Thursday, June 11, 2009
Ownership
I was handed the keys of our new condo today around 4pm. We are now officially house owners. We've also sold our souls to "the man" for the next 30 years. Its a nice place though. Don't know if its worth 2 souls but it IS nice.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sakura-con 2009
Another Sakura-con has come and gone in one hectic weekend. Sadly we were lacking in the camera department so the wonders and horrors will be relegated to story only.
It was a wonderful con but I didn't visit nearly as many panels as I did last year. There simply weren't as many that really interested me so I ended up spending a good amount of time in the AMV room, in several of the Anime theaters, and of course the Seller's Hall. And what a seller's hall it was. It keeps getting better and better and bigger and bigger each year. Daphne spent her time jumping from booth to booth picking up pieces for her first cosplay costume which will be from the popular webcomic "Girl Genius". I, on the other hand, kept getting drawn back to one particular booth. My brother and I completely geeked out when we found this booth for it was none other then a custom Lego booth. Much time was spent drooling over custom lego bodies and gear and talking up the guy manning the station. And in the end money was spent...but not nearly enough to quench my resurrected thirst for the little plastic toys.
This was my brother's first con and I must say he seemed to enjoy it greatly. I think that he, like Laura and I, would have had even more fun if we'd been cosplaying. We aim to have at least one cosplay outfit for each of us next year. Oh yes...we're already planning for next year. I look forward to it.
It was a wonderful con but I didn't visit nearly as many panels as I did last year. There simply weren't as many that really interested me so I ended up spending a good amount of time in the AMV room, in several of the Anime theaters, and of course the Seller's Hall. And what a seller's hall it was. It keeps getting better and better and bigger and bigger each year. Daphne spent her time jumping from booth to booth picking up pieces for her first cosplay costume which will be from the popular webcomic "Girl Genius". I, on the other hand, kept getting drawn back to one particular booth. My brother and I completely geeked out when we found this booth for it was none other then a custom Lego booth. Much time was spent drooling over custom lego bodies and gear and talking up the guy manning the station. And in the end money was spent...but not nearly enough to quench my resurrected thirst for the little plastic toys.
This was my brother's first con and I must say he seemed to enjoy it greatly. I think that he, like Laura and I, would have had even more fun if we'd been cosplaying. We aim to have at least one cosplay outfit for each of us next year. Oh yes...we're already planning for next year. I look forward to it.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
The Sadness of Dreams
The following is something I wrote this morning after waking up from a very vivid and mildly disturbing dream. I've done this several times before when a particularly interesting or moving dream occurs and stays with me once I wake up. Its not quite a dream journal since there are so few entries but its similar. This is also the first time i've shared one of these types of dreams.
Dream Report
Night of March 7/8, 2009
This was the last in a string of death related dreams this night and the only one I can remember fully.
As usual it was full of dualities. I felt like I was a Uboat captain and death at the same time. I also found my target, an aging cross channel ferry packed full of what looked like non-combatants, on both sea and land(as if it was nothing more then a large party house). (Imagine a paddle-wheeler from the mississippi that was both a boat and a large house.)
It was night. I stalked the ship. I remember stalking it from afar as a Uboat but once I got near I switched to stalking through the garden that surrounded and lead up to the house/boat. Suddenly I felt I’d been discovered in the garden. I turned to find a cat looking at me from a bush. I pulled out a pistol, which was also my finger, and tried to shoot the cat. I missed but scared it away.
I waited till the people on board were asleep in their hammocks and beds before surfacing. I pulled out a water pistol(of all things) and tried to sink the boat by spraying the sides. I think I imagined it to be acid or watery laser fire. In any case it did nothing so I submerged and shot three torpedoes at the ship from close range. They struck the forward portion of the ship. Everything but a large section of the aft end was blown to pieces. The remaining section was full of people who were suddenly awake. They scurried around for a moment or two before the section dipped beneath the waves and took them with it.
With nothing but pieces of flotsam left on the calm sea I transferred back to the garden scene to find the house in shambles; burnt, partly destroyed, and abandoned. The cat reappeared and I chased it down to kill it. I don’t know why I did this now that the ship was gone. Perhaps I didn’t want to leave any survivors that could tell of the kill.
I cornered the cat and shot it dead with my finger gun. Its very solid spirit stuck around after I “killed” the cat. I asked the cat its name and she answered that the people on the ship had had a name for her but she couldn’t quite remember it. We worked on it for a few minutes. After some guessing we figured out that she’d been called “Gotcha” since that’s what the people on board had said when they’d managed to catch her.
I asked Gotcha if she wanted to come with me. She declined saying that her friends(here she looked at the ruins of the ship/house) might come back. That she might be needed. I got the very distinct impression that she thought of herself as a medic or doctor for the humans. She would aid them and care for them by being cute and cuddly...the stress relief and happiness giver. She said something about repeat customers and them coming back. I felt touched by this and asked her if she wanted to go with them. She seemed to smile and said, “Yes that may be for the best.” So I sent her off to be with the souls I’d killed. I don’t know if it was heaven or simply a holding place. I then slipped off into the night and promptly woke up.
I woke distinctly saddened and unhappy with my actions in the dream and felt a need, almost, to repent for what I’d done. Our cat was curled up against my legs under the covers. I felt I needed to apologize and be nice to her so that’s what I’ve been doing since I got up.
Side note: I hate Blogger's formatting. I really sucks.
Dream Report
Night of March 7/8, 2009
This was the last in a string of death related dreams this night and the only one I can remember fully.
As usual it was full of dualities. I felt like I was a Uboat captain and death at the same time. I also found my target, an aging cross channel ferry packed full of what looked like non-combatants, on both sea and land(as if it was nothing more then a large party house). (Imagine a paddle-wheeler from the mississippi that was both a boat and a large house.)
It was night. I stalked the ship. I remember stalking it from afar as a Uboat but once I got near I switched to stalking through the garden that surrounded and lead up to the house/boat. Suddenly I felt I’d been discovered in the garden. I turned to find a cat looking at me from a bush. I pulled out a pistol, which was also my finger, and tried to shoot the cat. I missed but scared it away.
I waited till the people on board were asleep in their hammocks and beds before surfacing. I pulled out a water pistol(of all things) and tried to sink the boat by spraying the sides. I think I imagined it to be acid or watery laser fire. In any case it did nothing so I submerged and shot three torpedoes at the ship from close range. They struck the forward portion of the ship. Everything but a large section of the aft end was blown to pieces. The remaining section was full of people who were suddenly awake. They scurried around for a moment or two before the section dipped beneath the waves and took them with it.
With nothing but pieces of flotsam left on the calm sea I transferred back to the garden scene to find the house in shambles; burnt, partly destroyed, and abandoned. The cat reappeared and I chased it down to kill it. I don’t know why I did this now that the ship was gone. Perhaps I didn’t want to leave any survivors that could tell of the kill.
I cornered the cat and shot it dead with my finger gun. Its very solid spirit stuck around after I “killed” the cat. I asked the cat its name and she answered that the people on the ship had had a name for her but she couldn’t quite remember it. We worked on it for a few minutes. After some guessing we figured out that she’d been called “Gotcha” since that’s what the people on board had said when they’d managed to catch her.
I asked Gotcha if she wanted to come with me. She declined saying that her friends(here she looked at the ruins of the ship/house) might come back. That she might be needed. I got the very distinct impression that she thought of herself as a medic or doctor for the humans. She would aid them and care for them by being cute and cuddly...the stress relief and happiness giver. She said something about repeat customers and them coming back. I felt touched by this and asked her if she wanted to go with them. She seemed to smile and said, “Yes that may be for the best.” So I sent her off to be with the souls I’d killed. I don’t know if it was heaven or simply a holding place. I then slipped off into the night and promptly woke up.
I woke distinctly saddened and unhappy with my actions in the dream and felt a need, almost, to repent for what I’d done. Our cat was curled up against my legs under the covers. I felt I needed to apologize and be nice to her so that’s what I’ve been doing since I got up.
Side note: I hate Blogger's formatting. I really sucks.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Thoughts on Being Evil
An open letter to my victi...er players,
As we discussed the other night... Now that you're moderately familiar with game play we as a group can take our games a step or two further. Using the same world we would be creating new characters at level six for an evil campaign that takes place around the same time as our original campaign. An evil campaign seems to be just the sort of thing this group would get a kick out of...especially you Rali. Not only are you able to bend or break the rules of society even more then before but you're able to do all of the whacky things only people of loose morals can do. Someone tick you off? Sure...stab him in the back. Wanna seduce your way up to the local lord and then kill him after learning all his secrets? Go right ahead sexy. Wanna turn a tavern full of drunk people into a raging mob and have them storm the local guard tower so you can slip in during the chaos to steal some top secret documents? Feel free...they're only mindless sheep anyway.
And since we're interested in doing that why not make it even more fun by having you create Gestalt characters? I've mentioned the idea before but you've probably forgotten. To reacquaint you with the idea go to d20srd.org, scroll down to the variant rules section and click on the "classes" link, then pan right and down to the small "Gestalt" section. Basically its two characters in one body that take the best of both classes.
Now i'll go over ideas for each of your characters based on what you've shown an interest in so far and on what I think you'd enjoy.
Widge: You took an interest in the Bard class...specifically the scary "Harbinger" alternate class. You want to demoralize your foes with scary music and emo poetry(with perhaps a bit of dancing thrown in as well) while still being able to fight decently and cast some cool spells.
Suggestion: A Death Touched (undead somewhere in your family tree which gives you nice charisma bonuses) Harbinger combined with a Hexblade (a fighter which curses his opponents in combat and has a very small spell selection). This gives you all of the class features for both. You get a d10 hit die instead of the Bard's d6 which means more hit points. You get better attack power, two relatively small spell lists, all simple and martial weapons, and good saves all around.
Rali: You want to put together your first character's resurrected one way love interest. Warlock was your initial interest.
Suggestion: A Human (since your druid is human) Fire Blooded (A template that turns your character into a charismatic leader type) Warlock/Paladin or Warlock/Cleric. He was a relatively good guy before his death and resurrection correct? My image of him is that of a courageous Paladin or Cleric. Then he died and was resurrected and turned evil correct? Going evil would completely change his Paladin or Cleric class and turn it evil. I also imagine the warlock would be added on by your evil god after his resurrection to give him additional power and mark him as that god's property. This gives you the Warlock's evil power feel in addition to the corrupted good guy look. You'd be a powerhouse and damage dealer and pretty scary to boot. Limited spell/power options but interesting and flavorful.
Daphne: You really like your charismatic rogue seductress so you would be the person changed the least.
Suggestion: A Changeling (someone who can morph their body to look like any race around your size) Fire Blooded (see Rali's character) Rogue/Beguiler or Swashbuckler/Beguiler. The Rogue you know. Beguiler is like a spellcasting rogue that deals mainly with illusions and enchantments. Bend people to your will or confuse the heck out of them. I suggest Swashbuckler since you seem to like that dashing type and because they have the "Seduction" class feature that I told you about a while back. You're moderately tough, can screw with people's minds, steal all you want, and be dead sexy at the same time.
All of these are suggestions. Feel free to comment on them or ask me questions. They are by no means set in stone. When we get together again we can work on it further. I just needed to let you know which direction I was leaning in for your characters.
As we discussed the other night... Now that you're moderately familiar with game play we as a group can take our games a step or two further. Using the same world we would be creating new characters at level six for an evil campaign that takes place around the same time as our original campaign. An evil campaign seems to be just the sort of thing this group would get a kick out of...especially you Rali. Not only are you able to bend or break the rules of society even more then before but you're able to do all of the whacky things only people of loose morals can do. Someone tick you off? Sure...stab him in the back. Wanna seduce your way up to the local lord and then kill him after learning all his secrets? Go right ahead sexy. Wanna turn a tavern full of drunk people into a raging mob and have them storm the local guard tower so you can slip in during the chaos to steal some top secret documents? Feel free...they're only mindless sheep anyway.
And since we're interested in doing that why not make it even more fun by having you create Gestalt characters? I've mentioned the idea before but you've probably forgotten. To reacquaint you with the idea go to d20srd.org, scroll down to the variant rules section and click on the "classes" link, then pan right and down to the small "Gestalt" section. Basically its two characters in one body that take the best of both classes.
Now i'll go over ideas for each of your characters based on what you've shown an interest in so far and on what I think you'd enjoy.
Widge: You took an interest in the Bard class...specifically the scary "Harbinger" alternate class. You want to demoralize your foes with scary music and emo poetry(with perhaps a bit of dancing thrown in as well) while still being able to fight decently and cast some cool spells.
Suggestion: A Death Touched (undead somewhere in your family tree which gives you nice charisma bonuses) Harbinger combined with a Hexblade (a fighter which curses his opponents in combat and has a very small spell selection). This gives you all of the class features for both. You get a d10 hit die instead of the Bard's d6 which means more hit points. You get better attack power, two relatively small spell lists, all simple and martial weapons, and good saves all around.
Rali: You want to put together your first character's resurrected one way love interest. Warlock was your initial interest.
Suggestion: A Human (since your druid is human) Fire Blooded (A template that turns your character into a charismatic leader type) Warlock/Paladin or Warlock/Cleric. He was a relatively good guy before his death and resurrection correct? My image of him is that of a courageous Paladin or Cleric. Then he died and was resurrected and turned evil correct? Going evil would completely change his Paladin or Cleric class and turn it evil. I also imagine the warlock would be added on by your evil god after his resurrection to give him additional power and mark him as that god's property. This gives you the Warlock's evil power feel in addition to the corrupted good guy look. You'd be a powerhouse and damage dealer and pretty scary to boot. Limited spell/power options but interesting and flavorful.
Daphne: You really like your charismatic rogue seductress so you would be the person changed the least.
Suggestion: A Changeling (someone who can morph their body to look like any race around your size) Fire Blooded (see Rali's character) Rogue/Beguiler or Swashbuckler/Beguiler. The Rogue you know. Beguiler is like a spellcasting rogue that deals mainly with illusions and enchantments. Bend people to your will or confuse the heck out of them. I suggest Swashbuckler since you seem to like that dashing type and because they have the "Seduction" class feature that I told you about a while back. You're moderately tough, can screw with people's minds, steal all you want, and be dead sexy at the same time.
All of these are suggestions. Feel free to comment on them or ask me questions. They are by no means set in stone. When we get together again we can work on it further. I just needed to let you know which direction I was leaning in for your characters.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Picturetastic
These are only a few of my personal favorites. And since little sis gave us 175 in total I think i'll just stick to the ones that are actually good or funny.
Ok so that last one is neither good nor funny. Well ok a little funny but only because of Ande. Something about each picture I'm in here, aside from the group shot, makes me want to avoid pictures for all eternity. Or at least any time i'm forced into a kilt. Have I told you how evil you are Avi? No? You're evil. There...i've said it.
Ok so that last one is neither good nor funny. Well ok a little funny but only because of Ande. Something about each picture I'm in here, aside from the group shot, makes me want to avoid pictures for all eternity. Or at least any time i'm forced into a kilt. Have I told you how evil you are Avi? No? You're evil. There...i've said it.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
