I've Never Been Much For Blogging Daily Anyway

It's been an exceptionally busy week here at Taking Ten. As well as lots of school-related junk, we celebrated the birthday of my friend and future roommate Amy (I got her a tricorn pirate hat, which she loved, and sang her Elton John at karaoke) on Wednesday, which was amusing. I also finished Stone of Tears and have now moved on to Blood of the Fold, which I am enjoying just as much.

I also got my tattoo on Tuesday: it's a small yin-yang in the center of my back between my shoulderblades. It hurt like a bitch since it's on my spine, but it's healing nicely. Itches a bit today, but that just means it's healing. :3 Of course, whenever someone slaps me on the back, it stings. Gotta love friends.

Other life news includes apartment hunting (Amy and I found an amazing place in the middle of town: nice neighborhood, 1100 square feet, less than $600 a month, secured entry, big rooms, balcony... it's perfect) and getting my car tonight. It's a black '06 Honda Civic, 2-door. Her name is Kaylee.

Because yeah, I'm the queen nerd and name my appliances and vehicles. Go me.

Tomorrow is GamerKhan VI, which means my usual plans for sleeping will be thwarted. That's all right though; I'm used to going without sleep, and can probably nap if necessary. I'm all set and ready to cook, organize and hostess it up as well as hanging out with all my favorite nerdy friends. It will, as always, be a blast.

Anyhoo, I'm going to spend the rest of my evening getting a bit more writing done, reading more Sword of Truth, and watching my friends play Civilization IV.

Adventures in Portland

It's been an excellent vacation thus far; I've been sleeping in, going on adventures, reading a ridiculous amount of good fiction and even getting some gaming in!

So where do I begin?

Well, there's the reading: I finished up Wizard's First Rule and moved right on to Stone of Tears. Goodkind's writing style is excellent, but very intense, so I have been taking frequent breaks with this second one. I doubt that will last long though - I expect the story will grab my attention just like the first book did.
I also picked up the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book and read it straight through in two hours yesterday, prompting me to pick up the second one this morning when I was at the Lloyd center shopping. I also devoured that one in two hours, and something tells me tomorrow I'll pick up the third. I really should wait until I get back to Nebraska and borrow them from Jim... but they're really good! So we'll see how that goes.

I also went to numerous bookstores, including Powells, my favorite book warehouse in existence, where I picked up many fun items to read and enjoy, including a few cheap gaming books <3. Always a good thing! Other things: Portland has a pirate store. Seriously guys, an honest to gods pirate store. A store full of nothing but cool pirate merchandies and accessories and party favors and costumes. I squee'd. Like a silly girl. And then bought shiny things. :3



So yeah. Epicsauce.

I've also gotten some good DDO in, and I'm hoping tonight will be the night I get through enough quests to hit level five. Hoping Jim will up for some joint questing to boot - our Cleric-Sorc team is utterly doomish. We pwn everything in our paths.

Speaking of which, tonight I joined in on a D&D Encounters group at Guardian Games, an excellent little gaming store in Portland I wish I could live in it is so awesome. The gentlemen I gamed with were lovely individuals, and we had a blast running through an encounter with some muggers. I played a pre-made Half-Elf Cleric. It was fun, and took the edge of my dice-rolling jones.

Everyone say it with me: Lora, you're a huge nerd.

Speaking of more nerdery, I've started a new novel! Even better, I'm writing it in longhand, something I haven't done in years. The novel is going to be a bit more adult-oriented fantasy set in a space age. Mmm, genre-mixing. It's delicious.

So that's my week. I've seen sights, eaten lots of delicious food, stayed up really late, read books, gamed a bit, spent way more money than I should, and had an all-around good time.

Kinda looking forward to heading back to Lincoln though. I miss my friends, for they are awesome.

That's all for now. I have 5th level to reach!

Games and Fantasy

So sleep has been going horribly this week, mostly due to D&D and karaoke, the usual suspects. But things are developing well in my nerdy little life. Like I finally got Starcraft from my roommate, which I've been inspired to play since Jim got a Starcraft II Beta-Key Monday night (anyone else jealous?) and my laptop has stopped being grouchy. I haven't played an RTS in forever, so it's taking a while to get used to the controls. But it's a lot of fun, and will give me a good game to play when I leave for my vacation tomorrow.

Not that I'll be gaming much. Yesterday I got to choose my own paper topic in my 400 level writing class, so I'm going to be writing my paper on the cliches and stereotypes commonly found in Fantasy literature, with a focus on authors who embrace and defy them. So now I'm reading Wizard's First Rule for a class.

I win. Epically.

So I'll be reading that on the plane, along with x-wing books. The flight back will most likely be taken up with playing Pokemon, as the new game comes out early next week (I am so excited, you have no idea). That and all the other perks of vacation are on the horizon, like sleeping a lot and watching Torchwood DVDs and visiting family.

But that's late tomorrow. Today I still have latin to get through. And then there's karaoke, where James and I will sing a rendition of A Whole New World that will probably be pretty bad, since it's too high for both of us. But the whole point is to have fun really, so it'll be okay. I also have to clean my room so it's fit for habitation, and pack.

Busy Wednesday is busy.

I'm off to read more Goodkind. And also browse the WoW Wiki some more. Because I am a loser.

The gaming, the gaming

So I haven't had the opportunity to update since Thursday, and things have changed considerably since then. Like my D&D campaign not meeting because one of my players had to work later than expected and another needed to get up early Saturday morning. So I spent my Friday in the best way: playing Halo with Jim (which I sucked at, but that's because I've never played Halo before. True story), ate an awesome dinner and then spent the evening playing DDO, which went well except for the part where I kept getting disconnected. I have no idea why, but it happened, and it sucked. But I survived, and got to kill a lot of kobolds, which was excellent.

Saturday also went well; The company of heroes attempting to stop the Red Hand of Doom fought several nasty beasties and managed to survive despite lots of near-death experiences (Both Chris and Jim got pretty close to dead at various points).

And we are currently entering into I think our seventh or eighth hour of Amy's campaign. We have been playing for hours and are currently fighting a crowd of wights and a Beholder. I have class in seven and a half hours. We are nowhere near done with this fight.

I will try to blog more tomorrow, but expect to be completely and utterly incoherent and exhausted, as I have nine thirty class, three hours of work, and then two-thirty class. If exhaustion continues, I might skip latin, because I have to read a book and write a paper tomorrow. And go to a reading. And email my group with my notes.

Yeah. We should have finished this session two hours ago. We're idiots. But DAMN is playing D&D until the wee hours fun. It's absolutely fantastic. I adore this campaign, and the Torchwood / Dark Knight / Lord of the Rings soundtrack in the background is doing WONDERS for the mood.

I'm gonna go plink away at a beholder now. Wish me luck.

Drinking Water is Important Kids

It's been a few days since I've updated, and I apologize. School and exhaustion kind of ate me alive. They still are of course - last night at Tuesday Karaoke I decided to go with the theme for the night and entertain the bar with my rendition of The Real Slim Shady (which I can do from memory - anyone wants proof and next time I'll videotape it). It went great, but it left me extremely dehydrated, and I did not drink nearly enough water to counteract the effects. Thus, my day has been spent stumbling from class to class in an exhausted stupor.

The rest of the week has been okay though. Lots of DDO time logged (Jim and I have been farming Stormreach quests for tasty loot, and I've been killing kobold after kobold with glee), and I have decided that oozes are the worst thing ever and I hope they all die horribly forever.

I've also been watching Chuck again, since I had a moment of weakness last night and bought season one at Best Buy, then watched a bunch of it last night (before passing out in a dehydrated blob).

The rest of the week is looking pretty good. The Undergrad Writing competition deadline is Friday, so I have one story to finish and another to tweak before then.

I've also signed up for Script Frenzy again this year (write 100 pages in 30 days starting April 1st), so I'm going to attempt writing a TV show script. More on that closer to the time, I'm still working out the details.

So yeah. Writing projects and school are piling up, gaming and Chuck are filling my free time and Friday is the first session of my D&D campaign! :) Life is good. I'm dizzy and tired, but life is good.

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.

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.