Previously, in Trip's Life...
31 December 2008 - Wednesday
Gaming: Extra bonus D&D4 with Rachel, Jeremy, and
Dave! They found the elemental fire node and sealed it, which involved
getting lit on fire a lot, but not as much as they feared. Some loot was
obtained, and also many experience points.
Food: Fondue! Earl and Cat lured us(ADKMT) over for
cheese fondue and other cheese fondue and chocolate fondue and midnight!
There was also a lot of conversation, and some oppressing of the
kitties. Earl and Cat have watched Ergo Proxy, so they were
able to geek about it with Marith, which happied her.
Silly Computer Games: Not too much!
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: FAIL.
Make a comment!
30 December 2008 - Tuesday
Work: Resumes sent out: 3.
Gaming: Map-drawingu map-drawingu la la la!
Visual Entertainments: Neil is still doing stuff to
his relatives or in-laws or something, but we had anime without him.
- Rose of Versailles 16-17: Why yes, aristocracy
does suck.
- Kashimashi 9: But now can they extend this insight to
the actual plot?
- Gurren Lagann 20-21: Yay mostly-naked prison brawl! Yay
Yoko!
- Simoun 21: Huh. I wonder what that is going to
lead to.
Silly Computer Games: Yep.
Cats:
Twelve very oppressed paws!
Writing: FAIL.
Make a comment!
29 December 2008 - Monday
Work: Resumes sent out today: 3.
Visual Entertainments: Half a disc of
Ultramaniacs, because GreenCine is still not sending me the
stuff that's at the head of my queue. Bah.
Food: Check.
Silly Computer Games: Yep.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: An actual check! In quantity, at least, if
not quality.
Make a comment!
28 December 2008 - Sunday
Gaming: Ken got many exotic germs for Christmas, so
once again there is no Thrace. Sniff!
Food: Check.
Silly Computer Games: Blargh.
Cats:
Twelve fuzzy paws in a sunbeam!
Writing: Kinda kinda.
Make a comment!
27 December 2008 - Saturday
Work: Bah, the site I'm supposed to use to convince
Unemployment that I'm looking for work is being uncooperative. Bah, I
say.
Gaming: Maybe something like: Build your power,
paying a nominal cost for an attack of up to whatever the campaign
damage limit is and optionally more for additional effects (affect more
targets, give target a status, whatever), and then
multiply the cost by 2 for an encounter power and 5 for an at-will
power. Possibly there should be limits on how many additional effects
each kind of power can have.
That's just attack powers, but something similar could work for
utility powers.
After reading Outliers, I want
to make use of how the benefits of higher Int for getting high skills level
off at a surprisingly low level, but I'm not sure how to do that.
Food: I am a bad parasite who ate out, but I spent
less than twelve bucks (counting tip).
Silly Computer Games: Blargh.
Cats:
Ayse has not complained about the condition in which she found her cats
upon her return, so I guess I did it right!
Writing: Kinda.
Make a comment!
26 December 2008 - Friday
Work: Sent off another copy of my resume. Also, got
forms to fill out and send to Unemployment in two weeks to get a check.
Gaming: Game design is hard, let's go brain-sucking
instead!
Visual Entertainments: Fencer of Minerva
2. I could have sworn I took this out of my queue after seeing
the first one. But I watched it anyway because GreenCine is persistently
failing to send me disc 2 of the series they've sent me disc 3 of. Bah.
Food: Yay I didn't eat out at all!
Silly Computer Games: Yep.
Cats:
Aw! Aimee-chan finally came and sat on my lap when I was over there, and
purred and purred for me! I wonder if she can give Aspen lessons.
Writing: Some.
Make a comment!
25 December 2008 - Thursday
Festive Singing: On the first day of Catmas, my
three cats gave to me a squirrel. ...in a treeee!
More Festive Singing: Ruby
Christmas.
Gaming: Thinking more about superheroes with daily and
encounter powers, it would have to be significantly different in flavor
from Champions where, as a default, anything you can do at all, you can do
over and over (until you run out of End). There are cases in which this
isn't true, but "because it wouldn't be as cool if I did it more often" is
not often the excuse.
Should all powers that affect enemies do "damage"? Hm. Would it be
simpler to handle damage vs def as damage bounces if it's less than def,
all gets through if it's more, and half gets through if they're equal?
It's slightly more log-scale-tastic than subtracting. Hm.
Why am I thinking about this?
Food: Yay! Thai City is open on Christmas!
Silly Computer Games: Yep.
Cats:
Twelve paws here, eight paws there!
Writing: Non-zero. Whether that's positive or
negative remains to be seen.
Make a comment!
24 December 2008 - Wednesday
Work: Jeremy gave me some leads, but holiday!
Festive Singing: On the zeroth day of Christmas, my
true love gave to me ARRAY INDEX UNDERFLOW ERROR.
Gaming: Extra bonus D&D with Rachel, Jeremy, and
Dave scheduled for next Wednesday afternoon! Muahahahaha!
Visual Entertainments: Marith made me get the
live-action Dororo movie from GreenCine, so we took it over
to Dave's and watched it with him. It was pretty good! The blurb made us
suspicious about Dororo's role, but actually it was not like that. The
ending was different than the manga, but it did not slay Dave with the
cognitive dissonance, so yay!
Silly Computer Games: Just the usual.
Cats:
All paws present and accounted for!
Writing: I meant to!
Make a comment!
23 December 2008 - Tuesday
Work: I actually sent a resume off to a place! Go
me!
Now I just need to repeat this about three hundred more times...
Gaming: I keep wanting to mix Hero (well, Antihero)
and D&D4. D&D4 powers and their frequencies (at-will/encounter/daily)
serve much the same purpose as multipowers and charges/End in Hero,
after all.
My thought was that a character would have a couple of basic attacks,
the generic 50 Str or 3d6 RKA that they can use until the
minotaur-themed supervillains return to their base. Then they'd have
some at-will powers, some powers usable once per fight, and some powers
usable once per day (bought with points rather than D&D's level-based
allotment, of course). The more often a power is usable, the more it
costs, and the less it can add to a basic attack (something like,
at-will powers can't increase the damage at all, encounter powers can
add up to 2d6, dailies up to 4d6). Between all the things that can be
added to an attack, and all the possibilities for movement and utility
powers, I don't think the complexity of character generation would be
much reduced, but it would let players avoid having to learn all the
combat maneuvers and only worry about the ones they actually have.
Visual Entertainments: Neil is off somewhere having a
family and a life and stuff, but we had anime anyway. Rose of
Versailles 15: Royalty sucks. Kashimashi 7-8: The
mocking is great. Gurren Lagann 19: I wonder how they're going
to get out of this one? Simoun 19-20: Meep!
Silly Computer Games: I got up to 3058 in Pushori, but only because I
got a long string of the right symbols. Usually I'm doing well to make
1000.
Cats:
All my cats are adorable! Ayse's cats are adorable too!
Writing: FAILURE.
Make a comment!
22 December 2008 - Monday
Work: Successfully applied for unemployment dollars.
Also, found a job to apply for, but it requires sending snail mail. Bah.
Food: I am doing slightly better at eating at home
since I threw away the scary dishes that had been occupying the sink for
months and bought exactly one of each kind of dish so that they can
never become overwhelming. I suck for having to resort to such cheap
trickery, but it might work.
Silly Computer Games: Wow, I suck at Pushori. But at least it's
something new to suck at!
Cats:
Twelve paws here, eight paws there. I actually sat with Jinian and Aimee
for a while, but they were not that interested in me.
Writing: Fail.
Make a comment!
21 December 2008 - Sunday
Gaming: Now I feel like a real D&D4 GM! I've lit no
fewer than three PCs on fire! One of them several times! Eventually they
figured out about the fire bats' swoop of doom and did them in, but it
was pretty exciting for an encounter below party level!
D&D4 is getting pretty heavy, though. Bah.
Gaming makes me want to game more, but of course there is never more
gaming within days. Bah.
Food: Gaming munchies, mostly.
Silly Computer Games: Yep.
Cats:
Twelve fuzzy paws!
Also, Jinian is doing fine and was very glad to have her gooshyfoods.
Aimee was still hiding.
Writing: Blargh.
Make a comment!
20 December 2008 - Saturday
Gaming: There was some talk of extra bonus D&D, but
Ken was too frazzled from his upcoming expedition to the middle of the
continent to prepare.
Silly Computer Games: Blargh.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Blargh.
Make a comment!
19 December 2008 - Friday
Work: I am now officially unemployed! Er, yay.
Silly Computer Games: Yep.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Blergh.
Make a comment!
18 December 2008 - Thursday
Work: I still suck.
Random Encounters: Cesar, in downtown Palo Alto.
Visual Entertainments: Third disc of the
Witchblade anime. The main character is still somehow adorable
in her incompetence, and her interactions with the male lead amuse me.
Silly Computer Games: Yay, immunity to all of fire,
cold, lightning, and acid!
Cats:
Poor Aspen, picked up by the cat-eating monster again! It is so
difficult being Beautiful Kitteh!
Writing: Meh.
Make a comment!
17 December 2008 - Wednesday
Work: I still suck.
Gaming: Thrace is easier to play without Dave than
Earthdawn is, so we left Mike to his Russian tea cake overload
extravaganza and played a little bit. We sent the spoiled wererat off to
religious school to straighten him out, and descended upon his home
village to see if it needed to be Fixed on our way to the Monastary of
Evil Undead Monstrosities. Then we became sleepy.
The new D&
D4 character builder is pretty slick. Sadly, it is for slaves of
Microsoft only.
Silly Computer Games: Blargh.
Cats:
It's sad that picking up Aspen makes her think I am the worst person
ever, because she is quite warm and furry.
Writing: Blargh.
Make a comment!
16 December 2008 - Tuesday
Biology is Freaky: Visually freaky,
anyway. (via Robin
D Laws)
Work: Giant fail of stupidity.
Random Encounters: Christy and Teo in Target! Teo is
deeply suspicious of me, or maybe he was just tired.
Visual Entertainments: Last disc of
Negima!, to which I can only say, WTF?!
Silly Computer Games: Yep.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Blargh.
Make a comment!
15 December 2008 - Monday
Work: Resume 3.0.
Silly Computer Games: Yep.
Cats:
I think Aspen is growing resigned to the oppression of pettins!
Writing: Blargh.
Make a comment!
14 December 2008 - Sunday
Food: Ken made spaghetti bolognaise, which
fortunately does not involve actual bologna. In fact, it was pretty
good. I think I have mostly outgrown the aversion to tomato glop that I
had in my youth.
Also, garlic bread!
Gaming: In theory we could play Thrace without Dave,
since we could say his character was off dealing with some sordid
halfling mafia business, but in practice we never got enough spoons
together.
Visual Entertainments: One episode of Yes,
Prime Minister ("The Bishop's Gambit") with everyone, and then
the fourth disc of Karin (aka Chibi Vampire)
after Ayse and Ken gave us the boot.
Karin, like Mezzo, has way more fan service
in the opening credits than in any episode, even with the two bath
scenes on this disc. I can only assume some marketer somewhere thinks
this will lure more people otaku into watching the series,
even though the first episode will demonstrate that it's false
advertising.
Silly Computer Games: Yep.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Blargh.
Make a comment!
13 December 2008 - Saturday
Food: Today was the Day of Making Ginger Cookies! It
took much less time with Ayse's shiny stand mixer to do the hard work,
although Ayse insisted on doing the final mixing by hand, so there could
be the ritual Scraping of the Fingers. Then Marith and I rolled out a
bunch of roughly similar spheroids, and victory was ours!
Random Encounters: There were many random people at
Harold and Chris's party, and also some predictable people (ie, ones I
knew). Also, three tables full of cookies, of which I sampled a total of
one cookie (not counting the ginger cookie or two I ate earlier). Go me, I
guess.
Silly Computer Games: Yep.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Blargh.
Make a comment!
12 December 2008 - Friday
Work: Resume v2.0.
Visual Entertainments: A couple episodes of the
Witchblade anime. It's been so long since I last watched
any that I only vaguely remember what was going on, but I like it
anyway.
Silly Computer Games: Blargh.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Blargh.
Make a comment!
11 December 2008 - Thursday
Work: Resume being modified in accordance with
feedback from beta tester.
Visual Entertainments: I have finally seen the end
of the last episode of Trigun! It fell into one of the
standard ending patterns, but what can you do?
Then, first disc of Black Lagoon, to evaluate its
suitability for Tuesday Night Anime. It was pretty cool, but may be too
violent for Marith's sensibilities (about as violent as, say,
Hardboiled). Oh well.
Silly Computer Games: Blargh.
Cats:
Today, Ghirardelli wants all the pettins. Also, I picked Aspen up from
where she was nesting on the bed and carried her to the balcony door where
Marmalade was sleeping in the sun. She did not approve of being carried,
but she did admit a sunbeam with her friend was the right place to be.
Writing: Blargh.
Make a comment!
10 December 2008 - Wednesday
Work: My resume is currently being beta-tested.
Visual Entertainments: Ken failed to bring
Jeeves and Wooster, so it was all xxxHolic all
the time! Well, until Earl decided he had to show us machinima of anime
girls juggling improbable objects. Also, some cats may have been
oppressed.
Silly Computer Games: Blargh.
Cats:
Ghirardelli has me so well trained.
Writing: Blargh.
Make a comment!
9 December 2008 - Tuesday
Technical Issues: Even after getting new cables, I
couldn't get my monitor to work with spore. However, I could get
Marith's spare monitor to work, possibly because it has a DVI port so I
could leave off two of the three adapters, so I swapped with her. Now I
have a nice big (compared to a 12" laptop screen) monitor to show me
many Firefox tabs at once!
W00t!
Work: Taos has officially indicated that they will
have to give me the boot on the 19th if no work appears before then, and
they don't think any will. I guess I better polish my resume and send it
out to people.
Gaming: Nothing today, even though I should at least
be working on Antihero.
Visual Entertainments: Rose of Versailles
13-14: Being a peasant sucks. Kashimashi 6: Romantic doom!
Gurren Lagann 17-18: After the recap episode, suddenly new and
different doom! Cool! Simoun 18: Still no explanations!
Bah!
Silly Computer Games: I seem to be reaching the point
in NPPAngband
where things keep getting harder but I've hit the level cap and am not
getting a lot of gear better than what I have. Bah.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Fail.
Make a comment!
8 December 2008 - Monday
Work: Made of fail.
Technical Issues: Spore's keyboard is finally giving
up the ghost, so I bought an external keyboard, and this reminded me
that I have an external monitor lying around that I could use. After
some effort, I extracted from Fry's the necessary chain of three adapters
(mini-DVI to DVI-D, DVI-D to DVI analog, DVI analog to VGA), but it
doesn't work. Specifically, the monitor claims to never receive a signal
from spore. Spore can correctly determine the type of the monitor (NEC
LCD1700V), and
the system weasel says it's on-line and mirroring, but the monitor just
shows "NO SIGNAL INPUT" for a few seconds when first turned on and then
goes dark.
I have previously used this monitor and the VGA-VGA cable and had
them work (or at least fail for completely different reasons). The
adapter chain might be the problem, but it does function well enough to
pass the monitor's information to spore.
I've tried fiddling with the resolution and refresh rate, but to no
avail. I've tried another VGA monitor, with the same results (correct
detection of the monitor, but never any display).
Bah!
Gaming: Yay! Liralen has posted the writeup of the DLYE game she was in when she
visited!
Visual Entertainments: Third disc of Samurai
7. The seven samurai have made it to the village, so apparently
the remaining four discs will be all battle all the time!
Silly Computer Games: Yep.
Cats:
I almost played with Aspen this morning! At least, she pounced fiercely
on movement under the covers, and the movement happened to be me!
Writing: Enh.
Make a comment!
7 December 2008 - Sunday
Socialization: Today was Rachel and Jeremy's Nth
annual gingerbread party. This year's theme: great disasters of history.
Marith and I arrived late, so along with Earl and Linda we were drafted
as impartial judges. Sadly, we had to be actually impartial because no
one tried to bribe us, but it would have taken a lot to overcome the
dynamism of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
Parties are loud and have a lot of people.
Random Encounters: Many, because party.
Gaming: No Palo Alto D&D4, because there was some
sort of party at Rachel and Jeremy's. There was some talk of stunt
Thrace, but nothing ever came of it.
Silly Computer Games: Lots.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Enh.
Make a comment!
6 December 2008 - Saturday
Visual Entertainments: Second disc of Samurai
7. Wow, the cave guys are creepy. I wonder what they were in
Seven Samurai.
Silly Computer Games: Blargh.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Mostly made of fail.
Make a comment!
5 December 2008 - Friday
Work: Well, my resume is finally kind of done. At
least, all the notes saying "fix this piece" are accounted for. Now I
should find places to send it.
Visual Entertainments: Finished Nanaka
6/17. I guess that was really the only way it could end, but it
was pretty much a happy ending.
Silly Computer Games: Blargh.
Cats:
Ghirardelli isn't normally a lap cat, but he came and stood in my lap
while I sat on the couch and received pettins.
SO. FLUFFY.
Writing: Still made mostly of fail.
Make a comment!
4 December 2008 - Thursday
Work: Blah, I hate working on my resume.
Visual Entertainments: ARGH! The last half of the
last episode of Trigun is messed up on this disc! I must
make them send me a new one!
Silly Computer Games: Blargh.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Writing: Still made of fail.
Make a comment!
3 December 2008 - Wednesday
Gaming: Earthdawn! We encountered strange customs,
finally got to sleep on real beds, and started a riot. Well,
precipitated a riot: it was going to happen sooner or later. Anyway, it
was mostly against worshippers of the god of slavery, so they deserved
it.
Silly Computer Games: Er, yah.
Cats:
Twelve adorable paws!
Writing: Made of fail.
Make a comment!
2 December 2008 - Tuesday
Work: The bad news: If Taos can't find someone to
pimp me to before the end of the month/quarter/year, they may have to
give me the boot. The good news: I have almost two months' vacation
saved up, which could turn into two months of pay at any moment.
Visual Entertainments: Return of Tuesday Night Anime!
Rose of Versailles 12: France is still doomed.
Kashimashi 4-5: Poor Tomari! Gurren Lagann 16:
unapologetic recap episode! Simoun 16-17: Everyone is still
doomed, and they haven't told us what the Big Secret is. The thot is
definitely plickening, though.
Silly Computer Games: Blargh.
Cats:
Marmalade still comes to sleep on my arm at night. Aw!
Writing: Fail.
Make a comment!
1 December 2008 - Monday
Work: Taos has nothing, and doesn't expect to have
anything for the rest of the year. Given the time of year and the damage
done to the economy by the fundamentalist Randite neocon pigfuckers,
it's not too surprising, but it's nevertheless not good.
Visual Entertainments: Penultimate disc of
Trigun. It's obvious that the big showdown is coming, but
very little is being explained.
Silly Computer Games: Level 50! Yay! Er.
Cats:
Aspen, who was extra-wary of me when I first got back, has apparently
resigned herself to her fate and will once again allow herself to be
oppressed with pettins when moving away would be too much work.
Writing: No more vacation. Today I just fail.
Fundamentalist Randite neocon pigfuckers by eyelessgame (Thu Dec 4 09:15:16 2008)
You have to get over your tendency to use polite euphemisms and say how you really feel.
Re: Fundamentalist Randite neocon pigfuckers by Trip (Thu Dec 4 09:21:14 2008)
You're one to talk!
Make a comment!
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