Poor Livejournal. Just like I predicted a few months ago, you really aren't getting enough love. It seems that Twitter is where people go now. I really have become a fan of the concept of Trending Topics, but the whole 140 letter thing still feels pretty empty sometimes. Sure, the opening page of Twitter says that's like having ESP, but you're still only hearing the unimportant surface thoughts.

So what have I been up to? Well for one, staying up late and not sleeping enough, which is one of the primary reason I don't have the energy to write longwinded entries. It took me a little while, but I've finally really gotten into Oblivion. It's not quite the masterpiece that Fallout 3 was, but awkward NPC to NPC conversations aside, it's still a fantastic immersive trip. Just like in Morrowind, I'm primarily a sneaky thief/assassin type with a few odd buffs and a weapon of choice to bring the violence, but with the way everything levels (and sometimes overlevels) with you, I never got that feeling of being a physical god that I had in Morrowind. Then again, my sneak skill is over 90 whereas my next three skills are somewhere between 50 and 60, which when combined with my 40% chameleon from magic items has allowed me to do ridiculous things like walk right past someone in low light, stab them in the back, and then stab them in the back again without them figuring out where the hell I am. My personal favorite of these stories involved firing an arrow from the darkness, watching the target run into said darkness to find me only to run past me altogether, and then get merrily stabbing him in the back after I give a look of "Seriously?". It also helps that I have a pair of magic helmets that allow me to switch between blue tinted nightvision or the ability to detect creatures through walls out to 80 feet to really make me feel like the Predator. As if my habits weren't bad enough, I picked up the latest Professor Layton game.

My other weird story of late involved not joining a gym. So my mom entered my name into a sweepstakes at the mall because she said I should meet the girl who was running the contest as she was from our new town and 22. Well, as it turns out I won a free month at the gym should I join for x amount of months. Despite being out of the way from my house and work, I went and actually had a decent time being lead around around by said girl. Unfortunately, they handed me over to a man at the end who had to try the whole persuasion spiel just a little too hard after I kept saying no. My favorite part was trying to convince me that they look for the right kind of person and I had the choice to be that kind of person, and I'm sitting there going "No, I'm pretty sure judging by my motivations I'm about as wrong a person as you're ever going to find."

Also, I think it's almost time to break out the impact font again!

Another Friday, another D&D. The Friday night thing has been working out nicely so far. In summary, we didn't have the best night for roleplaying, but we were in a dungeon so we didn't really suffer for it. Frankly, this game can be summed up in one statement; we fought and fought well. Since it wasn't really plot-based, ( I think I'll go straight to... )

So in further news, Cricket told me she had some ground rules for Will's bachelor party, what with only 23 months until the wedding. I thought this was going to a list of things he wasn't allowed to do. Apparently they were more of a "Chris needs to live a little" list. ( Or something... )

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( Finally, here's my update in Vikings Pirates Ninjas. )

Will said he was waiting for my next D&D Review, but I thought the paragraph I wrote about the man-game counted. I guess not. I didn't really put the prepration into it that I should have, and I was taking the whole thing with a grain of salt because it was a one-shot unrelated to any larger campaign.

The dungeon was weird. Not bad, just unusual because it was ever-so-slightly non-linear because we were at the second-to-top floor of a tower, and yet fairly normal as you can't really skip tower floors. We were the right number of people for once so fights moved at a breezy pace, but we still wiped the floor with the encounters. Josh was supposed to be there as well, but he was not. I could honestly seeing a campaign with this group, but Sean needs something to differentiate himself from Dean first even if I had to DM.

( Is it officially a review if I include... )

In the other campaign, Zakk's making me more worry about 4E even more now. Apparently, he's discovered the works of R.A. Salvatore, and preordering the last book meant he got some free miniatures. I think my more D&D savvy friends know where this is going...

He wants to make a Drizz't clone.

For those unfamiliar with D&D culture, Drizzt Do'Urden is an extremely popular character amongst those who read the books. However, he's supposed to be something of an exception to the norm as he's a noble member of an otherwise evil species. Thus, recreating the character or building one just like him is not only lame, it's kind of taking a dump on the significance of the character. Role playing webcomics have done the concept to death so much that even parodying it is old hat. I've been told there's different levels of it, but Zakk is going whole hog and using everything from his fighting style to his animal companion, which brings us to problem #2. With the release of the book Martial Power, Rangers specialize in one of three combat styles in Fourth Edition: Two-Weapon fighting, Archery, and now fighting with an animal companion. While picking something other than an animal means you won't get an animal, a "Beastmaster" Ranger can still fire arrows and swing two weapons, just without the same perks as someone who specializes. For instance, the difference between a Two Weapon Ranger and other Rangers is that he can wield two longswords at once as opposed to a longsword and a shortsword. Unfortunately, Drizz't was written for a different rules system, so he has a Panther and dual scimitars, so Zakk's trying to weasel in both. Seeing as how I've been trying to play the game as written and am going to be DMing when he becomes a PC, I've been standing my ground, but I highly suspect both perks are going to "find their way" in there. Welcome back to 3.5 with Will's friends.

So there's a feature on Facebook where you can suggest friends for new users. Dean recently joined, so I pointed him to Will, Cricket, Matt, Sean, and others. All well and good, but then I find out that I get an email each time he adds one of these people. You would think this would get annoying, but I like it because each email is like a personal "YOU CALLED IT!" from Facebook, ( So in honor of me... )

Also I realized the most horrible thing ever: D=

Edward Cullen: "yes, you are exactly my brand of heroin."

On the other blog, I started playing with character selectors, as it isn't old hat to the newbies over there. First, I did a Twilight one and got Carlisle, and then I found a Buffy/Angel character selector that was interesting but waaaaaay too long. I haven't posted it yet, but I wanted to share something here first. Read the text, but remember to glance up at my icon every once in a while as you read it.

( Welcome to awkward icon/text juxtaposition theater! )

Some background: starting this Friday, we will start a three-round trivia game called Quizzo. This is my second year as part of a team. The team won two years ago, and came in second last year after the number of teams nearly doubled due to its popularity.

( Decimania is gonna RUN WILD on you, brutha! )

Buffy the Vampire Slayer gives women the Wicca. Technically wouldn't Willow be the one who gave them the Wicca? My experience was that Willow gave the kids the bi, kind of ironic since she was more of a lightswitch than anything else. In an unrelated story, Lorne gives the kids the jazz. Cosby approves. Meanwhile in movieland, they're just pleased to see a female get screentime.

At the cafeteria at work, we have an exhibit of these godawful paintings by a guy named Michael Fumero. Scott and I were debating what would make the exhibit better. He thinks there should be a group shot where only one person in the picture doesn't have what I called a "topographic map face" and the expression on this person's face should reveal that he is cognizant that something is horribly wrong with everyone else. I think he should do one with the cast of Happy Days so you're looking at all this normal people painting ones and then go "Wait... is that the Fonz?!"

I've noticed that while I obviously don't like people who bully other people, I really don't like people who bully others and then cry victim at the slightest provocation. This seems to happen around me more than I'd like.

Okay, so people will probably be less than accepting of my lack of love for the Batman, but you know what people are more accepting of my lack of love for? ( The D&D! )

Cheer me up, Psych!

( The post credits extra. This is more a joke than anything else. )

My subject header comes from episode 30 of Yugioh Abridged. It was just okay by YGO Abridged standards, as Marik's army of Steves has been pretty plain thus far with the exception of Steve the Rare Hunter.

So Matt's back in town, and we were going to have him make a cameo in the 4E game as a Half-Elf Warlock (Half-Elves make for eerily good warlocks actually, take that Tieflings!), but then Zakk got sick. Don't get me wrong, we were all concerned and let him get home to rest in air conditioning. It was later when we found out that this was the second time he got food poisoning from the same meal that it was back to business as usual. I was feeling okay going in, but I didn't have time to see if anything clicked so I'm not out of this "ugh roleplaying" mode just yet. The funny thing is that the statistical/theoretical side doesn't bother me, just the practical application.

This coming week is going to be a bit hectic. In class tonight we're going over a paper due either Friday (said aloud) or this coming Monday (according to the syllabus). Naturally, this is the week people are around to do stuff, the Psych premiere is on, and that little indie picture this summer movie season has practically revolved around is coming out.

My iPhone now has a puzzle game on it called Aurora Feint that's fun albeit a bit simplistic. Like most free puzzle games, this one is about my instinctive hate of small objects of the same color and how I must destroy them whenever three or more get together. I'll show them who's boss! The game touts having RPG elements you unlock, but I don't know how to use any of them so I'm focusing on passive bonuses right now.

Finally some random thoughts and links: the whole Fenrir the wolf story is a cover up, Týr lost his hand because nobody ever taught him how to hold a sword! Who wants to hang Orlando Bloom on their navel!?

Let's talk Nintendo games and Fresh Prince. I'm in case 3 of Phoenix Wright: Justice for All. It takes place in a circus, and I just experienced one of Moe of the Clown's more random outbursts. Meanwhile in Mario Kart, whenever I put Toad in the kart I renamed the Mini Pimpin' Buick (and not the Cheep Cheep kart pictured), he does this head bopping gesture that reminds me of Baby Sinclair. I know there's a YTMND of that same clip set to the theme from Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

There's an app that lets you build crappy little cities on Facebook. Mine is called Latveria, and its description is: "Bah, Doom will not describe his city in order to win your petty approval!". It's actually a lovely place; our culture is lacking, but we have good science (Doombot research), workforce (building Doombots), and safety (enforced by Doombots).

ninjadebugger reviews books, from roleplaying books to actual novels. The guy actually has some really good insight on things. Also, I comically walk into things I shouldn't, as I found a page with at least a gig of books. It's kind of out of date though, but good for catching up on classics like the Complete series.

No, not really.

Alright so Saturday night we had the first game since the massive fight. Since we're nine players and a DM and one of them is Zakk so that's like two people, we had to move out of the dining room into the living room. The good news is comfy couches and not having our backs next to a shelf that's constantly rocking to remind you what a reckless boor you are for breathing. The bad news is playing in a more linear format means that the people up close have a better view, can more easily interact with the pieces, and essentially wind up more important than the people on the far side. Kim and Zakk entered their dubiously minmaxed characters. In addition to each having at least one statistic over 22, essentially exceeding the human maximum without any sort of aid, Zakk has a 3 in two mental stats in order to compensate. To put this in perspective, a normal person has an intelligence of 10, an affably dim one an intelligence of 8, by 6 intelligence your mental facilities or lack thereof are probably seriously impairing your life, and a dog has an intelligence of 2. Will and I consulted the books to see if his character should even be able to speak. Kim's character is essentially Pylea!Fred (not to be confused with Dean who is Pylea!Angel) on the other hand is smarter than pretty much everything but 1000+ year old dragons and some gods. It was at this point I realized that had this group been born a few hundred miles south they would make fantastic creationists as they love to disguise dogma as "freedom of choice".

Mrs. Lewis was in the chair, and scared as I was that this meant the game was going to have all the heart of a World of Warcraft raid (none). Actually, it wasn't bad at all. I'll admit that the more condescending style is more fun when you can hear the humor in the person's voice and not Captain Vindictive-Tone^TM. The game itself was decent if not uneventful so nobody had reason to be a drama queen right? This is a picture of Lex Luthor saying "Wrong!"

For all of you in a betting pool at home, the answer this week is "Tersha"! Deeanna, who by the way is apparently Tersha's maid of honor because all the good ones are taken and this wedding still looks less forced than the one the Sheriff tries to force on Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, did something Deeanna-tastic in order to ensure that there was melodrama without her even being there. Tersha was generally bitc moody, even doing the "things aren't going my way so I'mma throw the paper like a frisbee" move that's like wearing a sign on your chest that says "I'm the bitch tonight" and demanding we have one of our famous mid-game votes over the rules which is kind of like going "Hey guys, remember how we fought last week? Let's do that again!". I like the boy, but Sean managed to ascend to a Nirvana of stupid that a superscript 1 cannot justify so this Guitar Hero solo of them is but a humble tribute:

¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁¹₁

Josh had a good night as did Cricket and I, but as the group is beginning to get super duper munchkin-y, I can see us fading into the background. Or hidden behind Zakk, never to see the light of day. I shouldn't make all these fat Zakk jokes though when there's perfectly good Kim the Chemistry Slayer jokes to be had. Kim tried joining Sean, Will, and I as we were discussing the game afterwards, and she doesn't understand how the process works. For instance, Sean was actually the first to bring up his own blunder (Running headlong through a crowd to attack someone fairly insignificant in the back, getting turned into a human pincushion in the process and being thrown off a bridge. He's fine.) For all my "Sean is teh stoopid" jokes, when face-to-face I'm more likely to positively show him a few pointers and how to avoid similar mistakes next time. Oh that's right, they still think I'm a nice person, and you all know the sinister truth. Anyway, in comes Kim who takes less than thirty seconds to use the word "stupid" and inform us that her character is there to show Cricket "how to play a wizard" right in front of Will, and criticizing Cricket is a one-way ticket to a funless Will. The problem for me is that I heart Cricket, I really do, but it seems like we're never on the same page emotionally anymore. When she gets giddy and excited I want her to knock it off, and whenever I make a joke she seems to have all the warm-natured humor of Sam the Eagle, the muppet not the Olympic mascot. Nonetheless, we can all walk the streets once more knowing Kim it keeping us safe from interpersonal chemistry.

So yeah, good times. Can't complain.

Now on a less upbeat note. ( We salute you, guy who looks like a creepy doll. I will remember you. Will you remember us--probably not because we never talked. )

The paper is done! Time for way too much Interface Design. Ugh.

I really want to try a Ploughman's Sandwich now, but I can't imagine where I would find a place that makes them in the area. I found a description of one somewhere that had prosciutto, cheddar cheese, and Branston Pickle.

Tonight I saw The Forbidden Kingdom. It was a good time, but there was just enough to mock that I thought I should start writing reviews like I did for the big movies of Summer 2007 over on Facebook again.

( My first snarky movie review in a while )

One of my life's dreams is to go to a vampire themed bar and/or club, pending that they're real and not strictly the fantasies of CSI writers. However, I'm not going to wear black and feel smug. I want to go wearing about a dozen crucifixes and a bandolier of garlic. In my hands will be a super soaker full of holy water. If I can get an actual priest to follow me and verify this that would help. Are Vampires affected by the Unitarian Universalists? The highlight of this venture would be chasing the vampires with the Super Soaker. It's a win-win situation for me. Should they flee, I have the fun of... well, chasing vampires with a Super Soaker full of holy water. If they don't flee from me, I have the pleasure of reminding them they're all fakes.

I've noticed that there are these things called "Zombie Walks" at TCNJ. I guess this is still funny for people who don't know Dean because the concept of the mindless horde remains ironic. Much like my vampire scenario, I feel like if I were awake for one, I would feel a need to mess with it entirely. The problem is that I don't want to hurt anybody, and zombies don't have the symbolic weaknesses of vampires. You usually have to shoot them with guns that are thankfully readily available because the whole thing is basically Ayn Rand's Objectivist wonderland, and the theories of Ayn Rand are one of the few things more vile than flesh eating corpses. Matt told me that zombie hunters apparently did show up, but they weren't us and therefore weren't as good since they had things like toy guns and not toy axes and all important catch phrases like "Let's go to work"^BING.

So Matt, Will, and I decided that Mjolnir would be a badass vampire vanquishing weapon because it's lethal enough as it is, but then you have to add on the fact that it's a sacred object AND can generate similarly holy lightning. I'm not quite sure what zombies hate. Brute violence and fire I believe.

Violence? Fire!? The answer is so clear now... Falcon... PAWNCH!!!!!

In my Interface Design class, someone brought up the Random Article button on Wikipedia. When I clicked it, this is what I got. I'm just sad they missed Adam Clymer!

I told Rachel. It wasn't nearly as smooth as it could have been, but I guess that's me. We'll see what comes of it, but I have a feeling she just wants to see me as an entirely sexless shoulder to lean on^BING. In other 'things we have called Wesley' news, the LJ username "roguedemonhunter"^BING is not in use.

Little Mac: Yeah, he got to be an assist trophy (that I never get) but Punch-Out!! was such a badass game that if people like ROB can get nostalgia love, then Little Mac deserves something more. In addition to various trunks and gloves colors, the pink jogging suit has to be an alternate outfit. Despite sounding like he should have the most mundane moveset in human history, I figured out a projectile for him. His side+B can be that he points and Doc Lewis rides by out of nowhere on a (stolen) bike.

Phoenix Wright: The Ace Attorney series has been one of the best gems I've found on the Nintendo DS, so not acknowledging him makes me want to cry Objection! I imagine he'd be a strong melee fighter vaguely in the vein of Captain Falcon with the ability to pound the ground with his palms for his down+B, generating evidence as projectile weapons "Take that!" for his Side+B, and the super point as his standing B. His Final Smash would be called something along the lines of "Turnabout Closing" and involve putting the hapless opponent in the middle of a gesture/voice bubble war between Phoenix and any or all of the prosecutors, particularly those that start with "Edge" and end in "Worth".

Dante: Dante always comes across to me as a bit of a company whore, and Solid Snake has proven that you can use people from M-Rated games. Still, he seems like an ideal candidate. He has enough melee and ranged weapons to get a nice variety of special/smash attacks, and comes with a Final Smash that's logical and true to the character (Devil Trigger).

Someone from Fire Emblem other than a swordsman and if it were up to me, it'd be special ed. axe user Boyd or bird-man Tibarn. Knowing my luck, we'd get Miciah the light mage instead.

Bionic Commando: Now this was an NES game. Bionic Commando had a whip claw arm as well as a bunch of increasingly silly guns. Plus you got to blow up a resurrected/cloned Hitler's head in an NES game! Maybe he should just be an assist trophy who hooks you in with his whip claw to bring the hurt though.

Siegfried: Link was in Soul Calibur; why not put a Soul Calibur person in Smash Brothers? I figure since Siggy has become the hero/messiah/attention whore of the series since SC2, he'd be the ambassador for the series. Maybe it's because SC1 was the only one that blew me away, but I still see Kilik as the main character out of pure denial. I'm sure President Gore would agree with me. He'd be to Ike what Ike is to Marth, which I assume means he can knock people off the stage at -16% life with the right move(s).

Baby Mario & Baby Luigi: If you've played the Superstar Saga game with these two, you know that they can solve nearly anything together. Well, the adult Mario and Luigi can too, plus they can roll up in a vaguely homoerotic man-ball but they're already separate combatants. It'd be like Ice Climbers with the vulnerability of losing one meets the over the top multi-hit moves of Meta Knight-- man they'd suck.

Mii: I spent ten minutes building this damn thing, and I have a million of them. You might as well let me use it in a real game Nintendo! I guess it could have some sports related attacks and some generic karate. It'd beat another Game and Watch appearance.

I think the fact that LJ will save my posts between sessions is slowly ruining me as a user of the site. While the feature sounds handy, I'm building up a hell of a queue here. Right now I have a comedy skit, a D&D character, a freaky real life story, and one of those event recap posts to share. Well, I want to add one or two more gags to the skit so that will have to wait, and I need to finish the monkey pirate's gear. However, here's the other stuff.

The other day I was eating dinner at home with my parents when we got a knock on the door. My father opened it, and there was a boy couldn't be more than 13 years old standing there. Okay, I think, it must be for my mother because she works in a middle school. Well, his first question is "Is Chris here?". This is probably the first time a 12 year old has knocked on the door and asked to see me since, well, I was 12. I go see this kid, and it turns out that he came here because he heard I play World of Warcraft. I let him know that, sorry, I haven't had in account for about a year now and I wasn't interested on picking up a new one. The kid seems a little disappointed and went back on his way. I'm not sure if he was there to invite me to a guild or what.

Last night I went to the 2008 edition of Mystique of the East, which apparently was my third Mystique and not my second like I remembered. The first one had a Snakes on a Plane theme, the second had a Jon King theme, and this one's theme was the subway. It was... good. Like I said to Larissa, I was glad Soran Bushi was there to finally show that some acts brought their "A-Game". The other weird thing was how much instrument tuning and stuff went on onstage. It was like some people were taken by surprise that they were going to be performing before a massive audience. It was pitchy, dawg. John, Ossie, Lloyd, and a guy I didn't know did a buddy cop movie martial arts routine, and Larissa and co. had a similar skit called Subway Samurai with less rolling and more bokken. I wish Will and I had the chance to do something like this at school; the two of us with staff and nunchaku could do a hell of a show. Plus, maybe I could bring out the three-section-staff and hilarity ensues.. Also they did an anime skit where I saw ZOLO and Phoenix Wright in swimming trunks although... *Slams desk* PHOENIX WOULD NEVER BE THAT UNPROFESSIONAL.

You know who I didn't see? Jan, because he's not real.

The only thing that shocked me was that I knew virtually nobody when I was walking around campus. I was expecting to see the occasional IMM major or martial arts drop-out, but not really. I hung out with a bunch of people afterwards most of which I called or came with, including one surprise guest. And in true Chris style, we're not going to talk about what's really on my mind. We'll probably make Angel references instead.

Speaking of Angel, I found Matt's fandom secret, and maybe Lauren's?

Edit: Did someone say Angel References!?

I realized something sad today. I can't access just straight up Google anymore, only iGoogle with 900 features and stuff so I don't see a unifying April Fool's joke on there. Let me know what else you see/find. Right now my favorite is that they're "Adding Bards to World of Warcraft".