The issue comes down to moving the setting back to Earth. This was the correct thing to do, it really was, but as a result the previous plot I had etched out doesn’t fly anymore. I have very vague ideas of what is going on and what will happen but so far I’m just rambling.

There is a character named Laura Salkin although that might change. She’ll probably kill someone named Payal for revenge.

A character I thought I was going to kill off might actually survive until the end. We’ll see.

I am having issues tackling the issue of magic use, specifically how to describe it. During the course of writing any scene involving it I became painfully aware of my Wheel of Time obsession and lack of any other fantasy reading aside from Song of Ice and Fire in recent years. I grapple with how to write about someone using air to pin someone down without sounding like bad Aes Sedai fanfiction.

There are a lot of points where logic just plains fails, but thankfully I recognize that and can fix in revision.

Having said all that, when I do finish this strange outline Nik and Kate will suffer and read it, I’ll edit, then Laura and Jan will get the actual official first draft. One could argue I might love one set of friends more than other based on this division. I’ll let you come to your own conclusions regarding that.

I do not like bugs. At all.

Sunday morning I was getting ready to head to work, putting crap in the purse grabbing the lunchbox, and saw something brown crawling along the bedspread. My first thought was cricket except this cricket had a curved tail. Awesome! A scorpion on my bed! I called dad over and he trapped it in a glass (he later told me he tried to kill it by drowning it in bleach but it just wouldn’t die. He eventually put it in the garbage disposal.) and I went off to work.

That night it was very hard for me to fall asleep. I kept checking and rechecking my bed and in fact didn’t fall asleep until one am. This happened the following night as well. Absolutely petrified to get under the covers. This is worse than the time a giant moth was in my room and we never found its body. I really do not like bugs.

In less buggy news, I am in love with orange soda. I like working with IPB skins. So I thought, orange soda theme. Oh yeah. Anyway I haven’t actually made much progress on it yet, probably because I discovered orange is very…orange. But hopefully on next day off I’ll be able to focus on it.

Hi, I'm orange

Anyway, my writing. Thing of it is, since this past Wednesday I’ve been sick. I had an upset stomach Wednesday night, Thursday I came home with a fever, spent Friday feeling sorry for myself, Saturday trying to recover and now I just wish I could breathe normally. So it is doubtful I’ll make the deadline, although I will still try my best, but in all honesty this is the first time I’ve been able to sit at a computer without getting blurry eyed after five minutes.

Oh and also: I finally watched the pilot of Battle Star and wow, EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE NOW! Amazing how that works! I am not like Kate and reading up on everything because while she seeks out spoilers I hide from them, so I was clueless on so much but looking up would have revealed too much. Anyway, now I know.

Even so the mild fear I had that More Workouts would be just a rehash of the original has been banished. There is no doubt in my mind that I will now be doing more intense sessions than previously. My legs muscles weep at the thought but in the long run it is for the best.

Like eating more fruit is for the best. I like fruit. I even like veggies. Getting myself to eat more of them is a bit of a challenge. But I bought a bunch of bananas on Saturday and if I don’t eat them soon they’ll go bad so, at least that’ll be however many servings taken care of over the next few days.

I’m still on a low meat intake diet. OK that makes it sound fancy but basically as I told Kate ages ago, I try to avoid meat aside from seafood. And since I live in the desert it isn’t like I encounter seafood dishes that often. This basically means fast food is out of the question which sucks because McDonald’s has some damn good cheap cheeseburgers. But the longer I go without the easier it gets. Or so I tell myself. It also saves me money (not eating fast food, that is) and that is always a good thing.

Civ V is coming

Civilization V is being developed and is expected fall of this year. Woohoo! It would seem they have been working on the game for awhile, and I’m not sure why they waited until now to announce it, but beggars can’t be choosers.

It is not that Civ IV has lost its glamor to me or anything, but I would like to see some much improved AI. Better combat would also be great, but to be honest I suck at war anyway. I will be spending time trying to actually improve on my own game skills–as if I had any–so at least I can have a good foundation when the new installment comes out. Although it would be nice if it made it easier to enjoy my turtle tendencies. Or maybe I should learn to not expand too far without a standing army. WHATEVER.

Civilization V takes this definitive strategy game series in new directions with the introduction of hexagon tiles allowing for deeper strategy, more realistic gameplay and stunning organic landscapes for players to explore as they expand their empire. The brand new engine orchestrates a spectacular visual experience that brings players closer to the Civ experience than ever, featuring fully animated leaders interacting with players from a screen-filling diplomatic scene and speaking in their native language for the first time. Wars between empires feel massive as armies dominate the landscape, and combat is more exciting and intense than ever before. The addition of ranged bombardment allows players to fire weapons from behind the front lines, challenging players to develop clever new strategies to guarantee victory on the battlefield. In addition to the new gameplay features debuting in Civilization V, an extensive suite of community, modding and multiplayer elements will also make an appearance. (source)

We never did do any multiplayer stuff on Civ IV, but maybe we will in V?

This is for Zenzen. 25k due March 28th Swedish time.

Jelsoft developers spoke of vBulletin 4, but then one day it was revealed that no actual work had been on 4, just talk. New, rather useless and/or ill implemented features were being added to the 3.x line, features that screamed “I want to be MySpace!”. There was the Ad Sense fiasco. Oh, not to mention price raises for both the product and renewal. And of course, the now infamous leak. Not only was vB4′s rewrite going to take years longer than expected, but Internet Brands seemed bound and determined to drive away long time customers.
After seeing version 4 in action I have to say I would be very disappointed if I had paid for that script. And when 5 comes around you’ll have to pay $$$ all over again!

On the IPB side, I recently added my voice to those who wanted a soft delete feature in IP.Board. After a couple of weeks a developer blog update showed that the team had made progress on implementing this into 3.1. That isn’t to say they stick in everything people request, but what they do is give feedback on their feedback. That is to say, if something won’t be added they explain why. They also ask for clarification of feature requests so they have a better idea of what the user is actually asking for, how’d they like it to work within the existing forum etc.

phpBB were, and probably still are, good with talking about their current development. They were just really stubborn and seemed to be focusing on how they themselves would administer a forum and maybe not so much on the end user experience. vBulletin seemed just as focused on trying to attract MySpace users to use VB powered forums, without really thinking things through. IPB seems to be trying to refine what they have before adding onto it, which is also something phpBB did. I guess when it comes down to it phpBB’s lack of spam protection is what makes me not really like being an admin of that software. I would pick MyBB over it. But even so, that free script is able to give better communication than vBulletin PR? I don’t even mean the guys behind the scenes busy coding, I mean people who are supposedly getting paid to talk to the customers.

Oh oh oh oh! I don’t know if it is obvious but I love reading about drama involving scripts! I did the same thing when Joomla! came into being, and now it seems SMF are going through some issues. There is the standstill in development and management issues. I never paid much attention to SMF because I find it ugly and confusing, so a lot of this is kind of “dur” for me, but still…drama drama drama.

So the first thing to do is to go back to the character’s roots, in which case Ray’s story would take place on Earth. That’s about it. XD Ray was originally a supporting (and barely) character and wasn’t really fleshed out until later. Changing her setting back to Earth wouldn’t really change anything, probably because she was always suppose to be there in the first place.

Aria is Canadian, eh.

Awesome fountain

That is Taylor Jane in Sunset Valley. I love her but am not really showing her off because she has the same piercings as Zyke because there aren’t any others I like for her right now. Also, I don’t know if I’m keeping that Sunset Valley game, but I might just leave it as a dumping ground for sims I don’t want to age and die.

And here is where she lives–I didn’t make this, I just wanted to play it. And it is only able to be played in Sunset Valley. Thus me starting a game there!

Living large in glorified studio

Jan twisted my arm and I think I will try my hand at a legacy.

Favourite song right now?
PHamous – Midi Mafia

What did you last eat?
A slice of toast and orange juice.

What kind of books do you read?
General literature, sci-fi/fantasy

What are you reading right now?
NOTHING!

Favourite Television show right now.
Tabitha’s Salon Takeover

What are you wearing right now?
Penguin pj pants, IQ Fresh shirt.

What’s your current fandom / obsession / addiction?
Sims 3. Yay for new computer!

What did you really want to do today that you didn’t?
The day just started!

What are you most excited for?
Absolute Sandman vol 3. Hope it arrives in the mail today!

If you could be a mythical creature, what would you be?
An Aes Sedai. Hey man, channeling would be so useful!

What was the last thing you bought?
Christmas gifts for mom and dad on Amazon.

If you could have any pet, what would it be?
A gray kitty. =’.'=

What do you want right this minute, off the top of your head?
A book to read.

Where is the place you like to return to in order to calm down / relax / etc.?
My room with no one else in the house.

Who was the last person you visited?
My mom, Thanksgiving Eve.

Are there any bits of childhood that you miss?
Yes being a child! I hate growing up. Or being a grown up, I should say.  Actually, I miss the 90s.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter?
Spring. Best time to be in Arizona.

Say something to the person who tagged you:
BE GONE FROM THIS CHILD, YOU DEVIL!