*EDIT*  Apparently I accidentally checked "No" in the "Allow Comments" box for this entry?  Should be fixed now, I hope. I hearts comments, after all! 8D

So how about those Oscars? I would have guessed the first female director to win Best Director would have gotten it for some gushy touchy-feely film including abusive husbands, alcoholic fathers, retarded children and breast cancer.  Nice to see it was actually given to a woman who made a film with lots of violence, cursing and stuff blowing up. Yay Kathryn! : D

I figure I should start this entry with RO stuff, since I'm going to go off on a lot of long real-life tangents afterward. I haven't really been online much at all in the past week, so if any of you have done anything interesting, be sure to fill me in?

Oh yes.  Dynamo, I will definitely post a link my D&D Druid's info once I finish writing his backstory, and my fanfic is located here. I’ve been writing it for... 7 years?  /fail And Uennie, I will try to catch you online soon!

I did hear about the confirmed server merge, which I have sort of mixed feelings about.  I guess it'll be nice to have more familiar ROS people around, but its not like I ever make an effort to talk to anyone anyway. ;-_- I know Adeat and some other Iris people are going to be sad to see their quiet little community go, and I have similar feelings... I sort of like having most of my favorite maps empty both on Loki and on Iris. And I worry about names, slots, etc. Odds are I'll delete my Linker and second Alch on Loki as well as most of the 7-8 crappy Chaos/Iris characters I have, sparing my Chaos Battlesmith and Iris Battle Priest to fill the gaps. 

Did I say say Battle Priest?


Yes, yes I did. And it was remarkably easy. O_o Adeat helped me to job 30ish, then I got myself to 40ish, he helped me to 45 or so, and I finished off myself.  Of course it helps that he loaned me some great weapons and that I already had some decent gear of my own from old Sakray.  I also didn't realize how h4x exp quests are for low leveled characters.  Dokebis and Alligators are delicious.  

I'm also surprised by how durable little Hawkeye actually is.  At 72/39 he already has 190 flee geared, and despite not having any racial bucklers he survives Niff 1 quite well, and can take Byalan 5, albeit slowly.  He did fairly well at Goats with Adeat's Stalker too. As for what kind of BP he is, I'm going for a Signum Crucis anti-undead/anti-demon powerhouse sort of skill build, but I'm still puzzling over his stats; right now they mirror what Tristan's did at that level (7x Agi, 6x Str, 3x Dex,) but I’m thinking about adding some Luk to turn him into a Crit hybrid. 

Oh yes, and I dug up some doodles I did of the original Hawkeye, back in the day when a Hot Blooded Headband was the best Str headgear out there! I'll link to them so I don't stretch my page, and because they sort of embarrass me.  I like to think my art style is better now, even if I haven't drawn in a long time. >_>

Loldoodles

Annnd here's a much better doodle one of my Chaos friends did of him;


I always did love your realism, Cecilia! *_*

His design needs some work.  I like the t-shirt, open robe and clothing embellishments , but the jewelry makes me cringe, and he may get different headgear.  I also need to decide how old he is.  I drew him like he's 15, Cecilia drew him like he’s 40. Perhaps somewhere in between? 8D

Anyway, despite this already being a long entry, I feel like I need to shift gears and talk about my real life.  I woke up on Tuesday morning sick again, this time with something that gave me massive body aches and the inability to breathe through my nose.  The next day I had to report to jury duty at 8:30AM, and it took 9 hours for them to put me in a jury pool for a traffic accident case, after which I went to work until 8:15PM, which made that a 14 hour day, if you include the bus rides. 

However there were some positive moments of the day; one was the fact that my boss greeted me like I was some sort of avenging knight-errant when I rolled into work, as she needed my help with clients, but had fully expected me to go home after jury duty. Another was the fact that when my boyfriend picked me up, he was feeling as sick and tired as I was, so we got fast food on the way home and ate it in bed while watching a movie.  It was romantic in a pathetic american wage slave sort of way.

The next day I had to go back to the courthouse at 10AM so that the lawyers could finish jury selection, and they asked us all a lot of circuitous questions about chiropractors, drunk driving and personal injury lawyers, at which point they found out that I don't drink, AND I don't drive (I dislike the taste of alcohol and don't make enough money to pay for a car.)  The defense booted me out of the jury box so fast I got splinters in my ass.  But hey, for once my being a complete and utter loser paid off. It would have absolutely sucked if I'd had to stay on that jury. I would have had to go to court on Mon-Thu, and then work Fri-Sun. No weekends for me!

As for the illness, as soon as I got sick again I started downing packets of Emergen-C, taking a daily multivitamin pill and going to bed early every night, which I hope is the equivalent of providing my immune system with tactical nuclear devices.  This shit needs to stop.  Fortunately I'm back to being able to breathe through my nose.

Oh, and I finally got my annual review at work yesterday... My boss must have sensed my tension; she put my review ahead of everyone else's, and said she was going to look into sending me to a stress management seminar. >.>  Of course I had nothing to worry about; I either met or exceeded expectations in every category, and was praised for my punctuality, accuracy, productivity and independence.  I also got criticized for my lack of communication with my coworkers and my tendency to get annoyed during busy times.  Its going to be very hard for me to change those things; I prefer to work alone, am generally too proud to ask people for help, and hate being bothered while I'm concentrating... Its just my personality, argh. Anyway, I'm also getting a 3% merit pay increase!  Which amounts to something like 31 extra cents an hour, but this is my 3rd pay raise in less than 2 years, so  I must be doing something right. 

Well, I hate to cut off so abruptly, but tl;dr to you all! : D

Just a few minutes ago, my boyfriend and I were talking about the fact that my headphones leak sound that can be heard from 8 feet away even when I have the volume at 20-30ish.  He said it doesn't really bother him, but it irritates the hell out of me.  He asked why and I told him I like to keep my music like I keep my tits; never seen in public and only presented to others on intimate occasions. OH GOD I'M FUNNY.

Oh right, I paid for RO!  I finally got up off of my ass, and then promptly sat down on it again so I could write a chapter of my fanfic. I'm sort of proud of myself for following through on my promise to myself of not playing RO until I got another chapter done, and it always puts me in a good mood for several days after I get a chapter done.  Sure said fanfic is not that popular anymore, and everyone has probably forgotten most of the plot details since I didn't update for 2 months, but so be it. 

As for what I did on RO;


Yes, that is Adeat's HP, yes, that is Iris, and yes, I used a punctuation mark in a character name for the first time ever. It resulted from a perfect storm of variables;

1. Me being really, really tired of struggling all alone to level my 9x transes on Loki.
2. Me being out of slots on Loki.
3. My having always wanting a Battle Priest.
4. My having a history of using this name on Chaos, and its being taken on Iris.
5. Adeat being on Iris, and being a total sweetheart and an amazing friend.

You may wonder what happened to my Loki-based ideas of deleting my Linker to make a Bard, and of making a female slave account.  Well, I haven't given up on either of those ideas, I just need to relax for awhile, and running a totally guilt-free newbie is probably my favorite form of relaxation on RO. Self-imposed though it may be, I'm sick of all the pressure I feel on Loki right now.  Which sort of sucks since Uennie and Aki are going to be on Loki now. I'll come see you guys someday! >_o

As for the Aco, he's named after the main character in the classic film/TV series M*A*S*H.  One of my earliest fond memories is of crawling around on the living room floor while my mom watched M*A*SH reruns, and the memory only got fonder when I grew up to become a liberal hippie moonbat.  But I digress.  Adeat was there as soon as I got out of the training grounds, and proceeded to drop several mil worth of headgear for me, and then tank me all the way to a 4x/3x Aco in Louyang, which is more than I ever did for him on Loki. >.> ILU uncle Gray!

Speaking of Louyang;


This screenshot is funny, if only for this reason:


I wish I'd kept the date stamp on the other screenshot... Its from 3? 4? 5 years ago?  The diligent Chaos player will recognize the name of eiyuu's elusive SinX, lefebre! However Hyojin (aka Will,) Kainda (aka Mai) and Ero Sanji (aka Whippy) all quit a long time ago and I doubt anyone remembers them. The original Hawkeye lived on Chaos a looooong time ago, though he never made it to Priest due to being on someone else's account, and me being too cheap to pay for it when that person quit. 

On another topic, I also found this collage of what my other characters on Chaos looked like at the time I made the first Hawkeye. 


Holy shiet, !~*NoStAlGiA bOmB*~! Good god my Sniper fails at leveling. And Sekundis and Buzz are enjoying quiet lives on Chaos.  Odds are Sekundis has saved up enough money from performing Mafia hits to retire and turn his home into a cat shelter, and Buzz is working in Comodo as a male prostitute and is making Bijou uncomfortable with his exposed green pubic hair.

That's probably enough for now. As far as real life goes, I’m feeling much better, though lots of snot and the occasional bout of cacophonic hacking are still part of my daily life.  Work is annoying as hell and causing me lots of stress, but it might just seem that way because I have an annual review this Sunday and my bosses are sending me some very mixed messages regarding my future.  It struck me sometime ago that doing the job I do is a bit like trying to dance ballet while people are rolling giant boulders at you; you just have to hope that you perform your routine with grace and dignity without getting rolled over by things that come out of nowhere. Ugh. Well, if you don't hear from me after next week, you’ll know how THAT went. /terrifed >_>

Oh crap, I need to go get ready for my boyfriend's D&D game.  Its in its 3rd week, its going very well, and I've been thinking about it almost as much as I've been stressing about work, which is really saying something.  Perhaps I'll introduce you to my character next entry, but for now I gotta go get ready!

Jeez, where to start? Its been a tumultuous couple of weeks. I still haven't written anything or paid for my RO account, but from the looks of this DDoS thing, it probably isn't the best time for RO anyway. Fortunately I'm in a good mood, so I’ll separate this entry into fun stuff and less fun stuff so that you can be in a good mood too!  Yaaaay!

Fun Stuff:

You guys leave awesome comments!

Touching on that whole gender issue, it was actually srs bizness when I first started playing RO in open beta. Pretty much everyone thought that crossdressing was equated with falsifying account information and potentially a bannable offense.  My original reason for going male was because I didn't feel like the female sprites really represented me.  I wasn't sure what class I'd end up playing and I was afraid people would think I was a different kind of lady than I actually was if they saw that my sprite was providing gratuitous panty shots and bouncing boobies.  I am NOT a girly girl. Besides, I liked the male sprites better. 

I ended up quite enjoying my boy sprites, because people would actually take me at face value. Nobody tried to impress me or flirt with me (well, except for that chick who hit on my Monk, but we won't go there.)  Actually, I got ignored, which is how I liked it. I didn't tell anyone what my real gender was until I'd known them for weeks/months, and by then they liked me for reasons other than my gender.

Of course gender really isn't an issue anymore, since everyone knows everyone and has characters on accounts of both genders. Just the same, I wouldn't trade my boys for girls, ever. Except maybe for my Stalker. The female Stalker sprite is sexy, but the male one looks fatter and more awkward the longer I stare at it.  Oh, and my Sader too.  Female Sader = best girl sprite on RO, imo. I LOVE well-armored women dfgqwrqerh.  Anyway, yeah, female slave account it is!  Maybe it'll be liberating and I'll end up actually having fun with playing the characters on it the way you all have.

I'm still scratching my head over the shapeshifter issue. Having the clothes transform with the character seems sort of forced and inorganic, but so do nude confrontations between shapeshifting pre-pubescent boys and their shapeshifting adult female mentors.  Arrrrrrgh. (its all part of my fanfic, if you aren't keeping up with it, feel free to disregard this sentence. Unless you already read it, which you just did... Suckers!)

In other news, oh god, Castlevania:SoTN.  I always bought Joseph's cloak ASAP when I played that game. Then my brother and I would have contests for who could make the ugliest bat form with it.  We tied with my aqua/yellow "List-Urine Cocktail" and his pink/purple "Big Gay Alucard." 8D

One of my friends (a male friend, surprisingly enough) linked me to this Princess Tutu AMV, and I can't stop watching the damn thing. Which almost completely invalidates my earlier points about not being a girly girl.  Well stuff my bra and peel my tampons! Is it bad that I want to watch this series now despite the fact that I haven‘t watched ANY anime for years?  I never even wanted to be a ballerina, not even when I was little… I wanted to be a dolphin trainer, I swear.

Less Fun Stuff:

I stayed home sick from work today. This marks the first sick day I've taken since starting the job, and the first time Ive been sick -period- since May '08.  I'm sort of upset that my hot streak is broken now.  I've always taken pride in the fact that I never seem to get sick, despite having a crappy diet and an aversion to exercise.  I blame Michael.  He's just now getting over a throat infection, and I woke up this morning extremely dizzy and sounding like the illegitimate child of Gilbert Gottfried and Fran Drescher. But because I felt okay from the neck down, I started putting on my work clothes... but Michael practically shoved me back in bed.  I'm sort of wishing I'd gone to work, but I probably would have blown out my voice and made myself feel a lot sicker than I do now.

One of my cats (Cricket) has been chewing on the base of her tail, resulting in a bald spot the size of an egg.  I finally decided to take her to the shelter vet to get it looked at, and the treatment prescribed was two injections; steroids and antibiotics. Neither of which the shelter had at the time.  So, the vet ordered some; and I had to shoot Cricket up myself to avoid taking her back to the shelter, which was traumatic to say the least.  I had to stick the poor girl 3 times to get it all into her. But hell, I guess I can take comfort in the fact that the vet thought I was competent enough to give them myself, and that I actually did prove competent enough.

I recently have had some problems communicating with an old friend that... Ugh; How do you support someone who is constantly sad? How about when you're completely powerless to do anything for them? How about when everything you say makes you sound like a hideous self-centered bitch? Lrn2friend, Tris.

I've been with the same man for 6 years, and I still think Valentine's Day sucks.  It makes couples feel pressured to spend money on ultimately meaningless gestures of pre-fabricated romance (sappy cards, overpriced flowers, generic candy, ugly jewelry) and makes singles feel lonely and unwanted.  I say if you need a specific holiday to remind you to be romantic and loving, then you're lazy and unimaginative. Err, happy V-Day anyway? : D

More Fun Stuff:

In that spirit, our anniversary is coming up in April, and I'm going to buy an art commission from Remi for him.  The thing that brought us together was a tabletop RPG (yes, nerd love) so I thought it'd be sweet if I got him a print-quality CG portrait of our two characters... Of course those characters were both male, not romantically involved, covered in scars, and not really all that good-looking. *snrk* I hope Remi can work her magic. Michael already loves her art style too. She said she'd love to do a commission for me, but I haven't told her much about the subject matter yet.  Poor unsuspecting pretty art lady! At least this time I can promise her real money instead of zeny.

Oh, and I may dislike V-Day, but its made more special by the fact that its Adeat's birthday! Everyone make sure to express your love for him in a cute and gushy fashion that will embarrass him! :B

Holy crap, long entry.  I'm gonna go drink some honey and lemon filled rooibos now!

I watched the Grammy Awards last night, and the thing that made the happiest was hearing that they gave Leonard Cohen a lifetime achievement award.  I think this makes me a music snob. I blame my folk singer dad.  Oh well, at least I know who Lady Gaga is now? n_n

Now that I have the opening line out of the way; upon rereading this entry, I have come to the conclusion that it is extremely boring and poorly constructed.  Can you ever forgive me, Tris?  Of course, Tris! I could never stay mad at you.

Who IS the anonymous person who commented on my last entry?  You sound so familiar! And thanks for the support, everyone else.  Perhaps you will be reassured to know that I have forbidden myself from paying for my RO account until I write at least one more chapter of my fanfic.  Hopefully I can force myself to write something today or tomorrow. HAH!

Oh yes, getting back into reasons why I let my account lapse, and the temptation to start playing again.

The 30 hour account I'd been using for slave purposes (Zech's female account) finally expired in early January, coincidentally right before the forced password change.  I wasn't able to get a hold of Zech before it happened, and I didn't feel right changing the password without his permission, nor did I want to pay for the account if it was just going to be inactive.  I've talked to him since then, but I keep forgetting to mention it, since Zech is more fun to talk to without the mention of RO, haha.  He even managed to rope me into playing in his forum-based Advanced Dungeons and Dragons campaign.  I don't even play AD&D, for crap's sake. D&D 3.5 4 lyfe!

Anyway, about a week after that, I had an MSN conversation with Dynamo concerning female RO sprites, and how it'd be nice if you could mix genders on a single account.  That got me to thinking about making my own female slave account, which I think would actually be sort of fun.  I'm burnt out on my macho 9x trans boys, so I think it'd be a nice change of pace to raise up some dainty little noob girls, despite the fact that I still hate a good 75% of RO’s female sprites.

Then while I had the subject of noob characters in my head, I had another MSN chat, this time with Adeat, in which we started off talking about art and writing, but inevitably moved to RO.  Anyway, he broached the subject of me making that Battle Priest I've always wanted... on Iris. And to be honest, it sounded like great fun. If I can come up with a perfect name, I may just have to make one.  I already have a good idea of skills/stats thanks to Adeat's expertise.

Now I talk about work! And feel much better about my stress levels.

The shelter I work at has a sister facility a few towns over, that has three people who do the job I do, two full-time and one part-time. BOTH full-timers quit in December/January, after working there for a year or less.  I sort of wondered where all the stress was coming from, and then I saw the annual reports for 2009...

The adoption center I work at adopted out over 900 animals in 2009, which is a 43% increase over 2008. Our sister facility adopted out over 1000, which is a 13% increase for them. That really is great, but consider the fact that we added NO new staff positions at either shelter last year, and  I do ALL of the desk work for adoptions at the facility I work at, not to mention the fact that I answer phones, greet clients, process dog training and boarding registrations, and clean.  In terms of the job I do,  the other facility has 250% more people to cover 10% more animal adoptions, and those people are still quitting. Forgive me if I'm butchering the math.

I honestly thought my stress at work was stemming from my being too weak to handle the job, but seeing those numbers, I feel just a bit more justified in being worn out and stressed out.  Although, the sister facility has the added messiness of taking public animal surrenders, which the facility I work at doesn't have.  That in itself probably justifies the extra one and a half people to do my job, but still... x_x

Oh yes, and I'm now certified in CPR... For dogs and cats! In other words, I wouldn't know what to do if your grandma choked on a ham bone and stopped breathing, but if the same thing happened to your Beagle, I'd totally go all ER hero on him. As for how I got that certification, my manager sent me to an all-day pet first aid workshop last week because she thought I needed to "add to my skill set." Thank you boss lady!

The class was actually a lot of fun, and it surprised me how simple most of the techniques were.  Turns out pet CPR is almost exactly like human CPR (checking for pulse/breathing followed by rescue breaths and chest compressions.) The only real differences are in the anatomy involved and the amount of force used. I also picked up some tips for dealing with choking, poisoning, wound care and  safe muzzling/restraint techniques. I even got to practice on a CPR dummy that was shaped like a full-sized Labrador retriever, equipped with handy disposable lip shields for sanitary mouth-to-snout resuscitation. I sort of wonder how much money the person who patented those dummies made... It can't have been much.

Anyway, I'm going to go light some incense, put on some of my snobby/creepy/obscure music and try to scratch out some words about a young Acolyte in the woods... If you were me, how the hell would you handle the issue of where a shapeshifter's clothes go when they change forms? Gratuitous nudity and ripped pants? Magically disappearing/reappearing clothes?  Some combination of both?  Something else entirely? Modest creature that I am, this question has been annoying the hell out of me. >.>

Hi again!  Well, after such a nice positive previous entry, I'm gonna launch into a whiny, annoying reverie for this one.  But not before I try to make at least one comment that will make you smile, you wonderful people you! : D

When spending time in a friend/family member's home, it seems many people like to take a peek in that person's medicine cabinet.  I think that’s an invasion of privacy. I don't think its my business to know if you have medicine for explosive diarrhea or erectile dysfunction.  I do however, think its my business to know if you have a plastic jar of moldy hummus or a box of baking soda from 1985. I LOVE snooping in peoples' refrigerators.  And its not because I want to steal food, since I don't take food from someone unless its offered, and even then I usually refuse. Despite the fact that I will gladly eat just about anything, I feel awkward accepting free stuff from people.  I guess I just like seeing how peoples' food preferences differ from my own. Culinary voyeurism, if you will.

So, onward to the RO whinybutt-ism!  *deep breath* I haven't played in nearly 3 weeks.  Its sort of funny that I would lose interest in RO now, since as of last entry, the text file where I dump all of my ROS entries surpassed the size of the text file I used to dump all of my ROD (this site's predecessor, which you may recall) entries, and it seems like I should treat this as some sort of milestone.

Why have I lost interest?  The reasons are getting quite complex, and interlacing with one another like the strips of crust on top of an apple pie (there's that food voyeurism thing again) but I guess I'll start with the most simple one.

I honestly feel like RO has gotten too hard for me, and that the comfortable little niche I've carved for myself is eroding away with each new update.  Bold text = srs bizness. There hasn't really been any decent solo-able game content for me since the Rachel update, and all the good gear that's been implemented is either dropped by monsters I can't hunt, or is of Kafra shop origin. So, the most efficient way for me to really get what I want is to hunt and sell exp items, buy gear from other players, and go back to soloing in annoyingly dull, outdated locales, which is an extremely unsatisfying way to play.

Oh, while I'm on the subject of solo leveling content, I did actually try to do something new with my Sniper.  It occurred to me some time ago that my being so bored and unsatisfied with the past few updates of RO wasn't really worth anything if I didn't at least make some small attempt to take advantage of their content.  In that spirit, Tyr went fishing.


I caught two of these.  Unfortunately it didn't make the process of doing this inane, ridiculous minigame any more bearable.  Honestly, if you want proof that RO has a terrible quest system, just spend a day fishing.  A game that’s nothing more than clicking the same spot once every few seconds, AND the item turn-in has a 24 hour cool down period? I've gotten more amusement out of looking for tapeworms in cat poop.

"Oh gross, there's a long skinny white thing in this one, and its moving. But hey, its moving faster than my fishing cast bar!"

Anyway, once I was able to access storage, I decided to try my luck at soloing the Manuk side. Which went horribly. Honestly, I've always thought I was a good trapper, but I got killed so damn many times.  Centipedes were hitting me from halfway across the screen, every single Tatacho I winged next to was aggroed, every time I tried to gain enough distance to lay a trap, I'd run smack into another aggro enemy, my traps were on the wrong cells, etc. etc.  I felt so damn noob, and it was even more stressful than being at work. In fact, I'm so stressed now that I need to post an out-of context screenshot.  I love going afk and forgetting to turn on /nm, don't you?


So why did I choose to solo Manuk? Because my Champ currently gets 182 aspd with a Lunakaligo.  That's as fast as his aspd with a fist, with none of the size penalties, AND a 15% possibility of stun.  Do want! However, even if I got really good at trapping Tatachos, I'd probably still be better off selling Antelope Horns and then throwing down the 30 mil each to just buy the damn things... But then I'd need to get them to +7!

Actually, fishing/Manuk was all I had really been doing on RO before my account expired.  Even when we got 2x exp, I just felt so discouraged and at a loss for ideas that I didn't play at all.  As of the end of '09, I had been planning on paying my account for another 3 months or so and then going on a long hiatus when Renewal hit, but it looks like that hiatus will be coming sooner than I anticipated.  Although I may surprise myself by paying right after I post this entry.  We'll see.

Hang in there, baby! Someone force me to write more of my fanfic!

I admit that I haven't seriously played RO since the holiday drops event, and that my account expires on Sunday.  However, I don't see myself renewing it for at least another week or two.  In a few days, I might write an actual RO entry involving the things I did the last time I played, but for now, I'm going to tell you a story.

Work has been absolute hell in the past few weeks, and I'm still frantic about potentially getting fired, but I feel much better than I did last week.  Oddly enough, its due to something at work, in the form of a middle-aged Labrador Retriever.

This dog was adopted from the shelter I work at in 2008, and his family boards him at the shelter whenever they go out of town.  His adoption fee was paid by an 8 year old boy who was literally pulling dollar bills out of his pocket.  Very cute, yes.  But there are some things you have to know about this dog, the first of which is that he is batshit fucking insane.   While he was living at the shelter, he chewed a plastic dog crate to shreds, climbed out of one kennel and mutilated himself trying to squeeze out of another, tried to kill every cat he saw, and shed so much fur that it clogged part of the kennel drainage system.  He was so bad that there was talk of euthanizing him.  Even now, in a happy home, he takes four pills a day for severe separation anxiety, and injures himself almost every time he's boarded by trying to escape.  He’s about 5-6 years old, but looks much older because of his thin body, patchy fur and grizzled muzzle.

Anyway, one morning last week while he was boarding at the shelter, I had the duty of  walking him (he can't get his exercise off-leash at the shelter because he climbs fences) and when I bent down to snap a leash on his collar, he looked up at me... And I knew I'd seen his exact same facial expression that very morning when I looked in the mirror.  While I was walking him, I did a bit of thinking.

The parents of the family had promised the son that he could get a dog if he saved enough money, and he chose this one.  The parents let him do it, even after they found out that the dog was a psychological train wreck. Apparently the dog is a wonderful pet too, and is fanatically devoted to his family.  As I walked him, I couldn't help but notice how well-mannered he was; he didn't bark, kept right by my side, and reigned himself in whenever his leash started to go taut, without me having to correct him.

But back to that look he gave me. I don't pretend to understand the canine mind, and perhaps I'm anthropomorphizing  too much, or maybe all I really noticed was the fact that his eyes are the exact same shade of brown that mine are. But whatever the reason, what I saw in those eyes was a mix of worry, desperation and loneliness,  compounded by frustration at being in a constant state of emotional turmoil, and having nothing to do about it.

Point being; if a dog this insane can be so lovable and precious to someone, what does that say about me?  I've always thought I was too neurotic to ever be happy.  I never thought I'd find anyone who could tolerate my self-pitying meltdowns long enough to engage in a romantic relationship, and here I am going on my sixth year of being very much in love with the same person.   I've also always thought that my social skills were too atrocious to hold down a steady job, and I'm going on my second year in a customer service position.  I've also thought... Well, you get the idea.  Bottom line, even though I do things like bite my arms, have panic attacks, and bruise my knuckles by punching porcelain bathroom tile, there's a place for me, just like there was a place for this dog.

Inspiring?  I hope so.

Picture this, if you will.  Tris on Christmas, staring at a waist-high cardboard box, wrapped in red paper with snowmen on it.  It is from her boyfriend and his parents. Tris tears the paper off of the box with some trepidation, and finds that it is a vacuum cleaner.  This is her Christmas present.

Pretty shitty, huh?

Well, Tris thinks so too, until her boyfriend implores her to open the box.  Inside of the box is something wrapped in a blue bath towel.  Something that obviously isn’t a  vacuum cleaner. Upon removing the towel,

Tris finds this.

That is a leaf blade, conical pommel, oriental guard. Designed to be a one hander, but can go hand and a half as well.  This isn't some swap meet Made-in-China piece of magazine quality crap either; its full-tang construction and made out of 1 lb 14 oz and 35 ½ inches of high carbon spring steel.  Anyway, yes.  I like swords.  Its been a dream of mine to own a good one ever since I started taking an interest in fantasy and roleplaying at age 12 or 13. Now I have one! And really, I couldn't have asked for a better one.   This one fits me like a glove.  Its weight is perfect for my girly noodle arms, and it feels like an extension of my body when I hold it. Plus, I've always loved leaf blades for some reason. But in case you’re curious, no, I have no training in sword fighting, roffle.

Lolglamorshot. 

EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that my hair is poorly cut.  I do all of my own hair maintenance. Can you tell? I was just trying to trim the worst of my split ends about 3 weeks ago and didn't realize it looked that bad until I saw this photo, roffle. xD

Uh, RO?  Yeah!  I haven't been playing much at all, except to have a little fun with the drops event.


Yes, that's ANOTHER Thorny Buckler.  I was using gum for this one, and it took about 45 minutes to find. And what dumbfounds me is that I haven't found a single Earth Bow, pair of Elven Ears, or card. Eyeah! I don't know what card to stick in this one though... Since I'll probably never find another one. Or will I? P.S - Thanks muchly to whoever polymorphed the guardians.  Although I solemnly doff my Leo Diadem in remembrance of the Zerom that was tragically slain by Knocker mines. :(

Speaking of diadems:


I bought a +7 Scorpio Diadem, and stuck a Vanberk card in it.  Those are crits, and crits are lovely,  even with pathetic 4x comp bows. However I'm so glad Arnora had the grace to cover Tyr's face in this screenie, because the diadem is effing HIDEOUS.  The pink gems look awful with Tyr's hair color and style; he looks like a reject design for a sentai anime done by a colorblind chimp.  And yes, Tyr is a level 95 Sniper with nearly 230 flee who still uses traps in Chiv. Well, they're cheaper and weigh less than whites. *cough*  I like being in Chiv too, because it brings back happy memories of leveling there with my beta friends back on Chaos.  I figured I'd go to attempt replenishing my Elu stores, which were depleted due to some stat armors that all broke going +5 or +6, whee! I hate overupgrading so, so much.

Oh yeah, and I'll post a full list of the things in the video I posted last entry, eventually.  There wasn't a whole lot of interest in it, so I figure I can take my time, haha.  Thanks to those of you who did comment though, and to those who liked my Soul Linker profile too!

In closing... swords? : D

Alrighty!  This is Tris updating her ROS again without actually talking about RO.  I actually haven't been on RO at all this week except to shop. The two things I bought; with zeny I purchased a cheap +2 Agi Chainmail [1] which I then broke going to +6, and with Kafra points I bought a Scorpio Diadem because I found out they were slotted, which makes me find them less hideous.  Now if only I had the cash to buy enough of them to get one to +7. Do want for Sniper + Vanberk card, argh. I'll probably just leave the one I have at +4. Real money is tight this month. n_n

Oh yes, and I kept forgetting to post that used an RO term in real life last month, but since nobody questioned it, I assert that my dignity remains intact...

...In case you're wondering, my boyfriend (whose name is Michael, not sure if I've ever clarified that) and I went shopping for birthday cards, tea leaves and used PS2 games, and he asked me if I was okay carrying everything, to which I responded "Yeah, I could even take a bit more stuff without going overweight! : D" Thankfully he didn't notice the mental facepalm I performed on myself just after saying it.

SPEAKING OF MY BOYFRIEND, now to the heart of this entry! 3-4 years back, he made a Valentine's gift for me that consisted of a music video set to my favorite song by my favorite musician, consisting of clips from some of my favorite movies, TV shows, cartoons, animes and music videos. Anyway I FINALLY convinced him to put it on Youtube, and here it is! Its sort of tongue-in-cheek silly, but so is Michael. Hopefully they don't take it down due to the many many pieces of copyrighted material it contains. >.>

Anyway, here's the link, WHICH YOU WANT TO CLICK, YES?

Tom Waits - Black Wings

I'm curious which one of you can guess the most of these. Please comment listing all the ones you can guess, if you feel so inclined, or PM them to me if you're feeling competitive, roffle. It may cause me to love you much much more than I already do if you can guess a few of the choice ones, or doodle one of your characters for you, not that that's much of a promise considering how terribad my art is. ;D Its a mix of blatantly obvious and crushingly obscure sources, so everyone who watches it will get a few, at least!

I'm probably taking the idea of having people guess the clip sources far too seriously, but this video just makes me that happy. 8D Can you tell by my rampant abuse of emotes? ^o^

Eee, thanks for all of the sweet comments on my last entry.  You all do a very good job of making me feel cared about.  I'm still having trouble not crying when I think about Fred being gone, but his life really couldn't have been much happier. Thanks for the comments on my writing as well... In fact, here's some more of it!

Just a couple of minutes after I clicked "add entry," on that Fred entry, I went into my kitchen to make some tea, and got lost in thought while leaning back against the counter.  I came out of it when Aerial (one of the two cats that my boyfriend and I have) sat in front of me, so close that her paws were touching the tips of my feet. 

And it occurred to me that Aerial is pretty much a polar opposite of Fred.  She's a soft, feminine little thing who's dainty as a doily and hasn't been outside since she was a tiny street kitten.  She folds like an umbrella when faced with mortal dangers such as vacuum cleaners, cardboard boxes or backpacks.  I can literally wear her as a scarf, or push her over on her back at random so I can rub her belly, and she just looks at me. I don't think she's capable of losing her temper, and she and her sister once spent half an hour batting at a spider and didn't so much as bruise it.  Fred could have stomped her face into the dust with one paw.

Anyway, she proceeded to act extremely adorably; shuffling her feet, mewing at me and not breaking eye contact.  In retrospect, she was probably hungry, but I felt like she was trying to comfort me, so I slung her over my shoulder and rubbed her back as I often do, at which point she began to purr like crazy.  Ah, animals. I get so hurt when they die, and one can never be replaced with another, yet I don't think I ever want to live without them.

At any rate, I played a little more RO since my last entry.  Got this done with the 2 days I had to take advantage of the exp event;


Ahhh I'm tired of Byalan screenshots.  That Merman looks like he got some Drano-laced Ecstasy at a rave. I really need to think of better places to level. Alex (male Chaos Alex, not female Loki Alex) told me I might want to try Sphinx 3 or Niff.  Perhaps I will sometime. Or maybe I'll just go on another world tour.

Speaking of Tristan, he's been guildless for a long time, and whenever I walk him through Pront, people PM me to ask if I want to join a guild.  It sort of makes me uncomfortable, since they're usually WoE guilds and I don't get a response after I PM back that I'm lolcombo and don't WoE. Tristan used to be in DI, but I got really sick of having to log off for guild loot collection and WoE, and nobody I knew was ever online anyway.  Does anyone have a good non-WoE guild I can join?  Eh, if push comes to shove I'll just make my own, since I have 362234236 Emperiums leftover from last Christmas anyway. 

Oh, and I'm still getting birthday presents, apparently!


Thx u sara!  I send you  gangsta-rap approved Escalade limousine that looks more like a green shortbus even though I get flustered when I meet new people and I can't think of anything to say and then I come off as being really cold and not very nice even though I love talking to people whose ROS diaries I stalk because I'm really not such a bad person I'm just shy and I am afraid of my own shadow and I like stuff and things and you are a very nice person and do you like stuff and things? Cause I do! : D

Now to drive this Escalade limo into another topic! I feel obligated to buy at least one of the new Scorpio hats, considering its my sign and all, but I'm sort of waiting to see more people wearing them so I can see what they look like from different angles.  Sure the iRO website has screenshots of them, but they had the brilliant idea of putting them on a sprite with hair that's the same damn color as the hats are.  So there's no contrast and I can't figure out where the hat ends and the hair begins. As of now I think the hats are ugly and look like robot headparts rather than pretty jewelry.  And November topaz is yellow, not pink, you dingbat sprite designers!

Speaking of robot parts... GANKATRON, ROLL OUT!


Okay, so maybe I'm the only one who thinks of Gundam Transformer heads when I look at some of the zodiac headgear. But the chrome dome really adds an extra mechanical touch, doesn’t it?

I am going to abruptly end this entry now because my Ibuprofen is wearing off and my lower back has been KILLING me since yesterday afternoon. I am going to go lay down, after listening to this French-Canadian folk song for the 500th time despite the fact I can't speak French and can't find a translation of the lyrics anywhere. My fur trapper great-grandpa must be sacre bleu-ing at me from his grave. : (

After having to work on Thanksgiving and the day after, I took the rest of the week off and made the 8 hour drive south to my hometown to visit my parents. And after greeting me in the driveway, my mom's first words were "I put the cat to sleep today."

The cat she was speaking of was my childhood cat, Fred, who showed up in the backyard when I was 10 years old and refused to leave, even though we didn't so much as feed him for the first month.  He was an adult of 2 or 3 at the time, which would have made him close to 20 years old when she put him to sleep.  It had been over a year since I had seen him, and I had been looking forward to seeing him again. 

Fred was a long-haired gray tuxedo cat. In his prime, he was 23 pounds of solid muscle, and everyone who saw him said that he was the biggest cat they'd ever seen, wondering out loud if there were bobcat blood somewhere in his ancestry.  But he was never what I would have called a "gentle giant."  To his credit, he'd once been attacked by two Siberian Huskies, and not only came out of it alive, but had torn the ear off of one dog, and lost two of his claws in the muzzle of the other.  There were 3 ball bearings embedded in his neck and shoulders from being shot at by one of our neighbors. He wasn't a cat so much as a retired military general; the sort of animal you would devote a share of respect to even if all he was doing was lounging on the couch.   Yet he was discerning, wise and protective.  He would tolerate a certain amount of ear cuffing and tail pulling from young children before giving a warning hiss and stomping off, but if an adult tried the same behavior, they'd get a face full of claws and no warning whatsoever.  When I went outside at night, he would walk ahead of me, tail raised and swishing, eyes alert, a growl in his throat to scare off anything that might be lurking in the dark. He was a cat that nobody wanted to fuck with, ever. But he protected and loved those who showed him respect and kindness.

I would like to say I got angry with my mom for putting him to sleep without me there, but I just got a little misty eyed and asked her to explain the circumstances of it.  I knew that Fred had been on the decline for quite sometime; he was on daily arthritis and thyroid medications, and had lost nearly 2/3 of his body weight.  The last time I'd seen him, he had spent most of his time curled up in a padded lawn chair, only getting up to eat and use the bathroom. But I could tell by the way he purred and relaxed in my lap that he still had a reasonable quality of life. 

She told me that he had collapsed into his food bowl last Friday, and hadn't been able to lift his head to get out of it.  She'd found him several hours later, his eyes glazed and food matted into the fur on his chest.  She told me he could barely walk anymore, and that she carried him almost everywhere.  She had taken him to the vet less than 8 hours before I arrived, and the vet had said his heartbeat was so faint that he may have died that day on his own.

Its hard for me to doubt that my mom had this cat's best interest at heart. Last March, she tripped over a crack in our porch while carrying him, and chose to fall hard onto her back instead of dropping him. It doesn't sound too bad until you take into account the fact that she's 64 years old, has osteoporosis, and broke her foot in that fall.  All because she didn't want to hurt the cat. 

I asked her why she didn't wait for me, why I couldn't have been there, and she told me "because I'm selfish." When I asked her to explain that, she told me that she didn't want my first visit back home in nearly 2 years to be colored by watching a wonderful old friend die.  She didn't want me to worry, or to have my last memory of Fred be watching him die. As it stands now, my last memory of Fred is of giving him a scratch on the chin and telling him to take good care of my mom, which he certainly did.  His face was grizzled and his bones were tired, but his eyes were bright and his spirit was happy.

I so easily could have gotten angry at my mom, and then I remembered the death of my last pet; the cockatiel who had been with me for 14 years.  He had died in my hands, and his had not been an easy death. Rather than slipping peacefully into unconsciousness, he had died during the throes of a seizure, and my last memory of him alive is of his eyes, wild and afraid, looking to me for a comfort I could not provide.  Was that something I wanted to repeat?  Especially when most of my memories of Fred were of a proud, strong creature who wore his dignity as proudly as he wore his immaculate fur coat?

My parents know that I'm too sensitive for my own good, and a terrible worrier, even when given news of circumstances I have no control over. When my dad had a quadruple bypass operation, he didn't tell me about it until a week later, because it happened during finals week of my senior year in college and he wanted me to concentrate on school.

Sometimes I wonder; how did I earn such a family? So willing to make great personal sacrifices to spare my feelings and to ease my mind. But that's not something to discuss here. All I can say is thanks to my mother for keeping him alive and happy for so long, and for sparing me the pain of watching him die. And I can also say thanks to Fred for his years of loyal service to my family, from the day he first became the family's self-appointed guardian, and the self-appointed companion of a very lonely 10 year old girl.  I regret that I don't have more photos of him in digital form... I'll share the two that I have with you now.  I have at least 20-30 more in the form of old Polaroids that I keep safely squirreled away in a hardcover album on my bookshelf, but without a scanner, they don't do anyone but me much good.

My mom took this one, when she noticed that the red shadow cast by a heart shaped suncatcher in the kitchen window was perfectly framed on Fred's face.


My dad was the one who gave Fred his name, which is actually Freddie the Freeloader.  That was the name of a TV character from the 50s, played by Red Skelton, and later the name of a Miles Davis song.  Apparently Freddie the Freeloader was a loveable hobo, always looking on the bright side of life. I didn’t like the name at the time, but in retrospect, I can’t think of Fred as anything else.   And now you know why I give my RO characters such obscure names… I learned it from my dad!


And this one was taken about 3 years ago, when Fred was just settling into comfortable old age.  Its a little hard to see his size in these pictures, but each of his paws was at least an inch and a half across, he measured over 3 feet long when he stretched out, and his head was bigger than a softball.  His fur was thick and abundant, and he had a tiny white blaze in the center of his forehead that got a little longer each year.

Boy, I sure write about dead animals a lot in this journal, don't I? I'm sorry if this bothers anyone. But hey, I feel better.  I started off writing this entry in tears, but I'm actually smiling now.  How could I stay sad knowing I had a cat who lived nearly 20 years, and a family who cares about me so much? Many thanks once again for your continued attentions and kind remarks, whoever happens to be reading this.  I promise my next entry will be about RO. :)

So, during the last drops event, I bought a box of bubble gum after not having spent any money on Kafra points in 2-3 months.  I ended up taking my Stalker to Thor's 2 and only using 2 pieces of said gum because I got so damn frustrated with the Guardians and Imps.  Yesterday evening, being unable to think of anything better to do, and being conscious that my Champ could now use a Thorny/Bison combo, I went back.


This dropped about 10 minutes AFTER the gum wore off.  I wish I had been hooked up to an EKG at the time because it literally felt like my heart did an X-games skateboarder faceplant into my diaphragm. Despite my better judgment, I bought a Hodremlin card to put in it, just so I can wear it EVERYWHERE. Its my new little black dress, fer sure!  Time to go hunt some Goats and restock the old zeny coffers.  Anyway;


Holy shit, I have the best Champ EVER now, and he doesn't even have on full Agi/aspd gear. Somebody get me AAR and Aid Berserk Pot, because I'm taking this bitch to the motherfucking MOON.  And the man in the moon is gonna be all "plz dun hurt me" and then I’ll be all "KHAAAAAN!" and punch him in the face a bajillion times before the vacuum of space pops my eyeballs like overripe cherry tomatoes.  I thought of Fei Long's Rekka Ken move as I typed that punching bit, although I guess its more like that Gouki/Akuma move where the screen goes white and you see 50 billion flashes of light to indicate him punching the shit out of you while using the least amount of animation possible. God I'm old. But apparently not old enough since I can't remember what that move was called.  Its okay though, I'm sure someone on my friendslist knows.  I'm looking at you, Adeat!  And why am I covering my stats yet leaving all the secondary numbers visible? I think because I sincerely doubt that anyone cares enough about my Champ to reverse engineer what my stats are. Put them apples in your pipe and smoke 'em!

Ugh, that last paragraph was such a mass of syntactic diarrhea. Its like I just had the mental equivalent of a spastic colon incident. Good thing I'm too tired to fix it! I also keep confusing personal pronouns when I talk about myself vs. my characters.  Oh yeah, and apparently I'm an idiot.  Not my characters, but ME. In my last entry I said I was sad because Tristan was 1 Str point shy of being able to swap a Muscle Ring for a Bison Horn... Then I realized he was wearing my Low Level Valk shoes at the time, instead of my plain old +9 Superior shoes. Hahaaaahahaha.

I'm starting to debate whether I should up his Trifecta a bit more.  Its at 5 right now and his aspd is getting so high that I think the more frequent combos are actually decreasing his damage output when I'm not actively chaining combos.  But I've avoided so many deaths by pounding out hard and fast combos under pressure, so I'm a little apprehensive about the reduced frequency, even though the difference is only 5%.  And I'm too dense to understand how to calculate which would be better.  Erk.

In other news, I finally got over the artist's block that settled on me in April.  There was a request sitting in the DRAW THE ONE ABOVE YOU!  Thread on iwiki, and I just decided to sit down and draw.  No references, no agonizing, no attempts at new technique; just an honest doodle.


The proportions are bad (well, not as bad as they could be, I'm actually surprised I did them as well as I did with no references,) the shading is really half-assed, the pose is stiff, the face is oversimplified and the coloring is super-lazy, but hey, it's a drawing, isn’t it?  At least its something!  I wouldn't have drawn it at all if I'd gotten bogged down in... you know, actually taking the steps to make it look good. And the person who requested it sounded happy.

I've always thought the female Linkers were one of the cutest sprites in the game too; this one was fun to draw even though the female SL outfit is SUPER CONFUSING. The concept art shows that the collar of her robes consists of two parts folded over like they would be on a closed bathrobe, yet the rest of it looks like one solid piece with a panel in the middle.  Or is it a dress underneath? And how exactly is that sash tied? n_n

Oh yes, and I requested that someone draw Yag being annoyed by cute little birds while trying to drink a cup of tea, because that’s how I think of him when I’m a silly mood.  This is what I got;


LOLZ.

Sure, I was hoping for something by one of the whoashitosm artists like Lilicia or Sepia *bats eyelashes* but this really captures the spirit of my request, which was to show Yag being gently robbed of his brooding pretty-boy mystique.  Those birds crack me up every time I see them; they remind me of the little happy cloud sticker-icon things that TV weathermen used to use in the 80s. xD

Agh, I have to go to bed soon, again.  Funny how my mental clarity tends to be at its height after 10pm, and I have to go to bed at 11pm on the majority of worknights.  And I just got the MSN address of one of my longtime RO acquaintances from a forum we both frequent, she's a potential friend and I am under no obligation to her, YET I AM TOO SHY TO MESSAGE HER. She has a kickass BHP and I totally need to party her sometime aaaaaagggghhhh. Tris, you are the most awkward fully grown heterosexual woman in the worrrrrrld. 

Oh yes, and I went out last week and acquired the two things I wanted for my birthday and didn't get, but I'll talk about those later! Hint; neither one of them is even remotely interesting. 8D And despite having 16 gigs of music on my computer and 100 or so CDs, I feel like I'm running out of song titles to name these entries after. Oh well, have one from the Secret Chiefs 3's first album, which is weird as all fuck. I AM SUCH A HIPSTER.

Today a 70 pound pit bull/german shepherd mix dog landed on my desk.  One minute she was on the ground and I was sitting there talking to her owner about front clasp harnesses, the next minute it was HEEEEEY HOW YOU DOIN? : D? : D? and she was licking my face. I don't consider this a small feat, since the side of my desk she was on has a ledge that's just about even with my face when I'm sitting, making it at least 4 feet off of the ground.  She went straight over that ledge and landed with all 4 feet on the desk. I've seen cats who couldn't make that kind of a jump.  Brava, Maggie, brava. I'm flattered you wanted to meet me that much, and I'm also lucky you didn't crush my keyboard.

Of course I would rather have her on my desk than the goddamn fly that was bothering me for the majority of the rest of the day.  You'd think the little bastard would go find a dog turd, catbox or myriad of other stinky, unsanitary things to be found in an animal shelter, but instead he spent the better part of 4 hours rubbing his little fly balls on the lip of my coffee mug and on my computer mouse.

Oh, ROS is what? I've noticed I have a habit of starting these entries with IRL stuff just to hook people into reading about my RO life, ahahahaha. Anyway, I can check one thing off of my most recent list of goals;


Unfortunately this is one of those really stupid levels that puts me one stat point shy of getting some sort of a bonus.  In this case, if I had 1 more Str, I could replace my Muscle Ring with my Athletic Bison Horn and get another point of ASPD.  Pfft.  I really shouldn't build my characters as I go along.  NONE of my characters have planned 99/70 builds.  Tris is good trans player, yes?

Speaking of Bison Horns, now I have to go hunt myself a Thorny Buckler.  Although I probably ran out what little remained of my luck after finding 5 cards in about 10-15 hours of play (see previous entries.)  And now, here's the 6th.


Oh yeah, and you'll notice I bought Filir Pinions.  Which are quite awesome, though they look SO SILLY. Have you ever seen a drawing of a furry that's so haphazardly put together and outlandishly colored that it looks like technicolor vomit and you can't tell what animal its based on?  That's Filir Pinions to me.  They're not structured correctly to be wings, and they don't look like ears either.  They're just sort of… what?

On that note, they extended the box event, but I'm sort of sad the Halloween town invasion lag fest event is over.  Seeing all those fake dark lords in towns made me feel like a jack russell terrier in a room full of balloons.  And I still have 200+ each of torn fabrics and questionable gift boxes!

Hey, I went from having nothing to say to writing a nice long entry.  Slick. Have another thing. 


I snapped at Esper over MSN for something stupid involving RO parties, so he grabbed Dobu and made me his Stone Buckler hunting bitch for an hour.  Please make me your bitch more often, Esper.  We found 3 (4?) Stone Bucklers and I gained 16%, by the way.  It was my first non-noob party in... a month or so, and it was super fun for me.  *clings to the hem of Esper's dress and gets dragged through 23462547 WoE castles*

I don't think I have too much more to say at this point. Its past my bedtime.  Hooray for working weekends! *cough* But I have a 9x combo Champ. : D  Now to fix that stupid job level. And I really should get on finishing those character bios I was posting.  I still have my Stalker and about 4 second tier characters to get through!  I should make one of them gay just to confuse people.

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone, both through MSN and through Esper's recent entry too! I ended up having a nice quiet day; played a bit of RO, took a long stroll through downtown with my boyfriend and then went out to my favorite sushi place with him and his parents.

I got a few nice gifts too; 50$ from my parents and a new windbreaker jacket dealie from my boyfriend's parents. I also got a gift from Adeat, which think is my favorite gift of all though... Okay, so its actually a kiriban I won on his DA a few months ago, but he finished it for my birthday! Stretch my page, baby!


ffffffffffffffffffff hottttttttttttttttttt.... I think he put some extra effort into this one.  Just look at those sexy muscles and how nicely they're shaded, and those delicious creamy colors, and the fur texture on the coat.  And I've always described Tyr as having a sort of sad look in his eyes, which Adeat did perfectly!  Sorry Sepia's pic of my Stalker and Scholar, but its time for a new desktop image!

Oh, what did my boyfriend get me, you ask? I'm sort of embarrassed to say, actually.  If it were something like a vibrator or edible panties, I wouldn't feel too bad posting about it ( HAY GAIZ CHECK OUT MY ORGASMOTRON!) but its not.

...He actually got me a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure at the local nail salon... Haha... ha?

If you know me at all, you'll know I'm a very un-feminine woman. I don't wear makeup, I wash my hair once a week, and I only own two pairs of shoes.  I hate romantic comedies and love fart jokes. Maxim > Cosmo. So I found myself wondering where my boyfriend got the idea that I want to have pwettypwetty nails.

Then it occurred to me that I remember telling him a long time ago that I used to have a female friend whose solution to any problem a woman could ever have was "go get a pedicure, you'll feel better!" Even if that problem was something like nuclear war or syphilis. Sometimes I fear my man is too good of a listener.  I've never set foot in a nail salon in my life.  Well, I tagged along with my dad when he went to one once, but that's another story. I guess I'll get around to using it someday when I actually have nails.  Right now they're all stubs.  I ripped my last one at work on Sunday while helping another employee break up a fight between a Lab and a German Shepherd.  Thankfully that nail was the only casualty!

Oh wait, this is an RO journal?  HURHURRR. Okay, have screenshots then!


I got this for Tristan on my birthday, which isn't bad at all.  Byalan 4 is the best exp I've found for him so far.  I was pulling 14-15% per hour down there during the event.  SHUT UP THAT'S IMPRESSIVE FOR SOLO. I wish I'd discovered it sooner.  I remember it being sub-par exp for my Sniper and Scholar, but it works great for my Champ. Plus, now that he’s job 55 he can do this;


I LOVE CHAIN CRUSH COMBO.  SO MUCH. I still need 120 Str though, and don't ruin my fun by telling me that I could easily do that much damage with G-Fist or even Occult Impaction.  I am having fun with myself. : [


And then my weird lucky streak continued. Not pictured; 7 Electric Wires, a Padded Armor and 5 Shackles. And then I was confused. If we get a drops event for Thanksgiving I may have to go back to Rachel Sanc and Thor's 2 to see if I can grab the server by the nards and throttle some Hodremlin/Vanberk cards and Thorny Bucklers out of it. Oh, and I have enough Yarn to make one and a half beanies too. n_n

On another subject, damn I want Filir Pinions so bad.  Yes plz 2% aspd increase. No plz 30-40 mil price tag.  Hopefully they drop a bit more before the event ends next week.  And while I'm at it, where the hell are my Scorpio headgears?  We don't even have Libra yet! One of my friends once did a natal chart for me and it turns out I’m actually a Scorpio with Scorpio rising, and three planets in Scorpio.  She sort of avoided me after that. Apparently this means I am a very dangerous person!

Oh yes. And I hate 3rd class sprites.  Like everyone else. But I noticed something interesting about the Royal Guard concept art.  See that symbol on the upper left part of his chain skirt dealie?  The one that looks like an infinity symbol but with triangles?  That's the Norse rune for daylight, which is pronounced "Daeg."  Daeg is my Crusader's name... I think RO is trying to tell me I need to level my Sader.  Too bad I hate leveling him, because that's a freakin amazing coincidence.

*runs off to level Champ again*

I feel like I have a lot to say in this entry, but I can't remember any of it. So how about some incoherently smushed together screenshots and vulgar one-sided conversations instead?

I spent another 5 hours or so in Louyang dungeon over the past week;


What?


What!?

Somewhere between picking up those cards (which both dropped on the same day, by the way,) finding some Cat's Eyes, and realizing I was bored enough to start picking Lucky Charms crumbs out of my F keys, I realized that I had unintentionally collected all of the ingredients for a Zealotus mask.  So, I decided to head to GH and make one as a break from leveling.


Have you ever done the Zealotus Mask quest? First the Zealotus asks you to bow down to her, and then she tells you that all the romance has gone out of her relationship with Phendark.  (what's wrong, buddy? Did she stop warming the vice grip before she puts your balls in it?)  So you have to get a whip class weapon and beat him until he listens to you, force feed him crystal fragments, and  trash talk him until he gets so angry that he runs back to the Zealotus in a murderous rage... At which point she thanks you for turning him back into the poetically sadomasochistic bondage clown cuddlebug he used to be and makes you a mask. Oh, and at one point in the quest, this gets said:


*snrk* Its nice to know that Tristan could strap on a pair of 8 inch heels and whip some ass with the best of 'em if he wanted to. I'm not sure he has the goods for a red leather corset though, unless you count the crotch region?

After finishing up, I decided that GH Prison was actually a pretty fun place to level.  The enemies are different enough so that I have to switch between occult impaction and combos, I've got 95% flee on most of them, the loot is interesting, and nothing hurts that much. It actually surprises me that its so easy for me.  I remember being terrified of this place when I used to level Tyr on the first level on GH prison... Then again, Tyr gets bruises from raindrops. Ah yes, the good old days of Sniper rape.  Anyway, I decided to stay for awhile as a change of pace.



I think that deserves a few more "what?"s, don't you? There was only an hour's worth of time between them too.  Remind me again where this luck was when I spent 2 weeks in Rachel Sanc? Eh well, I won't go into that. Instead, I’ll go into this! Or maybe "penetrate this" is a better way to word it;


God, its like a line of circus elephants holding each other's tails in their trunks, only much, much more disturbing.  Hey gaiz, I don't think the gay pride parade people are going to like this.  And no, I didn't make that mob.  It was just sort of... lurking there. n_n

Oh shit, tomorrow's Halloween, isn’t it?  Eh, I'm not going to be doing anything interesting, but I will leave you with a picture of the pumpkin I carved for work. My boss bought pumpkins for all of the staff, and I was one of four people to actually carve theirs.  Isn't she pwetty?


If cartoons have taught me anything, its that long eyelashes = female. Even if she's the sort of female who looks like she should be wearing stretch pants and pushing a shopping cart around somewhere in a Wal-Mart in the deep south. xD And I just realized that you can sort of see my computer screen and one of my cats curled on the back of my computer chair in the background... Oh well, happy Halloween to you all!

...Suddenly I have an overwhelming urge to watch the "Hellraiser" films again... Damn you, GH!

Well, its fall, the only season where I can sweat profusely while shivering under a raincoat because the sun and wind can't arrive on a consensus about the temperature.  The sun says its going to be 95, and the wind just goes "nuh-uh ur not my dad" and throws out the 50 degree wind chill factor.  And everyone gets to experience the joy of having foot long pit stains and glass cutter nipples simultaneously.

Unluckily for me, I tend to be just as bipolar as the weather in the fall, and my mood gets splattered all over the landscape depending on what day it is.  However, I AM SO ALONE WHY WON'T YOU LOVE MEEEE GO AWAY I HATE YOU seems to be my most common sentiment, so at least that's consistent.  Perhaps another reason I get so weird in fall is because my birthday's in fall too. I've finally reached the age where I just get annoyed with birthdays, for various reasons I won't go into.  Eh well, it falls on a day when I don't have work, and even if nothing good comes of it, I'm sure my boyfriend will do something sweet for me. And there will be Scorpio headgears, which had damn well better have MASSIVE pinchers and scary pointy tails.

Speaking of people doing sweet things, Ximena recently did some freebie Halloween costume-style sprite edits for a few lucky people, one of which was me. I asked her if she could do an edit of Tristan with a wolf or some other canine monster, and she came up with this;


Cuuute!  Some MVP mob that Galion is, hehe.  I wouldn't have expected the spiked bracelet and neck chain to look good with the Champ sprite, but they really do. She did another version with a slight scar over the right eye like Atroce has, but I like this one better.  Apparently Tristan's hair is the same color as Atroce’s fur too. I've been in sore need of a new sig on iwiki, so I think I'll use this for awhile.

Fortunately Tristan's been getting some attention in-game too, after an extremely slow start.  I went to ID with Rei and Cristobel on Friday night, but the party we found only had room for 2 people, and since Agi Champs aren't exactly in high demand, I told them they could join and I'd try to do my own thing, which was a big mistake on my part as it made me both lonely AND unable to level.  I tried to go back yesterday morning, and it was like a cold version of hell... From the Knight who spear boomed everything on screen to the Wizard who walked up to me to LoV my Titans to the Paladin who continually trained Snowiers on me to the High Priestess who saw me spamming whites in a mob and just walked up to wait for me to die.  I was about ready to rip my Ethernet cable in half with my teeth after less than 2 hours.  I did see sara, and she was one of the few people who was actually courteous, but I didn't say hi because was afraid of lolawkward conversation and she probably wouldn't have known who I am, eeeeeerrrrrffff.

So I decided to strap on my lol-worthy +6 Tri Boned Knuckle Dusters, snag an earth endow from Zech's Sage, and head to Louyang.  The Dancing Dragon quest is less exp than the Ice Titan quest, sure, and it'd be better to use a weapon without such nasty size penalties, but at least I don't feel like I need to shear data streams in half with my incisors.


Fuck yeeeeeah, LOOK AT THOSE MOTION LINES. I'm gettin' all Speed Racer up in here. Remind me why I haven't been using CCC? I should have added in some more motion lines in MS paint to convey how awesome it is.  It hits for about 9k on Green Maidens with this setup. Tristan doesn't just hit little girls, he crushes them.  Chain crushes them, even. 

Other than that, I farmed bunny hats on all 9 of my characters, and randomly smacked a few monsters while looking for rice cakes to tame;


I thought the bugs might have some rice dough in 'em, but then I remembered that the massive armies of poorly programmed Novice bots that don't kill looters have all moved to Valk. I should just never kill anything unless I want every single thing on its drops table. 

Ahhh, forgive the cynicism and lack of humor in this entry.  I just haven't felt like myself at all this season.  Thanks again for all the comments regarding the disease outbreak at work, and no, I don't think any of you are horrible people. : )

P.S - Last night I dreamed Leonard Nimoy was a woman.  I think it was because I watched the movie I'm Not There before I went to bed on Sunday, in which Cate Blanchett plays one persona of Bob Dylan, but it was still weird. MY DREAMS NEVER MAKE SENSE.

Wow… Just… wow.

I wasn’t expecting nearly that much of a response to my last entry.  I’m really touched both by the support you all showed me, and by how strongly you all feel about people who don’t take proper care of their animals.  Thank you!  Anyway, I feel like I owe you all a response, even if it is a rather impersonal blanket sort of response.

Re: The sick animals
The two other sick puppies are in “foster quarantine,” which means they’re in a volunteer foster parent’s home getting vet care so they don’t infect shelter animals.  And since parvo is usually fatal within 72 hours, they’re probably going to be fine.  The two other sick kittens turned out to have Coccidia, not Panleukopenia.  Coccidia is a very common, easily treated intestinal parasite.  It looks like the worst is over.  As long as we keep everything clean, we shouldn't see any more sick animals.

Re: Me having a lot of guts to work in an animal shelter;
I’m actually pretty lucky as far as shelter employees go.  The shelter I work for never euthanizes adoptable animals.  As long as an animal is healthy and friendly, it will stay with us as long as it takes for it to get adopted.  When we’re at a comfortable capacity, we have about 15 dogs and 35 cats in-house.  In the 13 months I’ve worked there, we’ve euthanized less than 20, including those babies.  We also can’t legally accept public animal surrenders unless they go through another shelter first (the puppies and kittens had been surrendered to our sister facility a few towns over.)  When we get full, we have the luxury of closing our doors. Unfortunately this means animals are still getting euthanized in other shelters… We just don’t have to do it.  I have the utmost respect and sympathy for people who work in those shelters.  Please don’t think that a shelter is evil because it has to euthanize healthy animals.  Shelter employees don’t have a choice.  More on this later. 

Re: The “I can’t afford vet care” excuse.
That’s really tricky. Having been unemployed for almost a year while barely being able to afford my two cats makes me sympathetic, but only to an extent. In my experience, a lot of people who pull that excuse just have really fucked up priorities. I’ve literally seen people come to the shelter carrying Gucci handbags and 200$ cell phones, asking about free vet care.  When I was unemployed, my priorities were food, rent, utilities and my cats, more or less in that order. Getting a pet is a luxury, but once you have one, it should never, ever be treated as such.  Luxuries are things you casually give up during hard times.  Pets are not.  If you can’t feed yourself or pay your rent, don’t get a pet.  Period.  As for pets you already had when you became too poor to care for them, that’s a bit different.  Hopefully you know and love your animals well enough to make the most compassionate choice about whether or not you can take proper care of them.

Re: the price of vet care;
One big complication here is that people automatically assume that all veterinarians always think of animals first.  They don’t.  Please don’t get me wrong here, but I’ve received calls from people whose vets have quoted them up to 450$ for a canine spay surgery, which our clinic does for 100$ (50$ if you’re low income and can prove it.) Or the person whose vet quoted them at 1200$ for a tooth extraction on a cat with a gum infection.  Our sister facility’s clinic did it for 350$.  Again, please don’t get me wrong.  Most vets are genuinely good people who put animals first, but some, whether due to their own greed or outside pressures, will use a person’s emotional investment in their pet to bleed them dry.  So, if you have an animal that needs non-emergency vet care, do some research.  Get second opinions, compare prices, consult animal shelters, etc.

Re: Spaying and Neutering;
I actually regret not touching on this in that last entry.  None of those puppies and kittens would have suffered if their owners had seen fit to alter (the shelter/vet term for spaying/neutering) their adult animals.  This is one topic where I absolutely refuse to take the “we can’t afford it” excuse.  You should be prepared to pay for this surgery before you even get a pet.  Even if a stray falls into your lap, get it done.  Many shelters offer these surgeries at a greatly reduced cost, and some will even do it for free, or offer vouchers for low-cost surgeries from private vets.  Altered pets are healthier, more docile and live longer.  Fact.  3 millions cats and dogs get euthanized every year in the US because there aren’t enough homes to go around.  Fact. It’s a one time cost with a huge number of benefits.  That’s something I could talk about for a good long time, but I think these guys sum it up far better than I could, if you’re interested.

Re: My favorite way to sum up responsible pet ownership;

"Many have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it.
You remain responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."

- Antoine de Saint Exupery

Re: Me in bed
Whew!  Wrote another novel there, didn’t I? But I feel better now. Thank you all once again for the outpouring of support.   I promise I will get back to RO in my next entry.  But for now, I’m going to get in bed, put on a Simpsons DVD, hit "play all" and most likely fall asleep before the end of the second episode. 8D

Note: This entry is not about RO and may be extremely depressing, especially to you soft-hearted animal loving types.  However I feel like I have to talk about it somewhere. Think of it as one of those annoying public service announcements.  I promise I won't do it again.

As you may know, I work in an animal shelter.

On Sunday, we got a litter of 3 Siberian Husky mix puppies, 3 months old.  One had diarrhea. By Tuesday morning, she had been euthanized. As of today, her siblings are very, very sick. The diagnosis: type CPV2 canine parvovirus.

On Monday, we got a 2.5 month old kitten who was so sick he had to be euthanized on the spot.  His 3 siblings developed severe symptoms yesterday, and will have to be euthanized tomorrow. Two healthy kittens elsewhere in the shelter are now showing similar symptoms.  The diagnosis: feline panleukopenia.

These diseases are both viruses, in the same family. They attack an animal's intestinal lining, and more rarely, its heart. Neither are curable, and the younger the animal, the higher the mortality rate. The clincher?  Both have a very reliable, inexpensive vaccine. We vaccinated them all when they first came in, but a vaccine does nothing for an animal already incubating either disease.

I've seen animals get euthanized before, but all of them were adults that were either too sick or too vicious to be ethically placed in homes. Not young animals who could have been saved if the people who bred them had taken responsibility and ponied up 10-15$ a head to get them shots, or at least spent 15 minutes on the internet researching proper procedures to avoid exposure.  Both viruses are spread by contact with an infected animal's feces or bodily fluids.  They are extremely hardy; canine parvovirus in particular can survive in ordinary topsoil for 9-12 months.  Both are easily killed with ordinary household bleach, diluted with water in a 1:10 ratio.

Now whoever raised these animals has not only signed their death warrants, but is endangering dozens of other animals at both the shelter I work at, and its sister facility (where the animals were surrendered before being transferred to us.) We're also unable to accept new kittens/puppies for at least the next two weeks because of the risk of infection, and we're cleaning and disinfecting like mad.  Luckily our adult animals have all been vaccinated and most likely aren't at risk.

If you're reading this and ever get a kitten or puppy, get it vaccinated, please.  All standard puppy/kitten boosters contain parvo/panleuk vaccines, as well as vaccines for many other diseases. If your vet wants too much, your local animal shelter, Petco, Petsmart or Pet Food Express store may have low cost vaccine clinics. Your local animal shelter might even have free shot fairs.  Just get it done.

Wow, I missed ROS so much I updated my livejournal. Now that's saying something.  And now I will copypasta the bulk of that LJ entry.  I really haven't been playing RO much, but I'll make sure I mention it.

Oh yeah, this is RO related! I finally managed to get some writing done on my fanfic, so expect an update tomorrow. After that I'm going to do my damndest to post a bare minimum of two chapters a month, since I finally got past the major plot point that was tripping me up.  As for my character profiles... Might be a little longer in finishing those; the only major one I have to finish is my Stalker's, and I did, but its incredibly bland compared to my other ones.  I think I finally ran out of ideas.

So here's the IRL stuff;

Every Friday at work, I choose 5-6 shelter animals to post on Craigslist just to get them some extra publicity.  This week one of my choices was Lexus, an active, friendly, short-haired brown tabby who lost her right rear leg in a car accident.  The post title I came up with...?

"Lexus; Slightly Dented, Runs Beautifully!"

... I would have been much more productive at work that day had I not spent the next hour laughing at my own joke. I suppose it could have been funnier if I knew more car-related jargon.

Aside from that, I got my annual review about two weeks ago.  Despite my paranoid delusions, I achieve "Exceeds Expectations" in the majority of categories, and "Meets Expectations" in all the rest.  I was also apparently the only employee who wasn't late at all in the past year.  Ha... ha?  They even gave me another raise, bringing my wages to... $10.56 an hour! So I bought myself 20$ worth of Kafra points, only to see them go on sale the next day.  Hoyah!

Work issues aside, I went to a friend's end-of-summer barbecue sometime ago. I met a few new people, which I expected, however they weren't the sort of people I was expecting.  One was an amateur porn star calling herself "TehZombie" who was walking around in a rainbow thong, another was a fat, drunken 17 year old who said I look like I listen to Coldplay, and another was a 6'5 nigh-anorexic black guy named Oni Uzumaki (but not because of "that Naruto bullshit," apparently.) Ell oh ell.  Made me wish I weren't so damn boring; I couldn't think of anything interesting to say in the majority of the conversations. Oh well, at least when Mr. Uzumaki started talking about scimitars, katars and falcottas, I could keep up...Coldplay?!  Fuck you, little fat kid.... I only have one Coldplay song in my 200+ hours of music, I swear.  Its "Talk," in case you're curious. : (

As far as my personal life goes, for once I actually went with my boyfriend's mom when she said she wanted to take me clothes shopping.  Normally I hatehateHATE shopping for clothes and turn her down, but it was getting to the point that I could take my jeans off without unbuttoning them. So I scored two new pairs of work jeans, a windbreaker, a shirt and a sweater. Of course I feel guilty about her spending money on me, but she essentially shoves things at me until I like something... If it were up to me I only would have gotten pants. Michael (my boyfriend) said the new threads looked good on me, but that he wishes I hadn't lost so much weight.

...I have a boyfriend who tells me I'm too skinny, whose mom constantly wants to buy me clothes.  It sounds like something most women would dream of. Too bad I really like my weight, and I really don't like people buying me gifts most of the time.

Oh, right.  RO! All I really have are boring leveling screenshots this time around.

I know I said I was going to stop leveling my Stalker for awhile when he hit level 80, but then I had to get job 50 just so I could say "8x/5x" on my sidebar, vain creature that I am.


Obviously this isn't a job 50 screenshot, but I didn't take one, apparently!  And I know my hotkeys are weird.  WHY IS SIGHTLESS MIND SO FAR FROM HIDE?  I don't know, honestly, and it trips me up every time. Lrn2 plan ahead, Tris.

Anyway, after that I decided to focus on my Champ, mostly driven by the fact that Shuras look so, SO cool from both a sprite and a skill perspective.  Sure its not like Tristan to get a tatttoo on his back, but it IS like him to run around shirtless while incapacitating people with his sheer man-itude. Its funny because I started writing more of my fanfic a few hours after I took this screenshot.  Maybe I just needed to stare at Tristan long enough to find my inspiration again?


... I would have included level 85 if it didn't look EXACTLY the same. And yes, I was Occult leveling at Goats.  Normally I avoid that since he's a combo Champ and I prefer to, you know, actually combo.  However, I figure its going to be slow and difficult leveling him from here on out, so I thought it'd be best to take advantage of the Goat hunting exp quest while he still qualified.

It occurred to me the other day that leveling a combo Monk/Champ is a lot like leveling a Rogue with no Gank who has to pay SP to use an Ice Pick.  Oh well, when I get going on combo leveling, I can do it for hours and not get bored, at least!  If I'd made Tristan a spirit build, he would still be an 8x Monk, because I would have died from boredom at Sleepers.

So, expect  me to be working on him for a little while now.  I really should spam that pirate quest while I still can, but I don't have a pirate upper headgear or a warper at this point, and I just found out about this quest this week.  Uuuuuughhh. I'll at least try to farm a few moon rabbit hats though. And apparently Dynamo and I both thought "omgz Lussuria!" when we read the quest guide.  Hahaha, RO loves you,  adorable pet-collecting bunny girl! XD

Shit, I think I have more to say, but this entry is getting so long.  And hey, I just noticed its my 50th entry too!  And I have 167 comments.  Just over 3 per entry... That makes me feel pretty loved! Thanks everyone out there for being such a supportive, funny and genuinely kind audience.  As long as I have people like the lot of you around, I’ll never quit RO!

Hi!  Forgive me if this entry seems rushed.  I’m updating this while waiting for my boyfriend's garlic bread to finish cooking so we can take it to a friend's BBQ. I’m very glad I’m going somewhere so I don't have to spend the night worrying.

Worrying about what, you ask? Well, tomorrow is the day of my annual review at work.  I am terrified. : D I wrote a letter to my two bosses about a month ago asking if there was anything they would like to see me do more/less of, and if they thought I had made improvements since getting written up in April, and they both responded positively, but I'm still scared.  I half expect them to say "you aren’t friendly or cute enough for customer service, you pick your nose, and even the dogs think you smell bad." No, really.  That's how my mind works.

At any rate, I haven't done much at all on RO, mostly due to being too busy with real life issues, forum Rps and character profiles.  Speaking of which;


Looks like someone got inspired by my character profiles! : D

These were done by Yugo, who used to play RO years ago and is now one of my forum RP buddies, and draws some of the most expressive faces of any artist I‘ve ever known.  He said he only referenced my own drawings of the characters so that he’d be working solely off of how I envision them. I’m pretty impressed with the results.  Especially Yag, since he looks like a complete douche. xD Yugo is such a nice guy too.

Aside from that, I did this:


Thaaaaat's... 76 through 79.  Which I did in a single day, and made 23 mil off of. And I found this in the first hour. 


Fuck Rachel Sanc, for serious. I most likely spent 10-15 hours there with my Sniper over the course of two weeks and found squat, and I find this in the first hour with the Stalker at Goats.  Sort of adds insult to injury when I think about how much cash I could have made from Antelope Horns in the time I spent card hunting at Rachel Sanc. Eh well, the rapid Stalker leveling makes me feel somewhat better.

Yes, that does make me feel better, and makes me think about my long-term leveling goals for my characters.  At this point, those are;

Sniper 94-95 done!
Champ 84-90
Scholar 83-90
Stalker 79-80

I just decided I'm sick of having so many scrub transes, and I want to get my freakishly built ones to 9x so that I have more to lord over the squares. That makes me think of something Adeat said; that he's afraid to ask for parties because his characters are so unconventionally built. I think I have the exact same thing going.  If anyone ever partied any of my character short of my HP, I’d just feel guilty and self-conscious for having such weird builds. Speaking of HP, you'll notice he isn't on here.  Well, he's 92 and I don't really want to touch him since I'd be ashamed of myself if I had a FS HP as my highest level character.  HELP, I'M AFRAID OF BEING A NORMAL FEMALE RO PLAYER! And yes, I had to check ROPD because I forgot my own character levels.

But that is everything, and I apologize for the rather bitter and alternately ego-polishing and self-deprecating tone of this entry, as well as the fucking shitty profanity.  I have to go eat BBQ ribs now.

THANK YOU FOR COMMENTS MALE LKS ARE HAWT AND SO ARE CHARACTER PROFILES AND YOU ARE ALL FAR TOO NICE TO ME AND I HEARTS U.

Last week a very nice gay couple came to the shelter and adopted a dog named Dickie... Is it wrong of me to find this utterly hilarious?  I almost peed myself when they said "We love Dickie! : D" practically in unison.  n_n

So yeah, I haven't done much on RO recently.  Just this;


... And yes, I deliberately cropped this next screenie extra-long.  I just love seeing multiple things die at once, don't you? 8D


I checked my level 94 screenie, and it was from over a year ago.  LOLOLOLOL. Poor Tyr, RO's most developmentally disabled 6 year old.  And yes, I'm still in Rachel Sanc, and was for over 50% of that level.  2000 bloody runes, 2 scalpels, 7 berets and 1 High Fashion Sandals later; no cards from anything.  I should have quit long ago, really.  But spite kept me hanging on, despite the fact that I easily could have found and sold AT LEAST an Isilla card’s worth of Antelope Horns in that time.  You win, RO. I'll go back to Horn hunting with the Stalker now.

On the plus side, I now have the freedom to do a few dangerous quests without losing much exp. Thor's and Nameless come to mind, and he WILL die doing them, since the poor guy can pretty much get bruised by a stiff sea breeze, much less by Bow Guardians and  Zombie Slaughters.

Nothing doing, aside from that.  I actually haven't been on RO much, mainly due to having all of my mental energy and free time taken up by useless, utterly un-constructive creative projects that are really fucking fun.  Namely my RO character profiles, fanfic, and 3 separate forum roleplays with Esper, Adeat, Alex, Rei and some other friends.

Yes, character profiles!  The responses to them have been even better than I hoped for, and it looks like I might even be inspiring other people, which makes me happy. I'll try to have my Stalker and Scholar up later this week.  I just have outlines for them so far though. Mostly a series of bullet points with character details that I need to weave into paragraphs.  And speaking of profiles, I was doing a bit of in-game research to refine my Scholar's history, and found this little gem in the Juno library;


Heeheeeeeeeeeee…. How oddly fitting that RO's version of a  morality tale would end in pillaging and looting.

RO has such great background details and story bits if you know where to look, there's just very little incentive to seek them out, and most of them are hidden far too well to stumble on by accident.  Either that, or they’re part of quests that have such small rewards that they aren't worth most players' time. If only they'd beef up the exp/item rewards from the quests.  It sort of makes me sad that dungeon entrance quests are really the only ones worth doing, ugh. 

I think that's it for now.  I probably had something to gripe about, but I can't remember what it is. So I will close with this;


WHY ARE YOU SO CUTE, MR. LK? ;O; When he sat down next to me I wanted to crawl into his lap and give him a big ol' smooch.  Sure it would have been yaoi at that point, but he was just so ~*kAwAiI dEsU nE*~ I wouldn't have cared.  But my shyness got the best of me and I just sat there, lawl.