How to have a rational discussion

Velociraptor Free Workplace

ENTERTAINMENT - Has it really been 18 years since Jurassic Park came out in movie theatres? Twas 1993 when it first came out. Dinosaur nerds galore...

Hey Meggles, we should have a Jurassic Park marathon sometime!

The Beaver / RPG

Connecting to server…

Looking for someone you can chat with. Hang on.

You’re now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!

A word of advice: “asl” is boring. Please find something more interesting to talk about!

Stranger: Hello!

You: You see a beaver in the distance lumbering towards you, a menacing glare on its face. You are armed with duct tape, a balloon, a spare set of shoes, and nailclippers. What do you do?

Stranger: Hmm..

Stranger: Give me a moment, Sir or Ma’am.

Stranger: This is a pondersom question!

You: The beaver is getting closer with each passing second, but luckily it appears to have a broken foot

You: This slows it down somewhat

Stranger: First! I remove the shoeleaces from the shoes.

Stranger: Then I proceed to throw the lace-less shoes at the beaver, one by one, to distract it

Stranger: Next, I use the laces and duct tape to attach the balloon to my head.

You: The beavier is angrier and more determined to attack

You: It is drawing near

Stranger: As it is a good sized balloon with helium, the loss of weight of the extra shoes lifts me off of the ground.

You: The beaver jump at your rising figure, snapping at your toes, but luckily you are high enough to avoid its rabid attack

You: Now you are rising above the treeline, still with nailclippers and ducttape

You: You will continue to rise unless you figure out a way to get back to land

You: the wind picks up and blows you eastward, towards what looks like a wooden hut

Stranger: I use the nail clippers to snip the balloon string. I fall on the roof.

You: You land on the roof, which then cracks and sends you falling into the shack below. You are not badly injured.

Stranger: PHEW.

You: The shack appears to be abandoned. You are in a small dusty room.

You: There is a door to your left, and a peice of paper next to your feet

Stranger: I pick up the paper to read it.

You: It appears to be a faded map, with one corner missing. It may lead to treasure.

You: It is too dark to make out much more.

Stranger: I moved to where the hole in the ceiling is, to let in some light on the map.

You: You see a crude drawing of a house, presumably the shack you are in. A dotted line rises north, across what may be a river, and then turns sharply east where a thick black X is revealed.

You: The door is still to your left, and you are armed with duct tape, nai clippers, and a ragged balloon is still strapped to your head. You also have the map.

You: You hear some thumps at the door

You: Then a scraping sound

You: After a few minutes you realise that it is the beaver, trying to eat through the door.

Stranger: I look around to see if there are any other doors that lead outside.

You: There is a boarded up window to your right, and a pile of scraps directly below it.

You: The scrap pile is covered in dust, so it is difficult to discern what exactly is in the pile.

Stranger: I kick aside the scraps to reveal what is underneath.

You: You get a splinter in your ankle.

You: Underneath, you see a crowbar, a lighter, and some rusty bent nails

Stranger: pick up the crowbar and the lighter, and pry open the boarded up window,

Stranger: *.

You: Piece by piece, you pry the boards away. Sunlight trickles through a cracked window.

You: The gnawing noises at the door are getting louder and more insistent

You: The window is now free of boards.

Stranger: I jump out the window and take off running.

You: You jump at the window, and realise the glass was still there. Ouch. Because it was cracked, it shatters and you are left bleeding.

You: You make it through the window and limp hurridly away from the shack. The sun is beginning to set

You: You still are grasping the map in one hand, and the crowbar in the other.

Stranger: I check to make sure the nail clippers are still in my pocket, and the duck tape and string in my hair

You: All items are acocunted for.

You: accounted*

Stranger: Lovely.

Stranger: Lighter?

You: In your pocket with the nail clippers

Stranger: Also lovely.

You: You look around and find yourself in a clearing. You hear water rushing in the distance.

You: Behind you, you hear faint angry squealing noises. The beaver must have finally eaten its way through the door, only to find you had escaped

You: It is angrier than ever and determined to hunt you down

You: It is a rare known fact that beavers, particularly rabid ones, have a very keen sense of smell.

You: After some sniffing around, the beaver finds your scent and starts hobbling angrily in your direction

You: You are starting to gather dust.

You: The beaver is now very close, and it smells your blood. It hungers.

Stranger: (sorry, vanished)

Stranger: I turn around and hold the crowbar like a baseball bat, ready to defend myself.

You: The beaver leaps at you, squealing as though it were possessed

Stranger: I swing the crowbar, aiming for its head

You: Roll to determine outcome of crowbar swing? Y/N

Stranger: Y

You: (1=worst, 12=best)

You: 9.

You: You swing at the beaver’s head and connect. Not hard enough to kill it, but the creature is momentarily stunned

Stranger: I flee.

You: You run towards the sound of rushing water, remembering that there may be some special treasure if you follow the map

You: You eventually reach a river, which is rushing pretty rapidly. It is narrow but deep.

You: The beaver has regained control and is limping towards you, making a strange screeching noise

Stranger: I do not dive in, for beavers are slow on land but fast in the water. I run down the bank, looking for a way to cross the river.

You: You run eastwards along the bank, and soon come across a delapitated wonden bridge. It looks like it could fall apart at any minute.

You: wooden*

You: However, for now it still stands.

Stranger: I attempt to inflate the balloon again

You: The balloon has a small hole in it.

You: All the helium has escaped

You: The beaver is once again gaining on you

You: It is excited by the prospect of killing you. It would be able to feed its family a feast like never before!

You: Typically this beaver eats smaller creatures. It is a carnivore beaver. However, driven by hunger and sickness, it is determined to land a great meal.

Stranger: I make a daring leap across the bridge, praying that light feet will prevent it from breaking.

You: You land halfway across the bridge on a semi-sturdy plank of wood. There are large gaps where the wood has rotted away. Contiunuing with your momentum, a second leap takes you to the end of the bridge

You: You foot falls through, but the rest of your body tumbles forward onto land

You: Your ankle is twisted and cut, but still usable.

Stranger: I hobble up, using the crowbar, and continue running.

You: You consult the map and realise you must be close to the treasure.

You: You run eastward a bit farther when you stumble over a shovel

You: You trip and fall.

You: Behind you, the beaver contemplates the bridge in a rare act of brains over brawn

You: The shovel is laying over what appears to be a fresh mound of dirt,

You: .

Stranger: Oh dear…

Stranger: Sir or Miss Stranger?

Stranger: You have led me on a thrilling quest, but I am afraid that I must remove myself from this website. I have homework I must complete, and bed to attend to.

Stranger: I thank you greatly for the adventure you provided. It was most entertaining!

Stranger: And thus…

Stranger: I find myself unable to get up, even to use the shovel

You: very well. The ending was that you found an arsenal of weapons such as a flamethrower, shotguns, etc with which to kill the beaver. Success!

Stranger: : D

You: Thanks for playing along :)

Stranger: !

Stranger: Of course!

Stranger: Do you find many who are willing to play?

You: Not too many hehe

You: Good luck with your homework :D Take care and don’t dream of beavers. Ciao!

You have disconnected.

Nerds are helpless vs Attractive Women

Yes, so true...

Nerd Vs Geek, Dork and Dweeb

Huzzah for nerds! We're better than the geeks, dorks and dweebs!

Metric = Nerdy?

TECHNOLOGY - The metric system is apparently too good for the US, Liberia and Burma... Or do Americans just think using a 10 x 10 x 10 system is too logical and therefore nerdy?

Or maybe Americans, the Burmese and Liberians are just stupid?

Never there when you need him...

Show me your Nerd Love!

What do men / women really mean when they say they like quirky / nerdy people?

Nerds doing Homework

Imagine you are a teacher and your student brings you this. Totally deserves an A+ this year, right? Maybe. Or maybe they just used Google Translate and then wrote the symbols from that by hand. Either way, one smart cookie.

Photoshopped Fantasy Books = Funny

ENTERTAINMENT - I found these rather funny photoshopped fantasy books on a website. Hilarious! I especially like the Farting Sluggoth.

Back in the saddle...at least, temporarily

I have recently been laid off due to budget constraints with my former employer, so I now have a little bit more time to give this blog an overhaul....visually speaking. I'll be trying to post more and update the template.

In other news, here's a site that tells you how to raise a Pirate in a proper, piratey way:
http://www.pirateparenting.com

I was surprised to have found that one via URLwire, since it's a little more irreverant than Eric Ward's usual fare, but hey, even he has a sense of humour, right?

Other stuff that I find funny

Repost: On the Cusp of something Bigger

Yesterday, was the last day of my placement, and technically, the last day of my academic career. Approximately 18 years of my life, have been devoted to academic education. Eighteen years straight. The day before I started university, I quietly wrote to myself in my room (the last night in my room as a permanent resident) about how I was hedging on a new part of my life, and how I got there.

Oh, there was so much I didn't know. So much I had to learn. And I couldn't possibly have fathomed that I would meet someone like Phil, who lit up my life like a yellow sun that drowns out all the stars. Teenage fickleness be damned- I've now been with him for over four years, and I regret nothing.

So now I write to myself again, in wonderment of the life that now lays out before me. The possibilities, the directions. Yesterday I had a job interview, which is something I'm not as good at as I should be, but I did my best. Throughout the interview, I kept thinking, "I'm not qualified for this, I'm not qualified for this..." and when I went Judith's to wrap up, I was sure I was going to get a bad review. I didn't. When I asked her about where my strongest skills lie, she was a lot more positive than I expected. She just said that the stuff I was weak in was stuff that could only be learned through experience- and I'm a newb in the field, so that was sort of okay. She also suggested that I should know myself as a writer, and what works best for my craft, and work around that- don't try to write in the morning when you write best at night, etc. It made me feel a lot better, and realized that my paranoia was just that- paranoia.

Paranoia is a funny thing. It is a certainty that springs from uncertainty and lack of knowledge. Don't trust it. It is always easier, and better in the long run, to just ask the question you're dying to ask, and be done with it.

So, I'm not going to say something overly-dramatic like, "this the first day of the rest of my life", because it's not. Life has already begun. Life is living. I should just do it the best way I can. (and stop waxing philosophical about, because it probably makes people nausious)
----------------------------------------------------
Sept. 3, 2000
Well, this is it....this is the last night I'll be sitting alone in this room- writing to myself the same way. By tomorrow night, I will officially be out of the nest.
Today Michelle and I found a little bird. We could tell by it's markings it was young, probably just out of the nest. We couldn't figure out which tree it was from. The little bird just sat, clinging to the grass on the ground, even as we tried to pull into our hands. After we had picked it up, we poked it and prodded it but it refused to fly. After a while, we noticed the bird would spread it's wings ever so slightly when it thought it was in danger of a fall. We realized that he wasn't going to try otherwise, so we dropped him. As soon as our hands were removed, the little bird spread his wings and flew off like a shot, as though he knew exactly where he was going. Sometimes we need to lose that footing to realize our wings are there.
I hope I discover my wings tomorrow. It's useless to cling to the ground all my life, so I will be dropping myself and testing myself. I'm definetely scared, but that fear is fortified by an anticipation of adventure. Making a new start. Meeting new people....I'm going somewhere I've only been twice, can barely navigate and have to learn to call home for an indefinite period of time. There's also a high crime rate in that area. Yee-ha. So, help me God! I'm so glad things wrapped this nicely, which is more than I hoped for...

Well, I best be getting to bed, and I suppose the last night in my bed should be a good one.
Jumping off a cliff-

-Meg

[Edited for mushy romantic content that no one who was friends with me in 2000 will want to read. If you want the full text, I'll show it to you sometime.]

Exposure

It's funny, but I ran across a link to one of my pages on some spanish messageboard. I didn't think that my FOD site was all that easy to find, but for some reason people keep finding it....

I guess I should update it, or add to it or something; considering I really only made it on a whim several years ago.

Retro Gaming Pt. 2

Well, I tried the Wayne's World game, and I couldn't get it to install- I think the first floppy has a flaw on it or something, since it keeps coming back with errors.

The Indiana Jones game IS a side-scroller. Well, sort of- you go in and out of doors and up ladders and swing his whip across open spaces (that was the coolest part). You have to collect stuff like keys and what not- tell you the truth, it sort of reminded me of "Below the Root", except not as, er, spiritual.

My computer is still non-functional, and Phil's has been shut down for now, pending the full installation of an AV. I bought a new cartridge for the printer today. Funny story:

I go in to Staples, and before I have a chance to seriously search on my own, an employee accosts me and asks me what I need. So I tell him (rather unenthusiastically) that I want a cartridge for an i320 printer. So he bipasses the rack of cheap, crappy Staples brand cartridges and finds the Canon brand one for me. It's only like $9.97, so I think sure, okay. He tries to talk me into buying a two-pack for $17, but I refuse. All the time that this is going on, I'm peeking around the general area because I was POSITIVE that Staples used to sell the Ko-Rec brand, which is always cheaper. The Ko-Rec rack is no where to be found.

So instead I start poking around the bargain bins, because they often have good stuff, and, lo and behold, there's and entire BIN of Ko-Rec black ink printer cartridges that fit my printer. And all of them were marked down to $5.97. So I bought two. And it only cost me like $12. If they have honestly discontinued the Ko-Rec cartridges at Staples, that would suck, because they're my favourite brand.

Okay, so it was a boring story. But I found it slightly amusing.

New Froth Pit

Pat and Arthur opened a new messageboard and called it "What the Crap?" , which I think is a really funny title (it's more of an in-joke, actually). I said that we should call the site "The F-Word", but no one else seems to think that's funny (even though it's also an in-joke).

I got like 90% of the filming done lastnight, even though it is crap. I tried to employ some cinematicographic skill on this thing, but it was kind of hard with Mike (asian Mike) being fussy, and the girl behind the camera listening to him. That, and Mike kept filming my ass when I wasn't looking.

Dude...I am missing some serious sleepy time here. I'm surviving- I'm not hedging on a nervous breakdown or anything, but I'm afraid I'm going to start seeing things if I don't get a nap in sometime today.

I'm meeting Michelle later and we're going to dye our hair. I also have to hunt down some Henna, so Emery (if he's around this weekend) can give us some funky designs. Maggie again downgraded her dinner party on sunday to a minor halloween get-together, which means that I don't have to cook, but it also means that I might not go, since she's in Richmond Hill, transportation will be questionable, and I have to go to school the next day. I might just revert to plan A- stay in, kick back and watch some cheesy, old horror flicks. I'll probably be seriously exhausted by then anyway. I'll buy some candy for the kiddies and leave it on the doorstep.

Everything else is a confusing blur.

I haven't posted in over a week...

That's funny, I seem to remember posting since then, ah well. I suppose I'm getting things confused.

I added the little mario icon last week, so that's good. I'm going to mess with the sidebar next, since I've noticed that the sidebar graphics mess up sometimes, possibly because of screen resolution or because I added a photo to my blog. I'll see if I can make it a bit simpler.

Finished my article for saturday...it was about the Sam 'n Max cancelation. It should have been better. Note to self: No more leaving it that long. I know that's probably a futile gesture, but I did pretty good in only the space of 24 hours, imagine what I could have done with more time. I even learned some interesting things: a few of the former LucasArts employees that got laid off have started their own adventure game company and they're going to be posting jobs soon. I don't really feel like moving to California, but a girl can dream.... One of the head guys said in an interview that they were looking for good storytellers. *gush* It's unlikely I would ever work at such a place, but I'll do everything I can to get as close as possible.

One more week 'til thanksgiving! I can't wait. Haven't seen my parents in a dog's age.

Toodles

Diesel Sweeties - my blurb assignment

Web-comics...gotta love 'em. This one I liked because the characters are cute and look like digital animations.

My personal favourite is VGCats, which is a webcomic where feline characters have satirical little stints in popular video games. Phil is pretty partial to Somethingpositive and MegaTokyo(which has so far released two printed anthologies of their comic). That's the stuff that's drawn. One of the other popular categories is sprite comics, which I sometimes read off and on. Due to the popularity of retro-games, sprite comics are pretty big. They take video game characters we know and love, and use them to make an endless amount of stories online.

And, of course, a lot of them (MegaTokyo included) are based on Japanese Manga styles (Japanese comic books, basically) and some of them even make fun of anime. Sexylosers makes fun of pornographic anime, known as Hentai.

Opinions? Thoughts: These are free to see (though the artist sometimes asks for donation) and are updated often. Web comics can basically work around whatever schedule the artist has. Which is also a downside- the artist doesn't necessarily have to work on a set schedule and can quit or take an impromptu vacation whenever they want. Comics that have a continuous story also present the problem (and I guess this would apply to any sort of comic with a story) that sometimes you have to go back through the archives to understand what's happening. On the other hand, some of them are just like newspaper comics, and you can just read it whenever.

I like the sort where each new comic is more or less self-contained and I can just sort of jump in at any time (Like VGcats). And I like funny- the heck with that angsty stuff, I want serious guffaws. Sharp wit. Pop-culture references. You know, the sort of crap people my age go for. I don't really invest as much timein it as Phil does, though.

Anyway, that's my take on online comics...I really can't think of anything else to say.