This one's classified as a phail because it has the traits of what I decided to put under this tag, but this doesn't seem that bad of a loss. Besides, a tan octo isn't a 'gotta have it' prize for me. Logged on to find a bilging comp in session with 7 minutes left. After 3 leagues of bilging, I placed 5th. Not complaining...too much ;)

Still working on DW. This is taking much longer than I'd like. *sigh*

Guh.

My winner was Bisquick of Midnight. I loved the balance of skill and simplicity in the image, and I felt that both the avatar size and the full size work really well. Plus I have my beloved sister with me! <3 Bisquick wins an Apollo doll.

---

The results are in from Hermes!

Winner: Bisquick, Midnight (here) wins a Hermes Doll!

This right outside the prize eligibility thing happened again. So I'm going to document them, too :P

( Warning: big pictures )

Two things. One, I entered a quick writing competition at the end of February. I figured it wouldn't take away from my studying a whole lot compared to other things...like solitaire on Neopets or youtube or fmylife.com or Hatchlings on Facebook...of course, it sorta did because I kept checking my watchlist for results. But anyway, surprisingly, I submitted a winning entry, so a Bia egg for me! Yay! Of course, now to replicate Bia's outfit for the portrait with it...which'll be expensive. Perhaps after I can get some CI runs in with Mousebeard. :P

The second thing, I was looking through Y!PP comics that I've drawn and noticed that I didn't post one of my favorites here. So I'll do that now, plus another one. They're simply comics on my Y!PP friends for fun. Particularly Deka (she's the pea. <3 the pea).

( comics make my layout wonky. )

So I took 11th in this and would have otherwise been not really notable. But it turned out so brilliant.

Nue took 12th and there was a portrait easel on the bakeoff ship so I said we should get a portrait done. Then I asked the Sun if he would sit in, too. The result was one of the most amusing portraits I've taken. Here.

Thank you, Apple Bunny. It's not even 8am and it's a good day. :D

edit: Oh, how could I forget the pick up lines?

[06:07:13] Sun says, "o hi Bisquick. How're YOU doin'? *grins*"
[06:07:35] Bisquick snickers. Doing well for 6am ;)

[07:31:13] Apollo has come aboard.
[07:31:40] Bisquick says, "o hai Apollo. How're YOU doin'? ;P"
[07:31:55] Sun blushes and giggles

When I made this journal, I made it specifically to document my thoughts and notable moments within the realm of Puzzle Pirates. I told myself that I would not say here that I have another journal (ah, well, I technically have three, but the third's handwritten) because I wanted to be able have a better idea of who's reading the other. Of course, in the light of this post, I suddenly realized that I don't care about keeping that on the lowdown anymore, and I suppose if someone cared enough, and if they were as stalkerish as I can be, they could find my first livejournal. Which, *shrug*, has a lot of things in it...it dates back to nearly the beginning of those wonky teenage years. It even has stuff about Y!PP up until I figured that none of my friends from outside of the game played the game anymore, and hence the desire for a Y!PP-specific journal.

But what happens when it's borderline? This was actually going to go into my first journal. But after thinking about what I wanted to talk about in this entry for just a short moment, I felt that this journal was more appropriate. Lucky you. And perhaps a watered down version will go into the first journal. Or I just might copy this over word-for-word. Whatever.

( Just because this entry is long... )

I think I've reminisced enough. Obviously, if I wanted to cover everything under this topic, more names would be mentioned, more memories...and this would go on forever. It's the tip of the iceberg...I didn't even touch upon everyone in my crew, let alone all my Y!PP contacts. And of course, my memories fade over time like everyone else's. So I dunno, maybe someday I'll revisit this with another really long entry. Until then, back to studying.

I am utterly surprised that our team made it to the semifinals. And now I feel somewhat guilty about the lack of rescheduling with Odd Jobs. I didn't think it would make a difference on who went to the semis. Unfortunately, it was a little late to do anything about that.

We fought Deadly Combination in the semis, who topped Midnight's A pool with a perfect win record. And they topped us with a perfect win record. Which was fine and well within my expectation on the turnout of the match. I was a little disappointed with the overall nature of the match though. This was not a pleasant team to work with, which is disappointing because the teams in my pool were okay. An exception may be Bitter Death, which I will elaborate on shortly.

The unpleasantness with the match started 10 minutes prior when I received a /tell from a team member asking if my team was ready. Then I received /tells from 2 others from the team. Heck, it's my livejournal. Why not post transcripts?

[11:51:34] Whitewizard tells ye, "are you ready for ocl then?"
[11:52:09] Whitewizard tells ye, "got a 4 player + team?"
[11:52:47] Ye told Whitewizard, "We do, but I'd like to see if our fifth will show (since she said she would). We'll be ready to go at the match time regardless"
[11:53:01] Whitewizard tells ye, "okies, what are your team members?"
[11:53:11] Whitewizard tells ye, "send them to pavement for invites"
[11:56:05] Sheridyn tells ye, "hi"
[11:56:11] Sheridyn tells ye, "Ready for the OCL :)?"
[11:56:20] Mrswordfight tells ye, "hey"
[11:56:33] Mrswordfight tells ye, "so who are your team members?"
[11:57:39] Ye told Sheridyn, "Pretty much. Just talking over a couple things. We'll be over in a minute"
[11:57:44] Mrswordfight tells ye, "HELLO?"
[11:57:49] Sheridyn tells ye, "Ok tell me when your done :)"
[11:58:03] Ye told Mrswordfight, "*laughs* Sorry. I have three of your team members sending me /tells plus my team."
[11:58:21] Ye told Mrswordfight, "My fingers are pretty occupied. We'll be ready in a minute :)"
[11:58:29] Mrswordfight tells ye, "okies just concentrate on me XD"

May I note that Sheridyn is their captain. I could have not cared and just spoken only to her. But whatever. Someone on my team requested that we had a plan, that is who fought when, beforehand and so I was trying to oblige during those last 10 minutes. With the absence of Nue, I wasn't sure whether I should write her in or not. In the end, I did, and had Pj jump in for her until she showed.

Once we got there, we had to wait for 7-8 for one of their team members (I believe finishing another game) before we could start the first game. Wait wait wait, you're harassing me at 9 minutes before the match time about having my team together and you didn't have your goddamned team together? wtf?

After Deadly Combination won their fourth game (and therefore winning the match), we said we would like to play out the rest of the match for fun. I had to repeated myself twice that yes, we were aware that they won, but we would still like to play.

Of course, there was this:
[12:21:35] Mrswordfight says, "I have a match at 9"
[12:21:38] Mrswordfight says, "so let's get this out of the way"

And there was another comment from this guy that was somewhat annoying. And then I think during the last match, Sheridyn picked up a stick to fight us with for laughs. And of course, comments such as:

[12:29:47] Sheridyn says, "bang bang i shot you down demonslayer"
[12:29:48] Demonslayer is eliminated!

Which, meh, annoying yeah. Rude, definitely. Sadly though, this isn't out of my expectation for high end swordfighters and unfortunately, they just totally reinforced that opinion about them for me. Which is fine, I suppose, if they get a kick out of that (although I wonder what it is about swordfighting that brings out the arrogant bastard in its extremely good players).

I think what pissed me off in the match was this exchange though:

[12:25:00] Pjotr says, "Orangegreen is just a watcher, not a temp, right?"
[12:25:06] Sheridyn says, "yeh just a watcher"
[12:25:17] Pjotr says, "okkies, cause he's rather annoying :)"
[12:26:16] Orangegreen says, "I've actually never heard of Pjotr ever in my life. Who are you? Are you in the OCL finals? Didn't think so."

Which, heh. Never heard of Pjotr? He's honestly missing out. But I have another entry typed up about that. I also think it's mighty sad how he clings onto the fact that he made it to OCL finals like that. It's another one of those times where I wonder, "are you trying to compensate for something?"

But anyway, that's OCL swordfighting semis for you. Heh, perhaps we did Odd Jobs and the other teams a favor by not making them deal with these guys. As fun as it was, I am not sad to see it over.

edit: Oh right, Bitter Death. I don't remember our match against them being annoying or unpleasant. At the same time, I don't remember Orangegreen or Greenorange being there so the unpleasantness on their team might be limited to one person. Heh.

There's a lot of whining here. But it's my (Y!PP) journal and I'll whine if I want to? Actually, I want to get this out of my system. So here goes.

I'm captaining another OCL team this season. Granted, it's a casual team, and I think I'm only captaining it because I brought OCL up first and no one wants to deal with the wiki :P

Last weekend was the first match, which went less than smoothly. Because the schedule went up within the 48 hour window, the rescheduling rules were kind of thrown out. We received a request to reschedule from the other team--ah well, I said three hours. It actually landed in my box 2.5 hours before the match, and I didn't wake up to look at the forums until an hour after that. Ha, I slept for a grand total of two hours that night. Go figure that she would send that during the two hours I happened to sleep.

Of course, I went to try and contact my team to discuss it, but only two were around early and neither wanted to reschedule it. I don't think everyone spoke up when I polled after the match time (I was surprised when everyone showed up. Only two told me ahead of time that they could be there for sure), but the general agreement was that we wouldn't honor the reschedule. Maxtrie was the only person from the other team that was logged in during the match window. I would later find out that the captain, Queenofb, went to bed.

I think Alastriona was the only person on my team that asked my opinion. If she didn't, I think I gave it to her anyway (we were in /tells a lot), that I didn't want to deny the other team the reschedule. Heh, I actually felt pretty bad. That could have easily been us. But I wasn't going to make my team do something they didn't want to do.

I sent off a PM to Apollo seeking advice, which didn't really present anything novel. But the exchange gave me some reassurance that I needed. Even so, this episode still bugged me. I showed my team Apollo's advice, but once again, I couldn't contact them all fast enough to agree to a reschedule. We had to take the forfeit.

Understandably so, Maxtrie made a disgruntled-sounding post after I said we're taking the forfeit. Heh, I'd quote her here, but it seems she changed her post since then. Something about what competing for a familiar does to people. Which made me both amused and sad.

Amused because, as I said, this is a casual team. I said that outright when I took on team members because I took anyone that wanted to participate. I had no idea what type of rank distribution I had until our second match a couple days ago (I guess I'm our only ult...even then, I'd say I'm more of a leg. I think we had a couple of masters, a leg and a couple in the gm-ren range). I try not to say this to the team just because I think it sounds rude, but I'm not planning on winning a familiar with this team. That's what I meant when I said casual, and I specified that at the beginning so that someone who was serious about the familiar (for example, Jaina) could go find a serious team.

Sad because...well, I'm pretty sure she was referring to me and my team.

I didn't obsess about this match too much afterwards, but it did float through my thoughts off and on throughout the week. I don't know if I conveyed this to many people or not (I think I did express it a little when talking to Apollo), but the events around this match made me want to kick a wall. I was incredibly frustrated.

But I realized something today (hence finally allowing myself to type an entry about it). Going back to Queenofb and the fact that she went to bed...I wouldn't have done that. Yes, she did tell me she was sort of new at this, but...I think even in my first season of captaining, I would have stayed up trying to get a hold of the other captain. Instead, it felt like she just assumed she'd get the reschedule just because she sent off the PM saying she needed one and then skipped off. I sent a response as soon as I could (that is, an hour later when I woke up). Granted, I'm not sure her being there would have changed anything as far as getting us to reschedule. But a team really only needs two people from a team to play a match (plus the two allowed temps). She would have had that had she stuck around for the match time and then spent that 2.5 hours looking for temps. Granted, that could be difficult for some people (that's why I try to line up temps beforehand, and I did) but it would have been better than taking a forfeit. I suggested finding temps in my response to her. Because if she couldn't get in contact with her team over a period of 4 days, how does she expect me to contact my team in 3 2.5 hours? (Granted, she was also sick with the flu)

And here's something that I haven't told many people, if anyone. Apollo hosted a carpentry bake-off an hour before our match. While the bake-off itself would have probably finished in time for the match, prize distribution probably wouldn't have (and you have to stay on the ship to receive your prize). I would have loved to postpone our match so my main could attend that. Really, I would have. I would have loved to tell Queenofb that we would reschedule for a later date. But again, my team didn't want to.

So I alted in the bake-off so I could participate, yet send Bisquick off to the match if needed. I'm not a great carper, and I didn't do it for the familiar, but I like trinkets. I was going for a flower or something. Unfortunately, all of my alts are ranked low in carpentry...I had a rough time getting the hammer to sparkle for the first half of the bake-off because I didn't have enough boards to make large MP combos. I ended up about 5 or so below the prize cut off. I can't say my main would have definitely won a prize (because I'm not really a consistent carper) but she would have had a much better shot at it.

One of my team mates also participated in the bakeoff and received a prize. Therefore she was late to the match that didn't happen. Which was fine, because we had plenty of people to cover for her. But for the captain to be late? Especially to the first match of a team full of (I assume) first-timers? Not cool. So I felt gypped out of the bake-off, and felt like saying so a number of times. But I already looked like jackass in the OCL thread, so I didn't.

The second match for this team went much smoother, and I was much happier with it. Less of a desire to kick a wall.

Sea Battle is the next season, and I think I'll captain a team for that, too. I'm terribly excited though, because I think this is a first time I'll be making a serious attempt at winning an OCL familiar. With the sinking setting, Pj is willing to participate (I knew he would), which means we have a good shot at winning with kick-ass team.

And admittedly, this made me quite pleased:

Bisqy: That's what I was thinking. I felt kinda bad for putting out like that
Bisqy: Because now you have a bunch of people jumping on you. :P
Pjotr: hehe yeah, both Alas and Nue already asked me for a spot on the team
Pjotr: which is fine
Pjotr: either way though, you're on it :P

Yeah. "Pj's minion" still feels like an accurate description. :P

Dear carp and shipwrightery,

I loved you. Why did you have to ruin my score? I was first, #1, the top scorer in four out of eight of the categories. I was thirty-fifth in you, carp, and twelfth in you, shipwrightery. Granted, I could also place the blame on alchem and distilling but I did the best I could pull in those puzzles. Why couldn't you be nice enough to give me the pieces I need like usual? I placed fifth overall, which was very frustrating indeed considering how well I did in the four unmentioned puzzles.

Crying in the corner,
Bis

So this is on my Wall of Weirdos, but this one's somewhat different. Yesterday, I competed in a colored familiar rumble tournament and happened up against a hearty (Corneilia). We're hearties because--I think it's either because of skellies/zombies, or because I'm hearties with her mother, Chaboogie. I received /tells from a third person during the match:

( Incident )

A quick /w (yeah, during the match, oh well) told me that Nicool was also in Chaboogie and Corneilia's crew. Normally, I don't care enough about these types of /tells to say something to captains or /complain or even /mute (but I preserve them in this blog because they amuse me!) but I'm rather fond of Chaboogie, so I shot off a tell to her once I was knocked out of the tournament.

( The conversation that followed... )

The way this turned out gave me warm fuzzies, and I'm hoping that this'll help her take another step from classifying herself as immature. I just find it interesting...it just feels like so many people in this community would handle this situation in a completely different way...cussing out someone like Nicool, or placing a bounty on the forums, or declaring war. I wonder which way is truly more effective? I'm hoping this one is, and I like to think many people take this approach, too.

At the same time, I wonder if this would have gone as smoothly if I weren't hearties with Chaboogie. Granted, it probably wouldn't have happened at all, because I wouldn't have sent the /tell to the captain otherwise. Ah, well.

*laughs* So that turned out to be the running joke between Sundancer and I.

Sundancer and I were standing around in skellies last month, and while we were waiting, the snow in Washington came up. We found out that we lived about 20 minutes from each other (well, if we're going to say that I live at my parents' house). So we arranged this meetup and now I'm going to blog about it.

The trip started with the drive from Corvallis at 11p (after the basketball game against UCLA). Took a short nap somewhere in the middle and got there around 3a. The most notable thing that happened was that I think I saw a shooting star just north of the Corvallis exit.

The day started with me being late. A couple things came up delaying my departure, and then of course there was the Seattle traffic plus finding parking. But I made there only about half an hour late and was greeted in the Fisherman's restaurant by Sundancer's smilie self. There were also Gloraelin and Thunderbird, who struck me as a silly couple, quite cute, and Bia, who seemed like a low-key type of guy. Windwench and her nonpiratey friend came in late after we ordered, but they had eaten anyway. Crab and cheddar melt for me. Yum... ^^

There was some fun chatting about the game. For example, a point in time when something was messed up in the coding which caused the chat filter to spit out the reverse, that is, some word that's supposed to be filtered, but then a different word than what it's supposed to be (and so when you ordered someone to bilge, you didn't get cum, but something other "potentially offensive word"...I think). Sundancer passed out these adorable octo cookies that are also really yummy. Then we headed downstairs to some plunder shop. It was sad that we bypassed the carousel without riding it, but it was empty.

Wandering around the pirate shop was amusing, but I can't remember anything particularly notable. Just searching for squishies because I was channeling Deka, pointing out things that looked weird...hehe.

We said good bye to Windwench and her mate, and Gloraelin and Thunderbird at the conclusion of our adventure through the store. Bia said he was planning on going to Uwajimaya, so we tagged along. Ah, well, we all jumped in my car and made the drive over. Then wandered around Uwajimaya, pointing out funny things, talking about the various foods and whatnot. Sundancer lived in Hawaii for a period of time, and I guess Bia was familiar with Asian food, so that made for a trip that was actually interesting. The ending theme to Haruhi (I need to watch the episode now...) was playing as we walked, which spurred a conversation about anime...the cool anime that Shur makes me watch anyway. It seems that he does much more reading than I do.

Sundancer and I grabbed some mochi ice cream for dessert, Ramune because I wanted some and Sundancer hadn't tried it yet. After wandering through the bookstore, we said goodbye to Bia and headed off.

Sundancer and I had planned to carpool up to Seattle, and so I had planned to attend this game night thing with her. The carpooling didn't really work out in the beginning but I still went to the game night where I met acquaintance of hers, Cole, and friends of his. We met at a tea place before heading over to the game store. Then we started with Elfenland (which Cole won), and ended with Killer Bunnies (which Sundancer won even though Cole's roommate had somewhat of an advantage at the end).

Then we went to Cole's place for dinner (at like midnight) where Cole's roommate made us all a stirfry. I was hesitant because I'm pretty picky about the vegetables I like, but the sauce he used was favorful enough for me to enjoy the dish. The rice was awesome, too. I don't usually have long-grained rice so that was new.

Then we started a show that I think is called Red and Green (Canadian humor, someone told me) before Sundancer and I headed out at about 1. Got home again 2:30ish the morning, went to bed so I could get up at 8a to make the drive back to Corvallis.

I think the most notable moment on that drive was that I caught a look at St. Helens. You would think that would be a common thing, but with all the trees along I-5, it just doesn't happen that much. I see Rainier all the time driving around Lakewood...St. Helens, not so much. Oh! And I also watched my odometer turn to 20,000. For like a whole mile. How unsafe ;P

And then back in time for the game against USC, which was actually pretty exciting...so exciting that it excited me! That doesn't happen as often as it should for me as a bandmember.

But anyway, I was amused that I spent 12 hours in the company of people I had only met that day. Kind of an exciting thing, actually...for me anyway. Then again, I'm young and silly :P

On the 26th was the Doodles familiar rumble tournament, Boxing Day boxing with gauntlets. In a very close final match against Bloodmoney (he kicked my ass in the first match...double elim) where we were stalling in the last seconds of the game, I managed to win. Poor Vistr. I've only won tournaments where he's knocked out the other ults for me. Mistymate also knocked out Aby and I think Jennivere which would have been problematic matches for me. But anyway, I won a lavender octo and was like, "shoot. Do I give it to Deka or Blynd?" I gave it to Deka in the end :)

In the meantime, I've been gathering up this collection of ornaments. And rereading Dark Winds. *sigh*

So I was commissioned for my first Y!PP picture last week. To use a word that Featherfin made me aware of, I'm quite chuffed. It's not my first piece of blockade art, it's just that I've been doing it for my own flag and therefore free of charge. To be requested from outside of the flag and then paid for it...yes, I was quite giddy. Extra giddy because it was Dunny that made the request and I know only him as the guy that kicks ass at sf. Extra so because then Sweetiepiepi complimented my work. But anyway. We had five blockades happen over the weekend. It was amazing...I was only able to participate in one double blockade and I watched the progress of Jorvik as I worked on my take-home final.

Y!PP's fifth birthday was yesterday. I got a couple wins in puzzle competitions out of it. Amazingly enough, one was carpentry (4th). The other was shipwrightery (1st).

I also won my first December Doodle...I think, like ever. I've only received honorable mentions before. First Doodle of the year. I was floored.

So...I didn't even start my thesis. I'm going to work on Dark Winds during the break anyway.

Ooh, this really doesn't feel solid right now, but I guess I always feel like that when I post a chapter. But I'm tired of trying to sort it out so here it is. I'm going to guess that it'll get hit hard in rewrite.

This might be it for a while. I have a thesis to write this term so I can find a mentor. I really need to get this done, in addition to the two research papers and short stories due in my classes this term. So this story will have to go on the back burner for a bit.

The intro was actually written back around chapter 4 because I was going to use it there. I think now is a good time for it. :P


( Chapter 9 )


approximately 8340 words

Link to Chapter 1.

Fun while waiting for the skellies:

Supersnailie says, "hey bissie"
Bisquick says, "hey Snazzie :)"
Supersnailie says, "smellies ... smell"
Bisquick says, "wait, why do *they* get noses? ;)"
Supersnailie says, "oh shit"
Supersnailie says, "you win"
Charalei says, "nonses?"
Supersnailie frowns
Charalei says, "what's a noses?"
Bisquick says, "this magical thing you stick on your face that gives you the power of olfactory"
Bisquick says, "I think..."
Supersnailie shrugs, i already lost
Charalei says, "like... a face-hat?"
Bisquick says, "but I think it's just a myth"
Charalei says, "sounds weird"
Bisquick says, "indeed"
Supersnailie says, "it has to be a myth"
Bisquick says, "crazy even"
Charalei says, "what's olfactorry?"
Supersnailie says, "smelling sense"
Bisquick says, "I think it's a place where they produce ols"
Charalei says, "smelling?"
Charalei wants an ol >.>
Bisquick says, "sounds cute. I wonder if you can haul them in Atlantis"
Supersnailie says, "doubtful"
Supersnailie says, "maybe you can forage them"
Bisquick says, "ooh"
Charalei says, "make you look like an ugly fishy!"
Supersnailie says, "maybe"
Charalei laughs

So, it seems that this chapter is too large to fit into one post on livejournal. They suck. So until this story is moved to a more accommodating location, chapter 8 will be split into two parts. This is the second part, so I'd recommend reading the first part first.


( Chapter 8, Part II )


approximately 15000 words

Link to Chapter 9.
Link to Chapter 1.

So...writing the beginning was interesting considering that I haven't really talked much with the characters, and it started out in a style that doesn't come naturally to me. Tips on improving that, especially the character speech from the real pirates involved, would be appreciated. Seriously.

I'm particularly concerned about the flow of this chapter. If you think of a way to improve that, let me know. I know there's lots of jumping around, but there was a lot going on at the same time.

It seems that this chapter is too large to fit into one entry on livejournal (whodathunk there was a cap?) So until I figure out someplace more accommodating, it'll be split into two part here. This is the first part.


( Chapter 8, Part I )


Link to Chapter 8, Part II.
Link to Chapter 1.

So there's a sinking event going on at Eclipse today. Bored, I wandered over to see if I could watch (but I can't) and there's a sun standing on the shore. *doubletake* Sun. Apollo. Apple Bunny! So I bounced over and said hi :)

And since I'm on a computer that doesn't keep transcripts, I'm saving the conversation here.

( Cut )

Yeah, more comics. I think I'm taking advantage of the fact that I'm near a scanner that works.

( Pea and Peaches Marriage )

( Sleeping in the Y!PP world )

( Lag )

Because this is my Y!PP journal, I document my Y!PP documents. Since, you know, threads like to sink on our crew forums (where are those other pea comics anyway?). For now, here's a new one I drew up today because Pj cracks me up and sometimes inspires me when he does that (and for those not familiar with these, Dekalyn is the pea, Pj is...the other fruit, whatever he is).

( Cut for size and because it might make my boring layout wonky )

Someday I'll stop playing Crossfire and finish that last chapter...