Mikka's Modding Project!

[Mikka]

Me too. Diva is awesome. Though I'm a bit more fond of Ilaro then the Captain (not to say the Captain isn't awesome), though Ilaro did completely rip me off once. Silly quest didn't used to give any sort of reward if you took a certain option. Needless to say, I imagined my character writing him hate mail. "Hey, remember that time when we beat up practically everyone we encountered, stole all sorts of things, and tricked everyone else? WELL I DIDN'T GET AN ATTRIBUTE BOOST. Where is my attribute boost, Ilaro? WHERE IS MY STATS?!"

 

Cat and Cuàn both have an equal chance- 20%- of going after you if you get them in Vendetta. Neither of them learn bully skills, too, which makes them equal in that part, too. So statistically, they're both around the same degree of bad to antagonize- annoying, yes, but not really 'bad'. (Louise is the real one you don't want to antagonize. She's mean.) In practice, I would rather have Cat mad at me then Cuàn. Cat is very obvious about her anger and irritation, and will probably stomp up to you and give you 'reason you suck' speeches. Cuàn's so quiet you could never know you pissed him off until he's schoolyard educationing you.

 

...I didn't get anything done today. Exterminators came back. Did nothing in paticular but gave me more ant traps. I'm getting to the end of my limit with these things. I found one crawling on the wall in the direction of the bedrooms, far from the kitchen. It died horribly. Ugh ugh ugh, I just want these ants out of here.

 

I could make vacations based around where I want to eat, honestly. We almost did that in San Diego. I got to eat at a five star resturaunt in Del Mar, and we did the chef's creations thing where you basically get very small samples of everything on the menu while some lovely wine-guy (how do you spell somlanair? bah) paired everything up deliciously. It was so good. I can't really afford to eat like that, but, well, throwing all caution to the wind and just enjoying life is part of vacation, right? >.>

 

Disney World is fun. I'm partial to Epcot... has some of my favorite rides, and then has the World Showcase with all the variety of food and shopping. I think it's fun, even for adults, and every Autumn they have a Food and Wine festival there, with little booths set up around the countries highlighting food and drink from all around the world. And well... as for Mickey, at least his eyes blink now. Maybe one day they'll figure out how to equip the suits with moving smiles.

 

French pastries rule. Seriously. <3

 

Faux-Italian is horrible, but it seems to be the Italian people in the USA want to eat save for in the big cities with an actual Italian population. My ex used to consider the Olive Garden high culture food. I am like 'you realize this arrives frozen in a big truck and is just heated up at the restaurant, rather then actually cooked?'. I think that was sort of when I realized we were doomed. I am too much of a foodie.

 

Ethopian is interesting. At the resturaunt around here (which is run by an Ethopian couple), all the food for your table is served on one big platter. The platter is on top of a big piece of bread, and is surrounded by bread- it's very spongey bread, similar to a pancake but also sort of reminisent of Naan bread from Indian food. You use no utensils- you rip off a small piece of bread, and use it to pick up a small chunk of the food, then eat it and the bread together. The bread below the food should be eaten last and is considered the best part, as it's soaked up all the juices and spices from the food placed on top of it. They use butter sauces on their meat, which I found good. Unfortunately, a lot of it was a bit too spicy for me. But it was certainly a fun experience... though I generally don't like so much work for my food. >.>

 

I'll remember that all, if I ever get to go to India. I've heard about the male guide thing before... sort of sucks, but different cultures are different and one has to accept that and all that. Ah well. I love Indian food (though sometimes I find it a bit too spicy, too), and I'd love to see the historical sites... mmf.

 

I mostly know southern PA wines, to be honest, as that's where I live. I haven't gotten much of a chance to explore northern PA wine country, heh. But there's some good stuff here. You just have to try and look around.

 

As for why the laws are the way they are... I don't know. I think all states had laws like this for probation, but other states got out of the liquor business soon after the end of it. PA just stuck with it and the state continued. It wasn't till like really recently that you could even buy any sort of liquor on Sundays here (I think you still can't buy alcohol past 6PM on Sundays), and PA is not, well, in the bible-belt or what you would think of when thinking of a 'religious' state. It's just weird. Hoping the state gets their greedy fingers out of the business soon.

 

Hm, I don't think I've ever had a red Austrian wine! Plenty of their whites, but no reds. I'd like to try one.

 

Hope everything goes well in Istanbul. I don't like traveling in bad weather, either.

 

...As for truffles, I like expensive chocolate. ;_; I admit it. I can drink cheap wine- there are some good cheap wines!- but chocolates, I like ridiculously expensive. I got some for Easter, and I am savoring them. Yum.

[MadHatt]

I like the Captain for various reasons. He's both serious and amusing depending on the situation. As a non-magical individual, he really needs your help much more than the others. I like that we resolve his story. And to my favorite little black sheep (the one I wrote a one-shot on) he's pretty much the ideal father figure. And if you do his main adventure and the Cirillo adventure, you get a pretty good gist of what's going on without having to ask the Legate, which is always nice.

 

Ah, it's always the quiet ones, isn't it? I don't like having rivalries (they take away from adventure time) but I think I might poke the bear a bit considering Louise and Cuan. Just to see what they do.

 

Urgh, going to the bedrooms? Isn't there some sort of way to let the exterminators go inside, you move for a day and when you come back they're all dead? I'd keep suggesting fire but at this point, it's best to have a chat with the landlord or whoever it is that owns it and just decently burn the whole place. It's an emergency, I'm sure he'd understand.

 

Ah...five star restaurants. You have to go at least once a year, even if you don't eat anything but crackers for the rest of the week. It's just worth it, I think. There was this place around...it was located in an old mansion that used to belong to a Baron or something, and the rooms were divided ..the living was huge and the main area, where you got a piano player. Upstairs, there was the tea room and various small dining rooms. When I went, it was nighttime and snowing, we ate in the library and they made us a fire. The sommelier suggest this amazing Chardonnay. It closed down some time back but while it was open I went there often, if only for coffee and cake. And it was worth it. It was an entire museum disguised as a restaurant. You could take the books and read them at the table, if you wanted or stare at the original art. I miss that place...

 

You can't....who freezes pasta? You can't just freeze pasta and pizza and have it taste properly. Especially not proper Italian. Note to self: do not eat at Olive Garden.

I have to try Ethiopian now. Checked it out. One is pretty close to my college. Will probably go when I have some time. Not really crazy about spicy food. I can't eat much. Part of my suffering in India. You get so much odd and spicy food the stomach rebels. I'd packed some instant stuff from home and had to have a two day break or else...

 

Most Austrian wine is dry white. About 70-80% I'd say, because the dominant grape is green. Zweigelt and Blauburger grapes account for half of the red production, planted sometime around the 20's. I prefer Zweigelt because those aged wines are absolutely delicious. The other type of grapes are for more common, light wines.

I come from a family of wine-lovers so this sort of discussions aren't uncommon. My grandfather used to travel to Italy often in the 40's just to get Barbera wine and mom was the one who started "we-purchase-an-entire-shop's-worth-of-bottles" day.

 

At a restaurant, currently, being the 'young person' in the group, the one who won't leave the electronics alone. Even if I have to use it. Ordered. No wine Did get some lovely coffee. Waiting for tea. Ugly weather, indeed. It rained all morning and seems like it's going to have another go at it.

 

I can drink cheap wine if it's quality cheap wine. Which can exist...Chocolate is better when it's rich and milky and flavorful. I love chocolate.

[Mikka]

I don't disagree with you there. The Captain is probably one of the best developed characters in the game, even more so then many of your fellow students. (I really need to write a Cat event where if you have the Captain's badge and have joined the Guard she totally fangirls over you in the Captain in full 'EEEEEEEEE!' mode.) He's awesome. But... Ilaro is crazy awesome. You get to beat up everyone for entirely no reason but because a noted rogue thinks it's cool to do so at the given moment. There's something to be said for that. I honestly usually end up choosing to join the Captain when I do the main quest, though. I think I've only done the Legate's route and the Triplet's adventure once. I'm not too fond of the Pirate version, either... the Pirate Leader just doesn't stick to me as being as interesting as the Captain or Ilaro is.

 

I generally end up in rivalries with my Mordivus rival, because I always choose that option, and nine out of ten times I end up with Phillippe, Joana, or Vettor, all who will get down to -9 quite quickly. Then it's easier to just vendetta and duel them then it is to try and raise them back up to positive relationships. I don't usually get in vendetta's with other students, though, because... well, it takes work to get someone to -10. I'd rather get them to +10. I've never played a character that actively tries to antagonize others. I suppose I'll give it a try, one day, but... meh.

 

As it is, I think Louise and Antonio are the most annoying ones in a vendetta. Louise because she beats you up, and Antonio because if you're in a vendetta with someone, it's probably because you want to be their enemy, and he just doesn't like that. Cat and Cuàn just mildly antagonize you, I think all Aaran does is try to jinx you, and Miya... well, Miya tries to steal from you, but the rolls are probably against her.

 

NPC's should get in to vendettas with each other. I'd like to see that.

 

The exterminators mentioned that if the ants are still around in two weeks, they'll come back and if we move the cats out, they'll spray. But that's still two more weeks of waiting while the ants come ever closer to where I sleep. Dooooooooom. Getting a giant flamethrower and taking them out that way gets more and more tempting by the day. I found one ant trying to crawl on my Nutella. MY NUTELLA. This is truly war.

 

There's actually a five star restaurant at the Disney World resort. Seriously. I'm taking my mom there for her birthday, which will make me broke, but we'll enjoy it. It has a long, pre-fixed menu with wine paired with every course (though once they paired sake with my salmon dish). As for the place you're talking about, that sounds like it would have been awesome! Boo to it closing. That's no fun at all.

 

Chain restaurants in the USA, that's who freezes their pasta. The United States has some great restaurants. Seriously, we do. But I'd advise anyone coming to try our food to mostly ignore the chains. Almost all the popular ones use frozen food delivered by truck rather then food made in the kitchen, or they already prepare food and then stick it under heat lamps until someone actually orders it. To me, that's gross. But that makes me a food snob, as most people are fine with that. I say bah to them. I just like my food actually prepared in the kitchen rather then frozen or having been sitting out for who knows how long.

 

You can probably ask the Ethopian restaurant if you can just have stuff mildly spiced, and they'll do it. Most places are willing to do that, in my experience. I didn't ask, though, so I ended up with something very spicy. I guess I know better for next time. I hope you enjoy it. It wasn't one of my favorites, but it was interesting to try. They had really good mango juice too, of all things.

 

Yeah, I'm used to Austrian Gewürztraminer's. I like them well enough. But I'll have to keep a look out and see if I can find a red from there... I've never even heard of those two grape varieties, so I guess they're not often (or at all) grown here in PA (I usually buy local wines straight from the winery rather then going to the state stores anymore, because you get to try before you buy and it's cheaper... as well as more fun). I'll keep an eye out for them! It's good to have your family in to wine. Mine's sort of mixed... my grandmother doesn't like it, my uncle is allergic to it (he knows a lot about beer, though), and my grandfather... well, he puts ice cubes in his wine. Which drives me nuts, but that's how he enjoys it, so I can't really say anything but it makes me do this little wine snob shudder whenever I see him do it. Mom likes wine, but I was the one who got her in to it rather then the other way around.

 

Well, I hope you make it home safely and are having as good a time as you can while traveling.

 

Yeah, quality cheap wine is what I meant. If it's really bad cheap wine, rather then waste it, I'll mix it with sprite and make a spritzer, but I haven't ran in to wine that bad for years. Chocolate, though... yeah. Milky delicious rich chocolate. http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/ is where I get my expensive chocolate, though their rates to ship outside of the USA are ridiculous (actually, their rates to ship inside the USA are honestly ridiculous). It's so good, though... if you ever have a friend who makes it to NY or Chicago, have them go to their boutique and pick up a few of the chocolate bars. They're just as good as the truffles, and don't melt easy.

[freespace2dotcom]

Mikka! I helped my grandfather change his (20year old) air conditioner for a new model!

 

...He had it boarded up with old newspaper.. and I can't unsee the ants! So MANY! Did you solve your problem? Thankfully ours was just in a window under an airconditioner, and we showed no mercy, but... They had been living there so long they had made a dirt/mud nest underneat it! I even saw Soldier ants, which you normally never see! It's incredible as we had not known about any ant problem until we removed the old newspaper!

 

I suspect there may have even been a queen ant there! Oh Gross!

 

*cries*

[Mikka]

You have my pity, my sympathy, and my righteous fury! I hope you burned them! I hope you burned them alllllll. Oh, I would have freaked out so much. Gross! But as long as you got rid of the queen and the eggs, your poor grandfather should be safe. Though I think I really would have needed a flamethrower for that.

 

My ants are still around. There's less of them, but they're exploring further and further away from the one counter in the kitchen that has the trap on it, which is making me very mad at them.

 

I wish I had Mastery spells. I bet you could just use one on the Queen Ant, and ta-dah, convince her to leave and there's no more ant problems. That might be easier then even the Incantation method of the Cinnamon spell. Why don't I have magic spells in real life again? Bah.

[freespace2dotcom]

We didn't see a queen. The soldiers booked it the second their cover was blown (though I killed a few of them) so if there was a queen it was surely moved before we could get the....Tools required for the job. (yes, bleach Burns ants. The closest thing to liquid fire. I like to think of it as anty napalm.)

 

After throwning the infested newspaper away and clearing out the mud, we didn't see any eggs. So, there quite possibly might not have been a queen. In any case that point of entry is now (to an ant) remnicent of the north/south korea border. Still I hope I don't have nightmares about that.. oh I shudder to even think about it. It's one thing to squish a lone scout ant with your thumb, and quite another to stumble on what we did.

[MadHatt]

...I can only see one reason both you and freespace have bug problems. The ants are invading. All those B-rated horror movies were just trying to warn us. Them!, Legion of Fire: Killer Ants!, Empire of the Ants, The Hive...

 

Alright, now I just started scaring myself.

 

I like Ilaro, but I find that a student - particularly a manipulative student - leaves himself very exposed after dealing with him. After all, he's always on the run. Same with the Pirates. I mean, the Captain finds out you hang out with Pirates. There goes an opportunity for a useful contact. Not to mention the fact that it won't do wonders for the ol' reputation if you ever get in trouble with the law...

 

Ooo...NPC war. Then again probably not. They end up in the infirmary really fast. Then they'd be expelled for sure.

 

I go out of my way to go to interesting or quirky restaurants (if not those with great food) so I have no way of knowing where and why frozen food exists around here, but I do believe you have great restaurants. I just can't imagine what frozen pasta tastes like. I mean, I've seen pizza, fish and whatnot in stores, and people eat that, sure. I see the point. But pasta just seems like one of those meals that it's so easy to make that no one would bother cook beforehand.

 

You're making me want to go to Disney Woooorld...And I can't go. Work. College. Lack of visa or, currently, extra cash. Urgh. I want teleporters to be invented. It would do wonders for tourism.

 

I need another buy-wine day. I get it where I can find it, though I generally gravitate towards those with unique and diverse types. I hope you'll like the wine, if you can find it.

Aww..ice cubes in wine. Why? I mean, I know people who drink watered wine (mineral water sometimes) but why ice cubes? Either way, it seems sort of a waste. Wine isn't there as a way to get drunk or try alcohol. It's all about the taste.

Yes, my family is an alcohol snob. Whiskey, cognac, beer, wine, plum liquor, brandy...holidays are interesting.

 

I got back safely and tired. It was a business trip, for one day, but those aren't that special. It rained all day. Wasn't as cold as I expected though.

 

That chocolate looks great. Really. Definitely on my list. Man, we're really discussing expensive vices here...

[freespace2dotcom]

I want teleporters to be invented. It would do wonders for tourism.

 

Or not.

Personally I view teleportation as destruction of matter, and creation of a duplicate of matter. So in otherwords, you die and they make a copy of you with your memories. At least the star trek version seems to work that way. I don't think the Doom method would be popular either.

[Mikka]

I JUST WANT THE ANTSSS GONE. I'm almost afraid to eat because they are in my kitchen and they flip me out and then, boom, there goes my appetite. I want a new kitchen. I want a flamethrower. I'm sinking in to ant related depression, darn it. Stupid ants.

 

Most of my manipulative students are so dang manipulative that I can't imagine anything sticking on them if they got caught helping Ilaro. I mean, the Legate helps Ilaro! You're just following the example of your superiors! How can you be guilty? ...The ones that aren't quite that manipulative have Mastery, which fixes everything else.

 

NPC's would send each other to the infirmary, sure, but they already do that. They should vendetta and duel just like the PC does. As it is, the only one who can set up a Vendetta is the PC, and that's no fun. NPC students should be able to make each other miserable and wretched, too! Ooo, and have duels. There should be more duels.

 

They actually sell a lot of frozen pasta in our grocery stores. Frozen lasagna especially, I often think. But there's even like, frozen macaroni and cheese. Easy stuff. I try not to eat frozen food in general, so I can't say how good it is, but I imagine 'real' pasta would taste better. I guess I can't comment fully, though, but I find it weird, too. People just like what's convenient, I guess.

 

If I had super powers, teleportation would definitely be up there on my lists (as it would be a super power, it wouldn't recreate me, right?). Mind reading would probably be more useful, though... still, Disney World is great. Go there sometime if you ever get a visa. Or can't you just come for a vacation without one? I don't know much about the USA's entry laws, I admit.

 

The ice cube in wine thing is basically, my grandfather likes red wine, but he likes his red wine chilled. Most places, obviously, don't serve red wine chilled. So he puts an ice cube in it to cool it down. I still thing it's bogus and it's just diluting the flavor, but it makes sense to him and he enjoys it, so I only mutter under my breath rather then complain obviously anymore. Wine should be enjoyed, after all.

 

It is good chocolate. Far too expensive chocolate, but good chocolate. I think they're the ones that popularized the bacon and chocolate thing that got really big for a while. It's actually quite yummy, but salt with chocolate is yummy in general.

 

Need to shut off the internet tomorrow so I can work on project as planned rather then goofing off and watching youtube videos. I am so horrible at keeping to schedule sometimes.

[MadHatt]

...Teleporting superpowers, definitely. Who was the guy who didn't have a limit on the teleporting distance in the X-Men? Totally forgot his name.

 

Yeah, ants suck. Do you have any place to take the cats so that you can call the exterminators and spray around?

 

Yeah, Legate helps Ilaro, but the Legate is the Legate. Like in the Vernin hand adventure, he has contacts. You ...no matter how manipulative, are still a kid with less time to do things. And the Captain doesn't seem to care much about the Legate's position. And if Mastery fails...well...

I like helping the Captain because you also get the opportunity to help the Legate so you have two of the most influential people in your pocket, so to speak. The Captain is a good person to know.

 

NPCs in a vendetta would mean Phillipe would end up either hospitalized every day or having a very busy schedule indeed. Can you imagine the sort of rivalries that go around?

 

At least lasagna can take time to make. Pasta just takes 20 minutes in a pot of water. That's the point of noodles and ramen. Granted, I have never tasted that sort of mac and cheese. Here, you just...put cheese on boiled pasta. And then sugar by taste. Huh, I guess it would be easier but that's just how much it would take a normal pot. Maybe I'm biased considering what I know.

 

Visas are notoriously hard to get for the US. You can't go there without one and if you get one, you can get turned around at the airport. My boss, in fact, wanted to get one to visit a friend for a week and couldn't get one. And he wouldn't want to move anyway. So, that would take work.

 

Yeah, red wine is room temperature. Rose and white should be slightly chilled. But yes, it should be enjoyed. I mean, as long as anyone is happy. My dad, the only one of us who would drink whatever, beer, wine, etc, gets a lot of discussions on this so I know how it's like to know someone to shake a finger at. I still really hate it when he dilutes wine.

 

Good luck with the plans and projects. Youtube is a notorious time sinker.

[Mikka]

Nightcrawler is the only real teleporting Xman I know. I'm not really up on my Xman fiction, though, so I'm not sure if it was him or not. I could deal with teleporting only a few miles at a time to get to somewhere, though- it would still be faster then a plane. Though I don't mind plane rides.

 

Actually, today I looked around and I SAW NO ANTS. I'm not waving the flags yet, but the worst part is probably over. If necessary, we'll take the cats to my grandparents and spray, but I think we might have basically killed two colony's and we still have two of those killer traps around if they decide to come back for more. Bring it, I say, bring it. Well, no, I don't say that. I say please go away, oh nice ant monsters, I am sick of you in my kitchen so please oh please oh please stay away from me. But same difference, in the end.

 

If Mastery fails, just try try again, that's my motto. ...Actually, I barely use Mastery in game. It's not worth it. If I, as human being, was put in the Academagia universe, I'd probably go for it, but in general, I can cause more havoc with skills that are easier to level up. Mastery and Gates don't really have that many useful spells or applications in general, though I have a feeling that's going to change in year two. As of now, though, I'll just Comet Wrath everyone who annoys me. Easy astrology/incantation. Boom! Cast it on everyone. Too bad you can't target teachers with your spells...

 

Phillippe's a nasty little punk in a vendetta. 40% chance of acting directly against the player each move, from what I understand. Joana is the same. On the other hand, my dear Prudence has a 45% chance. So apparently it's worse to piss her off then it is to piss Phillippe off. I like Prudence, though, so I usually make friends with her.

 

I just want NPCs to suffer the same vendettas that I suffer. Suffer, students, suffer! Though Aaran would probably like, die. He's not made for Vendettas.

 

I'm with you. Frozen pasta just seems weird to me. Even lasagna isn't that hard to make. Though I've heard Stoffers or something like that brand lasagna tastes almost homemade, and thus I've probably had it before by someone claiming they made it and actually using frozen food (a fine tradition here in the USA, apparently). I dunno. If I want fast pasta, as you said, I make ramen. (I like ramen.) On the other hand, I have to admit, we eat a fair amount of frozen pizza. I do not live in an area that has an Italian population at all, and there are no good pizza joints around here- they're mostly jokes. So, frozen pizza it is if we want pizza. Mom used to make homemade pizza, but I never learned how. The dough thing confuses me.

 

Aw, that sucks. That's so strange, though. The USA relies a lot on tourism from Europe, I know, so I wonder why they don't make it easier for tourists to get here. I guess it's the terrorism paranoia.

 

I tend to like my white wine actually a bit warmer then they usually serve it, and my red wine a bit more chilled then they usually serve it, but that's usually the case for American restaurants. It's not too bad. At home, I can have it however I like it, so I go with that. We actually have a sweet red in the fridge, but it's made with apples and raspberries as well, so it deserves to be chilled. I might drink that tonight. Hm. I'm at the point where I dearly want something to drink after working all day.

 

I did work on project (without the internet distracting me), but it'll still probably be full day work tomorrow and Saturday. I hate how I procrastinate things till the end of the week, but I'm not sure how to change myself doing that. Anyone have any tips? ;_;

 

I've decided at the moment that Louise is evil and hard to write. Aaran's the hardest to write, because of his sentence structure, but Louise is hard. Thankfully Cat is easy, but Cuàn's a bit tough too- again, because of sentence structure. He needs to learn to speak in complete sentences rather then pretending he's Boone.

[freespace2dotcom]

Haha! I liked the movie, Jumper. Not so much for it's plot, as the fact that it did depict a really cool superpower.

 

Nightcrawler is the only teleporter that I'm aware of in Xmen. And I'd expect that as a natural ability it would be different from technological means. Also, If it were me, I'd prefer a version similar to Goku's Shunken Idou. But that's just me.

 

As for Fellow students, I like Emilia Strolin. She's not very likely to confront you directly. But rest assured that something bad will happen to you after awhile. She's more like a grand mastermind than a common bully, so I give her credit for that. I confess though that I'm not sure about the files on her vendetta likelyhoods.

 

Ramen is nice and all, but the packages we get here in the US are nothing compared to the real thing in Japan. I've never liked the US version since I've been there, though it is not like it's terrible or anything.

 

And I'm not going to talk about US terrorism laws because, well, it's just not something I've the heart to do right now. I'm just fed up with the policies in place around the board.

[MadHatt]

Jumper, yes. I meant the X-men universe, and there are a lot of teleporting characters. Nightcrawler has a limit on his teleportation so no. Do I remember Shunken Idou right? Speed of light? That sounds a bit more inaccurate. And I get lost a lot.

To be fair, I get lost a lot in my hometown. I've never had that issue in foreign cities or the woods. But at home, where I was born and grew up, I can't walk five steps without getting lost. Speed of light movement? I'd probably never be able to go back to my apartment.

I like plane rides, I do not like paperwork and all that it entails. And I do not like removing my shoes.

 

No ants!! Wine bottle to celebrate! Hope it lasts and the buggers are all dead.

 

Haven't tried Japanese ramen. I've been to China, once, for a very short period and only tried shark ...stew? soup? I have no idea. It was shark. I also got the tea and I hate tea.

I don't eat much of the frozen kind of ramen anyway. I'm more of an Italian type of pasta than Japanese or Chinese. How was it? How was Japan in general? Been interested for a bit.

 

Frozen pizza I get. Pizza is hard to make just right and takes time to cook. Back when we used to make homemade pizza we had a bakery around that sold ready made dough. So we got that, put stuff on it and cooked. I think that a lot of bakeries do that. The dough isn't that hard anyway. The trick is to let it overnight, which, to be fair, won't happen if you want pizza NOW. We just order. I have a pizza shop less than 10 minutes away and it's not even expensive. They also have great desserts.

 

Yeah, the US laws are strange...

You basically have to start planning a year ahead, which I've never done and don't really plan to. It's a shame as I really want to see cities and see the Mardi Gras in New Orleans and a lot of stuff...

I've heard of a lot of remarks on how hard it is to go there. I think it might be the terrorism...might be the idea that everyone wants to move there..I don't know. I wouldn't want to move there because I like where I live. So who knows? I haven't read that much about it, but as far as I did and considering the people I've talked to, America seems like one of the hardest place to visit. Shame, really.

 

I like most wines to be just a tad lower than temperature room. Had a Shiraz and a Merlot today. Been seriously thinking about having a bar built...

 

Procrastination...er...talking to the wrong person. Just getting inspired would be an idea. I always get ideas while reading. Or listening to music. What does usually work for you? Drinking helps me with inspiration, is all I know.

 

Ooooh I will really like Cuàn. Every time I even read the name Boone, I want to replay Fallout New Vegas.

[Legate of Mineta]

Japanese ramen is to die for. Seriously.

 

That is all.

[Mikka]

I'd prefer the teleportation I can use in MMOs. Back when City of Heroes was out and being the best superhero MMO in existence (sob, I miss it so), there was a full line of teleport powers. You could teleport yourself, your friends, your foes... and you could just set up in air teleports like you were flying. I tended to choose superjump for my characters, though, because there was something awesome about telporting over skyscrapers.

 

Why does Firefox not think teleport is a valid word? Firefox is dumb.

 

I don't really watch movies and the like, so I have no idea what you guys are talking about. ;; I am so behind on pop culture it's not funny. I don't even know if the TV we own can be used to watch TV... all I use it for is video games. I've always been like that, though.

 

Emilia Strolin is adorable (and I really like the idea of Antonio having a one-sided rivalry with her that's mostly playful but is also For The Sake of Aranaz!!!!11). I'm quite fond of her. She only has a 20% chance of going after the main character in a vendetta, though, so she's not too threatening. I still wouldn't want to get on her bad side, though. ...She always ends up in my Aranaz cliques. I've done her adventure so many times I almost have it memorized now...

 

I've had many Vietnamese noodle dishes, but I haven't really had actual ramen from a Japanese restaurant. There's a few in Philly that I wouldn't mind going to (though figuring out which one's are authentic and which are basically 'serving American ramen for American customers' is never easy), but driving in Philly is an exercise of 'why do you hate yourself so?' to me. There's a Japanese restaurant in Orlando that has ramen on their lunch menu, but I can't see myself convincing mom to get out of Disney World for a day to go eat ramen. Just seems like a long shot. I'd love to try real Japanese ramen, though. I'd love to go to Japan, period...

 

I'm not even sure if the pizza places around here even have desserts. ...Oh, cinnamon sticks. Eh. I did just read that there's a pizza place that opened near downtown that's Italian owned, though, so maybe I should give that a try. Apparently they serve a lot of good pasta stuff too, though, so I'd be hard pressed to order the pizza... the frozen pizza we get, Dijornos or something like that, is honestly pretty good. I mean, no, it's not homemade or freshly baked, but as far as frozen pizza goes, it's certainly better then Pizza Hut and Hot Z Pizza and Little Ceaser's and that's basically all there is around here.

 

Terrorism... tough to talk about, considering what just happened in Boston. ;_; But no matter what, it seems there will always be threats, so I figure we might as well open up and let the people come. Of course, yeah, there is the struggle that a lot of people come and then never leave and that's, um, generally not good. I don't know. Sometimes I wish I lived over in one of the EU countries and could travel easily all around Europe. That would be fun. But for all I complain about where I live (if I'm not calling it Middle of Nowhere, PA, I'm calling it Tourist Trap, PA, because that's basically what it is), I'm happy enough here. I don't plan on moving anytime soon: I've lived here my whole life, really, besides a brief stay right outside of Philly.

 

I love Shiraz's. One of my favorite kinds of wine. I don't remember what we have opened right now, but it's not bad. One from the Fingerlakes in NY. No white wine currently open, though, which means I'll have to dig through mom's closet (which is currently the wine storage place as the cats can't knock over the bottles there) and find one for dinner. That always ends up with me bruising something or other.

 

Drinking sometimes helps my inspiration, too, but I want to be careful not to become reliant on wine to give me inspiration as... well, as I'm an aspiring author, that would be a really bad path to trend. So no drinks until dinner tonight. Honestly, sleeping usually gives me inspiration in my dreams, but lately I've been getting inspired for everything but the project I need to be working on. So it's like, no help at all. Project isn't bad or anything, but my mind is in the floaty place of 'I want to write original fiction wee!' rather then 'I want to work on project!'. And just by posting this, I'm procrastinating even more. I should be working. I cannot afford to ask for another extension.

 

Yeah, Cuàn does talk a bit like Boone, as I noticed when I was replaying NV a bit ago. It doesn't come off as badass when it's coming from a twelve year old boy, but it's a similar way of speaking. Cat just talks with a lot of excitement! Exclamation marks! Cheerfulness! Occasional fragments!

[freespace2dotcom]

If Shunkan Idou was merely moving at the speed of light, you'd spend years traveling to and from planets, and thus die in transit. It's teleporting, all right, using your KI sense to find the destination.

 

Real Ramen is.... Imagine freshly made noodles, boiled right in front of your eyes, along with meat and veggies into the bowl! (Sizable, though more for flavor for the broth than as a course. None of that MSG powder we get over here!) I'm drooling just thinking about it. I wasn't in Japan for very long either, (It was a port visit while I was on deployment in the Navy) but going to a real ramen shop was the first priority I had! And Let's not forget the Naruto, from which a certain manga character was named...

 

I've known for a long time that alcoholism runs deep in my family on both sides. Once I thought to "test the waters" so to speak and clearly it runs in the blood. Once was enough and apart from maybe accepting something like wine out of politeness I'll probably never touch the stuff again.

 

I subscribe to the Ron Paul view that although we didn't invite the attacks, we did foster the atmosphere for them to take place, so that should at the very least be considered in our attempts to thwart them, but no, America is infallible, etc, etc. Pride at the top. Though I also suspect things which fall into the conspiracy theory range, and so will simply stop here rather than ramble on.

[Mikka]

I want real ramen. Rather then fake ramen, which is all I ever get. I mean, it's not bad (well, it's bad health wise, but not flavor wise) but... I know it's not the same. It's having something fake and trying to grasp the real thing from it. Sort of depressing, yes? But it's all I really have in this small town. Lots of 'Asian Fusion' restaurants (what does that even mean?), but in the end they're all American food with a vaguely-Asian twist. Though you can occasionally find semi-decent sushi.

 

My father was a miserable alcoholic, upon who I have no kind words to say so I shall say nothing. My nana (grandmother) is constantly terrified that with every sip of wine I take, I will turn in to a raging asshole alcoholic. No matter what I say, I can't reassure her. Of course, I had four fairly heafty glasses of wine tonight (probably more like six total), so maybe she does have reason to worry. I don't know. I don't do this often, but I was just hanging out chatting and the wine was there so we drank it to finish it and... boom, suddenly it's all gone.

 

Of course, this meant I wasn't working on project. Which is due tomorrow (well, technically Sunday at three AM, but if you think I'm staying up for that, you don't know me very well). Please, please, if you're the type to offer internet support to someone, give it to me. It's probably my own fault, but I need it. Worrying more, my harddrive is making those horrible tick-tock noises. I'm terribly afraid it's going to crash on me, and then I'm not going to get my work done, and then I'll be in trouble, and then everything will be delayed, and then my harddrive is evil it really is and I am so frustrated because I can probably finish if it just cooperates but those noises tend to single death no matter what. I thought I stopped the problem by reinstalling Windows, but apparently it's up to it's old games. Please like, cross your fingers for me or whatever you do when someone has an evil possessed computer trying to curtail their work.

 

As for terrorism... I just think it's sad how we often treat people different then us, then when those we treat badly act against us, we act like we had no blame or say in what happened. And then this hypothetical 'we' treats similar people even worse, and the cycle is never ending. But that comes very dangerously close to talking about race, religion, and politics all at once, and all are suspects I avoid talking about even to my close friends because they tend to blow up in fire and explosions and great chaos. So let's just leave it at that, shall we?

[MadHatt]

My grandmother makes noodles...like from scratch. She makes all food like that. I've always seen it as a waste of time, but then, if I eat a sandwich on a regular day, I call it a full nutritious meal. I lack the time. Still, it's pretty great when I do eat her food. I imagine Japanese ramen is like that. Seriously need to try....

Yes, what is Asian Fusion? I don't think I've seen one of those around. I have a sushi bar I go often enough. I like sushi. And egg rice. I always get that.

 

What's the update on the ants?

 

Huh, I never get drunk. When me and some mates were 15, we used to go to bars. A lot of bars. Biker and metal bars, mostly. When the school had proms or such we made an appearance and then skipped to go to a bar, dressed as we were. We knew the owners and they'd let us go there and drink even though the age limit was 21, sometimes for free. And even then, everyone passed their drinks over to me, because I didn't get drunk. I mean, I got slightly dizzy, but properly drunk? Never. And while they got beer, I was always more for spirits: vodka, scotch, etc.

I like to drink, but I never got addicted to anything. I've been smoking since 14 and up to this day I can hold out on only one cigarette a month if I need to, even though I used to smoke two packs a day when I had them. I've since switched to kreteks.

 

Do backups on the work you're doing. Please do. Odd noises in a computer don't tend to be just 'anything'. Crossing fingers for you.

 

I take full responsibility for the discussions on terrorism, although I am wondering how we got to them considering that I was simply whining about not getting to see Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I probably will, eventually. And yes, politics and religion, best avoided as topics. I also know next to nothing on politics.

 

So to get back to our slightly less serious topics...seashell Belgian chocolates? Yay or nay? I say yay and probably buy enough to last me a lifetime. I've only passingly went through Belgium and while it definitely competes with Switzerland on the whole chocolate thing, the seashell ones win. Everything. Also, chocolate in Switzerland? Very expensive as are most things. You can get similar quality in France or Italy but for less.

[Mikka]

Noodles from scratch... the Italian restaurant at Disney does that. It also gets water imported so their pizza crusts can taste the right kind of Italian (but oddly, the water doesn't come from Italy- I think it actually comes from PA, which is apparently the state whose water tastes the most Italian, which is just like, okay, weird). Japanese Ramen... I want to try some. Ugh, I need to go Philly! As soon as Spring really hits, rather then this cold weather that thinks it's still Winter.

 

Asian Fusion is basically a resturaunt that serves sushi and General Tso's chicken and pho all at once, probably with korean bbq and some sort of Thai dish, too. Or maybe just sushi and General Tso's. Basically, it serves food from around continent of Asia rather then just from one country specifically. Some are actually pretty good, despite the diversity. Most are pretty horrible and you'd be much better off just going to a dedicated Japanese/Chinese/Vietnamese/Thai restaurant (there are no actual Korean restaurants around here, though, so if you want Korean food you have to go to one of them). In my experience, they tend to be good places to go to the bars and get drinks/sake as well as a bunch of appetizers from all different countries and treat it sort of like tapas, or if you have a party that has some picky eaters and some adventurous eaters. They're not really the sort of place that I usually enjoy going to just to go, save for the few ones that are honestly really good... which seem to be rare.

 

Ants, caught three of them squirming around this morning near the elixir of DEATHHHHHHHH. They were not going in to the elixir of death, though, which made me mad at them. Hopefully they'll head in there soon and die. Three is not a bad amount, generally speaking, so I'm trying to stay cheerful about it. I really hoped they were all gone, though.

 

I've gotten drunk twice in my life. Both times, I threw up. It sucked. I've never gotten a hangover, though. Honestly, I have to drink quite a bit to get drunk- two bottles on my own in just like an hour was basically what I did both times. It was stupid of me, and I should know my limits. If I spread the drinking out over hours, I can drink that much without trouble (though I probably shouldn't). But yeah. My friends usually pass stuff to me if I go out drinking, too. My ex basically would order stuff, decide it tasted too alcohol-y, and then pass it to me. He didn't like anything that tasted alcohol-y, but whenever I told him to just order a strawberry daiquiri or a pina colada or something he'd be all "but that's a girly drink" and so he never found anything he liked. Used to drive me nuts.

 

Smoking bad! /sprays with waterbottle

 

(I've gotten addicted to MMO's before. Don't want to talk about it. Those were bad teenage years.)

 

I've backed Cat and Cuàn up on an external drive, both the word document and the mod file. I think I'll just work from that drive for now, actually. The ticking has calmed down some, but it's still doing it on occasion, and that's generally a serious sign of computer going to go. At least I got project in and submitted on time (...if right before the deadline). Phew.

 

Politics in the USA is basically "My side is right, your side is wrong, and your side is trying to destroy AMERICA AND HATES AMERICA AND RAWRGHHHHHHH STRAWMAN ARGUMENT RANDOM RANTING CRAZY FOAMING AT THE MOUTH GOES HERE" from all corners. It's best not to know anything about it, because the more you know the more your head will hurt. It's crazy divided.

 

Seashell Belgian chocolates! I haven't had those in... probably almost a decade. When I was a kid, my grandfather (who spoiled me absolutely rotten and is probably the reason I am such a brat, so, sorry world that has to put up with me) would buy them for me whenever I got a big success on something (learned how to code, got an A+ in school, whatever). I loved them, but I haven't had them in forever. I find Lindt truffles a pretty good substitute, but they don't come in cute seashell shapes. I'd say definitely buy them and eat them. Eat them all!

 

I've never actually had Swiss chocolate (well, real swiss chocolate), but that's something I really intend to. Weirdly, the only place I can think off hand that has some is the airport in Orlando, where I'd have to play airplane prices for it... but I'm still pretty tempted. I'd just really like to try some real Swiss chocolate.

 

I've had French and Italian chocolate, though, and have found both delicious. Especially the Italian. Yum!

 

This week I'm going to try and finish Cat and Cuàn. It's the deadline I set for myself. I can't give 100% that I'll finish them- I'm going to be working on project, too- but I'm going to do my absolute best. Hopefully, um, everyone will like them. I think they're kind of sweet. And honestly, they're much more normal then Aaran/Antonio/Miya/Louise at core, seriously, so if you want friends that aren't crazy, you'll probably like them! Maybe! Hopefully!

[MadHatt]

...Italian water tastes like...well water. In some parts of Milan it tastes a bit metallicky, a tad ..greasy (can I call water greasy?) in Rome and I did not have the sheer guts to drink it Venice, but ...water is water. I can't believe I just wrote that. Which water tastes more Italian...

 

Death to the ant invaders! Here's hoping.

 

I pick the cocktails when going out. If I know a guy likes sweet stuff, I order him a damn sweet thing and he can shut up and drink it. Reminiscent of my sister's ex, who kept ordering shitty drinks and then stealing mine.

Smoking is something I enjoy more than something I'm addicted to, so while I can agree on the whole health issue as much as the next sane person, I'll probably never truly stop. My last cig was two weeks ago or more when I actually stopped and savoured an Irish coffee.

 

Besides ticking, have you noticed anything else going on? Computer being slow? Errors?

 

I think all politics are like that. Except the ones where everything is just a mash of things, different only in name.

 

A decade is too long for seashell chocolates. Look here. See if those are the ones you liked. I don't even know why I like them so much. I've had great chocolates, but how great is it that's it's seashells...

Belgian chocolate is my favourite. There's a 'bar' thingy around called "Chocolat" which imports it and it has the smallest pastries. Yet I can barely eat one whole. And it's absolutely delicious.

 

Swiss chocolate is, as I said, expensive. Nearly ridiculously so. Tiny too. But good. I mean, it keeps up the reputation. A lot of Switzerland is expensive, in fact so it only figures so would chocolate. I think most of Western Europe makes real good chocolate. Eastern Europe has the better 'dough' made sweets if you don't mind them being real heavy and rich-tasting. You have to try kürtős kalács at least once in your lifetime, even if doesn't look like much.

 

Hurrah for Cat and Cuàn! And them being sane. Can't wait to add them to the clique. Good luck with the writing!

[Mikka]

Yeah, I don't really get it. Apparently, they had shipped Italian water to make their pizza crusts, but it became too expensive, so they decided to ship in PA water as Florida water doesn't taste enough like Italian water for the perfect pizza. It's all a bit beyond me: I'm not sure I need my food that authentic. But then again, I guess it's good that they're trying to go the full way, right? I know water tastes different all around the world... and you really probably shouldn't drink in Mexico. While I was there (I was under age) I remember mom being advised not to order her margaritas on the rocks, because the ice was bad.

 

Saw two ants just this afternoon/evening, so maybe one ant went in and got killed by the ant trap of death. Or maybe he went back home. I just hope he doesn't bring more friends back with him. Sick and tired of ants! Angry face!

 

I wish my friends would just let me order for them, especially when it comes to wine. 'Ugh, this stuff is gross it tastes like shoe leather (why were you eating shoe leather?!), how can you drink it you're so weird' well, you order a dry red when you like sweet whites, sweetie, so yeah, you're not going to like it. On the other hand, because they keep doing stuff like that, it means I get drinks for free, and you can't really argue that. People are slowly starting to may more attention to me when it comes to wine, at least, which is good. I get that I look like I'm fourteen years old and it's hard to take me seriously, but I do know more about wine then any one in my immediate group, so it's intensely frustrating.

 

I've just seen smoking ruin so many lives. It depresses me, especially because of the danger through second-hand smoke. Thankfully, PA's laws are becoming more aware of that and making it harder to just light up right outside of buildings. Unfortunately, people still do it anyway, because they're assholes.

 

No computer slowing or stuttering and no errors, but ticking has almost always meant hardrive failure is on the way. However, in this case, I'm ahead: I ordered myself a new hardrive yesterday. So if it does crash, I'll be able to replace it almost immediately, with luck. Of course, I just chose regular shipping, so it's probably going to be like two weeks because (rant about mail goes here). But, well, um... at least I'll have it. And if it miraculously chooses to stay awesome and not crash, well, then I'll have an extra hardrive for when I need it. Not a bad deal, right?

 

Yeah, that's probably true about politics all over the world. Everyone's convinced that everyone but them is trying to destroy everything they stand for and it's a big ugly mess. You know, when I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming a politician and making the world a better place and sunshine and lollypops. Now, I think I'd only choose to become a politician if it was a choice between that and becoming killed. Just... ugly business, that. Respects to those who can do it and keep sane beliefs without going crazy. And I'm not clarifying what counts as sane.

 

Yes! Guylain seashell truffles! They were really nice. I miss them. I brought them up to mom today, though, and she thinks she knows a store around here that might sell some. So maybe I'll buy a box for old time's sake one of these days.

 

I haven't tried many sweets from Eastern Europe, I don't think. I tried Norwegian pastries? They were interesting. One I found actually too sweet, but I don't remember what it was. Rolled dough and cream, really. I need to try more European foods, but it's so hard to here where I am. Boo.

 

Yeah, I think I'm going to see if I can get the duels in and programmed tonight. Project for the next two weeks gets to be fun, as I'm going to write about a subject I enjoy, so... there's a plus. Hopefully, the next two weeks of writing will go well and perfect. I have a lot to get done this week for the kids, so... thanks for the good luck. I still haven't really thought at all of what their adventure's are going to be, darn it.

[Mikka]

Oh, what the hell, my mod file is giving me 'I/O error for file CreateFile (open) "C:\Academagia The Making of Mages\Academagia_ModTool\Two Newbies.amm" Error when trying to open file'

 

I... this... what do I do? It's doing it for both the backup and the original. My Miya (and friends) mod opens fine, as does another mod I made (that stupid no grim occurrence one). I have absolutely no idea what to do, besides throw a temper tantrum that no one would appreciate. Do I really have to start over from scratch (well, I have the word document, but it would mean putting everything in *again*)? Is there some sort of .amm file fixer application hiding out there? I... wah... ;_;

[Mikka]

...THIS MAY HAVE HAPPENED BECAUSE I ALREADY HAD THE MOD OPEN IN ANOTHER WINDOW OF THE MODTOOLS THAT I HADN'T NOTICED AND THUS IT ALREADY WAS RUNNING AND IT COULDN'T OPEN A .AMM FILE THAT WAS ALREADY ACTIVE. ALSO KNOWN, 'BECAUSE I AM AN IDIOT'.

 

So. Um. Yeah. After much swearing and tearing up, I find that it's all fine and dandy and everything is working fine and it can open fine, it just couldn't open because it was already open.

 

You saw nothing, world. Nothing!

[Mikka]

...So now, after last nights problem, I currently have the problem where I can't type anything in to the mod tools main text, success text, or failure text boxes. I try to click on them, and yet nothing happens. 'Create lore link', 'copy' (nothing), and bold and italicing are options on the link above, but the only thing that seems to work is create lore link. But even then, I can get the lore link to appear, but I can't type after it or before it. Starting a new mod or playing with the Miya and friends mod reveals the same problems. I also can't edit any already in the game events or adventures- I can like, highlight things, but I can't type over them. I can't paste from an outside source, either.

 

It reminds me somewhat of a stuck key problem, but none of my keys are stuck. So... I honestly don't know.

 

I have no idea how to solve this. As the problem is there in new mods I create, it's not like I can just start a new mod and retype everything in. So I'm currently basically stuck. Everything is on hold until I can figure out how to actually type in to the silly mod tools, or until I can get someone to do the typing in/coding for me (not fun work).

 

The mod tools are too hefty to run on my laptop, too, so I can't just switch over to there and see if that works. Argh...

[freespace2dotcom]

I am far more on the opposite side of smoking issue. I'm not a smoker myself but everyone else in my familiy is! That said, I believe that...

 

1: while second hand smoke certainly isn't very good for you, I don't believe that the effects are nearly as bad as many claim.

 

2: If someone is concerned about people smoking in front of a building, where there is plenty of space for it to disperse, I think that same person should also consider banning automobiles within a 50ft radius of the any buildings that have people in them as well. Auto exhaust is far more deadly.

 

3: Even if 2nd hand smoke was as bad as breathing in heroine and cocaine at the same time, government has no place telling people what to do on this issue. Example. If I wanted to open a restaurant with a smoking section, I should be allowed to do so. If the smoking was really so filthy eventually I'd go out of business because nobody would come to my restaurant! I don't believe that would actually happen because most people really wouldn't care so long as there was proper ventilation. but if I'm wrong, wouldn't a bunch of pure non-smoking restaurants open up on their own? So why do we need laws telling us how to eat, how to breathe, and how to think?

 

Just some food for thought. The only time smokers bother me is if you start seeing smog in a room, at which point I start nagging until it goes away, usually by opening a window. But having a fan to blow the smoke away from me also works.