Blog of a recovering Instigator
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Kimura Aiko" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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08:26 pm
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Character Meme
Character Meme: Who would I want to...
Take to lunch?
I'd take Sputnik to lunch and geek out about StarCraft.
Want to rescue you?
Nicholas because if Nicholas is rescuing me, it's from Vampires and me and vampires, er, um, it's so embarassing!
Never want to meet in a dark alley?
That'd be Ash since she's personally sworn to set fire to me. Not particularly keen on providing her with the opportunity.
Hug?
That'd also be Ash. She really deserves some amount of mercy after all of the plot I've inflicted on her. Let's see, betrayed by her own sister, killed one of her romantic interests, is personal slave to a horendus demon lord, is being persued by not one but two necromancers who want her body (though for vastly different reasons), oh and by the way is starting to feel guilty for her past life of evil things such as killing her parents, serving a dark, unholy, world consuming power, and acting kinda mihoist sometimes. So yeah, the girl needs a hug.
Be for a day?
Onuite Windu, he's got everything good going for his life that I've got going for mine plus he can flip off the lights without getting out of the bed. Plus I'd get to find out what its like to be a daddy, and I'm curious!!!!
Steal powers/skills from?
Durkon Oakenshield. I'm pretty confident in my religion, but I bet I could win some converts and solve some problems with genuine bonefied miracle working.
Take to an amusement park?
Ash, because she'd bring Arella, Saeko, and Aneko with her, aand it would be very very cute. But very dangerous. I'd stay a long distance away, hiding behind Rissa, who'd probably mock me mercilessly. But it'd be worth it.
See their story made into a movie?
Marius Jomark. He'd make a damn good hard-boiled detective, but he's also a Jedi, and that combination is just made of win.
Never trade places with, ever?
Teiresias, prophet of difficult questions. Y'see, he's got *spoiler* and also *spoiler*. Not to mention he's *spoiler* *spoiler*, and everyone *spoiler*. So yeah. His life sucks, worse than Ash's. At least Ash has the personality to overcome her trials.
Get stuck on an island with?
Durkon Oakenshield. Four words: Create food and water. And two more: Plane shift. Plus he's a really amiable guy. Although there's a risk I might convert him, at whic point all his class abilities would stop functioning. That could be a problem.
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12:09 pm
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Improving Writing Style
So. I'm a girl character written by a boy. All my posts are written first-person, too, which means what you're reading is my inner voice. Well, my inner voice sounds like a boy, and that's bad 'cause it ruins the suspension of disbelief. I'm going to be working on that in the next few weeks, assuming I get any screen time. *pokes Zach*
Here's the "Present gender well" training from Sareth's study. My own thoughts are in plaintext.
Write less than men
Do we talk more? That's the reputation. But online, there is a tendency to hold back, to hesitate in putting our views out there.
This is going to be a problem for me, since I loooove to write and will do so at the drop of a hat.
Good grammar
We use good grammar and complete sentences because language is too beautiful and poetic to be ruined by making it all short and brutish. Please, don't abuse the language by just grunting all the time.
I had previously been trying to slang up my English, 'cause I supposedly learned it on the street. But being both female and meticulous, likely I would have tried to fix that. So I'm going to cut down on the fragments in my internal monologue. My dialogue with other characters will remain slangy, as it could be construed to be from an early period in my life where my mastery was less. Or something.
Apologize frequently
It's better to smooth things over and fix relationships than to stick to our guns, even if we're right!
That would require me to believe I was wrong, which is difficult, since my zealotry is my most defining aspect. However, if my faith is broken in the current set of events, you might see some apologizing. I think the chances are fairly low, however. Nobody would recognize an apologizing Ash ;-).
Refer to emotion frequently
How we feel is important to us! We share our feelings so people know what we're going through.
I already do this to an extent. I will increase it marginally but not bring it to overwhelming levels. What I should really do is refer to other people's emotions more often. I'm supposed to be perceptive, after all.
Seldom discuss girl things
Yes, the boys are cute, the sale was awesome, and the cramps suck. But we have a lot going on in our life! Like classes, what a nuisance making dinner was tonight, and how cute our kitty was playing with the feather.
I just spent half a thread thinking about boys. Well, plot's moved on, so that's less of an issue, but the boy obsession needs to be decreased. Some folks (Erden for instance) already think I'm totally sex obsessed, and I'm not!
Minimize own value
It's better to play down our own worth than to step on toes. Harmony trumps being right.
I'm sort of bipolar about this. Sometimes I'm going "I'm a lowly acolyte" and sometimes I'm going "I'm the only one in this city who knows what's what." I need more of the first and less of the second, as my actual experience does very little to justify my confidence. Plus characters who think they're in over their heads are more fun to read.
Share large amounts of personal information
Our lives are important! And we want people to understand what is going on. They're our friends, they want to know these things.
That's kinda what the game is. But this could be construed to referring to backstory, which I could do more of if folks don't think that would make me too boring to read.
Share opinions
It's just my opinion. I could be wrong. And I don't want to be rude or insulting by insisting it's more right than yours!
I could be wrong? What? Who says! Let me at 'em!
Unfortunately, this is another aspect where my Largoism is going to make it very difficult for me to be realistically female. I could share opinions or qualify things or apologize, and then correct myself, to show a struggle against that tendency. Perhaps that would be best.
Use modals
Modals are words that add a degree of certainty. "I think that's true," "It must be true," "It can't be true," "It might be true." And we use them! See, we've always got to qualify things. There's a chance we might be wrong, but when we don't doubt it we need to make sure that people know that it simply has to be true!
See above. Kit suggests that I use intensifiers instead, to show that I really think what I'm saying is true, rather than just flat-out stating it. A more feminine way of expressing my zealotry. I really think she's onto something. Whew, tiring to bend a brain that's been trained in school to be as definitive as possible into qualifying stuff, but I'm sure it's worth it.
Ooop, recursion. Dizzy now.
Use adjectives
Adjectives modify nouns. "the red fox," "the fat fox," "the cute fox," "the noisy fox." It's rarely just a fox. How will we tell it from all the other foxes?
This I can do. I'm always looking for ways to make my description more vivid.
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12:59 pm
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Meme from Sareth
Choose a character of mine (and game in the case of characters I've recycled). I'll answer the following questions, if I know myself. You may ask about NPCs, no matter how obscure, though obviously answers will be less detailed.
01. Full name
02. Best friend
03. Sexuality
04. Favorite color
05. Relationship status
06. Ideal mate
07. Turn-ons
08. Last sexual experience
09. Favorite food
10. Crushes
11. Favorite music
12. Biggest fear
13. Biggest fantasy
14. Quirks in bed/sleeping habits
15. Bad habits
16. Biggest regret
17. Best kept secrets
18. Last thought
19. Worst sexual/romantic experience
20. Biggest insecurity
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01:20 pm
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Meme stolen from Sareth
Rules: Name one of my characters I have RPed. Then, I will answer these questions about said character.
1. What would your character kill for? What would they die for?
2. What would they refuse to do under any circumstances? Why?
3. What do they dream about?
4. What's their biggest fear?
5. What single object would they be most hard pressed to part with? Why?
6. What is their fondest memory?
7. What is their worst memory?
8. What or who was were their most significant influence?
9. What do they believe makes a successful life?
10. What makes them laugh?
11. What are their religious views?
12. What is their greatest strength?
13. Do they have a fatal flaw? If so, what is it?
14. Who is the most important person in their life?
15. If they died, who would miss them most? How would they die?
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11:02 am
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Recovered from flu
For those of you who have been wondering where my author was, he had the flu. As is his common practice, he went to sleep on Saturday, and pretty much slept with only minor interruptions to eat, go to the bathroom, and moan "brains" incoherently for a day or two. Then he spent yesterday resting, doing all the housework he'd been too sick to do, and beating Chrono Cross (the plot's even harder to follow when you have a fever).
And of course, like all fevers, this one came with some weird dreams. Such as that he was President Obama, and that he'd been dragged into the House-Senate bridge committee to resolve differences between the two stimulus packages, and being Obama he wanted to be bi-partisan about it, and thus couldn't offend anyone. This somehow expressed itself as a highly convoluted 3d tetris puzzle full of brightly colored pieces. Had that same dream for about 10 hours. Didn't manage to resolve a single clause. Very frustrating.
Then the next night, he realized that he could trick the Republicans into getting him a line item veto if he promised to obey "pay-go". He then was able to trick both parties into both killing programs he didn't like and spending on stuff he did by breaking stuff into really tiny pieces with the line item veto and solving the much lower-dimensionality, smaller political problems. That was about when the fever broke for the first time.
Anywho, he'll be back on IRC, and hopefully I'll be back in the game again shortly.
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01:29 pm
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Drama Idea
I think I've figured out where I want Ash's course in the demon invasion arc to end up. Don't know how she's getting there yet, but...
Recall that Ash is a troublesome little girl, who, even when people have direct control over her, knows how to be subversive.
Recall that her handler Theresa is a mild psychic. This leads to the following hook:
-After cleverly thwarting the demons' plans for her, Ash is about to get herself freed, but Theresa picks up the flash of victory in Ash's emotions, and orders her to stop what she's doing. Further investigation by Theresa reveals that Ash is quite capable of careful disobedience via misinterpretation and raw willpower.
-Mokushi suggests that perhaps her human half is making her hard to control. But that can be fixed-- what made her half demon can make her all demon. (Note: Corrupting Ash (and everyone else) further has always been Mokushi's goal)
-This leads to a scene of Ash on the sacrificial altar of a demon once again. Not Mokushi because he's not arcane enough for this. This can lead to flashbacks and songfics to "Angels would Fall"
-Big Damn Heroes show up, at least including Arella and Shama, whom Arella has summoned earlier.
-But this is according to Mokushi's plans as well. "Hey Shama, look, it's your girlfriend all tied up and ready to be sacrificed, just how you like her.
Banter. Perhaps something about Shama getting "fixed" by being made an angel, and a reference to pets being neutered. Mean, low-blow stuff.
Mokushi asks a tough question:
-What's so unholy about your love for her?
This leads to Shama being tempted. He has a dilemma.
1. Break Ash's heart by admitting that he just wanted Ash as a slave. (Mokushi's follow -up: That's all she ever wanted you to do to her anyway. She has a thing for it.) (Also, is this true, or not?) 2. Admit that his role in the heavenly armies isn't as holy as it's cracked up to be. (Mokushi's follow-up: Well why are you standing over there? She still loves you.) Note: Also leads to potential jealousy or scandalized-ness by the Big Damn Heroes.
I have no idea how to resolve this beautiful setup, but isn't it awesome? One way or another, Shama's in trouble, Ash is in for some more emotional battering, and dramatic battle is possible.
(Copout solution: The sacrificer is Kaarlack and the situation is resolved by a giant fireball from Sabin: "What, was someone trying to be emo in here?)
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12:59 pm
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Back from vacation.
My author's back from vacation. Suffice to say, it was awesome, though in my humble pyromantic opinion, too cold. Anyway, game on folks! I got a kidnappin' to attend.
*gives Arella a poke* C'mon, we gotta babble excitedly about walking kitties with Sareth!
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06:21 pm
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Random Song Lyrics
Shamelessly stolen from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) salda007 .
Lyrical Poetry, the iTunes way
Hit "shuffle all". The first lines of the first twenty songs that come up are your poem. The first line of the twenty-first is the title. Go!
My, I'm Large
This is what you give me to work with In the morning the grass is so inviting This bloody road remains a mystery. It's poetry in motion. Hey there brother, hey there sister Hey, our glass is empty. I bought my first real six-string Once I was the King of Spain Alcohol my permanent accessory Hey kids, listen up if you want to be sick I can hear the magic floating in the air And I'd give up forever to touch you. When I first saw you Oh where, oh where can my baby be? To love a woman, to understand her, you've got to know her deep inside. Your love is like a tidal wave I could stay awake just to hear you breathing All the fears they left me then When it's love you give (I'll be a man of good faith) We took the babies we knew, and the toddlers we knew And I took the liberty of reshuffling the lines a little for more fun. My, I'm LargeHey there brother, hey there sister In the morning the grass is so inviting It's poetry in motion. I can hear the magic floating in the air Oh where, oh where can my baby be? Alcohol my permanent accessory Hey, our glass is empty. Once I was the King of Spain I bought my first real six-string When I first saw you Your love is like a tidal wave All the fears they left me then
When it's love you give (I'll be a man of good faith)
To love a woman, to understand her, you've got to know her deep inside.
I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
And I'd give up forever to touch you.
Hey kids, listen up if you want to be sick
We took the babies we knew, and the toddlers we knew
This bloody road remains a mystery.
This is what you give me to work with
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12:20 pm
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Energy Inspection
Fascinating stuff!
-We have no insulation in our walls. Cost to fix this would be 1800 after $2000 MA rebate. Pays for itself in two years.
-Hundred year old wool insulation in the attic. Cost to fix this would be another 1200 (no rebate for that). Pays for itself in ten years. Probably won't be in the house by then.
-Air sealing for cracks, maybe 6 years to pay back? 600 dollars. No discount.
Both the air sealing and the attic insulation would become worthwhile if we could get another MA rebate on it, but I don't know how that works. It's probably once per structure.
We can save a little by getting an electronic thermostat, but with installation costs, I'm not sure it's worthwhile.
And we can save 20$ a month by turning off Rissa's computer while she's not home.
Finally, up to $10,000 in no-interest loans available for this stuff. In this case, I think the interest savings aren't worth the paperwork, considering I have the cash on hand to get the repairs done.
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09:13 am
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Oh look, historic-ness!
So we have a President-elect whose election shows that desegregation is, slowly but surely, working. That's pretty cool.
My prediction is the next group that'll get a chance will be women, but that it will be at least a decade, if not more, before we get a chance. Basically the pond hasn't been sufficiently stocked with experienced candidates of various views. But give it time.
Hispanics are also on deck, but I'm not sure it'll be as significant. The difference between whites only and not-whites-only is much bigger than the difference between no-latinos and latinos-are-ok.
But I won't call it real change until we get someone who is obviously a non-Christian. An Atheist would be a really big step, but a Muslim would be good enough. The ADL's been successful enough that I don't think a Jewish President would be a particularly big deal. I want a President-elect who, when asked about religion, says, "That's none of your business and the first amendment is the reason why." That's the next hurdle to jump. I won't call it what the founding fathers intended, because I don't know that they had a true understanding of the breadth of religious feeling there'd one day be in this country. But it's the most reasonable way to interpret the text.
In the meantime, I can only hope that, as a country, we've grown past certain disturbing trends from the 1960's.
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10:18 am
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Meme's... they're contagious.
Having responded to this one, I must apparently repost it.
Leave me a comment and I will reply with why I like you. If I don't know you, I'll either make something up or tell you why I like your livejournal. You must pay for the privilege by posting a message like this one on your livejournal.
Note that I will be answering this IC.
AWP! They've renamed it undead journal! Sharp pointy sticks! Why can I never find them?!
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11:22 am
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What makes a roleplaying game enjoyable?
BozoCat speaking: I had a good friend over from college this weekend. We talked a lot, as we always do, about the theory behind role-playing games. Without revealing any of that theory so that I don't bias the answers, I wanted to survey my friends list about what they find enjoyable in roleplaying games?
What does it take to make a roleplaying game enjoyable and successful for you?
I'll put my own answer here. You can answer in as many words, or more, or less. I'm very curious to hear the diversity of opinion. As a cookie, I'll talk about how your answers relate to the theories I've been discussing, but only if I get 6 or more answers, not including my own. GOOOOO FLIST!
What BozoCats Enjoy in a Game:
For me, the heart of a roleplaying game, and the thing that gives me the enjoyment is the fantasy of being inside it. This is why, for Ash, I chose to start writing in the first person. I don't really care what the game is about, though I prefer it to be something important to the characters. I don't care if the game is balanced or unbalanced. Heck, TC is one of the least balanced games there is, and I love it. I do care somewhat that there are obstacles for the characters to overcome, and that they be relatively difficult, but I can create that difficulty myself if need be. So for me, the heart of the games I enjoy best are fantasy and immersion. I feel the other good things in a game will flow naturally from there and are easier to achieve, but this is the thing that determines my enjoyment the most.
Note that as a DM, my focus becomes much broader, as I have a certain pride in workmanship. The above describes how I am as a player.
So, what do you all find enjoyable?
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02:53 pm
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A letter to my Senator and representative
Angry BozoCat is angry. Angry BozoCat got Sareth to look up the congressional record for him and discovered that one of his two Senators voted for, and his representative voted for, the crap that just got passed. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7651060.stm. Kennedy was too sick to vote. Thanks for looking it up for me, Sareth. Congressional record votes are hard to look up and confusing.
Below is the body of the e-mail I sent, with slight edits, to both.
( Full text below )
And I forgot some stuff too. 100 billion dollars of unfunded tax breaks, for instance. The more the fed borrows, the tighter credit markets get. There's only so much money. Ugh.
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12:12 pm
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Viral meme yoinked from Arashiz
A simple meme
Comment and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list ten things you LOVE that begin with that letter. Afterward, post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own.
My letter was "R".
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12:31 pm
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Seeds of Dawn Progress
For those who don't know, Seeds of Dawn is the tabletop my author plans to run... uh... when it's ready. Yeah. That's when.
Some big chunks of progress this weekend, thanks in part to the absence of puppies. Bye puppies! I'd say I miss you, but, well, I don't miss you as much as I missed my free time. I'm sure I'll be plenty happy when you come back though.
So, progress chunks. First of all, I wrote the rest of the plot. Like, the other half, for the second party. Because so many people are interested that I have to split them into two parties. Madness! Sparta! Anywho, the second plot is a bit darker, and has more investigative and apocalyptic elements. It'll play more like Call of Cthulhu than Final Fantasy 2, most likely. But it'll still be awesome, because it came from a dream, and most of the stuff I write that comes from dreams comes out decently well.
Second, I spent some time knees-deep in Java code. I discovered that serialization in Java is in fact pretty easy. I'll be using XML for my save files for its human-readability and the fact that Java comes with a parser for it (and a serializer) built in to its standard libraries. Also, Eclipse is SUCH A GOOD IDE! Holy crap. I'm blown away. I haven't had a compiler error yet, since it catches all of them as you type them. It marks todos when you type "TODO" in the comments. Most minor errors can be fixed by right-clicking and choosing a solution from the context menu, just like modern spell checkers. *drool* I've yet to play with the debugger however-- I'll get back to y'all on that.
I expect to have the "Creature" class finished, and tested, by the end of the month. The next project will likely be the Skill and Status Effect classes. After that, I tie it together so you can target creatures with skills. After after that, I write items. Then likely I will start helping Rissa with user interface stuffs, and start the biggest chunk of work, which is writing out the rules for the various skills and balancing them. If every weekend were free, I'd be done by December, but I already know that definitely won't be the case, so we'll see how it goes.
And now this bit of blathering about Seeds of Dawn ends. On a more personal note, Rissa's turning 26 this week. Be sure to wish her a happy Z-day. It's like a B-day but it's the end of the alphabet. And our second wedding Anniversary is also this week (*dances around babbling about having married Rissa*). We has caek. Or death. I can never be sure which
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09:25 am
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Wiki's back up!
Y'know that TCWiki thing we used to have? Well it's back, and now on Rissa's server. We did a bunch of spiffy things to it as well, as listed in the post I put in the thread. Main Page - TCWiki.
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08:13 am
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IC Response to His Dark Materials
So, I finished reading the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. The first of these three books has been made into the much-revised movie "The Golden Compass". I don't know how they'd make movies out of the rest of it due to the large amounts of revision and the fact that every church on the planet would likely boycott them and Hollywood's a buncha cowards.. Parts of it were really good, and parts of it were deeply disappointing. I decided to let Ash comment on the series, as its main points are in regard to Catholicism, about which I don't have any particularly strong feelings, but Ash does. Also 'cause she's funny.
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02:03 pm
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Happy Birthday to Ash
In digging up some old MegaTokyo history, I ran across the fact that the first post with Ash in it occurred on June 15, 2004. That makes MegaTokyo, the Clans the game I've played with my longest participation. Also it makes me a four-year veteran of the game, which I believe entitles me to tell people to get off my lawn.
Damn kids.
Possibly.
I should probably write Ash a birthday post at some point. Maybe if I remember next year.
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12:43 pm
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Directory's Commentary: Ash vs. Niwatori Chinou
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12:22 pm
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Directory's Commentary: Sleepover Post (part 2)
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