practicality

Filling my free time with work and games and friends, and less so with internet lately. Which means I have a great many things I'd like to post about, and not enough time to post it in, so a lot of stuff will probably just get left by the wayside. Yana's birthday was last Monday, and we had a bit of a party - some drinks, lots of food (bought too much, actually, but with gamers, erring on the side of caution is best), Wii games. Good times. Speaking of Wii games, RE4 for the Wii is pretty sweet - little bit weird getting used to the controls, but really nice when you finally do. Jon bought it Saturday along with some new clothes, and I got socks without holes in them and a USB mouse, which I'm using right now (finally, I can play Halflife!). DnD campaign continues to be short-bus special - our prissy female elven wizard managed to get killed by giant rats and reincarnated into a male dwarf.

There's a bunch of photos from Yana's b-day posted on Facebook - may put some up here, although not sure yet. But one photo for the moment, because the last one I posted of Jon was crappy - better one!

Thinking of doing a flist cut because it's getting out of control again, but I'm afraid of stepping on toes. Will see.

I have apparently aquired a hopping social life recently. This perplexes, but does not displease me. So in the last week, I saw Ocean's Thirteen (which prompted a '...Why can't our plans go off that well in Shadowrun?' 'Because we're broke. And playing against Nick' conversation), baked a very chocolately cake, stayed up until 4am playing Mario Party 8, and got talked into joining a fourth campaign - I'm re-writing Anya for it, as she got basically no play time in RR.

Shadowrun had a bit of amusement last week, too, as alluded to in the subject line. Our idiot mage has a spell that can shapechange people into animals. Unfortunately, clothes don't transform, so when you change back, you're totally naked. In Lucia's case, this was in the middle of a mall parking lot. With nothing to show for it, because we were trying to do surveillance for our next run, but the mage is too stupid to work an RFID camera remotely. It was full of epic fail and much hilarity for the players.

Also, Yana's bedroom keeps being invaded by squirrels in the middle of the night. I told her she should start training them and form a squirrel army.

Wow, haven't posted in a while - life has been busy, and I still have no internet at home. Summer classes are over, although I don't know what my marks are yet - currently terrified I failed orgo, which is a distinct possibility because the final was what makes or breaks the grade, and I don't have the mark back yet. 77% in the lab, which is...well, not amazing, but not terrible either. I got rather trashed Friday night on coolers and a bunch of Jello shots, and ended up being very sick soon after, which was not my most glamorous moment. But Rayman for the Wii is lots of fun, and I had a great time up until the point where I got very sick, so in the end it was alright. And lastly, our D&D party looks to be short bus-special (I'm the halfling rogue. And the tank), and proving I have no sense of self-preservation, accepted a ride to work from a rich young woman in a black SUV who saw me running to the bus stop only to be ten seconds too late.

...I live a strange and sometimes wonderful life.

And a brief game story that I think people will still find funny even if they weren't there: Shadowrun has a contacts system for people the characters who have established relationships with, business or otherwise. Nick, Almighty GM 1, plays all the contacts and other NPCs, and is very good about giving them distinct personalities. Shiver, who hits on anything female, has a contact who's a stripper named Josie. He calls her for a favor, and much flirting ensues. Which leads to me and and Aaron trying not start laughing hysterically because it's not actually a hot female striper and a good-looking guy having this conversation, it's two nerdy 20-something guys.

Was going out clubbing after working an eight and a half hour closing shift a good idea? Maybe not. Was is hella fun? Yes.

Last night was Malfunction's Prom event, which means there were decorations, lots of people in fancy clothes, and ridiculously good music - I dressed up and went stag, spent most of the three and a half hours I was there dancing. I didn't bring a camera, but a lot of other people did, so if there are photos uploaded, I'll try and link 'em. The only downpoint was having to flag a taxi at 4am after waiting fourty-five minutes only to realize that the nightbus had probably stopped running. Argh.

I have a day off today, which thus far has mostly been spent sleeping in and futzing around on the internet. I finished DDS1, have very little to say about the ending other than it's totally 'Haha, now you suckers have to buy the second game' (thus _why_ I have little to say), and Angel looks like a bitchy gay man to me. I think it's the combination of the hair and the jacket. Will probably start DDS2 tonight, as it's that or chem studying. Hopefully going to get a cell phone tomorrow, although Canadian rate plans

I was hoping that the people doing evaluations for fall academic standing wouldn't look at my stuff too closely - if they only counted the credits I earned here, I should have first year standing, and if they looked at both here and transfer, by number, I should have third-year standing. Both of which have way less shitty registration dates than second-year standing (bottom of the barrel, pretty much). But no. Second year standing, which means I'm only above the other second years who did worse than me. Which means if I want to take Japanese, I'm going to have to either go and cry on someone's desk, or turn on the hardcore BSing and convince them that I'm 1) going to double major in Arts, and 2) really need Japanese for this. For this second option, I'm going to enlist Chris's help, as he has mastered the Arts talent of total BS. At least I won't be diving for the few seats in orgo lab.

In good news, I think I may actually do alright on this Friday's chem midterm. Andrea and I got some impromptu tutoring from one of the older gamers who's an orgo grad student (I think? Maybe 4th year) for about four hours last night - I think he was ashamed to be associated with people doing so badly in orgo. And then one of the other older gamers gave us a ride home because it was after midnight at this point >.> So I'm working on problem sets right now while Andrea naps - I had a can of Rockstar earlier, and bought another one for three hours from now when Shadowrun starts, so I'm pretty awake.

So, I saw PotC 3 last night with one of the Shadowrun/Earthdawn guys, as most of my other friends out here already had massive groups of people to go with. And it was pretty sweet, aside from the fact the movie theatre seats were incredibly uncomfortable (which probably explains why the 8pm showing still had lots of seats left). But yes, definately better than the second one (closure yay!).
( Now, spoilers! )

While getting drunk and watching Alien may sound like a good idea, it isn't. Mostly because nothing seems quite as suspenseful when you're tipsy, and if you're like me, you end up nearly falling asleep in the last ten minutes.

I wanted to go out to Malfunction tonight but by the time I got off work, I was about to crash, so I decided that as much as I wanted to dance, I'd have been unhappy and wanting to leave after being there all of an hour. Sanctuary long weekend party is tomorrow night, but I'm working closing, so that's not going to happen. Boss as also put me on for 12-8 next Wednesday, which is going to be something of an issue because I have class until 12, and then Shadowrun at 6:30. And I'm finally settling into the game mechanics and the party we've got going. Gah. Going to talk to him tomorrow, I think.

Killed off LA!Asher today. A little bit sad, because there was lots I wanted to do with him that didn't end up happening (he _still_ hasn't managed to get into a fist-fight with another PC), but at the same time, I'm glad I pulled out of that game.

I'm working on a playlist of background music for our Shadowrun games - I was insipired by our GM, who spent about three hours yesterday afternoon making one for last night's game (he's unemployed at the moment, and has a looot of free time on his hands). I've actually got a pretty decent selection put together from my own files, but I'd love suggestions and new music. My biggest problem is that I listen to a lot of industrial, most of which a little too heavy to run Shadowrun to. 'Verse is pretty Sprawl-inspired (much as they try to deny it) although with some magic thrown in. Uploads would be loved, as care of shitty internet it's hard for me to track things down, although I'm happy with just names.

Character stuff and real life what-not to come later - I've only got twenty minutes before I need to leave if I want to actually eat lunch before work.

The subject is not actually a lie - I did spend $40 today to make some chocolate chip cookies. This is because my roommate basically doesn't cook, at all. So the sum total of our cookware was a saucepan, two frying pans which had seen some better days, a small casserole dish, and a minor assortment of spatulas and wooden mixing spoons. So I spent $20 buying a cookie sheet, mixing bowl, and measuring cups and spoons, and then another $20 buying basic cooking ingredients like flour, vanilla extract, baking soda, that sort of thing. Most of these should last me through the summer, and the cookware should last a lot longer than that, so they're investments, really. I still need to buy a muffin tin, 9" cake pan (which I use for both cakes and brownies), and a springform pan to make my cheesecake of awesome. Most of these will have to wait until June when I've got some extra money, though - will see how the bank balance works out once I pay off my current debts.

I've spent the afternoon trying to study orgo, but it's hard, as this textbook is really boring, and two-thirds of it is stuff I already learned in first-year chem. Unfortunately, there's just enough new stuff that I have to at least skim it to pick it up, because I need to do well in this class, and we have a midterm Friday. I also need to look over the sections about magic in the Earthdawn book, because I've decided to go with the elf Illusionist (more on him, and my Shadowrun gal, later, I think - I've been sorting backstory for them out), and I have to give the book back to the GM tomorrow night so he can plan next week's session. All I really want to do is sit around and play DDS, though.

I just finished the somewhat epic task of installing new firmware on my mp3 player, retagging a bunch of my music files, redoing playlists (I resorted my files back in December, which means all the file paths changed, which means the playlists weren't any good), and importing all of this to my mp3 player via my new version of Winamp. It was, thankfully, successfu, which means I can listen to my favorite FST ever (That Turks one I always talk about - it's good though!), and the Revolting Cocks song I've been loving on recently (although possibly not in public, as it makes me want to dance, a lot). I've got a few more playlists to redo at some point, but I did up most of my favorites.

Went for a nice little walk today, and stopped in to a discount kitchen supply store and fantasized about all the pans I'm going to buy when I have some spare cash - yeah, I know I'm insane - and then wandered up and down 10th some. Contemplating renting a movie, but it's more fun with friend and/or microwave popcorn, of which I had neither at the moment. Another day, perhaps.

In RP news, I'm quitting RR - figure it's best to leave before I end up disliking people associated with it permanently - and considering an elven illusionist for Earthdawn. Possibly a very flamboyant elven illusionist. It's actually a pretty interesting setting - I knew nothing about it going in but that it was fantasy (joined the game more because the other players are awesome and the GM is super-awesome), but I was pleasantly surprised when I read the backgound info in the massive player's guide. It's a little grittier and wilder than most Generic Fantasy settings - just enough darkness to keep it interesting without veering off into V:tM territory (apologies to the White Wolf/Vampire fans, but...it is pretty stereotypically Goth). I'd love to play a blood elf, but strongly suspect they aren't meant to be part of the elf race given for players, and have not quite managed to cur GM's favor to the extent where I could talk him into it.