Tag, your it!
07 30 2008 - 4:06 pm. Category: misc
As a child, tag was a great game. I think it was right up there with dodge ball as my two favorite child games. Hell, I would still play tag given the opportunity. In fact, I played a slow, "don't spill my drink!", version of tag at the wedding I went to.
Now tag has gone high tech, to the phone! And as annoying as a voice mail might be to some, I have to say I get a little thrill from playing phone tag. I'm currently playing with a lady from my university's international office. She tagged my parents house, they tagged me, I tagged her, she tagged me, and now I've tagged her again. We might actually talk at some point today. Now I know tag-backs are usually not kosher, but this is kind of a two-way style tag. The more the merrier though.
How great would it be to actually have a game of phone tag? Simply everyone have a list of phone numbers of players, and the goal is to call and get voice mail. If you get an answer, no dice. You're still it. If you get voice mail you tag them. Every time your phone rings you'd wonder whether or not you are going to be tagged. I'll admit that I ignore calls from time to time, it might work to decrease that.
It'd be friggin' awesome.
MMO Profile
07 24 2008 - 11:07 am. Category: internets
EASK
EASK players often live by the phrase 'The journey is often more enjoyable than the destination.' They are motivated by meeting the challenges of the world, but they are usually in no rush--because seeing the creatures and places of the world is even more fun.
Breakdown: Achiever 60.00%, Explorer 73.33%, Killer 33.33%, Socializer 33.33%
This explains pretty well my tendency to enjoy leveling players in WoW, but really not caring about anything outside my main once I get to the max level. But I do feel that for me there is a larger socialization element then just 33.33%.
You can check out the survey
here.
Nothin'
07 24 2008 - 01:25 am. Category: work
Sorry folks, I got nothing to blog about. I've been at home, playing WoW, and pretty much taking it easy. It's an exciting life, being a college graduate waiting for work to start. OH! Speaking of work...
I got a graduation card from the office today with everyone having put little messages. This comes about a week after getting an invitation to the summer company picnic. It makes for much happiness. Offices are inherently social entities, and I appreciate that I am considered an element of it still, despite not having been there since April. I start in September, I still have little over a month to go.
Wet Stone Mountain
07 20 2008 - 5:38 pm. Category: misc
Five and a half miles there, uphill, gaining about 3,000 feet of elevation (and then back down). But the view was totally worth it:
Unfortunately things got crowded up top a bit after my dad and I got there. It kind of ruins the serenity of the whole thing. And then they were close behind us the entire way down. The lead girl had the most annoying bell attached to her backpack... gah.
My legs are sore, but butt is sore, and my upper back along my shoulders is very sore. I don't think I've sweated that much ever. It was a good conditioning hike with my dad for our 25 mile, 4 day 3 night hike we are taking in August.
Dr. Horrible
07 17 2008 - 12:14 am. Category: internets
Joss Whedon is at it again, and this time he has created
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. If you love good Joss humor, Niel Patrick Harris, and Nathan Fillion as you should, then you will love this.
It's being streamed on the website for free through July 20th, and then it will be available for download. We ended my science-fiction literature class by watching the tonton scene from Star Wars Episode V (someone hadn't seen it and wanted to understand a Family Guy reference) and the first installment of this.
Seriously. go watch this. You will not regret it. I won't tell you a lot, but Niel Patrick Harris sings. I love it.
So is it like Jeapordy then?
07 15 2008 - 11:42 pm. Category: work
My Science-Fiction Literature professor has a vast amount of knowledge in her head. And its connected like an ball of yarn that has been put at the mercy of an energetic kitten. I struggle to take notes in the class, it's an epic battle of order versus chaos. She names people, and books, and conferences, and they are all supposed to link back to the topic and stories of the day but in the end I really struggle to see the connections. "Here's how this is seen in the story..." is never a completed phrase.
The work required in this class has been a joke, but the class discussions (when the prof doesn't take her hour long tangents), have been quite good. On another note. She's an aboriginal Canadian native (doesn't look it), who talks about how she lived in a commune and what a hippy she was. She owns a house in the Oregon old growth forests on the coastal range. She drives four hours one way to get to the university every day... huh...
Well, here's the final essay question I've chosen (emphasis and lack of paragraphs from original):
"Down these mean streets a man must go;" Raymond Chandler's extensively quoted line epitomizes the chivalric and romantic qualities of the typical hard-boiled detective fiction. Analyze the postmodern hero in the street wise mode of the first (and fourth if you have it) chapters of Neuromancer, still the definitive and original manual to a degree and the twenty-first century hero/heroine/protagonists of other stories of your choice from the packet/handouts. Interestingly, Joan Gordon in "Ying and Yang Duke it Out" suggests that cyberpunk is covert feminist SF and William Gibson after his writing of Idoru implied that this feminism stems directly from ursula K. Le Guin and Joanna Russ. Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, and Andrea Hairston worked/s with variants of black feminism, queer theory, gender studies, and masculinity studies. For Joan, the cyberunk vision allows feminist writers to consider the possibilities of a less antagonistic relationship with technology and further, to explore the underside of female identity. Katabasis, the mythic journey to the underworld can make us heroes for it is a "journey not just to our dark side, but to the dark side of human condition." The power lies in the subsequent transformation(Storming the Reality Studio 201). Patricia Melzer's more recent 2006 critical analysis, Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought, remarks that...
O.M.effing.G. I was going to type the whole question, but my wrist is starting to die. My brain too. This is only HALF of the essay prompt. It is an entire page long in total. In fact, all of the seven possible essay prompts are equally wrong. I can hardly follow her line of thought, and she'll change topics rapidly. I can't imagine what essays written by this lady look like. I'm pretty sure my writing will score just fine with her.
Ultimately, the prompt is about feminism. But in the ridiculously relaxed style of the class, we can write about feminism, or gender issues, or anything along those lines. It's that simple once she actually explained it to the class. I already wrote a 2.5 page journal about feminist portrayal in SF, and the necessity for homosexuality to follow the same path into general societal acceptance. She's editing it tonight, it's basically my rough draft. I'll just have to flesh it out to hit the horribly challenging three to six page essay requirement.
12 of 12, July
07 14 2008 - 02:33 am. Category: 12 of 12
Sorry I'm a little late. But I am even more saddened that my comments are broken, so I won't get anything for this post. :( I spent my July 12 at a wedding. Specifically, the mother of a good friend. She is a mother by extension. And a good drinking buddy. Check out everyone's 12 of 12 postings via the
Chad Darnell Project. Shall we begin?
10:16:19... Ironing my slacks and shirt. Had to look nice and everything. And in a true cycle they are now in a crumpled heap on the floor.
02:52:10... Obviously there is a large span of time here. It was taken up by the ceremony and just hanging out and drinking. None of which I got good photos of. Huzzah for the groom's son being a brewer. Then they brought out the celebratory champaign. In large quantities. Awesome.
02:57:32... The cake, made by the bride's sister. It was completely amazing and gorgeous.
03:13:57... Bride and groom cutting the cake. I love the look on Robert's face.
03:39:55... Andrew (bf of the bf, ha!) is one of my favorite people. Especially when I get him to pose daintily sipping champaign with some flowers.
03:40:52... Carson, a 17-year-old punk kid who likes to mess with me. There used to be a time I was taller than him and he happily declared himself my minion.
03:54:54... Kathleen, one of my favorite ladies in the entire world. This is the daughter of the bride, sister of the punk kid, and girlfriend of the dainty sipper. Weddings are full of awesome people.
05:15:57... Robert grandiosely walking past our table. I enjoyed it.
05:27:54... Flowers!
06:01:53... So after the beer, the cake, the chicken, and the champaign we just had to have cupcakes for dessert!
06:53:55... That's right bitches, I was rockin' some argyle.
08:33:30... These were hanging from the ceiling for decorations, but this was obviously a better use for them after cleanup.
UPDATE: LogicSequence discovered that by taking a comment link from an old entry and adjusting the number, you can get to entering comments for that entry. So if you would like to comment, simply take this link: http://www.never7.net/pivot/entry.php?id=139. But it didn't bother to send me an email, and the main page still says there are no comments.
I've posted on the Pivot support forum, but apparently it's next to useless. Thirty-five views of my thread and not a single person has tried to offer a solution.
Am morgen
07 13 2008 - 01:52 am. Category: misc
I will post my 12 of 12 tomorrow, and here is why:
[23:44] Derek: I stabs yoU!
[23:44] Sarah: with what?
[23:45] Derek: ny 12 of 12 2will not be that great, since I was really intoxicatged and my pictuers werer discombobulated
[23:45] Derek: WORDS
[23:45] Sarah: hahaha!
[23:45] Sarah: ok, of all the words to spell correctly....
[23:45] Derek: I hit htat shit right/ holky fuck
[23:45] Sarah: you must have really concentrated on discombobulated
[23:45] Sarah: HAHA
[23:45] Derek: lmao I didn't
[23:45] Sarah: wow
[23:49] Derek: hw'd he take it?
[23:49] Derek: btw.. vowels are for pussies
[23:49] Sarah: HAHA!
[23:49] Sarah: omg
[23:49] Sarah: ten points
[23:49] Derek: :D
[23:50] Derek: I am teh winner!
I was at a wedding, there was lots of alcohol. You will find out more tomorrow when typing does not involves such a high degree of concentration. :P
Uhhh.... thanks?
07 12 2008 - 1:38 pm. Category: misc
While shopping for a wedding card this morning I was told I look like this guy (if slightly younger):
Just to be clear, it's Chris Martin from Coldplay. I don't really see anything in common besides the jaw line. That and I have probably given that look and hand gesture a time or two. Their new album, what little I've heard, is quite good though. Especially
Viva la Vida.
Speaking wedding cards and cards in general, I really loathe trying to find one. Birthdays are pretty easy cause you can just get a funny one, but it's still hard to pick just one. For any other occasion, what exactly do you get? I avoid anything with religious connotations, which eliminates a lot of cards. Is this one saying the right thing? Is this one to sentimental? Is this one not sentimental enough? Is this one too bland? Bah... I hate card shopping.
Epic Fantasy
07 08 2008 - 12:55 am. Category: misc
My current recreational reading is L.E. Modesitt Jr.'s
Natural Ordermage. It's something like book 14 in the Saga of Recluce series, and it just reached a new plain of excitement...
"The declaration shows that two kegs of madder were spoiled. What happens to all the spoiled goods?" asked Rahl.
"Chenaryl will sell them for what he can get on the sevenday auctions at the Exchange Plaza," replied Daelyt. "Just like all the other spoilag. The coins go back into the accounts here
...
Rahl thought about that for a moment. "So the price that the director charges others here in Swartheld has to be high enough to cover the losses and the spoilage... and what it costs to keep the Association going? That's why he wouldn't back down to Ebsolam the other day. Or Escoryl."
...
While he couldn't prove it, he was certain that most of the "spoiled" goods were not. He knew scarletine was even ore expensive than indigo, and it had been valued on the manifest at something like fifty golds a keg. If Chenaryl reported a sale at ten golds, but really had sold it at fifty, and the wool at a similar difference, Shyret was making as much as forty to eighty golds off so-called spoilage on every ship. Chenaryl was asking more than a few golds on the reported salvage sales. But what about Daelyt?
Wait a second... this sounds suspiciously like... accounting fraud! Dun dun dun! Reporting sales at a lower value then they were actually made!
Daelyt had made it very clear. Shyret was cheating the shareholders and the other directors. And if he used his illgotten gains to purchase more shares, he could profit even more from the efforts of honest directors. Rahl wondered whether the other directors were honest--or more honest than Shyret--because the other ports were ones closer to Nylan where traders and factors were less unwelcome.
Yet... what could he do? He had yet to see an account or cargo declaration--or even the inventory--that would support what he sensed to be true...
That's right folks! Accounting and fraud in fantasy! Rahl is the main character, and this whole fraud situation with his employment is a key element to the plot. This second bit highlights perfectly the concepts of working for the shareholders and the necessity of hard evidence to support claims! I could have not written a story version of the basic fraud concepts I learned. And this is in a New York Times best seller! How kick-ass is that?!
I realize the comment link is broken. I don't know how it broke or where, but I am trying to fix it later. It's too late right now. And since Boyfriend is gone the rest of the week for a class and he knows more tech web stuff than I do, it probably won't be fixed this week.
KABOOM! *wiggle wiggle*
07 05 2008 - 9:18 pm. Category: misc
You can see all of my pictures from Portland's Fourth of July show here.
It was a fun time with Boyfriend and his parents.
Happy 4th
07 04 2008 - 1:01 pm. Category: misc
Happy Fourth of July to everyone. Have a safe and fun holiday.
This picture of my dog doesn't really have anything to do with the fourth. She's just completely adorable and I felt like sharing that with everyone. Of course it isn't the most fair picture, because this is her as we wait in the vets office for them to stick a thermometer up her butt. Grass would have been a much nicer, and realistic background.
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One Sentence
07 02 2008 - 02:06 am. Category: internets
- "When my dad finally decided that having a gay child was better than having a dead child, we started talking again." - goulide
- "It was an awkward moment when I told the waitress I liked fish tacos and my mother told me not to talk to a woman like that." - Twinkie
- "I thought he was going to ask me for a dollar, so when he asked me to be his girlfriend I blurted, "No, can't you get it from somebody else?" - Lisa K.S.
- "I knew I was going to fail the class when the professor pulled me aside and asked, "Do you have a learning disability I should know about?" - TheArchmage
- "Unconditional love is when you take the batteries from your vibrator to power your child's favorite car." - Loving Mother
- "The one-night-stand girl and I met again at an extended family reunion." - Tin
Check out
One Sentence. It's one of the best quick-reads I've come across. It is quite interesting to gimps into someone's world via a single statement.
Happy Birthday Rio!
07 01 2008 - 12:06 am. Category: misc
This happened early last week, but I just didn't get to it until now. Happy 1,000 miles to my little Rio! I was pretty exciting when I happened to glance down at my odometer. It was also an interesting challenge to shift, drive, and take a picture at the same time.
About shifting... I'm getting the hang of it slowly but surely.
I went to my parents last weekend to take my dog to the vet* so I gave my little car a thoroughly cleaning inside and out at the same time. Naturally, birds crapped on it as soon as I got back to my place. Bitches.
*
I've had my dog since I was in 3rd grade. She is now quite old and suffers from arthritis, deafness and incontinence. I had to take her in to get her prescriptions renewed. She is still a happy dog when her arthritis is under control and still completely adorable. And still my longest and my best friend.
