Lately I haven't had a whole lot to say on the blog front. See it started out as working about a 40 hour week (sometimes overtime), trying to find an apartment, trying to find a job for when I move and trying to make sure my financials and school sign up stuff were in a significantly decent place to move. Well then some stuff went down at work that I really don't want to talk about (for both professional and personal reasons) and I had very little room for anything else to fill my mind, and almost forgot I had a blog. However you, my wonderful readers, apparently did not. I had a fairly steady stream of one to two people checking the site per day which is AWESOME.
Right now I am still looking for work near my soon to be place of residence. The hope is that I will find a lifeguard/swim instructor job as that is what I am good at but I really will take what I can get.
But that is neither here nor there. I will be trying to update the blog at least once a week until I have more time (who knows when that will be) I do have a lot to talk about I just don't always have the time to type it up.
So thank you for your patience and I hope it will be rewarded with awesome content.
A blog by a girl who loves swimming, role playing games, webcomics, nerdy stuff and is all around a strange person.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Role Playing Games 101 part one
Over the past few years most of my friends have been the people in the SciFi club at college. Most of these people know the basic ideas of role playing even if they don't actually play. Recently, however, I have been spending a lot of time around people who don't know what a pen and paper RPG is. I usually try and fail to explain what RPGs are to them so I think I will dedicate a few posts to that goal.
The basic idea of pen and paper role playing games is the same as the games we used to play as little kids. You know those games, the ones where you pretended to be space men or princesses or wizards or sometimes normal people just someone who wasn't you. When we are little we all love to pretend to be someone else so we do, a lot of times we are encouraged to do this. At some point though it stops. We are discouraged from spending so much time in idle fantasy and start playing games with clearly defined limits and squares and rules.
(Now I won't say that role playing games aren't like that at all or that all different games/groups/scenarios are the same. This post is really just about the general idea behind the games I will probably get into more of the particulars in later posts in this series.)
Role playing games are a chance to break the mold, to BE that wizard/princess/spaceman/other person again. Of course since we are older we have to make some boundaries so that we don't spend all our time arguing about whether our spell or attack was effective on our opponent. There are rules set out in advance either by some company that made the game or by the person who is running the game.
So the end result is that you can pretend to be pretty much whatever you want and usually pretend to fight monsters or evil scientists or something (as I said I will have more on the mechanics of RPGs at a later date.) The best part is probably hanging out with friends while doing it but the games themselves are pretty dang fun if you have the imagination to go with it.
The basic idea of pen and paper role playing games is the same as the games we used to play as little kids. You know those games, the ones where you pretended to be space men or princesses or wizards or sometimes normal people just someone who wasn't you. When we are little we all love to pretend to be someone else so we do, a lot of times we are encouraged to do this. At some point though it stops. We are discouraged from spending so much time in idle fantasy and start playing games with clearly defined limits and squares and rules.
(Now I won't say that role playing games aren't like that at all or that all different games/groups/scenarios are the same. This post is really just about the general idea behind the games I will probably get into more of the particulars in later posts in this series.)
Role playing games are a chance to break the mold, to BE that wizard/princess/spaceman/other person again. Of course since we are older we have to make some boundaries so that we don't spend all our time arguing about whether our spell or attack was effective on our opponent. There are rules set out in advance either by some company that made the game or by the person who is running the game.
So the end result is that you can pretend to be pretty much whatever you want and usually pretend to fight monsters or evil scientists or something (as I said I will have more on the mechanics of RPGs at a later date.) The best part is probably hanging out with friends while doing it but the games themselves are pretty dang fun if you have the imagination to go with it.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Wormhole Making Aliens
Aliens who appear out of nowhere and could accidentally take you back to their home plane of existence in the blink of an eye are not to be trifled with. Let me back up. In Sunday's game one of our troops got a psych evaluation. Everyone who was there got a chance to ask questions so did the base computer. The computer mostly asked questions from the turing test and determined that the character was not a sentient being. We have yet to hear back about the results.
Anyway the alien menace of the week appeared out of nowhere somewhere in France. Three Mountains performed her stealthy tasks admirably and managed to hit one of the aliens with a grenade but then the alien picked her up and started messing with her head, literally. Actually all of the modifications were upgrades, in a sense. Three mountains now has a much improved research skill and her conditioning is much reduced with a nice boost to her willpower. Unfortunately she also seems to remember a little of her life from before she joined the Com.
This particular race of aliens had a unique feature. When they were hurt in a certain way they created a wormhole back to their home planet/dimension (we really never figured it out). One of Three Mountain's teamates managed to do enough damage to the alien who attacked Mountains. Unfortunately Mountains was still being held by the alien and got sucked into the wormhole. Well, that was almost the end of Three Mountains. The GM had my character sheet in his hand. But I brought up that I could possibly find one of those aliens and hitch a ride back to earth. And I pulled it off!
So now my character has a psych eval scheduled and will probably be spending the next few weeks trying to heal. I still got some cool stats out of it. I'm pretty sure I won.
Anyway the alien menace of the week appeared out of nowhere somewhere in France. Three Mountains performed her stealthy tasks admirably and managed to hit one of the aliens with a grenade but then the alien picked her up and started messing with her head, literally. Actually all of the modifications were upgrades, in a sense. Three mountains now has a much improved research skill and her conditioning is much reduced with a nice boost to her willpower. Unfortunately she also seems to remember a little of her life from before she joined the Com.
This particular race of aliens had a unique feature. When they were hurt in a certain way they created a wormhole back to their home planet/dimension (we really never figured it out). One of Three Mountain's teamates managed to do enough damage to the alien who attacked Mountains. Unfortunately Mountains was still being held by the alien and got sucked into the wormhole. Well, that was almost the end of Three Mountains. The GM had my character sheet in his hand. But I brought up that I could possibly find one of those aliens and hitch a ride back to earth. And I pulled it off!
So now my character has a psych eval scheduled and will probably be spending the next few weeks trying to heal. I still got some cool stats out of it. I'm pretty sure I won.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Puppy Cam (my not so secret, secret obsession)
Most nights, after getting done with work I like to go to my room, turn on my computer and read webcomics, update my blog, check facebook, you know the usual. Well what you may not realize is that somewhere in the middle of all of this I like to open a tab and go to one of my bookmarks and just leave that open switching back to it every few minutes. This other tab is a little window into the home of a person I have never met face to face... no wait that sounds worse than it is, it is actually a channel on UStream for watching some of the dogs in foster care with the group Southern California German Shepherd Rescue and it is AWESOME.
At this moment in time the cam mostly shows the house of SCGSR's founder Marcy, who has some 10 dogs living in her house, 4 of them are hers and the rest are her foster dogs. 3 of these dogs are puppies known as the flower girls, Iris, Lily and Daisy. The flower girls' mama, Mya, also lives there. The flower girls are about 9 and a half weeks old and are just an absolute joy to watch run around and play with the bigger dogs, who are very good with the puppies. Their mother thinks she is bigger than all the other dogs even though she isn't and will hop around and play with them and try to take them on. It's very fun.
The Flower Girls are the third litter of puppies that I have watched that have gone through SCGSR. The first were a set of 7 whose mom was named Serena, they lived at Marcy's while awaiting adoption, one of Marcy's current dogs, Ranger, is from that batch. (fun fact: in rescue's a dog who ends up being adopted by their foster parent is called a "failure") They are all about 2 now if I have my reckoning strait. The second bunch had 8, their mother was named Anke, I actually logged on and managed to see them the day they were born. Anke and co. lived with another foster family Joe and Lisa. Two of Anke's pups were born missing some of their hair, they are otherwise quite healthy and have grown into the look quite well we call them the twins and they are also staying with Marcy and are hoping to find a home together.
As I have watched the pups and doggies of SCGSR I have gotten to know some of the other watchers through the chat. I am a big proponent of online friendships and definitely count many of these chatters as my friends. We talk about what is going on with the cam, what is happening with SCGSR in general, our dogs, our lives, whatever might be going on that day. All in all it is a really great comunity that I feel works out better than any other non game related comunity that you could find today.
Anyway what this comes down to is a general awareness piece about these wonderful people in San Diego who do so much for these wonderful doggies. And you should totally check out their website.SCGSR channel SCGSR website
ON a completely different note I would like to say that I do realize that I have a lot of trouble ending these posts, hopefully I will be able to work on that before you figure out that I can't end the posts.... aw sh**
At this moment in time the cam mostly shows the house of SCGSR's founder Marcy, who has some 10 dogs living in her house, 4 of them are hers and the rest are her foster dogs. 3 of these dogs are puppies known as the flower girls, Iris, Lily and Daisy. The flower girls' mama, Mya, also lives there. The flower girls are about 9 and a half weeks old and are just an absolute joy to watch run around and play with the bigger dogs, who are very good with the puppies. Their mother thinks she is bigger than all the other dogs even though she isn't and will hop around and play with them and try to take them on. It's very fun.
The Flower Girls are the third litter of puppies that I have watched that have gone through SCGSR. The first were a set of 7 whose mom was named Serena, they lived at Marcy's while awaiting adoption, one of Marcy's current dogs, Ranger, is from that batch. (fun fact: in rescue's a dog who ends up being adopted by their foster parent is called a "failure") They are all about 2 now if I have my reckoning strait. The second bunch had 8, their mother was named Anke, I actually logged on and managed to see them the day they were born. Anke and co. lived with another foster family Joe and Lisa. Two of Anke's pups were born missing some of their hair, they are otherwise quite healthy and have grown into the look quite well we call them the twins and they are also staying with Marcy and are hoping to find a home together.
As I have watched the pups and doggies of SCGSR I have gotten to know some of the other watchers through the chat. I am a big proponent of online friendships and definitely count many of these chatters as my friends. We talk about what is going on with the cam, what is happening with SCGSR in general, our dogs, our lives, whatever might be going on that day. All in all it is a really great comunity that I feel works out better than any other non game related comunity that you could find today.
Anyway what this comes down to is a general awareness piece about these wonderful people in San Diego who do so much for these wonderful doggies. And you should totally check out their website.SCGSR channel SCGSR website
ON a completely different note I would like to say that I do realize that I have a lot of trouble ending these posts, hopefully I will be able to work on that before you figure out that I can't end the posts.... aw sh**
Monday, June 20, 2011
iStore
Well, I almost had a major tragedy today dear readers. I dropped my iPhone and the screen cracked. I honestly wasn't sure I could go on. I had this problem on my previous iPhone and let it go until the chunks were actually falling out and then tried to replace it myself. The poor thing died on the opeating table.
So, this time I decided to call the apple store and see what they could do. They were very courteous on the phone and I made an appointment for eight o'clock (after work) and tried to keep my hopes up. I had never been to the Apple store but I did have several preconceived notions mostly based on an episode of The Simpsons. I had in my mind a picture of a big white cube, made entirely out of glass. In this fantasy there were people in khakis and polos trying not to look too preppy just hanging around hoping some of the magic will be transferred to them. I figured it was a place where you walk in and you enter a magical world where well dressed employees who could look things up in their computers in their heads. I was sure the unicorns with little apple logos galloped around serving lemonade to the people who were waiting for their phones to get fixed.
It obviously wasn't like I figured it would be. It was a pretty crowded little store. Mostly, it was filled with adults trying to figure out how to use their new computer. There were a lot of sales people around. I wasn't sure where to go so I went up to one of the sales associates and asked about my appointment. They were very nice, even though I was a little late (it is not easy to find it in the shopping center where it is located.) There were a lot of interesting gadgets that were way more expensive than they needed to be. So, having heard about how much apple may charge for screen replacement, I went in prepared to pay up to a hundred dollars. However, the guy was very nice and said since I'd only had the phone a month he would put this repair on my warranty.
So, I managed to get my screen fixed with limited difficulty, other than having to race across town to get to my appointment. I know there have been people who have a lot of trouble with the Apple store (or, if you will iStore) but I honestly thought it was a pretty good experience. The only thing I would change is the location. This store is way the heck out there. I think they could have found something much more central to the Omaha area. Otherwise, despite not being the hipster Mecca I thought it would be, I thought it was a very nice store with very nice employees.
So, this time I decided to call the apple store and see what they could do. They were very courteous on the phone and I made an appointment for eight o'clock (after work) and tried to keep my hopes up. I had never been to the Apple store but I did have several preconceived notions mostly based on an episode of The Simpsons. I had in my mind a picture of a big white cube, made entirely out of glass. In this fantasy there were people in khakis and polos trying not to look too preppy just hanging around hoping some of the magic will be transferred to them. I figured it was a place where you walk in and you enter a magical world where well dressed employees who could look things up in their computers in their heads. I was sure the unicorns with little apple logos galloped around serving lemonade to the people who were waiting for their phones to get fixed.
It obviously wasn't like I figured it would be. It was a pretty crowded little store. Mostly, it was filled with adults trying to figure out how to use their new computer. There were a lot of sales people around. I wasn't sure where to go so I went up to one of the sales associates and asked about my appointment. They were very nice, even though I was a little late (it is not easy to find it in the shopping center where it is located.) There were a lot of interesting gadgets that were way more expensive than they needed to be. So, having heard about how much apple may charge for screen replacement, I went in prepared to pay up to a hundred dollars. However, the guy was very nice and said since I'd only had the phone a month he would put this repair on my warranty.
So, I managed to get my screen fixed with limited difficulty, other than having to race across town to get to my appointment. I know there have been people who have a lot of trouble with the Apple store (or, if you will iStore) but I honestly thought it was a pretty good experience. The only thing I would change is the location. This store is way the heck out there. I think they could have found something much more central to the Omaha area. Otherwise, despite not being the hipster Mecca I thought it would be, I thought it was a very nice store with very nice employees.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Five days of updates!
All right, I know this is cheating but I actually am very excited about this. After I post what I am typing now I will have managed to update 5 days in a row! I started this blog way back in what august of last year but this is the first that I have really updated regularly with real content. (well other than today.)
I have been checking my stats since I figured out I had a stat page and I have had a total of 69 page views from I think a total of 6 countries as of the last check. Now I realize that page views is the total and doesn't mean that 69 different people are reading my blog but I do know that the multiple countries mean that people beyond my little sect of friends on facebook are reading, or have read it, or at least have looked at the page. (though that does seem to be the largest number) and at least 3 people have found my blog through a blog search engine.
So I would like to give a big thank you to everyone who has read so far. I don't know if I will actually update over the weekend. See I also figured out while looking at all the blogger tools that I can set posts to update at a predetermined time and (hopefully) they will sit and wait and then go up on the site when their little update timer thing says so. In short I can have a buffer and so long as the posts are written and ready the blog will update (so long as I set it right) once daily at a predetermined time. If I can actually get a buffer going this will be great because then I won't have to rush home after work and try to get a post up (I have to do most of the editing on my computer because doing anything other than plain typing on the iPhone is a pain) So I may spend the weekend trying to get a buffer up so that you can continue to get my bloggy goodness daily.
Once again THANK YOU to everyone who is reading this and I hope I will continue to provide interesting content for you all.
I have been checking my stats since I figured out I had a stat page and I have had a total of 69 page views from I think a total of 6 countries as of the last check. Now I realize that page views is the total and doesn't mean that 69 different people are reading my blog but I do know that the multiple countries mean that people beyond my little sect of friends on facebook are reading, or have read it, or at least have looked at the page. (though that does seem to be the largest number) and at least 3 people have found my blog through a blog search engine.
So I would like to give a big thank you to everyone who has read so far. I don't know if I will actually update over the weekend. See I also figured out while looking at all the blogger tools that I can set posts to update at a predetermined time and (hopefully) they will sit and wait and then go up on the site when their little update timer thing says so. In short I can have a buffer and so long as the posts are written and ready the blog will update (so long as I set it right) once daily at a predetermined time. If I can actually get a buffer going this will be great because then I won't have to rush home after work and try to get a post up (I have to do most of the editing on my computer because doing anything other than plain typing on the iPhone is a pain) So I may spend the weekend trying to get a buffer up so that you can continue to get my bloggy goodness daily.
Once again THANK YOU to everyone who is reading this and I hope I will continue to provide interesting content for you all.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Barrettes
Obviously, for my job I spend a lot of time at the pool. Some people may not realize that this entails spending a lot of time around loud, screaming kids. A lot of people stop by when we are very full and make statements along the line of not being able to stand it. I always reply the same way saying that this is my job and this is what lifeguarding is all about. The truth is I probably wouldn't be able to take it day in and day out if I didn't find ways to pick myself up. The most notable of these pick-me-ups actually makes me relish full days. What distraction could I have found that works so well? One word, barrettes.
Yes those little plastic barrettes that girls wear in their hair. People may not realize this but those things fall out of girls' hair all the time especially in the pool. It is usually impossible to figure out who owns a particular clip especially since they don't usually become noticeable until after a large group leaves. (well actually just when the pool is generally less crowded but this usually is right after a big group gets out.) So I will pick them up as I find them and if a girl says she lost hers (which has happened maybe twice in the 5 years that I have been doing this) I see if I have hers. Otherwise I put them in my little bucket (or during slower times when I may find one or two every couple of months I will put them on my whistle) and I keep them.
So this is what I collect. I always wanted to collect things but I never really was able to find anything that kept my interest. Now I know what you are thinking. How on earth did you start collecting barrettes? Well, that is a long and winding story that takes us back 6 years.
It was the summer after my junior year of high school. I was working my first job ever as a lifeguard for the City of Omaha. I technically had two primary pools but I actually only worked at one of them regularly. However I did work as a "sub" at a different pool every Sunday. The pool I subbed at was called Miller Park. At Miller there was one if those kids (every pool has one I swear) who not only goes to the pool every day but wants to make friends with all the lifeguards. One Sunday, of course she found me. She had met all the other guards and I so she proceeded to try to be my friend.
I should probably mention that there were at least two guards who worked at Miller (both male) who collected barrettes. So this little girl wanted to know if I collected them as well. I told her no which brought out a response like "you totally should." Next thing I knew this girl was bringing me barrettes she found in the pool. Soon I was collecting them on my own and putting them on my pack.
When I started work for the YMCA I tried collecting barrettes and keeping them on the pack there but we had to share packs and people kept throwing my precious finds away. So I decided to try attaching them to the only part of my uniform that was able to have barrettes clipped onto it and that was my whistle lanyard. I keep this practice up to this day.
(Over the past few days I have developed the habit of putting all my clips of a certain color on my lanyard for that day. Today was blue, I think tomorrow will be green.)
At my work my collection is well known which is a mixed blessing. See I love finding barrettes. It really does light up my day when there have been a lot of kids in the pool. Now all my coworkers find them and give them to me, which is great because sometimes they see ones that I would have missed. But part of the fun of this particular hobby is the thrill of the hunt and when everyone at the pool is looking I have noticed that I can go a day and not get to pounce.
I currently have 89 barrettes in total from my collecting over the years and I only expect that number to go up as the summer progresses. (Summer is the best time to find them. Even though we are busy at times besides during the summer I will find almost none during the school year and average about 3 a day during the summer.) This awesome hobby of mine has quite possibly been what has kept me sane in summers past. I have a feeling that if I get the job I am hoping for when school starts up again that I will not be able to continue my collection but I am sure by then blogging will have become enough a part of my life to fill at least some of that void.
Yes those little plastic barrettes that girls wear in their hair. People may not realize this but those things fall out of girls' hair all the time especially in the pool. It is usually impossible to figure out who owns a particular clip especially since they don't usually become noticeable until after a large group leaves. (well actually just when the pool is generally less crowded but this usually is right after a big group gets out.) So I will pick them up as I find them and if a girl says she lost hers (which has happened maybe twice in the 5 years that I have been doing this) I see if I have hers. Otherwise I put them in my little bucket (or during slower times when I may find one or two every couple of months I will put them on my whistle) and I keep them.
So this is what I collect. I always wanted to collect things but I never really was able to find anything that kept my interest. Now I know what you are thinking. How on earth did you start collecting barrettes? Well, that is a long and winding story that takes us back 6 years.
It was the summer after my junior year of high school. I was working my first job ever as a lifeguard for the City of Omaha. I technically had two primary pools but I actually only worked at one of them regularly. However I did work as a "sub" at a different pool every Sunday. The pool I subbed at was called Miller Park. At Miller there was one if those kids (every pool has one I swear) who not only goes to the pool every day but wants to make friends with all the lifeguards. One Sunday, of course she found me. She had met all the other guards and I so she proceeded to try to be my friend.
I should probably mention that there were at least two guards who worked at Miller (both male) who collected barrettes. So this little girl wanted to know if I collected them as well. I told her no which brought out a response like "you totally should." Next thing I knew this girl was bringing me barrettes she found in the pool. Soon I was collecting them on my own and putting them on my pack.
When I started work for the YMCA I tried collecting barrettes and keeping them on the pack there but we had to share packs and people kept throwing my precious finds away. So I decided to try attaching them to the only part of my uniform that was able to have barrettes clipped onto it and that was my whistle lanyard. I keep this practice up to this day.
At my work my collection is well known which is a mixed blessing. See I love finding barrettes. It really does light up my day when there have been a lot of kids in the pool. Now all my coworkers find them and give them to me, which is great because sometimes they see ones that I would have missed. But part of the fun of this particular hobby is the thrill of the hunt and when everyone at the pool is looking I have noticed that I can go a day and not get to pounce.
I currently have 89 barrettes in total from my collecting over the years and I only expect that number to go up as the summer progresses. (Summer is the best time to find them. Even though we are busy at times besides during the summer I will find almost none during the school year and average about 3 a day during the summer.) This awesome hobby of mine has quite possibly been what has kept me sane in summers past. I have a feeling that if I get the job I am hoping for when school starts up again that I will not be able to continue my collection but I am sure by then blogging will have become enough a part of my life to fill at least some of that void.
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