Sorry, guys... but I just had to share this

So, a few days ago when we were doing Assaults, my static started talking about birthdays. I thought it might be kinda fun to get everyone's birthday on the calendar, and maybe do something nice for that person when their special day comes around!
Either post your birthday here and I'll get it on the calendar for you, or put it on yourself

Of course, if you don't want to tell anyone your birthday, you don't have to. It's entirely voluntary! 

I was just looking around Youtube, and I stumbled across this. It made me laugh a little bit

Ok, I have a simply insane amount of seals. If I remember right, it's something like 32 stacks of KS and BS combined... so, I'd like to maybe pick a day, like Sundays, where I can do BS or KS fights. I want to do this mainly with linkshell members, and I was thinking that we could sell and split all items.

I don't really care if I make a huge fortune off of this (well... I do a little ). I want to make some money while clearing out inventory space. So, if we can't get enough people together who have seals, then maybe I could sponser one or two people, by giving them a percentage of my cut. I mean, I'd prefer to do this with someone with their own orb (it's more efficient that way!) but BCNMs are fun, I like spending time with my friends, and like I said, I could use the space and the gil

Anyone interested? I'd probably start in a couple of weeks (home life is a little hectic right now ^^; )

Stolen in its entirety from http://www.mst3kinfo.com/
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With the holidays upon us, itââ,¬â,,¢s time once again for our annual holiday tradition, ââ,¬Å"A Childââ,¬â,,¢s Christmas in Spaceââ,¬Â by Tom Servo.
ââ,¬â€Ã¢â,¬â€œ
Tom: Itââ,¬â,,¢s quiet in the cold of our own little orbit, starless and bible black. And as I look down on the big blue bean we would call home I think it so near, yet ââ,¬Â¦ oh, I wish on that star and I hope that in a little snow-covered house with a warm hearth and a loving family, maybe some kid is looking up tonight and wishing upon us. Oh, and how I hope sweet Santa will fly by tonight, because if he does Iââ,¬â,,¢m gonna reach right out and hug that big guy. Oh, for the sound of hooves against the steel hull of the ship. Oh, to see the rosy face of Santa in the porthole, offering me a Coke and a smile ââ,¬Â¦ (gradually becoming upset) ââ,¬Â¦ of course, his cheeks would be rosy because itââ,¬â,,¢s a vacuum out there! I mean, Santaââ,¬â,,¢s heart would explode! (becoming hysterical) But he wouldnââ,¬â,,¢t feel it because the capillaries in his brain would pop like little firecrackers (Joel tries to calm him down) due to the blood boiling away in his face like pudding in a copperââ,¬Â¦OH THE HUMANITY!! (Now both Joel and Crow are trying to calm him down.) And his jolly old belly would start bubbling like a roasted marshmallow, eyes bulging and popping out ââ,¬Â¦ AND THE REINDEER ââ,¬â€ OH THE REINDEER!!! ââ,¬â€ keep floating like holiday floats and in turn exploding in a hail of blood and entrails! Prancer ââ,¬â€ BOOM! Dancer ââ,¬â€ BOOM! ââ,¬Â¦
Joel: HEY!
Crow: Tom!
Joel: Tom, take it easy! Santaââ,¬â,,¢s gonna be okay, buddy.
Tom: You sure?
Joel: Yeah, give him a little credit, okay?
Tom: Phew, what a relief!
ââ,¬â€Ã¢â,¬â€œ
And it is with that sense of relief that we want to offer you our best wishes for the Swayziest holiday season ever, if thatââ,¬â,,¢s okay, and hopes for an amazing colossal new year.

ââ,¬â€œThe Maintainers of Satellite News
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I really miss that show ^^;

Holy cow, I found out what they were talking about with the 4000 macro thing... They weren't kidding!
Check this out:

http://www.cactusleaftl.com/ffxipics/osakafest07/newmacro.jpg

Someone who translated it said the icons were Select, Rename, Copy, Paste and Delete

So, yeah... 20 times the number of macros! 

Some of you may know that I was in the Beta test for the NA version of FFXI waaay back in the day. Well, during Beta, I had a total of 16 characters! (They were all free, so why not?) I played around with all the different races and a lot of different faces, but my favorite, of course, was a mithra named Zerila. I liked her so much, that I re-created her after the NA release

During the first "Welcome Home to Vana'diel" campaign they did a couple years ago, someone mentioned that it was possible to bring back beta characters... so I tried it, and I could! Sadly, it stuck my beta Zerila on Asura. I logged in on her every once in a while, just to goof around.

Well, a while ago I saw a video on youtube, where a Galka Warrior had solo'd the mission 2-3 dragon. One of the things that really frustrated me, back in beta, was that I was stuck on that mission (killing the Bastok dragon). I had tried, back in beta, to get a group together to do it, but we ran in like a pack of idiots and died, and nobody wanted to try again. Trying to kill the dragon alone appealed to my solo-tastic nature, so I decided to give it a shot!

I zoned into the BCNM, changed into my battle gear, ate my food, and popped a re-raise scroll (just in case!). When I got close to the dragon, I hit Dodge and Focus and 100-Fists. What followed is, probably, the most wonderful piece of monster thrashing I've ever been involved in! It wasn't even close... I think I used about 5 hi-potions, but the dragon was nearly dead by the time 100-fists wore off. A weaponskill and a few more hits, and down he went! After the dragon, the eye was no problem at all. Just like that, over four years later, beta-Zerila was rank 3! I made a video of it, though I need to compress it a little to post it on youtube (it is gigantic, 6 gigs )

Now I just need to solo to rank 5 and get her an airship pass!

Oh, I forgot to mention, I beat the dragon in 3:58, 50 seconds away from the record

I was on my way into work today, trying to avoid dozing on the bus (late night assaults ^^; ) when suddenly the bus jerked, a couple people screamed, and there was a loud "BANG!" noise. Turns out my bus hit a car!

It sure woke me up 

Anyway, I guess what happened is this; the woman in the car passed the bus and thought we were going to stop for some reason, so she went to take a right turn into a parking lot. We weren't going to stop, so the driver had to slam on his breaks really hard, and still ended up smashing the back of her car. The back of the car was pretty demolished, and the bus had some minor scratches on the bumper. This is why you never argue right-of-way with a bus: You may be right, but you'd be dead 

No injuries, I'm happy to say, though the woman was really upset. She was Somali, and she was talking really fast with an accent, so the driver was having a hard time talking to her. I was so glad nobody was hurt that I didn't even mind being late for work today

I think it's time we settled the question... what is the Lucky official dessert?

(I think I know how this is going to go, but I had to ask the question anyway ^^ )

Saw this first on the Alla forums (I know, drama central...  )

http://montyoum.gametrailers.com/gamepad/index.php

Enjoy it

I work for a major bank, in a corporate site. So, it's this big, multi-floored office building, with lots of different departments and such.

We've recently been having a little bit of a space crunch, where some departments don't have enough room for new hires and such. So, while trying to find places for new people, we find this one area that seems pretty empty. However, the group that sits near them claims that there are people sitting in all of those cubes.

We go to check... Yup, there are photos, coffee mugs, pens, post-its... but no computers and no phones. Then we notice that all the coffee mugs look almost identical. Then we notice that all the photo frames on all the desks have the same people in them. By gosh, they must all be related!

Either that or this group went over to Target and bought a bunch of stuff to put in these cubes, not even bothering to remove the "pictures" that already came in the frames, so the desks would look occupied and so we wouldn't try to take them away. But, they wouldn't do that, right? That would be crazy! ^^;

  Robert Jordan, author of the Wheel of Time series, has passed away. This makes me very sad, and not just because he's one book away from finishing the series that he's been working on for so long. Hearing about his fight against this disease, and reading up on his life, he impressed me as a man of character and determination. I respected and admired both his writing and tenacity.

  He had always said that the book would get finished, with or without him. He's left enough notes and such that a decent writer (possibly his wife, who has helped out with much of the editing) could put it together more or less the way RJ himself might have. So, I'm not worried about the last book. I regret not being able to read the next series that he had planned, since that sounded kind of interesting.

Rest in Peace Robert, you'll be missed.

I found out what the issue is! It turns out, the line that runs up to my house goes through a neighbor's tree branches, and the branches pulled out the line just enough to disconnect it... They need to re-run the line since they can't just trim the branches of my neighbor's tree. I'm not the only one affected, though. I talked to my OTHER neighbors last night, and they're having the same problem with their TV (they don't have cable internet, just TV service). However, the neighbor that HAS the tree is not having any problems, since they use Dish and DSL ^^;
They did apologize for the tree, though. Which was nice, even though I don't think it's their fault that whoever-it-was before Comcast ran the line over their property.

They said I should be back up and running either tonight or tomorrow, so yay

No TV and no Internet makes Zeri... something, something... 

Pankration in the Pit starts today! I'm so excited to try this out! Though, I'm a little nervous about my connection, I still had nothing this morning when I got up to go to work

Who wants to go monster-collecting?

Kets, Ryu, I think our choice of pets is obvious, right? Let's go get us some Wyverns!

Edit: oh, yeah... forgot to mention, Ding DRG 42, solo

Edit2: More Cake please!

Ok, I've been thinking about the trouble we've been having with this last ToAU fight, and I've come up with a plan. It goes like this:

We gear up, run in to the battlefield, and buff up like normal.
Once ready, we attack Raubahn. The first time we knock him down, we break out the rope and tie him up, and we wrap several rolls of duct tape over his mouth. That way, when he re-raises he won't be able to do anything. 

With Raubahn out of the way, we'll send in a couple of people to keep the Iron Colossus occupied, while someone heals. I'll Sneak/Invis myself and two other people, and we'll run around planting the high-grade explosives all over the Colossus's body. By the time we get done with that, the two fighting should have knocked the required 50% off of the Colossus, and then he'll turn into Alexander. At that point, we get clear and blow the explosives, which should knock Alexander down to 0% health.

Hey, SE cheats all the time in these fights! Why can't we? 

Honestly, I think Ariamo and I just need to continuously spam cures on the tank to keep them alive, and go from there. The only real issue is that we keep running out of time, though he seemed to spam a lot of cures on that last fight... This is a tricky fight, but I know we can do it!

As excited as I was about GRIPS!!!! and about all the other changes that happened last night, I wasn't about to sit around all night doing nothing. So, instead of waiting for the update to finish, I headed out to....

The Minnesota State Fair!

Now, I'll be honest. I don't really like the Fair. Too crowded, the weather is usually hot and muggy (it was muggy yesterday, but not too hot) and none of the booths or attractions usually do much for me. And the food... As good (tasting) as it is, eating fried cheese, pronto pups, and mini donuts can sure make someone feel like they got punched in the gut... from the inside 

In spite of all of this, I got dragged off to the Fair anyway.

We started out in a park and ride and took a bus all the way in. Rush hour traffic and the I-35 bridge being out slowed us down a lot, but roughly 45 minutes later we were at our destination.

Exhibits that I didn't want to see abounded. For example, The Miracle of Birth center, where they have a bunch of baby animals (yay!), and you can watch animals being born (ugh...) and the Reptile house (eek!). Looking at a map, I began noting all the various attractions. What should I go see?
Sheep Barn? Nah...
Cow Barn? Nah...
Baby Animals? Well, if I can actually avoid seeing any live births while I'm eating my pronto pup, that may be worthwhile.
Robot Combat? Nah.... Wait, what? Robot Combat?! I am SO there!

We ended up watching a 20 minute show of some actual Battle-Bots style robots beating the pulp out of various appliances (the sad remains of a dryer, a lawn mower, an air conditioner and, briefly, a toilet  ). The drum of the dryer got embedded in the ceiling at one point. All in all, a good show

At this point, it was getting late. So, we took off to the main event, the reason we were really there... Weird Al in concert! We got to our seats (and I think they must have hired a team of engineers, since seats that uncomfortable don't happen by accident) and watched the opening act, an a capella group called Tonic Sol-Fah, who did an amusing version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" as done by the cast of the Muppet Show (Swedish Chef was funny, but Beaker had me rolling )

And then the main event started. Al was fantastic. He immediately launched into his most recent Polka medley, and followed up with such hits as "All About the Pentiums" and "Amish Paradise". He had to change costumes a lot, so between most of the songs they showed clips of various things (interviews on Al TV, clips from UHF, cameo appearances in various shows, etc.). At one point, Al ended up in a Spongebob t-shirt, heart-print boxer shorts, and a pink tutu  .

One of the highlights (for me, at least) was when he did "The Saga Begins" and he had a bunch of Stormtroopers and Darth Vader on stage with him. As the song went on, the Stormtroopers started dancing, much to Lord Vader's apparent annoyance. It was brilliant

The concert lasted a little over two hours, if I remember right. He did two encores, finally ending on the song "Albuquerque", which is almost a full concert's worth of time in itself. Immediately after he got off stage, the fireworks show started, finishing the job of deafening me that Al's concert had started.

Except for the bus ride back to the park and ride (stuck on a bus with drunks, boo!) that was the most fun I've had out in a looong time

By the way... Grips!!

(Al TV "interview" question with Kevin Federline: "So, how does it feel to have a closet full of wife-beaters, but no wife?")

I'm just curious what site(s) people use the most. For me, I use FFXI Wiki for stuff like quests, Somepage for quick item/mob lookups, and Alla just for the forums. If there are any missing sites that people use a lot, please let me know!

Just a quick reminder, in case anyone besides me is a Dr. Who fan, the new season starts up on the Sci-Fi channel this Friday!

On a side note, I'm not going to be playing on Friday...  ^^;

I've gone and made a thread on the community portal, so go on and make your haikus!

The story behind the event is here
The details of the event are here
And the community portal is here

Something kind of weird/bad happened last night that's going to require me to take a little break from playing... a few weeks, actually 
It's nothing permanent, just some RL drama stuff that I need to fix. But for the next few weeks, I'm only going to be on a little each day to feed my chocobo and sell stuff on the AH. So, I'm not going away, just... not playing quite as much for a while!

I should (I hope) have this all wrapped up by the next update... what I really feel bad about is not being able to participate in the static with Subvert (Darby) Subvertia, and Subvertaru

Anyways... <3 ya, LuckyLS!

I can't believe that this is finally coming out! I've been looking forward to this for such a long time!

One of my co-workers decided to be a little bad, so she brought in stuff to make s'mores in the microwave. I decided that this is about the tastiest treat you can make at work so I decided to write up:

Zerila's Guide to Making Microwave s'mores!
ta-daa!!!

You will need:
Graham crackers
Marshmallows (the big kind, not the mini marshmallows)
a chocolate bar (like a regular Hershey's bar)

1. take 1 graham cracker "plank" and crack it in two (it's usually perforated in the middle, making this easy). You should end up with two graham cracker squares. Place one of the squares on a microwave-safe plate

2. take a small amount of chocolate, say 1-2 sections off of a Hershey's bar, and place it in the center of the graham cracker.

3. Take 1 marshmallow and place it on top of the chocolate.

4. Place the plate in the microwave and nuke it for a few seconds. When I say "a few", I mean it! As soon as the marshmallow starts to puff up, stop it and take the plate out*

5. Place the second graham cracker square on top of your marshmallow

6. Eat the s'more

7. Spend the next 10 minutes trying to clean sticky marshmallow stuff off of your hands

8. Repeat steps 1-7 until satisfied!


*I can't stress enough how important it is to keep an eye on your marshmallow! These things will grow completely out of proportion to their original size, with no apparent end in sight. I believe that they actually absorb microwave radiation, and will eventually grow large enough to swallow the entire planet! Leaving a marshmallow in the microwave for too long could spell doom for us all! DOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!!

Enjoy your s'mores!

I wrote some really short, not-very-great stories a while back, on the Allakhazam Beastmaster forums, and I decided to re-post them here, so you can enjoy/laugh at/tease me about them ^^;;

I posted the first of the "Gustav Goblins" Trilogy a while back, but never did the other two. So, without further ado, I present the second of the series, titled "Why I Can Never Go Back to Gustav Tunnel..." (this one inspired another poster to make a comic, found here).
Please enjoy!

Why I can never go back to Gustav Tunnel...

Ok, so true story!
A while ago, I wrote a story about my adventures killing goblin's leeches in Gustav tunnel (linky). I've leveled up a bit since then, so I decided to return to Gustav and revisit my old pals Hansblix and Boblix. These guys would have seriously mopped the floor with me last time I was here, but I've gotten quite a bit stronger since then. Also, the Robber Crabs in the area are charmable now, and make pretty good pets against goblins.

So I change into my charming gear and sneak up to the nearest crab. Using my Beastly skills of persuasion, I convince the poor dumb thing that there is nothing it would rather do then get the crap beat out of it by the local goblin population on my behalf. Spotting a lone goblin beastmaster off in the distance, I cautiously approach.It's Boblix, my old buddy from my leech-killing days. I see him pop a leech jug (where does he get those, anyway? I want some!). His back is turned to me, and I just can't resist! I send my hypnotized pet over, and it makes quick work of Boblix's pet leach. Boblix turns around just as his leach dies.

Boblix: "What the heck! ah, great! I's you again. I thought we chased you off last time!"
Zerila: "Well, I'm back! I've gotten stronger, so I thought I'd come back for a rematch!"
Boblix: "Fine, whatever! Just! please! Stop killing my pets! Those jugs are expensive!"
Zerila: "Ok, ok, sorry. I just thought it was funny. You ready?"
Boblix: *sigh* "Fine! let's do this thing!"
Zerila: "Go get him, crab pet!"

My crab scuttles off to start beating on Boblix. I spring into action, franticly hopping around on one foot while tugging off one of my boots. As the boot comes off, I notice a distinct lack of fighting noises. I glance up and see both my pet crab and the goblin staring at me in astonishment.

Boblix: "Uh! what the heck are you doing? Why are you taking your boots off? I thought we were going to fight!"
Zerila: "Those are my AF boots; I only use them for charming pets. I need to change into my battle gear."

Standing barefoot on the cold floor, I pull off my gloves, and then change my rings for a couple of different ones. Then I root around in my gobbiebag for a different pair of gloves.

Boblix: "What, seriously? In the middle of a fight?"
Zerila: "Um! yeah. Just! you two go on without me, I'll only be a minute"
Boblix: "Changing clothes in the middle of a fight? Jeeze, you adventurers are crazy."

I get finished pulling my gloves on, but my crab and Boblix are still just staring at me. It's starting to make me uncomfortable.

Zerila: "Umm! would you mind turning around for a sec?"
Boblix: "What?! Why in the world would I do that?"
Zerila: "Well, you see! I need to change my pants."
Boblix, staring in disbelief: "! your pants! this has got to be a joke! Did Hansblix put you up to this?"
Zerila: "No, really! You see, I fight much better in these pants right here!"

I take the pants out and hold them up so he could see them.

Boblix: "No way! I'm not going to turn around! What kind of an idiot do you take me for? If I turn around, you're going to whack me in the head with that axe of yours!"
Zerila: "No, I won't! I just want to change into my battle pants! Honestly!"
Boblix: "Well, I ain't turning around!"
Zerila: "But! I can't change with you watching!"
Boblix: "Ah, nuts to this!"

Boblix sheathed his axe and stalked away, muttering something about "stupid adventurers, interrupting a battle for a wardrobe change" as he went. I stood there, holding my pants and feeling a little stupid. I notice that my crab is still staring at me.

Zerila: "You! still love me, don't you Robber Crab?"
*Robber Crab is no longer charmed*
*Robber Crab dies of shame*

Well, that's it. That's the true story of how I completely humiliated myself in Gustav Tunnel, and why I can never go back.

http://pfa.bethegamer.com/2007/05/13/june-update-details-found/

I'm pretty excited about the Pit, it sounds like a blast! And that Eniherjar sounds like an unbelievable amount of fun! I'm really looking forward to this update, but now it looks like I'll be even further behind on meriting ^^;

You may have already heard of this:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/03/student_counterstrike_map_texasschool/

I would find it funny if I didn't think it was so stupid. The kid made a Counter-strike map of his school... Jeeze, I would have, too! And of where I worked, and of the local mall, etc. Who wouldn't want to play in a familiar location? That would be so cool! But, in spite of having no guns, this kid is somehow a threat. Makes me want to /slapga the entire school board.

Other maps that the Clements High faculty suspended students for:

Starcraft (after a student posted "zerg rush the teacher's lounge! kekekeke" on a message board)
Neverwinter Nights (According to teachers: "They were planning on turning us into newts!")


Ah, well. At least the Board President's name being "Smelley" makes me grin