The Order of the Stick - by Rich Burlew

The Order of the Stick - by Rich Burlew

Anyone who has ever played D&D at all is probably going to recognize themselves or their party members in this online comic strip. It's hilarious!

Character gets hurt, cleric says "how bad is it?" Character holds out his spleen "I don't know, is this important?" *laugh*

The comic strip is up to #251 as of today, and seems to be an ongoing thing (since yesterday it was only up to #250). This one's in my favorites now. :)

Trying for a PS3

Ok, this time, I'm getting in early on this! I waited around too long for the ipod.

The folks that did the free ipod thing are offering a free PS3. You sign up, complete an offer, and start referring.

I chose to do the RealArcade offer, because I love games. If you want to jump on this one, go HERE! (please please please)

City Building Games

Mood: pretty good, actually
Music: Twilight Zone by Golden Earring

I love to play city building games. Something about the micromanaging is just so fun! Except, of course, when you forget simple things like, oh say, a firehouse. **sheepish grin**

So far, I've played Caesar II, Zeus, Poseidon, Emperor, and I'm now playing Pharaoh (with the Cleopatra expansion pack). All of them were made by Sierra/Impressions Games (I'm pretty sure). I have to say, out of all of those, my favorite is Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom. The roadblocks and gates work much, much better than the systems in the other games. Even the roadblocks in Pharoah don't work the same (they suck, actually). Emperor is just a far more precise game, in my book, and I love precision. I wish the other games of that nature had been made with that level of precision. I hate seeing my walkers go everywhere but where I want them to! Oh, and the graphics is another thing. I think Emperor has better building designs and such - the others are a little too cartoony (especially Zeus).

Civilization II and III, while not quite the same genre, are fun (admittedly, I haven't had time to dive too much into III yet, but what I did do looks good).

I haven't tried playing the Sims stuff yet. It just doesn't look all that much fun - I like managing goods and processes, not necessarily individuals. It seems to me that the Sims are more of an interactive soap opera (bleh).

I'm also a Rollercoaster Tycoon freak. I've tried other tycoon games, and none of them are on a level with that, although Railroad Tycoon II has come close. Cruise Ship Tycoon is a joke. I gave Golf Resort Tycoon to the kids.

Oh, and Total Annihilation: Kingdoms has been rather fun, too. I've also recently gotten my hands on Stronghold: Crusader, and it's alright - not fabulous, but alright.

I guess I'm in search of the next great detail-oriented game. Any suggestions?

Hint for Husbands

Mood: irritated, annoyed, and a little hurt
Music: Heart and Soul by T'Pau

OK. Here's a hint for all the husbands out there: women like to be, at the very least, acknowledged for the sexy creatures we are when we're flirting and trying to get some lovin'. Even if you're not in the mood, guys, let her know you still think she's sexy and great and all that.

Or risk being cut off. She'll find other ways to amuse herself.

Case in point. Hubby was in a somewhat playful mood, so I responded and got all playful back, and ended up with him behind me while I was dancing. Now, we had been having fun, but I wanted more, so I'm all rubbing the back of me all up on the front of him...and getting nothing. Absolute zero response. He might as well have been having a root canal.

Wow. Talk about a slap in the face. Not even a kiss and an 'I'm tired'. Ouch.

Not an isolated incident, either. I swear the man has almost zero sex drive, while I'm somewhere in the outer stratosphere. Talk about frustrating!

But to not even give me any feedback whatsoever...that's shitty. Pretty soon, I'm just going to stop even appearing interested, because it very rarely gets me anywhere. Maybe he should write a book 'how to kill your sex life in less than 5 years'.

Games People Play

Mood: Quacking up
Music: Rob Zombie

Pogo's done it again. They've come up with yet another mindless, thoroughly addictive waste of time. And I'm hooked, of course. It's called Quick Quack, and has wasted a large portion of my evening..and morning. Whatever you do, be sure you have a few hours before you sit down to try it, and that you have a good supply of your beverage and snack of choice handy.

Speaking of games, I have my kids addicted to http://www.starfall.com . It's a site that has reading and phonics games (shhh they're really lessons). I have a shortcut on the desktop of the computer they use, and they are allowed to play there any time they want. Surprisingly, they are there more often than they are on neopets. Colorful graphics, cool sounds, catchy phrases. The one I keep hearing the girls repeat is "when two vowels go a-walking, the first one does the talking". Hey, if it helps them get the vowel teams down, I'm all for it!

Anyone out there have more good games to play or good kid-friendly sites (that aren't based on TV shows)? Post 'em!

I'm just too stubborn for my own good...

Right now, I have a migraine. You know, the kind of I'm-dizzy-nauseated-somebody-please-split-my-skull-open-and-make-it-feel-better kind of thing. Am I laying down in the dark in a fetal position like I ordinarily would be under such conditions? Nope.

I have things I want to do, dammit, so I'm wearing my sunglasses to cut the light from the computer screen, taking obscene amounts of Excedrin, balancing an ice pack on the top of my head, and trying desperately to just keep going. I think if I stop and go lay down, I'll have nothing to take my mind off the pain, and that won't be pretty. I'm not letting this stupid migraine stop me from having time to myself!

What's so important? Why, gaming, of course! MUDding, MUSHing, and MUCKing about. My characters might be a little crabby tonight, but that might make killing dragons and such all the more satisfying. And in the more social arenas, I might manage to be ruthless and start an all-out war. Sounds fun to me!

How appropriate is it that I'm watching Dungeons & Dragons? ::grin::

Yeah, I'm one of -those- types. Deal with it.

Oh....one cool thing before I go. I was playing with name generators (google 'name generator' and have fun), and got the following:

• Opal Wave Dancer
• Bithore the Ash Maker (Sky Blue Dragon)
• Nienna Elensar
• Black Jenny Roberts
• Kali Flame Hawk
• Scaju Jocor

The most interesting/odd one was when I entered my old married name in and got...Lucid Nightmare. How appropo is that?

Yeah, I Know. I Missed Y'all, Too.

Mood: Goofy
Music: you kidding? The kids are asleep. Shhh......don't breathe too loud, I'm stealing some me time.

Good grief it's been eons since I last posted. ::rolling eyes::

Time is one of those elusive things for me. It just sort of slips through my fingers. One minute it's Sunday afternoon and the next it's Thursday night. At least, it seems that way. Ask me what day of the week it is, and unless it's cheerleading season (which it is right now, which is why I'm so dag-blamed busy), I really have to think hard about it. Hell, every year I spend all of May feeling like it's June, and all of July going "what happened to June?"...June is just greasy, I've come to believe. Slips right by with nary a squeak.

Well, we had some excitement a couple of weeks ago. I had just slipped into bed at 4am on a Sunday morning after spending all night MUD/MUSHing (google it, ok?), and not three minutes after I lay down, I heard a noise outside. It was a soft "thunk", and then about 10 seconds later, another "thunk". Nothing loud. Nothing that far out of the ordinary..but I got up and looked out the window to see. Next thing I did was hiss "Holy shit! Honey, get the gun - there's someone in your car!"

I've never seen anyone move quite that fast in my life. I swear, the man jumped right out of bed from a sound sleep, got the gun down, loaded it, and was out the front door in 15 seconds! He jumped the steps, landed on the walkway, and fired a warning shot. The two guys went running off into the woods. Long story short, they didn't get anything, and the sheriff's deputy found one of the guys' sneakers at the property line. Someone had a nasty, painful run through the woods!

About a week later, the sheriff's office called and told us that many of our neighbors had reported items missing that Sunday. These guys had been roaming the neighborhood. They just picked the wrong house when they hit us. I just looked at my husband and said "So are you going to gripe anymore about my staying up 'til all hours of the morning?" He didn't have much to say on that count....

Of course lots more has happened in the last couple of months, but I'm not going to fit it all in right now. It'll keep.

This Karamel Sutra ice cream, however, won't last nearly so long! Yummy!

Strange Nights = Bad Days

Mood: irritated and raw
Music: Evanescence

I don't think I got much actual sleep last night. My mind was waaaay to active. Seems like the weird and disturbing dreams started the moment my head hit the pillow and lasted all through the night. There were dreams within dreams within dreams, and in none of them could I be sure whether I was awake or asleep. It was like trying not to drown, the struggle to surface to true wakefulness. I spent the night fighting dreams, and it's left me feeling very angry. I wish I boxed or something, because I feel the need now to physically beat the crap outta something. I feel that way when the old demons have been haunting me, too. The desire to get the pain and rage out outweighs the fear of getting hurt. But punching a pillow or a bag just doesn't work for me. I need to meet resistance, and sometimes even get my butt kicked (it's humbling). Ultimately, when I've exhausted myself physically and emotionally, there is a sort of peace, finally. Even if I can't "win" the fight, I feel better for having tried. I know there's probably some mental connection between my years of feeling helpless/unable to fight and the desire to fight and prove to myself that I can now. But I don't feel like self-analysis right now.

Since I don't have anybody willing to let me try to fight them, I'll have to settle for the next thing that will somewhat settle me down. Music. The harder the metal, the angrier, the louder, the better to start out with. Megadeth, Disturbed, Linkin Park, etc. Then I seem to step it down, and sometimes I actually make it back to something cheerful. Today I'll settle for not feeling like my emotional skin has been pulled off and left me so raw. Today I'll settle for reaching the point where the rage melts to tears.

God, Guilt, and Absolution

Earlier tonight I went down with a migraine that hit me like a freight train. I was gaming at the time, and it was all I could do to stow my stuff and exit before it blinded me.

Anyway, while I was laying in the dark trying to remember to keep breathing, I started thinking (not much else to do). In the game, I had been talking with my college friend, D (see previous post), and I had told him how lucky he is to have such strength of faith. I mean, the guy moved all the way to Israel!

I began examining (as I sometimes do) my own beliefs, and wondering why it's so hard for me to have any sort of faith in ....well, God. And in my slow process of picking through the rubble that is me, I think I have an inkling why. I'll try to explain it, but it will probably come out more simplified than it was when I came to this conclusion.

Take a child whose father is beating her, whose mother is mentally/emotionally cruel, and who is being sexually abused, and send that child to Sunday School, where she is told that God made the world and God sees all and that God loves us and will protect us. Talk about confusion! The message I ultimately came away with was that I must have done something terrible and was being punished by God for it. It was the only thing that made sense to me. So, along with the guilt that is common in abused children, I carried the guilt for some unknown awful thing that I was being tormented for. I think some part of me still looks for an absolution that will never come.

Later, I found that there were people who didn't believe in God (and hey - they weren't struck down, either!). For the granddaughter of a Baptist pastor, this was an amazing bit of news! After consideration of this new view, I started gravitating toward the agnostic side of things. There just couldn't be a God, because what kind of God allows children to experience what I did?

So, that's where I'm stuck now. I'm still not sure if there is or isn't a God. I still feel like I need to be punished and absolved of something that was never my fault to begin with. I am still seeking that truth that will ultimately set me free.

So yeah, D is VERY lucky he has such strong faith, whether it turns out to be true or not.

Old Friends, Birthdays, and Other Happenings

Yesterday I got the weirdest urge to play in a MUD (that's Multi-User Dungeon for those that didn't know). I had played in one a few years ago, but stopped playing when I got too busy. I couldn't remember the name of the MUD I'd played in, or the name of my character, or the names of any of my friends in the MUD (except Belgarath - that name stuck in my head, but only because I like the books).

So, anyway, I started looking up MUDs, and in a list a half-mile long, spotted the name of the MUD I'd been in before. It was one of those 'recognize it when you see it' things. So I went on as a Guest (I still couldn't remember my own darned character name) to look around. Of course, I've completely forgotten the commands to do just about anything, so I sat in Central Park for a while. I walked around a little bit. Somehow, I ran into my friend from college (D), that I hadn't talked to in years! We spent some time catching up, and he updated me on what the folks I used to hang out with were doing. I found out that my old roommate is now in a state mental facility, but the rest of the gang seems to be doing well. D moved to Israel, so it was the middle of the night for him while we were talking.

I just find it amazing that he and I connect and talk ever few years or so. It's really neat and fun! We emailed pics - I sent some of myself and my kids, he sent one of himself in Israel with beautiful old buildings in the background. He says I haven't changed. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I mean, does that mean I am stuck looking like something from 1990 or that I'm aging well? lol

I don't seem to get in touch with anyone else from high school or college. Then again, I really don't really want to hear from the high school crowd. I don't go to class reunions or anything. I figure that everything between age 0-17 is a chunk of my life I'd rather forget! Sometimes it all seems like a nightmare that happened to someone else, and maybe, in a way, it did. I'm not the same person I was then, and many of the memories seem so...surreal. ::deep breath:: OK....change of subject.

Today is Little Red's birthday. She's all excited, of course, and I like to make a big deal of birthdays. She's exempt from chores today, and can pick what we have for dinner tonight. She pretty much rules the roost today, but that's neat. She's the middle child, and she sometimes feels left out - not young enough to be babied like Little Man, not old enough to be able to do what She-Who-States-the-Obvious is allowed to do. So today, it's all about Little Red. :)

Last night, the Queen of Crochet (my best friend) and I made one of our late-night WalMart runs to go get Little Red's cake, ice cream, and presents. I was looking for a DVD, and the electronics section was torn apart for floor cleaning. At least, that's what I think it was. There were three people scraping the floor, and about nine people standing around watching them. I had to climb over several racks to get to what I was looking for, but I found it in spite of them! I also got her a book and two computer game sets, since I recently put one of the spare computers in their room. I would have gone for something more along the line of toys, but really, I couldn't bring myself to get them more junk! They share a room, and they have too much as it is (at least until the garage sale QoC and I are having in three weeks).

Cheer season starts in two weeks. I don't think I want a squad this year (dealing with obnoxious parents sucks - that's a whole 'nother post). I want to do what I did last year, and be Stunt Coordinator for the competition squads. I want to sent a squad to Nationals this year! Last year we made it to Regionals, and placed well, but not quite high enough to go to Nationals. For this year, I've got several new stunt ideas, and one killer opening sequence! ::grin:: We have a dance team this year, and I've been asked to help out there, too. This stuff is just way too fun!