Metaplanar Babel

MSNBC - A gadget to make Peeps at home

Has there even been a more perfect world?!

I posted a link to this guy’s site over to the right there, but I wanted to really point it out. This guy knows his stuff - I don’t know my stuff, but I can tell he does. His blog design is really interesting and very neat (check out the header image and colophon section); not only that, but he has some code and design ideas that he used for the site posted.

The one idea he has that I really like (and this may come from elsewhere, but I haven’t seen it before) is a category called Blogmarks, which he uses to link to sites he’s found of interest but doesn’t really have much to say about. Bookmarks on a blog. Brilliant, I tell you, brilliant! I’m going to steal the idea, it’s so brilliant~

So my birthday is next week, and I just received my gift from the family ( my parents, my dad’s parents, and my favorite aunts ):

This gorgeous picture is ~30″ x 37.5″, which translates to HUGE. It’s got this supernice frame and matting on it, and it goes just perfect with our oriental-themed living room. This picture is really just amazing - that little jpeg up there totally doesn’t do it justice. Do you have any idea how awesome it is to merge two of my interests (oriental design and horses) in a single super-incredible piece of artwork? This thing really made my day. So, if any of you who made it possible are reading, thank you thank you thank you!

CNN.com - EW: Monty Python’s funniest sketches - Mar 23, 2005

*boggle* Okay okay, so now we have and upcoming Lord of the Rings musical.. aaaannnndd Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail on Broadway? Wow. I have no words, really.

So the state of Virginia decided (a few years ago) to institute this new “electronic procurement tool” called eVA. JMU has pretty much dragged its feet, kicking and screaming, trying to avoid having to use it. Unfortunately, time has finally caught up with us, so into the murky waters we have to go, like it or not.

(Continued..)

The Sims

Okay, so it’s weird. I’ve never even played the Sims before, but I saw this article on the music, and I think I’m hooked. I’ve always liked listening to foreign language music because you hear more the music and the sound, rather than trying to figure out what exactly the song is trying to say - it appears that the Sims’ music is just for me, because all the lyrics are pure nonsense! I keep resisting the idea that I should play the Sims, because so many people write it off as the game that girls play because they’re not hardcore enough to get into a “real” game, which just irks me anyway, buuut… I dunno, maybe I’ll have to give it a shot. I could probably sit and listen to the music all day. ^-^;;

CNN.com - Officials: Student’s rampage leaves 10 dead - Mar 22, 2005

Well, lets see how long it takes them to blame this one on video games..

As is, unfortunately, fairly standard for me, I’ve reached a point in WoW where I just really don’t know what to play. I’m starting to think that my best bet is going to be to cultivate 5 or 6 characters and sort of rotate them around, keeping them all at max rest-state as much as possible.

Thus far, I have: 20 troll shaman (pretty much retired), 34 nelfling rogue, 35 nelfling druid, 22 nelfling priest, 32 nelfling hunter (sensing a trend here?), and *gasp* a 13 human paladin. Said paladin is my current interest, though I did go back to my druid for a little while (until he ran out of rest state). My paladin (Tarise) actually has something of a story to go with her, and I was trying to go for a “different” look as well. A long time ago in an Earthdawn game, I had an older elf character named Reshae, who was a warrior and questor of Garlen (the Passion of hearth, home, and healing). Basically, Reshae was this motherly type who was always looking after the other members of the party, but woe betide those who picked a fight with her “kids” - hence the warrior, which she learned after her home was destroyed by an encroaching Theran army and her family disappeared.

Anyway, Reshae was a lot of fun to play, though she didn’t get to last very long, so I decided to quasi-resurrect her in WoW as a paladin. I’ll post a picture of Tarise when I get home, because I actually think she’s pretty cool. Tarise is supposed to be about 40 or so, thereby allowing me to avoid all the dippy bimbo faces, and going a bit grey. Pre-war days, she was the village midwife and herbalist. However, with the onslaught of demons and morass of political tensions, she felt the call to fight. Never being one to back down from a challenge, Tarise took the less-obvious choice and learned sword-fighting techniques to augment her own healing abilities, joining the squires of the Cathedral in Stormwind. Now, Tarise is about as practical and down-to-earth as a woman can be, so there’s no lofty Light-crusade nonsense from her. She’s just trying to protect what people she can with what tools she can. Perhaps others might think she is too old to wield a blade in battle, but that thought will never occur to her.

I dunno, I think she’s cool. Hopefully the iron chainmail thong-type armor will be somewhat avoidable, since I just don’t see the character wearing it. ‘Course, I don’t really see any paladin wearing it, but that’s a rant for another day.

Just read this on a nifty site:
Jinx from the Frag Dolls wrote:

Bring on the kittens and rainbows. I’m hardcore enough to handle it.

I dig it. Now, what would have made it even more awesome would have been if a guy had said it, but that’s okay, guys are a little slow sometimes. I guess I just like it because so many “hardcore” gamers seem to despise the cute (Carebear servers anyone?) that it’s nice to see a little change from that. One of the other ladies on the site posted a long note on her blog questioning why the gamers who put in dozens of hours of research, thinking through strategies for, and playing Halo 2 are considered “hardcore”, but the gamers who spend the same amount of time doing research, thinking through strategies for, and playing the Sims aren’t. It’s an interesting quandary. Are the only hardcore gamers the ones who immerse themselves in digital guns, blood, and mass mayhem? The modern MMOs cater to that, since the point of most of them is the slaughtering of foes; even WoW very seldom deviates from that ideal, though there are a few (very few!) quests that don’t involve any slaying.

I guess the whole violence issue is reflective of the “masculine” roots of gaming. Cruinh posted on his blog about how he tends towards female characters in online games because so often the male characters are represented by muscle-bound, exaggerated ideals of masculinity, and often female characters look “cool”. Too often, I think the female characters look slutty (see any top-end platemail class armor in WoW on a human or Night Elf female to see what I mean), but I can see his point nonetheless. Not all guys are Neanderthalian, so shouldn’t there be some graphical reflections of that? Even, *gasp* quests that reflect that there are important problems in society that can’t be solved by killing the big bad guy? I *love* the quest in Elwynn Forest that has you trying to overcome a fued between two families to unite a pair of young lovers. You never kill anything for that quest. It was a refreshing change from the standard “Go kill x Monster who is troubling our town”. Where are the other quests like that? No doubt the “hardcore” gamers would deride those quests as not requiring skills, etc, but does being interested in the social aspects of a world rather than the militaristic somehow make you less “hardcore”? I guess it makes you less “masculine” in the traditional sense, but to my mind, that’s a good thing. Anyway, I think I’ve lost my train of thought somewhere, so please excuse the rambleness.

Edit: I suppose if I’m really honest with myself, the Night Elf male model in WoW is probably a decent step in the right direction. It’s just that all males in WoW are super-buff; I guess it’s part of the style of the game. So even the quasi-bishounen Night elves end up being a little too broad in the shoulders and dippy looking. Plus the floppy ears thing just does not do much to inspire that, “Damn I’m smooth” feeling.

CNN.com - Sci-fi and fantasy author Norton dies - Mar 17, 2005

Wow.. Andre Norton was one of those authors that I grew up with. Her Witch World helped get me into the fantasy genre. It’s very sad to see she’s passed away, but it’s amazing that she continued to write nearly til the end (her last book is being published in April, apparently). I can only hope that my creativity stays with me that long. Thank you for sharing your dreams with us, dear Lady.