What D&D Character Are You?

I Am A: Lawful Neutral Human Sorcerer (3rd Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-12
Dexterity-10
Constitution-11
Intelligence-15
Wisdom-12
Charisma-10

Alignment:
Lawful Neutral A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs him. Order and organization are paramount to him. He may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or he may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government. Lawful neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot. However, lawful neutral can be a dangerous alignment when it seeks to eliminate all freedom, choice, and diversity in society.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

And because they're kind of interesting (to me, at least) here are the detailed results: Alignment: Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20) Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19) Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19) Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (24) True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (23) Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (23) Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXX (9) Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXX (8) Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXXXXX (8) Law & Chaos: Law ----- XXXXXXXXX (9) Neutral - XXXXXXXX (8) Chaos --- XXXXXXXX (8) Good & Evil: Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXX (11) Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15) Evil ---- (0) Race: Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13) Dwarf ---- XXXXXX (6) Elf ------ XXXXXXXX (8) Gnome ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10) Halfling - XXXXXXXXXXXX (12) Half-Elf - XXXXXXXX (8) Half-Orc - XXXX (4) Class: Barbarian - (-27) Bard ------ (-23) Cleric ---- (0) Druid ----- XX (2) Fighter --- (0) Monk ------ (0) Paladin --- (-23) Ranger ---- (-4) Rogue ----- (-2) Sorcerer -- XXXXXXXX (8) Wizard ---- XXXXXX (6) It's good to know I don't have an evil bone in my body. Though, how I scored almost as high on Halfling as I did on Human, I have no idea. I thought I'd at least get a bit of Bard too, but woah, -23!

What Happend to July?

Goodness, it looks like I forgot to post for more than a month!

And I was so hoping to have at least one post on this blog for each month this year. Oh, well. It's not really important.

The Haven 4th of July party was great, and for my birthday on the 23rd, I borrowed the sjoelbak from Grandma S. I took it to the Haven, and taught anyone who wanted to learn (and wasn't too busy preparing for Pennsic) how to play. It was much of the fun.

For those of us who didn't go to Pennsic, there was the "Anti-Pennsic Pool Party" on the 31st, which Carl threw at his parents' house. That was great--it had been a long time since I got to talk to some of the people who were there, since I mostly end up in the private gaming room on Thursdays for Brian's neolithic D&D game.

The three of us found out either late in July or early this month that our land lord is raising our rent. We can't afford to pay the higher rent, so Anna's been looking for a new place for the four of us (me, Anna, Tim and Dylan) to live.

So far, I've seen one place that we all liked--in Knoxville--and Anna and Tim went to see a place in Smithsburg that they say I would probably like. We haven't heard anything from the people who own the Knoxville house, but the owners of the Smithsburg house are definitely looking over the rental application, because there have been phone calls made to at least Anna's work, and one other person.

We're definitely going to be out of this duplex before September 1st though, so I started packing this past Sunday. The way I pack for moving is last-in-first-out. First, I pack the most non-essential items I own, and then I work my way from those to the stuff in my bedroom, which is usually the stuff I use most often and/or need daily.

Once everything has been moved to the new house, the first things I unpack are the those daily/most-often-used things, and then I go backwards(-ish) to the first things I packed originally. On Sunday, I started by packing my books. As much as I love to read, I know that my books are the absolute least essential things I own.

Once I had all of my books packed, I packed up all of the movies in the basement (Anna's, Tim's and mine), and then I packed my music stuff.

All I have left to pack now is the stuff in the laundry room, the paperwork and office supplies in/on my desk, my extra bedding from the linen closet, my stuff from the bathroom, and the absolute essentials--my bedroom. When I get around to doing that packing, everything but the bathroom and the bedroom will be done at once, and will probably take less than an hour. The last bits will be done the day before I plan to sleep at the new place--wherever that will be--and will be unpacked as soon as it gets there.

Exciting Prospects for Future Enjoyment and Employment

Turns out, I was right about my points in the Magic League--3½ as of Friday evening.

Saturday's forge safety class was cool. It's going to be difficult to handle the hammer with the gloves on (or even without), since it's a two-pound sledge I'll only be using one hand for, but I'll get used to it. And the work will not only be work, but it will be fun work, so I don't mind the heavy hammer.

I looked up some beginner forge projects online, and found a neat site called iForge. I printed out a few projects and put them in order of what I think their difficulty is. There were some that I knew I wouldn't be ready to do for a long while yet, but still want to do when I am ready, so I didn't print them out yet. Eventually, I want to be able to make at least simple locks, if not the more complex ones demonstrated at iForge as well.

Yesterday, I downloaded a program called DM Genie, which will help me to organize D&D 3.0 or 3.5 campaigns that I plan to write. I don't really like 4th edition D&D, so I won't be making any campaigns for it anytime soon, and didn't want to download any DM's tools for that edition.

The company also has a more limited version of the program called Player Genie, which is basically just a character generator/updater.

I've already started writing a campaign based on the one I played in a year ago at the Haven (my character was a human ranger named Laina). I just needed to get a few things from the Haven before I could go much further than the first encounter or two.

I'm taking my Haven bag home today (it's been sitting on my GM shelf at the Haven for months now), since I need some of the information in it to make my campaign.

This evening, I had to get my allergy shots and go grocery shopping, so I wasn't able to do any forge or campaign work just yet. I also had to get some charcoal at Home Depot before I could use the forge anyway, so I'd only have been able to work on the campaign (or play Magic, of course) if I went tonight.

Tomorrow's a different story though.

Sandwich Run

Friday, nothing much happened that doesn't happen every week, except I decided to participate in the Magic: The Gathering League at the Haven.

Yesterday, I took Jason to the Haven and he watched the Living Forgotten Realms D&D game while I did some more Magic League stuff.

After we got back, I watched three episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I've NetFlix'd disc-by-disc. I was on the fourth disc. After the last of those three episodes, Tim was home, so Kayla, Anna, Tim and I all piled into Anna's car to make the 2½ hour trip to Johnstown, PA where Cashaw lives. Once there, we got into Cashaw's car, made the hour-long drive to Pittsburgh, picked up Cashaw's friend Dave, and then went to Primanti Brothers for sandwiches.

I had pastrami and cheese and a Coke with no ice. The sandwich was better than I remembered Primanti Brothers sandwiches being--but I think the fries on the two sandwiches I'd had before were stale. This time, everything was fresh, and warmed to perfection (except for the cole slaw, which would've been gross warm). I added hot sauce to my sandwich, and it was even better.

By the time we got back to Cashaw's, it was about 7:30 in the morning, so we crashed there for a couple hours. The three of us (Kayla's staying until Thursday to watch Cashaw's kids) woke up around 9:30 and headed home, since Tim had to be at work by noon.

We got home around 11:30, and I watched the fourth episode of Avatar on that disc before going to sleep until around 7:30 or 7:45 pm. I've been awake now for a little over two hours, and I'm going to have to go back to sleep around 12:30 or 1 at the latest, so that I'll be able to get enough sleep (without waking up way too early) for work tomorrow.

Just Catching Up

Not too much interesting stuff has happened since my last post, but I figured it would be a good idea so that I don't forget the few things that really are interesting.

Last Friday marked the last session of the Changeling game I was playing in. Gene tried to stretch it as long as he could, but it got to the point where our characters would just be "bean counting" after last week's session. That day was also Steve's birthday. I have no idea how old he is, but we had cake. David's D&D 2.0 game was cancelled that night, due to the fact that I was the only player other than Steve who was actually there.

We're having Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house this year, since Mom had surgery last week. We planned the menu, and I'm making brussels sprouts. I've got to stop at the grocery store tonight and get them, plus the ingredients to make them "less boring." I found a recipe on the Food Network website for Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Red Cabbage. Yum.

Due to Mom's health issues, she's lost a lot of weight. In fact, she's lost so much that we now both wear the same size jeans! No lie; I actually had her put on the pair I was wearing yesterday, and she fit them better than I do!

This morning, I packed two sandwiches to take to work for lunch--one was pastrami and the other was salami. I then went upstairs to eat my breakfast before I had to leave for work, and when I came downstairs, I found Tabby (Tim's cat) "chasing" one of the sandwiches off the dining room table! I found the other one on the kitchen floor. Grrrr.

I didn't have time to pack more sandwiches before I had to leave, so I got Five Guys for lunch today.

Fun, fun, fun

Halloween was pretty busy, all told. I went to work in my RennFest garb, and we had the annual party there. Then I went to the Haven for their Halloween party. Anna, Kayla and Jason came in and talked for a few minutes, then later on, Anna and Kayla came back and I went home around 10:30 or 11.

The next day, Jason and I decided to go back to the Haven, and I taught him to play Khet (laser chess), and we played Settlers of Catan and a couple of other games before we went home--four hours later.

Monday evening, I went to the Walkersville chapel to help set up for the election, and Tuesday was the election itself. It went pretty smoothly, except that once all the machines were put away, the chief judges kept us there for another hour and a half because their counts were off. We finally got to leave the chapel at around ten though.

We have a new president--Barack (sp?) Obama. I'm okay with that outcome, even though I voted for Nader. When Heather and I were looking online at the candidates' solutions to various issues, Nader's and Obama's solutions were all pretty good, but to me it seemed that Nader's ideas had more of a chance of getting implemented in a four-year time period than Obama's did. So, despite having voted for someone else, I'm perfectly okay with Obama as president.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were work as usual, and then after work Friday I went to the Haven for the "big" Changeling game--the session that could either end the whole campaign, continue with the villain known, or end the whole campaign.

The campaign almost ended, but the villain (Carl's character, H.P. Lovemore) was revived, so we were able to continue. Now, all of us will be playing on Friday's, instead of in individual sessions during the week. I also got my own copy of the Changeling manual, so that's pretty neat.

David's D&D 2.0 game went okay, except for the fact that most of the party members kept arguing about the stupidest little things and wouldn't get their acts together long enough to actually play. The three people rescuing my half of the party had one encounter, then they rescued us in a second encounter. By the time we got to a place where we could have an encounter as a full party, it was already ten o'clock, and time to stop. Grr.

Ah well, there's always next Friday.

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day, but around 4 or so, I paid my bills and stuff before going to run errands around 6. I went to Bath & Body Works for shower gel and more body cream (plus other stuff); CVS for shampoo, conditioner and Blistex; Rosa Pizza for dinner; Advance Auto for antifreeze; WaWa for gas and a lighter (for the oil fragrance warmer I'd bought at Bath & Body Works); and the storage facility for some of my music and writing stuff. I still have yet to put the antifreeze in the bug, but I'm going to do that either later this evening or tomorrow before I head out to work--it's been screaming at me about the temperature for at least a week now.

It would be really neat if . . .

. . . there were an RPG for Pern, don't you think?

End thought.

On with the updates:

Kayla and I didn't actually get to see the new Batman movie the day after my last post, but we did see it eventually. It was awesome. Of course, with my little knowledge of the Batman universe, I was kind of spoiled--I just knew that Gordon couldn't really be dead, 'cause he had to become Commissioner first.

Heath Ledger was awesome as the Joker; if I didn't know it was him, I wouldn't have recognized him--his voice was completely different from usual, and the makeup was (necessarily) heavy, of course.

A few Sundays ago (I don't remember exactly how many), Anna found O'Malley (one of her orange tabby cats) on the staircase, struggling to breathe. She rushed him to the animal hospital, where they found that he had fluid in his lungs.

There were four things that could have caused that, and various solutions to those problems which could have been implemented. But each solution had its down-side, and none of them would have guaranteed that he wouldn't have fluid in his lungs later on, so he had to be put down. He was five years old.

Anna was devastated. We had a little funeral for him out back that same night, and Anna painted a cinder block brick with his name on it for a headstone.

A few days later, someone stole the power adapter for the camper. I came home from work that Wednesday (or maybe it was Thursday?) to find that there was no power going to my TV, my alarm clock, my VCR/DVD-R, or my computer. I tried resetting the breakers both in the house and in the camper, but nothing worked. So I looked at where the extension cord got plugged into the camper, and there was a piece missing, which allowed the extension cord to have the camper plugged into it. It still hasn't been found.

So, the day after that, Anna and Kayla cleaned out Anna's old room (Kayla had already moved out of it into Kimba's old room, since she moved into a house downtown), and I slept in the empty room on Anna's "nook" pillows for a night with a few "essentials." The day after that, Jason got his room cleaned, and moved into the empty room. That Saturday, I was able to move
all of my stuff into Jason's old room, and slept on Anna's pillows until last weekend, when I setup my old daybed.

After Anna gets married in February, I'm going to move all of my stuff (except the daybed and my books) into my old room (currently Anna's), and we're going to use the room I'm currently in as a guest room which will double as my library.

Or that's the plan, anyway.

A few days after I moved into the house, Tim (Anna's fiancé) got a new puppy. She's a shepherd mix, and he named her Brian, after the dog from Family Guy. She's so tiny, and cute--too bad she'll have to grow up and get all annoyingly big and everything.

Yesterday, Anna, Kayla and I went shopping for various things, including lingerie and new pillows for me and groceries for all three of us. We also picked up the dress I bought at RennFest a few years back, since we're going there tomorrow--both Anna and I have Labor Day off, and Kayla has agreed to come, as long as we don't make her wear any garb. I said that was okay, as long as she at least tried Anna's dresses on yesterday and looked in a mirror; she did, and then promptly took them off and got in her regular clothes again.

My Friday night D&D game is no more. Actually it was technically a "new to RPGs" game, so since at least two of us had gotten GM memberships at the Haven, we don't really need "instruction" anymore--not for playing, anyway. Instead, Gene started up a new game, based in the World of Darkness. He's doing a GMs-only, mostly one-on-one Changeling game.

Pretty much, the concept is, he'll work with each of us players individually on certain days of the week (my day's going to be Friday), and we'll have to post on the message boards within 48 hours about what our character did during the latest session. We'll also be able to have one-on-one sessions with the other players, I'm thinking as well. The world itself seems interesting, and I'm looking forward to playing it. I created my character two nights ago, but I forgot to give her a name.

My D&D 4.0 character went into the "Old Characters" section of my RPG player's binder. I've also got a GM binder for my Serenity game, as well as for a series I'm writing for the Buffy RPG.

I hate moving.

It's just way too much work.

Anyway, I am now living in my parents' camper in their back yard, with a few bins of stuff which I might need from day to day or week to week (like clothes and my computer). It's actually kind of cozy, even though the roof leaks in a couple places and the power goes out every few days or so. This morning the power went out at least two hours ago, and it hasn't come back on, so I've been trying to figure out why. It's the outlet that the camper is connected to on the outside of the house.

I tried every breaker inside the camper, plus the breaker for the outlet in the house, but the power still wouldn't come back on. So Dad said to try taking something electric out to the cord and the outlet to see if the power is even coming to the camper at all. I took the little hanging "lantern" out to the place where the cord plugs into the camper--it didn't turn on. Then I plugged it into the outdoor outlet--still didn't turn on. Finally, I brought it into the kitchen and plugged it in there--it turned on. So I need to find another outlet which the extension cord can reach before I'll get power in the camper again. I'm typing up this entry on my dad's computer inside while he's at church with Jason.

Bart from the Haven helped me get my furniture and most of my other stuff to my storage unit last weekend with his "Mobile Opression Palace" (a huge SUV)--thanks, Bart! Then Kayla and I went back to the townhouse on Wednesday to pack up our dishes and such. We left all of the tupperware-type containers for Jenn and Amit, since we didn't really have anywhere to use them. Then yesterday I went back to the townhouse and vacuumed my room, Kayla's old room, and the living room, then cleaned my full bathroom and the half-bath on the second floor--Neha helped me with that one. After I swept the dining/common room, I was done.

Speaking of the Haven, things are going well there. We finished our last Friday night 3.5 dungeon crawl a few weeks ago, and Gene and Steve decided to start teaching us D&D 4.0. We created our characters last week, and then this past Friday started actually playing. We killed a few kobolds, and then stopped for the night. My character is a dragonborn warlock.

On Thursdays, we have what I like to call "Crazy Thursday." Three Thursdays ago, Bart ran a Buffy game--although it was just creating characters, since we've decided not to play with the original cast anymore in favor of a setting in the Gold Rush time period. Then two weeks ago, he ran a new D&D 3.5 game, in which I play a gnomish cleric, with a dwarven fighter/cleric cohort.

This past week was the first session (in which character creation was done, and not much else) of the very first RPG I've ever run. I'm running a Serenity game, and I'm hoping it's going to be awesome. The only reason we couldn't do more than create characters this week was because the guy who will be playing the captain of the ship (once the crew has a ship, that is) was home sick. Next week is either going to be a free week, or the week which we start the actual Serenity game, if Brian (ship's captain guy) can make it both next week and for the July 24th session. Truthfully, I'm pretty nervous about running my first RPG, but hopefully it'll be fun. I've introduced a concept that I haven't seen done before--transient characters. There were a bunch of people who wanted to play the game, or watch the system, and I could only handle 3-4 actual crew members, so I introduced the transient characters idea so that some other players could get into the system at least every once in a while.

Not much more to say now, except that I wish the power in the camper was back on.

Finally, an Update

A lot's been happening the last couple of weeks, not all of it productive in the strictest sense of the word.

As of last week, I've joined a Buffy RPG game on Thursday nights. The story is set after season 3 episode 4, and I'm playing Faith. So far, we also have a Willow and an Oz, and room for two more players.

The Friday night game is going well--last weekend, we spent a "year" training and fighting in the plane of Akron (don't know if that's the correct spelling or not). My character, a ranger named Laina, gained a point of strength (for a total of 16) and lost a point of constitution because she'd been beat up so much (for a total of 12). Everybody also was given a level of dual-classing in fighter, with most of the extra stuff that comes from leveling. Next time I level though, I'm going to have to decide whether I want to be ranger 5/fighter 1 or ranger 4/fighter 2. Not much of a huge dilemma, but it'll be fun to figure out which would be best.

After we all figured out how dual-classing worked and made the necessary changes to our character sheets, we got to another plane of existence and found ourselves in Sigil, the City of Doors. We looked for a way to get back to Eberron (the world we're playing in), but it would cost us 500 gold per person, and even I'm short at least 80 gold (I'm the least broke of the party), so we looked for a job to do. This guy sent us to find some magic fungus in a cave rumored to have Medusae in it (wouldn't that be Gorgons though?), but when we got there, the Medusa was an illusion--we were actually fighting Driders instead! Laina took 10 points of temporary strength damage, 7 hit points of damage, and got stuck in a web for the last half of the combat. Then we were done for the week. I can't wait to find out what happens to us next! We still have to find that fungus.

When I got home on Friday, I watched episodes 3-14 (plus special features) of Firefly. Yes, you read that right, 3-14. I was so psyched about finally getting to watch the whole series (what little there is of it) that I didn't want to turn it off and go to sleep--so I didn't. The special features finished around 9 Saturday morning, so I put Serenity in the player and started it going. About fifteen minutes later, I was dead to the world. Good thing I'd already seen the movie.

Three hours later, Anna came over asking me stuff about Pittsburgh and New York, but since it was my "stay home and clean" week, I told her I wasn't going to come.

I went back to sleep for a while, and somewhere in there I remember eating some leftover boxed mac 'n' cheese, but I pretty much stayed asleep until around 5:30 on Sunday morning.

I layed there in bed for a while with my eyes closed, 'cause I couldn't make them stay open, then I popped MacGyver in and watched an episode before I went downstairs to get some cereal. I watched another episode while I ate, and by then it was about 7:30. There hasn't been much luck on the roommate finding front, so I started packing my movies and books. I got all of my stuff on the first floor packed up, plus a good portion of my books on the third floor, before I ran out of empty packing tubs. (I use the Rubbermaid 21.5 gallon things.)

At that point, I was kind of physically exhausted, but nowhere near sleepy, so I watched a couple more episodes of MacGyver before heading out.

Dinner at Mom & Dad's was kind of quiet, what with Anna and Kayla not there, and Kimba taking her dinner to her room. I pretty much hung out with Dad and Jason for the evening, and then after dinner we played video games. Kayla got in around 11 or so (Anna left again after dropping her off), and then I went home a little later.

Before I went to sleep last night, I watched the last two episodes of MacGyver season 2, so I can put that season in the tub now, and start on season 3 next time I watch.

I always pack my movies and books first, because no matter how much I like to have them out and organized, I know that they're actually the least necessary items in my possession. So I pack them first, and then I pack everything else with increasing necessity over the course of a month, ending with things that I absolutely need from one day to the next. And I put sticky labels on the lid of each tub with semi-detailed (but concise) descriptive words. That way, I'm not stressing about losing something, or not being able to find it later. Plus, I'll know which rooms to put which tubs in the next time I have a place to put them and I won't need a million cardboard boxes, just a dozen or two Rubbermaid tubs.

You're probably wondering where that drabble I posted earlier today came from.

Well, they added a new forum to the Haven message boards specifically for creative writing. So I suggested that we have weekly drabble challenges where someone contributes a challenge word, and anybody who wants to posts a drabble based on that word. The first word was "silver," so I got to thinking of thieves and then I thought to myself that it's pretty much a given that you should never trust a thief, but you should never hire a thief who has naught but two coins to rub together. And then I wondered if that were necessarily true, and decided to write my drabble based on the assumption that it wasn't.

Yesterday

I went to the Haven after work yesterday so that Steve and/or Gene could get my character caught up for this coming Friday's D&D game. It didn't take long.

When I got home around 6:30, I put my stuff away, started my laundry, and then tried to move my laptop into the kitchen so I could watch Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight while I cooked. No go. The laptop kept shutting off abruptly just as I was plugging it into the wall.

I called my dad to ask why it might do that. He said that the powerpack and/or battery in the laptop might be dead, so it could survive in the dock (which has its own power pack), but not plugged straight into the wall.

So, I cooked my casserole without entertainment.

At first, I was annoyed because when I looked in the pantry, the box of elbow macaroni I'd been planning to use was already open and looked like it was halfway gone. But once everything was cooked and put together, I saw that was a good thing--the ingredients were much better proportioned that way.

I wanted to add some of the beef sausage I bought last month to the casserole, but I think Jenn and Amit (or rather, just Amit, since Jenn's a vegetarian) ate them. Which isn't really a problem, since they share their food with me too, but I didn't even get to eat one of them before they were gone. :(

Anyway, I finished making the casserole, and filled up a plate then put the rest into containers. There were only two filled this time, so I'll have just enough to make it through lunch and dinner today and tomorrow. I'll buy lunch on Friday.

Then, I sat down at my desk and started Dragonlance while I ate the casserole. But the audio skipped a lot, so I decided to just finish eating and watch it upstairs instead.

The casserole turned out better than the last one. First, the proportions were better, so the soup coated everything a lot easier, making the whole dish more moist. Then, the soup was cream of mushroom, instead of cream of onion, and that worked better too, since there were already mushrooms in the dish and the soup enhanced that flavor. Also, I added some cheddar cheese, and put more minced garlic (still don't have any powdered) into it than last time, so it was more flavorful.

Sometime during the evening, I switched the laundry in the machines.

So I watched the movie after I'd finished dinner. It was okay, but could have been better. I posted a review of it on NetFlix, but it won't show up for another day or two.

When the movie was over, it was time to fold the jeans and put the rest of the wash into the dryer, so I did that, and then went downstairs to my computer to watch Superman Doomsday on Instant Play at NetFlix.com. That was great. I also reviewed that movie on the site, and that review won't show up until tomorrow or Friday either.

After the movie, it was around midnight, so I went upstairs to go to sleep.

Yesterday

I went to the Haven after work yesterday so that Steve and/or Gene could get my character caught up for this coming Friday's D&D game. It didn't take long.

When I got home around 6:30, I put my stuff away, started my laundry, and then tried to move my laptop into the kitchen so I could watch Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight while I cooked. No go. The laptop kept shutting off abruptly just as I was plugging it into the wall.

I called my dad to ask why it might do that. He said that the powerpack and/or battery in the laptop might be dead, so it could survive in the dock (which has its own power pack), but not plugged straight into the wall.

So, I cooked my casserole without entertainment.

At first, I was annoyed because when I looked in the pantry, the box of elbow macaroni I'd been planning to use was already open and looked like it was halfway gone. But once everything was cooked and put together, I saw that was a good thing--the ingredients were much better proportioned that way.

I wanted to add some of the beef sausage I bought last month to the casserole, but I think Jenn and Amit (or rather, just Amit, since Jenn's a vegetarian) ate them. Which isn't really a problem, since they share their food with me too, but I didn't even get to eat one of them before they were gone. :(

Anyway, I finished making the casserole, and filled up a plate then put the rest into containers. There were only two filled this time, so I'll have just enough to make it through lunch and dinner today and tomorrow. I'll buy lunch on Friday.

Then, I sat down at my desk and started Dragonlance while I ate the casserole. But the audio skipped a lot, so I decided to just finish eating and watch it upstairs instead.

The casserole turned out better than the last one. First, the proportions were better, so the soup coated everything a lot easier, making the whole dish more moist. Then, the soup was cream of mushroom, instead of cream of onion, and that worked better too, since there were already mushrooms in the dish and the soup enhanced that flavor. Also, I added some cheddar cheese, and put more minced garlic (still don't have any powdered) into it than last time, so it was more flavorful.

Sometime during the evening, I switched the laundry in the machines.

So I watched the movie after I'd finished dinner. It was okay, but could have been better. I posted a review of it on NetFlix, but it won't show up for another day or two.

When the movie was over, it was time to fold the jeans and put the rest of the wash into the dryer, so I did that, and then went downstairs to my computer to watch Superman Doomsday on Instant Play at NetFlix.com. That was great. I also reviewed that movie on the site, and that review won't show up until tomorrow or Friday either.

After the movie, it was around midnight, so I went upstairs to go to sleep.

A Weekend

Friday was Anna's birthday, so I ditched the Haven to have dinner at Mom & Dad's. First, I went home to pack for the weekend though--no sense in going home Friday just to come back Saturday, after all. I didn't get my stuff back upstairs from the living room though, so I'll have to do that tonight.

I got to Mom & Dad's, then we did birthday stuff like having dinner (breakfast stuff) and Anna opening her presents. She got a pretty nice haul, and I can't remember it all, so I'm not going to list any of it except for the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map.

Saturday morning, I had a doctor's appointment at 9, so I woke up around 8. I went to the doctor, and she said that it was probably just a really bad sprain, but I should get an x-ray just in case. She also said that, if it is just a sprain, then I should keep doing what I'd been doing to help it heal--with more walking on it now--plus take 600mg of Ibuprofen twice a day even if it doesn't hurt much, since Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory medication and will help keep the swelling down. That's one $20 co-pay down the drain.

So, I went to the FMH center at Rose Hill (off of Oppossumtown Pike) and got my x-ray--another $30 co-pay down the drain. That was my last $50, which I was hoping to spend on a haircut and about $30-worth of essentials like food (I don't need much at the moment, and can get by on what I have, but would've liked to get some variety). Oh well.

The radiologist was going to call the doctor (who would then call me) within a couple of hours if they found any abnormalities--read: fractures--in my x-rays, so since I didn't get a phone call all day Saturday, I figure it's not broken. Thank goodness.

Not much else happened the rest of Saturday, but yesterday I woke up around 10 or so and Anna and I watched some TV before she, Kayla and I went with Kimba to her volleyball game. Every Sunday afternoon, Kimba plays volleyball at the old armory downtown with some friends from high school and such.

As we were getting ready to leave, Kimba says to me, "After victory ice cream, we're going to Master Cuts to get you a haircut, which I'm paying for." I had already been planning on getting a haircut eventually, but since it wasn't a priority and I'd just spent my last $50 the day before, I figured it would be at least another week (I get paid this Friday) before I got that haircut.

She was all like, "It is too a priority," and made me get the haircut yesterday anyway--and even bought me some Paul Mitchell shampoo and conditioner, which is expensive stuff, especially when you consider that I haven't even come close to running out of the last shampoo and conditioner I bought yet. I'm not going to just stop using my current stuff--that would be wasteful--but once I run out, I'll use the Paul Mitchell stuff. I don't know if I'll be able to afford to buy more of it after that's gone though--brand-name salon products are insanely priced!

I'm currently using the Dove Go Fresh Therapy Cool Moisture Shampoo (25.4 fl. oz. Cucumber & Green Tea Scent--$7.99) and the Dove Go Fresh Therapy Cool Moisture Conditioner (same amount, also in Cucumber & Green Tea Scent--also $7.99). The Paul Mitchell stuff Kimba got for me was the Lavender Mint Moisturizing stuff (10.14 fl. oz. each of the shampoo and conditioner), and they cost Kimba something like $12 or $13 each! That's almost twice as much cost for less than half the product! It's ridiculous! I can barely afford to buy shampoo and conditioner at the rates (volume and price) I do right now, so I like to get as much as I can in one bottle, and it lasts longer.

Don't get me wrong--I like the haircut a lot, so I'm not complaining about that, and I'm grateful to Kimba for paying for the haircut and the shampoo/conditioner. I just don't think it's necessary to buy such overly-expensive shampoo and conditioner when there are probably generic brands (or at least less-expensive name brands) that would do the job just as well.

I don't know how to find those inexpensive yet effective brands, which is why I've been switching brands after every bottle to try and undo the damage that one does with the next while I try to find a good one--it's a vicious cycle. The people at salons are definitely not going to recommend any such products like that though. It's their job to sell the expensive stuff that's in their inventory, not recommend stuff that customers can buy elsewhere for half the cost and twice the volume.

Anyway, enough about hair care. I shall now briefly summarize my plan for the next few days.

Today I will be going to the allergist after work for my shots, and then I will go home and clean up the mess I made in the living room, since stairs are now nowhere near the problem they were a week ago, and I can confidently say that the extra weight of whatever I need to carry won't hurt any more than if I weren't carrying it.

Then, I will probably either read, watch TV (or a movie), or possibly do some writing while I do some laundry.

Tomorrow, I will go to the Haven after work (yay, school's out!) and have Gene catch me up on the Friday night D&D game, since I've missed the last two sessions. If I haven't done my laundry by the time I get home from the Haven tomorrow, I will do it then.

I have no idea what I'm going to do from Wednesday on, other than the usual stuff.

House Hunting and Decisions to Make

The last week has been really busy. Saturday, I went to look at apartments in Hagerstown with Kimba and Anna. The first one we looked at was in downtown Hagerstown, and wasn't in all that good of a neighborhood. The other one was in Smithsburg, and would cost way too much, even if I had Stacie living with me--not to mention, I wouldn't be able to save up enough for the security deposit.

On Wednesday, Dad, Anna, Kayla and I went to look at the mobile home that's for sale in the mobile home park down the road from their house. It's kind of small (the second bedroom is tiny--not really bedroom size at all, more like a den), and at first I thought I wouldn't be able to afford it alone, but I've done some figuring. I might be able to afford it after all. There are a few cons, but there are a lot of pros too, which goes for all of the choices I've looked at so far.

For instance, the walls in the house are covered with dark paneling. If I can paint over the paneling, that would be great, and it would make the place look more open. If I couldn't paint over the paneling, I'd just cover the walls with posters or something (I certainly have enough).

After looking at the $8,000 house, we went to Hagerstown to look at a house at the Fleetwood dealership there. We saw one with two bedrooms and two bathrooms for $36,000, plus $12,000 placement. So I'd need to get a mortgage for $48,000. The Fleetwood dealership offers financing, but you have to put 10% down (about $5,000 in this case), and I don't even have $500 to spare, much less the $2,500 I'd have to fork out to get that through with Stacie. I figured out that I could probably afford it if I moved in with Stacie though.

Yesterday, Kimba called me at work to say that one of the people she works with may have a room available in her apartment starting around mid-July or so for $450 a month, plus some utilities (I haven't found out which yet--gotta e-mail the girl after I finish this entry). That's a little late for me, so I'd probably have to store all of my stuff in my parents' basement and sleep on their couch for a month or so. I'm not looking forward to doing that.

I looked online for financing I could get with 0% down, and I found one site. They had a form to fill out for more information, so I filled it out twice--once for the larger house and once for the $8,000 house, so they could let me know if I could possibly qualify for either loan.

I have to say, this living with roommates thing is kind of getting old. I wouldn't mind living in the smaller trailer by myself. I'd have to wait until after I pay off my car in April of 2010 before I could 1) save any significant amount of money per month (though I could possibly still save a little), and 2) repaint the walls (if that's even possible), but that would be okay with me. There should be plenty of room for my furniture, and the site rental plus mortgage payments would only come to $490-500, which should be doable since the power and heating bills will be a lot less there than they are at the townhouse. I don't know if the size of the household has anything to do with my current cable TV and internet bills, but those might be less too, and even if they're not, I have a little of leeway about how much I can afford for those. Also, I might be able to get wireless internet from my parents' house (I'd help pay Dad's internet bill) if I put a high enough mast on the house and Dad got the necessary equipment on his end.

If I live in one of the two trailers, I'd be able to walk to my parents' house and visit whenever I wanted. I could bike too, and that would help me get in shape. But if I lived with Stacie, I might have to sell furniture in order for both of our stuff to fit. The wireless internet mast could also work here, since there's a vacant lot in the mobile home park there.

Apparently, Kimba's friend's apartment is near my work, so I might be able to walk there if I lived in the apartment. But there might not be enough room for all of my furniture in the apartment, and I'm not sure I have enough time to find someone to buy any. I suppose I could just give it away, but if I sold it, then I'd have more money available for a security deposit and such (if Kimba's friend would need a security deposit).

Once I've gotten a reply to my impending e-mail to Kimba's friend, I will adjust my financial figurings to reflect her estimates on utility costs. Since an apartment can't be much bigger (or smaller) than a mobile home, I figure the costs for utilities are at least a little bit comparable, as opposed to the costs for a townhouse that fits five people comfortably.

Also, these financial figurings will only be for the first few days of living wherever I end up living. My 3-year review at work comes up on July 5, so I'll be getting a raise of at least $500 per year (the largest raise I have gotten so far was $1,500 per year). It's not much, but it will help me to afford a little bit more. But first, I have to get whatever housing I can afford right now. That way, when the raise comes, I'll be a little more comfortable than I would be at my current salary.

Tonight is D&D night. We finished our adventure during last week's session, but I've heard that we will have a couple of options to continue with the same characters in different adventures. One option is to join a game in the Greyhawk setting. The other option is to stay in the same setting (Eberron) and make our characters 2-3 levels higher than they ended up. I'd like to stay in Eberron and level my character naturally, since I've never actually played a campaign where my character earned the experience and levelled up without artificialness.

Almost the Weekend . . .

This week has gone by so slowly, it's insane.

Monday was boring but busy. Tuesday was okay. Yesterday was slow until work was over, then the Vampire game went by at a reasonable pace. I managed to do a bit more than I did two weeks ago (sit there and look confused), but I'm still not quite up on the taboos and traditions and things.

It's not because I can't play RPGs, I know that. I've played D&D now for a month and a half or so, and I've gotten worlds better at that than I am at Vampire right now. The thing is, I actually understand how to play my D&D characters. Some of the characters I've created before aren't human, but I can at least understand their values and such--that's what the alignment system is for.

With Vampire, they have a Nature (how they really are on the inside) and a Demeanor (what they show to the world about themselves), and they really are monsters--they might want to protect humans and/or use them as tools in their machinations, but all the time there's this beast inside of them saying to hurt them and drink their blood. There really is no difference between player characters and non-player characters except for the fact that the GM runs all of the NPCs. Even another PC from the Camarilla could happily kill your character, to say nothing of the NPCs or the Sabbot (if you're playing as Camarilla).

Nerd-to-Norm Explanation: The Camarilla believe that humans should be protected, and enforce the Masquerade (the tradition among vampires that says humans should not know about vampires). They keep self control on their inner beasts, and act as human as they possibly can, using humans to their advantage--as tools. The Sabbot, on the other hand, believe that humans are food and should be ruled over by the superior vampires, so they do their utmost to reject their humanity and have no interest in the Masquerade. In other words, both groups are bad guys, but the Camarilla are more like corrupt, "good" monsters, while the Sabbot are honest monsters. (Not bad for just having had it explained to me in terms I could understand last night, huh?)

That might be true of some D&D groups if you've got widely different alignments in the same group of PCs, but DMs usually make sure that the characters will at least get along unless the game they're running calls for in-fighting or a diverse range of alignments. With this Vampire game, there's constant backstabbing. It's kind of confusing, and makes me wonder if I chose the right Nature (conniver) for my somewhat new role-playing abilities. Maybe I should have chosen a Nature closer to the Demeanor I chose (bon vivant), but then it would've been kind of silly to add in all of those skills relating to subterfuge, and I'd have to re-write the part of my character's history involving spying for the U.S. government during the Sputnik frenzy in the '50s.

I'm hoping I'll be better able to role-play Vampires after I've had a chance to read through the rulebook thoroughly, instead of just skimming and/or researching specific things when I need to know them right away. There won't be a session next Wednesday, since Carl (the GM) has to work late that night, so I'll have extra time to do my "homework."

Anyway, enough about Vampire. Tonight is class again, and we're actually having a lab for the first time since before mid-terms . . . w00t! The teacher was behind on a couple of lectures, so we'd been skipping labs to catch up, which means we haven't been getting out of class as early as we usually do on Thursdays. That will change tonight.

Fun, Disappointments, and an Accomplishment

Thursday night turned out to be another lecture, because we were a chapter behind on lectures. We're still a chapter behind though, because Tuesday was supposed to be a double-chapter lecture too, and it seems the teacher didn't notice. Before and after class, I worked on a drawing of my D&D character, Laina (see left).

She didn't turn out quite like I pictured her, and I had trouble with a few of the proportions (her boobs look weird, and her hair's too big) but overall, I'm pleased with the drawing. Especially since it's the only full-length drawing I've ever completed--I've only ever drawn from the shoulders up before.

Yesterday was really slow, until work was done. I went to the Haven, showed off my drawing, then after a bit of talking (and after I'd renewed my membership) we had our D&D session. My character got enough experience points at the end to get to third level. Since I'd already done the research on what I wanted to do with that the weekend before, I just went through and changed the character stats accordingly.

After the game, it was pouring! I didn't know it was supposed to rain when I left work, so I didn't bring my umbrella with me. So Bart gave me a ride to my car (thanks, Bart!), then I had to do some grocery shopping.

I woke up this morning, and did some figuring. . . . It turns out that the grocery shopping overdrew me last night. So I can't 1) make a donation to Autism Speaks, or 2) buy some arrows for Jason. I was really hoping to at least be able to do the second one, but it's just not going to work.

Anna called me at 8:15 this morning, which kind of annoyed me since I'd set my cell phone to wake me up at 8:30, but that's beside the point. The reason she called is that none of the three of us (Anna, Kimba or I) got enough donations even to get tee shirts at the Autism Walk today. You have to get $100 in donations for a tee shirt, but I only made $25, and the other two got similarly small donations as well.

Also, Anna has a test today at noon which she was planning on skipping, then making up after the walk, but she wouldn't have gotten to take it with her classmates and it would've been completely short answer, instead of however the test was originally. Anna said it was up to me whether or not we went to the walk today, so I said I didn't mind not going. I mean, I like walking, so it wouldn't have been a problem if we actually went, but since I didn't get to make a donation of my own, we won't be getting tee shirts (they're neat shirts, don't laugh!), and Anna has that test, I figured it would be best not to go. Maybe next year I'll have a little more notice, and Anna won't be having a test and we'll be able to get more donations.

As for the dilemma with Jason's present . . .

Well, I have half-a-dozen arrows that I bought months ago for my own bow. They're custom-cut and made out of either fiber glass or carbon (I can't remember which), and cost me about $60. I've only used these arrows about three times since I bought them, so I'm basically wasting money just having them sit there in the quiver on my wall.

So, I will offer my arrows to Jason, and if they work with his bow (I think he has a recurve), then he can keep them. If they don't work with his bow, then I might just give him mine (a compound) since I have not used it in ages, and have dad loosen it up with his alan wrench drill bit, since I can't do it manually with an actual alan wrench--it's too tight, and the wrench tends to want to bend and break.

Yay, Friday!

Last night we ended up having a lecture instead of a lab, but the teacher is going to give us all full credit for the lab anyway. Yay for free grades!

Tonight's D&D again. Just waiting for work to be over so that I can go over to the Haven.

I'm bored.

Non-D&D Fans, Read at Your Own Risk

Today, I've been putting all of my old character information into the AD&D 2nd Edition Character Sheet that I downloaded a couple of weeks ago. I had four characters, but I lost the information for the character I used to play online (Witheria something--I think she might've been either a cleric or a mage).

So, I put my other characters into character sheets. It was sort of confusing, because they had originally been created using the Skills & Powers and/or Spells & Magic options, but I wanted to just make them only reference the Player's Handbook. Plus, when I typed up all of the information, there was a bunch missing. Like one of my characters didn't have any equipment or gold listed at all.

I have two level one characters, and one level nine. The two level one characters are a half-elf fighter (I just created her so that I could learn to create characters, way back when), and an elven Cleric (who I created for the campaign that Matt & I started, with his friend Tim DM-ing when I was 15). Both of those characters have a lawful good alignment.

The level 9 character is a mage (alignment neutral evil), who I had originally created as a level one character, but got bumped up by the DM to 9th, so that I could use her in the DragonLance Play By E-Mail campaign I played in 2000. There was a whole bunch of confusing stuff to put into the character sheets--not the least of which was the fact that I'd lost the page with her ability scores on it, so I had to guess based on everything else! Also, the DM added a bunch of cool stuff from the Dungeon Master's Guide, which I kept.

The character I created a couple of weeks ago for 2nd edition is an 8th level thief. It was much easier to fill in the character sheet for her than for the other three 2nd edition characters.

I also organized my D&D binder. Now, it has four sections: Current Characters, Old 2nd Edition Characters, Old 3.5 Edition Characters, and Other Stuff (this is for extra character sheets, notes used during/about character creation, and basic information on the Haven).

Now that's all done and I won't be thinking about it anymore, I shall go take a shower and go to Mom & Dad's for the weekend.

Well, I did it.

Friday the 21st was another D&D night, and my character got enough experience to move up to 2nd level. Yay!

On Saturday the 22nd, I managed to finish Mansfield Park. By 11:00pm, I was finished with the article for the Commuter, as well as a neat little sidebar I thought up to go with it.

I went over to Mom & Dad's house after that, and Anna and I watched some TV before we fell asleep.

Sunday, Kayla wasn't there (she was spending 10 days with her family in Alabama), so we didn't watch any Buffy or Angel. Instead, I read The Jane Austen Book Club, which I borrowed from Anna. I was kind of on a Jane Austen kick the whole weekend, despite having just finished all six of her novels--I just wanted more! And Anna wouldn't watch any of the movies (she has Pride and Prejudice times two, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma).

Tuesday was our mid-term for Astronomy. Most of the questions were multiple choice (and therefore extremely cinchy), then there were four short answer questions. The whole test was pretty easy--the only question I wasn't entirely sure about was the last one.

Wednesday, I went over to the Haven and did some reading about the fictional place that the game I've been playing on Friday nights is set in. While I was reading, someone put a movie on the projector called The Gamers. I didn't catch very much of it, but it looked like a cheesy college project. What little I caught of it was funny though. After that movie, someone put in one from 1960 that had Angela Lansbury and the lady who played the mom in Mary Poppins in it. I can't remember the title.

There was no class yesterday, because of the mid-term on Tuesday, and Kayla came back, so I went to Mom & Dad's for dinner. We had tacos--Kayla's favorite. When I got home around 10:30-ish, I watched last night's Smallville, then one more episode of MacGyver. I'm somewhere in season 2 now.

Tonight is another D&D session, and I got paid today. Yay money!