Massive update.

[sarea]

I haven't been keeping up with LJ. This is because I am completely obsessed with World of Warcraft. Yesterday, I played from 2pm to nearly 4am. That's *14 hours straight* of playing a computer game. (Thankfully, I made myself clean for three hours before I was allowed to turn on the computer.) Even now all I can think about is for this day to end so I can go home and play.

It's unhealthy. It's wrong. And there's nothing I can do about it.

I've been playing it so much I've hardly paid attention to anything else -- including eating. I just eat something until I'm full, and then it's back to playing. The result is a loss of two pounds, which means this morning I saw a number on the scale I haven't seen in I don't know how long. But probably I also lost muscle mass, given that I've been sitting and not moving around AT ALL.

The game is amazing. It's fun and it's addicting. I now know how RL relationships can be strengthed or splintered by this game. It's -- well, I can't really describe it. Those who play it, know what I'm talking about. Those who don't play it, you have to try it. It'll be the best $50 value ever (at least, the first month, when the online subscription is free).

Even if you don't get obsessive about things like I do (which is a Very Good Thing), I can't imagine that you won't have fun with it. You're playing with a whole bunch of other people, so there's the opportunity for social interactions with others (although mostly I shy away from it) -- which has its good parts and its bad parts (just like in RL, you encounter some truly spectacular examples of how not to be a human being). For instance, most people are generally helpful, randomly casting protection spells on you ... but some are *too* helpful, and become a stalker who gives you armor and weapons, and then constantly whispers to you when you've made it clear you don't want their help. (I think I've finally got rid of him. At one point I considered starting a new character on a different server so I wouldn't have to deal with him anymore.)

You get to do things like meet up with your friend, a human priestess, so she can guide you through iffy territory to get you to Iron Forge, and then lead you to the tram to Stormwind, all so you can meet with various weapons masters and learn how to bludgeon someone with a stave.

You can meet up with your brother, a human paladin, who keeps having to tread water in the sea after you've been killed by sea creatures for the umpteenth time. And then when he has you on 'follow' mode while he's gone to get himself a refreshment or whatever, you can go try to tame an animal in the surrounding forests while he follows you haplessly. And then you get attacked by rabid bears and die, so when you resurrect you run as far away from the forest as your elven legs will carry you. And when he comes back he will say to you, "What happened? I came back to find myself alone in the forest being eaten by a bear."

And when some crazy drunken dwarf has you repairing his crap all over the island, you can share the quests with your friend, the elvish druid, because you cover more ground that way. And she'll nicely carry your light leather and ruined leather scraps for you when you've run out of room in your backpack.

See, that's relationship building.

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I've been so obsessed, I didn't even post my fanfic author appreciation things when I was supposed to. *hangs head* But they will be posted.

Last Friday pick: Brandon Ray
Fandom: The X-Files

Brandon. Possibly the most prolific, good writer of any fandom. We drove each other stark, raving nutters from time to time, but there was never anyone more fun to debate with, when it came right down to it. Brandon already had legions of fans by the time I gave him some feedback on Eddies in the Continuum, but that didn't stop him from emailing me back, even though I hadn't written a single story at that time, and he didn't know me from Eve. It also didn't stop him from befriending me on AIM (which was what everyone used back in the day), or from showing a total newbie lots of kindness and patience when she was flailing around in the dark. And best of all, he introduced me to ropo, who introduced me to jade_okelani. <333

But anyway, this is supposed to be about Brandon as an author, not Brandon as Cool Person. <g> Like I've said, Brandon was prolific. The good thing about that was that you could choose any story of his, and it would be well written. Which meant you could spend hours upon hours happily overdosing on MSR, without even changing author. <g>

One of my favorite stories by Brandon is March 5, 1993, which was actually the impetus for a long novel we started to co-write. (Unfortunately, our interest in XF waned before it could be completed, so now it's just an unfinished WIP.) Other favorites include Thank You For Shopping at K-Mart, Not a Hallmark Kind of Guy, and Subtext -- a series of post-eps that he actually co-wrote with jade_okelani. I didn't know her back then, but I had him pass on my kudos. <g>

Brandon has since stopped participating actively in any fandom (that I know of), but he's just written a real book, which I'm sure we'll be seeing on the shelves one of these days. <g> In the meanwhile, his fanfic's still able to be viewed by the public! ; )

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Wow, more people than I thought also think Draco'll be Head Boy. Interesting, poll takers; interesting.

[Poll #454502]

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Speaking of The X-Files, take this nerd quiz!

Elite Phile Dork You scored 91%!

You really know your shit. Like me (the writer of the test) you probably spent most of the show's nine year run hanging out on X Files message boards, surfing for spoilers and rewatching episodes. You know all of the episode names and like every single bit of inane trivia. You probably even shelled out the ridiculous amounts of cash required for the DVD sets, maybe wrote some fan fiction or have gotten into a heated arguments over the mytharc. You can probably guess what season an episode or picture is from by Mulder and Scully's hair and can guess which episode you are watching merely from viewing 30 seconds of it. If I don't know you already, message me because we should be friends.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 83% on Phile Points

Link: The X Files Dork Test written by nerbieQpants on Ok Cupid

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And finally ... March Madness.

I'm just not feeling it this year. I think I'll only enter one bracket into our office poll. Not sure if my reticence is due to the teams being lackluster, or because all I want to do is play WoW. Hmm. Not sure.

Comments

[heinous_bitca.livejournal.com]

WoW. WoW. WoW. WoW. WoW.

It's all I want to play, too.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

I need to get myself an icon for WoW, stat.

D00d did you see my other (extremely late) reply to your last comment? Am happy to create a Horde character to sign your petition. :D I probably won't play it overly much at first, but all you need is my signature, right? (Jade'll probably do it, too.)

[fearthainn.livejournal.com]

Heee, WoWers of the World, Unite! Your stories cracked me up. :D

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha! I was just reading all the LJ posts that I missed over the last few days, and saw that you've gotten to lvl 40!!! OMG how cool. Congrats!! And a mount, squeeeeee! I cannot. wait. for that day to arrive.

[fearthainn.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I actually got 41 last night, so I'm feeling quite pleased with myself. :)

I *would* have a mount, if I had any money. I bottomed myself out buying the mail armour skill, riding training and a few other handy new spells, so now I have 1 gold piece to my name. Mount costs 72g. Won't be getting a new mount for a long, long, long time, I think. Woe is me! And any time I have to run any distance at all in game, I am bitter like a bitter, bitter thing. ;) "If I had a mount, I'd BE there by now! *sob*"

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Wheeee, 41! I hit 17 last night and was pretty pleased with that, since I've been playing for less than a week. Of course, it's easier to level up in the beginning. Isn't it sad that I just got an email from a friend who wants to know what evening we could get together to have dinner/movie, and my first thought was, "But that's WoW time"?

Hahahahahahaha re: your bitterness about a mount. That is so funny. I'm already bitter from all the trekking I have to do, wondering why the hell we only have one damn moonstone.

Also? I can barely imagine the day when I'll have one gold, much less 72 of them. O.O

[fearthainn.livejournal.com]

I do the same thing! I'm like, can't do anything on Thursdays, it's guild night! (I don't actually play that much though...usually Thursdays, late Fridays, and during the day on the weekends if I don't have anything else to do. I learned my online gaming lesson with Everquest. Never again, man. Never again.)

The money picks up after you hit 20...I was perpetually broke until I got to 20, and then I always seemed to have at least enough to buy things like spells and arrows and the like. My guildmates keep telling me that money picks up again after 40, so I'm hoping it doesn't take me another 10 levels to get enough money for a mount!

[akscully.livejournal.com]

What a touching story. :)))))))

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

I know you liked the one about the human priestess the best. I like the way you look in your robes.

[annibug.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I got into the poll late in the game. Here are my two cents.

I'm not sure if any of those things will happen to Draco, to be honest. I'll go with getting the Dark Mark though. In canon, he comes off as such a whining brat, it makes me think he's incredibly sheltered so I think he'd glorify the whole Death Eater thing and want to be a part of it. His father knows the realities and I can't figure out how Lucius feels about it now in hindsight. But because Draco seems sheltered (to me, anyway) I don't think his father would encourage such a thing before the book series ends unless it wasn't really up to Lucius, meaning a decision Draco makes on his own, or he's summoned by 'old crusty snake-face'.

And I think he's more likely to hook up with Pansy than either of the Gryffindor girls.

Have fun playing your game. *g* Don't forget to sleep.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Hee, yeah... in my first post about the poll, I said that the choices aren't necessarily believable -- I mean, some of them contradict one another, not to mention it's highly unlikely Draco will have romantic entanglements with *both* Ginny and Hermione. It's more about gauging likelihood. The poll came out of a conversation I had with Jade about how I hoped Draco and Hermione would never be together in the books, and she said, "I think JKR would kill him first." And that led to discussion about what we think JKR would do, before she'd do something else. So then I wanted to see what other people thought. <g>

It's not really a, "Do you think this will actually happen in canon?" poll. I didn't put "Draco will be with Pansy," because it seemed too obvious. Of course everyone would choose that one, because we're sensible. The more interesting questions were the more unpredictable things, so that's what I was going for. :D

[annibug.livejournal.com]

not to mention it's highly unlikely Draco will have romantic entanglements with *both* Ginny and Hermione.

Just a random thought. You know, that's a threesome pair you don't come across very often. It's always one or the other - not both, unlike the Harry, Hermione, Ron scenerios out there. I suppose it could have something to do with how die-hard D/G shippers are against D/Hr and vice versa, but I know lots of die-hard H/Hr and R/Hr shippers, yet the trio still seems to get in their fair share of threesomes. *ponders*

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Totally my opinion, of course, but I'm thinking it's probably because they're already a trio in the books, so there's canon support. Not a trio in that sense, but -- they're all best friends and know/love each other, so it's not that much harder to imagine them going that bit farther. It's a canon dynamic.

But D/Hr and D/G aren't supported by canon, which means that people who are fans of those ships have *generally* gotten there by some other means/preference, not from canon influence. Neither ship is 'natural,' unlike the Gryffindor trio. So to then trio-ize D/Hr/G is even more unnatural than pairing them up as individual ships in the first place, which is already bizarre enough. Whereas it's not bizarre to pair up H/Hr or Hr/R or even H/R. You might even argue, with the way the dynamics have worked in the first five books, that a romantic trio between H/Hr/R is the most natural conclusion.

That's my $0.02, anyway. <g>

[annibug.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point. I hadn't thought about it from that perspective, but it makes sense.

[selinakyle47.livejournal.com]

I'm only a Phile Dork. *sniff*

I was thinking about doing a bracket contest on LJ, with either fic or paid LJ time as a prize. Dunno if anyone's interested. :\

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I'd be interested! :D Just have to get the word out.

[selinakyle47.livejournal.com]

Here it is! :D

[indigochild76.livejournal.com]

Ah, don't you just love gaming??? My sweetie is always amazed at how long I can sit in front of the consoles and play for hours on end... forgetting about anything and everything else around me. Granted, I'm much better now than I used to be!

Back in the day, I remember getting a new game, starting it on a friday after school and literally playing non-stop until late sunday night. I would only eat enough to appease the parents and stop just to go to the bathroom. I wouldn't take phone calls and I would hardly sleep. Though I remember my parents yelling at me for that, but it still didn't stop me from sneaking out of bed! GAH! *nostalgic sigh* Ah, the good ol' days.

Now, I'm HEAPS better at regulating myself, though it still can be quite tempting to forget about life and get sucked into the world of video games. Oh how I love my PS2 and Game Cube!!! :-)

*hugs you*

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm not a huge gamer! That's what's so surprising. I mean, I probably game more than your typical girl, but I really don't play that many games. I definitely have never spent the amount of time I've spent playing this game, on other games. I only have an Xbox, and maybe a dozen games, a few of which I could say I played v. frequently. But never have I been obsessed to this level. It's a whole other thing. I think partially it's being able to play with your friends, and help each other out, and chat with them at the same time. It's really cool.

[jessicakmalfoy.livejournal.com]

just wanted to tell you that i read "A Bed Made For One" and fell in LOVE. i am such a sucker for tragic, angsty D+G stories. Anyways, i think you're a fantastic writer, one of the best fanfic writers out there. as my poetry teacher would say, "Great imagery!"

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I have a soft spot for that story, so I'm really thrilled you enjoyed it. I'm not usually huge on tragedy, but if they're together, that makes it okay. ; )