
Take the only mode of League of Legends that I actually like: Dominion. I am one of a ever dwindling population of players that continues to play the mode. I wouldn't be playing LoL today if it wasn't for Dominion. But when Riot decided they weren't ever going to do anything more than life support for the mode, a lot of upper tier players left. And I realize that, yet again, I ended up on the path less traveled and it's sort of muddy.<br />
<br />
I got hired at a software company (nothing related to my major, of course), and found myself placed into one of the smallest roles at the company. A role that was subject to misunderstanding or outright uneducation, and while it's gotten a lot better over the past few years, I can't help but notice that, while the path is sort of here, it needs a lot more people to step on the grass before people who are not in the know will recognize it as such. <br />
<br />
But that's the thing, isn't it? Some explorer climbs to the top of a mountain and within a decade you've got tourists in flip flops and shorts standing on the same summit taking pictures. Some person in an online game figures out all the quests the day of release and the guide for the quest is up within hours. A person in a lab makes a discovery and within a year some long-standing disease is in jeopardy of extinction.<br />
<br />
Some people set out to make paths, to blaze trails into unknown lands. Some people just want a shorter distance between two points. And some chase a butterfly into the woods and find themselves without a compass.<br />
<br />
Eh, sometimes the best bits of life are where there's no quest guide - yet. <br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-88142358046420884962015-08-28T12:03:00.002-10:002015-08-28T12:03:53.505-10:00Things I Would Do If I Were Some Sort of All-Powerful Deity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Randomly write in the sky, "Hi! I'm up here and I have lighting bolts!!!", complete with the exclamation points.</li>
<li>Utilize the "three strikes" rule on things that annoy me (or are evil), using two lightning bolts and a meteor strike. Then I would mix up the order randomly.</li>
<li>Plant Nokia phones in Cambrian rock layers.</li>
<li>Bring back dinosaurs from extinction. Brontosauruses in particular. </li>
<li>Make a rock just slightly too heavy for me to lift, but make it the size of a normal rock. Then I would call over a random human and have them help me lift the rock.</li>
<li>I wouldn't accept worship, but I'd accept offerings of tiramisu and coffee.</li>
<li>Randomly create dragons.</li>
<li>Give humans immunity to dragonfire. Until I deem otherwise.</li>
<li>Flumphs would be a thing.</li>
<li>Fly. </li>
</ol>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-43406117254883508052014-04-12T17:25:00.000-10:002014-04-12T17:25:28.257-10:00Le Luth Brisé: First Poem Translated<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, I have finally managed to pick my way through the forwards and introductions in Le Luth Brisé and gotten to the first poem. Since I'm excited about getting this far, I'm going to post it here, but you can find the entire document thus far <a href="https://drive.google.com/#folders/0B1LgjeQjd3hISjkwZ2ptNHFteFU" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's depressing, thinking about under what circumstances this poem was written. I get the feeling it's only going to get more sad as I move deeper into the book. It <i>is</i> a book of Holocaust poetry, after all. This brings me to something the original translator, Irene Kanfer, said in the forward. It is, best as I can translate it, "The fact that these
men, these women, these children, have, in the face of death, chose the poetic
form, proves that poetry is inherently in the heart of humanity." </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Poetry seems to be the form people often turn to in times of great distress, great anger, great joy. Prose is all well and good and perhaps easier to understand, but poetry is the beat that we hear when we're not listening.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Without further rambling, first the original French, and then English. Any errors in translation are all my fault. If you want to read the footnotes for this piece, please refer to the link above.</span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Premier temps de
l'occupation allemande en Pologne</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">FAIRE LA QUEUE...</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(à Lodz)
</span></span><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oh, combien c'est agréable: faire la queue pour un morceau
de <span></span>pain</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Attendre des heures et des heures</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Repartir sans rien</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sauf un coup de poing sur votre crâne.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oh, combien c'est agréable: traverser la Piotrowska<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2739995324255767839#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"></span></span></span></a>
sous un<span> </span>cri :</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Zerück, verfluchter Jude!<span>
</span>Demi tour, Juif maudit! </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Une étolie devant, une étoile derrière<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2739995324255767839#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"></span></span></span></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ainsi tu sauras plaire</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tu auras l'air d'un général.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Alors: que manqu-t-il donc à ton bonheur?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oh, qu'il est doux de se coucher très tard le soir</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Se lever en sursaut dans une nuit noire</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Travailler dès cinq heures du matin</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Faire la queue pour un morceau de pain.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span>Anonyme</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The first German
occupation of Poland</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">MAKE THE WAIT...</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(at Lodz)
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oh, how much is agreeable: make the wait for a piece of
bread</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Wait for hours and hours</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Leave with nothing</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Except a blow on your skull.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oh, how much is agreeable: traverse the Piotrowska beneath the <span></span>cry:</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Zerück, verfluchter
Jude</i>! Turn away, cursed Jew!</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A star before, a star behind;</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And you shall know, please;</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">You have the air of a general.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then: that failing that is your happiness?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oh, it is sweet to lie down very late in the evening</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To get up, to start in a black night</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Work at five in the morning</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Make the wait for a piece of bread.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <span> </span>Anonymous
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-61003276402579879272014-04-10T13:08:00.001-10:002014-04-10T13:08:42.287-10:00Motivating Yourself For Fun & For Word Count<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This is based on a presentation I gave at my writers' group. It seemed to strike a chord with a number of people, so I figured I'd make a post on my blog where perhaps it can also help other people.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0aksNhWuj2DEkGu3KtfK04msU67BuUnB2EuDL2AkdkoUGpxcyxC22DwTvf7hcD1U9DNi2QZrJX5JhXq80Fxz8F2UGP9Ly5r8DlXxHXGK_4B_IxoRUC9m-jPH1LgdWzzbeyrYm3__j4Nt/s1600/ScreenShot1460.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0aksNhWuj2DEkGu3KtfK04msU67BuUnB2EuDL2AkdkoUGpxcyxC22DwTvf7hcD1U9DNi2QZrJX5JhXq80Fxz8F2UGP9Ly5r8DlXxHXGK_4B_IxoRUC9m-jPH1LgdWzzbeyrYm3__j4Nt/s1600/ScreenShot1460.bmp" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
So maybe you made a New Year's resolution to write every day. You have a story that needs to be told. You have information you want to share with the wide, wide world. Maybe you want to do it for the money, the fame, the torturing of school children two centuries hence. You have reasons to write.<br />
<br />
So what keeps you from writing?<br />
<br />
Tiredness, sleepiness, work, family, friends, depression, stress, sickness, a conviction that what you write isn't any good and therefore no one will read it?<br />
<br />
So you have reasons.<br />
<br />
They're not sufficient excuses.<br />
<br />
To quote Charles Bukowski, "If you’re going to create you’re going to create whether
you work 16 hours a day in a coal mine or you’re going to create in a small
room with 3 children while you’re on welfare.” If you have the fire of creation burning in you, you need to get it out. Sure, your life may not be easy, but only YOU can share with us the words in your head. We can't get them out for you.<br />
<br />
Or to use an anonymous quote that I personally like a lot: "Your daily schedule is your creed; what you believe in, you have time for." If you truly believe that you should write, that you are a writer, you will make the time. Now, before you offer the thought, "Maybe I don't really believe I can write, because I haven't been." Nope, nope, nope. You've got today. You've got tomorrow. You've got the rest of your life to be a writer. Yesterday doesn't count. You can't change it. Today and tomorrow are yours to change.<br />
<br />
So what are some things we can do in our quest to become writers?<br />
<br />
First of all, I'm going to share with you something that I only realized after years of starts and stops, something I've heard from a lot of people, something that makes it harder to write.<br />
<br />
<b>PERFECTIONISM KILLS.</b><br />
<br />
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It's worse than your mom looking over your shoulder while you type, and commenting. Perfectionism will shoot your writing in the face, stomp on it a few times, then leave you in despair with the mangled corpse while it laughs at you.<br />
<br />
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Seriously. <b>It's not going to be perfect now. Accept it, and move on</b>. Every time you find yourself thinking, "am I saying this right? Am I using the right words?" or ANYTHING ELSE of a perfectionist nature, club it over the head and move on. You can edit later. You need to write now. <b>Refuse to be stymied by nonperfection. </b><br />
<br />
So, let's talk about what you want to do, specifically. Write a book? Blog posts? Magazine articles?<br />
<br />
Set some specific goals. Some "I wills." Things that you WILL do. Not things you will TRY to do. Make a note of your "I will," either in your head or on paper or in a document somewhere.<br />
<br />
"I WILL finish writing a novel by July 2015."<br />
"I WILL write two blog posts a month."<br />
"I WILL have four articles ready to submit to magazines by Dec. 2014."<br />
<br />
You may find it even more helpful to set more specific deadlines. A friend of mine, who writes for a gaming site, sent a list of deadlines of when he will have certain articles in, because he writes best with an impending deadline. Another figured how many words he needed to write per week to finish his book by a certain time, and set that as a minor goal<br />
<br />
Now for word count.<br />
<br />
Pick a word count that sounds good, that you think you could easily write every day. Got it? Good. Now cut it in half. It's better to set the bar low and then raise it rather than setting it high and then quitting out of frustration because you can't keep it up. By halving your initial word count figure, you eliminate some of the potential frustration right out of the gate. <br />
<br />
Also, keep in mind this word count you chose is a MINIMUM, not a MAXIMUM. Think of it as a minimum, and if you're in the flow of things, don't let passing your word count goal stop you from writing more. Again, the word count is a MINIMUM.<br />
<br />
Also, it doesn't have to be word count. Some people write by hand, and have a goal of writing X pages a day. Set up an equivalency system if you use multiple mediums or write different forms. If you write poetry as well as prose, you probably know 500 words of poetry is going to be significantly harder than 500 words of prose. Figure out what your equivalencies are, and stick to them.<br />
<br />
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Time. You might have regularly reoccurring days that are really bad for writing. On Mondays, you might not even get home until 11 pm. Perhaps on Fridays is the night you hang out with friends until 2 am. You know what days these are. Treat these as "bonus days." You are not expected to make your word count on these days. If you do, it's a bonus. If you have these set in your mind as "bonus days," you'll be less likely to miss even more days because you couldn't write on those especially busy or tiring days.<br />
<br />
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Figure out what time of day works best for you. For me, it's before I go to bed. Sure, this has led to a couple of late nights, but since I write better at that time, it's worth it. A couple years ago, I tried getting up an hour earlier before work to write. I rapidly discovered that I don't write worth jack shit at 5:30 in the morning.<br />
<br />
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Maybe you don't have a lot of time in your day. You probably have moments, where you're sitting on the bus, or waiting for dinner to cook. Little times. Utilize those for thinking, for planning; you might even be able to write if you have a notebook or an IPad or a Kindle with you. Use the time you have. There's probably more of it than you think.<br />
<br />
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Things to write about. Keep in mind that background information for your novel or assembling your notes for that nature article count towards your word count. Take a day to brainstorm ideas. Keep in mind that you don't have to write in linear order. Write whatever scene or point you currently are thinking about.<br />
<br />
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Have more than one thing to write. There are days when you will hate your novel, or you really have no idea how to proceed. That's fine. <i>Write something else</i>. As for me, in addition to the novel I'm writing, I occasionally will crank out poems, blog posts, and bits of other stories that are bouncing around in my head (If I ever write a vampire novel, I've got like 12 ideas I could pull from), It's okay to take a break from your main project, and may even be beneficial. The goal is the daily word count. At all costs, reach that daily word count.<br />
<br />
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Day-to-day: You can't go to bed until you reach your word count. When you roll out of bed in the morning, that should be a settled fact in your mind, like brushing your teeth. You WILL write those words before you fall asleep tonight. Treat that as an absolute in your life.<br />
<br />
Cheating on your word count only benefits Current-You, and Future-You will have to pay the price for it. We all know Past-You is a bit of a lazy bum, or Current-You wouldn't be such a pickle, now, would you?<br />
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If you can't stand what you're currently writing, switch to something else. Write what's on your mind.<br />
<br />
Above all else, <b>The Word Count is Sacred. </b>Have it settled for a fact: when you roll out of bed in the morning, know that you will reach your word count before you go to sleep. Don't go to sleep without reaching your word count.<br />
<br />
Some more tidbits: If something isn't working, change it. Change the time of day. Lower the word count (it's a minimum, not a maximum), change your music, change your location. Do what you need to do to optimize the word flow.<br />
<br />
When you miss a day, because it will happen, it's okay. Don't try to make it up. Next thing you know, you're 3000 words behind and the task of catching up is even more daunting. Don't try to make up for the past; focus on achieving today and tomorrow and the next day. Your mindset should be focused on today going forward, not on what you failed to do yesterday.<br />
<br />
You are your own best friend in this quest. No one knows you like you do. Figure out how to make the magic happen. Use every trick in the book, and add your own. Today is yours to write. Remember, the word count is sacred.<br />
<br />
You can do it.<br />
<br />
<b>Remember why you write.</b><br />
<br />
Feel free to leave your own comments, tips, and tricks in the comment section.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-26996249480346764622014-04-04T13:05:00.001-10:002014-04-04T13:07:47.668-10:00Le Luth Brisé, My Translation Project<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So last Saturday I went to a book sale. All you can stuff into a bag for $4.00. I perused the foreign language section and was able to pick up some French titles, including a quantum mechanics textbook. I anticipate reading that one will be a challenge.<br />
<br />
That's not the one I'm translating.<br />
<br />
I found a book of poetry called "Le Luth Brisé" (The Broken Lute), and I figured it would give me some good practice with writing and comprehending French if I translated it. Also, it <i>seems</i> like it's short enough to not be overwhelming or turn into an eternal project. If nothing else, I'm going to master the Alt codes for all those accented letters.<br />
<br />
The book is autographed by the author, Iréne Kanfer. There is a short message, but it's both cursive and French, so I haven't tried to translate it yet. It can be hard enough for me to read cursive when it's English (Also, I wonder if "cursive script" will get it's own classification as an ancient form of writing in oh, say, fifty years or something).<br />
<br />
When I find an autographed book at a sale, it makes me feel a little sad. Someone once cared enough to get the book autographed. Then something happened, and it makes it to the $4.00-a-bag day in the course of a four-day book sale. Did the owner of the book die, and all their books get donated to this sale? Did the owner just look at the book and go "meh, this is taking up too much space on my shelf"? What has this little book seen?<br />
<br />
Welp, it's mine now.<br />
<br />
There's also not a lot on the Internet about Iréne Kanfer. I *think* she was a Polish Jew, who translated "Le Luth Brisé" from Polish and Yiddish into French (she got mention as a Jewish French writer, and from the forward, she appears to have lived in Poland). She also appears to have written or compiled several other books of poetry, and may have gone by the name Irma Kanfer, based on one of the names in the early pages of "Le Luth Brisé."<br />
<br />
I also can't find anything about the publisher, "Presses du Temps Présent," except that they existed and printed a number of books.
<br />
<br />
As amazing as the Internet is, I can't help but wonder how much media - books, music, art - simply isn't there, and how much information will be lost as we advance into the future. Which is sad. We won't know what we don't know, because in a number of cases we won't know that it had ever existed.<br />
<br />
So here's my small contribution to rectifying this issue. The French is on the left, and the English is on the right. I'm copying the French into the document since it's in book form, and it gives me practice with writing French. I am linking to a folder rather than straight to the document, because apparently Google Docs doesn't like columns so I'm going to have to upload a new copy of the Word doc every time I want to update the copy.<br />
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1LgjeQjd3hISjkwZ2ptNHFteFU&usp=sharing" target="_blank">Le Luth Brisé</a><br />
<br />
Hope you like it.<br />
<br />
P.S. Haven't gotten past the forward yet. Looks like there's at least two more pages before the first poem. This could be...a week or two.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-74680328100494326302014-03-30T10:26:00.000-10:002014-03-30T10:26:20.434-10:00Feels Like Yesterday Tonight<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seven years ago tomorrow
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Is the night I can't forget;
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A thousand dreams I haven't dreamed, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A thousand nights I haven't slept;
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I've woken to a world gone gray,
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A world fractured with blight;
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seven years ago tomorrow
</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Feels like yesterday tonight.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seven years ago tomorrow
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Is the night that I retrace;
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is the world I've lived in,
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The world you haven't had to face;
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is my life without you,
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But you're never out of sight;
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seven years ago tomorrow
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I'm missing you tonight.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seven years ago tomorrow</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My agony is now cliché;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I wish that I could blame someone,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It might hurt less that way;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some days I can't see tomorrow,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some days it's too much fight;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seven years ago tomorrow
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hurts like shattered glass tonight.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seven years ago tomorrow</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And a thousand lives I've lived;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A thousand memories I've cherished,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All the things you had to give;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I'll shine with your best virtues,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your soul I'll polish bright;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seven years ago tomorrow
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I'll be okay tonight.</span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-76526567207658843102014-03-14T18:26:00.001-10:002014-03-14T18:26:51.339-10:00When the Game Ends<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On February 23, 2014, I got the Completionist's Cape in Runescape.<br />
<br />
For those of you who have no idea what that is, it's basically an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink achievement for the online game that I've played for about 9 years.<br />
<br />
The next day, I logged onto Runescape...and realized there really wasn't a damn thing I wanted to do. Nothing that I was working towards or trying to get. I did player-owned ports and my daily challenge, and logged out.<br />
<br />
Several weeks later, I find it hard to spend more than an hour at a time on the game. I do player-owned ports, the daily challenge, and check out any updates that may have happened.<br />
<br />
It's an odd feeling.<br />
<br />
I've gone through periods where my Runescape playing has dropped to an half-hour or less per day, but never has there been a time where I wasn't working towards <i>something.</i><br />
<br />
And it's okay.*<br />
<br />
On the other hand, I'm suddenly a bit obsessed about learning French. I'm spending a lot more time trying to learn it than I ever thought I could stand to.<br />
<br />
I think a major key for my learning is finding what works for my learning style. <br />
<br />
I probably spend around two hours, total, spread throughout the day, actively using sites such as Memrise and Duolingo to try to learn more. But then I listen to music and podcasts in French, read articles, and check out new resources.<br />
<br />
I set out to learn a language this year. This year is French.<br />
<br />
If I can spend as much time on French that I have on Runescape, or even League of Legends, I think I'll reach a decent level of fluency by the end of the year.<br />
<br />
Anyways, I made this post to mention that I've compiled a <a href="http://baconnbetelgeuse.blogspot.com/p/learning-french.html" target="_blank">page of most of my links on learning French</a>. Some could be applied to other languages as well. If someone finds it helpful, cool. <br />
<br />
Life is short. Do what makes you happy.**<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*There is also an everything-with-the-kitchen-sink achievement. But I'm not prepared to do 4000 games of Castle Wars (at 20 minutes each) for it. Yet.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">**with the usual caveat of Don't Be an Asshole, don't inflict pain and death on people, etc etc etc</span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-6228390478128444682014-02-17T16:08:00.000-10:002014-02-17T16:08:17.772-10:00The Goal of Writing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
(Or, if I was going to write the whole thing out, "My Personal Lifelong Philosophy of What a Writer is Supposed to Do." I should not be in charge of making titles for things if there's a character limit (Not that there is on Blogger. Not that I know of. Resist...urge...to...test).)<br />
<br />
When I was very young (ergo the "lifelong"), I concluded that the job of a writer was to observe the world and accurately communicate what they saw and experienced to their readers. Since I was big into writing fiction from an early age, this meant trying to thoroughly visualize the stories in my head and then attempting to depict them accurately to my (mostly hypothetical) readers. I also felt a near semi-moral obligation to go out and have new experiences so that I could write about them accurately (Still do. Nothing like an horizon-broadening experience to get your synapses to fire in new and interesting ways, and to generate connections you wouldn't have thought of previously). It comes back to this: the reader should see what you see, feel what you feel, understand what you're thinking. <br />
<br />
This was and is the Holy Grail of writing for me.<br />
<br />
I've come to understand that perfect communication is probably impossible. The mere fact that I grew up in a heavily religious environment, know how to milk a goat, and poked sticks into hot lava means that I am a different person than someone who perhaps has gone to public school, got an English degree, and talks to their mother once a week on the most cordial terms. The mere fact that another person has had a different point of observation in this world means that they won't see the same things I see when we look at the same things.<br />
<br />
(Hell, I've known people who grew up heavily religious, know how to milk goats, and poked sticks into lava with me, and they're different from me. Details, schmetails).<br />
<br />
Writer approximately equals observer + transcriber. Something like a video camera. The observer part of the equation is a unique lens into how said observer views the world. In the case of writing, this lens is going to affect how you transcribe your observations, and your readers have their own lenses when they observe what you write. I used to think the point of writing was to attempt to clarify what you were seeing through your lens as clearly as possible, to cancel out the imperfections that might be magnified in a reader's lens to the point where they distorted the image you were trying to communicate (If the reader doesn't understand what you're trying to say, you did it wrong). Deliberately not attempting to maximize the clarity was the purview of people who wrote annoyingly obtuse poetry and (boring, dry, pen-in-eye worthy) stories for English literature books.<br />
<br />
(I also used to think poetry had to rhyme and have some sort of beat to it. I've become more...flexible and lazy in my old age.)<br />
<br />
So, Writing. A writer observes a world (maybe even this one), or stories, or a raw naked universe full of random inspirations, and then makes other people see it. And care about it. Writing transcribes what is essentially a mental state and memories to letters on a printed page. Which is rather amazing, when you think about it. It's what allows us to see worlds beyond this; live lives that we wouldn't have thought of otherwise; marvel in the vastness of nature, humanity, and even past the realm of existence as we know it.<br />
<br />
And if my readers can see what I see, and feel what I feel, and understand the story I'm trying to tell - or even if you care, for however short an amount of time - then I've done what I am supposed to do. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-72743811766217538142014-01-29T17:48:00.001-10:002014-01-29T17:49:35.286-10:00What Shapes a Person?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</xml><![endif]-->So I've run into a bit of a snag. The post-dead story's
main character is, well, me, with some minor differences. Which brings up the
question: how do I make character development happen on Me when I'm not sure
why I am the way I am?<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Intelligent.
Observant. Vulgar. Apathetic. "Metal." These were words used to
describe my main character. I don't doubt that I have all of these aspects. But
I don't particularly recall being any other way. Except for maybe the Vulgar
part. That developed...probably around college. And then I've promptly spiraled
off into my personal identity crisis. Don't look myself in the eye in the
mirror, might not recognize who is staring back. And if I did, would it be me?</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I've been
trying to write a character who would react how I react. Do I think too highly
of myself? It's not necessarily that I keep a level head in a crisis; more like
the part that freaks out is sent to cry in a corner and leaves the analytic
part of the brain to try to figure out how to deal with the situation. Then the
part that freaks out comes back and makes my mental state messy at random
inconvenient times. It's embarrassing to start leaking liquid when I really
just want to get through my work day.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I've come to
realize that what seems like logical ways to deal with situations may not come
off to other people as realistic. I think I haven't effectively communicated
the actual mental state of the character, which is basically frozen. Going to
go back and try to weave in some mention of vulnerability, of an unwillingness
to actually deal with the world as it is occurring.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also like
Toranel (the guide) better than myself, but isn't that generally the case -
sidekicks are more interesting people? Although Toranel has her own story, so
she's not really a sidekick. I'm trying for "each person's a champion in
their own story," because I think that's how it is in real life. This
whole scenario is my personal challenge - can I make two stories about people
in the same situation and make them both come off as the main character/hero in
their own stories while they aren't necessarily in the other person's?</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I
freak out when I attempt to analyze myself. I'm not sure how I've changed,
exactly. Sure, some core beliefs have changed, but do beliefs necessarily
encompass the whole of the person? I'm still reluctant to talk around
strangers, and even when I get to know a group of people, I shield myself
automatically behind a wall of witty reactions and sarcastic comments. Do people
know, in my casual encounters, that my "Joking level: mild" is stuck
on? Would it matter if they did?</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess it
comes down to this: I don't really know myself. I am a random assortment of
cells attempting to keep the world crushing me to a pancake on the outside
while holding back the darkness fighting to break out on the inside. Can't let
myself be defined by the inside, because the world's a horrible place in there,
and can't let the outside do all the defining, or I'm just a very lumpy little
rock with a fistful of failures that tests software , and that's a sorry sort
of world as well.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, at some
point this went from random ramblings to churn out a wordcount to a blog post.
And that's enough of me sloshing my emotions out onto the internet for today.
And don't worry about me, I'm going to wave at this episodic freak-out as it
goes by. They usually do. In the meantime, there's a world to observe, and I'm
going to do it.</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-36749840588311975332014-01-26T18:55:00.000-10:002014-01-26T18:55:02.924-10:00So much for posting regularly...Now, about French.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So much for my fantasy of posting on my blog regularly. Sigh.<br />
<br />
You know what? I'm going to yammer about French. Because that has been one of those things actively honing in on my free time lately.<br />
<br />
Why am I learning French? Well, it's one of the Big Three I want to learn in terms of languages (the other two being Spanish and German), but more notably, there's an after-hours French class that meets at my work once a week. As to why I'm learning a language, period, well...I'm not getting any bloody younger and if I'm going to learn another language in my lifetime I should get started.<br />
<br />
French is...interesting. I feel like I'm having to learn two languages: the written and the oral, because if French ever heard of phonetics it promptly drowned the idea and went back to it's standard form of not mentioning the consonants that come at the end of words. I have a hard enough time understanding oral English, so yea, transcribing spoken French is proving a challenge.<br />
<br />
I also discovered a couple of websites that seem to be much more helpful than the curriculum we were using in class. These sites also have Kindle apps, which I find helpful. I'm going to talk about both, briefly, because it's my blog, I'm running out of whiskey and cherry Pepsi, and I got a good forty minutes for ships to come in (Virtual ships. Carrying virtual goods. It's a minigame in a game).<br />
<br />
<a href="http://memrise.com/" target="_blank">Memrise</a> is by far my favorite of the two sites. It uses the simile of a garden, where it "plants" words or phrases and then you come back at regular intervals to "water" them. Remembering has been my weak spot in the past, so having regular intervals to go over Previously Learned Material is proving super helpful. Also, you get practice writing out the words, which can be helpful if you're making a serious effort to learn the accents and ^ and hyphens.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.duolingo.com/" target="_blank">Duolingo</a> has you write down translations of the phrase in either (in this case) French or English. I find this site a bit more helpful for sentence structure because it severely dings you on incorrect verb tenses. On any given lesson, you have three "hearts" or lives, and you lose one each time you make an error. Lose them all, and you have to retry the lesson. This is the one where "transcribing spoken French" gets me so very, very often.<br />
<br />
I actually find these two sites to be useful together - Memrise for the vocabulary and Duolingo for the sentence structure. Also, with the mobile app, it's easy enough to whip them out and do five minutes of review or learning new things at random intervals. Memrise's app has an offline mode, so you could use it without an Internet connection, and it will update your online account next time you connect.<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_2028571677"><br /></a>
<a href="http://oli.cmu.edu/">http://oli.cmu.edu/</a> is the site we've been using for class. I haven't tried any of their other courses besides French, but it's nice that there's all these classes online for free. Their French lesson seems more classic class-learning, which does not work so well for me. <br />
<br />
Another site I've used in the past is <a href="http://livemocha.com/" target="_blank">LiveMocha</a>. LiveMocha has you actively interacting with people around the world, and might be good if you want to speak with real, actual people.<br />
<br />
All of these sites are (mostly) free, which amazes me. Well, I'm still amazed by the Internet. People produce and give away so much useful content for free...I don't think I could spend money on Rosetta Stone or any other program when there's so much out there to be learned for free. These sites are for the most part slick and easy to use, and it seems like you'd be able to find anything to suit your personal learning style. At least, they'd be worth trying before you spend money on something else.<br />
<br />
One last thing: please don't try French on me yet. I've only really got <i>je ne sais pas</i> mastered for quick use.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-21817512988192558562014-01-04T20:40:00.003-10:002014-01-04T20:52:52.082-10:00Happy New Year!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Since this is the first post of 2014, I get to
use it to wish a happy new year, even if it's the 4th already. This is also the
first 500 word chunk that I've written all year (yes, I've been slacking a
bit). My new years was a success by my standards, and I didn't even have a
hangover the next day, although my sleep schedule has remained wonky.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"> I am, by nature, a night
person. Years of 8 am classes, normal day jobs, and so forth have failed to fix
that. Give me any length of time without a reason to be up during the day, and
my schedule snaps back to getting up in the evening and going to bed after
sunrise harder than a fresh rubber band.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"> I also went to a New Year's
Party, which, going to any sort of party in general is sort of rare for me.
This party was made up mostly of people from my writers' group, so maybe it's
not like a standard party. Meh. Food, booze, and Cards Against Humanity are
good enough for me. Although in retrospect, champagne, Jim Bean,
and Jello shots probably aren't the best thing to combine in large
quantities. Not that I care. Past me already paid that price and if I do it
again in the future that will be a problem for Future Me.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"> The Story is currently
sitting at 40,507 words, and is probably getting close to halfway done. I read
through what's been put down, and my guess that it's going to get substantially
longer during the editing process. The end is already written, and the
midpoint, it's just filling in the other bits that will take time.
Unfortunately, most journeys of a thousand steps don't mention what happens
after you take the first one.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"> Again, ya'all have a happy
new year, and I'll try to write a longer post next time!</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">P.S. Yes, I know this is more in the neighborhood of 300 words. Words are hard today. </span></span></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-81740686341202548392013-12-22T20:58:00.000-10:002013-12-22T21:19:38.252-10:00"Rules" of War<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> In the online
game I am currently spending most of my time on (Runescape), there is a war
going on between two of the game's gods (Bandos and Armadyl). It's a temporary
event lasting six weeks. You can pick whichever side you want, and in my case,
I'll be spending time on both sides to get all the rewards, because I'm a bit
of a mercenary like that. Gods may come and gods may go, but cool-looking
emotes are only obtainable for a short amount of time.</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> As in any
number of things where you have more than one side, both sides accuse the other
of not playing fair. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> One of the
major bones of contention has been "line hopping." One thing about
this event is that there are various zones where players can kill each other.
The "line-hopping" technique involves running in and out of these
zones. You run in, wait for the six-second delay for your player-killing timer
to activate, fire a shot or two, then run back over the line, where you can't
be attacked and your player-killer timer turns off. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> This tends to
be annoying for the people who are not doing the line-hopping.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> The game's
forums are peppered with threads by both sides accusing the other side of being
cowardly and that line-hopping should be a reportable offense. There's also
talk of "honor" and what "honorable" tactics are, which
apparently extends to not using potions or food for some people. In my opinion,
if the game allows you to do it, it's a perfectly legitimate tactic.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Anyways, all
this blather put me in mind of earlier thoughts I've had concerning the nature
of war.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> I find it
still surprising, that, in a world post-nuclear weapons, war is still fought by
countries chucking people at each other.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> And people
talk about what's allowed or not allowed.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> According to
Wikipedia's article on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions" target="_blank">Geneva Convention</a> (or, as I think of
them, the Rules of the Game), torture is bad, hostage-taking is bad, willfully
depriving someone of their right to a fair trial is bad, etc. etc. etc.. All
well and good. If we're going to conduct our international affairs like
savages, we ought to have rules so we can pretend we're civilized.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> What's the
point?</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> It seems like
we've concocted rules to distance ourselves from what war actually is. Make up
rules, pretend it's a game so we can cry and point fingers when the other side
breaks them. Even if we'd break the same rules if we thought we could get away
with it. Wars tend to happen for stakes slightly higher than pixelated armor.
Losing is a bad thing.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Why pretend?</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> "It's
all fun and games until someone loses an eye." Games have rules.
Games are not real. Games have rules so we can have fun with them.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Who is having
fun in war?</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Why pretend
that war is anything other than cavemen hurling rocks at each other until one
or the other runs out of people or rocks?</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Isn't that
what rules allow us to do? Pretend it's a game?</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-32757202705908396452013-12-13T22:58:00.000-10:002013-12-22T21:17:53.587-10:00Growth vs. Fixed Mindsets<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Recently,
I finished reading a book called "Mindset: the New Psychology of
Success" by Carol Dweck. It talks about two different mindsets (Fixed and
Growth) and how they affect people. The major difference between the two is how
they answer the question, "Is talent innate and unchanging over a person's
life?"</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">
A Fixed mindset will say yes. A Fixed mindset is a strong believer in
"talent." People are born talented, and you cannot acquire a talent
you were not born with. You can hone said talent, though. IQ is more or less
immutable. You're born as smart as you're ever going to be.</span><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">
A Growth mindset says no. A Growth mindset is a strong believer of the
"99% perspiration" line. Good things don't always comes easily, and
everything must be worked for if you want to learn or improve it, but it is
possible.. If at first you don't succeed, keep trying. You can learn. IQ is
more like a pulse in a doctor's chart: a picture of your health at the time,
but not the whole picture, and certainly doesn't cast your future in iron.</span><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">
I think I've spent most of my life in a pseudo-spot between the two minds
when it comes to learning. I phrase it as, "Most brick walls will crumble
if you bang your head against them long enough." Or, "you can
substitute a lot of work for actual talent." Because, at the end of
the day (and into the early morning hours a lot of the time), I suspect I'm not
a writer, just a scribbler with a day job (no, it doesn't keep me up at night).
I learned from Calculus that most problems have a brute force method of
solving, where you plug in the numbers, work through a hundred steps, and out
pops the result. I like brute force options. </span><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">
I'm not sure my concept of a brick wall is compatible with the Growth
mindset. I guess that my assumption has been once I've penetrated the brick
wall it would all be much easier afterwards, and I could coast on general
talent. It appears, however, that it's <i>all</i> brick wall.</span><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">
Or I'm just a slow learner, and I should accept that learning will always
be difficult for me on some subjects.</span><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">
A peril of the fixed mindset is if you try something and you don't do
well at it, you'll assume you'll never be any good at it and throw in the
shovel, when the reality is that you can become a lot better. Best in the
world, maybe not, but you can learn. </span><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">
There's also an effort vs. time ratio. I could conceivably learn how to
sing. I don't feel inclined to spend the effort or the time to do so at this
point in my life. If you want to do something, you have to beg, borrow, steal,
or barge out time in your day to do it. Time won't materialize for you. </span><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">
It's not about finding the limits of your talent, it's about learning the
thing you want to learn. </span><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-45185631728438682452013-12-08T17:39:00.001-10:002013-12-22T21:16:44.063-10:00The Desire to Create<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "inherit","serif";">I'm writing this post tonight
because I'm simply not up for working on The Story (up to 35,000 words, by the
way). Nothing like blogging to procrastinate on what you're actually
"supposed" to be writing. Or housework to avoid doing homework. I
suppose I could do housework to avoid working on The Story, but that won't
fulfill my self-imposed goal of 500 words per day.<br />
<br />
I've also wanted to talk about The Desire to Create. Obvious examples of
creation include writing or painting, but that's hardly just it. I think of
this desire as simply the desire to make something. For now, I'm going to leave
it as something tangible, such as woodworking or music. It's entirely possible
that the manipulations of people could count as art, but that seems like it
could be more destructive than creative, and that's another thing altogether.<br />
<br />
Most of my life I've been aware of this desire, although when I was really
young I just did it. If I wanted to write, I would write. Now, I think about
writing, and when I do get around to writing, the words I put out are different
than the ones I've been thinking of all day. It's like light particles; the
nature of it changes upon observation.<br />
<br />
Now this desire is more like an itch that I want to scratch. <br />
<br />
I'm not sure what sparks this desire to create, or even what percentage of the
population has it. Probably more than is immediately apparent. It's probably a
smaller percentage that indulges it, whether because of perfectionism or fear
or laziness or a lack of time or inspiration. There are reasons.<br />
<br />
I thought of myself as "a writer" first and foremost for a number of
years, until I was well into college and realized that I couldn't bring myself
to bang words together unless it was for a mandatory paper. It could have been
living in Hawaii, as well. It's like living there sucked all the inspiration
out of me. Or maybe it was because I was so busy with school. I admitted to
myself that I wasn't really a writer, just a rock with dreams of being magma.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "inherit","serif";">Then I moved to Wisconsin, and
inspiration -- or the desire, at least -- came slithering back.<br />
<br />
Although now that I think about it, one common factor pre- and post- Hawaii was
being part of a writers' group. I think the presence of a group that
shares your interests in your brand of creation and encourages you to do so
can't be underestimated. I can't say I wouldn't have started writing again
without them, but I'm up to 35,000 words in a story I started in May. I feel
they've been good for me. You might be able to drive for five thousand miles,
but you need a little gas to get started.<br />
<br />
Another thing I've had to get over is trying to perfect my writing as I write
it. I've had to go, "the important thing is to get the words on the
paper," and continue banging words out and ignoring the nagging voice that
maybe they're not the right words, or they're inaccurate, or they don't
describe what I want to say.<br />
<br />
Sometimes, the key to creation is not to create the most glorious thing ever,
but to create, period. </span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-69413942227278726022013-12-04T14:45:00.001-10:002013-12-04T16:52:05.694-10:00I'm Baaack....Maybe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's been a long time since I've posted.<br />
<br />
But due to some comments from family members, it may be time to remember how to do this blogging thing again.<br />
<br />
I've set this goal of writing 500 words per day. I maybe actually do this 3-4 times a week. However, most of that has been novel writing.<br />
<br />
Life has changed a bit since I last posted in August 2012 (wow...longer than I thought. Just looked it up). I've moved from Hawaii to Wisconsin for the sake of the only job I could actually get hired for. As an aside, job hunting sucks.Massively. I cannot accurately describe the amount of suckage that occurs when you're out trying to peddle your skills to a world full of massive indifference. I managed to get a few interviews, but never made it past the cursory phase. Apparently, in addition to being able to do a job you're supposed to have a high natural charisma score (And who doesn't have that? Me!).<br />
<br />
In the middle of filling out hundred of applications, I posted a resume on Monster. I got contacted by my current company who noted my science major and GPA (apparently). Company has nothing to do with my major (Geology), but I was really up for anything that would pay me (Of course there's limits. Don't nitpick), I waded through a series of aptitude tests, and the company flew me out from Hawaii to Wisconsin for an onsite interview (more like "here's the job we'd like to hire you for, and our awesome campus") and some more tests. There weren't any of those stupid "what's your greatest weakness" questions involved.<br />
<br />
Long story short, place was/is great, and the LOML and I packed up and moved shortly thereafter.<br />
<br />
Wisconsin gets snow in winter. One thing I dislike about the place. On the other hand, it has cheese curds, which nearly makes up for it.<br />
<br />
One thing about having a steady job, rather than being in school, is that my creativeness has slowly been sauntering back. I started story writing again. Then in July, I made three goals:<br />
<br />
1). write 500 words per day.<br />
2). finish a book by July 2015.<br />
3). finish writing a great book in 2023.<br />
<br />
Ten years ought to be long enough, right?<br />
<br />
So yea, I've been banging words together, but not on this blog. I'm up to 33,000 words on my current story, and I'm aiming for 80-100,000 on it so there's room to maybe edit it down to 75,000. Brief' overview of the story (since I'm talking about my writing and that's what wanna-be writers do is talk about what they're doing): Main character gets murdered in the first chapter and is finding out that the afterlife is apparently one giant session of getting chased by your fears, scary monsters, and your past. But hey, at least the main character finally got a chainsaw.<br />
<br />
Don't want to give away more details because if the damn thing sees print in some form I'd hate for <i>everything</i> to be known. But chainsaws and monsters are a winning combination. I think. Maybe there will even be some character development.<br />
<br />
As usual with every blog post, I realize that there's a lot I was going to say that I didn't. But I will try posting here more often.For the two of you who will actually be reading this.<br />
<br />
Anyways, chainsaws and monsters.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-87789460979500216562012-08-18T23:39:00.000-10:002012-08-18T23:56:41.172-10:00Things I Wish I Knew to Say...but Didn't Know How to Then<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
"I'm not comfortable with this."<br />
<br />
"After the shit you've pulled, I have no desire to put up with your evil for the sake of your friendship."<br />
<br />
"How do you know what I'm thinking? You don't. You're merely projecting what you're thinking into my mouth."<br />
<br />
"How do you know I'm not sorry? Am I not groveling enough for you?"<br />
<br />
"I think I should do this other major." <br />
<br />
"Why would God give me high intelligence and a burning passion to learn about the world if he had no greater plans for me than for me neglect my passions and squirt out spawn for some hypothetical and possibly nonexistent male?"<br />
<br />
"You know it's child abuse to lock your teenager in a closet for ten hours a day, right?"<br />
<br />
"Can you go over that last bit one more time?"<br />
<br />
"Hi."<br />
<br />
"You failed to be there for me when I needed you. You automatically sided with the person who lied about me. And this other person you dislike so much? They were there for me. They knew me better than you, and I've known you for years. They helped me. You didn't. That hurt worse than the original liar did."<br />
<br />
<br />
******************<br />
<br />
Actually, I probably still don't know how to say most of this.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-24373468442460095082012-07-18T19:06:00.001-10:002012-07-18T19:06:13.643-10:00Announcing My Other Blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I should have done this a few days ago, but I've started another blog, <a href="http://dominatingdominion.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Dominating Dominion</a>, to chronicle my adventures of playing through each champion on League of Legends: Dominion. It has my writeup on Ahri over there, as well as several posts about my Akali experience. If you're interested, feel free to check it out and comment!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-58195881062587392362012-07-10T18:19:00.000-10:002012-07-10T18:19:00.309-10:00Dominating Dominion: Ahri Style<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Disclaimer: What this series is about:</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This series is a
chronicle of one optimistically average Dominion player (me) as I play each
champion through to a degree of proficiency on the Crystal Scar. It's not a
guide to the harsh battlefields of high ELO play, but rather a tale of dark-alley
skirmishes in the muddy playgrounds of what is (probably) low-to-middling
ELO,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from the viewpoint of me.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now that we have
that out of the way...</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ahri
is completely different from my normal roster of champs. While I have played
every champ in co-op games, I have not done nearly as many in normal games. So
yes, I probably wouldn't have selected Ahri in champ select if it wasn't for
this series. Back before Dominion came out, I
had the idea to write a similar series for Summoner's Rift when I was a mere
level 23 summoner. I started with <a href="http://baconnbetelgeuse.blogspot.com/2011/06/lol-learning-alistar-and-return-to.html" target="_blank">Alistar </a> and hashed out how to build and play him from the ground up. I found a really
splendid<a href="http://baconnbetelgeuse.blogspot.com/2011/06/lol-learning-alistar-part-ii.html" target="_blank"> starting build </a>with two philostones. Then both Alistar and philostones got nerfed at the same time, which really
derailed my attempts to play him. I moved on to Amumu, but didn't have the
runes for jungling, and laning got me yelled at a lot. Plus, Summoner's Rift was
really hard for me. The losing-forever games, the last-hit-or-starve requirement
of farming, the counterintuitive not-pushing-the-lanes, the acidic teammates...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then
Dominion came out. I looked at the Crystal Scar, picked up my (and by my, I
mean Yorick's) shovel, and headed over. I haven't gone back, except to visit.
And, like some family visits, it's a good reminder why I don't stick around for
very long. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So...yup.
Ahri. She of the nine tails, dubious morality, and voice like slightly warm,
suspicious syrup. And a squishy.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
of now, I tend to broadly categorize champions into two categories: Squishy and
Not-Squishy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I favor Not-Squishies, as
any Squishies I play tend to suffer from the Imploding Healthbar Syndrome. You
know...you're waltzing around in bottom lane, tending to your own business, or
sauntering through the jungle with your teammates, when suddenly the entire
enemy team decides to pounce on your soft squishy fluffiness, and your
healthbar disappears with a small clap of thunder.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So
I approached Ahri with a bit of terror and suspicion. I wondered how many games
I would have to lose before I stopped blowing up at every passing Jax.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Out
of my first ten games with Ahri, I lost seven and won three. Skillshots are hard,
m'kay? And Ahri is very squishable. I experimented with a variety of starting
items, runes, and masteries. I read the champion guides for her on the DD
forum, then, feeling a bit incomplete, optimistically and fruitlessly trawled
the rest of the internet. I bravely questioned in the DominateDominion chatroom
whether Hextech Sweeper should be a staple item. I run the risk of asking
stupid questions because it cuts a lot of time out of the general process of
discovery, as anyone who grew up shy and isolated and entered college with a
stunning ignorance of modern culture doubtlessly knows. I finally settled on
the following mastery and rune pages:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKzxDoQaymQP60Mt8B3qXyA_1QXrepSetS-ChMGEj8QcQLurXcBSjSTaaroLf9uoVl4nPIqi21jikfkWtDX6Ppg1qgW8lEzgO_DWM_wFgICUnsphDX_5mqc_EF8bla3I-XC1AudycVR2qC/s1600/ahri+masteries.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKzxDoQaymQP60Mt8B3qXyA_1QXrepSetS-ChMGEj8QcQLurXcBSjSTaaroLf9uoVl4nPIqi21jikfkWtDX6Ppg1qgW8lEzgO_DWM_wFgICUnsphDX_5mqc_EF8bla3I-XC1AudycVR2qC/s640/ahri+masteries.bmp" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1JPQ99Mfb4LzvYLUMm3kduuBOZv3Su8MweJEVhp49bzLz6EnyaPG3dDTfqxcPM3BNItc3_yQoQ3WViJDpEuYrC9Gdm16mFCv2bGWgwqOoTDWEkuM8QqKGbABHNj2acRiqw7m9D13bdX2F/s1600/ahri+runes.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1JPQ99Mfb4LzvYLUMm3kduuBOZv3Su8MweJEVhp49bzLz6EnyaPG3dDTfqxcPM3BNItc3_yQoQ3WViJDpEuYrC9Gdm16mFCv2bGWgwqOoTDWEkuM8QqKGbABHNj2acRiqw7m9D13bdX2F/s640/ahri+runes.bmp" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Item
build and order was a bit more puzzling. There are items you can build, and
then there's optimal builds, and then there's the enemy team. A general rule of
thumb advised to me was to start with Prospector's Ring and Boots of Speed if
going bottom, and to start with Ruby Crystal, Amplifying Tome, and Boots of
Speed if going top. This idea worked splendidly, except for the bit where some
other person would decide right after I bought items that they wanted whatever
direction I had thought I was heading.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At
least the Ruby Crystal + Amplifying Tome gave me a head start on Hextech
Sweeper. I waffled (still do) on whether the head start granted by the Ruby
Crystal + Amplifying Tome was worth not have the starting stats granted by
Prospector's Ring.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
won 6 out of the following 10 games, as my ability to not liquify upon enemy
contact and my aim with skillshots improved significantly. That seems to be the
key to squishies: arrange to not be where the enemy is. That is common sense,
but it's hard to remember. Also, skillshots when you're slowdancing with Fiora
can be hard to aim correctly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
finally settled on the following build for most situations:</span></div>
<br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="50" src="http://www.dominatedominion.com/item_bbcode/image/item/3187.png" width="50" /><img height="50" src="http://www.dominatedominion.com/item_bbcode/image/item/3116.png" width="50" /><img height="50" src="http://www.dominatedominion.com/item_bbcode/image/item/3020.png" width="50" /><img height="50" src="http://www.dominatedominion.com/item_bbcode/image/item/3145.png" width="50" /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I've
also built the following items, depending on the situation:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<img height="50" src="http://www.dominatedominion.com/item_bbcode/image/item/3152.png" width="50" /><img height="50" src="http://www.dominatedominion.com/item_bbcode/image/item/3157.png" width="50" /><img height="50" src="http://www.dominatedominion.com/item_bbcode/image/item/3180.png" width="50" /><img height="50" src="http://www.dominatedominion.com/item_bbcode/image/item/3128.png" width="50" /><img height="50" src="http://www.dominatedominion.com/item_bbcode/image/item/3075.png" width="50" /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rylai's
seems to be a very essential item. It turns Ahri from a darty damage dealer to
a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">slowing</i> darty damage dealer. It
means that Ezrael can't get away as fast as he would like. Hextech Revolver is
helpful for long-term away-from-home sustainability. Hextech Sweeper
is...Hextech Sweeper. And it has an active! I did not know this until someone
commented on me not using it while I was streaming. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ahri in a
Nutshell:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ahri
is a darty, bursty champ that, one you have a Rylai's, turns into the Queen of
"you're not getting away." One a person gets the hang of positioning
and skillshots, Ahri is quite fun to play. Some of my fondest memories are of
blowing a kiss to a freshly ult'ed Tryndamere who suddenly forgets to spin
away. But do you trust her? Nope!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Below
is a video of some Ahri gameplay. Hope you enjoyed my experience learning Ahri!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/8y5j7sA5p3Q?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-47787086020201210932012-06-15T21:50:00.000-10:002012-06-15T21:50:47.096-10:00Stuff That's Been Eating at Me: Why Not These Other Causes?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i></i>It was a hot summer day. I was holding a sign almost as big as I was, standing on the edge of a busy road, rather wishing I could be doing something else, such as not standing so close to a busy road and worrying about my toes getting run over (I have a perpetual fear of my toes getting run over, don't ask me why). There were many other people from our church there, all holding signs,
but the only one I particularly remember is the one I had to hold. My sign, red letters on white background, read:<br />
<br />
ABORTION KILLS CHILDREN<br />
<br />
And, with all the honesty and straightforwardness that comes from being a child that hasn't learned what questions not to ask, I asked, "If these babies get to go to Heaven, then why are we stopping it? If they're being aborted, that means their parents aren't Christian, which means they won't know about Jesus when they grow up, which means they might die after reaching the 'age of accountability' but before they become Christians, which means they would go to hell. But if they're aborted now, they'll all go to Heaven, right? So why are we stopping it?"<br />
<br />
And, like many questions I asked as a child, I was told I would understand when I was older.<br />
<br />So I became older (it seems to happen regularly if you don't do anything to stop it. Sadly, I've found the only way to stop it is to stop living). As I became older, I came back to the question. I read stories, and studies, and, somewhat surprisingly, found myself on the side that says a person isn't allowed to use another person's body against their will. End story.<br />
<br />
And now I'm going to explain why. Because for some people, they're going to stop at the thought "killing babies" and not at the thought, "using someone's body against their will." But let me ask: why are people who support forcing a person to donate their body to another person for nine months because of the life of the person being donated to, not also in support of things that improve people's lives or allow them to live at all, including the lives of the people that they support forcing other people to donate their bodies to?<br />
<br />
I have some great ideas for improving the lives of people here, and none of them are nearly as invasive (although that may be a matter of opinion) as forcing a person to serve as a spawnhost for nine months to a stranger. If a person <i>wants</i> to be a spawnhost, that's one thing, and kudos to the people who want to be a spawnhost. However, to the people who would like to force anyone who might become a spawnhost to be one, I'd like to suggest some other causes for them to champion, since they would vastly improve the lives of the people they want born so badly.<br />
<br />
Mandatory adoptions. According to <a href="http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/foster.cfm" target="_blank">Child Welfare Information Gateway</a> there were over 400,000 children in foster care for 2010, 25% of which (according to the <a href="http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/foster.pdf#Page=1&view=Fit" target="_blank">factsheet</a>) (25% doesn't seem like a lot, does it?) were slated for adoption. That's 100,000 children waiting for adoption. We could just hand these people out to qualifying parents. After all, who doesn't want a surprise blessing dropped into their lap?<br />
<br />
To be fair, we probably only want to give these children to people who can afford to take care of them (we're more discerning than Nature in that respect, or like to think that we are). Let's pull a number out of a hat and say we're only going to give these children to households which make over $50,000 a year. A bit of pawing around on the US Census site leads us to <a href="http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0692.pdf" target="_blank">this document</a> which (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) indicates that there were 117,538,000 households in the US, 58,578,000 which make over $50,000 a year. If we put all these households into a random lottery and pulled their names out as needed to give these children a home, well, the chance of one of these households getting a surprise child is only about 0.17%. The child gets a good home, the people in the household get a blessing to love and to cherish forever and ever, and the foster care system gets a 25% reduction in workload. Everyone wins, right? Who cares if the people in these households didn't want children (or another child), or are up to their eyeballs caring for a sick or elderly or infirm family member, or have to make that much money to pay off various college, medical, and other expenses. It's for the good of the children.<br />
<br />
Did I mention that there's no government help other than what is normally available to the average person caring for their biological spawn after these new parents are graced with this blessing? We'll say that the adoption process itself is free, unlike the process of spawnhosting and birthing one's own biological child, which can run into the thousands of dollars even before the spawn hits the ground. So the adoptive parents are already ahead in that respect. But in the sense of true equality, we aren't going to screen whether or not these children have physical, psychological, or emotional issues, and since the household's income bracket likely places them out of reach of many government programs, they get to foot the cost of caring for their new blessing themselves.<br />
<br />
But it's for the children, the lives of the children. If you truly cared about the children, you would not stop caring about their lives at birth, but beyond. You'd want them to grow up in homes where they get fed and properly educated, and you are selfish for disagreeing with the idea of mandatory adoptions. How could you be so self-centered? It's better to be in a stable, loving home, then bounced about from foster home to foster home, with never a place or a parent to call your own. If you didn't want a mandatory adoption forced on you, you shouldn't have made enough money to be in the position where your name got entered in the lottery. How dare you try to make a better life for yourself and the people already in your life without accepting the consequences!<br />
<br />
But for those who think mandatory adoptions are too invasive (because they don't care about children, or whatever), let's look at mandatory organ donations. We live in a society that doesn't even require a parent to donate organs to their children, although I'm certain many of them do, or would if they could. If people are campaigning for a person to be forced to donate their body to their spawn for nine months, why not for life? That aside, why don't we have laws on the books that turn every dead body in the country into an organ donor? According to <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/12380981" target="_blank">The Economist</a> 7,000 Americans died in 2007 waiting for an organ transplant. According the<a href="http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html" target="_blank"> US Census</a> there is one person in the US dying every 14 seconds, or over 2.2 million a year. I'm fairly certain that out of those 2.2 million corpses we could have cobbled together enough spare parts to save those 7,000 people who needed an organ transplant of some kind. Some of those were probably children. So the new Mandatory-Organ-Donor-Initiative is for the children, too. And dead people don't even need their organs anymore.<br />
<br />
Am I actually suggesting that Mandatory Adoptions and Organ Donations become the new thing now? Nope. For the same reason I don't approve of forced spawn hosting. It comes down to this personal liberty and life concept. If you don't want a child, for any reason, you shouldn't be forced to either spawn one or adopt one. If you want to keep your squishy bits when you die, your wishes should be respected. <br />
<br />
I'm not going to dig into the rest of the reasons why we, as a country, as people, should object to forced spawn hosting. It should be enough that we don't allow one person to impose their will on another person's body. We shouldn't have to talk about why abortions happen, or what happens to a child who grows up knowing it's a "punishment" for it's parent having sex. We shouldn't have to talk about all the children growing up in poverty, or parents who are unable to stand the strain of parenting and opt for drowning all their kids in a bathtub. We shouldn't have to talk about the cruelty of forcing a parent to carry a wanted child to term when that child has a defect that will force it to live a short, painful life. We shouldn't have to talk about the parent who can't make ends meet with the children they already have. We shouldn't have to talk about the shaming inflicted on people who choose to keep or not keep a pregnancy. It should be enough that no one, irregardless of age, is allowed to use another person's body without their consent.<br />
<br />
You want to help the world? You want to save kids? Help the ones that are here. Help the mothers that, in spite of incredible odds, or because of them, have them. Don't just hang up your sign at the end of the day and wallow in your righteousness. Don't go mumbling about "welfare queens" when you're the one who told them that they had to keep their children. And don't hate those that, for whatever reason, made the choice to not allow another person to use their body. <br />
<br />A person might say, "What if you were aborted?" Well, I wouldn't be here to care, obviously. But if my mom had been able to live a better life, without the insanity and mental disorders that plagued her, if she could have been a happy/good person by my absence, then why would I object? I would rather hope any kid who gave two cents about their parents would want them to make the best life for themselves. <br />
<br />
<i>(All right, cousin, you kept nagging me to post on this blog, so this is what you get. Enjoy)</i></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-43890535530923208422012-03-27T21:13:00.000-10:002012-03-27T21:13:12.727-10:00State of the Waiting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I like knowing where I'm going.<br />
<br />
I spent 6 years of my life pursuing a Bachelor's. Now I have one, and I hope my next step is getting a Ph.D. But that part isn't set at all. It's not determined at all yet that I will be doing that.<br />
<br />
I've done my bit. I submitted applications to five schools. I've heard back from three, all negative. I should be hearing from the other two soon; otherwise they'll be getting an inquiry from me. But I don't know what I'll be doing in August. Will I be happily preparing to settle into being a graduate student and put off the real world for another four to six years, or will I be frantically trying to get gainfully employed and/or figure out how to get into a career?<br />
<br />
I don't like these Schrodinger's cat-like times; I may be going to graduate school, or I may not, but until I hear from those last two schools, I won't know how that particular waveform of probability will collapse.<br />
<br />
I don't like being in an indeterminate state. And now, there is nothing I can do but wait for it to collapse on it's own.<br />
<br />
So I wait.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-64845907539020183222012-01-09T06:45:00.000-10:002012-01-09T06:45:10.720-10:00New Year's Resolutions...And Why I Don't Make Them<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The New Year is supposedly a time for resolutions...to resolve to do X, Y or Z in the new year that you were too lazy or too busy or really just didn't want to do last year but think you ought to do. Usually this motivation fades away, and either three weeks into January or by the end of March it's back to eating Cheetos for breakfast and skipping the gym because, well, who really cares?<br />
<br />
I haven't made a New Year's resolution in years because they seem to come pre-built with their own guilt trip. I save resolutions for the rest of the year in order to spread the guilt evenly. For example, I've made a determination to get up an hour earlier on workdays in order to write. I'm not really a morning person but I can determine that writing will not happen in the evening when I get home from work, because I'm going to want to relax and play games, and LOML will have dinner ready at different times, making having an evening schedule hard.<br />
<br />
So far, it's been happening, although my body would still rather stay awake later (and usually does), so I've been getting less sleep than otherwise. I haven't determined to this all year, because with any luck I'll be getting into grad school this year and that in itself will necessitate a schedule change. It's difficult to know what a year might bring.<br />
<br />
I'd like to lose weight, but I haven't made any changes besides trying to eat more healthy. I'd rather get up an hour early to write than to exercise. Plus I tend to get real sleepy after exercising and its hard to drink coffee while doing so.<br />
<br />
So yea...New Year's resolutions come prepackaged with their own guilt for failure. And I'm sure I was going somewhere with this, but the coffee isn't kicking in fast enough. So...Happy New Year, and may you keep any resolutions you've made. Peace out!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-20847676329122729602011-12-26T20:39:00.000-10:002011-12-26T20:39:36.088-10:00Christmas Maokai, Snowmerdinger, and How I Feel When I Win at LoL<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Merry Christmas everyone!<br />
<br />
I was going to post a picture of Chrismas Maokai here since I've been playing him quite a bit in Dominion mode on LoL, but apparently the screenshots I've taken have magically vanished. So here's a picture of Snowmerdinger, i.e. Heimerdinger in all his Frosty the Snowman glory.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-97tzj_drk1s/TvlfQ8gxspI/AAAAAAAAAJU/Vgyc1fwjDcg/s1600/Screen02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-97tzj_drk1s/TvlfQ8gxspI/AAAAAAAAAJU/Vgyc1fwjDcg/s640/Screen02.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />
I've been winning a fair bit at Dominion, more than I am accustomed to, and after a long losing streak that put me 10 wins below my losses, I started doing better. And now I'm 9 wins ahead. Hell, I queued for a regular Summoner's Rift game with some friends and didn't completely suck.<br />
<br />
This is a bit novel for me.<br />
<br />
My reaction to winning or losing usually translates into the following in real life:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yRUolIlO6-I/Tvlnc5JCbKI/AAAAAAAAAJo/MWLRy_r4FFE/s1600/gaming+win.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yRUolIlO6-I/Tvlnc5JCbKI/AAAAAAAAAJo/MWLRy_r4FFE/s1600/gaming+win.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When I win</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7XPKUD9loLU/TvlnhFNukpI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/UdDLcEKmKzI/s1600/gaming+lose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7XPKUD9loLU/TvlnhFNukpI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/UdDLcEKmKzI/s1600/gaming+lose.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When I lose</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I've been told by people I know in real life that I'm too hard on myself.<br />
<br />
All that aside...may all your holidays be happy and your New Year be full of stuff you like doing.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-15330257404982547512011-11-16T20:06:00.000-10:002011-11-16T20:06:40.888-10:00Antisocial or Lazy?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">//obligatory apology for never posting//<br />
<br />
So this upcoming Friday offers a number of activities on the campus where I work/used to go to school that I can engage in that will bring me into contact with people I know or at least can identify after ten minutes of conversation while my brain tries to figure out who they are. These activities and the probable happenstances of said activity are, respectively:<br />
<br />
1. Friday Night Magic. However, the format is Standard. I don't have a Standard deck. Actually, I don't really have any decks at the moment. If I had a Commander deck I could theoretically play with all the other non-tournament players, but I am really sans inspiration on the deck front. I might conceivably have a cannabalized Angel deck I could reassemble, but that sounds like work. And there's a chance there will be nobody to play with me/that will play with me. I will eventually feel like an automaton mimicking human behavior and I will ninja out early.<br />
<br />
2. Geology Trivia Night. I could go, exchange cordial greetings with the current students and professors and realize how much I've forgotten/never remembered. Food and/or wollanstinite may be involved. Feldspars in all their potassium/plagioclase glory will put in an appearance. I will eventually feel like an alien miming human behavior and I will slither out and not be missed.<br />
<br />
3. LAN Party. I only know two people offhand who will be here, one of which I spent an entire office in a summer with and--while sitting back-to-back--communicated via Facebook. I will show up with my sorry little laptop and buy giant cookies from aforementioned friend before giving up and vanishing in a cloud of incredible shyness and possibly shame.<br />
<br />
4. Or I could stay home, play LoL, play RS and watch Charmed, play some more LoL, play RS and watch Charmed, play LoL because my fiancee has come home from Magic and wants his Xbox back to play Skyrim and I won't be able to watch any more Charmed, end the night playing Minecraft and drinking some concoction of booze from my dwindling supply of alcohol.<br />
<br />
The choices, the choices.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-19441016757369748882011-10-20T15:21:00.002-10:002011-10-20T15:22:24.048-10:00DominateDominion Interview<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><strong><em>So...I got an interview with the founder, otherwise known as TheFeedski, of the recently created <a href="http://dominatedominion.com/">DominateDominion.com</a> site, a website dedicated to LoL's new game mode, Dominion.</em></strong><br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">Bacon & Betelgeuse</span>: Why did you decide to start this site?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">TheFeedski:</span> I played a decent amount of Dominion during beta and got the hang of it pretty fast. When it was released, I felt that I was ahead of many of players I was playing with/against in public games. When I looked at the League of Legends Dominion forum it was full of people complaining or trolling, like usual, and I had a hard time finding a competitive team to play with. That's when I got the idea of making a strictly Dominion site. Thought it would be cool if I could make a place to host tournaments, find teams, write/read Dominion champion guides, etc.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">B&B</span>: Why go with paid hosting rather than free?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">TheFeedski: </span>As a broke college student, I originally made the site with free hosting. Then I started thinking, if this thing takes off, free hosting won't be able to handle it. So I figured I mine as well bite the bullet and pay for my own hosting. Plus, there aren't any ads. As of yet... Hope it stays that way, but if this starts to take a large chunk of change out of my pocket I may have to add a couple.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">B&B:</span> Tell us how you got into LoL.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">TheFeedski: </span>My room mate during Freshman year in college played it. He told me how the game works and I decided I would try it. From then on I loved it. And kept playing it.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">B&B</span>: Now, I've got to ask: Dominion or Summoner's Rift, and why?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">TheFeedski: </span>Depends on my mood. If I am feeling in the mood for some ranked, then Summoner's Rift. That mood doesn't come often though, so Dominion. I like the fast-paced feeling of Dominion. Getting your build rather quickly, being a sneaky sally and back dooring, I just enjoy the overall game play more.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">B&B</span>: What champions/roles do you prefer?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">TheFeedski: </span>I love me some Heimerdinger bottom lane. He's a beast. Or Ryze, Yorick, Gangplank, Xin, Tryndamere. I play a lot of people really, but prefer to be bottom. No homo.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">B&B</span>: What do you do when you're not on LoL?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">TheFeedski: </span>What do I do, or what should I be doing? I try to study and get ahead, but that's never fun. So usually I just smoke a bowl and relax. I'll get all my stuff done, but I'm a great procrastinator, so it won't be until the day before it's due. I also try working on this website. I use to make Youtube videos before I got in college and reached 10,500+ subscribers and got partnered with Youtube, but I stopped doing that. I should probably pick that up again.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">B&B</span>: Anything else you'd like to add?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">TheFeedski: </span>Thanks for being a member of the site and wanting to interview me. I'm in the process of finding someone to make a script for an unofficial Dominion ladder system. Hopefully that is coming soon. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">B&B</span>: Thanks for letting me interview you! Best of luck!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2739995324255767839.post-52509981993837406852011-10-19T23:26:00.001-10:002011-10-19T23:27:50.464-10:00Today, I Met a Nobel Prize Winner & I Didn't Stab Any Computers Or Perform Any Other Acts of Violence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;">Title.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">All right, I'll try to make a story of this.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">This gainful employment manages to cut into my Times in all sorts of ways...my Runescape Time, my League of Legend Time, my Watching-Movies-on-Netflix Time, my Thinking-About-Exercising Time, my Studying-for-GRE Time, my Snuggling-With-LOML Time...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Back to the title story. Please note that since I'm tired that the sloppy Paint illustrations will be representing things that probably did not, in this dimension, happen.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">So, after a long day of assembling maps on a computer that somehow escaped the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs and getting visited by a stabbing headache for the last half hour of work, I finally slithered up to the university cafeteria where the <a href="http://msowww.anu.edu.au/%7Ebrian/">2011 Nobel prize winner for Physics</a> was speaking. I showed up 10 minutes early and the place was like the proverbial can of Sardines and the kids' game all rolled into one. I had to overcome my hesitation of talking to people to inquire as to whether a seat was available because I really did not dig the concept of standing.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkAs3GbfU7xseIafYfFxCChxsTHsmryJXXxFYXxGrhZg643-JwuK43b2swZZs1t-Pa_SGkV8VWNyH2r33GQhHFociHtTaRLAv7CmE4nFR8dlgUtSB82FCSlTrkzkOgMkC0ZhHsTGtMweWB/s1600/personal+bubble.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkAs3GbfU7xseIafYfFxCChxsTHsmryJXXxFYXxGrhZg643-JwuK43b2swZZs1t-Pa_SGkV8VWNyH2r33GQhHFociHtTaRLAv7CmE4nFR8dlgUtSB82FCSlTrkzkOgMkC0ZhHsTGtMweWB/s1600/personal+bubble.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Okay, so maybe this one did happen.</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;">They eventually started shunting the mob to another room in another building on campus, but since I had a chair I stayed put, surrounded by strangers...The talk only started 10 minutes late, which was a bit earlier than I was expecting, seeing how these things tend to go (especially on my campus). After all the cheering and whatnot throughout the thankfully brief introductory speech Dr. Schmidt proceeded to take the entire audience from Earth, through the concept of Light, through the concept of Doppler Effect, to the curvature of space-time and why the universe appears to be accelerating. Oh, and he ditched meeting the Queen of England because he had already arranged to talk to us.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">During the course of the talk, the following did not happen.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMEypjrKJw3q7vDX3NPm792PMLNB_kZIjaOZQ7ZNP8eWFoAlWV_Oeq4QebiaE_CzIsfwqM1FTia002iTbXblEbRwCJfN_hFlg_PsvmaaLFx22gh0UUtiU-HK1itcp_GNxbdZuyhDKaoRc/s1600/elbow+drop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMEypjrKJw3q7vDX3NPm792PMLNB_kZIjaOZQ7ZNP8eWFoAlWV_Oeq4QebiaE_CzIsfwqM1FTia002iTbXblEbRwCJfN_hFlg_PsvmaaLFx22gh0UUtiU-HK1itcp_GNxbdZuyhDKaoRc/s1600/elbow+drop.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9OaNZmmHDqEKIH6j_40wdboFpYSgnNpiAKu1XAA-GFh9kV5BaRgs-nypyDA0WKzhGb7he1Adyfca9Za_l8hXE51UvPpLTg9TVF-IRYwVrg5ys4uMSIlQXKzZacUjUHZOQRXF3v3w8GBWu/s1600/stabbing+computer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9OaNZmmHDqEKIH6j_40wdboFpYSgnNpiAKu1XAA-GFh9kV5BaRgs-nypyDA0WKzhGb7he1Adyfca9Za_l8hXE51UvPpLTg9TVF-IRYwVrg5ys4uMSIlQXKzZacUjUHZOQRXF3v3w8GBWu/s1600/stabbing+computer.jpg" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">And after the talk I joined the time to say hi to the guy.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">I asked a question I couldn't bring myself to ask during the Q & A as it would have meant I'd have to yell over two-thirds of a room of crowded people, and got a picture with the guy</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/305209_286703174688163_100000454477106_1099968_36119802_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/305209_286703174688163_100000454477106_1099968_36119802_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Pretty good day, all things considered.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0