Merther's Rant

Aedan 300

2007-06-01T04:06:00.000-07:00

I've made some changes to the Aedan 300 pic. Here's two more. Some people thought it was supposed to be a superman thing instead of 300 so....

2007-05-31T05:12:00.000-07:00

What should the caption be for this pic?

My Baby's 3D Ultrasound

2006-10-31T17:46:00.000-08:00

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Optical Illusion, pretty cool

2006-09-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/22716/Black_And_White_To_Color_Optical_Illusion_You_Won_t_Believe_Your_Eyes

2006-09-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

My baby's Ultrasound at 19.5 weeks. It's a boy!

It's a Boy!!

2006-09-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

So people have had their guesses people from work thought it was a boy where everyone else thought it was a girl, but it's a Boy. On August 31st we went to Oakville Diagnostic Clinic and had our 19 week ultrasound. We had it recorded on video and near the end of it we saw the bits and it was most obviously a boy. Becca and I are really excited because now we can concentrate on names. It sounds silly a bit but now that we know what sex it is we've become even a little more attached then before. It makes it more real because otherwise it was just some faceless paracite. Well, a little more then that. If you have name sujestions post em. Now we're just waiting to see what our good friends Adam and Jen are having.

Fightpractice

2006-06-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

After my recent experiences at Melee I realize that I gotta get back out to fight practices. The reasons why I stopped going were because my armor really sucked and was painful to wear and the winter site was 2 hours away instead of the summer site which was 45min away. So I was pretty rusty this weekend although I did manage to get a 20% kill average over the fights. Singles are more difficult though so I gotta get back to work on that. To improve my armor I'm thinking that if I replace the leggs with lacross shin and knee pads and add metal cops to the knee parts with flanges to extend to the side of the knee. Also, I could sorta copy Trembrand's upper body armor style that would minimize weight. Unfortunatly I don't remember what protection his would give the hips and I know that the thighs wouldn't work the way I want. For the leggs the problem I have is with the whole set being held up by my belt and with all that steel pulling down it pains my hips so that eventually I can't walk. Not to mention that the knee parts are in entirely the wrong spot. Another thing that I could do would be to get a set like what Tark wears. it's a coat of plates that covers from thigh up. Since it's a coat it wouldn't have any weight on my hips at all. I'd really just need that coat, the shin/knee pieces, and new vambraces. That is the ideal so far but it costs money that I can't really afford right now. What would be the best would be the first option like Trembrand's armor but somehow figure out how to not have the leggs including the thigh attached to the thigh. So I'll still be going to fight practice without the new armor but perhaps I can work on it sooner.

So Here's the thing...

2006-06-13T15:32:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna actually use this bloody blog page now. I mean why not? Although nobody really reads it now, eventually someone might and when that happens it could be fun :p. My last post was in april. So a new post is long overdue. Especially since important stuff has happened since. My wife and I are pregnant now. And along those lines I now understand why people say "we" when they say "We are pregnant." So far it's taken alot of work on my part. Sure SHE is the one who is actually pregnant and is going through all the changes but I have to take care of her and make sure she is a comfortable as possible and that she has all that she needs. The first trimester involves alot of hormonal changes so there can be mood swings, which she is controlling very well by the way, and she is fatigued all the time and is perpetually queezy and can't be around things that smell. So I'm taking care of as much cleaning and cooking as possible. I don't mind a bit really because she's carrying the critter and I want everything to go as smoothly as it can. Also, my pet rat Rosemary died. She was pretty special so that was tough. She left her sister Honeydew with us though so that is gonna be one spoiled rat. I sent my laptop off for repairs and it's finally back and working finally, although it will probably heat up again and cause the same problem as before. But then when it's sent away I'll be able to get a new laptop from the store because of it's leamon policy. I forget if I've mentioned this before but I have a graphic arts diploma and I finally wana get into the field which means that I have to have a good portfolio so I'm working on that. Also I really have to update my website making skills cause all I know is html and that just wont cut it. I think that's it for now. I'll be posting more offten even if it's just some odd stuff I've found on the net.

Ignorance

2006-04-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

gwinnettdailypost.com

Hey check it out, it's another ignorant twit who would rather bitch first then actually read what she's concerned about. I hate it when this type of crap happens. Now I know that she could just have easily seen the movies of it but based on her oppinion of the books what do you think the likely hood of that is? Probably saw one trailer and that's it, she's off on a tirade. However, you do have to respect one thing. She is taking responsibility as a parent to monitor what her kids watch and read. Although she herself is a little misguided. She probably just refused to explain the difference between fantasy and reality to her kids, or perhaps she doesn't even know herself. I know that the whole fantasy/reality can be a little bit of a pain in the but for kids. I have a friend who's child had difficulties distinguising between them and it caused some problems like the kid stole all his moms jewelery because he thought he was a hobbit and had to protect them. But you see if you don't explain stuff like that to the kids early on then eventually they will expose themselves to fantasy later and be forced to deal with the issue then. The mother is only delaying the inevitable. It would make the kids less messed up if she discussed the matter with them in their child years and thus impressionable. Instead she is just breading ignorance, and we all know how the world could use more of that.

shmivejournal: cadbury egg cake

2006-04-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

shmivejournal: cadbury egg cake

Experiment: Replace ordinary eggs in cake recipe with Cadbury Cream Eggs and observe results.

Hypothesis: THIS IS GOING TO BE SO AWESOME!

Cthulhu Plush Slippers - Toy Vault - Cthulhu - Clothing at Entertainment Earth

2006-04-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

Cthulhu Plush Slippers - Toy Vault - Cthulhu - Clothing at Entertainment Earth

I MUST HAVE THESE!!!!

2006-03-28T13:49:00.000-08:00

It's a palmtree. One of the short ones that they have on the beach at the resort we were at.

2006-03-28T13:48:00.000-08:00

It's a coconut that I drew in the Dominican Republic.

2006-03-28T13:47:00.000-08:00

Isn't this pic strange? I drew it on the plane home from the Dominican Republic.

Impact Lab - Amazing 3D Sidewalk Art Photos

2006-03-10T13:26:00.000-08:00

Impact Lab - Amazing 3D Sidewalk Art Photos

2006-01-30T20:40:00.000-08:00

I drew this house at drawahouse.com which is a site that sees your personality in the house you draw. Here's what it said about me.

Your house tells the world that you ought to be a leader. You are a freedom lover and a strong person. You are shy and reserved. If you've drawn a cross on each of windows, you always want to live alone. Once you have a problem, you need a friend with you. Your life is always full of changes.

When it comes to love, you shut yourself off. It's difficult to win your heart because you have decided to keep your feelings deep inside. You see the world as it is, not as you believe it should be.

You are not a romantic person by nature. We also see that you are sensuous, sexual, and privately passionate. You don't think much about yourself.

Just give me my damn book!

2006-01-09T12:34:00.000-08:00

OK... I've ordered the first year collection book from my favorite web comic artist. He has contracted Starline Multimedia to handle orders, and they in turn have Vault Distribution send the book out. I ordered the book on Nov 18th, it was processed on Nov 21st. After around 3 weeks of anxiously anticipating getting my book in the mail I went to their website to see what the hold up was. It turns out that they had just put a new news article on their site stating that Vault distribution has breached their contract and has been unable to supply books for the last 2-3 months. They go on to say that I should email them at their two email addresses to determine if my order was lost and then I should email the artist himself to get my book because he has a stockpile of books he can send out. So I emailed Starline to see if it was lost or not. I get the message that their inbox is full but the server will keep trying. 3 days later the server gives up. On the 2nd of December I email them again, it goes through. No response. On the 12th of December I email both addresses again. No response. On the 28th I email both addresses again and also I email the artist himself. No response. It also turns out the artist is on vacation. That's understandable, he can do that. But I demand some recognition from Starline. So I phone the creditcard, they say that they can't cancel the order, it's too late. They can however, do a legal dispute to get my money back.... My $30. Doesn't seem that worth it does it? But I want my money or my book. Should I continue with the pestering emails in a vain hope that something will happen or should I continue the legal dispute for my piddly amount of cash? Keep in mind that I don't want anything negative towards the artist, just Vault for not getting me my book and Starline for not freeking responding to any damned email I sent. I'm gonna send another one I think, threatening the legal dispute. Maybe they'll pay attention to strong arm tactics. Seems like that's the only thing any body listens to any more. You try to be nice by not ripping em a new ahole the first time you try to establish a solution. Maybe I should next time. Just get right into it. But then I wouldn't have the self satisfaction of being such a nice fucking guy. :P

Year off

2005-12-06T08:36:00.000-08:00

Well I've been taking this year off school to regroup and form a tactical plan, durring which there are things that I must do before I can go back and just like everything else I must wait past the extent of my patience before I can get any progress. At this point it seems likely that I'll have to take an additional year off unless things pick up. I'm thinking of trying to start up a webcomic of my own soon. Problem is deciding on a specific style for what I want. I've got some ideas and some sketches but I'm not entirly satisfied with any of them. It's difficult to simplify your art style to create something that is fast enough to make so that it can be done either daily, biweekly, or whatever, but also having a style that looks good enough according to your tastes. At this point I'm pretty much teaching myself. It works but it's slow going. I need something like back in the Burlington art centre where they've got models to draw every two days. Stuff like that costs money though. In order to get anywhere in life alot of money has to be "invested" in classes. Damn it.

Attainable New Years Resolutions 2006

2005-12-04T21:02:00.000-08:00

1 Eat 10 hotdogs in one sitting
2 File my taxes as early as possible ( to get my refund)
3 Get the Cthulhu game when it comes out on PC
4 Read a book
5 Watch all the seasons of next generation ( not necisarily in a row)
6 Eat the colour purple
7 Get to work early ... at least once
8 Go on a fun roadtrip of no less than 100km
9 Watch the Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe ( Maybe I can count this as reading a book since it's based on a book?)
10 Draw a picture
11 Get out to Fight practice
12 Become Chaotic good ( In my D&D campaign)
13 Sleep in on a Sunday
14 Go on Vacation to some place hot and all inclusive
15 Pet a duck

2005-11-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

Check it out. Betcha can't guess what this is! :P

2005-11-08T21:25:00.000-08:00

My first painting. Own it for $6209.00

2005-11-07T15:45:00.000-08:00

This is a picture I drew of my wife. I haven't put it up on my other site yet.

2005-10-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

well I'm pretty sure I'm dead :p

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!

2005-10-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Well. After having read may of H.P. Lovecraft's stories and also having recently finished another collected works book, I found myself in chapters looking for a new one. Unfortunatly they were out of more Lovecraft. I said "No problem, I'm a lover of fantasy and history. I'll just find a new book there." Well damn it if I didn't look for over a hour to find something remotly interesting to no avail. Wow vampires... as if that isn't an over done theme. Swords, magic, and avarice? Nah, after a while they're pretty much the same. Although it is hard to tell the quality from the cover and the short clip at the back. And as an aside... You know what? I really hate when the back of a book has reviews of the book instead of the synopsis. I don't give a fuck what some ahole from some stupid newspaper thinks. What is the damn book about?!.. Bastards. Anyway... So I go to history of which Chapters lacks anything worth reading. I can't find anything that I want to read. As if I had already read the best stories words had to offer and might as well give up reading cause I'll never find anything as good. Luckly an attendant told me that they did have some copies of more Lovecraft books that I haven't read but they couldn't find them. However, they did manage to find an "inspired by..." type of book called "Children of Cthulhu". Basically it's a collection of stories written by authors who were inspired by Lovecraft. I already have one of those but this was a new one. I bought it and hoped that it was acceptable. I told the people at chapters to keep looking cause soon enough I'll be back in looking for those other books and you don't want to get a horror fan mad. :P

Do you jog?

2005-10-18T05:57:00.000-07:00

What movitates you to jog? Personally I hate jogging, it's so damn boring. I've got ADD and can't concentrate on anything let alone... oh wow look... a car went by my house infront of my window... agian...So, what was I saying? Oh ya, I dislike jogging so I need imput on what you people do to get yourself up in the morning to jog or in the evening or whenever you do it. Keep in mind I don't have the room in my house for machinery let alone the hundreds of dollares required to buy it. Just plain old jogging. Music maybe? Wait no... Cd's skip. And I can't afford an ipod or some other mp3 mini thing player. I've really got to get the dicipline in to do this crap. I think the hardest part is keeping with the routine after two weeks. Cause then I burn out and I don't want to do it anymore. My brain is too smart for me. That bastard can come up with many excuses... pardon me... reasons...not to jog a particular day. "I've got no time today I gotta work and when I get home it'll be too late and you'll be too tired." "You should probably get the dishes done first and clean the house before you work on yourself, It'll help both you and your wife out." "You jogged yesterday and deserve a break." "But the gms are holding a once in a lifetime quest in Ultima Online that you just can't miss." "Man that spider on the ceiling is funny." "Wee, sleep. That's where I'm a viking." etc... I could probably do something like hit myself with a phonebook 10 times really hard if I miss jogging that day. However, that's stupid and I'd probably out think myself to not do it anyway. As I've said my brain is tricky. Maybe I'll go stab it with a Q-tip. Anyway ideas would be nice.

My first flash

2005-09-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

I made my first flash thing today. It's nothing overly complicated, just a head bopping. My good friend Adam gave me a little instruction last night about a step that I was missing. I forgot to insert the key frames before the next ones so that the image would persist to the next image instead of just flashing once and being blank the next. Anyway the link is this...

Here

play Ultima Online for FREE!!!!

2005-06-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

Finally there is a way to play the best online rpg for free. Here are the steps.
First you must have the game client installed pretty much any version, either from a download place or from your cd. If you don't have it you can easily find a bit torrent of it from http://www.torrentreactor.net or you could download a 15 day free version from http://www.gamedaily.com/pc/title/gameinfo/?id=4029&source= I'm not sure what happens after the 15 days but it looks like the full version. Maybe it stops working I dunno I just got both to be sure. Now, once you have the game installed get the program UOgateway from here http://www.uogateway.com/download.php?id=31 that gateway program can connect you to hundreds of free "shards" developed by players. Some have been modified with more fun stuff than the game came with. For the top 100 best shards, go here http://www.xtremetop100.com/ultima-online I'm currently trying out two of them. The Obsidian shard is really cool, it lets you start with 250 points to distribute and has the ability to increase the maximum skill cap so you can go over 700. Unfortunatly it has a low population of players that will increase soon I hope. But PLENTY of houseing space for cheap. You can get your castle for like 300k Instead of like 35 mil. :P their specific website is here http://www.landofobsidian.com/ the other place I'm trying is here http://www.aedilisreborn.com/ I'm hoping it has more people and still room for houses. Anyhoo I really hope to see you playing. If you do decide to try it out let me know and we can play togeather. Also let me know if you're having problems with the instructions on how to get in.

My Main Website is Updated

2005-06-22T03:06:00.000-07:00

I couldn't sleep at all last night so I decided to update my other website, the good one with all the pictures. http://home.cogeco.ca/~merddyr/

I added a few more things to the art page. I deleted the restricted page and changed the journal page into a link to this blog. Makes sense right? Also I added two new essays, one on the Hannibal in the punic wars, and one concerning the curse on the line of Tantalus in Greek Mythology. Also I changed a few things in the about me part, cause it needed doing. Check em out. :)

Zombie Reality TV

2005-06-13T17:28:00.000-07:00

heh, this movie is pretty funny. bout pranks and zombies. It's all good.
http://www.alldumb.com/item/11984/

Toast to the Bride.

2005-05-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

Ok here is the toast I gave to becca, my bride, durring our recption at out wedding.

One thing I thought last night, (Well Thursday night when I was writing the speech) was that we have only really spent six years together in which we have enjoyed every second and endeavoured to make each day better then the next. But, when I think that we will spend the rest of our lives together I am humbled to imagine that those great days will pale in comparison to the decades of joy that have yet to come. Two souls (lives) intertwined progressively growing more beautiful and strong. Some may say that marriage always come with it’s own challenges to overcome, but I say that as long as I have Rebecca by my side there is nothing that we cannot conquer. If you can imagine two people back to back on the ground who need to stand up without using their hands, they press against each other to rise just as we must press even closer together in the face of a challenge. My love… My life. Please all raise your glass to the bride.

2005-05-23T19:19:00.001-07:00

and again.

2005-05-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

again

2005-05-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

croped version but just as cool.

2005-05-23T18:48:00.000-07:00

just cool

Defenition of Sucky (repost from long ago)

2005-03-22T16:11:00.000-08:00

I put this up as something funny on a friends blog a long while ago. I decided to repost it. It comes in parts, This is part 1, so read this first.

***definition of sucky***
Um.... My sixth character died in gaming last night. I suck! You knowwhat? my gaming has been flawless really I am just jinxed by ladyluck. It also wouldn't help that my gm is the god of anti-fun
.1st char- Divinus Magus (mage duh) your basic wizard non specialist. Icouldn't make it to gaming one week and they put me into the back ofthe party and I was torn in half by two sphinxes. wtf!
2nd char- Aristos (sorcerer) decided that it would be neat to play asorcerer. Though I didn't get to play one very long. We went down intoa cave where we were attacked by vampires. Now, I was far away fromthe combat getting some spells ready when the vampire shot a lightningbolt though the entire party. Being a sorcerer with low hp and thefact that I suck, (suckyness gives a modifier of -5 to dice rolls) Iwas fried instantly along with all the stuff I was carrying.
3rd char- Crassius (half dragon fighter) This was my uber character.For the first time ever I had rolled an 18 in a stat roll which Iimmediatly applied to my strength. The half dragon template rocked. Ifigured I could take the 2 level penalty and go with something thatcould have whooped everyone in the party put together. However, the dm(Mr. crappy pants) decided that it was to powerful of a char, so helessened the effect of my breath weapon attack, decided that Icouldn't fly, and gave me a 3 level penalty instead. There were nowords for what I wanted to do at that point. Even so, the characterbeing a straight fighter would make it a bit better to play so I wentalong with it. So I was rockin along whoopin some ass. nothing couldstand up to my char. He could do anything, well except fly and do anacceptable breath attack. So a couple of weeks later we entered thistomb of some undead giant thingy. The stupid dwarf (played by theperson who actually informed the gm that my char might have been alittle to powerful hence involking the gm's wrath) charged at the twocorpses at the giants feet (since the giant could raise dead) He wasgoing to bring them back out of the range of the giant. Well doesn'tthe monk from our party tumble in, take the bodies, and tumble outleaving the dwarf completly useless and vulnerable. So being thecourageous person that I am (thank you) rushed in to try to save thestupid critter but I had to run around a whole bunch of stuff so Iwasn't anywhere near the dwarf, the giant, or anywhere relevent. Thenext turn was the giants, and what does it do? Logically attack thedwarf which is its most apparent threat and easiest to attack? No! Itmoves around him (wtf) and just touches me btw my touch AC is 20 (dex+ natural armor, Huzza!) Brand, the Gm, rolled a natural 20 (easy whenyou have weighted dice) and I (without being given any kind of savingthrough) became soul sucked into the stupid undead giants hand.Unrezable and unrecoverable because they couldn't figure out a way todo it. (i'm miffed with this one)
4th char- (forgot his name, you'll see why) I decided to play a thief.He was pretty good, not too bad stats. He was part of the thievesguild could bluff his way out of hell if he wanted to. He got anamazing introduction to the groop too. Something my other charactershad been lacking. they pretty much just showed up. He was releasedfrom prison on the virge of execution into the supervision of theparty because the party needed someone to do sneeky, searchy, and trapdissarmy stuff. So...The first session of gaming I'm playing him we godown into this dungeon and get finds a trap. he attempts to dissabledevice, fails, rolls a reflex save for the dart flying towards him,fails, rolls a fortitude save to resist the poison, fails by 1 point(the dc was 30 btw) and dies instantly. I now hold the record for theleast amount of gaming time on a character.
5th char- Glim Underbough (thief again) I figured that I hadn't hadenough time as a thief to actually have experienced being a thief. Iknew perfectly well how to die as a thief. Had that one covered. So Imade up as close to the last char as possible but I took the featstrong soul which gives +2 to all saving throws. I figured I neededit. This char turned out to be amazing given the brevity of his life.He managed to steal pipe weed from Elminster himself! FreekingElminster! He found out about it later and showed up and generouslyallowed me to live if I gave his stuff back which I did. (he's abloody addict I tell you!) Anyway. We kill a whole bunch of stuff. Idon't think the party truly appreciated him untill he got (using rapidreload) 3 sneak attack shots on a hard core drow chick with my +1shocking light crossbow. Each one was a critical hit! not to mentionthe sneak attack bonus hahahahahahaha! (<----maniacle laughter) wastedher good. but later on in the campain we were attacked by more drowand I was wounded pretty bad so I decided that I would retreat wisely,because afterall I didn't want to die again. So I ran into one of thetombs that we had already cleared out that was safe and I hid. Rolleda 10 but I had a bonus of +28 because of ranks/stat/cloak of elvenkind. I figured I was pretty safe. The critter decided to ignore theother 6 chars attacking it and pursued me into the cript somehowmanaged to find me (Gm + weighted dice = bad) and then I justdissapeared along with the critter. After the session the Gm informedme that indeed I was dead.... again.... and I was unrecoverablebecause there was no corpse so I should make up a new char.
6th char- Not the mad ( sorcerer 5/alienist 4) He was a creative char.I rolled really poor with him except for one stat. 10/11/10/7/13/18. Iput the 18 into charisma (duh cause he is a sorcerer) what else couldI have done with those stats short of re-rolling em because the gmsaid it wasn't an option. He was pretty cool though nice personalityand cool conjuring skills. all 7 of us ranging from lv 9-11 decided toattack a lv 16 drow wizard. (our first mistake) Most of us were in aline (our seccond mistake) at the door waiting to get in (Not me Ilearned my leason with the lightning bolt)we silenced the room, thehalf orc barbarian (what else is a half orc supposed to be) raged(duh) and bull rushed the a-hoe with his great sword, the stone giantchar ran in and flanked. I summoned a pseudo dire ape (summon monsterIV augmented with alienist) which appeared beside the wizard in thenext round and took a chunk out of him. The wizard ran out of thesilenced zone and pulled out a wand. The half orc ran after him topull him back in to the silenced zone. He had to grapple him to do it(involking an attack of an opportunity) The wizard used the wand tocast forked lightning. This brough the half orc from 90hp down to 18.The half orc however still managed to grapple mr. wizzard. the stonegiant ran it and dissarmed the wand. I ran in to the silenced zone andcast a silenced magic missile which would have gotten passed his spellresistance had he not teleported away. We began looting his chambers.I was in the library (duh) when brand saw that my miniature was stillin the main room. (because combat had finished, what am i supposed todo? move it every freeking place I go? sheesh!) and he asked me toroll for a spot and a listen check. I argued that I wasn't in the roomhe thought I was cause I had been busy looting. The guy who messed meup with the dragon by informing the gm how strong he was then saidthat the characters had already finished clearing that room and wereon to the next one and I wouldn't have stayed in the next room.(thanks!) I reluctantly agreed. I passed the spot check. (go figure) Isaw the wizard had returned to engage us again and he was looking atme. Now I assumed that the majority of spells would require a visabletarget in order to cast so I immediatly went invisable. I wasmistaken, Lightning bolt only needs a general area to cast. And so Idied yet again from a damn lightning bolt. (for those who care{if youmanaged to get this far I imagine you do care} my char had 25 hp maxand took 81 points of damage) Apparently the gm said that all that wasleft was a pile of ash and a chared outline of me on the wall. Therest of the combat went like that for most of the other people toothough. The other wizard in our party died from lightning too. Thecleric got struck with the lightning bolt that hit the other wizardand took massive damage too but luckly he had electricle resistancewhich took 30 damage off the total. This brought him to 0 so he thenspent the rest of the time that I was attending, casting healingspells on himself. I then rolled up some numbers for a new character,gave up, and left.
The new numbers I rolled were unplayable1st attempt 8/8/14/7/15/72nd attempt 11/10/10/16/9/83rd attempt 12/9/8/10/7/13/
WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Computer! End log.
Posted by drew at October 24, 2003 11:33 PM

Defenition of Sucky 2 -a new hope

2005-03-22T16:06:00.000-08:00

*****DEFENITION OF SUCKY 2 -a new hope****Two weeks have passed again and the inevitable happened...I died. Iknow that writing about continual character deaths can seem a bitwhiney, but instead it must be seen more as compiling a list of thingsnot to do. So in this spirit I must continue. Ahem.. "DEFENITION OFSUCKY 2 -a new hope"
*NOTE: please forgive me, I have no spell checker and hate revising.Ye be warned*
As you recall with the previous character, "Not the Mad", the partyhad attacked a 16th level wizard (when I say attacked I really mean"to involk the wrath of").My character died requireing me to roll up a new one to continue thecampain. After the party had fled from the underdark they were in thelong process of resurrecting party members and generally regrouping tomake another assault while in the future avoiding any contact with16th level wizards. Gazgrim the Half-Orc barbarian and Gronk a stonegiant fighter (what a pair they make) were busy cutting down trees forsome reason. When suddenly they heard a sound. My new character heardthis sound aswell and charged into the forest towards the noise.Gazgrim and Gronk were caught in shock as a Gigantic beastie with 10arms with 10 swords, consequently 10 attacks, appeared infront of themwith a poof of highly dramatic smoke (pause for gasps and screems) "Mymaster sends me with greetings and a message" it said as it grinedwickedly. Meanwhile My new character (to be deatailed in 30 words)charged through completely buck naked in all his majesty. "Don'tworry, I'll protect you!" The naked guy said, and charged the ghastlymonster without wielding any weapons himself.You see, My character is a monk. I had shown up on Thursday withpre-rolled stats and the idea of being a monk. I was told to fill thecharacter sheet up to an 8th level char but when I got there I wasinformed by the Gm and one of the players that they had beendiscussing possibilities of giving me a break. They had decided thatas long as I agreed to enter the game with no equipment what so everthat I could be 9th level instead of 8th. I smirked slightly thoughenough for them to ask "what?" I proceeded to tell them that I haddecided to be a monk and so had no use for any equipment at all andwould gladly accept their proposal. This in turn recieved groans androlled eyes as a responce.7th char- Yune Chow Wah of the Old order. (9th level Nudie Monk) Thischar had pretty good stats, and I know what your saying..."How couldit have good stats considering that its your character?" "Well," I say"these good stats were graciously rolled by my fiance who had managedin the past to randomly roll up maxed stats for every stat on onecharacter." Being a monk he then had an unarmored AC of 19 (20 ifusing dodge) and many feats for unarmed attacks and grappling. Anyway,on to the story.This strangely naked guy ran up to this monstrosity and attacked. Irolled a 19 (Wow) +8 attack bonus = 27. So the monk channeled all hisenergy into this one attack and threw his most powerful punch andstruck the beastie with all he was worth....a resounding "piff" soundcould be heared as the blow connected, for as fist hit flesh, fistbouced off flesh and did no damage what so ever. Now, I'm not one tobe a spoiled sport but in this case I decided to take my balls and gohome. Thats right, I put all the combined knowledge of my previouscharacters into play and booked it. What else could I have done? Onlyrolling a 20 would have hit and for me thats, well, still a 1 in 20chance. But, if you believe in luck, mojo, or karma then the chance isworse for me, I swear. So my movement rate is 60 because i'm a monkand I'm hightailing it out of combat when the monster summoned anotherone of itself directly in my path. I would have peed my pants had Ibeen wearing any and did a quadruple move in the oposit directiontowards town. I broke through the forest out into the town and shoutedfor any able body men to follow me into the forest. A smirk and achuckle later I added, "Some people are under attack in there by ademon.... REALLY!" So back through the forest I ran with anyone crazyenough to follow a naked guy into the forest muttering something aboutattacking a demon with 10 arms each wielding a sword. (are there suchpeople?) When I broke through the clearing I saw that the monsterapparently had been defeated or had dissapeared. (more likelydissapeared because how could it have been destroyed if I theMAGNIFICENT NUDIE MONK had been unable to harm it.) We enchagedpleasentries and the generous half-orc offered to make me a loin clothout of some pelts he could round up (squirrels) I said sure noproblem. "Jus watch yer self" He said, "For dose tings I 'ear ave anafinity to bite nuts. Huh. Huh. Huh." After this, (another quiteamusing intro to the group. I like em, can ya tell?) The newly formedparty, now looks more like a freek show than any kind of organizedgroup. Half-orc, stone giant, naked guy, 2 elves, a priest of Kossoth(human but still strange), and some odd Underdark critter with no nosethat hunts mind flayers. We decide to go back to the Underdark. (Wejust don't learn) While there, we were confronted by a lesser wizardwho claimed he was the apprentice of the Archwizard who had graciouslyalowed some of the party to survive. he said that all the apprenticeswant the Archwizard dead and so gave us the password to get past allthe warning spells that would aleart the wizard to our comming. Notknowing what it was like to be killed twice by the same guy we agreedto attack the 16th level wizard again. (probably 17th now because ofthe exp he got for whoopin us) So we spend the evening memorizingspells that would aid us in the comming battle. The next day we passall the warning spells and reach the corridor before the mages room.We cast all our spells to beef ourself up. I now have an AC of 25 (26with dodge) and I'm silenced so that I can grapple him and disable hisspell casting abilities (you know the ones without the silenced spellfeat that he has) We burst open the door to his throne roomdramatically and charged in for the attack. We were confronted with abarrage of zip, nada, bumpkis. He wasn't there. Poo. But wait.... thedoor to the left was left slightly ajar. (ignoring the ajar joke) wecrept cautiously, forgetting about the silence cast around me, andentered the room. The wizard was lying asleep in his bed. The firstplan was for me to jump on him and grapple while the others pummledhim. But, we had a better and yet somehow worse idea. Why not justCoup de Gras him? Lop his f-ing head off. *cackle* So, Gronk walked upcautiously, looked away and winced, and broght his axe down cleanlyseparating the wizards head from his body. NO! It couldn't have beenthat easy! We chopped him up and burned the corpse, all the whilestill fearing that the wizard had parhaps switched bodies somehow orcould strike at us somehow beyond the grave. The moral of the storywithin the story is... How do you kill a 16th or parhaps 17th levelwizard? Silenced and in his sleep like the cowards that you are. Now,I said that it was both a good and a bad idea. Good -he's dead / Bad-his exp worth is 0 because he was asleep. So we continue on into theUnderdark. A few Drow here, some undead wierdos there, and we end uptraveling down a tunnel. I was following the rule "Be niether first,nor last." which left me in the middle. We heard a rumbling. Well...They heard a rumbling I was contemplating the quality of my squirrelpelt loin cloth apparently. Suddenly a Gargantuin purple worm burstthrough the tunnel wall and attacked. Who it attacked was not the gm'sfault. He rolled randomly and the gods of luck decided to put the wormdirectly next to me. (its always good to know who to blame so that youdick punch the right person) The worm attacked me, Brand asked if a 36hit me. I said no but crumpled under the the scary glare of the Gm, (ibelieve its a gaze attack as a special ability given under theirprestiege class) I said "Well, I have an AC of 19. 20 if I dodged. CanI dodge?" Brand said, "Ok so you take 20 points of damage, And... rolla grapple check" I rolled and just as I was about to look at thenumber Brand said "Can you beat a 48?" Hmm, lets see shall we. Irolled an 2 (duh) BUT I have +8 to my grapple roll. Now I haven't beenin a math class in several years but I still think that my combinedroll of 14 is a bit shy of 48. The worm proceeded to eat me. Brandreassured me that I wasn't dead, I was just inside the gut of a worm.Kinda like Bobafet and didn't he escape somehow in the books? So I hadhope, 2 rounds of hope, but it was there. All the other people wereattacking it and doing massive damage, till it reached the worms turnagain. Brand said, "You take another.... 20 points of damage." I'm ok.Got 6hp left but I'm ok. Got one round of hope left. People werehacking away at it. Some other people who were the round before hadpulled out daggers and were trying to open up their own way out of theworm. I, having no dagger or equipment of any kind, still attemptedvaliently to punch the innards of the worm. Wow! rolled a natural 20,a threat. Crossed fingers turns out to be a jinx by the way, becausemy next roll was a 1. Well, at least it was a hit. And I did awhopping 4 (rolled a 2+2) points of damage to boot. The other peopleoutside continued to do damage, a melfs acid arrow here, lightiningbold there, and a couple of regular ass kickings. Then came the worm'sturn again. Brand said, "Ok now take...18 points of crushing damageand 2 points of acid damage. I don't think I could have stretched my6hp enough to cover that much hurt so I gave up the ghost and becameworm food. (I had asked if a really dirty naked monk would have madethe worm sick enough to throw me up, He chuckled and said no. Ian (thespirit of Gazgrim) said nice try but the acid would sterilize you.)Dying wasn't bad this time but the kicker came next after the wormdelt damage to those inside. The worm took a 5ft shuffle, over exerteditself causing it to take 1hp of damage, and died. No Freekin way! Ishit you not. 1hp. I said well... look at the time. I have to getgoing, I went downstairs and told my fiance that it was time to go.She said "why so early?" "I died again as I told you I would earlier"I said. She, being the compassionate person she is (and cute) said"Poor Drew" in that tone that makes everything alright. Then she said"We can leave in about 15 minutes I want to finish watching my show."(figures) I looked up at the TV and saw that the girls were watchingsome strange show about bras etc. A quick turn of the heel, a coupleof stairs, and I back up in the gaming room talking with the guys.Becca came up the stairs later, once her show was done, and said "He(Brand) should really see the rant." (meaning my small note aboutthings that suck) "No, its ok." I said (which translates from Drewspeak as "Oh for the love of God no" or alternitivly "For the sake ofall that is holy I beg of you to say nothing" either would do) Therant was the likes of which that was meant to be a joke sent to afriend who is also a Gm (and a good one I hear) that I told I washaving bad luck to. Hence, contained endeering terms towards the Gmsuch as "the Gm of antifun" and "Mr. Crappy pants" I wasn't sure howhe would take them and was nervous. But, Becca, the wonderful personthat she is, gave him the URL of the "rant" and he proceeded to readit aloud. The story seemed to involk laughter all around. I figuredthey all had a really good sense of humour but sometimes you can neverreally tell. Ian (Gazgrim) said "In light of the rant I think thatDrew should come in as level 10 instead of level 9" They all agreed.From this reaction I assumed they liked it and took it as it wasmeant. (I was still alive at least -another good sign.) Well all'swell that ends well I suppose or alternitivly, bitch and ye shallrecieve. Just kidding. In either case that still leaves me with theneed of rolling up a new char. I'm not sure what I should be next.Parhaps I have experienced enough character classes to invent my ownclass. Nah, I probably would have a desire to make something thatwould unbalance the game unacceptably for the other characters (Iwould be perfectly comfortable gaining +4 to each stat per level andgod like powers. Hey parhaps I should Gm). Parhaps I could make acharacter based upon me, Cleric 3/Mage 3/Figher 4 or some such thing.
But that is a decision that doesn't have to be made right now. Later,you know, when I'm not pissing my time away on the internet.
Posted by drew at November 7, 2003 01:31 AM

2005-02-25T17:27:00.001-08:00

These are screen captures from this new game I'm playing, check em out. It's from www.conqueronline.com I think.

2005-02-25T17:27:00.000-08:00

These are screen captures from this new game I'm playing, check em out. It's from www.conqueronline.com I think.

2005-02-25T17:26:00.001-08:00

These are screen captures from this new game I'm playing, check em out. It's from www.conqueronline.com I think.

2005-02-25T17:26:00.000-08:00

These are screen captures from this new game I'm playing, check em out. It's from www.conqueronline.com I think.

2005-02-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

These are screen captures from this new game I'm playing, check em out. it's from www.conqueronline.com I think.

2005-02-25T17:22:00.000-08:00

these are screen captures from this new game I'm playing, check em out. It's from www.conqueronline.com I think.

Agenda Inc. Live Feed - VW 'outraged' by viral suicide bomber ad

2005-01-26T08:01:00.000-08:00

Agenda Inc. Live Feed - VW 'outraged' by viral suicide bomber ad

GO THERE! It's funny dammmit.

2005-01-21T18:15:00.000-08:00

Picture of me from grade 6 on halloween dressed up as Indiana Jones.

2005-01-21T18:14:00.000-08:00

Just a picture of me.

Dreams and stuff, well.... just dreams.

2004-11-11T19:07:00.000-08:00

I've been told I have some pretty strange dreams. Anyone else have strange dreams. Lets see how yours compare to this one. You know how some people envision monsters in the basement. Like, when your a kid and you run back up stairs from the basement because you feel as though there is something following you. Also, when your in the basement and you keep checking behind you when no one else is there. It has something to do with poor lighting I'm told and that they are not designed specifically for comfort. Anyway, last night.... I dreamt... that..... I.... WAS one of those monsters in the basement. I crept up behind people and creeped them out. I chased little kids up stairs, and I made things as freaky as possible. I had my own hidden chamber branched off from the hallway. It was inaccessible to creatures other than myself because it was a separate invisible dimension. In the Storage room I hid behind boxes so that people couldn't see me. I reached my hand out to touch people on the shoulder only to bring it back quickly before they turn around to look. It was great fun. So, in my experience, monsters in the basement just play games, it's all in fun. They are teasing because they live there and don't really have much to do other than that. Sorta like when you tease your brother or sister because there's nothing better to do.

Has anyone had any strange dreams like that. Maybe if you top me I'm gonna have to top you with some other strange ones I've had. Hehe

Laptop - craptop

2004-11-11T19:01:00.000-08:00

The AC plugin thingy on my laptop for some reason broke. Basically, when I plug it in, it doesn't register as being plugged in and so the battery doesn't charge. I sent it in to Best Buy for repair. After 3 hours I found out that it's still covered under the laptop manufacturer's warranty. I sent it in. They had to replace the motherboard. Two weeks later they said they would sent it back to me on Tuesday. On Thursday I called and they told me that they sent it out on Thursday at 2pm. So now I have to wait some more, even though for the past few days I've been sitting at the window waiting for the Fedex guys to come. I wish crabs upon them all.

That damn summer job

2004-10-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

I thought the whole thing was over. No more stupid ideas and dangerous work environments. I was wrong. The accountant, that is outsourced so not actually a part of the staff, miscalculated how long I worked. Firstly, the first 3 checks I got were wrong. She forgot to take off enough tax or put too much on. We got our tax information on sticky notes. For some reason she felt that she had enough authority to tell us how to do our job. The twit can't count I swear. I haven't worked there since August and finally they decided to phone me to say that they miscalculated and I owe them 11 hours. What the hell? Suck it up! It was their mistake not mine. I was released from my contract and therefor not responsible to do anything for them anymore. What a stink face. That accountant is crooked. I wouldn't be supprised if she is stealing money. The boss has absolute trust in her so much that she doesn't even check the numbers herself or even go over the results. She just signs the checks and hands em out.

2004-09-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is a picture I drew of a guy at Pennsic

F-ing university

2004-09-17T20:47:00.000-07:00

My stupid university screwed me again. I went in to pay for my tuition last tuesday. I wrote out the check and gave it to the guy who then after typing in all my check info said that I now had been de-registered and have to re-register for all of my classes. I then tried to get into those classes again but they are all full. So I gave them money for nothing. No classes and no services. Not only that, but if I can't get into classes than my loans will go into repayment and the University won't pay for my laptop. I talked to pretty much every authority figure in the whole stinking place and they can't do anything. I got no notification that I would be de-registered by a certain date. I had already bought all my books. I had also started to prestudy for my classes. I was really hoping to start a year there without any problems but they had to mess that up. I finally after a week was able to resiter for the only few classes that remained. Kinda like having leftovers. In either case my university really let me down and have been for the last three years. I really want them to do something to make me feel better about why the heck i'm there instead of some other university which might treat me better.

2004-09-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

Look at how lazy I am. This is the unbelted champions battle. All those guys in the red with the white border are my team and they are out waiting for the battle to start. I'm sitting this one out resting on a hay bail. I'm actually waiting for my turn. I could have been sitting under the sunshade with the rest of the REALLY lazy people. :P

Oldest condoms ever.

2004-09-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

ic NorthWales - Sheathed in history

The oldest condoms in history. They are huge. Apparently men have always liked to exagerate their size. Although I don't.

Sweet pussy

2004-09-04T19:50:00.001-07:00

Becca and I are thinking of buying a cat. Unfortunatly I have allergies to some cats, so now everytime we go to shop for a cat I have to rub my face on it to see if I react. There is nothing worse than being stuck with an animal you're allergic to. Becca sujested getting a hairless cat like Mr. Bigglesworth but I really don't want to be petting something that looks like a swollen ball sac with eyes. hairless guiney pigs are even worse... Have you seen those things. That is a gross critter. Undead freekin guiney pigs. Anyway, we were thinking of going to the used pet store to adopt a cat so that we know it's attitude before we buy. The only thing worse than being stuck with a cat you're allergic to is being stuck with one that you're allergic to AND is the living devil. My grandparent's cat has the worst attitude ever. That bloody thing hates everybody. One time I went to give it a treat, I sat down with my palm flat out with the treat and I wasn't moving. The cat came over, sniffed the treat and ate it. The second the little shit was done it put it's ears back, hissed, and hit me with it's paws. I tell you it's an evil bugger. I don't want that kind of cat. I still think pet rats are way better, they just need a longer life span. There is this kind of rat that I've been looking at called an african pouch rat. They are huge. They are between 13 and 17 inches. Any pet ideas?

My Summer Job

2004-09-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

My summer job at the museum has been one adventure after the other. For the most part my activities revolved around waiting for my boss to do more stupid things. She is the strangest person that I've met.

1) She smells. She has an aura of stench that follows her everywhere. She can really stink up the room. One of the other chick employes in the museum litterally almost threw up after having been in a room that the boss just left. I really don't think that she bathes much

2) She might have 3 pairs of clothes. I don't mind if maybe she interchanged the three shirts but she wears one for a few days then the other. She's got a nasty plaid one, a blue shirt with a fish print, and another one that I can't recall right now. The one day I came to work and the dark blue fish one was covered in cat prints. I told her about it and she said that it was raining and that the cats jumped up on her after being outside then in the litterbox. Most people I know would change their shirt if a cat with dirty feet (water mud and cat shit) trampled their shirt.

3) We were changing the light bulbs upstairs and we brought the burnt out ones downstairs so we could throw them out but the boss stopped us and told us not to throw them out because we could use them for a kid's craft to make maracas. Is it my imagination or is that dangerous.

4) She watered down the soap in the liquid soap in the bathroom. We have a massive tub to refill the bottles with but instead she waters the soap down. One of the employees brought liquid soap from home for her personal use but the boss watered that down aswell. We kept monitoring how much she would water it down and soon enough there was no soap left and it was all water.

5) She didn't want to buy ice for a large BBQ event we were running and she also didn't want to use tap water to make ice. She told us to freeze the water from the dehumidifiers for ice. I've even seen some sort of grey fungus goop floating in that crap.

6) At that BBQ a hotdog had fallen on the ground (grass and dirt, not inside) and had been there for about 1-2 min before the boss saw it. She came by and said that it would be a shame for it to go to waste so she picked it up and ate it. I don't care how much catsup you put on it, that's gross.

7) She has a bottle of sherry in her office at work. One time on a tuesday I told her that we were out of writable cds and she said that she would pick them up because it was on the way to the beer store and she needed to restock anyway.

8) She refused to buy safety equipment for us to work. We were working with artifacts that have mold, bacteria, possible disease, and upstairs there is lead paint chips all over the floor. We were not given WHIMIS training. She keeps axes and sharp objects in the children's area. She told me that when children get hurt it's how they learn to not do things, which is true. But, when it happens in your business you get your ass sued off for not keeping that crap out of reach.

This is just some of the "Fun" that I had this summer.

First Post

2004-09-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

This is Becca making Drews first post in his blog... I feel honoured!