Update

[felis_ultharus]

So I've mostly bounced back from Tuesday's news. Things are returning to quasi-normal.

In a crisis, I explode. Then I put the pieces back together very quickly. I've mentally reorganized the next half-year, and quietly gone back to writing and working, which seems to be my life.

I've gotten ten pages written on the not-novel, and thinking about how I'll revise novel #1 when the second copy returns my way.

Tonight, I'm happy. I read A Midsummer Night's Dream -- Shakespeare's most fun comedy. And the anime we're watching would probably make anyone feel better about their own life.

I got a lot of writing done. I'm feeling appreciated at work. And -- and this will only make sense to 7 people on my friends-list -- I've learned a trick to dodging lightning. Sadly, this trick requires me to have my eyes open, which is more than I can manage tonight, so I shall have to save it for tomorrow. I can't seem to get past 60 bolts in my sonambulant state.

There shall be no game this weekend because montrealais will be at an NDP conference helping to hammer out the gay socialist agenda ^_^

If my erstwhile players are interested, I could go for another round of that game we played last time.

Comments

[maidenofirisa.livejournal.com]

If you actually do the 200 bolts of lightning I'll buy you the cookie of your choice (just about the only reward I can afford right now).

Glad to hear there is progress on the not-novel. Hopefully, I'll get my hands on a copy of the Novel soon. (Every time I think of your novel, I imagine an intelligent, thinking being and it's getting kind of weird.)

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

You don't have to buy me anything. I'll even show you the trick ^_^

151 bolts later (my current record), I've realized that while my system is infallible so far as the machine is concerned, human error is a problem -- excitement, sweaty thumb, etc. So I still have yet to get to 200 bolts.

Now I'm pausing every 20th bolt, and doing relaxing things in between. It's currently paused at 100.

It may be after December when you get a chance to see the novel. montrealais has gotten back to me, and em_fish has gotten far. I'll probably work on it when I'm in BC -- for some reason I seem to write better in BC, and the best passages of my novel were written there.

Once it's re-tooled, I'll make more copies so more people can read it at once.

[maidenofirisa.livejournal.com]

I still don't understand how anyone can do that 200 bolts of lightning thing. If I really practiced and tried I would probably fail at around 197 and just give up out of frustration.

If BC works for you work on it there. I've given up trying to understand writers anyway.

As long as I get to read it one day, I'll be happy.:)

[yumemisama.livejournal.com]

(Every time I think of your novel, I imagine an intelligent, thinking being and it's getting kind of weird.)

Oh, good, I'm not the only one. ^^;; Then again, I'm the one who tells people that every piece of fiction they see me produce is actually written by the Paranoid Author, who has the loft apartment in the back of my head. She types these things out on an old IBM Selectric and then shoves them backwards through the mail slot for me to pick up when they're done...

[maidenofirisa.livejournal.com]

I'm also glad to hear I'm not alone!

I think that from now on, everytime I'm going to see a writer, I'll imagine a crazy little person, living in their minds, writing stuff.

[em-fish.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I, like montrealais, am also headed out to St-Clain-clain-de-Meu-Meu, to Save The World From Fascism. Apparently, if I'm gonna be handling the lucre, I also have to show up for the boring things. :p

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

Dammit -- it's been a right-royal Emma-shortage lately :(

And "St-Clain-clain-de-Meu-Meu"...?

[em-fish.livejournal.com]

It's a funny way of saying "Buttfuck nowhere", a literal translation would be: "Saint-[cowbell noises]-of-[cows mooing]".

I am free all this coming week, day and night - plus next weekend. Surely we can find time to get together then?

[yumemisama.livejournal.com]

Ooh, inadvertent language lesson for me! My French is from A) high school, where we learned France-French that was 20 years out of date, and B) video game research, where if the studies aren't in English, they're usually in French. This is as fun as the time one of my friends broke down and asked one of you Quebecers what the equivalent to "WTF?" was...

[seal7.livejournal.com]

o_o; Care to enlighten the rest of us about the lightning?

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

The most obnoxious sidequest in any Final Fantasy is the claiming of the Lulu's ultimate weapon in Final Fantasy X.

Lulu the black mage attacks with voodoo dolls. These enhance her magic, and she can also use them to do a small amount of physical damage.

Every character has an ultimate weapon, but when you find it, it's useless. It requires two items -- the crest and the sigil keyed to that particular weapon (the Venus crest and Venus sigil for the ultimate voodoo doll).

The Venus sigil is no problem. You just go to the viewing portal of the afterlife, and find it in a chest near people conversing with the souls of their dead loved ones.

But to get the Venus crest, you have to go to the Thunder Plains and dodge lightning 200 times consecutively. If you save, leave the screen, or do anything but pause and dodge lightning, the counter resets.

Problem is, once the lightning strikes, it's too late to dodge it. So you have to know in advance where lightning hits. Fortunately, the lightning is keyed to certain places and triggers, and on a precise timer (though a timer unique to each place).

To make matters worse, the Thunder Plains are dark and smoky, so it's hard to see the path to know where lightning will strike.

I found a blasted-out hole on the south side of the plains where lightning hits 1) the moment you touch the lip of the bit and 2) 4.75 seconds later in the same place. Dodging the second bolt is nearly impossible, but if you dodge the first, and then run from the pit for 4.75 seconds, then run back to the lip of the pit and dodge, you can get it every time...

...assuming you don't push the button early out of nervousness. Or assuming your thumb doesn't cramp up or get sweaty and slip.

One error, and you have to start over again.

But I really want that weapon. and using this system I discovered last night, my record has gone from 11 bolts in a row to 151.

I'm playing it in 20-bolt increments and then pausing, so my hands don't cramp up.

[seal7.livejournal.com]

Erghhhhh. Congrats on accomplishing that o_O;

... Yeah.
*scampers away*

[node357.livejournal.com]

OMG that sounds like torture... my shrink wants me to practice being patient, and I'm all up for that, but holy crap... 200 strikes to dodge, I doubt I could endure it. When you get that I'm going to be so proud of you! I might try it myself one day when I'm a bit more stable... or I could go buy FFX right now and try it... Hehe.

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

I think it might aggravate your frustration, somehow. I'm usually a pretty placid person, but I was screaming at the machine.

But I did it -- 313 bolts.

[node357.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!! (throws confetti). Good job :)

And yeah, maybe I'll wait on doing it myself :P

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

Thank you ^_^

How are things with you...?

[yumemisama.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, have you ever considered doing a "tabletop" game online? I've previously successfully run a cinematic GURPS game over IRC, and I'm thinking it's about time for me to try one again. Be happy to fill in with some quick entertainment for you lot while your other players have donned their superhero gear and flown off to defeat the Radioactive Intolerant Killer Robots From Mars, or whatever they're doing. ^_^

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I would -- I like the face-to-face interaction.

I've considered playing FFXI online, but I don't know anything about online games.

[yumemisama.livejournal.com]

I've considered playing FFXI online, but I don't know anything about online games.

Oh god, don't. I'm not fond of MMORPGs to begin with, but FFXI has developed a reputation as "My First MMO". Not only is it your usual wretched hive of scum and villainy (MMOs are notorious for haboring scams, glitches and just plain jackasses that are more than capable of wrecking your gaming experience, not to mention the usual litany of bugs in the updates) but it's populated with a lot of people who, as Cat says, "don't know what the fuck". Because it's a Final Fantasy, and because it comes in a console version, there are lots of n00bs, and lots of jerks, and not enough supervision.

Besides all that, FFXI requires a hard drive. If you just bought a new PS2, it'll be a mini-PSTwo, and those lack the expansion ports that the HDD needs. You would need the PC version, which I'm told has some moderately hefty system requirements.

The online games I run are basically tabletop-in-a-chat-channel. The main reason I hang out on UnderNet is that most of IRC bans all automated response 'bots, but UnderNet allows friendly ones, such as for example, an automated dice roller. ^_^ Some people have trouble keeping up with a game on IRC, but as I type absurdly fast I find it pretty easy to ride herd on the usual bunch of obstinate cats. I usually cap it off at 6-7 players; any more than that, and the out-of-character chatter starts to swamp the in-character dialogue.