PoTB badness

Wow, a poorly run fellow in the PoTB is REALLY a bad thing.

Not that the XP was low (it was -- horribly so).

But when people are (literally!) sightseeing around the dungeon instead of actually fighting, then that just sucks. At one point, I was in the corner/hallway (whatever that place is where the mages usually hide), while --count em!-- THREE lugians with rocks (all standing across) pound me and one mage. Just me and one mage against the rock throwers, and, oh, about 57 random melee lugians.

Ouchie. So I shimmy away (I am SO not losing my body because of some folks emoting throughout the dungeon, rather than fighting). Immediately, the mage starts bitching, and I choose not to debate the point that:

1. I could stand there and die and not fight anymore, or
2. I could keep moving, NOT die, and at least fight a LITTLE.
3. WHERE THE FUCK WHERE THE OTHER FOUR FELLOW MEMBERS?!

So, without saying a word, I just bailed.

And then (hi Karma) most of the people in the fellow apparently died (Doom found their bodies later), and even Sweetpea, who I thought would save the fellow by having a good influence on the place, bailed herself as well.

Grr.

A picture of DM?

I think (in that thread that got locked) someone said they hadn't seen a pic of DarkMarcsun. Think a younger, thinner, Simon Cowell (seriously).

Even though that's not a personal attack, I can't post on a locked thread!

Anyway, much <3 for DM -- he DOES crack me up daily (and I think my description isn't that off, although IIRC the photo he posted might have been of an old work ID).

Oh, he kinda looks like the tall, thin guy from the "Porky's" movies too, but I don't know the name of the actor.

But he is (I think this is an easily defensible point) pretty much the funniest guy on TD VN.

China, Google, and lame posters on VN

People around here pissed themselves on VN thinking that Google might work with the Justice Department in its attempt to make a new law aimed at curbing kiddie porn.

So, I wondered whether or not we'd see any objections from those same folks when this story came out -- Google is working with China, a country that is outright DEMANDING censorship (you know, of pesky search terms like, "Democracy"), but we have nary a peep from those folks so far.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4647398.stm

Guess doing "Nazi"-like actions, and censorship is only bad to folks like pathetic folks like Jezza and Plasma if the US does it. If someone else does it, well then that's just cultural. It's amazing how hating the United States is so chic. "America love it or leave it" is lame, but "If something is wrong in the world, find a way to blame America" is equally so.

Edit/Update:

More links!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4647398.stm
(describes what is blocked on that version)

http://www.slate.com/id/2134899/?nav=fix
(good survey of opinions, discussing the Google vs DoJ thing compared to Google getting in bed with China)

The new patch

Gawd, I'm such an AC fanboi. Love it.

Mr. Planning Guy

So I realize I have two pieces of armor I've been waiting to use: a covenant helm with major piercing ward, and covenant pauldrons with major coord. The bonus is that NOW that I can wear those pauldrons, I can ditch the covenant helm (and wear this nice ward! Woot!).

Thus, last night, I spent --easily-- 90 minutes buying salvage, using Thurwyn, finding some black plants, getting my uber gimp alchemist/cook to make dye, and then even LONGER finding a cook to dye some armor.

The moment of truth comes -- I take off that silly noble helm (with -- pfft -- only +12 to coord), and put on my new helm. This enables my major coord pauldrons to be put on. Woot!

Except one problem -- my noble helm casts bow mastery self 6. I don't have creature.

Crap.

Anyone want to buy some nice covenant armor with majors? =(

Viamontians

Silly point, but I think fire hurts those guys worse than lightning. =/

Haw.

Finally found a use for all those extra red monster seeds I've been muling.

Kinda nice to be able to help someone, even if I am no one of consequence. =P

Ok, so I'm a bit of a leecher . . .

. . . went to the 110 eaters and tried my best, but deep down I knew that for about 20 minutes or so, about 4-5 people were simply burning vitae for me. I got better as the vitae went down, and contributed a bit.

Then, those words: "Vitae penalty has expired."

Whew.

I'm not proud for basically leeching, but I'll admit it when I do it, or when I know that I'm not contributing equally to a fellow.

Nice to have all that vitae gone so quickly before the update though. =/ Or is it? Getting rid of all that vitae might well have been a tough challenge to handle. It might have really taken some hard work for me to earn back all that XP. Mighta been different.

Now I'm regretting doing it.

Guess I should go back to the PoTB and drop 8 more bodies! (Well, that or @die a few times and do it that way).

40% vitae.

Incredible.

I've known the character, "G T" (well, I've known of him) since I used to see him running around Teth, when even beaming into Teth would scare me. Anyway, that guy (without me even explicitly asking, although it was clear he knew what was up), saw that I was in deep trouble at the entry room of the PoTB (1 body dropped, and then LOTS more trying to recover the first one -- it's called a "death spiral").

G T kept the lugians in the entryway busy, and allowed me to recover all my bodies. So I got all my items back (mostly mana stones, but it's just the sting of it).

In the meantime, I'm basically half the man I used to be. Time to log. =(

Sheesh, 15% vitae . . .

I hate body recoveries.

You'd think I'd just ASK in the LFG or General channel if there was a PoTB fellow. Nooooooo. Instead, I just make that death run in the PoTB, jump off the ledge to the Pit, and run to where the mages usually stand (since by this point, I've figured out I'm in deep doo-doo, as there is NO fellow going on).

About 5 nasties followed me. 1 of them must have had a rock. Before I could hit the hotkeyed Aphus gem, I died.

And then spent a good 40 minutes getting not just that body back, but the other two as well. That friggin SUCKED.

And cost me --this is true-- 20 Aphus gems from having to pick up 1-2 items, getting down to 30-70 health, and having to crack the gem before I was about to leave yet another body. Not good.

Guess I need to hit the MP and see if anyone's selling those things anymore. =(

You know what a really hard quest is even now?

This one:

http://www.thejackcat.com/AC/Hobbies/Quests/Aviator.htm


This quest is just a freakin' BEAR. I mean, those buggers just chain cast on you like crazy. ZAPZAPZAPZAPZAP.

Yack.

I've tried it -- this is true -- FOUR times previously. Just getting there is a hell of a run. So this time, I pulled up AC Maps and looked at the map.

Hrm. What if I just RAN though the whole thing, whacked the Aviator, and ran out?

For the record -- even THAT isn't easy.

Use cold attack on those idiots, they seem to hate that type. Assume you'll do the entire dungeon with these debuffs on you:

Weakness 6
Vulnerability 6
Lightning vuln 6
Cold Vuln 6
Imperil other 6

This is a given -- no matter your magic D, they cast so often, that the spells will land eventually (I resisted a lot). Then they'll attack with lightning, cold, and (huh?) fire.

Even running through this place, barely stopping to fight only at the end, and I had to crack an Aphus Gem with only 27 health left (out of 355).

But I got it!

And now I look like the creepy kid from "A Christmas Story" -- the one who talked to Ralphie while they were in line to see Santa.

You think AC's still a cakewalk? Try and do that dungeon in a systematic crawl. You'll fly -- to the lifestone!

Shill bidding

It's at this point very likely, if not entirely true, that Poison Elf has shill bid in the past.

But Doomherald and "OMG PAY ATTENTION TO ME I'M A SATANIST ISN'T THAT INTERESTING" Rast's vendetta, now dragging the VN Mods into it, just serve to create sympathy for PE (and Juzam).

Fucking tools.

To merge, or not to merge

Kaos caught me totally off guard the other day when he suggested that he might merge into AS1 or Chunglee's clan. Personally, I have no problem with either of those monarchs, and consider them both credits to the server. But -- if Kaos had merged, I likely would have quit, and gone through Dereth unattached.

But what brought this on? I'm guessing it was the lack of chatter on @a, but hell -- I log on all the time, and NEVER say "Hi." Sometimes, I'm just logging on for a sec or two, and it actually seems more rude to say, "Hi/Bye" than nothing at all.

So. Here's the thing. If Kaos was to close out the monarchy, it should be for one of two reasons:

1. He's sick of being a monarch, or
2. The members of the monarchy are about to jump to other monarchies, thus imperiling (ha! AC humor) the mansion, including all its portal items, many many (many) trophies, and numerous stocks in the chests.

So I just pointed out to Kaos, that if he could honestly say that either #1 or #2 was the case, then he might well want to bail. But, the thing is that I'm personally not bothered by a rather quiet @A chat, particularly where so many clans are cross-talking in general chat. In fact, in some ways, @A is a bit obselete (unless you wish to "whisper" to alliance members only).

As Kaos noted on VN, we have LOTS of self-sufficient players in this alliance. The fact that we can periodically band together for Kings Quests, Bobo runs, whatever, is just fine, but I don't know of many people in the alliance who would log just because they couldn't talk to an alliance-mate (again, particularly now that general is so chatty).

I actually DO like when @A chat is busy -- I'm always cracking up when folks chat, but it's not a critical point for me. I think some of the quietness is from Lorna's pregnancy, Sarz's mysterious disappearance, Og's mission, and other RL matters just occupying folks as of late.

The thing is, AC is like an well-worn pair of jeans -- you can just pull em on any ol' time, and they fit, feel good, and you're back off to the races in them. But if you wear them every day, you'll shorten their life.

Ahem.

Um, anyway, that's basically my peace on it. If Kaos had moved, I was actually giving heavy thought to just going it alone in Dereth (not out of dislike for either Chung or AS1 -- both monarchs are credits to AC). But more out of a desire to just go "walkabout."

Glad I won't have to do that -- I kinda like mooning the statues at the mansion when no one's lookin'! ;-)

Hahahaha

It's funny when miserable fat girls fight with each other.

VN-style of "T'was the night before Christmas"

I just wrote this in 35 minutes, based on "Dateline NBC" being 5 minutes in when I started writing this, and ending at 9:40
(I say that because I *know* it's not that great, but I still don't want anyone to think this took ACTUAL time).

Oh, and for obvious reasons, I can't post it on VN:

T'was the night before Christmas,
and all on the boards,
not a troll was lurking,
not even the post whores.

Chines was snuggled away,
tight in his bed,
with visions of Kiaya,
falling over dead.

Lookie was snuggled tight too,
As mages will do,
except the point isn't WHAT Lookie was snuggled in,
But WHO.

When all of a sudden, there arose such a spamming,
Even Foxy crawled out of her mousehole,
to watch the future banning.

Yes, the trolls all awoke,
and logged into VN,
(Sure, that's a stretch, but so are size 32 pants on Jen_)

"Who is it?" they cried,
"Who's doing this posting?"
Grim tried to do a trackback to find out the IP hosting

"It's a evader," some screamed,
"But who can it be?"
"It seems his posts are oh . . . so jolly"

The spammer continued, posting notes of goodwill,
"You're beautiful, Gwyd!" he'd say in one post
"Now give us another recipe -- one for yummy pot roast!"

For some, this was too much,
Negativity they craved,
With flaming, and threats, and frothings and raves

"No more happy thoughts," they posted
"Just stop this ride!"
The only sig with happy thoughts
"Should be like Plasma's countdown to suicide!"

"I've got his pic!" said Juzam,
"He's huge!" He must weigh a ton!
"Or, at least half the size of Pkhere's son."

"Ho! Ho! Ho!" the mystery poster wrote,
"Your mods won't ban me -- I can't be smote!"

"Still, the jolly poster said,
"I'm logging off -- you folks are just icky"
"But know you all this -- make it a sticky!"

"It's not nice to be naughty, nor naughty to be nice!"
"Being mean all the time is a troublesome vice"

"Oh, you can trust me, this is no trick!"
And with that, a permaban slammed down,
On the (former) poster known as "Saint_Nick"

Is this an unsolved quest?

Go here:

http://www.thejackcat.com/AC/Hobbies/Quests/eleonora.htm

Getting this heart gets you (edit: the realization that I'm an idiot -- see prior blog entry). [REDACTED]

But there's something else. Something not mentioned in Maggie's -- there are prisoners in cells, who are former shopkeeps of Redspire, captured by the Viamontians and replaced with the "Blues." They are in cells that "cannot be opened or closed that way." So it seems some lever or key is needed.

Nothing on Maggies re this, and nothing on Warcry.

What's all this then?

20 million XP every 7 days?

Yay me! =)

Edit:

THIS is what 20 million xp looks like:

You've earned 20,000,000 experience.

THIS is what I actually got:

You've earned 20,000 experience.

Boy, this blog is well-named. =( =( =(

Time to make a choice . . .

. . . King Varicci, or the rebels?

I'm going with the rebels. I haven't even read up on the quests, but if the King's folks killed off Antius Blackmoor, and that dude went to the trouble to give me this nice gem of armor, he couldn't be that bad, could he?

Oh sure . . .

. . . now that I am TRYING to find a snow lilly, they're nowhere to be seen.

Grrr.

THIS is why I'm a loner.

So I have this friend who's a mage. She just recently topped 140, so I took her to the PoTB entryway to just try out vulning lugians for me. We actually had a good time there for a bit, and creamed all those sentinels.

Then, all of a sudden, someone (whose name is escaping me, but I think it's "(something) sin" shows up, demands to be put in our (2 person) fellow, and then starts vulning, well, everybody.

We're down the first hill, so ALL the lugians on that first level come for us.

AND follow us back to the entryway.

And this guy just keeps vulning.

Result? Dead Tai. He just quits the fellow and moves on.

The bottom line is that this was my fault -- I recruited him, not knowing he was a mage. If I'd known that, I would have shoo'd him off since he wouldn't have gotten any worthwhile xp anyway.

Oh, and I died on body recovery, too. 10% vitae, thankyouverramuch.

Harbinger? Lemme at 'im!

I'm so lame at questing, it's just plain scary (doubt me? Recall that I . . . still . . . haven't . . . done . . . Aerlinthe).

Anyway, I show up for Juzam's Harbinger quest tonight (earlier, like around 10:00pm EST -- what the fuck am I still doing up NOW?!). It's got quite an array of high levels, plus some obvious secondary characters. Off we charge into the dungeon, and immediately I get a lot of this:

Your missle attack hit the environment.

This is AC speak for: "N00b." An alternative translation is (surprise): "Gimp."

Everything was flipping' dying before I could shoot it. I mean, maybe TWICE I even got a kill message. So I did what I can only do in that situation: I start emoting.

@e quakes in fear
@e hides
@e buys real estate with no money down

(all actual emotes I did, not a single word from either of the two fellows)

So, we make the evil-wicked-hella-jumps(tm) towards the end, and we head for Harby.

At this point, I feel like a burden on the group, and like I'm not really contributing (sound familiar?) So we get to the last jump, and I see what looks like two elementals, and the Harbinger.

Sweet! So one archer is shooting at one, and I start shooting at the other. He kills his, and then mine either dies or just moves off out of radar ranger.

Now's when things got a little dicey. Because, and I swear this is true, I absolutely swear, swear, and swear again that I saw someone jump down.

So I did too, and moved off, straight and to my left, finding a wall to fight the ELEVENTY BILLION elementals on the ground floor. The elementals at this point were doing three basic things here:

(1) attacking me
(2) chain-casting spells and debuffs on me
(3) doing *heartylaugh* emotes, with their little puffy cloud bodies grabbing at their little puffs of bellies.

Oh, and the Harbinger was pounding on me like that sailor probably pounded that nurse on V-J day.

All in all, I'm glad I carry so many health philtres.

While I was drinking, I looked around, and away from my health bar to see the following sight on my radar.

(1) Eleventy billion dots around the middle of the radar, to wit, ME
(2) A bunch of white dots and triangles off behind me and to my right.

They hadn't jumped.

Happy Chicken says, "Tai come north" (I'm pretty certain that's Juzam, btw)
Happy Chicken says, "north"

Acid elemental tells you, "Oy vey, I'm fulla gas I am! Too much rugelah! And now I'm gonna gives ya such a bris!"
(In my little world, Miasma sounds very Yiddish)

So I run. Like the proverbial dickens. And now players start raining down on the floor like that "It's Raining Men" video (who the hell sang that? Wasn't it this group, "Two tons of fun?")

Chaos ensues.

The whole time, I'm thinking, "Boy, I hope no one noticed that. Maybe they thought Juzam said that AFTER we all jumped.")

Happy Chicken tells you, "Remind me to beat you next time I see you for jumping down early"

That would be a "No."

So we fight. And fight. And fight and fight and fight.

Fightfightfight.
Fightfightfight.

This was taking a LONG time. I unfiltered combat briefly to see that with a +160ish%, +12 slash rending bow I was doing about 130 per regular hit. Eeeeew.

Anyway, we got him, and he only got one of us. I didn't blame myself for that death, because the Harby apparently chain cast on him like Peter North does to his co-stars. I grabbed an arm token just as Juzam explained you didn't need it for the XP reward. This cat runs a VERY clean, tight Harbinger quest, it always impresses me. I don't know how people can do these big quests and get good at them (hell, even look at Kaos' skill with the Kings Quests).

There's no way I got the kill on the beastie, but what was most surprising (thanks to my healers) was that I survived. Juzam was totally ok with me jumping down, and explained that all he was going to do was just direct the attack before we jumped down, but that it was ok. For my part, I'll be beating myself up over that in-game for a while. Good thing the timer is 90 days! ;-)

Anyway . . . You are now level 151!

Woot! I'm like a bottle of rum now!

So this CS augment

*shrug*

Was getting creamed in PoTB when it was like just 4 of us, but when we were overloaded in the pit, it was great.

Chicken?

Egg?

Bueller?

Bueller?

Oh, lighten up, Francis . . .

I decided to run the Hopeslayer quest for the 10 million (even though it's such a low number nowadays). But, I figured I could do some good by keeping the area clear for the low levels (muwahahaha! Die, j00 level 85 grievers!).

Of course, there was controversy. I guess there were 40+ people in the MP for this one run, and Doomherald showed up. Everything was fine until the end room, but then Doom stood up on the chest to get the Blood of the Hopeslayer.

The thing is, him standing on the chest really didn't hurt a thing, but people were REALLY upset. You would have thought Doom was trying to steal something.

Man, this dude's reputation has him almost larger than life.

Although this isn't even life, is it?

Augmented again!

Woot! Things just kinda fell into place, and I had a billion XP or so lying around (thank you PoTB), so I just got another augment!

I ended up getting the critical strike one -- hopefully I won't really notice it, but will instead notice that I'm dying a lot less (say, every 10 minutes instead of every 15?).

Aw, eff.

You know what throws a kink in playing AC when you're home sick?

Stomach flu.

Grrr.

I just ran from a penguin.

Guess he knew I just chowed down on serious bird-age earlier. =P

Oh, and I'm such a post whore on VN that I "clapped" on Lookie's magic D max thread just so I'd make the post ratings again as top "old fogey."

Happy . . .

Thanks . . . giving . . . from . . . W . . . Kkkkkkkk . . . Rrrrrrr . . . Pee!

http://radio.about.com/library/weekly/aa112002a.htm

I'm in Oregon as I write this, frantically hoping the wireless card I have for my laptop will let me get at least a LITTLE AC time in -- hope your holiday is happy and safe!

Wub,

Moi (mwah?)

What's the point of maxing?

So I just noticed . . . I have 900 mill XP unspent. I'm not close to maxing my stats & skills, but I'm wondering . . . why should I?

What's the point of maxing one's skills vs. getting an augment? Would the few points in Coord, Bow, or Melee D make that much of a difference, against a CS reduction augment?

I got the augment to reduce burden by 20%, and it's flipping great. I'm able to salvage like crazy, make (gasp!) TWO full sets of elemental arrows if I'm traipsing across Dereth, and otherwise not sweat certain loot.

So I'm looking at the list, and people just rave about the CS reduction augment (so 1 in 4 of criticals against you won't stick). That's a cool thing.

But what about my stats? It's so strange, but I'm not sure I'll EVER have a good reason to spend 300 mill on 1 point of a skill, when that's 1/3 of the way to most augments I'd like (I can do the burden thing up to 5 times).

Hmmm.

Woot! 250!

I just killed my 250th Tukora Lugian in the PoTB!

Woo-hoo!

And just like that, level 149. B-)

Grrrr

I haven't had much time to get online, and when I do, one of two things happen:

1. There's no one in the PoTB.
2. The PoTB is full.

I'm not married to the PoTB as a choice of where to go, since I do heart the Eaters, and um . . . STILL have to do Aerlinthe.

But I'm awfully tired these days. And quests take time. =(

VN happenings

Wow, major craziness on VN lately. It seems to have (mostly) started by a decree from Grim about the number of OT posts. People have gone nuts with the crackdown.

In a sense, I know just how Grim feels -- 5157 has gotten away with a LOT in the past, but those were mostly the Kiaya days. She's gone now, and to be honest, I haven't thought the OT posts were that heavy. I'm not really sure who the backlash is against.

The only thing I can think of was SC's "manscaping" thread, which it seems to me he should have known was a bit much. The ban seemed a little harsh, more like a lock and a warning would have likely worked (although I haven't had as much time to lurk lately, thing are crazy in RL).

The AynRand thread didn't even seem that bad, although towards the end there was the usual ePeen waiving before devolving into spam. Up until that point, I didn't think it was that outta line.

I suspect this crackdown will die down again soon, and more OT threads will creep back up. But that's not a terrible thing, if it's done "in moderation."

Sorry. =P

@e cracks himself up.

I told you so.

On the ACFriends Board, but no one paid me any mind.

Right here:

http://vnboards.ign.com/Message.aspx?topic=89004136

Also note this one:

http://vnboards.ign.com/Message.aspx?topic=89468008


The only thing I got wrong was Rove vs. Libby, but the actual point was solid -- the issue isn't the leak, which is too hard to prove as a crime, vs. lying in the investigation.

They should call her "Suzy-Save-Your-Ass"

Suzy Fix It just did all my final tinkers on my remaining +12 bows!

I'm psyched. I've got a full set of +12 bows now, all tinked up to +155% (ahem, yes, they're all work 6, so I quit at the 8th tinker).

Now maybe . . . finally . . . I can do Aerlinthe. =P

PLUS TWELVE!

WOOT!

I haven't been in-game for days with RL work issues, and a trip to Philly to the haunted prison thing. I just noticed about an hour ago that u-a-fool was selling a SWEET +12 fire bow on the cheap (as a PYI). I did some dealing, and gritted by teeth, BUYING a bag of RG (I have lots I could get for free from friends, but won't accept help).

And yet . . . no 38% tinkers on (except for someone whom I detest).

So, I was going to just give the bag to Fool to let him keep until a 38%er showed up. And then he offered to try it with his 33% guy.

It landed!

WOOT!

The first thing I did?

Gave the +7 fire bow back to Avy . . . snuck up on her in the MP. =P

I r teh messed up.

144!

Snuck into PoTB a little while ago, and spent just about an hour there. Got a decent, but not great, percentage of kills (Rabiosa and someone named Sweetpea were racking up). That was FUN.

I guess I was technically a leech, but all the folks in the fellow couldn't have been nicer. Father of Storms was effective, and I even found a few (well, 4) insignias on my kills. I think Ali was there as an alternate character, although I didn't notice him and Rab talking (maybe in @A?). Ah well, it was quite a good crowd, and no one seemed to mind me hiding in the alcoves (like hell I'd venture out there in the open!).

Not a bad night, and a nice way to make up for not playing much this week.

Oh one thing --- I *still* didn't remember to get a blue kit, so I was living (literally) off of trade elixirs and peerless kits.

I r teh gimpy.

Yo, beeyotch!

I'd be a great pimp. Well, actually I'd be horrible at it. But I'd be GREAT at the clothing part.

I want my dapper suit dyed. One mule has it in black. Another mule has the "regular" look (kind of Colban, I'd say). I dyed mine the deep purple. =D

But I don't like it. It looks too much like the Colban. So, I figured I'd dye it. But what color? Then, someone shot me a tell and gave me a great idea:

Hot pink.

Now THAT would be unique.

A quick trip to Maggie's, and we find that failed dye jobs (courtesy of my by-design-sucky cooking mule) will leave clothing hot pink, and armor neon orange. Woot! So after (this is true) running to the swamp gardens to get some black plants (I'd refused to accept extra plants from clanmates), I went home and summoned my cook.

Off to Holtburg. A cooking forge here, alchemy forge there. Boom. Woot! She failed! Hooray.

Except the suit is neon orange. =(

Whored out again. =(

@reply "Res melius evinissent cum coca"

Quite a few blog entries ago (when I got my VN title), I discussed some Latin. A lot of people don't know that at one point in my life, I was about as fluent in Latin as one could be, without wearing a toga on a daily basis. It was a bad choice of a language, and I let it go by the wayside for a lot, although I still like to use it when I'm translating other languages, since so many come from Latin.

Plus, the recall of Latin (I seem to remember more when drunk) always impresses the ladies. B-)

Or not. =(

Anyway, someone was talking to me tonight, and I was discussing how I was having a diet coke at like midnight. She questioned that, and I said that it was because I was so in love with Coke. She agreed. Then I said the Latin phrase listed above, which roughly translates as "Things go better with coke." She made a joke about the word "cum" (Latin for "with"). We zapped back and forth, and then I eventually hit this in @a chat instead of reply:

"And you like cum too!"

Oops. Holy crap. I was mortified. A few people were on (the ones who would likely be offended had logged), and they laughed it off. But, I was actually quite taken aback and defensive -- it really WAS Latin, and while it was part of a bad pun (from the series of @replies that had been going on), it actually made sense on a non-neanderthal level.

But if I protested too much, it would look too guilty.

Then it got worse.

I got an @tell from a non-alliancemate asking about life, and mentioned that I couldn't talk, as I was too bummed over committing lapsus linguae in @a chat. So what do I do? I type the following without proofing it, so I don't realize I didn't delete before starting to type fresh:

reply It's no big deal, and it really was Latin. I just made a terrible pun but it's ok. (At this point I then asked about a RL friend's surgery).

And I hadn't left off the "@" sign, but instead had typed "@a reply" because I was still focusing on the @a chat.

Oops. At this point, I think people just plain felt sorry for me, and told me to get some sleep (I'd been complaining about being tired earlier).

But I'm still mortified. And I probably still will be tomorrow. And the next day. I forsee LOTS of self-flagellation over this.

On the other hand, maybe this will get me thrown out of the alliance (they do have some strict language rules, which I think is a nice thing). If I do, I won't have to fret over whether I'm any contributor to the group, or just a leech. I'll be solo.

Or, as the Latin goes, my time in the alliance will humum mandere: Bite the dust.

Zap!

Just something about me buying auctions for gloves seems to create drama.

When I first bought some noble gaunts from Asper in an auction, I did it by correctly reading that there was a snipe rule in said auction. Soooooooo, I just set the palm pilot with an alarm for about 15 minutes or so, logged in, made a snipe bid and won them. That was the start of my issue with Gibbon_Raver (Berek Heartthew in-game), who (shock!) it seems was exposed as an evader, lol.

Fast forward to tonight. Those noble gaunts I won? I stuck a quickness gem in them. So, +12, not +15. I've always kept my eye open for major quickness covenant gaunts. They were auctioned off last night. So I bid.

And waited.

I noticed that another person outbid me on them later, but that the auction wasn't ending until about 9pm EST. Soooooo, I made another tactical decision -- I set the palm, and went on about my day (evening).

Then bid around 8:50pm.

1+ hour passes, and the guy realizes he's been sniped. Oops. O=)

Of course, he's crying over the fact that I outbid him by 1 MMD, but it's just patently obvious sour grapes over losing.

These aren't ringed sing keys -- these are MMDs, and they come in ANY amount. I'm not rich, but I do on occasion, make a good business decision. It's called, "Buy low, sell high."

Maybe I'll offer him the gaunts for twice what I paid for them. =P

Hole -- ee -- crapola.

The PoTB is NUTS.

I love it.

I went there -- waaaaaay too late tonight, but this time with AC Maps pulled up (I later eavesdropped on the best way to the pit in PoTB). But I got there, and was immediately recruited -- and saw that I was like the 2nd lowest level there.

Hoo, boy, this should be scary. =(

Two things:

1. Chung had warned me about "rocks to the back of the head." Wish I'd listened, lol. Wham, lifestone in like 10 minutes.
2. When I got back, I (and I don't say this often) seriously kicked ass. LOTS of dead lugies. At one point, it was just me and two mages, before more melees arrived. Woot!

In fact, I should name them, because these two mages were kicking serious ass with the imperils, and were balls-to-the-wall OUT there in the middle of the pit (while I cowered in the doorway, plinking away). Their names were C a r n a g e, and Majin' (can't say much for their names). Anyway, they were astoundingly good at what they did, and also got me thinking --- you simply HAVE to have mages in the PoTB. They're indispensible (but useless without melees/archers) to kill.

One question (and I didn't ask in the fellow, because I was working my ass off, and trying to stay ahead of the spawn): What's the ettiquite there? What's the deal with looting? How do mages loot, if all they do is imperil?

I should ask Lokkie, he'll know how the mages handle it. =D =P

"I'll give u . . . "

Haw.

The same idjit in the MP, named "Whieht Boy" always sends me the same tells every time he sees me in the MP:

"I'll give u 20mmds for ur armor" Monarch is Chunglee, which goes to show you that even in a class act group like his (I'd put it up on par with Kaos' as the best (but I'm biased), you get douchebags.

I never answer him, and never even squelch him. I just ignore him.

Path of the Scared.

So, I'm 141 now, courtesy of some eater jaws. Might as well do it -- let's see what this whole "Path of the Blind" thing is all about. JUST as I beam in, none other than Chunglee is there, and I said something pithy about this being my first time. Chung wasn't in a fellow, so I just assumed we'd form up there at the entrance and hold "the drop" open.

Um, no.

Chung could not have been nicer. He said, "Let's go to the pit," and after I did some "@e wets his armor" emotes, he said, "Ready?"

That seemed weird. Isn't it just a little ol' run?

Oh.

Watching Chung's little "X" fade away from me, whlie I was knee-high to a bunch of angry giants reminds me of being a little kid, charging around a bunch of adults. You only move around at their pleasure, unless you're REALLY fast.

Good thing I poured all that XP into run. =P Anyway, Chung came back for me once or so (ok, it was five times, but who's counting?), and we made it to the pit, where we were immediately recruited. So I start killing, after Chung gives me a heads-up about "taking rocks to the back of the head." Heh, if he only knew -- I've had bunnies throw CARROTS at me, and whack me. =(

Anyway, I started killing. And start immediately getting death messages saying I've killed X number of Tukora Lieutenants. ?=/

Funny -- I'd spoken to so many NPCs, I must have started that quest and not known it. Anyway, I'm up to like 6 messages, and the spawn dries up, so I naturally relaxed.

Oh wait -- this is me.

What I --ACTUALLY-- did was run off down this ramp -- solo. And found 4 giants just staring at a wall.

Double oh.

Someone else came down there to fight, but I realized the pitfall of having ALL combat filtered -- I looked up and saw my beautiful 350 health down to 100.

No, wait, 75. Make that 60.

All the while, I'm hitting the "7" key for my health elixirs. Which I'd forgotten to resupply.

I r teh smart. =(

So, I hit the quickslot for an Aphus gem, and got out. Quickly healed (note: didn't replenish elixirs), and recalled.

Tai thinks, "Now then, WHAT way did Chung go again? Ah, I'm still in the fellow, so I'll just shoot one of those guys over there. I'm sure his five buddies won't mind."

@e hits that exit portal real-effin-quick.

I tried to be graceful, but I had to fess up to the fellow that I'd recalled, and now was lost on how to get to the pit. So, I bowed out, what with someone already in line.

But I'll admit this -- what I saw seemed FUN. =)

Pwned by a Lizard. =(

I've gone out of my way for the past two weeks to bump Juzam's Harbinger quests, only to have that Lizard tell me to go F myself!

Ahem. Kinda forgot that the Harbinger was *90* days, not 30. =(

Oops.

The "breakup" move

Heh, I just got a PM from someone who got me thinking about this thing @ work, and how in a sense it relates to this AC thing I'm feeling about being in any alliance. IRL, I have this girl who's totally stalking me: She comes by a LOT, talks incessantly, has proferred ME her home phone number -- but all in the guise of "being friendly."

I know there's more to it, because she's told other people she's interested. They've promptly come and told me to watch out, but sworn me to secrecy about how I would know. So, in a sense, I've got to play dumb with her (that's not a stretch for me) as she flirts, acts overly friendly, and knocks over some stuff on my desk with her boobs (that's true).

Anyway, the PM got me thinking about how my alliance has a good reputation, and has good, friendly people in it. They're actually a classy, family-oriented clan. So what's the move that a wretch like me does? You end up acting so anti-social that you drive THEM away, and make it out like THEY'VE broken up with YOU. Haw. Oh, how RL imitates AC (um, or vice-versa).

Consider last night: I'm dying to Augment, but I am a touch impatient when it comes to Capt. Justice's quest TONIGHT at 9pm. Juzam's running Harbinger, and I kinda need Harbinger more. Someone from my alliance offered to run the Augment LAST night at 9pm -- woot! Score! Sweet! I can run Augment Wednesday night, and then do Harbinger Thursday night, all at 9pm! Woo-hoo!

And then the Augment guy never logged on. =/

Between that and the chat debacle, I logged in a touch of a huff. But what's the big deal? I mean, Juzam will run Harbinger at 9pm, and then CJ will run Augment at midnight tonight. Why's everything got me so agitated.

Sigh. I guess I have guy PMS right now. =(

One last bit o' thought on Dealing With People.

So, I'm still having a crisis of confidence about staying in the alliance, and the chat mode just made it worse. Logging in to all this chatter gets me in that "Scream" mode (the painting, not the movie).

That got me thinking a bit more -- even if I give back the bows to Lorna (Avy) and Leventhal, will I still owe? I mean, Kaos gave me a magic D tessie (that's 30 MMDs), but I gave Og Tree a tinked up 335 LR bow (which he had mentioned HE would give me 30 MMDs for). So I guess I'm about even if I quit.

But where the hell is all this quitting thing coming from? How much of ALL of this is just my own "fed-up-ness" with dealing with ALL people as of late, instead of not liking being in an alliance.

Mind you, it's NOT this alliance -- it's just being in ANY alliance that's getting me nuts as of late.

Sigh. =(

What the F*#$&#)*?

Oh. My. God.

I flippin' HATE the new chat channels.

And sure, enough, within 5 minutes, Shui Chon Poh was uber-spamming the general channel.

[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"
[General] Shui Chon Poh says, "Bah"

Followed then by all the people saying how they'd squelched him (also, of course, in general chat).

I immediately turned off ALL chat in windows 1-4, and use the main window for just the "basics." If I wanted to see more channels, I'd just add them in the F11 window.

Then again . . . I was only on for 15 minutes.

Rares

I just thought of this -- I don't think I've seen a single rare come up on TD that was anything OTHER than a +250-type gem.

Hrm.

A heart attack -ack-ack-ack

First off, I'm glad Mage MicheleMM is doing well, and was saved. She's a wonderfully perky person, with a great attitude, and is nearly always positive, which is a great thing.

But note this from her post:

>>>"At age 35 i never in my right mind would think i of all people would have had a Heart Attack"<<<

Look -- there are pics of her from gatherings. She's overweight. And not by a little. There are risks to having that kind of weight, plain and simple. If she's happy at that size, that's totally fine. It's good to be happy with your body. But don't act like a heart attack is a surprise at any adult age, if you're as overweight as she is.

I r teh bitter.

Yet another XP weekend, and I barely had time to get on. :-(

Otherwise known as "premature augmentation"

So, I went from 134 to 138 in (literally) the blink of an eye.

It's called "The Scroll of Dark Rain"

At level 134, I'd finally amassed enough non-attribute XP to take magic D within 3 points of max. Then I handed over the scroll.

Holy crap: Fireworks, level lights, max skill message.

Oh, and 4 levels' worth of xp. =/

Anyway, I was left with like 1.5 billion xp, after having around 480 million. And then it hit me -- why not do that augmentation thing NOW? I am always getting into trouble with burden, carrying around too many arrow types, etc.

Of course, leave it to me to not have a SINGLE thing maxxed, and I'm off to augment. =P

You know what?

I'm still pissed over the whole debacle with the lab dungeon thing.

And so, it's time to put my affairs in order.

There were two 335 bows given to me by members of my alliance, which I tinked up with hog. Courtesy of some pretty incredible timing, I've just had the inscriptions removed. I'm going to return them to the people who gave them to me, with no charge for the hog, and with a well-wishing inscription. No hard feelings.

I also gave away an electric bow to an alliancemate earlier this week. I could have made a bundle on it. If there's a ledger of things received in the alliance, vs. things given, I'm definitely at LEAST even.

As for my current set, all my 360 bows have come from ME. Through MY work. MY efforts. I'm still missing fire and bludgeon, but I'll find some.

On my own.