Witch-King of Angmar

He's probably in LA by now. Let me know if you find him.
Just thought I would post some random stuff. I need to do some updating of this page. Mainly updating links, etc. I have been pretty busy so hence why I haven't posted much besides Exalted stuff (I am an Exalted fan after all). I am working on a couple things I might put up but for the moment but there is this thing called school that I am involved with.
Anyhow, I think WHR ended its run last night. It depends on if that was just a season wrap up or if this was just a standard one season run of a show. I am leaning towards it being done but sometimes the shows will throw you. The end half got confusing but I must admit about the time the plot kicked in was about the time I was wondering if this was just an episodic show with no deeper plot. Plus I started doing other things while watching the show. I should be able to catch it this summer again tho. I doubt Adult Swim will knock it from the lineup when the new schedule comes April 17th.
Pushing through NWN rather slowly now. I figured since I am a couple levels above where my druid was that getting through Chapter 2 would be fairly easy. It's still been fairly challenging however. Leaning towards the game scales itself somewhat to the PC level. That or because I have a different henchman (Linu now, took Daelan first run) and so my overall group strength isn't as strong. My one major complaint right now is that I cannot summon more then one creature at a time! In D & D proper summoning a large group of creatures is one of the nice features when you are outnumbered/gunned/whatever. I am however enjoying things with the wizard. Only real thing left to do is a fighter type character, ie one who doesn't rely more on spells then anything else!
I started reading Chapterhouse: Dune when I was having trouble sleeping. It is the 6th and final Dune book written by Frank Herbet (although he was working on #7 which was supposed to be the last one I believe and will be written by Brian Herbet and Kevin J. Anderson sometime). If you haven't read the whole series and are planning to skip this! This one covers the fallout of the Honored Matres war against the Bene Gesserit. Dune has been destroyed along with quite a few other worlds. Basically the good guys (the Bene Gesserit now) are losing, badly. I am not exactly sure where it is leading to. Heretics of Dune threw me for a loop til the end really. Heck even God-Emperor of Dune threw me for awhile too (although not as much). Anyhow getting back on track this one paces pretty well and picks up where Heretics left off. Things seem to be tied in with the fate of the Gholas and other Tielaxu creations. It should be interesting to see where this leads. Ok I am not sure this whole paragraph made any sense, probably not. Oh well.

French Bashing is Just Fun

Happy Birthday Allison!
Ok time for stuff people may or may not care about: sports (and other stuff). Well baseball has started yesterday and I see that the New York Yankees managed to lose. Payroll isn't everything all the time, granted it is too early to make any premature judgements. Still funny! So NCAA is down to the Final Four. I picked wrong but didn't expect to do really good. Should be interesting to see who wins (as long as it isn't Duke).
Anyhow time to sleep.

Exalted Fun

Some Exalted news if you care. The release schedule has been leaked!
AB: Earth, Savant and Sorcerer, AB: Fire, Children of the Bull God, The Book of Bone & Ivory, Exalted: The Fair Folk (formerly Graceful Wicked Masks), and AB: Water. The hardcover a year from now is confirmed to be Exalted: The Alchemicals.
Bad news is that more Caste books probably will not happen. This is dissapointing but not totally unexpected, those books probably don't sell the greatest.
PG comes out very soon and quite a few people somehow have gotten one already and I'm excited. Most of you who read this don't care so I won't expound much (it's technical, I'm not sure even those who might care would understand, it involves a lot of previous Exalted knowledge). Suffice to say lots of fun.
I have gotten all of Dani's charms done and have tackled Lars' charms and am about halfway (I will have to wait til I get the PG tho because they change a lot of Solar charms).
Ok hope you had enough Exalted news for now.

Gone

That's me. I don't care to keep you informed over break so only expect something if I'm bored.
Some other people's blog updates: check RSB's thing on Canadians and Katy put up a cuter picture of herself :D Sorry just had to say the last. Girls have been on my mind lately although I think it's just random male hormones so hopefully this week common sense will have a chance to kick in and keep me from doing any more stupid stuff (as lately I did some I think, or sent the wrong messages at least- oy vey!).
NCAA is preceding apace, most of my brackets I am sucking but one is doing ok. High school WIAC basketball is a better show, poor Madison Memorial for that loss, thought they had Mil. King for sure.
Anywho I think that's all I got for you, this week I am pretty much just going to try and relax. Have a good break folks.

The Iraq War

Hey to anyone who is reading this, I am searching for Iraqi military casualties. I can find US and coalition casualties as well as civilian casualties (in fact anti-war sites like to throw these out in huge numbers). However I cannot find out how many Iraqi military troops died, were wounded, and captured. I know this is likely very high, but just how high? Noone has ever really said. So if anybody has numbers that they can back up fire them away!

Vague estimates I have heard are anywhere between 5-25 thousand Iraqis however surprisingly the numbers aren't nearly as available as from the first Iraq war. Anyhow if you have something put it in the comment please.

Back to homework, VB and SQL are kicking my ass lately!

Valquenta Silmarillion

Yea, Dani knows what that means :D
Anywho some changes for the ol' blog. Teng took down the Steiner Fan Club of America page so I have removed the link. I added a new blog: Katy's. It should be good. Finally I added a terror alert for those more wordly minded people!
Some other news which I forgot to add (but heh I can edit, wheeee) my internet is finally working in my room. I contacted ResNet and they came through. I still blame for this whole mess in the first place but was pleasantly surprised how quickly it got fixed.
Last comment: if you haven't voted for SGA do so now and write in Brent for Senator. Squirrel is on the ballet as well so you'd better vote for her (that'd be Sara to all you non Chi Alpha folks). Homework time, Gibbs came back after hammering us with that test!

88!

I got an 88!!! on the WDMD 101 test... 3rd highest in my section... and there might be a curve of 3 or 4 points!!

Ups and Downs In Middle America

So I got my answer and it wasn't what I wanted. I rhink if there's a message for me right now it's as the song says: "time to turn your ticket in and get your money back at the door". Maybe things will be different in the future. Yea, enough of me lamenting my situation you want more interesting stuff.
NCAA time is here. Most people are complaining about how low Wisconsin got in the bracket, etc. I guess I don't really have much of an opinion (mind you there are a bit low for #10 but Wisconsites can work through challenges, we're tough old folk), I am just happy to have it here. For these few weeks I will care about college basketball. Did anyone actually know or care that UWSP men and women's BBall are in the D3 Final Four? Yea I didn't follow either just checked today, hey we are dece what can we say? They should let the top 2 D3 and D2 teams join the big boys in NCAA D1 for a shot at real glory. Can you imagine UWSP knocking out Duke or Stanford? Funny as hell. You know it. What a smack in the face for those D1 teams too. It's possible too I bet.
I ordered Blood and Salt and Exalted Player's Guide today. They put the cover up (in very small size) for PG this week. It looks quite cool, should be a big favorite although the hardcovers usually are, we love them that much. Those will be my last Exalted books til December so they had better count. Yes you will see God Blooded and other such riff-raff in my game (because I will have lots of time to use them since my next game time will be about a month from now).
Anywho I must return to studying for CIS 313, test on Tuesday. Gonna be a pain, first language I don't really know the syntax because we are taught to use Intellisense. Tell me how to test your usage on that?!?

News

1) I am now a CIS major.
2) My Exalted game has officially begun. Starting slowly, new system for everyone but me and Lars. Confusing combat system, 52 billion charms, awkward initial start (Role play everyone! Please!), and who knows what else but it's going. I promise more work will be done by the time we get to the game!
3) Could you respond already? To either e-mail? If you read this you know who you are.
4) I think that's it, night ya'll.

Regret. Pity. Aggression. Anger. Fear. Hope. Faith. Progression. Control.

Andre felt the anger build up inside of him. He wanted to destroy this creature so badly but it would do him no good. It is impossible to destroy, and he knew that all to well. It also could not be avoided, well maybe for a while, but eventually it would catch up with him. What can be done with a creature that cannot be killed nor ran away from?

Andre spent hours thinking about such problems, which did him no good because stopping and thinking allowed the creature to catch up to him. It seemed that rarely Andre got any physical wounds from the creature, but emotionally it ripped him apart. From the inside it would tear him apart, one tear at a time. It seemed like it wouldn't stop until Andre was dead, but just when he thought it wouldn't go away something, that can only be described as a rush of hope, erupted from his body and chased away the vile creature. But Andre knew that unless he figured out how to defeat the creature, it would come back again, it always did. Each time growing exponentially stronger. But again questions arose. Andre has not even seen this creature. How could he kill something he has never seen?

He thought. He knew he had one ally in this fight, that he knew could see the enemy, because it has chased it into the woods on several occasions. But this ally never spoke to him, only did its job and then was gone. Somewhat like a prostitute Andre thought. Maybe the only satisfaction that it cared for was knowing that Andre would feel better, for a while at least. In the mean time, until he found an answer, he would continue to put on a show, he did not feel he needed anyone's help. There were times he would think that this creature was gone, but somewhere deep inside he knew it would return, it always did, feasting more and more every time.

Andre slept. It was one place that it had not found him yet. His dreams were filled with everything he wished he could be. Just like everyone else. But was being like everyone else the answer? He didn't know. He didn't want to be like everyone else, but if it took that to destroy this awful creature then he would accept that. Every time Andre woke up he wished he could go back to sleep, he thought that if he slept all of the time he could be free. Silly thought, an improbability, of course he realized that.

The days, months, years went by in a blink of an eye. And still the creature attacked without mercy. Andre was nearing the end of his rope. He seemed to lose control more with each attack. He could no longer live this way. Better for him to be dead he thought. He did not want to die, but if that is what it took to release him from the grip of the creature it had to be taken into consideration. This is when Andre discovered faith. Faith, one of his elders told him, has helped many civilizations overcome hard times, as well as people. Although Andre discovered faith, he really didn't understand how to use it. He understood, from what he was told, that it was not something that you could physically use, like a weapon. But if I can't see it, how could I use it Andre thought. He remembered that each time the creature came, something that he had not seen before, hope he called it, helped him fight.

A feeling of progression and warmth embraced Andres mind. He was now beginning to realize that since he had never seen this creature physically before, that it must be coming from within him. Also he was beginning to learn how to use his weapons, faith and hope. It seemed that he could get control over the creature if he used his weapons on a daily basis, occasionally faltering but always picking himself back up before the creature could strike. Control he thought, that is what he needed this whole time. This whole time he thought that this creature was real, but indeed it was not. It was all in his head. For the first time that Andre could remember he truly smiled. A smile of faith and hope.

Good Day

Well so far at least but here's hoping. I survived both tests and probably did ok on them as well. My VB assignment got kicked back due to my prof still being in the hospital (happy that it got kicked back but not that he is in the hospital mind you). Working on my Exalted scenario (may even have everyone here for it) and the weather is nice. Got GASP tonight. That should be good too.
Lots of Exalted news coming out on PG. That will be really big. Check the forums is all I can say, Neph and Brian are saying a lot. We now have half-ghosts, half-demons, half-Castes and beastmen. Yea lots of stuff. I am re-reading Abyssals and creating some opponents for my game. Fun stuff.

Black

I haven't written in a few, been busy. Still am busy but feeling really down. Just kind of dragging, it really sucks when I need to be productive because this kind of mood/feeling is not the type where I get much done. Things seem really bleak to me right now. Lonely and isolated come to mine. Now granting when I feel like this I naturally feel distant from people and I am not the only one weighed down by midterms, projects, and life in general. I just get to blog about it for everyone to read (and not care cause they got it tough too!). Anywho this is just another tool of my procrastination.
My VB prof broke two of his ribs so I've got a reprieve and some extra time to start on my VB stuff. Wed will be a long night unless Thurs. class gets canceled. Wed will be a long day in general. I hope Ashley's game involves much combat in an exterior (or very spacious interior) setting. That's about all I got to look forward to this week.
Sorry for such a downer post here folks, I point you to Red vs Blue if you need some lightheartedness.

Sunday Morning Blues

I always stay up too late. One would think I would post more here or be more productive. Not really though. Too bad for you, or lucky for you depending on how you look at things. However life is very busy with me and I forget to do many things. Making a list so I can try and remember. We'll see how that goes. Betcha not the greatest.
Friday was an interesting day for me. I finally did something I prolly should have done a long time ago. Possibly one of the hardest things I will ever do in my life. Certainly I would say the hardest up til now. I can only hope I did the right thing and that something good will come of it.
Today, well more properly, Saturday, I finally managed to beat Neverwinter Nights. I have celebrated by creating a Wizard to run the gauntlet. I want to do every quest this time. My druid got to level 15. I intend to make it to level 20 and have been in every place! Ok this may be harder then I realize, but shush!
Some of you may have noticed a slight change in the color scheme. I finally made the sidebar links have the link colors. I also made the link color a brighter blue so it'd be easier to read. Hope this improves the general usage.

Lost Cities (Pt 3)

Silence.

The rain slashed right through him. A literal wall of water. A rain to wash the sins away. Purifying. The stains of blood removed from the walls. The taste of hate and anger drowned out. It was too late.

Silence.

The fires were dying out, except for one. The rain could not smother those flames. The green glare licked at the drops, sizzling as each one came into contact with the darkness. Small puffs of steam rising into the night.

Silence.

One minute a whole city, one minute death, one minute nothing at all. The bodies of his comrades and friends lay all about him. All he had stood with for a long time. All he had killed just the same. He had made a pact, in his moment of greatest weakness, when he had felt all alone. Not that he cared anymore. People like this couldn’t care. It wasn’t allowed.

Silence.

The city was a din. The destruction and the rain joining together in a cacophonic symphony of sorrow, of anger, of warning to all those who would pass its shattered husk. The smoke painting a confused picture across the sky to the irregular music of the place, only to be mired and smudged by the steady downpours, like an eraser brushed across in haste on a blackboard. Two tireless forces working against each other under the same tune.

Silence.

Fire burns the city. Rain burns the fire. Rain burns away.

Silence.

The city was dead. Powerful forces had swept across it. Life had left, ne’er to return. The grass remains blackened and the trees leafless. A memory of sorts. Eventually though people would forget the memory. People always do. There is too much noise in them, too much to remember one hushed tale. Life is noise, any little bit of it at all. Without it people forget.

Silence.

For him, the sorrow is gone. The loss is gone. He no longer has her. He no longer has anything. The rain cannot erase him like it does the flames and the smoke. The din cannot overwhelm him. Life cannot return to him. He is the pact. His is a different world.

Silence.

Change of Plans

Look, I was gonna post some more fiction. I know I said I was. I can't now. Something's come up. Something more important even though I am confused by it. If you need something to read, try RSB. Or maybe your Bible. I would say I'd post when this is resolved but I don't know if it will. I have never felt so helpless in my life...

Once again from WDMD...

Yea I am in WDMD 101 again. Searching around for someone who has Nobilis as Amazon is having trouble getting a copy for me. Leaning to try Gaurdians of the Order sometime soon. Afterall they publish the book don't they? Sheesh the book hasn't been out for even a year yet. I hope I can get it sometime.
For the record, this came up when I was enjoying lunch with Allison, and we mentioned a theoretical website Squirrelstore.com. Yea it isn't theoretical it exists. Kinda scary but Twism will be thrilled.
Back to searching for Nobilis. Yes I want this book. You've read RSB's blog, she can write.

Lost Cities (Pt 2)

Well halfway through writing up Dani's charms for my Exalted game. Only 30 some left. But I just wrote some more fiction for ya.


Action Report – Fall of Chicago
Force losses included three Celestials: a Sidereal and two Lunars. Dragon Blood losses approximately 15 prior to withdrawal with two more remaining behind to rally forces in the retreat. Mortal casualties for 4th Legion upwards of 75 percent. Legion support troops, minus Exalted support forces, managed better suffering only 50 percent losses. Nearly all special support units were lost in support of their respective Exalts. Recommend as surviving commanding officer of mortal troops that such support teams be reconfigured.
Situation in Chicago: unknown. As of 1952 local time the city has disappeared. This attributed to the local commander of all Exalted forces. In accordance with Solar Circle Sorcery she has cast the city, our forces, and the undead force-including apparently a Deathlord- into Elsewhere. Refer to her for further information.
My conclusions on this action are mixed. Our forces were in retreat for some months now, that we held out this long is a testament to their tenacity and the aid of both the Americans and the various Exalts willing to go to great risks to take out enemy strong points, thus either major reinforcements (unavailable) or ceding the city to the Deathlord (unwise) were the options. I would have preferred prior warning but the legion’s command structure had collapsed shortly before an all out retreat was called. As she was in overall command the decision to do this was hers and hers alone.
I recommend for now 4th Legion be reassigned to rear guard actions until all the troops can be cared for and debriefed. 4th Legion now stands at just over one dragon strong. Only 3 officers are left with enough experience to handle dragon or talon sized units so until reinforced excess support forces should be assigned to other Legions.

Signed:


-Daniel T. Johnson, Taizei {Captain} of the 2nd Wing 4th Dragon 4th Legion

Freetime

This is what I do in it:
Aki - Mahjong Solitaire records:
Overal record: 92/8 Give Ups: 0
Shortest Overall Time: 2:30 Longest: 3:53 (a tie)
Most played: Fukuyama (14/3), Akiyoshi Plateau (11/2), Sea of Japan Coast (10/1), Three tied for 4th (10/0)
Most Losses: Fukuyama-3, Hiroshima Castle/Akiyoshi Plateau (tied)-2

Mac Users can find Aki at AmbrosiaSW. Windows users can buy a Mac at Apple and then play Aki after they toss their Windows boxes out the nearest Window.

I am stuck in NWN. I can't sleep to get the rest of my spells back and I can't teleport out. And I *always* die. Who would kill a druid anyways? Or my wolf? Or my pet tiger Giggles? Or my half orc with the ridicously huge double axe of love and happiness?

BTW typing up Charms takes forever. Still required however as I don't have enough core character books to go around. Speaking of: go to the Exalted forums (see my sidebar) and pester ProdBrian into posting more pics of the PG cover. And join in the suddenly hugely relevant debate about Infernals needing a hardcover. It seems (although there is some confusion, people all need copies of Blood and Salt, including me) that they may be just using Solar Charms. That's what GCG said. Although some said this was for the God-Blooded not the Infernal. As noted, confusion!

Workout time -> now!

Wdmd test

Oh dear..86 questions!

Lost Cities (Pt 1)

Chicago. Do you remember Chicago? Yes, it used to be along Lake Michigan before the war. You remember the war don’t you? It wasn’t so long ago now was it? Most of the wounds are healed now, although humans won’t return to Africa for a few generations, maybe longer. But I diverge, we’re talking about lost cities aren’t we. Chicago to be exact. I wasn’t there when Chicago was lost. No one from South America was, that though, is another story.
We were losing the war at that point. It had just hardly begun of course but the Exalts had not even begun to organize. A lot of mistakes were made back then. The Americans suffered greatly at times. There was a deathland in the center of the city. That’s what we called links between here and the other side. Not Shadowland like the Exalts. Of course the police and then even the military couldn’t handle the sudden surge of darkness and death. Heck even the Exalts couldn’t stop them then. They sent their best people in and not even half made it out. They still won’t even say how many of theirs they left behind. I’ll just remind you the 4th Legion went in and now they only guard the central Manses and retain the postfix Remnant. If I had to guess they didn’t want to fall back, that’s why so many died but in the end even with the American military they couldn’t stem the flow. I don’t know exactly who made the decision that was made. It could have been one of many people, or all of them, but at some point someone realized that we weren’t gonna win that day. We needed more time to organize and to train. The Exalts could stand their ground if they had time to get structured coherent force together.
There weren’t any nukes left and some of the more esoteric weapons which were developed and used later in the war-yes, that’d be the Paris-Arnhem strikes you’re thinking of; no the 6 Counties was different, but at this point all we had was sorcery and a few shaken or devastated sorcerers left to use it. All the experienced ones died when we nuked Australia, biggest waste of resources that humanity has ever seen that was. I am digressing again though, this is Chicago we are talking about. Well turns out only one sorcerer of any significance was still alive in the city. She was the nominal head of the Exalted forces there, being a Solar and all, but mostly since she was a sorc she left that fighting in the hands of others. Well at this point things were real bad, most of the legion forces were pinned down, a couple of Dragon Bloods had died covering retreats already, that sort of thing. The local forces were pretty much gone trying to just stymie the overflow and limit the numbers of undead swarming out. Once they went no one was gonna hold out. The legion originally went down to help get civilians out, meant to be a good will gesture with the nominal American government. At this point they were in over their heads and still hadn’t gotten all the civilians out and were in re-rout conditions. I reckon they fell back only because to stay there would eliminate any resistance until northern Wisconsin.
So she did the only thing left to do. She pushed the city Elsewhere. This had to have been contemplated prior to the actual spell being cast but the act of doing it was done in haste and some disarray. The only person who is still alive from the group which cast it is her, the soldiers with her perished in the intervening years. Mars was at its closest the night she cast it. The next time we’ll see the city is when Mars is closest to us again, yes that long. Some of the Exalts’s children may live to see it, they won’t, we surely won’t. However everything in there remains as it is, just waiting for that day. That’s the story of Chicago in a nutshell. What? I branched off in that story? Would your ol’ grandpa do something like that?

New Digs

Yes, you should be noticing slightly different colors. A bit brighter then before although my intention was not to make it brighter and cheerier just give this thing Pointer colors. Yea my school has the ol' purple and gold. And our mascot is a dog named Stevie. I still need to tweak some of the sidebar links but that will take time, like when my e-mail works.
In other news, Exalted has gained Blood and Salt. This is the Lintha book alas I will not be getting it soon I don't think even though the Infernal Exalted finally get themselves into writing and yes my theories were close on in some aspects. Either way avoid the Infernals. Sometime post test I am gonna put some more fiction up here for you to enjoy/suffer/whatever.

Thats me!

Cowboy Bebop - YOUR bounty by Drusilla
Username
How much are you worth?	$521,689
Number of victims	714
Your story	You're bloodthirsty, you'll always be bloodthirsty... you, blood thirster! O.o
Will you be caught?	Nope, you're very devious and good when you plan your moves.
Created with quill18's MemeGen 2.0!