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[Nov. 26th, 2009|10:59 am] |
More questions, this time from keldaryth
1) What attracted you to the background of 'spoiled youngest female child recently returned from a convent'?
Well, we were all at the character creation session and trying to figure out what characters to play. Some had already chosen, and the rest of us were looking through archetypes to try and find something we liked.
Mine ended up going
"Gunslinger.. just did that in Shadowrun"
"Huckster.. playing a mage in DnD, and we've already got one in the party"
"Mad Scientist.. fun possibility, but we already have one that would do a far better job than me, and we don't want more than one in the party if we don't want to blow ourselves up two sessions in"
You get the idea.
After a while of "Well, what *havn't* you played before?" we ended up with the family's youngest sister, sent to a convent for showing too much interest in the occult/otherworldly things.
Was originally supposed to be a character with minimal combat abilities who mostly took care of the mundane things that most PCs ignore (food for eg), but quickly realised that she needed to make herself rather more useful or be considered a burden to the party. Enter the Voodooist..
2) If you won $20,000,000 in the lottery, what would you do?
Double-check that I wasn't hallucinating
Pick myself up off the floor
Check again
Send a large amount to parents so that they can stop worrying about taking time off work while Dad recovers
Buy an apartment in the city
Put a large amount into savings
There would no doubt be other things, but those are foremost in my mind
3) What is it that attracts you to a rules-intensive, power gaming style of play in DnD?
Well, it's less a 'that kind of play attracts me' and more a 'DnD is the system that I know best and powergaming is basically mandatory in DnD'.
My first intro to DnD was very low-powered, a bunch of us testing out the system in High School. No optimisation there.
Then I hit Uni (Canberra), and play a session or two of a game there, where even with just a few splat books in the mix the power curve goes strange places and you kinda fell behind or got into dire straights if you weren't at least partially optimised. It's hard to have fun when you're always on the brink of death.
Then UniMelb comes along and I join the Living Arcanis/Greyhawk groups. And quickly find myself bashed against every wall I can find, beaten senseless and altogether crushed by modules written specifically for powergamers, and quickly realised that you're a liability in those games if you're *not* twinked to the max.
Add to these experiences the fact that third ed DnD is basically built from the ground up to be abused, broken, perverted and exploited, where you can flat out guarantee that in any game there will be at least one player who is massively twinked out, and my DnD playstyle has basically turned into an arms-race.
It's far from my preferred playstyle and it's not a system that I really like that much. I hate the gulf between low and high levels. Joe average lvl 1 commoner has an 80% chance of being killed by Fluffy, his pet cat, and is 300 times less durable than a high level character. I really don't like the stupid amount of incredibly convoluted options and changes, and the absurd things that you can do in the rules.
There is a perfectly legal 5th level character capable of conquering the multiverse in a split second, and there is a perfectly legal moderate level build where a guy does a longjump in front of the enemy's army and turns them all into fanatical followers willing to die for him.
So to sum up, my powergaming in DnD is more of a "It's hard to have fun when you're dead, and unless you're powergamed to have all bases covered, you're horridly easy to kill" than me actually liking making overpowered characters.
Characters that are invincible and awesome at everything are fun thought experiments, but would be boring as all hell to play.
4) Of all the characters you've played, which ones have intrigued/touched you the most?
Hrm.. this is quite hard, I think it's difficult to be intrigued or touched by a character that you control.
Certainly Lily (my 'spoiled youngest female child recently returned from a convent') has been an interesting one to play, trying to think about how a certain personality would react to a certain situation.
My first Shadowrun character (before the group that I used to play in decided that it was more fun to turn every character that I made into a running joke and doing their level best to piss me off) was likewise a fun one, though that was more of a learning how the underhanded setting works than any special meaning of the character itself.
5) What would be your criteria for living a 'good' life? (interpret however you like)
Having a comfortable amount of income, an active social life, close friends, an enjoyable job and a good place to live.
I'm partway there :) |
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| Question Meme |
[Nov. 24th, 2009|07:26 pm] |
Leave me a comment saying "Be Excellent to Each Other"
I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.
These questions are from sylver_spiders.
1. What is it about classic rock that you enjoy versus other music?
Good question, it's a little hard to identify.
The fact that, unlike what seems to me to be a lot of other genres of music, you can actually hear the lyrics of the song, and the lyrics are understandable, not just screaming or yelling (well... most of the time...).
I also tend to find more memorable hooks and awesome riffs than in most other genre of music.
2. What do you think is the most evil website in existence?
Hrm.. depends on the kind of evil you're looking for I suppose.
www.microsoft.com, there's plenty of corporate evil there :)
If you're talking sheer time-destroying, soul-sucking, brain-altering evil, can't go past http://tvtropes.org :)
Their page on Australia is quite amusing... http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LandDownunder
3. Assuming you had the means to afford it, what sort of place would you most want to live?
Another tough one. It's a bit of a toss-up between a large manor of some kind overlooking the sea, preferebly in somewhere like Scotland. And a highrise appartment in the city, complete with spa, pool, etc :)
4. What would you like for Christmas?
At the moment, no more complications cropping up for my dad and him making a proper recovery. Quite possibly I'll come up with something more material and selfish at a later date :)
5. Tell me about something you have seen or experienced that you considered beautiful.
Hrm.. well, this one was a little while ago now..
A few years ago (well ok, it may have been five or six), a friend of mine from high school and myself took a road trip to Philip Island. I can't remember for the life of me what triggered us deciding to head off, likely a "Yeah, no school, no Uni, let's do something!" situation.
Anyways.
I'd gone for a walk at dusk, and found myself standing on a rocky outcropping above the waves, oddly warm breeze for the coast, that cool salty smell of the coast, and one of the most awesome sunsets I've ever seen mirroring itself in the water.
Just one of those moments where you go "Wow.. this moment.. can I save this one please?" |
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| Update |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|03:15 pm] |
Have spoken to Dad.
He actually sounds quite good, and says that other than feeling a bit weak & tired, he feels Ok.
How much of that is truth and how much is bravado I don't really know, but I guess if he's Ok enough to actually answer the phone and put a brave face on things that's something.
Mum doesn't *think* the kidney has disconnected, simply because if it has, he'd presumably be bloating as urine just flowed freely into his abdomen. However that thought is pure hope and conjecture, nothing concrete.
The one piece of solid good news is that they finally found him a bed, and he's now setup properly in the Albury Private Hospital rather than being 'loose' in the A&E area.
On a completely different topic, have picked up the latest book in the "Great Brick" series. Will be interesting to see how this one is, once I eventually get a chance to read it. |
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| And the bad news keeps on coming |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|10:10 am] |
Update from mum.
The radiographer can't see whether the left uterer is still attached to the kidney or not, the infection (they think caused by backwash from the neobladder) may have caused it to become disconnected.
If this is the case they'll need to go back in for more surgery, which Dad really can't handle at this point. He's lost over 11kilo, he doesn't have any reserves left.
They're still struggling to bring his blood sugar down, and there's a high chance that this will turn him from a diet controlled diabetic to needing insulin injections daily.
And to top it all off, there are no beds available in Albury or Wangaratta hospital so he's been on a rack in Accident & Emergency for the last 17 hours.
:( |
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| Fuck you world |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|12:28 am] |
Yeah, you heard me, fuck you world.
Dad has a surface infection where the neobladder would exit his body, and a kidney infection causing massive blood sugar spikes (from 4-6 average to 27) and high temperature.
He's back in hospital, hopefully antibiotics will fix it and they won't need to do surgery to remove it.
Also, the metal underside of the sink in our bathroom has somehow had its glue dissolved, meaning we had a water leak into the cupboard when I washed my hands, which came out through the light fittings in the kitchen!!
Not
Fucking
Happy |
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| We're Back |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|08:46 pm] |
Well. We are now back from the Gold Coast :)
Thursday was quite fun, though Snorkling is surprisingly claustrophobic to begin with. Fun once you get used to it though, and yay for getting to pet fish :)
Thursday night was Draculas, which was sheer utter awesome!!
The food was... Ok, the show was fantastic. Great mix of random live comedy and standard theater. Laura & I were on one of the two tables that flank the front of the stage, so we had a great view. We were mildly worried that our table was going to be "Comedic Ribbing" target, since we had Tasmanians on the table and you know how easy they are to tease (I believe "Welcome to television and cutlery" was used), but we just couldn't compete with the other flanking table.
They had a dreadlocked New Zealander named "Jazzrock", nothing competes with that!!
Friday was Dreamworld, which was.. reasonable at least. Went on a couple of roller coasters (I found out that I'm actually less freaked out by going upside down than I am by going down a steep incline, likely because in the latter case I lift partially out of the seat).
And then saturday was Minigolf, Hard Rock Cafe for lunch, and a plane flight home, landing around 8:30pm.
(Incidently, on our flight over there, our four stewardesses were Carly, Carli, Karli and Carly (spelling unknown). We were most amused)
Anyways. I am now back in sunny (Humbug) Melbourne :) |
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| Holiday Update |
[Nov. 11th, 2009|06:34 pm] |
Time for another Holiday Update :D
Tuesday was Movie World day :)
First off, I should probably mention the meeting thingy with the holiday club sales pitch person mentioned in the last entry.
Went surprisingly well. Frankly laid out that I was out of holidays due to dad being in hospital and Laura was going back to full time uni, and her reaction was basically "Right.. I'm not going to go through this pitch since it's obviously not a viable option for you. Here's a brochure with all the info for if your situation changes".
Easy peasy.
On the other hand, Movie World was a hell of a letdown.
Ten rides, five for little kids, two broken down (Wild Wild West, and Lethal Weapon broke down when Laura & I were standing at the chain-link gate about to go in), one incredibly lame (One of those "Sit in this thing that feels like it's moving and watch the video screen" ones), and two fun rides. The rest of the park was overpriced souvenier shops and a *tonne* of cafes and eateries.
The Stunt Driver show was fun, and there were a couple of other amusing things, but overall, nothing compared to Wet & Wild and Seaworld.
Last night we went along to an awesome seafood restureant and had a huge seafood platter. After which we then walked the 4ks back to the resort because... well, because we felt like it, and we kinda needed to work off all the food.
Today we were supposed to be going Snorkling and Kayaking, but unfortunately the tour company had a death in the family and so is closed for a week. Instead today was a bumming around and relaxing/recharging day, and we'll be going snorkling tomorrow (followed by Draculas!).
And now, for your viewing amusement, a couple of photos from the trip so far:
( Read more... ) |
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| Gold Coasting! |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|08:16 pm] |
Well, it turns out that the resort *does* have wireless, but only in the library & games room, the signal doesn't extend beyond that.
Has been quite good so far, averaging a nice tasty 25 degrees, and around 50% humidity. So much for QLD being warmer than the south eh?
Sunday was Seaworld. Loads of fun, dolphin shows, a couple of rides, a tank full of Manta Rays, good stuff all around.
Those Dolphins are far stronger than I thought they were, I knew they could drag a human being, I didn't know they were strong enough for a human being to use one of them as a self-propelled surfboard (even if half the keepers were incapable of keeping their balance), or strong enough for two of them to boost one of the keepers a good half meter out of the water.
World's most hilarious 'plot' for a roller coaster was there as well. "There is a trapped seal and a storm coming in, you guys need to go rescue it". I have no idea how we did so, unless there were also sharks and we were being used as a distraction. Either way, dodgy!!
We then proceeded to spend a not inconsiderable amount of time trying to track down a fish & chippery. You'd really think that, being the gold coast, there would be a couple of decent fish & chip take away places around.
Nope! Loads of kebab places, pizza places, korean BBQ huts, japanese & chinese restureants, I'm pretty sure I saw a lebanese place as well (I think that one sold pizza too), but no fish & chippery.
In the end we found a "Seafood Emperor" (I think that was it) restureant that also did take away. So not what I was looking for!! Where are the "Wrap your order up in newspaper and head off" places!!! Grrr.
Today was Wet & Wild Water World. Great fun!! It started raining not long after we got there, and was bloody cold while raining, and for a short while after.
Then the rain cleared and it warmed up slightly (as in we hit 25 degrees), and things were awesome. No crowds!! We were shocked if we had a ten minute wait for a ride!!
We had enough time to do everything twice (and some of them three times).
Some of those rides/slides are damned freaky. Nothing like something called the "Kamakaze" that starts off with a 70degree drop that is pretty much freefall. Several others there were nearly as sharp on the dropoff.
Incidently, going backwards down some of these rides? Definitely freaky! (and the look on Laura's face when *she* was the one going backwards was truly evil-laughter inducing. Sheer Terror! It's what every GM loves to see).
Tomorrow is Movie World, and before that some coffee thing with a representitive from the holiday timeshare company thingy that we're down here with (parents are members). Ostensibly it's to give us a voucher for cheap accomodation to any of their resorts in the next 12 months, but I'm pretty sure it'll also be a sales pitch, or company pitch of some kind, as well, but hey, it'll get us a voucher for up to six people for a week in a resort for $100 per person, so we'll be patient, appear to listen attentively, and then claim needing to rush off to Movie World to make sure that we aren't stuck there long.
And now, time for us to head off and make dinner. Chicken, Smoked Salmon, Mussels & various veggies. Should be a tasty salad!
(Oh, and Haloumi too!)
Have fun all. There shall be another report.. sometime in the future. Hopefully the near future. |
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| Arrived we have!! |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|06:52 pm] |
Laura and I have arrived in QLD!
Unfortunately contact is going to be sporadic thanks to the resort not having a wireless connection and me getting a generic "Cannot connect to network" error when trying to connect to any of the unsecured wireless networks that I can pick up.
We're currently downstairs on their "$2 for 15 minutes internet" computer trying to locate a fish and chippery. There are none nearby. What kind of coastal area is this???!!!!
Other than that, going well, thought someone else had taken my bag when we got off the plane, but no, it was just hard to spot amongst the dozen or so identical bags.
Going well, some photos taken, can try uploading once we have better internet access.
Have fun all!!! |
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| Question for the Music Editatingly Inclinded |
[Nov. 2nd, 2009|10:36 pm] |
Yes... that word probably didn't make any sense.
Anyways, any of you know if it's possible to take a song and remove the lyrics from it?
And if so. How? |
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| Dad Update |
[Oct. 26th, 2009|11:20 pm] |
Operation went well, no complications and the surgeon is quite happy with how it went.
Obviously we'll need to wait a bit before we get the results of the biopsy so that we know if the cancer moved out of the bladder in the time since the last scan, but for now, things look good. |
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| Dad Update |
[Oct. 25th, 2009|11:44 pm] |
Dad went into hospital earlier today, surgery is scheduled for 1:30pm tomorrow (Monday, so probably today by the time you're reading this).
Depending on how things go, it's a 5-8 hour operation.
Fingers are crossed. |
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| Back on the air!! |
[Oct. 6th, 2009|06:23 pm] |
Had some... issues with my computer last night. Namely, my power supply went kaput sometime yesterday.
Have now replaced it with new one bought in my lunch break, and huzzah! Computer is back up and running :) |
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| Home now |
[Sep. 8th, 2009|10:23 pm] |
Well, I'm now back in Melbourne.
Now for a few weeks of work etc punctuated by dad's tests & surgery.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. |
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| Dad update |
[Sep. 7th, 2009|11:35 am] |
Met with the Doc to discuss the results of the pathology tests today.
It's not good.
Cut for details.
( Read more... ) |
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| Dad's Home |
[Sep. 3rd, 2009|08:14 pm] |
Dad's now finally home. Huzzah! :)
A bit sore, rather tired, and sick of hospitals, but other than that quite good.
Now the waiting game until Monday when we hear the results. |
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| Dad Update - Not so good |
[Sep. 1st, 2009|09:47 pm] |
Not so good news today.
Dad spoke to the Doc this morning, and while they got most, they weren't able to get all the tumors out yesterday, there were just too many.
We also this morning thought that he'd be able to come home today, but after the catheter was out he wasn't able to pee, and they found when they put the catheter back in that he'd had blood clots form, hence the unable to pee.
This is apparently rather normal and most of the nurses would have been shocked if he *had* been able to come home today.
Fingers crossed he'll be back home tomorrow.
Then we just have to wait. The tumors have been sent to pathology for testing and we've got an appointment with the Doctor Monday morning to discuss how bad it is, how malevolent the tumors are, and what our options are to proceed from here. |
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| Home now |
[Aug. 30th, 2009|10:20 pm] |
Am now home in Wangaratta at my parents place.
Dad goes into hostpital tomorrow, and surgury will either be tomorrow arvo or possibly Tuesday morning.
Fingers are crossed, will keep people posted.
In good news, my idea to bring a pile of fresh seafood with me turned out to be a very good one. Seafood boulebouse (spelling no doubt wrong) and oysters for dinner. Tasty |
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