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A Lot Of Nothing...
Apr. 17th, 2007 07:02 pm...with some short, brief periods of a hell of a lot to punctuate it. This week, the up well and truly took the down to the cleaners.
Firstly, the low point of the week involved the biggest waste of five hours I have ever had the misfortune to know (and I have watched The Blair Witch Project in my time). I go in to the labs on Thursday evening, hoping to do some essential work on the office PC that can't do on Saturday because I'll be at the 24hr. The 1.36 office PC is the only PC on the planet that I can access and contains both the software and the information I need to do the work I want to do. I arrive at 5:30. There is someone else using the machine. Fair enough - I'm barely part of the group these days and gave no warning I was coming, so I go away and wait.
For two and a half hours.
As five past eight rolls around, I finally get up the courage to go and ask the guy if he's going to be much longer, to have him respond with "Oh, you should have come and asked - I haven't got the internet at home and was only surfing Youtube since five."
Rage. Modicum.
I finally get onto the PC and try to fire up Hotmail, where my work is sitting, waiting for me to manipulate it with said software. Hotmail is broken.
Rage. Major.
I try, unsuccessfully, for a further two and a half hours to download this 3.6MB file. Half past ten rolls around, time for home as I haven't eaten yet, and the University's T1 connection finally takes the finger out of its ass and the 3.6MB downloads in about a second.
Rage. Massive.
Wearing a slightly ragged grin, I attempt to browse the file to make sure I have it for next time. It is corrupted and cannot be opened.
Rage. McFeegle.
_______________
As previously mentioned, however, Saturday rolled round just in time, and the 12th Annual Tournament of Arms saw the the Duellin' J-Man himself make only his sixth ever appearance in a game with monsters. Seeker Juilin Fortrayre returned to the active service of Baron van Heusen, after being browbeaten by his two younger sisters about keeping the family end up. He turned up hoping for a weekend away from rune revision. He got daemons up the jacksie.
Major, major kudos to Alex and Nat for managing to create an event in which everyone, regardless of their level or class, was able to feel useful if they pitched in. I had hoped, and asked, for this, knowing several months in advance that I planned to be making use of it in a very direct manner, and got it in spades. Almost couldn't have gone better from his perspective.
Juilin entered the unpowered contest for a laugh, and while I'm not sure the concept of facing Brend in the first round is a joke, it's certainly funny. He was given an honourable mention as the most inept contestant in the competition, so counts himself as having won more than the majority of people did. That's his story and he's sticking to it.
The linear on Sunday to resolve the plot involved his volunteering to go daemon slaying as the party would probably need the healing, which is by far the best thing he does (besides crack sexual innuendo and act like a cocky bastard). Turns out that it was useful, though came at the cost of his legs getting broken on repeated occasions (is anyone else seeing a trend emerging among freedom priests?), and taxing the party's fixing abilities rather more than he had hoped. That said, every damage call after the first encounter was enough to break an extraneous limb of his, so being hit only four times could have been worse. He prepares a solution as we speak.
The reaction of the other characters was generally positive, and while I had planned on having him out more often from now on anyway, he's beginning to realise what he missed. Hopefully he can get back into the swing of things over the summer if the conversation in Warren's car on the way home holds any water, and there will be several mid-level games during the holiday. The only problem with him is, ironically, the ease of playing him.
I can slot in and out of Juilin (woof woof - see what I mean?) at a split seconds notice - he is by far the simplest character I have ever played. This, unfortunately, revolves around the fact that he is a paper thin character abstract with no actual reason to exist, save possibly to make every female character in the system giggle and blush. I can't do in-depth conversations involving him, as he hasn't got any depth to plumb and find out about. What you see is what you get, and this is against just about every sensibility I have on the subject of characterisation. It is great that people like him, but he remains, on at least a couple of levels, boring to play. The only challenge is not getting my legs broken, or possibly charming people enough to heal them.
So fair and foul a character...
_______________
And because everyone else is doing it, and I bit:
'Tell me what your character thinks of mine, and I'll tell you what mine thinks of yours!
Be specific if you only want to know what one character or other thinks, or you might get it from anyone who has an opinion.'
Firstly, the low point of the week involved the biggest waste of five hours I have ever had the misfortune to know (and I have watched The Blair Witch Project in my time). I go in to the labs on Thursday evening, hoping to do some essential work on the office PC that can't do on Saturday because I'll be at the 24hr. The 1.36 office PC is the only PC on the planet that I can access and contains both the software and the information I need to do the work I want to do. I arrive at 5:30. There is someone else using the machine. Fair enough - I'm barely part of the group these days and gave no warning I was coming, so I go away and wait.
For two and a half hours.
As five past eight rolls around, I finally get up the courage to go and ask the guy if he's going to be much longer, to have him respond with "Oh, you should have come and asked - I haven't got the internet at home and was only surfing Youtube since five."
Rage. Modicum.
I finally get onto the PC and try to fire up Hotmail, where my work is sitting, waiting for me to manipulate it with said software. Hotmail is broken.
Rage. Major.
I try, unsuccessfully, for a further two and a half hours to download this 3.6MB file. Half past ten rolls around, time for home as I haven't eaten yet, and the University's T1 connection finally takes the finger out of its ass and the 3.6MB downloads in about a second.
Rage. Massive.
Wearing a slightly ragged grin, I attempt to browse the file to make sure I have it for next time. It is corrupted and cannot be opened.
Rage. McFeegle.
_______________
As previously mentioned, however, Saturday rolled round just in time, and the 12th Annual Tournament of Arms saw the the Duellin' J-Man himself make only his sixth ever appearance in a game with monsters. Seeker Juilin Fortrayre returned to the active service of Baron van Heusen, after being browbeaten by his two younger sisters about keeping the family end up. He turned up hoping for a weekend away from rune revision. He got daemons up the jacksie.
Major, major kudos to Alex and Nat for managing to create an event in which everyone, regardless of their level or class, was able to feel useful if they pitched in. I had hoped, and asked, for this, knowing several months in advance that I planned to be making use of it in a very direct manner, and got it in spades. Almost couldn't have gone better from his perspective.
Juilin entered the unpowered contest for a laugh, and while I'm not sure the concept of facing Brend in the first round is a joke, it's certainly funny. He was given an honourable mention as the most inept contestant in the competition, so counts himself as having won more than the majority of people did. That's his story and he's sticking to it.
The linear on Sunday to resolve the plot involved his volunteering to go daemon slaying as the party would probably need the healing, which is by far the best thing he does (besides crack sexual innuendo and act like a cocky bastard). Turns out that it was useful, though came at the cost of his legs getting broken on repeated occasions (is anyone else seeing a trend emerging among freedom priests?), and taxing the party's fixing abilities rather more than he had hoped. That said, every damage call after the first encounter was enough to break an extraneous limb of his, so being hit only four times could have been worse. He prepares a solution as we speak.
The reaction of the other characters was generally positive, and while I had planned on having him out more often from now on anyway, he's beginning to realise what he missed. Hopefully he can get back into the swing of things over the summer if the conversation in Warren's car on the way home holds any water, and there will be several mid-level games during the holiday. The only problem with him is, ironically, the ease of playing him.
I can slot in and out of Juilin (woof woof - see what I mean?) at a split seconds notice - he is by far the simplest character I have ever played. This, unfortunately, revolves around the fact that he is a paper thin character abstract with no actual reason to exist, save possibly to make every female character in the system giggle and blush. I can't do in-depth conversations involving him, as he hasn't got any depth to plumb and find out about. What you see is what you get, and this is against just about every sensibility I have on the subject of characterisation. It is great that people like him, but he remains, on at least a couple of levels, boring to play. The only challenge is not getting my legs broken, or possibly charming people enough to heal them.
So fair and foul a character...
_______________
And because everyone else is doing it, and I bit:
'Tell me what your character thinks of mine, and I'll tell you what mine thinks of yours!
Be specific if you only want to know what one character or other thinks, or you might get it from anyone who has an opinion.'
