I'm working on it! I just have to get three sets of garb done, get to a closing on the house that we are hopefully buying, start the Carolina Renn Fest, and get through a trip to Myrtle Beach for Beach Bound Hounds...and that's just in my free time. Relax. Maybe I can sneak in a spot of blogging this afternoon...
The picture today is from the Tower of London, and the gamer girl in me says it's my interpretation of all my toons with crossbows. The real Nancy says it's a metaphor for what happens if you cross me lately. Get it? Cross bow? Cross me?
I think I still need a nap.
13 September 2012
31 August 2012
Halle-Fracking-LUJA!!
30 August 2012
One more...FLASHBACK Seven Years Ago...
Particularly appropriate I think, because I'm in a place right now where I'm wanting to throw things. The picture above is just because I think it's awesome...and missing those two boys makes me want to throw things, now that you mention it!
"I hate this!" from 1 September 2005
Light reading till I'm done catching up: FLASHBACK POST!
Since we're coming up on the first of September, let's see where I was this time last year... "Things I Learned This Holiday" from 1 September 2011
Lions and...yeah, you know the rest
I don't have much to say today, and clearly haven't all summer, if you go by my blog here! I'm formulating a "catch-up" post about what has happened since returning from Europe, Simon moving to the US, and our seemingly never ending search for a house in Greenville. In the meantime, please enjoy these lions made of wire and mesh that grace the front of the Tower of London.
Hey, at least it isn't a bunny with a pancake on its head...
Hey, at least it isn't a bunny with a pancake on its head...
27 May 2012
How Gaming Levels My RL
First, let me say for the .0000 of you that are Lettuce Readers that didn't know, I'm a gamer. I play Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). Currently I play Everquest and Star Wars:The Old Republic but I have toons (Avatars, characters, etc) running around in Jade Dynasty, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Runes of Magic, and probably Free Realms and Shaiya. I say probably because those two...oh, and Perfect World International as well...those THREE didn't hold my attention long enough to count, really. Now then, disclaimer done, on to the post.
Simon and I are currently on a long-overdue honeymoon. We started in London on the 17th of May, flew to Paris on the 19th, and have just returned to the UK yesterday. We're currently (as I type this) at his folks' place up in Newcastle for a few days before heading off again to spend the rest of our trip in one of my fav cities on earth, Edinburgh.
The picture to the right, there, was taken last Monday. We went to the Louvre because it was chucking it down with rain (dontcha love Yorkshireisms?) and we thought it would be a good way to stay dry and see Paris. Dry, yes. Massively huge with ridiculously hard floors and lots of steps? Yeah, sadly.
So...onto how "Gaming Levels my RL" (Real Life). The idea for this post came to me as Simon and I were learning how to navigate the insanity that is public transport in Paris. There is a train, called the RER, a subway of sorts called the Metro, and then a tramway that thankfully we didn't have to even think too hard about while there. We had gotten turned around...for about the millionth time...when I took hold of the map and started navigating. We found the right transit line and sat down, and Simon mentioned how good I was at navigating. I started thinking about where I learned to read maps with such ease and came to the conclusion that it happened in the old days of Everquest.
When your character got killed, you had to run back to where you died and 1. hopefully get resurrected and/or, if no "rez" was possible, 2. collect your things. I spent a LOT of time running all over the game world of Everquest (Norrath) and most of that time the in-game map was superimposed over the view of my toon running. Map reading should have been a skill set in that game. I would have been a Master Mapper.
Okay, that sounds too much like a hip-hop performer gone very wrong. Moving on.
The revelation about my Master Mapping led me to think about the other places in my life that my gaming experience has helped me level up (gain experience and progress to higher ability and content) in my real life. I came up with two more things that I'm good at in real life that I think I can tie to gaming.
The first one (or second one, really...that is counting which is part of Math, in which my skill level is a fat (0). Anyway...): Navigating crowds and new places without drawing agro. "Drawing agro" is a gaming term for moving your toon too close to something that wants to eat you. It realizes that you are close and BLAMMO. Dead Druid. Okay, maybe that's just me. Again, moving on...
I am pretty good at not getting in anyone's way, especially in a crowd. I think Simon was annoyed with me a few times because in a long queue I would move out and around a corner (opening up a place for someone to cut in front of us) just so that no one would accidentally back into me, thus drawing agro. I can also weave through a crowd when on the move, avoiding the very social (meaning one mob/bad guy will see you and will bring several friends to eat you) survey takers and beggars in London and Paris and managing to not knock anyone out with my backpack as I run past.
The third one (hey! Math (1) for me!) is auto-follow. In Everquest and other games, there is a command that you type that lets your toon follow along where someone else's toon goes. That can be dangerous, in game, when that other toon runs into a forest or around a path through a mountainous area. In real life, if you don't pay attention when you're following or watch out for the person on /af with you, one or both of you will get lost. Occasionally in Paris I almost got knocked out cold by Simon's backpack because I was following too closely and he decided to look around to see if I was still there. Bless him, he doesn't game.
Anyway, those are ways that gaming has positively affected my real life. Don't try to comment on the negs, okay? I know all of them...and to quote Stan from South Park, " I am socializing *****! I'm logged on to an MMORPG, with people from all over the world and getting XP with my party using teamspeak."
And yes, I realize how sad that was, quoting a cartoon character to rationalize online gaming fandom. So? /rude
/camp
/ex
Simon and I are currently on a long-overdue honeymoon. We started in London on the 17th of May, flew to Paris on the 19th, and have just returned to the UK yesterday. We're currently (as I type this) at his folks' place up in Newcastle for a few days before heading off again to spend the rest of our trip in one of my fav cities on earth, Edinburgh.
The picture to the right, there, was taken last Monday. We went to the Louvre because it was chucking it down with rain (dontcha love Yorkshireisms?) and we thought it would be a good way to stay dry and see Paris. Dry, yes. Massively huge with ridiculously hard floors and lots of steps? Yeah, sadly.
So...onto how "Gaming Levels my RL" (Real Life). The idea for this post came to me as Simon and I were learning how to navigate the insanity that is public transport in Paris. There is a train, called the RER, a subway of sorts called the Metro, and then a tramway that thankfully we didn't have to even think too hard about while there. We had gotten turned around...for about the millionth time...when I took hold of the map and started navigating. We found the right transit line and sat down, and Simon mentioned how good I was at navigating. I started thinking about where I learned to read maps with such ease and came to the conclusion that it happened in the old days of Everquest.
When your character got killed, you had to run back to where you died and 1. hopefully get resurrected and/or, if no "rez" was possible, 2. collect your things. I spent a LOT of time running all over the game world of Everquest (Norrath) and most of that time the in-game map was superimposed over the view of my toon running. Map reading should have been a skill set in that game. I would have been a Master Mapper.
Okay, that sounds too much like a hip-hop performer gone very wrong. Moving on.
The revelation about my Master Mapping led me to think about the other places in my life that my gaming experience has helped me level up (gain experience and progress to higher ability and content) in my real life. I came up with two more things that I'm good at in real life that I think I can tie to gaming.
The first one (or second one, really...that is counting which is part of Math, in which my skill level is a fat (0). Anyway...): Navigating crowds and new places without drawing agro. "Drawing agro" is a gaming term for moving your toon too close to something that wants to eat you. It realizes that you are close and BLAMMO. Dead Druid. Okay, maybe that's just me. Again, moving on...
I am pretty good at not getting in anyone's way, especially in a crowd. I think Simon was annoyed with me a few times because in a long queue I would move out and around a corner (opening up a place for someone to cut in front of us) just so that no one would accidentally back into me, thus drawing agro. I can also weave through a crowd when on the move, avoiding the very social (meaning one mob/bad guy will see you and will bring several friends to eat you) survey takers and beggars in London and Paris and managing to not knock anyone out with my backpack as I run past.
The third one (hey! Math (1) for me!) is auto-follow. In Everquest and other games, there is a command that you type that lets your toon follow along where someone else's toon goes. That can be dangerous, in game, when that other toon runs into a forest or around a path through a mountainous area. In real life, if you don't pay attention when you're following or watch out for the person on /af with you, one or both of you will get lost. Occasionally in Paris I almost got knocked out cold by Simon's backpack because I was following too closely and he decided to look around to see if I was still there. Bless him, he doesn't game.
Anyway, those are ways that gaming has positively affected my real life. Don't try to comment on the negs, okay? I know all of them...and to quote Stan from South Park, " I am socializing *****! I'm logged on to an MMORPG, with people from all over the world and getting XP with my party using teamspeak."
And yes, I realize how sad that was, quoting a cartoon character to rationalize online gaming fandom. So? /rude
/camp
/ex
09 May 2012
I have a question...
Or several, actually. I'm thinking a lot about the vote yesterday in NC that added an amendment to the constitution of that state which legal defines marriage to be between one man and one woman. To be honest I'm pretty disappointed.
Of all the southern states, I always thought of NC as being sort of progressive, at least in parts. Charlotte and Raleigh seemed to me to be kind of like Greenville and Charleston in SC...small pockets of sense in an otherwise right-wing religious led extremely conservative state. I had hope for NC, that NC would not make the same divisive and exclusionary decisions that the other southern states have made. Oh well.
I heard on the radio this morning a woman speaking from a victory party last night in which the refreshments included a wedding cake. She said they were thrilled that the amendment had passed because the same-sex marriage ban they already had was okay, but that marriage needed more protection.
Protection? From what? Roving gangs of monogamous, committed, same-sex couples? I truly do not understand her statement.
And this morning...this morning I am sad for all the families that face being discriminated against or having their rights to support each other and be a part of each others' lives taken away...seriously? Is the group that is so threatened by couples that love each other and raise their families in loving homes...jealous? Maybe?
Ugh. Disgusted. That's about all.
Of all the southern states, I always thought of NC as being sort of progressive, at least in parts. Charlotte and Raleigh seemed to me to be kind of like Greenville and Charleston in SC...small pockets of sense in an otherwise right-wing religious led extremely conservative state. I had hope for NC, that NC would not make the same divisive and exclusionary decisions that the other southern states have made. Oh well.
I heard on the radio this morning a woman speaking from a victory party last night in which the refreshments included a wedding cake. She said they were thrilled that the amendment had passed because the same-sex marriage ban they already had was okay, but that marriage needed more protection.
Protection? From what? Roving gangs of monogamous, committed, same-sex couples? I truly do not understand her statement.
And this morning...this morning I am sad for all the families that face being discriminated against or having their rights to support each other and be a part of each others' lives taken away...seriously? Is the group that is so threatened by couples that love each other and raise their families in loving homes...jealous? Maybe?
Ugh. Disgusted. That's about all.
30 April 2012
Well, that's another one off the list...
Whew! After last year's failure with the Proud Racer: One Greyhound's Journey screenplay, I have redeemed myself. My July 2011 Camp Nanowrimo novel, "Mirror Mirror," is now partially reborn in screenplay form in my hard drive! It was a lot of cutting and pasting and will probably NEVER leave my computer, but it was a good experience and I'm already looking forward to SCRENZY 2013.
Now then, when is the next Camp Nanowrimo? I'll need more material for the next Script Frenzy, of course.
Oh, and if you're an agent, I'd love to tell you about my Screnzy 2012 project...after I've slept some. I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog reading.
What I've been up to...
You'll see me for a second when she talks about the heavy costumes we wear...I'm on the left in the orange.
16 April 2012
Desperately Seeking...His Family.
 |
| "Mouse"
So this adorable little character turned up at the house where I'm currently staying with my friends (East North Street/Stone Avenue area of Greenville, SC) about two weeks ago. He had no tags, no collar, and no microchip when he arrived (the collar in the photo belongs to my roommates). He is young, probably right around a year old if that old. He is intact. He CLEARLY was living with someone as he is well fed and appears healthy. His teeth will blind you if you catch him smiling into the sun, they are just that white.
Does he belong to you? Do you know of anyone looking for their pup? He is a sweet dog, really, but probably would be better as an only dog. He is probably a foot and a half tall at the most. We are guessing that he is a black and tan Jack Russell Terrier mix...mostly JRT but his head is a bit wide to be full JRT. He minds fairly well, and seems pretty clever. We are afraid that someone has just turned him out, which makes me VERY stabby, because he is all but terrified to NOT be allowed in the house.
We've started calling him Mouse because when his ears are turned back he looks like Mighty Mouse, but he doesn't answer to it. We also call him Little Bit, Little One, Shawty (that's my addition), Short Stuff, and Hey You, so he isn't locked into the name Mouse. Contact me here at the Lettuce or through the other usual social media suspects if you think you know this little guy...or you'd like to get to know him.
|
13 April 2012
Seriously.
I need for all the crazy to stop, please?
I need to be able to go to work and not get my back up before I even walk in the door.
I need for this insane pulled muscle under my left shoulder blade to GIVE IT A REST ALREADY!
I need for a rental house with a fenced yard and no defects and the ability to lease for 3 months to materialize in Greenville proper or I'm going to end up in an outlying area and be VERY VERY cross.
I need a vacation.
I need the Loco to Stop.
I need to be able to go to work and not get my back up before I even walk in the door.
I need for this insane pulled muscle under my left shoulder blade to GIVE IT A REST ALREADY!
I need for a rental house with a fenced yard and no defects and the ability to lease for 3 months to materialize in Greenville proper or I'm going to end up in an outlying area and be VERY VERY cross.
I need a vacation.
I need the Loco to Stop.
01 April 2012
And so it begins...again...
See you guys the other side of 100 pages in May (because I'm just not sure that there will be much blogging while there are pages to write and rennie garb to sew...)!!
12 March 2012
A Falk in the Driftwood Worest..with Peaches.
(thanks and love to Zilch the Torysteller for part of the title...)
This weekend was the annual Sandy Paws event...and if this were years past I'd be doing something uber fun right now in Jacksonville before getting ready to go to Orange Park to watch the dogs run. But alas, with gainful employment in higher education does not always come annual leave, so here I am, back from my break, blogging. Yeah.
I headed down Thursday night after work to spend a whirlwind weekend of meeting, greeting, laughing, and even a little tired crying (on the way home yesterday) with people that are one of my families of choice: my greyhound friends and more specifically my Follow That Hound friends. Even though with the closure of B&J Kennels this year the FTH program is no more, we all still get together and we all still feel like a big extended family.
Friday afternoon Anne and Leah and I went out to Driftwood Beach for some photos of me and the dogs...but I ended up just wandering around and taking pictures because HOLY MOLY is that place amazing. Oaks felled by a hurricane created petrified sculpture. It's like walking around and seeing dinosaur bones. Insane.
Friday night was spent laughing until we cried with good friends. I need more of that in my life. I need my Peaches.
Saturday was more Sandy Paws fun, including the crowning of the king and queen, a live auction (including one of Daisy's books that went for $55 I think?), and then the tired returning to the villa for one last night's sleep to the sound of the waves.
Yesterday was awful...I hate the annual theft of an hour by Daylight Saving Time even though it means I'm only 4 hours behind Simon rather than 5. But the pretty face in the picture there kept me company for the ride back to Greenville, and I wouldn't trade a minute of that time even if it did seem to be an hour earlier.
I'll get my pictures uploaded to Flickr soon...stay tuned. Roooooooo!
This weekend was the annual Sandy Paws event...and if this were years past I'd be doing something uber fun right now in Jacksonville before getting ready to go to Orange Park to watch the dogs run. But alas, with gainful employment in higher education does not always come annual leave, so here I am, back from my break, blogging. Yeah.
I headed down Thursday night after work to spend a whirlwind weekend of meeting, greeting, laughing, and even a little tired crying (on the way home yesterday) with people that are one of my families of choice: my greyhound friends and more specifically my Follow That Hound friends. Even though with the closure of B&J Kennels this year the FTH program is no more, we all still get together and we all still feel like a big extended family.
Friday afternoon Anne and Leah and I went out to Driftwood Beach for some photos of me and the dogs...but I ended up just wandering around and taking pictures because HOLY MOLY is that place amazing. Oaks felled by a hurricane created petrified sculpture. It's like walking around and seeing dinosaur bones. Insane.
Friday night was spent laughing until we cried with good friends. I need more of that in my life. I need my Peaches.
Saturday was more Sandy Paws fun, including the crowning of the king and queen, a live auction (including one of Daisy's books that went for $55 I think?), and then the tired returning to the villa for one last night's sleep to the sound of the waves.
Yesterday was awful...I hate the annual theft of an hour by Daylight Saving Time even though it means I'm only 4 hours behind Simon rather than 5. But the pretty face in the picture there kept me company for the ride back to Greenville, and I wouldn't trade a minute of that time even if it did seem to be an hour earlier.
I'll get my pictures uploaded to Flickr soon...stay tuned. Roooooooo!
05 March 2012
Again, for Cathie and Leah...
...I've got my blogging face on! Well, I had it on last Thursday, as well as my Sad Dog Owner face AND my I'm Trying to Avoid Homicide face.
Daisy came back "home" to the US last Thursday. She flew all by her little self from Manchester, England, to Atlanta, Georgia. Simon and I made arrangements via a pet relocation service to get her on her way, and we were assured of a certain number of things upon handing over almost $1600 to them.
On the day, everything started well and Simon and his dad got Daisy to the airport and checked in on time. She was xrayed and then sent on her way, and apparently her flight was fine and she actually got to Atlanta 10 minutes ahead of schedule.
My friend Joanne and I headed down to pick her up. We were told by the relocation folks in England that all I would have to do is turn up at the Air Cargo warehouse, pay my import fee of $50, present them with an airbill number, and they would then hand Daisy over to me. That is not exactly what happened.
The very very very nice man at the warehouse told me that while Daisy was on the ground and on her way to the warehouse, I wasn't going to be able to collect her that night because she'd arrived too close to the time that the customs officers at the warehouse leave for the day. I assured him that we'd been told that they were there 24-7. He assured me with a very sad look on his face that they left at 5 every day, and any animals that arrived too close to that deadline would be taken to a nearby kennel for the night and their owners could collect them. I told him that we hadn't sent any food with her and he said they would feed her. I told him that we feed her raw and further we'd paid a lot of money to get her on that flight and I was not leaving without her. He looked like he was going to cry but told me he couldn't do anything. I went in the bathroom, cried a little, swore a lot, and then got on the phone to Delta.
Oh, easy, the lovely representative I spoke with said. You get her paperwork from them, take it to customs in the actual airport, they will approve it, and then you bring it back. I told the guy that, he grinned and got to work on her paperwork. He asked if I knew where to go, and I said that all she had told me was "customs."
All of you who fly regularly...where is customs in an airport? Yep, you got it, inside the secure area where you need a boarding pass to get through. A boarding pass assumes that you are BOARDING a flight. See a problem yet?
I got to the airport and NO ONE could tell me where I needed to go to get a gate pass to get through to customs. I spent an hour just finding out that I had to go on my own to find a TSA agent to get a gate pass. Only, that's NOT what I had to do at all, I needed to go to DELTA to get a gate pass (where I started, an hour prior). There is something about telling a ticketing agent that TSA sent you that makes them very snarky, just so you know before you try it. Finally, I had my gate pass and I was going through security.
One full body scan later, I was on the train under the airport to the concourse at the complete other end of the airport for international arrivals/departures and customs. I spent most of hour two since leaving the warehouse getting to that concourse and then sitting while the customs agent checked her paperwork and finally stamped it. Back through security (thankfully no full body scan this time), back on the train, back to the car and by 8:40pm we were waiting on them to wheel Daisy's crate out. For those keeping score, that was four hours after she arrived in Atlanta, and a whopping EIGHTEEN hours after she was put in her crate at Manchester Airport.
My baby girl hadn't made a single mess in her crate. Bless. I was so happy to see her that I just sat there and held her for a minute, big stupid tears rolling as she wiggled to get away from me and glare back at her box. And now she's here, she's learning about being one of five dogs in a house instead of the only one, and she's taking most of it in stride. I think I've seen her snarl more in the past two days than I have since I've had her.
A strongly worded complaint will be issued to Delta because that was just unacceptable. Not only did the right hand not know what the left hand was doing, but I don't think it knew there WAS a left hand.
There is a positive, though...Simon's visa was approved at his interview a week ago today, and on this past Friday he got his passport and the Mysterious Brown Sealed Envelope that he has to take AS IS to customs when he arrives in the States to stay.
Well...to stay until I've had it with my life here and feel that old need to move on...but hopefully that won't be for a long time yet.
Daisy came back "home" to the US last Thursday. She flew all by her little self from Manchester, England, to Atlanta, Georgia. Simon and I made arrangements via a pet relocation service to get her on her way, and we were assured of a certain number of things upon handing over almost $1600 to them.
On the day, everything started well and Simon and his dad got Daisy to the airport and checked in on time. She was xrayed and then sent on her way, and apparently her flight was fine and she actually got to Atlanta 10 minutes ahead of schedule.
My friend Joanne and I headed down to pick her up. We were told by the relocation folks in England that all I would have to do is turn up at the Air Cargo warehouse, pay my import fee of $50, present them with an airbill number, and they would then hand Daisy over to me. That is not exactly what happened.
The very very very nice man at the warehouse told me that while Daisy was on the ground and on her way to the warehouse, I wasn't going to be able to collect her that night because she'd arrived too close to the time that the customs officers at the warehouse leave for the day. I assured him that we'd been told that they were there 24-7. He assured me with a very sad look on his face that they left at 5 every day, and any animals that arrived too close to that deadline would be taken to a nearby kennel for the night and their owners could collect them. I told him that we hadn't sent any food with her and he said they would feed her. I told him that we feed her raw and further we'd paid a lot of money to get her on that flight and I was not leaving without her. He looked like he was going to cry but told me he couldn't do anything. I went in the bathroom, cried a little, swore a lot, and then got on the phone to Delta.
Oh, easy, the lovely representative I spoke with said. You get her paperwork from them, take it to customs in the actual airport, they will approve it, and then you bring it back. I told the guy that, he grinned and got to work on her paperwork. He asked if I knew where to go, and I said that all she had told me was "customs."
All of you who fly regularly...where is customs in an airport? Yep, you got it, inside the secure area where you need a boarding pass to get through. A boarding pass assumes that you are BOARDING a flight. See a problem yet?
I got to the airport and NO ONE could tell me where I needed to go to get a gate pass to get through to customs. I spent an hour just finding out that I had to go on my own to find a TSA agent to get a gate pass. Only, that's NOT what I had to do at all, I needed to go to DELTA to get a gate pass (where I started, an hour prior). There is something about telling a ticketing agent that TSA sent you that makes them very snarky, just so you know before you try it. Finally, I had my gate pass and I was going through security.
One full body scan later, I was on the train under the airport to the concourse at the complete other end of the airport for international arrivals/departures and customs. I spent most of hour two since leaving the warehouse getting to that concourse and then sitting while the customs agent checked her paperwork and finally stamped it. Back through security (thankfully no full body scan this time), back on the train, back to the car and by 8:40pm we were waiting on them to wheel Daisy's crate out. For those keeping score, that was four hours after she arrived in Atlanta, and a whopping EIGHTEEN hours after she was put in her crate at Manchester Airport.
My baby girl hadn't made a single mess in her crate. Bless. I was so happy to see her that I just sat there and held her for a minute, big stupid tears rolling as she wiggled to get away from me and glare back at her box. And now she's here, she's learning about being one of five dogs in a house instead of the only one, and she's taking most of it in stride. I think I've seen her snarl more in the past two days than I have since I've had her.
A strongly worded complaint will be issued to Delta because that was just unacceptable. Not only did the right hand not know what the left hand was doing, but I don't think it knew there WAS a left hand.
There is a positive, though...Simon's visa was approved at his interview a week ago today, and on this past Friday he got his passport and the Mysterious Brown Sealed Envelope that he has to take AS IS to customs when he arrives in the States to stay.
Well...to stay until I've had it with my life here and feel that old need to move on...but hopefully that won't be for a long time yet.
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