AA's LJ

graveyardgreg cameod in my dreams last night

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:38:22 GMT

I had a weird dream last night.

In it, I was in school again, and it was "Wear A Crazy Hat Day"...you know, one of those things they do for spirit week? I was wearing a sailor hat, but there where all kinds of students, some of which where even in full costume with chef hats, pirate hats, ect. After one of my classes, some students where handing out foam and plastic pirate hats, and I picked up a foam bandanna.

Now here's where it gets weird. In my class immediately after that, we had a special guest, who was showing us slides on a projector. One of the slides came across the screen and I recognized it immediately. It was an Ah-ha style sketch drawing of Brahma grappling with Radu-Radu, with the heads of Graveyard Greg, Radical, Lugzan, Tizak, and some others in the background. I said. "Hey, go back...isn't that graveyardgreg ?" and the mystery guest says "Why yes, it is!" And then the lights come on and the special guest was actually Brahma the minotaur.

I woke up just in time to see my alarm clock unplug itself from the wall. Was nearly 30 minutes behind because of that. I think I am going to be getting a new one soon; even when properly plugged in it does not work half the time. Fortunately, I have a really spastic internal clock, that wakes me up several times with full lucidity starting at least an hour before I actually need to be awake. :/

Also...you gotta check this out. (especially you, scltspider )

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Now playing: "Weird Al" Yankovic - The White Stuff
via FoxyTunes

Check out this list of the 13 most iconic horror villains in film history.

After September 11th, there was much spectulation and rhetoric regarding when and where the terrorists would strike next. Another terrorist attack on the United States was not seen as a possibility, but an eventuality. But nothing happened, at least not on the scale promised by Osama Bin Laden. How come? Slate goes over the possibilities.

There is much debate regarding whether or not our country is in the grips of another depression. The problem is that there is no true definition for a depression as one is occuring now. There are no firm rules that state where a recession ends and when a depression begins.

Aaaaaargh!

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:30:59 GMT

I'm seriously frustrated by the Internet right now.

As you may know, I've been a member of the Gaming Guardians since 2004. We had an extremely robust rp community there for many many years. Then, all of a sudden, the forum it was on went down. The web master was very elusive, and information was only gleaned through rumors. The downtime lasted over 6 months, and toward the end of this time period, another member of our boards set up a new forum were we could rp at. This new forum was so much better than the old one, it wasn't even funny. Then, a few months later, The Nice, the old Gaming Guardian forums, returned with no explanation and with no apology, looking just the way it was the day it went down. We where now left with two forums, and the general consensus was that since the new forums are better, we'd stay at the new forums. We began to pull things off the old forums and put them on the new, but before anything could really get done, The Nice upgraded. For a brief period of time, we had three forums before the Old Nice went down.

graveyardgreg wants to support The Nice. Everyone else wants to support the new forums. The fact that The Nice botched its migration and utterly looks like crap is not helping this matter (and has actually made things a lot more difficult for the rest of us). The problem is that with the comic starting again, The Nice is going to get an influx of new members, and I can see several things happening:

1) Newer members (coming into The Nice) are going to see that most of the core rpers are gone and decide not to stick around.

2) Rp will start up on The Nice as well as in the new forums, and the two places will start competing for members.

3) Rp will become more robust on The Nice than it is in the new forums and a handful of the old guard might return, but we'd probably lose important members to highly active cliques.

The problem is that all of these situations are all losses when you look at the way things used to be. The way things where when I joined. The most we can do (and what seems to be the general consensus amongst the majority of our players) Is continue to play at the new forum, while actively inviting players who join The Nice to join us. It's all a big fat no-win situation, caused by one person's refusal to give the web team the data they needed to start back up again.

Also Journey has pulled the plug on their web-presence, which is usually a bad sign when it comes to bands. They pulled up their island in Second Life, and closed down their forums. The reason for the forum closure was because of an upgrade, but instead of upgrading to a better forum, they actually just switched to a networking site. This has left me scratching my head because it could have a number of implications. Is the band just giving the fans a place to stay while they get ready for retirement? Are they trying to attract more members of their younger fan-base by looking hip? Each of the band members has his own account on the site, but they come on so rarely...not to mention that you have to have them friended to receive announcements...it makes me wonder exactly what they intend to do with it. Many of the old fans have left because they found the networking site setup to be too confusing or not including features they had come to expect.

And I just found out a few hours ago that scans_daily got shut down. That was probably one of the biggest (if not the biggest) comics promotion platforms on the Internet, and I had many storylines bookmarked for future purchase. I guess I shall have to spend that money on other things now, because I'll never remember them all.

On the bright side, I got a call saying that they want me to go in for job training on Wednesday, though they wouldn't tell me what I would be doing. I'm just happy I seem to have a job lined up. Also, I've been on a weird roller coaster ride lately as someone appears to have been interested in me through Second Life, and this caused me to open up to another girl I was interested in somewhere else. The person from Second Life has been throwing me a lot of curveballs lately, and the more we talk, the more it seems like she may not be ready for a real life relationship after all. I don't know what the other person will say, even though we've known each other longer.

In any case, through thick and through thin, it's good to have friends. I won't lose sight of my friends, no matter what happens. I've spent too long without any to let that happen.
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Now playing: Journey - After All These Years
via FoxyTunes

The Snake IS a plane! Scientists have discovered the fossile of a snake that was the size of an airplane, prompting discussion as to what it was exactly that caused prehistoric animals to get so huge.

A recent study shows that climate change is effecting global migration patterns in birds.

Who are hollywoods most valuable actors? Market analysts have composed a list. See where your favorites stand!

Gaming Guardians Assemble!

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:56:21 GMT

While we still don't know what happened to The Nice, skunktaur and his roommate have created a new forum for us to use until or if something happens.

It only went live a few days ago, so there's not much there yet, but we're working on it. Right now we're trying to spread the word!

http://tgg.stormdragon.org/index.php

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Now playing: Journey - Separate Ways
via FoxyTunes

I've been holding onto this for a while, since I knew it wasn't really relevant until Turkey season. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, you might be like me and prefer fried turkey over baked. Here's an amusing yet instructional video showing you how to do it safely.

Archaeologists found a bowl from the late 2nd Century BC to early 1st Century AD that is inscribed with what may be the earliest known reference to Jesus Christ.

So a while back a woman in a cow suit went on a rampage in Dayton, Ohio. That's something you don't see every day...

Guardians 4Life

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:37:42 GMT

Gaming Guardian PGs by ~The-Dragon-Girl on deviant ART

"When you find out the game is real.
When you're offered a chance to be more than just a player.
Do you chose to live a normal human life,
Or do you chose to do something more?

The System-Touched Primarians of the Gaming Guardians

Becoming part of the game."

This is Amazing Adrian, my avatar character, with other System-touched characters from the Gaming Guardians, a roleplay that I adore. My good friend thdrgngrldid this, as part of a larger poster that is still in progress.

True tales of wedding sabotage. Shameful!

How to find music on the internet.

Blizzard's upcoming StarCraft 2 title has been revealed recently to have bloated into a trilogy for its single player campaign. They will be releasing one game for each of the races. Wow, Blizzard, way to milk your fans.

My poor characters!

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:51:39 GMT

Gaming was intense last night in the d20 Modern-based game I'm participating in over Game Table. Merideth, my adapted chakat character, got hit with a flak shell that pretty much reduced her to a blood stain. Thanks to her racial bonus that allows me to re-roll a bad stabilisation (because of the extra organs), She was able to make the stabilisation roll. At -9 HP, she needed to make that stabilising roll, because if she hadn't, the next turn she would have passed on (1 hp is taken away for each turn you character spends with negative hit points. At zero, their status is "knocked out"). The first roll wouldn't have been enough to save her, so I had the option of using her racial bonus or the action dice. Odds were better, so I used the action dice and rolled a five. (1d6)

So...yeah. Pretty close call there, but I'm still in the game.

In ceg_lylat, I also had a character that nearly died. Wasimah Mirhas, my buff tigeress Heavy Weapons Guy, was attempting to remove a boulder fom over a trap door when the thing collapsed under her weight. The roll was...bad. I missed the target by such a wide margin, that it would have meant instant death for her (j_wolfman said the boulder would have crushed her head). Now, I had no problem with character death in this instance, since I already had another who was slated to return, but I had no idea how to deal with something so gruesome in the actual rp for this character at that time, so I took the offer to re-roll the dice. It was still pretty poor, but at least it didn't result in instant death - The GM ruled her legs were crushed instead. That I could rp, so I went with it. She's out of commission in the hospital now, and probably will be out of the rp for a while. Now I just need to get with j_wolfman about what is going to happen to her now, and possible character development opportunities that can come from this. I've already got an interesting idea or two...

In gamingguardians, I've set into motion some things that could turn out to be really really sucky for Amazing Adrian. We'll have to see what happens, since there's always a chance his teammates will bail him out of it. After this though, I'm not going to bail him out of bad situations that could result in character death. I did that once with strickland, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

All in all, this isn't shaping up to be a good year for any of my characters. It's still a good year for me though! :p

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Now playing: Journey - Like A Sunshower
via FoxyTunes

Here's a list of pricey collectable games. These games are all legendary and rare, very hard to find on today's market.

Here's instructions on how to make a hamburger that will give you an extra life.

On My Characters

Fri, 02 May 2008 22:31:36 GMT

So silver_b wrote a post in her own journal detailing the history of her various characters, and wanted me to write up a list of all of mine. While I can't really string up a timeline here like she did, I think I can give a run-down of all of my characters (or at least make an attempt to...I have a lot of them).

Note that not all of these characters have been roleplayed. Some of them are just characters in my comics who either have not appeared in any roleplaying games yet, or I can't figure out ways to make them work. If a character has (RP) by the name, I've used him or her in a game.

Base Characters

Amazing Adrian(RP) - Wannabe superhero. Can fly and fire painful, vision impairing eye lasers. Has a wind ring that can shoot hurricane force gusts. Received his powers at an early age. He's my main avatar and former self-insert character, who's powers evolved over the course of the story I wrote for him.

Andy - Adrian's brother. Super strength, size alteration. Absorbs kinetic and potential energy. Received his powers at an early age.

Alex(RP) - A friend of Adrian's. Can fire blasts of nuclear energy from his hands. His hands are radioactive, and he wears gloves made of pratinum, a flexible kind of metal. He's also developed an immunity to toxins and poisons. Received his powers at an early age.

Sam(RP) - A friend of Adrian's. He was given superior intelligence, which he uses to learn a vast number of skills and trades. He's equal parts a scientist, mechanic, and doctor. He made Adrian's wind-ring and fashions a multitude of non-fatal firearms for himself. He is possessed of superior accuracy and acrobatic skill. Received his powers at an early age.

Jeremy - There are two versions. The first was a freind of Adrian's who initially had the power to stretch his body like Mr. Fantastic. When his powers evolved into generating globs of toxic plasma, they started killing him. Sam depowered him and he left Adrian's team, moving away shortly thereafter. The second version is actually an amalgamation of Adrian, Andy, Sam, Alex, and Jeremy from a parallel Earth. He was nearly invincible and possessed of energy manipulation. He died when he lost control of his powers and went nova.

Stu-Cat(RP) - Adrian's pet cat. Dumb as a post. No, actually, I think your typical wooden post is a lot smarter. Stu-Cat was given powers with the rest of Adrian's friends (it was a wrong place, wrong time sort of deal), only nobody knows what exactly they are. Since the day they received their powers, Stu-Cat has demonstrated extreme invulnerability, energy absorption, defiance of physical laws, and the ability to fuse several people into one more powerful amalgam being. Sam's running theory is that the cat has no powers, but is too stupid to realize what she is and isn't supposed to be able to do.

The Android(RP) - A robot from the future disguised as a young man. He's still learning human behavior through observation. His arms can transform into several different kind of firearms, shredding his rubber 'skin' in the process. He has jets hidden in his feet.

COPP - The world's first police robot to enter active duty. Very stupid compared to The Android, and looks absurdly outlandish (spiked domed head, wearing shades, blood red 'skin', biker build). Is destroyed trying to stop Breakdown.

Drifters

Zola & Razer - Female and male pair of prosecuted aliens, gave Adrian & friends their powers. No powers of their own.

Powerhouse(RP) - Purple skinned mercenery. Has morals but sometimes sets them aside in the interest of getting paid. Ex-con given powers in an experiment to take down Adrian & friends. Very strong.

Argot(RP) - Hunchbacked librarian who found an ancient tome of incomprehinsible text abandoned on Earth by an alien sorcerer. After triggering the magic inside, He can now cause random reality altering events to happen by saying nonsense words. Became friends with Powerhouse. Tired of being a 'nobody', he tried to bring down Adrian & crew to gain notriety for himself.

Doppleganger - Crispy burnt looking man with charcoal black skin. Former drug addict. Has the ability to create psychic entity doubles of anyone he meets. Doubles are solid state and have personalities that reflect one aspect of the human psyche. After a set amount of time, doubles "die". Was given powers in the same (illegal) experiment as Powerhouse.

Zombie-Man(RP) - Ordinary man cursed by an ancient spell. The spell gives him the powers of the undead without actually killing him. He can suffer (numerous) fatal injuries, has super strength, some mild spell casting abilities, immunity to black magic as well as toxins and poisons, regeneration when under moonlight...The spell is a heiarchy spell, passed down from person to person, and it also passes on the knowledge of previous Zombie-Men. This gives him some immediate knowledge on a broad range of subjects, though he specializes in lore, monster hunting, folk medicine, and simple spellcasting. The current Zombie-Man is Howard, a secretary for some southern big corporate company. His curse is only broken by the death of Mr. E.Ville, the last remaining Necromancer.

The Old Jalopy(RP) - Or just Jalopy, as he sometimes prefers. Howard's boss, he decided to join Zombie-Man when he accidentally saw his transformation one night. So now he's Zombie-Man's sidekick, in spite of being his employer. Aside from being a millionaire, he's also a hobbyist, and modifies guns and armor. He made his own armor to wear when patrolling with Zombie-Man, and keeps equipped with monster killing weapons. Like Zombie-Man, he is also very knowledgable about the weaknesses and habits of the creatures of the night. He is mute, and Zombie-Man does most of his speaking for him, though he does know sign language.

Circuit Breaker - Being composed of sentient electricity, caused by Argot's powers. Has the ability to possess the bodies of others. Stole the bodies of Adrian and friends for a time, perceiving them to be more powerful than him. Currently possesses the body of a druggy punk. Is killed when Nemesis uses him to power a machine.

Jack *Beep!*(RP) - A stick figure who wears a stocking cap on his head. He is a self-important movie star, beleiving his films are more popular than they really are. Think a Uwe Boll parody taken to the extreme. Yes, his last name is legally a sound effect. Hey, if a guy can use a symbol, why not? His most popular film is a documentary he made on AA's team, though the FBI suppressed it before it could be officially released. Still, it saw some underground showings that became somewhat mainstream in AA's hometown, but is largely unknown in the greater U.S. Jack *Beep!* became friends with Breakdown, and tried to stage a fight between AA and the crazed alien for his documentary, nearly killing everyone in the process. He is currently out of work, looking for his next score.

Ch'Alla(RP) - An 8 foot tall hawk-like man from a parallel world that Adrian found himself in when lost amongst dimensions. He was a bully, using his greater strength and power to get his way. Adrian challenged his authority by representing someone in a race against him; wherein the winner would be the leader of his species for a decade. Despite several underhanded attempts on his life, Adrian won the tournament. Ch'Alla, unable to accept defeat, went ballistic and tried to kill him as he stood on the pedestel. He lost his own life instead, one of the guards forced to kill him before Adrian was torn asunder.

Aerth(RP) - An alternate version of Adrian on a world populated by anthro felines. He was formerly a hunter in a tribe on the savannah, and was ordained by the god of his world to stop Zarm. He was given a magical headband that gave him flight and speed, as well as eye lasers. He had several adventures, eventually marrying and having a son with one of his old enemies. He and his wife were eventually killed by Zarm when he incarnated on their world. Aerth would eventually become my primary furry avatar; a spotted leopard.

Shriker - Aerth's son. He had the power to generate vibrations in things by touching them. He trained Adrian in his father's brand of feline martial arts when Adrian accidentally arrived on his world. Adrian, in turn, was able to avenge 'himself' when a freak accident caused him to kill Zarm.

The World's Premeir Superhero Team

Max - A five year old boy with the ability to control gravity. Somewhat self-absorbed. Got his powers by exposure to electromagnetic radiation in his mother's womb. Founding member of the World's Premeir Superhero Team (WPST). Considered to be the team leader, in spite of his youth.

StaveRod - A Louisianian construction worker who found an ancient alien weapon in the middle of a swamp. The weapon turns into a weapon that reflects the wearer's personality by default (in his hands, it became an electrified staff), and once imprinted, the weilder can will it to take another form. Is limited seemingly only by the weilder's imagination. A founding member of the WPST, largely considered second in command.

Ninja-Man - A Middle Eastern female who disguises herself as a ninja with a pink porcelain mask. She is trained in several shadowy styles of martial arts, can manipulate shadows that come in contact with her, and is very mysterious. Former enemy of the WPST, she later joined them, becoming the first non-charter member of the team.

Debug - Robot built by Max to help him in place of a responsible adult. Imagine a clanky stereotypical robot with a television for a head, only wrap a superhero eye mask around the television and turn the attenas into deely-boppers. That's what Debug looks like. The strangest thing is that Debug is psychic. Nobody can explain why. A founding member of the WPST.

Crystal - Five year old girl illegally given powers by the government in an attempt to bring Adrian & friends down. A product of the same shadowy experiment that brought forth Powerhouse, she has the ability to metamorph her body into solid diamond, increasing her strength, weight and endurance exponentially. She can re-form if shattered into large chunks. Became a member of the WPST after being defeated by AA.

Ichabod Crane - Man from the same program that brought forth Crystal and Powerhouse. He beleives that he is really Ichabod Crane, from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and still on the run from the Headless Horseman. Nobody knows his real name, since his story is most likely not true. He has psychic powers, including telekinesis. Joined the WPST after his defeat by the AA team.

Coup - Mexican man given super strength by a corrupt government program, the same one that brought forth Powerhouse. Joined the WPST after the program's defeat at the hands of the AA team.

Villains

Goy-Boit - Juvenile delinquent child genius. Wannabe mad scientist. Sam's rival.

Eon - Suicidal robot created by Goy-Boit. Designed to self-detonate within proximity of the AA team. Destroyed when it blew up.

Zarm(RP) - Robot from a long dead parallel world. Originally Richard Vassal, he was chosen against his will by his people's military to become a participant in a program that transfers his knowledge and skills into that of a soulless killing machine. Unfortunately for all involved, his soul transfered as well. Upon finding out that his friends and family were killed to eliminate anything relating to his former life, he goes beserk, overriding his own programming and turning all of his specie's weapons on his home planet, driving his people into extinction and killing himself in the process. Instead of moving on, his rage tears a hole in the fabric of time and space, allowing his soul to cross over into another dimension. Thus he floats from reality to reality and world to world, coercing sentients into creating new bodies for him, so that he can resume his crusade against intelligent life. He considers himself a force of nature, taking back what progress takes away. Fought the Vetrans when he incarnated on Earth in the year 4000. Fought Adrian when the superhero was lost amongst parallel worlds.

Breakdown - An insane alien with ultimate power. Was travelling through the galaxy in a straight line in a crazed rampage and Earth happened to be in the way. Adrian & crew were given their powers to stop him. He became temporarily sane when his emperor, The Advisor, tried to gain mind control over him. After killing his emperor and apologizing to Adrian and crew for the trouble he caused, he took on the entire alien fleet and committed suicide in the process.

The Advisor - The emperor of the race of aliens that gave Adrian and friends their powers. He originally developed the process in an attempt to create the ultimate warriors for galactic conquest. Instead, he created Breakdown, an unstoppable and uncontrollable force. Giving himself mind-control powers in an attempt to reign in the monster, he sent himself and his fleet on a path of destruction, following in the monster's wake. He arrived on Earth years before Breakdown, becoming a secret operative in the US government, experimenting on humans when he heard of AA's existance. Was eventually killed by Breakdown when his plan backfired.

Nemesis(RP) - A ten thousand year old robot from the future. He was originally the robot created to test a working model of a time machine in the year 3,000 a.d. but something went awry and he became stranded in the early Jurassic era. His original programming was to blow himself and the machine up in such an event, to eliminate any evidence of his existance. The time machine was destroyed, but his own body was not, so he went into a stand-by loop. Even though he was shut down, his circuits continued to process, and over the course of thousands of years, he eventually awoke to discover that his logic stacks had evolved from the continuous background processing. He found himself possessed of a super advanced AI, and decided to modify himself to live amongst the burgeoning human species. Before long however, he came to the conclusion that human beings were a waste, and that artificial life forms such as him were the true inheritors of the Earth. Unfortunately, he had to wait until the modern era before he could do anything about it, since he did not have the resources to make anything he needed readily available. Biding his time, that's what he did, teaching himself several forms of combat and tactics. Once in the modern era, he decides to preemptively eliminate the small handful of superheroes in the world, starting with AA & friends. They eventually defeat him.

Anarchy(RP) - An evil version of Adrian from a parallel Earth, Adrian ran afoul of him when he was lost in the dimensions. He's a heavy-handed general in his brother's army, has sacrificed his left eye so that one of his lasers would be lethal, and is a feared mercenary in his homeworld. Ever since meeting Adrian, he has made it his personal goal to kill any other doubles of himself that don't prove themselves worthy in his eyes. He wants to start with Adrian.

Galtak-AR - An ex government official who was tricked by The Advisor into experimenting on convicts and miscreants by giving them super powers. Was kicked out of the government (sent to jail) after his defeat by AA and the WPST. His powers are just being able to alter his size.

E.Ville's Posse

Mr. E.Ville(RP) - Edward Ville, the last remaining Necromancer on Earth in the modern century. The Zombie-Man spell was created specifically to stop him after he started bumping off the other necromancers to gain their power. After discovering the secrets of immortality from Dracula, he gained all the time in the world to perfect is art. Though he can still be killed through mortal means, he never ages. His dark skills are numerous, but mostly he likes to summon tainted creatures to do his bidding.

Danielle(RP) - A female gargoyle in the employ of Edward Ville. She's a little depraved, and has a taste for human flesh. When under the cover of darkness, her skin is as tough as solid stone, her claws as sharp as razor steel. But shine some light on her and she goes back to being human.

Whick(RP) - A scarecrow in the employ of Edward Ville, he likes to hide firearms inside his straw body. His 'spine', a bloodied pole run vertically through his body, is his weak point. He can't keep himself animated without it.

Ed(RP) - The walking corpse of a prohibition era gangster. Comes with tommy gun.

Veterans Of The Psychic War

Van Impire - Immortal businessman (CEO of the Earth) from the year 3000; is actually an alien exile from an alternate dimension. Appears as a well-tailored black man with a flat top and pencil thin mustauche. Wears saiyan armor for no apparent reason (I need to give his wardrobe a redisign). The angrier he gets, the more powerful he becomes, his body functioning like a battery for raw energy. Has a rich history of enmity towards Sebastian Shaw and the rest of the Veterans, though eventually switches sides after a several thousand year period. Uses heavy-handed tactics to expand his empire, including galactic conquest and stealing from the past. Crossed paths with AA team when he attempted to consolidate the 1990's.

Sebastian Shaw(Co-created with my brother) - The legendary hero, Sebastian Shaw. When one of reality's ruling body went beserk (Omichron) and tried to overthrow the King of Reality, It was dubbed that the whole of reality needed a group of elite knights to protect the King. Picked from across the multiverse, they would meet Omichron's forces in the first ever Psychic War. While he wasn't the first of the chosen, or even a stand out combatant, it was his effort that directly resulted in Omichron's undoing. Though Shaw's universe was destroyed during the war, the Queen of Reality decided to reward this veteran for his efforts. Shaw was granted immortality as well as the ability to travel as he wished throughout the multiverse. His powers are consolidated in his legendary blade, the Sword Of Infinity, which can only be handled by him(anyone else who tries gets a nasty jolt). If ever his sword be in a seperate reality from him, he slowly starts to fade from existance. Adrian rescued him once from such a fate, when it turned out Nemesis had arranged for his being held in another relam. Shaw goes from universe to universe, righting wrongs and protecting life. He's the only Vetran to serve in all (6? 7?) Psychic Wars.

Don(RP) - A veteran of the first Psychic War alongside Shaw. He is the only veteran from our Earth. He too, was rewarded by the Queen of Reality for his service, only in his case, he decided to rise up to a greater cause, and became the Keeper of Knowledge. It is his duty to chronicle everything that happens in every world, everywhere, all throughout time. He is aided in this by the Sword Of Knowledge, which aside from being a great legendary weapon actually serves as a tappable repository for any bit of history that has already occured, no matter how obscure. He is nearly omniponent, but cannot read the future, only the past and the present. He also has a policy of not involving himself with the events playing out across the realities, but has sometimes broken this policy, especially when he finds a reality directly threatened by something, which comes to his second role...private investigator for the multiverse. Like Shaw, he can go wherever he wants throughout all of reality, and is immortal. Unlike Shaw, he carries a satchel from which he can retreive anything that exists in any other world, with the stipulation that it must fit through the satchel. Living beings cannot be transported in this manner.

Omichron - Omichron used to be one of the few beings who governed a portion of reality. This was until the day he decided that reality should only be governed by one person. Him. So he dissapears into the multiverse, swearing to amass a powerful army under his cause, an army full of soldiers from every universe he can influence. Together, they tore the fabric of reality asunder, destroying entire universes in an instant, unravelling the strands of time. But before Omichron could take his seat on the throne, the rightful King's army managed to defeat him, locking him away outside of existance as the multiverse was re-made. This didn't stop him though, as he came back several more times to wreak havoc. He was finally defeated once and for all by the combined might of Van Impire, his daughter, and Shaw and the rest of the Veterans, and the entire population of heaven rising up in arms against him.

The Villaige Idiots

Captain Redbeard - The captain of a pirate crew from the 1700's, he came under the employ of Van Impire after Psychic War-like events shattered the barrier of Earth's timelines. His 18'th century wooden galleon was subsequently made spaceworthy, and he became a prominent captain in Impire's galactic fleet. He has a habit of overlooking things sometime, and tends to have unrealistic views of things.

Wisteria - Redbeard's wife and a member of his pirate crew. She has enourmous strength, being able to use an 18th century cannon as a bazooka, and has been documented dragging a full sized galleon onto a beach. She's somewhat brainless, but a kind hearted person.

Cabin Boy - Redbeard's cabin boy. A normal human who also happens to be one of the Veterans a Psychic War. Nothing special at all about him, except that he can somehow understand and speak for his friend, Friday. The pirate crew tolerates him in spite of repeatedly aiding the 'good guys'.

Friday - Formerly the ship's figurehead statue, he was brought to life with "island magic". He's made of solid, polished obsidian and has no face so cannot speak, though somehow Cabin Boy knows what he is saying. Since becoming a Veteran, he was found to be Force Sensitive, and has been trained as a Jedi Knight. His lightsaber is red, and he can mentally communicate with others now. Part of Redbeard's crew, in spite of helping the 'good guys'.

McGreggor Family - There is a McGreggor for everything. Need help with Math? Look up Analytical McGreggor. Need someone to swab the deck? There's always Swabbee McGreggor when Cabin Boy is not around. Need a guy who can turn himself into solid metal? Look no farther than Metal McGreggor. All McGreggors are members of Redbeard's crew, somehow.

Woods Greggson - He can turn himself into and manipulate wood, yet somehow, he isn't a McGreggor. Part of Redbeard's crew.

Constipated McGreggor - "AAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!" "Who's that, Capt'n?" "Oh, uh...that be the McGreggor that nobody talks about. He's good at powerin' up tho."

The Shoot-Me Guy - A bald ex-cop recruited by Van Impire to become an elite soldier using magical alien artifacts to grant him special abilities. His power? Whatever you shoot at him, he can throw back at you twice as powerful. But if you hit him with blunt damage instead of shooting him, it hurts him twice as much. He's very naieve.

The Human Bullet - Another of Van Impire's experiments in elite soldier-dom. This man can propel himself through the air at great speeds, and wears a medeival style helmet that he uses to protect his head as he bashes through things with it. A former scientist, he has clearly lost his marbles.

ManCannon - A man who's hands have been replaced with holes, from which he can shoot balls of anything he can think of. He used to be a 007 style secret agent in the 1990's.

Created for RP

Darth Jennifer(RP) - A dark skinned Lady of the Sith. Trained in the dark side of the force by Emperor Palpatine himself in between Episodes 3 and 4. I designed her to be sort of an obvious Mary Sue character, but when she was forced out of Star Wars and into the real world, she had to become her own woman. Not exactly what I intended, but since Zombie-Man is ICly dead at the moment, I'm using her as a secondary.

Coon Surya(RP) - An anthropomorphic raccoon. There are two versions of her. One of them is a ninja raised in feudal Japan, the other is an Elarian (oriental) vehicle specialist and mechanical infantry in the StarFox themed ceg_lylat. One of the characters I hid behind while exploring the furry fandom.

Chakat Merideth(RP) - A traditional style Chakat. No magic, no special powers, just what comes standard for hir species. I have since modified hir a bit for use in more mainstream games, most notably the Final Fantasy themed Southern Cross, and recently a game based on D20 Modern. Another of the characters I concocted to hide in while first exploring the furry fandom.

Leonard(RP) - Character concept I had for the Amber Diceless RPG. A loner mercenary guy on the other end of the spectrum, living far out in chaos. His default form is that of an anthropomorphic lizard, though he's one of the shapeshifters...He's simply just taken a liking to that one.

You know what? I think I'm done! If I find any more that I forgot, I'll add them later. I also have a few more that I'm leaving out, but most of those are one-shots and throwaway characters.

State of things - Spring Break

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:01:47 GMT

Most people have already had their Spring Breaks, but mine is just coming up. It will start at the end of this week.

April is going to be a busy month for me. Final projects for Java, graduation ceremonies with relatives coming down, among other things. Speaking of which, Java seems a lot easier now that we're working on applets as opposed to console programs. Since just about everything inherits, I'm getting a real grasp for instantiating class objects and working with constructors. It surprised me that I was able to breeze by the console portion of the midterm like it was nothing...I'm sure if I work diligently, the final project won't be much of a problem

Still have lots of work to do.

It's been getting harder to keep up with my online life with all the schoolwork. Trying not to fall behind in the Gaming Guardians forums, but I find myself doing it anyways. Need to get the Bachelor Auction thread over with. It's almost done. I also still need to talk to Lurdan about what is going on with the AMC, while the possibility to patch things up between the groups still exists.

Here's some random stuff for you people:

"Balloon Bowl", another of the YouTube awards winners.

Article about Godiva's all-chocolate hotel room. Personally, I think Willy Wonka did it better.

Prank calls target deaf communications. Want to learn some quick sign language? Turn up the volume and pay attention to this news woman. The video-phone shown is the one my roommate and I just got. They're pretty neat, but those crank calls are mean. I don't know if we've been hit already, but we have had problems with the thing dropping calls...

And in totally WEIRD news: Obama and Hillary might just be related. Six degrees of separation, my ass! Just another thing that shows we're really all part of the human family.

And why is it that almost all of the unhealthiest states in America are southern states?

Blah

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:24:35 GMT

So it seems like the text adventure experiment I made in my last post kind of fizzled out. I thought it might be fun to just do something silly with it. I was kind of inspired at the time by a prank a gaming forum/block played on game designers using a text adventure, but alas, I have lost the link.

Yesterday I went to order my cap and gown for graduation. Took no time at all. I really don't know what it is I'm going to be doing after school. I need to find somewhere that will hire me at an entry level. Preferrably, somewhere I can use my degree, though with the economy like it is, I'll take physical labor if that's the only thing I can get.

Things kind of came to a head yesterday in the Gaming Guardians chat, concerning the one person there who I genuinely dislike. I know he can turn himself around, because I saw a bit of the old him there when we got him talking about his character. I didn't like having to call him out like that, but I really can't take his sniping of other channel goers any more, even if they do engage in logical fallacies. It's one thing to just point it out, and another to snark someone's logic full of holes like you got something to prove. And it really doesn't help that that's pretty much all he does in the channel. He used to rp, and be pretty good at it. It seems like he hardly interacts with anyone at all, except to argue them into a corner.

I know he's not like that in real life, but I haven't had the luxury of meeting him yet....though I daresay his persistance at being a jerk on the internet is going to end up coloring my perception of him.

As for today's random link:

I found this awesome new movie!

On Valentine's Day

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:28:58 GMT

Ah, yes. It's Valentine's Day again. Hope you all have a good one! ^_^

For me the day is kind of mixed. Everyone loves to take the time to acknowledge their loved ones and friends, and the rest of us are reminded just how lonely we are. Some people are quite bitter about it, but I'm not! I enjoy seeing Valentines' spirit in others, even if I myself am overlooked. Besides, it seems silly to get all strung out over a holiday. I'm going to treat myself out to something and spend time with my internet friends later! <3

And yes kalifla, I am going to eat those conversation hearts, with all their chalky goodness. blaphsemy, but I love them.

You may have seen this already rhanlav, but Jalepino Ferret reminded me of you. Jalepino Ferret can't enjoy his Jalepinos...Pretty smart going for the glass of water though.

I need to set up the IC Charity Bachelor Auction for the GamingGuardians this year. I had forgotten that I had agreed to do it...or did I even agree to anything? It's fine though, I can run it this year! It's an excellent little diversion, especially since it allows for more character interaction in the forums. Most of the time the forums are just for missions. Not so!, says I.

Oh yeah, and before I forget, here's something really awesome I discovered that really displays the power of the interwebs. Anonymous V.S. Scientology. It's ftw. Thanks to fujikurosawafor putting up the original link, although the article itself is by a lj user named deathboy. This sounds like it was something to have seen.

Blood For The Blood God!

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:01:34 GMT

Ugh....I totally crashed today. It was one of those days where if I wasn't asleep, I was getting there. Slept in inadvertently when my alarm clock failed to get me up this afternoon, so no work today. Blah.

Lately, I've been playing Dawn Of War: Dark Crusade, the real time strategy game set in the Warhammer 40k universe. It's insanely popular, even amongst people who otherwise have no idea what Warhammer is. I'm going through the Chaos campaign, and managed to defeat my first race, the Emperium of Man, a few days ago. It wasn't easy, though in earlier missions I had been able to sneak a lone Raptor into their base and merrily destroy them with just that one guy while they were throwing giant onslaughts at me. It was amusing as heck. Don't know who I'll tackle next. The Necrons seem the most vulnerable regiment-wise, but their commander is very powerful, and more than capable of defending his provinces from me. It seems the game is starting to dig in; all the races are fortifying themselves now, so it's getting difficult to determine who is weak and who isn't.

Anyhow. Dawn of War is great for me, because otherwise I would never be able to afford feilding an actual army in the 40k wargame. I was thinking of giving the rpg a look sometime though, but with recent news that the game was going to be shut down, it seems less likely that I'll be able to find any players by the time I get to that point. blah.

On entirely unrelated news, I'm sharing a little private joke with myself here, having signed up my character, Amazing Adrian, for superhero certification courses in Illuminati University. (a gaming guardians thing, to be run by scltspider). The private joke is that it parallels my own life rather nicely (something my character tends to do, mostly through coincidence rather than design), being in college and all.
So as a point of amusement, Here is AA's first semester coursework:

<IOU|GM> Amazing Adrian
<IOU|GM> Law (Superheroing Major)
<IOU|GM> Full Time
<IOU|GM> COUP
<IOU|GM> (Law124) Vigilante Law 1- Breaking to Uphold
<IOU|GM> (Eng001) Freshman English
<IOU|GM> (TcS1010101) Supercomputers 1- Friend or Foe?
<IOU|GM> (MH231) The /Real/ Cause of WWII

Supercomputers 1 and Meta-History are probably going to be his two hardest classes this turn, Supercomputers because he has little to no experience with computers outside of how to use them and do basic troubleshooting, and Meta-History because his growing up in the Primary System doesn't lend itself very well to the study of multiple timelines, since only one is recognized. Should still be fun though. I have no idea what scltspiderhas planned for this, but he's a good GM.

Onwards, to random links!

If you have blue eyes, it means I am related to you. Hi meta-brothers and meta-sisters! ;)

There's a mysterious new disease that some doctors swear does not exist. Cases have been reported from all over the world, and now a study is being run in California, where most of the US cases have arisen.

The Rumors Were True! The Rumors Were True!

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 05:43:35 GMT

Oh my God...I can't beleive this. God must have an amazing sense of irony and humor, judging by the events of sheer coincidence that have been occuring. Interesting rumors lead to Great News, and 2008 is shaping up to be the best year yet!!

First, we have the return of the Gaming Guardians. graveyardgregmanaged to find a new artist! This artist, is none other than silver_b, who I met at last year's Gathering of the Gargoyles convention in a delightful twist of fate. If I'm able to go back and meet her in Chicago, I'll have to thank her for offering to carry the title, and see if I can get her to sign my print of Gaming Guardians edition one. There's no telling when her own run will be printed, as WebTroll still has about a book's worth of material left to him. I wonder how Greg'll handle that, though I hope things move forward soon! I'd like to support the comic by buying the dead tree version for posterity! :p

Second. The news that inspired me to post this right away! Those of you who read my journal probably know that Journey is far and wide, my favorite music group. I admit that I did not take their losing Steve Augeri to medical problems so well. The guy they got to carry their concerts, Jeff Scott Soto...well, I was skeptical about him at first, but listening to bootlegged concert footage made me begin to change my opinions about him...until he got canned by the group when the tour finished. It could only mean one thing: he couldn't measure up to performing new material. Before I say anything else, let me state that Jeff Scott Soto was known before Journey for his role in the movie "Rock Star", which detailed a story about a wannabe musician in a tribute band, who gets hired onto the group he's emulating to replace the guy he's emulating.

Fast forward about half a year, to today.

Journey has a new lead singer! Arnel Pineda, the lead of a Journey tribute band based in the Philippines was discovered on YouTube, of all places, by the legendary guitarist, Neil Schon. Pineda's group, called The Zoo, is known for it's Journey covers as well as original songs! Meaning, this guy can contribute to the writing process! It just gets better and better...ready? The four track demo tapes they made with this guy, to see if he can cut it? Journey liked the guy so much, they're expanding on it, and making it an all new album! So! At this point, I'm just happy that Journey is going forward again. Nevermind that the guy they picked up is an unknown. Nevermind that he isn't even from the US. Nevermind that I'll be possibly looking at a Journey with a completely different sound from what I'm used to. I'll let the album do the talking. Arnel Pineda, on the off-chance you read this; make it a good one.

So there you have it. 2008 seems all about making up for 2007. And it's an election year too, which means more good news; Bush is finally getting canned! Holy Crap! I sure hope I survive the year, because I can't wait to see what's in store! :)

End of an era?

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:28:57 GMT

Arrgh!

I just found out that graveyardgreg's new artist for Gaming Guardians has fallen through. On the verge of a comeback, we are now without an artist again. I hope Greg's fortitude save is higher than mine, because at this point I'm seriously starting to doubt Gaming Guardians will ever come back unless WebTroll finds the time to do it again. I'll keep the faith though; it's been going for 7 years, and Greg still seems interested in doing more with it, it's just the artist thing that is holding him back.

In spite of there not being a comic, our community is still healthy there. Nobody wants to face cancellation though, as there is still a lot left unsaid. I have a hunch I know who the new artist was, and maybe a slim possibility as to why it didn't work out....If my theory is correct, there can be no hard feelings.

Also, I think I have this tendency to speak my mind on my livejournal, even if my mind is being unrealistically emo or cynical at the moment. This is something I think I really need to stop doing, since these flashes of emotion are temporary, and do not reflect who I am much, if at all. It tends to make me say things that sound naieve or just stupid.

(also, livejournal...you need to fucking fix your tag system. At home every single letter that I type in that little form field causes an error. I'm getting sick of having to copy/paste into it.)

Happy Halloween!

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:54:18 GMT

I love Halloween. The season of superstition and rise in the powers of the supernatural and occult make for an interesting holiday. Of course, I know the holiday had much humbler origins, but it makes me curious how it turned out the way it did, with everyone indulging in amusingly macabre decorations and celebrating all things scary. Though who can resist an excuse to party?

Today the postsecondary students and I went on our annual trip to , one of the largest haunted trails in the upstate. It's a 30 minute outdoor walk through a stretch of woods at night, with haunted house constructs built along the way for you to go through. It's a lot of fun. It's dark and disorienting and atomspheric. You never know when some creature is going to jump out at you. I think it was even more effective at freaking every one out than it was last year. All the guys seemed more perturbed than the girls this time around. XP
Got another long sleeved t-shirt to go with the hoody I bought last year. They tend to not stock the right sizes of shirts...I am most comfortable in Xtra Large, but they typically only have Large and under. The hoody was a little snug on me, but I could still wear it. This long sleeved shirt is much more comfortable, and It's always nice to have more winter clothes, since that's something I tend to be lacking.

It's looking like I might be able to go to a furmeet in Greenville this time around. I have a legitimate ride, and unless something comes up last-minute like everything should be good. It'll be fun, I think. It will give me a chance to hang out with folks outside of this glowing screen and keyboard interface and meet some of the folks in the Carolina_Furs group. My expectations aren't high; I know this will be no con...and unlike the GamingGuardians, I don't really know many of the people who will be there very well. Also, I suspect many people will be in fursuits, which will make interaction awkward, but hell...It's a good opportunity to get out of the house and network some.

Speaking of which, it seems graveyardgreghas a plan for his flagship comic. I'm feeling really excited about the prospect of it's return after so long of a hiatus. I have a good feeling too, about the potential artist (heard a rumor that Greg himself was gonna take a shot at it. I just think that's all kinds of awesome, and even if he isn't quite as good at first, it'll give him lots of practice and room to improve. Might even help with his storytelling some; though not that he needs much help in that regard. The man knows what he is doing. :) )

Not much to speak of other than that. Had another test and round of Javascript projects go by. I was a little more lax than I was last time (namely, I didn't fret myself sick over getting the code to work); I just took my time and did what I could. I think I may have done a little better as a result. I have, however, decided it best to eschew the concept of the external .js file. It seems to almost never work. Not in the exact way I want it to, anyways. I've had better luck with embedded code, right in with the HTML.

So munch on your portion of the handouts for the treaters, play Rob Zombie on repeat, and hand Dracula his ass in CastleVania. Or go to a party with lots of friends, eat questionably palatable foods, and get varying degrees of drunk before the night is over. Or even stay at home and transform your abode into a place the Addams Family would find a nice summer home. However you celebrate the holiday, have a good one; and don't forget to load up on discount sweets when it's over. ;)

Scary!

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:08:38 GMT

So suddenly people are paying a lot more attention to this new strain of Staph that is medicine resistant since it killed a highschooler somewhere in the states. Apparently, it's the epidemic that everyone was afraid would happen; despite the relative recentness of the outbreak. I heard that doctor's panels are already thinking that it is killing more people than AIDs in this country. Which is kind of scary considering we haven't heard much about it since it was discovered infecting patients in a hospital somewhere (I want to say England, but I can't remember the specifics).

Staph is a bacterial infection, meaning it's highly preventable with the proper hygiene. It's spread mostly through contact with open wounds or exchanges that commonly result in bacterial transfer. This makes it highly communicable in crowded settings, such as schools and hospitals, but simply washing your hands can go far in preventing the infection. So please play it safe.

In other news, it seems what we've been dreading for a long time has come to pass: Webtroll's inability to continue doing the GamingGuardians comic. Nobody has any idea how long this is going to last, or wether or not he'll be leaving us indefinitely, but it's forcing graveyardgreg to make the difficult decision as to what to do next. I would kind of like to see the comic and communitie's continued existance, myself. Webtroll's art defined the lifeblood of the comic, but I would definately rather see a new artist brought in than just watching it all die. Webby's has been a good run though. He's probably accomplished more than any single artist Greg's ever picked up; so I can understand how the geekboy would be torn over this. I don't expect things to happen immediately, but let it be known that whatever you decide, you've got my support graveyardgreg.

To aleviate feelings of doom and despair, lets have a link. The Last Witch In Europe. Then consider that today witchcraft and satanism are valid minority religions. At least here in the US. I don't know if they are more tolerant of it in Europe these days, but if it is, it's because of trickle down from our own religious freedoms. Personally, I don't care what other people practice as long as they respect others doing it; it's their funeral after all. Though I do have a higher tolerance for druids/witches than I do satanists; probably because the only satanists I've met made me want to shoot them after discussing their religion for a few minutes.

More than meets the eye!

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 15:51:30 GMT

I'm home this weekend. Spent a few enjoyable days swimming and hanging out with the folks.

We went to see Transformers last night. It was awesome indeed! I recommend that you go see it; it's a quality action-adventure film even if you aren't familiar with the old Transformers cartoon and the canon involved. Though the movie was definitely geared towards those older fans, who are adults now....and it shows! The film didn't hold back anything. I know some people were bumming about Micheal Bay, but I don't see why...he did a pretty good job with this one. The only thing that's a little odd is that he leaves a few loose ends hanging here and there...The main plot is engaged with and focused on throughout the movie, but there are still some things that they show and then don't account for at the end of the film. Also, you can see the product placement; nothing clever there at all. Still, if you want to see an action flick, you can do much worse than going to Transformers. It must be experienced in the theaters though, for the sound!

Not much else to post on really. Had our first action session last night in the Lylat rp. Got shown the door in the GG Irc channel for my text formatting, which was required for Lylat. Rather than argue with them over something so stupid or spend the next few minutes trying to figure out how to get the code to only apply to one window, I decided to log out of the GG chat. I was told that code works differently in different program windows, so I think that's what I'll try next time I want to be in both places at once.

Dream after Dream

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 11:55:59 GMT

I just woke up from a very curious dream. It's got me thinking...

So, I dreampt that we were back at the con and mremaknu, Wyld, and I were in my and Wyld's room, discussing plans for various things we were thinking about doing back in the Gaming Guardians roleplay. (We were also fish, and everything was underwater, but that's beside the point. mremaknuwas a tiny hamerhead shark, Wyld was some kind of anglefish, and I have no idea what I was. A flounder, maybe?) So we were engaged in perfectly normal conversation when suddenly mremaknuholds up her hands to stop me from talking. And she starts dressing me down, rattling off a list faults that I have, the biggest of which were, and I quote: "....Assuming I'm/we're your freind(s) and having acceptance issues..." Once that was done, she said, "So I'm going to swim my little fishy tail as fast as I can and leave.", and she just takes off on us, and I'm absolutely stunned. I turn to Wyld, and he too has no idea where that just came from.

Now, I know it's just a dream. But I'm wondering if there might not be some basis in reality to all the faults my brain saw fit to have mremaknurattle off on me. I mean, gaining acceptance from people around me is something I've had to struggle for for almost my entire life, whereas for some people, it just comes easy. And it is important to me that I be accepted by others. But do I have...issues...with this? Thinking back, I realize now that this was the underlying responsibility behind the one, possibly two social transgressions I ever made in that community; the biggest of which being when I had a misperception about being shunned by some folks and I lost it and wibbled in a post. Let me tell you, I have not regretted saying anything more than I have then, before or since. It was the stupidest thing I've ever done when I wasn't thinking. As for how it came about in the first place, I was thinking that my other social transgression, mistreating psykmoein an earlier rp, had changed the number of people willing to interact with me. Granted, I was green as Ireland back then, considering that this community was the first roleplaying community I had ever joined, before or since; and I hadn't done much in the way of running my own rps at the time. I know I've come a long way since then, in how I roleplay, even if the community has a very different climate today than it did back then. But you know...After thinking about it, it all boils down to the fact that I wanted to be accepted as the reason why I lost it and wibbled, even if I didn't see it back then.

In sum: I know I'm not the most secure guy around. Part of the reason why I joined an online community was so that I could have a way to try and build up some confidence and gain some friends (speaking of which, maybe I am also guilty of assuming friendships with people I interact with on a regular basis, but never have met face to face. I've only had one person tell me outright that she'd never want to meet me outside of the online community, but that's just the way she is, which is fine. Truth be told, I can't see how this (considering everyone friends) would be a problem, as I'm not stalker-ish about it. And I'm sure someone would tell me if I were...right? o.O) I know that since beginning, I have a lot more self-confidence, I'm a better roleplayer, I'm better at interacting with people in general. I still have a ways to go to get over my shyness, but I was much worse back then than I am now.

Oh, and mremaknu, if I somehow bothered you at the con, I'm sorry. O_o

I had a dream before this, which was weirder. It was the whole Superman origin thing, where there was some kind of alien craft hurtling through the sky, and everyone thought it would bring this awesoeme hero. So everyone waited with baited breath as the infant was taken in by farmers and raised as their own boy. Imagine everyone's dissapointment when he finally appeared on the world stage, a completely normal man. My brother and I laughed and laughed...

Con Pics!

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 00:39:09 GMT

These are the pictures taken by Zinic, towards the end of our stay.

Me, thdrgngrl, and Wyld hitting the town on the last day. This is us walking back from the BBQ place. You can see I've got my copy of graveyardgreg's trade paperback. If I can meet the other Guardians, I'll get them to sign it! Diggy got her little thing there thanks to my clever idea to ram the claw machine on it's way up. Heh heh...

It's all of us! Wyld, thdrgngrl, me, tarelgeth, mremaknu, and Zinic there on the end. Group photo taken moments before Wyld parted, in the hall outside the girl's room.

Lol! I really like this one. Wyld and I. Right after the closing ceremonies, I think.

Mmm, leftover BBQ! Zinic caught me unawares.

mremaknu and tarelgeth, early on the last day.

mremaknu and thdrgngrlgoing at it! ;) After stealing Diggy's hat, they both turned on Zinic.

Gathering of the Gargoyles 2007

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:29:33 GMT

Yep! I'm back, and it's time to make my writeup post. The convention was a lot of fun; it was great finally getting a chance to meet and hang out with the real people behind the GG chat, as well as meet some of the people behind Gargoyles fandom (which, prior to now, I really had no idea existed).

I went up to Tennessee by Greyhound bus. I love Greyhound. Their rides are comfortable, and you can usually get a pair of seats all to yourself and your luggage, if you can avoid the busy routes. I left Spartanburg at around 7:30, about an hour later than the bus was supposed to have left, because it was delayed. Somewhere near the border to Georgia and Tennessee, we were even more delayed by a traffic snarl caused by heavy construction work. By the time I got to the Knoxville station, it was 1:00 in the morning; about 1:30 when I finally met tarelgeth in the lobby.

I went to bed shortly after that, in preparation for the morning's events. Wyld and I had to share a room, but he was an excellent roommate, and we didn't have any problems. So it was me, Wyld, Zinic, mremaknu, thdrgngrl  from the Gaming Guardians side. tarelgeth  's girlfreind joined us later.

Woke up and went to breakfast with the guys. That was the last time I had breakfast food throughout my entire time at the con. The hotel food made me feel uncomfortable for two whole days! Opening ceremonies were held, and we were introduced to the convention and the fandom's history by Greig Weisman, the creator of the Gargoyles series. Greg spoke at length about the state of the franchise, and how Disney was starting to take notice of them. Right now, the series is being entirely driven by the fandom, so Greg urged us to increase the fanbase by getting the word out. At this point in time, they have released series one and two DVD sets of the old show, as well as a proffessional comic done by Karine Charlebois, a former fan artist! Right now, everything's pretty much only available through Amazon.com, but Greg was adamant that if we could push interest, wider recognition would make these things easier to find.
The comic itself is a bi-monthly publication, but they are working on a spin-off series, Gargoyles: Bad Guys, that will be released on off-months, pushing the series to a monthly production. If that wasn't cool enough, the comics are actually an official continuation of the Gargoyles story, which I think is really neat. Greg obviously had a lot of ideas for the show, which he didn't get to do when it was cancelled by Disney (thanks to their terrible flavor of the week policy). He's still a little hampered by the fact that Disney has the series liscence, but he says that if enough people start buying the stuff they're putting out for the series, Disney is sure to take notice. The comics look awesome, by the way. I was of the opinion that they were even better than the Marvel Comics series that was put out a while back. They looked much truer to the show.

After that, the Guardians and I went out on the town. We went out to lunch and rode around in the Pigeon Forge trolley bus. Pigeon Forge itself was pretty strange. The whole city was like one big amusement park, with overly expensive rides and tourist trap stores lining the entire strip of street that our hotel was on. The view of the mountains were great though, from anywhere in town. The hotel we were staying at, The Grande, was huge, though the convention rooms we were using were kind of small. They were able to acommodate everyone who came to the Gathering though, so that's what counts I guess (it was a somewhat small convention. The most people I ever counted was up to some 50 or so). Once we got back, I hit the dealer's room and scoped out who the artists were and what other things that were for sell. Got the obligatory t-shirt and hit up some artists for comissions; then it came to wandering around for a bit and hanging with the guys back in the girl's room. We missed pretty much all of the first day's events, but we spent it hanging out together, which was just as fun.

On the second day of the con, we all mostly split up and did our own things. I went to the talk Karine gave, about her experiences with becoming a proffessional in the fandom, which was very enlightening. Then it was the Mug-A-Guest talk session with Greg. It was pretty funny; Greg can be a real comedian when he wants to be. Next, I caught the discussion on world building for fantasy/science fiction stories, which was a nice discussion moderated by Daro, and then it was the Adult Artwork open discussion, where I met up with some of the others agian and watched the artists in the room discuss techniques for drawing pr0n. I lost track of the others agian when they went off to dinner while I was in the rest room, so I went to the MSTING session, where I saw some shows from the DVD sets. Man, those brought back memories. There was another Mug session which I kind of bled into...I thought you had to sign up for it, but nobody really said anything to me. That was a lot of fun too, and people kept asking hilarious off the wall dirty questions. There were a lot of interestingly valid questions too though. After that, I found the others in a room and we cracked out some of the games that scltspider  had sent us in a care package. Played a game of Munchkin which was totally awesome.

Day three saw me kind of wandering around again. Caught the tail end of the Open Story Reading, where someone was reading their fanfiction off of their sidekick. Zinic probably should have gotten one of those; it took him forever to connect to the wifi with his Linux driven laptop. Then it was the Mug-A-Guest, this time with Thom Adcox, the voice of Lexington from the television series. He's a really fun guy, who seemed to be having the time of his life there. I missed the discussion on Gargoyle Physiology and Culture in favor of accompanying tarelgeth  would probably know more about that than I would.

Here are the comissions I've got done at the con, and a bit about each of them:

This is the Amazing Adrian, my main avatar and character. He's a second string superhero, loosely based on myself from way back in the day. A holdover from childhood, I've developed quite a story around him. I wonder if I'll ever be able to do anything with it, but I'm beginning to think that I won't be able to.

In one of my stories, Adrian is lost among other dimensions, wandering from place to place at random. In one of the alternate realities he visits, he finds the world populated by felines, and comes across the first concrete double of himself. He never meets him face to face, however, as Aerth died in combat with Zarm about a month before Adrian arrived in that world. He was informed of Zarm's genocide of the people by Aerth's son, who taught him some of their people's martial art style; a style that he couldn't use very effectively because of his different physiology. After defeating Zarm, he was allowed to keep Aerth's magical headband. If I have to have a fursona, I suppose I'll make it Aerth.

Adrian and his friend Katt, from the Gaming Guardians roleplay. Katt has sort of taken Adrian under her wing as a pupil, completing his teachings in Pao Pat Mei, a martial style closely resembling what he was taught by Shriker, the son of Aerth. He has feelings for Katt, stemming from his worry over her and his frusteration at being unable to stop Moorin from causing her harm. Katt considers him a close friend, but anything more? I (and Adrian!) have no idea.

A long time ago, back in the Powergamer's forums, evilcarp ran a two-in-one mission in which the Powergamers had to face off against ancient creatures of myth. One of the scenes that stands out in my mind was Zombie-Man facing off against Jormungand. It was almost classic Zombie-Man, that battle. I really regret that she decided to drop it; it was a lot of fun. So I commissioned this as a kind of tribute.

This would be Bharati, a kind of throwaway character who started as a minion of E.Ville, my necromancer, got bitten by Zhelth and turned into a werewolf, and is now a minion of Crazyface, who kindly (or unkindly) interrupted her death. The first one was practice for the artist; she didn't like how it turned out, but it gave her an idea of what to do. Personally, I like some of the details in the first one better, particularly the head shape, hair, and loincloth designs. The final art is fantastic; she really got the pose down after the first attempt.

This would be Danielle, the Gargoyle. I figured that since it was a Gargoyles convention, the artists would be in their element here, so why not? She's another mostly throwaway character I invented as a minion for E.Ville. I took a liking to her though, and used her a bit more often than most of the others. She's really chaotic, and tends to see everyone as her prey. In the Guardians rp, since Ville is dead, she's currently unattatched. I might bring her back to pester them some more...maybe.

Finally, One of Tiger, a friend from the Gaming Guardians.

And a final picture that is NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
The story behind this one is, the artist who did Bharati and the second Danielle picture had been kind enough to do those for free. I dont' think she was a con sanctioned artist, (though she did chair the adult artwork discussions, curiously enough). So after thdrgngrl did a trade with her, we were kind of sitting around and talking, and she was grasping for subject matter. I suggested one of my prominent furry characters, Coon Girl, a ninja racoon. I told her she could do whatever she wanted with it, and this was the result. I payed her for this and the two others she did for me. She was a really sweet person, and an incredible artist.

Live pictures of the event will be forthcoming, just as soon as I can get some of the photos back from Zinic and have my own non-digital snaps developed. That disposeable camera came in handy, but a digital one would have worked out much better.

Crossposted to gargoyle_clan .

Cool!

Thu, 24 May 2007 03:05:28 GMT

Well! I went to go into work this afternoon and discovered that they were having a huge party and barbeque as an end of the year thing for the deaf and blind students. It was surprising, but fun! I got to eat the barbeque food and hang out with everyone. It felt like a perfect ending for the school year. Later we all went inside to play Bingo. I managed to win a disposable camera, which I think I'll hang onto and take with me if I end up going to that Gathering of the Gargoyles con this year. My brother's been sounding less enthusiastic each time I bring it up, so I may have to bribe him eventually to get him to take me up there. Though I can kind of see why he'd be apprehensive too...it'd be our first trip out of state all by ourselves...and it's not like we have more than the foggiest notion of what we're doing...but dangnabbit, high adventure is what I'm all about, and this could be fun! Plus an excellent opportunity to meet some of the Guardians who'll be there, the guys and gals I consider my friends.

As for the apartment, the workers put the air conditioner back in, so I cranked up the cold, and now it's very chilly. I turned it off when I got back to the party, but it'll be easier to stabilize it at a comfortable temperature now, once it evens out. I stayed home from school today (my alarm clock flat out didn't ring, so it's not like I had much of a choice), though I never did manage to get around to talking to the housing reps today, or even seeing if they've had that supposed office set up in the Spring Annex yet. Blah. And I think my mom wants to come get me tomorrow if we don't have school on Monday. Tight spot yeah. Oh well, we'll see what happens. I am rather eager to try out that new pool my parents have in the back yard of their new house. :)

What is happening!

Wed, 09 May 2007 02:43:49 GMT

graveyardgreg is going through a bit of a tight spot now. I understand that.

Carpe Diem is over. Gaming Guardians and Guardians haven't updated for what feels like many months. I'm not sure exactly how long it's been. Longer for Guardians, I know that... When PowerGamers was ended, the community there just died. We lasted maybe a week without the comic to keep us going. Mind you, it was a split -off commune from Gaming Guardians, and never was very large to begin with, with many of it's members lagging in those final few days anyways.

Today I noticed that the community information was taken down from the forums.

If Greg decides to stop doing comics, I wonder what will happen to our community? Will it die too?

I'm beginning to feel like this is the end.

I hope it isn't. I'm not sure what I would do.

Edit: (because this is so good, I absolutely have to post this)

Pornography on the Disney Channel.

Heart vs Brain; COH vs WoW

Thu, 03 May 2007 04:57:14 GMT

Today felt absolutely surreal. I want to beleive it never happened, that I didn't lose an entire day of my life over this.

So, I have this friend in the community, and he seems like a pretty decent guy, right? Except he has issues. Not with me, but with other people. I can't say I didn't see this coming. Up until recently, it was all nice and quiet behind the scenes, but when I saw a breif glimpse of it come out a few months ago, I knew in the back of my mind that he wouldn't get over it. It just wasn't consistant with his personality to do so.

So yesterday, it all came to a head. My friend was kicked out of the community. The current duration is for a year. He's my freind though, so I chat with him about it, try to find out what's going on, see if there's anything I can do to help. Only..I'm talking with my other friends now, getting their side of the story, and I see just how badly he transgressed, just how far he overstepped those lines that should have been stayed well behind. And suddenly, I'm not so sure if I can help him. I try to think up ways to distract him from the catalysts, but my ideas prove hollow and stupid once I gave them some thought. So he brought it on himself. And he recognizes this. And there's nothing I can do that will make things go back to even a semblance of the way they were.

He hurt my friends. I don't think such was his intention. I know he got ahead of himself, and said and done things that never should have been said and done to anyone, especially not those you're tying to be friends with. He alienated a lot of folks. His own best friend blocked him, which is a testament to how bad it was. But I know he still has a few friends in the community. People like me who won't turn their backs on him until he's screwed up every last chance that he's given. He's a nice guy when he isn't being a dick. I know a lot of you think that's just a manipulative face he puts on, but I've watched him long enough to know that he isn't capable of such a machivelian charade. He's too hardheaded and egotistical to pull that off knowingly for as long as he's been coming here. On the other hand, I know he's going to try and make things sound like apple pie and deflect the blame. It's human to do so.

So I sat down with him and told him "Look, you fucked up. I tried to think of ways I could help you, but I really honestly couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't either A) gloss over the real problem you have, or B) fuck things up worse or put me in a bad situation. You need to take this as the clarion call that it is and cleanup your act with how you socially behave around certain people, because right now it's just not acceptible." He agreed with my points and we spoke at length. I just hope he listens to me because I'm pretty much the last chance he's got. His former best friend agrees with me on that point. The ball is his to do what he will with now.

City of Heroes...I picked up a timecard today. I sort of regret it, because it set me back more than buying the actual game would have costed. You can buy COX for $9-$10 these days. The damn timecards cost $30 bucks. I don't know about you, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around how time to play a game can retail for more than the actual game itself. Especially when you have to purchase a timecard to play the game out of the box? The short of it is, there is no way I can afford to regularly stock both games. I'll have to decide wether I want to play one or the other, and I was really really hoping that it wouldn't come down to my having to make that decision. Still, I'm grateful to skunktaur for giving me the chance to at least experience some of it. Even though nobody offered to take his buddy code aside from me, I'm sure there were a number of people he could have chosen to offer it to.

Weekend update

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 15:12:17 GMT

Well, I went home for the weekend again, since I'm out of school and all. Had a pretty great time back home 'n all.

The kittens are doing really well. They're big enough now to climb out of the box and are running all over the place. Unfortunately, this means it won't be very long before we have to start getting rid of them. Mom can't decide how many she wants to keep, and my brother wants one too (though last time he got a cat he ended up disowning her. Mom doesn't think he can afford a kitty right now anyways, considering how he was recently fired.)

I went with Mom again to Ceaser's to watch her bellydance club perform. We had a good crowd this time; I've never seen it quite so packed before. It was the last of their free shows; from now on, they're going to start asking for cover price, but I think it's worth it. Mom's considering getting back into the lessons, and I'm behind her 100%.

With a very big thanks to codefox for his generous donation, I now have my first physical rpg rulebook, Star Wars the roleplaying game. It's the nonrevised D20 1st edition core rules, but I don't care. Anything will help me get started at this point. Our comic book store, Planet Comics, have recently sequestered a game room for card games...maybe once I know the rules, I can start asking around about rpg games people might be interested in running.

Speaking of my brother, he expressed interest in getting back into the Gaming Guardians community. I think it would be cool if he did, but I don't know if this is something he really intends to do. He's changed a lot since the last time he was there...I suppose we'll have to see what happens.

So yeah, all is good here, I guess.

An IRC rp..

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:50:59 GMT

So last night I participated in an rp run by thdrgngrl. And I bombed it. Terribly. I feel like a real jerk now, because she wasn't all that confident in her skills as a GM, and my rping seems to have ruined it for others.

She was a very good GM. I think she hit the rp off beautifully. I'd have to say my problems began when I chose my flagship character for the kind of rp she was running. Now, saying that Adrian isn't good for dark and dangerous rps wouldn't be fair to the character. The reason I rp him is to get him out into as many different situations as possible. And I made sure that he stayed IC; he was just an average joe type guy thrust into this situation, and I made him respond accordingly. I'm pretty sure though, looking back on it, that his very presence threw off the team dynamics and maybe shifted the way the others wanted to approach the mission. Why on Earth did I bring Adrian along, I'm thinking now, if the other guys wanted a bloodbath rp?

On top of that, I fear that a lot of the IC decisions and actions Adrian made might have come off as showboating. I certainly didn't intend them that way, if they did. Adrian as a character is going to want to do "the right thing" as a general principle. What that is at the time depends on the situation. He's not at all confident in his abilities, and he felt as though he was in over his head the whole time. So I played him in a joking manner as a bundle of nerves at the beginning of the mission, to counter the seriousness everyone else was exuding (which may have killed the mood, I don't know). He jumped down and non-lethally confronted a guard to try and gather information, and was blamed for it when a different guard ran off to trigger the alarm (which I am perfectly ok with, it was very IC, and Adrian makes a good fall guy in such situations). There was a point where we were stuck in the hallway and the rp started to drag, so I had Adrian destroy a few barriers with his wind ring to get us somewhere. All this was fine.

Then we got to the point where we found mremaknu's character, who was in the process of being butchered, to put it bluntly. We went about getting her off the chopping block, terribly injured but alive. Adrian's actions went ignored for a post or two, but I didn't mind. The leader of the mission wanted to leave immediately with our fallen comerade, but Adrian questioned his orders, thinking of the prisoners that remained in the facility (He had just found out it was a meat market for furs, concentration camp style. This was all very IC for him). There was a bit of shouting while we tried to decide what to do. Another teammember went off on his own to look for the prisoners, and Adrian compromised that he and another teammate would help the injured party out of the facility while he went to liberate the others.

Adrian and his cohort quickly encountered a problem. She didn't want to budge. She knew where they were keeping the prisoners. I suppose it was expected of Adrian to just zap her with his stun gun and carry her out, but she was terribly injured, he was shocked to see her like that, and he quite simply was not going to do it; not if it was left up to him. So after some discussion, we decided to let her lead us to the prisoners, in the hope that we could possibly direct the others there. The leader was very upset when she showed up, and understandably so. Adrian let her maul a guard (which is just barely IC for him, even giving the circumstances of facing down guards at a death camp) before zapping her under the direct orders from the higher up. He began freeing the prisoners and bandaging up the injured while two of his teammates set about searching for the source of the electrical interference that was keeping them from jaunting out. It was disabled and everyone was sent home; the mission had left Adrian a wreck, as in all his years of superheroing, he'd never seen a death camp before.

After the rp had ended, I had this niggling feeling that I had perhaps touched off some bad feelings during play. So I attempt to strike up conversation about the events, remarking on how emotional the characters got. Sure enough, I get a PM saying basically :"Thanks to your antics I didn't enjoy the rp. Thank you." from one of the players. I sort of have mixed feelings about this, as up until this point, I was having fun and I was pretty sure everyone else was too. (pretty sure. remember that niggling suspicion? oh, and one of our players dropped out before the end, but that could have been anything. It was rather late.) I tried not to get ahead of myself, even though I found myself doing my best to keep the rp from dragging. I suppose there's nothing for it but to speak to the other players about it and apologize. I know I'm not a very good GM, but I usually don't bomb rps unless if It's at an ungodly hour of the night and I'm half out of my mind. (This rp ran later than I was expecting by exactly 1 hour. Despite this, I felt 'on top of things' until right near the very end.)

So..thdrgngrl? I'm sorry. You were a great GM. In the future, I'll have to approach rps like this with a bit more caution and a bit more conformity.

crazyness

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:26:18 GMT

Ok, so it seems the person I was talking to the other night really did have a heart attack. He got back to me from a laptop in the hospital, after his AIM screenname at home had been running for a full 24 hours. (he left it running when he went to the emergency room last night). I guess it's a good thing I was able to recognize some of his symptoms and google the rest for him. He'll be laid up in the hospital for a week to recover, so I guess he's all right. Kind of scary though, nontheless.

So..hm. I don't know wether or not I want to attempt getting back into The Napping Cat's Dream forums. I tried it once about two years ago and it didn't work out, but i hear things have calmed down a bit and there aren't so many people running around willy-nilly over there any more. I've got two character concepts I'm thinking about using, though can't really decide which (if either) to use. Forum rps are nice and slow, so I'm pretty sure I can take on several at once, but I still worry about overextending myself. I don't know why. (The X-men rp forums I'm trying out were way slower than they first appeared. I don't know if this is because I'm new and everyone's scared of me, or what. If things remain that way, I can definately do another forum; but we'll have to wait and see what happens once I get some assistance getting my canon moving. Diddly squat is happening with my OC, so it may not be the place for him.)

Not much else to do except wonder why life is so crazy sometimes.

I was on my farm..with my mule..in color...When the Aliens Invaded!

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 14:51:29 GMT

There was interesting talk on the radio this morning. Apparently we had the largest UFO sighting in quite a while down here last night. Lots of folks called in to the police, the television stations, the radio stations...All talking about seeing some kind of weird lights in the sky.

The common description seems to be constant orange or blue lights that hover over one spot for a while, unmoving.

I didn't see anything myself, though that's probably because I was too busy staying up too late rping. Tiirreed. But it was fun though. I got to try out a new character concept, and participate in something that up until that point, hadn't really been done before in the community. Seems like lots of interesting ideas are going down in Gaming Guardians lately. Got to love it.