A D&D Filled Weekend

Another weekend been and gone, but this one's been a good one. I created a new character, Jenaskha Derris, and she has been kicking butt and taking names up and down Korthos and Stormreach with awesome cleric powers of doom. Seriously, the bonus XP weekend has been wonderful in that it only took me a day to get her up to level three. Best way to spend a relaxing weekend EVER.

But enough of my babble about MMOs. The rest of my weekend involved social time with regular old pen and paper D&D, and even though both my weekend sessions were shorter than normal due to time constraints, they both went pretty well.

Saturday afternoon was Red Hand of Doom campaign with my friend Alpha (who's given name is Thomas, but the group has two Thomas's so they go by Alpha and Beta). He's running the premade adventure for us, and so far it's going well. The party consists of five characters:

- Victoria, Aasimar Favored Soul, played by Jordan
- Victor, Aasimar Shadowcaster, played by Chris
- Arteme, Aasimar Sorcerer, played by Jim
- Janos (though he goes by multiple names), Tiefling Rogue/Marshal/Chameleon, played by Beta
- Kelda, Snow Elf Barbarian/fighter/ranger, played by me

So yeah. we're an interesting party. We didn't do much on Saturday since we were limited in time, but we managed to convince the townsfolk to run away from the goblin horde about to attack them and fight off a chimaera, not that I managed much damage. My dice were suffering from the suck that day, so I spent combat flailing around ineffectually while everyone else killed the damn thing.

Such is the life of a D&D player. Sometimes you are lucky, and other days you want to fire your dice into the sun.

Amy's campaign was far more successful. We managed to make it to Threst (finally) and even got to kill some wraiths. a successful evening in my book for sure.

So that was my weekend. I also moved a few more steps forward on the new car thing, watched a ton of Big Bang Theory, and ate a lot of frosting straight from the jar with a spoon.

I know. I'm disgusting. I'm comfortable with it.

Another week begins tomorrow. I'll probably face it the way I do most things: with sleep deprivation and daydreams.

Now I'm off to kill doods while I wait for Jim to finish the Misery's Peak quest. That we may kill even more doods. Yay! :D

The Hazards of Repetitive Activities

So the weekend is off to a flying start. I had to get up crazy early for my meeting with my teacher, but that went well. She gave me tea. After that (we got done at about eight twenty in the morning) I camped out in Panera, ate a bagel and watched Big Bang Theory until it was time to meet for class.

Class and work went by pretty fast, and then Chris (the roomie) and I headed out for lunch. We ended up going to HuHot, a.k.a delicious Mongolian barbeque fun, for lunch, and then went back home so Elanthia (my wizard) could help power-level Urusai, Chris's Bard. I also hit level 3 (yay) and we made it through Misery's Peak before going to hang with Adam and Jim, which is where I am now, chilling out and watching Chuck.

We made it through a few good quests in Stormreach as a group though, but we had to stop when Jim got called to a raid and my RSI started acting up.

Yeah I have Repetitive Strain Injury in both my wrists, more severely in my left wrist than my right (I'm left-handed). Got the initial diagnosis back in my Freshman year of college, so when it flares up, usually after too much handwriting, typing or similar activities, I have to wear a wrist-brace, use ice packs and take painkillers.

Puts a bit of a damper on the gaming, which definitely qualifies as an activity that requires excessive use of my hands and wrists, among other things. So I'm done for the day, and hope to pick up the questing tomorrow before and after Red Hand of Doom, my Saturday Pen and Paper D&D game, which meets at 2:30. Before that? Car shopping!

So now I'm gonna play silly online games and catch up with season 3 of Chuck. It's a great way to spend a Friday Night, and DAMN is it good to be a geek.

Losers of Friday Night on their computers, unite! :D *end Twitter inside-joke here*

On Thursdays and the Getting the Hang of them

I've never been able to get the hang of Thursdays, and it's been like that for me even before I heard the same sentiment expressed by Arthur Dent in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which I read all the way back in ninth grade (I didn't get much further in the series after that. Call me heretical if you like, but I prefer Adams' other, more obscure works, like Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency).

But anyway, Thursdays have always seemed like a tricky day to me: the weekend is on the horizon but just out of reach, though not to the same extent that it is on Mondays, or even Wednesdays. Wednesdays are easier for me than Thursdays though, but I'll attribute that to my schedule.

Thursdays this semester have involved three classes during the day (nine thirty, twelve thirty and two thirty respectively), followed by a six hour shift at the library. So, on this particular Thursday I awoke at eight thirty after going to bed at two thirty in the morning after watching another episode or three of Chuck season two.

So I woke up and then had to wrestle with my printer and Miranda, the larger of my two laptops (Miranda is a Dell Inspiron 1420 I've owned since the fall of 2007. My other laptop is a Dell netbook I've had since last September. His name is Virgil. Yes I name my technology. Don't judge me), who I ordered a new power cable for this afternoon before Gay and Lesbian Lit.

Three classes later, I have a long night at the library ahead of me. I can't play DDO because my backpack is too heavy for me to drag Miranda, my latin textbooks and a short story anthology to campus. Not in the least because it's a twenty minute walk. It's a shame I can't play too, since I've managed to convince both Adam and Jim, my veteran WoW-playing compadres, to give DDO a shot. Adam is definitely addicted (he rolled up a Dwarf Barbarian this morning and didn't stop playing until he went to work at five) and Jim is enthused because he's managed to effectively create Allyndra (his 4E character from Sunday campaign). Thus, my plans for tomorrow night consist of going over to their place to catch up with season three of Chuck (which they have DVR'ed) and questing around Korthos island. A Barbarian, a Wizard and a Paladin. Sounds like the beginning of a truly awful joke. But yeah, I'm excited. Sounds like a great way to spend a Friday night.

You know, because I'm a total geek like that.

Tonight I'll be passing the time at work watching season two of The Big Bang Theory and reading Wizard's First Rule during the wait time for Megavideo (stupid 72-minute viewing limits). Might play some Pokemon too, or even listen to some more episodes of Radio Free Burrito, Wil Wheaton's podcast.

Yeah, that was me last night. I downloaded the three most recent episodes of RFB and listened to them while I killed acolytes and sahuagin on Korthos Island and failed utterly at questing on hard-mode. Sometimes being a mage blows. I want fireball. Bad.

After work I get to attack my printer again and then do a couple little quests before passing out. Which I need to do, since I have a meeting with my creative writing teacher at eight in the morning and need to bring three typed poems for her to critique. It was the only time she could squeeze me in. *Death*

But I'm off work at one. And then the fun of the weekend can begin. DDO, sleeping in, karaoke, D&D campaigns. And on Saturday my Dad and I are going to begin the quest to find me a car.

So it may indeed be Thursday. But all things considered, it could be much worse.

Me and MMOs: A Story

So I've recently started playing D&D online as I posted previously, and while this doesn't seem like a big thing to the average stranger coming across this blog, the readers I have who have known me well for the last five or six years have been well aware of my vehement opposition to MMORPGS on a number of principles. When I posted on facebook that I'd finally started playing an MMO, I got a ridiculous number of responses from friends both new and old alternately congratulating me, giving me crap, or something in-between.

And it's well deserved, as my decision to start playing DDO has got me eating my words.

So where did this dislike for MMORPGs begin? And what changed it?

Well, the story begins shortly after I moved to Nebraska. It was my senior year in high school and, having just moved four thousand miles across the world from London, England, I didn't know anyone. In England I had left behind twelve years of experiences, friends, and a boyfriend, and the two of us decided to try the long-distance thing, and that went well for a while.

And then he picked up WoW. The quintessential MMO. He started playing after I moved, and while I won't be the kind of asshole ex-girlfriend who sits here and soapboxes about how the game (I just lost) ruined our relationship, I will say that it was a contributing factor in the decline of that relationship. There were of course other things that pulled us apart (the distance of course being the main one), but many webcam chat dates were forgotten or skipped over because he was in a raid and didn't remember until he received an angry email the next day.

So yeah. It's a sore subject, as it can be for many female gamers - the feeling of being less important than a videogame, whether that be true or not, is not a pleasant one.

I carried this resentment for several years, to the point where finding out someone played WoW or other similar MMOs colored my perceptions of them. Not actively, but I know I definitely felt the unpleasant twist in my gut every time I heard about the videogame that contributed to the downfall of my relationship with my high school boyfriend.

I look back on it and feel silly. Believe me I do, but at the time, I felt completely justified and comfortable in calling myself a proud Warcraft Widow.

And then I met Jim and his friends.

I already knew several of them through mutual friends at my old high school, but he moved to Nebraska from California almost two years ago so it took a little while for us to meet. And finding out that he was a WoW player made me hesitate and proceed with caution into the friendship.

Then I found out the story behind the WoW. And how it had given him a place to go when he needed to get out (a bad family situation back in California) and his friends in the game gave him Nebraska. So he loaded up all his worldly possessions and drove out to live here. I still think that's a pretty cool story.

It took a bit of getting used to, listening to him and his friends play WoW and talk about it. I knew a lot of the jargon of course, being a denizen of the internet and a HUGE fan of the Guild webseries. Jim was an active member of his guild and spent a great deal of time playing WoW, something I gave him no end of crap for at various points in the year we have been friends. I think the way I put it once was describing MMOs as soul-stealing baby-rapers. I know, melodramatic and silly. But I was going for humor, I promise.

The game has definitely been a factor in my friendship with Jim. We dated for a couple months (we're still friends though), and during that time I admit the game was an issue. It wasn't the downfall of the relationship (that's a completely unrelated and unnecessary story I'll save for a night I've had a little too much mead and a not enough sleep), but issues to do with it were a factor. I blame past bad experiences coloring my judgment for the most part, and while I will forever stand by the fact that human interaction is better than videogames, I know that at the time I did not understand the appeal of MMORPGS at all.

Then I started playing one.

I had already started considering it after multiple nights of watching Jim raid while chilling on the other side of the room with a book or my laptop, listening to him enjoying himself, talking with his friends, and going through the crazy quests and boss killing akin to most fantasy games.

The main thing that stopped me of course (besides my innate prejudice) was the cost. That and the time commitment, but it was mostly the fact that playing WoW cost money, and while I do have a job, I'm still a poor college student.

Thus, when my roommate Chris came across DDO a week or two ago, I expressed some vague interest. And then a few nights ago on a whim, I signed up and downloaded it to give it a shot.

And I'm having a blast. Way more fun than I ever could have anticipated. I'm running my wizard around setting things on fire and collecting loot and XP while also engaging in random chatter in the General channel.

Reflecting on my past attitudes towards MMOs now that I play one make me feel like I was unfair, not just to the games, but to the people who play them. And while I still admit that some issues that arose because of MMOs still hit sore spots in me in friendships and relationships, a lot of those are things I take issue with regardless of a videogame being involved, and should never be blamed on the game itself.

Thus, I remove my hat to all my MMO-playing friends, past and present, especially Jim and that long-distant ex, and apologize for not giving MMOs a chance before passing my judgments on them.

You were right.

It is fun.

So that's my story. I'm delving into all new levels of nerdery, and I couldn't be happier. And proving that before you knock something, you really have to try it

Dungeons and Drama

Another Monday dawns: I've never been a fan of Mondays. If I ever succeed in my plans for world domination, I will forbid the existence of Mondays entirely I think. But until then I will continue in my quest towards another weekend.

Today's definitely a little on the busy side. I have Latin homework to poke with a stick while I'm at work as well as reading Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for my Gay and Lesbian lit class. After Latin I'm running home to dump my books and shower and relax a bit before heading back to campus for dinner and a study party with my friend Cori, who I haven't hung out with in forever.

After that my plan for the evening is to do a few quests in DDO, and then watch Chuck while working on my Latin drills.

Clearly I lead a thrilling life.

Last night was D&D, and while I love Amy's campaign, I think all of us players are getting a wee bit antsy and ready to advance the plot. We're currently sidequesting into the realm of Threst where there's been something of a disturbance involving undead creatures and a halfling rebellion. Isn't a bad thing necessarily, but our main quest is on the other side of the continent, so I know at least I'm wondering when we'll be back on that track. Possibly by the time Amy and I become roommates a month or two from now. That said, I'm having a blast playing Illyria, my character, and I try to do what I can to balance out the party, which tends to bicker when decisions need to be made. Is just the way of things: we've got a gnome illusionist with a legendary alcohol tolerance (James, who often has to leave early due to having morning classes in Omaha), a shifter cleric who can heal a crapton but is hesitant to put forth his opinion for fear of conflict (Adam, my quoting buddy), a halfling rogue who serves the Raven Queen with much enthusiasm (Alex, whose propensity for undead smiting makes things difficult since we have the Chosen of Vecna in our party - a thirteen year old boy who unintentionally reanimates dead things), and a half-elf paladin who tries her damndest to keep us all on track, resulting in her bouncing between being the Patron Saint of Lost Causes (as I dubbed her) and the Only Sane Man (Jim's character. Yes he's playing a chick, and yes he's heard all the jokes, so don't even start).

So yeah. Party strife. We have it.

Hopefully next weekend's session will go better. We might actually make it into Threst, finish the sidequest and be on our way back to find the pesky MacGuffin and be one step closer to attempting to save the world. Huzzah!

And I will say, for all my complaints about sidequests and party drama, I still love this campaign. The fact that I'm willing to play 4th ed for the sake of this story and playstyle is a testament to Amy's storytelling and DMing abilities. So take everything I say with a grain of salt. It is Monday, and we did have a rough ending to the session last night. Give me a couple hours and some caffeine and I'll be right as rain.

Just as soon as I get through my Latin homework that is. *sigh* Now I just need to remember how far we got in the sentences. *grumbles*

MMO's and Vehicles

I'm a big fan of weekends; any day that gives me an opportunity to sleep in past eight thirty in the morning and play videogames and D&D is as good day in my book.

I've started playing DDO: D&D Online, at the recommendation of my roommate Chris. I've never tried playing an MMO before -- I've tended to avoid them because of their two major flaws in my book. 1) They cost money. 2) They take up a lot of time.

However, DDO has managed to eliminate the first of those qualms, in that the Eberron setting is completely free and unlimited. Issue #2 is still there, but all that involves is a little self control.

Not that I have a lot of that, but as long as I remember to get my homework done before I run around killing Sahuagin and becoming a more awesome Wizard.

Speaking of which, homework is definitely pressing on my mind. Paper due in my creative writing class tomorrow morning about a book I've been reading called Leaving Atlanta. It's a good book, but I made the mistake of signing up for a craft device that doesn't really have a specific definition: emotional core. Not hard to explain of course, but its not really something I can do research on. Which might diminish my grade. Unfortunate, but true. Then again, if I mention that research on the topic was difficult, that might help.

Ah, the power of Bullshit.

So until I get on that, I'm gonna watch Chuck and finish reading the book I need to read. I love this show. It's most definitely one of my favorites.

My other thought for the day is about my car. Well, my nonexistent car. Next month I'm finally acquiring my own vehicular transportation. I haven't had a car that even remotely resembled my own property since high school, and even then, my sister and I shared it. Once I went off to the big bad world of college, the car remained in my sister's possession, and then got sold two years later when she headed off to that same big bad world.

So yeah. I can't wait to have a car. I can't wait to be free to drive wherever I want to drive, to have the opportunity to just head to the gaming store whenever I want, to go visit friends on the other side of town without them having to come pick me up.

I've also been thinking about that car, and that it'll need a name. A ridiculously geeky name.

Any recommendations? I'm debating between a Star Wars name (The Milennium Falcon or similar), a fantasy steed (Shadowfax, for example) or something from literature or comic books. Suggestions are welcome, and I'll probably gather and list the finalist names closer to the actual acquisition of the vehicle.

So that's that. Time to crap out a three-page paper, finish reading a book, and watching Chuck. And later, I get to play D&D.

Gotta love Sundays.

On Focus, Gaming and Television

Last night after work I engaged in a fun nerd-fest with my friends Adam and James. We dropped by Brewsky's for Thursday Karaoke (because we're regulars, and that's just what regulars do) and I tried out a new song. I'm a fan of the Beatles thanks to living in England for most of my formative years, so I sang 'Let it Be'. It's a little less vocal intensive than a lot of the songs I sing, so it was nice to do something mellow for a change.

After that we piled in cars (well, Adam's car. I don't have a car as of yet, but that's on the to-do list for March) and went over to Adam's place, where we watched a good five to six episodes of Big Bang Theory. I adore that show. I can safely say that it is one of my absolute favorites. I love the nerd references, the awkwardness and the awesome in-jokes.

That and one of the episodes really struck home with me last night. It's a scene from episode 7 of season 1, 'The Dumpling Paradox', where Leonard, Sheldon, Raj and Howard are engaged in a frantic game of Halo and Penny stops by with her friends. Penny loudly states to the group of gaming boys that she and her friends got bored dancing and came back to have sex with them (joking of course). The males, in common gamer stereotype, are too busy playing Halo to notice her. Penny then laughs and remarks to her friends that she told them this would happen.

Why does this ring true to me? Because I've been on both sides of that spectrum, and if nothing else, that amuses me. I've been the frustrated girl trying to get my boyfriend's attention while he was in the middle of a videogame, be it WoW or Halo or Dragon Age or any number of the various other games my boyfriends of the past have played.

I find this a lot less frustrating now than I used to. Why? Well, besides the fact that I'm currently single and therefore don't have a boyfriend to distract, I've also been the one lost in a game on many an occasion. I regularly sit curled up on my couch, muttering angrily at my DS as I attempt and fail to catch Chanseys in Pokemon Platinum. My roommates will regularly hear me bellow streams of profanity as I attempt to complete a Quest in Diablo II (especially in Act III on Nightmare -- holy SHIT are gloams nasty). And unless someone comes and stands right in front of me, I have trouble dividing my attention.

So yeah, I've been in the stereotypical girl position in that scenario; standing by the side while my boyfriend, or even just my guy friends, are too distracted to notice me trying to talk to them.

But I don't fault them for that. Because I've been there. And sometimes diverting your attention will lose you the game.

... Which I just lost.

Sorry internet.

So those are some of my thoughts on gaming, and TV. I ended up staying awake until four in the morning and passing out on Adam's couch in the middle of episode 12 (The Jerusalem Duality). But I'll probably catch up with that later this weekend in-between D&D sessions, karaoke and writing a critical paper for my Creative Writing class.

Yeah, it's a miracle I'm awake right now. My only saving grace is my bottle of Code Red Mountain Dew. Thus, I will attempt to stay awake by reading old comic archives and chatting with friends online. And working on D&D stuff of course. And cursing the fact that I don't have a teleporter. The snow, it is pesky and I hates it and I hates that I have to walk through it to get home to my nice warm bed and DVDs.

Day in the Life

So today, Thursday, is traditionally my busiest and longest day, and no exceptions were found on this particular occasion. I woke up after staying up late for Karaoke (which is a staple in my minimal social life - I go every Tuesday, Wednesday, and almost every Thursday and Saturday) and dragged my sorry exhausted ass out of my warm, comfortable bed. I survived my first class - Reading for Writers, which I actually enjoy quite a bit as we talk extensively about writing techniques. That and I can get away with not giving my full attention and working on stuff for my D&D campaign. So yeah, managed to get three brand new pages of notes written in longhand. Also did that over lunch and during Gay and Lesbian lit.

No such luck in Latin, but I actually enjoy paying attention in latin. My nerdery extends heavily into the realm of linguistics - I'm taking a dead language for fun, I can understand a substantial amount of elvish, and I have a strong desire to learn Klingon.

Please, keep the heckling to yourself. I am well aware of how sad that is.

I also work six hours today, and am currently in the fifth hour of that shift. I don't mind though, as I work at a library. So I've spent the bulk of my shift catching up with Chuck (one of my favorite shows), chatting online with many friends, and plotting out D&D-related things.

I'm really looking forward to starting up my campaign; I haven't run anything in a really long time, so starting off something new will be a fun challenge. Not in the least because two of the players, my friends Adam and Amy, haven't played 3.5 before and started with 4th, so I and the other two players, my roommates Chris and John, have been slowly educating them. It'll take some time, but we're enthusiastic, so it's no trouble.

My plan for the rest of the evening is most likely going to involve more karaoke, as my friends Adam and James are willing to drive out to Brewsky's to enjoy some singing and alcohol. Though probably not for me, as I'm decidedly poor. Yay poverty!

So yeah. My life may not be exciting, but is definitely nerdy.

Time to watch more Chuck and count down the minutes until I can pack up and head home. I'm looking forward to it.

Greetings

Good evening blogosphere, I'm Lora, and this is my new blog. I've had a few of these before, but in the interest of starting fresh (and out of abject laziness) I've opted to create a shiny new blog for you to enjoy.

In this blog I will ramble about my life, school (which I currently attend full-time) and my nerdy hobbies, including and not limited to D&D, videogames, TV shows, karaoke, writing, reading and surfing the internet. Hopefully some of you will find it at least moderately interesting. I'm not the most opinionated person you'll find on the internet, but I have passions for a lot of things and I have no problem rambling about them. I hope to also chronicle the birth and life-cycle of my upcoming D&D campaign, which starts in a week.

So there you have it. The blogging begins tonight. Any questions? Well, there's that About Me sidebar, that might help. It has a bunch of random things about me in it, and if that doesn't answer your questions, well, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

Welcome! Enjoy. Live long and prosper and all that jazz. Except I doubt Vulcans are much into jazz, but whatever, it works.