http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

It's a rare time when I actually sit down to type up a live journal entry. It's rarer for me to pass on a meme, and rarer still for me to actually attempt to start one. But here I am, sitting here at 4 in the morning with something on my mind, hoping that maybe some responses here will help me work through this.

First, some light reading. Do a google search on "runaway global warming" and read some of the articles that come up.

Done? Good. Now imagine for a moment that humanity will be gone in 20 years. Maybe even 10, or 5. If you knew The End was coming, what would you be doing differently, knowing that not only will you be dead, but also that no one else will be around to remember you?

I realize this is heavy stuff, but I'm honestly curious what people think. Pass this around as much as possible... I'd love to see some thoughts.

I hardly ever read livejournal. Hence, posting to it isn't going to get my attention, no matter how many times you do so.

Woody Allen Your film will be 66% romantic, 41% comedy, 30% complex plot, and a $ 35 million budget.

Be prepared to have your life story shot entirely in New York City -- though lately Woody's been loving shooting in London. Also, your music soundtrack is all jazz from before 1949. Filmography: Annie Hall, Manhattan, Stardust Memories, Everyone Says I Love You, Match Point, Scoop, etc. Woody has released one film per year consistently for the past 35 years. For the past 15 years he's been trying to make films like his older, funnier ones, just like characters in his Stardust Memories film suggest throughout. Regardless of his personal life, his films are American classics.

Interesting that I would get this one... :)

Mystic Theurge 44% Combativeness, 26% Sneakiness, 94% Intellect, 61% Spirituality

Brilliant and spiritual! You are a Mystic Theurge! Score! You have a prestige class. A prestige class can only be taken after you’ve fulfilled certain requirements. This may mean that you’re an exceptionally talented person, but it probably doesn't. The Mystic Theurge is a combination of a cleric and a mage. They can cast both arcane and divine spells, and are good at both, making them pretty terrifying on the battlefield. They have more raw spellpower than just about any other class. You're both intelligent and faithful, but not violent or deceitful. I guess that makes you a pretty good person.

I'm going to lift this little meme... I could use some fun writing challenges.

Give me one of my own stories, and a timestamp sometime in the future after the end of the story, or sometime in the past before the story started, and I'll tell you what happened then in at least 100words, whether it's five minutes before the story started or ten years in the future.

Alternatively, give me a time and a character from an RPG.

Go ahead, give me a tough one. :)

When I wake up tomorrow morning, the Democrats will have control of the senate.

2.5 lb angus eye of round, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
4 onions, cut into medium sized pieces
1 12oz container of sliced mushrooms
3 cubes beef bullion
about 1/2 packet of fresh thyme (leaves only, no sprigs :)
1 pint can of Boddington's
2 heaping tablespoons of flour
generous portions of salt and pepper
2 pie crusts
5 green onions, diced

Put olive oil in a pan, heat to hot, and then fry steak until brown on
the surface. Add onions, green onions, and mushrooms. Cook for a little
while longer and then pour in beer. Add salt, pepper, thyme, and
bullion cubes. Cover and simmer on low heat for an hour and a half.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. When filling is ready, put in pies and bake
for 45 minutes.

Makes 2 pies

So, I'm doing the art meme. First five people to reply to me will get some piece of art, writing, etc, by me and personalized for them. Eventually.

If you reply, you have to put this in your own LJ too.

3 cubano peppers, roasted (poblano would probably work, or even green bell peppers)
4 roma tomatoes, fresh
1 lb corn cut off of the cob (preferably fresh, but I got it frozen)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 large onion or 1 medium onion
2 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

Roast cubano peppers in oven at about 400 degrees until skin browns and peels off of the pepper easily. Peel off skin. Chop onion up into itty bitty bits and sautee in olive oil until slightly brown. Chop up fresh tomatoes and roast peppers. Mix onions, tomatoes, and peppers in with corn. Add salt, sugar, oregano, and apple cider vinegar. Refrigerate until cold.

Note: This salsa is mild. You could probably turn up the heat a bit more by using a hotter pepper, like a jalepeno or serrano, but you'd need to use more of them.

1. Pick a direction.
2. Append some kind of geological formation.
3. Tack a silent 'e' on the end. Yuppies love that shit.

On my way in to work, I drive by at least two of these: Westbrooke and Northpointe. Having discovered the secret of naming yuppie housing developments, I think I'll start a few of my own:

Easthille
Westrivere
South-southwestswampe

I'll be rich!

April 19th

Facts:
1775 - American Revolutionary War begins
1971 - Launch of Salyut 1, first human-made space station
1995 - Oklahoma City bombing :(

Births:
1978 - James Franco (Harry Osborne from Spider-Man... same year as me, too)
1981 - Hayden Christensen

Deaths:
1993 - David Koresh (That's right, David Koresh bit it on my birthday!)

I've put up an Exia wiki... If possible, stop by and add a few things. :)

http://www.otakalypse.com/exiawiki/index.php/Main_Page

You'll have to create an account first... the link to do that is in the upper right corner. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here.

Although 8 years to late and a bit light on plot, I appreciate your efforts to add closure to a game that sorely lacked it. If you plan to continue along these lines, I have a couple ideas for other movies:

"Xenogears: The Fucking Second Half Of The Game," and "Chrono Cross: An Ending That Doesn't Blow."

You have my premission to use these ideas in whatever way you see fit.

Thank you,
Bart Kelsey

Date:	2005-08-01 10:05
Subject:	EsperNet update
Security:	Public
Mood:	satisfied

They're aware of the issue and working to resolve it. For now, you can connect by typing the following in your server window:

/server 69.9.162.142

Date:	2005-08-01 09:46
Subject:	Anyone know what happened to EsperNet?
Security:	Public
Mood:	grumpy

Looks like the domain isn't even resolving...

You scored as Chewbacca. </td> Chewbacca 72% R2-D2 69% Anakin Skywalker 67% Darth Vader 64% General Grievous 58% Yoda 58% Mace Windu 58% C-3PO 53% Obi Wan Kenobi 44% Clone Trooper 39% Padme Amidala 36% Emperor Palpatine 31% Which Revenge of the Sith Character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Why would anyone put worms in a can?

No matter, I'm opening it.

My wife-to-be, Daria, has been playing D&D on and off for the past 15 years or so... longer than I have. She started out playing with her older siblings (all female), and some local friends who, much like her, really weren't old enough to be getting to the point where they start being particularly sexist. So fortunately, her first experiences with roleplaying were fun, non-awkward ones.

As I understand it, though, she joined a roleplaying club when she got into college, and found that things were a lot different with older groups of players, especially people who weren't used to playing with girls. She has experienced several of the sexist roleplayer stereotypes, including the annoying guy who wants to do everything for girls and doesn't let them have any fun, and the DM who is mean and vindictive because, for whatever reason, he can't deal with the fact that there's a girl in his game.

I can see why girls have a problem with these people. I totally get it. They make me mad too, because they just can't seem to treat people with respect.

Then there's the rest of us. We non-sexist, non-dickhead male roleplayers fall into two categories when dealing with female gamers:

* Trying To Be Sensitive And PC Guy - This dude is making a conscious effort to be nice about gender issues. He's probably not used to playing with girls, so at this point he still has to work at not making stupid assumptions and not acting like an idiot. Sometimes this will cause him to do awkward things, but on the whole, his efforts should be applauded, and he should be gently corrected if necessary. Trying To Be Sensitive And PC Guy eventually becomes...

* Guy Who Doesn't Really Care What Gender His Fellow Roleplayers Are - This one is me. They treat guys and girls the same way because, well, why wouldn't you? If someone's at the gaming table, it's because they want to game. They neither require nor deserve any sort of special treatment, unless they're new players, in which case they should be assisted regardless of gender.

So now that I've pigeonholed all of my fellow male gamers, I'll get into the meat of this little rant. There are, undeniably, certain physical things that only apply to female characters. Among these are menstural cycles (which we rightfully gloss over much the same way we gloss over characters going to the bathroom "I set up camp!" "I go over and take a dump behind that bush!" "I just had a really heavy period, so I'm gonna go clean up!"), and pregnancy, which frankly is a lot harder to just ignore.

It's clear from Curtana's comments that even women have differing expectations about how they want to be treated in game. The problem stems from the fact that, since pregnancy is a women-only thing, how we as male gamers decide to treat it becomes a sexism issue, as opposed to just a plot issue (note that it's in a post titled Sexism in Gaming). So now I'm drawing a blank. I did the same thing I'd do for a male player: let them decide before I make major changes to their character. Where is the sexism in that? A more appropriate place to put this problem would be in a post about treatment of players and character plots in general. Since this group is roleplay heavy, I try to let the players decide where they want their character plots to go -- and those character plots make up the vast bulk of the plot of my game. I'm not going to be making sweeping changes to someone's character concept if they don't want me to.

Forcing a character to become pregnant is in some ways not much different from, say, having them permanently lose both their legs (which, I might add, is certainly a realistic possibility) or perhaps making them take levels of a class they don't want. It's a huge change as far as the character is concerned, and as a player, I would find having a big change foisted on me to be jarring and rude. I ask players when they want other things to happen to them that would affect their character's plot. Why shouldn't I do the same with pregnancy?

Greatsword You preferred a weapon with 56% power over speed and 27% range over melee.

You use a Greatsword. Do the words Zweihander or Flamberge mean anything to you? You prefer a Greatsword, a massive, heavy blade frequently strong enough to cut down the rides of mounted warriors. Though slow, the impressive length and heft of a greatsword makes it capable even of breaking through armor. Your enemies will run from the deadly arcs of your blade as you bear down on them.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 76% on power You scored higher than 23% on range

Link: The What's Your Signature Weapon Test written by inurashii on Ok Cupid

Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex - Touga, actually. I think he's cool because he's basically a normal guy. All he's really got are his smarts.
Xenogears - Rev. Billy Lee Black.
Half Life 2 - Gordon Freeman himself. He's just totally nerdcore.
Star Trek: TOS - Kirk. I watched Star Trek a lot as a little kid. Kirk was awesome.
Final Fantasy X - Lulu. Subtle and interesting without being as angsty as she looks.
Chrono Trigger - Robo. Maybe it's just his themesong, I dunno. :)