Chicken Thursday?

We're about to start doing some stuff over here at Pascal's house.

peep peep peep

These six little nuggets were picked up yesterday from Tractor Supply Co. Pretty cool place, didn't know it existed until a few days ago. It's basically like a small Home Depot but for farms. It also has general yard stuff, but, anyway, chickens.

Realistic Expectations

I had an interesting ritual of acting like I was going to start writing again, and then not doing it. At this point, I haven't written since November of last year.

so many missed caturdays

I acted like I was going to hype up some Dungeons and Dragons posts, and then I never wrote them. Not sure where my motivation went, but I've been playing a new campaign lately and we're already, like, eight play sessions in, and I obviously haven't written about it at all.

I've been building in Cleft of Dimensions, which if you're wondering about that you can just look at the next post down since that was the last thing I wrote about in November, of last year. I've built two areas and will be starting a new one tomorrow or Monday, based on Sunsnug Isle in MH4U. My first area was based on Animal Crossing (no single one in particular) and my second one was actually based on Spirited Away, the 2001 Miyazaki film. My second one was three times as large as my first one, which was quite tough but I pulled through.

it's about 75% source accurate with some personal additions and deviations

Dungeons and Dragons Revival

I said that, for the grand re-re-opening of my blog (back up to acceptable updating standards), I would make a new post about our DnD campaign, as we recently played a session after a century long, unplanned haitus.

There is only one problem...

pff, figures

No no, don't worry, I still plan on writing about DnD, but I went back to see when the last time I had updated about our campaign was, and, well, I remembered that was another thing I had dropped the ball on.

We had several short play sessions since my last post, prior to the most recent one, and a decently important chunk of things happened. I cannot in good conscience simply omit all of that information.

But wait, it gets worse!

of course it does

I can't exactly remember all of the details, but... I don't want to just list off key points that I remember unentertainingly.

This will be a challenge, so, get ready for...

Chapter 5 - in More or Less Hopefully Entertaining Detail!

Back from the Dead

It's been awhile! Oops.

don't look at me

I've been, to make excuses, very busy. Things have finally settled down, now, and I no longer have any particular, looming deadlines for large events. I have been thinking about blogging for awhile, but I haven't played any video games for, like, a month.

zzzz

It's been pretty harsh.

However, I finally played DnD again with the original crew in our original campaign. I think a DnD post would be an excellent way to engage the grand re-re-opening of my blog to a hopefully steady and consistent existence once again.

Of course, it won't be today because I have a lot of housework to catch up on. But look forward to it!

Reformat the Remix

So I managed to start up Caturday after two months only to skip four post days in a row. I had two or three drafts sitting around, but I've been much busier than normal lately and just skipped out entirely. Once September is over, the majority of my tasks will be completed and I should have sufficient time to write.

busy teaching cats to take and upload their own pictures

One of the posts I was going to make was about city building and regular building games, featuring my two favorites Terraria and Banished. Well, I had to reformat my laptop and, while I tried to save my Terraria world - and still have yet to see if I was successful, my most recent thriving and bustling Banished town has been obliterated. Without time to actually play as it is, that post will have to wait.

The most exciting news about Warcraft that I have is that I'm currently reinstalling it after the reformat.

Oh, why did I reformat? What is this, an interrogation?

it's this cat's fault

I have been dabbling in a little Hearthstone lately because I just picked up a tablet, but honestly my laptop is usually closed and off to the side recently as is. I had been putting off reformatting it for weeks because I didn't want to have to go through all... all this, like I currently am.

I don't have to answer any of your questions, it's a long story okay? Gosh.

army cat drones did it

So I can't even play any computer games to write about them until I reinstall them. A new Colonial Charters update came out for my favorite Banished mod while I was busy not playing it, so I probably would have started a new town anyway.

The good news is that the reformat went well and my laptop will see a full recovery.

it's resting in bed

Look, don't worry about why, just know that everything worked out in the end.

How to Make a Liar Out of Yourself

I mentioned maybe one post ago that I'd be cutting back on scheduled posting days to help keep the pressure off me to write so often, hopefully resulting in consistent updates on the days I did have scheduled.

I am a liar.

I skipped out on Monday I apologize.

Seriously, Monday

Welcome to Monday, where I've prepared for you another of my excellent, top quality posts!

I'll believe it when I see it

Before I go on with this lie, I'll admit up front that this post is a bar above being about nothing. I browsed the internet for awhile and logged into WoW to see if I could be inspired, but nothing turned up. It's long been my policy that if I am not interested in writing about something, I will not waste anyone's time forcing words out onto the keyboard without any personal investment. That's how these wonderful cop out posts come to be.

I'll let you in on a secret, though. I totally have a post idea. Several post ideas, actually. Like, maybe even ten or twelve that follow the same basic principles. A series you could even say. The only problem is that it will require in game traveling and artistic screenshot gathering and editing - in other words, lots of time. Time isn't something I have today, so that makes it something for me to start another day.

Why don't I have time today, you ask? Oh, don't be shy, I know you're totally interested.

Get the Cop Out Ready

Whoops. I didn't update Monday or Wednesday. Well, I've been busy.

As I mentioned here and there, I craft stuff. I want to do super cool things, but I'm still pretty novice. As I've also mentioned much less often, I'm unemployed. I was an employee and then later a manager at a fast casual restaurant for a total of four years, but due to a number of overwhelming situations, I put in my two weeks without having a back up plan. It's been almost a year since I took on the role of being a slacker and burden on my family, but I may have found an opportunity to make money through my crafting.

I made dis

The risks, fear of failure, and a general lack of confidence were the main reasons I avoided starting any kind of business or situation where I would attempt to sell my creations. A good friend of mine offered to host and sell my stuff alongside hers at the store where she works at no risk to me. I can see if my stuff is worth people's time and make a decision if I'm talented enough to invest money into starting a "business". Please give her crafts a look at her Etsy and if you're in the Ocean City/Maryland area, you can give her a visit at Shipwrecked, where she works and sells her crafts alongside a large variety of other merchants in the Maryland area.

Leatherworking with Pascal

I posted ages ago that I may make some crafting posts in the future. Since then, the only thing I delivered was a paper towel holder because I kept forgetting to take step by step pictures. I remembered this time, so please, if you've ever had an interest in taking your in-game professions to the actual world, enjoy taking a look through this very visual process of making a simple little leather bag!

three of my previously crafted bags

Novice Woodworking

A very long time ago, when I was first talking about making posts that were not directly related to World of Warcraft, one of the first things I thought I'd be making posts about was my crafts. I made an introductory post to present the fact that it was even a thing that I did, and from that point on I forgot to take step by step pictures of my crafts for the next ever. I made a lot of stuff since that post, just never thinking about making a post about it until after the craft was already made. Well, I finally thought about it beforehand enough to make a post about it. It's not a fancy suede bag or, like, a table or whatever, but it's something.

Over the last few weeks, each time I had been in any kind of department or retail store, I had glanced around for a paper towel holder. It wasn't the biggest priority on my list, since paper towels are perfectly functional without a holder, but after awhile without one, it was starting to bug me.

Then I remembered that I know how to do things, so I just made one.

in your face, walmart

I had a wooden dowel at home, so as soon as I saw a little circle of wood in the crafting section I knew what to do. I put it together really quickly last night before playing some Magic and going to bed.

the hard part was finding the recipe in my crafting log

Monday Mews

Welcome to Monday's cop-out post! I've been really busy today.

working hard or hardly working ahahahah ok sorry

No, but really.

Nostalgia and Addiction - a Warcraft Story

I bought a filing cabinet today because I am an adult. After setting up the hanging folders and putting all my important papers into a heap, I went through and ended up finding things from many years ago.

I'll figure this out

One thing in particular I found was a creative writing assignment I had in high school. I threw it away hastily in embarrassment, but not before looking through it.

In it, I had to write 6 separate pieces in an assortment of types of poetry and/or prose. Two of the six had been directly influenced by World of Warcraft and one of them was loosely influenced, with an additional drawing I had included for the final several page story.

I had this creative writing class in 2006-07 and graduated in 07. TBC came out about six months before I graduated from school (and on said release date, I lied and said school was cancelled so I could play, which was accepted without question for some reason), though I was in high school throughout all of Vanilla, and it almost caused me to be in high school longer than necessary.

Home Sweet Caturday

Since we moved, the three cats have been a bit skittish as they are settling in, but this is Toona's third move and Fishcake's second, while technically also being Kirin's second (although the first time he moved, it was when we adopted him!)

where have you taken me?

Kirin has been the most brave, exploring in the face of danger and unfamiliar noises and not batting an eye at 'strangers'. Fishcake hid under the couch for five hours when we got here, but Toona was the one who hid from the Verizon technician. Both Toona and Fish hide when the door opens, though occasionally a loud noise will scare all three under the couch.

I have a few pictures of them adjusting to their new home for you this Caturday, so please forgive me for my own little show off of my own cats!

Wow, Where Was I?

I haven't updated since the 1st of this month, tomorrow would be a full two weeks. That's five missing posts and two missing caturdays, sorry! Truth be told, I haven't even turned on my computer since I published that post. See, at the start of this month, I had the opportunity to move back into the house I had grown up in. This is a pretty seriously off topic post, but I have missed two weeks of posts, so I figure I should explain why.

still have a lot of work to do, but I'm home

Chess and Dungeons and Dragons

We finally finished our three session dungeon two weeks ago. I left off after we defeated a giant skeleton and opened a stairwell behind a spooky statue.

not exactly this

We entered a room with five circular discs in a pedestal and no exits. After we clarify that they are just blank discs, I decide to pick one up, and a picture of a castle materialized on it. I put it down and pick up another one, but nothing happens. Our ranger picks one up and a picture of a very royally dressed, fancy woman appeared. Our paladin picks up a different disc, and the DM says "a picture of a regal bishop- oops."

"Oh, duh."

Dungeons and More Skeletons and No Dragons Yet

our campaign so far in picture form

We finished off our most recent dungeon in our D&D campaign. Just so there are no surprises, this is not the final episode of this dungeon! I will conclude it in the next D&D post after this one.

I left off with how we freed all the prisoners and were starting to work our way into the rest of the dungeon to reclaim the evil book that we had for about a minute before it was stolen back from us, all the way at the beginning of our campaign.

So, we were faced with the difficulty of having about 55 freaking people with us, most of them weak, battered prisoners. We armed about fifteen of them and had our cleric and some other guy we had met (probably should have kept the cleric in hindsight though) bring the other 40 people back to the castle town. We had kept one of the prisoners, the guy who helped our assassin defeat the lion with his bare fists, and our DM actually rolled up stats for him and made him a character. He is known only as "The Pugilist" and was played by the DM, who actually made him kind of a nutjob.

Dungeons and Dungeons and Skeletons

and dragons

We've had two play sessions since my last D&D post. We left off having escaped from being captured, buying supplies in town, and getting in a bar fight.

We had planned with the king and queen of the castle to more or less find the secret headquarters of the evil skeleton dude cult by having one of our own get captured on purpose - the assassin - and then following him and his captors to the dungeon.

This worked out great for our DM - since we had escaped earlier when we weren't supposed to - because now he was able to use the plan he had made in the first place for the previous session. He kind of orchestrated this on purpose, since he was RPing the queen and king anyway.

We brought some invisibility potions, along with a fanciful assortment of other things, and planted our mole with some concealed tools in a poor village outside of the castle town. In the night, it was attacked by some humanoid henchmen, and after a short battle, we started to follow the prisoners and their caravan through the woods.

Qualifications: World of Warcraft Player

Video games are pretty often considered to be a "waste of time." Yes, excessive video game playing isn't the best, but overdoing anything isn't usually a fantastic idea. Fruit is great for you, but if you eat too much, you can get stomach ulcers because of the acidity.

but pineapple kicks ass

It's pretty undeniable that video games have distinct, quantifiable benefits. Of course, the benefits depends on what kind of game you're talking about. Simulation builder and construction games can teach you about resource management, risk vs. reward, and the value of preparation and planning. Even simple puzzle games have shown to greatly offset, or even prevent, the development and onset of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. There are war games purposefully and specifically used to help train soldiers in a safe, simulated enviornment. And, well, World of Warcraft can actually teach you a ton about the real world...

Dungeons and Dragons and RNG

We played our second campaign of D&D yesterday. After having already played once, we had a good grasp of our characters, and so were able to roleplay better with more cohesion.

I am Galstaff, Sorcerer of Light!

The experience of adapting to your character and others' is interesting. You already have relationships with your friends where you understand each other's behavior, but when you create characters you have to learn how they will behave, unique to the game. But, simultaneously, you're still figuring out how you will behave, while you get used to your character. Even if you plan out your character entirely - I had four pages in my notebook detailing my character - things pop up that you didn't think about or suddenly something just works.

Druids and Dragons

For Christmas we got a board game called Mice and Mystics. It's a game where the players work cooperatively to win against the story and plot laid out in basically a guide book of instructions.

We called it D&D Lite - it comes complete with game pieces, map tiles, playable characters and 'character sheets', and instructions on what to fight and how the dungeon is supposed to be played out.

After completing the first chapter of Mice and Mystics, some of my friends wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons. We had an experienced DM, but the rest of us had never played. Aside from me, none of them had even really been exposed to it before. Over the last week or so, we made up characters, our DM created a campaign and we played for the first time a few days ago.