So it's been over a month since my last update. I tend to get a little bad at these things sometimes - especially after rolling with one for a while. A big obstacle between me and the bloggodrome is my new gainful employment at Skyline Chili. Where i used to toil away in front of a computer from 10-5 everyday (and find time for blogging in between), now I'm stuck with a headset on my head and 'approved gloves' on my hands. It's a good job though - and it was necessary to supplement my income after having my hours greatly cut at my computer desk job.
The new job brings new shifts and a shitty daily schedule for me. I'm working longer and getting paid less than ever before. Working nights again is a real drag - but perhaps it's for the best that I'm keeping busy. Weekends this summer have been filled with the wondrous glory of a hard-working rock band on the road. The Sailing has been getting out, playing places like Chicago and NYC, and feeling just a little bit better about ourselves (as we've made Dayton pretty sick of us over the last few years). It's full steam ahead with the band - and our sights are set on the west coast next.
And there's also the matter of the significant other - who's getting off work at 1:30am daily has created enough strain on the relationship to perhaps break it for good. I don't think it's very classy to go in depth about this stuff on a public blog, but it might be the true end of the road this time. Who knows.
Using my computer in my room is also not a lot of fun in these hot, sweaty days. The single window AC unit in my house is sort of a piece, and fails in making my room a comfortable place to work or play. This has driven me to playing FFXI on my ps3 almost exclusively. I'm in one of those awful 'grind spots' though - where I've reached lvl 50 with Red Mage, but now need to farm a copious amount of gil in order to get all my spells and gear up-to-snuff and ready for party leveling once again. Whenever I hit one of these tedious grind periods in an MMO it sometimes leads to a break - but I promised myself not to stop until RDM was 75, and so I'll carry on.
Another area that deserves immediate attention is thesailing.org. The website hasn't been updated in ages, all the shows listed have already been played, tons of new music/videos need to be added to the media section, and a general overall news update is long past due. I intend to take care of all this as soon as humanly possible.
And so now I'm here, enjoying a slight respite from the daily trials and tribulations that tumble my quaint little universe. In one hour's time I'll be putting on my Skyline uniform and preparing for an evening of "Skyline Time Hospitality" and the stench of steamed buns, burning hotdogs, and soupy chili. I will tend to this blog more now - or at least I will attempt to. Until our next meeting.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
POWERPLANT
Between working, playing GBV songs for Bob Pollard himself, and playing way too much FFXI, this weekend I was able to churn out two new songs for my latest HCMJ project, known as 'POWERPLANT.' The album started as a massive concept album about a rotten corpse missing the lower part of his body, dragging himself one handful of radioactive dirt after another across a post-apocalyptic horrorscape. While I still hope the album is able to follow some sort of abstract narrative form, it has definitely started to deviate a little from the original intentions.
Most of the time I'll write the songs first, then watch as an album sort of 'finds' its concept. I'll listen to it all and think "what is this really about?" But POWERPLANT is the first time I went headfirst into making an album knowing what it was going to be about, what the 'story' was, and how some of the narrative would play out. But as I start recording more spur-of-the-moment inspirations and start laying down Julee Cruise-esque vocal tracks on some of the songs I've already recorded, I find that more and more it's becoming a vague expression of my own personal fears and insecurities.
And they aren't even played out in an exactly 'clear' fashion. No more of that "I will always love you" or "you are so beautiful" bullshit - now it's all about the twisted creatures crouching in the well lit hallways of my youth - and no matter how long I cowered in the corner, when I looked up it's right fucking next to me. Or the half-dead being, decaying next to me in my bed at night - back turned to me, facing the wall. It's all been just exploding these last few days, these new hyper-visual daydreams. The terror I hoped to capture before with POWERPLANT was almost superficial, more haunted house that actual gut ripping horror. Now I can see the album finally crystalizing into this depiction of the horror at the core of human insecurities - or my own personal insecurities at least.
This is probably coming off as extremely pretentious, but I swear my intentions are honorable. Maybe one day I'll actually finish the album and you'll have a chance to hear what I'm talking about. (lol)
Most of the time I'll write the songs first, then watch as an album sort of 'finds' its concept. I'll listen to it all and think "what is this really about?" But POWERPLANT is the first time I went headfirst into making an album knowing what it was going to be about, what the 'story' was, and how some of the narrative would play out. But as I start recording more spur-of-the-moment inspirations and start laying down Julee Cruise-esque vocal tracks on some of the songs I've already recorded, I find that more and more it's becoming a vague expression of my own personal fears and insecurities.
And they aren't even played out in an exactly 'clear' fashion. No more of that "I will always love you" or "you are so beautiful" bullshit - now it's all about the twisted creatures crouching in the well lit hallways of my youth - and no matter how long I cowered in the corner, when I looked up it's right fucking next to me. Or the half-dead being, decaying next to me in my bed at night - back turned to me, facing the wall. It's all been just exploding these last few days, these new hyper-visual daydreams. The terror I hoped to capture before with POWERPLANT was almost superficial, more haunted house that actual gut ripping horror. Now I can see the album finally crystalizing into this depiction of the horror at the core of human insecurities - or my own personal insecurities at least.
This is probably coming off as extremely pretentious, but I swear my intentions are honorable. Maybe one day I'll actually finish the album and you'll have a chance to hear what I'm talking about. (lol)
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Escaping Velocity
So I played EVE Online for a few weeks. Jumping from system to system, getting bigger ships, blasting away NPC pirates, doing all of those great wonderful Escape Velocity things. I wasn't driven by the 'carrot on a stick' that drives me to play most MMORPGs - whether it's the Scholar AF gear in FFXI, or the full Season 3 Arena gear from WoW, most MMOs keep me hooked by the promise of mind blowing stats and unimaginable style.
But EVE was different. The long term plan I had formed involved me training a whole bunch of skills (training happens even when logged out - some skills taking days and days to complete), gearing up, then heading out to 'lowsec' or "Low Security" space to be a dirty rotten pirate. A long term goal like that, however, simply wasn't satisfying enough to keep me driven to play after things started to get repetitive.
At first, I was propelled to log in because the game was simply a blast to play. But after the initial "OMG this is Escape Velocity" shock wore off, I found myself grinding repetitive NPC missions with little overall payoff, and I never was really sure if I was truly "advancing" in the game. Maybe it was the lack of RPG levels, maybe it was the unobtainability of the more gigantic ships, or maybe the it's that an MMO with no cut-scene driven story line or hard level cap seems more like a pointless sandbox than anything else.
EVE just felt 'unfinished' somehow. The NPC content was lacking, and I never got around to ever doing anything that seemed worthwhile. Eventually, watching your ship jump between systems only to dock at one of 4 or 5 space station skins gets boring. Without that big fat beautiful carrot dangling in front of you, the urge to get out of the sandbox and work on something 'important' is overwhelming.
So I gave it a fair trial, but at the end of the day, EVE Online just wasn't for me. The drive for MMO grinding did, however, inspire a resurgence in FFXI playing. Phinn's Scholar level is now a comfortable 27, with Red Mage still hovering at 35. I was also able to convince our own Mike Kirkland to not only play again, but to make a whole new character all together. My other friend and faux-brother Matt also reactivated his content ID, which meant more Adventurer Recruitment Program items for me!
In other news, I went through a period of broken-tape-adaptor iPodlessness, which brought about another phase of DPR (Dayton's local public all-classical radio station) listening. Their website is totally revamped now, with their playlist finally fixed. This means that if I hear a song I feel like I can't live without, I just have to make note of the date and time I was listening, log onto their playlist, and there I can see exactly what was playing every second of the day.
This handy service helped me to identify a few songs that I've been a long time fan of, but just never knew exactly where they were from. One was a Chopin nocturne that I had originally discovered on the soundtrack to a Japanese SNES game. I thought it was just an amazing video game song, until I heard it once again as a demo song on Tech's Korg. When I heard it on DPR I was thrilled to finally discover what it was, and promptly downloaded it from the iTunes Store.
The iTunes store is wonderful for classical music, by the way, as you can simply enter the name of a song, and then preview the many different performances of it. That's the thing about classical music - just because it's a beautiful song doesn't mean the recording/performance of it isn't subpar. I've purchased a few classical CDs that have really disappointed me - whether it's that the piece is being played too fast, or if the recording sounds flat, there are so many things that can go wrong with a classical recording. So it's really a nice to be able to get that 30 second preview of the multiple performances of the more popular tunes.
That Chopin piece was "Nocturnes, Op. 9 \ No. 2 in E-flat" by the way. The other tune that I was amazed to hear was the "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia" from the 1956 Aram Khachaturian ballet "Spartacus" (I don't like the faster speed of the performance I just linked to, but it's the only one I could find on youtube.) I was amazed to hear it, as it was one of my favorite songs as a kid - first hearing it in the Coen Brother's often-overlooked "The Hudsucker Proxy." All my life I always assumed that it was just an amazing film score - and I suppose that's not too much of a stretch as the ballet was from the 1950's, when sweepingly romantic film scores were the norm. It lends "The Hudsucker Proxy" a touch of authenticity, as its most haunting musical theme actually comes from the age it was trying to recreate.
But EVE was different. The long term plan I had formed involved me training a whole bunch of skills (training happens even when logged out - some skills taking days and days to complete), gearing up, then heading out to 'lowsec' or "Low Security" space to be a dirty rotten pirate. A long term goal like that, however, simply wasn't satisfying enough to keep me driven to play after things started to get repetitive.
At first, I was propelled to log in because the game was simply a blast to play. But after the initial "OMG this is Escape Velocity" shock wore off, I found myself grinding repetitive NPC missions with little overall payoff, and I never was really sure if I was truly "advancing" in the game. Maybe it was the lack of RPG levels, maybe it was the unobtainability of the more gigantic ships, or maybe the it's that an MMO with no cut-scene driven story line or hard level cap seems more like a pointless sandbox than anything else.
EVE just felt 'unfinished' somehow. The NPC content was lacking, and I never got around to ever doing anything that seemed worthwhile. Eventually, watching your ship jump between systems only to dock at one of 4 or 5 space station skins gets boring. Without that big fat beautiful carrot dangling in front of you, the urge to get out of the sandbox and work on something 'important' is overwhelming.
So I gave it a fair trial, but at the end of the day, EVE Online just wasn't for me. The drive for MMO grinding did, however, inspire a resurgence in FFXI playing. Phinn's Scholar level is now a comfortable 27, with Red Mage still hovering at 35. I was also able to convince our own Mike Kirkland to not only play again, but to make a whole new character all together. My other friend and faux-brother Matt also reactivated his content ID, which meant more Adventurer Recruitment Program items for me!
In other news, I went through a period of broken-tape-adaptor iPodlessness, which brought about another phase of DPR (Dayton's local public all-classical radio station) listening. Their website is totally revamped now, with their playlist finally fixed. This means that if I hear a song I feel like I can't live without, I just have to make note of the date and time I was listening, log onto their playlist, and there I can see exactly what was playing every second of the day.
This handy service helped me to identify a few songs that I've been a long time fan of, but just never knew exactly where they were from. One was a Chopin nocturne that I had originally discovered on the soundtrack to a Japanese SNES game. I thought it was just an amazing video game song, until I heard it once again as a demo song on Tech's Korg. When I heard it on DPR I was thrilled to finally discover what it was, and promptly downloaded it from the iTunes Store.
The iTunes store is wonderful for classical music, by the way, as you can simply enter the name of a song, and then preview the many different performances of it. That's the thing about classical music - just because it's a beautiful song doesn't mean the recording/performance of it isn't subpar. I've purchased a few classical CDs that have really disappointed me - whether it's that the piece is being played too fast, or if the recording sounds flat, there are so many things that can go wrong with a classical recording. So it's really a nice to be able to get that 30 second preview of the multiple performances of the more popular tunes.
That Chopin piece was "Nocturnes, Op. 9 \ No. 2 in E-flat" by the way. The other tune that I was amazed to hear was the "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia" from the 1956 Aram Khachaturian ballet "Spartacus" (I don't like the faster speed of the performance I just linked to, but it's the only one I could find on youtube.) I was amazed to hear it, as it was one of my favorite songs as a kid - first hearing it in the Coen Brother's often-overlooked "The Hudsucker Proxy." All my life I always assumed that it was just an amazing film score - and I suppose that's not too much of a stretch as the ballet was from the 1950's, when sweepingly romantic film scores were the norm. It lends "The Hudsucker Proxy" a touch of authenticity, as its most haunting musical theme actually comes from the age it was trying to recreate.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Extended MMO Dabbling
I've been fairly busy lately, but I always try to make time for my favorite form of entertainment media - video games. Lately it's been everything from GTAIV, Final Fantasy V, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, even a little Phantasy Star Online. But I've been hearing a lot about another MMORPG, and once I had my misconceptions about this game put to rest I knew I had to at least try it. If only to see if it really was the game I hoped it was.
First, a little history. When I was in middle school I played an amazing piece of Mac shareware called Escape Velocity. This space piloting sim/RPG had you flying a little shuttle craft across a seemingly endless universe, jumping through hyperspace between systems and carrying out different missions. You could never leave your ship and walk around, but you could dock at different planets, moons, and space stations. There you could trade commodities, get the latest news and gossip from the space bar, buy and upgrade weapons and other ship upgrades, or buy a new ship all together.
It was such an ingeniously simple game. Run currier missions, ferry passengers, and horde as many credits as you could until that wonderful day when you could finally purchase a bigger ship. I melted away my adolescence in the many following incarnations of Escape Velocity, and at one point was even building my own campaign utilizing the insane number of user-created scenario editing tools.
That's where this new MMO comes in. Chuck, new friend and road wizard/dungeon master of The Sailing, has been talking to me and Kirkland a lot recently about the game EVE Online. Now I've known about this game for a long time - and knew only that it's basically an MMO in outer space. But that's all I knew. For whatever reason I was always turned off by this game. Maybe it was the banner ads floating around that showed really ugly, ordinary people transform into even uglier 3D avatars. I probably thought something like "ewww, that character design is so American, so nasty looking," or, "haha, looks like an ad for a low budget Sci-Fi Channel miniseries."
But what I never thought was, "Wow, a space ship MMO. That could be a lot like the Escape Velocity of my dreams." During one of his first 'mmo-pitches' to me, Chuck had mentioned rather quickly that it was like "EV Nova," and kept talking like no one in the room caught what he was talking about. Then it clicked.
"Wait, this sounds a lot like this old shareware game I used to play called escape velocity..."
"Yeah, like I said - it's a lot like EV Nova."
"Holy shit."
Meet Chase Pritchard. After 4 or so hours of play I can say yes - IT IS THE ESCAPE VELOCITY OF MY DREAMS. Plotting courses through hyper space, eliminating pirate vessels, mining astroids, upgrading weapons, buying ships, docking and getting missions, everything; it's all there, in tact. Whether or not I have enough time or motivation to really put in the time to be extremely awesome in this particular MMO world is yet to be seen. For now I'm just "playing playing" it - as in playing it because it's fun to sit down and play, not because I feel like I have to put in the time in order to achieve some lofty far-off goal.
I do have a (leniently enforced) 2-MMOs-at-a-time limit, so after the first month of EVE it's either cancel the subscription or suspend WoW or FFXI. I guess we'll see how it goes. Just to tantalize your imagination I've included a few screenshots of a couple of my first n00bular kills. It has one of those great UIs full of data and clutter - makes you feel like you're doing something important (one of the reason tactics RPGs kick ass).
It's looks really nice as well.
First, a little history. When I was in middle school I played an amazing piece of Mac shareware called Escape Velocity. This space piloting sim/RPG had you flying a little shuttle craft across a seemingly endless universe, jumping through hyperspace between systems and carrying out different missions. You could never leave your ship and walk around, but you could dock at different planets, moons, and space stations. There you could trade commodities, get the latest news and gossip from the space bar, buy and upgrade weapons and other ship upgrades, or buy a new ship all together.
It was such an ingeniously simple game. Run currier missions, ferry passengers, and horde as many credits as you could until that wonderful day when you could finally purchase a bigger ship. I melted away my adolescence in the many following incarnations of Escape Velocity, and at one point was even building my own campaign utilizing the insane number of user-created scenario editing tools.
That's where this new MMO comes in. Chuck, new friend and road wizard/dungeon master of The Sailing, has been talking to me and Kirkland a lot recently about the game EVE Online. Now I've known about this game for a long time - and knew only that it's basically an MMO in outer space. But that's all I knew. For whatever reason I was always turned off by this game. Maybe it was the banner ads floating around that showed really ugly, ordinary people transform into even uglier 3D avatars. I probably thought something like "ewww, that character design is so American, so nasty looking," or, "haha, looks like an ad for a low budget Sci-Fi Channel miniseries."
But what I never thought was, "Wow, a space ship MMO. That could be a lot like the Escape Velocity of my dreams." During one of his first 'mmo-pitches' to me, Chuck had mentioned rather quickly that it was like "EV Nova," and kept talking like no one in the room caught what he was talking about. Then it clicked.
"Wait, this sounds a lot like this old shareware game I used to play called escape velocity..."
"Yeah, like I said - it's a lot like EV Nova."
"Holy shit."
Meet Chase Pritchard. After 4 or so hours of play I can say yes - IT IS THE ESCAPE VELOCITY OF MY DREAMS. Plotting courses through hyper space, eliminating pirate vessels, mining astroids, upgrading weapons, buying ships, docking and getting missions, everything; it's all there, in tact. Whether or not I have enough time or motivation to really put in the time to be extremely awesome in this particular MMO world is yet to be seen. For now I'm just "playing playing" it - as in playing it because it's fun to sit down and play, not because I feel like I have to put in the time in order to achieve some lofty far-off goal.
I do have a (leniently enforced) 2-MMOs-at-a-time limit, so after the first month of EVE it's either cancel the subscription or suspend WoW or FFXI. I guess we'll see how it goes. Just to tantalize your imagination I've included a few screenshots of a couple of my first n00bular kills. It has one of those great UIs full of data and clutter - makes you feel like you're doing something important (one of the reason tactics RPGs kick ass).
It's looks really nice as well.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Discipline
I finally finished the update for thesailing.org. Now the Sailblog page has a bit more functionality - recently update blogs are marked with the World of Warcraft 'server up' icon, and dusty blogs with the appropriate flashing 'server down' icon. This way, instead of just a big page with 4 hyperlinks on it, the Sailblog page will help keep you informed when your favorite member has updated their blog! There's still more I'd like to do with the page, possibly imbedding the last post using the blogger API, or at least throwing in some RSS feed buttons next to each blog.
A news update for the Infinite Sound Tour was added, as well as all of our confirmed show dates up to this point. I'm thinking about changing the way the Shows page works too, maybe having the nav bar link directly to the shows archive, displaying less images and more information. I'll have to tool around with it a little bit.
In other news, I decided against the PvP ring in WoW. I was so close to having enough honor for the Vindicator's Dreadweave Stalkers (feet equip) that I just ground out the 40 Eye of the Storm tokens needed to purchase it. Another off-piece slot epic'd out! Now all I need are 2x Vindicator's Band of Dominance, the Vindicator's Pendant of Dominance , the Vindicator's Dreadweave Belt , the Vengeful Gladiator's Touch of Defeat (stat-loaded wand), and finally the trinket. After that, I should be preeeetttty fucking leet. I would have an epic in every slot. Then maybe I could play more FFXI!
I've also been writing and recording some music - a few pieces from the new NIN album, Ghosts I-IV, I found inspiring in the same way a lot of the FFXI soundtrack was. The trick is expanding the moments of burst-inspiration into a practically recorded song. I'm sick to death of the drum options in logic. I can only bitcrush a pre-built drumkit so much before the songs start sounding 'samey.' What I need to do i drag my compy over to our new practice space, mic up Gus' drums, and start recording loops and samples. Some songs on POWERPLANT (the follow-up to my still-unreleased 'somethingambient') require actual drum parts performed all the way through. Others have drum tracks already programmed, and are just waiting for good samples to be dropped into Logic's drum machine.
Lack of good portable recording equipment is also holding me back. My once-awesome minidisc recorder no longer turns on, and without it I don't really have any options. Tape won't sound good enough, tiny digital recorders won't sound good enough, and laptops are too big and fragile to take to the places I want to gather samples from (abandoned factories around my home and such). One thing at a time I suppose. These are the things that swirl around me all day long, while I'm stuck at work from 10-5. Then I have from about 6pm-3am to get as much done as possible before passing out once again. I think when I'm old and dying I'll look back on these days fondly.
Oh, and don't forget to download the NEW FUCKING NINE INCH NAILS SINGLE! The same freaking month that Trent 'drops' Ghosts I-IV he releases Discipline, the new single, and hints at a new album on May 5th. WTF?! Making up for all of those 5-year album gaps I guess. Anyway, if you haven't heard it yet you can download it for free from the official NIN site. Enjoy!
A news update for the Infinite Sound Tour was added, as well as all of our confirmed show dates up to this point. I'm thinking about changing the way the Shows page works too, maybe having the nav bar link directly to the shows archive, displaying less images and more information. I'll have to tool around with it a little bit.
In other news, I decided against the PvP ring in WoW. I was so close to having enough honor for the Vindicator's Dreadweave Stalkers (feet equip) that I just ground out the 40 Eye of the Storm tokens needed to purchase it. Another off-piece slot epic'd out! Now all I need are 2x Vindicator's Band of Dominance, the Vindicator's Pendant of Dominance , the Vindicator's Dreadweave Belt , the Vengeful Gladiator's Touch of Defeat (stat-loaded wand), and finally the trinket. After that, I should be preeeetttty fucking leet. I would have an epic in every slot. Then maybe I could play more FFXI!
I've also been writing and recording some music - a few pieces from the new NIN album, Ghosts I-IV, I found inspiring in the same way a lot of the FFXI soundtrack was. The trick is expanding the moments of burst-inspiration into a practically recorded song. I'm sick to death of the drum options in logic. I can only bitcrush a pre-built drumkit so much before the songs start sounding 'samey.' What I need to do i drag my compy over to our new practice space, mic up Gus' drums, and start recording loops and samples. Some songs on POWERPLANT (the follow-up to my still-unreleased 'somethingambient') require actual drum parts performed all the way through. Others have drum tracks already programmed, and are just waiting for good samples to be dropped into Logic's drum machine.
Lack of good portable recording equipment is also holding me back. My once-awesome minidisc recorder no longer turns on, and without it I don't really have any options. Tape won't sound good enough, tiny digital recorders won't sound good enough, and laptops are too big and fragile to take to the places I want to gather samples from (abandoned factories around my home and such). One thing at a time I suppose. These are the things that swirl around me all day long, while I'm stuck at work from 10-5. Then I have from about 6pm-3am to get as much done as possible before passing out once again. I think when I'm old and dying I'll look back on these days fondly.
Oh, and don't forget to download the NEW FUCKING NINE INCH NAILS SINGLE! The same freaking month that Trent 'drops' Ghosts I-IV he releases Discipline, the new single, and hints at a new album on May 5th. WTF?! Making up for all of those 5-year album gaps I guess. Anyway, if you haven't heard it yet you can download it for free from the official NIN site. Enjoy!
Monday, April 21, 2008
'Trails' and Tribulation
It finally happened. After over half a decade of practicing on Schrubb Drive, we had the cops called on us. It couldn't have happened on a worse day too, as we had special guests on site to witness our majesty. But it was all interrupted when, after a stirring rendition of "Ghost Train," there came a knock on the door by a local 'boy in blue.'
The copper gave us some rigamarole about "pissing contests" (his words), feeding us basically the "I'm cool, but I'm a big prickly cock too" line which is pretty standard from quiet suburban area 5-0 bronze. And that was that. With a single republican swipe, the fat assed old sow diagonal-neighbor murdered The Sailing after 7 or so years of space rocking.
Of course, it should be noted that our practices have been a little bit... louder as of late, this due to the fact that we had to move from the stanky basement to the wide-open living room upstairs for medical reasons. So yes, it probably was louder than usual, but there's no reason the old whore couldn't have at least left a note or tried to talk to us about it, without wasting some poor dickhead cop's time.
Even when the brass was standing right there she refused to talk to us, like we were all going to start bleeding acid on her like a Xenomorph or something (see below).
So what now? Well, until we can make that stanky basement livable once again (and possibly sound proof it as much as we can) we can't practice at that house anymore. Luckily The Sailing are blessed with some of the greatest friends and colleagues any band from any town could ask for. Specifically the boys of Captain of Industry, who with absolutely zero notice were able to reserve a room for us in their secret practice space downtown.
On Saturday, Kirkland, Gus, and I assisted "The Coop" and Nathan of Captain (damn, that's a lot of capitalization) in clearing out the long-unused room in the practice space that The Sailing will be utilizing. While down there we discovered a cat who had given birth to a litter of 4 or 5 tiny kittehs. Knowing first hand what unattended cats in a practice space can do to the living conditions there, we successfully removed them from the space. To accomplish this, we employed the abilities of Gus' gal Rachel in putting the kittehs in a box, and then the the abilities of Michael Kirkland in frightening the mama cat out the door. The kittehs were taken to an appropriate caregiving facility, and the space was once again reclaimed for humanity.
So now it's Monday, and we hope to move in all of our shit tonight. This is weird, since for the last 7 or so years Tuesday and Thursday have been ingrained in my skull as 'fâtum days.' There was a stint in 2003 that had us practicing on Wednesdays - but never before have I had a 3 day block of no practice in the middle of the week. It will be interesting to be certain. But the important thing here is that we can now get to serious practice grinding for the summer tour. Oh! That reminds me! I need to write up a big update for thesailing.org's front page ;)
STAY TUNED SAILSMITHZ!
p.s. - Got my Vindicator's Dreadweave Cuffs, and by the end of tonight I (by all means) SHOULD have my Vindicator's Band of Dominance.
In FFXI I'm very very close to hitting 17 with Scholar, which means that I'm 2 levels from getting it out of the forsaken hell hole that is the Valkurm Dunes (aka teh n00bocaust).
The copper gave us some rigamarole about "pissing contests" (his words), feeding us basically the "I'm cool, but I'm a big prickly cock too" line which is pretty standard from quiet suburban area 5-0 bronze. And that was that. With a single republican swipe, the fat assed old sow diagonal-neighbor murdered The Sailing after 7 or so years of space rocking.
Of course, it should be noted that our practices have been a little bit... louder as of late, this due to the fact that we had to move from the stanky basement to the wide-open living room upstairs for medical reasons. So yes, it probably was louder than usual, but there's no reason the old whore couldn't have at least left a note or tried to talk to us about it, without wasting some poor dickhead cop's time.
Even when the brass was standing right there she refused to talk to us, like we were all going to start bleeding acid on her like a Xenomorph or something (see below).
So what now? Well, until we can make that stanky basement livable once again (and possibly sound proof it as much as we can) we can't practice at that house anymore. Luckily The Sailing are blessed with some of the greatest friends and colleagues any band from any town could ask for. Specifically the boys of Captain of Industry, who with absolutely zero notice were able to reserve a room for us in their secret practice space downtown.
On Saturday, Kirkland, Gus, and I assisted "The Coop" and Nathan of Captain (damn, that's a lot of capitalization) in clearing out the long-unused room in the practice space that The Sailing will be utilizing. While down there we discovered a cat who had given birth to a litter of 4 or 5 tiny kittehs. Knowing first hand what unattended cats in a practice space can do to the living conditions there, we successfully removed them from the space. To accomplish this, we employed the abilities of Gus' gal Rachel in putting the kittehs in a box, and then the the abilities of Michael Kirkland in frightening the mama cat out the door. The kittehs were taken to an appropriate caregiving facility, and the space was once again reclaimed for humanity.
So now it's Monday, and we hope to move in all of our shit tonight. This is weird, since for the last 7 or so years Tuesday and Thursday have been ingrained in my skull as 'fâtum days.' There was a stint in 2003 that had us practicing on Wednesdays - but never before have I had a 3 day block of no practice in the middle of the week. It will be interesting to be certain. But the important thing here is that we can now get to serious practice grinding for the summer tour. Oh! That reminds me! I need to write up a big update for thesailing.org's front page ;)
STAY TUNED SAILSMITHZ!
p.s. - Got my Vindicator's Dreadweave Cuffs, and by the end of tonight I (by all means) SHOULD have my Vindicator's Band of Dominance.
In FFXI I'm very very close to hitting 17 with Scholar, which means that I'm 2 levels from getting it out of the forsaken hell hole that is the Valkurm Dunes (aka teh n00bocaust).
Monday, April 7, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Gladiator's Spellblade + Gladiator's End Game
34,200 honor later, the glowing dagger and glowing off-hand book are now mine.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Another Turning Point (of Sorrow)
Few games have seen a development cycle as long and ridiculous as Chronicles of Sorrow. I'm kidding of course - Lord of the Rings Online (amazingly great game that I highly recommend) was in development for over a decade, Duke Nukem Forever was getting gaming mag cover stories over ten years ago and is still yet to come out, and of course there's Spore - Will Wright's vaporware masterpiece. And obviously I'm kidding, as all of those are 'real' games, and Chronicles of Sorrow is merely a hobbyist's fantasy of mine.
It started as a massive project involving most of the people who lived in the once-great-now-baron Van Buren Village. There were weakly meetings (maybe two of them total?) talking about style, characters, overall story, etc - but nothing ever really came of them. Then Tech, Keith, and I started writing an 8-bit soundtrack for an RPG that never was - the soundtrack of Chronicles of Sorrow. This project actually produced quality content, with full on overworld, town, ship, and several dungeon themes written and recorded (in the 3-note at a time NES style).
After all of that cooled off CoS began the cycle of failed game design experiments as detailed in this entry. And now it's turned a corner once again. This time it's truly for the best! I'm set on the idea of creating a MUD, and had been (since the writing of the 3/17 entry) working towards this goal via a website-based, subscription fee loaded "fill in the blanks" web application. It featured a world editor, in depth class/skill/spell controls, a quest system, a rudimentary system for communicating and interacting with NPCs, and so on. The only problem? A completely restrictive development environment.
Let's say I wanted to create a locked door that you needed to find a key for in order to get past. Using this web-software this would be impossible, as doors were something not built into the 'template' so to speak. Now I'm no master coder by any means, but i understand Java to a certain extent and have a fair grasp of object oriented programing. Basically, if I needed a locked door, I could figure out how to modify the MUD's code in order to make one. This 'fill in the blanks' site allowed users zero control on the fundamental code that ran the game mechanics.
As easy as it would've been to just continue making more rooms, more areas, more monsters, more NPCs, more spells, more levels, etc - they would've all been trapped inside of this restrictive environment with no hope of ever transcending the mold of a 'cookie-cutter' MUD. So I began searching for other options. There are basically two ways to start building a MUD - from scratch in a code editor, or using a 'codebase' (jargon for an open source uncompiled game engine the user can shape into an original design, and then build a game on top of). I straight up don't have the programming chops or networking knowhow necessary to build a internet based RPG from scratch. That would be ridiculous.
So I started browsing the different MUD codebases out there, looking for one that would be fairly easy to jump into. And boy oh boy, did I ever find that codebase! It's called CoffeeMud, and it will be the engine that runs Chronicles of Sorrow. What makes this codebase so much more appealing than just about every one I came across is the fact that it was written in Java - a language I'm already familiar with, and a language famous for its cross-platform compatibility. I was able to get the apache-based server up and running with my Mac booted in Windows and running DOS (and I hope to repeat the feat Mac-side using OS X's Unix foundation). This means that after a little editing I was able to actually connect to my own computer - acting as the MUD server - and interact with the first few rooms that I can added to the main codebase.
It was truly a wondrous site - one that I'll be sure to post a picture of once I find my way back home - to see the old "Chronicles of Sorrow" welcome screen pop up in a PuTTY telnet session KNOWING that that information was being delivered from my very own computer acting like a web server. This means that I'll be able to host the game (as it's an online game that requires a running web server to operate) on my own machine while I develop the game world, and one day it should all be easily transferable to a large scale MUD hosting site like mudmagic or the likes.
Most MUDs that are coming out today are merely interactive fan fictions, usually taking place inside of IPs like Star Wars, Kingdom Hearts, DBZ, X-Men, etc. It's really quite pathetic and quite sad. Hopefully the all original world and story-dependant progression of CoS will help to set it apart from this seemingly 'ultimate-nerd' sub culture. There are still great, original MUDs like Medievia floating around out there - and I hope to (some day) see Chronicles of Sorrow added to the list of original text-based adventure games worth playing (now that it's 20 or 30 years after the genre is outdated and irrelevant).
It started as a massive project involving most of the people who lived in the once-great-now-baron Van Buren Village. There were weakly meetings (maybe two of them total?) talking about style, characters, overall story, etc - but nothing ever really came of them. Then Tech, Keith, and I started writing an 8-bit soundtrack for an RPG that never was - the soundtrack of Chronicles of Sorrow. This project actually produced quality content, with full on overworld, town, ship, and several dungeon themes written and recorded (in the 3-note at a time NES style).
After all of that cooled off CoS began the cycle of failed game design experiments as detailed in this entry. And now it's turned a corner once again. This time it's truly for the best! I'm set on the idea of creating a MUD, and had been (since the writing of the 3/17 entry) working towards this goal via a website-based, subscription fee loaded "fill in the blanks" web application. It featured a world editor, in depth class/skill/spell controls, a quest system, a rudimentary system for communicating and interacting with NPCs, and so on. The only problem? A completely restrictive development environment.
Let's say I wanted to create a locked door that you needed to find a key for in order to get past. Using this web-software this would be impossible, as doors were something not built into the 'template' so to speak. Now I'm no master coder by any means, but i understand Java to a certain extent and have a fair grasp of object oriented programing. Basically, if I needed a locked door, I could figure out how to modify the MUD's code in order to make one. This 'fill in the blanks' site allowed users zero control on the fundamental code that ran the game mechanics.
As easy as it would've been to just continue making more rooms, more areas, more monsters, more NPCs, more spells, more levels, etc - they would've all been trapped inside of this restrictive environment with no hope of ever transcending the mold of a 'cookie-cutter' MUD. So I began searching for other options. There are basically two ways to start building a MUD - from scratch in a code editor, or using a 'codebase' (jargon for an open source uncompiled game engine the user can shape into an original design, and then build a game on top of). I straight up don't have the programming chops or networking knowhow necessary to build a internet based RPG from scratch. That would be ridiculous.
So I started browsing the different MUD codebases out there, looking for one that would be fairly easy to jump into. And boy oh boy, did I ever find that codebase! It's called CoffeeMud, and it will be the engine that runs Chronicles of Sorrow. What makes this codebase so much more appealing than just about every one I came across is the fact that it was written in Java - a language I'm already familiar with, and a language famous for its cross-platform compatibility. I was able to get the apache-based server up and running with my Mac booted in Windows and running DOS (and I hope to repeat the feat Mac-side using OS X's Unix foundation). This means that after a little editing I was able to actually connect to my own computer - acting as the MUD server - and interact with the first few rooms that I can added to the main codebase.
It was truly a wondrous site - one that I'll be sure to post a picture of once I find my way back home - to see the old "Chronicles of Sorrow" welcome screen pop up in a PuTTY telnet session KNOWING that that information was being delivered from my very own computer acting like a web server. This means that I'll be able to host the game (as it's an online game that requires a running web server to operate) on my own machine while I develop the game world, and one day it should all be easily transferable to a large scale MUD hosting site like mudmagic or the likes.
Most MUDs that are coming out today are merely interactive fan fictions, usually taking place inside of IPs like Star Wars, Kingdom Hearts, DBZ, X-Men, etc. It's really quite pathetic and quite sad. Hopefully the all original world and story-dependant progression of CoS will help to set it apart from this seemingly 'ultimate-nerd' sub culture. There are still great, original MUDs like Medievia floating around out there - and I hope to (some day) see Chronicles of Sorrow added to the list of original text-based adventure games worth playing (now that it's 20 or 30 years after the genre is outdated and irrelevant).
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Bandit Camp
Every year or so I feel this burning desire to escape from the boundaries of civilization and plunge headfirst into the great wilderness of the Great Smokey Mountains. I was able to satisfy this desire over this past weekend, as me and my always lovely ladyfriend Amber perpetrated the back country of Tennessee for a 5 day camping extravaganza! We arrived late Thursday night to a rather cold Gatlinburg, and by the time we had driven into the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and found our way to the end of the road past Elkmont and the decrepit remains of the once great Appalachian Club, it was roughly 2AM (technically Friday at this point).
Now the hike from the car to our secret, illegal backwoods campsite isn't necessarily the most intense and long hike in the world. It is about a 45 minute hike up the side of a mountain, and with a framed backpack with all sort of other bags and gear tied to it strapped to your body and a big cooler stuffed to the brim with food, that 45 minute hike can become a grueling lugfest. It's an incredibly steep path that is always winding up the mountainside - and once it levels out it's time to plummet down off the trail, into the untamed smokies, until you reach the river valley bellow. And that is where you will find bandit camp.
Plenty of rocks for smashing lumber (no hatchet required), a nice clear space for the tent, and a fire pit that has been slowly getting deeper and deeper over the years of use are but a few of the rugged convinces of this magical place. You're just up a little incline from the rushing river which provides us with drinking water (via a hand pump purifier), a place to wash ourselves and our dishes, a place to cool our beverages, and a constant stream of white noise to relax us at night, and mask the sounds of our activities during the day. It's a little slice of mountain paradise.
Days were spent on the trails, exploring the various mountains surrounding bandit camp. As this was my 5th or 6th visit to the spot I didn't really tred any new ground, but this was Amber's first camping experience - I wanted to show her everything I already knew was wonderful in the mountains. The 'fairy tale' trail past the babbling waterfalls and ivy covered grounds, Avent Cabin and it's tattered blood red curtains, the ruins of the Appellation Club cabins, the rock quarry valley by the horse ranch, the rolling meadows of Cade's Cove caught in afternoon sunlight... it felt great returning to all the places that made me fall in love with the Smokey Mountains years ago.
And it was over all too soon. Now I look ahead to another camping adventure hopefully at the end of April. The original Smokey Mountain Bandits (me, Mike Z, and Corkey McGarvin) are planning to infiltrate some new area, as the wild calls once again to the challengers!
P.S. - Amber was amazing, held up better than most girls I know could have, and by the end was better at starting a fire than I was.
Now the hike from the car to our secret, illegal backwoods campsite isn't necessarily the most intense and long hike in the world. It is about a 45 minute hike up the side of a mountain, and with a framed backpack with all sort of other bags and gear tied to it strapped to your body and a big cooler stuffed to the brim with food, that 45 minute hike can become a grueling lugfest. It's an incredibly steep path that is always winding up the mountainside - and once it levels out it's time to plummet down off the trail, into the untamed smokies, until you reach the river valley bellow. And that is where you will find bandit camp.
Plenty of rocks for smashing lumber (no hatchet required), a nice clear space for the tent, and a fire pit that has been slowly getting deeper and deeper over the years of use are but a few of the rugged convinces of this magical place. You're just up a little incline from the rushing river which provides us with drinking water (via a hand pump purifier), a place to wash ourselves and our dishes, a place to cool our beverages, and a constant stream of white noise to relax us at night, and mask the sounds of our activities during the day. It's a little slice of mountain paradise.
Days were spent on the trails, exploring the various mountains surrounding bandit camp. As this was my 5th or 6th visit to the spot I didn't really tred any new ground, but this was Amber's first camping experience - I wanted to show her everything I already knew was wonderful in the mountains. The 'fairy tale' trail past the babbling waterfalls and ivy covered grounds, Avent Cabin and it's tattered blood red curtains, the ruins of the Appellation Club cabins, the rock quarry valley by the horse ranch, the rolling meadows of Cade's Cove caught in afternoon sunlight... it felt great returning to all the places that made me fall in love with the Smokey Mountains years ago.
And it was over all too soon. Now I look ahead to another camping adventure hopefully at the end of April. The original Smokey Mountain Bandits (me, Mike Z, and Corkey McGarvin) are planning to infiltrate some new area, as the wild calls once again to the challengers!
P.S. - Amber was amazing, held up better than most girls I know could have, and by the end was better at starting a fire than I was.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Vengeful Gladiator's Dreadweave Hood
After weeks of grinding arena in World of Warcraft, I have finally acquired the season 3 headpiece.
The wings pop out sporadically.
The wings pop out sporadically.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Chronicles of Game Design (Sorrow)
I tend to drift from one obsession to another, many times not fully finishing the job. Making video games has been a hobby of mine since I was a kid. It started with little space invader like shooters and point-and-click adventures (a la Myst) , then in middle school I graduated to first person shooter modding - doing a total conversion of Bungie's Mac-only masterpiece Marathon Infinity. But what I've really been wanting to make my whole life it seams, in one form or another, is an RPG. I tooled around in RPGMaker 2K3 for a while, trying to make my own 8-bit looking RPG by modifying graphic tiles from other NES games. I had two fully animated characters, a complete overworld, a handful of dungeons, and even a few scripted scenario events.
It just didn't look good enough. In order to complete it I would've needed a team of artists and programmers to make it a reality. I'm simply not good enough of a 2D or pixel artist to make an entire RPG, end of story. So I took a step back and started working on an 'interactive fiction' (or text adventure') version of Chronicles of Sorrow (the RPG storyline that Tech and I developed). I built Simon Tril's house, and a little bit of the town he was from using the Inform 7 IF language/editor. Again, I was unsatisfied by the results, as this system was really built for non-violent puzzle based adventure games, and I knew I wanted serious goblin crushing in the game. So once again, I abandoned Chronicles of Sorrow.
That's when I got my hands on a 3D game engine, and set about building a 3D RPG from scratch. One zone map and a single 3D house later I realized the programming would be too difficult, and the overall results would again, look too poor to be worth while (even from an indie game standpoint). So I put my ambitions to rest again, and kept wasting more time playing FFXI and the like. But now, a new chapter is about to be written in the CoS's struggle to exist. I've begun scripting a MUD version of the CoS world. MUD stands for "multi user dungeon," and they were amongst the first online games to ever exist. It's basically a text adventure that multiple people can join in on, battle and level up in, and explore together.
The true beauty of a MUD is what an engaging and enriching single player experience they can be too. Yes, I'll have to pay a small fee to have it hosted on a server - but it'll be a fully expandable sprawling text-based RPG with PvE and PvP combat! Players from all over the world will be able to connect to the MUD, and access their character from anywhere there's internet access. Since all the player info is stored server-side, it will be playable even in a web browser across all platforms! This time I think I've finally found a fit for my aspirations of making Chronicles of Sorrow. It'll take a while before it's in a playable form, but i'll be sure to let you know when that day comes (if it ever does). Until then enjoy this ASCII logo I whipped up!
P.S. - If you want to try out a MUD for yourself follow these easy steps!
1) Download a MUD client - I recommend Atlantis for the Mac and SimpleMU for Windows
2) Set up a connection to the server eternalfantasy.org (IP: 66.150.225.61) and set the port to 3333
3) Make a character and start killing asps!
This is a MUD based upon every Final Fantasy game, I play it a lot in the background - it's pretty well written, and having been live for over 11 years now, it's pretty balanced as well.
It just didn't look good enough. In order to complete it I would've needed a team of artists and programmers to make it a reality. I'm simply not good enough of a 2D or pixel artist to make an entire RPG, end of story. So I took a step back and started working on an 'interactive fiction' (or text adventure') version of Chronicles of Sorrow (the RPG storyline that Tech and I developed). I built Simon Tril's house, and a little bit of the town he was from using the Inform 7 IF language/editor. Again, I was unsatisfied by the results, as this system was really built for non-violent puzzle based adventure games, and I knew I wanted serious goblin crushing in the game. So once again, I abandoned Chronicles of Sorrow.
That's when I got my hands on a 3D game engine, and set about building a 3D RPG from scratch. One zone map and a single 3D house later I realized the programming would be too difficult, and the overall results would again, look too poor to be worth while (even from an indie game standpoint). So I put my ambitions to rest again, and kept wasting more time playing FFXI and the like. But now, a new chapter is about to be written in the CoS's struggle to exist. I've begun scripting a MUD version of the CoS world. MUD stands for "multi user dungeon," and they were amongst the first online games to ever exist. It's basically a text adventure that multiple people can join in on, battle and level up in, and explore together.
The true beauty of a MUD is what an engaging and enriching single player experience they can be too. Yes, I'll have to pay a small fee to have it hosted on a server - but it'll be a fully expandable sprawling text-based RPG with PvE and PvP combat! Players from all over the world will be able to connect to the MUD, and access their character from anywhere there's internet access. Since all the player info is stored server-side, it will be playable even in a web browser across all platforms! This time I think I've finally found a fit for my aspirations of making Chronicles of Sorrow. It'll take a while before it's in a playable form, but i'll be sure to let you know when that day comes (if it ever does). Until then enjoy this ASCII logo I whipped up!
P.S. - If you want to try out a MUD for yourself follow these easy steps!
1) Download a MUD client - I recommend Atlantis for the Mac and SimpleMU for Windows
2) Set up a connection to the server eternalfantasy.org (IP: 66.150.225.61) and set the port to 3333
3) Make a character and start killing asps!
This is a MUD based upon every Final Fantasy game, I play it a lot in the background - it's pretty well written, and having been live for over 11 years now, it's pretty balanced as well.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Vana'diel Time
Sitting in this tiny house while cars grind dirty slush into the ground outside my drafty windows, I'm usually gravitated towards the exploration of virtual environments. My TV and computer monitor are like small windows into places much more lush and exciting than the gray drizzle of post-winter post-industrial Dayton. Specifically that of FFXI recently, but my MMO focus tends to shift with the seasons.
While trying to find out when a certain drop for a certain quest for a certain piece of armor that only my race/gender combo could wear, I came across this handy website that keeps track of all the different game-time related events and timers. I also found this:
The Vana'diel Clock. It tracks the moon phases, elemental days, and even airship arrival times for all the major cities. Does this blur the line between fantasy and reality a little too much? I don't think so - having this on my desk at work would sure take the edge off not being able to play... like a slow drip of a minuscule amount of heroine... heh, perhaps I'm not the best judge. I'll be sure to post some photos of the blizzard as soon as I dump the card.
While trying to find out when a certain drop for a certain quest for a certain piece of armor that only my race/gender combo could wear, I came across this handy website that keeps track of all the different game-time related events and timers. I also found this:
The Vana'diel Clock. It tracks the moon phases, elemental days, and even airship arrival times for all the major cities. Does this blur the line between fantasy and reality a little too much? I don't think so - having this on my desk at work would sure take the edge off not being able to play... like a slow drip of a minuscule amount of heroine... heh, perhaps I'm not the best judge. I'll be sure to post some photos of the blizzard as soon as I dump the card.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Summoner
After a few trying days of Vanna'diel weather hunting, I've successfully unlocked the Summoner job in FFXI! Behold!
A dream come true!
A dream come true!
Monday, February 25, 2008
I just found this on a message board I post on - it's something I wrote about how excited I was for the winter of 2006. Now that we've had at least a week of what feels like "true winter" here in Dayton (snow and ice on the ground and consistent cold weather) I thought it'd be nice to post it here. Also, Tech likes to poke fun about how I like winter better than the other seasons, so he should find this pretty hilarious.
lol, cheers to the waning winter!
a new day dawns on america - and you find me, basking in the glory of the rising sun. the pale winterlight bouncing off my frost covered face - a gentle gale pushing my stringy dark hair ever so slightly - my arms out stretched to either side. and in the center of it all you find my heart, bumping and thumping in the glow of december. as it lazily rises from its shallow grave like a zombie phoenix of fleshy ash, the winter calls again.
lol, cheers to the waning winter!
Site News, FFXI News
Just a minor update to thesailing.org today - expect a wrap up of the GBV tribute later tonight (and an exciting announcement!), for now enjoy a tiny little the sailing logo (sailcrest?) in your URL address bar, history display, and bookmarks menu! That's right, the shortcut icon issues have been ironed out (mostly problems getting a Windows icon file out of the Mac version of Photoshop) and now you can enjoy the sailcrest all over your favorite browser experience!
In other news my boy Matt Hamm, viceroy of Las Vegas, has joined the fight against the Beastmen of Vana'diel! For the MMO-backstory-deficient I'm talking about Final Fantasy XI - the most "SERIOUS BUSINESS" of all MMORPGs. I've been powerleveling him the last few nights, and hope to be in a 'real' group with him once he hits 15. An interesting side effect of this is Matt's great interest in crafting igniting an interest in me as well. Crafting in FFXI is just something I've never really messed with before, but Matt's eagerness to get involved with woodworking has sort of gotten me into it myself. Sometimes you need to see the game through another's eyes in order to appreciate its finer points!
In other news my boy Matt Hamm, viceroy of Las Vegas, has joined the fight against the Beastmen of Vana'diel! For the MMO-backstory-deficient I'm talking about Final Fantasy XI - the most "SERIOUS BUSINESS" of all MMORPGs. I've been powerleveling him the last few nights, and hope to be in a 'real' group with him once he hits 15. An interesting side effect of this is Matt's great interest in crafting igniting an interest in me as well. Crafting in FFXI is just something I've never really messed with before, but Matt's eagerness to get involved with woodworking has sort of gotten me into it myself. Sometimes you need to see the game through another's eyes in order to appreciate its finer points!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
MMO Nostalgia
Sat Oct 25, 2003 4:03 pm Post subject: Anouncing! Finally! The Frozen Poets of Velious are coming!
"The Eternal Inspiration of the Frozen Wastes"
Ladies and gentalmen, I would just like to let you know that I've sent away the eMail to SOE concerning the creation of my guild- The Frozen Poets of Velious. Here's what it's all about-
Consider us a "Avant Garde Space Rock Guild." I will be the guild master, Uttama Razehl and Hate Plaugebringer will be my guild leaders. The only officer as of yet will be Cogline.
Why Frozen Poets of Velious? Well, when i was level 2 or 3 I was exploring the PoK- when i came across a interesting looking stone with "The Great Divide" printed on it. I will never forget my first trip to Velious- the first giant I ever saw, the Coldain Dwarves, the Velium clusters, the wurm cave, and of course that beautiful waterfall cascading down, shrowding the entrance to the Coldain city. And that was just one zone! I was instantly in love with the place. I knew that eventually, it would be my main base of opperations- I would always be found traversing the frozen wastes.
Why are we Frozen Poets? I have a certain facination with cold- and I happen to love winter far beyond any of the other seasons. Being a musician/poet, I wanted my guild to sort of run on the kind of "soul reflections" required by the arts. And so the dream of the Frozen Poets of Velious was born- to me and the drummer in my real-life band Uttama (who posts here as Monotone Rottweiler)
So what is an Avant Garde Space Rock guild all about?
1) Roleplaying isn't by any means required- but playing in character is encouraged.
2) This is a guild for those of an artistic mind. Artists, poets, and musicians will make up the large body of members. We are the one's who "Think Different." We want to be a guild unlike anything ever seen on Al'Kabor. We will have events such as expeditions deep into unexplored zones, many many fishing adventures, and photo essay competitions- with results posted on our website (still under-construction).
3) We will be a guild that caters to mostly the good of heart. Dark characters will have to be special considerations when trying to join the guild. Dark Elves are welcome (Hate being one and all). Iksar are also welcome (because of my personal apreciation for their heritage and their great works of stone). Trolls and Ogres, however, will be admitted only under my personal aproval (which will be hard for a Troll or Ogre to get ).
4) We will be a helpful guild- glad to help newbies on their way. This, of course, does not mean powerleveling. In fact, powerleveling is strickly forbidden within the guild.
5) The bottom line is, we want our members to feel as if they belong to something different, something important. It may sound pretentious, but that's the point. All art is pretentious by the nature of it being art- even EverQuest itself. So I hope the guild will be a place for people that would like to make an impact on the server.
Send me an eMail or in game tell if you're interested! We'll be looking for characters about lvl 15-25. I sent the eMail to sony today say it could be 1-5 days before i hear back.
"The Eternal Inspiration of the Frozen Wastes"
Ladies and gentalmen, I would just like to let you know that I've sent away the eMail to SOE concerning the creation of my guild- The Frozen Poets of Velious. Here's what it's all about-
Consider us a "Avant Garde Space Rock Guild." I will be the guild master, Uttama Razehl and Hate Plaugebringer will be my guild leaders. The only officer as of yet will be Cogline.
Why Frozen Poets of Velious? Well, when i was level 2 or 3 I was exploring the PoK- when i came across a interesting looking stone with "The Great Divide" printed on it. I will never forget my first trip to Velious- the first giant I ever saw, the Coldain Dwarves, the Velium clusters, the wurm cave, and of course that beautiful waterfall cascading down, shrowding the entrance to the Coldain city. And that was just one zone! I was instantly in love with the place. I knew that eventually, it would be my main base of opperations- I would always be found traversing the frozen wastes.
Why are we Frozen Poets? I have a certain facination with cold- and I happen to love winter far beyond any of the other seasons. Being a musician/poet, I wanted my guild to sort of run on the kind of "soul reflections" required by the arts. And so the dream of the Frozen Poets of Velious was born- to me and the drummer in my real-life band Uttama (who posts here as Monotone Rottweiler)
So what is an Avant Garde Space Rock guild all about?
1) Roleplaying isn't by any means required- but playing in character is encouraged.
2) This is a guild for those of an artistic mind. Artists, poets, and musicians will make up the large body of members. We are the one's who "Think Different." We want to be a guild unlike anything ever seen on Al'Kabor. We will have events such as expeditions deep into unexplored zones, many many fishing adventures, and photo essay competitions- with results posted on our website (still under-construction).
3) We will be a guild that caters to mostly the good of heart. Dark characters will have to be special considerations when trying to join the guild. Dark Elves are welcome (Hate being one and all). Iksar are also welcome (because of my personal apreciation for their heritage and their great works of stone). Trolls and Ogres, however, will be admitted only under my personal aproval (which will be hard for a Troll or Ogre to get ).
4) We will be a helpful guild- glad to help newbies on their way. This, of course, does not mean powerleveling. In fact, powerleveling is strickly forbidden within the guild.
5) The bottom line is, we want our members to feel as if they belong to something different, something important. It may sound pretentious, but that's the point. All art is pretentious by the nature of it being art- even EverQuest itself. So I hope the guild will be a place for people that would like to make an impact on the server.
Send me an eMail or in game tell if you're interested! We'll be looking for characters about lvl 15-25. I sent the eMail to sony today say it could be 1-5 days before i hear back.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
RSS Now working!
After "tooling it up" in the rss files for a bit I was able to locate the retarded error and fix the RSS feeds! Now you can subscribe to both The Sailing news and upcoming show information. RSS subscription is the best way to stay up to date!
RSS News Feed
RSS Shows Feed
RSS News Feed
RSS Shows Feed
A few quick notes on the thesailing.org
I'm in the process of getting the website operating correctly. I'm aware that the RSS feeds are currently broken, and this problem should be fixed by the end of the day. I'm also aware that the custom shortcut icon (the one that appears next to the URL in your address bar) is currently displaying that awful yahoo logo *shudders*. I apologize for this unfortunate aesthetic error, and know that steps are being taken to correct it.
Everything else is lookin pretty good! Please be sure to let me know if you find anything broken on the site ^^.
Everything else is lookin pretty good! Please be sure to let me know if you find anything broken on the site ^^.
I think there are some issues with the PowerPC version of OSX 10.5
This just happened to me:
o_0;;
haven't seen OSX freak out like that since the kernel panic days!
o_0;;
haven't seen OSX freak out like that since the kernel panic days!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Tim And Eric Nite Live
Somehow it got past me that Tim and Eric were doing new Nite Live episodes again - which is good since the end of Awesome Show season two has left a gaping hole in my soul. Now the mighty void can be tamed! My mouth is seriously soar from laughing so hard. But don't take my word for it. Enjoy surreal deadpan video tape humor? Then check out Tim And Eric Nite Live!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
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