Mathematical!

Monday, March 19th, 2012 11:48 am
dev_chieftain: (totallyrad)
So we watched almost all of Adventure Time over the weekend, and we're totally hooked. It's awesome for all the obvious reasons, though my favorite are the occasional moments of 'actually, there's quite a lot of backstory you'll never know' that immediately get slapped away with more crazy randomness. Why not, right?

My weekend was spent alternately working from home, and trying to squeeze in some fun times and relaxation here and there. I did get to chat with my brother on the phone, which was nice; and it rained here, while it was snowing up there, so we were both pretty content with the weather. (It sounded sucky, honestly! He had the day off but his housemates were all out! Booo!)

I hear that Emma has broken up with her boyfriend, which sounds really rough and like maybe ice cream and movie nights are needed. I am determined to make the Steampunk London game super fun as a result! Well, okay, I was already thus determined, but now I'm double-determined!

I'm thinking I might want the players to be detectives, since I keep drafting up mysterious goings-on for them to investigate. But I like the idea of coming away with a fishmonger, a hatter and a penniless poet for players instead, so I think I want to encourage creativity rather than suggest a profession.

Also, Kali's doing a 30-days-of-cool-ladies meme. I kind of wanted to participate, but I also just can't focus that well on a meme for thirty days in a row.

Tonight, we have to go grocery shopping, and we're hoping to finish up the Sword and Shield module with Whistler and Dame Varnell. Should be exciting! Though I suppose it won't take too long, either.

Oh yeah! Summary of Friday! I worked late and was late to the game as a result-- just really exhausted and a little out of it still-- but the gist of things is this. Calderax piloted our ship safely to dock in the Wheel, where we had to deal with thugs after Doc and the Captain, Mac Macadilly (or possibly Macadillydilly), who apparently were the sole survivors of the crew, who owed on the insurance of the ship. So we offered to let Doc adventure with us to help him pay off the money with a 1/7th share of the treasure we'd made in the process.

Merys and Joceyln decided to take things right to the desk of the collecting agency, protesting the alacrity with which the goons had come after doc and suggesting that there be some offer of leniency on the loan so that people who hadn't been making very much money to begin with wouldn't be crippled and crushed for nothing. The president of the company, presumably overwhelmed by the pair of them, acceded, giving Doc and Mac a six-month grace period. We did turn in one of the decanters of endless water to the Adventurer's Guild, and when Aigua inquired as to the nature of the guild's desire to possess the items, was met with stoic silence by the Guild's stoically silent member, and silly nonsense from their cheery bard. Suspicious!

Merys and the bard coordinated their lists of items-to-find, and she asked him for all the leads he might have currently on where to look for the items. It turned out that there were dimensional shackles being used to keep a demon imprisoned in a swamp. Aigua didn't want to go, but Calderax's sword had heard of the demon and suggested it would be wise to banish him to another dimension. There was also a humorous moment where one of the items on the list, soul gems, came up; the bard explained that a tiefling had been making them, but apparently his apprentice had killed him, so those might be tricky to find. (At this point, Calderax totally unsubtly excused himself from the room).

There was the question of how to get Zetsian royal blood. Merys was deeply interested in trying to get the blood from Erith, who wanted no part of that, thanks! In any case, we were mostly made up to go to the swamp, since Calderax had an idea of where the spot they needed might be. They went to inform Captain Mac that they'd be helping him out and found him in a local tavern. Here, the proprietor turned out to be Erith's ex-lord, from the days before Zets had fallen. He spoke with her for a while, embarrassed to have been found out in his much diminished state. Captain Mac, who was wildly drunk, ended up getting a free room, which the bartender had offered Erith. She accepted for Captain Mac's sake, giving him a place to stay.

Resolved, we headed out for the swamp on our airship, and were startled when a druid-Orc arrived to warn us off if we were going to try to set the demon free. Aigua and Calderax bespoke it, asking it if perhaps they could kill and banish the demon. Would that be okay? He agreed, and we landed the ship, avoiding a Froghemoth that the Orc warned us about in the swamp, before walking into the subterranean temple where the demon had been bound for several centuries. We tried talking to it to find out why it'd been bound there (we knew it had something to do with a paladin not wanting the demon to share certain secrets with its kindred when it returned to hell), but it was having none of that. So, we entered into battle with it. Erith almost singlehandedly defeated the beast, aided by Merys, Joceyln and Calderax (Aigua somewhat ineffectively threw bones at it); with its dying breath, it told us of a secret to do with a man serving close at the Goddess's right hand, who had discovered a secret to immortality and was not in fact dead as many would believe. Then he disappeared, leaving the shackles behind for the taking!

Mr. Socks

Friday, March 16th, 2012 03:16 pm
dev_chieftain: (rain)
My aunt is going to have to put down her cat, which is super sad. When she related the whys and how it's going down, it made me get all weepy and sad, and it's not even my cat. Anyway, I keep meaning to write cheery stuff, but I wanted to mention him because we've had funny stories about him for years. He is a neurotic cat, who likes to fight and play almost as much as he likes to lick the hair off of himself. And he is very sweet.

Yes.

Uh, last night we started watching Adventure Time, curious about it. It's really awesome and crazy! We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Finally getting done with one BIG part of this three-part project I've been struggling to finish for work. Pathfinder is tonight, though, so I can't work very late. I'll probably do work from home to make it up, but some part of me still hopes I can magically finish the rest of the dang project before I leave for the day. Keep dreamin', right?
dev_chieftain: (rain)
Last night, before bed, I reread the penultimate and final chapter of Berimbau's Letters. I even made some minor adjustments to the final, though I'm dissatisfied with it. It made me feel good to read the penultimate chapter again: these are characters, people with personalities, desires, they're moving, it's interesting. I don't know if I like the outcome, still. Should Berimbau kill Calabash instead? I don't know. I like that she doesn't. But there's no logic there, no reason.

In the final chapter, she's meant to be speaking to-- meeting with-- Sisobi at last. He wants her help so badly, and she agrees, and that's not bad, per se. It's not awful, I guess. Is it right, though? I don't know. I like it, and I don't like it. As the sun rises over Tammbali and they walk towards the mountains, she sees that the city is wildly colorful, nothing like it had seemed before. I like that. I like this framework. I don't know if I like the unanswered questions (the questions themselves, I like to HAVE unanswered questions but are the ones I left unanswered the RIGHT ones), and I might change things. I don't know. But the stuff to make it work is there.

At the time I wrote it, I had changed the ending several times over. At first, they had to hide in the mountains, got lost in caves, and were entrapped beneath the surface by another race of aliens not currently a part of the story. Then I changed it so that Jakre was working with the aliens, and had betrayed Berimbau. Then I didn't like that so much, so they fled to the mountains, were captured, and the aliens tried to make Berimbau their surrogate leader but she used the power to escape. They climbed to the top of the mountains, where the gold bushes were putting out their pollen, and ancient ruins remained of Sisobi's people. Then they returned to Tammbali to free him. In practice, I cut all this out, thinking 'no, these things don't really make sense or add to the story. They're wild and interesting to write, but they don't really connect or have purpose.' Though the ruins meant something to me, maybe they weren't needed so much, I thought.

After going over this and being both encouraged and discouraged by what I found, I watched a bunch of clips of Adventure Time on Youtube (using the official 'channel' provided by CN; regrettably, CN has yet to release a full season of the show on DVD so I can't watch it for realsies. I think I would, probably. It seems like the kind of show I like, mixed with a lot of crazy elements that are visually appealing to me). When I was tired, I got ready to join Danny in bed and sleep. Lots of work to do, so I knew I needed to get to it ASAP.

My right hand had gone a little numb from sitting so long shifted to the side, which was a weird posture choice, unusual for me. Between that, and seeing myself in the mirror, and the late hour, my thoughts started going south. When I think about death, I get very frightened. The knowledge that someday, I will not be is hard to accept, because I don't understand what it is to think, feel, breathe no more. I think, 'I'll be so frightened when it happens' because no matter what, I can't imagine dying and being okay with it. I suspect my final thoughts will be 'Not yet! Not yet! I still want to do so much!'

I know some people find comfort in religion. Religion, spiritualism, these things promise a sort of comfort. If one follows these teachings, there is probably a force somewhere in the universe that spurred the creation of the universe, and possibly life in particular, and there may be a reason for it all. There may be a purpose greater than simply 'to have been'. To know that one day, you will not. I don't follow a particular religion-- I don't like groupthink, for one-- but I sometimes feel comfortably half-certain that there is some kind of spiritual force that spurs the universe onward, that is the source, at some point, for the things that are.

One of the reasons I do not subscribe to religion is that I cannot find comfort in the promises given by the religions that exist. I might find comfort in the heaven/hell schism, but aside from arbitrary justice, I don't know what to assume heaven would be except more of life. I love life. And hell-- long ago, I once imagined hell to be a prison, glass bubbles sitting separate, each too far to hear or clearly see the next, cold and empty and boring and mindless, and lonely. And that's what I imagine if I try to tell myself there are places you go after you die. What of these places? What are they? Rebirth seems potentially like it banishes my upset; but from a scientific perspective, I know that eventually the Earth will still die. Is all life a race against time? We must flee the planet before extinction is a certainty and make more life elsewhere? Or would we then be forever fleeing from the worlds that we made our new homes? (A hopelessness arises here, reminding me of Unicorn Jelly's similar story.) Sure, I could be reborn and reborn ad infinitum. Maybe my spirit would linger and yet exist somewhere. But eventually, someone would be faced with the death of the world, or the star, or the universe. The heat death of the universe upsets me much more than it should. Hence, Captain Awesome's mission to prevent it.

It boils down to this: I am afraid of what I do not know and cannot know. I can know a lot of awful things. I don't really like the idea of knowing them, but I don't fear them in the same way. Dying, I can't know without ceasing to live. And when I think about it, try to imagine it, I horrify myself again and again. It comforts me to believe that ghosts are real, because as frightening as ghosts are at three in the morning when it's hard to sleep, if ghosts exist I can pretend that two hundred years from now, a little girl will be reading books I'm totally going to publish, and thinking about how she will live her life.

I have trouble wanting children for the same reason that I had Mulligan die in the Promethean game. Who could want to force such suffering on another person? Maybe a child I had would not feel this fear I do, but if they did, why? Why does life have to be centered around the knowledge that it will end?

I take a sort of comfort from films like Zardoz, but it also upsets me. Being nihilistic doesn't help more than being spiritualistic, animistic, buddhist, zen, whatever. Normally, I can distract myself and my life goes on and I don't worry too much about dying. But every now and then... Every now and then, I am the thought floating away, meaningless and never-was, never-will-be like the character at the end of The Mysterious Stranger.

Last night was one of those. And it was one of the worst. I was so upset, nothing stopped it; not holding myself or petting the cat (cat, whose mortality is more horrific every time I think about it. No, DON'T die! I don't want to be in the time where it might happen.) or trying to catch my breath. Danny woke up and wondered what was wrong. I was so upset I couldn't stop shaking or crying. I cried so much my face hurt, it was awful and stupid and for a while, even holding him didn't make it feel less awful. Someday, someday, I thought, someday I'll be old and you'll be old and mortality will linger. Will children banish the sense of mortality or will they exacerbate it? Would I want to have children, knowing someday they might feel the same way I did?

Then I finally cried myself out and could sleep, with the cat purring and Danny fallen asleep again but determinedly holding my hand, and I was glad that most of the time, I don't immediately and endlessly think about this, or I really would go crazy.

This morning on the way in to work, I called Danny and we talked as we were driving our separate ways.

Danny: I must have taken longer showering than I meant!
Dev: It took extra time getting all those tears out of your chest hair.
Danny: I'd forgotten about that. Are you okay?
Dev: I'm better now. I worry sometimes that it's crazy, to obsess over things like that. Maybe it is. Maybe I need help.
Danny: It probably makes you a better author. All the authors who count as 'literature' seem a bit obsessed with death.
Dev: Hah! Maybe so.

What I mean to say is, even though I have fear that it's a cruel thing to do, I wholly understand why people have children; and even though I think organized religion is weird and I don't like it very much, myself, I understand why they exist and why people find comfort in them.

I'll write another, less depressing post later. Right now I've got to focus on work I've been slow on today due to trying to get my marbles all in order.

Also, I want to affirm that I think you're all awesome, and I'm glad I live in a time that contains you.
dev_chieftain: (simon belmont)
Here is an article that everyone should read.

What is it about: Healthcare, family planning (that is to say, being allowed to plan your family instead of forced to allow someone else to do as they like), maternal mortality (that is, death because of pregnancy or attempted illegal abortions during pregnancy).

What is the TL;DR of this article?: Numbers prove that, like prohibition, anti-abortion activists are only putting us at risk by suggesting that abortion be stopped. In countries where abortion is legal, it is less common. In countries where it is not, it is often the only option for women who are denied access to contraceptives.

What is the secondary TL;DR?: Women cannot be given equal standing in a society that denies them the right to control how many children they have, and when they have them.

So make it up to me, now I'm kind of depressed about how shitty things are for women internationally!: I'm planning for a short Steampunk London (yes yes it's cliche, blah blah) game, and I need to decide on some Details!

1.) The game will be short enough that I plan to do a short comic of each session's events for the players to refer to. Should this comic be:

a) In color?
b) A specific length (short or long?)
c) available on just the journal(s), or also DeviantArt?

2.) The game will be a sandbox (In essence: A fully designed setting with all the NPCs, treasure, what not I expect could possibly come up already planned; I will give the players the map of London, the low-down, and they will decide what THEY want to do without any This is Your Mission nonsense from me. It is meant to be a silly, fun game). Should I...

a) Make the map a little like a pop-up book?
b) Make the map just flat, with tokens or whatever on top of it?
c) Give only a description, not the map, and let the players make their own map?

3.) Finally, if you'd like to contribute to the setting a little, comment with a person, place, or thing you think would be awesome to find in AU, Magic-is-Real! Steampunk London, and I will work it in!

Edit: Man, does anybody else hate cutesy speak with a passion? Sometimes I read internet stuff and I wonder if I'm alone in that. (From porn that talks of a woman's "clitty" to fandom squeeing over predictable 'ambiguously' gay nicknames in anime to discussion of Game of Thrones' end and whining about the 'cliffy' lasting forever...seriously, what? Am I weird for thinking this is, well, weird?)
dev_chieftain: (gulpo)
I have a new car.

It is a million times cooler and nicer than my old car, featuring such amazing functions as working windows and radio.

Oh, also: so much debt.
dev_chieftain: (ColdHardCash)
Earlier, Danny mentioned to me that Zak S of playing D&D with porn stars had posted in response to a poorly drawn, sexist comic marginalizing gamer girls as either fake (sexy gamer girls) or disgusting (smelly gamer girls obsessed with their games; ie, the lady nerd). Unrelated to my feelings on the comic in question (which summarily end at 'Oh, stereotyping. You know nothing, but you think you know everything!'), this got me to thinking about the Golarion RPG setting, past games I've played with the guys, and the way female characters get portrayed in general.

I recently made a footnote to a post explaining why I rarely play female characters in tabletop. The ugly reason is: I feel more comfortable playing dudes. I'm a lady myself, but I like the challenge of playing a dude. Am I buying into the social fallacy that unless I'm a dude I can have no agency? Maybe, which is what bugs me. So, I'm making the effort to play girls in upcoming games (Scarpur, the foul-tempered lady kobold; and then Aigua, the whimsical adventuring lady monk) who are specifically not the genre standard. They're not ugly, but they're not pretty. They're not young. I play old guys, why not play old girls? I figure I need to make an effort to change that, because I have a problem with it, which means I have a problem with me.

But I'm not the only one who has trouble portraying non-standard girls! So I think about it a lot. For example, let's talk about Golarion. I think the setting is pretty awesome. It's based around science and pseudoscience, with liberal borrowing from awesome speculative thought in the late 1800's and early 1900's; there's all sorts of neato nations and histories in the setting. I bought setting books for Pathfinder before the game was even out because I was curious about it.

There are also NPCs in this setting, with plot hooks just begging to be used. Danny recently started reading up on Golarion (which is awesome) and was telling me about some of the stuff he'd read last night, including an NPC with a very interesting backstory. She was brought back as an undead leader for a region, meant to control it; however, her organs were removed before she was revived, and anyone who's holding one of her organs can control her. Pretty creepy and awesome, right? Nothing about this is gender specific.

Oh, but also, she was a prostitute before she died.

Now it's certainly not Danny's fault, and I wouldn't be surprised if he just omitted that detail anyway, should he decide to run in Golarion and use this character, but really? She was brought back to life to run nations and she couldn't have been...a thief who was murdered for stealing? A mercenary who people respected and revered? A political leader? A poor farmer? A nobody seamstress or something? She's a prostitute. Really.

This is the first place that female NPCs get dragged, in a lot of situations, and it's not always the same people calling the shots, but it's treated like an acceptable job function that is just a natural part of being female by a lot of people in the tabletop world, and I don't really like it. If you say 'okay, so where are the male prostitutes?', most people laugh and think you're joking. Or hey, if you were to play a male prostitute, you'd still be a joke character by their definition, even if you played it seriously. Because men don't get defaulted to prostitution. Apparently, women don't come with marketable skills beyond 'sex for cash'. Men do, but women don't.

And that is bullshit.

I can think of plenty of situations where this has come up in games where I was playing alongside someone who thought it was totally reasonable to want to play a lady prostitute. Did it ever occur to them that they could have played a lady...something else? Or a male prostitute once in a while to even things out? I don't know. I assume that they didn't know or mean any harm because in most cases these are people I consider to be my friends and companions. I like them.

The one time I did play in a game with someone playing a male prostitute, he was a cat-boy ex-sex-slave, and he was played by a fellow lady at the table. He also was in a homoerotic relationship with the male leader of the party; that game was silly and fun, and I have really fond memories of it.

In a one-shot Vampire game, one of our players played a "business woman" Malkavian vampire who used her talents to make herself look sexy and human so she could fuck her way to the top. On top of this, she was subject to the Malkavian problem "generally clinically insane", so she wore a business suit but was actually just a prostitute who didn't know it.

In another game, one player who we ended up not inviting to the game wanted to play a Pathfinder Gnome lady. Except, he wanted her to be a prostitute after having been The Shit in her hometown (where here, 'The Shit' means 'Original Character Fiction levels of awesome'). Why? Because when she left her hometown, she left behind her fabulous wealth and friends, and needed to make money and get by somehow, so she fell back on her "talents". (For the record, one of the reasons he was not included in the game proper was this bad character concept; but it wasn't the only reason.)

In yet another game, the same player with the gnome decided he wanted to play a young woman who was extremely sexualized. He regularly informed us that his character had scratches all over again from having wild sex with her werewolf boyfriend, who was still in werewolf form when they did it. The worst of this character showed up when, during a dream sequence where we had to awaken to our true identities from pseudo-selves the dream had assigned us based on what it thought would make us happy, he informed us that his now-schoolgirl character 'just fucked the teachers when they called her to task at school' in the dream. When called on this, he informed us that he did so because that was just how girls get through high school. You can imagine how awkward it was for us all to be at the table with that statement hanging in the air.

I wish I could say that this player was always a jerk and write him off, but he is only this bad sometimes, and he does have other problems that exacerbate his issues. One of them, as you might imagine, is misogyny. As my friend, I do want to defend him, and to believe that he can improve. I know he's been better lately; in the current game he has even gracefully accepted being transformed (by accident!) into an ogre woman without making any nasty remarks. Still, as a woman, I'd like to see more positive female characters in tabletop, not less. These are all examples of players who I still play with by my own volition, so what I'm saying is, these aren't the worst: these are just 'the bad'. This idea that women, at the base of 'what do women do to get by', are prostitutes, bothers me a lot. Not least of all because I like sex, and think that liking sex shouldn't be something people consider remarkable anymore than they consider liking special kinds of foods remarkable.

So lady characters in general. I'm trying to take myself to task over playing male characters most of the time. For example, here's every female character I've ever actually played.

I started with Liz. She was stupid, but not sexualized. The joke was, she had once been a dog, but a magical accident turned her into a half human. She hated that, and wanted to become a dog again, to go back to when life had been simpler. The caveat was, she could only become more human and smarter.

Several years later, there was Mirzam. Finally, another girl! Mirzam was a young magician and favored daughter of a horsebreeding family in the Anima setting, with adoration for her stunted-growth friend Ariadne and her heart in the right place. How can I best describe Mirzam? She barely had any character at all. She was air-headed, and an air-themed magician. Literally.

Then Matachin. Matachin was a rude elf-druid from Sigil who didn't bathe and talked a foul streak a mile wide. Oh, and a pathological liar. The game was so short I unfortunately didn't have time to do much else with her.

Most recently, there was Sri, an ex-sailor turned slave Barbarian who was bought as a bodyguard by another PC at the start of the game, and ended up constantly bossing her mistress around. Sri was the oldest member of the party at thirty, and not particularly remarkable for her physical appearance. I feel like she was a step in the right direction for me with female character variety.

Now, I don't want to seem like I'm saying it's bad to play characters that are sexual ladies. Would it have been okay to be porny with these characters? Totally, yes. There's no reason I couldn't get porny about ANY of my characters. Even the old men. Or the weird little gnome things. Or my old lady kobold. Hawt hawt kobold on kobold action!

So long as it actually made sense for the character, I would be willing to mention their sexual proclivities and even have them come up. The whys and hows are simple: It's fun to play a guy or girl who sees a sexy vision, and totally falls for it. A large percentage of the monsters in D&D, for example, figure heavily around "seduce people to trick them: now eat them". Thus, should sexy funtimes be mentioned in D&D? Sure, if you and your players are comfortable with it. I just want to see sexy funtimes be an option, not an assumption, for what's part and parcel with a lady character. I'd like to think that a lot of folks out there agree.

Edit: Associated icon for this post now 15% more appropriate?
dev_chieftain: (tyrion)
Nervous about the test drive tonight. I want to walk in, find that the car is exactly what I was expecting, that the price has not skyrocketed, that the trade-in value of my old car is enough to knock out the cost of the warranty over BBV so there won't be issues with my loan-- basically, if everything goes well, I want to walk out of the dealership owning a new car that drives well, safely, efficiently, reliably. There's not really any good reason this shouldn't happen, but I worry anyway.

D&D last night was excellent, including such highlights as fighting a black pudding with a green slime! I'm behind on the summary, I know, but this car-buying nonsense has sort of gotten in the way of doing anything but worry about it for a few days. In the meantime, here's how the black pudding troubles went down:

[Llewain opens a secret door. Behind it is a massive black ooze! We shut it quickly, and Esra desperately tries to remember details about such creatures.]

Esra: Wait. Wait! I think-- creatures like that are known to dissolve metal, not just people. You shouldn't attack it with anything made of metal unless you want to lose it, and your armor--
Llewain: I've maces made of stone, then!
Denar (who has become Kelta, long story): Yes, and my weapon is made of shell.
Sabine: Well shiiiit.
[Llewain throws open the secret door again]
Llewain: Foul ooze! [he strikes it with a stone mace]
[It splits into two oozes.]
Esra: Oh, dear. Let's see if we can't stop this here.
[He polymorphs one of the two oozes into a canary, which then flies away. Sabine strikes the other. It splits.]
Iris: Confound it, Sabine!
Sabine: [innocently] What?

[Eventually we give up and run back out. We discover, down a not-secret corridor, a room of green slime, which is clinging to the ceiling.]

Llewain: Wait. I have an idea. The fire didn't kill the black ooze from before, but we've seen this slime at work before; anything it consumes is turned into more of it.
Esra: Oh! And as Sabine demonstrated for us before, that sort of slime is quite flammable.
Llewain: Exactly. You all hide down in the interment room, and I'll lead the black ooze into the green slime. On the far side of the room I'll leap through the door and once they've been consumed you can set alight the slime and it will be safe to cross.
Iris: ...Well, if you're sure.
Llewain: It ate my armor and I'm in tattered rags, I think I'm the best candidate.
Esra: About that-- [he unties his yellow sash] Here you go, if you like.
Llewain: Oh, thanks. [He ties it thoroughly as underpants.]
(Danny: And later Esra will be all *snifffffff* Mmm, Llewain
Dev: Pfft! No! You mean Asha. Esra will be like 'no thanks, you can keep it, I have more where that came from'!)
dev_chieftain: (chuckle)
I'm nervously excited about test driving what might be my new car tomorrow, and also, you know, fidgeting about trading in my old one, which I might be able to offer as a down payment to keep from having to dip into my checking account. That would be good, since, uh, since rent hasn't come out for the month yet, and I won't get paid till end of next week. But, well, it'll be okay. Hopefully. Probably.

Pfft, Dev, nobody cares about your fandom endeavors. )

CLAIRE is trading cute emails with a cute BOY and I am a meddlesome lout so that makes me all cheeky and excited for her. Hurrah! And also, D&D is tonight. I have the summary in progress, but have had such a ludicrously small amount of free time to write lately that it hasn't quite caught up to the end of stuff we did last week.

Last night we did the first session of the module where I'm playing the kobold druid, Scarpur; Danny is a crazy mohawked dwarf lady with filed teeth who is a cleric of...Talos?, while Derek is a half-orc who worships the Silver Light and tries to pass as human; Christian and this fellow named Dyrr are both Thri-kreen, while Greg is a Tiefling wizard, so we have a pretty weird party for it. What did we do? Well, we sassed gods, then got put in a boat in the middle of chaos and beat up some ghouls and demons. I was exhausted, having come straight from work, but it was fun!

Tonight shall be even more fun! Nothing against the module, but it is only a module. And nothing against Derek's house, but I have to admit being back in a "coffee table for D&D" situation made me want to cry a little. I do not love coffee tables too much. They're way less awesome than dining tables!
dev_chieftain: (rain)
In a potentially unwise, but entirely enjoyable financial move, I bid on Rose Lemberg's auction for a Book of Shapechangers that would be handmade and have images of an animal of my choice. And I was one of the five or six winners! Hurray!

Unlike the new car debacle, which entails longlasting debt and nailbiting, I have no regrets.

Edit: And re: Rush Limbaugh being a sexist jerk, "I was JUST JOKING, geez" is one of the oldest "fail to apologize" tactics in the book. I hope the rest of your sponsors feel the same way. Sheesh.

Edit edit: Relief: bank approved my loan. I will be in more debt, but I might actually have a reliable car. This seems like an acceptable trade.
dev_chieftain: (ColdHardCash)
1. Need a new car. )

Anyway. I have gone on long enough about my whiny problems. The short version is, my car is a hair from broken and I'm going to try to take out a bank loan to buy an actually new car. This is not my first choice, but anythin's better than crawlin'.

2. So last night, we watched the movie Rising Sun.

Pros:
-Sean Connery playing a character named John Connor is hilarious for at least two reasons I can think of.
-Wesley Snipes is fantastic as the lead, and gets to be Audience Self-Insert, rolling his eyes at all the weeaboo but also suspiciously adept at correctly pronouncing Japanese words-- much more so than Connery
-MAKO was in this! Yes yes yes! He is so wonderful. And also Harvey Cartel and Steve Buschemi.
-Unintentionally hilarious

Cons:
-Well, did you want to watch a woman get strangled to death? Oh, I'm sorry: seven more times? Hey, and while we're at it, did you want her death to be justified by the investigators as likely her own fault because she was into erotic asphyxiation?
-How about racism? Did you want a healthy dose of racism? Less, apparently, than was present in Crichton's book, but still: sweeping generalizations about how evil, scary, and weird the Japanese culture is. Did you want those? They're all over the place in here.
-The usual: It's a Crichton book! almost every character is a straw man.
-Conspiracy plots are still incredibly lazy

Basically, it was all right, but sometimes uncomfortable. )

My favorite, terrible sequence was probably:

Sean Connery: I am very, very okotte!
Japanese Lady: Pissed off.
Sean Connery: Yes, pissed off!
Danny: *laughing* He's not a native speaker, what the hell!

Edited to add: I don't feel like I got to the heart of what bothers me the most about the movie. There was no adequate explanation for why people decided to kill the woman in the first place, since they could still have blackmailed the senator even if he'd just been cheating on his wife, which was clearly what he was most anguished about. They had the footage of him cheating on her! They needed nothing more; so why kill her? The only explanation I can think of is that Crichton couldn't think of a good reason for the police to be brought in to investigate (thus introducing the main character) unless there was a homicide.

3. Qunari! )

4. So, on to tabletop RPGs: I ended up deciding to play Aigua, the monk, because she seems likely to fit well with Derek's Inquisitor (Brandtford Waynewright, but he probably is going to go by a nickname?), as well as Melissa's magus, maybe. The current plan is that we might have met before on a previous adventure or in a tavern once or twice, since all three of us have reason to have been through The Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy that the setting for the game boasts.

Edit: Okay, apparently only Christian's character, Ninja Girl The Nameless, matters. I've been set straight. ;) EDIT EDIT: I mean, Christian's character Merys! Double-set-straight! Oh, snap!

Damn it!

Friday, March 2nd, 2012 12:37 am
dev_chieftain: (simon belmont)
My car stalled earlier tonight in perfectly good weather while waiting for some jackass to pull through the gate to our parking lot; when I pulled my cell-phone out a minute ago something about the way it'd been jammed in my pocket had set it blinking some kind of cryptic panic sequence, only the near-useless buttons blinking, the screen dead. While I was able to pop open my phone, remove and re-insert the battery, close it up and plug it in to charge without incident, my car may have some kind of alternator issue, and it's due for an oil change anyway. Not to mention the continued window issue.

I'm really irritated that I just now might be able to start saving money again, and conveniently, less than three months after its last soiree into expensive town, my car wants to have cataclysmic failures at the mechanic again! Fucking shit!

I HATE cars.

"Vitalberry"

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 10:22 am
dev_chieftain: (Devpony)
This is a diatribe, but I am genuinely puzzled by this: I bought blueberries at the grocery store on Saturday since they were on sale and I am somewhat fond of them. However, upon closer inspection as I finish them off this morning, I've discovered that the little pint box says "vitalberry", with "blueberries/bleuets" underneath as a subscript. These are unusually tart blueberries, which is something I've enjoyed about them, so I'm now wondering if they might be some special kind of blueberry that is made to be tart or something. It could just be a marketing ploy. I will have to look it up. Edit: And just for the record, I mean that they're tart even after becoming ripe, not that they're unripe-tart!

Regrettably, my submission to Stone Telling was rejected; they were very nice and encouraging about future submissions to them, though, which was heartening.

D&D was pretty awesome last night. I'm behind on the summary thing, so I'll need to catch up at some point. It's just, when we could be playing Civ V, Danny and I tend to do something like that, or cook bread or something, you know, and then the summaries get put off and put off. It's hard to be as vigilant about it as I was with the Gwenn game, because it's so much easier to socialize and have fun in the current, smaller apartment.

Module Tonite!

Monday, February 27th, 2012 04:24 pm
dev_chieftain: (Default)
I'm stupid excited for this because I'll be playing a Druid in 4E, which is the only place I've played a druid before, but means I know I enjoy the gameplay as well as the roleplay side (assuming there's anything to roleplay).

Edited: Okay!

So I made a kobold druid named Scarpur, who's from the Dark Sun setting and hates so-called divine beings because they abandoned her planet. She's in her sixties and, well, let's just say she'll be scampering all over the battlefield, even if it doesn't do her a lick of good. Hurray!

In less awesome news, I seem to have a runny nose and feel a little weird. Hopefully I just need to sleep. I did end up taking my hair down because the bobby pins and tight braids were giving me the itchiest headache ever. So, now I have kinky hair like some kind of 80's thing.
dev_chieftain: (Default)
First and foremost, GUYS GUYS. I HAVE A FIC REC FOR YOU.

Only the Lonely, from the T-and-B anonmeme.

Why am I recommending it? Well, because it just finished, and because I was the requester, and because I love it dearly. More or less I was a cheeky jerk, challenging whoever filled it to make me like Karina and believe she could fall in love with Kotetsu and Barnaby in a believably romantic fashion. I was grouchy at the time, sick of fiction where Karina's attraction to Kotetsu was played straight for sex, or made fun of for laughs. I wanted to see her get a little more serious treatment as a character, like she almost but didn't quite get in the show. And I got to see it here! So I want to share the link with everybody.

Now, as for the weekend! There were ups, and downs, and then deeper downs, but the ups were so fantastic that I was fine with that.

Saturday: So, we hit up the zoo! Having been there the week prior, Dustin and I sort of trailed around behind Jenn and let her lead the way. We ended up seeing the Wetlands trail, which we'd skipped previously. This included some cool things, like the Andean bears (so, so cute!), and a small enclosure where they used to have Capy Baras. Instead, there are now all sorts of tropical birds, and tiny Mexican deer which were SO cute! We did end up seeing the Galapagos tortoises, which was awesome because they were actually moving-- chasing down their food.

We did buy some kettle corn while we were there, and were totally bad at one point when we sat down near the lemur island to get out of the sun. It wasn't our fault, though-- the crazy leaf-foot ducklike bird was so cool looking, we just couldn't help it! So I held out a single kernel of the corn, and he jumped right up and grabbed it out of my hand. Jenn and I were thoroughly amused for a couple minutes doing that before we noticed the big old sign telling us NOT to do that, EVEN HERE, and gosh, we were certainly jerks for not paying attention-- but cute birds! I should probably be a bit more guilty about that than I was. Anything that leads to Jenn giggling that much has to be a good thing!

When we grew tired, around 1, we decided to head out of the zoo and meet with Danny for lunch. Ultimately that lead to sending Dustin as a runner to pick up mochi from the store next door while Jenn and I got sandwiches and soup and salads for everyone. The end result: fucking delicious. But after that we all sort of lazed around; Danny had to go back to work, so I ended up making Jenn watch The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra with Dusty and I, which she was a good sport about. Dustin went home, looking pretty darn exhausted, and Danny, Jenn and I spent some time hanging out by the computers, debating about going to the grocery store. While we did, we caroused through some silly hilarious things saved from 4chan ages ago. Jenn directed me to a hilarious reading of a bad LOTR fanfic that had all three of us in stitches, and then finally we decided we probably ought to get around to hitting up the grocery store, adopting an 'everyone for themselves!' policy for dinner. It is Girlscout Cookie season, so I bought some on the way out.

This meant Jenn ate pickled herring, hot sauce and saltines, probably just to make Danny and I go "ewwww~!" (which we did); I had a frozen dinner of pasta, because I was very, very tired, but then Danny made chili cheese fries in a quantity big enough for me to have some, which was extremely tasty. Also: magnanimous of him. While we ate, Jenn expressed an interest in watching For a Few Dollars More, which made me smile very toothily. Just as planned!

After that, we were all too exhausted to keep going. I showered, and we all went to bed. Just as well! As...

Sunday: marked the Renaissance festival! We assembled with Dusty and Emma, and proceeded, making it to the Renfaire by around 10:30, and stayed till 6. It was good fun, and involved a lot of silliness. We caught an awesome bellydancing show, the Don Juan and Miguel Weird show (we seem to catch that one every time-- not my fault they're so awesome. This year Esmerelda talked and had her own little "I'm totally a dominatrix because I'm a girl with a whip; except for the part where my hilarious dad is way overprotective of me" bit which was SO CUTE), the last Tartanic show (at Emma's requirement-- shirtless sweaty Scotsmen are a necessary part of her RenFaire experience, you see). Also wandered through most, if not all, of the shops, including a neat used bookstore I don't think I'd ever seen before. We also did the maze, and Dustin was the only one who'd thought to bring cash so Danny and I let him sugar daddy us through the faire.

Treasures acquired: Dustin got himself an awesome wooden flute, which we all took turns trying to blow. You may assume lots of jokes were made about blowing Dustin's flute; you would be correct. Dustin also acquired a tiny catapult that was functional and flung marshmallows, which was EXCELLENT! Emma got a sexy black corset and a red shirt to go with it, as well as a clockwork brooch. (Apparently this is for a steampunk pirate thing.) And I got my hair braided all fancily. They put a dandelion in it, even, which was pretty cool, and both Dustin and Danny were awful sweet about how much they liked seeing my hair up, haha. Oh! And I finally got a traveler's sax, because I've only been staring wistfully at those for YEARS AND YEARS, haha!

I also put in an order for a corset with another store because they had some that I liked, but not in a color I wanted. So, might get one of those once they have it in.

We ran into good old Count Victor again, who taught Danny how to tie a noose, dubbed us minion names, and was generally such a gentleman charmer we couldn't help but be excited about it all over again. Oh! Oh and we tried the strength contest thing. I got to "cock", which is about halfway up, and then proceeded to bruise my hand really badly with increasingly poor swings, hahaha! Dustin also tried, and then Danny, who is the best sport ever, tried a few times and got almost to the bottom possible mark. He is fortunately quite goodnatured, and it certainly didn't hurt that we snagged some frozen lemonades after.

After the faire we had dinner with Jenn and then went our separate ways; Emma home, Dustin with Jenn to the airport, and me to work for the next four hours after until I finished the damn project I couldn't finish on Friday before I left. So, I'm exhausted today, but overall pretty decent. And my hair is still up, so my action hero coworker told me she thought it was cute, which was so totally worth it, hee hee!
dev_chieftain: (leonard roland)
Jenn is here! My cute darling Jenn, who is twice or three times as adorable as last time I saw her. HUGS. Lingering hugs. Possessive hugs. I am a bad woman, just so you know. And very greedy.

I worked just short of twelve hours today and we still weren't quite able to finish what we were doing, which was not only exhausting but depressing. Following that, I finally got to come home to my lovely harem (I'm just going to pretend while Jenn is here, so shut up already) and hug everyone and we went to Denny's for dinner because it was already eight by then, maybe later. So dark! But food was good, and then Danny drew comics of Gwenn and I showed Jenn Fistful of Dollars 'cause she'd never seen it before. We had a good laugh about the paint-for-blood, and how southern Spain in no way looks like the southwest US-- except when it does. Like the total Eastwood nerd I am I rambled on throughout the movie about all the neat little things I think are cool about it, like the actors all being of different nationalities, or how in the second movie this guy plays the villain who has opium dreams, or how that poncho is what ties it all together. We also agreed that Clint Eastwood is a serious badass. And maybe that he's very attractive on account of it.

Sometime after commenting on his very long legs, I noted sadly, "But sometimes I remember that he looks a lot like my dad, and unfortunately then he just looks like my dad." Even still, though, imagining your dad being a supercool gunslinger isn't all bad.

I think the best was the Rojo brother Esteban, whose dub actor has a hideous cackle that features prominently in scenes where the gangsters are beating up old men. Jenn dubbed him Sergeant Gigglefits, and we bid him adieu without regret when he finally got what was coming to him.

After that I supplied blankets and a makeshift pillow, since I forgot we don't have an extra to offer guests (we're both one-pillow people, I guess), in the form of an ultra-soft penguin plushie Dustin once got me for Christmas. Jenn made the most hilarious face, all cuddled up in my blanket with the penguin, and I fell over laughing.

It is good.
dev_chieftain: (leonard roland)
So oh man! I just remembered there was this adorable moment with the waitress when we hit up Applebee's after the zoo on Sunday!

You see, we had a party of six-- three couples, Bret and Dustin, Danny and myself, and Christian and Alicia-- anyway, Alicia, Bret and I were all wooed by the 'infinite soup and salad' deal, Bret because he is a vegetarian, me because HOLY CRAP TOMATO BASIL SOUP, and Alicia because she is fiscally wise. On the second round, the waitress showed up to find out what everybody was reordering:

Bret: Uh, I will try the tomato basil soup again, but with the house salad. Er, what're the dressings on those?
Waitress: Well! There's ranch, and blue cheese, and I-talian, and vinaigrette--
(I freeze up, thinking OHMYGOSHTOOCUTE, then catch Danny to my left stifling a giggle, and glance at Christian, who is grinning ear to ear. The order progresses, and after the waitress leaves I can't hold back anymore:)
Dev: I-talian!
Christian: I can't believe she actually said that! *laughing*
Danny: That was real? I thought I just imagined it!
Dev: I'm totally tipping her more for being cute.
Christian: At least she didn't make a joke about Angry Birds.

As for D&D summary, I wrote about half of it up and then got totally sidetracked with this work thing I have to do.

Exciting news: I received an invitation to work with an artist in Austria on a short comic project! I'm really looking forward to it! This came on the tail of an agreement with Danny to write a script treatment of the Gwenn-centric D&D game together and switch off illustrating it, so I'm mired happily in comic work at the moment; that, and editing already finished projects and sending them out. In the process of all that, I'm also picking up revisions of Berimbau's Letters, especially since it turns out certain personages on my friendlist are apparently running copy-editing businesses and, well, what better motivation to work on one's novel than a potential editor?

As for fandom, I still want to finish all of the fills I started for both T&B and Dragon Age (the Dragon Age ones have certainly been sitting long enough, eesh); but in the interest of ever getting other work done, I'm trying to cut back on that. No new fills (except those that I've been working on anyway) and only finishing one fill at a time, instead of expending all of my creative energy on fanfiction.

I'm fairly certain nobody much cares what I'm doing with regards to my fanfiction, but I sort of feel like I'll be more accountable to these rules if I note them here.

Also, I've been turning this over in my head for ages, but reviews of the Hairspray musical and subsequent musical-movie mentioned expressly that they thought that I Know Where I've Been was 'melodramatic' and that there were criticisms about the song being preachy and going over the same old stuff we've heard before, blah blah, and that Tracy, not Maybelle, should be singing the big number in the eleventh hour if anyone.

I basically love the number; sure, it's a bit melodramatic, but was anyone paying attention to the rest of Hairspray? Melodrama's sort of the name of the game here. And really, what right have the probably white critics to decide when we've heard enough about how hard a struggle it's been (and still is!) for black equality? Exactly none, says I!

And as for whether Tracy or Maybelle should sing it-- I really liked the sentiment of the makers of the musical, who stood by the number saying that it seemed to them that it's not diminishing to Tracy at all to let the characters whose cause she's championing actually be the ones speaking for themselves. Rock, rock on, you guys!

Also also also, since I'm doing comic stuff, I picked up the paneling I'd done for that short story about Leonard and Ibtesam in Aztec ruins somewhere in Peru, so I might even finish that while doing all this other stuff!
dev_chieftain: (red)
It goes something like this:

Step 1: I'm sick of books and short stories that don't represent women as being interesting enough to be main characters! I'm going to write something with a female main character. And while I'm at it, I'm pretty sick of heteronormative white-out crap, too!

Step 2: Okay but if I put everything on that character then it just feels like I'm trying to scream about social issues. I can make the entire SETTING more interesting. In fact, I have to, because if it's implied that my main character is unusual because she's a) a woman b) not white or c) not straight, then that implies that only SPECIAL PEOPLE are these things, and that's screwy too. (Edited to add: This doesn't even take into account the fact that I never, ever write romances if I can help it because I'm so so sick of them.)

Step 3: (usually about two weeks later) Whew! OKAY! I've written up complete treatment for the setting's social policies (or lack of distinction about them), named species of unusual plants and animals, planned out three or four cities and towns that the character can go to, and described the geography of the surrounding area. Time to write!

Step 4: (inevitably) oh my god I'm being preachy aren't I? Everyone hates preachy stuff! And is anything even happening in this story? I mean I know she's saving the world / rescuing the person(s) she loves / going on an adventure after a mysterious treasure / trying to clear her name of that crime she didn't commit / building the most incredible robot / exploring to try to bring fame and fortune to her hometown / just trying to get back home now that she's lost / just doing her best to stay alive in the middle of a war, but WHO CARES about that?

Step 5: WHAT AM I DOING

Step 6: Indefinite hiatus at whatever stage of completion the project has reached until I can convince myself anybody would ever care

And now you know!

I'm struggling with myself right now because I'm super-inspired, as Claire has finished Shadowstalkers, which is a book I saw the original draft for back in high school. SO I AM EXCITED but oh my goodness can I actually finish anything? Come ON, self.

Edit: And this is why I rarely play women in tabletop games:

Step 1: I'm going to play a girl this time!

Step 2: ...I'm less comfortable doing the horrible backstory thing to a lady than a dude. Uh, well, I could play like a kind of airheaded girl, that's fun!

Step 3: What does she look like? Hmm, well...I guess kind of young-- *societal conditioning kicks in* And PRETTY! I wouldn't want to be ugly, I-- *shakes head* FUCK!

Step 4: Fuck this, I'm playing an ugly old man.

(Step 5: In the next game, I am going to play an old woman with the coolest backstory ever, because I owe it to myself to start actually trying to do this, even if I enjoy crossplaying like whoa.)

Edit: This merits actually editing the post over: Aubrey pointed out that I was being a dickweed about the backstory thing, and she's totally right. My problem is, I have a hard time feeling comfortable with playing a woman that defies the stereotypical Girl In Movies character-- and I don't like that about myself. Sri was a big step towards getting over that in a situation where I actually played the character (It's worth noting that I've got characters like Ermeridane and Matachin, but they haven't really seen the light of day). Anyway, my apologies if the above looks like I'm saying girls can't have awesome backstories. I'm saying the opposite: they totally can, and I feel like I need to make efforts to show how awesome girls can be by playing them more instead of hiding in my cozy crossplaying corner.
dev_chieftain: (risha)
This last weekend was great fun. As it was Danny's birthday we spent much of it doing the Danny Favorites; we went to the zoo with friends (which was awesome!), we played a ton of Civilization V, and we watched some movies, including National Treasure 2 and finally finding and re-watching The Phantom Menace. The former was fun, and aside from the "romantic" subplots I enjoyed it. The relationship between Nicholas Cage's and Diane Kruger's characters was pretty much the kind of relationship I totally hate seeing in films, because as friends they totally work, but because it was a movie they had to get back together at the end, even though they'd pretty thoroughly proved that outside of life-or-death adventure situations, they couldn't stand each other and were no good for each other romantically. (Not to mention there was a romantic subplot about an identical relationship between Nicholas Cage's character's father and estranged wife getting back together for the exact same reason.) The movie was considerably less enjoyable for me than it might have been because so much of it was spent listening to the male characters harp at the female characters. Like, really, an enjoyable movie for me generally involves less vindictive bitching on part of all parties.

As for Phantom Menace, it's still terrible, but it's way less terrible than Revenge of the Sith, which most of us still agree is less terrible than Attack of the Clones. It's hard to tell if Liam Neeson's reticence is our imagination, knowing he didn't want to be in the film after seeing the script, or just the way he decided to play the character. Overall, aside from the fact that the plot makes no damn sense, it is the best of those three, and while Jar Jar is totally still annoying, he's not as bad as "I HAVE THE HIGH GROUND".

I had never really given much thought to HOW hare-brained Qwi Gon Jinn's antics are, but by the end of the film I half thought he ought to secretly be a Sith. Not that I of all people have any problem with the "haggard old cop who's seen too much in the line of fire" stereotype, but it did make him a kind of strange Jedi.

Episode I also has the distinguishing privilege of still using Yoda-the-puppet instead of only Yoda-the-CGI. The big question we were left with in the end was, why is Boss Nass in charge of the Gungans? He clearly isn't one. Dustin suggested he must be a Hobgungan, which is as good an explanation as any, really!

The zoo trip was especially fun. We brought along Dusty, Bret, Christian and Alicia, and we did manage to make it there pretty early. The cool thing about going to the zoo early in the day is definitely that you get to see a lot of the animals who usually aren't around, given the weather here, by mid-afternoon. Notable things included cheetahs snuggling and playing together, prairie dogs doing all kinds of weird things-- from cute little bark-jumps to one trying for five or six minutes to shove his butt into another's face while it continued to evade him (Dustin: That must be the Bitch Puddin' prairie dog. Danny: What's this smell like? Huh? What's this smell like?) to rolling around in the dirt to get dry after a mysterious bath-- and Dik-diks being super adorable and dashing and jumping around. Christian also did vile things to the Oryx statue next to the Oryx pen, which we even took a picture of for posterity; and on the way out, it was warm enough that the turtles had made an appearance, sunning themselves on the logs below the bridge in. They were the cutest of all! But yes, that was a nice outing.

Tonight, D&D will continue. I need to check to see if I finished last week's summary, hmm.
dev_chieftain: (Devpony)
Have I mentioned that I am in a polyamorous relationship on the journal? I don't think I have. I have told a couple of people privately? I don't remember! Well, now the rest of you know: I am polyamorous, and I wasn't kidding when I said I love you all, even if you just want the platonic love. Better than that, Danny and I had a long talk a couple months back and that led to the current situation, which is that both Danny and Dustin are my cute sexy harem, and if I meet any cute girls or boys in the future that also are comfortable with it I might add them to the mix.

I mention this partially because it seems appropriate, being Valentine's and all, but also partially because I'm trying to decide whether the best way to tell my parents is over the phone right now (so I can relate a hilarious story about Dustin being cutely shy about a hickey I gave him) or the next time I see them in person (which might not be for a little bit). Dilemmas!

As for the rest, it is D&Day, which I am looking forward to! It is also Valentine's, which meant office party/bash for a girl who's getting married soon here, and free fruit! ...and cake, I guess, but the fruit was just fruit, and the cake had chocolate, sooo. And it's Arizona's birthday! Go you, my sneaky forefolk!

Edited:


To add a valentine to you all!
dev_chieftain: (opinions)
1. This article about tax policies pretty handily summarized my concerns with the proposed policies of the Republican candidates still considered to be part of the race.

TL;DR: The reason the US is currently in an economic downturn, with a high unemployment rate, is heavily related to the fact that taxes are at a 60-year low. Further lowering them increases the risk of poor job security AND will benefit the rich, not the poor.

2. Play A Tale in the Desert! Holy crap! It is so awesome! Patrick picked it up (apparently after a ten-year break from it) after I spazzed to him that Danny and I were playing it last night, and he has a very accurate summary:

Patrick: It has all my favourite bits of an MMO (crafting) without all the pointless background (everything except crafting)!

3. It is Danny's birthday later this week! Birthday shenanigans are a must.

And most importantly, 4: Really looking forward to D&D tomorrow! We shall learn dream mastery from the mysterious old woman, if we can find her!
dev_chieftain: (farron)
Also, not to spam you guys, but my news feed threw me multiple articles rehashing the same complaints about the current administration's bid to require that birth control medications be provided even by religious charities.

A lot of "religiously affiliated" persons are speaking out against this, claiming that it impinges on their religious freedoms.

To that I say, sorry guys. Your "religious freedoms" are infringing on the personal freedoms of the women you seek to oppress. You wrongly educate people to believe fallacies so that they will continue to be a part of your religion. You actively lie in an attempt to further a personal agenda. You know why you are so quick to accuse everyone else of having agendas? It is because you know full well of your own.

I've heard lies taught to children such as 'pot will make you infertile, or make your children gay.' Not only untrue, but what's wrong with being gay? Why is being gay held up as a threat?

I've also seen plenty of religious opposition to abortion. Okay, anti-abortionists. What are you proposing we do for all these children we are going to keep, then? Are you going to pay, out of pocket, to help these women to support the children you insist on bringing into the world?

No, you victimize the women by claiming that they should have been more responsible about becoming pregnant.

How are they meant to be more responsible about it when you:

-deny that being raped is a crime committed by the rapist, and blame the women who are raped and impregnated with such excuses as 'she shouldn't have dressed or acted like that'

-deny children education in contraceptive procedures that would at least have kept them from getting pregnant until they were ready

-deny contraceptive devices that are primarily designed to protect the health of the individuals using them (such as condoms, which are the number 1 best way to prevent STDs, or birth control pills, which are often used to regulate menstrual cycles that are cripplingly painful, or even to treat conditions that are medicated by hormonal regulation)

I'm sick of hearing the opinions of these religious parties who claim to be oppressed by the government's effort to provide fair and equal health care to the entire nation. I am not in charge of the US, and between being female and holding the opinions I do, I sincerely doubt I ever will be. But if I was, my first order of business would be separating church and state properly, like they are supposed to be; prioritizing the health and safety of the majority of my people, not the minority; and most importantly, keeping in mind that any life I insist be brought into this world be one I make efforts to care for, support, and cherish.

If you want to be pro-life, you'd better plan to be responsible for THAT choice.

Edited to add: The thing that bugs me the most is probably the Victorian-era anti-sex mentality that is harbored here; by making sexual things forbidden, you only make them more desirable to the people you are forbidding them to. Remember prohibition and how well that worked out?

disturbing thought

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 03:02 pm
dev_chieftain: (Default)
I can't remember every lyric to the songs I wrote.

I need to find my book with all the lyrics and chord progressions in it. Oh, try-hard little Dev with your dreams of being a musician!

So, spontaneously, a music meme! A variant of one.

Rules A: Guess the song from the lyric line posted
Rules B: Or, alternatively, write the lyric line you think would best follow the one posted.


1. A summer Sunday when you went insane; you said you're going but I said I came
2. Out of sight in the night, out of sight in the day
3. 'Cause no one's gonna catch you if you can't just let go. No one's gonna love you if you can't let love show - End Love, Ok Go (guessed by Rex-Sun)
4. I can't stop crying, and so in my own tears I'm gonna drown
5. Make believe I'm everywhere, living in the lines - Never Ending Story, Limahl (guessed by Uftaki)
6. Transmit the message to the receiver, hope for an answer some day; I got three passports, couple of visas, don't even know my real name
7. And I'm lost in the window; and I hide on the stairway, and I hang in the curtain, and I sleep in your hat.
8. Them dogs'll lay down and play dead, if you've got the bones, if you've got the bread
9. Yeah, I heard the duck sayin' to the drake, there ain't no crawdads in this lake
10. I didn't see it comin’, creepin’ up from behind; I was almost swallowed whole by the thrill of the fight
dev_chieftain: (ColdHardCash)
It is extremely strange to feel such a conflicting set of emotions about a vacation!

I had fun! But I also was horrified. I was excited to be someplace new! I am overwhelmed by how glad I am to be back where I always have been, once again. I can definitely say without any doubt that I would never, ever want to live on the eastern coast of the US. I could see myself living anywhere along the west coast, but between Baltimore and Florida, I have no desire to ever abandon the west again.

Last night we each did our taxes (I started because Danny had just finished his, and I realized I'd be a lot happier not worrying about it if I just took care of it right now); I'm hoping to use my return to pay off half of my credit card so that the only remaining source of debt I need to worry about will be the student loans.

Also, since the vacation's over, the great job hunt can begin.

Only trouble is, apparently my phone bill for some reason got screwy with the automatic payments this month. I have no idea why, so I'm going to try to fix it as soon as I can, but until that's taken care of there's of course the concern that my phone might stop working. That would be problematic!

Oh, and I don't think I mentioned it, so if I did, my apologies for being repetitive-- I was so exhausted the other day that I knocked my left mirror off when trying to pull out of the lot to go to the grocery store. For now, it's held in place with super glue and shoelaces. But I probably ought to get that, and the goddamn window, fixed. Hrrm.

Get down, get down!

Saturday, February 4th, 2012 10:37 pm
dev_chieftain: (Default)
We are back! We were back earlier today, but so very out of it. Actually, I still am, but! Yes. Things occurred!

Disneyworld was explored thoroughly. Highlights include EPCOT's super amazing and cool Kim Possible Secret Agent treasure hunt attraction, where you can pick up missions that send you around the world to help Kim and Ron save the day; the shows going on in the Africa portion of Animal Kingdom, which grab random participants for dancing to sabar-like drumbeats (according to Danny, I Dick van Dyke'd my way into the one I leapt into-- all I know is, I love dancing and it was fun!); the Lion King Tribute musical attraction at Animal Kingdom; revamped Star Tours in Hollywood Studios; the Muppets 3D, also there; and the ferry boat out to Magic Kingdom, which was pretty much the coolest thing ever. We also saw the Carousel of Progress, which had a super catchy song I'll never be able to forget, now, mwahaha!

We built light-sabers, had fun, and are super relieved to be back where the weather is dry and the roads are toll-free and shaped like a grid, as things ought to be. Granted, I've been told we're the weird ones, but I like our orderly grid streets! So easy to navigate.

Cid is here! And seemed happy to see us. We definitely missed her, and her cute kitty adorableness.

Also, Dustin is here, and happy to see us! He politely picked us up, and hung out with us for hours and hours after we arrived. For some reason, Matthew Woodring Stover's absolutely incredible novelization of Episode III motivated us to purchase a copy of the movie used from F.Y.E. and rewatch it, as none of us could remember how much of the awesomeness there contained was the fault of the movie itself, and how much was just plain Stover.

Meeting more of Danny's family was fun, and included interactions with a tiny version of Christian, with whom I readily bantered with a huge grin on my face.

So glad to be home! Now I can look forward to D&D on Tuesday. And my hair will be marginally less frizzy! Humidity does weird things to my hair. Mostly, it gets curly and huge. HUGE.

away!

Sunday, January 29th, 2012 12:14 am
dev_chieftain: (totallyrad)
Off we go!

Excellent thing to see right before leaving: the latest ponies! I missed the two before, but this was a good one, and Applejack got to be rad! I liked it very much.

Here are the world's best Disco Dancers of 1979, being sexy, awesome, and international! Colombia girl is probably my favorite outfit, but hot damn, they're all so cool!

The 70's was ALL LEG, apparently. I love these videos. Swagger!

Edit: oh god ahhh when we renewed the lease earlier today, the desk guy mentioned bed bugs, so now I'm researching them and worrying about whether we somehow might have them because the words "epidemic" and "bedbugs" were uttered, even though he's probably totally full of crap. BLAH.

Also, having showered (also, our water got turned off? For no reason we could discern? It came back around 9, but my shower was still gross and unusually calciumy, plus the water kept not being sure if wanted to come out)-- now I'm putting music I haven't heard in a while on my mix CD, and came across the awesome Mix CD Christine made me ages ago. Now I'm super, super nostalgic and full of regret because I miss Christine like crazy. I actually keep thinking about calling her but I worry I'll mess up her schedule and my MP3 player is only 1GB so it's too tiny to fit this on without finagling it somehow. FLAILING.
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