thessalian: (facepalm)
I have not done this in awhile, so ... Warcrack news.

So I hit level 60 the other day. This was huge. Seriously. Those of you who play know what I am talking about. Those of you who don't ... two words: flying mounts.

It goes like this. In your first twenty levels, you're pretty much reduced to walking around the place getting squished attacked by anything that happens to be passing. Well, technically you can rent a wind rider/griffon (depending on faction) but those only take you from point A to point B. Then you hit level twenty and you're allowed to have the riding skill, and you can buy a mount. Kind of like in FFXI, except without some of the really fuck-annoying quests you have to do to get a chocobo licence. And you're not necessarily stuck with a giant battle emu. (Well ... okay, since my main's a blood elf, I am stuck with a giant battle emu. But I also play Paladin so I get an actual horse too. One day I'm going to level my goblin alt and get a motor vehicle. Gnome? Well ... with gnome you're still kind of stuck with a giant battle emu. Except it's a giant robot battle emu. So ... your mileage may vary?) Anyway, it's not like nothing attacks you when you're riding your battle emu or your mini T-rex or whatever your particular race has as a mount, but you stand a chance of outrunning anything that aggroes you.

Anyway, then you hit level 40, at which point you unlock Journeyman riding and faster mounts. Which means I now have four mounts - one black battle emu, one faster purple battle emu and two chargers, one built for more speed than the other.) And then you hit level sixty, at which point you can buy a Flight Master's Licence, and a mount that flies. This is either a wind rider (MANTICORE WOO!) if you're Horde, or a griffon if you're Alliance. This is a big deal because it means no more shelling out for rides between cities on wind riders/griffons and getting to places one hell of a lot easier, plus exploration achievements up the tailfeathers.

Just one problem: THIS SHIT IS EXPENSIVE.

Not real-money expensive, oh no. Just it requires somewhere around the region of 250 gold for the licence alone (less depending on your reputation where you buy the licence), and 50 gold for the mount. When you're levelling jewelcrafting and have been known to blow 100 gold at a time at the auction house for materials, 300 gold is a Big Deal. So what's a belf pally to do? Well, frankly, sell everythiiiiiiiiiing. Seriously, I had a metric fucktonne of low-level gems and the like for jewelcrafting materials that I wasn't really going to need anymore so all of that went to the auction house. After that ... well, I got mercenary about my quests. Any quest that didn't give me a piece of armour that was better than what I was wearing, I picked the reward item that would net me the most coin when sold to a vendor. Thankfully, at my level most of the reward items are worth at least one gold, sometimes as much as three, not to mention an average of one gold per quest done. So I've been running around the Blasted Lands, doing quests and selling gear and generally making a killing. I've got my 300 gold now (I had about 160 when I hit level 60, so at least I didn't have far to go) but I want to get a decent buffer zone before I spend that much gold at once. Somehow spending it in dribs and drabs at the auction house is one thing but blowing a huge wad all at once on one thing just ... gah. To be fair, I'm a lot like that about real money, too. I guess it's just A Thing. But never mind, I'm getting there and soon - soooooon - I will have my very own manticore and it will be awesome.

But in the meantime ... MOAR QUESTS. Currently resurrecting a druid in the Blasted Lands. I have no idea sometimes, when these quests are concerned. Seriously, I went running around looking for body parts so I could sew this Frankenstein-druid together and now I'm going up to the Altar of Storms to resurrect him with blood magic. (My inner Dragon Age characters are having fits, kthnx.) And prior to that, I was sneaking around a mine Metal Gear Solid style, in a huge crate, so I could kill a mining foreman. This game, she is on crack. I'm pretty sure I killed a demon in a cowboy hat an hour ago.

In other news, I am strongly considering starting up my own old WoD RP online. Chicago went the way of the dodo bird entirely suddenly and it's very sad. I'm just so tired of these things suddenly ending when I was just getting into it. It's not even as though the game was entirely dead, either - sure, it was slow because of the summer and a few people having some computer issues, but two people were in the middle of storylines and play was available if you were willing to tap people on the shoulder and ask, at least via IM. Unfortunately, the head admin got bored (there were rumours about Werewolf drama, but I try not to pay too much attention to rumours, particularly not about systems I don't play) and without so much as a word of warning, she shut down the entire site. Thankfully, she gave someone else access for about a week so we all got to ask her for our character sheets and journals, but ... still, it's frustrating. London, at least, had had its run and The End was discussed. Charleston ... well, that one was just unfortunate, with drama and server crashes and a whoooooole lot of mess. And the less said about San Francisco and the other Chicago, the better (those didn't close down while I was there; I just bailed because they drove me bugfuck). Anyway, I figure that I can probably manage admin well enough, so all I really need to do is get a decent ISP, talk to [personal profile] lithium_doll about getting hold of Jove and decide on things like where it's going to be set. Part of me is strongly considering Montreal; my home city doesn't get enough love. But that's thoughts for later, while I comparison shop for web space (and frankly find out if anyone I know is actually up for staffing or even just playing).

Why, yes, I am looking for distractions from people like Ann Coulter saying some truly appalling shit about the London riots, from people like Theresa May saying "the only cause for criminal behaviour is criminals" (which ... is not a cause, exactly, and makes no sense), from the bloody Prime Minister talking about "ignoring phoney 'human rights'" and closing down social media during 'times of crisis', from the idea of collective punishment for the riots as two boroughs vow to evict any convicted of taking part in the riots and their entire families from council housing if they're living in said council housing. I'm not ignoring it in the hopes that it will go away. I am taking occasional breaks from it because if I don't, I'm going to stress myself into the kind of migraine attack that doesn't stop at pain and photophobia but goes into visual disturbances/hallucinations, cognitive dissonance and worse. Yes, it happens when the stress is bad enough. And I do not need that right now, kthnx. So ... moderation. I'll rant and stress and rage about it in controlled bursts so I don't die of government stupid.
thessalian: (Default)
Look, sorting through the amount of stuff that got left at [livejournal.com profile] dodgyhoodoo's place takes time. And sometimes things get more or less tidied into corners and then go entirely by the wayside until one early afternoon, one crawls out of bed, looks at that box for the hundredth time, and snaps.

CLEAN ALL THE THINGS!

Well, most of the things. It'll do, anyway. The point of all this is that I found something particularly nostalgia-inducing in one of the remaining boxes. I happened to open up a tiny notebook, wondering if there was enough blank page to merit keeping it, when I noticed a couple of tiny sheets of paper with notes written on them in two separate handwritings. The context told me the who, the what and the why; at some point during my tenure in the 7th Sea game, the party went to the opera and nearly got blown up as a prelude to Rilasciare revolutionary mishegoss. Anyway, before the plot happened, somehow Alison and Pietro got to having a whispered conversation that came out in note form while something else was going. So, for your entertainment (particularly that of [livejournal.com profile] nezumi_sama ... a series of notes.

A little codex first:
Alison: Started as a whore from Avalon (England equivalent) Did not precisely end that way. Still, she liked her job.
Pietro: Decadent nobleman from Vodacce (Italy equivalent). More than a bit of a skirt chaser, but, much like Zevran Arainai or Cap'n Jack Harkness, would shag anything if it was gorgeous enough.
Francine: She was from Montaigne (France equivalent); bastard-born to a nobleman and gave herself serious airs.
Axel: Big hulking knight from Eisen (Germany equivalent); not exactly bright but great with a weapon. Romantically involved with Francine's twin sister.
Richard: Avalon bard; absolutely gorgeous and just a little clueless. I think Pietro and Alison had something of a bet going as to who could get him into bed. I know Alison won.

Alison: Aw... Now I can't stealthily molest you during the opera if it gets dull.

Pietro: But I can (erm, molest you that is, not anything else).

Alison: How good's your night vision? You might wind up getting Francine!

Pietro: I think I'd notice. As long as I don't accidentally get Axel.

Alison: You WOULDN'T notice getting Axel?

Pietro: Maybe not. Haven't noticed how well endowed he is/isn't.

Alison: I could find out, if you like...

Pietro: I DARE YOU! >:-)

Alison: I'd make you a wager but you have no money. Besides, Francine would kill. Still, I am curious... Want to know about Richard?

Pietro: Why don't I do it and pretend it was you?

Alison: Why don't I do him and pretend it was you?

Pietro: GO FOR IT!

...Ah, memories.
thessalian: (Default)
So, some of you may be wondering what I decided about the wonderful world of Warcrack. Some of you, on the other hand, already know, or have some idea.

One word: Gnoooooooome.

Well, also a Night Elf.

But mostly gnoooooome.

*ahem* So in case you hadn't worked it out, yes, I got World of Warcraft. There are things about it that I like better than FFXI. There are things about FFXI that I vastly preferred.

Ways In Which FFXI Is Vastly Superior to WoW
- City Maps. Or, more to the point, labelled fucking shops, okay? I do not see why I have to mouse over every single one of the chatty little fuckers just to find out where I can sell all the crap I've been collecting from beating toxic slime to death!
- Item Sales. To wit: the interface sucks arse. I ended up buying back a whole bunch of my crap by total accident at a premium and I am a little bit annoyed by this. FFXI at least had an intuitive interface.
- Aggro potential in mobs. Look, I get 'fast-paced game' or whatever the hell, but it's a little bit difficult to try to manage soloing when wherever you go, whatever you do, there's a whole pack of mobs who will gang up on you roaming around the place. I get that you're going to get attacked in these games. I do not see the fun potential in trying to complete a kill quest and getting dogpiled by a bunch of troggs or whatever the hell I was fighting.
- No acclimatisation time whatsoever. In FFXI, I spawned as little tiny Taru and got approached gently by some Mithra criminal and nudged. Gently. In a way that more or less said, "There's plot somewhere, if you want it, but it'll find you eventually; don't worry. Go out and nuke shit." In WoW? I find myself in the middle of a makeshift infirmary fighting ... well, members of my own race who had apparently gone nuts or something, I don't even know, but one thing was abundantly clear: "YOU HAVE SPAWNED DIRECTLY IN THE MIDDLE OF PLOT! ENJOY NOT HAVING A GODS-DAMNED CLUE!"
- The 'srs bzns' factor. For FFXI, it is easy to find free, comprehensive and very helpful guides to how to get started and similar. I went looking for those when I started WoW. Mostly I got adverts. Apparently, people want help with this game so badly that they're willing to pay for it. SRS BZNS. *headdesk* And the Brady guide is shit. So I feel like I'm floundering and I can't even turn to the internet for help without having to pay for it.

Ways In Which WoW is Vastly Superior To FFXI
- Windowed Play. In FFXI, it is against the Terms of Service to play a windowed mode, though there is a hack for it. Basically, if you try to swap between FFXI and something else (say, Firefox or AIM or something), your game will crash. Which means that if you happen to have forgotten to switch off Trillian and one of your friends who has a habit of 'talking' to your Away message to leave a comment for you to come back to later, AIM window pops up, and entire game crashes and burns. Cue the screaming, the flailing, and the coming back to find your entire party either pissed off beyond all recognition, or slain (and pissed off beyond all recognition).
- Background music. Seriously, the shit they play in FFXI is annoying.
- Griffons! Man, that beats the almighty shit out of chocobos.
- The whole 'walking back to your corpse' thing. Okay, this is a ... really weird thing, but provided you're not too far from a graveyard, it's useful to be able to amble back to your corpse and not have to start back up all the way from ... well, wherever your last save point was.
- Travel in general. There are towns and outposts and safe places. There are roads to them that are not crawling with evil. You can walk from point A to point B without having something big and ugly eat your face at lower levels! This is awesome!
- The new patch download system. I used to spend hours waiting for patches and updates and things to load and install before I could play the stupid game. Now, Warcrack has a system whereby this stuff can, beyond a certain point, be downloaded and installed while you're playing. I just ... that's just ten different shades of awesome.

Things I'm Not So Sure About Yet:
- Interface. It's a lot like DA, but without a pause button. I end up losing valuable beastie-killing time (not to mention HP) because I instinctively hit the space bar to pause and end up jumping instead. (Why is there a need to jump in this game anyway?) I also miss my macro keys.
- Character speech capability. I get a feeling that the catch-phrases when you click on a merchant or take your leave of one are going to get really old, really fast. And there's no Esc key fast-forward here.
- Graphics and layout. Some of it is phenomenally pretty. Some of it is as cheesy as anything. Some of it's both. I'm having a hard time deciding.

I don't think I'm going to get as invested in this game as I did in FFXI. Which is a good thing, because really my plans for Warcrack involve blundering around the place and beating on things when I'm in a mood, probably multi-tasking with chatting to people and possibly switching off the music entirely in favour of something a little more to my liking. But you never know; maybe I'll have more fun with it when I crawl out of the single-digit levels.

On the subject of levelling up, I've been working on a Seeking for my Cultist of Ecstasy over on Chicago. (Seeking, for those of you who don't know, is a process by which one's Mage gets the Boot To The Head of Enlightenment and is thus permitted to take a higher level of Arete, which means more raw magical ability.) For one reason or another, I've been working on said Seeking, from request to execution, since March. Now I'm at the crux of it, apparently, and have made my response to the ST and I can't find out whether I screwed it up or not until tomorrow. *whimper* Still, I guess this beats unholy hell out of waiting until June, or having to grab Jessiah at anywhere after 2am my time and not be able to think straight by the time we get to the crux of the matter. All the same, play-by-forums-private-message is always going to be a little agitating when something one is spending XP for actually rides on whether your answer makes sense and there's a (very understandable; poor sod must have been exhausted after the day he put in) delay in getting the response to that FPM. Apparently it'll likely be wrapped up by Saturday. Sometimes the Arete/Seeking/putting your character's power level and personal enlightenment into someone else's hands thing is really frustrating. (And has been since March. I admit it.)

I want a day off. Hell, I need a day off. Not 'I am too ill to be out of bed', not 'I have a doctor's appointment'; just ... I do not have to be anywhere and can sleep in guilt-free. Surely I can do that, right?
thessalian: (Default)
Again, I can't really answer this because I still haven't really got one. I have shows I like watching, and the closest I can come is Eureka and Leverage (when you've dreamed about them at least once that you can recall, you know that there's definitely a part of your brain that has a jones for a show), but I wouldn't really call it a proper obsession.

Short and sweet and to the point again - tomorrow's probably won't be.

In other news, I have received bits of paper via email and I have to schedule appointments and things to hand in CRB forms and the like so that should be sorted by the end of the week. I hate the forms but if they'll get me into this job, I will COPE.

Also, I have got back into RPing again, lured into Chicago by Night by well-meaning enablers. Dissonance Society woo! (No, not the same Chicago where there was the unfortunate issue with the clueless ST who kept trying to throw sex-bombs at my asexual Corax and turned the whole thing into Laurell K Hamilton and bitched me out for using the term 'crotch-dropping' IC. A different Chicago. With, like, sane people.)
thessalian: (Default)
Whatever tickles your fancy

I think I'll just rant about DAO again. It seems to be the thing of the moment. Well, swords-n-sorcery fantasy games and books in general, I suppose. You know, broaden the scope.

I grew up on fantasy novels. Mainly Mercedes Lackey, I guess. Though, y'know, Pern, Dragonriders of, when I was really little. When I was a very little girl, Mum read me not only The Hobbit but Lord of the Rings as well, and of course CS Lewis. These days, I go for the more modern urban fantasy stuff, at least in part due to an undying love for Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series (I have had little urge to pick up his Alera Codex, despite him saying that it's his One True Auctorial Love) and partly because of my affinity for WoD RP. Or maybe that's the other way around... Anyway, beyond 7th Sea and George RR Martin, I haven't touched a lot of 'high fantasy' of late.

I think it's the stereotypes and wish fulfilment more than anything. I know Tolkien pioneered the genre and there's no taking that away from him, but LotR is probably one of the most overrated book series in history. It has its moments, yes, and the story as a whole is pretty good, but you have to read between the lines and lines of somewhat purple prose to find it, and conveniently forget some of the more ... irritating bits of unnecessary stop-time (Tom Bombadil, anyone?) Same with George RR Martin, to be fair. The first book or two are great, and the third ones has moments, but as the series goes on, it gets more and more ... over-written. Or possibly under-edited. And the 'fourth' book (I use the sarcastiquotes because no matter what the covers say, Storm of Swords is two books, because having Books 1 and 2 of something that is already a series is just plain stupid. Xref Tad Williams - Storm and Siege should have been two separate books, as To Green Angel Tower was waaaay too big to be one book) seems to be little more than people ambling around the place listening to rumours about all the cool stuff happening over there somewhere. It ... gets irksome. So on the whole, I look a little bit askance at 'high fantasy', because it's so easy to write it badly and so hard to write it well.

I haven't found that problem with DAO at any point. There's one occasionally jarring anachronism ("Warden Senses tingling"? Really?) but on the whole, the game had found a balance between high fantasy and modern sensibilities. There's the kind of politics you'd expect from a good D&D tabletop game as well as the requisite hack and slash, and the same kind of silliness as you'd get with a good tabletop group too.* Sometimes one stops just to listen to the banter. It's a nice change from FFXI, where it's more or less "Quest - achievement - quest - achievement - quest - achievement - ooh, look at the cool thing I can do now! ...Quest - achievement - *ding*! Level up! ...Quest - achivement..." etc etc. Sure, there's the thrill of levelling up, but there's also the "...I levelled up mid-battle and I can't actually get any of the cool bits 'til it's over - yes, Alistair, you're right, let's make this quick! I want to pick up Arcane Shield!"

Now, if I could find more 'high fantasy' written the way DAO is written, I might not look at the genre with so much wariness.

* Side note: Zevran kind of reminds me of Pietro, come to think of it. I suppose it's something to do with a long-ago exchange between Pietro and Aiden:

Aiden: I thought your inclinations ran in another direction...
Pietro: My inclinations lie in many directions.
Aiden: Just so long as your inclinations don't lie in my direction.
Pietro: You're not my type.

Though Zevran does lack the "I run down the corridor and jump out the window - oh crap, what floor am I on?" mentality.
thessalian: (Lannister Zodiac)
This is only going to make sense to the ASOIAF fans on my flist. Sorry!

Cut for anyone who hasn't read George RR Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire series. Seriously. This will be so much boring. )

That said ... I'm out and about tomorrow - Mum-lunch. And there shall be writing. Must and shall be writing. I think I've found a tack I like better for Chapter 17, so maybe it will stop kicking my arse.
thessalian: (inspired)
It's nearly 7am. I should be in bed. I should have been in bed hours ago. I will nap soon, I swear. But first, a few short triumphs:

* Chapter 3 of 'Chaos Magic' is up. I even did background music. It'll be better next week, but this worked out more or less okay. The whole thing's still a work in progress, the podcasting, so ... you know, learning experience.
* Fixed the damn site's last little bugs, finally. (Turned out my style sheet was fine but there were a couple of missed tags in the various pages themselves that messed the whole thing up. They are now sorted after I tweaked the style sheet for THREE HOURS...)
* A Song of Ice and Fire crack-RP with characters with fudged ages set in an American high school. I'm playing Margaery Tyrell. It's so much damn fun already, and it only just started.

Now, though, the exhaustion finally has me and I am going to bed. G'night. *THUD*
thessalian: (geeky)
I seem to be making up for all the times over the last couple of months I haven't posted, all in one day. But then there is Stuff To Talk About, I suppose.

Having discovered BPAL-related LJ communities (thanks, [livejournal.com profile] tithenai), I am thinking that perhaps I ought to step over to the next series or two of scents and decide which of them I actually like the sound of. The more I have on my wish list, the more chance I have of getting what I want.

So here we go with Wanderlust and Steamworks )

In other news, I'm going to be gutting Eshu tomorrow. See, after discussion with [livejournal.com profile] dodgyhoodoo, he's agreed to let me have the hard drive out of Zim. He hasn't used his PC in nine months or so, and doesn't reckon it would make an adequate replacement for Skanklet (his MacBook) in terms of Lightroom anyway, so I get to scavenge it for parts. When we're a bit more stable financially, we'll build him a better system but for just right now, all I really need is more storage space. I've got nearly no free space on my HD and that is never good. I think it should be okay provided I remember to switch Zim's HD onto 'Slave' and don't touch Eshu's current HD from where it's currently connected. (I hope I'm right about this. I don't want to find that I screw up a reformat job and end up having to reinstall everything when I'm done with the improvements...)

After that, it'll be dicking around with iTunes, mostly - the new HD will be exclusively for music and video (it's a 100GB drive or so, and will therefore be about 2/5 full as soon as I transfer what I've already got onto it), so I'll have to delete everything off my iTunes library, swap over the files, then do "Add Folder to Library" with my entire iTunes folder. This will be time-consuming, and I'll have to redo all my playlists, but at the end of it, I'll have 40GB free space on my main HD, which might mean that Sims will run faster and will definitely mean less guilt and fret about downloading custom content. (I am relieved to note that no, I do not have more HD space devoted to Sims 2 custom content than I do to music - 40GB music, nearly 6GB Sims 2 downloads.)

So, you know ... busy day tomorrow. Even more so assuming the computer surgery goes well - and I suppose even if it doesn't, Quest-sceneage with [livejournal.com profile] therealsherbs can happen via iMisc and a network cable. Woo!
thessalian: (yay)
*ahem*

I'm gonna do some eee-vil
I'm gonna do some eee-vil...

(It's scene night yay!)
thessalian: (sick)
And a very happy birthday to [livejournal.com profile] the_blonde_one!

As a present ... well, it may not be a drabble based on any of the prompts - hell, it may not even be drabble - but you will have something HIPPIE-related to read through by the end of the day. Damnable migraine notwithstanding. *emphaticnod*

Yeah, it's been a bad few days, what with RID and a nasty migraine. Plus last week I finally realised that chocolate is one of my migraine triggers, so ... well, it's a good thing I prefer gummy sweets, is all I can say. Still, no chocolate in any quantity of note if I don't want to spend three days in agony? *whimper*

...At least it wasn't coffee. Gods, that would be a fate worse than death...

The other news that's fit to print, really, is that the last couple of days have been trying to get a scene run with [livejournal.com profile] courtcat79 and [livejournal.com profile] therealsherbs' Sidhe characters. On the one hand, this is great fun; I am reminded once again that I am evil and that no one seems to mind (I am reminded yet again of [livejournal.com profile] cholten99 saying, "I only come here for the abuse!"). On the other hand, the time zone thing is a little frustrating. What with two of us being in the UK and only one of those is insane enough to stay up to the obscene hours of morning I usually do on a workday, and the other one being in the US, our overlap window is a bit short for a scene of any decent length. So we're doing it in snippets and that's alternately fun and frustrating as we look for a decent pause point (or a cliffhanger; I can live with that). It could be worse; at least in chat-based RP, we have scene logs to remind us of what came before.

Today will probably not see a continuation of the scene, though. [livejournal.com profile] therealsherbs has a trip to the gym planned and as for me ... well, if I'm feeling up to it at all, Thursday night is Wish List Night on my LS in FFXI. This week I have the urge to ask whether anyone wants to help me with my Rank 5 mission. If I keep this up, I'll get Rank 6 in no time and I'll be able to join the gang on their Sky and Sea runs. I also need to remember to return Ctown's Noble's Bed, and work out what I'm going to do about the storage space I don't particularly want to lose by handing my Mahogany Bed over to [livejournal.com profile] dodgyhoodoo (he's hurting for Mog House space worse than I was earlier this week). Then again, there's that quest involving an armoire, which I'd need to buy in San d'Oria, and ... ye gads, I have quests to do. Which is just as well, because I'm skint again. Or rather, I will be once I've shelled out for the spell scrolls I need. There has to be a list...

...Of course, if I'm not up to it I'm going to end up curled up in bed, whimpering. Either way.

Right. Back to the grind. I will get through today; really, I will.
thessalian: (Sims)
I am going to find a way to make Francis' power drink for the next time I run a Changeling scene.

Just so y'all know.

Yesterday was fun. I met up with [livejournal.com profile] adelpha and among other things, got to hear some of his gaming stories. I adore other people's gaming stories, for the most part. Particularly the rants. I really appreciate a good rant. Besides, while I never lay any claim to them, I've got a lot of mileage out of [livejournal.com profile] dodgyhoodoo's "My street Gangrel staked herself by accident" story, not to mention [livejournal.com profile] weaselbitch's "Egg" incident. Then there's "throwing raw chaos at the Node", "How many times have you died so far?" and the repeated triple-botches and their consequences. I figure if they realise that this is the sort of thing I'm used to, the players I end up telling these stories to know exactly what they're dealing with.

Anyway, [livejournal.com profile] adelpha also informs me that he is on FFXI now, on my server, and playing a level 3 Taru WHM. (Awwwwwwww... so cute...) Of course, he never told me his username. Well, he knows mine, anyway. (Or, in case he doesn't ... it's Satomi.) So I get to help him run through quests and missions and stuff. Whoopee! Must give him a LS pearl.

Today's going to be pretty quiet, from what I can tell. I have drabble I want to write (and I'm giving some thought to [livejournal.com profile] the_blonde_one's suggestion, actually, though given the speed at which I come up with drabble, there are some logistical issues to consider). While I'll likely multi-task a fair bit (it's my turn to do dinner n'all), I intend to be as creative as possible today. Might even fire up Sims 2 again; it hasn't been crashing and burning on me, so ... yay!

That's my day. How's yours going?
thessalian: (grammarian)
Doctors are intelligent people. They pretty much have to be, to get through med school. I have nothing against doctors, really. I don't even have anything against doctors who obviously didn't qualify in this country; prejudice is not my style, and foreign accents aren't that hard to render once you get used to the speaker's particular ways of pronouncing things. However ... I really wish the ones whose first language isn't English would take pity of those of us in this English-speaking country whose first language is, in fact, English and ... you know, use it correctly.

It takes me no time at all to audio type, really; what takes the time is reparsing what I'm hearing so that it's coherent. The constant, unnecessary and occasionally inappropriate use of the passive voice and the split infinitives are one thing - sometimes that's stylistic issues that just make my brain hurt, and while I'll change it for brevity, I acknowledge that it's a valid means of expression. However, there are the conjugation issues - pity's sake, people, pick a verb tense and stick to it! Preferably the appropriate one for the job at hand. And sometimes the sentences are just so badly constructed that I have to type out the whole thing in all its ungrammatical glory before I can parse it well enough to fix it.

I'm not really just a typist. I am an editor. I take the perfectly understandable mistakes of someone who has not paid the remotest bit of attention to how English grammar works and sort of makes it up as they go along and I turn it into legible prose on the fly. I basically keep perfectly intelligent people who just happen not to be au fait with the language from looking like complete morons to their peers.

And to think, I failed English grammar the one time I took it in high school.*

In other news, there is not much other news. I'm booked solid RP-wise until Sunday (Thursday - conversation with Jack, gods help me; Friday - [livejournal.com profile] therealsherbs wants a scene with my mortal and I sense doom; Saturday - Midsummer Tourney at the Court of the Bard, all interspersed with whatever else needs to get settled in other arenas, more or less), when I will be taking a break from all that to have a bit of a horrorfest with [livejournal.com profile] dodgyhoodoo. And possibly some attempted levelling of some FFXI job or other over the weekend. I could level BRD, I suppose - now that there's nomad moogles in Selbina, it's not so much of an utter and complete bitch to try to get to the Dunes and level. Either way, I'm thinking moochunks on Sunday - simple and tasty, as it were.

...It does amaze me how much I can overplan a weekend that basically involves "Oh, you know ... just faff, really".

* = Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous. However, fact is I only ever studied grammar in French, owing to the French Immersion programme I was saddled with in elementary school. I can construct a grammatically viable sentence perfectly well, but can't deconstruct one to save my life. And when we did a unit on grammar in my American high school - the only time we were ever going to study it, apparently - I was a little lost and went to my English teacher for help. My English teacher hated me and refused to help me, I got a few things backwards and flunked the quarter. This is what kept me out of Advanced English Lit in 10th grade. I hated that man.

Curiosity

Jun. 11th, 2008 02:20 pm
thessalian: (shy)
Doors again. I don't even have to write the villains when there's doors about.

I have to ask, because I'm curious now. Those of you I've run for, or have heard rumours about what I've run to date, RP-wise: what's the nastiest, doomiest, most unconscionable horror I've inflicted on a player as the GM/ST of any given game? In your opinion. I really want to know.

Also, if you can come up with one: what's the daffiest, silliest, most generally ludicrous thing I've ever presented to players in game?

Seriously: I don't know how I'd react to some of the stuff I've pulled on players in game. Well, in most cases. I'd like to know what really had an impact. If no one minds sparing the time to answer.
thessalian: (inspired)
Things I Have Thrown At People in RP Campaigns/Scenes:

- Government agencies
- Crazy sadistic Denizens
- Nephandi by the bucketload, all in positions of authority
- Really really vicious big chimera, up to and including manticores
- Very powerful elder Vampires
- Shadow Court
- Maeljin Incarna
- Silent Hill

Things That Have Most Commonly Stumped People in RP Campaigns/Scenes:

- Doors*

...I love my guys. Really. I hadn't laughed so hard in weeks.

I'm actually considering taking Wednesday off. I have scene on Tuesday and I'd like to not have to worry about getting up in the morning. Plus [livejournal.com profile] dodgyhoodoo has the week off and it'd be nice if we could ... you know, do something. And it'd be nice to divide up the week a bit. But we'll see how I feel, and how my office manager takes to the idea. It's not like I haven't been working my arse off, or like I haven't eaten the backlog like it was a bag of chocolate coated espresso beans, or like I can't afford the contribution I need to make to household finances on a four-day week and still have enough money for travel expenses and discretionary cash. So ... it's a 'we'll see' all around.

Now, though, I am very tired. I intend to spend much of the day sleep-typing.

(* - I am not immune to this. I've been in group scenes in which the entire party has been held up by a door for a half-hour. However, at the very least we didn't go through four different attempts at subterfuge in order to get in once we'd decided to knock, partially because one of the characters hit the guy who wasn't letting us in over the head with a half-brick in a sock.)
thessalian: (bored)
Booked my hostel bed for Brighton Below today. Only had to put down a 10% deposit, too, so provided I'm not completely jobless and screwed to the wall in July, all systems are pretty much go. Whoopee! I know it's over two months away, but I may as well start getting excited for it now...

In other news, there really isn't any. I have no idea what I'm going to do with my weekend, when it gets here. [livejournal.com profile] dodgyhoodoo was talking about going to see Iron Man on Sunday, which might be a good thing - the headaches, while not entirely gone, have got a sight better since I got the new glasses. Though to be fair, given how varifocals work, I'm not sure whether going to the cinema is going to be better or worse for me. I suppose a decent film (and it does seem to be decent, all told) isn't the worst way in the world to find out.

Oh. Right. Daz said something about Astrid and Portia getting to chat to ChibiCultistTim on Saturday. 8ish, if I recall it right. Well, that's another chunk of weekend taken care of, really. And depending on circumstances, I might get to go through another Changeling application with a view to approval - it seems that [livejournal.com profile] ilyena_sylph has finally succumbed to the puppyeyes and is working on an Eshu for the site. Whee! I do hope she gets everything finished in time for the Dreaming wilderness survival thing on Wednesday. I'm going to have so much fun with that one. I'd say that's something else to keep me busy over the weekend, planning for that one, but if I did that, I couldn't keep myself occupied statting things during working hours and on public transport. Nothing says "portable discreet distraction from work" like statting skitter critters.

And finally, I am in the market for a new cellphone now, I think. I like my brick, don't get me wrong, but I could do better. The damn thing's five years old. And I'd like something a little more ... well, just a little more, really. In a way, it seems a bit pointless since I only really use it for texting anyway, but ... mneh. I'll see what I can find. I've always wanted one of those little clamshell click-open dealies, though I know how sad that is. And something that can play a decent ringtone would be nice.

In short, I am bored out of my skull and want out of here right now. And considering myself very very sad for actually wanting the next Sims 2 Stuff Pack (Ikea furniture, of all things - but at least it stands not as ugly as the H&M clothes...). Actually, the next expansion ought to be pretty good too - it lets Sims actually live in proper apartment blocks. I assume it's a lot like the dorms in Sims 2 Uni, only with the full-flat thing. Finally I get to design Silent Hill 4's Apartment World properly!

Success!

May. 11th, 2008 11:33 pm
thessalian: (yay)
The slow and steady climb towards WHM level 50, and other tales from Vana'diel )

In other news, I'm well thrilled at the minute because it looks like we have a date for the next Brighton Below - 26 July. Just a little over two months! Now it's time to start thinking about downtime actions and sorting out a proper top for my costume and everything. Note to self - as Pride starts that week, book accommodation well in advance, prepare to stay all weekend so I don't have to worry about being late, and bring a comfortable pair of shoes so I'm not clomping around in those damnable boots the whole time. The number of pairs of socks I'll need to wear the suckers comfortably? Not all that great in the kind of heat we're having at the minute.

Ikariam is going well - my little city is prosperous. By about 2pm tomorrow, I'll be able to build a palace and start a colony! Preferably somewhere I can get crystal glass. Dear mother of gods, it's hard to get hold of that stuff. Wine's easier and I've got good trade relations with someone who does marble, so I'll wait awhile to establish a colony somewhere with a vineyard. And thus goes another online waste of time.

Anyhow, I have work tomorrow - Barts again. Amusingly, people remember me from my work there in Med Onc years ago. Also, Violet's still there, but demoted and in Haem Onc, and apparently she's given people in the MacMillan team some serious aggro, so ... heh. Gods, I hope I don't run into her. That'd just be more not-fun than any one person should be obliged to handle at any one time.

But the point of that ramble is that I ought to grab a shower and consider the bed thing. Where'd the weekend go? At least there's meeting up with [livejournal.com profile] mitchy tomorrow before she goes to see Chess. That should be fun.
thessalian: (fantastic)
Amusement of the Day:

- An Eshu sends a Sidhe, who is a trial employee at an Eshu-run bookstore, on a supposed wild goose chase for books that don't exist in reality, bar the one at the end of the list that actually exists.
- The Sidhe finds all but the last, which has been out of stock for fifteen years.

Why This is Funny:

- Answers on a postcard...
thessalian: (deathgnome)
I've started leveling again...

And the Cure IIs just keep on coming... )

So WHM 39. Now I need to get my Tele-Yhoat and Tele-Altep scrolls. Those I'm definitely questing for - 80k gil or more at the AH! Dear gods! Apparently getting the Altep scroll is easy but Yhoat sucks - it's a farming thing much like the start of the SMN flag quest. Yeesh.

And in other news, there's been stats upgrades in Mage. I'm thrilled. Got more than I asked for, and all of it made a fair bit of sense, and ... you know, *happydance* in general. I need to actually get on and scene more. I haven't much of late.

My head still hurts. Argh.
thessalian: (meep)
Tattered-look lacy skirt in shades of brown? Check.
Blouse? I have nothing suitable. I am wearing my battered purple jumper and will pick something up on the way - if I go via Finchley Central, I pass an Oxfam shop.
Oversized stompy boots? Check.
Assorted small useful items for trade (in this case, stuff I got from Christmas crackers, a couple of tea light candles and some d6s)? Check.
Printout of character sheet and important rules to know (combat, healing, herbalism)? Check.
Spare T-shirt, change of underwear, hairbrush, toothbrush? Check, check, check and check.
Lab coat? Picking up when I get there.
Gladstone bag equivalent? Maybe (if Daz didn't bring it, I can just empty out my handbag and use that - it's a big battered old thing and will do).
Camera? Check.
Hip flask? Check.
Nerves? Oh hell yes.

I've never LARPed before. This is intimidating. It's going to be fun, and yay for seeing people I know (at least I'll recognise Daz and [livejournal.com profile] yshala on sight this time, promise, though they might not recognise me since the haircut), but ... augh newbie!

...I am a ridiculous creature. I am the sort of person who throws confetti at her fiance on Tottenham Court Road and sings "The Gap! The Gap! The Gap is on fire! We don't need no water, let the motherfucker burn! Burn, motherfucker, burn!" outside the Gap outlet on the corner of Haight and Ashbury. I sing Tom Lehrer in the queue for the London Dungeon and Monty Python songs on the Tube. I cannot get nervous about 'getting into character', in the Pulp Fiction parlance, in a room full of people, some of whom I know, who are doing the exact same thing.

*mental smack upside the head; voom*
thessalian: (TYgaiman)
So I have new glasses now...

The opticians and my mother both talked me into varifocals this time around. Apparently, this is a much better option for me because it'll make computer work easier, and given my job and my hobbies, this is probably a good thing. So I went through the eye exams (the astigmatism in one eye got better, the astigmatism in the other eye got worse and my reading prescription remained the same, so I don't know what the hell happened to my eyes in the three years since my last eye exam) and two weeks later ... varifocals.

They're pretty. They're also giving me mild to moderate vertigo.

The thing about varifocals is that, while bifocals give you two distinct prescriptions in the one lens, varifocals shade from one prescription to the other, or something. Which means that my peripheral vision is a little bit wonky, or will be until I get used to it. So looking to the side without moving my head gets me an eyeful of blur, and I had no idea how much marching band training had made me rely on peripheral vision until I put these blasted things on yesterday. Now it's near-constant nausea and a headache of mild to moderate intensity unless I'm focusing on one specific thing, when it's a bit less at least. This is going to take some getting used to. I just wish that getting used to it didn't involve feeling quite so crappy.

Still, I also have prescription sunglasses, which rocks my world. No more bright light induced migraines when going outside and, you know, doing stuff, one hopes. Picnics and zoo trips on sunny days! Or ... you know, at least not having to spend two days suffering just because I wanted to go shopping on a sunny spring day.

And, in honour of the Brighton Below thing (still have to work on that character concept just a liiiiiittle bit more), ye icon. And Daz says he has a Gladstone-ish looking bag he can lend me for game. Whee! My friends are awesome.

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