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| Fare thee well, tBlog. |
| 10.26.04 (6:56 am) [edit] |
Well, tblog has finally crapped out on me for the last time. I had a whole post about Gunapalooza written up yesterday, and it couldn't find the server when I went to post it. I suppose it's partially my fault for forgetting to copy/paste my post, but still...It's annoying. That's the third time this has happened in the past two weeks.
Luckily, [url=http://www.johnallison.ca]Skippy[/url] was kind enough to set me up with a new site on the [url=http://www.saskblogs.com]Saskblogs[/url] site. Update your links, and I'll see you there!
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| It's alive!!! |
| 10.22.04 (6:35 pm) [edit] |
I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I think my car is working again. My mom's boyfriend knows a ton about cars, and he found out that my car wasn't working, so he came over here on his break to take a look at it. Wow, he rocks...
Anyway, he was going to take it into his garage to replace the water pump, and by the time he got it home, it wasn't overheating anymore. He figures that air got caught in the lines, and that's why the coolant wasn't getting to the engine. Hopefully it's worked it's way out of there for good, so now all I have to do is top up the coolant levels and it should be working again. Whew... I'd already replaced the thermostat, and I'm glad I don't have to do the water pump, too.
He checked out my engine, and then dropped it back off just before 1:00. I took him out for lunch to thank him, cause now my baby's working again. WOOT!
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| *Damn, man. Who drew on my stash?? |
| 10.22.04 (3:37 pm) [edit] |
I am aware of the recent blog-storm, and I'm glad that's it's more or less blown over. I hope no one's too worse for the wear after all's said and done, cause I genuinely enjoyed gaming with everyone involved. I did have some things I wanted to add, but I decided to just stay out of it and let it run it's course. Why? Because that was the Smart Thing To Do, and besides, it was None Of My Business. Now, I don't often take that route, mostly cause it's just way too smart for me, but I'm glad I did this time. Mostly because I had a whole pile of NURBS modelling to do, and barely read the forums, let alone all the blogs I usually peruse!
I found a bunch of my old Ani DiFranco albums the other day, and have been listening to them for the better part of the morning as I worked on my compositions.
Listening to the familiar chords, I was suddenly reminded that I haven't picked up a guitar in a good four months, even though I was going to teach myself how to play. Gah... I suddenly have the urge to throw aside my computer and start strumming a chord. This is an odd urge, because I am by no means musical. Artistic, yes, but not musical. I'm distracted by the music notes because of the sudden urge to make them dance frantically across the lines of the page like some sort of Don Herschfeld cartoon. Maybe it's because a musical score looks similar to a animator's dope sheet. (The sheet you keep track of layers and timing on, and not a sheet of drugs. Though...considering some animators I know...It wouldn't be hard to confuse the two. "Damn, man. Who drew on my stash??")
I'm almost certain that no place in town would carry an Ani DiFranco song book, but maybe I could ask them to order one in. That, or the Tea Party. No, actually, Not the Tea Party. I love them to bits, but some of they stuff they do with their guitars is pretty bizzare. I remember seeing them live a couple of months ago, and being amazed by their range of instruments. It was almost as if the roadies had just randomly started chucking instruments at Jeff Martin to try and throw him off, and he just kept picking them up and playing them without missing a beat. It got to the point where I couldn't even name the instruments any more, or even imagine how the sound would come out of them, but there he was, still playing. Gah... It'd be fun to be able to play like that, but I'm thinking that a beginner like me needs to stick to a few simple chords for awhile...
Not that I have much time to practice, between getting my submission ready for the zine and getting my designs for the MVA together. Both are more or less due....oh, NOW! Or at least in a few days. Which doesn't leave me much time, cause I'm planning on going to QK's Gunapalooza this Saturday. Provided, of course, that my car works. The engine almost overheated last night and there was coolant all over the place when I checked under the hood, so I tried replacing the thermostat. Nothing. I barely got out to school this morning. I'm really hoping that the water pump hasn't gone, cause that's a little beyond my mechanical skills. I'll have to take it into the shop...Which means there's no guarantee I'll get it back before Saturday. I guess it's a bit of a moot point, though, cause either way, I'd have no way to get it out there. I'll have to see how quickly I can get it looked at.
So, we'll have to see. I'm sure there'll be enough cars going out there that I can catch a ride with someone if I need to. I'd just prefer it if I could actually get mine working, cause I kind of need it to get to school on a regular basis.
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| The Gambit |
| 10.19.04 (6:06 pm) [edit] |
Wow, what a weekend. Last weekend was the Gambit, a gamer's conference. Imagine row upon row of people huddled around tables piled with maps, scenery and character sheets. There were dice and figurines everywhere.
Now, I was only there for the LARPS, but man, was there enough of them!! Friday evening was WL's Sabbat larp. I got to play a military hardass named Chaya. It was fun to strut around and be stern. I especially loved the interaction between Chaya and Jenn's character, Calamity Jane. At one point, everything turned into something from a slapstick comedy, with everyone punching each other, and Chaya standing in the midst of the chaos, occasionaly ducking as a punch flew past. Much fun!
There was a bunch of people out from Edmonton for the con, and so we had a bunch of new (to me) faces to game with. They had amazing costumes and so much energy for their characters! I got a bit of a chace to talk to some of them at coffee afterwards. As usual, I stayed out waaaaaay too late, especially considering that I had a game the next day at noon that required considerable costuming.
I got up a bit late, and had to rush around getting costume stuff together. LM & I were nearly late for the info session before the game, and after grabbing a quick lunch and painting L blue for his costume, we were really late for the game. But it was worth it. I wish someone had brought a camera to the Nobilis larp, because the abstract, chaotic blue guy got a lot of attention. I was playing a Noble in charge of Goth Culture, so I flitted around in giant black fairy wings and being alternately sugary-sweet (Oh my goth!) and angsty and depressed.
Right afterwards was the Kingdom Come LARP. I almost wasn't going to go, because I didn't know how long it would take me to get out of costume and I hadn't registered, but I just managed to make it on time to get a character. And what a character...
I was probably more in character than I've ever been when I played Cynthia. She just made sense to me, and I could completely understand why she made all of her decisions. This way good, because there was a lot of crazy stuff that happened to her that night. To make a long story short, it was probably one of the worst nights of her life. I loved it!!! Cynthia started crying about a half-hour into the night when she found out that her best friend, who she had though died months ago, might still have been alive.
And the bawling continued as horrible, horrible things happened. [b]I[/b] actually broke down into tears at one point, which suprised me. Before, I'd just been faking it, but the intensity of the scene must really have gotten to me. And then, without even have seeing the plastic baby head come flying over the divider, I screamed so loudly and so high pitched that I couldn't believe it was actually me screaming. It was wierd...
The game itself was amazing. The ST really knew his stuff, (probably since I believe it was him who wrote the game...) and wrote the scenario so well that it seemed like every character was vital to the plot. It was certainly that way for the group I was in. Enoch got stuck carrying around an artifact that only he could possess, but couldn't cleanse or destroy it. Not a good thing, when there's demons after it...
Enoch, Ambriel and Cynthia spent most of the evening huddled together, trying not to get killed. I loved the scene where one of the other characters was revealed to be a demon, and Enoch pulled everyone behind a convenient column to hide. There was much witty dialogue as we tried to ignore what was going on behind us. Even better was when Ambriel was tied to the throne, to prevent her from becoming a thrall. We sort of talked around things very sarcastically.
It was wierd for a one-shot, because for my character, everything seemed to be more or less resolved. Sure, nothing happened to Nicholas (who was played beautifully, and sleazily, by QK), and there was another major plot line with Eve that we hadn't uncovered, but the main plots of the evening were covered. There was this great moment when Nicholas came and sat by Cynthia while she was guarding Ambriel on the throne, and he acknowledged that while she would probably always hate him, he was ok with that, and hoped they could still work together.
Ahh, but enough rambling about that. There were so many awesome little moments that I could keep talking for hours. I was still pumped after the game, even though it was 2 am, so I went over to the Hose where there was a sort of 'gamer's social.' We danced like crazy, (partially to keep warm. Who ordered the snow???) and then headed out for coffee afterwards.
The next day, I kind of groggily dragged myself back to the Con. I wasn't going to go at all on Sunday, but LM wanted to check and see if some of his friends from out of town were there. It was a good thing I did go, cause I found out that I won the 'Leading Lady of the Larps' award for my preformance as Cynthia. Woah!!! I still can't believe it.
I snuck off for breakfast/lunch/supper (it was 4:00, but it was my first meal of the day cause I'd slept in...), which turned into a side scene for the Sabbat Larp, (Ok, so that was a bit excessive. But needed.) before running back to the Con in time for the awards ceremony.
So, yeah. That was quite the weekend. I still can't believe that I LARPed that much in three days.
And no, JR, I didn't each Cheetos a single time that whole weekend. ^_-
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| Another busy weekend. Am I suprised? Not at all. |
| 10.15.04 (6:10 pm) [edit] |
Waiting...for...things...to...render.....
I managed to pull off a little over a minute of animation today, and not just ships flying. I animated a butterfly swooping around infront of my completed jungle hut, and quickly realized that even though butterflies are very easy to animate classically, they are much more difficult to animate in 3D, especially when the planes the wings are on have a mind of their own and decide to go spinning off into nothingness. Grrr.....
But, I'm finished, at least. Now I just have to leave my scene to render over the weekend, cause it'll probably take nearly that long. Monday we'll move on to NURBS and organic rendering.
Last night was my sister's birthday party. She turned 10, so we had all my cousins over for cake. It was great. They chased me around the house and climbed all over me until I finally offered to teach them how to draw dragons in an effort to calm them down. They loved it. See, art is useful for oh-so many things!
Tonight is the first night of the Gambit, and I'll be playing in WL's Sabbat Larp. I've got most of my costume in the car, which is a good thing, because I have to drive my sister and her friends to the pool right after school. It's her "birthday-party-with-frie nds", so my mom and grandpa get to watch eight 10-year-olds at the pool. I just have to drive. Whew....
Hopefully, they'll be done with presents soon enough that I can get them to the pool before 7, cause that's when the larp starts. Good thing my costume for this one is simple, cause tommorow's Nobilis costume takes about twenty minutes to put on, if I rush the make-up. It'll be worth it, though. My costume is frightening to me on so many levels.
Most of my weekend will be spent at the Gambit, indulging in my required geekiness for the week. I'm thinking of dropping by the gamer's social (is that an oxymoron?) after the Nobilis larp, which is good, cause I can sleep in on Sunday. There's nothing at the Gambit that really interests me on Suday, so I'll probably just catch up on some chores around the house, and hopefully work on my submission for the zine.
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| Where did the week go? |
| 10.15.04 (12:37 am) [edit] |
The lack of updates is mostly due to the fact that I have a major assignment due tommorow, and so every moment spent infront of the computer invariably involves me either texturing something or screaming at Maya for crashing. I'm beginning to dream in polys.
The long weekend was a bit of a blur. I did a bit of Halloween shopping with LM, and then caught a football game on Sunday with my family. Ed's son plays for the Hilltops, so it's nice to go out and cheer him on. Plus, the weather was absolutely perfect. The sun was out, and the wind has just a hint of chill to it, enough to remind you that it's autumn, but not enough to freeze me.
That was also the night that we had our Thanksgiving dinner, so it was a pretty busy day. We'd done food prep all morning, so thing were more or less ready to go by the time we left for the game. My 'grandma' was in from Edmonton, and she stayed behind to nap and watch the turkey. By the time we got home, almost everything was done. As usual for any of my families events, suppertime was loud and full of embarrasing stories. I managed to sneak by for another year without anything particularly embarassing, but I don't know how much longer that trend's going to hold. My mom knows how to make me blush without even saying anything.
Monday we decorated the yard for Halloween. My sister and I fought with some giant cobwebs and managed to get them strung around the yard without getting caught for too long. We also made little tombstones for the front yard. Have I mentioned how much I love Halloween??
This week's been a huge blur. I've been working on my assignment, and my costume(s) for the Gambit this weekend. Tommorow's the night of WL's Sabbat game, which will officially mark my one-year gaming anniversary. I need cake. ^-^
Well, back to the grindstone. If I can pull off a full minute of animation in a day, I'll be in the clear. If it turns out good, I'll probably post it on my devArt site.
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| I'm official!!! |
| 10.08.04 (6:27 pm) [edit] |
Whee!!! I finally got my status card last night! I'm officially a member of Little Pine First Nations.
Every baby is assigned a treaty number that is their mother's number, plus 02 (or 03, or 04, depending on how many kids there are). You have this number up until you are 19, at which time you are assigned your adult number.
I've been waiting for, oh, almost two full years now to get my card. Finally, I heard that they were having a treaty governance meeting at the Ramada last night, so I decided to go and sit in on the proceedings. Our constitution has been in effect for three years, and it was now time to review how the policies have worked out. We agreed that the language in the documents was to inaccesible, and didn't take into account cultural norms such as oral tradition or traditional law. A committee was set up to try and take these things into account in the next round of revisions, but other than that there was just a lot of general discussion.
Before I left, I noticed that they were making up new treaty cards, so I went over and got my photo taken. Twenty minutes later, I had my new card. Yay! Now I can get cheaper gas, if I drive all the way across the city.
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| Oh yeah, I guess I should update this thing... |
| 10.06.04 (5:46 pm) [edit] |
Once again, I'm updating my blog while waiting for stuff to render off. I've cranked out 15 seconds of animation since lunch, and it's now 3:30....That's about 6 minutes per frame. Not too bad, when you take into account rendering time and the time I spent trying to get my motion paths to work. Actually, 15 seconds of animation in a day is damn good.
It helps that the animations are [i]very[/i] basic. The first two are just my alien ship flying towards a planet from different angles. I'm going to have to work double-time to get the fight sequence animated before I have to leave today. Luckily, I can leave my box on overnight to render, so it'll be ready for me to peice together when I get here tommorow.
It's been a busy week. The Hoifloth wedding was on Friday, and I went up for the reception/house party on Saturday evening. Trent & I had fun making up bizzare horror movie scenarios on the road up there, and we managed not to get (too) lost. Once we got to the cabin, there was much food, laughter, wacky conversation and even some singing. Oh, yeah, did I mention the food? Wow...There was so much of it, and it was all amazing. Kudos to the chefs.
Both Kurt & Caitlin looked great. Caitilin's dress turned out really nice, and I loved the design of it. Oddly enough, it was the second ren-faire wedding dress I've seen recently. A trend, or just smart planning on the brides' part? I say, screw the tule! Go for something original!
I crashed that night at a cabin with nine other people, and then headed back for the city with Layne & Trent. We even managed to get in a couple of quick side scenes, even though we missed this month's Sabbat game. It doesn't really matter because Val's out of the country, so I couldn't play her anyway. Don't worry, she'll be coming back sooner than you think. ^_-
I spent the past few days modelling my ships and leaning how to do all sorts of SFX, like photon torpedoes and smoke. I wanted to put a bit more into my scene, but I'll be lucky to get it done as it is. Tommorow morning we're going to be reviewing this project, and then we'll have a few hours to work on our next assignment before the whole class heads out to see "Shark Tale". I'm really hoping it's got a decent story, because I haven't heard much about it yet.
Tonight's Shadowrun, so as soon as I'm finished my scene, I'll have to run. It'll be a fun scene, cause I get to establish who my character is after she showed up in the middle of last game's screw-job.
Anyway, I better run. I think my scene's done rendering.
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| Anyone need a lift? |
| 09.30.04 (5:46 pm) [edit] |
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If there's anyone who's heading to CT & KH's wedding who still needs a ride, please let me know. I'll be heading out of town around 4:00 on Saturday, and will be staying the night out at the lake, so if that's fine with you then you're welcome to ride up with me. I've still got room for two or three more in my car.
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| Rendering Blues |
| 09.28.04 (1:01 pm) [edit] |
Waiting...Waiting...Waiting for my castle to render...
And singing to myself, apparently. I've had the Scooby Doo theme song stuck in my head for the past half hour, ever since I shut off my CD so I could free up processing space. Gah....
I think my castle turned out fairly good. There was a bunch more stuff that I wanted to do with it, but I got caught up texturing the graveyard out front that I forgot how long things take to render. As it is, I'm going to have to leave my box on overnight and let the program run. Still, I learned how to make my own textures, so that's a bonus.
Tommorow, we make spaceships. So far we've done three temples, two bridges, and a castle. We're tearing through projects at a breakneck speed, but I'm still impatient to learn more. I can't wait until we've learned how to do organics, like characters, rather than just base geometry.
I'd like to thank [url=http://www.livejournal.com/us...]R[/url] and [url=http://www.livejournal.com/us...]G[/url] for hosting a lovely housewarming party over the weekend. Everyone was hanging around outside by the fire when I got there, and it was a beautiful night. There was some crazy conversations, a couple of sword fights, and really, really good cake. In fact, the party was so good that I forgot that I was in P.A! ^-^
It was my Mom's birthday last night, so I took her out for dinner. We went to Poverino's, and I had some amazing linguini with three kinds of shellfish and little tiny octopi. I got her a gift certificate for her favorite store because I couldn't decide which sweater to get her.
I also managed to find the perfect card. We have this wierd sort of competition for birthdays where each of us try to find the most sincere, heartwarming card that we can. She's made me cry with hers the past three years running, but I finally got her back last night. It was this great card talking about how often I've drawn strength and comfort from her example. I added a few things to it, and I think that's what did the trick. It's tough to find a good card, cause so many of them seem so fake, but a really good card can say so much.
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| An Evening of Chivalry, Valor, and Egotistical Maniacs |
| 09.26.04 (8:19 pm) [edit] |
SbN's [url=http://www.saskatoonbynight.c...]Dark Ages[/url] game was way too much fun, as usual. (If you've wandered in from another link and have no clue what's going on, please read that link. It will explain what I'm talking about.)
During this month's court, a tournament was held to determine who was most fit to serve the realm as it's Warmaster. Sir Kendric, being the pompous little bugger he is, decided that the only real contenders for the title of Warmaster were herself and Sir Peter de Broix. Kendric had met de Broix only months before, while defending the borders of York from Lincoln's invaders, who were led by de Broix. They had challenged each other to combat on the field of battle, but were interrupted in the midst of their fight, and so never got the chance to see who was truly the 'better man.'
So, of course, Kendric was quite pleased to find out that de Broix had sworn fealty to Morwynn after his defeat, and was to compete in the tournament. There was much boasting and back-slapping as the two met again, and they were asked by the Baroness to demonstrate their prowess in battle, so that bets could be made. They were fairly evenly matched, with Kendric's speed being foiled by Peter's sheer strength and fortitude. The odds were fairly evenly split.
The neonates battled first, but Kendric missed seeing most of these fights because he was getting armed and prepared for battle. As the pool of combatants dwindled, the time came for the big face-off between de Brus and de Broix. Once again, their skills (and egos) were fairly evenly matched, but Kendric seemed to dominate the battle. After much back and forth between the valiant knights, Peter de Broix finally fell to his knees and yielded to Kendric's might.
(OOC: Quinn managed to get this battle on video, so I'm going to have to bug him and Wade to get it onto the website. I can't wait to see how it turned out!)
Of course, this victory only inflated Kendric's ego to new, uncharted levels. He did have the decency to heartily congratulate de Broix for giving him a 'damn fine fight', and the two warriors slipped away for a few minutes to feed, replenish their strength and continue complementing each other's skills.
It was at this point that the tournament took an unexpected twist. During combat between Sir Guy and one of the visiting crusaders, Sir Guy has hurled towards the Baroness axe-first. Baroness Cynuise escaped harm, but the crusaders turned on Sigurd, her Scourge, and beat him fiercely before fleeing. The timing of this attack was convenient, for most of the Baroness' mightiest warriors were recovering from battle, and her own Childer were nowhere to be seen. To make matters worse, there was no Sheriff to keep the peace, for Sir Kendric had temporarily given up the title to take part in the tournament. Was the timing of this attack sheer coincidence? Perhaps...
De Broix & de Brus returned to find the Court in a state of agitation. After much discussion, a Blood Hunt was called on the two Crusaders, and the tournament continued. Kendric was to face the Lady Leena, Childe of Katla Thrandsdotter, the previous Warmaster. Kendric was very confident of victory, for he had slain Leena's Sire not four months before, and this Childe was barely a year Embraced.
The battle was fairly one-sided. Sir Kendric's years of experience in war served him well, and he made short work of the Ventrue neonate. Leena barely managed to glance his armor with her blows, and could not stand against Kendric's might and skill with the greatsword. However, just as Sir Kendric was about to land the finishing blow, he found himself staring into the dread visage of Lady Leena, and was forced to flee from battle. He quickly got a hold of himself (after slamming into a door in his haste to exit the room) but it was too late. He had been defeated!
Furious that he had been beaten by such a dirty trick, it took the combined efforts of Peter de Broix and Lady Elora(?) to calm him down. Using the more manipulate powers of the Blood hardly seemed chivalrous during a battle of might and valor. Morwynn, the Cappodocian Elder, was also outraged that this had been allowed, especially since that now left only lowly neonates to claim the title of Warmaster. The Baroness listened to their petitions, but assured them that she had the situation firmly under control.
The last battle was between Sir Guy of Clan Brujah, and Lady Leena, of Clan Ventrue. Kendric grudgingly cheered on his Lady's Childe, even thought relations between the two Cainites was strained at best. He even went so far as to give Sir Guy a few pointers before the battle. (And a few other things, as well...) The battle was an odd one. Once again, the Brujah seemed to have the upper hand in terms of sheer physical strength, but early on in the fight, Lady Leena once again used her dread gaze against Sir Guy. He took the brunt of her attack but did not flee, though it seemed to take every ounce of will he had to stay in the ring with her. After realizing that her ploy didn't work, the Lady quickly yielded. As soon as she did, Sir Guy broke down and fled before most even realized he was victorious.
The court was in an outrage. How could this lowly neonate, not even fifty years Embraced, possibly serve as the land's Warmaster? Sir Guy was quickly found and brought before the Baroness to receive his due as victor of the tournament. She asked him if he thought himself capable of the title of Warmaster, and he swore that he was competent. However, the Baroness (and, no doubt, everyone else) had her doubts. She ordered one last task for him to prove his competence: To defeat Sir Kendric, Sheriff of York, and Ancilla of Clan Brujah!
The two Brujah faced off in the tournament square. Sir Kendric, quite pleased to finally be able to teach his Lady's uppity Childe a lesson in public, pounded his shield and wished the neonate luck in battle, for he was sure to need it. Swords flashed, and the combatants met with a dizzying blur of steel and supernatural quickness. Sir Guy fought fiercely and with the determination of youth, but he was clearly no match for one of Sir Kendric's age and experience. The battle ended when a mightly blow from Kendric knocked the younger Cainite over a nearby couch, so that Sir Guy's landed arse up in a heap.
Blade pointed squarely at Sir Guy's backside, Kendric merely smirked and asked, "Do you yield?"
The entire court errupted in laughter, and Sir Kendric was pleased to not only have won the challenge, but shown-up the cocky younger Brujah in a manner he was not soon to forget. He was brought before the Baroness to recieve the title of Warmaster, and listened to her praise his years of service as Sheriff of the realm. Sir Peter de Broix, having proved himself both a skilled and honorable fighter, was appointed to be the new Sheriff of York, and Sir Guy was asked to serve as Deputy to the Warmaster, since he had technically won the tournament.
Clearly pleased by how events had worked out, despite the tensions of the evening, Kendric stood before the court and made a speech. He told he court of how he had sworn, hundreds of years before, to defend the land from all invaders, be they Norman, barbarian, or even the heathen forces from the lands of Outremer. He told them of his exploits during the Third Crusade, and of witnessing the fall of Constantinople during the bloody, Bitter Crusades. He had lost faith in himself and his sword after that, but found it anew when he was asked to serve as Sheriff of York, for he knew that his blade was serving a just cause.
He also spoke of his battle against the previous Warmaster, who had attacked his leige, the Elder Morwynn based on her mortal superstitons. He gave tribute to her honor and valor in battle, and asked those in attendance to never forget Katla, daughter of Thrand, Grandchilde of Julian Cerialis.
There was a moment of silence, (which was highly unusual for Kendric...) and then he claimed his title as Warmaster of York.
[i]
"One sword, one hand, one heart, united under one cause and one God. By my blood and my blade, I swear to defend this land until the day I should fall, for never shall I lay down my arms in defeat!"[/i]
OOC: Oh, gods, was that ever a fun night. I enjoyed myself way too much hamming it up as Kendric. I think I finally got his personality down, and the speech really showed just how arrogant but honorable she is. There's also a video of that around somewhere, which I really want to see. I hope the picture of Kendric asking Sir Guy to yield turned out, cause I'm sure it's pretty damned funny.
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| Smells like burning! |
| 09.24.04 (7:26 am) [edit] |
We're learning how to add animated files to our textures in Maya today. Unfortunately, the file we're working with is a cheesy little flame animation, but it's still amusing to see flames shooting out of the window of the tower I spent yesterday afternoon creating. It's fun when my creative and destructive sides can work side by side.
Tonight is the night of the Dark Ages game. I can't wait, because it's Kendric's night to let loose and enjoy himself. He lives for tournaments. Never mind that the prize is the title of Warmaster, or that the winner also gets a good chunk of the city of York. Kendric's all about bragging rights. Gods, he's a pompous ass. That's why I loves him! :D
Tommorow's Ryan and Gayleen's house party in P.A. I'm looking forward to it. I'm just not really sure who's going, or even if I'm driving or not. Hopefully I'll be able to sort this out at the game tonight. If everyone's got a ride, I might just leave my car here and ride with someone else. But, if there's still people who need a lift, I can take my car out.
Anyway, if you're reading my blog, and need a lift, let me know. Otherwise, I'll figure things out this evening.
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| Midnight in the garden of lawful good and chaotic evil... |
| 09.21.04 (7:46 am) [edit] |
Things have been moving pretty quickly at school. Our first day, we modelled a greek temple, and on Friday we learned how to texture it. Yesterday, we reviewed what we had done, and then had the afternoon to make a good and an evil version of our temple, by changing the textures.
Now, me being stupid, or maybe just crazy, decided that I didn't like my original temple design and would make a new one from scratch. So, in one afternoon, I modelled a temple and textured two different versions of it. Whew...
I really like how the dark version turned out. I spent the most time on it, mostly because it was the more interesting one. I even made a rough skull for the altar, and played around with the lighting to give it deep shadows. I'll have to see if I can post it up somewhere, cause I'm fairly happy with how it turned out.
The light version of my temple was a bit of a rush job, but everyone seems to like it better than the dark version, so I can't complain. I made it a temple to a water goddess, set in the middle of the desert. I got to play around with light sandstone & copper textures.
The interesting thing is that they're both the exact same geometry, but with how I textured & lit them, they look very different. I think it's safe to say that I'm enjoying myself here. :D
Anyway, this afternoon I have to model a bridge, and then texture two versions of it similarly. Good thing I got practice in yesterday, cause this'll be another rush job.
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| Who needs sleep? |
| 09.16.04 (7:38 am) [edit] |
Mmm...Sleep deprivation.
I haven't been home before 2 the past couple of nights, and last night's Dark Ages side scene ran until nearly 3:30. Not so fun when you have to be up at 7 to get to school. My brain hurts...
It was worth it, though. I got to briefly try out my new Shadowrun character, who's a troll eco-activist. Then, we had a battle scene or three for the Dark Ages game. The face-off between De Broix and De Brus was classic, especially since Kendric spent half the fight with a lance through him... I started throwing really horribly after that, though, to the point where it verged on absurd. I was so tired I kept throwing scissors for some reason. Gah...
Anyway, school is fun because it's rather dark and warm in here, so I really just want to curl up under my table and take a nap. Luckily, we're actually modelling stuff today, so that's keeping me awake. We made a basic blocky temple this morning, and this afternoon we get to design our own. It sounds like we're going to make a good version & an evil version. I can't wait to design the evil version.
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| I would walk 500 miles... |
| 09.13.04 (3:07 pm) [edit] |
Now that I think about it, I think I spent most of yesterday walking.
I've been inside most of the week, working on my various projects and just generally being lazy, so yesterday I decided that I needed to get out of the house at any cost. I tend ro go a little crazy if I've been inside the house for too long.
So, I picked a direction and started walking. I went down to the riverbank from my house, and just kept following the river upstream. I found some sand caves, a giant woodpile, about ten chipmunks, and a handful of frogs. Eventually, I got tired of exploring and decided to figure out where I was. I climbed out of the bushes, and realized that I was at Chief Whitecap park, about 5 km out of town.
I didn't think I'd gone that far. I was about to turn back, when I saw a hawk circling just over a nearby hill. I decided to follow it, and when I came over the hill I ran into an old friend of mine, who conveniently lives two blocks over from my place. I caught a ride back into town and saved myself about two hours of walking.
I got back home just in time to meet my cousin, who had dropped by for dinner. It was good visiting with them, because I hadn't seen them in over a month. It as also convenient, because I was starving after my long walk! We had hamburgers and corn on the cob, a very autumn sort of meal. I can't believe how chilly it's been this past week. I had to dig out my mittens & scarf when I went walking in the evening.
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| Black nail polish amuses me... |
| 09.11.04 (6:18 pm) [edit] |
Went out to the Underground last night. Man, was that fun! I love to dance, and I've realized that I don't go out dancing nearly enough. I've never really been a fan of the whole night-club scene, mostly because most of the clubs in town here suck. A lot. But it was pretty decent last night, even though there wasn't a huge crowd. Actually, that was one of the perks.
I spent most of the night on the dance floor, even though some of the stuff they were playing was a bit strange. By the end of the night, I swear I heard them play ABBA...
Anyway, I'm told I "goth up really good." Funny what a little black eyeliner and some chains can do. ^_^
I went out for coffee afterwards, and wound up staying out until 6:30. Gah... Another late night. Luckily, it was pretty quiet around here today, so I managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep.
Today slipped by pretty fast, though. I installed a bunch of programs that JR gave me, and messed around with them for a bit. Flash is actually pretty easy to pick up, even though I'm still getting used to the different vector options. I guess I'm too used to using Photoshop. Ah well. If tomorrow's as quiet as today, I hope to be able to pull off a quick test animation, just to see what the program's capable of.
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| Dream Journal |
| 09.10.04 (10:15 am) [edit] |
I was digging through a stack of my old drawings today, and I came across my old dream journal. It's not much, really, just a ragged notebook that I kept by my bed, full of pages and pages of scrawl that is illegible to anyone but me. (I can't usually see while I'm writing stuff down, so the fact that I can actually read it is quite suprising.)
Anyway, I came across a series of really vivid dreams that I had written down, and reading about them brought them all back. Man, were they wierd... I thought I'd share one of the more interesting ones with everybody, to see if anyone else has dreams like these.
* * *
Mar. 26, 2003 - 4:28 am
I learned how to cross over into Purgatory, also known as the 'Universal Life Skills Retraining Center.' To get there, you had to concentrate on a flaming tunnel at the center of a certain mirror during some sort of ritual. As I concentrated, the image got larger and larger, a great lava tunnel swirling the world around me until it sucked me in and I flew through the heat and the darkness.
When things stopped spinning, I found myself in a institutional training facility where cheerful personal trainers lorded over the masses. I wandered past a line up for swimming lessons until I found a trainer who wasn't busy. I asked her a bunch of questions, and she explained that I was dead, and welcomed me into 'Life Retraining.'
I was here to learn new skills to use in my next life, as my old skills were now gone. I wondered if I could still draw, as I enjoyed it so much, and she said that I didn't need to be an artist in every life. She also explained that after the ritual, I had fallen headfirst into a reflection pool and drowned. Once you got to Purgatory, you needed to be there...
I felt a momentary twinge of grief for everyone that I had left behind in my haste to find the tunnel. Then, I was hustled off my the trainers to be shown around the facility. I kept thinking, 'This can't be happening, I can't be dead...There's got to be some way out of here.'
I made a break for it, and managed to pull aside a corner of the reality to make a gate, much like the one I'd entered through the first time. I lept through it before the trainers could catch up to me, and found myself once again outside the mirror. Grateful to be alive, I reveled in my newfound power. I could cross between the lands of the living and the dead!
The mirror continued to draw me in, so I decided to test my luck and try making the journey one more time. I mean, I had gotten out alright last time...I think I told someone the secret of the mirror before I dove back in again and recrossed the gate.
When I stepped out on the other side of the mirror, I was a man. This was pretty disconcerting, but suprisingly, it didn't shock me too much. I adjusted quickly, and found out that I was way stronger than before. One of the trainers quickly found me, and put me to work carrying around huge boxes, which I could lift easily. I did that for awhile, and then got bored and slipped away again. I decided to try crossing back to see if I'd still be a man on the other side of the mirror.
Apparently not. When I crossed over this time, I didn't go back to the same place. I was now a rat or a mouse, and I was trapped in cage in some sort of laboratory. In the next cage was another trainee, who had also managed to escape the training center, but didn't know how to cross back. He was half-starved, and I realized that I was hungry as well.
There was a scientist in the room, and I begged her for something to eat. Strangely enough, she understood me, and when she turned around, I recognized her as the Director of the training facility. She gave me a handful of blue & pink sour candy woms, and I divided them up and shared them with the guy in the next cage.
I felt strange after I had eaten them, and when I tried to use my power to escape this reality, I couldn't feel it anymore. I couldn't cross the mirror anymore. I was trapped. I woke up with a strange feeling of helplessness.
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| Be gentle with my wheels.... |
| 09.09.04 (4:01 pm) [edit] |
The brakes on my Mom's car needed to be replaced, so she's been without a car for the past few days. And me, having really nowhere to go during the days, lent her mine. No big deal, right?
Eep. I went with her to Packham Ave this afternoon, and she smacked my bumper really hard into the sidewalk while she was parking. It seems she's having a bit of trouble adjusting to how compact my little car is.
And by a little trouble, I mean that was her third accident today. Luckily, there's been no major damage to anyone involved, but it's still making me very nervous.
Now, I'm not one to obsess over cars. To me, they're just a way of getting from point A to point B. But, really...I would like to have my car back in one peice. Is that too much to ask???
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| Downtime |
| 09.09.04 (10:23 am) [edit] |
I have orientation for school on Monday, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about school starting again. I mean, this year I'm taking a program that -I- want to take, instead of just a random smattering of classes. And you really can't beat 3D animation & video game design.
On the other hand, it is a bit daunting. I haven't used my animation skills in almost three years now, and I'm thinking that I'm going to be a little rusty. Especially since I've never really received proper instruction, and have never tried animating on computer before. If I didn't have so much else that I was doing this week, I'd get myself a copy of the Learner's Edition of Maya just to give it a try.
But, I suppose, that -is- what school is for. So, this week, I'll just keep writing and working on some designs. Every time I think I'm starting to get bored just hanging around the house, I realize that I've got at least twelve different projects lying around waiting to be worked on, so I'm well-occupied. I'd need another two weeks of vacation to even make a dent in most of the stuff I need to work on.
Not that I'm complaining, or anything. This is the kind of stuff I love doing, and have been putting off for far too long. Oh well, back to work.
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| Larp at the lake? |
| 09.08.04 (12:18 pm) [edit] |
So, after the giant mass combat that broke out at Saturday's Sabbat game, I was sort of wondering 'what next?' How can a game come back from an act of outright war without the player base being wiped out? And, more importantly for myself, what would happen to all the interesting situations I'd gotten Valerie into?
Well, things are coming back together. I'm excited to see what happens when the game freeze ends, mostly because I sort of know what's going to happen with Valerina, and it amuses me greatly.
In case you haven't noticed yet, you should be scared when something amuses me greatly.
Anyway, it was nice to get away to the lake after a weekend of solid gaming. Sunday evening I picked up Layne and we headed out to Pike Lake to meet Caitlin, Kurt, Thea, Quinn and Jenn. It was damn cold, but we lit a fire and huddled around it, singing songs late into the night accompanied by Jenn's guitar. It was both relaxing and hilarious. (Kum-bye-yarrr, me hearties...) At one point, there was even applause from the outhouses.
The next day, Caitlin and Jenn had to leave shortly after breakfast, but Wade & Barry arrived not long after they left, so we packed up and headed over to the day camping area. We basically had the campground to ourselves, because there were no park staff and the chilly weather kept most people in the city. Bah! Fools!
The sun came out shortly after noon, and though it was still fairly cool, it wasn't uncomfortable. We wandered around, talked over a bunch of larp stuff, and just generally goofed around until after dark. I had a great time.
Last night I went out for coffee with Lev, Wade & Layne and sorted out a bit more stuff for the Sabbat game. Like I said before, I can't wait to see how everything plays out. Plus, I started making a character for Shadowrun, so I suppose I -do- tabletop, after all. I just have trouble sitting still for that long.
Oh, I forgot to mention....If I didn't thank you in person, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who put on the Theophidian's play on Saturday. For such short notice, no budget and limited stage area, it was an impressive stage production. The space was divided up really well with the curtains, and I like what you did with the lighting. Simple, but effective. I especially loved the masks, and can't imagine how much time would have gone into making them.
Speaking of making costumes... My hands are now permanantly green from working on my headpeice. There's an amateur costume competition on the 18th, and if I really work at it, I think I can get something done for then. If not, then I will definately wear it to Palla Grande. Oh, yeah, and Halloween... I just hope the fangs I ordered get here in time for that, because they'll really make the whole thing work.
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| Marathon gaming |
| 09.04.04 (11:31 am) [edit] |
Last night's Dark Ages game kicked off a weekend of marathon gaming for all the larper-folk of Saskatoon. Apparently, our numbers our increasing, because there was a new girl at the game last night. Ruby, if you're out there, I just wanted to welcome you to the game. We're not all as strange as we appear at coffee.
Ok, so maybe we are. But strange is good, right?
Actually, that was kind of cool, because it means I'm no longer the newest larper in town. Now, I'm nowhere near being a veteran gamer, but with four characters firmly under my belt, I'm feeling pretty good. I had a lot of fun with Kendric last night, especially when dealing with Sigurd. Thank you, Cory, for the wonderful in-your-face scene and the conversation about drunken dwarves. That was highly amusing! Oh, yes, and Lexx: The combined might of our character's egoes would be enough to stave off any invasion of York. Pompous, pompous fools!
After the game & coffee, I still had enough energy to pull off another side scene for the Sabbat game. Imagine a scene between two Tzimisce and two Setites. Now, imagine doing this scene in the basement of a pottery shop in the middle of the night. It was highly surreal. There will definately be some interesting fall-out from this scene.
I just hope tonight's game doesn't dissolve into outright war. There's so many wonderful little possibilities that would be fun to play out if the city stays in it's state of division. And besides, I hear the Snakes have a wondeful little suprise planned for the Sabbat. (I don't think it involves explosives, but one can never tell.)
Anyway, I probably should try to get some sleep before the game. I rarely sleep soundly when it's light out, and this week was made even worse because my brother decided that he was going to let the dog jump on me ever half hour or so, just to see what would happen. (I got in at 7, and he woke up at 8, and decided he was bored at around 8:30)
I'll tell you what happens. I get very grouchy. And then I throw things. Not fun.
Anyway, I'm going in at 5:00 for some sort of side scene for my pack, and then I'll no doubt go for coffee after the game as well. Sleep is for suckers. Well-rested suckers.
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| Ok, enough about me. Back to gaming! |
| 09.01.04 (10:43 am) [edit] |
Wow. I managed to run through all three of the games I'm in last night. I'm so tired, but I still crave more...
First off, it was the Requiem demo that Wade's running. There's some interesting changes in the new rules, but I'd have to take another look at the rulebook to actually get a good feel for it. The one thing I do like is how they've played up the idea that all vampires are predators, and they react to one another just like predators. That gives it a bit more of an edge, because there'll always that underlying tension at any gathering, on top of all the usual political backstabbing that goes on. I can't wait to see more.
Then, afterwards, Layne & I had a really, really interesting scene for the Sabbat game. There's been a whole bunch of crazy stuff going on in that game right now, mostly centered around [url=http://www.johnallison.ca]Michael James'[/url] recent decisions. I'm enjoying the chaos, but the stuff that went on between Jacob and Valerie last night (well, actually...it would have been around the 15th, in-game time) is putting a new spin on Valerina's actions & thoughts. I have no doubt that this is going to cause her and everyone around her no end of trouble, but the scene itself made perfect sense, and fits in so nicely with the stuff that's going on right now.
I can't wait to see what happens at the headcount. There's going to be some major fallout from Mike's actions, and I hope that whatever happens, it'll continue to affect things for both sides. I know that while Valerie really wants Mike dead now, [i]I'm[/i] secretly hoping that he'll survive, because that would add so many interesting complications to an already dicey situation. Can you tell? I'm a sucker for conflict.
After that, we did a quick scene for the Dark Ages game. There's a lot of stuff going on there too, but I'm less sure about what's going on. Hopefully, the game on Friday will clear things up for Kendric. Certainly, how the trial works out will affect a lot of thing.
I've got to do another scene with Katla (Carla's character for Dark Ages) before Friday, and then Saturday I've got a scene with Jacob & Carolyn for Sabbat. It occurs to me that that's a lot of gaming in one week, but I'm not complaining!
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| Nothing to do, and all day to do it. |
| 08.31.04 (11:10 am) [edit] |
Oh, sweet, sweet free time...
I'd forgotten what it was like to have nothing to do in a day. I must say that I quite like it.
Now, I do realize that my definition of 'nothing to do' differs a lot from others people's. When most people say they have nothing to do, they mean that they have literally nothing to do. I can only imagine what that would be like. I think I would go crazy very quickly.
In my world, nothing to do really means, 'nothing major to do.' I have no pressing things that need to be accomplished, lest the world spontaneously implode about me. This is nice. I've grown tired of running around putting out fires and diverting catastrophy. (Mind you, I think half of those fires were set by me, so I can't complain too much...)
No, I have nothing to do today, which means that I'll be about as busy as I always am. I'll draw, work on some concept designs and a teaser comic, go for a walk, maybe catch a movie in the afternoon, and do some writing. The only difference is, this is all stuff that [b]I [/b]want to do, and not something I [i]have[/i] to do.
The difference is monumental.
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| When networks attack! |
| 08.26.04 (2:15 pm) [edit] |
Well, I -had- a whole post written up for today, but the server went down just as I was finishing it, and stayed down for most of the afternoon. And now I'm too lazy to retype it. So...Think deep thoughts on your own. I'm catching a cold, and my brain's a bit too fuzzy to concentrate.
On the plus side, I did manage to arrange the pictures for the exhibit opening tomorrow. Now, I just have to hang everything, which will be a challenge, because none of the peices have hangers on them. Some of them are just painted on plywood, which is going to make them very difficult to hang.
But, I don't really care. Tomorrow's my last day. Once the opening is finished, I'm outta here!
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