I told
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Oh,
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AutoAssault Anonymous
Mar. 29th, 2007 08:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
We are (probably needless to say) having a lot of fun with AutoAssault. It's really different from GuildWars - it's a bit more violent, in that well, you run over people from time to time, and there is blood, but it's still not violent on the scale of something like Grand Theft Auto (which I don't approve of, at all, actually - at least, certainly not for kids). GuildWars has no blood even when you kill things - it's a pretty PG-rated game, on the whole. Anyway, my 14-day trial on AA is running out, and in any case, had a level-20 cap on it which I have now run into with one of my characters, so I went ahead and paid this morning. AutoAssault has 3 races in its little postapocalyptic world - humans, mutants, and "biomeks" - which are sort of like cyborgs, human-machine hybrid-y things. The three races don't interact at all until way up in the game (and then they fight, not cooperate), so humans can only play with humans, and so forth. I made one of each race, but it's the mutants - green skin, glowy eyes & all - that Col & I have been playing a lot, and which got to level 20 the other night. Col had played in the beta, and had reactivated his human char from the beta recently and she is really high up there level-wise, so we are not playing our humans together, like we are with the mutants and (occasionally) the biomeks. I have played enough when Col is not around, though, that my human (who's a "commando" - like a warrior) would have run into the level cap with the trial fairly soon, too.
Oh, I had my evaluation yesterday, and it was good, and I got a small raise. We talked about me taking on more responsibility, too, which hopefully will eventually lead to a bigger raise.
Still no word on the court date, dammit. (I'm tempted to call and yell at the lawyer about it, but I don't think it'd do any good. The Harris County Probate Court moves in its own time.)
Not-completely-random linkage:
MSNBC: Guild Wars: an experiment that worked
Reuters: Many Americans see no point to the internet
It's always understood this time of year
Dec. 31st, 2006 08:45 pm
Not-so-tiny reindeer
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.
The picture is another one of the GuildWars Wintersday quests. You go around rescuing reindeer - there are 9 of them, all identical. Then there's another quest later where you find out that one of the reindeer is named Rudi and his nose mysteriously glows when he gets near presents. (You have to give them extra credit for the realistic-looking reindeer, don't you think?)
I am home for New Year's Eve, and that's where I'm staying. I don't enjoy going out and braving the drunks. I am drinking a coke-with-a-splash-of-vodka, and when I finish this I will probably go back to farming for candy canes in GW, and that will about be it for my big celebration. (I will probably watch Anderson Cooper later. Woo.)
I went over to my mom's earlier - to her house, actually, for the first time in over a month. Art brought her home for the afternoon, and we decided that we will start doing that once a week for now. She didn't seem all that excited to be home, to tell you the truth, but at least it was something different.
We ate pizza and watched football while we were there. The Texans won, giving them six whole wins for the year. Last year they had two, so that was a big improvement. The Longhorns ended up winning yesterday, too, so it was a fairly good football weekend, although the fact is that I forgot to turn the Longhorn game back on after we got home, so I completely missed the big comeback.
I don't do resolutions, incidentally, because I never ever keep them when I make them, so you are spared having to read that. I have no particular desire to go over the year in any detail, either. It wasn't that great of a year. So let's just hope 2007 is better for everybody!

A foggy day
Dec. 15th, 2006 09:20 pm
Zaida
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.
(Explanation of the picture is at the bottom.)
I went home sick today. I think this time it's my boss' fault; she had a cold and now most everybody in our office seems to have come down with it. I'm just hoping I won't be as sick as I was at Thanksgiving. I worked until about 12:45 and got most of the stuff I needed to do, done, so I don't have to worry about it Monday; then I left.
I drove home in fog like pea soup. No burning off in the middle of the day today. It was bad at 1:00 and it was worse at 5:00, when I came back to get Rob. They said on the news that visibility in Galveston was 8/10 of a mile but that's bullshit. Maybe away from the beach it was, but on the Seawall it was not much at all over a quarter of a mile. (Not unless they measure these things in a way that has nothing at all to do with how far you can actually, see, anyway.)
(I have to talk about GuildWars here & there, you know?)
I deleted my mesmer that I made in the original game, because I wasn't playing her at ALL since nightfall started, and I started a new mesmer in Nightfall. This is the new one, in the picture. I really do like playing a mesmer, but - I don't know why really, I just wasn't thrilled with my Prophecies one. We'll see if I keep playing this one.
(Notice the Egyptian influence in that picture, by the way - the giant "queen" statues, I mean. There are a number of those around in the game.)

Guilds and GuildWars
Dec. 3rd, 2006 07:28 pm
Tombs of the Primeval Kings
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.
Now that I've gotten all the introductory bits out of the way and I'm not quite as worried about my mother as I have been, I guess I can now go back to writing "normal" entries and go on about GuildWars and other mundane things. I haven't talked about GuildWars in a while, have I?
Well, maybe I should go a little introductory for this, too. The thing is, I am not a person who has always played games like this - I was never a D&D player or a World of Warcraft player or any of those things. I guess I sort of snuck in the side door, from Kingdom of Loathing, which uses a lot of bits and pieces from MMORPGs but is web-based. I was tempted to try WoW when columbina was playing it, but I had an several-year-old computer at the time and I was pretty sure that wouldn’t work. Then Col switched to GuildWars and I got a new computer, and the temptation got a lot greater. It took me a few months, but when GW had the preview weekend for the new game (at the time) - Factions - I tried it out. We thought I would probably have to get a new video card, but it worked fine without it, and I was hooked. I bought the original game, Prophecies, and started playing the next week. That was at the end of March, so I’ve been playing for over eight months now. I bought Factions in July, I think, and then when Nightfall was announced, I pre-ordered it immediately. Col and I play together if we’re both on, usually, and if he’s not I play by myself or sometimes with guild-mates. Hi, my name is Mel, I am an addict.

Joining the 21st century
Sep. 14th, 2006 11:36 pm
Minghong & John try out their masks
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.
Here's is Columbine's ritualist, Minghong (which means "red" thus she always wears red), and my assassin, John, with their dragon masks, which were given out at the Dragon Festival last week. The masks aren't really good for anything - they're just sort of a collectible item - but they are sort of cool, aren't they? And as you saw if you looked at the picture I posted yesterday, they can be dyed various colors. Gia's is dyed red; so far my others are still the color they came in. The price of dye soared last week after they were given out, but it's gotten back down pretty close to normal this week so maybe I will try dying another one soon. Three of my characters have them - I decided it was more trouble than it was worth to get the other three to Shing Jea Island, where the masks were being given out.
One of my co-workers is leaving for a job in Houston, so we are going to have a going-away lunch today. Those are usually fun.
In other news, I am taking my mother to Bryan again this weekend for a baby shower. I'm sure the shower will be sort of fun, but I'm not really looking forward to the trip. It seems like we just went.
(I tried to post that meme that everybody's been doing, but it was being screwy and I didn't have the patience to try to figure out why. Maybe I will try again later.)
(no subject)
Jul. 11th, 2006 09:04 am
TOGgers & their dragon masks
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.
I posted that whole long GuildWars entry the other day and didn't include a picture - I consider that falling down on the job. (You would be better off clicking over to the big version of of this if you're really interested at all, because the small versions tend to be really muddy.) Anyway, this is some of our guild members in their dragon masks. My character is towards the right, with the red mask and the purple fringey thing and the tattoos.* Columbine is not in the picture because he thinks photo ops are boring, and he is usually quite right, but this one was not. This one was quite entertaining. I don't know if it was the masks making everybody a little goofy or what, but everything ended up like this. (Everybody around us was wanting to join our guild, since we were obviously the fun party people! but most of them weren't old enough. You have to be 25+, which makes us very much the minority around there.)
*Ritualists have tattoos. Lots of them. Tattoos are optional in some cases - like the monk in the bikini, there. For monks, the tattoos are a form of armor, and you can put them on and take them off - which is rather odd when you think too much about it, but that's how it works. (My monk has scalp tattoos but no others so far.) But with ritualists, the tattoos come with the character - very elaborate ones, around her waist, her feet and her hands. I'm just glad I didn't have to be there to get them! :)
(no subject)
Jul. 7th, 2006 12:32 pmSo (as you may have figured out if you actually read all of the above) I spent most of the long weekend playing games. I did go over to my mom's on Monday, and I also worked Monday morning, even though I was supposed to be off, because I was reformatting some spreadsheets that needed to be sent out. Other than that, we mostly went out to eat a bunch. I wasn't terribly interested in seeing Superman, so there wasn't a whole lot else we wanted to do!
I've been playing in the dungeon again...
Jul. 6th, 2006 11:47 amI died in the Dungeon of Mellificent
I was killed in a grimy bathhouse by the wrath of Motet, whilst carrying...
the Sceptre of Sarcasticah, the Armour of Papersky, a Figurine of Twistedchick, the Crown of Mrdankelly, the Shield of Ellen Fremedon, the Armour of Tnh, the Armour of Iainpj, the Shield of Scalzi, the Sceptre of Bookworms, a Figurine of Bookishquilts, the Amulet of Chaos and 25 gold pieces.
Score: 137
Explore the Dungeon of Mellificent and try to beat this score,or enter your username to generate and explore your own dungeon...
(I am contemplating doing an actual entry with, you know, text and everything. But we'll see. No promises!)
(no subject)
Jun. 29th, 2006 09:11 amI died in the Dungeon of Mellificent
I was killed in a fire-ravaged laboratory by Elysesewell the fire elemental, whilst carrying...
the Sceptre of Bookworms, the Crown of Ornery Chick, a Figurine of Burning Brain, the Wand of Fabric and 159 gold pieces.
Score: 154
Explore the Dungeon of Mellificent and try to beat this score,or enter your username to generate and explore your own dungeon...
Plants and other living things
Jun. 26th, 2006 09:38 am
a kalanchoe and, uh, other stuff
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.
I finally got out and worked on my plants last weekend - they had been living in more-or-less-benign neglect all spring. I threw away a lot of the smaller pots; nothing seemed to like living in them very much anyway. I'm pretty happy with the results really. Everything looks much less cluttered. I did buy another kalanchoe this week, because the one I have has always done pretty well. I'm not planning on buying a lot more plants, though, unless something I have dies. I don't seem to have a lot of interest in spending time on gardening lately, so it makes sense to keep things pared down.
I spent most of the day yesterday playing GuildWars, of course - first with Columbine in the afternoon, and then on my own and finally with a pick-up group last night.
Things at work are crazy, but I will write about that at some other time. Let's see, what else? We didn't go to a movie this weekend, because there was nothing we wanted to see. (And what's up with that? Isn't summer supposed to be prime blockbuster time?) Anyway, we went out to eat, instead. I ate the world's most gigantic baked potato. I'm not completely joking about that, the thing was a foot long, I kid you not. I barely made a dent in it.
It has finally stopped raining here - it started raining Friday, I think, and pretty much rained continuously until yesterday. I didn't hear anything about significant flooding here - the advantage of living on an island is that there's usually somewhere for the water to go - but there was a lot of flooding in Houston, especially Monday when a lot of places got 10" of rain overnight. It was bad enough that people were saying it reminded them of Tropical Storm Alison, about 5 years ago when Houston flooded so bad. Alison was supposed to have been a "hundred year storm" so anything that even seems vaguely like that is a little scary.
More GuildWars
Jun. 15th, 2006 10:49 pmFunny how your perspective can change on things. I was still hunting for Ebon Spider Legs tonight - Alessa needed one to finish out her armor, and Mel still didn't have any at all - and suddenly I was so happy to see spiders! Now you have to understand that the spiders in GuildWars are about the size of a Hobbit - three or four feet tall, that is - and they have that same Apply Poison skill that I was saying that Tamaya the Ranger loves so much. They love it too, and a gang of them can bring you down fast if you're not careful. But tonight I didn't care, I wanted those spider legs. I actually went looking for more spiders at the end of the quest because Mel was still short a leg. But I got it (and one to spare), and now everybody has a full new set of armor and I can shut up about armor for a while. (Until Tamaya gets to the jungle, which won't be long. Then we can start the collector process all over again.)
In another GuildWars note, "Pants of Major Vigor" is one of those things that just can't help being funny. It's silly and childish to be amused, I suppose, but I am amused just the same. (I could explain, and perhaps I will later, but right now it's bedtime and I will just leave it at that!)
(no subject)
Jun. 15th, 2006 12:27 pm(GuildWars babbling behind the cut...)